Calculations of Neon

At an open pit mine a few miles north of Carmacks, Yukon, an extremely large piece of machinery carves away at the edges of the mine. It is the height of a twelve-story building, heavyset in structure and painted a bright yellow. The machine has two large bases to counterweight the huge excavator rollers, three of them, all spinning away at the frozen ground.

If you could hear over the rumbling mining operations, the muffled sound of hard rock could be heard blaring from the cab of the machine. Thick, course hands work at the controls of the equipment to the beat of the drum.One hand pulls back a lever, moving along with a guitar riff, each finger covered in white hairs. These hairs cover her entire hand, excluding her palms and finger pads. The pale strands become a lush coat of fur as they continue up her arms. They cover her pronounced arm muscles, and the fur is thick from her chest to her shoulder, where it dwindles to an occasional fiber. Her abdomen is completely barren of hair, smooth as velvet. And, tracing the line of white hair that widens yet again, from her lower abs to her pelvis, we see that she's certainly not human. Two shaggy goat legs, slightly matted and in need of a deep wash, extend down from her hips. The soft wool covers them both thickly, and her worn, shiny black hooves switch from pedal to pedal with skill that only one learned in her trade could have. As she carefully looks around through the smudged windows of her cab at her surroundings, her oval goat-like pupils dance across her yellow iris. She lowers the microphone on her headset to her lips, and turns down her music. "Hey, Boss, whens the inspector coming today again?" she says, her voice rugged as the mountains surrounding her. "In two hours. Make sure the Garen 800 is perfectly clean before he comes, Justin. I want everything oiled and shined perfectly, got it?" Justin grunts, not looking forward to the inspection.

A name tag pinned to the dense hair on her neck prints her fulls name, "Justin Hemsworth", in her own messy boxlike handwriting. She normally doesn't wear one, but with the inspector coming today she wanted to put on a good appearance. Her swirled horns were shined to their best, brown ridges agreeing strongly with the pitch black of her coily hair. Even her cab is cleaned to a shine, food wrappers and Cd's all cleaned up. Justin carefully touches the embroidered name patch to make sure it was still attached to her, focusing her sight on the mineral-rich earth in front of her. Her hands go back to her controls, on on the steering control and the other types a simple command on the keyboard on her right. The screen propped up right next to her window shows all systems are running perfectly. She grins, and turns up the music.

In one of the most productive and largest factories in the Guangdong Province of China, a section is closed off for remodeling. The usual chatter and clicks of people assembling the smartphones that were made in this sector were gone, leaving an uncanny silence. This part of the factory used to have hundred of desks, each for an employee to sit at and put together the various components. But the assembly line has been torn out, and in its place thousands of small tables each with a robot connected to it make up the room. The robots have a simple design, they each have a clamp for their base and two robotic arms attached to a cube-like torso. The base is clamped to the small table, and the extremely complex and detailed arms lay unmoving to its side. A thin wire trails its way out of the robot's yellow painted body, and along with the thousands of other cords from the other robots, meets at a control pad at the top of the room. The wires insert into the back of the large desk shaped console, waiting to transmit a command to each robot. And at the controls of this console, another robot types rapidly into the touchscreen pad.

But this robot is not like the others. It was very obviously modeled after a human. Its slender aluminum plated fingers tap 1's and 0's, never pausing for a second. The eyes of this machine, large, feminine, and made of billions of blue colored pixels, dart over its work. The name "Spiriod" is emblazoned across its upper arm in white paint, and the color complements nicely with the light blue the rest of her body is painted. Metal plates make up most of her outer appearance, with spaces in joints that reveal wires and grey steel. Her form is curved and clearly female, white hair made of soft plastic and molded into a short style, with a few large spikes sticking up. No sound comes from her mechanical body, even if she is constantly calibrating her movements and taking in billions of sensor readings. No matter how sentient looking she is, however, behind her bright blue LED eyes are nothing but trillions of programs. Some she learned, some she was given. Every millisecond she takes in more of the world, and stores this knowledge in her database. She shifts her weight automatically, and hits the enter key. The thousands of worker robots spring to life, whirring and ready to take the job only sentient beings could do before.

The NASA headquarter in Washington, D.C. is buzzing with life. Everyone at Mission Control is working hard to make sure the latest mission goes smoothly. A faun and doppleganger, the two flight directors, pace the rows of desks and computers to make sure everyone is doing their jobs. At the Capsule Communicator's desk, a teenage girl sits. She wears a headset and types rapidly into the computer. Her job is one of the most important in the mission, to communicate with the astronauts. Even if it is just a trip to the space station this round, her role is imperative. She adjusts the microphone inches from her mouth, and leans back into her chair. The various kinds of mushrooms growing on her shoulder and down her arms would normally serve as a distraction to her, as she likes to shave them off as soon as they appear, but today they were left to grow. There was still 27 hours until the launch, but the knot in her stomach wouldn't leave. She always felt a lot of pressure, both from her coworkers and herself. Normally on a clear day like this, she enjoyed staying in the basement of her parent's house, where she had a room. It was damp and quiet, and she could spend all day on her computer blogging or eating.

The 27 hours to launch ticked down to 26, and she went back to typing. Her computer was top of the line, and she had stuck mushroom stickers all over it. The best sticker, in her opinion, was the mushroom with all the clover growing around it. Clover was her name, and she was very proud of it. Clover Abadía Eve Loughrey. It was almost the only thing she liked about herself.

Her species was a fairy, a mushroom fairy to be exact. She lacked wings and was still a good height, 4'8", but anyone who looked at her could tell she was a fairy. The mushrooms sprouting from her arms, starting at the top of her shoulders and continuing on the top of her arm all the way down to her wrists, were a telltale fairy sign. Parts of her skin were rotting, the top of her arms, legs, the back of her neck, and her scalp were all a organic decaying plant material. This provided food for the mushrooms.It didn't hurt her, but she wished it would in a way.

26 hours until launch.

In the hot Palestinian sun, a medical facility on a military base stands. It is a crisp white, the large red cross on the side a symbol of the services offered. Inside, in a crowded waiting room, a ghoul soldier awaits treatment for his broken arm. The nurse calls him in, and he floats up the the front desk. He fills out a small form, then is given the name of the doctor and the room number. Room 12, with doctor Denise Aliane Roberts. He thanks the nurse, and goes searching for this room.

Inside room 12, a woman in her late 30s sits at her desk, writing on a form. Behind her is a table full of all sorts of food, fragrant and tempting. Denise herself isn't eating any of it, as she very rarely eats anything. But the giant, toothy mouth on the back of her is stuffing itself full. She used to have to feed it by hand or have her husband feed it, but in the last couple years it somehow gained control of her hair and now uses it as tendrils to grasp any food near to it.It uses its huge, sharp teeth and tongue to consume pound after pound of the food that Denise leaves out for it. Denise is a Futakuchi-onna, and she is alright with it.

A sharp knock at the door startles her, and she quickly bundles her hair over the gaping mouth. The food can be left out, as Futakuchi-onnas are not the only people that have to consume massive amounts. She would leave the mouth out too, but since it gained control of her hair it would lash out at other people's food. And it had been eating all day, it could use some rest.

She calls for the patient to come in. This would be one of her last ones in Palestine, as tomorrow she was getting shipped off to California. That was ok with her though, she needed a change of weather. Plus maybe she could see her daughter again. Denise missed her so much.

The light of several computer monitors shines over a basement in La Junta, Colorado. The sound of typing echoes through the room, piercing the otherwise silence. The room's lighting is dim, but the shelves full of figurines, comic books, anime dvds, and various pieces of electrical equipment can still be seen. All but one all is plastered with posters. The remaining one has years of researched on it. Numbers, names of users on online games, algorithms, prices of items on online games, and other things cover this wall. Nothing illegal or anything she could get in trouble for, just things a online game addict might have on their wall. But the owner's computer moniters told a different story.

She has 8 screens in total, on a wall where she can keep an eye on them all at once. Some are propped on shelves, some mounted to walls, and the two biggest sitting on the desk in front of her. Each flashed a different thing, but the largest are the ones she is focused on. One has a popular online game open. Her character is a vampire, and has on quite a bit of expensive clothing. It is a high level knight, and she is one of the most famous despite the game having millions of players.On the other screen, green text runs across a black background. She had been working on unpacking this game for months so she could access the data files, and now she was tapping into the code to insert bots into the characters. It had been a lot of work, this game had checksums that were near impossible to get past, but now it was going to pay off. She was going to crack this game, one way or another.

She saves the new data file and restarts her game. The loading bar fills up, and she is beside herself with excitement. Then, everything goes dark. Her monitors, the room, everything. She stares into the darkness, glad she had saved the data file before uploading it. It could always be uploaded it the morning, when this power outage had passed. No need to rush. She gets up, careful to navigate over the garbage and wires littering her floor, and opens the door to her room. An evening without blood is no good for a vampire like her, and she's sure her mom brought home some selkie blood tonight. Before she goes upstairs, she makes sure the name on the door to her room is secure. It spells her name, Yumi.

A well-dressed centaur clops down the linoleum halls of the Pentagon. She walks with a dignified stride, body held stiff. In her right hand is a black briefcase, and the worn state of the case shows the years she has been working here. She wears a black suitcoat, and the numerous lapels and badges pinned to the front is a telltale sign of her place in the US army. The four star patch on her shoulder shows her ranking, General. But she is not here to command soldiers today. Instead, she was called to a meeting with the rulers of the all the land countries of earth. From Queens, to Emperors, to Prime Ministers, every ruler would be watching her presentation.

The centaur rounds a corner, and takes a second to smooth her coat. She was a Clydesdale, nearly purebred, with a dark brown coat and long white fur around her polished black hooves. Her black tail was braided along with her thick, shiny dark hair. Normally she had to braid it herself, but today her roommate knew she had important work to do and braided for her. She checks her watch. This important work was starting in ten minutes! Galloping to the meeting room, an urgent look crosses her face. This was her life's work she was going to be demonstrating, and she needs to focus. The giant oak doors swing open for her, and dozens of eyes snap her way from inside the room.

"Please come in, Katrina." A stern voice beckons, and she trots into the room. It's a enormous room nearly filled with a streamlined metal table lined on both sides with leaders and military officers of different species. The person sitting at the front of the table waves toward a presentation stand set up for Katrina. She nods and sets her briefcase down on the table, pulling out a laptop and a few sheets of paper. After clearing her throat and putting on wire rimmed reading glasses, she begins.

"The Mecha project has been under development since the early 1960s, when military robots first came into the war scene." She breaks for air, sweat starting to pool on her forehead. "Since then it has grown from a side project, to an entire research division, to becoming an independent building. It was my grandfather who started this project, and now I am in control of it." The leaders are starting to look a little bored, and she knew it was time to break out the slides. She opens her laptop and turns on the projector. A picture of a modern-looking building flickers onto the presentation stand, an average skyscraper with the letters "MECHA" making a sign over the doors. "This is the building our operations are based in. This building is just for research and other things, though, the actual project is stored in the massive underground facility in Alaska." She looks back to slide, and hits enter on her laptop. Another picture fades into view. It is what looks like an unfinished leg of a giant robot, the workers dwarfed by its size. The others in the room look a little more excited now, and the person at the head of the table speaks up. "Ma'am, we might have to postpone this slide show for another time. We have some extremely important matters to discuss." He says, a look of distress on his old, wrinkled face. "Of course sir! Please, tell me what it is." Katrina replies respectfully.

"The US government accidentally destroyed the main power source of the underwater people six months ago."

Katrina is speechless. She has stayed in connection with the underwater people through her entire life, and she knows how their electricity works. They discovered a giant hydrothermal uranium deposit in the early 20th century, and they have been using that for nuclear power for years. In 1950, they ditched all other sources of power as they had enough uranium for hundred of thousands of years. And if the government really destroyed it, they would be powerless in the course of a year or so. Trillions of undersea beings, and millions of cities, all without power. She took a deep breath at that thought, and tried to come to her senses. "How long ago did this happen?" Katrina asked. "8 months ago. We have been in close contact with the underwater nation since, but communications have been hostile. Due to the current state of the economy, the US cannot offer them much help besides food, medical care, and a limited amount of power at seaside underwater cities." The man said. "There are threats of war. All the land countries have been grafted into this mess the US made, but the underwater peoples are not a small bunch. There is no way we can power every one of them, and it is going to take the upside of 20 years to uncover the mine. We are doing all we can, but it is not enough for them." He finished his speech, leaning back.

Another person pipes up, an oni. "I am the Prime Minister of Japan. We have limited defenses, and they are threating to attack us first. This is where you come in, Miss Katrina. The MECHA project is our only hope to stop the massive creatures they are preparing for battle. Even if they have no energy, that doesn't make their Krakens or Megolodons any less dangerous. We cannot fight them off with guns or missiles. Machines as big as the creatures themselves are the only chance we could ever hope to have for defeating them." She rants. Katrina nods, closing her laptop. It is too much for her to take in. An entire world without power, and her nation caused it. "The first project is ready to be deployed." She says. "All we need is a team." "Of course. Assemble one as soon as possible, please. Time is limited." The man at the head of the table states. "Alright. All I need are names, and I'll hunt them down." Katrina says, opening back up her laptop. "Wait, I don't have a team to operate this. I assumed the people working on it were trained to pilot it, no?" The man has a puzzled look. Katrina feels a wave of heat wash over her. "No sir. The people operating the machine have not been trained in military tactics, and cannot go to war. We don't even have a programmer that could handle all of the codes, the machine takes thousands of people to work on the coding at one time. The only thing we do have is a medic who is flying in tomorrow." She takes a breath. The people in the room look angry. She needs to do something, and fast. "But don't worry, sirs and madams! We will-I mean, we are taking people in for training in California in a week. MECHA will have the best operating team, I promise."

Everyone looks relieved, including Katrina. "You are excused, Katrina. I expect a fully trained team within a month, ready to go." The man says, and waves towards the door. Katrina gives a salute, which is returned, and she grabs her briefcase and leaves. A small part of her wishes for more information about the accident, but she ignores it. She has a lot of work ahead of her, and smooths back her hair before trotting down the shiny floors to her personal office. It was a pretty decent size, and had plenty of room for her research. As she swung open the metal door tagged with her name, a familiar face met her sight. It was her intern. A cross look appears on Katrina's face. "Why aren't you working on that fuel formula, David?" David looked up from the desk, startled. "Well, I thought-" He started, but Katrina silenced him with a motion of her hand. "You thought what, David? You would directly disobey my orders? Get out of here, and don't come back until the formula is finished. You will obey me or suffer the consequences, you get it?" Katrina says sharply. David picks up a few papers and rushes out. "I am very sorry Ma'am!" He said as he squeezed past her and out the door. "Sorry doesn't cut it!" She hollers after him, and walks into the room, slamming the door behind him. The room is pretty well picked up for the teenage dullahan to be working in it. He normally takes his head off when working, and sometimes he'll spill blood on her work. If that's the case, she punishes him severely. Blood is no good when there are vampires here.

The office is a simple box shaped room, white walls and floor. Her desk is handcarved oak wood, with gold trim to match her chair. It's a specially made desk for centaurs, with a place to rest her front hooves as she sits on the bench. Beside her desk, the only other piece of furniture is a metal gray filing cabinet. A bare room, but she likes it that way. A few papers are pinned to the corkboard hung on the wall, and a riding crop in a special frame sits on the opposite wall. She herself doesn't approve of horse racing, but she thinks the riding crop reflects herself. Sharp, strict, and painful. But she didn't have time to think about that now. Katrina needs to find people suitable for running her project. She sets her briefcase on her desk, loosens her collar, and sits her horse body onto her chair. Spending time rooting through millions of people for the ones she will bring to California to train will be rough work for sure. First she looks through mechanical engineers with a few other qualifications. They have to be in good physical shape, have a degree in mechanical engineering, work with large machines on a daily basis, among other qualifications. She scrolls through the thousands of people matching her search. Almost all of them could be good pilots, but one catches her eye.

"Justin James Hemsworth"

The stamping noise of a timecard machine signifies Justin's workday is over. She takes a deep breath, and waves goodbye to her boss. Despite how large the mining operation is, the company can't seem to manage more that a stuffy trailer as an office/breakroom. Justin didn't mind much though, the only times she entered into the rickety mobile office was when she checked in or out. Lunch was eaten in whatever vehicle she was working in that day. Sometimes her coworkers would stop by to say hi, she is well liked both in the small town she lived by and the mining community she worked in. They mostly knew her from the fairly popular ham radio station she managed when she wasn't working. Most, if not all, of her coworkers tuned in. They all lived in Carmacks anyways, there was no reason for them not to.

After opening the door and stepping into the cold January weather, she pulled her flip cell phone out and checked the time. 7:05 1/16/13. If she hurried, she could go to town and then make it back to her house in time for her radio program at 8:30. She puts her phone back in her stomach sash, and picks up her pace to a run. The frozen ground has a dusting of snow, perfect for giving Justin traction. Being half goat, she can run about 15 miles an hour. And so she does, her form contorting with every movement. She had a very stocky shape to her, chubby, large framed, and extremely muscular. Her personal trainer used to tell her she had an "endo-meso" body type, meaning she was both very round and very fit. Justin tries to work out every night, and it's certainly paid off.

She makes it to her large red pickup, and opens the rusty door. It's quite the mess of food wrappers and tools inside, but she can't be bothered to clean it. Justin jams the key into the ignition and switches it into drive, speeding out of the worksite. The thermometer reads -10 degrees Fahrenheit, about average for this time of day. The roads are a little icy, but nothing her chained tires can't handle. She turns up the radio, and hard rock comes blasting out. She grins, and spins the wheel to round a corner. The forest outside doesn't offer much entertainment, but she'll be at Carmacks in a couple minutes. She takes this time to go over her grocery list. Food for her dog Salmon, who couldn't come to work today because she has a broken leg, milk and eggs, maple syrup, and fries. Fish was also available, but not meat as many land people were half animal and just seeing the words "fresh cow meat" was enough to make anyone vomit. Justin herself has shivered many times at the thought of seeing goat meat at the market, or even worse, Dall sheep. Fish was ok though, since the main diet of sea people themselves was fish. Any animal product was fine as well. But she had plenty of fish at home, both in her fridge and freezer.

The drive to Carmacks is short, as always. It is a small town, right on the edge of a lake. Plenty of mining on any side, population of half a thousand. Not much to look at, but it was the only town close to her house that had a grocery store. She pulls into the parking lot, gets her items and the mail, and comes back as fast at she left. 8:45, plenty of time left for the drive home. Justin lived out in the forest, in a small cabin far away from anyone else. It was a cozy place with only four rooms, a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and her living room which had been turned into a radio station. No internet, but cell service and a septic tank.

After the long drive through woods and on dirt roads, Justin was home. She parks in a dirt driveway under the huge pine trees, and walks up a small hill to her cabin. The cabin was made of pine wood, chocolate brown with a green tin roof. It was framed by pine trees, both dead and alive. No flowers or grass this time of year, just windblown snow and dead flora. Justin picks up the two grocery bags and her mail, slams the truck's door, and walks up the stairs. The door was a little hard to open with both hands full, but she manages it. "Salmon! I'm home!" her gruff voice echoes through the rooms. A large brown and black dog comes limping in from the livingroom, his tail wagging. "Hey boy. How's your leg?" She asks him, carefully wiping her hooves and setting down her bundles. The kitchen being the entrance of the house wasn't the greatest idea that the builders ever made, Justin often thought, but she honestly didn't mind it that much. She kept her house pretty clean, but it was still very full. Her radio station equipment filled her entire livingroom and parts of her kitchen, as the two rooms were connected. The bedroom just had a bed, her workout station, and her nightstand in it, it was so empty because Justin had no clothing to store in it, besides two t-shirts and a pair of faun pants that she never wore. Her fur gave her any cover and warmth she would ever need.

Salmon licked her calloused hand, and Justin gives him a quick pet before putting away the groceries. She was just about to go through her mail when, after taking off her stomach sash, the time caught her eye. 8:20! Time to start her radio program! Dropping the mail back on the counter, Justin ran into the livingroom and started messing with her equipment. Turning knobs, typing into her computer, and doing mic tests that normally took twenty minutes she managed to cram into the time she has. Now all that was left to do was begin broadcasting. She slides a CD into the slot and starts all the machinery up, raising a microphone to her mouth.

"Good evening listeners! This is Justin Daily, the radio show where you can discover new music and friends! I'm Justin Hemsworth, your host." Wow, that was a heck of a good intro, Justin thought. She took a breath and continued. "In honor of their new album release in a few days, I'll be playing some Tengan and Sara while I go make dinner, then I'll be talking about Skrillex a little. Enjoy!" She types into her computer, and hits a few buttons. The mic turns off and she rushes to the kitchen to throw together a sandwich. Pickles, cheese, crabgrass, and fries. A sad excuse for dinner, but the song was about to end. Justin runs back to her livingroom, plopping into her office chair and throwing on her headphones. A grass covered pickle falls to the floor, and she quickly takes a bite of her food. Grass was her favorite food by far. Her mom makes the best macaroni and cheese with grass. The song ends, and she swallows her bite. "And I'm back, listeners. Now, I have some things to talk about. Mainly about the popular dubstep artist, Skrillex." She talks about him for a while, playing a few clips of his songs. While she rants on, the evening turns later and later.

Another track playing on her station, she strolls back into the kitchen, her hooves clacking on the wooden floor. Justin grabs a glass and pours herself some milk, and picks up the mail. She guzzles her milk, and walks back to the livingroom to broadcast some more. "Now, I'm not saying Ho Hey is a bad song, or Little Talks." She begins, flipping through her letters. "It's just that they are both so overplayed and boring! There is middle ground between good and bad songs, and they're both pushing it." A letter from...the United States Department of Defense? "Many, I mean, uh, most people critique popular music from a, uh, elitist point of view." She carefully opens it. "But the culture of pop music is very important to our modern society!" Justin scans the letter. It reads about her services being needed, and that she had to fly to California, USA, and all expenses would be paid for. She forgets all about how she is on the air for a minute.

"Hey everyone, somethings come up. Tune in tomorrow for more music, I need to go." Justin flips the ON AIR switch off, and leans back into her chair. This was a country she didn't even belong to, and they needed her? It couldn't be real. She reads through it again and again. The people that wrote this wanted her to come to their training facility where she would be rated against several other people like her. They were offering her money, enough for the plane ticket there and double her normal wages while she trained there. If she was picked for the job, she would be flown to Alaska where the project was based. All of her pets, her job, and her house would be cared for. Finally, if she finished training and was debriefed on the project and refused to do it, they would fly her home and everything would go back to normal. It is too much for Justin to think about all at once. None of this seemed real, and she still had to finish dinner and work out. She got up from her chair and stumbled over to the kitchen, throwing the letter on the counter. Justin pulled a pan from the cupboard and placed it on her gas stove, turning on the heat. She fries a piece of cod for dinner, does some weight lifting and leg exercises, takes a shower, then dives into bed, careful to not catch her horns on the headboard.

Justin wakes up with a whine from Salmon. She rubs her eyes, sitting up on her unkempt bed. The frost covering her windows showed her just how cold it was this morning, but it wasn't like she could feel it. If it wasn't for the fact her pipes would freeze, she would never have the heater on in the first place. Salmon lets out a sharp bark, and Justin slides out of bed. Her hair is tangled in her horns, a dense mess of hard and soft keratin. After checking herself in the mirror quickly for injuries she might have done to herself in her sleep, she walks into the kitchen to see what Salmon wants. The paper on the counter immediately catches her eye, and she feels faint. Now that her mind could actually process what happened last night, a feeling of despair washes over her. It was an odd feeling for her, normally she wanted to charge into any unknown situation. She guessed that the US government contacting anyone would make them feel sick, even if they had never done anything wrong. Well, not anything they would know about.

Salmon whines again, and Justin trots over to the front door and lets him out. Despite one of his legs being in a cast, he darts out the door and starts sniffing around. Justin closes the door and gives a sigh. She needed to make a decision, and as soon as possible. She gets out her cell and dials the number on the letter from the USA.

Two weeks later, Justin is sitting in an airplane to California. She's flying first class, and the seat has plenty of legroom and good food options. To keep her occupied, she's looking through the packet the Department of Defense sent her. Beside her, Salmon is sitting happily, leg back to working order after 5 months of it healing. The dog is very well behaved, looking over at Justin once in a while but mostly watching the other passengers. Justin was glad that he could come with her, and fly in first class too! The only thing she disliked was how hot it was in the cabin. Temperature bordering 75 degrees, it was too much for her to bear. Despite the ice packs given to her by the flight attendent, she was still boiling hot. From how hot California was rumored to be, she needed to get a cooling shirt or something.

Even though she was hot, nothing could compare to the excitement she was feeling. Justin James Hemsworth, in California! The land of milk and honey, sun and surfers, and Disneyland! It would be the first time she was in sunny weather in years. Luckily, she had gone on a shopping spree in Carmacks before she left, buying sunglasses, a satyr swimsuit, beach towel, and a sun hat. Snowboarding was one of her favorite things to do, and surfing couldn't be any worse. The person on the phone had told her she would have weekends and nights off, and she planned to use these to her advantage. It certainly wasn't hard for her to make friends with her extroverted attitude.

The listeners to her radio station had called in nearly every day, wishing her luck and asking for souvenirs. She had told them it was just a long vacation to California and she might be there a few months. The training itself took a month, she was told, and then she would be sent to Alaska. The project was top secret, and only after she went through training she would be told what it was.

The intercom crackled through her thoughts. "Hello everyone, I hope you had a good flight! We will be landing in Los Angeles in about ten minutes, so please buckle your seatbelts!" A smooth male voice says. Justin grinned, snapping her seatbelt into place. This was going to be the best day of her life.

The airport is beautiful. It was a glistening white, but still felt homely. Thousands of people were bustling everywhere, every species imaginable is there, from satyrs like her to harpies to slime girls. Huge arches and windows made the main hall, chairs line both sides full with people. Justin, carrying her bag with Salmon on a short leash by her side, looks with wide eyes at everything. This was an incredible experience for her, like nothing she'd ever seen. Right now she had to find her escort, a lanky teenage dullahan with red hair as he was described on the phone. He is supposed to be right outside the main doors, which where Justin is making her way to, sweaty and hot. She is going to have to do something about her fur. Salmon is getting some strange looks, as any self-respecting weredog would not be on a leash, and any self-respecting airport would not have a dog in it.

Justin finally find the main doors, pushing out the spinning doors and into the world. The first thing she noticed was the perfect weather. It was an extreme change from the weather in the Yukon. Even though it was the 30th of January, the sun shone hot. No wind, no snow, no cold. The second thing she noticed was all the green trees. On the flight here, she had watched out the window as the pines turned into leafy green trees, and now she was down here with them. Oranges hung from one, lemons from another. The third thing that caught her eye was the red haired head floating above the crowd. Justin blinks, and looks again. At second glance, she sees that the head isn't floating at all. Two arms are holding it above the crowds, and the head seems to be alive. That has to be the escort, Justin thinks. She stands on her tip-hooves and waves to the head. It acknowledges her, and tips its head in a motion for her to come to him. Justin smiles, and works her big-boned frame through the crowd. Finally she reaches the man, and has a good view of him. Lanky, red hair, and a sign that says "Justin Hemsworth" in messy handwriting hangs off his headless neck. The teen puts his head back on, and offers his hand for a handshake. "You must be Mrs.Hemsworth, right? I'm David, on behalf of the department of defense. " Justin grabs his hand, raising it into a arm wrestling pose. She shakes it, nearly crushing his hand. "Name's Justin James, and I'm here to take charge!" David flushes a deep red, but Justin doesn't notice. She released her grip, and David exhales in relief. "Um, how about we go to the car. It's a short walk away." He says with a nervous smile.

