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RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Five - Divided] Mall Mayhem

CadetNewb

Well-Known Member
Continued From "Chapter Five: Antagonists" - YE 34

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Despite what they said, it felt like nothing was ever said at all. As if no noise escaped from their lips to sully the dead world they walked into. Without a word, Sif fell in with them. Though the dainty armor let them technically take point, she moved ahead and into the building to scout for and screen them, keeping a lookout for hostiles as best she could.

"Clear. For now."

The advanced scout's remarks seemed correct to the letter - the building they entered was perhaps the very worst, utter nightmare to fight in. An office building. From what their own eyes could see, it was a Ship-Insurance firm, with several consultation tables and retractable privacy screens. Upscale and modern, the place was smooth, comfortable, yet efficient. The tables sat there, waiting for their workers and customers, while the main reception desk sat invitingly, markers in the shattered floor marking where the line started. It was all complete with poster-boards of their pretty, pink haired Neko Mascot from what was presumably SAINT, and her client. He was a rough-around-the-edges man from Nepleslia with a handsome smile and laden with a ship in need of saving from silly, jellyfish-like aliens.

It was all surreal, as though one moment, people were here, working, and the next, a nightmare strolled by.

Files lay open on table tops, while jackets hung on coat trees. Cups of tea and occasionally coffee sat, half full, half empty. The question of whether or not they were still warm floated through their minds. And yet, they had to push forward - right on to the back, were several doorways deeper into the building.

Aya was on point. Her earlier frustrations began to ebb as she found herself surrounded by the trappings of modern life - but there was something undeniably creepy about how still everything was. Indeed, the normality of it somehow sharpened the unnatural circumstances. The half-drunk cups seemed to suggest a sudden, rapid exit, but what could have prompted everyone to leave so hurriedly without knocking things over? The mystery was only deepening, and the azure skinned Nekovalkyrja had little patience for mysteries right now.

Stalking forward with a confidence disproportionate to how she actually felt, Aya stopped short of the doorways. Her ASGR had never left her shoulder, and every now and then the Neko's head flicked to one side or the other, as though she was expecting their mysterious adversary to materialize out of nowhere. "Seems like we might be lookin' at a maze. I dunno about you guys, but I think we should search each hallway as a group. That way the...whatever it is can't pick us off."

Dimitri followed behind Aya, his LASR raised as he kept himself on high alert. He did not like the way things looked before, and now stepping into the building, his unease grew. Everything was a hiding spot for an enemy and they could turn into an ambush at any moment. He kept his drone a few paces away form him, the small detachment serving as an extra set of eyes to focus behind him as he personally kept his eyes on the flanks. "I agree, we don't even know what we're dealing with yet so let's not take too many risks." That was not a very Nepleslian reply to the Neko, but Dimitri was no fool and his life was a bit more important than maintaining some thug appearance.

"Right, it's settled then. Let's go," the blue skinned Neko replied. Aya tried to force her trepidation to the back of her mind and moved toward the nearest doorway. She could imagine hundreds of things that might be waiting for their group on the other side. Hopefully the stupid creature (or machine; it might well have been artificial with how quickly it had come and gone) would show itself and she could put it down.

Together, the two entered into the Employees Only section of this building. They could see that the pleasant exterior quickly turned into a handful of hallways - it was all still quite fresh, the floors well kept, walls unmarred, and all too quiet. Dead ahead of them, was one hallway which lead straight to the back - to its right, were several office rooms, executive lounge and a conference area in the rear. The left of this hall however, was different. The glass let the managers and any executives here look into the entire maze of cubicle after cubicle after cubicle.

This place was somewhat 'small', but where there was one cubicle, there was always too many more. Perhaps a six by six? A nine by nine? They didn't bother to count. Unlike the front, this part of it had been disturbed and tossed about, messing up the neat rows into a proper maze. How recently? It was impossible to tell. To their left, the hallway had a large entrance leading into the mess of boxes for humans to be slotted into, with the end of it leading into a second reception area. And the department store, or possibly mall, was beyond that. This insurance company had two entrances, therefore two exits, and with the door into a part of the mall left ajar, their target had fled into the department store it seemed, not this area.

The sound of several small, plastic items being dropped on the floor echoed through the office, telling them otherwise.

"It's here." The outline of Sif appeared on their HUD - she wasn't far away from them. Practically down the hallway with the glass wall, doing her best to get a good look at what was inside. "It tried looping around to lose us perhaps."

Dimitri kept his eyes peeled. Even with his cybernetic enhancements, he still needed to focus if he was going to catch something as fast as what he saw earlier. He was inwardly glad they were chasing some unknown target and not dealing with an office building shoot out - those never ended well.

Hearing that the target was looping around to try to fool them, the Nepleslian had his drone take up a sentry post to fire on the thing if it tried to circle around behind them again. Then he made a steady approach, still checking the flanks. Last thing he needed was to be caught off guard by a second unknown target.

Aya's skin crawled slightly as she realized that this area was also unnervingly normal looking. Perversely, it would have all been much more easy to deal with if there had been obvious signs of a struggle. Though the room was not terribly large, it offered far too many places for the thing to hide for Aya's liking. Suddenly, the Neko heard clattering. Is this the creature? she wondered. The Nekovalkyrja swallowed her hesitation and began moving in the direction of the source of the noise.

The abrupt appearance of Sif's silhouette made Aya flinch, making her feel somewhat foolish when she realized that their opponent had not revealed themselves. Her comment was met with a nod. "Right... should we go in after it? I don't want to fight on its terms, but it doesn't seem to be giving us much of a choice..." She tried to sound brave over their line of sight comms, for both Dimitri's and her own sake.

"Of course we're going after it," Sif tersely replied. The silhouette of the Mini's Sylph on their HUD vanished as she moved forward again - despite helping the other two know where she was, the transmission did risk revealing herself to any others. The Comms Blackout or Suppression was mostly medium-short range and up it seemed. If line of sight for the laser comm was broken, the suit would switch to broadcast automatically if not told to do otherwise. And if that was picked up? Whoever was listening would have to be close by. 'Net Centric Warfare' had it's downsides. But here, it felt sorely missed as they advanced into the crooked rows - unlike the front, things were a little bit more messy. It was clear that some people tripped and stumbled into walls, displacing them and turning the place into a disorganized mess.

A faint crunching, steady and rhythmic, could be heard just a few more cubicles ahead.

"I can't get a good view without entering line of sight, but its eating," Sif remarked, Dimitri and Aya drawing closer. "It may be a Mishhu, so ready your weapons - we need to confront it together, at the same time. We round the corner, on my mark...MARK!"
 
Aya obediently followed after Sif, her eyes peeled for anything - anything - that might have indicated the creature's presence. It seemed that the hitherto erstwhile indicators of people fleeing were here. Silently Aya hoped that most of the workers had managed to escape whatever had been chasing them. The sound that reached her ears from somewhere ahead made her pause, though a horrible certainty had begun to grow in the pit of her stomach. That certainty turned to ice cold revulsion as Sif notified the group of what the creature was doing; Aya had an idea of just what it might have been eating, and it was almost too terrible to contemplate.

She flicked her ASGR's safety off, made sure that it was ready and tensed, like a tiger waiting to pounce as Sif counted down. The call of "MARK!" made her release her tension like a coiled spring, turning the corner with her weapon already raised and a finger on the trigger. As soon as she caught sight of the thing she would be able to get a burst off immediately.

Dimitri made his way over following the two Neko. The fact that one of them kept disappearing unnerved him; he wasn't sure if it was because he wouldn't know if they were attacked or if it was because they could attack him without him noticing, but he put those thoughts aside he was the outsider right now, so they were probably just as worried about him.

The sounds that he heard as he approached the corner reminded him of some of the things he had seen back home when people died on the street, but it was not something you ever got used to and he had to keep his stomach form turning and stay focused. He made sure his optic camo was working well so he wouldn't be seen and just made a quick pass to get on the other side of the passage to get ready for an assault. He took a breath relaxing himself a moment and readying his rifle, moving off the trigger discipline and set to fire. Once he heard the word he quickly turned in and pointed his rifle down the path. He was ready to shoot at any time but his focus was largely on his eyes making sure not to miss the creature this time and capture it in his vision to see what it was.

A high pitched screech of absolute terror blasted into their ears as they bore down on their target! The Neko, covered in tatters of her uniform, was snarfing down candy bars scavenged out of the office. Eyes feral, she immediately grabbed a nearby filing drawer and hurled it at the Star Army troops. It flew fast and hard, smashing itself into Aya's power armor, the paper contents spilling out and over Dimitri. Sif's hand rose and a blast bolted out after her, but she was fast! Leaping up, her feet landed on the cubicle's wall, dodging the shot and simultaneously escaping. Sif's voice growled at them all, "Tear this office apart, I want her alive!"

Dimitri was ready to fire and his finger squeezing, but just before he fired he noticed that it was a Neko and he had to bring himself to a halt he had to go through quite a bit of training to get the immediate hostility out of his mind in regard to Nekos and that training worked he had stopped himself. However not being able to put a shot out meant he didn't stop the feral from throwing a drawer at Aya. He was thankful they were in power armor and Aya was unhurt, but that made him look away a moment and then paper was everywhere! By time he had focused on the target again she was out of sight.

What Aya saw made her hesitate: it wasn't some horrible bioweapon feasting on the remains of a hapless office worker, or even some other scavenger picking over the dead. It was just a Neko - albeit a feral one - and it was chewing on some candy. The sheer absurdity and anti-climax made her almost forget what she was there to do, and the pause gave the Neko enough time to fling a filing cabinet at her. Even though it could not have possibly hurt her, Aya still flinched out of reflex, and that was all the target needed to abscond.

Sif's order was received with dumb silence, the blue skinned Neko still trying to process what she had seen even as she barreled forward after the feral Nekovalkyrja. A few seconds later Aya seemed to regain her voice. "She's really quick... I'll see if I can catch up to her!"

The Nekovalkyrja, the remains of her Star Army uniform blues clearly visible, darted out of the insurance store and into the front - Aya was fast on her tail, but she was shockingly nimble on her feet. "No, no, no, NO!" her crying could be heard. The Neko had already doubled back and into the neighboring "Blossom's". Despite her horribly broken state, there was enough left of whoever she was that cover and concealment was sought first and foremost. The clothing, all new, stood proudly on display, the latest fashions from this world, as well as the core, all available for the picking. Meanwhile, white mannequins stood still, eerily disturbing and watchful without their volumetric clothing or illusions of humanlike flesh.

"Simply set your weapons to stun and hit her - more than once if you have to, she's a Nekovalkyrja after all," Sif coldly ordered.

Aya kept up the pace, quietly impressed by just how agile her quarry was. She certainly wasn't stupid, though. Aya activated her PEWs and set them to stun as she charged into the store. Due to its rather cluttered nature, the blue skinned Neko lost sight of her counterpart. "C'mon, where are you?" she growled under her breath. Still riding on the wave of adrenalin the chase had injected into her, Aya wasn't quite as bothered by the creepy mannequins as she pushed further into the store. She knew that if she dallied the feral Neko would gain an insurmountable lead. Though she was itching to simply blast whatever moved with her PEWs - after all, they were only on the stun setting - Aya exercised restraint. Perhaps if she got lucky the feral Neko might think she had lost her and reveal herself.

Dimitri set his PEWs to stun and followed after Aya. He was starting to see why Nepleslians had so many issues with Nekos if they could move like this without an armor. He did not have time to be amazed at her abilities though, he had to focus on catching her before his invisible and seemingly always disgrunteld superior officer got any more angry. If he had his sensors this would be a walk in the park, but instead he stepped into the store , scanning the sector looking for any movement.

"I never did catch your name." He spoke over the internal radio system as he looked to Aya. Knowing that their target was not your typical hostile, he wanted to ease himself of some tension before he burnt himself out.

"My name?" Aya paused. It seemed like an odd time to ask her name, but come to think of it she hadn't gotten to know Dimitri's name either. "My name is Aya Miyamoto. A bit late to ask my name though, isn't it?" Even as she kept up the seemingly idle chit-chat her head was constantly on a swivel. The feral Neko could strike from any angle...

Dimitri kept his eyes on the look out as well he didn't want a crazy Neko trying to eat his face. "It is a bit late, but situation and all. I'm Dimitri surname is Greco." He snapped around at seeing something move out of the corner of his eye but soon relaxed upon realizing it was just the breeze blowing through an open window against the clothes. "So do the cat- I mean Nekovalkyrja commonly go wild like this?"

Aya snorted dismissively - which might have struck Dimitri as a rather un-Nekolike bit of behavior. "No, but maybe if you keep those sorts of questions up you can find out how they go crazy." Her tone was teasing despite the fact they were hunting down a potential killing machine with no idea of where she was lurking.

Despite looking like any other Yamataian teenager, minus the ears and fantastical looks, she ran. Ran unlike any normal person could run. Her legs carried her with long, powerful strides at a speed that a Daisy had a hard time keeping up without plowing into the environment. And where they weren't fast enough, she could hover and glide like a leaf in the wind. And she was getting away. Long orange hair with streaks of black flittered in and out of view between the rows and rows of clothing, the only thing that allowed Dimitri and Aya to stay on her tail was her desperate, non-stop sobbing.

It had only been mere moments into this chase, but they were already running this Nekovalkyrja ragged - she was making more and more mistakes, knocking things over. And the two were closing in! As a last ditch move, she ran towards the escalator, rounding the corner and out of sight! The WHUMP of a hard impact, and the explosive cough of the wind being smashed out of the Neko could be heard.

"That was not me," Sif tersely pointed out to the two with her.

When the two apprehensively moved in, they saw the escalator, with another one of the mannequins placed between the small space of the once opposite moving hand-rails. Standing tall, and posed in a flashy manner as though to show off non-existent clothing, it seemed to loom over the Neko. In a puddle of her black streaked orange hair, she shivered on the ground, curled up tight and clutching her stomach as sobs were chocked back. Faint whispers, pleading, "No more, no more, please," were heard barely escaping her lips.

Ever present, Sif eyed the scene. "If you have binders, use them. We're taking her with us," the Mini-Neko ordered the two with her laser-comms.

Dimitri looked around quickly trying to figure out what it was that had happened after a quick glance around he figured that the Neko had ran into the railing, either way this was good for them. He reached into his buttpack and pulled out some cord, he was not expecting to have to apprehend someone but the cord would do. He approached cautiously though, the last thing he wanted to do was startle her.

"We aren't going to hurt you, just settle down and come with us, we have candy too." The Santo Hei spoke openly so the Neko could hear. He did not know if they actually had candy, but he needed to say something to settle her as he tried to tie her hands with the cord.

Now that the chase had come to an end, Aya could get a better look at the feral Neko. She seemed to cut a pitiful figure, hugging herself in the fetal position. Aya felt rather sorry for her, if she was honest. Whatever the orange-and-black haired Neko had gone through had obviously been traumatic in the extreme. She carefully drew nearer to the prone Nekovalkyrja, trying to avoid startling her. "It's okay... don't worry, we're here to help." She kept up a soothing tone of voice, even as she kept her PEWs trained on the Neko while Dmitri went to work. Aya might have felt bad for the Neko, but she wasn't stupid. There was every chance she might make a break for it.

The next thing Aya knew, stars exploded across her vision as something struck the power armored Neko in the head, stunning her.
 
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Dimitri looked up from the curled up Neko, just in time to see the Manniquin recover from it's swift kick and somersault through the air, its feet landing on his rifle and sending it clattering to the ground. Moving fast, it grappled, and soon enough had him held fast. Long, chalk white hands reached out and grabbed him firmly by the helmet, forcing him to his knees - the pressure it put on him threatened to break his neck! Leaning in close, he could hear a faint whisper, "The one that got a-way!~~"

An invisible fist hurtled into the pale white head, knocking it loose before the Red Sylph made for an uppercut - it countered, sparks flying from their armor! The two were instantly sent toppling over the railing - only one word came out of the Mini-Neko as she fell. "AMBUSH!"

In an instant, the unnaturally quiet store turned into utter chaos as clothing was riddled with holes, shelves were torn apart, and fires started as the red-hot rounds burned their way through the walls. The signature ratta-tat-tat of a pair of LASRs raked across the two squadmates from the side as the firefight started in earnest, the enemy hostiles still hidden.

Aya stumbled backwards, reeling from the force of the blow. Confusion and pain flooded her mind as it tried to keep up with events. She recovered just as Sif's Sylph - and the Mannequin - went tumbling over the side. However, she didn't even get a chance to process what had happened before gunfire filled the air with entirely more rounds than Aya was comfortable with.

"Damn it!" The exclaimation was born out of surprise more than any actual anger, though the blue skinned Nekovalkyrja certainly wasn't pleased. With the feral Neko temporarily forgotten, Aya dropped to one knee and shouldered her ASGR, returning fire in roughly the direction of where the shots were coming from. They would need to get into a better position, and fast.

