[center][h3]Own Little World[/h3]
[b]Level 4[/b] Nadia (110/40), [b]Level 8[/b] Cadet (27/80), [b]Level 9[/b] Blazermate - (42/90)
[b]Location:[/b] The Maw - Grand Atrium
[b]Word Count:[/b] 6244 (+7)[/center]

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7HJnwRklEA&ab_channel=celldweller][img]https://i.imgur.com/dae1GB8.jpg[/img][/url]
[i]Click for music[/i][/center]

To the right lay a long, heavily burdened dining table, fully occupied by Guests under the watchful eyes of the green, orange, and blue-tinted paintings on the wall above. Though the last thing Nadia wanted was to deal with the more of the stomach-turning gluttons, and she expected that her friend felt the same, this way provided at least a little potential shelter from their vehement pursuer. Having been on the run more or less her whole life, the little thief had a knack for sizing things up during a chase. Over open ground Antoine’s longer stride and greater stamina would win out, but if she and Ace could stay out of reach and hop down to those ventilation pipes, they stood a chance.  “This way!” she cried to Ace as she took off running, the boy on her heels. [color=salmon]”Okay!”[/color]

Her intuition paid off almost immediately. Barely had the two gotten moving before a frying pan, hurled like a discus with Olympian strength, smashed into two of the railing posts right behind them. Taken by surprise by both the sudden, noisy explosion of wood and the realization that Antoine must be able to pull cookware from nowhere, the duo split very briefly. Nadia instinctively launched herself in an emergency hero dive. Very much like the dives frequently employed by hunters in the Cadet’s world, it spared her a handful of splinters, but it did not quite bring her to safety beneath the dining table. Antoine grinned, pulling another pan from hammerspace. “Aha! Order up!” As Nadia scrambled to her feet, panicking, she witnessed her enemy’s second pan not just flying but [i]arcing[/i] through the air, turning mid-flight to bear down on Nadia like a stainless steel frisbee.

[color=salmon]"Nadia!"[/color] Ahead, the Ace Cadet had made it to cover. His eyes were wide with worry for his friend and he instinctively reached out to her. Having decided to use the 'curse' for good, he had perhaps intended to wash Nadia away from the impending danger of her skull being caved in by the cast iron cookware - but the intent conflicted with his want to bring her in to the relative safety of the table. When the holes started forming again and water erupted from the arm he held out toward her, it took the shape of a tentacle that wrapped itself around the feral and pulled. The  Cadet was just as surprised as Nadia was, but when she came to a halt and the water dissipated, he was quick to help her up. 

The heavy pan slammed into the ground, once more sending little chunks of the restaurant flying. At the point of impact where Antoine expected to find a Nadia-shaped splatter was instead a puddle of water - and a wet trail leading underneath the table to two annoyingly, perfectly intact children. 

Nadia, splashed with water but otherwise unharmed, glanced at Ace with wide eyes. “Whoa!” Though taken by surprise, she wasn’t about to look this gift horse in the mouth. “Thanks!” With her friend’s help she got back to her feet in an instant and turned to follow him at a run beneath the table, where Antoine and his physics-defying projectiles couldn’t reach them. Wider than the booths encountered earlier, this table provided a perfect route for the children to escape without worry of Guest interference, but Antoine wasn’t about to let them get away so easily.

A terrific crash and continued ruckus above them suggested that the King of Cuisine had turned the table into his own personal highway. He trampled platters of food and kicked side the grubby mitts of the Guests as he thundered down its length, only ever hesitating when his shoe drew near a dish he remembered making himself. If the sight of his hard work slovenly slopped around upset him, he gave no sign, but remained hellbent on catching Nadia and the Cadet. As his footfalls thundered overhead Nadia slowed down, wary of him waiting at the other side. “Damn, he’s gonna cut us off,” she hissed. Looking back the way she came, she wondered if she and Ace could make it through the open area going the opposite direction before Antoine both caught on and caught up.

