The Strategist, the Hell Raven, and the Starpiece (Option C)

[Aadibah]

“Where and how far out is our destination?” Aadibah asked Tony as the two made their way from the front of the jailhouse and to the vehicle depot adjacent to it. The Stormtrooper lead her to a fence gate, where he pulled out a ring of keys for a several padlocks.
 
“That’s for us to know and you to find out.” He replied, opening up the gate all the way and gesturing for the prime to follow. “You ain’t out of the woods yet. Any information we give you you can be relaying back to your group, if you’re part of one.”
 
“Not yet, I guess. I just got here.”
 
“Then you shouldn’t have any troubles not knowing, just leave us to the navigation.” As they tread through the motor pool, Aadibah observed a wide array of vehicles that looked like something that could exist in real life, and something that you only saw in sci-fi movies.
 
The pair stopped at a set of four alien looking vehicles. Three of them resembled snowmobiles, with the twin sleds in front, but were significantly larger and made out of some strange metal. In the rear was what looked a fin behind the open cockpit at the rear and a massive turbine in the front. A top of the middle section was another seat and a futuristic looking machine gun affixed to the vehicle. The fourth vehicle was of similar aesthetics to the others, but looked more like a chopper with an oversized front tire, two cannons, and a jet engine on the rear of the seat. All four of them were sandy, dirty, full of dents and rust holes, with straps all over for holding bags, weapons, supplies in general.
 
“The fuck are these?” Was the first thing out of Aadibah’s mouth. Tony turned to her, grinning.
 
“Those three are called prowlers.” He waved his hand at each of them, “Light troop transports. They only seat two at a time, so we need a lot of them. Thing is out in the dunes you wanna be able to scatter, don’t wanna be all clustered in one spot. Then the one with the big wheel is the chopper, Shanna uses that to follow us from a distance.”
 
“You don’t tell me where we’re going, but you tell me your squad’s tactics?”
 
“I didn’t tell you everything, I’m just giving you the basics. Besides, I’m willing to take that risk, in case something happens, so you can help us out.” He shook the three rifle clips in his hand, “then you’ll get these back.” Stuffing the clips in an empty rucksack on the straps of the first prowler, he got opened a hatch on the front of the vehicle and began looking inside at the engine.
 
Aadbiah peered over the stormtrooper’s shoulder, into the mechanics of the alien craft. Her brow furrowed and her eyes almost went cross-eyed as they darted back and forth over all the foreign parts.
 
“I can’t make heads or tails of this damned thing.” She broadcasted to Tony, in the middle of pulling out a dipstick from a jerry-rigged oil pan.
 
“Yeah, well. Most of it’s Covenant tech, but over the years we’ve had to add our own stuff to keep everything running.” He wiped off the dipstick with a cloth, checked the oil, then slid it back in. “This one’s low. See that workbench over there?”
 
Aadibah looked over and nodded promptly, stepping over to a plastic container and undoing the cap before handing it to the Stormtrooper who poured half of a quart in.
 
Over the course of the next hour, Tony gave a run down to the prime of the inner-workings of the vehicles, having her start them up and give minor repairs, tweaks, and general maintenance.

[Clownpiece]

In hindsight, wandering blindly along probably hadn’t been the best idea. Utsuho’s vision swam, bright colors swarming about through her mind. All sense of direction was gone, replaced only by that vivid splurge, which was already starting to fade away. Reality flooded back into the hell raven’s eyes, way ahead of her own sense of being. Without being able to really tell she was even moving her legs, she took a few shaky steps forward, not yet taking in her surroundings, before everything washed over her at once.

Intense vertigo assailed the young youkai, and she tumbled forward, face-first into the dried out grass at her feet. The stiff, yellowed plants scratched at her face, and Utsuho couldn’t help but grin a bit. Though it was uncomfortable, it was a welcome change from the plain empty of that last place.

A childish giggle escaped her, and she spread her limbs out, welcoming all the new sensations. The glorious nuclear furnace in the sky rained its heat down upon the land from high above, bringing both life and death to this unfamiliar territory. No wind blew to rustle the dehydrated foliage, despite the long flats being suitable for it.

Of course, although this was a nice change from before, it still wasn’t the most welcoming. Utsuho placed her left hand against the ground beneath her chest, pushing herself halfway up. Not a cloud was to be seen in the sky. In fact, it looked like this place probably hadn’t seen clouds in years if the dustiness was anything to judge by. This land definitely was not home, nor anything even remotely recognizable.

Despite this, she wasn’t quite still at square one. The few foreign trees that dotted the plains didn’t obstruct her view of the horizon at all, and in the distance, she could faintly see something that wasn’t quite like any other silhouette. It was much more dense and clustered. The human village, perhaps? She hadn’t actually seen it before. It wasn’t often that she was allowed on the surface in the first place, and the little she had been was mostly around her reactor’s entrance.

Still, it was better than nothing. Back aching from her awkward half-laying position, Utsuho brought her legs beneath herself and pushed up to her feet. It was time for more walking. The hell raven took a few confident steps forward, her concrete boot kicking up a lot of dust, before stopping in her tracks, head darting around rapidly to take in the new scenery.

“Hello!” she announced cheerfully towards the dozen or so figures that now surrounded her from a safe distance, waving her right hand in greeting as if it didn’t currently have a nuclear control rod affixed to it. When the figures failed to greet her in return, her waving slowed down, soon coming to a stop, and being brought down to her side completely.

“What’s a lone prime like you doin’ here?” One of the figures, covered in dust and dusty clothing, finally gave a response.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Utsuho began. Grinning cheerfully, she opened up her mouth to continue on that tangent, before her brain kicked in again and she remembered her situation. “Oh! You guys know here! Do you think you can help me?”

“Sure we can,” spoke a second dusty figure, his voice deliberately low. He paused for a moment, mouth open and ready to speak again, but stopped short by the hell raven.

“Great! You see, I need something from a town around here...” sudden insight dove into her mind, and her smile turned a bit nervous. It was called the human village for a reason, she doubted a hell raven would be allowed in there. “Problem is, I can’t go in it. At least, not alone.” Several of the people exchanged glances, some starting to whisper amongst themselves.

“So yer in the same boat we are,” dusty figure one drawled.

“Oh, is that so?” Utsuho’s expression fell. “I really need to get there too....” A third figure hastily leaned over to the first, whispering something into her ear.

“Hows about this?” figure one said a few moments later. “We pool our strength together, and all a’ us strike at once. Witha prime at our side, we can all get what we’re goin’ for.”

“Ah!” the hell raven’s face brightened again, not seeing the fatal flaw in a large group of who she thought were other youkai marching on the human village, even if they had benevolent intentions. “Great idea! With my ultimate nuclear fusion,” she took on a regal stance, shifting her feet and raising her left hand up, pointing skyward. A blob of light and plasma materialized just past the tip, a miniature second sun floating above her head, “I’ll make sure no one stands against us!” Though her intentions were, for the most part, harmless, she immediately jumped into a rather violent train of thought.

“Yeah, yeah. Just follow us, and be ready,” the woman grunted, jerking her head towards the horizon and turning around, a silent command that caused the remaining figures to break formation. Deflated, Utsuho dropped her hand again, manifested nuclear energy fizzling out.

“By the way, my name’s Utsuho Reiuji, but everyone calls me Okuu.” Though it was a bit late, the nuclear youkai figured they might as well get each other’s names, considering they were working together. The group was already starting to make their way to a cluster of trees, and in order to catch up, she briefly lifted off the ground, rushing forward. This seemed like an odd direction to Okuu, the silhouette was in a different direction after all.

“Cool, I’m Hila, this is Bob,” the supposed leader responded, jerking her head over to the only other person who had spoken thus far. She hadn’t even bothered to glance back at Utsuho when she talked. “You can get to know everyone else on the way there.”

“Isn’t this one the way?” the hell raven asked, floating over the ignored masses, catching up quickly with the woman, and planting herself heavily on the ground by her side, her name already forgotten.

“Nah, see that grove a’ trees?” Bob was the one to speak this time, pointing to the cluster. “We stashed our vehicles there, gotta get those first.”

“Huh...” Okuu hummed curiously. She sort of wanted to question why they didn’t just fly over there. Maybe they had a good reason though. Like, flying would be suspicious enough. Most humans can’t fly. Except the shrine maiden. And the witch. And the maid. And the other shrine maiden. Maybe humans could fly after all?

That wasn’t a thought she had much time to entertain. While she was lost in her own little world, they had already come upon the vehicle stash. Four brown, rusty boxes on wheels, hidden behind the foliage, with a few broken branches thrown over the top of them for good measure.

“No way!” Utsuho gasped, rushing forward away from the group and up to one of the cars. Stopping roughly, she examined one very closely, head bobbing around in a very birdlike manner, sniffing occasionally. “Gas? Really? You could get entire orders of magnitude more energy efficiency with nuclear energy. Get your hands on a tokamak and you could run a reactor for years!”

“The fuck are you babblin’ on about?” Hila growled, strutting up behind the youkai.

“Argh!” Okuu gritted her teeth, ruffling her hair with her free hand. “And I suppose I can’t just pump a gas reactor full of hydrogen...”

“It’s called a gas engine, not a reactor,” the woman grumbled, ripping open the rusted door with a scrape. “And it’s the best we’re gonna get out here. ‘Sides, you’re a prime, ain’tcha? Just summon up a reactor or whatever.” All the woman got for that comment was a blank stare from the hell raven. A heavy sigh escaped her mouth. “Nevermind. Hop in the back, we’ve got a town to hit.”

