Chapter Text
Another ear-splitting crack against wood.
Pounding footsteps- rapid, urgent, each thump an echo of the one before it.
Voices- muttering, cursing, all too familiar to Renjun’s ears.
“Renjun,” the comm in Renjun’s ear crackles, making him flinch.
“No names on the comms, oh-two-five,” Renjun grumbles under his breath, back pressing against the cool metal of the shipping container he’s hiding behind. Sweat beads along his hairline as a sigh comes from the other end.
“But-”
“No excuses,” he interrupts, palms slick against the floor. “This is important.”
The room falls into a tense silence, all the pounding and crashing from earlier suddenly gone.
“Calm down, oh-two-three,” comes another voice, a warning hovering behind the words. It’s a voice that Renjun has learnt to respect and follow, so he doesn’t retort, and instead surveys his surroundings.
Tall, dark walls surround the team, wide enough to leave the impression that the building they’re in resembles a warehouse. There are shipping containers of different sizes serving as protection, along with planks of wood leaning against them. Goosebumps ripple across Renjun’s skin as he registers the silence and the sudden, unnatural chill of the building.
The shooting that occurred just minutes earlier has abruptly stopped, leaving the building quiet, with only heavy breathing through the comms audible. A wave of goosebumps ripple over Renjun, and he gets an awful gut feeling like they're in the calm before a storm.
“Oh-two-four, come in,” Renjun breathes, desperate to make the first move before the enemy can get the jump on them. He inches closer to the edge of the container he is kneeling against. No response. “Oh-two-four, I repeat-”
“What,” the voice snaps, monotonous and irritated as ever. Renjun tenses, almost regretting the decision to call on him, but the importance of the mission forces him to speak once more.
“Do you see it?”
Silence vibrates across the line, but Renjun can hear the agent shift.
“Shit,” Agent 024 spits, basically slamming his back against the container. Renjun flinches at the sound it makes, despite knowing it's just the sensitivity of the comms acting as an amplifier.
“Guys,” the agent says through gritted teeth, now addressing the whole group, “there’s three of them.”
“Three?!” Renjun has to bite his cheek to stop him from screaming. He hears the other agents muttering apprehensively across the line.
Three? They’ve never sent three?
“One of them saw me,” Agent 024 sighs, disappointment thick in his tongue.
“What?” This is Agent 001. “T-”
“Oh-oh-one, with all due respect, shut the fuck up,” Agent 024 seethes, “I know I made a mistake.”
Silence.
Then, metal footsteps.
Renjun’s mind goes into offense mode as the footsteps start nearing the hiding spots of him and his team. He peeks just slightly over the side of the container-
And is met with two glowing red eyes.
“Renjun, MOVE!” A shout comes, echoing against the surfaces in the warehouse. In a split second, Renjun rolls back on his stiff vest as the agent shoots at the enemy at the same time, not caring if Renjun had moved or not, no, trusting that Renjun would’ve moved.
He’s up on his feet soon, running amongst the containers. So far, no sight of his other team members, but he’s sure they’re somewhere. He turns back to check if the enemy follows.
Mistake.
When he turns, there’s another standing in his way.
The enemy nears him, metal rib cage and menacing eyes and all, focus locked on Renjun's lean frame. The gun in its hand goes up slowly, and Renjun pauses for a moment- one thing he was trained never to do in combat.
But he does it.
Breathe.
The enemy moves slower. Shouts in the background are quieter. Everything seems calmer.
Renjun moves quickly.
Adrenaline burns through him as time warps back to normal; the tip of the gun is basically pressed to his chest. His fingers curl around the barrel, and with all the strength in his arms, he yanks the gun out of his enemy’s grasp before they can shoot. As soon as it goes, though, a silver fist comes up in the corner of Renjun’s eye, slamming against his cheekbone with a resounding crack before he can dodge.
His senses are momentarily wrecked, vision blurry and ears ringing from the impact. He's half-aware that he's on the floor, and a distant voice in his head registers that the enemy is still approaching, but all he can think of is the warmth trickling down the side of his face and the persistent ache growing behind his eyes. He feels almost helpless, and feels consciousness slip out of his grasp for a second before a blur of black appears, sending the enemy flying across the floor with a powerful kick, then proceeding to shoot it dead.
