[center][h1][color=0054a6]Aftermath[/color][/h1]
[b]A Collab between Jasonhero and Mr Rage.

Summary:[/b] Jason heads out to help crews with searching for survivors in Troas. There he meets another going by the name 'Zim'. The two talk as they get to work and see the aftermath of the battle...[/center]
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[hider=Look, a bigass crater! I wonder how that got there...]Looking over at the man next to him, Jason attempted to keep a calm look on his face as he was aware of the ruins of the city all around. [color=0076a3]"So, where am I needed to help out with rebuilding? Hate to see a place in ruins like this."[/color] The boy said in a neutral tone, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. In the back of his mind, he knew that right now he could be mourning the loss of his friends. The lives of those who perished when he took out the sniper, but those were for later. There was no use in moping about when work had to be done, and right now helping out with rebuilding the broken city seemed like more use to Jason than sitting around. The man seemed to finish whatever he was doing and turned towards Jason, gesturing towards a crew forming not far away. [color=f7941d]"Over there, crew is forming to help move rubble and get people out of a shelter that got covered in rubble. Need more help there than with rebuilding at the moment."[/color] The man said and turned back to talking on the radio. Jason simply nodded and made his way towards the crew. 

Zim was already amongst the crew of workers forming. His extremely short stature had made it so the foreman had dismissed him as a child at first. It wasn't until he used the high-gravity formed muscles on his tiny frame that to pick up the foreman that he agreed that he could be usefull. Besides the superior physical strength, his small frame would allow him to get down into the small cracks and pockets between the ruble to search for survivors and otherwise. Zim had just finished explaining this to the group when Jason approached, he probably heard that bit, but probably missed the introductions to the rest of the group. Zim would make a point of introducing himself to him once the work got started.

Zim had always considered himself a keen observer, and he noticed as he approached Jason once the work tasks were made clear that the look in his eyes was different from the rest of the workers. Most people here were scared or grieving, perhaps both. A few of them had perhaps a glimer of hope shining from behind their eyes as they looked over the broken cityscape. Jason's eyes, however, were like Zim's and they contained guilt. 

"Hey, I didn't catch your name? I'm Zim Hero," he introduced himself holding out a dimunative hand, "Most people just call me Zero. What brings you out to help, a feeling of obligation?"

Noticing the smaller one speaking to him, Jason's eyebrow raised. He wasn't exactly expecting anybody in this group to care who he was. Only that he could preform his goals at hand. Alas, surprises were always abound it seemed. Looking this other in the eye as he reached out and shook the offered hand, Jason spotted something fairly familiar. Guilt. The boy wondered briefly what sort of guilt this one harbored, surely it couldn't be the same as his own. 

Hearing the introduction and question, Jason's electric blue eyes searched Zim's as he tried to figure out a motive. Everybody had one, nothing was ever done without some sort of goal held in mind. [color=0076a3]"Jason Diabolus. Zero sounds a bit like a callsign, I'd wager."[/color] He said, keeping his voice calm and confident. No use betraying any emotions to people that he didn't know. 

[color=0076a3]"Never believed in sitting around ideally when work needed to be done, personally. Also yeah, a bit of obligation. You're good at reading people if you picked that up."[/color] the boy joked carefully, a small half-smile on his features before he moved on to walk with the crew, heading for the first buried shelter.

"Kindred spirits then, it seems," Zim said by response to the questions. He didn't want to give it away that he was one of the framewerk pilots to the other people on the crew. They did not do such a stellar job in Joppa, and there was no sense in inviting animosity, that wasn't the point of being here. "I was in Joppa at the time of the invasion. You must have been here in Troas? I had some friends here."

The team started moving as a group towards a collapsed building, Zim used his smaller stature as an excuse to fall behind the group slightly in case Jason wanted to continue discussing what happened.

The boy shook his head towards the other initally, before speaking up. [color=0076a3]"Nazareth, had to flee and wound up here as the fighting wound down."[/color] he said simply, a small tone of regret, pain, could be heard as he spoke. [color=0076a3]"I hope your friends made it out alright. The destruction here is... well."[/color] he said then gestured out towards the destruction. 

