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Ilaria waved a paw over her head towards a church bell tower. «You two alright up there? Looks like Carbon's raring to go.»

«Yeah, we're good sis.» Ari could smell the capacitors heating up on her twin's railgun rifle via their wireless Link. «Charged and ready. Between the batteries I brought, I'm good for twelve heavy shots. Dozens of rounds though.»

«Good. Save those hard hitters for if they break out something big.» Ari looked to her Chelle at her side, then pleaded, «This goes without saying, but take care of Mik. Keep her away from return fire and--»

«She'll be safe. I'd lose an arm like you before I let family take a hit. Besides, Zoë's guarding the way up. Trust me, Lulu.»

«Alright, Yoyo. I trust you.» Ilaria smiled as she felt the sincerity in her brother's emotions. Satisfied, she then reached for her phone and waved over to Carbon in his mech. "Good to go, Carbon. All's riding on you now. Put on a good show for them."

"Oh really? Ready, Big O? It's showtime!" There was a pause as Carbon chuckled to himself, then in a more serious tone he grumbled, "Right, before your time. It was still perfect, though."

"Oh no, I got it. Flaunt your big robot all you want. It's just the setting here is killing the mood." Ari looked out the window of the small hardware store where she and her daughter had holed up and grimaced at the bloodied rabids shambling about outside. "The minute you get going, we'll be free to move on our end."

"Right, I see you've got the horde in your way from over here." Ex faux cracked its knuckles on behalf of its master. "Well then, let's party."

Ari cringed as the sound of shearing metal filled the air, taking the extremely loud moment to check with her deaf daughter. <You alright, dear? Can you feel that?>

<A little bit. That's Uncle Carbon, right?>

<That it is. Try to ignore that and focus on following me.> Ari checked outside again and smirked as the rabids already started migrating towards the ruckus Carbon was causing. <That's our cue. Stay close, Chelle.>

<I will, mom. Just don't slow down because of me. We're safer while moving fast.>

Ari pulled her bow off of her shoulder and made sure her hip quiver wasn't in a position to tangle itself. <I won't use my... nanites... if I can help it. Don't worry.>

<No, use them if you want.> Chelle created a bar of light and tested how well she could balance against it. <I've got my own ways to compensate.>

The otter smiled with her pup, proud she was growing up to resemble her parents so closely. <Then let's do this. Remember to not let them see you, light creations included.>

<You've got it!>

The mother-daughter pair slipped out into the street only for a short while, quickly heading for a connecting alleyway. They paused beneath a fire escape ladder that wasn't much of a match for the two towering women's combined heights. Chelle clambered up her mother and pulled the ladder down, then held it in place while Ari once again took the lead. A few pawfuls of short stair stacks later and the duo hit the fourth-story roof, hopping atop the building for a few well-deserved breaths of air.

<Huh. That's wider than I thought.> Ari checked over the edge and roughly measured the spacing between this and the adjacent building. <More than we can normally jump, actually. Are you sure you don't need help here?>

<I'm good. I'll even go first.> Chelle got a running start and leaped over the edge. She then rebounded her hindpaws off several panels of hard light that appeared just in time, crossing the whole gap as if she were running over a wobbly rope bridge. <See? I can do simple things like this.>

<Impressive.> Ari watched as the panels steadily coasted to the ground, shattered into pieces, then the resulting shards weightlessly floated back upward. <You'll have to explain whatever that was later. It might be useful. Can you clear the edge, dear?>

<Oh, sure!> Chelle hopped off a raised border to the next building, then beckoned her mother over. <The remaining buildings look easier from here. Hurry, mom!>

<You're loving this, aren't you?> Ari sprinted over the gap, then generated a tendril of nanites that lashed out towards the other rooftop. A spike on the end anchored her down as she swung into the side wall, allowing the otter to then rappel-walk herself upwards. "Little help here, baby girl?"

