RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 1] - Feel the Pain

"Huh? What is- oh, wow. Pretty lights," Seiren remarked to Aoi, glancing at her outstretched palm. He retracted his pistol and began rummaging through his pockets, telling her with a sheepish grin, "Um. . . I might have something that isn't as hot as the fires of hell. . ."

A paperclip. Old wrappers. A reciept to Neppies and a second from some place called The Shattered Shell. A wrench. A monkey wrench. Another wrench.

Finally, he came upon one of his 'prototype' designs. The Core Cracker jawbreaker. A molten candy core of goodness surrounded by multiple alternating layers of solid and liquid sugary wonderment.

"Er, here! Try this. . ." the pint-sized male said, passing the experimental confection to the neko.

Smith squeezed his hand on the detonator a moment after Luca's signal. In order, here's what transpired that the duo looking out into the void couldn't see. As Smith squeezed the detonator's button, an electronic signal was transmitted, a pulse between the trigger and the blasting cap. The lights on the panel around blasting cap chirped happily and a very, very specific frequency of electricity coursed through the minuscule amount of explosive material attached to the bottle of pressurised Motiva Negative.

It expanded very rapidly with a pop that could be heard above the howling winds. Luca looked down and saw a white blossom appear above the black cloud. Its tendrils descended into the cloud, and all Luca could do now was guess what was taking place as the tendrils pierced the gloom.

Luca looked on curiously as the white cloud begun to spread out over the black cloud.

The fake Motiva present in the black clouds was reacting with the Motiva Negative, and it was being absorbed and neutralised into pure vapour. Gram for gram there was a curious occurrence.

During the reaction, there was a third byproduct that was unaccounted for, and invisible to the human eye. The vapour made still had a significant amount of Motiva Negative - enough to convert the fake Motiva around it. The fake Motiva in the black cloud was being absorbed much more rapidly than Luca had first anticipated. Was it the shoddy quality or instability of the concoction that made it easier to assimilate?

That was something for someone from Lazarus to study and provide an answer for after someone else cleaned up the mess because neither Luca, Scott or anyone else on the Phoenix wouldn't have a clue between them.

Aiesu, meanwhile was watching this from her bedroom millions of billions of miles away, and mouthing expletives quietly as she saw what was unfolding. It was like she'd picked up one of the Phoenix Man! comic books and flipped to any given page.

-

The blood was white as it arced and splattered across the ground. Fluids continued to pump quietly and slowly into the ground where the Lorath's brain once was. However, as Enzo was inspecting the stump, it didn't look like a skull he'd ever seen. Whatever was lying before him was a construct, not a Lorath of flesh and blood.

The last thing it did before fading into nothingness was grinning a rictus grin with what was left of its head at Enzo, reminiscent of a skull adornment on a pirate's ship.

The rogue didn't seem to pay much mind as he begun searching the pockets, taking the coat off and feeling for weights, searching each pocket meticulously. He'd find a wallet with no identification, some loose change that was a 50 DA note at one point, some scraps and lint, and a keyring with some keys jingling on it.

The keys on it appeared to be a key for a safe deposit box at a post office in Prime City with a blank tag on it, a key to an automotive or motorcycle, and an apartment key-card with a hole punched in it to fit in the keyring with the words 'Lotus Apartments' stamped on it and the number four dash naught eight.

Who kept keys in this day and age anyway? With biometrics standard on everything, cupholders included, who would carry a set of keys? Where did they go and what was worth locking away or keeping shut that brute force could open too?

-

Aoi grabbed the jawbreaker and raised an eyebrow at Seiren. She opened her mouth and put the jawbreaker inside. It was somewhere between the size of a ping pong ball and a tennis ball. Normally, this wouldn't fit inside a mouth, but Aoi seemed to put the whole thing in her mouth and started sucking on it thoughtfully as she was firing her revolver. Older models had ability to do such things. Back then their designers didn't wander off on a human tangent.

The jawbreaker itself was layer upon layer, and she could feel something solid clinking around inside it as her head moved around. The outermost layer became thin and her tongue pushed through it. A molten layer beneath the solid? Her eyes widened in surprise as she tasted another sensation flowing into her mouth.

