Pain isn't a factor any longer [M] [TW] [Cheesy!]

[ARAD V1.0]

"Well. Half of those files are useless because they failed to properly integrate it with my mind," he answered with a soft snarl. "Rather not. Don't mess with my head too much," he added, glancing over at her. He was at a moments ready, the instant he felt something snap in his mind, the least one, his connection would be terminated and he'd move in for the kill.

He leaned back with a soft, metallic grunt. "You should by now realize that whomever is looking for me.. Will by now, no doubt have found me."

He glared at Reva from behind his visor. "So, make sure I'm combat ready. And the only ones dying will be the Syndicate's agents. Understood?"

[Cheesigator]

She gave him a good, hard stare for a moment, weighing her options before she rolled her eyes and went back to her screen, figuring that it wasn't worth her time if he was going to be that stubborn about it, even if it was the better thing for him.

She finished her not-quite metaphorical cleaning of his system and got up, unhooking the few cables left in that hooked him up to her computer save for one, when he spoke up about being combat ready and all that.

She didn't flinch, much less pause, as she went about and made him keep his hands out of the way as she made him lie down on the table so she could take a better look at his legs, figuring out what was wrong with them so she could start designing some replacement parts, jotting down notes as she used another hand gesture and her computer gave a sound like a ringing phone. A click-clack, and someone picked up on the other end, whoever it was she'd been calling.

"Yeh?" Was a gruff sounding female's voice.

"Bell, I've got some bad news."
"Oh, is it about your robot boyfriend?"

The feeling in the room changed tangibly, as every muscle on Reva's body tensed; the pen she was holding in her right hand was suddenly shattered to pieces in her grip.

"Shut the fuck up."
"Yeah but is it about your robot b--"
"Yes it is about the droid. Whatever he is, or whatever he's made for, he ain't no babysitting droid. He's a weapon, and top secret at that."
"Which means someone is gonna be coming to find him?"
"So he says."

There was an audible heavy sigh on the other end of the call.

"Alright alright. How soon you think, roughly?"
"He's already been here a week, so I'd say any minute."
"Great. I'll get the last few guys out of the shop then."
"Make sure you seal up my second exon cannon prototype okay? I'm not finished with it yet and I'd hate to start over from scratch."
"Sure thing lover girl."

In the middle of their call she had started searching for another pen, finding one right as Belliel said that, and she let out an audible growl.

"I hate you." And then she hung up, heading back over to ARAD and finishing her note-taking. "There, that make you feel better now?" She asked him, irritation still very evident in her voice.

With Belliel taking extra precautions upstairs, anyone trying to find their way in would find an extremely difficult time of it; the place had high security, because they dealt with high class customers, who wanted the extra fancy high tech lasers that covered every entrance, window and wall the building was made of, programmed to fire on sight when activated, which they no doubt were now if they weren't already. And that was only step one of who knows how many else Belliel had installed, Reva had lost count in all the years she'd been working here. She had no reason to keep track of that stuff.

[ARAD V1.0]

Arad didn't say much in the conversation. He had no place in it, even if it was concerning him. Not even the robot boyfriend reaction managed to pry a word grim him. It wasn't in his interest to intervene.

He pushed himself to his feet. Hopping off the table. "About now," he said, holding up his hand. Before closing his fist. And suddenly, the lights flakkered out, the entire facility going dark with a soft buzz. And any back up generators were also taken care off. Their security system would be completely useless.

Arad sighed softly. "Alright, remain silent, bunker up somewhere with a blaster and shoot everything that moves," he stated, before glancing at the door again. The deep crimson lights humming softly. He made his way over to the door. "Cycling power to defragmentation unit. Pain inhibitors already disabled. Armour on lockdown."

As if on cue, footsteps could be heard outside the ruined door. "Overcore engaged," he stated coldly, a mechanical snarl following his words. The brimming energy slowly intensifying.

And then, he disappeared from existence, only a red outline of where he used to be remaing. And just outside the door, Reva could hear the whistling of silenced gunfire. The shouting of orders, before screaming, the tearing of flesh. And then silence.

Arad picked up an earbud from one of the corpses, holding it up as a voice shouted through it. "Delta squad. Come in! Do you have eyes on the suspect?!" A soft snarl came from him. "I'll come get you," he stated.

There was silence. Before a swear. "All squads, move towards Delta Squad's last known location, keep the EMP grenades ready. The package has been located." Arad crunched the earbud in his hand and glanced at the door to Reva's shop, before shaking his head.

[Cheesigator]

Right as Arad's hand closed, the lights went out and the computers in all their whirring immediately stopped, powering down from lack of electricity to keep them running. Reva stood there in the darkness with him, looking around before rolling her eyes and groaning.

