#ororea

The insane laughter carried far in the empty corridors of the compound.

"Can't you do something about him?" Luna asked.

Seccotine remembered the time when the Italian girl had had more energy in her voice. Before her father had been killed. Before she had found the bloodied horse head in her bed.

And before she had taken the codename of Crying Horse.

Not that she cried these days either, her tears spent.

"Ask Raging Cat," Seccotine told her. Of course logic would have dictated Luna would have gone to the red haired girl to begin with, but Seccotine, these days known as the Psycho Wolf, had trained them well.

All decisions were made by her.

She thanked whatever deity was listening that she was still normal and unchanged by the war. It had required her mental discipline to handle these mental powers, after all. Silent Shark had tried to usurp them but had her mind broken, and these days Ororea or what was left of her spent most of her days in the sea in her suit, like the monstrous killer animal she was named after.

It seemed like Luna knew full well, and even without a gentle mental push by Seccotine she walked to the redhead.

The Raging Cat did not live up to her name. Or that was the assumption most people made based on her demure behaviour. But Seccotine knew. Jeanne might have inherited her suit and codename from the person who had only joined the corps to follow Gaston, maybe with similar motives, but Seccotine had seen her in battle.

Put Gaston in danger and she would destroy everyone on her path to get to him.

Seccotine knew full well how to take advantage of this. And if they were now hunting for a certain mercenary...

"Jeanne," Luna called her. Seccotine frowned. She had pushed Luna to call her by her code name. She always found it fun reminding Jeanne of Prunelle, the man whose codename she had taken, in circumstances like this.

It made her easier to control.

Easier to get to follow Seccotine's plans.

It was safer for everyone.

Jeanne stood up, as much as the four-legged cat like exoskeleton allowed, and closed her face plate. With cat like grace, she walked to where Gaston was sitting.

He had used his metallic wings to fly up to the rafters.

Not a problem for the cat-like cyborg who jumped up there, taking her place next to the gaggling man.

"It's so funny, isn't it?" he asked.

Jeanne didn't bother to ask what was. She wondered if Gaston remembered. The planes, some of which had been carrying passengers. He had been... efficient. Jeanne suspected lot of that had to do with Seccotine.

"No, it's not funny at all!" he suddenly exclaimed. "He was always-"

Jeanne inched closer.

Gaston embraced the cold chassis. "Léon, what did I do?"

Jeanne stayed silent. If he thought it was Prunelle, maybe it would help.

If he wouldn't remember how his mistake had led to the death of the original Cat...

Jeanne could feel the touch in her mind. Seccotine.

The cold, calculating probing emotion moved on, presumably to Gaston, and a smile spread to his face.

For some reason this scared Jeanne even more than the hysterical laugh had.

"Are you ready?"

It took Jeanne a moment to realize it had not come from inside of her mind. Seccotine was talking through the codec, apparently transmitting to everyone.

Gaston nodded, letting out a giggle. "I have been thinking of new ways to set them on fire, Prunelle would be so surprised." He laughed, this time more naturally. "He will be mad."

"We need you," Seccotine informed him. "We will need aerial support."

"Yes," Gaston nodded. "I will get rid of them all."

We will move on then.

This time the call was heard only in her mind, and for some reason it felt comforting to Jeanne.

Seccotine would know what to do. She would keep them together.