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Luan Fields; The Aftermath
After the battle officially ended, Hal started to check up on his fellow teammates with Quill and assisted her with any medical matter that she needed an extra pair of hands on. Whenever he approached a hurt SOLDIER, regardless of the severity of the injury, Hal face expressed great concern even though his mouth would continue to crack jokes when he wasn’t talking about medical related topics to Quill or the patient. Only when both Quill and Hal were certain that the SOLDIER’s injuries were not life threatening or could not possibly lead to any future disabilities, did Hal allow himself to smile his usual goofy smile. Once the two were able to provide basic medical care to each of their teammates, Hal took all the items with the SOLDIER’s DNA on it, put them in individual containers, labeled them, and placed the containers in a large bag.
The SOLDER’s DNA samples were not the only thing Hal collected, however. He went off wondering over to the bodies of the giant eagles and made sure he collected as much samples as he could from each one. When he was done with that, he walked towards the soldiers that had died from the eagle’s attack. It was much more difficult to collect and accurately label the fragments of flesh, so the scientist did not bother to pick up every bit of meat he found on the ground. He continued to acquire samples until the group was fed up of calling Hal’s name a hundred times and decided that it was faster to just drag the man into the Behemoth.
During the long travel in the Behemoth, Hal spend most of his time in the section of the vehicle with the most science equipment and analyzed the samples he acquired. Although he was not particularly secretive about the work, Hal would stop working every time someone—other than Evangeline—was nearby and would instead focus on starting up a conversation with them. Those who were not fond of Hal’s blabbering immediately vacated the area, but those who were willing to tolerate the man or even liked to talk with him, were welcomed by Hal with open arms. If someone was curious enough to ask what he was doing, they were treated with a straight answer—that he was analyzing DNA samples—, even though he did not give up specific details. Whenever he was fairly certain he was alone, or that Evangeline was the only person nearby, Hal carried on with the DNA analysis, talking to Evangeline if she happened to be there.
Every now and then, Hal took breaks and walked around the Behemoth to check up on his teammates, the injured SOLDIERs especially. He made sure he introduced himself to the newcomers. He talked to them enough to start listing up some potential nicknames he could call them.
When the announcement that they had arrived at Mrihl, and that the team needed to get outside, reached Hal’s ears, he immediately disposed the DNA samples he collected. He then inserted a small devise in the computer and when he pulled it out, all traces of the DNA analysis data vanished.
SOLIDER Base; Laboratory Conference Room
The meeting went as well as Haziq expected: mass hysteria amongst the higher ups while everyone else stood around awkwardly in silence. With how much yelling the President did, Haziq was surprised that a blood vain didn’t burst or that Haziq or Athene were still standing, alive. They were, unlike some other scientists, replaceable, after all. But Haziq would rather not have his life end just because the President didn’t like what they found out about Ondřej Ó Dubhshláine’s death.
Ondřej Ó Dubhshláine, one of the pioneers of Aeon technology and close associate of the higher ups, was found dead in his house a few days ago. Considering his age, no one would have thought much about his death if it weren’t for one thing: his body was found being consumed by green greyish blobs. With the recent SeeR activity, the government feared the possibility of an assassination using bioweapons so decided to send the body to SOLDIER base to investigate the cause of death. Good thing the government made the decision as fast as they did, because the unknown blobs did not stop devouring the body of Ondřej the entire time. In fact, all traces of Ondřej vanished from the face of the planet in the middle of autopsy. All the scientists had to really work on were the blobs and even that ended up being a race against time.
The scientists discovered that the green-grey blob was a colony of flesh eating—although it ate more than just the flesh—bacteria in which their only source of sustenance was Ondřej himself and when Ondřej was gone, the bacteria started to eat each other. The results had some serious implications. For one thing, the chances of bacteria evolving naturally to eat only one man in the entire world was thinner than the bacterium’s cell wall, thus, it was highly likely that the bacteria was a product of genetic engineering. If this was true, however, it would mean that whoever made it has extensive knowledge in the field of genetics and also has the resources to create the bacteria. Secondly, there was a possibility that the person who made it was able to get close enough to Ondřej—a man who was constantly surrounded by top security and actually hired food tasters just incase his food was poisoned—to infect him with the bacteria. The other possibility was that the Ondřej-eating bacteria were the type of bacteria that could produce an endospore, in which case, the bacteria could have been created years ago, remained dormant through the years traveling from one place or person to another place or person, and it only recently managed to come into contact with Ondřej. If true, the person who made the bacteria would not have to be close to Ondřej to infect him, but the person still had to find a way to acquire Ondřej’s DNA so that he or she could genetically engineer the bacteria to target Ondřej.
