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The flight was considerably more pleasant than the fight that preceded it...as well as the meeting with Mirai that followed it.

Having someone who could - given the right prompting - help you to get almost immediately out of the country without pulling any official powers was extremely good, no doubts. Indispenceable, one might say. Not to say that any of this would be habit-forming. All of this was less 'calling in a favor' and more 'asking a favor which would be necessary to repay later', and he would gladly pay whatever it took for this, just so long as it wasn't straightforward money, as he didn't win any and his army pay wasn't going to bury him in luxuries for the rest of his life. Even still, it was a calm and restful flight, and West City soon held their arrival, where a simple cab, booking of somewhere modest to stay, and dropping in at Capsule Corp was to follow.

They hadn't even gotten to see Mirai upon their first showing at the main HQ. She was off-duty, and would be in at the evening, as per usual. They would have to leave the phone there, sent to her inbox to work on. No problem. If you could trust anybody, it was Capsule Corp, and if you could trust anyone IN Capsule Corp, it was the ever-dedicated and ever-diligent types who worked the late shifts. With time on their hands, Niko had decided to make good on his promise of Capsule shopping while there, so it didn't look like he came all this way just to mooch off of the company. He would be dipping a bit into his reserves here, but a Capsule Car and basic storage units were a good investment for your personal needs. It's certainly handle his luggage if he needed to vacate the hotel in a hurry.

Of course, it was then that Niko got a good look at his account and literally went "Agh!" with a double-take. There were a few more zeroes there than he remembered! He was left standing there, basically in WTF Mode, when he looked to the note attached to the transaction history, reading "You forgot this when you checked out. All of our competitors who make it to the Final 16 receive payment for their efforts, and it only goes up, the further you make it. See you next time!" with a smiley at the end of it. Niko was left dumbfounded, but a nervous smile crept along his face, followed by laughter and "I am such an idiot, sometimes.".

It was only later in the evening when the call came to return to Capsule Corp HQ. Niko had spent the time doing various things to distract himself from the matter at hand, as it naturally bothered him a great deal. All except checking to make sure his brother was alright, via phone. The answer was that he was both stable and looked after, so all was well on that front. Sadly, this is the part where things take a definite bad turn, as Mirai had met them in-person now with the results...and what she'd uncovered led to some rather nasty accusations, levied not only at the Martian Mining Corp...but also Wu Han. He was, after all, one of the Wuye-ying, himself. The fact that she found out herself, with no prompting at all to look into it, very well underlined Mirai's performance. However, she was under a misapprehension that was best left cleared.

"He's not going to kill me."

Niko turned to face Han enough so that both he and Mirai were in his field of view.

"If he were going to do it, the most sound opportunity would be when we were attacked by half a dozen men from his organization. Seven men against one me, miles away from where I'd last been seen? That would've been ideal, and if it were a matter of who gets credit to the kill, I imagine the boss' son wouldn't have trouble making the claim, anyway."

Now, he looked back at Mirai to give her a reassuring smile.

"He's on our side. It's a matter of honor for him. He only puts down disreputable targets. And thank you... I know it's not evidence, but up until now, it's only been supicions and worries. Now, I know, and now I can really start to put on the pressure. These people have gone too far, both here and in space, and it's about time they were put in their place."


NERO KAYAKOS


Kinda' some odd things 'bout the crew, as of late. It looked like they were a bit shaken up by the last little engagement. Laurey obviously wasn't in the best of moods, but then the last thing Nero had to compare that to was her complaining of a headache and needing the doc. Speaking of which, Doc Millard was actually alright, but apparently he was posing as military today and his grizzled appearance was suppose to lend to that. And hey, who knows? With him on a completely different team than Ariel, he might actually get a smoke in! This plan of Tarak's called for nearly everybody on the ship, since...well...the Circle of Hell was a bit big. Even Amy was part of this, though...she wasn't looking too well.

Definitely not liking the whole 'We put the crew through a military shakedown mission' thing.

