Rematch

“Are you ready?” The captain said.

“Yes, sir. Wilhelm, what about you?” Rudolf asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“And you two?” The captain looked over to their opponents for the day.

“Y-Yes, sir!” Bowie’s voice squeaked out. A hasty salute crossed his freckled face, and it brushed against his unkempt, matted hair.

“As I always am,” Storm said. Perfect form, unlike her partner.

“Good,” the captain replied. “Then the exercise can begin. If it looks like any team’s won decisively, then I’ll make the call to stop things. You have five minutes to prepare.”

The two teams went to their corners. Wilhelm crawled into his exosuit. During his time in Warsaw, the feeling of connection had become unfamiliar: that skin crawling, nauseating feeling. Still, he pushed down his displeasure. Rudolf’s voice boomed into his brain.

“This is our chance to get even, Wilhelm. Do you remember the plan?”

“Yeah, yeah. Take down Bowie first, then close the distance on Storm.”

“...More or less. Stand behind me until I give the signal, and then, you take the offensive against Bowie. I’ll shield us both from Storm’s shots, in the meantime.”

“Sounds predictable. Don’t you think that they know we’ll be doing that?”

“Execution is everything, not the idea.”

“Fair enough.” Wilhelm tensed and stretched, gaining familiarity again with his cybersuit. A few swings of his sword later, and he felt as if he’d not lost a step. Of course, for this battle, his actual blade had been left behind, with all parties using non-lethal weapons… At least, non-lethal for anyone inside of a cybersuit, like them.

Rudolf, meanwhile, had trained during their entire stay in Warsaw. It showed, too. He moved with a speed not far off from Wilhelm's, despite Rudolf's massive machine and shield that, in theory, should've slowed him down. The guy just doesn’t quit, huh? I’ve still got a lot to learn.

Wilhelm surveyed the makeshift arena. Inside of a natural park, tall, red trees surrounded and hid them, with the occasional animal peering at the metallic figures. Earlier, Wilhelm saw a large bear, with cubs in tow. When he’d asked the captain about this, the captain waved off his concerns. In the cybersuits, he said, none of them would be bothered, and the captain hid himself in one of the transporters that they had taken to Warsaw, more a home than a vehicle.

Storm stood silently at the other end of the main arena. Her silver armor stood out from the background, but it made her lethal in urban areas like Warsaw proper. She could simply perch on a building, fire, and from her combat data, she rarely missed a shot. Wilhelm thought back to what Florent had said. I wonder… did she feel anything, doing that?

Bowie, meanwhile, constantly fiddled with his indigo cybersuit and looked around nervously. Like Wilhelm, he preferred a melee weapon, the spear. Its long reach gave Wilhelm trouble, last time. Honestly, it felt a strange fit for the neurotic wielder of it, and Wilhelm often thought that he would be better suited as a sniper, like Storm. Well, can’t knock his skill with the thing.

“Alright, it’s time! Remember, leaving the park’s reaches is an automatic disqualification. You have thirty seconds: find your positions, and then, defeat both of the other team’s pilots!”

The four immediately split. Wilhelm mindlessly followed Rudolf’s lead until he stopped, taking cover behind a grove of trees. For a moment, there was stillness.

“Wait until she fires the first shot. From there, we’ll capitalize.”

As soon as he said that, a bullet flew at Rudolf. Wilhelm didn’t notice it until it had already bounced harmlessly off of Rudolf’s shield. Then, another came, and another, and another. 

“Stay behind me! We’re going in!” The two charged towards the direction of the bullets. Rudolf frantically swung the shield around, reacting to each bullet with inhuman speed. Every chance he got, Wilhelm fired a round back from the location of the shots, which kept changing. Few, if any hit their mark. Damn it... How are we supposed to pin her down?

In a single moment of slipped consciousness, Bowie struck. His spear hooked upward, leaping over Rudolf’s shield. Wilhelm’s blade met it in time, and the two wrestled for control. When Rudolf’s shield swung, Bowie bounced back, but he had done his job. A bullet fired, and this time, Rudolf couldn’t react. A bullet flew into his side, and a crack formed in his cybersuit.

“Damn it!” Rudolf said. He grunted in pain but kept moving. “We must be getting close, if Bowie’s decided to show his hand. Now’s the time, Wilhelm. Let’s make him pay!”

Rudolf’s hypothesis proved true: in the distance, Wilhelm saw a silvery figure at the top of the tallest tree, and his ears picked up the sound of her rifle reloading. When Bowie jumped next, Rudolf tossed his shield at Bowie’s head. With no time to defend himself, Bowie’s thrusters came alive, sending him flying into a nearby tree instead. Wilhelm caught the shield and tossed it back over to Rudolf. As Bowie tried to get back up, the shield flew again towards his head. This time, it landed. And this time, Bowie’s spear fell from his hand, too dazed to keep fighting.

