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Starship Kaiyō

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RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 33: Usowotsuku

Eleventh Floor Garage

The cool white lights of the garage bleached out Aratani's silvery hair and made it take on a blindingly white sheen. She had ducked her head and her face went into her white fringe's shadow and her focus was momentarily on the contents of her pants. She dug into one of her cargo pockets and moved to the sedan with a loping swagger. Rummaging in her pockets didn't deter her from taking a quick leap into the car and opening a window.

By the time Molli was burning proverbial rubber streaks into the squeaky floors of the parking garage, she had popped her torso out of the back window and procured a pair of grenades simultaneously. The more deadly Novacorp gravitic claymore she held securely while pulling the pin out of a smokescreen grenade. She lobbed the smoke grenade in between the car and the door to the fire escape, trying to obfuscate the rest of her team's pathing as Molli swerved ever nearer to them.

Sif's rally to protect Aiko didn't change Aratani's course of action. Sure, the raven-haired Chusa was a high value target, but she had also garnered an unprecedented two Order of the Blazing Sun medals and recaptured Hanako's World. If Sif wanted to believe that she was incapable despite it all, she could go ahead and do so and Aratani wouldn't stop her. But, hopefully, she would do so in the sedan and not out of it. Aiko had, after all, called for Sif to join up in the vehicle after her own evasive dash to the sedan.

Little did the Shoi know that the Ketsurui was less than combat-ready, even if her orders were sound from Aratani's perspective.

"Get in, cuz!" Aratani yelled out to Sif, having already absorbed some of the gangster's lingo by some sort of osmosis of being in their vicinity.

"Don't run them over, Momo!!" She thumped on the roof as she sat sidled on the window, not knowing if her words could be heard over the weapon's fire she was looking out for or not.
 
Eleventh Floor Garage

Molli maneuvered the massive hovering sedan expertly, turning it on a dime in the limited space available to bring it closer to her waiting friends. More of the Gumtree mafiosi closed in even despite losing a few; they still numbered around twenty bodies, so the Star Army squad's handful of takedowns only fueled the gangsters' drive to capture the meddling soldiers. Six rushed at William unabated by Sif's covering fire while another half dozen leapt at the armored Neko girl squatting in her newly-secured pickup truck perch. Another three slid up to Aratani at the window and grabbed her by either arm just after she tossed her 'nades, doing their best to drag her from the vehicle. Although the Yamataians truly formed an elite unit with even the greenest among them hardened by experience in battle, they were nonetheless on the cusp of being overwhelmed by a flood of rats.

Then they all felt it—the Kaiyō crewmen and gangers alike—a split second's sensation of quaking beneath their feet that even shocked up through the atmosphere to vibrate the stolen sedan's glossy panels. The ceiling closed from above a moment later while the whole building roared like a hellstorm's gale as everyone felt themselves in freefall before sudden darkness.

The Donut Room

Morgana's grenade trap detonated where it had rolled beside the stack of donut boxes, each package hiding within it a stick of smuggled plastic explosive shoved through the hollow pastries. There were over 100 yellow cardstock boxes stored in that room on the seventh floor, and the grenade provided enough impact force to detonate the plastique nearest to it and cause a chain reaction. The squad of riot police was instantly vaporized by the blast.

Outside, a huge gout of fire mushroomed out from the low-rise building's façade. Windows and neon signs for as far as the eye could see down the block and vertically up across the towering Nepleslian heights shattered as the shockwave expanded, and all of the police cars swarming outside were quickly hollowed out by the blast. Although the seventh and sixth and eight floors impressively funneled the explosion outward and flat, the Twenty Eight Gumtree apartment block sank two whole stories in the blink of an eye. Flame and debris rained down over the street not only from the destroyed building but from higher above where secondary damage chained off in other buildings that weren't quite up to code as a result of the initial eruption.

Ruined Garage

Despite the sudden and overwhelming violence, the sedan was still active and floating a few inches above the ground. Equipped with proximity sensors, the vehicle had done its best to stay between the ground and the roof. Though unsuccessful, getting pressed earthward all the same, the car's compensators worked to dampen the impact.

In the back seat, Aiko blinked awake and gasped in the harsh air filled so thick with concrete dust and smoke that it felt like she was drinking it into her lungs. And for a heartbeat, the princess felt clear and refreshed. Right before the toxin battling against her Eihei countermeasures slammed a tickling wooziness behind her eyebrows that made her slump back down onto the sedan's plush velvet bench. Still, as she began hacking up volumes of particulate from that first reflexive breath, she recognized there was more to do.

First tugging at Aratani's waistband, Aiko pulled the Shoi in from where she'd been caught hanging out the window. Then she crawled forward, lurching a few times when she miscalculated where the car's deck was, and reached over the driver's seat to find Molli. The princess gently wrapped her arms around Molli's shoulders and laid her hands loosely across the Nepleslian girl's sternum.

