[Chapter #1.2.3 - Devious Troubles/Libertaria Landing]

Cain, who some might now consider to be of the ninth level of experience, gauged up Tanaka's plea. "I don't want to."


"She's right. The Hivemind might get her. It's been nonstop trouble since we got on this ship. We eject her, and the Hivemind might use her trajectory to find us, or some crazy shit like that." After saying this, he shot out his arm and pointed straight at Tanaka. "Don't think I'm saying this out of mercy! One step out of line, and I'll trash you like a metal bat into an old PC!"

Johnny was still in his Justass form as he only just entered it moments before Tanaka was defeated and since Johnny still felt paranoid that Tanaka had something up her sleeve, So the now Incubus powered Cyborg is now analysing the situation and weighing up the decision. Despite the fact he was fused with his persona Johnny's mind wasn't altered too much, he would prefer if no one got ejected "Well I do like the sound of those invisible shirts." While Justass was trying to tease Tanaka a little with that comment he did like the idea of a shirt that could show off his glorious abs in this Sullied Soul.

Justass would then propose his own deal on the pleading Con-Woman "Alright Darling since I want to piss off Robert for ruining the meal the Waddle Dees had set up earlier here is the deal we are gonna make. If you promise not to attack anyone on the ship and cooperate with the crew, we won't eject you and I think we can provide commendations for you." Justass would then turn to the others trying to justify his decision. "Do we really want to give the Hivemind an ASSW that can steal money? Even then it seems wrong to me to leave someone to be assimilated by the Hivemind not to mention we can remove the tracker on her so that issue becomes obsolete." Johnny would then nod at Cain's statement  "Yeah Cain has a point there is no telling what the Hivemind could pull off if we just dump Tanaka to the vast voids of space. It's ultimately less dangerous."

One thing Johnny found odd about this whole situation was how sad Axis looked sombre as this whole situation, it was definitely worth bringing it up with her later, but for now it doesn't seem like the smartest idea to put Axis on the spot so Johnny just logged that in the back of his head for now.

>No to ejecting Tanaka

Aryll quietly stood in the clearing dust of the battle, weighing the variables as he listened to the other combatants all gave their input on whether of not to eject Tanaka. Shortly after the odd guitar/devil person concluded their piece on the matter Aryll began to voice his own opinion.

"I would like to advocate to eject her," He said, siding with Theo and the Captain in this debate. "I know I have only been on this ship for a little while, and I am still confused as to what is happening, and that I did not contribute in that battle..." He continued, voice limned in a rather dejected tone before stating his reasoning.

"...but is she not a threat to your ship? Could you not simply destroy her body entirely and then choose to eject her?" Aryll's gaze was still fixed on Tanaka, and he had not let go of his glaive.

The Captain listened to everyone's points before speaking. As he did so, he gently turned towards the rest of the crew. "That means we have Mr. Cimeies, Theodore and Aryll in favor of ejecting Tanaka..." Tanaka's face dropped. "And Axis, the Waddle-Dees, Cain and Johnny against. By vote, we shall not be ejecting her."

Tanaka's face lit up at this and she raised her hands in a groweling display of gratitude. "Bless you, thank you. I won't be attacking anyone, I promise! In fact, look, I'll help manage your ship's finances for you for just regular pay!" She said.

Robert scoffed, walking away without a word, while Axis held her hand to her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.  "Captain?" She began before raising her head towards him. He gestured for her to continue and she nodded. "I volunteer to keep watch over Tanaka, at least for the foreseeable future."

"I have no objections." He replied.

Axis saluted him. "Thank you, Captain! Now let's go to Doc's so he can get that tracking system offline." She said, grabbing Tanaka's hand and pulling her to her feet, much to the robot's dismay. However, she couldn't do much to fight it and, with an exasperated sigh, she and Axis were gone.

The Captain addressed you all again. "We'll be setting course straight to Libertaria as soon as the procedure is done. You can either do what you please in the meantime, but I would ask you to be ready at the hangar bay in time for our landing." He said.

