_Essex_

Up in Solid and Essex's room, the grey android would find the little girl cuddled up in a bed near the corner, her duffel bag neatly at her feet. Her eyes were closed in sleep mode, and she had her arms loosely tossed about a large, plush Protector bot.

Rosalind, on the other hand, got out of the pool upon finding that everyone was going into the hot tub.

"Eh, I'm kinda waterlogged, guys. I'm gonna hit the stain." With that, she shifted back into dog form, shook herself all over, and headed back into the house.

She was about to go up to her room, when something caught her eye. There was something glowing on the couch...

.....BALL?

The werehuman's tail began to wag ferociously as she scooped up the green ball in her jaws and began to trot upstairs.

Essex's eyes narrowed, and the girl leapt down from the main stage, her floofy orange dress poofing out behind her as she did.

"I'm initiating a scan..." she muttered. "Now granted, I can't find most things, but I'm geared to find remnants of most standard technology. I can find Crey and Aeon things...but Portal Corp is still too confidential."

The color of her eyes shifted to a deep, luminous purple as she scanned...

Essex shook her head. "Oh, how stupid of me - this is Naga. She's a good friend of mine." she said with a smile.

When Naga brought up a portal, her eyes widened.

"S-so you think Ian's mother was pulled through a portal?" she gasped.

Pariku staggered under the weight of the large Rikti energy rifle.

"Dear me." he scoffed, adjusting his glasses with his left hand as he used his elbow to hoist it up. "What an unweildy device."

He soon discovered, however, that he was a crack shot, easily picking off foes one after another. Quite proud of himself, he would have been decidedly less so if he'd have known that he would have not hit a single one if it had not been for the autotargeting system.

"Yaaaaay!" Nena cheered, throwing her hand into the mix as she planted herself in front of the portal next to Guapo and Wielder, impaling a good number of the Rikti that managed to get past either of them.

Pariku on the other hand was having quite a lot of trouble with the Rikti gunman aiming down from the catwalk.

An energy blast tore into the young magepriest, then another. Looking up to the catwalks, the redheaded boy glared behind his glasses and waved a hand, engulfing the gunmen in fire cages.

Nena noted most of the Rikti going after Wielder and El Guapo. She took a moment just to stare at El Guapo. The guy was HUGE! ....And indecent! But at least he seemed to be on the side of justice.

What had occurred to Hotaka seemed to pop up in Nena's otherwise scattered mind as well, and the strong girl suddenly accellerated towards the area between Wielder and Guapo with a loud battle cry. She body-slammed into one of the tombstones with all her strength, whirling her sword to smack the Rikti to the side of it right into the portal circle.

"Once all this is over you should put some pants on!" she yelled over the roar of the energy to Guapo.

...:~Chapter Two - On The Road~:...

"This is such a stupid idea." The elf groaned, trying to hide his face.

The group had gone to town for preparations before the next short leg of their trip. Xenos, Funf, and Neo had gone off to some magic store, Starnaya was gods knew where, and Gelrei and Davron were walking together through the city center. Davron seemed nervous, glancing around at times. He didn't want to let Xenos out of his sight.

"...You said you were thinking of hiring some protection." the ninja stated quietly, eyes scanning the crowd.

"Well, y'know." Gelrei replied in a mild sulk, shuffling his feet. "Look at who we've got. We've got the psycho priest with a big sword, we've got the psycho drow with the big sword, we've got the psycho gnome with the psionic abilities. We've got my wife, who, I love her dearly but is a few caltrops short of a bag and can command zombies. And there's you, who - no offense - I don't trust farther than I can throw."

"None taken." Davron replied offhandishly. "The feeling is mutual, theiving scoundrel."

"I just want someone with an effective stabbing implement that won't shove it in our backs, you know?" Gelrei finished with a shake of his head.

The two of them continued through the center, the crowds thickening as the reached the fighter's guild district. The streets were thick with large, burly men with large, burly weapons who all seemed to be gathered around a large, burly seeming building.

