Twist and Shout

(Same day as Hush, open to all heros coming back from battle and who were left behind. Don't all flood the thread though please.)

"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!!!!"

The cries of the little dalmatian puppy were heard all over the camp. She was still crying, she'd cried the whole way back from the jungle. All she'd wanted was a little adventure! A little fun! But all that ended up happening was her starting 'bleed blood' as she had said to Partner. She didn't want to 'bleed blood', she wanted to play and have fun. As she walked, her tummy hurt, her back stung.

Everything had shocked the femme. Shocked her to the core.

"WAAAAAAA!!! My back huuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrttttts! My tummy huuuuuuuuurrrrtttttsss!" She would continue to cry until she had some sort of distraction. Like a lollipop to a kid who'd gotten a shot. A bone would be nice.

It didn't take a super genius to figure out that someone had been hurt. The sounds of someone crying had been loud enough to get Tripod's attention quite easily. Three-legged pup came bounding forward from where he had been training, silently hoping all the while that the injuries weren't too serious, and made his way toward where Crescent stood. He ground to a halt when he finally reached his destination, only to let a gasp escape him when he finally caught a glimpse of Crescent's injuries. That was not good. Not good at all.

"Crescent, wha... what happened??" Tripod asked. He felt so useless right then. He should have been able to do something to help his siblings. Yet there Crescent was with injuries from the most recent battle. Silently Tripod was cursing his failure to protect those he cared about. How could he have been so stupid to not fight that day?

Face was lit with a smile that was somehow unsettling. Unlike the other two pups present, Dipstick was happy as a lark. Rebecca was alive, and he was ready to fight for her by any means necessary. The fact that she seemed to follow him everywhere now gave him even more hope. It mean she saw him as her hero, her one and only hero. Finally. After so many months trailing in Lucky's overbearing shadow. Now he was her hero, just like he'd always wanted.

He trotted up to Crescent and Tripod cheerfully. "Hey guys, what's...happening." Grin faded when he saw the condition Crescent was in. Worried expression replaced the grin, and he looked at Tripod with concern in his egg-shaped eyes. "Gosh, what do we do?"

"I KNOW!" Having her bawling in his ear the entire trip back to the camp had not done anything to improve Partner's already sour mood, and he glowered irritably at Crescent from the corner of his eye, before his attention shifted to the pair approaching them.

Okay, easy, Partner, no need to get mad at them too... Partner took a deep breath to push his anger to one side. He probably looked rather a sight too, he supposed, splattered as he was with Crescent's blood and covered with an unholy number of bruises. His initial impulse was to give the other two pup's a sharp answer, accusing the female of being the victim of her own stupidity, but a glance at Crescent cut that inclination short. Her wailing might have given him a headache, but she was in pain, and he still couldn't bring himself to say something quite so mean. That didn't mean he was letting her off the hook, though.

"She thought the battlefield was a good place to look for lunch, and got beaten up by a woman who thought she was Strike," he stated, nonetheless taking a step closer to Crescent that could almost have been called protective. Now that they'd stopped, he could clearly see the wound running down her back, and winced. No wonder she was crying so much. Feeling a little of his irritation drain away, Partner reached out a paw and caressed her shoulder gently.

"What you can do," he answered to Dipstick's question without looking up at the other male, "is go find a medic."

Like the others, another pup heard Crescent's wailing and crying. "M-my G-god shut up a-already!" Fidget said, annoyed as he walked over to the group of spotted dogs. Annoyed, shocked and above all tired, Fidget had just came back after a brutal encounter with his brother, even after the battle, it still came as a shock to the normally twitchy pup that his own brother would hurt him, Hell try to kill him! His wounds finished drying and now caked with dry blood, Fidget just stared at the doofy female puppy, with clear annoyance. He was in a crappy mood, so like anyone in that mood he asked bitterly "What t-the h-heck is g-going on h-here?"

Large brown eyes widened as Fidget made his way onto the scene. He was...yelling at her? Partner's annoyance went over her head. He was her guardian, the pup she felt safe with so she couldn't fathom him yelling at her. But Fidget...Fidget wasn't subject to that kind of forgiveness from the slow witted derpy paws. She sniffed before, planting her rear on the ground and starting to wail again.

"Why-snff-is he-snff-mad at-snff-meeeeeeee!" She felt stupid, stupid for the first time in her life. She rubbed her eyes and pulled away from Partner sharply. She then took off, running and trailing blood behind her. Femme's wounds were shallow but deep enough that blood would seep from the wound if it wasn't stopped.

"Everyone's mad at me," she bawled, running towards the MASH tent. Once there she hid underneath a bench, not knowing and not caring if anyone was there. She curled up in a ball and licked the blood from her tummy. It tasted salty. She hated it. "Why's everybody mad at me?" She whispered, "I dinna do anything bad...I was jus' trying to...trying to..." She sniffed and cried.

Fidget just gave a rough sigh, it was wrong for him to snap at Crescent, the whole stress of fighting Wizzer and the stress of the recent deaths of his other family members had finally gotten to him.

"Hey, C-Crescent, w-wait, I'm s-sorry!" he called out, but it was too late the girl had already ran off.

Ultimately, it was Ray that took notice of the injured and upset Crescent's arrival in the MASH tent. Little firefly had been checking their inventory to make sure they at least had enough bandages, medical thread for stitches, cotton balls, and disinfectant to work with, when he caught sight of the poor little dalmatian huddled up under a bench and crying her little heart out. Ray never liked to see anyone upset, especially while injured, so naturally he was inclined to flit over to her after gathering up a few cotton balls, which would be used to clean up the female's wounds, and offer up a concerned expression as he looked her over. Her wounds didn't appear fatal, fortunately, but definitely bad enough to bleed as they were.

