A/N: Thanks to Marcellasnow231 for pointing out some aspects of Junos' situation that I hadn't fully considered, and for everyone else who reviewed!
Log 7777-03.
Whatever doubts Juno may have had about the Foundation, they were quickly annulled by the quick responses of those that were armed in the garage. As unarmed workers and what looked like medical personnel dived for cover, her 'friends' from Nu-7 immediately dove into action, shouting for her to drop her weapon and surrender. She was reasonably sure one of them had just made sad noises when she appeared, too.
She sighed, there would be no negotiating here, she knew, but that didn't mean she had to kill. Strafing left, she put down rounds from Lumina into one of the soldiers just a second slower than the others, to the cries of alarm from his compatriots as he went down with a pained scream. Her chest tightened at his cries, fighting other humans was a taboo. The Crucible was one thing, and raiders were another, but this, this was just people doing their jobs, and good ones, at that.
Return fire scattered across her shields, and she grunted at the rapid impacts, reduced but still plainly felt. The weapons were a punchy calibre, but the velocity was low, to the point where they didn't do more than plink away at her shields. Still, that didn't mean she should stick to one spot, and as such leapt into the air, her glide bursting to life around her as she swept over their cover, putting shots into shoulders, arms, legs, and knees. Debilitating, painful, or crippling, but not lethal. She left the unarmed ones alone so long as they didn't go for weapons or try to run.
Her head snapped to the side, and she winced at the flare of pain from her neck, pivoting around, she reflexively fired a return shot to the origin point, cursing herself as one of the soldiers, whom she recognized as the Lieutenant from before, slid to the ground in a growing puddle of blood, a large calibre handgun to one side. Blasted idiots trying to be heroes, she peered around for any other armed personnel but found only those moaning on the ground.
Stomping over to the likely dying man, she crouched down and pulled aside his flak jacket, looking close at the gaping wound left by the Hand Cannon. Lumina had killed far greater enemies, and it was a miracle that the man was alive at all, still. Even in her time, this was a lethal wound, and not one the lightless could treat. It was good, then, that she was not lightless, and drew up the power of the Light to cast a Healing Well beneath him. She had been told in the past that a Healing Well was an odd experience for those without light, as flesh and bone knit itself back together, and bullets were spit right back out of the wound they caused.
The mans' back arched, and he coughed up blood as his lung put itself back together and reinflated, and his ribs fused back into one piece. He stared up at her with wide, confused eyes as he went from mortally wounded to sore and covered in his own blood in seconds. He'd probably be weak from blood-loss still, but he would live. She kicked his handgun away, and swept past him and opened the van with the tracer attached to it.
Juno only had a few moments now, she knew. Gunfire would be noticed in short order, combined with the lack of communications from the soldiers. Whispering for Surf to transmat the crates of materials into their inventory, she turned around to leave when, barely more than a whisper, the Lieutenant spoke to her.
"W-what are you?" the soldier asked, and she smiled behind her helmet, looking down at him, Lumina locked on her hip. "I am Juno. Warlock of the Praxic Order, Guardian of the Last Safe City on Earth, God Slayer, Fate Breaker, and Light Bearer. I seek only to return to where I was, Lieutenant Walker of The Foundation, and I will not be denied that."
The man gaped at her, likely overwhelmed by the happenings of the past few minutes. She left him that way, the Healing Well fading away into nothing a few seconds later. She swept out of the loading bay and pulled herself back onto the roof mere moments before another squad of soldiers swept out of the building across the courtyard and rushed towards the garage. She crept out of sight, crouching behind the miscellaneous machinery on the roof. Surf appeared next to her and twirled its blue and white shell mischievously. "There's a lot of reading here, Guardian, and I've dismantled the crates it was all in. Didn't give much in the way of Glimmer, but there was a little."
She nods silently and settles in to wait for the heat to die down. She'd let them assume she'd already escaped, then slip out once they lowered their guard. Guardians didn't need to sleep, or even eat, but sleep she would, it was better than sitting here bored and inactive. "Wake me if anyone comes up onto the rooftop, Surf."
It took, by Juno's count, nine hours for the heat to die down enough that they wouldn't notice her the second she moved. Disappointingly, no one checked the rooftops, so they weren't as careful as she thought, or there was just someone incompetent in charge. Either way, it worked in her favour, and she managed to quietly slip away. Oh, she was sure they'd repaired the camera she'd disabled, and they would see her leaving, but by the time they could rally anyone to pursue, she'd be long gone.
The time for stealth passed, she makes her way as quickly as possible to her stolen vehicle and gets the hell out of dodge, so to speak. It took her another three hours to encounter yet another problem. Mainly, the fact that vehicles in this age still used combustion engines over the Hydrogen and Arc engines used by Sparrows and Amanda's Tanks respectively. The second was her lack of money. She highly doubted a fueling station would take Glimmer, and she had no idea what currency in Old America looked like, or how it worked. Looks like she'd have to ditch the car for now, or hide it somewhere until she could refuel it or earn some money.
