four ──────────── rescue mission!

 Elina sat back on the cot, back to the wall. Her eyes fell to Rick, who was slowly patching himself up. Under the warm dim light of the open cabin, all the bruises that littered Rick's chest became noticeable, contrasting his tan skin along with the many taped on bandages over his wounds. In her hand was a cup of tea, curtesy of the Freedom Fighters leader, Sol Soria. Rick had a cup of his own, set off to the side of the first aid equipment. The two of them had zero idea how long they'd stay here, or even where they were. But, Elina thought it was nice to prop her feet up for the first time in a while. "Starin'?" Rick asks aloud.

Elina removes her eyes and blinks, composing herself and shaking her head. "Sorry. Zoned out. Need help?" She asked, sitting up slightly. "Just the leg one, if you could?" Elina nodded, pushing herself off the bed despite her body's will and crossed the cabin to kneel in front of him, dawning an awkward smile. Grabbing the bandages, Elina gently wrapping the spot on his leg before taping it somewhat tightly. "You're starting to convince you're not a criminal. That's not a good thing." He said.

Elina shrugged, pushing herself into the chair beside him. "Your loss." She quipped.

"What do we do from here?"

Rick cocks his head to the side. "Rest for a bit. Try and contact Waller—find the others?"

"Yeah, solid."

Elina leaned her head back slightly, crossing her arms. "Are you going to sleep?" Rick asks. "Trying to." She chuckles. "In that chair? Take the bed." Rick practically demands. Elina's eyes pop open, paired with a glare. "Excuse me? You take the bed, I'm not the one injured."

Rick looks to the bed and shakes his head. "I'm not tired." He said as Elina stood. "I feel like I could run a mile."

"You wanna demonstrate that, Flag?" She asks, pushing his chair towards the bed. "Get in the bed." She orders.

Rick looks over his shoulder and squints slightly. "Aren't you going to take me to dinner first? I'm not protesting but—"

"Just get in the bed!"

────────

 "Dubois?"

 "Cleo?"

 Elina jumped after she spoke, seeing a large figure move from the corner of her eye. King Shark stuck his head through the curtain of the hut they were sitting in—looking to Elina. Along with Dubois and King Shark stood Cleo, a somewhat friend of Elina's (accompanied by Sebastian, of course), Abner / Polka-Dot Man, and Peacemaker. Cleo was the only one without a gun pointed at them—ready to fire. "What the hell are you doing here?" Rick asks, brows furrowed together in utter confusion. Elina was wondering the same thing—out of all the places they'd meet...they find each other in Corto Maltese? Weird.

"Waller told us that you were uh...are you drinking tea?"

Rick looks from Elina back to the others. "This is...Sol Soria—she's the leader of the freedom fighters. The resistance trying to take down the current government. They saved our lives." Rick said, pointing between himself and Elina. Elina took a slow drink of her tea, trying to make sense of the situation. If they're in here...and no one stopped them then...

Elina choked on her drink, covering her mouth.

"Oh." Dubois says. "Wow."

The group slowly lowers their guns. Sol Soria speaks up. "Why did my people not alert me of your arrival...?"

Cleo leans forward and shakes her head. "I didn't see any people." Dubois says.

"Yeah—we didn't see any people." Peacemaker agrees.

"Are you sure there were others?" Cleo asks.

Abner speaks up. "I turned them into my mother in my head and killed them." Elina's jaw drops, and she looks to Rick. Just as she does, King Shark hacks loudly—a finger falling onto the table, right in front of Rick and Elina. It goes silent in the cabin—excluding the fact Sol's wife gasps loudly and grips Sol's chair.

Then, they're all outside standing behind Sol, looking at all the carnage the group had caused just to save Rick and Elina—but mostly just Rick. Rick was rubbing a hand over his mouth, slightly embarrassed by the situation. "Typical Americans—just run in, guns blazing!" She yells, spinning around and glaring at Rick.

"I know. This is...messed up." Rick says, hands on his hips. Oh my god, Elina thinks, rubbing her temples at his response. "These guys—" Rick turns to look where they stood behind him, only to see Dubois and Peacemaker hitting each other. Rick seethes for a moment. "Are fucking idiots. But right now our objectives align with yours. If Jotunheim contains the technology and intelligence it says it does, it can be used on Corto Malteseans as well as Americans. That's why we need your help. Gettin' to the city to stop 'em."

Sol is silent, staring over Elina's shoulder. "Is that rat waving at me?"

Rick spins around.

He turns slowly back to her.

"It appears it is."

"Why?"

Rick purses his lips. "I'm gonna guess 'cause it's friendly..."

It was times like this when Elina is confused between wanting to cry or cry laugh. But, as she turns around to walk towards Cleo with her back faced towards Sol, a hand covers her mouth and she looks downward, swallowing down a laugh. "What is wrong with you? We just killed her friends!" Cleo whisper yells.

"Your fucking rat—he's waving at her. I...had to walk away." Elina muttered, screwing her eyes shut. Never in a million years did Elina think that laughing at Rick Flag explaining what a rat was doing would be so funny—just a few months earlier, Elina paid zero mind to Rick Flag as he occasionally visited Belle Reve.

"Sebastian—you remeber Elina, right?" Cleo asked as the rat climbed onto Elina's shoulder. Elina froze slightly before awkwardly smiling at the rat. "Hi, Sebastian. Abner, Dubois, Peacemaker."

"My name is Christopher." Peacemaker says.

"I did not ask. What's the megladons name?"

