Checking in (set after Halloween event)

[juststeverogers]

In the aftermath of the Nightmare incident in the Nexus, Steve knew the most important thing in the immediate was making sure people were okay. Hell, he'd spent most of his time tending to Amelia's wounds such that by the time he was finished most of the cafe had cleared out. He's glad the rogue got the care she needed but he hasn't seen her since.

In fact, he's not seen most of them since. He waited a bit to see if he'd spot familiar faces in the Nexus, but with things quiet he takes matters into his own hands and sends out a message to several of his friends.

Hey, it's Steve.

I know you were involved in the mess during the Halloween party and I really want to make sure you're alright. I'm sorry I haven't reached out sooner. I wanted to make sure you got the time and care you needed after everything that happened. The coordinates to my apartment are listed at the end of this message.

Please let me know you're okay.

Comments

[juststeverogers]

"Eye blasts? What's it shooting and what kind of spread are we talking?"

If it's accompanied by more of the same in terms of resistance Steve's pretty confident about clearing them out just fine. Might get roughed up a bit if he's soloing them, but it's not a real fight unless he's bled a little bit, right? He freezes when Blaze does, eyes narrowing at the dark passage ahead of them.

"Well, if anyone didn't know we were coming already, they will now." Not that the element of surprise is often on Steve's side, but it's nice when it's an option. He backs up several paces and crouches down behind his shield.

[rekindledtitan]

"Exotic particles, primarily. The bolts fly slower than kinetic rounds but they're about the size of a balloon, and you'll need at least a meter clearance to avoid splash damage. Servitors like to pick a good spot to target and pump out a barrage. Once you're out of the way that's a good time to take your own shot."

Blaze glances back, then picks a charge out by its motion sensor and shoots it. The targeted explosion triggers a chain reaction as the shock and shrapnel ripple both ways along the tunnel. Fragments of metal whizz past Blaze and bury themselves in her armor; one squeals across her visor and grinds an annoying scratch in its wake. She waits until the ruckus dies, leaving only the slow creak of stressed metal settling back into place.

"The Devils know how to target charges without bringing their own lair down," she remarks, surveying the haze of smoke and dust in the air before she leads them in. "Gotta give them that. Good thing we don't need to be subtle."

"I'm detecting a concentrated ether source nearby," Ghost pipes up so they can both hear. "That's what the Fallen feed on, and servitors produce it. I'd say we're getting close."

[juststeverogers]

Several pieces of twisted metal go whistling past and more than a couple pling! off of Steve's shield before flying harmlessly off to one side or the other. Slowly Steve gets back to his feet, taking in the dust and smoke thick in the air.

"I'm impressed that didn't cause a cave-in." The soldier comments with a shake of his head before starting down cautiously through the dark passageway. Steve sees the flashes of purple light flickering at the turn in the passage before he sees anything outright. It's a giant mechanical eye, just like Blaze and Ghost described. Hovering a good four feet above the ground. He's struck by how unnaturally it moves, twitching it's 'gaze' back and forth erratically. Several of the Fallen are already swarming toward Steve's position and he retreats back safely into the darkness to wait for them.

They must assume their charges did the trick by how swiftly they file in. Steve waits until a group of them have passed him by before jumping out and slamming his shield into the back of one of the creature's heads. Between he and Blaze, the four creatures that have wandered in won't be around for long.

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze's attention is focused on the servitor as it pulls back and lets the dregs in. It's a big one, at least twice the diameter of the low-level models. Whatever its name and significance, the lesser Fallen are all too eager to throw themselves into the firing line for it, rushing in with hopes of finishing off a wounded Guardian or two. She can almost appreciate the gamble they're willing to take. Maybe their captain does too - or maybe it's the cold tactical sacrifice of the sacred machine behind them.

They learn their mistake when Blaze looms out of the haze to one side and Steve leaps from the shadows. Got you. The first in her reach gets a crushing blow to the face- but the second throws itself under her backhanded blow and rolls to its feet with a startled growl. They're untrained and shabbily armed, but they substitute a certain mad courage. that won't save this one when Blaze charges after it again- but it does have time to throw a sparking grenade beneath her feet. Blaze steps right on it.

There's a muffled bang, a dull crack; the surprised Titan's thrown forward onto the unfortunate dreg. Its howl of pain rings loud in her helm pickups as its armor shatters. Blaze swears - and does it again when she feels a blade being jammed frantically into her waist, the charge on it biting into her circuits. "Light-damni-ow!"

