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“Jesus f-fuck, it’s freezing!”
A wave of frigid air hit Deimos, Sanford, and Hank as they exited their truck. Winters in Nevada were brutal ever since the original sun vanished— there was barely anything keeping the state from turning into a frozen wasteland. All three of them were bundled up for the cold weather—much to Sanford’s dismay—although Hank seemed to be much better off than their teammates. They’d always been better adapted to extreme temperatures.
“I knew it was cold out but this is nuts....” Sanford complained. “How the hell are you two not bothered by this?”
“I’ve got fire and Hank is just weird.” Deimos answered, earning a slap on the back of the head from the assassin in question.
They had arrived at a small building in hopes of finding supplies. It was the last one they'd planned on checking before heading back to base. Hank approached the door to the structure and tried to open it, except….it didn’t budge. Even when they tried pushing and pulling harder. It was frozen shut.
“Need some help there, big guy?” Deimos asked.
Hank backed away from the door and stared at it. Perhaps they just needed to use brute force. The assassin sprinted towards the door, bracing themselves and crashing through it, much to the shock of their teammates. After a moment of stunned silence from Sanford and laughter from Deimos, a gloved hand raised and gave them a thumbs up.
“Y’know we could’ve just climbed in through the window, right?” Sanford asked. Hank sat up and shrugged in response.
After Deimos managed to calm himself down, the two of them entered the building. It looked pretty empty— it had likely been abandoned a long time ago. But it was still worth taking a look, especially if there was a hidden room or basement.
Upon entering, it was unclear what kind of building this used to be. It was only one floor and had little more than a single room with a smaller closet. Perhaps it was some kind of storage area? Or an unfinished structure? Eh, the original purpose didn’t matter. What mattered is that there was something useful inside the crates.
The trio began prying crates open and looking inside. Most of them didn’t have anything useful. Sanford sighed as he pried open yet another crate, only to uncover something that caught his eye. A collection of oddly colorful boxes. He picked one up and took off his sunglasses to read the label properly.
Fireworks.
A huge grin formed on the man’s face. There were so many of them! Small fireworks, big fireworks, sparklers, all kinds contained in one place. Sanford could barely remember the last time he saw fireworks.
“Guys, you’ve gotta see this!” He called out. Deimos and Hank went over to see what Sanford was so excited about.
“Whoa, fireworks? What are all these doing here?” Deimos asked.
“I don’t know, but we hit the jackpot here! Look at all these!” Sanford picked up another box and showed it to them. “We should try ‘em out!”
Deimos cheered while Hank looked at them confused. They picked up one of the packaged fireworks and inspected the box. It was oddly colorful, far more colorful than anything else they’d seen.
“Wait….have you never seen fireworks before, Hank?” Sanford asked. Hank shook their head. “Oh you’ve been missing out! They’re a bit loud but a ton of fun, you’re gonna love it.”
Sanford and Deimos took a bunch of fireworks out and went outside while Hank carried the crate to the truck. They both seemed pretty excited….but Hank didn’t really know what fireworks were. How did they work? Did Sanford know how to use them? The assassin watched as the other two unpacked some of the fireworks and cleared the snow out of the way.
“Right here’s perfect. We’ll light ‘em and then book it, it’ll be great.” Sanford said. He stepped back with the fuse and admired their handiwork. “You ready?”
“Hell yeah.”
Sanford handed the fuse to Deimos, who flicked his thumb to spark a fire and light the fuse. The two of them quickly dropped the lit fuse and ran towards Hank, eagerly awaiting when the fireworks would fly. The taller of the three looked at them confusedly— why did they run away? Was it toxic? Their train of thought was interrupted by a whooshing sound as the fireworks flew into the sky, followed by a loud boom and a flash of colorful light.
“Woohoooo! That was AWESOME!” Sanford cheered. “We gotta do it again!”
Hank was absolutely mesmerized. It was….beautiful. Loud, but beautiful. How had they missed out on this before?! They looked around and dashed towards the crate, digging around in it. There had to be something even better in there.
“Whatcha lookin’ for, big guy?” Deimos asked.
