The Bar was much more crowded than usual, what with two whole fireteams plus Team JNPR inside. It was obvious the little hole in the wall wasn't designed for a large crowd, but sure enough, Lawrence had scooted around, made room, and fiddled with seating and tables until everyone had sitting room.

Pyrrha wasn't huge on the idea of hanging out here, and to be fair, neither was Jaune. But, again, they were asked to come along. Would be kind of rude, and maybe a little bit suspicious, to just shut that down. Besides, they didn't HAVE to drink. It's just that most everyone was. Declan was the one person that WASN'T holding a glass full of something, instead choosing to pick at his guitar and play a song Jaune didn't recognize. It was nice, bright, but at the same time, sort of wistful. He idly followed Declan's motions over the strings, trying to commit them to memory. Maybe he'd ask Declan to teach it to him. Not right now, though. He seemed into it.

Pyrrha was sat next to him at the small table Lawrence had set up right next to the bar, and Roderick sat across from them. Nora and Ren sat at the bar, the latter insisting that none of them, especially Nora, needed alcohol.

"He has an electric, too, but the ship can't afford to divert any power to something like an amp system," Roderick explained, evidently noting that Jaune was focused on the guitar. "Plus, the noise would kill us in here."

"Remember that time he played Rage?" Jerry asked from behind him, smiling. "Man, that was somethin'."

"Which song was that again?"

Declan answered mid-song without missing a beat. "Township Rebellion."

"Yep, one of the best. What all can you play on electric? Culture these kids, man," Jerry insisted, winking at the two partners. He evidently really enjoyed Declan's guitar work.

"Rage, Pantera, pretty much any heavy shit you can think of. Little bit of country. Some pop rock garbage. That one Katy Perry song."

"Which 'one Katy Perry song?'"

"I ain't playin' that garbage again, I did it for my woman once."

"I'm not asking you to play it, Declan, I'm asking you which one."

"... the one about the lesbians."

Alexios snorted, spitting out some of his beer as he went into a laughing fit. "Oh, SHIT, man, you're OLD AS FUCK."

"It has a nice fuckin' groove for pop crap, okay!?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

"Play somethin' for me, Jaune-boy," Declan piped up, offering the guitar to him, but he shook his head. One, he was rusty, and two, he didn't really know if Declan would react well to how Jaune played. Some people were very, VERY passionate about technique.

"Suit yourself. You may be the missing piece, boy."

"Missing piece?"

"Yep. You see, I'm gonna start me a little band when this shit is over, but I gotta start tourin' with what I got, opening up shows-"

"Declan, there's no concerts to open," Alexios said through barely-stifled chuckles. "What're you gonna do? Walk from place to place?"

"Nah, man. Jerry can sing pretty well, I've heard him serenading Sophie-"

"Declan, it's not like that."

"-I bet, bitch. As I was saying, he can sing, Adam was in a men's choir, Philly can play a mean bass from what I've heard, and you can teach a brain-dead monkey how to play the drums. Jaune can be my rhythm guitarist! Whaddya say? Could be fun!"

"They're gonna be gone before the war's over, Declan."

"Only if he wants! He can stick around as a favor for me saving his ass."

"But, Corporal Delacroix... I believe we were the ones who rescued you and your team from the Grimm."

Alexios, Jerry, Roderick, Jaune and Declan all looked at Pyrrha, who just smiled nervously.

"She's got a point," Jerry said, sneering at the guitarist, who spit on the floor in Jerry's general direction.

"I had his ass," Declan protested, "I had him dead to fuckin' rights before they killed it. Was gonna mount his damn head over my bunk."

"Unfortunately, that's impossible," Ren interrupted, turning over his shoulder to meet Declan's glare. "Grimm dissolve upon death. There isn't anything left to mount."

"Son of a BITCH! There goes that idea."

"Poor, poor Declan. Can't even kill things right anymore," Sophie fake-lamented from the other side of Ren and Nora. "You must be so disappointed that you can't exercise your psychopathy in a constructively destructive manner-"

"Silence, whore."