It gave her the sugar boost she needed and she lead the charge into the warehouse's basement with her revolver as though she had mounted a horse and was leading a cavalry charge. "FOLLOW ME, CANDY MAN! LET'S FINISH THEM!" She yelled like a crazed Taisho leading a charge into SMX territory. Allison blinked and followed her with a fresh magazine.

On the way to the hole, she grabbed a sledgehammer resting on a table and was carrying it by the every edge of the handle as she jumped through the trap door and below. Stunned, and confused, the smaller crocodiles thrashed in the rising muck and damp, biting each other and splashing the walls with putrid water as they tried to make tails and ends of their situation, their senses assaulted by the heavy duty flash bang...

...which would've been really useful against the bigger crocodile which was charging towards the gunman and the tinwoman. Neither of them had a clear shot as it barrelled down towards them. "H0-LY SH1T!" Echelon yelled.

However, necessity was the mother of inventiveness. Bronzi landed stave first on the thing's spine with an almighty crack. The crocodile arched its back and exposed its underbelly and neck to Makari as Bronzi was thrown backwards by the crocodile's stunted movements. This was followed by another loud cracking noise that was not caused by Bronzi.

It sounded like thunder rumbling in the distance. He could smell rain. Melissa looked up towards the black cloud and found that it was being engulfed by the white one. "Er, guys? Y'see that?" Droplets begun to land on the dry ground and cut through the dry air. A gentle pittering and pattering could be heard as each droplet connected with the corrugated metal of the warehouse roof. Bronzi could feel a few large drops of water hit his face as he stood back up.

The crocodile's throat looked mighty inviting for a shot now that Bronzi was safely out of the way.

As Seiren and Allison peered into the sewer beneath the warehouse, they could hear gunfire and crushing skulls as Aoi danced among the crocodiles and smote them for having the gall to attack her injured friends. "Er, after you..." Allison said nervously as she motioned for Seiren to get down there and spool it out with them.

-

Luca was watching what was unfolding before him from above. It was like a lotus upon a pond coming into bloom at the crack of dawn at the empress palace. "John, get us to the water plant." Luca requested via the ship's intercom. "We're regrouping."

"Vita, can you hear me?" Luca opened a line to his daughter as the Big Bird was heading towards the Water Plant to get Panther, Enzo, Ellen and Zeta. "Are you and the others alright? Dad's coming back with the others soon!"

The Big Bird was getting closer and closer before touching down just outside the entrance to the Water Plant. "Everyone get in! We're regrouping and wrapping this shit up!" Panther ran across the plant and onto the Bird's loading ramp.

"I'll follow you!" Ellen yelled as she hopped back into her hovercar, putting her keys into the ignition and powering it up.

Seeing his opening, Makari fired furiously, yet accurately, into the croc's exposed throat with all twelve of his HHG red shells. Quickly, he rolled behind what little cover he could find to reload; he expected a large retaliation to explosions at the jugular. While deftly reloading he sorely wished this croc was a IDSOL on steroids instead of a nigh impermeable truck of flesh. One at least had the capabilities of human emotion, he doubted the croc could do the same. Judging by its actions and sentiments, he doubted it was a higher level intelligence. Sighing, he peaked over cover as he finished reloading to see how his teammates would react.

Bronzi went tumbling into the air with the sudden motions of the croc. This was fortuitous for him, because he could avoid being shot but his team mates. Bronzi landed one the ground with his feet straight up in the air. He then flopped over just in time to look up and see the sky. He felt the water touch his skin. He sighed and rose to his feet, He immediately slapped on his helmet, his goggles came down over his eyes and he placed his re-breather on, clamping it all in place with an armored face shield. The goggles flickered on. As he started moving again...the rain smelled off. He could not explain it, not in a way that would make sense, so he did not radio it in but something was odd.

His HUD did not switch on. The text that was sent to Bronzi's eyes was likely far more detailed then this, but this is what he saw when the text spread out across his display.

"HEY!" Bronzi said loudly. "Fuck you too! HUD!" He said in surprise. "Uh...rains kinda weird...ya'll needa get inside or somethin.' Bronzi said as he circled around and his suit pressurized isolating him from the dangers of the out side world. As he ran he held his staff with his left hand and was frantically smacking his helmet with his right hand in an effort to make his kit function properly.