[juststeverogers]

The blast leaves Steve's ears ringing--it's a damn good thing he heals as fast as he does or he'd be deaf and blind by now for how many blasts he's been entirely too close to over the years. He's slow to turn, too slow to react to the startled pained cries Blaze is giving. He's pinned to the wall of the cave in short order by two of the Fallen.

"Blaze! Steve!!"

The red dots are flashing in all directions in front of them. The servitor hums louder as it charges up the kinetic cannon. Steve sees a flash of purple light and jerks with all his might. It doesn't free him completely, but it does put the Fallen to his left directly in the line of fire instead of him. Steveand the remaining Fallen go flying back and crunch into the wall opposite, both crashing to the ground in a smoldering heap.

That was too close.

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze doesn't hear her own painful grunt as she rolls off the dreg and gets her feet under her. Given the jolting, grinding feel when her weight comes down on that foot, that ought to be incredibly painful. But she doesn't feel it. Just the surging, empty feel of overloaded circuits on that side, alternately tingling cold and burning as individual subcircuits try to come back. She lurches around and pitches a grenade down the hall. It bounces onto the rubble before that robotic eyeball, detonating with a thundercrack and a flash of brilliant white light. Blaze has her head ducked away, but the left edge of her vision still turns fuzzy.

Doesn't matter. Neither does the fact the servitor's shell isn't even cracked. She can hear its disconcerted electronic mutters: the fire has stopped as it turns, dazed and blinded. IT gives her time to drop on one knee by Steve and his opponent. A plasteel fist closes around the Fallen's skull; lifts and rams it into the floor with shattering force. Then she turns to Steve. "Are you all right?"

[juststeverogers]

"Yeah...yeah. I'm fine."

Steve can barely hear himself speak over the ringing in his ears. Everything feels numb and tingly as he lets Blaze pull him up to his feet once more. Scoop up the shield and shake his head once to try and get his bearings back in order.

"Close call, but I'm good. Let's finish this." He's picking up the Fallen's still crackling blade and looking between Blaze and the servitor now. When Blaze signals she's ready Steve's going to rush out and try to get behind the servitor and break it open with the blade in his hand. and if that doesn't work he's still got his shield. It may teleport but it can't move indefinitely and Steve is a hard man to dissuade. Seems to him the safest place to avoid those eye blasts is behind the damn thing, so. It's as good of a plan as he's got.

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze is glad to see he can stay on his feet - though she's not watching him as closely as the unseen Ghost. The blinded servitor has backed away, out into a larger room at the end of the tunnel. It's cluttered but at least there's more room to maneuver. The captain should just try to ignore all the yellow-white things skittering over the floor where they're kicked, because... they're human skulls. A great heap of them before a dais at the end of the room, smaller stacks around the walls.

A team of Vandals are leaping down from the walls to defend their servitor. Too slow to stop Blaze and Steve charging through them... although the Exo's slower on that bad foot. While Steve slides past the floating machine to stab it in the back, Blaze throws all her gathered Light and armored momentum into a crackling shoulder charge to the servitor's face... plate. By luck she hits square on the central eye and she's laughing now, as she rebounds and- her broken foot crumples under her weight. Agony shoots up her leg and the Titan goes down with a yelp. The servitor blasts her point-blank for good measure.

It's okay. Because now there are jagged cracks spreading over that purple-black shell, glowing molten with ether leakage. Blaze trusts Steve will make good use of those. She'll have to, because those vandals are closing in... and then their captain drops from the ceiling with a roar, right on top of the Titan trying to pull herself up.

[juststeverogers]

"Blaze!"

There's no time for Steve to break away at try to rush to the Exo's side. They can't take too many more of those 'eye' blasts, for one. For two, there's a whole wave of vandals and a bigger one descending on them with brutal efficiency. Steve hurls his shield into a group of vandals, taking a desperate pleasure in it ricocheting through the group and throwing them off. Hopes it will give Blaze enough time to recover while he grips the Vandal blade in both hands and charges the servitor for the last time.

The floating structure shudders back and forth unnaturally before winking out of existence yet again, but Steve can just barely follow with his eyes where it's moving to, materializing again and shooting another blast that only hits empty dirt as the captain leaps to avoid it. One of the deep cracks in the shell splits right along the top of the carapace and Steve drops like a stone onto it, burying the blade in the crevice with his entire body weight and momentum.

The sound of shrieking and grinding gears fills the room. Purple flashes of light and ether spill out but the servitor falls to the ground finally and grows still.

