fallendemon248: Not gonna lie I was kinda expecting them to actually finish the trip and go to the moon and Tony set down a flag with Iron man and Iron Lad drawings on it and find out he was fine this whole time and the whole needed saving thing was a set up

Re: It was the plan for Iron Man to drop a flag, or maybe it was the plan to fake needing a rescue so he could get himself a sidekick without all the extra steps. Who knows? Pepper certainly wouldn't have let him try for the end goal.

UndeadLord22: Wait wait wait, what chap did Virgil got his V Card out? Not the kissy parts, but actually got laid? I need some refresh.
Also, there'll be more going to his "group" would there? Doubt it's just the 2 of them, Athena n Gaige

Re: It happened in "Chapter 68.5: No Kiss No-Tell" of Young Justice: The (Tail) Hunter on AO3/Archive of Our Own. People can get butt-hurt real easily over that sort of thing on this site, doubly-so because of the recent PURGE that's rumored to happen soon, so I'm segregating the "more-mature" material on my secondary site.
There's a "Chapter 72.5" in the works, but it's on the backburner for a while.

GreedEman: Iron warrior… now all i can think about is how well the JL could do against all the xenos threats from 40k… and how klarion would react to the chaos gods… is there already a story about this?
Anyway, great chapter! Now i need to go looking for 40k stories

Re: That's the power of Discord for you~ I really might've gone with "Iron Lad" if not for my faithful fans willing to chat it out.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

Bludhaven
January 3, 05:24 EST

"Home sweet home…" Virgil sighed as they landed back in Bludhaven.

While the three of them had enjoyed a day playing "hooky" in Disney World, news had already broken of Tony Stark's failed trip to the moon, and the subsequent unveiling of his new sidekick, "Iron Warrior". And while Virgil's identity had remained a secret, that Iron Warrior had paradoxically maintained a secret identity was garnering media attention by the sheer contrast between the faceless young man in the iron suit and the flamboyant "billionaire playboy philanthropist". And though Tony himself hadn't made any such promises to join the likes of Batman, Superman, and the rest of the Justice League, people were already speculating what Tony Stark could bring to the table, and how-long it'd be until the League extended membership.

Virgil saw none of that as any of his business, so he just decided to go on like everything was completely normal.

Or at least as "normal" as things could get for guy that, at the bare minimum of the weirdness scale, had two girlfriends he was now sexually involved with.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

The Bunker
January 4, 06:27 EST

"Virgil, how are you? How was space?" Sunny asked with a small smile as she met him outside the security checkpoint, talking as though the subject were the weather and not him becoming an astronaut.

"Oh, you know… Cold. Dark. Ominous," Virgil shuddered as Sunny led him deeper inside, the Freelancers and support staff giving him cheers and congratulations as he passed. "So, I'm meeting with Miller?"

"And a couple learned youngsters."

'Learned youngsters? How old is this girl again?'

Obviously he didn't say as such out loud when they got into the elevator, descending into the bowels of the FoxCry base. Sunny sending him off towards the situation room, Virgil found the woman he'd met at the New Years party waiting for him at the head of the table. Now however, she was clad in green fatigues and a black beret, the Foxhound emblem sitting above her left eye, her aviator shades still on her face despite the tone of the room.

"Virgil, thank you for responding so promptly to my summons. How was space?"

"Oh, you know… Cold. Dark. Ominous," Virgil repeated as he sat across from the woman. "Sunny said something about 'learned youngsters'?"

"That's right. This project is a joint operation between Foxhound and CryNet to bring the absolute best out of the Nanosuit Prototype so that, in the future, both organizations can benefit. Originally it was going to go to one of the Freelancers piloting the suit, but since it 'imprinted' on you, instead we're going to take the project in a new direction, cultivating young talent alongside your own," she said as she took off her aviators and cleaned them with a rag. "Honestly, I'm surprised the Justice League hasn't done something similar with its own learned youngers, though that might change in the coming years," she said donning her shades. "Speaking of which, I believe you're prior acquainted," she said as a bar of light cut through the dark of the room.

Virgil, turning his seat around was surprised to find Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black walking toward him, both clad in casual clothes of their favorite colors; gray and black for Mercury, and green and white for Emerald.

"Yo, Spaceman! How's it hanging?" Mercury grinned wolfishly as he dropped down into the seat on his right.

