Recon mission

[iridescentdreamer]

Kai's eyes widened as the fire arm was thrust into her hands, alarmed.

"...wait...I can't shoot-" She had never even touched a normal gun, and though slightly relieved that it wasn't a fatal tool...she still had bad aim when it came to these weapons. But what was it....a tranquilizer gun?

Hey! Why wasn't HE shooting it?! She thought just as perturbed, noticing she was actually backing off..

What?

She had no time to consider it, when the panther pounced.

There was a loud bang, and a yelp escaped her throat as she felt a large weight fall unto her, and sharp claws dig into her shoulder.

Half wincing, she gazed up. seeing sharp teeth snarling at her.

Aparrently...the shot had gone through the panther's ear and ricocheted off some tree in the distance. If the wood 'THUCK' sound accompanied by a crackling noise was any indication.

She didn't want to think about how much she was bleeding right now, because she was sure her nerve endings would be screaming at her once she looked down at the damage..

Instead her eyes darted to the gun which had skidded off into the underbrush, and adrehnelline started to pump.

She did not want to become a snack.

"OFF." There was a sudden movement when she shifted, causing the claws to dig deeper into her skin,and she pushed up with the palms of her hands.

Ice spread from what seemed air-her skin, glazing over grass, and embracing the panther's torso with audible cracks....

The largel beast seemed to jerk mechanically for a few minutes, as if hydraulics had been frozen internally, before the glow had faded from it's eyes, rendering it nonfunctional.

It seemed it wouldn't be moving any time soon, at least intil it's body thawed.

Kai however....was rather trapped. She wasn't exactly the strongest, and the faerie's arms began to shake a little when the panther wasn't able to keep supporting itself, before her elbows buckled and gave out.

She gasped a little. winded when the full weight of it rested on her, and she squirmed a little at the painful pressure on her injured shoulders, and she could feel the surprisingly warm blood soak her sleeves some.

"...Oi! Don't tell me you left me!" She called out. She really couldn't see him with the large mass on top of her, which reduced her view to panther head and tree canopy. With the way he had stood back earlier, it was obvious she was a little spooked, not really knowing WHY he did it, for his own safety or not.

"....Come on! it's not funny..." she trailed off with a whine, wriggling again, before stilling some, chest rising and falling rapidly to catch her breath.

[issunboushi]

it took about one second for Erian to realize the huge mistake he had made, but when he did it was already too late: the panther was already on top of Kairos.
''oh shi- KAI!!''
why, of all times, did he listen to his 'brain'? putting his safety before his friend's... that's what only a heartless machine would have done! was he really one too?
he dashed to her as fast as he could. the replica had already been shut down by a thick layer of ice, but the girl was still trapped underneath.
seeing the ice, his rational part would have triumphantly thought *so it was her, after all!*, but at the moment he had forgotten about all other directives: he had to save Kai.
if he were a human this would have been the moment when a tidal wave of adrenaline would flow through his body and give him the strength to move that deep-frozen mass of circuits and save his friend in danger, but alas, as a robot his strength was bound and unchangeable, so the replica only barely moved.
''dammit! hold on Kai! i... i'm gonna think of something...''
what a stupid thing to say! not very conforting, that was for sure...
he started rummaging in the pouch again, but he had appearently run out of his daily supply of luck, because none of the hi-tech gadgets he had with him would have helped him lift the at least two hundred kilo heavy beast. the only thing that looked strong enough for that was... the panther itself!
*that's it! how could i not have thought about it earlier*
he looked at his hand. in all this time he had almost forgotten that he was the result of the Chimera project.
he put his hand on the replica's head. he never had the chance to try out this feature of his before, but he anyway had to give it a shot.
he closed his eyes and concentrated on the panther. he could feel every last of it's circuits as if they were part of his own body. there! the core generator! it was almost frozen, but the core was still operational.
Erian channelled his energy into the replica's body, and the generator started working again, giving power again to all other systems. the emergency thermal regulator was the first thing he activated: a web of semi-conducting fibers located right under the replica's 'skin' overheated, melting the ice outside and inside its body, and as soon as the limbs could move again, Erian made it stand up again.
before taking his hand away he booted all of the replica's systems down, leaving it as a mere empty shell.
immediately he helped Kai to get out from under it and grabbed a medical spray from his magic pouch.
''are... are you okay?''

[iridescentdreamer]

Her ears twitched at the sound of his voice, at least reassured in that respect. She didn't know what happened, but after a few minutes...things started to get strangely warm.

Her ice melted slowly, dripping onto her and the ground beneath them, before the panther mechanically stood...and did nothing else. Not even breathe.

Then warm hands brought her to her feet safely, and the cloak feel over her injured shoulders.

