Disclaimer: I don't own any of the sources of media that you will recognize characters from in this story! Proper noun? Not mine. Enjoy!
Nexus HWR 18.2 Charlie:
"And what do you call these things?" Natsu asked, pushing a finger into the chest of a ten foot tall iron robot. The fat robots with thick arms and legs had short stubby heads barely sticking out of their round torsos. The one Natsu pushed on had four eyes on the front of its head, and it was black with silver shoulder plates. Out the bottom of its face stuck three green rods, and over the front of its black chest were some white straps that wrapped around the sides of its body.
Natsu turned his head to the right where a man behind a computer responded without turning around, "That's a Strau Mosca, newest model." The head, and only, engineer of the base named Spanner continued typing in code to his computer. Out from his desktop computer ran lots of wires connecting it to a single white robot that looked bigger than the other five standing in the room, though considering it was sitting and turned off it was a little shorter at the moment. Behind the blond-haired engineer stood another robot as tall as his Moscas, only this one was part human and leaning over him to watch the other man's work.
"Whoa, that is SUPER!" Franky threw his metal arms up to the right side of his head with a loud clank when they slammed together. Spanner flinched from the loud noise and looked up at Franky's steel arms, half-wondering why he was posing, and half-admiring the cyborg's design.
Spanner stopped working for a moment and spun his chair around. He looked Franky up and down, then remarked, "Your body, did you make all the editions to it yourself?"
"You bet!" Franky shouted in reply. Franky's shoulders stiffened and his excited expression lowered into a straight expressionless one. Spanner watched closely as Franky said in a robotic tone, "95 percent of Franky's body is made of metal." Spanner's eyes widened as he tried to make sense of the robot, not noticing the mage behind him smirking as he realized what Franky was doing. "The other five percent..." Franky continued in the same fake voice, then his eyes lowered and his mouth curled up at the sides, before he yelled, "IS SUPER!" Spanner fell backwards out of his chair in surprise, as Franky and Natsu burst out laughing.
Spanner's chair went rolling away from him as he fell, but it stopped after passing Natsu but before it should have hit the wall. Natsu turned around to see a man had stepped through the door behind him and pressed a foot against the chair to stop it from crashing into him. The man had very short dark hair and pale skin, and he looked around in mild amusement before lifting up a thin sheet of black steel he had at his side. Leonard Snart held up the steel for Spanner to see and said, "This what you were looking for?"
Spanner's eyes snapped open wide again, as wide as they were when Franky caught him by surprise with his joke a few seconds ago. "You found it?" Spanner asked, his voice full of disbelief. "How did you get that? The steel is rare-" Spanner froze with his mouth open, then he face-palmed and muttered, "You didn't."
"Of course we did!" A booming voice yelled and another man marched into the room behind Snart. Mick Rory held up a black steel sheet of his own twice the size of his partner's, then he cupped his free hand to his mouth and call-whispered, "They weren't using it anyway."
Natsu wondered what they were talking about, but Mick's attention turned to him and the man dropped the steel he was holding. "Fire guy!" Mick shouted, throwing his arms up to his sides.
"Yeah!" Natsu shouted back. Though he looked a bit confused, he was smiling like the older man was. Mick's presence came with a seemingly light atmosphere around him.
Mick suddenly drew the glowing orange gun from his side and pointed it up, firing a stream of flames into the air while laughing. "Not in my workshop!" Spanner yelled over.
"Mick, we talked about this-" Snart began, but he stopped and his eyes darted up while his eyebrows rose.
Mick was getting retorts ready for those two, but his eyes shot open huge as he watched all the flames coming out of his gun and all those already above him get pulled in one direction. They all shot over to Natsu who was sucking in hard through his wide open mouth, and he swallowed Mick's flames in one gulp before smirking a dangerous look back at the men near the door. While Snart was just amazed at the odd power, Mick could not hold in his excitement. "Fire GUY!" He walked forward, smacked a hand down on Natsu's opposite shoulder while turning around, then started walking the two of them back towards the door. "I'm buying you a drink! Let's go!"
Natsu did not really know what he did to get the guy to like him so much, but he was bored with the machines anyway. He glanced back, but Franky waved him off, saying, "I've got this."
Natsu shrugged, "Guess I could go for a drink." He looked up at the man next to him who was a bit taller and a little bulkier. "Where we heading?"
"There's a bar in the basement. The people who live this close to the action love to drink!" Mick patted Natsu hard on the back and then just started walking next to him out through the hallway. "Or maybe they think they've gotta drink to keep from thinking about how crazy it is they're living under a desert!"
"Aren't you living under a desert too?" Natsu asked.
"Zeta Squad," Mick mumbled and waved his hand to the side. "We move around a lot, but this is the first place with a bar we've stayed at in weeks! Boss lady's treatin' me for all my hard work for sure," Mick said with a grin.
'Boss lady' is probably Sara, Natsu thought as they headed to a staircase down to the basement. Wonder what she and Gaara wanted with Riku?
On the second floor of the desert base, Riku stood in a small office with two others. The base commander and the section leader of Zeta Squad were both frowning at him, and Gaara spoke in a low voice, "What did you do to the man we have prisoner?"
"I didn't touch him," Riku replied.
"That isn't good enough," Sara countered, though she kept her voice soft instead of snapping at the irritated teenager. He turned to her and she continued, "That man wouldn't say a word to anyone, yet even now we can't stop him from talking. He keeps mumbling to himself-"
"Are you getting good information out of what he's mumbling?" Riku questioned.
Sara did not reply. "That is not the issue here," Gaara interjected. Riku turned his way, and the ninja looked back at him harshly. "What you did to that man may not have caused physical damage, but I can see that he is mentally scarred from what he saw. To do that to a person-"
"What?" Riku snapped. "You had a prisoner who was willing to give up information with little more than a push, but you were too weak to do what was necessary to get it out of him."