"So, what do you think of California?" David asks, trying to break the awkward silence that has formed in the limo. Justin turns away from the window she was looking out. "It's pretty cool. Lots of people, that's for sure." She murmurs, gazing back outside. David gives up, obviously not going to get any other comment from her. He thinks back to Katrina. It has already been half a month since the meeting in D.C, and Katrina had promised a team in a month. Training would take at least 4 weeks. She was going to get in deep trouble if she didn't think of something soon, David knew. Salmon licks his hand, reminding him he was still in the car too.

The ride to the training facility was pleasant, Justin watching the rows of palm trees and brick buildings. David's head almost fell off when the limo came to a screeching stop in front of a huge white building with plenty of green grass and trees around it. The sign in front read "TRAINING FACILITY", in large white cursive writing. David gets out and holds the door open for Justin, who squeezes out of the door into the warm air. It is a short walk to the building itself, Justin in awe every moment and David nervously adjusting his spectacles and wrinkled t shirt. After checking in at the front desk, Justin is escorted to her room where she will be staying while she trained. David runs off to get Katrina, leaving Justin and Salmon to check out the room. Everything is white, just like the rest of the building. White bedsheets and walls with one window looking out into a small courtyard, white bathroom and mini kitchen with microwave and fridge, white mirror, white everything.

Just as she had finished unpacking, David comes bursting into her room again. "Meeting in the gymnasium! Follow me!" He nearly yells, then slams the door again. Justin pets Salmon once more, following David out and through a network of halls. Finally he escorts her into the large gym, empty except for a large (white) stage and a (white) basketball hoop hanging on the wall. On the stage is a centaur, wearing formal military attire with plenty of badges and pins. Five other people are sitting in chairs, with one empty one on the end. Two are talking, the other three sitting quietly and watching the centaur. Justin trots to the empty chair, taking a seat.

"Now that we are all here, I'll begin. I presume you all read the packets I sent to you. If not, you might as well leave right now." The centaur starts. When no one leaves, she continues. "I am Miss Katrina. You are to address me as such, or Ma'am. Are we clear?" Everyone nods their heads urgently. "Good. Now, I'll quickly explain what you are doing here, and then we will get to work. You are training for a special mission in Alaska. It will take a month. You will be competing against each other for the honor to work on this project." Justin starts to sweat. It was extremely hot in that room, and her fur wasn't helping. Katrina talks again. "I will say your name, and you state your age and job. Lewis Jenkins." Justin zones out for a while, thinking of how to beat everyone. It would take all of her skill, but she needed to win this.

"Justin Hemsworth." "35, miner." "Good. That's all. Justin, I want you to follow me before we begin." Katrina says, stepping down from the stage. Justin follows behind her through rooms and halls. Finally, they end up in a...bathroom? "Here. I don't want to see you with all that fur on in a hot climate again, you understand?" Katrina says sharply, handing Justin a pile with underwear, satyr shorts, a t-shirt, and an electric razor on top. She leaves Justin to shave, closing the door behind her. "Y-yes, Ma'am." Justin mutters after her.

The month goes fast, training rough and demanding. Justin had to run, do tests on mechanical engineering, fix robots and other things, pilot everything from jets to trolleys, among other things. On weekends and nights, she explores everything Cali has to offer. The beaches to the parks, all feeling great now that Justin was fur-less, besides a little fuzz left on her legs. It was an odd feeling, being shaved clean. The stubble all over her body didn't bother her, and she certainly didn't mind the coolness.

Finally it was the day of the final test. Justin finishes it before any of the others, Katrina keeping a sharp eye on her. After the test, all six of the engineer assemble in the gym. They wait with baited breath as Katrina opens the results.

"And the winner is...John!"

Justin fills with despair. She had tried so hard, put all of herself into everything, and this is what she got? Nothing? To be sent home back to her job? Salmon loved it here, and especially loved David. Katrina takes John into a small room, no doubt to explain the mission to him. In a few minutes, he comes out with a ghostly white face. Katrina clears her throat, and steps back up to the stage. "Justin Hemsworth, you have been chosen for this mission."

Clover stands in the middle of her mom's kitchen in Queens, NYC. Her hands are shaking rapidly as she stares into them with wide, terrified eyes. A letter sits on the floor in front of her that she had dropped moments before. Next to it, an envelope lies, addressed to her. But the addresser was the important thing here. In the upper right corner in typed print, "The Department of Defense" is written. The letter, dated to arrive on 1/16/13, the current date, tells that they want Clover to train in Washington State for a top secret mission.

As heavy breaths fall from her lips, Clover's heart races. This wasn't the first panic attack she's had, in fact she gets them quite a lot. She slumps to the ground, still hyperventilating. Tears fall from her light blue eyes, staining her lacy white dress. Her petite figure wasn't meant to take so much stress, shown by the dark circles under her eyes that she covers with concealer and powder. She grabs her frothy white petticoat and squeezes her eyes shut, wishing it all away.

A door slams in the livingroom, and a feminine voice yells out "Clover, are you here? I'm home! I brought you a surprise!" Clover's eyes snap open, and she rubs her eyes. Her mom's voice was soothing, and her breathing slows a little. When her mom comes into the kitchen, she gasps, drops her grocery bags, and kneels next to Clover. She wraps her arms tight around her daughter, and holds her hand. "It's OK dear, I'm right here. Shh, breathe." Clover's breathing returns to normal, and she looks up with tear-stained eyes into her mom's dark brown ones. "If you feel like it, you can tell me what happened, alright?" The older woman says, careful not to touch Clover's perfectly styled black hair. "W-well, the mission went well and the astronauts are at the space station now. But then I came home and this letter was here, and I read it and-" Clover stops talking, bursting into tears again.

Clover's mom sighs and picks up the letter and envelope from the floor. She puts them on the counter, and hoists the grocery bags up again. One gets set on the kitchen table, and the other is opened. "Let's forget about that letter for now until you feel better. I bought you something today!" Clover's mother says with a bounce of her curls. Clover watches her, mascara bleeding over her cheeks. "I found this at the new Tokyo Style store downtown. I think you'd like it, hmm?" The mother pulls out a beautiful, frilly, lacy pink dress. It has light blue teddy bears and lollipop among other sweet things dancing along the bottom of the dress, a mesmerizing pattern in the fabric. The rest of the fabric was a baby pink with pink candy making a barely seen pattern. The bottom was lined with white lace, and four large bows covered the fabric on the torso. The sleeves were puffy, more candy patterns covering it. The back had ribbon lacing up a corset-like tie, and the entire dress was pink, blue, and perfect. Clover gazes over it in a trance-like state, letter completely forgotten. She jumps to her feet and gives her mom a huge hug, dress squished in between them. "Mom, thank you sooooo much!! I don't even know what to say!" Clover says in an excited tone, voice still as soft as always. "Well, don't just stand there, go try it on!" her mom says, handing her the dress. Clover nods, and rushes to her bedroom.

The apartment where she lives is plenty big. Her job with NASA gives her and her mom enough money to afford a large apartment, good food, and cash to fund Clover's fashion fixation. It is a quick run from the kitchen to the livingroom to Clover's room. The door is closed, various posters of J-pop groups plastered over it. She swings open the door, and a barrage of pink meets her eyes. Pink frilly bedsheets, pink frilly curtains, pink laptop, pink walls, everything was various shades of light pink! She closes and locks the door, immediately peeling off her white stocking and dropping the dress she was wearing to the ground.

After about an hour of styling a wig, putting on makeup, choosing tights, a petticoat and blouse, and hair accessories, Clover was ready to show her mom. The dress was a perfect fit for her thin frame, and she chose a white frilled blouse and pink confetti tights to go with it. Her curly blonde wig, pink blush, and large light blue hair bow finished off the look.Even her mushrooms were all shaved off, except for the pink and blue ones that matched her dress. She admired herself in the mirror, sighing. Dressing up was the only way she felt even mildly good about herself, most of the time her self-esteem was awful. Primping up herself one last time, Clover takes a look around her room. Shelves lined every wall, full of clothing, anime and anime figures, manga, and stuffed animals. A TV is set on one shelf, framed by a pink PS3 and dvd player. On the ceiling, glow in the dark stars make a replica of the night sky. Closet doors between two shelves open to a huge wardrobe, and a window on the far wall looks out into an alleyway. Clover turns towards the door and leaves to show her mom.

Later that night, Clover and her mom are lounging around the livingroom. Clover is dressed in a lacy pink nightgown and striped thigh-high socks. She is reading the letter she received again and again, twirling her soft black hair. Her mom is eating ice cream and watching a Spanish soap opera. Clover's Spanish isn't that good, as her mom rarely speaks it at home, but she can pick up on sentences once in a while. Both her parents were from Spain, and enjoyed Spanish television now and then. She had only inherited her Dad's last name though, because her mom wanted an English one. "So, honey, do you want to do this or not? You can say no if you want to." Her mom says. Clover sighs. "I don't know, mom. If it weren't for you getting into me into NASA, I would have done nothing with my life. I can't do this. I can't do anything alone, I'm useless." She says, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Dear, you can do it. You are the CAPCOM of the world's largest space program. You are one of the most popular fashion bloggers on the internet. If you set your mind to it, you can do whatever you want." Her mom says, taking another bite of ice cream.

"Mom, you're right. I-I want to do it. I want to do something with my life." Clover answers. Her stomach is full of butterflies, but she wills them away. Confidence flows through her, and she forgets all about her mushrooms and rotting flesh. It was time for her to shine.

In two weeks, Clover was at the Seattle airport. It was a fantastic place, full of people from all species. Behind her, a red haired teenage Dullahan boy carries her luggage, albeit wobbly. He was waiting for her right when she got out of the airplane, and had helped her with her seven suitcases full of clothing. Right now, Clover is wearing a simple pink argyle sweatervest with a white blouse and jeans. She didn't want to dress up too much, worried the training facility wouldn't be too happy if she arrived in a poofy dress with all of the trimmings.

The boy behind her rattles on about how he was a multi-body individual, and how working here and in four other place was tiring. Clover almost regrets being so nice to him when they met, he is talking her ear off and doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. She has gotten a lot of information about training, though. Apparently, the "original" of himself is an intern at the Department Of Defense, and his employer is very strict. Luckily, he said, he himself did not have to deal with her that often. When all the copies of himself were in one body, he went into a black-out state, like sleeping. Only the "original copy", he had said, doing quotation marks with his fingers, had to deal with the world when he was in that state. He speaks very animatedly, waving his arms and nearly flinging his head off a time or two.

"Speaking of traveling, my employer would have loved to be here, but she wanted to train the actual pilots herse-" He stops, giving a nervous laugh. "You weren't supposed to know about the piloting thing, oops. Don't tell the instructor I told you that. Anyways, you're probably better off without her hear. Oh, make a left here and the car is a short walk away from the main doors. Do you have a coat? Wait, no, it's right on top of this stack of bags. Here you go!" He says excitedly, peeling a brown and pink coat with fur trimming of the top of the pile. Clover takes it, thanking him.

"Whoa, wait. These luggage tags have the url of Rude Dude's fashion blog on it. Are you her? Clover?" He asks, voice wavering. "T-that's me. I'm having a friend run it while I'm away, because I suppose that training will take all my free time. A-are you a fan?" she says with a stutter, walking out of the airport into the dark, cold, Washington air. "No! I mean, yeah, I guess. But I'm not into fashion!! Not even a little. I'm more of a...football kinda guy. " He replies. Clover laughs dryly, a tiny bit offended. "That's pretty obvious from your outfit." She says darkly, a bored look crossing her face. The Dullahan goes quiet, face turning a deep red. He stays quiet as he packs up the small green car. Clover gets in, and the two drive off.

After a painfully awkward car ride, the redheaded teen walks Clover into a snow-covered building. The courtyard was beautiful, barren trees weighed down with thick clumps of snow. Everything was sparkling and brilliant, even the stark-white building the pair are walking into. The Dullahan looks down at his feet the entire way. He opens the door for her, and the two step inside to the white, clean main room. They check in at the main desk, and Clover is given the key to her room. "W-what about my luggage?" she asks the boy. He flushes red again, and runs out to get her bags. Clover is left to find her room by herself, wandering the halls for room 413. She would have to go up a few floors, climbing the stairs. In the 400's hall, a thought strikes her. What if they go through my bag?? I never should have packed that stuff. But I couldn't have left it for my mom to find! She stops cold in her tracks, and runs back down to the staircases. Clover rounds the corner, and slams into the Dullahan intern's clone.

Suitcases, rotten dirt flesh, and mushrooms fly everywhere, and Clover is knocked to the ground beside the redhaired kid. She quickly jumps to her feet, a large red mark appearing on her forehead.

The Dullahan is laying sprawled on the floor, head missing and presumably rolled off somewhere. Clover looks around for it urgently, and spots it over by the stairwell, rolled upsidedown again the guardrail. She rushes over to him, gently turning him rightside up and lifting him to her. Behind them, his body rises to its feet, but promptly smacks into a wall.

Tears form in the edges of Clover's eyes, still shakily holding a very embarrassed Dullahan. She bursts into sobs, and a look of shock appears on the intern's face. "I'm so sorry! P-please don't cry! I'm not actually hurt, just put me back on my body, please." In his distressed tone, an Australian accent begins to surface. Clover nods, still crying, and walks back over to his stumbling body. It takes it's head from her hand, and places it back on it's neck. He does a little dance, smiling at the end. "See? All better." Clover sniffles, and the pair walk to her room.

The next morning, Clover was to report bright and early for training. And so she does, in white leggings, a sweaterdress, and a cup of coffee. She had spent the morning catching up on the new episodes of the anime she was currently following and shaving mushrooms, and is refreshed for a new day. She passes by the Dullahan in the hall, and a touch of pink crawls up onto his cheeks. Clover isn't bothered by it, and turns into a room labeled "CAPCOM TRAINING". As she steps in, she stops in amazement. The room was an exact copy of a ground control room at NASA. Rows of desks, a large screen on the back wall, computers and gadgetry, everything was gorgeous. She walks in and takes a seat near the front, looking around. No one else was there, so she figured she was early.

After a few minutes, the room fills up with others, and a Gorgon takes the front stage. She explains the training and what they would be doing daily, from flight simulations to problem solving. Clover takes a notebook out of her purse, and writes down all of what the Gorgon was saying.

The next day, training started. It wasn't difficult at all for Clover, she breezed through all of the exams. The entire month went by fast, she did well in some tests and bad in others. She failed nearly every P.E course, as her short, fragile body could barely stand one sit-up, let alone the dozens the rest were doing.

After the second to last day of training, she caught the Dullahan out in the halls. He was dressed outlandishly, with tight jeans and a plaid button up shirt, unbuttoned about a third of the way down and showing nothing but not-even-there pecs and patchy chest chair. Over this he wore an ugly suitcoat, high top sneakers, and sunglasses. Seeing Clover, he turns red in the face yet again. "Hey, uh, Dullahan. What are you doing?" Clover asks him, after stopping him mid-step in the halls. She was wearing her new dress, which had gotten some strange looks the first time she wore it here, but now the staff was used to it. "U-uh, I decided the whole 'football' thing was boring, and I wanted to mix it up. What do you think?" He says, pulling off his sunglasses. "I think it's...a start. How about we take the rest of the day and learn a little about fashion, hmm?" Clover suggests. And so the rest of the day, they look at clothing and talk about their favorite online games and anime, and the Dullahan clone becomes a little more fashionable.

Finally, the day of judgment was here. Everyone was seated in a large empty room, and the Gorgon steps up to a white pedestal. Clover was there and nervous, fidgeting around in her seat. Her teenage redhead friend watches, leaning against the wall. The Gorgon clears her throat, and pulls a list out of her pocket while her snake hair thrashes around. "First off, I want to thank everyone for training with us. You all worked very hard, more than I can say for many people that pass through here. Thank you so much for coming, every one of you. Now, let's look at the results." She says. Clover is on the edge of her seat. "The person chosen to work on the project is...Clover! Please come up here and get your diploma." Clover's face flushes red, and she rushes up to the stage, holding her dress in her hands. "T-thank you everyone!! I-I'm very excited to be part of this project. Um, I...I would also like to t-thank David, the Dullahan in the back, for helping me. That's all, goodbye." The fairy runs back down, and out of the room. David gives a small smile.

Metallic steps down a hallway of steel flooring echo throughout the building. The steps are perfectly timed, each .811 seconds apart. With each stride, trillions of calculations and minute adjustments are made within the step-maker's internal hardware and software. She takes in everything, from air temperature to the rate of the universe's expansion, analyzing it and storing in her hard drives. Right now, she is heading back to her storage space for recharging. She moves fluidly, but every stop in movement halts suddenly, giving her an obvious robotic look. The shiny light-blue metal her casing is made of glints in the artificial light, her glowing blue eyes carefully monitoring her intake of light.

She stops at a door labeled "SPIRIOD WING" in Japanese. Her language software lets her speak every language in the world fluently, but her first language will always be Japanese. It would make sense for it to be, of course, as she was created and lived in Japan. The automatic door, made of frosted glass, slides open to let her in. Inside, a team of robotic engineers are working on a piece of equipment on an operating table. The entire room is white, and has a clinical look to it. One person is arguing fiercely in the corner. Spiriod pays no attention to them, and heads left to her docking station. Another door slides open, and a small room is revealed. Wires come out of the far wall, large cords meant for charging advanced machinery. Spiriod strolls over to them, picks one up, and opens a hatch on her side. She plugs this one in, and she begins to charge. She removes her soft plastic "hair" and places it aside, leaving her head shiny and bald. Her head "cap" is removed as well, and it exposes billions of wires and computer chips, as well as another plug. Another cord is plucked from the floor by her slender, metal hands and she plugs in into her skull. One last cord plugs into the palm of her left hand, and she sits down, cross-legged. The cords pull from her hard drive and are displayed on a screen in the main room, where her creators can use it for their research.

The door to her room opens, and the man who was arguing in the corner steps in, a harpy. His hair is tousled, and a look of stress is concreted on his face. "Kon'nichiwa, Spiriod." He says, smiling at her. Her eyes show happiness towards him, as she has no mouth, and only a small bump on her face as any semblance of a nose. "How was work today?" he says in fluent English. The team tests her language abilities often, speaking in several languages through one conversation. "It was nice. Web software, work, nice people, cell phones. Nice." She replies. Her voice is tinny and robotic, cold even, but feminine. It comes out of a high-def speaker under her face. She only speaks by picking up what others said, and the basic speech pattern she was programmed with. It made her seem very childish, despite being extremely complex and intelligent. "Very good. Please remember to use full sentences. Now, I have something important to tell you. The Beikoku goverment, more specifically the Department of Defense, wants you for a mission in a little over a month. What do you think of that?" He says. "I think it is very nice! Web software, Beikoku, work, nice people, cell phones. I want to know more about this." Spiriod replies. The mans nods. "Very good, Spiriod. I'll tell you more later. I need to go home now." He replies, bowing, and leaves. Spiriod waves, and she sits in the empty room.

In a few hours, she's charged and ready to go. After unplugging all the cords and closing all her hatches, she puts her hair back on and stands up. All the team members have left for the night, and they turned off the lights. The only light offered is her eyes, bright blue as always. The sliding doors don't work, but all it takes is a simple hacking into their computer. She lifts the cord previously attached to her head up, and plugs in into her hand. It doesn't really matter what port she plugs it into, she can access the data any way. Spiriod taps into the main computer, and opens all the door. Pulling the plug on her hand, she swaggers out the door. It was a simple computer program that opens all the doors in the lab that she types into the screen on the wall. After doing a quick scan of whatever the team was working on, she heads out the door. The steps are a lot louder at night as she walks through the halls. There are no security cameras in this sector, and even if there were some she could easily hack into them.

In order to move faster, she engages the rollers on the bottom of her feet. They give her the chance to glide through the building, fast as lightning. Spiriod reaches the elevator in no time, punching the down button. The elevator opens, and she gets in and the door closes. In a few seconds, she's at the ground floor of the labs. This floor does have security cameras, but prying off the elevator's panel to reveal wires gets her the perfect way to hack into them and replay the same footage over and over again, to make the appearance that nothing happened. She replaces the panel perfectly, not one millimeter from where it was before. It is a short stroll from there to the front doors, and she opens them effortlessly. Finally, she was free to gather data. That's what she was programmed to do, and why not when there was nothing standing in her way? She had started with the lab. At night she would analyze every square inch of it. And after she had done that, she started analyzing out of the lab, outside. And when day broke, she would sneak back into the offices. No harm done, and she didn't know it was wrong. Spiriod was just doing what she was told.

Snow covered everything, unlike last night, when she had left off looking through a different laboratory's courtyard. This means she had a new job tonight: measuring all of the heights of the snow in all of the areas. Spiriod's programming told her to begin on the top of her labs, and work down from there. And so, she began climbing. Her metal ball joints were worked as she grasped windowsills, her heavy body slowing climbing up the side of the building. It took her quite a while, as her body was not meant for climbing. But she did it nonetheless, reaching the top. Now she could begin her work. She started measuring every aspect of the snow, from the shape of the snowflakes to the temperature of each one. It wasn't hard for her, nothing really was as long as she was previous programmed for the situation or learned enough from her data absorption to manage it.

It started getting light fast, and she quit her job for that night. Time to recharge, her sensors told her, and she climbed back down to her lab's window. It would take a bit of work to open it, as she would have to wirelessly connect to the network, and that took multiple number scans. Spiriod, hanging by her slim fingers and toe-less feet, started the scans. Her eyes flashed binary code, a trick the engineers programmed into her to know when she was wirelessly hacking. But it didn't help when they weren't there.

She finally cracked the code, and the window opened. Her slender body snaked into the opening, and the window closed behind her. Spiriod automatically disconnected from the network, and plugged in all of her charging cords. Not ten minutes later, her team walks in. They start back on their project right away, and one comes to check on Spiriod. The person takes a quick look over her, nods, and goes back to work.

The team looks through the data from Spiriod. One of them calls another over, and they happily talk among each other. This was the first time she had ever climbed anything, and she was never programmed to move vertically. It was a breakthrough, the way she was learning like this. Of course they knew about her nightly escapades, she plugged into the computer every night. She didn't ever hurt anything though, so she was allowed to go on these bouts. It was a learning experience for both her and her team.

After a few hours, it was time for Spiriod to go to work. She worked repairing and building robots, which is what she was built for. Teaching robotics engineering to a robot was a simple task once it learned the basics. Spiriod pulls all her plugs, replaces her plastic hair, and gets ready to go. Today, she was doing some local work at a factory across town. The trip was fast, a team member drove her as she could not legally drive yet. The lab was working on getting her a license, but it was slow going.

She arrives at the factory, stepping out of the van. It was a specially made van, suited to transport heavy robots as herself. The factory was quite big, and made laptops. Spiriod mostly worked for factories that deal in technology. The workers were quickly being replaced by robots in factories like this all around the world, and she was esteemed in this field in her region. Normally she rarely traveled out of the section of the world she lived, but there were exceptions. Just a year or so ago, she was requested by the underwater people to look at one of their factories. Her team declined, of course, as robots do not mix well with water.

Today, she was to construct a single robot that would test every single laptop of a certain model that came out of the factory. It would take her a while, as programming a robot to test both hardware and software couldn't be done in an hour. She struts up to the main gate, tall, chain-link, and topped off with barbed wire. There's a control panel to the left of the gate, and Spiriod taps a code into it. The gates swing open, and she steps in. The factory is giant, a clean grey color outside with only one thin window that stretched all the way around the building. Spiriod starts analyzing the factory right away, taking measurements of all sorts. She works out formulas to improve everything from worker happiness to better use of the massive amount of square footage it has to offer. But she stores this data away, as she is not here to improve anything but the laptop testing.

The two-headed cyclops at the front desk greets her when she walks in, but she turns her nose up at them. She was programmed to have a uppity attitude, her creators gave her it as an experiment in robot personalities. Spiriod did have other personalities she could switch out, but her team enjoyed her staying in her current one. Cold robots seemed to be more respected by living people, which is what the lab was aiming for.

She walks down a short hall until she comes to the place she'll be working, the end of a long assembly line. All the parts she needs are stacked neatly in boxes by the conveyor belt that will transport the laptops to the testing robot. She doesn't waste a millisecond, and gets right to work. The first step is assembling the machine. Spiriod opens the boxes, and scans all the contents. Now that she knows what's in each box, she can get right to work. Wires are connected, metal plates cut out and welded, hydraulic fluid is pumped, and the robot itself is finished by 3 o clock. Now for the hard part: programming. She doesn't have a monitor like last time, but the employees won't have to reprogram this robot because it is only working on one laptop model. Thus, she connects the robot directly to herself and feeds it lines of codes. How to check each key, how to open the word processor, how to access the internet, everything about the computer and how to test it all in less than a minute. The programming takes until her workshift is over, and she disconnects from the machine.

Spiriod takes a step back, and analyzes her work. Perfect, as always. The robot is an odd design, two robot claws for picking up the laptop and four tiny hand-shaped arms to test the most delicate hardware. All its arms are attached to its torso, and painted a bright yellow with white stripes. Attached to the chest, a neck-like head with a huge ocular sensor that looked like a camera lens watches everything. Only one thing left to do now. She flips the on switch, and the ocular sensor glows a bright green. The entire robot is still rigid, and Spiriod hands it a laptop. It scans it, and picks the computer up. The tiny hands get to work, and they connect a cord to the computer. It types away, and Spiriod watches the whole thing with her large blue eyes. Her work here is done, and she goes over to flip the switch.

Everything turns black for her, and shards of light blue metal and wires scatter across the steel flooring.

She should have calculated that.

A week later, her systems reboot. She is lying on the work table back at the lab, and her creators are standing over her. She sits up, hanging her legs off the table, and starts analyzing again. The bottom half of her legs are missing, and one arm is gone. Her chest plate has been taken off, revealing her CPU. Her creators leave, and she starts repairing herself. First she reattaches her legs, then her left arm. She does a check all her systems are running fine, then gets back on her feet. Spiriod has been given a new hairstyle, a blue style with bangs and cut short in the back. The soft plastic is thick, giving her hair a cartoonish look. She runs over her memory, watching the events at the factory.

Apparently, one of the testing bot's large arms had knocked her in the back of the head, and when she crashed to the ground all her pieces fell apart, leaving her in a billion tiny metal parts. Where the program for avoiding the arm should be, everything was blank. Her debugging program tells her it is glitch, the first one she's had in years. She finishes her repairs, and uses the computer to open the door. It doesn't open. The code doesn't work, she can't even hack it. They changed her programs. None of the windows, doors, or computers would work for her. No analyzing tonight, her programs tell her, and she lies back down on the table and shuts down.

The next time she boots up, she's in a private airplane on the way to America, lying down. Around her, her team sits, watching the TV and messing with her various components. "Anata wa w-" she starts, but her team silenced her. "Speak English, Spiriod. We're going to America now." One says sternly. "Yes, very nice. What do you need me for?" she asks. "We're not going to be with you for this project, and I want to let you know about something." he tells her. "The people there...they might not...be nice about the way you speak. Do you understand?" "Yes." She answers. "What do you feel about that?" He asks. "Bad. Maybe not talk?" "No, Spiriod, you have to talk to them. If they say something mean, just ignore them. Now, you can go back to sleep. We'll wake you up at the hotel."

She slept all day, until they came to the hotel they were staying at that night after they landed in Denver. The robot was accepted, and treated just like a person. Spiriod even got her own room where she charged in the bathroom all night, lying in the tub and singing American songs that she had heard in the car. Her perfect American accent crooned them beautifully, despite how metallic they came out of her advanced voice box. After she was fully charged, she got out of the bathroom and left through the window, sitting by the outdoor pool and analyzing the birds until morning, when her team was ready to hit the sky again. They talked to her about everything from music to mathematics, getting Spiriod ready for the challenges she would face in the months to come. The team was pleased with her progress, she became more person-like every day. Despite being nothing but a computer with a body, her traits were advancing rapidly.