"Elina, this is Nanaue. Nanaue, this is friend." Cleo introduces, gesturing for Nanoue to stick his arm out. He does so, and Eline shakes his hand-fin reluctantly. "Nom nom?" Nanaue asks. Cleo shakes his head. "No, Nanaue. She is a friend." Cleo repeats, and Nanaue looks back to her. "Friend." Elina smiles a little wider.

"Lina, c'mere." Rick says.

Elina strides to him, watching as Sol walked off towards her wife. "Sol has agreed to help us get to the city—we've got to meet this Thinker guy at a club he frequents at." Rick informs and Elina nods. "We're going to a...strip club?" She asks. Rick nods. "Sounds fun. Didn't know you knew how to party, Flag." Rick rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. We need disguises, first."

"Disguises?"

"Yes. I need a shirt, too." Rick pointed out, and Elina looked to his bare chest. She looked up from his carved muscle and jokingly made a frown. "I think it's fine if you went like that. Okay—okay, message received." Elina started as Rick made a spinning move with his finger for her to go back to the group, her hands raised in defense, smiling somewhat.

Elina led Cleo to go with her to go retrieve her stuff, to which the girl followed closely behind, occasionally talking to her rat. Then, once inside the cabin, Cleo looked to Elina. "You and Flag are...friends?"

"Guess so. He's nice to me."

"I can tell. He has kind eyes." Cleo says.

Elina straightened her back and looked to the raven haired girl with confused eyes. "You said that about the girl who shanked you last month, Cleo." Elina stated, and Cleo shrugged. "I can be wrong sometimes!" She added.

"But you have been stuck with him for what—two days? Do you flirt?"

"Cleo, why would we flirt? He's the colonel." Elina clipped, picking up her belts and holding them in her arms. "You and Harley are teammates and you two used to—"

"I didn't control who I was teammates with, Cleo! And shh!" Elina hissed, holding a finger to her lips. "Just...let's get going. It's almost nightfall." Elina ordered, walking past Cleo.

Cleo cackled. "You are into him, I can tell!"

"Cleo, I cannot be into him when I—one, know nothing about him. Two, have not put any thought to the idea of being into him. Three, he is technically my superior." Elina stated.

"I heard you! You told him to keep his shirt off. It doesn't help the fact you were practically oogling at him. Sebastian and I will keep this a secret. But, when you get out a prison don't be afraid to tap that—"

"Tap what?" Christopher said abruptly, standing behind them.

"Jesus Christ."

"What are we talking about?" He asks as he stood oddly still and tall—soldier like.

"Nothing, Smackdown. Don't worry about it." Elina brushed him off, moving past him and towards the others. "Let's go." Rick orders, walking them towards the jungle again.

A little ways in, Abner and Cleo both stop, with the latter groaning tiredly. "What the hell are you doin'?" Rick questions.

"We're tired, Colonel. We need a rest."

Nanaue steps forward. "I carry friend?"

"It's okay, Nanaue. It's happening to his face again." Cleo points to Abner, who has large colorful boils all over his face and body. "It's nothing. I slipped." Abner admits, shaking his head. Elina, along with everyone else, wasn't buying his bullshit. She cocks her head.

"Hey, Norman Bates, if that shit's contaigus we need to know." Dubois says.

Abner grunts. "It's not."

"Then what is it..." Christopher asks.

"It's...an interdimensional virus."

Elina furrows her brows. "Yeah—and what the fuck is that, Dots?" She questions, confused.

"My mother was a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs, and she was obsessed with turning me and my brothers and sisters into superheroes. She infected me. Now, if I don't, you know, expel the dots twice a day..." Abner explains.

"Then what?"

"They'll eat me alive." He laughs dryly, staring off towards the ground.

After another moment, Rick turns. "Okay...let's move out." He orders, the rest of them following him and Sol Soria to meet her contact to help them towards the city.

────────

 "Hi, Milton." Elina waves as she walks towards the back of the bus. Poor Milton, they were hijacking his bus and he was obliging to it. At the back, the group was pulling on their disguises. The one that stuck out was Nanaue. Appearing beside Nanaue, he turned to her and spoke. "I use disguise." He says. "You're going to wear a disguise?" Cleo asks. "Si." Nanoue says. "And what kind of disguise?" Cleo asks in return. Nanaue thinks for a moment before putting his finger above his mouth. "Fake mustache." Elina covers her mouth to hide her laughter as she digs for her own disguise.

"That's the worst fake mustache I've ever seen." Christopher states.

"Fuck!" Nanaue yells, throwing his hands up.

Elina raises her brows at his outburst and goes to pull out a worn out black tank top with a slightly high neck, an equally worn out blazer, and an old baseball cap. She shrugs, it would work nonetheless. After changing and grabbing her belts, Elina stepped foot onto the bus and took a seat, propping her feet up. After a few minutes, Abner and Cleo came to board, with Cleo sitting behind Elina and Abner behind her. Dubois and Christopher followed, and lastly Rick. Rick fell to seat beside Elina, wearing cowboy. As the bus started to move, Rick turned to look at her. In a swift movement, Elina tipped her baseball cap. "Cowboy." She said simply.

Rick smiled, shaking his head. "Outfielder." He replied, tipping the brim of his own hat. Elina smiled and looked to the window. Behind her, Cleo was shaking her head, chuckling to herself. On her shoulder sat Sebastian, also shaking his head.

yes i made sol soria sapphic what are you gonna do ab it nerd? and yes there will be a moment dedicated to harley and elina in the past because i'm good like that