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It was not long after their first meet, that on the same day of arrival the group would leave the confines of the T.E.A.R. base on the wings of Vyse's smaller ship. Samus, Oddclaw, Eyeclaw, Vyse and Jeremy along with a sniper known as Corporal Jareau made their way on board reaching the maximum capacity. They took off back towards the island where Samus had crashed, forcing Oddclaw to grab desperately onto the mast once more with painful rememberance of his fear of heights. Despite knowing he was on a solid vessel, the rushing force of wind that seared past his cheeks gave him a fright of constant tension as Jeremy walked over towards him.

"Not got your sea legs dab?"

"N-n-n-, n-n-no, what?!"

"Awww come off it Odd, you're fine, we're all 'ere fer ya!"

"I...I-i-i do not like being h-high up and, g-going fast."

"Whut bothers you more, goin' fast or bein' high up?"

"B-BOTH!?"

Jeremy wrapped an arm around his neck and chuckled at his helpless friend gingerly swaying back and forth.

"Why don't you go inside, seein' all this sky's not makin' you feel good."

"You...th-th-that is a good idea......um, c-can you help me?"

"Sure, cummon grab onto me."

Taking Oddclaw's arm round his shoulders with one of his own arms round the raptor's waist, he carried him like a wounded victim to below deck safely before heading back up. Eyeclaw was embracing the sky with all his heart, chirruping a song of bliss whilst Jareau stood beside Vyse to guard him at the steering. Her auburn ponytail fluttered behind her in the breeze, black suited gear and a sniper rifle on her back as the sky rogue flashed his grin.

"Soooo uh Jareau, you're a sniper huh?"

"Yep," she said, "U.S. Army, eight years."

"Seen a lotta action?"

"Plenty enough, captain."

"Woah woah don't pull rank just call me Vyse, we're all friends here!"

"Alright."

"......this is the part where you ask me about what I do."

"Huh?" she turned towards him.

"Well I mean you might be military but you have to talk, like CONVERSE with people."

"Right, well...what do the Blue Rogues do?"

"We're all about protecting people, rescues, scouting, infiltration, sometimes we make odd discoveries like old ruins, ancient technology, the world being round."

"Wait...no, the world's always been round."

"Yeah but WE first discovered that, back in my world."

"Wow." She nodded with pursed lips in the way people did when they learned something that was mildly interesting. "First people to do that in our world was uh Ferdinand Magellan, least that's what they told me in school."

"Sounds like a cool dude!"

"Ehhhh depending on who you talk to, he's only the first we KNOW about that went round the earth on a ship, but people before him have known and theorised about the world being round before we actually knew, like the ancient Greeks and Muslims and the vikings!"

"Huh, that's pretty neat!" said Vyse nodding eagerly. "You sound like you got a lotta cultures back where you're from, you got ships like this one in your world?"

"Not exactly," replied Jareau, "we call them planes or jets and they definitely don't look like this."

"Should have asked to see some of them back at the base, ah well."

Jeremy walked towards Samus standing at starboard, glinting with amber in the light of the sun as they saw nothing but the sky and the sea of purest blue, above and below them with odd strips of green to the north and south.

"Summat on your mind pet?"

She said nothing, folding her arms in a quiet signal that she wanted to be alone with her thoughts.

"We only just met today, thought it'd be nice to introduce ourselves a bit. Name's Jeremy."

He offered a hand to which she shook with stiff politeness.

"Samus."

"Charmed, pet. Ahm not official, same as you. Weren't signed up with this lot, they sucked me outta mah time an' pulled me into this crap. You 'ave a family?"

"No."

"Neither do I," he nodded solemnly, "least nowadays that is. Whut about friends, you 'ave any of 'em?"

"A few."

"You keep up with 'em?"

"My jobs take me out of their reach."

"Ahhh. Well, hope you keep on with 'em, last thing you wanna do is clam yer heart up wi' stone. Though, guess in yer line of work you got no plans to retire do ya? No future ideas, no chance of settlin' down, mebbe 'ave a kid?"

"No."

"Alrigh' then......would you want to?"

She turned her head slightly wondering where he was going with this. He could barely see her eyes of stark blue beneath the tinted green visor.

"Just, if you 'ad thuh chance to back out of bein' a merc, would you settle down an' live summat normal?"

"Why are you asking this?" she said.

"...dunno," he shrugged casually, "food fer thought."

"Are you asking me, or yourself?"

"Huh...hmhmhm, you know mebbe ahm askin' fer two, ah mean I never CHOSE to be 'ere, but you chose to be a hunter."

"I do not regret it."

"Of course not, never thought of it, Thomas told me you smacked sum heads round righ' proper so yer clearly good at whut you do! But every solder musta thought about it, wantin' to give up thuh gun."

"Not me."

"Alrigh' then. Glad to 'ear, that means we got someone one-hunnerd-percent focused fer once in this godfersaken mess of a unit we 'ave. Nice to 'ave that fer a change, ahll leave ye be."

He walked off with some strange sense of mirth that made Samus wonder just how his relationship was with the T.E.A.R. group, before deciding it was not worth pondering as they soon landed down on the island in only half the time it took for Brightman's group to reach by boat. They moored the skyboat right next to Samus' vessel at her behest, the smoke having now faded since.

