The Reluctant Ranger Chapter 24 - Storm

They left the tattoo parlor with an appointment and several ideas for what they might be getting.  Nicole was torn between a sprawling black rose vine, and some Gaelic poetry.  She was certainly leaning towards honoring her heritage, even as far removed as it was.  Her grandmother spoke the language, and had tried to teach her before she passed.  Nicole understood some of it, and the language was beautiful in motion, but it was hell to learn as someone who grew up speaking English primarily. 

“I sort of want to get that pirate girl they had in the catalog,” Grace said, looking at her right arm.  “Add some red accents and it would be a pretty fun hint at my night job.” 

Nicole giggled, imagining how that might look, only to get distracted staring at Grace’s flexing muscles.  Sure, her own were bigger, Nicole’s figure was born of pushing her body to the absolute limit in her bid for the Olympics, but Grace’s figure was that of practical strength earned through working a forge.

The sun was casting the clouds in an orange and purple glow, a near rainbow unto itself that was absolutely fitting to end the day on.  Nicole couldn’t help wrapping her arm around Grace’s waist and pulling close.  She couldn’t rest her head on Grace’s shoulder due to the height difference, but she could rest it against her muscular arm. 

In all practicality, she was about as safe as a person could be, even without Grace there with her, but that didn’t change how Grace made her feel.  She hadn’t felt that kind of security since her parents died. 

It was almost enough to bring her to tears, but she wasn’t going to cry, not when she was so damn happy.  Sure, they would be tears of joy, but Nicole didn’t want to ruin the moment.  That warmth that she felt from having people in her life again that cared, the camaraderie with her fellow Rangers, was something she never experienced with her fellow gymnasts.  All those lonely years spent going through high school, and now…  

“Nicole, what’s wrong?” 

A gentle thumb rubbed under her eye, and Nicole wanted to curse her own weakness for breaking down.  She needed to play it off, keep Grace from asking too many questions that might sour the evening. 

“Tears of joy,” Nicole said with a soft smile.  “Sorry, I’m just, really damn happy right now.” 

Grace didn’t even hesitate to pull her into a hug, fingers trailing up and down Nicole’s back.  She just held on tighter, holding onto her girlfriend for everything she could.  She just wanted to be closer, hold her into the night. 

Christ, she was totally going to end up getting a u-haul at this rate, probably before the week was even out.  Nicole let out a choked laugh at the thought, fingers digging into Grace’s shirt as she did.  Fuck, she was falling so damn hard, and she was all for it. 

Thunder rumbled in the distance, but Nicole didn’t care, it could start pouring rain and she would still consider this moment one of the best of her life.  More thunder followed, and she knew the storm was about to open up, so she gingerly pulled away from her girlfriend, smiling up with what was no doubt red and splotchy eyes.  She didn’t care, even if there was snot running down her nose. 

A flash of lightning lit up the evening sky, and she knew they needed to call an end to their date.  Grace too had looked up at that reminder, a frown on her face. 

“I guess we should get back to the dorms,” Grace said. 

“Unfortunately,” Nicole muttered.  “Both our roomies are gonna be there tonight, aren’t they?” 

“Yeah,” Grace grumbled.  “I mean, we could always go rent a room somewhere, but that takes money neither of us can really spare.” 

“Too true,” Nicole said.  “Doesn’t mean it isn’t tempting though—” 

A piercing scream cut her off, Nicole’s attention snapping down the road to where a dozen automatons had just appeared along with one of the flashes of lighting.  Ice filled her veins and her mind crashed to a halt.  No, not now, how dare they! 

Nicole snarled, her hand moving to her wrist without a second thought, not even bothering to say the words as she morphed in a void of black.  Someone might have seen them, maybe even taken video, but she didn’t care.  The lingering tinge of red in the air told her that Grace had the same idea.  Neither waited on the other, bursting into motion to intercept the machines before they could begin to slaughter the civilians. 

The crashing thunder in the distance, however, suggested it had already begun. 