Confused, and mindless of her wounds...she looked at the non functioning creature with an odd look in her eyes.

"...that creature......was a machine..." it seemed she finally figured it out, putting a finger to her chin as if perplexed.
Then the other's voice reached her ears, and she stopped,

Oh!

"Ah yes...I'm find, just a bit startled...'scratched pretty good though'." she attempted to smile a little, until she glanced at the small spray bottle, and then down at her shoulders, which had become covered with her cloak when she stood, along with the shredded shirt.

"....I should probably strip though so you can clean them properly though. It'd heal fine either way, but infections are always a pain in the ass..." she spoke along, as if postponing questions until they were both less...jumpy. She was never one to be two shy about these things. It was just a wound, and under garments and bandage wraps always did their job of keeping her modesty.

First her cloak glided to the ground , unlatched. Then a large, metal axe, that had been strapped to her back, hidden by the cloak(and probably had been pressing into her spine for the last ten minutes) clunked to the grass as well, before she gripped her shirt, turning her back to him out of habit.

One had to wonder though, what might have happened if she wasn't caught so off guard back there, if she was so mellowed out now.

"We should probably hurry too....if one could be out here....how many more?" she voiced her concern.

[issunboushi]

''i don't think more will come...''
said Erian, carefully treating her wounds with the disinfecting spray. the liquid solidified into a protective layer over the cuts.
''there: this will keep them from getting infected. there is also a light anesthetic in it, so it shouldn't hurt much''
he put the bottle away. after a few seconds of embarassed silence he sighed.
''I... i'm terribly sorry for earlier... i put you in danger, and it's my fault alone that you got injured... i...''
he didn't know what to say.
Kai might have died back there! there were no excuses for such a selfish act.
he sat on the ground looking at his feet
''i'm sorry''

[iridescentdreamer]

"Not a problem." the subtle sting of disinfectant, followed by light wrappings. If nothing else, this man was prepared. She thought idly, fixing her clothing back, and re asserting her weapon and coverings.

"....I'm used to this kind of thing....just give me a heads up before hand. Or I'll panic like that."

She hated to admit it, but she was rather skiddish when surprised, any other situation she probably would have come out unscathed, but it couldn't be helped.

"Don't worry about it. It's kind of stupid to think anyone would think things out the way they'd like when faced with things out of the norm..." she waved off the apology, though seemed to not quite be convinced that there would be more.

"...and I'm fine now anyways." she continued, poking him in the chest.

"So nothing to apologize for."

[issunboushi]

Erian smiled.
''well''
he stood up and looked at the furry statue.
''i'd really like to know where such a complex machine was built. plus, from what i could understand it was guarding some sort of facility not too far...''
*and how in the heck could you know, genius? yust by looking at it in the eyes!? man! i should really be more careful with what i say*
''hem... well, i'll go check something out on bagheera then''
he walked up to the replica and kneeled at it's less visible side. he made sure Kai couldn't see what he was doing and then took a deep breath. he put his open palm on its chest and closed his eyes.
even though the panther and him in that moment had become as one, it took a few seconds for the still inexperienced Erian to find the primary motherboard.
now came the difficult part: he knew he could impose his will on any electronic device, but what he needed now was to recompile its base OS so that it would listen to him also when not synched. he could clearly feel every last of its circuits, but we were talking abous software here: whatever he tried, he could only feel the hardware part!
<that's because you are only using the Chimera unit's processor>
said a voice in his head.
Erian knew this syntetic voice very well: it was the 'snobby bag of third-choice microchips', also known as the station's central computer!
''Delta!?''
<not so loud, you moron! do you want her to hear you!?>
*oops! sorry. anyways, how come i'm talking with you? i never contacted HQ since the last data delivery!*
<oh yes, you did. appearently when you use the Chimera unit a connection is automatically established. security measures, i suppose.>
*yeah, whatever. are you going to tell me what i should do, or should i beg you on my knees?*
<don't tempt me>
sneered Delta
<what i meant to say earlier was just that the Chimera unit is used to interface your systems with the ones of the host and sync your OS in them. this suppresses momentarily the host's programming, which anyways returns in charge as soon as you de-sync>
*yea, yea, this part i figured. now would you be so kind...?*
<would you be so kind and shut the heck up for a moment!? thanks! i was saying, when you are synched with the host, its OS remains dormant: in this moment you can modify or even totally rewrite it. to do so you have to completely focus on the host's core memory... and by 'completely' i really mean completely: all of your processing power must be put into it, otherwise it will take hours>

[iridescentdreamer]

"...ah...okay..." she said, not really giving in to the urge to ask what bagheera is...she just assumed it to be a reference to the panther. When he closed his eyes, she had an odd feeling it might take a few minutes, and put it upon herself to serve as a look out for them both.

