Leon used the boosters on the Strider to clear a stream and landed easily checking their rear in the mirror. "Wow, you're born to drive one of these things." Sinclair whistled as Leon pulled back on the controls to ease into the next jump.

"No I put in years of work." He corrected and he saw Sinclair smile out of the corner of his eye. "So humble." the ranger hummed.

Still it felt good to be in an actual pilots seat. They'd been traveling for a while, bit by bit narrowing down the Renegade's actual location. The strider made its way through a clump of trees and they were greeted with the decal on the side of the plane. He had to pull back quickly to prevent them slamming into the machine.

"Alright this is where we get out." Leon said and they both clambered out of the Strider. He patted it affectionately as he let Sinclair take the lead. The ranger was more used to sneaking than he was.

They entered a dark Renegade, he could swear he could see bodies inside the pods. The darkened interior not boding well for the Gen:Lock squad.

He saw movement from the corner of his eye and Sinclair charged forward and tackled someone while Leon ducked under a fist. He came up headbutting his assailant. Leon was then grabbed and thrown into a wall; dropping his gun in the process.

"Whoa!"

He grit his teeth and for a moment saw Sinclair and someone dancing around each other, though it was impossible to tell who in the dark. Sinclair disappeared in a bolt of lightning before reappearing behind the person, his armor lighting up. A metal fist went flying at his face; He ducked and punched their stomach his undersuit whining as it made his next hit stronger.

"Wait! Leon!?" Yasamin stopped fighting she ducked Sinclair's blow with a familiar bloom of yellow surrounding her as her suit went to work. Leon froze mid punch, wait if that was Yaz-

"YAAAA!"

"KAZU NO IT'S-" Yaz began reaching out.

"Leon-Sensei?" Kazu gaped and Leon breathed a sigh of relief the fist inches from his face. "Yeah it's me." his voice cracked.

The lights blinked on and he heard a screaming from the cockpit "AHHHH"

"CAMMIE!" Yaz shouted and the cargo bay went deadly silent. Cammie opened her eyes, Caliban just standing over her shoulder peering into the darkness. Leon blinked away the spots from the light. Sinclair shook his head as well as-

"VALENTINA" Leon shouted and Val/entina stopped the butt of their gun inches from Sinclair's head as they too blinked the spots from their vision. Apparently Cammie's attack had not been well thought out.

"Please tell me Chase isn't going to reach a hand in here and do something." Sinclair held out his hands; waiting for the inevitable.

The others all looked down at the ground, collectively sheepish.

"So your holons are all being piloted by something, do you know what?" Leon asked Cammie who shrugged, answered

"It's like someone thought of the device, it makes no sense and if I'm saying that?" Cammie growled at the image they had projected. It was of their Holons moments before the team had been downloaded out of them. Thorns wrapped around their necks.

"Wow I almost have no idea how that feels. At all. Nope. Not me." Leon snarked. Cammie snorted out a laugh.

"If I could do what you do; I wouldn't be so helpless trying to get our Holons back." Cammie turned back to the feed scowling. Leon raised an eyebrow "But you could if we were connected. Right?" he offered and Cammie's eyes widened "Wait what!?"

"Yeah when Leon and I connected we had a little of the other's ability. Why not?" Sinclair explained. The rest of the team turned to him and he threw up his hands "What?"

"The problem is, is we cannot download into our Holons as long as those things are on there. So we cannot aid." Yaz cut in trying to bring the subject back around to the matter at hand.

"I don't know what happened but Caliban downloaded us back into our bodies, before we were at critical uptime. They knew we were coming, and had plans for us." Val/entina finished and leon and Sinclair looked at each other. "What if you used our Holons?"

"That won't work, other than the fact we cannae download like Leon does. When you first download into your Holon it remembers your brain's patterns, Leon might be able to override it but I don't know." Cammie offered.

They all went quiet, staring at the feeds in front of them.

"So I have a theory." Sinclair looked at Leon. Cutting into the silence. "I think it's another technopath. Those thorns just happen to appear when some piece of tech works like it was just thought up? Taking over multiple Holons? I don't know if Leon could but, honestly? ehhh" Sinclair gestured vaguely at the image. They all sobered at the thought until Kazu held up his hand.

"Why not fight fire with fire?" he asked pointing at the thorns then at Leon.