Chelle offered both paws and pulled her mother over the edge. <Which one's next?>

<You ~are~ enjoying this. We should run together more often, when there's not rabid furs biting at our ankles.> Ari walked over to the opposite end of the building and surveyed their potential paths, a smile plastered over her muzzle as her daughter reminded her of past parkour runs with Robyn. <That should do just fine. It's all downhill until that ship.>

<Oh... I see now.> Chelle pointed to an apartment building across the street from the laboratory, one where the roof lined up nicely with the enemy freighter. <So we're working from the top down?>

<That's the plan, sweetie.> The otter took a deep breath before starting back up again, running off the roof and landing on the next into a somersault. <I can catch you if you can't roll like that.>

<Your nerves haven't synced enough with your new leg for that, mom. I've got it covered.> Chelle leaped off the higher rooftop, then created two cylinders of abnormally opaque light to use as handles of sorts. She held onto them and slowly sank downward, as if she were holding onto the grips of a parachute. <See? I can handle myself.>

<The physics bending of that light you're creating is blowing my mind, baby girl. Just... yeah, keep that up.> Ari watched as the handles dissipated, then returned her attention to the task at paw. <Two more to go. Looks about the same for the next one.>

<Alright. I'll take your path then.>

<Then I won't stop this time until we're atop that damned thing.>

Ilaria kicked into a dash and jumped clear over the gap before the next building, somersaulting to ease her fall but immediately pouncing back into a run. She slid on her fake leg to slip under a bunch of water pipes connected to a large basin, then shot into a jump without hesitation once her head was clear. Ari landed a bit harder on the next drop due to a minor miscalculation in height, but easily recovered into a slow jog. The last jump was a bit much for her without her normal and frequent training, so she huffed and gasped her way through one last sprint. The longest of all the jumps by far, Ilaria landed on the enemy ship and had to roll sideways and grab an external fuel line just to keep herself from sliding off the vessel.

Chelle's eyes widened as she came barreling into her mother even faster, her own method of traversing the long gap doing nothing to slow her down and in fact speeding her up with every vault off of her hard light. <Mom!>

Ari thankfully reacted quickly enough to extend an arm for her daughter to grab, though her thick tail also somehow became Chelle's secondary mantle and nearly threw them both off balance. "Damn, Chelle! We're not trying to set a world record here!"

The hybrid pulled herself back into a balanced position and then took a deep breath. <Sorry... I made it though.>

<That you did. Oh, looks like the plan's working...> Ari checked around for signs of resistance as she recovered, finding no enemies around the ship but quite a few forcefields erected in their stead. <Those go first. Can you see a weak point on those shields?>

<I'm not sure...> Chelle peered over the edges of the enemy freighter and looked back to her mother with grin. <They're powered by the ship. We just need to take out the energy supply.>

<Oh. Well isn't that convenient?> Ari verified there wasn't a window of any sort first, then slid down the side of the ship and held on to check below before going any further. "Looks clear, hon."

Michelle hopped off the same side and floated down with another set of photonic handlebars. <Ooh, they left the door ~wide open~.>

"They what?" Ari fell the last few yards into a low crouch. <Oh, the door. That doesn't seem very organized of them.>

Chelle started creeping towards the lowered loading ramp beneath the ship, but froze when two flickers of metal snapped into something inside and a pair of loud cracks of gunfire shook her core soon thereafter. <Mom!?>

«They're waiting for you in there, Lulu.»

Ilaria looked over to her brother's bell tower and nodded to a glint of the sun from his scope. «They must have heard us or something. Can you clear out the ambush?»

«Looks like they're retreating inside after Mik hit that one. We're seeing movement in the cockpit now, too.»

«They're not real fighters, a defense crew at best. We only need to get barely inside anyway, so that should be fine. Lay down some cover for us please, lil' bro.»

«I'll do more than that.» A magnetically-assisted slug punched right through the cockpit window, followed by a load of commotion leaking out the puncture. «Fancy helmet. I hope that was the captain.»

