Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In a large bedroom, littered with standard things like a bed and a nightstand with the addition of lots of garbage scattered on the floor stood a tall cage with thin bars. It was tall enough that it went from the floor straight to the ceiling, much like a standard parrot's cage, yet it did not come with the standard feet that held it up. Rather, a box of flimsy cardboard framed the cage's bottom snugly, keeping it clean from the various bits of candy wrappers and discarded refuse which littered the worn carpeted floor in addition to keeping some straw bedding within the cage parameters. The cage had several platforms, each adorned with small hideaways filled with more straw, adorned with windows, and even doors through which mice and the like could waltz. Next to these houses, hamster wheels, water bowls and ladders aplenty were stationed, each large enough for four hamsters. It even had a myriad of tubes a hamster could climb through, which in turn spanned the whole room to link to many smaller, cardboard-shielded cages scattered throughout.

But, there were no hamsters to be had within any of the cages. Not a mouse was to be found here, either. There was instead a rather slender miniature person, about as tall as a hamster would be long, sitting on one of the platforms of the large cage with her arms crossed over her naked bosom. Her hair was long and haggard, trailing down her back and past her rear in what could only be called a mass so thoroughly tangled it had gotten to the point one would be hard-pressed to determine when it had last been brushed. It glinted a soft silver in what little light was in the room, yet in reality it was more of a pastel blue that was almost as pale as her complexion. Her eyes, sporting every color of the rainbow, narrowed dangerously low as she scanned the room beyond her cage. She could have, of course, gone to the other cages as she pleased thanks to the tubes which had interconnected them, but she didn't.

Her blood was boiling at the indignity of it all. One hand parted from her chest, and blue and red flames swirled up her arm to congeal into a ball as large as her head, its sparks dancing with a sizzle at her fingertips. Curiously, the fire failed to burn her, even as she held it mere inches from her body. She lazily threw the ball of flame to the bars, yet it dissipated upon impact… and the bars did not melt. She formed another ball and hurled it at a tube, but instead of melting it, the ball traversed the tube to one of the smaller cages which had been sitting on a bookshelf.

The books didn't catch so much as a tongue, either. The hideaway and the hamster wheel within failed to react as well, and as with before the flames dispersed harmlessly. The hamster-sized lass tried a different tactic, and for a second her raised hand shuddered haltingly before, with a mechanical whir preceding it, a bright blue light danced out from her palm. The light formed a spheroid shape slowly, piece by piece, almost like a hologram coming to life. Color seeped in, and the spheroid object became black with red lines spanning its body, encircling two red lights that flickered on either end with a rhythmic beeping.

Once it had formed fully and the light ceased dancing from her hand, she grabbed the sphere and weighed it for a few seconds. It felt as real as the platform she sat on, as real as her overtly spacious prison. She lobbed the object at the bars, and smiled as it beeped just prior to exploding, covering an entire section of the cage with another platform in fire and smoke. The acrid scent, bizarrely, calmed her nerves, and her glare eased.

When the fire and smoke faded, though, her brow furrowed when she saw that the bars didn't dent, melt, or even snap. They, and the platform that was next to them, suffered not so much as one scratch. The woman jumped to her feet and snarled, before she raced to the nearest bar and kicked it. This proved to be fruitless, however, as it merely sent a jolt of pain right up her leg, as in her anger she forgot to angle her toes away from the bar, and so ended up spraining one of them. "Aiiiiyeeeeeeeeee!" she shrieked in a shrill cacophony, lifting her foot and clasping it in her hands as she hopped on the other for balance, watching her toes more than where she was going.

As a result, she tumbled ass over teakettle off the platform, and right to the bottom of her cage. The straw at the bottom cushioned her fall immensely, but even so, she was muttering small expletives after her rather unprecedented landing. "When I get out of this cage… I will burn this room…" she hissed, lifting her head from the straw with her face turning a healthy shade of red. Her rambling stopped as she heard a door open, followed by the sound of footsteps that landed with enough force to slightly jostle the straw. She growled and turned to the source, seeing a massive woman with a pair of pink pajamas cupping something in her hands. Her hair was brown, short, and askew, and her grey eyes gleamed with interest. If not for her large bosom, the miniature person would have mistaken the giant for a teenage boy on the cusp of manhood.

She lifted a hand, formed another spheroid object, and lobbed it at the bars. Immediately, grey eyes fell onto her, and the giantess gave a smug, triumphant smirk at her as another fruitless explosion died without damaging anything. "N'aaaawww, trying to bomb your way out again, Starbo?" the giantess asked, her tone brash, mocking and booming to the tiny person trapped in the massive cage. "Ain't that just precious?"

"Shorten my name like that again, and I will wedge my bombs so far up your ass you'd taste the smoke before they can go off!" the miniature woman yelled, forming another bomb in her hand as she said that.

The giantess smiled, and knelt down to fumble with a section of the cage that had a latch. "Not my problem, seeing as I can just make everything fire and bomb-proof," she snarked, keeping one hand cupped precariously around something even as she worked a cage door open. "So, Star Breaker… since you can't play nice… I decided this was how you're getting punished."

Star Breaker snarled at that. "What are you insinuating?" she asked.

The giantess let her smirk widen just a little. "You've been in Hell this past year, because you just won't learn otherwise," she stated simply. "Magical Hell, to be precise. Oh, and that reminds me… you have a playmate."

Star Breaker froze, but only for a second as the bomb she formed trembled in her hand. "A… playmate…" Her lips pursed, before a chuckle wormed its way out of her throat. "Finally, I can torch something!"

The giantess shook her head and tutted her. "Try all you want… you ain't getting results, just like the very first day I dragged your ass here." She lowered her cupped hand with that, and set something on the bottom of the massive cage before pulling back and closing the door she had opened, making sure to affix the latch securely. "And before you ask… your playmate isn't getting punished, at least not as bad as you." She stood up and walked out of the room, closing the larger door on her way out.

Star Breaker growled and turned to her 'playmate,' finding a young naked man as shrunken and tall as she. He was busy wiping a set of glasses against a bit of straw, mumbling indignantly himself. As he cleaned, his short and tousled brown hair moved, and his brown eyes held a distinct fog in them that indicated either restlessness, or some sort of problem in his retinas. She lobbed the bomb at him, but the shot went wide, and the resulting explosion did not even phase him in the slightest. "What the…" she muttered, blinking to confirm what she had just witnessed.

She formed another bomb and hurled it, this time actually hitting him on the side of the head. The bomb bounced off and promptly exploded, enveloping him in a smog-filled blaze that made him double over and cough profusely. Giggling now, Star Breaker patiently waited for the fire and smoke to die and see the results.

The results she got were far less than favorable. The man was still standing, still polishing his glasses, without one hint of charred skin or a bubbling blister to be seen. And though he was now hunched, this was because a terrible case of the coughs wracked his body, and he did not seem otherwise pained in the slightest. "C-could you not d-do that? Y-you aren't th-the only one th-that needs to b-breathe!" the man wheezed, hacking between words as the smog left his lungs.

"B-bwaaaaa…" Star Breaker shook her head, pupils dilating at the sight she beheld. She lifted both hands, letting them go high above her head, and conjured a ball of flame as large as one of the platforms. She trembled in place for a moment as the man put his glasses back on, before chucking the fireball at him with bravado. The ball smacked him, and knocked him to the straw, sending his glasses askew and engulfing him all in a mere second.

The fire failed to eat the straw, but Star Breaker didn't care much for it. Her focus was on her 'playmate,' who did not get up from the pyre. She smirked and walked carefully to him, relishing in the warmth of the fire before it snuffed itself out. The man, it seemed, had been bested by the flames… until he hopped up to his feet, righted his glasses, and leveled a steely glare at her.

"I said, could you not do that?" he huffed indignantly, inhaling deeply and puffing out his chest as he stormed over to Star to hit her on the shoulder. Baffled, she staggered back from the hit, her smile falling faster than either could blink. "We both need to breathe, thank you, and I'd rather my air crisp and clean!"

"I-I…" Star Breaker's mind halted, and she stared at the man as if he were from another planet. The man shoved her again, and got right into her face.

"Have you no consideration for your fellow people? No concern for others' well being?" the man snapped, face reddening and scowl deepening as he spoke. "I was just trying to mind my own damned business, and here you are chucking fire and bombs like a fucking lunatic! Well let me tell you, missy, that shit would not fly anywhere that isn't war-torn!" He gestured outside the cage, waving a hand erratically. "Does anything here look war-torn to you? It sure as fuck doesn't look that way to me!"

After his main rant was over and done with, and he had taken some deep breaths, the man simply stared into Star Breaker’s prismic eyes, as if to find some sort of weakness within her to exploit. However, Star Breaker wouldn’t give him the chance. She simply stared back at him with eyes filled with an almost equal amount of disgust. This staredown would potentially have lasted for the next few minutes, but the man’s eye was caught by something behind Star Breaker. “What’s that!?” he suddenly yelled, eyes widening, pointing behind her. Star Breaker turned her head to look at whatever he was blabbering about, only to see nothing there, unless the garbage outside the cage counted as something.

“What the hell are you…” When she turned her head to look back at the man, he was already gone. The path which he took was carved within the straw in a thick line. Within the span of only about fifteen seconds, he had already made it to the second platform of the cage, a feat that would take most people at least two minutes to scale. “... Cheeky fucker—hey!” Finally catching on, Star Breaker broke into a sprint and began climbing the cage after him. “Get back here!” she demanded, attempting to follow in his steps.

Upon reaching the third platform, the man sprinted for one of the fake wooden homes and vaulted in through one of the small wooden windows. Once he was in, he laid as flat as he could on the ground, and simply hoped the woman wasn’t smart enough to find him. Fortunately, the straw within the small hideaway concealed him on impact, glasses and all. "For the love of…" Star Breaker hissed, poking her head into the window. She scanned the straw as carefully as she could, eyes twitching and body trembling in rage that had yet to be released. The man held every single function of his body he possibly could, in an attempt to not make a single solitary motion.

She climbed into the hideaway from its window, only to fall with another string of small expletives leaving her mouth as she had the absence of mind to land on her hurt foot first. Upon fully climbing in, the woman huffily looked around, trying to find out where the man had went while unknowingly standing right atop him. She glanced to and fro fitfully, eyes turning red at their fringes, blood surging with a fresh wave of anger that was just waiting to be channeled into very violent acts… if and when she managed to actually get her hands on him.

She turned back to the window and jumped out, her fitful scanning proving fruitless, her irritation rising substantially as she hopped back onto the platform and stormed to the top of the cage. After waiting a few more seconds, just to be sure she was gone, or at least not in the house, the man emerged from the straw. And he leaned up against the wall, taking long, deep breaths to calm his rattled nerves. "Just don't let her get to you, Kai…" he mumbled to himself, before his brain halted when he recalled something that should have hit him, yet flew over his head until now.

His face turned three shades redder as he recalled Star Breaker's exposed body. Admittedly, her chucking fire and bombs at him, as well as his need to retain perfect eye contact to keep up some form of facade of intimidation may have been the twin culprits in letting him miss something that painfully obvious. But, after some thought he turned over the remarks he had said to her… and some part of him found them less serious and much more amusing given this particular turn of circumstances.

He started to wonder just how she was able to withstand fire and smoke, for one, and how she had gotten so pale despite the fact. Pushing thoughts of other things aside for the moment, his hand rose, and he scratched the side of his head in thought. The lass was strange; that much was clear to him… Maybe all she needed was a friend… That friend wasn’t going to be him, however. Not a chance in hell. Her first impressions seriously lacked in the pleasantries department, for crying out loud. However, he did openly recognize she could use a friend, thus he wasn’t part of the problem.

He lifted his other hand and smacked his face with it. "Damnit Tomomo…" he grumbled. "Why did you have to shrink me and stick me with a crazy bitch? At least you could have provided us both with clothes…" That made his mental gears spin in reverse all over again, until he reconsidered what had just flown out of his mouth.

But that was a moment he did not have to spare. "Aha!" Star Breaker yelled, hearing Kai’s rambling and having come back down to investigate, though quietly so he wouldn't have caught her lost in his musings. She jumped through the window and tackled him with a cry of manic delight, pupils shrinking and lips contorting into the most disconcerting grin Kai had ever seen. She seized his neck with one hand and lifted the other hand, balled it into a fist, and let fire swirl up her arm before making the lunge that would have knocked his lights clean out… if Kai didn't shift his head at the absolute last second.

He struggled mightily, ducking away from the flaming fist as she kept trying to cave his face in with it. Yet his pursuer did not yield her hold in the slightest, her already-unnerving smile somehow widening as she repeatedly attempted to pound him through the platform. This lasted for several long moments, before Kai seized her lowered hand to shake her off. Her grip remained steely, however, and if anything this merely increased the feverish pace at which she attempted to rend him into a pulpified state tenfold. He ducked and cursed for ten long minutes after, when he realized his legs were free. In a last attempt to break away from the crazy bitch, Kai did what he personally considered was 'The Gentleman’s Last Resort.'

In other words, he attempted the knee Star Breaker in the cooch. His knee made direct contact with her upper crotch, right in it’s most sensitive area. Star Breaker’s face of delightful wrath did not change… but she also did not move in the slightest after that. The most that shifted was her raised fist, which shuddered haltingly before the fire around it died with a crackle. Kai nudged her a bit to the side, and she completely slipped off of him, hand loosening off his neck like it had been oiled. After about three seconds, she slumped to the floor and let out an ear piercing scream of pain.

Kai got up and made another mad dash up the platforms, and down a series of winding tubes as that long, cacophonous wail continued unimpeded. He could've sworn the scream itself was following him, but as for the banshee who was still producing that scream… he hid in the hut on the bookshelf and poked his head out.

Star Breaker was nowhere in sight. But her ghastly wail rattled the large cage nonetheless. Kai knew that if he wanted to stand a chance in hell against her, he was going to need a weapon of some sort. Her steely grip and demented demeanor told him one thing: whatever she was, Star Breaker could not be called human beyond her looks. Her eyes were the clearest indicator of that fact.

So that begged the question: what was she, and what weapon could possibly deter her? Sadly, within such a controlled environment, there wasn’t much in the form of genuine lethal weaponry he could use. However, something did catch his eye that could at least be used to deter her wrath. On the floor sat a toothpick, obviously used from one end having some sort of pink, sugary gunk stuck to one side of it.

But how was he going to reach it? Before he could ruminate on this, the door to the room opened, and the giantess stormed inside as the unholy scream continued. "Okay, what in hell happened?" she hissed, rushing to the large cage before opening its door and sticking her hand inside to figure out what was going wrong.

Kai winced. He would have cried out to the giant, but Star Breaker would have probably drowned him out amidst her still-ongoing shrieking. The giantess searched and searched, until she reached the hut on the third platform and cradled the ailing woman in her palm. Grey eyes narrowed upon seeing two tiny hands clasping a reddening, tiny crotch. "Hey, chill," the giant intoned, lifting a hand and curling her fingers forward to gently rub Star on her back.

The hollering stopped, but Star Breaker seized up upon contact. "Aiiiiyaaaaa...." Star whined, her face twisted in what could only be called a portrait of pain: eyes screwed shut, tears budding at their corners, and mouth contorted in a grimace so wide Kai wondered how her cheeks didn't split yet, all beset by a shade of blood crimson. "That… cheeky bastard…" she muttered in a tight, squeaky voice that was more akin to a rusty door hinge pitch-wise.

The giantess simply shushed the tiny Star Breaker, continuing to rub her back against her will. “Shhhhhh. It’s alright, my baby. Shhhhh.”

“Don’t… c-call me…. your b-baby, T-Tomomo.” Star Breaker was able to get out of the initial rubbing, wiggling a bit in an attempt to shake free of Tomomo’s grip. But fingers tightened around her, rendering the effort void.

“But that’s what you are! My tiny, adorable, insignificant little baby. And until I say otherwise, that’s how you’ll remain for the rest of your life. You're in Magical Hell, after all, and I decide how long you live. For fuck's sake, I might just make you immortal, for all I care!” Tomomo chirped, and put Star back in the cage, tenderly on the straw-filled floor. She pulled her hand back and closed the door. "So… why did you scream?"

Star Breaker made no effort to stand, nor an answer for that matter. Her groin ached something fierce, and her mind was sent into far too deep a tizzy to really comprehend the question. But when her eyes opened, they went alight with a blaze of primal fury. "That cheeky bastard!" she cried with a wince.

Tomomo sighed and gazed about the room. "Kai, come out… and tell me what the fuck went down," she groaned. Now it was Kai's turn to wince. "Because your playmate doesn't seem to like you…"

Kai gulped and clambered out of the hut he had taken refuge in. "She tried punching me, and strangling me at the same time… and I acted in self-defense by... kneeing her between the legs," he muttered, a bit disappointed in himself for that last statement. “It was the gentleman’s last resort! She gave me no choice!”

Tomomo lifted a hand and facepalmed. "Crikey…" she muttered, shaking her head dismally. "Kai, you're supposed to play with her, not fight…" She gestured to the still-ailing Star Breaker for emphasis. "Make her feel better. Do whatever you have to do to get her to make nice. Just holler next time you need help. Next time you fight, you're both going getting the dart gun." With that, she left the room, and Kai paled as his mind processed her remarks.

"Not the dart gun…" Kai muttered as he slowly walked into the tube to start reconciling with Star Breaker… maybe… hopefully… some part of him wondered if she'd still try to kill him all over again. As he got to the main cage, he ruminated on what Tomomo had meant when she commanded him to make his 'playmate' feel better.

Then color drained from his face as he recalled that both he and said 'playmate' were running around in their birthday suits. "I have to what?!" he cried as comprehension dawned. He heard a rustling of straw as he got onto a platform, and precariously peered over the edge to find his 'playmate' rising to her feet with shaky legs and a glare that could only be called murderous.

Their eyes met at a distance, and slowly, unnervingly, Star Breaker's lips twitched in a shuddering smile that seemed a bit lopsided. Her hair shrouded much of her face in shadow, with only her mouth and burning gaze visible to Kai. Haltingly at first, she shambled to the nearest ladder and clambered up, her stance otherwise unflinching as she marched to confront her fellow prisoner. Then she ascended to the next platform, and the one after that, before coming face to face with Kai.

They stared off again, for several long and tense seconds, both trying to find weaknesses in the other. Unfortunately for the blanched Kai, Star Breaker could see his terror plain as day, and all he could see in her eyes was unfiltered malice. In an attempt to ease the tension, knowing full well running was not an option, Kai broke the ice. “... So… I’m sorry for kneeing you in the groin…?” he unconfidently muttered, praying to god she was a forgiving abomination, even though he was convinced she was created by hell itself.

Several more seconds passed, the air hanging heavily about them as his apology rang in her ears. Kai was entirely unsure what she was thinking, for her terrible glare did not shift in the slightest. Was she expecting something more from him? An apology for something else? Maybe some form of compensation? After giving it a lot of thought, he decided to just opt for another ice breaker.

But she moved first, both hands seizing his neck in a blur of motion that could not be caught by his human eyes. Her inhuman gaze swept up and down his body, judging him for a moment, perhaps measuring him up for something. But what? His answer came when she whirled around, dragging him with, and threw him with enough force to make him collide solidly with the bars opposite their platform, causing them to rattle in place as he fell to the straw below.

Upon hearing the slightest form of disturbance from the room, Tomomo burst in to investigate. She stormed over to the main cage and knelt, considering the scene carefully. Kai groaned and popped his head out of the straw, rubbing his lower back with evident strain. "What happened now?" Tomomo groaned in exasperation.

"I said I was sorry… she threw me…" Kai grumbled in reply, cracking his back to ease the pain. "What is she, Tomomo? That girl… isn't human…"

"Well… she's a cyborg, put in layman's terms. Still has to deal with all her baser bodily functions like you and I," Tomomo answered, before her gaze hardened and she turned to Star Breaker. She opened the cage door, and reached into her pajamas to produce a dart with a suction-cup head. In a blur of motion, Star Breaker was seized and bodily thrown into one of the huts, and before she could even process that fact the dart was thrown in right after her.

She suddenly found her arms up to the elbows immobilized. "You're gonna stay there overnight. Kai, start making nice with her, and lemme know if you need her legs hogtied," Star heard Tomomo say as the cage door closed again. She heard footsteps echoing, followed by the slamming of a much larger door, which gave way to silence.

"A cyborg… guess that explains it…" Kai grumbled as he rose to stand in a hunched posture. He waded his way over to the third platform and halted briefly when he saw the dart sticking out, in addition to hearing the sound of someone muttering expletives and kicking up straw. "This is gonna be a doozy…" he muttered as he entered the hideaway, being careful to duck under the dart to see what the fuss was.

He found his 'playmate' bound by the dart, struggling mightily to get out of the suction cup's hold. But, her admirable strength did her no favors here; the dart budged not so much as a centimeter. She pushed and pulled and arched her back sharply to get out, but all this did was garner a very strange look from Kai.

Cautiously, Kai approached Star Breaker, but could go no further than a few inches as she angled her wounded foot to hold him by the chest in a rather impressive display of flexibility. Her back sharply arched again just to make the motion, without so much as one snapping of any bone to be heard. Her other foot reached up with the corresponding knee brushing up against her cheek and her toes managed to touch the dart itself, again without any popping, solely for balance. "And what do you want?" she snarled.

"Just to talk," Kai answered, lifting a hand to brush her foot aside. That caused her other leg to drop in the straw, her balance lost. "Listen… Tomomo wants us to make nice—" Dear god, that rolled off his tongue with a foul taste that made him wince, "—and she wants us to do so now." He sighed. "Do you object to a chat?"

Star Breaker paused, still scowling as she weighed the question. "What do you mean by 'make nice?' I cannot comprehend what you're insinuating," she muttered.

The hairs on the back of Kai's neck stood on end as he heard that. He decided to change the subject from what both were thinking of, if only to keep the conversation from growing awkward. “Like… Um… What’s your favorite movie?” Nailed it.

Star shook her head. "I just like burning things, and want to turn the world to ash. I don't understand what you're asking," she said with utmost sincerity.

Great. He was dealing with one of those kinds of people… He could play this game too, he decided. “What’s your favorite thing to burn?” he tried.

“Right now?... You.” Her glare hardened, and she crossed her legs. Kai could very well understand why she'd made the comment. "And after I burn you… I'll find the little hussy who stopped me from destroying the world… and turn her to a charred husk as well."

Kai's eyes widened. What the hell was Star harping on about? Whatever. It didn’t matter, seeing as they were both hamster-sized and powerless. He was still in charge of this scenario, and so long as he retained self control, he’d be the guiding leader of this conversation. “What about that giant woman? Tomomo?” he tried.

Star Breaker donned a maniacal grin. "Bombs up the ass," she replied curtly. "Before I go to deal with the hussy." Well then, it seemed her penchant for violence wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"... why up her ass?" Kai asked incredulously.

"Because it would be fun watching her explode from inside out, seeing her try to remove them from the outside…" Star Breaker answered, her grin twitching. "I've done it several times before, and once I get out of here, I'll do it again." Kai shuddered at that mental image, wondering just how this woman had become so… disturbed. There was no two ways about it; something must have happened for such craziness to be molded into human… or cyborg form.

So Kai popped off with a different question, one he did not fully process with the hope that he could somehow get something other than malice out of his 'playmate,' "Have you ever had anything… shoved up your ass before?"

The manic grin dropped, and the glare melted into a wide-eyed look of befuddlement in a heartbeat. "... no?" Star Breaker replied, her voice taking on an uncertain note that Kai could not have missed even if the room around them was on fire.

Well, at least Kai could cross 'empathy' off that list. Poor girl probably didn't know what that was, seeing as she confessed to being rather experienced with… shoving improbable, deadly things up orifices that were never built to accept said improbable, deadly things in the first place. Some morbid part of him mused that she didn't use lubricants, either. He let out a small, almost exasperated chuckle at the thought, which caught Star Breaker’s attention. She jerked her head up and tilted a little, perplexion still etched quite firmly on her face.

"What's so funny?" she asked, trying to contain laughter herself, and failing miserably if her shuddering chest was any indicator.

Kai replied with another chuckle, “Do… Do you lube it first?” His tone came off blunty through his chuckles, which made Star Breaker stop laughing to pause again. He garnered a mute shake of the head as an answer.

"No. I used to go elbow-deep," she said, again with sincerity. "More burnt organs that way." Kai couldn’t tell whether to continue laughing at the absurdity of the moment, or stop entirely due to how genuine she was being. However, he decided to prod her with another question, just to see where this would go.

“So there’s a science to it?” he asked.

Star Breaker shook her head. "No. Just strength," she answered, flexing her bound arms as much as she could for emphasis. "If I can throw you, I can just as easily wedge bombs up your ass…" Well, he had to admit she did have a point there. Being a cyborg probably helped immensely in that regard. She wiggled again, and turned to glare at the offending dart that kept her in place. "Once I can get out of this stupid thing," she added as an aside. "I wonder if this device will stretch you more than my bombs…" Damnit. Back to square one.

So Kai tried a different tactic, seeing as he'd been routed. "What would you do if you had anything wedged up your ass?" he asked bluntly.

That got her wiggling to cease. "... rip my own guts out to remove it," Star replied, just as bluntly, though she did give a grimace at the thought, which told him all he needed to know about how she felt about the particular topic. "And then continue burning things."

Kai's brow furrowed. This wasn't going where he hoped it would. He took a long, hard look at her, doing the polite thing by trying to ignore her exposed assets… 'trying' being the keyword, as she had begun wiggling again in an effort to get out of the dart's hold. Still, his face turned red nonetheless, but he had to adhere to what he called 'The Gentleman's Code of Conduct.' "Have you had your hair brushed?" he asked, focusing on anything other than the writhing naked body before him, figuring the hair was a good place as any to start.

"... no?" Star Breaker replied, again in that uncertain tone. Kai sighed, wondering if and when she'd start lying; her sincerity was starting to concern him. Did this lass not know the meaning of a facade? How ignorant was she?

… maybe this was why Tomomo threw him in the cage with her and basically told him to have at, he thought. This violent woman needed some help, and desperately, if somewhat unknowingly. The manner was roundabout and bizarre, but if Tomomo told him to do it, then by god he would.

He just needed to get through to Star Breaker first, and so far progress was not a promising possibility, much less an actual prospect he could even reach at this point. And he did not want to take that step if he could help it. "What happened… before you decided to burn and blow things up?" he tried.

Star Breaker gave a wince and turned away, eyes darting to a corner that was particularly straw-laden. "Before… can't remember…" she muttered dismally.

Back to square one yet again. Kai sighed at her glum reply, and slowly approached her a little more, figuring she wouldn't bat him away with her feet again. He considered the possibility that she could remember 'before,' whatever in hell that meant, but just didn't want to talk about it if her turning away wasn't enough of a red flag. "Do you have a favorite food?" he tried.

She turned to him and shook her head. "All I've eaten are burnt bodies before I wound up in this hell," she replied, once more with sincerity. "And… various bits of green things and meats that giant keeps throwing in." Kai shuddered and did another look-see at her body, finding her a little more slender than he thought acceptable. Bones didn't show much, but the fact that they still did was a cause for concern. At least he could get past that, figuring Tomomo was probably feeding her something more filling to sort the issue of malnutrition out. And hey, it filled her nicely in the meantime. He couldn't complain much about that.

"Any favorite foods from what Tomomo gives you?" he tried. That got another shake of a hair-tangled head.

"I miss the taste of burnt bodies…" Star Breaker muttered, wilting a little as she said that. "Nice… crunchy… bloody…" She licked her chops at the thought, only to wilt again when she remembered she could burn virtually nothing in this Magical Hell even with her arms untied.

Kai frowned, taking a second to pity his 'playmate.' He knew full well how it felt to have one's joy ripped out of one's hands, and the fact that Star Breaker had precious few joys to even speak of struck a chord with him. Violent and insane as she was, he just couldn't help it. What hell she must have seen… he shuddered, electing not to imagine nor dwell on it, for it painted a very bleak picture in his head.

He got up in her face again, but slowly to let her know he meant no harm this time. "Hey… what if we found something to do?" he offered.

"Hmm?" Star tilted her head, looking at Kai with confusion glinting in her eyes. She noticed that now he was uncomfortably close, and her urge to burn him only grew as he stared into her eyes. "Wh-what are you…" She started wiggling again. "I-I don't think we can find something to d-do."

Kai wilted a little. "Are you… sure of that?" he asked, his voice grim.

Star Breaker hurriedly nodded. "I doubt you'd understand the taste of burnt human flesh," she replied. Kai flinched and took an uncertain step back, realizing she had hit the nail on the head with that remark. She smirked triumphantly. "I knew it!" she cried, and would have pointed an accusing finger at him if she were able to.

Kai uttered something that, in hindsight, sounded silly as hell, but it was the only thing that came to mind at that moment. "Have you ever touched yourself at night?" he spouted, before his hand raced to cover his mouth as his brain caught that remark seconds too late.

"... have I what?" Star Breaker herself struggled to process the query. Her eyes narrowed, but her brow slanted, and her lips twisted into a lopsided, uneven frown. She tried to come up with an answer, and her mouth moved, but no sound came out, so eventually she settled on shaking her head.

Kai sighed. This was getting out of his control, and fast thanks to his big mouth. He took a step forward and suppressed the urge to curse. "Would you like to know what that phrase means?" he asked, mentally kicking himself for letting it get this bad.

Star Breaker was silent for an uncomfortably long moment. Kai wondered if, perhaps, she'd brush him off again, but jumped at her eventual reply. "My curiosity is piqued," she said simply, "though I still do not comprehend what you mean by that." Her eyes narrowed. "If you knee me again, though, I will snap your jaw off with my feet."

Kai grimaced as she lifted a foot and poked him on the cheek with her toes. When the foot dropped a second later, he nodded in resignation, mentally kicking himself again for digging the hole he now had to sit in. His hands lifted up, and he gently cupped her cheeks with his palms. "I'm probably going to regret this regardless of if I hurt you or not…" he muttered dismally. "You're… not my type of girl, to be terribly honest."

"I don't understand you either," Star Breaker said curtly. Kai smiled a little; at least they had come to a bit of an understanding on something after all. His hands trailed a little lower to her neck and stopped at her shoulders.

Kai really, really did not want to do this to a bound woman, but he dug the hole and now had to sit in it. His hands trailed a little lower, just under her arms, which garnered another bout of wiggling and a strange giggle that wasn't manic nor malice-filled. "A-ahaha! S-stop! Th-that feels strange!" Star Breaker complained, legs flailing a little. Kai looked at her face, only to find genuine mirth twisting her features; her eyes were closed but not scrunched, and her mouth wide as she giggled.

His eyes widened, and he rubbed under her arms to confirm what he saw and heard. She laughed now, and her wiggling grew more fevered. "S-stop!" Star Breaker repeated, her voice tinged with mirth and confusion. "Wh-what are you doing?!"

Kai sighed and let his hands drop for a second. Well, this was not what he had expected, though he supposed this was more favorable than having a cyborg use her feet to break his jaw. "I was just seeing how you'd react to being touched like that," he answered, his tone sincere yet tinged with uncertainty.

"It's weird!" Star Breaker muttered as the hands reached up to touch her again. This time, she found it was her collarbone being touched, though only for a few seconds. "H-hey! Wh-why are you touching those?!" she cried as the hands trailed lower to start fondling her chest proper.

Kai pulled back as she made the remark. "Y-you don't want me to?" he muttered.

"I just don't get why you're touching them," Star Breaker replied in earnest, frowning and looking pointedly at her breasts as Kai stared at her. "Wh-what's so special about them?"

Kai blanched, and a strangled croak left his mouth. Oh dear, he'd been thrown in with someone who was still innocent on some level. "Just… bear with me…" he muttered, silently damning Tomomo for dragging him into this mess. "I-I'll try to explain it to you in a way you can understand…"

Star Breaker shook her head. "I probably wouldn't get it anyway," she muttered dismally, shrugging. "I've spent more time trying to get out." Ah, that explained a few things. Kai sighed, and made to touch her again, but stopped when she eyed his hands warily. "Those feel cold and dry."

Cold and dry? Kai rubbed his hands together, if only to confirm or deny her statement. His hands were dry, yes, but certainly not cold. Perhaps she couldn't take lukewarm temperatures too well? "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" he asked sincerely. "I know of ways to warm them, and to make them wet…" He cringed; that sounded far better in his head than it did coming out his mouth.

"Not really," Star Breaker admitted with a tired sigh. "The last time I felt something like that, it came from a corpse." Kai nodded, seeing the logic in her statement. "Your hands aren't rigid though, and I like my corpses rigid."

"As long as I'm breathing, I won't be very rigid outside of sleep," Kai groaned. He gripped the sides of his 'playmate,' who turned to look at him with a frown of befuddlement. "We'll just have to make do."

Her brow furrowed. "I suppose…" she grumbled in resignation. She stiffened when those hands she complained about reached her rear end. "N-ngh... " She started grinding her teeth together, and Kai pulled back.

"Did that hurt?" Kai asked, garnering a hasty nod in response. There were only two options left, and one hand gently slipped between her legs. He winced as she squeezed them shut, in turn pinning his hand. "Does… that still hurt?"

Star Breaker nodded and hissed as she held the hand in place. "Very much," she grumbled. "If you make it worse…" She twisted her body as much as she could, tightening her hold. Kai suppressed a cry of agony as he felt his hand getting crushed slowly, and gaped when he realized she planned to rip it off.

"I-I won't make it worse! Just please stop crushing my hand!" Kai pleaded, blanching as the vise-like hold tightened for a moment. Just as he felt bones starting to pop, she let go, and let him retract his hand to inspect the damage. His hand was a slight shade of purple, and numbing for a second, but he shook it to get its blood flow back under control. He took a deep breath, and steeled himself before putting his hand back where it was. Hesitantly, he trailed back up, but not past her hips.

He swallowed nervously, staring back into that cold glare which judged him rather expectantly. "Are you going to do something with that?" Star Breaker asked, tapping a foot impatiently against the wall. His hand trailed to her lower crotch, avoiding the upper entirely, and prodded a little to see if she would register it.

Her glare eased a smidgen. "I really, really hate Tomomo right now…" Kai grumbled, drumming his outstretched fingers lightly. He cringed when his 'playmate' seized up again, though her face did not contort in pain.

"You hate her too?" Star Breaker asked, more surprised than anything. Kai nodded, and she assumed a manic smirk. "Guess that makes two of us." She wiggled a little, her smirk faltering as she felt the tapping at her entrance. "That's… huh…" Her lips pursed. "Never really… felt that before. Didn't even know it was there." She gave a nod of approval. "I don't know what you are doing, but… that's making the pain go away."

Kai nodded back, and slowly inserted a finger. She did not seize up again, as if bading he continue. She leaned against the wall and started kicking her feet out a little, closing her eyes as a small frown crossed her face. "If only I could burn you…" she grumbled, feeling the finger wiggling about but electing to ignore it for the time being. "Kai, right?" she asked, causing him to stop.

Wait. Kai's brain did a backflip. She used his name. "Y-yes, Star Breaker?" he muttered in reply, eyes widening when she gave a soft sigh.

"My arms are falling asleep," Star Breaker complained. Kai sighed and resumed his ministrations; if she couldn't get out of the dart, he had about as much of a chance of pulling her out of it, possibly even less so since he was entirely human. Precariously, he slipped in a second finger, pausing as it joined the first to see if she'd try to crush his hand again.

But the little bouts of kicking resumed, and besides that, his 'playmate' barely budged. So he pushed a little deeper, figuring there'd be no harm done so long as she let him do what Tomomo had told him to. He could just hear her now, laughing and congratulating him for doing something that didn't exactly sit well with him. He started pumping his fingers a little, which got a giggle from her.

"Th-that's just l-like with my sides! S-stop!" Star Breaker chortled, stilling her legs as laughter shook her. Kai felt cold sweat beading his brow at this, brow furrowing in confusion. Looked like 'pleasure' was off that list, but he didn't cross it out just yet. Though she was quite the puzzle to solve, he figured he was on the cusp of achieving… something, and slipped a third finger in before resuming. "Aha-haha! S-stop!" she howled, wiggling now as the fingers pumped in and out, falling into a steady rhythm. Then, she was twitching erratically, legs widening and closing as though strapped to chains that couldn't decide how much slack to give her.

To be fair, Kai had expected something else altogether, but to find that area of a woman ticklish? That was practically unheard of. Then again, Star Breaker was nutty in the head, and Kai wagered she registered pleasure on a different manner which deviated from the standard. He stopped, but only to let her take a chance to reign in her cackling. "Did that feel… good?" he asked.

Star Breaker nodded, still giggling. "I-I don't know why!" she managed, her lower body still thrashing as the laughter shook her. "J-just…" As the laughing fit's wind petered out, her thrashing slowed, until she was barely twitching. "Ahaha… aha… my head is tingling a little…" she muttered.

Kai lifted his free hand and waved it in front of Star Breaker's face. Her eyes followed his hand, albeit lazily, and he noticed they glazed a little. "Are you fine with me continuing?" he asked, garnering another nod that was very sluggish. "Feel any different, otherwise?" he tried. That got a snicker.

"The pain's… gone away… getting a little sleepy…" Star Breaker muttered, her tone as dazed as her eyes. Kai frowned, but pressed his body a little closer to hers. If she was consenting, he couldn't argue, because if she could crush his hand she could probably crush the rest of him if she angled her legs just right. His hands wrapped around her knees, spreading them apart just a little. "Hnn?" she hummed, looking down at the sight.

"Could you…" Kai swallowed nervously. He had to choose his next words carefully, lest he end up with a broken spine. "Wrap your legs around me?"

"Wrap my… that's strange," she muttered, but lifted her legs anyway and wrapped them around his waist. "But if it lets me burn you faster…" Her head lolled to the side a little, and a slight grin crossed her face. Kai lowered one hand to grasp his personal trump card, and rested the other against the wall for balance. He aligned his length, fumbled for a bit, and inserted, garnering another set of giggles as a result. "Wh-what is that? I-I haven't felt anything like th-that before," she cooed in between snickers.

Kai took a moment to get used to the bizarre feeling of, effectively, finding himself sticking the wick in a crazy person. Surprisingly, she was already loose and slick, admitting him with ease. On one hand, she did let him, but on the other, she had no clue what was actually happening, and worse yet she had tried to rip his hand off after throwing him and balls of fire and bombs at him.

She really wasn't the ideal woman for this sort of thing, but Kai wasn't in a position to complain, especially when the only other person he could complain to would probably suction dart him if he raised another objection. Still, his body started reacting, and he felt a rush of blood he found all too familiar. It was rather sluggish at first, almost unwilling at that, but with a few cautious thrusts his body realized what was going on and responded accordingly.

All the while, Star Breaker laughed, tears budding in the corners of her eyes as she felt her hips rock back and forth. He grimaced as she continued to cackle, and stopped to see if her laughing would follow suit. "Do you always laugh… when you feel good?" he asked sincerely. That made the fit slow, but it did not die, and during her chortles she gave a hasty nod. "When you burn and… blow things up?" Another nod. "... how do you function, woman?" That didn't garner an answer, unless the still-ongoing laughter counted as such.

"Could you… hold your laughter in for a minute?" Kai asked, flinching when the legs around his waist squeezed a little. Star Breaker shook her head, and with a resigned sigh he resumed with his task, making a mental note to see if Tomomo would drop by before bed tonight. Then, an idea hit him, and he wrapped his arm around his 'playmate's' head. That broke through her laughter for a bit, but then she resumed and just rested her head against his elbow, still chortling like no tomorrow.

He let his head drop and shut his eyes, groaning amidst the laughing, more in pain of a building headache than pleasure. His extended hand meandered its way over to her gaping mouth, and gently clasped itself on her lips. Immediately, she seized, and her eyes snapped open with shrunk pupils. "It'll just muffle you," Kai muttered, spreading his fingers a little on the off chance she would bite, "keep laughing. I'm not harming you." Fortunately for him, she did just that, though now her howling was much more manageable and quiet with his hand over her mouth.

Resting his other hand on the small of her back, he resumed thrusting, sighing with relief once his headache started to ebb. "I didn't think you'd like this…" he mused, deciding to push deeper. "Then again… I didn't think I'd be doing this…" He picked up his pace, tightening his grip on her waist to steady them both, grunting as he felt a pressure building up in his loins. It took half a minute, but he started going as deep as he could go, which took minimal effort thanks to how loose she was.

Though, as he started hammering home, the laughter slowed and stopped with a series of wheezing pants. Noticing this, Kai let his raised hand drop, and watched Star's face intently. She was reddening, gasping with strain, chest still heaving with laughter that simply could not come out due to her lungs having already gone on so long. Damn, girl had an impressive set of lungs, he had to give her that.

But it seemed she was finally running out of steam. She tilted her head back, dazedly looking at the dart that held her to the wall as Kai continued to rut her for what was evidently her first time. She felt the same hand that had gagged her shift to join its mate, and Kai's grip tighten before his fervor increased to a heated tempo that caused her to jolt. "A-aaah!?" she cried in a slightly scratchy voice, taken by surprise.

Kai allowed himself a small smirk, but not one that was smug. "N-not familiar with b-being caught off guard?" he queried, garnering a rapid shaking of the head.

Star Breaker slumped again, still trying to catch her breath. How she wasn't blue in the face yet, Kai could only wonder. "Last time… I was caught off guard… I fell from the sky," she muttered in reply. Kai ignored the remark, figuring she was merely rambling about something as the insane were wont to do, and groaned as she let him continue. Her legs loosened their hold a little, and she relaxed even as she felt something swelling just a little within.

Kai shifted to lean against the wall, in turn pressing her more against it. Some part of him was starting to enjoy this, and his fervor showed it, with each thrust smacking into his 'playmate' loud enough to echo about their small hideaway. "T-tell me… a-are you enjoying yourself?" he muttered.

Star Breaker gave a lazy nod at that, but her eyelids fluttered when she did. "S-still… feeling sleepy," she replied, eyes not really focusing on anything at this point. "H-hurry up… I wanna… burn you tomorrow." Kai was, at this point, all too eager to give her what she wanted, ignoramus though she was. With a grunt, he stilled inside of her, and heard a soft squelch as nature did her work. This caused her to jolt again, but sluggishly as she registered the new sensation that filled her. "Wh-what did you just…"

Kai shuddered with another groan, barely acknowledging the unfinished question. He merely pressed himself closer against her, more for stability at this point, and felt liquid seep down his legs. "I-I just…" he managed, his brain knocked into a tizzy that it tried to claw out of. "Whapapa…" With that, he slipped out, off, and landed unceremoniously upon the floor, sending straw everywhere and her legs right back to the wall.

Star Breaker sighed and let her head drop, watching Kai with fogged eyes. He moved not a muscle after falling, as apparently the fall had knocked his lights out. At that moment the door opened, and a massive grey eye leered into the window. "You two getting along in there?" Tomomo asked.

"I don't… know what just… happened," Star Breaker replied, before her eyes slipped shut and sleep claimed her as it had Kai. "I'll… ask t'morrow…"

Outside, Tomomo shook her head. "Can't believe the dart worked…" she mused, grinning darkly. "Now… who should I cage next…?"

Chapter Text

Kai awoke to the hands of someone else pulling him to his feet—hands that were white-hot, crackling and… Tomomo yelling? "Fhav moar mins…" he grumbled as the heated hands began feverishly shaking him.

"Damnit, wake up, you fool!" he heard a familiar shrill voice yell. "The giant's angry, and I think she's going to dart us both!" That got Kai's attention, and the fog of sleep melted in lieu of budding panic as he registered the sound of stomping feet, and the feeling of the whole room shaking with tremendous power. He twisted around to find Star Breaker glaring at him, her pupils but meager pinpricks and her hands ablaze in white flames. She gestured erratically to the window, and Kai turned to look out of it.

