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A foot nudged the charred tech's body, producing a pained moan, "Perfectly fine, no thanks to your mythical technical skills, Cael. Really, since when were you capable of more than enigmatic warnings, a supposedly charming smile, and leaving your weapon laying around for people to slaughter each other with, hmmm?" Dr. H, still in his customary robes, crouched down beside the injured tech and began making sad little tsking noises as he inspected the apparatus. "Perhaps it would better if you used some of that supposed charisma to ah...hmmm, maybe you should just go...carry something."

Glancing around the area for a suitable minion, the doctor's eyes landed on Davey, "Mr. Brant!" He called out jovially, "Perhaps you could give me a hand here?" He nudged the tech again, possibly just to make sure he hadn't died in the interim, "Could you carrying this fellow to the infirmary? After your done, please fetch a couple of the large containers from the lab area. They'll be marked with the word 'protoype.'" He paused for a moment, "Unless a bit of fetch and carry is beyond your ah....grasp?"

Ariane wasn’t standing with her “group” upon arrival; she knew that they would distract her and had decided to slip away to stand at the side as their superior started his debriefing. As usual, he was vague and while he kept saying that they were to retrieve an ‘artifact’, she couldn’t help noticing that he did not tell them the name of said artifact nor did he describe it… She raised an eyebrow, grabbing her phone and holding it up to check the screen; perhaps more instructions would come later, in the form of texts…

It reminded her of when they were still faceless, masked people, trying to survive.

“Hey kid,” She greeted Gale, holding up a hand in a casual ‘hi’ gesture as he appeared through the crowd that had begun to form; her tone wasn’t mean, but mildly teasing instead, ”I’m touched that you would come get me.” So touched that there was an amused grin on her lips. So very touched.

”Are the rest over there?” She was referring to the Betas, of course, even without meaning to; as much as they were supposed to work ‘as a whole body’, she had a feeling it would turn out this way – cliques clinging together due to their shared experiences. As she walked in the direction Gale had came from without waiting for an answer from the boy, she was surprised to see an unfamiliar face among the many familiar faces – a girl with quite the radical hairstyle.

”Ariane,” She extended out a hand towards the girl with radical hairstyle, ”I don’t believe we’ve met.”

On his way to the infirmary, a cloaked figure speed walked past him, in an obvious hurry. It was several moments later, that a soft feminine gasp echoed through the hallway. "Oh! Oh no!" The figure turned and rushed back to Davey, "Did you need help? It was the doctor wasn't it, he's always like this, making fun of other people's hardships!" This was followed by a dramatic sniff, and a no move on her part to relieve the trainee of his burden at all.

"Why just the other day, he said to me, 'Clarice,' in that awful way of his. 'Clarice, have you been playing with the sleepers again?' And I told him no! I mean after the last time, I got so many horrible duties to make for it. And it's not even like I did anything wrong, the guy woke up just fine. Maybe with some kind of...weird unicorn fetish, but that could have already been a thing with him. Not to mention I have yet to lose anyone's..." her voice finally trailed off, and she glanced over at him again, paused and then exclaimed, "Oh no that's right! Do you need me to give you a hand?"

Another pause.

"Oh god. Oh wait no! I didn't mean it like that! I am so sorry, that was so completely insensitive of me!"

Ennéa grabbed her backpack and put it on. A mission, a mission, they were going on another mission~ She absently fidgeted with one of the backpack straps as she stood on her tip-toes trying to spot her fellow Phoenix members. The other hunters all seemed nice but she... just didn't feel quite right... going into a dangerous situation without her old teammates at her back.

You're scared?

"Huh?" Ennéa blinked and spun in a circle, looking for the person who had addressed her before she realized it was coming from within her own head. Baraz. She still wasn't quite used to the weapon's presence in her mind. In fact, it was a little creepy, like a person reading over your shoulder all the time and commenting on the plot.

"I'm good." she replied a little impatiently, "A-okay, okey-dokey-smokey-lokey!" Ennéa gave the ahriman in her mind a quick thumbs up and then resumed looking for her teammates. Was that Petra over there?

...smokey-lokey-what? Baraz asked. Oh, whatever. Ennéa had a mental image of leathery wings being refolded and settled. That one of them? he asked.

Ennéa automatically looked in the direction Baraz had mentally indicated. "No, that's Before."

She spotted a familiar head of red hair beyond the other hunter though and smiled in relief, making a straight bee-line for it. "But Jordan is standing a little ways behind Before, so I guess you could say that Before is before him." She giggled a little at her own joke. "Get it, Baraz?"

Oh Jack. Really? The ahriman grumbled.

Ennéa ignored him, utterly distracted as she noticed Maddie and Jerry were standing next to their leader. "Hey everyone!" she called, cheerfully bouncing up to them. She latched onto Jordan's arm and gave him an affectionate squeeze. It was nice already being part of a team.

Ennéa had arrived at the tail end of the group's conversation and it was only then that the implications of what Jerry was saying dawned on her. "Wait, you're not going to be on our team?" Ennéa transferred to Jerry's arm and hung on, pouting vaguely.

Things were always more interesting with Jerry, her singing partner, but Ennéa wanted to be on whatever team Jordan was leading. It looked like Maddie was going to go with Jordan too and Ennéa wanted to be with her friend.

She bit her lip and reluctantly let go of Jerry's arm. "Be careful, okay? Try not to die."

Bix felt free to interrupt his friend's awkward ramble by just proclaiming. "BROFIST!" and fist bumping Before back. Hopefully that would distract him from his rambles about hair. Bix knew the truth, the slight crush that Before seemed to have on Tika based solely on her unique look. He wondered if the other hunter had said more than a five rambling sentences to her in their whole stay on the island.

"Boss.. err Ariane. Whatever!" He gave her a crooked smile and a playful arm shove. He seemed to have finally recovered from the fact that his dear, domineering Boss was a hottie. She was just.... BOSS! Would she take the initiative and lead in this venture like she had in the island trial? They'd all changed, even in the smallest way, since that time. Thankfully having his friends here had calmed the flopping of Bix's stomach and he was feeling slightly more confident.

"One.. two.." he silently counted the rest. "Nice. We have a group of five." he glanced around then attempted to signal to Caelius. Hadn't he asked to be informed when the groups were decided. "We have our group over here.. uh.. sir?" Was he supposed to call him sir?

Bix rubbed his arm and gave Ariane a disgruntled look. Why did she have to punch so hard?! He sifted through his backpack briefly before putting it on and went back to rubbing the sore spot. While they waited for everyone else to get organized.

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