_Essex_

((Dammit! No, we just fixed the damn thing! ))

Penny looked up to see Milly, handing off a letter. "Oh, thanks Milly!" she said cheerfully. "How are you doing? You okay this morning? You get home all right?"

She was glad that the younger girl had stopped by, and rifled through her bag to get out a pack of cookies.

"Here, I couldn't sleep last night so I went all domestic an' baked cookies for everybody. When I get home I'm gonna hit the sack harder than a home run ball. I'm on Coffee Number Six right now, and it ain't gonna be pretty when it all comes down."

Penny chuckled.

XD I think we all just want to join each others' clubs. We here at Boarderline Insanity Inc. (c) are strong proponents of extracurricular activity.

Awh, I took AutoCAD classes when I was a kid...
I like four buttons!

That's all I remember.

Nena's ears lowered in sheer shock as the portal erupted into existance not five feet in front of her.

"No!!" She cried, throwing herself at the barriers that held it together, swinging with all her strength at its framework. Electricity jolted through the sword, and before she knew it she was flung backwards, heaving in pain.

"I...Wha..." she managed to mutter before a wave of Pariku's healing energy brought her back to.

"Let the more ranged-damage inclined handle this one." the arcane sage muttered gruffly, assaulting the portal with waves of flame.

However, he also began to raise small fire cages around the mages in question - if he could get rid of their bindings, or even kill them to relieve their suffering...

"I'm doing good, Hal!" Essex laughed, continuing to splash about in the water happily. "Gosh, if AJ and Seawing were here, you wouldn't be able to get them out of the pool..."

Just then, Acid cannonballed in, causing the little android to squeal in surprise as the resulting wave lifted her up by the waterwings and promptly deposited her back in the water with a splash.

Rosie started laughing, at that. "Ey, I wanna go skinny-dipping too!!" With that, she stood...and transformed into her border collie form, galloping into the pool with a happy bark, and beginning to snuffle and sneeze as she tried to continue barking with her mouth full of water.

"Hooray!" Essex cried out, jumping forward and hugging Naga's leg happily. "You came!"

Hovering up so she was face to face with Naga, she confided, "I didn't want to be at a sleepover by myself when everyone else is a boy." Glancing back at Experiment and Hal, she smiled. "This is Naga. She's very nice. Maybe she can even help us with the mystery."

Looking to her friend, she gestured forward.

"These two are Hallucinogen and Experiment 2.0. They're very good friends of mine. And Ian -...Oh, Ian said hello, but he ran off. He's the one who's off getting the key card - this is his house. Or...estate, is more like it."

Suddenly, her visual receptors focused on something that...wasn't there before.

"...Do you guys see that?" she murmured, glancing at the shadowy figure.

Well fine then I won't. D:<

But don't worry about derailing the thread. <_< That happens enough on its own.

"No, sir Experiment...I have someone else in mind."

With that, Essex excused herself from the building, looking up at the night sky.

Pulling something out of the ruffles of her dress, she found a small black communicator-like thing.

If you ever need a friend...

She silently turned the little dial on it 18 degrees to the left and pushed the center button with both thumbs.

The water wings kept Essex up as she paddled around in the water looking incredibly pleased with herself as she splashed and kicked about.

Rosalind was watching her dimly. She didn't like admitting it, but the were-human did feel a sense of responsibility for Essex.

After all. She smelled a hell of a lot like ghost.

Her eyes drifted over to Solid. What the hell kinda connection did he have with her, anyway?

Rosalind kicked back. This was gonna be a long couple of weeks.

"...Let's see...Sir Curtis is here, Archlich is here...Experiment is here, Hal-chan is here....a bunch of other people are here..." Essex mused.

She froze. Was she...the only girl?

"Ummmmm..." she asked Ian timidly, suddenly fidgeting. "Can I...ask another friend over? Someone who might be able to help, too..."

"Of course we will." Essex replied quickly. "Don't worry, Ian."

With a sigh, she began to look about the room. "I wonder what on earth they were doing here. Good work, everyone...and hello, sir Archlich." she said, with a nod in the ancient undead's direction.

"Oh..." Essex nodded a little in understanding. "Well, then...I know."

Quietly sneaking back to the kitchen, she grabbed a cheesy potato from the stack that had just come out of the oven. "Gah, ow, ow..." she quietly whined as the hot foil caused her thermal sensors to spike. Wrapping it up in enough paper towels to pad the heat, she trotted back to Lyden.

"Your stomach is calling out for food. If you don't eat properly, then you won't have enough energy to properly referee the contest, right? Starch for energy, protein for strength, and ...uh....whatever's in onions has to be good for you too. You don't have to come eat with us, but at least have something."

With that, and a little smile, she trotted out to the pool.

"....Banzai!!" she squealed, taking a little jump into the shallow end and flailing about happily.

I've been known to write a webcomic or two in my day...though I haven't updated in like a year. -_-;

The whole comic is actually done in huge-freaking-binder form...but it was so non-sequiteur due to me working on it every day a little on the fly, I decided to try and condense the plot well in a webcomic.

It's actually where Pariku comes from originally. XD

But yeah, I like to write. I like to draw AND write together so I can show people my mental images better, though.