A most bizarre sight greeted him. Tomomo was running in circles, wielding a butterfly net in her hands, jumping about in a mad tarantella in an effort to ensnare two planes roughly the size of two of the fake cage houses. One plane was blue, with four turbines on its wings and a suction cup dart on its tail, and the other was red with a central turbine on the front. Admittedly, Kai would have mistaken both for toys if not for the very real whirring of their engines and the fact that said planes were flying to begin with. Within he spotted the pilots, a shrunken man and woman with heads ducked low. They steered their planes with grace and agility, looping effortlessly around the butterfly net and around Tomomo herself, who was doing her absolute damnedest to ground them. "Peat! Marc! Hold still so I can cage you!" Tomomo barked to no avail.

"Not even in your greatest dreams, ugo! Blue Crow the Second refuses to be contained!" the male pilot barked with supreme self-confidence, careening sharply for Tomomo's feet. He dove and steered his plane to circle her a few times, making her spin in place to keep her sights on him. “C’mon! Is that really the best you can do? I was honestly expecting a bit more fight from someone as big as you!... Oh, and I don’t just mean in weight, chubby! I mean really, when’s the last time you saw sunlight?” Tomomo was no longer sure whether or not, after catching him, she was going to put the tiny blue pilot into the cage with the rest, or into a blender for his taunting. Either way, he was getting in the net, no questions asked.

Her priority to contain the blue pilot first led her to ignore the red pilot, who was very wise to keep her distance, corkscrewing her way to the ceiling as her companion flew round and round Tomomo. Her plane opened up a hatch on the bottom to produce a claw which glowed with a strange light. Bit by bit, something formed from a hologram, cylindrical in shape and black in color, flat on one side and with a turbine stationed on the other. The object was thrice as big as one of the smaller cages, and the instant it finished forming was the same instant the pilot who made it just finished veering up to under the ceiling. Maximum altitude attained, the claw let the object go, whereupon it promptly conked Tomomo with a sharp whistle preceding a distinct anvil-like clang.

Tomomo could only move fast enough to turn to the object, right as it slammed firmly into her face. She fell to the floor with a scream, dropping the net upon impact, nose bleeding and her lips split with small lacerations. The blue plane raced up to meet with its companion, and both veered for the door. "Aha! Excellent hit, Red Barrel! Now let’s find a way out of here before her lazy ass gets back up!" the male cried triumphantly, giving his companion a thumbs up.

"Roger that, Blue Crow!" the female pilot replied, and matched her fellow pilot move for move, the claw on the underside of her vehicle retracting into its hatch. Kai only noticed now that the large bedroom door was open, and within seconds the two pilots flew out of it and were out of sight. Tomomo hopped back to her feet, snatched her weapon and raced after them, net raised high above her head and a hand clasping where she had been struck. The door rattled as the sound of vases crashing echoed inside, until it edged itself shut and muffled much of the ongoing pandemonium after.

"I will get you for that!" Tomomo promised darkly, her voice barely audible to her already-caged prisoners.

Kai struggled to process the sight, staring for several long moments even as the door closed. When he did manage to utter something, he turned to Star Breaker first, face paling and mouth jittering as he registered the fact the dart was no longer in their hut. He haltingly asked, "Wh-what. Th-the. F-fuuuuuck?"

Star Breaker threw her blazing hands in the air. "I have no idea, either!" she exclaimed. Then, something hit her, and a diabolical smirk spread on her face. "The giant's gone… we can escape…" she muttered.

Kai frowned and crossed his arms. "How?" he replied bluntly. "The latch is too big for us to open."

"The ladders," Star Breaker shot back, grinning triumphantly. She turned and ran out of the hut, giggling with glee before Kai could object to her far-fetched plan. But he gave it some thought, and walked out after her, figuring now was as good a time as ever to leave with their captor distracted. He found Star Breaker already at work, lifting a ladder effortlessly and resting it against the bars, contemplating for a moment.

The ladder was nowhere near the latch, only a couple of inches long in comparison to the platform. She turned to Kai and lifted a hand to gesture silently to the other ladders. Kai nodded back, sensing her unspoken meaning, and raced up to the topmost platform to get the furthest ladder first. With a great effort, he dragged it down to her, and blinked as he found her flying—flying!—beneath the ladder she had claimed, her feet aglow in a soft blue light. The ladder had been resting one end on the platform, and the other would have fallen if not for her holding it. "Just chuck it to me already!" Star Breaker ordered, waving a hand over. Kai dragged it to her, and she took the end of the ladder from him before linking the two like a bridge, conjuring a bomb with her foot and kicking it to the other end. The bomb did not explode; rather, it floated beneath the other end of the ladder she could not hold. It still did not reach the latch, but the bridge was much closer to the door now.

Kai nodded and raced to collect another ladder, figuring he could ask her how she was flying later. He got to the second highest platform and threw the ladder to her, and another, watching as she formed and lobbed out bombs to collect the pieces of her makeshift bridge. Bit by bit, it was assembled, until seven pieces had been retrieved to form a road long enough to reach the latch. "Why didn't you just fly to the latch?" Kai asked as he ran over to start walking on the bridge's edge.

"Did that twice, and the bars shocked me after I tried it the second time!" Star Breaker answered bluntly. "Hurry, you idiot!" Kai needed no second order; he raced over to the latch, surprised that the bombs held the bridge steady, and reached his hand through the bars to work the lock free. It was heavy, yet surprisingly cooperative; with but a good ten mighty tugs, he gradually worked it loose and kicked the door open.

The bridge shifted under his feet as the first bomb exploded. "Wh-what the?!" he cried as his 'playmate' threw her ladder to the side and flew over to him before wrapping her arms around his waist.

"I've decided to burn you later," Star Breaker muttered darkly, grinning maniacally as she shot out of the cage with Kai firmly in her grip. She veered sharply to the bed and went under it, dragging Kai with before he even knew what was going on. She giggled as she found a space surprisingly free of debris, and better yet a hole on the underside of the boxsprings. Dragging her fellow prisoner there, she let herself relax upon discovering a spacious place adorned with thick cotton. She wasted no time stuffing herself and Kai into that cotton, being very careful to cover her long hair with an additional layer of fabricy fluff.

Kai groaned as the world span around him. He dared not fight Star Breaker though, as he had been left drained by the very crazy turn of events already and would need rest. Content to just lean against her as he had the night before, he let his brain process everything slowly, and closed his eyes to ease his dizziness. The chaos outside lasted for quite some time, and every once in a while Tomomo would swear out dark promises, only to be rebuked and taunted by the two pilots that managed to be a—ironically karmic, funnily enough—pain in her lazy ass.

He could see the logic of Star Breaker squirrling herself and him away in this hiding spot, and went so far as to wager the act of bridge-making had taxed her on some level. While he knew a brilliant idea when he saw one, as the girl wasn't as big an ignoramus as he assumed, that probably required some thinking… which her crazy-addled mind very likely hadn't been much prepared to do, if at all.

That, and Tomomo was stomping about. Quite angrily. And if the other noises told him as much, probably making an even bigger mess in her wake. Hiding was a better alternative to being netted or squished. Quietly, they sat, relishing their new-found freedom and the soothing touch of the cotton they found themselves in, waiting for Tomomo to come back and notice they were gone.

It took three hours, during which Kai had himself a nap, waiting for Tomomo to actually return, and as the wait neared its end the room fell deathly silent. Not one sound came from outside, until the angry giant came back. She was giggling triumphantly, snapping her hiding prisoners into awareness with the door opening and her still-frantic stomping. Now, though, her voice was accompanied by two others, both shouting out protests which fell on deaf ears. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I am not doing this! Unhand me now, you fat bastard!" the male pilot barked, sounding like he was desperately trying to claw his way out of Tomomo’s grip.

"Give us our clothes back, you reprobate!" the female shrieked, her voice shrill enough to rival that of Star Breaker. Kai winced, hearing the familiar sound of bodies landing in straw, and a cage door slamming shut.

"Nnnnnnyet," Tomomo hissed, chuckling to herself. "You two were that big a pain in my…" She paused for a second. "Wait… why are the ladders askew… they weren't like that when I dragged you two here…" She gave a deep exhale. "And now that I think about it, I definitely left the door shut and the latch secure…" A perplexed sigh left her mouth. "Kai! Star Breaker! What happened?" Both stiffened, and hurriedly yet quietly raced to muffle each other's mouths with their hands.

Several long seconds of silence passed. Then, a whole minute. All the while, Kai and Star Breaker blanched in unison, feeling a terrible presence of some sort stirring. Neither could guess what, but the more it stirred, the more both got a feeling of dread and a strong desire to never, ever find out what could have caused it.

"Kai," Tomomo hissed, her voice now a low rumble that echoed with raw power, "Star Breaker. What. Happened?" She still got no answer. “Aaaaalriiiiight, you two asked for it.” Using her foot, Kai and Star Breaker could only assume, she began kicking the boxes that supported the cage up, rattling the entire thing to its foundations. Her newest captives shrieked, doubtless shaken up by the strikes. Tomomo still got no response from her intended targets, however, and so started sifting through the bits of refuse on her floor. "Damnit, I need to clean my room once I find you two…"

"You caged more people here, before us?! You miserable monster! How could you do such a thing?!" the female pilot yelled, though this did not cause Tomomo to stop going through her garbage.

“I swear to god, once I get back to normal size, you’re gonna be the one jammed in this cage!” the male howled. Realizing that threat wasn’t nearly threatening enough, he added to it, “Without shrinking you first!... N-not like you’d fit or anything, fatty!” He was really banking on the whole 'fat' insult thing working again. However, it seemed that card had more than expired at this point.

"Oh shut up already. I got two more runaways to catch," Tomomo snapped back, growling now. "Kai. Star Breaker. Do I have to put tiny leashes on you both? Let your new playmates ravage you sideways? Because I can. And I will, if you don't come out of hiding!"

"We wouldn't ravage anybody, much less strangers, you demented… bitch!" the female pilot barked. The male stayed quiet, but Kai guessed he had agreed with his companion… Though in reality, he’d have to size them up first—granted, if Tomomo could find them.

"To be a bitch, I'd have to lose my virginity," Tomomo stated sourly, grunting as the sound of her sifting refuse simply… stopped. "Kai, Star Breaker, are we gonna have to do this the hard way?" No answer came to her. "Fine then. 'scuse me while I get… the ice cream."

Star Breaker's hair stood on end, and her eyes went wide. She quivered against Kai, legs filled with a newfound urge to run. Tomomo stomped away, throwing something against the floor, muttering very dark promises just quietly enough none of the four in the room caught the entirety of what she had said. "Not the ice cream…" Star Breaker muttered into Kai's palm, pressing herself against the cotton as if it could save her.

Kai did not understand why this fear had overtaken his 'playmate' all of a sudden, but swallowed nervously as he considered what it had meant: if a violent, insane woman was cowering in fear over ice cream of all things, then whatever Tomomo had planned for them did not bode particularly well. He lowered his hand and turned to his 'playmate.' "The other two. We need to free them," he muttered, garnering a mute nod of agreement and a hand lowering from his mouth. "Carry me to the latch." Strong cybernetic arms wrapped around him again, and gingerly they left the underside of the bed, finding the pilots within the large cage, trying to climb the bars to little avail. Just outside, beyond their reach, lay their planes, overturned but otherwise unharmed.

Star Breaker flew to the cage, just high enough so Kai could grasp the latch. It was far easier to tug it from outside the cage than from within, and being held as he was merely added to the momentum which swung it open once the latch popped. In fact, it was almost laughably easy to fly in after and get a look at the pilots. Both were, as Kai was disappointed to discover, stripped naked. The female of the two was slightly shorter than her companion, her brown hair tied in twin but haggard braids which framed exhausted brown eyes. Said companion of hers had messy navy hair, and his navy eyes were narrowed yet housed shrunken pupils. "How are you flying without an aircraft?!" the female queried as Star Breaker lowered herself and Kai to them.

"Nevermind that!" Kai snapped, extending his hands. "Grab on, you two!" The pilots took the chance, both jumping and latching onto each of his arms, which immediately felt as though they were being stretched. He winced with a cry, and the duo sensed his distress, so they shifted to latch onto Star Breaker's shoulders. Surprisingly, this did not weigh her down, but it did cause her to tilt left and right for a few seconds as the two jostled to get into position.

She flew out of the cage, carrying the whole lot, and alighted next to the planes. Everyone disembarked the instant her feet touched the floor, and the pilots raced to their planes to ascertain any damage done to their aircraft. They worked swiftly, knowing it was only a matter of time before Tomomo came back.

Before they could contemplate what to do next, Star Breaker rushed over to the blue plane first and grasped its leftmost wing. "What are you doing?!" the male pilot shrieked as, slowly, she tilted the aircraft with just her hands alone.

"What's it look like?" Star Breaker hissed in reply, straining a little to overturn the plane. "Rhaaaaaa…" Fitfully, she lifted the wing and slowly dragged the plane back into its proper position, arms wobbling with the effort. Kai took a moment to marvel at the sight, wondering just how strong she was—again, despite being so frail-looking in appearance. She flew as the plane was shifted onto one wing, grunting to keep it from snapping.

But, within a minute, the plane was right-side up. Sweat beaded on Star Breaker's brow, and she grunted before moving to overturn the red plane back up. Kai wondered just why she was cooperative all of a sudden, given her exceedingly questionable-at-best nature, but dared not ask as all the same it was much more favorable to being stuffed in a cage. "How long have you been here?" he asked.

"A year!" Star Breaker replied, her voice tight as she strained to tilt the red plane. The male pilot clambered into his aircraft, and gestured Kai over, who nodded to his 'playmate' and ran over to climb onto a wing. Fortunately, the craft had a second seat, and Kai jumped in and got himself buckled up. Star Breaker flew at the side of the red plane once she got it righted, her whole body shaking as the female pilot jumped aboard. Both fiddled with the controls, started their engines, and took to the air with such practiced ease and swiftness Kai thought these two were naturals at it.

The planes, and Star Breaker, were already circling the ceiling by the time Tomomo kicked the door open and stormed into the room, a single popsicle of dubiously red ice cream in her hand. Her eyes narrowed, and flashed an unnatural gold as she turned up and spotted the escapees. "Fly! She's got the ice cream!" Star Breaker yelled at the top of her lungs, lunging for the door as Tomomo lifted the popsicle and took a massive bite out of it. At the same time, she conjured a large ball of fire and lobbed it at Tomomo, garnering a hiss of pain as it contorted into thick black smog.

Effectively blinded, Tomomo could not see the pilots and Star Breaker flying out of the door to garner their freedom once again. But raw power coursed through the house itself as she chewed up the ice cream, snarling all the while. Oh how the little quartet was in trouble now…

Weaving down a flight of stairs as the house trembled, the stomachs of the four twisted as they heard a piercing shriek echo from everywhere at once, one that made their surroundings glow unnaturally. They pressed on, grimacing as the shriek evolved into a chilling laughter that followed them after each and every step they descended, the sheer sound causing the planes themselves to rattle erratically and Star Breaker to cover her ears.

"What the hell was that?!" Kai asked, looking at the stairs from his seat. Odd, he eyed a square-shaped spiral going down into black nothingness, littered with refuse and dust… "And when did the stairs change? There was only one flight when I was brought here!"

"Don’t know, don’t care, let’s just focus on getting out of here!" the male pilot replied, a tinge of fear swimming amidst his confidence. He veered his airplane down into the abyss, and the red plane tailed after him, though not before Star Breaker jumped on one of its wings and held for dear life. The stairwell kept extending, yet each time they came closer to the black abyss it simply shrunk away from them, as if taunting the group.

All the while, the chilling laugh dogged their every move, and the house itself pulsed repeatedly with a growing power none of them could comprehend. "Blue Crow, weren't there multiple rooms earlier?" the female pilot asked, having to yell to be heard through the demented cackling.

"Yeah… What in the everloving fuck is wrong with this place?!" the male replied, frowning deeply as the stairs kept on going and going. All eyes glanced around, searching hurriedly for an opening of some sort, yet none offered itself to them. This lasted for an indeterminate amount of distance, and an hour before they stopped and the planes circled between the stairs. Save for the whirring of the engines, silence held the stairs in a deathly cold grip.

The sound of footsteps, soft, slow, rhythmic caused the quartet's eyes to widen in unison. "Drop!" Star Breaker shrieked, apparently unable to withstand the place anymore. With that declaration she jumped ship without flying, descending to the black abyss and causing a chain reaction with her rather suicidal leap.

"I'm not sure if she has the right idea, but fuck it!" the male pilot barked, doing an act Kai thought he would not have even considered otherwise: he switched off his engine, and the plane dropped quite steeply almost instantly, hurtling after Star Breaker into the dark unknown.

"You idiot! You'll get us all killed!" the female pilot shrieked, turning her plane down without shutting off her engine to race after the trio. As she descended, though, her engine sputtered and shook, causing her eyes to dart to her control panel. She eyed a little nook with an 'E' on one side, an 'F' on the other, and a needle swinging slowly to the 'E.' With a stall, a shudder and her turbine locking up all at the same time, the engine died, and she too plummeted to her doom with an exclamation of, "You have got to be fucking kidding meeeeeeeeee!"

The house pulsed with power once again, and the darkness at the end dissipated to reveal a perfectly flat floor waiting for the whole bunch with spacious corners going wide to greet them. Everyone shrieked, and Star Breaker threw her arms in front of her face to brace for impact. Kai and the pilots unbuckled, but didn't go fast enough; as soon as the planes landed they were violently ejected and sent skidding painfully across carpet backside-down. Star Breaker herself landed and bounced off twice, alighting with a grunt next to them. They did not feel bones breaking, amazingly enough, but they did not move after impact as unholy pain settled deep within the sorry lot nonetheless.

They only managed to get to their feet as an angry stomping filled the air, and slowly their eyes gravitated to the source as she stared them down from the steps, coming closer and closer. Her hair was now silver in color, held up in a ponytail by a large pink ribbon. In her hand was a massive stick, at the end of which was affixed a giant mauve paddle of some sort. Large gold wings spread out her back, glowing with pure light that ironically shrouded much of her face in shadow. She wore a gaudy dress, once that bounced with each movement. "Gotta hand it to you, that was a pretty clever tactic you pulled on me," she spoke in an echoing voice the group recognized as Tomomo's, but distorted with power. She lifted the paddle high and struck them all with it before anyone raised an objection, and they found themselves pushed into a sticky, slimy surface that held them like glue.

Lifting the paddle off of the carpet, she turned it over to see if she had missed anyone. Nope; she had all four miscreants right where she wanted them. "I had to clean up the cage while you pulled that little stunt," she went on, grinning cruelly, "and nailed down the ladders too. Oh, and my bedroom's clean, so you won't be hiding anymore in case you do get out again."

She lifted a hand and snapped her fingers, and they vanished from the stairwell in a flash of light. When they reappeared, they were back in the bedroom, now sparkling to perfection with a much cleaner air about it. No garbage littered the floor, and everything seemed almost unnaturally shiny. Tomomo lifted the paddle from the stick and opened the cage's latch before letting it rest on a platform big enough to hold it. Then she closed the cage, and in another flash of light she reverted back to her brown-haired, pajama-wearing self. Oddly, she still held the massive stick. "You four are staying there tonight. The glue's only gonna let you out to use the toilets, which I've also added to your huts with plumbing and everything. Behave." With that, she marched out of the room and closed the door behind her, presumably to confiscate the planes.

Kai facepalmed, and glared at the pilots. "How close were you two the first time?" he asked.

The male shook his head. "We didn't know what was where," he muttered, lifting a hand to gesture to himself and his companion, noticing the slimy gunk they were sitting in only stuck to them rather mildly. "It was…"

"Disorganized would be the word you're looking for, Peat," the female piped up.

Peat nodded. "Admittedly, yes," he sighed. He stood up and tried to clamber out of the paddle, but as he reached the edge, the substance tensed and yanked him back in, setting him next to Kai, whose eyes were alight with a murderous fire. Hands clasped Peat's neck, and started shaking him.

"You nearly killed me, you dolt!" Kai shouted, shaking Peat with enough force to make the back of his head collide repeatedly with the slimy paddle.

"H-had n-no choice, w-was r-running on e-empty," Peat gargled between collisions.

"You could have warned me, you ass!" Kai shouted, face reddening with anger.

"M-Marc, h-help," Peat pleaded as Kai continued to strangle him senseless.

"I'm a bit… preoccupied," Marc muttered, trying to get the substance off of her body to no avail; it always stuck to something no matter what she did. First it was her foot, then her hands, then her breasts, and then her stomach as she tried to brush it off. "What is this gunk!?"

Kai let go of Peat… but only as Star Breaker marched over herself and personally pried him off. "What the…?!" he cried, only for a strong cybernetic hand to clasp itself around his mouth.

Star Breaker pressed her body against Kai's, shivering. "F-fear… the ice c-cream…" she muttered.

Marc looked at Star Breaker, frowning as she saw the sheer terror written all over her blanching face. "Are… you okay?" she tried, garnering a rapid shaking of the head as a reply.

Peat sat up, rubbing his neck with a grunt as he stared at Kai. Then, he noticed who was holding Kai, eyes wide and pupils shrunken like she was on the verge of having a coronary. "Er, miss…? Are you alright?" he tried.

"I-ice cream…" Star Breaker weakly stammered, shaking like a leaf. She made to speak further, but tensed and almost crushed Kai in her grip as the door opened again and Tomomo walked inside, holding a plate in one hand. On that plate was laden a large, cooked, steaming steak bearing a nice charred crust, generously sprinkled with lettuce and bits of shredded cheese.

"Almost forgot your dinner," Tomomo announced, going over to the cage and opening the latch before putting the plate on the floor of the cage. With another snap of her fingers, though, the platform the paddle was affixed on widened a substantial margin, and the plate of food vanished and promptly reappeared right next to the group. "Bon appetit." With that, she closed the door and walked out of the room again, leaving the quartet to their own devices.

The group exchanged glances amongst themselves. "It's… burnt…" Star Breaker muttered, before hopping to her feet and rushing to the steak, the slimy substance letting her loose so she could approach the plate. She clambered on and ripped off a big chunk with her bare hands, eyes widening when she found it was medium-rare, yet still oozing a bit of red juice from its center. She took a bite, and stumbled back as she registered a faint crunchy feeling in her mouth. It took her several long seconds to process this, but when her brain caught up to what this meant, she dug into the piece she had claimed.

"That girl has no table manners…" Marc stated, eying Star Breaker with concern glimmering in her eyes.

"She's crazy," Kai piped up, garnering looks from Marc and Peat. He turned to them both and mouthed, "She told me she ate burnt human corpses. And wedged bombs up peoples' asses. Not sure how true that is, and I don't want to find out. Let her do her own thing."

Marc and Peat both let their jaws drop at that, and turned back to Star Breaker as she finished up her piece of steak. Wiping her mouth, she sighed and gestured the other three over. "It's tasty!" she called. Hesitantly, Kai and the pilots extracted themselves from the goo and waddled over to the plate, each wrenching off a piece of steak for themselves. Each took a bite as Star Breaker wrenched off another, smaller piece that had a bit of cheese and lettuce on it. For a few minutes, the only sound to be heard was the sound of meat tearing as everyone took bites, but in the end the steak won, with barely two dents in its meaty mass in direct proportion to the people who took chunks out of it.

"Okay… I hate the fact that our captor served us food… but at the same time, that steak was good," Kai muttered, laying a ways away from the plate

"Burnt… bloody… close enough…" Star Breaker muttered, licking her chops at the thought.

"Can we ask for silverware next time?" Marc piped up, wiping her face on her arm since she had little else to use.

"I don't think Tomomo would give silverware," Kai pointed out, waving a hand dismissively. "She may think we'd be plotting again."

"So we're stuck here?" Marc queried, fear tinging her voice as she turned to look at Kai, who gave a lazy nod.

"Until we figure out some other way to get out," Kai affirmed glumly, cringing at those prospects.

"God fucking damnit!" Peat cursed, stomping a foot as he finished his meal. "Now what? Marc and I can't do anything without our aircrafts!"

"And I can't… torch anything…" Star Breaker added, crossing her arms.

Peat had just opened his mouth to ask what she meant by that when the slimy substance moved of its own accord, extending a sticky arm and seizing the quartet before planting them in one huddle. All four jumped at this, and shook in unison as they noticed the goo moving about around them, forcing them into standing positions with arms behind their backs. "Wh-what the hell?!" Kai shrieked as the goo grew multiple tendrils, all writhing about and ensnaring four sets of legs before opening them just enough to keep them from crossing.

"Aiiiyeeeeeeeeee! The slime monster! It strikes again!" Star Breaker squealed in a shrill voice, wiggling feverishly as extra tentacles raced over to contain her. "Keep it away, keep it—hrk!" A tentacle wedged itself in her mouth, muffling her on the spot. She tried to bite, but the substance merely spread over her entire face whilst simultaneously filling her cheeks close to bursting, immobilizing her head, but not silencing her protests.

Kai struggled, as did Peat and Marc, before the substance grasped their heads and did to them as it had done to Star Breaker. Then, the slime encased the rest of their bodies, before it gradually pushed them together chest to chest and in pairs. Kai was, once again, pressed up against Star Breaker, whilst Marc and Peat found themselves a little too close for comfort given the circumstances. It tightened its hold on their waists, and their arms, but loosened around their heads just enough to let them stick out of the slippery, gelatinous mass.

The four coughed and wheezed, spitting out slime as it pressed them closer. "Wh-what is h-happening?!" Peat cried, paling as he felt the substance start parting his asscheeks. “.... Oh dear god no...” he muttered, eyes widening as he felt the substance prodding at him. "No… no no no no no no!" he cried, trying to struggle to no avail.

Marc shrieked as her body was angled by the slime, feeling her head sinking back into the shapeshifting paddle that started to part her legs a little wider. "N-no! S-someone make it—" she started, only to stop with a cry as she felt hands drag themselves across her body. The hands tried to pull away, but the slime held them firmly in place, moving them against their will across her stomach. Then she felt someone else's hip start grinding against hers, and she thrashed as much as the goo would let her. "G-gyaa! I-I'm not ready for this!" she whined.

"You aren't the only one!" Kai yelled as the goo made him bend backwards at something of a painful angle. "Star Breaker, can you try sending this thing to hell?!"

Star Breaker tried to conjure flames, but bound as her arms were, there was simply no oxygen for any fire to burn whatsoever. Thus, that proved fruitless, so she tried to make bombs… only, there was also no air pockets for her to actually make something with, so her only reply was to scream. "I-it won't let me!" she shrieked before her face became smothered in the mauve slime.

"Is this thing sentient?!" Kai garbled before his head became enveloped once again.

"I-I don't know!" Marc wailed, before she too was fully encased.

"Damn it! Let me go, you vile creature!" Peat hollered, his protest going unheeded as the slime proceeded to silence him as it had the others. He gargled as he felt the slime breach him, forcing itself into his body slowly, causing searing pain to assault him from one end. At the same time, he felt something dry wrap around his length, and a pair of legs haltingly entwining with his. He tried to pull out, the dry object actually aiding him somewhat in that endeavor with vicious clenching, yet trying to claw his way out of this thick slime only made it coerce him deeper into his equally-unwilling partner. He was convinced, and rightly so, that he had been plunged into Hell.

Just as they were all about to pass out from asphyxiation, the slime released their heads and let them hork up more of its mauve mass. The instant he was done coughing, he found Marc being pushed upon him until they were face to face. She was already red, and shedding tears with eyes screwed shut, still trying in vain to push him back out. "T- too… big…" she croaked out, her voice tight and an octave higher.

"I-I can't help i-it…" Peat hissed, clenching his teeth as he felt the slime start roughly pumping in and out of him. He turned to Kai and Star Breaker, but winced as a piercing shriek from the latter filled the air. Her face was reddening, her voice distorting with a mechanical hum, and all the while she pulled and tugged to get out to no avail.

"Make it stoooooooooooop!" was all Star Breaker could say before the sentient substance once more decided to shut her up.

"I think she's gonna kill me later!" Kai howled in panic, eyes wide and face pale as he registered the sheer agony the distorted cry had contained. "If this stuff doesn't do that first!" Once again, the gunk dragged him back down to ensnare his head. Before they could voice anything more, Peat and Marc followed him into the sticky abyss.

Star Breaker was… simply put, not a happy camper. She felt something wedge itself, with inhuman amounts of force, straight up her ass. Pain danced across her body, and though she kicked and struggled with an equally inhuman amount of might, she could not even reach the offending object to dislodge it. It distended, no, stretched her to a limit she didn't even know was possible. The slime slurped up her blood as she felt flesh tearing bit by bit, until that hole felt like it had an entire person's arm shoved deep inside. It pumped in and out, slickened by her blood and aided by her struggling ironically enough, sending what could only be described as white-hot flames dancing throughout her entire lower body.

At the same time that was happening, Kai had been made to once again rut her entrance beyond senseless. Now, though, the friction that created made her clench in an effort to reject him. There was no pleasure to be had here, as the agony simply made her unbearably tight and very unwilling. In turn, this only made the slime drag out his thrusts for longer, adding another layer of pain as he hardened. This ended up creating a vicious feedback loop, one that did not stop for a second.

Kai was no better off; the goo went up his, too, and pumped so mercilessly he could've sworn it touched his pelvic bone more than once through his flesh. His length was ablaze with pain, twitching erratically with friction and a force that wasn't his own. His body reacted to the pain, but his mind was on the brink of shutting down just to escape it, and the only thing keeping him awake through it all was the sensation of unwilling flesh walls still trying in vain to eject him. He was but a flesh and blood doll, helpless to the slime's machinations, powerless to stop himself from becoming a plaything to an ever-shifting construct. He was a mere slave, unable to object, yet having to carry out a punishment with his considerations and concerns kicked right past the curb into the road.

Marc had stopped struggling. The battle had left her drained. Her eyes glazed with pain and defeat as her holes were abused. The slime lapped up her blood and tears as it was doing to the other three, pushing in and out of her sphincter without an iota of mercy. Peat, too, was stretching her entrance like it was rubber; somehow, the slime had convinced his length to get inside and stay there. If she were able to describe that sensation, it would have been with 'thick as a man's ankle.' And all that did was make the friction she got burn worse, drag longer, ram harder than she thought possible. Both slime and length rubbed against each other through her walls, playing a tarantella upon her dancing, shrieking nerves that started tearing from one side. She wanted to scream, but could not muster the strength to do so.

The slime let their heads emerge from its depths, and everyone gave out weakened coughs. "I… can't take… it anymore…" Star Breaker mewled, her voice dry and hoarse as she felt Kai stilling within her again. "I… I want to die…"

"C-can't… feel legs…" Kai mumbled, feeling the slime pulling his arms tight. His head lolled to one side. "G-growing… numb…"

"R-Red Barrel, s-say something!" Peat called, pupils shrinking as Marc's eyes started to slip shut. "Red Barrel, c-can you hear me?!" Marc did not respond. Her body had gone limp, save for a very labored breathing. "Marc, answer me!" Peat yelled to no avail. The slime kept making her move, grinding her against him like she was its puppet. "Damnit Marc! Don't fade on me now!"

"N… no… no more…" Star Breaker groaned, going limp herself. Her eyes, too, were closing, and her mind started to shut down to dull the pain. Peat glanced at her, panic starting to truly claw at him.

"Y-you too?!" Peat shrieked, an octave higher as Star Breaker gave one last lazy nod before she succumbed to unconsciousness. He turned to Kai, finding him wide-eyed and with a disconcerting fog forming across his irises. "Wh-what about you?!"

"N-no… not... " was all Kai could utter before he followed Star Breaker into the depths of agonized sleep.

Peat screamed, in mortified and abject agony as he unloaded into Marc's still body, partly because of what was going on and partly because he was the only one even fighting back at that point. Despite emptying his reservoir, the slime made him keep thrusting, the movements smoothened a little bit by his own traitorous fluids. He still pushed and shoved, trying to get out of the literal mess he had found himself in, but the mess itself exerted an unholy amount of force to keep him still.

His brain did a backflip, then several cartwheels as it caught up to the fact that he emptied inside of Marc. His struggles increased tenfold, and adrenaline pumped in his veins as he tried to get out of the slime before it could make him do it again. "For crying out loud! H-how is this—" A scream tore itself out of his throat, cutting him off when the slime widened his sphincter to the point he could feel it prodding his spine. "Gh-ghaaaaaaa…" With one last flash of pain dancing upon his maddened nerves, he too followed the others into a shock-induced bout of incognizance.

The rest of that night was but a blur to them. The slime suffocated them, just enough to make them fade in and out of consciousness before letting them breathe and scream and cough before it started anew. The four thrashed, and winced and made muffled cries in every bout of awareness as the slime made them assume various positions they would not have taken even under their own volition. They were repeatedly violated, and forced upon each other, in a maddening frenzy of agony where their protests fell upon a shapeshifting blob that didn't have ears to begin with. Again and again it did this, for hours on end, even after the group stopped fighting and simply let it have its way with them, too exhausted to do anything else. Eventually it spat them out into a sticky heap on the bottom of the cage, and clambered out before retaking its original paddle-like shape and vanishing in a flash of light.

The quartet fell into a dreamless, numb sleep that night.

Chapter Text

The quartet awoke to a world of debilitating pain the following morning, and shambled up a few ladders and down a few platforms to get themselves crammed into a hut with bruises and sores aplenty. Marc and Star Breaker couldn't stand for more than twenty seconds, and Peat and Kai weren't much better off either. All sat, staining the straw on some level with faint flecks of crimson. All of them leaned against a wall, next to a window in case Tomomo decided to pester them again.

Needless to say, their groins and rear ends were red and tingling in ways none of them found even remotely pleasant. The only comfort they had was that the straw was soft, and that the slime monster dared not follow them to the hut, if it was even arguably alive or present in the damn room with them to begin with. This was fine by them; they needed to regather their strength, and wait for the agony to ebb into something a little more manageable.

For two long hours, none of them spoke a word. Silence hang heavily about them all, just as smothering as the slime, and with it came a tense air that went virtually unchallenged. They exchanged looks every now and again, all red in the face, yet unable to articulate anything even if they opened their mouths. None of them knew what to say. What was there to be said?

Eventually, Kai turned to Marc and asked her in a raspy voice, "How did you… hit Tomomo with that…" he paused, struggling for a word. It took him several seconds to find a fitting word, "rocket?"

"The Guild… found some strange technology a few years ago, before… this mess," Marc began, frowning and shifting her legs to let her knees cover her chest, "and didn't know what it… did. So they tried it, and… found it could conjure rockets. How it got in my plane after… haven't the foggiest." She looked away. "And now I can't use it… at all…"

Kai frowned and dropped his head, figuring that whatever let Marc conjure the rockets was very likely the same tech that let Star Breaker conjure her bombs. It did not help that he, otherwise, had no clue what she babbled to him about. Still, it was better to have some answer than none at all, vague and nonsensical to him as it was. He shifted when someone leaned against him, and his eyes gravitated to find Star Breaker resting her head on his shoulder, eyes closed and mouth forming a thin and tight line.

She gave a very soft hum, breathing slowly yet steadily. Kai opened his mouth to speak, but closed it in seconds when she did nothing more. She seemed to be taking a nap, and having already seen her bad side, he very wisely decided to not rouse that sleeping beast within questionably-human flesh. He had a feeling he was going to need all the help he could get in this Magical Hell, and some from a crazy person was better than none at all.

Peat turned his eye onto Star Breaker, contemplating her posture for a moment. Then, his eyes gravitated to Kai, who returned the look as he mouthed, "She said the slime monster struck again… does that mean what I think it does?"

Kai considered that very grim question, and gave a slight shiver at those implications. Had that been why Star Breaker feared the ice cream, perhaps? He brushed that aside, unable to answer Peat's query, and very carefully considered the mere fact that Tomomo had gotten a bloody lip and a bleeding nose the other day, and was also blindsided by a smokescreen. The group could fight back, yes; in fact they could do so until the cows came home, and hurt their captor in the process if they managed to catch her off guard at the right time.

But he was not keen on doing that again, as much as he'd have liked to leave. They had, in spectacular fashion, managed to piss Tomomo off enough for the house itself to actively hold them back. Marc and Peat were, without their planes, about as useful as a broken rubber band; which was to say not at all currently. Star Breaker herself would have been very useful, since she could fly unaided… if everything around them hadn't been bomb and fireproofed down to the straw itself. Kai doubted he'd help much, either; he had too many questions and concerns to really formulate a plan, and worse yet he couldn't even do much himself.

The four were Tomomo's sentient lab rats, as much as Kai hated to admit it. Or, at least, they would be, until they could find some way to counter her and flee before she could catch them. But the damned house seemed to bend at Tomomo's whim, warping as if to match her mood. Given this, Kai ruminated and ruminated for a long time, as did Peat and Marc…

Marc eventually mouthed the words none of them wanted to voice, yet started bouncing around their heads as they came to the same grim conclusion, "There is no easy way out of here… is there?" Kai and Peat shook their heads, and Marc drew a shuddering breath.

"No… no slime monster…" Star Breaker muttered into Kai's shoulder, her eyes scrunching. Then she slipped off and fell into his lap, thankfully facing away from his stomach. "N-no… no slime… monster…"

Kai let his brow furrow and slowly lifted a hand to rub the side of her head. She thrashed for a moment, managing to kick Peat in the chest, but stilled as fingers ran through her tangled hair. Peat himself gave a sharp gasp, and crumpled to the floor, swearing he heard a bone pop from the impact. "A… a nightmare?" he wheezed, his voice hoarse thanks to the air that was knocked out of his lungs. Kai nodded sourly.

No wonder Star was in such a foul mood yesterday. And come to think of it, she'd probably be back in that foul mood upon waking up from her nap, assuming she wouldn't have another coronary first. But the gentle rubbing of her scalp did seem to placate her, at least for the moment, and so Kai continued to soothe her. "I… like them… rigid…" she muttered in a soft voice, a grin forming on her face.

The door to the bedroom opened, and in shuffled the titanic terror herself. "Oi, breakfast!" she called as the group heard a latch unlock, followed by a cage door swinging open. She set something down on the floor of the cage, causing the straw to stir, but did not close its door just yet. A decidedly sweet smell filled the air. "I said, breakfast! Come and get it, gerbil people!"

Peat rose to stand and poked his head out of the window. Kai quickly covered Star Breaker's ears, hoping to high heaven she wouldn't wake up. "None of us feel like moving out of this hut, fatty!" he cried, and pulled his head back in to sit down against the wall again. The cage door clicked shut, and the latch followed suit.

"Well, breakfast is still there if you want it, sourpuss," Tomomo replied bluntly. With that, she walked out of the room and closed the bedroom door. Kai hesitantly removed his hands from Star Breaker's ears, and she stirred a little before mumbling and ceasing movement.

He started running his fingers through her hair again, sighing when she leaned a little into the touch. Kai turned to Peat and muttered, "Should we wake her up?"

Peat hurriedly shook his head. "Let the crazy bitch sleep," he replied firmly, but softly so as to not rouse Star Breaker from sleep. He rubbed where she had kicked him and added, "Besides, if she's strong enough to turn a goddamn plane over, how easily could she break our bones?!" Kai nodded, conceding his point, and continued gently ruffling the pastel-blue hair.

Marc stood on shaky legs and shuffled around Kai and Star Breaker to kneel at Peat's side, looking at his chest pointedly. "You okay?" she queried, her voice quiet and flat. Peat shook his head.

"A little worse off now. I think a rib cracked," he groaned. Marc hesitantly lifted a hand, silently asking to check, and Peat nodded before wincing and grunting as she ran her hand across the spot where a cybernetic foot impacted him. "E-easy there…" he muttered as Marc continued checking him over.

"Don't feel any cracks…" Marc muttered, frowning. "But you'll bruise…"

"Better than broken bones, at least," Peat sighed, and shifted to lay down to ease the ache in his chest. "What should we do? None of us can walk…"

Star Breaker began struggling again, arms flailing this time. "N-no slime… ngh… unhand me…" she hissed, causing Kai to pull back. In doing so, he snagged a thick tangle and accidentally pulled, immediately earning himself a fist to the cheek that hit hard enough to dislodge a few teeth and send him to the floor. "N-no! No slime! S-stop!" she howled, jerking up with prismic eyes snapping wide open. She glanced around hastily, fitfully checking for the slime monster, and only relaxed after a few seconds passed and she realized there was no slime monster to be had. She heard a groan, and turned to Peat and Marc, who both shook their heads and gestured in tandem at something behind her. She followed their fingers, and sighed at the sight.

Kai groaned, clutching his cheek as blood welled up in his mouth. Some of her hair was balled up in his hand, though unintentionally. He spat out the freed teeth and grunted, "Lady, you seriously need to brush your hair…"

"S-slime monster… g-gone? K-Kai, is i-it g-gone?" Star Breaker whimpered, wilting and turning haltingly to the window, evidently expecting it to come back.

"S-slime monster… i-is gone," Kai grunted in reply, shifting to sit up with one hand lifting the knotted hair to disentangle it from his face, the other resting quite firmly on his cheek. Star Breaker gave a weak nod, and shifted to curl up on the floor, burying her face in the straw, her hair, and her hands. She took muffled and shuddering breaths, and he could tell straight away she was going to snap at any moment. "Did it… do that when you… met it the first time?" he asked, garnering an immediate shaking of the head as his answer.

He turned to Peat and Marc, who both merely frowned tiredly at him. "I don't… feel up for breakfast," Marc muttered. "Should… we eat soon, though?" She swallowed a lump in her throat, and audibly. "I… don't want to anger… h-her, if we…"

Kai nodded, causing Marc's mouth to shut with the motion. "I… don't know what she'd do, if we didn't," he admitted, shaking his head dismally. He turned to Star Breaker, and for a moment the words he did not wish to utter held themselves fast on his tongue. But he muttered them, softly yet grimly with a frown tugging at his lips, "Star Breaker was here before I arrived. She'd… know whether or not Tomomo would get… angry for ignoring food."

Star Breaker responded by tightening the curl of her body, forming a ball that would not budge. Aside from shaky breaths, she was dead silent. Kai's frown deepened, and he reached to touch her head, but when he made contact she flinched with a sharp gasp and he pulled back. "N-not… now…" she croaked, voice fraught with pain.

Peat lifted a hand and waved it dismissively just as Kai turned to look back at him, following the motion with a brow furrowing and his head shaking. "Let's continue resting…" he muttered. "She clearly… needs a moment…"

Marc opted to lay next to Peat, though her back faced him. "Don't… we all?" she mused, voice still flat in inflection. Nobody answered her, and her eyes closed again. She flinched when he lifted a hand to pat her on the shoulder, but relaxed and let him do so. "We'll… need to get… a bite, though…"

"Later…" Peat muttered, rubbing Marc's shoulder soothingly. He felt her nodding against the straw, and his hand. "That bastard… bitch… whatever she is can… fuckin deal with it." He rolled onto his side and tenderly wrapped his arms around Marc, being careful to not move too suddenly, and resisting the urge to pull her close.

Kai laid down and hesitantly prodded Star Breaker's back with a single finger. She seized immediately, hands pulling from her face and tugging sharply on her own hair. "N-ngh… what… are you d-doing?" she hissed.

"Letting you k-know I'm laying d-down," Kai muttered, lifting his hands to his face in case she made to punch him again. He heard a sigh, and saw her nod instead.

"O-okay…" Star Breaker muttered, her back straightening a little. Nobody moved for a few minutes after, at least until the bedroom door creaked open and Tomomo back marched in.

"... still ain't touched your food… okay, what the hell happened?" she asked, kneeling down to peek into the hut from its window again.

Peat sat up and, after disentangling himself from Marc, crawled to the window and poked his head out, leaning against the sill to give Tomomo twin birds raised high. "If you want the short story, you big ass, we! Can't! Walk! At all! Thanks to your slime beast, by the way. Really enjoyed being anally plowed and forced onto Marc at the same time!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, waving the birds erratically to make sure Tomomo could see them.

