Interval One: Train Wreck (P1)

Shadow Operatives

We work within the shadows, to protect those under the sun. We stand in the dark, fore we cannot lay in the light. And while the moon can provide something that warms us with hope, in actuality the cold fear is our only radiance.

---

The bridge is collapsing, the building is on fire. The underground is completely caved in, people are running in a panic. Babies crying. Children screaming. Girls shrieking. Boys cursing. Adults bleeding. Law officials confused to where to even start. Chaos. Just utter chaos.

And just who is to blame for this pure rattling havoc?

Yeah. We’re uh, still trying to figure that out, ourselves.

Amongst the yelling over each other, pointing fingers at someone else when we’re pointed at. He mentally sighed to himself, deciding to look over the events himself of the train wreck himself.

And by saying train wreck. Literally, he meant it. The day was a fucking train wreck., complete with a train.

---

Twelve hours earlier, 3:14 PM. Goldenrod Central of Kogane’s District.

With a sigh, a tall brunette lass gave one final shove to her duffle bag that struggled to fit in the upper storage compartment. She kept one hand keeping it in, and the other readied to slam down the flap-door. Not wanting to spend anymore time dealing with her stubborn luggage. Once shut, she took her and slouched a bit in it, blowing out another sigh.


[Hi, yes, yeah, so, uh, that’s me. Right there, sitting, slouching because blah with posture. No, no, not the blonde. The one with insanely curly brown hair, yeah. I did that to make a good first impression… and impression I never got to make. Since well… hhhh, I got kidnapped and held hostage by the world’s most unstable Sapimons to ever to exist.

Oh, what are Sapimons? Err… Pokémons that were born with a humanoid body first. Oppose to Ketals, who were born with animalistic bodies first… you have this confused look on your face, you have no idea what I’m talking about, right? Err… ok, yeah. I should’ve started in the beginning, huh?

So, this is a world of Pokémon Gijinka! Everyone in this world is a Pokémon. Even if they look human, you should look again. Take me for example, see my ears? Right below my horns? My bushy neck leaves? Yeah, definitely not human. I am a Skiddo, which makes me sort of foreign… even if I was born here in Johto.

Right right, anyways. Right now I’m currently taking a train ride to Ecruteak, I first have to pass through the Kogane District. I’m starting on my collage courses, and well, my life! Since after all… I’ll be living on my own for the first time ever. With a roommate of course, just, well, it’s not the same when your old housemantes were your parents. Oh well, at least I was supposed to start my own life, that didn’t really pan out…

Uum… instead of just explaining what I mean, let me just show you, ok?

Here, you’ll witness. The very start of the worse day in my entire life.

Hehe… at least, that’s how it felt like at the time. My name is Hanaki Shira, and this is how my story begins.]


The brunette looked out the window, hoping to set her mind at ease. There was a gushing of air, just before the train started to move. She was instantly reminded that there is no turning back. This was happening. She was going to start living on her own, make choices without considering the reactions of her parents. She would have to make her own adult-like decisions. Ones she was shielded from before, due to young age.

The sudden derailing of thought, make the lass’s stomach lurch. The motion of the train was doing very little to help. In fact, the tell tale of sickening swirls in her stomach made her sigh out. The blurring scenery of trees and sunlight was just urging the nauseous on. The grass type Sapimon shook her head a bit, trying to think on the bright side of things.

Sure, she was nervous about the whole situation, but that was natural right? Moving away to another district--the Capital no less--far from home. Even if the map says it’s like, two blinks away. It’s countries away for her, ok? Her second main emotion was mainly eagerness. She was excited this was happening. Even if her body language appealed otherwise. Without noticing it, she sniffed.

Of course there was a lot of things to look forward too. She got all the classes and courses she aimed for, at a desirable hours too. Her background allowed her to enter the advance classes as well. She had a room waiting for her at a dorm where she would share with strangers, yes, but two friends. And according to them, there was going to be a few friendly faces as well. The brunette sniffed hard.

