Blossoms from The Apocalypse

About a week had passed since that delivery mission, and every job Doc assigned to Bank was similar to that, just menial delivery or escort jobs, usually with a random employee assigned to help her just in case things got complicated on the road. This had been…quite draining for her, since it was day after day of boring jobs and coworkers she didn’t mesh well with. She’d been starting to consider just taking those damn days off instead of putting up with it. Why she wasn’t lucking out on getting paired up with employees she could vibe with, she didn’t know, and though she didn’t fully realize it, she was kind of hoping Doc would pair her with a particular person…

Thankfully, Doc finally gave her a normal assignment, or at least an assignment that she considered to be normal. Today’s job: Accompany Hank to Nexus City Ruins in order to investigate the origins of a signal that the fellows had intercepted. There were no restrictions on how they could carry out this mission, so they could get as bloody and violent as the situation called for. What a perfect way to deal with the build up of agitation she’d been experiencing over the past week!

Assignments with just Hank were particularly favorable to her, because that meant she could just focus on whatever it was they were doing, since neither of them talked much unless it was necessary, and she was able to show off how honed her skills in combat were to her dad. Even if he didn’t give a big reaction, the acknowledgement and “good job” was enough to make her happy about herself.

So, early in the day, the two set off for the long drive out to the ruins, where Bank mostly just complained about how much she disliked working with S.Q’s lower ranked employees, and Hank returned the sentiment. Like father, like daughter, neither of them were particularly good at working with Doc’s other recruits, and neither were really showing any improvement in their ability to do so.

Getting to Nexus City was pretty uneventful, since the roads that led to the ruins weren’t often traveled on by anyone who had access to a vehicle. Most of the only people that ever visited the city were vagabonds, bandits, zeds, or cultists, and it was rare for any of those guys to be riding on any vehicle that could allow them to keep up with the drivers in Nevada. So, the beginning of the assignment was pretty relaxing for the both of them.

A couple hours into the drive, Hank reached over to Bank, and used his fingers to tap her shoulder. She had started to doze off. “...stay…stay up…we’ll…be there…soon…” He muttered, nodding his head towards the horizon, where they could see the skyscrapers and Science Tower the city was known for just off in the distance.

“Mmf. Sorry, it’s like 8 A.M, n’ quiet car rides make, make, make m-me tired.” She replied, pushing her goggles over her forehead so she could rub sleepy tears out of her eye. “Do we have like a, fuckin’, bottle of water around here…”

“...gonna…have to get…used to early…early work…” Hank said, now patting her head. “cant be…tired…on the job…ever…”

“I know, I know, just got out of the routine c-c-cause of the past week.” Bank found one of the water bottles she had packed for herself and poured a little bit onto her fingers, so she could rub the water around her eye and really wake herself up.

Hank looked over at her for a second, focusing his attention on her eyes.

“...how…has…your…face…been feeling…”

Bank was caught off guard. “F-face? What about it?”

Hank motioned to the right side of his own face. “your…your eye…hasnt been giving…you…trouble…right…”

“Oh.” She said, leaning back into her seat. “...Uh, it’s fine. I haven’t…um…I haven’t been bothered by it, m-much…”

Bank didn’t really pay much attention to the fact that her right eye was missing, and the skin around that part of her face was a bit…mangled, to say the least. She didn’t really think about it much because, well, her face was always covered by her mask and pink lensed goggles, even when she was home and relaxing. That was something she’d been doing LONG before she ever sustained any major injuries to her face; as a young child she liked to copy Hank’s look, and she eventually discovered that having her face covered up was soothing to her in general. So she just wore her mask and goggles every minute of the day, even when she slept. The only times she was unmasked was when she showered and when she’d be performing hygiene for her face, like brushing her teeth.

Those were the only moments where she was reminded of the damage that had been done to her face. And those were the only moments where she was suddenly aware of how…grotesque…half of her it appeared.

Hank grunted. “...its been…a while…and…the staples are…still in…” He looked closer at her eye, which was still stapled closed, despite how much time had passed since she received the injury. “...did doc…not…say…he’d…take them out..?”

“Uh, actually, I, uh, I asked if he c-c-could leave it like that.” She responded, which got a confused tilt of the head out of Hank. Bank looked down at her hands, and pressed them together. “...I said, um, I said that I wanted them to, to, to stay in, cause, uh…I’m just used to them being th-there.” Her remaining eye glanced over at him for a second, then she added, “...And like, I think the staples look cool…and the whole thing already looks, looks, looks pretty…gross…so I thought like, why not just let it be gn-gnarly, and not, uh…h-hhhhhhard to look at…”

Hank sat still for a few seconds, studying his daughter’s body language and what he could figure out from it. Then, he gently pressed his knuckles against her temple, and tapped her head with his fingertips. “...baby…its…”

He was struggling to find the right words.

