cometfall | [log] Please Hello

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He kept telling himself that look, hey, what? Did you expect Hunter life to be all glamor and epic battles from which you always emerged the victor? No, Comet, of course not, it was always going to be a lot of boring nothing most of the time, punctuated by slightly less boring and sprinkled with YES I HAVE DONE IT WE NOW HAVE A CANON THAT SHOOTS CUPCAKES wait maybe that wasn't the best idea.

It'd be better that way, after all. Less chance of becoming one of the casualties he used to see in the hospital.

But Reploids are fickle creatures and so even though Comet knew all of this logically, he was still slightly miffed that today's mission was a simple courier job. Simple, but extremely boring, especially since the package was heavy enough that they couldn't just fly back with it.

"They couldn't have given us a vehicle?" he groaned. It was his turn to carry the box, and while it was within his weight class, he couldn't fly. "This'd go much faster that way. Or, y'know, gotten one of the ground-based speedsters to do it?"

It was a nice day, at least. The package in question was a recovered batch of supplies from an old factory on the outskirts of the city. They'd gotten roped into it when Comet had overheard a superior officer talking, and he'd enthusiastically asked to see what it was, since after all one of his hobbies was ancient technology and he'd absolutely love to get his paws on--

And then the officer had interrupted him and informed him that if he was SO eager, he could go pick it up himself. Great.

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"They probably would have gotten someone ground-based to do it if you hadn't spoken up," Synth replied, shaking his head. "And there aren't enough vehicles to waste one on this, I guess." He shrugged, wishing that he could go faster himself - he was faster on the ground than Comet, but he had to match pace with the other. It was irritating. Really, everything was.

"We're only a few miles away now, though, so relax. You're so buying drinks this time, though." He rolled his eyes behind his visor.

"What!? Me!? But I spent my whole paycheck on lab supplies! I don't--"

He paused. Something... huh? Had he heard something? ... nah.

"... though I guess I could just... use the money I get from this mission. Dammit. Okay, fine."

Synth grinned, then paused. "...Are you hearing something?" He put a hand up to one 'ear', looking around him with his visor scanning the area.

"... so it's not just me? Huh. Yeah, I am, I wonder what it--"

The ground cracked beneath his feet, and he was flung to the side as a huge thing burst from the ground. He barely had time to recover from his fall when it spat a blast of ice straight for him.

Comet managed to roll out of the way, but the package ended up encased in the stuff.

"Oh shit, oh no, oh geez, I take it back! I take it back!" he said, scrambling to try to get hold of the damn package. It was probably safe, just covered in ice. As he did, the serpent slammed its tail into the wall between him and the package. "GO BACK TO BEING BORING AND ROUTINE, MISSION!"

"Oh fuck, oh fuck..." Synth reacted quickly, flying up a wall to perch on a building ledge and start firing shots at the serpent, aiming for the weak points he could find with a quick scan. After a second or two, though, a shot traveled straight past his face, and he turned to see a bug-like mechanaloid flying straight for him. "Oh fuck no!"

"What!? What is it?" shouted Comet. He was trying to wall jump up to a rooftop just to get out of the way of the serpent, but it was excessively difficult to try to walljump while holding an extremely heavy and now ice-coated package. "Oh hell I just--"

He hoped to whatever higher power wasn't too fragile, because he had to drop it again so that he could air-dash over yet another tailslap.

"Synth, I think we're going to have to kill these bastards before we can get out of here!" he said, drawing his twin pistols. He set one to charge, then started rapid-firing with the other. "Do you have a read on where this guy's power core is, because --- oh fuck!"

From out of the alley came a half-dozen Mavericks. Comet could tell from their build that they were likely former civilian models, since their armor wasn't entirely seamless and they weren't too well armed.

"WHAT IS GOING ON UP THERE I COULD USE SOME BACKUP OH AAAAAAAAAAA!"

He managed to take out two with a charged shot, and then he was forced to run, dodging under the snake as it came down to try to bite him and rolling into a corner.

"Bees! Bees are going on up here!" Synth fired at the charging bug, managing to destroy it after a few shots, but there were others coming. "Air's not safe!" He turned, trying to shoot for the serpent's core, but a shot hit him from behind and he ended up falling from the ledge, barely catching himself.

