The companion area was abuzz with the conversation topic of the hour. Saelil laughed loudly and waved her hands back and forth in defense of her stated position. Scott walked into the area just in time to see something absolutely ridiculous.

"I refuse to do something so foolish!" exclaimed Saelil with a laugh.

Kitty leapt into the air while moving forward in a rapid spinning ball motion that would have made Sonic the Hedgehog proud. She finished her spinning move by leaping atop Saelil. She then held her in a fierce embrace. "Join us! It's fun to roll around in a ball."

Scott blinked then tilted his head to the side. This was new.

Nearby on the ground, Scott could see an altogether different ball, one that bore the same coloration as Samantha's armor. Samantha's ball-form was one Scott was both unsurprised to see, but also one that he did not expect.

She'd never done it before, but much like the fictional character she resembled, her body and suit formed into a large sphere that freely rolled around like some sort of demented hamster ball. Though, the sphere held a slightly shell-like appearance similar to a curled-up crawfish or an armadillo.

"Not to disturb the fun, ladies, but you do know we have a rescue mission..." said Scott after a brief moment passed.

"Oh! Scott!" cried Kitty before rushing over to try and pounce on him. She was greatly surprised when he easily dodged her flying tackle.

"Hey, when did you get so fast?" she asked with a grin.

"A few minutes ago..." said Scott, "You know, when I was preparing for the mission..."

"We were doing that, but then I realized that Samantha likes to roll around in a ball too," said Kitty.

Samantha's disengaged her spherical form and returned to a more human-like configuration. She stood up then offered a slight smile. "I've always been able to do that, but now I have the ability permanently upgraded into my suit instead of needing to find or purchase rare energy core materials to power the function for more than a few minutes at a time."

"You can do that without your suit?" asked Scott. He suspected such would be the case, but if he played the conversation right, then something good might happen.

"Yes, it's something my family taught me," she said, a hint of sadness in her tone.

"What good is rolling around in a ball?" asked Saelil, "and how are your bodily organs not crushed?"

"There's lots of good reasons," said Samantha. "It's easier to move through smaller spaces than when you crawl on your hands and knees, plus I can use the excess energy generated by my suit to create timed plasma discharges."

"So, when you roll around in a ball you can toss out plasma based micro-lesbians," said Scott in a thoughtful manner. That much certainly sounded familiar.

Samantha turned toward him and offered a digital sounding snort. She didn't say anything, however.

"Micro-lesbians?" asked Kitty, keen interest obvious in her gaze.

He turned to her and grinned. "You had to be there."

"So, better movement and some sort of energy attack?" asked Saelil, before Kitty and Scott could derail the conversation further.

"Well, it also makes it harder to damage my equipment and with a few modifications I can also blast through things like a projectile. The Dillozouan master who raised me taught me the value of flexibility and a hard shell for defense," said Samantha.

"Dillozouan?" asked Scott.

Samantha nodded to him then said, "Yes. They are an ancient hyper-advanced race of people who share a resemblance with humanoid armadillos. I received this suit from them as a means of teaching me how to live as one of their people. I did not have a shell of my own, you see."

Scott blinked then tilted his head to the side. What he'd just heard made so much sense that it was almost ridiculous. The suit wasn't just for fighting, it was a life-enhancement device! She would have been severely handicapped in the society of those who raised her, so they gave her a reasonable prosthesis.

"Don't you become dizzy, though?" asked Saelil.

Scott looked to the dark elf then back to Samantha. It was a good question!

"Outside of the suit, it can happen. Even with my augmentations I am not really one of the Dillozouan people," said Samantha.

She waved one hand then continued, "In the suit, though, it's different. If I activate my rolling form, my bio mass becomes digitized like a transporter pattern. My mind and spirit operate freely, but my body becomes the suit itself."

"Cool," said Scott. He decided to reign in the conversation by asking what everyone chose to upgrade.

Saelil used a little experience to restore her spell slots. It was the quickest way to do things, if expensive. The rest was spent on a few minor upgrades for the strength of her magic.

Kitty opted to spend her points on increasing her stats overall, but also acquired a recharge to her special essence. When Scott asked about that further she said, "I got my kitty transformation powers back, at least for transforming my human form."

"You can look even more human?" asked Scott.

