[03] Space Battles!

[Kazuya]

Takes place just before Victoria's post

It may have been the lack of sleep that made her grouchy, or just that she didn’t quite trust the skill and judgments of her team. Bitchiness was her way of getting a point across, because failure right now was not an option. Yeah, there were three others out there from the opposing team firing upon her squad relentlessly, and while she felt something for them, that they were just people put in the same fight or die position as she, she had to look out for number one first and foremost. Chivalry was something that had been thrown out the door long ago. It’s not like they gave a shit about her, anyways.

Her fingers nimbly flew over switches and buttons, activating this mechanism and that as she danced a dance of survival out in the ever expansive battleground she’d been thrust into. Her vehicle, she’d discovered, wasn’t as agile as she preferred. Although it was fast, the maneuverability sucked; Kazuya just wasn’t one with her vehicle, and it was noticeable. Too noticeable.

Her hands gripped the control sticks as she zoomed through the blackness of space and a field of X-wing crafts, little blips coming up on her radar as she approached one that contained another Kill Town contestant. The text above its head read ‘Szar’, someone she hadn’t had the displeasure of meeting yet, until now. As she zoomed in to his radius, she could see a faint outline of a creature just inside, she was positive something wasn’t right with it, but as someone who’d never seen anything except humans, her eyes seen what was there, but her brain refused to make sense of it. He had some features in common: eyes, nose, mouth, but the horns were definitely not right. Nor was the royal purple…thing in the middle of his head. And his skin was very, very pale.

“What the hell are you?” she whispered as she slowed her craft to just a mere hover in front of the other contestant’s vehicle.

“What the hell’s it matter?” Came the snarky voice through the craft’s internal speakers. It wasn’t at all pleased. Kazuya blinked, actually surprised.

“Well, uh, just never seen….somethi-one like you before,” she stammered, blinking nervously. She was within a killshot range, a stupid move, but curiosity, for some reason, got the best of her. And it’d probably get her killed.

“The fuck are you doing out there, Kazuya?” The redheaded boy she’d met at the Hangar’s voice sliced through her momentary train of thought, jolting her in her seat. “Shoot or get outta the way!”

“Oh, right,” Kazuya muttered. She cleared her throat and moved her craft upwards quickly, faster than the x-wing and it’s pilot could follow. Hell, she barely followed it, but that’s besides the point. She was in a bad position, and she had to move quick. “So how we gonna do this, monster?”

“Szar,” he corrected, clearly irritated.

“Ok, Szar,” the female repeated, mirroring his distaste. “I don’t want to kill you as much as you don’t wanna kill me, but we gotta do something.”

“Well,” the creature crackled over the speakers, the feedback from his mic screamed through the tight space, and the woman gritted her teeth. “For a minute there, I thought I was fucked.”

“And what’s changed your mind?” She asked, not masking her cockiness one bit as she whirled her craft around, but paused before blasting the throttle.

“These guys,” he chuckled as her surprised gasp transmitted through his headset, to which his amusement intensified.

Kaz gulped back the lump in her throat as she found herself surrounded by the other two opposing combatants, another male and a female. “Fuck.”

“Run, run, girl,” the other male tightened his hold on his ship’s control, his thumbs twitching over the buttons at the heads of each stick. Somehow, she knew what they were, and how much shit she was in.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Kazuya’s hands were a flurry of movement as they fidgeted with more controls, her craft jerking as it suddenly found herself propelling backwards at a dangerously fast clip, and she was blind to everything behind her.

“Left! Left!” Juno’s voice sang across the speakers, and she jerked the controls left. “No! The other left!”

“Make up my mind, damn it!” Kazuya grouched, thrusting the joysticks to the right.

Juno kept tossing out directions while Alex’s blip approached her ship with an urgency that seemed almost impossible. Her screen lit up with green beams of light, and the trio scattered like roaches in all directions.

“Don’t expect me to save your ass this entire fight,” the redhead snapped.

“Right,” Kazuya heaved a breath she didn’t know she was holding this entire time, relief plain on her face as she followed suit just behind her teammate, her thumbs going to town over the little red buttons on her controls.

“Just watch where you’re firing!” he barked through her speakers. She smiled sheepishly.