Lykaios & Yuffie

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Eira was surprised when Agni accepted her offer, even offering her a place to stay the night, and it showed clearly on her face, obviously having not expected the man to give her a chance so easily. She smiled, though, even if the gesture seemed a bit difficult for her, she wasn't exactly the smiling type -her eyes did the emoting for her, she rarely showed emotion otherwise. "I am deeply grateful to you for offering me this chance to prove myself, sir" she said, dipping her head respectfully. "I will be honoured to work in your service" She then glanced down to her console, the soft sound of a slightly high-pitched blipping just barely filtering through the communications speakers to Agni's end, though he likely would not recognise what the sound was.
'LIGHT IS POOR AHEAD, RECOMMEND SLOWER PACE THROUGH NARROW PASS TO AVOID DAMAGE' read the message in it's bright, digital letters across the screen.
"understood, Sora" she confirmed, quietly, before raising her voice again slightly so Agni might hear her better. "Sora's scanning has identified a narrow, poorly lit pass up ahead. He's suggested we ought to slow our pace, given the size of our group."

Once the group had arrived back at the hangar and were gathering at the entrance to the building, Eira fell into step close behind Agni. However, her actions seemed to turn somewhat odd and she shifted uncomfortably for a moment, her left hand moving to toy anxiously with her thick, silky hair as she bit her lip slightly. "u-um...I-I must apologise, sir" she whispered to Agni, not wishing his companions to overhear. "...I-I do not usually seek companionship of others...I'm afraid I am not so familiar with the formalities of social situations..." she admitted, sheepishly, her already soft voice becoming yet more timid in her embarrassment. "you may have to educate me in the proper manner with which to treat your suboor-...um, companions..." she suggested, even her request being stated in a somewhat stiff way, her vocabulary fairly limited to the formal military terms she was practically raised with. "I-I do not wish to offend any of them..." she might have been in the republican forces for some time now, but she spent minimal time at the headquarters where anyone else was, confining herself to her quarters there when she was there, so she was completely unfamiliar with most social customs in any place besides her home, especially the republican towns. "I believe I am also not acquainted properly with them...I don't recall learning their names or offering mine, sir" she finally turned to meet his gaze, now, still seeming a bit uncomfortable with the idea of being surrounded by other people. "I suppose you shall introduce them to me properly when we reach our destination?"

[Lykaios]

Agni was astonished to learn she was socially awkward to the highest degree, but laughed it off. He shouldn't have expected different, but her ineptitude with people seemed appropriate. Looking at his comrades, he smiled as they laughed at something. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he said to her at low volume;
"These are my friends, miss Montero. The big guy is Tank with his Dark Horn. The girl is Amara, Tank's co-pilot and sister. And the shortie is Rai. He normally pilots a Hellrunner, but he left it here, to pilot my Shadowfox Night out there." he explained, pointing to each in turn.

"There's a good chance they'll accept you easily enough. For now though, you'll have to lie low, and keep to our company. The locals may or may not recognise you as Xshu did earlier...but in our company they'll know things are covered. My younger sister is seventeen, close to your age, I'm guessing? She'll be a good person for you to learn a bit from. She's a little awkward with people too. But I can only say to be yourself. The way you were in mission; you were fine. It's the concept of fitting in that scares you more than the act itself, am I right?" he finished with a question.

She was young enough to be nervous and still young enough to learn how to participate with people in social situations.

The small group entered town, and Xshu ran up to them, being caught in a head-lock by Tank, who laughed at Xshu's reaction. The four of them keeping a bit ahead of Agni and Eira to allow for privacy, as they all headed towards Ammy's place. Coming up behind them, Agni listened as Tank knocked and the door flew open a moment later, Mercia in the door, looking anxious.
The group parted so she could see her brother and she smiled, leaping at him with a hug.

