DeviousMe

At

"If we run only the hypercom, I don't see why not." Vetdjat retorted with a casual shrug, directing Negative Rise toward a thick cylindrical structure that jutted from one of the larger platforms above them, the Khelari's own steps heading onto a bridge that led there.

"From what you tell me, spells and incantations are widespread on your world," he explained his reasoning, seeking confirmation of this assumption, "so your people should have plenty of experience with the principles and energies thereof. If not, there's bound to be someone talking to a god or a spirit or something-or-other that can pass it along."

"And don't worry about where then." the Khelari addressed the demon's 'concern' of location, "We'll just send in all directions. Takes more power, but it's not like we have a shortage of that, and if it really does need more, we'll head down to the big ship and send from there..."
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'Twin City'

Six or seven seconds? More than long enough for a 'brain' that operated on infinitesimal slices of one. Of course, they indeed seemed wasted computing cycles, as not only did the Reaver's target speak, but revealed herself visually again as well.

INCOMING UNCATALOGUED ENERGY FORM

COMBAT MODE
[APPLY POWER SURGE]
ANALYZING ALTERNATIVES_

In a motion so fluid that it shouldn't have been able to come from anything solid and faster than anything with that much mass had any business being, the machine sidestepped Ildela's shadowy blast, then swung back along the same arc like some demented pendulum, letting the leaping woman and her blades pass through naught but the space beside it while it simultaneously turned its front toward her and raised both fists, bringing them together into a single ball of mass.

Not an instant later, Ildela still in mid-lunge, the Reaver brought them down with all the force of a runaway freight train, trying to either break through her reinforced shield with brute force or slam her down against the floor and then hammer away until the protective barrier collapsed from being pummeled between the proverbial rock and hard place...

The Desert

A great relief swept through Jade as he felt the first signs of the tug. He did as Bisys had instructed almost immediately, locking those around into sight and into mind, at the same time shouting, "Everybody, let the pulling take you! Don't fight it! That thing cheats!"

With that, the Dragon and the Hetrar under his arm vanished, reappearing next to Bisys back at the elven forest. Hopefully, the others came as well, for Dr. Machano was quite right - the Reaver didn't even show any reaction to his rounds. However, if the scientist had a way to tell so, he'd notice it wasn't due to overly thick armor. Instead, this thing's plating held something akin to a very dense electrical charge, forming several more layers of 'armor' within and about the metal itself, lessening the destructive force of the impacts enough for the material to take little more than dents.

Much the same was the undoing of Tafar's attack, the lightning bolt that he'd become splashing almost uselessly against the Reaver's back, leaving a giant scorch mark (of which the Reaver had collected plenty over the years, even if most were much smaller than the result of Tafari's savagely powerful assault), but no tears in the Reaver. By figurative comparison, it could've almost been said that Tafari'd pinged right off.

Actually, in a way, it wasn't just figurative, for the moment the man reconstituted himself, the Reaver started zipping away from beneath his feet. With it still in speedy flight and Tafari at a relative standstill, the velocity gradient between the two bodies was enormous. Worse yet, the man's energy couldn't ground itself against the Reaver's body, making the machine a slick and slippery slope. If Tafari didn't grab on to something this very second, all he'd be doing would be tumbling from the Reaver's back.

Of course, that may have been a good idea. As both this situation and Jade's words warned, this thing really did cheat...
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Twin City

And it wasn't the only one. Stomping toward Ildela, heedless of the beams trying to hold the machine, it was more than apparent that Reavers cheated as a bunch. Luckily, the thing couldn't get a hold of her in the form of dissolved shadows, and its programming threw quite a few exceptions in the process, but that didn't stop it from trying.

Or continuing.

It didn't walk fast, and if it could run, it didn't do so yet, but despite the woman's invisibility, it kept coming for her. The electrical field the machine still maintained in a wide radius about itself gave it a very good idea of where its target was even if it couldn't actually see her, and any and all noise she made helped the Reaver as well. Running before it figured out how to echolocate may have been advisable...
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Elven Forest

"Not sure." Akat remarked to Paxtera, "I think the obnoxious guy ran away, but that's probably important only to me...oh. What about that stuff? Is that important?"

'That stuff' was of course the dissimilar plant growth, the change in topic once more getting her attention to it. What was this that had happened there?

And then people appeared.

"Well hi." smiled the Khelari in greeting, "Where'd you guys come from...?"
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At

"Or do you not really have somewhere you find yourself wanting to go?" Vetdjat added to his question of Negative Rise, "Do you want to tell your people you're here? We do have a long-range transmitter. If you can tell me were Ag'xis is, I'm sure we could send a message..."

Sorry for the intrusion. My bad. Posts have been deleted. Take care and have fun.

The Desert

"By exploding you?! Yes!" Jade shouted nervously back to the zombie, "That's a Reaver! It's like metal me on-!"

And then the soldier under his arm disappeared, causing the shocked Dragon to come to a screeching halt. He turned to look after the energy, eyes wide, toneless words coming over his lips, "Oh damn."

The old coot wasn't much happier about it, though he was certainly a great deal more vocal, throwing several weapons-grade obscenities at Tafari's head while frantically scrambling back up off the ground in a desperate attempt to run for the hills.

And then he exploded.

Just like that, in the span of less than a second, the man's skin bubbled up and his features contorted, and then he burst apart in a shower of gore, the silent scream of pain he'd never had the time to utter turning into a sickening splurch.

Jade gulped. Burn point drill. Not good.

After a teamwipe courtesy of Recluse on an STF, running back in and trying to tank him without my toggles on.

He looked at me funny and I melted.

'Twin City'

Every second. That sounded like a very short time. Indeed, for a human it was. For a computer however, it was not. A second was a long, long time.

"H...

True, mechanical action was by comparison painfully slow, operating hundreds of times slower than the signal that directed it, but it was fast enough to say the same.

...e...

And fortunately for it, some things didn't even need mechanical action.

...y...

Such as the armor charge. The attempt to zap Ildela hadn't been its only point, after all. It also served to reinforce and protect, as well as to analyze the disruptions in its extended field.

...h...

Disruptions that were not distributed with uniform magnitude.

...o...

Data values were compared.

...w...

Coordinate points were plotted.

...a...

Vectors were created.

...b...

A composite was formed.

...o...

Simulations were run.

...u...

Had the machine been capable of being impressed, it would've been. That shield was taking strikes that would've wrenched apart the molecular bonds of tempered steel like wet tissue paper.

...t...

But not anymore.

...y...

The machine ceased its assault and took a few steps back and stood still.

PLOT ARC

...ou stop trying to kill me, I stop trying to take you offline and we sit down and talk about this like reasonable people, hmm?"

TARGET LOCK

From one instant to another, motion returned to the metal frame, and it sprang forward like greased lightning, fist before open hand, aiming for a weak spot. Its intent was simple: punch through with the fist, and if that didn't turn the intruder into a bloody mess of a corpse, grab her with the hand and smash her against the floor, walls, ceiling, and whatever else solid the machine could find until she did...
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At

At this, Vetdjat couldn't help but laugh, "Hey now, where's the fun in dying of old age? Life is full of such 'distractions', and I dare say if you don't let yourself experience them, then you're just existing, not living."

"Granted," he added with a shrug, "that's probably the reason so few of us live past a few millenia, but they don't seem too unhappy about that. Don't take that as direction, of course. You have your own path to follow. And since we're on that topic then - where do you want it to take you...?"

((Gonna wait a little longer before responding with the rest so other people get some more time to post.))

Gre'shil Village

"Okay." Akat gave Tila a calm, understanding nod, "But one thing: please don't think of me as someone to be afraid of. I want to help you too, you know. When you're ready to talk again, tell the ground. It knows where to find me."

With that, the Khelari set her step up the ramp of the range runner, the others already departing with their 'cargoes'.

"Sure." she smiled to Bisys on her way to the forward seat, easing into it before placing her claws against the frontmost command interface, "Let's go and head back."