After another moment Antoine hit the floor at the table’s other end, kneeling to peer under the table expectantly. “What’s the matter, kids?” he called, his voice taunting. “Indigestion?”

“What’re we gonna do?” the kitten whispered urgently to the monster hunter. “All my plans were sorta based on parkourin’ around the place. Gettin’ to the pipes is still our best bet, right?”

[color=salmon]"I don't know,"[/color] he said honestly, [color=salmon]"but unless we come up with another plan quick it's gonna have to be."[/color]

The Cadet went as close as he dared to the edge of their cover, peering out from under the table to get another look at the piping. If they could get down there then Antoine wouldn't be able to follow. Sure he could still hurl stuff at them, but the more distance they put between the chef and themselves the better. It could work. It [i]would[/i] work. He looked  where Antoine was pacing at the other end of the table, having scrambled atop it with pure anger fueling him. Guess he really didn't like Ms. Fortune's soup joke. Shame, Ace Cadet thought it was pretty good.

[color=salmon]"We just gotta get this guy off our back."[/color] The Cadet scrunched his brows together in thought. One of his arms was curled tight around the fan, the other came up to rest on his chin, just about back to normal after the use of the water ability. What was it going to take to lose the man hellbent on catching them, short of killing him? Or were they going to have to resort to that? 

Down at the far end, Antoine was getting impatient. “Grrah!” he snapped after a few moments. “If you will not come out, how about some company, huh?” Empowered by his rage, he dealt a driving kick right into the nearest Guest’s corpulence. With a startled cry the flailing blob tipped over sideways in his chair, his weight carrying him straight into his neighbor on the other side, causing an immediate domino effect. The whole row of Guests teetered and fell one after another, turning an entire side of the table from security into danger. Nadia sprang into the air in alarm, bumping her head on the table, as more of those accursed Guests hit the deck close by and started dragging themselves her way. And as if that wasn’t enough, Antoine went over to topple the other side the same way, getting the gluttons to do his dirty work for him.

With danger much too close for comfort, Nadia started running. She headed directly toward Antoine, planning to take refuge in audacity with a surprise attack despite her disadvantage. As she scampered toward him she held out her magnet to collect fallen silverware, most of it unused thanks to the Guests’ hands-on approach to eating, and after discarding the spoons she had two fistfuls of sharp points ready for use. Ace had a few moments to put the tools at his disposal to use, with a better solution than Nadia’s by no means out of the realm of possibility. The ventilation pipes lay just below the railing just beyond and to the left of Antoine; the kids just had to fight their way through.

With so many guests all packed together there on the ground crawling over each other and toward them, the Cadet doubted he'd be able to wash them away as easily as he did back in the sushi section of the restaurant. He hurried after Nadia away from the guests' gaping mouths, dodging all manner of items that had fallen to the ground along with the guests themselves. Food and plates they'd dragged down with them, glasses, silverware, and some salt and pepper shakers that very nearly tripped him. The Cadet glared at the offending shakers - then did a double take when an idea came to mind. When you face an enemy bigger and meaner than you, it was always a good idea to try and blind it! 

[color=salmon]"Bring his face down lower,"[/color] he whispered harshly to the feral, hoping that the commotion of the guests crying out and the dishes that clattered to the ground would prevent Antoine from hearing his words. [color=salmon]"Just a little, if you can get him to stoop or kneel then we just might catch a break!"[/color]

He let her go ahead then, well aware that the full heat of Antoine's attention would be on her. Only temporarily, but still. Hopefully his plan would work. He made a hasty u-turn to snatch up the pepper and start unscrewing the cap as he ran to follow his friend. For good measure he scanned the ground, grabbing a handful of sliced pepper fruits and squishing them between his fingers before shoving them into the small container and giving it a little shake. 