“...it just…takes time…til it…it feels normal…”

Bank looked up at him, and tapped his wrist, signaling to him that she didn’t want to be touched. She then adjusted her goggles, so they were once again situated over her face properly. “It’s fine, I know I’ll get used to it. Fuckin’, uh, whenever I-I-I see you unmasked you just look normal, so, so, so uh, that’s bound to happen for me, aheh.”

Hank simply nodded, and looked back to the road. Seeing Bank get mangled close to the same ways he had was something he’d never imagine he’d witness, but unfortunately for him, it had already happened.

~

The ruins of Nexus City were usually a pretty low activity area, so it was normally rather quiet, the only sounds coming from the wind and tumbling rubble. There were some areas in the city that were populated, some people had found that the low activity from really any faction was pretty ideal when compared to the rest of Nevada, so they took up residence in abandoned apartments and stores to live fairly peacefully. There would be the occasional bloody fight and all out brawl, but it was nothing that was out of the ordinary for the state.

The signal they were supposed to track down seemed to be originating from somewhere within the center of the city, which meant they might’ve needed to take a visit to the Science Tower…which was something Hank would rather not do with Bank tagging along, but, well, if that’s where it was, that’s where it was.

The pair had parked their truck in a relatively hidden area just outside of the city, and had spent about an hour walking through the rubble and trash covered abandoned streets, finding little to no signs of life in the area. They still remained vigilant, as you never knew when an entire gang of cannibals or zeds would sprout up out of seemingly nowhere, but so far, things were easy and quiet.

“...So, so, uh, it’s this element that doesn’t, uh, occur naturally. Like, it doesn’t exist u-u-until man itself makes it, which is pretty wild if, if you think about it. But uh, in the entire history of th-th-the world, it’s only ever been made about, uhhh, 5, 5 times,” Bank had been rambling about an interest of her’s for a couple of minutes now, after she’d seen a piece of rubble that reminded her of it, “...and so uh, so it’s been made once, back like, like, I think 60 years ago? In a power plant m-m-meltdown, then it was created another time around 40 years ago, during a meltdown th-that happened in a foreign nuclear power plant, and then it happened 3 times consecutively in a span o-of about 3 to 4 days in another meltdown at a f-f-foreign power plant, which was the most times it’d been created in a short period of time.”

Hank didn’t look at Bank, since he was focused on navigating them through the city, but he was intently listening. He loved listening to her go on a long ramble about something she was heavily interested in, seeing her so passionate about something made him so happy…even though he didn’t visibly display said happiness. Whenever she asked if he was still listening, he nodded his head, and gave her a double thumbs up, which was his signal to her that he was still invested in what she was talking about.

“...Uhhh, um…oh, oh, ok, so, so the crazier thing is, ah, in the second instance of corium b-being created, that was the only time it has ever, ever, ever breached containment from it’s, uh, it’s reactor vessel, um, it fuckin’, melted its way through many layers o-o-of the nuclear facility and is currently resting in its basement, and it’s still, still highly radioactive, um, just standing in it’s presence for around 5 minutes is, is, is enough for you to be guaranteed to die because of expoooosure…” Bank continued to go on her little ramble, until she began to hear a noise. “Do you, uh, do you hear laughing?”

Hank was a little surprised by this question, since he hadn’t heard anything unusual. He stopped walking, and turned around to survey their surroundings, searching for anything out of the ordinary, or if there were other signs of life around them. He took a good while to search, but he didn’t notice anything unusual.

“...laughing..?” He mumbled, his hand hovering over the gun holster strapped to his thigh.

Bank stood just a little ways behind Hank, and noticing his hand going for his pistol, she reached behind herself to take hold of the handle of her machete, which was resting in a sheath strapped to her back. If her dad was preparing for something, then she needed to as well.

They stood there, silent and waiting, anticipating for someone to appear and attack them…but nothing happened. So, Hank straightened out, looked back at Bank, and nodded his head forward, telling her to keep walking. “...might…just be…you…”

“Sorry?”

