Archive of Our Own

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How were they supposed to get past this? All their instructor needed to do was look over, regardless of how quiet they were, and there was no way to stop him from doing that.

Actually…
It was probably really stupid. But they were allowed to be seen. Just not while trying to get a flower, so…
“These trials are really strict, huh,” Smart murmured, crouched behind a long display case that could hide all five of them as another pair of participants were spotted. Careless nodded sympathetically.

“I think—“

“We can’t just go in there. That’s how most of them are getting eliminated,” Sweet thought aloud. “We need a plan.”

He did have a plan. Sure it might be terrible, but he at least wanted the idea out there. “What if—“

“Maybe we should wait and… see…” Careless sighed, but even his counterpart trailed off as Careful tapped her shoulder, eyes trained on a new hero trying their hand.

Teamwork was clearly the name of the game, if their successful attempt was anything to go by. He guessed his irked expression didn’t show since no one noticed as Sweet began to explain her plan. Why was he so bothered by it in the first place?
Right, he had his own he wanted to explain. One that he would never get to. What was that plan?

“Good. Let’s go.”

Aaaand he was alone.
“Careless, that was genius! How’d you come up with it?”“He can’t see anything if his eyes are closed, can he?”
Despite the smile on his face, Careless couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit annoyed. Sure, Sweet’s plan worked (mostly), but he knew it would’ve saved a lot of time if he could just make his point. He knew he would forget it if he didn’t say anything, but getting steamrolled twice in one conversation, by the same person no less, was new.He debated talking to Sweet about it. But the group was in high spirits, and he’d hate to be the one to ruin that. Besides, it was one small thing. They all managed to snag a flower without being seen. They’d passed the first of what was sure to be many trials. It all worked out in the end.
“Oh, Zelia!”
Well, Happy was distracted anyway.Careless just gave a reassuring smile at his downtrodden expression. Zelia had quickly fled the scene, much to everyone’s confusion. But the past was the past. Everything was fine.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

By all the stars this was annoying. Flame was a friend, don’t get him wrong, but did he have to drag Careless off without a single regard for his resistance? Sweet was alone now, and he knew she didn’t want to be. Especially not after everyone had left her the day before. But here he was, being essentially held hostage and interrogated for gossip that was honestly none of Flame’s business.“Do you really forget things that often? Why does Careful always teleport when someone tries to talk to him? Oh, is Sweet’s cooking actually that bad? What about—”“I don’t know.” The only thing he’s forgotten is how many times he said that. Careless was trying to work for the love of all things calm and quiet. He thought that if he just waited long enough, Flame would eventually run out of questions and lose interest, but he underestimated just how long he could go on. It must have been hours since he was trapped in the dorm room, working on the same bomb because someone wouldn’t leave him alone. “Please, just stop,” he muttered, not that Flame heard him in the slightest.“You’ve been working on that the entire day. What is it? Can I help?” He was so used to tuning out Flame’s voice at this point that he noticed too late Flame’s hand reaching out.
“No no no— wait—”But who was he to stop the hot-headed boy from yanking out a random wire? He just sighed and resigned himself to yet another explosion.Flame was laughing.
No, honestly, who wouldn’t laugh after resetting hours of work by detonating it in your face?“I’m going out.”
Careless didn’t look at him as he abruptly stalked out of the room. The laughter stopped, and that’s all he really cared about. He bumped into Smart and Happy while trying to find Sweet’s dorm. They didn’t look like they were doing any better either. The three of them walked in a sort of silent solidarity down the hall.As they made it to the room, they found commotion already happening inside. Sweet had found new roommates, it seemed. They looked like they were having fun, which at least meant she hadn’t been alone the past day. It didn’t stop all three of them from being caught off guard as the heroine herself stepped out of the dorm. ”You look tired,” was the first thing she noted. She was right. “Did you not sleep well?”
Don’t you just love it when, after hours of listening to invasive questions, someone cuts you off with a glove to your mouth as Smart assured her that they’re fine, and we were just passing by, we slept fine, thank you very much? Never mind the fact that Careless was trying to apologize to Sweet for leaving her alone yesterday. Smart’s ego was much more important, naturally.He was lucky Careless didn’t have the energy to glare at him.“That’s great!” Sweet responded with a smile. “I was worried about how you guys were doing.” And with that, she walked away, closing his opportunity.
(Careless hoped to make up for the loss of progress later that night when Flame would be asleep. He was wrong, unfortunately, as the man managed to interfere with his work yet again and somehow set off a chain reaction that would’ve blown up more than just their dorm. He would have scolded Flame more had he not been knocked unconscious and Careless genuinely concerned for him. He just needed to thank Sweet for being able to prevent it in time, ignoring the fact that his project was destroyed again. But it worked out. Everything was fine.)