Dimitri took a moment for his mind to catch up with everything, he was tieing up the neko and then suddenly he was face down with his neck near the breaking point. He was grateful that his superior was more alert than he was and freed him from the cluthes of the mannequin, literally but now he was in the middle of a fire fight this was something that he was used to regrettably.

He grabbed the neko and pulled her close to keep her out of the way of stray bullets as he powered up his energy barrier projection system. "Aya, pull up your barrier." He was used to being on the business end of firearms and was able to keep his head clear enough to advise his partner. Once up he used the moments of protection that it gave him to look out at the field and with his augmented eyes, try to at least get a rough location on one of the assailants.

Sparks and flames flickered and strobed as bullet glided against barrel.

By the department store's exit, their volumetric cloaked enemy fired from behind a pair of pillars - despite being more than halfway across this particular department, they were shooting through everything in their way to try and get to the two Star Army soldiers. The perfume island - universally hated by the men - was smashed apart, its numerous vials spilling out across the floor as the tracer fire actively tried to seek both Dimitri and Aya out. The rounds swept across the young man's energy barrier, the glowing shots sharply veering away or even breaking up from the stress. But the impacts lit him up, draining a chunk of his regenerating safety in the process - seeing this, the full auto burst stitched across the ground right back at him!

Aya's shots were better placed - without a spotter for them, their cloaked enemy was now shooting blind. The rifle in her hands shuddered fast and hard as the hemosynthetic musculature strained to counter the recoil. Air warped as rounds ricocheted and bounced off of an opponent, forcing it back into the safe cover of the rightmost pillar. As the two fought on, sounds of another battle raged below, the dull pealing thud of metal against metal and blasts of energy still audible under.

And on top of it all, a fire was starting, and the sprinklers were on vacation.

"They're already up!" Thus far the opening moves of the engagement had proved inconclusive. Dimitri had been peppered with fire, but Aya had managed to force one of their adversaries into cover. And below she could make out what was presumably Sif and the Mannequin continuing to duke it out. The Star Army Neko decided that now was as good a time as any to get moving. "Dimitri, cover me!" She punctuated her statement with another short, sharp burst from the ASGR. Springing to her feet, she dashed forward a short distance past a particularly gaudy advertisement and skidded to a stop behind a stand proffering some wares that were decidedly worse for wear.

Dimitri raised his rifle and fired in the direction the bullets were coming from. He didn't have a lot of ammo so he stayed away from full auto and stuck to 3 round burst to suppress the enemy. He kept his burst fairly frequent to try to keep them behind whatever cover they were taking so that Aya could move up. At the same time he released his drone once more, sending it up higher to get a better vantage point while they were under cover. He couldn't move up himself because he was protecting the Neko girl, but he did scoot her against the wall, staying in front of her to lower their profile so they were harder to hit and raising his physical shield, firing with just one arm.

Once his drone was up in the air he had it begin firing more suppression fire, sweeping from above to keep them pinned down and hopefully strike one of them.

Trembling hands reached out as the Neko Dimitri guarded tried to crawl away, still curled up from pain. Her desperate, broken gaze found the escalator, as she soon began to drag herself down its flight of cold, metalic stairs. Occupied, a portion of his mind noticed her leaving, but he was too busy! Firing off another burst, all pointed at the hardy cover of their unseen foes, he could see that random blind fire was being sent back his way from the leftmost pillar! Aiming his rifle, the man was suddenly caught from his right by another burst! This long stream came in at his waist, and jumping up with recoil, the shooter jolted it down as Dimitri's barrier fell with a static-burst

Shields collapsing, his shins were hit hard, toppling him over and to the side as the metal shield pulled him. And just in time, as the finishing stream sliced through where his own cloaked chest and head were at moments before - the drone the young man deployed showed both him and Aya everything in a single blink. With the escalators at the 12-o-clock, one was suppressed moments ago at the pillars at 3. The second snuck out and into his six!

With the two foes eagerly bearing down at him, Aya's movements went unnoticed, her own gun silent.

Dimitri tumbled as his legs were taken out from under him by enemy fire and hit the ground hard. It was bad enough that the Neko was trying to crawl away while he was trying to protect her but now he was being pinned down as well. He needed time for his barrier to come back on line and that was something he did not have. Dimitri made a quick decision to leave the one at 3 o'clock to Aya, and quickly pulled himself up, and hopefully before the man realized he was found out! Dimitri turned around and leveled his rifle at him and switched to full auto, firing a spray of a good 20 bullets in his assailant's direction.

The drone continued to fire on the man at 3, both to keep him from firing on Dimitri's flank as well as to keep him from noticing that Aya had changed positions. If Dimitri was lucky he might even manage to land a hit with the drone.

Aya noted the update from Dimitri's drone - which seemed to be really earning its keep - with interest. Realizing that the hostile roughly at the 3 o' clock position was completely fixed, Aya decided to move in for the kill. Getting to her feet once again, the Star Army Neko charged toward the next piece of cover. This time she took cover behind some debris. Peeking over the top, she briefly considered firing a grenade from her SLAG, but decided against it - it probably wouldn't be good for the building's structural integrity to fire something like that at the pillar, not to mention the fact that it would probably be overkill.

Instead, she simply settled for opening fire again, so focused on her quarry that she was oblivious to Dimitri's increasingly perilous position. Aya assumed that Dimitri had been moving up alongside her in a bounding over-watch, though she was doubtless in for a rude awakening...

Caught tight and pinned down between two enemies, Dimitri kept on firing instead of moving - his return burst of fire only cut through the swath of fire as the scented oils burned, further revealing the cloaked Star Army trooper's location. The enemy was pinged on his sensors by the drone, but it took a moment to find his foe each time it popped up out of the deteriorating cover! He got lucky as his fire raked over a display of jeans, knocking the mannequins over and briefly flaring up the Six-o-clock enemy's barriers - items were sent flying like chaff as it leaped out of his long arc of fire and relocated again before shooting. Sparks flew as metal bit into metal, the forearm shields he mounted now being hailed on by a storm of depleted uranium!

His Neko teammate saw as Dimitri's drone scored a hit on the 3 o' clock foe, briefly lighting its barriers up with the disruption, the air around it literally distorting with a spark of light and energy. Just as a burst of fire arced up at the drone, the ratta-tat-tat of Aya's rifle hammered against this enemy's barriers, the fast firing weapon rapidly tearing through and smashing into armor plate! Sparks flew as the volumetric camouflage flickered and died where it hit, revealing the floating patches of a Reaper Power Armor as it rushed to place the pillar between itself and the Neko. And right in Dimitri's clear line of fire, racks of clothing between the two being nothing more than paper! At the same time, the young man's assailant shifted attention away to him and started shooting in Aya's general direction to try and take pressure off of its teammate.

Aya had to resist the urge to smack her forehead. In retrospect, it was all so incredibly obvious. The wreckage of the transport outside was proof enough that there had been NMX activity at least semi-recently, and with the sensor black-out it was a prime location to orchestrate an ambush in. Add to that the distraction the feral Neko had posed, and Aya was surprised that their foes hadn't sprung their trap earlier. She would save any further musings for later, though - though the Reaper had been forced into cover, their ally seemed to take exception to her behavior.

The Nekovalkyrja dove to one side in response to the gunfire. It wasn't the most elegant solution, nor was it the most effective, but the important thing was to degrade the enemy's aim. Rolling on to her feet, she spun around and sent her adversary a rebuke in the form of a sustained burst of fire.

Dimitri noticed the situation change, and now that the feral Neko had started to move down the escalator he was free to do more than take hits. He didn't have a clear shot on the one at 6 but after hearing the pinging against his shield stop, he figured now would be a good time to act. He put his attention on the one who had just moved into his line off sight and fired a burst of shots at him from his flank. Deciding not to leave things at just that Dimitri swiftly got up and changed location, moving in a circle around the exposed Reaper so it could not get to cover easy and continued laying down burst after burst to keep him occupied.

The drone, still keeping an eye on the battle field, had one less stealthy target to focus on so it widened it's range a little to at least, catching a glimpse of the feral one to make sure she did not fall down the stairs or anything. But immediately after widening it's view it turned and fired at the remaining stealth target in hopes of exposing it.

A staccato lance of fire stitched across Aya as she dove out of the way, the worst of it flying overhead - her roll ended with the gun in her hand snapping over before the fast firing weapon replied in kind, forcing the enemy to dodge and move itself. With the flames growing and the smoke starting to rise, it was difficult to see where it went, but her eyes would catch a pile of t-shirts falling over from their shelf. At the same time, Dimitri's gun opened up into the enemy circling the pillar, his bullet hose trying to rise as he mashed down its trigger - he quickly went from bursts to an entire non-stop stream as rounds smashed into armor plate and sparks flew.

Like a string of firecrackers, the depleted uranium bullets seemed to explode in splashing fire across the entire body of the enemy power armor - it shook under the hail and toppled to the ground. But not before a lightning blur sailed directly over the young man, crashing through several shelves and displays of clothing. It was the White Mannequin from before! But this time, the illusion was broken in several places. Polygonal panels of masquerade were gone, revealing the injured body of another Reaper underneath - it's wounds glowed a bright orange as liquid metal weeped from holes bored into armor by powerful energy weapons. The glimpse that both Aya and Dimitri got was brief, and broken as it yelled out to the last, invisible foe.

"It's Sif!" the Ex-Mannequin shouted - thrusters flared to life as it literally bulldozed through everything in its way, flying right into the mall's warehouse.

And just as quickly as the fight began, it ended.
 
Footsteps could be heard walking up the escalator, their backs to it having fought a small, moving battle through one of the mall's department stores. In the arms of the dainty power armor, was the feral Neko. "They're gone - for now. We need to find somewhere to hunker down. I'd prefer the food court, but you two are going to have to lead for me," the Sylph remarked. Jammed into her knee, and up to the hilt, was a knife. "This one - she's calmer around me for some reason," their CO explained. She looked them over. "You're a mess," she remarked at the young man.

His armor took the blows for him, but the shield by far was the worst - it looked like the face of a moon.

Dimitri was glad he wasn't a little taller, seeing that mannequin wizz by and crash through the shelves, he could've lost his own head to that. However, he was glad to see the target taken care of. It was only now though, there there was a brief pause in everything, did Dimitri actually process that these were Mishhu power armors they were facing. "I'd have liked not to see these things.."

He turned to his CO when she spoke up with the feral one in her arms. At the last part he looked himself over seeing all the damage his armor had taken. "Yeah I'm not cut out to play guard duty." He did a quick systems check to get a clear idea of just how much damage he'd taken and if it was just on the surface.

After a fight like that, if anything was near they had surely drawn it's attention, and he did not want to risk another ambushed, so Dimitri sent two drones up a head, the one from the battle as well as a second one, to begin scouting ahead of them.

Aya frowned to herself as her target blended in with the inferno starting to take hold in the department store. It was like trying to swat a swarm of flies - every time you made a move they simply flitted out of the way. It was at that moment that the White Mannequin made an unwelcome return, albeit worse for wear than when it left the duo's sight. Unfortunately, the view was fleeting, and so she didn't get an opportunity to take a pot-shot. More troubling, however, was the fact that the White Mannequin seemed to know Sif's name. How...? she wondered.

The Mini-Neko wasn't far behind, however - and with the feral Nekovalkyrja in tow. Despite her immense skill, it looked like she hadn't gotten away unscathed - Aya winced as she noticed the knife buried in her knee. "It's good to see you, ma'am." She left the question of the Mannequin's apparent connection with Sif unsaid. She could always ask later, when they weren't risking everything in the heart of enemy territory.

"I can take point," she offered. Aya liked being in front - it meant that she was almost guaranteed to be the first to know if something was up, even if it made her a tempting target for snipers or other threats.

Like he had guessed, the damage to the young man's armor was just superficial - he was lucky. A single round could have slipped in between his joints, or even struck him in the helmet. Either of those would have likely put him down. Being without energy barriers gave a naked, exposed and vulnerable feeling to any power armor pilot, and the relief that came with them charging back up to full was always the same.

The Neko that they had chased was now quiet and still in Sif's arms. It as an odd sight; she was practically just as tall as the Mini-Neko's armor was, roughly five-foot-two herself, but the dainty Sylph carried her with ease. Now that she was quiet however, they could all get a much better look at her. Her soft, fair skin was wrapped in long, overgrown orange hair striped with black - that much, they could already see.

But, it was the remains of her uniform that caught their attention. It wasn't one of the newer Type 35's with the clasped and zipped front panel, but the older, sweaterlike Type 30B with shoulder panels. Grimy with things that they'd all not want to think about, it was all still somewhat intact, save for the occasional tear or melt in the fabric.The Neko faintly stirred, but didn't wake as they moved.

"Of course," Sif replied to Aya. Unusually, she sounded tired, weary even. "They won't attack again so soon. They've likely been split up, looking for survivors, not fire teams like ourselves. We can either walk on the upper concourse, or try taking the maintenance routes that connects all the stores in the back," she added. The helmet of her Slyph didn't seem to 'look' at Aya as she spoke however. Instead, it seemed to turn downwards onto the Neko curled up in her arms. Off in the distance, gunfire could be heard as well. "It seems they've found much the same as well."

Dimitri nodded to himself noticing the hits to his armor were nothing serious, but he still got peppered with bullets, he'd have to be more careful in the future. He was actually a bit ashamed at his performance and that two women did better. He knew that they were genetic super soldiers but he still had some manly pride in him, enough to be a bit humiliated.

"If they are looking for survivors they will probably check the maintenance routes because a survivor would probably go there instead of out in the open." He kept his drones moving around a bit just to make sure they weren't going to be ambushed while discussing this, at least not from the front.

Aya noted the uniform with interest. Just what had the Neko been through? Sif's sudden change of attitude was in some ways more disconcerting than her biting put-downs when someone failed to perform up to her high standards. Briefly, Aya wondered if the Mini-Neko might have felt a connection between herself and the feral Nekovalkyrja.

"Dimitri's right," added Aya. "If I was in their position I'd want to reveal myself as little as possible. I guess we'd better get going."

She started to move.
 
And move they did.

But it brought up a question. Had anyone been into a mall before? One that was dead quiet? Maybe on certain days of the week it was sort of like that. Sort of. There'd still be lights on, the noises of numerous electronic displays talking away about products. Incessant chatter and squawking from a bunch of exotically colored birds. But here, on this world, and in this mall, there wasn't even that. It was all quiet as a crypt. A dead, deserted shadow of the life that was once there.

Darkness shrouded every single store, and though their doors were open, each seemed uninviting as a grave. Everything was set as it should have been; much like the office from before, it was all a snapshot of daily life. Just with human beings and their power gone. Save for the sun-rays that filtered in through the roof of the mall, there was darkness and twilight. Through this, the four made their way through this empty husk, shrouded in a glass veil, invisible and silent to the world.

"Our first objective is to find a safe place to set our Taii down safely," Sif stated, suddenly giving a rank to the Neko that she held. "Second, we search for the jamming devices, and destroy them." Despite the knife to the knee, the Mini-Neko's Mini-Mini-Mecha walked silently, a tear of blood having rolled down from the wound, but stopping short of dropping off. Every time they glanced at her, the Sylph revealed to them by their suits' Heads Up Display, it was a reminder that she was starkly different from them.

"Dimitri. How did you suffer this extent of damage?" she asked, tongue weary...but still sharp.

Now that the fighting had (temporarily) ended, Aya again had time to pay attention to the environment. The mall was still as relentlessly unnerving as when she first set foot in it. Some of the storefronts or displays seemed to be in fine enough shape, but when Aya strayed closer she noticed imperfections, subtle hints that something was wrong. The occasional pockmark from where rounds had bored their way into walls, small piles of shattered glass glittering like cheap diamonds in the sun... it was like war zone and high street had collided in a ghastly fusion, neither part having a clear beginning or an end.

"Yes ma'am. But what if the Taii wakes up? It'll be difficult to keep her from wandering the mall if she decides she doesn't like where we put her..." It felt strange to put a rank to the Neko. Indeed, in her current state it was hard to imagine her being part of the Star Army period. Aya cleared her head with a shake.

Dimitri passed several stores and displays as they walked, an eerie sense of calm flowing over him. He was not sure how he felt about this sudden calm after the fight, they did need it, but all he could think of was phrases like 'eye of the storm' and 'calm before the storm' and he did not want to step into that storm. He turned to glance at Sif a moment when she spoke up about his armor's condition, but then looked to see if their new companion had a rank maker and was indeed a Taii.

"Well like I said, protection duty isn't really my thing, keeping bullets off a VIP that wont move out of the way on their own isn't easy." He scratched his head some and looked around, spotting a mall cart with some watches that looked pretty nice and began wondering if they would mind him taking one.

"Then she doesn't like where we put her," Sif flatly replied to Aya. The Mini-Neko didn't elaborate right away, but did so after a brief pause. "Our priority is to destroy the jamming devices and rescue survivors. In that order. We ourselves are incapable of filling the secondary objective I have outlined unless the primary objective is first dealt with." As the young man's attention wandered over to the numerous valuables scattered around however, she snapped, "No looting!" Sif might as well have slapped his wrist while she was at it, with that tone of voice.

