"Hey, he's awake!"

Tiny and Ray-Ray looked up in pleasant surprise at their excited blue-clad announcer.

"Really? Oh how One-derful!," Tiny giggled as One groaned and shook her head.

Tiny wanted to see their Wild West pal now if only to encourage Ray-Ray to speak up, but her excited hopping didn't move Onederland from the entranceway.

Instead One asked, "Hey, did Wash ever find East? Figure she should know."

"She's probably in her bat cave since it's daytime," Tiny suggested wisely.

"...Right. Raymond?"

"I think Wash found her outside."

"Sweet thanks!"

As Onederland ran off, Tiny grabbed Ray's arm and started pulling him towards the door.

"Wait-wait! Shouldn't we bring the upgrades to show him?"

"Ray-Ray, he doesn't need a fighting enhancement now! And you promised to communicate~!"

"But he just woke up!"

"And who doesn't love in-depth conversations when they first wake up from surgery?"

"Literally everyone!"

Tiny laughed playfully and shoved him through the doorway. Resigned to doing this he stopped resisting and walked in time with her, making their trip to the medbay far quicker. Once there, Tiny was a bit surprised the others weren't around. Were they the first or the last ones (besides ghostly East) Onederland told? Well it gives Ray-Ray more time to get his thoughts together.

Happy to take the lead, she strode boldly into the room, "Howdy Wild West!"

He gave a gruff chuckle, "Hello Tiny, Rookie."

"Commander! Sir. Glad to see you're feeling better." Raymond awkwardly saluted.

"Stand down Rookie, I'm off-duty today."

"Yes si-West. Where are the others?"

"Lan-I mean Axel was with me when I woke up. You're only my second visitors so far, surprised I haven't seen One yet."

"Onederland told us about you, in fact, she's East-bound now! I bet she'll be over lickety-split after that!"

West's face fell at his kinda-daughter's mention, "That's sweet of One, but Danyell will never visit. Hell she's probably disappointed I didn't die today."

Tiny was rocking on her heels eagerly, but froze and stood proper at that. That was sooo sad! She nudged Ray-Ray to encourage him to say something.

"Oh! So, uh, speaking of East...I mean it's totally okay if you don't want to talk about what happened...but...during the fight with Phase-"

Wild West put a hand up, silencing her bestie.

"You've figured it out haven't you? Knew you were clever Rookie."

Raymond nodded, and Tiny added for confirmation, "Easter is a hologram and Phase is the physical daughter!"

"That's an oversimplification but yes, they're both two halves of my Danyell."

"So wait, why are we fighting Viper then? Tell her you're super-duper sorry for whatever you did and can she pretty please call a truce with her friends?"

"Oh Tiny, I wish things were as easy as you make it sound," West let out a long-suffering sigh.

"No offense sir, but if East is working for the enemy, why don't we report her?"

West's glare could cut through armor. Ray-Ray quickly hid behind her taller frame, only peeking out nervously, "Nevermind, please-don't-kick-me-off-the-squad."

"Do you think the AOD doesn't recognize its own experiments? Management doesn't care, they just want their equipment recovered and Viper swept under the rug. Besides, even if it makes me a traitor, I would never turn in my Danyell."

"Wait, but then why-"

Raymond stopped his own line of questioning as a pair of voices echoed through the hall, "C'mon East, you're making this harder than necessary!"

"What do you need someone to hold your hand? I'm not your fucking prom date One, let me go."

"He's our commanding officer. Don't you think now's a time you should report to him?"

"No."

"Then at least a friendly hello?"

A purposefully loud "HELLO" from a distance followed by, "There, happy?"

Tiny tuned out the rest of their bickering as she cast glances at the other two. On the one hand, gathering almost everyone would be the perfect time to talk! But on the other hand, Ray-Ray still has questions and Easter won't let her dad answer, will she?

She just needs to stall for a bit, that's all! Then everyone wins!