Nicole sent her blades tumbling forward, swirling through the air and into the oncoming Sylan foot soldiers before they could reach the screaming crowd.  People were running, falling over one another, and there was nothing she could do to help them, not if she wanted to actually save them. 

One person almost vanished in a spray of red, the automatons tearing into them like a pack of ravenous predators.  Nicole fell upon the machines with all the fury she felt boiling within, for the people who no doubt were being slaughtered by whatever machines were attacking elsewhere.  She tried not to spend too much time thinking about that, how many people might be losing family all around her.  She had to focus on stopping the enemy in front of her, save those she could. 

She could dwell on those she failed in the days to come, as she no doubt would. 

“Clear the area!” she shouted, kicking one machine away even as she caught the blade of another.  “Spread the word, barricade yourselves indoors!” 

Sparks shot from her side as she winced, the pain minor but still enough to distract her, even momentarily.  She summoned her blades, bringing them to bear and hacked into the masses she found herself in the thick of.  Nicole knew she wasn’t a front line fighter, she was meant for battlefield control, keeping the enemy from straying far. 

Mobility was her greatest strength, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight.  She could keep the enemy focused on her, save lives by making herself a more tempting target.  Nicole fought on, phasing through the group each time she saw a handful of the machines attempting to break off. 

Grace was working in the distance, guiding the people away, keeping other machines from cornering them.  The problem was, she wasn’t nearly as fast as Nicole was at getting around.  Sure, Grace wasn’t slow by any means, but the difference showed.  She also had no way of fighting from a distance save for throwing her primary weapon away.

She wasn’t quite sure what was wrong, at least not at first, but watching Grace work from the few moments she could steal a glance, it suddenly clicked.  They weren’t working within their roles in the team.  In her eagerness to get started, they had inadvertently fallen into the role that the other should be performing. 

She’d berate herself later for letting her anger get the better of her. 

“Corsair!  Switch out!” Nicole yelled, phasing through yet another blade.

A red blur slammed into one of the automatons, instantly scrapping the machine in a shower of sparks and metal.  With axe in hand, Grace cleaved through two others with barely a flick of the wrist.  She was a true beast on the battlefield, and Nicole had to admit that sometimes she made it difficult to focus on the fight, but there were dozens of the damn things and there were still civilians that needed to be evacuated. 

With Nicole now front and center, Nicole could move to the outskirts and start hemming them in.  She vaulted over a car and allowed herself a few moments to breathe.  The adrenaline was keeping the worst of the pain away, but she knew she’d be feeling it tomorrow after taking all those hits.

A half dozen blades manifested in her hands and she flung them along, impaling several of the Sylan machines.  A barely audible crunch behind her had Nicole shifting, her form phasing out of reality just as the clawed blade passed through where she had been standing. 

Too damn close, not that it was likely to actually damage her.  She’d taken glancing blows throughout the fight, and none of those had done much damage overall, a touch of pain, a bit of sparks from the kinetic field their suits put off, and that was it.  Even when she’d managed to phase a knife into her leg the night prior, the suit took the bulk of the damage, somehow. 

Nicole summoned her main blades to her hands and blocked the follow up blow before cleaving through the machine from shoulder to hip.  She’d loved the blades that Grace had crafted for her, and even if the ones in her hand weren’t technically them, they were still based off of them in some way.

She adored them. 

Even if Grace wasn’t there, fighting at her side, she would feel like she was in some way.  There was a joke about sword lesbians, or presenting a partner with a blade, that she couldn’t get out of her mind each and every time she took up one of her girlfriend’s blades.  

Fortunately, there were only a handful of the blasted machines that showed up compared to the last attack, which was odd all on its own.  Had Maraline sent them just to fuck with her date, or was there more to it than that?  There was rarely rhyme or reason behind the attacks from what she had seen from Carlos’ presentation, yet she knew there was a proper intelligence behind their plans.  That they understood exactly what they were doing and did have an end goal in mind. 

