Katheeri

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"The name's Pawel," said Pawel, turning to Shepherd. "And it's more courage than confidence. It's not like I can actually punch a hole through that armor, anyway." The trio ascended the small ridge.

"You two know Bohdan Chmielnicki?" asked Pawel. "He's my cousin."

[Zaphyr Stone]

"Shepherd!" Zefran looked back in surprise. She had guts. Despite her obvious irritation, he was happy to see her. He wasn't keen on being alone with this one.

"Tch, I don't know how much your courage will count for you if...woah...." He trailed off, looking out at the field below and seeing the fantastical battle for the first time.

----

"And you do you propose we get the ice man?" Antoine looked out at the battle, "He looks a little busy to me."

[Sylono]

Shooting the katheeri an apologetic smile, he seemed to be taking his new circumstances in stride, certainly a trooper. Her chance at adding any witty retorts were cut short, as she followed Zefran's gaze. Among the napalm and rain was a brilliant... 'magic duel', was the best she could describe it.

"That explains why Bohdan didn't immediately chase you away..." Shepherd finally stated with an expression nearing awe, while absentmindedly shifting her weight onto her good leg. Coming out of that transfixed state, got back to the matter they were out here for.

"If Aura hasn't already been extracted or k-... masked her vitals, I should be able to zero in on her location if we get close enough." She said, correcting herself mid-sentence. Despite not being the superstitious type, Shepherd didn't want to take the risk and jinx herself and the others. Only question was, where exactly was she put? The cerinian had been focused on Zefran the whole time, it didn't occur to her that she should have kept tabs on the armored katheeri.

In an effort to come across as if she weren't hurt, she began visibly taking into account the equipment on herself; her PDS and APS were still active, still had the bare essentials of medical supplies (most of which was untouched, save for a vial of toxin scrubber), a spare magnet grenade and a few other tricky gadgets she could fall back too... though none of which were as handy as the grenade.
 

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"I care not for his family matters," said Bohdan, steering the cruiser as he took a hard left. "We grab him, no matter what! And find this... 'Aura' Katheeri. Who has seen her?"

"I have," replied Elizabeth. "Korben too. But when she got blasted out of the sky, I lost track of her." Korben put his sunglasses back on, and the pain of his sensory overload subsided.

"Too much happening," he said, fatigued.

"Hey, Sergeant, chin up," said Elizabeth. Korben nodded tiredly.

~

"Zef," said Pawel, nudging the teen Katheeri with his right wing. "You wanna lay low, or you wanna try to find your friend? The magic men, the cops, and Star Tiger won't be very friendly to us, especially after one of us basically nuked half the field."

[Zaphyr Stone]

"Just means we better find her fast and get out of here." Zefran answered Pawel.

He walked back down to Shepherd curiously. Assuming she was looking for the device that could locate Aura, he extended a wing over her to shield her from the rain so she could see more clearly. "She should be further up this rise. I think, anyways. Can you locate her from here?"

----

"What a shit show." Antoine sighed wearily. He was at least grateful the Zefran was far enough away from this madness.

[Renardfrost]

" Fractal's Void Blade, huh?" Trigger arched a brow. "You know electricity can't hurt me. my body has 100% conductivity."

Renard shook his head. " True, I can't shock you, But I can at least beat you silly with it." He said with a smirk, as his gauntlet took on the same hue and style as the sword.

"I'd Like to see you try!" Trigger sneered, launching a Blue bolt that streaked cruelly through the air only to- arc away from Renards outstretched left hand? The bolt flew long and struck off to the side, the intense heat and charge vaporizing a sizable amount of napalm, and the concussive force of the thunderclap snuffing out flames not fed by the substance.

" What?!'  Trigger launched another, and another and another as Renard walked closer. the result was the same, the bolts striking rails and metal walls coated with the stuff. " Why can't I hit you anymore ?"

" Your Magic Augments and influences charges to create natural lightning with all it's destructive force. Lightning, In it's natural state, carries a negative charge from the air and causes a humongous arc to strike positively charged ground. The reason lightning happens is because the forces attract, causing a current to form."

" That Means..."

Renard Smirked as he swing his sword clean through his brother, Trigger doubling over as his magic negated the cut, but not the force, Causing him to stagger back from the pain. Renard smiled

"Correct, My weapons, and by extension, myself now carry a negative charge that will cause all the lightning you throw at me to be repelled. Yes you could switch the charges, but so could I, the moment an opposite charge hits me. "

(basically it's like how Aura in RWBY works.. It'll sponge a certain amount of damage, but once it depletes, the next hit will most likely be fatal.)

