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Vremea was genuinely surprised. Two seadwellers—one of them looking eerily familiar —and a blue blood agreed with her offer... The others weren't giving any comment, though. Vremea pursed her lips. What was she to do? She could just go to turn him in— it wasn't like anyone was objecting. But...

Vremea looked toward Odette for any help or just to calm herself down, to see a comforting face that she knew reassure her that she was doing okay for her first time speaking in front of many. She seemed to be talking to... Another redblood with shades? Was that a lusus next to him? Was he an actual kid? Vremea blinked as she saw her companion flush scarlet from something he said. Her mouth twisted into a small frown when she heard an annoying voice distract her from her observation.

Oh. Mr. Miracle was complaining about this... well, he sure was impatient. But it was true— arguing solved nothing.

The same trolls who agreed with her had left. She looked to the leftover trolls...If she left without their consent, they might think she would go back on her word. She was struggling here... If she left, she was suspected, and if she stayed there would be arguing or just no comment, thus wasting even more time. Mr. Miracle was getting reckless— who knew if he still had enough fight left in him to last another round? She didn't think these kids were up for another round of fighting. She stepped off the small bench and looked to the blueblood who was holding his makeshift "cuff chain"— He looked an awful lot like that blue blood that won 3rd in that battle a while ago— and grabbed onto the cord herself, somewhat nervous as she pulled it gently out of his hand.

"Um, I'm... going to go bring him in, alright? I give you all my word that I will not go back on what I said. As we all fought, we all deserve a share. Whomever wants to accompany me can, if they want to watch to make sure that I give it in, but I promise I am one of few trolls who will not go back on their word." After all, what is the use of lying about this if all it brings are more enemies and problems? I'd rather just get the beetles and case settled. Vremea looked toward Odette in slight distress and pulled the fat guy up the stairs, and opened the door to the outside. It was getting stuffy in there.

So the plan was the same as before, get the tapes. Zeffer was right, even if they took the fat blueblood in, there really was no way to prove they'd been there first. The reward would end up just like this other yellowblood wanted, split between them. Who really cared if they'd all done the fighting. If the others had taken a wrong turn and never showed up, they still would have beaten off those catbots. Right?

This time there was no one standing in the way of his goal. Aprife started to slink off, only to realize that same yellowblood was taking the prize right out of his friend's hand. He couldn't believe the blueblood didn't put up a fight. Couldn't believe it, because it wouldn't last. Zeffer was darting up the stairs after her and the yellowblood took that as his cue to hurry up with those video tapes already.

It took a little effort, digging through the mess of a hive-boratory that fatty had set up. Eventually he found what looked like a couple of tape players, the wires running off somewhere he couldn't see. They had to lead to the security cameras that their target had boasted about. Ejecting the tapes, Aprife grinned, pleased with the find. This would help secure what they wanted, he was sure. Tucking the tapes into his bag, he looked around for a moment. Better to be prepared, right? Without hesitation, he shoved a handful of important looking papers into his bag, as well. It was getting a little heavy, but he'd deal. It would be worth it.

Hefting his bag more comfortably on his shoulders and waving to Bumbs, who was loitering near some equipment, he started back to the group. Specifically, back to Byakko. It would probably be best to regroup with her and go after Zeffer before something happened.

"She certainly seems determined," LaRoce remarked, watching her trying to stand up to that last highblood and his companions.

"She might be our best shot at any reward, but only if we back her up, right?" LaRoce scrambled up onto his lusus, urging him towards the stairs with a grunt. "Hey, highblood! It's only fair that you and your companions, who allegedly found this a*****e first, should lay claim to a larger portion of the reward, right? What do you say to 50% between you? I think we lowbloods would be happy even with only 500k beetles to split between us."

((w-woops we're still arguing, huh? laroce you are not helping at all))

Zeffer was still snarling, almost roaring, as she screamed at him, an equally wild look in his own large eyes. It would have been a much more intense scene if they weren't a couple of tiny children, and in hindsight it would probably be a very underwhelming memory. As it was, his little fists and short, stumpy arms could not inflict as much damage as his teenage form might have. Still, the intent was there, and he bared his fangs and did not back down, not faltering for a moment, even after being smacked in the face and threatened with her blade.

