Ginning, Celm took aim at his target, taking pains to ensure his aim was true. His foe, trying to find an opening to defeat the progenitor, had tried to flank him, only to find himself dangerously exposed, and lacked the speed to seek shelter before the bullets could fly. Desperately, he tried to defy fate and took aim at his opponent.

Celm pulled the trigger.

The man let out a pained yelp as a bullet few through his heart AND lungs, perforating all three as it exited his body.

Without missing a beat, Celm cambered another bullet.

A second shot hit his target in the throat, followed by a third to the femoral artery, a fourth to his groin, and finally, a fifth bullet to his head.

The corpse hit the ground with a thud.

"YES! YES YES YES! SUCK IT, YOU FOOL! KISS MY BOOTS!"

"Really, honey?" questioned Milsamrina, "you are whooping for joy over a video game match victory? That you went out of your way to be petty over?"

"..Killjoy," replied the progenitor in question, annoyed at having his victory spoiled. Annoyance soon turned to amusement, though. "Isn't that rather hypocritical, coming from you?"

The xziphid could only give a smirk at this. "Oh, please, don't try to play that card - I am leagues less petty than you are."

"Isn't the girl you just lassoed and put in front of a moving train the same one that killed you five times in a row and fed you to an alligator after that?"

Instantly, the she-ROB lost her composure, breaking out into an embarrassed cold sweat as she tried and failed to stutter out a response. The smirk that had been on her face now occupied her husband's, and had grown more pronounced. "Don't try to call me out on being petty when you are worse than me in that regard," he chided, before letting out a laugh.

Said laugh was cut short when he was forced to duck under a curled-club-esque object that flew toward his head. Dodging it, Celm focused his attention on said club, only to realie it wasn't a club, but a reptile tail...specifically, his wife's.

"Please, do stop being petty."

"Only when you do, my wife."

Incensed, Milsanrima lashed out again, only for her husband to grab ahold of the base of her tail.

She let out an angry growl at this.

Then he started rubbing the tail between his thumb and the rust of his hand.

Instantly, the anger was replaced with embarrassed blushing, and then a soft moaning. "...Um, p-please stoop."

After a few moments, he acquiesced. "Well, okAAAYY!"

*WHUMP*

Celm did even have time to finish his thoughts before his wife pounced, sending both of them flying through a nearby wall. A moment later, a pair of Coelohim entered the room and logged them out of the game, ignoring the sounds of destruction and devastation coming from the other room. Whatever had happened, though, they knew Celm probably had it coming.

XXXXXXXX

"Dammit, why the hell did that girl put me on a train track?" questioned Operative Zeta. "I mean, just...just...why?!"

"You did kill her five times, then tie her up and throw her into the Saint Denis swamp to get eaten by an alligator," answered Tau. "Just let it go."

"You mean like how you let the guy who shot your character in the nuts go free?"

"I fed him to mountain lions and bears, threw him off a cliff, shot up his face, and tea-bagged him. I'd honestly be surprised if he went for less than three shots when he killed me."

"...Fair enough. Back to killing zombies in Black Ops?"

"Yep."

XXXXXXXXX

The probe looked over the set of cryopods before it. Here, a group of children were resting, calmly dreaming of something - the probe had not the technology needed to discern their dreams.

It had been a few years since the Faro Plague had conquered the world - the probe had arrived at best a week before Zero Day, leaving it with no time to stop the swarm. It had instead done what it could - gather up the survivors, place them in stasis, then prepare to start over. It had been fortunate to be in possession of an entire backlog of Earth's myriad wildlife - the Great Dreamer had preserved samples of all life forms from its arrival to its second awakening, and had made sure to store them away from T'leth, sparing them from destruction when the ship had exploded. Even dinosaurs were amongst the beasts it had within its vaults. Now free of most threats to their existence, the creatures were able to return from extinction...or at least, they would when the Great Dreamer bothered to tell the Commander about that.

….Well, technically it had told him about that, but he hadn't really been paying attention.

Its rounds examining the cryopods done, the probe began its next task - examine the underground gardens it had built. Contained within were various plants and livestock, meant to sustain the people within until Project Zero Dawn could complete its objective. The machine had briefly tried to overcome the Faro Plague on its own, but the crash had damaged its cyberwarfare routines - it could defend itself well enough, but attacking was out of the option. Thus, it had been forced to hole up here and wait for things to get better.

Hopefully, the Commander would find it soon enough - it was getting lonely down here.

A proximity alert drew the machine out of its ponderings - something was walking over the base.

…...Scratch that, someone had collapsed on top of the base. Why was that even happening? Whatever had collapsed was human in appearance, but none of the Faro robots had humanoid forms, and the only human who would be on the Earth's surface on this time would be...oh.

Hastily, the robot sent out a trio of rescue drones to greet the new arrival. Hopefully, they would be able to save her.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Look's like we got him, partner!"

The Sapphire Star merely nodded as he stared at the slumbering form of the Tempered Deviljho. How nature could make the World Eater even tougher was utterly beyond him. Still, they had managed to bring it down, and now, the Commission would have the opportunity to examine the tempered brute wyvern in peace.

Of course, with the number of wyverns that were crawling out of the woodwork getting higher, there was only so long before there'd be another specimen they wanted - the death of Zorah Magdaros and Xeno'Jiiva had released enough Life Force to attract monsters from all over the world. Hopefully, they wouldn't cause too many problems...at least, not until the Commission could call in more help.

"Don't worry," assured Zoe. "We'll get help soon enough."

"..How'd you know what I was thinking about?"

"Lucky guess."

"Oh...Thanks."

"You're welcome...you think the two who fell out of the sky are, well, just the start?"

"...Could you explain?"

Zoe sighed, adjusting her goggles. "We've already had Behemoth fall out of the sky, now we have those two. What if you creatures and people start coming?"

"The Commander* will have a plan, and if he doesn't, we'll figure something out. I mean, we've figured them out before."

"..Yeah, I guess we have," acknowledged Zoe, smiling. Then, surprisingly, her smile turned from one of hope to one of amusement.

"..What?"

"You've been talking a lot more recently. I'm just curious, why?"

"..Just feeling a bit more comfortable now. Things were stressful when we got here."

'Also, you never really give me the chance to talk with how energetic you are.'

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Sure," the Handler replied, not entirely believing him. "...Hey, shouldn't we tell our new friends about Behemoth? Maybe they can explain it?"

"They might."

"Then let's tell them!"

Filled with energy, Zoe made to leave, only to stop barely ten paces from where she started.

"What?" asked the Sapphire Star, confused by his companion's sudden halt.

"Can you answer me one question?"

"What is it."

Slowly, Zoe turned to face her partner. "...Why did you come to the New World in the first place?!"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!