Marrie had intended to stay silent and focused as they flew, but Boteg's comment made her perk up, especially when Trixy added to it. She wasn't sure if she was right, but...

"You can tell where things are by the rain?" She could help but ask him about her guess. That would be a really handy trick if she was correct. Regardless, her attention was stolen away by the sound of horns honking. As she looked toward the source, she saw what might be Billy, and so she waved down at him. She didn't know if she was even visible from down there, especially with how barely visible he was, but it didn't really matter to her if she was or not.

Now that it was getting closer to the mission proper, a deep cold settled in Marrie's chest and shoulders. Apprehension of the heaviest kind pushed down and made it hard for her to breathe. It was worse than usual, and even considering that it had been a while since the last time, she still knew that those times barely compared with now. This wasn't a normal mission, after all. Usually she didn't have to fight other factions, or better still was working with them like against the Diver. But this time it would be direct combat with others, and quite likely others she knew at that. If GEMINI targeted Crazy first, then she might have to fight the espers she knew for sure was with GEMINI, that being the girl who had been there when she played a game with Oros and Stacy as well as Cerberus, who she had just worked with. With all that had happened since then, notably the mission with Cerberus, she didn't quite remember what the first girl's name was.

Her apprehension only got worse as the thought of the redheaded girl being beheaded showed itself again. Would something like that happen now? She shook her head, but couldn't dislodge the thought. She wouldn't let it happen again. This was why she had spent every moment she could training, she was going to prevent anyone and everyone she could from dying today.

@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World

“Well you see, I’m a part of my own little group, and he is a golden dragon, I’m golden, we would make the perfect golden team, it's about the aesthetics, always have to look towards the future after all” Shrugging her shoulders as she answered Trixy’s question. Enjoying the ride thus far, finding it far more pleasant then she had initially expected, especially with the weather being what it was.


Her gaze fell upon the back of Boteg’s head when he spoke as she gave a slight nod of her head. “That seems to be close enough, his snout doesn’t seem to have the power or the ability to pick up the scent of what we seek, he seems to be able to track it via other means, perhaps currents of the air? Or currents of energy from ole crazy? Either way we will get to our objective” Himiko added her own interpretation to the two that had already been made by Trixy and Marrie. Glancing back over her shoulder as her fellow espers as she answered.


Her gaze turning back towards searching the ground beneath him as she took a hand to pat Boteg on the back of his golden scaly neck “This is almost like an audition, if you keep impressing me, then I might have no choice but to make you my second in command”

This little field trip might be more profitable then she had anticipated, it was a good thing she had finally decided to stick her nose into Maverick business. It would help to spread out her interests, she could deal with those GEMINI specimens later.

Noah’s idea to rein in her embarrassment by trying to focus on anything else besides the nearly naked woman in front of her seemed to be rapidly backfiring. As Lexi wrapped her arm around Noah’s shoulder, Noah’s eyes became ever wider as she did everything in her power to stare straight ahead and not look up to the much taller woman. Noah knew very well what she would see if she turned her head, and she was absolutely not mentally prepared for it.

Beginning to sweat, Noah couldn’t help but wonder if she’d have been better prepared for something like this if she’d actually joined her old college roommates on their bi-weekly bar crawls. No use wondering about it now, though.

At the very least, Lexi did actually inform her of everyone's names. She very much could have done without Lexi pointing them out individually with the arm she’d wrapped around her, but Noah was really getting the feeling that the taller woman found her reactions funny.

Also, her thoughts of the now named Nova being relatively somewhat close in appearance to a regular nun were rather quickly smashed into the ground upon hearing the word ‘smoker’. Alongside her internal opinion of the woman. She hadn’t actually seen the smoke before, but now she couldn’t help but notice. Really, of all the vices in the world to choose, Noah would never understand how anyone could bear to pick the ones that smelled as awful as smoking.

As if to emphasize the sheer height difference, Lexi bent her knees enough to look her in the eye. And on top of that, given the new way Lexi had positioned herself to more than likely get some manner of reaction out of Noah, it was to the surprise of absolutely no one that the long sheltered girl would turn a shade of red previously undiscovered by humanity. As a result, she only distantly registered the exchange between Lexi and Raphael. She might reflect on it later, but right now she was a bit too focused on not melting into a puddle.