"Course laid in." the autopilot stated once again, and just as before the ship gave a slight rumble and rose into the air, ventral ramp closing in the process. Not a few seconds later, it turned in the appropriate direction and headed back to the elven forest...
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The Desert

"What's a whe-?" Jade looked in the direction the zombie indicated, now spotting the approaching silhouette as well. His eyes went wide, and he stated almost tonelessly, "Worse. Run."

He didn't hesitate to do exactly that, snagging the two Hetrar underneath his arms (in spite of certain protests) and heading fleet of foot back in the direction of the elven forest, yelling to Tafari, Mechano, and Bathory, "Ruuuuuun!"

It wasn't misplaced either, as what came their way just then was indeed much worse than a Harvester. There was a reason the machines held interest in Dragon bones, and this was it.

A Reaver.

Despite its shape being very similar to that of Jade when he'd been romping happily about in the forest earlier, the two had next to nothing in common. This was the wild form of a Dragon, gutted and twisted into a soulless machine. The faint gargle of turbines accompanied the huge, silver-gray automaton as it began final approach at speed...
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'Twin City'

Had the Reaver been capable of being shocked, it certainly would've been when its HUD suddenly filled with the snow of static, sensors registering the power drain far too late to allow for immediate compensation. The machine having been in the middle of analyzing a strange sound it had perceived a moment earlier, trying to assign it meaning, and barely had time to register the woman's impact before its power levels began to drop rapidly.

Unfortunately for Ildela, time was relative.

CONTACT WITH ORGANIC ENTITY CONFIRMED
ERROR
ENERGY LEAKS REPORTED IN ALL SECTORS

COMBAT MODE
[ACCESS EMERGENCY BACKUP POWER]
ANALYZING ALTERNATIVES_

With a crackle that almost resembled that of staggered thunder, the machine's metal body suddenly arced with electricity, the Reaver having charged its armor, which now in turn sent what were essentially small bolts of lightning all over the place - including (or so the machine's computer hoped) right through Ildela.

Of course, it wasn't going to wait to see whether that approach worked or not. The Reaver's clawed hands came for the woman with incredible speed, seeking to grapple, slam, tear, rend, and just about make as thorough and bloody a mess of Ildela as a cold machine that thought and acted in fractions of a second could...
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At

"Hey now, slow down." Vetdjat smiled calmingly, "I'm merely speculating here. What do I know? It could be this way, and it could just as easily be another. I simply find it an intriguing theory. Though now I have to ask: what do you think everything once started out as? Long ago, all that exists today was just an idea. The source of that idea doesn't really matter. It's what becomes of it that does."

"As for our ships, no." he addressed the demon's earlier question, "Not emit. Merely convert from one form to another. From what you tell me, yours, or rather what you humans will make in the future, will probably use something like a glyph nexus. The people of Wet use those to run their ships. Basically very long spells carved into ley foci. Well, assuming you build ships and don't just go for gates or teleportation. Or something else. I think I've lost count of all the methods I've seen..."
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Elven Forest

'Twin City'

CONTACT NEGATIVE
SCANNING_

ADJUSTING EM SPECTRUM WAVELENGTH_

Ildela wasn't the only one looking. Only while she sought a weak spot in the machine's structure, it sought a weak spot in her stealth via cycling through the electromagnetic spectrum, 'looking at' the local reflections along increasing wavelength; gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, and of course radar, trying to locate her. If it did, the response would be simple: transform its right lower arm into a cannon and try to do away with the intruder via an explosive energy blast.

Meanwhile, finding such a spot as Ildela thought wasn't easy. The thing was armored from head to toe, and though the plates had seams, just which to stick a sword into was guesswork at best. There might've been anything from a tank of flammables to more armor plating underneath. Without a means to see inside (or schematics), it was nearly impossible to tell.

Its anatomy did give a clue, though. Built as it was, logic suggested that the most important systems were either in the most heavily armored section of the body (in this case that looked to be the chest) or where they sat closest to peripheral sensors (the head). Then again, some designers had a penchant for overengineering these things and liked to double up...
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At

"Oh, I'd think all you'd really need is a large enough sail..." Vetdjat mused thoughtfully while he handed the crystal to his student, who in turn gave a muffled grunt of surprise upon finding the thing much heavier than expected. His teacher let out a quiet chuckle at the younger's wobbly departure.

"Or you could expand the sun of the system," he continued to Negative Rise, "though I imagine that'd defeat the purpose. Then again...oh. Sorry. There I go again. To answer your question as quickly as possible: we don't use sails. Our ships employ a combination of gravity generation, cold stream turbines, and corpuscular engines. Much like, um...hm, magic...a flying chariot that shoots spell-lightning out the back to go faster."

As the elder Khelari stepped out of the shallow pool, the lava gradually began to drain, the upside-down falls reversing direction and taking the molten rock back down where it came from. Vetdjat motioned for the demon to follow as he set course toward a metal bridge that led to another section of the city.

"As for your people," he went on, "I've got the feeling you don't know your past too well. Well, either that or my imagination's gone off on a tangent again, which tends to happen with good frequency, so I might be running in a completely different direction here...but I think you humans evolved from a type of demon that needed something else to do after its creators had vanished. You see, a great many species exhibit a kind of psychological dimorphism. They group several concepts into categories they find agreeable and disagreeable, and let me tell you, the permutations of that are sheer endless. I've seen good and evil, orderly and chaotic, shaped and wild, organic and mechanical..."

The list went on for a good few more seconds before Vetdjat caught his mind wandering again and set himself back on topic, "Either way, such species often reject what they find disagreeable, even though it's a part of them, and usually they'll attribute these disagreeable aspects to something they can personify. Now, since belief has a great influence on the structure of existence, that personification will come to be, whether they realize they create it or not. As a result, a being, or multiple beings in the case where it's not a fully collective belief, come to be, and are usually called demons. Sometimes the opposite will happen too and the agreeable aspects will personify, or the agreeable becomes the disagreeable, or both happen, and...well, you get the idea."

"In any case, since those beings exist because their oft-unwitting creators believe they do, they also usually cease to exist if their creators vanish." the Khelari finally reached the meat of his theory, "This can happen due to many reasons, but since demons are commonly created with the purpose of spreading the disagreeable aspects and absorbing the spirits of their creators after death, they can very well render them extinct. Or they might just no longer have a purpose and vanish due to that. Or, conversely, the demons might just embody those disagreeable aspects, feel incomplete, and seek to absorb their creators' other aspects instead to make themselves whole, so to speak. I suppose if that happened to your ancestors, there'd theoretically be no more need for any belief to sustain you. Yes, now that I think about it, that makes quite a measure of sense."

He chuckled at the thought, "Just think, if that's what happened, you humans actually became your creators. I imagine that's pretty unique. I wonder if the cycle continues after that? You did say you have priests, but weren't sure about gods..."
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The Desert

"Nono, that's okay!" Jade almost jumped in shock at the thought of having a tiny person inside his head, which creeped him out enough to speak that aloud. He looked to Rotten and the two Hetrar, grinning with sheepish discomfort.

"Er," he pointed to his head, "telepathic message. I think."

Yeah, um, so no, please don't. Uh, what do you mean brought to Akat? What's going on? Are you in trouble? Do you need help...?

((Gonna wait for Rotten to post again before I reply to stuff at the Gre'shil village.))

((Wrong location, Paradigm. Also, range runner is not a proper name. ))

The Desert

"Um...actually, I was wondering if you could take those two there, remember?" Jade inquired of the zombie, casting an uncertain glance at the group not too far away, "That guy with the Shivan there, he's a...well, not exactly a friend I think, but he did help us out a while back. I don't really want to just leave him with Sparky and that lady that's making my hair feel weird."

"I can tell you about the part with the robots." the old soldier spoke up, oddly enough supporting the Dragon's desire. It wasn't too surprising of course, the man still not so sure this wasn't a machine in disguise (there weren't supposed to be any living Drokar left, after all), and holding a strong want to get away from him. The potential promise of an escort through the Desert also held some sway, of course, "I...we...would be grateful if you took us there."

Jade meanwhile didn't notice this aversion to him one bit, a familiar voice suddenly sounding from right next to him - but Bisys wasn't there. Brought to Akat? Uh-oh? what was going on he...waaait a second...

