Work Text:
Alan
There's a group popular in the 2020s whose motto is to stay together until after tomorrow. I suddenly thought about us International Rescue. We face dangerous missions and try our best to accomplish all of them, keep everyone safe. But sometimes, disasters come in all of a sudden and we sometimes lose. We see people die in front of us. It's painful when failure comes to us. It's hard to move on sometimes, but it's part of life.
Yeah, each of us have different missions. Heading to the danger zone together happens sometimes. We still work together even after missions.
But the motto of staying together is not that easy as a rescue team.
SECTION 1
When we gathered before we go on to our missions, we hoped to stay together, no matter what happens. It came from Scott, my oldest brother. He's the most experienced operative. He does a lot of stunts with little extras, but sometimes it's a bit stupid and it's too risky for him to do it. John and Virgil have been warning him about that, but Scott's reckless. He only kept us safe. He once ended up with his back and right leg injured and it took him months to heal. Sigh. He kept his statement, but he forgot about himself. We stay together, remember?
SECTION 2
John may be 22,000 miles away from Earth monitoring, but being up there in space may also have risks. He has his own missions too. For example, the time when he met EOS. He was in complete danger when the AI was threatening him, even me, who came to rescue him. We were worried about John too. And togetherness? Well, when it comes to work, yes, but him joining us is a rarity. He's up there in space just observing us. Has he ever thought about why he couldn't join us down here on Earth? I'm sure he does...
SECTION 3
I don't have much to talk about Virgil regarding problems of not fulfilling the promise, only one thing. He's like Scott sometimes. He sacrifices for the people he rescued, and us too. When he puts on his exosuit, Scott watches him head out to the danger zone, all worried. Virgil using his Jaws is a risk at times. Grandma told me about him almost getting crushed by rocks while inside the construction office. Yeah, we have tougher jobs, but it's scary to see how heavy they can be that it might drag us down. Poor Virgil ending up with bruises on his body (I remember the small scars on his arm when he was painting), but he still manages to continue when he's ready. Same goes with Gordon...
SECTION 4
Swimming is basically part of Gordon's life. Sometimes, being underwater can be dangerous, even before he became a member of International Rescue. Remember the hydrofoil accident? We were so scared we might lose him, but he made it. I was pretty young at the time. Grandma and my brothers were asking the doctors about Gordon, like every hour, or minute. I was with John, with my eyes blurred because of my tears. It was just so severe. When I met Gordon after the operation, man, based on the casts and bandages, I thought he would definitely have a rough recovery.
Another incident happened with him when he was chased by the Chaos Crew. Took him months again. It's just so painful that he would have to go through all the danger of being an aquanaut. Yes, he swims like a fish, but he's still human.
SECTION 5
As for me, in my first missions, my brothers wouldn't let me join in with them. I had to stay put. But then, when I confidently went solo, I realized why they had to protect me. They were worried that they might lose me. I'm a teenager and I'm a trained astronaut. Some people may find it unbelievable.
Then later, they let me go out alone, now they saw my potential. Takes training, you know, in many aspects. And then when the day came to pick up Dad from the Oort cloud, I was chosen to take the helm. Zero XL sure was a ginormous ship, but I piloted it successfully.
***
I don't know, after all the missions, I guess we won't be able to live with the motto. As I said, our jobs are difficult. Time may come that danger would totally bring us down and we won't wake up again.
That was my first thought, by the way. Going back to the time we looked for Dad, we were still together, alive and well. My wishes were granted.
I'm so happy that we made it together.