Session 332: The Business Planets
Location: Asteroid C
The team has spent a long week or so since their last mission, with many of their members using the team to settle personal matters via the teleporters on the Asteroid C: Erica and Yuki went to Geyze to help their wife Saorise and Yulinde, Moira went back to Jarivan to enjoy Vesta's club and get to know her, Orihime went on a mission to help the Earth Team (Session 326), and Lorelei apparently left to do some personal missions without the team. As the Asteroid C finally nears their target, Taiga gathers both teams for a meeting and after they all gather together, she proceeds to hold a meeting about the Cartel and the planet they are going to be visiting. Ignoring Airym starting stuff and riling the team up, much to Taiga's charign, she explains the planet and how the business side of it works, then explains she believes it is a cover for the true Cartel and their operations - which they dub the Underbelly. After some debates how to find it, the team decides the best way to find it - especially since they need to look to see if there is a God around too - is to go on the surface and look for a way there the old fashioned way.
While Jelly flirts with Airym, much to the eyebrow rising of the group, the teams get into their positions, leaving Asteroid C behind and moving to the Aquarius to jump to the planet. Mireille jumps the ship and after Erica deals with the hail - saying they are going to sell Jelly - they land on the planet below, with Mireille sulking that she has to stay behind to protect the Aquarius. As the two teams exit, Sabrina notes that the destruction on the planet - a 200 hundred story building and some fires - has been caused by a magical girl and the team looks into news reports, seeing that Sunny has teamed up with a 17-18 year old magical girl named Zayne. When asked if Sabrina could cause this much damage, she states she is more of a transformation maka, while Zayne is a straight up attack one; which gives Erica the hope that Zayne's defense is weak. While the team is disgusted with Jelly's sexual comments - either about Zayne or Sunny, who knows - Erica asks if Zayne could detect the other maka and she promises she will do her best. In the meantime, they allow Jelly to pick their hotel location and set off.
Location: Hotel
They arrive at a pricy hotel with a resturant inside it, massage parlors, and pools, but soon learn that it is a place that charges for every little thing you do, nickle and diming you to death to enjoy them. They find they are checked in under strange names and are areas of the hotel that charge you for noises, which soon begins to wrack up for Erica with Valen and Durt making a lot of noise. After some hijinks, such as Taiga sniffling at learning that Yuki took Erica's name so she is now Yuki Hildegard, Taiga gathers her team - including Kaori from Lorelei's team since Hess has food poisoning, since she and Kitty ate all the food in the pantry on Asteroid C. While Lorelei is training the children on a new power, Taiga states she will have her team get the lay of the land and see if they can learn how to find the underbelly before the shapeshifters find them, since they know they are there. Rada appears, looking unwell (He's been training with the Empress - see the next Royal Phase for more on that), startling Taiga and making her leap into Erica's arms, making Yuki jealous and Erica make a joke about Taig and the family being that way.
The team learns that Rada has been training on the PAX the last week with the Empress's people, much to their surprise. The team comes up with a plan for Erica and Jelly to sell his expertise around to the shadiest business on planet, while the others hit bars to talk to drunk employees for information. While Erica mostly phrases it as "sell Jelly", Taiga delegates it to everyone while she hads back to the hotel with Rada - well after the team is done talking and done damaging Sabrina with innuedos. Lorelei, back at the hotel, has gathered those with the mark - minus a few of the team on Earth or Leruste and teaches them Entice, glowing with a pinkish/purpleish glow that flows into each of the team as the power enters them. Valen attempts to Entice Durt to get him something but he resists, since the spell works only on the weak willed and he proceeds to crack his knuckles. Lorelei makes them promise to not use it on each other and use it only for good.
Location: One of the many Cartel Worlds, Jelly's Hotel Choice
While the other team is gone on their search, Lorelei's kids have taken to the streets to get food since the Hotel's food costs are outrageous. After some time shopping, with some unwise choices being made, the kids are presented with a lesson. Given a new power, that of suggestion towards others, they are challenged to befriend wild mutts on the street. Kaelan is eager and trusting as ever, so she tames a dog first, the more caution Valen approaches the challenge differently but still succeeds, albiet because Rachael pulls it off. Moira does her thing the cool and collected way and tames a dog as well. The dogs tamed, Lore is pleased with their progress.
