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gretavanmoon · 8 days ago

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Valor - Troubadour

Pairing: Daniel x OC

Word Count: 13k

Warnings: Cursin', Smokin', Drinkin'. Angst: Mention of Struggle and Poverty, Mentions of Violence, Mentions of Weapons, Mentions of Murder and Death, Allusions to Shady Activities, Mention of Police, Concealing a Fugitive. Smut: Flirting, Kissing, Unprotected Sex.

Hey everyone! Thanks for being here! Was really missing the Valor world (what's new) and decided to satiate my needs with a little Danny spin-off. This story picks up just a few months after Chapter 14 ends and before the Epilogue, when Danny has decided to busk around the Midwest in search of fulfilling his musical heart and hitting the open road on his motorcycle. This Danny side-quest story will only be a few parts, but hope you enjoy the ride!

Big thanks to my bestie & cowriter @gretavangroupie for all the edits and wonderful idea inputs <333

Read Valor Ch. 14 here

Read the Epilogue here

TOPEKA, KANSAS

DANNY

“Cheapest bottled you got, please. From the back of the cooler,” I yell over the crowd as I pull off my hat, raking the back of my sleeve across my forehead to clear away the dripping sweat threatening to fall into my eyes. I’m tired and my voice is a barely-there rasp, but these past few weeks have had me flying on auto-pilot, running on fumes and the new high of performing on stage with a live band, just like I’ve always dreamed of doing. The bar we’re in tonight is crowded and full of loud-mouthed drunks, but honestly, I feel frighteningly right at home.

Glass beer signs line the walls and the pool tables are barely lit and in desperate need of some new bulbs. The faded green felt is tattered and torn, and the cues have seen better days. I can tell that every cent this place makes is not going to the upkeep of the building, that's for damn sure. The walls are dripping with nicotine and and the floors are sticky with spilled beer and god knows what else. Truly, feels just like Canaries, a place I thought I’d never see the likes of again.

The bartender furrows her brow at me as she turns toward the cooler, obviously thrown off by my odd request. As she slowly leans down, I can’t help but let my eyes rake over her backside, hardly covered by the ripped and cutoff Levi shorts hugging her hips and thighs. She pulls her hair to the side as she bends lower at the waist, reaching as far back as she can to get to the furthest beer. She’s bent completely in half, and I have to calm myself with a full breath of air to keep my thoughts from getting the best of me. It’s been a while, sue me.

I snicker to myself as I pop a few peanuts from the bar bowl into my mouth, satisfied that she fell right into my trap.

Oldest trick in the book.

Finally she pops up, returning shortly after with a frosty brown bottle in her hand. She unscrews the lid, tossing it against the wall at the end of the bar before it falls into the waiting trash can below it.

“Just realized why you asked for one from the back of the cooler. You think I’m some kinda sleaze, or somethin’?” she asks, leaning her elbows down on the bar with just enough force to squeeze her tits together. Her hand is still damp from handling the icy bottle, and I watch as she gently rakes her fingertips across her collarbone. Hm… I am no stranger to her type.

I lift the bottle to my waiting lips and take a long pull, never breaking eye contact with her. Finally I swallow, leaning onto my own elbows to meet her challenging gaze.

“Beer’s coldest back there. You think I want somethin’ warm after sweatin’ like a hog up there on stage all night?” I ask. “It’s goddamned hot in here.”

She scoffs and her eyes roll, standing back up straight as her expression tells me she is already over my shit. Still she looks at me, crossing her arms tightly across her chest, the faded words on her shirt barely legible anymore. “Just cause you play a little guitar don’t mean you can get whatever the hell ya want here,” she bites, her eyes now seething and sexy.

I growl a little beneath my breath, flashing her a glance of my teeth. “Well it fuckin’ worked, didn’t it? I gave you a show, only fair you give me a little one, too…” I reply audaciously.

“Fuck off, prick. ‘Fore I bar you,” she says, fighting back a smile.

I stand and smile too, pulling a few bucks from my back pocket to lay on the sticky bar top.

Her lips purse, “Band’s got a tab, you ain’t gotta pay now,” she explains, effectively ignoring the other patrons who are now nearly begging for the attention that she won’t stop giving to me.

I bite my bottom lip as I squint my eyes at her. “I don’t like owin’ people. I’ll pay as I drink,” I insist as I take another swig off the top of my beer. “Unless of course, my money’s no good here?”

I watch her snap back in surprise as the music from the house band begins to swell from the stage behind me. Her tongue pokes through her lips as she blows the bright pink gum in her mouth into a bubble, eyeing me as it inflates and pops, and she pulls it back between her teeth.

She slams her palm onto the money and swipes it from the bar top, spinning quickly as she heads to the cash register.

“Danny, my man! Kickin’ ass and takin’ names!” Suddenly I feel the harsh palm of my new band mate Shawn grip across my neck, shaking me from side to side. He’s drunk already, but that’s to be expected of a front man who would rather chug a fifth of warm Jack Daniel’s before a show than warm his vocals up during sound check. “Hell of a fuckin’ set. Who the hell taught you how to pick a guitar, huh? The devil himself?”

I smirk a little, unable and unwilling to tell Shawn that yes, the devil was definitely with me for all the years I sat quietly in my room with my guitar, drowning out all the noise around me with whatever sound I could get to come from the damned thing. My foster parents, Ace… the revving of Valor’s engine all the nights that Jake suffered trying to fix her.

“Just practice, I guess,” I yell back in his ear as he stumbles into me. “Practice and patience.” I’d never tell him the skill was born of necessity. He didn’t need to know that much.

“Well, m’glad we found you on the side of the road when we did. You got more talent in your baby toe than Rog had in his entire fuckin’ body, man,” Shawn slurs, his own cocktail splashing onto my shirt as he speaks. “I mean that.”

I give him a curt smile and nod as he disappears back into the crowd, an elongated arm and pointed finger trained on me as he falls away.

I couldn’t be more thankful for him and the other guys; they’d stumbled across me busking outside a little string of bars outside of Memphis right after we burned Ace’s down and I’d decided to hit the road on Ruby. I needed some space, I needed some freedom. And I needed the open fuckin’ road so badly I could hardly stand it. So that’s just what I did.

It was strange at first, being away from Jake and away from Joslyn after they were all I’d known for the majority of my life, but I knew deep down that if I didn’t go, if I didn’t leave, I’d get stuck right back where I’d started from in that goddamned town, running from the law and all the demons I’d decided to collect on the way.

I knew Jake needed Y/N, and they needed to start a life together in privacy. I didn’t fuckin’ like it, bouncing from cheap motel to cheap motel, but after some time, I got over myself and my needs and began to rely on the road, and the sound of my tires spinning across it. I grew to love the feeling of a guitar in my hand more than the feeling of a socket wrench. And I began to like the sound of a loud, cheering audience more than the sound of a tuned-up Mustang engine. I reckon part of that is due to Y/N’s encouragement, getting me over my own fear of performing.

But that ain’t to say that I didn’t miss mechanicin’ a little.

This band was full of miscreants just like myself, who had gathered together after realizing their talents and how much better they’d be if they meshed together. Their old guitarist, Rog was good, but he just didn’t have it in him, from what I understand. I didn’t want to settle down with a band, and honestly I’m still tossing around if it’s a good idea or not, but the money is alright. And sleeping in a shitty van beats sleeping under a tarp on a sidewalk or roach infested motel. Not that I am above that now.

“Cowboy, your change?” I hear the bartender’s voice interrupt my thoughts, pulling me back into the headspace of the crowd and the chaos.

“Nah, s’yours,” I reply to her, giving her a wink as she fights off another sweet smile, chomping on her gum again as she makes a point to give me a full up-down.

Cowboy. I don’t like that.

I’m far from a fuckin’ cowboy. Don’t think I’ve ever even mounted a horse in my life. I guess if I’m gonna continue to wear this cowboy hat, I’d better get used to the nickname.

And if she’s gonna keep lookin’ at me like that all night, I’ll let her call me whatever the hell she wants.

—

I drape the hat from a hook hanging on the motel room wall, making good on my new knowledge to never lay it down. I’d fallen asleep on a park bench one night a month or so ago with my guitar case open in front of me, and I’d woken up to the dirty old hat laying right in the center of it. Underneath it was the rip off the edge of a piece of receipt paper, some chicken scratch handwriting across the bottom of it: “Looks like you need this more than I do”, was all it read.

I didn’t bother cleaning it, or trying in earnest to return it to its rightful owner, because they were right. A hat in the heat of the Kansas sun was like a godsend. It’s a pale beige straw with a camel brown leather strip, and I have to admit, it fits me like a glove. I made a mental note that day to take it with me wherever I go, and to always be thankful to the nameless stranger who had left it for me. Though it’s not my style, I still wear it with pride.

“Hat looks good on you, Cowboy. Sure you don’t wanna leave it on?” She smiles from her place on the bed.

Yeah, I’d brought the bartender home with me, obviously, after we’d shared plenty of back-and-forth banter with one another between the few sets our band played tonight. She’d managed to get me pretty drunk after the last set, sliding me a double shot of whiskey on the house after I insisted on tipping her for every beer I’d ordered.

I’d splurged on a king-sized bed tonight, forgoing joining the rest of the guys exploring the little Kansas town we’d found ourselves in. And I’m glad I did. The bartender, Sherry, I’d learned, is sprawled out in a red lace getup, making herself comfortable on the scratchy brown felt blankets and over starched sheets. She’s definitely fuckin’ sexy, and she’s easy to talk to, and I knew I’d made the right decision for the night when she didn’t actually get mad at me for my advances on her at the bar. She seems like just my kinda lover.

I rip my t-shirt over my head and toss it onto the floor behind me before clicking off the lamp on the nightstand beside us. My mind is still swirling from the adrenaline of the crowd and the feeling of the music we make, and from the intoxication I’d put onto myself. Fuckin’ whiskey.

At the last second I change my mind, grabbing the hat from the hook before I crawl toward her on the bed, hand over knee as I place it directly on top of her head.

“Yeah, I’m sure, think it would look better on you, anyhow,” I say, pressing it down a little to make it fit snugly on her. She giggles, reaching up to tilt the brim of it back to get a better look at me in the dim light reflecting from the cracked bathroom door.

“You tryin’ to tell me somethin’, Cowboy?” she says, pushing me by the shoulders to lie back into the pillows. “Tryin’ to tell me what you want, tonight?”