She wouldn’t go as far as to say she was perfectly balanced between nervous and eager. The nauseous seemed to overpower all good thoughts, very quickly. It was becoming tiresome to keep up the good momentum. So yeah, she wasn’t surprised by the headache coming from the back of her mind, towards her forehead. She sniffed again.

The tall curly haired brunette rolled her shoulders. Her arm came up, fingers ghostly touching the brown chocker, a lightly lime colored orb dangling right in the center. She wore a loose collar grey brown sweater with white capris. An camou jacket folded at the empty seat next to her. She sniffed again, her other hand pulling down her pants to prevent rising lines.

And sniffed again.

She became greatly aware of her constant sniffing. Was her nose wet?

Instinctively, her finger went to brush under her nose.

She’ll never understand why she looks at her finger, expecting something there. When she knows the only possible outcome would be the same as always. Blood. Of course. Nosebleed, what else would make her nose wet? What else could she possibly be expecting to see that was not hideously red?

The brunette would have sighed, if it wasn’t for the little factor that she was hemophobic.

A pulse went through her head that reached her eyes. Her vision had blurred up for a moment. Knowing what was coming next, the brunette hastily shot up, and swayed out of her seat. The walking movement feeling like she was on wheels as she clumsily made her way to the tiny door of the bathroom. She roughly stumbled in, barely putting her palms on the sink counter in time to stop herself from falling.

A wave of nauseous ripped through her stomach, it was only just a little glance. Why was this progressing so quickly? Feeling a tiny implode go off in the center of her skull, the brunette slammed the door shut before turning fully over the sink. She pushed all thought aside, deciding to focus on cleaning herself up before anymore glances can worsen the situation.

Ignoring the way her hands shook, and avoided looking at the mirror in front of her. She quickly tried to wash off the red before it dried. The again, it wouldn’t matter if she stopped the nosebleed, or get rid of the blood. She had already seen it. The headache gaining strength in it’s throb reminded her of this little fact.

The brunette would have been fine with enduring a headache and stomach pains for the rest of the train ride. But no, her nerves seemed to have taken advantage of this. A shiver went through her spine, numbing the bones it passed through. Staring at her lower spine, going strong to her knees. Ankle giving a sudden twinge of pain before her feet in general disconnected itself.

The sudden responsibility to carry her weight did not go well with her forearms, losing her grip on the tissues in hand. She didn’t have the time to realize she should sit herself down, as her knees buckled. Roughly hitting her chin against the sink’s counter. The impact sent numbing waves all the way to her fingertips. It made her understand how severe the episode was. “A..aghh…”

If she could just reach out and open the door, then maybe someone could help her. Perhaps share energy, get her back to her seat. Maybe even perform medical procedures because, damn, this is getting seriously serious. The energy it took to keep this line of thought was unfortunately, all the energy she had left.

And so, Shira fainted!

---

A single foot tapped repeatedly against the pillar it was behind. A raysin haired young lad fiddled with his headset, making sure it didn’t drag down his hoodie for when he moved. Though, he seemed more concern with hiding his head, than the headphones. The shades he wore covered any trace of eyes. And there was a speaking microphone lowered towards his chin. With his bangs covering his eyebrows, it was nearly impossible to tell. But the twitch of the head signaled he intensified his focus on something.

Following the line of sight, there stood a nervous looking lassie with sky blue highlights. Her fingers were nudging together, struggling to not lace up her usual antsy tick. jitterly, the lassie stepped out of the way of a formal woman. She kept her head down, her eyes jumpily glancing around. Seeing her suspicious behavior, the headset lad sighed with a hint of annoyance.

He pulled his hoodie forward, and brushed a free hand at his belt. {“Teh. What are you doing?“}

The highlights lassie jolted from the sudden voice. Her cyan cheeks seemed to have given off a flare of static. “H-hoeh..? Um.. Being in position..?”