Lorelei gets wind of a destroyed building that was likely the work of Sunny. She and the kids head there to find that the building has magical residue, and they begin to suspect a Maka. As they inspect, they hear a noise from a nearby roof and they quickly target and tackle down a homeless man who was spying on them, largely thanks to Rada's information and Valen's quick reaction. He is unfortunately paid back for his actions by being pushed out a window, Moira, the heroine of the hour saves him. The man attempts to flee after calling the cops and is stopped by Kaelan with a foxhole. Valen sics a dog on the man and he's taken down once again.
As the cops arrive, everyone scatters, however Rada and Zegretta are left behind. Instead of fleeing however, Rada seems resolved to trust in the crooked hands of the Cartel Police. Kaelan, not so trusting, Foxholes the two to the same roof she foxholed herself, the captive and several of the others. Rada is less than thankful for the rescue while Zegretta needs time to be comforted. When Kaelan retorts to Rada that he put her family in danger, this only creates more drama as Valen expresses disgust over Kaelan calling someone she's so close to her sister, not understanding that they aren't actually blood related.
Drama aside, the group starts to question the man and learns he was paid to inform on them if they arrived. Inspection of his datapad shows text messages that indicate the plant came from Sunny, sowing more chaos into their lives. They dismiss the creeper and let him go, while Durt and Lorelei decide what their next move is, sending a warning about her to Warren. Zegretta slaps Valen with a family tree and the foxes walk off, Valen presses the matter... untill Kaelan uses her last two charges of Foxhole to put him in a falling loop.
When the group returns to the hotel, they are given a prize for being the 100,000th customers and given a free soak in the hot springs. Many eagerly take this reward and begin to relax... getting way too relaxed. Too late realizing they were being drugged with the steam. The team realizes what's happening with time to spare, but by the time they are getting out of the water they are losing their mobility, becoming helpless. The shapeshifter reveals itself and gets ready to dispose of them when Rachael calls on her magic, spooking it into running. Rada disables the machine, having come in late, and the shapeshifter meets some terrible end, indicated by a scream.
When Rachael gets them all up and the group recovers enough to dress and walk out, the come to meet the one who killed the Shapeshifter. A man with an energy sword, named McTreggor, who can sense out the Shapeshifters and is hunting them himself. Most of the team goes to rest, but some stay behind to join him for a drink and to get to know him.
Session 334: The Art of Seduction
Location: Jelly's Hotel Choice, a Cartel World
Taiga's team has been spending the past few days to find the shadiest business they can - in the hopes that they can work with them to find a link to one of the true under Cartel Worlds where they do their darker businesses - with Jelly, Erica and Yuki handling the search and the rest of the team hitting bars to talk to drunk employees in the hopes one might spill information on their employer. As Taiga talks with the team about their morning plans, McTreggor from the other day observes them - staying at the same hotel - noting some of their powers with his gauntlet and appearances. She explains about the 10 families and how they divide up certain sectors, handling the various businesses and sometimes compete or work together on things for the Cartel, almost like a mafia. After listing a few possible targets, Erica picks one and the team heads out to handle their assigned targets.
After Erica gets them in to meet a more corrupt ownere of a business on the planet, who has Jelly crack some datapads that obviously belong to the competition. Seeing his skill and being impressed, he goes on to have him crack three more in a row. A statement by Jelly makes them warry and they state they will call them soon with their decision - probably to give them time to look further into Erica and Jelly - so while they wait Erica selects another business on the list, a more low ranking business that might be desperate for help than a more corrupt one. During all this, at the bar, the team talks to various employees and Si finally gets a hit, being invited by an employee to go back to his place for a night's "fun", so the two head off. Gor remains behind at the bar to monitor Si with their bond.
The next business - a business on ships and construction - is run by a younger woman who takes the meeting with them, though she seems to question why she might need the expertise for a hacker. After Erica and Jelly haggle and talk with her, she has Jelly improve her systems as a test and after seeing his work, she becomes impressed, offering him work - as well as asking Jelly to stay and "talk" longer, likely being affected by the pheromones that Jelly is putting out since he never took the medicine Ymir made for fauna long ago. Saying that they will go over the details in the morning, she gives them her information to return, since it is getting late at the time. Meanwhile, since Pepper, Cel, and Sabrina have left the bar because both were feeling uncomfortable in the atmosphere when Sabrina senses another Magi - likely Zayne. She leads them to this part of the city's mainframe/servers for information and they call in the team that is not tied up.