She thrusts one of her legs over my waist, straddling me fully as she lets one hand drift across my ink-covered torso while the other readjusts the hat on her head. Fuck, she really is fine as hell. Has a different look to her than most of the women back in Joslyn. A little grittier, a little more confident in herself. My hands immediately grip her thick thighs as I lick my lips, glad she picked up on my insinuation.

“I’ll take whatever you wanna give me, baby…” I say as my hips buck up into her, her bright red nails digging with a little force into my chest. My eyes blur from my drunkenness, but I can feel my heart racing with anticipation for whatever the night is about to bring me. The TV behind her is blasting late night MTV videos, Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits, ZZ Top… the light casting the silhouette of her perfect figure right in front of my face. Her tits are sitting perfectly in the lace, and I find myself slipping quickly into the feral mindlessness of foreplay. I reach my hand up to free her breast from the confines, gripping her left cup to rip it down.

I feel my mouth salivating as her perfect nipple perks up, and I feel no shame in taking it all in my hand. “You’re fuckin’ gorgeous baby…” I praise her, my filter nearly completely gone. I squeeze at it a few times before sitting up to take her in my mouth, bringing my tongue harshly across her nipple. Her head dips back at the contact as she sits down a little harder on me, grinding her hips a little and looking for friction.

“Fuck, Cowboy, we’re really gonna get into this?” she asks, her hips already circling on my hardening dick.

I hum onto her, making her hiss between her teeth. “Mmmhm, unless you want me to take you back home…”

“No no, no…” she urges, shaking her head side to side as it falls back, and I free her other breast, taking it into my mouth as well. “I’m good here.”

Her nails dig into me a little bit more, showing me that if we want this night to keep going how it is, I need to get myself together. She huffs a loud breath as she sits back, unbuckling my leather belt as her hands start to hastily shake. Her head tilts down and she looks at me again under the brim of the cowboy hat, her bottom lip sucking in and out of her mouth.

“You need a hand?” I ask, offering my help with the belt and button. She nods a little, and we work together to pull my pants and underwear all the way off. My dick springs free as she drops my pants to the floor and I can hardly decipher the string of words and obscenities that fall from her gorgeous red lips. She leans down, and without any warning at all, takes me all the way into her mouth.

My head falls back in surprise as my hips act on their own, pressing themselves to get me deeper into her throat. “Oh, shit, Sherry baby…” My hands find hers, and I give them a tight squeeze to let her know that I’m okay with going forward. Not that I really had any say so, anyway. Her tongue glides across the length of my cock, already begging for more as she pays special attention to the tip. Her red lipstick makes for a sinful visual, even in the partial darkness.

The air in the room is already starting to heat, heavy with the smell of lust mixed with cigarettes and bad decisions. I thought maybe I’d change when I left Joslyn, and I did, in many ways. But goddamnit if I didn’t keep the same fuckin’ love for my vices. Cheap beer, rolled smokes, and women. All shapes and sizes, all makes and models, fuck. I’ll never fuckin’ grow up, and I’m not sorry for it. And now I’ve added a whole new love to my roster- playing the ever-loving fuck out of a guitar.

“You wanna look at me, or not?” Sherry breaks my train of thoughts after she pops her lips off the tip of my dick.

I take a deep breath, watching as her hand takes the place of her mouth, slowly and languidly gliding her grip up and down the length of it. “Whatcha mean, baby?”

She crawls up on me, placing one hand on either side of my head. She leans down, placing the tiniest peck on my lips. “Reverse, or…”

“Oh…” I breathe, my body begging for more of her touch, anything at all, anywhere. “Can I pick both?”

She laughs a true laugh, displaying a dimple in her cheek, crawling back down the bed and stepping off the end of it. Her thumbs hook in the side straps of her thong, and she slowly sways her hips from side to side, pulling it slowly down her legs. She shimmies free of it before turning around, bending at the waist as she gives me quite the show yet again, just like I’d tricked her into doing at the bar.

“Fuck… bring yourself over here…” I beg of her again, holding my two middle fingers up to beckon her. My entire body is writhing with want, and I can feel myself already teetering on the edge of pleading. She does as I ask, her bottom half completely uncovered now as she crawls up on me once again, before turning herself around backwards. Yes, baby.

She glances at me over her shoulder before taking me in her hand again, working me up to where she wants me. She uses the utmost care in making sure I’m there again. She’s still flawless in the blue light of the TV as “Every Breath You Take” by the Police pops on behind her.

“Ugh, god I hate this song,” she complains quietly, and I barely hear her over the sound of my own heartbeat in my ears. I’m too blissed out with the visual of her ass grinding against me to even register what she’d said.

“It’s so…whiney…” she complains again, her hand still working me. Her hand feels buttery soft against my cock, and I have to stop my stomach muscles from tightening in on themselves. God, I could already fuckin’ bust. “M’sorry Cowboy, I gotta turn this shit off. I can’t concentrate.”

“Damn, whatcha got against Sting?” I chuckle, a little miffed that she’s hopping off me to reach for the television knob. She twists it once, and I huff an aggravated breath as the news pops on.

It’s fuzzy and the picture is blurred, but I guess it appeases her more than the music did. She takes her position again as she grips my dick in her hand, leaning down just a little bit to take me in her mouth again. My hands knead at her ass as we pick right back up where we started from. My teeth are biting hard into my bottom lip, stifling the noise I want to let fly. “Goddamnit, Sher-“

Now, Sherry isn’t the first woman I’ve fallen victim to since leaving Joslyn, and she most definitely won’t be the last. Sometimes I think back on my time with Y/N, and how things had progressed so quickly with her before I got my head on straight and realized that I was moving in a direction my moral compass didn’t need to point. And when I realized my brother was madly in love with her.

Things had felt good with her during that time, and honestly, I thank her for it. Though we only spent a fraction of time together, she gave me a taste of what it felt like to truly care for someone in that regard, and she let me know that maybe my heart is big enough to love someone other than just Jake and Bubba. Watching her and Jake together taught me more than they ever even knew, showed me that with the right counterpart, even lungs full of cigarette smoke and hearts full of resentment can turn on a dime, and reciprocate a love they’d never even known before.

Love?

Nah, I never felt love for her. At least I don’t think I did. I did feel serious enough to want to change my life for her, that much was true. But thankfully I caught myself before I started to tumble. She helped me learn that I am capable of doing it, I can be that man for the right woman, if and when the time comes.

But that time isn’t now, and that woman isn’t Sherry.

“Fuck me, baby… god yes…” I groan into the thick air as Sherry finally sits all the way down on me, taking me fully inside her with one swift motion. I huff a fast breath through my gritted teeth, sitting up a little to get a better view of her. I grip her hips as she starts to rise up and down, getting a rhythm together as she starts to bounce.

Her hands move from in front of her on the bed, and one reaches back and grips her left ass cheek while the other holds on tight to my hat on her head. She feels like fucking heaven, silky sweet and velvety as she switches between backward thrusts. “How’s that, Cowboy? Feel good, baby?” she asks, her voice breathy as I watch her ass bounce against my thighs. She twists her head around to look at me with an eyebrow perked as she awaits my answer.

“Yeah… fuckin’ tight, baby, s’ perfect…” I could say more, but she switches herself up and hops to balance on just her feet, giving herself more space to ride me. She balances perfectly without the help of her hands, and somehow, the sight of her fucking just the tip makes me want to let it all go right there. Her wetness is dripping down on me, and it takes everything in me not to grab her hips and pull her all the way down again. But the show is just too damn good. I’m impressed, I really am, and I wonder if she does this with every victim at the bar that she flirts her way home with.

Ah, who gives a fuck. I’m her choice for the night just as she is mine.

This view has me throbbing inside her, and for a second I don’t know what to do with my hands. She starts slowly swirling her hips, her hands balanced on her knees as she works me to near perfection. “You’re gorgeous baby, keep it right there…” I groan, my entire body starting to burn with need. I bring my open palm across her ass, eliciting a high pitched squeal from her, followed by a devious laugh. Somehow, I knew she would like that and the visual of my red handprint on her skin pushes me even further.

I grab her hips and pull her down onto me, and I swear she feels even better than she did before. She falls back down to her knees into the position she was in before, still gyrating back onto me. I move my legs and sit up on my own knees, pressing a hand to her back as she leans down to all fours. I press deeper into her now, nearing myself closer and closer to the edge with this new angle. I feel rabid now, wanting to have all of her that I can in what I know will be this short span of time.

“Ssss, fuck…” she grits, her voice a near whine now as I begin pounding into her ruthlessly. Her walls are fluttering around me violently, and I realize now that I never even told her my name.

“Yes… yes…” She arches her back as she bucks her ass onto me, spreading her knees apart on the bed below and pressing her face into the mattress. “Harder, Cowboy, please…”

The hat is still hanging on for dear life as the room around me loses its shape, and all I can think about is the vicious sound of our bodies smacking together. I’m sure the neighbors are enjoying the sound of the headboard rattling against the wall, but I truly couldn’t care less. I’m trying to be careful not to leave bruises on her hip bones, but given the way the night has gone, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, anyway.

Without warning, I feel her hand reach between her own legs, gripping my balls firmly in her hand, and giving them a few tight squeezes. The sensation has me mindblown and my knees weaken, like she knows exactly where my weakest spot is without me even telling her.

“Fuck, you’re a dirty little thing, aren’t you?” I ask, my hips moving at an ungodly pace as she continues to squeeze. I’m not sure if she wants me to cum faster, or if she really just wants to give me a show. For this to be the first night the two of us have met, she’s really uncaring of any of her manners.

“Mmhm…” her breath is heavy, pitiful and wanting as I continue my relentlessness. “Just want you to feel…good, baby…” she whines through the thick blankets on the bed. Her hands are gripped tightly into them now, as she holds herself in this position.

I take a fistful of her hair in my hand tightly at the root, and pull her up to me. My sweat-covered chest is pressed against her back, and I grab one of her tits with my free hand. I stay buried deep inside her, and I can feel both our pulses raging through us as we catch our breath. “Sexy, Sherry…” I breathe into her ear. Her hips start looking for friction, and she begins grinding them back onto my cock again, slow and ragged as I know she’s getting near the finish line.

She falls onto her hands again and I feel us both begin to reach that point, and the muscles in our bodies start to shake and tremble. My eyes blur over as I wait to hear the sweet noises fall from her lips, but instead I’m met with another sound.