The third issue was much more pressing because, for all intents and purposes, she didn't exist. She had no identification, no records, and no friends to fall back on here. Of course, there were less than legal ways around those problems, but it all came back to having money to use first, which looped around to not having an identity, and so forth. Urgh, time travel was slowly getting higher and higher on her shit-list.
It took half an hour, of which she was constantly worrying about the concerningly low fuel gauge, for Juno to find somewhere relatively remote and inconspicuous to store the car. Leaving it in an abandoned lot on the edge of a town called Roanoke, she switched out her armour for the clothing stolen the day previously. She frowned at the clothes, the colours didn't suit her at all, and she wasn't terribly happy with the utter lack of protection and style to them. "Surf, if you could scan a bunch of clothes, could you synthesize some with the armour materials we have on hand? I know we've got some Sapphire Wire and Glimmer, at least."
The Ghost appears, swirling around her head cheerfully, "Of course, Guardian. That way I could even apply Shaders to it if you wanted!" That was good news, a little slice of home, at least. Again, it would have to wait for her to get the lay of the land, at least, but it was a goal, if just a short term one, to keep her on track. Tucking the keys into a pocket, Juno wanders further into town, taking in the sights and peace of it all. There was no war here, no Fallen Pirates bearing down at every moment, no Cabal Warships contesting for dominion in orbit. It was jarring, really. What was there for a creature of battle to do, with no wars to fight?
For most Guardians, the thought of an end to the fight was their Final Death, their Ghost shattering, and a bullet between the eyes. For those few who survived the loss of their Ghosts, they often disappeared and never returned, or lost the will to fight entirely. Here, though? There was nothing for Juno to fight, no encroaching Darkness to defend against, no Rogue Lightbearers to chase down, nothing, that is, except for those 'anomalies' the Foundation seemed so hellbent on containing.
That, though, would require further research and would go on the back burner until she could find herself somewhere to stay and a source of income. As she walked and lay lost in thought, she idly noted that she was drawing looks from some of those people around her, and she frowned. Granted, for a woman, she was fairly tall, standing near 6'5", but that was most Guardians, perhaps women in this time were shorter? That did seem to be the case as she looked around more, most women seemed to be around 5'6" to 5'11". She grumbled to herself, wonderful, another thing to keep mindful of in staying incognito.
Of course, Fate being the massive jerk that it was, Juno can't go five minutes without being tied up in some sort of trouble, and as she's walking, she picks up muffled cries from an alleyway to her right and moves to investigate. A few meters down the alley, two men are ganging up on a skinny kid, shoving him around and laughing darkly. Typical bullies, then, probably trying to get money out of the poor kid. She lets out a sigh and pops her knuckles, it would be unbecoming of her to let this stand, and armour or no, she could handle a couple of Standard Humans, buff or not.
Stepping further into the alleyway, she lets her hands drop to her sides in a display of passivity, then draws their attention with words rather than actions. "Can that boy help you with something, gentlemen?"
Perspective Shift.
Jason Maldano, 18 Years old, Roanoke Virginia.
Jason was having a bad day, and it was only getting worse. His mother was in the hospital slowly dying of cancer, and his father was a career drunk who barely came home, so it came down to him to care for his younger sister. He had been forced to drop out of high-school and take on a second part-time job to help out, and the midnight shift had been awful. Come the end of his shift, and he's sent home for the day ready to fall asleep until it was time to work again, and he goes and gets himself dragged into an alleyway and attacked. They wanted his money, but what part of him not having any cash didn't they understand? His chances of getting out of this without going to the hospital himself were looking more and more unlikely.
Jason stumbled from being shoved by one of the two huge men holding him here and bumped into the wall behind him, half expecting another push that didn't come. It was at that moment that he noticed someone new had entered the alleyway, an abnormally tall and buff looking woman. She asked, "Can that boy help you with something, Gentlemen?" and his rising hopes of her simply calling the police faded away. Couldn't she see that there were two of them and one of her? She'd be better off running away and finding help!
The slightly taller of the two men, whom Jason had figured was the leader of the pair, growled at the woman and spit out, "Fuck off lady, unless you want to become a smear on the wall."
He could barely see her raise an eyebrow in the poor light, and step forward. "That's no way to treat a woman, boys. I wonder if I could teach you two some proper manners, hmm?"
Jason leaned forward, wincing at the myriad of bruises quickly forming on his body, "W-wait-!" before he gets shoved back against the wall, crying out as his head hits the brick wall, "Shut it, kid!" comes from the smaller of the two men.