"Mercia, meet Eira. Eira, this is Mercia, my little sister." he introduced them, carefully avoiding the subject that first introduced him and her...not wanting to worry Mercia unneccessarily.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Eira nodded at his explanation and in answer to question she nodded once again, listening carefully throughout his speech. "Yes, I am eighteen years old, sir...um, Agni. One year older than your sister." as they approached the home and Mercia dashed out the door to hug her brother tightly. When he introduced her to his sister, Eira awkwardly offered a respectful bow, a very precise action that indicated she must not have been from a common home, but rather had been raised with proper manners...unfortunately, that also meant -especially coupled with her military-trained personality- that she was perhaps a bit too formal. "it is a great pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Miss Dalgaard. I am Eira Aeronwen Montero, ma'am" she greeted, her tone somewhat stiff, indicating that she felt unsure of herself. "I have sworn allegiance to your brother, ma'am, so if you ever require my assistance for any reason do not hesitate to call on me" the kindness in her offer seemed perfectly genuine, despite her somewhat nervous tone and her over-formal speech. She was definitely trying, but she didn't remember much from her lessons in etiquette from childhood and she obviously completely unfamiliar with informal social situations, having lead a very sheltered life in her mountain home with her family until she joined the military. "I hope that you will not find my presence at all a trouble to any of you...I do not wish to impede so please inform me if you have any issues you wish to discuss" she said, saying that as much to everyone else present as to Mercia.

[Tifa Lockhart]

"So remind me boss..." Fenholt Reinhart mused casually as he lazed back in his cockpit, letting the autpilot function in his Storm Sworder handle the flight. Usually he loved to fly it himself, wasting valuable power doing assorted tricks to show off (usually only to himself) how good he was. Now however, there wasn't even any fun doing THAT, it was dark, which meant there wasn't a lot he could see outside the cockpit. At least not without turning on the night-vision mode in his zoid's optics. The darkness aside, there wasn't really much to see in this desolate hole of the world anyway. "... Why am I coming out to this back-end base again?"

The tiny screen that took up a small portion of his cockpit screen currently held the face of his superior officer. The man was well dressed and heavily decorated with medals. He didn't seem particularly happy to be talking to Fen though.
"The commanding Officer is a bit of a problem, I've been asked to have him looked in to. You're to inspect the base, observe his operations and then report back to me."

"Oh... that doesn't sound like my kind of job boss... it's kind of boring," Fen drawled, playing with his visual headset, twirling it on the tip of his finger lethargically. "Why couldn't you send one of the other 'quality control agents' out to do it?"

"You'll do as your told Reinhart or I'll see you court marshalled," the commander retorted, despite the threat, he seemed perfectly calm.
Karl Schubaltz, the only man Fenholt could be bothered respecting. Painfully, the commander also knew he'd do whatever he said without TOO much complaint.

"Alright alright, keep your stripes on," Fen replied with a sigh.
That's when the console of his Storm sworder lit up, an alert scrolling across the screen.
'DISTRESS SIGNAL PRIORITY ALPHA RECEIVED. SENSORS DETECTING ZOID SIGNATURES AHEAD' it read.
Fen frowned, putting his head-set back on and turning it on, his eyes immediately adjusting to the image of what his zoids optical sensors could see through the darkness, a quick flipped switch even activated the Night-Vision.
"Something's not quite right here boss..." he mused, taking hold of the controls and switching the zoid to manual control. He wheeled it higher, not bothering with his cloaking just yet, as he had the cover of darkness on his side. He zoomed the visual in with a flick of his thumb, and sure enough he spotted them. A small group of zoids was slinking away into the darkness. His zoid highlighted the individual units for him, and the results were very strange. Two of the units were identified, his unit providing him with the registration entries from the Database... the other two however, were unregistered... which was never a good sign.

"What do you see, Reinhart?" he heard Schubaltz demand.

"The base has been assaulted sir... i've spotted four zoids leaving the scene. Two of them are registered Imperial Units. One is Ixion Wing Class... but I am unfamiliar with the Pilot's Desig. Number. The other is our troublesome Commander's Geno Saurer."

There was a tense silence over the com-link for a minute before Schubaltz spoke again.
"And the other two?"

"Unregistered, sir."

"There's a change in your assignment, Reinhart," Schubaltz announced firmly. "I want you to follow those Zoids without being detected. The Ixion Wing is a wanted criminal. I will have a squad sent out to provide relief for the base. Report in within the next six hours. Schubaltz out."

With that he was gone, and Fen was left with a MUCH more exciting job.
'Oh boy... stealth mission. Now THIS is can do.'
He immediately activated his Storm Sworder's stealth unit, wheeling the large flying zoid around to tail the small group. He got such a kick out of these sorts of assignments. There was something infinitely satisfying about tailing a group of criminals that had no idea they were even being watched.

