Infiltration{Continued from Recon Mission}

[iridescentdreamer]

The water was crystal clear for the most part. A lovely reflective blue color which hid much in it's dark depths.

A water supply full of pure water, surrounded by lush green grass in flowers.

It was hard to believe anything could be hidden in the area.

"Such a serene place..." She murmered, looking at her reflection in it's water, seeing blue eyes stare back at her in turn. However, she was soon snapped out of her thoughts when a blue butterfly landed on her nose when she zoned out, causing her to sneeze.
Naughty little thing! She thought, glaring at it as it fluttered away happily.

Shaking her head, she rolled back onto her back from her crouch to look at her traveling companions, feeling farely at ease in this type of place....really it all looked innocent to her. Birds were chirping, the sun was out-

"Are you sure this is the right lake?"

Really. She was almost tempted to bathe in it.

[issunboushi]

Kaji was the first to pop out of he thick bushes.
he gave a quick look at the surroundings and then turned back to Erian.
"now this sure looks like the place where some bad guys might be lurking! just look at it! you can feel evil under every rock..."
the android was fighting his way out a net of low branches. he grunted something in an incomprehensible language and then he cut a way through with his energy blades.
"looks aren't everything, little fox. and yes: this is the right place. Delta's scans reveal several thermal abnormalities in the lake's water. i'm talking about warm currents coming up from its bottom..."
he walked up to the water and crouched next to Kai.
"i wouldn't do that"
he said, seeing the girl lean towards the water
"you never know what kind of traps they might have set, knowing we would have come..."
he stood up and put a hand inside his wonder pouch. when he pulled it back out a few seconds later it was holding a spherical, opaque, rock-like device.
Kaji gave a surprised look at the bag and then whispered to Kai
"how in the heck can he store all those contraptions in that small bag!? what is he, some kind of magician!? next time he's gonna pull a rabbit out of the damn thing, i'm sure of it!"
Erian was too concentrated on finding the right spot for the sonic scan to hear it.
he pulled his arm back and lifted, preparing for the throw.
"h-hey! what're you planning, to throw a grenade in the lake!?"
squeaked the fox suddenly, startling him.
"yikes! of course it's not a grenade! what good would it do!? it's a sonar scanner: i throw it in the lake, it sinks to the bottom and while sinking it will create a 3D map of the lake and send it to me. now, if i may continue..."
Kaji grunted and sat down on a rock.
Erian threw the orb exactly in the middle of the small lake.
"all right... now we only have to wait..."

[iridescentdreamer]

[OMG sorry it's been so long! Work and everything has been nuts lately >w<]


"Don't worry. I don't swim well. Just float...like a flailing icecube."
She said in light humor,


"how in the heck can he store all those contraptions in that small bag!? what is he, some kind of magician!? next time he's gonna pull a rabbit out of the damn thing, i'm sure of it!"

Her pointed ear flicked, at the whisper, before she grinned, shrugging,

"My theory is that his bag is a black hole. When I reached in there I think something was starting to pull me in it." She said with a semi serious, yet bemused face.

Yep. It was perfectly normal to talk to a fox, while really compact bags were just plain unusual. Was it really that wrong for her to find it strangely hilarious?

Though any urge to grin from it was pretty much stalled out at the mention of a 'grenade'

"Wait. What?!"


"yikes! of course it's not a grenade! what good would it do!? it's a sonar scanner: i throw it in the lake, it sinks to the bottom and while sinking it will create a 3D map of the lake and send it to me. now, if i may continue..."

She thingyed her head when he tossed the orb in, watching it sink into the seemingly bottomless depths.

"....hey y'know....what if...there were THINGS...living in that lake.....and you just threw something really shiny in there. Wouldn't that cause....things to stir?"


She asked awkwardly, not yet backing away from the water's edge, but instead leaning farther over, as if trying to get a better look despite her own words.

"...I think it would be really -cool- if some like...giant eel came up or something. Or...or....a jelly fish....I've always wanted to see one."

Nevermind that jellyfish usually lived in salt water. It seemed the girl was just fascinated in underwater creatures.

The type of fascination that usually got people in trouble.

The water stirred. a small bubble giving a little 'blip' as it popped, and her ears flick back and forth in excitement, but alas, it only seemed to be a tiny fish.

"Eh....anti-climatic....but...it's cute."
She reached a finger down, as if to pet it with the tip.

