Chapter Text
Shalnark frankly hated autopilot- no- despised it.
While it being a frankly good way to take down enemies in the last case scenario the after-effects we're just plain out awful. Pratically being immobilized for almost a week is awful, he hates it, he needs to do something, be productive, be some kind of help to the rest of the spiders which is why he tries his best to not use it.
Now is one of those times he has to and he hates every minute after it, especially since he doesn't know what the hell happened! Not getting that satisfaction of a victory is another con of using it.
Take now, for example, he has no idea what happened and is far more confused than he likes to by the state of the current room he's in. But for some reason now, unlike the other times, he just feels outright awful, even worse than he usually does, there's an ache in his chest, and he feels even colder than he usually does. There's an ache running deeply through his bones and embedding itself there and seeming to grow every moment he makes a slight movement.
He's in the middle of a room that's destroyed, the contents of the room strewn about all destroyed, there are some gun holes in the wall, and his arm has been grazed by a bullet once or twice with blood limply falls from the wounds, he can't really feel it, which he strikes off as adrenaline. There's a hole in the wall, a body lying in front of it, blood pooling around him, that's not including the other bodies around him, varying amounts of blood circling them. Shal looks down at his outfit, his chest has a heavy amount of blood on it, staining his clothing, the front of it is torn up to hell and if he squints he can see wounds there. His shoulders are coated in blood and one of his cheeks feels slightly wet and sticky there's also blood on his pants.
He shrugs, ignoring the pain in his neck, and says: "Ah... Blood," he chalks up the dull pain thrumming through his veins thanks to the adrenaline, he'll worry about it later, for now, he should try to get some of the blood off of him, specifically on his forearm.
"Yuck," He comments, attempting his best to swing off the blood on his forearm but it sends up a shock of pain that makes him wince, he settles for bending down- which hurts too, ouch- and grabbing a piece of spare cloth from the man's clothing and wiping it off, which only results in it smearing, his nose scrunching up in disgust as he throws it to the side.
It's about time he got back to the mission.
Every time he walks, a spike of pain runs through his body, but he ignores it, having already taken out the antenna in the back of his thigh, shaking off the blood- which once again, ow- and putting it back with the other, and continues slowly but surely walking. By the time he rounds the corner and is about to enter the catwalk that leads to the ballroom he hears yelling. He looks back and concludes they found the mess he accidentally made and ducks into another room, leaving the door slightly agape.
He hears people skirting around the corner, quick footsteps booming against the floor and echoing around the room. He grits his teeth as he moves out of view when his soon-to-be puppet peeks into the room, turning around when someone calls out his name. Carefully, biting back a wince, he plucks out one of the antennae's in his pocket and sticks it into the man's neck who lets out a yelp of surprise, then goes slack-jaw, eyes widening as he ducks into the room. He pulls out his phone and sees things from the guard's point of view feeling a smile grow on his face, he pushes a few buttons to make him pull out his gun and kill all the other guards, contemplating putting his puppet on autopilot.
But he does, having it check out the perimeter, killing anyone he viewed as a threat, which is killing everyone on the ballroom's catwalk as chaos reigns below, gathering ammo as it went along. Once the coast was clear, he walked out of the spare room, wincing with every step as the pain started to make itself apparent, and onto the catwalk that led to the overview of the mansion. His doll has been sent down the stairs, set on autopilot to kill the other guards while he stands back and watches.
Leaning against the golden railing he lets out a lighthearted laugh that makes his bones and chest ache as he stares down at the chaos.
It's beautiful, that's another thing he loves about this group when they all get the chance to gather and work together after so long of not seeing each other, with the exclusion of their newest member Hisoka, of course, but he loves it when they all get together after a while. The sound of gunshots rings out in the background as he watches the scene below him, it's beautiful in its own right even if it is slightly bloody.
Minutes pass, as anyone who tries to come up the stairs to the catwalk is shot down by his puppet, their blood staining the walls along with a gunshot. I'd really hate to be Shizuku for this, he thinks watching as more blood starts to stain the floor. Maybe they should have just gotten Phinks to do this dirty work, less of a mess, he thinks, then letting out a small snort at the next thought that comes into his brain, as if I have any room to speak, I look like one.
