Yellow Beauty Burns Gold.

[Alexander Blakesley]

Alexander continued firing into the group of hostiles, thinning them out for the shotgun-gauntleted girl too focused on the task at hand to realise a newcomer was outflanking him. He didn’t hear the newcomer’s demands. Instead, he was about to line up for another shot when he felt something hit his head. Something with enough force to send him not only flying a few metres away from the impact’s direction but send his sniper rifle flying too. It hurt, it felt like someone took a sledgehammer and swung it to the side of his head, repeatedly. His body slammed into the ground as gravity worked its magic, his vision swam, unable to catch whatever hit him and the impact winded him.

“What the hell hit m-” Alexander groaned. He cut himself off as his vision returned to see what, or better yet who hit him. A blonde-haired beauty of a woman clad in what could only be a form-fitting superhero outfit. This situation just kept getting more and more bizarre, it took a few seconds for Alexander to process, or try to process this new information. Superheros? Sharply dressed henchmen with a variety of nasty instruments of brutality? Shotgun-gauntlets? He either was transported to the Marvel universe, or this universe was laughing at his sensibilities through absurdity. Alexander swiftly began questioning his sanity at this point, if not abandoning examining it altogether.

“Superheros... First this place, now Superheroes? Ok sure of course…” Alexander muttered in disbelief as he picked himself back up. Drawing his bayonet in one hand, leaving his other hand free he assumed a combat ready position. While he was prepared to defend himself, he opted to de-escalate the situation first by talking to this woman. Trying to glean motive behind this newcomer’s actions, why she was helping the assailants in harassing these young girls if she was working with them. Or if she was just a bystander confused, thinking he was working with the assailants to which he intends on correcting and clarifying to her if that were the case. Either way, he was going to get answers even if he had to do it by force.

“Ok, who hired you to attack these girls? Why are you and your buddies over there after these girls? Who are you?” Alexander asked. His tone was calm, authoritative but slightly betrayed his anger at these people who were intent on harming kids. His eyes focused squarely on hers, delivering a fierce glare that cautioned her to chose her next words with exceptional care. In his mind what these people were doing went heavily against his moral code and made them little better than the IMC. He maintained his calm, professional demeanour despite the outrage he felt. He couldn’t allow his emotions to cloud his judgement and dictate his actions. Otherwise, mistakes would create opportunity, opportunities his enemies would no doubt capitalise on.

He sized up the Blonde bombshell of a woman, judging by her muscular build she could give and take punishment in equal measure. Capable of outspeeding and outmanoeuvring her, but lacked the force to deal a decisive blow, couldn’t take as much punishment as she could. His mind ran combat simulations but came to the same conclusion. Equally matched in their own right, a conflict was more or less a futile endeavour at best, and if she was a bystander, they could instead focus their attention on the assailants. Considering her superheroine nature, he chose to appeal to her more noble and well-meaning character.

“Listen, if you are just a bystander, I can assure you I was firing at the sharply dressed minions, not the girls. You mean well, and I can understand why you’d go after me. Considering it looked like I was aiming in their direction, I would have made the same conclusion myself.” Alexander stated reassuringly. Admittedly, if he were in her place, he would come to the same assumption and act accordingly.

“Although Shotgun-gauntlets over there kept jumping into my sights, a lot. I mean look at her, she’s bouncing around like a punch-crazy maniac. Several times I nearly caused friendly fire because she jumped in the way of my sights when I was picking off those goons. Besides the point, ask yourself this: What could I possibly gain from this act of cowardice by harming a child? Or teenager, but the question stands. Nothing, I just arrived in this place, and already people are trying to kill me. That’s record time in my books, an unfortunate and unwanted record but one nonetheless....” Alexander continued, applying logic with a dash of humour to his case. Posing a question for the superheroine to ponder over, he tried to sway her into helping him in aiding the shotgun-gauntleted girl fight back against her assailants.