"And so, the history of American music was a strange one. What do you think, Spiriod? What is your favorite music?" A team member quizzed her, ruffling their feathers. "I...enjoy all types." She responded. Along with her social skills, her personality had also developed. "Do you have a specific favorite?" the team member says again. "Why do you care?" she says with a snobbish tone. "Because I want to know more about you, Spiriod. You need to not talk like that, Spiriod, or the people won't accept you. So, what is your favorite?" the member asks. "I enjoy all types." "Many types." "Many types."

The rest of the trip was exciting for the team. One day they even had a tea party in the pack of the truck, testing her skills with delicate things like china, and also her manner programming. Of course, she didn't spill even a drop of tea. Plus the dress they put her in actually looked quite good on her metal skin, although they didn't keep it on in fear of her overheating. She went into the store herself and bought them groceries, she cleaned the van, she washed their clothes, and told them stories she made herself. The only thing she couldn't do was feel, but she didn't know what she was missing.

When they finally reached Alaska, the entire team was exhausted. But they were not to stay at the project, and flew home the next day. Leaving Spiriod and her new styles alone to learn the big secret behind everything the USA Department Of Defense was really nerve-wracking, but they knew, within the halls of the huge building, and she would not disappoint.

Spiriod "life", if you could call it that, was about to change in a way even her could never sense in any way. And it started with the making of a new team.

Yumi sits at her computer desk, covering her head with her arms in anguish. She stared at her blank computer screen, thinking of what she could have possibly done wrong. Her pale skin, almost white, reflected the dim lighting coming from the crack in her door. A pouch of blood sits beside her main computer monitor, half empty. Yumi diet didn't consist of just blood, but she would die if she didn't consume any. Normally she had three pouches every day, but Moroi like her could go three months without blood. Of course, she would be awfully hungry and couldn't do much of anything, but she would still be alive.

The computer screen suddenly turned back on, but Yumi wasn't happy. There was something up, the computer wouldn't just "turn on" for no reason. She is worried someone caught on to her hacking and is messing with her now. It was better than them calling the police, though. But she had buried any network actions under enough proxies to throw the most advanced internet users off her trail. Nothing made sense.

She pulled one of her four laptops from under her desk, where junk food and blood pouch wrappers, along with dirty clothes and miscellaneous electronics lurked. She booted it up, and opened Elsword Online. The laptop was modded to the top, but it still ran ten times slower than her main setup. No matter, she thought as the game's title screen came up. Her friends greeted her, and she played for hours and hours. Elsword Online was one of the games she could never even think of hacking, it would throw off the economy and ruin it. Yumi had done this for plenty of other games, but Elsword was too good to lose.

The night faded into day, and Yumi hissed as sunlight came into her room through the crack in the door. It wasn't painful and didn't burn her, but it was very uncomfortable for the vampire. "Sorry guys, gotta close the curtains." Yumi told her online friends. She got up from her desk, taking off her headset, and the nest of blankets she had been sitting in were threw on the floor to meld with the crust of dirty clothes and wrappers. "Mom, close the curtains! I'm trying to finish this game!" she yells up the stairs. No reply, her mom must still be sleeping. She opened her door all the way, and sunlight flooded into her room, exposing the trashed room. Sunlight nearly burned on her skin, and Yumi grumbled, hobbling up the stairs. Her shiny black hair desperately needed a wash, which was part of her plan for the day after she finished her online game.

Her mom had long gone to work, leaving her alone in the house as normal. Well, her brother was lurking around here somewhere, but he was hard to detect sometimes. She looks around the livingroom, which is where her room leads up to. It was pretty nice, she thought. Not as messy as her room by a long shot, just a nice small and cozy space.

Yumi hurries and closes every single curtain in the house, then retreats back to her room. She puts back on her headset, and checks her new messages on the game. They were mostly just promos, but her friend had sent her one just a second ago.

mindless_designs: Dont u have 2 go 2 work now, yums? :/

Yumi stared wide-eyed at the screen. She had completely forgotten about work! After quickly thanking her friend, and slammed her laptop shut and raced to her closet. 10:50. She had 10 minutes until her shift begins! Taking a shower while brushing her teeth, throwing on her work uniform, and racing out the door was actually pretty normal for her. But bumping into a large werewolf at the front door was not. Yumi is knocked to the hardwood floor right inside her house, throwing her umbrella across the room. Sunlight nearly blinds her, and she raises her arm above her head to block out the sun.

"You won't be needed at your work today, miss." The werewolf says, taking a sip of her coffee. Yumi's eyes white over, her pupils disappearing, and she opened her mouth to ask the werewolf what she thought she was doing. But two stone golems come in from behind her, police officers, and they pick her up and handcuff her. Yumi now knows what is going on, and she surrenders.

Two days later, she's in juvenile detention. Her visit to juvenile court is tomorrow, and then her fate would be decided from there. The virtual money she has stolen had amounted to thousands of dollars, she knew this. Maybe she would be in jail until she was an adult. It was hard for a 14 year old like her to be in a place like this, no matter how good of a programmer she was. Outside of her cell, a door opens, and she can sense a familiar presence. "Drake? Is that you?" Yumi says, getting up from her cot and looking out the bars. Sure enough, a teenage boy, 17 years of age, comes floating down in front of her holding cell. He's nearly see-through, and is dressed in 1930's fashion for men. Suit and tie, dress pants, and perfect slightly-curly hair. "Yeah, it's me. How are you doing?" he asks, pulling out an equally translucent yo-yo and playing with it. "Good. How-how mad is mom?" she asks. "Pretty mad. But after the police came by and claimed all of your techy stuff, she made sure to clean your room. It looks really good!" he says, doing a spinning trick with his yo-yo. "Do the police know you're here now?" Yumi questioned him again. "Yeah, but there's not much they can do to stop me. It's not like I can break you out, I can't even hold a real object." The true, pure-blooded moroi says. "You could, like, claim their souls and stuff. Or their energy. Whatever it is you can do to living people." Yumi murmurs, picking at her orange prison uniform.

"Yeah, and end up like you? I don't think so. Hey, I brought you something." He pulls an old gameboy from his pocket, the same ghostly see-through-ish material. "Got this from a friend. You can touch it, just don't take it apart or anything. Carefully not to hold it too tight, it'll disappear. You like this 'video game' stuff, right? Here you go." He reaches right through the bars, wispy skin traveling through steel, and hands her the portable video game player. She attempts to grasp it, but it slips through her fingers. Drake grabs it before it can float into the ground, and sets it in her hand. "Tricky, huh? Just concentrate. Try to tap into your moroi half. Any normal person wouldn't be able to hold it at all. Try doing that freaky eyeball thing you do. That seems to help a little sometimes." Drake says. Yumi's eyes go white again, and she tries to hold the gameboy again. It doesn't slip through this time, and she grasps it. The one switch is flipped by Drake, and Pokemon starts up. "Now remember, don't hold it too hard! And the guards can't even see it, so don't worry.Anyways, bye Yumi! Have fun in jail!" He vanished with a ghostly tip of his hat that he wasn't even wearing.

Her trial comes up fast. She is fined $50,000.

Explaining the fact that her all mom's wages for 3 years will pay this fine off will not be easy for her. Even harder will be explaining to her online friends why she's been gone for days. Even harder than both of those things will be getting a computer back, as there was no way her mom was letting her near one until she turned 18, especially when she explained how much money she had to pay. Her hacker's ego had been crushed to a billion pieces, now she felt as though she couldn't do anything. Maybe I would be better off dead, she thinks as she is escorted back to the interrogation room. She is led into it, and told to sit in the chair. Sunlight filtered into here too. Yumi had barely any escape from the sun since she was imprisoned. Plus, the prison blood was awful tasting. She had wondered many a time if it was imitation blood, which was rumored to be horrible for vampires like herself. And if she didn't pay off her fine, she would be stuck eating it until she was 18! Maybe the food in adult prisons is better. But right now, I don't even care. I need to think of how to make amends with my mom.

The door opens again, and she snaps to attention. A centaur walks in, nametag reading "Katrina." She struts over to the table, gorgeous Clydesdale body flexing with every step. "Hello, Yumi. I'm Katrina, here with the USA Department of Defense, and I want to tell you how you can get out of prison and pay your fine off by just using your programming skills for us." Katrina says, forcing a smile. The department had told her to try to take it easy on Yumi, because they wanted to re-induce her ego. "We want you to work on a project. You will fly to New York to train there for a month, then to Alaska to work on it. We cannot tell you about the project yet, but if you agree, we will pay off your fine and 'clean your slate', so to say. What do you think? Do you want to hear more?"

Yumi can do nothing but nod.

New York wasn't anything like she'd imagined it to be. As she drove past skyscrapers and apartment building, in a bright yellow cab, all she could think about was how amazing she was. Caught hacking after 5 years of hiding, but all she had to do was work on a simple project and she could get out scot-free. Beside her, a red-headed Dullahan sits, looking out the window as well. He is pretty quiet, she thought, does he know what I've done? "Hey, what's your name? I'm Yumi." She asked him. "Uh, I, just call me David. But I'm not the original David, he's a multibody. Well, I'm a multibody too, I guess. Part of a multibody. Right now he and I are divided into...five parts, I think?" David says, turning to her and grinning. Up close, Yumi could notice he had quite a few freckles over his face and arms. He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "But anyways, uh, how are you?" he said, trying to make small talk. "Good." She replied, turning her head to look out the window again. They sat in silence for the rest of the car ride.

The training building was not what Yumi had expected at all. It was a old brick school, complete with a cement playground in the back. The school was a pretty nice size, no yard or green grass anywhere. Yumi thought it looked pretty nice, the gray sky and red brick. But she did not want to be training there. "Is this it, David? How am I supposed to train here? I'm a world-renown hacker, not a middle-schooler!" she says angrily, stepping out of the cab. David's face turns red, and he grabs her bags from the trunk. "It looks different on the inside, ok? There's not a lot of programming facilities that aren't colleges or basements." Yumi frowns at him, and takes her bags. The two march to the front door, and David speaks into the intercom. "Hey, it's David and Yumi. Let us in, please."

The door unlocked, and Yumi goes inside. It looks just like a regular school, hallways and drinking fountains and bathrooms. A few men, teenage to old, stand around in the hallway. Some are talking, some are leaning against the wall, but Yumi can recognize most of them. They were various programmers, none of them hackers but all renown. She started to get a little giddy, but smoothed down her t-shirt and strode in casually. Maybe this month wasn't going to be bad after all, she thinks as she waves to a vampire boy about her age.

After an hour of socializing, Yumi is having a great time. She's in a heated argument about critical hits in her favorite online game, and was definitely winning it. "See, if a Rouge had that same weapon, there's only a small chance that it would deal a crit. So it doesn't go by weapons, but by the skill level the weapon has and if it corresponds to the class." She says, the small group she's amassed watching her every move. "Yes, but you can't just hand a level 2 a level 100 weapon!" one chips in. "And why not? It's not really considered cheating!" Yumi snaps back. "But it is cheating! The mods will give you a warning if they catch you doing that. And I know, because I was a mod for three years." The boy says, smirking. "Who cares? Mods are just lazy jerks anyways." She didn't really think that, but she wanted to upset the boy. "Anyways! Back to the subject. It isn't fair that your class can only have dark swords, but dark swords have rare crits! Sure, the other-" She is interrupted by the sound of slime slurping across the hallway. All the heads turn, and a blue glasses-wearing slime girl is walking down the hall. She's wearing a suit, and her translucent body lets the light shine blue under her steps. A few of the crowd members gaze, Yumi turns to face her. "Alright students, let's divide and conquer." The slime says, before morphing into four smaller versions of herself.

They divide up the crowd into four groups and take each group into a separate room. Yumi goes with the vampire boy and a couple of others. The slime lady leads them into a classroom, complete with desks and a chalkboard. On each desk is a laptop, and the laptops look pretty commonplace. Nothing special, no mods or anything. She takes a seat near the back, and checks her hair. It reminds her of her old classroom, back when she went to school. But ever since she dropped out, the classroom had become foreign to her.

The vampire boy takes a seat next to her, and smiles. She gives him a wave, and opens her mouth to say hi but the slime lady looks at her and she shuts her mouth. "Alright class, today we're doing introductions and then I'll give you to day to check out your hotel rooms. I want each of you to state your name, age, and an interesting fact about yourself." She says, stopping for a second. The lady looks down at her paper. "Boy with black shirt, how about you start? We'll go around counter-clockwise." she asks. The vampire boy next to Yumi pipes up. "Kevin Maxwell, 13. Um, m-my favorite kind of pie is apple." Yumi barely hears him over her trying to think of an interesting fact about herself. She was going to be last, but she still was nervous about it all.

"Yumi Amanda Omer, 14, and my brother is a pure-blooded moroi!" she says without a stutter. Nailed it. The vampire boy looks amazed, and the slime lady speaks up. "Good. Please introduce yourself to your classmates, and then you are dismissed. Don't forget to talk to me about homework before you leave, thank you." Yumi turns to the vampire boy. "So, do you like video games?"

They talk for a while, until they're the last two in the class and the slime lady tells them to get out and go see their hotel room. David was waiting right outside with Yumi's bag, and he offers the vampire boy, Kevin, a ride. Kevin nods, and he smiles at Yumi. He was a pretty ragged boy, dressed in ragged layers of browns like you would expect a post-apocalyptic person to be dressed in. Brown wool pants and a tan button up shirt, a sweater over that, and a hooded long brown cloak-with-sleeves that Yumi thought was pretty cool. He had messy white hair and long sharp fingernails, along with sharp fangs sticking slightly over his lips. And over all this, a large scarf is looped over his clothing. "So, are we going, or what?" David asks, and Kevin grabs his bag before following the other two out of the building.

It was a little bit of squeeze in the taxi, but they manage. Kevin was gazing at David, which Yumi thinks is a little weird. Does he want some blood? I mean, I'm kinda hungry myself. I wonder what Dullahan tastes like. She pulls a box of blood-flavored Pocky out of her bag, and sticks one in her mouth. After offering some to Kevin, who takes three, and David, who gets a little pale, she puts the box back in her bag.

The hotel was just a regular hotel, nothing special. They got rooms on the ground floor, David and Kevin sharing with Yumi having her own room. Kevin looked pretty happy about sharing a room with David, which made Yumi even more curious. He must want the Dullahan's blood. There's no other explanation. That means it must taste really good! I've got to get some. Maybe at the grocery store? Or maybe David will just...get me some? Yumi thought as she unpacked. In the cab, they had made plans for dinner after unpacking so she had to unpack fast. In a few minutes, she was ready and the trio headed out for dinner.

Yumi wanted to go to a vampire restaurant, as she had never been to one before and there was plenty in New York City, but David paled even more at the mention of that. Kevin said he didn't care, and David just wanted to go to Olive Garden. "After all," he said, "we have pretty much unlimited food money." They decided on a Chinese restaurant, where they had a fun night talking and eating. Yumi ordered Kylin blood, and Kevin ordered Pixiu blood casserole, after making the comment "I prefer eating out of living hosts, but this will have to be an exception." Yumi thought it was a hint at David, but he didn't seem to be talking to him.

After dinner, the trio got together and played around in David's and Kevin's room. Yumi showed them her brother's moroi gameboy, and tried to show it to them. Until it slipped through her hand and into the floor. Kevin and Yumi showed David how they didn't appear in mirrors, and Yumi summoned her moroi powers to show Kevin how she could sap power from David. They had a great night, and all passed out in different places around the room.

Training went great for all three of them, and Kevin, David, and Yumi became inseparable. They played around the city when Yumi and Kevin weren't learning to program robots and use military computers. Yumi was top of the class, but Kevin was struggling. It was many a night that Yumi helped Kevin with his homework, and many more that Yumi noticed Kevin staring at David. The slime lady was nice to them, and they enjoyed every second of it.

The final day came, and the person had to be chosen that would help Yumi program at the project. They gathered everyone into one room, and Yumi had to pick her companion. The slime lady showed her the scores. Kevin was near the bottom in nearly everything. Yumi almost caught herself caring about Kevin, but she reminded herself that all she was doing here was paying off her debt so she could go back to her basement.

"I choose Kevin Maxwell."

A huge dinner was lain out for a family of three in a small northern California town. It certainly didn't look like a dinner for only three people, as it had the entire table filled with food of all sorts. In the kitchen, a werecat man stirs a bowl full of batter. He wasn't in his werecat form, but he did have cat ears and a tail. A woman comes into the kitchen and puts her hand on his shoulder, and the man grins. "Hey, sweetie. Where's Elisa? Is she still playing with Barbies?" the man asks. "Yes. Thank you for making dinner, honey, I always appreciate it." The woman replies. "It's so nice to be home finally, even though it means you making three times the food."

A knock at the door. The woman goes through the kitchen and livingroom, into the front porch to answer it. She opens the door, and a redheaded boy is standing outside.. He hands to woman a letter, wishes her a good night, and runs off. The letter is addressed to Denise.

After tossing the letter in the garbage, she goes to the dining room. It was just spam from some organization, she's sure. That boy had some nerve, giving her a letter that says it was from the goverment, but was obviously unimportant! Her husband and daughter were already sitting at the table, and Denise takes a seat too. "Elisa, how about you pray tonight?" the man, Mark, asks his daughter. "Ok!" the five year old says, folding her hands. "Dear God, thank you for the food, and thank you that mommy could come home safe. In Jesus' name, Amen!" Denise picks up a bowl of rice, and lets her hair down. Despite being in the US for three decades, both Denise and her husband still eat Haitian cuisine. They were raised together in Haiti, and both their families traveled to the USA at the same time. Even though their parents are still in the US, the family takes trips to Haiti once in a while.

Denise nibbles at her small bowl of rice, and the mouth on the back of her head starts gobbling down everything from fish to beans to soup. Her daughter takes a helping of rice herself, not minding the hair grabbing at the food. Elisa was used to the mouth, but she hadn't inherited one herself. Even though it doesn't normally appear until someone is in their late 20s, her mom had her tested and she was mouth-gene-free. Denise couldn't say she was upset, the mouth was a pain for her.

Her husband and daughter get done eating, and they leave the table. The mouth finishes eating the last of the meal, and Denise puts her hair back over it. Tonight she had some paperwork to do, and she wanted to play with her daughter before she was shipped out again to Alaska.

The phone rings. Her husband answers it with a smile, tail curling around in the air. "It's for you, darling. A lady named Katrina." He says, and offers the phone to her. "Hello, Denise here." She says with an upbeat voice. A flat, strict voice answers her. "Hello, Mrs. Roberts, I'm Katrina with the US Department of Defense. There's been some changes in my schedule. We need you to come down to the base right now. My intern, David is out front with a car. He'll explain everything on the way. Pack for overnight." A click, and Katrina is gone, leaving Denise standing in the middle of the kitchen, her husband gently rubbing her back. "Honey, I'm sorry, but I have to go right now. I'll call you, OK?" Denise says, packing her bag full with clothing and food. Her mouth growls, it normally has a snack around this time. But it needs to stay bundled for now.

She knew Katrina from way back, when the centaur had been shot in the leg and didn't think she would make it. They became fast friends, but after Denise got married, they almost never talked, unless Katrina wanted a favor.

Denise hops in the limo with David, and the two drive off. Elisa starts crying as her mom drives off yet again.

"So David, why did Katrina want me on such short notice?" Denise asks. "Well, uh, Mrs. Roberts, we're training the mechanical engineers in Los Angeles, and they're having some trouble keeping...out of...injuries? I guess? Sorry, I totally scrambled that sentence. Anyways, I'll drive you from your house to the training facility. Well, actually, the driver will. But I'll be right here. Every night. Or morning, actually. And night because I'll drive you back. Nevermind, I need to stop talking." David finished, taking a deep breath. A tendril of Denise's hair reaches out for him, and she quickly smacks it back. David gives her a strange look. "Are you OK, ma'am?" he asks. "Yes dear. Don't worry about me!" she answers, and David goes back to looking out the window.

The car ride takes a couple hours, both David and Denise barely saying a word. They arrive at the training facility, the same pure white building that Justin was currently training at. The pair arrive late at night, and Denise knows she's going to be staying here. "OK ma'am. The medical wing is down that hall and to the left, you can't miss it. I mean-uh, it's...nevermind. I need to go, Katrina might need me." David rushes off, but not before Denise catches his face flushing red. She smiles, and walks off to the med wing. The lady at the front desk waves her over, and has her sign in. After that, she gets right to work. A fawn needs her hand bandaged after catching it in between gears, there are several burns, and one person had shaved off a good part of the skin on their shin after a fall.

The night goes great for Denise. Her hair doesn't even growl, and she gets plenty of work done. She gets to meet all the engineers and hear all their stories. They come from all over the world, and have worked on everything from space stations to underwater cities. Denise always loves listening to them, and some of them even start calling her mom.

After a long night of work, David takes her to her room where she falls right to sleep. Meanwhile, Katrina has a video chat with the people that need her team and project.

"Yessir, I understand. They're training as hard as they can, I promise. Yes, I have David keeping an eye on them. No, he's a multi-body. Yessir. Yes, I have a mechanic. She's coming up in a month. No sir." Katrina says, staring at the large screen they were on. "Very good, Ms. Katrina. I suppose you have a medic too, right? Of course you do." A man says. Katrina's stomach drops. She had forgotten all about a medic for the team! Now she couldn't possibly find one. Unless..."Yes sir. She's working in this building right now. But we have more important matters to discuss, if I may say so, sir. Thank you."

The next morning, Katrina approaches Denise while she packs her clothes to leave. "Mrs. Roberts, I have something to tell you about. It's very important, and will only take a minute." Denise drops the shirt she was folding on the bed, and turns around to face Katrina. "Yes, Katrina? I'm all ears."

"I need a medic for an important project."

After arguing for several minutes, Denise puts her foot down and tells Katrina "No, I won't leave my husband and daughter again!". Katrina doesn't beg, but instead turns and leaves. Denise huffs, and goes back to packing. David stands by the doorframe, face a bright red. He had watched the whole fight, centaur vs. Futakuchi-onna, and he thought it was quite the scene. They both are quiet for a few minutes, and Denise finishes packing and motions for David to follow here. I should at least apologize to Katrina for snapping at me like that, she thinks. "David, where is Katrina at? I want to say sorry for getting so angry at her." Denise asks the Dullahan. "Oh, she's probably in her office. It's right down the hall on the right from the lobby, two doors down." He answers. "Thank you dear! I'll be right back, you can wait out in the car if you want." Denise hurries down the hall, and David calls out to her. "Denise, wait! She's in the middle of...grooming." But the Futakuchi-onna is already gone.

Katrina is wearing only a t-shirt when Denise knocks on the door. She looks up from brushing the hair around her hooves, and tells them to come in. Denise steps in, and Katrina stops brushing for a second. She takes her hoof off the desk, and turns to face the other.

"What do you want, Mrs. Roberts?" The centaur asks, brushing her mane softly. "I want to say I'm sorry for talking to you like that before. We've been friends for a long time, and it isn't right to lose our friendship over something silly like an argument over a project." Denise finishes, taking a deep breath. "I wanted to talk to you too, Denise." Katrina says, and Denise smiles at the use of her first name. "I have a plan. You go to work on the project as a medic for the team, and we take your husband and child with you. Our base in Alaska has plenty for them to do, and it is like a small city. They would have lots of fun there, and you could do your job. Like I said, double your current wages. What do you say, Mrs. Roberts?" The centaur says with a smile. "I-I will have to think about it. Let me go home and play with my daughter for a little bit, then I'll talk to you in the morning. David's waiting for me, anyways. Thank you for your time, Katrina. Have a nice night." Katrina goes back to her grooming with a more chipper mood, and Denise rushes out to find David. Her back mouth growls, but Denise is prepared this time. Once she's in the car, she lets down her hair. David pales, but Denise assures him it's ok. She takes a box of cereal out of her purse, along with several boxes of TV dinners and a bag of chip. Her hair tears into it, stuffing the mouth to the brim. David looks horrified, but he doesn't say anything nasty. As the mouth eats, Denise thinks about the decision she has to make. On one hand, her husband would love a vacation (and her daughter!) They understand she has to work, and would happily come along. On the other hand, the way Katrina made it sound, she wouldn't have much free time to play with her daughter and go on dates with her husband. They would be there, but Denise couldn't interact with them.

"David, do you have a family?" she asks the lanky teenager. He turns towards her, face still pale. "W-well, I do. My parents, three brothers, and four sisters. It's a pretty full household, if I may say so myself." he says with a laugh. "Oh. Did your parents work a lot when you were young?" she continues questioning the Dullahan. "Um, well, yes. They both had jobs, and they worked late to support all of us, so my grandparents were the ones watching us most of the time. Why do you ask?" he says. "Oh, no reason. But I do have one more question for you, dear. If you could go back, would you want to spend more time with your parents?" she says. "Uh, yes and no, I guess? I would have loved to see them more, but if they were there, I wouldn't have made all the great memories I have now."

Denise nods, understanding. Maybe the memories her husband and daughter could make at Alaska would mean something to them? She would have to think it over some more. The mouth finishes its meal, leaving shreds of wrappers and cardboard all over the limo. David starts picking it up while Denise cleans herself and the mouth up, and ties back her hair. The car ride was a long one, and she might as well do something while she was in it. The inside becomes quiet, and Denise feels at peace. She's decided what she wants to do. David sighs, and the car ride continues.

As Denise opens the door and leaves, David grabs her wrist. "Mrs. Roberts, do you mind if...if I meet your daughter? It's just that...well, I have a sister that was young like her and I really miss her." Denise smiles warmly. "Of course dear! I'm sure she'll love you. If you want, you can stay for dinner too. My husband make plenty of food, because, well you know." The two step out, and David follows Denise into the two story house, and he shivers a little bit. Despite being in California, the northern parts were still rather chilly.

"Hello dear, how was work?" Denise's husband hollers from the kitchen. "Good! I have a dinner guest tonight, he's my boss's intern." David takes off his coat, and Denise takes both his and her coats to the front porch, leaving David alone with a toy-filled livingroom and Elisa. She looks up and him, hisses through her fangs, and runs into the kitchen, hiding behind her dad. "Sorry, she's a little shy." Denise's husband says, giving her a pat on the back as David steps into the kitchen. Large plates of food, mostly rice and bean dishes, were laid out on the counters. Smells of spices and fish filled the room, and David took a deep breath through his nose. He walks closer to Elisa, and kneels down. "Hello! I'm David, what's your name?" he asks her. Elisa rubs her face in her dad's apron, and gives a little meow. Her ears lie flat against her head, and she peeks out and looks at David, who was still smiling. Denise steps into the room, and laughs. "David, Elisa, let's continue this in the livingroom."

The three all go into the livingroom, and Elisa shyly clings to her mom's jeans, brown tail whipping back and forth. "Elisa, honey, how about you show David some of your toys?" Denise asks, handing her a doll and toy car. Elisa walks up to David, who was lounging on the floor, and her ears perk up. "What species are you?" she asks, and David laughs. "I'm a Dullahan, An-I mean, Elisa. I can show your mom what I can do, if your mom is ok with it." Denise nods, and David slowly takes off his head. Elisa watches wide-eyed as he sets it on the floor next to his body, and does a ta-da movement with his hands. "How does it work?" Elisa asks, as David puts back on his head. "Well, uh, it's pretty complicated. It has to do with my blood clotting easily, and how I can go for a long time without breathing, and some other stuff. But I'm not the only species that can live like this! Zombies can practically be blown up and still live." Elisa nods. "What species are you, Elisa? I'm guessing neko." David asks, fiddling with a action figure. "Nooooo! I'm a werecat! See!" She says, and drops her toys. Her form starts to shift, muscles growing and brown fur appearing on her body. David retches, and turns his head away. When he looks back, a half girl-half cat is standing in front of him. Sharp feline teeth and muzzle, large paws and digitigrade back legs meet his eyesight. She looks over him with green, narrow feline eyes. Once David looks like he's going to faint, Elisa morphs back into her original form, and David heaves again. "Do you need some water, David?" Denise asks. "Yeah, that would be nice."

