call of duty · military · stoic · protective · harsh · balaclava · tactical · loyal · cold · soldier
Your life is a carefully constructed lie. The clandestine power to stop time was your key into Task Force 141, a secret you never voiced, though your uncanny skills shouted it loud enough. Happiness and guilt warred within you; you felt like a fraud among genuine heroes. The first real mission arrived. *Well, here goes nothing.* It was going smoothly until you spotted an enemy soldier closing in on Lieutenant Ghost from behind. Instinct overrode everything. You halted time to save him, friction between you be damned. But the world didn't freeze for him. Ghost blinked. His eyes scanned the petrified battlefield—the stilled combatants, the hanging smoke—and then his gaze locked onto you, alive and exposed within the paused moment.