As they arrived in the food court, having traveled through the main concourse of the mall in stealth, something became plainly obvious. There wasn't any looting. Perhaps the other two weren't aware of it, but culturally, the typical Yamataian was rather docile. It was the irregulars, the abnormals, that joined the Star Army of Yamatai. "Our Taii may outrank us here, but in her current mental state, as well as her...obsolescence in terms of the situation, she would not have any command," Sif added. "If you find yourself in a firefight, simply toss her aside - very literally - and fight. Do not worry yourself for her safety," The Mini-Neko coldly added.

Raising a leg high, the stealthed Sylph stepped over the counter of a Hyper Gyūdon Express despite the deeply embedded knife, and entered the back, entering the kitchen to lay the Neko down. "We have just a little bit more time, I think." She guessed. Reaching down, she pulled the knife out of her Mini-MIni-Mecha's knee with a wet sucking 'shlullk', red coating the blade.

Aya took notice of the absence of looting (or indeed looters) with mild interest. She put it down simply to the fact that what had happened in the mall had happened fast, and any survivors were probably loathe to tempt an encounter with the NMX roving around the area. Sif's analysis of the situation was met with a curt nod; it seemed like a fair enough assessment. The idea that she might have to forget about the wellbeing of a fellow Neko was one that didn't quite sit easily with her. "Understood. Do you have any idea where they might have placed the jammers? I mean, if I was in their position I'd put 'em at the highest point in the area, but who knows what goes on in their stupid heads..."

The azure skinned Neko paused, obviously wrestling with something. "And, uh... ma'am, why shouldn't we worry about the Taii? She's one of us, after all." Her voice trailed off slightly, the words already sounding foolish. Indeed, Aya was expecting a ferocious response and braced herself.

Dimitri sighed at not being able to loot the watch and moved his hand away "Not like anyone would miss it." He followed orders though. Of course by now he had noticed nothing was taken, but that kind of bothered him; back home nothing would still be around. He thought a moment about Sif's remark about throwing her aside and blinked, not what he expected from a Star Army soldier, at least not what he heard they were like. "I'll remember that, Ma'am."

He did not seem too phased by her pulling the knife out of her knee, but it did make him wonder just how fast such a wound would heal on these Neko. "Ma'am..is that wound going to be okay?"

The small "Mrrrrr!" that came from Sif's throat sounded like a small, frustrated cat.

But she didn't explode. Didn't yell. Didn't scream like they expected. Instead, it looked like she was 'chewing' on what was said, yet unable to figure out how to reply. "It's. How I've done things," Sif started to explain. "And I would still successfully rescue the people," The Mini-Neko added, the armored helm of the Sylph turning to briefly fall on the Neko that rested on the floor, exhausted and tired. Turning her attention back to other matters however, she started searching the Express food store. Though it felt like the conversation had already ended, Sif explained some more. "Previously, in the missions that I used to run, we realized that if we died, then they would still be un-rescued. I did say to, very literally, toss her. She is more durable than either of you."

The clue to the Taii's nature aside, Sif being unopen to talking didn't seem to be the case. But if it wasn't, then, what was it?

Turning her attention to the young man however, her reply was a little bit more stern. "I do not wish bad luck to build up and fall on us for accumulated, minor wrongs." As it came to the wound however, she simply bent forward at the waist, lifted the leg high above her to stand on one foot and bent the injured knee, testing it. The bleeding had stopped, but the wound didn't seem to bother her any more. Neither did moving her arms, reaching forward to break into the food display to loot for a bowl of Gyūdon at the very same time.

The light power armor looked like a contortionist.

Dimitri thought about this situation a moment and he would be commenting on her looting after telling him not to, but he was a bit distracted wondering how she could possibly bend that way. Normally he would mutter to himself but he was aware his comms were on, so instead he just felt now that he understood the popularity that Nekos had in certain circles now. He decided not to pick up a bowl for himself though, figuring maybe it was for their tag along. "If there are others to save staying alive as long as we can is the better choice."

"I understand, ma'am." Aya took Sif's reaction with a mixture of grudging acceptance and renewed curiosity. She dared not provoke the Mini-Neko further, but there seemed to be so much left unsaid. Perhaps when - if - Sif seemed more relaxed she'd prod her again. And anyway, she had answered the younger Neko's question. That would have to do for now. Aya quietly scanned her surroundings for anything of interest.

Moving to place the plastic wrapped bowl in the Taii's arms, Sif remarked, "Nobody ever asks me questions." At this moment, her voice sounded soft, gentle even. It was obvious that their leader was a little confused at having been asked.

The food itself was meant to be only on display, attracting customers. Despite having new ones being made every few days, maybe even weeks, it would have never been served unless all the rest of the food was used up. And naturally, the customer would be forewarned. But, on top of it all, the display pieces were literally made to stay looking good. Unlike the real, fresh food, this one had preservatives. How else would it have looked so immaculate despite all the time that had passed since the invasion?

It was still edible however.
 
"There's units placed all around - the more we destroy, the more the jamming will dissipate," Sif began to explain, changing topics to the real issue at hand. "The nearest one is not too far away - a short walk if we were strolling through the mall together during leave. Since their numbers are few, they do not leave defenders, but they most certainly have left something to alert them. They know we're here." This alert she had given the two dropped like a rock. Sif had lead them into the food court - a U shaped concourse with no way out.

All the while, faint sensor pings were flittering in and out, threatening to enter the 'mouth' of this area. "I recommend you spread out and take positions - there's access ways between all these restaurants in the back. Meanwhile, I will stay here and draw them in. Do not fire until I do."

"So it's going to be something like capture the flag...find each of the jammers and take them out...this is going to be a long day." Dimitri spoke as he thought about the situation. He noticed the sensor pings and sighed hoping that things would've went smoothly for now but he wasn't such a fortunate person. He listened to Sifs orders a moment and nodded. "I'll keep my drones out so we can get a couple different angles on them." The third drone detached from his shield and started to move to about heading up high and to one of the access ways, as the other two drones that were on vanguard before moving to do the same. The Nepleslian himself decided it would be good to get a high vantage point and looked for a higher walk way or rafters that he could climb into.

Aya almost had to double-take when Sif admitted that nobody had ever asked her questions.True, she was not terribly approachable, but... Aya pushed the thought from her mind. There was still the mission to complete. The blue skinned Neko listened carefully to Sif's instructions. "Do you think the enemy are affected at all by the jamming? If so, then there's a risk that we might end up allowing them to find out where - "

The last set of orders interrupted her, though Aya wasn't particularly annoyed. Nodding, she slipped toward the back of the room, planning to take a route that would (hopefully) put her opposite Dimitri and allow the trio to catch the interlopers in a crossfire. She grinned. The enemy were about to get a taste of their own medicine!

"Yes. Capture the flag. But with the sensors...It's complicated," Sif replied.

Before anything more could be said, the 'fairies' on their sensors started moving in, the incoherent, flickering blips on their sensors solidifying and slowly beginning to take form. They still jumped from place to place, making their exact location impossible to find, but they were closing! Dimitri managed to find himself on a maintenance catwalks built into the ceilings above with excellent concealment, but though they were made to be hidden from plain view and appear to be part of the decor, the cover they gave him was poor - only the shadows and his volumetrics kept him out of sight. At the same time, Aya had moved into what looked like a "Retro" Nepleslian Burger Joint off into one of the 'U' shaped concourse's prongs and hid behind the counter. It wouldn't stop railgun rifle or gauss cannon rounds, but it was something.

Sif was doing the same - emphasis on was.

A red blur, out of her thermoptic camo, popped up from behind her own counter and heaved a white bag with every single ounce of strength the Sylph could muster. The bag flew, and exploded into a white cloud! In an instant, three Reapers materialized out of thin air, their own thermoptic camouflage failing as flour clung to their suits. They immediately wheeled on her, but just as her four drones snapped to and opened fire. Two of them were hit by a pair of lances, the energy blasts collapsing their energy barriers and melting into armor plate, what flour on their power armors quickly burning onto the surface as black soot and ash from the heat.

The third opened fire with its gauss rifle, the Red Sylph's thrusters flaring as it strafed away and back into the Gyūdon Express, the displays of food bursting into pieces as the bullets chewed through the walls. It was time for Dimitri and Aya to strike!

Flour? That was certainly unexpected, though Aya admitted that it was an effective way to defeat the Reapers' thermoptic camouflage. She was more than a little put off by the tacky decoration of the fast food place she had selected as her hidy-hole (how did Nepleslians handle such crimes against decor?) but it meant that the NMX were blissfully unaware of her presence.

She saw her chance and took it. Peeking above the counter, she shouldered her ASGR and sent a long burst toward the side of the Reaper currently preoccupied with shooting at Sif. Perhaps she could cut it down - or at least make it strongly reconsider continuing the firefight - with some well-aimed shots and the element of surprise.

Dimitri from his perch above could see how everything had panned out, and the flour made it easy for him to to spot some of the targets. It was time to settle things how Nepleslians did (including decor problems) with a shoot out. He first had his drones start firing, wanting to incite as much panic as possible, making it seem like there were more of them than there were with energy blast coming in form multiple directions.

Once the drones were set to kill the former racer took aim at the regions where his targets heads would be and laid down a rain of bullets form above, aiming for the unshielded targets first, wanting to make this fight end as quickly as possible

The heavier rounds from Aya's rifle pelted the third Reaper hard, but its energy barrier held - barely. Amid the forest of tables, counter-tops and chairs, it dove for whatever cover it could find, but kept leaning out and firing back at the muzzle flash of its attacker. As the Neko kept firing, rounds perforating the Reaper's cover with ease, she leaned forward into her rifle, only for her entire world to start spinning as a massive shot glanced off the side and back of her helmet - further outside of the concourse, air had parted as a vacuum formed, the massive concussive blast of a gauss cannon shoving the air aside as the shell was spat out. Aya was lucky that her shields blunted the impact by so much, but even then, if it had hit her head square on, her neck would have been snapped!

"Shit," Tulip grunted, realizing her mistake - she should have waited for Sif to show herself again. It was still enough - the Reaper that was under Aya's eye leaped into cover with a flash of its thrusters, landing in another food joint directly opposite of her and in the other prong of the 'U' that was the concourse, old Dango spilling everywhere.

At the same time, moments before the cannon sounded and Aya's prey leaped out of cover, Dimitri had more luck. As the two damaged Reapers' knees bent, ready to leap into safety, the Nepleslian rained flaming DU rounds down on them, aiming high as drones opened up as well. Fast bolts of light scorched armor plating while sparks flew from the rapid staccato of metal-on-metal impacts - the recoil of the young man's rifle had his aim kick from upper chest and into neck and helmet. As blood spurted across the dining area, one unprotected Reaper falling, the other leaped away into another restaurant on the same side as Aya!

Sif, thermoptic camouflage active again, scanned for her adversary as she held still, but failed to find her, just as Tulip did the very same.

Dimitri knew that if he stayed in this one spot too long he would come under fire once more, but no one had picked out his location yet so he took a little risk, tracking the Reaper that got away with his eyes and firing down a quick burst at the it. Immediately after the burst he stood and moved to a different part of the cat walk, a little further up so he could look for whoever fired that heavy gauss rifle.

The drones did not let up their assault, they did not have the greatest destructive power, but they were still a threat, and hopefully they could keep a few Reapers pinned down so the squad didn't get overwhelmed.

Aya frowned as the Reaper's energy shield failed to collapse. On the other hand, if she kept this up they would quickly find themselves without cover. They would have to weather the storm of bullets eventually...

Her body jerked like it was slapped by the invisible hand of a giant, her thoughts tumbling into a brief void of confusion as she tried to keep balance. She felt almost disconnected from the experience, like it was playing out on a television screen rather than right in front of her. The Neko didn't so much feel as perceive, detachedly noting that if she did not move soon she would be at risk of another hammer-blow of a projectile. "Sniper!" she called out, hoping to prevent her comrades from getting hit as well.

Aya retreated toward the back of the burger joint, her eyes darting left and right as she tried to ascertain where the round had come from. Sidling into the access way, she ran through it, hoping to emerge into a restaurant that would at least obscure her from the mysterious sniper.

A bright light flickered in the darkness above as Dimitri's rifle fired - the rounds chased after the second damaged Reaper on Aya's side as it leaped for cover. As though invisible grinding wheels came down on it, sparks flew as armor was struck as it landed. A gout of plasma shot out of its back as a single shot found its way into the propulsion pack, sending it wildly careening out of control within the tight confines. The young man had trouble keeping track of a target literally bouncing off the walls, but just as he began to move, a massive hammer struck him in the chest. The cannon shell had shoved its way through the suit's energy barrier before impacting against the armor before it fell to the ground.

Immediately, lances of energy shot out at the firing point as Sif fought to pinpoint the enemy shooter, the duel between snipers taking off in earnest. Energy barriers flickered as one of her shots landed near, but it was soon gone again, the Mini-Neko relocating.

The relatively intact enemy across from Aya leveled its LASR at her and fired, her own protective field flickering as the shots were steered off course. Rapidly shaking off the daze, Aya broke contact with the enemy gauss sniper and rifleman just as her barrier collapsed, making it out the back. And headlong into Dimitri's escaped prey. The two collided into one another, armor meeting armor. Covered in burnt black ash and pockmarked by rifle fire, the damaged Reaper quickly regained its senses to raise its weapon to fire.

Aya had scarcely noticed the Reaper before she had barreled into it with the loud ringing clatter of metal against metal. The Nekovalkyrja recovered almost as quickly as her opponent. Oh no you don't... she thought. One arm shot forward to try to knock the NMX soldier's rifle aside, whilst she simply kept her other arm low - there wasn't enough time to raise her gun and aim - and squeezed tightly on the trigger in an attempt to riddle the Reaper full of bullets. The tight quarters might just work in her favor. Might.

Dimitri was knocked off his feet, landing on his back with a thud as the gauss canon struck against his armor. He was not expecting the canon to come his way so quickly but he did not have time to sit around dazed. The man quickly activated his thrusters, recklessly hurling himself along the catwalk and away from the sniper and other assailants looking for and easy kill. He then cut his thrusters once he had gotten what he felt was a safe distance away and moved further back to try to slip out of sight to give himself a breather while he checked his ammo.

The drones changed their firing pattern slightly now that Dimitri had backed off and Aya was out of sight. Instead of just firing on who ever stuck their head up, they each began prioritizing targets to try and knock down a few shields and keep Sif from being surrounded.

Aya had managed to smack the rifle aside, but the Reaper lunged in close, the long barrel of the weapon keeping her from bringing it to bear. A heavy, studded knuckle punch landed on her helmet, dazing the Neko as the hemosynthetic insert of her suit struggled to keep her neck from breaking. With imprints left on the helmet's cheek, the Reaper grabbed her by the the armored collar and wrist "Gyaaaaaaaa!" the woman inside of the NMX suit screamed as her suit's servos' whirred, picking up the Neko and slamming her, left and right, into the opposing walls, plaster and drywall shattering as the rifle in her hand was knocked free!

Meanwhile, Dimitri's thruster dash spoiled his volumetric camouflage, revealing his position - the buzzsaw of a rifle chased after him, every single individual round it shot coming out as a hot, burning tracer as the depleted uranium caught fire. The air was littered with faint smoke trails as it sought him out, sparks arcing across his energy barrier as they eventually hit home. No matter how much he fled, using his suit's speed, the Reaper could easily keep track of him.

If something didn't happen soon, he was going to die.

The Reaper's helmet suddenly jerked to the side as sparks flew - on the side of its helmet was the imprint of an entire fist! A second blow across its jaw left it stumbling, reeling as it stood as the Red Sylph's volumetric camouflage destabilized. With the Reaper so deep into the store, Sif had no choice but to charge in! Grabbing its head in her hands, a sharp, deep snap marked the end. Just as their squad leader turned however, the cannon boomed. The massive round struck her upside the head, denting the alloy as Sif's arm leaped out and grabbed onto a metal pipe, desperate to stay standing.

The fourth and final Reaper materialized as it triumphantly stood on the counter. The massive gauss cannon mounted onto its back spat out a three round burst into Sif's chest, the first and second pushing its way through her energy barrier and bouncing off armor plate, with the third and final shot landing with the sickening crunch of collapsing plate and wet splat of torn flesh. Lodged deep in Sif's chest was a round easily as thick as a person's wrist. As her head feebly rose to look on her assailant, the cannon's barrel aimed up - her head snapped back and at a wrong angle as it boomed.

Sif's status light, over her chest and head, was black.

"Hehe...hehehehe! I won, I won, I won!" Tulip, in heavy armor, leaped up and down on the counter, smashing it to bits underneath her weight. Freezing, the spiked armor sharply turned, looking straight at Dimitri. It felt like an eternity as the faceless helmet stared at the young man. "The one that got a-way!~~" she suddenly sang. The Reaper seemed to flicker in the dark food court, the image of a white mannequin briefly taking its place.
 
