Jr practically hops in place waiting for the elsa to finally land, any other time he would feel silly for how excited he is, but he's just been cooped up in a tiny ship for SO LONG. He takes a quick look over at his comrades, wondering if any of them are as excited as he is.
Shion, at the very least, seems a bit anxious. She shifts her weight from one foot to the other as she goes through a weapons list on her comm device. Any confidence Allen may have had seems to have vanished now, as usual he's a shaky nervous wreck now that something important is about to happen. And finally, despite learning that she does in fact have a soul back on Michtam, Kos-mos seems as apathetic as Jr has come to expect from her.
No... Apathetic isn't exactly the right word. At first glance she seems perfectly calm and collected, but upon looking closer Jr notices she's fidgeting with some settings on her headset, almost neurotically.
Jr's at least glad to see he's not the only one anxious to get off the ship, maybe disincluding Allen though, as he just seems to be anxious in general.
"Hey I was thinking," Shion's voice cuts through the tension in the air, "after a little bit of reconnaissance maybe we should head back to the Dämmerung. The others should be excited to hear that we finally found Lost Jerusalem, and I also think Kos-mos would benefit from some weapon upgrades."
"Yeah definitely! Don't worry Shion, I'm getting sick of being on this ship too..." Jr still hops in place wondering what the fuck is taking Tony so long to land.
"Well that's not exactly why I mentioned it..."
"I mean, I don't think Kos-mos will need any upgrades chief..."
That was obviously NOT the answer Shion was looking for as she then shoots a very angry look toward Allen, causing him to flinch.
"Based off the current situation I believe it would be wise to go back to the Dämmerung after this anyway." Everyone turns towards the sound of Kos-mos suddenly speaking up, "I fail to see how the reasoning behind it matters. But we should discuss this later, as we appear to have arrived."
The cargo door almost doesn't have a chance to open all the way before Jr leaps out of it, he lands with a roll then quickly gets up on his knees holding his pistols at the ready and looking around for enemies. It looks like he copied it straight from an old action movie (which he did), but regardless he manages to pull it off pretty well.
Shion laughs quietly at her friends antics as she makes her way down, Kos-mos follows closely behind her, and Allen just a bit behind Kos-mos.
"All right, the coast is clear." Jr proclaims standing all the way up, obviously still trying to act cool.
"Seems like it, but let's just make sure we're positive. Kos-mos do you think you could give us a quick wide area scan?"
"I am already ahead of you Shion... It seems as though the immediate area is clear, although there 5 gnosis approximately 6.457 kilometers northwest of us." She looks off towards the trees in silence for a moment, a thoughtful expression on her face, before turning back to Shion. "There's about a 45.876% chance they'll notice either us or the Elsa... Would you like to go eliminate them now, or try to avoid gaining their attention?"
Jr carefully considers her words for a moment then looks back to the others. "Hmm, what do you guys think? We could probably take them, but are we gonna cause a big commotion and draw other's here if we do that?"
"That is something I'm concerned about..." Shion says, adjusting her glasses slightly between her sentences. "Hey, Kos-mos, is there any chance you could keep tabs on those gnosis while we look around?"
"Yes, we should be able to walk approximately 10 kilometers before they're out of range-"
"Okay, great! Let's get going then!" Jr rushes off as fast as his little legs will take him.
"HEY, Jr wait!" Allen shouts as he tries to run after him, he's quickly overtaken by Shion who follows just slightly behind Jr. Kos-mos lags behind, not really interested in catching up and simply going at her own pace. "Slow down!"
"No way, you speed up"
Shion surveys her surroundings, trying to get a good grasp on where Jr is leading them. He's slowed down a little bit so that they don't all get lost. By the looks of it the group is coming up to what appears to be an abandoned city, it's all but completely overgrown, and many of the buildings looked very unstable and worn down.