"Byrne-hei," Aiko said in a small voice, not quite a whisper, speaking directly beside Molli's right ear. She could feel the Jôtô Hei was still alive and breathing beneath her touch. "We have been afforded a clear path."

A clear path was visible indeed. Beside the pickup where Sif had taken cover, the upper floor was caved in to form a sort of ramp up to open sunlight. For her part, Sif had been thrown clear several meters when the building came down. William, Rio, and Morgana, too, had avoided much injury due in large part to their genetically engineered toughness and lay relatively close to the getaway vehicle. Molli, the squad's only natural born soldier, was lucky to have been in the car. The pickup truck and a few hoverbikes seemed intact, too, but most of the other vehicles in the garage had been crushed or flipped.

"You must wake up and drive us away once we collect the others," Aiko urged softly to Molli. She squeezed around the girl's neck to try and rouse her. "Ganbare!"
 
Ruined Garage

Something exhilarating in Aratani had been pushed further and made electric when the Nepleslian men began to grapple with her arms. It felt like every circuit in her body was opening up and ready to fight. And then, the explosion hit the building from the inside out. All of the momentum was drained out of her and whatever charge she was building was depleted when the car hit the garage floor and her body was knocked around in the impact.

Half of her body had been out of the car and she was left mostly unprotected by the sedan unlike Molli and Aiko. Still, it could be as bad as it was for the gangsters that had been grabbing at her, now splayed on the rubble and dust unmoving. If she had lost consciousness, she didn't know. The girl could tell her neck and back were self-repairing, though, as nanomachines flooded the hemosnyth there. As she took stock of her body, she immediately became aware of some nearby tinkling bells that thundered ever nearer to her. She looked around, whipping her head in a way that her neck immediately told her was not acceptable to do a second time, and realized it was simply ringing in her ears and not some new threat.

When the Ketsurui pulled her in, Aratani had reached out behind her as if reflexively trying to catch herself. She looked from the deep green bench seat at the black-haired form as Aiko fumbled to the front to aid Molli. Something about the soft of the velvet on her cheek brought immediate relief to the Shoi and she pressed her palms into it as if to lift herself up, then thought better of it. Her index finger pushed into the plush of the forest green velvet and smoothly bent to stroke against it like an inch worm, feeling solace in the soft, smooth texture.

"Ganbare!" She had heard the last of Aiko's quiet vociferations and woozily repeated the concluding word. In her shell-shocked state she spoke with both a finality and feebleness that truly underscored the importance of Molli's cognizance and henceforth capability.
 
Eleventh Floor Garage

Molli found relief in the knowledge that hadn't let her skills behind the wheel atrophy in the years spent away from Nepleslia, but that was near-instantly countermanded by the resurging memories of a typical Nep ganger's utter regard for his own life and limb. They swarmed the Kaiyo like leeches, undoubtedly realizing that a squad of Nekovalkyrja and an ID-SOL were world-class prisoners; tickets to better lives on a planet where there were very little good lives to go around. If they were captured, Molli was certain that the only fate that awaited her was a bullet to the back of the head, wherein her organs and cybernetic implants would be passed around the black market -- the Yamataian arm was definitely more valuable than the rest of her body. That's just how little native Nepleslian lives mattered on their own planet.

Didn't fight m'way off jus' to die like everyone else, thought Molli, whose stubborn determination instilled in her the courage needed to roll down a window and lean out for a better shot at the lower half of one of the men grappling Aratani. But then she felt the vibrations, powerful enough to shake the floating metal she sat in, and Molli let instinct take over and pull her back into the vehicle. It was fortunate that she'd done that, because the thunderous boom that plunged them into darkness sent her flying headfirst into the sedan's roof, before slamming face first into the steering wheel, throwing the Nepleslian's mind into the abyss of unconsciousness, where stinging pain was her sole companion. Dust and debris flew through the open driver's side window and the now-shattered windshield, coating Molli's unconscious form in dust like a coat of paint.

Ruined Garage

Fortunately, Molli's concussion hadn't driven her consciousness too deeply into darkness; Aiko's quiet encouragement and sudden squeeze of her neck was the stimulus that pulled Nepleslian back to the waking realm with a gasp. Molli hissed from her startled awakening, which sent a wave of pain throughout her body. Her head was pounding, and she could taste copper in her mouth. Diagnostics reports flashed through her metal eyes, reporting on injuries to the skull and displaying laceration sites across the girl's body. She closed the reports with thought.

