We let our AEP units do as we pleased long as they had a pair of PEP clan members to watch over them. I honestly did not trust them to not get in trouble otherwise. All I wanted was the best for them. Especially now that we had lost Chase. Each of the girls had their own idea of what it meant to model. I was fine with that. It was all okay for me. Paul, Brett and Hunter did not care either way. They were focusing on the clan or the music now. All of it got the attention of the public. We settled down into this routine of working until the Jukies came around. We were nominated again. This time we had less nominations. It seemed that we did not put all of our talents together correctly this time around. We could change that. The nominations we did get were won easily. The families of the Thumpers were allowed to go on stage to receive the posthumous lifetime achievement award for them. One even made a speech about how humanity had to stand strong against the hostile cyborg menace. None of our big songs were seen as performance worthy, so we watched. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.
Things were doing well for us until we were blocked on our way to the afterparty by several black suited men with guns at the ready. It was Major Idovelli at the head of the all the chaos. With him was his small group of surly direct subordinates. He was giving us a wolfish grin. Having his animal ears really helped him pull of the look. If I said something, he might just attack me. I therefore kept my mouth shut. None of the subordinates looked happy to see us. Something was up, and we all were going to have to deal with it. On our special day too. That was the most annoying part to this ambush. I groaned as I had to introduce the rest of the officers to the major and his subordinates. None of them knew about the other majors at all aside from what their names were. It did not take long for him to get to the chase. "We have a job for you guys. You had us link up with Wind Clan. I know from our intel that their newest units are retarded, but they really fucked up." he said. I facepalmed. "What the hell did they do? Fight with a Conqueror on the street in public?" I asked. Major Idovelli scoffed.
Dog ears flicking in annoyance, he said "Yeah right. If only they could be useful like that." I raised an eyebrow. He either did not know or did not care about the potential for collateral damage. "The newest one, 06-003 was out on the street and got kidnapped by scrappers." Paul looked confused. "How the fuck is that possible!? They are literally liquid metal and have the brains of supercomputers." The major shrugged his shoulders. "They say he was lured over to them by something. And of course, they don't want to attack humans, so we have to deal with this shit." I rolled my eyes. "They might be supercomputers, but they have the emotional intelligence of children. I bet it was easier than a pedo offering candy to a child to get them in their van. I don't see what the problem is. Just have them tell you his location and then go get him. It isn't like the humans can hurt him." I said. This was when he rubbed his hands together. "Unfortunately, the location he is being held is a known syndicate complex." he said. I got it now. "So you want us to go in guns blazing because we're all free agents."
