It was the middle of the night and Alex was wandering, too wide awake to go back to bed. She'd first been woken up by her own rebellious stomach (She was going to have to figure out what it was in the wrap that made her sick). Abe and Ada where offline and she didn't want to be unfair and wake them.
Her feet guided her to the living area of the cave figuring that the colour tv (Something she was still a little dazzled by) would while away the hours, or lull her into getting a little more sleep on the couch. To her surprise she found Super Boy still awake and watching the tv the volume turned down to barely audible.
"What are you still doing up?" He asked glancing over Alex shrugged sitting on the couch arm eyes drawn to the screen, it was a smiling woman pontificating the use of some ridiculous looking contraption (And that was saying something considering where she came from) still the fact it existed at all was enough to get her interested.
"Something didn't agree with me, Eh Batman said I should be careful about what I eat considering how different my diet was I'm likely to get sick a lot."
"And your metal shadows?"
"Offline, it'll be good for their systems and save their power for when they actually need it." He hummed and they lapsed into an awkward silence neither really sure what to make of the other.
"Is that suit all you've got to wear?" Alex blinked at the question looking down at herself, her old Vault suit was worse for wear…Ok it was in pretty bad state, the yellow was almost all worn away and the blue was barely visible under the leather patches she'd had to make over the years. She frowned self-consciously curling up a little.
"It's a good suit, no way in hell am I getting rid of it." She grumbled scrunching her nose up in a frown "I've tried to wear…Normal clothes like what you've got before, it feels weird to me, I grew up in Vault Suits it feels weird to…Not have everything covered and for the clothes not to be skin tight."
"I….guess I understand."
Alex hummed resting her chin on her knees. "..Which way is outside?" She asked getting up "I need to see it…"
Superboy arched an eyebrow but got up. "I'll show you." Alex gave him a grateful smile padding after him her feet almost silent on the cold floor. She paused as he walked out the entrance to the cave dithering a moment before follow.
She froze again eyes wide in wonder. It was a clear night with the lights of Happy Harbour easily visible and the night chorus of the small forest out in force.
"…It's real, it's really real…." She laughed "This is real… No war, no radiation, no Ghouls or raiders…This is real…"
0o0o0o
"BLEH!" Alex choked spitting out sand and coughing, Ada whirled looking down at her.
"Finally back with the living are we?" Alex floundered for a minute head swimming with the residual pains of a migraine.
"Oh god." She groaned pulling off her helmet and putting a hand to her forehead for a moment tempted to check herself for head wounds "Are we? Mojave?" She frowned "No wait…Bi….Bialya!" She frowned taking a can of purified water from Ada's claw cracking it open and taking a sip.
She spat it back out to get rid of the sand in her mouth before taking a deep drink draining about half the can. "Fuck my head…"
"Need a Stimpac?" She shook her head consulting her Pipboy.
"Naw my heads just pounding and I'm dehydrated…The fuck happened? Last I remember…We were still setting up that computer thing…Then…" She groaned rubbing her throbbing forehead "…Damn someone hacked into the telepathic connection then….Pain…"
Ada nodded "That's what me and Abe guessed happened, Superboy started going insane and we were being attacked. Abe picked you up and I covered our retreat." She lowered her head "We lost track of the others, my apologies." Alex got up and clasped Ada's shoulder.
"Ada stop, I know what your thinking and don't. Missions tend to go tits up you know that, I'm alive, you and Abe are alive and the teams pretty tough themselves so their probably alive. Priority one is finding them."
Ada whirled optic blinking "Shouldn't it be completing the mission?"
"The mission can go fuck itself, we don't leave anyone behind without checking if they're really dead." The robot's optic brightened a little "Now where's Abe?"
"Had the same thought you had, went to look for them." Alex nodded pulling Dragons Claw out of her inventory and reluctantly loading it with Taser Bolts.
"Let's go get our team then."