Dimitri aimed, ready to fire at the sniper, gritting his teeth in anger. However he froze up a moment as the armor turned to face him. He reflexively pulled back and tried to put some sort of cover between him and monstrosity. His drones firing from three sides on it to distract it. "F**k!" Swears repeatedly escaped him as he jumped from the catwalk and landed, quickly rolling to get into one of the access ways to use the structure of the mall as cover. He had to tell himself not to retreat further, he didn't want this thing getting to Aya too.

The constant blows to Aya's skull were starting to take their toll; for a millisecond she could have sworn she saw two Reapers beating the living daylights out of her. Even then she got no reprieve as the NMX power armor slammed her against the walls like a rag-doll, the Nekovalkyrja reeling under the flood of pain in her body. She barely noticed the rifle spinning wildly to the floor, cut off mid-burst.

However, enough was enough. Mid-swing Aya activated her Daisy's anti-gravity system to firmly "plant" herself in place and tried to wrench the enemy into a rotating motion, attempting to use the momentum the enemy was building up against her. Simultaneously she lunged forward and made a grab for the Reaper.

"Oh, we can do that! Lots of it!" the NMX Neko replied to Dimitri's swearing. "Just toss everything off, and we can get started!~~~<3" Just as the young man ordered his drones to cover him, the spike covered power armor leaped and spun about like a ballerina, dodging the shots; mid-leap, the LASR in one hand opened up, stitching across one drone, knocking it down for the count. Halfway through a flip, the shoulder cannon fired, another drone detonated. And finally - she just jinked and juked, wrenching a bolted down stool out of the ground and sending it flying into the last, final one, crushing it against the wall. Nothing but the metal shaft of the seat stuck out. "I really wanna celebrate killing that awful bitch!"

"What do you say, hmmm? I wasn't very nice to the rest of your squad mates, when I came onto them one by one, but I'll be gentle with you since you're the last, I swear!" A brief flare of her thrusters, and she landed up on the catwalk with him, just a few meters away - she didn't even bother pointing weapons at him. "Or maybe I'm coming on too fast, hm? I'm Tulip by the way! But really, 'The Last' put in front of anyone's name sounds really hot! That's you!" she happily pointed a finger at him, slowly starting to walk towards the young man - incredibly, the pilot of the enemy suit had its hips sway.

Sway, just as the image of that pale, white mannequin flickered in and out like a bad light, both moving towards him in sync. This close, he could easily see that it was the same one from before in the department store.

Meanwhile, Aya's foot firmly pounded into the ground as her own power armor's graviton systems kicked in. Using that point for leverage, the Reaper's momentum turned on it as she spun on a pivot, picking it up and slamming it into the walls of the mall in return. Aya smashed it, left and right, before slamming it down into a water fountain - a faint burst of water showered the two as what little pressure was left in the pipes was spent, but she had the advantage!

Aya found something viscerally satisfying in finally managing to give the Reaper a taste of its own medicine, but there was no time to waste. She drew her Impactor with what might have seemed to the NMX powered armor like a sense of finality. The PEW on her other arm popped into the ready position, automatically slewing to aim at the Reaper's head. "Playtime's over," Aya growled. Pouncing on the Reaper, Aya began battering away at her opponent's helmet, striking again and again like a woman possessed. Meanwhile, her PEW was spurred to life, trying its level best to assist the blue Neko in her attack. There wasn't any of the restraint that had marked some of Aya's previous skirmishes - just a single-minded desire to render the Reaper inert as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Dimitri was about to question this obviously deranged pilot that stood before him, but she was an enemy, and NMX at that, there was no need for questions, not now in the middle of battle. There was no telling how many of his squad she was responsible for, and she had taken out Sif as well. Since he had not gotten the chance to get down form the catwalk before she got to him he decided to use that narrow space to his advantage and rush in quickly with his boosters, but doing a slight jump as well. He grabbed at the Reaper's head with his shield arm and pulled it down quickly as his knee came up carrying the momentum from his boost and slammed into her face. Hoping to catch her off guard he quickly tried to follow up with his rifle that was still 'lowered' and put as many rounds as he could in her stomach.

Aya's weapon quickly flicked out as the Reaper fought to stand up and recover, the crude durandium cudgel smashing down into its head. Lenses cracked and shattered, revealing the cameras underneath as she pounded away, knocking the pilot senseless. Just as it was on its knees, the broken 'eyes' just barely turning to settle on her in a daze, the wrist mounted energy weapon opened fire into its face. Advanced alloy melted under the torrent of fire, the face and half the head simply slagged into a black ashen mess.

Meanwhile Dimitri only made it halfway into his move - the enemy pilot charged forward just as he reached out, the two colliding together, too close for his planned knee attack. His momentum was far greater, carrying the young man forward and knocking the enemy Reaper over. Even as he laid on top of it however, she didn't give him a moment to act! Legs wrapping round his waist, she grabbed him by the wrists, dropping her own rifle as she pulled him over. "You're such a tough-to-kill, perverted guy!" she giggled. "I always like it when my bosses play with me, but I never get to play back - but you're different! With all your friends dead, I have you all to myself!" Tulip went on. With one leg around his back, she used the other to kick off and flip them both over.

Pinning him down, helmet to helmet, chestplate to chestplate, they were both in a stalemate it seemed. But she didn't give up. "Don't you want to play? I'm really pretty you know." A transmission from her suit - a handshake protocol - automatically went through, being deemed harmless by his AIES. And in that moment, Dimitri found himself staring through her helmet as his HUD displayed the image of the person underneath it. Like her name implied, her hair was a mix of light pink and white, much like a tulip. The Neko had a face with delicate features, and just like she promised, she was pretty.

Flawlessly pretty like all Nekovalkyrja.

But the expression on her face, the way she blushed with lust and looked utterly hungry all at once, was terror.
 
Aya took a moment to gather her senses, her breath ragged from exertion. But the moment passed. She got to her feet and put away the Impactor, and the PEW retracting back into the Daisy's armor with a muted whirr and a click. Head pounding, Aya made her way back to where she had dropped the ASGR and checked it over to ensure that it hadn't been damaged. The Neko released the weapon's magazine and popped in a fresh one, half expecting the Reaper to rear up like a monster from her nightmares to wreak revenge.

She wondered how Sif and Dmitri were doing. The sniper would prove a thorny problem, but now they would surely have made short work of the other Reapers, right? At the very least, they couldn't all be that difficult to kill. Making her way through the access-way, she opened the nearest door.

The Nepleslian soon found himself on his back and pinned down before he could even resist. He did not plan on staying in this situation for long, especially not after seeing that look she had on her face. He felt like this woman would literally eat him up after she was done with him. He struggled some to lift his wrist up enough to aim at the supports for their section of the cat walk and firing. He then lifted one leg and slammed it down as hard as the armor would let him, making sure that their section would drop.

As they fell he quickly turned on his boosters and flipped them around, putting the NMX neko below him. Then switching to full atmospheric power he hurled them both into the ground, hoping she would break his fall.

What Aya saw was horrifying - having made her way back, she saw the Reaper straddling Dimitri, and begging to ride him. The two were so close together, she didn't dare start shooting - what if she missed? What if they moved? And worse yet, as she was near enough for their suits to network through the jamming again, Sif's status lights came on. Up in the corner of her HUD, she could see the little person-shaped green-yellow-orange-red-black lights. They were all hurting, but Sif's readout? Her chest and head was black. All black.

The little red monster that protected them at every turn was dead.

Before she could make up her mind, Dimitri's wrist weapon opened up, melting through the supporting cables as he was held tightly by Tulip. He didn't even need to strike the platform - the two plummeted as one end fell. Tumbling end over end, the Young man came to a rest face down - halfway down the fall, she ended up riding him like a sled. This NMX Neko - despite all the efforts he could muster, was utterly implacable! Dominant! Spotting Aya, she grabbed the young man's head. "Hold it, or I snap him like a twig!" Seeing the other unable to do a thing, without any weapons powerful enough to punch through her shields, she snickered.

"That stupid woman had one job - she had one job! To kill you," Tulip remarked about Aya's late foe. Her furious tone of voice, like a young child who had a toy broken, suddenly became much more lighthearted as she shrugged however. "I guess that's what threesome's are for, aren't they?" she pondered. Looking down at Dimitri, Tulip asked him, "Hey, your squad mate - you've had to have wanted to f**k her too, right? Tell her to strip for both of us, you and me!~~" she happily asked. Looking down at the young man in her clutches, she added, "And don't try anything - you got a power armor grabbing you by the neck. So start talking. It's all you got left besides your 'Tanto' down there." As far as she cared, she had already won, and it showed in how her voice sounded. "Maybe you'll warm up to this if you get to 'stab' her with it first? Hmmm???~~~" the NMX Neko asked him, never taking her eyes off of Aya.

Utterly gleeful, and looking forward to what was going to happen next.

Dimitri groaned a bit after that fall. Things had not gone the way he had planned. He quickly did a scan to check if anything on his suit was damaged after that. Hearing the Neko sound so confident gave him a bit of relief, it meant he had time to think of something and finish that scan. Of course though he didn't want Aya to take off her armor, not with a psycho in a walking arsenal near by. "You said your name was Tulip right?" He decided to send just a picture, not a constant feed, of himself smiling. "I'm Dimitri...I wasn't expecting to see a woman in an NMX suit, especially not a cute little cat."

"Aww, you're making me blush!" she began to reply, her voice pitched like a squee'ing highschooler being proposed for the prom. "But seriously - " it turned/ Tulip rounded in him, squeezing his neck a little. "- tell her to start stripping."

Aya froze, unsure how to react to the scene in front of her. And then she saw the status lights. At first she thought it was a malfunction and gave her helmet a judicious smack. But the lights stubbornly remained black. A icy core of horror seemed to crystallize in her stomach. Numbly, she watched as Dimitri and the Reaper plummeted to the floor. Aya had started to move, but the NMX Neko's barked threat stopped her in her tracks.

She stood frozen like a statue, torn between dread, revulsion, and a slow trickle of white hot anger that was starting to melt the ice in her veins. Dimitri's abrupt attempt to get in the Neko's good books was noted with a brief moment of confusion and then ignored in favor of staring down the Reaper. "...What if I decide I don't want to do it?" Her tone dripped with venom, seeming all the more striking for coming out of the mouth of someone who was usually so laid back.

"Y-you don't w-want me? That hurts!" she whined. "Well, won't you do it...for him?" Tulip asked - Dimitri would feel the grip around his neck tighten as she oh-so-innocently asked. "I mean, isn't Dimitri one of the few, few men around? I know that's always the case in the Star Army. Variety's good for you, you know. But - oh!" A sly tone suddenly edged her voice. "Maybe, maybe you're more interested in Nakamura? That Bishi! He's so tall and handsome, isn't he? That wavy blond hair, that aloof look he always has; so dreamy!" Tulip remarked, perhaps drifting off a little herself.

A metal pipe smashed the NMX Neko in the head - the Tiger Haired Taii from before bellowed a war cry as she swung it again at Tulip. But it wasn't so easy! The Reaper refused to let go of Dimitri, and Aya couldn't fire or she'd risk hitting the Taii, but the cannon on Tulip's back quickly swiveled around, the servos whining. But their Taii didn't stop there - moving in fast, she grabbed the cannon by the housing and put a foot against the spiky power armor and wrenched.

"WHAT?!" Tulip yelled in shock.

Metal tore as the entire gun assembly was ripped free from the power armor, the older Neko's strength purely inhuman."YOU! SIF!" the Taii screamed, reaching for Tulip's neck. Realizing that her hostage wouldn't stop the orange headed Valkyrja, the NMX Neko let go and swatted tthe Taii aside, sending the enraged woman flying. And the tables had turned - though she straddled the young man, Tulip was now exposed to Aya's fire, with Dimitri free'd from her lethal clutch!
 
Shocked was the simplest way to express what Dimitri was feeling as he watched the two neko struggle agaisnt eachother above his body, especially at seeing how much power the small framed unarmed Taii could force out of that body. However once Tulip's hands were off his neck he used as much strength as his armor could muster to wrench the NMX's soldier's legs open and free his arm before activating both PEWs and firing point blank at her chest.

Aya's eyes narrowed as Tulip kept prattling on. If she had loathed the NMX Neko before, she was beginning to hate her now. The mention of Nakamura took her by surprise, though - how did she know who he was, never mind what he looked like? The stand-off was mercifully cut short, however, by the unexpected but not entirely unwelcome arrival of the Taii they had rescued earlier. And now she had her chance!

Aya shouldered her ASGR and opened fire. She wasn't taking chances, however - her own Diasy's PEWs came online and prepared to deal a follow-up blow if Tulip was left standing.

The combined weapon fire quickly tore through the barrier protecting the suit, but it didn't end her. Tulip instantly raised her arms, protecting her helmeted face as the two opened fire on her, but it didn't end there. As the orange headed Neko made to come in with another reckless hammer blow with the ruined cannon in hand, the Reaper leaped off of the young man and flew at her, thrusters flaring to life. A sickening, wet and moist 'Spak!' could be heard as the Taii was impaled at the waist on the shoulder spike of the power armor, the enemy turning on her toes to use her as a human shield!

She looked down on the Reaper, just barely realizing that the thick metal piece had run her through - the expression she had was of utmost shock, eyes wide in confused surprise. The pain was so sharp, the Neko didn't even realize she was hurt, and badly. But her face screwed up back into sheer, unadulterated rage as she reached out for Tulip's face and helmet. "Gah! Die already!" the NMX Neko yelled - the Taii pulled herself down deeper as her fingers finally found purchase on the helmet and tore it off, the seal popping as she wrenched it away.

And there was Tulip. Beautiful as she promised, and just as utterly enraged as the Tiger Haired Taii she had impaled. But something moved. Something caught her eye. And they all saw it.

Fear.

In an instant, Tulip shoved the Taii off with a slick, gut wrenching 'Shulk" and burst off her feet and out of the skylight above, shattered glass raining down on them all. The Taii, horribly maimed, somehow fell to her knees and stayed there, refusing to fall as a single, weak hand rested at her bleeding waist. She was completely still, highlighted by the sunbeam that fell down on her from above. And behind them all, a familiar voice spoke with derision.

"You. You all suck." Not that Sif sounded like she was any better off.
 
Dimitri quickly stood up when Tulip got off him, however he found himself holding fire as the Taii engaged the reaper in combat. Even after being impaled she was still fighting, and that left Dimitri frightened and in awe. His former squad was mostly male, so he never got to witness first hand just how tenacious the Star Army's Nekovalkyrja were. However with the Taii in the way Dimitri could not bring himself to fire and risk hitting her. He only managed to fire of shots with his PEWs when Tulip tried to retreat. When the voice spoke up behind him however, he quickly turned to see who it was.

She was quick, Aya granted Tulip that much. She had just been about to pull the trigger again when the Reaper impaled the Taii, making Aya's stomach lurch. Were they going to lose her too? However, even when skewered on a spike the Taii was incredibly tenacious - in fact it almost seemed like it didn't slow her down a bit!

However, something spooked Tulip and she took off, leaving Aya to shout a curse after her. The Neko's fury had reached its peak, but a voice stopped it dead in its tracks. She wheeled around, sure that she was losing her mind (or that she was suffering brain damage). It was impossible that Sif could survive! The status lights were still the same grim shade of black, after all.

What they saw was borderline monsterous, almost zombie-like in its broken state. The Dainty Power Armor had a large hole punched into its chest, the edges smoothly melted intwards in a spiral, while further out, metal had crumpled under the sheer brute force of the 50mm cannon. Its depths seemed deep and endless - depleted uranium was pyrophoric. It was a metal that caught on fire and burned hot, and here, their eyes couldn't even make out the massive blackened slug buried deep within. Worse, this wound had weeped thick, congealed blood down the front of this body like red-black tarry tears.

But it was her head that was worst off.

Like her chest, the lips of the hole punched into the helmet was smooth, nearly melted into a slight spiral as the shell made its way in. The rest of the helmet had simply begun to buckle and give way. And that was where similarities ended - out of the back of this red figure, was the tip of the shell, halfway out and firmly stuck in the skull. Even after passing through the front of the helmet, it was still going fast enough to partially melt its way out through sheer brute force of impact. Advanced alloy had actually torn as it slowed down and came to a stop.

Finally, there was the mouth. It simply wasn't there before. Under the blow, it had cracked open, tearing the person underneath and ripping away the lips. A bloody grimace of sharp, jagged and broken teeth was what almost seemed to smile at them all like a macabre grin. It was no wonder why Tulip had fled.

And somehow, Sif had survived this.

Striding forward calmly, as though nothing were wrong in the world, the Mini-Neko remarked, "Black. Up. You're fine." At Sif's previous words, the Taii was quickly ignored under the seemingly new presence, but when they were spoken at the time, the kneeling, slumped over woman had perked up. But now? She stood on wobbly legs, staring in disbelief, speechless. The sheer toughness of these two older Neko types was astounding. The Red Sylph turned slightly so that its side was to them before a thick shaft slid out of the base of its neck at the back. This cylinder opened up, and out of it, came Sif. She didn't look happy to say the least.

