Chapter 5: A day off with Vignette!
"Look at them. All thanks to you. That's...beyond a miracle..."
Gabriel responded with a simple 'yeah', as she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Fortunately, she was about to wake up soon enough, being the subject of multiple angry talks and lectures. Including Vignette.
She slapped the back of Gabriel's head, causing her to jolt awake.
"But...you...could have died...Gab...," she trembled, hands clenched into fists by her side. "I can't have that...on my conscience."
"Oh," Gabriel said flatly. "I guess...b-but I didn't want to wake you up, and-"
"-YOU COULD HAVE DIED, GABRIEL! DO...DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT?!," she yelled angrily at the shocked blonde.
"W-What's your problem?!," Gabriel yelled back, resisting the urge to cry. "Isn't this what you wanted?!"
"Yes! Yes, of course I wanted this! But-"
"Then what?!"
"You never told me! You never told me you were about to charge head-first into Ares territory! You're so damn reckless all the time!"
Gabriel stepped forward, baring her teeth towards Vignette angrily.
"What...What is it with you?! This is my job! I save lives! What the fuck do you do?!," Gabriel snarled.
"Don't go there Gabriel."
Gabriel was about to hurl another vicious insult in her direction, but she held back her tongue and watched as her patients were attended to. There was a tense silence between the two for a while, until Vignette muttered something.
"...do you know how worried I get...?," Vignette furiously said, barely audible. "Do...do you even consider how other people feel, you selfish asshole...?!"
Gabriel let those words sink in for a while and she turned her whole body to face Vignette. She sighed, resting her fingers in her vest straps.
"Vignette."
She managed to make eye contact with the loli blonde, despite her rage towards her.
"I'm sorry. Okay? I promise not to be so reckless next time."
Gabriel extended her pinky finger towards the purple-haired demon, who cautiously agreed to the promise with her own pinky, albeit with a still worried look on her face.
"And I'm sorry about what I said about your job," Gabriel added, looking away.
"Gab...just..."
Vignette shook her head and reset her mind.
"...I'm proud of you. I really am. But please, please, please for the love of all things good...don't get hurt out there. Okay?," Vignette begged, with her hands on Gabriel's shoulders. She sounded as if she was a concerned mother watching her daughter leave the nest for the first time.
Gabriel nodded, and turned around with a heavy yawn.
"Alright. I'm pooped. I'll see you at four o clock-"
"Where do you think you're going private?," a voice boomed. Gabriel snapped to attention, eyes wide open. "You've got a lot of listenin' to do!"
Gabriel ran to the captain, hands behind her back at attention. Vignette was also looking straight forward at attention. The two stayed quiet as the captain eyed Gabriel up and down, sizing her up.
"Hm. You've got balls, private," the captain stated straightforwardly. "Do you know what the punishment is for pulling a stunt like yours?"
"No sir!," Gabriel weakly yelled. She could feel her legs already about to crumble from the sprints she's about to endure.
"And you bet your ass that you'd be better off not knowing!," he yelled. There was a brief silence, as the captain tried to communicate his gratefulness in a 'professional' manner.
"The next time you pull any stunts, you run it through me, ya' hear? I don't need no dead medics on my conscience."
Vignette slightly tilted her head to narrow her eyes at the guilty Gabriel, who looked like a puppy being told off.
"C-Cute...," Vignette thought unconsciously.
"You and private Shiraha are damn lucky that that rescue worked. Otherwise I'd have you two cleaning the men's toilets for three months."
"T-That's even worse than sprints!," Gabriel quivered internally.
"I was informed that the civvies and soldiers you rescued would like to express their gratitude. So get your ass to medical and after you've had your star-of-the-show moment, get the fuck to sleep. Dismissed."
The two saluted and slowly let their arms fall to their sides.
"What better way to start the day huh...?," Gabriel yawned tiredly. "You wanna tag along?"
Vignette looked at the blonde who had a small yet impactful smile on her face, and nodded.
"Tenma-san..!," Gabriel heard a raspy voice from a deathly skinny man sitting on the edge of a bed. Gabriel and Vignette shook hands with him and exchanged names.
"I'm Gabriel and this is Vignette," Gabriel said.
"My name is Otake Tadashi. I was one of the hostages you rescued, but I figured you would have known that. I want to reward you for your bravery. Here," he said, placing a key in Gabriel's palm before holding onto her hand with both of his.
"Is it a pony?," Gabriel joked, getting her ribs lightly poked by Vignette's elbow. "What Vignette?"
"Hahaha...," the man chuckled with a raspy voice. His lungs sounded terribly weak, like he was having trouble breathing, let alone talking. "No, I'm afraid not. It's an exo. Belonged to my brother-in-law before he died in combat."
"Ohh! I've heard about those!," Vignette remarked, inciting a curious look from the blonde. "They amplify your strength right?"
The man nodded with a smile. "You'll find more use with it than I will. Lugging wounded bodies around hopefully won't be a problem for you now."
"Do you think it will fit her, Tadashi-san?," Vignette asked in her usual polite manner.
"It can be adjusted according to the user, so it will be most likely," he explained. He let go of Gabriel's clenched fist.
"Locker 3513," he added as he rested his head on the pillow. "Good luck, and thank you again. Tenma-san."
The two bowed politely, giving their thanks, before walking away with Vignette chewing out Gabriel for not expressing enough emotion.
"I can't...need...sleep...," Gabriel groaned, taking a long gulp of her energy drink.
