There and Back Again

Romi

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There was no preparing yourself for the end of the world. Angelo had thought he was prepared. He'd thought he was ready. He'd read and considered and pondered a million times what it would look like. What it would feel like. But none of that had prepared him for reality.

Halcyon City was gone. The place he'd grown up. The place he'd spent his whole life. His home. As they landed, Angelo couldn't help but realize that he had, until that moment, still considered it home. A part of him, even knowing the truth, had deep down felt that one day he'd go back. That one day he'd be back in Halcyon with his friends and loved ones. That he'd see them all again one day.

Actually arriving put those notions to rest more or less immediately.

Halcyon had once been a massive, thriving city on par with New York City itself. It had been a central hub. A place of business. A home. Now it was a wasteland. The destruction was total. Not a single building remained undamaged. Most were almost entirely leveled, little more than rubble. Every so often, there were signs or indications of what had once stood, but it was really only his memory letting Angelo know where they were.

He'd worn his suit and little else. It would protect him from debris or any sharp edges, but it only extended up to his neck. On his face was something else entirely--a sleek black mask that extended down over his throat, providing him with both oxygen and the pressure needed to let him breath. It was intended for space walked, but the significantly reduced atmosphere of Halcyon City was close enough to space that it required it.

Thankfully, he could still speak through it, the mask broadcasting his voice with a bit more crackle than usual as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Everyone make it through? How does this normally work?"

An hour. They had an hour.
 

MarcellusD

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Apri had to admit that she was a little nervous. One of her two clients—the one named Angelo—had told her that the world they were going to had a destroyed atmosphere, meaning they wouldn't be able to breathe without assistance. She had been to such planets before, but the brief thought that the equipment that helped her to breathe might malfunction somehow always gave her second thoughts.

She went through the portal with Shima instead of her actual body. Her actual body was inside the metal pod on Shima's back, and it was already suited with the breathing equipment. As Shima, she wouldn't need to breathe, and it was just safer to go into an unfamiliar environment with something that could sustain more damage than a human body.

When Apri saw the destruction, she opened her mechanical mouth and let out a whistle. "This place has seen better days," she said. She'd never seen a city so destroyed, although some had come close.

Upon it being mentioned, she turned to find that both her clients were present and well. She then turned to Angelo.

"Usually, I would take charge and lead you guys around to various places, sightseeing and such," she said. "But since you know this place, you can lead the way. I'll just keep track of time and make sure there are no anomalies that we might have to be worried about."
 

Romi

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Anomalies? Angelo raised an eyebrow, visible over the tip of his visor.

"What kind of anomalies should we be looking out to?" It made sense they'd be a risk, but he hadn't actually thought about it at all. Really, his thoughts of the dangers had largely extended to the natural environment. The lack of pressure. The lack of sound. The cold.

It wasn't freezing, but it was still cold. It wouldn't be comfortable in the long term, but for only an hour they'd manage just fine. The sound issue was strange to deal with, but the radios in the suits were easy enough to deal with.

The lack of sky was the truly strange thing. It was day--he could see the sun--but there was no blue. No atmosphere. Just stars. Stars even in the day, and the black of knight, and...

It was strange and wrong.

"I have a place I need to visit," Angelo said over the radio. "To pick something up for a friend, if I can find it. It's maybe twenty minutes that way, so..."

He gestured, glancing back to the robot.

"How fast can that thing go?"

He didn't tire when he ran. Blade would probably outstrip him in pure speed, but she didn't have the endurance he did. It was hard to tell how fast a given robot could go, but it looked like it'd be able to keep up.
 

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Apri hadn't seen an actual anomaly that she had to be worried about in a long time, but it was better to be safe than sorry when people were putting their way back home in her hands.

"Since every dimension is different, the anomalies in every dimension will be different, as well," she said. "You two might just wanna look out for something that shouldn't be happening here, while I'll worry about more technical things, like if the portal flickers. I'll be notified if that happens."

Said portal was a few feet behind the group. It was a circle that was a few feet off the ground, ten feet tall and ten feet wide. Inside the circle was pure darkness, except for the multicovered, ever-moving lines that formed random shapes. Apri still sometimes caught herself being in awe of it.

Apri nearly scoffed when Angelo asked how fast Shima could go—and referring to it as "that thing"!—but of course, he couldn't have known. Luckily, facial expressions didn't translate to Shima's face.

"My precious Shima here can run at seventy-five miles per hour," she said, "or a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, if you measure speed that way. If you guys wanna ride, you can. One of you will have to hold my pod, which has the real me inside, so please be careful."

Shima was no small cat. It could easily fit two people on its back if it wanted to, and three if they squeezed.
 

Romi

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Angelo wasn't aware of how bothered Blade was. Blade had always kept things close to her chest, hiding her real feelings, and she'd always been a struggle for Angelo to read. A part of him expected she'd have almost no reaction at all. She didn't like Manta Carlos, but he was also of the opinion that she didn't like Halcyon much either. She was unhappy no matter where she was.

The fact that the robot--who was sort of Apri in Angelo's mind, and sort of not--could be ridden significantly sped things up. If they were lucky, they might actually get everything done in one go.

"We're going to be heading to the east," he said, before realizing there was no easy way for anyone who wasn't already from Halcyon to Navigate. The sun was a lot less obviously positioned, and when he took a second look he realized that the sun was somehow out of place.

Like the entire earth had been knocked off it's orbit, misplacing the sun in the sky.

"That way," he said with a gesture, climbing onto the back of the robot and letting himself hold on tight. "We're looking for a building by the coast. There's not likely to be a sign, but it'd be a processing plant, to give you an idea. When we're closer, I can direct you as I go."