Bisys? Is that you? Are you in my head? If you can hear this, please tell me you didn't shrink down and are now inside my brain.

He also didn't notice the rather large mass of metal fast approaching through the dark-clouded skies...
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Gre'shil Village

"Of course I do." Akat answered the new Gre'shil leader in a manner that suggested that this should be obvious, "I'm treating you all otherwise than I should by my nature. You might find this hard to swallow, but where I come from, you guys are squishy meat sacks full of water. That makes you just about the most desirable prey. I'm even hungry right now. I should be eating you. But I'm not."

"Also, I find it very hard to believe that you guys like being killed." she stated with conviction, "Otherwise you wouldn't fight so hard for your lives when threatened. So I think that you don't like being killed, and that you'd like each other to treat you otherwise among yourselves as well. But you know, if I'm wrong, correct me. Tell me you like being killed. Tell me you wouldn't rather treat each other different. Go ahead. I'm waiting."

As she gave Tila and the others a little time to think about this, the Khelari looked back to the range runner, telling Bisys, "I told the autopilot to fly it here, yes. But I didn't know anyone had gone aboard. What happened? Why did she almost die? Did she get hit by a compressor...?"
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At

"I'm not sure." Vetdjat gave a shrug, leaning down around the monolith as he circled it, "I didn't ask. Do you want me to? I can..."

"Wait, what?" he froze in mid-bend, then shot up straight again, his attention fully on Negative Rise, "You are a human? So they're not...and that means...you're born like..."

He became very quiet for a moment, possibilities playing out in his head, then fire away with questions again, "Are you saying your people gone independent? Are your creators even still around? Wait, you have priests? Does that mean you have gods? Did you collapse, er, coalesce? How did that work? Are the terrors you mentioned still-unevolved demons? Why would they do that? What sustains them? How can they still have a function? Is their...?"

"My apologies." the Khelari stated calmly after taking a breath, "I lose myself like that sometimes. I've simply never encountered a demon like you before. The other ones always had some very specific function - usually to provide a form for the undesired elements of their creators' spirits. I can't tell you how fascinating it is seeing someone who's balanced that out. Let me just finish this up here a moment."

With that, Vetdjat took a much deeper breath, then balled a hand to a fist and slammed it into the monolith, penetrating deeply into the granite-like stone. Now a second later, the whole thing practically came apart, rapid crack progression causing the rock to crumble back down into the lava from which it had been raised. A small piece of it remained, though. About the size of a bowling ball, the crystal of purplish crimson rested securely in the Khelari's outstretched hand.

"Tamrat." he called the attention of the younger, "Please take this to the big ship for me..."
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'Twin City'

Actually, right now there was a lot more than two doors blocking her way. The heavy clomp of metal against metal in the distinct rhythm of footsteps told Ildela that long before she ever saw what those feet belonged to. Still, eventually it turned the corner.

A metal Dragon.

That, oddly enough, didn't look so threatening at all. In fact, it almost looked confused. A lot like Jade, but it had no synthoskin, just the blank silver-gray of metal as the face in which sat its pair of dimly glowing eyes, their light soft blue...

At

"Humans..." Vetdjat repeated thoughtfully, continuing to run his claws over the monolith as he spoke, "Can't say I've heard of those. I take they're the people of...Tevron is your world?"

"Ag'xis." Tamrat corrected with a quick shake of his head, looking up from his food and to Negative rise, "Tevron was...you said it was a reach there, right? What's a reach?"

The elder gave a quiet chuckle at that, going on as he worked, gradually circling the stone, "Ag'xis then. Must be far...ooor your name is different than ours for it. Happens all the time. So did these humans model you after themselves? Or are they of a different nature? How about you? What is your function? Do you have more than one? Are you an individual or part of a collective...?"

That was awesome, haha. Perfect 10 from all the judges.

At

"Just Vetdjat please." the elder Khelari retorted to Negative Rise with a mischievous smile as Tamrat found himself a place to sit and eat, "Unless you'd like to take me as a teacher as well. I admit, the idea intrigues me. I've never had a demon as a student before."

The words were spoken so casually, but chances were that to someone trying to conceal his identity all this time, the statement still struck like a bomb. Vetdjat didn't mean for it to, of course. For him, it was just a generalization of being, like calling a Flow an amorph. Thus, if Negative Rise didn't interrupt somehow, he'd continue to speak.

First he'd tell the demon that Tamrat and he were Khelari, calling themselves that after their homeworld's name Khelaris, and that while he'd never seen a living dragon, he doubted the species were biologically related. He'd also explain that the structure they presently stood in was one of their cities - well, the city now, as it was the only one Patches had fished off Khelaris when it had transported the piece here - and in the most general sense a large collection of tools. The platform that held the lava pool Vetdjat stood in was one such tool, allowing the Khelari to be close to others he might need while forming something from the molten rock.

Of course, whether or not he got the time to say all this was up to Negative Rise...
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Gre'shil Village

"Yes they are." Akat retorted loudly as she bent down, placing the palm of her left hand against the earth, "And yes you are. What kind of way of thinking is that, 'not your people'? Mhf. If you can think, you're people. Doesn't matter what you look like."

Then she stood again, eyeing the Gre'shil, "Yeah, I'm different from you. And they're different too. But we're still all people, and that makes us all have something in common. You want to be happy, they want to be happy, I want to be happy. You can get hurt, they can get hurt, I can get hurt. It's fine if you don't want to live together. But don't hurt each other. None of you like being hurt, do you? So treat each other like you want to be treated: as people. The same people, with the same rights."

Over the horizon, a few dots of light appeared in the night sky, and Akat continued, "I'll go take the 'round ears' to a place where they can do that and not eat your young or find a revenge, whatever that means. I'm hoping you can do it here. And yeah, if you or anyone else doesn't, I'll challenge them every time. People aren't supposed to treat each other as anything other than people, and especially not something to kill for food. That's the first thing we learn where I'm from."

Also one of the relatively few things all Khelari learned, at least speaking in terms of the many cultures here on Patches. Akat indeed had no idea what revenge meant, her society having no concept of it, and indeed believed that a human would break into a nest dome to eat the young Gre'shil.

Meanwhile, the small number of range runners that had come over the horizon descended on the area around the village, using their ability to manipulate gravity to pick up the 'round ear escapees'. Moving swiftly and efficiently, they'd be done in no time, then land to take them aboard properly. One runner, however, came straight into the village and landed behind Akat...
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Eleven Forest

A few minutes earlier...

The range runner did indeed have a store of water, as Khelari may have liked to swim in lava, but they still didn't drink the stuff. When the request came, the autopilot responded just as it had before, producing what it could to try and fulfill it.

And that wasn't all.

"Beacon received." the same voice announced not seconds later, and with a hiss the access ramp closed and the ship's engines began to hum into a low howl, like that of quiet turbines. Not moments later, the range runner's 'landing feet' left the ground of the elven forest, and the ship began to gain altitude, returning to its original shape in the process.

"Course laid in." the autopilot announced once more, then fired the main thrusters, the trees speeding away first aside and below, and then only below as the runner climbed much faster than even an elven arrow could catch up. Thankfully, none of this was felt inside. In fact, if Bisys and Lady Aineruda hadn't seen the terrain and sky going by outside, they wouldn't even have been able to tell the ship was moving due to its compensation of the acceleration's g-force.

It didn't stay at altitude long however, not a few minutes later already entering a descent, and not long after that reshaping itself to land once again. The noise of the engines soon ebbed away again, and the craft gently set down, the access ramp coming back open to free the view to the outside.

To the Gre'shil village.

"So I hope that you can, otherwise you're just as bad as those angry-all-the-time humans I mentioned earlier." the elf and metaloid satyr saw Akat with her back to the runner, continuing to speak to the Gre'shil. When she caught a whiff of the air coming out of the ship though, the Khelari turned about in mild surprise, remarking to the two, "Huh? When'd you go in there...?"
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The Desert

"So..." Jade looked unsurely to Rotten Luck, "Isn't that more of a reason not to be here right now...?"