“...nexus…is known…for weird shit…” Hank started, grabbing her hand to encourage her to start walking with him. “...sometimes…its just…all in your head…dont know…why…”

Bank didn’t say anything in response, she only walked alongside him, now falling silent so she could pay extra attention to whatever was going on around them. She was certain she heard someone laughing…

~

The pair kept walking, now in silence, their eyes and ears peeled for any signs of life near them. About half an hour had passed since either of them had said anything, they were dead set on making sure they weren’t getting fucked with.

Closer into the city, there were more visible signs that people did occupy the abandoned apartments and stores of the shopping districts, like well kept vehicles, newly opened packages, trash, fresh splatters of blood and bits of viscera…yet no sign of anyone actually going about their day. There was a good chance something supernatural was going on, since Nevada was a hotbed for that sort of thing, and Nexus City especially was prone to having some freaky shit go down within its walls, but this wasn’t really indicative of any supernatural force that was known about amongst Nevadeans.

“...So, uh, the signal, it’s uh, where is it coming from?” Bank finally broke the silence, once she realized how close they were getting to the Science Tower. Growing up, she’d heard stories about a particular mission that Hank, Sanford, and Deimos were assigned by Doc to carry out, that involved infiltrating Nexus City and shutting down something from within the tower, and all she really took from those stories was that it was a dangerous place to go. As well as the fact that the last time he was here, something within Hank seemed to…snap.

Bank was not afraid of her dad; she was well aware of some incredibly violent and dangerous things he was capable of, and she knew damn well that there had been times in the past where he’d suddenly turned on his own teammates. Despite this, she was not afraid of him, and she couldn’t really feel any form of anxiety around him. But she knew that he had a history in this area that was pretty bad, so she was growing worried. Though, she was more worried if he’d falter in combat performance in any way because of the past here.

Hank was a little distracted by keeping a lookout as they progressed, so it took him a little bit to register that Bank had even said anything. “...still…unsure…” He murmured, quietly, staying cautious of if anyone might’ve been listening to them. “...we might…have…to…visit the tow-”

Both Hank and Bank were taken for surprise as they heard an explosion, not too far away from their position, though not close enough where they would get hit by debris from it. As soon as they realized what happened, Hank grabbed his pistol and reached into his coat to retrieve a hunting knife, and Bank pulled out her machete, and set her free hand over the holster that was carrying her deagle. They looked at each other, silently confirming that they were going to proceed towards the explosion, then set off running.

As the dust and smoke from the blast settled, they began to hear a weird, almost lullaby-esque sound coming from within the building that housed the explosion, and then they heard it for certain- laughing. Well, less laughing, more like deranged howling. It almost sounded...electronic? The sound glitched out and was layered on top of itself in different pitches. It was almost disorienting.

When the cackling became clearer, Hank came to a stop, but Bank didn’t. Hank reached out to her, quickly grabbed her by the back of her jumpsuit, and yanked her back, which startled her. He hadn’t pulled her around so suddenly in a while, the last time he had was when she was a teenager, and he was protecting her from a fire fight that broke out in an area they had been passing through. So, the fact that he even grabbed her, and practically shoved her behind him in the way he did, she figured there was something wrong. She may not have realized what was going on, but Hank knew exactly what was up.

Bright colors flashed from within the hole, and more music played and got louder, and that cackling turned into hacking, which turned into wheezing, and then, there was a puff of bright smoke and confetti, the sound of a clown honk, and suddenly, a figure stood on top of the rubble before them.

“HIYA HANK!”

A tall and big dude was confidently posed atop the wreckage, and trembling uncontrollably. He was dressed in nothing  but a tattered and bloody lab coat, heart print boxers, combat boots, and an iron slab covering his face, presumably acting as a mask for him. He had two spires of bright red, curly hair coming from his head, he was covered in stitches and bright red scars, and his skin was green- which probably meant he was a zed. But if he was a zed, how was he talking? That answer would have to wait for later. Most peculiarly, he wielded a blood stained stop sign. Did he use a stop sign as a weapon?

“IT’S BEEN A WHILE! WHERE’VE YA’ BEEN BUDDY?” The man exclaimed, hugging his stop sign to his body. “YOUR FAV PAL’S BEEN MISSING YA!!!”

Hank  held out the hand he was wielding his knife with, as if to warn him. Bank felt him bump against her as he started to walk backwards, so she slowly and carefully copied his actions. She was beginning to feel worried, because Hank was never this cautious about dealing with an enemy. So, if he was being careful, then something bad was probably in store for them.

