A New Platform [Intro Post December]

[voidtreckermods]

On the Train

It's only been a couple of days since the Voidtrecker Express took to the void once more, and many of the passengers are still recovering and recuperating after a very hectic end to their latest mission. Nevertheless, they are awoken by a familiar message.

"Good morning passengers, it is day sixteen of the month of Imagination. Points have been updated on the system."

They have indeed, and everyone can spend the morning shopping. Those who have been on the train for a while will be expecting the second announcement that comes a few hours later.

"Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." A lurch and a jolt and the windows fill with the fog that means they are at a platform. It is warm outside with a pleasant breeze that flows down the platform, rustling the light spread of leaves that litter the floor.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing, walking silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers. Akemi Homura, Alfred the Poisoner, Donatello Versus, Chie Satonaka, Joscelin Fitzthomas, Ronan Lynch, Rose Tyler, Tangle the Lemur, Trowa Barton, Wester Mazaki and Whisper the Wolf all pass through the platform, not looking back before they disappear through the barriers and into the fog beyond.

But on the platform itself there are new faces. Wearing hoodies in all four colours, in various states of confusion.

For New Passengers

At first all they can see is steam, billowing around them as they come to their senses. The second thing they will notice is the swirling leaves at their feet, moving in flurries and rattling against each other softly. As their eyes adjust, they will see they are on a platform, cement and packed earth forming a very practical, plain-looking shelter. Behind them is a set of barriers, and in front of them is a single track extending both ways into thick fog.

They are standing, in clothes that are not their own and a style they might not even recognise. They are carrying a rucksack on their back. For a moment it seems to just be them, alone in the white haze but then the steam begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

The platform is not large and it holds eight figures all facing the tracks, all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies. Both left and right the tracks disappear into the mist. Then there is a roaring sound and out of the fog arrives a train. Jet black with gold writing on the side. The Voidtrecker Express. There is a hiss as the doors slide open and out into the gloom step a selection of people. Some are human, some are less so. Most are wearing the same hoodie in one of the four colours, red, orange, blue and purple though some are sporting different clothes in a variety of styles.

The Train

The doors hiss open. Those from the train may encourage those on the platform to board. It’s not like there's anywhere else to go and even if there was, you feel a pull. A need to board, a feeling that staying on the platform would lead to something terrible. If that is not enough, there are plenty of people on the platform now, to encourage them onto the train.

Each ICP shows the same message and next to the screens there are stacks of leaflets written by those on the train, with further information (see
'Publications'). The store rooms have been restocked with more jars of honey, the ingredient of the month of Imagination, as well as sundries.

A new carriage has been added right next to the luggage carriage. It is a second medical carriage, or triage carriage. Downstairs is more open with beds and chairs, upstairs are two surgical bays for those that need immediate attention.

For those intrigued by the claim of a parcel for every passenger they will find several large boxes filled with small blue bags. Inside each bag is ten dark blue coins imprinted on each side with a silver snowflake. Each bag has a small label with a passengers name. On the other side of the label it reads: Keep these safe for now.

Of course for any passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage as well.

New passengers will find their tickets allow them into their cabins. They may need to negotiate for beds, especially if they want a top bunk!

Room is tight but there are storage cubbies at the head of each bed, beds fold up and the bottom bunks double as benches for the small table. There is storage under those benches and you will hopefully find a pillow for your bed if it has not been nabbed by a roommate, there are also spare blankets for if it gets cold.

Departure

A second horn sounds to encourage any stragglers taking advantage of the pleasant weather and the doors slide shut. Veteran passengers know what will happen next, but they may wish to brief their new companions.

The train sets off, the fog obscuring the view again as it picks up speed.

"Welcome aboard, passengers of the Voidtrecker Express." A female-coded artificial sounding voice echoes throughout the train. "Please take the time to read the passenger information displayed on the Information and Communication points and familiarise yourself with the layout and emergency exits."

The train begins to tilt, leaving the ground and rising up into the fog-filled sky.

"Entrance into Voidspace imminent. New passengers are advised to remain seated. Entry into Voidspace in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

A shudder, a jolt, a lurch to the left. A flash of light, colourful and blinding. As quick as it happens it is done. The train seems to steady. The fog from the windows is gone now, replaced with a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colours.

Welcome to the Void!

Comments

[sos_pilot]

"How can you just say 'hm' at that?!" Della snapped, unable to hold back anymore.

[10billionpercent]

He blinked, a little surprised. "I was...thinking?"

She'd caught him a little off-guard that that's what bothered her. "I don't know how it works and it seems like what I observed isn't all that..."

Senku looked like he was trying to figure out what the problem was. This was a case where he bypassed the socially acceptable answer again, wasn't it?

"I...that sounds bad?" He tried.