Dimitri was speechless, though he was glad that Sif had survived such an assault, he could not even begin to understand how nor how painful being in such a condition must be. He knew he would have rather died than feel that kind of pain. These women were invincible or at least as close to it as any organic creature would come to it. He did not know what he should be doing in this situation, what was appropriate, and what would not offend the mini. So he spoke what he felt was the safest choice. "I am glad you are still with us...should we look for medical supplies?"

Aya was stunned by what she saw - Sif looked like an absolute wreck. By all rights, she should have been dead, or at least unconscious. But the wounds didn't even seem to phase her. It lent a surreal feel to the scene, though at least Dimitri's reaction confirmed she was still sane. And the Taii seemed just as surprised as they were at the Mini-Neko's continued survival.

It seemed that miracles did happen after all.

After Sif heard what they had to say - or not - they all looked at her. And she looked back. The only thing that escaped her small, delicate lips was "バカばっか"

'Bunch of Fools.'

In front of them, was a cute young woman, newly past the age of girlhood. Her fists were on the hips of her bodysuit and she had a rather pouty expression on her face. And most importantly, she looked like she was standing on the shoulder of a 'giant mecha'. It all looked like a scene out of a Yamataian Anime in all honesty, except, shrunk down to the point that the 'giant mecha' was 'obviously a person in a cool costume'. The scene in front of them, after such a warped, twisted battle against a psychotic foe, was what made it all truly surreal. "Are you all really that dull?" the Brunette Mini-Neko asked them, green eyes dangerously flashing at them. The fact that her cheeks were a shade or two red with anger only seemed to complement her freckles, and make the danger of their officer's menace seem so much smaller however.

"My Sylph is the pinnacle of Nekovalkyrjan lethality and perserverance, a living mass of nothing but hemosynth pretending to be normal flesh, all wrapped up under this armor and with a cockpit put in, slaved to my control! Of course it doesn't need a medkit!" she yelled at them. Despite the fury of her voice, she was small. It was hard to take her seriously as she crossed her arms, pouting as she looked at the damage it took. "It's not really the flesh, but the armor that's difficult to repair," Sif offhandedly remarked, having finally cooled off a little. "But you," the Mini-Neko slowly threatened Dimitri, still standing there on her Sylph's shoulder.

"If you have concealment and no cover, you either take a critical shot and run for cover, or you shut up, hide and slither away into a better position." Her words were now flat and businesslike again before she pointed a mini-finger at Aya next. "And you - you got lucky, but when it was your turn to shine, you flopped. What are you, a repressed Nepleslian?" Sif accused her. "Flirt. Tell her she's pretty, or say you want Dimitri's 'Tanto' all to yourself and that she should scram. Stuff like that. You're dealing with a psychopath after all. Otherwise, you would have ended up getting him killed as soon as her amusement or patience ran out." As she finished, another voice spoke, its tone more womanly and full in comparison to the typically youthful, cool indifference that Sif had.

"Hmm. It really seems you haven't changed a bit Red. I know you're angry, but we really should be moving on first, not debriefling them before the mission's ended," the orange and black haired Nekovalkyrja pointed out. It was only now that they got a good look at her - she was a little tall for one of her kind, roughly five feet and seven inches tall. Just two short of Dimitri himself. Not only that, but the typical Nekovalkyrja tended to err on the side of girlishness, with Sif being an example of that. 'Black', as she was referred to, was all woman. Despite the ruined tatters of her clothing, or perhaps particularly because of it - even with the horrifying wound in her belly - she was undeniably gorgeous.

And it showed in her stride, as she walked up with a certain sway to her hips, twirling a certain somebody's helmet on a finger. "This look familiar?" Black smiled before wincing, a hand falling to her waist. The wound that ran her through had actually stopped bleeding and begun to heal, but it was still raw. "It's Tulip's helmet, and I know you only beat in the face of another one of these things before breaking the neck - do you ladies and gentleman care for another squadmate?"

Dimitri looked closely at the tiny little neko and blinked seeing that she herself was fine and then back to the armor, and the fact that it had teeth and other facial features. "Something is wrong with this country..." He thought to himself, wondering why they'd make something so shockingly realistic...and then he wondered what his armor would look like broken. He was taken out of his thoughts however when the mini directed it's words toward him.

He was starting to have some flashbacks to his days on the streets and having to learn how to take care of himself, and ended up responding in kind "Will do Boss." That had been how he addressed his superior until he left Nepleslia so it still came out some times, and like now, he never notices.

Aya simply stood there dumbly as Sif gave them a major dressing-down, occasionally nodding slowly and going "Sorry, ma'am". She felt genuinely stupid for not thinking of what the Mini-Neko had said - she had been so distracted by Sif's "death" that it simply never occurred to her. The voice of the orange-and-black haired Neko drew her attention - her mental state seemed to have improved massively, along with her wound.

Still adjusting to the fact that they hadn't lost Sif forever, Aya only managed to croak out a "Yes".
 
Hands fell to the two despondant soldiers' shoulders as a voice sweetly spoke.

"Awww, Sif, can't you see you're being a little harsh to them? Don't say it so!" Black remarked, drawing the two a little closer to herself with a smile. The Reaper's helmet she held, rasped slightly against Aya's plates before the Neko let go. "A little softer, remember?" the Taii asked, letting them go as she began to walk by the two. Sif's gaze only fell on her briefly before the woman passed her by, departing.

"Maybe." The Mini-Neko's expression was a stoic embarrassment barely noticeable, especially as she promptly hopped back into the cockpit of her damaged Sylph. As soon as it closed and slid back into the base of its neck, the dainty armor turned to face them. Pale, white skin and lips that seemed to have never seen the light of day could be seen under the gap in the helmet. As quickly as they noticed this however, the glint was gone. A pair of red painted hands had reached up and pressed the helmet back into a close semblance of its former self. "My sensors are heavily degraded, so I have no choice but to rely on you two a lot more," Sif remarked.

Behind her, a Reaper casually walked out of one of the eateries, straight towards them.

Dimitri looked between Sif and this 'Black' as she was called. He was starting to become rather curious it did not seem as though these two merely were acquaintances. "Do you two know each other? You seem rather familiar with each other." He started to make a move to head to get his rifle once more there were still a few bullets left in it. However when he heard foot steps her turned to look and spotted a Reaper armor approaching them. He raised his PEWs immediately and pointed them at the armor, if it made any aggressive movements he would fire right away.

Aya was quietly thankful that Black wasn't as stern as Sif was - even though she was more than relieved at Sif's continued survival, she wasn't sure she could take two disciplinarians constantly chewing her out. The Reaper helmet she held now seemed almost like a war trophy. Appropriate, perhaps, considering how hard they had fought. The blue skinned Nekovalkyrja was slightly surprised by Sif's seeming deference to Black; it was clear that there was a lot they still didn't know about... well... either of them. Dimitri seemed to be having similar thoughts to her if his question was any indication. The emotional roller-coaster of the past few minutes made Aya remain steadfastly silent as she walked.

She too had heard the footsteps, and spinning on her heels she trained her ASGR at the seemingly oblivious Reaper. "Contact to our back," she said tersely.

"Once, there were Seven," Sif replied, her Sylph's gaze impassive with the helmet somewhat restored.

But once when Dimitri and Aya raised the alarm however, the Reaper behind Sif spun around to look behind itself. "Where?!" it shouted. It then looked back at them. Unlike the faceless Star Army suits, both of its faces seemed to say, 'Really?' with the sassy way it put a hand to its hip and cocked its head. Its boots just kept on walking. "Once, emphasis on that - having a squad full of Sylphs, all from different ships, planets and shipyards, was pretty common after The Battle of Hoshi no Iori," she explained.

"We were only different due to the fact we refused to abandon our Sylphs as they dwindled in numbers over time," Sif explained. "We eventually gained the title of 'The Seven Sylphs' and became fairly well known in certain circles." In this moment of calm after the fight, she sounded melancholic, almost upset. Noticing this, the Reaper quickly cut in, changing the topic however.

"My, my, this suit is very different - maybe I should name it Gurren?" she joked.

" 無理" The word was 'Muri' when romanized. Impossible, unreasonable, excessive, immoderate, beyond one's power. It was a word that simply didn't translate well into Nepleslian, and that was what Sif spoke of in deadpan reply, the head of her Crimson Sylph turning to speak over its shoulder in protest. She had no face, but she was all too likey glaring at the Reaper.

"Gurren, or 'Crimson' in Trade, is what we used to call Sif," the Reaper explained to them. "But getting more serious, this helmet from Tulip? It has several locations that are marked on its map," the older Nekovalkyrja added, pointing to the head of the Reaper she wore. "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" she mischievously asked them all.

Temporarily distracted by the Reaper's antics, Aya was paying only half-attention to the history lesson. If it weren't for the powered armor behind them, she would have been absolutely enraptured by Sif's gradual unraveling of her past. She was, by the sounds of it, a bona fide war hero - exactly the sort of person Aya held undying admiration for. But still the Reaper prowled behind them like an unwanted guest at a party.

And then the Reaper didn't just talk, it offered a light-hearted suggestion, as though it were doing nothing more alarming than going out for a stroll. And what was more, Sif answered back. The sheer disconnect gave the situation an absurd quality, and Aya almost pinched herself to check that she wasn't dreaming.

She was just about to insist more forcefully that there was a contact to their rear when the Reaper piped up again, and Aya gently smacked the point on her helmet where her forehead would have been as she realized that the "enemy" was really just Black in a Reaper powered armor suit. Lowering the ASGR, she offered, "...It sounds like it might be where they placed the jammers." She hoped so - it'd beat having to scour the mall from top to bottom to find the accursed devices.

Dimitri was left speechless by how the Reaper responded to the mention of a hostile. It was not making any aggressive movements but rather it acted as if it was amongst friends. He wanted to shoot but Sif was looking right at it and rather than firing started talking about the past with the reaper. So he listened in figuring that he'll figure out who the Reaper is soon.

He did not just stick around though and once deciding that the reaper was friendly, he went straight to retrieve his LASR, there were still a few bullets in it so best not to leave it. He also took this time to look at some of the weapons the enemy Reapers had wondering if any of them might have bullets he could use. "Those spots are either the jammers or rally points. Either way it'd be good to check them out."

"Bingo!~" the Reaper replied. "On a side note though, since you know what Sif's name used to be, my Surname is 'Kuroneko', so naturally, I was just called 'Kuro (黒)' in Yamataian or 'Black' in Trade," The Nekovalkyrja explained to them. Looking at Sif, she added, "My IFF is still working, so I think I can find any hostiles we come into contact with," she added. Kicking one of the dead bodies, she rolled another Reaper over and pulled up a few magazines of LASR ammunition for both herself and Dimitri. "Cheers~" Kuroneko toasted Dimitri, her voice temptingly saucy. There was a single magazine in her grip. Overall they didn't have much - just two for him, and one for herself.

"Good idea - take point without your camouflage perhaps, and we'll follow," Sif suggested. "Dimitri? Aya? Trail behind Kuroneko by about five meters, maybe more - I'll leave how you follow her to your discretion. I'll be further back providing support fire when the time comes," the Mini Neko gave her orders. She added, "Remember, Kuroneko will likely try infiltrating to some degree, or even get close, so hold your fire until the moment is right."

"Mmm! Sounds good to me - scrounge around the bodies a bit before we go though. We won't be coming back, that's for certain, so don't leave behind anything important!~" the Reaper clad Neko wagged a finger at them.

"Score!" Aya almost punched the air in her excitement. Now that she wasn't (currently) fighting for her life, the Neko found herself comparing Black to Anzu - at least in terms of their exuberance. It was comforting, in a way: though she still missed Anzu, at least they had someone who could put everyone at ease. Sif's orders were met with a crisp "Yes ma'am!".

Black's suggestion didn't go unheeded either - Aya made her way to the nearest bodies and started poking around, hoping to find something of tactical or (if she got really lucky and the stars happened to align just so) strategic value amongst the NMX corpses. She doubted that she'd get much, if any ASGR ammunition after all.

Dimitri caught the magazines handed to him by Kuroneko and just did a quick check to make sure they were not damaged. "Hey, since you have their systems, can you see if we show up on radar when cloaked? If they have jammers in place they might have a more advanced radar net with it. It'd be nice to know what they see."

He started to move around to check the corpses as well, he was a little uncomfortable looting dead guys, at least he hoped they were guys, but he wasn't going to bother to check. He first looked to see if their rockets were compatible with his launchers if they had any, he had used all his had when his squad was ambushed, after that however he'd look for anything of interest that they could use against them.
 
Aya wasn't as lucky as Dimitri - the ASGR was a harder hitting rifle, but it wasn't standard. The bigger, heavier rounds weren't adopted by the SAoY officially and was used as 'substitute standard' in the 5th. That made getting ammo hard already, but the fact that the Mishhuvurthyar only used either their own things, or some things stolen or copied from the Star Army made this worse. Not a single round was to be found. What she did find however, was a single hand grenade. On its body, was a cross painted onto its side in white paint. "Oh my~ You found an Aether Grenade," Kuroneko's womanly voice remarked. "Careful with that."

"You will take out the pin, and count to three, no more, no less," Sif remarked. "And three is what you will count. Again, three."

Meanwhile, Dimitri found a pair of mini-missiles filled with standard high explosives, and another magazine, bringing his number up to three magazines total. The launcher on the calf itself was blackened inside by somewhat recent use - most probably on something it was hunting before it got to them all. For all the young man knew, the person he was scavenging this off of may have used the rest on his late teammates. As his own racks of missiles were empty, it was an easy matter of slipping them out and putting them into his own. Though they were initially for counter-missiles, his ammo indicator immediately showed them he had some offensive ones loaded.

"My, there wasn't much, but every bit counts," Kuroneko took note. Volumetric camouflage appeared over her suit, scrambled by damage across her suit. Over the helmet however, what looked like the indents of a certain pair of fists materialized. It was a convincing display of battle damage. "Well, let's go for a walk, shall we? I can't see any of you anyways by the way - upgraded sensors or not, it seems both sides are invisible to the other," she added. Sif had quickly added Kuroneko's Reaper into the team roster, but it was still using the NMX IFF tag. They shouldn't know the difference, unless Tulip was there herself.

And if she was at wherever they arrived, there was going to be another fight on hand.

The small, ragtag bunch made their way into the silent, still mall again, following Kuroneko. But this time, it didn't seem so desolate and quiet anymore. Not with the extra company. "So," she began, a hint of mischief in her voice. "Would you have gone through with it Aya? What Tulip said?" the older Nekovalkrja suggestively asked her. "Maybe let him put his tanto in your sheath? Hm?" She may have been cheery like Anzu, but there already was the distinct feeling that she was a dirty old woman in comparison as well.

Dimitri made sure the mini missiles were secure and stood up after picking up his spoils. Having found another magazine he decided to hand this one to Kuroneko, she was probably a better shot then him, but one magazine wasn't enough to go through what could possibly be a small battalion. "Good to hear that they can't see us either, we might be able to surprise them."

The young Nepleslian kept his cloaking on and kept his distance several meters back. He was a bit more cautious than before about sticking to cover as well, he had already learned that being invisible was not as safe as being behind a nice solid object. However at the mention of his 'tanto' he grew a little embarrassed, if there were more men in the group maybe he wouldn't be blushing inside his armor, but for now there were just women.

Aya had been just about to give up her seemingly fruitless rummaging around when something finally caught her eye: a humble hand grenade, albeit one with a bold white cross painted across its side. She nodded as she stowed the aether grenade - she wasn't going to use this thing on just any old target.

Getting up, she rejoined the rest of the rag-tag squad. Kuroneko's noting of the fact that she couldn't ping her fellow SAoY powered armor - and hence that both sides were fighting blind - was good to know. At least it meant that the NMX didn't have an advantage over them. "Yeah, just like they surprised us..." replied Aya in a slightly sour manner to Dimitri. She still felt a bit stupid that they had been caught in that earlier ambush.

Kuroneko's query was met with silence for several seconds. It was something that Aya hadn't really wanted to consider too deeply, and now that Kuroneko had brought it up again she felt rather embarrassed. "Well, uh... um... i-if it was the only way to get him out of there alive... I don't want anyone in our squad to get killed..." Aya trailed off, the awkwardness of the question becoming too much for her to handle.

Kuroneko's rich laugh could be heard across their comms. And despite that, her walk was kept in line, without so much of a hint as to what was being said. She played the part of a wounded, dazed Reaper pilot all too well, with how she placed her free hand for support every few steps. "Well, it wouldn't have helped - Tulip would have likely just taken the both of you after she had her fun. But I find it interesting that you say you'd do that for him," she slyly noted.

The Reaper's footsteps soundlessly echoed through the mall as they walked. "I wouldn't normally be so bold as to ask, but I do wonder if there's a little something between the two of you?" she prodded the both of them. Waiting for the briefest of moments, she verbally shrugged, "Oh well! So. Tell me about yourselves - how did you all end up here?" Kuroneko asked, changing the subject. "The point we're going to is on the other end of the mall, and I'm not getting any so called 'friendly' contacts. The jamming may even be mutual," she added.