He followed them for quite some time, watching in silence even as they destroyed a small encampment. He wasn't fond of sitting by while such violence occurred, but his assignment was to OBSERVE, and interfering would blow his cover.
'And we're not ready to do that yet... it wouldn't be any fun.'

Soon enough though, they'd arrived at a small village, disappearing into a hangar bay. He'd circle far overhead, using his zoids optics to take detailed pictures of the village and surrounding area.
'Now I have to just wait... how boring...' he thought as he took up a roost on a nearby mountain top. Once stationary he would put his feet up on the console, leaning back to wait patiently for something interesting to happen.

((Hope this is OK guys... I wasn't sure what else to do.))

[Lykaios]

Agni found Eira's responses moderately amusing, as she opened up and gave him an insight into the non-violent side of her he would never see in battle alone. She was a year older than his little sister, so he knew instinctively that he would find himself looking out for her on the same instincts that drove him to protect Mercia. She was afterall, just a little girl in her brothers eyes, so if Eira and he came to an agreement, it would only be natural that he'd see her the same way. It wasn't exactly confirmed he would see Eira the way he sees Mercia, but who could see the future? Certainly none of the Dalgaard's.

And the girl's mannerisms screamed that she was from money, and wealth. In order to fit in, he'd need to learn to bore that from her mind and replace it with actions akin to his own. The same could be said of how she spoke to people: being all fanciful and proper. It would be intimidating to the locals, as most would be terrified or cautious of those who spoke so succinctly, not expecting such language and phrases out here in the desert.

"She's a bit weird, Mer, so keep that in mind. She's a mountain-dweller, so she's not used to us desert-folk and our brutal terrain, climate and personalities; so you'll teach her our ways, right?" he asked his sister with a wink and a laugh. At least if he kept Mercia's mind detached from the how that they met, he could prevent her from freaking out. If Mercia lost control, so would Agni. Xshu found that out first-hand when he attempted to convince her to date him, and when she refused and he persisted and she lost it...Xshu was very quiet for a while after Agni found out...

"She's a little weird, Agni. But associating with you; weirdness is compulsory. Don't worry. I'll acclimatise her to us...how did you meet? Is she your girlfriend?"
"What?! Why would you ask that??"
"I guess not. Lucky break for you, miss Montero!" she answered with a laugh of her own.

A bit shocked and annoyed at his sister, he signalled to Rai, Xshu, Amaya and Tank and the five of them separated.
"Well done guys, excellent work tonight." he said in a whisper. "I want you all to get a good nights sleep, and we'll reconvene at my place in two days. We'll start planning what we're gonna do then. About the Imperials, and about Eira."
"I dunno, Hunter. You two seem to be on good terms." Xshu suggested, but fell silent with the manic look Agni shot him.
"It's better safe than sorry, Xshu. If she and Mercia go out at any point, I want someone trailing them. Discreetly. Got it?"
The four nodded, and the five of them separated, Xshu and Rai leaving for their homes, with Tank waiting for his sister. Amaya returned to where Eira and Mercia stood and spoke to the two girls.
"If you two want, we should have a girls day out. Sound good?" she supplied, before waving to leave. Turning away from them, she gave Agni a quick wink and joined her brother to return home.

She was definitely something else, Agni considered as Amaya left. She'd literally just assigned herself a means to keep an eye on Eira without raising suspicion, and it had barely taken a few words. He had to hand it to her.

"Time we head home too, I think." he said, beckoning them forward to walk the street, take a left and open his front door two doors down. Agni brought them inside, and showed Eira the guest room. With a quick tour, he yawned.
"I'm turning in. Night girls." he said quietly, looking ready to collapse as he stumbled into his room and shut his door. Once blocked from their view, he undressed and hit the sack. He was so tired, he was fast asleep in moments.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Eira couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed when Agni immediately assigned his sister to teach her how to be sociable, both of them calling her a "little weird". She couldn't disagree with them, certainly not, but it still felt a bit awkward for her. As Amaya came over and suggested going out for the day some time soon, Eira seemed a little nervous, but she offered no arguments, not sure if saying she wasn't so comfortable with the idea of wandering around in public would be considered rude or not. She did, however, offer a wave in reply to the woman as she turned to walk away, understanding that gesture just fine, at least.

