Chapter Four
Part Two: Perseverance
As the daylight faded, the Evangelist Federation seemed to glow at night. The city's lights, within the Cores, contrasted with the dark sky. Meanwhile, outside of the Federation walls the wind calmly blew through a dilapidated Enclosure. The wreckage of a previous Abyssiti attack left the Enclosure nothing more than a grave site. However the sound of rocket engines echoed in the distance, breaking the quiet peace. It was an Airship flying over the Wearhouse, where everyone within the barracks were evacuated to.
Dart looked up as she could hear the loud roar from the turbines above. She wasn’t concerned about the noise however, her attention quickly turned back to Quill, who was laying on her lap. She was still unconscious from earlier that day; the tragedy that it was. Dart sat in silence as she held her friend. Everyone who survived was miserable, so miserable you could feel it in the air. Some of the Units who managed to find refuge in the Warehouse were slightly injured, those who weren’t however, were still traumatized. Dart stared down at Quill and brushed her poofy mauve hair off of her face. They almost died, and what bothered Dart the most was that she couldn’t do anything about it, even if she tried. If she had a gun she would have easily handled it, but that reasoning ended there. Countless people trained to kill the Abyssiti failed, she couldn’t even compare to them, skill wise, and yet they were still no match for those creatures. Almost like a bullet, the words that Crest said to her team shot into her mind. No matter what humanity labels itself, in the end it doesn’t mean a thing. She cursed the Abyssiti and she cursed the Intrinsic, who put her in this position. The helplessness, the dread and the misery; she wasn’t sure if she could handle it for much longer.
“I swear on my life. That I’ll find a way to break free from this.” Declared Dart under her breath, as she could feel a burning rage rise inside of her.
Dart’s spiteful thoughts came to a halt however when she heard someone shouting behind her.
“Dart!! Quill!!” It was Fives running at Dart at full speed. She quickly turned around, she instantly knew whose voice it was.
In that moment almost any negative thought left her mind. Like a sun parting clouded skies. She smiled as Fives ran up to her. “Fives. You made it here safely!” She exclaimed, relieved.
Never, not once since she’s met her teammates, 7 years ago, have they ever been that close to death before. The thought of losing her friends in such a gruesome way cut deeper than any wound ever could.
“I was looking all over this stupid warehouse for at least an hour! I thought that it would be harder to miss your dark blue hair and Quill’s pink hair-“ Fives stopped in his tracks. He noticed Quill lying, unmoving, in Dart's lap.
“Q-QUILL- Is- Is she-“ Fives began to tear up as he looked down at his dear friend.
“Don't worry. She’s alive, calm down Fives.” As Dart dismissively waved her hand she gave him a smile. “We’re all okay, we just got into a bit of a pinch and she fell unconscious.”
Just then Quill began to move slightly. Very faintly Dart and Fives could hear her mumbling something, but they couldn’t quite make out what it was. Fives leaned over Quill.
“You’re right Dart! She is okay!” He shouted happily as he sat down beside his friend, as support.“ Speak Quill! Your teammates are here for you!”
Quill’s mumbling slowly became apparent. “Why...are you...so damn loud, Fives. Shush...”
“Eh-“ he was dumbfounded, speechless even. “Really? Your first words from being unconscious is to tell me to be quiet?”
Dart smiled at Quill in her lap.“Glad to see you're okay.” She then looked over at Fives. “I’m happy we all made it out of this alive.”
Fives threw his arm up in celebration. “We live to see another day!”
While that was occurring, the aircraft, Dart heard previously, flew overhead and landed in the remains of the barracks. The ship, bearing the Evangelist Federation symbol, descended. It made several loud clunking noises as the airship's landing gear settled on top of a sea of metal scraps and debris that covered the dirt roads. A ramp slowly extends from in front of the ship's double door, which opened to reveal a single, small, brunette girl. She was dressed in Abyssus unit armour and was dual wielding hook claws, but most notably she was wearing a militaristic hat, the same type of hat Dahlis wore. She had chest-length hair with strands hanging on either side, and stern, rich silver eyes.
“Egh.. what a mess this turned out to be..” she mumbled to herself as she looked upon the dried blood and dismembered body parts scattered about the wreckage.
A man in an Intrinsic regal outfit stepped forward behind her. His curly, white-gold, hair blew in the light breeze. It was Arsyle Cosme. He pulled out his own personal notebook out of his pocket as he approached the girl standing lower on the ramp.
“Ah! I can’t stand riding in Airships, it’s always so stuffy in them...and the turbulence ruins my writing.” Complained Arsyle lightheartedly, as he furiously wrote something down on his paper.
The girl before him did not respond to his comment nor even react. Arsyle noticed and took a note of it. “You know… you can speak if you must.”
The girl looked at Arsyle. She knew that he was an Intrinsic, she had no place to speak. She had to follow her training.
“Sir Cosme, I apologize but I must refrain from frivolous conversation.” She stated sharply.
Arsyle scoffed and shook his head. This Abyssus Unit was assigned to him weeks ago. He expected her to open up to him a bit more by now. But she was by the book, for better or worse. Her code was 492-Z, she was a Captain, but Arsyle likes to call her by her nickname which is Duo.
“Sir Cosme, this is the Frontline Enclosure, correct?” She turned to look at her Superior. “It looks like- well it looks like the aftermath of an Abyssiti attack.” Duo stated while glancing out at the absolute devastation.
Arsyle glanced up from his notepad briefly.
“We didn’t land in the wrong location I’m sure of it.” He returned his notebook back into his pocket- “And well..it looks like that because it IS the aftermath of an Abyssiti attack. Luckily, it would seem as if we’ve narrowly missed it.”
Five Abyssus Units ran down the ramp to escort them off of the airship and into the dilapidated Enclosure. Arsyle put his hand on the shoulders of Duo as he walked by.
“Come along Captain, we haven’t a moment to lose. Let us hope that the chosen Batch survived this massacre.” He muttered as he continued on his way.
Duo gripped the two hook claws she had in hand, she cautiously followed behind the Intrinsic as she was ordered. They marched through the, now dormant, battlefield. The five Abyssus units that were guarding Arsyle had their guns aimed and ready, in case anything jumped out at them. Everyone was on edge, everyone but Arsyle. He was carrying himself as if he was just having a daily stroll through a calm park.
“Mmm I’d say this damage was caused by at least 3 Abyssiti… and I’m sure 3 aren’t capable of wiping out every unit in an Enclosure.” He pondered outloud as he looked upon a Cannon covered in dried blood. “Let's find out where the survivors ran off to.”