"Virgil. I'm glad you made it back to Earth in one piece," Emerald nodded politely, taking a seat on his left.

"So you guys are eyeballs deep in this world too?"

"Yep."

"Uh-huh."

"Now that reintroductions are out of the way, why don't you share a little something about yourselves," Miller suggested.

"Well, my dad was a shithead and a drunk and an assassin, and he's the reason I have robot legs. You know. That old song and dance," Mercury shrugged flippantly. "I'm good at kicking ass, taking names, and chewing bubble gum. That, and, I fancy myself a James Bond-type~" he grinned, Emerald scoffing before speaking up.

"Ms. Fall recruited me after she caught me picking pockets in Egypt," Emerald went on to explain in a neutral tone. "I'm practically invisible when I put my mind to it, I can take the shirt off a man's back at twenty paces, and my meta-ability can modify the sensory information in a person's head while their brain is processing it."

"I just call it 'Mirage'," Mercury shrugged.

"It's a 'Hallucination'," Emerald corrected tersely. "In short, I can make one or more people see and hear what I want them to and no-one else is the wiser, though obviously I can't fool security cameras or robots. I've had limited luck against telepaths who have greater mental defenses, but it's real easy for me to fool the magical crowd because they're more-likely to believe in something weird happening right in front of them."

"So I'll be going on missions with these two?" Virgil asked the head of the table.

"Once your technical and applied skills are all brought up," Miller answered. "The two of them will be wearing custom-tailored Sneaking Suits for their individual talents as the situation allows, while you're still expected to be a 'Jack of All Trades' type with the various abilities your own suit provides. Obviously, you're meant to be the leader, but I expect you to heed their own wisdom and delegate tasks appropriately in the field. You aren't superheroes. You're super-soldiers. Your job is to survive the mission and come back home so your training doesn't go to waste; not throw your lives away on some grand crusade like a comic book character."

"Which is good because for that other gig, the pay and benefits suuuck!" Mercury huffed jovially.

"I hope you aren't afraid to get your hands dirty," Emerald hummed with a conciliatory smile.

"Oh trust me, I've gotten elbow deep in the shit. I'm no goody two-shoes, though I will avoid committing war crimes if I can help it," Virgil replied to his green-haired teammate. "So, when do we start VR training?"

"Effective immediately. Only you will be going on 'that mission', though that in of itself might be subject to change as the situation evolves," Miller stated with a look that told him and only him that by 'evolves', she actually meant, 'deteriorate'.

"Mission? What mission?" Mercury blinked.

"Don't worry about it," Virgil waved off, not fooling them, but at least shelving it for another time. "So, what kind of setup is the VR using?"

"Basically, a sensory deprivation helmet that uses high-density microwave transceivers capable of accessing the brain and giving it fake signals to emulate a lifelike world," Miller answered. "The current generation's setup for non-cyborgs is far less cumbersome than what was used before, and time will be dilated slightly to make the most of your 'downtime'. When you aren't using VR, you'll be watching recordings of Emerald or Mercury's sessions, learning from their own successes and failures, while training up your bodies in the gym."

"I'll just assume the microwave transceivers are perfectly safe."

"With how-much it costs to train up special forces nowadays, it better damn well be," Miller huffed. "You'll be experiencing missions of Solid Snake's, including but not limited to the Shadow Moses Incident. And because the world itself is becoming a very convoluted place, you'll also be experiencing one or two fantasy settings, though not so-fantastical that it breaks immersion and cases you to 'desynchronize' from the simulation."

"So like The Matrix, I'll be made to think that it's the real deal?"

"The hypnotic suggestion is the only way we can get you to avoid taking advantage of the fact that it's a virtual world and treating it like just another game," Miller answered. "The simulations are for all intents and purposes life-or-death, but the VR setup can't inflict actual damage to your body. You won't die for real if you die in the virtual one; Foxhound has had decades to improve its safeguards, and accidents only happen when someone is very stupid and very careless."

"Okay good. Glad someone asked," Mercury hummed.

"Sunny will show you to the Simulator Room. Ghanoush and McCallister will be overseeing your virtual training. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask them when you aren't scheduled to dive in."

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

Ghanoush and McCallister were a perfectly ordinary pair of men, but then again, you didn't have to be a borderline superhero to work in the mercenary business. Support staff consisted of about 85% of most militaries nowadays, taking 5 to 6 personnel to support a single infantry soldier out in the field at the very least. For missions of greater complexity with international or even global consequence, that number could go up to as high as 11 to 15.

