Chapter 4: On the Way Back to Balamb Garden

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian saw Polaris make an attempt to heal everyone despite the condition she was in. He felt the regen spell rejuvinate him, and he quickly felt the need to assist Polaris who looked like she was going to collapse any minute. Just as he was about to grab her, Polaris's legs gave in.

"Polaris, what the hell are you doing?" he told her, kneeling down beside her. "Just sit down and they'll get you patched up in no time, okay? Don't move." He shot a glance at the other women who were as badly wounded as Polaris. It was strange how the men weren't the ones who were badly injured. In fact, all of them were perfectly fine.

Kinda tells you something...

[Polaris Lyn]

"Don't move."

Funny, how Hadrian seemed to be the only voice around right now...

Polaris blinked slowly, nodded once, and fell against the wall once more. "Okay," she mumbled, only half-conscious.

[Blaze Sanaku]

sorry about my last ass post -_- it was so ass -_- stupid mom

---

Blaze felt much better after the full life and having her magic rejunctioned. It took away a significant amount of the pain, however she still couldn't move that well.

The bullet that Weiss fired had exploded upon impact in Blaze's abdomen and there were many broken fragments of the bullet lodged in there that Dr. Kadowaki needed to remove herself.

"fuckin'.. cheater," she mumbled to herself. When she glanced around the seeD airship, she noticed three familar faces.

"what are they doing here?" Blaze suddenlyt snapped at Deo, Jaime and Vanesse.

Deo didn't even glance her way. "Geez, I'd think that you'd be more thankful for the people who saved your life." he said.

Blaze sat completely still. what?!?

"Yeah, we carried both you and pinkhead to the airship. We saved your lives. Just the thanks we wanted to give for you guys saving our friends' lives." Deo said sarcastically.

Blaze said nothing more.

[Stella]

Whoa I'm really not used to 3rd person roleplaying so if this is a little shakey you'll have to forgive me. It might take me a few posts to get the hang of it.

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Stella stood there looking down at the group of them that obviously knew each other very well. Her eyes scanned over them quickly assessing the situation. Blood were pouring from two of them, one with dark hair the other with a shock of pink hair. Moving quickly Stella pulled one of the first aid kits out of a near by metal cabinet.

She rushed forward kneeling beside one of the women, the one with the dark hair. Flipping the first aid kit open she eyed the wound trying to recall the basic first aid training she had gotten as a SeeD.

“Bullet still inside?” Stella asked raising a dark eyebrow while snapping on a pair of latex gloves. Without waiting for an answer she leaned forward and pulled the dark haired girl’s shirt away from the wound, the other hand pulling a pair of tweezers out of the kit.

“This is gonna hurt” she said softly plunging the tweezers into the wound to dig out the bullet. After a few moments of digging around, while ignoring the look of pain on the dark haired girl’s face, she yanked the tweezers away holding the bullet delicately between them.

“Someone heal her” Stella called out rushing forward with some bandages to stave off the bleeding.

[ani]

“Someone heal her”

At the sound of the female SeeD's voice, Vanesse snapped to attention. She had Curaga. Maybe she could help. "I have restorative magic," she said and quickly attended to Blaze. Placing a hand on Blaze's belly, she casted "Curaga" and a surge of green light surrounded her palm, bringing ease on the wound. Vanesse's eyes avoided the wavy-haired woman, hoping that she wouldn't notice that she wasn't a SeeD.

[stardust]

Clutchig her bloody side, Stardust was pale and weak. She hate to admit it, but she wouldn't have been able to make it inside the airship in time if those Opps didn't assist her. It seemed like everytime they face a major battle, she always end up being dragged by someone towards the airship.

She rested her head on the cold metal floor. Her wound didn't hurt this much when she was in this position. I should summon Diwata right now, actually, I should....Stardust's eyes started to close in on each other. She was really tired. Whatever was inside that bullet, it sure was making her drowsy. A few seconds later, the pinkhead completely dozed off.

[Myacu]

Amidst the mad scramble to lift all the SeeDs into the airship, Jax was frantically trying to get them off the ground. Out of nowhere, a red light began to beep on the main screen, reading "Check IHL". There was a malfunction in the internal hydraulic levels. Swearing under his breath, Jax quickly began flipping on and off all kinds of switches and levers, trying everything to see if it would get them in the air. Suddenly, he felt a surge of power rush through the engine, and the airship roared to life, slowly ascending higher into the clouds. Jax breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his seat. "Once again, Jax, you've managed to pull off an amazing feat..." This moment of success, matched by the beauty of the sky, would have been perfect...had it not been for the piercing screams coming from the back.

"Oh well..be glad you're up here."

[Stella]

Stella rolled her eyes as she noticed the pink haired girl was passed out. With a loud sigh she drug the kit over to her and cleaned the tweezers off quickly.

"What, did one of you manage to take every bullet they shot at you?" Stella asked to no one particular as she dug the tweezers into the pink haired girl's wound just as roughly as the previous time. Hell, she might start to get good at this if she hung around this crowd for long enough.

[miyavi]

"What, did one of you manage to take every bullet they shot at you?"

