Oh Where Could He Be?

[small_compromise]

WHO: Omega, Tony (the Mothkitten), Tony (the Human) and Jon
WHERE: Not!Temba
WHAT: Just some Lost Children on an Unplanned Adventure
WHEN: End of July
WARNINGS: N/A? Will change as needed



Roughly one hour and twenty minutes ago...

"Oh no..."

Hugging the squirmy mothkitten to her chest, Omega turned just in time to see the doors slide shut to the train before the floor shuddered underfoot and the scenery began to slowly but surely move past the windows. She clambered onto one of the seats, pressing her face against the glass as they began to pick up speed, catching a glimpse of the ARC Trooper she'd been trying to tail earlier before ending up chasing the mothkitten aboard the transport. Sheepishly she offered a wave as they quickly sped on past.

The winged furball mewled and tried to get comfortable in her lap as she sighed and flopped back into the seat.

"This is all your fault," she scolded lightly.


Twenty minutes ago...

Omega was jolted awake when the train seemed to finally pull to a stop. The mothkitten in her lap yawned and stretched, and she scooped it up as she approached the doors, peering out into the unfamiliar station.

"This must be the other city..." she observed, for the moment forgetting her situation with the eagerness to see more of another new place. Letting the mothkitten clamber up onto her shoulder where he seemed to like being, not that it was a bother because he was so surprisingly light, the girl started towards the exit. Maybe someone else was still around. And anyway, it would be boring sitting on the train waiting for it to start up again.

She hardly got two steps onto the road from the station when the mothkitten abruptly took off, wings fluttering, eyes big as he took in the new smells. Right before he went darting off.

"Oh, no, no, no- Tony! Come back!"


Now...

It's hard to enjoy the scenery when you're busy looking for a runaway kitten. She'd feel terrible if anything happened to the little one. "Tony!" she calls out every now and then, hoping she'd hear that familiar reply and see him come drifting back.

"Tony, where are you?"

Comments

[in_extremis]

It was rare enough that anyone could be heard calling out anywhere on this planet, so few of them spread out as they were and even more so in this unforgiving city. It was downright strange that anyone would be calling Tony's name. At first, he processed and dismissed it as some rhythmic bird call, pitched high and tight, but it became much harder to ignore when the bird very distinctly asked a question.

Tony wrinkled his nose, then slowly looked up from where he was bent over the broken data point to consider the foliage around him. It didn't seem wise to immediately move from where he was perched, legs crossed, on the edge of the fountain, in case this was some predator trying to lure him out, so he otherwise froze with a shard of the data point in one hand, the other still raised with a fine screwdriver poised. When the call came again, Tony turned his head, pinpointing the unfamiliar voice finally back toward the direction of the hospital. Maybe something had happened to someone, something that could change their voice, and they needed help. Enough people knew he'd be nearby, after all. Abruptly, Tony dropped everything he had gathered into the front of the silken shirt he had found in that big warehouse, pulling up the hem to go jogging toward the voice with a rattling pouch that he hugged against his stomach.

And so his approach came in a rush, and a jangle of metal and glass that crashed through the leaves and a very not mothcat like demand, "I'm close, one more time."

[small_compromise]

No, definitely not the sound of an overly playful mothcat. The strange sound had the girl pause, looking around uncertainly. She was also looking for a good place to hide when a voice called out unexpectedly, and startled, she froze as she considered her options.

"H-hello?" she called out again, this time more hesitantly. The voice hadn't sounded like anyone familiar to her, but she'd only met so many people. Not being alone while she was looking for her lost fuzzy friend didn't sound like such a bad thing.

"I'm over here!"

[in_extremis]

That was definitely not the voice of anyone Tony knew in Temba, unless the tragic accident that had befallen them in this alien city had also given them a new accent. Was it someone he knew outside of Temba? And if so, how did they know to call for him? Frozen again in an incredible moment of panic, Tony had to very quickly consider and then also compartmentalize that the systems the Agrii were using to bring them here were capable of bringing multiple different version from other dimensions across time, and maybe this city already had a Tony in it who had gone through this same torture and these people were still here...!