[sos_pilot]

"YES, IT WAS VERY BAD! AND THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU!" Della began swinging around one of her crutches - she wasn't trying to hit him (supposedly), just needing to flail and vent. "I don't want you risking your life because of something that was a little ANNOYING!"

[10billionpercent]

He winced slightly at the proper yelling. "That would have been bad." He agreed with a grimace. "It...wasn't just a little annoying." He glanced away with a bit of a huff.

"But I get your point."

[sos_pilot]

Deep inhale. Deep exhale. Repeat. Repeat.

"Good... if you won't take care of yourself for your own sake, then do it for mine. If something seriously bad happened to you... I don't know what I'd do."

[10billionpercent]

That was bordering on sentimental and Senku tried not to squirm a bit at that. He just didn't know what to say when people were so passionate about his well-being.

"I'll try. I really didn't intend to get exploded, total accident. Neither Kaiba or I were anywhere near that area of the station until afterwards." It hadn't been his fault..this time.

"For the moment, mine's broken. I don't know how to fix it, but I'll try anyway." He didn't know what would happen if a mission came up and he didn't have one.

[sos_pilot]

"As long as you remember it." Della sighed. She didn't know how to fix one either, or who to even go to for repairs. She could only hope it looked worse than it actually was.

"Maybe it's high-time I stopped getting so excited about the adventure-aspect of these missions, and started actually paying attention to the train and the stuff it does."

[10billionpercent]

He chuckled. "Why?" Senku shrugged. "I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying the adventure part."

He hummed lightly. "I like the mystery. I like to sit around and think about all the things I don't know yet. Call it a hobby."

[sos_pilot]

"I'm not saying to not get excited... I just need to balance it out." Della looked around to try and find a seat. "I have a habit of being a little too reckless... and headstrong. And irresponsible."

[10billionpercent]

He waited for her to find the seat she liked and hummed thoughtfully.

"Headstrong and a degree of recklessness isn't too bad." Senku admitted. "As long as you're willing to take the responsibility for doing it." He commented.

"I do a lot of wild things, but I also have to bear the responsibilty behind all of my decisions."

[sos_pilot]

Hearing that, Della did begin to smile. "It took me a while to learn that... and it cost me some important things." She nodded her head towards her leg, although in her opinion, that wasn't her "biggest loss."

"I'm just glad you know the same... without losing the same."

[10billionpercent]

"Well I didn't lose a leg." Senku agreed. "I've learned my lessons, there's been repercussions here or there."

He leaned forward slightly, considering that. "I don't try to think about things I've lost. I carry them with me, but I try not to focus on that stuff. Might make me mad. I hate being mad. Huge waste of time."

[sos_pilot]

Della laughed a little at that. "I wish me and my family could take that to heart! We're kinda infamous for our temper."

[10billionpercent]

"That so?" Senku asked with a bit of a grin.

"And here Taiju can't remember a single time I've lost my temper." Senku hummed.

"I try and channel any emotions really into constructive output. It really made me mad when our enemies trashed our ship, because I had to rebuild everything, but getting mad wouldn't solve the problem."

[sos_pilot]

Della grinned right back, intrigued. "Sounds like you're teasing a story..."

[10billionpercent]

"Ah, that's a long enough story." Hopefully Della was comfortable, because he was going to proceed to tell it anyway.

"It started when we arrived on Treasure Island, as I call it, and it's populated which was a bit of a surprise, but apparently the descendants split some generations ago, roughly half ending up where I found them and the other half stayed there. We sent a small group to the shore to scout a little bit. Me, and Gen and Kohaku." He hummed.

"Ibara's forces stormed the ship and they had a petrification device and proceeded to petrify the rest of us, which was...less than ideal. Then they dumped the statues overboard and took over the ship." He considered that. "Save two who weren't petrified, but they were hiding just outside the range of the weapon."

He concluded this part with, "While they had control of the ship, they just smashed everything they didn't understand what it was."

Did she want more?

[sos_pilot]

Look at her glittering, wide eyes - of course she wanted more! She was practically salivating for details!

"Then what happened, then what happened?"

[10billionpercent]

"Let me think then. We ran into a local to get more information about the situation and while we couldn't do anything about our crewmates for the time being, we needed to get our hands on that weapon. We came up with an infiltration plan since he's a creepy guy who wanted a bunch of women in his harem." Senku rolled his eyes, that was boring.

"Kohaku pretended I was her boyfriend so she could shout what we needed and Suika and Ginro got our mobile lab to us. After that we sent Kohaku, Ginro and Amaryllis into the whole thing. Gen and I really aren't suitable for that kind of mission, and Suika's too young." He had a bland expression at that.

"It was a good plan, because Kohaku happened to find the treasure for us." He grinned. "It was a time capsule with a bottle inside that included several pieces of gold but most importantly one piece of platinum, which was exactly what we needed to depetrify our crewmates, because it allows us to make nitric acid which is one of the two ingredients in the depetrification solution."