[rekindledtitan]

The sound of Steve's shield slamming into alien bodies heralds a desperately needed reprieve for Blaze. The Exo's just discovering her foot can't take any weight, Ghost urging her to fall back so he can heal her, when that captain thumps down on top of her. His mere weight doesn't pin the Titan down, however: she reaches back and throws him off as she rolls. He crashes down beside her in a swirl of his red cape. But he has four arms to catch himself with, and when she tries to rise again she gets the butt of his gun to the faceplate. For a few seconds it's a fast and desperate wrestling match: the Fallen officer too canny to let her get her footing, the Titan trying to get the upper hand before his subordinates join in-

And then the din of a dying servitor halts them all in their tracks. The captain looks up and howls at Steve. Alien though he is, his rage needs no translation. There's a tone there that sounds very much like loss. Perhaps despair. His troops seem frozen in place. Blaze is grabbing for her sidearm. She unloads half a dozen quick rounds into the Fallen's chest, bringing his shield down in a flash of blue sparks. He slams her bodily down and rolls free, cape snapping about him before he crouches and vanishes. The others follow suit and dematerialize after him.

"Oh, that was close. Is Steve all right? I- up high!" Ghost's relieved chatter turns to a warning abruptly as Blaze pushes herself to her knees.

There's still one vandal in the room. He perches on a half-collapsed walkway above the door they entered. The cloak that pools around him is blue; a pair of glimmering white blades rest easily in his upper hands. His helm has a thin visor, lit brilliant white. He's watching them very closely. Watching Steve in particular. Though once noticed, he simply says something short in his own tongue, then crosses his arms and vanishes like the others.

[juststeverogers]

"Fine, I'm...I'm fine." Steve waves off Ghost's concerns as he bends to scoop up his shield but freezes midway and jerks his head up to glare at the remaining vandal well after it's decided to leave with the rest of its remaining brethren.

A silence settles over the area that in any world Steve knows the meaning of. The fight is over, at least for now. The soldier slings his shield over his shoulder before striding over to Blaze and pulling her up to her feet.

...Foot.

"Easy now. You gonna be alright there? I'm not a medic, Blaze. I can carry you out if I've got to but it's going to be slow going. Let's find whatever it was you two were looking for and get out."

[rekindledtitan]

"We can transmat back to the ship, and I can repair Blaze..."

"Yeah, it'll be... nngh. Fine." Blaze winces, even with Steve's support. This is the part where she remembers that she's by no means immune to pain, especially when she no longer has an immediate objective to distract her. She clips her sidearm back into place and gestures at the dead servitor. "Over there."

When Steve helps her over she sinks to her knees and pulls a couple of tools from a side pouch. The metal carcass in front of her is turned over and she gets to cracking it open. Ether spills everywhere despite her care to avoid cutting any more lines, the fluid pale and glowing softly. And then there's the fluid leaking from her shattered boot, until Ghost manages to swoop in and stem the flow. "Just got to dig out the good bits, heh. Parts of the processing core and ether synthesis unit. That kinda stuff. That was a hell of a job, killing this thing."

[juststeverogers]

Blaze and Ghost have a second healer on hand on the ship anyway, though really Angel could have shown up at any time if Blaze had summoned her. She's probably busy cleaning Blaze's weapons for the Guardian while she's out on patrol.

Steve moves once Blaze settles to her knees and does whatever he can to help rip the servitor's casing apart. He can't get over the sharp scent of the ether but grits his teeth and continues to work at prying open the servitor for Blaze and Ghost to play around in to their hearts' content.

"Well, it's not why I showed up here originally, but how could I just walk away from something like this?"

[rekindledtitan]

"You wouldn't be the man I know." Her helm's faceplate betrays nothing, but her voice is warm. She hands Steve a couple tools to help jimmy the shell apart while she and Ghost gut it briskly. "The Fallen worship these things, you know. This one's on the small side for a full-blown machine god, but it looks like they were trying to elevate it. Good thing we put a stop to it."

She pulls out an ether-soaked component and sets it aside for Ghost to transmat to the ship. "Why did you drop by, anyway? Something we can help with?"

[juststeverogers]

"I came to check up on the two of you, as a matter of fact. I was so busy tending to a friend's wounds after the mess at the Halloween party I didn't get a chance to check up on the rest of my friends. Adia told me you two were caught up in separate things and I..."

Steve trails off momentarily while he muscles open the shell further for Blaze to be able to reach its innermost components. When he looks up again he's looking at the little bot before he looks back to Blaze.

"I wasn't able to help then. Either of you. So I wanted to be here now, in whatever way you might have needed me."

