After a moment of thought, neither of us actually wanted to drive that far. It was therefore time to call up 08927. We crowded around my phone. He picked up on the third ring. "Hello? Is something wrong?" he asked me. I just said "Everything's alright. We're in Nova City. We need a way back home." There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Understood." was all he said. I sighed. Of course he was going to be difficult on this. "Can you get a ride and come pick us up?" There was another beat of pause on the line. He said "You know that I'm in Jazni Town, correct? It will take me several days to get there." "That's totally fine. We can wait a couple days. It's a new city for us. We can be tourists." I replied. "I can't go today. Due to your advocacy, I was made a full member." Listening to him, he was given an X-frame for his role in the joint operation. 08927 was the lowest tier member with an X-frame. He was also given all the blueprints to another X-frame. He was scheduled to be bred by a high tier unit later that day. I sighed. "Do your clan duties, but remember who gave you an upgrade."
Paul also leaned in closer to the phone. "If you can pick us up, we're willing to reward you. I hear private driver fees are pretty high these days." he told him. "I definitely will. Enjoy Nova City." he said, more excited than before while hanging up. "So what are we going to do?" Paul asked me. I shrugged. "Whatever we want to do really. It doesn't matter how we waste time. Erosion Clan owes us big time. We can just crash with them. Or we can explore the city and see what we can get up to. It's us." Paul nodded and began walking down the street. The toxic AEP unit and I followed him. We were in Dysthymia Row the most lawless and dejected part of the city. It was not long until we ran into trouble. A trio of cyberpunk gangsters came over to us. "You're in the Hyper Beez territory. What the hell are you doing?" one said. They looked too easy. We just killed them on sight. That summoned more of them to the scene. We enjoyed clearing Dysthymia Row of the Hyper Beez. They men, women and children after us. I personally like the drive by in a yellow and black lowrider with a rocket launcher.
The 3 of us were having fun until we got an emergency message from the leader of Erosion Clan. Because they had been gone so long, Water Clan was on the move. It did not sound good. The invaders were coming for their underground transmission hub and they wanted change it from a Researcher hub to a Conqueror hub. 10-002 cheered. "Yay! We're winning." he said. Paul said "Give us the coordinates. We're still in the city!" We got them. The happy Toxic AEP was no longer an ally. We just ran past him. He was able to keep up, but that did not matter. What did matter was stopping them from taking over the transmission hub. The entrance to the hub was across the street from the hospital. The door was blown off the hinges. We could hear fighting further in. I got out my rifle and so did Paul. We moved in. We had been travelling and hosting Erosion Clan this whole time. We knew who to help and who to attack. While we were in the fire fight, 10-002 barreled through and tanked the shots that hit him. That was not good. We were going to need to stop him. First, we had to help the PEAs.