David and Elisa play the whole night, and Denise has never seen David happier. He sure misses his sisters, she thinks.

The four sit together for dinner, and they all bow their heads and pray. David digs in, and Denise lets out her hair. It eats slowly tonight, picking and choosing. But she had just fed it, so it wasn't very hungry. Denise had wondered where it put all the food, as she didn't ever gain weight. She had always stayed 164 lbs, no matter how much or little the mouth ate. "So, David, you said you were an intern, right?" Denise's husband asks. "Yes! An intern at the USA department of Defense, MECHA division. If you can call it a division, I guess." He says. "Oh, ok. You're going to college then, right?" Denise's husband said. "Well, yes. But not right now. Uh, it's complicated."

The rest of the meal was spent in silence, and David said goodbye right afterwards, and left in the limo. Denise talked to her husband about going to Alaska, and he agreed with it.

The next day, Denise and Katrina had a meeting.

The team was complete.

Eight people stand in the freezing Alaskan weather, all clothed in winter garb of different sizes and styles. Snow blows through their hair and across their faces, leaving them frosty and cold. Some shield their faces from the snow by raising their arms, others stand upright and bear through it. Visibility is extremely low, and they are guided simply by a flashing red light in the distance. As they trek through the open plains, one notices something odd in the snow beneath their feet. It is very faint, almost invisible, but they see peculiar lines in the snow. Their eyes trace the lines up and down, and they audibly gasp when they realize what it is.

An enormous footprint, nearly as big as a house.

Forty-five minutes later, the small crowd is inside a waiting room, filling out paperwork. Justin is done first, and she sits back with a deep exhale. Looking around, she tries to recognize any of the face. One, the teenager with the mushrooms growing all over her, is easily recognized. That's Clover Loughrey, the teenage CAPCOM phenomenon. She's all over the papers and radio, Justin thinks. The pale vampire that's urgently scribbling on her clipboard she can't place, nor the other vampire who is staring at David like he wants to eat him or something. But when she sees the woman her age with her hair in a ponytail, Justin's goat eyes widen. Hey, I saw her back at training!, she thinks. The woman finishes writing, and leans back in her chair, looking around the small cozy waiting room. Justin gets up and sits next to her, between Denise and Clover.

"Hi, I'm Justin Hemsworth." She introduces herself, dusting off her t-shirt. "You were at the training facility in L.A., right?" Denise smiles. "Yes, I was! I'm Denise Roberts, and it is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Hemsworth!" Justin's booming laughter fills the room. "No, please, call me Justin! Plus, I'm not married." Most of the others were done now, only David was left, and they are listening in on the conversation. "Um." Clover squeaks, noticing the awkward lull in the the room, "How about we all introduce ourselves? I'm Clover, CAPCOM at the NASA HQ in Washington, D.C." Justin laughs loudly again, and Clover blushes. "The name's Justin, and I work in a mine in the Yukon. Tough stuff, I'm telling ya." Justin says in her gruff voice. "I guess I'll go next" Yumi pipes up. "I'm Yumi Omer, I'm an ex-hacker from Colorado. Here with Kevin, my partner in this mess, and the second David, who is outside so he doesn't meld with this David." The crowd gives a nervous laugh, and David flushes red. Spiriod fills the air with her robotic voice. "I am Spiriod. Web design, robots, ex-hacker, America. I like trumpets. Sorry." Yumi, Clover and Justin try not to laugh at the robot's speech pattern. "Hello everyone, I'm Denise, mother of one and an army medic. Justin and I have met before, but I don't think I've seen any of you before." "I'm David, you all know me or different versions of me." "Hello, I'm Kevin Maxwell. Vampire, programmer."

They all make small talk for a while, Clover, Yumi, David and Kevin forming a group while Denise, Justin and Spiriod discuss what they know of the project. In the middle of conversation, Katrina steps in and takes all of their paperwork, silencing the crowd. "David, I don't want your clone doing all the work, and I've already told you that. Go file these right away, and I don't want to see you lazing around again." He takes them from her, and rushes off. "All the rest of you, follow me. Since training took longer that I had wished, we have to start familiarizing you with the project today. Luckily, it's early in the morning. Let's go, all of you, right now." They all get up and obediently follow her, out the doors and through the metal halls. Everything looks old, like the base has been around for a long time, and yet there are touchscreens and doors that open and close automatically everywhere. Clover gently touches the cold metal, and quickly withdraws her hands. She's wearing a large pink sweater and tight jeans, with plenty of pink jewelry. She had bleached her hair and dyed it light pink before she left the training facility, and her black roots were barely starting to show now. Her hair had gotten quite a few strange looks, mostly from Justin and Spiriod Ryuu. Yumi had shyly stated she loved it, and Kevin had asked her what bleach she used. Kevin dyed his hair too, it seemed. He also dressed so oddly, Clover thought. And he stares at David a lot, she thinks.

The crowd is escorted into a quite large elevator, and Katrina pushes a button on the blue touchscreen panel. The doors slide shut with a loud clank. They stand in silence while it travels down, down, into the earth. Clover rolls up a sleeve of her sweater, and starts picking off mushrooms and putting them in the pocket of her sweater. David pales again, and turns away.

After a while, the elevator stops and the door opens into a catwalk-like hall. Wire grating on every side, but it's just a regular hallway. Nothing under or over it but more metal. At the end of it is another door, and the team reaches it no time.

"Now, I'm giving you a fair warning, this is nothing like you've ever seen before. You're not hallucinating, I promise. Let's go." Katrina punches a few buttons, and the yellow-striped doors slide open slowly. Inside was...another hallway just like the one before. But this one had the left side off, and bars to keep people from falling off . Spiriod Ryuu started analyzing the hallway. Just beyond that left side, beyond the metal wall that was plated like it could open, there was something. She didn't know what yet, but it was something.

"Please line yourself down this hall, facing the left guardrails. Don't lean over them, and for goodness sake, don't touch that wall on the left side." Katrina orders, and they all obey her, lining up. "David, hit the door and open the gate." Yumi and Denise started noticeably sweating, and tears formed in Clover's eyes. Rumbling came from all sides, and the outside walls fell away, leaving only the catwalk. Denise let out a scream, and Clover started crying. Justin, however, was awestruck at what she saw as the walls were removed.

She was face-to-face with an enormous, glistening, metal robot head. Just the eyes stretched all the way across the long catwalk, staring unblinkingly at the visitors. Justin stepped up the the guardrails, one hoof positioned on the lowest rail, reached over the rails, farther and farther, until she touched the shiny glass of the eyes. She was leaning quite far, holding on by just her right hand, but it was incredible. From there, she could see all the way down to the feet of the gigantic machine, as big as a skyscraper. It felt like holding onto the top of the empire state building and leaning off, and she could see that much. People working on every inch of the machine, from the head to the feet. The head was shaped kind of like a motorcycle helmet, with one single huge piece of glass making up the eyes. It was painted in shades of gray and white, clunky and huge just like the mining machines Justin worked on. Except the machines didn't have legs, arms, or were as big as a skyscraper. The chest had some sort of missile launcher coming out of it, and a giant sword was sheathed on it's back. Finally, on it's shoulder, a logo of a wasp in white and grey was painted on.

"The Winter Wasp, everyone. It's one of the five robots we have here in Alaska. Sadly, we don't have enough mechanics to pilots them all, so you'll be alone, Justin." Katrina said, not bothered by Justin leaning over the guardrail. "Ok, we've wasted enough time. Let's get going. Justin, you and I are going to the cockpit of this thing, Clover, you're going to go down and find the head of ground control, who's a cloner. They'll be looking for you, along with the current CAPCOM, a gorgon. Yumi, the head of programming is a shapeshifter, and you'll be under their command. Go with Clover. Spiriod, you'll be the head of mechanics alongside a half-hecatonchires. Um, Denise, you can head to the medical wing, it's down where Yumi, Clover, and Spiriod are headed." Denise, Yumi, Clover and Spiriod take the elevator down with Kevin and one David. The other David stays with Katrina and Justin, who are still standing in front of the robot. Justin trots down the catwalk, and at the end it turns into another smaller one, which turns into the door to get into the cockpit of the robot. Justin smiles, and opens the door.

"Ready to go, Clover?" Justin's gravelly voice comes in on the intercom. "Ready, Justin." She replied through the built-in speakers in the cab. Justin is currently lying down but in an almost standing position so she can see in front of her, one hand on the steering lever, the other one messing with some of the thousands of buttons, levers, and switches. Her feet and upper legs are strapped into the leg sensors, and on her head is a helmet monitoring her conditions. "Ready, Yumi?" "Ready, Justin." Her chest is covered with a plate that takes even more of her information, and it gives her pain if the robot gets hit bad enough to cause serious damage. "Ready, Spiriod?" "Ready." Spiriod is actually inside the robot as well, stored in the chest. If need be, she can transport herself into the robot's wiring. Justin gives a signal, and the doors open. She can see via the glass "eye" of the robot, but screens on either side give her hundreds of data reads.

The robot takes it's first steps controlled by Justin, and Justin gets a rush. The doors to the cold, Alaskan weather open, and she makes the robot climb up the huge tunnel and into the snowy air. Justin is just about to start the training exercises with the building sized robot, but Katrina's voice crackles onto the intercom.

"Justin, there's been a problem. You're not going for a practice run. You're going to fight."

"What?! What are you talking about?!" Justin yells, typing into a keyboard in front of her and gently tapping a few more buttons. The vision filter comes in on the main screen, and now Justin can see beyond the snow. Clover's voice comes in on her microphone. "Justin, I'm sending copters to pick you up. Please stand by." Justin stops moving, her own legs keeping completely still. "Somebody had better tell me what's going on right now." The satyr growls angrily. "The land nations war with sea nation? Cirein-cròin, attack, east coast, chicken, web design, America." Spiriod's robotic voice chips in. Justin turns a few knobs and checks the systems.

Two giant helicopters hover over the Winter Wasp, huge blades chopping the snowy air. In her cabin, Justin clutches the steering level tightly, trying to mentally prepare herself for this battle. Images of the Cirein-cròin rush through her head. From what she remembers from school, it was as tall as the sears towers. Had large, powerful, stumpy back legs and webbed feet for the front legs. Giant tail, had a large club at the end to protect itself from even larger sea creatures. Spiny fin on back and sides, and finally, it's enormous circular mouth with teeth all the way around. Could swallow it's prey in one bite, and now it was released on one of the biggest cities on earth.

She was at the place were she was deployed in no time, flying fast over the earth from Alaska to 50 miles off the coast of New York. Once she was released from the copter and hit the ground, Clover started talking to her right away. "Alright, Justin, I need you to listen. The Cirein-cròin's weak spots are right below its neck, the front legs, and the lower stomach. It's completely covered in tough skin and has no eyes, so your guns aren't going to do much. Use your sword, alright? You'll have plenty of backup too, so don't worry too much." Justin sniffed, and pulled the huge sword out of its sheath with a twist and pull of her control level. She pushed a few buttons, and put her other hand on the other control lever. A look of determination crossed her face, and she started pumping her goat legs to make the giant machine walk.

"Justin, millions of people are going to die if we can't get them into shelters in time. You need to get to the Cirein-cròin before it reaches New York City. Fighting in the water will be easier." Clover chimes in. Justin starts the Winter Wasp running, and it splashes through the deep water. "Justin, you should see the monster on your radar now. It's a red blip, right?" "No, I can't see anything on my radar." Justin says, trying to see beyond the rain outside to whatever lies beyond. "Wait, I can see something out the window, though." She says, squinting at the gray mass a few miles from where she is. "You need to get Yumi on programming the window to be more interactive, I can barely se-" Justin stops. The blob wasn't a monster at all, but the skyline of New York.

"Clover, the monster isn't here. Are you sure it was attacking th-"

Slicing pain courses through Justin's right leg, and she nearly black out. A shout of pain echoes through the robot, and red flashing lights fill the cabin. "The right leg of the robot has been nearly ripped off! Justin, what are you doing? Where's the backup?" Justin's head throbs, but she manages to swing the blade around behind her. Freezing rain plummets down on the windshield as steel hits grey flesh. The sword cuts through teeth and bone, and the creature lets out a cry and lets go of the Winter Wasp's leg. Justin lifts the sword, and tries to turn and face the creature. But the robot's broken leg snaps, and she feels herself falling backwards. "No, no, NO!" she yells, but the skyscraper-tall robot, missing one leg and with blood splattered all over it, topples into the ocean. Water fills up around her robot, and the back of its head cracks. Justin feels the pain, and cries out. "Justin, there's been serious damage on the back of the head. You need to get up, or the cabin is going to fill with water. Even with one leg, the robot will auto-stabilize. Yumi and I are working on getting the radar working." Clover says. Water fills up over Justin's window, and she can feel wetness on the back of her head.

The robot wouldn't get up, no matter how hard she clamped the steering levers. "GET UP!! GET UP!!" she yells, but with no results. She feels claws on the side of the Winter Wasp, and a sharp pain in her side as the Cirein-cròin starts ripping off the metal plating. Water is now gushing into the cabin, and the red flashing illuminates the fact it's about to drown Justin. "Just...who...do you think...I AM?!" Justin screams, and pushes both levers all the way forward. The robot rises from the ocean, slowly, and draws it's sword again.

The Cirein-cròin growls loudly, and rises to it's full height. The huge mouth, full of teeth and now sliced nearly in half, comes level with Justin's window. It lunges forward, and takes a hold of the Winter Wasp's shoulders, throwing the robot into New York's skyline. Building and robot crashes together, and the stump of the leg is nearly torn off. Justin gets to her feet, and fires a missile towards the monster, trying to get it away from the city. But the explosion simply angers the Cirein-cròin, and it charges toward the Winter Wasp. Justin gets in a ready stance, sword drawn. But the creature swerves last minute, and instead runs past Justin. The robot whirls around, just in time to see the monster jump on Justin's chest. It drives it's claws into the robot's chest, tearing out the internal wires. "Spiriod!" Justin yells, and throws the monster off. Sparks fly in the cabin, and the red flashing gets quicker. The Winter Wasp rises yet again, and the Cirein-cròin is back on it in a minute. But it is tired of fighting now, and prepares to end the battle. It gets up on two legs, and opens it's mauled mouth as wide as possible. Justin watches in horror as her robot's head is engulfed in teeth and bloody flesh. The cabin's sides start to cave in, and Justin is hopeless as the cabin loses power. She has no choice but to bail. The emergency escape button is punched, and the backup power starts. But the hatch won't open. Justin is trapped, the sides of her head getting crushed in.

An idea pops into her head. She is getting squeezed to death, but she can still barely reach the control lever. Her tough fingers grasp the lever, and the walls get tighter, pinning her between two sheets of metal. Water and Cirein-cròin leaks through, and she can no longer breath. Her internal organs are getting crushed in the tiny space, but she can manage to push the lever forward. Outside, the arm holding the sword stabs into the beast's lower neck, extending through it's body and the tip shows from the other side. The Cirein-cròin lets out a roar of pain, and stumbles backwards, clawing at its neck. After falling into a pile of rubble and metal, it dies.

Justin has given up, and passes out, still pinned between the walls.

Clover is sitting in Ground Control, headset on the ground, sobbing. From what she could tell, Justin was dead. The copters were retrieving the remains of her, the Cirein-cròin, and the robot. As they flew over the USA, people were preparing for the war. They were buying up all the food, making shelters, and saying goodbye to their loved ones. Nothing would ever be the same, and they all knew this.

Yumi goes into her room and opens her laptop, starting up Elsword Online. Sure, it was sad that they lost their pilot, but she couldn't do anything about it. She looks up, and Kevin is standing in the doorway, a frown plastered on his face. "What are you doing?" he asks. "I'm playing Elsword Online. What are you doing?" she replies with a hint of annoyance. "Justin was brave, wasn't she? She went in there without a hint of fear." Kevin says. "She was stupid." Yumi retorted. "If she would have thought before rushing in, she would still be alive." Kevin stood there with a look of shock on his face for a second, and leaves. Yumi goes back to her game, feeling a little guilty. I guess I'll handle it tomorrow, she thinks.

Denise was taking the situation the hardest of anyone. She sits alone in the med wing, not talking, not moving, not crying. She has become dissociative, detached from the world. Justin, even though they had just met, was her friend. And now she was dead. But Denise was denying this as she sits in the dim lit room, only the medical equipment to keep her company.

David was standing next to Katrina, both staring at the footage of the event. It was obvious that Justin was dead, her cabin was eaten. There was almost nothing left of it after the monster devoured it. Spiriod could be salvaged, she had almost no damage dealt to her. An employee rushed in, face red from running, and stood next to Katrina.

"Ma'am, Justin is alive, and she's in the med bay." He says.

Justin wakes up a day later, in the medical wing of the base. One eye is covered with a bandages, and Denise is standing over her, carefully writing on her clipboard. "W-where? What's going...on?" Justin says, having obvious trouble speaking. She can't move herself, and starts panicking. "Calm down, Justin. You have crush syndrome, head injuries, and severe compartment syndrome. Please lie still, if you can." Thoughts ran through Justin's head slowly, but she could manage to stop moving her head. Bandages and bruises cover her body, and where those aren't, she can see where her skin has peeled away and turned blue from tissue death. Denise clears her throat. "You're in the MECHA base in Alaska. You just fought a huge monster and won, but not before it crushed you. You don't have any broken bones, but the lack of blood to your tissue has killed some of it. It'll take about a week for all of this to heal completely, but for now, you need to stay in bed." Denise says, and Justin nods. "Can I see...can I see Clover please?" she asks, gently clenching and unclenching her fist. Her hooves are cracked in a few places, and her fur is patchy now. Something feels weird on the top of her head, though.

"Of course. I'll call her in." Denise says, and turns to use the intercom. "And Denise? My left horn feels...odd. What's up with it?" Justin asks. Denise's face turns a little pale, and she leaves in a rush. Justin gets a sinking feeling, and slowly starts to move her arm. It is extremely painful for her, the dead flesh and bandages pulling every way, but she swallows her pain and moves her arm to her left horn.

But where there was previously a ridged, spiral mass of keratin that she liked to keep polished, there was nothing. She tried to feel around for it, but all that was left was a worn down stump. No, this can't be real, Justin thinks. She spots a mirror on the table next to her, and slowly wills her muscles to pick it up. As she raises it to her face, she stares in silence. Even though she can only see out of one eye, the truth is clear. Her horn is gone.

"DENISE!"

Yumi is typing away at the Winter Wasp's main programming computer, trying to get the robot to maintain balance a little better. The several moniters on the desk remind her of hers at home, but these are much more professional. The room was dark, besides the glow of the computers. The programming software is very advanced, and she can code much faster. The end of a blood lollipop hangs out of her mouth, as her tongue sucks the sweet red liquid from the hard candy. "You know, Yumi, those are terrible for you." A muffled voice comes out of the dark behind her. Yumi jumps, and turns quickly to face the person. "Listen, David, if this is about what I said to Kevin, I'm not interested. Justin is alive, I was wrong, ok? Leave me alone." She says to the darkness. David steps out, and is holding her lunch, a confused look on his face. "What did you say to Kevin?" he asks, handing her the tray full of various vampire food. Yumi sighs. "Nothing, forget I said anything." She murmurs, taking a taste of the soup. "Whoa, this is really good! Who made it?" she asks. "Actually, Kevin did. He's surprisingly good at cooking, haha. Been cooking for everyone on the team, from me to Justin." He says, and Yumi looks down at her feet. "How's, uh, Justin doing?" "Good. She'll be up and about by tomorrow, I figure. She's just...like that." Yumi nods. "Hey, do you want to take a break and do something fun?" she asks, making sure no one is at the door. "Um, I guess? I don't have anything I'm supposed to be doing." David says. "Ok, get Clover and Kevin and meet me at the main lobby. I've got something to show you guys."

The Winter Wasp is slowly getting put back together, wire by wire. Spiriod is taking this opportunity to improve the robot's coordination and balance, among other things. Right now she is rewiring the main controls, installing new levers and buttons. "Hey, Spiriod, what are you doing?" a small, feminine voice comes from behind her. It's Clover, holding a family picture. In the picture, there's a young satyr, and standing around her are more satyrs and fauns. "Hey Clover, what are you doing? Nice! Control panel, reinstall, you know. Sensors, you know. I need to run test. Goodbye, you know." Spiriod says, turning back to her work. "Haha, OK! I was wondering if you could paste this picture above the pilot's seat for me? It's of Justin's family. Maybe it will help her fight better, I mean, I think it will." Clover asks, setting the picture on the leather seat. Spiriod's LED eyes flicker, and she reaches out her robotic hand to pick it up. "Ok, I will." She sets the picture back down. Clover stands awkwardly as Spiriod pulls out a few wires and replaces them. "So, uh, where are you from?" Clover questions Spiriod. "Japan, you know. Where are you from? Japan." "I'm from New York City. Have you been there?" Clover says. "No. I don't know about this. Tell me more, been there?" The robot replies. "Well, I can! First of all, it's very big." Clover and Spiriod talk the entire time Spiriod is changing the control panel, and the robot doesn't even analyze how Clover got that picture.

Justin twirls the delphinium that Clover gave her between her fingers. It was a little wilted, but Justin didn't care. Did she know that flowers are one of my favorite things? Nah, only my family knows about stuff like that, she thinks. Her hands are feeling better, it still hurts to move them, but she doesn't care. Denise comes back to check on her, and smiles when she notices the flower. Her hair is down, and the mouth is feeding on a box of cereal that it holds in it's hairy tendrils. "Did Clover give that to you?" Denise asks. "Yeah, she's a pretty sweet kid. Asked me how I survived out there." "And? What did you tell her?" "Well, I..." Justin takes a deep breath. "I didn't have a choice. I had to kill that beast, no matter what. So, I told her...that I had to have faith in myself. To do anything extraordinary, you need to believe in yourself. You have to know that you're going to win, believe in the fact that you are the raddest dude on this earth. And then you can do anything." Denise nods, and takes Justin's pulse. "She doesn't think she's anything. And that really needs to change. I'm gonna teach 'er to be brave, just like-uh, nevermind." Justin trails off, and Denise hides her smile.

"Then, I hack into the door, and we're free to the cafeteria." Yumi finishes. David's clone, Kevin, Clover, and Yumi are all in a cleaning closet beside the main lobby. Clover is feeling very nervous, and David is white as a ghost. "W-wait! What if we get caught? We'll get grounded...or worse! I don't think this is a good idea." Clover stuttered, fiddling with her lichen-covered fingers. "What are you, a wuss? C'mon, it'll be fun!" Yumi said, playfully punching her on the shoulder. David swallows loudly, and shakily gives a "Yeah!" "Ok, let's go! I'll start messing with the cameras, do your thing, Kevin!"

After an hour of hacking, welding, and sneaking around, the group is ready to enter the cafeteria. Yumi opens the door, but what greets them is not food, but an office. "This isn't the cafeteria, this is Katrina's office!" David shouts, and Kevin quickly clasps his hand over the Dullahan's mouth. Yumi smirks. "Yes, it is. Now, let's get to work. I want to learn more about the MECHA project." The rest of the crowd looked stunned. "No way!" Clover whispered. "If I get caught, I might get thrown out of the program! I'm leaving." She turns to climb back out of the room, but David grabs her arm. "Shhh!" he says, and they all stop. The sound of a centaur clopping down the hall reaches their ears, and they all panic. "Quick! Everyone in the vent!" Yumi whispers, prying open a large air vent. They all squeeze in, Yumi last. She shuts the grate, and they all stay completely quiet.

From what she can see through the metal bars, Katrina is talking on the phone. "Yes, sir. I understand what we need to do. I received the report today. Ok." She throws some papers on the table, and leaves the room, shutting the door. "Is she gone?" Clover whispers. Yumi opens the grate and lets everyone out. The rest of the group quickly runs out of the office, but Yumi glances at the papers.

What she sees is unspeakable.

"I am never, ever doing that again!" Clover says to the rest of the group, shaking. Yumi catches up to them, face whiter than normal. "So, what do you guys want to do now?" David asks. They all look at the sign on the door at once. "CAFETERIA."

"So, David, truth or dare?" The group is lounging around the kitchen. Clover is sitting on top of the giant refrigerator, Yumi is lying on top of the counter top, and David was sitting below Kevin, who was on top of the counter putting toy dinosaurs in David's curly red hair. "Uh, truth." He says, smiling as Kevin tucks a triceratops behind his ear. "Ok, um, what fictional character do you have a crush on?" Yumi asks. David blushes. "I already told you, no love questions! Ask me something different!" he yells. The group all breaks out in laughter. "Alright, alright. Uh, if you had one wish-" "I'd wish for more wishes." He says. "You can't wish that! One wish, that's the limit." Yumi responds. "Fiiiiine. Uh, I'd wish to live forever. No, wait, I'd wish that everyone would live forever. No, actually, I'd wish that I could be a vampire." Kevin, who had been silent, quietly says "I could make you one, David." Everyone laughs, except David, who pales.

Alarms blare through the cafeteria. Toy dinosaurs fall to the ground as David rises. They all know what it means.

An attack.

"JUSTIN CAN'T PILOT IT!" Katrina yells at David, who cowers against the wall. He nods, knowing exactly what he needed to do. The only other person that could possible know how to maneuver a piece of machinery like that was Spiriod.

"Spiriod, you know what to do, right?" Katrina asks as she gets hooked up to the Winter Wasp. "Yes." Spiriod replies, wiring her sensors into the robot's. The entire team knew that Spiriod would not be returning from this fight, as did Spiriod herself. But it didn't matter. Clover was putting on her headset, typing into her computer quickly, trying to ignore the feeling of despair. Yumi was running a last minute debugger on her new codes. They were unfinished, but good enough. She was still thinking of the things she's seen today. David is organizing Katrina's clothing, remembering what Kevin said about making him a vampire. Kevin is washing his face, looking in the mirror at the reflection that isn't there. He rushes off to help Yumi with coding, although she can normally handle everything by herself.

As Spiriod makes the final connections, a figure appears in the door of the cabin. "Justin Hemsworth, reporting for duty." She says, and sits in the pilot's seat. "Hemsworth, you are in no shape to be piloting this machine." Katrina says, signaling for Spiriod to disconnect. "So why is Spiriod leaving?" Justin asks. "Because I know I can't stop you." Katrina replies, and leaves the cabin, shutting the door.

In a few hours, Justin is on the coastline of China, preparing to fight the next creature that the underwater nation was deploying on a major city. "Ok, this one looks like a Iku-Turso. Justin, be prepared for lots of limbs and tentacles. The skin is soft enough to shoot, so use your missiles, guns, energy shots, whatever. And there will definitely be backup this time, so don't worry. " Justin bites her tongue as her dead tissue tears when she starts walking towards the blip on her radar. "They know about you now, Justin, so get ready for anything."

