Airship Assault

Mach kept the AirShot pointed at ArmoryMan, but didn't engage, since Memora moved to kneecap the Navi with one of his own guns. ArmoryMan had managed to retaliate with a few accurate shots, but Mach felt safe in assuming he was holding up better than the kneeling Navi. Mach was keen on moving in and/or engaging to finish ArmoryMan off, but his target brought up a valid point. While he personally didn't care about the antibody routine in regards to his own safety, but if Prez was truly the only Terror Girl able to EJO, Load was at risk of deletion.

Mach glared at ArmoryMan through the "blood" splattered inner wall of his cockpit/helmet, and down the sights of the AirShot that manifested in place of his left forearm and hand; he stood silent as the injured Navi "revealed his hand." Though Mach's emotional ties with the TerrorGirls were thinning rapidly, Load was honestly the most innocent of the 3 Terror Girls from the start. His gaze shifted from ArmoryMan, to the console in front of him, to the tube-shaped cell door as he tried to work out a plan. [[i]" Invis2Effect: Invisibility
Accuracy: S
Description: Grants the user invisibility. This reduces the chance of being hit by non-Seeking attacks by 50%, but the user will also be susceptible to Area of Effect attacks.
Duration: 2 turns
Element: Null
Trader Rank: C and ElecAura2Protection: Any Non-Wood attack lower than 80 HP
Accuracy: S
Description: Negates any Non-Wood attack less than 80HP
Duration: Three turns, or until destroyed
Element: Elec
Special: Status Guard: This chip blocks debuffs.
Trader Rank: B,"[/i]] he ordered to Mazer, who was watching intently. Mazer wasn't entirely sure what Mach was thinking, but the sudden request for stealth and defensive chips suggested the Navi was preparing a hasty exit, possibly a rescue. ["On their way,"] Mazer replied as he moved to slot in the requested chips.

Mach chose not to give a verbal reply to ArmoryMan, but seemed to show "she" submitted to the gun-centric Navi's threat by de-arming the AirShot chip, but not fully discarding it, just in case he needed it later. His left forearm and hand reverted to its default state, then slowly brought his arm back down to his side. Once he received notification of the Invis chips successful upload, he tried to utilize the console in front of him to conceal the decoy drone that materialized down near his mechanical knees. As soon as the decoy came online, its holoprojectors created a carbon-copy display of Mach's body less than an inch in front of his own.

With the concealment hopefully set, he activated the Invis chip, which should've caused his entire frame to rapidly bleed into the background as it became perfectly transparent. As soon as the chip came into full effect, Mach focused on the console and attempted to turn the 7 skull turret dials to "OFF," followed by hitting the main "OFF" button. Once it appeared the commands were set, Mach quietly attempted to move across the room towards the holding cell. The door should've still been at least partially open before ArmoryMan shot Memora, and he attempted to squeeze inside without making a noise. If it looked like it was a particularly tight squeeze, he'd briefly deactivate his upper torso armor and even his arms to get through, then reactivate them upon successful entry to the cell.

If he managed to get that far, he attempted to get Load to her feet, carrying or dragging her if necessary. If it didn't look like he could get back out due to the exit being too small/closed, he'd utilize both of his teleport programs simultaneously in an attempt to warp both Load and himself out of the cell and back onto the floor of the bridge. Unfortunately that likely meant he'd have to drag/carry her the rest of the way, and unless Load could turn invisible as well, they wouldn't be able to simply sneak past. If ArmoryMan attempted to retaliate, he'd activate the ElecAura2Protection: Any Non-Wood attack lower than 80 HP
Accuracy: S
Description: Negates any Non-Wood attack less than 80HP
Duration: Three turns, or until destroyed
Element: Elec
Special: Status Guard: This chip blocks debuffs.
Trader Rank: B on Load, and even swat down ArmoryMan with a AirShot3Damage: 120 + Microburst
Accuracy: A
Description: A buster-like gun that shoots a bullet of compressed air, sending whatever it hits flying.
Duration: Once
Element: Null
Special: Wind Type: This chip counts as Wind Type for the purposes of Wind triggered effects, such as traps and terrain.
Trader Rank: B if he could line up a shot as he tried to get Load to safety.

