"... and that's why it doesn't matter if you are flesh and blood or not; what really matters is th— ouch!"

Whatever impassioned speech Josh was delivering came to a screeching halt after I, without sparing a single second for whys and wherefores, immediately slapped him on the back of his head the moment I arrived at the tattered warehouse roof inside the Purple Zone.

"We don't have time for this," I grumbled while gesturing towards the fembot down on one knee not far away from us, her hair and clothes visibly disheveled after a no doubt astonishingly epic battle of might, magic, and magitech. "Since she's already down, how about you capture her first and then discuss the philosophical implications of androids dreaming with electric sheep after that?"

My currently very Abyssal-ish friend, still holding the back of his horned head, turned an indignant look in my direction, only to instantly freeze up on the spot when our eyes met. For several seconds there was silence on the battlefield (or at least on our side of it; by the sounds coming from downstairs, Elly and the girls were still busy with breaking Labcoat Guy's mooks into chunks of recyclable size), culminating in Josh muttering a wide-eyed and somewhat uncertain "Leo?" towards me.

"Yes, what is it?" I responded maybe just a tad snappily, but he was still looking at me weird, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize why he appeared so dumbfounded. "You're wondering about the mask, aren't you?"

"Among other things," he confirmed with a nod. "Like... Why do you have a hunting rifle?"

Now it was my time to be surprised, as I didn't even realize I accidentally took something else with me when I Phased over.

"It's actually a musket, and it's a long story," was my reply, a phrase I repeated so many times as of late I was afraid it was going to become my catchphrase.

In the meantime, the kneeling fembot unsteadily rose to her feet and was intently staring at me.

"Reappearance of the primary target is confirmed. Anti-illusion sensors appear to be ineffective." She fell silent for a beat, and then she abruptly raised her hands towards me. "Commencing the firing sequence for Plasma Disintegrators at thirty perce—"

"Oh no, you don't!" I exclaimed in a mild panic and reflexively flung the unloaded firearm in my hand at her.

Galatea's eyes opened a fraction wider in response and tried to raise her arms to defend herself, but by then the stock already whacked her in the forehead with an unexpectedly meaty 'thunk' noise followed by an uncharacteristically girlish 'Eep!'. After finding its mark, the musket spun away and out of sight, presumably landing somewhere on the ground below, while the trigger-happy android fell backward while discharging a pair of tear-shaped, gut-shaking blasts into the sky from the middles of her palms. Odd. I could distinctly remember her firing from a barrel inside her forearm the last time around. Maybe she got an upgrade when I wasn't looking?

While I mused so, there was another long moment of awkward silence hanging in the air as we both stared at the android woman splayed out on the rooftop. At first I thought she was just shocked by the events, but on closer look, it turned out she was knocked out cold. That was… mildly unexpected, to say the least. Then, at last, the momentary lull was broken by Joshua letting out an indignant groan by my side.

"Dude! Why did you do that!?"

I spared him a skeptical glance, then flatly told him, "In case you're wondering, this is called self-defense. When someone tries to vaporize you with a plasma whatchamacallit, you're entirely justified for knocking them down."

"No, I don't mean that!" came his animated retort, but then he froze up for a moment and then amended, "I mean, if you didn't suddenly appear, then she wouldn't have tried to attack you on the first place… but I suppose that's beside the point. More importantly," he began to wind up again, raising his voice in the process, "More importantly, who the hell throws a rifle?!"

"… I do?" I replied, suddenly feeling like we weren't exactly on the same wavelength. "Seriously though, is that really your biggest concern at the moment?"

"Ah, you're right! I should check to see if she's all right," Josh suddenly declared and leaped over to the fallen android's side. "Maybe she got a concussion."

"No, that's not what I…" I began, but then the end of my words trailed into a sigh. Can androids even get a concussion in the first place? Anyhow, at the end of the day I let it go with a soft-spoken "Never mind."

Considering the situation, I decided it wasn't really the time to argue about small details like that, so I simply followed after my friend, only to catch the tail end of the seemingly unconscious fembot muttering something while her face subtly twitched every once in a while.

"What is she saying?"