"We're so fucked," he mumbled, firing a few precise shots and managing to take out some Mavericks - but there were so many more. He wasn't meant for crowd control.

"Oh fuck--"

Comet started to airdash to catch Synth, but redirected his leap when Synth caught himself. The air was full of bullets, and he took several painful hits before landing.

"I say we leave the damn package and get back to base, this is too hot for us to h--"

At that moment, the serpent hissed ice at him, the force of the blow flinging him clear into a wall... where he then stuck, frozen solid. His systems were still online, but locked in stasis; and even if they weren't, he wouldn't have been able to move at all to get out of the ice block.

"Oh shit--Comet!" Synth started to try to make his way to Comet, battered with shots as he went, trying to return fire. He opened communications with the base, yelling as he ran. "We need support right now! We're not going to be able to handle thi--ah!" Another shot had hit, hard, and he fell to his hands and knees. "Fuck!"

That was when the pole of a naginata slammed into the ice surrounding Comet, shattering it. The Reploid holding it was armored in blue and silver, her hair flowing behind her. "You're medical, right? Get your friend some help." With that, she charged at the serpent, swinging the energy naginata out all around her.

Comet coughed, shaking his head, and sort of stared for a moment before coming to his senses.

"The fuck is this? The fuck was that? The fuck are you!?"

Then it occurred to him that maybe he should get moving. First task? Activate his main subtank. Second? He dove over the serpent's tail, then drew his energy-knives, sliding up behind one of the humanoid units and neatly taking out its energy core before it noticed him. Smoothly, he plugged it into the subtank to recharge it (nearly to full, excellent). He grabbed Synth's shoulder and pulled him quickly behind a bit of cover, hoping that whoever this was could provide enough of a distraction to let him work.

"Hold still," he said, pulling out a pair of connector cables and hooking Synth up to the tank. Reaching over the barrier, he let off a volley of shots at the airborne attackers before ducking back behind it.

"I think somebody just saved our metaphorical bacon. I hope, anyway."

Synth grinned weakly, feeling energy flood him again. "I noticed. Pretty damn awesome. Response times are getting better." He began to charge a shot, his rifle giving a small whine. "Going to try to take out that damn serpent..."

The newcomer, meanwhile, continued to hold her own, taking out the remaining humanoid Mavericks easily. She seemed to have some trouble with the airborne units, though, and icy shielding is all that saved her from a few nasty hits.

"If you've got the snake, I'm going to help our new friend with the bees," he said, drawing his knives again and adjusting the settings into blades.

Turning, he ran up the wall and then kicked off of it into an airdash, slicing neatly through the first set of insects, then settled into a hover, blasting the second. A third shot stingers at him, nearly knocking him out of the air, but he caught himself, dropping his left sword and pulling his pistol on them.

"Hey, everybody good, you need me to give coverfire somewhere elssssseEEAAA"

He barely dodged yet another ice-blast from the snake. "YEAH OKAY I'LL SHUT UP WHILE FIGHTING SORRY. I MEAN UM SORRY AGAIN I MEAN -- FFFF"

The blue reploid paused, then shook her head. "Just focus on the fight. Do what you can." She was starting to move around the serpent now, easily blocking its icy shots.

And Synth took advantage of the distraction, leaning out from cover to fire one precise, highly charged shot. The serpent collapsed, sparking, and the Reploid with the naginata finished it off with a single blow.

Comet landed lightly, then paused for a moment, panting as his systems tried to cool off from getting close to overheating.

"Holy shit!" he said, after a moment. "That... that..."

"THAT WAS TOTALLY FUCKING SWEET! Man, lady, whoever you are, you just saved our butts! So cool! And nice shot Synth! Can I get a hive five? High fives all around?"

He put both hands in the air, clearly waiting for a reaction.

There was a moment's silence as the newcomer and Synth exchanged looks.

Finally Synth coughed lightly and spoke. "Thank you for the help, ah..."

