The Cathedral

Mai smiled as he came back properly dressed and nodded to him.
"Thats better. Wouldn´t want you to get in trouble for improper dress code."
In the meantime, she´d already made coffee- in the hopes that she would be able to drink it if she made it from the beans up, but despite everything, the first sip told her otherwise as she was confronted with the thoughts of plantation workers harvesting coffee beans in borderline slave labor.
Still, she forced up a smile and held out a cup to him.
"Here, i made coffee in the meantime." Suddenly, though, she stopped, and turned her head slightly as she heard a noise nearby. A voice... a voice? Someone else was here?

"Thanks," Lusec said then took the cup and sipped on the coffee. Hmm...
Not satisfied, he moved over to the kitchen counter and added some sugar.

"What?" Lusec turned where Mai was glancing. "Did you just hear something?" he said.
He was sure he heard some breathings and voices. Could it be..?
NO, it can't be ghosts. It's definitely not ghosts!

"Well...I was beginning to wonder where everyone went."

Kokonoe sighed as she stood up and cracked her fingers. After stretching her back a bit, she snapped her fingers and, a second later, a rocket-powered warhammer with a drill attached to it's head appeared from her pocket-dimensional arsenal and landed near her feet. While she was no doubt a master of the arcane arts, the beastkin chose not to utilize magic due to the fact that she hated it.

Nonetheless, she picked up the weapon with a smirk. She was ready for anyone who came her way and, honestly, she sincerely hoped it would be Terumi.

"Someone is here, Lusec. And i´m almost sure that wasn`t the case a few moments ago."
Setting down her own cup of coffee, she stood up and looked towards the direction the sounds came from, slowly making her way towards their origin with her hands on her blades.
"Come on. Maybe they`re a hint to why this whole branch is deserted."
In her mind, she hoped it was Noel, returning safe and sound. The feeling she had earlier had been replaced with the dread that something terrible might happen to her.

As a lower rank than Mai, he had no choice but to obey. And so he set down his own coffee next to Mai's and picked up his weapon, ready to set out with her.

"Alright, lead the way." Lusec said. He really hoped it wasn't ghosts, this place was already giving him the creeps ever since he came here.

While the two were approaching from the other direction cautiously, Kokonoe was casually strolling the other end of the hall with her rocket hammer on her shoulders while whistling. One would think that she wasn't taking this seriously, but they'd be quite wrong; her mind was on full alert as she was full aware of the probabilities that this situation entailed.

Still, she kept her poise, and with good reason; not many can take her on in a fight and leave unscathed.

Finally, coming around a bend towards a stretch of hallway, Mai saw the beastkin woman strolling down the corridor like it was nobody`s buisness. Her lack of uniform told her she didn`t belong here, and it was a fact made apperant by the scientific looking hammer on her shoulder.
...a Sector Seven operative?!
"Halt! Stop right there and state your business here, intruder!" She shouted, her blades unsheathing and pointing at the catgirl from a safe distance. She didn´t recognize the woman at all, seeing how Cajun never talked about her in the past.

Lusec drew his blade, thinking the exact same thing as Mai. He positioned himself a little behind Mai to support her, Mai being the frontline/first to engage the beastkin.

"The Intermediary Grimoire, eh?"

Kokonoe immediately recognized the bluenette from the tales Cajun Faycott told her when she came back from the Academy. As a result, she knew of her unique super taster skill and it's unique ability to absorb any knowledge or skill of the last person she kissed. Immediately her golden-amber eyes glinted rather malevolently.

"How intriguing..." she said with a cruel grin directed at the two of them "I've heard about you, Mai Natsume. A certain friend of yours spoke rather enthusiastically about you. I hope you don't mind..."

As she spoke, she raised her left hand as a large, glowing red orb manifested at the palm. She effortlessly tossed it into the air.

"If I take you on a crash course!" The Chief Scientist of Sector Seven roared as she swung her hammer, hitting the fiery orb like a baseball bat as she sent it hurtling toward the two.

"A-aah?!"
Mai had to leap to the side to avoid being hit by what looked like a fireball of some sort. As she hit the ground and rolled, she tossed one of her swords in a flat trajectory to hit Kokonoe`s legs, trying to knock her over or possibly incapacitate her.
That giant weapon doesn`t look like it slows her down, but its reach has weaknesses. However she`s got some Ars on her body too...
"Break formation and attack, Lusec!" She commanded, intending him to keep her busy while she would attack Kokonoe while she was open.

