Chapter Text
Loading up the car wasn’t too much of a struggle, if anything, just a bit annoying. Rudo sort of felt bad that they couldn’t take the remains of the crashed one back to HQ, he even offered to use 3R on it, but they’d told him not to since he was already at two uses today from the earlier fight. He’s a little grateful for that now since he has to go on another job, but still…the car could’ve been fixed up if they let him! Never mind the fact that it’d been flipped over…Okay, apparently he did have to mind that fact since no one could really flip it back over to take it back to headquarters.
Zanka was very much not thinking about any of those things though, now too concerned with the fact that Enjin was aging backwards. Of course, Rudo was worried about that too, but Riyo told him worrying too much when about to go out for a job would get you off your game. Of course, Zanka knew this too, but it’s like his mind wouldn’t let him not think about the fact that Enjin was aging backwards. So, he decided to meditate for a bit as Rudo and the supporters loaded the supplies.
Unfortunately, Enjin took that as an opportunity.
.
.
Rudo thought that Zanka’s driving was much better than Enjin’s personally. Not that he’d tell the guy that, didn’t need it getting to his head after all. Looking out the window while they drove somehow never felt boring to Rudo, despite him being on the Ground for a while now the scenery was something he was always fascinated by. It was a decently calm ride.
…
“Could ya’ maybe put on some Too Lily? It’s getting kinda boring just listenin’ to the sound of my own thoughts?”
Rudo’s neck nearly snapped at the speed he turned around to find the source of the voice. One Enjin that was supposed to be in medical, being looked at by the boss and Semiu. Key word: supposed to. “What the hell are you doing here?!” Both boys practically yelled in unison. Enjin just smirked mischievously, “Eyes on the road, Zanka.” Rudo scoffed, “You’re one to talk.”
Zanka groaned, eyes very much still on the road. “Why aren’t you with Riyo and Eishia?! Semiu is gonna be pissed!” Enjin does a ‘so-so’ gesture with his hand. “Eh, it’s fine. Plus, couldn’t let you guys hog all the fun.” Literally, who is he speaking to right now? Enjin was going out of his way to do a job he wasn’t assigned to?? What twisted alternate reality was Zanka forced into?? “Plus, you two just got outta an accident, least I could do was watch your backs while you handle it.” Rudo scoffed, “That’s our supporters’ jobs.” “Well, either way, we’re nearly there so no point in turning around now.”
Zanka was practically white-knuckled as he gripped the steering wheel, he was right. If he turned around now, then the trash beasts would definitely reach the settlement before they do. Damn it…He just groaned, opting to deal with this faster, he pushed down on the gas.
Every passing second with this version of Enjin was just leaving him with a horribly uncanny feeling.
.
.
“You are one fuckin’ troublemaker, you know that?”
Enjin opted to tune the rest of whatever she was saying out—something something scolding him, something something, he’s in big trouble when he gets back.
“And don’t use Umbreaker either ‘ight? Talked to Lance a bit on the phone, and he said that his powers never hit you, just Umbreaker. So try not to do anything too stupid, ‘kay?”
Enjin sighed and smirked a bit. “You know me, I won’t do anything if I don’t need to.” She was quiet for a moment before just saying, “...Sure.” Okay, ouch. He was brought out of his conversation by a tap on the glass from outside, “You done in there yet?” Lovely Assiststaff in hand, Zanka was very much ready to go, and so was everyone else. “Yeah, I’m coming. See ya’ Semiu.”
Getting out the car, he could see exactly what the report said, horde of bull trash beasts stamping toward a settlement. Rudo and Zanka didn’t waste any time before getting to work. Rudo took out a broken IV pool, empty bag still attached, from his trash bag, quickly using 3R’s power to make it into spiked nunchucks held together by the blood-stained leftover plastic cable. Zanka tapped Lovely Assiststaff on the ground before activating her. “Ready?” “Obviously.” “You’re so lucky we have bigger problems than your attitude.” “Now you’re just being a hypocrite.”
Zanka rushed forward, swinging Assiststaff straight into a trash beast’s face, launching it and several others into the air. Before the things can even hit the ground, Rudo jumps, making several quick swings to crack their skulls open. The supporters had already set up a perimeter, throwing any trash beasts that were making it too close to either Zanka or Rudo. They were kicking up some serious dust now, Lovely Assiststaff’s spikes mincing just as many as Zanka was launching. Not that any were lost in the commotion though, Rudo was jumping from trash beast back to trash beast back like a monkey, slamming his IV-Chucks into any trash beast near him.