Tomomo raised one brow just an inch. "So… your asses and uglies are sore…" she translated.

Peat slipped and fell back into the hut, but he still kept the birds in plain sight by shifting to sit up against the wall. "No shit!" he started, face turning redder as he sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t even think 'sore' is the right word. Try 'bleeding a whole damn bucket's worth of blood!' I didn’t even know men could bleed that much out their genital regions and assholes, but thank you for apparently proving me otherwise! God fucking damnit!" he snapped, before lowering the birds and crawling back to Marc.

Tomomo lifted a hand and facepalmed. "Oookay, so you guys apparently can't take the slime monster… much," she muttered dismally. "Hold your horses for a sec…" She stood up and walked out of the room again, muttering obscenities and closing the door as she went.

Star Breaker sat up, shaking and turning to glare at the window. "I will… gouge her fucking eyes out… with my teeth…" she hissed, teeth gnashing and tears staining her face as she made that dark promise. "And then I will… rip her heart out… and eat it within earshot of her dying corpse…"

Peat sat up in a heartbeat, eyes going round at Star Breaker's declaration. His mouth opened, only to close as his mind replayed the hell he and the others shared last night. Far-fetched, her promise was, though it wasn't necessarily unwarranted, nor unjustified. "Maybe we should put… that lazy ass in her own slime," he suggested, garnering the attention of Star Breaker, who immediately turned that wicked prismic glare to him. "Give her a taste of… her own sadistic medicine."

"And then rip her apart?" Star Breaker queried, garnering a very hesitant nod from Peat.

"Sounds about right," Kai chipped in, lifting a hand to wave it at some vague point of the hut's ceiling. "Let the goo stretch her ass... sideways, and then carve her up ten ways to Sunday—awake, so... she feels every damn second of it before finishing her off." Star Breaker laid back down, this time turning to him with a weak smile.

"And what are we going to... carve her up with?" Star asked, a morbid gleam shining in her eyes.

Kai dropped his hand. "Buzzsaws," he replied with a shrug. Star Breaker's smile widened, and she leaned close enough to kiss him if she were of a mind to.

"I like you," she chirped slowly, causing the hairs on the back of Kai's neck to stand on end. He was starting to wonder if she had, somehow, infected him with a case of the crazy. He wasn't sure if her liking him was good in this instance, given how topsy-turvy everything went in the past few days. She lifted a hand and poked him on the chest with two fingers. "You're starting… to see things my way." He relaxed a little at that; he doubted he could take much more if she decided to become attached to him on a more intimate level.

The door opened again, and the group heard the familiar footsteps of their captor… and another voice shouting to no avail. "Okay, seriously, this is not what I meant when I said I'd help!" a woman shrieked, her voice irate and high in pitch.

"Oh here we go, we got another one…" Kai groused, brow furrowing as the cage door opened and he heard the sound of someone landing upon hay. The door shut, the latch clicked, and… someone rushed to the bars in a clang sharp enough to briefly shake the hut. Everyone sat up as Tomomo chuckled.

"Well, to work your magic hands on these guys, I had to shrink you first. 'pologies, Sugs," Tomomo replied.

"And why did you strip me down?" 'Sugs' asked incredulously, the cage rattling a little.

"Because you're cute naked," Tomomo replied mockingly, that 'compliment' followed by the sound of something else clicking shut and landing with a thud against the cage. "Help the other gerbil folks eat breakfast before it goes bad. Later." She stood up and walked out again. "Hut on the third platform!" she called before the door to the bedroom closed.

"Great… caged…" 'Sugs' muttered, loud enough for the group to hear. The cage stopped rattling. "At least I'm not completely bereft of my defenses…" Nobody heard footsteps, oddly enough, but instead a soft rustling of straw and the flapping of something… flat? "Third platform… third…" It did not take long for the newcomer to reveal herself in more ways than one; a woman flew into the hut from the door, feet aglow and long silver hair flapping behind her. Her crimson eyes sized up the room, and pale slender arms were positioned to cover her privates. She frowned deeply upon seeing Star Breaker, who frowned back and hissed in her direction. "So… I heard you couldn't… walk?" she tried.

Peat nodded and waved his hand, bading the newcomer to alight. "Might as well drop the hands, as much as I hate to say it," he groused, gesturing to Marc and the others. "We're just as exposed as you."

The newcomer sighed and landed on the straw-filled floor, frown deepening as she noticed the dried bloodstains. She approached Peat and Marc first, slowly to let them know she meant no harm. Still, her hands refused to shift, even as she made to kneel before them and ascertain the damage. "Oh… oh dear… t-turn over…" she commanded, voice tinged with concern. Peat and Marc did just that, exposing to her their bloodstained rears complete with horrific prolapses that could get infected if something wasn't done about it. "... what… happened?"

"W-we don't… wanna talk about it," Marc replied, shuddering at that fresh memory. "I-if that's… a-alright." She swallowed. "Wh-what's your… name?"

"Suguri, pleased to meet you… or I would be pleased, if the circumstances were different," Suguri groused, brow furrowing.

Marc nodded, and sighed as Suguri turned to Kai and Star Breaker. "Same with us," Kai muttered with a frown. "What hit them… hit us too. Just as… bad."

"F-fear the ice c-cream…" Star Breaker muttered slowly, shaking as she gave the warning.

Suguri's brow furrowed. She took a long moment to process the warning, sensing a collective shudder passing through the others without even needing to bat an eye, as the straw shook a little with them. "If you of all people are the one to tell me this… I shall heed it," she replied softly, her hands shifting slowly. One hand went to Marc, and the other came to rest on Peat's back. The two tensed at the touch, and she turned to them. "Relax…" Her hands started to glow, and her eyes closed.

Peat and Marc felt a slight puncture of flesh in their backs before their bodies started reacting to this strange glow, which began to ebb their pain and pull the prolapses back in. Their strength started to return at the same time, but only because of it. The bruising faded, but only a little. "Nanotechnology," Suguri muttered behind them. "Just a little bit will heal you back to walking capacity, and as a precaution I am leaving a little in you both should this happen again." She pulled her hands back, and stood up to walk to Kai and Star Breaker to treat them.

"Nano… whatchamacallit… will it last?" Marc asked, tilting her head as her eyes gravitated to Suguri.

Suguri gave a nod. "For however long we're trapped here," she muttered, voice oddly grim as she knelt and put a hand on Kai and the other on Star Breaker. "The latch has been locked."

"Great, now Tomomo's probably going to be carrying a damn key…" Kai groused, brow furrowing.

Marc and Peat rose sluggishly to their feet, legs still wobbly and straining to hold, yet abated now that the pain was fading. "I still wouldn't recommend walking for very long; the less you move, the faster the nanotechnology will work," Suguri warned as she started getting to work. "Once I am done here, I'll just bring you the breakfast."

"I'd rather not e-eat in… hay if I-I can help it," Peat replied, turning to amble on the platform. Marc followed him, shivering as the air turned colder when she left the straw bed.

"Fair enough," Suguri muttered, retracting her hands from Kai and Star Breaker. She stood up, and on shaky legs Kai and Star followed suit, noticing that most of their pain was gone too. "You two hungry?"

Kai nodded. Star Breaker shook her head and sat back down. "Not today," Star muttered. Suguri nodded, and watched as Kai shambled out after Peat and Marc to find them seated at the platform's edge, eyes affixed to the bedroom's ceiling. He followed their gaze, and paled as he found their planes dangling from it with the aid of screw-in hooks and golden ribbons. Their condition was pristine, but that wouldn't remain the case in the event they got out and convinced Star Breaker and possibly Suguri to fly up and untie the ribbons. For several long seconds, he could do nothing but stare at the ghastly sight.

"You have got to be shitting me…" Kai muttered, face blanching. "Tomomo didn't do that…"

Marc waved a hand and whimpered. "Fatso went and damn well did!" Peat growled, shifting to wrap a comforting arm around Marc. "Now what?!"

Kai moved to sit down next to the frustrated pilots, frowning deeply as he contemplated on what to do. He turned to the breakfast Tomomo had left them, finding a small-by-normal-standards saucer topped with mini-pancakes gobbed in syrup and melted butter. For a moment, it almost looked tempting, until he realized there wasn't any silverware to carve it with. He turned to the latch, and his brow furrowed upon seeing a massive combination lock holding the latch to one of the bars that wasn't part of the door. Even worse, the blasted thing's backside faced the inside of the cage, but did not have any indicator as to what the combination to unlock it was—just standard manufacturing info, and nothing more. His eyes gravitated to the nearest ladder, and he scowled upon seeing two thick nuts anchoring one end of the ladder to the very platform he sat on.

Kai responded to all of this by throwing his hands in the air. "Fan-fucking-tastic!" he exclaimed, causing both Peat and Marc to turn to him with widening eyes. "How are we going to get out now?!"

"I wish I knew…" Marc muttered with a wince, brow slanting and concern flashing in her eyes. She heard a flapping sound, and turned to the hut as Suguri flew out of it and moved to hover next to the pancakes. She contemplated the stack for a moment, hand raising to rub her chin in thought. In minutes, she settled on simply breaking a chunk off the topmost pancake in the stack and flying it over to Kai. It was sticky, the syrup already soaking in and drying, but he took it nonetheless and started munching.

Suguri repeated this two more times, airlifting pieces to Marc and Peat, before seizing the last of the topmost pancake for herself and alighting to sit next to the group. Quietly, they ate in peace, though when they finished off the meal they were a little sticky in the hands. "I think you should continue resting," Suguri muttered, garnering flat stares from the trio. "I'll do a sweep of this…" Her eyes gravitated to the tubes that connected the large cage to its smaller brethren as she finished, "bizarre environment." At their nods, she got up and went to a nearby water bowl to cleanse her hands of the residue, as well as some that had gotten upon her face before taking off to fly down the nearest tube.

Kai, Peat, and Marc turned to the water bowl before grudgingly rising to their feet and walking to get themselves cleaned up. They went with the more bizarre approach of sitting in the bowl like a tub, before tenderly they started to scrub the dried blood away with their hands, wincing at the faint stings their bodies gave when they reached certain areas. It wasn't long before the water turned from clear to a shade of cherry red. "This is the worst," Marc complained, outright flinching with each scrubbing motion. "We've been reduced to… to… less than dirt."

"Tell me about it," Kai agreed, sighing as he started checking himself over to make sure he didn't miss any flecks of blood. "I think Tomomo wants us to screw like rabbits."

"As if! I'm not fucking for a while, certainly not after what happened yesterday!" Peat snapped, grunting as his length throbbed in pain at the mention of it. He paused, brain catching up to what Kai had just said. Slowly, he turned to stare in those glasses-framed eyes, and his jaw started to drop.

Kai gave a blunt nod. "Yes. I had to stick my dick in the crazy. Two days ago, actually," he muttered flatly. "And found she was a virgin." Peat absorbed that confession for several seconds without really processing it at first, and he tried to let it sink in before forming any sort of response to it. His face twisted, trying to form an expression, but stopped at a completely flat look that screamed of a thousand hamsters running around in his brain trying to piece together something in proportion to what he had just heard. Eventually, he calmly walked up to Kai, and gently put a hand on his shoulder with a small smile.

“Dude… Congratulations,” Peat said with sincerity that gave Kai pause.

Wait. Peat was being sincere about it. At this, Kai blanched. "She had her arms bound by a dart… and she didn't know what I was doing…" he muttered, brow slanting in befuddlement. "I was surprised she even agreed to it at all!"

“It doesn’t matter, my man! You got laid! I have friends back at home who’d kill to have a crazy bitch like that do weird bondage kinkplay like that with them. So how was it!?” Peat replied, somehow missing the utter confusion that had overtaken Kai's features.

Kai sank deeper into the water, hoping it was deep enough to drown in. "She… tried crushing my hand…" he replied, hoping that was enough to get Peat to take the damn hint already.

"Peat… I don't think he liked it," Marc observed, voice tinged with concern and a slight wry note that Kai did not miss. "And he said she didn't know what he was doing…"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" Kai groused, frowning in embarrassed befuddlement.

“Yeah but… Y’know…” Peat stuttered, slowly realizing this wasn’t what anyone wanted to hear. His mouth moved before he could reel it in, “... Crazy chicks are like… Uh… I mean… Who wouldn’t enjoy it, like, yknowhwatImsaying?”

"Her wanting to gouge Tomomo's eyes out enough of a clue?" Kai snarked, shivering in building anger that made his eyes narrow. "She damn near tried breaking me. In ways I wouldn't have appreciated." The first thing Peat wanted to do was to tell Kai to stop being such a little pussy, but realized Marc was still in the bowl and in earshot of them. Realizing his opinions conflicted with Kai and Marc entirely, he decided to take the emergency back exit to this conversation.

“... Well would you look at the time!” Peat suddenly blurted out, looking at his wrist as if there was a watch on it. “My… cat need feeding, yeah, lemme just—” He snagged some extra pancake that was outside the bowl and began hustling away for the depths of the cage in a hunched gait, making several slight ‘ow’s’ as he did so. “Yeah, okay cool! Nice meeting you guys!”

“Where are you even going!?” Marc yelled as Peat scurried off.

“I don't know!” he yelled back. Before either could get another word out to him, he was already gone, scuttling within a tube with the grace and subliety of a cat swimming upstream.

Kai groaned and clambered out of the bowl, and winced again as he turned just in time to see Star Breaker walking out of the hut. She was looking at where Peat had gone, eyes wide and lips pressed into a thin line. "What is his problem?" she asked.

"Honestly, I have no clue…" Kai replied with a shrug. At that moment, Suguri emerged from a tube and flew over to the group, immediately noticing that Peat had hightailed it out of there. "What all did you find?" he asked.

Suguri assumed a deep, unnerved frown. "No other way out," she reported glumly. "None of the smaller cages have doors. Don't get me started on the tubes." Kai groaned, wondering how thorough Tomomo was in making sure they'd stay put.

"Whatever… I'm going back to sleep…" Kai muttered, starting to trudge his way back to the hut. "We'll figure something out… tomorrow." He passed Star Breaker, who looked at him for a moment before following him.

Suguri sighed, and turned to Marc as she clambered out of the bowl. "So… where's your friend?" she asked. Marc silently gestured to the tube Peat had taken earlier. "I thought I told him not to move much…" Her shoulders sagged. "I'll go get him…" With that, she flew off as Marc nodded and went into the hut.

Marc found Kai shifting to lay down on a patch of straw that was devoid of blood, with Star Breaker kneeling at his side. She waded over to them, frowning as she approached. "You… okay?" Marc tried.

Kai shook his head and lifted a hand to wave it dismissively, though he made sure not to hit Star Breaker with it. "I was this close to punching him in the nuts," he scoffed.

"His… what now?" Star Breaker queried, blinking and tilting her head. The query caused Marc to facepalm.

"She's both crazy and stupid…" Marc muttered under her breath, her hand sliding down her face.

"I'll tell… no, show you later…" Kai grumbled, curling up into a ball as his hand dropped. "I just want to sleep now…"

Star Breaker frowned, and shifted to lay down as well. Marc ambled over to lay down next to them, but not before she heard the sound of Peat bickering with Suguri.

"For the last time, you're staying within my line of sight until you finish recovering!" Suguri barked in a no-nonsense tone which brokered no argument.

Peat was intent on arguing with her anyway. "Do you mind?! I was trying to take a bath!" he growled.

"Then why were you hiding in straw?" Suguri shot back in a flat tone.

“There… There was a puddle in the straw! Did you check it? I don’t think you did!” Peat yelled as Suguri lugged him into the hut with her own two hands, flying with her body at an angle to keep him from grabbing her. The other three turned to look at him with bemused faces, noticing his hair was now ragged and riddled with visible stalks of straw.

“... I thought you were checking on your cat,” Marc replied, purposefully adding some snark to it.

“My cat was there too! His name is…Uh…” Peat took a second to find a good name to bullshit his way out of this. “... Jim Cro—” Kai could already tell he was bullshitting from the name alone, as that was one that was a terrible idea, “Crowsworth.” He still wasn't doing himself any favors, either.

"I did not see a cat. I saw straw," Suguri muttered. She flew over and threw Peat to the floor, making him land next to Marc… and causing her to flinch when one of his hands strayed between her legs upon impact. "Sorry."

"It's… fine…" Marc muttered, blushing as Peat sat up… with his hand still between her legs.

“Nah nah nah nah nah, Marc, I got this. Excuse me, but you dragged me out, and scared off my cat. That's why you didn’t see it!” Peat replied in his confident tone, but now even Star Breaker was looking at him with a brow raised skeptically high. He still didn't notice where his hand had landed, which marked him as either being willfully ignorant, or simply trying to bullshit so hard his attention was effectively elsewhere. “I refuse to be called a liar, and any of you who calls me one is a liar yourself, so who’s the liar now!? Liars!”

"Um… how big was your cat, and how many teeth did he have?" Suguri asked simply, and bluntly. The query caused the color to drain from Peat's face.

“Like… Kitten size, and who cares how many…” Suddenly, Peat caught wind of where his hand was when Marc shifted her legs a little, and if he was blanched before, now he was paler than Suguri's hair. However, he could not drop the act now. He dug himself into this hole, and he was going to dig himself out, no matter how deep this web of lies had to become. But first, he did the polite thing and pulled his hand away from Marc's groin, hastily wiping it against some straw.

Like that could erase the memory of this bit of physical contact from the minds of the peanut gallery surrounding him. Before he could bullshit any further, Star Breaker proceeded to ask him a question, "Do you like touching other people at night?"

Suguri immediately turned to Star Breaker, eyes going round. "Wh… where did you…" she muttered, only to garner a set of cybernetic fingers balling into a fist, followed by a thumb jerking towards Kai. Red eyes flitted to Kai, pupils shrinking and silently demanding answers.

Kai hesitantly nodded. "I… asked her something similar, and she… doesn't know what it means…" he muttered with a frown. However, like a true bro, Peat decided to bail him out.

“Ha ha ha! What a joker!” he quickly nudged over to Kai and whispered to him, stupidly doing it just loud enough for Marc to hear, but low enough that Suguri would need to get a little closer to listen in on his rambling, “Dude, I can take her. Your squishy ass will be crushed in a second, just shut up and let me handle this.” He then talked back at normal volume so all could hear. “I mean, Kai’s a good kid, but I’m the one who asked that, cause y’know? I’m Peat! And if you got a problem with that, then I’m just gonna have to settle you out, and none of you want that, do you? Course not! I mean, look at these pecs!” Peat then flexed his skinny arm. “Muscle maniac!”

Before Peat could ramble on anymore, Star simply lifted a hand and clasped it over his mouth. "Oh, hush. You're getting more annoying than the giant," she hissed. "I could just rip you apart, here and now." Suguri rushed over and shoved them apart just as fire began swirling up Star Breaker's arm, and groaned in exasperation.

"Both of you, quiet," Suguri muttered, shaking her head and turning to narrow her eyes at Kai in a manner that screamed 'you owe me an explanation.' Peat realized that this wasn’t working, so he decided to use his ace in the hole. He slapped Suguri on the ass hard enough to make a very distinct noise, and fucking bolted out of the area, leaving a path carved into the straw in a last ditch effort to bail Kai out. Kai was too young and feeble to understand the pleasures of sex, he was not going to let him fall for his naive ways.

Suguri slowly turned to the entrance of the hut, face turning as red as her eyes. "... that dolt," she growled, eyes narrowing to a dangerous set of slits. "Get back here!" she yelled as she proceeded to bolt after him, going so fast the entirety of the hay in the hut was kicked up at her passing.

Kai and Star Breaker exchanged glances. "Did he just piss her off?" Kai asked.

Star Breaker turned to the entrance of the hut as the hay descended back down onto the floor. "I think he's going to come back with both arms snapped off," she muttered. Silence held for several long minutes, before they once again heard Peat and Suguri bickering at an increasingly loud volume.

"Why did you slap my ass?" Suguri hissed.

"I need a reason? If you insist," Peat began in that smarmy tone tone of voice, causing Marc to roll her eyes as he went on, "How could I not respect that shapely ass? A light smack is just how we pay respects back home."

"No wonder you're so crude," Suguri muttered disapprovingly as she once again lugged Peat into the hut. She dropped him next to Marc again, shaking her head. "I would appreciate it if you didn't do that again." She crossed her arms and relaxed a little as Peat gave a slow nod and an incomprehensible mumble. "That being said…" Suguri turned to Star Breaker and tilted her head.

Marc shuffled over to Star Breaker and put her hands in the tangled mop she called hair, right at the back of her neck no less. "Wh-what are you doing?" Star asked, turning to Marc with a puzzled brow raised.

Marc donned a small smile. "I'm going to brush your hair," she replied, and with that she started dragging her fingers… or trying to drag her fingers through those long locks. She met resistance straight away; the knots refused to budge, and in seconds Marc found she ended up grabbing the entire mass of hair in one smooth motion that made Star Breaker tilt her head back with a wince and a cry of pained surprise. Marc's smile dropped, and Suguri rushed over to pin Star Breaker's hands before she could reach around to stop her.

"It hurts! Stop!" Star Breaker hissed, eyes narrowing as she tried to wiggle out of Suguri's grip to stop the offending fingers from brushing her hair. Marc persisted anyway, only pausing to move her hands down to the end of the tangled strands to gradually work her way up.

"Not until this blanket you call hair is sorted out. Once I am done, we'll talk about how to get the hell out of here," Marc replied as she began tugging once more. Kai crawled over with a sigh, and started rubbing Star's sides, which got her to start laughing with what could only be called an uneven mixture of pain and happiness. Peat sat up and watched, shaking his head at the sight, but electing not to say anything.

It was a good twenty minutes before Marc started seeing the tangles unravel.

Chapter Text

Marc's hands were sore by the time she managed to unravel the last of Star Breaker's hellish tangles, which took roughly two hours. She leaned against the wall, groaning with exertion and a budding ache in her fingers as she eyed her handiwork. Those long locks were a lot more organized and thin, now that the bad hair day had been dealt with, and Kai had taken over at that point in doing a slow double-check for any stray tangles. Suguri still held on, quite firmly, to Star Breaker's hands as Kai did the rest of the brushing, which fortunately went without incident.

Star Breaker was shivering, face red and tear-stained. She turned to glare at Marc, teeth gnashing and grinding as her eyes burned with a murderous fire. Suguri kept holding on to her, seemingly aware that Star was presently thinking angry, angry thoughts. But as Kai worked his hands through her hair, the glare softened, and her shaking waned until the pain of having her hair repeatedly tugged faded entirely. "Please don't kill her, she was just trying to help…" Kai muttered.

"No promises," Star Breaker hissed, the anger not quite fading as her pain had. Hesitantly, Suguri finally yielded her grip, and watched intently. She trembled in anger for a second, before she felt fingers touch and rub her scalp gently yet stiffly. She leaned into the touch and relaxed.

Suguri watched as Kai soothed Star Breaker, pupils shrinking and eyes going round. Her jaw dropped at the sight; a complete stranger had, without any force whatsoever, managed to placate a violently insane individual. She was silent for several long seconds, her shoulders slumped when a soft hum left Star Breaker's mouth. Her expression shrieked, loudly, of someone kicking over an anthill and sending the workers in a tizzy.

"Well, it seems the crazy likes you," Peat chimed in, smiling rather proudly at Kai. He even went so far as to give him a thumbs up.

"Shut your piehole before I tell her to hit you with a bomb," Kai muttered, shifting to drop his hand. He only managed to move his fingers an inch away from the pastel-blue locks before Star Breaker reached around to seize him by the wrist and forcibly replanted his hand on her head.

"Keep doing that," Star Breaker ordered with a malicious edge in her tone. "Otherwise I'll torch you." Kai gave a resigned sigh and started rubbing her scalp again, and she let go with another appreciative hum. Suguri continued to stare, face blanching in confusion. Her brain simply refused to process the sight, no matter how many times she blinked and beheld it.

"G-guys… y-you do know… she tried e-ending the world, once?" Suguri muttered, after several failed attempts to find her voice as she tried to reel in her jaw. Kai mutely nodded, whilst Peat and Marc shook their heads with dual shrugs.

"She told me as much," Kai replied bluntly. "And she threw bombs and fire at me."

Suguri scuffled around Star Breaker and straight to Kai on her knees, face seemingly affixed in an expression of horror. "When?" she asked simply.

Kai shrugged. "Two days ago," he replied nonchalantly.

"And how did… you get her to like you?" Suguri pressed, seeing the hairs on the back of Kai's neck shift to stand on end.

Kai's lips pressed into a thin line. Unfortunately, Star Breaker decided to answer for him, "He made me feel good, if strange." Suguri glanced at her, brows going high, and Star was happy to elaborate, "He put his hands in places that felt… good."

Suguri turned back to Kai, an eyelid twitching. "Explain," she ordered. Her tone brokered no argument.

Kai flinched, blanched, and croaked at the same time. "W-well…" he stammered, brain scrabbling back asswards in an attempt to form something cohesive to reply with. "I… well… Tomomo bound her w-with a suction dart, and…" He could feel the starting stings of a forming glare being directed at him. "Up t-to her elbows…"

"Go on…" Suguri bade in a soft, ominous tone of voice that dripped with budding anger.

"Sh-she didn't… still doesn't know… what I did, b-but she…" Oh dear god, Kai could feel the raw power coursing through the room, emanating from a source that scooted a little closer to him on her knees. He wondered how deep his personal hole went, though he wagered he hadn't dug as far as Peat had. "I-I-I…" He swallowed nervously, and audibly. "I…" Here, he mouthed to Suguri instead of speaking, "F-fingered and th-then… fucked h-her… sh-she liked it…"

Suguri's brow immediately furrowed. "Bound by a suction dart," she began slowly. Kai hastily nodded. "Uncomprehending of what you did…" Another nod answered her. Her brain finally kick-started itself, and wasted no time processing what Kai had just relayed to her. "And you have the nerve," she hissed, leaning dangerously close to Kai, glare never once faltering or shifting in the slightest, "to tell me that she, the would-be world destroyer herself, liked it?"

Kai swallowed nervously and shakily nodded. He knew, in that moment, he had dug himself clean through the planet now, and the only option he had was to slowly turn to the crimson glare and face the wrath-filled music. Now, Suguri's face was turning purple with rage, eyes agleam with a dangerous light that had nothing but pure anger. Her hands trembled and glowed, sparking fitfully as she clenched them into fists with enough force to puncture her own palms with her fingers and drew blood as a result. He didn't even need to hazard a guess over whether or not the steaming teakettle was about to explode; she was clearly resisting the urge to knock him straight into next week.

"I did like it. Very much," Star Breaker piped up, turning to Suguri with a rather smug smile on her face. "In fact, he made me laugh until I simply couldn't laugh anymore."

Suguri shifted to glare at Star Breaker for a second before turning her attention back to Kai. He dropped his hand, and this time Star did not stop him. Instead, she turned in place and wrapped her hands around his waist, clutching him tight. Suguri's face of pure, unfiltered anger failed to shift. Kai suddenly gestured to something behind Suguri and shouted, "Is that Peat's cat I see?!" Suguri twisted around instantly, eyes wide as she made to see whether or not the alleged cat had dropped by.

When she turned back to face Kai after confirming that there wasn't a cat presently in the hut to begin with, her pupils shrank when she saw both he and Star Breaker had fled the scene so fast there was a small crater in the straw where they sat and bits of straw drifting back down from the empty space of air they once took up. Marc simply gestured to the window, and Suguri nodded before launching out of the hut after them. She paused on the platform, eyes darting to and fro.

Neither were in sight. Not one piece of straw littered any of the tubes to let her know where they had gone off to. Nonetheless, Suguri smiled; they all were in a controlled environment, which by itself narrowed down all of the available hiding spots rather quickly. She started flying down a tube, going slow in case they made any noise that would give them away. She did not want the air rushing in her ears and through her hair today, not when a much bigger issue plopped itself on her plate.

She checked the first miniature cage's hut she came across and poked her head inside, but found nothing aside from perfectly flat straw. She flew inside slowly, cautiously sifting her toes through the hay without alighting, going from end to end and corner to corner. Nothing here. Crossing her arms and flying out of the hut, she weaved down more tubes to the next miniature cage and its hut before repeating the process. And again with the next hut. And again with the next hut, and so forth.

After a slow, thorough search through the smaller cages and their huts that lasted for an entire hour, she returned to the large cage and swept through its huts, still yielding nothing. She checked under the platforms, yet they weren't under any of the blasted things. She swept the cages once more, this time checking their water bowls and the floor of the larger cage, and yet they still evaded her. Kai and Star Breaker had well and truly pulled off one hell of a disappearing act. When the second search was done, Suguri returned to Peat and Marc empty-handed. "They just… vanished…" Suguri muttered, shaking in simmering anger.

Peat sighed and laid down in the hay. "They'll probably poke their heads back out soon enough," he muttered with a wave of his hand.

Suguri nodded and alighted in the hut, walking to the window to stick her head out. "I suppose that's true… they'll have to, sooner or later," she agreed, glancing about. Alas, they were still out of sight.

Neither, though, were out of her mind. She made a mental checklist of things to… discuss with them when they did resurface.

***

Ten whole hours passed, yet still Kai and Star Breaker refused to come out. Tomomo had stormed into the room, but only to shut off the lights and turn on a small stationary lamp sitting on a dresser that was as dim as a crescent moon's light. The stationary lamp shifted from red, to blue, then to green and some combination of the two three times, then all three colors at once before going back again.

Suguri had resorted to banging on the cage bars to get Tomomo's attention, just as she was about to crawl into bed. "Oh, what now…?" Tomomo growled, stalking over to the large cage. "Okay, Sugs, what's up?"

Suguri threw her hands into the air. "Someone went and raped Star Breaker!" she yelled. Tomomo resisted the urge to snicker, already having an idea as to when this had happened. "And I can't find him!"

Tomomo's brow furrowed. "So… he's playing hide and seek…" she translated. "And he's damn good at it…" She gave a sigh. "Listen, Sugs… I was there."

Suguri flinched, eyes widening. "Wait, what?" she asked.

Tomomo nodded. "Yep. I heard them both. This may be hard to believe, but she consented," she muttered simply. At this, Suguri's long hair stood on end.

"C-consented how?!" Suguri demanded, turning beet red in the face as she stomped a foot.

"Well, Kai asked her if she was cool with it, and she said she was, even though she didn't know what he was doing," Tomomo replied bluntly. With a snap of her fingers, she produced a camcorder in a flash of light, which landed silently in her palm. "Got the whole thing on tape right here, thanks to the suction dart I used. Wanna see?"

Suguri's face went from red to purple. "N-no, I don't want to see!" she replied, scandalized that Tomomo would film such a heinous act. Tomomo nodded and made the camcorder vanish in another flash of light.

"Well, holler if you need something." Tomomo stood up, stretched her arms, and yawned mightily. "But I might not get the memo 'til tomorrow, just saying." With that, she went back to bed, flopped on it, covered up and fell still. Suguri watched, absolutely livid, as the titanic terror started snoring.

Suguri shuddered in place, her expression one of an anger that wished to do naught but strangle that which had sparked it. As the target of that ire was still in hiding, however, she could not utilize that anger just yet. She waited for a few minutes to make sure Tomomo was well off into dreamland before popping her neck and cracking her knuckles. She walked along the platform of the hut Marc and Peat were in, pausing to poke her head in through the window to find them curled up in the hay asleep. Both shared one side, but had kept a bit of distance to themselves.

That was good, and Suguri offered a small smile at the sight. At least these two wouldn't aggravate their wounds. "You both should be fully healed tomorrow," she muttered. "I hope you sleep well." So she marched around the platform again, before descending to the one below it via its ladder, careful to avoid waking the sleeping pilots. She walked, silently, to the second platform's hut and poked her head inside.

Empty. So she pressed on, slowly, still silently, without flying at all. Descending once more, she checked the next hut. Nothing. At this, Suguri crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. How much longer was their bout of hiding going to last? She walked to the nearest pipe and meandered her way down it, stalking towards a miniature cage that rested on a shelf of knick-knacks. Halfway, the tube veered sharply up and tightened just enough that a person could scale it with their hands and feet if they were of a mind to.

Suguri did just that, straining her ears and keeping her eyes peeled for any signs of movement as she scaled the pipe. Aside from Tomomo, who turned to snuggle deeper into her pillow, the room was still. Upon reaching the miniature cage, she noted a distinct lack of a water bowl here, as the cage itself was only big enough for a hut and the tubes that connected it to the rest of the navigable maze.

That was probably due to the assortment of knick-knacks surrounding it. A lot of strange figurines stood outside of the cage, each affixed on a stand. But the cage had no latches, and Suguri made to peek into its hut. Alas, it turned up empty too, and so she continued on to the tubes past the hut. She nimbly dropped down and slithered her way to another cage beset on a dresser drawer. This one had a hut not built of wood, but amusingly enough of several boxes stapled together and overlaid with giant rubber socks with rims that were painted in garishly neon colors on as reinforcements. Next to it was a water bowl that was a drab, dull grey that was far more appealing to look at.

She took a second to silently facepalm at what she was seeing. "Our captor just haaaaaaaad to use condoms… I hope she didn't dirty them before gluing them to that tacky monstrosity of a hut," she mentally grumbled. She walked into the hut from its door, as this tacky thing did not have windows. It helped that Tomomo had put the color-changing lamp next to this cage, which cast some of its light into the hut. Even so, she caught nothing to let her know Kai and Star Breaker were present, which meant they were probably elsewhere. Suguri made to turn away when she heard a rustling of straw, so slight she might have missed it were the room not silent, followed by a soft grunt.

She promptly stormed in to investigate, letting her eyes adjust to the low light. "Alright you two, come out," she ordered. The hut fell silent again, and a slight smirk crossed her face. "Didn't you hear me?" she barked, raising her voice. She heard another grunt, and a rustle before she pinpointed movement from a corner. Stomping her way over, deliberately crunching hay beneath her feet, she came upon a larger-than-standard mound and thrust her hands into it like she was unravelling a present before pulling the mound apart.

What she found gave her lengthy pause. She found Star Breaker being hugged from behind by Kai, who had one hand caught in the cookie jar—in this case, between Star's legs, and one of her hands resting on it. Both also had their eyes closed, their expressions soft and their breathing minimal, and thus did not notice the intruder. "Sleep-molesting, are we…?" Suguri muttered darkly, an eye twitching at the sight.

"Nnh… mha.. aha…" Star Breaker mumbled, before devolving into a muffled gigglefit. Suguri raised both her brows as she heard the laughter, hips starting to subconsciously buck. The giggling ceased a few seconds later, when her body gave a quiver. "I'll… burn you… t'morrow…" she muttered, a pleased grin worming its way onto her sleeping face. She didn't blush, or blanch, or do anything else of the sort; she simply took the likely-unintended fingering and calmed down after.

Suguri stared, unsure of what was worse: that Star Breaker enjoyed the bout of sleep-fondling, or that she walked in to discover said sleep-fondling in the flesh. "No wonder she allegedly consented… she's a damn hair-trigger…" Suguri groused, before kneeling behind them and planting her hands on their shoulders. She did not shake them yet, though—she had to ascertain whether or not they were in the big sleep yet.

Neither noticed her hands. They simply shifted to snuggle a little closer. "... silky…" Kai muttered, his face halfway buried in those long pastel-blue locks. Yep. Definitely off in la-la land.

Suguri began gently shaking them. "Wakey wakey…" she cooed, an eye twitching as her hands moved. That wasn't enough to rouse them; instead, Star Breaker began unconsciously bucking her hips again with another gigglefit that grew with her movements. "Oh come on…" Suguri grumbled, and was promptly met with a second, more violent quiver from the still-slumbering crazy.

"Aha… haha… mmm…" Suguri balked as a soft moan left Star Breaker's mouth when her second gigglefit neared its end. "T-tingly…" she purred.

Suguri shook the two a little harder, and still got a response she didn't intend to get: Kai started getting a little friskier, his other hand shifting to join its mate. He started using his hands to knead into Star Breaker's snatch, once again making her hips buck. "H-hra… aha…" And with that, the third gigglefit was underway, much to Suguri's annoyance.

She waited for the third quiver before throwing the towel in and snagging them both by the tops of their heads. "Okay, you two have asked for it…" Suguri muttered, and stood up so fast she dragged them with, hands up high to keep the two upright. Amazingly and annoyingly enough, Kai kept his hands in the proverbial cookie jar, kneading like no tomorrow.

And the two merely slumped as much as their bodies would allow, with the exception of their hands. They also gave twin snorts and snores. Good gravy on high, what would it take to wake up these two asshats? Suguri started believing she had found living, breathing condom advertisements. The two-handed samba continued, and once again Star Breaker started rocking her hips on autopilot. "Aha…" Now, Star Breaker was panting with laughter that could not be released, as she had already gone on for a full minute now.

Suguri dropped the two as she had found them. That failed to rouse them. So how was she to wake them? She walked out of the hut, grimacing as she heard another moan. Goody; if these shenanigans were allowed to progress, the end result… oh dear lord, Suguri cringed at all of the possibilities. Before she could dwell on them, she noticed the water bowl and immediately walked to it, grinning as she saw some of the color-changing light dancing upon a still and reflective surface.

She promptly picked up the bowl by its rim and carefully waded her way back to the sleeping couple, making sure not to spill a drop until she reached them. "Cannonball!" Suguri shouted as she tipped the bowl over and poured all of its contents on the two at once. That got Kai and Star Breaker to sit bolt upright, coughing and sputtering in surprise. Before they could process what had happened, Suguri dropped the bowl on their heads, making sure its inside was aligned with their noggins just a second before. The bowl clanged against their skulls like a bell, and both jostled in place from the impact.

Suguri waited until they disentangled and flung the bowl aside before addressing them, "Oh, good, you're up." Her eyes gravitated to Kai, and the anger she felt earlier burned deep within her red pools. "Now… why did you do that to Star Breaker over here?"

Kai shivered, partly because he was freezing and partly because he was being glared at. "T-Tomomo… made me… she threatened us both with a dart gun!" he blurted out, to much harried nodding from Star Breaker. "And th-then she sicked a slime b-beast on us!" That garnered more nodding.

Suguri blinked, and she sighed before shifting to kneel before the two, looking at them both intently. "So… you were a proxy…" she muttered, looking at Kai first. At his nod, she turned to Star Breaker, but did not really address her, "Tomomo told me she consented…"

"Well, if you were darted, unable to get out of said dart, and told to make nice with your new playmate, without clothes, what would you have done?" Kai shot back, frowning. Suguri paused to consider this, and in seconds, only three possible answers to that retort presented themselves, and in all honesty none of them were remotely pleasant.

Suguri settled on the most obvious, "Consent… reluctantly." Then she followed up with, "Maybe reject before or after, and issue complaints to… the giant…"

Kai gestured to Star Breaker and stated, "Yeah, and she rejected me first before Tomomo darted her!"

"After you kneed me…" Star Breaker added as an aside, frowning.

Suguri shook her head, her brain spinning as she tried to absorb all of this. Three conflicting stories, each told by a different person, presented themselves to her and clashed so horribly she didn't know which way to turn. "I don't know what to make of it… so this time, you two are off the hook," she muttered with an air of reluctance. Her eyes narrowed. "But if it happens again, without consent from either of you, and Tomomo doesn't have a hand in it…" Her hands clenched and sparked. "I'm going to be a very unhappy Guardian. Do I make myself clear?" That garnered twin nods.

"Do you mean… if we do it… willingly, and without help?" Kai asked. Suguri shook her head.

"No, I meant if either of you decide to rape each other," she muttered dismally. Her eyes flitted to Star Breaker, and she frowned so deeply she seemed to scowl. "And… I'm really, really not sure if you're ready for the talk yet." She blanched, and her scowl softened at the thought; Kai could tell she did not want to give Star Breaker 'the talk' as much as he didn't. But, alas, she was no longer a virgin, and would need to be enlightened about these things sooner or later.

Who was going to do the enlightening, though, was another kettle of fish entirely. Kai wondered who was going to shoot themselves in the foot first, and shivered as more water evaporated. Star Breaker idly lifted her hands and let fire swirl up them, making the water evaporate faster and giving them both some much-needed warmth. Suguri sighed and turned to Kai again, still frowning as she asked, "Did you… inside?"

Kai hastily nodded, and then his brain caught the one word Suguri hadn't uttered. That little one, damning word, and every single notion of context he could think of proceeded to backhand his brain and send it into a tizzy that made it spin ass over teakettle for several minutes on end. Oh. Oh no. Slowly, color drained from his face, and this time the light of the fire caught it in all its grandeur. His nodding only sealed his fate, and it was too late to take it back now.

Suguri's face, too, paled substantially. "R-really? Y-you didn't… p-pull out?" she stammered, voice laced with disbelief. Kai, once again facing the music, shook his head mutely. "Oh… s-sweet stars on high…" Suguri lifted her hands and buried her face in her palms, almost puncturing her own scalp as her grip tightened. "Did you… at l-least use rubber?"

"T-Tomomo… didn't give me… any rubber…" Kai muttered as his heart started to hike its way up his throat. His brain was quick to catch up with that utterance too, and a strangled croak left his mouth almost immediately after.

Suguri nodded, dropped her hands and stood up reluctantly. "Just… be careful about it, alright?" she asked. At Kai's nod, she turned and left the hut with a shuffle in her step. Kai promptly slumped in the straw, lifting a hand to rub his temples. A flaming hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he turned to Star Breaker, who was looking at him with both brows raised.

"What is this 'talk' she mentioned?" Star asked, frowning.

Kai sucked in a deep breath. Oh joy, he was hurtling down the steep slope once again, because he had the absence of mind to fuck a crazy person. And now that said crazy was interrogating him, although minimally for now, his brain kickstarted and then promptly cartwheeled out of the blasted network of cages in an effort to scrabble together things he could have explained to her sooner, but didn't bother to.

Then again, she did tell him not to enlighten her about the joys of sex, earlier. Perhaps to her, the actual experience was worth more than a thousand words carefully crafted into a lecture. Perhaps it was better to wait in this case, but he still had a question to answer, and answer he did, "It's something… all parents give their kids when their kids start growing up, regarding things like jobs and the classic 'when-I-was-your-age' speech. I assume you never got it?"

Star Breaker shook her head. "I never knew my parents," she muttered with a shrug. "I'm not even sure I have parents." Kai frowned at that response, but in hindsight it made a load of sense, he reflected. His 'playmate' probably didn't have a childhood of her own, and if she did, it must have been on the extreme end of a scale he called 'we do not discuss it, just hell to the no thank you for asking', considering her demeanor. The more he thought about it, the more he started to wager she was a test tube baby that was experimented on in ways he dared not fathom.

That particular musing, far-fetched as it sounded, probably explained quite a lot. But at least she seemed to understand the concept of parents, so that was one less thing he'd go blue in the face over enlightening her about. So he asked a question he hadn't considered until now, "Did… the people who made you… able to make bombs tell you anything?"

Star Breaker fervently nodded. "That I was to destroy their enemies in fire and smoke," she replied. She smiled. "And they kept calling me an abomination. Buuuut… I decided to burn the people who made me, too—why should they get to live while everyone else turns to ash?" Kai's eyes widened, and now he entertained the idea that she'd had all manner of other horrors so thoroughly drilled into her head she couldn't see anything else but potential foes. Such a mind could only take so much before snapping eventually, and he came to the conclusion that she had already reached that breaking point long ago.

Though, it was clear to him her time in this Magical Hell had changed her, but how much he didn't know. He himself had also influenced her, a little. Perhaps this was less a hell and more a rehabilitation effort, but even so, Tomomo was taking this in extreme and very unorthodox ways. And if her comment was anything to go by, she saw faults in everyone she saw, and wanted to purge those faults one way or another. Bombs, fire, attempting to grind people into paste were very likely her default go-to methods for such a task. Noble, she wasn't, but at least he could get behind her reasoning for it. Assuming, of course, that was her reasoning for her antics.

