The alien huntresses

Cassie interjected before Jason could make a decision with Emily. "We actually do sort of have a more urgent need to hunt down the other half of Xeno before they do anything drastic. I think we need to practice the linked mode, it's the one with the glowy eyes."

"What about it?" Emily blinked. "What makes it better than, say, Jason taking direct control?"

Cassie held her arm out, as the silvery nanites in her body reformed her bare arm into an energy cannon again, with a silvery polish to it. Her eyes also started to shine green, as Juno took control. "It's a good division of resources in the body, since the nanites can focus on providing support structures like this or armor, while the organic minds can collaborate more effectively. It's easy to completely suppress a host with this mode with the nanites, but in our case, we want to be able to share back and forth. Look, I can go back and forth between Juno and Cassie easily, and it's a seamless transition where we can contribute to a coherent whole. Now I'm Juno..." she tilted her head to the side as the glow in her eyes disappeared. "Now I'm Cassie." She tilted her head back the other way, and her eyes glowed again. "And Juno again. You see? Best of both worlds, it's like a tag-team when we're like this, the nanites facilitate a seamless transition and fill in the blanks."

Emily nodded slowly, and then looked down at the little viewport tattoo. "I guess we should try it then, right? So that's going to, what, make us like a superhero?"

"In a way," Cassie said with a grin. "Kit, use linked mode and armor up, head to toe."

Emily's body shuddered as she bent forward, feeling a tingling in her eyes as they suddenly started to glow. Jason's consciousness moved to the fore, standing up and stepping forward before the nanites flowed out of the body, enveloping it in sleek, teal-tinted silver from head to toe, in what looked like a sturdy space suit or robotic exoskeleton. In one hand, Jason held up what looked like some sort of strange energy blade, while the other hand had the same sort of claw-like arm cannon that Cassie now sported. Through the helmet, the dark tinted visor hid most of Emily's face, but the two glowing dots of her eyes were still clearly visible.

"Whoa... wait. Why am I the one wearing armor here? I look like I just came out of some kind of sci-fi movie." Jason admired the look but felt a little 'overdressed' compared to the giggling girls in front of him.

"I think Cassie's just thinking about your safety," Carrie said as she knocked on the armor encasing Emily's body. "Xeno wouldn't be able to do anything to Juno or Aleph if they entered our bodies, but it's very possible that something could happen if Xeno entered Emily. I wouldn't know for sure, this whole thing is totally unprecedented, but if a yellow alien can still combine with you, then who knows what might result..."

Cassie nodded in agreement. "Blue and yellow aliens combine to create a green alien with a unified mind, and that could cause all kinds of problems if it's even possible anymore. So, if we encounter Xeno, you'll need to have your helmet on, I'd rather not find out what a half-Xeno-half-Jason result behaves like, it probably wouldn't be good."

Jason nodded, looking down at the armor. "Well for now, the helmet's a little much..." Kit retracted the helmet, and Jason took a deep breath. "Much better. Okay, so... Emily and I can trade off control?"

"Yep," Carrie said. "Start walking and give up control, you'll see what I mean."

Following Carrie's suggestion, Jason started to walk, feeling surprisingly capable on these new legs. He knew that was partly the help of the nanites, but they were there more as a foundation than anything else. Still, when Jason relaxed his control and the teal glow faded from Emily's eyes, she continued to walk, although Jason could feel it wasn't his doing, it was Emily doing it. She stopped walking, blinked, and turned around.

"...huh. It's kind of like my body's a Ouija board now," Emily said as she looked at herself. "Kind of like it's hard to tell who was in control until I realized I was moving on my own again."

With a smile, Carrie and Cassie came up alongside Emily's armored form. "It's pretty easy for you to give control back to Jason too, just relax and give him a bit of a 'push' and he'll end up in control of you again, if he doesn't just take control. You can also reclaim control unless Jason puts up a fight, the nanites are programmed to override you with Jason's control if there's a conflict."

Emily held up the energy blade and her arm cannon. "And is he going to take control to use these? Because I'm clueless. They don't teach you how to use these in orientation for working in an office."

Cassie giggled. "They're safe to you, at least. These are low-power weapons, meant to stun an alien or disrupt nanite behaviors, perfect for alien hunting. Against a human, it's like getting slapped with foam or something. But yes, we'll train Jason to use them, and he'll help us, we just need you to be able to switch control with him for our road trip to avoid suspicion that blue glowy eyes might attract."

"...road trip?" Emily asked, curious.

"If we're going to go hunt a rogue alien, we have to go where a rogue alien might be!" Cassie said. "There's four or five possible places that Xeno might be storing smuggled alien tech, one of which might be where his own incomplete ship is. If we can capture Xeno at one of the locations, then we can avoid any more chaos and possibly could do something about Jason's predicament."

With a nod, Emily's eyes started to glow again as Jason took over. "So, when do we leave?"