Edit! Thanks to a spur of the moment change, oneshots now come in pairs! Please feedback which oneshot you prefer for me to continue as a comment on this post preferably! Thank you lots lots! =D
-CerebrateBen

Oneshot First Pair, 2nd: Diary

Hi there. So, I'm writing a diary over here. I don't know why I'm writing this diary. It just came to me all of a sudden. See, I looked at my life and realised that somebody ought to have a look at it and have a good laugh or two. I'm Adrian Tabrein. Odd name, yes, I know. I'm going on fifteen this year. So, my life isn't too boring.
I guess I should introduce you, dear random person who might read this diary someday, to my family. My mom's name is Reila Tabrien, my dad's overseas so I don't see the point of mentioning him till he gets back. I have no siblings, which is a real pity, otherwise I wouldn't have such a hard time with Kate.
Katherine Alleigh's my half-cousin. I'm not too sure about the exact details of our relation, I still don't know why she's my half-cousin and not my cousin, straight-on. If she was my cousin, then at least our parents would hint her away from the hope of a relationship with me. But no, she just has to be my half-cousin.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate her or dislike her. Quite the opposite. She's funny, cute, pretty, intelligent, all that. The only thing is, I don't actually like her. Sure, as a friend, but not in that way. You know the good ol' cousin with a crush problem? I've got that in spades.
She's got a crush on me. Nope, it's not my wishful thinking or anything, it's just really obvious. Plus, she said it herself. No, it wasn't a joke. She was quite serious. Though she did look rather cute when she said that. But still. That is hardly the point, is it.
Ah, there she is, coming up the stairs. We live in the same house. Her parents, her brother, my mum and I and our 'cat'. Let me think, is there something else I forgot to add regarding her biography? Ah, yes, she's the same age as me. Oh, and she plays the violin beautifully.
Oh dear. She doesn't look too happy.
"Adrian!" Her tone is kinda angry. Crap. What did I do?
"Yeah?" I reply in what I hope is a calm and relaxed manner.
"Who broke my bow?"
Ah. Her violin bow. Oh dear. She treats the violin like an adored pet. I don't want to point any fingers, but I have no choice.
"Daniel." I say, knowing that it could not have gone any better but could have been worse. There's no point lying to her. She'd just get even more angry when she finds out you lied to her. Also she would cry. And I really, really, really, can't stand it when she cries. She just looks so, well, I don't know what's the word for it.
Her brother is almost certainly, to use the colloquial term, screwed. While Daniel is nineteen, nothing can stand up to Kate when she's pissed off. For good reason, too.
As she stomps past me to Daniel's room, I can hear her muttering, "I will not hit him, I will not hit him, I will not hit him..."
Oh dear. I follow behind her. This might be interesting. Scrap that, this would definitely be interesting. Plus, I am pretty sure I will have to restrain her. A lot.
She knocks, almost politely, on his door, gritting her teeth. Daniel's been hiding in his room the whole time. He knows what's coming as well as I do. Kate's still muttering, "I will not hit him." She has some anger problems.
Daniel opens the door and almost immediately, she hits him. Ouch. That has got to hurt. I think I can almost hear his shoulder dislocate.
"Ow! I'm sorry, Kate, I'm sorry, will you stop hitting me!"
Of course, Kate totally ignores that and I have to grab her from behind. Her body was kinda hot. Scrap that, I don't mean it that way. I mean, well, she is quite hot, but I really meant that her body is radiating heat in a nice, comfortable and angry way. Oh yes, I do enjoy holding her like that. But that's not the point.
She's practically vibrating with anger in my arms. If it were anyone else restraining her, she'd muscle her way out. And believe me, she's much stronger than her thin body would indicate. She is struggling of course, just struggling to get out of my arms without using force. Somehow it just feels good, feeling her rub against my arms.
"Let me go, Adrian!"
"So that you can beat Daniel up? Not a chance. Calm down first. Don't get angrier. Remember what will happen."
She's red-faced and breathing deeply. Good. She's calming down. Otherwise, the whole world will be doomed. No, that's not hyperbole.
The thing is, she can cause the end of the world. Yes, you read that right. End of the world, Ragnarok, Apocalypse, Kralizec, call it whatever you want, it's all the same. Personally, I just call it Kate. But that's between you and me. If she ever finds out, then it really will be the end of the world.