[Aadibah]

Patrick had frozen mid-swing with his sickle, standing over the tall, dry prickly patch of brush he was about to clear. About half a mile ahead of him, where his eyes were fixated, were what looked like four jeeps hauling ass towards Carrefore.
 
For a few moments the young boy stood there, before the whites of his eyes suddenly doubled in size. His legs flew out from underneath him, still gripping the sickle tightly in his hand, as Patrick took off back into town. In less than a minute he cleared a hundred yards back, sprinted past his grandfather and some others who had been idling and chit-chatting.
 
“Bandits! Raiders! They comin’ in! Git ‘eh troopers! Git ‘eh guns!” He yelled at the top of the lungs, voice cracking occasionally. As he dashed past, townspeople turned their heads to out of town, where dust clouds were being kicked up the vehicles. Immediately all the men dropped what they were doing, tools and papers and other items falling on the ground, as they all ushered the women and children indoors as well as began handing out an array of small arms. Everything from scoped, modern automatic rifles to muskets were passed around. Any man that could not get a firearm opted for a bludgeon or a dagger, one man even brought out a crossbow.
 
The rally of the men was unorganized and sloppy, the second each one managed to get a weapon was the second they positioned themselves on a rooftop, behind a makeshift barrier, or standing right out in the street. One by one they began to open fire on the advancing vehicles, a series of snaps and pops and occasional echoing booms from black powder flintlocks.
 
As the jeeps closed in, they began to swerve side to side and spread out in order to avoid as many bullets as possible. The man with the crossbow managed to get a good shot in, an arrow sinking itself into one of the raiders in a passenger seat. The man in the seat behind him pulled a shotgun out of the dead body’s fingers as well as some ammunition before shoving it overboard.
 
The townspeople continued to pepper the jeeps for a few minutes before receiving return fire from the raiders, which was significantly less accurate coming from the constantly moving vehicles. When the jeeps finally reached the edge of the town, their tires kicked up a cloud of dust and sand that engulfed their entire perimeter. The men defending the town suddenly found themselves blind and confused, whereas the bandits disembarked with goggles and face masks. The raiding team began to sweep through the immediate area, breaking down doors into taverns and stores and warehouses. For the most part they avoided firefighting, but every few minutes several shots rang out as led was exchanged briefly.
 
It was when blaster fire began cutting its way through the thick dust cloud, and white-armored soldiers began moving through that raiders began shooting to kill. For the most part, the future age armor was able to keep the petty projectiles from piercing the wearer, but a few troopers had to fall back after a bullet made its way into a kink. Their aim was also leagues ahead of the rag-tag bandits, cutting down a third of their numbers before they managed to hold the advance. It was here when the fighting evened out for both sides, the raiders running around and grabbing all sorts of trinkets, tools, food, anything they could get their hands on. The Stormtroopers taking potshots and escorting civilians out of the fray.

***

“How good are you without your rifle?” Tony and Aadibah were double-timing it with another squad, sprinting down the streets to the source of the gunfire.
 
“You’re fucking kidding right?” The woman managed to spite out between breaths.
 
Technically you could still take them on pretty well. But the pneumatics aren’t bulletproof. Just tell him you’ll be fine, don’t let them know about it just yet.
 
“I’ll be fine. If I managed to close in on one I can take them down.”
 
“That’s good to hear, but stay at the rear.” The two of them filed behind three other random troopers, the one closest to Tony handing over to him an extra helmet. Aadibah snapped on a pair of goggles when she saw the dust cloud, albeit dissipating pretty quickly by now. The improvised squad moved in, and a shadow slipped into the open. There was a bright light that flashed past, nailing the silhouette square in the forehead. Moving further in Aadibah could see it was one of the raiders, with a light-machine-gun, that had almost just cut all of them down.
 
Tony turned back and waved to someone the prime could not see, “Thanks Shana!”

[Clownpiece]

The smell of burning gas assaulted Utsuho’s nose, the coughing and unsteady roar of the engines drowning out her attempts at humming something to distract herself from the trip. Clouds of dust kicked up behind the wheels, none of which the hell raven had to deal with, despite her precarious situation of hanging out of one of the windows. Her wingspan was too large for her to comfortably sit inside one of the trucks, so instead they had relegated Okuu to sitting on an open window, feet firmly planted against one of the dusty people’s legs, much to his chagrin.

As much as she wanted to socialize while they were making their way over to the human village, there was far too much interference. Wind buffeted her face and past her ears, billowing her hair and cape back and pulling at her wings. She had them tucked behind her as much as she could, along with facing into the wind, so the air wasn’t threatening to pull her right out of the window. The clashing cries of the wind and the engines did not make for good listening, or even talking. She’d opened her mouth once before to make conversation, and all she’d gotten was a mouthful of wind.

Her free hand held firmly onto the cold edge of the window, keeping herself stable as the village drew ever closer. Vague figures swarmed about in the distance, making quick, almost panicky movements. Utsuho wondered for a moment if that was expected. Well they were a bunch of youkai closing in on the human village rather quickly, maybe they needed to do something to prove their friendly intentions. Perhaps a nuclear flare? The hell raven quickly shoved that idea out of her head. As amazing as nuclear fusion was, there were a lot of people who apparently misunderstood it, feared it even. While she might not understand the reason, maybe they’d end up thinking she was attacking them....

A powerful, metallic pop briefly overpowered the wind and the engines, as a hole tore open in the metal immediately next to Okuu’s hand. With a rather undignified yelp, the youkai instinctively jerked her limb away, wings briefly flaring open as she flinched back. Wind slammed into them, and she was quickly torn free from her precarious seat. For a brief moment, she tumbled around in the air, panic causing the nuclear reactions within her to surge outwards. She spread her wings even more for a moment, catching herself in the air, and aimed her control back towards her feet, forcing all that energy that way.

THOOM

A subdued blast of nuclear power launched her forward, towards the next nearest jeep, barely keeping pace with it. Her left hand shot forward, clamping firmly around the window ledge in the front seat. With as much strength as she could muster, arm straining, she managed to pull herself up towards the opening, swinging her legs around and planting them rather firmly into someone else’s legs. Judging by the muffled exclamation, he too was not very happy about that.

As soon as she was steady, Okuu’s head shot forward. They were now almost right on the village. More holes sprung open in the jeep around the hell raven, each punctuated by the same staccato-ed sound. Fortunately this time, she managed to keep her head about her.

“‘Scuse me!” the dusty figure who she’d accidentally stomped on shouted, barely audible over the clashing roars in her ears, as he leaned over her legs and out the window, forcing her to lean back even more unsteadily.

RA-TAT-TAT-TAT

Explosive reports from the gun in his hand cut through the wind, and two villagers toppled right over. Utsuho’s head shot up, hoping to meet the man’s gaze. She wanted to demand him to explain what the actual hell he was doing, firing on the human village like that. Before she could raise any protest however, the jeep they were in swerved violently to the left, and whoever was in control slammed on the brakes. Both the hell raven and the man were thrown clumsily out the window. Okuu managed to catch herself in the air, hanging upside down, without slamming her head against the ground. Her companion, however, was much less fortunate, spilling onto the dirt below.

Within a moment, the youkai had righted herself again. Whatever he had been doing, now was not the time to start demanding explanations, not with the human village just opening fire on them like that. She needed to keep everyone safe until they could work things out. Her feet planted firmly into the ground, concrete boot kicking up a cloud of dust. Heat and power welled up inside Okuu, the nuclear reactions within raging even more, before....

“Move yer ass!” the man’s voice slammed into her head, shattering her concentration and causing the heat to subside somewhat. She finally focused in front of her to see all the figures that had been there were now silently slumped over on the ground. He was right. She had to find that woman again, the leader, whatever her name was, keep her safe. That way they could actually work this out.

“On it!” Utsuho took off into the air, soaring well above the buildings to get a better look around. Gunfire constantly reverberated through the air, along with other miscellaneous blasts that kicked plenty of dust and dirt up, making it all very hard to see. Not to mention that all the dusty figures looked exactly the same, with their leather long coats. She couldn’t even be sure that all the people running around down there were her companions. It didn’t help that all the villagers seemed to look alike too.

However, most of the still corpses she spotted lying around were probably villagers. They were far too numerous to be her companions, or at least, that’s what she assumed. Whatever the case was, a certain corpse-collecting Kasha was gonna have a busy job. And it likely wasn’t going to be very long before the shrine maiden showed up. Absolutely nothing was going the way she wanted it to.

The hell raven tucked her wings back again, and dove down towards the village, aiming for two groups that seemed to be on the verge of meeting at a corner. It would at least be a good place to start trying.

THUD

Dirt kicked up from beneath Okuu’s feet, her sudden and extreme landing giving both groups a large pause. Her eyes focused quickly on the first in front of her, two people who seemed vaguely familiar...

“Heidi!” she greeted loudly and quite incorrectly, before realizing that the familiar people in front of her meant villagers behind. Her heart stopped in her chest for a brief moment, her nuclear reactions kicking themselves up a notch. “Light Cover!” The youkai announced, heat swelling up within her as she spun to face the other people, a man to the left and a woman to the right. “Nuclear Heat Visor!” All that heat and energy erupted out from the large, red eye on her chest, turning the very air in front of her into plasma, humming low and casting a dim blue glow over everything. Several rather quiet shots buzzed out from the weapon the man was holding, bolts of red plasma racing forward with a familiar dull hum, before seeming to merge with her translucent shield.

“Hold on please!” Okuu half-shouted, voice full of desperation. She’d have been holding her hand out in the ‘stop’ motion if it wouldn’t have collided with her nuclear visor. “We came here for information, not this!”