After Erica, Yuki, Cel, Pepper, Gor, Sabrina, and even Mireille appears, they work on inflirating the building, using various tactics such as Sabrina's flying/foxholes/and other means to get inside. Gor moves to erase the cameras of their entry while the rest of the team follows Sabrina's senses of Zayne. However, they come across several of Sunny's traps left inside and take some damage and a guard is killed by a trapwire bomb left behind when Pepper opens such a door. Angry and hurt, the team finally reaches a server room where Sunny has extracted data and Zayne helps her teleport away, remaining behind to destroy the server when Pepper shoots her, engaging her in a fight for the server and perhaps take down Zayne.
Location: Cartel Business World; Server Building
Having come across Zayne in the server room of the business they’re investigating, Erica, Yuki, Cookie, Pepper, Sabrina and Mireille attempt to incapacitate the Dark Maka Magical Girl. They quickly push Zayne to the point of anger after Pepper boosts the teams damaging abilities; earning her a quick blast from Zaynes cannon. Cookie responds by unleashing her psionics, Erica pummeling in close quarters and Yuki copies Zaynes cannon. Mireille is staggered when she absorbs an attack aimed at Erica but the team is apparently saved with Pepper turns her tunes from friendly boosting beats to targeted sonic staccatos rendering Zayne stunned.
When Zayne recovers she announces that she has stalled them for long enough, that they are indeed strong but she is simply using Sunny to teach her things...like an artistic nature and she simply coo’s to her familiar who appears to heal her before teleporting her away. As they take stock they realize that despite everything they threw at Zayne, they weren’t really phasing her; they’re left to consider the implications while Gor works to copy over the server data and remove any evidence they were there from the security systems.
Date: 10-639.4.6
Location: Cartel Space - Business World
As Airym and Gor data mine the info they got from the servers, and Erica drags Jelly around the business scene; everyone else gathers in the Hotel to discuss matters. Apparently the server was a home for investigating the actions of a possible Shadow Puppeteer Group referred to as the Ninth Circle of Hell. According to the Server information, this group may have been the behind the scenes orchestrators of people like Venerator and Cran.
Above and beyond this is information about a Cartel World that isn’t publicly known about and is the effective ‘underbelly’, using the provided transporter coordinates the group heads to this hidden planet. There they find something reminiscent of the Tareh future, tournaments between fighting houses where the combatants are valued on their abilities singularly.
Location: Nar Shadda - I mean one of the Cartel Deep Worlds; Hotel
While at a new hotel near the tournament that is being held between the 10 Houses, Mireille appears and informs them a few people from the Aquarius are coming down - since she programmed the teleporter on the ship to bounce them down to the new location. Chris - Sunny's twin - as well as Jelly, Hess, Kitty, and Ori arrive and Chris informs them she had been sent by Lemon (still posing as Cheryl) to learn what Taiga did with the mask she took off Yasha during the incident that deaged the Strikers. While Taiga has her datapad search through her various files to see where she put the mask before giving Chris a datachip on the servers the team got from the servers Zayne was protecting.
After settling down, the team begins to discuss their current course of action and they decide to learn more about the tournament rules. After entering the tournament building, they learn about the collars that simulate damage, such as broken bones and bleeding out, preventing that part of the body from moving, and have a life bar. (Think Nanoha: Vivid). Due to the fact the collars allow no real damage, it also means that all sorts of fighters can do battle without actually hurting each other which allows Lorelei's children to muse and debate entering the tournament, and so Valen, Rachael, Moira, Kaelan, and Durt decide to join the tournament, moving to find a House that might accept them, since they learn joining a House instead of being an independent allows one to get more protection and if that House wins so does those fighters. Si decides to join another House and moves to join Asmodeus' House since he is the one hosting this tournament.
After getting into Shiva's tent, the two teams talk to her and see if they can use their old connections to get in with her - since Shiva once used to hang out with them. While she seems distant and withdrawn, she talks to them and goes over the fighter limits, not really acknowledging recognizing them or talking to Iceheart - Ruby Carter - that much. After finishing the meeting and taking the five of them, the others head back out to the tournament stands to wait for the fighting to begin, with Chris looking annoying at the sights of the place. Taiga debates how to find out who is the God or Shapeshifter here, since attacking a leader is bad, so they decide to take it slowly and use Sabrina's sense skill when possible. After a slight debate on what to call Erica, with Yuki mentioning definitely calls Erica Captain in bed already, the battles begin.
