Skyside 7: The Big Pizza in the Sky

[Meowmai]

[A Secluded Alley]

The man in Pania's grip looked up at her in confusion. "What? Who? I don't know what you're talking about!" Pania glared at him, hazel eyes aglow with a bright yet sickly green. Her hand tightened around his throat, not quite applying enough pressure to choke him but rather applying just enough to demonstrate her point. "Look, I'm being honest, I have no idea who this woman is!"

"If not her, then who? Who was it that sent you!?" She growled in response.

"A... a man named Doctor Morrison!"

That name was familiar. Pania leant back, searching her memory. Who was this Doctor? Oh, yes. Strange. She could've sworn she'd killed him during her escape. It seemed he had survived. The man's voice cut through her train of thought. "Let me go, please!" He pleaded, glancing towards his fallen ally. "We weren't going to kill you, honest! We were just going to take you back to his lab!"

Instantly, Pania's attention snapped back to him, and she lost control. "NO!" Her roar was shaky, half anger, half almost-panic. In one rapid motion she lifted him up by his throat and threw him into the wall. And then, tewhatewha clutched in both hands, she swung at his back, conjuring a shimmering blade that glowed with the same green glow of her eyes along the weapon's edge. She felt something crack beneath the force of the blow as she split open his torso, but her fury was not quenched. She swung a second time, sending another spray of blood to the wall. "NEVER AGAIN!". And then she struck him further, over and over and over, until his body was lifeless and near-unrecognizable. Only then did she step back, trembling and breathless.

She couldn't let herself be taken back there. She'd rather die than endure that hell again.

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Unsurprisingly the door does lead to the garage proper. Inside are two cars and an empty spot for a third, one of those two being Rose's cart. Now extremely black. The smell of paint is quite overpowering in here and there doesn't seem to be proper ventilation.

Unfortunately for Rose the garage is not empty. There are at least four mecha-zombie mechanics that Rose can see and the potential for more out of sight or under a vehicle. They're working on the other car, spraying it with black paint. There's kind of cardboard over the car windows, but it's poorly secured and there's a great deal of spray paint slipping under the cracks and coating the glass. This lack of precision may explain why all of the building windows are painted black. It's happened incidentally over time.

Rose will also note that the garage is not nearly big enough for a building of this size. The entire back half seems to be shut off and another door over there leads... somewhere. The mecha-zombies haven't reacted to her yet so it's possible they haven't seen her and she may be able to sneak over there to find out more.

Or she would have been able to, but she hears the distinct sound of a bell ring. Not from Krayger, though there is a smaller chime at the receptionist desk that seems weak and unproductive. Still, they went off at the same time, so they're probably connected. And there's a definitive and muffled "Uggggghhhh!" that emanates from the backrooms. Rose has but moments before someone comes out of there headed for the front desk.

[Ironsmith]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Rose pivots on her heels and leans against the wall, crossing her arms and turning her head so she looks like she was watching Krayger grill the zombie at the front desk. If and when the zombies come through the door, she'll shuffle away from them nervously, trying to make it look like she didn't see them coming.

[Morty]

[A Secluded Alley]

The man in Pania's grip looked up at her in confusion. "What? Who? I don't know what you're talking about!" Pania glared at him, hazel eyes aglow with a bright yet sickly green. Her hand tightened around his throat, not quite applying enough pressure to choke him but rather applying just enough to demonstrate her point. "Look, I'm being honest, I have no idea who this woman is!"

"If not her, then who? Who was it that sent you!?" She growled in response.

"A... a man named Doctor Morrison!"

That name was familiar. Pania leant back, searching her memory. Who was this Doctor? Oh, yes. Strange. She could've sworn she'd killed him during her escape. It seemed he had survived. The man's voice cut through her train of thought. "Let me go, please!" He pleaded, glancing towards his fallen ally. "We weren't going to kill you, honest! We were just going to take you back to his lab!"

