Welcome to Gaia! ::

"What the hell?" Faust asked aloud, mostly to his companion senshi. "How come she gets to keep the damn bottle?" Faust didn't think much on their origin, nor why they might be lying in the street - he cared that they were shiny, and not in his possession. Faust glowered at the one pristine bottle before he huffed smartly. He might've lost the bottle, but he did gain a communicator.

Faust fastened the clip to his ear while flower petals and vines exploded behind him. It felt like it fit perfectly. "So you're sayin' that, I can call Thraen and tell 'im to get me some lunch without havin' to leave the bed? Or I can call him while he's out on patrol and remind him to bring home some tuna? Sweet! Been wanting to do that for ages." The Mauvian nodded sagely. "And it does everything Thraen's does without havin' to do with the pushin' buttons. They pinch my toe fur, you know? Damn flip phones. Can't even get 'em open without thumbs. Waste o' time." He cast a glance over furred shoulder to see if their accompanying senshi finished his twirls and stood ready for action.

Luckily, Faust missed the part where the vines started feeling him up.

Faust trotted toward Thraen on cue, and ricochet jumped from trash can to shoulder without incident. He settled into a crouch on the senshi's shoulder, and playfully swatted at the false butterfly decoration in his hair. "Awright, we ready to roll. Think we should keep to the warehouse roads and unloadin' docks? Seems like a damn nice place to keep some senshi bottled up. But, I mean, if she's wanderin' around town she could be anywhere. I'll look to the right if Ash hops up and takes the left, and you can... You know, do your thing. Sound good? I been workin' on my planning lately."

'Do my thing,' whatever that is. Likely involving glittering flowers and vines grabbing everyone's tarse, or getting in some fluffbutt's way. Thraen's eyes were sparkled with laughter, but he offered neither rebuttal nor corrections. Each having a direction was a good clarification, and for Faust, an improvement at having a plan of even that much before guns blazing. It was a win.

The eternal senshi crouched with practiced grace to gather up the second Mauvian into his arms without complaint of burdens. It wasn't a burden at all. However grim the occasion on the whole, there was a small portion in the back of his mind that was well contented to have TWO cats to carry about. Faust's greater weight was pleasant to his shoulders, and the extra fluff tickled at his jaw and ear, while Ash's smooth silk and smaller heft were satisfying to right hand, forearm and cradled against his chest. Thraen started smoothly into a run-and-jump to win them unboarded windows and easier access. "There's less bars and security at the windows on the upper floors. Some well placed knocks will loosen fastening, and that should be able to gain you both entry to most. Where it doesn't, a boot breaks glass without damage and I can slide you in to listen, smell and look about before carrying to the next. "

He stopped at a likely window on a 5th floor, perched with cautious balance on a narrow brick ledge, and gave the frame pounds with left fist to jostle it at the points of a compass with senshi-strength. Some paint and rust chips rustled down. Another quick minute with his nails, and rattling the lower portion freed the latch to open the lower 6 lights out to pa-chunk onto his boot-tops. It looked industry-dirty, but at least there was a perimeter walkway that caught shafts of citylight only a man's height down from the window. Some sort of observation walkway that overlooked the central, lower floor where machinery may or may not still decay in disuse- it was too dark to tell from outside without cat's eyes.

The silver guardian looked entirely too smug as she was picked up to cradle against Thraen's chest. He was such a good boy... always obliging, always thoughtful and intelligent.

"My legs are not going to break." Ash said primly, her tail curling over Thraen's arm to twitch back and forth. Her forepaws hung down and out around his hand, but she chose to ignore how undignified she probably looked. It clearly irritated Faust and she was enjoying it. "I promise, if we run into trouble, I will be the one farthest away from it."

No way she was getting anywhere near fighting anything if she could help it. She had two big, strong males with her, if she had to then there was something very wrong with this set up. When they reached the upper window and the senshi of gardens set to, Ash sidled off to the side to investigate the ledge and brick encasing the glass. A careful rub of her cheek was given to mark their entry way, accompanied by a grimace for how dirty it all was. Ugh....

Following Faust inside, Ash landed with less thumping about and she took the opportunity to wander the opposite direction from him, her eyes darting here and there as she went. It certainly looked like no one had been here in a while, but what did that really say, with a faction that could disappear and reappear somewhere else?

"We need to at least circle the ground floor once... She's a single girl. She could be stuffed in a broom closet with a cat and we could walk right over her without knowing." She said as she moved to the edge of the walkway and crouched, extending her head over the edge to judge the distance to the floor. Too far, sadly. Even if they couldn't feel her... it was going to be hard to hide some sign of someone having been here recently, and the smell of someone in captivity, or even just another cat around. Ash was confident if there was anything here, they would find it.

Turning, she bounded back as she had come and passed Faust up, going for the door with a smooth leap to latch onto the handle. Back legs braced against the door, she twisted until the latch disengaged, holding it tightly open.

"Make yourself useful, Big Boy, and pull this door open!" She grunted, struggling to hold it.

"Ain't nothin' anywhere."

The fourth, fifth, and successive buildings afterward yielded just as much nothing. Faust had squeezed himself into ventilation shafts, padded about on catwalks, and squirted through pulley systems to no avail. With the sheer volume of space covered, the Mauvians and scout found absolutely nothing. At one point nearing the latter part of their search, Faust felt a Dark Mirror signature bloom for a breath but they immediately navigated away from Thraen's signature. Overall, that was the height of the evening -

that and, Ash might argue, when Faust got his back half stuck when trying to wiggle through an air duct exit. No amount of fluff greased up that chamber well enough for him to squeeze out and it took Thraen's help to free him.

The grey fingers of early dawn spread slowly over the horizon, and light started to wake the buildings. More and more lights cropped up on the residential buildings. The number of citizens chancing the streets began to increase. They'd been at it for hours and found nothing more than emptiness; Faust was discouraged.

Had they lost this Amphitrite forever?

"There ain't any sign of her. She could be anywhere by now. Your senshi might be gone for good, Ash."