...because really. No one expects something barely the length of your pinky to chomp down, and pull you under.

Which makes the tactic all the more effective, as a loud splash sounded, and as one would think, her ice was rendered null in the water.

How ever. It couldn't seem to drag her under.

It seemed she really DID float like ice. if the way she bobbed and jerked when ever the thing tugged, not having the proper amount of weight to drag her down.

"I-...DON"T....Think. ...*cough*...it's...a fish!!!" She sputtered and gasped, blue hair hanging straight with the wait of water. The tugging stopped, but that weird pressure on her finger remained


Grunting a little, she wrenched her arm out of the water...to reveal. Nothing. Blood slowly seeped down her finger as evidence of it's existance..but otherwise....nothing



"I think it's gone!..." She said, wiggling and splashing about in the attempt to get to shore...without any success. She wasn't kidding when she said she only floated.

[issunboushi]

''wha- KAI!!''
Erian barely had the time to stand up when a reddish silhouette dashed past him and a wooden sword was pushed in his hands.
''hold this''
said the fox, and one moment later he was in the water.
with one swift whip of the tail he swam next to Kai. the thing that pulled her in the water seemed to be gone, but she still couldn't swim.
''you okay?''
stupid question.
he grabbed her arm and swam towards the shore.
suddenly something touched his leg.
*what the-!?*
he looked in the water and saw a small fish swimming around him... and a whole school of them coming up from the deep.
*holy crap!!*
he started swimming as fast as he could towards Erian, who was standing on a rock, ready to pull the two of them out of the water.
he almost reached him, when the fish caught up.
''get her!!''
he shouted to the android, before being pulled underwater.
they had almost reached him, so Erian just had to reach out his hand to pull Kai out of these dangerous waters.
once again, Erian was about to jump to the rescue, when an underwater explosion sent the fox flying out of the lake and on dry land. safe, at last.
''gah!''
gasped the fox, lying on the grass exhausted
''there's one place i won't be going again... yeowch!!''
a tiny fish was still fiercely biting his tail.
''why you little-''
he yanked it off and chucked it back in the water.
in that moment the sonar scanner reached the bottom of the lake.
''sorry Kaji, but if what my map says is correct (and i know it is) that's exactly where we need to go.''
he put a small disk with a lens in the middle (that too pulled out of his magic pouch) on the ground in front of him, and a 3D holographic map of the lake appeared.
''see?''
he pointed his finger at a big square coming out of the rocks.
''this down here can't be natural. it must be the entrance of the facility''

[iridescentdreamer]

I'm fine-I'm fine!

She said quickly to the fox, a bit releaved as she was pulled towards the shore, however she made the mistake of looking down...to see that school of fish ....and something a little.. larger?

Surprised, she gave a little shriek, long ears flattening back as hands pulled her roughly out of the water. She honestly felt like a wet cat as she clung to Erian, for her baggy clothes that had actually given her more mass, was now hung over her thin form like a sheet and dripped, heavy with water.

However, her eyes widened a little when they said they'd be going back into the -water-.

I don't know about you...but I'm pretty much as good as a slab of meat in the water...unless it's picking locks and first aid...and it's not like we have a submarine.

Sneezing a bit of water out of her nose, she stepped back from the android a little, before gripping his wrists, cupping his palms together.

Hold it there. I'm gonna make it so I'm not dead weight and heavy clothes when we happen to go in the water.

Well....there MIGHT be a submarine or a jackhammer in that bottomless pit bag, but she didn't think on it, this just felt easier either way, especially since this place...probably wouldn't hold the best advantage for her. Or so she thought.

So she stepped back a little.

You both might want to close your eyes....it's gonna be a little bright.
She looked a way, as if hiding her face for a moment and waited. giving them a moment to do so. She didn't know why she was so embarrassed, it's not like it was going to be weirder than anything else that had happened.

Hold stead fast and See me. She muttered under her breath. Whether it be a spell, or a command, or both, couldn't really be pondered.

Closing her eyes, she raised a hand and snapped her fingers. Blue light flashed....

and her clothes dropped down to the ground in a wet mound where the girl had been previously.

Despite the new empty space, a small slight weight could be felt in Erian's hands.

Yup, she definately had not been pulling any legs when she had said she were Faerie.

Drop me and I'll fly up your nose The small voice called out to threaten timidly.

