Chapter Text
“Watch my back, I’m going for the spike.”
“ARE YOU MAD?!”
Yoru sighed as bullets rained down upon his cover, a constant stream preventing him from even taking a glance. Next to him cowered Phoenix, who had already burned his ability to resurrect himself and was consequently taking it extremely carefully. Sage was also not on this mission, which forbade any major risks.
“No, I’m not mad. Look, Omen is still here, right?” Yoru asked, gesturing carefully towards the shower section. “He is going to smoke off main, while I send my clone through that smoke to distract them. And then I’m just going to defuse the spike, it’s so simple, there is no way to mess this up.”
“THERE IS AN OPERATOR WATCHING THE SPIKE??? HE’S CYCLING THROUGH ANOTHER GUN TOO?”
“Right, uh, you don’t know that.”
“Yoru—!”
Yoru dashed out from his cover, throwing his clone towards the smoke that had just arrived in the main entrance. He slid towards the spike and whipped out the defuser, cursing the loud noise that always sounded whenever they started. Sure enough, an operator shot rang through the air, the bullet just missing Yoru’s head by a meter. Fortunately, he had also heard his clone get destroyed, meaning that the enemy was now blind.
“Almost there…”
Another shot rang through the air, and Yoru felt his head explode with pain. He collapsed to the ground, and heard the rapid beeping of the spike increase in intensity. What the hell shot him? That wasn’t the operator, there was no way they hit that precision shot while blinded!
“LET’S GO!”
A wave of rising earth flowed towards the enemy, as Breach rushed towards the spike and continued the defuse from the halfway point. To Yoru’s relief, the spike made a satisfying click before dropping back to the ground. The walls around them fell away as the simulation ended, and Yoru let out a sigh of relief.
“Thanks, Breach.”
“How did you two single handedly almost throw a 4 versus 1?” Breach scoffed, offering his hand for Yoru’s support. “You’re lucky I was nearby, Omen headed to the other side of the map to flank.”
“Don’t blame me, Phoenix should have covered me,” Yoru argued. “Let’s just focus on getting to Sage, these matches always give me a headache with how often I get shot.”
As they exited the range, they came across the enemy team, most of whom looked awfully dejected. They must be struggling over the near loss they had just experienced at the hands of three extremely reckless idiots, Breach, and Omen. Yoru couldn’t blame them. He’d feel bad if he lost to a team that actively self sabotaged themselves by a single round. He blamed Phoenix and Raze for that one.
“A well played match, Monsieur Yoru. I applaud your confidence in sticking that defuse even after you noted my presence,” Chamber snarked. “Would you like an aspirin for that headshot? Completely skillful, I assure you.”
“Piss off, baguette. I refuse to believe that you hit that while blind.”
“Is that why my shot went through both your head and Phoenix’s after passing through two walls?”
“YOU WHAT?!”
Yoru whipped his head towards his teammate, who was now scratching his head sheepishly and awkwardly chuckling. He growled before turning back towards Chamber and flipping him off. He stormed off towards the direction of the medbay, not in the mood to take anyone’s nonsense.
Swinging the door open, he threw himself onto a bed after downing an aspirin and dragged a blanket over himself. Sage merely sat at her desk and continued to file her paperwork, accustomed to Yoru’s habits. He was grateful for the woman’s presence, a calming influence for him to rely upon after dealing with the sheer stupidity of his teammates.
What felt like hours passed before he opened his eyes yet again, turning his head to notice a bouquet of flowers and a note on the bedside table. He sighed, and opened up the note.
It read, “Wanna grab dinner?”
And Yoru decided, yeah, he did want to grab dinner. He skipped breakfast and got the hell beat out of him during that practice match, and he was absolutely starving.
Saying his farewell to Sage, he made his way out of the medbay and towards the cafeteria, noticing the majority of agents just entering. Yeah, there was no way he’d been out for longer than 20 minutes. That was unfortunate, because now he had to deal with everyone all at once trying to get him to be more sociable. He wasn’t feeling like it today, at the least.
Grabbing a tray of food, he gravitated towards his normal corner table before searching around him for that glimpse of red hair he was hoping for. He was rewarded when he caught sight of Skye across the hall, waving softly before turning back to his food and sorting it out.
“Hey there, mate. Heard you took a beating today, yeah?” Skye asked, setting her try down next to his a few minutes later. “You alright?”