Ready to put her friend’s plan into action the only way she knew how, Nadia sprinted straight toward the southern end of the table. To the untrained eye desperate for freedom it looked clear, but while the kitten couldn’t claim to be unafraid, she was no fool, either. She could see Antoine waiting right by the side, ready to bring his frying pan down on anyone who raced heedlessly through. If she stopped just out of smashing range beneath the table, however, he’d need to reach down and grab her--just what Ace needed. With that plan as good as it was going to get as she neared the end of the table, slid into the endzone like a baseball player to the plate, hoping that this didn’t backfire on her. Sure enough, Antoine -perhaps thinking that she’d spotted him last minute- swooped in to help her the rest of the way. As he knelt he extended his arm like a lunging snake, clapped his hand around her ankle, then dragged her out of hiding with a jarring yank. “Aha! Now you’re-!”

His declaration of victory turned into a pained grunt as Nadia thrust two fistfulls of metal cutlery into his hand. The unexpected attack hurt, but barely drew blood thanks to the kitten’s meager strength, and before they could sink too deep Antoine withdrew his hand. With his target out of cover and flat on her back, he already had her right where he wanted her, and with his face twisted into a vengeful snarl, raised his flying pan to batter her.

[color=salmon]"Over here, you hack!"[/color]

Having gotten into position a little further away, the Ace Cadet pointed the fan in Antoine's direction and switched it on. He dumped the powdered spice out from it's container in front of the appliance's blades, and as he'd hoped it whooshed forward carried by the wind the device generated. 

Just as he hoped, the powerful airburst from his new toy launched a veritable whirlwind of stinging particulates straight into the King of Cuisine’s baleful eyes and bare-toothed grimace. “Pfeh! Gaaagh!” he sputtered, his cry of pain and rage lost in a fit of coughing. When he instinctively went to stand up, he bumped his head painfully against the edge of the dining room table, eliciting another howl and putting a momentary dampener on his hands’ efforts to rub the pepper from his eyes.

“Hahah, purr-fect!” Nadia cheered, springing to her feet. By the time Antoine aimed a wild, blind kick in the direction of her voice, she and Ace were already gone. They sprinted the last couple dozen feet to the railing overlooking the wide-open area that occupied the Grand Atrium’s first and second floor and clambered right over, one at a time.

Blazermate chased the chef chasing her kid allies fish in hand, but once she saw how he just bowled over the guests, Blazermate took a moment to look for another weapon, just in case this fish wasn’t enough. Seeing Nadia grab some sharp objects to use gave Blazermate an idea, with Blazermate grabbing some of the unused silverware near one of the guests who was shoveling food in their face. After finding her backup weapon with, frankly, smaller range than the fish, Blazermate continued the chase as the kids continued their escape.

The next second Nadia landed on the double ventilation pipes with a dull [i]clang[/i], freezing momentarily as it wobbled beneath the impact. From here she could also get a better look at the area below her, and she quickly realized that her earlier assessment of the Atrium’s interior, done extremely quickly and from an imperfect angle, had missed a couple details. The kitchen area that Cookatiel presided over, comprising the Atrium’s entire first floor, was completely flooded in a creamy white stew replete with floating ingredients. The bubbling broth and constant flow of steam made the whole thing look like a sizzling swamp, taking ‘the floor is lava’ to a whole new level. A number of pipes attached to the walls sucked up stew to fill what Nadia uncharitable identified as ‘troughs’ around the restaurant, keeping the ponderous patrons well-fed. A little shaky, the feral got to her foot. “This is fine,” she observed. “No change in plan. Better, even, if he tries to follow us.” She glared at the giant pink bird stirring the stew with a super-sized spoon. “Just gotta watch out for that thing.”