"You went too far," Sara retorted. "If he cracked like you said, with little more than a shove, then we could have gotten it out another way."
"You people are at war," Riku said, his eyes discerning as he looked into Sara's. "If you aren't willing to do what it takes, you'll never win."
"What will winning mean," Gaara cut in, and Riku turned to him confusedly. "If we win like this?" Gaara asked. "The reason the Resistance does not allow torture is because we're setting the precedent for after the war. We are fighting to make the world a better place. We can not win this war through torture and extremes, because victory will mean nothing if we do it that way." Gaara stepped towards the silver haired man, and continued, "Many in the Resistance feel as you do. Even a few of the other leaders bring up the need to step up the lengths we will go, apply the harsh methods we have always known we could enact in our strategies. But if victory is all that matters, then where can a line be drawn? The enemy tortures, so maybe we should torture as well to level the playing field? If we go by that logic, where does it end? The Cooperative has destroyed entire cities in the past solely to eliminate certain Resistance leaders. Do we stoop to that level?"
Riku said nothing in response, then he shook his head as that was unthinkable as a course of action, even to remove one of the enemy's strongest fighters or top leaders. "We don't need to go that far," Riku began.
Gaara shook his head, "We do not, but when you start accepting some things as 'necessary evils,' then you get closer to the point where something that extreme is only a step or two away, like simple torture is now. And while you may think that destroying Co-op cities is too far, if torture is allowed, then there will still be people on the side of the new extreme. Those singularly focused on winning this war have lost sight of the bigger picture."
The ninja with a gourd of sand on his back nodded his head as Riku nodded at him in understanding. "It seems you can see the bigger picture as well," Gaara began, then he let out a deep breath and closed his dark eyelids. He opened them back up and said, "Your actions earlier are excused, as I myself allowed you to go in to intimidate the prisoner, and I allowed it to continue despite not being able to see what you were doing. Know this though, the Resistance is not just one side of an army." Sara nodded in agreement with the base commander and Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village. Gaara held his arms out to his sides and finished, "The Resistance is an ideology: to resist those who oppress. Whether it be the Cooperative, or slavers, or criminal organizations like Al-Tharmen, the Resistance will stand against them time and time again. We resist, in order to create a better Nexus. Don't forget that."
Riku stared into Gaara's eyes for a few seconds after the ninja finished speaking. That's some ideology. Sora would have loved it, Kairi too, but it's a naive way of thinking during a war. Rules and laws in times of peace are different from those in times of war, everyone knows that. Things that would normally be considered taboo are acceptable during war. Are you going to outlaw killing on the battlefield too, because you want to set precedent for the post-war world? There won't be a post-war world for anyone in the Resistance unless some people in it are willing to get their hands dirty. Someone has to be willing to dive into darkness to keep these people and their ideology strong though, and who better, than the Lord of Darkness?
Riku turned away from Gaara and Sara, a dark look on his face. Sara opened her mouth to say something, but Gaara stuck out his arm for her to wait. The Kazekage had something to say to the man walking away, but Riku froze before he could start speaking. Riku chuckled once, then he spoke with his eyes shadowed over by his silver bangs, "The reason I made it so dark that the rest of you couldn't see what I was showing the prisoner..." Riku glanced over his shoulder and said with a straight look on his face, "Was because I didn't want you all to break down like he did."
Sara felt shivers down her spine, and Gaara lost the urge to add something else motivational to what he had already said. This man, Gaara thought, his own expression darkening. He is not easily swayed. Many in the Resistance prone to dark actions are easily pulled out of the darkness. They fight for the Resistance because they believe in it, sometimes just too much. Riku though, I do not know what he is thinking, but his entire body exudes dark energy.
A dark look on his face, Riku walked out of the base commander's office. He walked down the hallway and saw two other people walking his way. Guess word spreads fast, Riku thought, as looks of fear appeared on both people's faces. They tried to hide the fear as Riku walked past, but it was tough considering Riku's expression got considerably darker after he saw the way they looked at him. Ignore them, he thought, focus on Al-Tharmen. Why? Don't I have bigger things to deal with? I guess, for now, this is what I can do. Meet up with the others… Not that they look at me any differently than those people.
Not far away on the second floor, Sanji had just left the room they were given to stay in for as long as they were needed there. He walked down the hall with his hands in the pockets of his long black pants. He was told that the building had a no smoking policy, so he was heading out for a quick cigarette. He realized it as he was nearing the first corner away from their room, Shit. We lowered back underground. Wonder if they'll raise the whole fort just so I can smoke? There's got to be a smoking area somewhere if they won't.
Sanji turned the corner, then the pirate chef came to a stop and stared down the white hall. Two other people were in that hallway, one walking away from him thirty feet away, the other walking towards him from just a little farther, his head bowed. The one farther away did not look to be paying much attention, but the man walking away from Sanji with long curly black hair did have his head up, yet he did not change his path to move out of the other man's way. The two were walking almost on a direct collision course, and then they bumped into each other.
Riku's head lifted up and he turned it to the man who just bumped into him. The other figure took another step, then he stopped with his back still to Riku.
Usopp turned his head and looked into Riku's eyes, then hissed, "You monster-"
"I'm a monster! I get it! You don't have to remind me every fucking time we see each other!" Riku grabbed Usopp by the straps of his overalls and threw him into the opposite wall of the hallway they bumped into each other in.
