Little Cato couldn't feel any prouder of himself. He didn't think he could, but he did it: He fought the terrorist group Mad Tenebri and won. He fought the Mad Tenebri's top brass and won. He tried to capture their leader and he did.

All this time, he thought he was simply going to be just another member of the Crimson Light, just one of the Infinity Guard's lower-level subdivisions meant to clean up inconvenient messes and not receive much fanfare. But here he was, someone part of a group so small having taken down the top dog of a group so big. It was a record setter. He was taking Crimson Light to new heights.

The excitement did die down a bit when his thoughts were interrupted by Quinn pushing a hand on his fur-covered cheek to rub it. "You were way too reckless out there, Little Cato." By that time, she was already out of her Hawk and standing beside him.

"Hey, come on Quinn," Little Cato protested, "I was fine."

"Just barely," Quinn replied back. "I can't remember how many times I had a heart attack seeing you get knocked over ledges and tossed into the air, not to mention all those hits you took!"

"Quinn, relax" Gary interjected calmly and humorously, placing a hand on her shoulder. "He knew what he was doing and he's safe and a winner. Can't imagine a bigger score."

"You weren't helping either, Gary," Quinn arched an eyebrow, sighing. "You were just as eager to get into it, and you encouraged Little Cato, to boot!"

"Hey! I was watching him. I covered him long enough for him to get that mech suit on. Then he was unstoppable. Right, Spider Cat?"

Little Cato rubbed the back of his head, slightly ruffling his slicked back aquamarine mohawk. "Yeah, that new mech suit worked wonders. Just a shame it didn't last."

Gary put a hand on Little Cato's shoulder. "Hey, don't feel so bad. HUE can just make you another one and he's really good at that. Right, HUE?"

"That suit was a third-generation prototype model." HUE answered over the comms. "Being brand new, it was rather inconsiderate of you to not be more careful with it."

"Wha –!? Hey HUE, come on! You're supposed to be on my side!" Gary cried.

"Well, didn't I just get you more data to work with? You can make a better suit that way!" Little Cato added.

"At least HUE's making more sense," Quinn muttered to no one.

While everyone was bickering, bantering, and making remarks among one another, Fox stood silently, being unable to keep himself from staring at the incapacitated Serepentian – Ash Graven – who stood a few inches away. His eyes slowly narrowed a little bit as he concentrated on examining her features. He was slightly startled by Ash snapping her gaze towards him with an agitated and annoyed look in her eye once she sensed his staring.

"What?" she huffed.

"Nothing! Just, uh…keeping an eye on you. Yeah, I got my eyes on you, Mad Tenebrus! Don't you try anything, you feel me?"

Ash took a hard step forward towards Fox, making the Tryvuulian flinch and take a little step back. "It's Ash Graven, Crimson Lighter" she semi-whispered with a soft timbre growl. "You so got to start taking names." She then turned her attention away. Fox, despite settling down after facing down an intimidating display, still couldn't help but look at her again. He analyzed her face again and again, wondering what was it he was seeing that he hadn't figured out yet.

"Hey you, uh, Graven, right?" Fox called to Ash again. Ash looked back at him with no other reaction. Fox took a little breath and then spoke to her, "Have we met before?" Ash paused.

"Hey! Quit bothering boss, you creep!" the teal-skinned Hooblot named Melvin yelled at him, with all three of his eyes arched in a glare. Fox almost wanted to glare back and point his blaster at the Hooblot for good measure, but decided after a split-second that he didn't need to after watching the other one, the turquoise-skinned one named Devlin, bump Melvin with her bound wrists. Fox looked back to Ash.

Ash was quiet for a little while since hearing Fox's question and seeing Melvin's momentary interruption, but then looked away while shaking her head and rolling her eye, remaining silent. 'I guess that's a no, then.' Fox thought. 'But really, do I know her? I feel like I should.'

The sudden and rapidly increasing sounds of spacecraft engines yanked everyone out of their thoughts and put a stop to their talking, forcing them to look up at the flying transport units approaching where they stood and descending onto the promenade deck, which was now completely extinguished of its flames. The ships landed with a loud clang despite their grace.