A few more minutes later, he hears the sound of loud footsteps booming through the nearby door he exited out of, followed by the sound of a vacuum cleaner which he can only conclude is Blinky eating. He's had pulled out his phone and ordered his doll to survey the area shooting anyone who was living until he's sure he's got them all; having it do a once over as a just in case. The heavy footsteps still and he hears a loud, booming voice ring out.
"Shal! You're bleeding out, stop!" Way to point out the obvious Uvo, he thinks, fidgeting with his phone.
It's not that he didn't notice he was bleeding out, he was aware, he just didn't think it was that big of a deal, nothing he couldn't handle, he had to help out with the mission!
So he doesn't stop.
As he does he feels a shiver running down his spine as he works, his head is slightly dizzy from having to strain his eyes from staring at the screen too long, but he doesn't care. He has the bodyguard turn their gun toward themselves, aiming it so it's directly flush against their forehead as he has them reload their gun. The screen of his phone blurs presumably by the tears that waterfalled from the man's face, or maybe it was because he was dizzy and it was just his vision, not that it really matters.
This mission couldn't leave any witness's so, he wouldn't.
He taps a button, then the trigger is pulled.
A loud bang rings out through the bloodied ballroom and he smiles, watching as static appears parallel to the bang as white noise emits from his phone's speakers, a drop of blood splattering onto his phone as he feels his grip on it lessen, the loud footsteps stilling at the sound, then approaching louder, this time, with more vigor.
"Awww," He coos, "how sad, you broke." his tone is cold and mockingly. Like how his phone stutters out white noise, white noise rings in his ears, that dull pain raging on slightly louder. Then, before he knew it, there's a warm hand on his shoulder, a large one at that, the digits spreading out over his clothes, the thumb lightly brushing against the nape of his neck. A hum escapes past his lips and leans against it, slightly fighting back the cold raging in his body.
"What happened?" The larger man asks, Shal just tucks his phone back in his pocket. I should probably go get that antenna, he moves out of the other spider's grip or at least tries to but the man won't let him.
"What happened Shal?" He asks a little gruffer than before, tightening his grip a bit tighter. "Mmmmm," He really isn't in the mood to answer.
"Shal,"
"Autopilot," He answers, tipping his head up slightly, letting his eyes flutter close. "I hate it," He begrudgingly says, his phone and the leftover antenna feeling heavy in his pocket. Uvogin just lets out a grumble, shaking his head trying to push him along. Shalnark lets out a few unsavory words which his friend gawks offense at and gives him a light shove that can hardly be considered 'light' when it comes to the other spider but he manages to catch his balance and they keep on walking.
As he walks, he feels something building up in his chest, then, he stills, feeling whatever was coming out with vigor. He starts to cough, spit, dripping from his lips as that hand tightens on his shoulder he can distantly feel a hand on his stomach, digits spreading out, and most likely be stained with blood. His frame violently shakes as pain warps its way through his body as he crumples slightly, bracing himself on the large hand as he grips onto it with all his might.
He feels tears burn in the corner of his eyes as his breath is forced out of his lungs, spit dripping onto the floor and staining his chin as a warm hand pats his back. The man above him stares pitifully, anxiously watching the man below him cough fervently, wincing as the sound resonated around the catwalk.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, the blonde eventually stopped coughing, wincing, he wiped away the spit on his chin, Uvogin easing him up despite how much he tried to shrug off the help.
"Easy," The Enhancer warns, placing a warm hand on his back, trying his best to stabilize him, he just tries to shake the taller man off but it works as well as you think which isn't very well.
"You should go see Machi," What do you think I was going to do after this was all over, he bitterly thinks, well, after getting my other antenna then I would have seen her. But he doesn't voice it, instead, letting Uvo move him along, not really in the mood for a conversation with how much his body is starting to ache with every second that passes by; he ends up tunning out the background noise, which also entails him tunning out the ever-so approaching vacuum near him.
He briefly registers si t hitting back the of his heel, he turns his head back, watching as Shizuku uses Blinky to try and suck up the blood at the back of his heels, the vacuum lapping at his own blood that leaked onto his shoes, chewing at the fabric of shoes.
"Shizuku," He says as Uvogin turns around to face her.
