Enemy Unknown: Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

The third night is as long and creepy as the others...

It might be that they found the engine room, solved the puzzles and found themselves in the hangar bay with no way out. It might be that they were still in the station hiding from the invisible monsters. Or it might be that they had been plucked from the mission and were waiting in their holding room.

Either way morning dawns on the fourth day...

---

ENEMY: UNKNOWN

---

DAY FOUR

the trapped. THOSE WHO SOLVED THE ENGINE ROOM SPENT THE NIGHT IN A LARGE HANGAR THAT DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE ANY DOORS. Their SCA's are working, so they can still communicate with those in the station, perhaps talk them through the engine room puzzles or tell them to stay clear. As morning comes all the lights in the hangar come on. Brighter than any lights so far in the station, harsh white light after the eerie red of the rest of the mission.

Everyone still in the station wakes where they fell asleep - if they slept at all. It's not long after most people are up and about that they will hear a high-pitched beep from their SCA, and then a blue light will envelop them and those around them. It might be they spot their friends vanishing before they too disappear.

They arrive in the hangar, reunited with those who spent the night there. All their gear is with them at least, but that doesn't solve the problem of being in a hangar with no obvious way out. Nor are any of those who vanished during the last three days here, their SCA's still go unanswered.

---

the vanished. FOR THOSE IN THE HOLDING ROOM, THEIR NIGHT HAS PROCEEDED MUCH LIKE THE NIGHTS BEFORE. One of the screens showed the hangar, and those that had succeeded in completing the engine room task. The lights had dimmed for sleeping and turned on again bright in the morning. For those watching the screens they will see those in the station vanish in blue light and turn up in the hangar.

Around half an hour later a voice sounds in the room. "Please gather your belongings and prepare for release."

It's another ten minutes, allowing them to make sure they have all their things before their SCA's beep. They are then surrounded by a blue light, taking them from the room they had spent the last few days in.

REUNITED

reunion. AN HOUR PASSES AFTER FIRST ARRIVALS PASS IN THE HANGAR. Suddenly, there is another flash of blue light, and the missing eighteen Voidtreckers appear with the rest of their crew. They will find they had all their gear as well, including their missing weapons.

They are left to their own devices for a small while, a time for reuniting with friends, but not long enough to exchange stories before a voice rings out in the hangar:

"THANK YOU CREW OF THE VOIDTRECKER EXPRESS FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE. YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR CRAFT."
There is a loud mass of beeping as everyone's SCA's flashes at the same time, holographic messages popping up too fast to be able to read them in their entirety.

Voidtreckers come in.

All Voidtreckers return to the Voidtrecker Express

Voidtreckers evacuate now

Voidtreckers do you read?

Layers of holographic messages pile on top of each other but a moment later everyone's SCA's glow gold and everyone vanishes from the hangar...

LUGGAGE CARRIAGE

return. EVERYONE ARRIVES INSIDE THE LUGGAGE CARRIAGE, PACKED LIKE SARDINES BETWEEN SUITCASES AND TRUNKS. There is no announcement, no warning of returning to the void; just a lurch that is likely to throw anyone on the train unaware of what has just happened off their feet, no matter the carriage they're in.

They return to the void at what feels like breakneck speed. Colours fly past the windows, and it is a good few hours before they seem to slow to their normal travel speed.

---

Comments

[jingyeets]

luggage woes

He arrived with his sword clutched in one hand and a cluster of papers in the other, hitting the ground with his knees as the train lurched into a speeding getaway, his expression scowling.

"Oh those assholes!"

He was feeling about as charitable as that statement, though he managed to regain his feet with his rucksack hanging off his shoulder, and wave his papers back toward where they traditionally exit the train.

"Count this as ten more complaints I want to file against your stupid ministry!"

[longforgottenpromise]

"Shuǐlóng. It is good to hear your voice."

He had spotted Lan Jingyi in the hangar, though he had been occupied hug tackling checking on Inigo and Tidus.

Now they are back on the train, another evacuation, far too many bodies in one place. Much like the time they had first met.

"Did they hurt you?"

[jingyeets]

Jingyi, who could entirely decide to dodge that answer, huffs out a particularly annoyed, "Only emotionally."

His tail doesn't have room to lash when they're all as packed in as they are, but unlike when they'd met, he's not so exhausted he's crawling to sleep behind whatever trunk's nearest that can shield him from blind feet stomping down. He collects his papers to his chest and huffs out a sigh.