Then, Rudolf turned to Wilhelm. “Alright, here we go!” He grabbed Wilhelm by the legs, spun him around once, twice, then threw him into the open air above the trees. That bastard didn’t say anything about this!  From the skies, Wilhelm could see their target clearly. Storm's aim was trained below, not above, and Wilhelm saw his chance. On his back, his hands, his feet, every thruster roared into action. He dived like a missile at Storm, blade in hand.

She noticed, but too late. The dive took them both down, down, down until they crashed into the earth. Animals skittered away from the impact, afraid of the metal men. With difficulty, Wilhelm stood back up, taking in deep breaths as he struggled to his feet. But Storm had taken the brunt of the fall, and though she fought to rise, her cybersuit had already surrendered.

“Alright, that’s enough! This battle’s over. Rudolf and Wilhelm are the victors!”

A feel of elation came over him, and when Rudolf came into the clearing with Bowie, Wilhelm matched Rudolf’s strong handshake

Bowie lifted Storm onto his back, and the four walked back to the central area of the park. 

“Hell of a fight, I’ve gotta be honest,” Wilhelm said. “You guys almost had us.”

“Maybe, but in the end, we still lost, and it's all due to my errors,” Bowie said. “If I had just landed that hook on Rudolf, things might’ve been different.”

“No, it’s on me,” Storm said, to Wilhelm’s shock. “My shots couldn’t make it past Rudolf’s shield. You did well, Bowie. You were our best chance, and you gave it your all.”

Even Bowie seemed surprised. “T-Thanks, Storm. Really.”

“I agree, you did well,” Rudolf said. “That weapon of yours… It can twist?”

“Yeah, it’s collapsible, and it can extend. Somewhat like a whip, you know? Helps me reach things and throw people off their game… Though, I’m usually already thrown myself.”

“You’ve got nothing to be thrown about, man. You wrecked us, last time,”

“No, it was just…” Bowie began. “Well, thanks. I wish I was more like you, though. That I had that courage to go flying into the fight. I just… I don’t.”

“Don’t mistake courage for stupidity,” Storm said, with a lighter voice than usual.

“I resent that,” Wilhelm replied.

“Noted. In seriousness, you’ll get there, Bowie. It might take months, or years, but you will.”

Bowie looked away and offered another sheepish thanks, as the group reached the clearing. After loading their cybersuits into the transporter, the pilots each filed in, one-by-one. As Wilhelm went in, the captain put a hand on his shoulder.

“Frei, a word?”

“Of course, sir.”

The two sat down, watching the wildlife return to normalcy without the interference of the metal men. The captain looked off into the woods, at something Wilhelm couldn't see.

“I just wanted to congratulate you. You’ve come a long way, Frei. I doubted you, and in a lot of ways, I still do. But you’ve got the courage to fight, and that’s what matters most.”

The topic brought Florent to mind, and a burning question on Wilhelm’s mind.

“...Thank you, sir. Do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Sure, go ahead, but make it quick. We’re almost done loading.”

“I heard about what happened with Team B. The dead civilians, I mean. Was there… Was there really no other way?”

The captain reached for his cigar and struggled against himself to put it back. Then, he gave in, puffing into the wind.

“There always is, but there’s never a perfect one. At that moment, I made a choice: a choice between the lives of a handful of innocent Soviets, or the lives of my own soldiers who trust in me to bring them home. Every time, I come up with the same answer.”

“I understand, but surely, we could’ve saved some of them, sir.”

“...Maybe so. But if it means risking those lives entrusted to me, then I won’t take the gamble. Not now, and not ever. Besides, the NSR showed us what they thought about innocent lives, ten years ago. Did you forget, Frei? Berlin’s blood is on their hands.”

A familiar feeling of rage erupted. “...Of course I didn’t forget.”

“And neither did I. When my platoon came to reinforce Berlin… I saw things I’ll never forget. Bodies strewn across the city, left for the birds… Neighborhoods destroyed, with not even rubble left to mourn… And dead-eyed survivors, buried in a walking grave.”

Wilhelm’s memories flooded back in with each of the captain’s words. His head throbbed as the red figure of his nightmares returned before him, impossible to shake away. Then, the captain put his hand on his shoulder, shaking away the spectres with a grim smile.

“That’s why you’re here, and that’s why I’m here. Don’t ever forget that.”