“Cowboy…” she says, her voice stern. But I barely hear her as I concentrate on my own pleasure. “Cowboy!” she repeats even louder, but I continue to drown her out, not letting up on pounding into her.

“DANIEL?” she yells, quickly pulling herself away from me and hopping across the hotel room.

“What, what? What’s wrong Sherry?” I ask, suddenly surprised and confused. She rips a sheet from the bed and covers herself with it, and I notice that her eyes are blown out with fear. She cowers in the corner as her eyes dart back and forth, searching for her clothes. I’m completely confused, and a little blindsided as my body tries to figure out what it should be doing.

“You– I, it’s you!” She points to the TV as the picture flashes across the screen. All I see is the face of a news anchorman, reading something off the papers in his hands.

I stand from the bed and walk closer to it, watching as he continues to read. “Sher, it’s just the news, what do you–”

“Get away from me!” she cries, stepping back harshly into the wall. “Don’t touch me!” She suddenly seems as if she is a trapped animal, searching for her escape.

I instinctively walk toward her. “Sherry, what in the world?! I’m sorry if I–”

“Stop! Don’t come any closer! You fucking liar!” Her eyes are wide and terrified as she looks at the television again, and I’m nearly frozen in place as I try to piece together the past few seconds. I look from her to the TV again, and the picture is staticy and fuzzy. I back away from her and adjust the antenna, watching as the picture clears a bit. I turn up the volume and listen to the anchorman speak. I feel my legs hit the back of the bed and I sit down harshly, waiting to see what in the fuck Sherry saw for myself.

“Authorities are asking for the public’s assistance in locating these men, as they are believed to be armed and likely dangerous. It is positively believed that they are directly responsible for the death of a man in Joslyn, Missouri, by means of murder by arson. Both men fled the town shortly after the incident, and are believed to be living separately, or traveling on the run.” My hand shoots to my mouth as I watch in complete terror as a sketch of mine and Jake’s faces cover the TV screen. “Authorities are just now building a solid case, and need your help in finding these men. If you have any information regarding their whereabouts, please call the telephone number at the bottom of your screen.”

I feel the blood drain from my body as I take the first breath I have in nearly a minute, and I feel myself going into a state of shock.

What… the fuck…

I feel Sherry’s body rush toward me as she drops the sheet that was covering her to pick up the clothing she had strewn across the dingy carpeted floor. “I gotta get out of here…” she rushes, her hands shaking.

“Sherry, listen to me. I can explain-”

“Explain? Explain what?! That you’re a murderer?!” she screams, and I watch as fearful tears begin to well in her eyes. She hastily pulls her shirt over her head and I listen to her breathing pick up as she tries to calm herself.

“I’m not a murderer, Sherry! Listen to me! I swear you have no reason to be afraid of me…I–I just let me talk, please…” I beg her, my voice rising with the temperature of my skin.

“Stop. Shut up. I’m getting away from you, and I’m callin’ the police,” she says through a completely shaken voice as she steps back into her shorts. I can tell she is in complete self-protection mode.

What in the fuck is going on? How did this happen?

My heart rate starts to rise as everything hits me… the sketch of my face on the screen, Jake’s face… armed and dangerous, wanted for murder by arson… My head is spinning with confusion, with worry, with the sudden want to run, myself. I think about Jake, and about Y/N, and how I haven’t spoken to them in a few days. Do they know? Where is Bubba, are he and Geraldine okay?

It’s then that I realize I can’t let Sherry go, I can’t let her call.

“Sherry, stop. Can you just listen to me for a second?” I ask again, grabbing her by the shoulders with as little force as possible. She tries to pry herself away, so I switch gears, knowing that if she isn’t going to listen, I have to use another tactic. “You do not need to get into this, this goes a lot deeper than it looks on the surface, Sherry. Please. I’m not a monster. I swear to god, I’m not.”

“You expect me to fuckin’ believe you? You never even told me your fuckin’ name! Daniel, is that even it?” she cries, the tears flowing down her face.

“Yes! Yes, that is my real name. That much is true. And the other man, that’s my brother. His name is Jacob. Jake,” I explain, trying to throw sincerity into my already panicked voice. I adjust her shirt that she had pulled back over her head, straightening the fabric to cover her more. “We are from Joslyn, Missouri. And… And-”

“And you fucking killed a man!” she yells, ripping herself from my hold. “You’re insane! Are you a serial killer? Because if you are, I swear to god that you won’t leave this goddamned town in one fuckin’ piece, do you understand me?” she threatens, catching her breath. “I’ve got friends, Cowboy, friends in low fuckin’ places who would walk to the ends of the earth for me. I wouldn’t test my fuckin’ luck. All it would take is one call, and you’d be a dead man, yourself.”

I watch as she swallows, suddenly feeling a bit brave as the sexual mindset completely leaves us both.

“I don’t doubt it, Sherry. I don’t doubt that one bit.” I swallow down my panic and sit back down, trying to diffuse the situation as best as I can. In a split second, I bargain whether or not I should tell her the whole story, the whole truth, but I know that would leave her with more questions that I fear she simply won’t care to have answered, as scared as she is. I want to be honest with her, I really do. But I also want to seem as clueless as I can so as not to make things worse. “I’m not a serial killer. I swear to god. I may look rough around the edges, and barely have a penny to my name, but I’m no killer, Sher. Swear on my life.”

She’s clutching her purse in her arms, hugging into herself with her worried facial expression tight as she takes my words into consideration. She’s listening to me…

“Back at home, my brother Jake and I were into some deep shit, some shit we didn’t want to have anything to do with, but we had no choice. Had been years upon years of never ending cycles of threats and manipulation. We had nothing, we were nothing. We weren’t saints, but we were good, honest, working men. Just tryin’ our best to survive, ya know? We uh… we were being threatened, our lives were being threatened… our home. The people we loved…” I rub a hand across my face as all the memories of just a few months ago come rushing back to my mind. Bubba, Josh… and Sam…

“It was going to end badly. It was going to be deadly in ways that we couldn’t even fathom. Along with innocent people who loved us getting caught up in it, too. These men were monsters, liars and cheats. Gave a damn for no one but themselves. So we got some help. We got some help from our own friends in low places, Sher, and they helped us to make moves to end it, get us out of the situation. And it uh… It just so happened that the man who was threatening us, the man who wanted us dead, got caught in the crossfire. He came to kill us, but ended up killing himself, instead.” I know it’s not the entire truth, and there are details that I could go on about for days, but for now, this explanation will have to do. I have to make sure she sees my side of the story. If not, it’s handcuffs.

I feel bile rising in my throat from even disclosing this much. She shouldn’t even know that much of the story. I could have lied, I should have lied… but for some reason something deep inside me stops me from it. I’ve never been a liar in my life and I won't start now.

Sherry’s body is shaking with adrenaline, or maybe even fear, but she’s calm. “Why you tellin’ me this, Cowboy?” she whispers, pulling out a box of cigarettes from her purse. She plucks one out and lights the end, taking a long drag. Her hand shakes as her thumb and ring finger balance on her cheek, the smoke billowing around her face.

I swallow. “Because, it’s the truth. Last thing I’m gonna do is lie to you. Don’t have any reason to.”

She takes another long puff, and I find myself envying the nicotine. “Why ain’t you lyin’ to me? You don’t even know me…”

I shake my head, pulling the sheet back over my exposed lower half. “I’ve never been one to lie. Never really got me anywhere but in trouble, anyway. I ain’t got a perfect past, Sherry, that’s the honest truth. But I’m not running from my demons, I’m running from a past that I don’t want followin’ me.”

She brings her lips into her mouth, taking another few puffs of her cigarette. I say a prayer that she’s considering my plea. It feels like hours that I stare at her just standing there, her eyes floating around the room before her cigarette is nothing but a filter. She moves to the nightstand, putting out the butt in the ashtray by the phone. She turns her back to me and blows the last puff of smoke into the air before her hand scratches the back of her head.

“I ain’t gonna call the cops,” she admits quietly.

I stand quickly and go to her, stopping myself from taking her in a full embrace. “Fuck, thank you thank you, Sherry. Really, I– Thank you.”

“You’ve got one hour. Get your shit, and get the fuck out of here,” she warns, crossing her arms again. “If I see you here still, it’s straight to the police. And don’t ever come back to this town, do you understand?”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. I won’t,” I promise as I begin working to collect my few things from the floor. She stands and watches me as I pack, and I know that she’s fighting the urge to go back on her word as her eyes move from me, to the phone, to the door, and back again. This is taking a lot from her.

I finally have my few items shoved into my bag, and I realize that reality is once again hitting me right across the fucking face. I sit on the edge of the bed and pat the blankets, inviting Sherry to come and sit by me. She does, slowly, and with the utmost caution.

“Why you helpin’ me?” I ask quietly.

“Cause,” she chokes, pulling her tongue to the side of her cheek. “Feel like you’d’a done the same for me. I’ve been where you are, Cowboy. Maybe not for arson, maybe not for murder, but I’ve been there.”

I nod in understanding, extremely thankful understanding.

“And I don’t feel like you’re tellin’ me the whole story. Sounds like you and your brother have some skeletons in your closet. And I ain’t no judge, and I ain’t God. Who am I to decide what your reasonin’ was?”

I take a deep breath, suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for her words. I take her hand in mine, bringing it to my lips to kiss over and over. “I need you to understand that it was life or death for us. Was us or him. The cards we were dealt just happened to fall that way. We did nothin’ in cold blood, Sherry. Please believe me.”

She finally looks me in the eyes for the first time in a while. “I believe you, Daniel. I don’t fuckin’ know why, but I do. God, I’m insane for doin’ this…”

“You might be, Sher, but that’s why you and I were drawn to each other, I think,” I try to lighten the mood, and she gives me a half smile.

“Still don’t like you,” she groans, giving me a lethal side eye.

I stand and wipe my hands across my thighs. “You must like me some…” I lean down to her, letting my nose graze across hers. To my surprise, she doesn’t pull away. I hear her breath hitch as I watch her reason with herself on deciding to let me, or slap me.

When she doesn’t pull away, I lick my bottom lip, gently brushing it across hers as her eyes flutter closed. My heart rate rises again as my body reacts, suddenly pulled right back into where we had just left off minutes ago. I must be fuckin’ sick in the head.