[issunboushi]

a short moment of silence followed Kai's transformation.
Kaji was the first one to talk.
''no way!!''
he climbed on Erian's shoulder to have a closer look.
''that's so cool!''
the android was puzzled.
as hard as he tried he couldn't find a scientifical explanation for what just happened.
so that was 'magic'... a force powerful enough to be able to ignore the laws of physics.
still, he had learned from his father that even the things that seemed illogical and impossible had some rules they strictly followed...
he decided that that wasn't the right moment to try to compute the rules magic followed.
''well''
he said after a while
''this makes the things just a bit easier: you still can't breathe underwater, nor survive to the pressure under 400m of water...''
the fox grunted.
''well, can you?''
''indeed, i can''
was the quick answer.
''you get the energy for your cells' metabolic cycle from the oxidation of organic molecules. i get the energy to keep my systems functional from a catalyzed oxidation of two atoms of hydrogen. while you are unable to absorb the oxygen dissolved in the water, i am equipped with an electrolytic chamber that allows me to get both hydrogen and oxygen from H₂O itself... and being an exploration drone i am also equipped with internal pressure regulators''
Kaji growled and turned away.
''bah! aliens...''
the android couldn't hold an amused smile.
''that still doesn't solve our problem. for Kai i might have an idea (even if she might not like it), but for you...? i could make you a mask with my spare electrolytic chamber, but that would only solve the oxygen problem... anyways, first things first. Kai, i can't take you with me in the water, because the pressure now would crush you much sooner than it would have before, but now with your size i could put you in my dimensional pouch: it might just look like a bottomless pit, but in reality it is merely a time-space distortion generator that creates a portal connected with a special storage chamber in my mothership.''
small moment of silence.
''w-w-w-w-w-w-wait... you're gonna put her in a bag!? that's no way to treat a lady!!''
Erian ignored him.
''the storage room is never locked, so you won't be trapped or anything, and of course, i'm gonna keep an open channel with Delta, so we'll constantly be in contact. as soon as i manage to get inside the base i'll take you back here''
he made a small pause and then asked
''what do you say?''

[iridescentdreamer]

It was obvious that she didn't understand a thing through the explanation. Except that Deep --> Pressure --> Pain---> Death---> bad, and the no breathing part, and that Erian could stand it...

So...you're putting me in a purse?

She considered this. She didn't like the idea o f not being able to see what's going on...but....
This meant she didn't have to get wet...right?

Alright. I can deal. It doesn't jostle too bad right?
She said, looking at it cautiously, before flitting to it with a buzz of wings, before smiling at them both.
Tell me when I'm good to come out. She blew a mock kiss at the fox at the 'lady' comment, grinning to herself, as she decided to just get it over with, and wriggled in head first.

[issunboushi]

Erian got Kai before she could get in.
"whoa there! hold your horses"
'hold your horses'!? where did that come from?? probably one of those western movies Gozu used to watch all the time...
"erm... i-i have to set it first..."
he reached into the pouch. on the inside of it was a small metallic disc connected to the portal generator: by touching it he could sync with it and set the coordinates where the portal had to be opened.
abut thirty seconds later he pulled his hand out.
"all set. i had to reconfigure the mesonic duct's magnetic lens's semipolarity so that the portal won't open in one of the storage boxes..."
he did it again... he started rambling about complicated technical stuff no one would understand nor be interested in...
"anyways, it's ready now"
he gently put the faerie in the pouch.
"there you go"
in pulling his hand out he touched the metal disc and gave the activation signal.
a faint humming sound could be heard, and a moment later the pouch was empty again.

Kaji didn't want to disturb for the whole process (not that he really thought that an android would need to 'concentrate', but he preferred to stay on the safe side), but now that it was done he expressed his doubts.
"are you really sure it was a good idea?"
the android didn't pay him much mind, not recognizing the fox's concern for the girl's safety.
"of course i am"
he just said.
"more importantly, i still have no idea how you could get in..."
"aww, what a pity! looks like i'll be staying dry then"
he grabbed his wooden sword, which he had left on the ground when he jumped to Kai's rescue, and strapped it to his back.
"well, i'll look for another way in"
"ok... take this then"
he put a communication device (earphone with microphone) in the fox's paw, and then walked up to the water.
before diving in he turned to Kaji.
"i'll let you know when i get in, ok?"