As Agni lead her to his and Mercia's home, Eira began to feel even more nervous...what should she do and not do around their home? She'd never visited someone else at their home before, much less stayed the night. What if she did something wrong? She decided she should just not touch anything and stay quiet until she was spoken to, since that seemed the safest bet and as Agni called a brief goodnight, she offered a tentative reply before she fell into silence, turning to glance briefly at Mercia before she turned to scan her one good eye briefly around the home. It was very different to the kind of "home" she was familiar with...it was more like someone lived there than the almost-museum she'd grown up in or the always spotless military quarters she'd spent the past few years living in. But she couldn't exactly decide if the more lived-in feel of the place was really something that she disliked...in fact, it felt far more welcoming than she ever remembered her home being. The only thing she could point out was the distinct feeling of tension looming in the atmosphere behind the homey cheer. That made it clear enough to her that this house have obviously still seen its fair share of darker days.

Mercia had attempted some brief conversation after a momentary silence, though Eira had trouble finding any relation to the topics the girl brought up, apologising frequently for not understanding. Eventually the conversation turned to where Eira came from, and the 18-year-old loosened up a little to tell a significantly shortened version of her childhood. She explained to the younger girl that she'd been the only daughter in a house full of 3 older brothers, a mother who was always busy -though what days they had spent together were memories Eira cherished- and a father who was the head of the town and was usually preoccupied. Her parents had cared deeply for her and she did miss them a lot, but she had few memories of times spent with them, having spent the large percentage of her childhood holed up in her playroom with the teddy bear her mother had made for her, reading books. She told Mercia about the Evergreen tree that grew in the town square, and how she had a wonderful view of the town from her bedroom window. She spoke of how the snow would fall in angry storms in winter and how it rained nearly every day in summer. Then she spoke of spring, and how after the winter snowstorms had passed, all the tiny snow-flowers would push their tiny white buds up through the snow all over town and you'd have to walk looking at your feet so you didn't step on one. Despite the harsh cold, she seemed more than fond of the memories of her home, and mentioned a few times how she sometimes missed the solitude of her room with the crackle of the fireplace in winter and the sounds of the normal children playing outside. She had never been good at dealing with people, and she found much more joy out of watching them smile and laugh than trying to join in.
When Mercia questioned her on her blind eye, Eira gladly explained that she was born with a bad eye and her vision on that side had always been very blurry, but as she had gotten older it had gotten worse until eventually she was entirely blind on the one side. She didn't seem very bothered by it, perhaps because she had lived her whole life with one bad eye, so she didn't particularly care for the matter.

After that, Mercia had announced that she was going to bed, and so Eira slipped off into her room as well, spending a good 30 minutes pacing around the doorway wondering whether she was imposing at all and debating whether or not to try and find somewhere else to stay so as to not be impolite, but in the end she decided that might offend them and so she eventually pulled off her jacket, gloves and boots to lay down on top of the covers (she couldn't stand to sleep under covers in the desert, it was just far too hot for her tastes) and try to sleep, counting stars outside the window until she drifted off.

[Tifa Lockhart]

((I guess you can skip me for now. Nothing I can do atm))

[Lykaios]

Morning came and went, with Agni still sleeping in his cave-like room. Having had a big night, he desperately needed to catch up on his sleep; so he slept through till eleven am. Even with Mercia trying to wake him and Eira for breakfast at 9, and continuing through till 10:30 with household chores. At a quarter to eleven, Amaya and Tank came around, so Amaya could convince Mercia and Eira to hang out with her.

Successful or not, Tank stayed around until Agni did wake. When Agni awoke at eleven, he pulled on some pants and left his room bare-chested, having not anticipated Tank's presence; he was momentarily stunned, but recovered quickly.
"Mornin' Tank. How'd you sleep?"
"Fine, Agni. You?"
"Not bad at all, actually. Where is everyone?"
"Amaya went out with Mercia fifteen minutes ago. And I came by cos I was thinkin'. Why don't we go for a test run of your new toy? You could probably use some practice with the real deal..."
"Good call. Sure, let me get ready." Agni responded with a nod.