Instantly, Pania's attention snapped back to him, and she lost control. "NO!" Her roar was shaky, half anger, half almost-panic. In one rapid motion she lifted him up by his throat and threw him into the wall. And then, tewhatewha clutched in both hands, she swung at his back, conjuring a shimmering blade that glowed with the same green glow of her eyes along the weapon's edge. She felt something crack beneath the force of the blow as she split open his torso, but her fury was not quenched. She swung a second time, sending another spray of blood to the wall. "NEVER AGAIN!". And then she struck him further, over and over and over, until his body was lifeless and near-unrecognizable. Only then did she step back, trembling and breathless.

She couldn't let herself be taken back there. She'd rather die than endure that hell again.

The two watchers aren't easy to scare or put off, but this still makes them doubtful about approaching the woman. After all, they'd take even less time to be reduced to a smear like this poor bastard did. Still, they've got a job to do and they'd rather not go back and face the boss without at least trying.

Once Pania has had a moment to catch her breath, she will see two small figures appear on a nearby low roof. They're small and both of them are wearing hoods, with holes through them for long, pointed ears. They emerge from the shadows deliberately slowly, to prevent any surprised reactions.

"Hello?" One of them asks. A masculine voice, but a low-pitched, croaky one. Not human, if the appearance wasn't enough. "Don't be alarmed, we're not with them. But we have seen you deal with them and we think we can help each other."

[Meowmai]

[A Secluded Alley]

Pania spun to face the new figures, weapon at the ready. Green wisps energy swirled around her arms and lit up her eyes as she braced for confrontation, but they quickly disappeared as she realised she wasn't being threated further. Whoever these observers were, they didn't seem like an immediate threat to her.

Approaching warily, lowering her tewhatewha, Pania called back. "Help each other? In what way? I do not know you." They were strangers, and she did not trust easily. However, she would hear them out for now.

[Morty]

[A Secluded Alley]

Up close, the two figures are a man and a woman. Small, with brown skin, long ears, yellow cat-like eyes and prominent tusks in their lower jaws. They're dressed very similarly. A thick cloth vest over a leather outfit with some metal plates. Each has a heavy crossbow on their back, but where the man also has a pair of large (for him, anyway) daggers, the woman is instead armed in a curved hand-axe. There's a variety of other items in the holsters and pouches of their attire.

"No, but our interests might align."

"We know that you're being hunted by a group that you also want to hunt down," the woman cuts in. "We can help you with both."

"We represent a mercenary group called MERC. We're trying to establish our position in this city and we have no reason to play nice with your enemies. A partnership could work out for both of us."

[5a Violista]

[Temple of Lead]

They probably will just have to remember to bring fuel if they decide to come back


The merbatmaidgirl is about to answer the guy, but then Fifi!
"I've only ever picked really simple locks!" she says. "Is there a key or...or code nearby it? Lots of people leave those things in really obvious places nearby," she says.

Anyway,
Followers.
Jobbers.
The guy.
"Oh, there was a robot outside. Was shooting some people, was wondering if it came from here or somewhere else."

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Lead

"The ceiling collapsed! There's rubble and dust everywhere. How am I supposed to find a key?" Although at least the office didn't explode.
"Is there a body back there or something? Might be in someone's pocket. If not, if you find any petrol I can try cutting into it with this doohicky." Samantha's headed back there, still holding the polearm.

"Nope, no robots here. Just Followers, and Father Plumbum's demon-people. Like that one." The guy points at the standing suit of riot gear, now parted from its buzz saw blade. It's hard to see how it could be a demon-person, but then again the armour conceals every part of whatever might be inside, so besides the fact it doesn't have hooves, a tail, or digitigrade legs, it could be a demon inside.

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

"That seems fair. If there's a problem with the rail, the safety mechanisms should engage and prevent us from perishing. I have already checked the track and I can find no signs of disrepair between here and our escape. We should have no issues, Omnissiah willing." As she says that, the priestess reaches out to touch the ship's metallic side. She easily embarks upon the monorail, simply hovering up with the magnetic repulsor augment replacing her legs.