Finally Jr slows to a stop just outside the city, Shion gives a glance back to the others to make sure they kept up okay. Allen is hunched over and panting, trying to assure them that he's okay between his heavy breaths. He's obviously not okay but at least he's... There.
There's a brief moment of panic when Shion doesn't see Kos-mos anywhere, but as she looks again she sees her slowly making her way over a hill a little while back. She looks like she's just out on a casual stroll, occasionally glancing around at the scenery around her. The gravity of where they are right now clearly doesn't bother or affect her whatsoever.
"So... Aside from just checking the place out what exactly are we supposed to do here?" Jr looks up expectantly at Shion.
"I'm not exactly sure... Chaos was a bit vague in his explanation."
"Well what's the fun if I just tell you all?"
Every jumps in surprise as Chaos is just... Suddenly there. Shion's handles it a tiny bit better seeing as this shit already happened once, but she's still taken back, Jr jumps about 3 feet in the air, and Allen falls on his ass.
"Oh, there you are." Kos-mos finally catches back up with the others, Chaos giving her a little 'hello' when she does.
"Chaos! Buddy!" After getting over his immediate surprise Jr runs right up to give Chaos a hug. "I can't believe you're here, hey maybe don't spook us all so bad next time we have a reunion, kay."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Chaos mumbles under his breath, then reaching down and petting Jr on the head.
Shion smiles and decides to join her friends in the reunion, wrapping one arm around Chaos and reaching the other down around Jr. It's just the three of them for a moment before Shion feels someone else's arm wrap around her and Chaos. She looks up and notices Kos-mos on the other side of Chaos, she grips everyone almost a little too lightly but it's still nice.
"Uhh..." Allen shuffles in place awkwardly, just standing to the side of everyone unsure of what to do.
"Oh, sorry Allen, did you need a hug too?" Chaos lifts his hand from Jr's head as to offer a hug to Allen, but Jr grumbles and reaches up and grabs his hand putting it back on it's previous spot on his head. This earns him a light chuckle from Chaos.
"Oh, no, it's fine. I was just wondering uuuuhhhhh, just how in the world did you get here!?"
"Oh don't be silly Allen, no one wants to waste exposition time hearing about that." Allen quietly mumbles 'I kinda did' to himself but no one hears and Chaos just continues anyway. "I'm glad to see that you all finally made it here! And I'm especially glad to see you up and moving again," he gestures to Kos-mos, "I was a little worried with how bad you got messed up back there."
"Thank you for your concern, Shion and Mr. Ridgely certainly did a lot to get me back into working condition."
"Alright enough chatting," Jr tugs lightly at Chaos' arm, "now that a certain someone's here we'll know exactly where we're supposed to go. Riiiiight?"
"Ah, sorry Jr, I'm not sure I can be that much help." Chaos awkwardly shifts and scratches the back of his head.
"What!? C'mon you can't be cryptic now, we're almost doooooneeee."
"Well it's not really a matter of being cryptic... I said the answers lied on lost jerusalem, I didn't say I knew exactly where on it that was."
"Alright you two, come on." Shion get's behind Chaos and lightly starts pushing him and Jr towards the abandoned city, "You can have this conversation on the way."
The sound of footsteps echoes throughout the empty city, accompanied only by the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and a distant wind chime hanging on a balcony of one of the tall buildings.
Even though Shion suggested the all split up Allen still wanted to stick near someone else, he hadn't really intended for that someone to be Kos-mos but at least she's objectively the strongest of their group. Still as the two of them make their way through the city he keeps an eye out for the others.
I know the chief said she wasn't going too far, but still...
Taking a peek at an open door to a small shop Allen decides he should at least do some looking of his own. "Hey Kos-mos?"
Kos-mos is just across the street from Allen, holding up some boards she lifted off an atm. She perks up at the sound of her name, and drops the boards to go see what Allen needs.
"Yes, Mr. Ridgely?"
"You can just call me Allen you know... But anyway, do you think this shop here is stable enough for me to go in and uuhh... Be safe?"