"Guess I can't blame you for that," Vignette admitted, giving the tired girl another can. The patients began sitting up with what little strength they had as Gabriel and Vignette walked past, and began croaking out small 'thank you's' and complements about her character.
"Look Gab! They love you!," Vignette shook Gabriel awake.
"Arghh...couldn't care less right now-"
"-e-excuse me kindly!," a feminine voice called out to their left. "I...I hate to interrupt..."
"No no! It's plenty fine!," Vignette once again politely engaged with the stranger. "Please continue!"
The woman who seemed to be a middle aged mother, opened her fist which was clutched to her chest and showed the duo a small keychain, of a red cross.
"My little boy...he's regained a lot of his strength after being freed from that hellhole...," she wept gratefully. "And...he made this for you."
"Do you like it?," a voice asked cheerfully at Gabriel's shins as she accepted the gift. She knelt down to meet eye-to-eye with the small child, whilst holding the keychain up between her thumb and index finger for both of them to see. It was cut out from the red aluminium layers of a Coca-Cola can's sides, and there were six or seven layers glued on top of each other to give it depth. There was a hole cut out in one of the limbs where the keyring looped around.
"Hm," Gabriel said while patting the kid on the head. "It's beautiful. The uhm...keychain. I mean. Of course."
The kid and his mother let out a hearty laugh, one in a long while, as the kid beamed a smile at Gabriel. Vignette watched contently in admiration of her friend.
"Thank you. Do great things one day, okay?," Gab encouraged as she stood up.
"Yeah! I'm gonna be a healer person like you!," he exclaimed excitedly. He then energetically ran to his mother's lap, babbling about how he was going to save the world and such. She nodded a grateful goodbye to Gabriel and Vignette, and the two left the medical tent.
Gabriel was still looking at the keychain with a neutral face as they took their time walking over to the lockers.
"Do you think it's pretty?," Vignette chirped as Gabriel held it up higher in the morning sunlight. "You've been looking at it for a long time."
"No," Gabriel stated plainly. "It's not. The edges are cut messily, the hole isn't punched clean and the metal's dirty."
Vignette looked at the pessimistic girl, who had a small smile on her face now.
"It's exactly like being a medic, huh?," she chuckled quietly.
"How fitting...," Vignette hummed as Gabriel hooked the keychain on her vest. They stopped at the aforementioned locker, opening it to get a look at the exoskeleton. It was literally worn to death by its previous owner, but it still looked like it was fighting to keep its integrity strong.
Vignette expanded the skeleton out from its neatly compact rectangle, letting the spine, hips and legs fall freely.
"Woah...," Gabriel gasped. "You know how to put it on?"
"Kinda...I mean I've read up on it because I was curious once...," Vignette said, as she fiddled around with the size. She pressed two buttons under the limb she wanted to adjust, and it retracted down to the smallest size. She did this for the other three limbs as Gabriel took her vest off.
"Man...did I ever tell you how much of a nerd you are?," Gabriel teased as she watched her fiddle around with the mechanical contraption.
"S-Shut it...," Vignette embarrassingly pouted. She felt herself blush, because she'd known Gabriel long enough to know that her tone and delivery of any sarcastic remark carried ninety percent of the meaning. And she sounded super flirty just then.
Vignette shook herself back into reality, chalking that up as a sleep-deprived fluke. She made sure the suit was firmly attached to Gabriel by each joint; wrists, elbows, knees, etc. She pulled the battery out from the locker: it was a dense yellow cylinder about the size of a soda can but required two hands to carry. She slid it into the battery slot located above Gabriel's back waist, and the suit whirred to life.
"Looks like it still has a charge," Vignette cheered as Gabriel began moving her limbs. "How's it feel?"
"Ehh...I can't tell," she said nonchalantly as she scratched her cheek.
"Try jumping or doing something that requires some effort," Vignette advised.
Gabriel nodded, bent her knees and proceeded to jump two metres in the air, causing both of them to yell and laugh in surprise.
"Vi-Vignette..!," Gabriel sputtered in shock. "Did-did ya' see that!"
"Holy...that was amazing! Wait, let me check the battery. It was at around seventy percent..."
The small screen above the battery indicated: 66.5.
"Right...I can only suspect it'll need more charge with your loadout...," Vignette thought out loud, looking at the hyperactive blonde. She honestly thought that Gabriel looked like she was made for the exo. The frames, even though they were relatively slim, added a bit more horizontal length to the girl, and alongside the steel aesthetic due to scratched paint coating, made her look like some kind of special forces operator.
"I've levelled up. Vignette!," Gabriel growled mock-intimidatingly. "W-Wait...how do I wear my plate carriers in this?!"
The front and back half of Gabriel's upper torso was covered snugly by the plating of the exo, but it left her lower half completely exposed. As well as that, it would be difficult, to say the least, to wear her current neck protection alongside it.
"Huh...yeah. I guess we'll have to talk to Soph about making some adjustments-"
Vignette was suddenly interrupted by a distant explosion right above them. It made a long, rumbling noise, and there was a dense white plume of what seemed to be smoke spreading out, and it began falling down slowly like snow.
Alarms started to blare, and more explosions erupted across the outpost. Gabriel and Vignette ran towards their barracks as fast as they could without saying a word, their training drilled into their bodies. Other soldiers began to do the same, scarfs and fabric covering their mouths.
They heard a cacophony of agonizing screams in the distance. It was too late. The smoke had fallen down and completely covered the outpost. The best Gabriel and Vignette could do, was climb atop a pile of rubble and keep their heads as high up as possible, and hope that the gas stays low to the ground.
