AKA That could have gone better, we done messed up, but hey, we're alive. Somehow. No seriously, how are we still-?!

Vent very determinedly did not think about the words of the mysterious girl, or anything else, for a long time. Not even when he and Giro were eventually transported to the medical wing in the Guardian base. The phrases spouted by the renegade female soon slipped from his mind as the resident nurse-in-training, Rose, quickly looked him over, gave him the all clear, pushed him from the room, and rushed away to assist with Giro. A tense few hours passed by as Vent somberly awaited the verdict on his mentor's condition. Model X needed a checkup with Fleuve, Prairie required a proper debriefing of what had happened, his own clothes should probably be changed as they were a mess… As distracted as he was by worry, and a myriad of other tasks he used to occupy himself (such as pacing up and down the medical corridor), the words of the masked stranger soon slipped Vent's mind. This became especially true when Rose quietly shuffled out from a door to give him a diagnosis. She began haltingly, "Giro's injuries…"

"Don't sugar coat it," Vent commanded gently, "please. Just. Give it to me straight. All of it. Is he gonna be okay?"

"Very well." She nodded, "Yes. He's… well, he's not really okay, but Giro will live." Vent sighed in relief, but this act was quickly interrupted when Rose continued, "He'll live, but it won't be an easy recovery. Serpent's control... He fought it so hard. His mind was trying to do one thing, but his body was being forced to do something else. What Serpent did… Parts of Giro's anatomy have been ripped apart by the strain. The end result has been… not great. It's caused many soft tissue injuries… though still that's not the end of it. There is some additional spine and nerve damage from the maverick foot soldiers that shot at him." Rose paused a moment as everything sank in. Vent started to regret asking for the full story. "You were… spared the worst of it. Muguet thinks that you'll be right as rain soon enough. The megamerge will have saved you from most of the damage you took. But Giro… not so much. He might never fully recover."

It was all too much to handle. Vent felt his mind grow sluggish trying to process it. "Can… can I…?"

"It will be a while before he can see anyone," Rose answered, predicting his inquiry. "He needs to rest for now. You could go rest yourself for a bit, or…"

"I'll wait," Vent stated. And so he did. Vent waited, and waited, and waited throughout the rest of the morning as Giro's diagnosis repeated in his head and churned in his gut, making him sick. How could so much have happened already, yet not even half a day had passed? Many of the Guardians that walked by him in the hall gave him a sympathetic look. It was hard to answer them when they asked if he was alright, because truth be told, he didn't know. In the end, a few hours past noon, Vent was allowed a short visit.

Vent looked around as he entered the room. The head nurse, Muguet, was subtly fiddling with medical supplies in the corner as his former employer, his caretaker, leaned against the back of his medical bed. Giro's posture, though propped into a sitting position, was sagged, his frame no doubt feeling heavy with how tired he was from his injuries. It was so abstract to see him like that.

Seeing Giro look up at him as he entered the room, the teen couldn't help but ruminate on why he had decided to call Giro his "boss". It was a decision made long ago in the days of his youth. Losing his family had been extraordinarily hard on Vent, Giro had said, the event too far back for the brunette to remember the specific details himself. Apparently he had been torn to pieces emotionally. Giro told him that he had tried to become overly independent without his family, jaded, oblivious of anyone but himself and what he'd lost. Vent had shut himself off from the world completely. So in a brilliant ploy to reach out, to get Vent involved in life and others again, Giro had offered him some responsibility. "I'll show you the ropes, champ," Giro had apparently said, and offered him a 'job' in his new delivery company. Lo and behold, that new sense of responsibility and maturity had somehow worked.

It's true that Vent never really recovered from the loss of his mother and sister. He hated the thought of anyone's loved ones being hurt by mavericks. For the longest time he made a big deal of never wanting 'relatives' again, especially not after losing his own at the amusement park raid. Vent, for some reason, couldn't stand the thought of referring to someone as a family member. Maybe it was a superstition from his childhood, a precaution in case referring to someone as a mom or dad or sibling would jinx them and lead them to an early grave. He couldn't bear the thought of losing anyone else. But clearly, loss wasn't tied to some silly superstition. Giro was his father figure. A father figure he very nearly lost without having ever called him anything more important than 'boss', despite everything Giro had done for him.

"Hey, uh… Giro? It's… good to see you okay."

"It's good to be okay," Giro answered gently as he looked towards his visitor. The blonde was clearly exhausted, yet the moment Vent had walked into the room, he could tell that something in Giro had relaxed. "It's even better to see that you're alright, too."