At that point, stealth would've likely been made moot, so he would utilize all of his maneuvering capabilities, regardless of the jet noise, in an attempt to get both Load and himself quickly down the spiral bridge staircase and down the hallway towards the door through which he and Memora entered earlier on.

MachMan decided to pull the old switcheroo, projecting a decoy of himself while turning his own body invisible, with the intent to make ArmoryMan think he was standing still rather than making a move. "Clock's ticking," ArmoryMan reminded the dummy, gritting his teeth at the pain in his face and leg. "Don't be an idiot. Staying here and fighting me gets you nothing," he lectured, then spat data onto the floor. His nose and lip were both seriously busted from the earlier beating. "Are you surrendering? Sorry, I don't trust that. You're gonna have to give me more than that if you want me to do something about that countdown..."

Of course, MachMan wasn't really surrendering or trying to stop the countdown, but rather, taking care of the remaining issues that had lingered since the ship had been hijacked. He found the console had been shot a number of times during the firefight, and therefore, most of the camera feeds that had been displaying Prez no longer were. Hopefully, the controls still worked... the knobs and switches turned and toggled like they were supposed to, but there was no knowing what the effect was until he was back outside.

Next up was to try and get Load free from the holding cell before time ran out. For the average navi, that would an impossible task, given the small window of opportunity. For MachMan, it... might be possible. The door had sealed back, which probably explained why none of them had seen or heard anything from Load, but thankfully, MachMan still had the key. Using it would be a little noisier than he'd likely have appreciated, as the claw like end of the key had to attach back into place, but with ArmoryMan's attention still focused on the decoy, it didn't seem to matter. Once it was open, the entrance tube was just wide enough to let him in... on hindsight, Load had a pretty wide figure when her arms were on, so it was probably made to accommodate her entering in.

Inside the otherwise empty room, Load was sitting in one corner, sans arms. She looked confused seeing the door open, seemingly by itself. The muscle of the Terror Girls began sliding back to standing position by shrugging her broad back against the wall and bending her knees slowly. Picking her up proved supremely awkward, as she had no idea of the identity of her would-be rescuer and struggled for a moment against the hold. Even without her arms, she was still rather strong, and once he finally got her up into carrying position (making her the second Terror Girl to be held this way today), she was uncomfortably heavy. Even sans-arms, she seemed to weigh at least twice what Prez had.

Still, once she realized he wasn't trying to hurt her, she was smart enough to go along with it, keeping an amusingly blank expression as she floated through the air, carried by an unseen ghost. Once they were out of the cell, it became abundantly apparent that there was no way to stay unseen, given that his speed was slowed while carrying Load. He went with plan B, activating an ElecAura around Load. ArmoryMan was still barking threats at MachMan's clone, but slowly turned, given the unavoidable noise Load was making while moving. Thankfully, MachMan's plan B had a part 2, and he blasted ArmoryMan in the center with his earlier unused weapon. It probably hadn't done much damage to his chest after it hit, but it did send him gliding across the room and crashing noisily into the equipment behind the console MachMan had used earlier. The fact that he'd gone through the decoy meant that it evaporated, but it had outlived its usefulness anyway.

Even with ArmoryMan down for a moment, using the elevator would be a death sentence: the message blasting through the room announced they were now at "0005" meaning the program would initiate soon. The much quicker option, even encumbered, was to continue carrying Load and jet down to the bottom floor, bypassing the elevator entirely. Memora would be left behind, but she probably wasn't in any real danger, given her presumed EJO ability. At the bottom, he got Load and himself out the room, which shut quickly behind him. From here, he could set Load down on two feet again. He may have mechanical limbs, but even still, he could feel the strain on the connection points from carrying her for so long.

Almost as soon as they were out, a green flash came from the slit at the center of the door. That was undoubtedly part of the "antibody routine" that had been mentioned. Load breathed heavily for a moment, watching the door, then turned to face MachMan... and kept turning, as she really had no idea where he was. "Who are you?" she asked, simply.

Looking around, MachMan could see that all of the TerrorMan skulls had retracted. The Pin-Field was still up, however... hopefully, Peace had pulled Pinpoint out from there already, but there was no telling from this distance. Notably, another piece of the scenery had changed as well... he could see Cruz's body lying near the pin field, immobile. It looked like smoke was billowing upward from it, along with an unhealthy crackling noise and sparks shooting out onto the metal surface of the plane occasionally from the joints. Had she been damaged trying to rescue the two of them, or had something else occurred? It could even be a trap of some kind, in the worst case. Load seemed to have noticed it as well and was moving to check it out, probably concerned for her teammate.