Sanji gave Usopp a dirty look after what he said to Riku, but now he was staring at Riku in shock. The teenager with long spiky silver hair glared at Usopp as he leaned back against the other wall looking at Riku as shocked as Sanji was that he retaliated. Riku's fists clenched hard and he stomped towards Usopp one step, then froze as Sanji appeared between him and Usopp. Sanji had a bead of sweat on the right side of his face and felt very nervous after what he just sensed with his Observational Haki. Riku's eyes widened at Sanji's look, then he bowed his head and his eyes got shadowed over by his bangs. "Of course I'm a monster," he growled in a dark tone. "You pirates on your small world had your little adventures and fun, and while you did that I traveled across the multiverse, saving entire worlds." His head snapped up and the pirates looked into Riku's eyes shocked at the sight of their yellowish-green color.
"Riku, calm down," Sanji began. "It's alright-"
"It's not alright, and I shouldn't be calm," Riku said, glaring into Sanji's eyes as he did. He then looked behind him at Usopp, "We've never been friends, have we?" Usopp's eyes went wide and Riku continued, "Even in that second month when we met, you never liked me. When Ansem took over, I would have fought a lot harder if he tried taking anyone else in our group too. You and I were never friends."
Riku's eyes shadowed over again and a dark aura emerged around him. "Usopp, you talk to me like a comrade you're ashamed of, but that's wrong. I was never your 'nakama.' I am, and always have been, a monster." Riku's body started distorting as he spoke. A black coating surrounded his body, a dark red heart formed on his chest filled with black, his eyes got darker and his hair straighter. "This world, this universe, the Gods who rule it, I determine what happens next."
Riku's body started shaking and he continued louder, "What the Gods are running from is what I fight on a fucking daily basis! I fight and WIN against the darkness every day. You calling me a monster doesn't do anything, because I have learned how to control my hate, and rage, and guilt, and shame, and self-loathing." Riku's eyes closed and all the dark coatings on his body started to disappear in shimmering lights. "I am going to save this world, save all the worlds, even if it means I die myself. And when I'm dead, I hope you still think of me as a monster," Riku said, lifting his head up and looking his green eyes into Usopp's black, shaking ones. "Because if you still think I'm a monster, then I won't have to convince myself as hard."
Riku turned left and started walking away. Sanji stared at the teen in shock, not knowing what to say after that. Usopp's eyes were huge and his mouth was gawking, but he closed his mouth before his fellow pirate and turned after Riku. "Tell yourself whatever you want to make yourself feel better. You're no hero. You are not a martyr. You're a bastard and a monster."
Sanji was a little creeped out by what Riku just did, but the chef spun to Usopp with a disgusted look. The long-nosed man did not stop though, and finished loudly to the teen down the hall, "Why don't you just die already?!"
"Usopp!" Sanji yelled. He saw Usopp's eyes widened and turned himself from Usopp down the hall to where Riku froze in place after that last sentence.
Usopp saw Riku freeze, and despite the shout from his nakama, Usopp lost his own surprised look after a second. He doubled down, stepping towards Riku and calling out, "The world would be a better place without you. You know it would be. I know it would be." No one in the hall spoke for a few seconds, then in a hiss, Usopp finished, "So why don't you just end it already?" He finally shut up and turned around to walk away, but Sanji stood behind him, shaking his head and looking at him disgustedly. "What?" Usopp snarled at him.
"You went too far," Sanji said. He was disappointed, ashamed of his comrade. His volume was not high as he was not yelling, he could not even think of words to scold Usopp with at the moment. Sanji shook his head again then looked down the hall, but Riku was gone and he just sighed at the empty space in the hallway.
Sanji looked back at Usopp even more ashamedly. "Is this how you become a brave man of the sea? Push away someone who truly wanted to be your comrade? No matter how badly you taunted him, berated him with insults, called him a monster, a fiend, a devil, 'Ansem.' Through all that he kept trying, but you just couldn't let it go, could you?"
"He made me murder people," Usopp snarled.
"No," Sanji responded instantly. "You know he didn't. You know who did, and you treat them like the same person because you can't get over your own guilt, shitty sniper." Sanji turned and started walking away with his hands back in his pockets. "Take a good look at yourself in the mirror, Usopp," Sanji muttered. The pirate chef knew he needed to get that smoke now to calm down, because he felt a strong urge to kick Usopp's ass and it was not fading fast.
Look in the mirror? What is he talking about? Usopp thought angrily as he watched Sanji walk away. He turned the other way and looked to the spot Riku froze in where there was no longer anyone standing. Did he just head somewhere else in the base? Usopp wondered as he started walking again. Damn it's going to be awkward the next time we're all together. Why can't he just go away for good? Seeing him, it just makes me so angry. After what he did earlier, how does everyone else not see it? They're the same!
"Hey you," someone called out as Usopp walked past a corner. He turned left and glared down the hall to see a man jogging towards him. The guy was about Usopp's height, had dirty blond hair with bangs that dropped to his eyebrows, and stubble all over the bottom of his face. The man also had a long beam rifle strapped to his back over the black guard uniform he was wearing. "Usopp, right?"
"Yeah, that's me," Usopp replied, sounding a little confused. "What do you want?"
"I was told to see if you want to come on guard duty. My captain said to look for the new guys who aren't doing anything, so, you coming?" The man motioned with his head back the way he came from.
Why not? Usopp nodded and walked towards the man. "Who are you?" He asked, not feeling the need to introduce himself first considering the man already knew his name.
"Name's Charlie, Charlie Pace," the guard answered.
"Are you in Zeta Squad too?" Usopp asked.
"Nah," Charlie replied with a shake of his head. "Just a guard here. Actually pretty new at this myself. Lived in the Hidden Sand Village for a while, but I figured I should get involved before the world ends." Usopp looked at him confusedly, and Charlie continued after a chuckle, "Thought I could live in peace after they evacuated us into Resistance lands, but what used to be the interior is now the edge of free lands. Couldn't just sit back and wait for it all to disappear."