“Never been better,” Yoru replied, reaching for a piece of chicken off of Skye’s tray. “Really, Phoenix needs to think properly sometimes. I swear I’m the only duelist who actually has half a brain.”
“Even Reyna?”
“Reyna takes an incredible amount of risk that is only supplemented by her incredible skill,” elaborated Yoru. “I’ll gladly allow her to claim number one, but I wouldn’t claim that it requires as much thought as my own kit.”
“Interesting… Do you rank all the roles? First I’m hearing of this,” said Skye casually. “How about initiators, hm?”
Yoru tried to ignore the way Skye was leaning towards him, a smirk growing on her face. He coughed once before stammering, “You’re not too shabby, I think.”
“Not too shabby? Surely, there isn’t something I can do to improve your thoughts on me, hm?”
Where the hell were Phoenix and Jett when you needed them?
Gently shoving Skye away, Yoru turned away from Skye and announced, “Not too shabby is a good thing, in my book. I trust you.”
Had Yoru turned back around, he might have noticed Skye’s face flush in embarrassment just as his was currently doing. The rift walker was saved by Brimstone making an announcement for all agents to meet in the common room later tonight to meet a new agent. Intriguing.
Yoru didn’t want to miss out on scouting out new talent, so he bade farewell to Skye before teleporting away, which scared the hell out of Jett and Phoenix. The two had been playing cards in the common room where Yoru had ended up, and subsequently dropped everything.
“Goddamn it man, you have to stop doing that!” Phoenix cried. “I was winning too!”
“Like hell you were, dumbass! Yoru, you fucked me over!” Jett shouted. “We had money on this and now we have to redo it!”
“Cope plus L plus ratio,” Yoru replied snarkily. “Where’s the new guy?”
“Not here yet, young one.”
Yoru growled and turned to face one of his least favorite agents on the base; Cypher. The information broker was always meddling around, still trying to find a way to design a tracker that could work when Yoru entered the rift. Why would anyone need to know where he was at all times? It wasn’t as if Yoru was incredibly reckless for no reason, unlike some other choice individuals.
“Cypher. What’s your price today?” Yoru asked, getting straight to business. “You can guess what I want.”
“Information on Varun Batra… hm, yes, the name is free, as we will work with him, but anything else comes for a trade. After all, I would still like to know about your past, yes?” Cypher offered. “If that won’t do, I’ll gladly accept 10,000 credits for an info page just like yours.”
“You’ll have your credits by tomorrow morning,” Yoru said with a grimace, the alternative extremely unappealing. “Hand it over.”
“Pleasure doing business, Kiritani-san.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Cypher merely chuckled as he reached into his coat and extracted an envelope, dangling it just out of Yoru’s reach for a few seconds before passing it over. Yoru grumbled and pulled out the page, giving it a quick scan.
‘An artifact user? Hm. Similar to myself then, but he doesn’t have anything to fall back on,’ Yoru noted. ‘Water? That could prove to be annoying, but we should see how he employs these abilities. And, he’s on the run from REALM as well? At least we can trust him to handle himself.’
Yoru tucked the paper into his jacket and sat himself next to Phoenix, scoffing at the hand he saw Phoenix was trying to bluff his way through. He leaned back and waited patiently for Brimstone to bring that new agent in, so that he might judge his capabilities himself. He was looking forward to someone who seemed capable and trained properly for once.
Anything was better than eating Raze’s rocket to the face.
“You ready, soldier?”
“As I’ll ever be, Captain. Let’s do this.”
“Before you go in, I should warn you; they’re a rowdy bunch at times. But you’ve dealt with those types before, haven’t you?”
“Of course. Life would be boring without those kinds of people.”
“Alright, then get in there!”
Varun Batra stepped into a brightly lit room and took note of his surroundings. About 15 people were present, if he had to guess, representing a variety of different cultures and… fashion choices. He wasn’t too sure about whatever the hooded figure was. He could feel everyone sizing him up, which made sense. Best to handle this smoothly.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Varun Batra. Codename: Harbor. I am currently a fugitive of REALM, as some of you may know, and was contacted by the Valorant protocol for refuge. In addition, I was informed that my bracelet is a special item of interest, so I look forward to working with you to decipher its significance. Any questions?”