“Fuckin’ vagabond,” she whispers, her breath hot across my lips. “Criminal…”

I laugh against her. “I ain’t none of them things, baby. Troubadour, maybe…”

I let my lips crash onto hers again, pissed at myself for being this way. Why am I this way? I need to run…I need to call Jake.

But she kisses me back, her hand immediately flying to the back of my head to pull me in closer. God, she’s just as fucked up as I am.

It’s heated and messy again as I push her back onto the bed, her nails already digging into my back as we writhe together. She moans into my mouth as I press my groin into her, making sure I’m in just the right spot. We lie like this for a few minutes, both of us knowing we’re soaking up the last bits of each other that we’re going to get.

“I ain’t lettin’ you fuck me again, Cowboy. This is just a goodbye kiss…” she breathes, her teeth nipping at my stubbled jawline.

“You sure?” I ask as my eyes roll back. “I never got to hear you come for me…”

She laughs a guttural cry, shaking her head as she scoffs at me. “And you won’t. Not right now, at least.”

I grind between her legs again. “Thought you told me to never come back to this town?” I ask cheekily.

I pull away, looking her in the eye as she takes a quick breath to speak. “People saw me leave with you. Same people who are watchin’ the news, right now. They will recognize you. They’ll be breathin’ down my neck with interrogation on your whereabouts before the sun rises. I was a drifter once, too. Looks like I’ll just have to go back to my old ways…”

“Run with me, Sherry,” I ask before my mind can even process the thought.

“Nah, that’s not part of the deal.” She pats my chest with her hands, signaling me to get off of her. So I stand, understanding that our time together has come to a close, and I need to make a fuckin’ break for it. “Shame, though. You’re some of the best dick that’s come through this town in a while.”

I can’t help but laugh at her as she stands from the bed along with me. “Thanks, I think.”

“Get the hell out of here, Cowboy. Go. Don’t talk to nobody, and keep your head down. Head East and don’t fuckin’ look back, ok? There’s a fueling station about twenty-five miles outside of town on Route 40. Red pumps. Stop there, they don’t think twice about drifters. Call your brother from there. Let him know you’re comin’.”

“How’re you so good at this?” I ask her, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

She sucks her teeth as she fixes her hair and residual lipstick in the motel mirror. “Told you I was a drifter once, too. Some things are just in your blood, ya know?” She turns to me, craning her neck up as we prepare to say an actual goodbye.

“Can I give you somethin’ to remember me by?” I ask, holding my cowboy hat out to offer to her.

She shakes her head, taking it from my hand and placing it back on top of my curls. “No, you’re gonna need it. It’s gotten you this far…” She adjusts it on my head, brushing a few stray hairs away from my face, in an act of pure softness. “Actually, wait,” she says, brushing past me to open her purse sitting on the table. A few seconds later, she emerges with a brand new Polaroid camera in her hands. “How about a photo to remember you by?”

I second guess it, not really wanting a perfect stranger to have her own photograph of me, but Sherry has shown me more mercy than I deserve tonight, and a photo is the least I could do.

“Sure, why not,” I agree, adjusting the hat on my head once again.

“Here, put these on,” she suggests, handing me my aviator sunglasses that were by her bag on the table. I oblige, feeling a little out of place, but going along with it all anyway. She pulls the camera up to her eye and positions her finger over the button, making sure I’m in the frame. “Smile for me, baby…”

I know my cheeks blush at her words, but she snaps the photo before I have the chance to make myself look ready for it.

“Hope I didn’t break your lens,” I joke.

“Nah, it’ll be perfect. Thanks.” Her smile sends butterflies through my stomach for the third time tonight, and if things were different, I might have asked Sherry to come on the road with me for real. But I know that the issues I’m running from are bigger than anything she needs to be involved with, right now. Maybe I’ll see her again some other time, in some other smoky bar.

I grab her chin between my fingers, laying a sweet kiss to her lips. “I’ll see you around, Sherry. Thank you. Be safe out there.”

She gives me a sweet wink as she sniffs a quick tear away. “Back at ya, Cowboy.”

—

“Come on… please pick up… pick up…” I whisper into the payphone as I try to will Jake to answer on the other end. The last we spoke was about six days ago, and he and Y/N had been traveling around scoping out places to live. They’d settled in a little apartment just outside of Memphis, where I had originally planned on busking around to make some cash. I liked it there, but the winds of change kept me rolling down the road to a new nowhere.

I’d ridden into this tiny slice of highway with only my guitar on my back and my bag hooked to Ruby, and I silently thank her for carrying me this far on my journey. The guys in the band had let me put her in the cramped equipment trailer that they had luckily left unlocked when I left the motel. Careless sons of bitches, I could have easily stolen anything I wanted.

I hated leaving them without any word, but they’ll most likely see the news, and be glad that I decided to run away, anyway.

“Hello?” a gravelly voice answers.

“Jake, hey, did I wake you?” I yell anxiously into the payphone at the gas station Sherry had told me about. She had been right, the attendant never even looked at my face as I threw my gas money onto the counter.

“Yeah, it’s fuckin 4AM, what’s wrong?” he replies, his voice thick and full of sleep. “Are you OK?”

Fuck. Of course he hasn’t seen the news.

“Ah, no not really… are you uh. Are you with Y/N?” I ask, running my fingers through my hair as I peek around the corner to make sure Ruby is still sitting where I parked her.

I can hear him rustling on the other end of the line, finally getting his bearings. “Yeah, she’s right here, why? What’s goin’ on?”

I clear my throat nervously, “Turn on the news. Local, maybe.”

I hear him rustling around again as he pulls himself out of bed, taking a deep, shaky breath as he wakes Y/N. “Danny, I don’t like that you’re not fuckin’ tellin’ me what’s going on.”

“Just go,” I urge him, my head on a swivel.

There’s a pause before I hear him move around and switch the television on. “You’re lucky, we just got this fuckin’ TV yesterday… Hardly know how to work the damn thing yet.” he complains.

“Just–” I bite my tongue, waiting for him to see what he will inevitably see flash across the screen very soon. There’s a pause again and I hear the faint sound of Y/N’s voice beside him.

“Oh my fuckin’ god,” he says blankly. “Oh… oh, fuck. What–”

“Just listen to it,” I say quietly, letting him listen to the whole news story.

“That’s our fucking faces, Daniel.”

“I know. I know it is,” I begin to pace as far as the short payphone cord will let me. “What the fuck are we gonna do?”

I hear Y/N’s worried voice again. “Jake, what… they can’t do this…”

“It’s gonna be okay, baby” he reassures her, but I can hear the doubt in his voice. “Danny, where are you?”

I clear my throat again, getting my head back on straight. “Uh, just outside of Topeka. ‘Bout 25 miles. I’m headed your way.”

“Do you know my new address?” he asks, overtop of more rustling and heavy breathing.

“Yeah,” I reply, “got it memorized.”

“Well forget it. We’re going somewhere else. We can’t be here,” he says angrily.

“Jake, but, you just–”

“Y/N, do you remember Oz’s address? Lucienda’s?” I hear him ask her, and I immediately agree that going to them might be our best shot, even though Oz is most likely still serving his time for the last circus we got ourselves into.

“Yeah, I think so…” I hear her reply. “But Jake, we can’t just leave…”

I hear subtle aggravation in his tone, but he manages to keep it at bay. “I paid ahead three months’ rent, Y/N. We’re just… gonna leave for a while.”

“Jake what the fuck are we gonna do? Turn ourselves in?” I press.

“I–I don’t know yet. No, we just play dumb for now. We need to get to Lucienda. Talk to her. She’ll be able to protect us for a while, she’ll know what to do,” he says.

“I’ve got my fuckin’ bike, Jake. I won’t be able to make it anywhere fast, especially not to fuckin’ Miami,” I say, suddenly a little panicked again. I pull my tin of smokes from my pocket and light the end of one. The rush of nicotine instantly fills my lungs and calms me. Well, enough for now.

“I know you can’t,” he says, taking a breath. “We need to go back to Joslyn first.”

“Joslyn?” I practically yell into the phone. Quickly looking around. “Are you fuckin’ crazy?! That’s the last place we need to go, Jake!”

But in the back of my mind, I know he’s right. We don’t have to show our faces, just a quick in and out to hide my bike and grab the last bit of cash we ended up hiding back in Ace’s safety deposit box for emergencies. And, we have to make sure Bubba is safe. With this new surge of information, god knows whether or not Teddy’s guys have gone after him yet, looking for some type of vengeance.

“You know I’m right…” he says quietly. “How long has it been since you’ve talked to Bubba?”

I swallow, taking another drag. “Week and a half. Maybe two.” I hadn’t been traveling with the band very long, but I know that I had told Bubba of the good news of them hiring me on, so it was around the same time. The last we talked, he claimed he was safe and sound.

“Same here,” Jake says, taking a long pause as he thinks. “Get to Joslyn, stay quiet. We’ll meet at the old house by the creek. Nobody even knows that place is there anymore. It’s our best bet.”

“Okay,” I agree, nodding my head. “You gonna call Bub? Or do you want me to?”

“I’ll call the diner. Tell Geraldine everything. She’ll tell the truth, Bubba will sugarcoat if there’s anyone fuckin’ with him.”

“True,” I agree, exhaling again. “We can’t get on a fuckin’ plane, Jake. Someone will recognize us. It’ll take us days to travel to Miami and we need to get there fast.” My mind suddenly starts to spin with all the different plans of action. None of them seem like the right one. Traveling to Miami seems like too much land to cover, but staying in Joslyn doesn’t feel right, either.

“Then what the fuck do you suggest we do?!” he exclaims. “We ain’t got a fuckin’ home, anymore, Daniel.” I can tell he whispers that last bit into the phone.

“I’ll meet you at the creek. We’ll make a plan from there.” I stomp my cigarette out onto the cracked pavement, my skin beginning to sweat with nerves as I glance around again.

“Okay,” he says again through a huff of grievance.

“Bub’s okay, right Jake? He’s alright?” my voice feels hollow as the words fall.

I can hear Jake exhale on the other end, the same rush of worry flowing through him as it runs through me. “Yeah, he’s alright. And if he’s not… If they’ve touched him again…” He’s quiet for a second, and I can almost hear his teeth gritting together. I know that the exact same thought is running through both of our minds. I haven’t seen Jake mad in a really long time, but I know it wouldn’t take much for him to snap back into his old ways, especially when it comes to Bubba.

“I’ll see you at the creek,” I say with conviction, and I hang up the phone, wholly not ready for this journey.