((Nope. That would be the Drokar, which translates to Dragon(s) - both singular and plural - and is the proper name for Jade's species. The Khelari are just the people of Khelaris, who apart from their outward appearance and tolerance to heat have very little in common with Dragons, dragons, or even reptiles in general. ))

At

"That depends on who you ask." the Khelari standing in the shallow pool answered Negative Rise in stead of Tamrat, his tone much less energetic, but greatly more mindful than that of the young hunter. Even as he spoke, he didn't look back, and if the demon could discern so from his current position, he'd notice the reptilian's eyes were closed. Nevertheless, he seemed to be acutely aware of everything about.

"Myself, I find it much too cold." he continued to speak as he reached forward to the amalgamation of arch and torus, his claws apparently looking for something within, "And it's such a thin liquid too. Has hardly anything to push against."

Thos words seemed almost prophetic, for the very next instant, his eyes snapped open and he pushed his hand into the molten ring with speed, first gripping and then snatching out some manner of wormlike creature that brimmed with sharp, almost spike-like scales that looked to be composed of rock. The thing screeched horribly, the piercing sound orders of magnitude worse than the demon's chuckle, its tooth-filled maw snapping viciously at the 'air' while the rest of its body wound and lashed about.

"Tamrat!" the elder Khelari turned to the younger, then threw the thing toward him in a high arc. With eager eyes, Tamrat extended his arms in preparation, then grabbed the 'worm' firmly out of its trajectory, almost immediately sinking his teeth into what could've been described as the thing's neck. It struggled for about another second, and then the body went limp. A transparent fluid pooled about Tamrat's teeth and lips for a moment before the Khelari began to suck it up, followed by eagerly gnawing into the animal.

"Don't let me catch you skipping meals again." the elder continued as the torus began to shrink together into a sphere about two meters in diameter, "That's not good when you're young. I think I see why, though. So where did you find your new friend?"

"Mhf." Tamrat quickly yanked his teeth back out of his meal and swallowed the large chunk he'd already torn from the thing, "At the rim. And yes, I was going to find a kadj, but then I found him, and he smelled good, and I-"

"Tamrat!" the black Khelari interrupted with force, looking displeased, "You didn't try to eat him, did you?"

"Nnononono." the young hunter quickly shook his head, "I was polite. I didn't even lick him. I remembered exactly:"

"Food that talks is not food." both of them said in tandem, the elder assuaged by this, and continued, "Very good. Well then, new friend of my student, welcome to At. I am Vetdjat-M'at Ariam'n. May I know your n-oh. One moment."

Behind him, the torus had by now fully compacted, and the Khelari reached for it with both hands, guiding the construct down toward the pool surface. At the same time, the formerly wide legs of the arch, drawn in by the change in size, came together to form a compact base roughly as wide as the sphere, creating what looked like a very strange column of 'slow-motion-erupting' molten rock.

That suddenly solidified.

"There." Vetdjat remarked with a satisfied smile, "Much better..."
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'Twin City'

Unfortunately for Ildela, the door didn't come open after she'd pried of the scanner's front and rummaged about inside. In fact, the opposite happened, namely in the form of a secondary gate lowering itself into place before the first blast door and sealing shut with a series of heavy clacks.

A few moments later, the holographic head of a bald, bespectacled man appeared in the hallway, a very authoritative voice stating to her, "Attention. You are in an area restricted by law under the Drokar Flight Control Act. Unauthorized presence here is punishable as a state crime. You are to vacate the area immediately. Failure to comply will result in removal and arrest by both local and sate police. This message repeats. Attention..."

In total, the tirade would be run down three times. After that, the speaker would disappear, and presumably police would be notified. Of course, they'd never come. There hadn't been any police here for hundreds of years. Still, this gave a vital clue. The message system was clearly not linked to the rest of these machines. In conjunction with the scanner obviously intended to open the door, this quickly led to two conclusions. Either the whole thing was some elaborate trap, or the machines hadn't been the ones who built this place...

At

"Swim in water?" the Khelari couldn't help but let out a brief laugh as he headed back down to the bubbling lava, "Good one. Everyone knows you can't swim in water."

He had no idea how wrong he was of course, having never seen an amount of water deep enough to immerse his body, let alone swim through. He didn't linger on it though, instead doing as the demon had suggested and leaping headfirst into the molten rock. Therein, Tamrat swam much like a fish, undulating from side to side and using his tail as his main means of propulsion. It wasn't exactly the fastest way through the viscous liquid, but certainly faster than something like breaststroke.

Every now and then, he'd spiral about and back to the surface, opening nostrils to renew breath, and eyes to make sure Negative Rise was still following. Reaching the city took quite some time this way, but Tamrat didn't much mind, having made the trip from edge to center many a time. He had stamina to spare.

When he finally reached the area beneath the pillar-and-tree supported platform of metal and rock, the Khelari altered his course somewhat, entering a thin area of shallows created by a subsurface extension of the gigantic crystal tree.

"Over there." he indicated what could best be described as a pair of lavafalls 'falling' the wrong way a little ways down the circumference of the very uneven, yet roughly circular edge of the patchwork platform above, "Looks like he's still grabbing materials."

As if that explained everything (though to Tamrat, perhaps it did), the Khelari jumped back into the lava and swam to one of the massive metal pillars near the upside-down falls, then proceeded to climb a ladder let into the multi-toned black plating, motioning for the demon to follow. The place really was much like Grandville in that respect, the structure of platforms and their supports a jumbled, yet still somehow mathematically purposeful mess. The hum of energy pervaded the place, and there was clearly more at work here in terms of power than just the volcano. Just what this was wasn't so apparent however, as the young hunter climbed only to the platform upon which the falls 'began', leading Negative rise into a structure that a human would've described as some sort of metal church-temple combination with the roof blown off.

The place was somewhat circular, and the low walls jutted irregularly into the sky, the whole of it open upwards. All around lay rock, and along the far edge lay a reflecting pool that took up about half the available floor space. It was quite shallow though, at least judging from the appearance of the Khelari who stood in the lava that filled it to just above his ankles. Unlike Tamrat, this one's hide was jet-black, and several spines jutted from his back. Before him, standing at least twenty meters tall, 'stood' an arch of molten rock that showed tendencies of becoming a circle of the same diameter, floating freely in the air while the Khelari looked on thoughtfully, seemingly trying to figure out what to do with it, his long tail swaying slowly to and fro, tip dipping into the lava at random intervals...
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The Desert

"Long story." Jade told Rotten while he warily eyed the gradual boil-down of hostilities around Tafari, his desires to make sure Dr. Mechano wouldn't get fried and to get the heck outta Dodge in bitter conflict, "Both of them. Either way, there's a forest not too far that way."

He pointed in the direction of the elven lands, though he didn't take his eyes off the powderkeg, "Can you take those two there? They should be safe there...well, safer than here anyway."

If the zombie had reservations about leaving on account of the others still carrying more than enough potential to break off into another fight, Jade would of course understand. He felt the same way. Luckily, despite the old soldier's demeanor, he and the second Hetrar carried enough presence of mind that they'd state they could get there by themselves...
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Gre'shil Village

"Excuse me?" Akat blinked in return at Tila, "I'll have you know I've been an adult for almost a year now. I could find myself a mate any time I like."

"And I'm not a god." she addressed the Gre'shil at large, "What, you've never seen anybody move a rock before? That's Solids lesson number one. Literally. It's called 'Move a Rock'..."

At

The Khelari had been about to ask just why Negative Rise didn't want to stay here, as his reason for going back didn't quite seem so obvious, but by then the demon had already moved on to another topic, so Tamrat decided to leave it for later. Much the same applied to the reptilian's curiosity about his people's ability to travel between worlds (Tamrat had just assumed they could), though there Negative Rise answered his question before it could be spoken.

"Awesome." the Khelari grinned and turned toward the gargantuan lava lake, looking for a good way down while he motioned for the demon to follow, "Come with me. Master Vetdjat is modifying the north telescope right now. If we hurry, we can catch him there before he puts it back."

Then a thought occurred to him, the Tamrat looked back to the demon with questioning realization, "Um...can you swim...?"

((Gonna wait until Rotten responds before writing my next reply for the Desert.))

