Non-HPU: Beacon of Hope

[Welsh Halfwit]

Sarah huffed. "Seems nowt. thought might be a door or... Any of youse got a shap'd charge? Mak' oor ain door?"
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Corp gave Conall a thumbs up before rolling his eyes and contacted Recon on a private channel. "According to our little loca the air's poison," he muttered. "Probably OK for the short time we're here but,we'll need decontamination and check ups when we get back. The others don't need to know just yet, Recon. It'll take their minds off their jobs. Could get them hurt. I'm telling you so they can be told if this unit goes down." He cut the line and engaged the group setting. "If they're tracing us, there's no logic to being upstairs. All downstairs and cover the doorway." As he said it, he was using the helmet screen directions to sign that Conall should get the little local downstairs to safety if he could. For his part, he grabbed the Coyote. "Can't leave you up here," he told him. "And your friends want you dead more than we do. Like it or not... You're with us now."
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"I was referring more to when we meet the Varanians," Hannabelle said. "Because, if they're being used for food, the Varanians are at the end of this trail. If they're being used to build a slave military..." She checked her weapon as they headed after the truck. "...the Varanians are at the end of this trail. Either way, it's us verses nine foot tall, armour plated behemoths for the Corytophians. And I don't plan on losing easily."
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"And," Keeva asked smoothly, "would he be one that might accept an invitation to meet with a augmented Feline and a large, friendly, Pred? Who appears to have a child on his toe."
The child, being Golten, had somehow not seen the huge drone as he'd been racing the passages, engaged in chase games with Corvis. "S...sorry, sir," Golten said, "didn't see you there..."
Corvis just looked up at Pred, then at his brother. Then back at Pred. "Didn't... see... him..?" Then he just facepalmed.
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"I'll cert'nly try, sir," Cherry sniffed, focussing on getting through to someone she'd not met. "Home base to Hawk, come in Hawk. And, please, you're live on channel Mindwire. No swearing please."
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Sana was at the rendezvous point. Well, she was nearly absolutely sure it was the rendezvous point. Now she just had to wait and hope Hawk had caused that large explosion and wasn't in it.
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Jaken looked out on the cityscape. He could just about see where they'd landed from here. "Not in one portal," he admitted honestly. "But I can roof hop there in... Four portals?"

[Hlaoroo]

