"Y'know, that really fucking hurt." Chase exclaimed, rubbing his head as he sat up to check his surroundings.
"You like my new ability?" Tine flipped her hair as she adjusted her glasses with a smug look on her face.
Chase spun towards the Deputy pulling his pistols out as-
The blue-haired boy's vision turned into a white canvas, like a camera flash up close.
"Motherfucker!" Chase rubbed his eyes as he fell back to the ground.
He recognized that feeling, it was the same light Tine used to catch him off guard before they fell.
"That blinding light… She could be an actual problem, now." Chase thought.
"You've been training?" Chase thought, standing up as he tried to whip his pistols out without drawing attention.
"I've got another ability-" Tine's speech was interrupted.
Bang
Chase shot a bullet straight into her stomach, blood pouring down the bottom half of her uniform as she collapsed onto the floor.
Tine looked up at Chase with horrified eyes.
"I don't have time to talk." Chase said, smoke still escaping the barrel of his firearm.
The blue-haired boy turned, looking around the cavern walls for some kind of exit.
"What the-" Chase's eyes widened.
Tine stood in front of him, unarmed and grinning.
"I told you I learned another ability." Tine's glasses glowed with Spirit. She was clearly enjoying this.
Chase looked back to where he thought Tine laid, but the injured version of the Deputy was nowhere to be seen, not even a drop of blood dripped onto the cavern floor.
The rebel rubbed his eyes.
He then slapped the sides of his face in an attempt to wake up his senses. "What in the mindfuck?!"
His head felt like it was going to rip against his skull as he realized the gravity of the situation.
"These motherfuckers paired us up with our worst matchups. They probably made profiles on us after our last mission." Chase thought. "Think, Chase, think."
Chase knew there had to be some parameter to this new ability of Tine's. It would take entirely too much Spirit to be able to alter the visual perception of anyone within a certain radius without a trigger.
"Whatever!" Chase exclaimed, raising his pistols towards the Deputy once again.
Bang. Bang
Chase fired two shots at the Deputy.
Tine grinned as the bullets passed through her, her body turning into smoke in front of the rebel's eyes.
"What the fuck!" Chase gritted his teeth, turning towards Tine's cackle as she reappeared on the other side of the cavern.
Bang. Bang. Bang
This went on for what seemed like hours. Chase shot at Tine, just for her to reappear somewhere else.
Chase's ears were starting to ring, which hurt almost as much as the burning in Chase's eyes from the constant darting around.
The rebel knew what Tine was trying to do. Chase couldn't keep manifesting magazines, he only had a finite amount of Spirit.
Chase froze.
"Shit. I've been wasting my Spirit this entire time…" Chase thought, his mind beginning to race as he tried to remember how many magazines he's manifested thus far, slowly realizing he has no idea how much of his Spirit he's wasted.
"Okay… Okay… It's okay, just calm down, Chase." Chase thought as he took a deep breath in.
Click
The blue-haired boy dropped the newly emptied magazines from his pistols' magwells, thinking to himself as he manifested his next round of magazines.
"I'm over here now!" Tine said gleefully.
"If I can't trust my eyes, I'll just use my ears." Chase thought, closing his eyes as he tried to focus on the sounds surrounding him.
Tine went silent, squinting as she realized Chase's plan.
The blue-haired boy raised his pistols, spinning slowly as he surveyed the air around him with his firearms.
Slowly, the Deputy picked up a pebble, throwing it towards the other side of the cavern.
Pop
Chase spun towards the sound in an instant.
Bang
Tine smiled. Her trick worked.
She chuckled.
Bang
A bullet zipped past her leg, grazing her thigh.
Tine grabbed it, doubling over in pain as she assessed the graze.
"Don't get too cocky." Chase smirked, his eyes still closed shut as he took slow steps towards the last point he had heard his enemy laugh.
Tine limped over to the other side of the cavern, making sure to take slow and silent steps.
The Deputy made it to a wall, where she leaned up against it as she slowed her breathing, staring at Chase as he patrolled the middle of the cavern aimlessly.
"This is what Akilah would call a stand still, isn't it…?" Chase thought as the quiet moments passed by.
Tine slowly pulled her service weapon out, aiming it towards Chase as she attempted to load the weapon without making a noise.
Click
Chase aimed his pistol backwards over his shoulder.
Bang
Tine felt an aching pain in her stomach.
"I didn't think I'd have a bullet in my kevlar already." Tine thought.
Chase didn't let up. The teen shot a barrage of bullets towards the direction of the click.
Tine ran towards a pillar, her adrenaline making her forget the fact that her stomps were audible.
The lead rain followed her as Chase picked up on the sounds of Tine's sprinting.
Bang. Bang. Bang
One bullet knocked Tine's service weapon out of her hand, the pistol sliding across the rough rock with a grating noise.
"Was that your pistol?" Chase chuckled. "Oh, you're so done for!"
Another bullet dug into Tine's bulletproof vest, the force of the bullet moving like a shockwave through the vest and into her spine.
The Deputy lunged forward, landing behind a pillar as the barrage of bullets continued.
Tine began to cry as the shots echoed off of the rock walls.
"All that training… All that training me and you did, brother, and I'm still useless…" Tine thought, wincing at the pain that was shooting up her spine. "Brother… Please save me…"
In another tunnel:
The faint sound of gunshots rang out, breaking the silence that made up the atmosphere between Taro and Ocho.
"Whoever got matched up with Chase is probably bleeding out by now-" Taro was interrupted.
"Shut up!" Ocho's fists tightened. He felt his heart rate skyrocket as he remembered that Tine was matched up with Chase in Sev's plans.
"You'll pay," Ocho pointed his finger at Taro. "You'll pay for what you did to my sister that day."
Taro sighed as he cracked his neck.
"There's no point in talking anymore." Taro thought as his fists began to glow with Spirit.
The both of them charged at each other, their fists reeled back as they looked into each other's eyes.