"You doing better with all your people accounted for again, Xiao Ki?"

[longforgottenpromise]

He nodded. It seemed that was most of the damage served here. Emotional. Hurting inside themselves with no wounds that needed healed or bandaged.

"Yes... I'm so glad to see you all again."

Including Lan Jingyi. Very much one of his people.

[jingyeets]

Or hurting themselves out of sheer irritation by the end of things, and frustration, and... whatever else.

He sighed, wanting to run his hands through his hair and almost smacking himself in the face with his clutched papers instead. Jingyi scowled at them, as if they'd offended him personally, despite being paper only in his hands.

"Me too. It was so stupid, this whole lie they put on to test everyone. Interrogations or whatever aside! Did the maps keep showing us congregated off in that one place, after I went missing?"

[longforgottenpromise]

"Yes. They put everyone in danger just to... See what we could do."

As if they couldn't have just asked them. If they were going to take people to interrogate anyways.

"Yes. We couldn't reach you but it was clear you were still here... Rather than back on the train."

Or vanished, name in gold.

[jingyeets]

"Yeah, and more obvious with the train running scared now."

He'd understood what that speed of acceleration meant. He didn't begrudge it.

"We were as much held hostage against the train as we were being held hostage against communicating with each other."

[longforgottenpromise]

"Yes... Did you see the messages?" They had popped up very quickly but it had been clear what had been happening.

"The train was trying to contact us." And somehow they had blocked it. "I... I don't know if this train feels scared but it certainly wants us away from that place."

And Taiki was absolutely on board with that.

[jingyeets]

He frowned, looking up, as if the train had some means of looking back down at him from the ceiling. Perhaps someone would draw the train a face up there, to look down on all of them post mission each time, but for now, none existed.

"It's scared. Scared doesn't mean making smart decisions."

Not for anyone. He doubted the train somehow was smarter when running scared. Jingyi sighed, hard, looking back to Taiki.

"Let's get out of the crowd?"

[longforgottenpromise]

"No... People often make hasty decisions whilst scared."

Especially when scared and running. Sometimes such desperate decisions were needed, but often it did not end well.

"Yes... Let's get somewhere quieter."

[jingyeets]

"Yeah, like running away and not trying to talk to anyone or listen to us, unless you think panic train will give any of its attention to a bunch of people who were interrogated on what they're feeling."

He sounded doubtful, because while he wrote the train daily, he didn't feel the train particularly listened in any meaningful way. Should it? In a general sense, who knew? He personally felt it should, even as he used his larger bulk and weight to navigate them out of the luggage carriage without touching the transgate. It'd move them further, but people were already using it, and he wanted out, impatient to not be boxed in.

"Have you ever tried flying in the garden carriage?"

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki didn't do much in the way of trying to talk to the train, but he heard Tidus complain about it enough to know that it didn't seem like the train was really listening. Or not listening in the way that the people on the train understood as listening.

"Oh... No I haven't." He hadn't wanted to get in peoples way, but people probably wouldn't be heading there first. "Do you want to?"

[jingyeets]

"Yes," he said, no hesitation, continuing to walk with a purpose, tail arcing up behind him. "It's tall enough, and there's nothing there other than the ghost kid sometimes, or the bird that belongs to Willow. Same for the greenhouse." Easier landing room for a kirin in the garden in his opinion, however.

[longforgottenpromise]

He followed him, sticking close to him to not get lost in the now thinning crowd of people.

It seemed Lan Jingyi had flown in there before, Taiki had never thought about it, but he was different than Lan Jingyi. He had spent so much of his life stuck in his human form then being a kirin beast was almost other to him, not the natural form it should have been.

sorry I couldn't help myself. XD

[to_rise_above]

Jin Ling felt extremely unhappy as he too did not have a pleasant landing. He landed on his back with a loud thump, and his spiritual dog on top of him, sprawled and whining. Which added to the pain he felt. At least, he knew he was kind of durable. His head throbbed and hearing Jingyi's loud shouting didn't help his case either. He just groaned as he rolled over, pushing his spiritual dog off, frowning.

"Ugh-- will filing any kind of complaint even work?"

Jin Ling highly doubted any complaint would be heard. Jingyi's okay at least. It's not like he was concerned or anything.

[jingyeets]

"If I complain long enough, and loud enough, maybe it will!"

Addressed to no one in particular in the overcrowded luggage carriage, but Jin Rulan's voice gives him someone to turn to while his plentitude of papers are pulled against his chest. Fairy sitting there too looking about as happy to be ported around like this has Jingyi sighing; poor fat dog.