“The fuck’re you talkin about?” the woman she had been shielding shouted back. “We’re both outlaws, ain’t we?”

Utsuho suddenly felt her blood run cold. Once again she pivoted on her heel, meeting the gaze of her supposed comrade through the humming plasma field. It suddenly became very apparent to the hell raven that she’d horribly misunderstood everything.

“Fuck it, we need t’get outta here,” the man at the leader’s side rumbled, his gun springing into life with its explosive staccato bursts as both of them began quickly backing away. The bullets burned away harmlessly when they hit the heat.

Outlaw

The word burned into Okuu’s mind. Renegade, rogue youkai. If that word were to ever apply to her, she would definitely be mercilessly exterminated by the shrine maiden, who was very likely on her way right now. Not the usual spell card extermination where everyone goes on their merry way like last time. Tears welled up in her eyes, her vision quickly blurring. She’d never make it back to the Palace, she’d never see Satori or Orin again. Her heat visor fizzled out as she dropped to her knees.

“I don’t wanna be an outlaw,” the hell raven cried out, voice hiccuping with light sobs.

[Aadibah]

Aadibah’s legs moved as soon as the blue shield collapsed. Taking a single step she cleared the space between her and the Japanese girl with wings who now had tears streaming down her face and was sputtering out nervous words.
 
Right foot landing in the dirt, her whole body leaning forward and left leg coming up from behind, the man and woman with automatic rifles brought their barrels up. Suddenly, the woman let out a yelp as a red laser flew out from where Aadibah had been standing only a few moments before. The blast burned a whole in her left shoulder, the rest of her body spinning around with it as she fell to the ground. The man that remained began firing into the dirt as he swung up his weapon, and the soldier closed the distance with a second leap.
 
Aadibah flew into her target, left knee slamming into his chest. The rifle continue to spit out led as the raider kept squeezing the trigger, falling backward into the sand where the back of his skull was smacked against. Without a half a second between, Aadibah brought her boot down on the rifle, crushing the fingers beneath it into the ground. The raider’s hand fell limp and the gunfire ceased. After that her other heel shattered the man’s jaw, and he went completely still.
 
Another red laser flew past the soldier, and her head whipped to the right. The woman had her rifle back in her hands, finger on the trigger, a black and crisp hole in her face. Skin, muscle tissue, bone and brain matter sizzled in place of her eyes and nose.
 
The dust particles hanging in the air floated about for a few seconds before settling into clothes, hair, weapons, feathers, and the ground. A few reports of rifles echoed from further down the streets. The girl with the wings stood staring at the two bodies. After a few seconds, the corners of her lips stretched ear-to-ear, eyes widening and drying up instantaneously.
 
“I’m not gonna get killed! Yay!” The giddy Japanese girl’s wings unfurled, giving a quick beat against the air and throwing herself into Aadibah. Her arms wrapped around the soldier’s waist, who let out an audible and shouting as the a massive metal rod in place of a hand smacked into her spine.
 
“W-what? Wait who’s side are you even on?!”
 
“Yours now!”
 
“So you’re telling us that you were one of the raiders?” Tony made his way forward, white and black rifle aimed at the winged girl. “The people currently going through and terrorizing civilians?”
 
“What? Oh no those guys tricked me.” The teen let go of the engineer and gestured towards the bodies with her left hand. “I didn’t even know what they were planning to do until I got here.”
 
Toby and Aadibah both looked at each other for a brief moment, Aadibah rubbing her back, before focusing their gazes back on the newcomer. “So what are you a prime then?” Asked the stormtrooper.
 
“A prime?”
 
“Are you new here?”
 
“Well I mean I’m new to the village, but not to Gensokyo.”
 
“Yeah, she’s a prime.” Tony lowered his weapon. Aadibah walked forward, planting her feet a few feet behind the Japanese girl.
 
“What is Gensokyo?” The strategist asked. “Is it in Japan?” She cocked her head slightly to the side, peering at the teen from an odd angle.
 
“Kinda. It’s a magical zone thingy-majig. Kinda like a bubble in the land that’s not really there, and sometimes people wander into it.” Immediately after the explanation, the winged girl paused, mouth slightly open and brow furrowing. “But… you guys already knew that. Right? Or were you born here and your parents never told you?”
 
“Kid.” Tony stepped forward, “Let me be the first to burst your bubble. You’re not home anymore. You’re in a place we call the Omniverse. An entity named Omni basically copy-pasted you over here.”
 
Aadibah walked around the new prime and faced her from the front. The teenager’s expression went from a drooping frown, then her jaw dropping, then a wide and sparkly-eyed grin, then back to a frown with her mouth wide open and water collecting in her eyes again.
 
“Oh no! Oh no no! Everything’s gone?! My home! Hell! I’ll never see it again?! I mean now Reimu can’t hunt me down now but I didn’t want to have get taken away for that!” She then looked back up to the stormtrooper. “Where is this Omni guy! I want him to take me back!”
 
Tony looked to Aadibah, “Listen, I gotta help the others mop up what’s left of the raiders. You stay here and get this kid to calm down.” The soldier nodded, and the trooper headed off into the streets towards where sparse gunfire could still be heard.
 
The woman turned to the younger girl, “Listen, I’m new here too. I’ve pretty much gone through the exact same stuff as you right now. It’s not so bad, there are good people here.”
 
“Do you think I care!” The girl’s voice cracked as she raised her voice. “I might not ever be able to see my home again! I’ll never get to see new Hell!” The soldier pursed her lips, brow wrinkling.
 
“What’s your name, kid?”
 
The Japanese girl sniffled before responding, “Reiuji. Utsuho Reiuji.”
 
“What do your friends call you?”
 
“Okuu?”
 
“Okay, Okuu.” Aadibah stepped forward, holding her hand out to the girl. “My name’s Aadibah. I’m gonna call you Okuu because as far as you’re concerned, we’re friends from this point on.” This was followed by a small smile.

[Clownpiece]

Aadibah...

Utsuho pondered at the name, tears starting to drying up as she gazed semi-blankly at the woman’s outstretched right hand. Her eyes darted for a quick moment to the control rod on her own right arm, returning again to the woman. It probably would be rude to just leave her hanging like that, especially since she just declared them friends of all things.

“Pleased to meet you, Aadibah!” Okuu greeted cheerfully, previous despair nearly forgotten as she raised her control rod up and confidently bumping it against the woman’s hand.

“...Right,” she responded after a moment’s hesitation, dropping her arm back to her side. The sounds of gunfire still filled the air, though now the faint revving of engines could be heard over everything. “We should help eliminate the last of the raiders before they can retreat. Keep them from pulling something like this again.” Aadibah turned away from the hell raven, and began jogging off in the general direction her comrade had gone.

Eliminate.

That was a delightfully strong word. Okuu’s gaze fell to the corpses of the two people she had trusted and, regretfully, led here. One neck twisted fatally to the side, jaw hanging loose, the other now faceless. Rin wouldn’t be coming to collect these corpses any time soon. They wouldn’t be fed into the Hell of Blazing Fires to fuel it. She vaguely wondered what would happen to them. Would they just go to waste? Even if they would though, there were more pressing matters to attend to.

She remembered approximately where one of the jeeps was. If she nuked it, they couldn’t escape in it! Nuclear reactions surged forward as Okuu leapt into the air, wings flaring out. Powerful energy burst out, through her control rod and towards the ground, propelling her in the general direction she had come from earlier. With the help of her nuclear-assisted boost, the hell raven easily cleared the run-down buildings.

Rooftops flew past beneath her parabola, and with a heavy thud and some supernatural balance, she came to a crashing halt on the last one before the vast expanse that was the Savannah, tucking her wings behind her as she stilled. Rusty browns and blacks shone dully in the bright midday sun. One jeep, square in her vision, was her target. Utsuho raised her left hand above her head, pointing skyward as she poured nuclear energy into a spot just above her extended finger. Plasma burned the air around the growing orb fiercely, swelling with every bit of power she put into it, until finally it was ready.

Though her eyes never left her target, she did take note of a few dusty figures, presumably the raiders, slowly backing up to their escape vehicle, discharging their weapons into the city. A cruel grin crept across Okuu’s face. This wouldn’t be a fun surprise for them. She swing her left hand, still pointing, towards the jeep, releasing the plasma ball right towards it. The projectile shot through that distance with incredible speed, humming lightly as it burned up the air it passed.

The plasma ball struck the ground just beneath the front-end of the vehicle. Unstable energy exploded outwards with tremendous blast, forming a massive pillar of plasma that vaporized the entire front of the jeep, and blew away the unfortunate raider nearest to it. Both the man and the massive lump of metal were thrown skyward with the force, flying almost half as high as the pillar itself. The other two raiders that had been trying to beat a hasty retreat whipped around as the explosion occurred, turning only to see a massive, glassy crater in the ground, their getaway vehicle smashing against the dirt after its long fall, half gone, and their comrade burnt up and still.

Utsuho let out an energetic and unintelligible cheer as she jumped off the building she had been perched on, spreading her wings and diving down towards the two remaining raiders. Alerted by all the noise she was making, the two dusty figures twisted around yet again, raising up their weapons to combat the new threat. Neither of them ever got the chance to fire. A single, well-placed plasma bolt shot out from the village out of Okuu’s sight, taking out the one on the left. The moment’s hesitation brought on the remaining raider from that kill-shot provided the hell raven with all the time she needed.

Her corium boot, driven by the momentum of her entire body, slammed into the man’s chest. Ribs shattered beneath the impact, and the raider was driven heavily into the ground. Utsuho’s mouth stretched up into a grin as she dug the boot harder into the man’s ribcage. A small bit of her power surged down that leg and through her foot, setting off a chain reaction of fission energy. Loud, rapid-fire explosions rang through the air, each punctuated by a pulse of light from Okuu’s foot of fission. The nuclear blasts burned at the cloth and flesh beneath, filling the air with a familiar, pungent odor.

