(GQ #2) Sight for Four Eyes

4. Grounded

"Are you okay...?" Mia asked.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine!" Leon felt a little embarrassed, but if anything, he figured this would be something to laugh about later down the line. "Emil and Jun are helping me out."

After the other two rangers steadied him, one of them--his vision was too blurry to see who--pointed to the right side of their helmet, Leon's left.

"I think someone wants me to press the button on my helmet." Leon informed.

"That works out fine, actually. Um, I have to," Mia hesitated, and Leon could hear the captain's voice in the background, "talk with the captain."

"Okay, have fun!" Leon pressed the button and heard the clicking sound again.

Jun spoke first. "Duuude, what happened?"

"Where were you??" asked Emil. "Don't tell me you were behind the ship!"

"I...was." Leon sheepishly admitted, looking at one of them.

"Emil's over there."

"Yeah, over here, buddy!" The lieutenant confirmed. "Hey, are you... crying?"

"Oh yeah! I pressed that button when you told me to, but I didn't hear the rest of what you said, and you and Jun just kind of left, so I figured I'd go look at the Earth, and that's when I got misty-eyed." explained the rookie. "When I turned around, I couldn't even see the ship!"

"Man, that's wild..." Jun reacted. "Yeah, after he told us to press that button, I mentioned that we should always be in front of the ship so that... that doesn't happen."

Emil held himself accountable. "That was my bad. Sorry! I should've mentioned it way beforehand, but I guess now you learned the hard way. How far back were you? Do you know?"

"Nope!" Leon answered the blurry face. "All I know is that Mia got me back here safely." He felt so thankful, which reminded him that he needed to thank her later.

"Good on her!" He could barely make out Jun clapping.

"Yeah, go Mia!" the lieutenant agreed. "Anyway, let's get you back on the ship. You've had enough adventure for the day."

Arm in arm, the trio made their way back inside of the loading deck. The door shut behind them once they verified that all three were there and accounted for. Gravity returned and so did the oxygen, but they had to wait until the panel at the top of the staircase turned green before they could remove their helmets. Not that Leon remembered how.

Emil, blond locks in full view once more, noticed this, lifted up the panel on the right side of his helmet, and pressed a button. Air rushed out of the helmet, and Leon was finally able to remove it from his head. As he blinked, his eyes, now tear-free, adjusted to the environment.

"Thanks, Emil!"

"No problem!" He winked.

The three removed all their armor and placed it in their respective cubby holes, then headed upstairs. Today was the first time Leon saw the oxygen panels by each doorway display anything other than a green screen. The group actually had to pay attention to them on the way up to the observation deck to make sure they didn't step into a room with a less than breathable amount of air.

"We're back~!" Emil threw open the door. Aiden merely blinked in response, but the captain spun around, his cape billowing out behind him.

Jun stepped into the observation deck next. "Hey guyyys."

"Junzie!" Roxie clapped excitedly.

"Hiiii!" Leon waved.

Mia meekly waved the fingers of one hand back at him.