I think it's been a hot minute since I've gone into some weeds with an author's note. Going to be honest? The most recent collaboration was a mistake. Making it collab in and of itself was a mistake. What do I mean by that? Well, the plot doesn't read like most of the collabs do. In fact, it gives off the feeling that it was never meant to BE a collab event in the first place.

  It ties into several previous things, including K's event. Then there is Burn Out, which was clearly meant to a much larger role, with their existence alongside another squad being hinted back to last year, which would have made for a natural shoe in for the event. Combined with the Collab characters not particularly doing much?

  This really felt like this was something that could have been a decent event, but was forced into being a Resident Evil collab at some point late in development. I've made my stances on collabs probably clear by this point. I largely don't like them. They can be nice as a treat, but it's telling that the objectively best crossover is the one with the property Shift-Up has the rights too.

  And, as per usual, ‘’ is Sign language.

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  “Actually,” God, if looks could kill, the absolute filthyness of the glare Anis was sending my way would kill me. Twice. “We're going on a bit of a recon mission. There was some intel that we got last time we went up top, and we weren't able to find it on the Ark’s servers.”

  ‘What are you doing? You know we can't trust her right now!’ Anis’s hands were almost a blur. If I could face palm silently, I would have taken the moment.

  ‘I'm not. I'm giving her bits and pieces. We're going to need her assistance one way or another on a mission like this, so giving her parts of the picture so she can fill in the rest herself is the best play right now,’ I could understand the paranoia. In part. The Ark was a den of vipers, and the Central Government was an authoritarian shithole in more ways than one.

  But trying to leave Shifty out of the loop was going to bite us. Better to have her on board in part. Build up to things slowly.

  “Really? The Ark should have a lot of information,” I couldn't exactly make out Shifty's face, but she sounded like she was scratching her chin.

  “I know that the Ark's database had a lot of, superfluous information put inside it,” because I had no other way to describe information about Warhammer making it into the system. “But it hardly has room for everything. The information probably wasn't something they'd see as important without the benefit of foresight, so it got left behind.”

  More an omission and speculation than a lie. But I was better at those. Of course, the truth really was Vapaus was something the Central Government saw as a threat for unknown reasons. But I didn't exactly have hard evidence of that. None that would hold up in court.

  “That does make sense,” Shifty said after a moment of silence. “Oh, and by the way? Elen?”

  I perk up slightly at Shifty saying my name.

  “Your new body looks really cute!”

  The complement caused a grin to grow on my face. Cute wasn't something I was used to being called yet, or any of those types of complements, for that matter. But I would take what I could get.

  “She’s doing it again!” Neon said, pointing at my smile as I rolled my eyes. And at least this was distracting her from Anis. Anis had gotten some paranoid stick lodged right up that ass of hers, and it wasn't coming out anytime soon.

  I got it to an extent. The Ark was a mess, and the Central Government was a militant, authoritarian hellhole for the most part, kept together by pure copium, scapegoating, and distractions. If they saw us as a threat, removing us from the board was child's play.

  Seriously, the fact that anyone really bought bullshit like New Hope betraying the Ark? Raptures had to know where it was from the start. How things truly went down was not something I knew, but I knew enough for the Central Government's story to be suspicious.

  But the line between being cautious and being paranoid was not a particularly thick one. Not helped by Anis hopping all over it with a pogo stick.

  “You've seen me smile before, Neon,” I rolled my eyes, but in a friendly manner as Anis just grumbled. I very much tried to ignore her comment about more spies, but it still rankled. There was a point where paranoia became completely useless.

  Yes, I knew that Neon was technically meant to be a spy, but I also knew she wasn't very good at it. But I suspected that had been Ingrid's point on the matter. It's not like she really needed one when it came to Counters. Any report that crossed Anderson's desk was something Ingrid could learn about, if she wanted too. Mustang too, even if I trusted him less.

  “Usually if she's flirting with the Commander,” Anis finished as I let my face fall into my hands with a groan. I wasn't going to deny the emotions were there, much less vocally. But I was so not ready to even try that, superior officer besides.

  At least my hands allowed me to hide the blush, if only for a little while.

  “Pot, kettle,” I mumbled back.

  “Hey!”

  Hopefully, that would help take her mind off things as well. We really couldn't afford to let internal divisions cut away at our strength right now.

  “Alright! Lead the way!” Shifty said, seemingly in high spirits, Anis’s little attempt at a lie seemingly forgotten.

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  “How is Exia able to contact you guys up here?” Good question Shifty. Good question. Especially as it was over a text message app than anything more official. Knowing Exia, she would likely only say that being unable to do that was a skill issue.

  I swear, Exia was a gremlin.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” I shrugged. She could do it, and having Exia at least in communication wasn't a bad thing. She was a surprise, but a surprise I would welcome.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Anis was still glaring at me though.