Meanwhile Back in Sargasso

Tani continued singing as she felt the first of the rain start to hit her back, She pushed the children deeper under cover. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, 'What was in this rain that everyone had to avoid, I'm going to die aren't I, and so far from a resurrection system.'

She fought to stay calm, trying not to cause the kids to start freak out and run into the rain. The bar was going to be a good place to wait for the end, if she had that long, Maybe she would try to drink the last of her funds away before it was all over.

Zeta watched Enzo rummage through the belongings of the death lorath. Or death lorath android. So it was a fake thing. That meant that they might still acess the data, if there were any left after Enzo created makeshift ventilation hole in the things cranium.

"Luca's calling, time to leave." Zeta said to Enzo. The convertible they drove here was still close by. It was a good mean of getting back to big bird and on board of big bird fast.

"John I got myself some wheels, so make sure I can drive in." Zeta radioed to the pilot. Her eyes meanwhile watched the keys Enzo took out of the dead body.

"I guess we should take this with us," she added and kicked the dead robot in the leg.

"Sure, sure, I'll just stuffs it in my bag."

It was amazing how compact Enzo was able to main the remains of the dead machination. Then again, most of it had been the black goop that was long gone by now.

"Y'know, I almost didn't shoots the guy." Enzo said as he stood again and tossed a large brown sack over his shoulder-- looking very much like some sort of greasy grifter Saint Nick. "I was thinkin': Dis fuckin' guy, he tries to off himselfs an' has the nerve to tries to intimidate ole' Enzo. I oughta let him live, makes 'm suffer a bit, see? Then I thought, y'know... Kill 'em."

Seiren peered down the hole, grimacing.

"Aw, man. I hate sewer levels. . ." he grumbled, flexing a little. After one, two- no, three bounces in place, he finally summoned up the courage to jump down after the strange neko, shouting, "Geronimooooooooo!"

"Well it is water under the bridge now I guess," Zeta said as she opened the boot of the car for Enzo to stuff his things inside. "You cannot un-shoot him. Ah well maybe we will find more from the bits of him that are left. Bloody robots." Zeta swore as she let Enzo put the stuff in the car.

She then proceeded to drop back into the convertible and start the engine. She hoped that the owner had it insured, though person with as this, would hardly be struggling with money. Zeta herself considered it as a tiny bit of payment the town now owes them. With that she waited for Enzo to hop in before she drove off for the Big Bird.

Bronzi returned to the building and entered it just in time to see Seiren drop down into the hole. Bronzi smacked his helmet one more time and his goggles got the hint and activated. They glowed a dim orange and he walked up to the hold.

"Arite, underground mission!" He said over the radio.

Bronzi dropped down into the hole and landed with minimal effort, except he landed squarely on top of Seiren.

Enzo slid over the side of the door and arranged his bags of loot around him with greedy cackling. As he surveyed his new acquisitions, Enzo wondered aloud, "Y'know, y'gotta thinks: a town likes dis' probably gots t' be done dis way on purpose. I mean, free reign o' da whole joint, jus' yous an' yous buds-- think about it! It'd be like movin' into a free apartment building and havin' enough foods to last yous for a few months whiles yous gets backs on yous feet, yeah?"

Vita watched Bronzi and Seiren jump into the hole from her perch high on top of a series of crates.

The combat had gone well enough, in her opinion; she had still clutched the small gun a little hard, wondering if she shouldn’t have fired off a couple of shots herself. Ah well. It didn’t seem to matter; for now, the rest of the refugees seemed to be well off, not having been touched by the fighting.

She scooted to the edge, hung her feet off, cradled the gun, and made a show of touching her ear.

”Yea, dad. We’re alright, basically.”

According to the instruction manual that comes with a box of HHG RED rounds directly from the manufacturer, they explode with a force equivalent to a stick of dynamite, and they are not recommended for use against soft targets like un-power armoured personnel, small game or medium game. Unless you wanted the family to have no hope of identifying the body or liked your meat extra splattered.