—

Well, here I am. Joslyn. Dirty and run down as ever, quiet but loud at the same time. A once bustling town rich with life and aspiring men looking to provide for their families now a mess of cracked sidewalks and sunken rooftops. Failed and closed storefronts, abandoned homes… the list goes on. This place is never gonna fuckin’ change.

It’s been a long two days’ travel coming back here, and I halfway regret not renting a vehicle to be a little more inconspicuous coming back into town. But, an unknown car rolling through Main Street might set people off all the same.

My stomach churns with old nerves coming back to the surface again, old habits and muscle memory making me feel like my head is already on a swivel again. It’s nearing 8PM as I roll into town, so I’m careful not to hit the throttle on my bike any more than just a light idle. The last thing I need is someone hearing me and suspecting I may be back.

As the late evening sun begins to disappear from the sky, I pass by Wanda’s motel, still just as shitty and run-down as it was. Teddy’s dry cleaning building, now looking either half-alive or closed completely since he’s not around to make it look like an actual fake business now. The bank, the countless churches… and the grocery store.

The grocery store.

I grit my teeth as I realize that Jake, Y/N and I will need supplies and food if we’re going to be hiding out in the old cabin for a few days. I hope to god his ass thought to bring blankets and pillows, and hopefully some food. I wonder if they’ve beat me here. I have no way of knowing, besides going all the way there first to check, but then if I don’t stop, I risk spending a whole night without food or water. Or whiskey.

I quietly pull my bike into the back parking lot of the store, parking it alongside the building behind the ice cooler. My hands are already shaking, I have to admit, and as I pull the kickstand down, my eyes dash quickly to my sides to ensure no one has followed me. Just a few stray bodies here and there coming in to grab a TV dinner before retreating back to the trailer park to finish off a six-pack. The coast is seemingly clear.

I pull a cigarette from my tin and stretch my legs, hyping myself up to go into this grocery store where nearly everyone knows my face. Or, knew my face. After a minute or two, my boot extinguishes the butt of my smoke and I take a deep breath, the finally-cooling Autumn air filling my lungs and bringing me back down to earth a bit. I grab the cowboy hat from my pack and place it diligently on my head, tucking my hair up underneath it to conceal another one of my identifying factors. I pull out my wallet to make sure I still have enough cash for some food, at least, and I step in through the glass doors.

It looks and smells exactly the same, musty cardboard mixed with the faint scent of a floor cleaner, with the fluorescent lights overhead barely providing enough light to brighten the poorly stocked aisles. I don’t know why I expected it to be any different, we’ve only been gone a few months, though it feels like an eternity.

I put my head down and make a mad dash down the first aisle, luckily remembering the place like the back of my hand. I grab a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a box of saltines, tossing them into a shopping basket I’d found abandoned in the aisle. “What else, what else…” I whisper to myself, ignoring the eyes of each and every person I walk by. My heart is thrumming in my chest as I pace up and down the aisles, throwing a few more cheap yet necessary items into the basket.

When I’ve finally gotten it full, I race to the checkout line, but not before stopping and grabbing a half-pint of Early Times, a box of matches, and a bag of cut tobacco. I place my basket onto the checkout counter, keeping my head down still as I realize the clerk is someone who knows me well. Knows me very well.

“You 18, kid? Can’t sell you this if not…” he says, his voice still just as crackled and raspy as the day I met him. He stands the whiskey bottle up on its base as I swallow my nerves down, one by one. He cranes his neck to look at me from underneath the bill of my hat.

“Kid, hey, you got any ID on ya?” he asks again, his wrinkled hands the only thing I can focus on. Fuck. He sees my ID, he recognizes me. Recognizes me as the murderer on the loose, in the very town he ran from. My heart is pounding, how had I not thought of this? He’s never ID’d me before, but then again, he knew me. He snaps his fingers when he realizes I’m not meeting his eyes or answering him.

I peek up gently, thankful that I’d decided to leave my sunglasses on at the last minute. “Ah, ya know, left it at home, I think. Had a long day. I don’t need the bottle,” I say, trying like hell to conceal my voice, yet keep my local accent. I push it to the side as I pull my wallet out and prepare to pay for the rest.

“Shit,” he says under his breath. He scans the whiskey and slides it into a paper bag, slipping it in beside the rest of my items before hitting the total button on his register. “Ain’t no thing. Can tell ya hands is dirty, can’t deny a workin’ man his vices,” he grits quietly. “That’ll be $19.70,” he says a little louder now, and I feel a relief lift from my shoulders, all the sound coming back into my ears now that my heart rate isn’t flying.

I can finally hear the muffled music coming over the speakers in the ceiling, along with the beeps of the checkout lines beside me. I pull a twenty from my wallet and graciously place it in the man’s hand. It’s funny, all the years I’ve been coming to this place, and I never learned this man’s name. He doesn’t even wear a nametag.

“Appreciate that, old timer. Saved me a night of sittin’ with my troubles,” I reply, avoiding his eyes again as he hands me my change.

“Don’t we all need that,” he grumbles as he hands me my bags. “Ya know, I don’t recognize you. You from ‘round here?”

Goddamnit, goddamnit. Think.

“Uh, yeah. From up on Bolter Street. Been gone awhile, moved back to take care of my folks,” I say, clearing my throat. I used to live on Bolter Street, many many moons ago. That part isn’t a lie.

“Hmph,” he grunts, pulling a toothpick between his lips as he squints at me. “Not a lot of folk live on Bolter much anymore. Street kinda died with the town.” I can tell his tone is interrogatory, and I feel the sweat beginning to pool on my forehead. Get it together, Daniel.

“S’why they called on me.” I nod and give him a curt smile as I begin to back away. “Have a good evenin’, sir.”

I grab the bags and tip the brim of my hat, making my way back out of the store and into the fresh air. “Fuck,” I breathe as I reach my bike. That was fuckin’ close. If it was that hard to get groceries, how in the hell are we going to do literally anything else?

I cram the bags into my side packs, uncaring if I smash the bread or not. I’m anxious, and desperately in need of a damned drink. I wish like hell I could go to Canaries’ for a beer, but who knows what state that hellhole is even in, anymore. Or if the clientele is even the same. Shit, that place used to be a haven for people like us, until it wasn’t. Until Teddy and his crew turned it into a place where you had to look over your shoulder every other second, or else you risked a cue stick across your back if you said a sly word.

I need to make my escape, and I need to make it fast.

I kick the stand on my bike and pull the key from my pocket, sticking it into the ignition and turning it over a few times before she starts. I plan to take as many back streets as I can to avoid going straight through town again, but that’s not as easy as it looks. Passing by the diner is going to be necessary.

A minute or so later, I’m cruising by Louie’s Diner, the parking lot only holding two or three vehicles as opposed to the normal ten or twenty. Strange, I think to myself, and I slow down and peer in the windows a little more closely. There behind the counter is Geraldine, looking worse for wear than I had seen her in a very long time. Maybe ever, actually. My heart falls as I realize she looks nothing like herself. Her hair isn’t fixed, and her nails aren’t painted their normal bright, red color.

I quickly glance to the end of the bar where Bubba normally sits, finding the chair to be empty. Again, my stomach falls at the realization that he isn’t there, waiting with Geraldine to finish up her dinner shift like he normally is.

Shaking my head, I concentrate my attention back onto the road in front of me as the abandoned houses begin to turn back into the forest, and the two-lane turns back into one. I snap my headlight on as I rack my brain, trying to think of where Bubba could be, if he is okay, and why Geraldine looks so down. My stomach churns with nerves at the possibilities, but I hold out hope that maybe he had just gone home for the night, and Geraldine is just tired.

I cruise down the winding road toward the creek, trying like hell to breathe in the fresh air to calm me. I pray I don’t pass any police cars, or anyone who would recognize my bike. But as the asphalt turns to more of a rocky concrete beneath my tires, I begin to feel a little relief. Man, I could really use a fuckin’ smoke.

I cross over the bridge and turn onto the dirt road, the same one that Jake, Ace, Bubba and I had used so many times to get to our special spot on the creek. Darkness has fallen now, and I find myself feeling a little nostalgic at the scenery. For the first time in months, I see things that I could recognize even in complete darkness, I take curves that I could turn blindfolded, and I begin to smell the scent of the murky water and mossy trees that line the creek. No matter how much I hated it, no matter how badly I wanted to run away, this will always be home. Joslyn will always be a place that lives in my heart, no matter how dusted and horrible the time I spent here was.

I make another right turn, watching for any other vehicles to be parked and out for one last late-night fishing pole cast before the weather starts to break. When I find our spots to be empty, I gain yet another feeling of relief. The gravel turns into thick bedrock, and I use caution as I navigate Ruby down, all the way to the bridge by the swimming hole.

I park the bike at the foot of the hillside and stand, remembering that I have a spare flashlight in my pack, equipped with brand new batteries. I dig it out and turn it on, slowly panning around to take in my surroundings again. It still looks just the same as it always did, the large leaf-covered trees leaning over the water to provide almost a storybook-like scene. But this town is anything but a storybook. The frogs and crickets know that their time is almost up, and their songs have begun to slow and their tones have become deep. Again, my nostalgia almost knocks me over.

I push my bike over to a cluster of trees, lodging it between a few trunks out of sight of the road. I bite the flashlight between my teeth and begin pulling my bags and necessities from my side packs. My guitar suddenly feels like a burden, when for months all it was was an object of comfort. Now, it feels like something that might weigh me down the further along I go on this journey. Either way, I throw the makeshift rope case strap over my shoulder and begin lugging my things across the old bridge, straight toward the cabin.

As I trudge through the thick mud, thankful for my high boots, the beam of my flashlight catches something reflective down the creek a bit, and I nearly drop all the bags in my hands. “Shit,” I gasp, gripping my hands onto everything more tightly. I glance over, realizing that my light had bounced off a tail light. I walk a little closer and shine the light more directly, seeing that the tail light belongs to Jake’s truck.

“Son of a bitch,” I mumble with relief, suddenly realizing that I’m not alone in the least. My best friends are just on the other side of this treeline. Not just my best friends, but my family.

I put a little pep in my step, letting the thick pine branches pull at my sleeves as I traipse along the muddy creek bed, straight up the incline and onto the trail to the cabin. I feel excited to see them, but also in the back of my mind I know that our meeting isn’t going to be a joyous one. It’s going to be one of deciding on our next move of survival.