It wasn't hard to imagine the chief morale officer and general counselor of the ship being put off by how things were handled, and how they were almost unphased by the fighting. Several of them - Navi included - might've even been better off, afterwards. Nero actually overheard some of Dr. Millard's personal notes recorded about that, while in the vents. Oh, you think you always have privacy, but Nero can not only move fast through the vents, but the Shadow Step also meant you couldn't even detect him doing it. He had not, per se, been snooping on anybody. Yet. Still, if he had done...and he'd gotten the drift that Amy was worried that they might not be more than killing machines...it's actually kind of funny that she didn't find Nero literally playing with the flamethrower. It takes all kinds of things, but he got clear enjoyment out of that. Much like how Fin seemed to like shapeshifting, this time being made to look older...which was a shock.

"WHOA! Son of a bitch!"

Seriously flinched at that. It wasn't like becoming a cat. That was normal...ish. This? This was just...unnatural, somehow. He still looked human, but...you know...the unfamiliar on the familiar. Kind of a problem. And speaking of that, Nero suddenly thought of something. If Phi, Amy, and Ariel were going to be their saboteurs to make sure nobody got off any communicaes about the situation at hand...well...why not use that? A little bit after the time Avelyn and Ariel started giving Amy - Lotta As here, amirite? - some help, Nero would head on over to have a word.

"Say uhh, Ariel. Ya mind keeping an ear to my comm channel while on the mission? My stealth works better in the dark, and if I need it, I'd like to be able to call 'Lights out' on certain rooms and corridors, alright? Make things alot easier."
NERO KAYAKOS


THE PAST!


"AAAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAH! THE LOOK ON HIS FACE!!"

It was a rather quick fight for Nero, but ultimately satisfying, and when he straightened up, he saw that he didn't have anyone else to really deal with, as the others had managed to take down their own targets, some better than others. Navi's was perhaps a bit high in the drama, but whatever. She could handle her own thing the way she wanted to, long as it got done. Abaddon had crushed one of their spines, and Tarak had liberally applied the chunky salsa rule to another. All in good fun, which reminded him...it was time to get a trophy.

What? No, it's not what you think. Good god, no!

You see, what happened here was that the dead man, Tobias, had left behind a completely-intact plasma flamethrower, and Nero decided to relieve him of that device. After all, he wasn't using it anymore. By the time the newcomers to the scene had arrived, the dagger-wielder was already trying it on, grinning as he inspected it with his mask flipped up. He looked over at the men that just arrived, but saw that they weren't pointing guns. In fact, they were saying that he and the other marines - plus Abaddon - were free to fuck off in the dropships they came in.

"Alright, sure. I'm keeping this."

Yyyup, and no one will ever know - 'till later, perhaps - that they were handing over that madman's weapon to...well...another crazy person. Well...it's not THAT BAD. Nero actually cared what he hit, didn't want to explode, and certainly dodged better. This was more of a thing to mess with than actually keep for battle, anyway. Not unless it was going to serve alot better than his assassin-y ways. So, right along with the others, he'd take a dropship outta here, all a'grins with his new toy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

THE PRESENT!


During the time between their little battle and the Xuanzang's arrival at Plenty, Nero had indeed kept himself amused with Tobias' flamethrower. Well, now it was Nero's flamethrower, but anyway... Once he'd gotten his Omni-Tool to scan the machine - "Hey, tell me how this thing fucking works." - the young daggermeister was furnished with an instruction manual downloaded online, which...he only read the operating parts and the warnings for so he didn't overload it before he got any enjoyment out of the machine. As a result, he would be finding objects to hit with a gout of flame in the cargo hold, just for laughs. Someone would've happened upon this eventually, and he'd muse "I wonder if the Rau've ever feel bad about potatoes. Ah well.". FWOOSH...

This was how he spent his free time, which actually wasn't much, considering they'd bullshitted the Ascendancy into believing the lot of them were still on commission. Once he and the others were called in for a meeting, it appeared that they'd made it to Plenty, that they'd flown over a load of crop-laden countryside, and that they were hovering over a bigass prison ship that'd thrown itself at the ground...and didn't miss. Nobody ever told them the Knack, it seems. Ah well, no biggie. Whether the ship was ever gonna fly again wasn't his concern. They just had to go extract an AI, or whatever harddrive he was on, or however that worked. Tarak was in charge, overall, but they were going down in teams, and using Fin's portals to make it easier. Nero was here in his usual gear, listening to how they expected it to go down, with Avelyn expecting to blackout all the comms in the place and move in with intimidation. He liked that, but apparently Tarak did not.

