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Not a Sayan
And Riyame, too
"Fiore, it's Cellica. I'm safe, and with Riyame from Team Chaotix. We're almost at Point D-4. We'll meet you there."
"Alright. We can talk once we're all together." All things considered, Fiore doesn't feel too bad about the mission; Cellica’s found, they managed to defeat the invaders, and Point D-4 isn’t so far away. It’s likely the Lieutenant will chew them out a little for losing track of Cellica, but as long as nobody was hurt…
“Cellica’s safe,” Fiore reports, keeping a brisk pace towards D-4. “We’ll meet her at Point D-4; we can regroup and replace the batteries at the same time.”
Fortunately, it doesn’t take much time at all before Fiore and Tian-Gui reach the two Gunners, and it doesn’t take a genius to notice Cellica’s being carried. The girl carrying her, Riyame, even steps forward to talk to them.
“Yes, thanks,” Fiore responds, but is then distracted by Cellica’s… situation. One look at her, another at her foot, and Fiore immediately begins her spiel of “and THIS is what I come home to!?”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?” Fiore doesn’t even have to examine her closely; this is what her contacts are for, after all. “And WHERE WERE YOU? We were so worried! This looks sprained, did you get into a fight? I know you have your gun, but that’s just too dangerous!” Running the gamut from worried, to irritated, to full-out angry, Fiore delivers a small, but moving, speech on Cellica’s irresponsibility, then turns to Riyame for a calm “Thank you very much for taking care of her.”
To be yelled at was expected by Cellica, although she had previously thought that it would be Tian-Gui that would be taking it out on her more than Fiore. The two puzzle pieces almost failed to match in her head, and most likely wouldn't match at all if Fiore wasn't yelling in the present. The issue was that Fiore was correct - Cellica had been irresponsible, and though she did have Thumper and was able to handle herself to some extent, Fiore even got Cellica's injury worked out in an instant (which was not something that Cellica was surprised by).
Though feeling like she should make a link with her speech bracelet and explain herself, Cellica refused to do so. She raised her hand to her mouth, breathing deeply through her nose - she was upset, both with herself and with the yelling, and used one of the few advantages of being mute to not speak, and instead stare with troubled eyes at Fiore, trying not to let a tear slip free.
Throughout Fiore’s entire speech, Tian-Gui stood in the background, an unmoving monolith radiating an imposing aura. The mask did not shift to reveal the human face underneath, and those blue orbs shone on with an azure flame. He only watched, waited, as Fiore unleashed all her worry and anger at Cellica. And in the aftermath of it all, he lifted one gauntleted hand, raising it up.
From it, Flamestone burst out in geometric formations, the material extending and then branching off, until, moments later, a chair was made. Not just a shoddy stool or anything, but a proper lounge chair, the seat long enough that Cellica’s legs can rest fully on it. Placing the psychic construct onto the ground, Tian-Gui gestured towards Riyame, his tone cordial despite the reverbations. “Thanks for your help, Riyame. If you could lie Cellica here, that would be much appreciated.”
“Fiore,” he continued, turning towards her, “I’m sure Cellica knows what she did wrong as well, and there’ll be plenty of time for her to get yelled at later. For now, can you work on the injury? I’ll start replacing the batteries on my end.”
With that, he turned to the console, only to pause and then wheel around again, almost as if on an afterthought. “Oh, and Cellica? Glad to have you back.” Then he flicked her on the forehead. “But you’re doing the dishes tonight.”
"Uh..." Throughout this initial outburst, Riyame merely stood in place, holding on to the ever shamed Cellica as she was barraged by her teammates' words. All the same, she had no place in saying who was right and wrong and so she continued to stand there until Tian-Gui made motion to her. "Right. It's no problem," she said, gingerly laying Cellica down onto the constructed furniture Tian-Gui had created. It was probably a good idea to keep quiet on the fact she had been the one to rescue their teammate, for Cellica's sake at least.