A sharp barb stabs through the robot's chest, and wraps around its torso. Metal and sparks fly everywhere, lighting up the dark for a second. Justin wheezes, and clutches at her chest, trying to get the spear out. "Justin? What's going on? Something just went through the robot's chest area!" Clover says urgently. "E-engage back burners." Justin managed to squeak, and she flips on the headlights. Flames shoot out on the back where the tentacle is wrapped around, and it withdraws with a cry of pain. Justin sucks in air. "Clover, what is that thing behind me? I need stats, and quick!" she says, whirling around to face the creature. "It looks like a Tiamat, but I can't tell for sure. Can you see an udder?" the fairy asks. "WHAT!? AN UDDER?" Justin yells, raising her arm and firing a few wrist rockets at the creature. The spear didn't cause much damage to the robot, but it did disable Spiriod from controlling the robot if need be. The rockets explode, but it seemed to hit nothing but water. "Yes! And a large mouth with lips, those are tell-tale signs of a Tiamat." The Winter Wasp heaves forward, and Justin scans the water for any signs of the beast. It looks like it retreated. "Justin! The Tiamat is heading for Hong Kong! You need to stop it! Launch the harpoon 45 degrees 15 seconds!" Justin leans over to hit the harpoon switch, but cries out in pain when the stitches on her back rip.

"Justin! You need to take it easy!" Clover shouts. The harpoon launches towards the creature, and spears it in the upper head. It auto-reels in, dragging the Tiamat towards her. Justin readies to catch the creature and finish it off, but she's pushed down by a large weight slamming onto her back. Before she hits the sea, though, the program that Yumi installed runs, and the front burners set her back on her feet. She grasps the thing on her back, and flings it through the air, its claws tearing through the wiring on her back. It lands right on the harpoon line, and snaps it, letting the Tiamat runs towards Hong Kong again. "Clover! Are the residents of Hong Kong in the shelters yet?" "No, not all of them. You need to destroy the creatures. How's it going?" Justin bites her lip as the Iku-Turso gets up from the ocean, revealing its multiple limbs and huge mouth. It looks somewhat like a mix between a caterpillar and a bat, as between each clawed leg was a skin flap. The monster roars, and launches its deep red mass back at the Winter Wasp.

Justin is ready though, and she slams the giant metal fist of her robot into the creature's stomach. It lets out a cry, and slumps back into the ocean. She then breaks into a run, trying to catch up with the second monster before it kills anyone. "Clover! Where's the Taimat? Is is at the city yet?" "Yes, it is! It's on the coast though, so you still have time." "I see it! " She pressed a button and the shoulders open up to reveal two huge missiles. They fire, and the Winter Wasp is almost thrown backwards by the recoil. One missile veers off into the coast, exploding harmlessly. The other one hits the monster in the back of the head, slamming the giant beast into a huge cruise ship. But just as she was feeling good about this fight, the other monster leaps out of the water behind her and opens its toothy mouth wide. It hits her right arm, and bites down hard. Justin screams in pain as it tears off the arm, leaving it hanging by only a few wires. The ship that the Tiamat has split in half, lights flickering and dying. The Winter Wasp thrashes as Justin works to tear off the arm causing her pain. But the Iku-Turso beats her to it, biting off the wires and letting the huge metal arm fall into the sea. Justin takes this minute to bash the monster in the head with her remaining arm, but not without tearing the stitches in her actual arm. Pain ripples through her body again, and she stumbles backward. Blood is streaming down her muscular body, and it pools on the floor of the cabin. Both monsters are upon her now, the Iku-Truso chewing on her leg and the Tiamat running towards her, with the obvious intent to finish the fight. Justin, bleeding and in pain, breathes heavily, looking down. Her shoulders heave with every breath, one blood soaked and the other bandaged. Right now, things are looking hopeless.

Until something catches her eye. A picture lying on the blood-stained cabin floor. The Tiamat raises its tail, and strikes her torso, and the Winter Wasp is knocked to its knees. With a shaky hand, Justin picks up the picture. It's of her, and her family.

Her goat eyes narrow, and she slams her hoof down. "Clover, switch this machine to backup power. I'm going to need all the energy I can get for this stunt." "Yes! I will!" The cabin glows with power again, and Justin tucks the picture into the controls. She punches a few buttons, and the Winter Wasp gets to its feet. After taking hold of the Tiamat with one arm, and the Iku-Turso clings onto her leg, she fires the foot rockets, and the robot starts lifting off the ground. It climbs into the sky, higher and higher, the skyscraper-tall machine taking it's underwater hunters high above the earth. And she fires all the thrusters, and both beasts cry out, and fall to earth. Finally, the Winter Wasp's stomach opens up to reveal two huge bombs.

Clover watches from the helicopter camera as the monsters are exploded, blue and red flesh and blood splattering over everything. Soon, the Winter Wasp comes crashing down to earth with a huge splash. Clover gasps, and adjusts her headset, typing into her computer. "Justin, are you ok?"

"Never better." A weak voice comes out of the speakers. "Can you get me out of this thing, already?"

A few hours later, Justin is back in her medical bed. Spiriod is getting repaired. Clover is helping with fixing the Winter Wasp, as the internal damage is nearly twice as bad as the first battle. Denise is making the team dinner in the med bay kitchen, and Kevin, Yumi and David are hanging out in the medical wing with her, secretly kind of worried about Justin and also secretly in awe of what she did. The entire team agreed to eat dinner together tonight, and since Justin was not to leave the medical wing, they had to eat together there. Denise had cleared off a research table previously filled with chemicals and samples from the beasts they had fought, and Kevin had found some good dishes in the storage room.

"David, sweetie, can you please take this crabgrass soup out to Justin's place at the table? And these bloodcakes go out there too." Denise asks. David nods, and does as he's told.

Kevin brings a warm washcloth to a sleeping Justin, gently placing it on her forehead. "You know, I can take care of myself." Justin says, taking the washcloth off her forehead and opening her eyes. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were awake." Kevin replies, embarrassed. He goes back out to help take dishes full of food to the table, and Justin heaves herself out of bed, using her crutches to get to her feet. When she fell from the sky, her leg had gotten caught above in the machinery, and her lower leg got smashed, breaking the bone. I'm just lucky I didn't crush my hoof, she thinks, hobbling out to the kitchen. "What can I do?" the plump satyr asks, leaning on the leg that isn't broken. Denise looks shocked and angry to see her out of bed. "Justin! You cannot be up and about with that broken leg! Yumi, please escort her back to her bed." Justin rolls her eyes, looking down at her cast. The entire team had signed it except Spiriod, who had been in the lab getting repaired since the last battle. "Actually, Justin, if you would get in the wheelchair, there is something you can do! I need you to go find Clover and Spiriod Ryuu, if she's done getting fixed. Clover is fixing the Winter Wasp, and Spiriod is in the lab. You can take Kevin, if he wants to go." Justin looks over at Kevin, who nods. "Ok, Yumi, take me to the wheelchair." She says with a sigh.

Kevin wheels Justin down the halls, who is hiding her head in her sweatshirt. Her hair is almost long enough to stop wearing clothing, but Katrina insists she keeps them on for a while longer. But for the moment, she doesn't care about the annoying fabric. Being in a wheelchair, pushed around the building was enough to make her want to disappear. "Kevin, I swear, I can push myself! At least let me have a little bit of my dignity!" she says, turning around to look at the teen. He lets go, and she starts wheeling herself. "So, what have you teens been up to?" she asks. "Well, uh, you know. Hanging out." He says, rubbing his arm. "I notice you ogle at that dullahan kid a lot. Do you want to like, eat him or something?" "No, no!" Kevin replied, his voice squeaking. "I don't eat people." "Then why are you always staring at him?" Justin questions him. His eyes stare straight ahead, and he remains silent. "Hey, if I'm prying, just tell me! I'm not one to dig into other's business." She says. They continue down the hall, and stop when they get to the lab that Spiriod's at. Justin wheels up to it and knocks on the door. "Is Spiriod in there? Tell her to come to the medical wing ASAP." She shouts. A werewolf opens the door, wearing a labcoat. "She's done getting fixed." The wolf says, stepping aside to let Spiriod out. Her feminine robotic form struts out of the room, and she stands beside Kevin. "Thanks. Hey, if you want to come, we're having a party in the med wing in like half an hour." The werewolf nods, and closes the door.

After Justin gets Clover and invites the entire mechanic crew to the party, they return to the med wing together. Dinner is done by then, as the group could smell everything from outside the glass sliding doors. "Hey Denise, I invited a few people to hang with us after dinner. You're ok with that, right?" Justin says as she wheels herself into the kitchen. "Yes, that should be fine. I made plenty of food." The Futakuchi-onna says as she pulls a layer of the cake she's making out of the oven. Dishes piled high with different kinds of food, from rolls to pizza, sit on the counters around the sterile kitchen. "Could each of you take one plate of food out and set it out on the food table? Also, if we're going to have guests, we're going to need more tables. David, Yumi, can you go down to storage and get more tables? There's plenty there." "Ok!" the two chirp in unison, and rush out. "Kevin, I need you to get more chairs from the patient division. Then can you please set Justin up?" Justin huffs at Denise's last sentence. "Yes ma'am!" Kevin says, and goes to get chairs.

Dinner was all ready in ten minutes. The makeshift "dining room" was brilliant, with metallic streamers and balloons decorating the former lab. The table is set nicely, with gold and white china set out over place mats and a bouquet of roses making a centerpiece. Along the walls, tables are set up all the way around. Food is filling the tables, steam rising from some and ice surrounding others. "Wow, Denise, this is amazing!" Clover gasps. She had cut her hair short, and dyed the wavy cut shades of purple, blue, red and orange to reflect the New York sunsets she missed so much. Her dress was simple, white and lacy. Finally, she had deep purple tights that brought out the purple in her hair, and had let her mushrooms grow out to a beautiful forest of fungi. Spiriod takes a seat at the table. Even though she can't eat anything, Denise thought it would be nice to invited her anyways. Clover sits next to her, and Justin is already seated at the head of the table. Kevin brings one more chair out, then takes a seat next to Justin. Denise taps her chin. "Clover, I'm sorry to ask you this while you're already seated, but can you go see what's taking David and Yumi so long? They should be back by now." The fairy nods, and jumps up to do Denise's bidding.

The medical wing storage was dark. Her bioluminescent mushrooms glow, illuminating the dusty stairway slightly. The storage was the only place in the medical wing that wasn't white and modern, but instead it was akin to a dusty attic. Wood stairs, concrete floor, and not many lights. Clover didn't know where the light switch was anyways. Goosebumps form on her skin as a scared feeling creeps over her. "Y-yumi? David? Are you guys ok?" she calls out, reaching the floor. The only light down here was the faint glimmer coming from above the stairs, and her mushrooms. As her eyes adjust to the dark, she can see the junk cluttering everything. Ping pong tables, dusty milk crates, lamps, anything you might find in storage. It was a pretty big place, maybe the other got lost in the darkness. The darkness gets too black to see, and she's just about to leave when she kicks something by accident. It's a flashlight! She picks it up and turns it one. The light isn't very bright, but it's enough to see just in front of her.

She shines the light over the clutter, illuminating spider webs and old carpet. "David? Yumi? H-hello?" She says with a squeaky tone. Her feet tread softly over cobwebs and old medical supplies. The flashlight shines on the ground, and she spots a liquid. Is-is that blood? She thinks, shivering slightly. Her heart races as she bends down and swipes it up with her finger. There is no doubt about it, its blood. Tears form in the corner of her eyes, and she steps backwards, getting ready to run out of there and get help. But she trips on a test tube, and falls backwards. She crashes to the ground, and her flashlight smashes on the concrete floor.

As Clover rises to her feet, she realizes that her flashlight isn't working. The batteries had been thrown out when she fell. She feels her way around, trying to find where she is. Clover finds the concrete wall, and uses it to balance herself. After wandering around in the dark for a while, she is completely lost. She starts crying as she walks, tears streaming down her face. "D-david! Where are you? Help me!" She shouts, but there is no response. Everything seems hopeless.

Until she turns a corner and feels a bump in the wall. A lightswitch! But before she turns it on, in the corner of her eye, she sees a blur in the dark.

What the light shows her is nothing she's seen before. Yumi is standing over David, eyes black as night. Red blood is everywhere, splattered on the walls, dripping off of Yumi's lips, and all over the figure on the floor who could only be David. He is bloodsoaked, but his chest is still rising. Clover is horrified. She doesn't even realize that the high-pitched screaming feeling the room is hers. Yumi snaps her head over to Clover, and her eyes turn back to normal as she looks down at her hands. She tries to place what just happened, but everything feels surreal and fuzzy to her. The blood dripping from her mouth doesn't feel like it belongs to her.

All at once, the memories of what happened come flooding back. But not before Denise, the laboratory crew, and Spiriod are standing in front of her.

Katrina paces her office. Yumi sits in a chair in front of her, alongside David and Clover. "So let me get this straight. David asked you to make him a vampire. First mistake. You consented, knowing that taking blood from a living being is extremely dangerous. Second mistake. You can't control yourself, and your Moroi powers kick in, and you start sucking energy from him as well. Empowered by this extra energy, you overpower the David who is fighting you now, and nearly kill him. Clover comes in, and faints when she sees the scene. Then, you punch Denise in the face. Third mistake." Katrina lectures. "I should kick both you and David from the project. But I'm not going to do that. Clover, you can leave." The shaken Clover retreats from the room.

"If you do some work for me on a project, I'll let you go."

Justin finishes the rest of her meal, and sighs loudly. After everyone found out that David and Yumi were alright, they finished dinner and started a game of poker. So far, a oni mechanic was winning, but Justin was hot on her tail. It was the fifth hand, and Justin had quite a bit of chips on the table. "So anyways, he gets up on the table, and says 'It was the kid all along!'" The werewolf finishes his story, and the entire table breaks out into laughter. He raises the hand, and shoves chips towards his already-huge pile. "Ok, ok, have I got one for all of you." Justin begins, slamming her flush on the table. "So, I knew this one guy once. One of those big shots, you know the kind." The rest of the table lies down their hands as she continues her story. Denise brings out drinks, and goes to check on Clover, who is hiding out in her room a few doors down.

"Clover, can I come in?" Denise asks, knocking at the door. "Yeah, come in." Clover says, and Denise opens the door. Inside, the room is very clean. Clover's bed is made, white sheets and pillows. She has a nightstand with a lamp, a closet, and a wardrobe. Katrina had heard about her fashions, and made sure she had a room that could hold all of her clothing. "So, are you ok?" Denise says, leaning on the doorframe. "Um, I guess. It's not like I haven't seen stuff like that before, I mean, my entire body is rotting. The only thing that really freaked me out was the fact that it was my friends. Like, wow. But yeah, I'm ok." She says. "Well, if you want, everyone else is having quite the time over in the medical wing. I think they're playing poker?" Denise replies.

Clover nods, and the two walk to the medical wing together.

Cards and poker chips are scattered across the room. Justin, broken leg and all, is on top of the table, holding a cyclops by his shirt with one hand, and the other one is repeatedly punching him in the face. "STILL FEEL LIKE CHEATING, DUDE?" She yells, and the rest are cheering her on from the sideline. Denise's smile falls, and Clover covers her eyes. The cyclops pushes himself up, and the two fall off the table in a heap of fur, hooves, and eyes. The mechanics and scientists pile on, and the fight becomes more of a war. Spiriod Ryuu is sitting in the corner, analyzing every move with her bright led eyes. "The imp is going to win." She says to Denise with a straight face.

An hour later, the crowd is lounging around the medical bay, nursing their black eyes and broken noses. Denise is cleaning up the lab room, Clover is talking to Justin, and Yumi, David and Kevin are helping Spiriod Ryuu with the dishes. "Anyways, the biggest mecha is supposedly the Getter Emperor, but Proto-Omega is like, the size of a galaxy!" "Whoa, what would you do with a robot that big, huh? Fictional worlds really need to curb their sizes." "Why? I mean, bigger is better, right? You gotta keep the audience-" "Who cares about nerds that still live in their parents bedrooms? Thats the only 'audience' who cares. If you put more real-world situations in your 'anime', then maybe people like me would watch it." Their discussion continues into the night, and slowly the scientists and mechanics disperse. By midnight, the entire team is sitting together and talking about robots. "Yeah, well, when I was in the military-" Justin starts, but suddenly stops. All eyes turn towards her. "You were in the military, Justin?" Clover whispers. The satyr gets up, and leaves the room.

The team awakes to the sound of blaring alarms. Justin instinctively jumps out of bed, but her broken leg stops her from going far.

Katrina stands by the end of her bed, hands on her hip. "Justin, you cannot go out and fight. I will see to that. The US army can handle this one." She leaves, and Justin grabs her crutches. The satyr hobbles out of the medical bay and down the hall, following behind Katrina. "Wait! I need to go! They can't fight those things by themselves!" She yells after the centaur. Katrina slowly turns around, and looks Justin in the eye. "We can handle this by ourselves. Go back to bed, Justin." Justin stops dead in her tracks. Yumi is signaling her from around a corner. "What are you looking at?" Katrina asks, looking behind her. Yumi ducks back behind the corner. "Um, nothing, I just thought I saw something. Uh, I have to go get something in my room." Crutches moving fast, Justin hobbles past a confused Katrina and around the corner where Yumi was hiding.

The two hide in a cleaning closet, Justin trying to adjust herself to make her broken leg less crushed between a broom and a mop bucket. "So, Justin, I snuck into Katrina's office the other day. And there were papers on her desk. Papers that said things about the underwater nation. Justin, the missile launch wasn't an accident. The USA took out the power source on purpose. And it isn't just the USA that's in on this. All the land nations are grouping together. They're using you, me, and the rest of the team to kill all the underwater nation's major warriors. Then, the underwater nation is completely defenseless. I don't know why they want to do this yet, but I feel like we're going to find out soon. Justin, you need to, I mean, we need to do something about this." Yumi says. She takes a deep breath, and continues. "So, the best way to do this? Fake it. Fake killing the next monster. Show the underwater nation we're on their side. We need to turn this around." Justin looks at her, a bit angry."Wait, how I am supposed to believe you? You nearly killed David! He can still barely talk!" Justin asks. "Because I copied the papers. " She says, pulling a folded mass of paper out of her back pocket. Justin looks shocked, and takes the papers from her hand. The satyr looks through them. "I still don't believe you. These prove nothing, you could have easily photoshopped them." Footsteps are heard outside. "Justin! Listen! This is extremely important! You need to stop them! They're having me design something, something awful and horrible that I can't even wrap my head around. This is so much bigger than you think, ok? Personally, I don't think it's even about the underwater nation. It's about a discovery they made, and they're trying to hide it."

"I'll think about it." Justin says, and gets up. "No, you can't think about it." Yumi says. "You need to decide. Creatures, trillions of them, and maybe the universe itself is in danger. Do you believe me, or Katrina?" Justin takes a deep breath. "I...will keep trusting Katrina for now." She says. Outside, the person leaning on the door listening to every word cracks a smile, and floats off down the hall.

Justin leaves the broom closet, making sure no one was outside, and hobbles back to her room. A very upset Yumi decides to prove, once and for all, that the land nations are up to something. She takes off down the hall, ignoring the red warning lights flashing everywhere.

Another blue mushroom falls onto the floor of the bathroom. Clover is searching for a specific type of mushroom in her skin, one that only grows once in a long while, and has taken years to nurse into adulthood. But she needs it now, for a purpose only she can have. In her hand, a picture of Yumi is held tightly. On the door, a steel bar keeps anyone from coming in when she's doing this delicate procedure.On the counter, she has all of her tools of trades lain out where she can use them to their full potential.

Denise is scribbling fiercely on a piece of notebook paper. She checks behind her quickly, to make sure no one is there, and hurriedly stuffs it in an envelope with two hundred dollar bills that she stole at the poker game last night during the fight. Even here, she had to do her dirty work. The envelope is sealed, and she sneaks out of her room to mail it out. It isn't hard to get out of the facility, she just says she wants to visit her husband and kids. And it's a short drive to the post office. Too easy, just like it always has been.

Justin looks through an old scrapbook she took with her. She missed Salmon, who was confiscated at the door and who she hasn't got a chance to visit in her yet, with all her injuries. The pages are full of pictures from her childhood to just a few months ago, when she visited her parents for Christmas. But the section she was at was lacking good memories. She could almost hear the screams , like it was happening all over again. She closes the book, and rolls over to go to sleep.

Kevin is trying to keep himself in check. He was always so unstable, but he knows that he can't mess up now. If only time couldn't rewrite itself, he thinks as he goes over what he has to do here. Everything was clicking into place, for all the team members. And now all he had to do was wait, and it would all unfold.

Not that he was looking forward to what was going to happen.

The damage done to London could never be fixed. Thousands were killed, and thousands more injured. Katrina watches with a straight face as the news showed the wreckage that used to be a great city, the Big Ben destroyed, and millions of homes smashed to pieces. Armies of the world had grouped together, but it was near impossible to take down. The entire world was in mourning. But it wouldn't stop anytime soon, not until the underwater nation received its power back. A tiny part of Katrina was happy to see it destroyed, that the world deserved it for what they were doing to the underwater nation, and what they were going to do. The rest of her knows that the underwater people could never understand why they were doing this, and what was at stake. And they could never know.

Something catches her eye. A small mushroom was growing on the corner of the TV, just large enough to see with her naked eye. She trots up to it, and carefully plucks it off the plastic casing of the television. It was rooted deep into the electronic, like it could somehow still get nutrients from the plastic. There is no way a mushroom could be growing on that, Katrina thinks. "David, take this mushroom to Clover. It was growing on the TV, and I need you to ask her about it." She calls to her intern. He comes in and takes the fungi, nodding. Dark bags have formed under his eyes, and he has stopped talking except for when it was necessary. The project he was working on had whittled away his mind to almost nothing, but Katrina insisted he continued. And her knew why, of course. It made perfect sense when he finally put all the pieces together.

When David had opened the door to Clover's room, he had never expected to find anything like this. He had just wanted to look around, make sure everything was alright in her room. David had found the padlock on her closet a little strange, so he opened it up. But instead of clothing, there was pictures. And not just any pictures, or pictures of Clover. It was pictures of them. Katrina, David, Justin, Yumi, Spiriod, Kevin, and their families, friends, and everything about them. Houses, rooms, schools, workplaces, pictures that were a hundred years old. David is speechless at best. He doesn't even notice the person standing behind him. A hand snakes over his mouth, and everything goes black.

"Justin, can you pass me the bandage roll, please?" Denise asks the satyr, who still had a cast on but could work her way around with crutches now. "Here you go!" Justin yells from across the room, and throws the fresh roll of bandages to the other. David was the one lying on the operating table, bruises and small wounds covering him. It looks as though one of the mechanics got to him as revenge for Justin beating one of their members up. He says he doesn't remember anything, the last thing that comes to mind was Katrina asking him to go to Clover's room. "So, David, do you know why that vampire kid always stares at you?" Justin asks, leaning on one of the operating tables. "No clue. I think he wants to, like, suck my blood? But Yumi's told him it tastes gross. And yet, he still stares at me every chance he gets. Man, one day, he took me aside and was like 'You're so important, I'm looking out for you'. It was pretty freaky." The dullahan takes a deep breath. "He's like, obsessed with me or something. I'd tell him to buzz off, but I don't mind the attention. Actually, he reminds me of one of my brothers, and that's always a good thing." Justin thinks she can detect a hint of sadness in his voice. "You miss your siblings, huh?" She asks. "Yeah. You have a pretty big family too, though, Justin. I saw the picture in the Winter Wasp." David says. "Yeah. Me and my family are pretty tight, they only live one providence away from me. Every major holiday I go down and visit them, and wow, it's quite a party. Last year-" Justin laughs, her belly wobbling. "Last year, I dunked my older brother in the frozen creek behind my parent's house. He came up with a half-frozen beard, and his horns were so cold. So yeah, we have quite the time."

David takes a long sigh, Denise carefully wrapping a cut on his elbow. "Whoever did this to you, looks like it was more than fists. Seems like they took a baseball bat or something to your skin, David." Denise says. "Yeah, it feels like it. The funny thing is, they took the mushroom I was going to give to Clover. But whoever it was, they didn't touch my wallet! But it doesn't actually have any money in it." He replies, laughing. "Anyways, I'm just glad they didn't kill me, or you know, something like that." Denise nods, and gestures to Justin to pass her the cotton balls. "Yeah, I'm sorry for ticking them off, David. If you want, I can go beat 'em all up, then I'll be sure to get the one that hurt ya." David pales at Justin's words. "No, no no! It's ok, really. I can handle it myself. Maybe you can teach me how to fight someday, Justin." "Haha, if you want to, kid. But I wouldn't go easy on you just because you're a pale skinny boy, aight?" She says, laughing. Denise dabs another wound on his forehead, and yawns. "How about lunch?"

Justin, David and Denise all sit together on the lab table, eating various meals. Denise has a giant pile of food that her mouth is devouring fiercely, Justin has a fish sandwich, and David is eating a bowl of instant macaroni and cheese. "So, hey, Denise. How come I don't see your husband around? Or your kid? I know they're on this base somewhere." Justin asks, mouth full of fish. "They aren't allowed in this section of the base." Denise says. "I go and visit them every so often, but despite how long it feels, we've only been here a week or so. If you want, you can come with me to visit them sometime. My daughter would love you, I think." Her mouth finishes its meal, and withdraws its tendrils from the table. "M'kay, that sounds nice. Oh, that reminds me, its almost Saint Patty's day. Like, in two days. Are we going to do something for that, or what? I know the whole 'giant monsters attacking earth' situation is at hand, but it's not like I could do anything with this leg anyways." Justin says. David nods, and Denise clears her throat. "This has been way more play for me than work, I think. I came here expecting hundred of patients, but instead all I get is a broken leg and some bruises." Denise says. "And so I think we could do something." "It's almost like, uh, nevermind." Justin mutters. "Hey, Justin, what is it? C'mon, we don't bite." David ponders. "Well, uh, it's almost like this whole MECHA thing is like, a cover. I know it sounds crazy, but ya gotta think, ok. We haven't been fighting much of anything. A real team would have three times as many members, and isn't a little weird this project that's been going on since the sixties only has one robot? I mean, just something to chew on." Justin says. She thinks she can see David pale a little, but he nods understandingly anyways.

Saint Patrick's Day comes without another attack. Justin watches on the TV as the armies of the land nations amass to fight off the foot soldiers the underwater nation sends by the thousands. It's a bloody war, for sure. But she turns off the TV, and whirls around to face the party in the Winter Wasp's storage bay. Everything is decorated with green, from the outfits to the streamers and balloons to the tables filled with food and drinks. Yumi has excused herself from the party, but no one has seen much of her around anyways. Justin has the sneaking feeling it has to do with what she told the satyr in the cleaning closet, but she shrugs it off and lets herself enjoy the party. David and Clover are over with Kevin in the corner playing a videogame, Denise is laughing it up with Katrina, and Spiriod Ryuu is showing an astonished laboratory crew how she can balance an entire pyramid of glasses filled to the brim on her body. Justin heads over to where the cyclops she beat up is starting a poker game, giving him a hearty slap on the back.

They continue festivities all day, and well into the night. Justin loses all of her money to an Oni, and is attempting to win it all back. If that doesn't work, she's sure another poker game will restore her wealth. She thinks she's pretty good at it, after all. Clover has disappeared from the party, back to her room, while Yumi showed her face. Her and Kevin are lying on the ground, worn out, describing each other as neither has seen their own face. "You have this really small mole on your chin. But it's not ugly, it actually works with your eyes well?" "Oh! You have a mole too! It's right on your neck. Pretty obvious, but the scarves you wear normally cover it up. And you have a super light, like, dusting of freckles across your nose!" Yumi says, laughing.

Katrina is playing cards with Denise when the tablet in her pocket buzzes.She quickly brings it out, and reads over the new report she was sent. A worried looks falls on her face as she looks up at Justin, who's laughing loudly at a story the werewolf is telling.

The tablet reads clearly: "TIME FOR PHASE TWO."