"This spot ain't bad," said Vyse, "nice and cosy, lotta shade, nobody bothering you."

"This has some pretty good vantage," replied Jareau, "not many places you can get caught off-guard from, you landed your ship good Captain Aran."

"Samus," she said, "I'm not military."

"Well I am, and I call you Captain because that's how I was trained plus you're the one heading up this operation."

"Ease off on her pet," said Jeremy, "we don't have to get TOO professional 'ere, at ease."

"Yes Sergeant. Should I get on point?"

"You do that, just so we can scout the area."

Jareau nodded with salute as she set up a sniping spot, whilst Samus examined her ship to make sure it was repairing itself smoothly. The sounds of whirring and trembling machinery could be heard inside as Eyeclaw sniffed the surrounding area for clues of a disturbance. Vyse adjusted his clear-lensed monocle to scout the area around him, which intrigued Samus upon seeing him twist the lens.

"Is that a scanner?" she asked.

"Huh?" he stopped.

"Your monocle."

"Oh, no this zooms in on things like a telescope, helps me see stuff from far away."

"Good. Useful for sky travel."

"What about your helmet, does it do stuff too?"

"Several functions. UV, infrared, scanning log-"

"What, scanning like watching the horizon?"

"No, as in it compiles data on different creatures."

"Wow really?! Would it work on me or any of our buddies here?"

"Yes."

"Well, whatsit say about me?"

Samus partly regretted mentioning this. Everyone always wanted her to scan them like it was some party trick but she herself was curious about these strangers as she indulged him. Switching to scan visor she focused upon the rogue and read her readings to him.

"Morphology, human. Name of 'Vyse' from a mercenary group known as the 'Blue Rogues'. Wields two swords that can shift elemental affinity by seemingly altering the crystalline matrices within them."

"Huh, hahahawow that's pretty neat! What about our dino friends?"

Samus turned towards the two dinosaurs that were investigating the soil for clues, honing on Eyeclaw first.

"Morphology, velociraptor. This creature seems to suffer from epilepsy that has worsened over time owing to age-related neural deterioration. It is unlikely he will survive longer than eight months."

"Oh...that's...uhhhh that's pretty heavy, you can tell that from scanning?"

"Yes."

The rogue rubbed his cheek with a sense of awkwardness as she turned towards Oddclaw. The results reading on her visor made her blink, not because of what they said about Oddclaw, but rather on where it filed itself.

[b][i]Logbook > Creatures > Outer-Dimensional > Raptor-Human (2 entries)[/i][/b]

"Welllll?" asked Vyse.

"Hm...morphology: Raptor-Human. Name of "Oddclaw", possesses both humanoid and feral DNA as a fully-natural hybrid caused by breeding between similar species with a difference of point-eight percent. Wields an antique human shotgun along with claws and teeth as weapons."

"Huh, that's it?"

"Yes."

"...alrighty well, cool thanks! Yanno maybe I should get a visor, be nice to scan around stuff and see what it says."

"I like to have a full database."

"A data-what?"

"Nothing."

Little did Vyse know that Samus had left out an additional paragraph from her scan on the anthro which had now disappeared into storage.

[b][i]Subject is of identical species to "James Campbell" encountered on Zebes. Relation unknown if any exists.[/i][/b]

Whilst the raptors were unknowingly profiled by the hunter, Eyeclaw searched for the scent near the edge of the clearing.

[i]"I smell hairless."[/i]

[i]"That must be our friends,"[/i] replied Oddclaw.

[i]"No...nooo this scent is different than theirs. Enemies must have come to see the hunter's star."[/i]

[i]"Is it fresh?"[/i]

[i]"Yes. They must be here still."[/i]

The anthro walked over to the armoured Samus, realising he was no longer on human grounds and swiftly slipped off his shorts to embrace his naked beauty once more. Then he heard a wolf-whistling from Holt that made him blush and stammer like a schoolboy.

"BACHGEN MAWR GYFER MOCHYN BACH!"

"A-A-AAAH, JEREMY PLEASE!"

"Why are you naked?" Samus asked.

"I...I-i-i do not like wearing clothes, they feel tight and I feel sore."

"Hmm."

"But the humen make me wear it because when I am at their base, I must follow their rules because, when they are at my home, they must follow my tribe's rules."

"Your tribe do not wear clothing?"

"No," he said shaking his head. "Is there anything missing from your star-um-...ship?"

"No," she replied. "Someone tried to break in, markings here."

"Eyeclaw says that there were humen here, but not the ones from the base."

"How fresh was their scent?"

"From today, they are nearby."

"Great!"

Vyse came up swaggering after stabilising his ship to remain hovering on standby.

"They might not know we're here, maybe we can catch 'em by surpri-YIEE-WOAH u-uhhhh you...just took off your shorts, what the heck?!"

"I do not like wearing clothes!" cried Oddclaw.

"Jeez, warn me next time before I walk right into that freaking mast you got between your legs!"

"S-s-suh, sorry."

The raptor lowered his head with shame, frowning harshly until Vyse smirked and gave him a backpat of reassurance.

"Pfffft, come on I'm joking trust me, I seen plenty weirder stuff, and plenty other tribes that don't wear clothes."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah so it's no problem, just took me by surprise go on you do your own thing."

