My eyes groggily open. Everything hurts. "Muh? What just…"
"Oh! Alive, you made it," Angelina says. "Don't move! Really badly, you're hurt."
"Yeah, I can feel that," I grunt. Feels like a bomb blew up in my face. Which is weird, because bombs literally have blown up in my face before and I was fine.
Jetta is standing on my other side. "Master Lee says she'll get to you once she figures out how to heal Rurin," she says. "Apparently it's a miracle you survived, considering your low resistance. Her words, not mine."
"Waaait…" I look around, trying not to move too much. "Are we… is this the safe house?"
"Yep," Jetta nods. "Y'know, because I'm here."
"How…"
"Diamond Eye. Actually worked, it did," Angelina says. "Long distance traveled, no time taken."
"A literal blink of an eye," Jetta nods. "I kinda wish I could've seen it. I've always wanted to teleport."
Lee walks in to stand next to Jetta. "Good morning, Shurikit. I'm glad you all came when you did," she says as Diantha and Hal also enter. "That energy leakage… any later, and Rurin would have died for sure."
I exhale. "Looking back, I feel like things could have been worse." It's a load off my shoulders knowing Ru will at least be alive.
Lee starts running her hands over me. Soon my whole body feels numb.
"I wonder what those earthmovers were trying to achieve," Diantha says. "They didn't seem to care about taking us alive. But why would they want to destroy the results of everything they've worked towards all this time? That's what we're trying to do, right?"
"This confirms a suspicion of mine – the biotool companies aren't all on the same page," Hal states. "Speaking as a fireman, for example, Burns just told us to stop the intruders. We've never even heard of aeronauts before then, let alone seen one. I imagine it's true for the earthmovers too. Probably something like, 'detain them by any means necessary'. It could also be some form of bigwig infighting, if you consider – YOW!"
Jetta removes her hand from Hal's neck, her fingers trailing frozen mist. "Heh ha! Get chilled, idiot! Who's a late bloomer now?!"
Hal turns to her. "You bloomed later than me! It still counts."
"Whatever. I mastered three spells while you were out."
"Oh? Not bad. Told you you'd get it."
"Hey! Quit that," Jetta retorts.
"What? Oh yeah, that reminds me," Hal says, rubbing his neck. "Marc said that cannon thing was an updated version of the… light-amplified solar beamer, if I recall."
"Oh?" Lee looks up. "That's a Neocon weapon. The idea was ammoless weaponry, similar to Angelina's chargebolt rifle; but the alpha version took a full hour to charge a single shot." She resumes her work on me, still muttering. "If they're using it as an active weapon now, then they probably made some improvements to its design."
"They only got off one shot that whole battle," Diantha shrugs. "Couldn't have improved that much."
"From Qinn Industries though, those goons were," Angelina notes. "Stolen or borrowed, maybe?"
"Neocon is out of commission, if you recall," Lee states. "They likely just commandeered the abandoned schematics."
"The real issue is gonna be those biotags… they can crash us whenever they want as long as they know the firemen are with us," Diantha mutters.
"Hmm… maybe we should use that against them," Hal suggests.
"What?"
"I don't think Metacorp cares about us firemen as long as we do our assignments, which only really leaves Qinn Industries as the ones tracking us," Hal explains. "The earthmovers' presence basically confirms this. Basically, if we bait them out, we'll be able to track them back."
Diantha slaps a fist onto her palm. "And tail them back to their facilities! Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find their HQ too."
"I know there are at least three facilities. Could mean we'll need to split up," Hal says. "Looks like we've got a lot of legwork ahead of us."
"Rest first, guys," Jetta says. "You all look worn as hell."
"I'm fine," I slur. "I mean, I'll live."
"Nah, Jetta's got a point," Hal says. "With everything we've found out so far, the endgame has to be close. And we don't want to take on the final boss at anything less than our best."
"Well said. A healthy body promotes a victorious mindset." Lee straightens, and I find I can move again.
I promptly tumble out of the gurney, feeling much better. "Hey, cool! That's a master healer for ya," I grin, flexing my legs. "I guess this means Rurin's fine too."
"Well… about that." Lee looks pensive. "If he'd lost an arm or a leg, I could have cast a deep restoration and he'd have a new one in a week," she says. "But his wings… well, I can only say for sure they aren't organic."
"Huh?" My own wings twitch. I can feel them as well as the rest of my body…
"I'm not saying your wings are fake, mind you." Lee rubs her head. "It's just… I only managed to stabilize him by mending and channeling energy into the affected area. The process is basically the same as how I handle damaged magic items."
"Magic… items," Diantha murmurs, gripping her inactive iceblade. "What exactly are we?"
Lee shakes her head. "It was very strange, but I assure you he is stable."
"Stable, but grounded," I sigh, crossing my arms.
"Well, you aeronauts seem to have a way of defying the odds," Lee tells us as she leaves the room. "I wouldn't be surprised if he found a way through willpower alone."
Night descends over the safe house. As a burning hot windstorm blows through, I sigh inwardly. Back in the badlands again… honestly, after experiencing normal weather, I'd never return here if I didn't have to.
Marc is muttering to himself while staring at something on the laptop. "Maybe it was a stasis field, and we didn't perceive the time we were moved."
"What now?" I jump onto his back.
"The Diamond Eye. When it grew, it was probably just raising a holographic image. That's easy to pull off," he says. "But that instant-transport occurrence had to be the result of some unheard-of procedure. I'm thinking an electromagnetic suspension zone, but it could also have been some variant of the warp field. But then, I've only seen warp fields work properly in the microgravity of space, because of its reliance on intra-spatial impulses…"
"It was a magic item, you know," I reply. "They're basically always gonna defy conventional logic." Surely he can't deny it now that he's experienced it firsthand.
"Absurd. What procedure do you know of that can move us so far in an instant?" He rubs his head, looking agitated. "I doubt it's more realistic than warp fields on the surface."
"It's totally possible with Master Lee's skills! Didn't you see her heal up Ru and me?"
"Obviously she used a stem cell accelerant to speed up your already above-average healing process."
"Marc, it would still take at least a couple of days if it's stable, which SCAs rarely are," I remind him, now exasperated. "Honestly, you can get so weird about this kind of stuff."
Marc pinches the bridge of his nose. "It just isn't making sense to me."
Lee stops near us, gazing at Marc for a moment. She looks confused, but doesn't say anything and keeps walking.
"Hmm… can't get a read on her at all," he sighs.
"It's 'cause her defenses are ludicrously high," I tell him. "Apparently she can even tank a flare sigil."
"Maybe I am being too closed minded…" he walks off, looking dazed.