"Could have gone farther in the interior," Usopp mentioned. "Not that that isn't a good reason to join, just saying there's still a lot of Resistance land south of here."
"Maybe," Charlie agreed. They reached a staircase and headed down it, and Charlie continued as they did, "But I couldn't get a visa to stay in Leam's nicer cities if I tried. Could run to a refugee city, but those are overpacked and dangerous because of it. No place to raise a family."
As Usopp got another question on his mind after the last thing Charlie said, speakers on the ceiling they were walking under crackled on. Gaara's voice spoke over the system, and everyone in the base could hear him say, "We are rising back to the surface. Alpha Squad is returning."
"Alpha Squad?" Usopp wondered aloud and looked to his new guard buddy for an answer.
Charlie looked excited though, and he just motioned for Usopp to follow faster as he started jogging away towards the garage. "They're back already?" Charlie asked in amazement.
"Where were they?" Usopp asked. As they were heading down the hall, people came running up the stairs from the lower basements and down from the second floor behind them. Doors opened on the halls around the giant first floor too, and Usopp was surprised by how many people were heading to the garage to greet this Alpha Squad. They didn't give us a big welcoming like this, Usopp thought.
"Hey," Charlie said, and Usopp focused back on the man next to him as they were nearing the inner garage double doors. "We're still on guard duty, now that I think about it. Be prepared in case something tries to sneak in with their vehicles, or if it's not really Alpha Squad." Charlie started to sweat himself as he mentioned the things that could go wrong, while Usopp gulped wondering if those things happened often when squads were returning.
No no no, he's just being cautious! That's it! Usopp wiped some sweat from his face, then he realized something and snapped, "Wait, I don't even know who's on Alpha Squad. How am I supposed to know if it's not them?!"
"Umm," Charlie began hesitantly. He looked around and saw a few other guards heading down from other areas of the garage. Some people exited the smaller maintenance garage on one side, and Charlie spotted another member from Usopp's group, the large cyborg. He pointed towards them and Usopp saw Franky as well, but Charlie was pointing more towards the guard nearest to them. "That guy, Snart, is on Zeta Squad and probably knows all the Alpha members. Let's go stand with him," Charlie suggested.
Usopp liked the idea considering Snart was close to his nakama anyway. Franky was walking with Spanner, and the two were following Snart out into the garage. Spanner had a tablet in front of him that he was typing into. Holographic screens appeared above his device that showed the exterior of the base. The turrets on the roof moved with the buttons he pressed, and three Moscas near the large gate of the garage backed away right as the gate started lifting up. "Franky!" The cyborg turned and saw Usopp jogging over with another man at his side, and he nodded but focused back on the opening door. Out the corners of his eyes the pirate shipwright could see a lot more people filling into the room from the other entryways, though no one else came out from the maintenance room which made sense considering its isolated location in the base far from most areas people gathered in.
Sanji walked into the room from the same entrance Usopp came through a minute ago. He was surrounded by other people, but even the ladies could not bring up his mood at the moment. He had found a place to smoke, but it got interrupted by the announcement since the base needed to close up the air vents on its way out of the ground to prevent shifting sand from falling in and clogging them all. Sanji looked to his left where he saw Usopp and Franky standing and talking with some others while looking towards the large opening on the edge of the garage. He grit his teeth as he did not see someone else in the room, and it made him grumble in annoyance and not head over to his nakama's sides. Instead, he just focused on the wide open door as well and listened to the people around him to get an idea of what they were all waiting for.
"You're telling me neither of you have heard of Alpha Squad before?" Leonard Snart asked the pirates on his left side. They were standing in a line with a few dozen other people, leaving a large gap between them and the other line fifty feet in front of them for the incoming vehicles to be able to drive through.
Both of the pirates shook their heads 'no,' and Charlie looked at the long-nosed man next to him in surprise. He stood between the two newcomers to the base, and he began to Usopp, "Alpha Squad is the most accomplished squad in all of the Resistance. The strongest team of Resistance fighters." Charlie looked back forward and finished, "They're going to be the ones who win this war for us."
Usopp opened his mouth to respond, but something came flying through the entrance of the base at eighty miles per hour. A cloud of sand followed the hot-pink vehicle that shot into the room using purple booster jets coming out of its bottom. The Revenant did not touch the ground thanks to these boosters, effectively making it hover through the door, though at that speed most would say it flew through. The vehicle spun sideways after zipping through the entrance and the boosters beneath it stopped glowing so brightly, allowing it to slow down and skid to a stop still in the air, right in front of the red haired base leader with a gourd on his back. Gaara stood between the two lines of people who had gathered, in front of and below the railing of the stairs to the upper area. Both staircases were full of people too as was the upper walkway past them that lined the full inner wall of the garage. Many of the people on the stairs backed up as they did not know if the person in the Revenant was in control of their vehicle, but from how close it got to Gaara before stopping, those who understood knew that that meant the driver was just one hell of a pilot.
There were two people sitting in that vehicle that entered first into the garage. A middle-aged man sat on the driver's seat on the left side of the hovercraft, while a short girl who looked to be a teenager sat on the passenger's side. "They're Alpha Squad?" Usopp asked as he looked at the two unimpressive people.
Gaara started scolding the man in the driver's seat of the Revenant, and Snart chuckled on Usopp's right side. "Nah, that guy getting chewed out is Joker. He's a pilot with us in Zeta, he just got requested to help them on their mission."
"His name is Joker?" Charlie asked. He did not know many of the Zeta Squad members either as they were not permanent residents of the base and had arrived even more recently than him.