Let's just say our family isn't really, well, normal, I guess. I know, you're reading this diary of a guy who claims to have powers and has a half-cousin who crushes on him and can cause the end of the world, yes, it sounds like utter rubbish, doesn't it?
I guess I'm just writing this because I don't really expect anyone else to believe it. Maybe one day my diary will get published as a fiction book. But anyway, I'm digressing.
So try to picture the scene, dear random reader. Daniel is standing there, a nineteen year-old buff guy looking really afraid and raising his hands up in defeat to a girl who only looks about twelve, or so people say. A pretty girl, who is being held in a bear hug from behind by me, scrawny ol' Adrian Tabrein.
As I hug her, well, hold her, I'm trying to concentrate more on waking my own ability up instead of smelling her hair which by the way smells like the sweetest flower you've ever smelt except that the smell is so concentrated you can hardly stop yourself from wanting to inhale more and oh God, why am I digressing so badly?
Yes. Concentrating on waking my own ability. See what I mean? Even away from her already I still can't help but think about it. Companies would make millions if they could bottle her smell.
So, there I was, holding her back and trying to wake up my own ability, just in case. You never know. She just might flare up again.
She's gritting her teeth again. I think she copes by gritting. Doesn't seem to work too well though.
Daniel is trying to apologise. "I'm real sorry lil' sis, it was an accident. I didn't mean to, so I got you this as an apology, hold on..."
Daniel disappears back into his room for a moment and returns with a brand new violin bow. I don't know much about violin bows but this one is dark blue and glossy and looks rather nice to me. I think Kate thinks so too.
She's definitely calmer now. I feel like just nuzzling the back of her neck. What an odd urge.
"Uh, yeah, so I got a matching bow for you."
Yeah, it's matching. Kate's violin is a dark blue, like the unreadable depths of the sea, just like her hair, not the regular boring ol' brown you see on violins all the time. It's just like her hair, her long, silky, shadowed azure hair that falls past her shoulders.
"I'll just, uh, leave the bow on the table then." Daniel quickly flees down the stairs.
I start to release Kate, but suddenly, I realise that she's rubbing against me.
"Kate..." Suspicion is extremely obvious is my voice. "WHat are you doing?"
Her head half-turns towards me and she's smiling ever so slightly. I know that look. Let's see, I suppose you could describe that smile with words. Mischievious? That's an understatement. Playful? Doesn't really cut it. Either way, she was moving her body up and down. Against mine. I'm sure you get my meaning.
Her hand slips back to me. No points for guessing where it went.
"Kate..." She knows that I'm warning her off.
"Oh, A, that's not the message I'm getting from your body. You know you want to." She teases me as she rubs her hand there slightly.
I'm hard? Oh. Didn't realise. She sees my look of realisation and giggles.
"You mean you didn't realise? It's been poking into me for quite awhile."
Really? Darn.
"Kate, we're not in a relationship."
"We can always start now. She turns fully and faces me, locking my gaze with those alluring, pure, cloudy, murky, mercury eyes. The look sends a shiver up my spine.
Did I forget to mention that? Her eyes are a pure and murky mercury. Of course, that's what I call it. She calls it thick quicksilver.
"Kate. Y-Your parents are just downstairs. So is my mum. We really should- Mmph!"
That 'Mmph' is the sound I made as she lunges forward and her lips meet mine.
Oh, Lordy Lou, that's the moment I realise that perhaps a relationship isn't too bad an idea, after all, I guess that I did like her regardless of what I said. When I said I didn't actually like her, I think I was ignoring that gigantic bundle of affection in me. I'm such a person, so indecisive.
The kiss is long. Like, really long. I don't deny it, it feels great, and her smell is so intoxicating, but its still weird to hold there for so long. Ah, our bodies have also mysteriously come into extremely close contact. Our arms are entwined around each others' body, pulling each other closer and tighter as if trying to force the two of us into one.
Just then, I realise that someone's at the stairs. I pull away and see a man with silvery eyes that are startlingly similar to Kate's, though his are gleaming where Kate's is murky and his has flecks of red among the silver. The man has neatly combed violet hair, perfect parting to the side and all. He's wearing a business suit, quite plain and regular. He also has a black briefcase in his hand. He adjusts his tie somewhat nervously and coughs.
I recognise him now.
