---

Teodora nodded, a smile still on her face as she responded to Elise's thanks toward her. "My pleasure. Just doing my job, fufu. Still, as far as our general situation is concerned..." She observed as whatever little damage her beam shots had inflicted upon the massive Warped were already rapidly being fixed, showing the creature's formidable capability in regenerating damage. "Yes. That is most decisively not a good sight at all. I am loathe to admit it, but it looks like we are currently quite outgunned and out of our depth."

The comm channel soon came alive with message from the HQ. "This is HQ; the target's location has been verified. Selene, Supplice: disengage the Warped and return to base. Over."

"Copy that, HQ. Exactly my thoughts, to be honest." Truthfully there was nothing better to do than to retreat. With Selene's flight capability crippled and Supplice's beam rifle proven to be ineffective against the massive monster, attempting to continue the fight would have been nothing less than a feat of pointless suicide. As reckless and situationally unaware as Teodora can often be, suicidal was more the trait of a certain smaller and rather sadistic girl than that of the Romanian pilot's. "Well then... Let's get out of here without further ado, dear Elise!"

Teodora stored her rifle away, allowing her to use both her hands to gently but firmly grip on to Elise. Of the next barrage of lasers that had been fired once more by the monster, she paid little attention to. Instead, she focused on maximum speed while trusting her barrier to protect them from the attacks. All of Supplice's boosters charged up to the maximum output and with a loud roaring boom, intense jet fires exploded out of them to propel both Teodora and Elise to the direction of the harbor away from the hostile entity, leaving behind contrails in their wake.

With the Warped rapidly being left behind and Teodora flying away at full throttle, Elise took a deep breath and turned her head around to look at the lasers shooting after them. The fact that the monster could send out homing projectiles was most certainly not something that she had expected given the briefing from HQ, but given the targets until then there was likely no reason to need to home in on a target.

This by no means made the issue any less irritating to deal with, though.

As the pair of Pilots approached the shores of Sydney Harbor—the Opera House barely visible over the horizon—the lasers that had been chasing them slowly began to fade away before finally dissipating. That removed the issue of urgency, of course, but ultimately nothing really changed about their situation.

Once Teodora had made landfall, Elise was lowered onto the ground nearby. Though she had seen no injury, a return to The Horizon was all but necessary—as was a discussion about how to deal with the monster where it lurked. A few drones seemed to be flying overhead out to sea already, given the black dots that the young woman barely noticed sailing over the horizon, at least—a sign that their work hadn't all been for nothing.

"Eugh... We should head back," the young woman said, disengaging her Chi-Mechframe as she glanced back out towards the ocean. "I expect that we'll have to head back out to try and finish the job next time, so maybe the reconnaissance footage might give us something more to work with."

@Medili

---

"Hm..."

Sherry listened quietly to Louisa's suggestion before slowly taking a step back with her eyes closed. The woman seemed to be lost in thought for a few moments as she considered the situation, but ultimately there was little else to be said if the people that had been hired to help resolve the situation were willing to stick their necks out so easily.

"Well, the least I can do in that case is drive you to the area. Not like I'm some sort of superhero like you three are, after all," she said, pulling out a keyring and spinning it around her finger. "We have a little time before nightfall, at least."

Once the three Frame Pilots were ready to leave, Sherry would lead them downstairs and over to a car—a government-issued van, of course; with little fanfare as the four entered, the vehicle slowly revved to life before moving through the roads.

The group's destination was, of course, the nearest sewage treatment facility; with a manhole being too dangerous to risk opening up, the safest route (at least in terms of entering the locale) was the wide canal that funneled everything there to be handled. It was a dirty job, of course, and no one present seemed to be happy about being there in the first place, but it was as good a place as any to start.

"I think I'd be more of a burden than anything if I followed along with you, sadly," Sherry said, opening the door to the van to let the Pilots out, "so I'll probably be on standby at the office if you need me. I have a simple request, though: please don't destroy the sewers while you're down there, if at all possible. I know that some things might be hard to avoid, but, well..."

The woman trailed off before sighing and shaking her head.

"Never mind. Good luck out there, you three."

@VitaVitaAR@Mole@Laduguer

---

"Phew! Well, that was quite something if I do say so myself." Teodora casually exclaimed as she and Elise landed safely back on dry land. Thankfully, the laser projectiles eventually dissipated instead of infinitely pursuing them. That would've made things more annoying, even if Teodora was rather confident that her barrier would be able to absorb a single salvo of the lasers. That said, she was still glad nonetheless that she wouldn't need to actually test that belief for now. She disengaged her Chi-Mechframe as well, with it returning back into its hairband form.

"Mmhmm. That make sense. I'd expect so as well. That thing got the jump on us this time... But we'll win the second round, I'm certain!" she added a confident nod to her words as she spoke it. "But indeed... For now, let us return back to base. Got to get Selene's wing fixed, hmm? And some little bit of rest would be much appreciated as well... So, shall we, dear Elise?" she gave a playful wink at the slightly taller and older girl while gesturing to the direction of HQ before then starting to walk away in that direction.

The sewers...?

It would be a lie to say that Hoshiko wasn't apprehensive about going down there. She definitely didn't want to touch the water, or to even spend any more time down there then she could need to. Certainly, this treatment area didn't look gross, but there was no telling what it would be like deeper in.

But...

It was the difference between life and death for plenty of people. Her personal feelings about the sewer being gross didn't matter nearly as much as human lives.

Hoshiko took a deep breath.

"Hinotori, ignite!"

The familiar sensation of light and heat washing over her body struck, her clothing replaced in seconds by the frame's underlayer, then the armor itself, and then finally the most complex portions that made for much of Hinotori's shape.

She took a step towards the sewer entrance.

"Okay, it might be super gross down there, but we've got to make sure everyone's safe!" she declared, steeling herself to lead the way into sewer. If there were Warped down there, she'd do everything she could to clear them out!

@PKMNB0Y@Laduguer@Mole

_______________________________________________________________

As Louisa stood on the threshold watching Hoshiko suit up, she realised she had no idea what a sewer was actually like. In video games and books, it was full of monsters and treasure and that kind of thing, but she had an inkling that might not be reflected in reality. Although, on this occassion, the former was unfortunately likely to be present. Either way, a sewer probably involved a lot of waste of... various kinds, which was obviously bad. But... how bad?

One way to find out, I guess.

"Grendel, breach!"

She struck the heavy plate hanging on her chest, and Grendel began to materialize in its usual web of ethereal and ghostly forms that one-by-one condensed into heavy dark plates of armour. She held up her glaive, which shimmered with a deep iridescent green in the daylight, and retracted it into its sword configuration. Probably wasn't a whole lot of use for a polearm in a sewer, after all.

She followed Hoshiko's lead and began to stride towards the darkness.

"So... what's our plan here. You two are built for speed and flight, right? Do you reckon you can pull that off in the sewer? I mean..." she paused and looked at the canal entrance, "it seems pretty big right now, right?".

"What I'm thinking is if we catch a glimpse of this thing, we need to get on it fast before it has a chance to lose us in the maze of tunnels. And... uh... I'm not going to be so useful for that in Grendel. Of course, if this thing runs towards us rather than away from us, I'm your girl."

"Hm."

A monstrosity composed of thousands upon thousands of individual parts, possessed, perhaps, with extraordinary senses that allowed it to detected his location even when cloaked. Well, slugs didn't necessarily have eyes, after all, so that worked out, in the worst way possible. Xuan-Yu's face twisted into an almost-exaggerated frown. This was perhaps the worst sort of opponent for both himself and Dulac. Which meant...

"We're going down, kiddo."

...mucking and sleuthing about was pointless.

As tentacles shot out towards them, Deathstalker emerged from the ether, crimson augments pulsating with consolidated power, and unleashed an axe-kick that smashed straight through the dilapidated flooring of the hallway. The mission objective, after all, was on the lower levels of the building, which meant that the first floor was 100% not anything worth investigating!