The monorail is a pretty simple vehicle, drawing power from the ship via overhead cables. It doesn't have much of a cabin, mostly a dead servitor sticking from the floor at the front of every carriage. The tech-priestess disengages the other carriages, since they all fit on the first one. It's a metal tube with sides that slide up to serve as massive doors and a row of seats in the middle looking out, with a column at the front which has a dead servitor built into it. The techpriestess flips the cover off a control panel and plus a mechadendrite into it, the servoskull they picked up earlier floating down to anchor on the servitor's head.

The seats aren't built for power armour, in fact the whole vehicle was built that way, so Minerva has to either duck or stand in the middle where there's a narrow gap so passengers can reach the other row of seats. The chairs are dented metal cups, with a vague moulding suggesting two legs. They're slightly more comfortable than they look, but that's not a difficult bar to clear. Most of the Gunners have sat down because they've been walking for a long while. There was a dead body aboard, but the Gunners pitched it off the side of the cabin as they were waiting. The monorail starts quite slowly, as the doors slide back down on each side, but rapidly gains speed despite its less-than-aerodynamic shape. The tech-priestess doesn't look where she's going, looking out of various cameras and sensors on the monorail instead of using the augments implanted in her skull.

[Recaiden]

Fortunately, Haia is quite a bit stronger than she looks like she should be, too. When the rude zombie-man tries to push past her, she simply stands in his way and pushes him back, with just as much force as is required to obstruct his progress. "Please stand back." She reiterates, more insistently.

When she hears the sound of Hunter landing on the ground, she turns her head briefly to confirm that she's landed safely before turning her attentiom back to the undead.

Hunter looks fine. The correctly functioning spider robot is rearming its net launcher and about to fire again.
The kid says "okay" in a quiet voice, and there's a rush of air filling the space he used to be in, because he's completely vanished.

As for the undead, the one that was already standing back keeps doing so, starting to smile.
The other one tries to grab Haia and pick her up. The machine, it was able to feel, is strong, but light.
"No thanks." they sneer.

[Ironsmith]

[Tempest Row]

Haia is picked up, which seems to set something off in her.

"Curious. I am compelled by my programming not to harm humans. But at the same time... you do not seem to be human."

Haia grasps the undead holding her around the forehead, squeezing with her fingers as hard as she can- which would utterly pulverize a healthy human skull, and probably do a little worse to this unfortunate vagrant.

[Recaiden]

The vagrant, well, his head's easily crushed. Not in the way a human survives. Bone snaps, flesh is crushed, old wounds tear wider open, cold blood springs forth.

"Haia, you-"

You might expect him to collapse to the ground dead. But it's not that simple.
"Got me there." he says, and throws Haia as hard as he can (which might send her as much as fifty feet away).
He wasn't using his brain, after all.

The well-functioning robot, noticing this violence, says in a cold voice. "Move along. This is a no-loitering area."

[Meowmai]

[A Secluded Alley]

Eyes narrowing, Pania tried to take stock of the figures before her. Their appearance and size were certainly strange to her, having previously only ever really seen humans. Some of those humans had very strange and striking features that others did not- like the very woman she was hunting- but they were still usually distinctly human. It was hard getting used to seeing the immense assortment of non-humans who inhabited the place she had come to know as the Nexus.

"If I choose to believe you... what would you want from me in return? And how did you know of this? Have you been watching me?" She asked with some suspicion. Her eyes shifted briefly to the mutilated corpse nearby. Well, she supposed that it wouldn't exactly have been hard to piece things together just by looking at this scene. But the strangers hadn't exactly been talking like this was a new revelation to them.

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Someone comes through the door, but it isn't a zombie at all. It's a catgirl in fact. Despite barely being an adult, she carries herself with what she imagines is dignity, but it's still obvious that she's mildly peeved. She seems to have been in the middle of something, a wide surgical apron coated in grease and fluids that are definitely not grease covering her somehow immaculate gothic dress. She's small, barely 5 feet with flowing black hair, coal-like furred ears and tail and a single cybernetic eyepatch with three circular red dots.

She looks from the Krayger to Rose and almost back to Krayger when her attention goes back to Rose. "Oh you. Pickup right? Did you pay Bruce? Bruce won't give you your keys until you pay."

It's a rule.