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze's head jerks up, looking between Steve and Ghost before she says, "We've been doing all right. Think Ghost's still kinda shaken up but he and Adia did well looking out for each other."

"The Nightmare took me back to... to a terrible place. And I don't mean that ship. It was awful," Ghost admits, looking down briefly. "Being alone like that is... something I don't want to experience again. But I have my Guardian back, now. I left my fear in the Nightmare. Well, most of it, anyway." He looks at Blaze, gaze fixing pointedly on the bundle of tattered cloth at her hip. She's not looking, buried near up to her shoulders in the servitor's carcass, eyes on the component she's wrangling out.

"Yeah. Just wish I could've... protected you."

"...Likewise," Ghost says, more softly.

[juststeverogers]

"You know why despite getting a ticket home and an upgrade into a new body I live in the Nexus?"

Steve's not sure where he's going with this, hadn't meant to speak up about it at all but Blaze and Ghost's back and forth has something tighten in his chest. He hadn't been able to save Bucky on the train. Hadn't been able to keep his friends from becoming criminals when he did manage to save the former Winter Soldier. Had made everyone he cared about go off the grid and into hiding. Torn the Avengers apart.

He'll be damned if he lets some supernatural phenomena take away his friends here, too. Steve's done enough failing. It's time to start stepping up and doing whatever it takes for his friends and for the world at large. Every world.

"I can't go back home anymore. I lost a lot of people. Got several more hurt who shouldn't have been involved with my fights. When I heard the two of you were stuck in that....that place. And I wasn't able to bring you back or even go after you..." He ducks his head then.

"You're both important to me. So. Yes. I came all the way out here to make sure you're doing alright. To fight your fights with you. I don't want to lose anyone else."

[rekindledtitan]

He has both robots looking his way well before he finishes speaking. Probably neither of them really understood how concerned their friend was. They've been dealing with this between themselves ever since the Nightmare, and even if Ghost at least remembered that they needn't do so alone, it truly didn't occur to them how their friends might feel about it.

"Steve..." Ghost flies over to him. Even Blaze pulls away from the servitor, though her gaze drops uncomfortably as he speaks. "I'm sorry. We didn't mean to worry you. But we're safe now."

"Some things you just have to endure yourself," Blaze says. She stoops awkwardly, grabbing the tail of a Fallen cloak and wiping her ether-slicked hands before she limps closer and pats Steve's shoulder. Whatever else, at least she's not hiding herself in machine guts any more. "Hey, it's all right. We made it, didn't we? I'm sorry we didn't think of calling you, too. But if you want to be sure we're back on our feet- uh, metaphorically speaking, anyway-" She pats the servitor shell, sounding hopeful. "How's that for reassuring?"

[juststeverogers]

He's too big in this body to really give Ghost a hug without being seriously concerned that he's going to damage the little bot but Steve wishes he could. Instead he holds up his left hand, index finger raised slightly to tap one of the bot's points gently and let him scan Steve. The sentiment is there if nothing else. A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth when they assure him they're alright. It's a weight off his chest to hear it from their mouths.

Voice modulators. Same thing, and never tell Tony Stark it's his voice that's started reminding him of the words he ought to know for new fangled tech. Ever.

"Yeah. I'm just...I'm so glad." The smile widens into a grin then, glancing down at the servitor shell and the spilled ether pooling on the ground. "This was good. A good way to stay sharp. In shape. I hope you call me again sometime and don't hog all the fun to yourselves."

[rekindledtitan]

"Would we do that?" Her tone can't match her joking words. He looks so very relieved. So grateful. How can she shatter that? It makes Blaze hold her silence even with the truth coiled painfully tight inside her. She shifts her weight to her good foot and that's when she notices the way Ghost is staring at her. He almost looks... stern. She blinks at him.

"Blaze, I think you should tell him the rest. What happened in there. All of it."

"Ghost?" She frowns at him, taken off-guard and hesitating for once in her life. Her companion perseveres, flying back to face her and lowering his voice, not that it'll stop Steve hearing at this range.

"You said yourself that hiding doesn't help. And... Blaze, if anyone can understand, it's Steve."

She looks at Ghost with narrowed eyes, her gaze flicking to Steve awkwardly, the holding herself stock still for a minute. Honestly, though, keeping silent this long has been straining the limits of her capacity for deception. "Kinda what I was worried about, Ghost... ah, Light damnit, I don't know what to say about it!" She shakes her head, looking everywhere but up at her friends. Her body language speaks for her, though - and it speaks of frustration. And less familiar in her, shame.

