Media: (from left to right) Hikaru Hasama, Tsubasa Otori, Kyoya Tategami

[This is more of a filler chapter for what's to come- a lot of dialogue. And yes, yes, the spelling of Tsubaka is intentional]

"Tess... what the hell are you doing here?"

I froze in my tracks, my mind scrambling to identify the voice. It couldn't be the medics- they probably wouldn't use the word 'hell', nor Kyoya, since the voice was female.

Turning slowly with my hands facing upwards, I raised my gaze to the speaker.

"... Una?!" 

"Yo, you idiot. What kinda of trouble did you get into this time?" My cousin responded, a hand on her hip. 

"Nothing!" I denied.

Una raised a blonde eyebrow, a smirk curving her lips.

"Oh, I guess I'm not needed. Very well.." 

With that, she turned her back and sassily walked away. 

"... baka, of course you're in trouble. That's what my little cousin does!" 

I released a small 'oofhm' as, out of nowhere, Una pulled me into an awkward side-hug. Neither of us were very-touchy people, but it was a moment every now and then.

"You're the baka," I muttered.

"No, you are." 

"No, you are!"

"Baka!"

"Baka back at you!" 

"BAKA!" 

"Whoa, I walked into a cat-fight." 

I looked over Una's shoulder, my eyes going wide. "G-Grayson!"

The Virgo blader grinned. "Sup? We were originally supposed ta' break into the Dark Nebuliya or whatever it's called's headquarters, because we thought both that you and that Tategami guy were captured." 

"Of course I wasn't captured," I said, flicking him in the forehead. "I'm the glorious Tess Rixen!"

"You wish," Una joked, whacking me hard on my shoulder. "Moron." 

"Ow," I muttered playfully. 

"But yeah, Grayson just basically blurted our whole plan to you. Guess we have to kill you now. Shame," Una sniggered, then snorted ungracefully as I turned pale. "Kidding, kidding. Why would I have an amazing army of five just to kill someone?"

"Maybe 'cause they'll be the future president of Canada?" 

"What?" 

"Nothing," I strained my head to look over Grayson. "Army of five?" 

"Oh, yeah."

Una made a gesture at the bushes. "Come on out, guys."

Slowly, three people made their way out of the bushes- one armed with a NERF gun.

"Una, you have got to be kidding me." 

I recognized the one with the said gun- innocent, little Kimi, who was hopefully not corrupted by the dirtiness of Una's mind- I wasn't just yet, anyway. She met my gaze with a timid smile, waving the NERF gun around slightly.

The other two I also recognized- one I hardly knew, and the other I didn't even know, although I had never seen his face before.

"Hello, Tess," Hikaru remarked absently, rubbing the fabric of her collar between two of her fingers. 

"Hiiiiiiikkkkkkkarooooooooo!" I punched the air. 

"My name ends in a u." 

"It doesn't matter! Yo!" 

The coldness she used to possess had seeped away- just by a little. Now, her amethyst gaze shone with a bit more confidence as she held her head a bit higher. 

"And... I don't happen to remember your name," I said, turning to the second person.

He merely smiled, and offered a gloved hand. "Hyoma. Nice to meet you."

"He's not an oddball," Una added. "Or a psycho. I think."

"Your cousin has made her distaste for me clear, as you can see." Hyoma smiled again. 

"Obviously," I joked. "I don't think you've made her as upset as Ryden breaking up did."

At that comment, my cousin stiffened. "We don't talk about Capetown."

I nodded in agreement. "We don't talk about Capetown." 

OoO

"So, where'd you get the NERF gun again?"

"Your mom," Una replied, fiddling with the cleaning cloth as she attempted to clean a spot on her phone- something that was capturing her attention, and has been for the last twenty minutes. "Kidding. Store." 

"Lovely," I mumbled. "What else is new?"

"Well, Tsubaka hasn't been found out yet, so that's a plus- less work for me, my boss-" she snorted as she used the nickname. " hasn't offered me any work since Tsubaka left, so that left me to sob over all the sunken gay ships in bandoms. Well, and just gay ships in general." 

"No one cares about your ships and your bands, Una," Hikaru said shortly from her seat, cleaning Aquario.

In unison, both Una and I gasped. "How dare you!" 

"I dare, clearly," the Aquario user murmured, then stood. "Are you guys about ready for the meeting? Because I'm getting Kimi, Grayson, and Hyoma." 

"I have my ramen," I responded, holding up the box of noodles. "So I'm content to start whenever." 

"I like ramen," Una muttered, then tossed the napkin on the table, instead pocketing her phone. 

In what almost seemed like seconds, Hikaru reappeared with the other three.

"How'd you find them so fast?"

"Well,  let's see," Hikaru said, rolling her eyes up in thought. "Grayson was trying to convince the clerk to give him a free cookie, but Hyoma was offering rebuttals while Kimi just doodled on her leg with a pen." 

Una's eyes flashed towards Grayson, who shrugged. "Hey, I've eaten in this place before- it's why I brought you here. Those cookies are killer." 

"All right, walk me through," I said, leaning back in my chair and nibbling at a noodle. "How'd this... group start?"

"Oh, I can answer that," Grayson piped up. "I noticed that you weren't at the headquarters at all for a couple days, so I talked to Rehn about it. He shrugged it off, which I found strange." I found Una in the headquarters, demanding to know where her cousin was, so I offered  her to start a search party on our own. 

"We managed to grab information from both Kato and Riyui about what you were doing, but we had no clue... until we saw Hyoma on the street, who was talking with Hikaru. In exchange for his and her help on this team-thing, they told us even more information, in which we narrowed it down to the Dark Nebula headquarters. We had no idea where these 'headquarters' were, so we picked up Kimi. She knows."

We all looked towards the smaller girl, who was, once again, absently doodling on her thigh.

"Una wanted to raid the Dark Nebula- Tsubasa'll let her in. Besides, I know about your case about Saki. Riyui demanded that if we're gonna get in, we have to try our hardest to grab Saki and get out."

"You guys can get out afterwards," I said, staring at the table. "I need to find Shaun. That's the whole reason why I went in the first place."

A blink of understanding, then Grayson cracked a smile. "We'll wait." 

I jerked up right, slamming my hands on the table, then winced as my head spun. "Dammit...! But no! You guys are getting the hell out of there, because I'm not going to be at blame for all of us getting captured." 

Una shook her head. "No, we can't do that," she said firmly, one hand curling into a white-knuckled fist. "We're all going to remain in contact." 

"And how do we plan to do that?" Hyoma asked, his chin resting on the palm of his hand. 

"These," Una said, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out... whoopie cushions.

"Goddammit, Una." 

Everyone but the blonde stared at her with wide eyes, before both her and Grayson burst out laughing.

"Kidding, kidding!" she choked out, then pulled out something else.

Six earpieces fell onto the table.

"Earpieces," Grayson announced. "They're all connected, so no private conversations. Got it?" 

My lips twitched. 

"Oh, I am so going to enjoy spilling Doji's orange juice all over his hair."