((Yeah, control of Mercia and Amaya is yours for however long, Yuffie. XP))

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

((mmk ))

Eira had put up some fight when Mercia and Amaya had teamed up against her to try and drag her out for a day in the town, but eventually she gave in and let them take her wherever they chose to go. Amaya had already decided to take them shopping, and although Eira had spent most of the time fidgeting nervously and glancing briefly at stalls and shops before moving on, she seemed to be enjoying their company at the very least. As they passed one stall in particular, however, Eira was forced to turn back an wait as Mercia stopped to admire the items for sale.
"wow, look at how well-made these are!" She awed, looking over an assortment of finely crafted survival knives and small defense daggers. Eira immediately deduced she must have been thinking of her brother and turned to look at the beautifully decorated and sharpened knives.
"hey, you've got a good eye there, little miss! You don't look much the type for knives, though, no offense." the stall-keeper remarked, as he saw Mercia looking at the knives, he then saw the quiet but militarily dressed Eira behind her and grinned. "now you seem more the type for combat, if you don't mind my sayin'" Eira went to back away in a self-conscious manner, but Mercia spoke up before she did.
"oh, I'm not looking for me, sir, I'm thinking my brother could use one...to keep him safe, you know? He's always running into trouble, after all, I get worried about him." The girl explained, glancing back at the knives again as Amaya quietly talked Eira out of running away, insisting that he hadn't meant it in a bad sense.
"ah, I see, I see. Well, which one're you looking at for him, eh?" he asked, clearly hopeful she might buy something.
"oh, as much as I would love to, I don't think I have enough for any of these, I wish I did though..." she said, seeming a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to get her brother a gift. Eira overheard however and stepped forward to tap gently on Mercia's shoulder, the girl turned, seeming surprised that the white-haired woman might want to say something. "oh, what is it, Eira?"
"If you would like, I could pay for you, Miss Mercia..." she offered, after a brief deliberation on whether suggesting might make Mercia think her strange. "I think your brother would love a gift from you, he seems very fond of you" Mercia seemed surprised by the offer and at first insisted that Eira didn't have to do that, but Eira calmly explained that she had plenty of money to spare, being only one person and rarely buying more than essentials anyway, and eventually Mercia gratefully agreed, asking Amaya and Eira to help her choose one for her brother. After a bit of deliberation, they picked the one that they all agreed best on and Eira paid for the somewhat hefty cost without so much as a bat of and eyelash. After all between her inheritance and her work, she had a large store of funds that she almost never accessed. She was glad to be able to do something simply to please another or in this case two others, rather than distancing herself from others so much...it was a nice feeling to be helpful, even if she was quite unfamiliar to the action given her solitary lifestyle until this point in time. After a stop for a brief lunch, where Eira finally opened up a little to engage in some timid conversation with Amaya and Mercia, the trio of girls headed back home, Mercia briefly slipping off after convincing Amaya to distract Eira to buy a pair of beaded earrings as a thankyou gift for the white-haired girl. Eira had at first insisted that she needed no thanks and should pay Mercia back, but with some persuasion from Amaya she finally accepted the gift, offering a grateful thanks and admiring the jewellery as they walked home. They were dainty and neatly carved, and had been coloured in purple, red and white, Eira's three favourite colours, as luck would have it...or maybe it wasn't luck at all and Mercia was just that good at reading people that she had worked out on her own what colours Eira liked.

By the time they got back, Eira was wearing the little earrings, having removed the simply loops that she usually wore in favour of the new accessories, and for once she had a smile on her pale face, though it was only a fairly subtle one. The three noted the absence of Agni and Tank and assumed easily enough that they had gone off somewhere. This seemed to unnerve Eira a little and after a while sitting quietly to try and stay with the girls, she eventually began to pace by the windows, debating which idea was worse: to run off and leave Mercia where she could be in danger or leave matters be and risk Agni being in potential danger, while she would be unable to serve her promise and protect him.

[Lykaios]

Agni showered and dressed, feeling good to have something to do for an afternoon. Once organised, he came into the small living area where Tank sat watching a news broadcast from the Imperials, detailing the destruction they had wrought, and repeating Hunter's message on tv. Agni found the Imperial point of view as biased as his own. He viewed the Imperials as the Republican Rebels did: aggressive, ruthless and blood-thirsty.