Sophie rolled her eyes, while Declan looked over at Ren, leaning over in his chair to the point the thing was balanced on two legs. "Do you have ANYTHING that I can mount on my wall?"

"Remnant has plenty of wild game. The Grimm tend to leave them alone for the most part."

"Shiiiiiiiiiit. Might have to take me with you when you go back, then. Ain't ever had fresh deer meat."

"You've never had real deer meat, period. ADVENT's taken out almost all the wild game on the planet." Lawrence explained, presumably for JNPR's benefit. "Might find a dog or a bear every once and a while, but very rarely do you see any more than that."

"All the livestock is gone," Alexios continued, "but stuff still lives out in the wild. Just a lot less of it, now. Eventually it'll all go extinct. Imagine that- we free humanity from their chains, and we're still stuck with synthetic meat and ADVENT burgers."

"Don't even TRY to make me thing of that," Sophie grumbled, "I swear, I'll kill myself right now."

"I just realized, I don't think Sophie is old enough to remember REAL food," Roderick spoke up, pointing to Jerry. "Aren't you both mid-twenties?"

"I'm just about to turn twenty," Sophie stated, drawing confused looks from everyone who wasn't Joseph Walker- one of the members of Hitman Team, Murphy's group, that JNPR hadn't met yet. Joseph just looked smug and stuck out his hands, making a 'give me' gesture.

"I tol' you lot, I told all of ye. Suck ma bollocks, ya inconsiderate numpties."

"Fuck off, Jo," Declan replied, throwing up a middle finger.

"Only if ye beg."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaalrighty, I think the both of you don't need to touch the liquor," Bridget -the other new face- insisted, stepping between the two and reaching for their glasses. "Come on, nice and easy..."

While the two men continued to volley insults over each other, and Bridget, Jaune couldn't help but wonder why a certain pair weren't in the room, especially considering it was their orders that led to the whole impromptu party thing in the bar.

'Hey, uh, Roderick? Jerry? Do you guys know where Murphy and Adam are?" he asked. The two men looked back at Jaune, turning away from the commotion, before looking at each other.

"Did they come in from that meeting yet?"

"Don't think so, Jerry."

"Huh. Wonder what was so important."

"Pardon me for asking, but why would they ask you to force us into this without showing up themselves? It seems to defeat the purpose." Pyrrha wasn't beating around the bush- Jaune knew she wasn't a fan of alcohol, and she certainly wasn't a fan of Adam. She was probably seeing things that weren't there to be seen.

"Because... I don't know. Why would he suddenly decide to play nice?" Jerry asked, seemingly more to himself than anyone at the table.

"I have no clue. It doesn't really make sense," Roderick agreed. "Something's going on here. Also, why only us? Why not Assassin, too?"

"Why not Marksman while we're at it?" Jerry continued, nodding. "Whatever they got called in about, it's about you kids."

"You think so?" Jaune tilted his head slightly, raising an eyebrow. Sure, JNPR's presence on the ship wasn't exactly the most welcome one, but... surely they weren't THAT high on their list of priorities. Were they? Or was there something these 'XCOM' guys were playing at that they didn't know? He wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to find out right now. Thankfully, his train of thought was interrupted by the door to the bar opening.

"Speak of the devil, and they shall appear!" Roderick shouted, throwing a hand up. "Lieutenant!"

Murphy stepped in first, tipping his strange little cap, and another man followed him, carrying a case of something on his back.

"Connie!" Roderick shouted, throwing a hand up and grinning ear to ear. "My man!"

"Don't thank me yet, Roderick. I have no idea if this shit is any good," the man replied, turning his attention to JNPR, one after the other, finally settling on Jaune. He had soft, dark green eyes that looked almost like they were flecked with gold in the dim lighting of the room. Unlike most of the men, he was completely clean-shaven, and had a neat, well-groomed head of dark brown, almost black hair.

