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Walta esper awakening & next steps w/Haru, but then it shifts to Esper Teddy
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He knocks its head clean off with the first round in a lucky hit. It plows into the dungeon floor with a metallic CRUNCH.

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He'll come back for that when Bob's out. Does Bob want a hand up?

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Sure.

"It was diving right at me... What if you're a bit slower next time?"

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"If I'm slower we'll have a problem, but if you run then there can be a monster where you run to and I won't be there unless I chase you, which involves not shooting the monsters."

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"Okay, okay... Maybe you shou- Christ's sake Bob don't tell the pros how to do their fucking jobs."

Deep breath. He kicks the downed monster. "Ready to go."

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Haru startles when he kicks the monster but fortunately it doesn't turn out to have Two Health Bars. Out they go.

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He encounters one more dive-bomber and a pair of foot patrollers on the way back. It's pretty clear at this point that it's critical hit damage that actually kills them- Joints, heads, and a fist-sized red module in their central chest. Anything else is either cosmetic or lets them keep hobbling forwards like zombies.

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He's got laser sights and a lot of range practice.

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One more foot patroller. And then they can see the portal.

"Thank you, I know you get it a lot but thank you so very much, Mr. Traceless-"

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"You're welcome! I'm gonna hand you off to the support crew from here." Where's Teddy.

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Here on the right!

A new map is printing.

"Hello I was very scared."

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Hug. "I'm okay and so's the guy. We'll work out the kinks with practice. The clockworks go down to hits to specific vital places, the ammo I have at least barely scratches them anywhere else, but they don't present too-small targets. I have to fly to get to the victims, or at least this one, he was in a suspended cage."

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Hug!!

"I- I mostly had that already but I was focused on mapping- How are you on backlash? I think I'm around ten percent, ish?"

Here's the next map, he maneuvers it with one hand. It's partially filled out like some kind of video game HUD that maps as you go. Looks like another victim can probably be grabbed mostly through already-visited rooms.

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"I only had to fly for a few seconds each way and none of the monsters spent all that long failing to sense me either, but I'm glad you're here, it'd add up after a few more." He swaps out the map.

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"Since I'm on this side of the portal anyway for more efficiency maybe we should get a bigass WiFi or shortwave radio beacon and an e-reader or something for you to map with, for next time. If it pulled any rearranging tricks I was going to keep you updated via power but, you know, redundancy."

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"Yeah, that would be a good idea." It is so much harder to hug efficiently while geared up. He puts his cheek on Teddy's cheek.

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He leans slightly. He looks over his map and tidies it up with quick, efficient gestures. He types an update on the weak point situation to the support staff and door guards.

"If this lasts a while we ought to take a break on the far side, no playing backlash chicken. I want to take actual dungeons deadly seriously, though, you know?"

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"I'm basically good to go, if you weren't here I'd do another ten of those and have safety margin for the tenth one being weird in some way, but since there's 22 of them I'll want a longer break outside the dungeon around the halfway point, yeah."

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"Yeah... I'm just glad this dungeon mapping software already existed and all I needed was some novel inputs so I can do it really fast. It's almost like a game except for how it's so very much not."

He raises a hand to press it against Haru's other cheek.

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"I'm about ready to bounce back out there and get another person out, d'you need me longer?"

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"-Mm. Manageable. Sooner started sooner finished."

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Haru nods, extracts himself, and goes to get another person.

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This one is a tourist. She spends the whole time muttering in Mandarin.

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Well that's annoying! He doesn't speak a lick of Mandarin! Does she at least respond to gestures and phrasebook-level English?

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She'll follow along with enough prompting, and be lifted out of her cage (suspended over a tesla coil-ish object). And promise to follow.

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