from @the-astral-idiot : Hi folks! For my piece, I got to write about @starshin3’s OC Afanc! I really hope I did him justice and didn’t overstep on anything… Hope y’all enjoy!
“Man, why do we gotta go on a mission right after Christmas? This is mad…” Phoenix groaned as the chopper stuttered through the air.
Afanc looked at his brother and shook his head, chuckling. Sure, it hadn’t been 2 days since they got back from home until Brimstone shouted that they had more missions to complete, but Afanc saw it as a necessary part of the job. They had to fight and keep the world safe, after all. Help others that didn’t even know they needed help. “Come on Jamie, we’ve gotta do some work. We’ve been gone for long enough, yeah?”
Phoenix groaned again. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Just wishin’ we could’ve stayed with mums and Mary for a little longer.”
The conversation ended as the VLT/R touched down on Bind. The team, consisting of Afanc, Phoenix, Gekko, Brimstone, and Cypher, hopped out.
“Pretty standard mission for today, everyone,” Brimstone noted. A few images flashed across his bracer’s projection as he tapped at the device. “The Legion wants to set up some kind of enhanced Spike here. Shouldn’t be any more trouble than our usual business, though.”
Afanc raised an eyebrow upon hearing the words “enhanced Spike.” He remembered all the panic about a Megaspike being planted in Paris, with Phoenix nearly being shot out the air trying to get to their sister in time.
He shook himself out of his worries as Brimstone turned to the team. “Cypher, Phoenix, you’ll be with me, set up on A site. So, Gekko, Afanc, I can trust you two to handle B site, correct?”
“You’ve got it, boss man!” Gekko affirmed. Wings chirped happily from his shoulder. Afanc chuckled fondly.
He felt a nudge from his side. “Eyes still on the skater boy, huh? Pretty lucky Brim put ‘ya on one team then!”
“You’ve tried the things I’ve told you to, yeah?”
In all honesty, he had wanted to. Smearing his hands with cheesy one-liners, practicing smooth gestures in the mirror that Phoenix himself could barely pull off, much less Afanc… But it never seemed to be the right time. Either Gekko was busy, or it would be awkward, or… just Afanc felt like it wouldn’t be right to get very close. Gekko was too cool for someone like him…
Snapping Afanc out of his stupor again was the sound of Brimstone cocking the charging handle on his Vandal. “Alright, then. Let’s move. Safeties off!”
Gekko grinned at Afanc, who sheepishly smiled back, and they went off to guard B.
“Man, when are those guys gonna get here?”
Afanc glanced at Gekko, who was leaning against the wall. Wingman and Dizzy were currently keeping themselves busy by chasing each other in circles.
He chuckled at the sight. “C’mon, Gekko. Focus.”
To be honest, though, Afanc himself was getting a little antsy. It had been 15 minutes since they got to the site, and no sign of the Valorant Legion anywhere. Afanc and Cypher had set up their equipment and abilities on their respective sites, and Cypher confirmed there was no trace of them on A site.
Maybe the intel was bad? Maybe the Legion wouldn’t be coming. Maybe they were alright for a change, and could back out. How he hoped they could-
A flashbang soared in from over the wall, light beginning to burst out with a shrill pulse.
Afanc dove into the box in the middle of site as the flash banged. Spoke too soon, huh?
He glanced out, and saw Gekko ducked behind boxes as bullets whizzed past them. Turning, he saw KAY/O unloading an Odin into the site. The sight was honestly a little terrifying.
Just as KAY/O began moving forward into site, though, his gun ran out of ammo. Afanc heard a robotic “damn it” as the mechanical agent tried to strafe behind cover and reload. This was his chance.
Rushing out from cover, Afanc activated the trap he’d set. Water pooled on the once-arid ground, rising in a foamy swirl that rapidly overwhelmed the floor beneath KAY/O. Dragged out of cover with no way to defend himself, he was completely open as Afanc shot him in the head, and he collapsed.
Afanc took a couple deep breaths, eyes trained on every entrance. After a few long moments had passed, he lowered his gun.
“Qué padre, man, that was sick!” he heard Gekko say as he walked up to him.
The other agent nodded fervently. “Yeah, man, great work!”
Afanc let out an internal sigh of relief before smiling to himself, both due to the affirmation and the person it came from. “Great work,” he repeated in his head.
“I’ll keep it up,” Afanc responded out loud.
He realized something quickly, though. If there was only one Legion agent on their site… “Wait-!”
Over comms, Phoenix’s voice crackled to life. “Afanc! Gekko! They’re over here! Get to B site, now-”
The comms were drowned out by the sound of rushing water.
That could only mean two things.
Either the Legion sent Harbor… or…
“Come on, let’s go,” Afanc subconsciously echoed his brother, tightening his grip on his gun and motioning Gekko to follow him.
Together, they rushed towards B site.
When they got there, they were greeted with the sight of B site completely drenched, beads dripping off walls, puddles of water and sand mingling on the floor.
Afanc ducked behind a wall once he noticed Legion’s agents. Two in total—the others must’ve dealt with two of them before whatever happened, happened.
