nexus_crossings | Strange Awakening

Strange Awakening

He was supposed to be dead. Not wherever he is now.

Not even moments ago he was on a hopeless mission, standing in the ruins of the parliamentary chambers surrounded by dead guards and the quailing politicians who'd spent years spitting and stamping on people like him. In his hand, he clutched the explosive that would bring the whole corrupt system crashing down on all of them.

He knew he was on a suicide mission from the instant the tide of battle turned against his forces and had no choice but to turn to panicked flight into the countryside. But he'd stayed. Despite the danger, the scattered executions and volleys of gunfire echoing across the field, it was his only chance. They were so close, and they would never get this opportunity ever again. This all had to be for something.

He had glared at the chamber with his white eyes, one hand still on his blaster. Wounded, vicious, victorious - He'd clicked it, and then... nothing.

Or it should have been.

He felt the wave of fire flash up his arm, then was left blinking and disorientated when he found himself lying on the edge of a small pond, waves lapping gently at his wounds. And more importantly, alive.

He stared at his hands, and then his surroundings. Just a quiet copse of trees, birds chirping sweetly around him. No stench of smoke and blood in the distance. Just a peaceful, forest setting. There was even a picturesque cobblestone path set into the ground, winding its way into the distance. Climbing painfully to his feet, completely lost for words, he only managed to whisper out -

"What the sneck is going on?"

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"What? No, just roll me into the street. I'll be fine." Johnny is also, really, only half kidding. "Not sure if I could pay for the clinic anyway. This place looks pretty...reputable. Will they take me?" And it's true. This whole place is clean, bright, and airy. Not a place he usually finds himself in. It's a question he still feels like he needs to ask. Sure, it's not likely considering the variety of life forms he's seen here co-existing, but not everyone is happy to take a mutant in for treatment. And if someone recognised him here...

He squints against the sun in his eyes and chews on his tongue thoughtfully. "Well... it's complicated. Chronology doesn't work like you'd think. We didn't know he'd jump back until he did. Then the timeline changed, and all we could do was damage control. It's all pretty messed up, and I haven't had to do a time job in a long time. Thinking about it gives me a headache to be honest."

"Sure. Why wouldn't they...?" Her amusement fades as things click into place, one calculation after another. He's said enough, after all, for her to make some plausible if harsh assumptions about his world. Her faith in humanity runs deep, but it isn't blind.

The Sparrow slows as she glowers ahead for a minute, then picks up speed again. She's turning them toward a quieter section of the plaza, away from too many nosy loungers. "They'd better. But I've got a better idea - we're going to find someone you can definitely count on. Should have thought of it before."

At least his other remarks get a low chuckle out of her. "That part, I understand. Easier to take the Vex down when they jump into our time than go chasing them forward and back."

Once they reach a few empty couches (not that hard given the chilly weather) she'll bring them to a halt and offer Johnny a hand off the bike, looking around for the angel she has in mind. She doesn't understand how exactly their friend does these things, but she always seems to appear when needed...

"Hey! Angel!" That'll do it for sure.

"Yes?"

The answer is far too quick for Angel to not have already appeared behind Blaze well before the Guardian could shout out to her. At the moment she pays no mind to the Exo's companion (Human? He appears so but she has been fooled before) and hovers a few inches higher off of the ground so she can be at eye level with her Master.

Blaze keeps saying they are equals and Angel makes efforts to appease this belief.

"You would have need of me?"

Blaze looks determined all of a sudden, and it's all Johnny can do to hang on once she changes her course. If this is a kidnapping, it's a benevolent one. For now he trusts that she has his best interests in mind, and takes her hand as he dismounts the speeder, wrapping an arm around his side at the movement. He looks at Blaze curiously as she calls out for "Angel", but doesn't seem to direct it at anyone in their area.

"What the sneck-?!" He whirls around in surprise when a woman materializes out of nowhere behind them and speaks. "Where did you come from?" He takes a second to look at her and glances sidelong at Blaze, not sure who to address first. "Are you like Ghost?"

