Kester grimaced, wheezing through the rag he'd managed to tie around his nose and mouth. The smoke was getting thick now, and he couldn't move down...a branch/support-strut(you could never be sure which was which, in Carsinque) had come loose and pinned him to the wall, pressing painfully against his hip and stomach. He was fairly sure he was bleeding from somewhere around there, and he couldn't move to keep up the repairs that had been allowing the Beetle to last this long. The boy closed his eyes and leaned back, resting his head against the wall.
"Ah well. We had a good run, didn't we, Carsinque?"As the flames in the command chamber(he had difficulty thinking of it as a cockpit, even now, thanks to how spacious it was) rose higher, the Argoth shuddered and shook, as if in reply. One of the tongues of flame licked at his chair, and soon it too, was being consumed by the bright, ever-hungry maw of the blaze. Kester tried futilely to shove the branch off one more time, managing to push it just far enough away to see where it had stabbed into his side. It hurt, but it didn't really matter, since he was going to burn to death anyway. Carsinque shuddered again, the room tipping to one side as the Argoth came apart.
But even though the whole chamber lurched to one side, it didn't fall. It didn't come off completely like it should have, in this kind of heat. Kester smiled grimly, fighting back tears at the dedication Carsinque must have, trying to hold itself together that much longer, trusting Kester to make it better, to make the pain go away.
"Sorry, bud...I can't help this time..."He closed his eyes, and waited for the end.
It never came. After what seemed like an eternity, he opened his eyes when he felt the heat receding. The flames were dying down? But...what? Then he saw the mana-lines glowing brightly once more, surges of magic pulsing through them as they strengthened and repaired the Argoth. The communications runes were fixed just in time to catch the last part of Kayle's sentence;
:"...-kay, Kester?"
He let out a gasp as he was able to breath in again, as the strut pulled itself back up, shoved back into position by the repairing magic. It wasn't perfect; the walls and floor were still badly scorched, and his wound needed tending to, but they weren't going to die. He staggered over to the pilot's chair and hissed at the heat left in it, sucking on burned fingers.
"Well, we're not dead yet, so that's something, at least. We'll be fine, I think. Thanks for the save, Kayle. We owe you. Thank Chronos for us too, eh?"The pilot nodded to his human comrade, soot-streaked face pale beneath the grime covering it, a half-hearted smile lightening his features. He walked, somewhat shakily, over to the thankfully intact first-aid locker, and started unwrapping bandages to apply to himself. He'd gotten hurt worse than this before, but Carsinque hadn't been this banged up at the time...he'd also had no one to help him then, unlike now. Now to start pulling his weight and giving back...
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Topic: (Mecha-FEF) The Reawakening(IC): Chapter 1 (Read 27799 times)