Description: Shortly after the seeming fall of Vega in Beijing, those who stood against him and lived are getting their well-deserved rest before working out how they're going to be returning back to whatever lives they have... if they're going to. When one of the fighters' last memories before being conscious again is of something truly frightening, however, some calming and reassurance is required.
They're still making sense of the events following a great explosion of psionic energy and the sudden disappearance of Vega himself. Only one man was still fully conscious and in a state to speak semi-coherently in the immediate aftermath, but those who stood and survived... all of them are more than due for some hospital recovery time. The physical scars are one thing that might be able to be healed - fighters are tough people - but the impact upon one's mind and soul just from being in contact with Vega himself, those are the sorts of things that will never leave you.
Howard, for his part, seems to be a bit more mentally shaken than physically despite serious head trauma seeing bandages wrapped around his head... and a bit of his upper body for good measure. The hospital they set up around the Myanmar/China border has been a place where fighters in general have been getting shuffled for whatever reason. Even in the immediate aftermath of Vega's disappearance and a clear victory over Shadaloo and the Chinese military, there's still a certain tension.
A certain tension that the older American man can really only work out by taking walks about the hospital halls, one arm laid up against the wall for a sort of steadiness even though his legs are more or less holding up all right (aside from the usual joint stiffness and pains).
A setting sun shines its late afternoon lights through a few cracks of sections they have not yet fully restored, as military medical staff chatter at one another about this and that detail while briefings are held with various NATO forces patrolling about the border and hospital proper for any problems.
Howard just keeps walking at his usual sluggish pace, mumbling something incoherent while his aching head kind of processes the last few... hours? Days? Time's been somewhat difficult to track lately, somehow.
Zach is not yet up and about. He is, however, awake and laying on a bed. He has one of those new-fangled tablets, and appears to be playing a game involving pissed-off avians. He's not saying much of anything, eiher. That might be because his jaw has been immobilized while it is still healing.
It may also be noted that Zach is playing the game left-handed; the right arm just short of the elbow is in a cast. This may be the most long-term injured most people have seen Zach, whose recovery to injury in the short-term is fairly impressive.
A nurse in a room 2 doors down casually checks the status of an unconscious patient. All the beepers are beeping evenly. Pulse is normal. BP a bit high, but not suprising with the recent incident. Some scarring, but according to the chart, most of the internal injuries and hemmoraging have been fixed, and just need time. The nurse finishes everything on her checklist, and is about to leave when she notices the patient has drooled a little. She takes a kleenex and leans down to wipe the patients mouth........
There's a shriek heard from the room 2 doors down, followed by confused shouts and a slight struggle!
Howard more or less ambles by Zach's room with nothing more than a sideglance and whatever time he needs to take to move an arm away from the wall, lift it past the doorframe, and continue holding onto it. Somehow, holding onto walls has become something of a bizarre form of comfort. It is as though it has become the new thumb sucking, somehow.
"Hey Zach," says his head-bandaged friend whose... er... toupee seems to have been bandaged down atop his scalp, for some reason, "did you, uh, hear--"
Zach most likely has already heard about the recent events concerning Vega, but this incomplete sentence takes a whole new meaning when there's a shriek. "One sec."
Rust is not a man who is known for speed, but he picks up his walking pace as he trudges along two rooms down to the source of the shriek. Son of a bitch, he thinks, if there's so much as some spy causing problems...
It is entirely likely that a stationed NATO trooper or two might have gone to investigate the shrieking or what have you, but regardless of who beats him to it (if anyone), Howard stares through the doorway, left hand on the doorframe while his right hand rests atop the makeshift hilt of that rusted length of pipe he keeps carrying around for some reason.
The Janitor-cum-World Saviour's hail gets Zach's attention. Rust gets a nod and a grunt in return as Zach closes the game and gets the wordpad app up and running. He's ready to make a go of conversation with his good friend, despite having to off-hand type to do so.
And then there is the scream.
Zach blinks once or twice through the more-than-mild painkillers to look at the doorway. There is a frown in his eyes, the bandaging around his face making it hard to tell if it reaches his mouth, as he swings his legs off the bed he is in. He walks towards the door carefully, the pad tucked under his left arm as he approaches the scene.
As Rust looks in, he sees the nurse across the room holding her hand, with a slight trickle of red coloring the kleenex she had been holding. In the bed, looking addled and disorientated, sits Munin, with a hint of red at the corner of her mouth where she bit the nurse in a blind wake-up panic. Last she recalls, they were fighting Vega, and she lost consciousness under the vehicle, distantly recalls hearing his boots as he stomped past as he left the scene.