"I was defending my team's hard work. Do you think I give a s**t about the beetles?" He leaned into the blade, feeling the blood seep out of the cut and dribble down his front as he replied to her with a soft hiss, an eerie smile starting to crack across his face. As Byakko spoke up, his head jerked back, and he disentangled himself from Vremea. He didn't see blood color at all, or gender, only someone who had tried to snatch their glory away like she'd taken the cord from his hands. He sneered nastily as he backed down the stairs some, pulled back by Byakko's voice. All he wanted was a little credit, to have a little fun, and here they were arguing and now the chick he'd smacked was crying. Could he really be blamed when she'd taken the cord without a word? Stupid b***h.

"Let's go then! Go, so you can all get your ******** share and so I can leave this shithole." he snapped, tempted to give the apprehended criminal a shove up toward Vremea. He was done.

It pleased Alifax to see the robots going down, and so quickly, too. He stepped back to watch, though, content to see them destroyed without his having to perform further work.

As the others spoke, Alifax tested the weights of his meteors in his hands. He thought he was surprisingly comfortable with them: it was nice to know that. Pyruet, however, did not seem to think anything seemed nice, when he looked back at her. Oh, yes - it was her justice fetish, wasn't it? To be honest, a monetary prize would have been nice. Really, really nice - maybe Alifax would've been able to fix up his meteors, or buy a new outfit. Perhaps indulge in one of those highblooded meals, with grubsauce and herbs and a drink that wasn't water. But it was obvious that the team he'd worked with hadn't been fast enough. He was resigning himself to that: he figured there wasn't any way they could all split the prize, and there was probably enough in the blueblood's hive (he was a blueblood) to go around - clothing to be salvaged and re-worked into an outfit, highblooded technology, books, or even scrap metal, from the looks of this particular hive.) to go around. Besides, Pyruet clearly just wanted to get the guy turned in.

His head shot up, though, when the little girl-troll somehow wrenched the large, heavy blueblood from the other blueblood kid's hands. She'd looked pretty weak; it was surprising that she was able to overpower him so easily. It was also surprising that the kid was able to perform such violence upon her in turn - it made no sense. Wait, yes, it did. Alifax had done it himself - look weak, blend in. Clever.

Well, maybe not. Her scheme to take half of the prize money was clearly illogical, and it was only by luck (and probably the first arrivals' stupidity) that she was getting away with it. She'd be culled eventually, when a smarter highblood noticed. And they might get a cure, and they might not - Alifax found that he didn't mind so much. He could learn to fight again, and when he turned six sweeps the second time around, he'd be doubly prepared. He could train that Amicae kid now to be his partner. He could work with this. He turned away from the brain-missing yellowblooded cullbait, the sunglass-wearing redblood supporting her, and the three kids who'd arrived first, and dashed over to retrieve the joystick where it'd fallen. The remainder of the crowd was small.

He glanced over the assembled kids' head, and addressed Pyruet, rather quietly. "Wouldn't it be best if we removed the, um, semi-autonomous mobile electro-mechanical radio controlled hive security system, highblood? They did the real damage, here, and whatever, um, crimes may have been committed, that blueblood will be hard-pressed to perform them again with a hole in his security." And Alifax might get profit out of the system - even if he couldn't fix it, he could sell broken-down scrap metal. And the blood might be a nice dressing for his next meal, although he'd heard blood was far less sweet from a mature troll (and he was assuming the blueblood had retrieved it from one; he wouldn't have wasted the really good food on a security system!).

Pyre stood in the basement, stone-faced as she reloaded her derringers, ready to put a bullet right behind the sponge clot of anyone who looked like they were about to use deadly force in the scuffle over the bounty. Blow their spine out right beneath the skull, quickest way to stop a would-be murderer. Probably. She'd never actually done it that particular way, but that's how anatomy works, right? Sever the spinal cord, stop all muscle movement, pretty quick--if none too clean--death. It made sense. She didn't really know if she'd be able to get a hit that clean; her derringers were nowhere near as accurate as her revolvers, lousy stumpy little barrels, but--oh they already stopped the violence without her considerably more violent input. Okay. That's fine.