After a few minutes’ hike, I’m finally to the clearing at the cabin, and what I see in front of me isn’t what I expected in the least. Instead of the old, dilapidated building I had spent many a summer in, the cabin is now more of a house, with a new roof, a repaired front porch, and even a brand new front door. What in the hell?

I see a faint light on inside, and I stop for a second, hesitating on whether or not to proceed. Is someone living here now? No, no one knows about this place except for us. And maybe a few trusted others who have caught word of it over the years.

If it weren’t for me seeing Jake’s truck, I may have considered turning around, but just as I approach the rickety stairs of the cabin, the front door flies open, and a silhouette that isn’t Jake is standing in the doorway.

“Daniel, my boy! You made it!”

“Bub?!” I drop my bags and the flashlight in my mouth, rushing up the stairs to greet the old man. He wraps his arms around me as I take him around his shoulders, the both of us pounding our open palms against each other’s backs. “What are you doing here? We were going to surprise you!” I say as we finally break apart.

“Surprise? You boys ain’t as slick as you think you are…” he chuckles a raspy laugh as he replaces his cap on his head. “Practically raised ya, and ya can’t even tell an old man you’re comin’ home?”

“Ah, Bub, we were going to, but–”

“Hey you just gonna leave me hangin’ over here?!” I hear Jake’s familiar gravelly timbre fill the air as he plummets into me, almost knocking me back as his arms embrace me. The embrace of a brother. “Heyyy, brother…” I laugh, not sure of the last time Jake and I actually hugged. It’s funny, we spent so much time together for so many years, I was positive that when I left him and went my own way, I wouldn’t think twice about it. And I didn’t really, until I’d find myself needing to ask him a question only he would know the answer to, or I’d hear an old Neil Young song in a bar. It was at those times that I realized he’s the other half of me, and he always will be. We do alright being apart, but the world feels more at ease when we’re together.

We pull apart, and I catch sight of Y/N leaned in the doorway, her arms crossed across her chest as she eyes us with a sweet, familiar smile. “Well looky here, the two outlaws, themselves,” she grins, and I immediately pull her into the same embrace that I’d pulled Bubba into. She feels a little different now, not sure why, or how, just different. Her hair is longer and she’s got a suntan from the Tennessee rays. My mind hardly ever reminisces on the time we shared together, and I’m thankful for the fact that we have been able to stay good friends after our whirlwind romance. She’s as much a part of me as Jake is, now. Just in a different way.

I feel her fingernails scratching at my back as we hug, and her voice is muffled as she tries to speak with her mouth pressed against my chest. “You two really couldn’t even manage to stay out of trouble for six months, could you?” she playfully complains. “The hell am I gonna do with ya…”

“Not even funny, Y/N,” I say, pushing at her shoulder as Jake and Bubba make their way inside the cabin with my bags in hand. We follow them in, and Bubba pulls the door closed behind me. He pulls a deadbolt, and a slide-lock, and a chain lock across the brand new door, and kicks a wooden wedge up underneath it.

“Damn, what is this, Alcatraz?” I ask, too surprised to take a look around the place.

“Might as well be,” Bubba says, rushing over to the windows to pull the heavy blue curtains in front of them.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask, finally taking notice of the state of the cabin. The interior has been completely re-done, though not all brand new, it looks better than it used to. The floor is no longer caved in, and the roof has been repaired. There’s a table and chairs, and a large couch in the living area, along with two recliners. There are dishes on the shelves, and a wood stove has been installed in the corner of the kitchen. “What happened to this place?”

“Come, sit, Daniel,” Bubba beckons me, and I make my way over to the chair he has pulled out for me. Jake and Y/N follow suit, and he takes his seat last. The air in the room is heavy, and I realize that the only light is coming from three oil-burning lanterns placed around the old tables and countertops of the house. The warm flickering glow accentuates Bubba’s wrinkles, reminding me yet again that he isn’t getting any younger and that the world has continued turning.

“I was just tellin’ these two, Danny, I took the liberty of movin’ up here ‘bout, oh, five, six weeks ago. Been trying my best to fix the place up, make it feel like home. I know you two wouldn’t care, and I know your Pops wouldn’t have cared eith–”

“Wait wait wait,” I cut him off. “Moved? What do you mean you moved?”

“I mean, I moved. All my things are here, in the back bedroom,” he responds matter-of-factly.

“What about your trailer? Your place?” I ask, my hands flattening across the dusty wooden tabletop.

Bubba licks his wrinkled lips, bringing his hand up to rub across his shaven chin. “Sold it, son. Property and all. I just… wanted away from it. Wasn’t doin’ me no good.”

“But you said right before we left that you were happy, when we asked you to come with us, you said you were fine–”

“Hell, ‘course I did, Daniel. You wouldn’ta left and gone out on your own if I’d’a told you my plans.” He pauses, clasping his hands together. “Plus, Geraldine and I separated, knew this would be a better place for me, anyway. Give me somethin’ to keep my hands busy.”

All three sets of our eyes grow ten times in size. “Bub, what?” Jake nearly yells. “You separated? Why?”

Bubba waves us off, almost like it is no big deal. “Aw, shit, boys. You know damn good and well why. After y'all left, shit fell apart even worse than it was already fallin’. After Teddy died, and his posse didn’t have a head honcho no more, they started goin’ out on their own, causin’ more trouble than they had before. Stealin’, botherin’ folk… Teddy was a piece of shit but he kept those vagrants in line, I will say.” He rubs his hand over his chin again as he adjusts his legs under the table. “Anyway, I… I didn’t feel safe… havin’ these ties with you boys, and, and the shop burnin’ down and the history we already had with Teddy. I just didn’t want Geraldine caught up in it, ya know? Didn’t want her worryin’, or worse yet bein’ a new target for them boys. She don’t deserve that. Don’t deserve it at all. Thought it best I just leave her to herself.”

“Bubba, that’s ridiculous!” Jake says, and we nod in agreement. “I–I mean, I know where you’re comin’ from, but. You two are in love, made for each other.”

“Yeah,” Y/N adds, “wouldn’t you feel safer being with her? I mean, keeping a closer eye out for her is easier when you live in town, right?”

Now I know why Geraldine looked so down. She had just gotten dumped.

I pull the half-pint of whiskey I had shoved in my pocket, cracking the lid and tilting it back for a few refreshing seconds. I pass it off to Jake, and he happily rips it from my hand and does the same.

Bubba grits his jaw and shakes his head and hands at us. “It was for the best, just trust me. But that’s enough about me. We need to figure out what in the hell to do about this new problem of yours.”

“What happened in town?” I ask. “After we left? Did they come after you?”

“I said enough about me, Daniel. You hard of hearin’?”

“He asked you an honest question, Bubba,” Jake says calmly. “Did they touch you again?”

Y/N’s eyes are trained downward as she doesn’t dare bring them away from staring at the table. She knows good and well that if Bubba says yes, that the two of us are going to come unglued.

“They didn’t touch me. Tried to, few times but.” Bubba shakes his head furiously from side to side. “They don’t know I’m out here. Geraldine still brings me supplies. I try my best and make myself scarce.”

“What do you mean they tried to?” Jake demands.

“Can’t ya leave it alone, Jacob?”

“Tell me, Bubba!” he raises his voice. “What did they do?” I can see the flame of the candle light flickering in Jake’s eyes, and unfortunately, I know that look all too well. It’s the same one that’s probably in my eyes, right now.

It’s pindrop silent in the room as we anxiously await an answer from Bubba. He’s breathing hard from his flared nostrils, and wringing his wrinkled hands together. He pulls his red handkerchief from his back pocket and pats it along his brow, and I know that if he doesn’t say something soon, I’m gonna jump out of my skin. Hard to tell what Jake would do.

Finally, Bubba looks up from his hands, swallowing hard as his voice is barely audible. “If I tell you boys, you promise not to leave this cabin?”

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mezzy-1 · 1 year ago

Text

Training With Valorant (Valorant X Reader// Part 2)

Name: Y/N

Class: Radiant

Callsign - Nomad

You and Valorant had a bit of a rocky start, but once you joined up with them they quickly became a second family to you. The ability you had, control of radiant energy and even transforming yourself into it, came in handy for the protocol. The only issue was you needed some training to better fit with the team.

(If you like it, follow for Part 3!)

(This from Infamous Second Son)

Harbor

Sun rays crept in to the cafeteria as you and some of the other agents sat around eating breakfast, chatting, and prepping for the day

Harbor came in and sat across from you, squeezing in next to Gekko. Giving Gekko a quick greeting, he turned to you

“Y/N, you and I are going on a mission in a couple of days. We should meet up and go over some strategies when we have some time.”

“Sure, I have some time in the afternoon.”

“Perfect, I’ll see you in the shooting range for some drills.”

When you entered the commons, Harbor was already waiting to take you to the training range. He and you walked into the portal to the Range, and found yourselves in the plaza

You looked down at the dizzying height, but felt a strong hand grab your shoulder

“Don’t look down Y/N, besides, your training is over here.”

Harbor led you to a building that had been modified into a shooting range. He tossed you a pair of earbuds and handed you a rifle

“I’m going to start up the bots Y/N. Aim for their heads and do your best!” he smiled

A few moments later a training dummy appeared, and you got to work

Your initial shots were alright, landing on its head before it was replaced by more copies of itself

Matching the speed at which they appeared, you targeted them with as much precision as you could

Then you missed

And started to miss more and more

Once the training had finished, you weren’t satisfied with your score. Harbor returned to you pacing angrily

“I take it you feel like you could’ve done better?”

“Yes, I was doing so well at the start but I started missing.”

“That’s normal Y/N, you probably got overwhelmed and couldn’t concentrate. It happens to the best of us.”

“I’ve never seen it happen to you though.”

“Well I do have years of experience, but I can give you some tips. Have something you can concentrate on to stay focused.”

“Like what? We’re going to be in the middle of a gunfight.”

“Personally, I start to focus on my breathing. It makes it easier to ground myself, let’s run through it together.”

Harbor sat you down and began to run through breathing exercises with you. When you closed your eyes and inhaled, it helped a lot of the doubt go away

“Let’s see what you can do now Nomad.” Harbor handed you a Vandal with a fresh magazine loaded in

The second time was a lot better, even with Harbor watching. He would offer praise when you kept up with the bots appearing or took a moment to breathe

“Excellent work Y/N! I think you’re even better than Gekko, but don’t let him know I said that.” Harbor pointed at your score

“The breathing helped, I’m glad you shared it with me. But do you really think I’m going to be ready for missions?”