[color=salmon]"Hey, catch."[/color] Once he had her attention the Cadet tossed the fan to Nadia across the gap so that he could make a better jump. He landed next to her, steadying himself with a hand as the pipes wobbled but ultimately held up. He found himself grinning, glad they'd made it this far. He took the useful object back from Nadia and followed her gaze to the huge pink bird dressed in a chef's outfit. It's eyes moved independently of each other, lolling back and forth as it went about it's work, but the children had to assume that just meant it would have an easier time spotting them given their luck.

[color=salmon]"I'm surprised it can fly with those little wings,"[/color] he commented. It sort of reminded him of the humanoid guests they'd just left behind, but goofy rather than gruesome. [color=salmon]"But... it looks big enough to ride on, if it comes over you can use your 'paw-kour' again."[/color] 

As the pair moved through the atrium, Blazermate saw that the lower floor was covered in a boiling stew, giving Blazermate an idea if fighting this guy head on didn’t work, even if the pink bird chef above was using this pool of stew to add new ingredients to it. Frankly out of everything here, the pink bird chef was kind of adorable, if a bit doofy. Blazermate hoped they wouldn’t have to fight her, she was too adorable to have to kill.

Behind the kids, Antoine reached the railing, his eyes red, watery, and full of rage. He held a stack of plates in his hand, ready to throw, but at that moment Blazermate made her entrance. She soared in and whacked him with her newspaper-wrapped fish, meatily smacking him again and again, but after the initial shock wore off the King of Cuisine quickly evidenced a surprising resistance to physical trauma. “What’s this?!” he roared, rounding on Blazermate. He grabbed hold of the fish mid-swing, his fingers digging deep into its scaly flesh. “Toasters should stay in the kitchen!” With a powerful tug he tore a big hunk of fish free, coming around at the same time to smash the stack of plates meant for Nadia and Ace against Blazermate’s chassis. Before the shards of china even hit the ground he was gobbling down the fish, healing up the damage he’d taken so far.

Eventually Blazermate caught up to the chef chasing her kids and began to smack him as he was climbing the railing, with an intent to throw the plates he was holding at them. Blazermate’s fish-like weapon… didn’t do the damage she was expecting, being a bit more of a distraction than anything. And this chef healed whatever damage Blazermate did to him with the fish as he retaliated, grabbing the top half of her makeshift club and eating it! While throwing the plates at Blazermate, well then…Thankfully the plates themselves weren’t really super good weapons, much like her fish, so their damage overall was low thanks to her armor, and she could keep her healing beam on herself so this guy would have one heck of a fight on his hands.

The commotion drew the kids' heads back toward their pursuer, and their unexpected ally. Given that the Cadet couldn't exactly go back and help Blazermate fight Antoine off now that he'd made the jump to the pipes, he tried to reach out with the cursed water like he had with Nadia. If he could grab the chef, hold him in place or even pull him over the railing... but all of his ideas vanished when he reached out his arm and the water didn't come. The pores on his arms expanded, pulsing slightly like gasping for air, but no mist formed. 

[color=salmon]"Huh? This...?"[/color] Cadet flexed his fingers, trying to will the water into existence, but what little formed sputtered out just as quickly. [color=salmon]"This curse power is running out...?!"[/color] Was it because he'd used it all up? Was it dependent on him continuing to eat? [i]Gah, that's annoying![/i] Just when he was really coming to terms with it too.

He turned back to Nadia, somewhat conflicted. [color=salmon]"Should we - keep going? I think she can take him, she's tougher than she looks,"[/color] the Cadet said of Blazermate. She already looked plenty tough too, given she was made of metal. 

Though Nadia fretted over the same decision, she managed to come to a quick and sensible decision. Well, by her standards, anyway. “We don’t need to run if we’re not bein’ chased,” she reasoned, adjusting her footing on the pipe. “As long as that pan-chuckin’ psycho’s not in the kitchen, we’re doin’ our part. She’s got this...I think.” As her second-guessing suggested, Nadia wasn’t totally sure that the kids’ medabot friend had a cake walk ahead of her. If manifesting cookware and kicking the Guests over was anything to go by, this Antoine was no ordinary human. She held her position for now, waiting to see how things panned out.

