Futuristic Blacksun (Notorious x C.DEX)

[Notorious]

Jagar was struck with a massive energy pulse, then another, then another. His armor melted away revealing his bloodied body, his thick skin was being bloodied and bruised with his armor practically evaporated. The beast roared and jumped away from Psy, his robotic screaming ceazing but to his horror Jagar had done more damage than he had thought.


"Ooohhho $%E#$#%ASDS NOOOOO!" The android called out, his voice glitching out and fading as he laid in a crumpled heap in the middle of the floor. He was usually the one walking away from the action covered in his enemy's blood, this was one of the only times someone had bested him and his AI core couldn't keep up with this new discovery. "MY LEG$W@!#W@$ HE CRUSHED MY LEGS!" Sure enough, Jagar had applied enough pressure on Psy that his legs popped right off along with shattering some very important components that made him function. His trinkets was spilling out of his chest like blood, leaving him a crumpled up broken mess. Axel's hat still hung on to his head though, resembling a sight they had seen not long ago. "HEYY CASAR LOOK... I"M ASDA@!$@!$ AXEL!" The robot laughed hard until something singed out and he went offline.


Jagar didn't take any pleasure in his victory though, still dodging blasts from Casar and completely forgetting about the doctor. The beast jumped high into the air only to get hit by an impressively aimed energy blast that hit him dead center. Jagar was a rag doll as he was sent flying across the room, landing head first into one of the factory's machines. One of his bigger teeth chipped off and impaled the machine as he fell to the ground. He quickly got up but there was some hesitation to his movements, his healing ability taking longer and longer to kick in from the overcharged hits.


Then he spotted her.


He seen Imille preparing for something, carrying different objects and combining them together. His enraged mind figured she was about to attack him with one of the objects so he charged. Faster than he had ever ran in front of them before, Jagar crossed the entire warehouse with a fury that was unmatched. Imille was seconds away from being bowled over and Casar only had one chance to shoot him away before the poor doctor was in the monster's grasp. Jagar let out a howling roar as he got closer, wanting nothing more than to rip the doctor to shreds.

 

[C.DEX]

There was a glint in her vision. In the shattered surgical mirror pieces strewn on the ground, Imille saw the roaring form of Jagar just as the horrifying howl had left his lips. She spun around, anesthetic canister in hand, just as the abhorrent creature's claws reached out to end her life. They hooked into the canister and through the other end, but before the deathly claws could reach her torso, it exploded, shaking them both and heavily bruising the adrenaline-rushed doctor. Luckily for Imille, her mask had remained connected. Not-so-luckily for Jagar, he had taken his off. A sharp breath in caused the giant's skin to tingle, but nothing more happened just then.


Another charged shot rang out through the air, piercing through the scrap wall that Jagar and Imille had ducked behind and out the other end. It split the divide between the two, singing both Imille's clothing and Jagar's armor as it passed by. Casar, under the influence of the drugs he'd been given for surgery, didn't feel much as the power furnace wreaked energy throughout his body, and he used it like a conduit. Under the haze, which was slowly subsiding, every muscle began to scream out. He wouldn't last too much longer on the same path he was going, and some part of his rage-fueled, drug-inhibited mind began to realize that. So, he filled his and his gun's reservoir and pulled away from the energy furnace. Core full, he began strafing while simultaneously unloading through the scrap wall to get Jagar in his sights.


His other hand pulled an object from Imille's borrowed hoodie that he'd acquired earlier. The monomolecular blade. Unsheathed, its energy became chaotic, as uncontained energy began powering not only the core gun, but the blade up as well. Unbeknownst to him, Casar's hands singed-locked around the grips of his weapons, having been burned from heavily overcharging them.


"Come on, you coward!" he screamed out to the assassin, bits of his speech drowned out by the fire of his gun. "You wanted a warrior and you attack a doctor?! I THOUGHT THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED!" he taunted, hoping that both his shots and his words would draw the ire of the bloodthirsty beast, who was beginning to show signs that he was on his last run.


In the short lapse of time the anesthetic tank and Casar's shots had given her, Imille reached backwards, hands finally grasping a pistol that had remained untouched during the spree that both Psy and Jagar went on in the beginning. She closed the gap between them, lead finger on the trigger before she had even properly taken aim. The sights of her gun set on the divet that Psy had made in the center of his chest.

 

[Notorious]

Jagar felt strange, the effects of the chemicals Imille released not quite apparent just yet. If anything he was more angry at the attempt the doctor had. Then he heard Casar's words. They were distorted and almost foreign in his rage filled mind but he took the taunts deeper than any person Casar had faced before. Insulting a Vekht's honor was the biggest thing you could possibly do, and with him being under an immeasurable amount of rage this caused Jagar to ignore the doctor completely now.


"Me?.... Coward?.... No..." He rose up from behind cover, absorbing the shots that Casar had shot at him and continued to shoot at him without flinching. He took the pain like a crazy person, absorbing each shot into his armor or even grosser his skin as he began to walk forward. "Jagar... no coward... Jagar... WARRIOR!" His eyes locked with Casar's who showed the beast no mercy, and rightfully so. Jagar roared one final time then shouted something in his native tongue then charged at Casar. He barrel through the shot up cover, the barricade being obliterated by Jagar's legs as he charged through it. He ran through the brittle metal support beams that were supporting the roof like they weren't even there. The closer he got to Casar the more he realized what a world of pain he was about to be in. Axel and the others was one thing, but a murderous alien that couldn't feel pain was about to collide with him and the only help he had was a psychotic doctor armed with a pistol.


Jagar's blade met with Casar's, since it was fused to his hand the attack vibrated through Casar's arm and throughout his entire body. The alien then slammed his fist into Casar's chest where his power core was, ironically causing more energy to be unleashed from the action. The core was strong and durable, taking a hit like that was child's play for it as it made Casar even stronger. Jagar felt this, the boy being able to counter his blade and even pushing it back some. With a roar he brought his head down and headbutted Casar only for something miraculous to happen, the blow to the head kept him standing and made Jagar stumble back.


For the first time ever, Casar was able to hold his ground when getting hit in the face.


It even hurt Jagar, causing him to reevaluate his plan of attack and for whatever reason he felt his movements slowed and weakened. With a slurred roar he tried to stab Casar only for it to be countered forcing them into a stalemate once more. The beast then swung his hand like a hammer sideways and jabbed Casar in the throat stunning him for a moment. With one last great force of effort Jagar stabbed Casar in the chest and out his back, his confused mind missing all of his organs and simply getting lodged in the subdermal armor. He had pierced it, but had missed anything serious entirely. Frustrated, the beast broke off the blade and began throwing punches and claws at Casar, having him injured but he was losing his strength too rapidly.


Jagar was confused, why was he losing his power? He had normally been able to land a lethal blow on an attack such as that but he was getting slower, weaker and most of all even more confused. In the midst of it all he felt sleepy, something that had never happened to him on a hunt before.