Hank turned around with an especially large box in their hands, vibrating from excitement. The largest firework they could find, big enough that there was a large warning label on the side. It was funny seeing someone as cruel and violent as Hank acting like a kid in a candy store over some fireworks.
“Damn, that’s a big one. Let’s give it a shot!” Sanford said, grabbing the box and opening it up. “Get me a couple of the smaller ones too, we can set ‘em off together.”
Hank began digging through the crate in search of more fireworks. There were so many colors and patterns to choose from, it was hard to decide which ones they wanted. Eventually they settled on a mix of fireworks with different colors and handed them to Sanford. They could barely contain their excitement as they watched him and Deimos set up the fireworks, sitting on a pile of rubble and swinging their legs like a little kid.
“You ready, Dei?” Sanford asked?
“Yeah. What about you, big guy?” Deimos turned towards Hank, who gave them a thumbs up.
The two of them ignited the fuse and sprinted towards the rubble pile, with Deimos nearly tripping and falling into the snow. Both of them managed to get back to Hank before the fuse ran out, and all three stared at the fireworks in anticipation.
Except….nothing happened.
“Shouldn’t they have gone off by now?” Deimos asked. “Maybe I should check on ‘em.”
Deimos slowly approached the fireworks. What happened? Did the fuse get put out? They were trying to use fireworks in snow….it could’ve gotten wet and stopped working. As the hacker cautiously looked around for the fuse, he didn’t seem to notice that it was still going.
FWOOSH
The sound of the fireworks firing made Deimos stumble and fall backwards. It was a delayed launch. Him and his allies watched as the fireworks flew into the air, with the smaller ones exploding first. Where was the bigger o—
K A B O O M
It was the loudest and brightest of all the fireworks, so bright that it illuminated the area for a split second. Sanford and Deimos both cheered in excitement while Hank stared in awe. It was a beautiful display of light and sound, a splash of color against the dark Nevada sky. It was beautiful. Part of them didn’t want it to end.
“Looks like Hank’s pretty happy. You like the fireworks, big guy?” Sanford asked. Hank nodded. “I wonder if we could use them as a distraction against the Agency….or we could launch them at their faces.”
“Don’t give me ideas, San. You know damn well I could make a firework launcher if I wanted.” Deimos interjected.
‘That would be a good distraction.’ Hank signed.
“Woohoo, firework launcher! Let’s head back to the base, I’m already getting ideas.”
Sanford picked up the crate of fireworks and placed it in the truck while Deimos and Hank trudged through the snow. After some thought, the shorter of the group suddenly sprouted a mischievous grin. He kneeled down and gathered some snow in his hands, packing it into a ball and staring at Sanford. He only had one shot at this. It had to count.
Ready....
Aim....
“Ah shit, dropped one.” Sanford bent down to pick up a sparkler.
Fire.
“GAH!”
The snowball hit him right on the ass. Sanford nearly jumped out of his skin and spun around to see Deimos trying—and failing—to contain his laughter. Oh, if it’s a fight he wants, it’s a fight he’ll get. Sanford bent down to gather his own snowball before launching it directly into Deimos’s chest. That same mischievous grin came right back when he realized what was going to happen.
“So that’s how it’s gonna be, eh hunkachunk? Bring it on!”
Hank watched as Sanford bolted towards Deimos armed with another snowball. The hell just happened? A surprise snowball fight? The assassin looked down at the snow before gathering up a bunch of it into a large ball, glancing back and forth between their teammates.
“Get back here, Deimos! This is war!” Sanford shouted.
“You’ll never take me alive! Neve—“
The shorter man’s response was cut short by a large snowball hitting him directly in the face, knocking him onto his back. Sanford skidded to a halt and burst into a fit of laughter. Hey, that was actually pretty fun! Hank picked up two more handfuls of snow and stared down their teammates, who both looked at them in surprise and glee.
“Snowball fiiiiight!”
It would certainly be strange to see three fully grown mercenaries having a snowball fight in the middle of an open field, but they didn’t care. They were having a great time. For a moment, nothing else was on their minds— no agency, no psychotic clowns, no one hunting them down. Just the three of them having a blast in the snow.
It was nice to take a little break from combat every once and a while. Even rebels need to have some fun.