Enjin on the other hand. Was bored.
As much as he enjoyed watching those two fight, he was starting to feel that itch himself. Which was weird, since he’s pretty sure he hadn’t felt like that in a while. Not that he ever took note of what he was feeling like that. But again, it felt like some kind of fuse was inside him. Just itching for the right time to explode. He did make a promise to Semiu though, no getting involved unless he really needed to.
Man, this was boring though. Everyone was killing it out there, save for him. He would have at least enjoyed a snack to go with the show.
Watching a show does have some perks though.
Like, say, being able to see things coming that others wouldn’t.
That being said, that shadow in the distance was beginning to look a lot whole lot less distant.
And real bull-shaped.
Giant bull-shaped.
Oh, shit.
Before he was even thinking properly, he’d activated Umbreaker and launched himself into the air. It’s a whole horde of them, running in one direction, of course.
These guys were just small fry.
Any real challenge would come from what they were running from.
——
Rudo looked up in disbelief, that bull had to be more than 20 times bigger than the ones they were throwing around. It was like everything was moving in slow motion as the hulking trash beast quickly closed the distance between them. He wouldn’t have time to dodge—!
Suddenly, something else caught Rudo’s eye.
High above the trash beast was Enjin, smirking away, holding Umbreaker. The tip was pointed down, directly above the giant bull’s skull.
Something was wrong though.
Why couldn’t he see Enjin’s tattoos?
“Octa-Shredder!”
Wind whipped through Rudo’s hair as he was launched backwards. The sound of Umbreaker drilling through the cranium of the trash beast mixed with its unnatural screams getting further away in the process.
Smaller beasts crumbled to dust around him as he continued his descent back down to the earth. He swung his weapon towards Zanka, extending its cord and retracting its spikes. “Zanka!”
He didn’t even have to tell him what to do. Lovely Assiststaff quickly hooked onto the cord, and with just a few graceful swings, Rudo’s flight path was changed. The IV-Chucks began to turn to dust as Zanka launched himself a few feet in the air to catch Rudo before he had the chance to break half the bones in his body.
Zanka stood up promptly, Rudo in his arms in a pseudo-princess carry. “You still conscious?" Rudo’s head was leaning back over Zanka’s arm a bit, blood dripping from his nose. “Yeah…A little winded maybe.” The older boy just sighed, gently placing the younger on the ground as Rudo worked to get his now bleeding nose under control. He was secretly glad that Zanka had seemingly forgotten about the back-and-forth they had earlier because he’s pretty sure he would’ve just dropped him on the floor in that case.
“Enjin! Where—“
Zanka started to cough heavily, fuck that kicked up a lot of dust. He’d better put his mask on. As he does, Rudo, seemingly finished with his nose, puts his on too.
——
Enjin is actually feeling pretty damn good right now. Fresh in a way. Which, given the current situation he was in, probably wasn’t that good of a thing. Better than feeling like shit at least. He looked at Umbreaker, still activated in his hand.
Crap. His tattoos were gone. That. Wasn’t good to say the least. How old was he when he got them again??
Hearing Zanka call his name, Enjin was quickly brought away from his thoughts. Hopping down from the small hill of dust his display made, he tried to make his way over to where he heard Zanka’s voice come from. As he deactivated Umbreaker though, that ‘fresh’ feel he had a bit ago was quickly replaced with something else.
It felt like the fuse had gone out, but left behind was something that felt akin to the remnants of a firecracker. His bones ached, and skin felt like it was melting. A few pained noises escaped his mouth before he was brought to his knees. He’d expected the same gross exhaustion he felt moments ago, but instead there was…nothing.
He was tired, yeah, but more of a regular ‘just got done fighting’ tired. Zanka and Rudo were calling his name, but he couldn’t hear too well over the sound of his own coughing. “Enjin! Put on your mask!”
Right, mask. Damnit, why was he becoming so damn forgetful?
Enjin took his mask out of his jacket and tried to put it on his face.
…
He tried again.
…
Why did his mask suddenly not fit him??
He looked at his jacket sleeve. That seemed bigger than usual. But how…?? He was just in his 20s a couple of seconds ago! There’s no way he got younger again. Right??
“Was it really necessary for you to kick up all this dust?”
“I knew you two could—“, he was interrupted by a cough, “Handle it.”