 

[C.DEX]

Claws met flesh, and soon, the both of them were attempting to kill each other on the metallic floors of the factory, purple and red blood flying. Despite looking like he'd been mauled by a bear, Casar used the drug-fueled rage he'd had to keep going. Adrenaline and synaptic accelerators surging through his veins, he fought back just as hard. He slammed the butt of the gun repeatedly into Jagar's face as long as he wasn't being restrained, causing an indeterminate amount of damage as the violet mixture muddled together the injuries they had both sustained. It would almost be comical if it hadn't been so violent, with the colossal Jagar fighting the lilliputian techno-mage.


Desperate and knowing that his time would come to an end soon, Casar lurched forward, arms wrapping around Jagar's torso. In a last ditch effort to save himself - and by extension, his friends - the mage discharged the entirety of his power into Jagar's body. It was the icing on top of the cake; it had exhausted the beast enough to finish off the gradual slow that having a tank full of anesthetic exploded in his face offered him. The outrider, still conscious but far too injured, shocked, and drugged to move, slumped to the side. The techno-mage screamed out, apparently having been slowly regaining his sensibilities and sobering up as the fight progressed.


He found the barrel end of a pistol pointing firmly at the incapacitated Jagar. Right before Imille laid down on the trigger, finally putting an end to the assassin's life, Casar did something completely unexpected. He cut the gun in half with his blade, nearly slicing her fingertip off in the process. She dropped the half-gun, stunned. "No!" he screamed at her, as if disciplining an animal. "Put the mask back on him. Put the same shit in it that you used on me during surgery.


"Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?! YOU CRAZY BASTARD! HE'S GOING TO KILL US! I need to TREAT YOU! I NEED TO TREAT PSY!"


Grasping his bleeding head, Casar fought against the thought of outright killing Jagar. In an ironic turn of events, while Psy had twisted his mind by interfacing with him, he also instilled an empathy in the impressionable Casar that screamed dread at him when the thought of killing the assassin crossed his mind. He remembered being alone on the S.S. Sinai. He remembered being cornered by the Warden, knowing well that neither two would make it out alive. Then he remembered Jagar grabbing him and jumping off of several stories in order to save him from the Warden. Without him, Casar would have faced a fate worse than death. And while the monster in front of them wasn't that same person, that person was somewhere in there. Despite the coin. "No." Casar finished, though he was slowly losing strength himself and probably couldn't stop Imille if she'd tried hard enough. "He's... Why I'm here." he said, weakly.


He fell over to the side, no longer straddling the dazed Jagar. His hand reached out to the button that the assassin had pressed to withdraw his mask, and pressed it again. The mask slid back up over his face, returning filtered air to him once again.


Imille bent over, and ripped Casar's gun out of his hands. He screamed out again. She pointed it blank at Jagar. "You better use some pretty nice words. If I don't hear a 'please' and 'thank you', I'm going to shoot your eyes out and dissect you while you're thrashing." she growled. "Hurry up, because I value Cas a liiiittle more than I value you, and once you go lights out, I'm making that shit permanent."

 

[Notorious]

"Do... It..." Jagar grumbled, his pupils slowly returning to normal as his mask began to filter out the 'toxins' that he had been exposed to by removing his mask. He shook his head, the confusion disappearing and the pain from his injuries setting in. He wanted to reach for his medical kit and hit himself with a medical syringe but noticed that the doctor wasn't kidding or waiting much longer. "You... Defeated me. Jagar, submit." He said quietly, not quite saying please and thank you but those words sounded foreign to him. As he was severely armed head to toe with many more weapons he kept his hands where Imille could see them. He didn't want to upset the trigger happy woman, especially after she played such a big role in defeating him.


The Vekht looked around the room, the entire facility was compromised. The support beams were gone and the roof was creaking. They had only a few hours before this place collapsed in on itself due to the fighting. He felt a twinge of remorse for destroying this place, it had been quite nice and since he had failed his mission that only meant he had insulted those who had bested him.


"Why?" Jagar asked, looking over to Casar. "Cazzar... You spare me after Jagar torment you... After hunting you... Jagar not understand ways?..." His backwards basic was showing more so now more than ever, speaking more than he had done in a long time. "Was sent to kill Cazzar and Robot. Doctor added to list for supporting two... Paid to kill, yet... You spare me? Jagar not understand. Jagar run out of words to ask. Why not finish Jagar?" The question was a rather blunt one but that seemed to be all Jagar was capable of. "Doctor Human, woman." He said, not knowing her name. "Do not shoot me." He slowly reached his hand to a pouch on his leg and pulled out a syringe. "Healing. Give to Cazzar. Stronger than puny human heals. Check."


Jagar pointed to Casar's massive blade wound in his chest. It was the biggest blow he had dealt to the boy and it had began to bleed now that everyone was no longer fighting. The blade was still inside him but it would dissolve soon from being cut off from the power source. It was a small gesture of gratitude to help, even during his confusion on why Casar sparred him.

 

[C.DEX]

Imille practically snatched the syringe from Jagar. While one hand held the gun, the other ejected a bit of the liquid onto her sleeve. She looked down at it, and allowed her medical analysis eyepiece to do its work. It had returned clean, surprising the doctor for perhaps the last time that day. Taking a chance, she hooked the gun into her belt and plunged the syringe into Casar's neck. She stood over him and began to work, all while offering worried glances upward toward the ceiling, which groaned at every opportunity. "I don't understand any of the shit he does either." she noted, in a severely more distressed mood than she had been in earlier. Jagar would have to either survive on his own or wait, as while Imille begrudgingly didn't end his life, she wasn't exactly happy about it, either.


The blade dissipated as if it had never been there before, leaving the gash in Casar's chest to bleed open. His hands reached up to frantically stop the blood flow, but Imille peeled them away. She pressed down on his chest, providing pressure enough to keep him from bleeding out while Jagar's solution took its time in working.


"It's Casar, soft - you know what? Just Caz." he groaned. "I don't... I don't know why. I still haven't decided on whether or not to. Start hoping that you didn't kill Psy, because if he's gone then so is my sympathy for you." he threatened, though the both of them knew that in the state he was in, only Imille could assist either of them now. His lids began to drearily close, a notion which offered him a light smack from the palm of Imille's hand.


"Stay up, buttercup." she said, words bright but tone of voice livid. "I don't have any supplies anymore. There might be some in the medivan, but... I can't take you back to the hospital. And I'm not going to be able to get all three of you out before this place comes down. Hey asshole, how's that healing factor? Now that you've got your werewolf inhibitor on, do you think you could drag the bundle of bolts you massacred out of here, or are you going to try to kill us again once you get up? Because I'm sure I can find another anesthetic tank buried under the rubble, hook you up to it, and leave you here until the building collapses. Can you come back from that, big man?"

