Lutrex, Pancake and Calian are now in the lobby of the hospital, walking towards the exit. The older individual is dressed in his combat outfit without the helmet or hood, rubbing his back from the unexpected bear hug while Lutrex and Pancake are munching on churros.
“Alright, let’s head to HQ and go home. If we take any longer, your sister’s gonna accuse me of kidnapping you or something.”
Lutrex swallows a bite before responding.
“Speaking of my sister, she is in this station.”
“Really? Did she come with her fleet or-”
“She told me she had discreetly borrowed one of the corvettes on her dreadnought to go visit me.”
“Yeah, that sounds like her. Maybe she can drop you off back home so I don’t have to.”
“Aunt Tanya is also here as well. I had to inform her of what happened.”
“I’d be worried if she didn’t know, her being your psychologist and all.”
The three exit the hospital through the automated doors, walking outside to the parking lot. The view outside revealed the location of the hospital to be inside of an O’Neill cylinder, a space station shaped like a massive, rotating cylinder.
From the hospital on top of a hill, it shows that three strips are used for people to live in while the other three are windows to show the void of space.
The space in the middle is used by vehicles and ships alike to travel freely to their destination due to the lack of gravity. As Lutrex and Pancake watched the passing vehicles, Calian enabled the device on his wrist and started clicking buttons.
“Anyways, let’s not keep them waiting. I’ll get an earful from both of them if we take any longer.”
A flying car slowly descended in front of them, its doors opening for them only to show no one inside. Lutrex and Pancake entered first before Calian.
The vehicle closes the door before lifting off from the parking lot and turns around before flying off to its destination, a massive, hexagonal building that nearly occupied 2/3rds of the land area it was in.
As the automated vehicle drove them toward the structure, Lutrex and Pancake looked out the window to look at the “land” above. The houses and architecture used by the inhabitants were all white and angular like that of Arkham’s buildings and vehicles.
They eventually reach the structure, seeing other vehicles move past the building or descend and park around it. Dropships with Arkham’s logo landed on the roof of the building.
Lutrex and Calian’s car lands onto the parking lot facing the entrance with the logo on it. They exit the vehicle, watching as the flying car drives off by itself to another customer.
Entering the building through the automated door, she and Calian walked towards a corner of the lobby near a pillar to wait for their expected company to arrive. A few minutes of waiting prompts Calian to ask his niece of their whereabouts.
“Sooo... where are they?”
“I do not know. Perhaps they are somewhere else in the-”
“LUTREEEEEEEEEX!!!”
The loud call of her name made Lutrex, Pancake and Calian look forward to see a red haired woman, a head taller than Lutrex, in a German military uniform running towards the oni. All four of her arms, the lower pair being mechanical, open and ready to give a hug.
Pancake is spooked by the voice as he recognized it well. He jumps toward Calian and attaches himself on his face while shaking in fear. Annoyed, he tries to remove the critter from his person.
When the woman got close enough, Lutrex quickly sidestepped away. The vastly taller woman hit the pillar with enough force to crack it. She pulls herself out, showing her face imprint on the pillar.
She looks to her right and redid her embrace, the oni accepting her fate with an unamused look as she got squeezed tightly.
“LUTREX!!! I MISS YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
The redhead cries tears of joy while still hugging Lutrex, who returns the affection with a hug and a small smile.
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“I miss you too, Persnickety.”
Calian looks on as the siblings share an embrace while Pancake hides behind his neck, covering his body in spikes as a defensive measure in case he too suffers the same fate. As the commotion happens, another woman walks towards the rambunctious group, calling the older man to her attention.
“It’s been a while, Cal.”
The agent turns towards the voice to see a woman with circular, rose tinted glasses walking towards him with a mischievous smile full of pointed teeth on her face.
She has short and brown wavy hair, pale skin and faint freckles on her face while wearing a halfway buttoned lab coat hanging off her shoulders that shows her green sweater, a black pencil skirt, stockings, and black office heels.