Having lost consciousness terrified, she picks up where she left off upon waking up! She starts trying to get up, peppering the poor girl with questions: Where's Vega? What happened after she passed out? Were Fuji and the other person fighting with them OK? Was anyone else hurt? While she DOES manage to stand, she stops and wobbles, holding herself even using the bed and IV stand as supports.
Howard's eyes sweep the room. No break-ins, a startled nurse, a panicked Munin... is she bleeding from the mouth or something, he wonders? Bit her cheek? He doesn't catch the bleeding of the nurse's hand as he takes a few steps into Munin's room as she seems to frantically be trying to stand back up.
"Whoa," he says, "whoa. Whoa." A cough. He removes his hand from the pipe and holds it out. "What the... what're you doin'," he asks in a mumbly tone of voice.
Zach pokes his head around the large frame of Rust, a concerned look on the part of his face that is visible. Zach looks at the nurse, and the blood, shaking his head slowly as he shuffles over to the now wounded woman. Munin may or may not recognize Zach by this point, but the psion's attentions are fixed on that wounded hand. Zach tucks his pad under his right arm, considering for a moment.
He takes the nurses hand gently, and wordlessly, as he draws upon the power of his soul. A faint golden glow covers both hands, and the bleeding stops. Once it is cleaned up, there is not even a scar. Zach picks himself up, and turns to regard Munin. He pulls the pad free, cradling it in the right arm as he starts to type. After a moment, he turns the pad's screen to face Munin. It reads:
"I'm not dead. Was that really necesary?"
Yes, there's a typo there.
Blink. Blink! Munin DOES recognize Zach now after taking a moment. She eyes Rust, also recognizing him. She looks to the nurse, looks around, then slowly sits back down on the bed. "S-sorry. I- you startled me! Last i remember Vegas boots were less than 8 feet from my head". Of course, the nurse can only stare at Zach before quickly bowing her head to him in thanks and excusing herself uncomfortably.
Meanwhile, Munin leans fowards a bit in discomfort from her injuries, glancing at the pair "What happened? Is Fuji alright? I didn't wake up still under that vehicle, so did we...." her expression becomes braced "... did we win? Did he escape?".
Howard moves away from the doorframe shortly after Zach squeezes his way in, allowing the nurse her leave without him in the way as Munin relates what she remembers last. That... blank. He remembers feeling that sort of blank between India and then when the Ikari Warriors picked the two of them up.
"Munin. Munin," he tries to speak up with her flurry of questions as he moves a bit closer, "it's... listen. Listen, we... we're good." He nods his head as he takes his free hand to steady her IV. "Vega's... gone."
"He's gone. That's... that's the, the best I can tell you, just... just felt one giant pulse of... uh, his stuff," that's how he can best describe it, "and then... nothing." He winces thinking about the sight he saw Vega in before he turned his back, how that body looked like it was bursting completely apart.
"He's gone." He repeats one last time for good measure. "China's occupying nobody, and... and, well, they're still lookin' into, uh, y'know, pockets. Whatever's left of Shadaloo."
"So, yeah, we... won." He looks over to Zach, as if to make sure he's still there where he sees him holding that pad and that message. "I... I dunno 'bout anyone else yet," he hasn't heard much about Quon or Sagat, "but... but we won."
Zach glances at Munin with a shrug; he doesn't recall too much. Just up until Vega broke his arm, and then waking up in the hospital. He listens to Rust tell the rest of the story, such as it is. He looks... skeptical to say the least. Pensive would be another good word.
He flips the pad back around to start typing.
"You two know each other, then? My name's Zach."
And now everyone's pretty much introduced!
Violet eyes staaaaaare at Rust as he speaks, first braced and fearful, then flooded with something resembling relief as they close. "Thank God....." Munin says, all but flopping onto her back. "So it's finally, for the most part, over. Cleanup at least won't involve that frightening power of his.....".
She pulls herself to a sitting position, and eyes Zach, and nods "Rust and I were in a couple scrapes together in India. Thanks for the help in the alley. Not sure I'd still be alive now otherwise. Is Fuji ok?".
To be fair, if it weren't for some mysterious third party Munin professed to know, the two of them here - Munin and himself - probably wouldn't have been around. Howard picks up on Zach's seeming doubt - it's really kind of hard to imagine someone so powerful would disappear just like that, even as he sometimes feels that burning, yet numbing feeling of that man's overwhelming hatred. A sensation he will not be likely to forget any time soon.
"I dunno," Howard shakes his head as he realizes the grim thought that some people they were close to might be dead - he hasn't heard anything from Sagat or Quon just yet. This 'Fuji' could potentially be KIA, too - to say nothing about the numerous others who perished just to free Asia and the US from Shadaloo's clutches.
"I'll let you know if I hear... hear about him," he says. Naturally, the fact he assumes Fuji is a 'he' is a clear sign he doesn't really know anything about Fuji as he flexes out one of his legs to get rid of a kink with a grunt.