The Desert

Rotten Luck! To most, those words were a curse, and an individual with that name someone from whom to stay far, far away. For Jade, seeing the zombie here was a blessing, and as he landed with a wide smile, a fond greeting already on his lips, he was just about ready to sweep up the (relatively) little man in a tackle-hug.

Until the shout.

"Robot?!" the old soldier half-roared, half rasped in shock, coming to a skidding halt, and immediately looked for both an escape route and something with which to defend himself. Rocks being abundant, he found such a one and raised it threateningly, "Don't you come near us, you hear?! We don't...!"

The Dragon didn't keep track of the rest of the words the man threw at him after that, though the accusory tone and obscenity-laden language let his ire across just fine. Jade froze in mid-step, almost shrinking away, the scene only too much a reminder of how the Hetrar had treated him as a machine.

"Shut up!" he finally roared out, snapping back at the memories, as well as the soldier, his voice full of anger and pain, "I'm not a robot! I never was! It was just the stupid body! It's not my fault you idiots could never see past that!"

That did it. The old man froze in silence and with wide eyes, still holding the rock as if about to throw it at the heavily breathing Dragon. His brain wasn't giving him any words to respond, having blanked. Neither was Jade's, but his cause was a whirlwind of thoughts, not a lack of them.

"I'm...I'm sorry." he finally managed to get out, trying to hide a tear in the corner of his eye. He turned about and motioned them to follow, "Yes, its me. Come on. We should get out of here..."
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Gre'shil Village

Akat didn't like that answer, retorting to the former Kaja, "Yeah? Well, I can."

With that, she placed her hands before her chest and took a deep breath, then raised a foot and smashed its sole into the soil. Seemingly in the very same instant, the earthen walls around the human encampment suddenly shuddered, then collapsed into the ground in a very peculiar manner, almost looking like plates that had been swiftly retracted into the earth.

"Now you all let them leave." the Khelari told Tila and the other Gre'shil, "You've beaten them. You've got your victory. If they challenge you again, then kill them. Don't treat them how you don't want to be treated."

"And you," she turned to the slaves by the cart, "if you're those demon-obsessed people, stop picking a fight with everything you see, got it? It's annoying. Really annoying."

"All I wanted to do was see their city." she remarked to Tila in the same conversation, "You think they say hello? No, they start screaming, tie me to a piece of wood, and set it on fire. Not that it wasn't nice, but still. Rudest people I've ever met."

With that, she seemed to consider the matter settled, and indeed she did. Of course, the Gre'shil likely had other opinions...
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At

"Oh." Tamrat remarked in response to what he perceived as the demon's desire to depart this world, looking a little downtrodden at losing this interesting new friend already, "Well, if you need to go home, I can take you to the nearest airdock. There's always a runner or two there. Though um...you say it'd be good for your people if you stayed here the rest of your life? How come? Do you want to? It's nice. There are always new places to see..."
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'Twin City'

Being a blast door that was practically a wall, there were unfortunately no cracks or air gaps for Ildela to find. Since the presence of such would've defeated the purpose of the door, it was maintained well. There was no trace of corrosion.

She did find a gap, however. It wasn't in the door, though. Rather, it was in the wall next to it. To be more accurate, it was one of four in the wall there, coming together to form a rectangle. Pressure against the thusly outlined plate would cause it to recede and slide away, exposing a mechanism that was easily identified as a form of hand scanner. It didn't scan handprints though, rather matching elements of the DNA within the hand against its database. Not that this was apparent, of course. What was apparent was the shape of the hand outline in the baseboard. Large and clawed, it was easy to see it wasn't that of a human.

It was the hand of a Drokar - the claws of a Dragon...
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Elven Forest

Fortunately for Bisys, her concern at the orange lighting was unnecessary. The range runner's architects may have carried quite a few mannerisms that matched those of humans, such as nodding, smiling, et cetera, but one thing on which Khelari and humans differed greatly was the meaning they assigned to colors. To a human, green soothed and red excited or alarmed. To a Khelari, it was nearly the opposite. Reds, yellows, and blacks were soothing while greens, blues, and whites were calls for attention, warnings of danger, or other things that demanded the body be more active. The runner's presently orange illumination was no more an indicator of urgency than soft white would've been aboard a human craft.

Of course, that didn't mean the ship wasn't on alert for when it might be needed. Like now.

"Request received." the soft tone of the autopilot responded to Bisys' plea, being a little closer than the forest, and the next moment, the runner's reactor already raised output for the metaloid satyr to access. If more was needed, such as medical supplies, the ship was fully stocked. All Bisys needed do was convey her request in one form or another...

At

"Tamrat." the Khelari answered Negative Rise, looking greatly relieved, "Call me Tamrat. And yes, he's the patterner teaching me. Used to be a total energy engineer, and he's still really good at it, but he says got tired of that a few hundred years ago. Right now, he's mainly studying the matter transmissions."

"Oh, right." the fact that the demon had asked about that twice already drove a sheepish grin onto the scaleless reptilian's lips, "Sorry. Your fault, though. You keep mentioning other things that are more interesting. Anyway, this planet, Patches it's called, uses a kind of matter transmission to bring pieces of other worlds onto itself. Basically, the target is dematerialized, turned into a higher-dimensional wave, brought here, and then rematerialized. Or at least it's supposed to be. I don't know if a septadim halftrack is anything like regular hyperspace, but I know if a 5-D waveform isn't stable when it arrives, it can rematerialize in any number of ways. Living things usually don't survive being put back together different than they were before."

By the end of that, Tamrat had forgotten all about the question of scent, already focused on the next thing that popped into his head, "You want to go talk to him? He knows a lot more about this than me..."
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'Twin City'

ACTIVATION SIGNAL RECEIVED
ACTIVATION SIGNAL CONFIRMED

BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED

INITIALIZING_

MAIN POWER RESTORED
SYSTEM CHECK INITIATED
REAVER UNIT VER SA1-446B-VM5-P
MAIN COMPUTER ONLINE
TARGETING COMPUTER ONLINE
ARM CANNON ONLINE
ARMOR REINFORCEMENT ONLINE
ENERGY MODULE DEPLOYED
AMMUNITION MODULE DEPLOYED
VISORS RESPONDING
HUD SUITE RESPONDING

VERIFYING COMPONENT SUBSYSTEMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
COMPLETE

TARGET INFORMATION RECEIVED
TARGET INFORMATION CONFIRMED
TARGET: HETRAR INTRUDER
REAVER UNIT DEPLOYMENT CONFIRMED_

As Ildela proceeded down into the 'underground', she'd liekly eventually find that the entire area within a radius of roughly sixty meters from a point halfway down the centroidal axis of the substructure had been rendered inaccessible to individuals without the means to bypass the thick blast doors that blocked the way into that section. In fact, they were practically walls to themselves, and if it hadn't been for the colored lines and markings that indicated that they in fact led somewhere, an untrained observer - or just someone who wasn't familiar with the language and symbols - would've taken them as exactly that: walls that made dead ends...
__________________

The Desert

For a few long seconds, Jade just stood there with wide eyes and a fearful frown of teeth, looking very worried. This guy really was insane! Great. What had he gotten himself into now? Well, at least he wasn't shooting at him...for now. The Dragon had a feeling that if things came to it, Dr. Mechano wouldn't hesitate to waste anyone and anything standing in his way.

At least he's not laughing maniacally while he's at it.

One way or another though, he was preventing Sparky over there form doing...well, whatever he was doing now. Jade couldn't even begin to follow there. The guy was nutty as they came, and that combined with his unquestionably great power put a rather large 'stay away' sign around Tafari's neck. Yeah, Jade would rather not mess with him, so even if the distraction was a maniac, he'd take it and worry about the rest later.

"Well, um..." he told Mechano, not entirely sure what to say. He did believe the man, so at least he wouldn't try to kill the woman until they gout out of here, "I guess that's...a way. Uh, I'm going to try and get those people out of there. Cover me if you can, okay?"

He meant of course the pair of Hetrar (and perhaps Rotten Luck) now running from the scene, and started toward them in first a run, then deck-level flight...