Blazermate, now fishless with this guy having EATEN IT and healed from it, pulled out her backup weapon, a slightly larger than average fork she picked up from one of the guests from earlier. Depending on the damage this did, she might have to go with her backup plan with the stew. Still, she had this cook’s attention, and while he was a tough boy, his weak points lined up to the basic human ones.[color=0072bc]”Don’t mess with my kids!”[/color] Blazermate said as she started attacking by doing a fork thrust at his eyes, with a followup knee to his crotch region and a few hits to his chest to wind the big boy. He might be tough, but unlike her kids, Blazermate was both adult sized and even stronger thanks to being a robot. 

“Gah!” Antoine sputtered, taken by surprise by Blazermate’s hidden weapon. She managed to land a few hits, throwing him off momentarily, but her advantage quickly wore out its welcome. The fork she’d snagged to wield against him, still quite small despite being a little bigger than normal, didn’t so much as register with him unless aimed for his eyes, which took more than a little precision. When Antoine whipped out a frying pan easily twice the size of his head, his giant swings made getting in a tricky proposition. Again and again he whacked at the medabot, happily targeting whatever he could, but when it became clear his pan wasn’t leaving a lasting impression, the situation quickly began to dawn on the both of them: neither could effectively damage the other.

That did not sit well with Antoine. He knew that if he let this blasted machine lock him in a stalemate, those detestable kids would get away. As such the moment the opportunity arose, he used a nearby stool to jump at her like a mad dog. He aimed to bring her down beneath his weight, driving her through the end of the dining table and into the floor. There, the Guests that Blazermate wrote off as non-threats could reach and grab her, holding her as Antoine went to return the favor from earlier by bashing at his attacker’s face.

Blazermate wasn’t going to let this man grab her though, not that easily anyway. Using her jets, she jumped up into the air, using them to launch herself rather than fly and watch as this mad cook missed her entirely as he leaped at her. Now, neither side had much of a chance of hurting the other Blazermate soon realized, and if this guy was going to tr to crush her, maybe she could make use of that reckless abandon… 

Hovering around a bit, she faced her back towards the railing that lead to the platform below which was full of bubbling hot stew. Physical blows didn’t seem to work, but boiling hot cookeries could cause some damage, hopefully.

“You think I’m stupid, eh?!” When Blazermate backed off, Antoine responded by hurling things at her in quick succession. Cups, plates, knives, anything that came to hand hurtled toward the machine with surprising speed and accuracy. His salvo finished with one of his patented miracle pans, arcing through the air in an impossible manner to bean Blazermate right on the noggin if she dodged any time earlier than last-second. While she dealt with that, he seized a ham shank from the table and bit into it, tearing off mouthfuls of meat to get rid of the injury to his face. 

Well, this guy could change between ranged and melee fairly quickly. Kind of made Blazermate sad she didn’t have a machine gun arm for her other arm. His barrage found its mark thanks to his accuracy, but only the final hit, the frying pan, did any real damage. An audible sound of metal hitting metal could be heard from his frying pan hitting, causing Blazermate to reel backwards a bit, but her healing arm soon repaired the damage dealt. [color=0072bc]”I can outheal any projectiles you throw at me.”[/color] Blazermate said, stating the fact that the two had low damage and high healing on each other, although his healing was food related so it’d run out eventually. It’d take forever to do anything though if he stood at range. It did give the kids to run away, though.

