All three of us had finally gotten our earpieces. Something which Fowl felt good about, by the sound of it.
"Now we can monitor our guests at any given time." he said.
"Before we do anything." Saya spoke, "Where is my sword?"
"Anything we thought was a weapon, I stored it in a safe room." Butler explained.
"Does that include his dagger?" Merlin pointed at me when he said that, "And the glove-shooters?"
Butler looked puzzled: "I found a glove on him and on Murphy. You mean those weren't defensive shields?"
"Butler, you better take them to the weapon room." Fowl told him.
"Those arm-guns won't do us any good." Saya reminded us.
"Not if you keep them as a last resort." we could hear Short's voice.
"Huh!" Merlin looked spooked, "Where are you, Holly?"
"Eh, Merlin?" Saya pointed at the ear.
"Oh, right." Merlin laughed, "This will take some getting used to."
"Anyway..." Short remained her serious self, "Just to be sure there won't be any more mistakes, I'll be joining you."
"No, you're not." Fowl told her over his own earpiece, "I'll let Butler come along."
"That's a negative." she replied, "You need him to watch over you."
"Can't you order one of your soldier to come along instead?"
"Contrary to what you may think, not one soldier is expendable." Short snapped at him, "Besides, it'll take too long to brief them on the whole situation. I'm the most logical choice."
"Are you?" Fowl retorted, "What about..."
"Hang on one moment." Short interrupted him, "Foaly, can you disconnect communications for five minutes and just let us two talk?"
"Should I? It was getting exciting!" he replied.
"No questions! Just do as you're ordered!" she exclaimed.
"Holly Short demanding us to obey orders." Foaly said, "Never thought I'd see the d..."
The connection broke just then, after which Fowl told Butler: "Butler, the weapon room, now."
He nodded, and guided us to that room.

We stopped at what looked like just a wall, until Butler walked up to a pillar, where there seemed to be a hidden lever, which he pulled, and the wall opened up. Inside it, there were guns in all shapes and sizes. Be they the types I have seen before, or the oddly shaped ones, similar to the ones that Short used before. Of course in a room filled with most of the same weapons, the one or two that were different would immediately stick out. Which was why Saya had seen her own sword before I did. I knew this much, because she ran to the far corner of the room to pick it up.
"Your..." Butler had started talking, before he realized didn't need to anymore, but did so anyway, "... weapons are over there."
I ran after Saya, and on the same spot she found her sword, I found my dagger. With it, lay a bunch of gray orbs with black spots. I recognized them as soon as I saw them.
"We found those things on you as well, but we had no idea what they were." Butler further explained, "Weapons, or more technology."
"They're grenades." Merlin explained.
"Though not the explosive type." Saya added.
"Non-explosive grenades?" this seemed new to Butler.
"Never mind that now." Saya told him, "How much of Major Short's five minutes have passed?"
"Knowing those two, five minutes won't be enough." Butler answered.
"Yeah, speaking of which, what is it between those two anyway?" Merlin asked.
"We're done." Short sounded through our ears.
"That was fast." Butler said.
"You don't want to know what I had to do to shut him up." Short explained, though I couldn't make out the tone she used as she spoke, "I'll meet the three of you at the main entrance. And bring those grenades with you as well."
"You heard her." Butler told us, before he returned to his master.
Merlin picked up two black things, which looked like heavy metallic gloves. The glove-shooters, as he called them before. He handed me one, while he put on the other.
"I better save my magic for when it really counts." he said.

As Short told us, she was indeed waiting for us at the main entrance. She was still in her combat suit, but this time she was also wearing a helmet, which covered not just her hair, but much of her face. She had to talk so we could recognize her.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked.
Saya shrugged, while Merlin said: "We're always ready."
I looked at him, wondering what could have possibly made him say that.
"Good." Short said, "Follow me."
Which we did. We followed her to the other crash-site, which was somewhere in the woods. Through the forest, which was darkened by the night, we walked as fast as we could. Walked, because Short thought that if we ran, we would make too much noise, which the Borg might catch up on. This was likely why she didn't fly either, because the flapping of her wings could be heard too. If we just walked, the Borg would think we were just some forest-dwellers, who would not even know they were there. We walked for a long time, not saying a word to each other. In my case, that wasn't a problem, but to not hear the others talk among themselves, it only made the situation more grim than it already was. Tension was only building up inside me, when Short suddenly raised her fist, while she herself stopped walking. Saya responded by not moving herself, while Merlin took a step aside, not knowing how to react to this. Short motioned with her hand, pointing us to her right. There was a small hill there. She ran toward that hill, but as she went up, she started crawling on all four of her limbs. The rest of us did the same thing, until we reached the top. Slowly, as that was what Short did. From just above the top, we could see what looked like a mechanized dome. It wasn't made of concrete, glass, or anything they usually use to make houses, it was as if even this building had to be a machine of some sort. The fact that two of these black men from before, two of these Borgs, were guarding it, told us we were on the right track.
"Saya, use a grenade to distract them." Murphy suggested.
Murphy could see this? I wondered how. If Saya had the same question on her mind, I didn't know. But if she did, she didn't ask. She took out one of those metallic orbs, pressed on of its black spots, and tossed it at those two Borgs. Like she said before, it didn't explode. But some sort of black material came from its spots. These materials... somehow, took on the shape of men. The look on those Borgs faces, while they didn't change much, I could swear they looked as surprised as I felt. These men were black, with gray gloves, boots and head, which still had some black spots, like the grenade that created them. I suddenly remembered. The first time we used one of these grenades, Merlin tossed it behind a barricade we made. We didn't see what it did, but we didn't hear any explosions, which would explain how Saya knew they weren't explosive. I also remembered that I heard one of our enemies on the other side of the barricade mention Anaroids. So this must have been what he meant. These grenades are turned on, and these men, called Anaroids appeared. The two Borgs immediately raised their guns. They shot two of them (one for each Borg), causing the others to attack the Borgs. As Murphy suggested, the guards were distracted, giving us an opening to enter this dome.