"Wuh..." Molli coughed up dust, "Puh...Princess...?" In her concussed state, Molli's mind wandered to places that weren't appropriate, where ill-fitting thoughts distracted her from the current situation and made her body tense up. She'd dreamed about something like this after their first mission together, but Molli hadn't been covered in blood, dust, and glass in those fantasies, and Aiko definitely wasn't drugged out of her mind. Even as she came to her senses, it was hard to shake how Aiko's breath on her cheek was about the only pleasant thing in Molli's current situation. "A-Ah know, lemme just..." she muttered, unsure if she should try to shake Aiko off, or if she even wanted to.

Molli pulled down the roof mirror, which was only partially broken, to inspect herself. Shards of glass, presumably from the windshield, had flown inward, with some becoming embedded in her face and torso, where streams of crimson blood fell steadily -- at least none landed in her eyes. Molli's precious bodysuit bore plenty of damage from the glass, being tattered at the arms, with a few glass pieces tearing unflattering holes in its midsection, nearly turning it into a two-piece outfit. If Aiko's hands wandered even a little, she would've felt a slight prickle of glass and sticky blood beneath her fingertips.

Glancing to her left and right, Molli could see the smoke and dust pouring into the car still, clouding what remained of the garage in a choking, impenetrable miasma. With a click, Molli's eyes toggled to thermals, and what she saw almost made her want to look away. Dozens of still bodies, their heat gradually fading, lined the garage; people they'd killed in the blink of an eye. Molli wasn't a religious sort, but even she closed her tear-stricken eyes and prayed that innocent people hadn't gotten caught up in this destruction. She reached for the sedan's wheel and slammed down on the middle, which made the horn blare throughout the garage, and made Molli's headache throb even more painfully. It was a clarion call through the fog, a beacon that would hopefully guide the Kaiyo's crew toward her.
 
The gangster's knife sunk into William's shoulder as he charged. However, despite the cry of pain the assailant was suspecting, all he recieved in return was a sneer and a massive fist straight into his jaw. As the thug flew, William reached up to grab the knife but it was in that moment that his world quite literally fell out from under him.

The ID-SOL groaned as he regained consciousness. At first he was confused as to why it was so dark, but he then realized it was dark because there was a slab of concrete ontop of him. Reaching up to his shoulder he found the knife again and pulled it out. With that out of the way, he pushed the slab up and off of his frame. He coughed as he sat up looking around the ruined garage. "Well that sucked." He deadpanned, to no one in particular. With a groan and the popping of joints, William stood. Moving to one of the intact hoverbikes, he looked it over for any damage then started powering it up. Better he took one of the bikes and let the others take the getaway car.
 
Eleventh Floor Garage

The adrenaline made the tips of her fingers feel like it was touching a faulty wire as she emptied the battery of her gun. With the swarm approaching her, she could only take down three with what she had, and reloading was going to take too long. So she shunted the weapon behind her as if throwing it to the side, but the sling kept it on her person, secure at her back underneath the cloak. From her side, she took a knife in each hand, normal grip on the right and a reverse grip on the left. "DANCE WITH THE HERALD!" she cried as she met their charge. The numbers were not on their side, but something at the back of her mind just kicked in, as if her chosen persona possessed her.

As one of the gangsters swung down with what looked to be an electric baton, Sif dug the knife on her left hand through the thug's lower arm, right in between the radius and the ulna, then twisting the knife to lock her grip on him so she could maneuver the body somewhat to block off some of the thugs, all the while she brutally stabbed the side of the thug, aiming for the kidney and the lung, no less than three thrusts a second.

It was not her intention to be sadistic, but it was going to guarantee that this one wasn't going to get up when she released him. And indeed he just slumped down, unable to hold himself up anymore from the shock. However she felt something sharp hit her back as a thug on her right hit her with a spiked weapon. She swiped her knife his way, which caused him to jump back, letting her see the smug look on his face but also the confirmation that his weapon did draw blood. It looked like a meat tenderizer with galvanized nails welded on its face. His smugness turned into a wince however as blood started to leak from his chest. She managed to get him, but it was only a flesh wound, not enough to dissuade him.

And then the next thing she knew, she heard a great blast accompanied by a sudden quake. She couldn't exactly see what happened next as dust and corroding air covered everything. But she felt herself falling then bouncing off solid concrete as a roar assaulted her ears.

Ruined Garage

Sif didn't know how long she was out. It could just have been minutes, or it could have been hours. The lack of rumbling and sound of trickling debris at least signaled that the building has settled to its new collapsed state. The scent of iron was strong around her, piercing through the floral scent stuffed in her mask. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw why. Blood. A pool of it right under her.

She pushed herself up, leaning more heavily to her left side as a sharp pain kept her from fully utilizing her other arm. She picked herself up before lightly collapsing farther away from the blood pool. It seemed like she was the lucky one. There were some bodies strewn about, unlucky enough to either get crushed or impaled by the debris. She took off the mask for a moment, checking for any damages on it before a sharp pulse of pain behind her right shoulder reminded her that she should be checking herself for any damage first.

