Where Are We Now? Chapter 11
3.7k words. 18+ only. Linked on Masterlist
Note: Everyone in this story is 18+ except for Rudo. Enjoy!
As you and Zanka crawled out from your temporary home, you both put on your gas masks and your full faces, connecting your oxygen tube to your mask, getting ready to start some shit.
After being helped out of the hole you were trapped in, you were greeted in a group hug by the supports, with Gris squeezing you all in one of his notorious death grips, making Zanka turn purple. Tomme checked both you and Zanka for any injuries that she could treat while Follo cried tears of joy at your survival and return. Follo asked you both tons of questions about what happened while being trapped as Gris radioed with Enjin to update him on your current situation. Some questions you answered, others you dodged, and Zanka just completely prioritized the cleaning ahead, sticking close with Gris and Tomme.
Zanka’s normal demeanor returned, his stoic yet bratty attitude resuming once more. You were in a battlefield of emotions: horny from Zanka teasing you, happy to be reunited and freed, reminiscing on everything that happened in that cave, scared to potentially die yet excited for the battle. However, now was the time to lock the fuck in, because you needed to settle the score with those trash beasts. It’s comeback season.
Gris, Tomme, and Zanka were walking ahead of you, probably going over the logistics of the mission, everyone's locations, the plan, etc. You and Follo were in the back, and he was kinda giving a brief overview of what you missed while you were gone.
“...and then Enjin lost his shit and dropped his blunt,” Follo recounted, followed by your laughter.
“Did Rudo really do that?” you asked, readjusting your mask.
“Yeah, but what I really wanna know… is what happened while you were away.” Follo smirked, giving you the worst side eye imaginable.
Oh shit. Your cheeks started to get hot and flushed, and you coughed on your saliva as your thoughts faltered.
“Well—uhh, what do you wanna know?” you asked, to which Follo turned to you with a questionable look on his face. You could feel the confusion and curiosity radiating from under his mask.
“I wanna know what happened, Y/N. Why are you acting all flustered? Did something happen?”
“I was trapped with Zanka for however many hours; of course things happened. That’s what happens over time. Things happen," you said, words nervously blabbering out of your mouth to disguise your experiences with the cleaner ahead of you.
“Mhm,” Follo nodded. He was one of the first friends you made when you arrived at HQ two years ago, so you and him had gotten close. He knew your secrets, including your crush on Zanka, and you knew things about him too. He tried to play devil's advocate when he could, nudging Zanka to make a move on you, but Zanka always shot it down, saying he didn’t have time for a relationship, that you were annoying, and that he'd rather be eaten by a trashbeast then have a crush on you. Little did you and Follo know that Zanka felt the same way; Zanka just wanted to do things on his own.
But Follo always suspected that Zanka liked you; he just didn’t want to get your hopes up or get in the middle of everything. And he wasn’t in the mood to run from Zanka’s staff.
“Y/N, did something happen between you and Zanka?” Follo whispered, with a hint of smugness and curiosity.
You immediately stopped in your tracks, your brain glitching out like when someone interrupts August while he works. Your heart rate increased, your palms got sweaty, and the butterflies started to awaken.
“What?” NO, of course not! Why would anything happen?” you stammered.
Follo knew you too well and has seen how you get when you’re nervous. And you weren’t too good at hiding your feelings for Zanka. Or lying about Zanka. Or anything that has to do with Zanka. You have gone to Follo multiple times after missions to rant about something Zanka said or did that was hot, and Follo had to be the first victim of your swooning every time.
“Y/N, I know how you get,” Follo said. “Something did happen, so spill. You know I won’t say anything.”
You looked up ahead to the three in front of you, and it seemed like they were too invested into fancy mission stuff to notice the two of you talking about what happened. So why not? You knew Follo was loyal. Besides, he could maybe give you some ideas or help you get away from the mission recon later.
“So… stuff did happen.”
“I knew it. Give me the lowdown, Y/N.”
So you did, the full recounting of your time alone with Zanka. And Follo was definitely not ready for the later sections of what happened. He yelled so loud at one point that you grabbed his oxygen tube to cut off his air, and he gasped loud enough to get Gris’ attention. You just said his oxygen tank was acting up, but you fixed it, and that covered you guys for the time being.
“Wow,” Follo sighed, shocked that so much had happened in such a short amount of time. And at the fact that Zanka knew how to make a move.
“But you can’t say anything or Zanka is gonna kill you and then me," you reminded him sternly.