The simulator room was filled with elliptical pods like you'd find on a sci-fi B-Movie and supercomputers to match, and connected to the top of the pod were round metal helmets designed to completely encompass a person's head, the padded beds bearing a depression for the bulky helmets to go into so you wouldn't "wake up" with a crick in your neck.

"Alright, Spaceman. To get your feet wet and acclimate your brain to VR, we'll be dropping you into the Virtual Range. In it, you'll be able to live fire test the various weapons in Foxhound and CryNet's sum arsenals without eating through our quarterly budget. The 'enemies' littering the course will react realistically to gunshots, explosions, sleeping gas, smoke, and even physical attacks," the man known as Ghanoush stated, Mercury chuckling at the use of Virgil's new nickname.

"Please use the restroom before climbing into the pods, and if-possible, freshen up a little," the man known as McCallister added. "After several hours in the virtual world the system will automatically pull you out, so you don't have to worry about being trapped in there. Like Miller said, Foxhound has had decades to improve its safeguards. Humans lives are too-expensive to throw away so-callously, no matter what the politicians might say about the armed forces."

"That was another thing I was worried about," Mercury hummed, Emerald elbowing him in the side as Virgil removed his shoes and climbed into the pod, having already gone.

"Alright. See you on the other side," Virgil hummed as he laid his head down in the helmet, the faceplate and sides closing shut around him almost immediately drowning out all light and sound.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

The next moment Virgil found himself standing in a massive open plain colored an extremely light shade of dull green, stretching 50 meters in sight but with a stretch of walkable distance. Spreading out in concentric rings from where he stood were labeled circles in dark green at 5 meter increments, and standing in clusters, singles, pairs, and so-on were featureless humanoid targets colored dull yellow. There was no wind or sound beyond what Virgil himself made as he exhaled and moved around, his virtual body clad in a Sneaking Suit with a bandanna like Snake's keeping his hair out of his eyes.

"Huh… Fairly convincing…" Virgil shrugged as he opened and closed his hands, stretching his virtual body. "Now then… where are those munitions I got told so much about?"

The next moment like out of The Matrix, two long shelves bisected the space in front of and behind him.

"Guns. Lots of guns," Virgil found himself admitting as he stared at the countless weapons shelved before him. So-many that someone like Marcus would've soiled themselves in envy.

Reaching out and taking an assault rifle seemingly at random, a digital placard like in an RPG revealed the weapon to be a CryNet SCAR aka "Superior Combat Assault Rifle". The placard also included magazine size, fire mode, operation rpm, range, ammunition type, muzzle velocity, and other useful information.

"Huh… Kinda reminds me of the Battle Rifle from Halo…"

Checking the safety and then loading up on magazines, with an instinctive swipe of his hand through the virtual space, he dismissed the two shelves before facing one of the humanoid targets in the Virtual Range, the humanoid targets seemingly unperturbed by what had transpired.

"Alright… Let's get some hours on the range in."

He didn't bother calling up anything like safety goggles or earplugs because, in the real world, no-one would give him the time to put on PPE aside from what he was already wearing when the altercation started.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

"So he's just… shooting guns?" Mercury asked as Ghanoush isolated clips and spread the play rate back out into 'normal time'.

"It is important to familiarize yourself with the hardware you have on hand," McCallister hummed as Virgil depleted the magazine after testing at various ranges from various positions be they stationary or dynamic, and then practiced using it as a melee weapon. On some of the dummies he'd knock their lights out with the stock, others he'd use it like a club, or jab them with the barrel. On the dummies armed with knives and other weapons he'd practice dodging, parrying, and blocking, working on his CQC.

"It's kinda boring," Emerald hummed aloud.

"Well, we can cut it down to the more-interesting bits with editing," Ghanoush hummed idly as he worked, which was mostly making sure the user's vitals remained steady and that the simulation didn't lose its integrity.

"So, like a highlight reel?"

"That or a blooper reel."

"Heh. Now that I'd like to see," Mercury chuckled. "Come on, Em. Let's see what else this place has to offer."

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

The Bunker: Simulator Room
January 4, 09:37 EST

"Huh, I didn't know you could fight super-criminals in there too," Virgil hummed as he watched a clip of Mercury fighting Killer Croc on a Gotham City street, a flipped-over bank van in the backdrop, bank notes fluttering away on the wind.