Running her hand over where she got hit, she felt the problem. Most of the damage was already mending, but a nekovalkyrja body could only do so much while a foreign body, namely a galvanized nail from the meat tenderizer, was still stuck inside.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

The sound of three bent nails picked from her shoulder was the only sound she could make out in this tomb. She could see that a part of the ceiling had collapsed to make a lean-to tent structure, just big enough for her to pace around. "How deep did I fall?" she asked aloud, hoping that a response might come.

Already she could feel her injury getting better, but she had to find everyone else. "First thing's first... Where the heck am I?" She picked up her mask again, straightened out the beak and wiped the dust out of the lenses. The right lens had three main cracks running from the edge where she must have hit her head on the concrete, but the surfaces on the front and back were both still smooth. She took a moment to lament how cool it would look displayed in her room before she donned the mask again. There was an immediate relief when she started breathing in the floral scents rather than the corroded slum air. The city could do for some filters or air recyclers. It's hard to imagine breathing this on a daily basis.

Then she heard it, the sound of a horn calling out. That had to be them, right? If they were still around, then it couldn't have been over an hour since the collapse. Of course, there was also the chance of them also waking up after an unwanted nap just now. No, now wasn't the time for theories, she had to find a way out. Standing at the center, she scanned the room until she was able to see a gap in one of the walls. She walked over to it but she stopped for a second, looking back at the small cave, her eyes scanning the floor. She walked off to pick up the nails and stowed them away in a side pocket, then she attempted to squeeze herself out of the rubble to a more open part of the collapse.

She patted her sides and her hands found her Impaler, still looking to be in good condition, though with a need for some polishing. She plugged a new battery in and intently watched it as it charged. The damage was superficial, it was still safe to operate. She was down two knives, and while she considered making a quick search for them, she decided that she couldn't waste any more time and began making her way towards the sound of the horn.

Sif carefully clambered up the debris, looking to get as high as possible, hoping that wherever she ended up, she wasn't cut off from the rest. Fortunately, she didn't end up too far from the last place she remembered being, appearing from behind the ramp to the surface. She waved to the others below and called out. "Didn't keep you waiting, did I?"

She winced for a second, but attempted to hide it. With the adrenaline wearing down, she could feel the soreness all over her body make themselves known.
 
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Eleventh Floor Garage

Even as Rio continued trading fire with several gang members from behind the car she had chosen as her cover, she knew that the other side must of looked like a cratered moon and she was thankful that the parked vehicle she had chosen as cover was sturdy one. Something had to give soon and the thought of failure briefly flashed through her mind as she took a look around the garage for the rest of the team. Of course Rio had not expected the building to be what finally gave. Briefly she felt the quake of the explosion below them before she was dropped into darkness.

Ruined Garage

Curled up behind her car turned cover when the building had suddenly dropped from under and around them, Rio had escaped serious injures thanks to it's presence. In the collapse a slab of concrete landed atop her cover and herself. Wedged between the top of the car and the broken floor, the slab had come to rest over Rio rather than on top of the young neko. Once more the sturdy vehicle had proven itself. Despite this Rio's head throbbed as she awoke with a start, reflexively sucking in a big breath of chunky, dust choked air. Taking stock of herself in the darkness underneath the slab, she realized the throbbing of her head came from a deep cut to the left side of her forehead, likely from flying debris. While blood still ran down her face, she could already feel the itch of it beginning to heal. Rio otherwise seemed to be okay, somewhat protected as she had been by the fallen slab.

After making a quick search on the ground around her that turned up her radiant, Rio crawled from underneath the concrete slab and into the dust choked air of the now destroyed garage. The garage looked completely different and almost alien now thanks to the airborne dust and destroyed vehicles, but she just could make out the light of an exit through the swirling dust as well as hear a blaring horn close by. With a thought Rio brought up the squad link and enabled a visual IFF box, thin blue squares and names popping into her vision marking the others. She rarely used visual functions, preferring her sight uncluttered, but under the circumstances she needed to know where the rest of the squad was located. With the visual IFF up Rio could now tell that Molli, Aiko and Aratani were all in the direction of the blasting horn while she could see Sif and William's icons up a moving around. Picking her way through the wreckage Rio smiled to herself when she heard Sif's voice "Maybe a little! That's Molli honking! We have to go!" she shouted in reply over the horn. When she finally reached the car Rio dropped into the backseat like dead weight, not caring too much about who or what else might be in them. "Everyone okay in here? Ingemar-Hei should be right behind me." she says with a tired groan.
 
Ruined Garage

"Drive!" Aiko encouraged Molli, her voice still hushed and close to the Nepleslian wheelgirl's ear long enough to say it before she slipped back into the passenger area. The princess' arms and fingers stuck on Molli's shoulders like twin snakes slithering off until Aiko had slumped down to lay on the ash-soaked velvet, leaving emerald paths cut in the concrete dust that covered the sedan's interior.