Boss… it didn't fit when addressing Giro personally. Not anymore. Perhaps it never had, except as an in-joke. Nearly losing Giro made Vent realize how much he cared, and how silly he was to adhere to a decision made as a scared, illogical, desperate child. He'd been made to realize more than a few uncomfortable truths today. It was time he fixed things, before it was too late. Vent sucked in a breath of air, "I just… I wanted to ask you something before we get too far into anything."

Giro, if he was surprised, didn't show it. With remarkable patience he simply nodded tiredly, "Sure. Go ahead, Vent. Shoot."

"I know I never really… when I was a kid... You know how I was insecure and, uh, really superstitious about calling you anything but 'boss'…?"

This was clearly going into unexpected territory for Giro. He blinked, "Um… yes? I recall that."

"C-can I call you dad instead?" Vent suddenly spouted. He couldn't possibly miss how Giro's eyes lit up like a holiday decoration. His cheeks flushed red as he said, "It's… I was kind of a stupid kid, and-!"

"Yes," Giro answered solemnly, "Yes. 'Dad' is…. fine. I… I would like that very much." Giro, as hurt as he was, suddenly seemed much brighter and more energetic. Muguet gave a happy little gasp from her corner, but bless her heart, tried to be as professional and unobtrusive about it as possible.

Vent played with his hair nervously, "Thanks, uh, dad…"

"No. Thank you," his father said, "that… it means a lot." He seemed a little nervous. "I can't tell you how much it means to me, to finally hear that from you. I never wanted to make you say something you were uncomfortable with, but-"

"After all that went down this morning, it seemed kind of stupid not to," Vent explained. "All my reasons as a kid, the excuses for not calling you my father just, well, they feel really dumb after all that, you know? So, uh, thanks… dad. Thanks for trying to cover my butt this morning, even if things didn't go so hot."

"You're welcome, Vent," Giro finished, "any time. I mean it." The bedridden man choked up in happiness despite his clear exhaustion, and had to take a moment to compose himself before he could continue. "As your… your father, it's my job to protect you. Especially now, more than ever, when Serpent seems determined to cause us all harm. But as you can see… I'm not in any condition to do so," he admitted. There was a profound despair creeping into his tone. "I don't want to do this, as your caretaker… But having raised you, I also know that there's a time when any parent has to learn to let their kid go. I can't follow you myself. But there is one thing I can do."

"One thing we can do. Giro and I have discussed this at length," Model Z explained, floating from the nearby bedside table, "Though I won't say it's a perfect solution. I was heavily damaged in the attack when I protected Giro. Defending him from those mortal wounds took a lot out of me. But I'll help however I can."

"I'm sure Fleuve can help fix you up in time." Giro offered. He turned to Vent as Model Z floated towards the boy, "Just don't go playing the hero if you don't have to. Stay safe."

Vent realized the massive gesture for what it was. Giro was giving up his power, leaving himself vulnerable, in order for Vent to be as safe as possible. He also realized what it meant for Giro himself. Bed-bound as he was, perhaps it was obvious. Giro had given Model Z to him because he was too crippled to use it himself. The man wouldn't have done this if he could have helped it. The realization of just how bad Giro's condition was filled him with worry. And yet, what his father had said… Vent couldn't help it. "Don't go playing the hero alone? And yet who dashed ahead mere moments after he chastised me for being reckless?!" Vent half snapped, half sobbed. There were so many emotions right now. Try as he might he couldn't help being upset about Giro being a hypocrite and getting himself hurt. Even if he'd probably done it to try and deal with the worst of the threat before Vent ever got there.

Giro laughed a little at this, even as pained as he was, "Well. You've got me there. Don't follow my example, then. How about that?"

Vent replied to his question with a small, sad grin, "I think I can listen to you just this once." They both chuckled a little at this. Vent certainly hadn't been an easy kid growing up. Still wasn't, if Vent allowed himself to admit to a few things.

A peaceful moment passed as the pair took some time to breathe. To allow themselves to relax now that the immediate crisis was, for the most part, over. Giro was the one to break this calm as he slowly tried to sit up straight, winced, and let himself fall back onto the firmly cushioned bed, "So… it seems we had a saviour, back there? I didn't see much of them… mind telling me what happened? I want to know who to thank for saving my life… and the life of my son," he asked, genuinely curious, and more than a little proud at being able to refer to Vent as such.