Hell, fuck the second floor down too!

"Dulac, blast it!"

A chill ran up Norika's spine. Everything going quiet had been a bad sign. However she didn't expect... whatever the hell this thing was. A bunch of worms or slugs, formed into a larger creature. She'd seen some reports of Warped like this, but she'd never encountered one herself. Her techniques wouldn't work on something like this, but she'd have to try.

"Dulac, blast it!"

She didn't need to be told twice. Norika raised her weapon and aimed before squeezing off two shots. The huge rounds were designed to embed in armor and flesh before exploding. But when the target was composed of millions of tiny slugs, all they did was pass through the writing mass of flesh before embedding and detonating in the wall behind it. The Warped's limbs retracted into its body before massive tentacles shot towards Norika and Xuan-Yu.

Norika leaped backwards. "Any more bright ideas?" she asked sarcastically.

As Seraphima suited up, she thought back to the last mission. Trash duty, again. Well, close to it, anyways. She tried not to ponder too intricately as to what being in a sewer was like. It was best to keep things open. She had learned that when wrestling with her brothers. Being too mechanical usually left her wide open in the left field -- and not for the better. She had also learned pondering what it was like living on a monastery was almost fruitless prior to actually living like a nun. The prospect was fun, nonetheless, but it inevitably left a skeletal makeup that needed fracturing to fit the actual mold.

There were key things she could be sure of, and she would stick with those. The basics was enough to know this was not a job she was going to enjoy, but then again, she could say that about the last mission and any other mission after this. "K-01, ready to go." She spoke softly to herself.

"I'm sure following this thing won't be a problem in the maze. My suit's light, and there are no places I probably cannot find a way in and out of," she gestured with her right hand.

There was a sound of tearing metal and crumbling concrete as both frame pilots went down, descending to the second level of the facility. It was certainly one way to get in.

Above them, the writhing arms shot over the hole, slamming into something with a loud, metallic thud.

The creature's mass was too large to effectively fit its whole body into the hallway they had entered, but how flexible it was and how capable it was of altering its shape remained to be seen.

At least, though, for the moment, it did not seem aware that they had descended.

In a contrast to the upper floor of the facility, where nature had taken hold, the level they had arrived at seemed to be largely shielded from such degradation. Certainly, a few plants capable of dealing with low light conditions seemed to have found their way in to grow along the walls, and there was a musty, damp scent. But aside from that conditions seemed remarkably better.

However, visibility was quite poor.

At least, for a moment. As if somehow detecting a presence, the lights slowly began to come on, starting from the pilots' location and spreading outwards. The floors were linoleum, the walls fairly plain and featureless, with evenly-spaced lighting fixtures on the ceiling. The featureless walls were occasionally broken by a door that likely did not conceal anything relevant to their mission. Ahead of them was a corner where the hall turned right, and all of this would have seemed relatively mundane aside from what marked the wall at the bend.

Something had cut into the wall. Three lengthy gashes, marked with a dry, red-brown stain.

There was other sign of violence, no discarded body.

@JDubs@ERode

There was a bit of a bittersweet smile on Elise's face as she nodded in turn, following back after Teodora as she made her way back towards headquarters. Ultimately, the two of them had managed to find their target, but being caught off guard and being forced to retreat definitely was not something to feel good about.

"Yeah. I hope repairs won't take too long," the young woman remarked as she gazed back out towards the ocean. "...Curving lasers and regeneration, though... And in the middle of the ocean, to boot. How troublesome..."

Though lost in her thoughts for a few more moments, Elise soon realized how far she had fallen behind Teodora and quickly ran after the young woman in front of her. It wasn't as if she had any room to worry at the moment, after all—not with Selene in the state that it was in.

Once the pair had returned to the airship, docked above the waters nearby, Elise's first stop ended up being the engineering bay to drop off her Chi-Mechframe for repairs. There were a few furrowed brows and slight grimaces as those present looked at the damage, and now that she was able to see the full extent of the problem, the Frame Pilot had half a mind to agree with their silent assessments.