"Uncle Karma!" Kate exclaims, pulling apart from me as well. I'm blushing, I think. Hah. Kate certainly is though.
"Uncle Karma? I haven't seen you in a long time." I wonder what he's thinking of us.
"Um, hi, Adrian, Katherine. I, uh, you heard that I was staying over for the time being?"
Well, that's something new. I certainly didn't know that. Kate nods though.
"Yeah, mum told me and um, I was supposed to tell A, but uh, I guess I forgot."
"Not surprising." I hear Karma mutter under his breath. I blush even further. "So, uh, I am sleeping in my regular room?"
"Yes, Uncle. I prepared it for you already."
"Good, good. Ah, Adrian, would you kindly follow me to my room? I have some things to discuss with you."
Damn it. He's gonna lecture me.
"Of course, Uncle." I reply like the obedient little kid I am.
"A, I'll be in my room, alright?"
Heh. I wonder what Kate's thinking.
"Okay." I follow Karma. His room's beside mine and its not really big. Just enough free space apart from the table to stretch fully in all directions.
He opens his briefcase and takes out his laptop, setting it up in the room and talks as he moves.
"So, ah, I see that you've tamed our spitfire."
"Um. I wouldn't put it that way."
"I can see that she loves you, Adrian."
"Uh, yes." No shit, man.
"The question is," He turns and looks at me directly, "Do you love her?"
"Uncle, you know she's had a crush on me for longer than I remember, right?"
"Yes."
"Thing is, I don't know. That kissing? I was holding her back from hitting Daniel and after that she suddenly just kissed me as I was telling her that we weren't a couple."
"Hm? Really?"
"Yeah, she told me we could always start, then I was replying halfway when she just kissed me. From there, I don't know."
"Okay. We'll see how things develop from there then." His face has the ghost of a smile. "But actually, that's not what I originally wanted to talk to you about."
"It isn't?" Huh. I wonder.
"Not at all. I wanted to find out how your ice is progressing. Let me have a look at your eyes, won't you?"
"Uh, okay."
Yeah, the ice he's referring to? That's my power. I can... Well, actually, I don't really feel like describing it. Not now. I'll describe it when I actually use it. That'll be better. You can tell how my ability has progressed by looking at my eyes.
My eyes are, well, were a regular blue. Then, they gradually turned from a deep blue, to a really light blue and ever since I've been practising using my ability, it's now really white. White-blue, but very, very light.
"You have not been practising regularly."
I didn't know you could see that from the eye colour as well.
"Yeah. I, uh, I've been pretty distracted."
"That's not surprising. Do remember to practise more. If you encounter any problems, you can ask me."
"Alright. That's all you wanted to know?"
"And I came back also to check on Kate and her, ah, situation with you."
"Um, why do you want to check on that?"
"If you handle her poorly, then nothing will go well for any of us."
Right. End of the world. Bugger.
"Um, okay. I'll be going now."
I quickly get out of his room; as I close the door behind me, I almost bump into Kegawa. I inhale deeply.
"Kega! Don't scare me like that again!"
Kegawa Nekogami is our 'cat'. The inverted commas there are because she's not really a cat. I mean, she is, but she appears human. Really. Sounds all magical and stuff, doesn't it? She looks like a, say, thirteen year-old girl with a pair of cute, pointed, furry cat ears. She's got a tail too, of course. Apart from those two, it's kinda hard to tell her apart from regular humans.
"Yo. I'm not allowed to go fishing by myself."
"Uh, okay, and I'm guessing that you want me to go with you."
She nods and purs lightly. She's got nice auburn hair that goes to her chin and complimenting brown eyes. Also, I'm about half a head taller than her so its quite odd talking to her. I'm sure you find it odd enough that I'm talking to a cat with a human body. She looks more Oriental; if I had to make a guess, I'd say Japanese or something, but I don't really know nationalities.
She already has a fishing rod held behind her and a picnic box of presumably bait.
I nod, slightly wearily and knock on Kate's door and pop my head in.
"Kate? I'm bringing Kega out for fishing. Coming?"
"I can't." Her face is crestfallen and disappointed. "Mum grounded me."
"What? Why?"
"Because she heard that I didn't tell you that Uncle Karma's coming."
"Oh... Sorry."
She shakes her head. "Not your fault. Have fun."
Somehow, I get the feeling that she's wishing that I'm staying behind. But what to do? I can't satisfy both her and Kegawa.
