Still In Octovern

[celestialcrybaby]

Two days helping out at Signey's Cafe had turned into weeks, and after finding and then almost immediately losing that very tiny Nicholas, Vash had found himself unable to leave. The Plants were still under such tight security, he hadn't been able to get in to see them, and he had almost managed to figure out a way to get past the Feds to sneak back onto the Home ship so that he could let Melanie know about the small boy he knew she would want to look out for. But the heat was still too high, metaphorically, and he just hadn't been able to make headway in either plan, though at least Sig had let him start staying in the attic above the cafe instead of having to pay for the inn every night, once she'd found out he really didn't have much money to his name. Six of one, half dozen of the other, as the saying went.

That just made it easier to justify continuing to work at the cafe, where he could keep an eye on what was happening around the city, and where he could keep an eye out for the small boy with dark hair looking for his family. Sig had even caught on when she'd noticed him glancing constantly to the front window, and after a little prodding had gotten him to admit he was worried for the boy who'd been out front the first day he'd started working for her. She'd promised to keep an eye out, too, when she could, and he'd had to fight back a few tears of gratitude, which had simply gotten him a little motherly pat on the hand before she'd wandered back to the kitchen.

Things had almost seemed to...settle, for him. He had things to do every day, tasks to keep his mind off some of the darker places it tended to wander, especially as of late, a bed to sleep in and a more steady supply of food than he'd had since leaving the Home ship the first time with Wolfwood, and at least a little help with some of the mountain of important things that he was trying to do. So when the bell above the door chimed, he seemed, at least outwardly to most, in a fairly chipper mood.

"Good morning! Be right there!" he chirped, drying his hands off on the white apron he wore over his button down and slacks as he turned away from wiping down the register counter. It wasn't all that unlike the way he had been making ends meet in July, all things considered, before everything had gone south, only this time he was making more of an effort to avoid wearing his coat quite so often. That was distinctly a thought that he had worked very hard to supress the moment it occurred to him, a week after he'd settled into the attic upstairs.

[Specifically intended for Terran Fed Ship Shenanigans with the two eldest Vashes, but Open To All, if the mood strikes you! :D]

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[celestialcrybaby]

There was a glorious moment of relief when the sound of the electricity snapping down the wires stopped and he felt his body slump against the ground, boneless but no longer out of his control. The men around him rushed in, boots thudding firmly on the ground as he tried to catch his breath, and then he felt hands on him, grappling his arms and taking advantage of his momentary stupor to try and wrangle him into submission. It was enough to make his fight or flight take over, and if they hadn't started noticing the similarities already, the ease with which he managed to throw the two who had a hold of him away must have started the gears turning.

They shouted, Signey shouted, telling them to let him go with the protective anger of someone who surely couldn't have known the kind of danger she was putting herself into, and he heard the snapping crackle through the air again just before his muscles locked up for another jolt of pain. But the moments of clarity between it were enough to tell him what the source of the pain was, and he fought against the spasms locking his limbs into place with a strangled snarl. It was just electricity. He'd endured electricity, in so much higher voltages than this!

Let them go! Let them go, let them go! He fought to pull his limbs underneath him, only for the electricity holding him down to stop just in time for a boot to slam into his gut from below, hard enough to lift him off the ground and roll him onto his back, and that was enough to make him see stars, allowing the soldiers to rush in and pin him before he could throw them off again.

"Fuck, that one's a fighter! I've never seen someone fight off that much power, he shouldn't even be conscious right now!"

"You let him go, he's just a waiter, why are you attackin' my staff? He didn't hurt nobody! Val, are you alright? He didn't do nothin' wrong, he's a good man!"

"Lady, you got three seconds to back down, or we're taking you in with him!"

His head swam as the shouting continued, the ratcheting sound of cuffs cranking down around his wrists telling him before the pressure of the metal digging into the skin of his right arm did that they had finally managed to lock his arms down. He was trying to clear his head enough to try and reassure Signey so that she didn't get herself taken down with him when the sound of shouting came from outside, distant enough that he almost didn't hear it.

He hadn't been able to see the way the soldiers swarmed around the cafe outside, racing after the other Vash only to end up losing him almost before the chase had even begun. He also wasn't in a good place to see that spikey, striped head as it peeked up over the roof above them before darting back down. But he could hear the sound of gunshots as they fired, the thundering of more boots as they raced to try and cut off any avenues he had for escape from the top of the building, and it was enough to tell him that he was still there!

No! No no no no! Get away! "LET 'IM GO! LET 'IM GO, I WON'T FIGHT! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!" He wasn't the one who fought here, he could have another chance! He wasn't burned out, he could keep going!

Around him, their voices barely breaking through the panic that had begun to set in, the fact that there were two men who looked and sounded eerily similar that were trying to both turn themselves in was enough of a novelty that there were murmurs of confusion that rippled through the troops.

"Uh...sir? The fuck do we do?"

"We can't take any chances. They're twins, right? We gotta take 'em both in. Get the other one before he gets away!"