Johnny exited out of his Justass form as Tanaka was hopefully no longer a threat and was happy to know he won over Robert and saved Tanaka's hide, he was sure this would be a great investment in the future. Curiosity got the best of Johnny as he wanted to learn why Axis was so eager to spare Tanaka "Well guys I am going to go check on Axis and Tanaka. So unless any of you guys are coming with me umm meet me back here when it's time to land." Johnny was pointing at the floor with both of his hands as he talked.

Unless anyone had something to say to Johnny he would start going after Axis and Tanaka, he wanted to see where the Hivemind keeps their tracker chips on drones, that would be something he could cross off his bucket list watching a Robot receive surgery. Johnny started to run after the girls, for some reason his balance appeared to be off as nearly tripped twice trying to catch up to Ms Speeding Blonde Bullet. "What is up with my legs recently?" Johnny was now tossing up the idea of asking Dr.Socket for some X-rays, Johnny hadn't gotten a proper chance to take a look at Dr.Kirkmore's work, so far the cybernetics seem to be working so Johnny didn't think too much about it until now. Oh the mysteries of Post-World.

Cain considered buzzing off for the time being, but instead... "I'll go with you," he said to Johnny. Out of earshot of the others, he softly mentioned "That Axis is a good deal sympathetic, is she not?" His tone lacked positivity that might seemingly befit those words. "I wonder..." That sentence trailed off as he kept moving alongside Johnny. He was thinking 'That damn robot tried to kill us, and she advocated against ejecting her. Now she wants to take care of her. Is something happening behind the scene, or is this just how she is?'

The large group of Waddle-dee's looked at the two different people leaving, Axis and Tanaka, and Robert going the other way and they all looked to each other and nodded before splitting up and going after both groups of people incase they are needed anywhere just wanting to be helpful in what manner they could be.

When everybody voted to not eject Tanaka, Theodore got furious. "This is one of the moments when democracy is a bad thing," he said to himself. He looked at Tanaka, "I am keeping an eye on you." He pointed his two eyes with his fingers then pointed it back at Tanaka while keeping a glare. He doesn't trust Tanaka and he never will especially that she just literally made them pay for their lives. Even with the deal? It's still fishy for Theodore to be involved with such people. It might be the easiest way to get access of something but it will cause trouble. As a businessman, Theodore knows the risk and it sucks but everybody must play fair.

"If you guys don't mind, I want some time alone with a cigarette," he said as he dispersed from the party for a while. He went to the loneliest corner of the hangar and lit a cigarette. He smoked the cigarette to his heart's content while assessing the situation at hand. Theodore is doing some thinking and clearing his mind, right now. He doesn't want to be disturbed but, he won't mind if someone wants a smoke or two with him.

Aryll stood there impassively as the vote ended in favor of keeping Tanaka on the ship. It was an odd choice in his eyes, he knew, but he would respect the mutual decision made by the people present. Looking up from the leather bound volume and seeing people begin to drift their separate ways, the machine considered his options for a brief moment before beginning to follow Cain, Tanaka, Johnny and Axis, jogging in order to catch up. After all, getting thrown into all this so fast was awfully overwhelming, and perhaps he'd learn more from tagging along with these more experienced residents of the starship.

Axis & Tanaka

Music:

Johnny, Cain, Aryll and the Dees would follow Axis and Tanaka. Axis looked at Johnny with an excited look in her eyes when he announced he was going to go along with them. This increased exponentially with Cain, Aryll and the Dees following along as well. Tanaka seemed mostly exasperated, but Axis relentlessly kept tugging at the redheaded robot's arm. "Thanks for coming with us, guys!" Axis said cheerfully, all of her gloom gone with the wind now that Tanaka was safe and sound with both feet on the spaceship's ground. She still sped a bit ahead with Tanaka even as the others followed them to the medbay, where Doc Socket waited, scurrying around and proding holes in various paper notes strewn around his messy office.

"Doc, we've got a job to do!" Axis said, slamming the door open and shaking Socket into a jump. He landed back on the table, looking over the excited Axis and the android, as well as the people following them.

Tanaka got closer to the party and whispered to them in a worried tone. "Isn't that a socket? Those things, aren't they extinct or something?" She asked you in a hushed tone.

Axis had a huge grin plastered over her face and she spoke up first. "Doc, we need to get the tracker out of her! Should be easy, right, she has like, broken away from the Hivemind or something, right?" She gave Tanaka an expectant look, at which the other raised an eyebrow.