Soon, the staccato blasts faded away, leaving only a very beaten-up and burnt corpse beneath her boot. The hell raven carelessly lifted her foot off the carcass and moved to take a step back to the village. Pain jolted up her right leg as it touched the ground, tender from where the detonations had taken place. A pained sigh escaped her mouth as her face contorted into a grimace. Not wanting to take any more steps like that, the young youkai lifted into the air and made her way back to the city, hovering a few inches off the ground.

“Hey you,” a white armoured figure stepped into Okuu’s sight from around a building corner, pointing at her. “Keep the vehicles intact, we can salvage them.”

“Heh, okay...” the hell raven responded with an embarrassed laugh, casting a short glance back towards the wreckage behind her.

“And hurry up, if we’re quick we can get them all.”

[Aadibah]

“Haul some serious ass you fucknuggets or that gook with wings is gonna blast you to bits too!” Three men and a woman sprinted down an empty street, heads swiveling back and forth, eyes darting all over the sky above them.

“Fuck fuck fuck! I don’t wanna go out like this man! Not like this!” A younger raider with only a magnum cussed at his friends. “Fuck you guys I toldjya this was a fuck-ass plan!”

“Shut it Norm and get in the Jep!” The first raider barked back, hopping into the driver’s seat of a four-wheeled bucket of rust and scrap parts with four chairs screwed down on the inside of the frame.

Norm hopped in the back, the other two raiders sitting next to him and the apparent leader of the squad who reached for the key still in the ignition.

“Wait the fuck what’s that sm-“

There was a short click before a shower of sparks spat out from where the dashboard used to be, the passengers of the vehicle suddenly igniting instantaneously in their seats. All four of them began screaming as the flames engulfed their bodies. The two men in the front spilled out, only guttural cries being ejected from their lungs. The second man in the back went limp after only a few seconds of being burnt, whilst Norm leapt out into the sandy road and began rolling around in the dirt. After over a full minute or two of him cussing and yelling, the heat was extinguished, leaving a young man covered in black and red. Bits of his skin and clothes lay about him, where he had thrown his body back and forth.

There was heavy footsteps, and a silhouette stood over the young raider. He looked up to see a woman with military garb and gear, and a hijab over her head. Her face was expressionless, looking down not at him but all over his body. Then her head tilted upwards, and she stepped over the boy over to the jeep with seats that were still burning. The heat distorted the air around it, sending black smoke into the sky.

Aadibah looked around the base of the vehicle, and picked up the .357 magnum that had previously been in Norm’s hand. Some of his skin was stuck to the grip, which she brushed off with a casual swipe of her bare hand. The woman flicked out the revolver, spinning it a few times, taking out one bullet and flicking it back in and peering down the sights. There was a click and snap of the hammer as she dry-fired the trigger before putting the bullet back in. She lifted up her jacket, stuffing the weapon in the back of her pants before covering it back up.

Then she walked away. The soldier never looked back as the screaming slowly subsided, and Norm’s body relaxed.

***


“Allllllright everyone it’s time to give a crash course in nuclear physics!”

“OH GOD PLEASE N-!”

Craca-BOOM!

The high-pitched screams of two raiders were replaced with the echoing thunder of a small nuclear detonation, brought forth from the rod attached to her arm in a spectacle of light and heat.

“Under ideal conditions, hydrogen atoms fuse together moving at eleven million meters per second at temperatures exceeding ten billion degrees Celsius. Wanna see what this atomic fire does to you?"

“ONE OF YOU FUCKS SHOOT THE DAMNED BIRB!”

“Time to give a live experiment! Artsimovich would be proud!” Balls of light and energy formed around the rod again, and suddenly three more raiders were vaporized. Black ash silhouettes painted the dirt beneath them, shrubs and other plants also being wiped away in a similar fashion.

Patrick craned his head up, eyes tracking the flying girl who now hovered almost directly over him. It was here that his grandfather’s calloused hand thwacked him over the head, followed by a quick cuss.

“Ain’t you gon’ be lookin’ up no lady’s skirt when she’s been savin’ yer ass boi! I dun’t raise you to ster at a lady’s unergarmens!”

The young boy grumbled something under his breath, rubbing the back of his head as he hefted a bucket of water. “Not like she’s was makin’ any attempts teh cover dat shit up…” Indeed, the flying prime’s green skirt was flitting about in the wind as she decimated the raiders.

"A near-miss of a charged particle as it deflects away from another releases radiation in a process called Bremsstrahlung. You won't have to worry too much about that because my ultimate energy won't be missing."

“Gentlemen.” Patrick and his elder whipped around. Aadibah marched past the both of them, eyes locked on the girl hovering above the raiders. Her brows were angled, her lips pursed.

[Clownpiece]

A strong breeze kicked up from the savannah around the village, blasting Utsuho’s face with air heated by her nuclear attacks. Below her, sprawled out and shrivelled up against the glassed sand below, lay many charred corpses, burnt to death by her ultimate fusion. A large grin spread across the hell raven’s face as she lowered her left hand back to her side. It looked like that was the last of them.

This still wasn’t enough. She swivelled around from her lofty position in the air, desperately searching out any possible stragglers. Figures swarmed about through the streets, young, old, dusty, and pristine, but none of them were the raiders that had called for a retreat. Rising up even higher into the sky, away from the tumultuous, heat-driven winds below, she continued to fervently scan the ground. Four vehicles eased into her sight, the four jeeps that they had ridden here in. One lay, twisted and horribly burnt from her onslaught, while a second across the town stood smouldering. That still left two perfectly intact, and seemingly free from any bandits. So it truly was the last of them.

“Gah!” Okuu let out an involuntary, frustrated grunt, her mouth falling into a frown as she descended back to Aadibah. Nuclear reactions continued to rage within her body, creating a surge of energy and excitement. She was still eager to blast some more outlaws into piles of radioactive coals. Her feet planted into the ground with a crunch, shattering some of the glass that the sand had melted into. The young youkai took in a deep breath, lowering her output to below normal levels. A small shiver of cold wracked her body as the nuclear furnace diminished in heat.

Calm...

“Well that was somethin’ else,” a voice from one of the bystanders broke through Utsuho’s concentration. In an instant, her power levels spiked right back up.

“I know, right!” She turned on her heel and immediately leapt over to meet the person who had said that. In a single bound, she had cleared the distance and skidded to a halt right in front of an older looking man, standing right next to who was presumably his son. “They didn’t stand a chance against the awesome power of my ultimate energy!” In the face of her boundless excitement, the man was forced to take a step back, lest he lose his balance from her invasion of his personal space.

“Er...” the man mumbled, searching for something to say, but was unable to find anything before being ushered away by the white-armored figures that flooded in.

“Now...” Aadibah stepped towards Okuu as the last of the bystanders were escorted away by the Stormtroopers. “What in the actual hell was that?”

“Well!” she cheerfully spun around to face her new-found companion. “That was the power of nuclear fusion, gifted to me by Lord Yatagarasu! As you saw, nothing can stand up against the ultimate energy!”

“I mean, how did you do that?” Her bright blue eyes stared deeply at Okuu, probing her for answers.

“It’s just a power I was gifted,” the hell raven repeated, lifting her left hand up and cupping it, palm facing upward. Nuclear reactions surged forth through her arm, hydrogen fusing in her palm to create helium, bringing about intense temperatures that formed a ball of pure plasma. “I swallowed Lord Yatagarasu, the god of the sun, and he bestowed this ability upon me. Dominion over the very atoms that make up our world!” Aadibah’s eyes continued to probe Okuu’s face, trying to find any possible deceit hidden there. This was just too impossible for her to believe.

“That’s...”

“Or perhaps you’d like a bigger demonstration!” the hell raven crushed the plasma ball in her left hand, dispersing it, before lifting said arm back up, pointed towards the sky. “I call this move, ‘Shooting Sun’.” Nuclear power rushed through her arm, coursing up and coalescing into a ball of energy floating just above her raised finger.

“That’s enougha that,” one of the white-clad figures immediately stepped over and forcefully lowered Utsuho’s arm, breaking her concentration and forcing that ball to dissolve as well. Turning to Aadibah, the figure took off his helmet, revealing a vaguely familiar face. Was this the guy that was with her earlier? “We’ve dicked around long enough, time to get moving. The rest of the troopers will clean up this mess.” On a silent cue, four more of the soldiers broke away from the group that was working on righting the mess, and began making their way to somewhere in the town.

“Oh! Can I come with!?” Okuu wasted no time in asking, voice eager as she jumped right up into the soldier’s personal space, staring up at him with eager eyes.

“Er...” despite his size, he was forced to take a step back from the youkai’s assault. His eyes flicked over to Aadibah for a brief moment, but immediately hopped back to Okuu. “Top secret business, that’s a no go.”

“Please!” she pushed forward even more, as if that would change the answer. “I don’t even need to know what the business is! I just wanna come with.”

“Just... hold on a moment, let me ask my superior,” he reluctantly gave in to her pleas, if only to get her to back off for a second. Slipping his helmet back on, he took a few steps away and began talking to someone. While waiting for him to wrap up his business, Utsuho turned back to Aadibah, who had been quietly watching their exchange.

“So just how top secret is this anyway?” the hell raven asked. It must be incredibly secret if they didn’t want a god’s power with them.

“I don't know,” she answered, shrugging, “They picked me up because they needed firepower.”