Blaze spins herself, optics brightening as they land on the ever-patient Angel. She'd like to think she's tough to startle, but...

"She's as good at sneaking up on people," she says ruefully. Ghost does his own appearing trick behind her and flutters in greeting to Angel, like a little wave hello. "Johnny, this is Angel; Angel, Johnny Alpha. He's had a run-in with an army and I need to ask you to heal him. And Angel is- well, she's a friend and an ally."

So not that different to Ghost, where it counts. But she'll let Angel speak for herself, on that.

"Johnny of Alpha."

Angel bows her head in what must pass as a greeting, her platinum locks cascading over her shoulders and down in front of her face. She will brush them aside again in a moment. She is busy assessing the man's injuries. Her wings give a brief flutter as she moves closer to him.

"This i can do, Blaze. As for your query--Sir Ghost and I have much in common. We are..." Tools. Tools is a frowned upon word. "We assist Blaze though not in the same capacities."

Johnny bows his head back, mimicking her gesture as closely as possible. "Just Alpha is fine, ma'am." he says, politely. His stance tenses when she approaches closer, but doesn't move away, glancing at Blaze again. Ghost in his obviously mechanical shell was easier to deal with, in some strange way.

"Any friend of Blaze is a friend of mine." Slowly, he uncurls his arm from around his body and tugs up his shirt, revealing a hastily bandaged wound that's already starting to leak blood through the layers again. "But you're better at first aid, I'm assuming?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, but I suppose explaining it would be a bit of a long story. Two, even."

Blaze nods firmly when Johnny looks her way, lending her assurance even as she shifts a step closer. The way he's favoring his side doesn't look good and she wants to be ready with support if he needs it. She is pleased to see her friends helping each other, though; that and Johnny's trust in her. Even if she is wondering how she knows so many floaty 'tech support' people...

"Hands-down," she confirms. "Might be easier if you sit down for this." Although this suggestion is based largely on her own disquiet at the amount of blood escaping there.

"He will be in working condition momentarily, Blaze."

Angel isn't looking at Johnny while she hovers her hands over his wounds. If anything, the angel seems to be focused on the space directly above his head while she ~~studies his current HP~~ considers her options. She has treated worse patients than this and he is conscious so a revive will not be necessary.

"Do please sit if you are prone to fainting, Alpha." Single-word names are much easier to remember. She's glad he shortened it for her. "You may feel strange. This is not uncommon."

Her voice has taken on a weight to it that sounds not unlike the reverberations after a bell has chimed. Johnny may feel warmer, as though the sun has broken through the clouds and shone down onto his face for the first time in days. Angel's hands give off a steady glow. The pain in his wound will recede, though the sensation of flesh knitting back together in seconds as opposed to weeks of healing is undoubtedly slightly strange.

He should find it easier to breathe and the pain entirely gone within the minute. The memory of it is still there in a vague dull sort of way that is already being pushed from his mind. It will feel as though he'd bumped into something, and nothing more.

"It is done." She hadn't even touched him. Angel turns and looks back over her shoulder at Blaze and Ghost. "Sir Ghost, will you verify that he is back to acceptable operating status for a human?"

Johnny crashes into a plush couch at Blaze's suggestion, legs unsteady with the effort of holding himself up. Angel is right; the healing does feel very strange, and foreign to him. He watches at first, but turns his face away soon after, not really being able to handle the sight of his flesh knitting together in minutes.

After she's done without even touching him, Johnny laughs, a little shakily. "That's some mutation, lady. Not what I was expecting, but thank you." There's something kind of...off about Angel. About her mannerisms, and the way she asks about "acceptable operating status" to Ghost. But the expression of gratefulness he gives her seems genuine, at least.

He runs his fingers over where the wound used to be, marveling but also disquieted. "Something like this would've come in handy earlier," he muses to himself under his breath. "Would've saved a lot of lives."

Oh, Angel. Even Blaze facepalms for a second when you talk that way. But it isn't so surprising really, considering Angel is less human than the Exo and less socialized than either machine.