«Good idea. Keep then down in there and we'll do our thing.» Ari grabbed her daughter's paw and pulled her attention back to her. <It's Yoyo and Mik, Chelle. They're clearing an opening for us, so we need to act quickly. Show me that power source.>

<We have to go inside just a bit. Is that alright?>

<That's what those shots were for, honey.> Another salvo hit the glass overhead, the weakened material breaking away under the lesser force of normal sniper rounds now. <Correction: ~are~ for.>

<Well in that case, follow me.> Chelle jogged over to the loading ramp and ran most of the way up. <See that glowing device on the right wall? That's it.>

<Glowing thing?> Not one of the various instruments mounted to the wall showed signs of life to the lesser-sighted otter. <I don't see it, Chelle.>

<It's... round with a parallelogram on top...>

Ari nodded, alleviating her daughter's frustration over the details of her signing. <Got it. See, it can be good to be different sometimes.> The otter pulled her daughter back behind her protectively, then whipped out Mjolnir and aimed at the device. "Watch out. This'll probably explode, but we can't see it further away."

Chelle held her mother's free arm. <You be careful too.>

"Doing my best, pup. Here we go." Ari fired two bullets, puncturing the device's outer shell but doing nothing else. Then she let off another slug and the contraption lit itself up like fireworks. "Oh, it's just going to fizzle? Sort of disapp--"

A small explosion rose out of the flames as if vying not to underwhelm. Had it not been for a quickly placed panel of hard light, the front plate of the power source would have sliced right through the two. <Mom, are you alright!?>

"I'm fine, dear. You've got good reflexes, thankfully." Ari guided her daughter back from the ramp, then furthermore to the edge of the rooftop opposite the lowered forcefields. <I'll try to keep quiet with those rabid furs free to roam, but we have to act quickly.>

<Where's our path down?>

Ilaria peered over the edge, then shrugged to her daughter. <I never thought that far ahead. We just planned on Carbon helping us down but he's not here.> The otter pulled up her radio, but held back and tried her brother first. «Yoyo, can you spot a way down? There a low building on the other side or something? Mattress factory, by chance? Anything?»

«Nothing on our side. Can't you climb down or something?» Iolvin paused as a whine of emotional interference flushed their signal. «Mik wants to pull you over here with those wormhole things. Would that work? Is it safe?»

«They both hopped through one before. There's... other complications though. Hold on.» Ari pulled her daughter close and crouched down beside her to reduce their visible profile, watching as the rabids slowly but surely overwhelmed the crew of the freighter. <Chelle, your sister wants to warp us out of here. Can you do that in a way that reduces our rihzyets to almost nothing?>

Chelle rather apathetically stated the hard fact of the matter. <I could, but I don't have enough time to focus on it. We'd be eaten by then.>

<Well I sort of hoped Carbon or Trick would be help us out, but they're nowhere to be found.> The rabids started jamming the loading ramp to capacity, which unfortunately meant the overflow began redirecting their attention to the duo. <Screw it. Do the best you can.>

<I'll need a way to coordinate with Mikhaila first.>

Ari peeked her head around the rabids to spot her other daughter, but there was no hope. <Can Yoyo and I talk her through it?>

<Oh, that's right. You two can establish an indirect Link.> Chelle grinned and touched two tendrils to her mother's spinal implants. <We're unique in being able to perform multiple-host Link sessions. We should be able to Link using the two of you as transmitters, though there may be some uncomfortable interference.>

<I think I felt that before. Mik must be Linked to Yoyo already. Alright, let's try it.> Ari pulled out her revolver as a precaution, then dialed over to her twin. «Yoyo, make sure Mik's Linked with you. We're going to try some sort of, uh... 'WiLi' solution so they can talk.»

«Already a step ahead of you, Lulu.» There was a pause, then two simultaneous rifle shots punched through three clustered rabids' heads, extending the time they had for the maneuver in addition to their perception of time slowing through the Link. «I think your daughter's out-shooting ~me~ with that dinky rifle.»

«Damn, I'd have said that was you with the double.» Ari placed a paw on her daughter's shoulder and nodded. «If you can sense this, you're good to go Chelle.»

