Blue's DW Collection

Chapter 5: The Normal Weirdness

Dave waved shyly with his remaining arm, looking away. Scarlett looked very happy rushing over to him and examining his body. Valentino got close with a very confused look, with a smile though. Sasha looked like she was about to kill White Shirt, she was appalled. Velvet looked uncomfortable but waved back before starting to slowly walk away. Dave started to talk in a gravelly, deep voice that had a hint of what it used to be, "Yeah, hi.. sorry about dying to that sledge hammer guy, should've been watching my back, aha. How's it been, people?" Valentino spoke, "Yeah it's uh.. it's been not good, from the.. broken gate as you can see. But we're doing fine. What's better is that.. you're here again! Can ya still do your Lazarus junk or no?" Dave shrugged and sighed before releasing out a pulse of the Lazarus buff that came from himself, not a lot of range on that. Everyone seemed happy at this except Sasha who angrily walked up to White Shirt and started yelling at him about messing with the dead, and even worse, the dead of their own. Dave looked nervous and started to sidle away from the two, towards where George was. George smiled and waved at Dave before continuing to just relax and watch what's going on. Velvet opened up her AG3NT and called [Commander]. When he picked up, she showed him the Shadow-fied Dave, and he started speaking, "What the fuck- Dave?! That him, you guys? Dear god, get him over here, I wanna talk to em!" After getting their Lazarus over to Velvet and Dave saying hi, [Commander] laughed happily, "Whoever did this- you need a promotion! Dave my old friend, what happened to ya?" Dave responded with, "Scavengers, one had a sledgehammer and knocked me down. The rest tore me apart. How's it been, [REDACTED]?" Everyone startled at the mention of [Commanders] name, because of the loud static that had been produced to prevent them from understanding it. Their clearances were still that of just agents. They talked some more, Sasha pulling White Shirt into the bunker. Everyone could hear her screaming and knocking items around, and they just let her do that. They knew White Shirt would be fine, so they went about their normal business. Scarlett kept cross-examining Dave and her own Shadows, Velvet stared at them for a while before going out and starting to loot, and Valentino just relaxed on a crate. Before Velvet left the area, she coughed, and wiped cyan blood off her mouth, shaking her head and sighing.
After a few hours, the storm started to come again, but this time they had begun to improvise a wood gate. Valentino, George, Velvet, and Scarlett's Shadows were constructing it, and kept doing it through the storm until it was done, and they closed it, finally allowing for more relaxation during the storm and in case of a raid. Valentino got into a conversation with Dave about how he's doing, while Sasha just kept giving the latter a death stare. Velvet started going outside, but stopped after a while and went back into storage, grabbing and taking some Amoxicillin, and she somehow got paler. It didn't do anything. She hurriedly got some Augmentin Antibiotics, but after taking them, she felt better. At least THAT.. still works. She went out to a worried look from Dave and Valentino, and she dismissed it as 'simply needing some Augmentin.' Velvet hugged Valentino and kissed his cheek, talking, "Yeah, it's fine Val. All good here. I'll go get some junk from outside, see ya~" He sighed and gave her a hug in return before she went into storage again, getting on her EOD armor. She stood still and stared at her broken helmet before picking it up, pulling the visor up, and putting it on. She walked picked up one of their 4 Decimators and a purple combat stim. She walked out, and injecting herself with the stim, she walked towards a group of scavs arguing over a couple of loot crates. She flipped the visor down, and everyone could hear the screams of terror and pain as she struck into them, scattering gore and killing them.. ALMOST.. instantly. She made sure to go for legs, arms, and pelvises. She then made sure to slowly swing back and smash their heads, blowing it up and scattering gore. The remaining scavs panicked and tried to crawl away, but she just exploded their hands too before bringing the Decimator down on their heads, one by one. Valentino stopped and stared at her, looking very worried and nervous indeed. She threw the bodies into a pile and started dragging back the loot crates to base, covered in blood. One could barely see behind the visor, for the shadow cast was too dark. All they could see was the round hole fitted for Velvet's agent eyepiece, and it no longer at the characteristic pupil and expressions. It just stayed at a glaring bright cyan as she quietly brought the crates in. There were three total, a very good haul indeed. Valentino walked up to Velvet and pulled up the visor, staring at her. She stared back, emotionless, before they could see her eye blink back to normal and she chuckles, "Aha, sorry bout that! I was just a little pent up, y'know? Nothing serious darling, I'll get outta my armor and we can check this sweet loot we got! ..Val?" Valentino just stared, and said quietly, "Velvet, you don't get 'pent up', and I saw you eating both a tablet and some antibiotics. You need to take them more ofte-" she interrupted him with a panicked look on her face, "No, no! No, I'm fine! I'm just uh.. different! Virus affects different people differently y'know, so I'm all good, just needed some Augmentin. Y'know, to take the edge off! And to prevent it further, I may have forgotten to take anti-virus meds a few times but I fixed it with the Augmentin!" She gave him a big smile and he sighed, hugging her. "Just remember, losing someone to the Virus is horrible, especially you." She sighed and hugged him back before going into the bunker, taking off her armor and sitting on a folding chair. She searched in their stim storage until she found an injection of BL1 Nelophrine. She looked around and injected herself with it, sighing. That certainly helped her mood and relaxation. She got up, stretched, and checked her stab wound. Seeing it was all healed, she took off the bandages and threw them away. Velvet walked up the stairs out of the bunker, humming a tune and seeming very happy. Valentino looked very distraught at this, starting to think some things, and sadly, most of them were true. Velvet walked over to him and sat in his lap, snuggling up with him and talking to him, "Aww, haha, why the long face, darling? I thought you liked seeing me happy~?" Valentino just pet her on the head and responded, "Velvet.. did you use some of our Nelophrine?" She looked confused at this, chuckling, "No, of course not. I did say I was pent up, and I let it out on those bastard scavengers! It's not like they didn't deserve it, plus, we got some loot. Now, let's open these crates~!" Valentino looked away and she started opening the loot crates. One had BL1 and a few injections worth of Perithesene, another a double barreled shotgun, and the final one had tactical armor. Velvet happily put these into storage, storing one of the Cocktail 'Perithesene' stims in one of her pouches on her EOD armor. Dave and Valentino had a whispered conversation about Velvet, they knew she had the Virus, and it wasn't just stage 1.

