Risk and Rebel

52: ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

[ THIRD PERSON POV ]

Legion was taking point in the back. He and Sarge were bookends to Cat and Low, both of whom had miraculously stopped bickering as soon as they'd stepped foot in the building. Their trek was a slower one, and purposefully so. The plan had been set so that they would be working from the ground up, making sure that there were no extra surprises sneaking into the building as everyone else did their jobs.

Catatonic and Low were moving side by side, their shoulders brushing with every step they took. Cat's typically proud smirk was smoothed off into professional apathy, while Low looked relatively the same — detached but aware, her jaw currently still.

Their little squadron made it through over half of the building before they encountered a problem.

Said problem came to them in their former instructor, LASAR's former second in command. The expression Gray wore was one each of them knew well. A stern face with hardened eyes and rigid posture; Gray came toward them in eerie familiarity.

But this time, unlike last, none of them felt any relief at his presence. This was in part because of his betrayal — that alone would make any set of already murderous individuals furious — but it was also because of the dozen Kinetic agents standing behind him.

They spotted each other with several yards of hallway between them, and to the surprise of each, neither fired immediately. Each came to a pause, weapons directed unwaveringly at the others, and for a moment there was only silence. In that moment, Cat's expression morphed to one of silent rage, and Sergeant flashed a wicked grin. "Still got residual feelings for your old agents, Gray?" Sergeant asked, green eyes dark.

"You could've joined us," Gray said in answer. His head tilted toward the young man who stood beside him. Bravo both recognized him as Walski, the one whom Alpha had been interrogating in Germany when everything went so horribly wrong.

"LASAR failed, sure. But what we did ... that doesn't have to end."

Low scoffed, her eyes sharp as knives as she stared down Gray. "What we did? Since when did you do anything except run around as Boss' lapdog?"

"Last I checked, those of us standing on this side of the hall had all the fun," Cat agreed. His voice was low and dangerously even, completely lacking its usual mischievous tone. "We were out there making the changes ... we were the ones doing."

"Kids are right," Legion said coolly. "But then, I'm guessing you knew that. You are the one who decided joining up ranks with Team Charlie was a good idea."

"Poor judgement skills," Cat quipped.

Gray scoffed and gave a slight shake of his head. "Do you hear how immature you sound? I made a choice for the better. Boss didn't have an endgame. We had the resources to be doing so much more than we were. When Aim and Gambler decided they'd had enough, I took advantage of that. And in just a few short hours, I'll also be able to take advantage of the powers of multiple world leaders." He gave a nearly apathetic shrug before looking between each of them with careful precision. "You could be a part of that."

"You killed half of LASAR," Sergeant said. Though his voice was flat, there was something undeniably acidic about the look in his eyes.

"And you're forgetting what you're trained to do," Gray retorted. "You're trained to be more objective than this."

Low chuckled, the typically joyful sound coming out with dark undertones. "We aren't forgetting anything, Gray. Though it seems you are."

Gray sighed as he looked to her. "And what would that be?"