" Clever." Trigger spat, Turning to face his brother.

" Yield... You can't beat me now, you're out of tricks."

" You're right... I concede."

" Your honor demands it, tell me what i want to know."

"Last I heard of father, he had some business to attend to on Titania. probably training or something, I heard rumors of fields of flowers springing up from empty desert. You should probably start there."

" Good. Now leave. go and lick your wounds."

Antwon only nodded and vanished in another flash of lightning.

With the thunderclap, he was gone.

 

Renard fell back on his rump and sighed, his weapons returning to their previous form as the fox sheathed his blade.

With his magic being the only remaining influence in the area. The rain subsided, giving way to a gentle snow.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Bohdan sped up the cruiser, the red line reaching the maximum number: 200 kph. He then slammed the foot on the brakes, to which point the cruiser stopped before Renard. Bohdan then jumped out, grabbed Renard by the armpits, and tossed him onto the roof of the cruiser. He returned to the vehicle as quickly as possible.

"Now, we must find the Katheeri woman!" said he.

[Renardfrost]

Renard was much too tired to resist, and did not complain when he was tossed onto the cruiser like a new mattress. He created a knife of ice and plunged it into the roof to anchor himself.

" Not a problem." he sounded winded.

" When the thing exploded and all hell broke loose, the lady was launched, but her guardian caught her and carried her off. north of here. It'll take the last of my strength, but if she's hurt, i can stabilize her, if not patch her up fully."

[Sylono]

Hearing Zefran approach, the cerinian peered at him out of the corner of her eye as he made the kind gesture. Mumbling a quiet 'thank you', Shepherd ran a hand through her soaked hair as she reorganized her thoughts, the best way solve their problem was to shut off her PDS, something that made her feel naked without it. A full and active APS worsened that with a sense of paranoia, when she could get away with it she'd normally wouldn't consider doing that.

Well, she wasn't in any immediate danger and he was asking nicely, Shepherd reached under her jacket and deactivated her PDS, effectively throwing caution into the wind.

"All I need is a moment." That was easier said than done, since she had to tune out any background 'noise', the APS wasn't a an exact technology. She was getting multiple signatures and if she were to guess, the rain was confusing the device. Not to mention Powel's signature, due to his size and closeness, dwarfed anything that he was standing in front of. Nonetheless, Shepherd wasn't about to give up so easily, all she needed was a template to base a rhythm on and as luck would have it, the perfect template was holding a wing over her head.

"Zefran, please try not to move." She said, before closing her eyes and focusing on each signature she felt, she must have looked ridiculous, turning in place as she was. After a few seconds she paused and scrunched her closed eyes, she found something, she was sure of it.

It was faint (with luck, that only meant distance, rather than an injury), but she found a similar rhythm to the templ-... er, Zefran's. Opening her eyes, Shepherd pointed ahead of herself.

"Straight forward in this direction, it's Aura, has to be." She stated confidently, an almost prideful smile on her face.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Alright," said Pawel, a bit too tired to say much else. As the rain beat down on him, he felt sick to his stomach. "Ugh, damn..." Pawel, gripping his stomach, soldiered on in the direction Shepherd pointed.

"Ahh... I feel... poor," he said weakly. "But it'll get better. Let's go."

~

"North?!" uttered Bohdan, frustrated. He groaned as he turned the cruiser north and drove off in that direction.

"We've only been here for an hour!" noted Elizabeth.

[Sylono]

He and her both, Shepherd mentally empathized, hopefully that was nausea instead of some barbarian hunger. No, the clone chided herself, that wasn't fair of her at all even if her first impressions of him weren't so well. If nothing else, he didn't immediately try gunning her down the moment it was just the three of them (or try any funny business with, like the Katheeri woman), she figured that was enough to convince her to at least test the waters of a shaky acknowledgement between the two.

"You don't seem to be worried about walking ahead of me, Mr. Pawel." The cerinian noted out loud, as she limped after him.

"It looks as though you haven't been exaggerating that courage of yours." It was a ghost of a complement, but it would have to do.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Yeah, I was always a wily kid," Pawel replied, stumbling forward, the flames from the napalm gel smoldering in the far distance. He looked around to see a wasteland criss-crossed with railways, saturated in rainwater. It stank of diesel fuel and dirty water, with hints of rust and heavy metal. The ground itself was gravelly, and it crunched beneath Pawel's boots.