"Please be aware. That this broadcast is accurate. This 'Hunter' as he calls himself, wishes to do great harm to all outland Imperial territories. It is clear that he will stop at nothing to terrorise our people, and if you have friends or family in the outland territories; we wish them the best of luck surviving this threat, if they choose to stay. We would recommend contacting loved ones and warning them of this threat, as it is believed that he will not hesitate to attack innocents." the reporter announced.

Agni scoffed, startling Tank, who immediately shut off the broadcast. Clearly he felt uncomfortable with letting Agni catch him off-guard.

"Shit, A. Coulda made some sort a' noise to tell me you were watching." he said with a slight groan.
"I just love catchin' you with your pants down, T. You know that." he said as he moved to the kitchenette and poured himself a glass of water. "Like that time in that town, with that girl. What was her name...ah! Toby, wasn't it?" he said with a chuckle.

Tank's face went grave.
"You promised we'd forget that ever happened. Why would you even..."
"'Cos it's entertaining making you relive your most horrid events. You know me, T."
"And sometimes...I just wanna strangle ya, Agni..."
"Well, you haven't yet. So I obviously haven't gone deep enough."
"You know...the next time Amaya asks me to put in a good word for her, to you...I'm gonna-"
"Gonna what, T? Tell her I'm a messed up, psychotic, rampaging murderer, thirsting for blood twenty-four seven? That I eat little kids, and shoot the elderly? Hell, half a that might even be true. I had some delicious peasant last night." he said, going from deadly serious to jovial.
"Well, ya got the loon part right. But I was thinkin' more along the lines of that night you got drunk - really drunk - and got touchy with everyone in the bar-"
"Don't even go there. Hell, I recall you being in on the love-fest. Drunk yourself, you had yourself a few sausages come onto you."
"Oh, GOD. Why are we having this discussion?!" he asked in horror, attempting to beat away the memories ineffectively.

Agni smiled, relishing his victory. It was always enjoyable making the big guy squirm. Grabbing a slice of bread to munch on, Agni motioned to his companion to get moving. Departing his home, Agni and Tank started walking towards the Zoid hangar where his new toy was being looked over by the local technicians. Arriving shortly before twelve, Agni looked at the impressive new Zoid in his arsenal. The Geno Saurer was designed to inspire terror in those facing the beast down, and was strong enough to carry out all threats its form invited. He loved Night, his faithful Shadowfox; but this new Zoid was going to be a master piece in their small armoury. Now, the hangar was a bit more full. There was Shadowfox, a Command Wolf, a Dark Horn, Zaber Fang, Shield Liger, Hellrunner and now Eira's Ixion-Wing and the Geno Saurer. A couple of the other local Zoid's were out patrolling and travelling to the next town for supplies.

"Oh, baby. I'm really not dreaming!" Agni said with delight.
"Keep it in your pants, Agni!" a man called.
"I can't help it Zeke! It's a marvel. And I stole it!" he responded ruefully, but not without satisfaction in his voice.
"Yeah, and we still haven't cracked the defense systems installed..."
"Wait...what?"
"It's got a really thoroughly encrypted tracking sub-routine, that we haven't been able to disable as yet. Have some lunch, and we'll let you know when we've broken, and redirected it." Zeke finished.

A bit down-hearted about not being able to test his new toy, Agni nodded in appreciation of Zeke's efforts, and did as suggested. He and Tank waited and ate, until a little after one, when Tank received a message from Amaya asking where they were. Handing it to Agni to see, Agni responded while preventing Tank from seeing.

"Strip-club. Male club. Should join me. ;P"
Moments later a response came back.
"Watev, A. Where r u?"
"You're no fun, Amaya. We're at the hangar. Zeke's workin on some technical stuff we cavemen don't get, before I can take my new stick out and beat people with it." he responded, this time resigning to let Tank see, since Amaya hadn't taken his bait.

((Anything you can work with for any post, Tifa?))