But....a security machine? What kind of facility would it be protecting? ...what would it beprotecting it FROM, to have to make a beast as such that would attack to the kill instead of intimidate and scare off?

As these questions roved her mind, a bit of paranoia peeked it's ugly head in her mind....what this beast was designed for...what would be keeping what ever it was trying to keep out....out?

Was this a good thing or a bad thing.

".....I have a bad feeling about this..." she mumbled, before she jumped at the suddenly exited call of 'DELTA!', pointed ears perking straight up in surprise,

"....delta...?" Getting no response from the man that seemed to be in some sort of trance. She rose an eyebrow. Concerns momentarily blotted from her mind.

"Weirdly cute." she snorted. Eyes darting back to the foliage as she scratched her head dully. Until something furry came into view.

"?"

A wolf? It licked her hand, whimpering, and the little girl in her was silently squealing exclamations of cute!

Pushing back the feeling that it was odd that there would even be one in that area...or that images might not be what they seem, as it snuffed around...as if scanning for something.

"SCAN-COMPLETE." A mechanical voice whirred, and the wolf's head snapped up. Eyes seeming to focus on her, before flashing red seeming to examine her.

....a...probe?


It started to sniff her widly nose shoving at her stomach snufffing as she giggled on reflex.

"Target identified." The mechanical voice whirred again. And there was a sudden insessant beeping coming from the panther.

She suddenly had a VERY bad feeling about this.

"Self destruct relay has been switched. Detonation in Five minutes." The panther seemed to 'speak' in the same voice immediately following.

....and the wolf ran off in the direction where the panther had come...

"....4 minutes...."

Her lips formed a tight "o" shape.

".....I think we need to go.....NOW." She finally said blankly. Trotting up to him and tugging at his sleeve.


There was no way they'd be able to deactivate this.....was there?

She face palmed, groaning to herself. Some lookout SHE was.

[issunboushi]

Erian was completely focused on the recompiling task, so he didn't notice anything... until a secondary section of the panther's system activated on it's own.
strange... very strenge...
he put the recompiling on stand-by and checked it out. appearently, it was a non-wired self-sustaining system. this explained why he didn't notice it before, but why did it activate all of a sudden? and what was its purpose?
as if called, a mechanic voice answered all his questions.
*s-s-SELF DESTRUCT!?!?!?*
immediately he tried to stop the countdown, but the fact that it wasn't wired with the rest of the replica's body made it impossible for him to interact with its software.
*dammit! it's no use*
<i personally would suggest you get the heck out of there. i suppose dou didn't have a look at the explosive component, have you?>
a sudden chill ran down Erian's spine.
he concentrated on that sector of the system. there was the explosive: a small metal cilinder... a terribly familiar one...
*wait... isn't that thing normally used-*
<-to contain unstable reagents... right guess. now guess what's inside>
it felt as his heart was pierced by a frozen spear
*it couldn't be... anti-matter!?*
<oh yes, it can. to be precise i sensed 2 grammes inside>
*TWO GRAMMES!?*
at once he de-synched, and he heard Kai telling him they had to get away from there.
''oh, i couldn't aggree more!''
he grabbed her hand and started running as fast as he could.
who could have been so crazy to put that much anti-matter into a bomb? the accidental annihilation of one gramme of it was enough to completely vapourize one of the most important research facilities on the head researcher's home planet!
*we have only less than two minutes left! we'll never make it... i need to be faster!!*
he took a deep breath and focused on his core processors. the only way to get out of there alive was to force an overclocking.
by channelling his energy into the CPU's cores he forced them to work at double speed, thus doubling his own processing speed.
his eyes scanned his surroundings at 60 frames per second, his brain classified all possible obstacles and elaborated the quickest route to avoid them at lightning speed, and his limbs moved at twice the speed.
''ok, here we go! hop on''
he stopped for a second, allowing Kai to climb on his back, and then dashed at high speed throuh the trees.
only 30 seconds left.

[iridescentdreamer]

Soon SHE was the one being tugged, and she found she had to struggle to keep up with his long strides. Though that soon changed, with his sudden request..

and as soon as she held onto his neck securely, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist.

Everything blurred by. Wind whipped in her hair, and looking down,
his legs were moving at an inhuman speed. Powerful. Confusing.

However, she barely had a moment to contemplate even that much with the resounding explosion that made her flatten ears against her skull to avoid the stinging ring. Then fire flaring up consuming much of the area. It surged outwards in a burst of smoke behind them.