"....I suppose that is as good a place as any to start." Davron said, shifting his glance aside to Gelrei. Gelrei was paler than usual, the elf swallowing uneasily as he quietly shuffled his short swords in their sheaths.

Stepping into the Fighter's Guild main hall (for that is what it was) elicited a whole new world of smells for the two young men. Sweat, booze, leather armor, and uncomfortable heat tying it all together in the dim light. Tables were scattered across in a large, arena-style circle, and busty waitresses served huge tankards of ale to men who looked as though they could snap most elves over their knee without much effort. In the center of the circles of tables was one huge square arena, caged in by iron posts and the focus of most of the lights. In peripheral rooms outside the ring were stores: weapon stores, armories, storage rooms, blacksmiths, and the like.

Davron and Gelrei took a seat at a table unsurely, looking around. Davron's expression remained neutral, eyes narrowed as he carefully took in every person within striking distance. After all, if things came down to it, he had to know exactly how to escape.

While he was deciding who he would have to kill first, Gelrei was glancing around with a bit of disappointment. Nobody around here seemed remarkable enough to warrant a quick pocket search.

A group of barmaids had noticed the two, and stood together in a busty, giggling cluster. The next moment, they had shoved a smaller barmaid towards them, though she was dressed rather differently, her breasts covered far more modestly and her corset a little looser. She was a bit stockier than the others and seemed more muscle than the cushy flesh of most of the other staff.

"Hey, aren't you --" Gelrei gaped at the girl with the stubby red pigtails.

"You're Mister Tightrope Faller Guy!" the girl chimed happily. It was the same girl who had taken the elf home after knocking himself unconscious.

"'Tightrope Faller Guy'?" Davron asked, shifting his gaze to Gelrei with the raising of a singular thin eyebrow. "Do you two know each other, Gelrei?"

"Oh, your name is Gelrei!" the girl said happily before the elf could reply. "I'm Nena. Nena Treval. I never got to introduce myself before you vanished. But I'm glad I got to see you again! You're looking much better today." she prattled. "Who's your friend?"

"Call me Davron." the young ninja replied cooly.

"Okay Davron!" Nena said happily. "I didn't know you guys were in the Fighter's Guild!"

"...Uh...We're not." Gelrei piped up. "We actually just came to --"

"Not in the Fighter's Guild!?" a voice roared from behind them. As the two young men turned simultaneously, a huge man towered behind the two of them. He had sandy orange hair as well, and seemed to be built like a brick wall, thick sideburns adorning the sides of his face. "Then what the hell you doin' drinkin' our booze an' shmoozin' up to my sister?"

"C'mon, Thel." Nena protested with a roll of her eyes. "I'm sure they're just here to join."

"These scrawny kids?" Thel laughed in reply. "I doubt that either of them could last one minute in the ring with me."

"I'll take that bet and raise it to three minutes." Davron said softly, standing and pushing the stool out from behind him. He regarded Thel with his piercing, unforgiving eyes as he tightened the cowl about the lower part of his face. "The only stipulation is that if I beat you, you have to let both me and my companion in."

"Deal." Thel snarled.

---------------

The lights focused in on the caged arena. Thel stood, accepting the roars of the crowd with a flex and a grin, as the small Davron quietly stood at ease in the opposite corner. It seemed darker there for his presence, and he coldly stared at his opponent.

"Hi everybody!!" Nena's voice called out over the crowd. She liked to announce the matches - she had a loud enough and nice enough voice to be an effective emcee. "Today's match is... DUMDUMDUMMADUM! Our very own Thel, The Arm of Ares, the Hammer of Hephastus, the big guy himself! Versus Davron, a newcomer guy! Yaaaaaay!"

The crowd cheered in turn, and the match was on.

"I'm gonna crush you so hard your balls'll be diamond by the time I'm through with you." Thel growled.