The room remained silent. Harbor wondered if Brimstone’s idea of a rowdy bunch needed adjusting. After a minute, someone in a grey jacket raised his hand and said, “What power do you have? I heard something about an artifact, so what does it do?”
“Good question, Mr…?”
“Phoenix.”
“Phoenix! Well then, it’s simple. My artifact controls water.”
Harbor did not like how the entire room began chuckling at his response.
“Is something the matter?” he asked gently. “Anyone here not good with water? Except maybe Mr. Robot in the corner.”
“Phoenix here loves water, doesn’t he?” a silver haired girl said, throwing her arm around Phoenix. “50 credits for you to drench him.”
“Oi oi oi, let’s be reasonable, yeah?” Phoenix said, holding his arms up in defense. “Harbor, double what she pays not to do it.”
“Coward.”
“Yeah, well, you would be too if you were me!”
“Hey, Harbor, are you single? I’m free tonight…” the silver haired girl said, ignoring the gagging Phoenix was making.
“No time for romance, I’m afraid!”
“Harbor, could you beat Breach in an arm-wrestling fight?” a girl wearing an orange bandana asked.
“I don’t think so… he looks strong. I defeated Brimstone, though. The ride here was boring, I had to pass the time somehow.”
As Harbor continued to field questions, he got the sense that most of these agents did not have a filter. That was just wonderful, but he’d learn to deal with it accordingly. Some of the older agents were clearly used to the scene, and merely greeted him politely before going off on their own. He really hoped he didn’t have a roommate, because he also wanted to relax after this.
“Harbor, you’re taking a tour. Killjoy is giving it. Have fun,” Brimstone said sharply. “I’ll be off in the command center if you need anything, but you’re free for the next few days.”
Harbor looked on curiously as a girl in a green beanie and yellow jacket spluttered and protested to Brimstone, who was having none of it as he walked away. A few grumbles later, the girl marched on in front of him and gestured to leave the room, something Harbor was quick to oblige. Their goals were aligned in that both wanted this to be done as fast as possible.
“And here is the greenhouse. This is Skye, please do not touch her plants,” Killjoy droned. “Take a moment to admire her collection.”
“Skye! A pleasure to meet you,” Harbor said, extending his hand. “I’ve heard good things about you from Sage. I look forward to working with you!”
“Fresh meat! Can’t wait to see what you’ve got!” Skye replied enthusiastically. “We could use more level heads around here.”
“Absolutely! A lot of people here look quite rowdy, to say the least.”
The two chatted for a while, both ignoring Killjoy groaning in the corner. At this stage, Harbor was just dragging it on to see how long the girl could handle herself, and clearly Skye was on board. The two managed to hit the ten minute mark before Killjoy let out a scream and ran out of the room, yelling behind her, “I QUIT!”
The two laughed as they watched the engineer sprint away for the sake of her sanity. They continued their conversation, and Skye even volunteered to give the rest of the tour for him. As they made their way through the base, Harbor wondered if he should be worried about the man in blue following them. Skye had obviously noticed, but had not done anything about it.
“KAY/O, for the last time, please stop giving your suppression knives to other people! It’s giving me a headache!”
A door swung open, revealing a woman with a purple scarf and a gold gauntlet with an irate expression. She looked around the hallway and locked eyes with Harbor, and appeared to come to some realization. The woman rushed towards him and grabbed his wrist, inspecting his bracelet carefully.
“So you wield the power too… Interesting. The closer I get to it, the more my own artifact resonates in response, but on a lesser scale than Yoru’s mask. Possibly due to the differences in the fields they control, yours being more down to earth while ours are astral and dimensional—”
“I’m sorry, who are you?”
The woman did a double take before chuckling, “Sorry, chale ! My name is Astra, and I am an Astral Guardian. Maybe you’ve heard of me in your studies?”
“Not you specifically, but I have heard of Guardians,” Harbor replied. “So, Yoru wields a similar artifact?”
“Yes! You’ve probably noticed him following you for a while. I’m always able to find him, even if he is in the rift, because of the way our artifacts resonate off of each other,” Astra explained, stepping back. “You may not feel it, given how recently you acquired your artifact.”
Needless to say, Harbor’s interest was greatly piqued. To think that these artifacts had somehow slipped under his radar was fascinating, and his mind was already constructing various theories regarding the origins of these objects. Accepting Brimstone’s offer had absolutely been the best decision he’d made in a while.