"So, you're the kids I was told about?" he asked, or at least, that's what it sounded like- whatever kind of accent he had, it was so thick that Jaune could barely understand it. Some kind of regional dialect, maybe? "Apologies if some of my comrades have been a bit brusque with you, I assure you, you are among friends here! I am Konskatin Afanasyev. A pleasure to meet the four of you, at last!"

"Uh, hi!" Jaune replied, smiling nervously as the man slammed the case onto the bar, and threw out his arms.

"Tell me, young man! Your name, Jaune, yes? Have you ever been drunk?"

"No, sir. We're not old enough to drink... where we're from, anyway."

"Actually," Ren stated, "the drinking age in Mistral is 16. As such, all of us are technically legal but you."

"We're not in Mistral."

"Fair. Mr. Afanasyev, do you know the drinking age for this...'country'?"

"Mr. Oddly Colored Pink Eyes, do you know if you can hold a bottle?"

"...yes, I can."

"Then congratulations! You're legal here! Quickly, take! I have no idea if it's any good, but we shall soon find out together, comrades! To your health!"

With that, the man smacked the case on a large black trigger on the handle, and it opened to reveal a small fog of cold air, and about 20 bottles of a nondescript liquor. It was clear like water, but only an idiot would believe that's what was in the case.

Surprisingly to Jaune, from what he'd assumed about the group, hardly anybody got anything to drink. Only Murphy, Konstatin, Alexios, Lawrence, and Roderick grabbed anything, and even then, Lawrence and Alex didn't get much at all. Konstatin seemed shocked, too, maybe even a little indignant.

"Ah, come on! Surely you're thirsty!"

"I'm a teetotaler, same with Jerry," Declan replied. "Well, at least, I'm tryin'. "

"Since Jerry doesn't like it that much, I usually don't drink in front of 'im," Sophie explained. "W-well, same with Declan. And Adam."

" No offense, mate, but when I get hammered, I get a wee bit too handsy," Joseph explained.

"I'd rather not, thanks. God knows what's in the swill we get from these 'home breweries,'" Bridget turned up her nose at the stuff, as if just looking at the case put a sour taste in her mouth.

"Hey, besides, if we get too sloshed, we can't tell 'em all about our lovely little shithole of a planet," Alexios spoke up, smirking at Lawrence.

"Hey, it's OUR shithole planet!" Declan protested.

"That doesn't make it any less sh-sucky to live here," Jerry retorted, before turning to Jaune. "I'm gonna be real with you, man- you picked the wrong portal to walk through."

"I mean, you told us things were pretty bad here, what, with the alien invasion and all-"

"OH, he thinks THAT'S the beginning of our problems?" Roderick shouted, slamming his cup against the table as he went to sit back down. "Oh, oh, you SWEET SUMMER CHILD."

"Man," Jack agreed, "there were ayy infiltrators in our society since the Egyptians! This world's been fucked!"

"Well, while I don't agree with Sagole's way of putting it... yeah. We've been in bad straights since as long ago as I can remember, and past that. Tell you what, kids. How about we tell you about our world, and you tell us about yours. Just as an icebreaker. Sound good?"

Jaune looked at the rest of his team, who all seemed to be... accepting of the idea, at worst. To be fair, this would probably help with the trust thing.

"Yeah, sure. I don't see any harm."

"Rad." Alexios leaned over the bar, raising an eyebrow. "So, you said your place is called 'Remnant,' right? Odd name for a planet."

"I mean, it seems normal to me. Earth sounds kinda weird, just naming your planet after... you know, dirt."

"I mean, really, all Earth is is a giant, wet dirtball full of savage animals whipping around the sun like a stripper on a pole." Declan rolled his eyes, kicking up his feet on his table. "Remnant's got a sun and shit, right?"

"Remnant's a lot like 'Earth', from what I've seen of it so far," Ren spoke up, "in fact, I originally believed we might just be on some unexplored island or something. A lot of our world is still being settled."