Zanka’s quiet for a bit, Rudo as well. Well, that was weird. Usually, Zanka’s pretty happy to receive praise from him, but this…doesn’t feel like that for some reason. Rudo spoke up, seeming close to Zanka as they walked to find him, “You sound…weird.”
“Huh—? I do?”
He hadn’t even really noticed until it was pointed out, but with the coughing, it was sort of hard to pay attention to his own voice rather than the absolute task it was to breathe right now. “You really shouldn’t have come if you didn't even notice something that obvious."
The sound of hurried footsteps became closer and closer as Enjin could finally see Zanka in the distance. As soon as he could finally see him though, he stopped. His eyes were wide, staring at Enjin like he’d seen a ghost. “What? How bad is—?” Another coughing fit—god, this was getting annoying.
He tried again to put his mask back on, struggling a bit to tighten it thanks to his sleeves. Zanka comes closer and helps him a bit. He felt…weirdly annoyed? Zanka wasn’t even saying anything! And he could’ve sworn Zanka was shorter than this when they got out of the car.
“Holy shit.”
Looks like Rudo had finally caught up to them. He pointed a gloved finger at Enjin. “You’re totally Zanka-sized!”
…
“HUH?!”
“You’re either seriously stupid or seriously hit your head.”
“I mean, I was confused about why we were the same height, but it was like the thought wasn’t even connecting in my brain for a sec.”
Zanka didn’t take that lightly. “Is this affecting your brain somehow?” Oh, that would make sense. His clothes barely even fit anymore, and he barely even noticed how old he was until someone actually said something to him. Actually…
Enjin grabbed Zanka’s shoulders and turned him around. “What are you—”
The previously older man pressed his back against the younger’s, making sure he was standing as straight as possible. “‘Kay, Rudo, who’s taller?”
The boy in question was just staring at him wide-eyed before looking confused for a second. He looked at the two for a few seconds, calculating the ask in his head. “Hm…”
“Zanka, by like, half an inch maybe.”
“Damnit!”
“That’s what you’re worried about?!”
The, now taller, boy turned around and shoved Enjin away from him a bit before grabbing him by the shoulders. “Enjin, please. You need to take this seriously. What happened? How did you get so much younger so quickly?”
Zanka very much seemed to be in ‘fix this now’ mode. Which, Enjin doesn’t blame him for. He doesn’t exactly want to be the same age as him either. “Trust me, I don’t really want this either, but I’ve got no clue what happened.” He placed a finger to his chin. “It didddd make me feel like shit when I deactivated Umbreaker though.”
Zanka let go of Enjin’s shoulders finally, putting a finger to his chin as well. “Okay…felt bad after deactivating it…” “He also didn’t have his tattoos when he was about to drill the trash beast.” The blonde snapped his fingers, “Yeah, yeah! When I just got down I didn’t have my tattoos anymore, but I wasn't Zanka-sized!” “Could you two stop using me as a term of measurement already?!”
Those were definitely things to keep in mind though…He’d have to inform Semiu as soon as possible.
.
.
After they gave the rundown of the situation to their supporters, the team made their way back to the car. Enjin, in all his unfunny antics, offered to drive them back but was only left with death stares as a reply.
“Enjin, could you sit by Rudo, please?” Zanka asked as politely as he could. Semiu was already on the line with him, and safe to say, she was pissed. “Make sure his dumbass doesn’t get any younger before y’all come back,” was the direct order Zanka was given.
And that basically meant making sure Enjin didn’t use Umbreaker. “Did Semiu tell you to tell me to do that?” …Was there even a correct answer there? Would he give more trouble if the order was from him?
“Yes.”
He tried to sound as confident as he could with his answer, even if he wasn’t. It seemed to be enough for Enjin though. “Fineeee…” He sounded like a petulant teenager. God, Zanka wants this to be over. He admired Enjin, adult Enjin at least. But whoever he was talking to right now didn’t feel like the person he admired. He just felt like some…teen brat.
Rudo was feeling…slightly similar? He always sort of thought of Enjin as an older brother, not that he’d tell him that. So, while how he was acting was weirding him out…it still felt like Enjin, so it wasn’t that bad. Even if he was being a bit more of an annoying piece of shit right now.
The blonde in question though…He just felt so done with everything. Was he really this moody as a teen? It felt like every emotion he was feeling was amped up to 11 right now. Maybe it was because he’d gotten so used to ignoring them, that or just not feeling them entirely.
Either way, that didn’t change the fact that he wanted this to be over.
Being 17 sucked.