While Kimberly was waiting for the right moment to cut in between Magdalena and Storm Guard Omega, Ghost was completely engrossed in the ivory dragon’s dance. His eyes absorbed how she moved with fierce elegance. “I hate to sound like he-who-shall-not-be-named, but,” Ghost pulled on his shirt and fanned himself with his free hand. “Phew!” Kimberly did not share the same opinion as Ghost. Not when all he could focus on was how fast the numbers went down on the Storm Guard’s holographic tab. There was no time to enjoy the “show” that Ghost apparently indulged in.
Kimberly wanted to stop Magdalena ---everyone--- from killing a human, an organism capable of communicating if they so choose to. He knew that this was a war; he understood that people killed people during a war, but was it actually necessary? He wasn’t knowledgeable on the intricacy of politics, but Kimberly believed a majority of wars happened because people, the government, decided that there was no use in negotiating. War was the least complex and fasted way to get what the people wanted. Negotiations took too long, change was never immediate, and not everyone got what they wanted: they may even be forced to endure things they didn’t want… but at least no one had to loose someone they cared about. With the xenomorphs… it was more about survival and less about the benefits of a region. Kimberly could live with that. His friends may never regret ending the life of someone else, but Kimberly knew he would. He was not ready to become the reason why a child would have to be raised without a parent; why a person will never be able to kiss their lover; why a brother or sister could never fight with a sibling over trivial matters ever again; why they will never be able to laugh with a friend. Every one of his friends knew how it felt to loose someone… how could they fight the soldiers without any hesitation?
“Because they’re not complete morons, Kim. This isn’t Doral. That isn’t a civilian. They are soldiers and they will not hesitate to f**k you or your friends up. This war may not have been necessary, but this battle
is about survival. You can kill them and take someone’s special somebody, or they can kill you. Leaving your friends and family with one less person to give a damn about.”
Or I can be ambitious.Ghost was ready to retaliate when the two saw Storm Guard Omega’s nightstick make contact into Magdalena’s jaw and chest. Kimberly visibly flinched at the sight just as Ghost immediately ran straight for the soldier, yelling something about how “S&M was reserved for him and him alone” or something along those lines. Kimberly wasn’t quite sure what Ghost was thinking, but this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. He ran as fast as he could, passed Magdalena, towards Storm Guard Omega.
The holographic tab indicated that there was just enough health for Kimberly to knock the soldier unconscious without causing any life threatening damage. All he had to do was get to him first before---…
Storm Guard Omega’s body suddenly dropped to the ground right when Kimberly was a few feet away from him; Kimberly barely dodged the falling man. Neither Kimberly nor Ghost was sure what had just happened. The giant ---or even Magdalena--- was not close enough to do anything to him. Yet there he was on the ground, unmoving. The hologram flashed the numbers 232/230, before turning completely off. Kimberly’s ears could not hear anything from the dead soldier.
“Heads up Fuzzy!” Aaron said before he left his dumbfounded childhood friends.
“Huh.” Ghost simply said. “Well that was anticlimactic. Huh, Kim?” Ghost turned to Kimberly, “Kim?”
Kimberly stared down at the Nautilus soldier. The first human death Kimberly had witnessed in the context of war happened so out of the blue that his brain stopped working for a second. Then, a feeling of guilt rushed over him. He couldn’t and didn’t blame Aaron or Magdalena: they were doing what had to be done. In his head, he understood that. It was his heart that needed persuading.
Kimberly reached down---…
---… a hand touches [her]: a body that was once a person and was now nothing more than a pile of meat, bone, and organs.
In the dark bedroom, small hands touched [her], attempting to wake [her] up. When the owner of the hands realized [she] had left [her] body behind, they wondered why they had survived when [she] didn’t.
In the cold morgue, large hands caressed [her] face. The owner of the hands was convinced that this was how the world would treat them as long as they existed. Everyone they cared about was going to leave them behind.
In the middle of a burning town, red hands held [her] body close to the owner of the hands. The owner sobbed uncontrollably, begging for “this” not to be true.
His hands…---…hovered over the soldier’s body. Kimberly shook his head. This was not a good time for hallucinations. His trembling hands flipped the Storm Guard’s body and began to search for something. The task was temporarily suspended when Kimberly heard movement behind him. The giant jumped to his feet and turned around to see Magdalena. Kimberly felt his tensed muscles relax, “Maggie…” Kimberly’s quivering hand attempted to run its fingers through his hair, but only ended up bumping against his helmet he had forgotten he was wearing. He was only able to briefly thank Magdalena for saving him before he had to turn away from her. He doubted there was any point in turning away; she probably knew how much he was shaking. The raven-haired man knelt down once again to look for an ID on the corpse.
“You don’t need to put a name to an enemy. It’s just going to be harder for you. You might even…” Ghost narrowed his eyes when Kimberly found a family photo in one of the soldier’s breast pocket along with his dog tag. “Find things like that.” Part of him wanted to look away as soon as he identified what it was, but Kimberly forced himself to study the photograph. He finally tore his eyes away from the picture when Ghost called his name. The fight wasn’t over yet. Kimberly returned the photograph and dog tag in their proper place and placed the solder’s hands over his chest.
By the time Kimberly came back to the battlefield the Nautilus Mech was destroyed and Storm Guard Alpha had been defeated. Only three soldiers remained. Kimberly’s ears focused on Storm Guard Delta.
“Are you seriously going to do this again?”
As you said, I’m a complete moron. The sound spirits assisted Kimberly’s sneaking by muting every sound that he made. Stealthily, Kimberly maneuvered his way close to the unsuspecting and distracted Storm Guard Delta. Although he was fully aware that the spirits had made the noises he made non-existent, Kimberly couldn’t help, but hold his breath when he heard the soldier come closer to his hiding spot.
The instant Storm Guard Delta was close enough, the brunet sprang out from his hiding place and attempted to do a chokehold on the soldier. As anticipated, the Storm Guard’s struggles made it difficult to perform the move. The two men clumsily fought each other until Kimberly finally decided to change tactics. The giant’s arms moved away from the soldier’s upper body and wrapped themselves around his waist. “Don’t bite your tongue,” Kimberly warned before performing belly-to-back suplex. Kimberly quickly released Storm Guard Delta and mounted himself on top of the soldier to do an
arm triangle choke.
Kimberly was going to have to be careful. One wrong move and the Storm Guard was dead. He only needed the soldier to loose consciousness.
- Kimberly used sound spirit to hide the sounds he makes until he jumps Storm Guard Delta (SG-D) from behind
- Struggles with SG-D for awhile
- Kimberly performs a belly-to-back suplex on SG-D
- Kimberly performs an arm triangle choke on SG-D
- Note: Kimberly will continue to keep SG-D in an arm triangle choke until SG-D becomes unconscious or something happens for Kimberly to abandon the move. For the sake of the latter, I will allow anyone to have the enemy NPC attack Kimberly if necessary.
----- Norton City-----
Kimberly stared at the injured soldiers around them in silence. It was apparent that Norton City didn’t have enough medics. “Speak to them, hear their stories, encourage them,” the Gunnery Sergeant said, “it helps them more than you know.” Kimberly walked up to Olivia. “Olive… if… we’re not leaving soon… can…” the brunet hesitated for a moment, like a child asking his mother if he could do something that she would most likely disapprove of, “can… I heal the soldiers? T-they… ike… mi … t…” Kimberly’s voice volume lowered into inaudible levels around the end of his sentence.
TokyoPewPew
DWGJay
Infinite Cosmos
HylianRose
Mole
Tlazolteotl
Stryder BC
MaeB
Bork
Neziul
