Learning to Dance

glowing faintly through the cave.
“Metal Gear,” said Up, and Taz knew from his voice that
he had seen it before.
He turned to her.
“This is going to be one tough son of a bitch,” he said,
pulling out his zapper and checking to see that it was fully
charged. “But its weak spot is in the legs. If I can get it off
balance...” He took her by the shoulders. “I’ll keep this
bastard busy. You set the charges.”
He wanted her out of the way. She looked up at him,
accusingly. He’d never tried to be protective of her before.
“Taz-” his voice broke. “Taz, just do it, all right?
Destroying that phason is the most important thing to me
right now.”
His eyes were trying to tell her something more.
Taz nodded, slowly, accepting if not understanding it.
The explosives hung heavily from her belt, and his fingers
gripped tightly to her shoulders before he released her and
turned to face the robot.
He advanced on the walking tank, the red phason behind
casting an eerie light on the scene. Taz pressed herself to
the wall of the cave as she side-stepped discreetly toward
the deposit, her eyes on the monster, on Up.
Watching Up fight was like watching magic at work, a
paintbrush on canvas, a dancer onstage. He leapt from the
floor of the cave to one of the robot’s legs, moving too fast
for it to see him coming, his zapper seeking weaknesses in
its armour, finding them, exploiting them. The robot
screeched, a horrible sound of grinding metal, and shook
him off. He rolled out of the way of its massive feet -
Taz shook herself, and started moving again. Up was
doing just fine. He was right - she had a job to do now.
She reached the phason, felt the heat radiating from it,
and wondered just how combustible it was. The charges she