She raised an eyebrow at the yellowblooded girl. Was she de-aged, or an actual child? Nothing she'd said so far had seemed like it'd had any thought put behind it, and Pyruet couldn't tell if the stress and exhaustion was wearing on her thinking ability or if she was just a naive wiggler. A racist, naive wiggler with seemingly no self-preservation instincts. Stupid either way. Shouldn't make yourself the center of attention in a room of trolls hopped up on post-combat endorphins if you're not gonna think long and hard about what to say.

She couldn't help but smirk at Alifax's description of the waifubots. "Don't call me highblood. It still hasn't stopped being really annoying. And yes, we should definitely confiscate his robots." Grin vanishing, default judgmental glare returning, she barked out as well as she could in her high-pitched little girl voice. "Monetary disputes aside, we will be seizing his waifubots. We as in me and Alifax, the redblood standing next to me. Not we as in whomsoever feels like doing so. That's a bad definition of we. Point is, we're not letting the blueblood keep them. Full-stop." She turned back to Alifax. "I'll try and make sure you get your share, since you're probably too afraid to assert yourself and claim what you rightfully earned. I guess I'll give Amicae part of my share, since I don't really need the beetles, and his information did help, sort of...Can you manage to get a robot back to your hive on your own, or will you need help with it?"

Odette had just about enough of all of this disputing. The adrenaline rush was fading from her system, and her tiny body couldn't keep up with the battle as much as she thought it could. She had little to no energy now. She was physically exhausted, her head was ringing, and she couldn't keep up with all of the arguing around her. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying her hardest to come up with a solution that would please everyone. But with all of this yelling back and forth and that damned blueblood who had the gall to attack Vremmy, it seemed impossible to try and come up with a solution everyone would like. But she knew that if they kept arguing like this, the day would catch them and they'd all be forced to stay the day in this dreary basement. Odette had enough time dealing with dreary basements on her own, and she certainly would not enjoy being in damp foreign quarters with the rude company of that violent blueblood. She had to keep things moving.

"I've got something to s-say!" Odette chirped, trying to gather everyone's attention. "If you all are fine with the idea of splitting the reward with the parameters we've set so far..." She looked at her feet nervously, hoping that they were truly satisfied with the decision, "Then we ought to start moving, and like stated earlier, any one of you can help bring the criminal to the Queen."

"T-though, I know many of you must be tired, and would rather not tag along on the journey, that is fine..." She started to mumble, a bit nervous from speaking in front of a crowd. "Every single troll here assisted in fighting and bringing this man to justice, a-and as such all of you deserve some reward. Take whatever pleases you from this hive. If you do not wish to accompany us to the Queen, then please, give us your name... or mark it on the criminal himself if you are not as trusting of our word." Odette looked sheepishly toward Vremea for comfort.

Odette then passed by the others and took a stance by Vremea, where she should have been all along, where she could have saved her from that jerk, or could have at least comforted her afterward. "We must get moving... for if we do nothing but continue to argue rewards then the sun will catch us and we will be trapped here for the day... And I am sure that none of us want that..."

It was a little surprising, to say the least, when things suddenly looked like they would loop back into the same exact thing. More speeches, but for what? Hadn't they just agreed to split the pot 50/50 between his team and the rest of the trolls who wanted it? Okay, so maybe he still felt a little sore about it, but he just wanted to get the hell out of here already. It was someone else's job to keep track of all the trolls' names if they were so intent on sharing with every single participant. His team, on the other hand, was obviously done. If those guys were going to be slow about it, they'd take the whole prize for themselves. Casting a quick glance at Byakko, he shot up after Zeffer. This wasn't the first time he'd chased after the blueblood on a mission like this, it was almost nostalgic.

Stepping out into the cool night air, he let out a long sigh, only then noticing the dull pounding of a headache at the base of his skull. He was tired, this whole ordeal had turned into a fiasco, and it sure would be nice to hit the ablution trap for a while before sleeping as long as Bumbs would let him. First things first, though… He looked at Zeffer.

"That flyer just said bring him to the queen." A quick glance back told him no one had followed them just yet. Still, he kept his voice low. "And I've got the stuff in case we need proof." He gave his bag a pat, and it was quite obviously stuffed fuller than when they'd gotten there.