“There’s not a doubt in my mind that you’re ready, Y/N.”

Viper

“Nomad, you and I are going to do some training together.” Viper caught you off guard during your morning routine

“So does that mean we’re going to the gym then?” you asked innocently

“No, we’re going to Venice,” she passed you a defuser, “you’re going to learn how to behave on a mission.”

You met with Viper ahead of time at the portal. You had learned she responded well to people being punctual

She put the notebook she was writing in back in the pocket of her lab coat and activated the portal

You stepped through and found Viper had set up a training scenario where you would have to defuse a Spike

“So all I have to do is put this up to the Spike and push the button right?”

“Yes, but it won’t be that easy Y/N.”

“Well I’m just going up against bots right? You’re here to watch.”

Viper smiled and removed her lab coat, revealing she had been wearing her suit underneath

“You have a minute before I plant it, after that you have about 45 seconds to defuse it. I won’t go easy on you either, so don’t hold back.”

She disappeared into the ruins of the building as you gathered the guns she left for you. A single Frenzy and a Marshal.

The sound of a digital alert gave you a startle as the training began

You paced along the wall with the Frenzy drawn, noticing that the Spike’s beeping was growing closer

A shotgun blasted the wall in front of you, sending you back along the hallway. A bot was just around the corner to enter the main room

You sparked radiant power through your hand and rounded the corner. You sent a barrage of energy through its core

Before you could react, a green wall of mist cut your vision of the rest of the space. Viper had bisected the room, and bots began to close in

Two, armed with Bulldogs, approached you while letting bullets loose at you. Thinking quickly, you dove for cover

“You only have 30 seconds now Y/N,” Viper’s voice echoed, “What are you going to do?”

It was too much, you were going to lose and it was eating you up inside

“Don’t let me down Y/N.” Viper taunted

You weren’t going to disappoint her, and readied another charge of energy

This time you aimed it downward, and sent a wave pulsing through the ground. It erupted at the feet of the bots, and suspended them in the air

You pulled your Marshall and put them down

Viper sat behind the wall, watching the Spike with a shotgun ready. Her Toxin Orb was ready and cloaking her presence

A foot stepped inside the cloud and Viper readied a shot

You knew she had to be watching the Spike but knew she would stay away from the open because you had your rifle

Then the obvious hit you

You unleashed a blast of energy towards the Spike and blew Viper into the wall she was skulking by

You jumped up to the Spike and began defusing it. Viper shakily got up to her feet and reached for the shotgun

She aimed directly at you, and seeing as you had a single second left to defuse the Spike you accepted your fate

The Spike deactivated

“You were willing to die to defuse it Y/N, I admire that.” Viper emptied the shells and grabbed the Spike

“I think that you’re ready to work with me, but don’t take risks like that. I don’t want to explain to Brimstone that the newest agent got themselves killed.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, if you’re backing me up then I don’t think I’ll have to take those kinds of risks.”

Deadlock

“Y/N, we are going to do some training together to see if you can handle using your abilities with the rest of us.”

Deadlock approached you after the morning meeting before the agents shuffled off to their respective posts

“I thought I was supposed to train with Astra?” you asked

“Brimstone thought it would be better if we worked together. Something about wanting Radiants and non-Radiants to train together.”

It was true, Brimstone had been pushing for the Radiant agents to rely less on raw power and for the humans to better counter Radiant abilities

Deadlock had been averse to some of the Radiant agents, not unfriendly but always on edge when more powerful agents were active

The exception was you, but you were never sure if she was being kind or if she was keeping an eye on you to learn weaknesses

You lost yourself in thought as you adjusted your gear and dressed for training. The protocol had given you free reign to pick tactical wear but let you maintain your style

“Are you ready?” a voice asked from behind. You nodded to Deadlock before being led by her

“Deadlock, where are we going? The gym is back there.” you pointed as she took you to the portal

You both found yourselves in the ruins of Venice. Deadlock gave you a second to acquaint yourself

“We’re so high up…” you muttered to yourself. Wind whipped around you and cold from the altitude gave you a slight chill

“I prefer it to the headquarters, now we should begin.” Deadlock adjusted her coat and pointed at a ruined cathedral

“This will be simple Y/N, just defuse the spike before it goes off.” Deadlock passed you a defuser, “but remember you’re coming to me. I won’t make it easy.”

You loaded a Sheriff and Judge, then made your way through the buildings towards the church

You could almost hear the beeping of the Spike before a bullet flew past you. Bots had been placed in the surrounding building

It was a straight road to the cathedral, but the buildings had nests of bots hiding and firing from windows

As you backed into cover inside a ruined shop you caught a look at something small against the north wall. A sonic sensor

Deadlock was counting on you backing away, and probably had the bots ready to come in the second the sensor was tripped. It gave a you an idea

Radiant power coursed through you, and you let out a blast to trigger the sensor. It blew up, and you moved to the second floor

Bots swarmed into the shop, a crew of three holding rifles. Their programming told them to target movement but they had no visible targets

In an instant, you punched the second floor downward, flattening the bots under the ceiling

You stood on the concrete chunk and looked down at the crushed remains as they sparked. Only one bot had escaped but a single shell put it out of commision

“Not bad Y/N, but to PREDICTABLE!” Deadlock yelled as her Annihilation wire bounced from the cathedral to your cover

In an instant fibers cocooned whatever they could, constricting around any purchase. Once complete they spooled back towards Deadlock

“I thought you would have done better Y/-” Deadlock realized she had made a crucial error

You had switched places with the bot you hit with the Judge. Deadlock barely had enough time to react before a geyser of radiant power suspended her in the air

Taking you opportunity, you defused the Spike while she was stuck floating on the particles drifting around her

Once you had finished, you dropped her down gently and helped her regain her balance

“That was clever Y/N, I had expected you to fall for the Sensor but you turned it around for your benefit.”

“So do you think I can come with you on a mission then?”

“You can hold your own. I look forward to working as a team Y/N.”

Skye

“You’re getting along well ain’t ya?” Skye greeted you as you finished up training with the barbell curls Brimstone recommended for you

“It’s been an adjustment, but I like being here more than being on the run.” you answered

“Good to hear,” she picked the barbell and set it back without a second thought, “just so you know we have a training today. Just you and me!”

“Does that mean you guys are giving the test to see if I can cut it in the field?”

“Yeah, but you’ll ace it. Don’t expect me to go easy Y/N, or should I call you Nomad?”

Both of you met up but rather than going to Ascent or the Range, Skye took you outdoors to the island’s jungle

“I have here a Spike,” she pointed to a device she carried on her back with both thumbs, “you are gonna defuse it with this.” she passed you the defuser gun

“Well it doesn’t sound too difficult.” upon you saying this Skye smiled mischievously

“Don’t be so sure Y/N, I want to make sure you can handle yourself. Plus my tiger’s been itchin’ for something to play with.”

The beast appeared next to Skye with a wagging tail

You both put distance between each other and started the drill. You readied a Stinger and Classic, then made your way through the jungle

A heavy slam reverberated through the foliage, alerting you to the Spike being activated. You moved faster and came across a small stream

Bullets streaked by from the bushes. You frantically hid behind a boulder near the stream

Growls from the jungle and swift footsteps broke your concentration. The tasmanian tiger was on your trail

It was too much, the beast tracking you down would catch you in a moment and the bots would close in

No, you steadied yourself and took a breath. Skye said you would pass, and you weren’t going to let her down

You knew she was counting on you to stay in cover, which made you think about the boulder. Radiant energy gathered around you and suffused with your palm

A simple push, backed with the force of TNT, launched the boulder forward into the underbrush taking out bots and serving as moving cover

The tiger from Trailblazer was still active, and dashed towards you. It lunged across the stream

You pulled the trigger on the Stinger, bullets ripping the constructed animal apart. The open line of sight made it impossible for the beast to catch you off guard

Screeches cut through the air and you quickly covered your eyes. Hawks flew through the air and burst with light

You rushed through the trees towards the Spike while trying to keep from being flashed

Skye jumped out from near the Spike and took aim. You were ready, and shot back before she had the chance

She got knocked back, and you quickly acted to defuse the Spike. As soon as it went silent, you took a breath

“Nice work Y/N! I thought for sure I had you with the hawks but you surprised me!” Skye dusted herself off

“You said I would pass, I didn’t feel like proving you wrong.”

“Of course! Now we have a bit of a trek back but we can take a detour and hike a bit in celebration.”

“Sounds like a good idea!”

Cypher

You had finished up your morning chores when you got a message from your phone

Cypher was requesting that you meet him in his surveillance room, which was odd considering he rarely let people venture in

As soon as you reached the door, it opened up and the masked man invited you in warmly

“Ah Y/N, I have such great news for you!” he excitedly sat back in his chair and offered you a seat

“Why did I have to come here? You usually meet me or send me a file.”

“This is special, for our ears only too. Brimstone wants to test you in a couple of weeks to see if you’re ready, but I want to try sooner.”

“So we’re going behind Brim’s back and testing me now?”

“If you think you can beat me and defuse a Spike without backup.” Cypher narrowed his eyes and lounged back

“When can we start?”

About an hour later you were strapping the final piece of body armor on before putting the clothes you wore over it

Cypher had picked Ascent, or at least a floating island near it for training. There was a long path to a fountain, nearby there was a few market stalls

“Don’t let me down Y/N. I know you can do this but I am going to make sure you’re ready for deployment.” Cypher stepped back into the grounds and disappeared

You pulled a Phantom from its sling and started walking towards the sound of a Spike being planted

Stopping quickly, you spotted a trip wire and knelt down to see where it was anchored. You saw it was stuck to a crate at an angle, and destroyed the gadget

A dart struck your shoulder, and you swung around to try and spot Cypher’s camera. Bots began closing in from behind and you ran towards the fountain

A Cyber Cage blocked your path, surrounding you in static and holographic smoke

If you exited the cage Cypher could attack, he had stuck you with a dart and knew you were hiding. The bots would attack if you didn’t leave and had an easy line of sight

It was almost too much handle, but you knew Cypher had faith in you and that carried you through

He knew where you were, and so did the bots. You came up with a plan in record time and pulled the dart from your shoulder

You took a moment, and suffused your body with radiant power. Your body turned to pure energy and you phased through the ground

The bots fired at empty air, and Cypher was momentarily puzzled. He didn’t leave his cover and instead checked his camera

Behind, the fountain contorted and groaned. Cypher looked up and watched as the water inside the fountain stopped and came flowing out as steam

Your body was almost pure energy, boiling the water in the fountain wasn’t hard at all. You picked off the bots in the fog one by one

Cypher grinned beneath his mask and called out to you, trying to draw you out

You ignored him and went straight for the Spike, but you had forgotten about the alert noise it made when being defused

You worked quickly and as soon as you were defusing came face to face with Cypher’s Ghost aimed at your forehead

The man steadied his hand and then put it down

“You passed, even if you would’ve died after defusing it.” he motioned to the now inactive Spike

“I know, but at least you’ll be watching over me next time.” you picked up the Spike and set it on your back

“Y/N, I always keep an eye on you.”

