Chapter Text
When Zanka wakes up in the infirmary of cleaner HQ, the first thing he notices is a low throb in his temple. When he tries to sit up he’s met with the burn of sore muscles as well as the wrongness of scar tissue being somewhere it previously hadn’t been in his side. Right. Jabber. Jabber and his stupid freaking claws and his stupid freaking toxins. He couldn’t wait to get rid of this guy.
“Zanka! Oh you’re awake, that’s good.”
Eishia was standing by his bed, setting down a glass of water on his nightstand.
“What happened?”
That was a stupid question.
“Well, team Akuta and team Child took you back here after they finished destroying the flying trash beast and I healed you as well as I could but I couldn’t fully heal you. I’m sorry.”
She looked down at her feet as she spoke, probably worried he would be mad or something.
“Don’t worry Eishia, I’m alive and that’s what matters. Plus, you still healed me up pretty well. I’m sure that without you I wouldn’t even be awake right now.”
“He’s right, Eishia.”
Behind Eishia, was Corvus.
“It’s good to see you awake Zanka, I hope you’re feeling well.”
“Yes, boss, I feel much better than before.”
Corvus huffed out a small laugh.
“Yes, that’s very good. Now I’m sorry to do this within minutes of you waking up but I need your account of what happened in that trash beast for the report.”
Zanka nodded, “Well…”
As Zanka explained what happened, the throbbing in his head slowly got worse. Eventually making it hurt just to think. He didn’t show any of this–at least he tried not to–in front of Corvus though. He knew he was hurt and he wasn’t as strong as Enjin or as powerful as Rudo but he at least wanted to be capable enough to tell them what had happened.
After a while, too long if you asked Zanka, Corvus left and Eishia was allowed to check up on him again. She changed his bandages, revealing half-healed stab wounds in his side and various yellow and green bruises all over his torso. After she left the room, he was finally allowed to lay down and fall back asleep. It only took a deep breath, stretching his spine out until it hurt and then settling in his own body for his mind to drift off again.
-
Over the next few weeks, Zanka slowly got better, happily talking with his friends as they visited him. After nearly a month Zanka was allowed to go on missions again, it felt good to take Lovely Assistaff out and beat up some trash beasts. He was weaker than he was before, couldn’t swing Lovely Assistaff as hard as he could before he spent a month rotting in a bed, but he was getting his strength back. Team Akuta hasn’t had any missions recently, at least not big ones. After Amo and Fu had joined their team, it meant that Enjin and Riyo had a lot of mentoring to do. It gave Zanka a chance to breathe for once though. Ever since Rudo showed up, it felt like they had been getting beat up non stop by psycho maniac raiders. Or maybe that was just him.
So instead, Zanka had been doing a lot of patrolling around the edges of the cleaner’s so called ‘territory’, twice a week if he didn’t have a mission. In reality it was just the area around cleaner HQ where they arrived quickest, scaring off most who wanted to do something and eliminating those who did. It wasn’t something Zanka usually did but he decided that it would make good reps for getting his strength back. After all, big trash beasts rarely showed up anywhere near cleaner HQ, but small ones were almost constantly everywhere.
Today was supposed to be the exact same as the previous weeks, walking along the path that was worn into the ground, crushing trash beasts with his staff while looking out for any larger ones in the distance to report then getting back to HQ late enough to avoid talking to anyone before going to sleep. At least it was until Semiu pulled him from his patrol to go on a mission with most of Team Akuta and Team Child.
There was a trash beast moving away from a no-man’s-land and towards their HQ that needed immediate taking care of. It was near Raider territory which meant they might interfere, hence why two teams were being sent to handle it instead of just one. When they got to the fight, the Raiders were already there, driving the trash beast towards them. Standing on top of a high trash pile between the trash beast and their little group, was Jabber, claws glinting in the light and locs hanging around his face. There was a shadow cast over his face, making the pink glow in his eyes seem to pierce Zanka’s soul.
Then the idiot waved at them.
“About time you guys joined the party!” He shouted down at them. “Thought it would be nice to send a small gift!”
They watched as Jabber jumped off the pile of trash, one of those blue-green portals opening underneath him before he could hit the ground. When he heard something land behind them, he was ready for the claws coming for his face. Except they weren’t there. He looked to the side to see Jabber pounce at Riyo, then he saw three other raiders drop out of another portal behind Jabber.
Great.
The raiders all split the second they hit the floor, a guy with a glass jar at his hip running towards Rudo, a guy with a big metal arm running towards Bro and Dear, and a girl with amber eyes running towards Zanka. Who the hell was this? When she got close enough, Zanka tried swinging Lovely Assistaff at her, but she dodged it, jumping into the air and twisting while pulling something off her wrist. Suddenly, there was a giant shiny chain surrounding her with two giant spiky pearls at the ends. When Zanka looked closer, he realized the chain wasn’t actually a chain, it was more like a string of beads, a few beads in the center of it spelling out the name ‘Zenzu’.
So this was her jinki, a meteor hammer. She swung one of the weights at him, easy enough for Zanka to dodge, but then the second weight swung around as well, slamming into Zanka and throwing him to the ground a few feet away. So she was good at predicting where he would be. Got it. As they kept fighting, Zanka felt something spark deep in his stomach, something similar to anger and embarrassment. He had been fully expecting Jabber to come for him, Jabber had been so eager to fight him before, did he think he wasn’t strong enough anymore?
Zanka grunted as he just barely dodged one of the weights, twisting in mid air in order to avoid getting hit. The girl was keeping him at a distance, using the weights to bat him away anytime he tried to get close. He needed a way to get close to her, she wouldn’t be able to swing her pearls at him if he was right next to her. Zanka eventually managed to get closer to her, watching as she kept shortening the length of the chain she would swing out as he got closer. He could see it in her eyes, she hadn’t expected him to get closer. Zanka kept getting closer, blocking the weights with his staff when she wasn’t able to wing them around as well. She was fast, but he was going to be faster.