Valen fights first against a giant of an opponent. The two clash hard with the opponent trying to crush Valen several times with his hammer, making Valen use his shield to survive and even knocking him out of the arena a few times, forcing him to get back in before the countdown counts him out. After a few more blows before each other, Valen downs the fighter before round 2. After that they see Zayne is in the tournament and she one shots her opponent and moves back to her House, which is Loki. After that, Moira battles a Tsivrixsh and the two begin to battle with each other with a sword against a Xvash. The two size each other up and begin to trade blows, with Moira getting poisoned; however the Tsivrixsh, instead of running the timer down and letting the poison finish Moira off, goes in to do battle. After trading a few more blows, Moira drops the Tsivriseh and she is declares the winner.
Following this, all of the kids on Shiva's team move on as does Si.
Location: Nar Cartella or Something
Taiga's team explores Asmodeus' area on the planet with Chris, who grumbles about Sunny, while eating food they have picked up from the stands. While they muse on the nature of the tournament they debate on how to gather information while they are there and decide just to talk to the locals attending the fight. While they spread out to talk to people, Erica and Yuki flirt with each other, drawing some eyes from people who wonder how they have a kid of Mireille's age at their age since she looks 14ish right now. While Erica and Yuki talk to their the men hoping to get them and Mireille to join them on a date, Cel talks and seeks information, Airym consoles the scared Gor, and Pepper and Cookie hang out and drink with people to get information from them. In the end Erica scares off her targets by telling them Mireille is her daughter and Cel finishes getting her information and Cookie and Pepper finish reading minds and getting some information. Together the group has learned about an underground tournament that is being run that might hold something of interest.
The group runs into Freyja and Ruby Carter - Iceheart - who appear to be attending the tournament as well. Ruby notes that her ship is in for repairs so she's using a different one and seeing the universe due to the PAX situation. She answers their questions on the state of the Cartel right now saying that Loki runs the Houses and notes he has been keeping to the shadows a lot lately. While they talk Chris notices that Zayne is watching her from the distance while Airym and Gor find the a cyber cafe that should lead them to the underground fighting tournament.
Meanwhile, a little back in time, at Shiva's tents, Lorelei's kids sneak ouf of the tents to do some recon. Choosing to enter the tent of Medivh, they carefully sneak in and run into naked dancing girls, forcing Kaelan to drag Valen out of sight of them while they feel out for a God. Getting no ping, they move further in until Valen manages to get talk a servant into letting him talk to Medivh. There Valen tries to get him to lower his guard by saying he'll throw the fight for him money while feeling him out for being a God, but it backfires and Medivh says he will use a tape of Valen trying to bribe him. Using the Angel ability to control lesser minds on the servant to destroy the tape, the servant attacks Medivh and smashes his face into the desk and beats him unconscious before pulling the tape off and destroying it; Valen then takes a picture of the servant attacking Medivh. Escaping they hurry to round 2 of the tournament.
As Round 2 begins Taiga notices Medivh isn't present among the other House leaders this time. After a moment the second round is put on hold due to a gas leak and will resume the next day. Zayne pauses her stalking of Chris for the time being and melts into the crowd and the team prepares to find the underground fighting ring with their extended time.
Session 338: Behind the Curtain
Location: Location: Nar Cartella or Whatever Name Sera Came Up With
The two teams that are not part of the tournament, minus the young Sabrina, head to the underground club that their information has led them, all of them wearing sexy outfits, except Lorelei who is in a strange staintly outfit, to blend in. The team attempts to locate it so they can find the underground fight club that is taking place in it in the hopes to learn more about the situation with the main tournament, since they might be connected. Mireille, for some reason, comes along with them as they head to the location they got from the jerks' minds, where they soon arrive at a wine shop. There, they observe people going to the back and after deciding to watch, learn that there is a code system of ordering wine from the back and giving a code word with the wine. Cookie manages to read the the mind of some people getting the location and the team manages to provide the correct password and from there receive the true underground club's location with their wine.
As they arrive at the location, Airym surmises the tournament likely moves around and the wine shop is how you find it. Stepping into the underground cellar area, despite some of them - like Taiga - looking 16 or younger, no one seems to notice. With a bar, an underground tournament ring with fighters wearing collars, and tons of customers, they find what looks like a darker version of the main tournament. While Erica and others note the collar seems to be unneeded, as the fighters fight to the death in front of their very eyes, the collars do look a little different than the main tournament, with some modifications to the collar. The team debates how the collars are used in this type of tournament, since the collars are used differently in the main tournament.