Broadly speaking, the giant crocodile was a soft target. Makari fanned his revolver like the West had never died, flipping it open and loading a new speedloader of rounds in just to finish it off. Each explosion rocked everyone's senses and shook the windows in the town square, shattering some of them. Streams of viscera and bone flew across the square, painting a picture of explosive violence as the mega croc's head, neck and torso were procedurally reduced to a cauterised stump with each shot.

A stray shot gave the warehouse opposite the one Makari was standing in a new door. A large, torn up hole in the corrugated metal would serve any good looter who had their tetanus shots. "4C3 SH00TIN', T3X." Echelon nodded towards Makari as a holographic image of a bullseye materialised over her faceplate. She turned around to look at the refugees and found that they were confused by the explosions and shivering. "0H, UH..." she took a few steps towards the refugees and aimed her shoulder cannon upwards, making it slide along her back for storage. "L1ST3N, L1ST3N, SHHH... 1T'S G01NG T0 B3 F1N3." She knelt down with the refugees and offered hugs. "W3'LL B3 S4F3 S00N."

"Kill confirmed!" Melissa chimed happily over the radio and spotting Makari's kill, pumping her fist into the air. "Looks like there's giant mutant crocskin wallets in demand!"

The rain was beginning to come down even heavier, and Melissa frowned. "Right, I'm goin' back in." She lifted up her rifle, folded the bipod back in and started walking along the corrugated roof slowly as the rain begun to make it slick. She found the hatch she used to access the roof, and climbed back down with her rifle on her back. Raindrops kept on making rhythmic plinks and patters as it became more intense.

Makari was watching the destroyed corpse of the giant crocodile when the he noticed something strange. The rain was beginning to make the blue patches on its hide and flesh evaporate and disappear, integrating with the rainwater and running down into the ocean.

-

Bronzi had landed atop Seiren and sent him tumbling onto the floor, and the first sight the gartagen was greeted with beneath the warehouse's underground walkways was Aoi with her revolver, firing at each of the smaller crocodiles while they were still stunned by Bronzi's flash bang. More importantly, there appeared to be two of her. One of her appeared to be a flickering holographic decoy.

A crocodile leapt from from the throng with its teeth gnashing hungrily, and tried to bite her leg, but it passed right through the hologram's leg, and she stabbed it in the head with a thick kitchen knife while it was recovering from the landing. "There's plenty to go around!" she yelled with elation over the snapping din and her Styrling Mancannon firing. There were six still alive and snapping, but Aoi was now fighting defensively as the flashbang's disorientation had started to wane. Her Mancannon had run out of shots, and she hadn't fought for so long that her combat reflexes were just a moment too late.

A crocodile snapped at her feet, and she pulled her foot away before stomping on its snout and jumping onto the ceiling to reload her revolver. Kept there by gravity, she flicked the cylinder open and gave it a shake to let the casings fall to the floor before loading individual bullets into each chamber, one by one. Crocodiles were jumping up and snapping at her backside and at the pink locks of hair trailing down. Her cat ears were pressed flat against her head in concentration.

Allison climbed down the ladder into the sewer and hopped off, offering Aoi covering fire with her IAW. The recoil of the weapon caused the muzzle to climb, and she found that keeping it controlled for bursts longer than five was a difficult task. The bullets struck the walls and the floor and the crocodiles, not succeeding in killing any but definitely getting their attention. She mouthed an expletive as she dropped the spent magazine out and snapped another one in. "Not my job, NOT MY JOB!" she repeated as she backed away cautiously.

-

With Zeta's car, the corpse of the Lorath, Enzo, and Panther inside the Big Bird and Ellen's hovercar tailing the larger ship, Luca gave the order to take off towards the warehouse further into town. "Alright Vita, be there in a few. I heard explosions from your position, what happened?" He guessed that a member of his team was responsible, but not to what end. He hadn't received any news of a giant mutated crocodile over the airwaves.

"Echelon, report in, what are you seeing?"

"1 4M S33ING HUGS. 1T'S W0ND3RFUL." From where Vita was standing, she could see Echelon in the middle of a massive group hug from the refugees. She was bristling somewhat as she tried to move. She looked up at Vita and her faceplate displayed a neutral face. "TH3R3 1S SUCH 4 TH1NG 4S T00 MUCH HUGS." She observed.