Cailean immediately grins at this question.
"Yer askin' me if Ah hae explosive an' can mak a door." he answers without answering.
"Ah willnae dae it wi'oot Corp's orders though. It would mak our position clear an' Ah dinnae if they ken exactly where we are yet."

~~~~~~~~
Conall nods in understanding and crosses back to Et'wan.
"Boss says tae gae daownstairs." he writes to the reptilian creature.
'Come on. We'll tak care o' ye. An' boss' boss will dae his best tae tak care o' th' situation 'ere. Ah'll explain when there's time." Wisely the Laird refrains from actually promising Et'wan safety, just in case.

[SeanWolf]

Hawk continued running up the steps that connected to the wall, his eyes on the two remaining transports. He didn't have a plan to take them both out as, much to his dismay, the launcher he used to destroy the one was, itself, destroyed when it crashed onto the streets below. Still, he thought as he scurried up the stairs, that's one less transport for the crew to deal with...

Hivemind was considering when he noted the explosion in the middle of the outer city of New Rome. He let out a synthetic sound similar to a sigh and rubbed his forehead. "Get me in contact with Hawk..."

Hearing his comm-unit go off, much to his annoyance, Hawk grabbed the communicator and activated it; Hivemind's ID appeared on the screen. "You're going to have to call me back, sir! Situation here just went from already bad to even worse!" He said before turning off the comm-unit as he reached the second to last set of stairs. "Man, I'm gonna get chewed out for this...swear he's gonna think this is my fault...I know that, it's just...thanks to that replica? My reputation is more shot than ever..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the outskirts, Tobias was readying to play another song when he heard a rather peculiar noise. First thinking it to be some sort of wildlife, he was set to ignore it until he looked up..."Ay, Dios mío!" He tapped Eira on the shoulder and pointed to where he was looking. "Aren't those the two buques* that Hawk mentioned?"

*buques = Ship

[Legotron123]

"We're here Gear. We'll be there in a few." Liz said, before looking back to the others. "That would be our cue to leave."
Kolt smiled and gave them a thumbs up. "Well good luck! Hope to see you when all this is done and we've back on the Beacon."
Liz gave him a thumbs up back and a nod to Eira before she and Lewis headed out to meet up with gear.
Kolt turned back to his new gal pal and his smile turned into more of a smirk. "Let's go beat up some bad guys." He said, starting to float somewhat above the ground.

[CyberDragon]

Conall looks alarmed at this revelation. He raises a finger in the universally-recognised "wait one moment" gesture and hurries over to Corp, having no idea the mouse had just mentioned him. He makes sure to give the captive a wide berth, his pad converting his scribbles into clear print as he walks. He waves urgently to get the Mican's attention and shows him the pad.
"Danger! Et'wan say deadly disease in air! We all exposed, need masks! Government gone, privatised. No help coming for people." The pad says, keeping the message as succinct as possible.

Corp gave Conall a thumbs up before rolling his eyes and contacted Recon on a private channel. "According to our little loca the air's poison," he muttered. "Probably OK for the short time we're here but,we'll need decontamination and check ups when we get back. The others don't need to know just yet, Recon. It'll take their minds off their jobs. Could get them hurt. I'm telling you so they can be told if this unit goes down."

"Guys, calm down. Why do you think Hive insists we wear the armor he provides? On the base of the neck on the right side, just next to the pauldron, you'll find a button. Press it, and it'll deploy a sealed full face helmet. I'll contact Gadgeteer. He should be able to do a scan of the air to figure out what's in it." Recon said before pressing the button on her own armor. Like she said, a full face helmet materialized out of the pack on the back of her armor and wrapped around her head.

"If they're tracing us, there's no logic to being upstairs. All downstairs and cover the doorway." As he said it, he was using the helmet screen directions to sign that Conall should get the little local downstairs to safety if he could. For his part, he grabbed the Coyote. "Can't leave you up here," he told him. "And your friends want you dead more than we do. Like it or not... You're with us now."

Conall nods in understanding and crosses back to Et'wan.
"Boss says tae gae daownstairs." he writes to the reptilian creature.
'Come on. We'll tak care o' ye. An' boss' boss will dae his best tae tak care o' th' situation 'ere. Ah'll explain when there's time." Wisely the Laird refrains from actually promising Et'wan safety, just in case.

Et'wan nodded and cautiously followed along behind the others as they all went downstairs. Recon remained on overwatch on the roof while Titan kept in her position in one of the back rooms. The captured merc didn't have much choice but to follow along.

Meanwhile, the group of mercenaries and their Varanian leader were right on top of the building. The Varanian with the tracker turned to face the front door, then barked some orders at the other mercenaries. The six armed thugs fanned out and surrounded the building, with two covering the back door, two covering the windows on the left side, and two covering the windows on the right. The Varanian drew a massive gun and approached the front door.