Kegawa's tugging the back of my shirt. Impatient little cat.
Closing the door, I follow Kegawa out after alerting mum. We head off to the little lake by the forest just outside town. Not many people come to this lake. There are two lakes around this area actually, and this is the smaller and thus less attractive of the pair.
I lean against a tree and relax as Kegawa throws her line and leans back as well. As I look around, I see another girl at another edge of the lake, sitting with something in her hands. I think I recognise her.
Yes, of course I do, she lives right beside us. Feana Soarl. Fifteen as well, in the same class as Kate and I. She comes over quite frequently. Knowing her, the thing in her hand is probably some embroidery she's working on. She spots us and starts to come over. Oh dear.
"Kega. Quick. Hide your tail."
"Hm? Oh, Feana. Okay."
Feana waves to us and we wave back. Well, I wave back, because Kega's intent on her rod. Something's on the line. Oh dear. If she hooks a fish, she's most likely going to eat it raw. That is probably something Feana won't expect. And she shouldn't. To outsiders, we're a perfectly normal family. Yeah, right.
Yeap, I see it now, it's embroidery. She likes sewing. She reaches us and sits with us.
"Hey, Adrian, Kegawa."
"Yo." Kegawa's succinct greeting says it all and she returns her attention to her fishing rod. Her tail's hidden up her shirt; seems a little uncomfortable to me.
"Hey. Doing your sewing here?"
"Yeah. Kegawa, still wearing your cat ears?"
"Huh? I'm not wearing any-"
"Yeah, she always wears them. It's her favourite accessory." I interrupt quickly. Kegawa's still focusing on the little ripples in the water.
Suddenly, she gives a pur of excitement and pulls hard on the rod; she caught one. The fish lands in her hands, as accurately caught as only a cat can. If you were here, you could see the hunger in her eyes. She really likes her fish.
"Kega..." I whisper. "Control yourself."
"Yeah, yeah, okay." She keeps it in the picnic basket and takes out a bottle of milk. I feel like hitting my head.
Milk is to Kega what alcohol is to humans. I really should have checked the picnic box. Trust the cat to bring milk, eh?
"Kega! Don't drink, not now!" I try to hiss as softly as possible. It's a good thing Feana isn't so attentive to details.
"Nya." She makes that cat sound and ignores me. Feana's talking.
"Adrian, where's Kate?"
"She got grounded."
"Oh. You're not fishing?"
I shake my head. I can't think of anything to say to take her attention away from Kegawa. Supposedly, Kega's my younger sister, but when Feana comes over to our place, Kega's usually in her room. That is to say, my room.
"Just taking care of Kega. You come out here just to sew?"
"I like this place. It's so calm and peaceful and quiet. And you know, some people say that there's a fairy who lives by the lake. I always hope to see it, but," Feana shrugs, "I guess it's just a legend."
It's not a legend. Goodness knows, that fairy's irritated me more than enough times than should be possible, but I can't say that, can I? I just nod and make a murmuring noise of agreement. Oh yes, that fairy's also the one who first figured out my ability.
So we carry on with small talk as Kega catches several more fish. And I'm right. Kega's cheeks are now quite red and I think she's drunk.
"Kega, you okay?" So Feana noticed after all.
"I think she's just tired. Kega, come over here." I indicate the grass beside me. She crawls over, taking the picnic basket and the now-empty milk bottle with her. And her fishing rod too.
She gives a little contented pur and she curls against me, head on my lap and starts sleeping. I stroke her hair a little as well as thumb her ears like you would towards cats. She's cute when she sleeps.
"Your sister tires easily." Feana notes. "No offense, of course."
"None taken. She's young."
"Still. She's thirteen, isn't she?"
I nod.
"Why's she not in our school?"
"Autumn intake. She's coming in mid-autumn." It's already early autumn. I wonder how she'll adjust. Or if someone will try to pull her ears and discover that they're actual cat ears. Or how she's going to stand sticking her tail up her shirt for so long. As she's sleeping now, I can make out her tail moving underneath the fabric.
"Oh."
We sit there for quite awhile like that, the only sound being Kega's soft snoring. My phone starts vibrating then; I always put it on 'Silent'. I pull it out, waking Kegawa in the process.
"Hello?"
"Do you realise what time it is? Get home now or your dinner will be thrown away!"