"Darlin', what's de matter? What's got ya so upset?" Ray asked. He'd try to sooth her first before taking care of her injuries. He realized that it would be best to at least try to calm Crescent down before doing anything so that there wouldn't be any problems with having to touch and clean her injuries.

"Damnit all, what was that for?!"

Unfortunately for Fidget, Partner, who had been on the edge of yelling at someone out of his sheer frustration with Crescent, rounded on the smaller male, teeth bared into a snarl. He was both angry at and protective of Crescent, and someone else being the one to yell at her didn't sit right with either of those instincts. He eyeballed Fidget angrily for a moment more before turning his back and trailing after Crescent.

Well, at least she'd found her way to the MASH tent - the first sensible thing she'd achieved all day, if you asked his opinion right now. Pushing his way in after her, the pup gave a small grimace as he saw the firefly who'd humiliated him that one time tending to the female, but approached them nonetheless. Truthfully, Partner supposed, he did feel kinda bad for yelling at Crescent so much, even if part of him still didn't want to let her hear the end of it.

"Hey, Crescent, you... you alright?" he asked, forcing himself to sound gentle for her sake, although his tone still carried an edge of annoyance that he couldn't quite banish. There's be time enough to tell her off later, once she wasn't so upset.

Fidget gave a yipe as Partner turned on him. He wanted to say something back, but the older dalmatian was right, he shouldn't have lashed out at Crescent like that, she was hurt by this war and so was he, the twitchy dalmatian didn't have an excuse for his action. He just sighed and lowered his head.

After a few seconds, Fidget slowly lifted his head up and looked at Dipstick and Tripod who were still left. "So, u-um w-what h-happened, around h-here?"

Badger was upset. Extremley upset. No, not because she didn't get someone to fight in the battle, it was because her failure. Her terrible, unbelievable, raw, failure. There was no denying it, the female dalmatian could have done something, but the who time she had stood there, blue and brown eyes wide in terror as she watched her adopted siblings pratically get mauled. The black-eared canine had been frozen to thr ground, immoblized with fear. And she couldn't justify the fact that she had been there for her siblings. No, now the former outcast could never do that. She had flat out failed. Failed Dodger. Failed Pongo. Failed Perdita. Failed Cresent. Failed Partner. Failed hersef.

Shuffling slowly into the MASH tent, Badger couldn't help but feel as if she had a pile of stones in her stomach. She had always done everything wrong, and know, when it was most important, she continued to mess up! I'm just a miserable failure... She thought sadly, looking up and suddenly spotting Partner and Cresent. Blue and brown orbs flashing wide, she slightly stumbled bawkwards, swallowing hard. Yes, she knew that her adopted sibling didn't know that she could have helped, but guilt was starting to get the best of the female dalmatian.

Blinking, she shuffled up to Partner and Cresent, the memories of her own first battle ocming rushing back to her. Badger faintly remembered having the same problem, a deep wound from a blade. Glancing quickly at Partner, then back to Cresent, the black-eared canine walked a bit closer to cresent, taking a moment to gingerly sniff the wound. "I-I had a similar problem, I could try to treat it until a medic arrives," The mixed-eyed dalmatian woofed softly, looking up at Partner. Honestly, it was the least that she could do.

"Excuse me. AH was about ta treat her." Ray piped up. Not that he was annoyed by Badger's neglecting his presence, he was rather small so that was probably bound to happen, it was the fact that puppies had swarmed in so suddenly and practically taken up a lot of valuable space. He motioned for Partner, Badger, and Fidget to make a little room before flitting around behind Crescent to inspect the wound on her back.

"Ah think ah got dis covered, but if someone would like ta explain what happened out there ah'd be most appreciative." Ray said. He had begun to gently dab at the wound on Crescent's back to soak up the blood. Fine time for him to be pretty much on his own... but he supposed it was all right. It was only one puppy for the time being. He could handle that.

Dipstick stared blankly as first Crescent, and then Partner, took off toward the medical tent. He looked back at Fidget when the nervous pup spoke, blinking slowly. "Ummm....I'm not sure. I wasn't paying attention cuz Becca jumped behind me when Partner yelled.." He chuckled a little. "She's a fragile little thing. But I think she'll snap out of it eventually. Won't you Becca?" He looked behind him at thin air and beamed.

Cadpig ran up followed by Thumper to check on Crescent and Partner. Why did she not even help out? She could have done something to prevent this from happening to Crescent. Crescent could have died and it would have been all her fault. She couldn't do anything. Cadpig just walks up to Crescent. "I am so sorry I could of helped you guys out. But, I was just to scared to fight anyone. I am so sorry for you and Partner. I could of helped you but I was a coward" Cadpig said taking it extremely hard.

"Cadpig , you're not a coward" Thumper tried to convince. But Cadpig was hearing none of that.

Everyone surrounded her, overwhelming the little pup. She sniffed deeply and looked up at Ray. She rubbed her eye, still crying softly, tears rolling down her soft pelt. "I'm bleeding blood, buggie," she said, rubbing her eye frantically, "Your gonna fix me right buggie? Yer gonna make the blood go away?"

As soon as she saw Partner she started to wail again. "Partnerrrrr," she moaned, "It hurts. I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was so...STUPID!" She spat the last word out as if it tasted bad. She'd never called herself stupid before, believing she was just special. But stupid was a bad word. It was almost like she spat out a curse word.

"I didn't mean to be so dumb," she said, covering her head as she stayed under the bench, "I never mean to be so dumb..." She sniffled and looked up at Ray, pawing at him.

"I like buggies..." she muttered, "Your a nice buggie." She waited patiently for Ray to patch her up. She wanted to stop bleeding blood.