The Varanian pulled his gun back, then slammed the butt of it against the door, smashing it to pieces. The massive reptile stepped inside and sniffed the air, before noticing the people coming down the stairs. It raised it's gun and roared, preparing to fire.

--------------------

"I was referring more to when we meet the Varanians," Hannabelle said. "Because, if they're being used for food, the Varanians are at the end of this trail. If they're being used to build a slave military..." She checked her weapon as they headed after the truck. "...the Varanians are at the end of this trail. Either way, it's us verses nine foot tall, armour plated behemoths for the Corytophians. And I don't plan on losing easily."

"Ah. I see what ya mean." Gear nodded, before pulling a case of ammo out of the pack on his back. He opened it up and handed Hannabelle a fistful of armor piercing ammunition. "You wanna take out a Varanian, aim for the heart. They've got two, but take one out an' their limbs stop working an' they usually pass out. Blood vessels in non-vital organs contract, cuttin' off flow so the remainin' heart only has to pump enough to keep the vital parts alive."

Gear loaded a single round into his rifle.

"We're here Gear. We'll be there in a few." Liz said, before looking back to the others. "That would be our cue to leave."

Once the two were back, Gear stood back up. "Glad y'all could make it. Van's still on the move, an' it's headin' out of town. Unless any of y'all have a land speeder in yer pockets, I'm gonna call in some transport."

Gear held up his arm and typed something in on the display screen that appeared above it.

"Any of y'all know how to ride a motorcycle?"

--------------------

"And," Keeva asked smoothly, "would he be one that might accept an invitation to meet with a augmented Feline and a large, friendly, Pred? Who appears to have a child on his toe."
The child, being Golten, had somehow not seen the huge drone as he'd been racing the passages, engaged in chase games with Corvis. "S...sorry, sir," Golten said, "didn't see you there..."
Corvis just looked up at Pred, then at his brother. Then back at Pred. "Didn't... see... him..?" Then he just facepalmed.

"I am large enough that I look like a vehicle or otherwise a piece of equipment. It is more understandable than one might think." Predator commented. "But I would appreciate you standing back. I am heavy machinery, and you could get caught underfoot or injured by shifting plates when I move."

"Why are you two here, anyway?" Hivemind said sternly to Corvis and Golten. "This is a machine shop, full of heavy and dangerous equipment. It isn't safe for you two to be roughhousing around here. Why don't you two meet me outside, and I'll show you the way to the park?"

Hivemind turned to Keeva and nodded. "I believe he wouldn't mind meeting new people. He is currently walking around and seeing the sights on the ship. I will ask him if he is willing to stop by."

Hivemind paused for a moment, as though waiting for an answer from someone. Not long after, he spoke again.

"He's open to it. He should be here right about..."

Hivemind paused, and a writhing mass of shadows and darkness materialized in the air next to him. The shadowy tendrils twisted, forming into a vaguely anthropoid figure with a long tail. The shadows faded, and in their place stood a portly fox, roughly 5 feet tall, with feathers and talons on his arms. He held a skewer with what looked like fried tentacles wrapped around it in one clawed hand and a footlong hot dog in the other. On his neck was some kind of torc, slightly bent in places from being roughly handled.

"Greetings! Name's Vex! Man, can you believe how many festivals and carnivals there are on this ship? I haven't even gotten to the Wurstfest yet!" Vex said in a deep, yet cheerful voice.

He moved the skewer to his other hand, holding it between two fingers as he reached out to shake Keeva's hand.

"And who might you be?"

--------------------

"I'll cert'nly try, sir," Cherry sniffed, focussing on getting through to someone she'd not met. "Home base to Hawk, come in Hawk. And, please, you're live on channel Mindwire. No swearing please."

Hearing his comm-unit go off, much to his annoyance, Hawk grabbed the communicator and activated it; Hivemind's ID appeared on the screen. "You're going to have to call me back, sir! Situation here just went from already bad to even worse!" He said before turning off the comm-unit as he reached the second to last set of stairs. "Man, I'm gonna get chewed out for this...swear he's gonna think this is my fault...I know that, it's just...thanks to that replica? My reputation is more shot than ever..."

The comm unit clicked itself right back on again the moment Hawk turned it off. Hivemind had hijacked it, and was overriding it's controls. "Hawk. That is the second explosion you've been at the center of. YOU ARE IN A CITY! And a crowded one at that! It's a miracle if nobody's been killed."

"Grab Sana, link up with the others, make sure you aren't followed, and keep an eye on your surroundings. There are civilians all around you. The last thing we want is a fatality." Hivemind said before disconnecting from the comm unit.

- - - - -