Overhead, the Big Bird was hovering atop the square where Luca had fought the citizens about a half hour ago, and he noticed the new addition immediately. "Ewww," he frowned and put his hand over his mouth. He could smell it over the rain, "you guys go big game hunting or something?"

"Maybe..." Melissa replied innocently over the radio, "reminds me of home."

"Whatever. John, land the Bird and let's get us out of here."

The noise from the engines of the Big Bird had drawn more people from the city out of hiding and towards the Big Bird, but Luca was noticing something as he was watching from the open loading ramp. As the rain soaked them, they started to come to a pause and stopped running. They dropped their makeshift armaments and blinked, looking about themselves and each other as a murmur reverberated through the crowd.

Luca smiled. "Our work here is done." Behind the Big Bird, Ellen's car had put a soft top roof on to protect herself from the rain. The smell of the moisture was clearing her senses from the assault at the water plant.

-

Back at Sargasso, the rain falling on Tani's head wasn't unlike any other normal rain that she'd experienced in the past. Except, there was a taste of something in it she couldn't identify, but it wasn't affecting her. She was still able to count to ten, raise both arms, recite her Katakana and Hiragana and commonly used Kanji.

From her bar, Lina opened the door and looked outside. She put her hand out curiously to feel the raindrops on her hand, and she didn't feel any different. "Huh..."

She then stepped out and let her golden hair get wet, sticking to her clothing and skin and asked her: "So, all that song and dance was for a little rain? I was worried sick for a moment!"

Once he was on his feet, the inventor joined the assault on the remaining reptiles. Seiren's GP-13 snapped off several pulses of electrical energy at the ones assaulting Aoi, slightly singing his wrist in its upgraded capacity.


"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow hot hot hot!" He hissed, waving his arm around reflexively. At this point, he was willing to try something else that DIDN'T burn his arm. The Yamataian considered his options. Little Killer was too weak against these scaly things. The ultra-hot candies of his didn't do much either. He didn't have any other candy related things, in fact. But he did still have his tracks and the high-strain wire that was used to activate them. . .

"New plan! Give me twenty seconds!" He told the others, flipping out his Vial and removing the Killer's armtrack. In no more than the time given, he had what was like the deformed child of a crossbow and a grappling hook, with a small piece of metal at the end of a loop serving as the weight and fishing line.

"Emergency mechanics, go!"

Seiren launched the loop, catching it on the maw of one of those vicious creatures just as it was done with one snap. He pulled tight, sealing the circle tight around the jaw of the creature.

He really hoped those documentaries about animals he used to watch were right about crocodiles not having very good mouth-opening muscles.

Makari made a swift bow to those around him as if he was showing off a work of art. He holstered his pistol Old West "spinny" style and regained a vertical outlook. And that was when he spotted the damnedest thing: the crocs innards and other unidentifiable chunks were dissolving from the rain. Coupled with Bronzi's comment, it was time to "get out of dodge" and made his way quickly to the tunnel entrance.

He replied to Luca's question, "Sure did, Boss. We nabbed us a ginormous blue goop leaking croc. I'd offer you a croc skin hat but what little is left from a speedloader of reds seems to be dissolving from the rain. There's no kill like overkill."

Bronzi had no idea why they were down here. The rain was off, and his instincts warranted a reaction. Defensive reactions were inherent to all naturally born species. Nepleslians reacting defensively often resorted to smoking profusely. Gartagen dropped their smokes and went underground.

He liked these odds better, but Aoi for all her strength was on the defensive. With the covering fire coming from above and Seiren back on his feet Bronzi found these leathery beast not much different then similar...land based reptiles on his home world.

"Just give am good wack!" Bronzi called out over the radio as he rushed to Aoi's side. He shot his staff forward as he came in flanking the crocs, with the top of the blunt instrument stabbing at one of the creature's exposed ribs.

'Ey Babydoll! Whats all o-dis shit about? Bad smellin rain, crazy lizards? If you got somethin on it please tell meh." He said calmly as he retracted his staff and did a quick downward smack into the skull of another one of the beasts.

Bronzi felt pressure press down on his right though. One of the little bugger had clamped down and was attempting to death roll. Bronzi stiffened his body and resisted.