"So you guys are like... 1800s Earth, but with 22nd century tech, or something," Jerry mused. "Ain't that somethin'. You said something about a 'Mistral' earlier. That's the name of a city?"

"A Kingdom," Pyrrha explained. "Remnant's population settled into four Kingdoms long ago to protect ourselves against the Grimm. There was Vale, Mantle, Mistral, and Vacuo."

"So which are you guys from?"

"Myself, Ren, and Nora are from Mistral, and Jaune is from Vale."

"Nice. So, these Kingdoms work together, or are they like... separate entities entirely?"

"Well, after the Great War, everyone decided to start trying to work together again," Jaune continued in Pyrrha's stead. "But before that, only Mistral and Mantle really had close ties, if I remember history lessons correctly."

"The Great War?" Declan asked.

"People killin' people, no matter what planet it's on," Lawrence muttered.

"We got a great war too, but ours is pretty far back in the past. Anyway, keep going, you got my interest." Jerry watched Jaune with rapt attention, while the rest of the room were in various states between 'listening, but not giving a shit' and 'sort of interested'. Jaune swallowed silently, hoping that he remembered all this stuff from Glynda's classes correctly, or that Pyrrha, who seemed to know freaking everything, would correct him if he screwed up.

"Yeah, okay. So, a while back, Mantle decided that they had an idea on how to fight the Grimm. They'd had a lot of discontent and negativity in their kingdom, and that kind of stuff attracts Grimm, so they figured that, if they didn't give people reasons to be uncomfortable, they'd stop the Grimm. They heavily restricted and censored art, music, and creative thought, and Mistral kind of went along with it. Vale was against this because, well, Mantle and Mistral both allowed slave labor and treated the poor people in their kingdoms like garbage, so they basically told them to stop it. Mantle didn't, and instead demanded that some islands be handed over to them. The King of Vale just kind of let it happen, but the people living on the island got mad, and tried to fight. That's how the Great War started."

"Pray, where did these 'Vacuo' folk factor in?" Konstatin asked. "You didn't mention them."

"Vacuo was neutral, but when the war started, they realized that if Mistral and Mantle conquered Vale, there wouldn't be anyone left to stop them from conquering Vacuo. The war went on for ten years, until people decided it just wasn't worth fighting anymore."

"You said something about Grimm being attracted to negativity?" Murphy raised an eyebrow, speaking slowly, as if he wasn't quite sure he believed that. "... then why the hell did they go to bloody war? Make everyone miserable? Wouldn't that get them more riled up?"

"Exactly. All the people strong enough to defend their homes and villages and cities from the Grimm were off at war, so a lot of places were lost to the Grimm. A lot of people never got to go back home, and sometimes there would be ceasefires while everyone worked together to fight off the Grimm. I think that's why the war ended... because people were so tired of fighting the Grimm that they figured fighting each other was just a waste of energy better used elsewhere. So many people died fighting each other, there almost wasn't enough left to protect them from the Grimm"

"Pretty much the shot in the arm we got, huh, Murph?" Roderick asked, and Murphy nodded.

"It's amazin' what impending annihilation can do for one's point of view. So, what then?"

"The King of Vale got them to meet on a neutral island- Vytal- and make a peace treaty. They abolished slavery, reinstated democratic rule through councils, and established the Huntsman Academies in each Kingdom- Atlas in Mantle, Haven in Mistral, Shade in Vacuo, and Beacon in Vale."

"Sounds like y'all got it worked out okay," Declan surmised, smirking. "Must be nice."

"Yeah. After the war had happened, people were naming their kids after colors, arts, and figures from legends and histories, as a way of keeping expression and identity alive after a whole war was started over trying to repress it."

"That sounds pretty cool. Just spittin' in the face of it like that," Sophie mused. "Just sayin' 'fuck the war, let's be happy for a change'."