“You don’t think I know that?” Follo said, raising his voice slightly in annoyance. “Of course I won’t. He scares me a bit when he’s mad.”
“But what do you think?”
“Of what? The fact you both like each other, the fact you’re hiding this from everyone, or the fact you made out and then he teased you from behind—”
“FOLLO SHUT UP!” you whispered, raising your voice slightly and shoving him to cut off his words. Follo just laughed, knowing he was getting under your skin.
“Oh hush,” Follo chuckled. “Firstly, yes, I’m happy for you both. Second, I’ll stay quiet. T–”
"Thanks, Follo,” you smiled.
“I wasn’t done yet,” Follo shushed you. “Third, how badly do you want to get out of the mission debrief when we get back to HQ to fuck Zanka?”
The heat on your face was rising at an exponential rate; you thought steam was seeping through your mask. Follo could not hold in his laughter, having to turn around to “fake check” his oxygen tank.
“Follo, you are an ass," you said through your teeth.
“It’s backwards. Do you want me to help you guys or no?”
“... yes," you sighed, silently admitting defeat.
“Great. Here’s the plan.”
Follo explained his idea, involving you fake fainting, and him and Zanka returning you to your room. It seemed like a perfect strategy, but in your head there was one flaw.
“Follo, how do we get out of going to the infirmary?”
The supporter paused momentarily, the wheels in his brain turning to formulate a new idea.
“You and Zanka aren’t majorly injured, right?”
“No?”
“So, I’ll just get Eisha to patch you both up once we literally get out of the car, and I’ll tell her that you and Zanka aren’t going to the infirmary. I’ll make up some random reason that makes sense, piece of cake.”
If your eyes weren’t under your full face, the glare Follo would’ve received would be layered with daggers.
“Follo,” you sighed, running your hands through your hair. “How are you gonna pull that off? Semiu can literally see everything and knows everything.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get Riyo on board; you know she’s down for anything. Besides, you can heal yourself with your vital instrument, right? You can heal Zanka, maybe make your cards act as you and Zanka while you're gone, and sneak to your bed!”
You stopped in your tracks once again, smacking yourself in the head for not thinking of this yourself. Follo was making better use of your vital instrument than you were, and you felt like an idiot.
Now a new plan was coming together. You and Follo’s eyes met, and oh yeah, it was all coming together.
As you two discussed and finalized the new version of your plan, Zanka, Gris, and Tomme stopped in their tracks at the sight before them. You and Follo were so distracted that you both walked into the trio in front of you, and you get why they froze and didn’t say a word.
Looking up, you saw why nobody could move.
Gigantic, monstrous trash beasts, maybe 10? 14? 20? Who knows. At the highest point of the town. And the rest of the cleaners fighting them. You could barely keep your feet steady as the ground trembled, clinging on to the nearest person, which happened to be Zanka. He slammed Assistaff into the ground to keep you and himself stable. The supporters moved to the nearest rubble to hold themselves.
As you looked through the falling debris and dust, a cascade of colors adorned the sky in a bright display, like the fireworks Remlin used in Canvastown. Each hue in the air revealed who was where, rainbows clashing and colliding with the shadows of the monsters they were fighting against.
Enjin was taking out 2 at once using his faithful Umbreaker to float in the air and come crashing down. Riyo and Rudo were working together to take down another two, coordinating their attacks together and synchronizing their movements. Tamsy was tying down another 3 trash beasts as more and more unending and infinite thread flowed from his vital instrument. Delman was near his teammate, using his hose to make the tied-up trashbeats explode and injure others nearby. Even Team Child was here, with Dear and Bro Santa teaming up per usual and Kaiju Guita having a boxing match with another.
“I didn’t know everyone’d show up,” Zanka said, staring at the battle.
“Neither did I,” you added.
“Well, Enjin and Rudo said that we should,” Tomme said. “They were worried about you guys, and everyone wanted to help.”
“Now’s not the time for this, we need to get to work,” Gris interrupted.
On cue, a trashbeast was eyeing you guys down, as if it were seeing its next meal. It started to make a dash towards you, its long limbs racing to be first. Their steps made the ground shake and the surrounding buildings quake and crumble. Its jaw widened at the sight of five measly humans standing right there, a tantalizing entree all seasoned and ready to be eaten.
