EVENT: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: October 24 - October 31
Location: Throughout Exsilium
Characters: ALL; tag yourselves in
Summary: The Transports return from their mission to find the island crawling with monsters.
Warnings: Violence, possibly injuries (notify a mod if there's cause to add a particular warning!)

The Transports return from their mission to Medieval Russia, but the Initiative Hold is eerily deserted. Normally, their would be a number of Initiative personnel prepared to meet the Transports at the end of their mission for debriefing.

Instead, there is only silence.

That is, until a distant thumping sound can be heard. It is growing closer, and suddenly the beast is bursting into the room. It lets out a roar and charges. Within minutes, it is easily defeated, but damage has already been done -- it collided with the Transporter machine, which is now making a low fizzling sound and lets off a couple sparks. The commotion is enough to draw the attention of the few remaining Initiative personnel who still inhabit the Hold, who arrive immediately afterwards. They are able to tell the Transports two things: that the machine is broken and currently unable to sent anyone back in time, and that the island has been overrun with aggressive, mutated beasts sent by the United Earth. They have been under siege for months, with the island's population reduced to a mere fraction of what it had once been.

Comments

[sidecar]

[Even between listening for a response on his PDA and keeping tabs on the fight (Samus seems to have it covered, but he'd be crazy to think that means he can let his guard down), everything around him seems dulled out to background noise. Frankly, this just isn't the sort of emergency Kotetsu is any good at, waiting and relying on the help of others, his adrenaline and urge to do something only fueling an overwhelming sense of helplessness.]

What? Don't be stupid!

[What the hell is Barnaby even saying? He must be delirious from pain if he thinks Kotetsu is the one in danger, and that just makes keeping him conscious all the more of a challenge. Kotetsu does risk touching him then, hands gripping Barnaby's shoulders in a desperate attempt to keep him focused.]

Bunny, you're gonna be fine, so don't start talking like you're giving up already!

[He swallows, trying unsuccessfully to mask the shakiness in his voice.]

Just trust me, alright?

[ex_bandai157]

[ He can't help an slight flinch at the contact, even if it's not in a place that hurts; but it works, and he focuses his gaze on the smudged form of his partner, pays attention as he speaks. And what he does hear actually earns a brief smile, faint but there. ]

I trust you.

[ There's still a chance for him, so he doesn't think it counts as giving up. The real problem, though, is that that monster could still come back - or a different one could find them just like this one had, or even a few at once. And of course if that happened, Kotetsu - on no powers and his own injuries - would want to protect him and fight them off, taking them from the chance of one of them dying to the almost certainty of both of them doing so.

(And Kotetsu has a daughter waiting on him, Kaede who's already lost a mother and thought she'd found her father's dead body not long ago, not nearly long enough to even begin to forget. There's no such attachment for Barnaby, and for once he doesn't mind it so much.)

He breathes in, or tries, before going on. ]

But...

[ ...think about it for once. His breath catches somewhere in his chest painfully, and he has to stop before going on. It strikes him then that this could be it, really it, and the last time he'd thought that was in a dark room far away and staring down the barrel of a gun. The thought had been more welcome then, without anyone left for him, and truthfully he'd always known that at the end he'd be alone. Kotetsu, it would seem, perpetually has a way of defying his expectations. ]

Still a lot to repay.

[ Too bad, he thinks wryly, it isn't him whose strong point is endurance. ]

[sidecar]

[It's the smile that undoes the remainder of Kotetsu's composure. However Barnaby actually intends it, it certainly looks like the expression of a man trying to make peace with the inevitable, twisting the gesture into something terrifying instead of reassuring. Kotetsu's not lost hope--not anything close to it--but he's not blinded by his optimism either. He can't not consider the worst when they're entirely dependent on a stranger's ability to show up just in time to pull off a miracle. And even then, there's still a high chance that Barnaby might be too far gone for a healer's help to make a difference.

He tries to push that worry aside, to listen to what Barnaby's struggling to say even though he can't make much sense of it. Repay who? Kotetsu? It's almost funny how wrong that is, and that's when it hits that maybe there's a lot Barnaby doesn't realize. It should be much too soon to let his mind get distracted with regret, but once the door is open to those kinds of thoughts there's no stopping them from flooding in. There's so much that Kotetsu hasn't said, hasn't done, hasn't apologized for. He knows all too well how words can seem trivial when you see someone every day and yet carry an impossible weight once that person is gone. And it was only days ago that they'd had that awful fight, too. Talking about it had felt unnecessary afterwards, but now...

He isn't aware of how hard he's crying until he feels the wetness on his face and a sob overtakes his attempt to speak.

So much for being the strong one. Kotetsu's all Barnaby's got to try and talk him through this, so he can't be so selfish as to fall apart. He grits his teeth and pulls himself together long enough to echo Barnaby's words as fiercely as he can manage.]

There's still a lot you have to do, Barnaby!

[Do because he wants to, not because he's been forced by the whims of Maverick or the Initiative or whoever-the-hell else. Barnaby's experienced so much but actually lived so little. After everything, they can't let some stupid, preventable accident be what ends it.]

[ex_bandai157]

[ Repayment is something he'd really wanted to do this time, too. Not let things be like how they were with Aunt Samantha - keep putting it off for more pressing things, meaning to let her know how grateful he was and then being left with the sentiment still unsaid when she died. And that's - a pang that hurts much deeper than anything any monster could do.

(His twenty-sixth birthday had been so quiet, and he hadn't realized how much he was waiting for that cake until it didn't arrive.)

All because of Maverick and his need for control that went from a show, to a person, to a city. A person that's been almost no better than an android at times, following programming to be a perfect sob story Hero, so grateful to its creator. And in some ways - maybe this is better.

What he doesn't realize is the way he'd been starting to slip, eyes beginning to close before jarring awake at the sound of Kotetsu's voice. The sound of the sob is a jolt, surprising enough to make him try to focus on Kotetsu again, because that's - it's not ridiculous, but it's more of a loss of composure than he's ever seen out of the other man, much less even considered him capable of. And calling him by name too, something that hasn't happened since that last Maverick incident when Barnaby tried to kill him... ]

Could be worse. [ Another cough, less severe as if from a lack of energy to sustain it. ] Old man.