"Arctic." Arctic deactivated her naginata, clipping the pole onto her back. "I was meant to join your team tomorrow, but given the emergency they thought it best to send me out now." Her voice was flat.

"What? Seriously? You're just gonna leave me hanging like that...?"

He sighed, and put his arms down, then went over to pick up the box. Taking out his knives he chipped the ice off as best he could, then hefted it up.

"Should we expect more completely ridiculous ambushes? What the hell are we carrying here anyway, the helm of the ancient hero? No, wait, probably not, if it was that we'd have Zero's evil clone on our ass or something, wouldn't we. Though man, I always wondered about that, I asked if they'd let me see that thing's corpse and then Zero himself almost punched me in the head! And X told him to cut it out. Totally worth it. So uh, point is, are we going to get attacked again or can we just... mosey on back."

He blinked then, and paused. "Wait, what did you say your name was again? And uh, what's this about joining our team?"

He looked from Synth, back to her. "Nobody said anything about more team members! I'm going to need more subtanks for this. They better give me more subtanks. And a better medkit. I mean er, not to say, you aren't, um, welcome! Because you are, what's-your-name, you are totally welcome and we could use the help! It's just uh. Unexpected."

"So yeah let's go?"

"Is he always like this?" Arctic murmured, shaking her head.

"Always," Synth replied, giving a small sigh.

"...Right. In any case, my name, as I said, is Arctic. There's no other reports of anything unusual, we should be safe. Follow me." She strode off back towards base, not waiting another second.

Synth went to take the package from Comet before following after. "I do wonder what this is, though."

"Hey, not always!" Comet shouted, running to catch up. "Just. Often! Usually. I have my moments of not... this. Something!"

He actually ended up overshooting them both, and had to slow down to keep pace with Synth behind Arctic.

"Anyway. If I had to guess? I'd say it's probably spare parts and, if we're truly fortunate, schematics for pre-Cataclysm robots. Lost tech. If we're especially lucky, there might be a Pinwheel in there. Amazing stuff, Pinwheels, capable of massive power generation..."

He shrugged. "Lots of possibilities. Or it could be something entirely unexpected. Either way... so uh, Arctic, why'd they assign you to our little crew here? And why didn't they bother sending advance notice?"

"I only found out yesterday, and I believe they were going to tell you tonight, but then the situation changed." Arctic didn't even bother to look back as she spoke. "You're both support or long-range, I'm close-range. It's a logical grouping."

Synth was looking her up and down now, scanners retrieving information. "...You're a B-Class, and you're getting assigned to us?"

"Mmm. You're both competent, and the addition of a melee component will aid you both." Arctic said nothing about them helping her.

"Well, and even if she's a B-class, she's a front line tanker. Tankers always benefit from on-site med support, and from covering fire and scouters. Not to mention somebody with a bit more speed! All things we specialize in."

"Hey, speaking of which," he said, darting forward and hovering alongside Arctic. "Did you take any damage back there? I saw the aerial 'bots were on you, and I've still got a half a tank left here..."

Arctic rubbed at one arm a little, but shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Any minor damage can wait until we get back. There's still a great deal of danger here, we shouldn't waste time."

Synth trailed behind, scanning that arm and frowning a little. "If you say so..."

"Yeah, not listening to you there, sorry!" chirped Comet, floating keeping pace with her.

Without even asking, he took hold of her arm (still keeping pace, half walking, half using his jets to sort of glide slowly) and flipped a scanning visor down in front of his right eye.

"Yeah, your hydraulics are fragged, and you've got circuit damage here," he said. "All easily fixed. I can do it while we walk, even, and it'll keep me occupied, which is good because this is seriously a boring walk. I mean. Possibility of sudden death aside."

He looked up at her, tilting his head.

"With your permission, of course."

Arctic paused, then gave a curt nod. "Fine." She didn't slow at all, though, maintaining the same pace.

Synth grinned weakly. "It's probably for the best if we get attacked, right? Means you'll be more ready..."

Comet was quick on his feet, and this actually wasn't the first time he'd done field repairs. That was how he'd even convinced the Hunters to let him in at all, and what had set him apart back in the hospital--his ability to work on the run.