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

This… was weird. It was weird, right? Was it some sort of mistake? Why else would his target look exactly the same as Smart’s?
Careless was on the verge of asking their instructor about it when said counterpart wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “It just means we have the same person,” he said. “Don’t worry, you’re with me. We’ll finish in no time.”
Well, that was reassuring, he supposed.There was no way it was as simple as that. As the trial began and they found themselves in a part of the continent he swore he’d never been to, he combed through every part of his field of vision, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t be enough. His team were no strangers to how big the city could be. “How do they expect us to find her on such a large planet?” Careless breathed.“Shush, I’m looking for clues.”
He sighed, glancing at his counterpart. Smart’s eyes were locked on their target’s photo. He walked straight past Careless, not noticing him pause. He wasn’t too sure if it was a good idea to be so focused on the photos, but perhaps that was a benefit of working together. He could keep a lookout so Smart wouldn’t have to.That is, until he saw their exact person walk straight across from them. What.“S-Smart! She’s—”“That eyeshadow is from a very recent line,” he muttered to himself. How he knew that aside, it wasn’t very helpful.
“N-no,” Careless tried again. “She’s right—”“Right, so if she were hanging out anywhere, it would probably be a fashion store.”
With another sigh, Careless left him to it. If Smart insisted on doing it his own way, he would too. He was going to be useful.His counterpart wasn’t wrong, as Careless ran straight into a makeup store. His target was trying some on in a mirror, the same one she saw him through. He hardly made it a step inside before she threw a spray can at him. A little fed up, he caught it and threw it straight back without hesitation. It managed to knock the gun she pulled out from her hands and clattered to the floor.Seeing her weapon out of commission, she charged at him. Careless had seen this coming enough times to simply sidestep her. She was wearing a lot of makeup, he noticed as she slammed into the window behind him. Had Smart noticed he was gone yet?Reaching out to get her handprint was very much a mistake, as that same hand was suddenly closed around his wrist. She wrenched him forward, pinning the hand to his back. But she only stayed there for a second to make a dash for her gun lying on the ground. Careless rammed into her, but it didn’t stop her from throwing something at the ground and filling the room with smoke.
He felt a gust of swirling air to his side, but his impaired vision and blocked filters made it impossible to focus on anything. He made his way, somewhat blindly, toward the door, holding it open until the air had mostly cleared.“What happened?”Stars, had Smart not noticed?He glanced up as his counterpart approached, just beginning to realize something was even going on in the first place. “She got away,” he reported. The store was empty and her dropped weapon gone, but she shouldn’t get far. That gun was damaged, and she was going to want it repaired. Their best bet was to pray she didn’t have the expertise to fix it herself and go to a shop.“You saw her?” Smart cried. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did,” Careless responded flatly. If only he bothered to listen, but he let it go. They had more important things to do.He had to credit Smart for waiting at least half an hour each time he asked if they’d arrived yet. A lot of people didn’t have that kind of patience. What he couldn’t understand was why he so stubbornly denied water. Physical appearance aside, Smart was hot. He ran warmer than the rest of them, a fact Careless seemed to remember better than the hero himself did.
In the end, his role was support, and he would do that even if it was just buying water himself to break down the mental block. He did not understand pride, and he was keeping that bottle.Despite the fatigue, Smart still took the lead once they reached the closest (he would doubt that if weaponry wasn’t such an uncommon practice) shop, holding up— wait, wasn’t that his target photo? He didn’t remember ever giving it to him.
They were lucky the man running the shop had indeed seen her and that she just left. Even more so that she was still close enough to be easily tracked down.Careless was perfectly happy to net her right there, but of course, Smart explained how it wouldn’t be necessary if he could change her mind with the power of… love? Protagonist syndrome was strong in him, wasn’t it?Their target wasn’t having it either, if the shooting him without warning was anything to go by. Her first shot missed, which gave Smart enough time to set up magnetic forces that bent the next few shots away from him. Could he actually stop a bullet? Careless never thought about it.Focus.He dashed forward, net launcher in hand, with only a split second to notice Smart wasn’t following. That was concerning. The quicker they could get this done, the sooner he could take a break.His target was sort of a coward. After emptying her round on Smart and likely deciding reloading would take too long, she bolted. Granted, Careless would probably do the same thing if he had no other option, but she didn’t seem at all worried. Like she had something up her sleeve. Which meant the only reason she was running was to stall.
“Careless, wait up!”
Skies, really? Smart was incapable of taking the backseat for once, wasn’t he?
(Why was he so annoyed at that? That was how Smart had been their entire lives, wasn't it? What was different now?)But he didn’t have time to dwell on it as his target looped back, giving him a clear view of an identical woman punting Smart down the street. Seemed more important. “Stars, Smart, are you okay?”
His counterpart lifted his head at his voice, took a good look at his surroundings, and flopped back down. “Twins,” he muttered. “They’re twins.”It clicked. There wasn’t anything wrong with their target photos after all. With a pair of criminals, it only seemed fair that they sent a pair of heroes to take care of it, but Careless couldn’t help but wonder how fair it was from the perspective of the Trials.
Said twins were currently between him and Smart, making it a less than bright idea to try and cross the street at the moment. Careless froze as both leveled their weapons at him. Given a proper chance to reload and the fact the mechanic didn’t have any means of defense, he was pretty short on any chance of getting out of this unharmed.
“Watch out.”
In a move that was vaguely familiar, Smart shot up with a chain that wrapped around the two targets before anyone could blink. Careless wouldn’t be surprised if he had done that before, though the effect was ruined by the heavy breathing. Smart was still on the verge of overheating, but now wasn’t the best time to address that, was it?
“How do we tell which is our targets?” Smart murmured, masking the fatigue with surprising efficacy. The twins smirked, holding onto their last advantage. There had to be some way to tell them apart. The Trial couldn’t be impossible, right? There needed to be some minor difference…
Oh!“Did you figure something out?”
He guessed it showed on his face when he realized…He… realized…Motherboard.
He pretended not to notice the disappointment as the dreaded phrase, “I forgot,” fell out of his throat. He’d been doing so well with that.
A chime rang from… one of the pockets, and Smart pulled his timer out while the mechanic was still searching for his. “We’re almost out of time,” he muttered. “We need to do something now.”
Careless knew something. There was a way to tell them apart, he was sure of it. Their target photos were of different people, so there had to be a difference between them, even if it was just a slightly different position. Anything would give them some—
…What?
Where his thumb brushed his photo in an attempt to wipe off a bit of dirt, he found that it wasn’t actually dirty. It was… part of the photo. His target had a mole on her ear. Careless glanced up, and sure enough, one of the trapped criminals had that same mark. He’d seen it when she charged at him back in the makeup store. (That’s what he forgot!)
Smart was also walking towards her.Panicking himself into flinching, Careless bolted between the two, grabbing his target’s hand before his counterpart could. The scanner loaded, processed, and… came back correct.
Even knowing he had the right person, he couldn’t help the sigh of relief. It was short lived, as he was suddenly crushed by Smart’s way-stronger-than-he-looked arms. “Thank the stars he got it right,” he heard him mutter.Careless stepped back as Smart scanned his own target. Both devices chimed in completion, and in a flash of blue light, they were standing in the courtyard of the Alliance trials.
“How did you know who to pick?” was the first thing he heard when the scene around them settled down.
“My target had a mole on her ear,” Careless explained. “I saw it when we fought.” He supposed something as small as that would be easy to forget.
“Wow,” Smart said, surprised. “You’re great.”
Careless could only tilt his head slightly. He hadn’t done anything extraordinary. That tiny detail was almost definitely part of their Trial, which meant he was supposed to notice it. It was his blasted memory that stopped him from realizing earlier. Smart had absolutely factored that into his strategy, which likely explained why he was so adamant he figure something out himself. But it was strangely alienating. He was only trying to help, but… did he not think Careless was competent? Did he think it was his role as protagonist to carry the helpless one through the task?
He sighed.
“Sure. But what were you trying to do?” It became very clear that Smart had no idea which target belonged to him. By the stars, he hoped he hadn’t left it to what was essentially a coin toss. They were running out of time, but it wasn’t that hopeless, right?
“Oh, I…” his counterpart gave a somewhat sheepish laugh, “I was going to pick randomly.”
He definitely jinxed it. “Why?”
“Well, if I got it wrong, then at least you’d know what to do,” Smart explained.
Careless blinked. “You…” He was going to what? “You were going to sacrifice yourself?”
Smart tried to look aloof, but he faltered almost immediately when he caught sight of Careless’ mouth ticking upward. “Can’t be a protagonist without it.”It was there again, that saviour role Smart put on himself. Despite how highly he thought of himself, he did genuinely care about them. As irritating as Smart thinking he could get away with that was, he cared enough to risk failing so that Careless wouldn’t. He wasn’t perfect, but they managed to work it out in the end.
At least for now, everything was fine.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Why was he driving who thought he could do this why was everything moving so quickly what was he doing— Careless can’t remember ever having ridden a bike before. As a hero, he was much more accustomed to flight (even if it wasn’t his own) or plain running. Why everyone had got on the back, leaving only the front seat open was a mystery to him. Why did the Alliance have a four-person bike in the first place?“Got it,” he called, half panicked and half annoyed, to Sweet. It had been, who knows, maybe ten minutes of shaky pedaling, listening to her shout out instructions that honestly made him wonder why they didn’t just switch places. Was it just a vocal thing to make herself less anxious? Because he could understand if it was. Otherwise, it was just plain annoying to be told, “Turn left! No, right! Be careful!” almost on loop.
“Careless! Ahead of you!”Yeah, because that was super helpf— oh stars they were falling—So. He crashed the bike into a ditch, and now it was a pile of parts. That was his fault, he’ll admit. “Don’t worry,” he said out loud. “I can fix it.”
It was simple, really. Wheels connected to the axel, supports connected the bodies to each other, handles connected to the sides, and—“Careless, is that a cannon?”
He glanced at Sweet, then back at the— yeah, it really was a cannon. “Sorry,” he murmured, dropping the screwdriver he was using. He must have forgotten what he was doing and defaulted to building a weapon.
“Let me try!” Little M called, picking up the screwdriver from the ground. He gave the cannon a swift kick, causing all the unfastened parts to fall to the ground. Careless winced, but he gave no notice as he began to reassemble the pieces.
It was… impressive, how quickly he managed to do it, but something was off. He missed a step, Careless realized as he spotted a handful of bolts and screws still scattered on the ground. “I don’t think—““Little M, that’s amazing!” Sweet praised, not noticing the annoyed huff Careless gave.
“Now, we just need to get it out of this ditch,” Bai Lianfa said, giving the bike a pat. The next noise that came out of his mouth was something akin to a squeak as one of the wheels tilted and landed on his foot. Careless could have predicted this, but he was still somewhat surprised when the hero froze for a full four seconds before collapsing.
“Are you alright?” Sweet cried, sighing when he gave an affirmative. Bai Lianfa smiled at her, but his face darkened almost the moment she looked away, glaring at Little M. Careless decided then and there that he didn’t like him.
“We’re losing time,” Sweet murmured, beginning to pace with the book tucked to her chest. “Let’s just,” she hesitated, then gestured to the air, “bubble.”
Careless had to imagine traveling by floating translucent sphere was an odd experience. But he’d been doing this since he was activated, and he let his thoughts wander back to the bike. He really thought the cannon had potential. He kind of wanted to get his hands on another one just to see what he could do with it.It was a relief when they finally made it back, touching down in front of the bridge to the main entrance. The next trial was going to start soon, and they’d been cutting it close with all the delays they’ve had. Careless and Sweet both landed easily as the bubble dissipated, but he saw Bai Lianfa struggle to keep his balance and Little M straight up fall and knock over a nearby machine.Huh, since when has that been there?“The trial began thirty seconds ago,” it began, seemingly waiting for them. “You are late.”They were late. That was all Careless could think about as they dejectedly crossed the bridge. They were thirty seconds late. Thirty seconds and everyone was already gone.
… Why was everyone gone?They all spread out, exploring the empty field. Possessions were still scattered around. Careless picked up a sword, noting its double thrown halfway across the field. He made these, modeled after Kalo’s blade form. He had been so proud to present Careful with them. He would never leave them behind…“What’s this?” Little M called, having picked up a phone. Yellow with a stylized hat— it was familiar.“That’s Bea’s phone, isn’t it?” Bai Lianfa answered.
As everyone came closer, Sweet took it from Little.M. “It’s still recording,” she murmured. Her words opened the floodgates, as the screen was filled with messages from worried viewers. “Uh, hi everyone.” She gave a nervous smile for the camera. “Does anyone know what happened?”
She got her answer, but she also got about two hundred of them. Everyone talked over each other, causing the chat log to move too fast for them to glean anything useful. Careless saw Sweet mouthing the few words she caught. Her eyes widened as “kidnapped?” barely escaped her lips.“Okay,” he cut in. “We understand you’re all worried.” Sweet caught on and angled the phone towards him. “I think we’re going to end the live stream so we can see the recording. We’ll figure out what’s going on, I promise.” Careless also gave a smile but found himself struggling to keep his mouth upturned. Something was wrong.With a polite farewell, Sweet ended the livestream and rewound the video, holding it out so they all could see it.
“Hi, everyone! Bea here! Today’s the third round of the trials! I wanted to get here early, and it looks like a lot of people had the same idea.” Smart walked into view of the camera and, in typical Smart fashion, started posing. “Don’t forget to cheer me on! I promise I’ll do my best!” She appeared to notice Smart at that point, subtly angling the phone away from him. A moment later, she looked past the camera, glancing around as the screen slowly began to turn purple. Their instructor called out to them, too far from the microphone to be heard properly. His warning wasn’t fast enough, as whatever was in the air started making the people around him collapse, and Bea was no different. The phone fell to the ground with a clatter. Thanks to the pole attached, it managed to land sideways, capturing the unconscious streamer as she was dragged off by a cloaked figure.There were a handful of panicked voices, most notably from their own team, demanding to know what happened. It devolved into clashes and grunts of effort. Smart briefly reappeared on the screen, skidding backward before he leapt back into the fray. Then, possibly the scariest part of the recording, a scream.
“Hide,” came a muffled voice, and the four of them pretended not to hear Careless and Sweet calling their shadow’s name. “Someone needs to warn them about—” A struggled gasp cut him off, all the rapid footfalls and impacts dying out to be replaced with dead silence.
Sweet paused the recording.

“They were…” Captured. She couldn’t finish the thought, nor did she need to. They were the only ones left.
A sudden trickle of dread travelled up his spine. We’re not alone here. Something was sneaking up on—
“Watch out!”
Careless whipped around as a cloaked figure landed in front of him. His stance widened, and he could hear the others behind him preparing to fight. He wasn’t sure any of them could take on direct hand-to-hand combat. It wasn’t their style. But there wasn’t time to dwell on it as the figure charged, and he reached for the pistol he knew was at his side.A quick flash and a crack of air knocked the mysterious person off course, and a new but more familiar character sprung onto the field.“Nines?” Careless called, and she nodded. But her stance sagged, not standing up to her full height. She was breathing heavily, and the arm that held onto her signature whip like a lifeline was trembling.“So that’s where you’ve been hiding,” the figure sneered. They had one of those voices that sounded eerily like someone you knew. Careless didn’t like it. “Hand over the book,” they demanded. Sweet tightened her grip around it and didn’t move.
Nines flicked her wrist, sending out wave after wave of attack, still shaking as she did. The figure deftly ducked one and sidestepped the next. They got closer with each step, and Nines, noticing, prepared to evade the next punch they threw her way. She just barely avoided it. Barely enough that she wasn’t ready for them to whirl around with a second hit that slammed her into the ground. Sweet gasped as the figure reached for her neck, but it was almost entirely drowned out by a sharp BANG. Careless, in contrast to Nines, stood as still as a statue, not even flinching from the recoil of a shot that pierced a clean hole in the figure’s cloak. He missed, but he was sure his message worked out. Their eyes were barely showing, but he saw them narrow.
Quick as the wind, the mysterious person was gone, leaving them… fine?