There was also the question of whether ArmoryMan and Memora were possibly still active in the room he'd left, or if the antibody routine had been as thorough as ArmoryMan had implied it was going to be. Presumably, Scavenger was still locked up sans-limbs in the laboratory below. Hopefully, the antibody routine had only targeted the cockpit area, or she could be in trouble too now. Prez could probably answer most of these questions, if he rendezvoused with her or messaged her.

Mach was thankful he was able to slip away unnoticed, allowing him to silently focus on his objective. Though the act of re-opening the door was too noisy to his liking, his foe was distracted enough for him to enter Load's cell. Mach couldn't physically feel the strain of Load's weight on his limbs, but the resulting sluggishness of his movements were noticeable. He managed to cradle the unsurprisingly heavy Navi in his arms, and to his relief Load seemed to realize what was going on, and stopped struggling. It was likely an odd sight to behold, an armless and expressionless Load floating in an invisible "bride" carry through the air, it certainly looked pretty humorous from Mazer's point of view.

Upon exiting the cell with Load in his arms, it looked like ArmoryMan was still fooled by Mach's decoy. [[i]"Hm, at least that still works."[/i]] Mach mentally remarked. ArmoryMan eventually caught wind of the heist, but a concussive blast of his AirShot sent the Navi reeling and briefly out of the fight to allow his escape.

With the cat out of the bag, Mach chose speed over stealth and managed to get Load down and out from the bridge in the nick of time, as indicated by the green flash that immediately flashed from the closed door as soon as it closed. After several minutes of noise and violence, everything seemed quiet, and Load called out to her invisible rescuer. In retrospect, Mach felt he should've at least announced his presence before whisking her away like a kidnapping poltergeist. He wasn't sure if ArmoryMan had been dealt with by ArmoryMan's "antibody routine," so he kept his comms as covert as he could. If Load accepted the private message, she'd hear in Mach's voice:

Quote (Mach)

Mach here. ArmoryMan might still be alive and listening, so talk to me on this channel. I know him, but he thinks I'm just an automaton named "Mekka." I want to keep it that way, understood?

She'd quickly feel his arm pull away from her legs, letting her get solid footing before his other arm pulled away from her back.

He scanned the field; while he couldn't see Peace or Dr. Pin, Cruz's broken form was a new sight. He wanted to warp in to confirm the bridge was cleared, but this new change made it seem there were additional hostiles around. That said, he had a partner to use. " AirRaid2HP: 100
Properties: Normal, Omnishoes, Mobile
Object Damage: 50 + Impact
Damage Method: Telekinesis
Gun Attack Damage: 10 x 15 Shots
Accuracy: A
Description: Summons a fighter plane to strafe your enemies.
Duration: 3 turns or Until destroyed
Element: Null
Trader Rank: C and KnightHP: 100
Properties: Normal, IronBody
Object Damage: 100 + Impact
Damage Method: Telekinesis, Knockback, Throw
Attack Damage: 100 + Impact + Splash 2
Accuracy: B
Description: Summons a chess piece to stomp your enemies. Attacks once a turn. Rare
Duration: 3 turns, or until destroyed.
Element: Null
Special: IronBody: Only Break attacks will damage it.
Trader Rank: B. I'm going back in, but Load needs backup." Mazer nodded, and continued to think while he uploaded the chips. Mach also received the upload notification of the Synapse2Damage: 120 + Piercing + Chain 2
Accuracy: B
Description: Produces a powerful ray through sheer force of thought, which arcs towards nearby enemies when it hits a target.
Duration: Once
Element: Elec
Special: Chain 2: This attack, upon striking a target, may change directions towards a new target. This may be done up to 2 times in one attack.
Trader Rank: C and Burner1Damage: 110 + Nova 2
Accuracy: B
Description: The area around the user spontaneously combusts, causing anything nearby to be scorched with fire.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: D chips, followed by a direct message. ["Send these to Load, she could use them, even without her arms."]

Soon enough Load would receive notifications of both chip's requested uploads, followed by another message.

Quote (Mach)

I'm going back in to make sure the bridge is secure. Gather up Prez, Pin, and Cruz, and use these chips to kill anything that gets in your way. The FighterPlane and Knight will support you.