“Oh, perfect!” A wide smile crossed Utsuho’s face. If they needed firepower, her nuclear energy would be the perfect thing for them. “So any other reason you’re with them?”

“Not really,” she kept the same neutral expression, “I’m new here, like you. I met a man who helped me get used to this place, and came here from another verse, as they call them. The soldiers threw me in jail, thinking I was a scout. This is what I need to do to be released.”

“Huh,” came the simple response. The young youkai stared blankly, retreating into her mind for a moment, before quickly perking back up. “Well the faster we work, the faster you’ll get free! Let’s get moving!”

“Hold up,” the voice of the soldier stopped Okuu before she could even do anything, as he stepped back up to the pair, the helmet back off. “You don’t even know if you’re coming with or not.”

“Well what’s the word, then?” she hopped right back up to him, eager to go.

“I talked it over with Gary,” he responded, “He saw what you did to the raider’s and their jeep. You’re free to accompany us, but you’ll be as in the dark as Aadibah.”

“Yay!” the hell raven cheered, springing up and nearly tackling the soldier to the ground as she wrapped her arms and legs around him in a full-body hug. The only thing that kept him upright was a quick flap of her wings correcting the balance.

“Guh...” breath was driven from his lungs, and a moment later he wheezed, “Get off of me!” His hands pressed against her waist, and she was forcefully pushed off of him. “And none of that shit!”

“Got it!” she said with a voice full of childish determination as she landed back on the ground, feet planting solidly into the sand.

“Anyway...” he took a moment to catch his breath, eyes darting between Aadibah and Okuu. “My name’s Tony, you’ve already met Aadibah, and we’ll get you introduced to everyone later.”

“I’m Utsuho Reiuji, but you can call me Okuu, everyone does,” she introduced herself.

“Alright, Okuu,” Tony said her name once just to get it in memory, and turned to the part of the village the other soldiers had gone to. “We’ll get both of you a radio and a gps and then we’ll be on our way.”

“Whe-” Utsuho began, but was immediately cut off by the soldier.

“You don’t need to know. Do what we say, don’t disobey, and don’t ask too many questions or we’ll dump you off in the middle of the desert."

“G-got it!” she hesitantly accepted. Taking a step forward, Tony began to lead the way, and the two primes followed.

[Aadibah]

This is getting along rather smoothly. But what to do about this Okuu girl? This is some otherworldly power we’re dealing with. Then again, you did make a pen out of thin air, and you saw another man make a moose, and Hound made a hover bike.
 
But… why does it feel so familiar? To see fantastical things like this?
 
Aadibah stayed to Tony’s rear, Okuu at her side. Around her, a few civilian bodies lay in the street, but most were raiders. Men and women in white, shiny armor hustled passed the trio, in formations that were three wide and six deep each. Each column would break off to a different street at the order of a single commander at the head of the marching squad, who would jog off with the middle column to the where the raiders had come in.
 
While the strategist and the trooper walked quietly and in unison, the Japanese schoolgirl with wings skipped along with a rhythmic flutter of wings in each step. She hummed some random tune and kept a wide grin plastered across her cheeks. She also hopped over corpses without skipping a beat.
 
When they had reached the garrison building, twere a brunette woman came up to Tony carrying her helmet under one arm, long and black rifle slung over one shoulder. Aadibah squinted her eyes at her, and her desert camouflage armor. The helmet’s visor was also different, more narrow and jutting outward from the eyes. She also had fewer plates attached to her compared to all the other troopers Aadibah had seen.
 
Tony did not even break stride as she fell into formation next to him, giving a report. “That was the last of them. I checked, and took care of the stragglers.”
 
“Gary will like this. It’ll make an example to other gangs.”
 
“Well when you put it like that, it makes me feel like we’re the bad guys.” They both opened the main door to the garrison building, turning to address the two primes.
 
“You two, stand right here-“ Tony pointed to a spot precisely five meters away from the doors, “-and don’t move until I come back out here. I’m also giving my troopers orders to shoot you on sight if you deviate from my polite request. Is that understood?”
 
“Sir, yessir.” Aadibah replied with practiced formality.
 
“Roger roger!” Okuu brought her control rod up to her forehead, tongue hanging out slightly from her lips.
 
***
 
The Arabian woman slid down against the sandstone, plopping her rear end in the dirt. She let out a long and sharp exhale, eyes scanning the people milling about in the streets.
 
Okuu remained standing, kicking out one foot and letting it swing forward before falling back, corium boot thudding against the wall she leaned on with her wings.
 
Thump.
 
Thump.
 
Thump.
 
“Could you stop that, please?” Aadibah spoke up, rubbing her temples. “It’s annoying and completely unnecessary.”
 
The other prime went a little red in the cheeks and looked down, twiddling her pointer fingers together and shuffling her feet, “S-sorry… I’m just really bored…”
 
Aadibah raised an eyebrow at the teenage girl. “We just started waiting here. It hasn’t even been five minutes.”
 
“I know!” Okuu put her fist on her hip and let her control rod hang lazily, continuing to stare at the ground. “I just don’t like sitting still for so long. At least I hope it’s not long. But usually when you have to wait for someone it always feels like it takes a really, really long time even though it doesn’t.”
 
“That’s… Relateable, I guess.”
 
“Where are you from, anyways?”
 
“The Arabian Peninsula. That’s all I’ll say.”
 
“Where’s that?”
 
The strategist sighed and let her head fall back. “It’s the big ass desert between Asia, Africa, and Europe.”
 
“Where’re those?”
 
Aadibah’s head snapped and her jaw dropped a little as she looked at the prime, eyelids squinting. “You’re kidding right?”
 
“I’ve never been outside of Gensokyo!”
 
“You mean you know all this shit about nuclear energy and physics but no one taught you about basic geography?”
 
“Unyuu?”
 
“I don’t speak Japanese.”
 
“I don’t get you what you mean!”
 
“You know, like, the world! Outside of Japan!”
 
“You mean places other than Gensokyo?”
 
“Yes!”
 
“I’ve been in hell as long as I can remember though… so I never really even knew much Gensokyo itself.”
 
“Wait wh-“
 
“Primes!” A low, gravelly voice barked into the street, causing both of the females to jump in their spots. They turned to see a tall man with red striped armor sticking his head out the main door of the garrison building.
 
***
 
A squad of five members was organized around a table in the room Aadibah and Okuu were lead into by Kurt, as he had introduced himself earlier.
 
Gary straightened up at the sight of the two, and gestured to the table. “Up front, the both of you.”
 
As Aadibah stepped closer, she could see not only her three rifle magazines on the table but also two thick black bags, two handcuffs, and two white pills.
 
“Listen up, because you’re going to want to give us your full cooperation with this one.” The squad commander directed his voice into the both of them.
 
“At exactly o-six-hundred hours tomorrow morning you two will first put on these handcuffs, then take these pills, then put these bags over your heads.” He pointed to each item as they were listed off. “These are heavy doses of melatonin, a sleep aide drug. It should be enough to knock the both of you clean out. But before that happens, you will report to the motor pool and hop in one of the prowlers.”
 
It was here that Tony spoke up, “The one with seats and straps in said seats, I know you saw it Aadibah.”
 
The soldier nodded, and Gary continued, “You will strap yourselves down and wait for the pills to take effect. They will keep you sedated long enough for us to get so far out in the dunes you won’t have any damn clue where you are. This is a contingency plan, as well as a way for you two to earn our trust. Is that understood?”
 
“Sir, yessir.” Aadibah affirmed.
 
“You betcha!” Okuu gave the commander a wide smile.
 
“Good. Now, Kurt will escort you two to an empty cell we have. But don’t worry, we’ve thrown some sleeping bags in there.”
 
“Thank you, sir.”
 
“Arigatou gozaimasu!”
 
***
 
“Uggh, what’s that stink?” Okuu smooshed her control rod into her nose.
 
“Just the cells.” Kurt gestured to the men and women cooped up in the prison, most of them covered in dirt and shooting glares at the primes and the trooper. “People here have a hard time keeping clean even without being in jail. There’s just no water to go around.”
 
“I know what you mean.” Aadibah commented, gazing into a cell with a thin man slumped against the wall.
 
Eventually they came to a set of open bars, two green sleeping bags laid out on either side of the small room.
 
“Good night, ladies. We will see you in the morning. Make sure to get some rest.” The trooper made his way back down the row of cells, the massive door at the end of the hall opening and closing with a massive metallic slam.
 
“Welp! I’m bushed!” Okuu gave a quick beat of her wings, throwing herself into one of the sleeping bags. Aadibah reached behind and into her pants, removing her magnum. She flick out the revolver, pulling out all the rounds before slapping it back in and cocking the hammer. The soldier then sat down crossed legged on her own bag, cocking the hammer and dry firing the weapon.
 
“Oooohhhh! You’re not supposed to have that are you!” Okuu’s grin widened and her eyes narrowed.
 
“What makes you think that?”
 
“Cause you were hiding it!”
 
“What makes you think that?”
 
“You totally were! You had it in your pants right next to your butt cause you know no one would look there!”
 
Aadibah paused for a small moment, eyes peering down the iron sights of the magnum. “…You’re observant.”
 
“I have to be! People who handle highly radioactive and otherwise dangerous materials have to be!”
 
“I guess so.” Aadibah opened her rucksack, depositing the bullets into a smaller pocket and burying the weapon deep under the rest of her personal items. “You can keep a secret, right kid?” The soldier shot her eyes at the girl, hardening her gaze.
 
Okuu drew two fingers across her lips, making a “zzzzzzp!” sound effect in her throat.
 
