voidtreckerexpress | Event: Abort! Part Two (day 25, Egret). Luggage carriage

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Event: Abort! Part Two (day 25, Egret). Luggage carriage

They are on world world#27462947582 for about five hours, helping, ushering people out of the city, fighting monsters, keeping guard. All seems well in the city itself, peaceful even except for the slight panic of people being told to move south.

Wherever they are, north in the desert, travelling through the countryside to the south or still in the city itself they will notice from their peripheral vision a darkening of the sky. Looking up they will see clouds. Strange clouds, appearing in the blue sky out of nowhere.

Their SCA’s start beeping, rapidly, flashing red. The clouds are too weird to be clouds, dark shapes in the sky. It might be that the Voidtreckers heed the warning and tap their SCA to evacuate to the train. It might be that they do not.

If they don’t then there is a moment, a moment of absolute stillness as those around them notice the shapes. A confused pause. Children stop their chatter, people stop their complaining, even the monsters seem to sense something and pause in their attacks.

The remaining voidtreckers are yanked away, even without pressing their SCA, they glow gold and disappear.

They all appear in the luggage carriage and not even a second later, with no warning the train lurches, flinging everyone off their feet as it enters the void.

It’s not really easy to tell speed in the void, but they will get the sense that they are moving fast. Faster than before, leaving that world and whatever those shapes were behind.

(OOC: Information on this event is here and part one is here)

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"Death." Duo replied mildly. "That thing in the sky? That was a hell of a lot of death."

He dropped his chin into his hand and frowned, looking off into the distance, deep in thought. It was clear that the planet they'd left was probably little more than rubble now. Those people very much gone. While Duo felt bad he'd not been able to do much more than he had, there was no way they could have done more.

Duo gave his head a bit of a shake and looked back at Bucky. "So screaming death from the skies isn't a typical thing for you guys, huh? Interesting."

A shiver works its way down Bucky's spine with the way Duo says that. "Yeah... yeah, that sounds about right," he agrees, frowning a little as he leans against the counter.

He looks over when Duo speaks again and shakes his head with a sigh. "No, not at all. But then, no one had ever died on a mission before, either. We had a death on the mission before this one, a guy that goes by Joss. He didn't stay dead, though, and I wonder if this isn't the cost."

"Who knows?" Duo thought about it, and given what he knew from experience and the crap he watched when he had spare time, he had to laugh. "You know it's more likely there's some Big Bad out there, right? Like some alien Empire that's just out there happily blowing up planets and enslaving the rest. That's how these sci-fi b-movies go, isn't it?"

"I was worried at first that we might be the bad guys," he agrees quietly. "I'd been used for that so much in my own world, it was a natural assumption for me to make, but so far all we've been asked to do is defend people against impossible odds. I can't say for sure that we've always been on the right side of a fight, but we've always been tasked with protecting civilians." So they couldn't be that bad.

Duo blinked and then shook his head which sent his braid to swinging. "Not us, out there!" he gestured vaguely toward a wall but he meant the Void beyond.

"Dependin on who you ask, back home I'm a bad guy. Propaganda had me as a terrorist." He grinned. "I was gonna be executed on public TV! But I think I was actually probably one of the good guys. We wanted peace and we'd do what we could to bring that peace. So I get what you guys are tryin to do here. I'm just saying that if you're fighting to save people, usually that means someone is fighting against that. And I think that Death Storm we just avoided might have been that. The Bad Guys."

Bucky hums softly, shrugging his good shoulder. "Everyone's the hero of their own story, but yeah, it does seem like we're on the right side of things, given what little we know," he manages a little smile, shifting the ice on his shoulder. "But whatever created that Death Storm is going to take more than just us to fight it, I think. Unless people on this train are a lot more powerful than they let on, even if we banded together, I'm not sure we'd stand a chance against that thing. Maybe, if we had some of the weapons from home, we'd stand a chance, but..." he frowns tightly. "Not sure even a tesseract weapon would've dented that."

Duo's shoulders slumped, he damn neat pouted. "Give me my Deathscythe and I'd put a damn dent in whatever the hell that is." Maybe with Wing's Twin Buster Rifle. That would have been handy as hell.

He straightened up, turned and heaved himself up to sit on the edge of the counter. "Well, whatever that thing was, we'll probably see it again. Big Bads don't like ta go unnoticed. And runnin away with our tails between our legs? Pissed me off a bit." Though he knew damn well there had been nothing any of them could have done at the time. He was no coward. He wanted to be prepared next time.

"Deathscythe?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "And you're sure you're not a super villain?" he teases with a little grin.

The follow up gets a nod, though, and a little sigh. "I'm not used to running from a fight, either, but I don't think we'd have managed much against that thing. I just hope the train gives us what we need to stand a chance against it, if we do end up seeing it again. If I'm gonna die fighting something like that, I at least want a shot at doing some real damage." Of making his life count for something, after all these years.

"Oh man, you'd have loved my Deathscythe!" Duo enthused, grinning widely at Bucky as he stretched his arms high and wide. "Huuuuge Gundam. A mobile suit. Built for speed and stealth with a massive beam scythe that could ruin a bad guys day lemme tell you!" and damn did he miss it. He wished he'd not had to blow up his buddy. But it's what the world had wanted.

He dropped his hands and gripped the edge of the counter to lean forward, his braid swung over his shoulder.

"I think we'll probably see it again. Or somethin like it. I'd be surprised if we didn't. And yeah, I wanna be armed and ready when we do. I don't mind the odds bein stacked against me, but I don't like goin into a fight with my arms tied behind my back."

