#team nuclear

The entire Tamakoma branch is respectfully inquisitive.

Thus, it is no surprise that, when Chika's entry position during one particular Rank Wars battle is practically dead center on the map, Osamu's deliberately and painstakingly thought-out plan was put on the backburner in favor of One. Simple. Experiment.

Chika: "Should I try it?"

Osamu: "I mean... You've been dropped in the ideal position. It's now or never, really."

Yuma: "Do it. It'd be funny."

Hyuse: "Osamu is right. That, and it might make this go quicker. I say try it."

So.

What would transpire when Chika puts every last drop of trion she can into transforming herself into a bomb?

It decimates the entire map.

Everyone bails out. Every. Last. One.

After a loud few seconds of stunned silence, the microphone to the commentators' booth crackles back to life.

"Well... That... uhh... works, I guess. All points will go to Chika Amatori. No survivor points for this round. Team Tamakoma-2 wins."

"Yeesh. That was terrifying."

"The quiet ones usually are."

"Touché."

"So... This is gonna get banned by the end of the day."

"Oh, absolutely."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Yuma: Gonna need - oof, rude - help over here! I am but one little guy!

Osamu: Reinforcements are on their way now.

Yuma: The tank or the architect?

"Huh?" A voice echoes from Yuma's side of the comms. "Tank? Architect? What'd you mean by - "

Said guy gets unceremoniously launched via a trion barrier erecting right underneath their feet.

"Ahh," he thinks as he's flung across the map, "Architect. Makes sense."

Hyuse: 'Little guy' my ass, you are a fully fledged war veteran.

Yuma snickers.

Unheard by both of them, someone in the audience snorts.

The alarms blare, sirens screaming down nearly every hallway in headquarters.

A portal cracks open, distinctly unnatural compared to most other neighbor portals. It's dark and foggy, clawing open a wound through reality almost literally.

An equally unsettling creature steps through the open maw. Just the one. A being of smoke and fog and stardust, four shapes that could very well be eyes glow a starry white upon an oddly feline face.

It's tall. Tall and skinny, some odd mix of deer, cat, and bird features the size of a bamster.

The portal tightens when the rest of the body - somewhere between a fluid and gaseous state - emerges, but it does not close fully.

Yoneya whistles. He may be smiling, but there's no glint in his eye. There's no amusement in it.

"Kazama squad is en-route," he informs Arashiyama.

"Tamakoma 2 as well, " Arashiyama responds.

"Hello..." Arashiyama then murmurs, supposedly to the creature, for once blank-faced and grim. The rest of his squad, stationed strategically and on active standby, confirm their positions one after the other.

The neighbor, oddly enough, lowers their head to Arashiyama, slow and sedate. No other movement is made. He activates his trigger regardless, tense, waiting.

Osamu is stitched into their radio channel with a crackle-pop of static.

"Kuga is almost in range. Hyuse is covering evacuations and Amatori is in position."

"Copy that."

He can tell precisely when Kuga spots the neighbor, a whispered "What the - ?" echoing in his ear.

"Oi!!" He hears Kuga shout, both to his left and in his ear, "What are you doing here!?"

The creature blinks, probably, and then turns to Kuga. Arashiyama holds his arm out at Yoneya to stall him and does not attack, if only because the neighbor does not move any faster nor show any visible signs of aggression.

It half steps half stretches towards Yuma. Something then separates and falls from what is essentially the lower jaw, if he were confident the creature had a mouth at all.

Yuma catches it. The glob is simultaneously dripping and steaming.

Yuma startles.

Then Yuma stares.

"ꜰᴏᴜᴎᴆ ᴉᴛ," echoes from somewhere within the creature. The voice, though a bit distorted, still sounded disturbingly organic, not at all robotic or modular.

"Thank you, " Yuma whispers back, clutching a deactivated Replica.

It turns and leaves, sealing the portal closed behind it.

Tension bleeds in the atmosphere with nowhere to go, leaving several agents flat-footed with how anticlimactic the encounter ended up being.

"Such a cool friend, " Yuma speaks with a feral smile, "Never would've expected them to leave their home planet!"

"Yuma, what the fuck?" Ah. Kikuchihara.

Arashiyama chuckles.

"Hey Chika!" Yuma's voice crackles through, all smug enthusiasm, "I wanna try something out!"

"Ummm, okay." She pokes her head around the corner. All clear. "What do you need me to do?"

"Go boom."

"Ummm.... Wasn't that banned?"

"It'll be fine! Just wait until it's just us and the last few stragglers and avoid the map's center. Aim for the Southmost edge."

"Oh. Okay. I'll do my best!"

It's a little under half an hour later when the right conditions are met.

"Target spotted. Am I clear?"

"Yeah," is Hyuse's sole imput.

Osamu pipes up in their communication line, sounding a bit panicked and very much confused (but most importantly distinctly not unamused). "NO! KUGA IS RIGHT THERE- DO NOT-"

Chicka, however, ignores him in favor of Yuma. "Yes. You're clear. Do it!"

"Okay...!"

Chika hugs her opponent from behind in silent apology and activates her self-destruct to the background of Osamu's dismayed "nO-"

Their audience is witness to a good third of the map smoldering.

Two points are added to Chika Amatori's score.

Wordless vocalizations of astonishment come from the announcer's box.

"Did... Did Tamakoma just sacrifice one of their own for a kill!?"

"Wait! Waitwaitwait! Camera Twelve!"

The live feed obligingly swaps to display Camera Twelve's feed on the main screen, capturing the tail end of Yuma digging himself out of the rubble like a gopher. Aside from the pinpricks of Trion leaking from his left arm, he emerges pretty much unscathed.

Cackles echo in the amphitheater.

"No way! Yuma Kuga is still in play! Now how did he manage that!?"

Oh my! Hello!

Oooooo I've never received a question before! This is so exciting!

I'm glad you like them! I don't have much on any headcannons, but I will say that, at least in my own snippets, Osamu is more often than not behind the computer when it comes to Team Nuclear fights and adjusting his strategies in-real-time. Chika is a whole lot more chaotic, since the battle simulations are all harmless, (She's still hesitant in a real fight tho and is instead used for sabotage), and Hyuse is in this strange middle-ground where he still wants to go back home but also what is going on in Meeden????

Hyuse is making friends~ :) And Yuma is his same chaotic self. We love him for that.

TEAM NUCLEAR|| For ATBU Team tracker || I'm ok with any cameos!

☢Note: For a better quality image, click here☢

(team info under the read more!)