“Good. Now get to sleep. We have to be on our toes tomorrow. I’ll wake you up if you’re not already.”
 
“What’s gonna wake you up then?”
 
“I just will in time. Don’t worry. Now lay down.”
 
No, you just don’t sleep that much anymore though, do you?

[Clownpiece]

A vague feeling stirred up in the back of Utsuho’s mind as she attempted to curl up in the sleeping bag she had been given. Something was being forgotten, and she wasn’t quite sure what. With her right hand, she reached out towards the fabric, intending to grab hold and pull it over herself. Instead, her control rod bumped against her knee, and the hell raven stared at it blankly for a few seconds.

“Right!” She suddenly exclaimed, jolting Aadibah up. There was no way she’d manage to sleep with that control rod affixed to her arm. How did she remove it, though? The hell raven stared, baffled, at the control rod.

Let’s see here.... Her hand was currently closed around a bar on the inside of the device, maybe if she rotated the bar a small bit? Clamping the rod into place with her legs, she gave it a quick, counterclockwise turn, and with a small click, several rods sprung out from around the tip. A low hum escaped Okuu as she shifted her hand back into position, and the smaller rods retreated back into place. That definitely wasn’t what she had been going for.

“What are you doing?” Aadibah asked, breaking the youkai’s concentration.

“Just trying to get this off,” she responded, glancing over at her new friend. “I accidentally released the control rods instead.”

“You’re not about to blow us up, are you?” the soldier narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Oh! Nothing like that, don’t worry,” Okuu assured her, smiling confidently. “The control rods are just for precision. There won’t be any really big explosions unless I push myself.”

“Okay...” she said after a moment’s pause, not really sure where to go from there. “Just try and keep it down.” With that said, she laid back down and turned away from the youkai.

Okuu meekly hummed an affirmative, turning back to the problem at hand. Almost instantly, the realization hit her like a brick, and she found herself turning bright red. Holding the rod between her legs again, she let go of the bar and simply pulled her arm out of the device. With a deep sigh, she set it off to the side, sparing a quick glance towards Aadibah, who remained still, likely trying to sleep.

Since that ordeal was finished, it was time for her to sleep as well. The hell raven slipped further into the sleeping bag, enveloping herself up to her the base of her wings in the warm fabric. Leaning against the cold stone of the cell, she closed her eyes. Tomorrow would certainly be another fun day, and the sooner she got to it, the better.

***

Silence hung heavily over the room, stirred only faintly by the breaths each of the five members of the Dingo Squad took. They knew they should probably have been getting rest for the trip tomorrow, but that was never how these things worked out.

“Just fucking great...” Gary mumbled, the first to break the silence, swivelling his chair away from the desk and computer.

“At least casualties were in the single digits,” came the even-toned voice of Kurt, sitting in a stool next to him.

“We all know that’s not the problem here,” said Shana, from where she leaned against the wall. “Carrefore is gonna be short two prowlers, a chopper, and five troopers, and with how uppity the raiders get every time a prime comes their way, we can’t afford to be any more undermanned than we already are.”

“You already know how hesitant the higher-ups are about giving us more troopers. They don’t give a shit about some barren wasteland,” Gary sighed into his hands. “Odds are we’ll be getting the bottom of the barrel a week late. And it’s not like they’ll know we’re short, but it’s like Shana said. Doing this quietly ain’t gonna help if some group out there recruits some other dumbass prime. And I doubt the next one is gonna be as easily swayed as the bird.”

“We could order an outpost back in.”

“Ain’t happenin’ Kurt,” Shana responded, “And you know damn well why.”

“This time we’ve got primes,” Tony interjected from his desk, spinning to face his comrades. “We finish this up and have them clear it out for us. No lost troopers.”

“If you want the outpost levelled, sure,” Gary interjected. “You know primes. Collateral damage doesn’t mean shit to them. If you could summon up an entirely new tank each time someone blew a hole in yours, you wouldn’t give a fuck either. Besides, there’s no guarantee they’d succeed.”

“The alternative. Is. Worse.” Rose signed quick, before turning back to her monitor.

“If we come back to a trashed Carrefore, it doesn’t matter what high-priority mission we were sent on,” said Kurt. “Our asses will be canned. Especially if this star turns out to be nothing.”

“What are the odds of that, though?” Gary asked. “The Kingdom, Empire, and even random-ass primes are interested in this shit. This isn’t a false alarm.”

“So we can’t call in an outpost, and we can’t leave Carrefore short-staffed.” Shana said. “What can we do then? Leave someone behind?”

“...Actually might not be that bad of an idea,” Tony responded. “We’ve got two primes who are willing and able to help. They should be able to provide enough extra firepower to at least make up for one of us.”

“It wouldn’t make up for the missing vehicles,” Kurt followed up, “But at the least the trooper shortage would be more manageable.”

“But who?” Tony asked.

“Well, what do we know about the primes so far?” Shana replied.

“For Aadibah...” Gary began, swivelling his chair around to look at some papers on his desk. “It seems she was a combat engineer in her past life. We don’t know how accomplished of a soldier she was though. She hasn’t exactly been open. At least we can count on emergency repairs if one of the prowlers breaks down. And for Reiuji... Nuclear fusion, was it? She’s not a soldier, but that doesn’t really matter because she blew up a fucking jeep with her finger. Simple enough, we point her at the enemy and she obliterates them.”

“I guess that makes things simple,” Tony said, pushing himself to his feet. “Let’s keep the collateral damage to a minimum.”

“Alright, keep us updated,” Gary responded, rising from his seat as well. “We’ll see you again when we get back.”

***

“Rise and shine,” a voice, accompanied by a hand on her shoulder stirred Utsuho up from her sleep.

“...Later...” the young youkai groaned, voice groggy. She curled her wings around her body, as if trying to shield herself from the onslaught.

“No, now.” The voice, that Okuu now recognized as Aadibah, grew stronger. Her demand was punctuated by a heavy thud against her right foot. A small, sleepy giggle escaped her, as the soldier’s foot slammed into her concrete boot, causing her to curse loudly. Almost instantly, two hands clamped onto her shoulders with a vice-like grip, driving in a spear of pain that woke up Okuu in a moment.

“I’m sorry! I’m up, I’m up!” she protested, hands flying up and latching onto Aadibah’s wrists.

“Good,” she growled, releasing her grip. “We don’t have time to dick around so grab your... rod there, and let’s get going.”

“Yessir!” Utsuho affirmed as she got to her feet as quickly as she could. “Do you think they’ll let me keep the sleeping bag?” She wasn’t used to sleeping without the fires of hell to warm her. The only reason she was able to sleep last night was by keeping the nuclear reactions burning. It had been a low burn, but she was probably running a bit low on fuel right now.

“They probably have some already packed,” Aadibah responded, stepping over to the cell door.

“I hope so,” she replied, picking her control rod up off the ground, and following the soldier. 

***

“Alright...” Utsuho mumbled, staring blankly at the assortment of items lying in front of her, along with the vehicle she had been led to. This must have been the one that the troopers were talking about yesterday, and it seemed off. “Is... is that safe?” she asked as she turned towards her friend, pointing at the seats seemingly macgyvered to the odd, sled-looking protrusions jutting out from about where the engine was. Though the hell raven didn’t know what sort of power this odd machine ran on, it probably wasn’t cool by any stretch of the imagination.

Aadibah, now noticing the same thing, frowned. “I... assume that it must be...” she responded, “They wouldn’t have put it there otherwise.”

“That seems like a recipe for burns...” Okuu muttered, setting her control rod down against the seat as she leaned towards the engine for closer inspection. With the cool, early morning sunlight, there wasn't much to be seen, however.

“Well, we don’t have time to debate whether it’s safe or not,” the soldier said, already climbing into her seat. “Get in the seat, get the handcuffs on, take the melatonin, get your sack on.”

“First!” she exclaimed, not yet following the order, “Wrap yourself up in this!” She reached her hands back, between the base of her wings, where her cape was tied up, and with an unusually deft movement, untied it. With a quick hop onto the sled portion, her corium boot thumping hard against the metal, she reached over the top of the vehicle, presenting the brilliantly starry fabric to her comrade, and continued. “It can withstand fusion-level temperatures. All my clothes do, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to use my nuclear fusion.” Aadibah’s gaze jumped between the youkai’s face and the fabric in her hands. “...Well, I would still be able to use it. It would just be...”

“Thank you,” she cut off Okuu, taking the cape from her hands. “But hurry up.”

“Okay!” the hell raven replied, smiling brightly, and dropped into her seat.

[Aadibah]

Aadibah held out the cape that had been handed to her. Her eyes almost crossed as she gazed into the celestial fabric, mouth hanging slightly agape.

 
“Y'allah…” Aadibah’s voice was exasperated and airy.
 
“Yeah pretty cool ain’t it?” Utsuho put her fist to her chest, standing up straight with a grin, other fist on her hip.
 
“Cool doesn’t even begin describe it…” Aadibah threw the cape over one shoulder, tying the first corner to the right shoulder strap on her uniform and then the other.
 
The soldier moved to the seat, putting a boot on the sled and gripping a strap before pulling herself up. She plopped herself down in the cracked leather cushion, stuffing falling out of  several holes. Dust kicked up around her face, and Aadibah waved her hand around in the air while coughing, eyelids scrunching up.
 
“Now where…” The strategist’s hands patted all over the ropes and clamps around her, until two  crisscrossing yellow seatbelts with a buckle at their intersection. She brought them forward, clipping it place and tightening it against her chest.
 
“Alright, now I guess we just wait here for the meds to-“ The prime’s head fell forward, chin and thus jaw clicking her teeth against her sternum.
 
