[Flashback] The treasure of the cat kind

[Amir Delion]

Amir expected... Something. He had no idea what, exactly, but he just knew it wouldn't be pleasant. No way covering his face with a sleeve would actually do much.
But nothing followed. Just a faint floral smell that he probably wouldn't notice if he didn't expect something tampering with the air. The system wasn't designed to stop humans.
Amir barely managed to catch Alice and lower her to the ground. He cared for her more than for Rimer, so the guy did fall into tall grass (that was probably enough to avoid getting significantly hit), but it didn't really look like he actually fainted... Amir didn't know if either of the two was conscious, but they looked like absolutely nothing could bother them right now.
Max instead was sitting on the ground in a really weird position that would injure an unprepared human and just had to be very uncomfortable even for a catlord, but didn't bother him a single bit. Catlord mafioso was staring at a random blade of grass with absolutely zero thoughts behind his eyes, then randomly decided to bite it off. He clearly thought he was in his cat form now. Amir has seen a couple of catlords in this state of mind after being injected with a high dose of valerian extract, but logically, it probably didn't have to be a needle, just getting a lot of the compound very fast. Inhalation is probably even more effective.

...Amir was going to carry his teammates away from the place and hope that the drug would wear off either soon after they stop breathing this stuff in or at least after they sleep it off. Then they could assess the situation and decide what to do next... Maybe just grab space suits, that should solve the problem. Carrying Max, who was conscious (or at least not completely eepy) and clearly tripping some major balls was going to be an issue, though...
But he didn't have time to even start. There was a pit underground, after all, and the whole group fell into it.
They were lying on a bunch of vegetation. It was fairly bright for cat eyes, including Amir's modification. Actually, more light than they needed, it was probably for the plants. Wasn't particularly clear where the light came from, probably some mirrors not visible from their current position.