 

[Notorious]

"If Jagar wanted kill you doctor, already do." Jagar began pushing himself up off the ground, towering over her. "Loyalty to Caz, he defeated Jagar. Jagar... friend?" He asked, then shook his head. "No. No earn that. Caz great warrior now, Jagar respect who best him. Mercy on fellow warrior mean life debt. Help bucket of bolts." And with that her turned towards Psy, he had every opportunity to attack them once more even as slowed down as he was but he didn't take said opportunity. Instead he slowly walked over to Psy's dismantled body and let out a long drawn out sigh. "Robot man just sleeping. Cut power line."


Jagar was right, if anything Psy had never had this period of rest before his core was damaged. This was the first peace the droid had in countless years, no twitching, no crying out in the night. It was strange to see him so still. Jagar scanned around and found a dusty old bag that had been on the floor of the factory, he picked up the bag and began to put bits and pieces of Psy in. Eventually he got the entire android, trinkets included, inside the bag and he hoisted him over his shoulder. Psy was a rather heavy android but Jagar had just enough strength to carry him out.


The Vekht rejoined Imille who was still applying pressure to Casar. Jagar's features had softened, as strange as it sounded he was completely docile and peaceful towards the two of them now. From nearly killing them to being completely friendly was such a staggering change it was no wonder Imille was still ready to take him out.


"Robot man ready to leave. Building collapse soon, but have time to gather belongings. Jagar help you?"

 

[C.DEX]

"Where do you expect we bring them?" Imille chided, sharply. "You destroyed my home. Chased me out of my hospital." She said, before halting. That one was kind of her fault, but it was easy to blame the vicious assassin in that moment. Her eyes drew up from the boy, over to the destroyed heap that the woman once called both her workshop and her house. A frustrated groan came from her throat, and if she hadn't been pressing to Casar's chest, she knew she'd be trying to unwisely kill the assassin. The assassin, who despite being hurt, was still on his feet. Probably due to the mask he wore, siphoning out the anesthetic in the air. While it had helped - as long as he didn't choose to outright leave with the android, a notion she hadn't considered until then - she was still enraged.


Casar's bleeding came to a slow halt. His consciousness was in stasis, neither here nor there. His hand still clasped to the molecular blade hilt; they'd revisit that later. "Come on, kiddo." She said, pulling his arm over her shoulder and him up to his feet. Then, her glare shot back to Jagar. "You don't get to use the F word, unless it's fuck. Like, 'fuck, I just destroyed an entire factory and then life-debted myself to a kid that I tried to kill, that also might be dying!' Pretty convenient for you, huh? Or, 'fuck, when I take off my mask I turn into a demon, maybe I should get that looked at!' Those F words. But not friend! Since we're going on honor codes, have you ever heard of seppuku?" She spat.


"Be easy." Casar hissed, from under his drug and injury induced haze. His face contorted in pain. "We're gonna keep him."


"You keep PUPPIES!" Imille said, incredulously. "And when puppies bite you, you put puppies down! This puppy STABBED YOU! He doesn't get into the medivan, Cas. It's me, you, and Psy."


"Or what, you'll go home?" Casar replied. For any other person, he would have far overstepped the bounds. However, Imille's options had already run low, and something inside of her cared for the not-so-sober techno-mage, and something deep inside of her liked the conflict.


"You're gone as soon as the blood returns to his head, Spyro." She said, to Jagar.

 

[Notorious]

"Jagar not a puppy or a Spyro. Jagar is name." He stated, not quite understanding the doctor's troubles. He looked around at the warehouse and said, "Angry doctor, lose home... Was part of mission, owe Caz life debt. Jagar house you." It was a strange offer but than an even stranger sound emitted from Jagar. "We leave NOW!" He said, getting excited and rushing towards the door. His mask had filtered out enough of the toxins to get him moving somewhat properly again and he turned panicked to the others who were confused. "Renegades. Tracking me." He reached up on his armor and pulled out a chip, "To make sure job get done." He crushed the chip. "Yeller squad is coming."

...

"RCN Control, this is Captain Fetch of Yeller. We've located Prisoner C-2341 and his android partner. Along with that doctor we've been tracking, Doctor Imille from Curretch Gardens Hospital. The mercenary didn't have his tracking device primed until he was already in the middle of combat with the group, they've..." Fetch let out a long sigh. "Fucking bounty hunter has went AWOL. He's talking about some sort of life debt to the kid, I can't fucking believe this. And now-" Fetch slammed his control terminal as he was piloting, "He just broke his tracking device! They're making a run for it, Yeller in hot pursuit." Fetch turned his back to the rest of the crew in the Leech. "We're gonna get that fucking kid and his robot, make that doctor wish she didn't get herself fired over them. Now Jagar's helping them?" He shook his head, a fierce scowl on his face. "We're shooting to kill now, Winger will just have to be satisfied with four bodybags."


Yeller blasted off from their position in space directly towards Jagar's homing beacon. The leech practically screamed as it broke through the skies and made it's way down deep into the underbelly of the city without stopping, Fetch one of the RCN's finest pilots they had at their disposal.

...

Jagar began to get bombarded with messages from the Yeller crew and the Renegades. He closed his eyes then ripped out his communicator augment, purple blood spraying out from the point but he did so swiftly, followed by crushing it.


"We have only few minutes. Jagar help, ship located here." He held up his hand and pulled out a data pad, showing Imille a map to where he had parked his ship. "Hanger, neutral. We go there RCN can not enter. We go space, my ship outrun Yeller." Jagar gave the doctor a stern look, "No time waiting. We must save Caz and friends."

 

[C.DEX]

Imille practically dragged Casar into the back of the medical van, displaying a strength she normally wouldn't have if it weren't for the dire circumstances. She threw herself to the front, leaving the delirious mage to stare toward the lights on the ceiling. "I was here once," he said, lucidity failing due to the effects of Jagar's medicine, the pain, and the lingering drugs in his system. "I got stabbed too. But that time it made it all the way through. Ha. I died. No... Not ha. It was painful."


The van revved to life as Imille took the front. It sounded beat up - as if on its last limb - and there was, of course, the elephant in the room. How did they expect a van to outrun a spaceship, let alone an RCN leech? The only solace they had was Jagar, but even then, could they trust him? It'd be strange for him to not outright kill them once he had the chance to if he planned on betraying them. After all, they were right there. All of them. Putting counterintuitive thoughts to the back of her mind, she began driving. The van lifted up off of the ground, and Imille took off toward the hanger location. She considered giving Jagar the reigns, but there wasn't enough time to do so.


"Look Psy, I'm Vitor." Casar said, to the sack of metallic parts. He held out his hands in front of him, where burns shifted underneath skin, a result of the medicine. Then, he reached his other hand over, and ripped the monomolecular blade hilt off of himself. Using bloodied hands, he pulled Psy's head from the bag, which was still attached to his body via a thin, decimated cable.