[sos_pilot]

"Oh man, this story has everything!" Della hooted, clapping merrily. "Chemicals, deception, a really awful bad guy, treasure hunting, geniuses..."

[10billionpercent]

"Not too bad right? So after we got that we started retrieving and reviving our allies, until we were all together. In the meantime, Ginro got himself into a bit of trouble and Ibara stabbed him straight through so Kohaku tried yelling one of his secrets so that they'd be petrified, so we could save Ginro's life at a later date."

Senku sighed lightly. "Without our spies, but our spies having been found out, their strongest warrior Moz came to seek us out and Gen used his silver tongue to convince him to work with us temporarily, under the promise he could kill us later. Time was all we needed anyway. We came up with a plan with Moz to mount a fake attack, to scare them into throwing the device into the air and we built a drone to catch it."

He smirked slightly. "It was a good plan, unfortunately the communication device Kohaku had was taken by Ibara so we didn't surprise him at all and he mounted a counter-offensive."

[sos_pilot]

Della laughed a bit at one certain detail. "Convincing someone to join you by the promise of being killed by them later... I have got to try that on some of the bag guys back home!"

[10billionpercent]

"Some of his genius at work, you know Airavata. He managed to at least move the goal posts long enough to buy us time. He's so crafty and devious." None of that sounded like it was anything less than the highest of compliments. Then again, Senku had little more than praise for Gen.

"So, what he did was evacuate his people onto the ship, I guess in a plan to leave us on the island and just petrify the whole area. We figured that much out and mounted a bit of a bluff attack to scare the villagers who are, in general, simple uneducated people. Science is good for tricking people like that." He didn't mean it in a malicious way, it was a good way to avoid bloodshed.

"We were cornered by Moz who was pretty pissed we messed up his whole plan so the best we could do was go to our last resort - we freed Hyouga from the little brig we had on the ship in the hopes he would defend us, which he did." That sounded dramatic and like there was probably a story there too.

"So we took off back to the island to get what Hyoga needed and while we were doing that Ibara petrified the girl who was helping him because she questioned what he was doing and tricked a man into swallowing the device and running to the island to petrify everyone on land."

He leaned forward slightly, this was, after all the climax. "We gave chase, but there's nothing we can do against that petrification beam. We came up with a plan fast. See, it follows the rules of science right, so it spreads out a constant speed, meaning that if you know how fast it's moving you know how long you have before it hits." He explained, just in case she wasn't following the math.

"So my crewmates stood apart and held out a hand. When the beam touched their fingertips they raised the other hand. They were leaving everything to me, I was at the back of the group doing the calculation. I had two choices, leave a finger in the revival fluid and hope that it didn't just cover that, or toss it in the air so it would land on me as I got petrified. A real live, do or die kind of experiment."

Senku grinned slowly. "So, through doing the calculations I figured I had five seconds until I was stone so I counted, I threw the revival fluid up in the air..."

[sos_pilot]

It was so great that Gen and Senku were on the train together - how nice to have your bestie along for the ride! She was so happy for them both!

But she was grateful that Senku was explaining a bit of the theory behind the math, because she might've gotten a little lost otherwise. Thankfully, she managed to keep up, fists shaking in excitement. "Then, then, then?! Don't leave me hanging, man!"

[10billionpercent]

"I counted perfectly, of course because no one will ever beat me in that. Just as I was turning to stone it crashed down and stopped the petrification in its tracks, and reversed it immediately. I learned a lot." Senku grinned.

"In any case, I went to see if I could retrieve the petrification device that was inside the guy but look at these arms." He gestured. "I can't break a statute. So I figured Ibara was going to do that and set a trap. I made sure he could see footprints leading away which would make no sense obviously if everyone was petrified and then I rigged up the mobile lab with a wire so that I could use my weight to push it into momentum so it would crash into him. He expected something would happen and he had some kind of armor on so that didn't help."

Senku rolled his eyes. "And you know people like this right, who never shut up but I can't face him head on so I took off, throwing a couple of bottles of revival fluid at him. One hit a tree, but one hit Ryusui." He grinned. "Geometry strikes again. Ryusui heard me and when Ibara had me cornered appeared out of nowhere with the drone. We managed to snag the device but then it was down to a tug of war while he had already given the command, but I don't lose on timing. He avoided that blast, but Ryusui sacrificed himself so he could attach that listening device of ours to the Medusa itself."

He smirked. "All it took was the command from me through the earpiece and he was nothing more than an ugly stone statue. Checkmate."

[sos_pilot]

"Ah, the ol' 'evil monologue' bit. Never really understood that." Della shared an eyeroll with him. "Always have to go bragging about their genius and how we will rue the day and blah blah blah... and by the time they're done, I've already come up with at least three different plans to stop them." Half-shrug, but anyway, back to the story.

"That was a great story, Senku! You really need to write this stuff down!"