"Yeah. We've still gotta deal with the Grimm, but... well, everyone gets along pretty good nowadays."

"Pardon my interruption, but..." Pyrrha started. Jaune couldn't help but notice she'd been watching him with a little bit of a smile on her face. He must have gotten it right. Looking at her, though, she kinda just awkwardly looked off at Alexios, as if she didn't want Jaune to notice. "You said something about a Great War here?"

"That was Jerry."

"Yeah, there was," Jerry explained. "It's a really, really long and complicated story, but basically, a bunch of countries were angry at each other about a bunch of different things. Some wanted independence, others wanted land, some wanted oil, some wanted to fight for the heck of fighting... and then, one guy got mad enough, and shot the ruler of another country. It all just... blew up. Lasted for about 4 years. Killed millions of people. We got together after the war, punished the person who we 'claimed' was responsible, and swore it would never happen again... and then, well... it happened again. Not even 30 years later, it happened again. And it was still happening up until the end. Every year, it seemed like, someone had a bone to pick with someone else. Someone wanted somebody else dead. Whole races of people were put in camps and exterminated just for being the wrong type of person. We made weapons capable of wiping cities off the map, and then nearly blew ourselves to shit with them. The only reason we hadn't had a Third Great War is because if we did, humanity would have nuked itself back into the Cambrian."

"What Jerry's gettin' at is that if we sat here and told you about how much life sucked before the aliens showed up, you'd be here all day." Alexios sighed, shaking his head. "And people didn't learn from it even at the last fucking second."

"For all the faults," Lawrence stated, quietly, "at least the aliens gave us a common cause. Something to work together for, even if it was only for a year."

Declan jumped out of his chair. throwing up his hands, and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"AAAAAAAAAAALRIGHTY, this shit's depressing. Maybe one day, when we done fucked the Elders in the ass and broke all their shiny toys, we can tell these kids how much life used to suck while we sip martinis on the beach. How about we tell 'em about US. Not Earth, us."

"Us? Like, our life stories?" Sophie asked, incredulous.

"I mean, shit, let's depress them even more if we do that. No, I mean the good stuff. Like, what we used to do for a livin', our families, our hobbies, shit like that."

"I'd certainly like to hear more about you all," Pyrrha agreed readily, nodding a little bit too quickly. It was obvious she didn't mind the change of subject.

"Sounds cool! Were any of you like, doctors, or lawyers, or super secret mercenaries working for the government?" Nora was off like a verbal machine-gun already, which drew a chuckle from Lawrence.

"I mean, I wasn't a mercenary," Lawrence answered, "but I was Special Forces. Back in my halcyon days, I was what we call a Delta Force Operator. Was trained to fight and win no matter what the odds. Served from the late 90s to the end of the Alien Invasion."

"I was in college to get my medical degree," Jerry followed. "Got about halfway through my internship before I quit."

"I was just a traveler," said Sophie.

"I played on the gridiron for 5 years, then got into acting," said Roderick. "I'll have to show you kids one of my movies."

"I was in the military. Special Operations Engineering Regiment. I was basically the support staff to Australia's Special Forces," said Murphy.

"Talk show radio host, man!" said Jack. "One of the most popular on the islands! Hawaiian Islands, specifically. Mostly Oahu... pretty much just Oahu."

"I designed computer programs," said Alexios, "even spoke at a few tech conferences."

"I worked for 'im!" Joseph smiled up at Alexios, who nodded back at him.

"I was a... personal assistant," Bridget slowly spoke up, before pointing threateningly at Declan, who was about to say something.

"... I played guitar in a band," he stated, coolly, all the while smirking at Bridget.

"And I was a representative of our xenos oppressors for about 10 shitty years of my life!" Konstatin butted in, loud as thunder. "I was a presenter on the evening news back in Yekatarinburg."

"We're an eclectic mix, sure," Alexios continued. "If you'd have met us in our old lives, you probably never could have seen us together. Most of us, anyway."