Tiny darted out into the hallway to cut off the approaching squad members. Onederland was dragging Easter in a far rougher imitation to what she did to Ray-Ray earlier. Gee, was East always the weaker of the two?

"Heyyyy girls!"

"Uh, hi again Tiny. Want to help me drag East in? She's being a real pain in the ass."

"Actually um, only one non-medical professional is allowed in at a time! So you uh, have to wait?"

"What? That's fucking bullshit, weren't you just in there with Raymond? And even if that was true, doesn't family get special access?," she hoisted Easter up slightly, causing an angry grunt.

"Well then the real reason is...Ray-Ray made upgrades! And is showing them to West first, yeah!"

"I want to see!"

Onederland stepped forward causing Tiny to splay her arms out in a panic, "NO! I mean, it's a surprise?"

"What kind of surprise? Teleportation like Viper? Superspeed for the rest of us?"

"Intangibility I hope," snarked East.

"But can't you already do that considering you're a…?"

"A what?," and now Easter sounded suspicious. Oh no oh no!

"She thinks you move so fast you pass through walls," laughed One. Oh thank gosh!

"Yes! Definitely that! Can't you?"

"If I could pass through solid matter would I be standing here now?"

That's true, plus she was wearing solid armor...or was she possessing the armor? Boy she hoped Ray-Ray had plenty of answers for later!

"So what kinda upgrades T?"

"Well I guess I can tell you...you know how some people are superstrong?"

"...Yeah?"

"It's like that!"

"What, that's lame!"

"Well most of the parts kindaaa blew up on your last mission. But at least you get double the power for double the energy cost?"

"And what happens if the energy runs out?"

"...You might fall into a coma?"

"That sucks," huffed Onederland.

"I vote to give mine to West. Let him quadruple his chances," Easter added callously.

"Speaking of West, are you planning to ever let us pass or…?"

C'mon Tiny think! Easter and Wild West will argue, and she needs her bestie to talk with these two...She gasped in excitement as a totally flawless idea popped in her head, "Wait right there!"

She ran back into West's hospital room, knowing One couldn't pull East in time to catch up. She grabbed Ray-Ray and threw him out the door as he yelped in surprise, before sliding the doors shut and locking them with a rapid "Sorry-VIF-But-It-Doesn't-Count-If-I'm-Locking-You-Outside-A-Room-To-Talk~!"


"What do you mean you can't open holographic locks? You're our tech guy!"

"Yeah, like armor mods and hacking! I'm not a locksmith One!"

East shook her head at her two teammates bickering as they fruitlessly attempted to unlock West's hospital room. One released her as soon as Tiny slammed the doors, and a large part of her wanted to walk off. But the thought of getting dragged back here felt even more draining. She'd never been away from Phase for this long and the weakening effects were starting to sink in more and more. East...wasn't exactly sure what would happen if they didn't merge soon but she had no intention of finding out. She needed to hold out a tad longer…

East snapped out of her musing by One slumping down on the wall beside her. Raymond gave a few more incorrect attempts before joining them. No alarm sounded, so either Tiny disabled it or this part of the building wasn't rigged to one.

"She's your best friend "Ray-Ray", can't you get her to open it? And for that matter, why is your name the only one not a pun? No StingRay or Raygun? Only the rest of us have to suffer?"

Ray tapped his fingers to count off One's points, "A, I've tried asking both through the door and the radio, which you heard me doing so you would know she's not answering. Just because we're friends doesn't mean she obeys my every command," One huffed at his logical answer, "And B, I'm...not sure. I know she doesn't like guns, maybe she also has a...stingray phobia? Is that a thing?"

"Well unless you know a marine biologist, that isn't helpful."

"Why don't you shoot the door?," finally spoke up East. When they both looked at her, she added, "I mean if she doesn't like guns, the noise alone might get her to open up."

"We're not shooting the door. We already got in trouble for the jeeps! C'mon East, don't you have any respect for authority?"