Jingyi slipped through two people to reach Jin Rulan, holding out a hand to help him stand.

"If we don't try, we're giving up, and that's worse."

[to_rise_above]

"How long have you complained already?"

It sounded like Jingyi had been going at it for a long time. He wasn't mad or anything, just his ears were ringing when he fell and being possessed by a demon only made his hearing more sensitive. He wasn't sure what those papers were, but they probably were important if Jingyi was carrying them. There's a raised brow for the offered hand, but he took it nonetheless and wobbled to his feet. Fairy seemed fine for the most part. The spiritual dog was trotting around Jin Ling when he stood up.

“I didn’t say we weren’t going to try.”

He replied with a sigh. When he was standing again, he brushed off his clothes and checked his dog.

“We just exit this thing right? Also, what are these?”

He pointed to the papers in Jingyi's hand.

[jingyeets]

Jingyi pulled one paper out and shoved it into Jin Rulan's hands before gesturing toward the door. People were using the transgate to leave also, but it meant that there were two movement lines as people shuffled further into the train than this back end final carriage they were all in now.

"Yeah, we leave. This is the Luggage Carriage, it's where stuff like us ends up if we're yanked back on train and don't get to choose to board at any other doors. It's how we left Chaos's illusion world when it was all collapsing," he added, using his slightly larger bulk to navigate a path forward for them both, if Rulan falls in behind him.

It also would put Rulan and Fairy into the space of his tail, which was a whole other issue, though with this many people crowded together Jingyi practically had his tail curved back over on itself, a bit like how squirrels held their own. Only less fat and fluffy, and more thick and tapering to a fluffy, furry end bobbing at his back in all its light blue furred glory.

"And the paper's a form for filling out complaints or information. The people who ran that whole stupid experiment gave them to me when I asked how we'd tell them more later."

[to_rise_above]

Jin Ling is taken by surprise when the paper was shoved into his hands. He almost stumbled backwards if he wasn't grounded. His brows knitted in confusion as Jingyi gestured towards the door. All of this was strange to him as he shuffled his way out.

"....?"

Whatever Jingyi was saying, didn't make too much sense to Jin Ling, but he got the gist of it. He basically understood that because they didn't enter the train properly, they were forced to come back this way. Hakagemachi had strange mechanisms that did things that were a bit hard to explain too. At least, he didn't look shocked as he could be. Jin ling just followed Jingyi, seeing that the other knew where they were going.

It'd be embarrassing if he got lost. Jin Ling was staring at the tail for a moment. He still remembered that Jingyi was a dragon and that he had parts that looked like a dragon, much like his wolf appearance. He could see the tail, strange but not too different. It almost reminded him of a lizard's tail but definitely not the same. He was curious but he didn't ask.

"Do they actually cycle through this-- or even read them? Sounds like a sham to me."

He looked at the paper as he held at the corner, wrinkling his nose. Fairy just trotted between Jingyi and Jin Ling, while avoiding Jingiy's tail-- that may or may not look appealing for it to play with.

[jingyeets]

"Considering I still have them, I have no idea how they would," he said, not even looking back over his shoulder. He could hear that Jin Rulan was following close enough, and he slammed his palm into the plate to open the door between carriages, stepping into the darker space between doors. At a distance, a blur of movement as they were passing, the Void lingered as it always did.

Jingyi slammed his hand down again, and the next door slid open with minimal protest. Sweeping through, Fairy and Jin Rulan had more than enough time to do the same.

"I'm pretty sure the whole thing was a joke. They wanted information, they asked us all this shit, but they're not the people getting to make calls, and they're more scared of Chaos being powerful enough to do what it did—do you know anything about that? Has anyone told you?"

Finally glancing back, he frowned while walking straight through the carriage, heading onward toward the next.

[to_rise_above]

"That's my point. How do we even meet with those people for the complaints? Has anyone seen their faces?"

Jin Ling was clearly asking all the real questions here. He seemed to be interested in these people and any information would help him adjust better. He didn't particularly like the closeness, since the area they were walking through felt very narrow. He also didn't want to accidentally hit Jingyi's tail either. Though, the tail was hard to miss. He couldn't say he really met a dragon before, so he was intrigued enough.

Even so, he kept in pace with Jingyi without missing a beat, until they managed to get through the door as Jingyi slammed his hand down. He pushed through as well, with Fairy following.