"Yeah. Apparently, Foxhound has been dealing with enough weird shit over the years, that they finally decided to make some sims to match the times," Ghanoush hummed idly as Mercury got his opponent with a vertical split kick to the jaw, sending teeth flying and rattling the virtual villain's skull.

In any other circumstance that'd have been the end of it. Killer Croc would've been restrained, sent to Arkham, and nursed his woulds before breaking out and trying things again.

In this circumstance however, a gun port in Mercury's prosthetic leg went off, blowing the upper half of the mutated villain's skull clean off like the cap on a coke bottle.

"It isn't only the cape & undies club that fight the weirdos," McCallister added thoughtfully. "Psychics, ghosts, vampires, zombies, cyborg ninjas, the odd demon… Honestly, half the time it's like a Military Fantasy novel out there. Even if no-one wants to believe it."

"Right… Like how Volgin transformed into the Man on Fire," Virgil hummed, recalling one of the files he'd read pertaining to the era of Venom Snake.

That whole thing in of itself with the brainwashed field medic was convoluted to the extreme, but then again, it was the only way one could fool The Patriots when they were at the height of their power.

"Wait, that really happened?" Emerald blinked. "I thought that was just an old Cold War myth."

"Nah. Wonder Woman herself told me that a thirst for revenge can turn a man into a demon and keep the dead alive," Virgil recited, Emerald shivering and rubbing her arms as she held herself. "Given the source, I can assume she didn't mean that metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically, or any other fancy way."

"So she was the same Wonder Woman, from World War II? Not her daughter or a successor but the same one that fought with Captain America and the All Star Squadron?" Ghanoush asked.

"She seemed more amused by the theories than the truth," Virgil shrugged. "Given the world is full of things we don't understand, is a semi-immortal race of Greek warrior women really that unlikely."

At this, Ghanoush and McCallister could only shrug their shoulders.

"So… I hear you made bank back in Vegas. Care to share the wealth?" Emerald asked as something glinted in her eye.

"The money wasn't from Vegas. It was from a job I did before Vegas," Virgil waved off. "Didn't you get signing bonuses or something when you became models?"

"Yeah, but that was a while ago," Emerald pouted. "We haven't been able to take any high-pay jobs lately, so we're hoping that'll change once we follow you into battle or whatever."

"I think the missions will be up to Miller. If you want bank, you'll have to take it up with her. That or model cute clothes."

"Hey, I'm hot, not 'cute'," the dark-skinned girl pouted.

"Well, I'm sure Merc will tell you you're hot as much as you want."

"What? Ick! NOOO!" the greenette retched. "Merc's just a co-worker; and not an especially classy one either."

"Ah, right. The Mc-whatever-it-was," Virgil hummed as he recalled.

"Not to mention his obsession with feet."

"Well, he lost his, so, I dunno, maybe he's projecting?"

" . . . Huh. I never thought of it that way," Emerald hummed adopting a thoughtful pose.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

The Bunker: Mess
January 5, 07:08 EST

"Sooo… Just gonna come out and ask you this. Why'd you train with nothing but guns yesterday?" Mercury asked as they ate breakfast.

Sure, it was neat seeing how-ruthless he was with that SCAR, but once the song and dance repeated itself, it got really monotonous.

"I want to be able to pick up any weapon I find and know how to use it," Virgil answered succinctly. "I'm not always going to have the benefit of being able to hold onto what I carry into a mission, or always having ammo for what I take with me. Let alone always walking into an altercation with a weapon in my hand. I need to be able to turn any situation around, because the bad guys only have to win once for me to lose my life."

"I guess that's fair. Merc and I are a little over-specialized ourselves," Emerald admitted aloud.

"Yeah, this crazy girl has revolvers with rifle stocks and sickle blades on them," Mercury chuckled.

"Says the guy with gun ports in his legs," Mercury pouted.

"Huh. Compared to you two, my bow almost seems normal," Virgil hummed as the two began to bicker about the others' respective skillset.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

In the following days, Virgil, Emerald, and Mercury continued too cycle through Foxhound's advanced VR training. Virgil practiced with as many weapon types as he could until it got stale, and then he practiced on low-level infiltration scenarios against foreign terrorist factions. Mercury for his part practiced in supervillain-related scenarios both real and fictional, notably the Rogues Galleries belonging to Batman and The Flash, showing a willingness to inflict grievous bodily harm onto others that Virgil largely took no compunction with. When Emerald wasn't practicing with virtual facsimiles of her weapons (sickle-bladed revolvers with chains that turned them into full blown Kusarikama) within the Virtual Range, she undertook infiltration scenarios of greater complexity than what Virgill was confident of attempting in his base form.

