A Pain in the Arsenal ((Mia, Tetro, open))

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque hurried after Nastusia, not wanting to let her leave his sight.  He felt safe around her, and not just because she had rescued him from that TRIM ship.  He couldn't explain it even to himself why she seemed to exude a feeling of safety, at least for him.  He was still clutching his tails to his chest, hopefully no one would step on another.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on.  Yall know I can't understand that crazy human speak yet."  He stated quite bluntly as he followed the Captain.  First the guy had stepped on his tail, then the fighting, then the guy had simply left after what Tetro assumed was an apology of some sort, and now they were rushing out like something bad was about to happen.

"I assume we're heading back to the ship?"  He asked hopefully.  While he liked to see all the new sights on this space station, he rather enjoyed the safety of the Vulpecula as well.  Plus he would be able to finish taking apart the Fury and put it's armor, shields, weapons, and energy sources to good use.  Thoughts of that led him to have a new idea.

I wonder if the Captain would mind if I built a mech of my own with the spare parts of the Fury...  The idea was rather intriguing to him, especially making it a hybrid of human and Kitsune tech.

[Anonymous]

“The usual place,” Nastusia answered. Well, shit, that helps me none at all. "No, I mean so I can find you. I'm not leaving the Rikkämpfer here, the docking bay is a big place, and I really don't feel like latching onto the wrong ship and looking like a tool." She seemed rather irritated, but she was always like that under stress. She breathed deeply. "What color is it? What type?"

Rikki followed the other three into the main part of the space station, and towards the Blue District. Tetroneaque looked thoroughly frazzled. Rikki wanted to tell him everything would be fine, but he wouldn't understand her. She concentrated on her weak mind-link with the thug again. They still haven't found a telephone, but at least they're further into the Red District. "We haven't got much time. You can interpret that as me being afraid for my life, and Tetro's, if he's not immortal too..."

[Anonymous]

“You don’t want to know,” Keir replied to Tetro’s question, he was better off being ignorant for the moment.

    He’d probably realise for himself but telling him might panic him and he might be liable to do something foolish. Nastusia was being her usual reckless self. She was strong and couldn’t be killed, not permanently anyway but the time might come when she couldn’t return. And last time he had seen her fight, against Mordecai and mages that time, she had died twice. She came back, but that wasn’t the point.

     “It’s blue and silver,” Keir replied to Rikki’s question, “Small, Renatia Class.”

     Renatias were small but reliable ships and most of all fast. Which was good because they were going to need its speed, if they didn’t get stopped before they reached it that was.

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque was simply more confused by Keir's reply.  His ears kept twitching in annoyance at being kept out of the loop so to speak.  However since the Captain didn't seem to be telling him anything either, there wasn't much he could do about it.

I'd still like to know what's going on...  He thought to himself with a slight frown as the group continued to make haste in the direction he remembered the ship being docked.

"I'm guessing those men back at the bar do not wish us well?"  Tetroneaque finally asked, rather sure of the statement.  Before he could get confirmation on that however a group of rather familiar looking people stepped out of a side passage and blocked the group from advancing.  They certainly smelled familiar to the Kitsune, with that odor of blood, fear, and disinfectant.

"Those guys are from TRIM!  I'd recognize their smell anywhere!"  He barked out, becoming quite uncomfortable now.

Oh why did I leave my exo-suit on the ship...

[Anonymous]

Rikki nodded to Keir, now with a pretty good idea what the ship looked like. "See you there then!" She ran off toward the station where the Rikkämpfer was docked, looking back over her shoulder at the last possible moment.

Oh, joy. Another group of no-goodniks was menacing Nastusia, Keir, and Tetro. Good thing I'm behind them then! I really didn't want it to come to this. She walked silently closer to them and quickly penetrated their minds all at once, hoping she didn't hit anyone she liked. I hope this works... She locked down their joints so they couldn't move. "Run! I can try to hold them, but it won't work for long... Get to your ship, I'll meet you there!"

[Anonymous]

Nastusia was about to open her mouth to say something, probably along the lines of ‘I’ll deal with them, I’m not afraid of TRIM’ but Keir quickly flung her onto his should and did exactly what Rikki had told them to, he ran. Hopefully Tetro would know to follow.