[love_and_peace]

A distant cry of I'm the one that you want! filters up to Vash on that rooftop, and he closes his eyes with a sigh. They sure are the same person, aren't they? Both so eager to sacrifice for others. Knives had pointed that out, in his typically blunt, cold way, and while Vash still thinks that he'd been in the right there, he can't help but see things from his brother's perspective right now. He knows that Val couldn't have let him take the blame, any more than he could walk away right now leaving Val in custody... but he can allow himself a moment of wishing that weren't the case.

Okay. They've got Val restrained, and both buildings are surrounded at street level. New plan: grab Val and go up. Get them both up on the rooftops and then run like hell. It would be easier to wait until they hauled Val out into the street, but he's got no reason to expect that they'll move the one before securing the other. So... he takes out the front of the restaurant? Val's friend will be furious, he's sure, but if it ensures that her waiter – and, he's pretty sure, her friend – is safe, then isn't it worth it?

What about just the door? One of his black hole bullets would make short work of the structure, and if he times it right, there won't be any risk of anyone being caught up in the resulting gravity well. If he launches himself down right behind the bullet, and times everything just right, he can remove the door, land in the open doorway, take out whatever guards are in the restaurant, grab Val, and then they're free!

What could possibly go wrong?

A moment's concentration, and a faint blue glow solidifies into the shape of a .22, and he cracks open his revolver to load it in. Before he can turn back to the street and put the rest of his plan into action, though, there's a series of dull thuds from the ground below, and then the shriek of artillery. Vash barely has time to cover his face and fling himself off the rooftop before the incoming shells explode, disintegrating the top of the building and showering plaster dust over the street below. He lands wrong, tries to turn it into a roll, but only ends up flat on his back with a half a dozen feds standing over him, their weapons drawn.

Slowly, he raises his hands, but he can't help the angry tone of voice as he calls them out.

“How could you!? There were people in that building!”

Then you should have surrendered when you were told to! responds one of the officers with equal anger, and Vash doesn't even see the butt of the rifle coming down until it's too late. There's a burst of pain, and everything goes dark.

[celestialcrybaby]

His continued attempts at wrangling his body back under his control, even as he felt hands reaching down and gripping under his arms to lift him to his feet, were interrupted suddenly by the chaos of the roof of the building being blown away, all in an attempt to apprehend one single man. The sharp screams of fear quickly faded into stunned silence, and even Signey had ducked herself into a corner away from the pandemonium when he glanced back, though the look on her face threatened a surprising amount of barely-hidden anger and threat. At least she had enough sense to know when to stand down.

"It's alright, Signey, everything's gonna be fine." She looked over at him silently, a simmering glare flickering behind her eyes that made him grin sheepishly back at her through the fog in his head. "Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry for the trouble!" She looked surprised enough to want to snap out a fierce reply, but he was already being shoved out the door, and he lost sight of her as he was shoved out into the smoking rubble outside.

Out in the streets, people were standing around, staring in various mixtures of shock and anger, and only a few yarz away, he could see his Brother being lifted bodily off the ground, dragged unconscious between a pair of soldiers towards a heavily armoured vehicle as it trundled to a stop not far away. He barely had time to register what was happening, his anxiety over reaching out giving way to his concern and trying to worriedly make a mental connection, before he found himself being shoved towards the imposing vehicle, too.

Hey, you alright? You still breathing?

It did little good, whether because the other was well and truly unconscious or because he was too dazed to connect properly. As it was, he was barely stable enough to keep his own feet properly underneath him as he watched the unresponsive Vash being tossed unceremoniously into the back of the truck, and he had just barely enough control over his own body to keep from landing on top of him when he was tossed in after.

The doors slammed shut behind them, drowning out the sounds of hushed, shocked voices as they began to murmur around the vehicle, and a moment later, the vehicle began rattling underneath them, carting the two of them to Who Knew Where. There were a few moments, where he tried his best to move closer in the darkness of the windowless chamber, to check the other for signs of life, but his own body had already begun to feel the crash of adrenaline in the absence of a struggle, and it wasn't long before the lingering fog and pain from the stungun's effects managed to drag him down into an uncomfortable unconsciousness of his own.

When he found himself waking up an untold amount of time later, it was to the sight of stark white walls and the thrum of a spaceship around him, instinctively familiar after so many years spent visiting Ship 3 and his childhood on Ship 5 before the crash before that, but still unfamiliar in its unique design compared to the SEEDS ships.

He groaned, rolling over on the small cot he'd been dropped onto and swinging his legs over the side as he looked around to try and get his bearings. It was a small enough cell, with a heavy, metal door at one end, and through the barred window set within that, he could hear the sound of voices chatting away on the other side.

Well. It wasn't as if he hadn't dealt with being in a cell before. Though he couldn't help but immediately wonder where his Brother had been taken, worried even through the fog of waking up and finding himself imprisoned on a ship. Worried even more than he was for himself, truth be told. He pushed himself to his feet with a groan, stretching the kinks out of his limbs and shaking the tingling sensation out of his feet, and made his way to the small window so that he could peer through, trying to catch sight of the other Vash, or barring that, anything he might be able to use to open the door. When that brought no results, he sighed, leaned his weight against the door, and resorted to a tried-and-true technique that had gotten him out of more than a few situations in the past; playing stupid.

"Hey, anyone out there? It's kinda lonely in here, all by myself. Sure would be nice to know why I'm stuck in here. Where'd everyone go?"