What stood out about the woman though were the snake-like features such as her fangs in her slit mouth, the reptilian eyes, the brown patches of scales, the two horns on her head and the long tail that swayed with her motions.
The two share a wave as the scientist approaches him, giving his own greeting.
“Nice to see you too, Tanya."
Hearing the name, Pancake stops hiding and openly shows himself to the woman, fins flapping rapidly as he waved hello to her. The woman laughs as she strokes the creature’s head gently.
“Hahaha! It's been a long time too, Pancake.”
Calian starts the conversation back up, getting Tanya’s attention back.
“So, how are things back on Earth? Been too busy watching over Lutrex to check the news.”
“So and so. If you're talking about the radiation spikes popping up at random, it's still a mystery. Every time a team gets sent, the source of the radiation disappears.”
“Smells like a future operation. Hope that goes away on its own.”
“Even if it does, Rhode Island’s council is still gonna have us investigate the locations.”
Calian then returns his gaze towards the two sisters, with Lutrex now suffering from the prolonged affection. He looks back towards Tanya who had a smile on her face when looking at the two.
“Aren’t you gonna congratulate her as well?
“I don’t want to interrupt the two catching up.”
“You sure? Cause Lutrex has been looking at you for a while now.”
Tanya, upon closer examination of her niece’s face, realized that she was indeed looking at her. Her expression could only be described as a call for help to free her from her sister’s vice grip.
“Looks like I’ll have to step in after all.”
As Persnickety continues to hug Lutrex who was limply hanging above the floor, Tanya walks behind the redhead and slaps her butt to get her attention, earning a yelp from her.
“HAAAH!!!”
Persnickety slowly turns around, still holding her poor sister like a plush, giving a death glare to the one who smacked her bum. After seeing who was behind her, she dropped the murderous intent.
“Oh, hey Auntie.”
“I came here to save your sister from you.”
“Oh, I actually forgot I’m still holding her. Sorry, Lutrex.”
Persnickety drops her sister gently on the floor, who tidies her dress afterward. Lutrex looks towards her aunt and gives her appreciation.
“Thank you, Aunt Tanya”
“You’re welcome.”
The two then share a warm hug together, with Persnickety joining in. They end the embrace and continue with their discussion while Calian walks towards them.
“Congratulations on passing the final test, by the way. I’m proud of you.”
“Same here, sis! I’m sure mom would be proud too, minus the parts where you got hurt obviously.”
Persnickety then remembers something and asks Lutrex about it.
“Oh, did Dad already congratulate you?”
“He has but he would also like to talk to me in person.”
Tanya inserts herself into the conversation as Calian joins the rest of the group.
“Really? Can you ask him if it's fine for me and Cal to join in?”
“I will see if he is fine with that.”
Lutrex stood silent for a few seconds before responding to them.
“He is. We will be meeting him in conference room number 05.”
Tanya and Calian show nervousness in their faces, with the former hiding it behind a smile.
“I see... Well, tell your father I said thank you.”
“He says, “You're welcome”.”
Lutrex, Calian and Tanya all look towards Persnickety who clapped her hands to get their attention.
“Okay! Dad told us it's fine to eat breakfast first before talking to him.
Lutrex’s eyes gleam with vigor at the thought of eating. Her sister wasn’t done though.
“And since today’s a special occasion, I’ll pay for everyone’s breakfast."
And that was the sentence that sent Lutrex into overdrive, grabbing Persnickety’s right hand and pulling her towards the cafeteria like a dogsled.
As the rest of the people in the lobby watched the two disappear from view, Calian, Tanya, and Pancake were behind to talk a bit more.
“...Cal, did you forget that the sisters were psionically linked with their dad?”
“Yup. That explains why I saw Lutrex already approved as an agent in the database before I could do it.”
Calian then looks towards Pancake, still seated on his right shoulder.
“You aren’t connected to their dad too, right?”
The creature just tilts his head in confusion as Tanya taps his shoulder to get his attention.
“C’mon, let’s go before Lutrex eats everything.”
The three walk towards the same destination that Persnickety and Lutrex went to, leaving those watching to return to their quiet normalcy.