The zed began to chuckle, as he hopped down the unstable pieces of broken wall and concrete he’d been standing on top of. “AW, C’MON, WHAT'S WITH THE HESITATION? YOU SCARED OF CLOWNS NOW?” He swayed from side to side, and as he did, he snapped his head to the side, now noticing Bank standing behind Hank. “OH? WHO’S-”

“STEP OFF.”

It was exceptionally rare to ever hear Hank yell. Moving his mouth wide enough to do so was too straining on his muscles, and his voice had been shredded to hell and back from being decapitated one too many times. So to hear him yell…

“WOAHHHHHH WHAT'S THE DEAL?” The zed shouted, pretending to be taken aback at his shout. “AND WHO’S THAT BEHIND YA?”

Hank almost hit Bank when he swung his arm behind him, trying to move her further away. She went to grab her deagle from its holster, then heard that honking sound. Before she knew it, she’d been grabbed by that zed, Hank had been smacked a distance away with the stop sign he was holding, and he lifted her into the air. He seemed to be as tall as Hank, so lifting her up took her off the ground a good few feet. He didn’t do anything to her, he just stared directly at her.

“YOU RIPPING HIS STYLE? WHAT FOR?” He shouted, shaking her around. Bank stayed silent, she had no idea who this dude was and how the hell he knew Hank. So she didn’t know how to manage the situation. The guy kept staring at her, and kept giggling. “HM. WHAT, YOU HIS GIRLFRIEND? HE GET HIMSELF A GIRLFRIEND? GOOD, HE COULD USE ONE!”

“WHAT?! No I’m not! Put me down!” Bank shouted, and without thinking, she swung her heavy boot into the zeds stomach, which made him yelp in pain and drop her. She scrambled to her feet, and immediately took a shot directly into his ankle, then booked it for Hank, who was only now picking himself up. He’d been slammed into a particularly jagged piece of concrete, and was bleeding from his head and chest. Bank grabbed him and pulled him up, and the two took advantage of the zed being busy with howling in pain over his blown off ankle to make a run for it.

Hank took a tight grip of Bank’s arm, ensuring she’d keep about the same pace as him as he bolted, so he wouldn’t have to worry about her falling behind. They heard a scream, and then the rubble around them was flung into the air.

“YOU’RE NOT MAKING IT OUT THIS TIME!”

The rubble came crashing down directly in front of them, like they were homing missiles aimed for the pair specifically. Hank, being the combat lunatic that he was, managed to worm his way through the incoming projectiles, and dropped his weapons so he could take complete hold of Baby and make sure she followed his every move. He couldn’t afford to let her fumble any movements, this was a danger she hadn’t been prepared for yet…Which he already was beating himself up over. Of course she was going to encounter that goddamn clown, it was going to happen no matter how hard he tried to prevent it from happening.

The pieces of building and concrete fell on top of them, but in such a way that it formed a little crawl space around them. The incessant laughter came to a stop, and they didn’t hear any movement from outside the little enclave they were trapped under. Hank let go of Bank and she rolled a little ways away from him, which wasn’t very far, since the space they were in was so small already. She patted her arms, which had gotten scraped and bruised from being slammed into rough asphalt and concrete, and were beginning to bleed. She observed herself, then looked back at Hank and quickly assessed how much damage he’d already taken, and groaned in frustration.

“Who the fuck is that guy?!” She propped herself up as much as she could so she could use her hands to sign at him, she didn’t want to risk that guy overhearing them. And she needed quick answers out of Hank, which he’d obviously be unable to give if he were to speak.

“Old enemy. Been a pain in my ass for a while now.” He signed back, his hands trembling slightly. “You remember any of us talking about a clown? Doc having to resurrect me because of a clown? That’s the clown.”

“THAT’S the clown?! He doesn’t even look like a fucking clown!”

“He used to.”

“Used to- is he a zed? Was he throwing shit around with psychic powers?! How the fuck do we get out of this?!”

Hank didn’t reply back, he’d set his focus on figuring out what he was going to do to answer more questions. He didn’t get much time to do so though, because the rubble making their little accidental shelter was blown off of them, and there stood that clown. Before they had a chance to think, he swung his stop sign at them, which Hank quickly punched back as it came at him, throwing the clown off balance. Bank jumped to her feet and refocused her efforts on slowing him down, so she aimed her deagle and fired as many shots as she could before she emptied the magazine. The clown yelped from surprise as his body was pelted by bullets.