A few days later..

Velvet's condition got worse, and everyone started to stay away from her. She had violent outbursts, and even hit Valentino when he tried to check in on her. No amount of apologies could change that they all knew she was infected. Her mood took a huge hit, and soon she only stood guard or looted, and stayed away from people. Sasha would go and talk to her, since another person knowing what having violent reactions on accident is like does feel good, but even SHE kept her distance from Velvet. Valentino and Dave, since one was her best friend and the other a medical professional, would always be talking about a way to help Velvet somehow. Though it always got to the topic of euthanasia, since she was too far gone to use Augmentin or Amoxicillin to turn back the virus, Valentino would deny it in hopes of a better solution. Even [Commander] noticed her changes in behavior from the few times they talked, and so, even the commander for the squad wasn't doing well in morale. Scarlett occasionally joined in on the chats between Dave and Valentino, offering quietly to execute Velvet herself, which both of them denied immediately, but didn't stop her more then usual hostility towards Velvet. Velvet almost used Knuckleboom on Scarlett, grabbing towards her face angrily and shouting. Thankfully, Valentino grappled her and dragged the angry Velvet away to calm her down, which didn't take much time. [Commander] came on through Valentino's AG3NT and started speaking, "Hey guys! Your ship out of here is gonna arrive in a few days! We'll be able to help Velvet when she's back home, and then we can all relax! Commander, out. See you all soon." [Commander] hangs up, and Velvet walks over to Valentino, looking angry. "Why didn't he just call me? Does he think I'm, what, so ill I can't be used to talk to people, and that I need to get us taken home ear-" Valentino stopped her and hugged her, causing her to shut up, though still looking angry. Dave chuckled and pat her on the shoulder, speaking in his deep and gravelly voice, "No, Velvet, what if they just want to talk via someone else's AG3NT, or somethin. It's fine." She sighed and relaxed against Valentino, and after facing away from Velvet, Dave wiped off his hand.

Tomorrow..

Velvet had to be tied up multiple times to a chair, her armor taken off and her Knuckleboom taken away, the group also having to turn off her agent eyepiece so she couldn't see. She was snarling at anyone who got near and kept trying to break free and thrashing around occasionally. If she heard Valentino, then she'd calm down a bit, but still sometimes try and kick or headbutt him. Scarlett had one of her Shadows guarding Velvet at all times, and Valentino almost constantly watched her. [Commander] would try and talk to her but she only cursed them out whenever they tried.
This continued, until the day the ship out of Eden arrived.