I wince and move the phone further away from my ear. Mum's voice can either be soft and nice and pleasant or, in this case, loud and screechingly angry.
Kega's ears twitch and she grins.
"Nya, your mu-, I mean, mum's angry."
At least she caught herself.
I quickly reply to mum, lest she start shrieking again.
"Yeah, yeah, coming back now. Bye." Time flies. Sitting there so comfortably, I didn't realise the time slipping away. "Well, Feana, we've got to go now. Are you coming over for dinner?"
"Not tonight, Adrian. Be seeing you. Bye, Kega."
"You too."
"Bye!" Kega replies, her voice pitched high. She also seems quite high after waking up from a milk-induced sleep. I guess cats don't get hangovers like humans.
We run back home, Kega easily out-sprinting me. Somewhere along the way though, I had to get her to stop for a while; her tail had came out. We got home quite speedily, about twelve minutes or so.
Dinner is sumptious, mum and Kate's mum cooking, as usual. Karma's seated on my left, Kate on my right, mum opposite me, Kate's mum and dad beside my mum, all of us around the round table. Hah.
Where's Kegawa, I hear you ask. Because she's a cat, (obviously) our parents don't let her eat at the table. Kegawa doesn't mind too much.
Maybe it's just me, but I think Kate's glaring at Kegawa everytime she thinks nobody's looking. I wonder what got her so pissed off.
After dinner, I head back to my room only to find that instead of one mattress (Kega's) on the floor, I see two. What.
Oh goodness. Kate follows into the room behind me, dressed in her night clothes already. (How did she bathe so fast?)
"Kate? That isn't your mattress, is it?"
"It is."
Ah, damn it all. How am I supposed to sleep like that? Its hard enough ignoring Kegawa at night; she loves making me (her master or, I guess, the more appropriate word would be owner) squirm and how does she achieve that? She's female, I'm male, so she just does the obvious, eh?
She strips. That's right. She strips in front of me. Some of you might think, 'Oh, what a lucky guy' or something along those lines, but I can tell you that it's extremely embarrassing. Bugger.
"You're sleeping here tonight?"
"Yeap!" She's abit too excited about it, I'm afraid. I can't help but notice that her mattress is strategically positioned to be right beside my bed, in Kegawa's usual spot.
Kate lies down first, I'm sitting on my bed and reading a little. Some fiction to distract me, but fiction somehow just seems to pale in comparison with what goes on in my life.
Kega comes in and she's- Oh Lord, I quickly hide behind my book. She's completely nude. That's something new. She usually comes in first, then strips.
"Kega! What are you doing?" Kate, it seems, takes offence as well to Kegawa's nudity.
"Oh? Kate? You're sleeping here tonight? Hey, that's my spot!"
"I'm sleeping here tonight." Kate seems to think her word's final. It should be, I guess. I do hope that Kega doesn't go all confrontational.
"Nya." At least Kega has the sense to realise that Kate getting angry is a bad thing overall for everyone. I hear her drop down on her mattress; can't really tell without looking and I am definitely not going to look.
It's been awhile since the lights got turned off. I can't get to sleep. Too much stuff to think about. Kate and me, Kegawa in school, my own practice, all that. If only I could just sleep as and when I like at any time like Kega. Kega, as I said, is really cute when she's slee- What the.
Kate's sitting upright, head turned and looking straight at me. Lord, that was scary.
"Aren't you going to surprise me?"
"What?"
"We're sleeping in the same room."
"No, Kate, just no." I go under my blanket covers and turn away.
"One day you will be mine, A." I can hear the smile in her voice. Oh Lord. That is just creepy. Creepy with a capital 'K'. I'll end the first day of my diary here. Good night to whoever's been reading.

A/N: Hi, as promised (though a little late, but that's not the point), the second oneshot! Huzzah! And, uh, yeah, I really apologise about the length. Really. Sorry~ It's a teensy weensy bit too long. When I pasted it into Microsoft Word, it came to about 11 pages. =X Er, yeah.
So, whatcha think about it? I know, the first part was a little, er, close to lemon, but be thankful there wasn't any. =D Believe me, it could have been worse, if you get my meaning. And, yeah, I was toying about with the idea of romance (obviously, silly me) so what inspired me was just the end of the world. I was just thinking about all that, and hey, idea for a character! Why not make a girl who will cause the end of the world AND has anger management issues? Err, also based on the "I am not going to hit him" line. Uh, I appear to be suffering from amnesia right now, I can't remember where I heard that one...
