The hover bike shot up into the air. I tightly grabbed onto Mira to avoid being tossed off by her erratic movements. "Guys?! Where'd that come from!"

"O-one sec… g-got it. There's a SAM truck setup here." A gleaming light appeared in my eyes on one of the many buildings across the heights. Its roof had caved in with snow all over it. Something metal twisted just above the collapsed roof.

"Why the hell are there SAM trucks in the heights?" Mira shouted. Thankfully, it looked like we had pulled up out of its range. Or, at least, the range of whatever missiles they were using.

"Looks like it's insurance from the local warlords." Saint came with the answer a few moments later. "They're set up all over the heights."

Guess that explains why no one wants to bring a flyer in here. Still, though, who just sets up something like that inside of a city? Absolute psychopaths. I looked out of the heights. "Mark them."

While Luna took care of that, I watched one of the Dragonflies infiltrate into the building. The truck itself was a Sentinel model, though it was half-destroyed. Looked like it was high-end at one point, but was now a repaired mess of a weapon. Still just as dangerous regardless.

Or, at least, it would be if it had proper missiles to launch into the air. Racks and racks of missiles sat all around the room with gangers rushing to reload the truck. They were jury-rigged hunks of scrap that I'd be terrified to even be near, let alone shove into the turret.

Where the hell did they—the AEZ? There were all sorts of anti-air stuff set up by the cultists back when the Crusade was trying to get to the tree. Most of them were Sentinel. Sure they were destroyed, but the destroyed equipment didn't just disappear. For the enterprising warlord, that was a free array of power just waiting to be claimed.

Luna's pings lit up even more of the heights. There were dozens of various anti-aircraft emplacements set up all over the place, and that wasn't even including any handheld variants. Getting close and flying around with the hover bike would be extremely dangerous. Even just being in the air, for that matter. Going down wasn't an option at the moment though.

"How'd we get through without triggering anything?" We'd been almost entirely uncontested going from tower to tower.

"M-maybe something with the towers? O-or maybe the warlords just started activating them. I-I'll try to figure it out." She pinged out a danger box around the SAM emplacement.

Mira let go of the bike's handlebars and turned back to me. "What now, Shiro? We're sitting ducks up here."

"Just- just give me a second." My mind raced through all sorts of schemes and ideas. "How strong is your grip strength?"

"With the Shift ExoCore, extremely strong." She flexed her arm and the black exoskeleton poked out oddly from underneath her skin. "Why?"

I started to take off my backpack and undo all the additional straps that ensured I wouldn't slip out while using the Drop Chutes. "Luna, can you remote pilot this thing?"

The crescent moon icon on the bike's screen blinked as if in confusion. "Y-yes. Do you want me to?"

"Try to get it safely out of the heights. This thing was expensive." I ran an affectionate hand over the bike and helped Mira put on my bag. It took quite a bit of readjustment with all the straps considering the size difference between the two of us.

"Am I- am I jumping?" Her face blanched as she picked up my plan.

"You'll be fine… probably." I jacked into the bag and adjusted its parameters. There'd be quite a bit more weight on then what I usually stressed it with. I'd adjusted the chutes when repairing them after the incident with Dev. It still couldn't hold two people perfectly, but it could hold quite a bit more weight.

The blinder module stuck up from the back of the pack. Saint immediately spoke up. "Where'd you go, guys? I completely lost you."

"We're moving on foot from here on out." I announced to the team and ran final adjustments on my bag. I pulled off my poncho, stuffing it into the bag. The cold wind brushed up against my exposed arms and sent a shiver down my spine. "Make sure to fall onto your back so these work."

"How are you—" Mira wrapped her arms around me and shared the warmth. "You'll catch a cold like that, slag."

I shot her an annoyed look and summoned out Fox's Fluffy Cloak. A spectral blue flame burst across my torso, and the silver hoodie clad me in a mere moment. Mira flinched back with the flame, though otherwise didn't comment. Did Fox add an auto-equip feature while I wasn't looking? Cool—err, I warm?

I stared down at the snowy city and then forcibly nodded my head. I wasn't as sure about this plan as I wished I was. "Don't drop me."

Mira frowned. "What are you—"

I flicked on the hood and an alien tightness covered my entire body. Everything grew—no, I shrunk rapidly on the back of the bike. Silver fur pushed out all across my body and I took on the familiar shape of a small fox sprite. I tried to stand up only to slip on unstable legs. "Yi—"

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"Gotcha." Mira caught me just before I could fall into the city below. She lifted me up with her arms outstretched and stared at me in confusion. "Shiro? This is you, right?"

"Yip!" I nodded my head repeatedly, causing my ears to flop around

"How the hell did someone like you turn into something so cute?" She chuckled and brought me closer to her face so I couldn't avoid her eyes. "We're going to have a talk about this when we get back."

I rolled my eyes and huffed at her. How could I forget her obsession with cute and fluffy? I had a feeling I just opened a world of hurt on myself without realizing it.

Although the Drop Chutes couldn't hold two people, it would definitely be able to hold both of us when I was like this. I weighed a fraction of my usual weight and all my gear was… elsewhere. Not sure where, to be honest. Maybe stored in a subspace? A metaphysical space or pocket dimension, possibly?

Ah—that wasn't quite right. Not all of my gear had vanished. I still had the Packheart Ring. It wrapped around one of my paws like an anklet. I could still communicate with the rest of the group. Or hear the team, at least. It would be hard to communicate as a fox.

Speaking of, Saint's voice popped into my head. "How are you guys going to get down? Also, you should really update these Dragonflies soon. Some people have caught on and started shooting them."