There was a click of static coming from her earpiece. {“Because, that wasn’t suggestive at all.”} A flirty voice chimed in. Though it seemed he went unheard.

{“Yeah, suspiciously. Would you calm down, already? I need you, remember?”} The headset lad spoke through the mic. His voice was obviously annoyed but managed to keep a patient enough tone to keep a gentle vibe.

The highlight lassie jolted her body towards where the train was parked at. Workers were fixing it up, plastering posters, and switching the attendance. “R-right, need me.”

{“Need you for what?“} Headset asked, annoyance now gone.

Highlights took a deep exhale. “Need me to tell you if they’re in position.” She watched as the train’s door opened to let it’s passengers out, and receive new ones. She tugged on her light blue vest over her white shirt. Calming down all nerves, and looked up sneakily to do what she was needed to do.

A tiny in height lass with long lavender twin tails and made her way on the train’s ending rail. Without any regard to if she’s being seen, the twin tails casually hopped up to the fence and pulled herself up on top of the train.

Highlights nodded to herself. “Mothic is in position!” She whispered excitedly, all nerves completely vanished.

The headset lad gave a jerk nod and moved his head in a glance-like motion over to the doors that just opened. Amongst the crowd was a teen lad wearing a brown jacket and cap that smothered down his hair--covering his face in messy locks. This capped lad walked inside the train as one of it’s passengers. Though, he hovered near the doorway, as if unsure if he wants to remain there.

Headset gave a little exhale. “Blackout’s in position.” He leaned inwardly to himself. “How’s the LeLa doing?”


--


Twirling a bit to face back at his partner, a formally dressed lad smirked into his headset. “Well, I have bad news, and good news.” His flirty voice came, smiling brightly--despite there wasn’t a way to see each other through the mics. “Which do you want to hear first?”

{“Tch… bad.“} The headset lad replied through the mic, obviously dreading whatever was about to be said.

The formal lad smirked. “Bad news is; Player lost twenty poyen.” He looked over to the orange haired laddie was standing far too close to the computer screen. “Good news is; I just won twenty poyen.”

The headset lad sighed with even bigger annoyance. {“Would you take this seriously? We can’t afford not even the slightest mistake.”}

The formal lad rolled his eyes, a playful half grin still on his lips. “You say that every time. And every time, no mistakes are made.”

{“Because I keep reminding you to not make them..“}

“Oh come on, Hazard. You know that’s not why~” Before the formal lad could say more, his attention was grabbed by the orange haired lad getting sucked into the computer screen. He chuckled nervously, and turned back to his mic. “Lag is in position.”

{“How about you, Wing Haven?“}

The chuckle the lad gave retained it’s playfulness. He leaned against the door and adjusted his grey scarf with magnet endings. “I am always in position.”


--


{(The Kogane Lane, heading towards Opulent Division will be departing.)}

The headset lad looked up as the voice over the intercom talked. He looked over to highlights lassie, giving her a nod when she made eye contact. When he moved his sight over towards the rushing crowd of late arrivals, highlights gave a glance to the doors. Seeing the capped lad and twin tails boarding the train themselves.

She released a sigh of relief and made her way to the platform’s exit.

The headset waited for the lassie to disappear from the platform before brushing his hands against his belt. “Should we go over the heist?”

{“Jeez, Hazard. You’re so paranoid!“} Came a new high pitched voice. ‘Hazard’ rolled his eyes at her sound.

A sigh from a new, more mature sounding voice was heard over the line. {“We all know you won’t be at ease until we go over it one last time, head to hove. So you might as well~“}

A chuckle from the flirty voice came. {“I personally think it’s cute of him; being so paranoid and nervous.“}

With another eye/head roll, Hazard walked over to the exit on the opposite side. “Operation; Signal Fire. The pair ups this time around were assigned by our Sponsor; ‘Clockwise’. Mothic and Blackout; active roles.”