"What? Who –?" Little Cato exclaimed as he watched the ships carefully. The last ship to land was the biggest in its group, which was undoubtedly the leader unit.

"Just stay back," Quinn whispered to Little Cato, standing in front of him to act as a shield, "it's Scarlet Lance, the Infinity Guard's elite taskforce."

"That means they're more special-ops than us, Spider Cat," Gary whispered in the Ventrexian's ear.

The bay ramp descended from the bottom hull of the main ship and a figure descended down it. It was a human man, one with dark skin, no hair on his head, and having a look that was authoritative, smug, and bored all at the same time. Wearing a set of armor that slightly bulked him up but looked smaller than Crimson Light's mech suits that he still appeared recognizably human-sized, Stone walked a few meters before stopping just beside Little Cato, Gary, and Quinn.

"Superior Stone," Quinn greeted dispassionately, still standing in front of Little Cato.

"Ah, you again, Ergon," Superior Stone greeted back with even more indifference in his tone. [-SUPERIOR STONE-]
"And these are the rest of your 'compatriots', yes? Hmph, nice work." Gary gave a little glare and Little Cato already decided he disliked him. Stone, on the other hand, wasn't very perceptive of the undertones. He turned to brush past them, not giving a second glance. "We'll be taking the Mad Tenebri into custody from here, if you don't mind."

He was followed by another human, only this time, it was a woman who looked distinguishably aged with pale blond hair and icy blue eyes; unlike Stone, she wasn't walking around in a mech suit. The sight of that signaled Gary's turn to make a bad-blooded scowl. The older woman didn't even turn her eyes to face Gary at the sight of his glare, instead opting to just speak to him outright to at least show him she noticed. "Hi hun, how's business?"

"Sheryl," Gary glowered without any further expression.

"I asked how's business," the woman called Sheryl neither raised her voice nor tone. "I'm sure your mum taught you better than that." [-SHERYL GOODSPEED-]
She then turned back to keep following Superior Stone in front of her.

"Some mom," Little Cato whispered very closely into Gary's ear, to which Gary nodded with a droopy-eyed look.

Superior Stone had stopped walking once he stood directly in front of Ash. He looked rather pleased with himself. "Well then, time for the best part." He then signaled to his subordinate standing behind him, who happened to be Sheryl. "Goodspeed."

Sheryl stepped up front and got right into Ash's space. For a second, she was looking at the crystals encasing the Serepentian's wrists together. "Let's take 'those' off your hands now, won't we?" Immediately, Sheryl slapped on a pair of box-like devices onto Ash's wrists, shattering the crystals and containing her whole hands within them. Sheryl did the same with Ash's ankles.

As Sheryl moved on to doing that again with Ash's two Hooblot partners, Devlin and Melvin, Stone was chumming it up with Crimson Light. "It's good to see you're all working hard…even with your outdated gear." He was jauntily elbowing the frames of Fox's and Tribore's mech suits while moving around his own armor as though he were stretching muscles. "Fighting Tenebri must be backbreaking even for you low-level rescue teams in the Infinity Guard." Sheryl had just finished cuffing up all three of the Mad Tenebri, and without further ado, all the present Scarlet Lance units were returning to the ship, taking the three detainees with them. Even while getting ready to leave, Stone still wouldn't stop talking. "However," he continued, "the dealing of Tenebrus crimes are under Scarlet Lance's jurisdiction. Just go file your report, or whatever it is you do when you're at home."

Quinn and Gary were visibly displeased, but Little Cato's fur was bristling. This was supposed to be his moment and Crimson Light's moment, but that Stone guy just had to go and steal it. "You're gonna take credit for our work?" he demanded.

"Little Cato, don't!" Quinn whispered harshly and fearfully at him. At the same time, Gary was in agreement with Quinn, frantically telling Little Cato the same thing, except there were no words and he was making rapid X-like hand gestures under his neck while shaking his head.

Unfortunately, Stone had heard Little Cato's outburst. He turned around to lean down and get right into his face. "What of it, Ventrexian?" he snarled. "Were you the one who caught her?"

