There was a muffled
clang
from the top of the ship. "Took you guys long enough," Cora muttered. Mar rose from the couch, sprinting back to the engine bay before audibly, dramatically collapsing to the ground. She followed him from a distance, failing to fight back a laugh.
"Cora?" She looked up. Tai was peering nervously from the ceiling.
"There you are. Did you find his medicine?"
Tai drew back from the opening, whispering to someone else. The back end of a rifle appeared, loaded with a bright orange canister. "We got it," Della said, loud enough to make Tai jump and swear at him.
There's your cue, Mar.
As Tai swore at Della, a deep growl echoed down the hall. She shivered.
Shit, he really knows how to be scary.
Tai jumped down, motioning to Della, who followed him. However, instead of landing on his feet, Tai caught him, helping him stand. There was still a brace on his leg.
"What were you thinking?" Though he was facing forward, Cora knew he was talking to her.
She scoffed. "None of you considered that he had the executive override codes. I kept him on the ship."
"And how'd you do that?" Della turned his head to the side, eyeing her.
"I can fit in the electrical access panels. He can't. It was easy to avoid him."
They both made a sound that clearly said,
I don't believe you.
"What? Shit, here he comes." She took several steps back. His eyes glinted in the dim light.
Della's rifle made a distinct
clack-clack
as he primed it. Like they'd done this a million times, he stood behind Tai, their backwards steps syncing as he took aim.
Mar came out of the shadows, back on fours, his teeth bared.
He's still pretending, right?
"Remember," Tai murmured, his voice incredibly calm. "Mid-thigh. He won't go down immediately."
Della scoffed, then fired. There was a loud, harsh hiss, loud enough to make Cora's ears ring. Wincing, Cora watched as Mar rose from the ground again. He lunged.
Unfazed by this, Della smacked his rifle open, reloading it with a neon yellow cartridge. With a flick of his wrist, he swung it shut and took aim again.
Cora clapped her hands to her ears as a neon yellow dart sprouted from Mar's other leg. He tried to dodge, several seconds too late.
Tai charged forward, slamming his entire body weight into the enraged Roshak. Della stumbled backwards, wincing.
Shit. He can't run.
Her fears were misplaced, however. Tai had wrestled Mar to the ground, a knee in his back and an arm around his neck. Mar snarled, thrashing in his grasp.
"You're making this more difficult," Tai grunted, heaving Mar upwards and tightening his grip. Mar responded by rearing his head back, slamming it into Tai's face. "Fuck- Really, Mar?"
Nervously, Della called out to him. "Was it not enough?"
"No, we did the dose by his weight. It just-" Mar thrashed again, knocking him back and breaking free. Tai was quickly on his feet again, circling him. "It takes a while to work."
Cora stepped in front of Della, on the side of his bad leg. He leaned on her, putting his rifle strap over his shoulder.
As Mar tried to lunge for Tai again, he stumbled, falling to the ground. His movements were sluggish and uneven, and as he stood, he fell once more.
Still, Tai kept his distance. "See? It just takes a while."
He made a few more weak attempts, eventually crumpling to the floor.
"Okay." Tai stood, rolling his shoulder and wincing. "Shit."
Cora didn't like his sudden change in tone. "What?"
"The plan was to take him back to the clinic, but we didn't bring Tor along and now... I can't carry him all the way back.
She deadpanned, then groaned, rolling her eyes. "Did you two rush everything once you realized I was here?"
While Della was nodding and offering an earnest
of course,
Tai was shaking his head and saying
of course not.
They stopped, giving each other a sour look.
Cora sighed. "I should have known."
"Cora, he could have killed you."
It took everything in her not to roll her eyes again. It wasn't their fault that she'd just had the roughest all-nighter of her entire life. "No, the Noxis I ran into on my way here could have killed me. But I got him first. Kind of. Or the big scaly thing that busted into the engine bay."
"Noxis?"
"Big scaly thing?"
"Let's get Mar off the floor, then I'll show you."
She worked with Tai to move him to the couch, trying to hide how much she was struggling. Mar was
heavy
.
"Follow me."
"Oh." Tai stopped in the doorway, eyes wide.
Della ran into him, unable to stop in time. "What? What is it?"
"You didn't do that," his tone wavered between question and statement.
Cora shook her head. "No. That was all Mar. I hid," she paused and pointed up to the exhaust piping. "Up there."
Della circled the corpse, visibly nauseous. "Even for Mar, that's impressive."
"Yeah. Look at what it did to the door." They both turned to look, Della biting back a gasp. "Shit."
Tai whipped back to her. "Wait, Noxis?"
She shuddered. "Yeah. I had one follow me here. I took his head off, and he kept following me."
"You took his head off," Della whispered reverently.
"Oh, right. They've got a secondary brain in their abdomen. That's the one that processes the basic functions. Speech, emotion, and whatnot are done in the one up here." He tapped his forehead.
"Good to know." Cora could have done with that information
much
earlier. "Want me to head back to Meli's and get Tor?"
Tai shook his head, giving her a pointed look. "We don't travel alone in the forest."
Della straightened up, testing his bad leg. "I can go, I just can't fight."
"Della. That's the only requirement from the forest. You have to be able to fight."
This was getting them nowhere.