Jerry and Alexios looked at each other. The latter grinned, while the former looked as if he might burst into flames.

"Alex."

"Jeremiah."

"It's 'Jeremy'."

Alexios started laughing, as did Lawrence and Roderick, the latter slapping Jaune on the back with the force to rival an Ursa. Jaune let out a hacking cough that shook enough to sound like he might be trying to laugh, but he sure wasn't feeling funny. Pyrrha and Nora both looked confused, but Ren was actually... chuckling along?

"See! My boy gets it!" Lawrence shouted, now grinning ear to ear, which was probably the most Jaune had ever seen the man emote in the two or three days since they'd met, "He already knows! It's not even his planet, he's never met you in his life, and he already knows!"

"Okay, shut up!" Jerry protested. "I don't get what's so funny about this to you!"

"EVERYTHIN' ABOUT IT, J!" Declan guffawed.

"Give me my fuckin' money, Murph!" Jack hollered, slapping his hand against the bar and reaching out to Murphy. "I told you, bro, I TOLD you this would happen!"

Murphy sighed, pulling out some sort of plastic card. "Always does."

What the heck were they even talking about?


Meanwhile, in science, Tygan examined the schematics placed in front of him. It was another one of Quoruz' outlandish ideas, but this time... this time, it had some merit behind it. Especially that they now had something to work with as far as a prototype. Technically, at least.

"So, Dr. Quoruz... would you care to explain what exactly this is?"

"Well, sir, I believe we finally have a way to take Project Sparta off the drawing board. You see, that kid with the sword and board didn't show off a little bonus feature his shield had. Idris found it while he was fooling around and trying to get a sample of the metal for testing. You see, the shield has a hollow channel in the center of it to act as a sheath for the sword, but that's not what's interesting- the shield is also segmented- it can compress itself down to the size of a long sheath, for ease of carry."

"So you believe we can co-opt this design to give our soldiers a personal shield?" Tygan asked.

"Well, there's one problem... the thing's too big. I don't think we can make the design smaller right now, either."

"So you're saying it's impractical."

"I'm saying that we would have to give them to some of our stronger field operatives. Say, the Grenadiers, or some of the Rangers."

"I still don't believe this is worth our resources, Dr. Quoruz. We still have to-"

"Dr. Tygan, please. I know it seems farfetched, but just... think for a minute. This could work, if you gave me a chance, and time. Since we already have a shield to work with, it would only take a couple of days. Then, as time goes on, I can work on downsizing it, or at least specializing it to where it can fit some sort of tactical niche."

"... very well, Dr. Quoruz. I'll allow you to complete your research on Project Sparta. However, know that your project is on the lowest level of priority- should other projects arise, you'll have to set it aside."

"I understand, Dr. Tygan. Thank you, sir."

Tygan nodded, before heading back to his work elsewhere. He still needed to see if there was something he could do about the power supply, on top of keeping a distant but watchful eye over Michelle. She was more enthusiastic about this 'Remnant' technology than he'd ever seen her excited about anything else, and although Tygan agreed that the possible applications were astounding, it was still a lot of risk involved. The shield was probably the easiest thing to translate into Earth tech, and it still wouldn't be a cakewalk- Tygan had yet to see any sort of deployable shield in his lifetime, other than the energy shields used by the ADVENT Shieldbearers. A physical shield would certainly be more durable, but were it to be too heavy, there would be no point in carrying the thing into the field. They were stealth operators and guerrilla fighters, not riot police.

Actually... come to think of it, there was a few things he could do. He'd speak to Michelle about it later. For now, he had other business to attend to.


"Sacre tabernak, Phillipe, again?" Remi asked, watching over his second with a look of... well, pity. Of course Remi pitied him. Look at him, 23 years old and nearly pissing himself every night because of one little bad dream, one that would likely never come to pass. Was he just a fucking joke now?