In the cargo-bay of the Big Bird, Enzo went about the important task of removing his day's winnings from Zeta's new car, tossing duffel-bag after duffel-bag onto the floor of the cargo bay. On its face, these were simple things: purses, jewelry, paper-weights. Not worth much as a whole, really. But Enzo had a greedy mind that saw the greater value of processing the load, seperating it into groups of like-items and selling it over public communication networks peicemeal. Every merchant knows that's when profits really shoot up... and when your stock is free?

Enzo cackled just thinking about it as he dumped the contents of a purse on the ground and started going through them, shoving make-up and crumpled receipts aside in favor of loose earrings and car-wash tokens.

Aoi snapped the cylinder shut once all six chambers were filled again, and she launched herself from the ceiling, twisting through Allison's covering fire and landing foot first into a Crocodile's head and impaling it with her foot. Bolts from Seiren's GP-13 flew over her head - and a shot went through her pink hair. She turned around to shoot a crocodile in the head, but Seiren's crossbow bolt and a loop landed around the crocodile's snout and with a tug, it tightened and snapped itself to seal the Croc's snout shut.

Aoi looked up at Seiren from her crouching position, and a grin came across her face as she crouched down and grabbed the snoutbound crocodile by the tail. She then pivoted and swung the massive creature in a circle around her before stopping and swinging the crocodile over her head, sending it slamming down onto another crocodile, killing it with audacity.

The one on Bronzi's leg twisted furiously, and had more pep in it. It managed to unbalance the Gartagen brute and sent him towards the ground. In doing so, it had exposed both its back and its underbelly to Allison and Aoi, who were happy to take the opening.

Two shots from the mancannon and a burst of fire from the IAW stopped it from moving ever again. However, Bronzi did feel a pinch as one of the bullets from the IAW had gotten him in the leg, making him forget about the crocodile bite.

Aoi lifted up her crocodile bludgeon and hoisted it over the shoulder and asked: "Can I keep it, please?" The crocodile flailed and flustered as it tried to get its mouth open, but failed under Seiren's binding.

Allison gave her a quizical grin and shrugged. "I ... suppose? Most neko would just make a wallet or shoes out of it."

-

Luca hopped out of the Big Bird and walked into the warehouse to inspect what was going on. Melissa was trying to save Echelon from being completely overwhelmed by hugs from Aoi's wards, and he saw Vita up above them all, watching it unfold as the combat below drew to a close.

The crocodile with its mouth bound flew out of the manhole and landed on the warehouse floor. Luca drew his HHG in reflex, and watched as Aoi climbed out of the manhole and then sat on top of the Crocodile's head, grinning a cat's smile as her ears perked upwards. "Mine."

"Yours." He conceded as he stowed his HHG. "Think you can handle the rest from here? Things are calming down outside. Be sure to get your friends in the rain while it lasts."

"Sure thing. One more thing though," Aoi asked. "Can I pay you in kind?"

Allison climbed out of the manhole, followed by Seiren and Bronzi. Allison grabbed the manhole's lid and put it over the hole before shifting a box over it to ensure it wouldn't open again. She then breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards Luca. "I hate crocodiles."

"That depends. I don't do favours." A favour was a Yamataian euphemism for a quickie on a ship that was on a boring post. Usually a patrol or an escort for something that really didn't need escorting.

"Nah; I want a job."

Luca looked at her sitting on the crocodile and nodded, thinking that he knew where this was going. "You must be a good fighter then."

"No, I want to do your advertising - first round free of charge!" Luca blinked at Aoi's request, and looked at Allison, who shrugged and nodded. "I can draw, I can make holograms, I can do music too."

"Sure thing. What are your rates?" Luca then had a ringing in his earpiece and his eyes looked at it before he gave Aoi and Allison a hand to tell them that he had to take this call. "Excuse me - Hello?"

"Mr. Palvone?"

That mispronunciation. He'd know it anywhere. "Aiesu. What's up?" Luca replied, finger to earpiece, wondering why she'd be calling.

"Congratulations on saving the world or whatever the fuck it is you do for shits and giggles when you're not hawking merchandise."

Luca raised an eyebrow and turned around from the others. "It happens," he replied simply. "I don't need anyone to reassure me."

"So I'm out of the job?"