As they approached the collapsed building, sitting on the edge of a large crater, Jason froze; eyes going wide at the crater. He knew this crater quite well, because he had created it. He remained frozen for a brief moment before forcing himself to continue on. But long enough for a trained observer to notice the slight panic in his features. 

"None of them made it out unscathed, but more of them survived then didn't," Zim responded, "Half of Joppa looks like this, we were far worse for ware when it was all said and done."

Zim noticed that he was a few steps in front of Jason due to his pause. "War is hell," Zim started when Jason started moving again, "But it is far better then the alternative, waiting for the end to come, waiting for it to be your turn to continue on into the star dust. But that didn't happen this time becauase of the people who stood up and faught for this planet, the Planetary Defence Force and the Werk Pilots and the Star Pilots up in space. If not for them, billions more people would have died compared to the thousand in this crater."

[color=0076a3]"I am keenly aware of the destruction that was avoiding today. Ever heard of Levitcus 4-2? The Cruxi obliterated everything and everbody living on it. I am the sole survivor of the planet, thanks to not being there. Just this crater, likely made by mistake or naievety of a pilot of one of those Werks. I just hope they did not die in vain."[/color] the boy said as they caught up to the group that was walking ahead. They were stopped in front of their first target. 

Jason cast a look towards Zim, an eyebrow slightly raised. [color=0076a3]"Ready to face the survivors?"[/color] he asked, though unsure whether he was asking that to Zim or himself.

"Today, we are just good people helping out other people in a bad situation. We are just survivors too," Zim said as he went ahead and jumped down into a section of the ruble and climbed up a little ways so he could start to clear debris without causing a further collaps. He moved larger blocks and chunks of debris with relative ease where most normal, full grown men would have to exert a noticable effort. 

"Work your way over this way," the forman called out to the crew as they started clearing debris.

Zim moved a few more pieces out of the way and he stopped suddenly,  got down on his knees closer to the large chunk of steel that was in the way. "I got a survivor, over here! I here something! Jason, give me a hand!"

Once Jason got closer to where Zim was working he gave better instructions. "Get over here on this part of the beam, I can budge it, but I can't move it by myself. We need to pick it up and wedge something in the way, then I'll get down there under the beam and find the survivor."

[color=0076a3]"I can hold it up for a bit."[/color] Jason said as he approached, helping Zim lift the beam and wedging himself in to hold it up. Not long after, another member of the crew came over with a small tool, and set it on the ground near Jason. Pressing a button, the tool extended to hold the beam up by itself. The man nodded to Jason, who moved over to see if Zim needed more help actually getting the survivors out of the way.

From down within the rubble the came the sound of grunting and crumbling, after another moment of this the opening that they had made let out a bealch of dust and with it came a young woman who coughed her way out of the hole. It took Zim a few more moments to come out of the hole himself. He had pulled his shirt up over his mouth an nose to protect against breathing in the dust. When he finally made it back out from under the steel beam he saw the woman being escorted away to a nearby field hospital, a blanket around her shoulders and a bottle of water in her hands. "Mark it down here," Zim said to one of the other crewmen, "Two more bodies. They didn't make it, so we can send a recovery team in later for them, but we need to keep looking for survivors."

Just then there was another shout from across the way, already the men had started to gather in order to help.

[color=0076a3]"A shame that more didn't make it out alive."[/color] the boy said, a small frown on his features as he watched the woman being escorted off. Wondering how many more had managed to survive Ribasu's devastating attack. Hearing another shout, Jason made his way over to where it was, helping move the rubble covering where the survivors were. [color=0076a3]"Come on, Zim. Need some help moving all of this."[/color]

Zim hurried along after Jason and the other people as they continued to work their way through the rubble, marking the places where corpses were found, and getting people out where survivors were located. The day continued on until the light began to shrink. Members of the team came and went but Jason and Zim worked through the rubble until their muscles burned and their bones ached and the third forman of their day finally told them to get out of the way so less tired folks could take over.[/hider]