She shifted to lay down next to him, blazing hand still on his chest. "So, what are you being punished for?" Star Breaker asked with her smile fading. "The giant did say you were being punished…"

Kai sighed. "Do you know what hubris is?" he asked, garnering a shake of the head. "Arrogance?" A nod answered him that time. "Well… hubris is arrogance, taken to the extreme. That's what I'm being punished for." He crossed his hands behind his head. "Put it like this, I was a goddamned peacock in the hubris department. Kept showing off, and demanding everyone kiss the ground my feet trampled on. Had my pick of the girls, too, and for a time I was on top of the whole damn world. Well, that changed a few days ago, when I made the mistake of demanding Tomomo kiss the ground when she didn't throw herself at me. Next thing I know, I'm ass naked and shrunken." He sighed. "Tried making her return me to normal, but all it took to stop that was the threat of her middle finger going up my ass."

Star Breaker's frown deepened. "She almost… wedged a finger up your ass?" she asked, garnering a nod in reply.

"Damn near did," Kai replied ruefully. "I pretty much shut up for the rest of that horrific ride." He relaxed a little upon noticing the flame did not burn his skin; it heated him quite thoroughly, yes, but he didn't catch so much as one spark. "And I think I can safely say Peat's also in the hubris department, and Marc is…" His brow furrowed. "Well, I don't know what she's being punished for, aside from that rocket…" His eyes closed. "And, truth be told, I don't think Suguri's being punished at all…"

The blazing hand inched down to his stomach, then veered to his side. Star Breaker pulled Kai close, and her manic grin returned full force. "So… could you…" Kai tensed as she spoke, and sighed as she wrapped her other hand around him in what many would rightly see as a literal deathgrip, "tell me… why your hands felt good?"

Kai shivered. Yep. He had managed to quarter the planet with how far he had dug. He wouldn't be surprised if he was sent into orbit shortly from now. "Have… you ever been touched by anyone else?" he asked.

Star Breaker shook her head. "Outside of being told to burn things, before I turned against the people who made me," she replied. "And just on my shoulders, even then."

Kai now mentally pictured big burly and unpleasant men lugging Star Breaker by her shoulders, ordering her to shove bombs up this person's ass and torch that poor sap. He kicked it to the curb before it could get more vivid. "Well… even if I am a jackass, I still know how hands feel against other people. So I never touched another person, even though girls were throwing themselves at me. You… well, I had to tread lightly. You could've ripped my hands off," he replied. "So… I took what I knew and tried to make you, well… feel good." He shrugged. "Honest to god, I didn't even know what you did or didn't like, or if you would even like it. I was pretty much shooting in the dark."

Her hold on him tightened, and the fire swirling on her hands burned brighter and hotter. "Maybe I'll burn you, but only a little," Star Breaker cooed, her hands starting to rub against his sides. "Maybe. But… I just want to feel good again…" Oh lord, the crazy was propositioning him now. Just what he needed.

"A-are you sure? Th-the slime beast… did a number on us both," Kai pointed out, a spark of pain shooting from his rear end at the mention. "And… I don't… think you'd be ready for another r-round."

Star Breaker giggled and pressed her face into Kai's neck. "I just meant with the hands," she muttered. Kai relaxed a little more; if it was just hands-on she wanted, then he supposed no harm could be done there. She sat up and leaned against a wall, dragging him with, and held him tight. "But if you hurt me…"

"I know, I know," Kai groaned as she squeezed, sending a lance of pain across his stomach. Her hold loosened, but did not entirely yield. Great, he was propositioned and now the tables had flipped on him. His hands hesitated, but moved to grasp her sides, eliciting a giggle. "Tomomo's probably in earshot," he warned with a frown, "can you keep it down this time?" She lifted one of her burning hands and clasped it over her mouth, muffling her laughter and keeping her other hand loosely on his side.

Well, at least he could now get to work with less of a headache. He rubbed her sides a little more, and took a moment to ascertain his position in comparison to hers. He blushed deeply when he noticed his nose was mere centimeters from her collarbone, and were he to trail any lower… His hands shot up, and grasped her breasts. She stilled for a moment, laughter dying, eyes turning to look at him quizzically. He started rolling the mounds in his hands, finding them only large enough to actually fill out his palms nicely, but within seconds the giggling started again.

"Mm-mha-ahaha! K-keep… g-going, ah-ahaha!" Star Breaker howled into her palm, legs and free hand squirming as her eyes gleamed in delight. Kai relaxed a little more, and started to knead, though gently to avoid getting on her bad side. He noted their bruises had faded substantially after being rudely awakened, perhaps as a result of Suguri's brief ministrations. He still avoided them, however, and continued to knead even as he felt her free hand trail around him to hover lazily at his side.

Hey, at least her breasts weren't silicone. He stopped, an idea sparking in his head. If hands were fair game, then why couldn't he explore a bit? The possibilities were endless, as far as he knew, and as long as he stayed within the boundaries of 'do not hurt,' then things would be alright. So one hand dropped and started rubbing her slit experimentally, causing her to seize for a moment. He stopped as well and asked, "Still sore?"

Star Breaker shook her head with a muffled groan. "Just… a little ache," she replied, eyes watering a little. "N-not a lot… there… alright?" Kai nodded and started rubbing again, going slow and gentle to avoid aggravating the ache; looked like the possibilities could wait for another night at least. He raised his head a little and shifted closer, pressing her against the wall again before staring into her eyes. He felt his length reluctantly harden, aching with a bit of pain to remind him it did not want to do anything particularly strenuous tonight.

"...mm?" Star Breaker hummed, looking back at Kai with confusion glinting in her eyes. Kai flashed her a small smile.

"Would you mind if I did something… different, when we get better?" he asked.

Star Breaker's mind processed the question for a moment. She gave a shrug of indifference after a few seconds. Kai nodded and continued with his ministrations, figuring this was as close to a green light as he was going to get from her. He sped up his rubbing and kneading, once again kick-starting a gigglefit with the motions. However, it was subdued, and her fidgeting stopped within seconds.

Kai's smile widened as her hips began to gyrate again. Well, at least that told him she wasn't getting bored quite yet. He nestled his head on her collarbone again, prodding a little deeper with his fingers. "Seriously, woman, how do you function…?" he muttered, more to ask himself that than to question her mental state. Star Breaker didn't answer; she simply kept laughing into her own palm, her fire slowly dimming as she ran out of steam.

With one last quiver, she fell still, and the fires she created petered out when he pushed his fingers as deep as they could go. Kai waited until she stopped wiggling entirely before he pulled his hands back to wrap them around her waist and leaned against her, feeling her drop her raised hand to suck in air. Her head lolled onto her shoulder, and a grin worked its way onto her face. Then, she flinched upon feeling something unexpectedly stiff prod at her stomach. "Wh-what's… that?" Star Breaker asked, her grin fading a little.

Kai sighed. "Have… you seen a man naked before you were caged?" he asked, silently hoping to god that she did and didn't at the same time.

"No," Star Breaker answered, eyes closing.

"Well… it's something a man has that a woman doesn't," Kai said, feeling his length soften when it realized he wasn't going to indulge it tonight. "A bit of a very long story…"

Star Breaker lazily nodded. "I think I get it," she muttered. "Tell… me later…" Kai nodded back and closed his eyes. The 'talk' could wait until they were on much better terms, though all in all this was a good position for him since they'd started on the wrong feet mere days ago. In seconds, both drifted off to sleep, dreaming of and yearning for freedom.

***

Peat awoke to the feeling of hands gently shaking his shoulders. Aside from that and a rustling of straw, it was quiet, and some part of him wanted it to stay that way. So, aside from the hands already on him, he didn't budge in the least. "Peat, Peat, get up," he heard Marc say. "Get up. It's urgent."

Peat still didn't move. His eyes remained stubbornly closed. "Nnnnaaaaah," he muttered.

"Get up," Marc pleaded, still shaking Peat to no avail. "Peat, please get up."

"Mmm…" Peat simply wiggled to bury himself deeper into the straw.

"Peat!" Marc yelled, growing fed up with his refusal to wake up already. So she used an admittedly dickbag move as a second-to-last resort, which was the power of lying, "The slime beast is back and it's about to rape us again!" Alas, that still did not get him to stir, as such a threat was currently meaningless since, insofar as he knew, nobody got on Tomomo's bad side yet. She groaned in frustration. "How am I gonna wake him up now?!" she yelled, and kept fruitlessly shaking Peat until the sound of hay rustling caught her attention.

"This is how," a young voice said before Peat jolted awake when someone's rather small foot kicked him in the nads much harder than it should have. Peat screamed and sat up, hands shifting to clutch his balls as they started aching something fierce. At the same time, his eyes finally snapped open and beheld—what the? Another person was glaring at him… a very short person, about a child's height in fact, was staring him down with a very unchildlike glare. Her face was framed by tousled and short purple hair, with eyes the same color sizing him up coldly. Her hands covered her chest and crotch… not that there was very much to cover in that department, underdeveloped as she was.

Peat's face scrunched, partly due to his very rude awakening, and partly because a midget was glaring at him. "What the hell was that for?!" he hissed.

"Suguri told me everything about what you did yesterday, you ass," the child hissed, scowling. "But she was feeling pretty merciful. Me? Not so much." The child turned around and started to walk out of the hut with a collected stride, in spite of her hands covering her privates. "Best keep your hands to yourself, or I'll rip them off and shove them down your throat."

Peat's face turned bright red in a heartbeat, and with a wince he stood up. Even he knew a petulant child when he saw one, and by god that little purple-haired runt was the worst yet; quite a feat, considering she got that position within ten seconds of meeting him. Marc stood up and grabbed his shoulders, halting him before he could take the first step in running off to address the little girl. "Peat... that's not a child…" she muttered.

Peat paused, contemplating what Marc had said. He had to concede her point; the runt was anything but childlike in her mannerisms and language. But in build of body, that was an entirely different story as far as he could tell. Then his brain caught up to the fact that she, like they, was bereft of clothes… and slowly his eyes went wide. "Is fatty w-wanting us to... " he stammered, unable to process the implications.

"I… don't know…" Marc replied glumly.

Peat's horror faded back into that red-faced look of rage a second later as Marc, with great reluctance, let his shoulders go. "Child or not, that tiny bitch is going to get a good old fashioned settling for that shit," he groused, and started marching out of the hut after the child. As he left and went to the edge of the platform, he idly noticed the overhead light had been switched on again. He spotted her on the bottom of the cage before long, staring at an odd purple structure that hadn't been there before, which was ovoid in shape with lines running down one side and ending at suspect steel hinges.

He walked down to her, keeping his legs spread to avoid irritating his nuts, and cleared his throat just as she put her hands on the surface of this new object. "Hey! Needle nips! Just who the hell do you think you are attacking me like that!?" he barked at her, not caring what her age was at this point. Someone was going to teach the little punk a lesson, and by god it would be him.

The child looked at him, her face devoid of expression and gaze lacking in interest. "I dunno, more man than you?" she replied bluntly.

Peat's blood surged through his veins, and anger began making it boil. His eye twitched. This little brat had the nerve to just act so casual about it all of a sudden, especially since he didn't do anything to her specifically that would warrant being kicked in the balls? Just who the hell was this little twerp? It was bad enough that Tomomo owned the place, but this little shit was strutting around like she ruled the roost instead of the angry giant. "Listen here, you midget," he barked, puffing his chest out and rolling his hands up his arms like he still possessed sleeves, "you do not kick people you don't like, especially not me! I ought to—” Before he finished his thought, he realized the girl was simply just continuing to make her way about the strange object. “Excuse me, I’m still talking to you! Hey!”

Peat approached, hands lifting and at the ready to grapple the little shit, who flinched back and parted from the object with a spark of genuine fear dancing across her eyes. She ran around, but only got to the hinge as Peat ran to catch up to her. "Bit!" she called, hastily clapping her hands just as Peat managed to grasp her by the shoulders. The object opened like a clamshell, revealing a hollow interior housing a glowing core within that turned to them. The core flickered once, twice, before a beam shot out and landed at their feet. Peat parted from the girl, who likewise staggered away as an intense heat formed between them for a split-second.

The child turned to him, and glared again. "Yeah, well fuck you too!" she yelled. "Try touching me again, asshat, and see what happens!" With that, she jumped into the air, and her feet glowed as she flew into the device and clapped her hands, and its shell slammed shut with her in it. Peat stood there, anger fading and face paling, staring at the device completely dumbfounded. He did not move until he felt someone tapping his shoulder, and slowly turned around to find Suguri looking at him with a very firm frown etched onto her face.

"... I take it you and Nanako don't get along?" Suguri said with a wry voice.

Peat shook, and his brow furrowed. "No shit! That little twerp kicked me in the balls!" he yelled.

The device promptly opened again, and shot another beam that landed smack-dab on Peat's asscheeks. He yelped at the sudden burn and jumped into the air, though oddly it did nothing more than actually scald him. Nanako poked her head out as he twisted around, and proceeded to flip him twin birds. "That's for calling me a little twerp!" she yelled, her own face red with rage. "I'm surprised Suguri trusted you enough to grant you a small fraction of our nanotech to heal your assache!" She clapped her hands again, and the device closed.

Peat fumed, rubbing his now-sore-all-over-again ass to ease the burn. Great, now he had this strange… behemoth to deal with. The closest he could compare it to was a clamshell, housing Nanako as its pearl. One of these days, he ought to give her a long, stern lecture on why running around kicking people in the nads wasn't the least bit acceptable, but first he had to contend with her makeshift fortress. How in the seven hells was he going to get inside that blasted thing, without being fried in the process? He turned to Suguri. "Where are Kai and the crazy bitch at?" he asked.

Suguri frowned and turned to the dresser with the stationary lamp. She heard, just faintly, the sound of an incessant giggling coming from it. "I found them last night… want me to get them?" she replied, seeing Peat nod out of the corner of her eye. With that she dashed, weaving down several tubes to the dresser and storming into its hut so fast that hay flew out. Then she flew straight back out, Kai tucked under one arm and Star Breaker held in the other, before dragging them back to Peat at a very admirable speed.

Peat took a moment to look the two over when Suguri arrived, finding both with bedhead and rather dry all over. He looked at Kai with a frown. "Seriously, you sped off with the crazy last night and didn't even get your dick wet?" he muttered.

Kai facepalmed. "I was still hurting last night, thank you very much," he groaned. "And so was she."

"You fingered her to high heaven last night," Suguri muttered under her breath, releasing her hold on the two to let them land on their feet. "See if you two can get Nanako out of her bit," she said, glancing at both Kai and Star Breaker, who in turn looked at her with wide eyes.

"Huh?" Kai replied. Suguri rolled her eyes and gestured to the strange device that Nanako had hid in for emphasis. "Oh." He walked up and balled one hand into a fist before knocking on the bit like it was a door. "Hello? I heard there was a Nanako here?"

The bit opened, and Nanako poked her head out, eyes darting around before spotting Kai. "What do you want?" she asked, frowning.

"Can you come out for a few minutes? Just to chat?" Kai replied, frowning in uncertainty. Nanako warily eyed him for a long moment before shaking her head.

"Not until I get some clothes first. Sorry, I'm not joining the nudist colony," Nanako replied bluntly. "Nope, nada, nu-uh, not gonna pedal my tiny little ass around with a damned circus!" She clapped her hands and—in that moment, Star Breaker moved in a blur of motion, just as the bit started to close. She flew up to the point where the halves would meet, and her hands shot up and stopped the top half from closing, while she anchored her feet to the bottom half to keep it as wide open as possible.

"Oh? We got ourselves a dwarf!" Star Breaker chimed, grinning in delight upon seeing how small Nanako was.

Nanako immediately kicked the inside of the bit, face reddening. "Bitch, I'm not a dwarf!" she yelled indignantly. The core of the bit shifted to Star Breaker and shook, as if sensing a disturbance. It launched another beam that hit Star square in her stomach, but it could not get her to dislodge her steely grip.

"Yes you are," Star Breaker taunted, donning a manic grin. "You have a flatter chest than I do!"

"That's saying something, tragically," Kai muttered under his breath, before his brain did another cartwheel. He blanched immediately. "Wait, what?"

Nanako's face reddened some more. "I-it doesn't matter whether or not I have a flatter chest! Just leave me alone!" she shrieked as the core launched another beam that tried, and subsequently failed, to convince Star Breaker to let go.

"Nanako, just please come out," Suguri pleaded as a third beam impacted Star Breaker square in the jaw. She frowned when she noticed the steely grip starting to slip. "Before I fly in there and drag you out…"

"Fucking make me!" Nanako barked, growing tired of Star Breaker's attempt to hold the bit open. She flew up and punched the intruder right in the face, earning a shriek and and causing her to let go as her nose cracked. Star Breaker flew away, snarling and with hands clutching her face as the bit finally slammed shut.

Suguri slumped with a groan. "Oh fuck me…" she muttered, shaking her head dismally. She straightened her posture as Star Breaker flew at the bit and began pounding at it with her fists, her nose bleeding as she tried with all of her might to crack open the thing and lay the smackdown on Nanako. "Nanako, please come out," she begged, raising her voice so Nanako could hear her amidst the very hard knocking on the side of her fortress.

"No!" Nanako yelled again. "I'm staying right here, away from the nudist colony!" At that moment, the door to the bedroom opened, and everyone sans Nanako turned as Tomomo marched in, grim-faced and holding another bar of dubiously red ice cream.

"Alright… is there a problem?" Tomomo asked, eyes already glowing gold. This, and the fact that she was holding a popsicle, got Star Breaker to cease banging on the bit and alight on the ground. Kai and Peat winced and shuffled to the hut Marc was in, and Star saw the writing on the wall before following them, her hands returning to nurse her wound.

"Yes… Nanako's shutting herself in…" Suguri replied, eyes glinting in concern as the trio heading for the hut suddenly broke into a sprint, racing to hide faster. When they reached it, they did not poke their heads back out after crossing that doorless frame. "And she punched Star Breaker in the face…"

Tomomo crossed her arms, careful to keep the ice cream from slipping under her arm or from her grip. "Did you try to contain the situation?" she asked, voice echoing with budding, stirring power.

Suguri grimly nodded. "Nanako is… refusing to cooperate," she muttered. "She's been like this all morning."

Tomomo nodded back, and flicked her free hand. "Alright Sugs, stand aside. I'll take it from here," she ordered in a tone that brokered no argument.

"B-but—" Suguri started to protest, but a dangerous gleam of golden eyes quickly had her mouth closing shut.

"I'll take it from here," Tomomo repeated, her tone not shifting in the slightest. Suguri deflated, and her eyes went wide as Tomomo took a bite out of the popsicle. Immediately the whole house shook, and the cage rattled with enough force to jostle the straw. She took two more bites, downing the ice cream in record time before a blazing, white-gold light enveloped her. In seconds, she changed to that dress-wearing, winged fiend that had been awakened mere days ago, eyes burning and wings shining with what could only be called pure contempt. The popsicle stick in her hand lengthened, gaining a cylindrical form as it grew as tall as she, spontaneously sprouting pink ooze on one end that Suguri noted was turning a dubious, and very disconcerting shade of tar grey.

Tomomo lifted a hand and dislodged the slime before smacking it on the bars of the cage. "I'd suggest hiding, Sugs, unless you want to lose your ability to sit for a day," she warned. Suguri shivered as the slime pulsed and squeezed its way between the bars before plopping down on the floor of the cage, and wisely flew to the hut the others had taken refuge in. Behind her, the sludge inched towards the bit, and did not take the civil approach; instead, it merely clamped on to the bit and slowly slipped in through the cracks.

The bit opened, and Nanako turned to glare at Tomomo. "What now? I'm still not joining the nudist colony, thank you!" she howled.

Tomomo smiled cruelly at Nanako, who looked to the slime as it crawled into the bit, taking on a disturbingly human-like shape. "I think you'll find… you've got no choice, runt," she said darkly, wings fluttering just once as the slime grew taller, and taller, overshadowing Nanako as it grew muscular hands and a very masculine head atop an equally-beefy torso. It seized her in its hands before she could fly away, and much to her dismay the bit simply didn't fire at the beast at all. A tentacle reached out and slammed the bit closed, trapping her with it.

The bit started to shake, erratically at that, almost jumping in place with sheer force alone. It wasn't long after that the first of many muffled screams left the device, laced with frantic pleas to stop that fell on deaf ears. Even if the bit were open, nobody could help Nanako now, as the slime would simply eat them too.

Chapter Text

It was only an hour before the bit was thrown wide open again, and the humanoid slime beast crawled out to eject Nanako onto the straw backside-down. She was shaking, bleeding from both holes and crying out in pain, spitting out gunk in between hiccups. The slime beast crawled out, and vanished in a flash of light as soon as it was on the other side of the bars. The bit sparked and smoked fitfully, and within seconds its core's glow simply died with a vicious pop. Already she was bruising in several places, and shook with agonizing pain.

All the while, Tomomo watched intently, wings still fluttering with barely-restrained ire. "So, runt… are you going to play nice now?" she asked, slowly and fitfully tapping one of her feet. Nanako gave a dry groan and a sluggish, mute nod of her head. "Then apologize to Star Breaker and whomever else you have wronged, when you can walk and think straight again." With that, she reverted back to her pajamas in a flash of light and marched out of the room.

Nanako did not, would not, could not make a move to stand because of the debilitating pain that had been visited upon her. Hesitantly, she tilted her head as far back as she could when she heard footsteps, and found Peat slinking his way back to her, posture hunched and steps slow and shuffling. As he neared, she saw his expression of pity, though she had to blink out falling tears to ascertain that. When he reached her, he knelt at her side before shifting his hands under her prone body. She cried out sharply at his touch, which aggravated her wounds and caused him to pull back.

Nanako coughed and turned away, closing her eyes tight. She drew shaky breaths, trying to get the burning agony to stop. The first thing that came to mind bounced about in her head, and would not cease until it forced itself onto her tongue. "I-I-I'm… s-sorry…" she croaked weakly, "f-for… k-kicking you…"

Peat nodded, slowly reaching under Nanako to pick her up as tenderly as he could. She winced and cried out in pain again, but he forced himself to man up and lift her. Goodness, she was surprisingly light for someone who kicked so hard. She needed help, and immediately at that, so he started walking as soon as he got her out of the straw. Her arms and legs fell slack, almost bouncing with each step he took. Anger built up, making his blood boil, but now it was for an entirely different reason; he could have at least tried to help the now-ailing girl, but didn't. He felt like kicking himself, right in the nads, but brushed that aside for the time being.

Precariously, he climbed the ladders to reach the third hut, only to find Suguri already at the door and waiting for him with a red face. He affected a stern expression, figuring Suguri was going to strangle him within the course of the next ten seconds, and he huffed, "Can it wait until I put her down?" Suguri gave a silent nod and stepped aside, allowing Peat to walk inside and set Nanako on the floor next to Marc. "Red Barrel, watch her," he ordered, gesturing to Nanako for emphasis. He turned to the ailing girl in question and added, "You're forgiven for the nads-kicking. Just don't do it again." Nanako gave a sluggish nod, and with that Peat stood up and walked out of the hut to confront Suguri. "Can we move up a few floors? The girl needs some peace and quiet," he mouthed.

Suguri gave another mute nod, face turning three shades darker and eyes narrowing to slits. Yep, the steaming teakettle was about to fly off the handle again, and would probably lose her lid in the process. Slowly, she marched up a few ladders, and Peat followed her, both keeping themselves silent until they reached the highest platform they could get to. Then, Suguri turned to glare at Peat, and he glared back. It took several minutes for either to speak, and Peat decided he was going to draw first, throwing his hands in the air as words started flying past his gums, "A child! Fatty had the slime beast rape a child! I don't care if that midget kicked me in the nuts; that shit just… no! What next, for fuck's sake?!"

Suguri's hands clenched and sparked, and her hair proceeded to stand straight on end as she shouted back, "First off, Nanako's short, not a child, and second, she's my friend! Tomomo's approach was completely unnecessary, and brutal beyond a doubt!" Her face turned purple as she continued, "She's crossed one line too many! Now I understand why Star Breaker fears the ice cream!"

"No shit!" Peat agreed, his own face turning purple. He started waving his hands erratically and stomping his feet like a petulant child, "When I get back to normal, with my plane, I'm shoving all four propellers so far up that bitch’s fat ass she'd be confused for a fucking fruit smoothie by the time I’m done!"

"Get in line! I'm going to rip her spine out, with her head, and fashion them into a fucking axe!" Suguri yelled back, cheeks and chest puffing.

"Oh no, I was here first! I wanna rip her fucking lungs out and shove them down her throat!" Peat exclaimed, marching up to Suguri to get right in her face. "There's already a damn waiting cue, missy! And I think you're at the back!"

Suguri's eyes twitched. "Excuse you, but you might wanna wait for your turn, mister!" she shouted back. Then she leaned back and heaved a sigh, hands slowly uncurling from their fist formation, shoulders slumping. Peat, likewise, backed off and shook his head. Both turned to the bedroom door to see if Tomomo would storm in, waiting for twenty whole minutes in silence. But the giant didn't come back, so they shared a glance after the wait ended. "Want to head back to the hut? We're going to need a battle plan," Suguri muttered.

Peat eagerly nodded. "And we are gonna need to keep an eye on the midget anyway," he muttered. "Standing here yelling our lungs out isn't gonna solve anything." He turned to the bedroom door again and added, "Especially since we could get… a dose of slime anytime fatty wants us to."

Suguri nodded, seeing the wisdom of that. Both heaved a breath and walked back to the hut the others had taken shelter in, finding that Nanako sat up in Marc's arms. "Hey… don't move too much," Marc muttered.

"But… it hurts…" Nanako groaned, squirming in an effort to dull the pain. Suguri walked over to her and knelt at her side, putting a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder. "What did… I do to… d-deserve… that?"

"Nothing; not even kicking me in the nads warranted that," Peat replied bluntly, shoulders sagging. He turned to the corner of the hut, finding Kai and Star Breaker looking at Nanako, with a deep frown and concern painting Kai's face. Star was more vexed and angry, brow furrowed, mouth twisted into a scowl, and prismic eyes simmering in rage, though there was a glint of confusion in her noticeable ire that he could not have missed. "May as well come closer, you two." Hesitantly, the two stood and approached the group before sitting down behind Marc. "Alright, so—" Peat began, only to stop as Nanako grunted.

"T-too… loud… k-keep… it down," Nanako croaked, closing her eyes as Suguri gently rubbed her shoulder.

Peat winced. "S-sorry," he muttered, bringing his voice down to a tone just above a whisper to make sure everybody else would hear him. "So anyway, we'll need to figure out what the hell to do."

Kai shook his head. "Not until Nanako can walk," he pointed out, his own voice as low as Peat's. "She can fly, too."

Peat nodded. "I was getting to that," he grumbled, crossing his arms. "Rather than trying that big lock on the front door, how about we dislodge one of the tubes?" he offered. That caused everyone else, even the ailing Nanako, to share glances.

"... why the tubes?" Suguri asked, frowning.

Peat donned a small smirk, and his eyes gleamed as they turned to Star Breaker. "Well, one of us can overturn a pair of shrunk planes with her bare hands. With a little help, she could just as easily pry a tube out of the bars," he chirped, grinning a smug, triumphant smile. Then, he turned to Nanako and asked, "Can your freaky fortress move?"

Nanako shook her head. "Slime… broke the p-power core," she muttered. "O-other bits… hidden…"

Peat frowned. "Well, shit…" he muttered, turning to Suguri. "Do you know where the these 'other bits' are?" Suguri simply shook her head and shrugged.

Kai decided to interject, "Well, if we do that tube-removal, the girls'll have to replace it after airlifting us out. And I doubt Nanako can actually pick one of us up."

Peat nodded, and took that into consideration. "You never know, but you're probably right," he agreed. "And we'll—" He stopped as everyone heard the bedroom door open again, followed by footsteps and yet another individual that wasn't Tomomo raising hell.

"Give me my fucking clothes back, before I shove my thick cock down your throat and strangle your lungs with it!" a masculine voice with a distinct mechanical hum about it shouted. Tomomo cackled at the threat, causing everyone to wince.

"This shit again?" Kai groused as he heard the lock click, followed by the latch jostling and the cage door opening before culminating in someone being unceremoniously thrown onto the straw. In mere seconds after, the door to the cage slammed, the latch slid shut, and the lock clicked again.

"Nnnnnyet," Tomomo scoffed, and with that she walked out of the room again. The bedroom door slammed shut behind her, but the protesting of whoever she'd just thrown in did not hush.

"You fucking cheeky cunt! Can't a machine have decency, too?! When I get out of this cage, I will slice your head off and turn it into my personal cockwarmer, you hear!? My personal cockwarmer!" the newcomer proclaimed darkly, his voice distorting to the tune of rustling hay. "And then I'll graft your thighs onto it, right down to the knees!"

Kai frowned. "Sounds like he's disturbed, whoever he is…" he muttered.

Nanako gave a groan and a wince. "Stop 'im… f-fore the… slime…" she hissed. Kai nodded and stood up to walk out of the hut and stop the newcomer's tirade before he could get himself slimed, and strode down to the bottom of the cage to find a lean, little bit muscular man jumping up and down in a mad tarantella, fists in the air and face red and sparking out the nose, mouth, and his ears. His short black hair bounced as he kept going off, as did small round-rimmed glasses that framed his steel grey eyes.

"You fucking bitch!" the newcomer continued, before Kai walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He stopped immediately, dropped his fists, and turned to Kai with a scowl affixed quite firmly onto his face. The two sized each other up for a moment, and Kai realized this lad was a good two heads taller than himself. "So… I'm not the only one here?" the newcomer asked.

Kai shook his head. "Far from it," he answered.

The newcomer nodded. "How many are here?" he asked.

Kai took a moment to do a mental headcount. "With us, seven in total," he replied.

The man lifted both hands and curled up both pinky fingers, and a ring finger. "How many men to women, if we have women here?" he pressed.

"Four women… actually, three women and a little girl, and three guys counting us," Kai replied, frowning at the man's vague gestures. As the man started to ramble, the rest of his fingers curled one by one.

"So… three women + young girl + another man + us = seven persons," the newcomer started, frowning when 'young girl' rolled off his tongue. At Kai's nod, he pressed further, "How many pure humans, and how many augmented humans are we talking?"

"Augmented?" Kai started. What the hell kind of gobbledygook was this?

The man nodded, seemingly sensing Kai's brain doing cartwheels in an attempt to get what he was referring to. "Cyborgs," he replied bluntly. "Or pure machine, in my case."

"Ah. Three augmented, including the little girl, and without adding you to the total, the rest of us are pure," Kai answered. The man dropped his hands and nodded. He turned and walked to the hut. "Follow me, please."

The newcomer fell into step behind Kai, overshadowing him without even trying. "Where are you taking me?" he asked.

"To the other people who got caged," Kai replied bluntly. It took the two moments to reach the hut, and the newcomer had to duck just to keep his head out of the doorframe. Everyone else turned to look at him, and at this Nanako kicked feebly and gave another distressed groan.

"N-NoName, s-stay over th-there," Nanako muttered, wincing. NoName turned to her and smirked for a moment, before the smirk fell when he took in her current physical state.

Suguri's face hardened into a glare. "One order towards Nanako, NoName, and I'm ripping your cock off and shoving it into your power core," she threatened, one hand balling into a sparking fist as she said that.

Kai elected to not question that, and returned to sit behind Marc again. Turning to NoName, he gestured for him to hop a squat and stay awhile. "We were talking about how to get out of here when you were thrown in," he muttered. NoName nodded and sat a fair distance away from the group, still very much subjected to Suguri's withering glare. He took a few minutes to bring NoName up to speed, regarding what had happened from day one. Marc, Peat, Star Breaker, and Suguri chimed in to help fill in the details, though Nanako was silent throughout.

NoName quietly absorbed everything as it was relayed to him. Once everyone finished yakking, he idly nodded and thought over what little of their getaway plan they had managed to lay on the proverbial table before that discussion had been rudely interrupted. "And that's why you're all huddled around Nanako," he concluded grimly. He turned to Suguri and wryly added, "And why you don't want me speaking to her; at least, not yet." That got him a nod in response.

NoName nodded and held up his hands again. "So, let me get this straight…" Seven fingers curled, leaving a middle and both indexes standing. "Suguri + crazy bitch + tubes = possible freedom, but then you'd have to be airlifted out, so that would take…. 20 minutes, tops, accounting for crazy's strength." The other middle, and both thumbs, promptly snapped out. "So crazy bitch - strength needed to dislodge tubes + two men + woman = slower flight, and then there's the planes on the ceiling. So men + woman + planes - ribbons holding said planes = time wasted starting engines; Nanako - bits = barely useful help in getting said planes corralled, which would take more time. And that would be time in which the giant bitch could come back and render it all void." That got him six nods in total. His arms crossed, and he mulled it over.

"With that you have, idea-wise… it's sound, and yet lacking something," NoName finished, brow furrowing. "And that would be timing." His lips pressed into a thin, tight frown. "Admittedly, our captor could walk in at any time, so that would be tricky to get right…"

Kai nodded. "Sounds about right," he confirmed.

NoName sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head grimly. "And it's possible to distract said captor, but I think we just need to wait. Nanako can't move anyway, one of her bits is broken, the rest are missing, we can't get to the planes, the planes need fuel if I don't miss my guess… and we're all locked in." He heaved a tired, mechanical sigh. "I'll need to analyze… you unfamiliar folks anyway." His eyes flicked between Marc, Peat, Star Breaker, and Kai as he said that. "See what all you can do with what you have on hand."

Everyone else gave a collective wince at that, for as much as they hated to admit it, NoName had about fifteen solid points in his argument. However, Kai's eyes were alight with awe at how thoroughly the newcomer had picked apart what little of their plan they had formed, even accounting for the planes, the fact that said planes needed juice, and the time which it could take in getting everyone out of this Magical Hell. Dude was damn smart, he had to give him that. NoName turned to Marc and flashed her a grin. "You, braid-head, stand up for a second," he stated.

Marc shared a glance with Suguri, and shifted away to let her hold Nanako before standing. "Wh-why?" Marc asked, frowning. NoName's eyes gravitated to her knees, and his smirk widened.

"Mmmm… nice and shapely," NoName cooed, his tone carrying a faint note of praise about it.

Marc blushed and averted her gaze. "U-um… thank you?" she stammered.

NoName's smirk widened a little more. "Don't mention it. Your knees =… lovely," he purred. Marc froze, eyes widening as NoName's length started to stiffen.

"Y-you pervert!" Marc yelped, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the view of NoName's junk.

"I could… sleep on your knees. Just firm enough to take my mechanical skull," NoName continued anyway, causing Peat to gawk and Nanako to turn away with a croak of protest. "Firm knees = good knees."

"NoName…" Suguri growled in warning, face reddening as she glared at NoName.

"M-my knees aren't… pillows…" Marc grumbled, legs crossing at the thought.

"If you had a skirt, it would be even better," NoName muttered, eyes glazing in what could only be called a dreamy look. "Skirt + firm knees = heaven…" His smile widened to a truly disconcerting degree. "I could add you to my harem…"

"H-harem?!" Marc squealed, blanching at that prospect.

"D-don't ask, f-f-for the l-love of god…" Nanako croaked.

"NoName, stop…" Suguri hissed, eyes narrowing low. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to Kai, who was at the same time poking Star Breaker with his other hand.

"I got this," Kai muttered, using his other hand to gesture to NoName. Star Breaker followed his finger intently. "Sic 'im," he ordered. Star Breaker's face twisted in delightful wrath, she conjured a bomb, and rushed over to NoName in three seconds to pin him to the wall by his neck.

"Wh-what the?!" NoName yelped, before he was forcibly flipped around so his ass faced his attacker. Moving swiftly, Star Breaker lowered her bomb-holding hand, aligned it with military precision, and plunged it right into a sphincter that stretched reluctantly. Within, she found machinery that still gave a feel of human flesh, and pushed deeper until she was up to the elbow in his body. She held the bomb steady, even as NoName began to thrash in her grip with his voice sparking and distorting. "S-looOOOww down a liIIIIIittle!" he pleaded.

Peat's jaw dropped at the ghastly, bizarre spectacle playing out before him and everyone else. Marc blanched, and Suguri squeaked in shock. Instead of yanking the bomb out, Star Breaker started to pump her arm up and down, like one would with a plunger. "Not until I make this bomb explode," Star Breaker promised darkly, her manic grin never faltering even as NoName managed to kick her in the face.

"This feels veeery gooOOOOOod!" NoName howled, his mouth, nose, and ears sparking fitfully as the bomb slid about roughly within his stomach. "Buuut yoooUUUUOu're going toOOO faaast!"

Star Breaker halted. "It… feels good?" she asked, mind boggling at what she'd just heard. NoName nodded, and turned as much as her grip would allow to flash her his own disconcerting smile.

"K-keep—" NoName began, only to pause as his body expanded, then contracted when the bomb went off. He lurched a little as he felt fire and shrapnel swirl within, before stopping with a series of whirs. Star Breaker pulled out, arm coated thoroughly in a blood-like, tar-colored substance, her smile turning into a perplexed frown. He took a moment to crack his neck, which made the sparking cease. "Oooh, that hit the spot," he purred, voice no longer distorted.

"H-how…" Star Breaker stammered, paling as she struggled to grasp what had just happened. Kai paled as well, trying to figure out what had just gone wrong.

"Nanako did that with her bits once, and I liked it," NoName replied, a hint of smugness in his voice.

"You freak!" Star Breaker yelped, before she balled up her dirtied fist and threw it clean into NoName's face. At once she started to bludgeon him with the good old fashioned knuckle sandwich, without the fire since she now knew he could take a bomb with laughable ease. Suguri and Kai exchanged glances as she tried to turn NoName into a pile of scrap metal—'tried' being the keyword, because his face did not dent so much as an inch under the repeated assault.

"I-I didn't know, okay?!" Kai stammered.

Suguri gave a nod of understanding. "And now you see why I don't want him near Nanako," she muttered sadly.

"Wait… you're telling me he and the half-pint…" Peat interjected, paling along with Kai as Suguri nodded again. Then his mind took in the whole 'harem' thing NoName went on about earlier, and slowly his stomach churned in a displeased grumble. The more he took in those implications, the more he wanted to retch.

"Get me out of here…" Nanako pleaded.

***

Kai and Star Breaker had taken to hiding in the condom hut later that night, though this time Nanako was with them. Star Breaker paced, hands behind her back and lips pressed into a firm line. "Can't make him explode… can't cave his face in…" she muttered, seemingly lost in thought.

"Tell me about it," Nanako agreed. She leaned against a cardboard wall, grunting at the stinging abrasion of her rear.

"Why did Tomomo throw him in with us? The slime monster's bad enough," Kai groused, arms crossed.

"To punish the rest of us?" Star Breaker replied, still pacing about with a look of utter confusion on her face.

Kai closed his eyes, lifted a hand, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wouldn't put it past her to do that. That dude's into some strange shit," he muttered.

Nanako leaned her head against the wall, grunting as a bit of straw tickled her sore spots. "Let's… steer clear of him tomorrow," she grunted. That caused Star Breaker to halt, and sit where she was. Aware that the crazy's eyes were now trained on her, Nanako dryly added, "We're in hot water… as is. I don't want it… any hotter than boiling."

Kai sighed and nodded, understanding what she was getting at. "You gonna be okay?" he asked.

Nanako shook her head. "Gha… not for a while," she moaned in reply, voice still pained.

Kai frowned and let himself relax. "Alright." He stood up. "Me and Star will let you alone for a bit, but we're not gonna stray far. You need rest." At Nanako's nod, he motioned for Star Breaker to stand, and with a very vexed look on her face, she complied. The two left the hut, but only got as far as the doorframe before Tomomo stepped into the room from the larger door. The wooden obstacle closed behind their captor, who shut off the overhead light and walked over to turn on the varicolored lamp. When it clicked on, she saw them looking at her and cast a hellish sneer their way.

"Well, well, what do you know…" Tomomo began in a smug tone of voice, "Finally glad to see you two are exploring the cages a bit. Though… why are you all the way in the fugly condom hut?"

"I dunno, why’d you put it in here?" Kai replied in the smarmiest voice he could muster. Besides, he figured Tomomo didn't need anymore reason than that; she had gone out of her way, then above and beyond the realms of simple bitches. He may as well have faced the queen of all bitchkind, and for once he barely cared in the slightest.

Still, Tomomo continued to leer at him. "Fair enough, given you're my gerbil people," she conceded, though her tone of superiority and smartassery only told Kai he was nowhere near out of the woods yet. "Maybe, if you misbehave again… I should put one of you, or the others… in the dollhouse."

That declaration made Kai's blood run with an unsavory chill. Tomomo wasn't suggesting such a thing… was she? Still, he felt the need to ask. "Dollhouse? That… sounds less threatening than the dart gun. Why there?"

"Well…" Tomomo's eyes glinted maliciously, flashing gold for a second. "Lemme just say that, if you royally piss me off again, you'll see…" She chuckled darkly, and the noise echoed and reverberated with a power that made Kai's blood turn stone cold for but an instant. He could tell ideas span in her head, and decided he didn't want to know what she had in mind. "Just not tonight. We all have to sleep, after all." With that, she turned and trundled off to bed, crawling in and covering up to get some sleep.

Kai turned to Star Breaker, who stared at Tomomo with wide eyes and shrunken pupils. Great, the giant managed to traumatize the crazy again, it seemed. "... how bad… is the dollhouse?" he asked.

Star trembled for a moment, swallowing nervously. "Very… very bad," she replied uneasily. "Almost as… bad as the ice cream…" He dared not question that, and stood still for a moment as she stormed back into the hut before following her. He had returned to his seat, and resumed watching her pace in circles again. His eyes averted only once for a whole hour after that, checking on Nanako, who had curled up and fallen asleep with her arms wrapped tightly around her own body. Only then did he notice a small toilet behind her; pearly white, with its base obscured by straw. He made a quick mental note to see if it functioned later before his eyes flitted back to the pacing Star Breaker.

Aside from the sound of her feet crunching straw, and her muttering small expletives every now and then, she was oddly silent. Kai knew what had troubled her, of course, having seen it with his own two eyeballs and a menagerie of witnesses to back him up. He knew not, however, to console her over that unprecedented… 'loss' was really the only word he could have used to describe it. It was best to keep his distance, and give her time to mentally sort that out herself. He could only provide so much help in a given day.

Eventually, though, Star Breaker opted to march up to him and sit at his side, gnashing her teeth with eyes narrowed once again. "Maybe… I can get the better of that assmuncher not with fists…" she snarled. Kai idly nodded, wondering if she picked up her colorful language from Tomomo of all people. He would have patted her shoulder, but her mood had soured, and he liked his fingers unbroken. He could already see the ideas of violence glimmering in her prismic eyes.

"If not with fists, fire, or bombs, then with what?" Kai asked.

Star gnashed her teeth until Kai heard one of them crumble. He winced; that had to have hurt, but his 'playmate' was past the point of caring. "Maybe I can… get to his power core," she hissed after spitting a few fragments of broken teeth out. "But I don't know where the damn thing is…"

Kai frowned. "Maybe where his heart would be at, if he were human?" he offered.

Star Breaker spat more tooth fragments out along with a bit of blood before turning to Kai and giving him a ghoulish grin that revealed one tooth was evicted, yet already piercing her gums to grow right back. "You think his power core is in his chest?" she translated. At Kai's nod, her smile widened, and she giggled before shifting to lay down. "I think it's in his head."