Sho felt the healing warmth of Regen envelop him, and already the broken skin at his temple began to heal, slowly but surely enough. He smiled a crooked grin at their newly-appointed medic, and replied, "Not every bullet. Just most of them."

He tried moving his leg as the brunette continued to tend to the unconscious Stardust. To his extreme dislike, it still hurt like fucking hell. He let out a sigh and frowned slightly, but resisted moving around. He'd just wait his turn was all.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze screamed like a banshee when the bullet was pulled out. There was no warning or anything. She was just about to jump up and ask the brunette how she'd like it with a pair of tweezers rammed into her stomach when Vanesse rushed over and quickly casted curaga.

Blaze impatiently waited for Vanesse to finish and saw that Stardust had just gotten a bullet pulled out from the brunette as well. Hearing Stardust's reaction made Blaze calm down and smile contentedly. It suddenly dawned on her that they were going to go home successfully with the ruby in their grasp.

The ruby...

"Sho, you have the ruby, right??" Blaze glared daggers at him, "tell me you still have the ruby!"

[miyavi]

"Aa, stop yelling," Sho complained, waving a hand at Blaze in annoyance. "Just because I fall a lot doesn't mean I'm an idiot. Here, look."

He unzipped his hoodie and reached into an inside pocket, rummaging around for a moment before his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"Aa, Blaze...I...I..." he stammered, hand searching his jacket wildly.

And just when Blaze looked like she was about to panic he pulled it out, announcing, "I got it right here!!" And he smirked at her expression. "It's safe with me, don't you worry."

[Stella]

Not sure how you guys do thoughts, so I just but them in italics.

---

Stella's eyes flickered over to the ruby, resting there her expresion unreadable. What kind of fool carries around something so precious in his bloody pocket? ... For a moment she looks like she is going to say something but then she just shakes her head cleaning of the tweezers once more.

There was alot of tension in the airship and Stella could tell that a fight was ready to break out at any moment.

"Anyone else still carrying around a bullet?" Stella asked matter of factly.

[Myacu]

"Yeah I got another one here!" Gemma called back, kneeling down next to the raven haired girl, who's body remained still. She checked for pulse. "Good...still breathing." Cradling her head onto her lap, Gemma did a quick assessment of the wounds. Two bullets had grazed her hip, one through her shoulder, and another that barely missed her liver. "You're going to be just fine" Gemma said smiling to the unconscience girl. "I normally wouldn't use this, but I thought why not splurge a little." She whipped out an X-Potion and cast it on the girl, who's dark eyes began to flicker.

[Stella]

Stella moved over to the other bullet carrier as the bright sparkles of the X-Potion faded. With a fast inspection of the wound she ground the tweezers in just as roughly as she had with the other two.

"This one is being a bitch" she growled as she dug around in the wound with no finesse. Blood sprayed from the wound against the pale flesh of her hands as she worked.

"Ah there it is!" Stella said triumphantly with a growl as she yanked the little trouble making bullet out.

[Polaris Lyn]

No worries, Al, everyone does thoughts in their own different ways, there's no set format here for those things. Ne, are they [Stella & Gemma] picking on Polaris now?? I'll just assume they are...err, even though she only got hit in the upper left arm and the thigh. Someone edit if I got it wrong!!

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"Ah there it is!" And then there was only a harsh jab of pain that opened in her leg like a flower, and Polaris returned to full consciousness.

"Mm..."

<Good morning, starshine! The earth says hello!> Obsidian chirped, sounding thoroughly relieved.

"Ngh..." She blinked slowly and turned her head, finding a most disconcerting and somewhat still blurry sight of a wavy-haired brunette brandishing a pair of tweezers as if she was almost sure what to do with it. Clenched between the tweezers was the blood-drenched silhouette of a bullet, a bullet that Polaris realized had been pulled out of her just a moment ago. There was a gentle tingle in her body, a feeling much like pins and needles that permeated her limbs, and Polaris knew that someone had administered an X-Potion to her system.

She let out a soft, almost discernible sigh, and then sat up slowly, supporting her weight on her uninjured arm. Already the X-Potion was circulating through her system, traveling through the bloodstream, healing from the inside out. That was the difference between administered healing agents like X-Potions and Elixirs, and Support-Mag that was cast. Administered healing agents sank into the blood, healing in an outward radius, while Support-Mag was simply absorbed inward, from the epidermis to the organs. It was the reason that foreign objects had to be removed before Support-Mag could be cast, for the skin would heal before the injured organs and tissue would, effectively sealing any foreign objects within the body. Potions, Elixirs, and the like were allowed to be administered without surgery, for once ingested, they would force foreign objects outwards anyway. However, it was still safer to remove foreign objects before healing, for the risk of infection would be greater without removal.

Polaris shook her head slightly, getting her curly hair into her mouth, and her vision cleared. She moved into a more comfortable sitting position and regarded the woman with the tweezers, then turned to another girl, a youthful-looking teen with her hair pulled back neatly. Manners overtook her, and Polaris nodded her thanks to both of the women. "Thank you," she said softly, "for the help. It's much appreciated."