"Shizuku." It's as if she isn't even there which really shouldn't be much of a surprise now that he thinks of it.
"Shizuku Murasaki." At that, she finally blinks, looking up at him with her mouth somewhat agape. "Hm?" She asks, staring at him for a few seconds then, while hardly noticeable, her pupils shrunk a tiny bit as she focused on his cheek that was coated in blood. While she did this, she held Blinky at her left side, face up.
"Shalnark your bleeding," Shizuku survey's his body, looking him up and down as she points out the obvious. Uvo just scratches the back of his head, starring down at her as he quirks a brow. "I already told you that Shizuku,"
She shakes her head up at him, as Blinky tries to lick the blood off his face with its long tongue, he moves his head away from it, sucking in a tight breath every time it manages to graze his face with his tongue, hitting the cut on his face. "I don't remember you saying that Uvo," She answers plainly ignoring how Blinky was squirming out of her grip to try and lick and eat away the blood on him, Uvo's grip on his shoulder not allowing him to move away with how tight it was, although he tries.
Uvo just lets out a light laugh, going to pat Blinky on the head then ruffle her hair which just gets a curl of the lip from the woman. "Ah, your right," They all knew better than to argue with her when she was convinced on something like that. "but we should get going, Shal needs to get patched up," While he's saying this, Shal squirms slightly, trying to move out of his grip as Blinky gets a good lick of the blood of his cheek, directly hitting the cut, he winces, Uvo, obviously noticing it and pushing him along, insisting they should go with no resistance from him whatsoever.
As they reach the stairs, Uvogin tightens his grip on his shoulder, effectively stopping him from going down them. He briefly glances up at him and the taller man just shakes his head at him with a disapproving frown. "I really don't think you're in the state to do that,"
Ignoring him, Shalnark just squirms out of his grip and manages to stumble down a few steps until he trips, and Uvo manages to catch him by wrapping a large hand around his stomach to where he hangs by just that. He lets out a small hum, letting his sore arms hang at his sides. "I'm not letting you do that, not in this state,"
Shalnark just faintly hums, whether he's really there Uvo isn't sure or not. Carefully, as if he's a panel of glass, Uvogin edges him back so he can carefully scoop him up as Shalnark just hums along as he does, not even resisting as he usually would. Instead, he lets out low, incoherent murmurs, curling up to the warmth of his chest.
Making sure he watches his steps, holding the other man in his arms he walks down the steps slower than he usually would. As he's walking down the stairs, Phinks ends up walking into the room, a bag brown stuffed to the brim thrown over his shoulder, there's a splatter of blood on his cheek, some smeared against his clothing, a few cuts in his clothing but other than that, he was fine. Looks better than him, Uvogin thought as he stares down at the man in his arms.
The other enhancer walks up to one of the bodies and kicks at it, it doesn't move, he's not sure what the blonde expected, personally. As he walks down the final few steps, the other man looks up at the body he's kicking and at the two.
Phinks just eyes the two, if he had them, he would probably raise a nonexistent eyebrow at the two. "Hey, what the hell happened to you two?" Lightly, Uvo just shrugs, trying his best not to stir the man he's holding but unsuccessfully does that, obvious by the loll of his head and curl of his lip. "S'not me, it's him, found him like this,"
"Doesn't look pretty," The blonde comments, shoving his hands in his pockets as he looks away, Uvo only nods. "Machi should be outback, she's taking care of Nobunaga last time I saw her," He just nods again, muttering a small "Thanks" and turns around, walking towards the double doors under the catwalk, a slight pace in his step.
The more he walks, the longer the hallway seems to grow and the faster he seems to become until he breaks into a full-out sprint.
"Don't worry Shal," The taller man speaks, "we're almost there," Uvogin hurries in his pace, trying his best to swallow down his panic as he almost breaks into a run. "it's gonna be okay," He's not sure whether the reassurance is for his friend or for himself, after all, it doesn't look like he's going to answer. Despite how far away it seems to be getting by every moment he eventually does make it to the door, pushing open it with a sigh of relief.
The room he stumbled into is a waiting room, waiting benches align the wall, one occupied by his friend, Nobunaga, there's a desk at the left side of the room, some plants in the corner. It's mostly empty, with Machi nowhere in sight which makes his lip curl down slightly.