And as Afanc spotted one of the Legion agents, his eyes narrowed as he realized what that was.
His mirror stood, face stoic, next to mirror Jett as she planted the spike. Nearby lay Brimstone and Cypher. Afanc was sure Phoenix was somewhere nearby, hopefully still up, but there was no way of knowing considering what he last heard over the comms…
…The image of his own face, and of his allies' bodies on the ground, echoed in his mind. Him standing there, surrounded by his team, all dead.
It was his fault, wasn’t it? Afanc should’ve done more. He should’ve realized something was wrong, should’ve come to help sooner. Should’ve done enough to stop it. Now, his mirror was standing above their corpses. Why didn’t he do something?
After a moment of thought, he committed. “Gekko. Throw out Dizzy. I’ll go in.”
The other agent turned to him, caught off-guard. “You sure, dude? You’re gonna be pretty outnumbered…”
“Back me up if you really think I need it, but…” Afanc channeled a stream of water around his arm and said nothing more.
Gekko, hesitant, nodded, picking up Dizzy and tossing her out. Blobs of glowing radiant plasma shot out alongside Afanc as he rushed in, blinding Jett and the mirror Afanc before they could react.
Afanc shot down Jett just as the plasma evaporated, but his mirror managed to clip him in the shoulder, forcing him behind cover. He could see Gekko out of the corner of his eye, braced behind the entrance to site, glancing at him. Afanc shook his head and mouthed “wait,” hoping he’d understand from this far. He couldn’t risk getting someone else hurt.
From here, Afanc could also get a closer look at the “enhanced Spike.” It looked mostly the same, except that the glowing sections were an ominous purple. Bolts of energy had been arcing off of it in random directions, and the crates of radianite nearby were beginning to glow. Thoughts of the “Megaspike” rose up with a vengeance in his mind, memories of the chaos that nearly broke out and dragged his family in with it. He needed to hurry.
Turning back towards Gekko, Afanc gestured at him to send out Wingman to defuse. After a second, Gekko understood and carefully directed his companion, handing him the defuser. Neither Afanc nor Gekko knew if the normal defuser would work on this Spike, but they had to try.
The moment the tell-tale sound of the Spike’s defusal beeped out, Afanc spotted his mirror’s head peek out from behind the wall he’d hidden behind. Immediately, Afanc dove out from his own cover and began laying down fire.
“Come on, just die already!” he shouted, pushing closer and closer to his target. His mirror kept sprinting between hiding spots at this point, and it was getting more and more infuriating-
Afanc stumbled when he saw his brother’s body.
Of course, doing what they did, he was well-acquainted with the sight of Phoenix being shot and even taken down. It was, after all, one of his strengths: his ability to keep getting up. And if he couldn’t, Sage could always patch him up after the fact.
After everything that had happened today, though? After all of Afanc’s failures to help, to do something good, seeing Phoenix’s body cold and soaked with supernatural water (Afanc’s own, even if it was a him from another world) was the final straw.
“Enough!” Afanc sent a torrent of water crashing through the halls of Bind in a furious cascade, forcing his mirror out of cover dazed and disoriented as the waves met every surface with concussive force.
Recognizing his defeat, the mirror tried to turn tail and retreat. Just before he could get too far, though…
A streak of green soared through the air above them, landing just in front of the mirror and coating every inch of his escape with radivore. Unable to stop himself, he tripped forward as it detonated, flinging him back towards his pursuers.
Afanc glanced behind himself to see Gekko cocking his gun. “He’s all yours, Afanc. You got this.”
Gratefulness filled Afanc as he turned back towards his mirror. Gekko had faith in him to do this correctly. Now he just had to finish things.
The feeling from before, staring at his own face, knowing what he’d done, had only intensified now that they were closer. Rage simmered under his skin, a turbulent tide threatening to spill over and drown him.
The two water radiants stared at each other for a long moment. Eyes narrowed, teeth grit behind their lips, perfectly synchronized in their hatred.
After what felt like eternity, Afanc pulled the trigger and killed his copy.
He could feel Gekko’s eyes on him from behind. For a moment, Afanc feared he’d somehow made the wrong choice, despite how he felt about his mirror.
But Gekko simply put an arm around his shoulder and nodded. “Bien hecho, man.”
Another sigh of relief, this time external. No time for doubting he did the right thing there, especially since Gekko had already made his thoughts clear. “Yeah. Couldn’t have done it without you, though.”
“Nah, man, you had it.” Gekko grinned at him. “C’mon, Wings got the Spike. Let’s grab everyone and head to the pick up point.”
Afanc still felt a tension in his core, though. Had he done enough, yet? Proven his value with enough good effort? He was still unsure.
Looking back at the body of his brother only made it more difficult to figure out. But… then he looked at Gekko, who’d been nothing but supportive, thought of his grinning face… and he thought he could keep trying.
As a part of the Valorant Protocol, he’d have more missions. More chances to make good choices and justify himself.
And with that thought, he picked up Phoenix, and made his way to the VLT/R.
