by Mela NoLeuca
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ethan's POV
I knew it was going to be risky. But I had no other choice. I never thought in a million years I would find myself partnered with someone like... Like... Well basically everything that defines 'Robin,' I guess.
She was horrible. She was useless and she was so fucking annoying!
Why couldn't she just stop talking? Actually, there really wasn't a problem with talking; I was more bothered with her whining. She doesn't even listen to me. I'm trying to teach her because if she is going to end up getting stuck with me in this, I couldn't let her become the reason why everything I had dreamed of to go to waste!
She needed to pick up her own ass and clean up her own shit because I have no time to babysit some Prima Dona.
After gathering a handful of discreet firearms such as my Charlie Niner 09—thank goodness I made two more—I grabbed two rifles and some gear to go. I went out for a bit and managed to get my hands on a handsome land cruiser before convincing the banshee to come along.
"I still can't believe you stole this," she grumbled. Folding her arms across her chest.
I rolled my eyes. Why couldn't she just get over it? I thought we already settled this five minutes ago? I didn't want to talk about it anymore. It was like explaining what 'why' meant to a five-year-old.
When she was about to say something again I cranked up the volume loud enough so I wouldn't have to listen to her. It hurt my ears, yes, but like I said before I already knew how to tune it out.
We arrived to an abandoned golf course somewhere off the far west of the city. I found it funny when her paranoia kicked in again, trying to run away from because she thought I was going to murder her here. I let her go, giving me some time to appreciate solitude and silence as I set up our gears. She came back in less than five minutes, muttering how she didn't know the way out.
I just kept to myself in mild amusement as I tossed some vests, headphones and goggles at her way. I expected her to catch them, but she just awkwardly dodged them in failure. That was enough to realize that I shouldn't even toss her the handgun I was holding.
After a few minutes of wrestling the trench coat off her and tackling the vest onto her I was already teaching her the mechanics of wielding the simplest of all firearms; the revolver.
"Or more specifically," I twirled the gun, showing a few tricks in front of her before accurately shooting down an incoming bird from the sky, "The Uberti Top Break .45 Colt version."
I gave her the revolver and she took it carefully like an unpinned bomb. I sigh exasperatedly and locked it so that the risk of shooting herself is controlled. I went on lecturing her, "What you're holding right now is strengthened and improved with modern steels and technology, enabling the chambering of modern smokeless cartridges in .44/40 and .45LC."
"Right, I perfectly understood everything,"
"Good," I nodded curtly and stood next to her.
"You know I was being sarcastic," she held the gun with two fingers.
I ignored her and ran through the mechanics by first teaching her how to disassemble a gun so that she'd understand how it would work. We eventually had to walk back in the car since her level of understanding was so limited it took more than two hours to make her remember everything. Finally, she knew how reassemble a gun as well even if it took her nearly an hour.
That was all she needed, at least now she knows how to remove the safety, reload bullets and now all she needed was to practice her aim.
"I will lend you six bullets," I told her.
"But its my first time--"
"Six bullets," I punctuated. She better make the most of it. That was how I learned.
Six bullets later she was still horrible. She didn't even make each shot count!
"I told you!" She threw the gun at my feet and stormed back in the car.
"Come back here, Robyn," I folded my arms across my chest and stared her down in the most rigid composure I could project.
I felt like a father with this girl. I just turned twenty-six but God, she made me feel so old. But there was no way she could say no to me. It has been proven and tested. I watched her remove her gear and toss it all at the back.
I cringed. Those were my best gears! A trained agent like me can only put up with so much, I cannot let her walk all over me! Between the two of us, I was more aware and experienced. It was only right that I was in charge of everything and I will not have anyone under my authority act like this.
"What the hell are you doing?" I caught up to her just in time before she started the car. "You can't just up and go!"
She tried pushing me off so she could close her the door. Was she serious? She can't even defend herself, what made her think that she could challenge me?
"Now you know what I feel!" She shrieked. I watched her calm herself down, I wasn't sure if I found it annoying or amusing, I mean she was heaving heavily and her face was all red.
I rolled my eyes, "get used to it, the slow ones die first. Now get your prissy ass out of my car and start shooting,"
"You mean out of your stolen car?" She grinned too sweetly, "No, just get in here, I have a better idea,"
I blinked, a little too nervous with her sudden change of tone. "Excuse me? You're the one who ran and came back because you didn't even know how to remember the way back out and now you want me to put my life in your hands? Don't answer, just get out,"
"Right, and shoot with invisible bullets," she said, animatedly, "let's just let the arcade go and teach me. As far as I know, they're much more generous with bullets and funner than you'll ever be"
"Arcade?" I shook my head, and sighed, "If that could shut you up, then fine. But I’ll drive,"
It wasn't long before we reached the nearest arcade. I checked around, analyzing escape routes should we ever get caught in here. I went back in the car and tucked away as much guns as discreetly as I could, handing her one just in case.