"Ah, yeah. I don't really know who they were. Weird girl, wore a mask, was honestly pretty mean and rude, but she really held her own out there. I got a little cross at her when she… she said some pretty ruthless stuff once we were in the clear," Vent admitted.

Giro perked up oddly, "A girl who wears a mask? Did she also have a metal staff of some sort?"

Vent scrunched up his face, "Actually, yeah, she did?"

"How curious. I know of her… The Imp of Cinq Ville."

"The who now?"

Giro hummed, "I'm a little surprised you haven't heard of her, but then again, I never really sent you to do deliveries around Innerpeace. She's a big part of the reason for that." Giro paused to rest. Then he explained in more detail, "The Imp of Cinq Ville is an infamous troublemaker who operates in the area. She's often committing some sort of theft or vandalism, and is vicious enough to cause a few fights here and there too. Something of a villainous sort. So villainous that, in a way, she's become a local celebrity. It's rather weird that she saved us," Giro pondered out loud. He reached up for his glasses, cleaning them in an age-old habit. He was slow due to the pain, but distracted himself by continuing the conversation, "She's not exactly the charitable type, from what I've heard. Then again, she hates Slither Inc with a passion, so maybe it makes sense that she'd help us just to spite the company." He informed politely, then became rather indignant as he made a few mental connections, "Many people have been praising him and his so-called heroic deeds for so long, myself included... yet all along, Serpent was a traitor who secretly had the Model W right under our noses! Some hero! Considering all that, the Imp of Cinq Ville might have been onto something the whole time!"

Vent frowned in angry agreement with Giro, "Guess so. I still can't believe it!"

"Be careful around her, if you ever see her again," Giro warned. "She has quite the reputation. Even the Guardians have had a few altercations with her. She is rather infamous in the region for a reason. Thon, the poor man, said he got himself wedgied by her at one point."

"That girl must be pretty brave to take on Thon, of all people!" Vent laughed at her audacity. Thon was a massive beast of a man that was nearly twice Vent's height. Most people would think twice about taking on such a person, but apparently the Imp was not 'most people.'

"Oh, she's utterly fearless, and relentless. We know she likes to avoid us, erm, the Guardians, because they're a little more on the ball than others. Hareng specifically says he nearly nabbed her a couple of times, but she slipped away from him at the last minute. Though he might have been fudging things a bit."

"One time she brained Scombrésoce with that staff of hers. It's no joke," Rose added quietly, the shy nurse piping up from the sidelines. "She knows how to fight. That's for sure."

"Thank heavens she does, it was that skill in combat that got us out of quite the sticky situation there." Giro admitted. His face scrunched up, "It still makes me wonder though. Why? Why did she go so far out of her way for us? Was it just a whim? Another swing of her capricious moods? Or is there something else going on? And… If she's so good at combat, yet uses her abilities only for mischief… Who trained her?"

"Hard to say," Muguet butted in, "the girl usually sticks to petty crimes, though. Vandalism, theft, public mischief. Admittedly I've heard of some more severe incidents once or twice. I think there was a time that they… well, they figured it was self defence. The man was known to authorities. But they never did get to the bottom of it, it's not like they were ever able to question her," the portly nurse explained. "Nobody knows where exactly she buckles down when people are after her. None of the authorities can track her to her hideout, she usually flees into the forest from what I hear, and heavens forbid any of our own boys have the time to go through that labyrinth they call a wilderness area. Not to find a single girl, at any rate!"

Rose spoke up, "Rumour is, uh, that she actually lives in the Area A forest somewhere." From the way the trainee medic fidgeted, cheeks flushed, Vent wondered if the Imp of Cinq Ville was a favourite subject of gossip for her. Even in the Guardian ranks, she apparently had some fans.

"Sounds like she lives quite the adventurous life though, one way or another." Vent chortled. He looked out at the midday sun beyond a window ponderously, "I wonder what she's up to now…?"

—-—-

Aile headed towards the underground, ribs aching and throat burning as she rushed headlong into the depths of her home. Her objective, her father, lay somewhere within, and she needed him and his guidance after her earlier revelation. Too much had happened, too many thoughts raced through her mind, so instead she focused on pumping her legs for speed. She distracted herself with the ripples of impact that travelled through her muscles every time one of her feet hit the ground. The wheeze of air in and out of her sore lungs, the sting of exertion building up in her flesh, the wail of wind rushing past her ears as she fled… these were the only things keeping her sane and focused. Aile ran pell-mell into the strange realm her father could usually be found in. She easily ignored the ominous not-sky and vibrant green mineral formations that spread out before her. Aile jumped over small cliffs, dodged around disappearing blocks, then leaped across the many boulders strategically placed within a sea of spikes. She was too focused to remember her father's humorous cursing as he'd tried to place the rubble there in the first place. Instead she crashed through the door, yelling for her father.