That anxiety spiral was going to have to happen later. Tony had to reboot himself, tipping his head again like he was tuning to that signal to follow it to its source, working more carefully around the plants now that he had to fine tune his direction closer to the voice. That didn't make him much harder to track, still rattling his tools in the pocket of his shirt, so his arrival wasn't entirely unannounced as he rounded a thick tree trunk and ventured, "Uh, hi." Now that he was here, sure he had triangulated himself close to the call and hoping he could lure them the rest of the way, and had found a myriad of reasons to panic on his way, Tony had no idea to what degree he should actually be panicking. It left him searching for words, and eventually he produced a very ginger, "Are you...okay?"

[small_compromise]

Completely unaware of the crisis that Tony (the human) was having, Omega looked around, trying to figure out which direction he was coming from. The sounds were getting louder, whatever odd thing made such a racket, but the voice hadn't sounded like a droid's so it couldn't be mechanical.

Finally the noise focused into a more definite direction, and cautiously the girl made her way towards the massive tree she'd thought the awkward greeting had come. "...I'm fine," she said, a hand placed on the tree trunk as she stepped around it, wondering if she'd ever find the other end. "I didn't mean to come here, but I guess I'm stuck for now."

Her words grew louder as she neared Tony's position, finally coming into view, probably not at all what he expected, but then she didn't know what to expect either.

[in_extremis]

As they both rounded the tree and Tony was finally confronted with his crisis, he had to pause once again, brow furrowed in confusion then slowly raising in surprise and a generally bewildered attempt at open compassion for whatever was happening here. Outside of specifically being called, that was its own issue, he had just discovered what appeared to be a child wandering around in the abandoned forest-city on her own, calling for help. What she got was a tall man, staring at her and holding his shirt folded over against his stomach and clearly laden with whatever was making that racket, like a mechanical kangaroo.

"That about sums it up, huh," Tony replied, because she could have very well been talking about not-Temba, or the general experience of being stuck on this planet without warning. "Did you...I mean--you were looking for me?" he tried then, frustrated by his own imbalance in this situation but forcing himself to disengage from the tree to saunter more naturally where he could see more of her. She didn't look like the kind of thing that Temba had otherwise made him imagine.

[small_compromise]

She probably wasn't even in her teens, some several years shy of them. She looked like she was wearing some kind of uniform for how color coordinated her tunic and pants were. That probably wasn't camping gear strapped to her back. Now that she had a better look at him, the girl still wasn't sure what to make of the man and his makeshift pouch.

"I... no?" she replied, looking confused at that. "I was looking for...well, he's small- and not exactly a person," she tried to explain, shaping something small and vaguely loaf-shaped in the air between her hands. "I'm not sure what sort of creature he is- but he can fly. And he's got little antenna like this.." She brings her hands up, fingers pointing outwards like horns or rabbit ears of some sort.

[in_extremis]

Having no way to anticipate this answer, Tony went, "Ah--...oh," at her pantomime, lip raising at the pantomime of antenna on this flying thing that this kid made seem too big to be the kind of bug Tony would want to meet. "It really sounded like you were saying..." And, okay, it wasn't like he was the only person named Tony in the known universe, and he probably wouldn't turn around if someone had been calling the name in Times Square. Probably. Maybe. Bad example. But it immediately felt to Tony that it was more likely that someone was messing with him, and he glanced around suspiciously at what might be effecting the acoustics of this area to make him think he had heard his name, before actually offering, "Tony," with his free hand to his chest.

[small_compromise]

It didn't seem like the man was at all familiar with what she was trying to describe, and it wasn't like she had the knowledge to really explain in any better detail. Still, she couldn't help but look a little disappointed at Tony's response, although her confusion once again took precedence as he verbally meandered through his thoughts.

And then came the introduction, which suddenly made things come into focus. Her mouth formed an 'o' in understanding as she began to nod. "That's your name?" she asked, just to make sure. "I can see how that might've...been strange." Random kid calling out your name in the middle of a big abandoned city? Definitely unusual.

"Um. I'm Omega," she said, accents and all.

[in_extremis]

This was already, easily the most awkward interaction Tony had experienced with a kid in a very long time, so he very deliberately had to diffuse the surprise that was evident in his expression at her name before he made it any weirder. After all, it wasn't the first odd name he had heard in his life. This conscious choice did not stop him from asking, "Lots of siblings then?," before quickly flapping it away with a small shake of his head, terrible joke, don't worry about it. "It is my pleasure, Omega," he corrected, and offered to take her hand with a small bow that sent a pair of tweezers tumbling from his haphazard pouch. "You can call me any time."