[juststeverogers]

Steve had been feeling relieved to know that is friends were alright, but it tanks when the bots have their own little argument about how much they were lying to Steve. It sticks at him in a way he wishes didn't feel so familiar these days. Hiding things form Steve Rogers is pretty much a requirement for joining the late Avengers, or so it felt like.

Still, it sounds like it was less 'Ultron' and more 'I still have nightmares about Loki taking over my free will' which in the grand scheme of things is at least something Steve can both understand and deal with. NO one wants another Ultron.

"...What happened in there?" He doesn't raise his voice. Steve's waited this long to hear from them. A few more seconds won't kill him. "And why am I the only guy who'd understand?"

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze shoots another look at Ghost, but this is out in the open now and reproaching him won't get her anywhere. He doesn't even offer her guidance beyond the tiniest bob. Like a nod. Go on.

"I was trapped in a labyrinth with Reynard." She meets Steve's eyes deliberately, rattling off the facts bluntly. Charge at them and maybe they won't get a chance to hurt. "Looked like an ancient library, but the further down we went the bigger it got, and there was this pit at the center- anyway. Corpses strung up in every other shadow, some of them animate. They, uh- they were people I knew, some of them. Maybe Reynard recognized the others, he never said. We'd have had it in hand, but-"

And maybe it's telling that all of that comes easily enough. None of that truly bothers her. But it's a few seconds before she can spit out the rest.

"I rebooted. No catalyst and no warning, Just shut down and wiped in the middle of the floor. Couldn't even remember my name properly afterward and you always know that." Her voice picks up an anxious note at that last and she shakes herself, hands closed into fists. Blaze-37. I know. I'm all right. Keep talking. "It happened again after that. Kept happening. Twenty-minute intervals, down to the second. After a while I'd realize what was happening. Know it was coming. Couldn't make any sense of why. I figured it was just... going to keep happening."

[juststeverogers]

Ghosts, hollowed out corpses of people he used to know. Being alone in a way that so few people ever truly are. Steve knows that feeling all too well. Remembers the worst times when he first woke back up after dumping his plane into the Arctic. When the only things familiar to him were ghosts of the people he used to know seen in the faces of the living.

Steve's face starts to soften, a hand reaching up to grasp at Blaze's shoulder because he does understand and Ghost is right. He's lived through this and knows that kind of lonliness. Except Blaze isn't finished, and what she says next robs the breath from Steve's lungs.

She rebooted. Wiped. Again and again. Left grasping at figments of things she should know with no real understanding of what she'd lost. Only knowing it would happen again. nothing she could do to stop it.

There's white noise crowding into Steve's head. The bellowing scream of a train and fingers slipping just out of reach. The sound of armor piercing rounds punchign through his apartment and striking Nick Fury. The stuttering hum of the helicarrier engines failing and the weight of wrecked steel in his hands. Footsteps hurrying up the stairs in a rickety row house in Germany.

That wasn't your fault, Buck.

No, but I still did it.

How much of it do you remember? You didn't remember me or Brookyln, so--

I remembered every one.

Steve's hand is shaking when it finally grabs onto Blaze's shoulder. Gives blaze a sharp nod and turns wet eyes away from her. There's only one man who knows what Blaze went through better than Steve Rogers, and he's currently recovering quietly somewhere hidden in Wakanda.

"You made it through." And it sounds like Steve has had to say this before. Has had to say it for himself as much as the person he's trying to support. "You're here. Blaze-37. Ghost is still here. I'm here. You've got that back. Those memories."

[rekindledtitan]

"For now." She probably shouldn't have said that. It hurts so much more than she expected, to see that look on his face. There's an internal wrench, an ache she's only ever felt seeing how frightened Ghost was after their reunion. She reaches up to grip his arm gently, and if she limits herself to that it's because she can't decide whether she wants to pull him into a hug or beat the hell out of everything.

"I've been trying to stay focused. Not think about it. But I can't shake the idea it's coming again. I never remembered the reboots before. Now I can't stop."

[juststeverogers]

"You should make a back up. Store it with Ghost, or give it to someone you trust. Update it whenever you want and have it there in case of an emergency."

He remembers Zola and the room full of (what were then considered to be) super computers underneath the original SHIELD base in New Jersey. With the tech in Blaze's world or even Steve's own now, shouldn't it be possible? Especially for a person who's already mostly artificial?

"That way no matter what happens to you, you can get it back. From someone you trust. Because we won't give up on you. Not Ghost, not me, not any of your friends here."