Little Cato glared back at him even harder. "What if I was?" He didn't get an answer from the armored human. Instead, he found himself roughly taken by the neck and lifted into the air, and it wasn't slow. The hold on him by Stone while dangling above the deck floor was already putting a strain on him.

"You should know better than to exceed your authority, Ventrexian!" Stone spat. "I ought to put you under arrest!"

"What?" Little Cato strained while Quinn and Gary were being held back by other Scarlet Lance soldier from rushing at Stone, yelling at him to stop and put their friend down.

"Tera Con Alpha laws forbid civilians from involving themselves in terrorist matters. You could have caused an accident or worse, a major disaster." Stone squeezed his grip on Little Cato further. "I'm not inclined to overlook such reckless actions coming from anyone, most of all you."

"It's the Tenebri's crimes that can't be overlooked," Little Cato argued while trying to loosen Stone's grip on him with both his own hands. "I only put a stop to them!"

"You can take your objections to court!" Stone rebuffed. He could have made off to his ship with Little Cato still in hand, but luckily, he was stopped by Gary and Quinn who finally pushed their way past Scarlet Lance's troopers.

"Hey! Put him down!" Quinn yelled at Stone first. "We're authorized to deal with any Tenebrus who comes our way in case of an emergency! What happened just now's exactly the case here!"

"I'll decide if the circumstances are deemed appropriate."

"You sure about that, Stoney?" Gary butted in, "'Cause I don't trust that decision-stew you think you're making!"

Stone tried to ward them off with a look of his own, but Gary and Quinn stared him down, the looks in their eyes as furious as they were stern and protective. Sheryl stood next to Stone with her arms crossed over her chest, looking at Gary with a bored look in her eyes. Gary maintained his harsh gaze even while turning his eyes to her momentarily, though he had to push them a lot harder just to look like he was reserving a special case for her. Stone, after keeping his eyes locked on them both, especially with Quinn, huffed. "Never the one for jokes, were you, Ergon?" He released his hand from Little Cato's neck to drop him and began stomping away with the Mad Tenebri in tow.

Just as Stone had released him, Little Cato landed on the floor with a thud and rolled left and right on his back, holding his sore neck with a few coughs. Gary raced over to kneel by Little Cato's side, looking for a way to ease his Spider Cat's pains.

Devlin and Melvin had already been taken onboard the Scarlet Lance's ship, but Ash was still near the ramp, left standing where she was since Stone's altercation with Little Cato. Watching the scuffle between them and Crimson Light was enough for her to feel like commenting out loud. "Power play among teams, huh?" Ash quipped and then scoffed. "They sure are a 'professional' bunch…"

Stone whipped his head in her direction with a snarling growl all over his face, indignant that this Tenebrus, this Serepentian, had dared to talk about him like that. But he did immediately feel an air of satisfaction from seeing Sheryl instantly knee her in the gut, elbow her in the back onto the floor, and dropkick her up the ramp, sending her rolling into the drop bay of the Scarlet Lance's ship where her two compatriots already were.

"Well, that should teach you to watch your mouth, Tenebrus," Stone remarked, "Well done, Goodspeed." He patched into his comms as he boarded along with Sheryl. "We're taking them away, Scarlet Lance. Time to move." With that, all the ships of the Scarlet Lance ascended from the deck and began moving away and flying into the distance.

Little Cato was still sitting on the floor, rubbing his sore neck while Gary remained knelt by his side. "You okay, Spider Cat?" Gary asked him, "It's okay if you're not. That Stoney doesn't know who he just messed with." Little Cato didn't answer Gary with words, but opted to just nod to him as a means to tell him he was okay along with agreeing with what he just said. Gary put an arm under Little Cato's to pull him back up onto his feet.

"Thanks Gary," Little Cato said quietly. Gary only nodded with a little smile.

Quinn walked over to Little Cato. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" Little Cato shook his head, leaving her room to continue. "If you're still mad, I get it. Stone's just the worst." She looked out into the distance in the direction Scarlet Lance had went after leaving. "If anything, I think he was just taking it out on you."

Little Cato didn't say anything, opting to just look solemn as he gaze in the same direction as Quinn. 'This is a waste of time,' he thought. It was time for him and his team to go back to the ship.