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Nines wasn’t doing much better, even indoors and away from the battlefield. They seemed to be forcing theirself to stand straight out of politeness, trying to breathe heavily and quietly at the same time. And she was still shaking. “Nines, maybe you should—““What happened?”
Nines didn’t answer immediately, causing the question to linger in silence. “The gas,” she murmured. “I-it appeared before the trial… was supposed to start. Th-they took every… everyone.”
“Wait a minute,” Bai Lianfa cut in, sticking a hand in front of her. “Then how come you weren’t taken?”Nines’ breathing still hadn’t calmed down. It was starting to get worrying. “I was on… the roof. Far enough not to get… knocked out.”
“But not far enough to be totally unaffected,” Careless added, the problem clicking as he said it. It explained the shaking and possibly the breathing but not everything. Nines looked at him and nodded.
Suddenly, she staggered forward. Careless, having been on edge for that exact reason, was ready to catch them. “Nines?”No response.The worry that flooded him nearly drowned out Sweet ordering them to the nearest bed, her own. “We should’ve gotten her to sit down,” she said aloud, voice packed with the same amount of concern he felt. Her hands glowed periodically as they hovered over different parts of Nines’ body.“I was going to,” Careless muttered under his breath. Sweet didn’t notice, not with her concentrating on making sure Nines was alright.
“She’s… really hurt,” she reported. A pang shot through him, realizing the injuries were likely from the fight they watched. Careful must have ordered them to retreat. That was why she was nowhere to be found when they got there.
Someone needs to warn them. They were them. It was up to them to… Was someone’s phone ringing?Careless glanced around the five of them, trying to locate that sound. “All we can really do right now is make sure she rests.”
“Little M, is that you?” he asked, giving a quick nod to Sweet to show that he listened. Everyone fell silent, finally allowing the quiet ringtone to be heard.
“Huh? Oh.” Little M fished out his phone, answering it. “Hello?”
The room was silent. Careless was able to hear the voice on the other side of the call. What was much more telling, though, was the sudden spike of fear on his classmate’s face. “Your voice is really scary. Do you mind changing it?”
He had to stop himself from facepalming. This is Little M, he reminded himself. That’s who he is. Little M held out his phone to the four of them, turning on the speaker.“—kidding me? Do you want your friends back or not?”
Their friends?Bai Lianfa took the phone as Sweet successfully managed to stifle a gasp beside him. “What do you want from us?” he demanded. His eyes flicked up to each of them before he added, “I’ll do anything to get them back.”
The caller chuckled darkly. “The Book of Cores. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”Nobody replied, all glancing at the book Sweet had left on her night stand. Why? Careless mouthed, getting the response, Must be important, from her. She shook her head. “When and where?” she asked.“Your friends are on a spaceship set to crash into Star. If you want to save them, you will board Valley Park’s Ferris wheel at 5:30 P.M. When you reach the top, I will meet you. I have the only remote that can stop the ship. Come 6 o’clock, it will reach its maximum speed and can no longer be stopped.”Careless was… not going to remember that.
“Wait a minute,” Sweet demanded. “Prove you have our friends. Prove they’re safe.”
There was a long pause. The caller, though obviously annoyed, didn’t make much noise. Just a keyboard clicking as they did… something. But sure enough, a notification appeared at the top of Little M’s screen.Unknown number: Video attachment“The book,” they reminded, and the line was disconnected.
Sweet flicked through said book as Little M opened the video he was sent. It appeared to be security camera footage, staring down a hall that was lined end to end with… containment tubes. Each one filled. Careless felt the dread shoot through his chest when he caught sight of Happy. The sickly green glow of the tubes clouded the room so that even the comet that passed by the window was tinted. He shivered. They weren’t playing around.
“All this for a book,” Sweet murmured when he approached her. “What information could it possibly hold?” She flipped ahead through the pages, taking care of the aged paper.“You can’t actually be considering giving it to them, right?” Careless asked. The sigh she gave was not the answer he hoped for.
“What choice do we have?” she countered. “It’s their lives. We can’t take any chances.” With another sigh, though this one sounding more like one of preparation, she flipped back to the beginning of the book. “Just give me… ten minutes to memorize everything.”
Clever. Careless nodded with a step back, confident she could do it. Sweet scanned the pages so intently he could see its reflection in her eyes. That is until a camera flash caused her pupils to suddenly shrink.
“Just take a photo,” Little M suggested, dangling his phone in front of her. It sounded great, but he couldn’t help but worry about the resolution. Would a phone’s camera be able to capture all the details?“Are you sure about—”“Good idea.”
Careless pressed a hand to his temple, not really caring about the weird look Bai Lianfa was giving him. You know what? Camera technology had improved a lot since he was activated. It was probably fine.
“Next,” Sweet began, tucking away her phone and hugging the book to her chest, “We need to split into two groups. One will make the trade and the other will rescue everyone.”
Little M stood on one of the beds, the motion grabbing everyone’s attention. He stood up straight, head held as high as his small stature could raise it, and declared, “I will stay here!” much to everyone’s chagrin.
Bai Lianfa gave him the most patronizing look Careless had ever seen as he said, “All by yourself, huh? I guess I’m staying to protect you then.”
“Alright.” Sweet’s gaze flicked to him. “I can’t force you.” Their eyes met, and with a nod, that was the last word said aloud.Their dorm room just seemed too quiet, even though this wasn’t the first nor would it be the last time less than three people were in it. The only noise was the faint whirring of some hidden ventilation, and even that was deafening compared to everything else. Both Careless and Sweet paced the room, finding anything they needed to put in the bags they prepared. Bai Lianfa had decided to stick around but was reduced to just watching the two do their thing.
A sinking feeling took residence in Careless’ chest. He was worried. He was scared. He was on a mission to save almost fifteen lives while over half his team was missing. All while he needed to work with people he knew but didn’t know. And the remaining team he did have? He couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t going to work out. Something was going to go wrong, not because of the mysterious person but because of them. Because they were no longer on the same wavelength, and he didn’t know how long it had been that way. He and Sweet had worked together since forever. Why would this be any different? Why did there have to be this sort of disconnect, during one of their highest stakes missions no less?
“Do you think we can do it?” he eventually whispered.“We won’t know if we don’t try, will we?” Sweet only paused for a brief moment to meet his gaze, but for just that moment, they were finally in tune with each other.“I’m going too!”They turned to see Little M standing in the doorway, wearing a cape nearly twice as tall as he was and dragging it across floor, looking dramatically off into the distance.“What made you change your mind?” Careless asked, happier than he should be to know he would come along. Maybe they didn’t click like he and Sweet used to, but he took solace in the fact they weren’t supposed to.
“Big M taught me how to be a good person,” Little M explained. “I can’t just sit and watch while everyone’s in danger!”
That… didn’t make much sense, given his insistence that he remain on the planet. But Careless saw his classmate’s face fall when he thought no one was looking, a much deeper and worried expression taking over. There was more to his story, and he could accept that.
“That’s very brave of you, Little M,” Sweet commented, and they smiled at each other. Careless noticed Bai Lianfa didn’t respond with the same enthusiasm. He knew that they didn’t know each other that well, but it didn’t explain why he looked so crestfallen— why was Little M holding his wrench?His classmate pulled a face as he took it from him but didn’t complain. “Now, we need a way to track down the ship,” Sweet continued. “We can’t wait until it’s close to Star.”“There could be something in the footage he sent,” Bai Lianfa suggested, causing Sweet to lock onto him.
“They sent security footage? Show me.”
She watched the recording, and they watched her, eyes darting back and forth across the screen. She squinted, played it back, and showed everyone a particular frame, zoomed in to display the window opposite the camera.“A shooting star!” Little M cried, taking the phone from her. “Please bring Big. M back safe and sound,” he begged, seemingly unaware of everyone watching him.
“A shooting star…” Sweet murmured, trailing off.“Comet,” Careless corrected, but she didn’t seem to notice, somehow on the other side of the room. She pulled a whiteboard tucked away in the corner to the middle of their group.“There’s a lot of stars with comets orbiting them,” she explained, drawing out a rough star map. “Mirach, Regulus, Lotai…” She redrew the star as she trailed off then stepped back. “But it’s too many. It doesn’t narrow anything down.”
Careless vaguely registered Little M showing her something on his phone. He was familiar with star charts. Not very well versed but familiar. Sweet hadn’t labelled the stars, but he could guess that Mirach was probably… why was she holding a marker at him.He stared back for a moment, realizing what she wanted from him with a start. Taking it from her, he turned to the whiteboard and began writing as she started to piece together information behind him. The comet in the window passed by close enough to be recognized, and the fact the ship had a window meant it likely wasn’t designed to enter atmospheres as fast as this one was definitely going to. It also had enough space to hold everyone in individual containers, which pointed to a cargo sort of build. Careless had no problem keeping pace with her voice as calculation after calculation appeared on the board.
He missed this, being able to work so seamlessly with Sweet. They didn’t have much time to geek out over the things they used to as of late, and that wasn’t mentioning the weird discrepancy that he wasn’t even sure she noticed.“Assuming it has Star levels of technology, we know how fast it can accelerate, so we can figure out… how long…”Sensing her trail off, Careless paused to look at what he’d written so far. “They can’t have been taken more than two hours ago,” he supplied. She nodded, scanning over the board herself. A smile tugged at her lips. She figured something out.
“There’s only one comet within two hours of Star.” She showed him Little M’s phone, displaying information on Lotai. Distance from Star, the planets orbiting it, the comet. With its current position, he could get the general location of the ship, and with that…
“If we’re not wrong, we can track it down,” Sweet finished, watching him write. With a little flourish, Careless marked the last equation. He turned to their makeshift team, capping the marker. He doubted Little M and Bai Lianfa understood what he did, but he’d be happy to explain.Wait, they didn’t have time for that.“Catching up will t—““We can get there in an hour.” He glanced at Sweet. She was right, of course, but he was just about to say that. “Good job,” she continued with a proud smile.
And just like that, whatever connection they had was broken. He never liked it when fixes were temporary. You couldn’t trust those. He just sighed as he began to wipe off the whiteboard.“Impressive.”
He flinched into dropping the eraser. Nines just watched as he hastily picked it up and came to her side. “You’re awake!”
“And you have a lead,” she said.
“Yeah.” Careless glanced back to where Sweet was talking to their team. “We’re going to track down the ship everyone’s being held on.”
Nines nodded. A rustling noise caught him off guard, and she began rising with all the steadiness of a newborn foal. “Woah, woah. What are you doing?”
They only paused once they were fully standing up. “Going with you.”
Careless gave a stressed huff, coming off more annoyed than he meant. “You’re injured. I don’t think you should.”
“Careless,” they pressed, “I’m not going to sit still when I can do something to help.”
“Can you?” He took her hand, raising it between the two of them. “Whoever that mysterious person is didn’t leave you in the best shape.” He let go, leaving her hand suspended in the air where it almost immediately began to tremble of its own accord. “And the effects of the gas still worries me.” Nines dropped her hand, looking off in a direction that was not him.
“Nines, please. I don’t want to see you get worse.”
They didn’t move for a long moment, still very interested in the vent across the room. Then, with a complicated sigh, they sat down. “Just… keep in touch?”
Careless smiled, tapping the side of his communication pad. After about two seconds, Nines’ phone began to ring. “I promise,” he said, voice doubled by the device.A sense of relief washed over him as she settled down. Nines listened to him and would stay out of it, which was more than he could ever hope for when one of his team was injured. “We’ll get them back,” he promised. “You can count… on…”
The room was empty.Nines looked around as well when she noticed him trail off. It was blindingly obvious that they were the only two in the dorm. Had they seriously left without him?
“Careless! Come on!”
That answered his question. With a sigh, he gave a nod to Sweet as she reappeared in the doorway and quickly scooped up his bag. He smiled at the quiet, “Good luck,” before turning to follow his teammate, who hadn’t waited for him.
They were going to work it out. They would be fine.
They would be fine.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Careless never really liked the dark. He couldn’t do much in it; read, work, fight, see .But flying through space, it was the only thing around. The only source of light was the distant pinpricks of stars and his dashboard as it lit up with controls and communications. All he had was the cold, empty vacuum and the thin hope that it wasn’t actually empty.He could sense more than see Sweet and her Knight cruising alongside his, connected by the channel shared between all five of the heroes. Nines was manually patched in, Bai Lianfa saying he would tune in later since he was the one making the trade. The communication line was completely silent.
The weight of what they were doing was slowly sinking in, making each passing second unbearable, the already small hope dwindle until he couldn’t see it anymore. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake in the calculations. That they were headed in the right direction. That they could figure out a way to stop the ship. The scar on his arm tingled, a reminder of his last solo mission to save the others. But he wasn’t alone this time. He had—“An asteroid! It’s gonna hit us!”Instinct kicking into high gear, Careless’ Knight stopped dead in its tracks (as much as it could without a point of reference), then drifted to the side in an attempt to dodge. A threat. And he didn’t know what direction it was coming from. “Careless? What’s going on?"“Give me a second, Nines,” he murmured, eyes landing on Sweet’s Knight. She rocketed forward now that he wasn’t moving. The pink and white machine slowed, noticing the distance now between them. “Swe—!”“The army! They’re gonna get onboard! We have to fight back!”With a jolt, realizing he hadn’t already, Careless deployed the missiles embedded in his Knight’s shoulders, feeling them as if they were his own. Both Knight and owner stood tense, ready to fire at the first moving thing they saw.…He didn’t see anything.“Little M, where did you see the…” Wait a minute, what did he see again? An army?
No response.Ignoring his mind, which was screaming at him for even thinking of being distracted right now, Careless took his eyes off the empty space in front of him. He turned to his passenger, sitting on the floor of the interior. In the silence of waiting for a response, he could vaguely hear 8-bit-style music.“Little M!”
His classmate jumped harshly enough that the telltale game over tune started playing. “Now is not the time!”
Little M just gave him an annoyed look that quickly turned to temptation to keep playing. “We’re not even doing anything. Video games are how I pass the time.”
“… You’ve got to be kidding me.”“Stop playing!”
He rolled his eyes only to be met with matching glares from the heroes. “Fine.”
Careless huffed, returning his gaze to the outside. Honestly, he appreciated his friend’s positivity, but this had to be a joke.
“Careless! There’s something up ahead!”
He squinted, eyes locking on to a faint speck. A monitor popped up, displaying a close-up. He mentally thanked his Knight, analyzing what he now recognized as a ship. Definitely had the cargo build, but was it the ship?“Let’s get a closer look.”
In unison, the Knights sped up to catch up with the ship. Sweet fell into line with it while Careless focused on the door in the back. “Careless, it’s them. They’re all in there.”
“Mm.” The sudden tinge of fear in her voice was not comforting. Together, they wrenched the door open, and Sweet safely carried everyone inside.