{“Mothic, your job is to count the passengers boarding the train. Once you board the train yourself, you are to plant the device.”}


The twin tails, dubbed as Mothic, steadily wlked through the carts. Barely moving her head as she looked over every passenger on there. A rechecking if her head count was right. She have zero acknowledgement to the Hazard’s voice. But still kept her earpiece on, and hidden underneath her lavender colored side burns. Her twin tails were straight, and had yellow clip decorations every few inches as they were almost as long as she was tall. Her knitted hat had two bull circles at the end hanging. Matching the striped mini dress she wore with worn out jeans. The only indicator that she did indeed, heard Hazard talking was the slight grip tighten of her pack.


{“Blackout, your job it count the passengers who didn’t leave the train. Zone out the conductors, then finally count the life forms before leaving as to make certain no one else remains on the train.”}


The capped lad dubbed as Blackout, cracked his neck. Making sure his messy bangs fell over his eyes, and covered up as much as his face as possible. To avoid anyone noticing the his eyes flaring up a bright gleaming red. As he entered another cart, he completely ignored the twin tails passing by him. He acknowledged her by pulling on his brown jeaned vest over his yellow sleeves. Most of his messy locks had covered the red circles on his cheeks, but as he walked the wind of his speed would often reveal them.


{“Lag and WingHaven, passive roles. The two of you are to break into the operating room. Lag is to hack into the core system to stop all stations from passing through this line. To alert the conductors to leave their post, to alert the passengers to clear the area.”}


The formally dressed man, dubbed as Winghaven, looked over to the computer monitors. Seeing several window close and open, and text scrolling in all directions at hyper speed. Along with different symbols being displayed rapidly, and over one another. He chuckled, still getting amazed at all that technology stuff he’ll never understand.

{“WingHaven, you are to take out the workers there, and guard the door. Make sure no one disturbs this process. Force is allowed if your barricade is broken.”}

Even though no one was there, no one conscious anyways, WingHaven waved off the order casually. “No worries on this side, I’ve got the stairs barricaded as well.” He said, tapping his foot against the wall he leaned against.


{“Stardew and Hazard, assisting roles. Stardew is to assure the positions and keep attention away from the actives. I must over hear all positions, to properly make certain all is right before setting off the device. After, us two will meet Mothic and Blackout at the rendezvous point.”}


The highlights lassie dubbed as Stardew tensed up as she made it out the platform and into the main lobby. She locked panicked eyes with a cool young lad who lingered at a small gift shop. She seized her body when he returned a cautious smirk, and tensely made her way out of the station.


{“Player is on solo role, you are to assist in any way possible with Lag and WingHaven’s break in and escape.”}


The cool young lad, dubbed as Player, smirked to himself. Lifting one leg higher than normal to twist his body around. His eyes watching the security guards chatting amongst themselves. “I’ll have to pay up that twenty some other time.”

{“As long as I get it at some point this lifetime. It’s all good~“}


Hazard frowned a bit, pausing in his expedition rundown. He was outside, the sun starting to set. “… Whisper, Cloud, you haven’t confirmed your positions.”

Dead silence from the radio station, no one chimed in. Half of the members such as WingHaven, Player and Blackout seemed unconcerned, a little bit bored actually. While the other half weren’t exactly paying any attention, such as Stardew, Mothic and Lag. Although Lag was currently inside a computer screen hacking the station’s network. Mothic was in one of the bathroom stalls, pulling out a spherical electronic device.

As for Stardew, she was currently distracted with looking over a berry display from a closing vendor. Hazard’s brows twitched, showing signs of irritation. “Cloud! Respond, damnit!”