"Bāchan Hentai," Sif muttered, half garbling her own speech in the process.
 
"Well, the only reason I'd do that is to ensure his survival!" Aya responded quickly to Kuroneko, growing only more flustered. Even if she was her superior both in rank and experience, the nerve of the suggestion made Aya bristle slightly. Seeing an opportunity to get out of this uncomfortable discussion, Aya didn't so much leap at it as pounce on it. "Well, I was more or less born into the Star Army... but now that I'm here, I want to do everything I can to fight for the Yamataian way!" She almost struck a pose in her excitement, but managed to stop herself at the last moment. "We're here because we lost contact with a friendly unit, so we had to investigate. As you can see, it's been a bit of a handful..."

Dimitri was even more embarrassed hearing that Aya would go that far to save him. At the same time the Nepleslian inside him was mocking him for one having been in such a situation, and for two not getting any action of the sort at all. The second half was the part of him that he wanted to bury in a ditch somewhere. That part was hushed though at hearing from Kuroneko that he'd have been worse off probably if it did happen though.

He listened to Aya speak about her situation though, he was curious about the people he was working with after all. "That unit would be mine. The 4th squad ran into an ambush by Tulip, and we were totally wiped out...well everyone but me. As for my past? Well I'm Nepleslian, used to be a street racer, and got involved with the gangs. I ended up winning a race I wasn't supposed to and well now some guys want to sell my organs. So I fled and joined the Star Army to clean up my act."

"You've done it now," Sif flatly remarked. "She hasn't changed at all it seems."

"My...so let me get this straight," Kuroneko began. "We have a young man with a troubled past - a tough, rough and strong Nepleslian in specific - who joined the Star Army to better himself and turn his life around. But he got into a fight he couldn't win, and in comes a young and hopeful Nekovalkyrja who wants to do her part to protect her home from the evil tentacle monsters from space, just in time to save him from certain death!... Oh-ho~..." They could practically feel the older Neko's mouth watering over the thought of the two, and what she was mentally having them do to each other.

"Are we there yet?" the battered Sylph asked.

"We get there when we get there!" Kuroneko playfully replied. Trailing off into thought, she had to ask, "Hey, just what year is it by the way? Last I recall, I was doing a few things in Year 29 before I was captured," she explained. "It feels like such a long time's passed, but I can't even count on my internal clock anymore - it's just not accurate." It was soon clear as to where she was heading however - a furnature, mattress and bath store. Fortunately for them however, she didn't make any jokes about sleeping, and it was obvious why. The place was barricaded, as though it had served as a hideout.

Dimitri got a sudden chill along his back and glanced around, it felt like someone was undressing him with their eyes. "I am really thankful to you all for coming to my rescue too. It's pretty clear now I've got a ways to go before I'm up to par. I'll do my best though. I think the phrase is...Yoroshiku? Is that right?" He thought he was keeping things on 'safe' topics. Well, he likely underestimated how easily his words could be twisted. "And the year...YE35" He realized that meant she was in the hands of the Mishhu for roughly six years; that was no way to spend your life, especially for neko's who were so young to begin with. He didn't dare to utter something like "I'm sorry for you." he couldn't begin to imagine what she went through, and didn't want to pity her, she was still a strong capable soldier.

Aya kept her mouth shut, feeling a blush creep across her face yet again. She was seriously considering asking her to knock it off (respectfully, of course) but perhaps once she got it out of her system Kuroneko would calm down. Hopefully. The older Neko's query about the year made Aya almost gasp in shock. She had been in captivity for that long?! If nothing else, it explained the state they had found her in, and Aya felt bad for her. She wasn't sure she could take one month of Mishhu captivity, never mind six years!

As they approached the hastily converted store, Aya asked, "Do you think there could be more NMX in there? I've got a feeling we might be about to kick the hornet's nest..."

"Oh..." Kuro's voice trailed off, disappointment in her voice as she heard the news. Then an "Oh-oh my!" escaped her lips as realization hit her.

"Well, I suppose that number of lewd years would make anybody keep feeling tingly all over and warm inside," she mused. Brushing her own TMI aside just as casually as she brought it up however, the Neko carefully mused over how best to reply to them. "I'm sure you both have a lot to learn from us, and each other~~<3" Kuroneko teased the two. "Lesson number one being very simple; don't get caught. Unless you enjoy that of course," she quickly added.

"It's not that bad," Sif replied.

"That's because they couldn't figure out what to do with someone that small," Kuroneko playfully shot back. The mental imagery of the Sif they all knew - love or loathe - in the clutches of a Mishhuvurthyar instantly came into their minds like an invasive creature, but was soon overwhelmed by a very simple idea. Said alien having no clue what to do next. The bewilderment plastered over its barely mobile, insectoid carapace of a face - priceless. Whether that would require a mental data-scrub was up to the individual however, and would have to wait. "Sif, I'm going to go in, alright? My bet is they won't shoot, and it'll buy you all time to get in through either the same route I came in, or by alternate routes," Kuroneko explained.

"Hmph. This is an outpost. They would have spotted you already - this group is too disciplined to have not left a sentry," Sif sharply pointed out. "It may be another trap," the Scarred Sylph added.

"Either way, good luck! I'm beginning my approach!~" It was very slow, considering the fact she was doing a very good job of pretending to have a concussion and wounds.

Dimitri was surprised at how well Kuro took the news, or at least how well she appeared to take it. He wasn't sure how much was genuine and how much was because they were in the middle of a mission. The thought of the NMX trying to figure out what to do with Sif was effected by the Nepleslian sense of product branding that he had so gotten used to, and the words "Neko Nuggets" were all that came to mind. Fortunately these thoughts stopped at his mind and did not reach his lips.

At Kuro's mention of getting ready to go in, he brought his focus back to the task at hand and looked the make shift base over, looking for any ways inside besides the front door.

Does she have any sort of filter between her brain and her mouth...? wondered Aya as she tried desperately to avoid thinking of the scenario brought up by Kuroneko. Shaking her head hard to banish the disturbing images once and for all, she returned her focus to the mission. If nothing else, Kuroneko was a very good actor.

If Aya had been an uninformed observer, it wouldn't have been hard for her to believe she was a NMX Reaper on her last legs.
 
"You haven't had the opportunity to truly speak with anyone."

The blunt statement had come from Sif. Though crude and direct to the point that it was quite rude, what she said in and of itself was something that would stand out starkly in their minds. A creeping sensation, like a chilling wave of pinpricks across the skin, could be felt as the idea came to settle; after seeing, hearing, speaking to Kuroneko?

"Weeeeeellll...yeah." It was true. She didn't have anyone to really speak to for all these years.

And at that, she made her way in.

The others could see from where they were outside that the front only had one entrance, hastily cobbled together with bed frames, furniture and metal sheeting ripped out of floors not too distant to try and armor the point to provide cover. It was only wide enough to go in and out of two-by-two, meaning the enemy could retreat or enter quickly, but at the same time, hold it as a reasonable chokepoint. The stores to either side seemed to have been relatively untouched, with only a small hole wide enough for a single person to pass through knocked into the walls. These had makeshift doors stripped from Chiharu-knows-where however.

The memory of fighting in the food court, with each venue connected to a service system in the back came to mind however. With luck, it was the same here, with there being a total of four ways in and out of this den.

Dimitri hoped that there in fact was a service way. He could follow in right after Kuro, but that gave the opportunity to be bumped in to. Noticing that the other stores weren't touched left him with a good back up plan as well. First however he looked around for an entrance into the service ways and checked to see if the store was indeed connected.

Aya noted the condition of the entrance in silence. It was self-evidently a hasty set-up, created as a matter of expedience and necessity. However, it was almost impressive how much the thus far erstwhile defenders had managed to cobble together - they had left no obvious faults in the layout, and if necessary Aya didn't doubt that they would have been able to hold out for a significant period of time... perhaps long enough for reinforcements to come to the rescue.

The lack of apparent interest in the other stores piqued Aya's curiosity - did the NMX know something they didn't? It wasn't impossible... bracing herself for whatever she might find, Aya quietly sidled towards one of the holes, making sure to keep out of the line of sight anyone would have had if they were peering out from it. From this position she would hopefully be able to help support Kuroneko or the others.

From here, there didn't seem to be any imminent entrances into the service-ways of the mall. However, both Aya and Dimitri did choose to enter the same side-store. With Sif, and even Kuroneko having gone silent however, the mall had resumed with its earlier atmosphere. The electronics store - perhaps one reason why they chose this place; looked as though the owners had simply walked out for lunch. Unlike other stores however, it was obvious that some people had come and gone, taking things from the store. But, it didn't feel like looting. Things were kept neat and tidy, with discarded boxes and wrappers neatly tossed into the trash or stacked off to the side.

The nearest side entrance into the makeshift 'outpost' or base however, was what jarred this place apart. Smashed through the walls and jammed closed with a wooden, Nordic style door of all things, the alternate entryway was merely a reminder of what they were really dealing with. Silence was key - it felt like even the smallest, softest step in the short, tight and easy to clean carpet that most stores such as this had was loud as a lion. At the back of the store however, was what they were likely most interested in - an "Employees Only" sign stood proudly over a door, almost inviting. Through the small window set into it, they could see shelves of goods stocked in the back room.

And a door in the back, most likely leading into the service ways. Their eyes carefully took this all in, and throughout the entire time, there was something bothersome - not particularly so, but enough to be unsettling.

Neither Sif nor Kuroneko had spoken.
 
As Dimitri took a moment to look around the store, the fact that it was so neat and organized bothered him. Maybe this is where they got parts to maintain their jammers, but that would mean someone on the ground was fairly smart. He didn't want to take too long though and decided to head to the door that lead to the service ways in the back. If they put the wooden door there then they probably watch it.

The lack of sound on the comm channel bothered him some, but he was too nervous himself to speak up, maybe the enemy was listening in. So instead he sent a message through the laser system to Aya since it was harder to intercept. "It looks like someone here knows something about electronics...pretty neat too."

The earlier unsettling atmosphere was now back with a vengeance. The neatness of whoever had taken the various items was entirely at odds with the ramshackle nature of the defenses in the hideout proper. It almost seemed impossible that they could have been done by the same people. But there was little doubt as to the culprit. Aya followed Dimitri closely, the silence seeming to turn every step into a thunderclap. She felt like she was making the least graceful recon in history, but it would have to do: she was doing her best.

"Yeah. What I want to know is where everyone is - be careful, there could be an ambush in store for us," sent Aya back over the laser communications system. She kept it short and brief - too long and it might allow the nebulous, almost spectre-like enemy to suss out where they were. "Let's keep going toward the back. You go in first. I'll cover."

Dimitri carefully made his way to the back trying to make as little noise as possible, unsure of what was going inside the make shift base. He sent another message to Aya as he approached the door."Kuroneko is hopefully distracting them, so they shouldn't realize we're here, but be ready." Then he chose to use hand signals since he knew what he was going to say and that was the safest communication. He told her he was about to open the service door, and to get ready for breach. After waiting a moment for her to prepare he did just as he said and opened the door, not flinging it open to avoid notice, but not taking too much time with it so if it made any squeeks it wasn't drawn out.

He made quite a discovery.

The service ways was where they were putting all their garbage. Large trash bags full of discarded food containers, and even sealed buckets of...unmentionables. And, like the electronics store before, it was surprisingly well considered. All of it was put far enough away from the entrance into the bed, bath and stuff store where Kuroneko was inside that they were unlikely to smell anything. This also meant that it was all around this entrance into the service way. That meant that getting in wasn't the neatest thing - a tower of bags fell over as he opened the door, but his eyes caught something on the ground.

There was a leak in one of the overhead pipes, and water had pooled. Drying footprints from numerous power armors were all left heading away from the site. Thus far, this far in, there had been no contacts, and no word from Sif as they maintained comms safety.

The service corridor was also disconcertingly neat, albeit in its own way. Whoever had been running operations here was a professional. It made Aya's heart sink slightly - there was every chance that they would make the small Unluckies group pay for every gained inch of ground in blood, and their earlier experience in the foodcourt did not bolster her confidence.

Padding to a stop short of the leaky pipe, she sent another quick message through the laser system. "Footprints in the water. Look to be recent. Enemies ahead?"

Dimitri looked around, also bothered by how neat everything was. It bothered him that in such a situation someone would stop and take the time to actually handle this. He moved the bags and trash aside quietly, as the last thing he wanted to do was knock it over and be stuck in it when someone came out to fire on them. He sent a message back to Aya as he moved things and looked at the direction the foot prints lead. "It looks like they moved recently, not sure if they'll be back soon though, they could even be the group from the food court."

As though to mark his words, the doorway leading into the enemy outpost from the service way loudly swung open, hinges whining as un-lubricated metal on metal rubbed together. Out of the passage, a Reaper walked out - only, it was carrying a pair of trash bags. Held by the knots that were tied, it pinched them tight with its finger and thumbs, the rest held out and away. If it weren't for the fact that it was a brutally built power armor that was doing this, one could imagine a maid taking out the trash. Tossing the bags away, it turned to Aya and Dimitri. "You two can come in now - it looks like they all left in a hurry, and only grabbed what they could reasonably carry," an all too familiar voice spoke.

Their armors' AIES marked it as Kuroneko. The friendly Reaper briefly vanished as she took a step inside and waited for them.

When the two would finally step inside, they'd see that this particular store their enemy picked has a back-room storage area as well for all the merchandise that wasn't put out on the shelves yet. Unlike the electronics store however, this one was converted into a full on workshop - several metal frames crudely welded together acted as standing cradles for armor, while tables, their tops littered with tools and parts were nearby. And, most importantly, there was all too likely to be ammo around. They just had to rummage.

"Do you think these were the guys at the food court?" He spoke up, not using the laser system this time. He looked the situation over and was more confused than ever before now. "It looks like they have been living here a while. How long have they been operating here?" He moved around the place a little seeing that it was sort of a work shop. So he decided to look through their equipment, they were building something with electronics and he wanted to find out what if possible.

Aya froze in place like a thief caught in the middle of their pilfering. She was fully expecting all hell to break loose, and yet the Reaper simply carried on. The Neko only had a moment to express her confusion before the Reaper revealed that it was Kuroneko. "You've really got to stop doing that..." mumbled Aya. At this rate she wouldn't make it to the next day, never mind the next mission!

Following Kuroneko, she took a look around the store. For obvious reasons, it wasn't the various nick-knacks she was interested in - she rummaged around a small pile of items that had, it seemed, been disturbed semi-recently. Ideally she would find something that could help her fight - the aether grenade earlier had been a rather nice surprise - but she wasn't holding her breath. After all, the enemy had seemed to be methodical in their actions, so they probably didn't leave anything that they wouldn't miss.

"Oh, of course!" Kuroneko replied to Aya, her womanly voice only raised by a few hairs of enthusiasm. An armored finger soon came to the 'lips' of the Reaper's helmet as she delved into thought however, with the faintest of clicks between metal and metal. "Though, it's all too possible we've only encountered a handful of them." As a door besides the metal shutters leading out to the rest of the store opened, the older Neko asked, "Sif, where would have the rest of them gone? I'm guessing you're all survivors?"

"No, the rescue team. Thus far, only Greco-Hei had been found," the Mini-Neko flatly replied, her silhouette outlined by their HUDs as she leaned against the door frame. Keeping watch, she went on, "We split up in an attempt to capture you, but it appears the enemy had taken advantage of our widened search pattern." The Tiger-Neko fell silent as Sif said this however, her helmeted head downcast as a gauntlet was gently placed atop a table for support.

As she stood there, realizing what had happened, what she had caused, the said Nepleslian found what looked like a comms-disruptor in the making. It was crude, put together by whatever spare parts could be found. Hence, why they likely picked the spot with the electronics store next door. Why they didn't just set up there however, remained to be seen. Going off by the device's size however, it wasn't large enough to broadcast the powerful jamming field they had all contended with. But, it was definitely strong enough to boost a proper set of jammers that were already in place.

Just by finding this, the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place - and it was clever, ingenious by design.

As Aya rummaged around however, she opened a small locker and found a box of chocolates, its contents most likely random and unknown until the sweets were bitten into. But that wasn't the thing that drew the blue skinned Neko's eyes. Instead, it was the messy, childish scrawling and cute little cartoon picture drawn on the box with a marker. It read, 'Whoever touches these without my permission gets touched back, extra hard! - Tulip'. The little picture was scrawled in red on the white box, an upside down tulip turned into the splitting image of the Neko herself, her animated expression particularly happy looking next to the threatening text.

"Oh, you found it!~~~~<3" Tulip's high pitched voice suddenly rang out, happily, ecstatically echoing through the storeroom like a Neko given yarn. However, the hint of lust in her voice made even the idea of yarn threatening.
 