It was the sudden noise that hit him when they entered. The rumble of the engine, the no longer muffled jets from their Knights, the machinery keeping everyone in… those. Careless felt everything he’d heard in Sweet’s voice when she looked through the window. The security footage didn’t hold a candle to this. They looked so calm, so peaceful. So wrong. Careless caught sight of the other half of his team, stopping just short in front of them. Could they really do this? Everyone was depending on them and they didn’t even know it. They didn’t know they were in danger. They didn’t know how badly he wanted them by his side.
A gloved hand landed on his shoulder. “We’ll save them,” Sweet said, the fear still there but drowned out by determination. Her face hardened. “Get to the cockpit and see if you can stop the ship.”
“Shouldn’t we find a way to wake everyone up first?” Careless asked. Their friends were right there . He wanted them safe before he could do anything else. Sweet’s hand tightened on him.“We’re on a time limit, Careless,” she explained calmly. How was she so calm? “Our first priority is to remove it. We’ll have all the time to wake them up when we’re on the ground.”
With a nod, he headed to the front, only half jumping out of his skin when Sweet yelled to stop playing video games again.
The ship’s navigation was locked in. He couldn’t reprogram it. He wasn’t the best at hacking either, if the constant Warning: Deviation from the original path is prohibited message was any indication. Doctor was better at it. Careless sighed, this one much more frustrated than the one ten seconds earlier. Stupid ship that was going to kill everyone he loved. Stupid navigation that refused to stop or turn. It couldn’t even steer around obstacles if it happened to meet any.
Steer.He glanced at the steering wheel. He doubted the brakes worked, but at the very least, the wheel might…Tentatively taking a seat in the pilot’s chair, Careless took hold of the wheel and gently turned to the left.
The stars rotated. The ship turned . A grin made its way onto his face. He couldn’t stop the ship, but at the very least he could make sure it didn’t crash. They had time to—
Warning: Deviation from the original path is prohibited. The path will be corrected accordingly.
Much sharper than he had done (he heard a crash in the storage bay), the ship righted itself, back on its collision course with Star.
Careless bit back the curse that rose in his throat. He wasn’t going to act out. He was better than that. Still, he didn’t resist the temptation to shove the wheel backwards, accidentally setting off the horn. Why did a cargo ship even have a horn?Frantic beeping brought his attention back, and he slowly pushed himself off the floor from where he fell out of the chair in surprise. One of the monitors had picked up nearby objects. A lot of them.
Oh no.He didn’t need to turn around to hear Sweet and Little M rushing in as he called them. No explanation was needed, as what the monitor had seen was now clearly visible through the windshield. A massive collection of surprisingly densely packed rocks. “The ship can’t stop or go off course,” he explained quickly. “That remote is the only thing that can stop it.”
It was getting closer. A stray pebble hit them with enough speed to rattle the ship. Sweet stumbled before grabbing the chair for balance. “Of course, they’d drive us through an asteroid belt,” she murmured.
“Asteroids in belts are actually very far apart,” Careless corrected. “This is more likely a massive one that blew up for some reason—”
“Careless.”Right. Not the time. “You and your Knight sweep the area. You need to clear a path.”
He nodded and was halfway outside before realizing something. “Sweet, my Knight only has explosives on it.” His counterpart had already sat down, hands on the wheel, and didn’t respond. “Blowing them up will only break them into smaller—”
He stumbled forward as the floor suddenly tilted. He turned to find Sweet jerking the wheel back to its original position, shaking. “Careless, please go.”
“But—”“Go!”
The temporary loss of focus had them scrape against another rock. Careless just hummed an affirmative and left, calling his Knight closer as he approached the back door. Being put in control of the ship spiked Sweet’s nerves, and the rapid shift from composed to barely restrained panic in her voice was not something to be trifled with.Battling with the lingering apprehension, his Knight slowly overtook the ship. He could break the rocks up into pebbles, but at the speed they were going, they would still hit the ship like bullets. Still, he tried to angle his shots so that they would be blasted away.“Careless?”“Sorry, Nines.” Stars, how had he forgotten about her? Their communicators were short-range, meaning she could only reach them via their Knights.
“It’s alright. Did you find them?”
He hoped his Knight could handle things. “Yeah. Working on getting the ship to stop.”“It’s 5:30. Bai Lianfa should be making the trade soon.”“Already?!”
They only had half an hour before there was nothing they could do. That trade had to be successful. They needed to do this. He needed to protect the ship. He couldn’t fail. He couldn’t let anything happen to— “Careless, you’re doing great.”“You don’t know that.”“But I know you.”
He bit back the “barely” on the tip of his tongue. He needed the reassurance. He needed to get through this. He needed to stop being so nervous no matter how terrified he was or else something would slip.It didn’t get much better when he noticed Sweet join them, covering the entire ship in a shield. He could almost see her flinch through the Knight’s stoic stance each time a shard struck her barrier. He knew this would happen. He didn’t say anything.
He trusted Little M. Even as he watched the ship swerve and overcorrect and accidentally crash head on into a boulder he missed. He knew his classmate was trying his best, even though the hit Sweet must’ve taken made him cringe. He was the only one left who could pilot.Two massive hunks of rock loomed ahead of them, catching Careless so off guard that the bubble nearly bashed into him. This must have been the original asteroid that the pieces came from. He couldn’t blow that up. There was a sliver of space between them, but the two halves were rapidly heading towards each other, making it not an option. “Little M, you have to go around it.”No response.He actually smacked against Sweet’s bubble this time as it sped up towards the gap. “Little M, what are you doing?”
All of a sudden, the asteroids weren’t making their way toward each other but toward them , closing in on both sides. They were only halfway through when they began crushing, eerily soundless as the noise couldn’t reach him through the vacuum. He was powerless. It would take more than all the firepower he had left to redirect them. All he could do was hope Sweet could handle it.
He was very low on hope at the moment.
“Careless? Careless, are you okay?”
Cracks were beginning to spiderweb across the barrier’s surface. A quiet whimper came across his dashboard.
“No.”
“Was that Sweet? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know.”
The end of the tunnel was rapidly approaching. She just needed to hold on for a few more seconds. She had already done so much. Just a bit longer. They were almost there. Just a few—
The bubble disappeared.They were out.
Careless’ hands phased through the holographic controls as the panic seized him for a split second. He pulled them back, placing one over his chest where his heart would be. He was running hot. Stress would do that.
“I did it… I did it! Sweet, Careless, I made it through!” a voice cheered. When had their Knights connected with the ship? He didn’t question it and whispered a thanks. His Knight gave a chime.
“Good… good job,” Sweet huffed. Careless winced, in part due to how drained she sounded and in part because she accidentally breathed on her microphone. “Bai Lianfa should… be done soon.” She paused to take a breath. “Let’s hope he’s got the remote.”
“I’ll call him,” Nines supplied.
“Thanks…”
“Stop talking, Sweet. Save your energy.” She hummed and trailed off. Careless drummed his fingers against the floating dashboard as the ringtone he couldn’t hear played. His Knight joined Sweet’s, still standing on top of the ship.
That speck in the distance better not be his home planet.
“I have the remote,” their last team member reported. A wave of relief washed over him that was just as quickly washed away. That speck was Star.“Great.”“Woah, you okay?” Bai Lianfa asked, evidently picking up on Sweet’s exhaustion as well.“Dandy. Please, use it to make this thing stop.”
“On it.”Careless watched as the planet, slowly, began to get bigger. It was still growing. Why weren’t they stopping? “Bai Lianfa, what’s going on?”“What?” his teammate responded. The remote clicked so loudly that the call picked it up. Repeatedly. “No, what? It’s not stopping?”“N-no. Is everything alright?” Sweet asked.
No response.“Bai Lianfa?”Careless bit his lip. Star’s continent would be visible soon. He needed to stop the ship now. Why hadn’t he done it yet? What happened?“This isn’t— this can’t be—”
“You’re okay, right? Wh-what happened?”
He didn’t have a good feeling about this.“The remote is fake.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It was already quiet. They were in space. It was deafening now.“WHAT?”
“I— the book— I’m sorry.”
This couldn’t be happening. They were so close. It couldn’t be fake.
That figure never expected them to survive this. That book was the last thing they needed from them. Or maybe, since there were heroes who survived, everyone else was rendered useless?
Was it possible to connect the remote to the ship? What if it was just a plastic box? Bai Lianfa didn’t have the expertise to do it. And Planet Star was right THERE. “Sweet. The planet’s getting closer.” A gasp rang from the monitor. He couldn’t meet her eyes even through the screen. “If the ship doesn’t burn in the atmosphere, it’ll destroy its impact site.”“Bai Lianfa. Get everyone to evacuate. Now.”
How Sweet could be so panicked and still so levelheaded was a mystery to him. “It’s headed for Valley Park,” he added. “Clear out the whole area.”
There was a grunt, and Bai Lianfa’s line went silent.
“Little M, see if there’s any way you can get the ship to slow down.”“I don’t know anything about driving a ship!”“Try! Please!”
There was a clatter from one of the screens that didn’t have a visual. Bai Lianfa had already hung up, so it had to be— “Nines? What are you doing?”“Helping.” Both Knights came to the front of the ship, jets blasting in the other direction. It was still accelerating.“Nines, you’re injured.”“This is more important than my injuries! I’ve been listening to you for almost two hours. I can’t sit here anymore.”
Careless sighed. They had a point. It was either aggravate her injuries or risk lives. “Don’t push yourself too hard. You’re no good to anyone if you collapse again.”
“Rude.”“I won’t. Good luck.”He weighed his remaining fuel as Nines also left the call. He risked using a little more power. The ship was still speeding up. Luck wouldn’t help them.
“Sweet, the ship keeps speeding up. I-I don’t know what to do.”No response. Sweet was a little more focused on covering the spacecraft with another bubble. She shielded them from Star’s dumping grounds as they bashed through a thick layer of trash. She only let up when they were on the other side. They were running out of time. “You have… to be able to do… something!”“I don’t know anything! I’m only good for wrecking things!”
Careless still managed to feel a pang of empathy at his friend admitting a flaw. But he was all about working around weaknesses, and that was exactly what they needed now. “Then wreck the ship.”
“Wreck the… oh!” Little M disappeared from the communication monitor. What followed were grunts of effort and enough metal against metal to make Careless’ inner mechanic cringe. But it seemed to have worked. He didn’t know whether the engine weakened or stopped completely, but the Knights started getting an edge. It worked . He watched as the acceleration finally began to go down. They had already reached three thousand kilometres per hour .
It wasn’t deaccelerating fast enough. They were about to enter the atmosphere where gravity would do what the jets could not.“There’s not enough time to stop it,” he warned. Two Knights weren’t enough force. Maybe five would be. He didn’t want to think about that.
“Then I’ll tear it apart.”
His classmate was scary.
Careless tuned out the noises of destruction. When they got close enough, the ship would start falling. The Knights would need to battle their own weight along with the ship’s. They would crash. If they crashed hard enough, they would die. He needed to focus on slowing them down.
An alarm started blaring. Little M did enough damage that the ship noticed. A safety precaution popped up on his monitor. Most standard cargo ships had it. If it was too damaged, the storage would detach with a backup engine. The only thing it would be able to do was land safely. “Little M, you did it! If the cabin separates from the rest of the ship, we can save everyone inside!”
Two sighs came through, the mechanical static making him instinctively shudder. His Knight gave him its own warning. This wasn’t over yet. Something wasn’t right. It was followed by a startled gasp. “What? What’s wrong?”
“It’s… manual.”“What?”“The safety protocol is damaged.”
No. No, that couldn’t be right. It was the back up. It should’ve been protected. Little M was supposed to damage the engine. Not dismantle it from the inside out.
“Wh… what does that mean?”
“Someone needs to be in there to do it.”
“B-but then they’ll crash into Star!”
Careless hissed. They had to do it. Everyone was depending on it. But they likely wouldn’t survive. They were going to lose someone on this mission. He couldn’t save everyone. He failed.
“Stay put.” He wouldn’t force Little M to make a sacrifice he didn’t want. “We’ll figure something out. Right?”
No response.His attention slipped as he glanced at Sweet’s communication panel… which was empty. “Sweet?”
The ship’s panel released a shocked cry. The screen filled with pink a moment later. “Sweet. What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer. She sat down and began typing. Frantic banging started behind her. She wouldn’t… right?Oh, who was he kidding? This was Sweet. Of course she would.
“Sweet, don’t do it. We’ll find another way. You don’t have to—“ She looked up. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t listen to him. She just smiled. The ship began to shake as air buffeted it from all sides. He didn’t see the cabin detach but saw it trailing behind. She strapped herself into the chair, bracing as tightly as she could.
And she was still smiling.No.
“Open the door! Sweet! Can you hear me? Let me in!” He couldn’t hear himself as his Knight pounded on the windshield they were pushing against. “Don’t do this! We still have time. We can find a different—”“Go.”
He had to pause and process what she said over the roaring of the ship. It was deafening compared to the silence and the quiet of the past three hours. He only heard his own voice. “I’m not leaving! Please! At least let me stay with you! Let us do it together! Please!”
“Careless! Go!”He watched through his dashboard as her smile faded. As she thrust a hand out. It was shaking so badly the camera couldn’t focus on it. His Knight blared a warning as it was pushed out of the way. The ship was suddenly twice as close to the ground as he was. She didn’t listen.
No.
The world blurred. He couldn’t see past his own tears. He didn’t need to. His Knight followed the moment the bubble around it let up. Sweet didn’t have the energy to keep them contained. She spoke to her own Knight next. She made it clear she was the only one making a sacrifice today.
No response.
She let it stay, he realized bitterly. Their Knights would die for them. She spared one last glance at the screen that linked them. He was the only one left in contact with her. She shut off communications.
No.
His own Knight gave a mournful hum. It couldn’t sense its counterpart anymore. He pushed them forward, apologizing as the air resistance blasted it.
He needed to do something. What could he do? He couldn’t stop the ship. All he had were stupid explosives that were the reason she was low on energy in the first place. The only purpose they’d serve now were obstacles.
Obstacles.
“Contact the ship,” he ordered. He didn’t need to say it out loud. His Knight was already doing it as it matched the ship’s speed.
“Sweet, cover the ship in a bubble. I have one more idea.”She listened.
It took a moment, but the ship was once again surrounded by the signature pink barrier. It was frail. It would have to do. His Knight unloaded everything it had left. He didn’t need to see her to know she was struggling. The more things it smashed into, the slower it would fall. It wouldn’t overpower gravity, but it would do something.
That was all he needed.The ship grazed the ferris wheel, causing it to tip. He saw Nines and Bai Lianfa approaching from opposite directions. He didn’t pay any more attention. They would handle it. He was on his last missile.
The bubble finally shattered as the ship crashed nosefirst into the ground. A long trench dug out in its wake. It stuck out at an angle, Sweet’s Knight stuck underneath it entirely.
No!
Careless spared no hesitation as he leapt out. He didn’t notice the ship’s cabin touch down gently nearby. He didn’t notice his Knight trying to pull out its friend with minimal damage. He didn’t notice the two heroes who remained on Star approach, one heavily leaning on the other. He didn’t notice his gloves fraying, his skin getting scraped away. All he saw was the shattered windshield as it slowly revealed itself.
“Sweet!” His voice hurt. He’d been yelling a lot this mission. Her name scraped against his throat. He didn’t care. He kept calling, waiting for the reply he knew he wasn’t going to hear. He was out of hope.
“Sweet, you have to be okay! Sweet!”

No response.

A hand was on his shoulder in the exact same spot one had been hours earlier. He shoved it off. There was a gasp, a pause. Then, another set of hands joined his. They were just as damaged, but they worked just as hard. He didn’t even pause to thank Nines, diving through the windshield the minute he could fit.
The walls caved in. Bolts and panels were littered around, whether from Little M or the crash, he didn’t know. It was dark, but the hole he came from illuminated all he needed to see.There wasn’t even a body.
Nestled in a crater in the dashboard lay an ovoid shape. The core of her being where it had launched forward on impact.
He didn’t say anything to his makeshift team, cradling the mech stone to his chest. Little M gasped. Only he knew what it meant.
They did it. They managed to work it out. They saved their friends, their family. They saved the civilians. They saved their team. Everyone was safe and sound. Everyone except for Sweet.They were not fine.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

He was… not doing well.Physically, he was fine, sitting in one of the risers of the main field watching Happy and Careful spar, leg bouncing so violently he vaguely worried it might unscrew itself. Careful was currently playing up the evasion part of his fighting style, since they all knew he couldn’t overpower Happy. Meanwhile, their supernaturally strong heart didn’t seem to mind that none of his blows were connecting. He looked like he was having fun chasing the five erratically teleporting duplicates. One of them was the original. Careless lost track of him when he looked away for a minute.They were waiting for Smart to return. It had taken a couple days for him and Doctor to patch up his Knight. The poor thing couldn’t even stand and still gave up all it had for one final attack. Careless huffed as the memory disobediently replayed in his head. He didn’t know why Smart never asked him for help. He was the one who fixed Sweet’s Knight, after all. While it hadn’t been subjected to hours of incorrect usage, it also expended every last drop of energy and was crushed under an entire spacecraft. It was resilient; he liked that about it. It was probably due to its defensive nature.Just like its owner.He shook his head, pushing the image of her mech stone out of his mind. Happy was waving at him. He waved back, noticing his hand was now shaking after sitting on his nearly vibrating leg for who knows how long.Happy didn’t stop, instead beckoning him over. Careless saw his opponent going inside as he made his way down. “Careful went to cool off and get ready,” their heart explained. “You wanna try your hand?”
Careless caught himself before his mouth quirked downward. Careful wanted them all together for at least a moment before he left on his mission. He, Bea, and Mermaid were supposed to investigate someone who had something related to the Book of Cores. They were going off everything Nines, Bai Lianfa, and Little M knew of it. (It irked him that nobody bothered asking for what he remembered of it. It irritated him even more that they were right and he barely remembered what it looked like.) Sweet was the only one who actually read the book and had photocopies of it.It wasn’t like they could ask her.“Did you say something?” Careless asked, realizing Happy was watching him expectantly. He sighed.
“Do you want to spar with me?” He could probably do with getting his mind off things. Happy shot a couple meters into the air out of excitement as he nodded, landing on the opposite side of the field. Careless reached to his side, intending to empty his weapon of choice so he couldn’t actually hurt anyone.… huh.“I don’t have anything on me,” he called. “I can’t fight back.”
“That’s alright! You can work on defense like Careful was!” Happy didn’t give much other warning before charging at him. He noticed with just enough time to get out of the way. His opponent pivoted in a split second and shot back.
Careless couldn’t fly. He had a limited plane of movement compared to the rest of his team. As such, his method of evasion consisted majorly of analyzing Happy’s path and making sure he wasn’t on it. Happy was crafty, unpredictable and quick. He made it a challenge.He rolled out of the way of an aerial attack to come face to face with Smart, who was at the edge of the field he ended up at. He didn’t think much of it, darting in a wide circle as Happy came up behind him.
“Hey! Careful wants us to meet in the med-wing,” he called, quickly closing in on Careless only to be sidestepped.
“Alright,” Smart replied, raising his voice as they were suddenly on the opposite side of the field. “Want me to wait, or?”
“Let us wrap up,” Happy decided after a moment of thinking.
When Careful wanted them altogether, he meant all of them. Careless had never been to the medical wing. He’s had more reason than ever to visit lately, but he hasn’t been able to get close. Every time he did, the unpleasant memory of the blaring alarm, the roar of the atmosphere, and a bubble shattering due to his own hand resurfaced, and he turned away. There was no avoiding it now. They would only all be in the same place for a few minutes, and he couldn’t deny Caref—What felt like a freight train rammed into his midsection.Careless instinctively curled around it as he hit the floor, then the wall, barely registering his name being called. “Oh, stars! Careless, I’m sorry!” Happy came to his side so quickly that he slid over the ground before coming to a stop. “I didn’t notice you weren’t paying attention, I— I’m so sorry.”
“You need to work on your friendly-fire,” Careless murmured, not with much bite. No difficulty speaking; his head was likely undamaged. He stayed on the ground for a moment, waiting for the searing to fade.
“I— stars, are you alright?”
“I should be.” He sat up, stretching. Moving didn’t cause any additional pain. He still had full range of his limbs. He ran a hand down his torso, noting it wasn’t abnormally bent anywhere. His back stung from smacking into the wall. Aside from maybe some scratches from skidding across the floor, he should be okay. “I was just distracted.”
Happy sighed, holding out a hand and hoisting him up. “Yeah, you have been a lot lately. You sure you’re alright?”
Careless didn’t meet his eyes. “I guess I haven’t gotten over the whole… rescue yet.”
Happy’s gaze softened, though it wasn’t any less worried. “Let’s go meet Careful and Sweet,” he suggested. “I’m sure that’ll help.”
He’d been avoiding Sweet for nearly two weeks. He wasn’t about to tell Happy nor Smart that.
Careful was sitting on the floor when they found him. He shot up when they entered, stoic as ever but eyes shining. “How is she?” was the first thing Smart asked. He just sighed, gesturing to the bed.The Alliance wasn’t equipped to deal with mech stones. Only Doctor really had that technology. It sat there, same as always, tucked in a nest of blankets. It reminded Careless a little too much of the crater he found it in.
“Good luck on your mission, Careful,” Happy said, cutting the silence with forced optimism. He gave their silent hero a pat on the shoulder.
“Find out what they want from us,” Smart added. Careless nodded, not trusting his voice.
Careful hummed, sparing the stone one last glance before he left. The room felt more pressing than it had before. The cross on Sweet’s stone glowed a faint pink. The light wasn’t there at all when she was first dug out. It was a sign that she was recovering.“Careless, are you..?”He straightened his back. His arms were still wrapped around his waist, covering the worst of the sting with some pressure. “I’m fine. Tougher than you think.”
“I can see that.” Smart punctuated his sentence with a small laugh. “But I meant with what happened.”
Happy shot him a warning look, but Careless hadn’t reacted, so he stepped forward tentatively. “We know you want to wait, but you can talk to us if you need to.”
It was true. He wanted to go over the full story with Sweet. He wanted to explain it together. The whole ordeal was burned into his head. It would stick with him for a long time whether he wanted it to or not. But he had to admit he didn’t particularly remember how it all started. Though, Nines agreeing to stay put stuck with him for some reason.
He turned away from them, eyes landing on the stone. When he couldn’t keep his gaze there anymore, he looked out the window. He could feel his team watching him, but he tuned them out.
A hand went up to his throat. He’d lost his voice not long after finding Sweet. It took a bit of tweaking to figure out how to fix it. He was a volatile, silent, emotional mess in the meantime, eventually breaking down while watching the janitor wash dishes. He didn’t know what about it set him off. Maybe that he was levitating the tableware the same way she would. Or all the suds that dripped from the sink and plates. He watched each bubble pop in slow motion. Flame was the first person to notice. He’d been following Careless around, finding his inability to speak interesting. He ran and got Careful.
Bubbles. He wouldn’t be able to look at them for a while.
“Throughout the mission…” The whispered conversation Happy and Smart were having cut out immediately. “Sweet… protected the ship. From asteroids, Star’s landfill… my missiles.” He paused. “I was the one to use the last of her energy while trying to slow the ship down.”“I knew she was tired, but she still went in there and sacrificed herself after putting up with all that. I saw— I made it shatter, and I knew she wasn’t there anymore.”
He hated that it was the only time she listened to him. Sweet was a natural leader. The only person she really took orders from was Happy, and he wasn’t exactly there. She was level under pressure, brave, bold, stressed, stubborn, and constantly talked over him. There was almost not a single thing he said that wasn’t interrupted or dismissed.
It was like she didn’t see him as an equal.How could he miss someone like that?“Careless, you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t know it would work,” Happy ventured. He was truly the heart of the team. He had made a guess, but stars, he was wrong.“I didn’t think it would work,” Careless said simply. “I didn’t think it would do much. I was desperate.”
Happy fell silent, and Smart shot him a worried look. Yeah, he could understand how that didn’t help. “She’s alive. We survived.” He gave them a smile. Was it forced? He couldn’t tell. “That’s all that matters.”It didn’t look like they believed him, but he didn’t mind. He wasn’t doing great now, but he would be. It was fine. He was fine.With a slight stretch— his core didn’t hurt anymore, good— he walked across the room to the door. “You don’t want to stay?” Smart asked, following him with his eyes.Careless turned back to the nest of blankets with the pink centre. Even though he couldn’t wait for Sweet to reform, she didn’t know how much damage she caused when she pulled that stunt. Maybe it was the right choice, but he still felt the need to talk to her about it. He wasn’t looking forward to that. Not when he had the feeling she wouldn’t entirely understand nor try to work it out.
But for now, she was fine.“No.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Careless couldn’t believe he’d been so… well, careless.
This was exactly why he avoided touching the trigger unless he intended to fire. But somehow the hand with the polishing rag collided with the hand that was somehow on the trigger, which set it off, and the next thing he knew, Careful’s bed was blown up.
Not entirely, he guessed, trying to survey the damage. The mattress was mostly intact. It was the compartments underneath that were hit with the missile. He scooped up one of the drawers that had landed a couple meters away. It was empty.Huh. He could’ve sworn something used to be in there.A loud CRASH jerked him out of whatever that was. He whirled around just in time to see Happy as well as the wall crumbling before him. “Happy, did you just..?”“Haha, yeah. My bad.”“Happy!”With a huff, he came to the other’s side to see what became of the makeshift window. It led to an, unfortunately communal, kitchen. He knew Sweet was in there. “What were you even doing?”
Happy avoided his gaze. It was something stupid, then. “A… mouse stole my bread.”“So you broke the wall down?”
Bashfully, he pointed at the ground. A small patch of wall was miraculously still standing in the middle of the hole. There was a smaller hole embedded in it. A mouse hole.He was going to end up with a headache. He could feel it tightening against his skull right now. “Happy you can’t,” he gestured haphazardly, “do that. You need to think before you punch down property that isn’t even yours.”
The hero was crouching on the floor. “Happy?” He picked something off the ground and inspected it. “Happy.”
He sprang up quickly enough to make Careless stumble backward. “Yeah?”
“Did you hear anything I just said?”
A gloved hand made its way to the back of his friend’s neck. “Sorry, you were talking?” Careless gave an aggravated sigh that their heart ignored. “What do you think this is?”He held out a black plastic object. There was one side painted yellow. Or it was a sticker. It looked more like a sticker, actually. The shape of the piece was so unorthodox and so obviously taken out of context that Careless couldn’t tell which parts were broken and which were supposed to be like that. “I have no idea.”
A startled gasp captured his attention. When did Smart get there? Neither he nor Sweet had noticed the new doorway, amazingly. Smart was at the sink. He whipped around to face Sweet so quickly that the thing in his hands slipped out and shattered on the ground. Careless didn’t like what it implied, judging by how violently Sweet flinched. “What’s going on?” he asked warily.Sweet, in a similar manner to Happy, shot up from where she had previously been crouching next to the thing. “W-well, we— or, uh, I— found it, and we don’t know i-if it was in perfect condition in the first place, but, uh, we tried to fix it and it didn’t really… work out. B-but we’ll fix it, right, Smart?” Smart stared back at her. “Yeah… yeah.”
Careless blinked. He was normally fairly good at deciphering panicked rambling, but that just sounded like a mass of words. “So you broke it?” Happy guessed.
Sweet’s voice jumped up an octave as she squeaked out a “yes.” She swept the shards into a pile, picking it up all at once. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be half of a puzzle cube, split diagonally from corner to corner, surrounded by the debris of its other half. Debris that looked a lot like the piece Happy was holding.Oh.
“I don’t get it,” Smart sighed, leaning against the counter, hand pressed to his temple. “That’s Careful’s favourite puzzle cube. He literally keeps it under lock and key.” He turned to Sweet. “How did it get here?”

