middleofsomewhere | Mission Five: Conclusion

Mission Five: Conclusion

The Voidtreckers turn the tide, save the day. That isn't to say it is easy or straightforward, the battles are tough but together Red Team prevents the mega weapon getting through, orange team maintain shields, blue team fend off those trying to attack the command centre and purple fight the battle of their lives.

The system is safe and everyone who hasn't already evacuated back to the train using their SCA can gather on the space station again. There is a roar of noise as the Void Trecker Express appears in the hanger once more, noise and wind rushing through their hair it is no mystery why the army here reacted in shock at their initial arrival.

Hitrinto is there, as are many of those the void treckers have met in their week in this system. Here to thank them for their timely rescue and to wave them off.

The voidtreckers as well are reunited, the four teams back as one and it is time to re-board the Voidtrecker Express and move on to the next adventure!

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"I don't think I've ever been so glad to see this in my life..."

It's an honest sentiment as she stares at the Train, travel mug of something in hand. As far as Eva knows, it is tea; smells like it and tastes like it. And very much a drink she's actually been hanging out to try but wasn't able to in the chaos of maintaining the shields and then that last desperate day. She'd managed to grab a travel mug of it, and it was already a third gone. Little does she know she's going to come to regret it.

That said, she's eager to get on the train, and once on it, she takes one of the Welcome Leaflets and grabs a table in the Standard Coach to scribble notes on it, or rearrange current information so it reads better.

It's light work with limited new information added. Oh well. They can sort everything out after the next platform when they've all had time to decompress from this mission. Not that it hurt to get a headstart on it, either.

Well, not for as long as it takes to finish her tea before she hunts down Kaito and properly explains Marsh Walkers to him.

Edited 2020-03-28 15:27 (UTC)

"Fuck..." She'd known what was coming since she'd seen the blotches of red on her arms shortly before she'd found Kaito. Easily hidden by the hoodie, but she knew that if it got out, the Train would take coffee away.

She refused to be the cause of that. It'd cause a riot.

She'd tried to ride it out as best she could while explaining the game to him, but with how pale she'd gotten and general hiding in the hoodie like nothing to see here, plus the general dizziness and slowly creeping visible unease. Yeah.

She'd excused herself and practically fled down the train towards Medical (or the nearest toilet, damned nausea), head ducked just enough so it wasn't easy to tell she was having an allergic reaction.

"'cuse me, coming through-"

Please move person; she doesn't feel well and you are in the way.

"Iden'no-san!"

Kaito races after her, worried.

"What's wrong?"

Kaiba's still coming down from the adrenaline rush as he boards, and it leaves him oddly tired. Looks like he put his uniform shirt on inside out, but not that he cares. He just wants to nap.

That ends when someone crashes into his back and he nearly tips over, throwing his arms against the wall of the train to brace himself, hanging in the air for a moment before he turns around.

"Watch where you're going, you---Eva?"

He puts a hand on her elbow.

"What's the big hurry?"

She has the decency to look up and wince. Of all the people she could have run into. Damnit. "Ate something that didn't agree with me. You know it is, hahaha..."

Even she knows that's a weak come back as she edges around him. "Sorry. I-"

Need to go get anti-histamines and epipen and probably camp out in medical or at least near a toilet for a while. "It happens sometimes."

Gladio felt like an idiot. He felt that way because he was one. A monumental, colossal, all encompassing idiot. He felt ashamed of himself. Guild, anger, frustration... regret. It all boiled around inside of him, though his expression remained neutral, aside from the fact his jaw was clenched and a muscle in his cheek would twitch occasionally.

He lay in a cot at the far end of the medical carriage, one arm thrown across his eyes and his other... his other was bound tight to his chest? Why was it bound tight to his chest? Because he was a damn idiot, that's why.

How he had managed to do what he had done, Gladio had no idea. Or, should he say, he didn't know how he hadn't noticed.

The fighting had been terrible. And long. It felt like it would never end. They came at them in waves. Take one down and two would appear behind them. There had been so many near misses, not all of his fighters had left unscathed but he hadn't lost any... Though he knew there had been a loss. He hadn't known the kid who had been killed, but he did know people who had. He felt awful for them. Part of him felt he'd somehow dropped the ball, he should have been there to guard the kids. But he hadn't. He'd been up at the command center doing his best to keep the bastards from getting inside.