"Ohhh fuck, I'm a criminal. Iit's just settling in. I mean, I was before, but at least I was quiet about it. I should probably stop making impulse decisions." Imille noted, to herself. Her hands gripped around the controls. "One bad decision. Just one. And then you end up piloting a stolen medivan with a drugged Exodlite in the backseat, his robotic friend in a potato sack and the crazy motherfucker who tried to kill you giving you directions to his ship. You better have some toys on that ship, or Momma Imille's gonna lose her mind."


All around them, traffic buzzed like flies. The cacophonous sound of an orchestra of vehicle horns filled the skies. Then, it was overridden. The scream of the Yeller Leech ship boomed throughout the atmosphere, converging well on their location. As good of a pilot that Fetch was, however, there wasn't any way that he would be able to pierce their lane without killing far too many innocents for the RCN's liking. Instead, to their horror, the loading bay of the Leech opened up mid-air to reveal several hover vehicles. They ripped out of the bay, shooting toward the medivan's location. Imille didn't have the same issue, however, and reared the van sideways. It slammed into another car, violently shaking all of the passengers inside but also careening the lot toward a civilian walkway. At the last moment, Imille pulled up, sending their van dangerously close to the heads of the pedestrians that walked it.


"You seem pissed!" Casar noted, his voice coming to the Captain's ears. His speech was slurred, and his words significantly less taunting and eloquent than they were back in the hospital, but that didn't stop the amused mage from an attempt. "How is it that I was able to get repaired, assassinate a guy, make friends with Jagar, AND we're on our way out? Have you even been looking?" he said, smirking.

 

[Notorious]

"Kid you're on a big planet and we still found you, don't get cocky just yet." Fetch said, mildly annoyed with Casar but keeping his cool. "Someone shoot those motherfuckers!" As if on queue, one of the hover vehicles Fetch had sent out open fired on the medi-van. It struck the back doors revealing Jagar in the back. The Vekht growled, making eye contact with the person who had shot them.


"Weapon." The mercenary grumbled, only for no one to respond to him. He turned around and reached into Psy's bag to find one final energy weapon he had stowed with the broken alien. Quickly, the alien turned around and began to open fire on their pursuers. He nailed one of the hovercar's engines and it burst into flames, skittering across the walkways and taking out civilians. It looked like the Yeller crew members were fine as they evacuated the car but this was already going to make tense RCN relations with neutral people that much more tense. "Puny cars..." Jagar grunted, bracing himself against the medivan wall in order not to fly out of the now wide open back.


A whirring was felt in Casar's numb hands and suddenly Psy's eyes went back to life.


"GOOD MORNING CURRETCH! WHAT IN THE FUCK DID I MISS?!" The android said, barely operational. "OH NO! I CAN'T... I CAN"T FEEL MY LEGS! OR MY BODY! NOOOOO!" He called out, experiencing something worse than death for him. "I WAS HAVING THE BEST NAP AND NOW I CAN'T MOVE MY FUCKING HEAD! CASAR!" He shouted at the boy who was holding him. "TURN ME AROUND, WHERE IN THE FUCK ARE WE? IS THAT JAGGGAR BEHIND YOU OH FUCK!" Psy was panicking hard, his last memories were of him being killed by Jagar. "CASAR HE'S GONNA GET US! CAS HELP! IMILLE? SOMEONE PUT ME BACK ON MY BODY I'M HAVING A REALLY ROUGH TIME RIGHT NOW!"


"Boo." Jagar said, looking back at Psy who screamed in response. The alien chuckled for the first time in their prescience, finding the decapitated robot amusing.

 

[C.DEX]

When Psy came to life again, the techno-mage flinched, but didn't drop him. It took him a moment to register that Psy's disembodied skull was speaking, and it wasn't just the drugs. "You don't always have to scream." Casar said, his annoyance growing. "We... made a life pact. Whatever that means. The life pact came after he stabbed me."


"It means he's not trying to kill us right now! But the future is kind of still up in the air! Also, I'm glad you're not dead!" Imille replied, from the front. Her hand came off the wheel to dip into her pocket, where she held Casar's core gun. It was mostly depleted, just as well as he was; from shock-hugging the assassin. Still, she passed it back to Jagar, as it still had a few shots left in it.


Casar turned his attention back to Fetch. "That's true, but I was in a coma for a week. Is Standard your native language, Terremian? Because 'already' is a word that generally doesn't mean 'one week later'. It's one of the biggest hospitals in the near galaxies. Don't pat yourself too ha-" suddenly, the van jerked, being shot hard by a huge projectile. Casar, not having been buckled in and choosing instead to bide his time taunting the angry Terremian, was sent violently against the wall of the vehicle. Psy's head was released from his grasp, though it held fast by the few remaining cables that connected his head to his body. Dazed, he began to slide toward the now-open van doors, but latched quickly onto the floors. His power flickered back and forth, threatening to send him out the back doors happen it end. Not wanting his death to be in vain, he pulled himself further into the van and threw himself behind the massive form of Jagar.


On the hover vehicle behind them, a Renegade hung out the window, bearing a massive laser cannon. A red beam emanated from it, before hovering over the chest of Jagar. "Locked on." Its wielder said.


"Oh FUCK!" Imille screamed, before swinging the van to the side. It rolled mid-air, just in time for the red-hot laser to clip the area where a wheel would have gone if the car was terrestrial. The doctor, knowing well that the car wouldn't survive another shot, tightened her grip on the wheel. "We're a minute and thirty out. Jags, I'm about to do some crazy shit. Grab spooky and buttercup and hang on!"

 

[Notorious]

Instead of a typical response from Fetch the Yeller open fired on the medivan, peppering it with its lighter guns to disable the van. With Imille's ducking and weaving only the roof of the van was lit up, lights from outside were now beaming down from the holes in the ceiling. Psy's head was bouncing around the back while Jagar stretched himself out, letting Casar balance himself on his back whilst trying to pick up Psy's bouncing head.


"Youch! We have to OUCH!" The droid tried to say, roughly tumbling into everything as Imille performed some complex maneuvers. "SOMEONE PICK ME UP!" Jagar, whilst firing with one hand, picked up the complaining android and shoved him into Casar's arms. "GROSS! NOT THE GUY WHO FUCKING MURDERED ME!" He then eyed Casar, "AS FOR YOU MAD CAS I CAN SHOUT HOWEVER LOUDLY I WANT! I AM SCREAMING BECAUSE I AM NOW A DISEMBODIED HEAD!"


"Both of you, shut up." Jagar replied to their surprise. "Can't aim with bickering."


"YOU HAVE NO SAY IN THIS!" Psy fired back. "IF ANYTHING WE SHOULD THROW YOU OUT OF THIS VAN AND-" A round hit Jagar, blood splattering behind him as the bullet went through and coated Psy's face in the strange looking fluid. "-keep being the meat shield. Good work, keep it up." He said as calmly as possible, accepting Jagar as their personal shield. Each hit he took caused him to grunt loudly but his healing factor kept him in check. While Casar or Psy wouldn't have been able to take much more Jagar was paying it forward, accepting this as his initiation into Casar's pack.