  ‘Alright, get it out of your system,’ I signed, shaking my head in annoyance.

  ‘Seriously? You don't think it's the slightest bit suspicious that the moment we get to the surface, she's there and offering to help?’ Anis’s signs came fast and rough, even as Neon jumped in.

  ‘You are being paranoid right now,’ Neon signed back, her own frustration seeping in.

  ‘And you think that Counter's sudden rise will go unnoticed? A special squad forming this quickly will attract attention. We can afford to trust easily right now,’ Anis countered as I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again.

  ‘And? I know from talking about your previous missions that Shifty has been working mission control longer than I've been part of Counters. It makes perfect sense to jump and claim the spot for the squad before anyone else could. Shifty probably sees herself as part of the team at this point,’ I hit back. Neon nodded her head in agreement. ‘And of course the Central Government is going to want to keep an eye on us. Do you honestly think that governments like it didn't exist before the Rapture invasion? Ones that are corrupt and care far more about maintaining their power compared to anything else? Because I guarantee, they very much did.’

  That got a hiss out of Anis. A short and quiet hiss, but a hiss all the same.

  Right. I was the only one who knew what the world was like before this mess started. The Ark, unsurprisingly, didn't keep many records about how things used to be. I checked. Pretty much any alternative style of how a government could function had been scrubbed, if the information existed at all.

  ‘There is a point where looking at everything suspiciously is going to make you look suspicious, drawing attention to yourself in the process,’ I signed, hoping to get through Anis’s thick skull.

  ‘Yeah, you're just being paranoid,’ ever had one of those moments where you watch someone open their mouth and stick in their foot? Yeah, that? Right there? Exactly what I saw. Good play.

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  Anis continued to have a stick up her ass. The Rapture presence was thin. Surprisingly thin. Of course, Shifty was having to deal with particles like mad. Neon's mood was better, but the increasingly icy Anis was causing the normally cheery young girl's emotions to darken.

  Rapi and I weren't entirely spared either, but Rapi was too calm and level headed to give Anis much to work with. As for myself? I think my words spooked her a bit. I don't think many thought about the past all that much, if at all. The idea that things in some place would be here comes the new boss, same as the old boss?

  Not a concept she seemed to like all that much. At the moment, I was really of two minds about this. I really liked Johnson to tell them both to knock it off. To be the adult in the room and tell them no.

  But, on the other hand, would that really help? It would stop the squabbling, but do nothing to address the underlying causes. And without addressing those, the feelings were just going to fester. One could only put a cap on those types of feelings for so long before they burst open.

  Speaking from personal experience on that one.

  Thankfully, outside of that, it was largely smooth sailing. There didn't seem to be many Raptures in the area. That was a bit disappointing in a sense. I would have liked to try out this body in a live fire scenario. Stretch my legs, as it were.

  Hopefully, Anis could get the stick out of her ass, apologize to Neon, and nothing would go wrong.

  For once.

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  Yeah the silence was still awkward as hell. You could cut it with a knife. Or just a few words, carefully chosen or otherwise. It was fast getting to the point I just wanted to grab Anis and just start shaking.

  At this point, she was just being stubborn, and not the good kind. All it would take is a simple apology to patch things up, and all she was doing by not doing so was allowing things to fester.

  “Really quiet with you guys today,” Shifty said, cutting through the silence, but not the tension, like a knife.

  “Because Anis is being paranoid!” Neon crossed her arms with a huff.

  “I'm not being paranoid! You!” Anis’s fingers twitched, as she too crossed her arms.

  While there was still a formation, the two wandered slightly, not wanting to be near the other anymore than they had too. Which was, great. Not.

  “What did I say?” Shifty sounded confused and a bit hurt by the blow up as I pinched my brow.

  “Anis is stewing in her emotions and is making it our problem,” I hissed, resisting the urge to smack her upside the head.

  “Commander,” Rapi said softly as Johnson nodded his head.

  “I know. But it isn't going to help either of them, is it?” He responded, a frown on his features. It made him look almost unpleasant.

  “I'll take point. I should be fast enough to save both of them if they do something stupid,” I offered, still frowning as well. This was not an environment for pulling this sort of crap.

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  “Hey let go!”

  At least Neon didn't seem to protest, though she was currently slung over my shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Anis was struggling against my grip on the back of her shirt, glaring back at me.

  “Good idea, maybe I should let you go trapesing through a minefield next time,” I growled out, letting my power take hold before dragging the two back to where the rest of us stood.

  Anis was still glaring at me, her face colored by both a red flush of embarrassment, but a hint of green as well. Part of me wanted to throw an idiot into the mix, but I hoped she felt like an idiot. Save your life at best and needing to explain why you lost a limb at worst, but no, I'm the problem from saving you from yourself.

  “Again!”