Kai laid down, seeing the logic in that statement; NoName's cranium went on the fritz twice earlier. He closed his eyes, sighing and waiting for sleep to claim him. He felt a hand come to rest on his leg, but little more than that, and heard nothing leave Star Breaker's mouth. Hours passed, sleep came and went, and when his eyes blinked open he found… huh? What in the—when had Star Breaker rolled on top of him with her face pressed into his neck?! Oh… oh dear… what time was it?

Well, at least she was asleep; a quick look at what little of her face he could see confirmed her eyes were shut. He opted to take another look at the inside of the hut, and found Nanako sitting up in front of the toilet, eyes wide and trained on him. He could have easily heard the hamsters screaming in her head from the stairwell, further supplemented by a strangled croak that left her mouth when her jaw dropped a mere second after they made eye contact. For minutes on end, they stared; Kai daring not to rouse the sleeping crazy who draped herself over him, Nanako completely uncomprehending of what her eyes beheld.

Kai decided he was not going to shoot first this time. He'd already done that twice, and dug himself into orbit for his troubles. Nanako's mouth worked furiously, but no further sound came from her throat; she produced just that croak, and nothing more. The hamsters in her head were going into overdrive now, as color drained from her face when Star Breaker awoke with a yawn and sat up, inadvertently straddling Kai by his groin in the process.

Kai willed his body to still, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Nanako, almost silently asking her what the damn deal was. He knew, full well, the crazy on top of him didn't mean to straddle him, which for once allowed him to pull the reins on his own urges and put them on lockdown. The staring contest continued, and even as Star Breaker finally rolled off of him with another yawn, he did not waver. Nanako flagged and faltered first, blurting out, "H-how are you not dead yet?!"

Kai wasn't sure whether to give Nanako the same answer he handed Suguri, or to snark at her. He doubted she'd believe him either way, given the horrified but admittedly priceless look on her face. It took a few seconds before he settled on a mix between the two, "She likes me because I made her happy; got a problem, half-pint?"

Nanako sputtered incoherently, pupils dilating as another horrified croak left her mouth. Kai allowed himself a small smirk; there were a myriad of ways to interpret his reply, and it seemed Nanako's mental hamsters decided to unanimously jump into the gutter. She stared, every damn implication she could think of tumbling about in her skull, yet at the same time freezing her body in place with indecision. Kai could easily tell she was debating whether to stay and try to talk him out of the mess he'd dug himself, or to make a break for it. She stayed like that for several minutes before finally crawling over to him on her hands and knees, standing up with a hand on the wall for support, and then kicking hay into his face. "Y-you fuckwad!" she screamed.

"Proooooooblem?" Kai asked, uncaring for the hay being sent onto him; his glasses protected his eyes, and he wore the biggest shit-eating grin he could muster. Before Nanako could continue to kick straw in his face, Star Breaker seized her foot and pulled her down, causing Nanako to flip onto her back with a startled shriek and landed with her ass on Kai's stomach. Kai made to object, but Star was faster, dragging Nanako across his body, then hers, and then into the straw in one fluid motion.

"Do that again, and I will end you," Star Breaker warned, her tone low and ominous as she shifted to loom over the prone Nanako, who stared up to find a manic glare looking down at her. Nanako hurriedly nodded and scooted away from the two, seemingly forgetting she could stand if she leaned against the walls of the hut. Within minutes, Nanako was leaning against the wall opposite of them, a deep furrow having been dug into the hay in her wake.

"Thanks," Kai muttered, sitting up and giving Star a small grin. Star turned to him and grinned back, nodding silently in reply before they turned to Nanako, who merely continued to stare at them, still dumbfounded and, if Kai were to hazard a guess, pants-shitting terrified. He heard someone hitting a water bowl with a distinct metallic clang, followed by small expletives and water splashing, before NoName flew in with arms crossed and face affixed in a scowl with his toes dripping wet. Kai internally groaned, turned to NoName, and asked, "Alright, what do you want?"

NoName ignored him and turned to Nanako. "Can you walk yet?" he asked, an air of impatience very much present in his mechanical tone.

"N-not for long…" Nanako replied, eyes still firmly affixed on Kai and Star Breaker. "The a-apocalypse has t-taken a… a hankering to…"

NoName sighed, alighted, and turned to Kai. "Is it really true you and said apocalypse… get along, to put it lightly?" he queried, impatience fading into utter sincerity. At Kai's reluctant nod, NoName's scowl eased. "Lucky bastard," he muttered under his breath.

"Freak," Star muttered under her breath, turning to glower at NoName with a glare that would have incinerated him, had they been anywhere other than Magical Hell and her eyes been able to produce laser beams.

NoName heard the comment, and smiled in a sickeningly sweet manner at Star Breaker. "Pot, kettle, black," he muttered bluntly. "Me + you = two freaks in this hellhole."

"Seriously, what do you want?" Kai interjected, frowning and hoping NoName wouldn't egg Star Breaker on.

NoName's smile fell, and once more his glower asserted itself. "Come to the main cage, all of you. You… have to see something," he muttered darkly, turning to look pointedly at Nanako. "Hitch a piggyback ride if you have to." With that, he turned and left, and at this Kai and Star stood up, as did Nanako. Star wrapped an arm around Kai and hefted him up, before flying over to Nanako and wrapping an arm around her waist to lift her. As soon as she had a secure hold on both, and they shifted to clutch her arms for dear life, Star flew out and spotted NoName flying down a few tubes to the central cage, and elected to dart after him. Kai paled as he looked out into the room, spotting Tomomo sitting on the floor in front of the large cage, a mansion of a miniature and hideously pink house on one side of her, and a gun as long as her arm on the other. The gun had a suction cup head sticking out of its barrel—was that what he thought it was?

As they neared the main cage, Kai could see Suguri, Peat, and Marc standing on the third platform, staring at Tomomo with wide eyes and mouths pressed tight. Tomomo herself was quiet, patient, clutching two small somethings in her hands. She did not speak until NoName alighted on the third platform, with Star, Kai, and Nanako doing likewise a minute after he had landed. "It seems to me you guys might need more… incentive to behave," Tomomo said darkly, her voice oddly controlled and neutral. "So I'm going to lay down the basics." She lifted up the objects in her hand; a male doll, blank-faced and bald rested in her left, and a female with similar anatomy tightly gripped in her right. "One of three things is gonna happen, if any of you fuck up, depending on how it goes and if the situation is diffused or not. You're already acquainted with my pet slime, so I'll skip that one. He's only for the most serious offenses, such as leaving without permission—" She glared at Kai and Star Breaker as she said that, and they winced, "—throwing the cage furniture around, unless it's a water bowl you guys used to bathe in and it needs emptying out, and inflicting serious bodily harm onto your playmates."

Everyone, except NoName, stiffened at the mention of the slime beast. Tomomo donned a small, slightly manic smirk at this and continued, "The second-worst offenses, helping your fellow playmates get out and trashing my room if you get out, are going to warrant the dollhouse." Here, she bashed the dollies in her hands against one another in very vague approximations of a standard sexual encounter, adding none-too-convincing smooches and sucking sounds for effect. Everyone cringed, except for NoName, who silently watched with his brows raising high. Fortunately, the lewd display only lasted a good twenty seconds before Tomomo put the dolls down and picked up the massive gun. "The least-worst of the offenses, such as minor bodily harm and strangulation by smoke—" Again, she glared at Star Breaker as she said that, "—are going to warrant bondage-by-dart, followed by… alone time with whatever male is nearby and readily available. I'd rather you all consented than to use the darts, since that just makes the whole process easier and less messy, but we can't have everything."

That made Nanako retch, but she stood firm and swallowed her bile as Tomomo's gaze flittered to her for the briefest of moments. Suguri tensed at that last part, but she could not keep herself from frowning at that disconcerting bit of news. "Lastly, anything that isn't those offenses that I haven't already covered is going to get a little whirligig in this thing," Tomomo finished, putting the dart gun down and summoning a simple cloth sock with a snap of her fingers. The sock alighted in her palm, dangling from one side. "Any questions?"

"Y-y-you said… 'alone time,'" Suguri stammered, trying to keep her indignation at bay. "Y-you want us to seriously…"

Tomomo nodded. "Yep. See, you seven are part of an experiment, shall we say. Mostly, to see if you being shrunk down will affect your abilities in procreation," she replied in as blunt a manner as she could manage. "And, of course, your other baser bodily functions. Even though you're all being punished, and in Magical Hell, I still gotta provide for you lot somehow, seeing as you're gerbil-sized."

"Punished? For what?" Nanako asked, shivering as a myriad of possibilities ran through her head in that moment.

Tomomo's smile took on a cruel cast. "For your sins, simply put," she replied.

"Bah. The concept of sin is beyond a machine," NoName scoffed, shaking his head. "... or it would be for one like I, if I wasn't shrunken through arcane means."

Tomomo's smile widened. "Really now…?" she asked. The lock clicked and fell off, and the latch opened of its own accord. She opened the door and reached in to grab NoName, sock still firmly in hand.

"Yes, really," NoName replied bluntly.

"Well then… let's see if the sock of justice changes your mind, you trumped-up doppelganger," Tomomo muttered as the cage closed by itself. Everyone on the platform watched as the sock shifted in Tomomo's grip.

"The sock of justice? You're kidding, right?" NoName asked incredulously as the mouth of the sock engulfed him whole. Then, he found himself flipped upside-down with the sock, and landed rather harshly against the end where a person's toes would be if the sock were worn correctly. He found himself wishing he hadn't asked about the so-called 'sock of justice' as the world began spinning around him in a muted grey, clothy pirouette that started to pick up momentum.

Chapter Text

The eyes of the six assembled on the platform spun round and round in their sockets as the 'sock of justice' twirled with increasing and worrying speed. The tempo had started as a slow, nauseating sort that one would get if they whirled in circles whilst staring at the ground for too long, but as it gained momentum it went from nauseating to a level of disconcerting twirling that induced old cramps in everyone except Suguri, who retched at the sight. Then, it reached enough speed that, were it thrown here and now, would have carried across half the room before impacting into the nearest wall with a hard thud, and as their eyes tried to keep up they found that their own perception had started to tilt uncomfortably for them. NoName started to scream in protest as he was spun within the cloth prison, his senses being muddled by an extreme case of dizziness and whiplash as the sock became a blur to his fellow prisoners.

Round and round NoName went, screaming as the sock went fast enough to violently tousle Tomomo's hair with each and every revolution. On the axis he kept going, protests falling on deaf ears. His tormentor angled the sock horizontally above her head, spinning it like the blades of a propellor, before letting go. The sock span up and up, having maintained enough force it turned into its own center of gravity for a few minutes on end before it thunked onto the ceiling and fell down. Tomomo caught the sock deftly, preventing NoName from turning into a pile of scrap heap on her floor, giving him another nasty case of whiplash upon doing so. "Well? Mind changed yet?" she snarked.

"F-f-fuck… y-you…" NoName growled, audibly sparking within the sock. Tomomo smirked cruelly and started spinning him all over again, this time at maximum speed for maximum disorientation. Again, the eyes of her tiny audience were captivated by the cruel, twisted display, and pupils shrank when all six realized there was naught they could do about it. The speed picked up, once again blurring from momentum alone, and the longer they stared the more the rest of the prisoners found that the platform tilted in spite of being perfectly still and level. When the sock was launched again, everyone fell, dizzied thoroughly by the awful sight, and yet still they were captivated.

Tomomo caught the sock again, smirking as she saw the straw on the bottom of the cage stir with her feverish pitch. And the horror, the sheer and unfiltered horror on the faces of her captives merely amplified as she threw the sock once more. NoName squealed—squealed like a little mouse!—as he impacted firmly on the ceiling a second time, this time sticking there for a moment before gravity asserted its presence and punted him off of it. Once more, he was caught, and all he could do was spark fitfully and audibly, voice distorting and producing nothing more than gibberish.

Oddly, she paused, eying the others in case they got any bright ideas. But they staggered onto their feet, and promptly collapsed again, every single sorry bitch and bastard lurching in unison. Still, they were determined to watch NoName, seemingly to the bitter end of this maddening whirligig she'd started subjecting him to. Good. That bout of sickness they shared meant they were disarmed, figuratively this time. Her warnings had finally gotten to the whole lot. Once again, the sock span round and round. NoName continued to scream, but the only things answering to his cries were the ceiling and the whiplash he got every time Tomomo caught the sock.

Another whapping upon the ceiling caused Nanako to falter, followed by Suguri and Star Breaker. "I-I can't look…" Nanako groaned, head dropping as a hand rushed to her stomach.

"I thought you could handle spin-outs," Tomomo snarked, her smile widening as she caught NoName once again. She span him three more times, throwing him up into the air to spin out another series of painful propelling pirouettes and catching him before he could stain the carpet, and after that she opened the cage and dumped him out of the sock onto the straw bed.

The latch clicked shut as she pulled her hand and the sock of justice back, and the combination lock once more reappeared to keep it shut. The rest of her captives turned to NoName, who was sparking all over with his eyes twirling so fast in their sockets they wobbled like loose screws. "Lunch will be a bit late today, since you all are looking a little green 'round your gills. Don't. Fuck. Up. Toodles," Tomomo muttered, snapping her fingers and making her menagerie of toys vanish in flashes of light before standing up and walking out of the room, leaving her captives to ruminate on what had been relayed to them. Everyone shared glances, ideas spinning in their minds, but not before taking a moment to stand up, catch their breaths, and make their worlds stop tilting even though they hadn't gone in the sock.

Everybody on that platform suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline in their legs, one that bade them to get out of here. Yet, with their smartest of the bunch currently in the straw incapacitated, and one of their number unable to walk for long periods, and only one other in tip-top shape, getting out would require a lot of timing. And probably a lot of gymnastics and as-yet unknown, borderline improbable means none of them knew how to utilize, if those means even existed to them at this point.

As Kai would have said it, the situation had reached, then surpassed by far 'are you fucking kidding me?' levels of astronomically ridiculous. Tomomo had given them warnings, and Kai did not want to ask what was worse: that he was here, by Tomomo's own admission, to breed like a damn rabbit, or that fucking up would lead to scenarios that, judging by said warnings, would be far worse than humiliating. Peat was the first to voice what was running through their minds in that moment, and he kept his voice low on the off-chance that Tomomo would come back, "Is it just me, or is that fatass fucking nuts?"

"She makes Star Breaker look sane," Suguri agreed, her voice just as hushed.

"That's saying an awful lot," Kai muttered, frowning. He turned to the nearest hut. "I… lost my appetite already…" With that, he trundled on inside the hut, with Star Breaker and Nanako on his heels.

"I don't think… I can—hrk!—eat for the rest of this week…" Nanako grumbled, her stomach audibly churning with the volume and frequency of a submerged blender.

"Tomomo… is officially worse than the hussy who stopped me…" Star growled, fists clenching. "I'll do far worse… than scorch her inside-out when we can get out of this hell…" Kai did not ponder if she knew what the word 'hussy' meant, and did not ask all the same as context was probably different to her. But he could hear her ire, her grudge against this 'hussy' from ten miles away, and unless Tomomo decided to throw that person in here with them—he hoped to god she wouldn't, but at this point knew she could decide to give them another 'playmate' whenever she wanted—that grudge would only continue to grow.

Marc dragged herself in after them, arms lifting to cover her exposed chest and crotch in mortification. "I've already been forced once… and I just don't want to…" she grumbled, though she muttered unintelligibly after. Kai couldn't blame her for wanting to keep whatever shred of dignity she had left. But after being caged, he could argue that she had no dignity left to clutch feebly to, which tragically said a lot about their current predicament.

He dared not to. He'd rather Marc remain coherent than to have her become a gibbering wreck. Chance was not something he was going to take, at least not yet. Peat trundled in after Marc, frowning bitterly. He paused in the doorway, watching as everyone who went in the hut before him sat down in three corners, and followed Marc to sit next to her. "Normally, I got a policy against hitting girls, even if they did ask for it and are into that sort of thing," Peat hissed, fists clenching, "but the fatass who slimed us is the exception. She's not a lady; oh no, she's something else altogether!"

Kai sighed, frowning as he sensed tempers flaring. Marc proceeded to grab fistfuls of hay and used them to cover herself up. She didn't say anything more, but her rather harried motions had her concealed down to the toes in seconds, which told him all he needed to know. Peat simply followed her example; he covered himself up with hay, laid down with his fellow pilot, and that was that. Nanako took the time to puke into a nearby toilet bowl, and flopped down on the floor once her stomach was emptied. Star Breaker simply kept seething, scowling to the point Kai wondered if her face was going to stick that way. Suguri did not show herself for several minutes, and when she did she arrived carrying NoName into the hut.

NoName's eyes were still spinning when he was airlifted in. "WhooOOOoooo…" he groaned as Suguri plopped him in the center of the floor. Yep. Poor bastard was still thoroughly discombobulated.

Suguri herself moved over to sit next to Kai and Star Breaker, her mental hamsters whirring twenty miles a minute. She wanted to say something to break the tension, anything really, but she found herself at a loss for words. The more she thought over Tomomo's tirade about punishments, and the fact that in her eyes she and the others had sinned somehow—Star Breaker's case, she could understand a teensy bit, and NoName's as well, though both were oddballs—the more she found it made not one lick of sense. It was very easy to believe that Tomomo had pulled a lot of that mumbo-jumbo right out of her ass, and yet some very skeptical part of Suguri did not want to think such was the case yet. Tomomo did want consent somewhere within this crazy hellhole between her prisoners, but at the same time she was willing to sic the slime beast if they tried escaping or weren't cooperating. If there was ever a walking advertisement for logical and consistent arguments and how to not make said arguments even the least bit cohesive, then Tomomo fit that bill to a capital T.

Silence held firmly, broken only by NoName groaning and sparking fitfully every few minutes. Nanako, who by now was a little green around her cheeks, sat up and shared a silent glance with Suguri. Neither knew what to do; both had been completely dumbstruck by this increasingly insane-by-cyborg-standards situation. They turned to Star, but her head had dropped just enough for her hair to shadow her face. Neither doubted that she was still very much pissed off about the whole thing, and for once, they both felt a pang of empathy at her plight. Then, something occurred to them, and their faces paled as they took it in and let it bounce about in their heads. If even she couldn't get out, then what chance did they have in this Magical Hell? The more they stared at the would-be apocalypse, the more answers that neither Nanako nor Suguri wanted to realize began surfacing in their minds.

Nanako's mind started kicking into overdrive as she reconsidered what little of the getaway plan her fellow prisoners formed. She turned away from Star Breaker first, and lifted a hand to rub her chin in contemplation. NoName was probably going to be on the fritz for a while, Marc and Peat's planes were still out of reach, and her only bit currently decommissioned due to its power core malfunctioning. Star would be too pissed off to listen, she'd wager, so that left just her, Kai, and Suguri.

Suguri stood up and sighed. "I'll look at the tubes again, and see if any of them can be dislodged somehow. I won't try to dislodge them by myself, but…" She didn't finish, and instead darted out the door of the hut to do another sweep. As the only one in well-enough condition to pull such a feat, she trusted the others to stay put this time, and walked to the first tube she could reach from the third platform. Huh; there was a section of cage that wasn't bars, but instead solid steel upon which the tube had been anchored. Furthermore, the tubes were anchored to each other by a series of rings.

Suguri took a moment to mentally slap herself. How had she not noticed this until now? Part of her blamed the sheer absurdity of the situation at hand. She flew down that tube, slowly, checking for faults such as cracks or even the slightest deviation in angle. Unfortunately, the tubes were clear; devoid of color to the point they reflected light almost minimally, which made it a little harder for her to spot cracks in turn. The tubes going to the cage on the knick-knack shelf were crack-free, and so she scanned the anchored border that marked the tubes and cage's point of contact.

Not a dent or crack to be seen in the metal, much less the rings holding the tubes together. But if she and the others had any chance in hell of escaping, than this was their best bet. Suguri growled, but kept the sound under her breath; there was no way she was going to become some stranger's cock polisher, for fuck's sake, and she wasn't going to let her friend, the would-be apocalypse, and said strangers suffer such a fate either. She walked around the hut and started scrutinizing the next series of tubes, and their anchor points.

She groaned again. It would be a while yet before Tomomo returned, and she could not afford to waste time.

***

NoName took a few hours to gather his bearings, his body white-hot in the robotic equivalent of pain. He groaned, voice still distorted, mouth still sparking—good god, he could taste the escaping electricity on his artificial tongue; if he had to describe it, he would have compared it to eating the damned sun, it was so hot—and systems still scrambled. But, piece by piece, his hardware and software slowly pulled themselves back together before they even attempted to make sense of what had happened.

His body gave small twitches as, he could only assume, it started to repair the more… extensive damage he'd received during his bashing. "Hooray… for nanotech," he thought, simply content to lay still and let the nanotech do its work. It took him roughly an hour once his head had been cleared and that first coherent thought entered his mind before he noticed that the bedroom had fallen deathly silent. His brow furrowed, and with a haltingly stiff back and immobile arms, he brought himself to sit up through sheer force of will. His eyes gravitated, but then the hut tilted and he almost fell back down from the surprise shift. Great, he'd be dizzy for a while yet, it seemed, but he still made himself look around. He moved slowly, to avoid aggravating his injuries and still-muddled sight to notice three things.

First and foremost, Nanako was looking at him from a nearby toilet bowl. Second, Peat and Marc were nowhere in sight, and Kai and Star Breaker had fallen asleep in a corner. Third, he was no longer trapped in that accursed sock. 'Sock of justice' his artificially-skinned asscheeks, that was more like 'hackeysack' in regards to how he'd been thrown left, right and sideways! He took a moment to work his mouth, just to see if it would move, and when it did he sighed heavily. He turned to Nanako and saw, clear as day, that tell-tale tinge of green on her cheeks. "You got… sick again?" he asked, in a more scathing tone than he'd have liked.

Nanako flinched, but nodded. "We… all did," she answered uneasily.

NoName nodded and shifted to lay down. "That… deranged giant's not even good enough… as a cockwarmer… I'll just chuck her into Hell myself…" he grumbled.

"But isn't… sin beyond a machine?" Nanako retorted.

"I want silence; shut up, you fucking midget," NoName growled in an eerily human voice, seeing Nanako tense out of the corner of his eye at the command. Her mouth clacked shut, which gave him the much-needed peace and quiet to start thinking of ways he could chuck Tomomo into Hell with his own two hands. Such a woman did not even deserve to be his personal cockwarmer; he just wanted to punt her so hard Satan would wake up spontaneously assraping the bitch.

For a moment, he snickered at that morbidly lewd image his mind had concocted. He dared not wonder where his mental state was going; as it was, things were crazy enough. He still struggled to make sense of how he'd been shrunk, for one thing, and his current company wasn't doing anything to help that issue. But, the silence helped, somewhat. He went over what Tomomo had told him before he was thrown in the accursed sock, when the whole of her 'capabilities' tirade came to the forefront of his thoughts.

"Suguri, won't do; the other girls aren't here, we have a resurrected apocalypse, pilot = freaked the fuck out, which leaves… ah, great, why'd that giant asswipe leave me with the midget of all people?" he mentally grumbled, taking into account that neither he nor Nanako were in any condition to walk for extended periods of time.

But did that mean they couldn't fly…? NoName sat up, then stood up against the wall for support, half his systems going 'fuck it' and the other half kicking into overdrive to compensate for his sudden bout of movement. Even though he was a robot, he could still feel pain dancing across his form; how he was able to even register that still eluded him. Then, through sheer force of will, he flew slowly up into the air until the top of his head lightly bumped against the ceiling.

He turned to Nanako again. "Fly after me, but keep your trap shut," he ordered curtly. Nanako opened her mouth to object, but a firm glare had her jaws shutting faster than he could blink. Hesitantly, Nanako stood up against the wall, and willed herself to fly. He could see the curiosity in her eyes, that 'Why?' she'd been about to inquire before the command kept her quiet. Truth be told, asking questions wasn't very likely to get the group anywhere right now, unless one of them got the bright idea of asking Tomomo when she'd sic the slime beast on them again.

Slowly, he flew out of the hut through the front door, making sure to duck his head on the way out. Without anything to lean against, he wobbled as soon as he hovered over the platform, almost flipping upside-down before he strained to right himself. Nanako wasn't faring much better, almost slapping him on the ass by sheer accident before she pulled her hand back in time. NoName's eyes gravitated to the lock on the latch, and he tilted his head. "Maybe…"

He shook his head before any budding plans could form—plans that would probably land him back in the 'sock of justice.' He scanned the large cage, before shrugging his shoulders and flying towards the tube that led to the knick-knack shelf. Prior to entering, he looked over his shoulder to confirm that Nanako was flying behind him. In silence they traversed the tube, and after that NoName led Nanako into the hut of the knick-knack shelf. As soon as they alighted, NoName whirled around and seized Nanako by the shoulders, and as both lost their balance due to their still-aching bodies, ended up pinning her to the floor.

Nanako did not yelp, but her eyes went wide and her hands started trying to pry his off. "Hold still and listen," NoName growled, again in that eerily human voice. Nanako stiffened, breath hitching. He could see her terror plain as day, and guessed her mental hamsters went to the bottom of the gutter once again before collecting himself and muttering, "I know how much you despise me. To be frank, I'd rather you didn't… but if either of us have any chance in hell of leaving this place, we have to work together." His hands eased off her shoulders to cradle her cheeks. "That said… do you have any ideas for how to get out?"

Nanako mutely shook her head, eyes still wide but now filled with a spark of wonder. NoName sighed, mentally kicking himself. He let go of her head, and shifted to get off of her before she got the idea to kick him off. She sat up to look at him, frowning. "None whatsoever?" he tried. Again, Nanako shook her head. Well, at least he could say he was absolutely certain of that now. Crossing his arms and slouching a little, he took a moment to collect himself. "How extensive is the damage to your lone bit?" he asked.

"Other than the power core being broken, I… have no idea…" Nanako muttered, shoulders sagging glumly. "And I don't think… I can repair it…"

NoName mentally groaned. "Shit," he muttered, scooting up to lean against the nearest wall. "We'll need to take an extensive look later…" He spread his legs, but only to get a little more comfortable in the straw. "And I would rather not fuck in the straw…"

Nanako winced and scooted away from him until her back was on the wall directly opposite him. They stared at one another for several long moments, and for a while their staring contest went on without interruption. Nanako grasped handfuls of straw and lifted them to cover her chest without breaking eye contact, yet NoName seemed utterly… fixated, for lack of a better term, on her. Was he going to try something? Demand she do something? The mental hamsters screamed in her brain, and try as she might, Nanako could not shut them out, much less muster the willpower to break eye contact with NoName.

Eventually, though, she flagged first as her eyes darted to the furthest corner for the barest of instants. NoName relented, though, picked up a handful of straw, and put one granule in his mouth. He bit through it and chewed slowly, wincing as… a lack of taste graced his artificial tastebuds. Bland was really the only way he could have described it, and the texture was… mildly off. He made a face, but kept chewing the straw. Nanako shifted to lay down, listening to the mushy crunching as NoName continued eating. She wanted to ask why he eating the makeshift bedding, but ultimately decided against it. The less stupid he was acting, the better. She simply nestled deeper into the straw, and covered more of her body with it in an effort to avoid drawing his attention.

The crunching stopped with an audible gulp, and NoName grumbled irritably. "Could that she-bitch at least have the courtesy to make this hay tastier?" he hissed.

"I don't think she'd care much for it," Nanako pointed out, closing her eyes. For once, NoName had to concede her point, and started lightly drumming the back of his head against the wall with minimal force in frustration.

"I've accidentally eaten cardboard tastier than this straw…" NoName muttered, feeling a dryness in his mouth that wasn't there before. He stood up again, wondering if perhaps his systems were still compromised on some level. He sighed and shook his head. "Let's head back to the others," he muttered. Nanako groaned and stood up, still clutching handfuls of hay to little avail. "And please stop covering yourself; it's not that I like seeing you naked or anything—" Nanako cringed as that proclamation left his gums, "—it's that, until our tormentor apparently deems otherwise, we - clothes + shrinks = intelligent gerbils."

Nanako responded by willing herself to fly, and then pressing her legs as tightly together as she could. Immediately, she tilted and almost alighted again, before righting her posture and dropping the hay. NoName took a moment to facepalm at this, then started flying himself. Wordlessly, he flew out of the hut and back to the main cage, with the little runt of this bizarro playpen following in his wake.

By the time they returned to the hut on the third platform—NoName was sorely tempted to refurbish that thing into something more along the lines of 'proper headquarters' since everyone else gathered there during what he assumed was the daytime—Suguri had just arrived herself. The three alighted in the straw, and frowned as they found Kai and Star Breaker still dozing off in their corner. Marc and Peat were still nowhere in sight.

NoName moved to the middle of the hut and sat down, and Nanako sat a ways from him. Both turned to Suguri, silently asking with hardened gazes what was up now. "The tubes are no good. They're as airtight as a space shuttle," Suguri reported, her face glum and her voice grim. She marched to Kai and Star Breaker, frowning as she contemplated whether or not to wake those two particular chucklefucks up.

Slowly, Suguri knelt before the two, pausing to lower her posture in order to study Star Breaker's face. Her eyes were screwed tight, and that hellish scowl had firmly affixed itself at this point. Suguri pulled away, and turned to Kai; he had a decidedly less malicious expression that promised suffering and reckoning, but his brow was furrowed and his lips pressed into a tight frown. She stood up and walked away, evidently deciding that was too big a gamble to even attempt. That was before she found herself turning to the other corner that Marc and Peat claimed for themselves upon seeing a hand—she wasn't sure whose—lifting out of the straw to flail for about a minute prior to dropping back down.

"Ngh… so warm... " Peat mumbled, shifting a bit under his straw blanket, making small pelvic thrusts in his sleep.

Suguri shook her head at the sight. She started to wonder what they were dreaming about when the familiar, tell-tale sound of the bedroom door opening caught her attention. Instead of slamming, however, it came in a very gentle creak, followed by the sound of oddly shuffling steps. Padding her way over to the tiny window, Suguri poked her head out to see if Tomomo was, perhaps, juggling something.

Her brow furrowed when she found Tomomo came in with a plate, with something else… wiggling in one of her pajama pockets. Muffled cries of unknown origin emanated from the pocket, though whoever or whatever was making them—much less what they were trying to say, assuming they even had the capacity for speech—was lost to Suguri. In Tomomo's hand was the giant plate, from which an aroma of noodles wafted. She walked with purpose, opened the latch after undoing the lock, and deftly set the plate on the highest platform that she could reach from the latch.

Suguri walked out of the hut, before flying to look Tomomo in the eye as she pulled her hand back. "What's in your pocket?" she asked.

Tomomo smirked and thrust one hand into the squirming pocket. She pulled it out a second after fumbling around, and held up… what the hell? Suguri blinked, balked, and tilted her head in utter confusion; a young woman with ropes and a ball-gag on her body squirmed in that iron-like grip, brown eyes wide and pleading, framed by small round-rimmed glasses that sat upon her face rather lopsided. Even stranger by the standards, she had shrunken-hand-sized black cat ears that drooped from the sides of her head, and a puffed-out tail between the legs, both of which clashed horribly with her white hair and pale complexion. "This little she-tom bit me good," Tomomo replied, lifting just one finger to reveal healing but present marks—suspiciously tiny, mouth-shaped marks—embedded deep in the joint. "So she's gonna get a little… acquainted with whatever male's available…" With that, Tomomo transferred the cat-person, who was already yowling in protest through her ball-gag, to the hut on the bottom of the cage.

She pulled out after that to close the door and lock its latch, prior to gesturing to the plate. "By the way, you're all getting tempura today, with a side of udon," Tomomo added as an aside. Suguri cringed as she turned to leave the room, gently closing the door behind her. Suguri bolted to the hut on the bottom of the cage, and found that the cat-person was still struggling to get out of her bonds. She gagged upon noticing her rather embarrassing position; hands and feet tied behind the back, with a bar placed between the thighs that were affixed to thick cuffs which circled those thighs to forcibly spread them. Even puffed-up, the tail did little, if at all, to conceal her goods. She was a young-looking sort, which was paradoxical in its own right given her sterling-white hair, and if Suguri had to guess, she was no more than a mere twenty tender years of age.

Not even in the cage for two minutes, and she'd already done something to anger Tomomo enough to warrant… the dreaded 'alone time.' Suguri swallowed, and padded over slowly to the cat-woman, who yowled and tensed at her approach. "Hey, it's alright…" Suguri muttered, noticing the newcomer was watching her with horrified, yet oddly frigid eyes as she moved to kneel at her side. Hesitantly, she lifted her hands to touch the ball-gag before starting to undo it. "What's your name?"

The newcomer worked her mouth once the gag came loose, still tense and glaring at Suguri with evident distrust. Some of her teeth had fresh blood on them, but as her mouth wordlessly moved and saliva did its work, that became less and less noticeable to Suguri. "Y-Yuki," the newcomer spat in an oddly deep voice for a woman, with just the barest tinge of pitch and femininity to offset it, once she determined Suguri wasn't an immediate threat. It wasn't exactly a contralto, but Suguri figured the term was close enough. "Leader of W-Waruda."

Suguri nodded and grasped the cuffs between Yuki's legs. "Hold still for a minute…" she warned, and she moved to one cuff before slipping her fingers between it and Yuki's skin. Yuki gave a low growl, but did nothing—couldn't, really, bound as she was—to stop Suguri as she started to pull at the cuff from opposite directions. Slowly, the steel bent and stretched with a groan of protest, but did not break.

Then again, Suguri really didn't need the steel to break. When it was stretched just enough to be loose and wiggly, she moved to the other cuff and gave it the same treatment. When the second cuff was stretched like the first, she started to untie Yuki's wrists and ankles, working swiftly on a suspicion that Tomomo would come back sooner or later. As soon as she was freed, Yuki shifted to lay down before standing up to adjust her glasses and rub at her wrists. As the cuffs were stretched, they simply slid down her legs and let her slip out of them without issue. "Th-thanks… I guess," she muttered, keeping her tail between her legs. Ears still drooped, she asked, "Why'd… you come?"

Suguri frowned. "Well… none of the men here, of which there are three, are awake… nor are any of them in decent-enough shape to even come here. I couldn't stand idly by and leave you tied up," she replied, figuring that was enough of an answer.

Yuki relaxed at that bit of good news, ears perking up a little. "So how'd you get here?" she asked.

Suguri wilted. "I was… duped. Told there were people who needed help… which was only half-true," she muttered. "You?"

Yuki flinched, ears drooping again. "I… was cat-napped," she muttered. "Got hit on the back of the head, woke up, and was shrunk…"

Well, at least she wasn't here by being duped. "And the men here… are more interested in leaving than…" Suguri had to force the next word out of her mouth, through clenched teeth at that, "fucking, since they've been… terrorized, for lack of a better word."

Yuki's ears perked up again, contemplating what she'd just heard for a moment. "Good. Less hassle, and more time spent trying to get out," she muttered, her voice oddly controlled and neutral. It seemed she was taking this far better than Suguri anticipated, though having had her limbs just freed probably had something to do with that.

"You and me both," Suguri agreed with a nod. "I'll go get the others. Do you want to come with?"

Yuki's brow furrowed. "They naked?" she replied. At Suguri's glum nod, she sighed. "Just tell me everything on the way there. I'll follow." With that, they left the hut, with Suguri informing Yuki of what had happened only hours ago, and of what went down days before. They went slowly to the hut on the third platform, as Suguri needed Yuki to take the time to absorb everything. She was pale, an impressive feat given her complexion, when they managed to enter the door to find NoName and Nanako slumped against a wall, both of them fast asleep. Peat and Marc had sat up at their arrival, however, and both turned to look groggily at them.

"Another one," Suguri muttered, escorting Yuki inside so the pilots could see her in all her nude, half-feline glory. Yuki frowned as the half-awake Marc tilted her head, while Peat seemed to be focused on her ears.

"I'm a cat, alright?" Yuki growled when Peat's eyes lingered a little too long on her ears. For emphasis, her ears and tail twitched.

Peat promptly threw his hands up in the air. "At least it isn't as weird as watching a woman shove a bomb up a robot's ass, and the robot living to tell the tale!" he replied in exasperation. "... So, if you’re a cat, does that mean you got a tight pussy? Because as I'd guess—" Before he could finish that joke, Yuki hissed and lunged at him, aiming directly for his face with her fingernails. Peat felt the stinging of flesh being scratched and scraped, and did not mind it for the first few seconds before his brain shed its fog of sleep and registered the sensation of blood being drawn. At that point, he got up and threw Yuki off with a simple and forceful push, and she skid on the floor before dropping to all fours with her tail even more puffed than before.

"Say that again to my face, fucker, and see what happens!" Yuki snarled, eyes narrowed dangerously low and ears as far back as they could go.

Peat lifted one of his hands and prodded at his face, and it did not take him long to find the tell-tale rivers of blood, much less the sources thereof. His hand dropped, his eyes narrowed, and even as he felt the bit of nanotech that Suguri gifted him work its wonders, he still felt a surge of anger. He decided to direct that anger, but only at Yuki, and to keep things from escalating. "Listen, pussycat, we can't fight. So unless you wanna be anally plowed from now to next month by a slime beast, learn to take a damn joke, okay?!" he snarled.

At this point, Kai had snapped awake, and would have moved if not for the sleeping crazy still sitting next to him. So he settled for observing the scene, lifting a hand to rub his eyes and get rid of the fog that clouded his eyes before adjusting his glasses to absorb what had changed. Peat approached Yuki and watched as she rose to stand upright, tail staying puffed and swishing from side to side. While Kai didn't know much about cats, much less that the newcomer was part cat, he still understood the gesture all the same—she was looking for a fight. Nanako and NoName jolted awake as Yuki lunged again, screeching like a true-blood feline as Peat raised his dukes to deflect her nails.

"We! Can't! Fight! Calm your tits!" Peat exclaimed, to little avail; Yuki was already seeing red, and he did not want to hurt her if he could help it. Sure, he knew that egging her on was not a good idea, with tensions and tempers already into orbit at this rate, but he wanted to lighten the mood. Whole world of good that did him.

"Fight me like a man, damnit!" Yuki bellowed, trying and failing to claw Peat's face off as he simply shrugged her off.

“Says the bitch using her nails!” Peat snarked, throwing her hands away before they could scratch anything else.

"I’m a cat! It’s my god given right to use my claws!” Yuki shrieked, still hellbent on knocking Peat down a peg one way or the other. In her rage, it did not occur to her that going for his exposed nads would have been a better idea, and before long she came to regret this when he spoke again.

Peat sighed. "Alright, if you want to play that way," he muttered, and before Yuki knew what was happening one of his fists slammed clean into her nose, dislodging—but not breaking, fortunately—her glasses. In one fell strike, Yuki swayed on her feet, before steadying herself and making another lunge. Peat ducked and then suckerpunched her in the chest, sending her toppling to the floor with the breath knocked clean out of her lungs.

Yuki snarled, and made to sit up and scratch again before Peat lunged, pinning her hands to the straw and using his legs to hold her feet. Before long, she found him looking her dead in the eyes. "What next, you want me to knock your fucking lights out?" he asked, voice laced with no small amount of venom. Yuki did not cow under the threat; instead, she smirked and spat in his face.

"Gutsy, I'll give you that," Yuki purred, tail still swishing. She leaned in close, flashing Peat a shark's smile. "But if I had my pistol… I'd have shot you dead by now," she said darkly.

"Bitch, I got an airplane, and when I get it down from the ceiling, I'll ram both its wings right up your smarmy little cunt," Peat replied, flashing Yuki a sinister grin. "Or do you wanna settle this another way?"

Kai slowly stood up, peeling away from Star Breaker, who somehow remained asleep despite the ongoing commotion. He walked to the two, knelt beside them, before putting his hands to their chests and shoving them apart. They looked at him incredulously, both glaring, but Kai simply shook his head. "Break it up, or else I'll wake up the sleeping apocalypse and have her shove bombs up both your asses," he said in as flat a tone as possible, one that brokered no further argument. Peat, wisely, backed off and scrambled toward Marc as he knew Kai was not exaggerating in that regard, whilst Yuki merely looked at him strangely. Ten seconds passed, then thirty, as she stared at him with a look of utter confusion.

Then, Yuki's lips twitched up in a smile as pure disbelief sparkled in her eyes. Her chest heaved, and then she just doubled over laughing, hands racing to clutch her stomach as her pain from the two-handed beating she'd received was momentarily forgotten. Her tail stiffened, pounding on the floor as her own woefully-unregrettable ignorance seized hold of her mental hamsters and started tickling them positively pink. Nanako, Marc, NoName, and Suguri all watched as Yuki lost herself to the throes of crippling, disbelieving mirth with horror twisting their expressions. Peat simply watched Yuki, shook his head, and mouthed "It was nice knowing you for ten seconds" in her direction.

Slowly, all eyes except Yuki's gravitated to Star Breaker as they heard the sound of shifting straw, followed by a displeased groan. "Shut. Up," Star growled, her voice just low enough to be lost amidst Yuki's howling. Despite being part cat, Yuki failed to heed the warning signs as she flopped on her back to continue laughing. Everyone else started scooting towards the exit of the hut, hastening as Star snapped a murderous gaze in the newcomer's direction. "Shut. Up!" Star Breaker repeated, still keeping her voice in that ominously low, chilling tone.

In fact, it wasn't until Yuki felt a blazing hand clenching around her neck did she stop, and when her eyes opened, she found Star Breaker already on top of her with eyes glowing in anger. Quickly straddling Yuki by her stomach to keep her pinned and flailing knees away from her groin, Star raised a flaming fist up high and tightened her grip. Yuki paled, mirth shifting to wide-eyed mortal terror as she gazed upon the raised fist that looked about ready to cave her face in through the hut's floor. "H-hey, n-no need for that…" she tried, hoping she'd live by taking a page out of Peat's book.

Star Breaker did not falter. She did not yield. Her fist sailed clean down and impacted on Yuki's right ear, and though the fire failed to eat at the flesh, the sudden pain of having an ear pinned caused Yuki to yowl. "Shut! Up! How many times do I have to fucking say it?!" Star Breaker yelled, her voice shrill and distorting with a mechanical hum. Yuki's wail died down, halting in her throat when flaming fingers curled around her ear and started to pull.

Yuki lifted her hands and tried to pry Star's hand from her neck, but the grip only tightened like a vise, and in that moment Yuki felt her very breath becoming more and more shallow by the second. Star stopped pulling on her ear when she saw this, smirking in triumph. "Wake me again… and I will end you," Star Breaker muttered in a chillingly flat voice, one that held a cruel quality which was only barely restrained. She leaned until they were nose to nose, and for emphasis Star began tugging on Yuki's ear again. Yuki nodded with a stifled whimper, and slowly the hands of her attacker let go.

Star Breaker stood up with a snort, then lifted a hand and conjured a bomb. "And when I end you, this is going up your ass," she finished darkly, before she trudged back to her corner to lay down and go back to sleep, letting the bomb go off in her grip without anymore care in the world. Yuki laid in place, eyes wide and fixed on Star, and for a moment she could've sworn Star Breaker sat up to look at her. When she did, her face was shrouded in the hellish glow of her flames, giving her a demonic look. With one side of her head hurting, Yuki looked away, mustering up all the willpower she could to keep her bowels from evacuating and her bladder from jumping ship. Her eyes gravitated to the others, who were still assembled at the door, who were still watching her intently.

"I warned you," Kai mouthed, shaking his head as Yuki slowly stood up on legs that suddenly felt like they were jellified. Yuki ambled over, tail puffed and ears drooping, still pale and half-expecting Star Breaker to suddenly wake up and make good on her promise. Pushing her way past the small mob, she descended to a platform below, ran into its hut, and started laughing hysterically at it all. She wasn't sure if that was stress from avoiding death because one of hell's pets felt merciful, if she was losing her mind, or from the terror that stemmed from her unenviable position. All the same, the only thing Yuki could really do was lose herself to her now-hysterical giggling all over again.