But at some point he'd been shot by one of those space guns. Oh, he'd been shot before by them. He'd managed to dodge them for the most part. The burns on his hip and arms were proof of that. Somehow though, this particular shot hadn't been dodged as effectively, and he'd earned himself a coin sized hole straight through his shoulder. And Gladio hadn't even noticed. He'd just kept fighting. He hadn't stopped until the Enemy just stopped coming... and a cool hand had touched his arm, and a much loved voice told him everything was alright.

It had been like his strings were cut. Gladio had fell to his knees in a daze and barely remembered how the hell they had gotten to the train, but Prompto had gotten him there. Somehow. He'd been patched up. Blood loss, they said. Couldn't use his left arm, they said. Nothing they could do about him being a complete idiot, they didn't say, but they didn't have to. Gladio knew.

Edited 2020-03-28 18:45 (UTC)

Most people trying to talk to Nita will have to deal with a metaphorical wall of exhaustion, first - that last trick she'd pulled off had taken a lot out of her.

But she made sure to thank Hitrinto and their comrades before making her way back on the train, briefly wondering where it had been while the fighting had gone on...

The peridexis took note of that as well.

People could still catch her for a chat, of course, but at this point it might have been best just to let her collapse on her bed in Cabin 4:B.

Renee shoved her way in, though she knocked on the door jamb a little just to announce her presence. In one hand she had a plate with a fork--but those clearly were for veggies, as there was also skewered meat on it too. It at least looked like it was probably beef...

"Figured you could use a snack. How ya feeling?" Though it was clear by the look on his face that Gladio wasn't happy in the least, and probably not actually feeling all that hot, either. "You got enough pain meds? I brought you a snack."

Yeah, with Gladio, she figured that probably was just a snack. "Gotta keep all that strength of yours up, ya know."

He supposed they'd forgotten to put the 'do not disturb' sign on his door. But he had a feeling even if they had put it up, Renee wouldn't have paid it any attention.

Gladio moved his arm, lifting it to drop back above his head and turned his attention to the redhead and his 'snack'. He appreciated it. He really did. But he didn't think he deserved it really.

"Feel like shit." He replied. "Pain meds are... slowly kicking in." There was an ache but it wasn't the pain it had been before. Once Gladio had realised it was actually there, the pain had washed over him in a wave that had made him near sick. "... You don't have anywhere better to be?" Instead of bothering with him. Surely there were others who would need this kind of fussing?

Prompto reached over from where he sat next to the medical bed and smoothed back Gladio's hair from his brow. "Glads, you were so focused on the fight! Come on.. give yourself a break."

He felt for the large man, who was such a respected fighter back home. The blonde felt bad too for not preventing Gladio from getting hurt in the first place. He'd managed to stop another blow that would've been fatal, but Gladio had gotten hurt anyway.

"Because of you, we held the force back from reaching the kids on our team. You should be proud of that. I know I am."

Gladio did realise that he was being childish. His concerns, his feelings stemmed from the fact things could have gone so damn badly. They'd been lucky. His ignoring his wound had helped him get through to the end. But it could easily have taken him out. Would they have still protected the command center if he had? While he didn't have enough ego to believe he had single handedly stopped them, he knew that he, along with the others, had created a wall of defence. If one brink in that wall had been taken away, could the rest have crumbled?

And what about the kid who had died? The others who had been hurt? Maybe he couldn't have protected them all, but maybe... maybe if he had worked harder and faster to get the Enemy off of the station?

He closed his eyes. Head turning a little into that gentle touch. Prompto was at his side. The only one he really wanted there. He felt bad for making him worry... Removing his arm from across his eyes, Gladio gave his love a wan smile. "I'm proud of you." He shot back, deep voice pitched low. "Don't think I could have done any of it without you."

a. shellshocked
Kaiba had to rest at the station for a good few minutes before the train arrived. He was more shaken than he'd like to admit---he'd pulled through the battle and forced back the enemy ships, but truly going into battle wasn't quite like a video game. He could be found leaning against a wall, arms folded tightly. They did it. Great job. Still, even in this state he kept an eye out for familiar faces and lifted a hand in greeting.

b. scrap tetris
When he got his wits back, he then started on asking the crew for small bits of metal and wiring to bring back. He needed to start inventing again to keep his mind on other things. Just how much could he stuff in the empty spaces of his rucksack? You might find him with a pile of spare parts strewn around him, carefully measuring wire.

He's not wrong. But if he'd been asleep, Renee would have peeked in and left the snack with a dome over it for later, or something like that. Signs are for sissies.

"Maybe, but I've been hurt before, and I know how it's a godsend for someone to check on you and do for you when you can't." Renee shook her head, then. "Homework's started, though I got time off for it for breathing space from the mission. I did the hard stuff first." Like math. Renee wasn't fond of that.

"You might wanna eat a little of that, slow. Pain meds can make you wanna hurl, too, and that's no fun." Especially when you were stuck in a cot.

"'Sup Stilts!" Renee called from where the pilots were disgorging themselves. She was more than a bit sad that Team Fandango was probably not going to keep rolling now that things were done--but the redhead would be damned if she'd stop being friends with Prisoner and Spinel. Or Seto himself, for that matter.

She gave him a very gentle pat on the shoulder. "How you holding up? You don't look bruised, which is good." Renee probably wouldn't be quite as chipper if she hadn't been through this sort of rodeo, in its way, once or twice before, but she had no problems attempting to buoy him up.

Yugi really didn't know what to think. It was certainly something. Their first mission was not what he was expecting. But the young man was trying his best to keep going and to try and focus on other things instead of what just happened.

So he was more than admittedly relieved when he spotted the familiar face. It was a good enough distraction.

"Kaiba...It's good to see you after this hectic time"

He didn't quite react until she touched him, and then it was as if he was hit with a jolt of lightning. He looked up, taking a sharp breath---and forcibly grounded himself.

"Red..."

That's what he'd decided to call her, apparently. "I was burned earlier, but my life was never in serious danger. You, on the other hand, look as bright and obnoxious as ever."

A snort. He was trying to be his usual self, but there was a glimmer of concern in his expression.

"Yugi."

There was something almost like a smile on Kaiba's face. He let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding and approached.

"I saw you join the fighter pilots. You gave them a fight, right?"

He'd been hurt a time or two himself. His scars would attest to that. But it was less the injury and more the feeling that he could have done more that had him feeling the way he did. That and he was stupid. How did you get hurt and NOT realise?

When Renee explained how she could be there and not busy somewhere else, a look of concern flashed across Gladio's face. "Breathing space? You didn't actually... Are you alright?" Everything else was forgotten in that split second as he looked her over trying to find where she had been injured, if she had been.

Bucky had vanished while sitting right next to him on a two person ship. Maglor and Maedhros both had disappeared on this trip. Romeo and his precious Buttercup had gone missing. Ignis was gone. Ignis! And Joss..

He'd been so close to having a son. No, Joss had already become a son to him. It just hadn't reached the technical or legal levels yet, but the love had been there for a while now. The boy was such a complex creature being both ancient and so naive and childlike. How had they gone from insulting words that very first day to the familial relationship they had now? Had. Past tense. His son was dead.

He'd been treated briefly in the medical room and came back to his room to freshen up. Now he sat in his lounge pants and a robe draped on his shoulders on his bed, head in hand. The teddy bear he'd bought Buttercup in his lap, his other hand holding it.

Edge was right. It was a selfish desire for Tony to want to do the ultimate sacrifice in place of anyone else on this train. A part of him understood the ninja's resentment towards it, but he also believed it was his youth that was making it hard to understand fully. The truth was, once you were dead, you didn't hurt anymore. It's the ones you leave behind who have to grieve and he'd already grieved so much in his life. Now he got to add a son to that list and it was more than he could bear. Would he see Ignis again or just his shadow leaving on the next platform? He didn't know and wouldn't until it was too late.

Edited 2020-03-28 21:39 (UTC)

The first chance he could, Dyme collapsed into the nearest empty seat on the train. He felt like he hadn't actually done much to help out, but at the same time he was exhausted. He hoped every mission wasn't going to be this stressful and tense and full of fighting, or else he wasn't sure how he was going to handle it. Navigating the stress of the music world had been one thing, but being on the sidelines of a literal warzone had been something else entirely.

His hands weren't shaking anymore at least when he rubbed them over his face, heaving a sigh. If there was one thing he'd learned over the last few days, it was that he really missed home, more than he had any other time while on the train so far. Home had Salem and his band, people he could vent to, maybe get drunk with, forget the stressful things for a while. Here he...hadn't made friends like that yet, and he didn't think there was alcohol readily available anyway. The second thing was probably for the best.

"I don't ever want to do that again," he muttered.

The end of this mission was just awful. People got hurt. Someone actually died. People are disappearing left and right. People she knows and likes - without being able to know for sure whether they'll be back or not. Even Ignis. Especially Ignis. Her papa.

It made her half expect - fear - that Tony would also suddenly be gone by the time the teams would reunite. Thankfully he's still there, but when she sees him sitting there like that in his room, it makes her stomach tie up in knots in a different way entirely. He looks very much the way she is feeling right now, if not even worse.

For the tiniest moment she wonders if maybe she should leave him alone, if she might not just make it worse, but then Madoka quickly shakes her head. No matter how bad she feels herself, she should at least try. Nothing is worse than the thought of her dad feeling miserable all by himself.

So the girl slowly enters the room, making her way over to him until she's close enough to put her hand on top of his hand that's holding the bear.

"Dad.."

Her lips thinned a little at that nickname, but Renee couldn't deny that she'd both invited it, and deserved it. She was a redhead! Though when he jolted, her eyes widened.

"Didn't hurt you, did I?" Fuck. She wasn't wearing her bracelet on purpose, she hadn't broken anything on the fighters. To come back and hurt a friend because she wasn't careful enough...

"Burnt? What the hell happened there, Seto? And I'm always obnoxious. I'm also running on an adrenaline high. Once I get back to my bunk and it's safe? I'll fall flat on my face and probably sleep for the next twenty-four."

Which was the complete truth, she'd done that before.

a. well thank god that's over (ota)

It takes Reigen a minute to register that the train is there and that they're safe in the hanger, but people seem to be celebrating, which means they did it! He gives a shaky laugh, somewhere between relief and exhaustion. "Ha...piece of cake, right? How are you holding up?"

b. I abandoned my boy (closed to established CR) CW: CHILD DEATH, RELIVING TRAUMA

Not long after the mission ended, Reigen found out what happened to Joss. It didn't feel real at first. Joscelin is a vampire, he'd said how hard it is to kill him. It's ridiculous for someone who's lived that long to disappear just like that. At any moment, Joss is going to come back, probably irritated that people assumed him dead.

Once Reigen starts to return to his room, however, and realizes Joss isn't coming back, it all hit like a ton of bricks. He can't bring himself to go inside knowing that Joss' stuff is in there, waiting to collect dust forever, so he shuts himself in the luggage car to keep anyone else from seeing him.

Why hadn't Reigen done more to make sure Joss would be alright? Joss is--was essentially a child. He never should have been doing something that dangerous to begin with. Now Joss is dead. Reigen had been completely useless again to protect someone he should have. Covering his mouth to prevent sobs from escaping, he leans against a suitcase for support against the crushing feeling of loss coming over him.

"No, no, no, not like that, I wasn't hurt on the mission at all!" She set the plate down on the nightstand and lifted her hands, expression startled. "I was in a fighter with Prisoner and Spinel, we were good. I popped the cockpit once so Spinel could play Punch-Out with one of the cruisers, but I closed it and the life support system went back on, it's all good!"

He'd seen her move and she was in a black t-shirt that said 'I may be strange, even crazy, but there's never a dull moment!' and a knee-length pair of cutoff denim. While Gladio could probably see some marks on her arms and legs, they weren't recent wounds, just old scars.

"I mean okay, someday I want to do a space walk, or maybe fly out there, but until I can get the proper equipment for that, in a vehicle is how it gets done. And how I did it this time, too." She nodded at that.

"I'm fine," he deflects, with a little huff of embarrassment. "I'm not usually touched."

And that's all he's going to say about that.

"...it was a simple wiring accident. It's all healed. But I won't be far behind you in getting to sleep. You're sure that's all you need?"

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Mission Five: Conclusion

OTA

Closed to Kaiba and Kaito

Bedtime tag goes to you lol

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Closed to Prompto and Friends of Gladio

OTA! Though mostly handwaving Narrative here. XD

/hopeful friend of Gladio!

Definitely a friend of Gladio!!

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OTA

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A

A

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On Train: CW: Joss' Death: Closed to Waver and Tony's friends

OTA

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