Arashi

Tam looked down at Midas, Essex and the others in curiosity. Perched on a roof top, the wild maned girl figited. The girl... she ment... something...

A... birthday party... Tam growled, creaping closer to the ledge, her arms draping over and claws digging into the wall.

Looking at the girl was giving her a headache and she didn't know why.

The five men moved down the cramped, waterloged tunnel. Their assignment had come straight from the Toy Dispencer. A stratigic hit on Orenbaga, take as many of their mages as they could, cause lots of property damage, let the rebelious magic users know that their precious city wasn't as untouchable as they believed. The problem was, thier belief seemed valid, they had found several tunnels leading down into the subterranian city, but all of them were warded and demon guarded. Such defenses would not hinder the team, but disabling them would've given them away.

Then they found a single tunnel, only a few wards and no other guardians. It was the Northwest Passage of Orenbaga and the team took immediate advantage of it. Soon enough, the tunnel opened into a cavern, arching natural stone walkways honeycombing the room. Though nothing physical occured, the leader was instantly aware that he and his men were not the only ones in the cavern.

Arkimateng looked down on her newest playmates, the demon smiled even as her host's body growled. The child had been taken by the mages following the End Times. Initially for a furture host for one of the mages, however after a year, the child began to show signs of mutations. The alterations made her undesireable for any of the real masters of the Circle, but they did show promise in other ways. Binding a demon into the child's body, she was sent to guard one of the trap tunnels. Slitted eyes glittered with malice as the cat like form crouched on one of the ledges.

"Hold, fan out. We're not alone." The commander whispered as they drew enchanted demon slayers from sheaths.

Arkimateng purred in satisfaction, her voice echoing lightly all over the chamber. As the men passed under her, that purr shut off as she dropped. A whirl sent the men off their feet as she pounced claws gouging out the eyes of one even as he screamed. Flashes of pain flickered across her host's mind. Sword strickes, the spells layered on the metal made them potant against demonkind, even against mortal opponets, the mystically sharp edges were fatal. Against the demon's host, however, they were minor irritant as the wounds began closing the instant the blades were withdrawn. Looking up at the men from her position atop their fallen comrade, Arkimateng smiled ferally.

~~~

Day or night was irrelivent in the tunnel, the demon slept when there was no one in her territory. Feeding was taken care of by intruders or by foraies to the town above if no one intruded. The demon's magic and nature exagerating the childs mutation beyond what it would normally be. Just as easilly traveling on all fours as on her hind legs, the cat-demon hauled the remains of the intruding men's gear into a side alcove she had set for that purpose. The wave of diziness struck the moment the last helmet left her paws. The host had grown strong over the four years since her possession, and would regualarly fight the demon for control of the body. Though Arkimateng would never admit it, it was slowly losing that fight. An unforseen aspect of the girls mutation made her incredibly resistant to bindings, and other neatralization methods, including, it soon became apparent, possession.

Arkimateng focused, trying to beat the human back down, for the moment anyways.

~~~

Images.

Things that couldn't possibly be real.

Standing on the rail of a ship as it pulled into the port of a magnificant island city, the noble statue of it's horned protector watching over it.

A club, the windows opening to an impossible void as beings from all walks gathered to relax.

The uniformed figure falling under a skillful blow from her wrapped feet as her friends, allies and family delt with the Archon's guard.

A lightly furred and clawed hand taking a new hero registration card, her new security level shown next to her photo. Brown fur contrasting oragnsih hair and the wide featured cat face she had seen in the mirrio for years now.

Tamera King's eyes snapped open, the faint howling of the demon Arkimateng fading as it was cast from the body it had possessed for four years. The eighteen year old looked around the chamber, her mind swirling with impossibilities. She couldn't be a hero, they were all gone now, yet the image of the card remained vivid, even if nothing else did.

"Tam Khat." She whispered. It would do, she thought, looking down at her altered body, more beast then man.

From the partially concealed cave entrence, a brown form streaked out. If nothing else, Tam had her freedom again.

Two other made no effort to leave. After-Image, being dead already, had nothing to fear from Halon. After giving the chemical a glance, the spirit had gone back to harassing the Rikti heading to the portal.

Rad Spike had a little bit of concern about the Halon, but her suit's filters would allow her to stay in an oxygen deprived environment for about twenty minutes before she would have to leave.