***
 
Tony held his hand over his eyes, rising sun casting an orange hue over the sandy color buildings, sandy vehicles, sandy armor, sandy equipment, and sand. “Fine day for a ride. Glad I don’t have to be with for babysitting duty, tho’.” He said this with a slight chuckle blending in at the end of his sentence.
 
“Shove it.” The gravel in Gary’s voice was especially ground up, and he stepped around the prowler to see the two primes slumped over in their spots. With his blaster rifle he poked the Japanese teen, first in the leg, arm, then face. He did the same with the Muslim, adding a step that involved putting a bruise in her shoulder with his fist, before nodding. “Looks like they were compliant.”
 
Shana walked past the two as this occurred, peeking at Gary before mumbling “You like hittin’ defenseless women boss?” Under her breath. The squad leader sneered at her, which elicited a small grin as she loaded her rifle and gear onto her chopper.
 
“Ahm pretty sure that the kid can’t act worth shit-“ He hooked a thumb back at Aadibah, “-But this one’s got mah skin crawlin’.”
 
“I am of similar feeling.” Kurt lumbered over. “She hides things from us. Talks around the truth. Omits information. I know someone like that when I see them.”
 
“How many primes come from lives they want to forget, though?” Tony interjected, holding out both his arms, palms up. “She’s a soldier. Soldiers aren’t always put in the easiest of situations.”
 
“Or she’s just, ya know, quiet.” Shana’s quiet voice cut in. Everyone else turned their heads, squinting their eyes. The sniper just giggled. Rose scuttle past, bee-lining straight over to the second prowler. She slung a radio pack off her shoulder, tying it down before taking a seat and quietly watched the scene, hands on her lap.
 
“Well, whatever kinda pull she mighta had before, she don’t got now.” Gary scratched his chin as he made his way over the driver’s seat of the primes’ prowler, hitting a few switches before the whole thing let out a rumbling, then a high-pitched whirring, then the visible engine spun up. Kurt made his way over to the second vehicle, repeating the same process.
 
***
 
“Aadibah, we’re close to the drop zone. Everyone’s ready.” A voice shook her out of her trance. The woman hadn’t realized she’d fallen back asleep, and the hand shaking her shoulder elicited a jerk. Her head whipped forward from leaning against the back of the seat, and the woman could feel the wind and sand whipping against her face. She could barely get her eyes open, let alone hear anything other than the air slapping her cheeks.
 
Eventually she squinted through a slit between a combination of her fingers and her keffiyeh, and before her lay indistinctive dunes upon indistinctive dunes. She turned her head to the left, seeing a white helmet and white armor on a very large man, currently operating the vehicle she was attached to. To her right, she could see another one of the prowlers ahead, sleds kicking up sand that showered her over.
 
Well, their idea worked. You have absolutely no clue where in this hot-hell you are.

[Clownpiece]

Consciousness slowly bloomed back into Utsuho’s mind, slowly fading in and out with the almost rhythmic bobbing of the sled. From right next to her ear came a mechanical hum, the quiet growl of the engine growing steadily louder as she came to. Exhaust heat blasted at her face, filling her with a welcome plasma-like warmth. A shallow smile crept onto the hell raven’s face as she basked in the glorious warmth from both the engine and the sun. In her absentminded daze, paying no heed to the sand nor air buffeting her face, she stretched out her arms and wings, smile opening up into a wide yawn. Wind slammed against the young youkai’s outstretched wings, and the sled she was on slammed against the dunes.

“SHIT,” an exclamation from her side easily drowned out the vehicles roar. Every ounce of sleep left in her was instantly purged, and Okuu’s eyes shot open, only to be instantly assaulted by blasts of sand. A cry escaped the girl, cut off abruptly by a sudden jerk of the vehicle throwing her against, and pinning her to the belts holding her in the seat.

“CLOSE YOUR GODDAMN WINGS,” the voice screamed again, an order that Utsuho instinctively listened to. The youkai instantly pulled her raven wings back in, and almost immediately the force pushing her against the restraints eased up completely. Neither wind nor sand buffeted her face anymore, and after a moment, the only sound she had been hearing, the smooth humming of the engine cut out too.

“God fucking damn...” the voice, who she now recognized as Gary, sighed unsteadily. Metal clanked quietly to the side, from where the soldier had undoubtedly been dismounting. Utsuho’s blood ran cold, and trying to distract herself from what was to come, she lifted her bound hands up to her eyes and frantically began trying to rub out the sand. “Don’t rub it in,” Gary growled, pure fury in his tone as his armored hands grabbed hold of hers and forcefully removed them from her eyes. “What the actual fuck was that?”

“Ahm sowwy,” Okuu spluttered, mouth dry and full of sand. Tears began to well up in her eyes, half because of the irritation from the sand, and half from the sheer force of the anger in Gary’s voice.

“That could have gotten us kille-” he cut himself off, muttering a quick expletive as the youkai broke into sobs. A zipper squeaked open somewhere to Okuu’s side, barely audible over her hiccuping breath. After a brief few moments of rustling, a gloved hand grabbed onto her chin, and forced her head to tilt upwards. Warm water splashed over her face and still-closed eyes, some of it finding its way up her nose. A short series of coughs wracked her body.

“Now,” the soldier said, talking over the hell raven’s coughs as he forced the canteen into her hand. “Clear that sand outta your mouth and answer my question.”

“Yethir,” Okuu affirmed, cracking her eyes open as the sand cleared out of them. Bright sunlight stung at her eyes as she slowly adjusted, lifting the canteen to her mouth. After taking a quick mouthful of the lukewarm water, she spat it, and all the sand she’d almost eaten, onto the orange dunes below. “I-” she hiccuped, “I f-forgot where I was.”

“Well, it don’t fuckin’ matter now since we’re close enough,” another sigh escaped from the tear-blurred form of Gary as he took a small step back. “But don’t pull that shit again,” he ordered, turning away from the vehicle.

“Yessir...” she mumbled, fumbling for the latches on the restraints. After a moment, they clicked open, and she rose from her seat. Her cuffed hands quickly lifted to her face and she began wiping away the water.

“Hey,” another familiar voice grabbed her attention from her left. Dropping her hands, she turned to the sound, eyes falling upon Aadibah, who was also standing. Her face was completely covered by a sandy-brown cloth, save for her bright blue eyes. “Your uh... control rod? Is over here.” She pointed down towards a spot on the other side of the vehicle.

“Ah, thanks,” Okuu responded, trying her best to smile, before turning frontward again and hopping off the sled.

“Alright.” Gary said the moment her feet touched the ground, armor shining dully in the midday sunlight as he turned back to hell raven. “Yer also gonna take the time to summon us some more water when we get the chance,” he gave what seemed to be an impossible task, as his black-gloved hands fiddled with her handcuffs. With a quick click, her wrists were freed from the warm metal restraints. A small smile crept across Okuu’s face as she spread her arms and wings out again. At last, she was able to stretch, and bring some energy back into her tired body.

The unfeeling, black eyeholes of Gary’s helmet stared at her for a moment longer, then wordlessly, he turned and stepped around the Prowler over to Aadibah. Dropping her arms and tucking her wings back behind her, she followed suit, peering around the side of it and looking for her control rod.

“Thank you,” the soldier’s voice followed the familiar click of her handcuffs being removed. Sunlight glinted off the yellow metal of the youkai’s weapon, and the forced grin that had been on her face became real. Pressing her body up against the vehicle, she slipped just past Gary, careful not to bump him. Her hands shot up to the straps securing it to the side, and she quickly unfastened them one by one, freeing it.

“Alright,” the stormtrooper said the moment she retrieved it, turning away from them and stepping forward. “Follow me.”

“Yessir,” Okuu and Aadibah responded simultaneously. The hell raven slid her right arm back into the control rod as she peered forward, searching for whatever Gary was leading them to.  All she could see was a vaguely sand colored, erratic shape that didn’t quite seem like it the surrounding dunes. The only thing that made it even remotely stand out was the form of the first Prowler sitting idly next to it, with two vague silhouettes that were probably the other soldiers. She started forward, staring blankly at the scene ahead. Looked like they had kept good on their promise, she had no idea what was going on.

[Aadibah]

“It’s those fucking Star Wars geeks.”

“That’s a pretty old reference, like over two-hundred years old.”
 
“Yeah and you got it too so shut your trap.”
 
Peering through a monocular, a marine in sparse plate armor and helm, accented with sandy camouflage colors and clothing, stood next to another in similar wear. The main difference between the two was the red stripes on the helmet of the one scanning the horizon, compared the blue stripes on other’s helmet. Both men wiped sand from their tinted orange fixed visors about every five minutes as sand blew over the top of the outpost’s crenulations. Directly below, where the base of the wall sunk into the dunes, a prowler was parked outside the front door. A third marine, M6G magnum at their hip, chatted with the white-armored soldiers.
 
**
 
“It’s as we morsed over to Rose, a bunch of wizards from the Kingdom poking around out here.”
 
“Nobody says ‘morsed’, Reginald.”
 
“Fuck you. Figured we let you know since they’d probably start causing trouble. We’ve got enough problems as it is not dying, don’t want a bunch of raiders that got kicked out of their shit holes to start scouting for fresh real estate.”
 
“I dunno.” Kurt looked over the fort, “I think the base would look great with some leather, human flesh, maybe a few bones...”
 
Reginald squinted at the stormtrooper, arms crossed. “Well? What’s the plan? You gonna kick ‘em out or what?”
 
“Likely.” The trooper put their fists on their hips, turning around towards the prowler hanging farther back. “We got a few primes that command wants us to keep along for this Op. Hell if I know why, apparently they trust some random asshats more than us.”
 
