As the World Burns

Somewhere outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
9:53 local time.

Valkoinen wiped the sweat off her brow. The fan that blew on her and flittered the bits of long hair that hung off the bun she pulled it up into looked like it hadn't moved or been turned off in decades. On the creaky desk in front of her was laid out in pieces Val's Mosin–Nagant. She was cleaning it as she looked out the window into the favela which was slowly being overcome by the Brazilian heat. She was dressed in olive mesh tank top and camo pants.

"This is with the being easy peasy." Valkoinen said and turned to look at Casia Crimson, who preferred the more familiar term, Cass. While The White Death had settled down a bit after her frozen heart melted a bit, she had realized that she was not ready to completely leave the mercenary life. Her and Cass had barely even done any wrestling but maintained a high level of fitness as they continued to take work.

today was a bit routine. An upstart in the UPP was causing some trouble. The government couldn't be involved, but if he just happened to get a bullet in his head during a "spontaneous riot," well, what could be done?

"You were not even with the being needed to come on ho-hum job." Valkoinen said and glanced at Cass as she began putting her rifle back together now that it was clean.

Cass had been sitting in a chair by the door checking the scope on her Remmington Model 700 M24 as Val cleaned her gun. "Hey you never know when something could go wrong. And besides i don't mind traveling with you." Cass said as she loved watching Val work. Cass would set her gun to lean it against the wall. "Besides, i have to stick around to make sure you don't screw up." Cass said jokingly as she waited for Val to do her job.

"What?" Val scoffed and turned her icy gaze towards Cass. "I am not even with the understanding of the words you are with the saying. What is with this "screwing up?" Pleased to be speaking in words that I am with the understanding.

Val shook her head as she inspected her gun. The "riots" weren't for a little while, so they had some time to kill. "I am with the thinking that you are maybe with the telling joke? You are with the needing to work on your material. I am not even with the laughing briefly, with the ha!" She said, and tried her best to make the noise with her high pitched voice. Her face did not even try to approximate a smile.

Cass just laughed and smiled at Val. "You are with the being too serious." Cass said mocking the way Val talked. "I was joking around but don't worry about that. Are you sure you can get a good shot from here?" Cass said as she looked out the window to view the city before them.

"It is beautiful out there. I wish we weren't here are on a mission. I would love to take you on a date here." Cass said as before moving back to where she left her rifle. "Of course i don't think you are a fan of this heat." Cass said as she looked over at the fan blowing on Val's face.

Valkoinen continued to furrow her brow at Cass. Sometimes she was ridiculous. "My heart is as cold as Finnish winter! It is with the keeping me cool even in scorching heat!" Valkoinen shook her head and looked back out the window.

"You are with the wanting to take me on date in broken down, poverty stricken favela?" Valkoinen said. "I am with the questioning of your romantic side." She said seriously. She lifted her gun up to check the shot and focused down the alleyway. "You are thinking this is with the bad location? All of the city is with the being location. I would with the having to be blind to be with the missing of shot here."

Several meters out a UH-60 Black Hawk Utility helicopter was closing in on a favela located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

"Four hundered meters and closing!" Roared the pilot over the intercom to the crew in the back, who were readying their weapons. Three young boys of about eighteen years of age were sitting side by side, wearing urban camo and were going through their rifles that resembled M4A1 rifles save for the barrels being colored blue, in addition to pistols resting on their hips.

In front of them was a  dark haired woman, who appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties, clutching a rather large automatic weapon called the M249 light machine gun. She bore no camo and her eyes lacked any stress or enthusiasm, she simply remained calmed and collected as her younger comrades readied up for the mission, hoping everything would go without a hitch and she wouldn't have to use her gun.

In the back of the chopper however, alone with a lit cigarette sat a woman with golden blonde hair and a patch over her right eye. This woman, clad in black fatigues and tan body armor, with matching gloves and combat boots, took a long drag of her cigarette before she stood up and made her way to the front of the chopper, putting her gloved hand on the pilot's seat.

"Heathen..." She said. "Yes sir!" Said the pilot. "Find us an open area, we're dropping The Dogs first with support following close behind and play my song." Ordered the woman before turning around to face her crew.

"Alright men! We are about to commence operation Black Blowdart! You know the drill, the target is a Finnish woman, about five feet one inch tall and a hundred pounds... She is The White Death and she certainly lives up to her name! I urge extreme caution with this one but don't like that stop you, we are taking her back to Russia before the night is over! Diamond Dog unit, you're dropping first! Swan will be your support! I don't wanna see any civilian casualties in the favela, you find the target and do your job, do you get me!?"

"We get you, Major!" Answered the four squad mates to their commander, who simply smiled, took a drag from her cigarette and turned to watch as the helicopter approached the favela. The Major then hit a button and the loud speaker came on, playing a song...

"True" by Spandau Ballet began to play over the helicopter speakers as it flew over the gathering crowd in the favela, who stopped to look up into the sky as a military chopper began to circle around the favela before several metal canisters were shot down into the crowd, each of them releasing tear gas the moment it struck the ground, disrupting the crowd that would scream and panic as they dispersed into the streets, soon much of the alleyway was masked with gas, covering up the dropping of three male soldiers who leaped out of the helicopter and dropped onto the favela streets, each of them wearing gas masks...

Spoiler:

 The three of them continued to advance, their guns equipped with flashlights, expecting every person to find their target while a fourth person dropped from the helicopter, taking a position behind the three troopers.

Spoiler:

Swan took her position behind the boys, while they scouted the arena, splitting up and checking every house for Val... With the occasional discharge on a civilian being heard, but it didn't sound like normal gunfire. It was noticeably silent.

">Find the girl! Find the girl!<" The woman shouted in Arabic.

Cass was sitting in her chair waiting for the festivities to start when she thought she heard something going on. "Hey Val, What time is the riot supposed to start?" Cass said as she swore she heard something wrong. Cass would grip her rifle harder as she would move away from the door and move closer to Val.

Cass would move herself so that her back was to Val and her gun pointed at the door. "Hey, i have a bad feeling about this." Cass would say even though she felt she was being paranoid. "Do you see anything out there?"

"Shhh!"

Valkoinen hissed as soon as Cass spoke and instantly her rifle was up, pressed against her shoulder as she looked out the window where smoke and terrible music filled the favela with chaos.

She carefully surveyed the area, taking note of what was going on and then looked around at the chaos on the streets. "I should be with the thanking these cretins. Now with their obnoxiousness, we can be with the getting back home early. We will not be with the needing to wait for riots. The chaos has been with the gift wrapped for us." She said as she closed her eyes and stood up. She surveyed the musty streets, looking for the individual and tried to line up her shot while he tried to calm mass of citizenry down, doing his duties as a member of the UPP.

From the cloud of tear gas emerged the three lead soldiers before they began to take aim at members of the UPP, hitting them in the temple with rubber bullet rounds, the three of them advanced forth before hitting a particular one right between the eyes, dropping him instantly as the crowd dispersed.

"Any sign!?" Said the Major over the Radio.

"Not yet ma'am!" They replied as they slowly began to approach Valkoinen and Cass' vicinity, guns ready, the one with silver hair drawing his tranquilizer pistol.

Cass was keeping her eyes on the door as she heard gunfire from outside. "Val i would appreciate if you could hurry up. I am not liking the situation." Cass said as she kept her gun steady. Cass was starting to think that this situation was getting worse by the second. Cass wanted to just grab the smaller Val and run for it but Cass knew better than to interrupt Val in the middle of a mission.