The rest of Assassin team was not normally present for such outbursts, but this time, both Cody and Emma were present. Luckily for him, they'd understood since back at the prison- hell, Emma was his cellmate. For someone who rarely spoke, she seemed better able to comfort Phil through these trying times than even Remi. Too bad she vacillated between French and Flemish so often, otherwise he might actually understand what the fuck he was saying.

"Shit, man, you really been havin' it the last couple nights," Cody murmured. "Wonder what devil's gotten into you?"

"... I don't know. It's more vivid, now."

"Still the same stuff, though?"

"Oui. Same cathedral... but, not a cathedral. Interior looks like a school. It's not on fire, but I smell smoke. There's a couple of familiar faces, but not many."

"Who'd you see?"

"I can make out Alexios, Jeremy, and Joseph from Hitman, and Adam and Lawrence from Menace. And you, Remi."

"Hm. Odd. I don't think you even speak to Lawrence."

"Peux-tu tout me dire, Phil? Ou as-tu oublié?" Emma spoke up, quiet as a church mouse.

For once, something he could understand. "No, I haven't forgotten it yet, it's all still just... foggy. I don't even know why I'm there. In most dreams, you feel like there's a reason for you to be there, but, again, I don't know what or where I am. Just that... deep down, I feel like I have to be there."

"Shit. Well, I mean... at least you've made progress. Maybe once things start clearin' up you'll get the rest of it, and finally put it to bed."

"Dis-moi tout quand tu seras prêt, d'accord?"

"Oh, so now you tell me you speak perfect French," Remi groused, bopping Emma on the back of the head. "What's next, are you going to start speaking German?"

"Vielleicht. Weißt du es nie!"

Cody's eyebrows shot up into his hair. "Alright, excuse me, but what the fuck?"

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW YOU WERE LYING THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME!" Remi shouted, throwing his hands up. "OH, GOD, GRANT ME PATIENCE!"

Phil chuckled from his seat on the side of the bed. "I never said she ONLY spoke Flemish and a bit of French. She knows German pretty well, and can speak some Russian, Japanese, and Spanish. She just doesn't know much English."

"Never know, she could be lyin' to you too, Phil," Cody stated, his smirk audible in his voice, albeit hidden behind his bandanna.

"Never!" Emma stated emphatically, although her accent made it sound like she was referring to something else entirely. She wasn't wrong, though-she'd never lied to Phil, even about the most inconsequential shit.

"Whatever. Regarding the current situation... Phil, I can't help but wonder something," Remi started, stroking his thin beard and looking out the door. "When did this start becoming more evident? The dream, I mean."

"A few days ago, why?"

"... just a hunch."

With that, Remi stepped out of the room, and started walking towards the bar.

"Oh, here he goes..." Cody grumbled. "Wonder who he wants to pick a fight with?"

"Probably Adam again. They went at each other earlier... hard," Phil replied. Remi had woken him up to go to that little meeting for... some odd reason, and as soon as it was over, he'd tried to go back to sleep. Got slapped with the nightmare immediately afterwards. Remi was in a foul mood since then, and he was surprised he'd managed to act over it.

Emma made a low groan, and looked at Cody.

"I ain't goin'," Cody replied, shaking his head. "I know I gotta put up Wade on the board, but I just ain't ready. He was a damn fool sometimes, but he was my damn fool."

"Well, waiting isn't going to make it any easier to acknowledge, Cody." Phil stood up, stretching as best his massive, ill-formed frame could allow. Curse acromegaly. Curse it to the deepest pit of hell. "We can go together."

Cody closed his eyes, and sighed. "Alright, fine. All of us can stop Remi from causin' a scene, anyhow. Man, he holds a grudge."


"-alright, so we're in the truck now, and what feels like every sonnovabitch ADVENT has is tailing us, I dunno if anyone else left or what, but they were just on our ASSES! We're drivin' this nasty, beat up SUV, half the windows are broken, there's a damn shit stain on the back seat, and Sophie's half-bleedin' to death-"

"That's not how I remember it!" Sophie protested.