Kegawa was heavily based-off a character from a bullet madness game series known as Touhou. The character in question is Chen! Whoever knows Touhou should find this quite obvious. Chen is this cat-girl too, but she's a nekomata with two tails. This A/N is already too long, so I'll leave you to find out for yourself what that is.
Okay, inspirations for names... Katherine Alleigh. The surname is thanks to this book called SuperFreakonomics where they mentioned this prostitution house closed 100 years back in Chicago, Illinois and the place was called the Everleigh Club. So I plucked the leigh, just for fun.
Adrian Tabrein, no particular meaning nor inspiration, just came about by staring at my keyboard and mentally rearranging letters.
Karma was suggested by Raven when I asked her who would be Death's secretary and somebody everyone would know. Kegawa's first name was helped by several friends, Shadow and Wolf (you know, the other writers whose blogs I've linked to?) Basically, if you translate Kegawa Nekogami from its Jap, it just equals to Cat Spirit of Fur. Kegawa is literally fur, Neko is cat and gami is added at the end for the spirit bit. Aye. Nekogami was suggested from a great friend of mine, who only wishes to be known as H2O.
Feana Soarl. I don't remember where Feana comes from, but I do know that Soarl was derived from Soargyl, one of the merchant houses (or something like that) from a certain city in the Forgotten Realms settings...
Uh, specific moments, the last bit was taken from Mirai Nikki, this manga where the girl was lying on her mattress beside the guy's bed and also asked if he was going to surprise her. Actually, I believe this story was heavily influenced by Touhou from the second half onwards. The ice fairy also. Inspired by Cirno from Touhou. Er.
Ah yes, that reminds me, I wanted to say that at the time of writing, I *did* know exactly what his power was going to be. I just didn't want to reveal it so early. Besides, its a little awkward to introduce. Okay, seriously, this whole post is waaay over-long and that isn't even a word. I'll end here. Good night and goodbye, have a good day/rest depending on when you're reading this!
-CerebrateBen

Oneshot First Pair, 1st: Team Serenity

"Team Serenity, going in." I murmured into the comms. I signaled to Calm behind me to move out.
"Tranquil, aye."
"Peace, aye."
"Harmony, aye."
"Concord, aye."
"Placid, aye."
Across the zone, I knew that the others would be tightening the noose around our targets. This was not going to be easy. The darkness was not natural. Nothing about this setup looked natural, and every corner seemed to me to be a perfect ambush. I was getting paranoid. I kicked open a door and rushed in, gun raised and looking for the targets.
"Sector clear." Tranquil reported, all the way from the opposite side of the zone.
"Sector clear." Harmony echoed, directly west of my position. A single red light flashed once, then twice in my visor's display. The signal was coming from Placid. My blood went cold. Placid was the only one not part of a pair, and the sequence of flashes coming from him was our signal denoting the presence of hostiles.
I flashed a string of three yellow flashes through our system, alerting the others to cease all voice comms and work through hand signals. My breathing suddenly seemed to fill up the whole cargo bay as Calm and I slowly picked our way towards Placid's location. Placid was at the eastern end of the zone, just by the pier's edge. Having inserted via a boat, he would be in deep trouble if his position was compromised. He would be cornered against the Sea and isolated from the rest of us.
The various cargo containers around turned the place into a potential maze of death, giving ambush teams numerous killing fields. At least Placid's continuous signalling indicated that the primary concentrations of hostiles were around his position.
Click.
That was all the warning either Calm or I had before the world turned into an crackling inferno of death and destruction.

The mission was not going to be easy. We knew that from the start.
"Man, Team Weather? We are so screwed."
"Can it, Concord. Team Serenity is the best."
"Aw hell, Harmony, Team Weather is helluva good at defending a strongpoint or keeping alive in a trapped situation. We're trying to do what no one else has managed to do before! In case you haven't realised, every other defeat they've suffered is from either attacking or retrieving, not defending!"
"First time for everything, Concord. Shut up and get kitted up." I didn't want to admit it, but Concord's words embodied everything I feared about this fight.
"Hey, Brother? Are we really going in without magical support?"