"Jeff Moreau," Snart replied. "Joker's a nickname, obviously," the short haired man wearing blue goggles smirked after he said it. Charlie frowned as he thought the guy was making fun of him, but Snart was refocused on the open door to the outside. There was a much larger vehicle heading into the base, a truck easily three times as large as the one that took the pirates and their comrades to the base early that day. Outside the wide, open garage door, they could all see that the sky was a deep red shade as a lot of time had passed already since their group had gotten to the base that morning.
The giant truck drove into the garage, and the top of it almost skimmed the top of the door from how tall it was. The truck filled up forty of the fifty feet in the gap between the lines of people, making everyone in those lines back away from the giant vehicle as it drove slowly between them. It was so long that some people were doubting it was going to make it all the way into the garage, but the back of it came into sight and the front started turning to the side, swinging the back around right as it entered so that it just barely fit.
"You looking for someone?" Franky questioned the man who had introduced 'Joker' a few seconds ago. Snart was grinning at the giant truck, but his grin lowered a little into his usual smirk at the question.
"Joker's not the only member of Zeta who got recruited for their mission. Got a feeling it was the main reason we got called up here, not the excuse of reinforcing this forward base." Snart explained this to the cyborg, then he walked off the line towards the truck that came to a full stop in front of them. He walked around it where the back steel grate of the truck started folding out from the top. It was held together to the truck by hinges at the bottom, right above the large chain-covered wheels it used to drive across the desert.
"What was this mission Alpha Squad went on anyway?" Franky asked Spanner as they headed after Snart towards the back of the largest vehicle. Two other vehicles entered after the truck, smaller jeeps with open tops and turrets on the back. They were full of fighters in sand-camo gear, and most of them were armed with guns on their backs with the same camouflage to them. The truck's back was swung enough to the side that those jeeps had enough room to enter from, and then the giant opening to the base finally started closing again.
Spanner finished typing on the device in his hands once he could see that no one else was following those jeeps into the base. He made the doors start to close, then responded to Franky in a serious voice, "A very important mission." The loading gate on the back of the truck kept bending out until it was flat, then it kept dropping so the top of it slammed hard into the floor and left a ramp leading into the vehicle. Franky got a look inside as he finally rounded the side, while Spanner finished to him, "They were sent to free a POW work camp deep in the Black Witch's lands."
Franky's eyes grew wide as he stared inside the brightly lit back of the truck. There were over two hundred people packed inside it. There were six long rows of seats in both the lower section of the truck and the upper section right above it. All the people strapped into those seats were unbuckling themselves and standing up. They looked out the back of the truck, many with shaking eyes that darted back and forth nervously. Most of them wore rags and not a person had shoes on. Usopp dropped his jaw at the sight of these skinny, malnourished people all staring towards him, many with fear in their eyes. A man walked in front of all the personnel gathered at the back of the truck, a man with a gourd of sand on his back.
Gaara looked into the vehicle as people stood up and the strongest-looking POWs neared the back as if to protect those behind them. "It's okay now," Gaara said, holding his arms out to the sides to show he had no weapons on him, to show he meant no harm. He smiled softly at the people inside, and he continued, "You're safe now. Inside a secure Resistance base," he added, and the people looking towards him opened their eyes wide. Even after they had been freed, they were still deep within enemy territory and could be re-captured at any moment. The ride in that truck was the longest one of any of their lives. Gaara could see this as he looked in some of their eyes, and he just finished in a soft voice, "You're home."
Tears flowed freely from the eyes of the men standing in the back of the large vehicle. A few of them rubbed their eyes to remain composed, but most people in the truck broke down. The relieved sobs of joy made the pirates who could see these people feel their hearts clench up in so many emotions. Sadness for these people who looked like they had been through Hell. Happiness that they were finally out of the Hell they must have been in. And they felt anger. They were not the only ones feeling that way. Charlie clenched his fists at his sides, and Snart was no longer smirking and looking around for his comrade. Spanner turned away as he too felt himself getting emotional, and he cleared out of there to give the people space to disembark from the truck, figuring he was no longer needed.
Franky understood why Spanner was moving away, and he spotted medical staff running around the side of the vehicle towards the back. Others were clearing out of there, and the cyborg with the largest body of everyone around him decided it would be better for him to watch from a distance as well. Usopp turned to Franky as the cyborg walked off, then he turned the way Franky was facing and saw the teenage girl who sat in the passenger side of the Revenant leading the medical staff towards him. He backed away a little, then heard the girl with chestnut brown hair that fell straight down to only her shoulder-blades shout, "Everyone unload in an orderly fashion! The base's doctors need to document each person here so they can measure your food intake and prescribe medication."
"Measure food intake?" Usopp questioned in confusion.
Charlie nudged the guy next to him and began in a quiet voice, "I've heard about that. Back on my world, there was this terrible event in the past where millions of people were put in camps similar to the ones here, some of them even worse." Usopp turned to the man next to him in surprise, and Charlie continued darkly, "When the good guys finally freed those people, they couldn't just feed them whatever they wanted, because those people's stomachs had shrunk after being malnourished for so long. It would have made those survivors sicker than they already were if they gorged on food like they had before they were…" Charlie faded off, as someone in the truck shouted something about being hungry. He and Usopp looked to the doctors, but they would not budge, as much as it pained them to deny the former POWs.
"Hey, you two," the men turned and saw Sara standing near them, holding a clipboard and a pen. She had just ordered two people away, and she saw Usopp and Charlie not doing anything. "Lead the second ten off the truck to room 2B-34. Got it?"
"Understood," Charlie replied loudly and saluted her.