When he wasn't off in the VR honing his skills, Virgil spent his time conversion with Emerald or Mercury, learning more about their personalities than he'd been able to at the New Years' party.

From what he'd been able to gather about Emerald, the affable and disarmingly friendly personality she displayed at the party was largely a front. Beneath it was a short fuse and pettiness, as well as an intense loyalty toward Cinder and Cinder alone, who she spoke of in great deference almost like a cult member. The only reason she was making nice with him and the rest of FoxCry was because she was under orders. She claimed to actually be fond of him based on his past history of moral ambiguity and ethical flexibility, but he couldn't be sure that wasn't just another front.

Mercury on the other hand seemed rather care-free and jovial, and nothing in the rest of his countenance seemed to imply that it was any sort of front, like with Emerald. When it came to his training, now that he could fight monsters and weirdos as much as he wanted, he displayed a sense of seriousness and levelheadedness that only rarely broke in the heat of combat. Based on what Virgil had seen, Mercury was the sort to fight smarter instead of harder, testing the waters against his virtual opponents before fully committing to an attack, showing a strategic and cunning mind.

All in all, from what he gathered about the two of them, neither came from happy households.

Emerald was abandoned in Cairo under the shadow of the pyramids (metaphorically, not literally) and got by eating food from the trash before finding her knack for picking pockets. Cinder had lifted her up from abject poverty and thus held her undying loyalty, and it was only because the woman had stressed the importance of working together with Foxhound and CryNet that she was making nice now. Mercury on the other hand, his mother died in childbirth and his father hated him for it, never hesitating to make the fact known. Growing up in the middle of the European wilderness with an abusive father who was almost always soused, it was the amputation of his legs in lieu of superhuman pedal prostheses that broke the camel's back. It was ultimately the reason why when Cinder came to recruit Marcus Black for whatever it was she was recruiting for, she only found the son standing outside a burning house, with blood running down his prosthetic legs.

In turn, he shared his own misgivings with the human race. How some asshole ran his parents off the road and made it so he left with nothing, how he lost all faith in "Heroes", how he saw both the best and the worst that America had to offer, ultimately culminating in his flight from New York Zero after a number of… graphic, tales regarding Blackwatch and the bullet-resistant zombies that Mercer had unleashed. He kept his personal business after coming to Bludhaven to himself, but he did divulge his mission history and misadventures, always more-comfortable regaling Emerald or Mercury the second time around as he shared these bits and pieces.

If he was being expected to form an "A-Team" of his own, his projected foray into New York Zero notwithstanding, he supposed he could do worse in regard to who he trusted at his sides. Mercury was undeniably his superior in unarmed combat, and Emerald far surpassed him in the covert arts; the only way he could realistically stand in the same league as them, Magic notwithstanding, was the fact that the Nanosuit let him evolve and adapt as the situation dictated, going from the pure stealth of a ghost to the unbreakable shield of an armored tank.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

The Bunker : Simulator Room
January 6, 19:27 EST

" . . . Okay I'll bite. Why is he fighting a tiny Godzilla with a water cannon on its back?" Mercury blinked as Ghanoush and McCallister showed them the latest batch of edited footage.

"Apparently this mission came from a mission the MSF carried out near Costa Rica," Ghanoush hummed as he pulled up a scan of a map, the word [CLASSIFIED] stamped in red above an island that neither of the younger mercs were familiar with.

"Isla del Monstruo…" McCallister hummed as he pulled up a separate data file. "Allegedly discovered in the 18th century by Caribbean pirates and served as the basis for Treasure Island-"

"Is that cat… standing on two feet…?" Emerald blinked incredulously at one of the pictures on the case file, featuring a brown and gray-patterned cat wearing goggles and a yellow hard hat.

"Are those dinosaurs blue?"

"Huh. Kinda looks like Jurassic Park in there."

"Right. Not like I worked hard on this PowerPoint or anything," Ghanoush huffed as they were interrupted yet again.

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

"So, how'd it feel to fight Water Cannon Godzilla?" Mercury asked as Emerald laid down in the VR pod next, the two boys grabbing a late night snack from the mess.