The Desert

A chilling spasm shot down Jade's spine at the sudden sound of thunder, from the base of his skull to the very tip of his tail. The wavelike twitch even spread into the skins of his wings, causing a shudder, and a slight dip in altitude before he managed to recover. His nostrils snorted out a mass of air, even as his hearts still pounded. He had to find a way around this gunshot-phobia, and he had to find it soon. Otherwise...

Wait, gunshot? Who was up ahead there with a gun?

Jade narrowed his eyes and descended even lower, trying to peer ahead. Yep, there was the electro-pomp guy alright (not that he needed his eyes to confirm that), but there were also several more. In fact, make that a lot more, and a good few of them gave him the...wait just a damn second here, why the hell was he still feeling so twitchy? That couldn't have been just the gunshot. No, something else was going on here. Something that was kicking some sense of his that he'd forgotten about in all that time as a robot, and by the feel of it, that sense was geared to pick up something very, very nasty.

Better be extra careful.

With a twist of his wings, the Dragon redirected his lift ahead. Not a few seconds later, his feet hit land. Carefully folding the wingskins against his back again, Jade proceeded on the ground from there, darting between the cragged rocks of the Desert for what modicum of cover they provided, always careful to keep an eye on what lay ahead lest he be...

And then he saw Dr. Mechano.

...surprised.

Jade blinked, head sticking out over some rocky form of dune. Well, he'd wondered where the guy and his spider had gone...and the blob too. Made more than enough sense to run into them out here. But why was he holding that rifle like so? He'd been the source of the gunshot? Was he shooting...?!

"Hey!" he yelled with a wave whilst he jumped the 'dune' and ran over toward the shapeshifted scientist, "I really don't think that's such a good idea...!"
__________________

At

The Khelari shook his head to the questions of Negative Rise several times. Clans or packs? No. Social order? No. Defending territory? What was territory? What was a thief? What was stealing? What were belongings? Khelari had no concept of possession, of ownership, and thus the young hunter was only further confused by the demon's lies. Of course, he would've been just as confused by the truth, but that didn't much matter right now.

What did matter was that his interest didn't wane. On the contrary. It grew. This creature standing before him was from a place where everything was...different. He'd heard of those places from his elders, sure, but he'd never imagined the people there could be so different that he didn't even understand half the words they used to describe their culture. This was so exciting! He wanted to know more. Wanted to understand. But first, he had to relate it to something he knew. Something like...

"Prey!" he suddenly exclaimed with a beaming smile, "I get it now! You're one of those people Master Vetdjat told me about. You use your knowledge to be the predator and do your thing, but if you're not careful, then we hunt you, and..."

His words were cut short when his nose suddenly reported the absence of the demon's scent. True, Negative Rise had suspended that a short while ago, but in an atmosphere this thick, it had taken a little time to traverse the distance. The Khelari looked rather shocked.

"Oh no, please don't!" the scaleless reptilian stood upright with speed, both hands stretched forward to the demon, "You smell so goo...I mean...I mean I didn't mean...I'm not hunting you, I promise!"

Only then did he notice the spear still in his right hand, and quickly dropped the thing, fearing this interesting being was making preparations to flee and not leave a trail to follow, "See? It's okay. You don't need to hide your scent. I...I guess we're probably evil in your culture, but that doesn't mean we're always out to kill you. Besides, we have a rule: food that talks is not food. Please don't leave..."
__________________

Gre'shil Village

"Not really, no." Akat answered Tila's question in regard to challenging them all, still looking at Rana in a downtrodden manner, "I couldn't even eat two of you, much less everybody. And we're not supposed to kill what we don't eat."

This may have sounded rather morbid to the Gre'shil, but the scaleless reptilian was quite sincere. Even now, she was wondering whether Rana'd body would be shared, whether Tila would eat her alone, or whether this culture did something else with their dead...at which the thought of every challenge ending with a death created a feeling of emptiness and waste in the Khelari.

And then came the humans.

"Hey, wait." she snapped to attention, her mind only now truly taking notice of the scent in the air, coming from behind the walled enclosure (though Akat couldn't tell so just yet; it was just in the air). She looked after Tila even as she approached the slaves in an attempt to examine them, "What're they doing here? Why do they look so bad? What's the purpose of this...?"

At

Khelari were indeed adept at detecting deception, having great need of such when hunting prey that employed guile and misdirection to try and throw them off. Unfortunately, even the most finely honed hunter's instincts weren't of much use when a baseline was unavailable - and the scaleless reptilian had never seen a demon before.

Or heard one.

"Uhhh..." he returned, looking rather estranged, "Pardon me, but I don't think I got even half of that. What's a High General? Why were so many of you fighting? How were you the only survivor? Did the transmission go unstable? What does corrupted mean? What's evil...?"
__________________

'Twin City'

The interior hadn't changed from before. It was still the cold, creepy, downright sterile maze of metal and machinery it had been when Paxtera had been here earlier. An unchanging machine.

Well, not quite.

One thing had changed: several camera lenses had resumed active operation, following Ildela's path as best they could. For now, nothing but the mechanical eyes assailed her, though whether or not it would remain this way was anyone's guess...
__________________

The Desert

The old soldier gave a wheezing, half-hearted chuckle, the reaction general, but also somewhat directed at Tafari. He didn't say anything in response though, instead suggesting quietly toward Rotten Luck, "I think we better get out of here before they turn up the gravy. Already almost died once today, and I don't know about you, but I like being alive. C'mon, kid."

The last was of course directed toward the other Hetrar Tafari had left behind, but whether or not he and/or the zombie responded, the old coot tried to make himself scarce.

At roughly the same time, the scene entered the distance of Jade's view, the Dragon approaching at low altitude to keep an edge over the normally high-flying machines, just in case. He couldn't quite make out anything yet, but the energies up there sure felt familiar.

Oh great. Him again...
__________________

Gre'shil Plains

Akat blinked, standing stiff. Had Tila really just killed Rana? She didn't know. The whole situation was just too strange to tell. Not that no one had ever been killed in a challenge, but this was just...were these people really so fragile?

Without a word, the Khelari darted from her position and over to the two Gre'shi, speedily examining Rana for any signs of life...

At

The words of Negative Rise were greatly mirrored in the Khelari. Of course, the reptilian was already very interested, but that was a technical distinction. Crouching there on the rock he'd climbed after scaling the caldera wall, clawed toes against the stone in tandem with the palm of his left hand and the spear held vertically in the right, one end on the ground, his eyes held exactly that: interest.

For a few seconds, he simply remained there, long, whiplike tail gradually swaying to and fro as he studied this strange creature and tried to place it. To no avail, of course. But that didn't stop him from trying. Eventually he gave up however, thinking the best way to approach this was to simply ask.

"You know, you're hard to figure out." he said, "You move fast, but you also wait. You smell great, but you also talk. What are you? Where did you come from...?"
__________________

'Twin City'

Within moments, the whole place was on full alert. The more turrets got Ildela into sensor range, the more fire came her way. Hunter-killers emerged from opening hangar bays and joined in the fray. Surprisingly enough, there didn't seem to be any conflicting crossfire. Either these things didn't shoot when something friendly was in the way, or their munitions themselves were smart enough to avoid friendly fire incidents. Either way, it probably caught Ildela between a rock and a hard place.

Fortunately, said place was hard enough to take the shells and missiles without really caring. The material used in the construction of this place had been savagely overengineered, (in this respect, at least; its original purpose had required the specifications), and flying behind obstacles like buildings and walls would keep her safe from the assault. Well, until something came at her from the other side, of course.

Another option was of course the route her mother had taken - into the plate instead of atop it. The turrets and hunter-killers couldn't go there simply due to being immobile and large, respectively. Of course, there may have been other things down there that were just as deadly. However, there were also the disguised doors Paxtera hadn't made it past...
__________________

Gre'shil Plains

"Oh, they will, will they?" Akat retorted with a look and a snort to Tila, then turned back toward the Gre'shil army and set her feet apart, lowering her center of gravity like a linebacker expecting to catch a charge. She shouted at them, "You all want to challenge me?! Fine! Here I am! Are you coming over here, or am I coming over there...?!"
__________________

Elven Forest

Jade blinked. A scant few seconds ago, he'd been ready to go ahead and throw Durlan at someone. Now he was at a loss for words. Even as Bisys spoke her last sentence, even as he noted out of the corner of an eye that the holograms that illuminated the interior of the range runner were now all orange, he was still digesting his surprise. That had been refreshingly direct...but also very unexpected.

