DUALITY.

28 0 1

by _ineedsleep_

by _ineedsleep_

"This just in, reports of a disaster in Italy," An unnamed reporter says over the TV.
You sigh as you switch the channel, but you were yet again bombarded by the news about Italy.

"Radianite may have been involved," Yet another reporter spoke. Now, this perked your interest, you were a private investigator, hired by an anonymous client, your task was to bring down Kingdom. The investigation had gone cold. Kingdom was just too good at keeping secrets, but the Radianite in Italy might've been the one major slip-up that could give you the knife, to personally slit their throats.

THE SCENE CUTS to Killjoy as she ran away from the bullets that whizzed past her, she was sent to a flashpoint in 34°2'A' N 6°51'Z' W, just off the coast of Morocco, Spectre in hand and turret in tow, she ran toward the Spike, she slid on the ground, landing right behind a Radianite crate, she took this chance to reload her Spectre.

Looking up, she sees an airship practically teleport into the airspace, "Finally! About time you showed up!" She says into her comms device.

"We're picking up gunfire." A voice speaks into the comms. Killjoy peaks out from the box as she sees a faint silhouette of a man wearing a jacket. Increased concentration of bullets had forced her to duck back under cover. She put her fingers up to her communication device, "Did you locate the spike?" The voice speaks again. "That would be a yes." Killjoy replies, a hint of worry in her tone.

...

THE LARGE BURNING of the jets fills your ears as you quickly shuffle from truck to truck, the industrial facility known as Bind, was being used by Kingdom, to process and transport large amounts of Radianite. As the airship nears the ground, two people armed with a Vandal and a Bucky jumped out, you had identified the markings on the airship as one belonging to the VALORANT Protocol.

You perk up from your hiding spot, "Didn't know the VALORANT Protocol would get involved with this, you know, after Italy and all."

Phoenix growled, remorse evident in his voice, "I tried. Okay?", Viper held him back and walked toward you, "Why are you, here," She said, with a lot of venom (ironic), "Well, dearie, I'm doing my job, to investigate."

"Though, maybe we could drop this rather childish argument, to maybe help your dear friend Killjoy, with the spike." You say, as Viper sighs and runs toward the spike site.

"Stay close, weapons ready." Viper says.
"I was born ready," Phoenix replies, you chuckled and just readied your Sherrif and Balisong.
The two held tight formation, surveying the area, you, however, decided to sneak around, looking for any potential intel that could help in your investigation of Kingdom.

While scouting, you saw a familiar man, he looked almost like Phoenix, though you denied the thought of clones, the figure held a striking resemblance. Was there a clone of you too? Now was not the time, your brain was wandering around multiple places, which made it hard to focus.

You ran back toward the group of three as the beeping of the spike grew faster and faster, "It's stealing Radianite from the environment," Viper observes.

"How do we stop it?" You ask, Killjoy pulls out a defuser as she says, "I'm on it."

You toss her a Radi-Core, "Use it to power the heat signal," You say as the loud destruction of Killjoy's turret filled your ears. Following this, Phoenix had taken cover inside of the tube, getting ready to take care of whoever was raining fire upon your group.

...

"I GOT THIS," Was all you heard as Phoenix began to open fire, a barrage of bullets flew, all either hitting absolutely nothing or grazed just off of your assailant.

Phoenix began to give chase, running through the wooden floors of a small octagonal garden, nearing his target, he was forced to dive due to the influx of bullets flying right at him.

Quickly regaining his footing, he conjures up a fireball, tossing it right at his target's escape route; effectively turning the tables.

"Hands up, come on." He says, but was soon taken aback, the damn person he was attacking was him. Everything was practically the same: the hair, the facial structure, hell even the fucking jacket! Though there was a stark contrast, the clone had a darker shade of red in their eyes and a shifting blue aura surrounding them.

...

PHOENIX STOOD there dazed, paralysed in either fear or shock.

How. Why. What. Every kind of question flew by his head, speaking of which, was running at lightspeed, but was quickly shoved out of his train of thoughts as a low chuckle emanated from the mirror version of him, "You should see your face," He says, sneakily readying a fireball as his opponent just stares at him.

Woosh.

Viper appears straight out of nowhere, pushing the frozen (aha, ironic again) Phoenix and as her shots ring out, the clone gets out, slipping through the wall of flames.

"What the fu-" Phoenix is cut off by the sudden blue shockwave coming from the spike.

...

YOU LOOK ON IN FEAR as the spike began to tick down, the surrounding boxes being lifted into the air as if gravity was just negated, Killjoy was on your left, tweaking with her tablet and defuser, noticing that the Radi-core wasn't having much of an effect, so you quickly ripped out the decommissioned turret's power source and tossed it at her, "Here, use this, should be stronger than the Radi-core," You say as she nods.

"Verdammt!" Killjoy exclaims in frustration as she fails to start defusing the spike, "It needs to be superheated." You and Viper say in unison as the core was tossed to Phoenix. As the blue swirls intensify around the spike, the clock was ticking, Killjoy slots the core in and holds the defuse.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Red currents of electricity began to flow as it was near detonation.

Beep.

Beep.

You slowly let out a sigh of relief as you wipe the sweat off your brow, "I honestly didn't expect that to work." Killjoy says, trying to break the ice; you stare at the girl dumbfoundedly, "Maybe give us a heads-up next time?" You say.

...

THE JET ENTERS your view, Killjoy zips up the bag containing the spike, placing it into the now hovering aircraft, then dusting her hands off.

"Good job out there, eh. Certainly better than that time in Germany." You joke as Killjoy replies with a chuckle.

"We're coming home," Viper says.

FIN

(1,108 words 6,364 characters)