He finally got close enough to hit her, swinging Lovely Assistaff one last time to knock her out. She went down hard, jinki collapsing from a giant meteor hammer into a small bracelet with a few pearls strung in between the beads. He felt a little bad but it wasn’t enough to take over that feeling in his stomach. Behind him, Riyo and Jabber were still fighting. Jabber was still holding back, his claws still small. When Jabber jumped in the air, he met Zanka’s eyes. What Jabber saw, Zanka didn’t know. Zanka only saw Jabber’s eyes widen slightly, then his eyebrows furrowed.
Riyo was next to him now, both of them staring down Jabber.
“Riyo you should go help Guita with the trash beast, it’s a tough one.”
“What?” Riyo turned to him surprised, “Zanka, last time you-”
“I know what happened last time. I’m going to beat him this time though.”
Riyo hesitated for a second, sighing when she saw that Zanka wasn’t going to stand down.
“Fine. I’m coming back the second you need help.”
Zanka nodded. That just left him and Jabber. Jabber looked bored, annoyed even. Zanka didn’t care, he was going to beat him this time.
“You want a taste of me too Zan-Zan?”
Zanka lunged at him, Assistaff aimed at his throat. Unfortunately, Jabber dodged easily, coming up behind him. Zanka shoved the end of Lovely Assistaff backwards, satisfaction flooding him when felt her hit Jabber. When he turned around, Jabber was on the ground a few feet away curled around his stomach.
“I’m going to kill you.” Zanka said, staring down at Jabber.
He's not allowed to do that. He's a cleaner.
“Kill me? I beat your ass last time! Are you gonna put up a better fight this time!?”
Damn it. Of course he thinks Zanka isn’t good enough, everyone eventually realizes that he’s not much. He just wants to beat Jabber once though, that’s all he needs. They threw themselves at each other again, a harsh screech sounding out when Lovely Assistaff met with Jabber’s claws. He inverted the spikes on her left side, stabbing them into Jabber’s right hand and arm. If Zanka could avoid Jabber’s neurotoxins that meant there was a lower chance of him ending up hallucinating on the floor again.
With Lovely Assistaff’s spikes still embedded in Jabber’s arm, he swung her around, hard. He heard a snap when Jabber's arm broke followed by a shout of pain. The sound only fueled him, the feeling in the pit of his stomach slowly shifting from anger to something else. That feeling when someone says you cant, but you do it anyways and prove them wrong. It settled there, almost curling up to touch Zanka’s heart.
Jabber seemed to perk up after that, they exchanged blows and twisted around each other. This time Zanka didn’t let Jabber's claws touch him, his mind clear as he swung one of Lovely Assistaff’s prongs into Jabber’s face. When Jabber went down, Zanka followed. He pinned down Jabber’s arms, stepping on the broken one and kneeling on the other, while using Lovely Assistaff to pin down Jabber’s legs. He didn’t need him starting any funny business.
“What the hell makes you think you can dismiss me like that huh?” Zanka spat at him, wrapping his hand around Jabber’s throat.
Jabber didn’t say anything, his eyes glowed with something other than power, his chest heaving as he tried to take in deep breaths. Zanka was panting too, watching as Jabber just smiled, the crazy look leaving his eyes but a different look taking its place. Zanka squeezed harder, trying to get him to respond.
Big mistake.
Jabber’s eyes rolled back a little, a weird noise coming from the back of his throat. It came out a little off due to Zanka’s hand around his throat and the lack of air, but the moan was still clear as day.
Zanka froze, mind going blank as he processed what just happened. In an instant, he leapt off of Jabber and got the hell away from the guy. Jabber stayed on the ground, turning his head to look at Zanka with the original crazy look in his eyes instead of the new one (thank goodness).
“YOU FREAK!!”
Zanka’s voice was shrill, he wanted to get out of here now. He didn’t even care about winning anymore.
“Oh? But weren’t you the one just choking me Zan-Zan?”
“You damn masochist! Don’t involve me in this!!”
Fast as lighting, Jabber threw himself at Zanka, knocking him to the ground again. Jabber’s face was too close, Zanka could smell the scent of blood, metal and something sharper coming off of him.
“If I’m a masochist, then that makes you the sadist…Zanka.” Jabber whispered in his ear.
Zanka kicked his legs up, wrapping his ankles around Jabber’s neck and pulled Jabber back. Zanka grabbed Lovely Assistaff and slammed her into the ground around Jabber’s head. Her spikes were already inverted, poised at Jabber’s neck.
“Zanka!”
Enjin was standing behind him, helping Rudo up off the ground as a blue portal closed in the shadow of a trash pile. Jabber used his distraction to kick Zanka off of him, running to one of the bigger trash piles near them. Shit.
“Well, Zanka, it seems you still have some substance to you after all!” Jabber shouted as he ran, falling through a portal once he reached the base of the trash pile.
He turned around again, seeing Riyo, Guita, and Bro defeat the giant trash beast. There weren’t any raiders there anymore, they must have left. Eishia walked up to him with bandages, wrapping the wounds that she could get to and making sure he hadn’t broken anything this time. He would have some bruises but otherwise he would be fine. Turns out, Semiu had sent some more people after them when they hadn’t checked in for an hour, assuming that they had been caught up with more trash beasts or raiders.
On the drive back to HQ, Zanka couldn’t help but think about the fight. Jabber had really thought that Zanka wasn’t good enough, but then something changed his mind. Zanka could almost see what it had been, it felt like he was…more…this time. He didn’t know what that meant.