The droid sighed again, sitting down and holding his hand to his head in a very human 'mentally exhausted' manner. He didn't say anything else.

--------------------

Jaken looked out on the cityscape. He could just about see where they'd landed from here. "Not in one portal," he admitted honestly. "But I can roof hop there in... Four portals?"

Hivemind looked out over the city, feeling unsure about this plan. Finally, he conceded that they needed their gear. He wanted to have it available in case things went south, which was the direction things seemed to be rapidly heading towards.

"...Alright. If you think you can do it, then do it. Just go in, grab Rika's equipment, and get back as fast as you can. If you're spotted, come back immediately. Understood?" Hivemind instructed.

--------------------

Back at the outskirts, Tobias was readying to play another song when he heard a rather peculiar noise. First thinking it to be some sort of wildlife, he was set to ignore it until he looked up..."Ay, Dios mío!" He tapped Eira on the shoulder and pointed to where he was looking. "Aren't those the two buques* that Hawk mentioned?"

*buques = Ship

"...Right..." Eira said, focusing on the two ships flying over the town a short ways away. "Gadgeteer, I'm going to need more water."

"Way ahead of you." the Varanian said, running towards her with two twenty gallon jugs slung over his shoulders. He lowered them to the ground, and Eira pulled the water out from inside. She engulfed herself in it, then froze it into a solid armor entirely made of ice.

"Jenny, you hang on to Kolt. Tobias, you grab hold of me. Given their descent and where they're headed, they'll be too far from us to be able to go on foot, so we're going in hard and fast." Eira said. "Kolt, keep a low profile. Stay close to the ground. Weave through the streets and alleys, but don't go above the tallest buildings. Seeing us flying without wings will draw too much attention from too great a radius."

Eira waited until Tobias had grabbed hold of her, then she lifted the armor into the air with her inside. Tobias would notice that, despite being made of ice, the armor wasn't cold at all.

"Let's get going!" she said, before flying off. She kept low, avoiding going higher than two stories off the ground as she made her way toward the dropship.

[Welsh Halfwit]

Corp took in the situation. Exposed. No room to evade the enormous gun. No way to evade the guns outside. One way to give the others a few seconds that could be used to escape. He took it, throwing the Coyote off to one side as he charged the assailant with a warcry of "do it, you Scots nit!" He brought out his psionic knives, one of which he used to try to damage the gun with when he was under its aim and slashed at the behemoth's leg with the other. He watched for the response, ready to shift away and believing that the Varanians troopers wouldn't be willing to fire so close to their boss...
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Sarah staggered as she caught the thrown Coyote. "Think he jus' said yes, Connall," she called, hauling the temporary captive back with her.
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"Thanks, Gear," Hannabelle said, before licking his cheek and loading up her weapon. "Kill shots to inconvenience them. That's annoying." She grinned. "That thing similar to a snowspeeder," she asked of the motorbike. "My licence for that's only a few years old. The Bike one's expired."
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The two boys, recognising when an offer is an order, trooped off to be taken to the park where they might find other kids (and Corvis wanted other languages to learn), leaving Keeva, Pred and the room's Hivebot. "Well, that was a diversion," Keeva extolled before the other exploded into being. "Haven't visited them yet myself, being more of a socket monkey than anything." she replied, shaking the hand. "Hi, Keeva Storm. I'm from another universe! And this is Predator. Nice to meet you."
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Cherry chose to add a little something before releasing the comm. "Mr Hawk? Please be as careful as warrented. We do want you back in one piece." The feeling might have been muddled somewhat by the sneeze at the end but she hoped it had gotten across, into his head. She closed the link and put her arm around the droid's shoulders, trying to be supportive.
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Jaken prepared himself. He knew his aim was good but eight portals in a row at maximum range wasn't something he'd done that often before. He looked out over the rooftops, set his jaw. "Back in ten, sir," he said before opening a portal to a distant roof. He turned around after stepping through and closed it, mentally filing away the location he'd just been in. Then he continued on his way. He might need a soda at the end...
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Jenny held on to Kolt and considered jetpacks. After she'd mentally shook her head and stopped thinking about six-packs.

[Hlaoroo]

"Cailean, but aye." Cailean corrects, glancing over at the wall which he'd prepared earlier with strategically placed pawprints.
"HEADS DOWN!" he barks, giving everyone a heads up before drawing on his power and punching a hole through the wall. That done, he pulls off a glove and grabs a chunk of rubble which he throws at the Varanian's head, causing it to explode as near to the alien's head as he can get it.