Ugh. People were terrible. Why anybody liked humans was beyond her capability to understand.

He told her to keep quiet and get a gun, she ignored him and as he went out there, killing and maiming those fucks left and right, she opened a panel on the underside of her left arm and pressed a button; the silica gel that helped her control her fingers with more precision glowed as the LEDs built into the palm of her hand lit up, and she used it like a flashlight--it was quite bright, illuminating the immediate area around her within a 3-foot radius with light blue light.

She made her way across the room, finding a master circuit breaker and switching it off, unplugging several main power strips to keep her computers as safe as possible from any electrical pulses that would otherwise surge through the connected wires and fry them. So long as they weren't connected to the ground however, they should be mostly safe.

She moved with haste then to a wall where she shoved aside a cart of tools to access a giant metal storage bin behind it that was backed up against the wall. She shoved the papers that were on it onto the floor and unlocked it, lifting the lid up to reveal two gold, boxy-looking chunks of metal. She pulled them out, giving them a quick once-over, tapped a few spots and they suddenly lit up. Using her powers she lifted them into the air and connected them to each arm, each mechanism sliding into place with a series of satisfying locks and clicks. Using her powers again, a few more buttons were tapped and the gold metal on the outside of the boxes unlocked, lifting as mechanisms inside of them unfolded and started enveloping her arms, pieces locking into place until the add-ons had rearranged themselves in such a way that her arms were covered in porcelain white, looking fairly normal and human save for the rainbow LED detailing (currently turned off) that laced up from her fingertips to the top of where her deltoid would have been. All that remained of the former gold boxes was a small gold panel on the back of each arm.

Her hand flashlight was switched off and she moved through the darkness, poking her head out the door to see Arad standing there, shaking his head.

"If you could lead them away from my shop with their stupid EMPs that'd be preferred. Can't exactly fix you if all my equipment is fried." She growled, before disappearing back inside again to dig around for a few more things, just in case.


**OOC: Her arms now look like this (credit goes to the animators/designers at Trigger) but where Nui's hands are black Reva's are porcelain white, and do not have ruffles :u

[ARAD V1.0]

[Oooh. Kill la kill.]

"Understood," Arad snarled under his breath, tossing a severed head down, wiping some blood from his gauntlets. Before Reva could get inside her shop again, the whistling of a silenced weapon resounded again, some stray bullets would pierce through her skull. If it wasn't for Arad suddenly appearing infront of her, deflecting it with his body. "Just stay safe," he snarled softly.

At that, Arad turned around, before disappearing, catching an EMP grenade within the blink of an eye and crushing it before it could detonate. He followed up by literally ripping out the grenadier's throat, before using his body to fling it at the others.

And so, he threw himself into the squad again, drawing the fire away from Reva. Leaving a trail of blood and corpses in his wake.

[Cheesigator]

There was a moment's pause where she heard the sound of wind whistling before it was abruptly stopped by the unmistakable metal tang of bullets hitting armor. She glanced over her shoulder, furrowing her brows as Arad stood there, shielding her from the gunfire.

How considerate of him. She sincerely doubted he'd have done that if she wasn't worth something for her technical skills.

She paused for a moment, staring after his wake as she listened to the sounds of him massacring the soldiers. She snorted and rolled her eyes, unphased by what had just happened. She hadn't bothered telling him the same.

She started furiously emptying some of the heavy metal storage bins and cases underneath one of the island counters in the work room, pulling out several metal mechanisms and contraptions she stuffed into a duffel bag. Grabbing a coat that was a size or two too big for her, she threw it on and slung the duffel bag over her shoulders on top of it, grabbing a pair of keys and stuffing them into her pocket as she headed out down the hallway.

It was a long, narrow hallway that led out into another part of the basement, the main area as it were, with rather high ceilings that were now currently coated in blood and stray bullets. She stepped over or walked on the corpses littering the ground, stepping around the massive metal shelves full of storage bins, spare parts and other miscellaneous crap they still sometimes needed around in the shop but couldn't bother keeping upstairs in the office or the main garage. It created a perfect maze for soldiers to hide behind, unfortunately, and it seemed one of them had managed to sneak past Arad in the middle of his killing spree.

She paused a moment, hearing something and turning her head, right as the soldier came in from the side she was turned away from, gun pointed at her. He yelled something but before he could finish she had turned around and brought her hands up, feigning surrender. He started inching closer, keeping the gun trained on her while she stared at him with a look of utter boredom. Apparently he figured he could use her like a shield or something to get Arad to cooperate, from what she could figure given he hadn't shot her yet.

As soon as he was close enough there was a deafening metallic CLANG mixed with a loud sound that could only be described as a mix of a pop and a crack and the sound of water hitting the floor at the same time.