“I’m not sure,” she murmured. She got up, going to trace the cutting board with her fingertips. “I saw something fly across the room and land here before I could recognize it.”
“That might’ve been me,” Happy admitted. When Sweet looked at him questioningly, he gestured to the hole he made behind him.
Both Smart and Sweet gaped at it for a moment, proving they really didn’t notice it, before their team medic rounded on him. “Happy!”
“Sorry! Careless already gave me that talk.” He tried to, at least. He wasn’t sure Happy really listened. “Though it did feel weird for a moment. I might’ve punched something other than the wall.” Their lead turned to Careless. “You were in the room. Did you see anything?”
He was a little more preoccupied with accidentally blowing up Careful’s bed to notice what Happy was up—Oh.
Oh no.
That’s what the missile hit.
“Careful is not going to be happy,” he breathed.
“Who says he’s going to find out?”
He sighed. “Happy, what makes you think—”
“Hear me out.” He took the pieces from Sweet. Shifting them all to one hand, he began delicately putting the shards together, barely reacting when they fell apart. “If we find a way to fix it before Careful comes back, he’ll never know.”
Frankly, that was ridiculous. Careless had repeatedly learned the hard way that broken pieces left cracks when put back together. Nothing short of welding them would hide the damage. “We’d need to find someone with more expertise,” Sweet added. Why was she serious? Were they actually doing it?They were, apparently.
They must’ve been all over the city, talking to every person who had the chance of having puzzle knowledge. Everyone they spoke to told them what he already knew. That the puzzle cube was impossible to fix. In any meaningful way, at least.
Sweet sighed, staring down at the shards she was still holding. The last store owner had barely glanced at it before telling them there was nothing she could do. They collectively paused as she stumbled over air. They’d done a lot of walking today.
“Do you need to take a break?” Happy asked. He could have negated the work by flying, but he was on foot just like the rest of them and didn’t seem nearly as fazed as she did.
Straightening with a huff, Sweet pulled her charge closer to herself. “I’m not fragile . I reformed over two weeks ago.”Two weeks wasn’t that long ago. Not when she had been in stone form for just as long. Nobody told her that.
“Uh, guys? Careful’s calling,” Smart interjected. He gestured vaguely to the air in front of him before answering. All four of their communicators faded in.
“I finished my mission. I will be coming back,” Careful’s voice reported, faintly doubled by each of them.
“That quick?” Happy cried. If Careful thought it was weird, he didn’t mention it as he just responded with an affirmative hum. “N-no, I didn’t mean… uh… I was in the mood for roast lamb today. Mind picking some up?”“O-oh right,” Sweet added, “We’re out of oil, too. Could you buy some vegetable oil from the eastern markets while you’re out?”
Careless tuned out with a held-back facepalm as Smart added metal polish to the impromptu shopping list. When he looked up, all three of them were watching him expectantly. Even Careful seemed to be waiting for him to tag on another item. Well, then. “Glad the mission went well. Come back soon, okay?”
“Sure.”As the communicators faded, he was given the full, unobstructed view of their incredulousness. “‘Come back soon’? Did you forget what we’re doing right now?” Smart hissed.
The mechanic rolled his eyes. “I still think we should tell him.”“We can’t give up,” Sweet retorted, narrowing her eyes at him. When had he said anything about giving up? “We’re doing this for him. If the normal stores can’t do anything, we’ll just look further.” Their counterparts shared an affirmative look, and Careless sighed, knowing when he was outnumbered.It was a long time since he had questioned the eccentricity of the people who lived on Star. Their quest dragged them to the far ends of the continent, from snowy mountains to the most viscous swamp Careless ever had the displeasure of stepping in. They had to fight an honest to goodness dragon that blocked their path to a man in a far off castle who redirected them back to the city to a small, out of the way shop that specializes in puzzle cubes. A retired master, he said.
Who ended up gluing the pieces together. Some master. Careless sighed as Happy tried to explain that they were looking for a practical fix. “Don’t know what to tell you,” he explained with an apologetic smile. “You don’t even have all the pieces. Why are you trying so hard to get it fixed, anyways?”
He focused on the man’s knowing smile rather than the guilty looks going on behind him. “It’s important to a friend of ours,” Happy murmured.
“Of course.” He pushed the toy back to the heroes when it was placed on the counter. “I can glue the pieces back, replace every cracked part and torn sticker. But then it wouldn’t be your friend’s cube anymore, would it?” He reached under the counter and pulled out a clear plastic box, slotting the cube inside and showing them. It rattled around, slightly smaller than the walls.
“My advice: Tell them. They deserve to know, don’t they?”
Sweet picked up the display case. The master didn’t seem bothered when she didn’t say anything. With a disappointed sigh, Happy thanked the man on behalf of all of them.
The frustration of spending an entire day out only to go back and do what he told them to was not lost to Careless. In fact, it only increased as Sweet handed him the case and all three heroes unanimously agreed that he would be the one to tell Careful.
The hero was idly doodling on a box when he entered the dorm. Careless realized with a jolt that the drawer that used to house his treasured cube was next to him. He forgot to put it back. How could he be so stupid?
“Careless,” Careful said upon noticing him. He set the box aside, which was now covered in scattered drawings of bubbles and crosses. The ones next to it were similarly coated in hero-themed drawings.The barely perceptible hint of excitement in his counterpart’s voice was nearly enough to make him give up. He was waiting for us, he realized. They’d avoided him all day, and the first thing he was going to say was breaking the news.Careful’s half-smile faltered when he noticed the mechanic’s expression. Wanting to get it over with, he took out the case, puzzle cube inside, and held it out. “I’m so sorry, Careful. None of us really know how it happened. We never managed to fix it, but we are—““Careless?”He jerked up, meeting his counterpart’s bewildered eyes. Careful took the cube hesitantly, too surprised to stop making a neutral face.
“We… tried to fix it,” Happy murmured from the doorway. Careful blinked. His eyes flashed between Careless and the slowly approaching heroes before landing questioningly on him. Careless sighed. Yes, they made him go in alone.
“We went everywhere. Tried everything,” Sweet added solemnly.“I can see that.” Careful gestured to their clothing, still spattered with dirt from the starsforsaken swamp.
“You’re not… mad?”
Careful sighed, opening the display case. “I can tell how far you went for me.” He seemed to debate something with himself, eventually closing the case again. “I just wish you told me first.”
Oh, this was worse than mad. He was upset. “We’re so sorry, Careful,” Careless repeated, unable to find anything else to say.
“I know.”
Careful gestured to the boxes on his nightstand. Smart picked the three of them up, bringing them to the opposite side of the room before handing them out. Their silent hero sat back down with the display case. His hands periodically twitched as if trying to twist one of the sides. Nobody had the heart to talk to him.The day came and went without another word exchanged with him. They were all aware that, deep into the night, he was still awake. He seemed happier the next day, and his inexperience with emotions saw to it that he wasn’t faking. They had to assume
he was okay.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Running. He’d been doing a lot of running. He couldn’t fly, so he needed a great deal of stamina in order to keep up with the other heroes.
His teammates weren’t used to it, as it seemed. Bea and Yi Fei were having trouble keeping up. The former desperately trying to keep her phone out and upright, and the latter looking completely out of her element. Shao Long appeared to be faring better, but Careless could hear heavy breathing if he tried.
Tree after tree whisked by in the sparse forest they were making their way through. The mechanic himself was starting to get tired. Natural terrain wasn’t what he was used to. On the uneven floor, he wasn’t the fastest, but somewhere in the last five minutes, he found himself leading the pack.Until he tripped.
It felt surreal. He didn’t know what his foot caught on. Momentum made sure that he was thrown onto the ground, sliding across dirt and rock. His right arm lit up with pain signals, having landed on the overly sensitive limb. It was previously numb, one of the many side effects of catching the wrong egg. He barely registered Bea’s gasp. Yi Fei, who was directly behind him, hoisted him up as he tried to shake off what he guessed could be the human feeling of pins and needles. “You’re pretty different,” his friend murmured.“Thanks,” Careless replied. “I’m used to running to get to places. The others all have their own way of getting around.” His smile faded as a thought struck him. “They’re probably getting through this a lot faster. Sorry.”
“What have you got to be sorry about?” Bea asked. Yi Fei frowned in agreement but urged them to keep moving. They continued at a brisk walk. “We’re not expecting you to carry us.”
The streamer went silent, reading through her chat. After a moment, she gave a resolute nod. “That’s right. We’re at a disadvantage, but that won’t stop us as long as we work together.” Careless huffed a laugh. He had seen Smart and Careful’s team form before his. At least that was one advantage.
“Oh, that’s right,” he added. “We never thanked you for your stream.”
“My stream?” Bea glanced at her phone, but no viewers appeared to give her the answer.
“The day you were all captured,” Careless clarified. “You recorded it. Helped us figure out what was going on.” She hadn’t done anything extraordinary, but he couldn’t deny she was instrumental in helping them figure out what was going on.The streamer looked away, a flush high on her face. “You’re welcome.”
It wasn’t much longer before Shao Long directed their attention to the targets for their trial: a terrifyingly lawful-evil conductor that forced everyone to either follow his beat or freeze, and a sun mage in training that had the misfortune of coming across him. Luckily, Yi Fei had schooled them on rhythms when they learned of the bad guy’s abilities. As long as they moved within that tempo, they were safe. The swordsman danced around using complicated rhythms that Careless would ask Smart about if he didn’t forget, clearly catching their opponent off guard. Bea seemed to be singing to herself to keep time, and Careless himself had a fighting style easy to keep regular. Unfortunately, Shao Long struggled the most, having little to no music experience and being limited to moving a little more than once per second. He was by far the most predictable as a consequence.
Eventually, Yi Fei reached the conductor’s baton, slicing it in half and rendering it useless. With that as a distraction, Careless deployed a net that he was unable to doge. “Good work,” she said, breaking the baton into quarters for good measure.
“Thanks,” Careless replied as he checked over the mage. With a thanks of their own, they waved the staff in an uncomfortably similar motion to the conductor. The staff began to shine bright enough that even its wielder needed to look away. When Careless could register sight again, there was a bright yellow circle in his hand, exactly the same size as their previous key.“I mean it,” his friend pressed, sheathing her sword for the first time in… (he glanced at his watch) twenty minutes? Oh, stars, he hoped they weren’t too far behind. “It was an honour to fight with you again. It’s good to see that you’ve improved since we last met.”
Careless blinked. He didn’t remember the last time he was complimented for his work as a hero. A smile broke onto his face.
Shao Long was the one who directed them forward again. He seemed very focused on getting the trial done, eager to put that fight behind him, though, he apologized for appearing strict. Careless inserted the key into the next door, embedded in the side of another cliff. With a large rumble, it raised, revealing a cave. Great. More darkness.
“You seem content to be quiet,” Shao Long commented not long after they split up. “I had expected you to try to converse with me.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t seem like the talkative type,” Careless replied. He hesitated. “Was I wrong?”
“You are correct,” his… could he say friend? His teammate answered. “But people don’t usually care about that.”
“Well, they should.”
Shao Long slowed, and Careless found himself suddenly in front of him. “Are you alright?”
He received a nod. A shot of sympathy struck him as he tried to imagine what kind of life the man led for that to be a surprise.
There was a flash of colour in his peripheral. Perhaps on instinct, he turned to head towards it. The cavern branched into a rough Y shape, with the split path ahead of them. He entered the left one without much thought.“Careless? Where are you going?”
With a sigh, the mechanic doubled back, a ‘sorry’ on the top of his tongue.
Except his teammate was nowhere to be found. Shao Long should have been right behind him, by the sound of it. Careless glanced down the other path, but it was just as empty as the first. Had he passed him by accident?
With much more hesitation, he headed down his original tunnel. It was much more nerve wracking alone. He had never been claustrophobic, but the long, continuous tunnel did not leave him with the best of feelings. The dark walls, the damp feeling in the air, the… mist?Careless squinted, but the sight faded when he tried to focus. Trick of the light, he hoped.
The pink figure in the distance was less so.“Careless!” she called. “I didn’t know you were here, too! Where’s the rest of your team?”“We got separated,” the mechanic answered, sprinting to meet her. Was that too much of a reaction? But he had never not been excited to see her before, right? “Are the others here?”
Sweet paused, her smile falling off. “What… others?”
“The rest of our team?” Careless clarified. Who else would he be referring to?