"Oh course, silly. My power is like me." said Kitty. She grinned at Scott. "How else would I wear shoes?" she asked before lifting one leg and wiggling her furry oversized toes at him.

"Mostly it was for increasing by fighting strength, though," she said with a wink. "I can be fierce if I want to be."

"What do you mean your power is like you?" asked Saelil.

Kitty looked at her then lashed her tail, and rrowled once. A mischievous smile appeared. "It goes both ways..."

Saelil rubbed the bridge of her nose then looked away. "I see..."

"Takes a lot out of me, though. I can either be a cat, or what you see now without it draining me. Pushing it further in one direction or another isn't something I can do for long, right now," said Kitty.

"Sounds a little like me," said Scott. "I decided to go heavy on my upgrades so I'm a lot stronger now."

"How much stronger?" asked Samantha,

"A lot," said Scott. "This mission is supposedly pretty difficult compared to what we had to work with earlier, and I don't know if much has changed. So, I went all in on the upgrades."

It was an underestimation of a major degree to say that Scott was a lot stronger. In all honesty, with the gravitas flower and his new understanding of his feroki usage, the maximum power he could utilize for a scant few seconds would be ridiculous.

Even in what he thought of as power saver mode, the gravitas flower alone would allow him to run around with four times the strength, resilience, and speed of what his stats offered. If he forced the power through his body to use his full capacity, that boost increased by a large margin at the expense of the total amount of time that the power would last within him.

Twenty-four hours could easily drop to a scant few if he heavily used his basic garden powers. It would drain even faster if special powers like the super jump were used, as those were limited to floral power points for usage.

Whether or not he was strong enough to fight a zombie Gundam directly remained to be seen, but he was quite a bit stronger than the last time he faced that thing.

Scott looked to Samantha. "Did you get anything else besides your suit upgrade?"

"I increased my stats a little. I did not have a lot of experience points to work with," she said. "Though, I only made that decision just before you arrived."

"Ah, well, if any of you have any left you might want to consider armor or healing items," said Scott. "When you're ready we'll head out."

The girls nodded then went to their respective exchange points. Scott returned to the main room to see how Chaine was faring. Upon arrival he noted that the Ha' Ruulian hero did not move much.

"They're almost ready," said Scott. In truth not a lot of time passed from the moment they arrived at his home point until now. It did feel like a long period of time, however, as it was a rescue mission.

Chained nodded to him but remained silent. There was little to say. He did not know these people, but he did need their help if he was to find out where the princess was being held.

A brief few minutes later Samantha and the others came into the main room. They were ready to get the mission underway.

"Alright, let's see what we have to deal with," said Scott.

"We going?" asked Chaine.

"Yeah, we're as ready as we're going to be," said Scott. Chained nodded to him, and then everyone followed behind Scott as he headed toward the door.

He took a deep breath then released it before placing his hand to the door. The moment his hand touched, a new message appeared. However, it was not a mission brief. It was a warning.

[Message]

The mission that you are about to undertake is tentatively rated as D-1. Be advised that there is a possibility that it will be elevated to C-4, or higher if you do not complete the mission within one hour and thirty-seven minutes.

Note: Loading current mission parameters. Analysis and loading time will require another three minutes and fourteen seconds.

[--]

"Damn," said Scott.

"What is it?" asked Chaine.

"We have a time-limit. If we haven't rescued the princess in a little over an hour and a half, the mission will become much tougher," said Scott.

"What are we waiting for then!" exclaimed Chaine as he pushed forward.

Scott shook his head at him then pointed to the door. "The situation is being analyzed. We have to wait about three minutes."

"Seriously?" asked Samantha. "Does it do that a lot?"

"No. This is the first time," said Scott. He stared at the door for a moment then continued, "I guess it's something outside the normal system. The other missions were already pre-set but this one can fluctuate at any given moment since it is a sudden emergency mission."

"What are we up against?" asked Chaine.

"I don't even know that, yet. Whatever runs the door seems to be figuring out the exact nature of the mission," said Scott.

"So, we won't know until it actually opens?" asked Saelil.

"Yeah. For now all we can do is wait and see what happens," he said. Scott glanced back at the group, "Stay ready, though. Who knows what we'll be dealing with in a few minutes..."

There were a few annoyed mutters and a sigh in response to Scott's words. However, no one could do anything about it. For now, they could only wait for the clock to run down.