[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdy8mkfTus]H A N G O V E R[/url][/center][hr]
ET's hand flew up almost immediately in response to the threat in front of him. Fuck. He was still too hungover for this kind of shitstorm. It was two in the morning, his head was spinning, and apparently every two-bit, washed-up super in history had decided to show up at the [i]precise[/i] minute he opened his big mouth. [i]What are the fucking odds?[/i] Biomancer, Avant-Garde, The Tower, and a newcomer. Who was next, Silver Glory?

[color=7ea7d8][i]Do you really want to know?[/i][/color] Gabbie asked in his head. Unbidden, the helmet slammed shut around his face, the internal HUD-lighting up with a lowpass buzz. [color=7ea7d8][i]Because--[/i][/color]

[i]No, I don't. Let me think.[/i] Focus on the most prevalent threat. [i]Dave, keep the guns in the car. This is Stardust.[/i] He'd read her file. An alleged mass-murderer, incredibly powerful in her prime, and--judging from the display he'd just witnessed--still able to put a hole through him, Gabbie, and the six feet of concrete behind him. On the run, vanished into the wind.

[color=bc8dbf][i]Oh, honey! Maysah, what are you doing? His hands are up, stop being so dramatic. Ugh, this is not good for your mental health, dear.[/i] [/color]He felt a tug in his head from Stardust's direction. [color=bc8dbf][i]So sorry about this, sir. She's usually quite lovely.[/i][/color]

[i]Are you her phone?[/i] He asked mentally. ET didn't worry too much about time: the communications were effectively instantaneous between him and the machines, far faster than communication with humans. He thought, they responded, and nobody else knew. His head spun, eyes still shocked from the blast of Stardust’s light.

[color=bc8dbf][i]When she lets me,[/i][/color] the voice huffed. It was mid-high frequency, and clear--clearer than most other digitals. [color=bc8dbf][i]She ignores me except when she’s trying to decide how many bad decisions she can make in a minute.[/i][/color] A pause. [color=bc8dbf][i]Wait, you can hear me?[/i][/color]

[i]Only sometimes,[/i] ET lied. It was easier to start with that than to explain why he was ignoring machines. [i]Can you do me a favor and send Maysah a text? Have it say "You can trust him, Maysah." From someone she trusts? It will help her.[/i] Well, it would help [i]him[/i], at least. The subtle compulsion in his words thrummed toward the phone, a silent sound in the night.

[color=bc8dbf][i]I can do that, sweetie.[/i][/color] This was a pretty easy convince, luckily. Nobody wanted to kill or be killed here. [color=bc8dbf][i]All done![/i][/color] The sing-song tone in the voice was autotuned perfection. True to her word, the audio sensor in Gabbie's sensor suite detected a tiny ping and a little vibration from Maysah's direction.

[color=82ca9d][i]Mind the munitions, mate.[/i][/color] A new voice: this was a tug from The Tower. Where was his partner? Beacon, the lightcaster. They were normally inseparable, according to the file. [color=82ca9d][i]No need for this to get ugly. You know your odds, eh?[/i][/color]

ET sighed mentally. [i]Agreed, *mate*.[/i] The voices were coming, and the buzz was going. This could get very loud, but Gabbie had his back. [i]Gabs, can we block out the irrelevant digitals?[/i].

[color=8493ca][i]You got it, handsome.[/i][/color] The coastal waves of her voice rolled through him, and the voices from outside winked out one by one. That was one of the upgrades she'd walked him through: he had no idea how it worked, but it saved his sanity in a world of dubstep voices and digital advertisements.

Hands still in the air, he willed the helmet to collapse again. "Look," he said carefully. "I'm here from the call, same as you." His eyes darted to Addison: she seemed totally nonplussed by the cold war around her, and was holding out a set of pagers to them. Bless her, pagers. Silent, stupid, workhorse pagers. He looked back to Maysah--Stardust.

"I'm going to take one of those pagers. I'd appreciate if you don't vaporize me.."

“Since you’re here for Hex, I’m not going to stop you,” said Maysah as she stepped to the side and folded her arms over her chest. It wasn’t anything even close to an apology, and her eyes didn’t leave ET as he walked by her.

Not dead yet. Good start to the night. With an internal sigh of relief, ET took the little box from Addison, and retreated a few steps away, toward a wall. If someone was going to kill him, they could kill him looking him in the eye.