That visibly angers the woman, if the tensing of her body and her clenched fists are any indication, and she rapidly steps inside the taller man's personal space, landing a firm punch into his gut, driving the breath from his lungs and practically folding him over her arm. He wheezed and fell to the side, out of the fight if but for a moment. The shorter one cries out in anger and rushes her, lashing out with a wild haymaker, which she smoothly weaves around and slams a jab into his side, leaving him, too, wheezing and moaning. She kicks them both in the side once, frowning. "I expected you two to put up more of a fight. All bark and no bite, I suppose."
Jason merely stares at her with wide eyes as she crouches down and pats the two down, and when the taller one tries to get back up, she thumps him hard on the head, knocking him unconscious. Who was his mysterious saviour, and why had she intervened to begin with?
Perspective Shift.
Warlock Juno, Roanoke Virginia.
Well, if nothing else, she knew she hadn't lost her step when it came to CQC, even if that had been a rather disappointing fight. Pulling the wallets off the two mooks, she dumped the IDs if there were any and anything that didn't look useful. Finding a third, smaller wallet with the kids face on the ID, she stands up and tosses it back to him, which he fumbles with and nearly drops. "Are you hurt, young one?"
He flinches at her address, and quickly tucks the wallet away, casting a glance at the unconscious mooks. "Y-yeah, why did you help me?"
She raises an eyebrow, "Why would I not? You were obviously in trouble, and these two were of less than noble intention." As if that explained everything which, for her, it did. She lost nothing for this and helped someone else. Maybe people at this time were less altruistic? The Collapse and the Red War had brought the people of The City together as nothing else had, and they'd grown all the better for it.
The boy looks like he wants to protest, then obviously reconsiders as his eyes once again drop to the two unconscious men. He rubs the back of his head and winces, his hand coming away slightly red, he was bleeding from where he'd hit the wall. He sways on his feet, suddenly dizzy. That's not good. Juno curses herself for not checking the boy for injuries before
Quickly stepping in to hold him upright, she pulls back his hair and winces, that was a nasty bash, one that could have bad consequences if not dealt with soon. "Where do you live, boy? I'm taking you home." This was not the place for a healing well, the privacy of a home would be much better, though there would still be an interesting conversation once it was done.
He murmurs out an address, and Juno has Surf direct her to it, keeping mindful to avoid too many people, as they might start asking awkward questions. By the time they arrive, he's practically unconscious in her arms, and she has to bang loudly on the door to get someone to open it, a girl probably a few years younger than the boy in her arms greets her. She gasps and backs up, practically begging Juno to bring him in.
"I can help him, but I need somewhere open to put him down! Grab towels and warm water, too!" the Guardian calls out, moving quickly into the house. The little girl points towards an open room with a television and a couch, and Juno moves to lay the boy down, gently holding up his head as the little girl slips a towel beneath it.
Now, this was where the fun began. Juno knew that a Healing Well could repair the most grievous wounds in seconds, yet she wasn't sure on the topic of disease or sickness. Cleaning the wound of bacteria would likely be necessary, if just to be safer rather than sorry. Using the water and extra towels brought by presumably the younger sister, she gently adjusts the boy and rinses the back of his head, the towel quickly turning a bright red.
That done, it was time for the healing itself. She looks to the panicked little girl and smirks, "This is going to be strange, but do not worry, and please, do not panic." That said, Juno reaches within, and draws up the Light once more, casting it into the swirling radiance of a Healing Well, and she lets out a breath. Despite not being injured herself, the Healing Well refreshes and soothes her. The boy's wounds heal quickly as well, bruises and scrapes fading away in seconds, and his breathing evening out as the head wound fades away. The little girl lets out a surprised gasp, but instead rushes straight in to check her brother.
It took perhaps an hour for the boy, who had introduced himself as Jason Maldano, to wake up and profusely thank Juno for her help. While he was confused on what she had done, he was thankful enough that he didn't intend to push on the matter. His sister, Grace, on the other hand, had nothing but excited questions once the initial shock wore off. Juno had been accused almost immediately of using magic, and she had merely chuckled and answered with, "Something like that." and refused to explain further.
Now the young girl just glared at Juno from across the table the three were seated at, cheeks puffed up at her refusal to explain her powers. There was no need to expose these children to the world in which she lived, or lead their lives into her own, and the chaos and conflict that would surely follow. She did have questions of her own, though…
"You have many questions, young ones. I have questions of my own, if you are willing to trade information?" She proposed, expecting hesitance or wariness. Instead, she got eager affirmatives from the both of them, and so began Warlock Juno's first real foray into learning the world she'd entered into.
A/N: I admit, this felt like a somewhat awkward spot to end off on, but I'm running on fumes at the moment, and I've been eager to get another chapter out before Thanksgiving here in the US. As always, reviews are always welcome, and so is constructive input and criticisms, as I'm always looking to improve my writing. If anything seems inaccurate or poorly written, PLEASE, let me know! Juno and Surf will return!
Editing assistance by OmegaEntertainment.