"Almost there." Jagar said to Imille, "Crash into docking bay, we let Fetch pay damages."

 

[C.DEX]

Imille reached up, hitting a button in the compartment above her head. Then, the chair in the passenger side slunk into the ground of the van, leaving an empty space and opening the small area where they were fighting just to stay onboard considerably. Then she hit the brakes. Not hard enough to collide herself with the hover vehicle in pursuit of them, but certainly enough to send the heavy Jagar careening backwards - or forwards, in respects - into the open passenger side of the vehicle. Because Casar was behind him, and Psy, just as well, they all fell in line, with Psy's head dragging along his own body and the techno-mage being violently pinned against the console, his chest plating saved him from being truly crushed. Then, Imille hit the solid red EMERGENCY button on the ceiling of the van.


The shutters behind them slammed shut, just in time for the laser cannon's fire to hit them. The metal heated in the spot directly behind Jagar, melting almost instantaneously. Hinting that if he had been in the way of it, it would have been his flesh that was absolutely decimated.


"That's the button we press when the patients start throwing shit!" Imille shouted, over the whipping air and gunfire. "Now that you guys won't fly out if I make any sort of turn, we can get to the fun part!"


Her hands suddenly yanked backwards on the controls, pushing the medical van to a ninety-degree angle. The two of them and what hadn't been cut off of Psy were neatly tucked into the front, with no room to slam into each other anymore. Then, Imille did something terrifying.


She cut directly into perpendicular traffic.


Before Jagar could protest, and with Casar being crushed under the weight of them, the medical hovervan shot straight up into a gap in traffic they had been afforded and out through the other end, ending the RCN's chances of pursuing them for a little while entirely. Then, Imille gradually lessened the angle, and soon enough, normal gravity had returned to them.


"Are you guys alright?!" She finally voiced, tone shaking. "We should have enough time now to get to the station!"

 

[Notorious]

Jagar took a staggered step forward, letting Casar breath properly and give him a chance to pick up Psy who was grunting on the ground. He was stuck facing the floor mats and was awfully confused.


"I don't know where I am... Everything is... fuzzy here. Am I dead?" Psy asked, looking deeper at a hospital floor mat closer than anyone should. "It's... Almost comforting in a way, knowing that there is a droid afterlife. I just didn't expect it to be so anti-climatic, so comfy. As if my whole body is numb and away and my head feels so supported, as if knowledge may be the one and only true truth that must be passed down. I should have done more with my life... I should have read more... And now... I'm in this fuzzy afterlife. I wonder if Casar is here with me? CASAR? ARE YOU HERE MY FRIEND?"


Jagar turned around and flipped Psy and he could now see Cas, Imille and Jagar from his sloped position. Immediately he began to panic, "I AM STILL ALIVE! FUCK YES! FUCK KNOWLEDGE! SOMEONE PUT MY HEAD BACK ON MY BODY PLEASE!"


"We're almost at ship, Mad Doctor woman fix robot there." Jagar said, peering out through the front window. "Building straight ahead. Fly around into docking bay, we run now." Soon they spotted a massive glass walled building where dozens of bigger class ships were flying to and from the station. It was made for the bigger class starships that would have trouble navigating the skies. They spotted Yeller far up in the skies and the other RCN cars searching for them, now was their chance to escape. "Good maneuver through traffic, they not know where we go. Jagar travel alone." As Jagar commanded, Imille skipped the parking area and diverted her course directly to where the inbound traffic was going.


It was an open part, obviously used by the more rougher denizens of Curretch. There was no check points, only security to guard their client's ships. Imille parked the medivan in an open spot and they all began to shuffle out of the car, Jagar scooping Psy up while also throwing Casar over his shoulder. The boy could walk but due to the advanced drugs he was on he was higher than a kite, this was the most efficient way. Psy peaked his head out of the bag on Jagar's back and seen a jet black ship ahead of them.


"Is that your's?" He asked, admiring the ship. "It is pretty sleek, it-" Then he spotted it. A darker looking ship was stationed next to the sleek one, one that did not resemble something from the higher class systems or the RCN. It was a junker, mismatched color paneling everywhere but armored so much so that it almost looked impenetrable. Massive guns laid on the bottom of the ship as well as a turret on the top, along with spiked armor on the sides, much like Jagar's, used for ramming ships.


"Stole it from Derelict, added armor. Fly faster than Leech with prototype engine. Name Interceptor." Jagar said, clicking a button on his wrist computer that opened up the rear loading bay. They stepped in and it was ironically very clean inside, as if he hadn't been in any of the rooms lately or at all. "Jagar stay in cockpit and captain room, no other room interest me. Take what want, never explore full thing." He admitted in broken galactic standard, dropping Psy to the ground which caused him to let out a loud "Youch!". Jagar made his way up to the cockpit which was rather roomy to fit the giant and he began the launch sequence. "Yeller may find us, may not. Hold on." And with that Jagar fired up the Interceptor and punched it, leaving no time to explore the ship as it cut through the air like a blade. They were soon out of all that ridiculous traffic and in open air, readying to breach the atmosphere. "Where to?"

 

[C.DEX]

"I mean, flying anything with the word 'prototype' in the name is always a gamble, but we haven't died yet!" Imille said, cheerfully riding the high of having maneuvered them back into the station. Her eyes set out of the viewing window as the ship ripped away, her hand clasping a haphazard internal metal plate in order to keep steadied, while Casar climbed into the co-pilot's seat and Psy lulled around as much as a disembodied bag of android parts could.


Then, they hit space. She took in the view of Curretch. Her home. A part of her wondered if she'd see it again, but knew well that she'd have no place there, even if she went back. She sighed, sadly. Then, as if the emotion hadn't even crossed her, she bucked up. The planet, whose frame was massive in their field of view, looked quite like a star-dusted scape. The light of the planet shone far, even having viewed it from the massive void of space. Not an inch of the heavily-populated planet was covered by anything resembling terrestrial life, with even the black, acidic oceans spanned by some form of sprawling metropolis. It was a disgusting sight to some, but for Imille, it would have been perfect. If complacency was what she had wanted.


She looked back to the bloodied Casar and broken Psy, wondering briefly if the two were worth it. It was an insane gesture for two people that could barely be considered people at all. That was it, though, wasn't it? It wasn't just for them.


"Alright, well, I let Cas drive earlier, so if you're even a bit better than him - which is a pretty god damn easy task - I trust you not to kill us all right out the gate. With your ship. Physically, actually trying to kill us is a different story. I don't understand that, by the way-" While Imille talked, she began sifting through the bag of Psy, assessing the damage that Jagar had done to him. "-If you and buttercup working together before didn't matter when you took the job to kill him, why would him stopping me from blowing your brains out matter?" she asked, as she struggled with the weight of the discarded droid. She placed his pieces onto her jacket, which she laid down on the floor, intending to drag them along. She wore a tanktop underneath, which showed off the heavy bruising she'd taken from their small war. "Makes even less sense than not blowing your brains out in the first place."