“We’re not on the same team, Careless. You remember that, right?”
This was… getting weird. Their team! The one they had been activated with and grew alongside? Misunderstanding that was odd, something he had never seen Sweet do before. (Although with his memory, he couldn’t give himself the benefit of doubt.)
“Happy, Smart, and Careful,” he clarified yet again. “If we found each other, they might have as well.”
Sweet shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen them. Why? Did something happen?”
“Well, no—”“Are they okay?”
“What? Of course.” Well, actually, there was no way for him to know that. “The Alliance wouldn’t let anything happen to them.”
His counterpart sighed, putting a hand to her chest in relief. “You scared me for a moment. You are hard to understand sometimes.”
… Was he?
He hadn’t been able to hold a true conversation with Sweet for some time now. Their rescue mission a month ago was filled with unfinished sentences and things he had never managed to say, but he could tell it stretched before that. This was only when the consequences of that disconnect became noticeable. He couldn’t remember the last time he and Sweet had been able to simply hang out, work together, have fun, or talk.
And he missed that.
Why did he feel so disconnected from his team— not just her? That lack of communication had nearly cost Sweet her life. How was he to know it wouldn’t happen again? Careless loved his team more than anything else in the universe, but what if that was changing?
“How have you been?”
Sweet paused to tilt her head. “What brought that up?”
“We haven’t had time to talk lately,” the mechanic explained. “I want to check in on you more—“
“Is this about my reforming? I’m fine, Careless.”
He shot her a weird look, and she just crossed her arms in response. Everyone got defensive when presented with a weakness, but he had in no way made a slight on their medic’s constitution. He just wanted to see how she was doing. Careful had developed the habit of spontaneous check-ins a while ago, and she seemed fine with that.(Was he the problem?)It was weird. They cared about her. Sweet knew they cared about her. Concern was a natural part of that. And she was never one to jump to the worst conclusion. She was an optimist.
“I don’t think… you’re real.”This time, she fully froze. The look of not-quite-understanding remained ever-present, but the rest melted into something completely serious. “You’re starting to weird me out, Careless,” Sweet said flatly. “You’re acting different.”
Differently. The mechanic pursed his lips. None of this was enough evidence to prove much, but adding them together left him with a sort of uncanny valley effect. Why was Sweet here in the first place? He was here with Shao Long, and it was unlikely he would run into someone from a different team before him.
“Careless,” Sweet repeated when he didn’t respond. It was impatient, annoyed, and more aggressive than she had any reason to be.
Oh.
This was the trial.
“You’re fake.”
The medic gave him a hard stare. Even with the realization, he suppressed the desire to shudder. Sweet knew how to be intimidating when she wanted to be, and this fake could mimic it perfectly. Then she turned into black smoke.
Careless jumped back with a less than dignified noise that he would deny ever having made. But the smoke dissipated as he waved it away.That was…so weird. Was this meant to be time consuming? Would his teammates be going through the same thing? Shao Long, he needed to find him.A couple minutes of backtracking later, complicated enough that he had used his backup pistol to mark the wall, he found the branching path where he had split with his teammate in the first place. Following the opposite path, he eventually came upon a nearly invisible wall that his weapon run into before he did.
Shao Long’s version of the trial included the conductor they had fought, though he was much larger and had a corrupted, ethereal air to it. Copies of Bea, Yi Fe, and disconcertingly, himself stood next to him. While they were all locked in combat, Shao Long stood frozen, arms raised defensively but not quite at the height they should be for someone of his stature. The moment Careless had arrived, his fake counterpart shot some choice words to his teammate— completely inaudible to him— with a downright scathing expression. Shao Long faced away from him, but he could see the falter in his shoulders. He seemed to be frozen out of fear just as much as the conductor’s abilities.
The longer he watched, the more Careless realized his own counterpart was not the only one making verbal attacks. Their entire team seemed to be yelling at Shao Long, though he couldn’t fathom about what. The man eventually managed a small burst of Winds in between beats, but it wasn’t enough to convince the withering remarks to get off his back. However, it did seem to make him realise something, as the next pose he was trapped in was distinctly a charging one. The entire team paused to look at him, likely in response to something Careless couldn’t hear, before all four other figures faded to black similarly to the false Sweet. In a single motion, Shao Long released Dragon Winds in all directions, dispersing all the mist at once.
For a moment, the only noise that could be heard was heavy breathing. The mechanic realized the sound barrier had gone down at the same time as the physical one, and he made an effort to kick a rock on his way over to give away his position.
“Careless!” Shao Long called, surprised. He glanced at where the copies had disappeared then back at him. “How much did you hear?”“Nothing,” he replied truthfully. “The barrier was soundproof, but it looked like they were being hard on you.”
Shao Long stood straighter, letting his shoulders sag and bringing a hand to his forehead. “They were.”
Careless frowned. He appeared troubled. “You did a good job. How did you realise it wasn’t real?”
“You,” his teammate sighed and only nodded when he was shot an incredulous look. “You are very supportive, I’ve noticed in both your combat style and choice of words. You are… the last person I would expect to mock my ability when you know I am trying my best.”
Despite the heartwarming message and praise he was just given, Careless found it difficult to maintain a smile. He let it fall, hoping a simple “That means a lot,” would suffice. Shao Long returned it kindly, and he felt safe in assuming it was understood.
They found the key they were searching for a handful of paces further down the tunnel. In a few minutes, they had met up with the rest of their team. Yi Fei and Bea were similarly shaken up by the ordeal. Nonetheless, Bea clutched a silver key in her admittedly tight hand. Careless smiled politely when asked what he saw, and Shao Long simply grimaced and stalked forward with metronome-like regularity.
He had to adjust to the sudden brightness of the field they started in compared to the cave system. “We did it!” Bea cheered, but to his surprise, she wasn’t talking to her stream. She pulled her teammates into a group hug despite the fact that half of them still had their weapons out.
“We did,” Careless agreed, scanning the field. He spotted the other heroes immediately. There were three of them, but if Smart and Careful were in the same team…With a sinking heart, he counted the rest of the people there. “We’re third.”
“Oh. One of us is going to get voted out,” Yi Fei continued. Careless looked at his team. Despite being friendly, they weren’t friends. But this trial proved they worked surprisingly well. It seemed cruel that they needed to break the group up right after discovering their potential together.“Well, it was nice knowing all of you,” Careless sighed.“You don’t believe you’ll be voted, do you?” Shao Long asked, turning on him.“No way! Right after we saw what you can do? Careless, you need to stay in!” Bea interjected. The mechanic gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.“You have friends here,” Yi Fei added. “We can’t take you away from them.”
“You are one of the most compassionate people I’ve met in a while,” Shao Long said quietly. Stars, he was going to miss this team.Careless couldn’t do much more than offer a slightly more genuine smile as he left to meet up with the other heroes. He felt his spirits lift at the sight of them, though he hesitated to approach Sweet. She didn’t appear to notice. “I take it Happy didn’t make it out yet?”Sweet sighed. “Not yet. We don’t know what happened to him.”
“You’re third,” Smart added. “You need to vote someone out?”
With a sigh and a whispered, “Yeah,” the mechanic turned and joined his team in waiting for their lead. His temporary teammates waved from where they decided to stick together. He waved back.
They didn’t quite work out on time. But whatever happened next, he would be fine.Hopefully.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Careless was gradually getting used to the feeling of something not sitting well with him.
It had taken both Careful’s account of a crowd taunting his attempts to atone for past crimes and Smart’s of a perfect version of himself, mocking all the real imperfections for the mechanic to recognize that the trial had pit everyone against one of their worst fears. It forced him to realise that not only was Sweet included in his worst fear, she was the focus. The fact he hadn’t been outright scared pointed to something much more deep-rooted and unconscious.
(He didn’t want to fall out with her, and it scared him more than he’d like to admit.)(In some ways, it had already happened.)(...)Watching Bea get eliminated only served to make matters worse. He had to admire the way she held it together, thanking her viewers for sticking with her through the entire journey. She broke down the second the stream ended. Careless winced; the people who had made it this far in the trials were truly dedicated. To have that suddenly taken away, not for failing but for not succeeding fast enough, was probably the worst way to be expelled.
He didn’t like that nobody outside his team seemed to feel bad for her. Sure, it was unorthodox to melt down in the middle of a crowded field, but that should’ve been the least of everyone’s worries. The mechanic saw Shao Long step forward, hesitate, and end up not moving from his spot. He disappointed himself by following that example. Bea wouldn’t want to be comforted by someone who voted for her anyway, no matter how hard the decision was. Yi Fei was the one who helped her up, bringing her somewhere more private.Then Happy voted for himself.He couldn’t blame their heart for thinking he would get eliminated. Careless had fallen into the same line of thinking, after all. But to actively aid in that endeavour? Happy had a stronger drive to get into the alliance than most, if not all, of the other participants. Not to mention he would be leaving them. What could have possibly happened during their trial that made him think they didn’t want him there? That he was the least valuable option?
Careless didn’t like it when Bai Lianfa took their heart somewhere else to talk. He had learned to respect the other after they worked together to stop the ship, but something continued to be off with him. As he watched Zelia pick up his phone and follow, however, he trusted that she had it covered.She did not.
Happy completely shut down. Zelia had gotten eliminated for defending him. Their lead refused to talk to anyone about whatever happened, eventually disappearing for a day and returning with marginally higher spirits. He never told anyone what he did.
At this point, the swirling sources of worry and uncertainty settled somewhere near his core. Try as he might, Careless never managed to get rid of it. It seemed to get stronger as time went on, never sitting in the same place and flaring up so suddenly that he flinched even when nothing happened. The stress of spontaneously being thrust into some sort of plot including a Big M from an alternate future did not help in the slightest. Careless had the smallest suspicion that it might have made it worse, actually.But a (not so) innocent man was left with no memory of anything in the past decade, Kalo was attacked when his solo mission led him to the place of the Trials, and the Adelian also ended up being the mysterious person that had captured everyone except their makeshift team seven weeks ago because he was possessed. They suddenly had no idea what they were up against. Careless felt oddly distanced, watching everyone else work things out. He never ended up saying anything. Maybe it was better that way.But whatever refused to sit within him only continued to grow, even in the days after Kalo had been put into stasis and things returned to a sort of pseudo-normal. Doctor had them on high alert when he saw how long they remained in stone form. (Everyone shot a glance at Sweet. She pointedly ignored it.) On even higher alert when Flame warned them of the next time it would happen. When he turned out to be right.
The feeling of unease roared in his chest, battling the distinct panic and determination to get the Mech Stones across the continent to Doctor. It wouldn’t let up when he needed it to. When he had no time to dwell on what could possibly be setting him off when he was ambushed and the lives of the most important people in his life rested in his hands. He was way, way too familiar with that feeling.
So he did his best to push it aside and fight. Fight like his life depended on it. Like theirs depended on it. Failure was not an option, and yet, despite all odds, he found a way.
Useless.
That’s what the monster called him. That was certainly how he felt.
He had long gotten used to pavement or concrete or brick stabbing into his back. Being a hero was a risky job, after all. What he couldn’t quite get used to was his Knight desperately chiming in his head, unyielding to the damage it sustained and using its body as a physical barrier to the invaluable items inside. This is it, he found himself thinking. This is where I let everyone down. The anxiety surged under his skin like static, unrelenting even in his final moments. The mechanic spared it one last hint of annoyance. He was about to be annihilated by a monster that saw him as little more than a bug, and the only thing he could feel was the jittery entity that had plagued him the past few weeks. It never went away. It never settled. It never gave him a moment’s peace.It wanted out.Careless closed his eyes and let it happen.And if he woke up with no idea what had transpired and the feeling finally, blissfully gone, he let himself relax in knowing it had somehow worked out. Everyone was fine.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