"Well yeah, I'm me. I can't connect to the Hivemind. Don't think I ever could." The android answered wryly.

"See!" Axis added.

Doc waited for a moment before gesturing towards the backroom with the surgical bed and other Module and Plug equipment. Tanaka began taking her clothes off with an unfazed expression on her face, which prompted Axis to eek and cover her eyes. "Relax, these front parts are made out of this whatever it is sort of darker fabric. I have no clue, but it looks like lingerie, so it's not like I'm naked or anything." Tanaka said, looking herself over in the mirror. "But damn, this lingerie would make a fine line. I should start selling something similar. I can see it already: 'Sexy Robot Bodysuit - make your every night an interstellar hivemind chase'. Hah, it will sell like crazy. People are into kinks like that, you know."

Axis awkwardly lowered her hands to peek. "I-I see. So the boots don't come off either?"

"Nope. Though it seems my feet are detachable. If I can, I'd like to switch them up to some heels. This body is just a wee bit too small for the general tastes, you know."

"Oh, Doc can probably help you with that. And Eli should have some parts somewhere." Axis said, perking up as if she'd completely forgotten about the nearly-awkward situation that happened seconds ago.

Tanaka laid herself on her stomach. "Take it away, Doc." She said as Socket climbed on top of her and began fiddling with the area near the back of her skull, behind her ears. He dug a bit with his claws, prompting some jerky reflex reactions from Tanaka as he did so, but eventually, he pulled out what looked like a chip covered in mucus. As well as a part of circuitry dangling out of it.

Tanaka groaned, rubbing the back of her head. "Did you have to rip out part of my cortex with that? Seriously, your Doctor sucks. I can help get you better medical staff." Doc whacked her on the head for that remark. He then took the chip to the table and, after examining it for a couple seconds, began wildly bashing it with his claws until the whole table was scratched up and the chip was in utter shambles. He then looked at Tanaka, who had gotten back up, and the party, raising a claw probably trying to imitate a thumbs up, except he had no fingers.

Axis jumped in place, grabbing Tanaka's hands. "Yay, it's done!" She said to the stupefied android. "Now can you tell me about the Pit?" She asked promptly.

"Huh, that shithole? I sell there because people there like the mass produced cheap garbage like the invisi-shirts." She bit her tongue and looked at the party with an apologetic grin. "Haha, different from the ones I mentioned before, don't worry. Those are much better. Cross my Papillon Heart and swear to die. Or not."

Axis scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "Ahahaha, yeah...a shithole... It kinda is, isn't it." She said, looking away, still smiling.

"Huh?" Tanaka looked her under the eye. "What are you interested in that place for anyways?"

Axis seemed caught by surprise, unprepared to answer the question. "U-uhm, I'm uhh... from there, actually."

Tanaka scoffed, shrugging. "Is that why you saved me? Look, I ain't gonna apologize for talking smack about your hometown. It stinks. I just do business there cause business is easy where people are desperate for any luxury."

"N-no, that's not why I saved you." Axis began, but felt bad, judging from her expression's shift to a frown, and cut herself off. "Well it kinda is. I wanted to hear about the Pit again, but that wasn't all." She answered, now fervently looking at her fiddling fingers.

"Yeah, alright. I can see you're not all that hot about talking it over, and I'm not at all interested, so I'll let it go. Thanks, though, I thought I was a goner. Sometimes it's tough running from the Hivemind when your bodies are all just pieces of hardware."

"Oh, that's right, what are you even? And what was all that business mumbo jumbo that the Captain said you did?" Axis perked back up. She could seemingly swap moods with the snap of a finger and was now leaning expectantly towards the other.

Tanaka backed away, pushing Axis away with her hands. "Look, don't get too willy-nilly on me. Two steps away, at all times, comprendo?" She said and, when Axis nodded, she grinned. "I'm like a...well, a learning program. Digital. I teach people how to do business while also doing business myself. As I'm pretty great, my lessons can cost a lot. You can understand, right?" Axis shook her head in confusion. Tanaka just let her palm connect with her face before continuing. "That's what you get for involving yourself with some brat from the Pit. Anyways, I'm a teacher. Teacher. And a shopkeeper. I ain't sure about teachers but I know you do have shops back there." Axis nodded this time.