"Daddy!"

He wasn't there. Damnit. Aile ran back, trying to find him elsewhere. Her body had started to truly ache, her eyes stinging with sweat, when she finally found where he was. "Daddy!?"

"In here!" She followed his voice to the one room she never felt quite right in. Many dangerous, conical growths decorated the edges of the cavernous space, an ominous effigy enshrined within. She ignored it, as she always tried to do, because something in its gigantic red jewel of an eye always made her feel far too exposed, like raw meat to a butcher. She barrelled into the room, stopped, then panted as the world got a little too tumultuous for her. Black spots threatened the edge of her vision. Omega's eyebrow raised at her state, "I presume something has happened?" Aile tried to talk with her father, but found that she had no breath. She doubled over, heaving in gasps of air.

Omega patiently awaited her answer. As he stood motionless in the centre of the room, he surveyed the large machination in the distance, an action he had been doing before she entered the room. It took Aile longer than she would have liked to admit to be able to speak. "Hey Daddy? I…. huuugh… one sec…" Aile coughed. Soon enough, she'd finally gotten her second wind, "I, uh, I have a confession to make," she started haltingly. "I think I… I need some help."

Her father stopped what he was doing, looked at her with a the well-worn expression of 'not again', and braced himself for the inevitable shitstorm that was about to take over his life. "Alright then. Start at the begin-"

"My brother is alive."

The interruption cut through the air and silenced any rebukes he could have made. Omega internally baulked. Blinked as he worked that last sentence out, stood silent while he figured out the full implications. Right. Forget shitstorm. This just turned into a sewage-based hurricane. "What?"

"That kid I told you about, the boy who had the same name as my old sibling… it wasn't a coincidence."

For fuck's sake. You had to be kidding him. "Aile. Are you sure? Are you sure. We checked the park-"

"Yeah I'm sure!" She shrieked, hands in the air, "I'm pretty goddamn sure! I called him out for being a sissy and a dumbass and for nearly getting himself killed, and he turned around and told me his mom died and his sister Aile would never have been a bitch like me, except he didn't actually call me a bitch because I'm not sure that the kid isn't too innocent to actually know how to swear, and-!"

Omega stared in disbelief, "Vent's alive."

"Yes," Aile summarized, "Vent is alive. And he's a fucking idiot."

Of course he was, Omega bemoaned internally, of bloody course he was. The world just loved to use him as the punchline to some pretty morbid jokes. He took his head into his hands and groaned, massaging his temples in a useless gesture of exasperation borrowed straight from Weil. (He remembered one night in particular where his scientist friend had abused the gesture. It happened after a night of dealing with asinine politicians, funding cuts, Omega's frankly infuriating and complicated-on-purpose schematics, and a marathon unraveling of mangled code that even a rubber duck would drown in… all at the same time. If Weil hadn't already been committed to creating a new world order before that particular debacle, he'd sure doubled down on it afterwards.) "Right. Vent's alive. Tell me what happened."

She did. And oh boy, it wasn't a fun story when she told it, sparing no detail as she recounted the fake maverick attack on Serpent HQ. He could only shake his head as she finished the tale, "...and that's when I ran back. It's so messed up."

Omega groaned when she finally finished. He took his helmet off to thread his fingers through his hair in exasperation. "That… you have to be kidding me."

"I know! It's-! What do I even do with this? There's too much going on!" Aile hollered. She kicked the ground in a miniature temper tantrum, then fell to her buttocks because she was too freaked out to even sit properly.

The atmosphere of the cave, usually ominous and heavy, had lessened in intensity, as if even the disembodied feeling of dread that pervaded it wanted nothing to do with this clusterfuck of an event. Her father walked over and unceremoniously dropped to his backside in order to sit at her side. With a heavy sigh he prepared to speak. "First things first," Omega wisely noted, "we have to figure out what to do with Vent. I think you can agree that he's the biggest priority here." He crossed his arms as the conversation continued, a contemplative and attentive gesture born from years of dealing with an overly energetic child.