"Yes, Tranquil. Any magic on this zone is our own personal magic. Unless you happen to have a hidden destructive talent for magic, I say you leave magic to Peace, Harmony and me. Placid."
"Hmm?"
"You sure about this?" He nodded. Somehow, I wasn't too sure that Placid would be alright. He hadn't been the same after that incident. Nowadays, he was much quieter and kept to himself mostly. "You don't have to insert that way, Placid."
He just shrugged. "No pain, no gain, Amity." His voice seemed much more... hollow from what I remembered.
Now, pulling myself back up and behind cover and dragging Calm behind the container as well, I wondered how things could have gone so bad, so quickly. Gunfire tore the night apart and the previously dark harbour was in flames in various areas. Calm got up, slightly disoriented by the explosives and I stated over the comms in our trademark robotic, emotionless, cool and steady voice.
"Position compromised, going loud."
I couldn't believe it. We were taking so much fire that the container we were hiding behind was nearly turning into so much scrap metal yet we had not even caught a glimpse of the opposing team. No wonder they were so good at defending. We couldn't shoot what we couldn't see.
I took a few steps back and vaulted onto the top of the twenty-feet tall container and landed on one knee, gun firing on full auto in a wide arc, only to realise that I was shooting at smoke and shadows. The gunfire stopped as Calm landed beside me, looking for targets. I ran to the other edge of the container and took a quick look around from my vantage point.
The pier was empty, deserted and I could only spot Placid through his identification tag through my helmet. He was dangling from his legs from the top of the crane and blending in with the large hook. Suddenly, he fired and I just managed to see the bullet hit someone or something I could not see behind yet another container.
"Target eliminated." He uttered. He was good at what he did.
"Contact." Calm pronounced clearly behind me, already firing several shot down. I followed his arc of fire and spotted a trio of black-armoured hostiles moving towards the crane. Their combat armour was similar to our own in colour, though different in design. The matte-black colour made it seem as if I was looking at moving humanoid-shaped voids rather than at people.
I mimicked Calm's actions and started firing at them even as I started muttering the words to a spell. I suddenly froze as I realised that the bullets were just passing through them.
"Decoy." I was already turning around as I shared my realisation. I was too late. The three were already behind us and Calm was struck down instantly by several well-placed headshots. His armour shut down and he collapsed as I quickly finished my spell and several orbs of fire materialised around me and shot towards my foes.
"Calm here, guys, I'm down." Calm alerted the rest of the team.
The fireballs disabled one of them and my rifle took down another while the third threw down his gun and drew his sword from his back as he leapt at me. I took a couple more shots at him as I pulled out my twin swords as well, their blades singing with a mono-molecular field about it's edges as I activated it. My opponent's own bastard sword smashed down, taking full advantage of his weapon's strength to try and batter me down.
Luckily, I managed to roll to the side and rushed him before he could raise his sword for another blow. His sword was surprisingly swift for such a heavy weapon and it was all I could do to just parry his attacks and try to hit him once or twice.
All of a sudden, I heard Placid's calm, unhurried, yet distinctly hollow voice through the comms.
"Duck." I obeyed without thinking and above me, a single shot lanced into my foe's helmet, taking him down as well. I breathed heavily. That was too close.
Across the zone, there were other encounters and a quick check on my team's status showed that of the team, only my sister, Placid and Concord were still up apart from me. I confirmed with my team the total number of casualties inflicted on the other team; there was only one last opponent.
Leaving Calm to talk with the three foes from Team Weather we had taken down, I leapt from container to container, trying to spot the last target.

A/N: Hey guys, as promised, the first oneshot's up. Second will likely be coming up tomorrow. So, my inspiration from this came from Unreal Tournament 3. First-person shoot 'em up game, pretty fun. You've got two bands of super-soldiers fighting it out in all sorts of environs, etc etc etc. So I toyed with the idea of Teams fighting it out in a pre-set location with rules and all that and this was the result. The names of all the members of Team Serenity are just synonyms of, well, serenity obviously. Hah. Inspiration of Placid's dangle-sniping comes from the under-suspended-development-game, Starcraft: Ghost where I read from a review that you could actually hang upside down from a pipe and shoot the guy. I incorporated magic into it just because I incorporate magic into almost everything. Anything I write that doesnt have magic in it makes me feel lacking inside somehow. Heh. Aight, that's all for today, so glad to be able to finally post this. Bye!

-CerebrateBen