His headless body toppled to the floor, along with his worthless gun, which she figured, what the hell why not, and stooped down to pick up, popping the clip on it and finding it fully loaded before she snapped it back in. His blood, brain matter, and bits of his skill were getting all over it now because it coated her hands, the entirety of her front and had even managed to get into her hair, but she didn't particularly care. She'd literally smashed his head like it was a water balloon with her bare hands.

She followed the trail of bodies upstairs, keeping her eyes peeled for Arad or Belliel, the latter of which found her first.

"Right good killing machine you rescued there, champ." The alien said with a snort; Reva had to crane her neck up to look at her, she was just shy of 3 meters tall when she was on four legs, let alone two.

"I'm taking him to the old shop so this doesn't keep interfering with our work. My ship?"
"It's still sitting out in the field. All projects have been evacuated, I'll see you when you get back."
"Sure, sure."

Well, at least everything of value was already taken care of, she figured as there was a near deafening crack of wings beating the air behind her, and then Belliel had disappeared. Looks like Arad wouldn't be getting to meet her today, a right shame that was.

The main upstairs floor was again, mostly hallways leading to larger rooms--if you took two lefts from the stairs, you'd be led to the rather large lobby and reception area, which was directly connected to a planning room. If you took two rights, you could enter the main garage through a small door, and through there you could enter the main aircraft hangar. Reva's ship was currently nowhere near here, rather it was in a separate parking building the company had bought out for keeping personal craft a few blocks away from here. Now if she could just get Arad to leave these suckers so they could make their escape, that'd be great.

Two soldiers came darting from the right hallway, and as soon as they had turned the corner and come into view Reva raised her gun and shot twice; it had a decent kickback on it but she'd gutshot them both, and as soon as they were down on the floor she shot twice again and got their heads.

"Heeeere Robot Robot Robot, do you wanna go buh-bye in the car?" She called out, stepping towards the main garage. It was like she was calling a dog, it would've been impossible for Arad to not realize she was calling him.

[ARAD V1.0]

Arad just cut through the soldiers, bored and unimpressed. They had put up overwhelming numbers. Sadly, these soldiers were of no quality. Where they even trying? After cutting through the nth squad, Arad stood up straight, wiping some blood from his visor and grunting softly. "Dreadfully boring," he snarled under his breath. Before he picked up the rattling of keys and a rather condescending voice with a condescending message from the hallway next to him.

He slammed his laserblade into the wall and started to cut it open far enough for his defragmentation unit to get him through. He reformed next to Reva and snarled softly. "Don't act so smug," he warned, before countless laboured footsteps were heard. The clunking of massive armour and weaponry. "And duck," he advised.

Soldiers appeared behind them. And infront of them. Massively armoured. Lugging massive weaponry, such as assualt cannons or miniguns. "Overcore engaged," he stated, before pushing Reva down as she hadn't gotten down to the ground before.

And for Arad, everything slowed down. The loud clattering, sufficient to deafen anyone in the hallway, resounded as fire was opened. Shells and bullets flying everywhere in a tremendous firing line. A particle field appearing infront of each squad. The hallway became a killing field.

He cut down each bullet or shell that would inflict harm upon Reva, switching constantly from the left to the right, cutting down each and everyone, before he finally reached both squads. And tearing through their armour like it was mere paper.

To Reva, it would have all happened in but the blink of an eye, Arad reforming next to her. And if she was still on the floor, picking her up gently, his reactor slowing down again in frequency. "Where to?" He inquired, possibly holding her up in a bridal style way of carrying.

[Cheesigator]

Oh, there he was. She had to admit, she did start a little when his blade suddenly pierced through the wall a few inches away from her. She rolled her eyes as he got through, for the love of Pete he could've just walked a few steps through the door--she made a mental note he'd have to pay for that. Since it was completely unnecessary.

She had opened her mouth to reply before suddenly they were surrounded by soldiers, and when she saw their massive amounts of weaponry she let out a sharp "HAH!" As she ducked down on his cue, snickering to herself. They were so weak and pathetic they had to pull out the big guns just to try and tackle one droid! That was hilarious! Whoever these Syndicate people were they really weren't as big and bad as she'd been thinking they might be.

They were just sad, really. She almost pitied them.

Arad was back at her side again, moment of massacre over before she could even finish laughing at them, and she found herself suddenly scooped up into his arms. It was mildly annoying but eh she wouldn't complain.

She casually wiped some of the other guy's blood from her face, pointing down the hallway over her shoulder. "Go down there and take a left and we can exit through the front lobby doors. My personal ship is a few blocks down the way, I'll take you to an old facility we don't use anymore and we'll see if we can't figure out how they keep tracking you down."