"Got into trouble a ton. Everyone would dare me, bet me creds to do crazy sh-t, and I'd do it, and they'd pay me. That's how I made money early on. Just doing crazy sh-t." Pawel slowed down, to focus on his story. "I did everything from eating a page from my own notebook..." Pawel breathed heavily in between this first part and the next part of his sentence. "...To breaking a window by punching it. Literally, I punched a window so hard I broke it." He chuckled, and then turned back to Shepherd.

"Hey... what about you? I don't know jack about you, not even your name."

[Sylono]

The dragon's personal story of childhood antics, while an unexpected development had resulted in getting a snigger out of the blue vixen. She wasn't exactly prepared for the dragon's inquiry afterwards, if her deer-caught-in-headlights expression was any indication.

"My name?"

"Shepherd, my name is Shepherd... Um, no last name." Not exactly keen on the idea of swapping any personal stories of her own, despite how hypocritical one could argue that being. Besides, who'd want to hear that you've spent the first several years of your life sharing space in your head with your siblings?

"I'd say nice to meet you, but..." Letting that sentence hang, Shepherd hoped that would be more than enough to allow her wrangle the conversation away from herself.

"You said you were an adventurer, Mr. Powel, what exactly do you mean by that?" The vixen asked, before quickly adding a rough summery of a comic book she'd loved... or at least, she was sure she was the one who loved it, it got hard to tell thinking back to those days.

"Long trips to star systems only viewed through high powered telescopes in search of the treasure of lost civilizations, how's that, am I close?"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Yeah..." said Pawel, taking heavy breaths in between sentences. His pace kept its slow speed.

"Well... mostly. I mean, most of the time the haul I find is barely enough to pay for the fuel, food, and O2 I burnt through to get there. There are some finds though..." Pawel paused for dramatic effect before continuing.

"Some finds are far more lucrative. Lucrative enough for me to retire. But I don't, because I'm always thirsty, you know? I want more."

"And that's why I just don't hunt for treasures. I also just decide to go to a star system or a sector of the galaxy nobody else has been to, because then I can say 'Oh yeah, I was the first there.' But again, most of the time, there's nothing. Just a bunch of rocks and stars. Sometimes, though, there's lost or undiscovered civilizations, both spacefaring and primitive. I'm pretty sure I'm a deity in some primitive cultures, though." Pawel laughed, but coughed. He continued.

"Now..." Pawel glanced at Shepherd. "You're Cerinian. Do you know of your homeworld? Nowadays, the few young ones don't."

[Sylono]

Damn it, well, she supposed it was too much to wish that Pawel was an egotist or romantic who loved to talk other's ears off about his passion. Then again her template's species were a minority group in the lylat system.

"It never came up much, my um..." Shepherd stopped mid-sentence as she struggled behind the dragon. She didn't know what to call her template, as the woman was hardly what she could call 'family' in anything but DNA only. Perhaps the closest description she had of the 'true' cerinian was a drill instructor, or in a more positive term, a mentor.

"My 'mother' wasn't the nostalgic type, I suppose she didn't like to dwell on the past." Referring to the template by that title was not something she was going to get used to soon. She had to hope the way she said that word didn't sound as forced as it felt.

"With the rumors and the snippets of information I was able to pick up through the extranet, I don't blame her for it." Many a time, Shepherd had pondered that perhaps the whole history behind that world and it's broken people are why she had even come to exist.

"I'm a Spacer first and foremost, Mr. Pawel, concepts of homeworlds and national identity are foreign to me." She stated, pride in a history that wasn't her own wasn't something the vixen wanted to take part in.

"Is it to much to assume that there is a reason you brought this up?"

[Zaphyr Stone]

Zefran followed along, keeping stride with Shepherd as he listened quietly to the conversation. It occurred to him that he really didn't know anything about her. Judging by her discomfort in sharing, he guessed she liked it this way. Still, it was interesting to find out what he could. Everyone seemed to know more about him than he did, so it was a nice break to learn about someone else.

He noticed her limp and frowned slightly. "You're hurt." He said quietly, "Are you all right?"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"It's not," said Pawel, answering her question. He, by now, decided to put up with the constant internal pains, and dug his fists into his jacket's pockets. He continued his brisk pace.

"It's just that everyone has a past. Everyone has a family. Or... had, in some cases. That's what Bohdan is. A 'had'. He had a family, before they all got killed on Cerinia." Pawel stopped completely, despite the rain still not showing any sign of letting up its torrent. He sighed, closing his eyes. He opened them again.