"No duh. Scrap me." Aile grumbled in return. "Biometals, Mega Men, and big government conspiracies aside, we gotta figure out what we're gonna do about Vent. My not-dead brother. Holy hell. What even is my life right now," she wailed softly.

Omega seemed thoughtful, "Best case scenario is that we ask him to come nicely, and he does. But that would be too easy. I don't hold much hope that we're going to be able to do this the simple way."

"Keeping an eye on Vent from a distance is technically an option, but… bloody hell and heavens forbid! My damn brother!" She bemoaned, "He couldn't be some smart street-kid like me. Not even a two-bit villain wannabe, no! He has to come along and be this hammy goodie-two-shoes of the worst variety! How is he even my brother!? He's such a putz!" She threw a rock angrily towards the strange machine in the distance. It didn't even make it halfway there, forlornly colliding with one of the large orange spikes and disappearing into the shadows below. She growled, "Such a twit… Yet here I am. Stuck with him maybe? What do I even do with this revelation?" Aile was talking herself in circles. Omega solemnly listened as she ranted, "I don't think we can get him to come quietly, he probably doesn't trust me and why would he I'm the Imp of Cinq Ville, and he thinks he's some so-called hero. Can we actually watch from a distance…?"

Omega just shook his head. "Vent nearly got himself killed already… Even though he apparently just got access to powerful weaponry that should have otherwise kept him safe. We can't trust him with his own self care," Omega inwardly grimaced. "Staying at a distance would be a bad idea."

Gods damn their luck. Aile grimaced outwardly, "I can't help but wonder if we should just abandon him…" she admitted, "he's obviously… He's not competent, not at all. Yet I also feel super guilty about even thinking of that, because… I loved him so much. I miss him!" she cried, "Vent's baby backpack is STILL in the caves where we left it… I know it's probably stupid and I KNOW I'm a horrible person he probably won't like, but I still miss him, even though he's alive? He's alive. But there's no way hes the same person he used to be. He's an absolute idiot!"

Omega couldn't help but wonder if her current desperation to help her brother, her confusion over him, was because he was the only other person alive that she had known intimately. He hated to admit it, but Aile was sorely under-socialized. With no friends her age, no one else but her father that she could confide in… was this her version of desperately reaching out? Was her desire for a peer overriding her caution? He can't have failed her so badly in that aspect, right? Not to mention Vent himself. That boy was undoubtedly another of Weil's descendants, another heir… And an idiot at that. An heir he'd failed to find, failed to raise, and failed to protect. But as they say, better late than never… or so he told himself. "If he's such a dolt, then he needs our help whether he wants it or not." Omega stated haltingly. He couldn't quite wrap his head around it. Weil had another potential heir… yet gods damn it all, this one just had to be a dunce.

"No, you're right," Aile ascertained. It was clear on her face that she'd already decided she was going to keep protecting her brother, even if this decision was warring with her common sense. Maybe because Omega, her experienced mentor whose judgment she trusted beyond all else (even if she knew he wasn't as perfect as he thought he was), was agreeing with her dumbass heart on this one. "You're absolutely right. Like it or not he's my brother, my dumb brother, and we're gonna have to look out for him."

Omega seconded that decision, "He's obviously not going to be able to protect himself, seeing as I didn't train him."

"And you can't leave the underground in case Gramps comes back." Aile answered. Oh right. There was that too. Omega's unswerving loyalty and determination to wait for Weil was really starting to bite him in the ass. This was a fact he didn't like. But what else could he do?

Omega realized where this was going, and he didn't appreciate it one bit. He haltingly tried to speak, "Perhaps, a short trip-?"

"Let's be real dad. We don't know how long this could take." Aile knew her father didn't like the thought of leaving the underground. He was always incredibly anxious whenever he was away from home for too long, which was completely understandable due to his relentless determination to correct an old but vital mistake. A mistake which caused him to lose contact with an old ally, his only friend; her ancestor. "Someone has to stay and wait for Gramps to arrive. Now more than ever, it seems like this would be the time for something like that to happen. You know what this means. We can't both go. And we both know that it needs to be you here, because Gramps probably wouldn't recognize me."

Omega didn't like the implication, "So you're saying that we've got to do the next best thing… and that's to send you after him. Alone." No, he did not like this at all. Trying to protect one heir by sending the other heir he raised by himself in his stead? All by herself!? It sounded like a recipe for disaster, a way to easily lose them both no matter how competent she was… Yet it was still the best option. Well shit, he thought. They were fucked. SNAFU in a nutshell.