"How can they ask us to help when they're too terrified to do anything on their own? It sounds like we're just doing their dirty work and huh--? Well, not really. I don't think anyone told me much. I heard things here and there, but that's it."

He replied furrowing his brows. He would make time to investigate on his own, but it was a bit difficult given the circumstance right now.

[jingyeets]

"The inspectors? No, the jackasses wore masks the whole time."

Another agitated lash of his tail, though notably, it passed high enough that Fairy regardless of positioning would be passed over, left untouched. He was aware of the physical space he occupied, more than it seemed he was.

"We're doing the train's hard work, dirty and otherwise, and the inspector people were using us as a means to get explanations, but testing us at the same time? It's shit. It's total shit."

He was just venting on it, even while he lead them through the attached carriage and to the next, before they eventually hit another transgate. Only then did he pause to set it up for allowing them to shortcut to where he wanted to be, or at least closer: the garden carriage, with the tall enough ceilings he could get away with flight.

"Chaos was a being made up entirely of energy, more or less. It could cast illusions on the scale of a large city, but also a world? It abducted people from across thousands, millions of systems or something insane like that, put them in its city, and made them think they'd always been there. Like a giant grief play," he said, voice dropping lower. "Chaos's home system was destroyed by these weird... shapes? Sky shapes, something that unmade the whole of its world and everything else in its system. Or close to it, and then Chaos was apparently traveling the Void, looking for somewhere to make home again. We had to evacuate people out of its illusion array back to their worlds through this whole anchoring thing, it was like wading through the worst rainbow that screamed at you the whole time, but we couldn't stop, because none of these people were going to survive when Chaos stopped being able to keep its array functioning."

[to_rise_above]

Jin Ling almost rolled his eyes at Jingyi's response. That made a lot more sense than he'd like to admit. He wasn't even surprised at the response regarding. Jingyi clearly wasn't happy with the situation, given how long he's probably been here. This was probably a repeated cycle.

He couldn't disagree because it was true. It seemed like they were all here to do favors without getting much reward. Of course, he's not against helping others and all that, but there were levels of it. He hadn't been through as many ordeals as Jingyi had, but he could sort of understand from his personal experience in the other place.

Jin Ling just kept following him as they breezed through different locations. He was curious about more things related to this place, so he waited for Jingyi's explanation.

There's an eye twitch from Jin Ling, because for whatever reason, that image just didn't sit well with him. The explanation didn't do him any favors either. It made him feel even more unhappy about his current situation. He did take the information in, letting it sort make sense to him the best he could.

"Sounds like a pain the ass if you ask me."

He sighed, "So, that's kind of what most of this is like huh?"

Good to know. He was just grateful that he hadn't been here for a long period of time.

[jingyeets]

He heaved a sigh, slamming his palm against another connecting door for the next carriage.

"Chaotic? Yeah. Can't predict who stays or goes, can't predict what mission we'll be dumped on, have no idea where the train's driving off to, end up stuck on here for weeks sometimes with... whatever. Whatever! To do."

Their own invented schedules, culture clashes at all times, and culture fatigue just as often. Nothing about this life feels natural to him. He doesn't think it ever will, if he's starting to grow understanding of it.

Either way, they'd reached the garden carriage, and he strode onward into it, navigating to one of the stone benches there, kept out of direct line of sight from either door. The burble of the streams and the central pond decorated with lotuses in blossom are their own soothing nature, even as, with his back to Jin Ling, he starts to strip. One verbal warning as his outer robe slides off his shoulders: )

Turn around if modesty matters.

[to_rise_above]

The sound was atrocious for his ears, but he didn't say anything. Risking a fight right now was not really something he wanted. He also wanted information from Jingyi, at least of the more detailed kind than what he was given so far. Better to not get into a fight with someone who had information.

How his time in Hakagemachi changed some of his temper. He sometimes wondered if he was truly the same person anymore. He focused back on the conversation at hand after a long thought.

"If we're supposed to be helping them, wouldn't it make more sense for us to have something, rather than nothing?"

Weeks he says. Sometimes, things wouldn't be as brief as this. His brows knitted more together at the thought. When they made it to the garden carriage, Jin Ling watched as Fairy pranced off to stretched its legs. He couldn't imagine it being pleasant for his spiritual dog when he and it were forced into that situation.

At least, it was with someone they knew versus a complete stranger. It seemed like he was always put in stupidly embarrassing situations.

"D-Do you always change like this?!"

Of course, he said that as he turned himself around. At least, he was warned ahead of time.