[small_compromise]

A quick smile twitched at the corner of her lips but didn't stick. "You could say that," she said, trying not to get caught up in that all too familiar wave of loneliness in missing her brothers. She looked at the hand Tony held out to her, the bow he paired with it making a faint smile ease more into place as she reached out with her own hand. Her eyes flicked towards the falling object that surely spoiled any real attempt to make the gesture a regal one on the man's part, but it still served to cheer her up. "Thanks, Tony." It's a little weird saying it to him when she's gotten used to calling a little mothcat the same name.

"Can you help me find my little friend? He must be scared and lost here."

Meanwhile, a young mothcat completely oblivious to the concept of being lost was gliding along looking for fun things to play with or shiny things to divebomb. A certain Archivist would perhaps hear a familiar prrrp! in his vicinity.

[beholding_archivist]

Meanwhile, a certain Archivist is, yet again, crouching over that hemispherical piece of stone, trying to figure out something new about the inscriptions and their potential meaning. Along with Tony he has set up camp in the library of this city and Tony has made good work at making the place a comparably safe place to sleep in. The green creature they have encountered on their first day has turned out to apparently be living in that garden and has taken on the habit of lingering about and observing them.

Just as it is doing right now, hanging upside-down at the trunk of a large tree near Jon, watching the Archivist almost thoughtfully while treating itself to tongue after tongue full of the bugs and other small creatures that are very plentiful in this garden. At least it hasn't tried to get more skin of either Jon or Tony and it has been agreed to leave the animal be.

The prrrp! reaches Jon's ears just as he notices something about the stone and looks up in bewilderment at the familiar noise, only to see a young mothcat flutter his way. Next to him, the large green reptile also lifts its head, eyes rolling forward at the approaching, very much snack-sized feline. It slowly opens its mouth, readying its tongue to lash out the moment the mothcat comes within reach- Only to get an elbow against its neck and a stern look from the Archivist. "Frank, no!"

Frank instantly closes its mouth and slowly turns its entire head to look up at Jon. The head stays that way, but its eyes start drifting in other directions, one back to watch the mothkitten, the other down to where its source of approved snack remain present.

When the sticky tongue darts out again, it goes for the bugs.

Leaving the strange creature to it, Jon heads forward to meet the fluttering feline, which clearly recognizes him and is on his head and shoulders right away, purring and pawing for his glasses. "What are you doing here?!" Jon asks the animal, reaching up to pick it up and keep it from flying away again. "You shouldn't be here, you know that? It's dangerous here. Even Frank wanted to eat you!"

He is half muttering to himself, half berating the mothcat in his arm as he makes his way back outside where he knows Tony has been working on the broken data point.

"Tony! Have you seen-" But Tony isn't outside any longer. Jon frowns and casts a look around, scanning the area. Of course Tony would vanish in the most inopportune moment. Cursing slightly to himself, Jon focuses. Yes, Tony wouldn't agree on him using his powers to simply know his whereabouts, but clearly this is an emergency.

And so, not long after, a certain Archivist is walking up to Tony and his new friend, napping mothkitten secured against his shoulder. "Tony! We have a problem!"

[in_extremis]

They hadn't gotten far. Omega's request a very easy one to agree to but not a particularly easy one to realize. Finding something smaller than a breadbox in a rain forest had its own difficulties, before introducing mobility to the thing, the sheer amount of vertical space the buildings around them provided compounding the problem, and the simple matter than Tony attempted calling his own name a total of once and had to develop some other ways to lure a Little Friend without knowing at all what he would respond to. Clicking his tongue didn't feel profoundly less humiliating, but Tony was still working on a more methodical plan of action for finding this needle in a haystack. It was about when Tony proposed, "Do you know what he eats? What his favourite music is...?" to try to narrow down their field that he heard the approach.