Spoiler

Show

[Ironsmith]

The vagrant, well, his head's easily crushed. Not in the way a human survives. Bone snaps, flesh is crushed, old wounds tear wider open, cold blood springs forth.

"Haia, you-"

You might expect him to collapse to the ground dead. But it's not that simple.
"Got me there." he says, and throws Haia as hard as he can (which might send her as much as fifty feet away).
He wasn't using his brain, after all.

The well-functioning robot, noticing this violence, says in a cold voice. "Move along. This is a no-loitering area."

[Tempest Row]

Haia crashes against the wall, with a hollow clattering sound similar to a cheap toy. However, Haia stands up quickly enough, and even though her cloak falters briefly as a result of impact, she's not damaged by the extraordinarily far throw. Rather, she marches right up to the vagrant (who now has her full attention) and attempts to push him over.

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Someone comes through the door, but it isn't a zombie at all. It's a catgirl in fact. Despite barely being an adult, she carries herself with what she imagines is dignity, but it's still obvious that she's mildly peeved. She seems to have been in the middle of something, a wide surgical apron coated in grease and fluids that are definitely not grease covering her somehow immaculate gothic dress. She's small, barely 5 feet with flowing black hair, coal-like furred ears and tail and a single cybernetic eyepatch with three circular red dots.

She looks from the Krayger to Rose and almost back to Krayger when her attention goes back to Rose. "Oh you. Pickup right? Did you pay Bruce? Bruce won't give you your keys until you pay."

It's a rule.

Spoiler

Show

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Finally! A person! That was something Rose could work with.

Although this cat-girl... recognized her, somehow? That meant she'd seen her during her first visit here. She hadn't been physically present in the room at any point, so she must've picked up a visual feed somewhere. Since the only camera in the room was attached to the receptionist (Bruce, she presumed), Rose concluded she probably got remote information from the zombies around here. That "eyepatch" probably had something to do with it; it seemed a touch superfluous otherwise.

"Oh! Right, right..." Rose fumbles at her Hotbox, moving like she was going to pay, when she stops abruptly. "Actually... I'd really rather see the work you've done, first." The implication, of course, being that they weren't going to get one red cent if it was unsatisfactory.

[Morty]

[A Secluded Alley]

The two goblins are uncomfortably aware of the possibility of joining the guy in the ranks of creatively-rearranged bodies. Fortunately, they've prepared for this.

"We haven't been watching you, as such."

"We've been observing the people you're after. And many other corporations of Skyside."

"And then here you were, a person already with a grudge against them. What the boss refers to as an opportunity."

"All we want is... well, it's a job offer. You can join us and work with us. We offer honest mercenary work."

[5a Violista]

[Temple of Lead]

Maybe in here, demons are secretly robots or people who wear power armor or something. The developers had to do something to differentiate them from whatever, and they already made angels the weird animalistic ones.

She glides over to the demon-armor thing and starts looking at it, to see if she can finds what powers it and if it still has power.

Since she can't help the other two yet, she still directs her voice at the guy: "Do you know if there's any petrol or gas or whatever around?"

[Deathkeeper]

Black Abyss Body Shop

Krayger is surprised at Rose bending like that but he decides to stay in character entirely.
”Woah there. What kinda operation are you runnin here? Your desk boy makes a grab at my girl and you’re just talking shop now?” he growls.

[Reinholdt]

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

The catgirl's attention shifts from Rose to Krayger and then from Krayger to Bruce. She doesn't seem overly concerned with Krayger's complaint, though that may just be because she already looked annoyed and nothing about that changes. "Bruce doesn't normally do that. She must have provoked him somehow."

Oof.

She reluctantly opens the door behind her and motions for them to follow her into the garage Rose was just peeking at. "Come on then." If they follow, they'll see pretty much exactly what Rose saw earlier. Five mechazombies working on a different car and the vehicle Rose left behind, now very black. The catgirl stops by it. "The engine, transmission, tires... pretty much everything was entirely replaced from the ground up per your work order. The horn now blasts a sick twenty seconds of death metal and there's a turbo rocket button along with spike caltrop drops and oil slicks. Oh and the emergency eject. Make sure you don't mix up which is which."