The raptor smiled warmly as Holt returned back to them, gazing up and down Oddclaw's naked body with resisting urges despite the raptor knowing clear from his scent what his intentions were as Holt took his shorts from him.

"You'll need these to wear back at thuh base."

"Yes," said Odd, "can you hold them for me?"

"Alrighty dab. So whut's thuh plan?"

"Well," began Vyse scanning his monocle along the trees, "they got their ship here out west so they might try to escape if we all come from one way."

"So we oughta come surprise 'em from up an' down?"

"Right, SO, why don't you guys go on the ground towards them, then I'll take my ship to fly round and ambush them!"

"Good," said Samus nodding, "You'll need a signal for when to come."

"Ah got a flare gun," replied Jeremy, "usually fer emergencies but I can fire one an' 'ave Vyse come runnin'."

"NICE!" cried the rogue. "See, I knew bringing you along was a great idea!"

"Aww don't, you'll make me blush lad."

The old soldier gave a sweetened grin as Vyse turned to Samus to lay down the groundwork for a plan whilst the war veteran went over to his raptor friend. meanwhile Eyeclaw was sniffing the ground for further clues.

"So uhhh Oddie," asked Holt, "how's the family?"

"They are good," replied the raptor.

"You uh, you've not been away from them this long 'ave ya, aren't they worried?"

"Eyeclaw is with me, on his last journey so they know I will be away for a few days."

"Ohhh wait, whut you mean his last journey?"

"When one of us is dying, they leave the tribe on their last journey."

"...awwww shit, Odd ahm sorry to 'ear that."

"It is fine. We un-derstand."

"Hhhhahahaha," his moustache split into a wry grin, "you still say it like that."

"Wh-what?" said the raptor flustering his claws.

"Thuh way you say 'understand', you always hit that 'un' part too 'ard."

"Oh, I-i am sorry."

"Don't be, it's not wrong, it's just part of you whut makes ya cute."

"Um k-kyoot? What is kyoot?"

"You know, charming, sweet, lovely, lush."

Jeremy placed his hand on Oddclaw's head giving him a tender stroke that made him chirr pleasantly. His fingers crept through his cheeks and slipped underneath the chin to rub him at the spots he knew the raptor loved, the sound of trilling in his throat as he closed his eyes.

[i]"H-h-h-hhmrrrrrrrrhhhhh..."[/i]

"Hahahaha...alrigh' let's focus, you call yer pal over so we can sort out this plan."

The group regathered along with Jareau who had given the all-clear that no enemies were within the perimeter, overhearing Vyse make comparisons with his fellow outworlder.

"Sooo how old are ya?"

"Fifty," said the hunter.

"...damn, and you took out six of the Banes by yourself?!"

"Yes. Three fled, however."

"That's STILL good jeez! I got enough problems fighting at LEAST three of them and I'm hitting twenty-five!"

"You're still alive, that means you're good enough."

"Heheh yeaaaah I guess you got that. Alright so, I'm gonna need a volunteer to come up on the ship and help me ambush them."

"I will join you," she replied, "they will expect me to arrive from the direction of my ship."

"Nice," he gave fingerguns towards Samus, "good call so uh you four okay with heading out there on your own?"

"They'll only see three of us," said Jareau, "I'll keep cover in the trees."

"Two of us," corrected Oddclaw. "I will tell Eyeclaw to hunt in stealth, Jeremy and I will go to them."

"Great!" cried Vyse with a fistpump. "That's perfect, we got two on stealth, two for backup and two on the main offence, this couldn't be anymore perfect."

"RIGHT!" cheered Jeremy. "Shall we 'ead off then? You wait fer mah signal an' come swoopin' in."

"Got it."

"Dead or alive?" asked Samus.

"Huh?!"

"The thieves. Dead, or bring them back alive?"

"Wha-uhhhhh...I mean, well I've never been able to actually KILL one of them, they always manage to run off and if they don't wanna fight no more then I don't go after them soooo-"

"Make them surrender, or else?"

"Yeah, that'd be great, I'm really more planning to take 'em back to the authorities but if they wanna go down fighting, weelllll they can just go down fighting."

"Agreed."

They soon made tracks, Oddclaw and Jeremy heading west through the jungle whilst Eyeclaw and Jareau went skirting through the thicker vegetation in a semi-arc around them. The raptor assured the human sniper that the aged beast would only hunt those they were after and in his decrepit state, he was much more useful as a killer from the shadows rather than open combat. Vyse and Samus lifted up into the sky and hovered just out of reach from the island to keep a bird's eye view of the situation. It took only but a twenty-minute walk for Holt and Oddclaw to find the Bane group's landing site, a wide-set clearing with a larger vessel similar in design to that of the Blue Rogue's as they noted at least fourteen men wandering around in red suits and goggles.

"How you wanna play this?" murmured Jeremy.

"We say hello," replied Odd, "ask them 'what are you doing?' 'Why are you here?' and see how many there are."

"Nice, play thuh diplomat, put our weapons away an' lure them in but let's not use our real names, just in case."

"You want to lie?"

"Yep, you don' mind lyin' to thieves do ya?"

"No, I do not."

A cruel Cheshire grin was shared between them as they holstered their guns and walked into the clearing with Holt crying out:

"AHOY THURR!"