The back of Aiko's right hand came to a rest on her own forehead and then flopped off when she tilted her gaze from the ceiling over to Rio. She gave a quick smile and fleeting thumbs-up to Aratani's excited repetition, and then her fingers went limp again.

"We seem to be little worse for wear," Aiko said, answering Rio's question. Morgana followed the blue Neko girl a second after and joined them in the getaway car. "Are you still in the fight, Yoshida-kun? You say Sif-hei is on your heels—it will be a long walk for her if she is not," the princess added with a hint of reflective reverie on her tongue.

With that, and presumably the car moving forward on her order, Aiko thrust a hand down into the flowing black folds of her pleated ninja pants and produced her gold plated communicator from the garment's depths. Aiko's other left hand flicked the data card she'd been given by Yoldeen moments prior to his betrayal, rolling the device through each of her knuckles once and then inserting it into her device. It must have been held there, pressed against her wrist or palm with a finger since back then. A heartbeat later, Aiko pressed her screen a few times and swiped toward the dashboard on the other side of the bench she lay upon.

"Our destination," Aiko announced, letting Molli in the driver's seat and all the rest know. The map information had instantly loaded into the sedan's navigation computer, and a black screen sitting offset from the driver's seat displayed a green wire-line map of Funky City around them with routing directions shown as a white band through the skyscrapers and airbridges. "Now get some space between us and these police."
 
Molli continued to blare the horn, all while watching attentively for any signs of movement from friend or foe alike. Unless one of those gangsters had a metal skeleton, however, Molli didn't see a non-neko, non-ID-SOL surviving what they subjected this apartment to. In the distance, an engine's roar -- hoverbike from the sound of it -- made Molli jump, and she fumbled around for her pistol. Unfortunately, in the smoke and darkness, it was impossible to tell where the gun landed, and all of the glass embedded in her body would do more damage if she tried to search the floor of the driver and passenger seats. For now, she was effectively unarmed.

Their position was compromised, Molli knew how quickly the badges responded to violence against their own, having no illusions that the SWAT team survived what the local media would undoubtedly call an act of terrorism. She couldn't stay parked here, honking a horn, forever. Just as she was about to floor the pedal, a moving thermal signature came into view from above, one that her IFF flagged as a friendly. Sif's familiar voice was ambrosia, instilling the fearful, wounded Nepleslian more courage she'd need to hold on despite the blood loss. Like flowers, more friendly signatures sprouted, with Rio's sluggish and ungraceful flop into the car being especially welcome. It seemed like the only one who wasn't making their presence known was Morgana, and so Molli was tempted to wait for a little while longer...

But the princess's voice urged the Nepleslian to do otherwise, and if a drug-addled Aiko felt they were in danger, Molli knew it was worse than what she could've imagined. Luckily, Morgana chose the perfect moment to pile in after Rio, which just left Sif. If there was anyone Molli wasn't willing to leave behind, it was her.

The sedan rose up to Sif's perch, before spinning around so the passenger side door could open up for her. "Get in!" Molli said, her voice hoarse and weak from the dust in her throat and her blood pooling in the seat by the second. "Y'di'n't...y'di'n't call shotgun, but ah'm...given it to ya anyway," she grinned wearily.
 
Looking on from the ramp, the way down looked a bit treacherous. Not that she didn't have any confidence in her agility, but the way things were looking the car was headed up there anyway. While she saw Rio and Morgana entering the car, and heard the sound of another machine roaring up, her mind thought of the other Nepleslian with them, fairly confident that none of the gangsters would be brazen enough to make their presence known right after that collapse.

Sif wasted no time in hopping inside the car, being offered the shotgun seat, which behind the mask made her face light up, recognizing the term from one of her novels. Her blood-drenched visage was on display for the short moment she was illuminated by the car's headlights. Plopping her rear down in the passenger seat, she pulled the door back closed.

"Sorry about the blood, most of it isn't mine," she let out a chuckle, as she spoke, preempting what worry might have been felt for her and turning it towards Molli. Wasn't hard to imagine where the glass shards came from, but she was still holding strong. With a mix of worry and teasing, Sif gestured with an open palm in a circular motion towards her own face saying, "You got a little something around this area."

A bit of extra visual checks showed much more damage. She wouldn't push however, not wanting to delay their extraction since the lit dashboard with a wireframe map was already set to their destination, though that was her best guess at the moment. They needed to get out and fast before any more surprises show up, but she took it upon herself to keep a close eye on Molli.
 
