It was a small case, silver, with a DNA lock, only slightly noticeable, but the way Zam was carrying it was what was suspicious. It was almost too casual, a languid grace that seemed like she was either fearless or just pretending she was.

She had something to hide, and she'd gotten good at hiding things, but sometimes someone got too good at it, if that made sense. There was too much of a practiced ease to her gestures as she walked through the halls of Stacy, making her way to her destination.

There had been a lot of kid-like expenditures during XaXing, and this was one of them. While Chamo stared at the new addition to the Springfield family, it stared back despite its wide eyes.

While Negi strummed a guitar, having learned a few things from Matt about music over the last few months and humming a wordless tune, the pair of creatures looked at each other.

Chamo stared at Larry. Larry the Platypus stared back.



His glassy-eyed stare bore into Chamo's soul. And then, it emitted a growl which had Chamo sigh.

"You win this round, Platypus."

The area of Hydroponics in which Zouichi chose to wait is isolated enough that people wouldn't just idly wander by, but easily accessible and well-lit. There were a number of alien-looking trees nearby, but alas, none of the people-eating variety, and it was close enough to the rest of Level 5 that it would be easy to find.

If a Synthetic Human dressed from head-to-toe in black body armor standing around in an open, grassy clearing was difficult to find.

Arhu was almost surprised to find himself back in Stacy proper. He almost hadn't thought that he'd make it - almost, because he was nothing if not confident in his own abilities. His memory of where he'd been was...muddled on the details, but he thought he remembered being told to jump through flashing orange and blue circles and a frustrated voice when he'd merely circumvented the laws of gravity instead. Besides, it wasn't like he could properly hold that sort of machine anyway.

Released from wherever-he'd-been, he went tumbling to the grass beside a river, and it took him a moment to remember where he was and what the river was. This was the river that belonged to that Power, the gigantic one that had been friends with Rhiow. Well, as close to friends as a Power could get.

A whisper in the back of his mind reminded him that Powers could get a lot closer than merely friends. He flicked his tail dismissively, because that wasn't important right now, and he was hungry. It was probably rather fortunate that he'd been dumped right beside a river that was well-stocked with fish, now wasn't it?

Settling himself at the river's edge, he asked permission- "Of your courtesy, may I hunt in your domain?" - and then watched for fish. Tasty, tasty fish.