Despite showing very clear signs of serious injury, Hank was as vicious as ever, and immediately barreled into him once the bullet spray was through with. The clown dropped his stop sign and swiped a clawed hand across Hank’s neck, which, of course, got torn through pretty swiftly. Cloth, skin, blood, and muscle were flung to the side of them, and Hank made a disgusting gurgling noise as blood both spilled from and flooded his throat, and the clown took his moment of disorientation to try and go for his stomach. But Hank, despite his severe wounds, was still a combat lunatic, and snatched his wrist before he could make contact with his body. Almost as soon as his arm was in his grasp, he snapped it backwards, which, as you can imagine, pulled one hell of a screech out of the clown.

She was a good few yards away from them by now, so Bank dug through her jumpsuit’s pockets to retrieve another round she’d been keeping stored within, to reload her gun. She was well aware of the mortal wound Hank had just received, but she knew her dad well enough to know he was going to power through literally teetering on life and death if it meant he could tear someone to shreds, so she didn’t have anything to worry about regarding him. Taking cover behind a beaten up looking car, she peeked out over the hood of it and steadied her shaky hands as she aimed for their enemy. It would’ve been a pretty easy shot to take, if not for how fucking viciously both men were throwing and slamming each other around. They kept punching, and clawing, and jabbing, and breaking and pulling and handling each other so harshly, going around in circles as they lunged at each other and pushed the other away. But she had to take a shot eventually, so she did, and managed to shoot the Clown through his neck, which prompted Hank to snatch at the wound and rip apart as much skin and muscle from the bullet hole as he could. The glitched and disorienting sound of the clown’s screams reached a crescendo.

Before she could take another shot, the clown threw Hank into the asphalt. However, as he was flung into the ground, that laughing lunatic jabbed his fingers into the top of Hank’s head, which kept it from slamming into the floor with the rest of his body…but it was only a second before he smashed the front of his skull far harder into the ground, resulting in a loud and wet crunch. He then let go, and as he was shot through his arm with another of Bank’s bullets, his boot came smashing down onto Hank’s skull, and absolutely pulverized the guy’s head.

Blood practically exploded from the impact site, bits of viscera tumbled out from his shattered skull, and the clown’s heinous cackling became overbearingly loud and psychotic as he hopped away. Bank, upon watching her father be practically executed right in front of her eye, lost her balance, and staggered out from behind the shield of the car, suddenly screeching, “DAD!”

“DAD?!”

He stopped in his tracks, and stared intensely at Bank, like he was trying to analyze every bit of her in as short a time as he could. “YOU SCREAMED DAD?!”

If her face had any color in it, it would’ve been completely drained at that moment.

“HANK’S GOT A LIL’ TYKE?!” The clown exclaimed, looking from side to side, before he erupted into a fit of howling laughter once more. “HE’S HAD A KID THIS WHOLE TIME AND NO ONE KNEW?!”

“Get the fuck out of here! And stop fucking laughing!” Bank shouted, as she raised her gun to him, and unloaded the rest of the bullets left within it. He was blown backwards as he was hit again and again in his chest, abdomen, and pelvis, but instead of crying out in pain like he had been before, he just kept laughing. He didn’t try to attack back, he just laughed. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed so viciously he practically crumpled into a ball, holding his stomach tightly as he clearly ran out of breath to laugh, and just choked and spluttered on air.

Any skilled fighter knew to use an opportunity of distraction like this; Bank bolted over to him, and the second she came close, she swung one of her boots into his face, the arch of the swing starting from under his iron mask and ending with his head forced backwards and skin tearing from the sudden force. The clown grabbed her ankle and violently yanked, causing her to fall to the ground from losing her balance. There was a loud pop, and suddenly Bank felt pain screaming from her leg. She was not nearly as resilient as her father; she felt pain and she felt it hard, but she wasn’t about to go down from just a probably broken ankle.

The clown pounced, and tried to take hold of her neck. Tried, because Bank rolled to the side before he could grab her, and instead smashed his hand head on into the asphalt. A loud crack, and his hand was bent backwards. As he tried to fix it, he felt his mask get yanked from his head, and when he turned around to look at Bank, she swung down. The iron mask almost severed his head in two as it made violent contact with his face, and before he could repair himself, the mask was smashed into his face again, then again, then again, until he couldn’t even see when it was going to be slammed into his face again.

His jaw was battered, his teeth were scattered around his head, a majority of his skull was smashed to pieces and his eyes were reduced to mush. Bank observed her work, then flung the mask down into the gorey mess that was his head, and backed away, her chest rising and falling erratically. She felt a bit wobbly, she knew the adrenaline pumping through her body was making her unstable, but she needed to keep herself together for just a bit longer- who knew what that clown could bounce back from.

