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The situation was not looking good. Pathfinder was eliminated early in the match, and both Mirage and Wraith were too busy keeping on the run from occasional full squad they encountered throughout entire arena. That secured them a top five finish, but now they found themselves inside the fourth ring that would eventually center on the one-story building they occupied. It had two entrances, front and back, that allowed to walk through the building in a straight line and was staffed with some heavy boxes left behind by whoever once owned this place.
“L-looks like no Mobile Respawn Beacons stashed in here? We could’ve revived Path to give us a fighting chance,” Elliot sighed as he was picking up some shotgun ammo off the floor for his Mastiff.
“Even if we found one, using it will only give our position away to everyone,” Wraith replied through comms. She was currently monitoring the area from the roof, leaving the scarce loot here all to himself. Mirage couldn’t help but silently curse their robotic teammate under his breath.
For a robot, Pathfinder sometimes was too eager to loot stuff. So when his sensors picked up a golden helmet in the distance, he immediately used his grappling hook to get closer. A mistake that landed him right in the ambush. He didn’t make it. As usual in Apex Games, however, the squad that got Pathfinder was quickly third-partied by another squad, which allowed Elliot to pick up the banner and leave the area to rejoin Wraith.
“You alright over there?” Wraith asked him rather annoyed. Only now he realized his channel was open the entire time so she definitely heard him mumbling.
“S-sorry! Sorry. Just trying to con...cant… get my head in the game,” he replied, blinking several times, trying to forget about previous events for a while. Elliot heard her sighing over the comms and hoped she wasn’t too angry with him.
“Get ready. I… have a feeling someone is nearby” she suddenly reported to him. He shook his head.
“Go bamboozle em!” Mirage said as he deployed his hologram near the front entrance. The man himself repositioned near stacked boxes nearby. “How many?” he asked.
“Not sure,” she quickly replied. “I got road to front entrance in my sights, nothing so far,” she further reported the situation.
“Don’t worry, I got the other door,” Elliot reassured her, pulling out Wingman and checking if it was fully loaded.
Just as he was done with that, back door opened and someone quickly ran inside, loudly breathing with their mouth. Mirage turned his attention towards the intruder. It was some newcomer, who recently passed qualifiers and was now eligible to play against Legends for the first time. As soon as the man saw the decoy near the opposite door, he didn’t hesitate a second to aim his gun at it and fire a few bursts. Decoy disappeared in a flash of blue light.
“Bam goes the boozle!” Elliot snarkly remarked as he stood up and fired two Wingman shots aimed at the head of a stranger. First shot broke his blue armor while the other quickly put an end to a debut game.
The wrist tracker pinged, notifying him that a squad was eliminated.
“3 other squads remaining. Must’ve been a solo survivor, huh. You have to be careful next time, kid. Not that you can hear me ramb…” trickster was going on a thought train aloud when he was stopped by his teammate.
“Focus, Mirage! Another squad coming! Front entrance!” she snapped him out of his monologue. Elliot closed his eyes and made a deep breath.
“C’mon, Elliot,” he thought to himself. “Renee only asks for a few minutes of pure concentration at, you know, not getting taken out so close to the finish line. Stop fooling around!” he opened his eyes back with a determined look. They were outnumbered. But he would make sure they come out on top. Or go down swinging, whatever.
He ran towards the front door and basically slammed it open with his shoulder. The other squad was consisted entirely of Legends this time: Fuse, Bloodhound and Mad Maggie. While Fuse and Maggie posed a more serious threat to them, being able to flush them out of cover quickly, he realised taking out Bloodhound first would be the best choice so they won’t be able to reveal the fact that they were lacking Pathfinder so soon.
Before they could react, he aimed his Wingman at Technological Tracker and fired twice. His first shot missed, second hit them in the chest, not doing much damage. However, Wraith quickly followed with her R-301, landing precise shots at them until Bloodhound was knocked to the ground.
“Good choice,” she confirmed.
Elliot quickly stepped back inside, closing the door as to avoid incoming fire. However, their adversaries opted for a different target. He heard two Knuckle Clusters hitting the roof and a sound of incoming mortar. Fuse was determined to flush Wraith out of her higher position.
“It’s not safe here, phasing to you!” she reported her next action.
“Back door still opened,” he told her the possible entrance to the building before she was able to phase away from this dimension for a little while. He moved closer to it to meet up with his teammate.