"Nope."

"Well how about for your teammates then?"

"Why should I? You don't."

One spluttered defensively, "W-what would make you say that? Sure I'm working on being the best but that doesn't mean-I mean I deserve to lead someday so obviously I respect everyone."

"Uh-huh. Yeah you see, everyone includes more than being a daddy's girl and sucking up to authority."

"I don't just-! Raymond back me up, I respect you right?"

"Uhh."

"Oh come on!"

"Sorry One, but you usually tell me to shut up when I try to talk to you...and you're always picking fights with East so…"

"That's not-I don't-well at least I respect some people! How many friends do you even have East?"

Do Phase's friends count? Sure Zero and Diesel always acted exasperated when it was her around instead of Phase but...well Zero told her she wasn't supposed to get attached to anyone here anyway. Focus on the mission, her wants were secondary...although it was a lot easier when she had her strength up and she wasn't suddenly everyone's conversation recipient of the day. Keeping things distant she rebutted, "How many friends do you have One? Family doesn't count."

One stuttered a few half-attempts at a coherent answer before finally falling silent. Good, now if everyone would leave her alone-

"So East," goddamnit Raymond, "do you have anything you want to discuss? Something...personal?"

"No. Good talk."

"...Are you sure? Because uhhh I think it'd be good to talk. With me. About anything."

She turned to face him full on, "Alright seriously, first Tiny and now you. What are you two hiding? And don't say your coma strength upgrades, we already heard."

One also turned in curiosity, but Ray focused on the second part with a disappointed, "Aw wait you already know? I was planning to announce it at the next meeting…"

"Focus. What is this about?...Wait. Don't tell me. West put you up to this? That bastard."

"No, he didn't. I just thought...you should know you can talk to me. Or anyone, I guess. If something is weighing on you, like a secret or something-"

"There isn't," she snapped a little too quickly.

"-Right, well if there was I wanted to say...you don't have to live in friendlessness anymore. You can trust me like Tiny does. You too One."

One murmured a soft, "I'm not friendless…" but East could give a shit about her denial. What is Ray implying? There's no way West would tell anyone. Sure he's an ass, but he's also too dumb to stop Viper's machinations from the inside. It's probably something idiotic like Ray has a crush and wants to spend time with her. She scoffed at the thought.

"Didn't know we were having a slumber party outside the medbay," snarked Wash as both Freelancers and Axel approached the trio on the ground. Took long enough for anyone to come and-why the hell did she spend all this time talking to them anyway? It's not like she cared what happened to West and god knows they've sat here long enough for her to work up the energy to make One come and find her again, if One even cared anymore.

"Tiny locked us out," stated One and Ray simultaneously.

Carolina probed the door a bit, "Hololocks huh? Yeah, York never could figure them out either. Why didn't you three call anyone over the radio?"

Silence was the response before Raymond noted, "I tried calling Tiny to open the door when she first did it, does that count?"

'Is she still inside?"

An affirmative nod by Ray before Carolina radioed in on their open channel, "Tiny this is Agents Carolina and Washington ordering you to open the door."

At first it seemed like she wouldn't answer before finally asking, "Did Ray-Ray communicate properly?"

All eyes on their yellow teammate who replied with a meek, "Yeah I did."

"Oh well then why didn't you say so earlier? You're so silly Ray-Ray."

The doors slid open as casually as that. Spotting West on the bed, East suddenly stood up intent on going anywhere else, but Axel put a hand up to stop her, "Actually the Freelancers think they know the next destination. Wanted everyone here to discuss."

"And where might that be?," asked West as Tiny moved to the side a bit so everyone who wanted to could get in.

"Not where. Who. The artifacts they're collecting have been..," began Wash.

"Glowing weapons that also function as keys," continued Carolina.

"Right! So it stands to reason one of our friends might be in danger. Especially since he was coincidentally assigned to this planet as well."

"And who would that be?," East probed.

"Lavernius Tucker."