"Yeah, Zach," he says to the man stuck using an iPod to talk, "we... we met in Nepal, shortly after the, ah, the invasion." The one he got caught up in and became famous for somehow overturning.
"We split up after she and I got rescued, so... so she could go get help."
Zach taps out another message. It takes a few moments; Zach is not a typist, and using his non-dominant hand. He flips it around, showing it to Rust and Munin.
"Is Fuji the other woman who was there? She got between me and Vega. I don't know what happened to her after that." Zach gives them just enough time to read it before blanking the screen and tapping again, this time showing the message only to Rust. "What about Chun-Li? Is she okay? I don't remember how that whole mess ended, just waking up here."
Munin nods "Yea. Fuji was the other woman who was there with us fighting in the alley. She took a nasty hit to the neck..... Don't get me wrong, though. I'm glad you both and anyone else came through as well". She shakes her head "I've no idea about word of Chun-Li, other than that some other group moved onto the area and captured her". The truth is Vegas power had as much effect on her as it has on Rust, terrifying her beyond anything she's seen to this point, even from NESTS. She'll be damned before she shows it, though.....
"She's safe." Howard replies almost immediately to Zach's pad-given questionnaire. He looks back over to Munin - he knows this was a touchy subject for the both of them after they both believed she all but sacrificed herself to see them live through Vega's appearance in India.
"Zach, me, and... and Kim Kaphwan, have you heard of him? Famous Tae Kwan Do guy, we... we all went to Myanmar. Well, uh, more like... Kim and I did, 'n... 'n Zach showed up too." Either or. "Vega did something to her, and... she did a lot of damage over in, uh, Korea. South Korea, but... but she came to." He was tossed to the bottom of that mansion hideout and, next thing he knew, she was smiling at him and holding a hand out and he was having trouble grabbing it.
He exhales deeply, rubbing the back of his head and wincing as he realizes just how big of a headache he has. It reflects a bit in his tone of voice as he continues. "She's in some, uh, some pretty bad shape, and... and I dunno what they'll do. The UN, I mean." Will she stand trial for what she did under Vega's control? He has no idea - he knows he wouldn't have made it through Vega if she didn't share some of her secrets with him about what gave her the strength to keep fighting Vega for the years she has.
"But... she's alive, she's safe."
Zach takes that in for a moment, clearing the pad again. He chooses his words with a surprising amount of care, even after considering the fact he has to type.
"She has that, at least." Zach glowers, rubbing his good hand against his temples. He clears the pad again, and types a bit.
"I'm going back to bed. Too loud around here. I'll try to visit Chun-Li when I get a moment. You two rest up."
With that, he suits actions to words, and heads back the way he came.
Munin gives Zach a nod as he goes back to bed, giving a somewhat sheepish look "Yea. Sorry about disturbing you.....". She looks down at the IV in her elbow, then at Rust. The inquisitive spark returns, as usual for her as her mind starts to function again "So Vega just sorta.... vanished? You were there when it happened? Did you or whoever was on the radio get my messages? Who else was there?" and the questions keep coming.
Too inquisitive for her own good sometimes.
"I was there," says Rust as he turns his head back to Munin after silently waving Zach back off to his room. It's a good thing they didn't need to both be here for whatever that screech was, but it does say a lot about Zach's character that he's willing to chance further injury to go see what's up even in his current state of health.
"I, I turned my back just before he... burst, I guess, but, I was there, and... yeah, if it weren't for your... call, I... I don't think I'd have, uh, caught up with Sagat or Quon, or... any of 'em."
For some reason, he feels compelled to get his cellphone out as if to illustrate that yes, he still has a cellphone and yes, it may have been /the/ central reason he got to meet back up with Quon and Sagat together.
"You... you probably know Sagat," that name is famous and scary, after all, "Quon is--"
His cellphone falls out of his hand. It proceeds to shatter into a few pieces when it hits the hospital floor, which brings an immediate silence and a sharp glance to the ground as he processes what exactly just happened the last few seconds.
"Shit," he finally says as he speaks up again, crouching down low to try and pick it up, "you're... you're tellin' me that this... survives, what, bullets... jeeps... a bomb... and... and it holds a charge for, what, a month, and then it just, just... breaks when I drop it on the god damn floor? Really? Son of a," his tone and word choice devolve very quickly into incomprehensibility as he rights himself back up and simply shrugs at this development.
There's far worse to complain about, truth be told.
Another nod in response. So it DID work! At least that much worked out. She headtilts "Sagat? Who HASN'T heard of him? The guy's a legend. I don't doubt he was involved with the goings on in Thailand, being so iconic to the region. I'm just glad he was on OUR side!".