"Girls love scars," Molli countered, though she expected the Kaiyo's cutting edge medical team would buff out any facial scars, so to speak. They'd have to pump in a lot of blood, too, with the way things were going. "Ah'm gonna be th'talk o'tha ship...when we get back." Maybe she'd keep a few, just to impress people. That was if they got out of this in one piece, anyway. "Shoulda wore a mask too," Molli said, finally allowing herself to lament the somewhat preventable nature of her facial mangling.

"Hold on tight!" Molli said before she turned the sedan around once more and floored the pedal in earnest, rocketing the car through the dusty smog and into the comparatively normal and less excessive Funky City cityscape smog. She followed the coordinates Aiko set out for her...mostly. Molli knew plenty of these streets by memory, even after being away for so long, and instinct took the vehicle down narrow alleyways and through civilian markets that savvy street racers often cut through to gain an edge against their rivals. It brought them to their destination faster, and made it less likely that they'd run into officers that relied on their dashboard nav systems to take them everywhere. Win-win.

The crew would've had time to talk along the way, but Molli wasn't much for words with her injuries and the need to focus on the road. She still spared Sif the occasional glance, and was relieved to see her injuries were healing up as expected. "Canyae look fer m'six shoota? Think ah dropped it... Ent th'end'a th'world if it fell out, but...ah...feel kinna nekit wiv'out it," she said to the masked neko. The drive also afforded Molli the opportunity to start picking a few pieces of glass out of her body, which she did with the precision and care of her metal limb. Each plucked shard came with a wince and a new bloodstream that made Molli resemble a living fountain, but she found it preferable to just leaving them in there.

"Canae believe ah'm gonna get uglier..."
 
"True, I always saw the appeal," Sif responded with a light chuckle. "It's like a story written in braille, or hieroglyphs depending on whether you're touching or just looking, right?" Her head tilted slightly to communicate the wide smile she had hidden behind the mask. Leaning back but not sinking as far as she could, she took time to rotate her injured shoulder slowly to check her mobility. A bit of pain still met her, but she'd be able to hold a gun straight while in the car and should be alright in a few minutes.

The neko didn't dally when Molli asked her to find her gun. Sif looked down and felt around under her seat before scanning underneath Molli's area, equally peppered with glass but a lot bloodier. "Wait, I think I see it," she said, bracing herself against the dashboard as she bent down low to reach out underneath the driver's seat. Her finger tips just about reached the gun's grip and slowly brought it closer with quick flicks of her fingers until she could grab it, ignoring the gnawing on her shoulder.

"Got it!"

Sitting back up, she made sure to click the safety on before pinching the grip and the barrel with both hands, flicking and wiping off shards of glass and blood that stuck to the weapon. She opened the chamber to check for any debris, pointing the gun straight down and between her legs on instinct. Then when she made sure all the moving parts moved as they should, she grabbed the mid section of her cloak and gave it a good, meticulous but quick wipe down before she held the gun by the barrel and handed it over to Molli. "Almost as good as new!"

"And don't worry about it. As they say, knights in shining armor never had their mettle tested!"
 
Listening to Molli and Sif's back and forth made Aratani like them more, but she had nothing to contribute and stayed quiet. She bit her bottom lip and sucked in air, listening to them but also her body's natural rhythms. The pumping of restorative hemosynth fluid had slowed to a trickle and she splayed her hand out in front of her, then the other one. Feeling good herself contrasted with the princess' demeanor, though.

Watching Aiko's fingers move the data card over her knuckles after just flopping from her forehead limply, Aratani seemed to be clueing in. For the first time, the Shoi noticed something was not quite right with Aiko.

"Chusa-sama, are you wounded?" Aratani asked, then turned to the bloodied driver to ask, "She get hit?"

Part of Aratani cursed at her equally uncouth and uncool line of questioning. Molli and Sif had just been bantering about how beat up the Nepleslian had gotten and Aratani was ignoring that and honing in on someone else.

Awkwardly, she added to Molli, "Showing it off less than you are if she did."
 
Stolen Sedan

"We all got hit, Koizumi-kun," Aiko said in way that sounded sagely and cryptic as if she were the healed veteran of some trench war from eons long past talking about some sort of figurative scars every soldier carried—rather than the steely Star Army officer she actually was—because she figured Aratani was asking about the explosion's aftermath. The princess assumed Aratani had heard William explain the situation earlier, and didn't think to reiterate it in her current state.
 
Stolen Sedan

"True," Aratani said, letting the word run for longer than usual.

Though William had spoken near her, she was taking in the donut-filled room rather than the quick utterances of her comrade at the time. Surely something the Shoi could work on was doing so, but for now Aiko's confirmation about taking a hit in the explosion helped to focus the white-haired cornflower panel. She pulled her Zen AR's sling so that her hands cupped it in their grasp before peeking out the window, ready to shoot down pursuers or, perhaps worse, any awaiting presence outside of the garage.
 