Trembling, she stumbled over to where Hank’s body lie, and peered down at the bloody mess of what was left of his head. She didn’t say or do anything, she just examined how fucked his head situation was, and how…well, she didn’t really know what else there was to take from his corpse. It was the grossly mutilated corpse of her father, and she’d witnessed him be reduced to this mess.

After standing there for a minute or two, silent and unmoving, Bank squatted down, and put her arms around his shoulders. She slowly stood, the pain in her leg now starting to hit fully. But she bore through it, as she lifted his body, and began to drag his corpse away from where it once rested. Even without the added difficulty of having a fucked up leg, this would be a herculean feat to accomplish, since Hank was easily a good couple hundred pounds heavier than she was able to carry, and his wide frame was difficult to keep a tight hold of, given how small she was. But, she was determined, so slowly, she dragged him away, focused on nothing else but making it back to the truck…which was miles away.

~

Hank had died before. Hank had died many times before. He had died so many times that despite his body being made of living flesh and organs, he was more corpse than human at this point. At least, he considered himself more of a corpse than man. But, well, he just couldn’t seem to stop dying.

Hank had died a number of times before, and this had been happening since Bank still had baby teeth. So, him dying wasn’t really any cause for concern; she knew Doc would be able to bring him back. It may just take him a little bit of time to. What Bank wasn’t very used to was actually watching her father die before her eyes. This was something she had witnessed 2, maybe 3 times her entire life. And she most certainly had not seen him be eviscerated in such a violent fashion, nor been the one to so viciously murder Hank’s executioner.

It wasn’t really anything about Hank dying, killing someone, nor the violence, that shook her, it was more just…maybe she shouldn’t have to deal with all of it at once, you know?

There was quite the commotion stirred when Bank returned to base, bloody and injured, almost delirious from the adrenaline crash she experienced while on the road, and with the disgustingly broken corpse of Hank stuffed in the backseat. A couple of the GOL3MS that’d been staffed came rushing to the truck as soon as her distress signal was received, many of the other employees ran out to bring them into the infirmary, and a clean up team got to work on the truck itself.

Doc was already awaiting the duo as they were brought in; since Bank was the one still left alive, he focused his efforts on healing her before anything else. By the time Doc was done taking care of her injuries, she’d finally passed out from the shock of the situation, and he could leave to start the process of reviving and healing Hank. Sanford and Deimos had yet to return home, so one of S.Q’s nurses stayed by Bank’s side as she slept, tasked with keeping watch over her in case something were to occur.

Upon receiving word of what happened when they returned to base, Sanford and Deimos booked it to the infirmary. Bank was injured and Hank was obliterated? Good lord, this had to be bad news.

Bank woke up to the sound of the commotion her uncles were causing, through her tired eye she could see them causing a fuss with the nurse at her post, until she made it known she was awake by patting the wall behind her, which caught their attention. Their fussing was then turned onto her, quick and worried questions like “What happened?” “How did you get out?” “What was the signal?” came at her at lightning speeds, and made her reconsider notifying them that she was lucid. She began to make a weird noise, and was slapping her hands together, and the duo then realized that they were overwhelming her, so they restarted.

“Ok, ok, Baby, mija, you’re ok right? What happened, what went down?” Deimos asked, much more gently, hovering his hands over hers to help give her something to focus on. Her hands stopped hitting each other, and instead just trembled beneath his palms as she tried to match his steadiness.

“How bad’s it hurt kid?” Sanford added, softly placing his hand down on her shoulder as he crouched down beside the bed, so he wouldn’t be towering over her anymore.

Bank stared at the space between the two of them, trying to summarize what had to have been only about 5 minutes of lunacy. “...We…we got to Nexus…and we were walking through the, the, the streets, we got to the middle of th-the city and then we, uh, we heard an explosion, and, um, that guy, the uh, the clown, he popped out of it and started talking big shit, and then he attacked us. And then he beat the shit out of, of, of Hank, and he killed him, and then I killed him, and then I picked up Hank’s body and dragged him back to the truck, a-a-and then I drove home, and now I’m here.” She stated, staring at a dirty piece of the infirmary’s tile floor. “Um, he, he busted my leg, and I just, um, I had to drag Hank b-back to the truck, and it, um, it was like a couple miles away, I think I fucked it up w-w-worse.” She looked back at her leg, which had already been wrapped up in a cast by now, thinking about how bruised and purple it looked while driving home.