She blinks, jumping when his cell suddenly smashes on the floor. Nerves.... or maybe more? Her mask may not be as perfect as she tries to make it seem...... "That.... is rather ironic. Hopefully not a bad omen of some kind for the future.....".
"Omen?" Rust grumbles aloud as he has to bend down to actually scoop up all the piece-- yeah, he acknowledges, he can't just take a screwdriver to it and pretend it's okay, this thing's a goner. After being dropped on the floor, compared to judicious amounts of deadly force actually being hurtled his way the past month or so.
"I'm, uh, I'm not exactly... rich, right now," he says as he stands back up, the pieces of the fallen electronics having served its last. If anything, this cellphone may as well be just as much of a hero as any other soldier, given the circumstances. A hero who cruelly wouldn't get to see the aftermath of a saved world after working so hard. A true tragedy, if there is to be one among mere inanimate objects. Even Ol' Rusty over on Howard's hip would shed a tear.
If inanimate objects had feelings.
Or tear ducts.
"A-Anyway... yeah. But, he's... he's helped out for some time, not just here." While he is trying to best explain Sagat's involvement, the tone of his voice and where his eyes are looking more than suggest that his mind is already mired in things like 'buy new phone' and 'get new contract' and 'these things are already too small for my hands, what if they're even /smaller/ now,' and other such mundane woes.
"If he's as powerful a fighter as i've heard, then all the better. Kim i've heard of as well, and like Sagat, i can't imagine him not getting involved when his home country was threatened, though if what i've heard of Kim is accurate, he was likely involved the moment he heard about the atrocities being done....".
She smirks "I wouldn't worry about your cellphone that much. Heck, with your rep and accomplishments, maybe you can get a cell company to give free service in exchange for an endorsement or an advertisement or two". She mumbles suddenly to herself, and gently puts her hand to her forehead "Ugh.... i think i've finally outlasted my adrenaline.....". Pulling herself to the pillows, and gets under the covers of the hospital bed "If you see Sagat again, tell him he has my thanks for his help, for whatever that may be worth. For now, I'm likely going to zonk out the moment the rush fades.....". Her eyelids are already feeling a bit heavier than they were minute ago.....
"Uh... y'know, I... didn't really think 'bout that," though some sometimes wonder if Howard even thinks some of the ideas he gets in his head through, but then again he - like so many others right now - are fighting off significant trauma and injury. He is going back to Southtown almost assuredly just as financially poor as he was leaving it, no doubt there, but thoughts about getting a sweet endorsement deal hits a thought as Munin starts to trail off.
He remembers those in Nepal who put all their faith in him to save them when he was there. Could he really make a quick buck off of their misery and sacrifice in good faith?
As he mulls about this, he pockets the cellphone pieces as his eyes fall upon the quickly tiring Munin, thinking about what he might as well say to her here. They do lead different lives - it's entirely possible the two may or may not see one another again depending on which way things go from here. He's a junior martial arts instructor now. He doesn't have any idea what she does for a living, if anything beyond fighting.
"Anyway, uh... before I, before I go, I... I assume you went 'n got help when we, y'know, left." He says this as he straightens himself up a bit, keeping a hand on the wall as always even if he's probably okay enough to not have to do that. "For... for what it's worth, you... you did good. Great, even, maybe." He hasn't really come to know everything she tried to do or was up against since they split up.
"I mean... Vega's... gone, pretty sure." It's an odd sensation, those last few moments he felt that great psionic force, all of a sudden having it clear up entirely. Something about it felt final, perhaps. Maybe a little too clean and sudden to be readily accepted as that, but as far as anyone can guess... this may well be the last they see of Vega for a good long while, if ever.
"There's... there's always gonna be trouble, or... ah, well, people like him who'll just... be trouble." That's putting it so mildly! "But... today, I think... I think we're gettin' to rest. So, uh... rest well. Feel better soon, 'n... well."
He can't think of anything much else to say about it. He starts to hang his head again - it's time to go lay back down for now. There isn't much else to say at this point, is there?
With that, he starts to shuffle out of her room. A loud knee pop threatens to give Munin maybe one brief moment of rude noisy shock before he goes along back to his bed.
Munin nods, eyes starting to slowly close, and vision starting to blur a bit as the adrenaline of the fight-or-flight response wears off. Her speech is starting to slur a bit too. "Y-yea i did.... helped Fuerte 'n got him 'n Takako t' 'ssist wh'r able....". She gives Rust something he likely hasn't seen from her often when she's been around: a genuine smile, rather than an amused smirk "We... all di...." and before she can finish that, she's out. When Rusts knee pops, she suddenly starts mumbling in her sleep, saying "did... part..." before going quiet again.
Log created on 19:47:42 03/21/2012 by Rust, and last modified on 11:53:04 03/22/2012.