     “Put me down!” Nastusia exclaimed as she struggled, in the Kitsune language surprisingly.

     She was probably hoping Tetro would ask Keir to obey but the situation had gotten out of hand enough as it was because of her. Blowing the TRIM people up would make things worse. As old as Nastusia was and as wise, she could be very reckless and very stupid at times. Now was one of those times, her pride took over.

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque of course stayed as close to his 'mother figure' as he could, running along side Keir who was holding Nastusia.  He was about to say something when a bolt of white hot energy flew past his head, close enough that he could smell his own singed fur.  He let out a frightened yelp and went down on all fours, running more like a fox in truth.  He was surprisingly speedy running in this fashion, and was actually pulling ahead of the others at this point.

"This galaxy is insane!"  Tetroneaque exclaimed.  "Why can't anyone simply discuss things in a civil manner!?!"

His ignorance about humans would have almost been cute if not for the horribly lethal circumstances at the time.  Bolts of energy kept blazing pass the Kitsune and his companions, though none were quite as accurate as that first one had been.

[Anonymous]

Rikki looked over her shoulder to see if the others were far enough away. When she judged they were at a safe distance, she deftly tripped the TRIM representatives and loosed her psychic hold on them, running full tilt toward the docking bay. I am so glad Dock 26 is on the near end here... the TRIM reps were firing at her with energy pistols. She took out her gun and fired a few blind shots behind her, zigzagging in her path so she would be more difficult to hit.

She stopped shortly at the front desk, breathing hard. "Dock 26," she panted, looking over her shoulder to see if she'd lost the TRIMmers, "checking out." The woman at the desk handed her a sheet of paper, which she quickly signed and zipped off toward the dock.

She put the gun away and took out the remote control for the Rikkämpfer, sort of relieved that the TRIM reps had left her to go after Nastusia... in a spiteful, jerkass sort of way. She hit the button for the entry platform as soon as she was within seeing distance of the mech, putting on an extra burst of speed to get there.

Hitting the platform and the button at the same time, she almost fell off it as it rose toward the mouth hatch, catching her balance at the last possible moment. She climbed through the mouth hatch, pulling the platform after her, and closed it. Then she turned on the onboard computer and radio transmitter, and locked the mech down against air leaks. "Hello-hello, Dock 26 to the Cancer, requesting to depart, over." I hope the others made it okay...

[Anonymous]

From her position on Keir’s shoulder, Nastusia could clearly see the TRIM reps gaining on them, Rikki had used some kind of psychic ability to trip them but they were still being chased.

     “That’s it!” Nastusia exclaimed wriggling free from Keir and landing on the floor.

     She quickly got to her feet and faced the oncoming TRIM workers. Closing her eyes she focused her magic into a wall. As she did so a blue glass-like wall appeared from ceiling to floor blocking Keir and Tetro off from her and their pursuers. There now they wouldn’t get hurt and Keir could stop her.

     She turned to the TRIM workers, “Who wants to be first?”

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque skidded to a halt when Nastusia suddenly wriggled free from Keir.  The little Kitsune wasn't sure what to do.

"Captain!"  He called, pounding on the energy barrier.  It was solid, even though it looked frail.  Tetroneaque seemed to be panicking now that he was separated from her.  His eyes were wide as he looked around for some way to get pass the barrier and help the Captain.  There wasn't one, Nastusia had been very thorough creating the barrier.

Two ideas suddenly sprang to Tetroneaque's mind.  He could help if he had a weapon, or he could try and distract the TRIM people with a little trick to help buy some time for Nastusia to lay into them.

Tetroneaque concentrated and soon five bowling ball sized orbs of blue fire appeared on Nastusia's side of the barrier.  They went hurtling toward the TRIM members and engulfed them.  The fire had no heat to it, thus it wouldn't hurt anyone.  It did however cause a very nice distraction as they tried to extinguish the strange fire out of instinct.

Tetroneaque couldn't bring himself to run and abandon Nastusia though, at least not without a direct order.

