Origins: Snapshots In Time 202

"You need to STOP acting like I'm bloody helpless!" Matthew Keller fired off agitatedly at the little Army Ranger in front of him. They'd scoured through half the base, and the entire time the woman had been jumping about and acting as though he was made of porcelain or fine china. It was getting very irritating!

"I never said that, you damned j--stubborn idiot!"

"Go on and say it! Jarhead! Well, that I might be, but breakable china, I'm not!"

"Oh, quit your belly-aching. You're just annoyed because I can do your role better!" Rina shot back and glowered up at the big Scorpion in front of her.

Matthew snorted, pushing his way past her. "I said I would work WITH you. I didn't say you should be taking the brunt of every fight, and I didn't say I would be hiding BEHIND you." He growled, shouldering a door open and starting through it.

Rina put her hands on her hips and GLARED at his back. When Tower saw the motion, he just groaned and covered his eyes with a muttered, "Oh, no... here it comes." Anytime Rina got THAT particular look and used THAT particular motion... an explosion tended to follow.

There was a blink, and she was gone, reappearing in front of Matthew and pushing ahead of him yet again. "Now you LISTEN you thick-headed, goddamned stubborn-assed gyrene! I never said you couldn't DO it. But it's STUPID of you to keep insisting on doing it when I don't even TAKE the damage! You just push THROUGH the damage and heal as you go, I don't get HURT! So QUIT fussing about it and just DEAL!" She spun about on her heels just as he was about to step around her, causing Matthew to backpedal just a bit and step to the side in order to keep moving forward.

Tower and Thorn just exchanged amused glances... but they were both keeping well away from the two bickering soldiers. "...if he hauls off and punches her, I won't hold it against him or your team." Tower chuckled.

"...if she hauls off and punches HIM, the same goes for you. They're both being stupidly bullheaded." Thorn countered with a laugh of his own as he and Tower moved in behind the two that were screaming at each other.

Thorn and Tower trailed the two through almost the entire base. This was just a quick drop-and-stop run. It was a skeleton crew in the base, and they were just the cleanup crew because both Matthew and Rina had needed some time out of their cages. So they'd decided to clean up the rest of this base... the databases and information might be useful at the end of it.

But neither Tower or Thorn had counted on the two soldiers bickering like an old married couple all the way through.

"Boiling point." Tower commented, as he stepped over another body and they could hear Matthew's tone picking up more and more of a growl, and Rina's tone getting more and more cool.

"What?" Thorn asked, shouldering his way through a door and trying to leave the computers intact as he shoved his way through the wreckage of some kind of table and project being worked on in the middle.

"Boiling point." Tower repeated. "I said, boiling point. They're both reaching a boiling point. When she starts getting quiet, you're really in trouble. Much safer if she's screaming at you..." He snickered.

"Oh... that. Yes, well, there's lots of things here to duck behind when they start throwing bombs at each other." Thorn smirked.

"You might just need them." Tower retorted dryly, as a piece of what had once been part of a metal table came flying through the doorway, and both Rina and Matthew's voices could be heard.

And they were still arguing.

"Keller, I swear to god, I'm going to--" Whatever else Rina was going to say was cut off, when Matthew point blank leaned down to go nose to nose with her. "Well now. That's getting a little close, isn't it?"

"GET. OFF. MY. ASS. And DEAL. WITH. IT." Matthew grated, biting off each word viciously as he glared at her, eye to eye. "I am NOT going to hide. The only problem here is we're both used to playing meatshield, and you can't stand the fact that you aren't the only one right now!"

"Oh, no, he did NOT." Rina snarled, and then reached up and just GRABBED Matthew by the upper edge of his armored vest. She pulled it, forcing him down to even more of a crouch. It was comical; he was bent down almost halfway. "YOU are having the same problem with it as I am, admit it!"

"Maybe I am. But at least I'm willing to work WITH you, I'm not trying to make you hide behind me!" He reached down and just yanked her hand free, grabbing her by the arm and propelling her forward.

The motion seemed to almost work. For about half a second. Until he reached to grab her by the arm and direct her around like some misbehaving pet. At least to Rina that's how it had come off. She jerked her arm free, walking alongside of him and glowered to the side, snapping her teeth at him. "Keep your goddamn hands off of me." Matthew had been JUST about to lay off and let it drop. And then she snapped her teeth like that.

In the wolfen den, that motion was a challenge when issued from one male to another. It was an invitation to fight. When issued from a female to a male, it was an entirely different sort of challenge. It was also an insult, meant to question without saying a word, a dominant male's ability to maintain his dominance - or to control his subordinates. Within the den and the pack, that snapping of teeth was met with an instant reaction.

And Matthew had spent enough time there, and had fallen so seamlessly into his role there, that even here, the expression - the snap of teeth from her - elicited the exact same sort of immediate response.

In the next blink of an eye, and before either Thorn or Tower knew what was going to happen or could move to stop it - Matthew grabbed hold of the front of Rina's armor and shoved her bodily against the wall. All withint he same motion of pushing her back like that, he ripped his helmet off and leaned in literally nose to nose with his teeth bared.

Rina was so startled by the sudden flash of utter feralness, that for once, she just STARED up at him. She was, for that moment, at a loss for words... she hadn't expected that.

Thorn just groaned - though he was trying very hard not to laugh at the same time, too - and looked at Tower. "We need to finish this up before they kill each other."

"Agreed." Tower laughed.

Thorn nodded, and just jabbed his comm pin, calling in their 'porter. It was time to separate these two... though he would have to play this tape for Bowser later. As serious as it was for them to be arguing like that... it was utterly hilarious, too.

Ghost popped in and Thorn just pointed at where Matthew still had Rina pinned to the wall and was quite literally growling his words at her. "Get him the hell out of here. THEN get her. THEN the rest of us."

Ghost blinked at the sight - and did as asked. Matthew's snarl of surprise when Ghost grabbed hold of him was swallowed by the abrupt whoosh-pop of the teleport.

And Rina let out a loud, aggravated SNARL as she glared at the space Matthew had recently been standing in.

"He's IMPOSSIBLE!!" She shouted, and viciously kicked a nearby chair across the room.