The dreary Casar's hand fell onto the panel. He interfaced with the ship, followed by a grimace. "We could go … Through the spatula."


"Nebula." Imille corrected. "That might be good; they won't be able to see us or track us, but you're gonna feel like more shit than you already do, Cas. Not that that really matters to you right now, seeing as you got a dose of medicine meant for a seven-foot wildebeest. We can lay low for a while - if this ship has enough provisions for us - and then head to another galaxy where the Renegades won't find us. Kick it that way, werewolf-man!"

 

[Notorious]

"Speak more of blowing Jagar's brains out, will take it as threat." He replied gruffly, "You talk too much, Doctor. Casar show mercy on me, Jagar save Casar. Without Jagar, you no be here. Fetch and Yeller crew would destroy you without me." There was no anger in his voice, just letting out blunt statements to clear up the air. Or make it more intense between the two of them. "Jagar owe life to Casar, you owe life to Jagar. You are just doctor who drives crazy, threaten me again and..." He had to think of how people using galactic standard spoke. "J-... I." He paused, letting emphasis be placed on I instead of repeating his own name. "...Will Destroy you."


Things were quiet for a moment, Jagar wasn't annoyed but taking Imille's words on their face value instead of understanding phrases and jokes. He took everything she said quite literally and if she continued to threaten him it was going to be a bad flight. A VERY bad flight.


"Jeez... Y'all acting all serious and shit. Where's my hat? And my body?" Psy asked in Imille's arms, looking up at the doctor as he didn't exactly have a choice to look anywhere else. "If there's gonna be any murderizing on this here junker I want to be able to do some too!" Psy was sad, his eyes a faint glow instead of the usual bright light. "Please Doc... Don't get yourself killed by crazy up there and put me back together. I need you... Inside of... My circuits. If I could move my hand I would be caressing your squishy organic cheek."


"We go through Spatula." Jagar said, suppressing a toothy smile underneath his mask. Even he could find the humor in Casar's words as he laid in the co-pilot seat. "Hang on." Jagar punched it, the Interceptor going ridiculously fast. So much so that it jolted everyone and they were in the nebula in record time. The radiation effects were hammering the nasty looking ship but to their surprise their shielding was much stronger than the average ship. "Looks ugly, has a lot of surprises." Jagar commented, "Many modifications over standard ship, spend most mercenary money on Interceptor."


"Looks ugly huh? Lots of surprises?" Psy said, suppressing a laugh. "Are you talking about you or the ship?"


Jagar stood up out of no where, scaring everyone there from how rapid his movements were. "Workshop here." He said, motioning for Imille to follow him. She followed with Psy in hand down a hall towards the loading bay but then turned to the right, taking a staircase down that led past some crew quarters then even further down towards the engine room. Before the actual engine room itself was a full workshop, not with every machine the factory they had just left had but enough to surprise Imille. "Full reign of workshop here. Use this to fix armor but you use to fix talking robot man. Get more tools later if you need."

 

[C.DEX]

"Sensitive, much?" Imille chided, though she figured pushing her luck would only worsen the situation. "We're past the 'blowing yo-' er, threatening phase. I was just asking what your motivations were. I see that you're a simple man now. Eye for eye. Club for club." she said, heightening her emphasis on the word 'simple'. "Also, you can't really put someone in danger, take it away, and then say they owe you. That's just an abusive relationship. Are you a shitty boyfriend, Jagar? Because that's what shitty boyfriends do. Regardless!"


"Stop fighting. You're giving me a headache." Casar said.


"Sweetheart, getting the shit beat out of you is giving you a headache. Also, the comedown. Also, the nebula." Imille said. "Don't blame me!" she said, with a cackle, before following the gigantic man down to the workshop and leaving the techno-mage alone to rest in the cockpit. With one last glance back - mostly to check his vitals with her monitor - they all left.


"Your hat is in the goodie bag, along with all of your trinkets. Except one. One which I took. Because it was my watch." she said, looking down to the timepiece wrapped around her wrist. It really wouldn't matter too much longer, given that they'd be far out of any sort of timezone, but it was the principal of the thing, really. She began to haul all of Psy's pieces, one by one, onto the workshop table. "It's covered in blood and gunk and oil. You should probably throw it away. You might not be able to smell it, but anything with a nose is going to find you gross."


Her eyes fell on Jagar's armor, which was littered with holes due to the bloody battle they'd been in, with most of the damage either having come from Psy or Cas themselves. "You might not want to even try that." she noted, with a small nod. "Once you get to about ... half your armor or more gone, them's the times. I could repair it for you, but only if you promise not to destroy me."

 

[Notorious]

"You are safe here Doctor Lady, long as you do not destroy me either." It was almost endearing the way he said that, coming from the simple minded, blood thirsty giant. "Jagar not know what shitty boyfriend mean, but if shitty boyfriend bad Jagar apologize." He finished, hovering on her words before they had walked down here. "If Doctor Lady fix Jagar's armor Jagar leave it here and make sure Caz is okay." Jagar then raised his arm up and click a few buttons on his wrist computer then the ruined bits of his armor began to fall off his body into a pile on the floor. It was a bizarre sight, seeing him trust her so easily and leaving himself defenseless especially after their battle not even an hour ago. He was left in tight compression armor used for when people wore heavy duty sets to protect his skin, even then it was torn in places from the intense battle from where their shots had by passed both layers of armor.


"...Imille... Is it just me, or is this guy a little too trusting? Especially when he was just about to kill not even an hour ago?" Psy started to laugh, "I think I like you Jagar, it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only crazy one here."


"Jagar have no opinion on you robot man. You lose head too easily." He replied before walking out without another word. He made his way back up to Cas and sat down wordlessly next to him in the pilot seat, navigating the nebula manually now. "Your friends are weird." He said, breaking the silence.


Back downstairs, while Imille was tinkering with Psy, he started to laugh. "OOOH! Don't touch me there, that tickles." He said, talking about the bottom of his head where he was connected by wires and strands back to his main body. "How long are we gonna take here Doc? I'm hanging on by a thread here and I'm reaaaaaally dizzy from me bouncing around all over the place. It's been a long time since I have been in this kind of situation. As for my hat, we are not throwing that away. It has a lot of sentimental value. I took it off a dead cowboy! Or well, mostly dead! I love it and you're just gonna have to deal with how gross it is Doc. Maybe we can get Cas to clean it while he's all loopy." He said with delight in his voice. "As for my other trinket that YOU stole from ME, I will let you keep it... Temporarily."

 

[C.DEX]

"Huh." Imille said, as Jagar left the room. "My name's Imille!" she shouted, before he disappeared from the doorway.