Besides, the results she gets are nothing to complain about. Blaze watches keenly, Ghost obligingly swooping in to examine the healed would. "This looks all better! How does it feel?"

"Good work!" Blaze claps Angel on the shoulder, before her gaze turns back to Johnny. "Just wish we could've been around to help before."

Angel wouldn't know what to classify herself as even if they demanded it of her. She comes from a world of demons, though others have said she is the opposite of that. It is confusing, since her kind see no difference between the demons of law or of chaos. Ultimately, they are all made the same.

And is she really either anymore, changed as she is? Unbound from the shackles that all of her kind are created with? She simply is these days, and drifting around until Blaze of Jesse have need of her has been her life.

Her makeshift dress shifts at the jostling Blaze's clap gives her and out of habit she ignores it until she remembers being uncovered is unacceptable around humans and adjusts the garment accordingly. There's no mistaking the faint smile she gives at the praise though. She is glad to have been useful.

"I am unable to do this infinitely, I am afraid. The greater the injury, the fewer I would be able to heal. However, I am gratified to have helped."

The human--Alpha--looks to be alright again and this has pleased Blaze. Angel's wings flutter slightly with the happiness she feels.

"It feels...fine. More than fine, actually. It wasn't your fight anyway, but I appreciate the sentiment." There's a thoughtful frown on his face as he looks up at Blaze. All this attention focused on him and his health is a little unnerving, and suddenly feeling exposed, he tugs his shirt back down. There's something perhaps a little more noble about Blaze, and her fight. Seeing her in the mud of Milton Keynes doesn't suit her somehow, and he doesn't like the thought of her being in it. He turns to Angel, swallowing the rest of his discomfort. "And the help you've given now."

Remembering his manners, he reaches out to take Angel's hand. He returned her greeting earlier, but somehow it doesn't quite feel like enough for what she's done for him. If she lets him, he'll press a brief kiss to the back of her hand. Something he didn't exactly try with Blaze, considering the circumstances they first met in, and how she was very clearly a soldier. But something about Angel invites him to be more polite, to be more than what he is. "Thank you, ma'am. It was a real pleasure to meet you."

"Heh. Isn't it?" Now isn't the time to get into philosophical debate over whose fight is whose. Blaze is satisfied enough that he's not hurt. And maybe it's a good time to stop staring at the guy.

With a soft grunt of approval, Blaze lets Angel enjoy her well-deserved thanks for a minute (maybe she'll finally get used to expecting as well as giving respect), and heads over to the nearest cluster of vending machines. They're kind of busted for some reason and it's going to take a minute to wrestle a base-model PINpoint out of one without causing more damage. She already said Johnny needed one, so why wait around? This way she can program in their comm code up front.

Angel cants her head to the side when Alpha takes her hand. Curious. Perhaps he wishes to study what he believes is the source of her magic. But then he kisses the back of it and her eyes widen. Wings fluffing out a bit belie how surprised she is by the action.

She looks to Blaze for help, perhaps on what she should do but the Exo has moved off to a machine.

"It...I..." The demon fumbles over her words. "You are welcome." She manages finally, trying to reassure him that there is no debt to be repaid.

Edited 2017-03-15 13:36 (UTC)

Johnny quirks a small smile at her reaction. Floof. The reaction is a much more... human one, and it makes her a little more relatable in Johnny's mind. "My pleasure. Really. I'd be honored to see you around." He drops her hand and gets to his feet, stretching out. He grunts as his spine cracks, then idly shakes out the remaining pins and needles in his fingers.

"Blaze?" He calls out. "What are you up to over there?"

Ghost is there to bob encouragingly if Angel looks his way, though he's otherwise just doing the thing where he watches the conversation unobtrusively. He feels comfortable enough with both of them not to mind that Blaze is wandering off a little way. At a clank from her position, though, he shoots a look her way. "I'd better go help..."