"To see him just... stand there... the rain hiding his tears... Rain like this..." Pawel looked up, then back down to Shepherd. "Ah, I don't wanna talk about him without his say-so. He'd have my tail." Pawel continued walking slowly, once again pouring out his thoughts.

"You know, when I was at the funeral, I didn't really feel much. I mean, I wasn't around even CC (Corneria City) half the time, let alone the homeworld. In our tongue, it's just called ojczyzna: Homeland. Anyway..."

"My past is far from jaded, lady. I already told you about me being a crazy kid. But things just got crazier from there. I got into the CDF after uni (university), started out as a beat cop. Boy, did I see some crazy ass sh-t! I saw a damn Rus', that's one of my people, bite off another guy's tail! His goddamn tail! And it wasn't, you know, gnawing or some sh-t. His jaw was like a goddamn bear trap or some sh-t like that, I mean *snap*. And the tail was in his mouth, and he almost swallowed it. One hundred and ten percent true as the sh-t from my ass, he almost ate the thing like a candy bar."

"Oh no, it gets better from there." Pawel began chuckling. "Then, I became a plainclothes. Oh, sh-t, then I went into Crazytown. I saw people snort everything from other people's vagina bones, their cleavage, I saw 1000 credit booze being poured onto people. I saw heads blown off, car bombs, mutilations, I even looked at crime scene pictures of a bladed sex toy. Bladed. It was used. That sh-t is just insanity. Like... like... I don't even know. Most of it, believe it or not, I laughed at. Swear to God, I laughed, and my buddies looked at me like I was some psychopath. Wooh, but thank God I managed to get out of there and into the military arm."

"Being an officer in the CDF was a bit boring though. At least until the Lylat Wars. I mean, before the Wars, it was just patrolling the outer reaches of the system in a fancy tin can floating around in space. I saw Venom before it was really, well, venomous. It was beautiful, like Corneria. Then massive pollution turned the thing into the anus of the Lylat System. Heh."

"The Wars. Well... you know how I said life was boring before the Wars? I kinda wish I kept that life. Because the boringness was replaced by combat, and in combat, I saw people, good people, people I knew for years, people I commanded, die." Pawel paused before continuing, shuddering as he sighed. "I don't like Venomians. Nah." He shook his head.

"Since I lost men under my command, I was like 'I can't do this sh-t anymore.' So I left the CDF when Andross was killed, and I've been living this life ever since. It's a hard life. It's a dangerous life. But it's the life I wanted. I'm more of a solo guy, you know. I don't like working in groups. Not since the Wars."

"You know, when I was getting here on my bike, which is a wreck, so don't mind it, I stopped at a bodega on a street corner for some snacks and coffee." Pawel took out the crumpled bag of Ugu potato chips, opened it, and began munching on several. He chewed and swallowed before continuing. "So, I walk in, ask for coffee. I pay for a cup with two sugars, and get it. Then, out of nowhere, this... this c---boy... just dashes into the store with a blaster and wants to rob the store owner and me. I was like 'Leave, dude.' He was being all f--king belligerent and sh-t, a little greedy maggot, and he called me the one word you do not want to call a Cornero-Ruthenian. He had the audacity to call me a 'freak'. I had enough of his bullsh-t, so I threw my coffee into his face. He got burnt like a forgotten kebab on the grill."

"I wouldn't mind if he died." Pawel shrugged his shoulders as he said that.

[Sylono]

Shepherd didn't try to cut in at any point during Pawel's personal tale, choosing instead to snicker when appropriate. One tidbit of information Shepherd took away from that was that Bohdan's family were involved somehow with cerinians... She'd have to follow up on that at some point.

"It hurt's Zef, I wont lie..." She paused for a moment, despite the dragon's unintentional signature interference, she could now differentiate the two that were ahead of her with ease.

That meant one thing.

"We're close, she's probably just up ahead." All that was left was to call for a pick up, and maybe practice an "I'm sorry for telling Powel to fly off with Zefran" speech before she had to face that noise.

With that in mind, Shepherd motioned for the Katheeri to take the lead, she'd follow as close behind as her sprained ankle would let her.

[Zaphyr Stone]

With this news, Zefran put a pep in his step and hurried ahead of the chatty dragon. Sure enough, he caught a glint of her armor, and after a short climb, he found her laying on a plateau on the rise. The raindrops slid down the mask of her helmet.