The team decides to split up to learn information while they are there; Airym moves to try to connect to wireless network, while Lorelei moves to try to get the collars that were taken to the back, Mireille decides to go to the bar to talk to the bartender, and the others move out to talk to the guests. Erica and Yuki muse on if the collars can be tampered with and made to allow death while the others talk and they decide maybe they should see if they can try to shut the place down, or at least damage the place. The two head to a VIP booth where they believe one person is watching over the fighting might be the one who is running the place. Meanwhile, Mireille - after questioning the bartender - is given a drink that is spiked and begins to sip it innocently. Meanwhile, the others learn information from the people in the club about how long it has been around and what began it, starting about a year ago.
Cookie checks on Mireille, discovering the spiked drink, and moves her to a side booth to keep an eye on her. Erica meanwhile would be stopped by security near a booth where she would see a large man talking on a comm about the collars, indicating he might be the ringleader for this fight club. While Erica manages to talk her way in as one of the girls the man has requested, Pepper learns that supposedly Loki's second in command was looking for collars for the tournament and calling the shots after Loki was injured a few years back and the business began to pick up the last year. Airym around the same time approaches Taiga and states on the holovid system she has discovered the person who has manufactured the collars and gotten some information on them and the two begin to go over the information, the man apparently working with Loki's second in command.
Erica meanwhile sits on the club owner's lap, playing the part of a hooker, and gets groped and molested meanwhile, making Yuki chew napkins in rage. However, the act allows Erica to listen in on the comm conversation, telling the person on the line that the collars work beautifully and it seems to indicate that the underground fight club is a testing ground for the person on the other line. However, things turn nasty when the person on the other end says they plan to step up their plans now and sends a signal to kill the man, with Erica barely getting off the man and out of earshot of the death pulse. Stealing his comm, Erica and the team bolt out of the underground club immediately and head back to their hotel.
At the hotel, the team spends the evening going over the collar and comm, with Taiga and Rada working on devices to trace the information flow where the signals are coming from. By the next morning, the two have finished and discovered that a signal is coming from below the tournament arena itself and they believe that the collar system is down there. The team debates what they are dealing with: two shapeshifters or a shifter or a god. They decide that it is likely a god and a shapeshifter due to the fact they are likely working at odds, and one seems to be Loki's second in command and another the collar maker themselves. The team heads out as the second round of the tournament begins. Meanwhile, Lorelei's kids are fitted with brand new collars that look modified and prepare to head out, where Kaelan faces off with an opponent that looks almost maid like and wielding a scythe, taking over for the original fighter for Medivh and supposedly a tough fighter. Her name: Mercy.
Location: Nar Cartella Nutbar
Taiga watches the Mercy and Kaelan fight through binoculars with her team along with Lorelei and Yuki. Noting that they have a potental problem in that the collar Kaelan is wearing a kill collar and all the contestants has one on them for this competition and there is nothing stopping someone to send a kill signal to kill the fighters. Lorelei vows to stop the collars since the source is under the stadium and flies off with her angel wings to get the rest of the kids. Taiga decides to go to Loki's tents to try to find the second in command and deal with the shapeshifter there while some of them stay behind to try to delay the signal if it goes off. Airym and Gor opt to stay behind and work on that along with Jelly while Taiga foxholes to her group. Taiga and Pepper discuss tactics to distract the guards, including naked seduction which shocks Sabrina, while Cookie manages to user her psionics to distract one away and then knock the other out while Cel takes out the distracted one.
Mercy and Kaelan continue their battle in the arena while the others observe the fight from the sidelines when Lorelei contacts them through the mark. While Mercy and Kaelan continue to exchange blows and seemingly getting the upperhand on each other, Lorelei updates the team on the kill collars while Mercy seems to have a kill vendetta on Kaelan. Kaelan decides to change tactics to knocking Mercy out of the ring though she will have to keep her out of the ring for 20 seconds for it to count. She manages to knock Mercy out once but she returns to the ring and does the same back to Kaelan. Zegretta remains behind to watch the fight while the team, joined by Kaori, heads under the stadium to try to find the kill collar source or the God making the collars while Kaelan keeps the crowd focused on the fight.