"I've literally seen too much weird shit to be surprised anymore," Virgil deadpanned.

"Shit, that bad, huh?"

"Probably. If I'm not mad already, I soon will be. Rest in Peace, normalcy."

"Eh, normal's for suckers and poor people," Mercury shrugged dismissively. "So, whatever happened to your cute groupies?"

"They're back at home, doing their own thing, probably," Virgil shrugged, hoping against hope that they weren't comparing notes regarding certain… niche subjects.

His ego wasn't so-big he thought that was the case with any real amount of sureness, but it was back there in his hindbrain like an annoying radio jingle.

"Still, congrats~ Even if one of them is a little frumpy."

"Excuse you?"

"I don't mean anything by it, even if one of them isn't meant for high-society galas."

"Says the guy with the Mc10:35."

"Hey, those things are delicous!""

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

The Bunker: Mess
January 7, 07:48 EST

That following morning, the flow of things would change…

The three of them fueling up for the long day ahead of them in the mess, Virgil sitting across from Cinder's learned youngsters, when the sound of a spoon clattering to the table caught their attention, they saw that Virgil's eyes had locked onto the flatscreen TV over their shoulders, the color drained from his face and his pupils dilated, his hair standing on end.

The two turning to the TV to see what had spooked the kid so badly, saw what looked like an anchorwoman standing in Melville Park. In the background, was situated an elegant lodge of ancient wood, its architecture possessing a certain "wrongness" that sent their neck hairs doing corkscrews Driving home further the fact that there was something very wrong going on, was the fact that surrounding the lodge that had unnaturally manifested in what had been an open field when they'd last seen it, was the high chain link fence with barbed wire and watchtowers at the corners; further surrounding that perimeter were armed police officers in full riot gear, shotguns clenched in a knuckle-whitening grip, their backs to the property as the police tried to hold back a tide of curious onlookers. Some were the homeless, some were layabouts with nothing better to do, and some looked like LARPers, a few protesting that the police were keeping them back from the creepily beautiful lodge.

"-I'm standing here in Melville Park on day seven of 'Lodge Watch'. As you can clearly see, the Bludhaven Police Department remains out in force around the perimeter fence, in response to unnatural phenomena of the supernatural variety. Said unnatural phenomena for those just checking in, are the inexplicable 'afflictions' faced by those who have come and gone from the lodge that defy all scientific explanation."

As various clips of people in hospital rooms or their own homes, their eyes black as pitch with ink running down their faces showed, Emerald and Mercury turned back to see that Virgil had gone deathly still, eyes quivering in his head as he watched.

"Hey Vee, what's with you?" Mercury asked. "You look like you shat out your own stomach."

"Oh, my stomach went somewhere alright…" Virgil muttered, feeling aforementioned internal organ sinking to somewhere the light of day didn't exist.

"Vee, do you recognize that building?" Emerald asked. "Because I definitely know that Melville Park didn't have a lodge before."

"That and there's all the stone people," Mercury added as a clip of a house surrounded by lifelike stone statues ran by on the screen, shortly after the more-humorous sight of a man laid out on his side stiff as a board like a frightened barnyard animal.

"I thought I was just hallucinating… or that it was all a bad dream…" Virgil shuddered, speaking more to himself than to them. "Filyss."

"Yes, Virgil?"

"Please tell Miller I need to go topside for some fresh air."

"How much fresh air?"

"A lot of fresh air."

"Very well. I'll let her know right away," the AI replied, Virgil having already bolted from his seat for the surface elevator.

" . . . Magic?" Emerald inquired with a raised brow.

"Oh yeah," Mercury nodded as a clip of a man floating in midair in defiance of gravity showed on the screen.

"Think we should help him?"

"Probably not," Mercury hummed as a clip of a man who had allegedly been dancing for six days played.

" . . . How much do you think he knows?"

"More than he wants to, less than he should."

" . . . "

"What, you actually wanna help that guy?" Mercury scoffed.

"I want to… but Magic's way out of my ballpark. I'd be less than useless out there."

"Well then, we'd better offer a prayer for our future paycheck."

"Pft. Like you believe in capital-g God."

"What can I say? Religion is the new atheism."

*VIRTUOUS MISSION*

All you Borderlands fans know that's coming next. Hope you anticipated the buildup! Cause shit's about to get… tentacular!