“They work for Omnilium, or weapons.” The marine rebutted, eliciting the white armor and black eyes to face him again. “You work for honor. What makes you think it ain’t some shady crap that wouldn’t sit well with you guys?”
 
“Ya’ know if you didn’t occupy this outpost so our guys didn’t have to I’d have arrested you a long time ago.”
 
“Gotta doubt the leadership, man. Even my military had bad stuff deep down the rabbit hole.” Reginald put his hands up, palms out, “But I’m not here to have a political debate. You guys gonna crash here or move on?”
 
“That’s up to Gary.”
 
**
 
“Stay here, you two.”
 
Aadibah cocked her head and raised an eyebrow at Gary, “So you go through all that trouble and then decide to leave us by ourselves with a functioning vehicle?”
 
The squad leader stiffly faced the woman, pausing for one moment. “Can you operate this machine?”
 
“....No.” The strategist’s eyes were averted the sand.
 
“Then you ain’t goin’ anywhere, lady.” The old man tapped his pointer finger against his helmet, “The only time I’m not usin’ this is when I’m sleepin’.”
 
The woman growled under her breath, the Japanese teen bringing up her rear. The wings on her back flapped spastically, sand being flung off in all directions and feathers ruffling outward. “Kowai...” She mumbled under her breath.
 
Aadibah turned back to the winged girl, one hand keeping her hijab out of her eyes as they scanned the hunched over body and droopy face. “Listen...” She started, Okuu’s eyes and face slightly perking up.
 
“That man is being an asshole about it, yes, but he has a very good point.” Aadibah used her free hand to gesture towards the large pair of wings. “You must be more mindful of your situations out here. I do not know where you come from, but the rules must be very different.” Her loose fingers wrapped up to point a stiff finger at the teen, eyes narrowing. “There will not always be someone there to pull you out of a bad move. Do you understand me?”
 
Utsuho was motionless for a long second, and silent, only her big eyes responding to Aadibah’s monologue. Eventually she gave a quick and curt nod, back straightening up and wings closing in tight.
 
Aadibah grinned. “So serious now.” She turned away to move further up a few paces, waving a hand in the air, “But, I guess you could play soldier for a bit. Least until we get back to safety. Or whatever counts as safe here...”
 
**
 
“...they stopped by here asking for a place to stay the night. We told them to jerk off but they insisted. Bunch of self-righteous wannabe crusaders they are. Said something about a star thing, out in the old civ’ ruins, and I mean way the hell out there.”
 
Kurt brought a finger up to his helmet’s temple, speaking quietly into his short-range comms to Gary, “Their story is pretty consistent with what command told us. Kingdom investigating a star-piece that fell from the sky.”
 
The squad leader stepped up from behind the giant, responding over the radio as well. “Thanks Kurt. I’ll take it from here.” He then turned to the base leader, “What kind of arms did they have on them? The Kingdom soldiers?”
 
“Usual bullshit. Bunch of swords and shields. Only reason they overpowered us is ‘cause we’ve got three fucking guys and only three guns. And barely any ammo to keep them useful. Which reminds me, your end of the deal Grey’s Anatomy.”
 
“I don’t get any of these guys’ references.” Kurt spat out as he made his way over to the prowler, where crates of bullets and a few grenades were tied down.
 
Rose took the giant’s spot at Gary’s side, and began signing warnings to her CO. “Bandits. Radio chatter. Danger close. Contacted Shauna. Spotted convoys. Need to move.” The old man nodded, and Kurt set down two armfuls of munitions outside the base’s front door.
 
“What way were they last headed?” The squad leader turned back to the marine.
 
“Further in, way further in-“Reginald extended his arm in the referred direction, “-towards No Name.”
 
Gary let out a long, exaggerated sigh, resting the forehead of his helmet in the palm of his black gloved hand. “I do not want to deal with that Sheriff...”

[Aadibah]

Kurt got the ammunition in the base, which was counted, before Reginald went back inside the base and the troopers went back to their respective vehicles. Gary order the two primes back into their seats, both complying with urgency, and the convoy was back under way. The Covenant prowlers skimming along the sand and sending a shower of the stuff out from either side of the sleds.
The next few hours were ass-numbingly long for Aadibah, and she found herself constantly squirming or pushing up with her feet to relieve the pressure on her buttocks and upper thighs. Every few hours, amongst the monotonous mountains of sand, the stormtroopers would park their vehicles and switch everything off. In the distance, the soldier would hear motors running, before fading away.

***

The Town With No Name lacked any effort to give Aadibah a good first impression. In fact, the cluster of lean-tos with scarcely a second story, built out of bony white wood and sheet metal, scattered about at the top of a small mesa and surrounded by a ring of sharp boulders and rocky outcroppings looked like it could not muster up two shits to give about what people thought of it.

Atop their own pile of sand, two prowlers and chopper hidden behind the crest of the dune. Aadibah lay prone, barely peeking over right next to Okuu, was more concerned with annoying a sand scorpion. To the soldier's right, a few feet away, Shauna had her rifle buried in the sand up to just under her scope. The business end of the barrel barely suck out on the other side.

"It's pretty still over there." She relayed to Gary, "A few people going about in the streets. I don't see Rol-"

snap

crackle

POP


For the briefest moment when Shauna had turned away from her scope to face Gary, the glass blew out into her visor and sparks flew off from her helmet.

[Aadibah]

A tall man in a dusty, hide vest, blue tucked in button up and blue jeans dug his cowboy boots into the hot sand, allowing his wide brim hat to lean low over his eyes as he rested a six-shot revolver in his lap. One chamber was empty, and the echo of the led round breaking the sound barrier and the powder igniting had been quickly absorbed by the dunes all around him.

The glint of the the rifle scope had also dissapeared, and the old sheriff made sure to load one round for a full chamber before pushing himself up. Staying in a low hunch, he made his way through the dunes, quickly dashing between piles of sand and the occasional large boulder.

The closer he got, the louder the voices became. Roland estimated around four, maybe five distinct ones, all of them containing that familiar rigidity.

After a short while of skulking around, Roland eventually crested the one dune he did with caution, swinging his magnum up and his left hand over the hammer.

"Aight." Five heads whipped around to the source of the voice. "Mine letting me know what the hell a bunch of Imperial stormtroopers and mercenaries are doing just outside of my town?"

One of the troopers was holding a squadmate's head in their lap, whose arms sluggishly attempted to remove their own helmet. Roland guesstimated that had been the sniper, his own projectile weaponry only temporarily stunning them through the advanced armor.

[Aadibah]

"Roland what the fuck!" Gary reached for his own sidearm, before Kurt's hand shot forward between his leader's fingers and the holster. The barrel on the cowboy's six-shooter eye-down the older trooper, eyes squinting. "Are ya feeling lucky, punk?" The fingers on his right hand twitched.

"Whoa whoa whoa hey!" Aadibah kicked off the sand, throwing her body between the trooper and the firearm. "Listen we just came here to talk! That's it! There's some kingdom agents here we're trying to deal with and they're bound to bring trouble your way!"

An eternity in a single moment went by, barrel of a gun bearing straight down on the woman's skull. Roland held an even glare with the Arab, eyes occasionally twitching over to the left or right.

"These kingdom agents. They that astronomer and his guards?"

"That's the one." Gary cut in, and the two locked eyes. Again, a short while passed while everything held still.

"Fine." Roland cocked the hammer forward.

[Aadibah]

Shauna squirmed in Kurt’s arms, limbs draped down loosely. On his back, next to her squad member’s own weapon was slung her rifle. The massive man kicked up sizable craters in the sand, whereas the others left dragging boot-prints. The voices of two old men echoed for a few meters before being absorbed by the dunes.

“And that was not one of my trooper’s blasters that went off! It was one of the bandits! And even after it went off we still made it out!”

“Easy fer you to say ye’ fuckin’ fed!” Roland whipped around to face the squad leader from the front of the line formation. He extended a fairly firm point, finger waggling up and down, at Gary. “Ah lost half mah force af’er that shit show!”

“And we got a watering hole!”

“That lasted three months!”

“We were finally able to stock up on water! Grow food and store it!”

“And now it’s gone and we’re in a drought!”

“Yer an ungrateful sunuvabitch ya know that ya fuckin’ hi-ho silver lone ranger shithe-”

“OH MY GOODNESS JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!” An accented shriek broke even the muffling effect of the sand. The two old men halted their verbal war, turning to face the Arab. The winged Japanese girl stood behind her, eyes wide-open and lips tucked in. She quickly side-stepped away from Aadibah, who stood with her fists clenched and nostrils flaring.

However, after a short staring contest between her and Gary, the squad leader put two pinched fingers up to one corner of his lips and slid them across to the other. Aadibah growled, huffed, but turned away.

“...as I was saying-” He continued, “We figured ya guys wan’ these nosy fuckers outta here ASAP since they got a penchant for causin’ trouble.” The storm trooper began marching forward again, and the rest of the troop followed. Kurt mumbled to himself as he counted the paces, looking up at the sun every once in a while, occasionally moving his arms around akin to hands on a clock.

“An’ what makes ya’ think Ahm gonna tern to the suns-a-bitches that turned this place into a fuckin’ hell-hole in the first place for help?”

“Ah wasn’t here for that shitahtoldyaamilliontimesyafuckin-” Gary pulled back his extended pointer finger and his stance, shoulders rising and falling as he took a long, deep breath, clenching and un-clenching. “Be-cuz Ahm pretty sure they won’t jus’ leave if we ask ‘em politely.”

“Well, looks like you an’ me agree on somethin’ fer once.”