"No, you were literally five minutes away from dying," Jerry stopped her. "Declan, keep going. And don't lie."

"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothin' but! So anyway, we're drivin' as fast as this piece of shit will go, and we've got these guys chasin' on foot. We think we're alright, but all of the sudden, this ADVENT dropship just shows up out of nowhere, and the assholes inside just YEET three grenades out. First one bounces off the hood of the SUV, so I'm about to have a heart attack, and Jack's got the wheel in a death grip and is screamin' shit like 'I'm still a virgin, I don't wanna die!'"

"Hey, that's bullshit!" Jack stood up, and held up a finger.

"So the second grenade bounces off the top of the car, and Wesley's just losin' his shit, he's screamin' about how we're gonna die, Roderick's tellin' him to shut the fuck up, I'm just tryin' to keep my aim steady and shoot these assholes, and then, all the sudden, I hear something bounce off the dash, and someone just screams. It ain't Wesley, I know for a fact it ain't Roddy, it's not me, and I turn around, and Jerry is fuckin' FALLIN' OVER HIMSELF tryin' to get the grenade out of the back. Sophie don't know what's goin' on, so she's tryin' to ask why everyone's screamin' and why she can see her hip bone and shit, Jerry's still screamin', now Wesley's screamin', Roddy starts screamin', I start screamin', Jack just lets out the biggest fuckin' scream I've ever heard in my life, and all the sudden, Jerry, the fuckin' idiot, PITCHES THE GRENADE INTO THE BACK SEAT."

"I was literally watching my life flash before my eyes," Roderick blurted out between bursts of laughter. "I legit thought I was gonna die because this fuckin' hippy didn't know what to do with a live fuckin' grenade!"

"And I just hear Roderick scream, at the top of his lungs, so loud I'm pretty sure ADVENT heard it, 'I FUCKING HATE YOU!', throws his door open, and just tosses the grenade out maybe ONE SECOND before it blows up, and it blew the FUCKIN' DOOR OFF THE SUV!"

"So I'm just sittin' there, I'm in some gym shorts and a white t-shirt, holding this big fuck-off rifle, there's no seatbelt, I'm clutching the oh crap strap for dear life, and Jack, ever the wise man, just asks 'Why is there a breeze in here, this thing doesn't have AC!'" Roderick continues.

"I don't know HOW we survived that," Jerry muses, "We drove from Kansas all the way to Michigan in that shitty SUV."

"With the door blown out?" Jaune asked, incredulous.

"And no AC. The door blown out. Only the front and back windshields and the two windows on the trunk space. Oh, and a radio. I think we had three CDs in there."

"Man, if I never hear Reba McIntyre's voice again, it'll be too soon," Jack chuckled. "Good times, gooooood times."

"If me nearly bleeding out is your idea of a good time, I really don't want to associate with you anymore." Sophie went to scoot away from Jack, who just started laughing harder.

"That's... certainly an interesting story!" Pyrrha smiled, and it was the kind of smile that Declan knew very well as the 'I want to get the fuck out of here' smile. Everyone was a critic these days, Jee-zus. She was a hoighty-toighty little asshole, she was. Too bad she was apparently REALLY good at kicking ass, from what he'd gleaned.

"Oh shit! Angry midget incoming!" Jack shouted.

"Angry midget?" Jaune asked, confused.

"We call Remi that, because he looks tiny compared to Phil."

The kids looked confused, even more so when literally three quarters of Assassin Team strolled into the room. Konstatin looked elated, at least.

"Sergeant! A drink?"

"Fuck off, Konnie."

"... Christ. Who shat in your breakfast?"

With that, the new arrivals sat down, all of them staring down JNPR rather intensely save for Phil, who just looked annoyed.

Jerry raised an eyebrow.

Murphy coughed.

"So..." Lawrence started. "What's the occassion?"

Remi silently drew his pistol from his holster, and cocked it.