Lusec had jumped a little high to evade the pinkette's attack, and before Mai could tell her so, Lusec was already coming from above Kokonoe with his black gunblade pointed down.

One of these days, he thought, he's gonna have to find a name for his weapon.

"Tch, what a mess this is going to create."

Kokonoe grimaced as they evaded her projectile, which exploded upon making contact with the nearest wall. "Now every busybody's gonna come swarming in. That's a complication I don't need." she grunted as she twirled her hammer, the head hitting Mai's sword to parry it. She then looked up to see Lusec attempting an attack. In response, she gave him a devilish smirk as she uttered the words.

"Aaaaaand click!"

She vanished from her spot in a flash light, reappearing seconds later a few good meters away from the two combatants. "Well, aren't you all an eager bunch?" She smirked as she let go off her hammer, which was stored in hammerspace.

Lusec slashed Kokonoe from above, only to disappear in a mere minisecond before his blade hit.
"Tsk," Lusec cursed as he landed on the ground and recovered.
He glanced at where she "teleported," before preparing his sword for another strike, raising his blade.
(Something like http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/031/e/b/squall_leonhart___cosplay___dissidia_duodecim_vi_by_shinkan_seto-d5fm1ss.jpg.)

For some reason, he couldn't help but find her cute.
Or maybe he hadn't seen any female beastkin like her before that's why he's sort of attracted to her.

(Would help if you`d explain the action in a way one understands rather than posting screenshots of Final Fantasy.)

Mai sighed, doing a combat roll over the ground to retrieve her sword, which had uselessly hit a wall in front of where Kokonoe used to be standing.
This didn´t seem like it would be very easy... and she didn´t want to risk too much. She promised Noel she`d be back, but...
With two close combatants of minor league standards, this wasn`t going to end well against a beastkin. However, if there´s one thing she learned- then that kisses between girls meant nothing.
...ususally.
One sword was kept at her side, the other hacked towards Kokonoe`s position as she advanced, twisting, turning, constantly moving to dodge and block as well as attack at the same time, a classic maneuver with two swords.. however, her real intention became clear as she brought her swords to her back and pounced forward, her lips heading for Kokonoe`s.
If i can kiss her... we might have the winning edge in this fight!

Kokonoe, free from the weight of her hammer, twisted and turned to dodge her slashes. She believed that her opponent was fighting rather recklessly until she saw her brought both swords in front of her and pounced forward, her lips dangerously aimed at hers.

"So you intend to use your grimoire on me, eh?" The pink-haired beastkin smirked, impressed by the bluenette's ingenuity, as she leaned her head back to take her lips out of reach "Not a bad idea. If I hadn't known about it, you'd have planted a wet one on me by now. However..."

She clenched her left fist and, seconds later, a rocket glove materialized and she thrust it forward, aiming for Mai's gut with an uppercut, activating the boosters for increased momentum and damage "You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to get to first base with me!"

Lusec was behind Mai when she maneuvered to attack Kokonoe. As they fought, he distanced himself a bit and gave Mai her turn with the hammer-wielding chick. When Mai brought down her swords on her, Lusec was quick enough to see Kokonoe's other hand rocketing to punch Mai from her unguarded spot.

In what seemed like a slow-mo move, Luse-kun pointed his gunblade behind him, triggered a round, then used the big recoil to dash towards the two. Seeing as he was mere steps away from the two, he slashed Mai's dual swords up and most likely forced her back...

..and Lusec taking the hit in the gut from the beastkin.

(I suck at describing things.)

Mai was bracing for impact, the muscles in her stomatch tensing up and she was about to pull her swords to the front to provide some sort of armor plating, when a powerful strike of a sword pushed her back, causing her to stumble and stagger for a moment. The next thing she saw was Lusec flying across the room due to the punch of the beastkin`s rocket fist, making her blink.
"Warrant Officer!!" She was shocked to see this, seeing him as her own responsibility... but with that, she got back to where she was, a battle zone, and focused.