[Anonymous]

The Rikkämpfer walked into the airlock, and waited impatiently for the in door to close and the space door to open. Rikki tapped her nails against the control panel. "Any day now, Cancer." She leaned back in her seat and folded her arms.

A reply came through. "Airlock opening in T-minus ten seconds. Have a nice day, Rikkämpfer."

Rikki rolled her eyes, glad not to be video-connected. "Back atcha, Cancer." She turned the Rikkämpfer's leg jets on hover as the airlock door opened, and floated out into space. "Departure complete, Cancer. Rikkämpfer out." She closed the connection and floated aimlessly outside the docking bay, opening a limited-area radio connection to wait for the Vulpecula. She rotated the mech, looking out the windshield for another ship. She looked to the far end of the docking bay with the Rikkämpfer's eye cameras.

Then she gave up. You know what, I'll wait for them to contact me. She stood up in her seat and reached behind it, extracting a thin metal paddle with a small rubber ball attached by an elastic tether; a toy from a bygone age, that she had picked up in Ipollius. She hit a switch on a side panel, and a cover slid out to shield the buttons on the control panel. She leaned against the cover and tried to figure out how to string together consecutive ball-hits with the paddle. It was hard, but Rikki was annoyingly persistent.

[Anonymous]

Keir frowned at Nastusia from behind the glass, there was no use shouting to her, she wouldn’t be able to hear. He had lost count of the number of times she had done that trick with the wall and he had never figured out how to break it.

     Tetro was panicking now but actually managed to do something useful by summoning some fox fire behind the barrier, successfully distracting the TRIM reps long enough for Nastusia to create a ball of energy around them. It crackled with green electricity, shocking those inside. That particular spell didn’t always kill but the people inside probably wouldn’t be able to move for a very long time.

     As noble as Nastusia’s intentions were, she could be very biased at times, particularly towards TRIM. It wasn’t because TRIM were after her, it was because of all her friends who had ended up at the awful place or were dead because of it. The people who worked at TRIM though didn’t always realise what they were doing was bad, many of them were not intentionally cruel.

     Nastusia stepped back when suddenly the ball disappeared. Some of the TRIM workers were still standing and one was holding a magic negator. Nastusia was a strong enough mage to be able to overwhelm it, but doing so would endanger those in the surrounding area. As revenge driven as the female immortal could be, she wouldn’t drag other people into it.

     So instead they got a glimpse at a rare occurrence, Nastusia fighting hand-to-hand. This was something she rarely did…because she was crap at it. She could avoid attacks but did not hit very hard.

     She jumped behind the one holding the magic negator and planted a kick into his back, then she ducked as one tried to hit her. As she did she swung her legs round knocking another to the floor. However this meant she didn’t see the laser aimed at her heart. Whilst she was rising to strike another TRIM rep, they pulled the trigger.

     “Nastusia!”

     She slumped to the ground and as she did the barrier shattered.

[OOC o.O No she isn't dead...she's immortal remember ^^....Well she is technically dead...but she isn't going to stay dead o.O]

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque let out a pained yelp as he saw Nastusia 'die'.  He knew she was immortal in the sense that she didn't really age, but he didn't know she could come back from the dead.  He was shocked at what he had just witnessed, at a loss for what to do.  He'd never seen anyone he cared about before become the target of something so violent before.  It was bad enough having total strangers die where he could see them, like back at Tynova when the technicians there had run afoul of his machine's security devices.  This however, was much much worse to him.

"Nastusia!"  He cried out in unison with Keir.  Without really thinking about what he was doing he ran toward her.  When a member of TRIM got in his way Tetroneaque did what any distraught animal might do.

Tetroneaque sprang up and clamped his teeth into the guy's throat, acting like some sort of wild wolf.  He shook his head back and forth, tearing out the man's throat with a spray of blood which stained the Kitsune's fur and white lab coat.  It seemed Tetroneaque was temporarily insane from grief.

He was quick though even in his troubled state of mind.  He dodged blasts that most humans would have been hit by as he ran around on all fours, dodging between legs and tripping people.  He bit one person on the leg, causing them to fall over.  It was the same one holding the magic negator, which broke as the man landed on top of the device.  Tetroneaque hadn't planned that though, as he was simply lashing out at these cruel people whom he figured had taken his friend away from him.  He was a blur of fur as he dashed about biting and scratching, though none of the wounds he inflicted were as bad as the fatal one he'd delivered earlier.  He did however make for quite the distraction.