At least he knew that voice calling his name, but with a sidelong look to Omega he replied, "You're going to have to be more specific. About the Tony and the problem." By then, Tony was once again being bewildered by a new appearance of yet another animal committing itself to Jon, and he raised his free hand, eyes darting between Jon's and the fuzzy head, with the question that some researcher could write a whole paper on at this point. Did Jon have some kind of pheromones? If it got any worse, they were going to have to concoct that perfume that Drew used to suppress hers.

[small_compromise]

Omega, while glad to have the company and the assistance, was a little frustrated about being unable to provide further insight on exactly how they'd find the little Tony-thing. She frowned, not exactly all that familiar with him save for what she'd observed when he wasn't blowing her cover. "He likes shiny things?" she hopefully, as though this would narrow things down.

Another voice called out Tony's ever growingly popular name, and Omega looked over, brightening immediately as she began to run off towards the Archivist and the little troublemaker.

Tony! Jon shouted, and the little thing mewed.

"Tony!" Omega shouted, and once again the mothcat meowed.

Return to Sender - Back in Temba

[small_compromise]

The train finally pulled back into the station back in Temba after a perhaps grueling several hours for whoever was awaiting it to make the trip out, but it wasn't without passengers from the other city.

Once the doors opened, Omega hopped down, hugging a mothkitten to her chest, the little creature wearing a makeshift harness out of vines by the looks of it. She scratched the napping troublemaker on the head as she stepped aside for those who had accompanied her to disembark.

[on_repeat]

The hours couldn't have crawled by any slower. As rousing conversations finally died down after his initial panic (?), leaving Echo to take care of a few things before meeting up with the impromptu search party at the station.

However, there was too little to take care of and too much time to wait. His attempt to burn off some of the restless energy that built up failed to dissipate properly, the patrol lap taken to be productive prior to returning and pacing the the length of the station.

He was at the far end of the platform when the train finally arrived, turning to see that the journey to Not-Temba wasn't going to happen at all. Keeping his blaster in its rested stance, his shoulders relaxed as he walked over, helmet tilting a few degrees from Omega and Mothkitten Tony to whoever else she was waiting for to join them.

"...I guess a 'welcome back' is in order."

[in_extremis]

Just the train trip back was excruciatingly long for Tony, who came bouncing out of the car with relief to stretch his legs after Omega with a pat to the top of her head as he sidled past her. He was looking out at the city, already running through the multitude of projects and corners to go check on, and startled slightly at actually being approached. It was nice that the projects were coming to him.

"Well, thank you, sweetheart," Tony grinned to that cautious greeting as though it was obviously meant for him. "No kiss?"

[beholding_archivist]

Stepping off the train and not finding themselves stepping into a crater at least means that Temba is still intact. It has bothered Jon that they haven't been able to access the network at all while in the other city.

Jon greets the armored clone with a nod and casts Tony a little frown for, well, being himself, before stepping past Omega and offering to take the mothkitten from her in case she wants to have some time alone with her brother while Jon and Tony move on to reunite mothkitten!Tony with his mother.

"I suppose the network still works here."

[small_compromise]

It was a pretty long ride that did involve another nap along the way, but it was nice to be back in more familiar territory, even if it was only slightly more so than the city they'd come from. She smiled up at Tony before seeming to startle a bit herself at the ARC Trooper's greeting.

Glancing at Jon as he stepped off the train, she carefully untangled the leash from her wrist as she passed the mothkitten over, though she still looked a little uncertain as she turned her attention back to Echo. "Um...thanks," she replied with a shuffle of her feet, eyes flicking briefly towards the ground as she folded her hands behind her. "I hope I didn't make you worry."

[on_repeat]

Echo's initial response to Tony's reply was the slight wrinkling of his nose behind his helmeted visage. "No," was the mostly neutral answer given with a hint of a smirk as he glanced over at Jon, nodding in return. "It's been a little busier than usual. Nothing's been set?"

In saying this, he broke the seal of his helmet, pulling it off with one hand since there weren't any threats around. His gaze then flickered back to Omega, the faint crease in his brow present yet lacking in severity. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," he sighed, crouching down to her level. "At least you weren't out there alone."

[in_extremis]

Between Jon's frown and Echo's flat rejection, Tony gave a small pout then haughtily raised his nose, not to be deterred by this lack of appreciation and fussing his hair carefully back into place as he pulled his sunglasses back on to look his devastating best for anyone else with better taste that might greet them on the platform. It might look empty otherwise, but Tony could wring attention out of a desert if he had to.