Not a moment later, two objects materialized to the left and right of Cruz. The first formed into an angular, sleek aircraft floating several feet from the ground, then rocketed forward to scan the area ahead. If any "bogeys" in sight were determined to be "bandits" in Mach's eye, they would quickly find themselves in the cross-hairs of the FighterPlane's rotary cannon. The other formed a tall, angular, monstrous Knight from some giant-sized chess board. It stood still like a statue, but would quickly launch itself skyward to then crash down upon any foe of Mach's choosing. For good measure, both of Mach's decoy drones materialized and projected their own holographic MachMan/"Mekka" clones to accompany Load.

With Load now accompanied by 4 different subprograms and equipped with two powerful chips (with her ElecAura2Protection: Any Non-Wood attack lower than 80 HP
Accuracy: S
Description: Negates any Non-Wood attack less than 80HP
Duration: Three turns, or until destroyed
Element: Elec
Special: Status Guard: This chip blocks debuffs.
Trader Rank: B hopefully still active), he felt the TerrorGirl was sufficiently equipped to handle herself while Mach relegated himself to cleanup duty while his invisibility remained online. He activated his SCRAM Boost in an attempt to warp past the closed door (now that he knew exactly where he was going) to get himself back to the bridge. If he was successful, he quickly got the notification of the BambooSwordDamage: 80 + Slashing + Wide Attack
Accuracy: B
Description: Creates a sword made of solid wood, and capable of effective wide slashes. Can hit up to 3 targets per slash with good RP.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 3 swings.
Element: Wood
Trader Rank: C's upload. He didn't respond to his NetOp's foresight, but they seemed to be fitting chips for his attempted ingress back to the battle-ragged bridge of TerrorManMkIII. He still had some time left before his invisibility chip timed out, so he didn't activate any weapons even if he managed to get back to the bridge.

For a while longer, MachMan would remain invisible, so up the point where he sent her a message and specifically identified himself, Load couldn't have known who he was any further than a hunch related to the fact that her rescuer moved fast. When she replied, MachMan learned she was no more verbose in message form than she was in person:

Quote (Load)

Okay.

Surrounded by an aura and now armed in one way, though still not in the more literal sense, Load accepted her mission with another short response.

Quote (Load)

Okay. Though I won't kill unless I have to. Terror Girls aren't supposed to.

With an airborne drone, a sturdy companion, and a set of copies for added effect, Load headed away protected. MachMan went backward instead, to figure out what had happened to ArmoryMan and Memora after the routine had run. Getting past the door now wasn't a problem; what was a problem was the inside. Whatever light source had caused the flash was gone, but the whole area was covered in a dense, green foam, which coated all of the floor, the walls, the elevator, the tech- essentially everything MachMan could see. It even seemed as though a mist of the stuff was floating mid-air. MachMan could immediately feel the same tingle the "green bomb" had caused just from the particulate substance in the air... He was fortunate he was floating a bit, because one could only imagine the effect of the stuff touching his feet would be even stronger. It was up to him whether to leave again for safety or investigate further, which would presumably be best accomplished by hovering upward to the final floor, rather than using the elevator, which had become lost in the thick, green foam.

Unfortunately, he'd left range for communications as well... whatever had been blocking them was still doing it.

The FighterPlane, which looked like a miniature Mach, sans arms and lower torso, circled the pin field in an attempt to locate Peace and Dr. Pin. Meanwhile, Mach's twin decoys flanked Load in silent vigilance, while the Knight piece remained in place. Back in the hallway to the bridge, Mach got a bit of a surprise. The foamy manifestation of the weapon nullification tech was a new, and oddly designed countermeasure, but it immediately made him regret his decision to warp back in. He managed not to touch anything so far, but even the air felt "toxic" for his weaponized frame. [[i]Shit,[/i]] he thought to himself before he carefully floated back to the door, which hopefully would've opened automatically like last time.

If the door continued to function and opened up for him to pass through, he'd pause in the doorway. Mach nearly ordered Mazer to upload one of his older chips, a RockCube, but after referencing his chip folder's contents for a moment, he realized the RockCube had been replaced. He honestly couldn't remember when the swap happened, but he did get several powerful chips recently, and it seemed like forever since he'd used that basic object chip. He did; however, have something else that could probably work just as well.