After a few moments, which seemed like an eternity, he finally got to Nastusia's body.  With strength fueled entirely by adrenaline he grabbed her and started to run away, back toward Keir.

[Anonymous]

Keir knew that Nastusia would come back, she always did but he couldn’t help but worry that she wouldn’t return. In the 5,000 years he had known her he had seen her die in front of him many times, 870 to be precise. Nastusia could never remember how many times she had died, he however could remember the times he personally had seen her die. Hopefully 871 would not be an unlucky number.

     Tetro clearly didn’t know she could return from the dead as the moment the barrier fell he lunged at the TRIM reps killing one and wounding several others. He looked like some kind of rapid animal as he dodged their lasers and pounced at them. It made Keir glad he was on their side. Tetro was most likely blinded by grief and later once he had time to reflect on what he had done would be deeply depressed. Maybe realising Nastusia wasn’t dead might alleviate this somewhat.

     The fox grabbed Nastusia and starting running back towards him. The TRIM reps were wounded mostly but they still might try and follow them. For now it was better to just run. Who knew how long it would take for Nastusia to come back, it varied. Still he had better tell the kitsune in case he did something foolish.

     “She’ll come back Tetro, that’s how her immortality works. She dies but her soul always returns to her body.”

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque had tears streaming down from his eyes as he ran.  He felt so confused and full of grief that he simply couldn't think straight.  The iron tang of human blood was still in his mouth too and the taste made him want to vomit, but he couldn't stop.  He was carrying Nastusia away from those terrible people, he wouldn't leave her with them to experiment on her body.

As he ran away Keir was there next to him.  He hadn't known Keir as long as Nastusia, but it felt better having someone familiar nearby anyway.  When Keir spoke, Tetroneaque almost stumbled as the words sunk in.

"She'll...she'll come back?  Are you sure?"  The words were hard to get out between sobs, but he managed.  To him someone simply living forever, and coming back from the dead, were two vastly different things.

[Anonymous]

“That was not fun,” Nastusia thought to herself.

     Right now she was in a rather interesting predicament, no living person would be able to see her but a ghost or a possibly a necromancer could. If someone had been able to glimpse her what they would have seen was her in a see-through spirit like state chained to her body by a glowing silvery-blue chain which went from were her heart was on her spiritual body to where it was on her physical body. The chain was basically the trick of her immortality.

     Whenever her soul was flung from her body, i.e. when she died the chain kept it tied to her body so it couldn’t escape even it she wanted to. She had thought that maybe the chain would rust and corrode over the years but it hadn’t; it was as bright and unmarked as it had been thousands of years ago. Not that she wanted to die yet.

     Because she could die, she also felt pain and dying had hurt, she could even see blood around the chain on her physical body but that wound would heal when her soul returned. Getting there was the problem. She had to pull herself along the chain until she reached her body again, the chain was roughly 10 feet and she wasn’t the strongest of people. It was hard enough when her body was stationary but Tetro was running and carrying it at the same time. And since she was attached by the chain she was getting dragged along with it.

     Sighing, she started to gradually pull herself along the chain and try and not let go else she’d have to start over. She was pretty sure there wasn’t a time limit for getting there. One time when she was much younger she had tested it and had remained outside her body three days and nothing had happened. Tetro would have to put her down sometime soon but she would try and get back first. She had seen what he had done after she died. He obviously cared about her and the sooner she got back to her body the better.

//////

“Yes,” Keir replied, “I’ve seen her die 870 times previously and she never stays dead.”

     He knew that when he said that he was trying to convince himself as well. He knew she came back but he always had a sinking feeling that she wouldn’t. He glanced ahead and noticed the Vulpecula was now in sight. Fortunately Nastusia had set the barriers up so it would allow Keir and Tetro entry without her there. A good idea, otherwise they’d have to wait for her to return.