Finally getting her pot of coffee, Cortianna looked at Kefetasura.

"You appologise. It was your own idea to spill it." She poored a cup even as a pair of pills floated into the room and her hand. "Don't lie to an uncontrolled telepath. Especially in the morning before I have by blockers. Too many damn loud thoughts in this house..." Chasing the pills with half her cup, Cortianna glared around the table.

"Move it blue-boy." Cortianna grumbled, mentally shoving Kefetasura out of her way. Still dressed in her night clothes, which consisted of an oversized black t-shirt with a golden raven a pair of shorts and her neck chain, the 16 year old pyrokinetic's eyes locked on the coffe maker and her gant firmly describing her as a woman on a mission.

It was very clear she was not a morning person.

Stell soared down from the sky, buzzing the kitchen window for fun before landing and walking in.

"Hey all, anything good for breakfast around here?"

The Rikti suddenly felt their charge slowed as After-Image manifasted a large patch of nether energy in front of the portal. Looking at them, the ghost focused and all the Rikti in front of her were suddenly convinced that nothing but death awatied them ahead.

((Tar Patch and Fearsome Stare))

---

"Bolsheme." Svetlana tapped a few controls on the side of her suit. Dropping near the largest group of defenders, she infused light radiation that would quicken them before cranking another dial. The power within her suit went into overdrive and burst from her in a massive electromagnetic pulse.

"Nothing but a fool's errand." Amilia sighed, and for the first time in years, dropped her illusion.

Standing amid the gathered, her jade eyes glittered with mischeif as her cat ears twisted here and there. A tail with a light coat of red fur slashed agitiedly as her small muzzle sniffed.

"Well, let us be on our way. Time waits for no fool." Her voice had dropped to a sultry, rumbling.

"So, you're all just going to go and do his dirty work for him?" Amilia raised an eyebrow. "Do any of you realize he's not offering much of anything? We do the dirty work, we take the risks, we get to grasously keep illegal weapons or sell them through equally illegal means." The woman shook her head. "That is, of course, assuming we don't get killed doing things on his say so."

She stood up, crossing her arms under her breasts as she looked evenly at Thaddeus before turning back to the others.

"If you all really are going along with this half-baked plot, then I'll come along as well. Someone has to keep you all out of trouble." It wasn't a statement she liked. She had managed to keep her abilities secret, only vague thought's in her customers who realized they 'preformed' much better, but only with her. Going along would pretty well force their faces in the reality of her nature, and not the illusion she had presented to them for the last three years.

After patting Mini on the back, Stella shifted back into human, her clothes and body bonedry. Walking by the grill, she snagged some left overs and made her way to her room. A bout of unpacking and a light meal while doing some of her calc reading sounded like the way to end the day.

"Night all, see you in the morning." She waved as she went inside.

Cortianna, having finished her meal and allowed it time to settle, pulled off her vest and boots before slidding into the shallow end of the pool and pushing off with some leasurly strokes.

Stellarmare flcked to the side as Combat Toy landed. There was a muted thump and a pulse of displaced water as she shifted to the hulking dwarf form. Wrapping a massivly clawed hand over Mini Bot's headpeice. She crouched and jumped, the muscels of her legs, developed to handle the intense gravity of a neutron star's surface, launch both out of the pool and arced into the air for a moment before landing with a very solid crunch on the cement around the pool.

Setting Mini Bot on the ground, she patted it on the head before reaching up snag Acid's soda before it stuck her own head. A light lob sent the errant can the remaining distence to the lizardman.

Amilia raised an eyebrow. Sure, there were always 'sucsess stories' of people like themselves who managed to 'leave their past behind and become respectible citizens', the streetwalker thought the whole thing was utter bunk by those who were ashamed of where they grew up.

If 'Mr. Thaddeus T. Schroeder XXII', a name Amilia was half-way certain he hadn't been born with, was telling the truth, he was just another case as far as she was concerned. She absently stoked the boy's hair, her near hunched position over him striking Sasha as the same one a mother cat would take over her kittens.

"So," Amilia asked with slow deliberation, "What, exactly, is it you're offering us? Because I am very certain that you aren't going to be down here fighting your little war yourself."

There was an odd shimmer and Amilia was kneeling by Danny. Her normally smiling face looked at the fleeing soldiers and a very merciless gleam flickered across her eyes.

