promuseboxing | (no subject)

Church and Carolina had been back in Armonia for a couple hours now, most of it spent in a debrief with Kimball about the recon they’d managed to do on Charon and their bases on some of the outer regions of Chorus. Long enough for word to spread that they were back but not nearly enough time for anyone to send word that some weird shit had kicked off.

Again.

Epsilon hasn’t had a chance to insinuate himself into the security systems of Armonia again just yet. They just got off a mission after all and he wants to relax and maybe go harass the idiot brigade before he gets down to the business of mapping out the new areas that they’ll have to investigate. He’s ignored the messages from Caboose that sends because they don’t make any sense. Something about Church being taller again. Usual Caboose shit that he’ll sort through later.

“I’m just saying, what if we just put one kick me sign on Wash? It’s an experiment to see if anyone is brave or stupid enough to kick a freelancer.” Epsilon says, in hologram form as Carolina crosses the courtyard outside of the barracks.

“No, Church, we’re not doing that.” She says, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, come on!”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Church assumed that the next thing he'd have to be concerned about was more bullets, but instead something other really fucking weird thing happens. The environment around him seems to...not disappear, but shift away, and it's suddenly eerily empty. And he...can't fucking move. What?? Fuck???

And then he starts hearing Caboose humming elevator music.

So when Church registers an incoming signal — he assumes this is some ghost shit, unaware that he's tapping into it more intuitively as a not-ghost — he takes the opportunity to, figuratively speaking, grab hold of the receiver and scream, "What the fuck?" at top screechy volume.

Once Epsilon has the signal confirmation that the armor is in lockdown mode he gives Carolina the all clear to come out of cover. Time moves so differently, the various levels of his consciousness dealing with the real time conversation with his sister at the same time he's tapping Delta to analyze the make of the armor that was used against them. He's good at multitasking, keeping track of everything and trying to find the safest path forward.

Except the carefully orchestrated organization of his subroutines falls apart when a counter signal cuts through every firewall and security setting he has and blasts him with a wall of feedback. It feels like it lasts forever but it happens on the scale of microseconds.

One moment Carolina is stepping towards the blue armored soldier and then next she's assaulted with a rainbow of lights and the sound of Epsilon yelling "FUCKFUCKFUCK--" while she rips off her helmet to escape the noise.

And in the background, Alpha's overriding signal unlocks his armor.

Church is very suddenly no longer in that weirdly empty landscape, but back to what he assumes is actual reality, because Carolina's down and her helmet is on the ground. He has no idea what the fuck he just did, but whatever it was, it worked, so fuck it. Time to scramble out of cover and sprint for that helmet while Carolina's distracted.

This is, on just a split second's reflection, one of the stupidest things he's ever done, but 1) he's pissed off, and 2) when has that ever stopped anyone on Blue Team.