He hadn't explained to Blade what he was trying to do there, but he suspected she could guess. She'd probably recognize the general description he'd given as a factory that had belonged to Armourer back in the day--the very place they'd learned his secret.
 

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Apri waited until she was sure that they were securely on and that Blade was holding onto her pod. She moved in the direction that Angelo pointed to, first at a walk, then a trot, and gradually picked up speed until she was moving as fast as she could.

Apri had gotten used to people riding on Shima's back, so she knew how to keep her body stable enough to not knock them off. That didn't stop her from worrying that the pod would slip from Blade's hold, even though it was very resilient and had padding inside so that her body wouldn't get too damaged.

Apri slowed down every once in a while to make sure they were fine. "You guys alright back there?" she'd asked.
 

Romi

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He supposed that if anyone could be said to be prepared for it, it was him. He was good at this. At turning off. At feeling nothing. And he didn't. Not really. Staring out over the devastation, the complete and utter destruction, Angelo didn't feel sad. Maybe he would later, but right then he was living in the moment.

Things needed doing.

He gave Apri direction as they went, navigating largely by memory. Most of the landmarks that he or Blade might have recognized were all but destroyed, and it wasn't as if there were street signs to point the way.

"There," he said, pointing to a warehouse and indicating for Apri to stop.

Well, maybe half a warehouse was more accurate. The entire right side of the building had collapsed, but the left side looked...

Well, it still looked like crap. It looked like an urban explorers nightmare. But there was no electricity, and it looked mostly clear, and... well, that was that.

"We need to go in there. There's an office in the corner of the building we might have to pry our way into, assuming it's even standing."

He paused, making a second look at Blade.

"You both alright?" Maybe he should have asked sooner.
 

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The journey was only slightly hazardous. Whenever there was debris in the road that was too dangerous to traverse, Apri took a different route. Mostly, though, she was doing small leaps that gave them plenty of distance because of her speed.

Angelo pointed out the building that they were going to and Apri slowed down, coming to an eventual stop. Well, calling it a building was generous. It was half of a warehouse, the other half destroyed beyond recognition. Shima would be fine moving through such an unstable area, as its body was quite resilient, but her clients....

"Hey Blade," Apri said, "can you put the pod down? Just on the ground is fine."

Once the pod was on the ground, Apri transferred her consciousness back to her human body. The pod was pitch black on the inside, only slightly illuminated by the thin beams of light that shone through the cracks in the pod. She opened up the pod and emerged, like a butterfly from its cocoon.

"I'm fine," she said. "Anything I do in one of my machine bodies translates to my human body. I just ran nonstop at about seventy-five miles per hour, and I'm hungry."

Apri stepped out of the pod, legs slightly wobbly, and opened a compartment on Shima's back. Inside were some water bottles and apples. She grabbed an apple and immediately sunk her teeth into it.

"You guys want something?" she asked. "I have a lot."
 

Romi

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Angelo didn't want to eat. The thought of food made him somewhat queasy, and for a moment when he looked at Blade, he wondered if she felt the same way. She seemed... out of it. Even more distant than usual. He considered talking to her then and there, asking if she wanted to go back, but the one hour time limit was ticking over his head. What happened if they went over? Either way, he didn't want to - they should be able to do everything they needed, and he dug into his pocket, pulling out a small machine that looked something like an ammeter.

The readings were all wrong, but the only thing he needed to find was a difference, and that should still work.

"Hold on here," he said, nodding to the robot. "I'm going to just dig down. I should be able to find it and be back within ten minutes." He didn't have super strength, but he did have a hyper-durable suit that would keep him from getting stabbed by any random rusty bars that happened to be protruding, and the part of the building he needed to be in was still standing. "Won't be long."

He didn't wait for them to answer. One minute he was there, the next minute he was off like a shot, ignoring the door in favor of climbing through a hole in the wall, heading up to the office.

It wasn't standing. Not really. The inside of the warehouse had plenty of damage, even if the external structure was intact. The office was torched, burnt out and so damaged he grabbed a piece of pipe to prod along in front of himself, just to make sure the floor wasn't going to give out. He was tentative, and wondering just how stupid he was to be taking this risk, but it wasn't as if it was the first time he'd done something like this.

Search and rescue was something he'd been trained for, and this was pretty much the same thing.

Just shy of seven minutes later, Angelo emerged from the hole in the wall he'd entered through, waving the two down, and held up what looked like an extra-durable black briefcase in one hand. It was effectively a portable, extra-durable fire safe, and it had held up pretty well.

"Got what we came from. I thought, since we have time, we head to the middle of town? See the tower, say our goodbyes, and go?"

Blade probably wanted to be gone.
 

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Apri was surprised that her clients hadn't wanted anything, and, admittedly, a little bothered. She had made sure to bring a lot so that there was a surplus when they were finished. Now there was going to be a constant banging in Shima's body that Apri wouldn't be able to ignore.

She was more than surprised when Angelo just ran into the building. However, with how confident he was, she didn't stop him. He probably knew what he was doing.

And with that, Apri was left alone with Blade. Based on her short responses and her overall demeanor, she gave off the vibe of someone who didn't want to be spoken to. That was fine with Apri. She sat on Shima with her legs crossed, munching into an apple. She wasn't one to talk just to talk.

That didn't make the silence any more uncomfortable.

Apri was considering calling Reyma or anyone else back home when Angelo emerged from the building with a black suitcase. She silently thanked him for coming back sooner than she thought he would.

"That's fine," Apri said. "We've got plenty of time." She got back into her pod, closed it, and transferred her consciousness back to Shima. "Blade, do you mind holding my pod again?"
 
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