~~~~~~~~
Conall grabs Et'wan and positions himself between the little alien and the fight, guiding him towards Cailean's newly-formed exit.

[Legotron123]

Kolt picked Jenny up with a somewhat flirty smile as she tried not to think about whether she could grind meat on his abs, and took off, staying low to the ground like Eira request.
--
Liz shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Not a lot of free time or reason to do so on the ship."
Lewis meanwhile, scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I got hoverbike certified during a slow period just to have something to work towards, but I don't know how much of those skills would be transferable." He said, making a sorta "eh" motion with his hand.

[SeanWolf]

Making it to the top of the wall, Hawk watched as the transports began their landing procedures. He swore under his breath, realizing he may have been just a bit too late to stop them and quickly began thinking up a new plan...

"OK, I could...no, I can't do that; too many civvies...maybe I could...No, I already got heat inside, don't need any more...What? No, we can't do that...it's too risky and they just accepted me after the replica fiasco...I know you can handle it, but I'm just...worried, s'all...frag..." Hawk was running out of ideas. In all his years of bounty hunting, he could not think of anything to do here and he was getting slightly frustrated. But, that frustration soon lead to annoyance, for coming from behind, he heard a familiar sound. A sound that he really wasn't hoping it was what he thought it was and, sure enough, as he turned? "Ah, double frag." A group of droids he figured survived the crash had followed him up and were training their guns on him. He smiled and nodded at them, chuckling as they had him outgunned (seeing as he left his revolvers with Big Dog), and turned around. As he turned, a look of determination crossed his face as a fire in his eyes ignited. Crouching like a ferocious beast from hell, he roars with the sound of a million tigers and rushes into the horde, launching into a fury of well-timed punches and kicks. One by one, the droids fell lifeless and dismantled to the ground as Hawk continued fighting. And when he heard the telltale CLICK of a droid's gun, he quickly yanked it out of it's grip and continued the rampage, with the gun as his makeshift Caliburn. To Hawk in this moment, he was the conductor of this symphony of destruction, with his rage as the percussion and the droids as the choir. He lived for this moment, the moment where he could use this strength to save the innocents. Soon, the symphony ended, the guns were silent, and the droids were now lifeless pieces of smoldering crap. Standing on top of this pile of death, a lone figure stands, clutching a broken rifle in one hand, a droid's head in the other, and drenched in droid bile: Hawk had won. But that victory was short lived as, from behind, one more droid stood; A bigger, more armored variant. Hawk, panting, looked at the hulking beast and smirked. "You too? Come on then: I can do this all day..."

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Eira waited until Tobias had grabbed hold of her, then she lifted the armor into the air with her inside. Tobias would notice that, despite being made of ice, the armor wasn't cold at all.

"Let's get going!" she said, before flying off. She kept low, avoiding going higher than two stories off the ground as she made her way toward the dropship.

Tobias yelped as Eire took off, hanging on as she flew. "Ay, Dios mío!" he shouted. "Hope my case isn't dragging you down!"

[Welsh Halfwit]

THe sounds of banging and crashing alerted her to something going on and Sana found herself running towards the sounds of violence like Golta had always advised her not to. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed and was trying to get back on an even keel by acting. She climbed piles of rubbish and slid down the other side, letting her ears lead the way through the madness. She looked on the scene from a short distance and sighed. "Of course it's Hawk," she told herself as the big droid appeared. "I'm betting you can accept inputted commands," she said, getting her wrist computer into play in an attempt to shut down the droid. "You think YOU got firewalls," she remarked quietly as her fingers danced, "I've been annoying Hivemind!"

[CyberDragon]

Corp took in the situation. Exposed. No room to evade the enormous gun. No way to evade the guns outside. One way to give the others a few seconds that could be used to escape. He took it, throwing the Coyote off to one side as he charged the assailant with a warcry of "do it, you Scots nit!" He brought out his psionic knives, one of which he used to try to damage the gun with when he was under its aim and slashed at the behemoth's leg with the other. He watched for the response, ready to shift away and believing that the Varanians troopers wouldn't be willing to fire so close to their boss...