"Right then," he said, and finally, at long last, he shut up. Goggles snapped down over his eyes, and he flicked his fingers into a toolset, starting with an electromagnetic pulse to locally disable Arctic's pain sensors in that arm, then a slice to let him get into her internal components.

He worked silently for quite a while, pausing only to reach into his small backpack for the components he kept in there for just such occasions.

"You alright, Synth?" he asked at last as he neared the end of his repair work (just slide that gear into place and reconnect those wires, weld that together and--) "You seem a bit... I dunno."

He shrugged, then sealed it all up, flicking his hands back into their normal configuration.

"Right! Not perfect, but it'll last you until we get back to base. Also, you should be in less pain once that wears off. And I cleared up a snarled gear I found in there, how long have you been stoically enduring that injury? It looked pretty old."

"It wasn't bothering me," Arctic replied flatly. "But it's fixed now, so it won't be a problem." Not a word of thanks.

Synth just offered Comet a small smile. "A little on edge, I guess. We were nearly killed."

It's not like Comet cared about not getting thanked. The work was done, he was satisfied with it, and it looked okay.

"Huh," said Comet. "I guess we did almost die there, didn't we?"

He floated back and landed again, giving Synth an enthusiastic thump on the back. "But hey! We aren't dead, and that's what matters! And if we were dead, we'd have no idea, so it also wouldn't matter!"

"You're a master of encouragement, Comet," Synth said dryly, shaking his head. "I feel so much better now. But yeah, at least we made it out okay." He managed a small grin. "And it was sort of fun, in a weird, screaming-with-terror way."

"It totally was!" he said. "Hey, don't get the idea that I wasn't shaken, I was, but I figure, look on the bright side."

They were actually almost back to Hunter headquarters. "Right, time to get debriefed, and hand over the box, so that other higher ranking scientists can get their mitts all over it."

"Arctic, is your recharge berth in our block too? Should I uh, accompany you, or what?"

Arctic shook her head. "After the debriefing we can part ways. I charge elsewhere." Her voice was as flat as ever.

Synth actually shivered a little, murmuring to Comet. "I'm... not sure about missions with her..."

Even Comet's exuberance was getting cooled by Arctic's attitude.

"Yeah, me either," he said quietly. "We need a frontliner but... yeah. The attitude."

He shrugged helplessly. "But if the brass says it's what we get, it's what we get..."

He gave a sly wink. "Thinking maybe I can wear her down with the bouncy attitude, maybe she'll apply for transfer."

"Aaaaaaanyway," he said aloud, so Arctic could hear, "That's cool! I guess we'll see you around mission time? Though that said, I have movie night for the compound on Tuesdays, you should come out, it's a good time! and also game night on Wednesdays. We should get to know each other, if we're working together!"

Synth blinked at Comet. "Wait, have you been trying to drive me off?"

"I spend Tuesdays and Wednesdays training," Arctic replied tonelessly. "I'd recommend you both do the same, given today's performance."

"What? No! I just figured you could take it!" he said. Well, to be totally honest, at first, maybe a little, but he'd actually grown to like Synth quite a lot. "And... I'm... like this... most of the time anyway you know what I mean, okay?"

"Er," he said, "S-sorry about that, uh, anyway, Arctic, I do train during the day on those days, it's the evenings that we do other things, and the rest of the week, except for Saturday which is a lab day, Friday which is a day I do my shift in the medbay, and then Sunday I actually, y'know, take a break."

"And I bet you never take breaks," he said under his breath. "What am free time, hurr."

"As for my performance, sorry if I was a civilian before, and not some top of the line warbot! I have a lot of learning, jeez."

Synth was visibly trying not to crack up at the "what am free time" jab, muffling his mouth with one hand. Luckily Arctic continued to not look at the Reploids following her, helping his case a little.

"You're fine in terms of armaments and the like, from your files. But you do take too many breaks. I spend all my free time on training."

Synth covered his mouth with both hands, nearly doubling over.

Comet made an exaggerated gesture of YOU SEE!? sort of pointing at her and rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, well, don't overwork yourself, y'know? You need to let yourself rest sometime, let your self-repair systems take care of your wear and tear."