«Can't... talk and... portal...»

«Just do your best, sweetie.»

Ilaria raised her pistol as a rabid neared, but Iolvin forced the insides if his head to become the outside. The next in line nearly shambled into the same fate, but due to the distance the bullet lagged long enough for her to shift out of its path. Ari adjusted her aim and fired, placing a small but effective bullet between the poor woman's eyes. The next shot would have been an easy one, the rabid's face lining up directly behind the last's, but suddenly the floor disappeared from beneath the shooter. Ilaria and Michelle fell through time and space, so literally that the instantaneous transition slowed to a creeping ten seconds.

"Oh shit!" Ari flailed her limbs as she emerged from the floor on the other side, upside down. Mikhaila slid her legs out to soften the rough landing, but Ilaria managed to brace herself by her paws while inverted. "Well if that wasn't unpleasant I don't know what actually ~is~."

"Well it sure was entertaining." Yoyo helped Chelle back to her hindpaws while Mik helped her mother. "Are the two of you okay? No injuries? Good news?"

Ari holstered her weapon before adjusting the fit of her shoulder socket and false breast. "Looks like a flawless result--though maybe not the best execution. Mission complete."

"Can't really argue there." Yoyo pulled his railgun back to his shoulder and used the scope to spot the carnage across the way. "I'm seeing a lot more movement inside that ship. Weapons fire too."

"It all feels a little ~too~ perfect though. Too easy." Ari marveled over the long distance they'd covered, then watched her children entwine in a hug. "I thought Carbon was supposed to double back and help us out. Any word from him?"

"Sure. He's just got his paws full and couldn't say much. The strike team they sent out must have been tough." Yoyo poked his head into the stairwell leading down and shouted to the human below. "Hey Zoë, you alright down there?"

"I'm fine, Iolvin. I had a few of those things attack me but the street looks quiet now. Too quiet, maybe."

"Well keep your head down and start packing up. We're getting out of here soon."

Ari walked over to the eastern side of the tower and searched for Carbon's hulking mech. "How long ago was that, when you heard from Carbon? I haven't heard anything too loud for a few minutes."

"Now that you mention it--"

A fiery bolt of plasma spat past the girls and seared a hole in Ilaria's right arm, requiring the otter to pat out the flames on her artificial skin. "Guh! F-Fu..."

Iolvin hurled himself towards his twin sister and tackled her to the floor. "I think they found us!"

"No shit!" Ari winced as her nerves exploded in pain, their artificial nature doing nothing to prevent it. "The girls! They can't hear it!"

Yoyo's eyes went wide at that realization, but as he turned to check the pups were already sliding next to their mother. "Gods... Okay, everyone stay down. It doesn't seem like too many of them out there. I might be able to take them out."

"No!" Before Yoyo could stick his head up Ari yanked him down with her good arm, saving his face from a rather squishy fate and letting only his rifle's barrel take plasma fire. "They ~wanted~ to suppress us, Yoyo. Easier to pick us off when we poke out one at a time like that."

"Well shit... What do we do?"

"'Thank you for saving my pelt, dearest sister.' 'You're welcome, my only family on this hellscape of a rock.'" Ilaria groaned both in pain and annoyance as she laid back to think of a plan. "I guess we could always portal out of here if push came to shove."

<No, we can't.> The girls huddled next to their mother, with Mik passing her sister their inhaler. <Only one of us has enough energy left to safely create a wormhole anchor, and two are required. Chelle exhausted a lot of energy when creating those hard light structures.>

"Crap." Ari turned back to her brother and huffed a sigh of defeat. "Don't suppose you had an emergency escape route planned, did you?"

"Yeah, down. But if they're pointing guns at us, you can bet they're climbing up from ground level too."

"Yoyo... We don't have many weapons and we're hurting bad... I don't think we're going to make it--"

Just then, several explosions spawned all around the bell tower, followed by a very welcome voice over the sat-radio. "Sorry we took so long, ma'am."