"God, did you fight everyone at once?"Nobunaga said, looking up from the blade he was currently sharpening, Uvogin just shook his head, nodding down at Shalnark. "'S not my blood, it's his," As he's talking, as carefully as he can, he sets the blonde down on a waiting bench, legs hanging off the end of it. Nobu peers over at the Manipulator, scowling slightly. "Is it even possible for a human to bleed that much?"
Uvogin picks up an unoccupied bench and drags it near the blonde, sitting on it, careful not to put all his weight on it, and shrugs. "Do I even want to know?" The larger of the two just sighs, threading a hand through his hair as he rests his forearm onto his knee. "Probably not,"
"Where's Machi?"
"She should be back," There was silence after that, which wasn't expected. The two had been friends for a long time, longer than when the troupe had started which meant you'd think there wouldn't be much trouble starting a conversation between the two. But with one of their fellow spiders currently bleeding out on a nearby bench, quietly still, it put a damper on the mood. They waited in deafening silence as they waited for Machi, occasionally interrupted by Nobu's faint humming as he tried to clean the blood off of his blade but not being able to tear his gaze away from his two fellow spiders to do it well.
Eventually, Nobunaga's humming ceased as the doors in the back of the room opened and Machi walked through them, looking slightly scuffed but nonetheless unharmed. Her eyes skim around the room until they land on Uvogin, resting one hand on her hip as she shifts the weight from one foot to the other.
"Do you need something Uvogin?" She asked not much concern in her tone. Uvogin in return stood up, gesturing towards his friend on the bench. "I need to you to help Shal," He said, not putting much thought into how he voiced it or what he said.
Machi, however just looked at the man then up at him with a blank expression, her eye twitching. "How do you expect me to help him if I can't properly get to the wounds due to the clothing?"
"Shit, sorry," He takes a short few steps and tries his best to take off the ruined tunic throwing, it to the side to where it lands at Machi's feet. She picks up the clothing and moves towards the desk, stuffing the clothing into the brown bag, scrunching her nose slightly as blood coats the tips of her fingers, which she flicks off to the best of her ability. She walks towards the two figures, upon getting in front of Shal she turns towards the larger man, waving him away as she picks a needle out of her pincushion attached to her fingerless glove, the sutures glowed a bright blue, nen radiating off of it. She holds it up above her head, staring blankly down at the blonde.
"I'll stop the bleeding first," She says to no one in particular, but Uvogin has a suspicion that it was meant for him.
In a split second, the nen suture wraps around the top of Shalnark's left shoulder, then his right, she uses her teeth to cut the glowing suture, then, lifting another suture above her head, it goes immediately above his pectoral's and wraps tightly around the skin, once again she uses her teeth to cut the suture.
"Are you sure that's safe?" Uvogin voiced, gaining a silent glare from the pink-haired woman. Almost immediately, he looked away, scratching the back of his neck as he shivers under her glare. "Right, right,"
She looks away from him, not even acknowledging him even more. "I'll start with his chest,"
Machi holds a glowing suture of nen between the pads of her fingers, laying her hand on the side of his waist, pushing him down, and bracing just in case there's any resistance from his part. "Starting nen stitches," In a blink and you'll miss it moment, the needle pierces his skin and then goes through another piece, loops of sutures being thrown all over the place as her hands snap from one place to another, glowing sutures attaching the skin together, filling in the gaps between the tissue and skin.
"Okay, all done there," Without any hesitation, she pulls her arm upwards, and the skin is pulled together, nen melding the skin together and the suture disappears into the thin air, pushing the needle into the pincushion. The suture above his pectoral wrapped around skin disappearing with it.
"Next I'll do the arms," She grabs her needle with the glowing blue nen suture sewing up the graze he had gotten from a bullet wound on his left arm, then the suture was cut, then she sewed the other one cutting that one with her teeth as well. Uvogin watched her intensely as she swiftly pierced his skin with the needle going all the way through it, then through the next patch of skin as in a matter of seconds, she had sewn up the wound, pulling her arm back and sealing it with one quick movement. "There,"
As she moves around to his right arm, she looks up, meeting his eyes coldly, immediately, he looks away, shying his gaze to the ground. "If your so worried then come hold his arm out for me," Thickly swallowing, he nods, getting up from his seat with a creak. Machi has him push the waiting chair away from the wall so she can reach his left arm. As carefully as he can, Uvogin holds the blonde's arm up for her, the man wincing as he lifts up his arm. She repeats the same process she just as she did before, nen radiating lightly off her body as he watches her work, lightly putting down his arm when she's done.