Several yards away, the leader of the squad slowed down, confidant that no one had followed him.

"Damn, we're going to have to send another squad to take care of the kid later."

There was a low growl of an animal, the type his hindbrain instantly labeled preadator and close! Stiffening, he looked over his shoulder to see three mountain lions in the alley behind him. He barly had time to cryout before they were on him.

Amilia smiled grimly before turning a lighter smile to the boy. "There now dear, no one will be coming after you now. Are you ok love?"

Amilia Burnheart looked out of her window at the comotion below as her landlord, an odd snake-type kid named Shannon, faced off with some of the other gangtypes all too common in the Edge. It was that exact commonality that made life for the prositute... interesting. Bringing a customer back who was a member of a rival gang always generated some tension in them.

"Are things cooled down enough yet?" The red-head asked. Though no one else would be able to see them, her cat ears flicked nervously under their illusion of normality. "If so, I still have a few hours to work before I get stuck with all the creepy low-life wierdos that can't pay."

<Yeah> The Nova telepathically transmited, <Strawberries, cherries and pineapples!>

Looking at the android girl's nervousment, Cortianna smirked and didn't bother trying to resist the urge. A telekinetic juggle of the board and a slight shove and she would send Essex in to find out exactly how deep the pool was.

The Nova slipped smoothly into the water and swam down to look Mini Bot over carefully. Stella tilted her head and waved a pair of tenticles at it.

We just did Laz.

Protector server, heroside out of Atlas Park.

Taken gods are:
Thoth/Djehuty - Moonscribe
Ma'at - Truthfeather
Orsiris - Undermine
Anubis - Conductor of Souls
Bastet - Passion's Flame
Sobek - Riverwall
Re-Haotea(or whatever)/Ra - Brightflame
Horus - (not sure by who though)
Set - Steel Ecplise (villainside)

And it's Cool!

Afer-Image appeared next to Ryuji and placed her hands on the cannon barrel. Thou not obvious to most, the ghost was forcing nether energies into the device, aging it prematurly and weakening the metal.

Continue attacks. Metal is fatigued now.

---

Svetlana skimmed through the tunnel, her scientific mind was salivating at the sight of so many working Rikti machines, but she forced herself to ignore them and headed toward what was starting to sounds like the Great War was being re-enacted.

After dropping of Dr. McChord's package, Milly continued her morning rounds. Those rounds took her all over the building and at each stop she gave those she was delivering mail to a bright, if still somewhat forced smile after last night's events.

"Miss Penny?" She asked the woman, who seemed very... energetic. "You have a letter ma'am."

Casually grabbing a steak and lifting to toward her, Corti looked over the pool with a slight smirk. Even as she cut a peice of stake off, she sent a strong telekinetic force down on Hal, dunking him in the water.

Stell nodded at Lily. "Sounds good. Good luck dealing with the kid." The kheldian lifted into the air and flew to her new room with her bags. Just fairly tossing her bags into the room, she opened a window and decended to the others on the ground.

In her own room, Cortianna took the bottle out and dumped two pills into her hand. With a grimice she swallowed both, a shudder at the unpleastent taste working through her as they always did. Setting her neck chian, and it's magic ward to blunt her instictive telepathy use, she walked out to the patio.

"Achoo!" <faboom!> "Awww..."

Stella sighed in her Mefnanim form. Wiggiling through the air, she coasted over to the suddenly reactivating toy robots.

"I gotta headache." Ruby complained.

"You need a head first for that." Diamond replied as she bonked him on his head. "And you either don't have one or don't use it."

Mine is the chill of the soul. After-Image said as she appeared next to Ryuji. The attempt to free the Legacy mages had been aborted when her sight showed... something... encircling them.

I can not directly affect living world. However, she did what she could. Calling a large patch of neither energies around them. She wasn't sure if it would work, but it would hurt either.

She hoped.

((aww... no one want to switch rooms with Stell? ;_; ))

"..."

Lenin save me... another crazy capitalist! Svetlana thought as El Guapo annouced himself in a maner only a few decibles less then Wielder.

"The be lettink us go and end threat to unknowink capitalist sheep above." Not bothering to see if either man followed, the Russian scientist flew down the path the insane, naked man had pointed.