~*~
Gavin woke and stretched in Michael's arms that were slung around his waist. After a moment of enjoying their shared warmth, he slipped out from his spot on the bed to check his wound. He perched himself on the edge of the bed in the dim torch light, and when he peeled back the bandages, he braced for whatever was underneath.
It was healed.
The once-gaping mouth of the bleeding hole in his skin was replaced with a thin scar and dried blood. He removed the temporary door with the pickax to get more light and glanced about for a moment to make sure the coast was clear. With a large smile, he moved back to the content Michael and shook him awake.
"Hey, wake up Micool. Look, I'm all better."
Michael groaned, turning over to hide his head from the sharp morning light. "Go back t' bed, Gav.."
Gavin yanked the covers off the shorter red-head with a huge grin. "Micool! Look, Micool!" He said showing off his arm.
Michael opened his eyes slightly to peer at the (probably hallucinating) brunette, only to sit up quickly and observe his, barely noticable, scarred skin.
"Ho-.. How?"
"I don't know! But I'm all better Micool!"
Michael got up and hugged the bouncy brit tightly, his worries for him melting away. They hit a stroke of good luck and he wasn't about to question the miracle. He pulled away with a warm smile. "We'd better grab our stuff and stop by the City.. There might be some stuff we can save from the blast."
"Alright, Micool." He smiled widely, gathering their things. He was glad to be of use again instead of a burden. He didn't question their good fortune. The brunette grabbed his bag and swung it onto his back, it filled with various items, including their shrunken beds.
The pair wanted to set out for the ruins of Achievement City, but there was no way they'd find it on the ground. Michael scaled a tree with Gavin at it's base.
"Can you see anything?" Gavin called up to the red-head.
"No.. No, I-.. Wait, I see it!" Michael pointed in the direction of the smoking crater and remains of Achievement City, his arm wrapped around some of the leaves of the tree.
~*~
Geoff tried to turn the game back on about four times. It would pull up the title screen, and then crash. After a bit of persistance, and beating the console for a few minutes, the game appeared.
Geoff was devistated to see what he saw. Achievement City was a hole in the ground, lava from Jack's house had set everything ablaze. The only thing that still stood was his monolith of a house, and part of Gavin's house.
Geoff went around, collecting everything that could be important. His hands were shaking as he did so.
Were they dead? No.. No, the heart monitors would've gone off. He kept his thoughts quiet as he mumbled to himself.
So where were they?
He was half planning to start flying around in search for them, but something stopped him.
A flash of blue.
"Michael? Is that you?"
Nothing. The blue had gone behind some trees off behind where the BUTTS sign would be present. He increased the volume on the headset.
"Michael?"
Silence.
Geoff frowned as he urged his blocky Master Chief forward.