"It's just an arcade, Gold," she emphasized like I was some alien from another planet.
"Robyn, we are not out here to have fun and we're not out here to get killed just because we let our guard down just once. We're just here so I could save up on bullets that way you won't have to add to my burden,"
She looked offended. Before I could backtrack on what I said she grabbed the gun from my hand and tucked it in the back of her jeans giving me the most disturbingly angry look she could give me. Did I ever mention that she had blue eyes? That must be what made it even more creepier.
I watched her storm out of the car and barge through the double-pained glass doors. Quickly parking I went after her, for all I know she could've tripped and shot herself by accident.
Lights and noise harassed me from different angles that I got overwhelmed the moment I stepped in. I plugged my ears and wore my shades, willing myself to tune out from my hyperactive senses as I searched for Robyn.
"There you are!"
She grabbed me, soliciting money as she grabbed handfuls of tokens from a counter. She went to a machine with a big screen and guns hung on its stand. I waltzed over and began observing them, it looked like one of those Colt Revolving rifle model 1855.
"Chill double-oh-seven, it's fake,"
"What?" I wasn't even sure where to be surprised, the fact that she called me by my wrong identity number or the fact that she was going to try her shoot out with fake guns. That was preposterous! An ultimate dishonor to any gunslingers out in my field!
"Quick, go grab one, it's starting!" She said, almost a little too excited than what I’m used to.
The big screened tuned out and revealed a simulation of a battlefield. I remember using one of these back in the Agency, of course this was nothing compared to our technology. My screen flashed red and the sign 'Game Over' showed.
"What happened?" I asked confused.
"In your face foo'!" she jumped in the air enthusiastically, "I killed you, beat that!"
Oh I get it. We were fighting against each other in this simulation. W
hatever, as long as it helps me help her become less of my burden.
"I was just warming up," I smirked. I hadn't had fun in quite a while. This bitch is going down!
The game ended with 9-1. I won, obviously.
"You were horrible," I remarked with the cockiest smirk I could muster before hanging the fake rifle.
"Thank you for your encouragement," she rolled her eyes.
Apparently she wanted to have another go on her own just to prove she wasn't that horrible, even if I already could tell that she already way. Practicing here, though pathetic, might actually help her somehow, maybe if I brought her here everyday, she might eventually put my next six sluggers to good use. Who knew right? I finally told her it was her last for the day since I was beginning to get bored anyway.
Strangely enough, our drive back to my personal HQ was far more pleasant than the previous interactions I had with the banshee.
I'm not a really difficult person to be with. It's just that when there's a job to do there's no time for me to slack off. The sooner I execute the mission, the better. You can say that I'm a workaholic, but I really just love what I do.
It's just that lately, things are going downhill faster than what I could cope with. I lost so much... I didn't want to think about it right now. So far I never expected Robyn to give me the time to speak out everything that I felt. I usually had Craw to talk to.
When we got back to my room, I apologized for raping her ears this time around. But she said she was cool about it.
"Dang, Banshee, I never knew you could listen," I suppressed my grin as best as I could.
"Banshee?" she repeated, befuddled as I expected.
When I told her why, we ended up in a pillow fight where I won again. And no, pillow fights did not ruin my image of a badass agent.
I deemed playtime over right before dinner. I still had to stay up late and reprogrammed myself to get my head back in the game. Robyn claimed my bed in my office, even when I didn't let her. Just because I was warming up to her lately did not mean she could have whatever she wanted. But never mind that, I decided not to sleep tonight anyway, so I let her in the end.
It was great to have a breather after all that happened the past few days. I felt refreshed after that I admit, but as my favorite motto goes, a second too late is always a second too dangerous. So far, I came to realize that so much time has been wasted.
In one of my monitors was a satellite map of the city we were in, Blue Ark. It was a 1,213.4 square-kilometer city that was the heart of the United Republic of Kohlberg, our lovely country. But I guess it wasn’t so lovely now that I saw certain red dots approaching towards my very own base.
How did they even find us? That didn’t matter now, I needed to grab as much as I could and wake Robyn from her sleep. Because according to my estimation, we roughly had ten minutes before the E. R. A. Wipe Out Crew gets to us.