After all, a massive hole in one wing did not lend itself well to hopes of a quick touch-up.

Rather than linger in the area to watch them work, though, Elise ended up returning to the command room to see what footage the drones had gathered. Of course, with that came the presence of Ms. Morrison, who seemed to be quietly watching the live feeds anyways. Once the other Frame Pilots had arrived, though, the blonde woman turned around to address them.

"Constanza, Kim. I suppose that you're here to rest after your earlier engagement," she said, glancing between the two present before turning back towards the screen behind her. "I also had a call come up from engineering just now regarding the damages taken while scouting. Repairs should be completed by nightfall, if all goes well."

"...Understood," Elise responded, nodding her head as she looked at the ocean reflected across all of the cameras in front of her. "I don't suppose that there's anyone on analysis looking into this one?"

"Patience, Kim; I have two currently on the job. They've identified this Warped as based on a jellyfish, of course, but with only a few minutes' worth of footage, there is nothing conclusive yet to be said about our target."

Of course, that included the matter of how the two of them were supposed to kill said target in the first place. But even so, staring silently at the open ocean seemed... Less than productive.

@Medili

---

The entrance to the sewers was indeed larger than expected, and the tunnels, dark as they were, did not lend themselves well to immediate exploration. The further they got from the entrance, the less they could see; the lights of the Pilots' Chi-Mechframes provided some solace on that front, but with such low visibility and the constant sound of flowing water and sewage to their side, calling the endeavor 'risky' might have been an understatement.

...Or, well, it would have been, had the three present been ordinary people.

Once the entrance to the sewers had grown far enough away to become little more than a dot of light in the distance, the sound of footsteps—footsteps not their own—would intermittently meet their ears, if only barely so.

Nothing seemed to be immediately present, though, but as the canals began to twist and turn and the three continued forward, the scent of blood in the air could very well catch the group's attention. If not that, though, then the barely-muffled scream in the distance very well could.

@VitaVitaAR@Mole@Laduguer

---

Teodora had separated from Elise after they returned to the airship's engineering bay together to return their respective Chi-Mechframe. Elise's Selene looked to be in significantly worse state compared to the much or less undamaged Supplice, what's with Selene having a large hole on one of its wings courtesy of the Warped's curving homing laser. "Guess we won't be out to sortie again for a bit then. But hey, looking at it positively, that means more time to rest and prepare!" she said as she left Elise with the engineers, giving her fellow pilot one last hand wave as she did so.

Still in her pilot suit, she took a bit of time after that to wind down by looking out of the ship through one of the indoor observation bays, enjoying the quiet and the rather pleasant sight. If only there aren't any Warpeds around, this would just be like any other peaceful day, huh?... she mused silently. Her time in the observation bay didn't last long however, as she soon received a notification that her presence had been requested in the command room. Thus, with one more deep breath and a sigh, she left the observation bay and headed where she needed to be.

Elise was already there when she arrived, along with Ms. Morrison. She gave them both a nod with a smile on her face, then her eyes flicked toward the screen showing the drones footage. "Indeed, Ms. Morrison. Rest, and preparations. We pretty much lost the first round to that creature, after all... But at least we've now seen some of its tricks and behaviors." Then she listened to Morrison's words and mirrored Elise's response to it. "Understood, maam. Nightfall, huh. Perfect, lots of time to both rest and prepare then."

My, jellyfish-based... That explained the transparency and the ridiculously fast regeneration... she mused internally at the piece of information. "I wonder what would the best way to take it down... Oh you know, maybe it have something to do with those... orb things that were swimming inside its body. Like its cores of some sort?" she looked at Elise and then Morrison after saying that, wondering if they had similar idea with her about the orbs being the creature's weakness.

_______________________________________________________________

Louisa cast a sidelong glance at her two companions as the repugnant and ferrous smell of blood began to become more discernable over the already unpleasant sensory environment of the sewer. She continued carefully pacing along, as quietly as she could, but the heavy weight of Grendel did not lend itself well to stealth even at the best of times, and she winced at every grinding noise of her plated feet against the concrete.