Chapter Text

Yuki had collapsed upon the floor by the time she stopped laughing, curled up clutching her stomach as her lungs ached and her body reminded her that she needed to breathe. Her ears twitched, her tail swished, but the movements were feeble since she needed to regain her strength. She laid there, barely moving, and took a few minutes to mentally sort everything out. Pocket. Cage. Cuffs being stretched. From there, her mind let everything else fall into place, right up until she had retreated here and lost herself again.

She was grateful to have gotten out of that potentially-sticky situation alive, intact, and with enough sense to hide again. And now that she had enough reason to stay away, she decided she was not going approach the group since they were a little more than tense—and that was putting it mildly. She elected to stay in the hut below the one on the third platform tonight. A purr rumbled in her throat, shaking her body as half-feline instincts kicked in and registered that it was safe.

An exasperated smile formed on Yuki's face. Her ears twitched again as she heard footsteps, ever so faint, padding and plodding above. Some part of her wondered what the rest of the mob was getting up to, and she was content to let them be. In hindsight, she really should have seen Peat's crass remarks for what they were sooner, and mentally punted herself for letting her temper take charge of her, instead of the other way around.

She snuggled into the hay, still purring. Oh well, there'd be time to make amends later. Her nose twitched, and… what the? A faint scent of iron graced her senses, and haltingly she sat up and looked around. Nobody approached her; the footsteps, thankfully, remained up above, so it couldn't have been any of those weirdos. She heard, faintly, the sounds of chewing as well; those same weirdos were probably occupying themselves with something else. Was it her, then? Yuki sniffed the air cautiously, tail bristling as she tried to detect the source of the smell. Her nose led her to two spots—okay, three, counting the fact that one of those spots ended in two opposable thumbs. There was blood on her nails, which she dismissed right away, and… a smear on her stomach that hadn't been there before; crimson, still wet and sticky yet drying.

Yuki sniffed again, ears drooping. How did—her brain did a backflip as she picked up the scent of sulfur and the faintest trace of… glue? Whatever it was, those two scents mixed with the iron that reeked from her stomach, and before long it dawned on her in regards to where it came from. "Ah, shit, we got a bitch on the rag," she muttered. Making a mental note to avoid Star Breaker for the entirety of next week, she stood up with a groan and shuffled out of the hut to the nearest water bowl. Her half-feline instinct stirred once again, and she cringed at the sight of the bowl before mustering her willpower to put her hands in the liquid. Peat's blood came off straight away, and after that, she stepped in and sat down to wash the new smear off of her body. At least it was a very light smearing, which meant the crazy's rag had only just begun.

Stifling a snicker at the thought of the rest of the mob having to deal with that three-ring circus compacted into one person, Yuki hastily cleaned herself before jumping out and tipping the bowl as soon as she saw no more blood stuck to her. The water spilled and trickled around her feet before jumping off the platform to stain the straw at the bottom of the cage. Yuki waited until the last drops were out before putting the bowl back into place, and sprinted into the hut as soon as the bedroom door creaked open. She hid in the hay, just in time too; the tell-tale sound of giant footsteps and the rattling of the cage tipped her off that something was amiss.

"Sooooooo," she heard Tomomo purr, "finally decided to eat?"

"Yes, why?" Suguri asked, her voice faint. Yuki was thankful she had keen hearing; even so, she kept her ears absolutely still.

"Alright, was just checking. Say, did any of you rut your newest playmate yet?" Tomomo questioned. Yuki tensed, eyes widening; oh shit, Tomomo would probably see Peat's injuries and…!

"I did," Peat cut in suddenly, sounding really fucking proud of himself despite never actually having managed to pound her. However, there was the barest hint of hesitation in his tone, which told Yuki he knew full well he was lying his ass off.

"And?" Tomomo pressed.

"Let's just say… she's seeing stars right now," Peat replied. "She clutched my face a little too hard when I gave her the night of her life." Tomomo was silent for several long moments, during which the sounds of chewing had halted, before a low and rather amused chuckle left the mouth of their captor.

"Aaaah, alrighty then, Blue Balls the Second," Tomomo snarked, in a suspiciously neutral tone. Was she not buying the bridge he tried to sell her? "Kai, NoName, give the feline… another hard rutting before bed tonight." With that, she walked out of the room, and closed the door behind her.

Yuki sat up as soon as the coast was clear, taking a second to blow a bit of straw off of her glasses. That was close, too close in fact. Then her brain processed… wait just one cotton-picking minute, who in the hell would name their child NoName? Yuki was convinced that whichever sorry bastard had such an unfortunate moniker must've had some serious parental issues.

All the same, Yuki relaxed upon realizing Peat still had the nerves of steel to lie his ass off and save her from being prodded by their captor. And now that she thought of it, he'd probably lie about Kai and NoName joining in to keep her dignity intact. What a strange fellow he was. Yuki made a mental note to thank him when she mustered the strength to apologize to him proper, provided of course that he was as far away from Star Breaker as humanly possible.

She sighed, as dwelling on this now would do no good. She had to get the layout of this place, while the big bitch was away. She got up, dusted herself off, and walked out of the hut, and wheeled into the nearest tube with purpose. Before she could take one step further, however, her ears picked up another voice calling out to her. "Come here and eat with us!" Suguri hollered.

Ugh, so much for keeping a low profile. Yuki relented, marching up ladders with her tail going between her legs again. The moment she got to the platform with the plate, she paused upon seeing that Star Breaker had been dragged to the plate to eat with the rest of the gaggle. The scent of sulfur and iron grew stronger, and honestly it made the rather generous helping of tempura and udon less appetizing. Slowly, she approached to pick up a single noodle; damn thing was long enough to wrap around her five times, and would probably fill her twice over. How the hell did Tomomo expect them to polish this off?!

Yuki took a bite, frowning as she started chewing. It tasted… and felt doughy; the consistency was stretchy, and sickeningly rubbery in feel. Swallowing, she took another bite, and found yet more bland noodle being ground to watery mush in her teeth. She cringed and made a face, and paused to look around. Everyone else, sans Star, got a noodle that had chunks bitten out of them circling their feet, but… in terms of ratio, there was more noodle than there should have been possible. On a rough estimate, she'd have gone with one-twentieth of the noodles being nibbled overall. "So… why invite me… if the food tastes like shit?" Yuki asked with utmost sincerity.

"Listen… our captor wants us to make babies in some twisted experiment. I have no idea what's going through her fucking head, but she can stick it where the sun don't shine," Nanako answered, arms crossed over her chest.

Had Yuki taken another bite of the bland noodle she claimed, she'd have spat it out then and there. Her eyes went wide, and her pupils shrank at what she'd just heard. "B-babies?!" she stammered, tail puffing out in alarm at the notion.

Nanako grimly nodded. "Babies," she repeated bluntly. She felt a hand patting her on her head, but elected to let it do just that; so long as its owner knew their boundaries, she was fine with it. "I ain't popping out any kids anytime in the next forty-six billion years."

"Unless I say so," NoName interjected, garnering an immediate glare from Suguri for that comment. That glare was amplified by everyone else; even Yuki was in on it in a matter of seconds. "Of course, your midget body would present quite the… myriad of problems if I were to knock you up," he added with a surprising amount of tact.

"And we have ourselves a child-fucker!" Peat cried, and would have made a lunge at NoName had he not known he could take quite the beating beforehand.

"I'm not a child!" Nanako complained, stomping her foot. "I've just been augmented at the wrong damn time!"

"Whatever you say, shorty," Yuki snarked, deciding to ignore the implications of Nanako's remark for the moment. She turned to Suguri, tail dropping and hanging as straight as a stick.

"Don't call me a shorty!" Nanako squealed to no avail, her protest falling on deaf ears since everyone could see her height issues from the top of the dresser drawers.

"So anyway," Yuki began, looking at Suguri, "is there a way we can get out of here?"

Suguri slumped and shook her head. "So far, nothing," she muttered. "I scanned our prison from every possible angle. Damn thing's as secure as a well-armed bank vault."

Yuki's shoulders sagged, and she found herself dropping her minimally-chewed noodle. "Y-you're kidding," she muttered. Suguri shook her head again.

Star Breaker threw her hands into the air and howled in exasperation. "When can we get ooooooooooout?!" she cried, sounding about ready to drop to her knees and sob. Everyone flinched back at her outburst, especially since fire started crackling around her hands again. "I just want to destroy something already!"

Suguri looked at Star, unsure of whether she was becoming even crazier, yet unwilling to rule out the possibility. Still, this situation needed some immediate diffusing, and she was getting more and more concerned when she saw blood trickling down the exposed legs of the would-be apocalypse. "Want to try destroying me?" she offered.

Star Breaker turned to Suguri, eyes wide and uncomprehending for a moment. "But wouldn't Tomomo…?" she tried, then trailed off.

"Listen, I gave consent, so Tomomo won't be able to do shit to you," Suguri replied in a firm voice, willing herself to fly. She put her dukes up and made a 'come and get me' gesture, and at once the battle had begun. Star Breaker grinned maniacally, willed herself to fly, and lunged at Suguri in a blur of motion. Suguri darted away, ducking under the platform, blowing a raspberry for good measure. "Can't touch this," she taunted.

Star Breaker responded by conjuring a bomb, holding it high, angling one of its lights in Suguri's direction, and letting it open up like some… bizarre flower. A power core glowed within the bomb, exposed and reeking of gunpowder and sulfur, before it glowed a sinister red. It gathered energy, which it then launched in the form of a damned laser beam that, had she been anywhere else but Magical Hell, would have very likely caused some major and possibly-irreparable damage to whatever it touched. Suguri tilted her head to one side, smirking smugly, before the smile fell when the beam bounced between the platforms, then the bars, and ricocheted all around the main cage before impacting Star right between the legs. A startled howl left her mouth, and the bomb exploded in her grip, using its own power to send her tumbling through the air in a cloud of smoke.

Kai winced at the sight, but held his tongue as Star Breaker flew back up and tried to punch Suguri through the bars a split-second later, smoke trailing in her wake. Suguri smirked again and ducked with almost laughable ease, never once throwing a punch of her own, leading Star Breaker further and further away from the rest of the group as her opponent tried in vain to land a solid hit. Kai turned to NoName. "Is that how you cyborgs and robots settle things?" he asked.

NoName nodded. "Mhm. Aerial dogfights + anger = sufficient venting," he replied. He gestured to Nanako and added, "Sometimes I let her try to hit me, if either of us feel the need to vent and sort something out at the same time."

Kai crossed his arms, and though he saw NoName's train of logic, he still felt the need to ask, "Isn't there… a different way you two could sort things out?"

NoName flashed a sickening smile. "That'd require… spread knees," he answered bluntly. "But… she has an issue with that, so that = absolute last resort, when all other options have been exhausted," he added, seemingly sensing Peat and Marc glaring at him in unison once more. Kai himself wasn't convinced of that argument, but at the same time, he not only knew fuck all of NoName and Nanako's sex lives—some part of him was still hoping the midget in question didn't have a sex life to begin with—but he couldn't tell if NoName's argument was factual or not. He may as well have pulled that out his bionic butthole, absurd though it was, and the fact that he didn't know them well enough only made it that much worse.

He turned back to the aerial dogfight that had broken out in the cage, seeing that Star Breaker was resorting to the good ol' knuckle sandwich combo platter, though Suguri simply put up her dukes and deflected every single strike with such ludicrous speed it looked as though her arms weren't moving. Sparks flew as each punch was blocked, flames burst and crackled with each impact, and all the while Star Breaker wore her maniacally-angry grin. It did not take her long to start laughing; the fact that she was even hitting Suguri at all seemed to make her happy.

Suguri, for her part, kept that small but smug grin as she kept the otherwise-deadly punches from even grazing her most vital of internal organs. Even through the rapid-fire flurry of strikes, she did not seem the least bit winded, and amazingly enough, her opponent wasn't tiring out anytime soon either. Shrunk, weakened on some level, and left with little else, the two were so evenly matched neither managed to push the other so much as an inch back. When it seemed they were so far into their fight that neither considered any other form of retaliation, Star Breaker went for the cheapest of cheap shots; her knee jerked out and landed solidly in Suguri's upper groin.

Five seconds passed before Suguri's smile faltered, and a strangled croak left her mouth as her dukes dropped. She wobbled, face twisting into a portrait of genuine pain, and slowly she slipped off of the surprise strike that completely broke through her defense. Her feet ceased glowing, and Kai was about to cry out when he realized she was about to fall, but two blazing hands clasped her by the neck to keep her airborne.

Star Breaker laughed, grip tightening just enough to keep Suguri from slipping between her fingers. Finally, finally, she had hurt someone. Landed a critical blow right where it was needed. And now, that someone was at her cruel mercies. She seemed to ponder if she could do it again, before deciding against it and throwing Suguri onto the platform with just enough force to send her skidding into NoName's feet.

NoName jumped before he could be tripped, watching Star Breaker intently. "Are you done?" he asked, and when she cracked her blazing knuckles, he sighed and popped his neck with a roll of his shoulders. "Seems you need a more… direct lesson," he growled, and lunged at her himself, his flight still a little wobbly from his earlier bashing. Nonetheless, he managed to punch Star square in the stomach in a mere three seconds after liftoff. With a pained, surprised shriek, Star Breaker backed off to recover, legs instinctively crossing as NoName lunged again with one knee forward.

She darted to the side, caught his knee with her foot, and used his leg as a sort of boost; she bounced off him, then a bar, then the underside of a platform as he smashed headlong into a metal pole. Clanging on impact, NoName's arms and legs jolted out between the gaps, and the bars sparked before shocking him with visible lightning bolts running rampant on their frames. The moment the bolts died and let him peel off of their bar, Star Breaker darted back to him quick as a rabbit, and seized the back of his neck before sending him to the platform the others had gathered on. She smirked as he landed on Suguri, who grunted and thrust all her limbs into the air when he crashed onto her.

NoName, however, peeled himself off of the stunned Suguri in seconds and lunged at Star Breaker once again, fists crackling with lightning. Star Breaker simply twisted away from him, hoping to send him into the bars once more; however, NoName dogged her every move, now knowing that the bars of the cage were deadly. He caught up to her as she tried bouncing off a platform, seizing her ankles before pulling her down and kneeing her in the groin.

Star Breaker made to cry out in pain, but the pervert who seized her had been faster; one hand left her right ankle and snagged her by the mouth, keeping her jaws shut as it… it… changed. The hand grew larger as its artificial skin peeled off, and metal plates overlaid themselves on a skeleton of steel that then wrapped themselves around Star's chin and cheeks in a tight grip. She reached up to pry it off of her face, before she felt another large hand lift from her other foot to plant itself on her back.

Lightning then danced all around Star Breaker, and even as she screamed into her own closed lips and the steel palm that held them, NoName would not yield his grip. Jolts of raw agony ran up and down her nerves, and her legs started kicking out everywhere but to the robot behind her as he continued to shock her senseless. All the while, he was kneeing her in the groin, repeatedly.

Nanako launched off the platform and punched NoName in the face, with enough power in her swing to throw his head back, in turn forcing him to let go. Both he and Star Breaker tumbled down and down into the straw on the bottom, landing so hard straw flew up around them from the impact. Then Nanako raced down after them, alighting next to where Star Breaker had met with the cardboard beneath the hay. She twitched here and there, but was otherwise still. She had just knelt at her side to see if she was awake when the bedroom shook as an angry, angry stomping filled the air. Yuki, doing the sensible thing for once, ran into the nearest hut and hid herself in the hay once more. Peat, Marc, and Kai followed after her, squirreling themselves away just in time—the bedroom door slammed open, and Tomomo stormed to the main cage to investigate.

Her grey eyes, flashing gold briefly, took in the scene with a spark of contempt. Then, they flitted to Nanako. "What happened?" she asked.

"We were… eating your undercooked noodles, when… when Star started complaining. So Suguri offered—offered! I am not making this up—to help her vent her anger. And then NoName just… shocked her once she won that scuffle, and kept thrusitng his knee into her crotch like he was expecting it to fit!" Nanako waved her arms toward NoName, being careful to avoid hitting Star Breaker. "And… and I p-punched him in the face… to get him to let go! Both dropped, and…"

"What's with the blood?" Tomomo questioned, looking rather pointedly at the blood trickling from between Star's legs.

"She's… on her… on her rag… I think…" Nanako mewled, shaking as Tomomo slowly nodded. "Just… emotionally… on the fritz lately…"

"Okay… a scuffle wherein both parties consented, to vent… that, I'll let slide, so long as it doesn't escalate needlessly," Tomomo began, reaching in her pajamas to produce a dart. "But repeated kneeing? No. That shit won't fly here." She snapped her fingers, and the lock vanished before she kneeled to undo the latch. NoName had just hauled himself to his feet before he was yoinked up and thrown into the second-lowest hut with the dart on his heels. "He's staying there for the night, alone." Tomomo turned back to Nanako and closed the latch, letting the lock re-appear to hold it. "Keep Star Breaker calm. Have Kai help if you need it."

She snapped her fingers again, and the plate of undercooked noodles vanished. With that, she stood up and marched out of the room with a particularly grim expression. The door closed behind her, and for several seconds after the room was silent. Then, only then, did Star Breaker move, hauling herself into a sitting position as a squeaky croak left her mouth. "Hey, hey… he's not gonna hurt you again…" Nanako muttered, lifting a hand to rub Star's back in an attempt to soothe her.

"Gyaaaaaa…" Star Breaker groaned, one hand moving to rest on her stomach. She was cramping something fierce in that area, and her groin was joining in on the fun by aching with the force of a thousand lasers. "K-Kai… where…"

"I don't think it's a good idea to get him now," Nanako muttered. When Star turned to look at her with a pained, questioning look, she elaborated, "Listen… I'm not sure what he's into, but I think 'blood' isn't on his list…"

Star Breaker nodded, recalling his flinch when she'd guessed he wasn't into cannibalism. "He… isn't," she agreed. Then she doubled over as the cramps intensified tenfold, grunting again. "It… hurts…"

"All periods do. The pain'll go away by itself soon," Nanako muttered, continuing to rub Star's back in an effort to abate her pain.

Star Breaker simply nodded. All she had to do was wait out the pain.

***

Yuki stayed with Nanako, Kai and Star Breaker in the condom hut an uneventful day and a half later, well after Tomomo had tucked in and went to sleep, keeping her distance away from the door and frowning as Star Breaker was content to pace again. Her posture was hunched, with legs so tightly shut together they rubbed against each other until they were raw. Yet despite that and the blood pooling freely from her little wellspring, Star kept on pacing. "How long was your last rag?" Yuki asked.

Star Breaker shrugged. "... three days…" she muttered. Continuing with her bout of pacing, she sighed and turned to look at the floor. "When I was… dragged here… Tomomo told me what it was… because I was on it then."

Nanako wilted, but kept her mouth shut. It was best to let the pacing crazy alone, and if Tomomo explained the nuances of 'that time of the month' to her, then that was a lot of potential hassle they didn't have to deal with. But the fact that she even could have times of the month to get on was disconcerting, and if that meant what she thought it did…

Kai was oddly relaxed, with relief on his face; not the sort one would get after having sex, but rather the 'oh sweet baby jesus I just dodged a fucking bullet' sort that could only stem from the most horrid and bizarre situations. He leaned against a wall, closing his eyes to heave a large sigh that only further reinforced Nanako's suspicion. "Not pregnant yet… at all… thank fucking god…" he muttered under his breath.

Yuki picked up his muttering. "What are you going on…" She stopped when she felt a cramp in her stomach. Her tail twitched, and her ears perked when she felt it; before she could react, she felt the cramp hammering into her gut again and again and again. "Wh-what the…?!" she stammered, pupils shrinking and hand racing to her stomach, pawing frantically as she struggled to figure out what the hell was going on. The others turned to her with questioning looks, brows raising and heads tilting a little.

"You okay?" Kai asked, his relief fading in favor of a concerned frown.

Yuki shook her head. "N-no... " she muttered, feeling a sweltering, unrelenting fire start burning throughout her body. This heat increased her agony fivefold, and she doubled over with her tail tucked between her legs as it came with a very distinct sensation—an itch burning deep, deep in her groin. It begged, begged to be scratched, and even though it had just hit her nerves, it worsened the longer it was neglected. Her loins felt dry and irritated, and each movement only made it dry out more, as though someone wedged beads of silica gel up there and those beads were grinding uncomfortably against her insides.

"No. No no no no no no. Not now, dear gods, not now!" Yuki mentally complained as she stood up, ears drooping. "Shit…" she hissed, feeling a bit of wetness dripping from… she looked down, and paled; blood trickled from her loins as well. "No… no no!" she cried, tail trying desperately to stop the flow, yet unable to keep those first few drops from leaving. "Shit! Shit shit shit!" The heat worsened, and she rubbed her legs together, hoping desperately to abate the internal inferno now raging through her nerves. But the itch didn't go away; paradoxically, it only spread from one end of her body to the other, even as she bled.

"What's wrong?" Nanako asked, standing up as Yuki kept trying to get the heat to stop.

"Damnit, no, no, no! H-how could…?! Why now?!" Yuki yowled, adrenaline surging through her veins. "I-I'm not… not supposed to go into heat for another month! Why now?! Why?!"

"How long… does a heat last for you?" Kai asked slowly, putting up his dukes in case Yuki decided to try clawing at him.

Instead, however, she merely turned to glare at him. "T-two weeks!" she cried, legs going stiff as she realized that, between the three men who were in this hellhole with her, one of them was bound to do something that would, sooner or later, end up with her getting rutted. Coupled with Tomomo's earlier command for Kai to be one of those who'd rut her, this ended up amplifying her panic. "Oh no, oh no, oh nononononono! Nu-uh! You're not planting a baby in me!" she protested.

"I wasn't planning on it," Kai snarked in reply.

Yuki froze. Her horror melted into confusion. "W-wait, what?"

Kai shook his head. "Already had sex with our pyromaniac, on Tomomo's orders. I'm not doing it again, with anyone, until I can convince Tomomo to give me a shit ton of condoms first," he elaborated, voice flat.

Yuki dared not relax, no matter how reassuring Kai tried to be in this situation. Panic was overriding common sense at this point, but even so, some part of her struggled for control so that she wouldn't go off and do something stupid which would, in turn, probably end up with her on the receiving end of a dart. "I'm going to claw Tomomo's face off when I get out of here…" she growled.

"There's already a waiting cue," Nanako interjected in the snarkiest tone possible, "may as well get in line." Her eyes narrowed a little, staring at Yuki with a trace amount of concern. "What happens… if you get out of heat without getting a thorough dicking? Because it looks to me you've got more things to contend with than your body would suggest."

Yuki wilted, tail lowering. "... bad things…" she muttered grimly. Then she registered the fact that the midget of this fucked-up circus was the one who'd asked, and she bristled again. Turning to Nanako, she asked in as sincere a voice as she could muster, "Kid, how much do you know?"

Nanako huffed. "A lot more than most would at the age of twelve," she replied bitterly. "And for your information… I'm at least two hundred years old." Yuki's jaw dropped. T-two hundred?! Nanako barely looked older than eleven! How the hell was such a thing possible? "Long story," Nanako muttered, crossing her arms. She chose to leave it at that.

Yuki groaned, and started rubbing her legs together again. She realized there were peeping eyes watching her, however, and immediately sprinted out of the hut and down one of its tubes. She wanted to keep this from getting anymore awkward, and inwardly hissed as she reached the knick-knack shelf and immediately vaulted inside. Leaning against a wall, she wasted no time and thrust her hands between her legs, feverishly rubbing. Pleasure spiked in her brain, and at the same time, the burning inferno weakened its hold on her. "Tch, should've looked where I was going earlier…" she muttered, grinding against her hands to further abate the fire. "This'll have to do…" She grit her teeth to keep herself from making noise, but could not stop herself from moaning softly.

In silence, in solitude, she masturbated furiously. Losing herself to the growing pleasure of self-stimulation, her hips bucking on instinct, she failed to heed the sound of footsteps echoing ever so faintly into the hut she'd claimed. "Ngh… if only… if only I had a dildo right now…" Yuki groaned through clenched teeth, digging her hands deeper into her own folds with purpose. For now, her own fingers would have to do.

She shut her eyes and kept riding it out. She had to keep to herself now. She had to avoid getting rutted, even if it meant going insane in that self-imposed isolation. There was no way she was going to follow through with whatever whims Tomomo wanted her to; Tomomo could choke on a fat one for all she cared. The thought of seeing Tomomo getting facefucked caused her to dig deeper still, shoving one set of fingers as far as humanly possible into her entrance. Her tail jerked from the friction, and she relaxed as the fire died a bit more.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open to find Star Breaker of all people staring at her. Wh-when did she get here?! "Y-yes?" Yuki stammered, her voice weak from pleasure and shock.

Star lifted her hand up and pinned it on Yuki's chest. Yuki immediately pried her hands out of her snatch and latched onto Star's forearm. Thinking she was still mad at her about what went down earlier, she tried to explain herself, "Whoa, whoa, I know I woke you up, but—"

"It isn't about that," Star Breaker muttered, cutting Yuki off. She leaned in close, until their noses were almost touching. "I was wondering…" She lifted her other hand and conjured a bomb, no bigger than her wrist.

Yuki's eyes flitted to the bomb nervously, and sweat started beading down the back of her neck. "W-wondering what?" she pressed, hoping to god the crazy wasn't about to do what it seemed her mannerisms would have suggested.

"If I could… keep this from exploding…" Star Breaker muttered darkly. Yuki squirmed in her grip, but a knee parting her legs had her halting, briefly.

"H-hey, th-there's no need for th-that…" Yuki muttered, squirming as Star lowered the bomb. "We… we can… settle this another way."

Star blinked, frowning slightly. "How?" she asked.

"Wh-what all do you have i-in mind?" Yuki shot back, wondering if perhaps Star Breaker would back off.

She was instead flashed a maniacal grin. "Well, I saw you touching yourself… and I want to touch you too," Star replied.

Yuki swallowed a lump in her throat. Now the crazy was propositioning her, more or less at bomb-point. She heard more footsteps… three sets, now, and soon the beads of sweat became bullet-sized. "Y-you know… isn't the bomb… excessive?" she tried.

Star Breaker shook her head, her disconcerting smile widening. "No; I merely shoved one of these up that tall man's ass a few days ago," she admitted in earnest. Yuki made a squeak of distress at that mental image, and paled as Kai, Peat, and NoName shuffled into the hut.

"Okay, someone should get the crazy off the cat before things get nasty," NoName muttered, shaking his head at the disturbing sight they'd stumbled upon.

Peat immediately raised his hand. "I volunteer as tribute," he chirped.

Kai stepped forward, cutting ahead of them. "I'll do it; already fucked the crazy," he muttered.

NoName shoved past them both and started striding to the two women. "Step aside, this is a man's job," he hissed.

Kai darted around to stop NoName's advance, frowning. "But you're a robot," he stated in an accusatory tone. NoName simply stepped around him and snickered.

"Me = man; you = milk drinker," NoName snarked, before Peat ran up to him to cut him off.

"But I saw her first!" Peat protested, lifting a hand to gesture to Yuki for emphasis. Yuki mewled, sensing tempers flaring; last thing she needed was a damned cockfight to break out.

"I'm still more man than you," NoName hissed, lifting a hand to shove Peat aside. He seemed determined to get to the two women, but Kai once again moved to stand in front of them.

"But you didn't have sex with a woman Suguri claims to be the apocalypse incarnate! Your argument is invalid!" Kai cut in, shoved aside with a robotic hand.

Before the cockfight could continue, the three tensed upon hearing Yuki howling in surprise. They turned to her, finding that Star Breaker had inserted the bomb and her fist into Yuki's snatch whilst they had been fighting. Yuki had thrown her head back, mouth wide and teeth bared as she was assaulted, the hand on her chest moving to her neck to keep her pinned. She thrashed to no avail; the heat increased tenfold and her legs kicked out uselessly. This was too much; she was being stretched to her limit and then some, and unless one of the three musketeers did something about it, the only thing she could really do was let Star Breaker have her way with her.

The three leapt into action, and all of them rushed over and grabbed Star Breaker in different areas; Kai focused on her legs, NoName went for the arm that was currently lodged in Yuki's groin, and Peat grabbed her by the face. In unison they tugged, and with a bit of effort they broke them apart. Yuki slumped straight away, hitting the floor with knees weakening and tail puffed out as her groin ached—horribly, horribly ached—from the sudden removal of a bomb.

Kai rushed to pin Star Breaker from behind, leaning to whisper in her ear. "We're gonna get slimed again if you keep this up!" he warned, and at this she tensed.

Peat, seeing that Star was distracted, cautiously approached Yuki and offered her one of his hands. She clasped it immediately, and slowly he hauled her to her feet. She tripped and crashed into him, but he dug his feet into the straw to keep himself standing and support her at the same time. "Ngh… th-thanks," she muttered, purring to dull her pain.

"Don't mention it," NoName piped up. He lifted a hand and tenderly scratched behind one of Yuki's ears, and she tensed a little before her purring grew louder.

"S-so… what led you… three here?" Yuki asked, eyelids slipping shut as her ear was scratched.

"Nanako came and told me and Peat that Star was headed here," NoName answered.

"I was airlifted here," Peat chimed in.

"I followed Star Breaker by myself," Kai added as an aside.

Yuki nodded, closing her eyes. "Can I… have some time off tomorrow?" she asked. "This… all this… too much to… take in…"

NoName stopped scratching her ear. "We can make do with that," he replied. "You're… still not ready to breed, in the sense that Tomomo wants us to."

"And neither are we," Peat piped up again, shifting his posture to let Yuki lean against the wall. "My head's still spinning just trying to understand the crazy fat bastard."

"I'd hate to see what runs through her head, and I've got a damned harem, most of which is currently absent, for crying out loud," NoName agreed with a nod.

"And if the rest were here, you'd still want out before doing the group sex?" Kai snarked, garnering a nod in response.

"For now… we should stay here, in case our apocalyptic acquaintance decides to try anything…" NoName muttered, his voice growing quieter as Yuki drifted off to sleep. She slept dreamlessly for a few hours, ears moving without really catching sound. When she felt straw tickling her nose, she did not stir in response, except with a single swish of her tail. Nothing more than a soft purring left her mouth as she laid there, recovering from her rather unexpected rape.

Her eyes opened only when she felt hands shaking her shoulders. With a tired, soft mrrow leaving her mouth, she slowly sat up to find NoName in her face, looking at her with concern. "Wha… time is it?" Yuki muttered, not registering that otherwise impossible-to-miss frown that was on his face.

"You = okay?" NoName asked.

Yuki took several minutes just to process the question. She shrugged afterwards. "Did not… think a sphere would fit there…" she muttered.

NoName nodded, flashing her a smile. "I took bigger up the ass," he replied dryly. "Several times."

Yuki leaned to the wall with another sigh. "You sound like... you have a wonderful sex life," she snarked. She frowned when she felt the burning heat turning up in her body, and that insatiable itch still grinding in her loins, demanding that she do something about it. Of course, it came with a dull ache from having been assaulted, which itself reminded her that any stunts wouldn't be a good idea for the time being. "Can I… ram my foot into that crazy's ass? A-and wear her… like a boot?" she hissed, clenching her teeth as the burning and itching only worsened.

"Well… we'd have to hold her down first, and our captor… has a penchant for the most absurd and ludicrous punishments," NoName replied, shaking his head. "If you want to get spun in a sock, be my guest."

Yuki's frown deepened. "You're shitting me," she muttered, voice laced with disbelief.

NoName shook his head grimly. "I wouldn't encourage it," he replied bluntly. "And I very rarely discourage things."

Yuki sighed, and shifted her feet under her thighs, hoping to abate the burning somewhat. She looked around, noticing Peat, Star, and Kai were absent. Faintly, she heard Suguri yelling… "Is there something I'm missing here?" she asked.

NoName nodded that time. "Star Breaker… has gotten the dart," he muttered.

"Who the hell named 'er that?" Yuki asked, tilting her head a little.

NoName shrugged. "I don't think she'd tell us right now," he said, "considering she's being made to take… 'alone time.'"

Yuki winced. On one hand, she figured it was rather karmic, but on the other… if she was hearing someone else screaming, that meant something was either liable to or already going wrong. "I'm guessing it's not going well," she said with tact.

NoName lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose just tightly enough to tear off a bit of skin, revealing metal beneath. "Try 'having two men tied to her and Tomomo forcing those men to use both holes,' and you tell me whether or not it's 'going well,' as you put it," he replied, his tone a little sour.

Yuki paled, her mind conjuring exactly that image. Her ears drooped. "N-no way…" she hissed.

NoName grimly nodded again, fingers still on nose. "I only got out of rutting the damned apocalypse because I told Tomomo about you being fisted," he grumbled. "You = my priority right now."

Yuki's ears twitched, then strained. She picked up on a triad of protesting voices almost instantly, though who they belonged to and what they were saying tumbled over each other hopelessly. Try as she might, even as she shook off the last bits of sleep, she could not hope to begin to make sense of it. But the tones were frantic, pained, shrill—laced with a mechanical hum somewhere in there, too, trying to drown out the rest of the hollering.

Even worse, barely audible through the horrible cascade of noise, she could hear Tomomo cackling.

Chapter Text

"So, uh… you have to…" Yuki trailed off, eying NoName with no small amount of concern. She was not only tempted to call shenanigans, but to assume that everything was currently going to hell in a handbasket.

NoName nodded. "Yes, and before you start wondering, I am not potent. It's a side-effect of my being a machine," he replied. "So…" He leaned in close. "You don't have to worry about getting pregnant, at least by my loins."

Yuki's tail swished. She recalled his earlier comment regarding Nanako the other day, bristling slightly. "If I find out you're lying, and I end up pregnant, I'm gonna find a way to drag your ass to my house and make you help me raise the baby when it's all over," she muttered, eyes narrowing dangerously low. "And another thing: don't electrocute me. I'm not a particularly kinky cat, alright?"

NoName frowned, and stood up. He walked to a corner of the hut, knelt down, and started shoving the hay aside. "Not risking you getting a yeast infection," he muttered as he threw whole handfuls of straw over his shoulders. Yuki watched as he cleared a large space on that corner, sweeping as thoroughly as he could to ensure no wayward bits of straw got anywhere they weren't supposed to. In mere minutes, he cleared a space large enough for a miniature bed, if Tomomo had the damned decency to give her tiny prisoners miniature beds in the first place.

Yuki stood up and walked to the clear spot, tail tucking between her legs. "Can we wait for… the screaming to stop?" she muttered. "Because that's… not really turn-on material…"

NoName nodded. "I can wait. I've learned to be… patient with my harem," he replied. Yuki nodded back, deciding not to ask about his harem, and sat down in the corner. He moved to wedge himself between her and the corner, sitting down as well. He lifted his hands and started scratching her ears to get her to relax.

Yuki leaned into the touch, closing her eyes. "Aside from the whole robot thing… anything else I should be aware of?" she asked.

"Well…" NoName paused, pursing his lips as he tried to figure out how to respond to that. The question was innocent, but… he wasn't sure how she'd react if he did answer it. He hesitantly nodded and lifted his hands away before putting them on the sides of his own head. "You'll have to promise you won't panic when I show you."

"After being shrunk and raped with a bomb, I think I could handle anything at this point. Give it to me, sexbot," Yuki snarked.

NoName sighed. She had asked for it. Slowly, he wrenched at his own head, feeling gears and tumblers and all manner of other mechanisms twist and bend and pop as, with each jerk, the skin at his collarbone split. Artificial vessels split in two and closed off, redirecting their fluids elsewhere as further components parted from one another to let his head and neck pop free from the shoulders. This would have given Yuki quite a view of his internal body structure down to his artificial, yet surprisingly organic-looking insides that glowed with all sorts of dubious power sources and hardware, had she bothered to turn around. Clumsily, he turned his head around and plopped it between her legs, which were already spread a little to accommodate her tail. "Open your eyes and look down," he instructed.

Yuki did as told, before she paled at what she saw. Her pupils shrank, and she swallowed nervously before gathering herself to keep from freaking out all over again. "Um… dude? You okay?" she asked, fidgeting as robotic hands clasped her knees very gently.

"One-hundred percent fine. It's been a while since I did this, for good reason," NoName replied nonchalantly, as though the act of decapitation was a normal occurence to him. "Let it be said that I discovered I could do this after Nanako ripped my head off in… a fit of rage."

"Y-you're kidding," Yuki muttered.

NoName would have shaken his head, if it were still attached to him. He settled on frowning instead. "No. Nanako + hormone spike during rag + trauma + adrenaline rush + me = a screaming fit to end all screaming fits," he replied.

Yuki shuddered, trying to not imagine all the ways such a scenario could go horribly, horribly wrong. No wonder Nanako was concerned—given what NoName just said about her, she sounded really scary when her time of the month came. Wait. Hold the ice cream and stop the goddamned presses. Had her own feline ears deceived her? Could the midget get on a rag? She elected to ask about that later, and instead chose to ask NoName something else, "What else ya got, big shot?"

"It's… harder to control my main body when my head is elsewhere," NoName replied, frowning at that. He got a lovely front-row seat of watching his own headless body lift its hands up to trail the length of Yuki's legs as slowly as possible. "I can still feel what's going on up in my skull, but at the same time, I don't… feel at all there, to put it mildly." He smirked. "Expect a little… foreplay, but not much."

Yuki couldn't help but shiver as those bionic hands started trailing up her stomach, but she held her urges in; the screaming, though finally dying down, was still going on because one of its perpetrators was still even awake enough to do it. Credit where it was due; she envied whoever had that set of lungs. That person would probably be the go-to air raid siren in case things were going awry again. Even so, she could tell that said perpetrator wasn't a very happy camper right now, and elected to stay away from that person in the foreseeable future—assuming, of course, she hadn't done that already.

As the hands kept exploring her, however, she found herself a bit disappointed when they didn't touch her breasts or thighs. Any man worth two beans and a loaf of bread would have grabbed those first, but then again head and body of the man doing the fondling were separated. They were a little frisky, though, and found the small of her back, just above her tail. Yuki jolted as she felt a tender scratching, lifting her body a little at the touch. "N-not too much there… i-it's sensitive," she muttered, tail twitching erratically as the scratching continued.

"Because you're in heat?" NoName guessed.

Yuki shook her head. "It's… been that way… since I was little," she muttered, shivering as the fingers started inching up her spine with a delicate, almost practiced ease. "I-it's like… a favorite spot for cats."

"Oh, alright, feline sensitivity." NoName sighed, "That'd make sense. Although… do you scream like a feline whenever you have things… inserted into you?"

Yuki frowned, but nodded. "Everything… feels like barbs to me," she replied. "Especially when I'm in heat."

NoName frowned. "So… consent or no, at the end of the rutting, you'd still be an air raid siren," he guessed. Yuki nodded again, and his frown deepened. "Even after masturbating like crazy?" he added, which garnered yet another nod. "This… is going to be worse than my first time with Nanako…" he grumbled.

Yuki winced, her ache growing as she felt the hands coming onto her shoulders. "She screamed, I take it?" she asked.

"Back then… I didn't even know the concepts of trauma and the word 'no' whatsoever. Me back then = complete dumbfuck, in your terminology," NoName replied, as one of the hands lifted from Yuki's right shoulder to let its palm collide with his forehead. "I was… freshly awakened, you see, given a brain that was fully grown in a lab without memory, infused with very complex A.I. and nanotech, to keep it fresh. I had a lot to learn."

Yuki's brain concocted a rather horrifying image of NoName's alleged 'first time' with Nanako. Everything that could've gone wrong in that picture did go fantastically and catastrophically wrong, but only because she had so few details to work with that was her default conclusion. She watched as NoName's hand fitfully parted from his detached head, but paused mid-air when both of them heard the sound of someone sprinting to them. "The hell…?" Yuki muttered, grimacing as Nanako wheeled into the hut, eyes wide and face pale. Well, as the saying goes, speak of the devil, and the devil shalt appear.

"B-both of you, c-come quick!" Nanako uttered, before pausing to consider what she'd stumbled upon.

NoName's hand returned to his head, and turned it so he could glower at her. "What is it, midget?" he hissed, frowning. "It had better be important."

"Whatever this place runs on, it's affecting Star Breaker, and something badly," Nanako replied, fidgeting in place. "Like… I can't even begin to explain it…"

NoName glowered, then groaned in annoyance. "One of those 'I have to see this with my own two oculars' situations?" he asked. Nanako hastily nodded.

Yuki twitched her ears; she cringed upon registering a dead silence hanging about the room. Not even the faintest murmur had managed to echo throughout the prison. She picked up NoName's head and turned around to put it on his own body, watching as piece by piece, it started to repair and reattach itself straight away. Yuki watched, half-amazed and half-horrified as she saw artificial vessels reopen and reconnect like a mad scientist's rubix cube. The artificial skin likewise reconnected right at their seams, becoming flush and whole once again before long.

It took mere seconds for NoName to become wholly intact once again. "D-dude, what the fuck…" Yuki muttered once the process concluded.

"Long story," NoName replied, shifting his arms to grasp Yuki by her waist, He stood up, hoisting her with, and willed himself to fly. Wondering what the flying fuck was going wrong this time, he approached Nanako with Yuki in tow, and the midget in question turned around and flew off outside of the hut. He followed her to find her veering down a tube leading to the central cage, all the way to a bottom platform before she suddenly veered to the one on the very top, where a long dart protruded proudly from its edge.

He went slow, however, to avoid aggravating Yuki's injury any further. "It's… almost like time stopped," Yuki muttered dismally, ears straining to catch anything as she and NoName got out of the tube and started to head to the topmost platform. "Quiet… too quiet…"

NoName didn't say anything until after he reached the platform and gently set Yuki onto it, grimacing as he saw Marc and Suguri tugging at the dart that was lodged in the hut in futility. Nanako moved over to push them both away from it, and they looked at her with frowns before she gestured NoName and Yuki over. Both walked to her, then after her as she ducked under the dart to get into the hut proper. What was inside gave them lengthy pause.

Kai and Peat were tied to Star Breaker at her ankles by thick bands of rubber, and the abomination from Hell herself was secured in the dart by her arms—and the dart was low enough to let her sit spread-eagle on the floor. She was slumped, face red and chest heaving as both holes leaked with blood and other fluids on full display. Yet… somehow—much to NoName and Yuki's growing horror—her stomach had ballooned out to the size of a well-aerated basketball. Suspiciously, the rest of Star Breaker remained as slim as before.

Silence held for several long moments, until Yuki decided to break it. "Th-th… how the… is she…" was all she could squeeze out, pupils shrinking at the horrible sight.

"Tomomo wasn't fucking joking," Nanako muttered darkly, pointing a finger first at Kai, then at Peat. Yuki looked at them both; the two men had turned dark blue in the faces, eyes wide open with pupils shrunken, and mouths wider still—looked right fit to have themselves heart attacks, if they hadn't already. "Whatever she's done… it's made…"

NoName lifted a hand and shook his head. "You don't need to say anymore," he muttered, face darkening as he took in the rather… unexpected situation he and the others found themselves in. He looked at the still-heaving Star Breaker, who had started shaking and tugging her arms uselessly again. "We should… avoid her for the next few weeks." He turned to Peat and Kai. "Let's free them and get them out of here…"

Yuki nodded and readied her claws. She stepped over slowly, mentally preparing for the event where Kai and Peat would spring her and grope and pull all sorts of shenanigans she wanted no part of. But they didn't move once, except to breathe, even as she knelt and started stabbing the rubber repeatedly until it gave way with a series of snaps. NoName walked over and reached Kai first, picking up his glasses and putting them between his teeth. Glasses secured, he set about maneuvering his arm around his waist and hoisting him up, before going over to Peat and doing likewise. With the smaller men in hand, he wordlessly walked out of the hut with a scowl that darkened into something bordering on the demonic. Yuki shivered at that look, idly considering that a robot who could self-decapitate on a whim probably wasn't the best… go-to person for getting herself out of heat, supposed impotency be damned.