You and Zanka were the first to react to the charging trashbeast, jumping to opposing sides and getting in battle stances to counter while the supporters waited for the moment to intercept. Zanka used Assistaff to climb up debris and launch himself into the air, piercing the spikes on the top into the neck of the trashbeast and riding it like a cowboy. You were dealing yourself cards with your jinki and gave yourself a 2, 5, and 10. A hand of 17, meaning you dealt yourself a knight, an archer, and a bomber. As each one manifested, different hues of light shone for them, making them all the more individualized.
Your knight ran towards the supports to help immobilize the trashbeast in its tracks. The archer shielded you from any other attacks while also firing at the trashbeast to help slow it down. The bomber ran straight for the trash beast, like an idiot, its hand grasping at the pin on its neck, waiting to pull it to explode. Also because your bomber, dubbed Grenade, is an idiot.
At the right moment, Grenade pulled the pin, and poof. The force of the explosion sent everyone back a couple of feet and Zanka onto the roof of a nearby building. Debris and trash scattered everywhere while the knight protected the supports and the archer covered you. Thankfully, you and the supports didn’t get hurt, but now the problem is that Zanka was missing and potentially hurt.
“ZANKA!!” Gris shouted. “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”
Gris’s voice echoed for a few seconds, reverberated off the walls of destroyed buildings, and faded into the background.
“I’M FINE, JUST KEEP GOING.”
Your archer pointed to one of the buildings down the blown-up street to see Zanka yelling from the rooftop, not appearing to be injured in the slightest. You sighed to yourself in relief, grateful that he didn’t die yet. And that he was still around for later.
There wasn’t much time to settle as more trashbeasts closed in on you, probably triggered by the noise of Grenades explosion. A mixture of oil and gasoline dripped from their mouths, as if they were salivating at the sight of their next meal. They roared in anticipation, and rushed towards your group in a frenzy.
The noise, the vibrations, and the chaos were so overwhelming, you barely had time to process the situation. Today wasn’t a normal cleaning. This was a whole barrage of trashbeasts. You weren’t used to a whole barrage. This was a lot for you; your mind was flying all over the place with emotions and thoughts of panic. Your hands shook with the ground as you tried to give yourself a new hand of cards, the rumbling and your nerves getting the best of you. You didn’t want to run away, but you didn’t want to stay here and risk dying. God, this sucks so hard.
“Does someone need a low-taper fade or what?”
Suddenly a flash of neon green light refracted from the side of a window, cueing your eyes as to who exactly was causing a commotion. A smile formed on your lips as Riyo took out one of the trashbeasts nearing the supports, slashing Ripper through its skull. The shockwave from Ripper's impact rippled across the ground, and the trash from the once-alive trash beast collapsed into giant piles.
“Riyo!” Tomme smiled.
“Good timing,” Gris sighed with relief. “How are the others doing?”
“Well,” Riyo began, but she didn’t have much time before the others made a scene of their own.
As the other cleaners took down their respective trashbeast, they made a showing as they always do. ESPECIALLY Enjin. You could barely keep up with who was doing what, where they were, or how they took down the trashbeast, but they always left you in awe of their capabilities.
After looking around, you finally found Zanka atop the trashbeast that Riyo took out, standing all mighty like a king on top of his throne. Out of the woodwork, a scorpian-like trashbeast appeared, slithering through its brethren's fading remains. Once it locked eyes on Zanka, it let out a vicious roar, one that could almost be translated as vengeful. But Zanka just stood there, as nonchalant as ever.
“Yo, ya know that wasn’t me, right?” Zanka asked as the trashbeast came running towards him. Zanka was as light as ever on his feet, leaping backwards through the air, using Assistaff to catapult himself from building to building till he ended up on a different roof.
The trashbeast and Zanka stood facing one another, like a western standoff. Debris filled the air and masked their bodies, leaving only the shadow of their torsos as the only marks of their presences. Waiting to see who would make the first move. The trashbeast took the initiative, opening its mouth to swallow Zanka in one bite. But Zanka leapt up and wedged Assistaff between its jaws, the veins in his hands becoming more prominent with the more force he used, splitting the trashbeasts head like an ax splitting wood. Holy fuck that was hot.
Rudo, however, was seeming to have trouble taking down his giraffe-like trashbeast. He was using a mini trampoline (no idea how he managed to carry that thing around) as his item, but he wasn’t… jumping on it right? His knees kept buckling for some reason, as if he were trying to focus on being stable rather than letting it launch him.
“Do I really have to give you a lesson right now?”