"Nah. There must be some reason you're calling."

"About that. The samples used, do you have any left?"

"It's... in the cloud."

"Marketing spiel? Anyway, I need a return sample."

Luca was drawing a blank. "That might be somewhat difficult. Would a cup of rain do?"

"Yes, provided you haven't adulterated it with the container. It needs to be PH neutral."

Luca looked around the warehouse and found an empty jar. It hadn't been opened, and it was still in its packaging. He unwrapped it and took it outside. Allison looked at him and followed him curiously.

"Don't touch it with your own hands, if you can help it. It doesn't ruin the sample, it just takes longer to decode."

He opened the jar with his right hand, gloved by the grapple stunner and held it out in the rain to fill with rainwater. He then closed the jar when it was partway full. He then tapped his chin and opened his mouth to drink some of the rainwater. It tasted as though someone had been dripping champagne into his mouth, but it had the distinct taste of urine. "Eugh! Couldn't you get the taste of pee engineered out of it?"

Pee?! Allison frowned, covering her mouth and grimacing.

"No, its a safe way of knowing when the mixture is right. And its a bit of an injoke amongst us that would take hours to explain to an idiot like you. So what are you kids doing to celebrate?"

Luca looked behind him to Aoi, Allison, Echelon (still engulfed in hugs), Melissa and Vita. His eyes then tracked over to Bronzi, Makari and Seiren. Inside the Big Bird. "We're gonna bust this shit wide open. I have something that might interest someone of your skills." He got his communicator, and streamed a video of the construct corpse that Enzo was responsible for. It had a bullet in its head and a wide rictus grin. "Think you can make this bird squawk once more?"

"Where did you find a construct? Can you flip it over, so I can see the face - well, the teeth, specifically?"

Luca moved over to the corpse and flipped it over. Its head had gone completely missing thanks to Enzo's hollow point round, but some of its upper skull was still intact, and its mouth and teeth were in a wide grin too broad to be mere rictus. "Sardonic, isn't he?" Luca said. "Enzo found him at the water plant. We think he's the bagman for this, or some sort of observer. He tried playing a mind game on my rogue but he didn't buy it."

His teeth appeared to Aiesu as that of a sharp-toothed Llmanel, perhaps aspected, or modelled off an aspectation of a carnivore.

"Are the back molars intact on the top set?" Aiesu asked. Luca bent down and put his finger into its mouth and noticed something.

"I don't think so..." He then grabbed one of the molars and pulled it out with finger power alone. "False teeth... Poison pills? Bite down subspace ping transmitters?" He guessed as he showed Aiesu a closeup of the false molars. "I hear those are popular with SAINTs."

"Too many spy flicks. Flip the tooth over. There should be a number on the root, printed in the metal."

Luca turned the tooth over. "Aiesu, if you've lived life like I have, spy fiction's just another day... hold on." He found what appeared to be a seam on the enamel. He put the communicator down and started trying to peel it off.

"It won't come off," the voice said. "You either have to use acid or--"

Luca's grapple stunner activated and shocked the tooth as he gripped it hard. He then slammed the tooth down into the floor. "Misfire." Luca said. The newer iteration of the Grapple Stunner still had teething issues. Grip too hard and it shocked.

"Very funny. The number's probably melted. Try another."

He pulled out the other molar, and put it down on the floor so Aiesu's camera could see it. She could then hear the sound of Luca drawing something before his hand holding his HHG by the barrel came into view. He lifted it out of view and slammed it onto the tooth.

The advantage of a Nepleslian gun was that if it ran out of bullets, you could hit them with it and it'd still fire straight when you got more ammo.

"Read the number. The feed's too fuzzy."

Luca leaned in at the powdered tooth. Aiesu could see his sideburns come into view followed by the rest of his face. "XF...CE...Z...RUR...JMJM...AVA...J...OU...CK."

"XFCE. That's Lagrange property." she said, scratching her head. "How would they even know what to do with a construct... But its a CE model, so this should be pretty straight-forward. On the left side of the head, I need you to make a cross shaped incision and peel the skin back in four quarters. You should reveal a thin layer of bone. Crack it, pull the pieces out. There'll be metal underneath."

"Hold that thought. I need to get us all out of here before someone comes to investigate." He muted the microphone and gave an order to all the others. "Everyone - scramble, we're going NOW."

And everyone scrambled, though Echelon had to shake a couple of hangers on off of her with Aoi's assistance. "G33Z 1 TH0UGHT 1'D N3V3R G3T 0UTT4 TH4T..."

She noticed Luca fiddling with the corpse of the Lorath and asked: "H3Y B0SS WH4TCH4 F0SS1CK1NG F0R?"

"Reasons." Luca replied innocently before setting the channel back to Aiesu. "I think this'll be a team job once I get a proper workbench to do this all on. I'll need Seiren's help because ... I'm not that good with computers or medicine or whatever that voodoo you do is."

"I can still hear you," a muffled voice said from the radio. "You really weren't kidding, were you?"

"I know my limits, and I don't quite know yours - which is intriguing."

"I don't have any," the voice replied.

"That's what I thought until Delsauria." His voice was grave as he recalled that fateful day. Lose a life, lose an eye, lose a mind and three days unaccounted for. "Anyway. Will talk more later once Seiren and I can crack this open. Enjoy your Phoenix Energy while you wait."

The sound of a plink and a fizzing noise filled the mic. "Thanks," she said, before the line fell to dead static and the words 'disconnected' ran across the screen before it sunk finally into silence.

Luca stood up and made another headcheck. Allison, Echelon and Melissa were there. Makari, Bronzi, Scott and Seiren were accounted for. Ellen, Zeta and Enzo were present. Panther was somewhere inside the Big Bird, and Vita... Vita was right by his side. She grabbed onto his arm, and Luca rested his left hand on her shoulder.

"Dad." She asked, voice firm over the sound of the Big Bird's engines heating up and starting to leave. "How long will it be like this?" She looked out through an observation port of the city drenched in rain.

Luca did not have an answer and purred in thought. "Knowing my good fortune, probably never."

"That isn't what you want forever, is it?"

"Nah." Luca replied as Handler's Reach became smaller and smaller. "I don't think the world will listen to that wish though." He walked over to the couch and fell backwards onto it, heaving a sigh as the couch conformed to his shape. He looked at his right arm and reached into the armpit. He twisted a knob hidden from view and the Grapple Stunner opened up with a series of clicks.

He pulled his right arm out of the contraption, rubbed his arms and stretched his fingers while looking at the device. It had started to appear in the marketing. He'd gotten requests from people to ask how it worked exactly and refused each one. It'd became his new shtick. "After Delsauria, I'll never find peace. The world will do its best to kill me now - but..."

He extended his arms towards Vita and hugged her, putting some weight on her. "I can still enjoy what little peace I can get." She hugged him back, putting his arms over his back. He lifted her off the ground and onto his lap, then to his side on an empty space of the couch.

"I wonder what's happening back at Sargasso?" John asked idly over the intercom.

-

Now that the rain was coming down thicker on Sargasso, Tani and Lina could smell the rain and taste it by accident. Lina started to screw up her face and ran back inside her pub, trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

Luca then heard his communicator beeping.

"LUCA WHY IS IT RAINING PISS." Lina yelled across the phone. He could practically hear it from Sargasso. The rain itself didn't look like urine.

Luca pulled his earpiece out of his ear for a moment and scrunched his face before addressing the barwoman. "Its not pee. I can assure you that there's a valid explanation for this that just hasn't crossed my mind yet." He then thought for a moment. "We're a couple of minutes away - how about we just go to the pub and drink until the rain stops, tabs paid for in full?"

"You'd better. Nobody's going to want to come here when the rain tastes like pee."

"If your beer doesn't get the taste out of my mouth nothing will."

Even though things had now drawn to a conclusion, something was missing. Luca murmured slightly as he wondered what could be amiss.

MISSION 1 - COMPLETE!!

"Oh, there it is."

-

Feel the pain, talk about it, if you're a worried man then shout about it
Open hearts, feel about it, open minds, think about it
Everyone read about it, everyone scream about it
Everyone (everyone, yeah yeah)
Everyone (everyone) read about it, read about it
Read it in the books in the crannies
And the nooks there are books to read...Chorus!!!
Tears for Fears - Sowing the Seeds of Love