Reyna

“Y/N, we’re going to put your skills to the test. I won’t hold anything back and you shouldn’t either.” Reyna had surprised you in the commons

“Is this the exam for going into missions?” you asked cautiously

“Si, I suppose so. Brimstone asked me personally to make sure you were ready.”

“I’m more than ready.”

“Such confidence Y/N. I’m going to enjoy making you swallow your words and your pride.”

Reyna was especially ruthless when she could get away with it, and Brimstone had just given her a pass

You and her met at the portal to the Range in the evening. The sunset over the floating islets was stunning, but Reyna quickly demanded your attention

“It’s simple. I have the Spike, you have the defuser. If you fail you die and if you succeed,” she paused to laugh, “you won’t last long enough to beat me.”

Reyna had settled on using the ruins of an old plaza as her proving ground. It was surrounded by columns and had a belltower at the far end

Your provided gear was the same as Reyna’s: a Vandal and a Classic

Taking a moment to chamber a round in the Classic, you psyched yourself up and started to approach the plaza

Glancing from the entrance to the plaza, you could see a few crates covered in tarp and the spike beneath the belltower

You began to move in when you realized it would be a horrible idea to attack head on. Reyna was counting on a fight to win, so you’d have to be smarter

Making your way around the side of the plaza, you climbed up the buildings to get a clear line of sight

Sure enough, there were bots hidden on the second floor of the buildings and in the belltower

You couldn’t spot Reyna, but knowing she’d be near the Spike kept you confident she wouldn’t be an issue

Aiming carefully, you shot the belltower bot in the head from your vantage point on the roof across from it

The other bots opened fire as you slid down the roof and took cover behind the pillars. You overloaded radiant power into your hand and blasted back a wave of energy

Bots flew through the air and crashed onto the ground where quick shots put them past their warranty

“Que impresiva Y/N, but you’ll find that I won’t be as easy to kill.” Reyna’s voice came from behind you

You ducked out of the way as bullets impacted the column. You ran across the plaza to the nearest crate and looked back

A searing purple eye dominated your sight. You realized Reyna had to be moving closer if she was covering the front with her Leer

Pain shot through your leg. Reyna had managed to wound your ankle with a well placed shot

It all made sense to you suddenly: she wanted to hunt you for as long as she could and wait out the Spike timer

This gave you an idea, and you fired in Reyna’s direction blindly to suppress her advance

Reyna hid behind a column, her violet eyes barely giving her position away. She caught sight of a trail of blood leading to the belltower

“Me pone desilusionado Y/N.” she remarked as she stepped into the tower. She noticed the trail leading to the side and fired as she rounded the corner

Instead of catching you off guard, the trail had led her directly into a trap. You had bled long enough to make trail but cauterized the wound with energy from your finger tip

“Sorry to disappoint, Reyna.” you said smugly before giving her a quick shot to her body armor

You finished up defusing the Spike walked back confidently to Reyna with the defuser and Spike in tow

“What did you say earlier about me and eating my words? I can’t seem to remember.” you playfully helped Reyna up

“As much as I want to say I went easy on you, I admit you did well.” Reyna adjusted her armor

“Good enough to pass?”

“Por cierto, yes.”

“Better than you?”

“Callate Y/N, don’t make me leave you all by yourself on our mission.”

Neon

“Hey Y/N!” Neon waved at you from across the commons before racing over to you

“So Brimstone put me on a mission with you and told me that I was supposed to help train you!” her foot tapped against the ground in nervous excitement

“What are we going to be doing together?” you asked

“You have to defuse a Spike without any help from the other agents.”

“Wait, then why are going to be there?”

“Because I’m going to be the one guarding the Spike. It’s going to be fun, but seriously do your best. I want you to come along on the next mission!”

Neon sprinted off to get ready and you took inventory of the challenge before you. You met with her about an hour later with your gear

You had picked your favorite loadout, a Vandal and a Sheriff. Neon had with her a Frenzy and a Bulldog

Both of you walked through the portal to the Range. As you exited into the floating islands, you looked out at the open sky

“Come on Y/N, we’ll have plenty of time to relax when we’re done.” Neon took you to a street dotted in rubble that crossed a now drained canal

A few gondolas were stranded up by the dock and the street had a few alleyways that intersected around it

Neon did some stretches before sending off some bots to go ready up. She walked up to you with

“Kaya mo yan Y/N!” Neon embraced you before dashing away

The Spike countdown started up, and you started your assault on the bomb site

Instantly, bots hidden near the alleys and near the riverbed started shooting, and you dove towards the nearest wall

As you rested, you heard the electrified steps of Neon approaching. You knew she would be aggressive but you hadn’t counted on how quickly she’d attack

She slid by and sprayed bullets from the automatic pistol she carried but you countered with your own barrage

Recovering as quickly as she attacked, Neon sped down an alley and broke line of sight

You took a breath and glanced over your shoulder, a few bots were approaching your position

Repositioning further towards the gondolas, you shot through the bots. Rushing steps and thundered down the alleys

Neon leapt from the alley and fired in your direction before running into the next alley. She sped around the backstreets and fired on you

It was overwhelming, and you alternated between suppressing fire at the bots before trying to dodge Neon’s attacks

Suddenly it was clear, she had picked the alleys because she could use hit and run tactics freely and keep you from taking ground

That gave you an idea

Neon came running towards you and got ready to pull the trigger on her Frenzy. She had just lunged out of the alley when she stopped suddenly

The bots were completely smashed and across the dock she could see the Spike. If the you hadn’t made it there, you had to be crossing the dried canal

She dashed into the riverbed and landed on the deep mud covering it. She looked around before unsticking her shoes

“Huh, where the hell is Y/N?” Neon wondered before you crawled from your hiding place

Taking aim at her from under a gondola, you made eye contact and she got ready to sprint

The muddy terrain didn’t let her run though, and she had fallen for your plan. You tagged her in the shoulder and climbed up towards the Spike

By the time Neon finished getting to the Spike, you were sitting comfortably with it on a stranded gondola

“You wanted me to get stuck in the mud, didn’t you Y/N.” Neon strode up to you and sat across

“Yeah, I know you’d chase me down there so I waited for you. Sorry you had to get your running shoes dirty though.”

“It’s okay, it’s a small price to pay for you passing the test!”

“I think we’ll make a good team, Neon.”

“Magkakasama tayo.” Neon nearly crushed you with an excited hug. Your hair stood on end the whole time

Iso

“It’s training day Y/N, gonna show us if you’re ready to do missions?” Iso asked while you were cleaning your gun

You finished adjusting the iron sights and checked the stability. You loaded a magazine in and loaded the chamber

“Iso, I’ve been ready to go all morning!” you smirked and took your gun with you

“You’re confident Y/N, but don’t let it go to your head. You need to be cool headed, you’re going to have to fight me to pass.” Iso readied his Sheriff

“Nobody told me I’d have to duel you, I thought it was just bots.”

“There’s also this,” he handed you a defuser, “you’re going to need to defuse a Spike without anyone’s help.”

It was a lot to do all at once, but you stomached your fear and joined Iso as he walked through the portal to the Range

As you walked out of the shimmering barrier, you saw that Iso had converted part of the shooting range

Instead of the usual building being for bots and target practice, he had added in walls and cover

Wooden planks, sandbags, and steel plating had been arranged to make an elaborate testing ground for your final exam

“You and I will fight here. Your mission is to defuse the Spike by any means necessary, so don’t hold back.”

“Understood.”

Iso began walking to his starting point and let you move to yours

“Good luck Y/N. Remember to stay focused.” Iso spoke as he put his headphones in

The weapon you brought with you was a Guardian and a Sheriff. You were going to have to aim carefully, just like Iso taught you

Lights in the Range switched on inside the building and beeping started from the other end

You made your way into the narrow corridors and jumped from cover to cover. Bots began to slink into the maze with you

One would tried to ambush you from behind while another jumped in front of you. Rolling to the side you tagged the first one with a Guardian shot

The second bot fell to your ability, and was thrown into the air with a whirl of energy. You shot it midair before moving on

A veil of purple hexagons passed through the wall closest to you, coating you in a violet glow

Shots punched through the wooden planks and you hid behind the steel portions of it. A bot stepped from the shadows during the onslaught and fired

A bullet grazed your cheek, but you shot back with greater accuracy. Its head exploded and you cleaned the blood from your face

You began to sneak forward, but your foot slid onto a lattice of glowing hexagons

Iso’s voice echoed throughout his pocket dimension

“It’s you or me Y/N, show me what you can do.”

The partitions were up, but you knew you had only a second before they dropped and you would have to fight

You could feel the sweat pooling around your hands, breathing begin to tighten, and heat flush your face

“Be cool headed.” you whispered, sticking to Iso’s advice

You dropped the Guardian and pulled your Sheriff. While waiting, you took a breath and got ready

The walls dropped and you and Iso fired simultaneously. For a single second, it felt like the bullets would collide

Your shot landed precisely in Iso’s sternum, and he released his hold on you. His shot had been too far off and only hit your leg

Limping over to the Spike, you unholstered a defuser and got to work. The Spike clicked and began to fold into itself

“That was a good shot Y/N.” Iso strode up behind you and leaned on a wall

“I had one of the best teachers.”

“Oh?”

“Your advice about being focused is why I was able to aim so well. I couldn’t have beaten you without your own advice.”

“I guess I’ll have to stop giving you pointers.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of things to correct me on when we start doing missions together.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate you, Y/N. I certainly won’t do it again.” Iso helped keep you steady as you made your way back to the headquarters

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