“You walked all that way on a bum leg while dragging Hank around? Good lord…” Sanford sighed, glancing over to her leg. “Yer gonna take it easy for a whiiiiiile, lil’ buddy, your body’s gonna need time to come back from all that.”

Bank sunk into the bed, groaning loudly. Oh my god! More menial work!

“That was real impressive of ya’, yer one hell of a fighter to get through that on your own. I’m sure Doc’s gonna let ya’ pick what you get to do n’ who you get to work with once he lets you back in the assignment pool.” Deimos mused, setting his palms on top of her hands, “And if he doesn’t give ya’ free reign to pick, I’ll kick his ass, heh.”

She squirmed where she lay, the idea of going right back to everyday work so soon bothered her beyond belief. But there wasn’t much she could do about it, and she knew she couldn’t put up a fight about it. She’d just have to hope for the best.

“Baby, you said the clown jumped you two? You killed him?” Sanford now asked, picking up some of Bank’s face gear that had been removed while she was asleep, and rested on a metal tray on her bedside.

“Yeah, I, I uh, I caved his face in with h-h-his mask, I got him on the ground and I went for, for it.” She muttered, suddenly aware that her face was bare. She rubbed her cheeks, gently tracing the exposed muscle and scar tissue that came from the edges of her mouth- she’d gained a Glasgow Smile not too long ago. Knowing her face had been exposed for however long she’d been asleep unnerved her.

“You got up close n’ personal with him? Jesus Christ, you’re more formidable than we thought!” Deimos exclaimed, letting go of her hands so she could put all of her gear back on. “Yeah, Doc’s insane if he doesn’t let you have a say in what yer gettin’ up to ‘til yer leg’s all fixed up.”

Bank huffed, and focused on getting her mask and goggles back onto her face. “Who…Who even is that guy? I’ve heard y-y-you guys talk about a clown dude over the, the years, the hell is his whole deal anyway?” She asked, slumping against the bed once again when she had everything strapped onto her face correctly.

“Mmf, where do we even start…” Sanford muttered, leaning away from her as he crossed his arms. “Well, the guy’s a former Nexus scientist, which is probably why you found him hanging near the Science Tower, for starters. He calls himself ‘Tricky’ nowadays, but if you ever hear mention of a guy named ‘Hofnarr’, that’s what he used to go by. After Nexus fell, he worked as an assassin for the Agency, and Hank ended up killing him.”

“Orrrr he thought he did! Turns out he just mortally wounded him, and a zed got to his ass before he actually died, so now he’s a zed too.” Deimos interjected, “But, thing is, the shit he was doing when he was still working for Nexus Core involved dissonance energy, and he’d been infected with that crap looooooong before he was turned, so the dissonance prevented him from like, y’know, going all ‘mindless brain eater’ mode.”

“He’s a, a sentient zed?”

“Yup! And he’s got it out for Hank.”

Bank slid her hands over her forehead, and let out a long groan as she rubbed her skin. “Oh my god that’s sooo cool.” She spat.

“Honestly, you were probably gonna run into him sooner or later, regardless if Hank was with ya’ or not. Guy just pops up out of nowhere every now n’ then, in some real strange places.” Sanford said, shrugging. “Me n’ Dei have run into him a couple times, we’ve seen him just kind of chilling in the wastes or at clubs, he’s a real unpredictable dude.”

“Actually, he hasn’t ever really attacked us before, he goes on killing sprees sometimes but if Hank’s in the area, it’s usually only Hank that he focuses on tryna' merk, which makes me wonder, why’d he go after you too?” Deimos mused, eyeing Bank’s busted leg again.

Bank stayed quiet, looking down at her chest. “Uh, can, can you guys get Doc? And uh, can you, can you leave, if you’re all done with me…” She first asked Sanford and Deimos, then asked the nurse, who’d been silently listening to their conversation while standing a few feet away. He nodded his head, and went for the door to the infirmary, while Sanford and Deimos headed for the other door within the infirmary, which led to Doc’s surgical ward.

“He’s gonna be so upset.” Bank thought, panic starting to overtake her. “He’s gonna be so mad, he’s gonna be so mad at me, I don’t know how to fix this there’s no way to fix this words gonna get out and everything is gonna go to hell and it’s my fault I wasn’t detached enough I didn’t think I wasn’t thinking when I should’ve been thinking I’ve destroyed 20 years worth of work it’s so over I’m done for-”

Bank’s inner panic was interrupted when she heard the surgical ward doors open, and Doc walked through, followed by the other two. “Glad to see you’re up.” He said, awkwardly balancing pulling off bloody surgical gloves with both hands, while trying to use his cane. “Seems like you only sustained minor bruises and cuts that’ll scab over soon enough, your leg just needs to stay in the cast for a bit and then you’ll be good as new. I’ve already begun locating Hank in The Other Place and I was working on repairing his head while the extraction program searches for him. I expect to find him soon enough, maybe tomorrow at the latest.” His apathetic explanation ended as he reached her bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I fucked up.”