"Here! I found her!" He called back to the pair.

He was unable to check for a pulse with her armor, but he figured it was safe to assume she had vitals if Shepherd was able to pinpoint her. Carefully, he pulled her up into his arms, letting her head rest against his chest. She was heavy in her armor, but he wasn't about to let Pawel take her and possibly abscond with her.

"Don't worry," he whispered to her unconscious form, "You're going to be just fine."

 

---

END OF CHAPTER 3

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

(Removed)

[Zaphyr Stone]

CHAPTER 4: TITANIA

---

 

"I'm not always going to be there to protect you, Zefran! You have to be more careful than that!" Antoine was still laying into Zefran even after they had boarded the ship.

They had managed somehow to get away from Macbeth without pursuit, the Sandor's quick thinking with the napalm providing the distraction they needed to get away. Antoine could feel his blood pressure finally dropping to normal levels, but he still had words for certain people.

Zefran cringed as Antoine's voice carried through the hangar bay. Despite the guilt he felt for worrying him, he felt anger bubbling in his chest.

"If you would just show me how to defend myself, you wouldn't have to protect me so much!"

"Out of the question, we've talked about this already. I don't want you anywhere near that world. It'll eat you alive." Antoine rebutted.

"Learning how to use a gun doesn't automatically make me a criminal, Antoine! I'm not gonna shoot up a convenience store the second I have one in my hands!"

"That's not what I mean, and you know it." Antoine growled.

"No, I think I know what you mean." Zefran glared hard at him, "Well like it or not, danger is coming to us! If you're not going to show me how to deal with it, I'll do it myself!"

Before Antoine could say anymore, Zefran was already storming out of the hangar and into the main corridor.

The scraggly coyote could only groan and sigh in response, snatching up a tool angrily and turning to his bike so he could finish tuning it up.

----

 Laika found herself lost in thought as she looked through the window into the room where Sitka was being kept. His wounds had been simple enough to treat. The staff had been instructed to keep him sedated until further notice. No one wanted to risk him waking up and possibly going on another destructive tirade.

So much had happened, she could barely keep track. Her precinct was in an uproar trying to calm everything down again. They were fortunate that Star Tiger had come when it did. Still, there were a lot of unanswered questions.

What did Antoine have to do with all of this? This didn't feel like something he'd choose to be involved with. Perhaps Zefran was in trouble somehow. She knew she had seen him in the midst of the chaos.

She sighed, leaving Sitka to rest and walking back outside the hospital. Pulling out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, she coaxed one out and lit it.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Pawel sat on a food crate, listening in to the coyote unleashing his verbal fury onto Zefran. He picked up, from the conversation, the coyote's name: Antoine. Pawel wondered why Antoine wanted to shield Zefran from this "world" the former talked about. After all, he himself was armed, and his weapon visible from its holster. In fact, everyone on the ship excluding Zefran was armed. Even Jacob, a man who has never fired a weapon or even raised one in anger in his life, was in possession of an obsolescent blaster pistol from the previous century. However, he was pressured by Bohdan to due so, as the whole team was to be armed for security reasons.

When Zefran left the docking bay, Pawel followed him, but winced as his abdomen was still in pain. He jogged to the young Katheeri, catching up to him.

"Hey, Zef," Pawel began. "I heard that noise coming from that guy. His name's Antoine, from what I heard. What's this about him not wanting you anywhere near 'this world'?" Pawel made air quotations with his hands when he said "this world".

~

Aura laid, unconscious, on a bed in the infirmary of the Szabla. However, she was not alone, as Bohdan, Elizabeth, Sandor, and Korben was there as well. Aura was contained with an energy field in the event that she would be hostile upon regaining consciousness.

Korben was incredibly enthusiastic as he gathered data using his sunglasses, which were in turn wirelessly connected to an apparatus on his left arm. The apparatus projected a hologram containing all the data collected. He made excited grunts, exclamations, and noises as he ogled the wealth of knowledge the hologram showed.

"I am happy!" said Korben. Elizabeth shook her head.

"I'm sure you are," said Sandor. Bohdan stared at Aura. He walked closer to her, the energy shield encapsulating her to her bed glowing a light red, almost pink color. He took a chair from the side of the room and brought it bedside. He sat down.

"Elizabeth, Sandor. You can go." Bohdan said, with a sort of shooing gesture. The two of them walked out of the room. Korben paced back and forth, absorbing the data with joy.