Might be difficult because all the buttons are black.

[Recaiden]

[Tempest Row]

Haia crashes against the wall, with a hollow clattering sound similar to a cheap toy. However, Haia stands up quickly enough, and even though her cloak falters briefly as a result of impact, she's not damaged by the extraordinarily far throw. Rather, she marches right up to the vagrant (who now has her full attention) and attempts to push him over.

"Haia, you can't-"
"You are not to try to kill people simply because they're bothering you."

The other dead figure, who listened to Haia's warning in the first place, decides this is a great time to stop being here, and walks increasingly fast down the alleyway.

The guy who should be dead (well, more dead than he is), raises his hands into a ready stance, aiming to grapple Haia when she gets close. Of course, even he won't be able to stop a speeding robot from knocking him down.

And just as the robot and the vagrant collide, the security bot launches another of its heavy nets at the pair of them.

[Meowmai]

[A Secluded Alley]

Pania weighed up her options in silence. She wasn't entirely sure she could trust these two, or the group they represented... what was it that they had called it? Oh yes. MERC. But she was currently stuck in a place she barely understood with a hostile group after her, and she had no current allies. So if their offer was genuine, it would be invaluable for her. Shelter from her enemies was much needed, and she relished the opportunity of having allies with her to fight back. And she had been told by someone that she needed money to make a proper living in the Nexus. She didn't exactly understand how money worked yet- to her it sounded like an pointless extra step in the process of trading goods and services of equal value- but if she was going to survive here, she needed work to obtain some. Whatever it was.

All things considered, the potential pros seemed to far outweigh the cons.

After a long while of silence, Pania gave a curt nod. "I will join, then. As long as your group helps me to hurt the ones chasing me."

[Ironsmith]

Black Abyss Body Shop

Krayger is surprised at Rose bending like that but he decides to stay in character entirely.
”Woah there. What kinda operation are you runnin here? Your desk boy makes a grab at my girl and you’re just talking shop now?” he growls.

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

The catgirl's attention shifts from Rose to Krayger and then from Krayger to Bruce. She doesn't seem overly concerned with Krayger's complaint, though that may just be because she already looked annoyed and nothing about that changes. "Bruce doesn't normally do that. She must have provoked him somehow."

Oof.

She reluctantly opens the door behind her and motions for them to follow her into the garage Rose was just peeking at. "Come on then." If they follow, they'll see pretty much exactly what Rose saw earlier. Five mechazombies working on a different car and the vehicle Rose left behind, now very black. The catgirl stops by it. "The engine, transmission, tires... pretty much everything was entirely replaced from the ground up per your work order. The horn now blasts a sick twenty seconds of death metal and there's a turbo rocket button along with spike caltrop drops and oil slicks. Oh and the emergency eject. Make sure you don't mix up which is which."

Might be difficult because all the buttons are black.

[Black Abyss Body Shop]

Rose's hand flies up to her mouth when she sees the cart, and she makes it look like all she can do is nod wordlessly as the catgirl describes the modifications (or rather, complete and total overhaul) to the cart. When she stops talking, Rose decides to proceed with her own line:

"Oh my god, she's going to love it."

She's going to allow a few seconds for that to sink in before having a bigger, more dramatic reaction. She lets out a squeel of delight and abruptly hugs the catgirl (tightly, though she's not strong enough for that to translate to anything painful) and releases her just as abruptly. "Sorry! It's just..." she sniffles. "You have no idea how much this means to me. My niece is going to be ecstatic. She's going to think I'm the best aunt ever after this!" She wipes her eyes like she's crying, before turning and approaching the kart, examining it in more detail. "And you managed all of this in the one day since I dropped it off? You're amazing!"

The ambiguity of whether she meant everyone in the room or just the catgirl being very much intentional, of course.

[Tempest Row]


"Haia, you can't-"
"You are not to try to kill people simply because they're bothering you."

The other dead figure, who listened to Haia's warning in the first place, decides this is a great time to stop being here, and walks increasingly fast down the alleyway.