"Um...what she said." was all he could think of just then, carefully releasing Lady Ainderuda and Durlan (well, the second not so carefully), and spreading his wings to depart, "Okay. I'll be back soon."

With that, he took off. He didn't even really realize that Bisys hadn't actually spoken those last few words to him, the bulk of his attention on other things. It'd probably dawn on him eventually, but right now he focused on gaining speed and altitude, foregoing the convenience of gliding in lieu of powerful wingstrokes that propelled him in the direction from which he'd heard the drums...

((Waiting for Liz a bit more before I post for the sacrifice site. If you really need him to do or say something, feel free to grab the soldier NPC. He's your standard surly, crotchety, seen-it-all-before old war coot who'd just as soon smack you as look at you.))

Gre'shil Plains

For a long few seconds, Akat just stood there, staring blankly. More than half the concepts Tila had just thrown at her she was having trouble digesting. What was a tribe? How did mating disgrace you? What was this thing called tribute? Did these people really lay eggs? Why would beasts attack their young? It was supposed to be the other way around.

"You're very strange." the Khelari commented with audible curiosity. She really wished things weren't so hectic right now. She would've loved to take this chance to learn more and sate her curiosity, "I'd like to talk some more with you later. Will you come with me?"

If Tila agreed, the scaleless reptilian would tell the Gre'shil her name, then lead the way toward the approaching army. If not, she'd just go alone. One way or another though, she kept on walking right toward their front, neither in a hurry nor dawdling her time. She had intent, and this was just the pace to show it to any and all.

Especially to the Thunder Beasts.

If they were unintelligent creatures guided solely by their instincts, they'd know first. Heck, even if they weren't and were just moderately in touch with them, they'd know first. What was this they'd know? That an apex predator was coming their way. That this creature that sort-of-resembled a Gre'shil was anything but and could and would eat them if she so desired. On Khelaris, the intelligent inhabitants were the pointy tip of the food chain.

Akat was about to let the Gre'shil know why.

She stopped.

"I know why you're here!" she stated loudly to the army as soon as they came close enough to hear her clearly, "Your young are alive! Well, last I saw them they were at least, so I'd assume they still are! If you still want to challenge the people in the weird forest back there, know I'll be taking your challenge in their place! So bring it! I've got a ton of anger just begging to get loose on someone! Who's first?!"

Her tone wasn't just loud, it was downright aggressive. She wanted them to challenge her. Of course, she expected it to be how Khelari did it - one on one. She didn't understand the concept of actually waging a war. She'd never needed to before...
__________________

The Desert

One of the captive humans (or to be technically correct, Hetrar) grumbled a short string of muttered obscenities under his breath as Rotten Luck cut the grizzled-looking fellow loose. By the look of his uniform (or more accurately, the ragged mess that he managed to somehow pass off as one), he was of the opinion that he had every right to at this point. People dealt with terror in all sorts of ways. His personal choice was anger.

"Respect." the soldier spat, glancing at Tafari wandering off to perform his display while he regarded the zombie, "Maybe if your pal there didn't refer to us as 'the crowd'. And you, kid, get your head outta the pipes. They're not gods. Do appreciate the rescue, though. I hate to admit it, but I'd given up. My thanks to..."

He cocked an eyebrow at Tafari's lightshow, the music causing his sneer to become a scowl, "Well, you at least. I think your 'friend' there's got some circuits fried. You find him in one of the old cities? I always did hear stories about the EMPs just screwing some up real bad instead of killing them."

If Tafari heard him over his display, his jaw may very well have hit the ground at that. This guy thought he was a mere robot - and a malfunctioning one to boot...
__________________

Elven Forest

"Either." Jade answered Bisys curtly, the division of his attention between the struggling Durlan, the sedated Aineruda, the tenders, the plants, the assassins, the drums, "Neither! I mean...argh!"

The Dragon stomped forward with a snarl, his free arm snatching Lady Aineruda from those of the tenders, "You all need to take Tactics 101 again! If there's more snipers around, the safest place right now is Akat's ship. I'm taking her there. No buts! You guys find some co-er, pol-hrh...soldiers, whatever! Find people who know how to fight. Tell them about the thorn trail and to find out where it goes and what's at the end of it. Also tell them to bring their best weapons, not to split up, and come back when they find something. I'll be back soon."

Wit an about-face, he left it at that, now carrying two elves under his arms and a furrow in his brow. One thing at a time, he kept reminding himself, one thing at a time.

"Okay, new plan." he told Bisys as he walked back toward the range runner, heedless of any protest directed his way, "If you can stay with these two for now, I'd be very grateful. Do whatever you can to help. I need to go check out where those drums were coming from. Maybe I can still save someone. From what I saw, Akat was telling the ship what to do with voice commands and touch, so it probably picks up the user's thoughts or something like that. See if you can get it to help you. Is that going to be okay...?"
__________________

At

The Khelari with the spear blinked. Why was that creature over there yelling into the air here? More to the point, what the heck was that thing? It talked, so it obviously wasn't food - too bad, too; it looked kind of appetizing - but if it was a visitor, why did it just turn around and leap back up to the caldera's rim...unless it'd come out of the lava and he missed, it of course, but then there probably wouldn't have beeeeeeyeah, he was overcomplicating things. Better to just go ask.

Laying claws to stone, the scaleless reptilian started to climb up after Negative Rise. Of course, climbing wasn't nearly as fast as jumping, so his progress was much slower than the demon's...
__________________

'Twin City'

The next turret didn't need to be asked twice. The moment its sensors picked up Ildela, its servos started to turn the emplacement about. Less than a second later, it opened fire with the same munitions that had been deployed against her mother...

At

Unfortunately for the prisoner, 'close' in this case was a relative term. While not exactly large in planetary terms, the patch of Khelaris Patches had acquired wasn't exactly small either. The supervolcano had that 'super' in its name for a reason, and the area around it was, for all intents and purposes, the Khelari homeworld for a very decent amount of kilometers. No grasses grew here. Grasses couldn't survive on a world this molten, or toxic, and definitely not both, though they had been found growing in 3.7 g before.

In other words, the animal the prisoner had chosen came from another patch - and unless his modifications allowed it to survive the gravity, pressure, and normally deadly atmospheric composition (not to mention the severe of oxygen), it'd be dead long before it got truly near the supervolcano. If of course they sufficed, the only real obstacle would be the lava rivers, which most of the natives could swim through without much trouble, so Graxus' mutations would probably be able to compensate.

The obstacle for Negative Rise, however, was a little more daunting. The expanse of lava before him was that of a small ocean. True, the 'stilt city' took up a good percentage of the 'sea', but considering New York City could've fit inside the Yellowstone caldera more than five times over, and this place was a little bigger, the sheer scale of all this made some trouble in and of itself. Of course, if the demon had the equivalent of a zoom lens, he may just have been able to make out the four-limbed forms moving near those sparks of orange light he'd seen earlier. If his ability to sense souls returned soon, he'd quickly be able to tell those didn't have any. They were machines.

The scaleless reptilian down by the 'shore' of the lava expanse, however, was most certainly not. And he was hungry. Thus he was hunting. Well, preparing to at least. The sharpness of the spear (or was it a javelin) he held in his hands was getting to about where he wanted it to be, but he dipped it into the bubbling rock once more and gave it a few more strokes of the file stone just for good measure. Then he stood tall and smiled, satisfied at his work, not to mention eagerly anticipating the delicious taste of what he had in mind for dinner...
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Gre'shil Plains

"Nope." Akat answered the female dryly upon stopping, her scent similar enough to Scar's for her to know who she was talking about, "But you're in bad shape. If you fight with me, I will kill you. So I'll give you a chance to back down from your challenge. In fact, someone's already challenged me today, and I really want to tear a limb or two off him, so I'll extend that offer to your whole bunch over there: leave now, leave the funny-looking pink people alone, or so help me I'll take your challenge in their place..."
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Elven Forest

The sound of a gunshot was not unfamiliar to Jade. In fact, it was the one sound he'd never forget. A gripping cold clutched his chest as the memory of the that had killed him flashed through his mind. The chill of that metal piercing the hide of his back and rending his flesh, tearing meat, organs, and the very life form his body, the soulless cold he'd felt then and for so long after...

