TTD: The Immortal

Chapter 3 - 4th of July 1976

Charles got kicked back into the dirt with his training partner Chuck looming over him "You don't have what it takes to be a royal marine son". Charles spun around sweeping his partners legs out from underneath him, drawing his partners training pistol and holding it to his head "You talk too much" They both stared at each other then burst into laughter. "You're a sneaky bastard Charles!" Charles waved it off and handed Chuck his pistol back. Chuck stared at Charles "Hey Chuck? You okay man?" Chuck just kept staring as his skin peeled off "Charles? Why didn't you save me? Charles? Charles?" Charles went to reply when Chucks head exploded showering him with grey matter.

Charles awoke from the nightmare with a jolt

Charles being unable to sleep decided to go to the cafeteria and have a drink he settled on straight vodka, he had an old friend from russia who would always recommend the stuff for wounds open or closed, Charles never truly understood what he meant until the nightmares started, He regrets that day more than any. The only day he truly failed. Cat stood in the doorway and watched him judging the right time to approach him, he beat her to it "I know you're there Catherine" She was taken aback by the use of her full name "Charles? What's wrong?" He took another sip of vodka before recalling his nightmare to her. She didn't look phased "May I join you?' He simply nodded.

"Chuck was my best friend throughout all of our training, School, College, Army, Marines and special ops" Cat intervened "Wait so you were SAS?" Charles laughed "No, we were rainbow, the best of the best. A country in turmoil that needed to ba calmed? We were sent in, You needed a tyrant assassinated? We were sent in, we were ghosts." Cat nodded knowingly "So the UN needed rainbow to go and return stability to Iraq, Me, Chuck and a few admin staff parachuted in and went straight to work, we lived on the streets and garnered the attention of the enemy, we thought they had no intel, they didn't. Well before the huge UN Emails leak, They knew everything about us, Pulled us from our bunks in the training camp and put us on our knees in front of the entire camp and... a cameraman, They were going to execute us live but there were technical issues so they resorted to filming it and uploading it later, Chuck was bricking it begging me to save him so they carved him first, after seeing that something inside me snapped, I flung my head back hitting my captor in the groin the crowd cheered hoping for a fight so I burst to my feet still handcuffed and stared down my opponent eyeing his pistol on his belt, he noticed and tossed it into the crowd before swinging a left hook which I easily ducked under and shoulder barged him down to the dirt before snapping my handcuffs chain with pure adrenaline, I held my hands up as he drew his knife ready for a stab instead he slashed clumsily which I easily sidestepped before grabbing his arm and snapping it before snatching the blade up from the ground and slashing his throat open with it spraying me with blood, It was so warm.. A feeling you never get used too, I then felt a pistol being held to the back of my head, I ducked as he shot making the shot go straight over my head into the cameraman, I twirled around grabbing my assailant's wrist snapping it before snatching his pistol and aiming it at the crowd backing slowly out of the circle, I emptied the magazine into the crowd before taking cover behind a vehicle. I reached in under a hail of gunfire and grabbed a radio and bolting it out of the compound." Charles stopped and stared at the wall opposite going pale, Cat slowly waved her hand in front of his face, Unresponsive "Gordon what's happening?" Gordon waited before replying "It would appear that Captain Bishop is having a PTSD Hallucinogenic flashback" Cat sat there worried "Gordon send a synth to go get my laptop from the lab I need to do some research".

Meanwhile Knight was doing her morning exercises in the brig when Gordon burst into life "Captain it would appear that your analysis was correct, Charles suffers from Hallucinogenic PTSD episodes" Knight smiled "I love being right, Gordon open the door I think me and Sir Charles need to have a talk"

Cat was trying to figure out what was wrong with Charles. She was tapping away on her laptop as the door opened and Knight waltzed in, ducked under the synths outstretched arm and Injected Charles with a mysterious clear serum, Cat sat there gobsmacked as Charles shook his head and returned to normal "What did I miss?, Wait? How are you out of the brig?" Knight simply laughed "This is my ship Charles, next time lock me in one of the spares, now how does a training session sound?"

Knight led Charles down into the training room and tossed him a training blade and sword, he dropped the sword and strapped the training blade over his cyborg arm, "I've been waiting to see what you truly got" With that knight swung her sword which charles slid under with ease before sweeping Knights feet from under her and holding the training blade to her throat "One nil to me" Knight smiled and threw charles off of her before leaping to her feet and twirling her sword through the air menacingly "You talk too much", Cat watched them both circling each other on the cameras and had an idea, She let a hundred synths loose armed with real ammunition, Charles and knight both picked up the sound of the doors swishing open on the synth pods, They gave each other a gleeful look as charles snatched up the sword and activated both the training blade and his real blade to utilise the deadly dual blade combo, Knight moved first slashing her blade through the nearest synths stomach snatching up its gun and firing off the mag into another 2 synths, Charles giggled like a kid at christmas "Is that all you got knight?" He giggled before hurling the sword like a javelin into a synths chest and using it as a step up to leap over the synth down onto the two behind slicing their heads off with his dual blades, looking up and pulling the sword through the synth by its blade and using it to block off another synths hatchet attack, sweeping its legs out from under it and throwing it's hatchet into the face of a synth that was sneaking up on knight. "Your turn love" Knight smiled at him drew her pistol, emptied its mag into the nearest synths face before twirling it around and using it as a club to make her way over to the weapon rack and pick out her favourite katana and twirling it around like a scythe at what seemed to charles like light speed mowing down four synths and taking a knee to catch her breath, Charles noticed the synths took an exorbitant interest in her so he pulled his hood up and snuck forward through the crowd stabbing the synths in their kidneys as he went but as he got to the row behind the front a synth drew a pistol and held it to her head "You lose" Charles felt an anger bubble up inside him before he burst into a flurry of precise attacks cutting through the crowd of synths before reaching the one with the gun, Kicking the gun up in the air punching the synth in the throat and catching it and emptying the mag into the last 8 synths. Both Cat and Knight had the same reaction "Holy Shit"

Cat spoke up over the intercom "Charles could you come up to my lab dear?" He looked lost and handed knight the pistol before walking out of the training hall leaving knight alone in a stunned silence.