"Truth be told, she shoudn't feel too bad. I lost my teammate too," Riyame said with a sigh, shaking her head at the memory. "Granted I'm sure my partner's caused more trouble for you rookies anyway so I should be the one apologizing. And seeing as she's not answering our comm links, I think I'll stick around your team a bit until I can locate her. Strength in numbers, after all." She looked between Fiore and Tian-Gui. "If that's fine with both of you."
"I don't see a problem with it," Fiore says, bending down to get a better look at Cellica's injury. "Thanks for everything. And, Cellica, don't feel too badly, okay? I should have made the proper precautions. It's a Linker's duty to guide their teammates, and I failed at that." Pulling out an ice pack from her medical bag and a roll of bandages, Fiore does what little she can for the sprained ankle. "Things like these just need time," she tells Cellica. "The ice and compression should help a little, but you can't--we can't--go on." Yup, the Lieutenant isn't going to be happy with this. Their only consolation is the fact that they made it to the first station, but the mission is still pretty much a failure.
"What do you think? Riyame? Tian-Gui? What kind of path should we take?"
Whether intentional or not, the fact that Fiore didn't ask what Cellica what she thought made her feel all the more depressed. Doing the dishes tonight was the least of Cellica's worries, even as she clenched her teeth in response to Fiore treating her ankle. However nice Fiore was trying to treat her now, and tell her not to feel badly about it, she had just yelled moments before. The injured girl did not take that sudden change of heart and nice treatment as it was. Her mind focused on the negatives that had just happened, not the positives.
She sucked in a breath as it dawned upon her that the injury was going to prevent them from carrying on. Cellica realised that the Lieutenant was most definately not going to be happy with her, and that the distraction that started the whole facade had made a major problem even larger.
Peering toward Tian-Gui, she thought about a way the could possibly carry in the mission, albeit perhaps at a slightly slower pace than normal and a little more clumsily. Crossing her arms, she psychically connected to her speech bracelet, if only for a small period of time - she still didn't feel like talking a lot. "Tian-Gui could carry me on his shoulders," the bracelet says in an eternally depressed voice, before it was immediately disconnected from.
"Sorry, Celli," Tian-Gui said, shaking his head from side to side, "But your safety comes first, and I can't guarantee that I'll be able to watch it for all of you, considering how aggressive these Invaders seem to be."
He rose up from the sensor array, facing the others again. "Standard procedure would be to head back to the base after sustaining a crippling injury. Let's head back to the Osprey for now, yeah? I'll see if the Yui Gang or some other team can finish our job." A shrug. "Maybe one of them's spotted RR too, neh?'
"While I agree Cellica should be taken back to base, the mission still needs to be completed. I guess you guys need a Gunner more than I realized..." Riyame glanced back the way they had come from, frowning as she considered the Invader's presence. "There's only light scout units out and about, as far as we've encountered. And as I'm sure you've noticed, they're not directly attacking us unless provoked."
"We had a different experience on our side. A pack of Invaders chased us down."
"All the more reason to finish the mission so we can get out of here...here's the plan then. We take Cellica back to the Osprey," Riyame said, looking at the injured girl. "She'll be safer there for obvious reasons. Once that's done, we'll finish Team Afterglow's portion of the mission with me acting as your Gunner temporarily. We've had some absences in the other teams anyway so a few of them are working off temporary members. That, and we don't want your team being the last stragglers."
"And what if I refuse?" Cellica suddenly retorted, having reconnected to her speech bracelet. Yes, perhaps it was a stupid decision for her to make. She was hurt by the fact that she was going to be taken back and left so easily, but more than that, she was upset that she was being replaced. The reason behind it was clear and simple, but she didn't like it at all. "What if I don't want to be left at the Osprey, what if I want to continue the mission instead of being further scolded by the lieutenant who is most likely now waiting for a reason to yell at me?"