“Get up,” Agent 024 says, sticking a hand out to Renjun on the floor. “You’ve been through more than this, Huang. Up.”
Renjun grits his teeth, glaring at the boy above him, and reluctantly takes his hand.
“Grow up,” the agent says, instantly slipping away, “help is normal.”
“I had it covered,” Renjun spits, wiping the blood dripping down his face with the back of his hand.
Agent 024 scoffs, “sure,” before rushing towards the back of an enemy.
A sudden shout echoes from behind Renjun and he spins, only to see agent 010 on the floor in the corner, shuffling backwards from the enemy hovering above him. They’re a good twenty meters away, too far for Renjun to reach and take down physically before the agent is shot, so he resorts to the gun in his holster.
Injury (almost) forgotten, Renjun lifts his gun, aims at the small white light pulsing on the chest of the enemy as it raises its gun to the agent on the floor, and shoots.
Bullseye.
The metal monster falls forward, barely letting the agent roll away.
“That was fucking cool, dude.” Agent 010 grins, bright smile blinding Renjun as he runs over, panic long forgotten. “Have you ever shot from that far?”
Renjun shakes his head, cheek still throbbing from the punch.
“New record,” the agent slaps Renjun’s back, hard, making him take a step to balance himself.
The cut on Renjun’s cheek doesn’t get better at all, the painful cool of the room causing it to stiffen. It feels as if it could rip apart his face with so much as a smile, but adrenaline is still burning through him like fuel and he returns to the fight, determined to defeat the final enemy with all of his teammates intact.
Turning, he sees the two eldest members of the team crouching against a small container, squished together in positions that wouldn’t give them enough time to run if they wanted to. They also seem unaware of the fact that the enemy is right around the corner.
Think.
From Renjun’s spot near a pile of wooden planks, he is able to examine the surroundings of that area. Taking a closer look at the two, he also registers the fact that neither of them are holding their guns.
Goddamnit.
Renjun shifts his vision to the left, and upon doing so, spots a familiar toe of a boot, before it shuffles back. The toe has a white strike of what seems like paint on the front, and Renjun notices, a spark of inspiration coming to him. The agent is in a spot where the enemy can’t directly see him, and lo-and-behold, is also near one of the dropped guns.
Racking his memories, Renjun tries to identify the tip of that combat boot.
“Agents oh-oh-one and oh-two-four, don’t move.” Renjun catches their eyes from his hiding spot, and they nod. “No one move.”
“Agent oh-two-eight,” he adds, fingers crossed that he has the right person because the enemy is still inching closer to the clueless agents.
A clear response comes through the other end, “Oh-two-three, this is oh-two-eight, over.”
“Can you shoot the enemy?”
A gulp travels through. “I lost my gun.”
Renjun clenches his fist, unable to believe that some of the best agents the Organization has keep losing their fucking guns.
“Do you see the gun at your two-o’clock?” As the words leave Renjun’s lips, the toe of the boot shuffles forwards once more, and slowly, Agent 028’s head peeks out from behind the container, and immediately catches sight of Renjun.
“Grab it,” Renjun whispers. The agent nods, and then turns his vision to the back of the towering monster that is the enemy. Renjun can see the obvious panic in his eyes, but he keeps his fingers crossed, hoping that his teammate can grab the gun and shoot without hassle.
The air in the building stills as the agent stretches one leg forward after another, managing to silently get closer and closer to the gun.
Closer….
There’s not much space between the agent and the gun, but it’s only a matter of time until the enemy senses him, or shoots the two agents in hiding just two feet away.
Just a little closer….
Fingers curling around the handle, Agent 028 manages to lift the gun soundlessly.
Renjun can feel it on the tip of his tongue, the urge to scream- “ SHOOT! ”
Agent 028 is squatting only a couple of feet away from the back of the giant, adjusting his grip on the gun, aiming at the blue spot smack center on the enemy’s back. His hands are still.
Just shoot it, holy fuck.
The tension in the room is suffocating.
A voice hisses through the comms: “ Just shoo- ”
The enemy turns before anyone can blink, red eyes zeroed in on Agent 028.
But before he can shoot, a deafening bang reverberates in everyone’s ears- the sound of the enemy’s gun going off.
It takes a while for the rest of the agents to compute what just happened, but it clicks in all of their heads at the same time with horrible realization as Agent 028 falls to the floor, thick crimson dripping down his chest.