With a slight shrug, she continued working. "Yeaah, he's an odd one. I'm not sure I like the cut of his jib, but then again, he hasn't killed us. While you were out, he tried to stab me, I gassed him, Cas punched him a little and then hugged him, and before I was gonna kill him Cas stopped me." she summarized. "And then Yeller found us so we took the mystery van, and then you woke up again. Ever since then, he and Blondie have been best friends. I mean, not better than your friendship, of course... but also, maybe? I mean, they've apparently known each other for longer..." she paused, feigned a confused pout, tapping a tool to her chin. "Nah, I'm sure it's fine."


On the table, the doctor began splicing Psy's split cables back together, starting at his torso and his head. His chest was still completely decimated by claw marks, but that was the second step of the process. The first was making him functional again, even if barely. In the meantime, she hooked a battery to his meager power supply.


"It's honestly amazing you're still operational, so don't go bitchin!" She said, playfully. "I'll probably be working on you for a while. As far as standing up? Maaaaybe an hour. Forty-five, if we do your head, torso, and legs and leave the arms off. That would be hilarious. But we're stuck on a ship in the middle of a nebula, so I'm not sure why you're in such a rush."


Up in the cockpit, Casar tugged at the decimated scraps of fabric that was Imille's hoodie. He began assessing himself, perhaps for the first time truly realizing how injured he had been. He remembered the fight just barely, with key points obfuscating the smaller details. Jagar tormenting him, the panic he'd had when he saw Psy being ripped apart, and the strange dread he didn't think he'd experience upon seeing the assassin barrel after Imille. He looked wearily to the alien.


"Don't be stupid. None of us are galaxy standard. Turning into a rampaging monster might be normal where you're from, but it doesn't happen around here too often. Neither do killer androids, or ... whatever is happening with the doctor that she'd want to help us. Or a ... former Exodlite." He said, words hanging on 'former'. "What counts as weird for a ... a Vek?" He asked, obviously having trouble recounting words.

 

[Notorious]

"You don't understand why I'm in a rush? I'M A FUCKING DISEMBODIED HEAD?! HAVE YOU EVER FELT WHAT THAT IS LIKE?" He rolled his eyes, or at least the android equivalent of rolling the lights of his eyes in a similar pattern. "I forget... You organics don't truly know what it is like. Being torn apart... Well, our old friend Axel does but he's one of the few that live to experience it." Psy let out an electronic sigh, his 'breath' getting glitched up as she continued to work on him whilst they talked. "It's... humiliating. Having to rely on an organic..." He said quietly, obviously disturbed by the fact that he couldn't move and his only option was Imille's help. "You are more than that but the point still stands that without you I'd be dead. Now listen, I ain't like that mutant out there who swears life debts or whatever. That shit is fucking dumb." Psy let out a chuckle, "But I do appreciate it. Just don't get too frisky now and fall in love sweetheart, I'm synthetic."


Psy began to laugh maniacally, getting a kick out of his own joke while his neck was being restructured. "Though a weirdo like you might want synthetic. Can't say I blame you. We're tall, dark, sleek, handsome... Perfect for conversations. Made for your pleasure, with the right modifications." He let out another electronic sigh then a yip as one of his wires sparked. "I'm still trying to figure out why you're helping us. Usually I can't hold on to a thought to save my circuits but you... There's more to you, isn't there?" Psy started to laugh louder, "I mean... WHO DITCHES EVERYTHING TO HELP A FREAK BOY AND AN INSANE ROBOT? THAT TAKES SOMEONE EQUALLY CRAZY TO JOIN IN ON THIS WILD RIDE!"


Jagar processed Casar's question about what counts for weird for the Vekht. The mercenary let out a snort, muffled by his mask as he quickly had his answer.


"People who talk too much." It was the perfect answer for a Vekht, a mostly silent race of hunters who used other forms of communication. "Or those who no hunt good. That weirdest Vekht of all. Vekht only alive for the hunt. To best universe biggest creatures and foes." He paused, "We hunt in packs... but many hunt alone. Jagar hunt alone for long time, it.... Strange, crew on ship. We hunt together now?"

 

[C.DEX]

"…I don't really like fighting." Casar said. He had a good reason. It never turned out well for him. That was evident, as he sat nursing far too many injuries - though none of them life-threatening thanks to the medicine - to be happy about his situation. "I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm really free from the grasp of the Coalition, but it's not hunt. If the Renegades left me alone, they might never even hear from me again."


He stewed over his own words.


"So maybe. For a while. Or until they stop hunting me, we can hunt together. If they ever stop. But the Universe has a lot of place for people to hide." he said, looking out to the viewport. The nebula truly obfuscated their view of anything meaningful, but that didn't mean it wasn't a sight in itself. Purple clouds swirled outside of the viewport, sending waves in that made the techno-mage feel a little nauseous, but not to the degree that he'd felt on the Gaius. "Not that I've ever explored it. I've seen one terrestrial planet, really, and I destroyed it. Other than Curretch, but… it barely counts as terrestrial."


"Weeell, I never really stay on-planet long anyways. Generally something happens. I stayed on Tora for a while, but then my lab got destroyed by Saurs and the local tribespeople. On Erodora-X, I may have … bombed a small area of the city and gotten driven out. Unyli, Atlas. Halcyn, RCN. You know the deal. Kind of a drifter. Curretch was going … as well as Curretch could, but then I got all caught up with you guys and before I knew it I was running down a hall with my dick too deep, getting fired at by the Coalition, again, and then I got mad and was like 'FUCK IT!' and went all-in!" she said, getting so overexcited by the end of her diatribe that she accidentally shocked Psy again, causing him to scream out.


"Whoops. Sorry! And no, I don't know what being a disembodied head is like. If my head is disembodied, I'm dead. It's truly a double-edged sword." Imille said. Then, she pursed her lips. She felt a pang of sympathy for the broken android. While she didn't know what it felt like to be taken apart, herself, Psy displayed a range of emotions that were eerily human. And, no doubt, there was fear. "Once I fix you, I won't say a word to any of the other appliances on-ship about what happened here." she said, with a light chuckle. "Nobody here cares if you're getting fixed by an organic. Hell, Cas just spent the last week having so many surgeries that the Gitterworlders would be jealous. Not to mention, he went ballistic for you, so you need to just buck up like he did and take it like a murderbot."

 

[Notorious]

"Then we explore." Jagar stated. "Jagar owe Caz life, meaning do what you want. Hunt alone for long time, money Jagar no need. You see city, Renegade say you last mission Vee? Desert... Shitty planet." He said, mimicking Imille's words from earlier slowly figuring out certain terminology from hints in their speech. "Dusty, no good hunt except worm. Kill three of those with other hunters, easy with strategy." He grunted, "We travel to new planets, you see wild life. Real life, not city. Not dusty. Not Exodlite. Small towns, beautiful scenes." Jagar almost had some happiness in his voice, clearly he preferred the wilds to the urban jungle. "Though, even there Exodlite and Renegade can find you."