Usopp did not know what to do, as he felt strange falling in line with the Resistance this much. He was not actually a Resistance guard and only accepted to go on patrol with Charlie because he wanted to learn more about the base. Sara started glaring at him though, and Usopp nodded quickly. "Y-Yeah, I'lll help too," he said. He turned back towards the truck where the two who Sara had talked to first were greeting some of the people near the back and telling them how they would lead them to rooms being set up for them in the second basement of the fort. Usopp glanced over his shoulder, but Franky just gave him a nod like he approved of how Usopp was helping out. Usopp got a bead of sweat on the side of his face as he looked back, Is this what we came up north to do? I thought we would be getting in a fight, not that, this isn't a good way to help people. Once he thought it, he realized he was being stupid for hesitating. These people have just been slaves for who knows how long. I know how that feels. It's terrible.
"Let's do this," Usopp said, sounding really serious all of a sudden. Charlie looked at his comrade in surprise, then he nodded his head as it made sense for Usopp to be so serious at a time like this. They rushed over to the truck to start helping, and a blond haired man watching from not far away felt the anger inside him subside.
Sanji let out a sigh as he watched Usopp start helping people unload from the truck. His voice had compassion in it, and Sanji shook his head while rubbing the left side of it with his hand. It's still Usopp, he thought, feeling a little relieved, though he could not find it in him to smile. Only with Riku does he get that way. But it got worse recently. Riku used his dark powers more and more, so it makes sense, but what you said went too far. I don't even see him around here. I wonder if, he left? Sanji gazed around the room, then he got a confused look on his face, And where the Hell is Natsu?
Leonard Snart walked over to one of the jeeps that had parked next to the big truck. A man sitting on the side of it grinned back at him as Snart threw his arms out to the sides. "The conquering heroes return!" Snart called out, only half-sarcastically.
The man sitting on the side of the jeep had short hair like Snart, though he wore full sand-colored camo. Michael Scofield dropped off the side of the jeep and Snart held out his hand, and then two of them grabbed each other's forearms strongly. "Good to have you back," Snart added to his fellow Zeta Squad member.
"Good to be back," Michael replied. "Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. We got almost all the prisoners out before they noticed what was going on. It didn't matter once they did though, Alpha destroyed all countermeasures."
"Getting the prisoners out first meant that Alpha didn't have to hold back," Snart corrected his friend who was downplaying his own importance in the mission. "Sure your prison-break skills helped them loads."
A larger man who got out of the other side of the jeep as Michael came walking over and opened his mouth. Snart did not wait to hear the question though, answering first, "Mick's at the bar, Linc'." Lincoln Burrows grunted in response, slightly annoyed that the shorter man cut him off. He got the answer to the question he wanted though, and he turned and headed off into the base with a grin on his face, ready for a drink.
At the back of the truck, Franky was still talking to Spanner from a distance away. He had seen both of his nakama who were in the room at the arrival already join in the efforts to help the freed POWs. Joker had come over to Spanner and asked for help on repairs for one of the jeeps though, and Franky figured he could be of more assistance upgrading the Resistance weapons and vehicles than he would with the people who were scared enough without having to deal with a giant robot pirate. Spanner stopped talking mid-sentence though and turned back to the truck as did Joker.
Franky wondered why the two men looked away, so he turned to the truck as well. "There they are," Spanner said in a whisper of amazement. Four people were walking down the ramp, the last ones to exit off the vehicle. The teenage girl with chestnut-colored hair who rode in on the Revenant came around the truck and walked up to the other four young people who she started talking to.
Joker whistled and shook his head. "You should have seen them in action. I couldn't believe my eyes."
Franky glanced at the men next to him again, wondering if they were messing with him or something. They seriously appeared to be in awe though, so he gazed back at the group of mostly teenagers. The oldest one among them had pure white hair with long bangs that partially covered his face, he had pale white skin and wore black over his entire body. He had on a baggy black t-shirt and shorts, but under them wore long-sleeved tight black under-armor pressed tight to his skin. That man looked towards Franky when he spotted the cyborg staring, and he made a small motion with his head towards the larger man. His comrades stopped talking and followed his look over to the cyborg.
The five of them stared for a few seconds at the man who had giant red spheres for shoulders, blocky light-blue forearms, and large pink and red metal hands. His legs had silver steel casings over them, and his large chest and stomach had parallel lines of stitching going from under his red speedo all the way up to the sides of his head. Other than his speedo, all Franky wore was a red Hawaiian shirt than looked impossible to get on over those huge red shoulders of his. He was a strange sight for anyone to see, and the five stared at him cautiously as he lifted a finger up to the steel triangular-nose on his head that he pressed in like a button. Three seconds passed, and then the pirate's flat bright blue hair style popped up into an afro over his head.
A girl in a red cape with dark hair dropped her jaw and her eyes turned into stars. A blond teenage boy lowered his bottom lip a little, then he mouthed the words, 'That's so cool.' The oldest of the group with white hair who motioned at him in the first place did not look amused, though he did appear to relax a little. Both of the others sweatdropped, though the younger boy with white hair that was wavier than his comrade's did smile at the cyborg's friendly gesture, while the girl with chestnut-brown hair just scratched the side of her head confusedly. Another member of their group who was standing on top of the truck, though Franky could not see him, dropped down and landed next to his comrades. Franky rubbed his eyes when he saw the others look towards that spot, and a blurry figure came into sight after a few seconds.
Sara Lance came around the back of the truck as the members of Alpha Squad all stared at the colorful cyborg near them. "The Commander's busy with all the new people you just brought back, good work on that by the way," Sara told the members of Alpha as she walked past them. She looked to Franky, then back at Alpha Squad, "There are some people he thinks you should meet though." She turned back to Franky again, "Let's get your friends together, I'm sure these guys want to meet the man who killed the Fire Lord." Each member of Alpha Squad spun to Sara in surprise, then turned back to Franky with wider eyes as they realized who he was.