That’s when he heard some loud sounds from the front door, and a second later it was blown to pieces by a Wrecking Ball that was now coming right at him. Or, rather, him and Wraith as the latter finally reappeared right beside him. Realizing there is an open door behind him, Elliot pulled Renee by the arm to the side, allowing the Wrecking Ball to roll outside, before swiftly closing the door.
“Thanks,” she approved with a smile. “Now, let’s deal with the other two.”
Before they could approach the front entrance, however, they got a grim reminder who they were fighting against. Several Arc Stars and thermite grenades started to land where the door was and crept further, blocking the clear view at enemies out there. They couldn’t even hide behind the stacked boxes near the middle of the room as Maggie took care of that with her Drill, forcing them back to the other entrance. Mirage stepped to the side to quickly repair minor damage to his shield.
“We should leave the building before they blow this whole place up!” Wraith shouted, running to the door and kicking it open.
Elliot only saw a little of her face from sideways, a confused expression she usually had when the voices warned her of something. But this time, they were too late. Not being able to phase away, Wraith was hit by a returning Wrecking Ball, which promptly exploded. There was a tree not far from that door, and the ball must’ve bounced off it and went straight back.
His vision blurred from the impact, he still saw Wraith stumbling a few steps back away from him before a burst of shots hit her from the front entrance, knocking his teammate to the ground.
“Wraith!” he cried for her. Woman groaned in pain, trying to crawl to the corner nearest to her for cover. He sent a decoy in her direction in an attempt to fool whoever was still looking inside and it worked. Bullets flew through the hologram, immediately notifying Elliot of their exact position. He carefully leaned from his position, Mastiff at the ready and fired his shotgun at Maggie who was now running inside. She didn’t made it far, falling to the ground.
Mirage realized she must’ve heard the ball explosion and tried to rush inside in attempt to get some cover from yet another squad that was now approaching the building. Right, another squad. Trickster could now hear Fuse outside trying to fend off another squad that surely heard all the commotion. That didn’t last long and soon, he found himself looking at deathbox where Mad Maggie was lying a moment ago.
Wasting no time, Mirage ran over to Wraith in attempt to revive her, but they both heard the footsteps that were now approaching from the front. Even with his cloaking abilities, they would be easy prey if he tried to revive her right now. He met her gaze with his.
“Just hang with me for a moment, OK? Everything will be alright, I’ll be back,” he winked at her before putting his full attention to front entrance.
Elliot then took out the frag grenade and rolled it on the floor towards the entrance. Whoever was trying to come inside quickly dashed for cover. Elliot waited until the explosion passed and sent a decoy out the back door which was also destroyed by the explosion of Wrecking ball. People near the front entrance saw the decoy and went inside, going after it.
Suddenly, Mirage got a ping on his personal tracker that someone from the other direction shot his decoy. He heard the sound of metallic legs quickly approaching the back entrance. Confusion on his face quickly turned into a grin as he rolled over to Wraith and cloaked them both.
Whoever was going after the decoy from the front was surely surprised to see Octane practically flying inside, all stimmed up. A firefight ensued, allowing Mirage to focus on getting his teammate back in the game.
“As soon as you’re up, I want you to phase out of here to somewhere safe and heal up, okay?” he whispered to Wraith while injecting her with revival nanomeds. “I’ll keep them busy until that, don’t worry.”
Renee nodded, not really having much of a choice. It was either that or risking getting down once more by a stray bullet. The moment she was on her feet, she immediately phased away through the back entrance. Mirage reloaded his shotgun and turned attention to the gunfight that was coming to an end.
Even being outnumbered, Octane was able to take down one of the enemies, sending the other one hiding outside the front entrance. With him distracted, Elliot pulled the trigger. Octane went down, his shield already cracked from the battle.
“How...?” Octane was surprised.
“Long story, pal,” Elliot answered before finishing the job with a well placed Mastiff shot. At that moment he also heard a few shots outside, followed by his wrist tracker pinging once more.
“Last squad. Oh…” he gazed upon front entrance, hearing someone approaching. The man also heard footsteps near the back entrance.
“Wraith, you alright out there?” he asked over the comms while his eyes darted the room, calculating how he should approach this fight.
“Back on a roof, almost done healing, just a little longer,” she replied back.
Elliot needed to buy some time for Wraith to patch up.
He sent a decoy to the deathbox of Octane, in hopes of confusing whoever sees it first to think he is looting, then moved to the wall near the back entrance, ready to fire at whoever comes through it.