When the fight intensified beyond the railing, Nadia stood on her tip toes to try and get a better view, a grimace on her face. Although common sense told her that Blazermate should be able to withstand whatever this crazed chef threw at her, she couldn’t help but worry. Until they broke the curse, after all, the unaging medabot was the only one among them who could actually fight some of these horrors. Nadia did not, however, focus so rigidly on the brawl in front of her that she failed to notice the giant pink bird rising to her right. As Cookatiel flapped into view the feral forgot all about Blazermate, instead turning to face the new threat with her ears flattened against her hair and her little fangs bared. Considering everything she’d seen in the Maw so far, from a headless shadow beast to the twisted Moreau to the bulbous faces of the Twin Chefs, she wasn’t afraid so much as angry--angry at the prospect of having to deal with yet another giant enemy right now. “Scram, you big chicken!” she yelled at it, shifting her glare between the big, goofy eyes that googled in different directions. “We’re not on the menu!”

In reply, Cookatiel opened her beak and spat out a big, yellow bell pepper right at her. Seeing it soaring toward her made Nadia want to die a little inside. “Come ON!” she yowled, jumping straight up to avoid the oversized vegetable. It struck the pipe beneath her with a [i]clang[/i], denting it and shaking the whole thing back and forth. Nadia landed on her feet, paused just a moment to steady herself, and took off at a sprint for the central ventilation unit to hide behind. 

The bird flew lazily after her, bobbing up and down with every flap of its wings as it floated along in pursuit. When it soon became apparent to Cookatiel that the feral was faster than her, she slowly turned to the other child on the piping. The Ace Cadet had regained his footing after the metal's shaking came to a halt, and now he stared at the bird as it lifted it's head and opened its beak up. 

[color=salmon][i]"Don't—"[/i][/color] A spiky yellowed fruit came flying out of her mouth towards him. The little monster hunter ducked down, letting it pass overhead. A large apple was spat up next, though the Cadet was more willing to take the wholly less dangerous fruit head on. He caught the offending food in both hands, wobbling only a little. The Cadet hefted the fruit over his head and chucked it right back at Cookatiel - but it bounced rather harmlessly off of her big feathered body. She squawked in a mixture of disbelief and surprise, unhurt by the boy’s projectile, but as comical as they were the flying chef’s eyes still shone with the antagonistic glimmer of the Lord of Light. With an angry cackle she hawked up a tomato to spew Cadet’s way. He very narrowly avoided it, dropping low to the piping to duck under the giant fruit. There was a joke about tomatoes and comedians somewhere in the back of his mind, but he chose to focus on his escape routes rather than make it - glancing between the lower walkway, the ventilation, and the bird trying to pelt him with food.

The series of noises stopped Nadia in her tracks. In the span of just a few short moments she’d leaped from the dangerously swaying pipe bridge and climbed onto the grate that ringed the central ventilation duct, ready with her magnet in hand to put even more distance between herself and the big, pink bird. Now that she looked back, however, she realized not just that Ace was in danger once more, but also something worse.

[i]I’m doing it again.[/i]

A wave of guilt and loathing swept across Nadia as she became aware of the fact that she’d already just about left her friend behind once more. How many times did that make it? Three? Five? Whether in the Belly, the Depths, the Kitchen, or out on the open ocean, she just kept forging onward on her lonesome, leaving even those closest to her to fend for themselves. Sure, maybe it worked out before, but sooner or later her luck was going to run out. Her heedless self-interest was going to get someone hurt, maybe even killed, but still she kept rolling the dice. Nadia bared her fangs, not at Cookatiel, but at herself, and jumped back down. She pitter-pattered back across the vents to where Ace had fallen, even as the bird scrounged up another projectile from within. “Hey, you okay, pal? Here, let’s swap!” Reaching down to help him up, she handed him her magnet and grabbed the pepper-speckled fan. Now he didn’t have as much extra weight to put him off balance, and he could use the magnet to steady himself atop the metal, making up for his lack of feline surefootedness. “We’ve gotta get goin’, c’mon!”