She turned her attention to the still-heaving Star Breaker, who began to kick feebly. For a moment—just that one moment—Yuki felt genuinely sorry for her. Having this… happen to her sent ice creeping down her spine right to the end of her tail. If this was what Tomomo had planned for the whole lot… oh lord, that begged a question she didn't want to ask.

That question being, for what purpose? Harvesting? Psychological torment? To numb their minds until they could do nothing but breed and care for the resultant offspring? Yuki could've sworn the hairs of her tail started to turn white as possibilities both morbid and insanely improbable ran through her head, each one worse than the last. And furthermore… how would Star Breaker react to her now-unusually-swollen stomach?

Yuki felt her tail-hairs rising to stand straight on end. She turned to Nanako, who still lingered with an equally-pale expression. "... I think… one of us should tell her… before we leave her alone," Yuki muttered dismally. The more she and Nanako maintained eye contact, the more she found herself not liking where things were going.

"She… might not understand, though," Nanako pointed out, her tone turning equal parts sour and saddened. "S-Suguri told me… she'd been f-fucked before, and…"

Yuki's ear-hairs began swivelling ramrod-straight at that. The hairs on the back of her neck followed suit. "She… doesn't understand sex?" she muttered, eyes growing wide like a deer in headlights. Nanako grimly nodded.

"Something… tells me we're all screwed…" Nanako grumbled, trembling as her eyes moistened at the terrible thought. "Even if we get out… we're probably going to remain shrunken… and then what?"

For once, Yuki found herself lacking in any forthcoming answers. She didn't know what to say to that—what was there to be said?

***

Only after the lights went out and Tomomo trudged her lazy ass into bed did Kai wake up late that evening. A fiery pain assaulted his groin again, and one of his ankles spasmed uncontrollably with an equally-fierce rawness. His vision was fuzzy, his mouth dry, and his mind doing all manner of things from jumping jacks to barrel rolls in an attempt to sort out what had happened before he went out.

Haltingly, he sat up, eyes slowly widening as his brain pieced everything together. A rush of emotions ran through his scrambled mind—anger, sorrow, regret, confusion… yet he sat there, face stiff in dawning realization. He couldn't decide which emotion was more appropriate for the situation, and so his expression changed little. An urge to scream clawed at his soul, but he did not act upon it. An urge to punch something arose, yet his hands barely budged. More than anything, he started to wish that Tomomo would suffer deeply for making him and everyone else trapped suffer in this Magical Hell, yet he could not bring himself to speak it out loud.

In solitude, he sat there, mind whirring twenty miles a minute. Something… anything had to be in that damned room with him which he could use to escape and help the others; the alternative to that… sent chills down his spine that made his blood run cold. The only comfort he had… was that he found himself alone upon glancing around to what was the walls of a hut. He'd probably have lashed out at the girls, and punched Peat in the face, if anybody were present—which would spell more disaster than he cared to tempt. NoName would get his bionic eardrums yelled off if he dared show his face now; a punch or a kick would have probably ended in broken digits. Star Breaker… would receive neither a punch, nor a reprimand; she'd already been through enough.

Kai remained unmoving for a good hour or two, and with the thought of Star Breaker taking up center stage in his head, he started fuming with eyes slowly narrowing and promising all manner of suffering to the nearest wall he found himself staring at. Maybe the wall would be sufficient enough to take his frustrations out upon; Tomomo could just repair or replace the damn thing when he got through with it. That, and if the dreaded darts were ever used again, landed on a damaged wall—and, of course, if he made a deep enough dent, he or whomever else was caught in the suction cup could just slip out. A small, but cruel smile started forming on his face; why, oh why, hadn't he thought of that before?

His hands balled into fists, and with a wince he rose to stand. Yes, the wall would do… it would do very nicely. He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders, and started to walk to the wall when the sound of pattering feet reached his ears. He whirled around, searching for the door, before long finding it and a shadow standing right outside. He caught sight of a thin limb swishing behind the form, brush-like and accompanied by the glint of glasses. Behind the first shadow stood another, trying to make themselves scarce by edging out of sight—he noticed they were dubiously short.

Kai was not in the mood to talk. "What do you want?" he asked, anger starting to flow forth without restraint.

"Wanted to tell you we sorta-kinda came to a consensus while you were conked out," came the reply from a brash contralto he hadn't expected to hear tonight.

A consensus? On what? Kai unclenched his hands a smidgen, using a foot to scrape at the hay of the hut. "And?" he pressed bluntly, tone far less scathing that time.

"Should I tell him, Yuki?" he heard Nanako ask. Yuki shook her head.

"I'll be level with you, dork, and this is something you should brace yourself for," Yuki began, eying Kai with a darkened face. Kai started to make out a firm frown etched on her lips, but past that he saw little beneath her sterling-white hair. "Our resident crazy's stomach… looks fit to pop."

Kai blinked, and stopped scraping at the floor. "... But, I mean, there’s not enough food in the cage for her to get that fat," he replied, missing the point entirely.

Yuki gave a low snarl. "Well, no... she looks… and we think her to be, very very pregnant," she stated flatly. "Sexbot did basic checks, and even he's not sure if he should believe his eyeballs."

Kai felt his anger turn up to boiling hot. "Are you sure of that?" he asked slowly, half-disbelieving what he'd just heard while the other half of his mind was babbling frantically in a string of long expletives.

"As sure as we're shrunk," Yuki said, tail swishing. "We all decided to let the crazy alone… but to tell her why beforehand." Her frown grew substantially. "And you're gonna tell her tomorrow. Right now, she's asleep."

Kai glowered at that. "Fuck no!" he snapped, pupils shrinking as his anger continued to build. If he didn't hit something now, sooner or later his fist was going to fly into a someone. "Because I'm pretty damn sure she wouldn't want anything to do with me for at least a week, and with this sort of new..." he paused for a moment, quickly processing Star Breaker’s possible reaction, and speaking again after that horrific image of him being turned into a cloud of crimson flashed past his mind. “... Yeah I ain’t doing this, no.”

Yuki and Nanako exchanged glances, then turned to him and shook their heads in unison. "It can't wait," Nanako muttered, wincing as she caught sight of Kai's fists tightening again. "Tomomo's checked her out, and told us to tell you to tell her."

Kai's eye started twitching. What kind of buck-passing bullshit was this? "You mean to tell me that…" he began, realization slowly dawning—and in turn, only fueling his growing ire.

Yuki grimly nodded. "Unless I'm mistaken, you went and made yourself a parent," she replied. "And from what I saw… you weren't even given the option to pull out." She turned away. "We'll get you tomorrow, so you can tell her. Unless you want to wake her up and tell her now?" With that, she and Nanako walked out of the doorframe and out of Kai's immediate sight. Some part of him was still half-madly calling bullshit, but at the same time Yuki and Nanako sounded… sincere. If they weren't bullshitting in the slightest… suffice to say, he was probably going to end up making a hut tumble down on itself in his fit of rage.

Kai collected himself. Now wasn't the time to lose his temper. Deciding to punch the walls later, he made to follow Yuki and Nanako, but at a slow walk to let his eyes adjust further to the darkness and to see where they were going. He walked in a hunched, shambling gait; in the pitch-black gloom, one would have easily mistaken him for a freshly-risen zombie. He certainly felt like one, he noted sourly; a little bit hollowed out, slowly but surely rotting piece by piece on the inside, and with an insatiable hunger rumbling in his soul that threatened to latch onto the first thing that crossed him.

That 'thing,' of course, being his captor. He brushed that aside for the moment; he didn't fancy a whirligig in a potentially-smelly sock, especially after all the bullshit of the last few days. He paused to figure out where he was, finding himself on the knick-knack shelf, and turned to the dresser to find its makeshift disco light shut off for some reason. The room shook briefly as thunder rumbled outside, and he turned to the tube leading to the central cage to find Yuki and Nanako stopped halfway in it, turned as much as the tube would allow to look at him expectantly. Kai nodded to them and started walking towards them, still inwardly fuming at everything he had every right to be pissed about. He was wise to keep further complaints to himself, as his gut twisted upon registering a demonic presence well before he set foot into the central cage.

He looked around when he found himself on a platform, scanning for any sign of Yuki and Nanako. He soon sighted them a platform above him, the latter waving him over and the former leaning onto a ladder to tap her nails sharply against it. Kai took the hint and marched up after them, still glowering as they nodded and led him up and up to the topmost hut. His gut tightened further the closer he got, but he steeled his nerves in preparation to hopefully disprove whatever shenanigans lay afoot once and for all.

He frowned when he finally caught up to Nanako and Yuki to find, much to his annoyance, the suction dart still jutting out of the hut. Great, he was probably going to leave with a broken jaw after all. "She's still held by it?" he asked.

Yuki nodded. "And she wasn't happy about it," she replied, making a sweeping gesture to the hut. "We'll be out here in case she needs further restraint." Kai sagged a little at that, but squared his shoulders and waltzed in, ducking under the dart to see a familiar slumbering form once again bound by it. Her legs were still spread wide, but her head had tossed itself to the side at some point, letting her long locks drape over much of her prone torso like a crude blanket. It would have gone to her groin, except that was blocked off by…

Kai did a double-take and carefully approached Star Breaker, going quietly to avoid rousing her. When he reached her, he knelt at her side to find that…

"Holy shit," his mental hamsters shrieked hysterically, "you've got to be fucking kidding me…" He turned to her obscured face and frowned as a tiny gasp left her unseen mouth. Had she started reacting to her now-hours-old pain, or just taking in a little more air? He wasn't sure, and some part of him didn't want to stick around to find out. He started to stand, but in doing so brushed up against her side with a hand on complete accident—and that caused the fiend to stir.

"... get… out…" Star growled, legs twitching and slowly shifting as her head moved. "Leave… me alone…" She turned very slowly, almost haltingly towards Kai, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. She eyed him for a moment, blinking the sleep from her eyes, before oddly relaxing her posture. "... I thought… you were the pilot…" Her glare eased, but only by a smidgen. "He… hurt worse…"

Kai shifted to hover at her eye-level again, but he dared not relax—he couldn't afford to, not when he was walking on proverbial burning eggshells at the moment. He chose his words carefully, keeping his voice low to minimize the chances of pissing her off, "I… have something to tell you. But before I do, I need to ask: do you feel… any different?"

Star Breaker took a moment to let her sleep-addled brain process the question. It was only as she shifted to cross her legs did she notice what Kai had alluded to, and slowly lifted a foot before willing it to glow to behold a belly that wasn't horribly stuffed to the brim yesterday. She paled immediately, eyes widening and pupils shrinking in mortification and what Kai assumed was a complete lack of comprehension.

He couldn't blame her for that lack of comprehension of course, not when time itself seemed to go straight out the nearest window. "Wh-wh-what… what's that?! G-get it out!" Star Breaker hissed, turning to Kai and kicking out her legs in another hopeless bid for freedom.

Kai, instead, sighed and shook his head. "I can't rip it out; I don't have your strength," he replied dismally. "Do you know what… pregnant is?" he asked. Star Breaker halted momentarily, racking her brain before eventually nodding—and turning whiter than Suguri's hair in relatively short order. "Because that's what you are, currently, going by how big your stomach has grown…"

Star Breaker began squirming, breathing quickening as her mind started to run at ludicrous speed. "I-I can't be pregnant!" she squawked, tugging at the dart in a vain attempt to get it off. Great, now she was defaulting to good ol' denial—which, by itself, brought up all manner of other implications that Kai tried his hardest to not think about. "I-I can't make life… I-I can only annihilate!" Outside of Magical Hell, she probably could make good on such a declaration; Kai wasn't sure if he should've been grateful or horrified that she currently had no means with which to act on it.

So he prodded her stomach with a hand, which got her to freeze and look at him again. "Aside from… this, and your pain, do you feel different?" he repeated. For a moment, she simply maintained bewildered eye contact, silently asking how the hell her unprecedented growth was even possible to begin with, only to nod.

"My… my chest hurts," Star Breaker muttered, wincing as Kai's hand started to trail up to it. Gently, he brushed aside her hair to figure out what else was wrong, and found that her stomach wasn't the only thing to have grown; her breasts, too, had gained a noticeable bit of mass and roundness that only a heavily pregnant woman or someone who'd gotten false tits could achieve.

Kai pulled his hand away, internally screaming at what he saw, but outwardly trying to keep himself composed—which wasn't an easy feat, considering how far into the southern hemisphere things took a turn for. Considering that this drastic change was, more than likely, Tomomo's arcane means working to flip everything he'd ever known onto its arse, he could safely bet on having a new perspective on life in the coming weeks. And speaking of Tomomo, he wondered just what in hell she was for her to even pull something like this, though the hysterical part of his mind babbled on and on that he was better off not knowing the answer.

He settled on two things: one, Magical Hell's time flowed differently for all involved, possibly helped by the terrible case of the dreaded shrinks that came onto him and everyone else that got caged, and two, Tomomo being some sort of cosmic horror wearing a human guise. Nothing else, really, explained her draconian yet zany methods of torture and her equally-archaic motives. He'd have classified her as an alien, but in a way Star Breaker herself was an alien, so he had ultimately ruled that out—that roster was already filled in.

So he sighed and decided, if nothing else, to take charge of the situation once again before shit could get even weirder—at this rate, very little beyond more cosmic horrors could even touch the scale. But first, he had to ask a very important question, considering who the now-expecting party was. "Are you going to let the child live when it's born?" he asked, half-expecting…

"No! Why would I?!" Star Breaker barked in reply, eyes narrowing at the thought. "I'd sooner let the slime beast come back!" … not the answer he'd envisioned, but it was at least a surprisingly sensible one in this circumstance.

Kai's stomach twisted further. He didn't exactly agree with her stance on this, but at the same time, neither were fit or equipped to rear a child. So he simply said, "While I don't want to see a dead child, or an abandoned one, we're not really the type of people to raise one." That got him a knee bending awkwardly onto his back.

"So you'd destroy it too?" Star Breaker asked. Kai shook his head.

"No, I'd give it to an orphanage; Tomomo's out of the question entirely," Kai stated firmly. "We'll just have to wait and see until it decides to come out…" He shuddered at that prospect; that was as far from a happy thought as he could imagine, and he could only see the look on Suguri's face now.

"You're… weird in the head," Star Breaker muttered, starting to struggle once again in an effort to get out and do something about her current predicament.

"Tomomo's weirder in the head," Kai shot back.

"Don't remind me," Star Breaker hissed, redoubling her efforts no matter how futile they were.

***

Tomomo awoke with a titanic yawn leaving her mouth that following morning, hopping to her feet and stretching her arms. Everyone gathered on the topmost platform by that time, each glaring at her for all it was worth as she turned to them. "Morning, you lemon-lot," she greeted with a tired yet cruel smile. She shuffled over to peer into the hut with the dart, which still held Star Breaker to its wall for all it was worth. "And how's our first breeder doing?"

"I will end you!" Star Breaker proclaimed, kicking out her legs uselessly.

"Oh please, you couldn't even get out of a plastic dart, not for a lack of trying," Tomomo snarked in reply. Star Breaker howled in rage and kept struggling, but it seemed that the memo of 'it's no use' hadn't quite reached her nutty head yet. She lifted a hand and pressed thumb, middle, and index fingers as if about to snap them. She watched, smile widening as Star Breaker ceased her struggling, only to then drop her hand and part her fingers without a single sound being made.

She turned to the rest of her gathered captives, each stewing in some level of anger. "Breakfast is gonna be early… or late, depending on your behavior. And Crazy Cathy's gonna be restrained, but not with darts anymore…" She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers for real that time, and the dart vanished in a flash of light. Star Breaker squawked in confusion, finding a thick black collar of cast-iron steel affixed to her neck and two matching bands clamped upon her wrists, each aglow with pulsing red lights reminiscent of her own bombs. The bands and collar were themselves anchored by chains that were just about long enough to let her have regular reach with a little leftover slack. "You fuck up, Prism, and you'll get a nasty surprise from your new accessories." With that, Tomomo walked to the door to open it and left the bedroom with a suspicious amount of bravado and spring in her step.

Star Breaker did what came naturally in such a situation; she attempted to rip apart her new shackles with a helping dose of burning flames. The instant her hands lit up with fire, though, was the same instant the fire died as the shackles crackled with one flare-up of light that sent bolts of lightning throughout her system. A startled, pained, wheezing cry left her mouth, only to cut short as the electric jolt faded within seconds. Everyone else had, at that point, turned to her with paling faces and chills running down their spines at the sight.

Marc was the first to rush over to the scene, and knelt just in time to see Star Breaker rising to sit up, pain and confusion etched firmly onto her face. "H-how bad was it?" she muttered.

Star Breaker trembled, and lifted an arm experimentally. It went haltingly, as if controlled by a puppeteer who'd gotten the string attached to that limb tangled up. "... very bad," Star Breaker replied, willing her raised arm to conjure even a tiny spark of fire. It alighted, the fire then died, and shocks ran rampant upon her arm as its shackle glowed ominously.

It took seconds for the meaning of these electric jolts to dawn on her. When it did, Star Breaker shook before she opened her mouth to release a guttural scream of horror. She tried to conjure more fire, only to get temporary sparks followed by another dose of shock therapy running ragged and rampant through her nerves. It took NoName rushing up to her, seizing her manacled wrists, hoisting her up and pinning her to the furthest hut wall in rapid succession to get her to stop. She looked at him, dread growing as the humanoid machine leaned to look straight into her horrified eyes. "Freaking out won't get you anywhere… stop, before you hurt yourself any more," NoName ordered in a low, surprisingly gentle voice. "I understand why you're having a coronary; I've barely come to grips with it myself, as situation = beyond absurd, and the last thing we need is for any of us to get electrocuted into submission."

"Says the robot who shocked her a few days ago!" Peat shouted from outside the hut. "I'm surprised she hasn't kicked you in the nuts yet!"

NoName sighed and ignored Peat for the moment. Keeping his attention on the understandably freaked-out Star, he added, "We'll have to work together to get out. You can torch me after we leave, and I can help you remove these chains. Do we have ourselves a deal?"

Star Breaker thought it over for a moment, then hesitantly nodded. With that, NoName gently lowered her to her feet and let go, and he watched her for a moment in case she got any bright ideas. But alas, she swayed on her feet and almost toppled back onto the wall due to not even having any time to get accustomed to the new weight she was burdened with. "And another thing, I strongly discourage flying at this stage. Let's just say… I know someone who's experienced with flying whilst pregnant, and if she were here, she'd gladly tell you why that's a bad idea," NoName stated, continuing to watch as Star Breaker came close to collapsing on her slightly-gaunt legs. With that done, he walked out and rejoined the others outside, facepalming with both hands as he did. Marc followed him out a second later. "This… is far worse than any of us gave it credit for," he grumbled in exasperation.

"Tell me about it," Nanako agreed with much nodding and glowering. She lifted both hands and flailed them in the air for a few seconds, gesticulating wildly around the room which started to make her feel smaller than she currently was—quite an impressive feat, given her height issues. "Like… should we go for Tomomo's eyes when we get out?"

NoName dropped his hands and shook his head. "No, either too easy or too difficult if she raises her hands in time," he replied bluntly. "Also assuming she doesn't have that wretched butterfly net in hand."

"Or a frying pan," Yuki interjected, tail swishing with all hairs puffed out.

"Or a slime-tipped paddle…" Marc muttered, shivering at that memory.

"What should we do? Because we can't actually leave with Star Breaker… compromised," Suguri pointed out, garnering thoughtful looks from the rest of the group and an immediate silence as their mental hamsters started turning their hamster wheels.

After a few seconds, Kai piped up, "Well, she wants to destroy the… child when it comes out."

Suguri's eyes narrowed at that, and she sighed in annoyance. "Honestly, I'm actually expecting her to do just that," she muttered in what Kai could only assume was resignation. "But I don't think Tomomo would take… kindly to that." She turned to the hut as Star Breaker stumbled out of it, arms flailing and chains rattling as she tried her best to keep her balance. Alas, she tripped and stretched her arms out, and her hands hit the platform before her stomach did. "We're gonna have to airlift her down the platforms…" Suguri muttered, shoulders sagging at that.

"And anyone else who gets pregnant…" Nanako muttered, raising a hand to grasp clumps of her own hair as if about to tear it straight out.

"We don't know why that fatass wants us to get pregnant, but I do have a possible motive. So pardon me if I sound like a conspiracy theorist," Yuki cut in, garnering looks from everyone. She crossed her arms and swished her tail, pursing her lips for a moment. After a few seconds, her expression darkened. "I know shady dealings when I see them—I've set foot into them before, and this is shadier than even I've ever witnessed. She could be running an organs or human trafficking ring." That made a collective chill run down the group's spines. But Yuki wasn't done yet with her insane train of logic, "She could have a whole network of clients, each with… specific tastes of their live or frozen cargo. To get that cargo, though, she has to have… participants. Participants with various profiles on the genetic level. Specific desirable traits that could appease her clients. And as for our shrinking, and our crazy's sudden growth? That… is something only a god could pull off without sufficient explanation—and Tomomo has the sickly-sweet stench of a god."

"Sickly… sweet?" Suguri muttered, almost gagging on her words as Yuki's theory started to sink in.

Yuki nodded. "Yes; I am a bit… acquainted with the living, breathing divine. They only give off that smell if they trust you… or if they plan to use you like we're being used now," she answered grimly. "But your noses aren't as sharp as mine; you'd have to pay extra-close attention when Tomomo returns. You'll pick it up then."

"You're… acquainted with a god?" Kai asked, garnering a slow nod from Yuki. "Then can we pray to that god to help us?!" he barked, hope rising as Yuki turned to him with a glimmer in her eyes—evidently, she too considered the idea.

His hope sank one second later as her head shook. "No, and it's twofold: one, I have a god as a friend and she doesn't accept prayers because, from what she told me after gaining godhood, it turned really fucking weird; and two, said god was originally a mortal and hasn't gotten the hang of her powers yet. At best, we're looking at a waiting cue, and Tomomo would probably intercept the prayers anyway," she replied grimly. She turned to NoName and added, "And furthermore, I don't know how religious any of you guys are—I'll let you know I'm not particularly religious myself. Our prayers, if not intercepted, might not get received at all due to an overall lack of faith. It's too risky."

"If you won't pray, then I'll do it," Nanako cut in, garnering a look and two raised eyebrows from Yuki. "I… also know a living god. She could bust us out of this, if the god you mentioned is a spring chick as you said." At that, NoName and Suguri's eyes widened in tandem.

"Why didn't I think of that?!" Suguri questioned, mentally slapping herself.

"At this rate, a sound idea… but risky, if another god's what happens to be keeping us here," NoName agreed with a slow nod, crossing his arms over his chest. "That, and if the god we know receives our prayers, she might think it strange too…"

"But it'd give her cause to investigate," Suguri pointed out, hope glimmering in her eyes. "Of course… we'd have to explain…" She waved her hand about the room, which pretty much spoke for itself. "This," she finished weakly.

"We'll just sic her on Tomomo until she returns us to normal," NoName cut back, smiling a genuine smile that seemed a little cautious despite the hope in his voice. "We'll pray when our insane blabbermouth of a captor is asleep; she'd be the least likely to intercept the prayers then." He turned to Star Breaker as she rose to stand on her wobbly legs again. "Of course, we can't all pray at once, since…" And, before he could finish, Star Breaker collapsed for a third time.

Kai nodded, sensing NoName's unspoken meaning. "Should we still try to get out in the meantime?" he asked.

NoName shook his head. "Before prayers, yes, but we can't get too loud or else we'll get manacled. After prayers, we'd best stay put," he replied. "I do not want to be scrap heap on the boot of the god Nanako and I are acquainted with." Kai nodded in a way that said 'fair enough,' and turned to Peat and Marc to find them nodding in tandem as well.

"You two know any gods?" Kai asked.

Peat shook his head. "Nah. If I did, I'd have said something sooner," he replied.

"Nada," Marc agreed with a sigh. "Practically nobody knows a god where we're from. If anybody did, I haven't heard of it yet."

"And to think none of us considered this sooner… but that's Tomomo's game right there: throw us into an absurd situation, and leave us all overlooking the most basic things," Yuki cut in again, drawing the rest of the party's attention onto her. She flashed a small, serene smile. "But putting me in here… may have been her first mistake, considering my… connections and street smarts. I may be in heat, but that doesn't mean I can't get the gist of her methods."

"So you're saying… Tomomo rigged the deck against us?" Kai asked.

Yuki nodded feverishly. "So far into one direction she hasn't considered the deck biting her in the ass from the other," she replied, smile growing. "Furthermore… she may have underestimated us all. She may be a god… but I doubt she's got the smarts of a long-lived one. Best bet? She's only had the gig for about a decade or so; plenty of time to get very cocky." Her smile grew a little more, into a full-on Cheshire grin. "How else would she think that going through all that trouble in tricking and kidnapping us was a good idea, when she could've just teleported us here and shrank us at the same time? Her tactics are gutsy and underhanded, I'll give her that."

"She actually did that with us, but with our planes and us outside the cage," Marc cut in, shaking her head. "Even though she had the element of surprise, she lost it when I dropped a rocket on her head."

"Aaaaah, so you'd basically showed her that was a baaaaaaaaad idea. Makes sense," Yuki muttered, nodding in approval. "Tomomo's smart, but not as smart as she ought to be. Can't make too many mistakes; she'll still pick up on them."

Suguri eyed everyone else that had gathered. "Alright, we have a plan, but it'll require a calvary. Is everyone alright with it?" she asked, garnering nods from everyone except Star Breaker, who made a pouting frown. Turning her attention to the odd one out, Suguri asked, "What's wrong?"

"What if these gods you mentioned are beaten by Tomomo? Thrown in with us?" Star Breaker asked.

Yuki's smile widened a little more, as far as it could go. "... then Tomomo would get into some biiiiiiig trouble with her fellow gods. We're but humans and cyborgs, and a robot. Another god's another different ball game; not as easy to contain, for one," she replied, confidence brimming in her tone. "And sure, the god I know is young and not good with her powers, but the moment she understands those powers is the moment the tables will turn..."

"For the only limit to a god is their imagination, strength and discipline…" Suguri finished for Yuki, who nodded eagerly again.

"Yes. But if our prayers aren't going through, or do get intercepted, we should try to escape as usual. We'll just need to wait in order to play our rigged hands right if that happens—and it's very likely to. And if the giant wants us to screw, then we should screw—in a way that won't get anybody else pregnant," Yuki stated, ears twitching.

"Like… sodomy?" Peat suggested. Yuki nodded. Peat frowned and paled a little at that prospect. "Well… how do you make sodomy feel good for a woman?"

"I'll show you how later," Yuki replied, facepalming as she kept her ears twitching before they perked to attention. Faintly, she heard the sound of shuffling feet growing louder and louder. "And our giant's coming now. Let's just eat breakfast like we usually do." And with that, everyone nodded and once more glowered as they turned to the door and waited for it to creak open.

Chapter Text

The door opened and Tomomo strode inside with singe marks all over her outfit and face, in addition to a menagerie of fresh bruises and bleeding cuts that tore through fabric and revealed pale, scarred skin beneath—the first thing that ran through the heads of the group was that, apparently, someone or something else decided to take another crack at her. Whether or not said someone-something had lived to tell that tale mattered little to her prisoners, as the evidence she brought with her spoke volumes about the encounter nonetheless. But that wasn't the only thing that she came in packing this time; far from it, in fact. Kai suspected that was starting to become a disturbing norm in these twisted parts.

Their second collective thought? It was that breakfast wasn't supposed to move. Or be brought in a butterfly net. Or come in two pairs of writhing arms and legs. Or come in bound and gagged within said net for that matter, assuming it was indeed their breakfast. Which, if it were the case, would mark Tomomo as more depraved than first thought—itself saying quite a lot either way. Their captor turned to her lot, seemingly sensing all eight pairs of eyes landing squarely on her odd weapon that claimed itself another pair of victims for her terrible project.

Silence held, for just a moment. Power pulsed across their captor's wounds, golden and glowing and seamlessly closing the cuts in both skin and clothing. It ignored the singes and bruises, but only for now. "Breakfast will be late; found two prowlers who'd rather shoot first and talk later, so these girls'll be joining you lot," Tomomo said, lifting her left fingers and pinching them tight to snap them. Before the new arrivals could voice any protests through their gags, they found themselves vanishing from the net and reappearing in the bottom of the main cage proper with two separate flashes of light and a snap of the fingers separating the intervals. "I'll admit, they fought good, even knocked me off guard for a sec… but not good enough." With that, Tomomo left the room and shut the door behind her again, butterfly net in hand.

The group peered over the platform, but couldn't get a good look at the writhing mass on the bottom of the cage. Suguri crossed her arms and looked at the others. "I'll bring them up here, so we can all get them to speed," she muttered, before jumping down and flying towards the two. The group heard the sound of breaking cuffs and gasps and spitting a moment or so after Suguri had reached them, and waited patiently for the three to arrive. It took minutes for the trio, two of them swaying in a manner that suggested some level of confusion and disorientation, to fly up and land on the platform. Nanako and NoName's eyes widened at the new arrivals, who tried their best to cover their naked bodies with their arms to no avail.

One of the new arrivals' hands was also crackling with fire that swept over her large bosom and crotch, the flames as red as her hair and narrowed eyes, and she stomped a foot in a fit of growing anger. Her ears, which looked more like metallic cones with holes in the sides, glowed with a pulsing green light that sparked rather fitfully. "I knew this place was fishy!" she yelled in a volume loud enough to make everybody collectively wince. Her mouth opened, about to go off on a tirade, when she took notice of Nanako and NoName eyeballing her in particular.

The fires dancing around her hands died with a pop, her strange ears stopped sparking, and for a moment she stood there in awkward silence, eyes widening as her anger was momentarily punted to the mental curb. All the while, her mouth hung open, as though someone reached in and held her jaw down. "K-Kae?" Nanako squeezed out, pupils shrinking in disbelief.

"N-Nanako?" Kae replied, her own voice hushed as disbelief swept over her as it had with Nanako. "Y-you were… d-dragged here too?"

Nanako nodded. Then she sprinted over to Kae and jumped on her in a blinding burst of speed that gave Kae virtually no time to react; before they knew it, they tumbled ass over teakettle right off the platform, one hugging the other for dear life and said other doing nothing but squeal in surprise. The other arrival looked on and shook her head sadly, smiling at the rather adorable sight. "Well… that's one way to stop another firestorm," she muttered, voice soft and refined. She lifted a hand to run through her short golden hair, which had a clip holding a false red rose on the left side. Oddly, she had crimson eyes that were glittering in both delight and repressed anger.

"What's that on your neck?" Yuki asked, causing the new arrival to look at her.

"What's…" Said new arrival looked down to find a black shawl of cloth that hung just above her breasts, framed by a collar adorned with a suspect red orb as big as a hamster's equivalent to a tangerine. "Oh, that. It's my chain orb." She looked around, finding herself the only one with some shred of cloth on her body. "Oh dear… why aren't any of you decent?"

NoName promptly gestured to the bedroom door with a thumb. "Our captor has decided we're not worthy of decency," he replied, causing the new arrival to turn to him. Her eyes narrowed further into slits the instant she saw him, and she sighed.

"... why are you here?" she asked, her voice suddenly turning cold.

"I'd ask the same thing, Hime," NoName replied bluntly. "Although… you seem to be faring better than the rest of us, at the moment."

Hime, who nodded and then moved to hug Suguri, groaned at his point. Suguri hugged back, but both women gave NoName a sidelong glare that was gone when he blinked.

"H-have you been violated, Suguri? Are you alright?" Hime asked, tone dripping with worry. Suguri shook her head, and rubbed Hime's back under her shawl.

"No; I'm alright. I've been careful," Suguri answered, frowning at the question nonetheless. "Though our… cage-mates aren't, to varying degrees."

Hime was the first to break out of the hug, turning to the others at that bit of news. "Is that true?" she asked.

NoName nodded. "Yes. We can hardly be called 'alright,' considering the current situation," he answered. Then he gestured to Star Breaker and added, "And by the way, I'd suggest keeping your legs closed, or else you're gonna end up like her, Hime." The chain orb started to glow, and from it several chains rushed out to wrap around NoName faster than anyone could blink, each length ending in a sharpened diamond-shaped blade. And all Hime had to do to trigger it was lift a hand to touch it, muttering something inaudible as she did.

"Whoa! Hime, don't rile him up!" Suguri pleaded, turning to Hime with widening eyes and raising her hands as if about to seize the chain orb herself. Hime stood there for a moment, hand on orb, before closing her eyes and lifting her fingers away. The chain orb ceased glowing, and the chains conjured from it vanished with a pulse of red light.

Hime turned to Suguri, eyes opening and lighting up in recognition, anger fading for a moment. "Could you… tell me why I have to keep my legs closed?" she asked slowly, as if uncomprehending of her situation.

NoName cleared his throat and waved Star Breaker over with a hand. She stumbled over, frowning and looking at her stomach with a murderous gaze. Hime turned to him, eyes narrowing again, and he answered, "We're in a breeding pen. And unfortunately, one of us has… already succumbed to this place's very strange…"

"Going on a limb to assume 'magic' is our culprit," Yuki chimed in, garnering a very reluctant nod from NoName.

Hime's brow furrowed at that. "Breeding pen? Are you exaggerating?" she questioned, her tone edging a little towards the snappish, yet even then she was mostly calm.

Suguri shook her head. "No. He isn't. And I sincerely wish he was for once," she answered. When Hime looked at her and eased her glare, Suguri waved her arms at everyone else on the platform. "Why else are we naked? Caged? One of us already in chains and pregnant?"

Hime's expression soured; her brow slanted, and her frown became more pronounced until it could curdle milk. She opened her mouth to say something in response to Suguri's small rant, but then closed it when she realized she had nothing to say. Before she could even start piecing together a response in her head, she found herself turning to the platform's edge as she realized she hadn't heard the sound of two someones landing in straw. As soon as she realized that, Kae and Nanako flew back into sight and landed on the platform, the former having wrapped an arm around the latter's neck and a fist against her head to give her one hell of a noogie. Nanako really didn't put up much of a fight, only flailing her limbs at the absolute bare minimum to sell the illusion of a struggle, and the two broke apart within seconds of landing with soft smiles on their faces.

Then Kae turned to NoName, and her smile fell as she started giving him the stink-eye. "Touch my knees, and I'm ramming your head up your—"

NoName held up a hand, pinched his fingers together, and drew them across his lips in short order. Kae's mouth shut in an instant at his signal. "Before you hurl anymore threats toward me, I'd like you to take a moment to consider where you're at, whom you're with, and what you're currently lacking," he said, voice firm and tone dripping with absolute authority. "Only once you have taken the full scope of the situation will you be allowed to make threats again."

Kae looked around, from the platform, to the hut, to the outside of the cage, to the bedroom door—within seconds, she paled as she realized how tiny she currently was. Then she glanced at everyone else; only Hime managed to get by with one shred of cloth… and she blanched further. Turning to NoName, she gaped wordlessly, as the very bizarre and dire situation started to sink in. "No, you're not dreaming. Or in a coma. Or on some very bad drugs. It looks like it, but trust me, you're not," Yuki interjected again, before NoName lifted a hand and grasped her by the top of the head. He ruffled her hair a little before pulling away, and made another zipping motion across his lips when Yuki turned to him with her brow furrowed.

Kae promptly pinched herself on the thigh, and hard enough to tear skin and burst a blood vessel. She jumped at the self-inflicted pain with a sharp gasp—yep, that about confirmed she wasn't having one hell of a hallucination. "And before you ask, so long as we're here, no I will not indulge in my… kinks. Because, frankly, you'd object left and right anyway, and you came in with hands on fire. Your mood = very, very sour, if I had to guess," NoName stated.

Kae pinched herself harder, on a different part of her thigh. Her ears began to spark again when she burst a second blood vessel. "A-are you kidding?! Did I hear right?!" she squawked.

Both NoName and Nanako grimly nodded. "Your ears are working fine, and that's the scary thing," Nanako muttered. "Don't overtax your cooling units; we don't want another burnout like last time."

Kae took a few seconds to hyperventilate, reign herself in, and force herself to calm down. Her ears crackled as she reluctantly relaxed, and sparked for a few more seconds after that as she covered her exposed body with her arms. Only then did the tiny arcs of lightning stop entirely, and a heated blush of mortified embarrassment started working its way down her neck and up her forehead. Were her ears organic in any way, the red would have spread to their tips too. "Is there a way out of here?" she asked.

At that, NoName nodded. Kae's expression brightened a little. "We have a plan, but it'll require outside assistance," he replied in a calm tone. He turned to Hime and added, "Say, have you heard from the god we're acquainted with?"

Hime shook her head. "Most I've heard was she was going off to do something. Why do you ask?" she replied.

NoName flashed her a grin. "Oh, good, that means our captor hasn't gotten to her yet," he stated. "You see…" He clasped his hands together, palm to palm, making sure all fingers faced up. "We'll have to… send her some prayers."

"Send her…" Hime blinked, eyes slowly widening with dawning confusion. Her shoulders trembled, her chain orb started to glow fitfully, and her shawl raised itself off of her shoulders of its own accord before two somethings materialized behind her. The objects, red on her left and blue on her right, glowed with restraint, looking like giant fragments of broken glass spread in a vague approximation of feathered wings. "Have you gone nutty in your head?! Are you malfunctioning?!" she asked.

NoName, again, shook his head, frowning that time. "No. Now close your plasma wings and hear me out," he began. Hime glared and trembled for a moment longer, before reluctantly folding her wings shut, which caused them to vanish with a crackle. "I've already considered the god we know is going to think our prayers especially strange… truth be told, I am in fact banking on it." He eyed Hime's chain orb warily, as it still flickered like it couldn't decide whether to wrap him in bladed lengths again. "Which will cause her to investigate, and in turn, free us and return us to normal."

"It sounds absurd, but our best bet for freedom," Yuki chimed in again, looking at Hime with a frown. "So… what drew you and Hothead here?"

"We… have sensors built within us that let us know if Nanako or a handful of others are hurt," Hime answered, shifting uneasily, wings materializing again to droop past her thighs. "And those sensors… went haywire just days apart. We were led here."

"Which really fucking sucks," Kae added with a snort. She crossed her arms and donned a pouting frown. "I mean, if that pajama-wearing bimbo can overpower…"

"We must not dwell on that," Suguri cut in before Kae could finish. "We have a means of escape, but it's going to take time." She ran a hand through her long hair, and turned to Star Breaker as she stood up on wobbly legs.

"I want out now!" Star Breaker barked impatiently, stomping a foot and then promptly tumbling to the platform face and stomach-first.

Suguri sighed, shaking her head at the sight. "We'll get out as soon as possible. We don't want to attract the slime beast," she replied. Star Breaker sat up with a snarl, but said nothing more on the matter.

Kae looked at Star Breaker and frowned. "So… who's the baby daddy?" she asked. Immediately, Peat, Nanako, Yuki, and Marc pointed accusing fingers toward Kai, who grumbled something about darts. "Weeeeeell, aren't you the lucky one?" she teased.

"Not at all," Kai muttered under his breath.

Still, Kae noticed his rather dejected look, and heard his grumble. She turned away, partly to avoid pressing the issue any further, and partly to avoid looking at the exposed groins—easier said than done, but a feat that wasn't impossible. "What should we do in the meantime?" she muttered.

"Our captor's making food. She'll come here, drop it off, and leave to do… whatever she does outside of kidnapping and extortion," Suguri answered, lifting a hand to rub her forehead and temples. "And if we're here to help her with the black market… as one of us suspects…"

"... the food might be drugged," Yuki finished grimly, garnering a slow nod. "Luckily for us, I know the smells of a lot of drugs; I'll do a sniff-test of the food when it arrives. If Tomomo makes bland oversized noodles, she'd have trouble hiding the drugs in the grub."

"You deal in drugs, don't you?" Kai snarked.

Yuki giggled, the sound both alien and unusually dark—that was a giggle usually used by a hooker about to poison a pimp. "Actually, one of my Waruda members dabbles more in it than I do. I've just learned to identify the smells with her help," she replied, grinning in an oddly smug and triumphant manner. "And before you ask, said member pulls double duty as a doctor; it's practically her job to identify illegal drugs in bloodstreams and send the junkies to the jailhouses once their high wears off."

Kai facepalmed, internally wondering just how many connections Yuki had made prior to being punted here. He suspected her connections were less than legitimate. Although, he was internally grateful that Tomomo had made such a stupid mistake putting her in with the rest of them; if her comments were anything to go by, said connections could prove useful—provided, of course, said connections arrived either by butterfly net or prayer. That last part, he still had trouble wrapping his head around.

"I feel it moving… make it stop…" Star Breaker grumbled, poking at her own stomach with both hands. Kai dropped his hand and turned to her, finding her showing a surprising amount of caution with her movements—just both indexes extended, and the poking slower than a snail could crawl. But then again, she'd been more or less fitted with shock-giving accessories, which finally seemed to get through her surprisingly thick skull. For better or worse, though… that was something he didn't want to ask, given the circumstances.

"Not even my doctor can do that, and that's if she were here…" Yuki grumbled, also turning to the sight and shaking her head sadly. "Sucks to say, but you're on your own with the baby." Her ears twitched, and she frowned at the lack of noise coming from outside the cage. "And now that I think about it… how the hell are any of us going to care for the baby when it arrives?" Everyone's mental hamsters unanimously got off their wheels and met up with the mental gerbils to form something of a consensus, and before long all manner of heated arguments broke out between the groups. The end result was that almost everyone else turned to give Yuki flat looks that slowly paled as the argument between mental hamster and mental gerbil reached fever pitch, with Star Breaker being the sole exception as she donned a firm, pouting frown.

"If I can't burn it when it comes into this wretched world, I'll drown it instead…" Star Breaker muttered darkly, her frown twisting into her trademark smirk of delightful wrath. "We have water bowls…" Kai shivered at those implications, which weren't helped at all by Star Breaker seemingly thinking out loud, and would have approached her to stop her antics if she didn't have the strength to snap him in two. That, and she was only plotting for now, which in its own unique way was both horrible and relieving—on the grounds she simply couldn't act on it yet.

Yet being the key word.

Kae turned to Kai and glared at him. "You gonna do something when it comes out? If it really is your kid we're talking about here?" she asked in a snappish tone.

Kai simply shook his head. "No. Because I really can't," he replied bluntly. He turned to NoName and sighed. "I doubt you'd be a good father… if you even can knock someone up with your gigglestick."

NoName snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'd rather not give in to what our captor wants," he said.

Kai crossed his arms, internally facepalming so hard his hands shot out the other side of his skull. Outwardly, he sighed in growing annoyance and turned to Kae. "So, if you had the chance, what would you shove up Tomomo's fat ass after you got out of this cage and turned back to normal?" he asked.

Kae faltered for a moment, then shook her head. "Actually, I'd just cave her face in, strap her to a rocket, and launch her into space. Preferably towards the sun," she replied with a frown, honestly wondering what had brought about Kai's question to begin with. Before she could say anything more, Hime flared her plasma wings again, and this time they spread high above her head.

"One, that would be rude and uncalled for, and two, Kae's not the type of person to put things never meant to go in certain…" Hime trailed off as Suguri raised a hand.

"Actually, in this case, it's less 'uncalled for' and more 'karmic retribution,' if we ever did get out," Suguri stated, voice firm. "I have plenty of witnesses, Hime. And the word you're looking for is 'orifices.'"

Hime lifted a hand and facepalmed, groaning in annoyance as her wings flickered, then folded to vanish to… wherever the hell they even came from to begin with. Then she slid her hand down her face, and collected herself before her anger could break loose. "I'm probably going to need a mind wipe after we leave…" she muttered, shivering at that thought.