"Trick! Listen to that brilliant voice!" Ilaria rolled onto her knees and then peeked over the side of the tower, spying the orbiter hovering a few buildings away. "Does that thing have weapons? Fuck, you should have said something."

"No, look..." Iolvin joined his twin and pointed to the Yangurrans as they spun around, only to hide behind random cover as hellfire rained down upon them. "That's not the ship doing that."

Ex walked a step forward and hung out the rear gate of the orbiter, it's free arm wielding a rapid-fire energy weapon and putting it to good use. "Looked like you guys could use a paw. Sorry for the wait there."

"No, that's perfect timing Carbon." Yoyo tried to join in on the fight since the enemies were exposed from his angle, but his rifle jammed due to heat expansion in the barrel. "Well shit. Oh, I know; Carbon, aim to your right, two pylons. The rest are behind an air conditioner."

"Oh really? Well I saved a special treat for them." The weapon on Ex's arm rotated, revealing a thin fixture. Then that small aperture blasted out a blinding light that cut right through the flimsy metal the Yangurrans were using as cover--as well as the Yangurrans. "Can't use her long, but the cutter beam's my current favorite."

"I can see why." Ari stood as the last of the enemies in the open ceased to breathe. "Anyone else? Did they manage to reach the tower?"

"Nah. I shot them down first. Got pretty close though." The orbiter slowly landed adjacent to the top of the tower, the rear gate barely touching down for a pinnacle maneuver. "Hop on in, guys. There's more of them out there."

Yoyo and Ex's free arm both aided Ari in climbing inside first. "So what happened to my backup? You see the shit that nearly happened to me?"

"Yeah... Sorry about the arm." Carbon guided Ex to help the kids, the extremely difficult hover-loading leading to the tail gate sliding around at random. "I was distracting them just fine, but the minute they heard sniper fire they caught on and fled. I couldn't keep up, so I went for Trick instead."

Yoyo climbed inside the rear bay last, slamming the gate-closing button as he cleared the seals. "Well that was a good choice. So what's the plan now?"

"Did you disable the enemy ship?"

Ilaria grinned and nodded. "Actually, I think we nailed the whole flight crew. We didn't just delay them, we ended them."

"Perfect."

Yoyo waved a paw between the two and then pointed downward. "We still need to pick up Zoë, guys."

"And that oxydium if we have time." Carbon made Ex grab a safety bar on the ceiling and then hopped out of the mechanical beast. "Trick, take her down. And get the Starbreeze on the radio too, please."

"Radio's already hot, sir." Trick tapped a few screens until she had an undercarriage suite of camera feeds, making sure she didn't crush the poor human as she landed. "You sure we should be touching down in a contested zone, guys?"

"Nah, you're good." Yoyo found a seat and clipped the safety harness into place. "Zoë went on a bit of a rampage. I told her to clear the street and she took that to mean the whole ~block~. I'd have never thought a sword could do all that."

"Well you should have seen what Chelle can do. A blade can be pretty effective in the right paws." Ari sat down in the co-pilot's seat and triggered the side hatch to open just before they actually touched down. "Zoë, get in quick. We're not giving them a chance to fuck us over."

"Oh, sure." The human sheathed her rapier and hopped into the passenger compartment, taking a final position next to her patron. "Did I do good, Iolvin? I didn't want to leave you like that, but your orders..."

"I had my rifle on you most of the time, so it's fine. Besides, you went above and beyond." Yoyo went in for a light kiss to the girl's forehead, but refrained when he noticed spatters of blood all over her skin. "You did better than good, kiddo."

Ari smiled along with Zoë, finally understanding into what her brother's relationship with the human was evolving. Yoyo and Dee might not be able to have children, but Zoë was filling that gap nicely. "Alright... The gang's back together, so punch it for the oxydium. Same place you dropped off Yoyo, Trick."

"That's right next to the enemy ship though, isn't it? What about small arms fire?"

"There's nobody alive over there to hold any weapons let alone fire them. Don't worry about that." Ari turned her chair to the side and locked it in place once the orbiter started moving again. "Carbon, what's the fastest way to load the loot? Isn't it with you piloting that thing?"