So how did the current attack fit into that model? 

Unfortunately, Nicole couldn’t take much time to ponder that as she jumped across the street, kicked off a storefront, and came down feet first on another automaton that was aiming to break into a store where people had taken shelter.  There were so many of them, and she was almost certain more were arriving when they were otherwise occupied. 

At least they weren’t intelligent enough to hide perfectly functional machines in with the scrap for surprise attacks.  Small mercies.  Nicole made a note to herself to never even make a joke about it when she next encountered Maraline, because there was no doubt that there would be a next time.

The Sylan general did have an odd fixation on her, had ever since their conversation at the Renfaire.  Nicole didn’t doubt that Maraline was speaking the truth as she understood it, but that didn’t make her right.  Just looking around, seeing the handful of people that they hadn’t been quick enough to protect, the pools of blood beneath them… 

A piercing scream rang out and Nicole was already moving towards it.  Grace was holding down the street, keeping the bulk of the bastards busy with a swirling axe of murder and death that was so very reminiscent of her favorite Tank class from an old MMO she played as a kid. 

Maybe Grace had played it too, something to ask her when they weren’t dealing with dozens of murderous machines.  Her incorporeal form allowed her to tear through the distance, unheeding of any obstacle, and she arrived just in time to watch a child be run through by a Sylan blade. 

Color bled from the world as she watched the child fall limp to the ground, the unfeeling machine standing over her as if it hadn’t just ended an innocent life.  Twin blades pierced into the automaton an instant later, and Nicole was kneeling over the girl.  Her eyes were open, darting all about, her breaths were shallow and rapid, high pitched wheezing coming with each one as one hand grasped at her wound and the other reached towards Nicole’s helmet. 

The girl grasped at Nicole’s visor, then fell slack in her arms, leaving a bloody streak across her vision as her tiny hand fell away.  Nicole blinked, her mind hitching as she attempted to come to terms with the fact that a little girl who couldn’t be older than eight, had died in her arms. 

Ice ran down her spine and into her veins as she stood, cold fury roiling under her skin.  Her blades were already back in hand, then buried within another automaton before Nicole consciously realized she had moved to attack it.  Nicole grabbed the still glowing eyes of the machine and pointed it right at the dead child.  

“Is this what you wanted, Maraline?  Dead children?  Well, IS IT!?”

She tossed the lump of scrap aside and moved, her mind detached from reality, instinct guiding her as she cut a swathe through the machines all the way back to Grace’s side. 

Her girlfriend did a double take at her arrival, but there were too many enemies for her to stop and talk about why she was covered in blood.  That was one of the good things about their colors, they both hid blood well. 

Their friends still hadn’t arrived, but that was fine by Nicole, she had plenty of anger to work through, and the mindless machines would do nicely until they decided to throw something bigger at them and she could truly let her frustrations out. 

She wasn’t sure how long the battle had dragged on at that point, nor did she really care.  She continued to hem in the machines, keeping them from running off after civilians, but there was still the odd scream, that reminder of her failure to contain the monsters from hurting others.  She burned each one into her memory, directed her rage back at the machines ten fold. 

Finally, the others arrived, vines tearing into the masses, a purple streak from the sky skewering another machine, and a dome of blinding white shielding the group of civilians that Nicole was almost too slow to help.  They fell in together, their group of five Rangers against the alien invaders, ready to fight back in the war for the fate of humanity. 

So of course that was when the mutant appeared, tearing around the corner of a small storefront at the intersection.  It was a centipede, easily fifty feet long, if not more, with razor sharp claws and pincers.  A creature bred for killing humans, no doubt.  It was already covered in blood, bits of dripping cloth hanging from those pincers by its mouth.  That fury that had driven her all this time crystallized in that single moment of iron resolve.

Nicole’s grip tightened on her blades as she stared the monster down, taking a measured step forward, ready to confront the beast that may as well have been death incarnate.

“Rangers, hold the line,” Nicole said, steel in her voice.  “This bastard is mine.”