"S-so the Captain hired you or something?"

Tanaka looked the party over. "Come on, help me out here. She's your friend, isn't she?"


Robert

Same Music as Above:

Robert walked away towards his cabin with a hurried and furious gait, more akin to a stomp. With his already giant size, coupled with his current temperament, he easily shook the floor panels and caused quite a commotion in his wake, with people opening their cabins and rushing to see what was going on. With a mere deadly glare, Robert would shoo them all away.

He only noticed the Dees plopping behind him after a couple of minutes have passed. Looking over his shoulder, he frowned at them and his mouth twisted into a painful grimace. "Oi, am I gonna have to deal with these buggers again?" He grunted to himself, slumping his shoulders. "Look, why're ya followin' me? I can't see a reason to, unless yer Captain ordered ya to. Did he?" He asked in a rather coarse, threatening tone. By that point, he had already stopped in his tracks, turning halfway to face the Dees. His claws glistened in the hall's illumination, but he appeared too exhausted to actually put up a fight. It wasn't quite clear from his normal behavior, but his breathing was heavier than before after getting beaten by Tanaka and his forehead became nigh reflective from the sweat pouring off of it.

The Waddle-dee's followed along with Axis and the others and as they got to the med bay they waved to Doc Socket, and as he talked with the others a few Waddle-dee's started to help clean the place, they were not stacking things like they would for a normal person since Doc Socket didn't have hands, they moved things to bulletin boards for him and sorted them that way so he could find things easier, making sure they only put up the one sided papers, the double sided ones they put up on clear aluminum so that he could take them down if he needed to, they also started to reinforce some of the surfaces he had scratched up so that they would be nice and taken care of.

it was stuff they always did for the Doc to make sure the med bay was as neat as possible and make it easier for Socket to do their job, and once he took out the chip and smashed it one Waddle-dee ran in with a large Mallet and hopped onto the table and gave a little salute to Doc Socket before starting to go to town on the small scraps to make sure it was properly broken before it finally collected the small pieces and smiled and saluted to Socket once again as more started to repair the table for them.

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The Waddle-dee's with Robert traveled with him and as he walked they were repairing the and resecuring the panels to make sure they were not damaged, they also made sure the people around were not to scared as they followed along behind the large Alien Pirate.

When he turned to look at them the waddle-dee's waved at him with smiles on their faces, and one rushed forward with a notepad and held it up to show him what it wrote "The captain never asked us to follow you, we wanted to make sure you were okay and comfortable, if you need a room we have a few empty ones, we also have a few Bars and Cafeterias on the ship if you wanted something to eat or drink, We were also worried about if you were okay after the battle as we haven't had a chance to tend to any injuries you may have" they said as they looked up at him.

What exactly this Pit was was unknown to Cain, but it seemed to explain Axis's behaviour. He watched the two talk until Tanaka asked them a question. He was about to say "Not really," but changed his mind. That would make Axis dislike him, which would be inconvenient. Instead of answering her, he only gave another question. "That body. It was a Hivemind robot who boarded this ship to attack people. You got on this ship somehow, and entered that body some way. Tell me how."

Aryll involuntarily winced as the insect-like creature viciously destroyed the chip it had extracted from Tanaka's head, likely scarring the table in the process shortly before giving them a hand-signal that seemed to affirm that it had destroyed the device (if that wasn't obvious already). He glanced over at the pink-headed person from earlier answered Tanaka's question with a question.

"If I may ask...may someone explain what this...hive-mind is...?" The ASSW inquired, raising his hand slightly as he did so.

Axis & Tanaka

Tanaka turned towards Cain, hair framing her annoyed face. "You want to know that? I guess it makes sense and I did lose, so I don't have an excuse not to tell you or try to extort you over it..." She placed a hand on her chin before spreading both hands around herself, letting her hair flow around her with the motion. She grinned before continuing. "I came here on those pirates' ships. I've been waiting for ages to find a good body to permanently borrow and those guys down there only have crap. I had ended up down there after the ship I was on got plundered. It was a trade ship and I wanted to reach Earth. Easy peasy, but then those idiots had to ruin it!" She snorted in annoyance. Crossing her arms, she looked to the side. "But here I am now. Seems like this'll be a magnificent business opportunity for all of us."