"Something about rebooting," Josh replied off the cuff while observing her forehead where my improvised projectile hit her.

"Error," Galatea began to murmur again without opening her eyes, and this time I listened closely to her exaggeratedly robotic voice. "Probability of primary target using [Object: Archaic Firearm] as projectile: zero point zero two percent. Beep. Error. File corrupted. Beep. Rebooting is required after rebuilding the probability calculation engine: seven percent. … eight percent…"

Also, yes, she actually said 'beep'. Not an actual sound, but the onomatopoeia. What is this I don't even.

"You see?" Josh addressed me with a triumphant smirk in the meantime while pointing at the unconscious(?) Galatea. "Even she agrees with me."

I would've facepalmed if not for the mask already covering my face, so I decided that an unsubtle eye-roll had to do for now, and I instructed my friend, with my best leader-impression, "Josh, I'm way too tired for this right now. Stop messing around, and grab her."

"By grabbing her, you mean…?"

"Throw her over your shoulder or something," I told him ever so slightly impatiently. "After that, regroup with the others on the ground. I'll see you there."

"Erm… Okay," he responded a bit uncertainly, but I didn't have the time to argue with him, so I turned my back on him and Phased over to the rest of the group. Normally I wouldn't have been so flamboyant with my teleporting ability, but considering the circumstances, I was ultimately of the same mind as Judy and decided to worry about explaining things after the situation got un-buggered.

Anyhow, after arriving at my destination, I spent a few seconds observing the situation, which also served as a brief respite to collect myself a little after rapidly Phasing all over the place. In short, the front of the warehouse was currently covered in a layer of white ice, no doubt the handiwork of my sister. On my left, Elly was fighting two of the elite mooks (the neon green and the blue one, to be precise) on her own while holding one of the run-of-the-mill mooks by its ankles and using it as an improvised blunt weapon. In other words, pretty much what I expected from her.

Meanwhile, on my right, Snowy was floating about a hand's width above the ground with her wings spread wide open and three long ice-spears hovering above her raised right hand. She was currently keeping Labcoat Guy at bay; his upper body was covered in the now-familiar magitech power armor, and he was hunkered down with his arms crossed in front of his chest while a couple of glowing spots on his shoulder-pads were projecting some kind of barrier in front of him.

Finally, right next to me, Ammy was sitting on the ground, her glasses missing and with one hand clamped on her bleeding nose while Angie and the golem were holding back the red and the purple elite mooks from closing the distance. I observed all of this in great detail, yet it took my poor, overexerted brain several long seconds to realize I could do so because everyone on the battlefield went stock still the moment I arrived. Even Elly, who was just about to beat a mook into a pulp with another mook.

Speaking of which, I turned towards my girlfriend and told her, "Don't mind me, just carry on as you were."

The princess once again proved to be really adaptable (or she just stopped thinking and decided to go with the flow, one or the other), as by the time I finished my sentence, she already swung the unlucky Sprocket and sent both of the elite mooks flying. Atta girl.

"Leo?" came the incredulous question from my side. I glanced over, and once I met the class rep's confused eyes with my own, I couldn't help but groan in exasperation.

"Don't ask about the mask, it would take too long to explain," I told her right off the bat before addressing the others. "Snowy, keep him occupied for a bit longer. Angie, focus on crippling the big guys. Princess…" I paused for a second as I looked over my girlfriend still holding the broken, severed leg of a goon-bot, and in the end I settled on, "You're doing great, keep it up."

"What about me?" Ammy asked, seemingly out of reflex, only to immediately come to her senses and follow it up with an indignant, "Wait, no! First, explain where…!"

I figured she either wanted to ask where I disappeared to, or where I came from, but I didn't have to patience to answer either of those questions, so I extended a finger towards her lips to silence her before replying with, "I'm going to need your golem in a moment. Please stand by until Josh arrives."

Needless to say, she was quite dissatisfied with my interruption, but before she could voice her complaints, we were all startled by a loud cry coming from the roof of the warehouse.

"Parkoooooouuuuuur!!!"