  Alright, Neon handles that better than expected as I put her down. She seemed to stagger around a bit. Exia hadn't pinged the landmines, but the sheer volume of Alva particles in the air didn't give us much to go on, other than they exist.

  Thankfully, Shifty was already bringing the levels down through a purification sequence. Because of course the mission control was going to be useful. It's almost like she was good at her job, Anis. The very judgmental look I gave her was hopefully withering enough for it to start sticking through that thick skull of hers.

  “That should do it,” Shifty nodded her head, though there was an awkwardness still there. It was impossible not to pick up on Anis’s tension.

  “Pinging the landmines now,” Exia finished, part of me wishing I still had that helmet. That would make things a lot easier. Not easier than beating ideas into someone's head with a large mallet, but pretty close.

  “We should pick up the pace,” Neon said, uncharacteristically glum. I gave her a pat on the back. This wasn't going to get better.

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  Several Lord class Raptures and a particle gun? Hardly bad odds, but the gun was a hazard. If Exia wasn't exaggerating its abilities, and she most likely wasn't. Unfortunately we finally ran into opposition at the final junction, but here we were.

  Anis had remained pretty silent since we cleared the minefield. I couldn't tell if that was because the lesson was being learned, or she still just didn't want to admit she made a mistake.

  “An arms factory from the First Invasion?” Shifty spoke softly, but I could still hear her from my vantage point. “Are you sure this is the right place? There shouldn't be anything left here.”

  “Everything I've heard indicates it should have the information we need,” Exia said with a nod. “If not information directly, something that will point us in the right direction.”

  I tuned out the rest of their debate. Exia was likely dead on the money. I trusted her on this front. Shifty, after all, would likely only know what the Central Government wanted her too. What I needed to do was wait for the order.

  “Engage.”

  Was all I needed to hear. My target quickly found itself swarmed with shells, coming much faster than normal bullets should. The metallic screech of pain was music to my ears, it staggering back under the weight of fire. Everyone's shots joined my own, but the Rapture I targeted was swiftly fading.

  I moved on to the next, methodically reloading and firing. It wasn't flashy, but the fact I could keep this up for longer? Might as well have been a machine gun. I was chewing through ammo like crazy, but I brought a fair few extra magazines.

  Despite Anis’s emotions and Neon's frustration, we were still acting like a cohesive whole when it came to combat. It didn't take long for us to smash through what little the Raptures had in the area.

  There was just one problem. That particle gun?

  Still charging. I didn't need Exia or Shifty to tell me that, even though both were saying so, freaking out in the process.

  Understandably so, given that Neon and Anis were running at each other, desperation written on their faces. Not some attempt to save themselves, but to save the other.

  In turn, risking both their lives.

  I let myself move forward, time slowing down again as the two collided face first. Reaching the gun, I began to pull at anything that could be connected to a power source in a frenzy.

  Which meant just about every cable or wire I could get my hands on. My hands tore into metal and machinery with a possessed feralness. Smoke began to come out of the machine, the bright light in the barrel fading as I jumped away. The light from the blast blinded me for a moment, and the noise deafened me, but I was otherwise fine.

  Shaking out the last bit of ringing from my ears. The gun itself and several Raptures were toast from the blast, Neon and Anis looking fine. Well, mostly fine. Anis was still on her rear, as Neon stood over her, offering her a hand.

  Though as Anis took it, Neon let it go, Anis landing back down on her rear.

  “Now that I think about it, it seriously pisses me off,” I heard Neon snap. “Don't you seriously not trust me? Do you know how many times I nearly died traveling with you guys?”

  “I'm sorry,” Anis muttered, sounding sincere despite how quiet she was. But by this point, it was not enough to satisfy Neon.

  “Spare me. You can get up yourself!” Neon stormed off as Anis pulled herself to her feet.

  “Do you think she's over it?” She whispered to Rapi as I pinched my brow, feeling a headache coming on.

  “Just apologize sooner next time, okay?” I glared at her.

  “What, do you want one too?” Anis crossed her arms.

  “No, just remember that there are people who aren't as quick to forgive and forget as Neon is,” I said, mimicking Anis’s movement. “The axe may forget, but the tree remembers.”

  Anis stepped back slightly at the grin on my face.

  “You're going to find a way to kill Syuen, aren't you?” Anis asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “For someone like Syuen, there are far greater, easier, and ethical punishments than death.”

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  This chapter kinda had me in a bit of a writer's block. Elen’s actions kinda butterflied away the canonical B story that was used, and we'll see if anyone noticed what happened to the C plot.

  I can kinda understand Anis. The Central Government is not trustworthy in the slightest, and now is a time that they need to be on guard. But she goes too far with it. The biggest reason why she doesn't put Elen through the same ringer as Neon is? Elen is far more willing to hit back harshly, and Anis doesn't have a greater power to connect me too. Everyone knows I hate Syuen, and last chapter I shot down informing Anderson.