She said it so simply, so matter-of-factly, with such utter boredom in her tone of voice, despite having witnessed what Arad had just done--because she could do the exact same thing herself. As made evident when two more soldiers came running and tried to open fire on Arad and herself; the moment the bullets came out of the gun they got about halfway to their marks and then were suddenly sent flying back by an unseen force, going right between each soldier's eyes and killing them both in an instant. It happened so fast it was likely Arad might not have seen what happened at all had he not been looking. Either way they toppled to the floor with the rest of their comrades and Reva let out a sigh.

"Pitiful, just pitiful. I don't know why you say I shouldn't be smug when they're only sending pissants like these after you; and here I thought you were something special. Clearly they're idiots."

[ARAD V1.0]

"They're scouts," Arad snarled in response, glancing down at Reva. "Forward operations. Several cells of expendable soldiers tasked with catching me. They know they won't. It's to test my current state," he answered. "Seeing as I dispatched all of them without a sweat," he snarled softly. "They'll send something proper next time," he explained, shaking his head.

"I am worth more than this station," he snarled softly, following the explained path, pushing open the lobby doors.

Several helicopters, walker tanks and even some mechs standing ready for them. "And that's the cavalry. Any ideas?"

[Cheesigator]

"Worth more than this station, huh?" She said skeptically, "Well that's very big of you to say."

His point was unfortunately proven as they stepped outside however; one look at all the vehicles waiting for them and she instantly dropped that rather placid demeanor she had a moment ago. Sure they knew they weren't gonna get him but boy that wasn't about to stop them from trying was it.

Instantly she pointed to their left, "Down three blocks thataway take a right and get into that parking garage and do me a favor and don't stop running!" She barked, clearly giving orders was something familiar to her as the angry and authoritative tone to her voice seemed to be completely natural.

She then focused her attentions on their enemies. They opened fire and she halted all the ammunition mid-air, gritting her teeth against some of the heavier missiles they'd just launched--missiles, really, missiles?!

For every action there is opposite reaction, she had to push back against every bullet with the same amount of force it was shot with, much easier said than done. A few small calibre pistols were one thing, a swarm of heavy attacks meant to take out an entire squadron? Less so.

There was a visible moment where all ammo halted in the air for a half a second, enough for the human eye to catch, before all of it was flung back at its source, blowing the tanks into the air with the force of the explosions. She used that force to keep pushing them, guiding them in their arcs to collide with each other mid-air.

Soldiers were sent flying and she put all her focus on one mech in particular. She had to use her arm now as a guide to help her focus; it'd been a while since she'd had to use her powers this much on so much heavy equipment, and using her arm to guide her through the motions helped distract her from the oncoming headache so she could literally sweep the mech into the air and wipe the floor with it, sending the cavalry flying.

The helicopters were a step ahead of her however, and they opened fire in the total three seconds this exchange took place over--the ship company behind them was torn to pieces and rendered asunder by heavy fire. Reva cussed, throwing a look over Arad's shoulder to catch it being blown to smithereens, the force of the explosion probably enough to send them both flying if Arad wasn't fast enough.

[ARAD V1.0]

He didn't react to her retort. He didn't really care for it. He explained to her what's what. It was up to Reva to decide what to think of it.

Arad glanced in direction of her pointing and nodded briefly, glancing up as the telltale sounds of missiles being ignited resounded. Small to heavy arms fire. And even tank shells. They seemed to want him, or whatever what was left of him back.

Badly so.

As she was forcing her telekinesis on the enemy, Arad made a run for it. But she didn't catch all bullets, some of the turrets fired and found him, slamming into his armour. Thank god his pain inhibitors were still deactivated. He just caught the massive caliber, being a living shield for Reva.

The explosion sent debris their way, conctrete and metal. A piece of rebar slammed through his hip, piercing through to surface through his stomach, having missed Reva's side by just a hair. But that didn't stop Arad. The explosion scorching his back and covering it in black soot.

[Cheesigator]

It wasn't like something like this hadn't happened before.

In the time that Reva had been with Belliel (at least twenty years, or somewhere around that,) they had moved bases several times, and established alternate locations on other nearby planets and such. The business was branching out--they made enough to be able to afford an assload of insurance, so it wasn't like this was the end of the world.

But it was still her home, it had been her favorite so far.

Her gut clenched and she grit her teeth, having enough sense to look away as the debris started flying; she had felt the stray ammo hit Arad's back and she silently reassured herself that she'd at least done right by him in turning off those pain sensors. She didn't understand why they'd given him those and nothing else human-esque. He couldn't feel pleasure, so why include pain? It was something she didn't have the time to consider right now, though.