Finding areas where collars are being worked on and other maintanence places, the team goes deeper underground beneath the stadium. Following the pinging of a God as they go deeper in the team soon runs into Yeger, the God of Death, the one God they were not ready to fight yet. Meanwhile Rada, Airym, Gor, Chris and Jelly track the source signal but run into Zayne. More interested in Chris due to her resemblence to Sunny, the rest of the team hurries on to the source while Zayne looks at Chris and focuses on her. Zayne suggests just shooting the signal even if it risks the two fighters fighting if it'll save everyone else, but Airym notes that is unacceptable so Zayne leaves.
Taiga's group continues into Loki's tent and soon sees Loki himself all scarred and recupurating these days. They also see the second in command and a Dark Spirit of Fire talking to him about something regarding a machine and needing supplies for it. Cookie promises the supplies that the Shapeshifter would pay for and the Dark Fire Spirit notes she will come back for them and if they do not provide them she will make them suffer, leaving the Shapeshifter high and dry. They begin to try to find him after he ran away and having Sabrina feel out a shapeshifter and thinking she feels something icky nearby, runs into Iceheart who offers to help. They manage to help point them out and to spot the second in command who was trying to change shapes to look like a woman now.
While Rada's team figures out a plan to stop the signal, Mercy surrounds Kaelan with scythes to end the fight once and for all. And below Yeger begins to advance on the team to end them.
Session 340: In The Grasp of Death
Location: Near A Spaceport
Erica and Yuki's team, having managed to corner the female looking shapeshifter near the spacesport, surround her while Iceheart and Freyja hang back. The battle breaks out immediately, with the team and the shapeshifter battling it out in front of a crowd, and slowly but surely the team begins to wear the shapeshifter down, especially with Pepper's singing abilities energizing them to do more damage. As the fight continues, Yuki begins to exhaust herself and the shapeshifter seems to target Pepper, seeing her as the main threat to take down. In a final gesture, it does an attack that throws gunk at everyone before falling over and dying, with most of the team dodging, making Pepper and Yuki panic. The team takes the moment to recover from the battle and prepare for the next problem.
Location: Under the Stadium
Yeger faces the team under the Stadium and pulls out a chess board to distract them before he launches an attack, beginning a hard battle. He primarily targets Lorelei and drops her, since she is the team's primary healer and support, forcing the team to keep her alive while the battle rages on. After they begin to weaken him, he notes that if they keep this up they might just kill the host and he could possibly survive and move onto another host, trying to distract the team again. Joined during the battle by McTreggor, who aids them during Yeger's death attacks that drains people down to a sliver of health, they finally push him to his host's body's breaking point. However, at that moment, Kaori fires an attack that damages the floor and drops Yeger beneath it a little, laying there defeated finally. Joined by Rada and Airym, the team checks the body and they see Yeger laying there barely alive, so Lorelei touches the body to expel the god inside the Cartel man. They manage to heal and save the man's life so he won't die from their battle and move to leave to see what will happen to them all.
The two teams catch up right as Kaelan's battle is over, having lost to Mercy with a ring out and a KO, right as the collars are disabled in time. Following the incident, the team is led to a meeting with Loki and the other Cartel members to explain their actions. Forced to come up with reasons for being there without giving away too much incase some of them are shapeshifters, since Sabrina is not there with them, they are chewed into by Loki and Shiva a little, much to Rada's disgust. Medivh for his part thinks they are behind everything just to spy on them and when Loki finally tells them they are free to leave but not to return, he is outraged and leaves, vowing to deal with them himself. Lorelei says goodbye to Shiva on her way out but Shiva seems to be confused by who Lorelei is as the two exits. Loki decides to let Shiva follow and look into the group, so she exits deciding to look into Iceheart.
Iceheart and Freyja join the team, claiming they might have a lead for the team on where to go next, directing them toward a planet, so the team heads back to Asteroid C and then begins to head out in the direction given to them.
---
On the Thena side story, Fate notes she knows of this world and that one of the other teams has been there, since she had been observing them on one of the times she had vanished. Telling them who it was, Thena reaches out by datapad to Lorelei and they communicate to each other. Learning nothing about Cheryl being on this world from Lorelei, she gives them directions to the hotel they used but Thena's group spots Kaelan, who has returned to the planet via the Aquarius teleporter and Thena tackles her, making Zegretta leap to her defense. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, they learn Kaelan came there to try to find out why this "Mercy" was so upset and Zegretta followed Kaelan to protect her. After some hijinks they find a bar where Mercy has entered and Kaelan and Zegretta enter to follow her into the back while Thena and Rio are wayward by men; it seems Fate has poofed on one of her missions.