"They already are." Davron replied, unentheaused.

"Well they're certainly brass." the larger fighter laughed as he swung his massive arm down for a punch right to the ninja's head.

But Davron wasn't there. The boy had nimbly darted off to the side at Thel'd blow, and his gloved hands moved precisely, striking at Thel from behind with a single finger. It didn't hurt him, but the large man turned with an annoyed glower. Backhanding at Davron, the small boy leapt back, tumbling on the sand.

"You'll have to be faster than that, big brother." he said, with a taunting edge to his cold voice.

Thel smashed forward, releasing blow after blow at the ninja, who aptly dodged and weaved with seemingly effortless ease.

Then, almost startlingly, he began to fight back. Davron darted at Thel with a flurry of blows to the chest, striking faster than an unpracticed eye could see. The large man swung down at the ninja but was unable to land a blow as Davron countered with his left arm and threw all his weight into a headbutt straight to his gut.

With a groan, Thel wheeled backwards and hit the ground like a fallen Goliath.

Davron dusted the sand off his gi amid stunned silence.

"Davron wins!" Nena's impeccably cheerful voice rang out over the crowd.

------

"That. Was. AWESOME!!!" Gelrei muttered as Davron returned to the table. The young ninja offhandishly tossed a pair of bronze emblems onto the table as Nena presented them with a pair of tankards.

"Eh." Davron muttered.

"So you're in the Fighters' Guild now!" Nena practically sang. "Don't worry about Thel, he's okay! Mama's hit him harder with the ladle before at home, after all." Smiling sunnily at them, she tilted her head. "You guys need anything else? Don't forget we've got the tournament on next Wednesday and --"

"Oh, uh, we're not gonna be here." Gelrei replied, sipping the ale and then glaring at it as if it had offered him a personal insult. "We're actually travelling around. We just came here to see if we could get some muscle."

"Really!?" Nena gasped, her eyes widening. "Can I go? Please? Please? Please? I'm really strong and I have a big sword and I really wanna go please let me go please oh please oh PLEASE!!"

Gelrei snorted. "I don't know. Is your big brother free?"

Davron had spent the last few minutes eyeing the girl. She did seem very muscular, and her movements denoted someone who at least had peripheral training in the art of war.

"I don't know, Mister Tightrope Faller Guy." he said, calmly, taking a sip of the ale with a neutral stare. "It sounds to me like you owe her a favor."

----------------------

"Nice to meet you!" Nena said happily to the group gathered outside the town's gates. Her greatsword strapped to her back on an angle so it wouldn't drag on the ground, she had a one-piece simple outfit on with a breastplate, a belt and sleeves that were rather long. She wore boots reinforced with steel shielding, and her hair was out of pigtails, a short burst of shaggy red.

"You have got to be kidding me." Xenos snarled, the dark elf's red eyes narrowed fiercely at the girl. Funf was circling her appraisingly on the back of his songbird, and Starnaya was literally dancing with glee.

"Finally another girl!" the necromancer elf cried happily.

With introductions more or less taken care of, the group headed out onto the road....

[NEXT TIME]

...:~Chapter Three - Aristowhat?~:...

((*Rosalind's voice from far away* "Archie's throwin' a diva-fiiiiiiit...."))

"Don't let the man get you down!" Nena said to Xander encouragingly, with an air of certainty that signified that she really didn't know what she was talking about.

"Ah..." Essex said, looking after Archlich curiously. Turning her steps to Naga, she shuffled over to the lizardlike girl, looking up at her in admiration.

"I'll go with you, too." she said. "...That is, if you don't think I'd be a bother."

Wielder felt his mind forcibly cleared by a blue glow that seemed to emanate from Pariku's fingertips. "Your mind has always been empty and I suppose it needs to stay that way." the mage grumbled, shortly after extending a hand to Hotaka to swiftly close his wounds with magical energies.

