middleofsomewhere | Not with a Bang: Conclusion

Not with a Bang: Conclusion

The base camp is a mess by the time the fight is over. The heavy rain alone would have been enough, but the battle has churned up the earth itself. The previously peaceful clearing is pockmarked with craters and dark puddles where ash has mixed into rainwater, along with oil and blood that swirl unpleasantly through the shallow pools. The trees are bowed outwards with the force of the powers that waged through the area, trunks shattered and torn, boughs hanging haphazardly or draped with the remnants of tents and equipment.

Perhaps all that can be said is that it gives the Voidtrecker Express a decidedly clear landing spot. The train snakes its way through the jungle, coming to a stop in a familiar, though now lopsided, coil around the clearing, and opening its doors to allow injured to be carried on, or anyone from the train to disembark.

It’s clear that there are indeed people aboard - as the doors hiss open, activity is already visible inside, as well as voices audibly going back and forth over the tinny speakers of the ICP.

Now that the saboteurs are dealt with, the final repairs can be made to the damaged stations and the shields locked into place. By the time they are done, nothing and no one will be able to enter the planet - from space, anyway.

The train will remain in the clearing through the night of Imagination 12 and the morning of Imagination 13, until all the stations are prepared, the pandas returned to their rightful place and everyone has rejoined the train.

By midday of Imagination 13, the train is ready to leave. Everyone gets a message on their SCA to return to the train, if they haven’t already. Once all are onboard the doors shut and the train begins to snake through the jungle.

“Re-entering Voidspace in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”

The train rattles and shakes as the greenery around them (and the purple of a few farewell pandas) fade into the colours of the void.

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"Maybe not, but this. It means a lot to me." Trunks' sword did mean a lot to him, besides just its familiarity. He'd come by it through difficult times, and it was an old and faithful friend now.

"I definitely did not know you could use magic." But that wasn't the topic they needed to discuss. "Besides senzu beans, do you think if we could get saiyan armor it'd help? I have my set with me from the cell games in a capsule. It's designed to be flexible and lightweight, so it'd fit a variety of types."

Eva practically crumples into the hold to turn it into a hug.

She knows Nerdanel's right, but her mind can't accept it. "I- But I'm fine and I can at least check on people and help with the light work that needs done."

There's a childish pout as she huffs. It was worth a try at least.

Eva bites her lip, then shakes her head. "I'll deal with them later when I have the energy. They went straight to stasis when we evac'd."

And dealing with that right now? is going to take far more energy than she can deal with.

"Birds," Eva mutters, though the curse has far less bite to it than it should. She's starting to come to accept she's stuck here.

The food looks and smells divine and it earns a smile, rather than the typical pout she's given to everyone else who's told her no'.

"I don't feel it, but I have a feeling once I start eating I won't stop."

Shirt back on, she takes the blanket - and then pulls him into a hug of sorts as she drapes it mostly over herself, but also him.

She tries to laugh, she really does, but all that comes out is a tired and weak 'haha'. "Fate is a fickle thing that thinks we need to be yeeted into whatever it wants. Plus, I think we touched all its tails this mission and that's.... that's never good."

Not that it was in any way Willow's fault!

"I did get hurt, but remember I'm an Elf of the First Age of Arda, which means I have a great deal of power, including self-healing power."

He eyes her sympathetically. "Are you sure you're all right? I wouldn't want you to use up energy tending to my injuries if you've got some of your own."

"Or we could be missing memories from our homes as well...what if they became void active?"

He's not sure that makes sense, but he has to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

He sighs. "The ministry's warning about us said there was a previous 'legendary Voidtrecker Express'. If we knew what those legends were..."

"Not what I meant," she grumbles, but there's no bite to it.

The faint glow's noted, but she doesn't comment on it just yet.

"Thanks. Though, the Fox likes me enough I didn't die at least." She swallows before she continues. "There was an explosion with shrapnel. I don't really remember a lot of what happened after."

Nope, and she'll take that arm and return to bed. She doesn't quite curl up as she leans against the wall, but it's close to it.

"Thanks - and Ok." There's a loon, confused stare at the green blob because what even. "I thought Wormmon was at his youngest stage??"

Help. How do Digimon even work????

Thank the stars, Sizhui was far enough away from the boss battle, he hasn't sustained any serious injuries, which obviously means he's well enough to help other people with theirs. However, when Trunks approaches him, he's in the middle of bandaging a small burn on the inside of his wrist after having applied some salve. He gets the gauze taped into place, lifts his head at the sound of approaching footsteps, eyes widening and eyebrows arching with surprise.

“Oh,” he starts, shaking his head then reaching to take the sandwich and water before continuing in a less stunned manner, “Thank you! It was, yes. How are you faring?”

The gesture is much appreciated. Seto sticks close to her, though he's careful not to press hard or stress any lingering aches.

Then he reaches into his bag and pulls out a SCA---it's not his own, or recognizably one issued by their train, but similar to it. He holds it gingerly.

"Well...I think I have a somewhat better idea of what it wants now. Did anyone tell you what we found a few days ago?"

He is not expecting to be stopped, and her grip on her arm jolts his shoulder. A pained noise escapes his mouth before he can stop it, but he does stop moving. "I will be alright," he says, as though he hadn't just made it very clear that he was definitely not that. "There are others with worse injuries - see to them." He knows he came out of that battle relatively unscathed, and he cannot stop thinking of Eva collapsing to the ground-

Regardless, his protests have very little energy behind them, as he has very little energy to begin with at the moment.

"You and everyone else," the woman says with a pout, though that soon vanishes because tea. "Though you brought tea, so..."

There's a grin as she takes it up, hands wrapping around the mug like it's liquid gold. It very well could be.

The question earns a sigh. "Bored. Tired and exhausted. Otherwise fine. What about you?"

"Don't sweat it." Really, don't. Piccolo didn't necessarily like the gushing. He got gratefulness--that was fine--but anything more than that made him uncomfortable. But, he nodded to Trunks anyway in a sort of 'you're welcome' gesture. It was no big deal.

"That depends on if anyone wants to wear it or not. Sometimes the train provides clothing for fitting in or environmental reasons. Most people enjoy the...dressing up...part when it occurs." Not Piccolo. He just did him. "But, that's something else I could make if you wanted."

Weapons and clothing: his specialty.

It was a more subdued gushing, but Trunks knew the other man didn't often seek the spotlight so he said no more about it. "Hmm, you're right about that. Maybe it's worth asking the other passengers about, because when we don't need to fit in it might be useful."

Piccolo could make saiyan armor? "I couldn't ask you to, but I'll keep it in mind." Casual, as he wasn't going to make a big deal of this. "We should definitely try to see if we can buy some senzu beans. I had a check-up by Ichigo, and was talking to him a bit about my world, but didn't mention them or the dragon balls. He reminds me of a cross between Gohan and Mom though. My Gohan. Wanting to help out and take care of everyone."

It is, but she's also seen that look in the past. Not on Nita, but back home in the aftermath of a supercell turned into a living nightmare due to wild pokemon.

She offers a smile to the younger as she reaches out in an offer for a hug.
"Don't beat yourself up over it. We lived; we survived. We had no way of knowing what would happen."

"Sure," Eva calls from where she's curled up on the bed.

Eight sniggers, putting the tray on a table near the bed. "We usually say 'Cod dam.'"

"And look at it this way. The more you eat, the better you get, and the faster you get out of here." She can understand the sentiment though, and would no doubt be feeling the same were the roles reversed.

"Please let me know if something doesn't look or taste good. It will be no problem to get you something new if you want."

"I've been through far worse, and was too late for most of the carnage." Too late to prevent most of the carnage, Trunks meant, but he didn't say as he urged the sandwich and water-bottle on the other. "I'm just trying to make sure now that the healers and those who know first aid are taking care of themselves."

Eva's just going to be a boneless lump against him. He's a live, they're all alive. That's what happens right now.

"No," She says as she peers at the SCA. "I've been sleeping a lot of the time. Tell me?"

He waits through the silence, looking at the floor, bracing as if- as if he expects to be struck. As if he is afraid.

Of what?

Of...loss. Of losing the respect of a person he'd come to respect in turn. Of losing a friendship. Of feeling that awful throat-closing unnamed feeling - that same one he feels when he thinks of Harold - whenever he thinks of Ken and Wormmon. It is a risk, and he is too far in-

And then Ken answers. A tension eases in his shoulders, just a bit.

Perhaps it is not as much of a risk as he had initially thought. Perhaps Ken understands more than Siebren thinks. Ken had told him as much only a few days ago.

He is not out of the woods just yet - he knows that much - but perhaps they are not so dark as he had thought.

"Yes," he says, still not looking up. This not being as difficult as he'd thought does not make it easy. "I...dislike violence, and it is very often necessary during missions. Sigma takes care of the violence; I handle the consequences."

"A few of us received a weird signal on our SCAs that pulled us away from camp. It turned out to be a distress signal from a crashed voidcraft---a single-passenger craft."

His shoulders sag a little as he tells this story, and he allows Eva to slump on him. He's still gentle, still mindful.

"Her name was Halo, and she was from the train's home world. The miners that you all fought shot her down, and she was dying by the time we reached her. I'm not a fighter, so I was tasked with keeping her comfortable while the robots kept attacking..."

And the look on his face said all Eva needed to know about how he'd felt about that.

"She told us to keep resisting the ministry---they've been working on tampering with worlds, stomping out the anomalies in the multiverse."

Siebren takes a deep breath through his nose and sighs. He had not signed up for babysitting this morning, and yet.

"Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth," he says, seemingly impassive, "or drink some tea. The heat will help."

"Yeah and it's only proper to keep them pain-free in statsis until I can deal, you know?"

Eva wouldn't mind explaining how the stasis works. She's bored enough to give it her best shot at least.

"Yeah... That can't be good."

Seto is largely functional now, but he's still more sluggish than usual for the same reason. He'd been kept in medical for a while the day before, but the flood of injuries from the big battle had forced the medics to send him off to his own bed.

He finds Senku on the way to the kitchen and approaches. They still haven't found the SCA, and that's bad news. But he's here and alive, for now.

"...you're good now?" he questions quietly, fumbling as he reaches for some toast. Basic breakfast, but he's not in the mood to be more creative.

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Not with a Bang: Conclusion

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Re: ;_;

works for me!

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on the train;

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Yes please he needs it

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13, morning