Franky threw his arms up in the air in his signature pose, yelling, "YOW! Follow me!" He started walking away, but the excited smile on his face vanished after a second and he sweatdropped. He remembered the last he saw of Natsu earlier, and he chuckled to himself thinking of where the Dragon Slayer went off to. I'm sure it'll be fine.
"Mick, what did you do?" Sara questioned while shaking her head, rubbing her forehead and groaning.
"He thought he could go shot for shot with me!" Mick Rory shouted.
"I, urp, tot-ally can!" Natsu shouted back, lifting his head off the round table in front of him.
Sanji grabbed Natsu by the back of his shirt and lifted the pink-haired man out of his seat. "Oi, what're, what- are you doing?" Natsu mumbled.
Lincoln Burrows sat next to his good friend Mick and the two started laughing loudly together as Natsu stumbled forward even with Sanji trying to help him. "Fire guy!" The two men who looked oddly similar to each other both shouted together before laughing some more.
"Yeah!" Natsu shouted back, throwing his arms up in the air too, then burping again.
"Never seen him get this drunk on the Sunny before," Franky admitted as he stood near the entrance of the bar with Usopp. "Never really seen him that drunk at all actually," the cyborg added with a laugh.
"This is so embarrassing," Usopp mumbled, glancing back out into the open area outside of the bar every couple of seconds to see the group of people standing there waiting patiently for them.
"Well," Sara began as she walked out of the bar, trailed by the pirates and their very drunk friend. "I can't find one of them, but these are the other members of that group who are here right now."
What group would "that" be? Usopp thought. Are they supposed to understand that from only- oh, guess they are.
The others standing in a line past Sara and staring at the four members of "that" group all stared towards Natsu in confusion and surprise. "Sorry about this," Sara added. "One of my squad members got Natsu Dragneel drunk."
"Hey! I got drunk myself, thank you!" Natsu corrected in an annoyed tone. He did not like this change in mood from the great time he was having with those two guys at the bar who looked strangely similar to each other. Everyone started staring at him even more after he shouted that, and Natsu growled in aggravation, "What?" He looked back and forth along the line of people standing in front of him, "Who are you supposed to be?"
"Natsu! Don't you dare talk to those ladies in such a disrespectful way," Sanji warned, and Natsu rolled his eyes super-dramatically at the response he was not at all surprised about. The fact that even drunk Natsu found it ridiculous made Franky and Usopp crack big grins, but Sanji just growled even more annoyed at Natsu's attitude.
"It's alright," the bubbly girl with choppy black hair that turned red near the tips around her shoulders said. She wore a black combat skirt, gloves, and boots, and she had a red long-sleeved shirt on made of very strong material, as well as red pants, and a red cape that was ripped and raggedy at the bottom. She stepped forward and said, "I'll go first. My name's Ruby Rose!"
Sanji's eyes turned to hearts and he clasped his hands together in front of himself excitedly. Usopp noticed a strap going diagonally across her body over her stomach and around her back with a bunch of large white bullets tucked into it. On her back above the strap was a strange red weapon that looked folded up so he could not get a good idea as to what it was, though from the bullets on the strap he figured it was a gun of some sort. The seventeen year old girl eased back a little at Sanji's look, but she smiled when Franky yelled out, "Nice to meet ya' little lady! Don't think I've met anyone with silver eyes before."
"Nice to meet you too, large robot man!" Ruby replied excitedly. "I've also never met someone who could make their hair into an afro by pressing on their nose!"
"Yeah, I don't think any of us have," the boy who stood next to Ruby on their line added. He stepped forward next, a sixteen year old with wavy white hair and large muscles that were very noticeable under his black clothes and white armor. He had on a steel chest-plate, shoulder guards, and strong white boots, as well as two white sheaths on his sides with different size blades inside them. The red-eyed boy smiled at the people in front of him and said, "I'm Bell Cranel."
Natsu stared at the boy in his red eyes for a few seconds, then he turned his head left and looked at Sanji. "Who are these people?" Natsu asked, totally confused as to what was going on right now.
Bell sweatdropped at the question after he just introduced himself. He laughed it off though as Sanji growled at him a quick explanation of why they were meeting each other. "Alpha Squad?" Natsu repeated, turning back to the group in front of him. "The strongest squad in the Resistance?" His tone lifted up at the end there, and a few of the people who had yet to introduce themselves got bad feelings in their guts.
"Natsu," Sanji warned.
"Wait," Usopp began.
Sara looked at the pirates with a growing look of anxiety on her face. "What are you talking about?"
"Why don't we," Natsu began, while spreading his legs out to his sides, curling his mouth into a smile, and blowing smoke out of his nose. "Put that name to a test?!" He suggested in a shout.
"He's not serious, is he, Ken?" Bell questioned the other white haired man on his left.
Ken Kaneki frowned at the smoking mage in front of them. I heard that two of "that" group got in a disastrous fight just north of Sasuke's base solely to see who was stronger. "Not while we're inside. There isn't enough space," Kaneki explained to the Dragon Slayer who looked around and nodded slowly as if he understood that that made sense. Most of the others looked at Kaneki in surprise, wondering why he was humoring Natsu at all, while really he just thought it would be the quickest way to defuse the situation. He was not denying Natsu's challenge, while also not scolding him like the others for even suggesting it in the first place, and he made sure not to treat it like a joke considering he could see Natsu would have started fighting at any second if someone gave him reason to.
Natsu felt semi-satisfied by the twenty-one year old's response, but he started frowning after he accepted it. This place is boring! I thought they were bringing us to the front lines this morning, but all we've done is sit here all day! Only Riku- Natsu looked left and right, then he turned to Sanji and whispered with a hand cupped to his mouth as if it were a secret. "Where's Riku?" He did not ask nearly as quietly as he thought he did, and the others around him also glanced around for the silver haired man.