"Actually, Ex does simple tasks like that more efficiently than I can on average. I've already passed him standing instructions too, so he'll start immediately once I cue him."

"Oh... well in that case..." The otter tapped a few map screens until there were four overlapping windows of the same larger area. "There were casualties I'm sure Ensign Morgan told you about. You think you could pinpoint those? I didn't have details before we were separated."

"Uh... neither do I, actually. Mr. Morgan couldn't remember the details because they were engaged at the time."

"Shit. I wanted to collect the bodies. Those soldiers deserve better than to be left like that." Ari combed through the bottom-left map and chewed her lower lip. "I think I know where Robyn's at though..."

"You found another Robyn?" Iolvin sat up straight at that news, suddenly concerned for his sister's mental state. "She wasn't one of those things, was she? Please tell me she's holed up somewhere safe."

"No... She's just... gone now." Ari tapped the map and set a waypoint on the grid. "After we're done with the cargo, fly over there Alex. I made that girl a promise before she died and I intend to keep it."

"You've got it, Ari." The shuttle slowed laterally, then began descending to the ground. "Floor one: rusty equipment, alien power goop, and ladies undergarments."

"In reverse preference, I'd assume." Carbon smirked at the joke, then touched Ex and sent him on his way. "It'll only be a minute. Those cans are nothing for Ex to handle."

"Good to hear. The sooner I can get back, out of this sirat, and into a hot shower the better."

"Damn..." Alexandria shook her head and smiled at the imagery involved with that comment. "Such a tease..."

"Well there's room enough in there for two, Alex. I do sort of owe you one." Ari leaned back and bit her lower lip as she stared longingly at the frog's tight ass. "Besides, you make me want to institute a 'reap what you sow' rule on my ship with that fine body of yours."

Alex had to quirk her head at that one. "Reap what you sow?"

"Yeah, something more like 'Give a boner, take a boner' or something." Even through her dulling pain, Ari still had to fight down a slight tent in her sirat drapes. "Might help relieve stress at least."

"That it would. I'd feel sorry for anyone in heat though. Or taking a shower."

"Well we'll put an unusual circumstances requirement in there somewhere. Only unexpected boners. Or maybe a mutual satisfaction clause?"

Alex reached over and groped the bulge in Ari's drapes, then worked her hand beneath the surface to tease the otter. "Then I might not mind that rule. In fact, I'd probably enjoy it."

Iolvin chuckled towards the two. "Found yourself a fine girl, sis? Good for the two of you."

Trick took that exactly the wrong way, hunching down behind her controls in embarrassment once she realized they weren't alone anymore. "Oh, did... uh...?"

"Yoyo, we're just friends. Frisky, but friends." Ari rubbed the frog's back and calmed her down a little. "Alex is a nice girl if you don't mind waiting hours by a metal detector."

"That's... pretty funny actually, so I'll let it slide."

Yoyo laughed as well, calming his grip on his harness with the change in atmosphere. "I'm not judging, Lulu. I just like to see you happy. Besides, she does look like she's a fun girl." He calmed himself as Ex returned with the first load of canisters. "I was actually hoping we could have some family time when we got back though. Hearing your twin sister was left behind in a city full of rabid, bloodthirsty furs sort of makes you want to hold them close."

"Well... maybe in a bit. I've been feeling the same."

"Oh, so you two are twins?" Trick waited for the exoskeleton to return with the final load of cargo and then fired up the engines. "I thought you looked alike, but that explains it."

"Yeah, they're twins. Ari's the elder of the two, by four seconds." Carbon shrugged away the odd looks he received from the twins explaining, "What? I was there when it happened."

"Doesn't make it any less creepy. I mean, you're family and all..." Ari sighed as she tried not to offend the hybrid. "...but the un-aging thing is sort of hard to grasp."

"You'll live a couple hundred or so too, so what's the big deal?"

Alex's eyes shot wide at that statement. "Is that true?"

"Uh... yeah." The whole ship went silent as they flew over towards the spot Ari pointed out. "My brother and I have these things in us that heal most everything, including the wear and tear of time. Carbon's got these things in him too though, and more advanced ones to put it simply."

"That's a 'her' actually. I've shifted over in the last few days." Carbon waved the confused pilot's gaze away with her paw. "Speaking of, could you guys please keep the innuendo and ~teasing~ on the down low for a day or two. Seems every time I transition to a woman I'm in heat."

Yoyo smirked and aided Carbon in changing the topic. "Well you've got a thing with Cid now, right? Isn't a good dick the solution there?"

"Uh... yeah."

Ari shook her head, knowing the full truth to the matter wasn't so simple. "Well if you need some personal space away from Fleur, there's guest quarters close to mine. I'd offer the second mate's, but the door's locked and I haven't figured out the overrides yet."

"Actually I offered the guest quarters to your brother. Figured Zoë could let herself ~breathe~ a little."

"And I do." The human smiled and fidgeted with her shirt. "Much appreciated, Fibre."

"Oh... Well in that case if you can figure out that lock we'll set you up in the other--"

Carbon shook her head and held up a paw to stop the otter. "Actually, I went ahead and gave that one to someone else as well. She probably reset the biometric lock too, knowing her."

Ari quirked her head to the side. "Seriously? Why not give that to Yoyo? The schematics say it's larger than the guest quarters. Who exactly is this fur?"

"Well she was almost your sister, actually. Your father was going to adopt her until I found a foster family for her." Carbon pointed to the map, reminding the otter that they were getting close. "She was hit by some debris when the Reclamation War started getting heavy. She loses control of her legs most of the time, the poor thing."

"Oh... Well in that case, she's more than welcome to the extra space."

"She's not dead weight though." Carbon unclasped her safety harness and slowly worked her way forward. "I hired her onto the crew specifically to help ~you~. You've got a lot of odd needs that she's uniquely qualified to satisfy. Plus I think the two of you will really get along."

"So... I've got a maid or something? A personal stewardess?" Ari tapped Trick's shoulder and she started slowing the orbiter's lateral airspeed. "I can handle myself. If you know me at all, you'd know it pisses me off to be taken as lesser for my differences."

"That's not what I mean. See how your arm can barely move?" Carbon carefully approached the perturbed otter and articulated her limp limb. "I guarantee she'd learn how to fix this. She's studying to become a biomechanic, and damn if she isn't smart. Helps that she benefits from the research too."

"That... actually sounds pretty useful." Ari checked the digital gauges and frowned at the slow descent they were taking. "I'll have to drop by and meet her. What's she look like? Or better yet, she have a name?"

"Olivia. Olivia Bloom, actually."

"Don't tell me you split those poor girls up..."

"They're cousins, and much different in age. I took in Fleur because she had nowhere else to go." Carbon apparently chose her wording carefully here by the way she paused every few words. "Liv had... much different needs growing up, so she I thought it best to keep them apart. They still act like family though."

"Olivia, huh?"

"She's pure white, too. Can't miss her."

"Alright. I'll seek her out when we get things settled back home." Another check of the velocity and Ari was close to furious with frustration. "Speaking of, why aren't we moving?"

"Um... I'm trying to find a clear landing zone, Ari." Trick pointed to her bird's eye cameras and that statement made quite a bit more sense. "There's rabids all over the place, and our engines are only making it worse. How should we proceed?"

"Shit..." Ari looked down at the mass of bloodied monstrosities rampaging below and melted into her seat in utter defeat. "I made her a promise... Fuck!"