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

When Amaya informed Eira that it turned out Agni was at the hangar, and that she could stop pacing now, the platinum-haired girl relaxed significantly, though after a brief contemplative silence she turned back to the woman and asked politely if she was allowed to go, too, maybe help out a little. Amaya agreed, but only if she went with her, and then Mercia insisted that she wanted to tag along and give their gift to her brother, managing to say "our gift" without Eira noticing, somehow, and saying how she'd love to see Eira's zoid. Eira insisted that her zoid was no big deal and managed to convince the girl that it was in repairs anyway at the time. Eira wasn't sure whether or not the girl was familiar with the zoid or not, and she knew Agni had refrained from mentioning where he had met Eira for a reason.

With that, the three headed off to the hangar, and upon arriving they began searching the rows for Agni and tank, finding them fairly quickly since there was only one section they could be in. Amaya called out to get Agni's attention then, as they approached him and Tank. After her greeting, Eira dipped her head in a silent but respectful greeting, let Mercia approach him then.
"Hey, Agni!" she greeted, smiling cheerfully and moving over to her brother, keeping the gift she'd bought behind her back, wrapped up in a red cloth. "I got you a present!" she announced, passing him the item with a cheerful smile. She laughed, then, correcting herself. "well, actually, Eira paid for it. She insisted, but I wanted to get you one."
Eira went a little red at actually being mentioned, since she had half hoped that she wouldn't be...she was aware that she was socially inept, and thus she always hated being brought to the attention of others in the large majority of situations. Amaya stayed fairly quiet but she was smiling too, clearly interested to see Agni's reaction to the gift.
In the meantime while Agni unwrapped the item, Eira slipped off without them noticing to find something creative to do, finding herself looking up in awe at the Geno Saurer she had assisted in capturing last night. There was a man at work in the cockpit, seemingly trying to crack the security, so she saw fit to assist, if she could and climbed up the zoid's leg to see how his work was coming along.
"u-um...hello, sir?" she greeted, tentatively, as she kneeled down on the zoid's head just behind the cockpit, which opened forward. "I presume you are cracking the security?" she asked, trying her best to seem friendly, though it wasn't something she was terribly good at.

((sorry it's a little short hope its good enough XD Charly's post if she can, message on fb or something))

[Tifa Lockhart]

Fen had spent the whole night relaxing, he nodded off a few times, enjoying a short nap before his Storm Sworder woke him with its intelligently programmed alarm system that registered when the pilot's brain activity dropped into REM. It was a little annoying, but useful when one needed to stay away to continue monitoring a situation. It was designed to give him just enough short bursts of sleep to feel fairly rested.

The town was just beginning to become more active when his communicator lit up, and he answered it immediately. Schubaltz appeared on the screen.
"Yeah boss?"

"A communique from the thief was sent out last night after the break in. I think you ought to see it."
His commander then put up the file, and Fenholt listened with a mix of admiration and disgust. Though he served the Empire, he privately disliked both sides. Fen did what was in Fen's best interests, he wanted nothing to do with the politics of war.
"So he's pretty much a bastard then, huh boss?" he clarified, picking at his teeth with a fingernail.
"He's been labelled a high priority target. I want you to continue tailing him. The command is working on a plan to trap him, when the time comes it will be your job the lure him into the net."
"Yeah yeah, alright," Fen agreed, putting his headset back on. "Bye boss."
With that he turned the communicator off, caring little if Schubaltz had a go at him for it later.
'Time to see what you're all up to today.'

So for a time he'd sit there, listening in on their conversations, cringing at the nonsense they were spouting left right and center.
'Come on... give me something to play with...' he groaned internally, leaning back in his seat and putting his feet up on the console.
Then he heard it, and eagerly sat forward, eyes lighting up.
"We still haven't cracked the defense systems installed..."
"Oh ho ho..." he chuckled, rubbing his hands together eagerly as he began activating his zoid's systems. "This is what I was waiting for... time for some fun."
He took flight, drifting silently and still cloaked, down towards the town, locating the hangar without much difficulty thanks to his sensors. He landed on the cliff-edge above it, keeping out of sight of the townsfolk - though he was still cloaked - and initiated his zoids infiltration protocols. It only took it a few seconds to break into the hangar's control systems without setting off any alarms, before a message scrolled across his screen.
FULL CONTROL OF HANGAR SYSTEMS ESTABLISHED.
'And now, for the great reveal,' he cackled, cracking his knuckles.
"Greetings and salutations my little rebel friends!" he called, his voice ringing through the hangar as if from nowhere. Fen certainly had a flare for the dramatic, and he wasn't afraid to overwork it either. "Not a bad set up you have here, but that Command Wolf has seen better days."
He'd fall silent for a moment, relishing his imagination of their reaction, they'd be quaking in their boots to know someone somewhere could SEE them without them even knowing he was there.
"I couldn't help but overhear your little dilemma, and though I find it infinitely amusing, I'm a nice guy so I think I'll help you out."
He stretched his back, aching from having been cooped up in his cockpit so long.
"The Geno's security encryption is 2934 dash 051826. Play nicely now!"