At Lenora's prompting, Lexi finally stopped with all that teasing, and Noah breathed an audible sigh of relief. She held a hand to her heart in a vain attempt to calm it and resolved, in that moment, to pretend the nearly naked nun didn’t exist for the duration of the meeting. If only so that she could actually focus.

The plan itself sounded like a divide and conquer sort of thing. Three teams of three espers, and one of those teams, the one she was in, acting as backup to the others if needed. And the ‘Bates’... Noah had to assume they were the same twins she’d seen mentioned a few times on the esper app, she was relatively certain they owned the place she and Marie had brought Oliver to, but she hadn’t seen them on that visit.

As far as questions went, only a few things really came to mind. She thought about asking after what they’d be clearing the area of, but it was probably demons, Noah didn’t see much of a point in asking. But there was, of course, the trains themselves. “... Do we know what to expect from the trains, in how they fight?” Noah asked. “Do they favor any particular types notes?”

@Ponn@Majoraa

Raven waved to Ashley before taking a seat. "Good to see you as well. It’ll be interesting to see you in action today, provided the rain lets up."

Just a bunch of new faces. Maybe they’d survive today, maybe not, but they would all pass eventually. Why bother getting to know any of them? All a conversation was going to do was give Finn an opportunity to say something edgy, because of course this all had to be about him somehow. Hopefully Ashley knew what the hell she was doing, but Mika kind of doubted it.

The van started up again and rolled through the rain.

…

…

…

They drove out of the city and into some farm land. A single, unwinding road that went on for miles and miles. The rain was too thick to see anything but the asphalt road disappear in the distance. Mika parked the van on the side of the road just outside a tiny cottage.

"This is our stop."

There was no reason to get any closer with the van. According to the doctor,this was the best spot to try and hitch a ride on the incoming monster. Any questions they may have had about the beast would soon be answered.

The twins, who had been speaking to each other in hushed whispers, got up from their seats. "We'll scout ahead, wait here." Cereza let the other three know before opening the back of the van. Yes, three. Seemed whatever the two had in mind involved Timekeeper, as Cerise had gently grabbed his arm and walked him out with her. The boy rose a brow at her but did little else. The trio walked around the cottage for any sign of the behemoth.

"Forgive us, darlin', but it's hard to ignore how tense y'were." Cerise finally explained to him, a light southern accent softly reassuring him they didn't intend to antagonize him. "We figured gettin' ya away would do you some good, stick with us instead?"

Finn's expression softened. It was nice of them, but... The machine sighed. "What good would that do? I'm gonna end up jinxing things again soon enough." He gave the mikos an indifferent shrug. "Better I embrace it now before it kills me." He was a monster in his own right. But to them he was just a troubled kid, nothing more. The two passed each other concerned, nervous glances before Cerise spoke to him again.

"If you're strugglin', maybe we can put a word in and get y'transfered? We've heard of ya, y'could help the scientists back where we're posted. I'm friends with a few, they'll take good care of-"

"No time for that, look!"

And then it appeared.

Light from a center light pierced the rain. At first it looked like a distant star, but it gradually grew as the behemoth moved closer. The ground shook, and a silhouette started to take shape. Something with a long, cylindrical body was coming closer. It looked like it might be a train, and it started to sound like one too. Rail wheels hovered just a few feet off the ground and pushed the massive train along an invisible track. Rather than toot its horn, the train’s tesla coil sparked and arced lighting lept between the raindrops at its back. It wasn’t going to slow down.

Mika grit her teeth. "Where are they?"

No sooner did those words leave Mika’s lips did Binky leap out from behind the cottage. She was fully transformed, and had all of her arms extended when she landed in front of Peace Train. It slammed into her, but she dug in her feet and tried to hold her ground. It wasn’t enough to stop the behemoth, but it was enough to slow it down.

But the train was not unmanned. Phantom train operators were scattered about the length of Peace Train. Most looked like scientists, a few priests, but all were apparitions with bodies made out of white smoke. They struggled to maintain their footing when the train slowed down.

If they were going to board it, it would have to be soon.

"Let’s move!"

---

@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita

Trixy only blinked as Sovereign continued to ramble like a chuuni. Then, as if suddenly getting it, she smiled and raised a finger. ”I can be gold if you want!”