Swords came shrieking out of their sheaths in clean shimmering scrapes, brandishing them menacingly towards the two approaching.

"Now now jus-put them away, we just wanna talk!"

"WHO ARE YOU!? IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"

"Mah name's Commander Kitchener from the T.E.A.R. base, you might say we're thuh local authorities. This 'ere's mah sergeant-"

"Bond," stated Oddclaw, "...James Bond."

"Righ', uh sergeant Bond and I wanna chat with ya."

"Yeah what about?!" snarled a thief. "You come alone?!"

"Oh aye it's just us," said Holt with arms splayed, "don't you fret, we come 'ere to negotiate. This lad called Vyse we uh picked 'im up on thuh south lands and he got pretty mangled 'ard by thuh local wildlife. Tells us that sum lad 'ere named Lord Bane 'as summat important to him."

"You come to negotiate, for him?!"

"Well jus' we're the authorities 'ere, any sorta dispute we 'ave to resolve see."

"Is that so?"

A voice came from the back of the group, sitting underneath the shadow of the floating ship which stood up to approach them in the sunlight. Their leader was resplendent in a luxurious crimson poncho with orange ends and thick shrouded epaulettes on his shoulders that would look fitting on a stylish lamp. A gold-plated eye crowned his turban, his hands hidden underneath the flowing robes.

"Where is Vyse?"

"In our base recovering," said Holt. "Lad got pretty mangled."

"Has he told you what we have?"

"That you kidnapped sumbody. Now uh, we don't really take kindly to kidnapping, sooooo we thought on 'is behalf you might wanna make a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"Well, whut would you like? Money, weapons? Diplomatic immunity?"

"Hmmmm..." the leader stroked his hem with tricky fingers trying to discern Holt's intentions. "How much is this hostage worth to you?"

"Worth enough. Name yer price, BUT you 'ave to honour yer word. Yer sailors after all you should honour yer debts."

"Right exactly...Kitchener, was it?"

"Aye, and I assume yer Lord Bane."

"You assume correct."

The lord gave a curtsy of acknowledgement, his robe shifting oddly in the wind.

"He is quite a valuable asset so I hope you are prepared to pay."

"Just say yer price," replied Jeremy walking forward two steps, "won't know 'til we find out."

"A hundred-thousand gold."

"...whut, gold like, bars an' such?"

"Coins. Hundred-thousand gold, coinage."

"Hoo. That's uh...rather a lot, you boys plannin' on vacation?!"

"Don't patronise me. You either have it or you don't."

"We do, course we do we're a military base!" barked Jeremy with forced offence. "But it DOES require us to speak higher up the ladder, gonna 'ave to call me supervisor."

"You're a commander, you don't have authority?"

"Not fer this amount. I'll 'ave to signal 'im, got a flare gun fer that if that's alrigh'-"

"No sudden movements." The guards brandished their swords stepping closer with the sounds of rattlesnakes. "You try anything funny we will flense you right here and now."

"Alrigh' alrigh' keep yer knickers on."

He carefully pulled out the small red pistol, showing it to them in demonstrating it was a simple signal gun with little offensive capability. He fired up straight into the air, the click and fizzle went off as the flare rocketed high and burst with a tremendous blast, dousing a part of the sky with red phosphorous that even in daytime was prominent.

"There, that'll call thuh lads round an' we can sort all this money stuff out, no need to go kidnappin' anyone."

"You're awfully giving for a military man," replied Lord Bane.

"We believe any life is worth any amount of money."

"You must be poor then."

"Not if there's enough of us."

Jeremy could not resist a smirk, clasping his hands together like a saint in a chapel as Bane leaned his head.

"And how many of you are there?"

"Ahhhh now that would be tellin'."

"If there were enough of you to take us, you would not have arrived alone."

"Orrrrr we'd like to be civil."

"Or you're planning a strategy."

"You mean like that?" said Oddclaw.

He pointed up above to the looming shadow of the skiff, hovering past before something glimmered from the portside before a monstrous crunching of the earth would shatter their senses. Those nearest to the impact thought an amber-studded bomb had fallen upon them, but Lord Bane found himself swiftly staring straight into the jade cannon of the bounty hunter. Despite his subordinates freaking out and falling over themselves with stammering rage he was completely still with quiet confidence.

"Strategy," he said. "Typical."

"Release your hostage," warned Samus.

"What, that's all? No wordplay, no 'or else', you could have said 'or I release your body from your head' now that would have been-"

The cannon whirred into life with a fearsome tremble, charging up into a glowing sphere of thick plasma glowing two feet from the pirate's face.

"Release him. [b]Now.[/b]"

"Hmmm...from your description I would say you're the one who fought six of my companions together. I'll give you marks for that, but it seems unfair when you're in an armoured suit. Are you there Vyse?! YOU CAN HEAR ME CAN'T YOU?!"

"Last warning," she snarled. "release him or die."