The Varanian and his allies saw Corp heading their way with knives raised. They all in turn raised their guns. When they fired, however, each of their guns suddenly veered off-target as though struck by some invisible force all at once. The shots flew off in wild and seemingly random directions, punching holes in walls and the ceiling. The shot from the Varanian's gun went straight up and nearly blew the entire second floor into ashes. Wood and ash fell from the sky around the house.

Corp's knives struck the Varanian's gun, causing the energy core to rupture. The reptilian roared in panic and rage, before hurling the broken gun straight at Sarah and the twins. Before the gun could reach them, a large armored gauntlet reached out from around the corner and caught it. Titan stepped into view, then crushed the weapon between her hands.

BMMPH!

The gun exploded, though the blast was completely contained in her grip. She brushed her hands together to get the ash and soot off.

The Varanian snarled and drew a large axe from its back before taking a heavy swing at Corp's neck with it.

"Cailean, but aye." Cailean corrects, glancing over at the wall which he'd prepared earlier with strategically placed pawprints.
"HEADS DOWN!" he barks, giving everyone a heads up before drawing on his power and punching a hole through the wall. That done, he pulls off a glove and grabs a chunk of rubble which he throws at the Varanian's head, causing it to explode as near to the alien's head as he can get it.

~~~~~~~~
Conall grabs Et'wan and positions himself between the little alien and the fight, guiding him towards Cailean's newly-formed exit.

The rest of the mercenaries went after them, firing all of their guns at the canines, their Corytophian witness, and even the captured merc they had with them. But suddenly they were faced with a bigger problem. Titan had casually stepped to the side, and now stood between the mercenaries and their targets. She simply stood, arms crossed, as the bullets and blaster shots bounced off of her armor. One shot ricocheted back at the mercenary who fired it and would have taken his head off if he hadn't ducked.

--------------------

"Thanks, Gear," Hannabelle said, before licking his cheek and loading up her weapon. "Kill shots to inconvenience them. That's annoying." She grinned. "That thing similar to a snowspeeder," she asked of the motorbike. "My licence for that's only a few years old. The Bike one's expired."

Gear smiled at the little 'fox kiss' on the cheek. "Makes it convenient for us though." he said in response to Hannabelle's comments about the annoyance of how durable Varanians were. "Considerin' we've got a no-kill rule to follow an' our rifles ain't built to be gentle."

Liz shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Not a lot of free time or reason to do so on the ship."
Lewis meanwhile, scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I got hoverbike certified during a slow period just to have something to work towards, but I don't know how much of those skills would be transferable." He said, making a sorta "eh" motion with his hand.

"Well, that's even better!" Gear said with a lopsided grin. "'cause I'm actually callin' in some hoverbikes. I asked 'cause motorcycles are more common, but them skills are plenty transferable."

Gear pulled out a pair of small spheres, then started typing something on the device on his wrist. Once he was done, he tossed the two spheres into the street. A moment later, the air distorted above them, and only a moment later two hoverbikes slipped into existence with a *pop*.

Gear climbed onto one of the hoverbikes and motioned for Hannabelle to climb on behind him. "I'll lead the way. Got a fix on their location."

--------------------

The two boys, recognising when an offer is an order, trooped off to be taken to the park where they might find other kids (and Corvis wanted other languages to learn), leaving Keeva, Pred and the room's Hivebot. "Well, that was a diversion," Keeva extolled before the other exploded into being. "Haven't visited them yet myself, being more of a socket monkey than anything." she replied, shaking the hand. "Hi, Keeva Storm. I'm from another universe! And this is Predator. Nice to meet you."

"Good to meet you too! Seems this place is a magnet for interdimensional visitors. You could say I'm from a different universe too!" Vex said, shaking Keeva's hand. "Specifically, I'm a demon. I was born in Hell, but decided to get out of dodge after the archdemon I worked for tried to possess me." the Enfield said casually. "So I basically switched sides. Now I live with my girlfriend, Harriet, in a forest cottage in a different mortal realm."