As Mach floated in the now open doorway, the tall, dark blue angular knight piece rotated to face Mach. Its mechanical equine eyes briefly flickered red in a silent acknowledgement of a clandestine command, then shuffled a bit before it slowly pitched forward. Mach tried to keep his movements down to a minimum to avoid touching the green foam or prompting the door to close, but enough to avoid the chess piece's "head" as it crashed down into the doorway, with the hope of keeping the door from fully closing.

If it looked as if the Knight had fallen into the doorway enough to keep the doors ajar, he'd carefully float out to not disturb the foam and risk "nullifying" the Knight chip, then get a good distance away before jetting towards Load. As he quickly closed the gap, he shot a message to the disarmed Navi.

Quote (MachMan)

Change of plan, I'll help you find the others; we need to get Prez back to the bridge ASAP before my doorstop times out and seals the entrance.

As soon as he touched down next to Load, the two decoys rocketed out ahead and joined the FighterPlane in their search. Mach tried to tap into their optical feeds, to get a better idea of what was out there, specifically what was near Cruz's wreckage. He also tried to keep a watchful eye on his Knight chip's status, in case someone or something started to "remove" it. To cover his bases, he sent out a very brief message to the TerrorGirls leader, maybe whatever was blocking his signals got deactivated since the anti-body routine went active?

Quote (MachMan)

Prez, report.

With a strategy in mind, MachMan used his summoned knight to prop the door open, just in case he was in any danger from the automatic feature not working or anything that would require him to touch the foam. It wasn't too difficult, but the danger was certainly real; if just the airborne specks were enough to short his systems, one could imagine the foam itself had some real power behind it. One might wonder what fate had befallen the two hijackers, but then, both of them had been fully aware of what was coming and were apparently operated. It'd be strange if they'd stay behind and let themselves fall into anything too dangerous. For MachMan, the more important part than verifying that was, for one, escaping safely himself, and then, for two, making sure that Load and the others were alright.

He'd moved so quickly that Load had apparently only just reached Cruz; she was kneeling to inspect Cruz as best she could, without some way to turn the injured navi over. She sent back a response privately, since MachMan had warned her not to speak to him out loud earlier.

Quote (Load)

I haven't found Prez. I was checking out Cruz. We'll find her though.

It took Load a moment and a bit of effort to stand back up, but she managed. The area appeared to be safe, since nothing had attacked them yet, so MachMan had no reason not to fly up nearby as well. From here, he could see that Cruz's body had been damaged in a messy way, as though some large weapon had stabbed through it multiple times in a random manner. Her head still looked to be in tact, but a mixture of sparks and smoke were billowing out from the rest of her body where she'd been mauled.

Quote (Load)

Don't worry. I think she's okay. Prez will be able to fix her.

Prez had once said she restored Cruz as an android, but one might wonder how "restored" she'd really been, if she could take severe damage like this and simply be rebuilt again. Perhaps it was the same for TerrorMan? The Terror Girls leader had never mentioned him being a restored navi before, so perhaps he really was just a machine? At any rate, MachMan's next goal was to find Prez, as he assumed he'd need her to continue progressing. With Cruz now under his own surveillance, the drones could move on to search for Prez, who ought to be a little further along if she was still trying to assist Dr. Pin.

The pile of clothes that had been set aside earlier was gone... Optimistically, maybe she'd gotten out and redressed herself? However, if one thought about it, an alternate possibility presented itself. The wind was pretty darn strong up here; Load seemed to be doing fine so far, but a bunch of loose garments like that wouldn't have been able to stick around. Still, had Prez really taken all this time just to get Dr. Pin free? She provided an answer soon enough:

Quote (Prez)

Good, you're back in communications range. I take it you've had success? I wasn't able to leave the Pin Field with Pinpoint like I intended to... Several of TerrorMan's laser cannons appeared and it occurred to me that I myself might be reasonably safe from their cannons, but I wasn't sure about Dr. Pin. For that reason, I stayed inside with them. Are you a good distance away? I'm going to come out and redress now. I know you don't really care one way or the other, but I'd appreciate it if you looked away.

Cruz was inside the jaws of one of the machines earlier. Is she alright? Have you accounted for the whereabouts of all of the other Terror Girls?