I'm not going to lie, for a moment I couldn’t decide whether I was more impressed by the way my friend jumped off the roof and managed to land without breaking his legs, while carrying someone on his shoulders no less, or annoyed by his weird battle-cry. After some consideration, I decided it was the latter. Unfortunately Josh was completely unaware of my frame of mind, and once he got his bearings, he casually jogged over to my side with a grin on his face.

"Did you see that? I didn't even need to bring the wings out!"

I sent the guy riding on an adrenaline-high a wry look and told him, "Josh, you're completely wrecking the tone of the situation. Stop it."

"Yeah, whatever," he responded with a shrug that rattled the still unconscious android woman on his shoulder, but then he finally noticed the glare I was sending his way and clumsily cleared his throat. "So, I brought her over, but what am I supposed to do with her? I think she just reached seventy percent…"

"Put her down over there," I instructed him before turning to the still wobbly Amelia. "Class rep, call your golem over."

"Why?" she asked, though by the time the words left her mouth, the aforementioned golem already began to retreat from the frontlines and headed in our direction.

"Have it stand over there," I directed her without bothering to answer her question, and pointed to the spot right next to the unmoving fembot. I was just about to tell her what to do next, but my words were cut short by a magical projectile sailing way over my head. It wasn't picked up by my danger sense, probably because it was way off the mark, but it still drew my attention to the man who launched it.

"What are you doing!? Let her go!"

Labcoat Guy was obviously more than furious at the moment, but he was kept in bay Snowy sending wave after wave of icicles flying towards him. Ugh. That brought back some bad memories, so I decided to ignore that corner of the battleground for the time being; instead, I turned my attention back to the golem and pointed at the android on the ground.

"Sit."

"What?" Ammy blurted out in surprise, so I repeated myself.

"Make it sit on her, or lie on her, or whatever you want, so long as it stops her from moving."

"Wait, wouldn't that crush her?" Josh objected right away, so I overruled him with a shrug.

"I'm fairly sure that she's tougher than that, but even so, I'm not that invested in the well-being of someone who tried to disintegrate me multiple times."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Josh grumbled, though obviously not convinced.

"Reboot compl— Ouf!"

Credit where credit's due, unlike our resident harem protagonist, the class rep had no problem with following my orders, nor did she have any qualms about her golem pushing the breath out of the fembot. … Speaking of which, that pained 'Ouf' sounded really authentic. Did she actually have lungs? What kind of android has lungs? Wait, now that I think about it, I've seen her eat with Labcoat Guy and the nurse too. Was she really an android?

"Questions for later," I muttered under my breath before turning to the class rep again. "Nice work. Now come here."

Ammy only took a wobbly and decidedly hesitant step towards me, so I exhaled with all the enervation of the world and unceremoniously grabbed her by the waist.

"{Chief? What are you doing?}"

"Not now, Dormouse," I whispered under my breath before turning to the others. "Things are being a little chaotic right now back at the base and at Elly's place, so I'm taking the class rep with me. You guys keep stalling, listen to Judy's instructions, and make sure you stay close and cover each other. Got that, Josh?"

Instead of my friend, it was the princess who raised her voice in alarm.

"Something is wrong at home?"

"I'm already dealing with it. Don't worry, and just focus on scrapping these guys."

"Uhm… Okay," she responded with a carefree voice that said 'If Leo's on the case, everything will be fine', which would have been flattering under normal circumstances, but this time it only gave me unnecessary pressure, so I quickly nodded in her direction and. before anyone else could say anything, I wrapped my Phantom Limb around the flustered class rep.

Not half a second later, we both reappeared inside the sparsely lit impromptu prison room in realspace.

"Uwah!"

Yep, we barely arrived, and I was already getting irritated. I let go of the class rep and took a step away from her and towards the large cage in the corner and the hapless Celestial in it.

"Holy crap! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Mike exclaimed while dramatically clutching at his chest, only to freeze up a moment later and immediately stand ramrod straight. "Amelia! Hi! What are you doing here?"

"That's a good question," she responded while aiming a glare at me, and she even raised her hand to her temples, no doubt reflexively trying to tweak her missing glasses. "What am I doing here? And how? We were outside and in a Restricted Zone just a few moments ago!"