"Speaking of being recognized," Aile moaned, a headache beginning to form behind her eyes, "we need to get Vent to talk to me," Aile concluded. "But… will Vent even recognize me if I try to chat with him? He probably doesn't know who the hell I am! And I bet he's just gonna think I'm lying to him when I just call myself Aile. He thinks I'm an asshole! I wouldn't be surprised if he thought I was just messing with him. And honestly, he'd be right about me fibbing just to fuck with people. Heh. Definitely set a precedent there."

A good point. Omega thought hard, but thankfully there was at least an answer to this particular conundrum. "I think I know a way to fix that," he said. He got up, dusted himself off, and began to walk back the way Aile had come. Aile, sensing that her father was up to something, followed after him obediently. As they left the room, Aile felt, as she usually did when in the effigy's chamber, the unnerving sensation of someone's eyes upon her. As if a predator were sleepily paying attention to her every move, like Aile was little more than a piece of tender, fresh meat being paraded in front of it. Gods she hated that room. It always seemed like some creep was staring at her. Or perhaps it was intrigued and possessive of her, plotting to use her? Was it curious about the tiny thing so boldly marching around in front of it? Whatever the sensation, she was never able to quite parse it out. Instead she hurried away until the looming presence of the bizarre construction was cut off, a blast door clunking into place as it slid shut behind her.

As the small family traveled around the underground, the scenery became more familiar and calming to Aile. No unknown beings or eventualities lurked here, nope, not a one. She was in her home turf. The pair meandered up through the tunnels, glassy green and blue stone melting together and slowly fading into regular rock as they ascended, the constant dampness and dripping of water serenading her as it permeated the caverns. Aile kicked a pebble out of the way. The tiny thing skittered and bounced forward, clacking off her dad's boot. He turned, gave her an exasperated yet fond eye-roll, and continued on his way. Before long the tunnel became eerily recognizable, and it didn't take Aile long to realize where they were headed. And oh boy, was it a doozy of a destination.

Vents' empty grave lay ahead of them. They entered it silently. Aile didn't know how to feel about this place, not anymore. Especially not after today's revelations. Dust tickled her nostrils as Omega stared at the lone object in the area, "This... Ought to do," he explained. The red reploid picked up the small artifact tenderly.

"Yeah," Aile agreed as he turned around and handed it to her. Vent's backpack, which she hoped would be all the evidence she needed to convince her brother of her identity, was extremely mangled by now. The puppy charm was eyeless, with spots of mold patterned on its surface. The satchel itself wasn't faring much better, stained and frayed and starting to melt with decay. Aile gently tugged on a strap. Said strap felt moist and slightly squishy. Ew. Definitely not how it was supposed to feel.

"This… uh. This 'tomb'... It feels so weird now," Aile babbled. She used her palm to try to beat the dirt and grime off of the backpack, though it was a sorry attempt to clean it. "What purpose does this place serve anymore? Knowing that Vent isn't actually dead…"

"Feels a little silly now. Doesn't it?" Omega agreed, "like it can't be true."

"We spent so much emotion, I mourned him so much… yet it was all for nothing? It's dumb. It's so dumb," Aile grumbled, feeling disassociated from it all. "There's so much hurt and pain and regret, and all of it was actually stupid and worthless because Vent is alive. Ugh. I'm gonna have to dry this backpack out." Omega tilted his head towards her as she continued to ramble, "Today was just… just too much shit! Yet I've still got an entire afternoon left somehow?"

"Do you have any plans?"

"I don't think I'm ready to look for him quite yet. Not… not seriously. I need to blow off some major steam. Serpent was a maverick all along. Holy shit. What a cunt!"

"Utter dick," Omega agreed. Aile giggled at his straightforward and uncharacteristic insult. "He'll have to pay for this, obviously."

"Oh, he will. Definitely. But finding Vent should be a priority…"

"Actually," Omega offered slyly, "nothing says you can't do these things at the same time. Blow off some steam, and let Vent know you're looking for him, all while making Serpent's life a living hell. You're a smart kid. I bet you could think of something."

Aile's eyes lit up as ideas began to pour into her head, "You know what? You're right, Daddy! I think I even have a few ideas already, too." Her father watched her proudly as she began to grin maliciously and gently tossed the old backpack up and down, "Maybe, just maybe, there's something I can do about this…"