In all her time chasing. All her time running from planet to planet looking for her. It never crossed her mind that Sulky didn't want to be found. Not before. Not until she'd seen her face-to-face. And had to chase her into an alley.

The wolf hadn't said a word to her. When their eyes met, it wasn't the joyful gaze she'd shared with Cici when they first reunited. Or the relief she saw in Mr. Erin's eyes when she found him on Madame Dyre's ship. No. Iris looked at her the same way Sasha would have looked at a giant legionnaire. Or the Comet Man destroying their home. No joy. No relief. Just a look of pure horror. And it was all directed at her. Even remembering her face made Sasha's chest tighten further.

Iris was afraid of her. One of her closest friends. The same person who'd been with her for years. Who'd always be there when she needed someone to talk to. And she was afraid. She lingered close to her liaisons, trying her best not to let the thoughts eat at her again. Wherever they were headed, it had Iris's scent all over it.

The walls of the hall eventually opened up, the trio passing into a room that stretched on for miles, the ceiling several stories up.

"What is this place?" Mr. Erin asked.

"Still jammed, Twig?" asked Mr. Xan.

"Yeah. It's worse in here."

Sasha attempted to sense out anything to no avail. Though it felt like the place was full of graduates, she knew that wasn't the case. Not according to Mr. Erin, at least. All the signals around her had been scrambled. Even GT couldn't read through them all, the staff detecting thousands at once. For all she knew, there could have been a few in the room. Fortunately, they had emerged at a high vantage point.

Their section was gated off by a line railing, of which led down into a series of machines with translucent glass. Tubes that glowed orange. People who went about scribbling notes on clipboards and operating machines with large mechanical arms. They dropped the tubes into crates for others to carry off. Mr. Xan's gaze narrowed on all the people below.

"Twig," he said. "Those are smugglers."

Sasha fell beside him. "Smugglers? You mean like-"

"Yeah." He pointed to the crate carriers. "Those are loaders. They supply the goods. Then runners come and pick 'em up. Or they set 'em down at drop points."

He motioned to the people standing a bit off from the rest. While all the workers were covered in gloves and safety equipment, the so-called runners were dressed as casually as the trio. In fact, one of them even looked a bit familiar. Sasha squinted at the man, the human's face a vague memory in the back of her head.

"Looks like a pretty big operation," Mr. Xan said. "Probably why signal jamming's so strong."

"Is this what the wolf wanted us to see?" Mr. Erin thought a moment. "Could it be a distraction? She led us here to get us off her trail?"

Sasha scanned over the man's face. His short brown hair. His smooth face. The bright green of his eyes. It felt so familiar. Where had she-

"Wait." Sasha's jaw fell. "That's the guy fr- mhpmh!"

The rest came out in a muffled screech as both her liaisons pulled her back, Mr. Xan holding her mouth shut. She didn't understand why until she heard the confused chattering below. Saw the droid being sent over to their location, the bot flying up the railing and scanning about. Sasha held her breath, suddenly all too aware of how loud she'd just been. The droid beeped, its scanning light fading before it flew away. The trio collectively relaxed, Mr. Xan letting her go.

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"Not so loud, Panther," he said.

"Sorry," she peeked over the railing, spotting the man still waiting with others. "I just remembered. I know that guy."

Mr. Erin peaked beside her. "How so?"

"He was there. On Torpha."

She recalled the brief vision she'd seen. How she'd touched the ship and saw a human climbing out. The same human who more than likely had pinned Mercury to a tree. Remembering that brought more joy to her than it had any right to.

"Him? Are you sure?"

"I never forget a face, Mr. Erin. Cripes." She looked around. "Wait a minute. Iris. Smugglers. The guy from Torpha."

Her whiskers twitched, the pieces falling together in her head one by one. This was it, wasn't it?

"It's them," she said. "They're the guys. The ones who helped the Comet-

"Intruders detected in Sector 12!"

They all looked up to see a droid above their heads, lights flashing red and sirens blaring. The heads of every worker and runner immediately whipped in their direction, the man from Torpha raising a brow at the trio. Mr. Xan let out his loudest groan.

"Welp, so much for stealth."

The workers all screamed, machines stopping as they collectively drew blasters on them. The trio all ducked, hundreds of lasers bouncing off the railing. Sasha covered her ears, the noise mixing with the sirens making the place a nightmare to listen to. Mr. Xan at least lessened the pain when he shot the droid out of the sky, his winds smashing it against the wall.

"Alright," Mr. Erin said. "New plan. Detain who you can. We can question them later."

Several small objects fell in front of them. They were all beeping and glowing yellow. Grenades!

"Move!" Mr. Xan screamed.

Sasha zipped away, both her liaisons jumping over the side as the entrance erupted into a cavalcade of explosions. Holy cripes. She zipped away both to avoid shrapnel and the several lasers coming her way. Why were there so many workers with blasters? She darted to the ceiling Alright. Calm down. Just focus on detaining. Detaining. She scanned around, her eyes landing on the one person she actually wanted to catch. There you are, Torpha Man! He was fleeing with the other runners, the smugglers clamoring for the exit.

"Not so fast!"

She zipped towards them only to fling back as a laser nearly caught her in the face.

"Cripes."

The hundreds more coming forced Sasha into cover, the panther flinging behind the nearest machine. The room was a mess of blaster fire and grenades, and she was nowhere near laser-proof. Much as she wanted to be. Dangit. Sasha peeked around, spotting her target disappearing out the rear exit. She fell back into cover as a blaster flew past her cheek. The so-called loaders really weren't playing around. She shook her head. Torpha Man later. Gotta get rid of these guys.

She raised GT, taking a short breath for strength before launching it straight into a nearby worker's face. They were out cold in seconds.

"Bullseye!"

She zipped over to the them, quickly fumbling through their belongings.

If it was blasters she was up against, close-combat was a no-go. She'd have to fight fire with fire. And thanks to Mr. Xan, she at least knew how triggers worked. She snatched up the fallen worker's blaster, making sure to set it from kill to stun. The last thing she needed was to add murder to her resume of crimes.

"Hope you don't mind if I borrow this. Oh." She found a belt a grenades on the worker's hip. "These too."

They fit snuggly around Sasha's waist, the panther smiling wide.

"Nice." She cocked the blaster, peaking around at the many targets to be detained. A purr rose in her throat. "It's payback time, ya' tail brains."

And then she was on the offensive.