"Oh I never choose one of two options," said the criminal, "you should have killed me when you had the-[i]HYAH![/i]"

He swung his cloak in a single swipe with something hard clanging against the arm cannon, knocking it off course as Samus misfired into the pirate's ship. The lord of the pirate thieves drew out a fearsome gauntlet attached to his left hand, brimming with long wicked claws that shrieked past Samus' vision as he pushed herself backwards into a rolling crouch. The dust slightly obscured her vision as two swordsmen came running from her left and right, before a shadow landed on her back as shimmering red and green blades struck with sparks against the two fiends. Their struggle to forcefully cleave through was met with a sudden tornado spin of the coloured swords that forced them away as Vyse stepped to the ground to let Samus stand up on her feet.

"Hope you don't mind me sharing this dance!" he joked.

"I don't dance."

"Well there's a first time for everything so come on, LET'S DO THIS!"

Jeremy and Oddclaw had pulled out their guns the moment the fight started, waiting for the first fools to rush them as the raptor dodgerolled to brace himself and blast hard with a cracking burst into one of the Zivilyn's legs. Surprisingly, whatever armour they had underneath was strong enough to resist even a full buckshot as the target gasped with staggering crippled gait, but his limb still remained intact as he carved towards the raptor gunman with stumbling sweeping sword.

He fell backwards into a cartwheel, readying the second shot to fire into the human's face which his sword deflected some of with exceptional defence. Jeremy however was behind the bandit, calling Oddclaw to dash out of the way so as to not get caught in the crossfire, before plugging a hard slug of pellets into the human's guarded back with such force he was slammed straight into a tree with spinal crunch that made him howl with pain.

"JEREMY!"

Oddclaw hurried towards Holt who had not seen yet another thief sneak up behind him, diving between the soldier's legs before striking his claws hard against the Zivilyn's legs and pulling him down to the floor with a twisting bent. The swordsman stumbled to his side and tried to kick Oddie off, but the raptor started to climb on top and wail on his face with shrieking claws and hammering fists from above, shrieking with frenzy and bloodied knuckles until the human's goggles broke with fractures beneath his turban.

Samus found herself facing their master as Lord Bane stood proud with a stone emerald gauntlet of rose-tinted claws, and what appeared to be a large bladed shuriken in the shape of a star in his right hand. He hurled it towards her with deadly accuracy, forcing Samus to duck and fire with charging shot at his legs whilst Bane leaped with the pounce of a jungle cat, rolling fast to shred the air between them with his razor gauntlet swinging inches from Samus' visor. Slamming her foot hard into his face, he punted him away and clicked a setting on her cannon to fire a missle, blasting off towards him as he spun his shuriken once again to strike against her explosive shot. The blast sent his weapon back to him, grabbing it deftly before he turned and threw it once more to have it come crawling through the earth like a combine harvester, clumping the dirt in vicious tearing chunks.

The bounty hunter leapt over it with ease, firing a volley of missiles towards Lord Bane as he rolled and backflipped with impressive cloak swooping across his body like a wraith, fearless against the explosions as Samus receded herself into a large orb and hit the ground rolling. Lord Bane retrieved his shuriken and sent it crawling out once more, hunting down the hunter who changed her course and glowed with golden charge, boosting straight towards him as he readied his claws to cleave her in three. She dodged with a turning swerve, laying a small set of three blue balls made of purest plasma that Bane did not notice until the first little explosion. Stunned by the triple-blast that merely sent him off his feet, it made him the victim to his own ruthless star that boomerang'd back towards him and shredded across his abdomen, carving against his sturdy armour to almost churn up his skin beneath.

"[i]UNNNNGH! Hhhh[/i]...heh, not bad, you have some wonderful toys up your sleeve. I might want to try those myself once I skin you out of that suit."

Samus simply kept her aim dead-on towards her opponent's face, silent and waiting for his next move.

Vyse had not intended to fight off a group of four Zivilyn Banes but this was the die he cast and he was going to stick with it. He put up his swords in a defensive stance, crossguarding them horizontal to frame his face between them whilst smirking at his opponents. They charged at him from all directions, the first getting punched in the stomach by the pommel hilt of one sword whilst the second to his left felt a jolting slam to his eye from the second sword's hilt. Almost instantly Vyse spun round by pushing his swords off of the two bandits to turn fast and strike hard against the other in a vicious counterstrike, walloping with both feet like a ballerino as his swords followed his legs to shriek and scar past their faces.

They staggered back onto their feet one after the other, the first to do so getting armlocked by the rogue who spun him fast like a club, smacking him into his friend before he continued his spin alone to slash both his blades across the enemy's belly. Cutting them left and right with three double-strikes, the fourth opponent managed to stumble back on his feet pulling out a grenade to try and detonate under his feet, if not for Vyse's eagle eye catching the glint of gunmetal behind him.

"AH-AH-AHHH!"

He sweeped his leg back behind him in a horsekick, smacking the bandit's hand upwards with a stinging pain in his fingers as he briefly released his explosive.

"You shoulda saved the surprise for LATER!"

Vyse turned and struck it with the flat of his blade sending it towards Lord Bane. He caught it easy in his free hand, but it was enough a brief distraction for allowing Samus to unroll herself from behind him with a crushing wham of her arm cannon. He fell to a crumple, stunned with dizziness before she kicked him deep in the stomach to the curb and sent him rolling. Bane threw his grenade at the hunter but she shot it down between them sending a cloudy burst of fire that partly obscured each other's vision. She anticipated the bandit chief to come charging at her through the mist, his claws out and lunging with poisonous fury as she somersaulted backwards with a click in her cannon to change its settings. Freezing white fog burst from it like a banshee, shattering to a crackling frost on the ground that made Lord Bane slip and stagger towards her fist, backhanding him hard enough to crack his right goggled eye.