{“Yeah yeah! Jeez, we’re in our pointless stupid boring position. Go ahead and remind everyone just how pointless and stupid and boring our roles are.”}


A blonde lassie wearing a dark purple fluffy skirt and tank sighed out. Whipping her ponytail back with annoyance. Next to her was a young laddie with glasses, nervously glancing all around the busy street. {“Now now, Cloud. The back-up roles are very important. If any one of us screws up, you’re the first responders.“} Hazard said, his patience clearly thinning.

“Except you morons never screw up!” She shouted, a couple beings looked at her oddly since she wasn’t really facing anyone. Therefore looked like she was talking to herself.

The glasses laddie tried to provide a smile at the aggravated lass. “U-um, that’s a good thing…”

The blonde, Cloud, gritted her teeth. “Except we’re stuck here in our ssstupid! Ssstupid! Positions! Wasting away, when we could be out exploring the city~! Or you know, doing anything else!” Although she was facing the glasses lad now, she was still clearly yelling at her hidden mic.

{“Are you actually in position?} Hazard asking, his voice pitching a bit with doubt.

The glasses laddie, Whispers cringed a bit and looked away from where his mic was located. Cloud made a face, but her tone remained confidently angry. “Of course we are. The last stop of the Kogane Line, right?” She looked around at the busy stripe mall, clearly no where near the last train stop.

{“Got there a little fast, didn’t you?“} Came Player’s voice.

“Yeah well, didn’t want to torture myself with window shopping at stuff I can’t stop to look at.” Cloud huffed, ignoring the sudden nerves budding.

{“Whatever. Shut up. Just be there in case anything goes south.“} Hazard said sharply.

“Nothing ever does.” Came Cloud’s muttered replied.

Hoping to be of some help, Whispers decided to chime in. “Th-that’s a good thing though… it means everything we--”

“According to plan?” She finished, glaring at her partner. “Sure, their plan! Not ours!”

A groan was heard from the line, this one coming from Wing Haven. {“It’s called back-up for a reason, Cloud.“}

The blonde stomped her foot, and glared into her mic. “I don’t care! All we do is walk around uselessly. What’s the point?” She hipped her arms and leered at her partner. Obviously wanting some sort of agreement from him.

Whisper, however, just jolted in place and stumbled over words he wasn’t sure to speak out. “D--auhh--oom-paah--ee.”

{“Breath. Breath. Breath.“} Half mockingly, and half concern was Winghaven’s voice.

At Whisper’s nervous chuckle, everyone fell silent. Everyone else was either too focused on their task, or lack any topic to speak about. Or well, was just a natural silent person. Cloud huffed, deciding to mute her headset. With a press of a button on her waist, she pulled out the ear pierce and did the same for her partner.

“Wh-what are you doing?” He asked, motioning to undo the mute.

Cloud smacked the back of his head, leering at him. Effectively making him crease all actions. “They can’t hear us this way, but we can hear them.” She explained, noticing he thought she had switched off his earpiece since she took it off his ear. “Look, how many missions--”

“Operations.”

“--have we done together as backup?”

The black haired boy shrugged, feeling a lot more timid than before now that it was only her. At least when the others were listening in on their conversations, they would answer for him. Sometimes a bit vulgar than he would ever dare be, but it kept him from babbling. “Um… a …. lot?”

Clouds hipped her hands. “I also would’ve accepted the answer; shit tons.” She turned around, glancing everywhere for anyone paying too much attention to them. “Now, how many of those missions were we actually needed?”

To make sure his answer was correct, Whispers thought about this hard. “Mm… none…?”

“Exactly.” She swiftly focused on a building behind the lad. “We were never needed then, and we’re certainly not needed now.”

“Umm….” He didn’t understand where she was going with this. Clouds gave him a smirkish smile and pressed her body against him. Making the shy boy yelp out in surprise. He couldn’t react to anything, since she spun him around so hard, that his head whiplashed. “Wh-what a--”

Clouds, without any regard of their improper position, pointed over his head and towards a café up ahead. “Let’s have some dinner! They won’t notice a thing! It’ll be alright.” She shouted, extinguishing any counters the boy might use against her.