The message was a little late coming, though, perhaps due to the interference with long range comms that had been noted earlier. As such, he caught her beginning to peek her way out, her torso emerging with her hands clasping two large needles, pulling herself free. The camer angle was juuuust shy of showing the naughty bits, not that he hadn't already seen plenty. She was probably eager to get free and it sounded like Load hadn't given her a full update yet. Of course, Load still didn't know as much about the situation as he did, regardless.

Cruz looked worse for wear, but in his mind, the damage easily looked like it could've been caused by the nearby pinfield. That said, he didn't deactivate his chips, nor the ones uploaded to Load, in case the true culprit made an appearance. He didn't react much to Load's optimistic comment regarding Cruz's fate; considering the program had survived decapitation, and existed for a while as just a table-mounted bust, he didn't doubt Cruz's repairability.

Mazer, who silently listened in on the conversation, mentally pondered Cruz's true status as a program. Was she truly still a Navi? Where's her core? Could any Navi really be dismantled/damaged to such an extreme without EJO or deletion? Those questions brought up an unintentional mental image of Mach in a similar state, somehow still alive. His new limbs and body have already shown to cause damage to what was left of his original body, would that be his ultimate end state? Mazer shut his eyes tightly as he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to shunt those thoughts from his mind.

Meanwhile, Prez responded and sounded like she wasn't in danger. Mach gave a quick rundown to get the TerrorGirls leader up to speed.

Quote (MachMan)

There was a firefight in the bridge, the "Antibody Routine" activated with ArmoryMan and Memora inside. The cannons have been deactivated, and the door is currently wedged open. Load and I are near Cruz, who is heavily damaged, but Load believes she can be repaired. Scavenger is down in the lab, but immobilized by some tech suppression system. I haven't encountered any other programs. Hurry up, the door won't stay open for long, and the Antibody 'foam' has made the bridge inaccessible for me. Regardless, I'll watch it while you get dressed, in case ArmoryMan and/or Memora make an appearance.

He then immediately followed up with a message directly to Mazer. [[i]"Requesting Magnum1Damage: 120 + Break + Panel Break x 3 Targets
Accuracy: A
Description: A triple barreled gun that blasts through defenses and terrain alike. Rare
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: C and FlameLine2Damage: 120 + Ground Attack + Wide Attack
Accuracy: B
Description: A wall of fire erupts from the ground, burning up to 3 targets.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: C."[/i]] ["Still terse, but at least he didn't sound as rudely bossy this time"] Mazer thought to himself before replying with a simple "On their way" and grabbed the requested chips.

As the chips were being uploaded, Mach turned back towards the door, and would've moved however far he needed to get a clear line of sight to the hopefully still-open door. Upon re-positioning, Mach widened his stance and locked his forearms towards the door. Both limbs began to swirl with data as they broke down and began to reform into a pair of weapons. A couple seconds later, a large, triple-barreled rotary cannon took place of his right forearm and hand, while his left appeared to have been replaced with dark, oversized flamethrower, complete with a burning blue pilot light positioned just past the end of its nozzle. The cannon didn't appear to have any magazine or ammo drum, denoting the chip's three-shot capacity, while the flamethrower didn't have an especially large fuel tank. Mach kept his eye focused and weapons trained on the door, while he shifted the decoys and FighterPlane to establish a perimeter around the four other programs: Prez, Pin, Load, and Cruz.

If the foam caused the two hijackers to EJO or disabled all of their offensive capabilities, it wasn't deserving of such heavily-armed defense (he still had the BambooBladeDamage: 100 + Slashing + Long Attack
Accuracy: B
Description: Creates a twin bladed sword imbued with a calming, earthly aura, long enough to effectively use long slashes. Can hit up to 2 targets per slash with good RP.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks after 2 swings.
Element: Wood
Trader Rank: B in his "back pocket"), but considering how close he was to completing the mission, he didn't want to take any chances, and had a nagging feeling there were more surprises to come.

After a moment, the leader of the Terror Girls gave MachMan a response.

Quote (Prez)

That's good news. Please watch the bridge and I'll put something on quickly.

MachMan would leave Load, who was staring down at Cruz as though trying to figure out how to drag her partner in pacifist terrorism with her, and head back to the bridge's front door. The room he could see through the crack in the door remained deathly still, with no one operating the consoles, nor the elevator. A moment's peace was probably nice compared to the chaos leading up to this point, but MachMan was not yet convinced that the threat was over.

