Turnabout Nexus

[Katrielle Layton]

Mei had resummoned her coat and Snowball at Maya's request, allowing the drone to examine the newcomers. The medium looked at the robot in awe, reaching out to touch it. Snowball chirped cheerfully as she pet it.

"So what does it do?" Phoenix asked as Maya started chasing the drone.

"Snowball's like a field assistant. It usually flies ahead and returns if there's anything I should see. It even has a little chamber full of liquid nitrogen that it can spray out."

"Liquid nitrogen?" Maya repeated, having finally caught up with the robot. "Isn't that, like, really cold?"

"Yes it is--"

"But you WORK in the cold! Why do you need more cold?"

"You ever heard of cyrostasis?"

Before Maya could reply, Carmelita ordered everyone to be quiet. Mei tried to understand the half of the conversation she could hear; it wasn't very good from what she could tell. When the fox announced that someone's been kidnapping people in a place called Ambrosia, the climatologist tensed up-- that sounded really serious.

"You can't just go in there alone! We can help you!" Mei caught up to the vixen and turned to the group. "Right?" In response, Fury nodded.

"Of course!" Maya added, running up to join her. Before she could reach her, Phoenix pulled her back. "Nick! What-"

"Look, I want to help as much as you do, but we just arrived here 10 minutes ago. I'd rather keep you safe until we understand how this world works, okay?"

"...I guess you have a point."

"Alright," Carmelita started, "now that everyone's decided, are you ready?"