And so what if I take breaks a fellow's gotta rest sometime...

Now he was starting to feel insulted. "But hey! I'm not the B-class here, what do I know? Ha ha."

"I'm fine." Arctic strode into the base, heading through the hallways. "The debriefing room is this way."

Synth managed to calm himself with effort, shaking his head.

"Right-o! Debriefing, cool."

They all three filed in, and the debriefing went... well. Not as Comet had expected. He got reprimanded three times for sitting upside-down in his chair, and both he and Synth were chewed out for getting themselves into such hot water.

It was, eventually, a little too much for Comet.

"Hey! I know we were outnumbered and outclassed, but it wasn't like we walked into that, we were ambushed. It could have happened to anyone, and--"

"And you were clearly unprepared for that eventuality, hence why we sent in Arctic," said the Commander calmly.

"So would have anyone else! Any C-class or lower would have gotten completely overwhelmed by that! And you still haven't told us what we almost died to protect. Did I mention that? We almost died? "

Gone was the exuberance and (mostly) false cheer from earlier.

"E-rank Hunter Comet, sit. Down. Which, by the way, is now F-rank."

Comet's mouth hung open for a few seconds, then he slowly sat down, quietly whacking himself in the forehead crystal for being such a loudmouth. He still felt that he was right, they didn't deserve to have points off for that, but...

And then Arctic spoke up. "Sir, they were both overwhelmed, but they did very well under the circumstances and moved with effective teamwork. The shot that destroyed the main threat came from Synth, and Comet provided healing and air support throughout. They may not merit a promotion, but Comet hasn't earned a demotion."

Synth stared blankly at the Reploid. Was Arctic standing up for them after being so cold just a few minutes ago?

Comet stared blankly as well.

"Ah," he said quietly. "Thank you."

To the commander, he spoke up. "I apologize for my outburst, sir."

And then he held his tongue.

"... very well, B-rank Arctic, I will take your words into consideration. To continue: the package has been delivered into the hands of our top scientists--"

Comet couldn't hide his wince.

"--and afterwards, if it has been determined to be not a threat, Hunter Comet may be permitted to examine it."

"Dismissed."

Arctic headed out into the hall, Synth following. "Ah, thank you," he said when they were out of the commander's earshot. "It's... good to have your support."

"Given your ranks and your skills, you did as well as could be expected. That's all." Arctic gave a small shrug. "Go charge. Remember what I said about training." She headed off down the halls without another word.

"Uh... see you," said Comet. He looked back at Synth. "She's right about charging though, I'm totally beat. Let's go."

He was uncharacteristically quiet on the way back. First, it was finally starting to sink in that he'd almost died back there. Once he got past the coolness of surviving and them working together like that, it was scary as hell. And then the Commander's comments... even if Arctic had (weirdly? Unexpectedly?) stood up for him, that had still hurt. A lot.

Guess I'll have to be Mr. No Free Time for a while too... never good enough, I should have stayed a hospital tech, damn it all.

"Hey, Comet..." Synth said quietly when they were nearly there. "...Thanks for the help back there. If you hadn't been that quick with the tank I might've been totally overwhelmed. Fuck what anyone says, you did good, okay?"

"I, uh..."

He paused, rubbed the back of his head, and looks down. He doesn't want Synth to see how much that actually means to him.

"Thanks, Synth," he said at last, wishing that he could just give Synth a big hug for that (he still wasn't certain enough of where Synth's personal space boundaries were, exactly). "I needed that. I think I'll be ok, I just. Yeah."

"Just get some rest, alright?" Synth smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully we're done with package delivery for a while."

> Resist the urge to give your partner a big hug

You fail to resist the urge.

He couldn't help it. It was sort of an awkward tackle-hug... thing.

"UhthankyouandalsoforsavingmyasstodayGOODNIGHT!"

And then he was off down to his berth like a shot. Because Feelings.

Synth stared after Comet for a good few seconds, blinking confusedly, before shrugging and heading to his own berth. It had been... strange, to say the least, but hey, strange impulsive things were what he had come to expect from Comet.

He sort of was coming to like them, he admitted briefly before he plugged himself in.

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