[OOC Heheh, the chain idea came from when some of my so-called friends handcuffed me to a tree at a party o.O...though it does sound kind of Bleach-esk o.O]

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque still wasn't convinced yet.  He wanted to believe Keir, but everything he knew about science and magic told him that coming back from the dead was impossible.  Talking to the dead, sure that was feasible.  Bringing the dead back as spirits, wraiths, or even animated corpses... yeah that was doable too.  Yet simply coming back to life in your old body as if nothing happened?  That just didn't click with anything Tetroneaque knew.

It didn't really matter what Tetroneaque knew could or couldn't happen though, as some things simply couldn't be explained.  He wanted to believe that Nastusia would come back and be totally fine.

He entered the Vulpecula right behind Keir.  Tetroneaque was huffing and puffing by now as he was not used to so much running, especially not while carrying someone.  He was grateful that Nastusia actually weighed less than himself.  He was even more grateful to be able to set her body down on the couch in the living area.  He was still crying as he waited next to her body for some sign she was alive.  The area around her heart still looked charred though, cauterized by the heat from the weapons fire.

At least she won't bleed on the couch... It was an odd thought, and he realized that.  Yet, if she was coming back he wouldn't want her to worry over a stain on the comfy couch.

"Come on Captain...  come back.  Please come back."  He practically pleaded.  He was still crying, but it was no where near the racking sobs from before.

[Anonymous]

Rikki had probably attempted and failed to whack the ball more than once with the paddle about seventy times, and she was quite frustrated. "Ugh," she said, flinging the toy to the back of the cockpit and slumping farther down into her seat. "Fuck this shit." She retracted the cover from the control panel and hit the "transmit" button.

"Rikkämpfer to..." she said, biting her lip. "Shit, guys, you never told me what your ship was called." She exhaled, rolling her eyes. "Repeat, Rikkämpfer to your little blue Renatia, whatever it's called, over."

She leaned over the arm of the seat while she waited for a response, and opened the small refrigerator she had put in, extracting a bag of candy. They better not have been leading me on. That'd make them damned immature, for immortals, she thought, munching on candy as she waited.

[Anonymous]

Nastusia was thankful when they finally reached the ship and Tetro put her down. She had given up on trying to reach her body whilst he was running, it was virtually impossible and despite being a spirit it was still tiring.

     Now her body was stationary she grabbed the farthest bit of chain she could and pulled herself towards it. Then she grabbed the next farthest bit and kept pulling herself closer to her body. She continued until she was within touching distance of her body and the moment she did touch it, everything went white.

//////

It was Keir who answered Rikki’s transmission since Nastusia was still out of commission.

     “Vulpecula here,” he replied, “We got back so you can join us now.”

     It was probably not a good idea to mention Nastusia’ death and besides she’d probably be back by the time Rikki reached them.

     Keir went back into the living area and leant again the door frame. He glanced at the captain. Though he knew she came back whenever she died, he had no idea how she did it. And she even refused to tell him, it was one of those things she would never tell anyone. It made Keir think that maybe there was such a thing as god and they had sworn her to secrecy. Or maybe there was nothing beyond and Nastusia didn’t want to alarm anyone by telling them they would cease to exist upon their death. Hopefully when she came back to life Tetro wouldn’t question her about what lay beyond.

     He glanced at the kitsune and saw he was still crying and then glanced back at Nastusia. Upon doing so he noticed the wound on her chest rapidly healing. And then she started breathing again.

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque was still sobbing when he noticed the wound in Nastusia's chest beginning to heal itself at a pace that defied all logic.  He wiped at his tears, making sure he was seeing things correctly.  Then Nastusia's chest began to rise and fall as she began to breathe again and then her eyes fluttered open.

Tetroneaque felt so happy now that he knew she was alright.  Unable to contain himself he pulled her into a fierce hug and licked her face out of sheer joy.

"Oh Captain!  You're okay!  You're okay!"  he exclaimed in happiness.  "I was so worried!  I thought those people had killed you!"  Tetroneaque's tails were a whirl as they swung back and forth rapidly as the Kitsune expressed his joy over having Nastusia back.  He didn't seem inclined to let her out of the hug anytime soon.