Stolen Sedan

Molli placed the revolver back in her shoulder holster with a grateful smile, "Yer th'best, Siffy," she said. It was hard to ignore the neko's pained movements, though, and Molli found herself stealing glances at her erstwhile companion with a concerned expression. "Jus' take it easy, alrigh'? Let yer healin' do its thing." It was a bit rich to lecture a bio-engineered killing machine that could probably take on ten normal Nepleslians like her with both arms tied behind her back, but Molli never liked to see others pushing themselves. "Cannae share m'braille scars wiv ya if ya bite th'dust," she smirked, having found something oddly poignant in Sif's poetic description of something as outwardly ugly as facial scars.

Molli pointedly stared ahead as they passed through yet another airbridge clogged with traffic. The neon lights shone through the car in a kaleidoscope of headache-inducing colors, advertisements of all kinds that beckoned for their attention. Molli long grew disinterested in gazing at those holographic projections as a kid, they were just distractions now. They looked more appealing than addressing Aratani's remark, but she couldn't let that comment slide -- she was too proud, and all too willing to defend herself.

"Next time, ah'll put th'drivin' on hold t'play doctor," Molli snapped back, her grip tightening on the steering wheel as she tensed up, "She ent dead." And whatever damage she took was nothing to the hemosynth that was likely patching up the worst of the damage. It was more than Molli could say about her own body, but she didn't dare say so. After all, she was the one who insisted on being treated like an equal despite her physical and mental inferiority. Using that as a defense would just be hypocritical, even if it was true.
 
Stolen Sedan

Rio never actually answered Aiko's question. She instead sat silently in the backseat, mostly listening and watching. In the car she felt drained, slightly unfocused and the cut on her head had given her a terrible throbbing headache. The mission had pretty much been compromised from the start, they had already been involved in two separate gunfights and had a building fall on top of them. Was it a setup or just pure bad luck? Either way the longer she thought about it, the more agitated Rio felt herself becoming.

It was the talk of Molli's injuries that made Rio finally stir and practically force her way over the center console into the front of the vehicle. "She can't enjoy them if you end up bleeding out while in that seat." snapped the unusually agitated neko as her own half bloody face appeared between Molli and Sif. "We should stop. I don't think we are in...good shape Chusa." commented Rio as she took a moment to look back at Aiko.
 
Funky City Skyways

"Negative," Aiko responded to Rio straightaway, before taking a long pause to stare at the sedan's sooty headliner. Her vibrant scarlet irises shot back and forth upon her sweaty face like she was watching something squiggle around in her vision; in reality the princess was silently listening to the conversation around her on a poison-affected delay, imagining a scene she couldn't really see. "I expected a chase, but Molli-kun seems to have guided us safely away. Better to recoup on the move than abandon our mission."

And indeed the battered Gumtree limousine, now more a jalopy than anything remotely luxurious, hadn't yet attracted a tail. The strength of Molli's street knowledge combined with the unintentional shock-and-awe wrought by Morgana's grenade trap left the Star Army squad with a clear getaway, and the Yamataians soon soared high and fast above Funky City's skyscrapers and their crowded lower maze of neon pathways. Only the stolen car's lack of any windshield—nor any windows at all following the explosion's concussion—impeded their progress any.

Anything above 25 miles per hour made verbal communication impossible as Nepleslia's smoggy breeze buffeted the sedan's ruined interior. Going 75 necessitated any non-wireless communications be yelled a few inches from someone's ear. But the drive from then on was otherwise somewhat pleasant as the late afternoon faded toward twilight and filled the horizon before them with the sunset's saturated gradient from pink and orange above that transitioned down to mellow yellows and toxic greens closer to the polluted surface. It was a view only seen here on Nepleslia, and Aiko, eventually able to sit upright without the synthetic Nekobane assaulting her senses, took in the novel sight while watching William at their flank on his motorbike.

The trip continued for about an hour and a quarter more. Around 90 miles later, the map had directed Molli far west from where they'd started over to near the Uesureyan Fields. Not the familiar and oft-visited base of the same name on planet Yamatai but rather another installation here on Nepleslia that'd been so named when both sister factions were part of one empire that spanned unbroken across the known Kikyo Sector of its age. That old base—heavily guarded and now the jurisdiction of the SMoDIoN—lay across a river routinely described as "nasty," and was off in the distance from where the Kaiyō crew ended up. At Molli's hand, their sedan descended down toward the fluorescent surface city glowing ever more brilliant like a big, garish beacon in the fog as the sunset faded into a gray evening gloom.

"Find somewhere quiet," Aiko had instructed Molli when they were below the highest reaches of the skyscrapers once again. Their target destination was within a 500 meter zone of interest. "As quiet as this place is able," she clarified, knowing that nearly every one of Funky City's blocks were packed and lively beneath the bright lights and bustle at all hours of the day.