"Do you really think this is the best time to ask this?" I asked back while unsubtly glancing towards the captive sleeper agent, but she didn't get the memo, so I resolved myself to give her a quick 'explanation'.

"Ancient super-powerful artifact that can warp time and space," I declared as I unabashedly pointed at the mask on my face. "Hard to control, dangerous, might cause all the atoms in my body to explode at the speed of light if I'm not careful, but we are in a tight spot at the moment, so I had to use it anyway. There. Now can we actually move on?"

Ammy gave me an uncharacteristically doe-eyed stare for a second or five, after which she hastily took a step back and mumbled something along the lines of, "Y-Yes, sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

I was tempted to immediately retort with a miffed 'Yeah, you shouldn't have', but I managed to hold myself back and a deep breath later I softened it into a more moderate, "Good. Now, I have to go, because I still have two more situations to deal with. Since you're injured, I figured you wouldn't be able to contribute much to the battle, so please help this guy get out of that cage in my stead, and then escape before your grandpa shows up."

"… Okay," she agreed in an unusually weak voice and took a step towards the cage, only to recoil when Mike rushed up to the bars with thundering eyes.

"You're injured?! What happened? Who hurt you?"

The class rep glanced over to me for some reason, then back at the guy, and finally told him in a meek voice, "We were distracting Doctor Robatto, and in the process I fell down and hit my face. I don't think it's broken, but…"

"Come closer, let me see! Ah, your nose is bleeding! Quick, I'll heal you!"

In the meantime, Ammy got into arm's reach of the cage, so Mike extended his hand and put it over her bruised nose. I didn't feel like watching the scene unfolding in front of me, so I bid a quiet farewell and Phased away, barely catching the end of the Celestian mumbling something along the lines of, "Oh, I forgot I can't. The cage is—"

Well, whatever that was, I decided to put it out of my mind and trust the class rep. She would hopefully get him out of there in a jiffy, so that was one issue out of my hair. I would've told Judy about this, but I couldn't open a communication line on my end, so I only made a mental note about instructing her to keep an eye on Ammy and tell the others to retreat the moment she and Mike were out of the area.

More importantly, I was finally back in the pitch-black trophy room inside the Dracis mansion. Based on the thumping noise coming from outside, the knights were still trying to break down the barricade from the outside. That meant I still had time to find the jamming artifact. Or wait, should I Phase over to the other side of the wall and tell Emese to hold tight a little longer first?

It was at this point, while I was vacillating between the two options, that the door of the trophy room was kicked in with a deafening bang that cut my thoughts and filled my aching head with white noise.

"Captain, wait! Sir Roland said…!"

"Ah ken whit he said!" the huge man thundered back to his subordinate in an accent as thick as tar. He was decked out in full plate armor, capped by a great helm adorned with a pair of stubby horns at the top, and all of his equipment was giving off a faint magical glow that ironically made things even harder to see in the dark. He was also freaking huge, easily the size of one of the Faun, though still just slightly less massive than Brang. He walked into the room with a confident stride, and he was followed by a couple of smaller, yet similarly dressed men clutching shields and short swords in their hands.

"Th' wyrmblood is richt oan th' ither side o' this dyke! Ah will sooner be damned than let th' chance gang juist sae that he cuid…!" he yelled at one of the men beside him, but then a moment later he came to a screeching halt and grabbed the hilt of the heavy executioner's blade hanging from his waist and his helmeted head faced my general direction. "Thare's someain hidin' haer!! Shaw yersel', knave!"

I… had a lot of different things to say. Things such as 'I wasn't even hiding, idiot', or 'Knave? Really?', or even the incredibly obvious, 'What kind of accent is that? You sound like a Russian mobster trying to speak ye olde English with a Scotsman trapped in your throat!', but at the end of the day, I decided that none of those were right for the situation.

Instead I took a step forth so that my silhouette would be outlined by the light coming from the outside, and with a deepened voice I greeted the flabbergasted group of knights with the most ominous, malicious, and downright gleeful "Good evening, gentlemen," the world has ever heard.

And why? Because I might not have a weapon, and I might not have any fancy spells and superpowers, but as long as I had my refuge in audacity, I was confident I was still going to make these guys regret they ever set foot inside this mansion.