"And what if you get hurt?" Fiore, after listening quietly, finally interjects. "You're not at 100% physically, and I don't have a weapon. I don't think it's fair to Tian-Gui to make him protect the both of us. Though, if Riyame comes along..." Sighing, Fiore stands up and dusts herself off before looking around the area. "I can't think of another way. I didn't bring crutches..."
"I'm your gunner, not Riyame!" Cellica interjects again. "An injury like this isn't going to stop me! I use my arms not my legs! Yeah, I do need to walk, but not a lot if Tian-Gui has me up there!" She points at his shoulders with the speed of someone trying to swat a fly that had flown beside her. "I don't want to be seperated from my squad, you're my team! You're leaving me out when I can come with the rest of you!" Her head spins to glare at Fiore in a mixture of anger and distress. Even the speech bracelet was subconsiously changed to whine a little. "You wouldn't like it if there was a way that you could continue on, and the rest of us said no! There is a way! A solution that you're just refusing to take!"
"Cellica, stand up." Tian-Gui said, drawing out a Flamestone pole from the palm of his hand. "Can you walk with this? Fiore, plot the most efficient path to the next three sensor arrays, and tell me the total distance."
Cellica scooted off of the Flamestone chair, placing Thumper down on the chair temporarily so that she could take the pole and see what position it worked best in. After a very brief period of experimentation, she found it easier to have the pole in her left hand so that she could wield Thumper in her right. It also meant when she needed to shoot, it would be easier to lean herself against something and brace her back, since she didn't have two feet to stabalise herself as well as she normally could - internal recoil dampeners did a lot of the work, but they still relied on her having two working feet to take firing such a powerful round.
Only when she had properly demonstrated that she was able to move efficiently with the pole as a support that she let herself calm down the slightest amount, that she trusted that she was going to be allowed to continue on with her team. It didn't take away the depression that she felt, however. Her team had tried to leave her behind, it didn't make her happy. Cellica realised that thinking about it too much would make her even more upset when the beginning of tears began to form in her eyes, and she quickly began to blink to clear them away. And like crying, she refused to talk again too, just turning her head to stare at her squadmates with dejected eyes.
"Right." Bringing her hands up to her temples and taking a few VERY deep breaths, Fiore pulls up her map and links it to Amber Rise. "It doesn't look... horrible. Does 6.5 kilometers sound okay?" If the decision was in Fiore's hands, she'd be prescribing nothing but rest for three days, but a team's gotta do what it can to keep the peace. Nevertheless, Fiore is not very happy. She is beginning to think Cellica is being a tad unfair.
Behind her, the chair dissolved, turning into rust-colored dust that melted like snow on a summer day. Six and a half kilometers was a lot of distance, and Thumper wasn't an energy weapon. Handling the recoil with one hand and a compromised foot was questionable at best. Then there was the fact that Cellica was doing this largely out of pride and fear, at least from Tian-Gui's point of view. But still, she was a child before she was a soldier, and children were entitled to their tantrums. Letting out a breath, the titan nodded once.
"Alright, here's our formation. Riyame takes point, Fiore supports Cellica, and I take rearguard. In combat, Cellica will be firing Thumper as a last resort. When there's a situation we have to escape from, I'll carry the both of you, with Riyame taking rearguard. At each sensor array, Fiore should go check up on Cellica's injury. I'll leave it up to her in determining whether to continue longer or to bail out." Tian-Gui paused, tilting his head slightly. "In a really bad situation, Fiore, go give Cellica a painkiller and the three of you should go run off back to the Osprey. Sounds good?"
"Got it," Fiore answers, already pulling out painkillers from her bag. "Let's get this done before it gets too dark."
"Honestly, you rookies..." Riyame sighed and shook her head. She was sure this might have been some sort of protocol breach...but at the very least she was around to steer them clear of any trouble. "Sounds like a plan. We'll move out as soon as we can," was Riyame's reply as Team Afterglow Plus One continued the mission.