Her swords were pulled to the front, and she dashed ahead, eyeing the woman closely to try and read her moves.. rather than pouncing her, however, she jumped at the last possible moment and leaped over Kokonoe, landing behind her and kicking at the back of her leg to make her fall.
With a grin, she turned her swords back and held out her arms to catch Kokonoe in them for a corny romantic kiss... if it would work, at least.

Kokonoe had to give it to the two: They were pretty damn resourceful.

The Chief Scientist was genuinely surprised to see how quickly Lusec came to the bluenette's aid, though it didn't stop her from slamming him with enough force to send him across the room. She saw Mai coming at her and launched the same rocket glove at her, the device flying from her hand in an attempt to hit it's target, but it missed when she executed that leap.

"Uwah!" It all happened to fast; Mai moved too quickly for even her to read, which meant that she fell victim to the kick and fell to the bluenette's arms...

"Guh!" Lusec's back slammed against a pillar, hard, before sliding down on the floor and coughing up some blood.

The rocket had got him so much that he was barely able to see clearly. He couldn't even look up to see what was happening.

He just sat there to recover from Kokonoe's attack.

Mai was pleased to see her tactic had been sucessful, and with that, she leaned down to kiss the lips of the beastkin scientist- to find them suprisingly soft and puffy, as if she didn´t use them much, despite her big mouth.
She didn`t think much about it, more or less training for being with Noel, but.. she kind of liked this. Her eyes were closed, and like many kisses before, she was being soft and sensible, just barely pushing her lips onto Kokonoe´s.
She could feel energy and vigor rushing into her the longer she kissed, and couldn`t help nipping on her lower lip once while the cute, if loud and barsh, catgirl was in her arms. Mai hummed in the pleasuring situation, taking her time.

Kokonoe struggled as she might to escape Mai's arms, trying to push her lips off hers, but she somehow couldn't. She did not know if it was the effect of the grimoire or not, but she felt intoxicated by those lips.

"D-Damn it..." The cat-girl scientist thought in defeat as she stopped struggling, deciding to take it like a man (or beastkin cat-woman in this case) and let Mai Natsume plant one on her. Besides, she was kind of interested to see which part of her the bluenette will inevitable retain.

Lusec groaned when he tried to look up to see whats happened, but the combination of the critical hit to his gut and the blurry vision makes it hard to make out the picture.

Eventually, despite his strong will, he passed out.

Mai`s lips were still placed on that of the scientists, nipping and suckling on her lips while she copied her abilities- eventually, she felt it was done as no more energy was copied off of the woman, but... it took some serious self restraint to part lips with her, softly letting her down with a smile. She tasted well, although....

"U...uhhh?!" Her mind became dizzy as thoughts and memories came into her mind, taken from Kokonoe`s... many of the thoughts she didn`t even begin to understand. Binary codes, plasma regulators, self-contained fission batteries... blueprints for what seemed like a robot the size of a building. She saw a Kaka, a strange one with a metal arm, and a smaller, but more fierce looking one with an eyepatch and a dual set of swords. Thoughts of... loneliness. Of neglection, and much, much hatred for a man...
...a man she had met no less than an hour ago. Captain Hazama.

"What... Captain Hazama? What is...he?..." She stuttered, feeling dread and pain from his very image, which was Kokonoe´s thought about him... she forced it away, and finally, Mai saw the image of a young girl of Noel`s age, blonde, the same statue... and the same odd tattoo on her chest.
"Noel... what is that tattoo...?"

"So, you saw all that, huh?"

Kokonoe gave the bluenette a wry smile "You know that wasn't bad for a kiss, so I'm guess you got experience in using that grimoire of yours.  Cajun was right about you; that's some kick-ass ability, Mai Natsume."

The pink-haired scientist then turned to where Lusec lay, the soldier unconscious from her attack "By the way, you might want to check on your friend. I might've done a number on him back there."

Mai slowly regained her senses and blushed darkly, huffing a bit as she sheathed her swords.
"We should have a talk, Professor Kokonoe. Something tells me that something isn`t quite right here.. Later, though, Lusec needs help."
She then rushed to her subordinate to check on him, before using a healing ars to take care of his internal bleedings.
Mai turned her back to Kokonoe like this- if she heard from Cajun, her friend, then she wouldn`t stab her in the back like this... in fact it seemed as if the scientist merely tried to evaluate her.
"What are you doing here, anyway? This place is far off from any Sector Seven base." She finally asked, looking back at the girl.