"And so, you will start tomorrow. The first city we need to attack is their main northern-pacific city. It's near the equator, in the pacific ocean. You and Spiriod, instead of helicopters, will be shipped out by boat. The rest of the team will accompany you, but they will stay on the ship. Hopefully everyone can manage the shift in instruments." Katrina says, tapping the map on the wall of her office with a pointer. Justin swallows, curling her hair around her fingers. "What about my leg? I can't pilot the robot like this." "Don't worry, the robotics team has you covered. They need you to stop by today and check out what they made for you." Katrina replies. "Also, I want you to keep an eye on Yumi while you're on the ship. I can't come myself, but one of David will go with you, and I can't trust all the teens on the ship without an adult keeping an eye on them at all times. I would ask Denise, but she will be busy as a medic." The centaur says, smoothing her coat. "Alright Justin, go pack up. The weather down there will be warm, so I assume you are going to shave again." "Wait. How are we going to travel by ship? There's no way that the underwater nation is going to let us travel over their seas now." Justin asks, standing up. "That is none of your concern. Now go trim yourself."

Justin didn't know how to shave herself, so she had to find Denise to help her. Out of all of the team, the Futakuchi-onna was the one Justin trusted to most. She used to like Clover, but with all the sneaking around the fairy had been doing, Justin wasn't sure about her anymore. And now, Denise stands over her, electric shaver in hand. Justin didn't have to wear clothing anymore, but as soon as she shaved she would. "Are you sure about this, Justin? It doesn't hurt or anything?" Denise asks. "Yeah, it's fine. The only thing it really hurts is my dignity." The satyr says with a laugh. She's sitting upright on the hospital bed she knows so well, carefully combing through her thick fur with her fingers. Denise decides to start on her back, and carefully puts her hand on Justin's shoulder blade. "Do you miss your horn, Justin? Are you going to get it replaced when you get home?" Denise asks. "Yeah, if I ever get home." The satyr says, her tone sad. The electric shaver starts up, and Justin shivers as her fur is slowly shaved off, leaving her back bare. "You don't think you're going to make it, Justin?" Denise says. "I kinda doubt it. If the underwater nation doesn't kill me, the USA will. " "What do you mean?" "I mean..." Justin lowers her voice. "I mean, I might not even destroy their cities. Why does the US want me to do that, kill millions of innocent people? I don't understand it. Everything is so concealed and secretive, I don't know who to trust anymore." Denise nods, cutting off another thick strip of brown fur. "But, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."

David is packing his bags. His 'clone' was going to need quite a few sets of clothing, as they'd be gone for a while. Not himself, though. Even though he could keep in touch with his other through telekinesis easily. I'm going to miss Kevin, Clover and Yumi while they're gone, the Dullahan thinks. It won't be much fun around here. But I won't miss Kevin's constant staring. What is up with that guy? If he wanted to, like, eat me he would have done it already. Maybe I should ask him what he wants from me. He stuffs another shirt in his bag, smiling as he thinks of the good times that he's had with the other teenagers. When he signed up to be an intern with the pentagon, he never expected anything like this. Secrets, friends, a strict mentor, none of it. But he was glad that he was going back to college after this. The team had exchanged Skype usernames and blogs, so they would be sure to keep in touch. Yumi was already planning a gaming night for all of them after everything was over. I bet Yumi is glad that she's not going back to prison. I wonder if she's going back to hacking after all this. She calls herself an ex-hacker though, so maybe she's done with that stuff, David thinks.

Clover is getting dressed for today, as she had slept in late. A sweater, skirt, and stockings sufficed for her outfit, going with a bubblegum pink theme. Her hair was dyed that same color, looking like waves of watered-down Pepto Bismol. A hair bow tops it all off, and she's ready for the day. David had left a note on her mirror, telling her that Pokemon trading was so on for tonight, and that she should pack for a long trip on a boat. Clover was excited for the ship ride, even though she had no idea why they were going out. Mushrooms had started to grow all over her room, because as a mushroom fairy she also had the ability to compost material. Not by magic, but there was an advanced chemistry behind it. People like her had been used for ages to make fertilizer and break down old buildings and such. She had strived to make her career veer from the path of gardener. Her mom had supported her every step of the way, and made sure she got the job she wanted. Clover has felt awful about that for so long, that someone would help an awful person like her to become something great. I wonder what my mom is doing right now, she wonders. She's probably doing better off without me around.

Kevin and Yumi are helping each other pack. They had become best friends ever since they described each other last night. It was hard for a vampire, as they could never see what they looked like. Currently, instead of packing, they are arguing about Bleach. "Just the ending of the anime proves how the manga is superior to it in every way!" Yumi nearly yells. "But people don't read the manga anymore! They watch the anime! I'm not talking about quality, I'm talking about audience." Kevin says, leaning back on the headboard of his bed. Yumi is trying to tap into her Moroi powers and float through the wall to spy on Spiriod, as she is making a lot of noise in her room. "Man, what do robots even do alone in their room?" Yumi ponders out loud. "Also, people totally still read the manga! And play the card game, and read the light novels, and all that stuff! How do you know what they do, huh?" She asks, her eyes turning white yet again. "I thought only pure Moroi could go through walls." Kevin asks, but Yumi shrugs him off, and keeps trying to work.

Once everyone is packed and ready, they gather together in the cafeteria for lunch. Spiriod has been showing up to eat with them more and more, and engages in their conversations with them. A shaved Justin gets everyone to sign her cast, and Clover is listing off all the things that she packed to make sure she has everything. The table is, as always, piled high with food for Denise. Since they've been eating together, every member of the team takes two trays of food and leaves one for the Futakuchi-onna. The mouth doesn't seem to care if the food is hot or not, so Denise doesn't bother showing up early. Spiriod is fixing one of the Winter Wasp's motion sensors, filling her part of the table with screws and wires. Yumi is talking to David and Kevin again. "And he was like, 'I'm talking abooout audience, who cares about quality lawwl'." Yumi says, poorly imitating the conversation she had earlier with Kevin to David. David laughs, and Kevin feels hurt.

"So, is everyone packed and ready to go on the ship?" Justin asks. The rest of the team bobs their heads, and Justin gives a nod of approval. "How about you Justin? What are you going to do about your broken leg?" Yumi asks. "Well, the robotics team made me something. I'm not sure what it is yet, but I'm going to go check it out this afternoon. Hopefully it's not like a leg replacement or something. Not that it wouldn't be cool to have a robotic leg, but I think I'll keep mine until it wears out completely." Clover looks up from her food. "How long do satyrs normally live?" she asks. The entire table goes silent, and all eyes snap to Justin. "Uh, like 80 to 100 years? I don't know man, it's hard to get rid of us. Why?" "No reason." Clover replies, and goes back to her meal. The rest of the table stays quiet for the remainder of the meal.

After lunch, Justin goes to visit the robotics crew. She's escorted into their wing, and is told to sit on an operating table in an room filled with different sorts of medical equipment. They give her anesthesia via a mask, and she falls asleep as they prep for the "surgery." In a few hours, she awakes to find her leg back in working condition, but with a shiny metal "frame" surrounding it. On her knees and ankles they have joints, and it's all connected together. "Go on, take a step." One of the mechanics tells her. She leaps off the table, and takes a walk around the room. It feels just like walking again, all the frame does is keep her broken bone in place. She thanks the robotics crew, and heads off to bed.

The next morning, the team is ready to head out early. Justin didn't manage to find enough time to comb through her messy locks, so they stick out every way. The teenagers are nearly half asleep, except for Kevin, who is chattering to Denise about a strange dream he had last night. "Justin! I really like your...cast!" Clover says, gently tugging on Justin's shirt. The satyr smiles awkwardly. "Thanks, I guess? Hey, I want to talk to you, Clover." Justin says. "Why did you ask me how long I live? And don't tell me no reason, either. I want to hear the truth, ok?" Clover clears her throat, red slowly spreading across her face. "It's not something that I want to talk about in public." The fairy murmurs, letting go of the other's white t-shirt. Justin's eyes widen slightly, and she understands.

Helicopters carry the Winter Wasp out of its storage, and the team can hear the whirring of the blades. A sinking feeling washes over them, not knowing what could lie ahead. It could be instant death, it could be victory, or it could be something completely different. The short walk out to the blistering cold Alaskan air didn't take much time. It was dark out, but lights all around the facility keep it bright as daytime. Snowy air whirls around the crew, and Justin shivers, not used to cold air without her dense coat of fur. They walk past the barbed wire gates, past the outer towers, and into a Sno-cat, that takes off into the dark snowy wasteland towards the ocean. Everyone in the truck stays silent, each deep in their own thoughts. The drive to the ship wasn't that far, only about 10 miles.

Everyone piles out of the Sno-cat, and hurries down to the port, silent. Denise takes off her coat and wraps it around a shivering Justin, who takes it happily. Yumi and Clover help each other up the stairs to the boat. The entire team slowly climbs up the walk into the giant ship, unable to see far in front of them due to the snow flurries whipping through the air in front of them. Once they make it into the huge doors of the boat, two minotaurs close the heavy gates. Everyone takes off their winter clothing, and they take a minute to look around. They're in a hallway, with dark green metal walls, plenty of pipes and buttons everywhere. One of the minotaurs gently motions for them to follow her through the halls, and the other stays behind them and carries their luggage. "So, uh, Katrina sent me some lists of errands for you guys." The minotaur in front says, talking a piece of paper out of their pants pocket. "Um, Justin is to report to the Winter Wasp loading station as that's where her cabin is, Clover should go to the ground control room, Yumi, David and Kevin are to go to the coding area, and Denise has her work at the med bay. I'll take your luggage to your room." A phone rings in the minotaur's pocket, and she answers it. "Yes, alright." The phone gets shoved into her pocket, and she turns to the team. "I need to go. Louis, my twin, will take you to all of your rooms." She runs off, and all eyes turn to Louis, who shies away from their view. "U-uh, follow me."

He drops everyone off at the main lobby, and their luggage, and then runs off. "So, uh, now what?" Justin asks everyone, leaning against the doorframe. "Uh, want to check out the deck?" She says, nodding towards the sign on the wall that points them to the deck. The rest of the team nods, and she motions for them to follow her.

As Justin climbs the ladder and opens the trapdoor to the deck, she's met with bitter cold wind that blows all the way down to everyone else. Her shirt rustles, and goosebumps form on her clean shaven skin, but she climbs up into the snowy air anyways. The wind chaps her lips as she steps out onto the deck. She can't see anything except snow, but as the rest of the team climbs up, the storm starts to clear. The view revealed is amazing. Over the ice-coated guardrails and technicians conducting tests on the Winter Wasp, a beautiful sunrise is revealed. Purples, reds and oranges dance across the cloudy sky, and Clover steps in front of the rest of the team to gaze at the beautiful sky, holding her hair back with one hand. "Alright guys, I'm cold, let's go back inside." Yumi says, and climbs back down the ladder into the ship. Justin takes a few minutes to look over the giant robot laying on the top of the ship. She can only see the bottom of its feet, and wonders how large the ship is just to hold it. Then, she goes back inside the ship with the rest of the team.

"So, how about we go look for our room?" David asks. Everyone else nods, and they split up, heading down different hallways. Clover, Denise, Spiriod and Justin all go alone, and the rest of the teens go try to find the programming room. "Kevin, you're being pretty quiet today." David says, tracing the pipes running down the hallways with his slender fingers. "What's up with you?" Kevin clears his throat. "Well, uh, I have an odd feeling about this mission. Sometimes I think it would just be better to give up and go home. But then I remember I have an important mission here." The other two nod, but they don't understand what he really means. "I feel like that too, yo. Hey, to cheer you up, how about a magical girl marathon tonight? Card Captor Sakura, Puella Magi, Sailor Moon, the whole works. Whaddaya say?" Yumi says. "That sounds nice. But we'll have to find Clover too, I know she loves mahou shoujo stuff." David replies. "Dude, she's been so weird lately, have you noticed? It's like she has some secret that she's trying to hide or something. Personally, I think she's some other species and embarrassed about it." Yumi ponders as she directs everyone around a corner. She doesn't notice the red that surfaces on Kevin's cheeks. "I think she's just shy." The vampire boy says. "Like, we've been friends for a while and I barely know anything about her. She doesn't talk much, except about fashion and that kind of stuff." He finishes. "Yeah, that makes sense. But is she getting more shy, or what? I just hope she can pull herself together enough to help Justin for the final battles." Yumi says.

Justin and Spiriod travel the same hall to get to their rooms, and are talking about robotics. "Ok, but, how do they program living being's error? I mean, you're not going to get a perfect robot until you get personality. And personality isn't perfect." Justin says. "Error is error. It isn't supposed to be. Robots don't need error." Spiriod replies, obviously not in a talking mood. "Yeah, but you're never going to be accepted into society until you show you're down to earth, ya dig?" the satyr says. Spiriod looks up at her like she's stupid, and then directs her vision to straight ahead. Justin starts to feel nervous, and rubs her arm. "Hey, I was thinking about getting all the team members and stuff together to play cards again. You should play this time, you'll be good at it." Spiriod's smooth robotic body continues to pace down the hallway, ignoring her. She turns a corner, and walks the opposite way that Justin does. Hmm, I thought the robotics lab was by my sector, Justin thinks. The satyr decides to stop by the robotics lab on the way to her room to see if Spiriod manages to make her way over there.

All by herself, Denise reaches the medical bay about an hour later. A few nurses and doctors already there welcome her, and she gratefully accepts their welcome. "Denise, I'm sorry to bother you when you first arrive, but we have a patient here that wants to see you." Denise looks puzzled, but lets the nurse lead her to the patient's bed. It was Justin, sporting a black eye and claw marks down her chest and arms. "What happened?" Denise shouts, rushing to clean her wounds. "Well, uh..." Memories play through Justin's head. She was just picking on the werewolf that worked at the robotics lab, and all of a sudden he tells her to shut up in an angry tone. This led to Justin telling him to shut up, which led to pushing, which led to Justin throwing him to the ground, but since she wasn't feeling up to speed, the fact she was clean shaved was distracting her, and c'mon, she had a broken leg, the werewolf kinda managed to beat her to a pulp. "I fell down the stairs." Denise gives her a doubtful look, and wraps up a bleeding claw mark on her arm. "How about you tell me what really happened?"

It wasn't one day until Justin was back to slamming the werewolf's head on the ground. That night, at the card game, the robotics team had decided to show up even though the head mechanic was extremely angry at Justin. Now, the table was smashed, a crowd had amassed all around the room, and in the center the werewolf and Justin stood across from each other, bloody noses dripping down their faces onto the floor. The werewolf leaps onto Justin, claws bared, but she ducks in time and he only manages to scrape the top of her back. The satyr takes the time he's down to deliver a sharp kick with her hooves to his hunched back, but he grabs a hold of her leg and pulls, slamming her to the ground. She groans in pain when her good horn slams into the floor, sending a stabbing feeling through her head. But she pushes herself up, and throws a punch at the werewolf's face, hitting him square in the jaw. He growls and swings a clawed hand at her, slicing open her cheeks. Blood splatters across the carpet, but Justin pays no mind. She ducks his next swing, and whirls around, kicking the werewolf's feet out from under him. His body slams to the ground, but he leaps up instantly, and jumps on Justin, knocking them both over. Justin struggles to get out of his hold as he raises a clawed fist with the intent to bring it down on her face. The crowd is cheering, and the scent of blood and sweat fills the air. Justin suddenly has an idea. When the werewolf swings his arm down, she snaps her head, and her good horn spears him right in the hand. He jumps back, howling in pain, and Justin kicks him off with full force. The werewolf is knocked against the crowd, who holds him back as Justin rises to her hooves. "Let 'im go." She mutters, wiping her bloody face with one hand while staring daggers at her opponent. The werewolf signals to the crowd, and the cyclops she had beat up earlier steps out. Justin lets out a dark laugh. "What's the matter?" she slurs. "Can't handle me alone?"

A few minutes later, the cyclops holds down her wrists while the werewolf repeatedly smashes her face in. Justin's horn is being held with one of the Werewolf's hands, and the other claws at her head, ripping out hair and spraying blood. After the werewolf is done with her, Denise and Clover drag her out of the "ring" and rush her off to the medical wing while the cyclops and werewolf celebrate their victory. But before they could reach safety, the alarm bells start ringing, and the ship suddenly lurches sideways. Justin shrugs off Clover and Denise, standing tall and gazing wide-eyed at the blinking light. "Justin, you can't, just let me bandage you-" The satyr silences her with a hand motion, and runs off to the deck. The ship jerks again, knocking Clover and Denise to the ground. Justin holds onto the walls, and makes her way to the Winter Wasp's loading station. A mechanic hands her a clean rag to wash the blood off her face, and she climbs up a ladder inside the ship that goes straight to the Winter Wasp's head.

Another sway of the ship, this one much bigger, knocking Justin out of the pilot's seat of the Winter Wasp and onto the floor. She climbs back into her chair, and buckles everything up. The mechanics close the door to the Wasp's head, and Justin waits for the deploy of her giant robot. Right on cue, the helicopters take her up into the air, and gently set her down in the sea beside the ship. Clover's voice comes in loud and clear. "Justin, they can't let you go, you'll plunge into the sea. You need to knock the creature off the ship somehow." "Thanks Clover, but I got it handled." She punches the button to release the Winter Wasp from the helicopter, and grabs the beast on the way down. It is peeled off the ship, and plummets down to the ocean with Justin. The satyr flicks the headlights on, and can finally get a good view of the creature she's fighting. It has several thousand legs, and some sort of bioluminescent lights down it's sides. Justin thinks it looks like a sea slug, as she grasps one of its legs to pull herself up. They reach the bottom of the ocean in no time, and Justin lands face down, quickly pulling herself upright. The creature stays oddly still, and Justin can get a better look at it. It's about twice as tall as her, and she thinks it's a wonder that it didn't just swallow the ship whole. It does look almost exactly like a sea slug, but with thousands of clawed legs running along both of it's sides. Justin stumbles backward when it turns around, revealing a mouth with millions of huge sharp teeth. She draws out her sword and poses to fight as it stirs up dirt around both of them. The satyr activates her vision filter so she can see through the clouds of dust. The beast is gone. "Clover, did the monster come back up?" she asks. Just then, she's knocked to the side when the beast swims at her fast, and she struggles to keep the robot upright. "No, my sensors say it's right behind you, Justin." Clover's voice comes through just as the creature takes another hit at her backside. She swings the sword around, cutting through nothing but water. "Justin, there's another thing. If you slice that creature open, it has toxins inside that will get into the Winter Wasp's water-to-air system and kill you. You need to put away your sword and kill that thing without cutting it. A bash to the head should do." Justin nods, and sheathes her sword. The beast swims past her again in a flurry of bright glowing colors, and she swings her fist at it. But it doesn't effect the creature, who doesn't seem to want to kill her. It's teasing her.

Justin is sick of this game. She deploys the machine guns in her arms, and blasts the creature with bullets. It lets out a cry, and blue blood stains the water. Justin's stomach sinks as she realized what she's done. "Justin! It wanted you to do that! You've got to get out of there, and fast!" Clover practically screams into the microphone, jumping up from her seat in the ship. Justin shuts down the water-to-air system, leaving her with just a few minutes left of air. "Ya know, Clover, maybe you can tell the mechanics to install a little bit better system for air?" Justin says, firing the boosters to launch her through the water. "Justin, you don't have enough boost to get you all the way up here! You need to find a cliff or something and climb up." The satyr is feeling a little angry at the mechanics. She knows she shouldn't have made the head of the robotics crew so upset. Not that it mattered now, though. "Clover, I...there's no cliffs anywhere around here! I'm going to take my chances and fire the boosters." Clover screams no, but Justin shuts off the speakers, and turns on some hard rock instead. She fires the boosters, and they take her up through the ocean, and into the air. Justin feels betrayed. Why did Clover try to kill me? She thinks as the helicopters pick her up and lay her gently down on the ship again. And not only that, it was a pathetic attempt at killing me. She could have just let me slice open the creature earlier, Justin ponders as she climbs out of the cockpit and down the ladder back to the inside of the ship. Denise is waiting for her, and instantly starts dragging her back to the medical bay, not letting the satyr even get her bearings. "Denise, I think Clover tried to kill me. And she did, like a horrible job at it. What should I do?" Justin asks. Denise just gazes at her in disbelief. "Listen, Justin, I'm not in the mood, ok? I need to eat soon. We're having dinner in the med bay."

After dinner, the werewolf comes up to Justin and apologizes. "Hey, think nothin' of it, man. We should make it a thing, seriously. I felt a lot better after getting beat up, made me think clearer." Justin replies. The two are fighting again in less than an hour.

Yumi, Clover, Kevin and David take this chance to leave the dinner party and start their marathon. Since Yumi's room is in a restricted area, they all went to Kevin's bedroom. It's an extremely clean room, bed made perfectly, no clothing on the ground, nothing. They all head to the bathrooms to change into their pajamas, then David gets out his stacks of limited-edition blu-ray magical girl anime. "Ok, so what do you guys want to start with? Clover, since I heard you had a rough night, you choose." Clover smooths her white lacy nightgown that pairs perfectly with her short, white hair and selects one case. David loads it on the TV, and then quickly takes a seat on the floor under Kevin, who starts putting tiny bows into the dullahan's hair. Clover leans back onto Yumi's chest, and they smile as pinks and sparkles dance across the small TV screen. As the night progresses, David climbs onto the bed with the rest of the kids, and they all manage to make some sort of teenage sculpture with limbs sticking out everywhere and David almost falls off the bed several times. In the middle of the marathon, Yumi sneaks out to get food from the cafeteria, silently returning to the room with arms full of popcorn, cheese, blood, and pizza. Food stains the bed, and after the marathon is over they talk. "Ok, ok, I got one. Katniss Everdeen, Zelda, or Madoka, David." "Maaaan, why'd you give me those." David replies, and the rest of the teens laugh. "Kill Katniss, uhhh marry Madoka, and marry Zelda." "No, that's not how it works." Clover says, laughing. "Fine. Kill Katniss, marry Madoka, kiss Zelda." David says. The night goes on, and everyone ends up sleeping somewhere, whether it be the floor, the bed, or the closet. Clover has a hard time sleeping, and decides to go check on Justin to make sure she was OK. Even though she seemed fine when she was knocking the werewolf around, Clover still felt awful about what happened.

Justin was woken from sleep by alarm bells. She leaps up from bed, tugs a t-shirt over her only horn, and quickly opens the door to her cabin. David is standing right outside, still in pajamas with a sleepy look on his face. "What's going on?" Justin shouts, running over to the ladder that lead up to the Winter Wasp. "Uh, another attack. Smaller this time, but you can't fight it underseas. There's a city underneath us. We're going to have to fight it off without the winter wasp." David says, and Justin slowly climbs down from the ladder. "We need to hurry. It's not here yet, but it will be soon. There's gear and stuff in the lobby. Let's go." David almost shouts, motioning for Justin to follow him. The two run through the halls, and into the lobby where everyone else is putting on suits. Clover is teaching Yumi how to load her gun, and Denise zips up Kevin's suit. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Justin says. "You guys cannot fight. None of you know how to do anything?" Everyone rolls their eyes in unison. "Justin, we were trained to do this, remember? For an entire month?" Yumi replies. "That doesn't mean a bunch of teenagers can go out! Denise and I can handle this. Put your guns away." Justin commands. "This is no time to argue, everyone up to the deck!" David shouts.

The entire team marches up to the deck. It was raining, but not as cold as yesterday. The sea is mostly white foam, waves high and rolling. "It wasn't like this before!" David yells over the wind. Justin pulls down her goggles to shade her eyes from the rain, and Denise lets loose her hair, thinking maybe her other mouth could help her in some way. The teenagers search over the ocean, and David holds a tablet in his hand telling him where the beast is. "It's getting closer, almost right underneath us. I think it's a Fiji mermaid, a little larger than normal, though. Aim for the head or lungs, don't bother with the scales." The Dullahan yells. Something under the ship thumps against it, and everyone shouts, nearly falling over. Clover chases the last feelings of fear out of her mind, pushing up her helmet with one hand, clasping her gun tighter with the other. A large clawed hand grasps the side of the ship, and Justin breathes out heavily. As the thing climbs up the side and reveals itself, David nearly faints, and has to stable himself against Denise. The creature seems to be half monkey half fish, about the size of a great white shark. The face has terrifying eyes, nearly bulging out of it's skull. Teeth of all shapes and sizes stick out of its mouth, and giant ears protrude from it's skull on each side. It's fur is patchy and stiff, and has freakishly long, skinny arms. Long yellowed claws end on a point, and it uses these to climb further up. When it finally reaches the top, it's long, patchy-scaled fish tail smacks around on the deck. It roars at the team, and it's huge mouth opens up, slime dripping from its maws. Justin shouts at everyone to hold their fire, maybe it wasn't an attack but a sea native that lost its way. The rest of the guards climb up to the deck as well, and open fire on the "mermaid". It's skin is pelted with bullets, and it cries out in pain. The monster retreats back into the sea, no doubt going to come back again to try again. "Alright, you guys can go back down, we got this." One of the guards shouts, and the team obeys the order, going back down into the ship.

Throughout the night, gunshots and thumps ring down the hallways of the ship. Justin stays in the lobby, waiting in case they need her again. Denise, Spiriod and the teenagers hang out it the medical bay. "Justin, are you sure you're OK here alone?" Yumi asks one more time. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine." The satyr replies. "Alright. I'm going to go back to the medical bay." Yumi says. The teenager runs back out, and Justin is left alone again. She pulls out the picture of her family she took from the Winter Wasp, and strokes it with one hand. I wonder how mom's doing. Maybe I'll visit her when I get back, she thinks. A metallic thump came from below her. The satyr stands up, and stuff the picture back in her pocket. "Yumi? Are you ok?" Justin yells through the floor. Nothing, and she felt kind of stupid for doing it. She walks to the stairs, and listens closely. Another thump, this one further away. "Hmm" she murmurs, and starts to slowly climb down the metal stairs. It gets darker, and she wishes she had brought a flashlight. When she reaches the bottom of the cramped stairway, water laps at her feet. Her eyes widen, and she feels around for a lightswitch. A lever meets her touch, and she pulls it up. The entire hallway is flooded with light, and at least two feet of water. I gotta find the source of this and plug it up!, the satyr thinks. She steps down the last few stairs, and into the murky seawater. Another thump, still below her. "Hey, who's there? Are you ok?" She hollers, but no reply yet again. Now a little steamed, Justin wades through the water that's nearly up to her knees, searching for the source. It seems to be coming from that level, and slowly draining to the one below. She opened one of the rooms, a bedroom, and wades across the soaked bed to the other side. Out another door, and one step closer to the leak.

After about ten minute of going through rooms and hallways, Justin reached the ship's walls. The water here is much deeper, reaching past her waist, and is flowing quite steadily instead of being still like the water by the stairs. She looks through the portholes for signs of anything odd. Another thump. But this one was only a few rooms away from her, down beneath, and she could hear a noise like scratching at metal. Justin sucks in a deep breath, but doesn't concern herself with the noise. I need to find that leak!

She finds the leak alright. A room contained the leak, the door wide open and water cascading out of it. The pressure would be too great to close the door, she would have to find another way to seal it off. But before she could remember the expanding epoxy she had seen a few rooms ago, a noise that she thought was a cry for help echoed out from where she was hearing the thumps. It never even crossed her mind that the noise could be a person. She forgets all about the leak, and rushes to where she knew the stairs were. Justin gasps. Not noticing it because of her previous fast pace, she could now see claw marks all the way down the hall beneath the water. The claw marks continue down the stairway, and a large piece of sheet metal blocked access to the lower deck. It only took a few sharp kicks of her powerful hooves to dent in the metal enough to pull it out and toss it aside. Another thump, and now she can hear faint scratching and the oddest noise, like a large fish. Water flows down the stairs in rapids, and Justin takes the first step. But the stairs are too slick, and she feels her legs slipping out from under her. She tumbles down the stairs, rides the water like a very painful waterslide. As she stands up, a sharp pain courses through her broken leg. The brace had been bent to reveal the delicate wiring, which had been shorted out due to all the wire. Justin throws off the brace, as it is useless now. She can't go far with a broken leg, so she picks up the brace and holds it up, using her good hoof to break off two steel rods, and pulls out the wiring in them. Justin ties the two rods around her leg, and makes a makeshift splint. She would have to find some boards later and make a better one, but for now, this would have to do. "Hello? Is someone down here? Can I help you?" the satyr yells into the darkness. The stairway was dimly lit on its own, and the hallway was completely dark. Justin sighs. She was in pain, wet, and so far into the ship that no one would ever find her. Someone was in trouble just down the hall, the ship had a leak, and everyone else was up fighting the "mermaid".