A moment longer and Prez did return, carrying with her the head of Cruz, which she'd separated from the body. Load walked behind her, still expressing the Terror Girls' belief in disavowing arms a bit too literally. Prez herself had dressed into the tie-dye shirt she sometimes wore when not attempting to look intimidating, which, as usual, was down to a bit above the knees but included no pants. She shot MachMan a disapproving glare as she noted the flamethrower and cannon he'd attached. "There's no need for that. This wasn't a simple green bomb we hit those two with... If they were still inside when that explosion triggered, their systems are going to be so scrambled they'll be fortunate if they can even walk straight in the near future. Dr. Pin and I are the only ones who've been immunized against its effects. Even Load, Scavenger, and Cruz have not been, as we feared their mechanical parts could potentially be manipulated and used against us. As such, you'll understand I can't give you immunity, even after the work you've done for us," the leader explained, then moved forward to slip her narrow body through the door's opening. "You wait out here. I don't anticipate any trouble, but if there is any..." she murmured, before raising her compact pistol in one hand, "I'll take care of it myself. In the mean time, you all go and fetch Scavenger." Before she got any further, she passed the head back out to the Terror Girls associate who showed up next.

Dr. Pin arrived behind the others, her skinny body covered over with Cruz's tattered coat. The holes perforating it weren't doing her any favors, but it was probably the best she could do on short notice. "I feel like my sister in this thing..." she murmured, holding the lower part of it closed with the hand that wasn't holding Cruz's head. "Let's get going." Her head had a large hole through it and scratches besides... the largest hole seemed to go through where her brain ought to have been. Figuring out how Pin's human body and robot skull head worked was an even bigger brain teaser for MachMan's operator than Cruz's predicament had been.

Prez was already getting out of sight, so MachMan wasn't going to be able to watch her without wrenching the door open and catching up to her. Since she was operated and thereby could stand to EJO if she was in danger, the others probably needed him to care for them more than she did. Besides, it seemed increasingly as though whatever danger the ship had been in had passed. This notion became more believable once they arrived at the lab and found Scavenger no worse for the wear, although she did appear to be coated in green goo. She wasn't freaking out, so whatever it was, it probably wasn't as concentrated as the Anti-Body Routine's dispersal had been. "You guys out there? I can't even wipe my face like this," she grumbled from the table, noticing someone's approach.

"Let me grab her. I'm immune," Dr. Pin reminded the others, setting down Cruz's head, then opened the door to get inside. Unless someone shut behind her, it would remain open, so there'd be no need to hit the button on the outside to open it back up again. Dr. Pin, with some difficult, grabbed up Scavenger and moved her off the table, laboring to bring the torso back outside. She quickly set the torso down once she was out, then huddled the coat back around herself. "Well, I guess next we ought to go look for where they hid everybody's arms," she announced dryly, her bare feet tapping across the floor as she went to look for the missing pieces of each girl. "You can go on back and see if Prez needs any help. And er, girls, I'll be back in a moment," Pinpoint finished, looking down at Scavenger and Cruz. Scavenger grunted and Cruz remained expressionless, so much so that one might wonder if having her head removed from her body had actually killed her. Hopefully, that wasn't the case.

Luckily, MachMan was spared the trouble of going back up, as Prez rejoined, keeping her gun up in both hands as though she was planning to pop around the corner and take a shot at any intruders. Seeing him as they met on the staircase, she relaxed, and shook her head. "There's no sign of Memora and ArmoryMan. I imagine neither of them wanted to risk getting hit by the explosion," she suggested. "All things considered, it must have taken a lot of work to devise a way to hack into the ship and take over the bridge, but they didn't account for us bringing you in to help. Hopefully, their meddling stops after this, but should they attack again, I'm sure they'll be better prepared... but then again, so will we. I know we were caught with our pants down this time," Prez continued, looking down for a moment and blushing, "but now that we've got the time we need to finish TerrorMan's improvements, we can focus on security measures to make sure they can't get in again."

She stopped for a moment, then crossed her arms. "But anyways... it could have been worse than it was. Much worse. For that reason, you deserve to be rewarded, whether that's why you did it or not," the Terror Girls leader expressed her gratitude. "So please, take this. It's the money I promised... I don't have chips to offer you, as to do so would be contradictory to my creed, but I've included what else I can." Peace produced a data packet and handed it over to him.

