Chapter Ninety-Six:
Their hearts thumped in their chests as they ran down the stretch of broken apart and fracturing ground, Rallycry barely tagging along as his tail slammed against the ground with every step, delirious and dizzy as he had barely awoken. He could still see the darkness at the edge of his vision, the sweet whispers of unconsciousness eating at him.
"Use your Boson, Rally!" Ruinate yelled at him from the front, cradling the softly humming beacon in his hand, no longer creating that gentle barbarous cacophony that they had listened to when running down the Orange Boson enriched tunnel. Rallycry only numbly nodded his head, his chest fluttering.
"Gods..." Bailout huffed out loudly, the one harshly gripping onto Rallycry's tail. Gear-Work was behind them all, also feeling faint but still able to keep up. It was Rallycry, ironically, that was lagging behind. The lessening of the blood flow to his arm softly started to awaken the purple protogen, however,
"Have we got everything?" Bailout called out, his voice incredulous with the situation they were in. They were only hurrying along, as they could only assume everyone else had completed their mission's objective. They were the one's keeping everyone from escaping, they were the ones still posing a danger to the mission.
Especially with Ruinate's handling of the beacon.
"Yes, we do. Now can someone please awaken Rallycry?" Ruinate yelled backwards, his arms flexing wildly as he hung onto the beacon with every fiber of his body and soul. His eyes were inflamed, crazy as the pixels attempted to structure an expression of pure, undefined determination.
"I'm awake...!" Rallycry yelled, though his voice was slurred. He didn't feel hurt, despite his body leaking quite a fair amount of blood. His fur was sticky and matted with his, his bones ached with each hard step against the uneven ground, his paws screaming at him to let up, that they hurt and that he must stop.
Ruinate sneered at his teammate, "No, you're not! We need you to get your stuff together so we can get out of here. We have no chance in hell reaching Mason in any stretch of time without your speed." The good doctor explained, his voice raising even as it cracked with exertion.
Rallycry swallowed his nerves, stumbling forward at a run. The speed and being held by Bailout gave him the balance he needed to not fall over and write on the ground. The pain was increasing with every single step, and Rallycry groaned as he attempted to flare up his Boson Energy. He needed to, and yet it wouldn't activate.
Ruinate thought hard about the situation. They had only two options, get Rallycry to be able to utilize his ability once more, or get Gear-Work further ahead to create a controllable platform to ride on. Of course, the platform would be leagues upon leagues slower than Rallycry carrying Bailout carrying them, but it could be worthwhile while Rallycry recuperated.
The scientist looked back, his pixelated eyes narrowing as his visor split open into an unsatisfied grimace. It truly did not do them any factors that Rallycry was hurt, but they had to make due with what they had. They were lucky he wasn't killed outright, that much was certain. They all where.
"Do you have any power left to control a platform, Gear?" Ruinate called out once more, exasperated and wanting to just leave already. Gear-Work glanced down at his hands, his tail shifting to compensate for his arched forward sprint.
"I think I do. It won't go incredibly fast but it would be faster than what we're going right now. I can probably heal up Rallycry on it too with a little effort." Gear-Work responded, looking at his pseudo-captain dead in the eyes. The scientist nodded his head, clenching his fist tight around the beacon.
"Fuck it." Ruinate responded, the curse word breathed out with ease. He eased up his running, allowing Gear-Work to over take him while slowing down both Bailout and Rallycry. The orange protogen bent over in a run, dragging his fingers against the ground in a sweeping motion.
The earth and ground itself was soon bent to his will, moving as if it were a liquid, and yet it was solid. The group of three behind him slowed to a stop, dust kicking up as Gear-Work reversed towards them, sliding a hovering slab of liquid-solid right before them, quickly telling them to, "Hop on".
Within the next instant, the 'aircraft' created out of normal rock and metal was flung forward by Gear-Works instruction, the protogen taking care to grab some extra material to create a wall at the back end of the structure so no one fell off due to the speed and air resistance.
The doctor pressed his hand up against Rallycry's chest as the protogen was laid down. There were many smaller cuts and bruises but the moan wound, which caused most of the blood loss, was a deep gash against the left-hand side of the protogen's stomach. It was deep and bubbling red and purple blood, the colored blood courtesy of Boson meddling.
It would take some speed and control away from the platform they were all riding on, but he had spent so many years patching up the protogen of their mortal wounds that it became second nature to the man. He pressed his fingers against the flesh, gently kneading it until his hand covered the wound.
To restructure a body to allow a wound to instantly heal was a delicate process, and it wasn't refined in the least, but he had solid control. It would take away some muscle mass from the protogen, not that Rallycry had much to begin with, benignly described as a 'twink' by some, but that was another matter entirely.
A bright light overtook the group as Gear-Work concentrated on two things at once. He could feel the heat radiate off of Rallycry as he worked his magic, rearranging organic matter and tissue with his bare hands as he manipulated solids to act as self-propelling liquid states. It was certainly intensive, but gear-Work had worked under much more pressure. He thought, anyway.
Gear-Work's visor flicked gently open as he stuck his tongue out, his hair pressed back by the ever increasing speed. His softly loosening control over the platform due to the increasingly needy attention needed to properly fix up Rallycry were taking their toll, but he could complete it
Once Rallycry was patched up, they could appear by mason's side within less than thirty seconds, most likely. With Beacon in hand, and with the team left behind to create a safe tunnel and landing zone for the pods. Get out of the tunnel, get into the pods, and out of the planet, was the goal and plan.
And Gear-Work, and all three of those around him, were determined to make it out of there.
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Howdy!
Another chapter, another chapter, another chapter. Apologies for the days I missed, just felt no itch to write. For some reason I've been insanely productive today, it's almost concerning, heh!
I hope you enjoyed this one, about four more chapters until the end of this arc! Yay! We'll be heading into the last arc soon, probably in four days if I keep up this level of productivity!
I'll try not to burn out, but I'm really excited honestly! Thanks to all those that are still reading too, of course, y'all have allowed me to feel even semi-confident in continuing this and actually finishing another story, heh.
Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see ya tomorrow!
~ Candle
2/19/2022