lepidope

Light of The Rebellion

"'Protect the team'? What are you even–?"

Before Matias could finish his sentence, the boss suddenly heeled forward. His hands leaped forward and caught onto the boss's body, pushing forward in an attempt to stabilize them. Their weight proved a mighty adversary, however, pushing back with the weight of whatever they had on right now.

"Listen," Matias growled, "cut the crap. We're not going to die if we take off your cosplay. That's ridiculous. Just let us help you or else you're actually going to screw up the team."

He looked towards Iris, gritting his teeth.

"Can you talk some sense into this idiot? Please?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias brow furrowed at the boss's response. He met their gaze– or at least tried to– keeping the expression.

"Alright," he puffed, "I'm pretty sure you can drop the mysterious hooded guy thing for a few moments so you don't, you know, die. Quit messing around."

Gingerly, he pinched the bottom hem of the boss's robe and began to pull it up.

"We'll pretend we didn't see anything, okay? Anyone here have mind-wiping powers or something?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias almost immediately caught sight of the wound as soon as it was uncovered. He paused his treatment to take in the graveness of the situation. He exhaled sharply before returning to his hasty work.

"You're really making this out to be less than what it is," he huffed, "and we REALLY can't afford to lose anyone right now. Especially not you."

After patting out the last bit of blood that the last pad could swallow, he took a closer look at the wound. He, however, could barely stand to look at it for more than five seconds.

"How do I even approach this? Disinfectant? I'm no medic..."

Light of The Rebellion

The empty air of the room allowed for the sound of the doors to reverberate off the walls. It certainly caught Matias's attention at least. The sight of the bloodied boss cemented his choice. His eyes went wide, and his throat was caught in a snag. He didn't need the blanket for the chill that was running through his spine right now.

"The hell happened to you?!" he roared, forcing himself to confront the boss. He seemingly had no problem getting blood all over his clothes if it meant rushing this poor person to another bed. He also had no problem dirtying the bed itself, either.

"Jesus... Tell me where you're hurt! Can't see any damn wounds with all that red stuff on you."

After setting the boss down and flicking off the excess blood, Matias ran to the other side of the room to grab a med kit. He knew he needed more than that, obviously, but it would have to do. He rummaged through the kit as he jogged back, pulling out some pads. He hurriedly patted these pads all over the boss, soaking up as much blood as he could, as little as each pad could actually do.

Light of The Rebellion

For about half an hour, Matias fought back against his own drowsiness. His thoughts served as his only form of entertainment at the moment, so it proved difficult. He didn't exactly want to be reminded by how he almost died twice today, or how much work they still had left for all their cases, or the possibility of that disgusting bug coming back, or how the boss could very likely have–

"Hey... I think I'm better now."

He set the blanket aside on the work table, slowly rising to his feet. He had to grip the side of the table for a moment, however, as his legs weren't ready for this sudden change yet.

"You guys decided what you're gonna do yet?"

Light of The Rebellion

"Hmmph."

Matias settled in. The cold had a vice grip on his legs, but the pain had mostly dissipated. In his comfort, however, he refused to move; had he not been in a conversation, he likely would have fallen asleep. He definitely wasn't going to now that Iris suggested going back to the power plant.

"You're crazy," he laughed half-heartedly, "Noooo way, mija. Besides, he told us to come back here. Now, I'm not one to blindly comply, but after what happened over there..."

His legs shuffled slightly under the blanket's weight.

"... Nah. I'm good."

Light of The Rebellion

The sudden chill at Matias's legs made him scrunch his face and wince. The cold fought the pain upon contact, and for once Matias felt like things weren't totally terrible.

"That definitely works," he sighed, opening his legs slightly to let the chill get everywhere it could.

The pain lingered, but by a thread. Most of what Matias felt at the moment was nice, cold numbness.

"How are the other guys holding up?"

Light of The Rebellion

It only took one foot touching the ground for Matias's pain to shoot up. The man let out a strained cry, shutting his eyes tight as he wobbled over to the chair offered to him. The coolness of the seat was but a temporary fix.

"Moving hurt like hell," he growled, "are you kidding me? There's got to be another way..."

Still, Matias took one leg in his hands and pulled it upwards. It wasn't as painful as setting all one hundred and forty pounds of him onto it, but it was still unpleasant. There was a sudden moment of numbness, but that was about as much improvement as he got.

"It... kinda works. Just for like two seconds though."

Light of The Rebellion

The bumpiness of the ride only exacerbated Matias's pain. It showed no signs of leaving him; it was here to stay for however long he wanted to keep up with it. He could hardly pay attention to Iris's explanation or really anything outside of the excruciation he was going through right now.

"I don't know," he grunted, clenching his arms around his body. "Kind of... Urgh... wish I died, to be honesssssst... Rrrrgh..."

The van stopped, but, of course, not the pain. Gritting his teeth didn't help at all, but Matias did it anyway. He at least gained back some mobility in his lower half, but all he could really do was curl his legs inwards in an attempt to squeeze out more pain.

"'Nuts', huh? That's what you have to say? Christ..."

What Are You Listening To?