Moltezz was stood, deep in thought, strong and silent, her hands clasped tightly behind her back as her sharp halolike eyes stared intently out into space. She was dressed in a distinguished black gown, light and silken with a sharp tantalising 'V' cutting down the length of her entire torso, sparing only a few inches of fabric before the dress opened into a long slit, exposing the Mistress' thigh. Although she looked a true picture of elegance and grace, as she stood before the glass of Barru X's observation deck, hidden from the rest of the room her brow was heavy and her face was stern, as she processed the information currently being thrown around the room.
Behind her, Leech sat before a set of hastily wired together laptops, slumped in her seat and rubbing her chin as her tired eyes darted between the screens. Her arm was fully healed now, and Moltezz had been quick to put her new hand to work. The desks which housed the laptops were littered with empty mugs, coffee rings and shiny foil wrappers from various different snacks. Around her, Tani, Mina and Mook, as well as various other Nodes, scribbled away at notepads and stared at screens of their own, their expression mirroring much of the same gravatas of the two Controllers in the room.
"Tell me again." Moltezz said softly, still faced away from Leech.
Leech stiffled a sigh, then for what felt like the hundredth time repeated to Moltezz: "We have nothing that can breach the DA border. Nothing. The best ship we had was the Radon, and... well, that's long gone now. Fucked off into space."
"All our efforts over the last seven months, and that's it? That's all we have to show for it? Nothing?" Moltezz's voice was unusually quiet, and yet she still spoke with such projection and authority that her voice seemed to boom and echo around the room.
"We have nomad tech. Civilian vessels. Some are a little better armed than others, but nomads are who we've been corrupting. So that's what we've got."
"And all our vessels are unsuitable for this task?"
"Unsuitable? That's an understatement." Leech said flatly, drumming her fingers against the arm of her chair. The Nodes exchanged a worried glance as she did so. "The DA will have massively reinforced the border since our little... excursion to their space station. We got lucky we survived at all. But now? They'll be on high-alert. They'll have cruisers on patrol, surface-to-orbit plasma emplacements and anti-grav fighters ready to intercept anyone they deem a threat - the whole kit-kaboodle. We'd get turned into fish food if we even tried to approach the border." Suddenly, Leech huffed and sat forward. "I suppose this is what we get for even daring to cross the DA..."
"But the planet in question isn't near here, is it?" Moltezz asked, ignoring Leech's criticisms, tapping her foot against the floor.
"No. But that's not a good thing either! It's waaaay up, closer to Cyrune territory. The border is even more guarded there!"
"Cyr..? Mpth. Leech, less names, more solutions, please." Moltezz sighed loudly, pressing her fingers to her brow.
Leech cupped her hands over her face and dragged them down, her fingers pressing into her sea-green skin.
"There is no solution! We've been at this for days now, if there was one, I would have found it! This isn't going to work, Moltezz! We'd be better off trying to ambush Seeth as she leaves DA territory, rather than trying to get to Diego first. And when I say 'better off,' what I really mean is, it's literally the only thing we can do." The Nodes glanced at each-other again, flipping through their notepads desperately as Leech gestured tiredly at the laptops. "I've had the girls do an inventory check of every ship we've got. Anything with an engine and a cockpit. Even if we left now in our fastest ships, ignoring the fact we'd be turned into hole-ridden scrap, we still wouldn't make it before the R-M-Douchebags complete the handover on Monday."
Moltezz did sigh then, loudly, shaking her head gently.
"No. Everything has come together too perfectly for this to be how it ends. We will find a way... I can feel it." A lick of flame accompanied her final words, spiralling its way up and along her exposed leg.
Moltezz finally turned around then, to face Leech. For a second, the radiance in her golden-ringed eyes seemed dulled, somewhat glassy... and Leech looked away.
"W-We have nothing, but... but maybe we can start looking into where Seeth has been, where she might go afterwards? Get some intel, and begin to track her down? I just don't see how else we're going to -"
Suddenly, Barru X started to shake violently, a deep rumble permeating every floor on the station, rocking everything but the two Controllers.
"What the..." Moltezz started, but her voice trailed off as Leech suddenly stood bolt upright, her undersized chair clattering against the floor behind her. She, along with the Nodes, were all staring past her, disbelief on their faces...
Slowly, Moltezz turned her gaze outside once more.
A titanic wall of dark grey metal stretched out as far as she could see. Something absolutely gigantic had warped right next to Barru X! It was so large in size that it completely dwarfed the station, as though they were little more than a little tin box, floating in space... Moltezz immediately went to raise her defences, flames erupting between her fingers dancing across her digits, however, before she could do much else, she suddenly felt something - a presence - from inside the gargantuan invader.