Bucky chuckles, nodding his head a little. "Yeah, someone else mentioned something called a Mobile Suit to me, back during the mission. Sounded like they were made out of something special, we're going to see if we can compare it to the stuff my arm's made of," he held up the metal appendage, flexing his fingers. "It's kind of weird, how everyone else seems to think it's just a simple prosthetic," or as simple as something that technologically advanced can be, anyway.

"I hope we can find a way to make some real weapons soon," he sighs. "I miss having a rifle handy."

"You met Trowa?" Duo's grin widened all the more. "He was my teammate back home. He'd a good guy. But if he can make gundanium work here, I want in on that!" Then he groaned. "And a rifle... a gun. Just a simple handgun would do me!"

At the mention of Bucky's arm though, Duo reached out and took the mechanical hand in both of his and thought nothing about pulling it close for a better look. "Hn... people think this is just a simple prosthetic? I mean I guess... to someone who doesn't know better... Do you have feelin in this?" Duo looked up from the arm to Bucky, wondering about it's capabilities.

Despite what he'd just said, Bucky is startled when his hand is taken and examined so closely. He manages a tense smile, and nods. "Well, they at least don't recognize it as a weapon," he replies quietly. "Yeah, it's almost the same as my flesh hand, just a little less temperature sensitive, a little less pain sensitive," he agrees.

"Really? That's kinda cool!" Duo was smiling as he, with surprising gentleness now he knew Bucky actually had feeling in the hand, turned it over to check out the palm. "... It's really well made. But it's a weapon too?" He glanced up and smirked. "You're not tellin me this can transform into some kinda bazooka?"

He nods, watching the way Duo inspects his hand. "It doesn't have anything hidden inside of it, but it's stronger than my flesh one, and the metal it's made from is almost impossible to damage. I can use it as a shield to deflect bullets, or to crush things in my hand, even to throw myself around if I need to. It's more useful than it sounds, really."

"So no bazooka? Damn." Duo was clearly teasing, but he was nice enough to let go of Bucky's hand and drop his own into his lap. "But even normal fleshy hands can be weapons, right? And it's not like you can't do delicate things with that hand. You cook, you held my hand when I helped you up without breaking every bone in it. So it's not just a weapon. It's just an arm with an awesome tattoo and perks like being bullet proof! Maybe that's why people don't realise it's a weapon?" Now, if it was a bazooka...

He huffs out a little laugh and shakes his head. "I guess that's true. I've just used it for killing so many times, it's hard for me to see it as anything else, but if you didn't know..." it really did just look like a fancy prosthetic. "Maybe I really should try painting it."

"Like I said, anythin can be a weapon in the right, or wrong, hands." Duo grinned and lifted his own hands and wiggled his fingers. "I've done my fair share and don't have a fancy metal arm to blame. Yours just has more bells and whistles than my hands!" And it looked way cooler. So when Bucky mentioned painting it, Duo laughed. "With what? Go-faster stripes? I think your arm looks pretty damn cool! Don't need to hide it, man. Why would ya do that? Be your awesome self!"

"I was thinking of trying to make it a little more like a normal hand. More so I can forget what it was used for, than tricking other people," he replies with a little smile. "I've kept it covered pretty much constantly for the last couple of years."

"Own it." Duo's demeanour changed in the blink of an eye. The smile was gone, replaced by an odd calm, though there was an intensity to his violet gaze. "The past, whatever you did, whatever happened, made you who you are right now. So own that shit. Use it. Make it work for you. Running from it, hidin it, doesn't fix the problem." He leaned forward a little. "It's your choice what you do. But it'd suck knowin you were coverin up a part of yourself."

That had Bucky blinking, and actually leaning back a little when Duo was leaning in. He looks down at his hand, flexing his metal fingers again and pressing his mouth into a tight frown. "Maybe," he admits quietly. "But I still have to piece together who I am, after everything that happened to me." He manages a small smile.

"Sure you do." His tone gentled then, along with his expression. "That's the hard part... findin who you are. I get it. But I think that's a 'one day at a time' kinda thing, don't you?" Duo tilted his head, and just like that the big smile was right back there again and he pulled back, in fact he leaned further back and stretched out his legs. "But that's the fun part! You can be anyone you damn well want, Bucky ol' boy! You can be the Void Warrior they need or the best damn cook you can be!"

He hums in agreement, offering a little smile. "Yeah... especially here, I can be whatever I want, without much of my past clinging to me, like it would in my world," after all, everyone knows what Hydra is, and Bucky's cover was blown rather spectacularly with the fallout from Shield's demise, and now breaking out of the UN prison... he sighs, giving Duo a lopsided smile. "You're nothing but trouble, huh?"

"Trouble? Moi?" Duo tried to look shocked, he really did. It was almost real, he wasn't sure which part of what he'd said had indicated he was trouble, but he was soon laughing despite that.

"I'm just me, can't be anyone else!" Says the guy who tended to be anything but who he was, though that was in itself just a part of his personality as well. The laughter faded and the smile he gave then was apologetic, his voice low. "I don't try to be too much trouble to friends though. So I'm sorry if I am."

Bucky laughs warmly, giving his head a shake. "Oh, I mean it as the highest complement," he replies with a grin. "My best friend is the worst kind of trouble, and you remind me of him a little."

Maybe they're different brands of trouble, but he's sure he'll end up chasing after Duo just as much as he did with Steve. "You wouldn't be any fun if you weren't trouble."

"Ohhh, well in that case..." He was all smiles again. Duo had actually worried Bucky would think he was really hell bent on causing messes. He wasn't, not really. At least not for the people he liked. Nah, he tended to reserve that for the people he didn't.

"Damn straight!" He lifted his legs to cross them where he sat perched on the edge of the counter. "If you're not having fun, are you really living?"

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