The guy who should be dead (well, more dead than he is), raises his hands into a ready stance, aiming to grapple Haia when she gets close. Of course, even he won't be able to stop a speeding robot from knocking him down.

And just as the robot and the vagrant collide, the security bot launches another of its heavy nets at the pair of them.

[Tempest Row]

What Haia meant to do at this point was simply stomp on the vagrant's chest until either it took on the properties of a liquid or he managed to escape. No matter what he was, that would probably kill him dead.

What she ends up doing is quite different. When the net collides with her, she's naturally knocked over by the force and weight of the projectile, and it would take her a moment to get back up. Not that she'd bother; at this point, it would be obvious she's being detained and she decides against resisting arrest.

Hunter's orders don't quite make sense to her. The vagrant wasn't bothering her; she didn't have the capacity to be bothered. The vagrant had threatened Hunter with harm and so Haia had moved to protect her. What was so bad about that? Did Hunter not want protection?

Not that it mattered now. She was under arrest. It'd be something to talk about after she is processed.

[Rebonack]

[SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!]

And off they go!

Nyooooom!

Zee takes a seat on one of the chairs and watches things go whizzing past, kicking her feet and humming the tune to 'Ticket to Ride'.

What?

She's hoping there won't be any further conflict and they'll be able to get out of here without anymore violence.

Honestly this will have been the most bloodless alien invasion thwarting she has ever been involved with.

Still...

A shame about all the people who lived on the ship. That level of death is difficult to wrap one's mind around. She has the feeling that the 40k folks just don't think about it. That or their sense of empathy is seriously maligned.

[Shadowcaller]

[SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!]

Minerva have to duck down to fit inside then.

She wasn't hoping for more conflict but she couldn't allow herself to relax until they were out of here. Therefore, she was going to keep an eye out for xenos while also getting ready to getting out of the train as fast as possible once they stopped. She had a feeling they weren't going to have much time to make their escape.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Lead

Inside the armour is a corpse. The helmet can be taken off quite easily, revealing a shaven head, pallid skin covered in runes tattooed in black ink. The eyes and mouth have been stitched shut with black thread, and the nostrils and ears have been sealed with plugs of black wax. The armour is also very clearly not power armour, just heavy black canvas and kevlar plates, with black combat boots. "Place burn down. Fuel go boom. Um, maybe vehicles outside? They have engines, yeah?"

The body doesn't move as June touches it, but she might get the idea that it's watching her.

SPAAAAAAAAACE!

The monorail travels surprisingly quick, and it's clear this is the main way of getting about the vessel- there's a lot of different stations they breeze through, most with corpses in. Some are quite posh; the station used by the lower officers is far fancier than the ones used by ratings and common voidsmen, with padded seats and mosaics, whereas the more common stations have uncomfortable bucket seats and graffiti. The ride is smooth, though occasionally there's sparks and flickering lights.

It takes maybe five minutes to return this way to the cargo hold next to the shuttle docking bay, where there's some heavy equipment to load and unload monorails- the techpriestess has remapped the route, as a passenger monorail wouldn't ordinarily go to this particular part of the track. There's several heavy-lift servitors sprawled across the floor, as well as a civilian forklift-pattern sentinel. There's a large airlock door which cycles open as the tech-priestess approaches it. "There may be xenos close. Hopefully the crew we left were enough to defend our vessel."

[Morty]

[A Secluded Alley]

The two goblins look at each other in surprise. That was easy. They expected to have to bargain a bit more. But hey, they won't complain. Recruiting a new member is going to look good on their evaluations.

"Alright! You do need to talk to the boss now. We'll take you to him."

"And it's best to get clear of here before someone starts asking questions about the bodies."

"This is Skyside, I don't think anyone is going to."

[5a Violista]

[Temple of Lead]

June looks at the corpse.
That's really creepy, she thinks.
Not to mention, it keeps on looking at her, somehow.

After she feels like she's had enough, June carefully puts the helmet back on that, hoping that would stop it from looking at her.

Well,
Okay.

