"On second thought, hold that flashback." Volt stated, more preoccupied on how to escape from... wherever they were.
"Fine." Loki said, slightly disappointed. "Not like I wanted you to listen anyway..." He later soon got up and walked over to play with the Kubrows who were wrestling on the ground nearby.
"Hey, Loki?" Volt asked, "Where's your Liset?"
"Why do ya, ask?"
"Cause unlike you, I actually WANT to get out of here!" Volt snapped. His sudden anger caused a few of the Kubrows to growl protectively over their Tenno overlord.
"Calm down, kids..." Loki soothed to his pets. He then turned to Volt who was staring with slight annoyance. "Well, last night, we used the remaining fuel to light a fire."
Volt let out a forced sigh, it was not his day. "Engine at least?..." he asked hopelessly.
"It-uh... shorted out." Loki stated, "Made one hell of a grill till the grease seeped through." He reached behind a rock and brought out a slab of meat. "Hungry?" He stuck out his hand in offering.
Volt snagged the meat from Loki's hand and sat down again by the same boulder. Not knowing when he'll ever get a way out, he slapped the meat onto his forehead in hopes of removing the oncoming headache.
~(o)~
[Back on Phil's Liset...]
The console fizzed to life when the holographic form of Lotus appeared.
"Phil?... Phil~?" her voice sounded with the same sing-song tone.
"Present!" Phil took off his helmet and smiled, happy that he survived his first mission as a success.
Zzzzt. A holographic Excalibur suddenly appeared onto the second console. "Phil, where the hell were you when Mag-" he paused when he saw the image of Lotus just next to him. "She's talking to YOU?"
"YES." Lotus abruptly snapped before going to childish tones once more. "It's an A-B conversation, so I'll see you out." With a wave of her hand, she overrided the Ordis' communications and Excalibur's image glitched and soon faded to nothing.
"Oh, what was that for?" Phil asked.
"Oh, no need to worry about that," Lotus grinned toothily." Anyhoo... I'm sending the three of you on a new mission."
"Whoa. But, we just got out of there."
"Why wait till the adrenaline wears off?" she reasoned. "Besides, by doing SUCH a great job for your first mission, I handpicked the three of you for this one."
"Is it a... capture mission? Cause I think that was easy enough." Phil smiled.
Lotus chuckled a bit at his newfound confidence. "No, it's a RESCUE."
She waved her hand again and another holographic image appeared. It was the facial bust of a Corpus who looked as though he had small tire tracks going down his chin.
"We're helping the Corpus?" Phil wondered. It seemed odd to help people who wanted them just as dead as Grineer.
"Darvo is not the same, he sympathizes with the Tenno," she assured, "He is also willing to allow us weapons from his cache."
Phil looked down and saw that the only thing he ever had was the Bo-staff issued to him. That, and an autographed self-portrait of Ash he hadn't even asked for.
"Yea... guess I could use more of that." he figured.
Content with his obedience, Lotus pinpointed the coordinates to the prison in which Darvo was being held captive. Phil responded after by walking up to the controls and lightly tapped the location on the HUD.
"Hostile territory, pilot." Ordis' automated voice informed, "Occupied by Grineer."
Letting out a small, light chuckle, Ordis cleared his throat after. "It'll be dangerous, pilot. May result in death... full speed ahead?"
Phil slowly slipped on his Warframe helmet, feeling his face turn ghostly white. "I-um... I...," he began hesitantly. He stopped when he saw Lotus was still there and didn't want to seem cowardly in front of his leader. "I mean, aye!"
"Wait. 'Aye'?" Ordis questioned. "What are you, some kind of pirate?"
"You heard him, Ordis," Lotus said with a certain venom, "full speed ahead."
~(o)~
[Meanwhile in Excalibur's Liset]
"Cal?" Mag asked, concerned for her teammate, "are you alright? You suddenly went quiet."
"I-I'm fine." Excalibur said, baffled that Lotus had cut him off so harshly. He remembered that he had muted his side and activated the communications again. "I'm fine. I was just... talking to Phil."
"Oh, is he ok? He was quiet since we took off."
Excalibur couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy, her voice sounded more filled with concern about PHIL'S well being.
"He's fine." Excalibur calmed himself after blurting in anger. "Busy talking to Lotus."
"He's talking to Lotus?!" She suddenly screamed into the console, causing Excalibur to take off his helmet due to the piercing echo.
"Yea..." he agreed, patting his ear till the ringing ceased. "But, why HIM?"
"I don't know," Mag replied, "I guess there's a reason for everything." She didn't want to admit it but, she was feeling about just as jealous as Excalibur was at the moment.
Excalibur stayed quiet for a minute to ponder what Lotus saw in Phil that was special. Suddenly, he looked to the corner of his eye where a bright, blue-tinted light appeared just outside the Liset. Rushing to the far left of the windshield, he saw Phil's ship slowly make its way forward, gradually picking up speed.
"Where's he going?" Excalibur wondered. "Mag?"
"We should at least follow to make sure he doesn't hurt himself." she answered.
Soon after, both Mag and Excalibur's Lisets roared to life and began tailing Phil toward Earth. Whatever reason they were returning there, Excalibur wondered what was making Phil suddenly so distant. He was acting like a one-man army and knowing Phil, it could only lead to trouble...