Kos-mos tilts her head in the direction of the shop, she briskly makes her way around Allen and towards the opened door. Her eyes scan around the inside of the building and then back to the door frame. Kos-mos then takes a half step back, lifts her right foot, and kicks the door frame. The roof of the building immediately caves in, along with all the walls. A puff of dust and debris blows out the door and gets all over Kos-mos before the door frame finally follows suit and falls apart, crashing to the ground.
Kos-mos backs up a bit and turns back towards Allen. "No."
"O-Okay... Thanks Kos-mos."
Allen feels a lot less secure as the two of them start walking again, he feels as anything could fall apart on them right at that very moment. Especially since Kos-mos won't stop being rough with everything, as soon as she sees any terminal or electronic device she thinks may work, she just shoves anything blocking it to the floor.
"Kos-mos please, you're going to break something," he calls out to her.
"I don't really see the point of your concern, it is already broken." Kos-mos steps away from the terminal she was just examining, "anyhow as long as you stay away from all the smaller structures there's a very low chance any of these larger buildings will cave in on you."
"Well I don't know..." Allen nervously scans the area, "it might still be dangerous..."
Allen doesn't notice as he ends up stepping on a fallen branch, it lets out a loud snap as it cracks and breaks under his foot.
"HAH!"
"GAAH!"
At the sound of the branch breaking Jr, who was on an elevated highway nearby, jumps out from his hiding place behind a car. Dual wielding both his pistols at the source of the sound.
"Jr! Why did you do that!?" Allen yells up from the spot he fell on the ground.
"I thought you were a gnosis," Jr calls back down to him, "why are you sneaking around and being so skittish?"
"Actually I believe I would argue that the one jumping out and pointing his guns at anything that moves is the more skittish one."
"Well I... No, yeah, that's fair actually."
Kos-mos goes and helps Allen up off the ground, "while you are here, have you by any chance come across any active electronics in the city?"
"Not that I can think of, I'll be on the lookout though." With that Jr takes his leave, and runs out of sight further down the highway.
"So... Where to now-" Without a word as soon as she helps Allen up Kos-mos makes her way down a nearby alleyway to another part of the city. "Well okay, right to the point then... I guess..."
Allen follows after the android as quickly as he can, Kos-mos occasionally glances back and makes sure he's keeping up. It's only a short while before the small alleyway opens up to a large clearing, a park by the looks of it. Like the rest of the city it's been completely overrun with foliage, and the small man made river that runs through it has overflowed and flooded some of the lowered areas of the park.
"Woah..." Allen looks around, trying to take all of the park in. While looking he actually notices someone up in one of the buildings surrounding it, a large portion of the wall is missing so he's actually able to clearly see who it is.
"Oh, hey chief!"
From her spot a few stories up Shion looks down and notices the two of them. "Oh, hi guys!"
Allen considers going up to see how she's doing, but he can't seem to find a way across the river... Any bridges that are still left unbroken have flooded over, only the highest point in the middle makes it over the water.
"Umm... How do I-"
There's a splash, looking over he notices that Kos-mos has just started wading through the river. Or, more like walking, the deepest part only comes up to just below her hips.
"Oh okay I guess I'll just meet you over there." Allen probably could just walk across with her, but he's not really in a rush to get all wet. So he instead continues looking around for a dry way across the river.
Kos-mos' heels clack with each step on the solid marble floor, it was easy enough for her to find her way in and up the stairs to the floor she saw Shion on. She wonders if she should tell T-elos to go to the back of her mind, seeing as she was so grumpy about it that morning. But Kos-mos hasn't heard from her for the entire time they've been on the surface so she just assumes she's not around anyway.
A soft breeze brushes past her as she makes it to the section of the building where the outer wall is missing. Kos-mos notices Shion sitting on the edge of the floor near where Allen spotted her, simply looking out at the scenery.