He didn’t regret it. Not in the slightest.
He always knew that, in one way or another, this was how he would die. This is how they all would. Sacrifice.
“You can’t do it alone. Don’t forget you still have us.”
Happy didn’t hesitate to turn back. They didn’t hesitate to join him. This is what they were made to do, after all. To save, to protect. Careless couldn’t find it in him to be scared. He was; he knew that. But it didn’t register properly in his mind. He had long made peace with the fact that his time would eventually be up. It quelled the fear better than any other thought he could conjure up.Their communicators faded in.“All of you, get down! Stop! Your monitors are nearly at a hundred! You know you won’t be able to come back from this!”
There. That was the only thing he would ever regret in his life. The pure desperation that filtered through the call. They would be leaving Doctor if they went through with this. They didn’t have a choice. They never did. It was cruel, in a way, but Careless couldn’t begin to imagine a universe where it was any different. This was always how it would end.“Protecting Planet Star is our life’s mission,” Happy responded, as every bit determined, remorseful, and scared as they all felt. “We will save this island. We’re superheroes.”
Too quietly for the communicator but not quiet enough for their Knights’ channel, Sweet murmured, “It’s an occupational hazard.” An equally quiet chuckle followed, although Careless couldn’t tell who it was from or even if it was his own voice. That would be the last thing he ever heard, and honestly?He was fine with that.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

A lot happened yesterday. Starshadow and Moondance summoned a stone totem that was so strong it was slowing down the planet’s rotation. I think it was a last ditch attempt. They used it as a diversion while looking for Star’s energy core. Their team combined into a sort of super-monster, and we had no way of fighting it until Doctor could update our Knights’ old fusion function.

Starshadow and Moondance were arrested for good this time, but that was only half of the problem. Nothing we did could destroy the totem they summoned. Not even the planet’s core had enough energy, but ours did. Doctor begged us not to do it, but Sweet sent him away. I was certain my last memory of him would be pounding the inside of a bubble as he was carried off.
I was so sure that it would be the last thing I ever heard.

I don’t know if there was another way to stop it, but I knew we couldn’t take that risk. Planet Star is home to so many people. Losing five to save it was a sacrifice we were all willing to make.

Doctor isn’t actually sure how we’re alive. He said it was likely Star’s core replenishing the energy we used, but I already mentioned it didn’t have nearly as much as we did. He said we need to take it easy, though I’m not sure how possible that is. It will take a while to get back everything we used.

I’m really happy to still be here.
Careless sighed as he reached the end of the last entry to his journal. It was marked finished just about a year ago. He kept one while they were taking part in the Alliance’s Trials, but it was lost along with everything else when the space collapsed.
It was eerily similar to what they had just experienced. Everything from sacrificing their lives to save the majority to Doctor being one of the last things he heard. They were still unsure of the circumstances of their activation, but where the core put a limitation on their abilities, the Hearth-song Flower appeared to remove it.
He was surprised the Alliance waited to hold the initiation ceremony, given the fact none of them expected to survive. Doctor spent six months clinging to the hope they were still out there somewhere, but he always imagined the Superhero Alliance as more pragmatic.Though, when they returned to find a handful of participants in their home after Flame broke down the door, he guessed it might not have been entirely the Alliance’s decision. (It was heartwarming in a strangely property-damaging kind of way.)He paused as he got up. The journaling habit of his had begun long before Careful was even activated. The finished books were kept in a special place at the bottom of his bookshelf. With a shrug, Careless placed the most recent one back, taking the first in its place. He was curious to see how far he’d come.
He hesitated in the motion of sitting back down on his bed. There was a reason he got up in the first place, right? He couldn’t sit back down; he had somewhere he needed to be…The ceremony!
Careless booked it down the stairs to find the others waiting for him. The Alliance had waited six months for them, after all. He wasn’t going to make them wait any longer.