The forest was definately on fire. Or was...it was hard to believe looking behind her, it seemed like everything within range just...turned to ash.

What was that side of the forest hiding? At the foot of that mountain? Or was it even there?

She thought. Momentarily awed, though soon she realized something.

They were still moving.

"Oi-Erian!"

[issunboushi]

Eriah heard the girl saying something, but the wind was whistling in his ears and so he couldn't understand what she said.
one thing he did know: such a big explosion would have unleashed an enormous shock wave, and if he didn't quickly find some shelter he was in for a nice flight...
*there! a ditch!*
he jumped in and told Kai to keep down.
when the air wall passed on them, he covered her with his body. he didn't want her to get hurt again.
after the wind had stopped he disengaged the overclocking.
''good thing it's over...'' he said, helping Kairos to stand up ''are you oka-''
he couldn't finish the phrase: his whole body started to feel numb.
appearently, the overclocking was too much for him.
his view started to fade, and before he knew he was lying on the ground.

[iridescentdreamer]

Kai's world spun again, and she was soon in a dip in the grass, the other man's body covering her small form completely.

She held her breath as the aftershock swept over the earth, and her hands fisted into his shirt as if he were her anchor, eyes wide.

THough...as soon as it was all over...everything went quiet, and she felt that body lull limply on top of her, half on the ground.shifting a little so that she was laying next to him. and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Erian? Are you alright?" He looked exhausted, sporting the expected dirt smudges and rumpled clothing..but otherwise looked fine to her at least, and she let out the breath she had held.

Well...she couldn't say she didn't have an eventful life at least.

Feeling a rather absurd smile crack at the corner of her lips, she let out an exasperated sigh.

"..the gods must love us or something! That was....insane."

[issunboushi]

''yeah... you can say that again...''
chuckled Erian weakly.
he tried to grab into his pouch, but his arms didn't move.
he turned his head to Kai and smiled.
''it seems i need your help''
he nodded towards the bag
''i can't move. can you get something from there? it's a purple shining star-shaped gem. when you find it... just put it... on my chest...''
and with that, his last ounce of strength was used up.
that gem he asked for was a metatron ore... a sort of emergency energy supply.
now the only problem was: he was used to his dimensional pouch, but would Kai manage to find it?

[iridescentdreamer]

"Gotch'ya...purple star shaped gem...shouldn't be a problem...I know crystals when I touch em good enough." She picked up the bag, moving to shuffle through it.

However, she didn't expect the distinct tingle that went up her arm when she reached in. And when she SHOULD feel the bottom of the back....it wasn't quite...there?

Was it enchanted or something? Her eyebrows hit her hairline, as she reached deeper, fingering different items of odd shape and texture. Gadgets she couldn't recognize...water...that disinfectant from earlier. She cringed a little when her fingers brushed against something made of iron, but paused when she felt an almost familiar smoothness.

Polished stone. She traced it's edges touching each of it's five points, and shivered a little at the untapped energies inside. It was akin to finding certain ores, in her mind.

"God it.." Grasping it, Kai pulled her hand out with a bit more of a jerk then needed, seeming rather perplexed at the bag.

"How much does that thing store?!" She asked a bit too excitedly, placing the gemstone on Erian's chest, before peering into the small bag again, which didn't seem heavy at all, contrasting to what exactly was IN it. it definitely intrigued he if nothing else.

In fact she seemed to be considering if she could fit her head inside to see just how wide that space is...

Luckily she restrained that urge, wrinkling her nose.

[issunboushi]

as soon as the crystal touched his chest Erian started to feel the energy returning to his body.
the metatron contained in that crystal resonated with a special section of his generator, giving enough energy for a catalyzed fusion of deuterium and hydrogen to occur within its core and thus activating it again (something like the igniting spark to start the engine of a car).
Erian remained laying for another few seconds, waiting for all of his systems to return fully operational.
he couldn't help it but laugh at Kai's remark about his 'magic pouch'
''hehe... let's just say a lot fits in it''
when he felt like everithing was back to normal he started a self-diagnostic program to do a full functionality check. after about five seconds a metallic voice beeped in his mind that everything was 100% functional.
''aah! that feels better''
he stood up and put the gem back in the pouch.
''well... i don't know you, but i really want to know what the heck is going on here''
he turned towards the mountain
''shall we?''

[iridescentdreamer]

"Of course. Some other travelers can get hurt just from ignorance...." She piped, stretching a little as she got up as well, dusting herself off. She was relieved, that he was alright.

"Though we don't know much ourselves....well I know I don't, but I wanna know what's to hide so bad...."

Of course...curiousity usually killed the cat. But that saying went ignored, as she grasped the black haired man's hand and moved forward determinedly.