He’d remain on his toes. After Greaves, anyone was fair game for betrayal.
Sova sat on the floor of the armory, carefully polishing his bow in preparation for a summons. The last week had been uneventful for the archer, as many others had been deployed in favor of him. It was likely that Brimstone wasn’t doing this intentionally, but was rather trying to allow Fade to work with the team more comfortably. That made sense, at least. Not many agents were comfortable with Fade yet, keeping her at an arm’s length, if that.
It also did leave Sova anxious and believing that he wasn’t doing enough for the team. Although he appreciated the rest, he enjoyed feeling productive in some way at all times, and it was evident that the chores around the base were not enough for him.
“Sova, there you are. Sage is looking for you,” Omen said, poking his head through the door. “She seems upset.”
‘Work! Helping someone! Yes!’
Sova sprinted towards the medbay, ignoring his weirdly short and static thoughts from earlier.
“Sage! How can I assist?!” he said frantically, hiding his frantic breaths.
Sage turned around on her chair, her eyes puffed from evident tears. She wiped away another tear and sniffled, “Silver ran away early in the morning, and I can’t find her at all even after all this time. I was hoping you could assist me with your tracking skills. She hasn’t left the base, because I made sure no one opened any outer doors except for Brimstone. She has to be hiding somewhere no one else can find, despite being an albino…”
“Of course,” Sova replied. “I’ll find her before midnight.”
“Thank you, Sova,” Sage said. “Please be quick… she hasn’t eaten today.”
And so, Sova found himself carefully inspecting the area around the medbay for clues. As expected, Silver had left behind a trail of cat hair, which led towards the cafeteria. She must have been drawn towards the scent of food, but had no luck. Better to follow up there.
As he walked towards the cafeteria, he bumped straight into Viper, who leapt a foot into the air and clutched at her heart, rasping, “Sova, for the love of god, stop walking so quietly!”
“Sorry, Viper. I’m currently on the hunt,” Sova explained sheepishly. “Sage’s cat has gone missing somewhere within the base.”
“Silver?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Sorry?”
“I’m helping you,” Viper elaborated. “I won’t get a chance to get this close to Sage’s cat again. She doesn’t like me. Omen’s cat is sweet, but Sage’s cat is just so… intriguing.”
Sova stared at Viper incredulously, who did not react at all and stared blankly in response. The cold-hearted Viper was currently gushing over a cat? Sova half-expected Raze to stroll by and willingly announce that she’d clean the base. But, any help would be appreciated, and Viper was by no stretch an amateur.
“Very well. We’ll go sweep the cafeteria first before going down to the basement,” Sova declared. “As you probably guessed, we should remain silent. Silver has been on edge lately and is easily startled.”
The two senior agents thus progressed to their destination, thankfully not encountering others on the way. There was no one else quite equipped enough to handle this, except maybe Skye. But the sun had set hours ago, and surely she was sleeping. The night owls were absolutely forbidden (he’d have to go remind Killjoy and Cypher to stop working and sleep).
After clearing the cafeteria, Sova was at a loss. There was no evidence Silver had even tried to open the door to the kitchen, nor was there evidence that she even went into the cafeteria at all. The trail had led there, so he had made an assumption, but had he missed additional clues at a crossroad? Too many questions. To think he had more trouble tracking a cat than a riftwalker who traveled the realms and dropped off the face of the earth regularly.
“Why is Silver agitated?” Viper asked suddenly. “How long has it been?”
“Around two months. She has gotten quite defensive within the last few weeks, only allowing Sage to touch her. She has also gotten quite large, although we hadn’t changed the amount we fed her. We suspect she is ill, but we are in no position to go see a vet,” Sova answered absentmindedly, crouching down in search of clues. “Why?”
“It’s better if we have a reason for why she’s upset,” Viper said. “Omen’s cat is a male, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Considering her potential interactions with other members of her species. His cat isn’t very territorial or aggressive, so it probably wasn’t a fight. Let’s go to the basement now.”
With those words, Viper took the lead and casually strolled past Sova, leaving the hunter in confusion. Why did Sabine seem so confident all of a sudden? Had she picked up on something that he, a hunter for most of his life, did not? He had to know, because if that were the case, he’d have to conduct some serious self-reflection.