Shion perks up when she notices Kos-mos and pats the spot next to her, motioning Kos-mos to sit. To which Kos-mos obliges. "Hey, Kos-mos."
"Good afternoon, Shion. How has your search of the city been going?"
"You mean aside from finding this gorgeous view?" Shion goes to rest her hand on Kos-mos' thigh but recoils after touching her, "you're all wet..."
"Oh, yes... Sorry, we came in on the other side of the river and I saw no other way to cross." Kos-mos bashfully glances back down at the park, wondering to herself if Allen managed to find a dry way across. She sees no sign of him and can only assume he went to look further up or down stream.
"Well... That's alright, you'll dry off." Shion reaches her arm around Kos-mos and rests it on her shoulder instead. More comfortable with this position Shion leans into the other girl.
"Something tells me you are actually not all that interested in finding anything in the city right now." Kos-mos remarks as a playful jab at Shion. She wraps her own arm around Shion's waist too so that she doesn't mistakenly think she's being serious.
"Hey now, don't you make fun of me." Shion huffs, a smile still plastered on her face.
The two of them sit in silence like that for a minute, Kos-mos occasionally checks in on her wide range scanner, but the gnosis seem to be moving out of its range. They're moving away from the Elsa, however, so she doubts it is a problem. As soon as the gnosis leave the scanner's range she dilutes its senses and focuses instead on her immediate surroundings.
"This is nice, huh." Shion muses, "I've always enjoyed the quiet little moments we get together." Shion closes her eyes and rests her head on Kos-mos' shoulder.
"As do I... I would suggest you do not fall asleep this time." Kos-mos lifts Shion's head with her free hand.
"Mmm, stop, I'm was was comfortable there." Shion lifts her own free hand to try and swat Kos-mos' hand away.
Kos-mos finds herself softly laughing as she continues to mess with Shion, lightly pinching and poking her face while Shion continuously tries to swat her away. Shion begins laughing along with her, "c-c'mon- haha- stop that!"
Eventually Kos-mos stops, resting her hand back on the floor next to her. "I doubt you will be able to sleep now."
"You little shit," Shion mumbles at Kos-mos. "Okay, if I promise not to fall asleep will you let me rest my head here?"
"Hmm... Perhaps..." Kos-mos attempts to be smug but Shion moves the arm she has around her shoulder and grabs the back of Kos-mos head, pulling her in for a deep but otherwise quick kiss. While Kos-mos is still dazed by Shion's bold advances Shion quickly pushes her head back onto Kos-mos' shoulder and closes her eyes.
Kos-mos glances back down at her, still frazzled. Perhaps I am a little shit, Shion, but you forget who did most of the coding for my AI. Kos-mos decides to let her be this time, and just rests her own head on top of Shion's
Without the scanner taking up her senses she's able to better focus on little things, her uncomfortably soggy thigh highs sticking to her legs, Shion's warm breath on the crook of her neck, the breeze blowing strands of her hair out of her face only for them to drift back, The sound of gunshots in the distance... Wait...
Kos-mos' head snaps up, causing Shion to shift and become alert as well. Her Wide range scanners immediately come back online, revealing something she should have noticed earlier.
"Kos-mos?" She doesn't answer Shion, her visor snaps down covering her face and the entire area around them is filled with the blue light of the hilbert effect.
That's all the answer Shion needs, within seconds the two of them are up and sprinting back down the stairs.
This should not have happened, I should have noticed noticed that gnosis long before it came in the city, I should not have turned my scanners off, I just-
Quickly they approach the exit, Passing someone as they run out.
"Oh hey- AAA."
Kos-mos almost accidentally knocks Allen over as she rushes past him as quickly as her legs will take her. As they approach the river Shion uses the partially submerged bridge to cross, while Kos-mos once again just plows right through the middle of the river.
"AW COME ONE YOU TWO, I JUST FOUND A WAY ACROSS THERE!"