All she had time for was to briefly think how glad she was that the rebar that impaled the robot carrying her had missed all of her important internal organs. She could regenerate wounds, but not that fast, and she wasn't sure how good she'd be at regeneration if her central nervous system was destroyed. She'd rather not chance finding out.

As they turned the corner she saw a chance and took it, holding onto Arad tightly with one arm as she used her other to direct her focus again and pull a large cargo ship out into the street, throwing the massive thing behind them as it crashed into the street and blocked the soldiers from giving immediate chase. It was more or less a quick distraction, so they could escape into the building to throw those assholes off their tails even if for a few seconds.

"There!" She pointed to the parking garage, perhaps a bit out of breath but still loud enough for Arad to hear. "Third floor, looks like this." She flicked her wrist and a small hole opened in the palm of her hand, a little beam of light emitting from it to show a small hologram of the personal ship she'd used to bring him here in the first place.

The rest of the parking garage was filled with other ships, some of which were Reva's--because it wasn't directly a part of the shipping company's main building, it'd been left untouched, and even if it had been tampered with, all of the ships had their own shields activated automatically when they were turned off, invisible until something hit them or tampered with them. All of the varying racers, cruisers and ships belonged to those who worked at the company, though Reva owned the largest collection of them. They all varied in sizes, shapes and colors, all made for different purposes, very much collected like sports cars or trophies. The entire third floor as it was--accessible by elevator or stairwell, stairwell being the safest option right now considering Arad could stand in the center of it and just jump up to the third floor if he wanted--could have easily been a floor entirely dedicated to Reva's collection, as most of them were some varying shades of pastel colors, or on occasion, black and neon.

The ship Reva was after was in the center of all of them, and as soon as they were up there she flicked her wrist again, making a few gestures with her hand and moving her fingers as if she was pressing and controlling various invisible buttons--and the ship started up on its own. Its thrusters lit up with bright blue-white energy as it raised from the ground, its protective shield lighting up a bright neon aqua in a bubble that encompassed the entirety of its build.

She let go of Arad and jumped down from his arms, darting over to her ship and throwing both hands onto the shield. The electricity sparked and a series of menus appeared on the spherical electric field; with lightning reflexes she started punching buttons and selecting menus, and suddenly every ship around them, as well as on subsequent floors above and below them, also started up, and started disappearing as they all started teleporting to other locations, since there was no point in getting everyone else's mechanical babies caught up in this mess.

Reva's ship let down its shield however and she darted underneath it as a hatch opened up in the bottom. She started to climb in but suddenly stopped, whipping around and throwing a hand out to Arad, the rebar trembling inside of him before it was yanked out by her telekinetic forces and thrown to the concrete floors with loud clanging noises. He wouldn't have fit in there with it still stuck in him.

"Get in!" She snapped as she nimbly slid into the cockpit--it was barely big enough for the two of them, unless if Arad preferred to sit in the small cargo hold that was just situated just behind and slightly underneath on the ship's undercarriage. Either way, the soldiers had long since figured out where they'd gone, because she could hear them knocking out the support columns below, the explosions ringing and echoing throughout the structure. The building was starting to implode and collapse, the ceiling already coming down in chunks as the last of the extraneous ships disappeared to safety somewhere else.

"Shit," She spat, fury bubbling up in her chest and threatening to tint her vision red. "Shit shit shit."

She pulled back on the steering console and turned the handlebar grips, the engine revving as the ship suddenly jumped to life and darted forward as she did her best to navigate the huge chunks of falling debris. It had a small deflector shield manually built in but when the entire ship was powered on it didn't have the spare power to divert to the large bubble shield it had when parked, which meant if any huge chunks of concrete fell on them they'd be fucked. She didn't exactly want to die by being crushed to death in her own cruiser with a professional jackass for company in her back seat.

"You any good at being a ship gunner!?" She called back, because she didn't have the focus right now to fire the first set of guns herself, but there was a second set that did heavier damage that relied on a second person in the small seat built in behind hers to control, and if he was in any decent condition and not braindead, he'd hopefully at least try it out.

[ARAD V1.0]

[Once more. Sorry for the wait. Also. The art style is familiar. Cowboy Bebop?]

Something changed. It was as if a switch was flipped. The humming of his reactor was steady, yet intense at one point. Now the humming changed, to a deep thrumming that reverberated through his body. She might even be able to feel the soft vibration. It hinted at yet another increase in power.

The scent of charred wood and sooth reached his nostrils. He glanced down at the child in his arms. The sky was filled with the red glow of fire. Plumes of smoke raising around him. "Stay here," he turned to a small alcove in the hallway, putting her down inside, before taking a step back, glancing once more at Reva. Or rather, the child he saw, before back at the oncoming demons. He took several steps forward again. Towards the enemy. His armour hissed and locked down around him. With a soft sheen, the blades pushed out from his gauntlets.