"Nena!" he called out. "Aid Xander; I shall cover you."

"Okie dokie!" she chirped in return, quickly barelling through a group of Rikti sword-first to get to the Kheldian.

"Hi, how are you?" she cheerfully greeted Xander as she flanked the group of Rikti attacking him.

((I generally don't post much, if at all, on weekends. :3 ))

Essex piped up, moving over to Experiment quietly. "I can take a look at the tech to see if I can fix it and salvage any information. In the meantime, Ian, Miss Naga would probably be very skilled at finding your mother..."

Rosie nodded obligingly to Acid, snagging him a soda. "Heads up, Ace!" she called out, lofting it underhand for him to catch so as not to shake it up too much.

When Hal left after Essex, she quirked an eyebrow and whistled slightly before heading back to the pool.

Essex seemed a little morose as she held her blue goggles, slipping back into the house with an oversized towel around her shoulders. She was actually rather glad she was staying with Solid. The larger, older android made her feel quite safe - safer than a brother would. It was much closer to the feeling of having a very close uncle, or a godfather.

The android dried off, putting on a cute little set of pyjamas. She wasn't sure why she had pyjamas in the first place - she didn't really recharge very often, and when she went into sleep mode it was usually recreational as she greatly enjoyed the dreams she had on occasion. But the green chinese-style pyjamas with the little pink flowers stirred up strange memories in her, so she liked them.

Flowers...and green.

"I'm okay..." Essex said with a little half-nod to CC. "I'm feeling a little waterlogged, though, so I think I'm going to bed before I - Gaaah!!" She covered up as the second huge Combat-Toy-Wave washed over her, resoaking her.

"...Yeah, I'm heading up." she said, very carefully taking off her goggles and putting them somewhere safe.

Rosalind, however, wasn't done, and headed out of the pool to grab a soda. She didn't seem to feel the need to explain how she got a bikini.

"Aaah...." Essex cried out a little, startled, as the two-foot wave promptly picked her up and deposited her in a large puddle outside the pool, where she promptly moved her goggles up on top of her head and blinked confusedly.

Rosalind, in the meantime, let out a startled yelp as the three-ton assault bot narrowly missed landing on her. There was a poof of smoke, and a scantily clad humanoid was now in the pool, bikini swimsuit having replaced the dog's fur for cover.

"What the HELL are you doin', Combat Toy!?" she snarled, immediately going after the much larger ball of tinfoil that was the assault bot. "You tryin' ta squish me!?"

GW: *on the phone* So like I was talking to a couple of the Fortunata girls and they said like that Liberty was like totally stepping up in my face with Psyche and like saying I was like...Well they were like being totally harsh and it like makes me want to cry! Seriously!! Yah...? No way! ....No way!.... Like, no way!!!...

LR: Uh, Ghost Widow, I need to make a -

GW: *Accusingly* Like, I'm almost done! Sheesh, like, can't you give a girl some privacy? *Back to the phone* So anyway I think the black and white is totally kicking off instead of that skanky red and white dig with stars that she wears....

Rosie took off like a sleek black-and-white torpedo, churning up water as she paddled furiously towards the foil ball, barking crazily and sneezing and spluttering. She nearly propelled herself off of Acid as she snapped around gleefully, trying to catch the foil ball.

Essex flushed a little. "In terms of actual age, I was manufactured seven years ago." she said. "In terms of intellectual maturity Dr. West places an estimation around that of a college student. However, regarding emotional and social maturity, I'm still somewhat....behind. I have spent most of my life in the laboratory and had little opportunity to practice swimming, as I have two brothers and a sister whose expertise is just that."

Suddenly, she caught herself slightly. "Er...One brother, and one sister." she said a bit more quietly.

Essex gratefully flailed over to CC, putting her arms around the girl's neck.

"Thanks...." she said, a little embarassed, coughing to get a little water out of her system.