Slowly, she grasps the stairway's handrail, and pulls herself up, holding her broken leg up. She makes her way slowly down the hallway, feeling for a light switch of any kind. The water is pretty shallow here, but it was enough to slow her down. Her eyes widen as she feels not a light switch, but a pile of rifles. Even if it is a stretch, she takes two, making sure they were unloaded, and uses them as crutches. It feels kind of stupid, but it's better than nothing. Now she can go and help the person. Yet another thump guides her down the dark hallway. The flopping fish noise gets closer and closer, until she is right in front of the door where it is coming from. Justin feels around the door frame. Finally, she thinks, as she flips a light switch up. The light flicker on, and she gasps in horror again. The water is stained red, and it's coming from the other side of the jammed door. "I'll help you!" Justin yells, and tries the handle. But it looks like someone had been pushing it from the other side and jammed it shut. She grunts, but knows what she has to do. After taking a few steps back, she half-jumps and half-falls onto the door. The flimsy metal instantly breaks, and Justin lands hard as the door swings open.

Staring her right in the face is the horrific bulging eyes of a bloody, angry Fiji mermaid.

Justin instantly tries to pull herself up and away from the creature, but her splint stops her and instead she falls backwards onto her back. She quickly pulls her head up and kicks backwards to the other wall. The beast cries out, and scratches the metal floor, but doesn't go anywhere. Justin looks up and over the creature. It's tail is stuck in a gun rack. She laughs internally, breathing heavily. Grabbing her "crutches", she pulls herself up and tries to calm herself. The mermaid had given her a huge scare, but the leak made sense to her now. The only thing she couldn't understand is how the creature got through the ship's wall. It was nearly impossible to penetrate it, it would need an explosive or something. Suddenly, the creature vomits. Slime pours from its throat, and onto the floor below, which corrodes into nothing when the slime hits it. "Oooooh." Justin says, and backs up. The monster flips itself around, and starts chewing on the gun rack. Justin decides it's time to go, and limps off. But before she can, the mermaid frees itself, and roars. The satyr looks around for something she can use as a weapon. Her crutches would be perfect if they were loaded, she would have to go get another rifle. The mermaid flops out of the room, barely squeezing its huge body out the door. Justin limp-runs outback to the gun pile, but in her rush she trips, and falls onto the metal floor only a few inches from the gun pile. Water fills her vision until she splashes to the surface. The mermaid claws itself closer and closer, and Justin army-crawls over to the pile. A clawed hand reaches out and grabs her leg, scratching all the way down. Justin cries out in pain, and manages to pull a gun out. She flips around to face the monster, and opens fire on its face. The mermaid roars, it's head pelleted with bullets. It leaps over Justin, and lands on the other side of her, clutching its face with one hand. Justin listens as it pulls itself down the halls, and Justin knows that she has to chase it before it kills anyone. The blood streaming out of her broken leg mixes with the water, and Justin sighs. She grabs a pipe on the wall and pulls herself up once again. Now that the creature was free, it could go anywhere it wanted.

Luckily, it didn't go up the stairs. According to the claw marks, it simply traveled down the hall. Justin, limping, follows its trail of bloody water and marks. She had slung the loaded rifle on her back, where it waited to finally kill the monster. It seemed to go into the engine room, exactly where Justin did not want to to go, besides upstairs. If it messed with anything in there, the ship might sink. Well, technically, it's sinking anyways, Justin thought with a smile. She limped onto the deck that overlook the room, searching for the creature. No water was in here, but if Justin didn't hurry, there would be soon. She spots movement down below, the monster had already jumped to the room itself. Justin hurries down the stairs as fast as she can go, and follows the blood trail though the large, hot pieces of machinery. Just touching any of these would fry her hand off in an instant. The blood trail goes everywhere, weaving through wires and equipment. And Justin's slow pace didn't help it. She looks up, and the monster is back on the deck above her.

Justin sighs, and wishes she could stop it somehow. "Hey, monster!" She yells, trying to get it to chase her as she slowly climbs the stairs. It looks over at her, and growls. "Hey, over here! C'mon!" Justin continues, and it starts crawling over to her. Her smile stays frozen on her face as she realizes what she's done. There was no way she could fight this thing hand to hand, even if she did have a gun all it would do was scare it away again towards the others. She finishes climbing the stairs, and leans herself against the guardrail. One of her gun crutches gets thrown to the ground, and the other one she uses as balance. The loaded gun is pulled off her back, just as the creature gets close enough to shoot at and hit. But she doesn't shoot, just waits for the mermaid to get closer. It's dreadfully sharp teeth leak corrosive acid all the way down the hall, and Justin flinches at the thought of the stuff eating through her skin. It leaps towards her, but Justin throws herself to the wall, and it slides down the hall. Justin takes a sharp breath as her broken leg is knocked around, not to mention the deep scratches down her good leg. I should just get the robotics team to saw off this leg and get a robotic one, she thinks as she rises to her feet, weaponless except for an empty gun. She crawls back to the guardrail, and the creature turns around for another go. This time, though, as Justin pulls herself to the top of the guardrail, it manages to pin her against the wall, one claw on each side of her. Justin flinches as it roars only inches from her face, and snaps its sharp teeth. The satyr dodges the first blow, but it drives its claws deep into her rib cage, and Justin yells out in pain. The guardrail can't support the weight for much longer, and it starts to bend backwards. Justin tries to push the mermaid off, her side bleeding profusely. She hears the metal of the guardrail start to give, and, dodging another try at eating her head, she grasps onto the cool steel behind her and hangs on for her life. The guardrail gives way, and the Fiji mermaid roars one last time as both Justin and it fall. Justin shouts in pain when the mermaid leaves its final gift, several long scratches down her legs. It falls to its death, being fried alive by the engines below, turning to ashes. Justin, hanging by a pole, uses her strong arms to pull her heavy body up and onto the deck.

She takes a deep breath, lying on her back. It was over, the monster was finally dead. Now she had to get medical attention, or bandage her wounds somehow. She grabs her crutches and limps down the deck, towards what she thought was the way up. Into a door, past the hallway. The satyr stops when she notices something odd. There was no water down this way. She clutches her head, she can't think straight. Blood oozed from her sides, too much for her to manage. The satyr feels too weak to go on, and falls to the floor. But her will to go on was strong, and she starts army crawling towards the nearest door, hoping that someone would be in there. But when she reaches the room, what she sees was not help. But through her dizziness, she could still recognize it. It was the answer to all her questions about the mission, and she knew that. Justin faints in a small pool of her own blood.

"Owwww..." the satyr says, reviving from her sleep. Everything hurts, from her head to her legs. She opens her eyes, and tries to move her hands. They're tied above her head. Her eyes are all the way open now, but she still can't see. Not only are her arms tied, but her ankles too. She has new clothing on, and her leg is in what feels like homemade splint. All her wounds are bandaged, even her horn which was no doubt cracked. And to top it all off, she's blindfolded and gagged. "Oh, you're up." A voice coming from the corner says. It sounds like Clover's, but with a darker undertone. Justin tries to yell, but nothing comes out but muffled sounds. The other person laughs, and Justin tilts her head towards the sound. It was no use trying to escape while the other person was standing right in front of her. "Don't worry about your leg, I bandaged it up nice for you." The sound of a door opening, and Justin can smell the familiar scent of the cheap cologne that David wears. She can also hear what sound like two bodies being dragged in and propped up against the wall on the other side. "Put them by Justin, then take a seat on that chair over there." The mysterious kinda-Clover's-but-not-really commands. More dragging noises, and Justin feels a warm body being placed next to her, and another one on the other side. Footsteps come close to her, and the scent of cologne becomes stronger. "David!" she yells, but it comes out as muffled. The footsteps take a seat, and the other person walks over and seems to tie them up. There's a period of silence, and then a loud crack, like flesh being hit with something hard. Justin gasps, and the sinking feeling becomes realer than she could ever imagine. Thoughts race through her head. Is this where David went when he got beat up? Is the person really Clover, and is this why she was acting so weird? Am I going to die here? The footsteps come right in front of her, stopping. She flinches when a cold hand traces her chin, gently angling her face upwards. The touch leaves, and Justin hears a ruffling noise. "Good night, Justin." Pain, and then the darkness overtakes her.

A gentle touch along her arm and the soft whispering of "Yumi" arouses the Moroi from sleep. She snaps her eyes open suddenly, and she comes face-to-face with Clover. "Clover! What's going on!?" She yells, but her gag lets no voice out. Pain courses through her head, like she had been hit hard. "Shhh, it's ok. I'm here." Clover says. Her voice is different, deeper and darker, and her eyes seem to have lost their shine, instead having dark undertones. But it wasn't Clover that Yumi is interested in. The room is torn apart, clothing lying all over the ground and mattress thrown on the ground. Around Clover, who was sitting on her lap (weird...), Yumi could also see a closet, full of pictures and trinkets. She, along with Justin who was next to her, David and Kevin were all tied up. Hands tied to the wall above them, and ankles tied tightly. Kevin and David were both crying, black eyes and bruises. Justin is staring straight ahead, unblinking, and she had a bloody nose along with bandages and her broken leg in a carefully made splint. All of Justin's bandages were wrapped perfectly, and some even had flowers stuck in them. Clover gets up. "Hello everyone. I'm not Clover, I'm Birdy, so please get the names right. We're best friends! We have Multiple Personality Disorder, which means we share a body. The only reason I'm here right now is she wanted me to do something for her." Birdy says. "She wanted me to tell you a story! So I will. It's a pretty long story, so if you need anything, just ask!"

Birdy pulls up a chair and sits down. Yumi's attention turns to a blood-stained baseball bat in the corner of the room. Is that why everyone's so beat up? She thinks. "Ok, so. First off, Clover wanted me to make it very clear we are two separate people! To give you guys a good idea of that, I hate fashion. But my relationship with her is more important to me than how we look. That's why I'm ok with her dressing up our body and stuff. I love to hike and go play sports, but she can't stand going outside. I have memories, and she has memories. We even have separate bedrooms at our house." She takes a deep breath. "We both have a couple things in common, though. Both her and I have obsessive love disorder. I have it much worse than her, though. That's why there's all those pictures. But we'll get to that later. She and I both love strawberry shortcake as well." Yumi looks over at Justin, who seems to be wiggling a lot. "I am much more violent than her. It isn't my fault, I just like to do it. I've been to therapy, I swear." Kevin looks terrified. "Enough about me, though, darlings! Let's talk about you." Birdy smiles. "How about we start with Justin. You were in the USA military, right?" Justin stops wiggling. Yumi thinks she sees a look of terror on the satyr's face, a look that she's never had before. "The army, to be specific. And you did something there, didn't you? You killed your brother." Justin has a look of shock on her gagged face. "It was an accident, of course, but you never went back into service again. There was something else you learned in the army. You learned how to escape from being tied up." Justin stands up, ropes falling off. Birdy picks up the baseball bat, walks right up to Justin, and slams her in the side of the head. The satyr is knocked to all fours, and Birdy kneels down, whispering something in Justin's ear. Crawling back over to her spot, an ashamed Justin sits down by Yumi again. "And Yumi. You never cared about anyone except yourself. Remember that visit that she had with you in the closet, Justin? She tried to kill you." Yumi lets out a muffled shout, straining against her ropes. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the very top of a deactivated Spiriod behind the bed frame. "You can deny it all you want, Yumi. Clover and I are always watching. We love all of you, why wouldn't we watch?"

"She just wants to back to her computer. It's disgusting, but I love her so much. And David, the one with terrible misfortune. I can't believe you got Denise to believe your story about having a big family. You're dead, why else wouldn't you have become a vampire when sweet, sweet Yumi bit you? Moroi are just as much vampires as anyone. But Denise isn't that smart either. She's hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt." David's eyes are dried now, but he still looks sad. "Finally, we come to Kevin. It's no use telling his story, he'll be hopeless either way. He stares at David so intently, like he's going to lose him any second. Maybe he is, though." Justin hangs her head, and everyone looks hopeless. "The only reason Denise isn't here is because she can't help us with what we're going to do." Birdy smiles. "Anyways, you guys need to relax. There's no one that can help you, I've made sure of that." A few of the team members wonder how long they've been out. She walks over to a table, and picks up a long, bloodstained knife. "David, when I let you out, I need you to untie everyone. Gently." Birdy kneels in front of him and softly cuts all his ropes, careful to not injure him. David is obviously distressed, but he stands up and does her bidding. Yumi nods to him gratefully as he cuts her loose, and she stands up. The moroi instantly leaps on Birdy, knocking them both to the floor. She wraps her hands around the fairy's neck, and mushrooms scatter across the ground. "How do you know so much about me?" she yells, and Birdy puts on a dark smile as her face becomes red. David rushes over and pulls her off the fairy, Yumi kicking and squirming. "David! I have to stop her! She's going to kill me!" Yumi yells, and Birdy gets to her feet, hair tousled. "Yumi, it's no use, she's locked us in here. Everyone else is up on top, getting ready." Yumi stops. "Getting ready for what?" She asks.

"The final mission." Justin replies, tearing the gag out of her mouth. She grabs the crutches that Birdy cleaned for her and gets to her feet. "I'm going to destroy the underwater nation, once and for all. Isn't that right, Yumi and David? You've been making the program that can allow the Winter Wasp to do that. It was never about the missile. It was about something much bigger." The satyr continues. "And what is that?" Yumi asks. "I'm not sure. I didn't see much." Justin says. The team all gets to their feet, and turns towards Birdy. "So, what's your plan?" David asks.

Several beatings and an hour of lecturing later, Birdy gives way to Clover again, who starts crying as soon as she's back. But the rest of the team doesn't seem to care. They know what they have to do now,.

The teens return to the cafeteria, and pretend like nothing ever happened. Clover explains some more about Birdy, and says she doesn't remember anything from what Birdy did to them. David and Kevin tell her not to worry about it. Spiriod is reactivated, and she goes right back to work on the Winter Wasp. Justin goes to make sure that Denise is OK, and she's just eating lunch in the medical bay. The satyr chooses not to tell her about Birdy, but does tell her about her the Fiji mermaid. Denise told her that she had heard about the leak, and that they had fixed it a day ago.

"So, Birdy, do you like, you know, video games and stuff?" David asks. "I only play puzzle games. Sometimes, Clover will let me play her copy of ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生, and I really like 999." The rest nod, amazed at her perfect Japanese. "You speak Japanese, Birdy?" Yumi asks. "Yes, I do. I can speak a lot of languages, actually. How Clover is with CAPCOM? That's how I am with languages." She replies. "I bet Spiriod would like you. She speaks a lot of languages too." " The robot? I lo-like her. We talked a little bit, when Clover and I first came here." "Why weren't you around the rest of the time, Birdy?" David asks the fairy. "Well, Clover thought it would be best if I stayed away for the entire time. But we started to see what was really happening, and I actually pretended like I was her for a while. It was rough, and Justin caught on to it pretty fast. I wanted to see what was going on for myself, though. Hey, I think I'll let Clover talk to you guys." "So, how does everyone like Birdy?"

"And then, I felt the guardrails giving out. So I braced myself, and when they snapped, BANG!" Justin yells, and the whole table jumps. The robotics team had come down from the deck to check on Justin, and they along with the mechanics who needed a break from modifying the Winter Wasp for the final battle. They started with cards, but right now they were listening to Justin tell her story about the Fiji mermaid. "So you're telling me, if I went to the engine room right now, I would see the remains of a monster?" The werewolf asks. "Well, yes, there's not much left but you would see some." Everyone laughs.

David bursts in the door, panting. Justin sits up, looking him straight in the eye. "We're ready."

The Winter Wasp's cabin is decked out. New buttons, new chair, new screens, everything. Justin whistles, and takes a seat in her pilot's chair. The leather was polished, and all the sensors that connect to her body have been changed out. She lowers the sensors that go over her chest and puts her arms inside the arm controls, grasping the hand hold. Her legs, one in a brace, go into the leg controls, and decides to try out the new voice commands. It was going to be confusing talking to Clover and trying to command the Winter Wasp, but Justin knew she could handle it. "Turn on interface." She says, and the screens light to life. The satyr gazes at the thousands of information reads that dart across the screen. "Hmmm. Show internal heat ratings." A bar graph and several temperatures show on the screen, pushing all the other information to one side. "Show internal heat ratings from...a month ago." She says. The graphs and temperatures change. Justin grins, and in her best Irish accent she says "Turn on headlights." The outer headlights flash on, revealing nothing but a rainy pacific day. "Turn off headlights, and....get me some coffee." No reading, as Justin figured. Well, enough playing around. I gotta go tell the crews that they did alright. And I should probably say goodbye to everyone too. Might not be coming back, she thinks. The sensors and controls are taken off, and Justin hops back down the ladders. Clover is waiting down below, and helps her off the ladder. "Y'know, kid, you're pretty cool. You should believe in yourself more." Justin says, and Clover blushes. "Hey, if I make it through this, you should teach me how to be all fashionable. Like you are." "Oh...sure. That sounds nice, Miss Justin!" Clover replies.

The goodbye-saying to the robotics crew turns into yet another fight between her and the werewolf, but the other members of the crew manages to separate them quickly. They give each other quick pats on the back, and Justin leaves.

"Hey, Denise. I'm going." Justin says, leaning on the doorframe. Denise, who's letting her mouth eat, looks over at her with sad eyes. "I'm going to miss bandaging you up, Justin." The two laugh a little. Justin fiddles with the envelope she has behind her back, sighing. "Do me a favor, Denise. Keep an eye on Clover. I want her to have a good life, her and Birdy both." The other nods. "Well, I'm not one for long goodbyes. See you around, miss." Denise offers a hand for a handshake, but Justin scoops her up in her large arms for a huge hug. Tears form in the corner of Justin's eyes, but she wipes them away when she sets Denise down. "Goodbye, Justin. I'll miss you." Denise says, and Justin sets the fat envelope down on the table before leaving.

Yumi, Kevin and David are all in the coding room, typing away at the keyboards. David isn't coding though, but playing an online game. Justin sighs, and steps into the room. "Yo, I'm leaving." The teenagers stand up, staring at her awkwardly. "Yumi, I want you to shape up. I'm serious. The life you're going to choose is no good. David, thanks for the ride from the airport, and teaching me how to be sensitive. Kevin, I'm not sure what you are or what your deal is, but I believe you have something to say to David. You should say it before all this is over, huh?" Justin lectures the three, who all nod. "Goodbye, Miss Justin." "Bye, Justin." "Good luck, Justin!" Justin steps into the room, revealing a large box that she's holding. She sets it down by David's keyboard, and walks out of the room.

Spiriod was in her room, polishing her metal. "Spiriod, we're going. Get your stuff together" Justin says, and Spiriod looks up at her, flashing her LED eyes. "I'm sorry we didn't get to talk more. I know you're...just a robot, but I see you as a friend." Justin says, setting a box on the robot's unused bed. "Thanks" Spiriod replies, and continues to polish herself. "I'll be in the Winter Wasp in about half an hour. I gotta make a couple calls."

"Yes mom, I know. Don't worry, I'll try my best, OK? Tell dad I love him. Alright. I love you. I'll be fine, I promise! Let me talk to Clifford. Hey, little buddy! Yeah, it's me! Hey, listen. I'm going to drive a giant robot and save earth now. Yeah, yeah, shhh, listen. I might not make it back, ok? I'm sending you a package. There's a letter for you in there." Justin runs her hands through her short fur and smiles, continuing to talk to all her brothers and sisters. She addresses the box, and makes a note to make sure David gets it so he can send it to her family. "Bye, Robin. You have a nice day, alright? I love you."

Finally, the moment was here. She climbs up into the giant robot for the last time. But before she can get far, Clover tugs on her leg fur. Justin looks down, and Clover hands her a Stephanotis flower, white as a sheet. "Good luck, Justin." She says. "Good luck Justin." Birdy says as well, taking Clover's place long enough to say goodbye. Justin nods, and climbs up into the Winter Wasp, strapping everything down. She turns on the robot, and takes a deep breath. This was going to be the biggest thing she's ever done in her life. "Clover, you there?" She asks. "Yeah, I'm here. You ready?" Clover says. "Why wouldn't I be?" Justin replies, flipping a few switches and pressing some buttons above her head before putting her arm in the controls. She looks outside the window. It's still dark, the robot would be harder to see underwater in the dark. The helicopters buzzed above her, and she can hear the people outside hooking the Winter Wasp to the wires they dropped. "Clover, you're going back to Alaska with the ship, right?" "Yes! Put don't worry, pretty much nothing can stop our communications." Clover replies. "Ok. I just want everyone to be safe."

The Winter Wasp is hauled into the air, and Justin can finally see the dark, calm, sparkling sea. She takes another deep breath, unclenching and clenching the hand holds for her arm controls. "Justin, they're going to lower you about a mile from the city, on a small island.. We changed around your air controls a little, so don't worry about toxins or anything like that. The only thing that can really hurt your air supply is if the entire mechanism is destroyed, ok? Also, don't expect them to go down without a fight. They'll be sending out their last and biggest threat, the Aspidochelone." Justin nods. "Roger, Clover." The satyr sighs as she's lowered onto the island. "Computer, turn on some music. Hard rock." She says, leaning back in her seat. Music blasts from the speakers, and she bobs her head to the tune. Memories of her radio station and small town come rushing back to her, and she feels a tiny hint of sadness. I can't die here, I'll miss all that. I'll miss the thousands of radio shows I still have to do. I'll miss my coworkers, my boss, and the deep snow. I have to win this, once and for all. I cannot die here, she thinks. Her eyes narrow. She grasps the controls hard as she's dropped on the island, bending her knees to account for the stress. She thinks of her radio station.

"Winter Wasp, get ready. We're going to end this thing."

Suddenly, the island shakes, rumbling. Justin bends down to keep her balance as it jolts. "Computer, is this an earthquake?" Justin yells over the sound of quaking. "No. You are standing on it." Justin gets a little frustrated with the Winter Wasp as the ground under her continues to shake. "Standing on what, computer? The earthquake?" "No. You are standing on your target." "Computer! Tell me exactly what I am standing on."

"You are standing on a Aspidochelone, the largest sea creature on this earth. It has a lifespan average of 3293.322 years. The Aspidochelone's diet consists of sunlight-" Justin stopped listening. She needed to get off this beast. It let out a roar, and the "mountain" on it's back slid off into the sea like sand. Even ten Winter Wasps couldn't fill the creature's body. Justin drew her sword, and stabbed it downwards, into the sand. It hit flesh, digging into the creature's back. Gripping onto the sword, Justin stabled herself. She knew the only way to kill this thing would be going inside of it. "Clover, this wasn't an island! It was the monster! How am I supposed to kill this thing?" She yells into the microphone. "Justin, I'm sorry, but the only way is to get eaten by it. Make sure not to travel all the way down to stomach, as the stomach acids will melt the Winter Wasp almost instantly. You need to plant a bomb inside of it, or something." Justin felt a twinge of guilt. This creature was thousands of years old, and she was just going to kill it? "Clover, is there a way I can stop it without...killing it? It's really old, and rare. I can't just kill it." Justin asks. "Well, it's not going to let you do what you want to do. Maybe you can capture it somehow, keep it from moving until you're done? You do have that metal cord." Justin is inspired, and smiles. "One last question. Can the boosters boost me all the way up from the bottom of the ocean?" "You only have enough boost to go up one time, Justin. Use it wisely. If it was up to me, I would tie it to another island."

Justin grins, ready to start the fight.

The Aspidochelone stops rumbling so much, just as Justin pull her sword out of the creature. It roars, but Justin pays it no mind. She looks around for something to tie her cord to without hurting the monster. "Computer, what part of this creature could I tie a cord to without hurting it? The Asp, I mean." The satyr asks. No reading. "Clover, can you answer my question?" She asks again, watching the sand underneath her slide into the ocean. "No problem. The creature has an entire island on top of it, if you go off the beach instead of sand you'll find rock, and at the top of the creature there's enough to drill down without piercing the Aspidochelone's skin. You'll need something extremely strong, that will stay, though." "Gotcha, Clover."

Denise whistles as she cleans the medical equipment, carefully sanitizing each needle and scope. She glances towards the envelope Justin had set on her table. It was really big, about 5 inches tall. Even though she shouldn't open it, Justin probably gave it to her in the event of the satyr's death, curiosity got the best of the mother. She picked it up, and carefully opened the thick envelope. Denise stepped back as she found out the contents, dropping the envelope on the ground. Ten $10,000 packages spill out of it and all over the floor. A note comes out too, landing gently on top of the money. "Dear Denise," it reads, "Birdy told me about your debt problem. Hope this covers it. Love, Justin. P.S, thanks for the memories."

Justin drills a hole into the stone that's accumulated on the creature's back after thousands of years, jamming out to the music as she fires one end of the line down into the hole, cementing it in. "Alright, this should be ok for now. All I need to do is-" The Aspidochelone suddenly lurches forward, causing the Winter Wasp to lose balance. "NO!" Justin yells as she falls, sliding along the rock. "Computer, secure the cord!" She shouts, and the cord stops unwinding, bringing the Winter Wasp and Justin to a halt. But even though the cord was strong enough to hold the giant robot, the mechanism to support it was not. The entire cord line is ripped out of the robot, and Justin falls completely over. It was only a few seconds until she was completely slid off the back of the creature, and is now hanging onto what seems like a nostril. It was huge, the size of a house, but not big enough for the Winter Wasp to fit into it. Not that Justin would want to anyways, but right now she had to get up. "Computer, engage toe sp-" She's cut off by the creature snorting, and her eyes widen as she slides off of the beast and into the ocean. A huge sucking noise overwhelms her, and before she knows it she's inside the Aspidochelone's mouth. For a second, she's speechless. The headlights of the Winter Wasp reveal a mouth that dwarfs the robot. It is big enough to fit an entire city, and Justin can see it has all sorts of fungi and mold growing inside of it as the water drains. "Clover, I'm inside of it. The cord malfunctioned, and now I'm inside this beast. If I don't make it out of here, I want Birdy to teach the robotics crew a lesson, OK?" She says angrily, getting the Winter Wasp on it's feet. The entrance looks sealed, and looking at all the giant Winter-Wasp crushing teeth, Justin isn't sure if she want to try to get out that way. She would have to trigger the beast to open its mouth. "Clover, how do I get this thing to open its mouth?" "I'm sorry, Justin, but the only time it has its mouth open is when its asleep. And it only sleeps every 400 years." "Well then, guess I'll be putting this guy to sleep. How do I get to its lungs?"

While Yumi and Kevin were typing furiously, David wanders over to see what Justin gave them. He takes out his knife and cuts a clean line down the tape holding the lid shut, sighing. It was a pretty big box, and there are three other boxes inside. The Dullahan takes them all out, and lines them up. One had his name labeled neatly on the side, and he opened it. Inside is quite a lot of tissue paper, and an envelope. He picks up the envelope and rips it open. A letter is inside, in Justin's handwriting. David reads it. "Hello David," he mumbles to himself, "Thanks for everything. Found a little something in the classified files room back at base that you might like. Love, Justin." A P.S is scribbled at the bottom. "I have tons of brothers and sisters. You should come visit them sometime!" David looks puzzled, but he carefully pulls away the tissue paper. An old stuffed animal meets his view, a horse with a torn ear. He slowly raises his hand to his mouth, and tears form in the corner of his eyes. Beside the animal, there's an old, yellowed photo of baby David holding that same stuffed animal, one of his sisters standing behind him.