[color=salmon]"Right!"[/color] Nadia's reappearance made the decision of which way to go a lot easier, and the Cadet was glad for it, although it put her back in harm's way. She seemed very troubled even though they'd both been in worse spots, just earlier that day even in the Cadet's opinion. [i]It's gonna be alright![/i] he wanted to tell her. They could definitely get by this big bird. It was two versus one. Just as long as—

“Little rats! Hold still!” came a frenzied shout from the direction of the ruined dining table. Nadia turned to see Antoine, no longer beset by Blazermate, back to hound his old targets. The gray-haired chef vaulted over the railing and landing on the double pipes, rattling the whole thing a lot worse than either Ace or Nadia had. Cookatiel turned toward him with an annoyed squawk, but Antoine merely pointed his knife at the runaways. “Shut up and get them, you oversized poultry!”

Nadia tugged on her friend’s arm. “Okay, now we’ve [i]really[/i] gotta go!” Heart pumping, she looked wildly around for a little help. “Blazer, where the hell are you!?”

Blazermate meanwhile was flying high, higher than Cookatiel and the kids, formulating a plan to deal with the crazed cook and save her kids who had gotten the ire of a second cook, the pink bird. A large pink bird, who was getting ready to charge…. There was an idea. Swooping down, Blazermate got on top of Cookatiel as she was preparing to charge and guided her charge by tilting her head, forcing Cookatiel to dash into the pipe network that Antoine was using to climb up to them in a way to disable both chefs.

Taken by surprise, Cookatiel struggled noisily against Blazermate’s interference, but her efforts turned out to be totally in vain. With such small wings the giant bird made for a slow, ponderous flier, with even a small shift of her weight in any direction enough to throw her completely out of whack. Once the medabot tilted her, there was no stopping her, as Antoine soon found out. Like a wrecking ball she careened straight toward Antoine as he hot-footed it across the pipe bridge, and no amount of hurled kitchen objects (or colorful expletives) would change that. Realizing what was about to happen, Ace and Nadia made themselves scarce, and the next second Cookatiel plowed through with enough force to crush them like soda cans, wrenching them free from where the ends were bolted in the process.

As the kids leaped onto the central vent’s grate the bridge fell away behind them, taking a yelling Antoine with it. The chef hurtled downward toward the steamy surface of Cookatiel’s creamy, boiling stew. He splashed down rear-first and promptly soared back upward into the air, howling with his pants on fire. In comedic fashion he bounced two, then three times, each leaving an arc of smoke from his burning backside as he flew, until the King of Cuisine finally came down on the third floor’s opposite side. On the way down he smashed right through the dinner table -and dinner- of another pack of Guests, sending food and splinters flying in a messy explosion. And whether knocked unconscious, too hurt to move, or just plain sick of it all, Antoine stayed down for now.

At the same time, Cookatiel’s disastrous flight path brought her straight into one of the walls, slamming googly-eyes first into the sheer surface. The tremendous impact, powerful enough to shake the whole restaurant, left a crate. Squawking miserable, the giant chicken reeled back, stunning and just barely keeping aloft. For the opportunistic medabot, this was a chance to put this evil chef out of commission, too. Depending on which way Blazermate struck Cookatiel, she could very easily tumble backward into her own stew, or potentially bash through and be lodged inside the wall. Blazermate, in a combination of having her job done and not wasting an opportunity, used Cookatiel as a platform to begin flying, jumping off her back with great force to get back in the air again and follow her kids. Shunted forward once more, the bird bowled into the wall again, and this time it didn’t hold. She smashed through and into the adjacent wing of the restaurant. Through the wreckage and darkness it was tough to make anything out in there, but judging by all the crashes and many cries from the Guests, it was a total wipeout.