As you looked up to the building Zanka was previously on, the building itself wasn’t even there; it was now a pile of rubble. As your eyes scanned the area to find him, you saw wisps of dust and something rocketing out off them: Zanka. He jumped towards the trampoline Rudo was using and yelled at Rudo midair to move before he squashed him.
Just in time, Rudo dodged Zanka's impact and yelled curses at him as Zanka thrashed into the air towards the trashbeast. The beast’s neck was the perfect landing strip for Zanka's attack. Zanka landed on it and ran along the side, using the rotational force of the beast to keep himself from falling. The trashbeast wasn’t going down easy, though; it sprung up metal spikes along its neck to try to pierce Zanka as he ran up, making Zanka look like a fly trying to navigate through a cactus.
At one point, you turned your head to look towards the others to see their progress with the remaining herd. It seemed like they were doing well, but maybe they could use extra help. Digging through your pockets, you pulled out your next hand: a Jack and a 6. Immediately, you felt heavy breathing behind you. Oh fuck.
As you slowly turned your head to see what the breathing was coming from, just a slight glimpse told you what it was.
A trashbeast was right behind you. One that looked like a huntsman spider. It had probably been hiding underground the whole time and was waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting target. That target being you.
Instinctually, you jumped forward into the fray of the battle to increase the distance between you and the trashbeast. As you did, your jack and another bomber handled the trashbeast, crushing its head into a million pieces. You sighed and dismissed your two cards, prepping to get your next hand ready.
Just as you thought you could turn your back and help your team, you heard little clamors of metal scattering across the floor. A swarm of pests erupted from the demolished head of, you assumed, the mother spider. As the whole horde of mini spider beasts started running towards you, you dealt yourself the next hand. Two threes. You could split the deck.
Another rule in blackjack is if you get two of the same card as your starting hand, you can split them and play two hands at once. Of course, that means your bet has to account for two hands, meaning if you bust on one hand, you take double the damage as a rule. The higher the risk, the more reward, so why not gamble a bit?
You split your deck as planned and started to hand yourself more cards as you ran across the battlefield, looking for supports to try to help them. A two and a nine for the first hand, adding up to 14. You just needed a seven or lower, and you would be safe. You prayed to yourself as the next card flipped… a four for a total of eighteen!
Your first of the split hand emerged from their cards: three knights and another bomber. You called out to them and told them to go protect Tomme and back up Follo, and they saluted as they ran to aid the fellow cleaners.
Now for the second of the split hands. You flipped the next card, and a king of hearts popped up, adding to a total of 13. If you got a 9 or higher, you would bust, but an 8 would give you blackjack… And blackjack is a spectacular thing to get. As you ran through the attacks of numerous trashbeasts and cleaners, trying to get the mini spiders crushed through the chaos, you turned over the next card and saw an ace, making the total now fourteen just like the other hand. The more cards you deal in one hand, the higher the likelihood of you busting over 21. Let's just hope whoever is watching over you wants the best for you.
The next card was an 8… totaling 22. Oh no.
Whenever you bust, it takes away a certain amount of health points depending on what cards were drawn for that hand. Your health is represented in points on a bar, kind of like the health bar on a card game. All the other stats of the cards, including their own health, the number of cards left in your hand, and other information, were displayed in a virtual mental visualization only you could see.
As your physical capabilities have gotten better over the last two years, your health bar has grown too. Whenever your Royal Hand activates, you start with a set amount; today that was 45,000. But dealing cards, counting cards, strategizing, and running around takes a toll on your body, wearing away at your HP. Before busting, your HP was around 38,000 from all the running and dealing of other hands.
Whenever you bust, 5,000 HP is taken from you. So normally, you’d be at 33,000. However, because you played a split hand, and it’s pretty much a double wager, 10,000 HP is taken total. Leaving you currently with 28,000 HP.
That wasn’t good. At all.
Oh, also, whenever you bust, the cards in your dealt hand become void.
Having half of your HP lost already, and you only played 3 hands. Not to mention the fact you lost an ace and a king, two very valuable cards. Talk about some rotten luck.
There was no time to get frustrated at your bad hand as a giant, almost boa constrictor-like trashbeast began to lunge at you. Seemingly from nowhere. Adrenaline raced through your blood stream, but your body froze in fear. Paralyzed as the trashbeasts' fangs got closer and closer, and the snakelike hissing filled your eardrums. All you could do was close your eyes, unsure if someone would come to save you or if you would be left for dead.