Grenade flew from the front entrance to the middle of the building, immediately filling the room with smoke. Bangalore. She is a scary opponent, but at least his decoys were a bit more efficient inside the smokescreens she could create.
Unfortunately, decoys were not as efficient against frag grenade that landed under his feet. Elliot jumped up and quickly rushed to the back entrance, itching to get away from explosion as far as he could. Right at the doorframe, he encountered Lifeline.
“Wha…” she wasn’t able to finish as Mirage fired at point-blank, sending her flying backwards. He aimed for a second shot, intending to knock her down, but pulling the trigger revealed to him he was out of shotgun shells.
“Shit!” he cursed, running away from the entrance just in time for grenade to finally detonate. Trickster hastily pulled out his Wingman. Bangalore was inside the building now, running towards the back entrance, and it would be a few moments before she starts shooting. Elliot reached for his wrist device.
“It’s Dupes O’Clock,” he mumbled to himself cloaking just as Bangalore ran outside, scanning the area with her eyes. He swiftly ran closer to her and released his decoys around her.
“Stop playing these games with me!” ex-soldier roared as she aimed at one of the decoys and shot it. Elliot used the confusion to shoot Bangalore two times in the head, stunning the woman for a few moments.
Lifeline noted the real Mirage among his decoys and returned the favor by firing her Volt at him. The man felt his shield cracking, sending a few small waves of pain across his body. He stumbled backwards and found himself pinned to the wall. By then Lifeline took out her Spitfire and aimed it at trickster. Bangalore, shaking the pain off, aimed down her sights as well.
The air behind both of them distorted, forming a dimensional portal. And like a guarding angel, Wraith stepped out, her carbine aimed at Bangalore. It only took two shots to bring ex-soldier down. Lifeline span around and opened fire, sending Renee scrambling for cover. It was just the opening he needed. Mirage stood up and aimed his Wingman. Several shots later, Lifeline and Bangalore went out with a second place for their squad.
“You are the Apex Champion!” announcement blared throughout the arena. Elliot propped his hands up, albeit wearily.
“YEAH! Aren’t I the gret...grat… the best? Of course I am!” he boasted proudly. He lowered his gaze after a few seconds to find Wraith staring at him with her arms crossed and one of the eyebrows raised. At least her lips formed a ghost of a smile, so he knew it was alright.
“R-right, can’t use all my energy celebrating right now. So, let’s head back to the base?” he asked, smiling in return.
“Yeah. Let’s,” she answered.
Elliot felt thirsty, so he quickly made his way to the vending machine onboard the dropship, getting himself a can of soda. He noticed Renee, sitting on a bench near exit, occupied with thoughts. Trickster decided to get her something to drink as well.
“Hey, you want some?” he asked her, handing her one can. “I don’t know which f-flavor you prefer so I went with a sten… stun…. Uh, normal one.”
She looked at it for a few seconds, before deciding to accept the offer. “Thank you,” she smiled at him, taking the can and opening it. Elliot landed on a bench beside her.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying some refreshments, before she decided to speak.
“For a moment there I thought we will only get fourth place,” she admitted to him.
Mirage dramatically gasped and held a hand to his chest.
“What, no fate in your amazing teammate to come out on top against all odds?” he teased her.
“Yeah, right,” she snorted as she nudged him lightly with an elbow.
“Alright, I will admit – it’s both me being awesome and all the other squads not realizing that and focusing on each other,” he compromised, winking at her.
She stiffled the laughter and looked at the opposite wall, taking a sip of her soda. Elliot stared at the ceiling.
“So… How did I do?” he asked after a while.
Wraith turned her head and gazed at him.
“What do you mean?” she wondered.
“You know, during the match… You told me to f-focus. So I tried it,” he finally lowered his head and met her gaze. Renee blinked a few times, pondering the question. Then she took a sip of her drink.
“Well, seeing as we are the champions and others are in medbay right about now, I would say you did pretty good,” she finally answered after a while.
He exhaled, smile growing on his face, as he closed his eyes and leaned back to rest his head on a wall.
“Good. That’s great to hear. Thank you,” he said, taking another sip. “So, a little celebration tonight at Paradise Lounge? We can call Path and show him a replay of what he missed, can’t wait to see the look on his display,” Elliot added, opening his eyes and glancing at Wraith.
She mulled it over for a second.
“I don’t know. Maybe a free drink will convince me to visit,” she said teasingly.
“Hey, that’s not fair, that’s extortion!” he exclaimed. Wraith couldn’t help but laugh. Mirage joined her afterwards.