One of the bandits raised his sword high behind Vyse, but he was stopped by an earth-shattering boom from the trees as a piercing bullet cracked through his armoured turban. Despite not penetrating his skull, the force was so shocking in its strength that he bowled sideways over falling flat onto his face with a heavy concussion that sent him out of the battle. Vyse gave a thumbs up to Jareau hidden in her spot, as one of the bandits near where the shot came from decided to deal with the sniper directly. But the moment he stepped into the ferns he felt something lunge upon his back with fiendish jaws that mauled his throat with wretched brutality. His body coat served him well in protecting his skin, but the jaws of Eyeclaw were powerful at his age to latch shut around the man's larynx and force him to suffocate. Legs kicked out of the ferns with frantic screeching gasps, feet spasming into twitches of desperation before they fell into silence. Quiet but not dead being suffocated to unconsciousness, much to Eyeclaw's disapproval.

[i]"Damn stonebeasts, I can never just KILL one without it going to sleep in front of me!"[/i]

Making certain his foe was out cold, he snuck through the bushes without making a single sound, cautiously smelling the frenzied battle for his next opponent to come closer to the periphery. He called to Oddclaw who took his signal, aiming towards one bandit with shotgun reloaded as the fiend braced himself with sword guarding him. But the raptor simply ran straight towards him before sending his feet forwards first in a double kick, pushing against the flat of the sword with claws scraped against the sharp edge before backflipping off with the recoil of his muscles. In midair he fired with first one barrel then the other, pummelling the bandit back far enough to stagger him towards the woods into the waiting claws of his elder. He never had the chance to scream before darkness took him for the next few hours.

"ODDIE!"

Hearing Jeremy's cry, the anthro turned to see another bandit come flailing for his head in a leaping strike. He swerved lithely like a serpent to his left, evading the cleaving blade before the thief started to rush him with a swinging sword cutting left and right into an eight-shaped whirl of steel. The Zivilyn carved for his head as Oddclaw suddenly grabbed the sword in his teeth, bending back slightly with his fangs raking across vicious steel. Creaking muscles in his jaw and neck pushed fierce against the thief's hand who tried to force the edge of his blade into the back of the raptor's throat. In a moment of desperation, Oddclaw clenched tighter and pulled back, falling into a half-tumble to swing his leg up high and slam into the human's face, knocking him aside with a shock forcing him to release his sword.

He grabbed the bandit's weapon from his teeth and brandished it with menacing intent, daring him to come forwards as instead his enemy decided to just throw a grenade as fast as possible. But before he could toss it free there came another piercing shot from the trees that shattered his hand into a broken snap, dropping his grenade with a painful start as he staggered running with fright. Oddclaw ran towards it and sweeped it up with the flat of his new sword, hurling it towards his fellow gunner's fight.

"JEREMYYY!"

Holt saw the glint of metal in the raptor's hand and scurried from the two bandits that were now chasing after him, turning to fall hard on his back and blast both of them in the air with pump-action shots straight in the chest. Recoil alone would punch them back, as they fell into the path of Oddclaw's grenade which came exploding onto their faces, charring what little skin was left exposed from their armoured clothes amidst screeching howling rage.

Vyse and Samus now stood back to back, the hunter reaching half-a-foot above the rogue as they faced seven bandits all at once. They charged with frenzied blood towards the two, as Samus clicked her arm cannon's settings before gripping Vyse's arm from behind to give him a tapping signal. He tapped one of his swords on her armour to respond in agreement as they waited for the perfect time amidst seven shining swords of fearsome bandits. Within four feet of them, the hunter lifted the sky rogue like a shoulderbag and hoisted him up above with enough strength he was now on her shoulders. Both of them jumped immediately, dolphins of red and blue bursting from the waters as Vyse clicked his swords to become a sparking shot of gold and raised them above his head in a crossing glint. Samus jumped even higher, aided by a bursting jet within her boots whilst aiming down towards Vyse's blades and fired a devastating stream of purple electric arcs that ionized the air around them. Raw shimmering undulations charged Vyse's swords with frantic energy as the bandits started to look fearful, panicking with half-hearted guard to prevent any vengeance upon their heads.

"[i]RAIN OF [b]SWOOORDS![/b][/i]"

The rogue swung his blades to somehow diffuse Samus' wave beam, splitting ti into a dozen balls of lightning that came thundering upon the enemies below with no mercy. Those who managed to dodge the impacts would suffer electrical currents that burst through the earth briefly to paralyse their feet with horrid spasms, whilst those who were hit directly ended up jittering with every muscle in their bodies locking up into a silent scream with electrocution, shutting down all their motor muscles enough to render them fully incapacitated. The strongest who managed to survive unscathed would meet Samus as she landed hard on her knee, before rushing to slam her cannon into their gut and force the wind out of their sails, sweeping her leg to throw them straight to the ground defeated. The dust soon settled as not a single member of the Bane clan was left standing, except for their lord who staggered onto his feet with burnt and tattered clothing. She stepped forwards with her cannon out in force.