If the SeeRs were in fact the culprits, it meant that the rebellion might be more powerful and have more inside connections than the government had initially thought. This was what scared the higher ups: the SeeRs could be anywhere, ready to strike at anytime. The higher ups were most likely going to start an investigation on potential spies very soon at this rate.
Haziq glanced over at Athene who had been staring silently at the data they had collected. He was about to call her name when he saw her lips move to form the words “Verts Gris.”
Where has he heard that before?
Zalera Tundra; Mrihl
Feeling someone’s gaze directed to him, Hal turned his head around just in time to see two little children ducking into the bushes. He continued to stare in the direction and saw their heads come up, then immediately go back down when their eyes met with his. Based on their expensive looking clothing and similar features they had with the Baron, it was easy for Hal to conclude that the children were the Baron’s—a close relative, if not the Baron’s own. They must have been curious to know who the foreign guests were, but were probably supposed to be doing something else—school work perhaps?
Hal entertained himself by watching the children try and fail to be stealthy for awhile before deciding that he would go introduce himself the little misses and mister. Every time the children hid, Hal walked over to them and quickly froze in some ridiculous pose when the children stuck their head out again. It did not take long for the children to catch on what game they were playing and they were more than happy to play along.
After a few turns of red light green light, Hal was at arms reach of the children when he wobbled. The children pointed at him declaring that they had caught him moving. Hal laughed as he admitted defeat and kneeled down so he could talk to the children at eye level. The three introduced themselves in turn, confirming Hal’s suspicions of the children being the Baron’s offspring. When Hal introduced himself as a SOLDIER, the children didn’t believe him, because he looked nothing like Luc, but they forgave their new friend for lying. The children had no one but themselves to play with at the Baron’s estate and an adult willing to play with them was a breath of fresh air.
1 hour of fun and games later, the security mistook the children’s screams of joy with cries for help and immediately captured the suspicious man who was harassing them. He insisted that he was a SOLDIER, but the guards knew very well that the man was just making things up. They locked the intruder into a barred room until the proper authorities could arrest him.
Luan Fields
In hindsight, he should have known the giant eagles would suicide attack a group of soldiers if and when their lives were nearing its end. Biological altruism at its finest. He had kept the possibility of the birds targeting the SOLDIERs farthest from the center of the battlefield —especially the absent-minded looking ex-scientist who was just standing there in the open without any armor to speak of— tucked away in the back of his mind, but when one critically wounded eagle came diving into the Behemoth’s direction, there was nothing that Hal, or anyone for that matter, could do about it.
When he first saw the signs, Hal had thought simply that all it meant was that he’d have to defend himself from the incoming attack. When he realized that there were foot soldiers right behind him that was when panic set in. He did try, though. Hal even had time to turn his head over his shoulder to shout at the people around him to run, take cover. He, however, underestimated the eagle’s determination. By the time he finished shouting and returned his head to its original position, the creature was almost at the Behemoth. From there, everything was in slow motion.
Despite the immediate danger being right in front of him, Hal’s eyes found themselves wondering to the figure behind the eagle: Evangeline running after the eagle with an expression that could even give Kain a run for his money.
A little girl comes running towards his direction —arms extended forward, hands desperately grabbing the air unable to wait for the moment that it would grab something tangible, eyes full of tears, and her mouth wide open as she sobs. She calls out to her sanctuary for protection from something beyond physical harm.
He reaches out to her to shorten the distance between them so that she could be one second closer to a warm embrace, a moment closer for him to whisper soothing words to her.
She jumps into his arms—…
… And Hal held Evangeline as tightly as he could when the deadly winds came. Although he was ultimately the one to get pinned down, he attempted to shield the blond from not only the winds, but also from the sight and sound of people being sliced into little pieces like food in a food chopper. Not that his attempts succeeded.
When both the wind and screams of anguish died out, the two SOLDIERs finally freed each other from their embrace and looked at one another to see how much damage either one had taken, which turned out to be none. Hal furrowed his eyebrows, confused as to what had spared the two from the ugly fate that fell upon the unfortunate soldiers.
Evangeline did not give Hal much time to deliberate over the phenomenon as she suddenly scolded the older man, “What in the fuck are you doing?!”
“Oh my,” Hal gasped overdramatically, “such language! Where did you pick that up from? Have you been hanging out with the wrong crowd?”
If this had been any other circumstance, if there hadn't of been death waiting to strike them both in the form of wings and gales that tore people asunder: she might have laughed. But, as the situation had provided, she did not and the perpetual tilt of her mouth only seemed to twist and conform to an enraged snarl as more of her disbelief quaked into the depths of her eyes.
"I - what?!" She screeched, confusion bleeding over into her rage, blending the two into a glamour of utter despair and fear. "You were just standing there!" Evangeline accused, sweeping armoured limbs out wide to gesture to the entire field. "You!" Small fingers curled and cinched tightly into fists that lashed out in fury. "Idiot!" The first punch descended, hammering against his shoulder. "Did you not see the big." The second punch fell onto his chest. "Fucking bird coming towards you!?"
“OW! OW! Bubbles, I bruise easily! Ow! Oww…” Hal rubbed his shoulder and his chest, simultaneously, “I know who you’ve been handing out too long with… Honeybun. Jeez. Next thing you know, you’ll be beating me to death just for saying good morning.” When another fist threatened to hit Hal again, he quickly added, “Okay, okay! Yes, I was standing around, but it’s because you guys obviously didn’t need me out there! You were kicking ass! Plus, you know I can’t fight! I just thought it was better for the team if I just hanged out in the back! Can’t say it quite went as I thought it would haaave…” His eyes drifted towards the bloody mess the creature had left behind before it perished, but not for long.
She listened to him quietly, almost sullen, her cinched fingers trembling in throes of anger as they thrust and rested on her thighs, each word he sputtered and exclaimed making her brow knit together and her lips to quiver in both frustration and another emotion that she would not admit to: fear.
"You're such an idiot, Hally!" Evangeline woefully cried, her fingers immediately grasping fistfuls of facial hair, bring her burning, mismatched stare close to penetrate into his own gaze. "I'm here to protect you, remember? What am I supposed to do if you were..." There was a pause, heavy, inflicted with memory and the fog of something.. more. Something that she could bring herself to speak aloud or utter, not even in a personal whisper. Thus, her grasp loosened and she carefully spread out her searching touch and felt her palm across the hilt Umbra - still tainted in the life of the Eagle she had taken - and brought it, thrust, against her breast: silent.
Familiar hands planted themselves onto each of Evangeline’s cheeks and a soft voice called for the woman’s attention, “Evangeline.” Once fairly certain that he got her attention, Hal closed his eyes and leaned his head down, making their foreheads touch each other. He did not allow himself to continue speaking until his felt the muscles in Evangeline’s body relax. “And you kept your promise. You did protect me. I'm standing right here, alive, because you did.” Both knew that the strange phenomenon of a SOLDIER not being affected by the eagle’s attacks was not limited them —Quill, for instance— and there was no evidence to suggest that Evangeline had caused the phenomenon to happen in both instances, but Hal insisted, “You saved me, Bubbles, and you were bad ass at it.” He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Thank you for protecting me.”
Her brow appeared to knit even closer, lashes thrown wide as the wealth of memory and habit came to and visibly cajoled and seduced her fury. Her grasp a hold of her dear Umbra loosened, slack and almost useless as her gaze riddled with emotions incapable of being uttered too began to shut. His words seemed to seep through her pores, every muscle visibly relaxing under his soft utterances and reassurances that she had, indeed, saved him. She knew that Hally had taken stock and recognized that they had not sustained injury, either due to their position of her clamouring to envelop him into her protective embrace, but to inquire of such a phenomenon was not a luxury they could afford. The aftermath was staggering and the capers of wild Eagles told her that some had remained yet.