And then, there was nothing left of him but a red silhouette.  And soon, a flash of red was seen on the hatch of the first armoured vehicle, the metal piece flying away and blood squirting out from it. Within the blink of an eye and another flare of red light, the pilot of one of the helicopters was reduced to minced meat. And so it ensued, massive feats that also included flipping a tank upside down, slicing through the entire length of the missile launcher of a chopper. Shredding through the entire platoon of soldiers and power armour that backed them up, before he appeared besides Reva again. Covered in blood and gore, sooth from explosions. His armour was loose, twisted in wrong ways. And along with the original piece of rebar, other debris had pierced him.

But nonetheless, he picked up Reva again, without as much as muttering a word, even not snarling, and he made his way following her commands. Some of the soldiers were squished to bits by the oncoming cargo ship. The others were now thrown off. Ending their chase then and there.

Arad glanced down at Reva, nodding solemnly, before turning on his heels and bursting forward into a run that made the ground crack underneath his metal feet.

He moved his way through the stairs and glanced upwards. Third floor. He glanced down at Reva again, still in his own delusion of the current world. The forms, shapes and events were the same. They were just cosmetically different. Experienced completely different. He was in the center of a massive tower with a long and winding staircase. The groaning and moaning of the faceless demons behind him audible. He slowly bend through his knees, before doing nothing less than throwing Reva up at a massive speed. Calculated, though, her momentum would stop roughly at the third floor. And with another flash of red, Arad had caught her, landing on the end of the massive flight of stairs.

The child jumped from his arms and shouted at him while she was waiting for him at an unknown portal. Causing him to back off slowly. The loud clunking of rebar called him back to reality however, his optics now registered Reva at the cockpit of her ship. He shook his head and made his way over, pulling the other pieces of debris away from his body, before slipping in the backseat. His reactor returned to normal again, yet some of the debris hit some more vitals. Such as the coolant system. There were back ups and he could operate for now. But it'd need repairs soon.

As she called out she needed a gunner, Arad snarled softly, pulling out a cable from the back of his head, before fitting it in a slot in the ship. "Direct interface." He stated, giving part of his reactor power to the ship's, able to divert more power to the ship's weaponry, but also the shielding. And as expected from a computer, not a single piece of debris hit them or even got in their way, all shot down immediately by him.

[Cheesigator]

Well, he was definitely useful for a lot of things it seemed. Maybe if he turned out to be less of a jackass later on, she might not be opposed to letting him stick around if he wanted. Maybe.

Probably not.

He was at least a damn good gunner; whatever debris she couldn't dodge he was quick to shoot at, which meant she could focus on just the big pieces of ceiling that were coming down around them, clouds of dust engulfing the ship and for a brief moment everything outside of the cockpit was just a strange mauvey color due to the pink tinted glass of the cockpit.

She sucked in a breath and went for it. Her motions were borderline frantic as she punched the various touch screen buttons to initiate the jump to hyperspace. They broke through the clouds of dirt and dust and for a split second the sunlight of the day was almost blinding, and then they were gone in a flash of bright white and aqua light, disappearing from the scene and leaving nothing in their wake.

Reva let out her breath and fell back against her seat, a tunnel of stars and blurred lights swirling around them as they jumped through space and time before coming out on the other end in the black reaches of deep space.

She rubbed her face with her hands before she rubbernecked around her seat to look at Arad, a smirk on her lips. "Not bad. I know plenty of pirates who'd kill to have a marksman like you on board."

She turned back to the front, pulling up a few hologram screens and inputting their new course information; she could only hope that the Syndicate hadn't realized they owned that garage, and that they hadn't put trackers on all of the ships. It was something she couldn't check for right now though, they had to land first--and then they had to see about the trackers inside of Arad as well. She blinked, noticing her hands were trembling as she entered in coordinates, and she grit her teeth.

Well, there went another home. Another safe haven, gone.

She paused for a moment, biting on her lower lip as she tried to push down the waves of anger that threatened to engulf her. It was her own fault for getting involved with this droid, and not taking more precautions. She'd gotten so used to the comforts of their company's name, that nobody would ever dare attack them like that--she knew it wasn't her fault, and that they could rebuild, but still. She'd made a mistake. She shouldn't be making those--not when their lives and jobs were on the line.

But she definitely needed somewhere to take this anger out on--and she knew it was wrong to blame Arad for it. It wasn't like he'd asked her to pick him up out there in space. No, the only thing that deserved anger at all was the Syndicate; so that was where she'd direct it towards.

