Gun Running

[Madotsuki]

The Night Terror awoke to the noise of someone talking. She turned to find the man in the hoodie standing there, holding his arm up like he was speaking into a communicator. He shuffled about on his feet, seemingly nervous.

"Of course she's fine. ...Well, she came here with..." He briefly glanced at the dreamer, then turned back. "There were two holes in her chest-- not straight through, but... you think Rust did that? But I don't know what kind of weapon could even do that; looks like she got stabbed by a horn of something. Look, she'll be okay. I'll go get the package from her now. I really hope Nico got his numbers right this time."

He hung up, then knelt by Madotsuki's side. Only then did she notice the gauze wrapped around her torso. "Hey, that was quite the fight out there. Crusher chose well." His fingers reached towards the bag that had somehow managed to survive the escapade. "You mind?" Realizing what he was asking, she slung the bag off of her shoulders and handed it over.

With both of his hands, he pulled out a machine from the sack. It wasn't humanoid, but the dreamer hesitated at the sight of the metal. She backed away until another voice called out. "Do you really think I didn't take into account the malevolent robots that've been popping out?" Stepping out of the shadows was a lanky man with a dirty labcoat and brown hair. "It's okay... I think Crusher called you Madotsuki, right?" She nodded, and the scientist shook her hand. "Nice to meet you! I'm Nico." He raised to glare at the man in the hoodie. "And of course my numbers are right! What kind of engineer do you take me for?"

"The kind that blows up our supplies in a teleportation attempt?"

Nico pressed his palm against his face. "Just set up the teleporter already, Lennox."

Lennox grabbed the back of the teleporter and pulled it out of sight. "If this fails," he called out, "then I'm so going to kill you."

"Crusher wouldn't be very pleased with that," Nico retorted, pulling Madotsuki to her feet. He glanced at her with a forced smile on his face. "How about we prove Lennox wrong and watch my magnificence in action? That is, if you're able to walk."

Madotsuki nodded and followed Nico to a spot that had been cleared out for the teleporter. A small group gathered, curious but silent, around the device as the engineer whipped out a remote. After a dramatic flourish, he pressed a button on the controller and the machine roared to life.

Slowly, something began to form in the center of the device. Once it was fully materialized, once could see it was a crate of weapons. Nico turned to face Lennox with the biggest grin on his face. "I there anything you'd like to say?"

"No comment."

Over the next few hours, the residents worked to get all the supplies packed away. Once the last shipment arrived, the whirring of the device died down to a purr.

"You know, Mado," said Nico, examining the wounds under her bandages, "that teleporter works both ways. You don't look like you're in any condition to make it back up without any help. We can send you through the teleporter."

Upon hearing this, the dreamer raced back to the machine and stood on top of it, nodding at the engineer to get the thing running. Nico pressed the start button as Lennox walked by.

"What are you doi-"

With the sound of an explosion, the room suddenly filled up with smoke. After a few moments of clearing the air, the two saw that the teleporter had splintered into pieces. Madotsuki was nowhere to be seen.

"D-don't worry," Nico said, adjusting his glasses. "I can fix this."