"Ehh, spoilsport..."

Tarak wanted to keep up the fib that they were all still cool with the Ascendancy. Heh, that was gonna be a hard sell, especially with the fact that Nero has never been cool with those idiots. In any case, he started dividing them into teams, with Nero himself put alongside Sam and Iris. Ah, so he was stickin' with the sibs, eh? Well, as long as there wasn't any candy on board, Iris would have her head in the game, at least. This was actually a good idea, making them - along with Ash, Flame, and Navi - the infiltration doing the no-thrills search-and-retrieve, because Nero did NOT want to be talking to any Ascendancy assholes in there. He'd shoot his mouth off at the wrong time, and then probably tear their own off. All this was well and good, but Nero turned to Samuel and Iris with an additional bit of info.

"Once we get in there, expect me to be pretty much silent and out of sight. I'll be getting the drop on anything in our way."

Because that was how Nero operated when he was being serious. Was this the silent assassin that Elaine had been talking about? Perhaps. Or maybe she really thought that he was quiet all the time. Truth is, though, it was about his stealth power and training, which would keep an eye on those two throughout the mission.
@Darkmoon Angel @Double Excuse me, but...

@Balthazar007 Well, the phone is being cracked by a Capsule Corp employee when they get to the home office. Apart from information on the phone leading to the implication that the Martian Mining Corporation put the hit on Niko, and further info that there is something not directly spoken of going on with Mars, the fact is that anyone of the Brief family could get the word to the right people, "Hey, you know that runner-up from the military that we were looking for? Guess who just walked in our front door...".


@Darkmoon Angel Hmmm... Interestingsauce.
@Darkmoon Angel @Double My guess would be that Ginger's schedule suddenly seized up something fierce.
NERO KAYAKOS


So now, there was only really the wait between the getting ready and going, as the Xuanzang worked towards their destination, the Akriem’s Razor. Fin was working on forming the portal proper, Ariel was working to talk to dead people, Tarak was loading his arsenal, and it sounded like Natasha, Flame, and Ashton were up to something. Looks like the whole 'We're taking a side' thing that Nero had mentioned earlier might've taken root, because it seemed like they were going to BS the Ascendancy. Nice! He was staying out of their immediate sight. So, while that was going on, let's walk ya through some of Nero's preparations. He was, of course, in his ballistic vest and all that jazz, knives prepped and ready to go. His 'Killer Mask' - a Multi-Spec Survivor Mask - was of course this device over his face that would provide air if needed, face protection about as strong as his armor, and several different spectrums of vision and detection. It had a normal view, low-light, and infrared to begin with, but there was more. Reptilian species, crystaline species, plant species - they didn't give off alot of heat. So, there were also pheramone/pollenation screens, lumen tracers, sonic vibration tracker, and even a setting for mass-density. Now, like a Predator mask, it could only do one vision at a time, and this is because the overlap would be intensely confusion, otherwise, so you have to choose carefully.

Nero was ready as he saw that Abaddon was joining them, Tarak was ready, and the Ascendancy bluff was being implemented. But then, more importantly, Ariel had ended her Seance, giving the boarding party important intel. Apparently, they were expected, which to Nero was just a case of 'Well, there's stealth out the window, but what'd I expect?'. He figured that a stand-up fight was what was going on, and it was fine. Ecclectic badasses on the other side of the now ready-made portal? Oh, hell yeah! This'll be fun. The Kaisoken was certainly into it, as he was heading through already. And then, Tarak started unloading stun grenades through the aperture! He was doing the thing Nero suggested back on the station! Double hell yeah! Time to get going, though weirdly, Fin seemed to think the brief weirdness of his portal was gonna drive them all sick. Whatever, man... Nero followed with the rest, and while Tarak was laying down gunfire and Abaddon was getting into the fray, he had given his armor a boost, as well. Against plasma weapons? Oh yeah, better safe than sorry on that one. He'd be looking for a good opening to sneak around and catch someone unawares. Might be an idea to take out the one with the scythe...if they lived long enough.

TO BE CONTINUED IN A COLLAB!
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