They find her in a secret meeting with two men who run her off back up to the bar where they find Thena having the crowd eating out of the palm of her hands. After a while Mercy emerges and the crowd quiets down and looks away from Mercy in fear, as if she has a big reputation. Refusing to admit she is upset with Kaelan and telling her to go off with her girlfriend, Mercy basically dismisses them and tells them their battle is a one time thing she was hired to do, though Kaelan tells her she hopes they will meet again. Fate reappears, noting she wonders if it is best for Kaelan and Zegretta's love to continue to avoid Mercy, tell Thena that Mercy is a soul reborn as well and Lorelei likely missed her due to the distance, being a rare one that was not reborn in close proximity - that there were a few here and there. When Thena states she will find the missing ones, Fate warns that many might be adults now and have not been molded by Lorelei and might be dangerous like Mercy, who is a bounty hunter and killer for hire. And that Mercy is a very dangerous since she has hacked Cheryl's files and knows things she should probably not.
A duplicate Thena leaps for Mercy who without even hestitating slashes with her scythe and cuts her, making her use her hyperspace energy to heal her, throwing the woman off. She informs her she did it when she was 13 and did it to her Asteroid C base, taking the information inside it. Dissapointed it was old information, Mercy curtly informs her if she wants recent information she should find what datapads she used in the past since she doubts Cheryl was smart enough to change the systems; and advises her to get ahold of the Cheryl kid that handles her systems. Asking for her contact information since she is a mercenary for hire, Mercy pauses but provides it before leaving. The real Thena meanwhile has gathered Kaelan and Zegretta, having them guide her to the teleporters to Asteroid C, where she chides Kaelan and Zegretta, noting that Loki might have been waiting for them to return to that planet, though for some odd reason she did not seem too worried, having secretly sent information to Loki about the shifters on the side to make him an ally in their cause.
After seeing Thena is with them, and being harrassed about being a "cute" teen again, Taiga listens to her request to put up a tracer on the C's servers to make a trap to see if Cheryl taps into the databases on them to try to locate where Cheryl might be hiding. She notes it will take a while to reprogram the servers down there and heads off, so she moves off, meeting some of the people like Sabrina and Rachael and Lorelei. Rachael seems alright at first but has a moment later after chatting where she does not like the affections and touching by Thena, talking about how she does not like being touched by people she does not know, moving off and Sabrina states sometimes Rachael has strange mood swings that hit her. Afterward she meets up with Taiga who is working under the computers and working on it, mostly naked due to the heat, and talks to her about the kids and Rachael, and Taiga notes she does not know much, only that some like Rachael were brought out early and that Lorelei wanted to keep most of them the same age, though Rachael should have probably been kept a year or two more if that was the case. Before she goes she gives Taiga paw mark on her butt that Taiga notes deadpanned she'll remove it later, Thena claiming it's a friendship mark that lets her keep track of people and their locations, having done it to Rio and Fate already, though with Fate being a strange being it's hard to tell if it took. So do the two still have it?
Taiga finally finishes and gives Thena a special datapad that will alert her the next time Cheryl uses the systems for anything, meaning they simply have to wait on it. She decides to head back to Geyze to visit her parents while she waits on the alert and uses Asteroid C's teleport system. She arrives and it seems that Geyze, since the last time she was there, has begun to move toward the month of October. Meeting with Gnome and Jaime and the others in the family, Thena spends her time getting into hijinks and checking out booths, where Athena enters a booth and tells a fortune: I am seeing danger ahead. You will face a force that will stand between you and your target; once it learns of you, it will go after it. This force may or may not win if you are not careful. You will encounter your true target before you encounter your other targets and they will also attempt to kill you. You path is wrought with danger, mew. And those you chase have danger after them that will focus on you if you find them. Afterward Ahena seems to have no memory of any of this.
And so the fun two weeks continue and leads into Session 348 and Phase 7: Royal Bloodlines.
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Meanwhile, Necia - Ben's boyfriend - who has not been seen in many months, has been doing her own investigation into what happened to Ben. Using her skills with computers, she is out there working her way through the systems, slowly learning what Ben is up to and working her way into the hear of the matter.