Evangeline quietly withdrew, lashes slowly beginning to rise until she met Hally's gaze with her bi-coloured stare and, slowly, allowed a cheek-caving smile to wreath her face in cheer.
"Of course I was bad ass! What else would you expect?" She boasted, laughing in her obtuse mirth and pride. She bounded up to her heels, her movements fluid and sudden and no longer hampered by her fear and sorrow. She twirled Umbra through her gestures and carefully swung the butt down, the hilt mere inches from Hally's nose.
"Remember for next time, you idiot. Get down and out if someone comes at you, and let me do all the bad assery killing! Okay?" She drawled, almost lapsing into a jaunty little tune as she playfully knocked him with her fist, letting it curl against his cheek in a playful box before she began making head towards the Behemoth, trying to dispel the jitters that made her gait hesitant and slow - as if wary of approaching the dead as she left Hally behind.
He lets the little girl go, despite knowing what will happen to her if he did. This is why he could never be her white knight; he could not, cannot, and never will be able to protect her —anyone. He can never truly be her sanctuary, no matter how many times he wishes he could have been… he knows the truth: it is he who should be slain by the white knight. But maybe then…
Aboard the Behemoth; Luan Fields
During the travel to their destination, when Hal wasn’t being his loquacious self, acting like a preadolescence child when interacting with Evangeline, or bursting into sudden musical numbers with the aforementioned young woman with heterochromia, Hal was quietly (a word that some might have thought was nowhere to be found in Henri’s dictionary) reading the news on an electronic tablet and/or listening to the radio, occasionally gently petting the head that leaned against him.
Information, in whatever form it may be or however insignificant it may seem at first glance, was valuable. Not that the news, both on the radio and in letters, had any particularly cheery story to tell the depressing world of Viera. Even the dispiriting news was more or less the same thing for a decade; the war had been going on much too long. What had the world come to when the most uplifting news was that Ondřej Ó Dubhshláine, a man known as one of the pioneers of Aeon technology, died at the ripe old age —something that has become a rarity in recent years. But of course there was more to the news: there was a rumor circulating that Ó Dubhshláine had been assassinated by SeeRs using biological warfare. The police, the government, and even the SeeRs have yet to make any public statement that would affirm or deny the rumor.
Hal chuckled bitterly then hummed, “Mmm-mmm! Do I smell politics? Wow! My favorite kind of BS! Can't start the day without people dying and the government being all secretive about it, now can we? I can tell today’s going to be another good day.”
Perhaps the day would have been a peaceful one had he not jinxed it.
When the wounded SOLDIERS came into view, Hal was one of the first to bolt out of the vehicle to aid the weakened fighters, but he was also the first to stop in his tracks just a few steps away from the door. Superego had inflated into massive proportions; it had become powerful enough to propel Hal towards the battlefield without a second thought. He wanted to get there as soon as possible; to be sure the situation didn’t get any worse. He would have been the first one to reach the three soldiers too, if ego hadn’t whispered into superego’s ear.
And then what?
The energy that shot through his body just moments ago, instantaneously started to deplete into nothingness —much like the crash after a sugar rush. Hal had to stop right there and then. He became a rock just standing in the way of the flow of SOLDIERs that rushed into battle; an unnecessary and potentially detrimental obstacle that could have meant the death of the three SOLDIERs out there. But Hal had to stop and he couldn’t take another step.
What happens after you go there? You won’t join the fight. You can’t fight. You are useless here, Henri. You know that. Yet, you jumped out without actually thinking about it… Again. Didn’t you learn from your mistakes? Are you really that stupid? Why did you go through college if you weren’t going to use your brain when it’s most needed?
“Henri, you can’t save everyone.”
Echoes of the past sent an unpleasant shiver down the man’s spine. Fear. Not from the prospect of fighting, getting hurt, or dying, but from what was most likely going to happen after the battle. Regret. If he fought, he was going to regret it.