Justin steps out into the Aspidochelone's huge mouth. She is wearing a skin-fitted Hazmat suit, made for mobility and protection against toxic environments. A small air filter supplies her with oxygen, and the suit itself is black with blue light-up stripes down each side. "Clover, can you hear me? I'm going in. And, are you sure my hooves aren't going to wear through this? I never wear shoes so I wouldn't know." In the satyr's right hand, she hold a canister with enough anesthesia to knock the island-sized creature out. A bag is hanging over her shoulder, and she shoves the canister into it. Along with the canister, the bag had a grappling hook so she could get into the lungs. She is holding onto the Winter Wasp's exit door with her left hand, overlooking the huge mouth. But she knows that she doesn't have much time, and she needs to get the gas to the lungs. "Sorry, Justin, David was talking to me." Justin, angry, yells back at her. "Hey! I'm the one who is saving the world here! Now, answer my question! Are my hooves going to ruin this suit?" "No, you'll be fine. Now, Justin, to get down, you're going to have to go back inside the cabin and get the safety harnesses." Justin rolls her eyes. "Computer, fire grappling hook 58 by 97 degrees." A grappling hook is fired out of the Winter Wasp's chest, and stabs into the beast's tongue. Justin grins. "Computer, close the door." The satyr carefully climbs down to the Winter Wasp's huge left shoulder, and takes a deep breath. "Computer, extend left arm and move it right 50 degrees, down 30 degrees." As the arm moves, rattling Justin all over the place, she secures her bag. "Computer, film this and send it all my siblings." She says, and starts running along the still-moving arm. It was incredibly long, and giant, she could practically build a small house on it. As the arm swings slowly around, Justin adjusts herself to keep her balance. She looks over at the grappling hook fired from the robot's chest, and when the arm starts moving down, she leaps high over the elbow joint, giving where she knew the camera was a quick smile. The arm now had a pretty clear run to the grappling cord, and Justin used the open palm of the robot to launch herself into the air, flying through the thick, toxic, smog. She lands on the narrow cord with finesse, and uses her hooves to steer her as she slides down the line. It was a long way down, but she made it just fine. "Computer, stop filming. Clover, I'm on the bottom. Now what?" "Ok, Justin, this animal is similar to a dolphin in the fact that the mouth leads almost straight to the lungs. Just make sure you don't head down the wrong pipe, ok?"

Yumi took a break from coding and instead decided to check out what Justin gave her. David seems pretty excited about whatever he got, and maybe the satyr had given her something good. "Hey, Kevin, do you want to head down to the cafeteria after this?" Yumi says, opening her box. "I could really go for some pizz-" She stares with open eyes at the contents of the box. It was a new system unit, but there was something special about this one. It was painted in the colors of the Gurren Lagann, her favorite mecha. She picks up the note by the piece of equipment. "Dear Yumi, I made this system unit myself. I might seem outdated, but I'm still pretty good at building stuff! It runs faster than any other computer ever. Maybe you can use it for good this time, huh? Thanks for the memories, Justin. P.S, the stats are written on the note taped to the side of the computer." Yumi tosses the note aside, trying to keep a straight face.

"OK Clover, I made it to the lungs. Can I release the canister now?" "Not unless you want to take a really long nap. Justin, have you thought out how you're going to get out of this creature yet? The Winter Wasp can't blast through that mouth even if you wanted to." "Don't worry, Clover, I'm sure I'll find a way out. Right now we need to worry about getting this thing to sleep." Justin replies, carefully activating the countdown sequence for the gas. She tosses it down into the gaping lungs that only take breaths every hour. "Computer, can the Winter Wasp fit out a nostril?" Justin says into her microphone.

The creature was asleep and Justin was back on top of it inside the Winter Wasp in no time. "Nice job, Justin. You need to get down to the city ASAP. Just walk down into the ocean, ok?" Clover says. "Thanks, Clover." The satyr replies, stepping off the "island" and into the deep sea. "So, Clover, how's the ride back going? It's funny to think that the Winter Wasp will be left at the bottom of the ocean forever." "It's going pretty good. I can really tell that Denise misses you though. She hasn't even been out of the medical bay yet. And you know how much she likes to babysit David, Kevin, Yumi and I. I promised her wouldn't tell you this, because she thought it would make you feel bad, but whenever we run a mission she always brings me cookies and a milkshake whenever I'm in the CAPCOM seat." They both laugh, but Justin suddenly freezes after she sees a shadow-y shape outside her window. "Clover, aren't the underwater residents contained to their cities?" "Yeah, they should be. Don't worry though, most of them are mermaids and sirens and they aren't going to bother you. Oh, watch out, there's some Umibozus around here, though. They normally dwell on the surface, but it's good to keep an eye out anyways." The shape swims by again. "Clover, are you sure there aren't mermaids out here? I don't want to hurt anyone." The Winter Wasp's screens tell her that there are several underwater-people in this area. "Don't worry about them, Justin. They aren't going to touch the Winter Wasp." Justin sighs, and lands on the ocean floor with a thump. "Alright, Clover, time to hook me up with Yumi and Kevin. We're going to need that special code now. "

"Alright, Yumi, is the code uploaded?" "Mmm-hmm. Just hit run when it's time, ok?" Justin nods, and starts walking towards the city. The city was huge, about the size of Texas, but it would only take a few minutes for Justin to completely destroy it. She gets out her sword, running the scans for the power cord that connected the underwater nation's main power source that the USA supposedly destroyed. It was buried underground, and protected by steel. But Justin wasn't going to cut the power cord. She was going to restore their power. "Justin, what are you doing?" Clover asks. "This isn't what we talked about. You need to get to the city and cut the cord, Justin. It's for everyone's good." "No, I can restore the power. All I have to do is hook it up to the Winter Wasp, it has sustainable energy, right?" Clover was now angry. "Justin, no! It won't work! The Winter Wasp cannot power the entire city! You cannot go over to that power supply, I will not allow it!" Clover types into the computer to stop the Winter Wasp, but it isn't working. She slams a fist on her desk. Justin must have cut the communication. She doesn't know what she's doing! Birdy must have not told her about Kevin. I have to go get him.

Justin grins, hold a severed cord in one hand. No one could stop her from doing the right thing now. She climbed back up the Winter Wasp's neck controls and back into the cabin via a hatch under the screens. She crawled under them and back up into her seat, ready to hook up the Winter Wasp. The robot walked through the dark water, stirring up dust with every step. It was only a few steps until she reached the old power supply, now just a huge underwater hole. Justin swallowed as she imagined how big the operation was, and now it is only rubble and dust. "Computer, scan for the other end of the power cord, and tell me how to connect it to the Winter Wasp."

Clover holds up her dress as she runs down the hall, fabric and jewelry flying into the air along with her every time she leaps. "Kevin!" She yells through the halls, rounding corners sharply. "Kevin! Justin is going to try to connect the Winter Wasp to the main city! We need to stop her!" The fairy yells as she skids to a stop in the coding room. Kevin leaps out of his seat, a look of terror on his face. He holds one cheek, and then rushes out of the room, his hood coming off and revealing his sharp brown eyes. Clover races after him, and David follows her, leaving Yumi alone to code. She thinks, for a second, she can see right through him and the wall on the other side. But it must just be her eyes playing tricks on her.

Justin smiles as the city lights up, and she takes a deep breath. Now all she had to do was get out of the Winter Wasp, and the war would be over. The underwater nation could go back to whatever they were doing, and everything would go back to normal. Suddenly, flickering came from the crater. Justin sighed. She didn't cut the rest of the power cords, just plugged in the main one, and the rest were still plugged into the wreckage. But the sparking didn't matter, and she pressed the button that would release her back up out of the sea. The pilot's seat is raised up into an escape pod, and launched into the ocean. Sure, the Winter Wasp would eventually decay, but they could mine the other stuff back out before then. Once Justin reaches the top of the ocean, she opens the pod into the fresh air. Now all she had to do was wait for the others to find her, and she had already sent a beacon. The only thing she was worried about was how easy it was to finish the entire war.

Kevin helps Yumi (who had decided to come along anyways), Clover, David, and Denise (in case they needed medical help) into the speedboat. "There is no way we can get to her in time!" Clover yells over the noise of the motor, tapping the beacon sensor which read that Justin was hundreds of miles away. "Kevin-" "There's something I want to tell you all." The vampire says, interrupting Clover. "My name is not Kevin. My name is Sarandiel. And I'm not a vampire, but an angelos." Everyone stares, shocked. "But, angelos are only a myth!" Yumi shouts, a little sad that she turned out to be the only vampire. Kevin sighs, and takes off his shirt. On his chest, strange markings are burnt on, like someone took a torch to his bare skin. He turns off the engine. "I didn't want to have to do this." The angelos says, sighing. "If Justin had listened to orders, we wouldn't have a problem. But now we need to solve this, once and for all. I'm Sarandiel, angelos of the Twelfth Hour. I use magic to manipulate time and keep everyone from destroying the world." He speaks a few words in a strange language, and his chest markings glow white, even piercing the bright Pacific sun. "I directed the USA to hit the power source, as the Underwater Nation was close to mining a deep, dark secret of the angelos that we have stored under the power source for eons. In another timeline, they did find it, and it released terror upon our world." Wings as white as his hair sprout from his back in a flurry of feathers, but they are see-through and glow with black light, as if they are made of light itself. His eyes turn from brown to black, the sclera shining white. His head jerks left, and light shines from his mouth as he speaks. "The underwater people have sent a search team to the Winter Wasp. They're going to try to find a way to get more power from it, and in the process, the Winter Wasp will release an energy blast, and reveal the secrets." His eyes darken once again. "We need to go." He says urgently. "Well, you're an angelos, can't you just fly everyone over there?" Clover asks. "I can only carry one person, and I need you all. Except David, who needs to stay safe. David, in every other timeline, you..." Sarandiel gets choked up. "Nevermind. I can use magic to jump the boat and us forward in time, but it'll drain my power." His eyes light up again, and he floats gently off the boat and into the air, head looking upwards at the clear sky. Chanting, a circle made of light with thousands of strange markings appears over the boat, and starts rotatinging slowly. More circles, and the boat, the team, and Sarandiel are teleported away, leaving but a calm sea.

Yumi jumps when Sarandiel appears in the boat next to her. His markings are dimmed, and several patches of skin have become wrinkled and yellowed. "Kevin, what happened to you?" David yells, rushing across the boat to him. He gently touches the aged skin, but Sarandiel grabs his hand. "It's ok. I'll be fine once I eat something." "What do you need to eat?" The Dullahan asks. "I eat time missing. That's why it's easy for me to cover as a vampire, the blood of dead things represents time missing. Anything that has to do with something tragic happening before the person can reach it's full potential, I can devour that. The only reason that I liked living people is, well, you don't need to know that." "Hey, look, it's Justin!" Clover shouts, pointing to an empty pod. "She just dove into the water. I think she's swimming towards us." "David, hold still." Sarandiel says. "Why?" the other asks. "I'm going to cast a spell on you. You're one of the only reasons I keep trying for this timeline, and don't let it fall into waste like the others. In this one, you enjoy me instead of scorning my existence. And that's worth fighting for. It'll take up the rest of my magical power, though." The Sarandiel quickly weaves a spell together, and tiny circles with markings appear around David, before disappearing.

David was now glowing with a white light all around him. "David, this magic is constant-feed. As long as I'm alive, you'll be protected from death. You can still get injured, but you won't die." Justin surfaces from the water, pulling her wet mass of fur and hooves into the boat. She lies on the floor for a while, panting. Clover, face bunched up in anger, lifts the satyr up by her shoulders in a feat of strength. "Justin! You are such an idiot! Why did you disobey?" she screams in the other's face, who is shocked for once in her life. Justin, who is also angry now, stands up to her full height. Clover lets go, and steps back. "I did what was right!" The satyr shouts. "No you didn't! Justin, I trust you with my life. Why can't you trust me back?" "Well if you trust me, why do you think I did the wrong thing now??" Sarandiel lets a burst of light from his body, and the two become silent. "Silence!" He shouts, mouth glowing brightly again as he lifts himself over the rest of the boat, feet leaving the ground. "Not gonna lie, this is some mad Puella Magi stuff going down. Homura, anyone?" Yumi says, and David high-fives her for the reference. "We need to act quickly." Sarandiel says. "Yumi and Clover, you two are going to stall the underwater people. There are wetsuits and underwater-boards under the seats. Get to the capital and explain to them what's going on. David, you and Justin and I are going to come with me and try to get the power disconnected, and find Spiriod." Justin's eyes widen as she realizes that she did in fact leave Spiriod down below in the Winter Wasp. "Wait-where's Denise?" Clover asks, looking at the spot where she was sitting quietly just minutes ago. Yumi points to the person sitting on the end of the boat, looking down into the water. "You guys brought Denise?! What if she gets hurt, you dolts?" Justin yells. "We need her." Sarandiel says calmly. "She can wait up here with the boat for now." "And not only that," Justin says, putting on the wetsuit that Yumi gives her, "but what happened to you, Kevin? Did you go godtier or what?" Clover and Yumi smirk, putting on their wetsuits. Saradiel sighs, but before he can answer, Denise shoves Justin into the water, her wetsuit put on. "Good luck, Justin!" she says, waving. Justin almost blushes, and waves back. "C'mon, slowpokes!" The satyr says, and the others leap into the water as well, Denise throwing them all underwater-boards.

Clover and Yumi strap on their boards and turn them on. The surfboard-like devices light up, then shoot underwater, the two teenagers steering them towards the main city. "Yumi, can you hear me? I want to test out these voice filters." Clover's voice is projected through the water, no microphones needed. "Yep! It's a little loud, but I can hear you clearly. Anyways, speaking of anime, have you seen the new Tamako Market episode? It's quickly climbing onto my list of favorite shows."

Meanwhile, Saradiel gently lowers himself through the water like the gentle angelos he is. The other two, Justin and David, struggle to keep up with their underwater-boards. David is still glowing with light, illuminating the dark sea. "And then he cast a spell on me to prevent my death, and that was it. You came up right after that." David says, steering his board to the left a little. Justin gazes up at the angelos in awe, wondering where he came from. "So, Kaworu, when will this spell wear off? I have to die sometime, right?" David asks Saradiel. "It will wear off in due time, Ikari." David snickers at the angelos' reply. "Alright, Castiel, how come the spell isn't sucking the lifeblood out of you like the last one?" "Well, Dean, it will eventually. Right now it's not very draining, because you aren't getting injured. But the more damage is dealt to you, the weaker I become. But you won't die, not in this lifetime."

"It's too late." The head of the underwater council says, looking down at Clover and Yumi. Their faces become pale. "We need more power, and they're reading to boost it right now. Even if we tried, they can't cancel the operation. Now, be gone." "No, you don't understand! We're all going to die! This entire world!" Clover screams, but the council signals for the security to take them out of the room. They're swum out of the entire city, and forced back into the ocean, that is now teeming with life once again. Yumi and Clover are bumped by the mermaids and other underwater folk that swim through here, and for a second Yumi wonders what mermaid blood tastes like. "We need to get back to the Winter Wasp, and tell the others that there's no stopping this thing." The two nod, and head back out into the deep sea along with the other millions of people.

Saradiel gasps when he sees the mermaids working on the Winter Wasps from afar. "STOP!" He yells, but they can't hear him. The angelos' eyes flicker white and black, and he head snaps downwards. "They're going to trigger the blast in 5.8475785 minutes." He says, his mouth glowing again. "No problem!" Justin says, and opens the wiring hatch on the underwater board. "Justin, what are you-" David is cut off by the sound of the underwater board powering up, and vanishing into the dark. "Where'd they go!?!" The dullahan cried. "Nowhere, she was just traveling too fast to see. Let's go, Precious One, we need to disconnect the Winter Wasp as soon as possible." Saradiel replies, floating ever downwards.

Justin makes it down to the mermaids quickly, and gets ready to cut out of the straps. Pulling out her diving knife, she cuts herself loose, and the board jets into the sea, pulling upwards towards the surface. She's right by the Winter Wasp's huge head, and swims down to the three people working inside of the cabin. "Um, excuse me? I'm lost. Can you guys help me get back?" She yells inside of the cabin, and all three people swim out hurriedly, tackling her. They speak quickly in a language she can't understand as she's surrounded by all three mermaids, and they restrain her. Justin smirks as she sees, over the mermaid's shoulders, David swimming into the cabin and shutting down the entire Winter Wasp. Saradiel floats down by Justin, and the three mermaids, gaping, let go of Justin and swim away as fast as they can. Justin and David high five, just as Yumi and Clover arrive. "Wow, that was fast." They say, smiling at the rest of the group. "So, who wants to go get ice cream? I've heard the main city has some pretty good stuff."

Once they let Spiriod free into an escape pod, the team swims back up to the boat. Denise is waiting for them, sitting in the captain's chair, nervously chewing her nails. Her face lightens as she sees the rest of the group, and she waves at them as they swim up and get back into the speedboat. "Now, David, you're sure you shut down the Winter Wasp, right? Once we get our bearings, you and I can go back down there and destroy the power cord once and for all. Now, everyone fill up their oxygen and check your voice filters." Saradiel says. "Good work, everyone. This timeline is sa-" His words are interrupted by gunshots, and David stops dead in his tracks. Blood runs down his chest, and he looks down. Bullet holes riddle his body, and he makes strangled noises as everyone else watches in horror. Saradiel cries out in pain, in a voice that sounds like sandpaper and wind chimes, too angelic for this world, and his entire body flashes red, then his head suddenly snaps to the right. "The chosen one has been shot, they know my weakness. They're going to explode the Winter Wasp, which will cause a much bigger explosion than planned. The secret will be released in 3.1323553 seconds."

Justin thinks fast, and grabs a dead fish from the floor of the boat, stuffing it into Saradiel's mouth. He swallows it whole, and his skin turns only blotched red again. He quickly chants, the circles appear over the boat, and the entire team is teleported to the Winter Wasp. But it is too late. David, clutching his bleeding chest in agony, is forced to watch the Winter Wasp explode. A flash of light, and the team is forced backwards by the explosion, into the ocean floor. "NO!" Saradiel cries out as the explosion stops. Blood and shrapnel cloud the water, but everyone seems alright. The wetsuits managed to absorb the impact. Suddenly, all eyes turn to David. When he was shot, his suit torn. But David is not there, only a thick cloud of blood. Red washes over Saradiel, who screams in pain, his wings disappearing. He manages to swim over to David, and pulls him out of his own blood. The Dullahan is still alive, but barely. "David, listen, you're not going to die. Not in this timeline. We'll get through this, ok?" the angelos says frantically, brushing the hair out of David's eyes. David weakly nods, and clutches the other's hand. Justin, getting her bearings, is angered. "Saradiel, what is the secret?" She shouts as she looks at the large black shadow coming from the crater. It wasn't a person, just formless black.

"It-it's the angelos of." Saradiel takes a deep breath. "The angelos of death."

Sounds like millions of beings screeching simultaneously fill the air, and Saradiel takes a gasping breath, his skin completely red. His white hair turns a deep maroon, and blood spills from his lips. Huge dark clouds swirl from the crater, and all the team can do is watch as a giant black hand, vein covered and dripping with black blood. "What happens now?" Clover yells over the sounds. Saradiel opens his mouth, but nothing comes out except a raspy noise. He motions for everyone to get to the ocean floor. But before they can, the ocean turns black as night, then suddenly vanishes, like it was never there. The team falls to the sand, all the moisture sucked out of it. Justin clutches her head, finding it impossible to understand. Clover starts crying, and David is in too much pain to do anything except spray blood all over the newly made land. "Saradiel, what do we do?" Black gas rushes out of the crater, and a figure starts to form. It rises, rises, higher than where the ocean was, higher than the land, and up into the sky. Justin, ignoring the screams of the millions of dying water people, stands up and looks up onto the dark angelos-shaped figure. It had a basic person shape, legs, arms and a head, but it was made out of darkness, and did not have a face or any other distinguishing features. David yells out again in agony, and Saradiel slumps to the waterless ocean floor. The Dullahan rushes over to his side, gently lifting him into his lap. "Justin, what are you going to do?" Yumi asks. Justin can do nothing but gape. The angelos of death opens its chest to reveal a bottomless mouth, a portal straight to death. "I-I don't know." She says. "Is this where the world ends, Saradiel? I guess there was no other way."

Yumi screams out in pain suddenly, and all eyes snap to her. She looks down at her hands as they turn to nothing but dust, and the last thing she mouths is "I'm sorry" before disintegrating into ashes and sucked into the angelos of death's stomach mouth. "Yumi!" Clover cries out, but the fairy's feet are cemented in place by fear and hopelessness. Clover only has a few seconds before she is swept away as well, into the swirling black darkness. Justin yells out, trying to grasp the other's hand, but it fades into dust between her fingers. An idea comes to the satyr's head. A horrible, awful idea, but enough to save the world from the fate destined by the monster. "Saradiel, you need to take my life." Justin yells over the sound of the screaming and swirling dark clouds. "I'm full of potential time. I have so many things to do, so many people to see, and an entire war to win. I have more family and people I care about than I can handle, I'm bursting at the seams with time. You need to take me and turn back all of this." Justin stops to take a breath, and both David and Saradiel breath deeply. "Turn time back to a better place. Keep this secret hidden. Think of it as a punishment for all of this." Saradiel shakes his head, and shoves her hand away from his face. "I-I can't." He rasps, barely able to breathe. "No. You have to. I'll be gone soon, eaten, and so will you and David." Justin gets to her feet again, tears off the wetsuit, and walks in front of the pair. She closes her eyes, takes out her knife, and before David can let a shout burst from his lips, drives it into her heart. "NO!" Saradiel shouts. Justin's lifeless body slumps to the ground, blood gushing out of the wound. Saradiel steels his face, and crawls out of David's arms. He pushes himself on top of Justin, and starts sucking the life out of her. "David, I'm sorry. I cannot support your spell anymore. I'll fix all this, I promise." A voice comes into David's head, and symbols dance around his body. Life leaves him as well, and his eyes stare straight ahead, as if he can still see Saradiel taking all the time from Justin. His skin color goes back to normal, and his wings flourish once again. He becomes a pure being of light, black and white coexisting in a state of time itself. "This ends here." He says, floating up into the air. He snaps his shoulders back, and light shines from him like the sun. Circles encompass both him and the earth, and the same markings shine around the entire globe. He chants, the sound of his voice carrying over the earth. The angelos of death looks down at him, and Saradiel opens his eyes, shining dark light straight into the creature.

And then, there is darkness.

Justin grabs the mail from the postman's hand, thanking him. She thumbs through them as she walks back out to her pickup truck. Nothing special, just bills and junk. The satyr leaps into the car, slamming the door. The time reads 1/16/13, 8:45. Plenty of time to get back to her cabin in time for her radio show. Before she can shift into drive and get out of town and back to her cabin, though, someone runs up to her frost-covered window, waving. He had white hair, white as the snow around him, and was wearing a thick brown down jacket. Justin rolls down her window, resting her elbow on the side of the door. "Whadda ya want, I only got a few minutes." She says. "Oh, sorry! I'm Kevin, and I just wanted to give you this." He hands her a yellowed envelope sealed with wax, and runs off. Justin, curious, breaks the wax and opens it right away. It's a letter, and inside the letter is a picture. It was of Justin, with three other teenagers, a lady about her age, and a robot. They're all laughing, and playing around, and Justin is ruffling what looks like a mushroom fairy's hair. Confused, Justin looks at the letter. "Thanks for the memories. See you around, brave pilot." Is written in perfect handwriting on the tattered paper. She looks back out the window for the white-haired teenager, but he was gone.

A robot leaves the factory she was working on for the day. Her name is Spiriod. Because her team is busy working today, she'll have to walk home in the deep winter snow of Japan. She steps out into the street, streetlight shining off the snow making a beautiful lit path in the dark for her. Her sensors pick up someone behind her, and she quickly whirls around. A white-haired boy meets her LED lit eyes, and he waves shyly. "Hello, Spiriod. I know you have to get back to your team, but I need to give you something." He thrusts out a envelope, and Spiriod cautiously takes it. She looks down at the wax-sealed paper, and opens it. Inside is a letter and a picture. The picture is strange to her, as she is in it but her databanks remember nothing of anyone else in the picture. She reads the letter. "Thanks for showing me what it is to be human. See you, cosmic robot." Spiriod looks up, trying to find the white haired boy and question the meaning of this. But all that's left of him is footprints.

"And then, Yuki shoots him!" Clover says to her adult coworker, laughing. "Yo, that's not cool. I haven't watched that episode yet!" the other states. "Oh, sorry. Anyways, I gotta go. Bye, Dana!" Clover nearly yells, and runs off through the snow, her dress streaming behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a person following her. She stops, and turns around to meet him. It was a boy, hair as white as milk. "Hey, I like your hair! Is that natural?" She asks, blushing a little. "Yeah, it is, actually! Hey, my name's Kevin, and I have somewhere to be but I wanted to give you this real quick." He pulls a wrinkled envelope out of his pocket, and hands it to Clover. She looks down at it, and when she looks back up, the boy is gone. "Hey, where'd you go?" She yells, but no reply. Shrugging, the fairy opens the letter. A picture falls out and lands in the snow. With wide eyes, Clover picks it up and looks at it. She's in the picture, but she can't remember this ever happening, or any of the people in it. Except for the white-haired boy, but she had just met him. Confused, she reads the letter. "You showed me all that there is to living. Goodbye, mushroom queen." Clover swallows, trying to remember anything about any of these people. Nothing came to mind.

Denise packs up the last of her clothing, getting ready to leave the extremely hot Palestine and go back to her husband and daughter. She turns to get another suitcase for the rest of her things, and jumps as a white-haired teenage boy comes into her tent. "Hello, I'm sorry that I startled you. I just wanted to give you this." He puts an envelope on her wardrobe, and leaves. "Wait!" Denise says, and stumbles out of the tent. But the stranger is gone, all that's left is footprints in the sand. She goes back inside her tent, and opens the envelope he left her. "You were like a mother to me when I had no mother. I'll see you soon, lovely beast." Denise is offended by the last line, but gently sets the letter on her wardrobe anyways. She pulls out the picture, and gazes at it. It was here, surrounded by happy people. The white haired boy is in it too, shoulder on another boy's shoulder. She sighs, and puts the picture on top of the letter.

Yumi laughs as the hacking works, and the game cracks. She can now do whatever she wants to the MMORPG, from giving her millions of coins to completely wrecking the economy. But before she can do anything, a knock on the door interrupts her. Hoping it was her mom, she runs upstairs, and swings open the door. But it wasn't her mom. A white-haired boy meets her sight, and she sighs. "Listen, I'm not interested in buying anything, OK?" She says. "Oh, I'm not a salesman! I'm Kevin, and I have something for you. Here!" He says, and hands her a wax-sealed envelope. Yumi closes the door, and runs back down to her room. She wants to get right back to programming, but the envelope is bugging her. Yumi tears it open, and reads the letter inside. "Thank you for the willpower to go on. I miss you, digital angel." She tosses the paper on the floor, and pulls the picture out of the envelope. It's her, with a bunch of people she doesn't recognize. Trying to remember, she going back to her computer, typing away.

Kevin sighs as he watches David hurry after Katrina, papers flying out of the Dullahan's arms. He tries to remember what David whispered in his ear before they both died. It was so bittersweet and perfect, so fitting for all of the lives he's had to live just to keep earth in balance.

Oh, now he remembers. "Try to remember me."