She guided the ship in the direction of Edanith, the trip would likely take a half an hour. She leaned back in her seat and willed her anger down, telling herself that there would be a time when she should use it, but that time was not now.

"While you're hooked into the ship here, can you tell me if you notice anything that might be the Syndicate's handiwork?" She asked suddenly, trying to distract herself. Her head was throbbing, she just wanted to curl up and go to sleep. "Any tracking devices they put on us?"

[ARAD V1.0]

"So do I," he snarled softly, moving himself up to get the both of them in a more comfortable position, if such a thing was possible. A walking and talking targeting computer. Ofcourse he was an ace of a shot. It would be rather shit programming if he couldn't keep up with the speed he could attain.

Arad craned his neck to her as he noticed a steady rise in her heartbeat. Being connected to her entire ship gave him more or less access to all subsystems. Including her vitals scanner. "Calm down," he stated softly, it wasn't a snarl, or a growl. It was a... Friendly? Could he be friendly? From him. Expressing his concern somewhat.

A soft, cybernetic rattling resounded, as if he was calculating through something. "None that I immediately notice," he stated. "Also. You'll have to take a look at my coolant system." With that note, his overcore expired. His pain inhibitors kicked back in again, as was the general premise of overcore. The pain, and the countless warning signals would send a glitch through the ship, before he tore out the cable, to make sure he didn't destroy it while they were still inside.

[Cheesigator]

She hadn't been expecting what he said, the almost... Friendly? Tone of voice. She blinked and her breath hitched for a split second as she started to think How the-- and then realized, of course. He was plugged into the ship, he could see all her vitals. She cursed it in the back of her mind, but he was right. She needed to calm down.

Thankfully, he kept talking, and that gave her something else to focus on.

"Sure, I was planning on taking another look at you when we got to Edanith anyways." She said, blinking and catching the moment where her systems lagged for a moment, and she heard him unplug something, presumably himself.

"You gonna be alright? We're almost there and once we get to the place I have in mind I can get back to work on you, at least for a little bit. First priority is gonna be seeing how we can get rid of that tracker they put on you."

Considering he'd been out there left for dead in the middle of space, she hadn't thought anyone would be using that tracking device she'd noticed in him, so she hadn't bothered to remove it. It wasn't broken so don't fix it, kind of thing. But maybe they could use it as a way to turn the tables, and go hunting for the Syndicate instead. Sure they would still find ways to send soldiers after them, but if they lost precise coordinates, it would at the very least slow them down.

[ARAD V1.0]

"Good," he grunted. And even with the cold, metallic gravel choking voice, pain was obviously laced within. He didn't struggle to speak, but it was clear that he was inin a great deal of pain.

Regardless. Pain didn't infringe his motor functions, so he sat up, turning around slightly to rest one hand her shoulder, the other one being unresponsive by now and dropping in her lap, a clear, radiant red liquid slowly running down said arm. "Where are we now? I didn't check." He inquired. "And I'd appreciate that. Would allow for better planning to strike back."

[Cheesigator]

Even though he'd been a dick earlier, she felt bad when she heard the pain in his voice. She hadn't asked him to use himself like a... Not-human shield earlier, he'd done that on his own. But still, she felt partially responsible even though she knew she shouldn't.

She had turned her head slightly to look at him when he spoke, suddenly finding him surprisingly close as his hand dropped into her lap, suddenly useless it seemed. And perhaps a little too close to her crotch. A slight blush warmed her face as she reached down and gently lifted it, placing it to the side so it could leak coolant somewhere that was not directly on her. He still had a hand on her shoulder though, and she wasn't quite sure how she felt about it.

"We're only about 10 minutes now from Edanith," She said, nodding towards the terraformed planet as they approached it. "We have an outpost there in Tynova, but we're going to the frontier. There's an old garage out there we own that nobody's worked with in years, it'll be a good hiding place for now."

Provided the backup generators were still running, and it hadn't been destroyed by sandstorms or whatever. Security systems should still be up though, from what her systems were telling her. The signals were also a little blotchy, though.

Passing through the planet's orbit was a little tough for such a small ship, so it was a rather rocky ride, but it wasn't anything Reva couldn't compensate for in her driving. She already had clearance to enter this planet as she pleased thanks to her job position, so as they neared the red sands and harsh landscape she didn't bother passing through any of the major cities, instead finding her way to a series of canyons that she angled the ship into, the shade engulfing them and instantly the temperature dropped a degree or two in the cockpit as they left the harsh sunlight. She expertly navigated through the tight spaces before they found a cavern in the vertical rock walls, into which a large facility was built, the metal exterior painted with the words "Galley La Co."