Star Breaker started tinkering with her chains, using one hand to make the links flail about with eyes trained on them, intently studying where they were connected—and quite possibly, how to break the damn things one way or another. Kai looked to her and nodded; at least she'd put her mind to something more productive… for the moment. Such shackles were more than trouble, and he made a mental note to complain to Tomomo at a later time about how shock therapy wasn't the best cure for pregnant, insane women. He turned to walk away, marching to the platform's ladder—only to trip and land on his face as he felt something cold and metallic suddenly wrap around one of his ankles without warning. "As the father of someone's child, I'm afraid I must keep an eye on you," Hime said, voice oddly cold and yet controlled.

"No, seriously, leave him alone," Marc said, frowning as Kai twisted around and grabbed the chain to pull it off his ankle. Wordlessly, Kai stood right back up, straightened his glasses, and continued on his not-so-merry way down the ladder.

Yuki sighed and shook her head, ears twitching. "Yeah, he needs some time alone. Looked pissed enough to bend steel last night," she muttered, turning to Hime. "That said… you and Hothead will need to be brought up to speed…" She inhaled deeply, and started to tell Hime and Kae all that went down before they were captured.

***

Alone in the hut in the bookshelf cage, Kai sat, eyes closed and back turned to the furthest wall. He mulled over everything from last night, content to just sit there by himself as everyone else discussed or lollygagged or ate without him. If there was one thing he felt above all, it was useless—he couldn't fly, protect himself, pick up Tomomo's stomping until she was right behind the door… and that was all he bothered to count on one hand. In a twisted way, NoName had been right a few days ago—hit the nail right on the head and drove it through the damn plank as far as he was concerned.

That really irked him the more he thought about it. He was going to find a way to glue NoName's bionic ass to the nearest hamster wheel and—wait, wait, wait. He mentally did a backflip.

Hamster wheels.

Hamster wheels.

The sheer absurdity of their presence gobsmacked him sideways, and a chuckle of exasperation tore its way out of his throat. How the hell did Tomomo expect him and the others to use the damn things, much less when?! But she paid no attention to those wheels—and immediately, his mental gears began to spin in directions he found pleasant for once. Perhaps he could dismantle a wheel—insofar as he knew, the damn things were just plastic—and work his way from there. Perhaps that was what was needed to dislodge the tubes, and it had been right there in that prison this whole damn time!

Part of him felt dumb as shit for not thinking of that sooner. That, and if the need ever arose to satisfy someone's penchant for destruction and mayhem, then he could kill two birds with one stone. A dark, ominous chuckle left him, the noise deranged and alien to his own ears. A manic smirk slowly, surely formed on his face, and when his eyes opened an aura of delightful, demented wrath gleamed within. He felt like he was going mad, but he was well past the point of caring for his own sanity—he could just get himself a self-help booklet once this shitshow was over and done with!

An urge to destroy, inexplicable yet welcome at the same time, filled him with a vengeful desire that threatened to consume him. He stood up, eyes twitching, pupils and irises shrinking to complete the wild look. His expression was now one that displayed his mental state for the other prisoners to see, if anyone were to approach him now. Posture straight, stride oddly calm, he walked out of the hut, fists clenching and trembling. He looked around intently, finding the nearest hamster wheel—huh, it was right next to the hut he'd walked out of. He took another glance around, but could not see the others, much less any sign of Tomomo.

Some part of his mind, that shrinking part of his lingering sanity, started babbling on and on that such needless mayhem would end in a dart. Or in a sock, and then on the ceiling. But he ignored that little voice, and strode to the hamster wheel with purpose. But as luck would have it, the bedroom door creaked open, and Tomomo waltzed in with a plate of steaming food in hand. He turned to her and sniffed the air, catching something burnt—probably food to appease Star Breaker—and a faint but distinctly sickly-sweet smell that wafted like a cloud of body odor. That second smell, almost masked entirely by the burnt scent, made him gag and retch. But he held himself in time and walked back in the hut as Tomomo turned to put the food in the larger cage with her magic. Good lord and stars above, that sweet smell made his stomach turn in ways he thought were nothing short of painful.

But he tensed when the stomping of Tomomo's feet didn't fill the air after the tell-tale sound of snapping fingers and exploding light. "Where's Kai?" Tomomo asked after a few seconds, voice booming and distorting as it spread across the room.

Distantly, Kai heard Suguri mumble, "He wanted to be left alone. Is that a problem?"

Tomomo snorted and audibly clicked her tongue. "Uh, yeah, because he needs to eat like the rest of you," she retorted firmly.

"He can eat later. He looked… like a few screws were coming loose," NoName said, also in a firm voice. "I think him fucking the crazy may have made—"

"Oh, pish-posh poppycock with a side of piss-arse!" Tomomo hissed in a dismissive tone; Kai saw her shadow move in a manner that suggested she was waving a hand to bat a gnat away. "You fuck crazy all the time, Mr. Roboto, and you haven't come out with loose screws yet, so don't give me that bullshit!" She snorted as her shadow moved again and added, "Chicken Little would technically count as a crazy; why else is she part of your harem?!" NoName audibly grunted and probably winced, and faintly, Kai could hear Nanako growling. Tomomo hummed and giggled, and for a moment Kai's wrath dropped as his blood turned stone cold at the sound. "Hime, be a good sport and fetch Kai, will you?"

"I'm sorry, but he's not going to be sociable for a while," Hime replied in a blunt voice. "And I will not follow your orders—with all due respect that someone who uses hamster wheels to provide a very meager something to her prisoners deserves. Which is to say, none. At. All." Oh here we go, someone was mouthing off to Tomomo. And when someone mouthed off to Tomomo, bad things tended to happen.

"Not fetching him either," Suguri chimed in. "I'm not surprised he's in a grumpy mood."

Tomomo sighed. "That's alright; I can just send someone else to get him," she said in a level voice. "Star Breaker, fetch Kai, would you?"

Wait, what? Kai clenched his teeth as the hairs on the back of his neck stood ramrod straight. Tomomo wasn't going to—before he could dwell on it, he heard the familiar sound of a bomb beeping and being thrown, followed by something hitting something else in a clang and an explosion. "No!" Star Breaker yelled at the top of her lungs. "He put this abomination in me, and I will not—"

"Hold the ice cream, did you just say abomination?" Tomomo cut her off, sounding less level and more confused all of a sudden. The room felt far colder mere seconds after she'd asked the question. "Because this is, honestly, the first time I've even heard of a woman refer to her unborn baby as that."

"What did you expect from the would-be apocalypse, unbridled joy?" Suguri snarked.

Tomomo groaned, the sound alone shaking the smaller cages for a few seconds. "You're telling me she doesn't have any maternal instinct?" she muttered in nothing short of exasperation. "This is gonna be tougher than I thought…" Something audibly smacked something else—if Kai had to guess, palm met face. "Kae, fetch him."

"And risk getting felt up? No way Jose," Kae replied. "I ain't doing it!"

"For the love of… Peat, Marc, drag him here. Or else I'm tying you two up over my bed and making you do the vertical samba," Tomomo growled. Faintly, and Kai had to strain his hearing to even register it, he heard two sets of feet shuffling awkwardly. "I'll leave you lot alone for the day, let you do whatever so long as it's not breaking out. Just make sure Mr. Grumpy eats a bite—and if I find he hasn't, well… I'll have Peat and Marc demonstrate the 'vertical samba' when I get to bed tonight." Massive feet shook the room as Tomomo stomped her way out, slamming the door shut behind her.

Silence held for a few minutes, until it was broken by the increasingly loud pattering of feet. Kai turned to the door, not realizing or caring that his manic expression remained fixed on his face as Peat and Marc walked into view. The two pilots froze, eyes widening—and unknowingly triggering a fresh surge of wrath in Kai's blood. Kai stared them down, eyelids twitching, waiting for either to make the first move. The standoff didn't last long; Peat found the nerve to take a step forward and hardened his expression. "Okay, dude, I know you're extremely pissed right now—" Talk about one hell of an understatement, "—but it's not going to solve anything if you just stand there smiling like you're about to kill somebody! Just eat with us so fatass doesn't punish anybody else."

With great effort, Kai forced himself to not run over to Peat and punch him immediately. It took an even greater exertion of willpower to forcefully wrench his smile into a thin, tight line. But no matter how hard he tried to snuff it out, that burning desire for vengeance and violence still gleamed in his narrowed eyes. He didn't say a word as he marched out of the hut with a huff, and Marc flinched as he passed when she saw that wild look. They waited until he went down the tube before following him. "H-he's… he's… he's got that same look as…" Marc trailed off in a whisper, drawing a shaking breath.

"The pregnant crazy?" Peat finished for her, careful to keep his voice low.

Marc nodded frantically. "You think… w-w-we should stay away from h-him, too?" she asked.

Peat sighed, toying with that grim prospect for a moment before nodding hesitantly. "If he goes off the really deep end," he said bitterly. "We may need to tie him down." Well, at least he could safely say they now had somebody else to do that job for him, if push ever came to shove. And Tomomo never said her captives couldn't restrain each other, if the need ever arose.

He found himself loving the loopholes her short list of rules left, though for reasons Tomomo probably wouldn't agree with if she were informed of them. Peat internally kicked himself in the nads; if Kai of all people was starting to get a little stir-crazy—and he had a slew of evidence suggesting such—then he would need to double his willpower just to keep his wits about him. He found himself tempted to wrap an arm around Marc to protect her, but brushed it aside—he had no need to do so, not yet. Besides, if shit hit the fan, he was going to need both fists up and ready for that critical first hook.

When they joined the others to find a steaming plate of cooked, burnt meat with a thick black crust, they found Kai stewing next to Hime with arms crossed. Yuki cautiously walked around the slab of meat, sniffing slowly, being careful to never touch it once. Star Breaker looked away from the meat, and instead at NoName—because he had the gall to have clasped one of her chains bare-handed. Everyone waited patiently for Yuki's verdict, before she backed away from the meat and grimly nodded. "It's positive?" Suguri asked.

"Yep; it's got a faint aroma of drugs alright," Yuki answered, frowning. "Exactly which drug, though, I can't say—the aroma of the meat almost entirely drowns it out."

"And we have someone who can't ingest any contraband…" NoName finished, looking at Star Breaker. He yanked her chain to pull her back when she tried to move to the food anyway and turned back to Yuki. "So your hunch = confirmed?"

"More or less," Yuki answered with a heavy sigh. "I'm almost afraid to eat; if she's spiking the food…" She approached it and sliced into the meat before wrenching it apart with her claws, if only to give the illusion that one brave soul actually tried to eat the thing. To her dismay, it had a lot of give to it, and when she managed to see its center it became clear why—the meat was so undercooked it had lots of bright red pigmentation to it. Yuki was convinced the damn thing was still alive and mooing at them all. "Welp, we can't eat it anyway; it's raw."

"So we just lodge another complaint and tell our captor it's a health hazard?" Suguri asked.

"Yeah, but we don't tell her about the drugs I sniffed," Yuki answered, backing away from the meat. She let her ears twitch, and strained them for a few seconds, but all that greeted her was an eerie silence. She felt butterflies floating in her stomach upon registering the silence, and the butterflies got butterflies in their stomachs with another few seconds. "Let's head downstairs. I get the feeling this is gonna be a big shot…"

The group started to walk down to the third-platform hut, with the exceptions of Kae, Nanako, and Star Breaker as the former two picked up the latter to airlift her safely behind everyone else. Hime walked next to Suguri, leaning over to whisper to her. "Drugged, she said?" she asked, concern slowly rising at the prospect.

Suguri nodded. "Seems that way," she replied. "We'll have to trust the cat's judgement."

"Hrm… when did she become de-facto leader?" Hime asked.

Suguri shrugged. "Just now; haven't really… had a de-facto leader in this mess prior," she answered rather apologetically. "Things were too chaotic to even establish one…"

"That doesn't sound reassuring…" Hime muttered, brow furrowing. She and Suguri turned to Nanako and Kae as they began to chatter.

"She's scarily light… even pregnant…" Kae muttered, looking at Star with a confused frown. "Almost as light as you, Nana…"

Nanako shrugged. "I could count her ribs two days ago, and I can still do that if I look past her baby bump," she replied. Turning to she who should not have been pregnant on all possible accounts to begin with, she asked, "How much do you eat?"

"... only burnt meat… and that wasn't burnt enough," Star Breaker muttered, turning to glare at Nanako. "Why?"

"Just curious…" Nanako said, careful to keep her tone neutral.

NoName noticed Kai's murderous look and idly clenched and unclenched his fingers, in the event shit went further south somehow. But he also acknowledged that the spark of world-burning anger could also be useful, if harnessed just right. Carefully, he asked, "You have a plan yet?"

Kai nodded, and turned to NoName with that delightfully demented smirk once more cementing itself on his face. "Yes… yes I do," he muttered darkly, an eye twitching ever so slightly. "It's just going to require… thinking outside our collective box."

NoName grinned in spite of Kai's smirk, and of the bajillion warning flags that were being waved as a result. "Good, good…" he muttered in approval, with a nod to cement it. "Don't keep us in the dark for too long, or else bombs = up yours."

Kai just rolled his eyes at the insult-threat. He'd rather that than being caged any day. And he recognized that, sooner or later, Star Breaker was going to at least bring that fun proposition up with him. It was only a matter of when, not if.

He could only hope they could pray to the other gods that Yuki had mentioned sooner than that, or barring that, his getaway plan would at the least get them somewhere.

Anywhere than here, really, would do very nicely.

Chapter Text

The moment Tomomo strode in that night and turned off the light was the same moment the group noticed the very sour expression that stretched across her face and a hand firmly clutching her stomach. Her eyes gleamed darkly, her lips twisted into a pouting frown that, thankfully, did not turn to her caged menagerie or their barely-touched food. "Fucking cookies, going stale on me…" she hissed, followed by the loud and pained gargling of her digestive tract that dragged on in a manner suggesting it was presently cartwheeling in her abdomen. "The store manager said they'd last a year!"

Flopping upon her bed with a pained groan, Tomomo threw the covers over her body and tossed for a few moments before falling asleep. Peat wisely waited for that bear to start snoring before turning to the others in the hut and piping up, "Well… how the fuck are we gonna use hamster wheels to undo the lock?"

Kai's grin was manic, and his eyes were wild as he answered with a shudder that passed around the group, "We make tongs of the damn things and try the lock, of course. We're bound to find the combination after a few tries."

"But… Star Breaker can't melt the plastic…" Suguri ruefully pointed out, clenching her legs together at the thought.

"But Kae might!" Kai pointed out, still wearing the crazed look on his face.

Kae lifted her hands, shook her head, and groaned simultaneously. "I'm not a sculptor. Whatever the fuck gave you that idea?" she questioned.

Kai was about to shoot his mouth off again, even rising to stand on his feet rather dramatically, only to be tugged back down on his ass by Star Breaker's manacled hands. He looked at her, and her head grimly shook as her eyes sparkled with flashes of fear. "She might get the bad chains," Star whispered in a sharp hiss, gesturing at Kae with a foot for emphasis. "We don't want her in the bad chains."

NoName proceeded to step in with his two cents at the ready and all the snark he could muster, "I agree with the crazy. That's the sad thing."

"Same here," Yuki added unhelpfully, tail lashing as she spoke. "We kinda don't want a repeat of the 'slime monster' I keep hearing about, either." Marc and Nanako tensed at the mention, and Star Breaker whimpered and shrank, keeping her firm grip on Kai. Peat looked a little green himself, but in the darkness of the room, it was hard to tell that well. "Wouldn't put it past the bimbo to launch us out of a roman candle, either."

Kai absently nodded, the still-shrinking part of his fraying sanity agreeing with that. "Then what do we do?"

Peat shook his head. "For now…" he trailed off.

NoName picked up where he left off, "Hold the fort for another day. We'll need to cool our jets, else we'll end up with more than broken wings." He turned to Kai and frowned. "And if everything = fireproof, then we wouldn't have much luck with the hamster wheels anyway." He snorted. "What were you planning to do with them anyway, hotshot?"

Kai considered this, and opened his mouth to answer when Yuki started… purring out of the blue, loudly enough for him to get distracted and turn to her. Her hand rubbed her chin, scratching contemplatively as a small smirk wormed its way to her face. "Maybe… we could use them to disengage the combination lock," she said with a careful edge in her voice. "Reach around with them and… undo the lock that way."

"But that would mean we'd have to teleport to see what we're doing," Suguri pointed out, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest. "Which I'm pretty sure… none of us can do."

"And I don't think the hamster wheels would fit between the bars, even if we somehow fucked them up," Nanako added, twiddling her thumbs.

The group flinched as they heard the door creaking open. "Pokya po," a child-like voice said as the sound of feet pattered into the room.

Tomomo stirred with a grumble, the sheets rustling. "Poppo… not now…" she moaned.

"Poppo po," Poppo said, followed by the sound of more sheets rustling.

Kai looked at the others. "I volunteer to see what's going on," he whispered, just loud enough for the other prisoners to hear him. They nodded, and he stood up to poke his head out of the hut's door frame to see what had entered this time. He couldn't see much as the room was almost dark as pitch, but he could've sworn a midget-by-normal-standards was now at Tomomo's bed, trying to pull her covers off.

"No, Poppo… I wanna sleep…" Tomomo hissed, turning away from the small one.

"Pokyaa!" Poppo declared, clambering up on the bed. She started to jump on it as soon as her feet hit the mattress, sometimes hitting Tomomo in her side and back with each return to the springs. "Pokyakyakyak!"

Tomomo continued to lay even as Poppo kept jumping on her bed. "Get off my fuckin' kool-aid, Poppo!" she snarled, tightening her hold on the covers.

"Pokyuun!" Poppo howled, continuing to jump up and down in a mad tarantella.

Kai put a hand to his mouth and snickered into it as he watched. The sadistic part of him wanted Tomomo to suffer more—far more than what Poppo was inflicting upon her, though it conceded that this bit of annoyance would have to do for now. Besides, the schadenfreude he was experiencing from this had a delectably sweet flavor that he was sure Star Breaker would appreciate. And speaking of, she moved to poke her head out that same door frame to watch, her pouting frown turning into her trademark smirk of delightful wrath as she watched.

"Posha!" Poppo yelled as Tomomo finally threw the covers off, grabbed her mid-air, and found her face being stretched at the cheeks by Poppo's hands. Kai could hear the grin in Poppo's voice, and the frown in Tomomo's growl as her cheeks were pulled.

"Poppo, stop this or I will stuff you with the biggest dildo I can find," Tomomo hissed, an eye twitching in the dark.

"Pokya!" Poppo responded, followed by kicking Tomomo right in her nose with a swift jab of her tiny foot. Tomomo recoiled from the strike, dropping Poppo with a scream as her hands flew to her nose. Poppo ran out of the room on swift heels, and in moments Tomomo flew out of bed to follow her with angry, incomprehensible snarls leaving her mouth.

Kai was grinning madly again. So was Star Breaker. The pair traded glances and snickered together. They turned to the door, hearing things crashing and Tomomo swearing up another batch of dark oaths, followed by Poppo's mocking laughter. What followed had him absolutely, positively giddy as a child in a candy shop: Poppo came back into the room, wearing a top hat, monocle, and classy dress that he mistook for a tuxedo at first. This one had a confident, classy, cocky smirk on her face as she jumped up to turn the lights on with something in her left hand. Then she strode to the cage and grabbed the combination lock with her unoccupied right.

Kai's heart dropped for one moment, then went fluttering to cloud nine the next as Poppo lifted the other object in her hand—a sledgehammer with clean wood and a sturdy steel head—and started to whack at the lock with it. Such a tiny-by-human-standards girl should not have been able to lift the tool effortlessly, let alone with enough strength to dent the bars with each mighty swing. As the cage shook, the others poked their heads out to see what was going on.

"Holy shit!" Peat cried, watching as the cage bent further and further inwards as Poppo kept swinging. "Did someone pray early? Was the prayer answered!?"

Star Breaker squealed in glee as the lock cracked under the force of another swing. She began jumping in place, looking about ready to search for the nearest widened gap in the bars and make a break for it.

Yuki, who had her ears covered and her tail puffed up, yowled with each strike. Kai looked at her and winced; that must've hurt her ears, and the poor cat would be left with a headache most likely. But the joy sparkling in her eyes was unmistakable; she was grinning something fierce even as she protected her ears from sensory overload.

"Show that bad bitch what for! Make it regret everything it's ever done!" Nanako shouted, pumping her fists to encourage Poppo's destructive outburst.

Poppo grinned, took a moment to spin the sledgehammer in a dizzying blur over her head, and with a final swing the lock and cage's door flew inwards, hitting the bars on the other side and breaking into pieces with their descent. Poppo dropped the hammer and turned to the captives, producing a comfortable-looking coin purse and nodding to the lot. "Pokya!" she said.

Suguri's face split into a grin. "Alright ladies!" she barked, turning to Kae, Nanako, and Hime. "Let's get out of here!" The three nodded, and moved to begin flying. Hime used her chain orb to pick up Peat and Marc by wrapping them in chains, while Yuki opted to piggyback on NoName's backside. Kai piggybacked on Suguri, while Nanako and Kae foisted an arm each around Star Breaker to carry her as fast as they could. There was no delay; within seconds, everyone made for the coin purse that seemed to promise freedom. As they went, Poppo took the time to grab the defunct bit and stash it into another of her pockets. Funny, it didn't stick out at all; the pocket seemed to have swallowed whole without it expanding to accommodate it.

Getting situated inside the coin purse was a bit of a tricky matter; there was only so much room to be had, but fortunately there was enough for everyone to go around. Star Breaker, Nanako, Kai, Marc and Yuki sat while the others stood. Hime recalled the chains into the chain orb and nodded to Poppo, who nodded back to close the coin purse.

And with that, Poppo bounced away with the coin purse moving to her other pocket, at first causing everyone to squish together a little more, before they settled into the rather rhythmic bounce of her steps and the darkness it brought.

"Oh you fucking little rodent-whore!" Tomomo yelled somewhere in the distance. "You just fucking had to bring this cuntwaffle over here, didn't ya?!"

Tomomo had visitors? On one hand, Kai wanted to frown because that person would probably get caged once Tomomo made the discovery that it needed repairs. On the other… it sounded like it was a person Tomomo loathed, which he found very unusual given her poisonously sweetened demeanor. Then again, maybe the cookies she was bitching about before stumbling to bed had something to do with her soured mood.

Either way, the schadenfreude was glorious. He would bask in it for years to come. If he had kids, preferably not mothered by Star Breaker, he would tell them this as a bedtime story… when they were adults, of course. Kids had no business knowing the sordid details, and right now, he was too damn happy to care.

Another sickly-sweet voice, this one unfamiliar, feminine, and bordering on childish to such a degree that Nanako's would have been considered adult by comparison, cooed at Tomomo. "Oh, is that any way to treat your mama? I heard you got yourself some new pets, and I just had to come here, you see…"

Kai barely choked back a wheeze at that one. Tomomo had a mommy? And one who was already crawling up her ass to stay there? Now he was wishing he had popcorn; wouldn't have mattered if the kernels of buttery goodness were bigger than he was, he'd eat one down faster than most of the foods Tomomo had been feeding them the last few days.

"Mio, for the last fucking time, I didn't emerge from your demon-seeded hoo-hah to hear your dumbass platitudes!" Tomomo snapped, her voice growing louder with each step.

"I know that, but that doesn't mean you can't choose a non-blood-related person to be your mama," Mio chimed, her voice managing to be even more poisonous than Tomomo's own.

"Piss off already!" Tomomo yelled.

"No can do, sweetie," Mio replied with seemingly oblivious cheer. "Now then, about those pets of yours…"

He and the others jolted when the bouncing stopped.

"Well these fucking muskrats have decided to not tell me the cookies… what do you want now, Dapper Poppo?" Tomomo growled.

"Po," Dapper Poppo replied.

"Fine, whatever, just go back to your basement…" Tomomo growled. The bouncing began anew once more, and gradually with Dapper Poppo's steps, the bitching lessened and lessened in volume, replaced by the creak of wood, crunching of grass and then the sudden creaking of a metal door. The door slammed after a bit, preceded by the thunking of yet more metal that was light and hollow.

"... are we going down?" Marc asked, garnering a series of shrugs for an answer.

"Sure feels like it… but even I can't say where we're going," NoName said. "If only that bimbo harlot didn't disable my location sensors and such…"

"Are sensors standard features where you're from?" Peat asked.

"Hell, everyone has them where I come from. Some implanted, some on external devices. Just depends on the individual," NoName replied with a shrug. He thumbed to Kae. "She's got coolant units because she overheats every time she uses her fire for too long." Then thumbing to Nanako, he continued, "And her bits help her immensely in combat, from firing to letting her know where the enemy is coming from. You let your guard down around her, you = dead."

Kai turned to Nanako. "And how do the bits help you know where?"

Nanako poked at the side of her head with two fingers. "Built in electronic sensors wired directly to my brain. How they went in is another story," she answered. "And no, you don't want to know."

"That still begs the question… where are we headed now?" Hime wondered aloud, tilting her head and rubbing her chin with the knuckle of her index finger in contemplation.

"Let's just hope it's better than the hamster cages," Kai muttered, garnering nods of agreement in response.

"Mrgh…" Star Breaker wiggled a bit, careful to keep her chains from rattling as she shifted to something more comfortable. "I hate feeling like an inflated condom…" she grumbled. "Why'd she have to inflate me like a condom?"

"Bitch has some sick fetishes. That's my guess," Kai muttered in reply, hoping that would be enough explanation for the crazy of the bunch. Fortunately, all he got out of Star Breaker after was a huff and some more shuffling, and for a moment his pity for her resurfaced when he considered that her suddenly-swollen gut was probably the reason she wasn't as comfy as she seemed.

But then again, if he were in her shoes—tied down, raped, suddenly pregnant, time going out the window and hormonal as all fuck, yeah, he'd be pissed too. At least he knew how underprepared he was for the task of… wait, why was his ankle wet and warm when it wasn't a second ago?

He sniffed the air. Nothing but cloth and sweat greeted him, so he ruled out someone taking a—before the thought could finish, Star Breaker gave a pained yelp that was short, and muffled. He turned to her and had to take a moment to make out what she was doing in the darkness, and then spotted her hands clasping her face as tears started to leak from her scrunched eyes all of a sudden. "Bite your tongue?" he asked, garnering a shake of the head and another muffled yelp in response. Oh. Oh no. "Guys…" he said in warning, his face paling.

NoName snapped his attention to him in an instant. "... it's happening, isn't it…" he muttered. At Kai's shaky nod, and a sharper yelp from Star Breaker, he sighed and rolled his shoulders. "We'll have to wait a bit though… not much room to prepare for an express delivery…"

"Let's hope we don't have to wait long…" Yuki grumbled, ears flattened against her head. "I'm already dreading thinking about what the kid's gonna come out like…"

Eventually, the thunking on hollow metal ceased, and the bouncing resumed. Star Breaker grunted with each spring, still holding her mouth as though Tomomo could still hear her. Another creaking sang in the air, and a moment or so passed after that that the group felt the coin purse moving. Once it was plopped down, and opened, Dapper Poppo scooped them out with her hand into…

Well, the light was blinding for the whole lot of them, save for NoName. NoName looked at Dapper Poppo with confusion etching his features. "Um, we have a situation…" he muttered as Dapper Poppo put the group into a styrofoam-lined box taller and longer than a printer.

Dapper Poppo looked at him, and NoName gestured to Star Breaker as they were set down on the bottom of the box. Dapper Poppo nodded and toddled off, following her departure with a loud clatter and some shuffling of metallic items. It took some moments, during which Star Breaker turned to bite at the styrofoam with another muffled cry, that she returned with a lid sporting perforated holes, and a pair of needle-nose pliers.

She reached in with the pliers and grabbed a manacle on one of the poor psycho's wrists. "Wh-what are you—" Star Breaker began, only to shriek as the pliers twisted the manacle, at first tightening it on her wrist before pulling sharply enough to snap the metal. This was repeated with the manacles on her other wrist and neck, whereupon the ruined bindings were lifted out wholesale.

Then, a series of small crochet cloth pillows and similar blankets rained down as Dapper Poppo threw them into the box. There was more than enough to go around, plenty for a whole army in fact, and the group wasted no time making a pile of the damn things to prepare for the very sudden, unprecedented birth.

Once that was done, along with some sacrificial blankets, Star Breaker was thrown bodily onto them backside-first. Suguri raced to clutch one arm, and Hime seized the other as NoName came with more blankets in hand. They didn't notice nor care when the perforated lid of the box was put down onto their new shelter, as Kae simply lifted a hand to provide light with her own flames.

"Why must you—" That was cut off with another short cry as Star felt her very insides revolting against her. The cry devolved into a pained whine of, "Please just let it end!!"

Suguri and Hime held firm, but not enough to bruise. They let the poor psycho thrash as Peat and Marc raced to hold her legs still and open. "Just… just breathe," Suguri advised, hoping to high heaven and low hell that the ailing woman would listen.

"Poor bitch is probably going to be laying down for a long while after this," NoName grumbled, seeing ripples running across Star Breaker's stomach thanks to the light of Kae's flames. He looked Star Breaker in the eye as she turned to glare at him. "Listen… you're not going to be walking for some time after this. If you cooperate, the birth will be easier than shoving Tomomo's face into a toilet."

Yuki came over and sat behind Star Breaker's head, clutching her scalp with her hands and using her claws to very gently massage her skull. "Your body will do most of the work for you. All you've got to do is breathe, and relax as much as you can," she said. When Star angled her head to look at her, Yuki added, "Trust me, I had to help in a birth once. My doctor was short on helping hands that day, and I learned way more about biology than I needed to."

Star Breaker whined again, scrunching her eyes shut as more pain rattled her nerves and attempted to reorganize her internal organs. This… was going to be a long night.

***

The passage of time was lost on the group. Minutes melted to hours melted to seemingly days. Eternity stretched, and the only sign of its fleeting was the flickering and popping of fire as Kae maintained her flame. By now she was sweating, brow furrowed and ears aglow in vibrant green as she watched the ongoing birth.

Nanako and Kai looked on in concern, only able to watch as more contractions announced their coming through the visible ripples that skipped across Star Breaker's swollen stomach. She had devolved into crying now, unable to maintain eye contact with anybody as pain unparalleled came to play merry hell with her entire being. She shuddered as another one came and went, screaming as she felt her entrance slowly, gradually, painfully stretching wide open.

NoName wore a firm, grim face as he watched, waiting for the moment in which the beast of the apocalypse would crown its head with its emergence. Having several blankets handy helped as blood and amniotic fluids began to seep out, staining the blankets below in wavering red. He shared wary glances with the others, each one nodding in turn as Star Breaker continued to thrash as her limited movement would allow.

But their efforts were rewarded when the dread harbinger of the end times finally deigned fit to surface, for after it crowned it plopped in NoName's blanketed arms with no more fanfare than the crying finally ceasing. The group had expected a baby, and for their current size it was about the size of a baby gerbil. They instead got…

Silence held as the entity of damnation tore its way out of the amniotic sack and mewed. Yuki was the first to speak. "A kitten?! She gave birth to a…?!"

"How?!" Suguri roared, eyes wide and pupils shrunken.

Nanako shook as she pointed at the fiend that would carvot them all to actual Hell, hands trembling as she struggled to process what she was seeing. "B-b-but… Kai's human… isn't he?!" At that, everyone looked to him as he raised his hands in self-defense.

"Last time I checked my family tree, the last fucker who got arrested for bestiality was sentenced to death by samurai five hundred years ago!" Kai exclaimed, equally as pale as everyone else.

"Well apparently it didn't work! You fathered a kitten! A fucking kitten! How do you even explain that, mate?!" Peat yelled, gesturing to the ruler of demonkind as its placenta popped out, whereupon Hime conjured one of her chains to tighten it as close to the navel as possible. She waited for a few moments, tightening the chain until she was certain that blood flow to the placenta had stopped before nodding to Kae.

Kae nodded back and moved to the placenta's loosened end as it was freed from the rest of its mass, putting her flames to the end to cauterize the wound. The antithesis of all holy gods mewled and thrashed, but soon there was no threat of blood pouring from the trimmed end of umbilical cord. After that, her flame winked out, and she plopped down on her ass as the little demonbeast was wrapped in blankets and given to its very confused mother.

Suguri and Hime let go of Star Breaker's arms so she could hold her furry child of death and despair, and she groaned as the fiend mewled. She grumbled when Hime pawed around her body before gently guiding the child to its cursed feeding grounds, and yelped as claws dug into sensitive flesh while the milk was extracted. "I don't like this…" Star Breaker protested, feeling little nicks and prickles in her flesh as the claws began to knead.

"I know…" Suguri muttered, before then turning to Kae. "Your flames… they were effective for stopping the blood flow… do you think us being taken here might have had something to do with it?"

Kae shrugged. "I dunno… but then again, we now have a furry little hairball to care for," she replied, moving to lay down on her back with arms akimbo.

Star Breaker could do nothing else but feed the messenger of the chaos gods, wilting into the pillow pile as exhaustion overtook her. "Do I have to name the damn thing now…?" she questioned.

"Nah. You're way too tired to do anything else. I suggest sleeping it off," Yuki advised. "We'll figure out something tomorrow."

NoName got up and moved to grab fistfuls of blankets. Without a word, he distributed them to everyone, and whatever pillows that weren't used to hold Star Breaker up. In moments, everyone was covered, with two pillows apiece, and ready to hunker down for the night, save for the robot himself. "I'll keep watch. Someone's gotta monitor the newborn, and watch for the bimbo in case she tries to come in here," he said, garnering nods of understanding from most of everyone. He then moved to sit next to Star Breaker, watching as the undertaker of evil nursed.

"What do you want?" Star Breaker grumbled.

"When the kitten's done feeding, someone's gonna need to burp it," NoName said, frowning as Star Breaker opened her mouth to object. "Listen… you gave birth to something you shouldn't have, after having time and biology both take a vacation to the past, which I've heard all about from Suguri. I'm taking absolutely no chances. Burping it will probably help it in the long run."

He gently rested a hand on Star's shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly. "That, and… you're gonna need a massage once the kitten's burped. Claws + tits = immense pain." He wore an enigmatic smile on his darkened face, gentle and reassuring for one as perverted as he. Star Breaker contemplated this, then nodded as her body demanded sleep. But sleep would not come until death incarnate ceased feeding, and…

Huh, the hellspawn stopped kneading and mewed. NoName picked it up and set its chest on his shoulder, rubbing its back and stomach as gently and slowly as he could. Once he felt a burp, he settled the thing which should not have been birthed on Star Breaker's other breast, before massaging the one that was drained. She jolted at first, expecting cold steel instead of warm false flesh, but then melted and craned her head into a pillow as the pain was kneaded away by a soothing touch. Sure, some milk leaked out and smeared itself everywhere, but that was a small price to pay for a feel-good consolation.

Moments after that, she began snoring quietly. NoName kept massaging for a few moments longer, before pulling his hand away to let her rest. He took a moment to wipe his milk-stained hand on a nearby blanket, being careful to not rouse the slumbering psycho.

Time passed, its passage barely heeded by the slumpering party. NoName closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the breathing emitted in everyone's sleep to keep his brain from going into a tizzy. No other noise existed within the box of styrofoam; it seemed little else existed outside of it. Not even the dark messenger of the horsemen of the apocalypse saw fit to make noise; it simply rested against its mother's bosom with a full and content stomach.

Eventually, though, another noise caught his attention—the rustling of cloth, and someone thrashing beheath it. He got up, opened his eyes, and looked around to locate the source of the noise. Farther away from the group, Kai sat up, rubbing one eye sleepily and sending his glasses askew with the motion. NoName flew to avoid making sound, darting right over swiftly and silently. "What seems to be the issue, champ?" he asked in a low voice.

"Can't fucking sleep…" Kai grumbled, flopping back down on the pillow once he was done rubbing his eye.

NoName nodded, floated down, and sat next to Kai cross-legged. "Too much on your mind?"

Kai nodded. "The kitten made it worse," he muttered.

NoName put a consoling hand on Kai's shoulder. "I wouldn't think about it too much, since we might still be in… divine territory," he advised, garnering a slow and reluctant nod out of the smaller man. "Truth be told, I wasn't expecting this either… but then again, who would?" He heard Kai sigh and felt him slump, and he added, "The only thing we can do is roll with it, absurd as that sounds."

Kai lazily nodded, and took a moment to adjust his glasses. "What should we do in the meantime, though?"

"For now… we could have Yuki pray to her god-friend, but she's sleeping…" NoName frowned as the hellspawn stirred, but remained asleep. "As for the kitten… not much we can do besides raise it, truth be told."

Kai buried his face in his hands with a muffled groan of suffering. "My mom's gonna kill me if she ever finds out I gave her grandkittens…" he whined.

NoName patted him consolingly. "Would say 'at least you didn't birth it,' but considering who the mother is, that might be not much better in the grand scheme of things," he said. Then, he turned to look at Kai seriously. "Still live with your folks?"

Kai shook his head, keeping his face firmly glued to his palms. "They didn't care much about me, just that I get married and have kids like a normal person." Then one hand parted to point at Star Breaker. "They'd try killing her on sight if word of this ever got out." NoName barked out a small laugh, one that fortunately didn't wake anyone else up.

"Puh-lease, you haven't heard of all the shit she got up to before she was knocked clean from the sky, boy," NoName said with a grin, which widened when Kai turned to look at him incredulously. "She would knock them clean from existence the moment they tried! You saw first-hand how vicious she is, right?" At Kai's shaky nod, NoName continued, "She was a whole lot worse than that! Suguri's still digging up all the dirt on her she can find, and she's old enough to attempt time travel. You got nothing to worry about except maybe familial death."

Kai wilted again. "I suppose that's true…" he grumbled. Both man and machine heard more cloth stirring, and turned to the source as she rose up, flew to them, and parked her tush opposite of NoName. Plasma wings unfurled, providing gentle lights as Hime put her hand on Kai's other shoulder and squeezed firmly.

"Unorthodox as this whole sordid affair is," Hime began, keeping her voice quiet, "I believe the only way through this is to go forward with it. We can't give up; that…" She turned away, her expression turning forlorn as something distant flashed in her eyes, "will only lead to despair."

Kai looked at Hime, trying to gauge her expression. "You ran into despair once, didn't you," he said.

Hime slowly nodded. "The moment I began to outlive everyone else around me… I resigned myself to an existence of loneliness, surrounded by those whose lives were ultimately transient in the end." Her eyes grew more distant, memories seeming to dance upon their crimson surfaces. Yet, a wan smile spread on her face, and a chuckle wormed its way past her lips, but it was as hollow as the light was dim on her wings. "Worse… I never forgot a face, a name, a voice—even if I wanted to…"

Kai frowned, tilting his head. He began to wonder how old Hime was for her to give him this monologue. "And you wanted to forget some people, I take it?"

Hime nodded again. "Suguri… she has that luxury," she said faintly, her smile fading once more. "She forgot many foul men from her youth, only the worst standing out to remain burned into her memory…" She turned to Kai, but seemed to be staring past him and NoName. "The time she was born in… came from… reshaped in… Kai, it did things to her. Things that are only becoming apparent to me, even now. How many people can you say, with certainty, forgot their worst moments—only to regain them in flashes, here and there, with events coinciding with now?" Her face darkened with a shadow that wasn't born of her own light, but rather, something resurfacing to haunt her seemingly ageless face. "How many do you think she had to kill, with her own two hands, just to scrape by another day?"

Kai looked away. "Not many," he answered.

Hime nodded. "That's because you haven't been cursed with immortality like we have—and trust me, when you have lived as long as I have, the number adds up far swifter than any of us would have liked. We met another like that, even worse than us put together… but her only saving grace was a hibernation period that kept her out of much of her own ten thousand years of lonely transience."

Kai turned to look at Hime again. "How can one be out that long and live?" he asked.

Hime frowned. "She wouldn't say," she answered simply. "But she came… from the same time Suguri did. Born into, raised by hell, shaped by it… if she lets her repressed emotions take over, Kai… she could turn monstrous as Star Breaker, or worse. So she wears her defense on her sleeve; if she comes here, you'd see it right away for what it is." She turned away again. "And I hope… I hope she doesn't have to experience the hell we're in right now."

Kai nodded, hoping that the same repressed monster wouldn't be thrust into this chaos either. He turned to look at the sleeping Star Breaker again, wondering if she, too, had been blessed with an abundance of youth and no idea what to do with it. He turned to Nanako's slumbering form, and considered her words from earlier that week.

"Yes," Hime confirmed with a somber nod, "Nanako, Kae… and three others alongside NoName, one of whom is a goddess herself now… they've been cursed with immortality. They aren't as old as Suguri and I, but… in time, they will see longevity for what it really is."

"What about her?" Kai asked, pointing at Star Breaker.

Hime nodded. "Her too," she said simply. "How Tomomo got a hold of her… that, I'm almost afraid to find out." Her brow furrowed. "But… she should have been infertile by now, like the rest of us…"

Kai's heart nearly stopped in his chest. 'Should have been?' Now Tomomo had the power to make the infertile into lush breeding grounds? This was officially far, far worse than he gave it credit for. He turned to Hime, horror etched on his face—the thought of NoName being potent, and Nanako undergoing the speed-dail pregnancy made his brain come dangerously close to rejecting its present reality.

That horror painted itself on Hime's face too, even though she did her best to not show it. "B-b-bu—" Kai began, only to stop when Hime squeezed his shoulder again.

"We know of the pitfalls of this place now… we can avoid them far easier than Tomomo thinks," Hime replied simply, gaze still distant as she did her best to reign in the horror. "We only have to try."

Someone else stirred, got up, and pattered over to plop down next to Hime. His blue hair was as obvious as the exhaustion on his face. "Couldn't help but overhear everything, and my will to sleep simply went out the window," Peat said bluntly, keeping a pillow to his crotch. "Thanks for the free nightmare fuel, by the way, because I needed another reason to shove the fat bitch into my plane's turbines."

Kai flopped back down onto his pillow with a sigh. At least somebody in this hellhole agreed with him. "But what should we do once we get out?" Peat asked. Now that, Kai hadn't considered it in the least, though getting back to normal size and bashing Tomomo's face were the top of his priorities for after.

Beyond that, though, he had no fucking idea what he wanted to do, worsened by the fact that he now had a feline child to care for… and that, in itself, was a thought he wouldn't have had to believe outside of current circumstances. And, again, his folks would probably murder-disown him if they ever found out about the absurd how of the matter.

The demonbeast woke and mewed, incessantly. That managed to wake everyone else up, save Star Breaker, who only turned her head and grumbled. Suguri groaned, went over, and picked the vile creature up, and still it mewed. "How long ago did you eat?" she wondered aloud, garnering little answer save for some wiggling.

"Maybe it wants daddy dearest," Peat said jokingly, half-grinning at his absurd notion. Kai sat up, stood, and walked over to pluck the fiend from Suguri's hands. He held it to his chest, and… it stopped wiggling and began purring. Peat's smirk fell at this development. "Great fucking turbines, I didn't mean that literally!"

Suguri shook her head and put her hands to her hips, looking at Kai with disbelief and audacity written on her wide-eyed, slack-jawed face. "That settles it," she declared, lifting a hand to poke Kai in the chest with an index finger, "You, sir, are so fucked I don't even know what else to say." Her hands then went to the air in a gesture suggesting that she was about to exit from reality. She turned around and walked away, keeping her hands in that gesture as she retreated to the farthest corner from the group.

Hime shook her head at the sight. "Great, Suguri has been rendered speechless…" she muttered under her breath, noticing Nanako and Kae turning their heads to look at Suguri as she distanced herself from the crowd of craziness. Turning to NoName, she asked, "So… should we start praying now?" At his grim nod and firm expression, she sighed and clasped her hands together for a long one.

Hopefully, the intended recipient would be able to obtain her SOS and act on it.