"Now, the cheek," Machi walks towards him, slender hand cupping the bloodied cheek and tilting his head towards her, Uvo frowns, his nose scrunching up and his brows creasing. "Nobunaga," The raven-haired man looks up from his blade at her, the blade he was supposed to be cleaning but had been drifting off to watching her perform her work. "Hmmn?"
"Go make yourself useful and get me something to clean his cheek off with,"
"Why do I have to do it? Can't Uvo go do it, he's been helping you before,"
"Because he's going to go round everyone up, our job is to get in and then out, simple as that." A glare sharpens. "So go get me that towel,"
With a groan, setting his blade aside on the bench, standing up and stretching his back. "Fine, but where am I supposed to get it?" With the roll of her eyes, she tilts her head in the direction of the desk. "There should be a bag on the desk over there, just go get it."
Wordlessly, but not without shaking his head he walks towards the desk to grab the small brown bag, while he's doing this Machi turns towards Uvogin and raises a brow. "Well? Go get the others unless you want us to get caught," Hesitant to leave he's friends side, he nods, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. "Yeah, I was about to go do that,"
Nobunaga grabs the bag and throws it to her, she catches it wordlessly, moving to cup his left cheek, grabbing the cloth, and carefully wiping his cheek, trying her best not to disturb the wound but gaining a wince when she does. She throws the blood-stained cloth onto a nearby waiting bench and pulls out a needle from her pincushion raising it above her head, the suture glowing a bright blue color. Just like before, but this time, it was completed in an even shorter amount of time, the wound was closed when she raised her hand up, skin melding together as nen suture dissipated into thin air. She pushed the needle into the cushion with the tip of her finger.
Blankly, she stares down at the man, her expression cold, but if you looked close enough there was a sliver of warmth and concern there, a small amount, but it was still there. "When you wake up you owe me 50 million jenny,"
In the background, Nobunaga lets out a small snort at the change of attitude and gets back to properly wiping down his blade.
"You know, I don't think I'll ever get over watching you and your nen stitches in action, even if I'm not the recipient of it." A cool voice spoke out, almost automatically upon hearing his voice, Nobu let out a groan, hitting his head against the back of the wall.
Machi just blinked, staring at the man with a stone-cold expression. "Whatever,"
"Don't tell me you're injured too?" Nobunaga groans and Hisoka just shakes his head kicking himself off the wall he was leaning on. "I just came to see what made Phinksy so disgrunte- uh-" A short figure who was hunched down pushed past Hisoka, jabbing thigh with a straight hand, which knowing Feitan, would probably leave a bruise.
"No call Phinks that, he no like, especially you," Hisoka simply chuckles down at the man, moving to kick at his feet which Feitan dodges easily. "Me no like you either,"
Feitan moves towards the door, scowling under his bandana, he slides it open and walks through and to the back of the building. Meanwhile, Hisoka saunters towards where Shalnark is, starring down at him with a smile.
"Do you mind if I..." He licks his lips. "Take him to the car?" Nobunaga watches him intently, tightening the grip on his blade. "Whatever," Machi drawls, picking up the bloodied cloth and picking up the bag off the floor, and stuffs it in there along with the blonde's ruined clothing. Can't have the police getting this, she thinks pushing the cloth and clothing a little deeper in the bag.
Nobunaga watches as the clown rests a hand under his chin, openly smiling down at the blonde. I think I will," He picks up the blonde effortlessly with a smirk and walks off toward the door that Feitan exited out of, the look on his face makes his knuckles turn white. Machi just turns to stare at him, waiting till Hisoka leaves and it's been a few seconds till she finally says something.
"If you're going to follow him I won't stop you, I'd actually advise it, I don't want to have to deal with him after what Shalnark will do to him if he tries anything." Nobunaga just nods and stands up to walk after him.
"I think I will,"