"Yeah. There's some vehicles out there but...I'd rather wait until it's clear out there." Still probably that fighting going on out there.

"So what are you going to do now?" she asks the guy.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Lead

The helmet is replaced on the corpse's head, and hopefully it stops looking at June. It's hard to tell if it's still looking at June; the helmet's visor of toughened black glass is getting in the way. But... so was the fact its eyes have been stitched shut.

The sounds of combat from outside have ended, so it might be safe to go and get some fuel from the vehicles outside. "Wait here, for guy to come back. Maybe try going somewhere else. Don't know, still waiting for... for brain. Followers... they give me stuff, keep me helpful, but it hurt brain. I'm off stuff now." So hopefully his brain is recovering now, but it's hard to say. Doesn't seem it's happening very quickly.

[Recaiden]

[Tempest Row]

What Haia meant to do at this point was simply stomp on the vagrant's chest until either it took on the properties of a liquid or he managed to escape. No matter what he was, that would probably kill him dead.

What she ends up doing is quite different. When the net collides with her, she's naturally knocked over by the force and weight of the projectile, and it would take her a moment to get back up. Not that she'd bother; at this point, it would be obvious she's being detained and she decides against resisting arrest.

Hunter's orders don't quite make sense to her. The vagrant wasn't bothering her; she didn't have the capacity to be bothered. The vagrant had threatened Hunter with harm and so Haia had moved to protect her. What was so bad about that? Did Hunter not want protection?

Not that it mattered now. She was under arrest. It'd be something to talk about after she is processed.

A good thought on Haia's part. Liquefying the guy's torso would definitely stop him!

The security robot carefully clambers down the side of the wall and approaches to make sure they're well-contained by the net, and maybe apply some more suitable restraints, like nice handcuffs. Haia seems to have had hands most of the time, right?
"You are being detained. Do not attempt any further violence."

The injured vagrant sighs heavily, but doesn't try to go anywhere.

After a moment of thought, Hunter expects an answer about how she wasn't trying to kill him just to kill him, or explaining that she can't really feel annoyed. But nothing like that happens.
"Haia? Do you...need help with the net?" Surely the robot is strong enough to do something about even this weighted net.

[Ironsmith]

[Tempest Row]

A good thought on Haia's part. Liquefying the guy's torso would definitely stop him!

The security robot carefully clambers down the side of the wall and approaches to make sure they're well-contained by the net, and maybe apply some more suitable restraints, like nice handcuffs. Haia seems to have had hands most of the time, right?
"You are being detained. Do not attempt any further violence."

The injured vagrant sighs heavily, but doesn't try to go anywhere.

After a moment of thought, Hunter expects an answer about how she wasn't trying to kill him just to kill him, or explaining that she can't really feel annoyed. But nothing like that happens.
"Haia? Do you...need help with the net?" Surely the robot is strong enough to do something about even this weighted net.

[Tempest Row]

Haia does indeed have hands, and will even helpfully hold them out to the security robot if it approaches with a set of handcuffs. She was being detained. Resistance, even by omission, would not serve to help either of them. Just as well; her wrists are much smaller than they appear to be, being just a conglomeration of joints, so if she did need to escape the handcuffs, it wouldn't be difficult for her to do so.

"GT-74037, designation 'Haia', requesting formal charges." Haia says, in her for-robots-and-police voice. That was standard procedure, after all. It was entirely possible this was simply a misunderstanding which could be cleared with some basic communication.

When Hunter asks if she needs help, Haia gives her a nonplussed look. "...I am being detained." She says matter-of-factly, like that's all the explanation that is needed.

[Meowmai]

[A Secluded Alley]

"And where is this boss of yours?" Pania asked the question while already beginning to move towards the alleyway exit. Then, she paused, as if reconsidering. Her eyes shifted back to the two figures.

"One more thing. I'm choosing to put my trust in your offer. If this turns out to be some trap or lie..? You will regret it." Perhaps it was not the best move to threaten those offering you a job, but she wanted to make herself clear. She might be willing to believe them for now, but she wasn't quite ready to let her guard down. If this was some trick, and her trust was broken, she would not hesitate to lash out.