Michelle and Mik unfastened their safety belts and posed a question to their mother. <To whom are you referring? Do you mean our dead psuedo-mother?>

"Baby girls..." Ari reeled the two closer for a quick hug. <It must be even harder for the two of you, seeing her die like this. I'm so sorry about that.>

<But you only want to fulfill a last request. If we can't go to her, we can move her to the ship instead.>

Ari paused in confusion for a moment. <I thought you said you couldn't make any portals right now, girls...>

<We couldn't before, but now that we've gathered all this energy we should be able to do it just fine.> Mik looked back to the cans of oxydium while Chelle checked the altimeter and the Starbreeze's tracker beacon. <Lower us another eighty meters and we can form a tunnel for her body. Would the medical quarantine room suffice?>

<Gods, yes. That sounds perfect. Oh, but hold on a second.> Ari grabbed the radio and dialed to the Starbreeze's hailing frequency. "Trick, take us down. The girls say eighty meters, so probably the closer the better."

"Sure. That's way over their heads."

"Hello?" The familiar voice of Carmine filled the return line of the radio. "Did everything go well? You guys find Ilaria and her kids yet?"

"Call me Ari, hon."

"Guys, they got them!" There was a bit of cheering over the line, but Carmine eventually returned after possibly shielding the mic with his paws. "Thank the gods you're safe. What's your ETA, captain?"

"Uh... We'll be up in a few minutes most likely. We're still in a decent orbital intercept window." Ari nodded to Alex as they got in position, and she nodded back once she steadied the ship. "Actually, we've got a bit of a package heading for you guys before that. Could you make sure nobody's in the quarantine room, as in ~right~ now?"

"I think Ellie's in there, but I'll check." A brief pause only made the moans of the rabids below that much more apparent, though thankfully the hare returned promptly. "Yeah, she was. The room's clear and sealed now though. Did one of you get contaminated?"

"Far from it. My girls are just beaming up a body, so don't freak out. Might want to warn Ellie about that too, by the way." Ari pointed to her kids and they scurried over to a bucket of oxydium, each easing a tendril into the thick liquid. <All up to you, my whelps. Do what you have to do.>

<It'll be just a moment.> The twins held paws and closed their eyes, causing both a dimming of the oxydium's eerie glow and a whining hiss in the radio line. <Done. If our memory of the quarantine room is correct, the corpse should be on the scanning table.>

Ellie quickly confirmed the transfer by way of a screeching-loud radio message. "Ari! What did you do!?"

"We sent you a present. Keep it zipped up tight though; there's a... pathogen inside her."

"No! She's stuck in the airlock!"

Ari frowned towards her girls, but quickly dissolved that expression when she realized they were doing their best to help. "Just keep the doors closed and I'll move her when we get there. Our nanites make us immune."

"You're not the one with a dead body staring back at you!"

"Then stop staring back!" Ilaria cut off the doctor's line and swapped back to Carmine's. "We're coming in hot, Car. Get the rear cargo bay doors open for us and clear the whole deck."

Trick took that as a hint to start mashing on her upward thrust. "Three minutes until rendezvous."

"Three minutes. Solid copy." Carmine paused to do as he was told, then returned in a much more relaxed tone. "That must have been hell down there. Glad to have you back, Ari."

"You and me both, honey." The otter gripped her stiff, burning shoulder and laid back in her seat, staring upwards as the atmosphere thinned. "Gods, I'm so grateful to be heading home."

"And ~I'm~ happy you're doing so in one piece, otherwise your father would rip me apart." Carbon made sure the girls secured the oxydium and returned to their seats safely. "Let's maybe not mention the flesh eating monsters and his granddaughters in the same conversation--ever."

"And let him miss out on how heroic they've been? Or what about how you risked yourself to save us?" Ilaria gave the hybrid a more sincere glance, nodding in recognition of her deeds. "Thank you for that, Carbon."

"Any time, Baby Lulu."

Iolvin exaggerated a huff and wriggled in his harness. "Well what about me? I came too."

Ari started laughing, barely able to speak her next words. "Well I guess I can always tell dad about the high-powered rifle you had pointed at me."

"Nope!" Yoyo sat up straight and held onto his harness as the ride turbulently crossed into space. "You know what they say: 'A true hero's tales go unsung'!"

"Amen to that." Ilaria slowly rolled her head to look at the stockpile of exotic matter in the rear, her mind wandering to Prisma's status. "Amen..."