Hal watched his teammates engage in battle with the giant birds. Both parties fought with what they all got. Of course they would; their lives depended on it. There was the option to run, but that would most likely not happen, much to Hal’s dismay. “They” were made that way. Only “their” makers were to blame for that. He even had time think about it and he still could not choose a side when it came down to these situations. His indecisiveness had cost him more than he knew or would like to admit. Henri was a coward: he was scared that his conscience could not take the idea of—…
“Henri, you can’t save everyone. Sometimes you have to… give something up. You have to lose something to win something bigger… If you don’t choose, someone else might… and in the worst case, you will loose everything.”
Hal closed his eyes shut, hard enough to make his eyebrows furrow. As he mentally deflated his superego as much as he could possibly will it to, the scientist bit his lip and dug his nails into the palm of his hands. Hal didn’t know how long it took him to that, but when he finally relaxed and opened his eyes, his expression was abnormally blank.
He was the only SOLDIER there to take a step away from the battlefield. He just stood there, observing… recording. If there was no chance of saving everyone, then he was getting something else out of this. “Their” deaths must not be wasted.
Team Autumn:
I have returned.
To update my situation, I'm back in school so my IC posts might be limited to the weekends (depends on study load).
Kain and Hal will get along famously :D
Edit: Oh, I was going to mention it when the day came, but I will be moving overseas within a couple days. I'm going to be inactive while I'm traveling, as to be expected, but I'm also not entirely sure how soon I'll have access to the internet at the new place (kind of why I'm posting as much as I can now). Just a heads up :)
Edit: It is time! And I'm not looking forward to the plane ride. Going to have to find a way to knock myself unconscious once I get on the plane XP
Edit: Oh, I was going to mention it when the day came, but I will be moving overseas within a couple days. I'm going to be inactive while I'm traveling, as to be expected, but I'm also not entirely sure how soon I'll have access to the internet at the new place (kind of why I'm posting as much as I can now). Just a heads up :)
Edit: It is time! And I'm not looking forward to the plane ride. Going to have to find a way to knock myself unconscious once I get on the plane XP
SOLIDER Base; Deployment Dock Number Four
Did Kain just threaten him? As in, was “And if you give me a nickname, I give you a caved in skull” an actual, serious, threat or was the titan joking and forgot to that he had facial muscles? So hard to tell with these military types. If it were the latter, however, he’d need to change his exercise menu: less push-ups and more smiling. The rest of Kain’s muscle-bound body had enough muscle mass as it is; they don’t need any more attention.
“Well it was going to be Fluffaluffagus, but now I’m starting to think I should’ve chosen Grinch. Seriously, did no one teach you manners? Is that how you talk to everyone? If someone brought you an extra glass of water that you didn’t ask for do you say ‘no thank you’ by saying ‘You bleeping bleep-bleep! I gonna pull out your spine for that! Grrr!’” Hal demonstrated how pathetic the basic bodybuilding poses looked on a man who just barely had enough muscle on him to qualify as an active SOLDIER. “Congratulations! You’ve successfully committed verbal assault! Tsk, tsk, soldier, tsk, tsk. You’ll only make more enemies with that kind of language.”
Rubbing his chin with the tips of his fingers like a villain from the old movies, Hal studied the mountain of flesh called Kain, and based on the bountiful wisdom he clearly possessed, decided to do exactly what Kain asked him —although not in the most polite fashion— not to do. “You know what? I would have called you by any name you wanted me to if you just asked nicely, but since you decided that threatening to crush my skull was the better choice, I’m going to call you Honeybun. Yeah. That’s right, Honeybun. And it’ll stay that way until you learn how to ask things from others politely, young man. In fact, every time you fail to do so, the nickname will become increasingly embarrassing and/or more suggestive to the point that rumors will start to spread about how... ‘close’ we’ve become.”
Hal placed his hands on his hips and let his chest puff out in petty triumph. An impish grin spread across his face, “I don’t have a single shred of dignity or pride left in me. I don’t even have to worry about how good or bad my reputation is, because, quite frankly, it’s a lost cause. But you… you still have all that. Hey, maybe even more! You might have a bright future ahead of you in this career! So what’s it going to be, Honeybun? Learn to ask nicely, or get used to the long list of pet names I’ll be calling you. Oh, and the weird looks people will be giving you every time I say them to you.”
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