[Lykaios]

Agni and Tank had sat quietly as they'd eaten until Amaya, Eira and Mercia had arrived at the hangar and joined them in the lunchroom. When Mercia presented him with the gift that Eira had - apparently - been conned into paying for. He quite liked the knife they brought for him, and smiled widely.
"Thank you both for the gift, girls. I love it."

It was after a short break, that the group heard an unfamiliar voice over the speaker system. Agni, Tank, Mercia, Amaya and Zeke all looked around in horror at the resounding voice in the hangar bay. None knew who the voice could belong to, and so all present prepared their defensive measures. Zeke on the other hand, tried the code the voice supplied; and a message popped up on the Geno Saurer's main screen.
[COMMAND ACCEPTED, SECURITY ENCRYPTION TERMINATED.]

"AGNI! IT WORKED!" Zeke called out.

Agni froze; caught in inaction as he tried to process the current events. Someone had given them the key to break the Geno's encryption. Which meant they had to be Imperial or a manufacturer. In all likelihood; it wasn't a manufacturer. But for two 'Ex-Imperials' to pop up at the same place in less than 24 hours...something felt wrong to Agni.

"Eira, any idea who this person is?" he asked.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Eira seemed just as confused as everyone else present. She certainly wasn't aware of any rebellion troops working on the inside or of any other traitors besides herself, so the appearance of someone who might actually want to help them yet knew imperial secrets was very puzzling. She could think of one or two misfits amongst the imperials who might be more inclined to causing trouble, but the only names she came up with didn't seem likely as they were either dead, currently posted very far from here or didn't have the authority to know the access codes to a high-priority zoid like a geno saurer.
"I am not sure...there are no republican soldiers working as double agents as far as I know, and I certainyl haven't heard of any other defectors recently" she answered, sounding uneasy as well, not sure what to make of this..."but considering they were able to hack into the security here as well, I wouldn't put it aside that they might be a technical specialist." she added, climbing down from the Geno Saurer to speak to Agni face-to-face, rather than calling down to him from the Geno Saurer. "Given they got here without being detected, I wouldn't doubt that they're a stealth or reconnaissance unit...by now they are likely already gone or hiding where we can't find them. We should be careful...we can never be sure if the imperials are planning to strike." she seemed genuinely worried, and although he wouldn't be able to tell, she was anxious what conclusions Agni might jump to if he made the wrong assumptions about the whole situation.

[Tifa Lockhart]

However Fen had not gone into hiding like Eira suggested. In fact he was still reclined in his cockpit, perched on the roof for their hangar, listening in to their conversations like some kind of... well, like a spy.
"Time for some more fun I think... that baffled them, but this will make them turn themselves in knots!" He cackled maniacally, clicking the button that would transmit his voice again.

"Oh, now I remember what I dropped by for!"[/i] he announced for all inside the hangar to hear. He then flicked the little cover up on one of his joysticks, pressing the button concealed beneath. Immediately a large missile launched, firing harmlessly into the sky, where it exploded in a flare of red light, clearly a signal. "A little word of warning, my dear little rebels. There's an Imperial Scouting corps not far from here. They're widening their grid in search of... well... let's just say SOMEONE told them about a little village down here harbouring rebels... not to mention a DESERTER. I tell you, SOMEONE deserves a pay-rise."[/i]
He cackled, cracking his knuckles in a casual way. "Too bad about this little village... I thought it was kind of cute."
He gave a dramatic sigh. "Though, I SUPPOSE a Geno Saurer and an Ixion wing might fair pretty well against a battalion of a half dozen Zaberfangs... now there's a show I might stick round to watch."[/i]