Helios Fighter

Chapter Five

You Wish You Had a Gun This Cool

Emerging from an elevator door, Jax and I we almost immediately bombarded by mortar fire. I didn't see jack, but Jax did. Before I even knew what was happening, I was thrust into the air. Landing on a scaffolding just a few meters from where I was standing, I looked back and saw that where we were standing was now a smoldering three-meter crater. An instant later Jax appeared beside me, and I voiced that question that was on my mind:

"What the crap was that?!"

"This is another training camp. You may wanna pull that pistol of yours!"

"What?!"

"Up there!" someone yelled. "They're unarmed!" A flurry of bullets was flung upwards on our position. Jax and I both took cover.

"Is it always this crazy here?" I asked. I got my answer when a spherical device landed next to my foot.

"Don't move!" Jax said. "Kinetimine. Detonates when the thing closest to it moves even the tiniest bit!"

"Well, then I'm dead."

"Why–? Don't do it!" I pulled the pistol and shot the mine, which surprisingly didn't take leg off. I figured out how when I looked at my now tingling and glowing left hand. Looking at my other hand, with which I still held the pistol, I found that it wasn't glowing. Based on what I could gather, which was rather shocking, I'd actually absorbed the explosion. The energy began to travel from my hand, and spread throughout the rest of my body, causing the glow to disappear. "That was stupid crazy!"

"Naw!!" I said with heavy sarcasm. "I only tried to save your life."

"Ha-ha, very funny, but we need to escape alive. Or at least you do; I can handle myself, but you need to get to the Solar Division."

"Not yet."

"Uhhh, why?"

"I'm finna finish this fight!"

"You? One newbie against an entire trained team? You got a better chance with that receptionist than you do taking everyone else here, and even that chance is non-existently slim."

"So, let's flip those odds." Jax sighed.

"You definitely needed that extra month."

"Whatever. You got some kinda... I don't know, smoke bomb?" Maybe I was crazy. Maybe I wasn't. But what Jax didn't know was I was still running on rage fumes from the last battle. Training, or not, it didn't change what I had felt: The adrenaline, the fear, and the anger. I didn't expect Jax to know that. Nor did I expect to have to tell her.

The plan was simple. I was gonna take down the other team one by one. The backup was to smoke them and then play it by ear. We went with the backup because Jax dropped one of her smoke bombs. The enemy team fired in that direction as if expecting to kill something. When they stopped firing long enough to investigate, that's when I dropped down and started firing. POF! POF! POF! One shot after another, and they all fell at the same rate. I was feeling pretty good until I got shot. Immediately, I was paralyzed. "Target neutralized," someone said. No duh, Sherlock, I thought. Still, it wasn't enough that the guy had to paralyze me. He had to announce that I was down. I felt my temperature rise, and the smoke around me glowed orange. I jumped to my feet and picked up my pistol, which immediately became etched in my orange energy.

"Guess no one told you," I said. "I hate when someone does that!" There were a lot of "whoas" and "Fall Backs," but no good was done by them. I was on a roll. Once again, I began shooting the enemy with my pistol, my shots coming out as supercharged. Everyone that we hit went down hard and loud. I took a step forward, and then another one, and another one until I was running through the field, shooting, paralyzing, and scaring the enemy. But like the old saying goes, "all good things must come to an end." My gun ran out of ammo, and I was without a weapon. Or so I thought. When I threw down my pistol, a small amount of energy followed. An idea formed in my mind rather quickly.

"Helios, run!!" Jax yelled from above. And run I did, straight into the enemy line. Bullets rained on my position. Whether I somehow managed to print outrun them all, dodge them, out those who were firing at me were bad shots, I couldn't tell. All I knew was that I didn't get hit. I wasn't about to complain. Everywhere I saw someone with a gun, I threw an energy ball at them. Bullets still rained, but it was a significantly lessened amount each time someone went down. Someone ran in front of me, and he looked like he was taking aim. FRLOOM. He went down, and I took his gun. Immediately, it started glowing with the orange energy that surrounded​ me. My marksman instinct returned, and I went ballistic. See, what I think made me lethal was my method of execution. The enemy was attempting to down me with a series of storm fire, in the hopes that I would get hit with a stray bullet or something. A good tactic... had​ I been part of a group. At least, then, they'd have a better chance. My method? Short bursts, and cover. As I ran, I shot these bursts at anyone firing at me. One burst, three shots. Almost every shot hit its target. Then suddenly, the firing at me stopped. Then I realized:

"Jax!" Everyone had trained their guns on her now, suppressing her position. I knew I wouldn't be able to pick them off one by one... I had another idea. It was a longshot, but still my best (and only) chance. I focused the energy coursing through me, and channeled it into the rifle. The barrel grew white-hot. I pulled the trigger, and a white beam shot from the barrel. Using the energy beam, I weakened the scaffolding Jax was on. I ran back towards her, the beam still firing. I used it to knock the remaining troops over. When I reached the scaffolding, Jax looked as though she were contemplating jumping or facing the entire enemy team. "Jax!" She looked down at me. "Jump!"

"Are you insane!?"

"I think we've established this!"

"Ugh!" She jumped, and I caught her.

"Do you trust me?!"

"Not really!"

"Then sorry!" Once again, I focused the energy, this time channeling it into my legs. I jumped up, and we kept rising, suspended on beams of orange fire. With Jax in hand, I flew away from the training field.