She opened her comms, speaking quietly to her teammates.

"Okay - Drakos, Fukada... do you think you can sneak up and pounce on this thing? It can't be f--"

She was interrupted by a scream that pierced through the dense, cloying atmosphere. She felt a flood of adrenaline, and tactical considerations of organizing an ambush were replaced by basic instinct. With a heavy leap, she broke into a thundering sprint as she charged along the sewer tunnel in direction of the scream.

"Screw it -- let's go!"

There was a laughtrack that played in Xuan-Yu’s head as Norika took what he said…and then missed so hard that she tried to shoot the Warped instead of the second floor. Well, that’s how it worked with psycho-kiddos, he supposed. Gravity took hold either way, and the black-clad pilot descended, the greenery giving way to metallic artifice. Up above, the slug hive swirled still, its senses seeming to not have picked up on that massive gap in the flooring. Good. It was time to get moving.

The gashes were a symbol of trouble, while the doors to the side lead to rooms that looked too unsecured to carry anything of value. In places like this, rather than designated shelters, the greatest bulkheads would likely be where the most valuable experimental subjects were, no? And if he were a scientist running away…

“Rightwards.”

Xuan-Yu picked up his pace. They were on a clock now, and he had no intention of scrapping with the slug monster if he could help it.

To Teodora's comment, Ms. Morrison simply brought one hand towards her chin and nodded, her eyes lightly closed as she considered the younger girl's words.

"Hmm... Well, a core would not actually be all that unlikely, given the general composition of the Warped as we saw from the combat footage," she spoke, opening her eyes again before gesturing towards one of the cameras. "The creature seems to see the world through a bunch of eyes, or so the scientists said during your initial engagement—and as Kim surmised mid-combat—but the sheer quantity of them makes it unlikely that they are priority targets. A centralized core, however, would seem more likely to be your target. This is not to speak before the experts have, though; once Selene is repaired and we've examined the Warped some more, though, we will call you two back in before your next sortie. You may spend the interim as you wish. Dismissed."

With that, the blonde woman simply rose from her seat to leave the room, leaving the two Pilots as they were. Elise simply glanced at the continued video feeds for a moment before sighing and rubbing the back of her neck. It was one thing to retreat to gather more data, of course, but retreating as a result of her own failures and almost dying for it...

Needless to say, that didn't feel great.

"So... I guess we're free for a few hours," she said before glancing towards Teodora. "You going to do anything for the moment, or...?"

@Medili

---

The sounds of metal crashing against concrete as Louisa charged into the fray meant that any remaining attempts at secrecy were all but abandoned, and whatever enemy lay before the group was now fully alerted to the Frame Pilot stampeding towards them. The scant footsteps became swift and scattered, their frequency increasing with each passing moment.

Of course, with a lack of light in the sewers proper, figuring out how many of the enemy was present was easier said than done.

The screams that had pushed the young woman into action, however, seemed to turn into more of a chorus—mangled screams, cries for help—that, upon closer inspection, was distinctly inhuman in nature. A mocking mimicry of the cries of the dying—but to what end?

It was in the middle of that din, however, that beasts would begin to spring out from all directions—doglike Warped with fins began to leap out from the sewage beneath, attempting to claw and bite at whatever drew near, while frog-faced humanoids attempted to fall upon the group from above.

Under the cover of darkness, an ambush like this could easily change from 'manageable' to 'dangerous' with a single misstep.

@Laduguer@VitaVitaAR@Mole

As Louisa speaking forward, charging into the direction of the cries, Seraphima hesitated. She looked around, observing the tainted darkness around her. She wanted to pull forward, as the screams muffled their echoes through the labyrinth, but something stopped her for a brief moment, as if a tap on the shoulder caused her to turn around. The sewers were large, and she had the desire to go in the opposite direction of Louisa, as if there may be something hidden. Instead, she followed Louisa at a moderate pace, ready for any counterattack from the creature.