His pointed grooming slowly stopped, forgotten, as Echo crouched for Tony to watch cautiously, sensitive to Omega's fidgeting and searching for the first sign that he should intervene. "She was great," he promised with a reductive wave of his hand for Echo's concern. "She had Tony." His airy delivery suddenly got very acidic with a meaningful narrow of his eyes at Echo.

[beholding_archivist]

Taking the mothkitten off Omega's hands, Jon makes sure to have the leash around one wrist and hand while the winged creature yawned and stretched in his arms, wings fluttering a little. The feline Tony makes no attempts to escape, however, allowing Jon to cast his attention over to the human Tony, only to observe the man fussing about with his own hair.

Oh. He recognizes the attitude. Only a moment before the sunglasses- There they are. Jon sighs inwardly, then looks back to Echo. "We will be taking Tony here-" He nods towards the mothkitten. "-back to the library. To his family. You- Don't happen to know where he has gotten his name, Echo?"

[small_compromise]

At least you weren't alone out there. That stung in different ways, but Omega could still agree on that. She lifted her head to glance between Jon and Tony with an appreciative smile, nodding. "Yeah..."

This was difficult. It shouldn't be, but it was such a strange situation that she really wasn't sure how to go about it. Her eyes dropped towards the floor again as she pried her hands from behind her, if only to grasp in front of her. "I'm sorry," she said, resuming with an apology for the worry caused. "I didn't mean to. I couldn't stop Tony before he got on the train..."

[on_repeat]

There was something familiar about Omega, something sad but that thought vanished the second he heard big Tony's tonal shift, his gaze flitting to catch the last bit of grooming and met narrowing eyes with one of his own. Except it was more of an unspoken query as to why this was directed at him before the necessary connections were made.

Jon helped in explaining it further as the mothkitten answered with a prolonged meow near - if not in - the man's ear. "That," Echo pointed out, quite literally, "was all Cayde." Really, that was all the explanation needed. "Believe me, I tried other names. None of them stuck."

His attention turned back to Omega then, brow lifting as she apologized. "Ah, don't worry about it. The little guy's too curious for his own good. What's important is that you're safe."

[in_extremis]

Cayde. That made much more horrible sense, and Tony's bristling at Echo seemed to crest at the information, his shoulders tense and jaw tight, like he was going to impatiently take it out on Echo anyway. With a glance out from the train and toward the city, though, the tension was suddenly gone with a small nod as Tony pointedly pushed his glasses up his nose again, then gave his own point toward Echo that he held until he got confirmation for his silent recruitment into the war that had just begun. They deserved their revenge.

The pair of clones, meanwhile, had quickly gotten very hard to read, because this didn't feel like a reunion exactly, but they clearly knew each other. Omega's apologetic squirming continued to trouble Tony, because she hadn't been nearly so nervous to meet a man who came running at her in the woods, and the only immediate recourse he had was to look to Jon a little helplessly for some insight. Jon still looked irritated, which could only have been exacerbated by sitting around the train for so long, and now he was burdened under the opinionated animal. This left Tony looking quickly between the group, not sure what problem was more pressing, and he slid up behind Jon where he could massage a promise into the small of his back with a gentle press of his knuckles, bowing his head like he was just there to recruit his namesake as well. "If you guys are okay..." he started slowly, eyebrows raised as he caught Omega's eye for confirmation.

[beholding_archivist]

Despite having to maintain the mothkitten's increased squirming in his hold, Jon follows Tony's primarily nonverbal commentary, raising a single brow out of his frown at the growing tension creeping through the man's body.

He does meet Tony's eyes when he turns towards him, however and responds with a minimal tilt of his head to the right. Echo and Omega will be fine despite the girl's insecurities.

"Right." He sighs with a nod and a glance to Tony when the man steps behind him, giving a clear enough message for them to get going already, which Jon is willing enough to comply with. Though if Tony's goal is the library or rather to find the Exo Hunter isn't something Jon finds himself capable to tell. Not without looking. "We will see you two later." And turning his attention to Omega especially he adds: "I will let you know how the reunification went." Which will include pictures, naturally.