Bee yawned as she rose from her pillow.
Her purple eyes were illuminated by the soft radiance that peeked from the curtains as she shook off the remnants of sleep.
She turned to the figure of 'Elliot' who was still asleep, hugging his pillow while adopting a particularly pitiful fetal position.
"Cute," said Bee.
Unlike her, her soon-to-be husband was sleeping above the covers on the bed and thus she carefully slid from under the blankets in order to not wake him. She then grabbed her gun which was under her pillow and silently put it aside.
Giving a glance to the door, she confirmed that Twist hadn't come lurking in the night to snatch the love of her life away for ugly experimentation. It was usually hard to tell if Twist made an effort to hide it from casual investigation.
Last night, Bee had enjoyed telling 'Elliot' a bedtime story which he had been unable to NOT pay close attention to. She had found that he had really 'enjoyed' it, seeing as he expressed shaky gratitude.
Then again, that was only after 'Elliot' saw Bee spill a couple of bullets from her bikini.
Sleeping had been hard for the poor fellow after seeing that, and Bee had assisted him with a quick knock to the back of his head.
The girl couldn't help but think she was doing a great job so far.
After admiring the scenery, Bee grabbed a holster like the one she had used in Red Biscuit City and strapped it onto her thigh before fitting a few guns into it.
She then wore a silver, transparent night dress over a new bikini set and went downstairs.
She soon found that Ess was already in the dining room, having breakfast which had been prepared by T-96. The whole, ancient-looking table was filled with all sorts of breakfast food options ranging from piping hot to refreshingly cold, sugary cereal to savoury meats.
As he saw Bee walk in, Ess shut his eyes and grimaced briefly before pushing away his plate. His appetite had fled.
Bee sat down and T-96 rushed to fill her plate and glass with her usual favourites.
"Why on earth are you wearing that?" asked Ess, furious.
"Freedom of expression," Bee replied succinctly.
Twist walked down the stairs a moment later, adorning a jacket and skinny jeans, his sword visible on his waist.
He grabbed a seat and also began eating without a word.
Ess gave him a short glance before sighing and then addressing both him and Bee.
"So, since we are going to be looking for the others, I assume you have general ideals about where they are holing up, right?"
Bee scratched her chin and molested the mole under her bottom lip.
"No. We barely talk to each other and it hasn't been necessary to share our locations because of the Unlimited Forecast. It's best to avoid the temptation. Mother checks up on us here and there, but her calls don't last longer than a minute. I think she doesn't want to give us the option of tracing her current whereabouts," she said with her usual poker face and stuffed a large sausage in her mouth with more than a little degree of sus-picion. "Even discounting that, Ess, if you call, we aren't really on great terms with anyone else but Mother. First Brother… would sooner see me get wrecked by a woodchipper and D-dee…"
The mannequin beauty hesitated to think what the youngest sister would do to her.
Ess took a moment to think things through.
"I see. Then, I suppose we have our work cut out for us. If the others don't want to be found, we are going to need some help," he said.
Bee shook her head.
"I don't think that's our only problem, Ess. Rather than not wanting to be found, everyone else might turn hostile if we reach them carelessly. I highly doubt the others are willing to break the conditions of the Forecast so easily," she said as her brows furrowed slightly. "And if what you said about Mother is even slightly true – that she has been protecting Father – we might get some strong opposition."
"Bee's right," Twist said his first words of the day without looking up from his bowl of oatmeal. "We can't call to tell them about what we decided first either. That will make them all the more determined not to be found."
Ess gave him another short glance. He was surprised the boy didn't react to hearing Bee express that their Mother could be involved in why their Father was back.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. We don't have that many liberties since we are already going against a disaster of massive proportions. All we can do is take it one step at a time," Ess said as he made the effort to reach for his cup of tea, but failed to get his appetite erect again after catching an unwanted glimpse of Bee's body through her dress. "Can we get in contact with Ratchet? He can help us."
"Yeah," Bee said as she looked at Twist. The boy sighed and turned to T-96.
"Can you get ahold of him? It's best if we tell him we're coming ahead of time," he said and the masked guardian bowed and vanished from sight.
A few seconds of silence followed.
Ess then turned to Twist, intending to say something when his sweet violet eyes flashed sharply.
"We have company."
As soon as he warned, a blinding flash of light emerged out of nowhere!
Ess' eyes turned to his left and within a portion of time that was impossible for normal humans to articulate, he glimpsed a hazy figure outlined by this flash of light zooming into the house from the wall at an atrocious speed!
Ess barely managed to identify this figure as a human being, and as the surroundings warped and burned in the wake of this sudden assault, he was dragged away before he could react!
From the perspective of Bee and Twist, there was a bright radiance, and then their brother was gone, the entire kitchen and dining demolished before they could blink!
Twist immediately bolted in the direction the flash had disappeared.
Bee, on the other hand, quickly ran upstairs to her room.
The speeding individual carried Ess a long way through the modest forest before flinging him ahead and watching him roll on the ground for a good two hundred meters before he finally steadied himself.
Before Ess could get a good view of the speedster, he felt someone placing their hand on his back, and a mass of Fint was promptly attached to it.
Before he could turn to see who this second enemy was, he found himself getting dragged again by the speedy figure whose image became clearer as she moved much slower this time.
It was a pretty young lady with long, braided dark hair and apple-green eyes. She stared back at him and wore a smooth smirk.
"Enjoy your flight, f*cker," she said before letting him go and vanishing from sight.
"Hmm?" Ess nonchalantly hummed. He felt something bobbing on his back.
It was condensed Fint taking the form of the number '1'. It kept pulsing like a heart, growing and shrinking with every passing moment.
As he studied this, Ess heard a loud noise in the distance, and then an intense, orange light dyed the surroundings. He turned to and saw something flying up above the canopy of trees with a long stream of flames and smoke trailing behind it.
It was a miniature rocket!
Ess was a little puzzled.
What was going on?
The rocket was quite a few kilometers away, but Ess, with his enhanced sight, managed to see something peculiar about it.
Dark, oil-like Fint in the form of a '1' was pulsing on the face of the rocket.
Wasn't this the same as what was on his back?
As soon as the rocket reached a certain height, Ess felt a powerful tug from deep within his body, and he was pulled up into the sky with irresistible force!
He followed after the smoky trail the rocket left behind with the exact same speed with which it moved!
As Twist sped through the forest, he saw the rocket and his brother climb into the sky.
His eyes widened in shock.
What in the world…?
From another side of the forest, Rhos gave an order through the comms of all the available units.
"We don't have much time! Take down everyone else before that bastard manages to come down!" he cried.