He paused, trying to search for the words. Speaking wasn't too natural to him so having to speak this much was taking a toll on him mentally.


"Do not doubt Renegade, more resourceful then think. Yeller small time, weak team compared to other. Jagar hear Gaius team alive." He said, bringing an update to Casar that he hadn't gotten explicitly before. "They Captain alive, big Crusader man also alive. We may... Have to fight. Yeller will pursue but Gaius be real problem. Other teams real problem." Jagar then finished with, "Fetch good, but team been moved around too much. His men unreliable, new. Put in bad spot. Jagar strongest link in team."


If Psy could frown he would, Imille wasn't understanding him. It was a common occurrence and she even belittled him with the other appliance comment trying to make light of things but this was serious.


"You do not understand... I don't care what anyone here thinks, the act of an organic operating on ME is humiliating ME." It was easy to write off Psy's hatred for non-synthetics as a joke but he was being sincere. He put up with Imille due to her contributions but he still wasn't comfortable around her, being only around her very little so far. "I was forced to be created by organics and they... made me broken. I know I'm not standard issue and I feel things that I can't FUCKING explain but..." His voice began to glitch out, thinking deeper than he ever really went. "Just put me back together..." He grumbled, his memory core malfunctioning as he tried to access deeper to explain why he was uncomfortable with her or living beings in generals.

 

[C.DEX]

Imille looked down to Psy, who had been laying vulnerable on the table. Her smile fell.


"I'm sorry. I didn't know it really meant anything to you." she said, her hands quickening with her words. The time for joking had passed, and that was a notation that she soon realized. The doctor, normally full of pep, became serious. That didn't mean she was grim - quite the opposite. Instead, she almost became maternal. "I'm going to put you back together again, but I'm not going to break you. I won't change anything that I'm not going to be forced to change. You'll be you. No life debt, 'cause that shit's stupid. And then afterwards you hopefully won't have to deal with this again."


Her eyes shifted downwards to Psy's bag of trinkets. She reached in, and pulled out RU-RU's smiling faceplate. The thought of Psy being uncomfortable under her hands made her sad, and it showed a little in the corner of her mouth, but that didn't mean she wasn't reasonable.


"I can put a repair droid together. In memory of RU-RU. Have'm take care of the little stuff. Bulletholes, trinket-collection... And slap a laser gun on him, for good measure. Call him RU-point-oh! He can be your little buddy. And maybe he'll be smarter - but I haven't explored A.I. creation too much. For now, you gotta deal with me. But I won't break you. I know it's probably hard for you to trust me. I wouldn't trust me either. In fact, sometimes I don't. But that's beside the point. I think your whole thing -" she said, opening a hand and gesturing in a circle to the entirety of Psy, "- is awesome. Most droids are like, 'blah blah, protocol', but you're like ... your own person. Changing that, or even trying, or even limiting it, would be a disservice to science itself."


"You killed three worms?" Casar said, a small hint of a smirk coming to his face. "That's ... well, one of those worms almost killed Axel and Vitor, so maybe we'll be okay after all." he finished, a slight hint of hope coming to his voice. "Though I'm not surprised he's still alive. It'd be too good if he were dead. He..."


He stopped, wondering if he should have really been shit-talking the Captain. "He's an idiot." he said, coming to a decision. "He always reminded me of Arc. Arc couldn't fight to save his life, but they're both so self-confident in their actions that their sheer stupidity and brashness keeps them alive. Like the Universe needs a blight to keep moving, and they're it. Two different sides of the same coin." he said, unbeknownst that the other team felt the same way about him.


"If you can find a terrestrial planet that I'd like, I'd be surprised." he said. In reality, he'd never felt comfortable in any given place. Though, despite the uncomfortableness of the nebula and the dread that being there brought him, there was something significantly less scary about sitting in the cockpit of the Interceptor. "What about the outer planets in the Universe? Where you live? I've never read reports of Exodlites going there, let alone the Coalition."

 

[Notorious]

Psy felt a sense of comfort in her words, it was strange especially coming from someone who he hadn't linked with directly like Casar. Even more so with her going out of her way to make another repair bot for him made him feel happy, very happy in fact, something that very few strangers had ever done for him before.


"Thank you, Imille." He said, a strange calm in his voice that usually wasn't present. "If I had cheeks I'd be blushing right now, usually people prefer the androids that are all about protocols are serving their organic masters. There are those out there like me, but the personality you get from me rivals that of an organic. I'd argue that I'm more interesting and by that look on your face I'd assume you think the same." He let out a chuckle, trying to adjust to the kindness she had shown him was rather hard but after a few moments he decided. "You are now my second best friend. After Cas since we've touched minds and all, that and the whole freeing me thing it's gonna be pretty hard to top that." He paused, that would sound rude to most people so he added, "Of course, keep buffing out my scratches and making me little robot slave minions and you may pass him sooner or later. He's been too high for his buddy lately."


He thought on her words some more while she continued to work on him, she had a knack for this sort of thing so he figured they may as well continue talking now that everything seemed to be cleared up.


"For someone who works on organics a ton you sure do know your way around a droid. And weaponry, and augments... If I didn't know any better, you might be a mad scientist. Ooooo...." He let out, thinking he cracked the code. "You're totally bat shit like the rest of us huh? THAT'S WHY YOU FIT IN SO GOOD! Don't take offense to that Imille dearest, this is perfect. We're like the rejects of the universe, coming together for one kick ass tour around the cosmos of kicking ass and taking names. It's perfect!"


"Maybe what keep them alive keep you alive." Jagar replied back to Casar, the simple minded hunter actually being able to pick up on that. "Think differently. Do not think of oppressors as idiots. When you do, they catch up to you." The hunter grunted, "Think of me. No one think much of Jagar. Jagar simple, mercenary. Good at job but that it. That weakness of people. Under... Under?" He raised his wrist computer and talked into it in a foreign tongue, one that tickled Casar's ears as it made Jagar actually sound quite articulate. "Underestimate." He finished, being taught by his language software what he was missing.


They continued to move through the nebula slowly, Jagar purposely missing the biggest pockets of radiation for the electronics and people on board with augmentations. He was quite the pilot all things considered, though it had to come with the job. Jagar was the type of mercenary that would be dispatched on quick moving and evasive targets. Having good piloting skills covered all of those.


"As for Jagar home world...." He chuckled, "You no like it there. Far, far from here. Take weeks to get there. In the Great Deep, no systems for days. They call Outriders cause we come from Great Deep. Outer Rim people on outer rim of civilization, then you get Great Expanse. Place of no galaxy, just space. Then, find small system like mine. Where freaks come from." He chuckled, "Exodlite no go there. Just going to Great Deep for god. Lot shorter trip for big Exodus."