“Attention, teams: Catastrophe, Malice, Quietus, Avarice! Your North-East bound transit moth leaves in 10 minutes from Gate 18! Get to it! Those villages ain’t going to burn themselves to the ground! Good luck out there, hunters!” The Guild Secretary announced on the loudspeaker.

“That’s us, Beanie!” Cass grabbed Lider’s elbow, dragging him towards the gate, seemingly undeterred by the fact that he could barely see.

“Hey! My name is Lider! Stop calling me that!” He yelped, as she nearly stepped on his foot.

“That’s not what it says in my log, Bean.”

“You set me up! Let go of me! I want to be on my own…” Lider yelled, trying to fight off someone he could not grapple with.

New text painfully carved itself into his vision:

[ Hooray for you! Hunter [Lider Bean] has been added to Team Catastrophe. Any experience and valuables gained will be split among the members of your party. Do not worry! The value of your contribution will be observed by the [All Seeing Eye] and calculated by the [System].]

"What the shit? Did the System rename me?!" Lider waved a hand at the text. It refused to budge from his eyes.

“Your team registry name overrides your prior one. Nicknames are important for team spirit or something. The last guy we’ve worked with got a way stupider name. Honestly, Bean ain’t so bad.” The spider-girl said nonchalantly.

Lider glanced at Elizabeth.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you won’t live very long either.” She added with a dark expression, which was an utter mismatch for her pink candy dress.

“Hey! What happened to the last guy?!” He demanded.

“He was being an idiot, so he exploded,” Cass explained with an extremely cheerful tone.

“What?”

“Don’t worry your meats 'bout it! If you ask too many questions, you’ll explode too. You know who doesn’t ask dumb questions? Our lovely transit! Look at this moth! She's so fluffy!” Cass rapidly turned him towards the transit moth.

Lider had to admit, the moth did look extremely fluffy, but what the hell! Since when do hunters just explode? He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. The “Team Catastrophe” text was there even when his eyes were closed, brighter and even more annoying. He refused to ask for help on principle. When he opened his eyes, he was already sitting on the moth, its wings rapidly fluttering. He twitched, trying to get away.

“Scared of flying’? Me too! Like what if it blows all of my clothes off? What am I gonna do, be naked, am I right?” Cass laughed somewhat nervously, rapidly snapping a series of safety belts over his chest, her many arms working in unison.

“You’re already not wearing anything.” Lider pointed out, feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach as the moth disconnected from the ground.

“For shame, Beanie! Telling a lady such a thing! Why, I never!” Cass flowed onto her seat in a flash, forming twenty arms and wrapping them around all of the available belts. Her indeterminate outfit made from liquid metal shifted to resemble a pilot’s gear.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Lider looked at the complicated arrangement of belts. He was trapped now, unable to get back to the Guild Hall, unable to change his idiotic new name.

“At least call me Lider!” His voice took on a higher octave.

“I will if you don’t die horribly, promise.” Cass nodded and crossed several hundreds of her fingers together, obviously not taking him seriously.

“We’re departing in four minutes,” The moth announced, hexagonal eyes turning towards its passengers. “Please protect any sensitive bits with aviation gear found beneath your seat and use the seatbelts to secure yourselves and your party members.”

“Righty-o. You got them organic eyes. Uno momento.” Cass reached with a long metal arm beneath his chair, producing a pair of aviator goggles. She snapped the goggles onto his eyes, tightening the claps. This friendly action made him feel marginally better. Maybe he wasn’t going to die horribly after all. The bothersome text was getting beyond annoying.

“Go away,” Lider hissed at the painful text floating in his eyes. “Close memo. Disable notifications.”

“I can’t go away, Beanie! Don’t be a rude butt. I will be your padawan until you’re elevated out of your clueless noobery and made into a proper human-slayer!”

“You’re going to be following me?” He inquired, trying to comprehend the situation.

“Damn right! Like the best leader! I will let you make terrible mistakes and then shame you thoroughly. It’s the best educational, albeit painful process.” Cass explained, dashing his hopes with just one phrase.

Lider snapped his head towards her, giving her a glare.

“Everyone ready? Liftoff!” The moth announced, accelerating out of the gate and emerging into the open air.

“You know what the Citadel looks like from up here? An orange sliced in half! Delicious!” Cass commented. Lider looked down. It was indeed like an orange slice, she was right. The moth rushed upwards with an increasingly louder flutter of wings, distracting him from thoughts of citrus fruits and how they looked like complex biosilica diatomic nanostructures.

“Uuukkhhh,” He groaned as the moth dove into the storm current, rising higher and higher, spiraling out of the supercell eye.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Cass squealed from her seat, either in terror or delight.

Elizabeth turned green.

Lightning flashed somewhere in the vast wall clouds nearby with an ear-piercing boom.

“Shit! Electricity! My worst nemesis!” Cass yelled.

Lider looked at her seat. She wasn’t there anymore. He opened his mouth to ask Liz where Cass went and felt something shifting behind him.

“What are you doing behind me? Wait. Are you in my coat? Why are you in my coat?” He asked Cass, feeling the hair on the back of his neck standing up from the electrostatic charge in the air.

“Using you as a meat shield, obviously.” Cass commented.

“She is scared of lightning storms," Liz commented.

“Eh?” Lider raised an eyebrow.

“You’re full of current. Current in your blood. Current in your meaty brain.” Cass rapidly whispered from the innards of his coat.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting. I’m not lightning-proof.” He said dryly.

“Quiet, meat shield. I’m trying to focus on your current so I don’t get demagnetized.” Cass retorted back.

She wasn’t making much sense. There was no way that he had enough current in him to oppose lightning. Lider sighed. He was feeling too bamboozled by this situation to be terrified beyond reckoning. Cass had shown zero recognition of personal space, and her current invasion into the depths of his clothes was making him feel all sorts of weird things. He liked catgirls, damn it! Why couldn't he get forced onto a hunting team by a nice Pantherinae at the very least? He jealously looked at team Quietus; it was full of adorable, fluffy -

Another lightning boomed somewhere nearby, and Cass tightened around his waist.

The air started to become thin as the moth rose above the colossal storm. It turned to the North East, gliding over a seemingly endless ocean of fantastic cloud formations, which Lider could not enjoy due to the damned letters in his eyes.

“If you’re going to be in there, at least help me.” He whispered into the darkness beneath his open collar.

“Eh?”

“How do I make the system message go away?”

“Oh, that’s easy...” Cass started to speak and suddenly grew silent.

“Well?” Lider whisper-yelled into his jacket.

“Sorry. Lost my thought centipede. All this storm biz is screwing with my natural magnetism. What did the meatman want? Ohh right. Just think of the phrase - close notice."

As soon as he thought “close notice,” the blinding notification vanished. It was an obvious thing to do, in hindsight.

“Thanks,” He sighed in relief.

There was no answer from within his jacket, except for quiet buzzing that sounded like snoring.

The clouds beneath went on and on. Lider leaned back in his seat, relaxing to the smooth beating of moth wings and soon he too drifted to the land of dreams.