"Shiro's a bit—" Mira barely held in a laugh at my sour expression. Just because I made a bunch of them didn't mean I was okay with my poor Dragonflies just dying like that. "She's busy at the moment, Saint."

I growled softly at Mira and nodded my head toward the city below. She seemed to get my message and pulled me tight against her chest. Then, as if deciding that wasn't safe enough, she wrapped me up in her poncho like a fox burrito and held on even tighter.

My mikata hesitated just before tipping over the side. "I trust you, Shiro, but… you are sure about this, right? You won't get ripped from my hands and die a horrible death?"

I shouldn't. The Drop Chutes worked on antigravity, so they weren't quite as dangerous as parachuting. The pressure from parachuting would rip me out of her arms no matter how strong she was, but there wouldn't be much pressure give the Drop Chutes nature. That, and if she fell on her back while I was held against her stomach, all the momentum should force me down tighter against her and not fling me off into the sky.

Besides all of that, I held onto Dev decently when dropping with him. Sure, he was ripped out of my arms. That had to do more so with the Drop Chutes breaking and my own lack of upper body strength. I wasn't weak by any means, but holding a fully armed and armored Squire wasn't easy. Mira was also way stronger than me. I had full faith she'd be able to hold me tight.

"Yip!"

"If you're sure…" She hesitated for a moment longer and then jumped off the back of the bike. Heh- she really did trust me. That answers the question about following me off a cliff.

That familiar sensation of free fall struck me. It was even more uncomfortable than usual. I typically had the strong reassurance that no matter the height, I'd be safe from a fall. The Drop Chutes had been my number one most used piece of tech since I got them, and for good reason. My confidence in the tech was as close to a hundred percent as could be.

That reassurance shattered the moment I felt Mira's arms crush me tighter against her body. The intense vertigo of free fall felt even more alien as a fox. I hadn't spent enough time like this to be fully comfortable, and it showed. It took all I had in me to resist puking all over Mira's poncho.

The fall felt much longer than it usually did. The shadow of the ground rushed up, and our momentum suddenly ground to a halt. The ionic thrusters on the Drop Chutes emitted a rough burst that caused Mira to groan underneath me. And then we hit the ground inside of an alley.

When I dropped, I could skillfully land on my feet every time. It was a mixture of training and experience with the Drop Chutes. Mira didn't have either. She slipped in the snow and barely managed to avoid landing on her head.

I rolled off of her with a groan. If the fall and vertigo weren't bad enough, I had patches of my hai—fur that felt like they'd been ripped out by her rough grasp. Better than the alternative, I guess. Note to self; make Mira her own Drop Chutes as soon as possible.

"Y-you okay, Shiro?" Mira panted and pushed herself up onto her elbows.

I crawled to the alley wall and dropped the fox sprite facade. My normal, human body returned in all its glory. Interestingly, the silver hoodie shifted and turned white like the snow. That must be the Shifting Attire feature that helped it blend in. "Chek chek."

"Let's never do that again." She sprawled backwards like a starfish in a mound of snow. "That sucked."

"It gets better with experience." I summoned out Crow's Canteen of Chaos and took a drink of water to force down that rising sensation in my stomach. "Luna, Saint, you have us?"

A Dragonfly blitzed over to us. "Yeah. I see you, Shiro. I thought your drop thingy was for one?"

"It usually is." I motioned for Mira to toss my bag back over. While she was busy unstrapping herself, I checked my HUD. We landed a few blocks away from the co-op, just between two of the high-danger zones marked by Luna.

Saint just laughed lightly. "I won't question it. You got a group of mutants sniffed around close. Nothing else on cams, though the heights are full of blind spots."

I pulled out my coil-pistol and rested it lightly on my thigh while I reworked my plans. "We'll be careful. Luna, any luck with your team?"

"N-no. T-there's too much fighting to figure out which one might be them." The Netrunner let out a groan of frustration. "I-I'm trying."

"Then we head for the co-op first. Try to track them from there." It just so happened that I was the perfect tracker for this situation. I could use Panther's Sight to follow the ethereal shadows of their presence even if they didn't leave behind any solid tracks. At least, if there tracks to follow.

Mira shuffled over to me and stuck her hand down. "As much as I'd like to just sit around, it's best we get moving."

I took the offered hand, allowing her to haul me up to my feet. I threw my poncho back on and got my bag set back up. After a bit of tampering, I saved my alterations as a preset for Mira and reverted everything back to normal. A moment later, the Blinder module slid back into my pack.

As much as I wanted to keep the thing active, it was for the best I kept myself visible to Saint and Luna. Wouldn't want to get friendly fired by accident. Besides, our team had full net superiority at the moment. Almost every camera in the heights was ours thanks to little Luna's efforts.

"H-how does that thing work? Is it something m-magic?" Luna asked once I reappeared back in the cams.

"All tech." Radiation based, actually. Not that I'd explain that far. Although we were allies at the moment, I'd rather keep everything close to my chest if I could. I still wasn't sure how I'd deal with all my secrets being exposed once this was over. That's an issue for Future Shiro. Sorry Future Shiro. Nah—who am I kidding? You totally had it coming Future Shiro.

Mira checked her rifle and nodded to me. "Ready when you are."

I adjusted my gear. We weren't going quiet anymore. At least, not at the moment. Whisper mode was disabled on my coil-pistol and I replaced the projectiles with modified Blaze rounds. After so long, I had more of them then I did just normal rounds. "Let's rock."

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