"Trying to get my hands on a PINpoint- looks like someone stuffed this thing with feathers." Why would anyone do that? It's perplexing. The Titan already has the front panel off and the machine tipped back to scrutinize the insides. This is not an uninhabited place; she can't just crack the whole thing open. In the end though, it just takes a bit of determined shaking to bring one of the little gadgets clattering down where she can grab it.

"Here, I've got it." She'll key in a few details, then toss it to Johnny once close enough.

They wouldn't happen to be dark feathers would they? Feathers Angel certainly recognizes and oh dear. Maybe she should have a talk with the knaves about this. Not so much about the idea of personal property but not inconveniencing her Master like this.

She's much relieved when Blaze manages to get one of the item she's searching for.

Her gaze moves back to Alpha once he's obtained the item.

"If Blaze wills it, I will come to her side. Otherwise, I spend much of my time in the Wilds with those i know there." She looks back to her Master, once more composed. "Is there anything else you would ask of me?"

"You're pretty loyal, huh." Johnny smiles at her. "The wilds? Is that the forest? Didn't take you for one to live there."

"And I guess even this place isn't immune to pranks." The sight of Blaze vigorously shaking a vending machine with all of her augmented strength is too funny not to commit to memory. He catches the small device easily enough, turning it over in his hand. It looks suspiciously similar to a data-pad, one that he kept for updated bounty information. He plucks a single feather out from where it was trapped under a button, and flicks it away.

Hmm. The controls are familiar enough to navigate, and he finds out how to power it on and off fast enough, thumbing at it with one finger. He notices a contact in it already, by the name of Blaze. "Nice. Thanks. You put your details in it already?"

They are indeed inky black feathers. Touching them might bring luck, unless that's just more of their owners' boasting. Half of them are now floating in Blaze's wake after she snaps the front of the machine back into place.

"Easiest way to find us," she confirms. "We don't, uh, hang around as often these days." Which isn't very helpful for Angel, it's true. Blaze really doesn't grasp how much waiting her friend does around here. Speaking of which...

"I think that's everything. Thanks for the assist, Angel. Hope we didn't interrupt anything." She looks between Angel and Johnny, Ghost returning to her shoulder. "I should get back on patrol, if you're good to go from here." Directed at both of them, because they sure seem to be making friends and this is only to be encouraged.

"I see."

Nothing to interrupt really. She and Jesse are rarely in the Nexus and even more rarely ask for her. Angel knows she should be honored to have so easy a task with her masters. But a tool not having a use sits and collects dust.

Perhaps she will check in on the Knaves and see to it they are fed. Winter is lingering yet and they have had much trouble getting enough to eat. She is lucky that she seems to draw power from Jesse and Blaze even when they are not in the Nexus.

"Be safe, Blaze. You may call on me whenever you need, no matter what world you are on." Please...

To Alpha she gives a bow, wings folding forward and hiding her face from sight.

"You are a friend of Blaze. I am gratified to have been able to help you." She straightens again and hesitates rather than leaving just yet. Maybe it would be better for Angel to watch Blaze leave first, to make sure there is nothing more she can do.

He bows back to Angel and gives her a salute with a flick of two fingers. "Same to you too, ma'am. Maybe I'll see you around. I don't always have to be injured to talk anytime."

To Blaze and Ghost, he hesitates. He's not sure how to begin to show his gratitude for all their help getting him set up on his feet. Just before she goes, he catches her elbow. "Thanks. Both you and Ghost. You didn't have to do what you did. But I appreciate it all the same. You're - good, in a way most people aren't. I'll be in touch." He's sure they get what he means. And with that, he salutes them smartly. It won't be the last time they meet, he's sure of it.

"I'll try not to let you miss all the action, Angel," Blaze promises. Almost like she's picking up on the unspoken plea while missing the reason for it. She turns at Johnny's touch, caught by surprise. Her metal expression seems like it softens a bit as he speaks, though not without a little shake of her head.

"Plenty of people would've done the same. But I'm glad we could help." She lifts a hand to return the salute, though; Ghost bobs in agreement at her side. "Until next time, Johnny. Stay safe out there."

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Strange Awakening

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miiiisfire, whoops

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