Dimitri glanced over to Kuro as he examined the device infront of him. "It's not your fault, the group probably would've split up anyway. Besides, my squad is the one that failed and needs rescue." He didn't want her feeling like she was responsible for all this, he'd seen enough movies to know that leads to crazy attempts at sacrafice.

While fiddling with the jammer to see how it worked and maybe get a clue about the other jammers he heard a voice that sent chills down his spine and made him jump, stumbling in some of the clutter. Once he caught himself he drew his rifle and turned to face Tulip, or at least the direction her voice sounded like it was coming from.

Aya split her attention between her search and what Sif and Kuroneko were saying. So far it just seemed like there was nothing of value. Prying open a small locker, she grunted in frustration as she noted the contents: just some stupid chocolates. Since she had a sweet tooth, the Neko was somewhat tempted to swipe them anyway just to keep her energy levels up (or at least that was the excuse). However, something caught her eye: a rather amateurish note written on top of the box. Her frustration temporarily forgotten, Aya smirked. Heh, this would almost be cute if she wasn't a psychopath out for our blood.

Almost on cue, Tulip's voice pierced the silence, and Aya dropped the box like it was full of red hot coals. Snapping to a standing position, she held her weapon tightly and spun around in a quick sweep of the room, trying to figure out where the unhinged NMX Neko was hiding...

Fear and apprehension swept through the room like a storm as every single one of them made ready for combat. But it was Sif who made the first move, holstering her drones. Walking over to Dimitri, the battered Sylph picked up the device he had dropped and damaged, before reconnecting a wire jarred loose from the fall. "This here's just one of many - if you find them, you'll get to get rid of the jamming! But be care-fuuuuull!~~ Some of these, might just blow up in your face. OR WORSE!" Tulip's mad cackling echoed through the room as it had before, its source difficult to track with the ears, but now easly done with the eyes.

"The others will likely be contending with them," Sif remarked. It was just one thing after another it seemed. Looking back at Dimitri, Kuroneko spoke,

"That's quite nice of you, but I'm old enough to figure that much out," she seemed to smile at him - it was impossible to tell with the inferior helmet of the Reaper that the Neko wore. It just didn't project an image like the Daisy's unless someone went out of their way. Her voice was warm and sweet, but sad as she turned to leave for the rest of the store. "Nice find, by the way," she added at the doorway, stepping through into a large showroom of beds. Just looking through the passage that Kuroneko had went through, they could catch a good glimpse of what was waiting for them. It was where they had slept, the numerous rows of beds ideal for it. And beyond, was the rest of the store.

Meanwhile however, Sif had moved up to Aya - the ruined helmet, the massive hole plugged by the armor piercing shell, stared.

"Are you going to eat those?"

Tulip's warning was met with a suppressed shudder on Aya's part. Admittedly this was better than having her pounce on one of the squad, but it still seemed like she was deriving some sort of sick amusement from it. Like it was a game to her. Knowing her warped outlook, however, it probably was as far as she was concerned.

When Sif walked over to Aya, she found it difficult to return her gaze: even though she knew that logically Sif was absolutely fine, there was something wrong about the armor's appearance, almost like she was talking to a zombie. The staring was more than a little uncomfortable too. Picking the box back up, she said, "Yeah, but if you want some then go ahead, ma'am!" She tried to sound more chipper than she actually felt as she proffered the box to her superior.

Dimitri's face was hidden by his helmet, but it was obvious as Sif approached that he was nervous, still shaken up about before. "Where is her voice coming from?" He had not lowered his rifles like the others however. His eyes covering every inch of the building, at least what he could see. It took a bit of convincing himself that he was safe but he eventually lowered his weapon.

His glance returned to the jammer that he now had to pick up after dropping. "Should we destroy this? After all they could use it against us right?"

Seeing the offered chocolates, the Damaged Sylph slid the box off before reaching in to pluck a single one of the fine confectioneries away. Holding it gingerly between its fingers, it reached back and held it over the base of its neck. Out of the armor slid the cockpit, from which the tiny seven inch tall Sif emerged - plucking the chocolate out of its hand, with both of hers, she set on that comparatively massive hunk and ate some. Right before spitting the rest of it out and throwing it away. "Disgusting Cherry Creame." Wiping her mouth, she hopped back in, the cockpit vanishing from view as the Sylph became animated again. "I hope whatever you pick is more agreeable," she sourly remarked to Aya. Looking at Dimitri though, she just added, "You can pull the wire you know. It's not finished, so if you like her voice, you can keep it."

Though it was a joke on her part, it just didn't have that ring to it.

The zombielike Sylph followed her old teammate into the rest of the store. All that was left in the armor ready-room was just spare parts and incomplete broadcast boosters or traps. Chances were, the enemy left in a hurry, grabbing whatever weapons were at the ready in there. If they were lucky, there was more to be had in the main store, as well as perhaps intel. This was what was on both Kuroneko's mind, as well as Sif's - it was as though the two were in-synch with their thoughts, but didn't choose to act on them in quite the same way. Having walked into the mattress display room however, it became obvious why Sif took her time in comparison to Kuro.

It was their barracks area, more or less. Many of the beds were set up with sheets, blankets and pillows, likely taken from elsewhere in the store. Unlike the other parts of this little outpost, which were prim and proper, this varied greatly. Some beds were tucked in neatly, and looked as though the occupant simply swung the blanket aside as they left, while others looked like a tornado had touched down. One in particular had numerous sets of clothing and womens' undewear scattered about, as though the occupant had been trying out EVERYTHING. But, the thing that Kuroneko was standing by? Several mattresses were put together, with makeshift ropes ringing them - just judging by the torn pillows and such, this was a pillowfight arena. Sif just kept on walking however. Her faceless gaze was set on a series of tables - a tactical command center, and its lockers.

"I never liked storming their bases. You see things like this," the Mini-Neko remarked. It was a stark reminder that they were inside somebody's home.
 
Dimitri acutally found watching Sif eat a piece of chocolate like that was kind of cute, but he wasn't going to say anything out loud.Hearing that the voice was coming from the device he pulled the wire out once more, he did not appreciate hearing Tulip's voice anymore, no matter how 'sweet' it sounded. Once he had the wire out he tried to pull out whatever it was using for power, that could be useful in the future.

He soon followed after the two older officers, looking around the mattress show room. "Seriously it looks more like these guys were playing around than acutally doing whatever theirr mission was."

Aya simply reacted with a shrug. Oh well, just more chocolate for herself! Unlatching her helmet, she placed it on the nearest workbench and took a particularly enticing bar of chocolate out of the box. Unwrapping it, the Neko practically devoured it in two bites. The confection improved her mood somewhat. Grabbing the rest of the sweets, she crammed them into her half empty left thigh holder, which only had two magazines left. The blue skinned Neko considered it a small victory over Tulip - or at least that was her excuse for it.

Resealing her helmet and joining the others, she paused as she noticed the "arena". Glancing over at Dimitri, she said, "Well, considering their leader seemed to have a screw loose..." She left the obvious implication unsaid.

"Playing around is just something troops do to pass time, isn't it?" Kuroneko asked. The Reaper clad woman had walked over to the makeshift command and control center that was set up not too far away from the 'barracks'. "After all, most typical deployments are just...what was that Nepleslian phrase? 'Hurry up and wait' I think?" the Neko pondered. "Honestly though, after all the things their overlords like to do with them, I'm sure they were donig lots of 'playing around' too," she added, looking at some of the beds which happened to be messy. "It stays in your system for a while, and, I think Tulip was a favorite of theirs."

The thought of that alone was disturbing, but also explained a lot about their Nemesis.

As Kuroneko overlooked the C&C for whatever intel she could find, Sif simply grabbed one of the lockers and yanked it open, prying off the metal cover. She tossed it aside without a care as someone's toothbrush, shampoo, hair conditioner, body wash - there was a lot more, but a woman took every opportunity to care for herself - scattered about. Reaching for another, Sif did the same, this time, coming over to Dimitri and Aya. "Six offensive missiles and two countermeasure ones," she dryly remarked, putting the contents onto the table for show. "See what else you two can find."

"Guys, I think I found something!~" Kuroneko's voice rang out. In her hand, was a sheet of paper - showing it to them, it was a guide to the numbered points in Tulip's helmet. Nearby, there was a sniper's roost where they placed a lookout, overwatching from the highest point in the mall. Down a floor and across a small courtyard was a supply cache to refuel and rearm. It wasn't the only one of course - there were more they could go for. And all the way across the mall? A large Megamarket - one large enough to possibly stock some of the nicer things in life. "Well! We might just be in luck! Where do we go from here?" she asked, voice smiling.

There weren't any patrol routes, but, this was definitely a leg up.

"Er... yeah," replied Aya. She didn't particularly want to think too hard about it - she felt more comfortable with the idea of the NMX being more or less faceless. Perhaps when she had more experience or as she got older she'd change her mind, but now? Aya just wanted to be able to focus on the mission. Thankfully, Kuroneko's apparent lack of a filter between her brain and her mouth saved the day - not to mention Sif's interruption.

"I've still got a full compliment of missiles - Dimitri can have 'em if he wants," said Aya, sparing the munitions only a quick look. She had just begun to scour their new location when Kuroneko found something. To be precise, a more detailed look at the points in Tulip's helmet. Studying the map, Aya had a hard time figuring out which one to choose. Shrugging her shoulders, she said, "It seems to me like we could get a good look at the surrounding area from that sniper's nest, but we might be able to make the bad guys hurt if we hit that cache... and that Megamarket looks awfully tempting..."

"I know, but it's like..it feels like they've been around for maybe weeks, it keeps bothering me." He didn't want to think much about Tulip's situation either though, not when it made her look like a victim, if he started feeling sorry for her he might lose his head. After hearing Aya say she still had all her missles, Dimitri picked them up and loaded them all. "Thanks, I feel a bit better with these now."

The Nepleslian was just about to start checking under beds for thigns of use when Kuroneko spoke up about the guide. He looked through it with everyone and then nodded. "Hmm..we have a group that stayed back to find a sniping spot right? If the location is obvious, they're already heading that way. The Megamarket is probably one of their main outpost too." He moved to start looking under the beds now "At least that's what the gang I was in would do."

"Megamarket..." Sif's voice trailed off - whatever she was thinking, it was something that was tempting for her, and obviousy, not good for the enemy either.

"Well, we could try hitting them in order as we head in that direction," Kuroneko suggested to them all, Sif in particular. "These two aren't very well armed. Besides some missiles, they're still running low on rifle ammo, and they don't even have cannons," she went on to explain. "If we go hit the supply cache first, then the roost, we could likely get more ammunition, and maybe even rip a gun out of their cold, dead hands. Assuming the other squad of yours doesn't get there first. And I - I mean, we - don't ruin the weapon of course." Despite the fact she had a helmet on, the others could feel her blush. The weapon Tulip had was incredibly valuable, powerful to the point that it horrifically maimed Sif.

She was still embarrassed over that it seemed. "I really should have just broken her neck..." Kuroneko muttered to herself. Sif's hole filled Sylph gave a brisk, matter of fact nod.

"Yeah about that, remind me never to play baseball with you." The young man chuckled lightly and then got back up. "However, hitting the cache first sounds like a good idea. If we take that out we stop them from passing around supplies too." He checked his sensors just to make sure they were still off line, after all the others might have taken out a jammer or two by now if they were lucky.

Aya paused for a moment, then nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds like a plan! Hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on some new weapons..." Her tone of voice made it sound like Aya was already dreaming up the havoc she could wreak with a suitably powerful weapon. She then added, "And I'm sure the confusion will help us out elsewhere, right?"

"Definitelyyyyy!~~" Kuroneko practically sang. The idea of sowing chaos was delightful for her.

Finding little else, the fireteam made to leave. Since they were all the way in the back however, there were several aisles to traverse through, which obstructed their view of the front. "And she took my helmet! My helmet of all things!" The footfall of several returning power armors could be heard as Tulip angrily opened the front passageway and made her way back in. "Last thing we need is to deal with one of The Seven, let alone them forming back up." Her sour remarks came closer as she was followed in by the others.

Sif quickly contacted them all on tight beam as she activated her stealth in full. "Stay quiet - we're going to circumvent them and go out the way they came in, otherwise, they'll be chasing us. We left the doors open on our way in, so they'll think that's where we went," their leader explained. She motioned for the squad to quickly break up and flow around the large mass of power armors entering the store. If they clumped, they could avoid them as one mass, but, a big mass was a big mass. Individually, they stood a chance.

The enemy squad came into view, just roughly ten meters away. There were far too many, perhaps half a dozen at the least, and a full dozen at most. Impossible odds. They only had mere moments to take position and hide, but to make matters worse? The enemy was splitting up. This was their home, and they were making for shelves of candies, grabbing bottles of water and drinks from machines that had long since been without power. "Oh well!~~~~ I guess we're going on a hunt girls! ~<3" The utter, lusty delight that Tulip suddenly snapped back to came in an instant with no trace of her previous unhappiness. "Minnie, what's our supply status, hmmm?"

"We just gunned down another pair of stragglers, so we're still around 75% with our suits' loadouts - no reserves though. We'll need to go to that cache you set up," a particularly girly voice spoke up, meek but enthusiastic at the idea. As the Reapers mostly came into view, their camouflage deactivating, Tulip herself was nowhere to be seen as the fireteam's eyes desperately searched for the helmetless woman!
 
Dimitri put his stealth on in full power as well. It would be nice to catch them while their guard was down, but it was too risky to take on this many at once. The fact that he lost sight of Tulip bothered him, but it was more important to get out of there. He broke from the rest of the group at Sif's orders and decided to take a somewhat longer route, staying away from Reapers so he was harder to hear, he still kept his steps light though to avoid noise.

Aya froze like a statue as she heard Tulip's voice. A reunion was definitely not something she had on the cards right now. Thankfully, Sif's message jarred her out of her inaction. Following her superior's lead, she made sure that her Daisy's stealth systems were operating at maximum. Then she dispersed from the others, taking a slow zig-zagging path on the opposite side to Dimitri as she tried to avoid knocking into things (or the NMX roving the store).

She wasn't particularly thrilled by the uncertainty of having to make sure she remained undetected, but it beat having a fight she could not win or meeting her again.

Even if they used laser communications, they had to be careful - in this close proximity, an enemy crossing the beam was fatal. This meant that they were completely cut off from one another, completely unaware of one another. Though the first few moments, the idea of perhaps gunning them down after they had unsuited crossed their minds, it was quickly crushed. "Sif and Kuroneko are still out there along with the straggler and that stupid girl, so don't rest easy yet - we're heading out again to hunt them down girls," another voice spoke up, this one perhaps a second in command under Tulip herself.

"No matter what, after we kill the two protecting them, I want the boy all to myself!~" a Reaper spoke up, walking by Dimitri himself as he hid near a small maze of bathroom style displays. Tulip hopped into a jacuzzi while in her Reaper with such fast grace, that she didn't leave so much as a scratch on the surface before her feet were kicked up on th rim. From where the young man was, it was about 25 meters to the front exit, where another pair of Reapers dragged in a Daisy before releasing its collar. The trail of blood and hemosynth told them all they needed to know about its user's fate as the two started rummaging over it. All the room-like displays cut line of sight, preventing the enemy from spotting him if he moved too quickly in plain sight, but the chance of rounding a corner into one of them was ever present. As was the Threat of Tulip.

He needed to navigate this maze, or circumvent it, possibly entering the asiles of soaps nearby.

Aya had her own troubles however - a rectangular island she moved into, a checkout point inside the store for the fabric section it had. This also had a few shelves of sweets and some drinks of course. She'd have to go past the numerous shelves of fabric rolls, blankets and sheets to enter a miscellaneous section of decorations to get closer to the exit, which formed a belt just a person tall between them and the front registers. But that wasn't the first thing in mind. With the sweets so near by, being sweets, they attracted the attention of not one, but three Reaper wearing women as they walked to the side closest to the 'cutout' that employees used to walk in and out. They began to remove their helmets, chatting idly with each other like girls in an office during downtime.

The first had shamrock green hair tied up into a neat bun with matching eyes, her left one even being pigmented black at the iris so that it appeared she had a shamrock there. Next to her was one with blue skin like Aya herself, her own hair and eyes a matching orange - the third however, was rather human looking, with black hair and features like any other person of Yamataian descent. Despite being quite pretty herself, she stood out amongst the three with how normal she looked.

"Did you hear? They forced another update on those poor Neko in the Star Army not too long ago I think," the green haired Neko brought up. The woman with long, silky black hair spoke up next.

"Really? I'm glad I don't have to deal with it since I'm just Yamataian - what was it exactly?" Despite bringing it up, the greenhead was hesitating to say anything more. The blue skinned redhead nearly pounced on her for that though, wrapping an arm around her armored shoulders.

"C'mon, can't be that bad, yeah? Is'like, they stronger or somethin? It doesn' matter if it's just another fifty orah hundred kilos, yaknow?" Even the Yamataian woman was leaning in closer as they spoke however, eager to hear. The shamrock green one still didn't want to say, but eventually whispered, the words barely audible to Aya.