“I’d hardly consider this a fuck up, you’ve never encountered-”

“No, I fucked up, I-I called dad ‘dad’ right in front of him, he knows.”

The guy's faces were immediately painted with shock- well, she assumed Doc was visibly shocked, she couldn’t tell with the mask covering it.

Sanford and Deimos looked at each other, seemed to whisper something to the other, in a concerned tone, then looked at Doc, who hadn’t moved. He kept looking at Bank, who felt like she was about to explode.

“...Why did you call him dad.” His tone was strained.

“I, um, I, I shouted ‘dad’ after he crushed h-h-his head.” Bank answered, pulling at the blanket the lower half of her body was draped in. “...I-I- Listen, I, I’ve seen him get shot, I’ve seen him, him get stabbed and I’ve seen him drop dead and b-b-be killed I’ve seen it before and I’ve seen people get obliterated and I’ve seen people get destroyed and I’ve killed people and I’ve f-f-fucked people up before but I, I’ve, I’ve never seen dad get FUCKED up fucked u-up like that before and I’ve never seen it happen right in front of me and I just, I just- it’s different! When it’s him, when it’s Hank, and I know he’ll be fine I know you’re gonna re-re-revive h-him, I know it’ll be ok but it- I didn’t- I’ve never seen it-”

“Hey. Slow down. Breathe.” Doc interrupted her panicked rambling, taking a hold of one of her trembling hands so he could rub circles into her palm. She looked up at him, not meeting his gaze, but she looked close enough up near his face that he knew she was paying attention to him. “Given the situation, it’s only natural that you panicked. If I were in your shoes, I’d’ve probably done the same thing.” Doc set his hand around hers, and tapped her knuckles. “...I’m not sure what to do yet, he’s rather unpredictable so who knows if he’ll even spill the beans in the first place. But I’ll figure something out. I have more power over this state than most grunts realize.”

“Doc can do anything, y’ain’t got nothin’ to worry about, I’m sure of it.” Deimos chimed in, throwing an arm around Doc’s shoulder as he gave Bank a thumbs up. Doc stiffened, and slowly looked over at Deimos, who frowned, and let go of him.

“...Ok. I know you will, y-you’re at the top of the chain. I just…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to c-c-cause more work for you.” Bank muttered, sliding her hands across her arms so she could hug herself. She still wasn’t quite done being worried as all hell about the situation she’d caused.

Doc shrugged. “Probably would’ve come out anyway. Secrets are a pretty hard thing to keep forever, kid. I’d know.” He mused, letting go of her hands as he stepped away. “Sanford and Deimos, you’ll remain by her side until I’m done repairing Hank’s head. After which, help her down to the bunker and go about your nightly activities, just keep an eye on her. I’ll be holed up here until I’ve successfully extracted Hank, which is probably going to take a while. Dinner’s on you guys, don’t disturb me while I focus on retrieving him.” He announced, turning away so he could walk back to the surgical ward. “I’ll probably think of how to handle our new situation while I’m away, Baby. Only worry about your leg.”

A “Got it, Bossman” came from the three, who watched in silence as he disappeared into his bloody ward again. When he was gone, they looked back at each other, and Sanford pulled Bank into a tight hug, figuring she could use some comfort after the events she’d experienced. Bank reciprocated, and Deimos put his arms around the both of them.

~

Once she was let free of the infirmary and helped down to the bunker she called her childhood home, for the rest of the night, Sanford, Deimos, and Bank went about preparing and eating dinner, then played video games and watched TV until they got tired enough to go to bed. Her thoughts were plagued by that clown and his potential to royally fuck everything up.

Doc spent the night glued to his computer in the main surgery room, set beside an operating table that housed the bloody but repaired corpse of Hank, analyzing everything his extraction program was doing to locate Hank in The Other Place. He always knew he was going to revive him, but he was always a little worried that this time would be the time he was too late. He never wore that worry on his body, but god did it eat at him, every subsequent time taking longer and longer. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be much longer, and they could return to their beds that night.