~

Simo, his arms crossed, stared at Sitka, lying unconscious on the hospital bed. His rifle was propped up against the wall, and the blade he used to neutralize the Katheeri was still in his right hand. He ground his teeth.

[Renardfrost]

Renard was also laying in the infirmary, directly across from Aura, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. The scans showed not much damage outside of a few superficial electrical burns. But this was a much needed sleep. he had pretty much passed out the moment his head hit the pillow. He seemed to only wake up to receive visitors or eat.

Titania... What could his father possibly want with a place like that?

[Zaphyr Stone]

"Hey," Zefran said curtly, still hot from his argument, "He means the world where you shoot stuff up for a living. Just because he had a crappy life and turned to a life of crime doesn't mean I'm going to! God!"

----

Laika watched curiously as Max, who apparently didn't notice her, walked into the hospital. He was supposed to be out helping with damage control. What was he doing here?

Assuming perhaps he had decided to sneak off to get a look at the Katheeri in holding, she quietly followed him in. Sure enough, he walked to the room where Sitka was being held, but he instead approached the Doberman inside and handed him an envelope, exchanging a few words before taking his leave again.

She took care not to be seen as he left, her mind abuzz with questions.

[Tiger Carson]

Jeena was in one of the examination rooms of the hospital on Macbeth, getting herself checked over for any toxins from the gases the napalm had created.  She knew it was necessary, but getting checked over like this wasn't something she enjoyed, especially since she was mostly unclothed for it.  Jeena was fuming still from what happened, and as soon as that Katheeria was awake, she was going to lay into him.  That doberman too if she could find him. "Alright Miss Dracko," the doctor examining her, who was a female leopard said, "Looks like you got lucky we didn't find any signs of toxins in any of the samples we took from your body.  But I would advise being careful for the next couple of days, as you're going to be a little weak while your body restores what we took from it."
"I understand." Jeena said, "So, light duty for the next few days then?"
"That's the idea." The doctor said, she continued, "You notice anything wrong wrong, report to the nearest medical facility, and take care with your MRP(medical record pad)." She handed Jeena the device, which was a small touch screen apparatus not much bigger than our credit cards in terms if length and height, but definitely thicker in the width department.
"Yeah yeah, I know the drill." Jeena said, taking the MRP "Can I put my clothes back on and leave now?"
"Certainly, just check in with the desk to confirm payments." The Doctor said, "Take care of yourself." She then left Jeena alone in the exam room to put her clothes, which the dragon girl did.  Jeena then headed out of the room herself to check out.

------

Meanwhile, Copper was standing at the same window Simo was at, the owl, old as he was, was still good at being silent.  He looked at the Katheeri, Sitka.  Somehow, this situation was getting weirder and weirder.  Then again, the team had been in weird situations before, but this one just seemed quite weird.  He had noted the first officer, but didn't say anything.  He just made a mental comment about how the system on Macbeth was corrupt, as the rumors had gotten out for a reason.

-------

Tiger meanwhile was walking the halls of the hospital.  The rest of his team was with their Arwings, with Zera finishing up damage control assistance alongside Hawk and Kola, and the Sanctuary Tiger was hovering in the sky near the hospital.  Tiger, Copper, and Jeena's Arwings were parked near the hospital themselves.  Tiger had sent a message to Mark to check the registry for that fighter that Jeena had tracked, and scanned.  If it belonged to the Chmielnicki's, then it was certain what would have to be done.  He knew General Pepper would likely order him to take the Chmielnicki's in, and that was a fight he was not looking forward to.  That group had proven themselves capable of anything.  There were still other questions as well, such as the Katheeri they saw in the picture.  Tiger knew the one they had would have answers, but getting them would be quite a trick he was fearing. "Oiy." Tiger groaned out as he happened to be walking up to the infirmary window Sitka was at, not paying attention to Simo, and not noticing Laika near by. "Things can never be easy, can they?" He said to Copper.
"I'm afraid so." Copper confirmed, "Life can be so messy at times, and there continue to be more questions than answers.  We'll find them young man, we'll find them." Copper said to Tiger with a reassuring smile and tone. "The thing that matters now is our next course of action."
"I think we both know that one." Tiger said, "But I think we're going to have to rely on other sources to continue this mission, including finding out what the Chmielnicki's want.  I also sent a message to General Pepper to ensure we maintain custody of that guy." Tiger nodded his head to Sitka. "Have to wait on him before we do anything else." The two friends then continued to watch Sitka.  All they could do at this point was wait.