Luckily for CC, she wasn't very heavy - though she was an android, she was manufactured with high-strength silicone, plastics, and hollow reinforced metal framework. The resulting construct was likely lighter than the average little girl. As they bobbed by, she nodded to Acid.

"I'm not a very good diver..." she said sadly. "Though I feel as though I was pushed in. But...there was nobody there, so it must have just been me."

"Wieldie!" Nena squeaked, rather pleased at Wielder's arrival. However, this distracted her thus that her sword smacked into the stone slab on the outside of the circle instead of the Rikti guarding it, causing a large crack in the stone. "Ooooh....whoops!"

Pariku caught his breath.

"Reading minds has little point when all the heads around you are empty." he huffed as he concentrated his power on the stone slabs. However, the father-son reunion did make him raise an eyebrow...

No, it was ....

Shees, *Racks brain* I'll find it, I promise. When I get home. <.< *Glances over shoulder*

Essex sheepishly teetered on the edge of the board, looking mortified at Kairaishi's words at one moment and somewhat subdued at Solid's the next. She looked gratefully at Experiment, and was just about to jump in, when -

"Kyaaaah!!"

With a hapless flailing of her arms, Cortianna's psychic push shoved her into the pool. There was a loud clapping sound and a large splash, mostly resulting from the belly-flop the android perpetrated right in the middle of the deep end.

Held up by the water-wings, she floated back up to the surface after the dive, spluttering and flailing.

";_; Gaaah..."

Rosalind, in the meantime, was getting excited by Kefetasura waving the little ball of foil. She may have been snarky and smart, but she was still a dog.

Responding to his voice, it was like her entire lower body wagged as she tried frantically to both wag her tail and continue doggie paddling, barking excitedly at the waving foil ball. Still trying to swim, however, every other bark was a sneeze as she got water in her mouth and nose.

XD I actually missed that. FUSSY FUSSY!

I assure you that it is, in truth, of no importance, Djehuty. XP

Thoth/Djehuty - Moonscribe - Hallucinogen
Ma'at - Truthfeather - Essex
Orsiris - Undermine - Tomanton
Anubis - Conductor of Souls - Khellendrosiic
Bastet - Passion's Flame - Arashi
Sobek - Riverwall - Mechagogue
Re-Horakhty(or whatever)/Ra - Brightflame - Hallucinogen
Horus - (not sure by who though) - See Above
Set - Steel Ecplise (villainside) - Hal Again
Apep - Sunswallower (Villainside) - Three Guesses, First Two Don't Count

Essex was enjoying herself thoughrally. Acid's nudity didn't bother her in the least for the moment - no different from any other lizard she had seen, he just walked on two legs. Paddling to the edge, she decided to try her hand at the diving board, pulling herself up on it with a little difficulty and shaking the water out of her hair. She lowered her glasses and frowned in preparation.

"Ah..."

Essex inched towards the very end of the diving board, peering down into the water. She shifted her footing anxiously, shuffling forward inch after inch.

"T_T H-how deep is this end, exactly?"

Rosalind, on the other hand, was having a great time roughhousing. She had that flattened, sleek look that only a completely soaked dog could have, and her tongue lolled out of her mouth happily. Every once in a while she'd sneeze, and she loitered by the end of the pool, as though begging someone to throw something.

Essex didn't pay the Phantasm any mind as she hovered over to Jase, shaking her head.

"No no, you've got it all wrong. We're here for Ian - Well...I am, at least. And Miss Naga is here f-...Where did she go?"

Glancing around with wide eyes, she blinked, and then sighed. Invisibility people everywhere...

"Sir, I don't know who you are, but I assure you that we're only trying to help poor Ian in this time of grief."

Oh and Apep - Sunswallower, also villainside. And don't worry, Laz, it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing.

"....Egyptian gods? ...*channel goes silent* ....WE WANNA MAKE EGYPTIAN GODS!"

*Exodus to Character Creator*