"Now. The hostage."

"......fine. F-f-fine, fine I know when the house wants me to stop, that's the first rule of a gambler."

"This isn't a casino," said Vyse pointedly, "and if you knew the first rule of gambling, you would know NOT to mess with the Blue Rogues!"

"Hmph, well, you need to be a little reckless, ech-hekh..."

"Now, give him back, or else my buddy here's gonna give you one HECK of a jolt from her wavebuster right up your face!"

"Well......as you wish."

He hobbled towards his ship, calling out to one of the crew members that was left to guard it and ordered him to bring out the hostage. Oddclaw and Jeremy stepped up beside them as the veteran asked with cackling admiration:

"Blo-hody hell, whut in gawd's name wuz that lightnin' crack you lot were pullin'?!"

"Wavebuster," she replied.

"Rain of swords!" said Vyse with chest-thumping pride. "We had a li'l talk about our usual tactics in battle and decided ehhhh, why not team up with one just to deal with the horde they got?"

"Worked perfectly." The hunter nodded to the rogue with respect. "You fight well Vyse."

"Pffft please, I fight well?" He turned towards her with a hefty thunk of his palm against her body suit. "Compared to you I'm a freakin' seaman like WOW that was crazy Samus! You were dropping explosives all over the place, you got like how much magic in that cannon?!"

"Not magic," interrupted Samus, "Chozo technology."

"Woah, you call that technology?! You ever heard of Silvites at all?"

"No."

"Well it's awesome either way, I mean you don't even got any moonberries on ya and you're like blowing the place to heck!"

"They have berries on the moon?" inquired Oddclaw peering forwards.

"I-it's just a name, but STILL!"

"Moonclaw would love moonberries, are they tasty?!"

"Uhhh, yeah actually they taste real good, like they're full of knowledge and fertilised by moon stones that inspire ya to become stronger in battle."

"OOH!" He turned excited with a little bounce in his feet. "C-can you make moonberry jam?!"

"I dunno, never tried it! Never got enough of them to make jam with it cuz they're all like super rare."

"I have it."

They all turned to see Lord Bane holding a cylinder capsule underneath his arm, large enough to hold a cat. The sounds of something whimpering could be heard inside of it as Vyse demanded with reinforced tone of severity:

"Alright, good. Now, put him down, and walk, away."

"Why, don't you trust me Vyse?"

Samus aimed her cannon with a threatening murmur of purple energy as Vyse insisted.

"PUT. Him down and WALK away, or else you get a faceful of wavebuster."

"Fiiine. It kept me up at night anyway."

"He's not an IT, he has a name!"

The bandit chief placed the container down showing a rather foggy casing. They could not see what was inside but the gentle cries of something was evident as Vyse sheathed his swords and walked towards it. Silence across the battlefield, Samus keeping her eyes honed like her cannon upon Lord Bane as the trudging footsteps of the blue rogue creeped in the air, the warm prehistoric breeze shifting from east to south prominent with the scents of ancient fruits and living creatures. There was a moment for them to reflect on the beauty of this world, moreso from Vyse and Samus. He heard something change, a breeze unnatural from the north creeped into his senses. Samus felt it before he did.

"[i]GET DOWN![/i]"

He heard her shout as he dove towards the capsule, clutching it tightly against his body to protect it from danger as Samus fired into the air with a trail of plasma shots, the sound of something roaring past the clearing with a deafening shockwave that flattened the trees around them. Vyse had closed his eyes briefly by an instinct but he opened them once more when something landed heavy close to him. A cruel beast with steel armour and wicked claws in gauntlets from a sturdy bulked figure at 6 feet. A helmet covered its head like a dark knight of deepest space, as the intruder slammed his boot into Vyse's face, knocking him hard across the dirt and grabbing the capsule as soon as it had the chance.

"[i]S-STOP HIM![/i]"

He was too incensed to notice that several of the alien species had landed and were assaulting the rest of his companions, but more pointedly they focused on Samus who dodged and fired at them in all directions whilst the rogue swung out his swords to strike the new kidnapper. He found himself clashing against a scythe made of pure energy that grew from the armoured fiend's elbow to shove Vyse back hard with overwhelming strength. The rogue rushed him again, but the moment his blades carved straight for his abdomen, he found to his horror the merc had split his body in half before he could.

"Wh-what...the-HNNNNFHH!"

Stunned by the sight of the metallic body splitting itself at the waist, the legs suddenly kicked him twice across the face sending him to the ground. Spitting whilst coughing dirt, he could see the upper torso had sat on the ground before reassembling itself back to its other half without the slightest hitch, grabbing the container and running off towards a ship that Vyse had never seen before. Resembling a red steel bat, it hovered above the clearing briefly to collect its crew who were far more insect-like with chitinous armour and reptilian gait as Oddclaw and Jeremy staggered up from the ground covered in bruises. Samus was the only one still standing as she saw the capsule being taken, a scream resonating from it of the most innocent fear. A dark thunderous sky swept over her memory in a rocky canyon some years ago, beneath storms of clouded green and wicked claws of violent purple. She heard him. She knew what that sound was before any of them did.

"SAMUS, [i]S-SAMUS WAIT![/i]"

It was a baby's cry.