When he realize he didn’t have any arguments, he panicked-ly stammered, trying to buy some time to think of one. “B-but.. They might need us! An-and if we’re not in po-posit-then-ah!”

She wasn’t hearing any of it. She gripped his wrist and pulled him with her towards the café. “Like I said, they didn’t need us before, and they’re not gonna need us now~”

“S-s-still! We have responsibilities to the team to-aahh!”

---

Winghaven Wing Haven stretched, trying to ignore the ache that formed in his legs from standing too long, and too hard. He glanced over to the vacant seats. Sure he needed to block the door, but a few minutes wasn’t going to hurt right? And it’s not like he won’t hear them coming either, he’ll just get up once he hear people approaching the door.

He nodded to himself and decided to take a seat, letting his heel rest. He then started to watch the screen type out memos by itself. Lag had successfully stopped the trains that rode the same tracks, and was now giving out the order to evacuate the area as calmly and normally as possible. Using some half assed excuse such as pest control.

Smart, something to worry about, but nothing media grabbing. Since Lag obviously couldn’t keep the rest updated, he decided to do so himself. “Well, the memos been sent out.”


--


Hearing this, Mothic looked over to where the cockpit was. If this was true, they would make the announcement soon, then Blackout would have to carry out his own personal task. Right on cue, static was heard as the radio turned on.

{“Due to some technical difficulties at the main office, our last stop will now be at he Guembit station. We apologize for the inconvenience.”}

Just like that, the crowd started to go into a chaotic murmur. Mothic sharpened her eyes, thinking over what the conductor said. It seems she wasn’t the only one who found the message odd, Blackout --sitting in the cart next to her own-- also frowned at the announcement. (Hitting a little close to home, I’d say…) But it wasn’t his right to question other’s method. Especially since he knew nothing about their specialties.

Mothic carefully turned her attention to the cart door that opened, seeing Blackout making his way up to the cockpit as planned. She felt uneasy at the announcement the conductor made, but she knew Lag didn’t have an understanding of these things yet. And that annoying WingHaven had more of a sense of humor than he did of common sense.

She sighed. Technical difficulties was still a misleading excuse.

---

The blond yawned, focusing his attention to not make to much sounds as he normally did. He was pretty vocal in a lot of things. And today was not the day to make that known. But wow, what a boring role this was. Sure, he was the only one who could shamelessly make a scene if the situation called for it. But lurking around and acting nonchalant was pretty hard.

And of course, boring.

Player noticed a little souvenir shop close by inside the train station’s entrance. He decided window shopping was better than repeatedly going in and out the bathroom stalls. If anyone was watching him, they would think he had some serious problems. Even if he’ll never meet these people, it still embarrassed him to think someone out there thought that.

With a sigh, he made his way to the little shop. Not paying any mind to the gathering of workers who looked at a panic. Discussing something obviously important.


--


“Go at the opposite end of the room, alright?” Hazard said, not waiting for a reply. He practically ditched the nervous highlights lassie to take his spot at the opposite end.

Stardew shook her head, registering that she was alone again. Her sudden panic didn’t allow her to see her surroundings all the clear. So she accidentally bumped into someone, which startled her. And of course, set off a burst of electricity. “Oof!”

Luckily, whoever it was she bumped into wasn’t frazzle by her static, or could care less to deal with her. Stardew sighed with a little of relief, if she attracted attention to herself, surely. She would get yelled at again. And so, the walking bundle of nerves made her way to the opposite end of the room, glancing nervously around as she waited for the train to make it’s final stop.


--


It took some time, but the angry murmurs calm down and it seemed like no one as going to have the train workers a hard time. A benefit of doing this operations close to dinner time. Everyone simply just wanted to get home with little hassles as possible. She had already given her number to her partner, he was now sitting at the first cart, waiting patiently for the train to come to a halt.