Axis listened closely without speaking. When Tanaka was done, she jumped in place. "Oh that's so cool! You can just jump from ship to ship like that. I wanna be able to jump from ship to ship..."

Tanaka stared at her with a deadpan. "Yeah, right. I'm digital so I can do it. I you want, I know a guy who could try to digitize your consciousness... If you got cash."

"Really!?" Axis perked up before frowning. "Wait, no, that's bad. I like this body."

"Your choice hun."

Axis took note of Aryll's question, smiling at him. "You don't know what the Hivemind is? That's strange, are you like these guys?" She asked, pointing towards Johnny and Cain. "Well, basically, it's this scary bunch of robots like you. But not like you. They're bad and stuff, but you seem good."

"What she's trying to say is that the Hivemind is a gigantic fleet of androids like you and the guitar boy who've either been made by them or made into them. The Hivemind assimilates people from all over the galaxies, adding them to their drone army. They destroy whole planets in an instant with how many of them there are. It's a miracle Earth still exists, honestly. Goes to show the Empire's military strength" Tanaka explained after shooting Axis another annoyed glare that she responded to with a smile and a wave.

"My sis is in the military. She must be real busy right now." Axis added proudly.

Meanwhile, Doc Sock saluted towards the Dees. He moved out of their way as they kept at their work, releasing clicking bug noises as if chatting with them.


Robert

Robert raised an eyebrow in suspicion at the Dees. "Ya'll are stupid. Are ya some slaves on board here, I see ya everywhere. Squirming, like sand worms." He responded. "Aight, if ya're slaves, find me a room, get me info or surveillance of my crew's status and fix up my claws. The insides have melted." He commanded, raising a claw up and demonstrating its currently clunky movements. "I can't do it myself with this melted junk. Scallywaggin' android lass... Yer Captain shoulda ejected 'er, if nothing then to get yer relations with Libertaria up. He's an idiot for listenin' to a buncha crew about it."

Johnny just shook his head to Tanaka when she asked about Socket "I don't know enough about Alien species to tell you." it was all well and good until Tanaka got undressed. "Oh my god the Hivemind really went all in on this sex appeal thing." Johnny couldn't help but stare at the lingerie like fabric, he doesn't want to but he couldn't help it. As perverted as it might possibly sound he was fascinated with how Tanaka was built, just watching the individual parts move about as Doctor Socket does the deed of pulling the tracker out.

As the process continued Johnny took note of the place Axis and Tanaka, the pits being a shit hole? are they talking about Detroit by any chance Johnny had to inquire more about it."So where is this Pit place you two keep mentioning? Like what planet is it even on?"

Johnny just kept listening to the conversation as he took note of Tanaka's offer of digitization "Hold up, we can just straight up pay a guy to digitize someone? For how much?" While Johnny had no actual plans to go ahead with it at the moment that is something worth considering if he ever wanted to get rid of the fleshly components of his body and go full Robo on everyone.

Johnny seemed rather shocked at the fact Aryll didn't seem to know about the Hivemind and what Axis "Another Pre-worlder? that would be a reassuring sight." of course the mood was somewhat brought down with hivemind mention and honestly Tanaka's description did not put Johnny at ease and sadly it wasn't supposed to. Johnny felt like he should add to the conversation "Yeah Cain and I actually fought against the Hivemind drone that Tanaka currently has control over and I tell you what she was no push over. I had to use Namtar's special attack in order to wipe her and boy toy out." the battle was still fresh in Johnny's mind, to think that Red Head and Blue Cape were only generic drones and they still have shit like Zeta just waiting to attack. All this does is make the poor Guitar feel nervous.

And once again with the Sister Johnny wasn't sure why be felt like he just had to inquire about the Military "I be curious to know your Sister's Military rank Axis, I wonder if Earth's military still uses the same ranking system that was present during my time?" Johnny just like with a bunch of others things was incredible curious about Post-Earth surely 3000 years would make a load of differences.