Soon thereafter, the sedan and William's hoverbike were both parked in a relatively unused lot. Inside an open chain-link fence topped with spiraling barbed wire, it was mostly filled with industrial-sized garbage like stacks of corrugated aluminum, thin cast iron pipes, and then a few cars that looked like they'd been there at least a week. Mammoth brown sided high-rises surrounded the miniscule cutout between them, and the lower street façade nearby was sleepy so far as a Nepleslian megacity was concerned, mostly filled with foot traffic between a few bars, cafes, and other shops. Electric neon still lit up the place well enough here, but not so bright as day like some other places on this planet were, still allowing shadows to linger once off the main street sidewalks.

By now, everyone's bodies felt better having been given some time away from intense action and buildings collapsing atop them. Even the squad's two Nepleslians, assaulted by the acrid and polluted skies above their homeland, gained somewhat measure of a second wind. Such a break was something that soldiers could only dream of in wartime, so the Star Army crew could count themselves fortunate that they were merely undertaking an undercover recon mission on an allied world rather than assaulting a Mishhuvurthyar position elsewhere.

Aiko was the first out of the stolen sedan when it landed. Her movements were far less lethargic than they had been, and she appeared to have gained back her unwavering determination in every step. The princess surveyed the area as the others disembarked, taking in her surroundings as a matter of observational habit.

Chandler Park District, Funky City

"We need to find a particular establishment," Aiko said, wirelessly forwarding the intel from her computer brain to the others. "Take a breath and collect yourselves," she continued, wanting everyone to get comfortable and settled in the new locale even though they'd had an hour to calm down. "Procuring hydration is the first priority, however. Ignemar-hei: you will take point. Stow the mask. It is somewhat too conspicuous for this district."
 
Stolen Sedan

"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Sif said, trying to reassure Rio after Aiko declined to stop the car. "I'll keep an eye on her." She had seen Molli at the point of incapacitation, a memory that was hard to shake from her mind, and while she dreaded having her continue on while her injuries remain untreated, she knew Molli could hold on for a little longer. She would offer to patch her up, but at the speed they were going, that would likely cause a crash unless someone else took the wheel, though the tradeoff would be that navigation was going to be harder without Molli's experience with these roads.

Maybe that was what Aiko was thinking about too, or she just wanted to get away from the building as fast as possible. Nonetheless, Sif would steal glances towards Molli to check in on her from time to time, ready to grab the wheel if something happened. So far, nothing did end up shaking the relative quiet they were enjoying.

Chandler Park District, Funky City

Once they were parked, Sif got off the car and walked around and over to Molli's side to lend whatever assistance Molli allowed her to give. "Can still walk, I hope?" she said offering her hand with a lighthearted chuckle.

Hearing Aiko's order for her to take point, Sif nodded which was followed by a more hesitant nod when she was told to take off the mask. She understood why, but she had been enjoying wearing it. After removing the lightly damaged mask, she stowed it away under her cloak before she moved to pull back the cowl and hood that had been keeping her hair from flailing about, tucked underneath the fabric. She gathered her hair and pulled it out of their confines, flowing free from its usual braid. A third of her azure hair was blood red, concentrated on the right side.

"I was trying out a new look," she said, idly combing her hair with her fingers as she let it rest over her right shoulder hoping that her hair would draw more attention compared to the dried blood at the front of her gear.

She looked around their new area searching for a place they could get some water. "I'm spotting a few bars and... yes... there's a convenience store a bit further up. The glass wall looks clean, so hygiene looks good. This way."

The difficulty was going to be blending in with the crowd. With gang violence high, she hoped no one would question the cloak and heavy armaments she had hidden underneath too much.
 
Stolen Hoverbike

William was silent on the ride away from the destroyed buildings, his duster whipping in the wind as he rode at the rear of their makeshift convoy. Despite the gravity of what they had been through so far, the only thing that kept playing through the ID-SOL's head was, "This was not how their first visit to Nepleslia was supposed to go..." With a heavy sigh behind the skull mask, he continued on. He would have to work harder to improve the Kaiyo's impression of his rediscovered homeland.

Chandler Park District, Funky City

Parking the bike beside the sedan, he made a bee-line for Aiko. He did not speak openly, but the concern was evident to the princess. 'How are you feeling? Are there any after-effects? I can call a few of my medics; they can be discrete.' It was also evident to Aiko that despite how much the two of them had grown, the boy who had pledged himself as her yojimbo just a few days after her birth was still under nearly half a ton of muscle. He scanned their surroundings, bringing up NSMC maps of the area. "Let's move into one of the dive bars. They are sure to have what we need, plus I don't know about any of you, but I could sure use a damn beer..." The Captain replied evenly, none of the mental worry that Aiko had received bleeding into his voice.
 
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