She entered in a few commands on one of her screens and a large set of garage doors suddenly started creaking and coming to life, allowing them to glide in and land in the hangar as the doors shut behind them. The lack of windows left them in complete darkness for a few moments as the ship was set lightly down and powered down. The curved pink glass of the cockpit was retracted and Reva stood, using her powers to lift Arad from his seat and take him with her down to the dusty concrete floors as she hopped out.

It was rather cool, the air stagnant; dust was stirred up as their feet touched on the floor. As they did so, a series of outdated overhead light fixtures began flickering on, dim at first but slowly growing in brightness as power started cycling through the facility. The hanger was big enough to house one or two other small ships; at one point this place had been strategically built near a growing town, but a disaster had struck some fifteen years ago and the citizens left, taking business with them. But this place was still good to keep around, mainly for things like this.

Reva assisted Arad if he needed it as they crossed the garage, their steps echoing off the walls rather eerily as they went up a set of metal stairs and Reva opened the door to an office-like area with windows set in to let those inside overlook the goings-on in the garage below.

She set him down in an old swivel chair, telling him to hang on for a few moments while she scrounged around in other areas of the building, connected to them via hallways and doors, for the parts and spare power she needed. She came back with a toolbox and set it on the counter, tossing him an old rag.

"Help me out here and clean yourself up a bit; I just gotta get some power rerouted to the computers in here." She said, nodding to the computer panels set into the counters lining the room, and she pulled some cords from the toolbox as she said this, dropping to her knees near a computer tower to start plugging things in before she left the room again to plug the other ends of the cords into one of the backup generators a few rooms away.

Things started powering up a few moments later, the screens obscured by the gray film of dust covering their glass surfaces, which Reva then used Arad's rag to quickly wipe away when he was finished with it. She turned her attention then to the other pieces of rebar and debris stuck inside of him, and she let out a breath.

"Well, you're a good shield, I'll give you that." She said as she started getting to work on prying the pieces out.

[ARAD V1.0]

"Even the Syndicate would think twice of attacking there," he agreed, pushing himself back in his own seat with, a soft grunt of pain. He found himself hatefully idle. Wounded and no control on the current situation. He glanced down at the jarred plating on his arm and went about to wrenching it out. It served no purpose but damaging him further. Well, he hoped there were similair alloys where they were headed. He'd hate to go out without armour. Vulnerability was something he hated.

He didn't seem to need too much help leaving the ship or walking. Though he did leave a trail of the coolant fluid as he went. Bleeding, like a normal human. It seemed... Oddly poetic. The first time he fought to protect someone else also ended up having him bleed like he would back when he was nothing but a merc low on credits.

He was put down in a chair, given a rag and told to clean himself. And so he complied. Focussing more on getting the blood and gore off of him, rather than the coolant or the sooth. He'd need a new paintjob regardless.

When Reva reached out and grabbed a shard that portruded from his gut, his hand jolted forward to grab her wrist. Insistent. Yet oddly gentle. "Pain... Inhibitors," he reminded her with a soft grunt.

[Cheesigator]

His hand was surprisingly warm for being made of metal, but she realized it was likely due to all the activity they'd narrowly escaped not an hour before. Still, his sudden grip caught her off guard and made her heart skip a beat. Pain inhibitors? Oh--Oh. Right.

She pulled her hand back as she reached over and located them, turning them off again as she muttered, "Automatically come back on, huh? Well that's a pain in the ass, literally."

She'd forgotten he was a droid, forgotten he wasn't supposed to feel pain, for a minute there.

She then returned to her work, pulling out the pieces of rebar and assessing the damage, screens popping up around them as she scanned him while she worked, taking note of everything wrong. It was almost as bad as when she'd first found him--not quite, but definitely in the ballpark.

"And here I'd just fixed you, too..." She grumbled, perhaps a little disappointed, judging by the tone of her voice.

Once she'd gotten all the foreign material out of him, it became a matter of locating the tracking device and figuring out how to disassemble it while still making it usable for their own needs. It took a bit of searching before she found it--she eventually had him lay down on a countertop while she started opening panels and taking him apart, unapologetic as she literally buried herself elbow deep in him while she worked. It took a lot of careful precision to release the tracking device without setting anything off, and she let out a breath of air she hadn't realized she'd been holding when she succeeded, removing it from him and setting it on the counter a little ways away, closing up the rest of his panels so he could at least sit up while she worked on disabling it.

"If we're lucky I can get this thing to work to our advantage, so we can track them down instead of the other way around--because I'd sure as shit like to give them a piece of my mind for blowing up my house." She growled; if she'd had fur it would have been bristling right now, and to be completely honest, seeing Reva angry could sometimes be a little bit cute, considering how tiny she was.