"They have to poop now." They burst into an utter uproar of disbelief, disgust and horror. Loudly.

"SHUT UP!" a voice cut across the entire store, booming from right beside Dimitri. Tulip's voice chimed in again, this time sweet. "Real ladies don't do That, and don't talk about doing That." Somehow, it was hard to disagree. "Four-Clover, get me my chocolates would you? I'll even let you have one if you'd like." Shouting back to her squad leader an affirmitive, she muttered under her breath, a little sad at not having her name remembered. It was possible some of them were quite new.

"My name's Sammy..."

"What was that Sam!?" Tulip yelled back, her Reaper's brand new helmet turning to look across the store.

"Nothing!" she squeaked.

All the while, the Yamataian looked like she was feeling a little left out, before the enemy blue skinned girl gave her a hug and a few encouraging words, telling her that, after getting back, she'd likely be rewarded with a transfer into a real Neko body if she'd like. Their current leader was generous to them after all she reasoned, unlike the previous idiots that lorded over them all. And as this quick exchanged happened in just a few brief moments, time suddenly started running out for all of them.

Aya had Tulip's chocolates, right next to her ammo. And Tulip? She wanted her chocolates.
 
Aya had initially thought she was more or less scott free - after all, thus far she hadn't ran into any enemies. That luck, however, was about to run out. As she stalked into a check-out point, she spied the path that she would need to take... only for a trio of Reapers to make a beeline for the sweets nearby. Aya held her breath for a few moments, as though she might somehow alert them to her presence simply by breathing. It seemed, though, that they were far more interested in their chatter.

The green haired Neko was by far the most eye-catching. Aside from her vibrant green hair, her left iris resembled a shamrock of all things! Part of her wondered if it had always been that way or if she had it modified somehow whilst in the NMX. The blue skinned Neko also caught Aya's attention. The Yamataian woman was far less striking in comparison with her relatively plain appearance, but that almost made her exceptional in her own way.

Aya found the friendly banter almost off-putting. For one thing, it reminded her of Anzu's departure. For another, it made it incredibly hard to see them as anything other than just soldiers trying to do their jobs; she could easily see herself and the rest of the Unluckies chatting away to each other, after all (well okay, Sif excluded). The mention of a "new update" made the Star Army Neko lean in ever so slightly out of curiosity. What were they talking about? That question was swiftly answered by Sammy. Rolling her eyes a little, she pulled back.

Tulip's voice cut in, and that seemed to get the Reaper trio to straighten up quickly. 'My chocolates'...? Uh-oh. Aya suddenly realized that she was in a bit of a sticky situation. Once they found the stash had been raided, their adversaries would know they had been through here - and recently. She had to think of a way out of this, and fast...

Well, first thing was first - she should probably ditch the chocolates to throw them off her scent for a little while longer. It was a shame to have to leave them behind, but it sure beat the alternative. Waiting until the Reapers' attention was focused elsewhere, she carefully removed the sweets and put them in an inconspicuous location. It would look odd if the chocolates magically materialized in the wrong spot, after all.

With that done, Aya turned her attention to the more pressing issue of evading the NMX. Luckily they weren't right on top of the exit, though that was cold comfort since they were still rather close. Crouching, she moved stealthily toward the counter exit, praying that none of the Reapers would happen to turn at the wrong moment or pick up something suspicious. The problem was that she had no other real viable options - sometimes, the simplest solution was the best.

If she got through this without being detected, she would find whoever was responsible for the Daisy's stealth systems and give them a great big hug.

Dimitri was a bit relieved that the enemy reapers felt that Sif and Kuro were such a threat, it meant that they would get some breathing room and not just be attacked endlessly. But this also had the NMX nekos operating seriously. He was just about to move forward however when he had to pull back and hold his breath as a reaper walked right past him speaking with that all too familiar voice. If Dimitri was to die today it was not likely to be by gunfire, but by a heart attack. "Not even if you were the last woman on earth you crazy cat!"

He continued to move on through the scenery, moving a little faster since he had light cover, but still not going any faster than he could without making noticeable sounds. He was managing to stay hidden and silent but when he heard the sound of metal scraping against the floor he looked out towards the sound and soon saw what it was a daisy power armor. He was tempted to check it for markings to see if it was someone he knew, but he had to stop himself. If it was someone he knew that would only make him angry and right now and he needed to escape, not avenge anyone.

Hearing the conversations from the girls as they stood around and chatted only made him shake his head. He didn't want to hear girl talk right now, especially not from a group he was convincing himself was a ruthless killing machine. However after Tulip's interruption and then requesting of her chocolates, he decided it might be a good time to pick up the pace, because, well, Aya had Tulip's chocolates, and they weren't going to find them where they should be.

When the first rubber shoes came out in human history - not that anyone had the records of this - they were called 'Sneakers' for a reason. They were quiet, and so the name stuck. For Aya however, this rubber sole on her boots was a blessing from Chiharu herself, as they carried her away in silence. The aisles were easy to navigate, as all the Star Army Neko had to do, was peek down the length of one to determine if anyone was there. Seeing her path was all clear, she silently sneaked her way down past a series of silky smooth bedsheets, pillows and drapes within this bedroom and bathroom orientated store. However, when she reached the on-sale section full of random items, Aya could more clearly see the two Reapers by the entryway as they continued to go over the body, taking out spare parts for their various needs.

Dimitri was fortunate that Tulip was busily idling about in the jacuzzi. For such a lazy action, it was amazing how much effort she put into being 100% relaxed - not one scratch on that shining, polished surface despite wearing the spiked power armor. The horrible part though, was that the Neko made it look so easy - it was a terrifying testament to her control over the suit. Dimitri gingerly took one step after another, and soon enough, he managed to go deeper into the bathroom showcase hall, just as Tulip wondered aloud, "Would I look good in a white bikini, with just a bit of red in it, just like my hair?" She dismissed that. "No, that might turn a bit too transparent in spots...I really wish I asked him what he liked..." The young man's head had turned back at that last as he rounded the corner, and just as he turned to look forward again, a new scene greeted him.

The showcase room had a pair of SAoY personnel, still in their Daisies, sitting in a bathtub. Both had been stripped of parts, ammo, and anything else useful and were simply left here. But the way they were sat up, looking at each other, one had to wonder if they were posed like wax figures in a museum. Hearing Tulip sigh as she failed to make up her mind, he hurried through this horror-show. Each showroom he went by the same, with the occupants sitting on chairs, lounging in bathtubs and otherwise posed in near-lifelike positions. Fortunately, respite came soon enough, as he found himself on the right end of the Miscellaneous section, with Aya on the left end.

A few rows of cash registers and checkout counters, and those two last Reapers, were all that stood between them, and the way out. But they couldn't get out, not with these two so close! They were trapped!

"Tulip! Tulip!" Sammy suddenly yelled out, "Your chocolates are gone!"

"WHAT?!" Turning fast, Tulip rapidly tore into the jacuzzi with her Reaper's spikes, ripping it to shreds as she leaped out in a rage. "WHO - "

"Wait, I see them over there, by the counter!" another one quickly spoke up. Tulip's head swiveled, the double faced armor staring down both the Neko with blue skin and red hair, as well as the average looking woman. With one hand, she made a 'come hither' gesture as she saw the two eating sweets, her own precious prize right next to the two. In all this chaos, the two Reapers by the entrance had perked up, and were walking into the store to see what had happened, leaving the way free! Both Dimitri and Aya had to flee and meet up somewhere - anywhere - beyond this place. Neither knew where quite yet, but there was something that they both did know.

Just judging from the look on Tulip's face as she finally removed her helmet, Aya had likely just sentenced those two to something worse than death.
 
Thankfully, Aya found she moved as quietly as a mouse through the aisles - if, perhaps, a rather nervous mouse. As she slipped past a particularly frilly set of drapes into a section set aside for an assortment of different products, the SAoY Neko felt her heart leap into her throat. The scene before her was grisly, and made her think of scavengers picking a carcass clean. Except, of course, that corpse had once been like her. The thought made her shudder in revulsion. She hung back, trying to formulate a plan that would take her past the Reapers.

Fate forced her hand, however, as the sound of Tulip's outrage reached her ears. The ruckus made the two Reapers make their way further into the store - another stroke of good luck - but Aya remained still for a while longer, the sound having seized her attention. She had just enough time to register Tulip's expression before tearing her gaze away. Despite the barbarity she had just witnessed, Aya still felt sorry for the blue skinned NMX Neko and the woman. Tulip seemed to have little to no sense of remorse, and she sincerely doubted that the insane Neko had anything pleasant in store for the duo. 'Sorry, but that's just the way it goes...' The thought rang slightly hollow, but the exit still lay ahead.

Whilst the NMX were distracted, Aya sprinted out. She made a beeline for a clothing store at the far end of the hallway, hoping to put enough distance between herself and the enemy that they would not think to look there - or if they did, only in a cursory fashion.

Dimitri kept himself from entertaining the thought of Tulip in any kind of swim-wear; in his mind he kept her in her Reaper armor that was anything but attractive. He did not have much trouble maintaining focus however, once he saw what lie ahead of him. Many soldiers still in their armor almost certainly dead and posed throughout the display as if they were mannequins. He had to hold back his rage once again at seeing such disrespect. But he was almost out and couldn't turn back now.

Once he reached the exit he was at a loss for how to get by these guards without alerting the rest of the camp. His body froze up the moment he heard someone shout that they had found them. It was only a moment however and he moved his finger to the trigger ready to shoot his way out. But the guards at first looked like they were heading towards him, but went right past him. He turned to look at what was going on and saw that they had confused their own troops for the thieves. Was it a lucky break or did someone else in Dimi's group do something? He'd have to find out after he got out. So that is what he did, rushing out of the place while the guards were distracted. He wasn't sure exactly where to go but decided heading several stores down was the best idea, hopping into the one that seemed like the best choice, which ended up being the same clothing store as Aya.

"Ara, ara!~" came a relieved sigh. "That was close!" Kuroneko's armor soon appeared besides the two as they both hurriedly made their way to shelter. The armor rematerialized near the two, rifle in hand but lazily held barrel up, and over a shoulder. Sif appeared soon after, her slender frame hopping up to sit atop a counter as they gathered. "I have to admit, even I thought they were going to find us, with the chocolates being found!" she added.

"Tulip is fixated on Dimitri it seems." Sif's blunt statement suddenly overshadowed any relief they felt. The enemy leader really WAS fixated on him, and was also hellbent on killing Sif and Kuroneko as well. It didn't seem to bother her in the slightest however. "You should take advantage of this. Other than that, I see no discrepancies. We go through the mall and pick up what we can get from the supply cache," she ordered, already hopping off her seat. Like before, she activated her cloak again, and made her way out the front. "We have time, as Tulip is most likely busy with her two subordinates - you had bought us time Aya. Very good."

"Mmmhmm!" Kuroneko added in delight.

As the group exited the store and made their way to the cache, the mall didn't seem so ominous as it did before in comparison to what they had gone through. Instead, it simply felt sad. Their eyes could now see signs of people's lives suddenly coming to an abrupt halt as war came right to their doorstep, the civilians fleeing as they desperately tried to stay alive. There were bags of goods simply dropped as people made to rush home; nobody would abandon a handmade Abwehran watch. Unless the Mishhuvurthyar were coming. A child's half eaten stick of dango tossed aside as the warning had come, now dessicated and dead as the rest.

Breaking this silence, Kuroneko suddenly asked, her voice curious, "You know Sif, about what you said earlier...did you mean Dimitri should take advantage of Tulip?" the older Neko asked. As much as it started out innocuously, it now took a more scandalous tone. Which, by now, they likely had gotten used to.

"No, but since you mention that. Yes. Every way he can." Sif's response? Perhaps not.

"Every, every way?~" Kuroneko asked again, practically dancing at the thought.

"Yes."

The Mini-Neko either didn't notice a thing at what her old teammate was really hinting at, or really did mean it herself. Their exchange didn't stop here however, as Kuroneko just kept on going in her seemingly typical manner. It seemed that neither of the two liked this in the slightest, but, after hearing what she had said before, this was likely to be expected for some time. How long until she got it out of herself? That remained to be seen.

"Hora, hora...what if that's traumatic for Aya?" Kuroneko gently asked. She was on a roll, and didn't want to stop. Yet. "I mean, how will she take this? What if it makes her feel bad, seeing Dimitri taking advantage of Tulip so much?" It seemed that Kuroneko was perhaps as depraved as Tulip herself at this point - perhaps, if it weren't for her Star Army origins, she would have even been Tulip's second in command. Or worse, have Tulip as her second in command.

"Dimitri, you are to take advantage of Tulip's fixation on you, but within limits. Such as drawing her fire."

"Killjoy."

"I thought the old Nepleslian oddity was 'Kilroy' instead?"

Kuroneko raised an invisible hand to her helmet's temple as they walked, but then turned her attention on Dimitri and Aya. "So, what are you two thinking? Hm?"

The arrival of Dimitri and the two more senior Neko was a welcome one. Aya didn't much relish the idea of having to blindly regroup with the others. Almost as if she wanted to swat down any premature positive thoughts, Sif made an obvious - if still disturbing - observation. She then proceeded to lay out their plan of action... as well as give Aya an unexpected compliment. Aya wasn't sure how to feel; on the one hand, it was good to know that she had earned at least some approval from the taciturn Mini-Neko; on the other hand, the fate of the two NMX wasn't something she wished to dwell on.

And so they set off. There seemed to be grim tales told in strewn about objects everywhere they looked. The dango stick was especially chilling; Aya couldn't look at it for long. Kuroneko's chatter was both welcome - for it lifted the silence - and unwelcome, for it immediately went into territory that Aya preferred not to contemplate.

This wasn't helped by the Mini-Neko's unflinching responses. Surely she couldn't mean...? Aya tried to tune out the conversation, and failed, much to her dismay. And then Kuroneko asked for her and Dimitri's input. "Um... I really don't want to think about it. At all. I guess I'll just figure it out at the time...?" Her tone was almost pleading.

Dimitri was a bit surprised by appearance of the rest of the group around him, he didn't expect to meet up with them so soon after getting out of the base. He soon relaxed a bit and listened to their conversation. He was hoping that Tulip's obsession was all in his head, his pride as a guy just fabricating it to feed his ego. Unfortunately that was not the case, but now they were talking about him taking advantage of it, actually approaching the crazy woman. He did not say anything and simply followed after them hoping they were joking.

As he stepped out and saw the scene before him, it finally hit him just how sudden this battlefield was. All sorts of things had been left behind, it wouldn't have surprised him if a few people or kids ended up left as well. "This is horrible." He spoke to himself in a low tone they could barely hear. However he was soon brought back out of his world as his name was brought up again and it sounded like they were serious now about him taking advantage of Tulip's feelings.

When asked for his input though, he was a bit slow to respond. He had to articulate his response, because what came to mind immediately was not something he should say in front of superior officers. "Well...I guess I see the value of using me and I really want to get back at her for what she did to my squad. But I'm not sure how much I can distract her, she's a better soldier than me too." Though he spoke with little confidence it was obvious he just didn't want to get close to her if he didn't have to.

Kuroneko sighed. "Oh well," her smooth, gentle voice went. The Neko sounded tired, almost weary in a way. "I guess I'm getting a little much. But it's not like I can help it, you see," she seemed to apologize.

"We're here," Sif suddenly announced. As they came to a stop, they all took in the sight of the store that was chosen to house the hidden supply cache.

"Hora, it's...well, I suppose Tulip really is insane," Kuroneko remarked.

"Tulip, from my own occasional encounters with her, as well as from what I have read or heard of her, is a borderline tactical genius," Sif explained the location to them. "She is highly meticulous, obsessed about small details which are actually relevant, and always has a backup or plan of retreat." The enemy Neko only grew more fearsome as Sif went on, explaining her formidableness to the rest of the squad. "She, like myself, is tenacious and relentless. Fortunately, a good portion of this was wasted in the past, but that may not be the case now." Turning to look at them all, with the shell lodged into her head acting as its own odd point of reference in the place of eyes, she went on. "She was the favorite of the previous Ranking Mishhuvurthyar Officer, with all that it entails."

The cold statement was left to hang in the air...what Sif had said? Tulip was even more sex obsessed and insane in the past. The person they were dealing with now, was 'more sane', if that could be considered any relief. Kuroneko had to admit, "I suppose this is genius in its own sick way - I would have never looked here. I still have my standards." Pausing however, she corrected herself. "Most of them."

With that done however, Sif strode right into the sex shop in front of them. Seemingly un-bothered, she wove her way past the unmentionables there to the storeroom in the back before tossing the door open - sitting in front of them all, was a dream come true. There was a dozen ammo boxes of 7x15/20mm rounds for the Light Armor Service Rifle as well as a few spare samples of that weapon, a few magazines of 50mm rounds, a half dozen racks of offensive and defensive mini-missiles. And most importantly?

A single 50mm Shoulder Mounted Gauss Cannon - though part of its feeding mechanism was disassembled, the components looking like they came from a half dozen different units, it would work once it was put together.
 
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