Nadia sprang upward and landed with a mega fist pump, her cheer of celebration mixing with the Cadet's exclamations of how [i]Rad-alos[/i] that had been, both echoing through the whole of the Grand Atrium. “Nyahahaha, that’s right! Not so fun when you’re the one bein’ made dinner! How’s your own medicine taste, ya psychos?!” Exhilarated both by the victory against the chefs and the feat of surviving yet another near-death experience alongside Ace, she gave into her urge from earlier and swept him up in as big a hug as the little feral could muster. Only after a moment did her head catch up to her heart. “Oh...sorry.” She withdrew quickly, running her hand through her hair in embarrassment. “And, uh, sorry about earlier, dude. Really. I mean, I almost left ya [i]again[/i].” With a sigh she plopped down on the grate, her legs dangling over the edge. After another big chase she could use a moment to catch her breath, but that wasn’t the only reason why her ears were drooping. “I’m honestly shocked you’re still okay teamin’ up with me at this point,” she told him, resting her head in a hand. While they chatted, Blazermate hovered nearby, listing to their conversation until they noticed her.

Not one to shy away from physical affection, the Cadet had regarded Nadia curiously after her apology - and then her further apology. 

[color=salmon]"Aw, is that all?"[/color] The Cadet looked away briefly and scratched his cheek, thinking about how to to phrase his thoughts. [color=salmon]"Sure, sometimes you do get ahead of the rest of us, and without any of my equipment it can be kinda hard to follow you..."[/color] he said, relenting her point at first, [color=salmon]"...but you came back, didn't you?"[/color]

The boy smiled, crouching down beside Nadia and putting a hand on her shoulder. He could regale her with stories of the times he'd gone off on his own back in his home world and how disastrously they'd gone, but that wasn't what she needed. Nadia was still coming to terms with being part of a group again it seemed, after having her gang ripped away from her. So the Ace Cadet gave her reassurance instead. [color=salmon]"I'll always find a way to come and back you up, otherwise what's a team for? Hell, what are friends for?"[/color]

He moved to stand again, his hand lingering on her shoulder before it slipped away as he stood. [color=salmon]"Besides, even if we got split up a couple times I think we make a pretty good team!"[/color] Not mentioning the fact that other Seekers had jumped in to help each time, but hey - they were all part of the team too. The Cadet crossed his arms and put a hand to his chin dramatically, cutting a sideways look at Nadia. [color=salmon]"What do you think about the [i]Ace Decoys?[/i]"[/color] 

Smiling despite her inner conflict thanks to her friend’s infectious positivity, Nadia couldn’t help but give a slight laugh. “Sounds good to me. And...thanks. Really. I guess I was wrong to worry aboutcha bein’ fed up with me. It’s just...” She look down into the bubbling stew, enjoying the heat of its steam on her skin after the chill of the Depths. Her expression reflected the turmoil below. “I’ve been on all on my own such a long time now, I got used to just thinkin’ about myself. Lookin’ out for number one, right? But if somethin’ bad happened to you while I was bein’ selfish, I’d just hate myself for it. I don’t wanna lose any more friends. That’s why I’ve got to do better.” Feeling a good bit better, she got back up and offered Ace a fist bump. “For what it’s worth, I think we make a great team, too!” she added with a wink.

[color=salmon]"It's pretty much impossible for me to get sick of you - and hey, I'm tougher than I look, so don't worry!"[/color] He spared her the indignity of trying to flex while still stuck in his boyhood body and readily returned the fist bump. His cheeks were a little flushed from her candid words, but no one needed to know it wasn't from all the running and the heat rising from the soup below. It felt really nice to have someone trust in him enough to tell him their true feelings, especially when they were being down on themselves, so that he could try to lift them back up. [color=salmon]"And you will do better! I'm gonna do my best not to let anything happen to you [i]or[/i] me, or any of us - and I'm kind of a professional team player, so you can count on me."[/color]

[color=0072bc]”Ahem...”[/color] Blazermate said with a mechanical cough seeing as this conversation was going on and on. [color=0072bc]”We really should get moving kiddos.”[/color] Blazermate said, grabbing Ace and Nadia before either could question how much she heard, scooping Ace up in one arm and Nadia in the other to fly them back to the kitchen. Well, more glide with the occasional jump, but still.