"Whatever you're doing, I don't think it's working," I frowned. It wasn't, but it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and pay notice for some reason. "And I hate to break it to you, but I don't know anybody going by that name."
She was staring at her hands as if they'd just betrayed her.
Right. Whatever.
Wondering about that was the last thing currently on my 'to do' list.
Prioritizing was something necessity had seen me learn in the past, and right now the mysterious appearance of my 'guest' was the last thing I was worried about. It may have roused my curiosity, but that was shelved and saved for later.
Momentary self-preservation was far more important, there and then.
I went about taking more careful stock of damages, yanked the tertiary data core before setting the rest on the digital equivalent of slow-boil, and pried open an access hatch that hadn't been warped into an unrecognizable mess.
Yank.
"Where is this?" I heard. Looking over one shoulder, I saw my passenger had made her way to the hatch I'd forced open, and was squintingly looking over the revealed landscape.
Not that there was much to look for, other than sand, sand, and, oh yes, more sand. Add some rock formations in the distance, maybe.
I turned back and proceeded to remove some emergency spares from the compartment. A set of power cells, the basics you needed to try and field-rig a gravitics node replacement, and so on ... not much, but enough to be useful. Even if the way things stood was far from the cases they originally been intended to serve.
"A desert," I said, stashing the lot inside a duffel.
"I can see that," she deadpanned back. Still sounding unsteady.
Honestly, it would have been easier if she could just blow up and we'd have us a bloody row. Then we could pick up the pieces and move on from there, instead of trying for the strong, silent, and vaguely sociopathic treatment.
Too close to how I tended to act myself, come to think of it. Left to my own devices, I'd just as soon not bother as I would go and try to do something unreasonable. Considering the frantic sort of energy the girl had acquired as soon as the name 'Natsuki' had crossed her mind, nevermind lips, the latter was a distinct possibility.
I thought back to the eerie sensation I'd gotten when I felt her mind snapping into focus.
Alright, so maybe she's already tried 'unreasonable', and it didn't work.
Oh, to hell with it.
"We don't have the time for this. In case you didn't realize it yet, we just flashed down from orbit on wings of fire in this little miracle of science, and from up there it looked like somebody was fighting a war down here. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not going to be staying around here for whoever runs shop around here to find me."
"... even if I believed you, how exactly is walking that," she gestured sharply to the sands outside, air shimmering with the heat on the horizont, "supposed to be anything other than suicide?"
In for a penny, in for a pound.
I stepped past her, hopping down the two or so feet from the now open hatch and onto the sand. After making sure the duffle was secured to my body, I turned my back to the desert and released. Felt like stretching a metaphysical muscle, really.
"Did I say anything about walking?" I said as the four blades of my own 'wings' flashed into being.
Otome Zwei took this off standby, at least enough for another segment.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm