A loud shrill of a cry carried itself from below the depth as the sound of hundreds of tiny steps approached them. Colbert was slammed into the wall by a gigantic tail and shot it. The ooze out of it was black. Now they knew what beast they were up against.

"Fire!" Both shot downward right below their dangling legs until it went silent.

"Please tell me it's dead."

Colbert gestured to wait. A moment passed. Nothing.

"It should be- you have got to be kidding me-" The creature emerged out of the ground beside her comrade and snatched him with its horned jaw. Its eye glowed neon green and disgusted Lorisa in every way. She averted her eyes and began shooting until the screaming stopped. Looking back, The creature was pinned to the wall.

"Well...That was gruesome." Colbert said, "I think they're done up there. We can leave."

"There's no possible way that they could have finished such a feat so quickly!" She assumed.

He spoke as he dealt with the harness still keeping them from falling who knows how deep, "They have extermination fumes only higher rankings are allowed to use because of the dangerous nature of them." 

"I suppose that makes sense. This..creature...may I ask what it is?" Lorisa asked as they rose out of the hole.

"We've been calling them Rock Worms from what I know of. Similar to the Daptive." He took her hand helped her out, "We need to pause for a moment. Thank you for saving me back there. I knew I wouldn't have made it out of there without you."

"Oh, of course! Why wouldn't I help my partner?" She shouted with a smile and he gestured for a high five. The blank start he received meant he was going to have to try again later. Lorisa had no idea what he was doing, however she had seen so many strange things she did not mind.

"Come on, let's get to the T1." He grinned widely and they ran to the aircraft before it took lift back to HQ.

Agent was leaning against the frame of the entry way of the helicopter when they arrived, "Took y'all a minute, didn't it? No sweat. Just get in quickly. Captain's going to be pleased when he finds out the mission was successful.

Arriving in HQ, there was no rest. Lorisa was given more training time and was expected to complete a certain number of hours before the next meeting. Now knowing who her partner was, she now naturally flocked to him as a means of getting to know him. While walking to the weaponry, they chatted about all sorts of things,

"So, what is it like being in a lucid chamber? I've been wanting to ask someone forever now. Do you feel stuff in the dream? Oh, that must be really rude of me. I'm sorry. That's probably a heavy subject for you." Colbert pondered.

"Not at all! It's all strange. Bottles of goo trashing all the shelves. And of course I can feel everything. I already am aware of the fact that this is the dream. 'Waking up' was just falling asleep because of some sort of allergic reaction to my best friend's tea, I bet." She laughed it off.

"Um...You really don't believe that, do you?"

"Why wouldn't I? I have years I spent in that little town, they're all probably worried sick at my bed at this very moment."

"..." Colbert faintly smiled and moved on, "Now I haven't showed you my favorite spot, have I?"

"You haven't, I don't believe."

He waved his hand and she followed him through the facility and just as he was about to open the door, a young man with longer brown messy hair of a similar age as Colbert came and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. He had a broader build than her partner, but he was also much shorter.

"How's my bro doing? I've been meaning to talk to you all day!" He exclaimed with a bright smirk.

"Oh...Zitro! Hey...is now the time for this?" His fake laugh and false smile gave away all of his lack of comfort and Lorisa could not help but chuckle.

"Why not? Besides, you haven't even introduced me to your partner. How rude." Zitro teased. Clearly he was more of prankster.

Colbert sighed, "This is Agent Manner. Manner, this is Agent Zitro Sou. He can be....a character, that is certain."

"So fancy shmancy. Dude, I didn't see you in my party when they sent us to Korea. Which one were you sent on?" Zitro chatted.

"We were both sent to the farming land not too far off from Munich, Germany. It was most definitely an adventure to say the least."

"Awwww, you got the fun part! I was stuck just being bullied by a bunch of wiring. We totally should've swapped."

"He-he, yeah for sure. Fun stuff. I actually have some work I need to do. We can talk later." Colbert asserted as he opened the door to another hall.

"No problem man-" Zitro was cut off when Colbert closed the door behind Lorisa, causing her to force herself to hold her laughter.

"Here, it's this way." Colbert gestured to her to climb a ladder.

"You must be very irritated with him, are you not?" She said as she restrained her amusement and climbing the ladder

"He...does not have a good understanding of how to stand upright socially. Do not let his...charisma persuade you."

"I see." She hid her face by looking behind them and laughed silently.

"There it is. And we made it at just the right time." Her partner was gesturing to the sunrise. Glorious color and hues illuminating the night's darkness.

"Oh my, what a marvelous view!" She shouted with glee.

"Please don't show this place to anyone. I'm showing you because if we're going to work together, than we need to get to know one another. This is my strange way of doing that." Colbert requested, to which she hastily shook her head in agreement.

The two chatted about life, icebreaker, favorites, and discussed things she was yet to understand about the current time. They talked for hours until she had to go to the training grounds to fulfill her hours. 

"Thank you for this quality time, I sincerely appreciate it."

"Of course. I just hope I'm not too weird or awkward for you."

"Don't say such things! I find it quite charming if I do say so, myself." She stopped as soon as she realized what she was saying, "I mean, in an amusing, humorous like way. I'll see you later!" She ran out the door and Colbert found himself grinning ear to ear when he had to straighten himself up. Everyone knows people from her time were not afraid of using more powerful words for lesser things, so it could not have been anything.