Sanji's expression darkened for a second, and he darted his eyes up to Usopp who would not meet his gaze and looked back towards Alpha Squad instead. Sara was looking around for Riku in their vicinity, wondering if that creepy young man would walk out of the shadows or something, but Franky caught Sanji's expression when he glanced the chef's way. Did something happen?
Another man with the Alpha Squad stepped forward from where he was leaning against a wall across the area from the entrance to the basement bar. "These are the people who brought Son Goku back to Aebrith?" He asked, not looking impressed. He was taller than the rest of his comrades, wore a black kimono with a white belt around his waist, and had a white bandanna around his forehead. He also had long, dark red hair that was tied back into a spiky ponytail. Abarai Renji had black tattoos on either side of a protruding widow's peak on his forehead that ended under his bandanna, and he had similar tattoo lines on the sides of his light-skinned neck.
When Natsu looked at this man, he found himself staring extra long at the hakama the man was wearing and the blade at his side. I've seen someone dressed like this before. That guy me and Gray fought in Metropolis! What'd Gray call him? "Ah!" Natsu snapped his right arm up and pointed at the guy in front of him like he had a realization. "You're a shittygami!"
While Renji gawked at Natsu, most of his squad started giggling or laughing at what Natsu just called him. "Shinigami," Renji growled a correction. He's seriously getting on my nerves.
Usopp did not like the look the shinigami was giving Natsu, especially since he did not even notice that man standing in the room until he spoke up about them being with Goku a few seconds ago. He turned quickly to the younger man next to him with blond hair that spiked down on all sides of his head. "And, who are you?" Usopp asked the guy. The nineteen year old had a set of large white headphones resting over his shoulders, he had on a dark blue tank-top, dark green pants, and wore a pair of black shoes. He had two black bracelets on his wrists, though the one on his right wrist was partially hidden by the silver Power Blocker he was wearing over it.
The purple-eyed teen had his hands in his pockets as he looked Usopp up and down. "I'm the reason this base hasn't gone back underground," he replied. Usopp looked at him confusedly, then he realized it himself that he never felt the Resistance base drop back under the sand. Won't enemies find us though?
"As if, Izayoi," the shorter girl next to him retorted. "It's clearly because I'm here," she said in a cocky tone and crossed her arms over her small chest. The sixteen year old girl looked over at the strange group of four in front of her. "Misaka Mikoto," she greeted them. She turned straight to Natsu, and looking into his eyes she asked, "So, did you really beat Sozin?"
Natsu wanted to brag, but what those two just said repeated in his mind a few more times. "Why wouldn't, aren't we going back below, the desert?" Natsu asked.
"Because," Izayoi Sakamaki began, grinning at the mage. "If I'm here, there isn't anything to worry about-"
"Actually," Renji corrected. "It's because with Alpha Squad here, even if we are down two members, we wouldn't mind if enemies attacked us right now. It would be a good opportunity to destroy some of the enemy numbers."
"Three," Ruby suddenly said. Renji looked towards the girl in confusion, and Ruby looked back up into his eyes. "We are down three members. You're forgetting someone," she said in a scolding tone, and Renji got a bead of sweat on the side of his face at the sound of it.
"Uh, oh yeah," Renji muttered, realizing what she was talking about and scratching the side of his head. "We're down three members," he corrected himself from before.
"But what you see here is most of Alpha Squad," Bell finished, smiling at the people in front of him. "We've heard all about you guys over the past month. I hope we can help each other out, and watch each other's backs, in the wars to come."
A/N Thanks for reading! A lot happened this chapter despite it's rather short length. 10k I guess I imagine as short nowadays. XD Anyway, some dark stuff happens this chapter, evened out with just as much humor I think. Definitely dark with Riku's conversation with Sara and Gaara, followed by him finally losing it on Usopp as the passive agreesiveness turns into something else after Riku descends even deeper... well, he might have control over Ansem now, but he's allowing himself to use the darkness more than ever. We'll see if he's right to be using it, or if maybe he should be listening to Usopp... well, definitely not all that Usopp said, of course. :( That was a tense scene. Which is why it was even tougher showing a bunch of POWs right after and a reference I made to Band of Brothers in the scene where the concentration camps are freed and the prisoners couldn't get any more food and had to stay put, really sad stuff. That happened in the real world and back in Charlie's world... Charlie's my favorite character from probably my favorite tv show of all-time, so despite all the stuff that happened this chapter, I called it Charlie for him. Now on to the humor! Alpha Squad is a fun team still with 3 more members we have yet to see! Bell Cranel, Ruby Rose, Izayoi Sakamaki, Ken Kaneki, Misaka Mikoto, and Abarai Renji! I wonder if you guys can guess who those members are?! Also, I wonder if any of you have watched the show Prison Break, as well as Legends of Tomorrow? Because Captain Cold and Heat Wave from one show, are played by the same actors as the brothers Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows who try to break out of prison in the other. Their actors act in a lot together apparently, and we see that Snart and Michael are good friends just like Mick Rory and Linc' who got drunk with Natsu... Anyway, hope ya' enjoyed the chapter! List below, and 'til next time!
Prison Break: Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows
Mass Effect: Shepard, Kaidan, Joker (Jeff Moreau)
To Aru Series: Misaka Mikoto
Danmachi: Bell Cranel
Blech: Renji
Problem Children Are Coming From Another World: Izayoi
Tokyo Ghoul: Ken Kaneki
RWBY: Ruby Rose
Legends of Tomorrow: Sara, Snart, Rory
Fairy Tail: Natsu
Avatar TLA: Sozin
One Piece: Usopp, Sanji, Franky
Kingdom Hearts: Riku
Naruto: Gaara
Hitman Reborn: Mosca, Spanner
LOST: Charlie Pace :)