"Leech. Do you feel that?"
They felt it together. A wave of new, fresh bodies joining the hierclasty all at once.
"What the fuck...? Is that...? Is that thing full of Nodes?!"
Tani suddenly went stiff and jolted in her seat, as a voice that wasn't her own boomed out of her mouth.
"COME MEET ME AT THE DOCKS! I WILL EXPLAIN!" She yelled into the room.
"Ink?! Oh my god, what the fuck have you done?!" Leech cried out, reaching up and gripping tightly onto her dreadlocks. But Moltezz paid her little heed, and quickly turned and swept out of the room, her Nodes in tow as a small Darkpaw shuttle docked with Barru X.
Moltezz and her troupe quickly made their way down to the docking bay, their various shoes, boots and heels all clacking on the floor as they made their way over to the base of the stairs. They arrived just in time to see Ink step out of a shuttle airlock on the uppermost floor, accompanied by a tall, attractive Node. As curious as they all were to hear what Ink had been up to and find out more about her new Node, it was hard for them to keep their eyes off the gigantic ship behind her.
"Welcome back, Ink." A wide smile slowly stretched across Moltezz's face, the stress of the last few days finally starting to ease. Her smile only widened as she eyed Zhali's new curvaceous body, the Node hovering slightly behind Ink. "I see you've been busy. Care to catch us up?"
"I went to Darkpaw!" Ink started confidently, puffing out her chest, her grin almost wider than the one Moltezz was currently wearing. Although there was pride, there was also something more pure, or perhaps naive in her expression as her eyes drifted from Moltezz to Leech, desperate for her approval.
"And what in the orbiting FUCK did you bring back?!" Leech snapped, barging past Moltezz and storming up the stairs to meet the Controller, her buckled leather boots thudding heavily against the metal. Ink was taller than Leech anyway, their height difference only elevated by the stairs, but under Leech's tired but intense, toxic stare, Ink's demeanour faltered.
"I-I... I went to Darkpaw and... corrupted their CEO..." The wind had been knocked clean out of Ink's sails - or rather tentacles in this instance, which were currently gesturing dramatically to Zhali, encouraging her forward. "I... I thought you'd be -"
Leech slapped her hands over the girl's cheeks, pressing them together.
"- ARE YOU FUCKING DAFT?! YOU WALTZED INTO A MEGA-CORP'S HEAD QUARTERS AND FUCKED THEIR CEO?! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?! THEY COULD HAVE FUCKING KILLED YOU!"
Immediately Ink began to tear up. She grabbed Leech's wrists, pushed her hands away and stumbled back, her tentacles curling and positioning around her upper body like a shield.
"I-I thought you'd be happy! We corrupted half of the company! They're all here, for YOU to use! I even brought their secret project ship!"
"YOU COULD HAVE DIED! ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME?! WHAT IF YOU HADN'T COME BACK?! NONE OF THIS WOULD MATTER, YOU STUPID SEXY IDIOT FUCKHEAD! I'VE LOST TOO MANY PEOPLE TO... TO... to... UGH!" Leech lurched back, her fingers clenched like claws in frustration. "YOU COULD HAVE JUST DISAPPEARED ONE DAY AND NEVER COME BACK!" She screamed.
Ink visibly recoiled, shrinking on the spot, her tentacles wrapping around her body to shelter her from Leech's gaze. The dark circles around her eyes somehow made her look all the more furious. Before Leech could reprimand her further though, a firm, warm hand clasped the back of her neck, squeezing it ever so slightly.
"Now now. That's enough. You're upset over milk which hasn't been spilt, Leech?" Moltezz purred. She stepped towards Ink, placing herself between the two Controllers. "You've done some amazing work, Ink. You took a risk and it paid off. That is to be commended, not reprimanded." Moltezz smiled warmly up at her.
Leech shook herself free of Moltezz's grasp, a long hot shiver running down her back. She retreated a few steps down the stairs, and stared down at the metal plating in silence. She refused to look at either of them.
Ink on the other hand, couldn't pull her eyes away from Leech. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Why was she so angry? Why wasn't she proud? But before she could dwell on those thoughts for too long, suddenly, she felt Moltezz's glow, her warmth across her body. It soothed the pounding in her chest, and illuminated Ink's soft brown skin in a shining golden light. Slowly, Ink managed to drag her gaze away from the Controller, who was currently stropping in the Mistress' shadow, and looked Moltezz in the eye.
And in her eyes, Ink saw pride.
"We-We managed to corrupt lots of Darkpaw's staff before they rallied together." Ink's confidence was returning under Moltezz's strong gaze. "I took what forces we had, loaded them up onto the ship, and used their cell to teleport the ship here."