O00oo0
It almost felt like they were back in the Wasteland together, if it wasn't for the radio silence order Alex would probably be channel hopping the stations to find some good tunes for their walk.
Thankfully due to his size Abe was pretty easy to follow, his weight meant he sunk into the sand and left a clear trail behind him. Though considering they were in enemy territory that wasn't the best thing to be doing.
One of her spare scope mods served pretty well as a telescope helping Alex keep an eye out for any soldiers who picked up their trail "Bout how long was I out?" Ada whirled softly.
"Fifteen hours maybe? What ever it was that effected you all it knocked you out hard…I'm pretty glad it did, better then writhing in agony from…Well what ever it is."
"They have a Telepath on their end…I think." Alex rubbed her head "They got into the telepathic link Me-…Miss Martian had set up between us, wanted us to…Forget for some reason."
"Forget? Forget what?" Ada's optic narrowed in a frown.
"I dunno, their pretty crappy at it considering I've not forgotten anything." Alex shrugged, if possible Ada's optic narrowed more.
"…Pop quiz what are we here for?"
"Investigating weird Zeta radiation."
"We where sent by?"
"Batman."
"How long have you been staying with the team?"
"A week all of which I remember."
"What's your name?" Alex rolled her eyes.
"Alexandrea Anderson, happy?"
Ada whirled narrowing her optic "I guess…Though I can only ask about the last six months, maybe Abe should question you to."
Alex sighed pausing and focusing on something on the horizon "By that logic Abe can only ask going back two and a half years, speaking of which that's him waving us down…He's really too used to being bullet proof we need to train that out of him considering what Robin and the others have told us people can do." She holstered her pistol and picked up the pace rushing to the Power Armor.
Ada hummed legs blurring a moment as she tapped into her Inventory swapping out her Protectron legs for Assaltron, her weight caused her to sink a little into the sand and kicking it up in a spray behind her as she ran to Abe's side skidding to a halt by him.
Abe looked relived beckoning them to follow him into the shadow of a outcrop of rock clicking and whining concerned. The reason for his worry coming clear when they saw a out cold Kaldur in the sand.
"Ohhh fuck." Alex winced kneeling down next to him, the best Abe had been able to do was get him out of the sun and pour some purified water over his gills, there was a stimpak ready to use but considering Kaldur was an Atlantian not human…Ya she wasn't going to risk using it either. "Ok Kaldur let's see.."
His skin was close to burning hot, semi roused by her tilting his head up he murmured something in a language that was either gibberish or Atlantian. His eyes cracked open as she gently scrapped off sand that had gotten caught in his gills "Tula…?"
Alex just nodded along with him "Uhuh what ever you say…" After checking his gills where clear she splashed some more water onto them and gave him the can to drink "Get this in you need to get Abe set for you.."
Dazed Kaldur leaned against the rock Abe opening up Alex pulling out some tubes and an handful of Cryo cells "Three should be enough eh buddy?" Abe clicked in agreement Ada watching as Alex filled some of the tubes with the liquid nitrogen to cool his insides.
"Is that safe?" Ada questioned more than a little concerned.
"Oh ya, I added in those for this purpose after our first trip to the Mojave just in case. Liquid Nitrogen cools down Abe's otherwise boiling insides for me or in this case Kaldur, and Abe's padded insides means the tubes don't actually risk touching and hurting Kaldur." She carefully pushed the tubes back into their proper place "Help me get him in then."
Ada nodded replacing her laser with a second claw carefully pulling Kaldur to his feet (the Atlantian swaying dangerously and leaning heavily on her) after a little trial and error they were finally able to get Kaldur inside Abe the Power Armor closing up to protect him.
"Abe you have permission to move as you wish, just be careful with him." Abe whirled and saluted her happily glad that at least one of their friends was ok.
0o0o0o
This'll be your only update till after the 17th of this month, sorry going to Menorca, I'm just glad I managed to get something out before I left...