((MachMan received 26000z and 150 bugfrags))

After handing it over, Prez frowned, then sat down on the top of the staircase, keeping her legs together modestly. "Well, thank you again for the help. I'm sure you're ready to get on your way and I've got a lot of repairs to do. The girls will have to be fixed before the ship can be. It'll go quickly enough... with the exception of Cruz, whom was disabled as a matter of necessity due to her advantageous position patrolling around the ship, I doubt they damaged the parts of the other girls much, since they likely intended to preserve those and resell. If there's anything else I can do for you, like maintaining your parts or something else, let me know. The kits ought to be able to do the job, but I see you took some damage in that fight," she offered, noting the spots where bullets had struck or penetrated his armor. "Or you're free to stick around if you just want the company... I know your Army hasn't seen much of you since your loss... We're here if you need us. Or, well, we will all be once I've put them all back together."

Mach simply remained still, with his twin heavy weapons still trained on the door, while Prez admonished his choice in arming himself. But inside the cockpit, with some spattered "blood" obscuring some of his view, his good eye glared back at Prez. [[i]That would've been nice to know...[/i]] he mentally grumbled to himself. That said, he recognized it was a smart move to make herself immune to her ship's automated defenses, well, some of them.

Mach pointed his weapons skywards out of reflex as soon as Prez walked into their line of fire, but continued to face the door as Prez moved in, now armed with a pistol. Having 'received his marching orders,' he replied simply by "holstering" his weapons in a flurry of data and mechanical clicks, then turned away to face the entrance back down into the lower decks of the ship. He didn't do anything to acknowledge Dr. Pin's arrival, beyond simply following her back to the lab to retrieve the now goo-covered Scavenger. He originally assumed the gas was just some sort of aerosol-style program, but it looked like it left behind a gelatinous film.

He kept silent as he was dismissed to rejoin with Prez, it's not like he could really help out with hauling Scavenger around without shutting down his own limbs. He eased to a stop upon encountering the Navi, who looked to have returned from the bridge unscathed. His arms remained in their default forms and hung at his sides while he simply faced Prez without moving much while she explained her findings and future plans for the ship. He did, however, extend his right arm and open hand towards hers when she handed off the data packet containing his rewards. He briefly considered refusing it to simply call everything "even," and give him the out to completely sever his ties with the organization without any question of "unpaid debts." But on the other hand, he'd done them plenty of favors by letting them off the hook twice, and warning them about the NS coup, so at least in that moment, he felt they owed him. The data packet disappeared in his hand as it was downloaded to the PET, causing their funds to jump a significant amount.

With the mission over, and ArmoryMan/Memora MIA, it didn't make sense to keep up the "Mekka" persona. He deactivated the previously set voice modulation and responded to Prez's thanks with a simple "No problem." His tone was much deeper and grating than his "Mekka" voice, as it rumbled through the unseen speakers on his frame. It sounded like Prez had things handled, he didn't feel a need to stick around. However, Mazer's voice came in via their private comm channel. ["She could give your upgrades a good once-over, since we sort of slapped them together last minute, and it might be nice to have some company..."] Mach's brow furrowed, causing a slight jolt of pain from the right side of his face. He was quick in reformatting the upgrades, but speed is literally his forte, and he was quite thorough; it was his own ass on the line, after all. He also didn't find anything positive from hanging around them; he felt Prez and Pin would just lecture him, Cruz was literally mute while Load wasn't far behind, and Scavenger would likely just complain about being left on the table for the duration of the mission. [[i]"Not now, Mazer,"[/i]] he replied gruffly to his NetOp.

Mazer audibly exhaled through his nose in mild frustration, but didn't push the issue further; it wasn't the time or the place. Meanwhile, Mach focused back on Prez and responded to her offers of repairs and/or company. "I'll pass. You have my contact info, in case ArmoryMan or Memora return. The NS issue was resolved, they shouldn't be hunting for you now." A second or two later, Mach warped out of the ship and the network in a small flash of cyan light, leaving no trace behind.

((Logged out))

((MachMan gains:
17 Peace FXP
9 Memora FXP
3 Scavenger FXP
6 Load FXP
3 Cruz FXP
3 Pinpoint FXP))