Hivemind was rubbing what would have been the bridge of his nose if his face weren't an LED visor. "It might do to at least attempt to be subtle about where you come from until I can figure out some way of letting people know about these kinds of things."

Vex simply shrugged. "Sure, because I'm the weirdest thing on this ship. If you want my advice, it might be best to just come out and say that we're here now, and be honest about what we are."

"That might work for the Guardians, but I imagine people will have a harder time accepting you." Hivemind responded.

Vex took a bite of one of his corn dogs. "Eh. I don't really care what they think of me. I'm mostly here to see the sights."

Hivemind sighed. "By the way... where is Harriet? It's not like you to leave her unattended..."

Vex swallowed his bite, then smiled. "Now that she's got that TAL droid you and Nikolai made, she doesn't need someone watching over her all the time. She's still at the festival."

--------------------

Cherry chose to add a little something before releasing the comm. "Mr Hawk? Please be as careful as warrented. We do want you back in one piece." The feeling might have been muddled somewhat by the sneeze at the end but she hoped it had gotten across, into his head. She closed the link and put her arm around the droid's shoulders, trying to be supportive.

"Thank you." Hivemind said to the attempt at comforting him. "But it's not him I'm worried about. I already know he is fully capable of handling himself given what I've been able to gather from the information I have on him. But if he gets caught, it could jeopardize everything we're doing down there."

"The Champions technically have not been given permission to operate anywhere on the surface. We can get away with disguising them as mercenaries in the outskirts and slums, but the city itself is a lot higher security."

--------------------

Jaken prepared himself. He knew his aim was good but eight portals in a row at maximum range wasn't something he'd done that often before. He looked out over the rooftops, set his jaw. "Back in ten, sir," he said before opening a portal to a distant roof. He turned around after stepping through and closed it, mentally filing away the location he'd just been in. Then he continued on his way. He might need a soda at the end...

While Jaken was gone, there was a knock on the door. Hivemind went to answer it, and found it was one of the hotel staff with a package. Hivemind opened the door.

"Good afternoon, sir. I was told to deliver this to you." the man said.

Hivemind accepted the package. "Do you know what it is?"

"I'm afraid it is not my place to pry. This was marked as a priority confidential delivery."

"Very well. Thank you." Hivemind said. He tipped the man and closed the door before opening the package. Inside was a strange, glowing crystal. Hivemind looked at it, scanning to see what it might be. The more he looked into it, the more he felt the spark of power from within it. At the same time, he felt chills running through him. He could swear he could hear it... screaming.

Hivemind pulled out the note and started reading through it thoroughly.

--------------------

Jenny held on to Kolt and considered jetpacks. After she'd mentally shook her head and stopped thinking about six-packs.

Kolt picked Jenny up with a somewhat flirty smile as she tried not to think about whether she could grind meat on his abs, and took off, staying low to the ground like Eira request.

Tobias yelped as Eire took off, hanging on as she flew. "Ay, Dios mío!" he shouted. "Hope my case isn't dragging you down!"

Eira led the way through the streets and alleys, through wastelands and ruins, until they came upon the closest landing site for the hostile dropships. This part of the town was marginally in better shape then the totally abandoned and derelict ghost town they had landed in, but it was still clearly impoverished. A crowd of people going about their day looked up at the descending dropship as it landed. Most knew the sign that they needed to clear out, but with the crowd as dense as it was, they couldn't evacuate properly before the dropship's doors opened and the androids inside started pouring out.

"Kolt! We need a shield between the bots and those civilians! Jenny, cover the dropship door! Hit them at their choke point! Tobias, keep the crowd under control! Last thing we need is a stampede!" Eira landed in front of the droids, her right arm forming into a shield in front of her as the droids opened fire on her. "Boss, can we get a scan on these guys? Are we good to hit 'em hard?" Eira waited for a moment until she got an affirmative response. "Cool." she said as she formed her arm into a blade of ice and swiped it through the droids in front of her, cutting four of them clean in half. "Boss says they're just drones. Go ham on 'em."