Foxhunt: The Bloodhounds

Romeo couldn’t help but give a wry smile to Piper. Honestly, this was more of a training exercise than a Foxhunt. Romeo had his doubts as to the validity of some glitchy Neo’s claim. Still, OSEC did want to risk it and on top of that had a fresh pup out of the Kennel tag along.

The young blood in the back seat had his eyes glued to the sights of the Hive. Roach was as fresh and as green as they came. This was his first time down in the Hive much less Sojo and boy did the look on the kid’s face bring him back.

“Don’t worry kid, the wonder will wear out fast. It looks all different and flashy now but gives it an hour or so and you’ll be glad to be back in the Spire.” He assured the younger Alpha. “God, you're making me feel old.” Romeo said with a slight shake of his head as the ground pounder came to a stop.

Piper suppressed a grin of her own, Victor wasn’t the first Alpha she and Romeo took to the Hive. Romeo often volunteered or was voluntold to show new unbonded Alpha’s the ropes. “It can be a little overwhelming.” She offered, but by that point, Victor all but had his nose to the glass taking in all the activity.

“It’s huge down here … it’s mindblowing knowing almost all these folk are descended from Hyperion.” Roach noted, copper eyes drifting from face to face. He moved to open his door in order to exit but found the door handle not working. He paused and gave a withering look to Romeo. “Did you child lock the door?!” Roach accused the vet.

“Oops.” Romeo said with an unapologetic tone. “Don’t worry kids … it only goes downhill from here.” He slipped out opening the door for Roach from the outside.

His antics amused Piper as she closed her eyes and popped the lock, opening the door to slip out. The Hive, of course, was alive with tech and activity. This new kid wasn’t the only one looking forward to the trip. Besides, like movie night - it was a good enough distraction from all the Logos chatter buzzing around in the Spire.

The Hive ran with its own electronic heartbeat, people lived stack on top of each other, everyone had two kinds of hustles. Also, the food was cheap and good, if you didn’t look too closely at the ingredients. They were very creative below the city proper.

AR store signs glowed brightly and the noise of people was loud. IT was a different world down here. “Here you have to be on your toes more. Folk down here don’t give a shit about OSEC and as long as you play nice they play nice back.” Romeo explained.

“I don’t understand I thought OSEC ran it all?” Roach asked quirking an eyebrow.

“That's what the guys upstairs LIKE to think. Fact is it’s the wild west down here, don’t expect anyone here to respect you. You gotta earn that right with these folks.” Romeo elaborated as they worked through the crowd.

Piper stuck close to Romeo, while at the same time letting herself slip in and quickly out of various tech that surrounded them - virtual games, sports games, implants being outfitted, upgraded, everything sent a spark of excitement that lit up her brain. As thrilling as it was, there was something familiar that tugged at the back of her mind, a familiarity she quickly pushed it aside in lieu of honing in on an AI companion of sorts being programmed for specifics while Romeo and Victor spoke.

“-there is a lot here to that distracting to a Neo, unshielded, illegal tech of all kind they have to sort through.” Romeo elaborated to the younger Alpha.

“How do know if they found something?” Roach asked.

“You’ll know when you're bonded when you work together for a long time … “Romeo said pausing as he glanced to Piper. She was unusually quiet and more distracted than normal.

Piper didn’t realize she has stopped or heard Romeo when he asked if she was okay. The human noise fell away leaving the static and song of electronics. Even that slowly fell away to silence … her eyes moved on there own looking up. Sparrows. Flying playfully in the air. Her ears filling with sweet chirps and giggles. They dipped and dove in the distance before blinking out of sight and the world came crashing back down.

“-okay?” Roach asked but Romeo silenced him. Piper had missed whatever conversation the two were having while in the throws of her hallucination.

Romeo waited, giving Piper some time to come back to her senses.

Piper squinted her eyes, trying to drown out the overload of electronics, the nagging, familiar feeling now buzzing softly in her head. *“Can you hear me? I can help you.”*She soothed silently, half playing a hunch, half with a restless feeling that she wasn’t alone. She also realized at that point that Romeo and Victor had stopped talking. She blinked a few times and smiled back to Romeo. “Sorry, I thought I heard -- there’s just a lot to get into down here.” She moved closer to her Alpha, feeling less at ease than when they’d started.

“I see what you mean.” Roach nodded seeing the shift in Piper. No wonder Neo’s that fell through the crack tended to go crazy. Piper was well trained and even now, down it the Hive it could quickly get to her.

Romeo put an arm protectively around her. “What did you think you heard?” He asked softly. If only he could do more for her in times like this.

“I could have sworn it was a Neo. But it has to be -- wires crossed or something.” she smiled up at him and pointed to her head. She thought about telling him about the sparrows, they seemed so real, but with the overload -- chances are it was some augmented reality nature program her brain was trying to process. “signals, or some AI tech interference. All the same, I’m going to keep out of the machines for now.”

Romeo nodded but he was less doubtful of his Piper than she was of herself at the moment. “Hey, it’s okay.” He assured her. “But in the off chance, it is a Neo. Lost down here. You think you can try again? Give us a direction?” He urged.