But this attempt to impress fell the the wayside as the group tried to figure out exactly what Boteg was saying. Though this did not seem to impress Ciri, who more or less looked up from her phone only to tell off the money obsessed esper and exclaim that she was just as clueless as everyone else. ”Uh, I mean, You were able to translate back at the Bastion.” Trixy added with a nervous chuckle. But soon she decided to just honor Ciri’s request to just shut up and focus.

”’Me thinks thy company should continue to flap thy lips. Silence makes me nervous.”Then he added. ”’So long as thou doth not make me the topic of discussion.”

But there wouldn’t be much time to talk, since their mark had shown up.

Crazy train had appeared. Everyone knew this because it looked just like a train. One that was made out of far more bone and sinew than a normal train, but it was a train none the less. Below its center light was a ghoulish face that was crying out in agony. Or maybe it was just crying out because that was its nature.

Crazy Train did not travel in a straight line. It swerved side to side, howling all the while. If it was wounded, it was difficult to see with all the rain.

”Looks like it was a train after all.” Trixy shrugged her shoulders. ”Welp! Looks like this is your guys's stop!” Trixy flung Soverign off of Boteg’s back and watched her fall towards the train. ”Does anyone else need help getting down?”

---

@TaintedMushroom@Kero

Raphael addressed Noah’s questions. ”We do not know much about how they fight. From what’s been said, they tend to avoid fighting. They move so swiftly that there usually isn’t a need for them to fight. Many greater behemoths are that way, where their very presence causes natural disasters. That, and they attract other monsters to their presence.” This was mostly common knowledge, but Raphael did not have an issue filling in a new esper. ”You should be more concerned with the weather and the demons that show up with the trains.”

Lenore stretched her arms. ”Right, well, we’ll be off now.” As soon as they turned around, they disappeared behind a veil of smoke like a quatro of awesome ninjas.

”Our opponents outnumber us, we best be ready when they arrive.”

Yet even though there were no visible enemies yet, the freelancers would begin to feel a sense of being watched by many, many eyes. Their surroundings seemingly growing darker than what was natural. Even with the raging storm darkening the sky. It was something even the Walking Church's light struggled to break through.

Then they'd hear it. Creatures plenty, obscured by shadow snarl and hissed at the group, their forms hard to distinguish from each other whenever they clawed into the light. How many of them were there? And why hadn't they immediately attacked? It was as if...

"You can walk away while you have the chance, Priest."

From above, a golden haired woman sat casually on the edge of the rooftop. She held a katana in one hand, and her eye was obscured by a black rose. "You may end up regretting getting caught between a rock and a hard place.

Upon reaching their destination, Ashley was somewhat surprised to find that the twins wished to serve as scouts. At first, a pair of supportive healers seemed like a poor choice for such a role, but when they suggested that Finn accompany them, things became considerably clearer. The kind-hearted pair obviously wanted to put some breathing room between the young agent and the source of much of his stress, something the Knight of Tomorrow was in full support of.

“Roger,” Ashley confirmed with a nod as she watched the trio head out, thankful that Finn was being at least somewhat cooperative.

If anything, whatever the young agent had been through recently had left him in an even worse state than he’d been in at the end of the last operation, and Ashley fervently hoped that the twins would be able to do a better job of addressing that situation than she had. Yet, if an impromptu counseling session was their plan, they wouldn’t have much time to conduct it.

“Here it comes,” Ashley breathed as a faint, but rapidly brightening pinpoint of light pierced the curtain of rain in front of them. “Get ready, everyone,” she instructed, smoothly shifting into the esper state as she did so.

Even as an annoyed Mika inquired where their scout team had run off to, Binky darted out from where she’d been hiding and leapt in front of the approaching behemoth. Ashley was so shocked by her green-haired mentor’s sudden appearance that she almost didn’t notice their target’s own bizarre aspect. True to it’s codename, the behemoth was indeed a train, albeit a spectral, art-deco, Gernsbackian, retro-futuristic vision of what a 21st century train might look like. Binky had succeeded in arresting much of its momentum, but the Knight of Tomorrow knew full well the limits of her mentor’s mighty abilities, and that time was very much of the essence. Thus, when Cereza appeared and advised them to move with haste, Ashley was in full agreement.

“You heard her, agents!” the high-tech heroine shouted as she rushed out of the van and leapt for the electrically-charged engine’s side platform. “We have a train to catch!”

---