((Yay! *hugs* Don't worry, Tom. We'll all help you. X3))

Rosalind shook her head. Everyone was taking two steaks. [censored], she didn't know where they put them! Taking one slab of meat - one of the less well-done ones, at that - and a potato, she nodded to Helper.

"Hey, not bad, Coppertop!" she grinned, tearing ferally into the steak with an enthusiasm befitting her canine persuasion.

Essex trotted through the hallways shyly. She'd just moved her things into Solid's room, and was now in her swimsuit - a cute little teal-blue one piece with some shorts and a pair of Seawing's goggles. She also had a pair of what looked like waterwings.

Pausing, she heard...piano music? The little android trotted down to Moonscribe's room, listening appreciatively.

"Wow, sir..." she murmured. "You're really goo- aah!"

She stumbled, a little startled at the presence of Lyden, who she didn't notice standing just inside the door until she was through it. "Oh, sir Lyden! Ah....Acid and Helper made a very nice dinner, if the two of you would like to join us out on the patio."

Penny cheerfully typed away on her own work.

She was on her second wind.

Despite the eventful night she had had the previous night, and the fully ripe and shining black eye that was now in full form, she had gotten hopped up on hospital coffee and drove home.

At that point, however, she hadn't been able to get back to sleep, and had stayed up making cookies.

Now, Penny was in that strange state of mind that only comes with lack of sleep - where you're perfectly awake and aware and happy as all get-out, but the moment you're horizontal it's over.

It wasn't even lunchtime and she was on her fifth coffee.

Rosalind just grunted and waved her hand dismissively at Combat Toy. "I say you crank down the testosterone on that one, Toy. But I do like the color-coding system. I used to not be able to tell the li'l uns apart aside from when Mini opened his mouth."

Essex shyly nodded to Solid and Hal. "Well... I can't swim, but I brought a swimsuit. And I can keep myself afloat at least."

At Experiment's proclimation, she gasped for a moment, and then ran off, giggling. "Nooooooo!!" she squeaked. "Let me at least go change!"

Rosie blinked at Kairaishi. "YEAH, WHAT HE SAID!" she fumed in Combat Toy's face before taking the hint from Ace and settling into a grumble.

Essex blinked at Hallucinogen quizzically and tilted her head.

"...I don't know..." she said, her gaze flitting longingly to the pool.

"Oh, I know you weren't just talking about me."

Rosie had a death grip on the bottle of steak sauce and had just emerged out the patio door from the kitchen in time to overhear Combat Toy. Purposefully slamming the bottle down on the table next to the steaks, she put her hands on her hips and regarded the assault bot with disdain.

"I will have you know that this is pure muscle, you wannabe-Decepticon. 'Cept for the girls, here, but [censored], nothing wrong with putting airbags on a sports car."

((Ooh, I like that idea. That gives people like me, who troll the forums a lot, a good way to pace ourselves.))

*hides behind her Large Toy plushie* D:

Very well written. That having been said....

*cries!*

"[censored] yeah, Ace can cook." Rosalind said with a grin. "I saw him cook up a whole freakin' military base one time. O'course, he was using missiles instead of a grill. But whatever."

Waiting for him to finish up, her eyes skimmed past the GSR lunchboxes in the fridge with a small measure of amusement before heading out back again with him.

"'Course.." she continued, "I'll watch him do the first few - if they aren't good, I'll take mine raw anyhow. Besides, we got four bots in the group. Don't think bots eat steak, so there'll be plenty."

The were-human quirked an eyebrow, placing a hand on her hip as she held the steak sauce in her opposite hand.

"Ace is makin' steaks. You better not fill up - though at that rate, I guessing you're a bottomless pit."

She was reacting fairly well to the presence of the ningyo ninjas, considering her revulsion to them. Of course, Kairaishi was a demon and was to be afforded at least a little respect.

"You wanna come out back? Otherwise I'll just leave you in the fridge."

((RAWR CROSSPOST. Edited? XD))

((Where did Khell go? T_T I can't raise a bajillion metachildren by myself...

You never call and you never do the dishes when it's your turn and I'M GOING HOME TO MOTHER~ *flails and runs out of the room*))

Essex stood, nodding.

"Yes, but that's not until dinner. So let's everyone be good until then."

With that, the blue field lifted off the entry way, and powers returned, the children allowed to run free once more.

"Remember that I'm counting on all of you to get along, okay?"

"Okay, Miss Essex!" Rosalind called out, having poofed back to humanoid form once power had been restored.

"Stay out of the circle?" Nena asked as a Rikti blast whizzed over her head, singing her perked ears. "Kay!"

With that, she proceeded to insert a sword's worth of irreconcilable differences between the Rikti before her's torso and legs. Closing in on the swordsgirl, the extraterrestrials were very well guarded - but Nena was made for these sorts of situations, swinging the greatsword gracefully.

"Take care!!" Pariku shouted, filling Xander and Nena with holy power. "May the blessings of Apollo fall upon you!"

At the same time, he was trying to psychically contact the mages.

Do not worry, sirs. We are working to free you. Would you be able to educate us in regards to the machinations of these foul villains?