Aye.

Shuriken drew her sword. It was quite unique, made of jet and encased in a shell of diamond. Sai's claws were the same, now that she looked closer. Shuri's blue eyes glittered.
"We're with you."
"Good. Try not to kill Shinyso - I want my friend back, not six feet under. Other than that, anything goes."
"Understood."
"Radium, you gonna stay, or get out of the way?"
"Stay, of course. The only place I'd be out of the way would be in the air or up a tree - and I'm actually not that fond of heights." He winced slightly. Copper grinned.
"Okay, if you say so. I'm sure that spear thing is good for something other than a prop."
"Wanna bet?" Electrik said with a sidelong look at Radium. He jumped when the mage poked him in the ribs.
"That's enough out of you," Radium growled. It's kept me alive this long, so I must be doing something right."
"I doubt it," the irrepressible Kaz chortled. "I can't imagine you doing something right."
"Be quiet, you," Radium muttered. "Hmm. If they get close enough I can drop something heavy on them."
"Like Syloph?" Defalcon said. Radium grimaced.
"Now that was a mistake."
"I know," Kaz said smugly. "Like I said -"
"I don't need to hear it again," Radium cut in. "I heard you last time, loud and clear."
"- I can't imagine -"
"Enough, already!"
"- Radium -"
"Kaz -"
"-doing something -"
"Kaz, I'm going to hurt you in a moment ..."
"- right!" he finished triumphantly. Sai brushed his tawny hair out of his eyes.
"I can see this is a friendly place," he observed. Copper shook her head.
"You have no idea."
"I do," Shonar said, "and I still can't understand you. We have maybe five minutes, tops."
"It's enough," Copper said quietly. She began unravelling her braid. "I suggest we keep the shields up on the ships, maybe even getting them out of here. I don't want to chance having a fuel tank hit. Fire would take easily in this forest." She eyed the trees, which resembled tubes of green swiss cheese on sticks. One thing was sure - you could never mistake Diamondan forests.
Shonar nodded. He glanced at Evaluator, who nodded as well and faded away. A moment later the Lessaria rose up and glided away.
Copper began re-braiding her hair so that it wouldn't come out during the fight. Kaz eyed her curiously. She did this before any anticipated fight, but he obviously hadn't seen it before.
"Hey Copper, I been wondering ..."
"What now?"
"Radium and Defalcon both have long hair. How come you're the only one who braids it?"
"Kaz, in case you hadn't noticed, my hair is longer than theirs. Plus, it might have escaped you that I'm a girl."
"That's a stupid reason!"
"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer," she said, shrugging.
"It wasn't a stupid question! Was it, Radium?"
"I'm getting sick of hearing my name mentioned ... and yes, it was a stupid question."
"Was not!"
"Well, maybe not for you. But for the rest of us - who are used to thinking - it was stupid."
"Hey ..."
"He knows I insulted him in there but it has yet to register," he noted. About thirty seconds later Kaz glared at him.
"Hey! I do too think!"
"It just hit, huh," Electrik snickered. "Don't worry, Kaz. Someone with as much intelligence as you've got is rare."
"What?"
"I'm not repeating that."
"Good thing, too. He might figure out what you mean, and clobber you."
"Oooh, dangerous ..."
Unnoticed, the Assassin and the Timelost had also vanished. Evaluator reappeared.
"Hey guys, they're almost here."
"Gotcha," N0 said, and took off with great sweeps of his wings. Kaz grinned evilly and climbed a tree. Shuriken found a small cluster of trees close by and prepared to fight, while Sai put his back to a tree. Copper and Claw moved closer together, ready to protect each other's backs; Acid also climbed a tree; Electrik found a convenient stream and began charging up. Defalcon, who still had his weapons out, glanced over at Tiger, who shrugged, pulled off his sniper rifle, and scaled a large tree that was opposite of Crystal's rock, which she was camped out on. KRSplat glanced questioningly at Defalcon, who nodded and handed him a long knife. Blasters were not much good against blades, so Copper tossed him her own long knife she had in her boot. Radium simply shifted his grip on his Chaos Lance and gave Copper a faint grin.
A second later, the Kiyrenin burst out of the trees, silent as death.


Just because Kaz has *almost* every page on here (before you guys wrestled them away from here) a little humor.