She decided now was a good time to get moving to her position. Once the train came to a stop everyone would be standing up and shoving others out the doors. So it was best to get to the very end of the cart, where there was a railing outside. On her way there, everyone was too busy complaining to bring any attention to the tiny twin tails and lack of guardian figure around.

She made sure to lock the door behind her, and curl her twin tails around each other, to prevent them from smacking her against the face. Mothic dipped her hat, casting a shadow over her eyes. “Saa, shall we begin?”


Hazard smirked.


“We once again apologize for the inconvenience. The Kagone City’s train station is being evacuated. Please proceed to the ex--”

The sound of a door closing paused the conductor from finishing his announcement. He let go of the button, cutting the speakers off. He turned around but didn’t see anyone in the cockpit with him. Scanning the room for a bit, he shrugged it off as imaginary noises.

Before the button was pressed, a shadow came up right behind him. “Ugh!” The conductor fainted!


As the train came to a halt, swiftly, Mothic jumped-climbed to the top of the train. Overseeing the near empty platform that would soon fill out with all the passengers inside. A couple seconds went by, a beat passing between Hazard, Stardew and Mothic. Then the doors opened, the platform quickly becoming full of beings.

Hazard dipped his head, his hoodie casting a shadow over his entire face. Stardew glanced around the signs, pretending to be lost to where to go next. Mothic intensely focused on every body coming out of the train.

“Are the conductor’s out?” Hazard asked from his side.

Blackout, lingering around the end line of getting out coughed into his fist. “Yes.”

“The passengers?” He questioned, seeing the last of them, including Blackout, make their way out.

From above the train, Mothic’s counting became more audible. “Two-hundred in five, two-hundred in six, two-hundred in seven.” Her whispers became a solid voice over the mic, no longer creeping out the others who listened in. “Two hundread in ten passengers are out of the train.” She said clearly.

Blackout frowned, knowing that wasn’t the headcount and glanced around, his eyes gleaming up red. He saw two life forms make their way out in the other exit. “The remaining two are now leaving.”

Mothic nodded, confirming that was the headcount. She took one last glance down where Blackout and the last passenger walked out, then hopped down so casually that no one gave a single notice too. She nodded again, adding herself to the count. “That makes all of them.”

Stardew was taken back that Mothic choose to exit the train that way, but she was more shock that no one seem to notice it. “We’re ready then?” Hazard pocketed one hand carefully. Blackout looked one last time before exiting pass the doors. Mothic decided to exit by herself.

Winghaven, from his end only sighed out, and kept his watching the monitors. Cloud and Whisper from their side, eat happily at their freshly arrived dinner plates. Player glanced to the corner where he saw the security guard last seen. He figured now that the guard wasn’t there anymore, it meant the guy’s shift was over or something.

Back on the platform, Hazard inhaled deeply. “Here it goes.” Inside his pocket, the lad pressed a button.

Which made a light switch on.

Which made a set of numbers start getting counted backwards.

Stardew shakily sighed out. That was it, they were done. No turning back, literally. No way to undo this. “… The bomb’s activated….”

---

…

…

…

“… ow.” Soft groaning was heard, as a steady hand slammed down on the counter sink. The elbow shifted, lifting the body up. Shira held her temple, eyes still shut from the dull ache in her skull.

Damnit. She fainted again.. It had been awhile since she fainted from one of her episodes. But this had to be the worse one, she was inside a bathroom of a train! Who knows how long she was in here--well it couldn’t have been that long. Someone would’ve knocked and woken her up.

Plus the ache in her head seemed pretty recent. So yeah, probably just a couple minutes passed.

Shira opened her eyes, and checked for bruising on her head. There wasn’t any, meaning she hit the back of her head. Oh well, nothing can be done about that. “Ow… I should get back…” She muttered. She didn’t like the idea of her stuff being left unwatched.

The brunette opened the door, and took a moment to remember where she was sitting.

Huh?

The train’s…. empty?