As the two descended into the basement, Sova tugged at his jacket collar and took a few steadying breaths. It really was too hot down here. How anyone could relax down here was beyond him, and yet there were the weekly movie nights that many of the agents attended. Why here and not the comfortable common room? Sova would never understand. But that was for another time. For now, he had to search the area for clues.
“Oh look, cat hair,” Viper said nonchalantly. “It leads to the boiler.”
Damn Viper for stealing his job!
Viper led the hunter to the boiler room (when had he been forced into the backseat?) and carefully looked around the machines. Suddenly, the pair heard hissing as Viper got close to a certain boiler, and backed off. Sova’s ears detected two sets of hissing through the humming of all the surrounding machines.
“Viper, I believe—”
“Void and Silver breeded? I believe the same,” Viper interrupted. “Silver displayed all the traits of a pregnant mother in the last few months, as well as matching the standard gestational period of cats. She must have gravitated to this room due to the warmth the boilers provide, although long term exposure to this heat could be detrimental for the kittens. We must move her immediately.”
Sova suddenly fell to his knees, ignoring Viper’s look of incredulity. Within a few minutes, Viper had already taken away everything Sova had tried to do today, and now he couldn’t even claim to be helpful. He should retire to the armory and continue polishing his bow. Maybe everyone else’s weapons too. It would be all he was good for.
“Sova, I need your help. It seems Silver already gave birth,” Viper interjected, ignoring Sova’s wallowing. “Could I borrow your jacket?”
‘HELPING!’ Sova thought excitedly as he leapt to his feet and took his jacket off immediately. He handed it over to Viper as she tried to usher Silver out of her corner, the cat hissing at the intrusion.
“Oh, come on Silver, come here so I can study you,” said Viper softly, holding her palm out. “You want to see Sage? You wanna show mommy her grandkids?”
Meanwhile, Sova headed to the other side and gently ushered Void out with the promise of treats. The cat scared him. It seemed to understand a lot more than it ever let on, and Sova wondered what Omen was teaching that thing.
Viper eventually succeeded in luring Silver out with the kittens, and together the two agents brought the cats to the medbay, where Sage was currently passed out on the bed. Sova gently shook the senior medic awake and waited for her to gain her bearings. Once properly awake, her face lit up as she pounced towards Silver and scooped the cat up in her arms, cooing softly as she stroked the cat's fur. Her joy further intensified as she caught sight of the kittens in Viper’s arms, and Sova smiled as Sage gently set Silver in her bed with her kittens.
“Thank you so much!” Sage squealed, throwing her arms around Sova. “I am so very grateful for your help today!”
“Oh, no need to thank me,” Sova chuckled, secretly adoring the attention. “I couldn’t have done it without Viper, though. She was quite useful and found Silver much faster than I would have.”
Without warning, Sage turned around and threw her arms around Viper, who reeled back in surprise, feeling her ribs being crushed slowly. The latter eventually pointed towards the door, cueing Sova to gently peel Sage off of Viper and quickly offer a goodbye before dragging Viper out of the room.
“Thank you Sova,” Viper wheezed, regaining her breath. “She’s too caught up with Silver to realize what she’s doing.”
“It is no issue. What will you do now?”
“I have to go give Void back to Omen. Whether or not the bastard will stay there long, I do not know,” Viper sighed. “I can’t believe they had kittens. Now I have to inspect all of them… he’s given me so much work just because of this.”
“I would have thought you’d enjoy this opportunity to observe Silver closely,” Sova said with a smile. “As well as the adorable kittens.”
“Work is work, Sova. My personal interests come second,” Viper replied. “It’s the only reason I don’t have a pet of my own. You have an owl, yes?”
“Yes, I do. My drone is modeled after him,” Sova said as he pulled out his phone. “This is Arman. I used to take him hunting with me, but now he’s getting too old.”
“He looks quite content. I’d like to see him someday.”
“In that case, my door is open to you.”
The two stood in the hallway awkwardly, the silence broken a minute later by Sova coughing and excusing himself for the night. As he made the journey to his room, he wondered why he hadn’t talked to Viper more often. Outside of a professional setting, she wasn’t too bad to handle. She must be biased towards the young talent like Phoenix and Jett.
‘Maybe I should invite her to poker night. She would do well.’
Sova then took into consideration the participants of poker night, as well as the alcohol at every event. For everyone’s safety, it was best Viper didn’t come. They didn’t want to give the entire base food poisoning.