"[i]SAMUUUUUUUUUUUUS![/i]"

The moment she heard that sound, she had become deaf to their voices as she drove forwards with pounding boots, earth shaking underneath with a rage unholy until the ground cracked at her heels in a frenzied charge towards the beasts. She screamed within her heart with a voice none would hear, her fist balling up as it flew straight into the back of the kidnapper's head, sending him down with a crunch beneath the open cargo doors of the red ship. She grabbed the capsule desperately, wrestling with the steel fiend as he barked for help in an alien tongue, but any who dared approach would be met by a volley of missiles that exploded into the ship. Panic and fury amidst clamouring squawks, the ship was desperate to escape as it fired up its engines. The hunter's voice became bestial, snarling like a mother bear as she drove her fist into his face, wrapping her cannon arm around the capsule and pulling with all her strength before the armoured thief separated his body and exposed a turret within its abdomen in the midst of their struggle. She failed to notice through her rage until the mortar-strength shell fired into her chest, punching her suit like a rhino's horn as she fell back with a gasping fit. The kidnapper hurled the capsule with orders towards his crew, swiftly launching himself up in one piece back into the cargo bay as the vessel departed. Samus struggled to resist the urge to shoot at the engines, quelling her rage with a deep shiver that isolated inside the pits of her stomach.

"Samus?! SAMUS are you alright!?"

Oddclaw's voice cut through the red mist that briefly clouded her vision. Storms of the verdant dawn and a rain-slick surface faded from her memory once more. The voice she heard disappeared along with them as she turned towards Vyse with blank visceral stare. She said nothing, but Oddclaw could smell the rage and sorrow burning inside her heart before she crushed dirt between her fingers. Eyeclaw smelt something much worse within.

"Hey, it's alright," said Vyse. "Are you, are you okay Samus?"

She said nothing as her fury began dwindling. The rogue placed his hand on her shoulder in a friendly way.

"You did your best, what you think we're gonna stop now, heck no we're gonna stop those jerks!"

"No. They won't get away with this."

The hunter stood up with hand flexing, dirt flicking off her digits as Vyse smiled with fists up.

"Yeaaaaheheh now that's what I like to hear, we got no time to sulk, let's find out who those punks are and make 'em think twice for messin' with us! So uh, do you know who they even were?!"

"Space pirates."

"...oh, so THOSE were the guys you were talking about?!"

"Yes."

"Well that doesn' change anythin' now dunnit," said Jeremy, "we still 'ave them to deal with whether or not we rescued that 'ostage so our objective's still thuh same."

"He is right," replied Oddclaw, "we will rescue your friend Vyse. But, what do we do with them?"

He pointed towards Lord Bane and his many wounded men to which Holt added:

"Best call in thuh cavalry then, you got yer radio on you Odd?"

"Yes."

"Then it looks like it's time to play the ol' fox-chicken-bag-o'-grain-puzzle wunnit?"

"The...what?"

"Ughhh, just call Jane an' see if we can't get anymore cells fer 'em."

"Oh, okay."

The raptor called in for reinforcements to explain the multitude of prisoners they now had as Samus stared towards the northwest where the space pirate's vessel had flown. Calming herself with practiced professionalism honed through silence, she now focused on how best to retrieve a hostage from a mobile space lab before realising precisely why they kidnapped it. She felt Vyse's presence near her side and asked:

"Who is your friend?"

"Huh?"

"Who...or...what, is your friend?"

"What you mean what?"

"He is not human, is he?"

"Uh...no, actually it's-how did you know?"

"I heard him. I know."

"Oh...welllll it's kinda hard to explain."

"He is sentient?" she asked.

"Yeah, totally," he replied, "he...h-he's an artificial life form, he's kinda one of my closest friend's pets but-"

"He is young, an infant?"

"Yeah...how do you know?"

"Because I know. And I will not rest until he is safe and back with you."

"...wow. You're really serious aren't you?"

Samus did not reply, clicking her visor to another setting as she scanned for propulsion traces in the sky to plot a potential course, but not before Vyse could say:

"I'm real glad to have you."

"Hmm?"

She turned to him as his face became a red glowing visage from the multiple heat signatures.

"I mean, we barely know each other but you're really willing to go all the way just to save my friend?"

"I thought he was your friend's pet."

"Well that ALSO makes him a friend, doesn't it? People can have dogs and little animals but they still call them their babies right?"

"Yes. They do."

"But you came out here to help me rescue him, even though you're a bounty hunter, it's like nothing to do with your mission-"

"I am also human," she added curtly. "Mostly."

"Huh?" Vyse cocked his head with deepening intrigue for what lied beneath her helmet. "Wh-whaddaya mean mostly?"

"I am a hunter for peace. Not destruction."

"Heh...right, I believe you, you totally showed that when you whipped all these guys' butts up an' down the island. I just wanted to say, whatever happens next...thank you, Samus."

He offered his hand to shake, but when she grasped him back, he pulled her into a hug of genuine gratitude that briefly surprised her. She gave him a small squeeze in politeness before he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and gave an apologetic shrug and dashed off to help Holt and Oddie restrain the Zivilyn Banes from evading capture. Samus joined them soon whilst still keeping tabs on the engine signatures in the sky.