No!

The Drokar bared his teeth in a snarl. No! He would not succumb to that again! Grabbing Bisys gently by a hand, then Durlan forcefully about his waist (along with giving him a glare that decidedly stated that no, he did not get a say in the matter), he pushed past the memory and followed the others at speed, arriving just after the tenders.

"Oh c'mon, like you don't already know." he growled at their naivete as he approached the Lady, Duslan still struggling under his arm, "Burlap here's only been threatening her ever since he showed up, and the second she doesn't feel like putting up with his bull anymore, someone mysteriously shoots her? Yeah, that's a Scooby Doo for sure. Honestly."

He then turned to Bisys, "Can you get the bullet out of her? And can you stay with her to make sure she's okay? I remember you were able to be far from me back when I inadvertently wished for pizza. Can you do that again - um, the far I mean, not get pizza - or do you have to stay near me at all times to be okay...?"
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'Twin City'

Oddly enough, Ildela's decision did have a consequence that wasn't her getting shot at. Namely, nothing. While there were a great many machines that could be considered autonomous mobile drones operating in the expanse of the 'city', the place wasn't exactly dense with them due to its sheer size. Humans tended to like imagining the concept of a 'machine city' as something that looked a lot like a human city, only the skyscrapers were connected by giant pipes and cables, and there were oodles of robots of all shapes and sizes running around everywhere.

The reality however, at least in this case, was radically different.

There were tall buildings, yes, But they were mostly abandoned. There were giant pipes and cables. But those were designed into the giant 'plate' that supported everything here. There were also oodles of robots. But they sat in their hangars and storage stations on standby, waiting for a signal to tell them that their services were required somewhere - just like the maintenance 'bot that was presently on its way to Ildela's location had been.

Indeed, nearly all of the activity here was in the form of signals, of energy, being routed here, there, and everywhere at ludicrous speeds (for a human, at least). The place was for all intents and purposes very much like a gargantuan desktop computer that someone had left running on the last program executed. Now, this didn't mean Ildela was safe. Once the machine tasked with repairing her found out the supposed defective machine it had been dispatched to was organic, it would try to kill her and all hell would break loose. Until then however, she wasn't in much danger unless she got within the sensor range of a turret...

((Slow down there, Ky - we're not all fast posters, remember? ))

At

With his great speed, it wasn't long before Negative Rise reached the transition zone to the patch of Khelaris. Not that it was likely to stop the demon, him being a demon after all, but even he would probably note that the closer he got to the supervolcano's massive caldera, the hotter, and seemingly thinner, the air seemed to get. Well, not so much seemed, but the term did apply for the reason that to be accurate, eventually it wasn't air anymore.

Instead, the atmosphere in the transition zone slowly changed to the composition of its other side: a toxic, corrosive concoction of vile, sulphurous fumes with an average temperature of two hundred degrees Celsius and little more than one percent of the oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere. To complicate matters further, the local gravity hovered at around 3.7 times that of Earth, causing a steep increase in atmospheric pressure in tandem with the added weight. It was a truly hellish environment, but to a demon perhaps one he'd revel in just as much as its inhabitants.

And those were most plentiful.

The towering rhino-like beasts the Gre'shil hunters spoke of far to the south roamed in impressive herds here, stamping slowly across the gargantuan slabs of slate and shale that almost seemed to float upon an ocean of magma that lay just beneath the surface, appearing on the surface in the form of lakes and rivers of lava between the slabs. This was an optical illusion of course, for though pervaded by molten rock, the crust wasn't quite that thin. The cragged mountains and spiked rock formations that jutted into the sky (sometimes rather high) made that clear enough. Still, it all looked pretty unstable.

But stable or not, that didn't seem to bother the sharp, tree-like spires of half-transparent, half-opaque whitish crystal that gnarled their way up from the ash-covered ground all over the place - not quite densely enough to form what would be called a forest, but still with good frequency - nor the 'worms' that looked to be made of lava jumping to and fro in the rivers and lakes thereof. There were numerous other forms of life about of course, but these would've been the most noticeable when traveling at great speed. But big or small, they had all adapted to here, a whole ecosystem living and thriving in an environment that most present-day human 'scientists' would declare hostile and unable to support life.

This was of course nonsense, as not only was there life, but intelligence as well...well, if one chose to call them intelligent. Right now, the scaleless, deep-green-skinned, quasi-reptilian beings that had gathered at the shore of a lava lake not far from the travel path of Negative Rise didn't look to be doing anything particularly smart. Or at all, for that matter. They just lay there on large slabs of somewhat smooth rocks (or were they glass? It was hard to tell), 'sunning' themselves in the sparse few rays of true light that fell through the dark clouds of brackish ash that nearly blotted out the sky all over here, creating an eerie sort of perpetual twilight.

Indeed, to the average human, the pack of Khelari probably didn't even look sentient. They carried no visible technology, not even spears or tools of bone as Earth's stone-age peoples had, wore not a shred of clothing, and weren't expressing any sort of culture, such as in the way of making music or the like. All they did was lie there (well, a few of them were eating the bones of something, but that was about the total extent of motion in the group), and be green. This in and if itself was notable in a landscape dominated by grays and reds, however. If nature gave a creature a color that stuck it out of the background, it was usually for a reason. It was either poisonous, a mimic, or something a lot more dangerous.

But though this pack bore no signs of civilization, the supervolcano certainly did. In its mile-wide caldera of bubbling, churning lava grew a crystal tree of immense proportion. Not only that, it both supported and was supported by what would've best been called a techno-dystopia that faintly resembled Grandville. True, the building style was pretty alien, curves just as plentiful as corners, and the place wasn't visible fortified, but there was no denying that those towers, domes, cubes, platforms, and whatever else hugged the oversized 'branches' of that tree was at least mostly made of metal. Blacks, oranges, and silver-grays gleamed in the light from the lava sea below, and the titanic pillars (or were they pipes) that reached down into the molten rock were without a doubt industrially manufactured. Indeed, though they were hard to see from the caldera's rim, small sparks of orange light here and there unquestionably showed the presence of energy and activity...
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Eleven Forest

'Who-what?" Jade claimed in surprise at Paxtera's reappearance, turning around toward her so quickly that he outright fell over. Of course, having been in his knees and with wings stretched out and up to catch the air with the expected first beat had a good bit to do with placing the Dragon on his rear.

"Oh no." he spoke tonelessly as he saw Bisys, up and off the ground in a snap of fingers, and rushed toward her. His arms reached for the metaloid satyr even as his wide eyes still sought Paxtera's with concern, "Oh no. Oh no no no. Is she going to be okay? What happened...?"
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Cliffside Outpost

"Not for me." Akat retorted to the elf in a displeased tone, though it was audibly not directed at the man, but rather that the gathered Gre'shil, "Artificial eye does come in useful every now and then. Still too many to count, though."

It was true. Even in the dense, oxygen-rich local atmosphere, which usually made Khelari nearsighted, Akat's replacement eye easily compensated and zoomed her vision all the way over to the gathering. Lots of sticks, some burning, some apparently sharpened. Didn't look like much of a threat.

"I'll be back soon." she told the elven guard dryly, then started to climb down the cliff in a manner somewhere between a Siberian tiger and a mountain goat. The rock had plenty of hold for her claws, and as a result, it didn't take her long to get down. Once there, she started walking. Just walking. Toward the Gre'shil.

And she did not look happy...

Akat grinned at Lady Aineruda's question of the tender. She'd been about to ask much the same, recalling from earlier the elves' explanation of their relation to the Heart tree and the state thereof. The talk of sacrifices won the bid for her primary attention though, as the idea of 'sacrificing someone' wasn't something the Khelari understood, and she wanted to know what it meant. Well, until Durlan and the guard appeared, that was. Then her toothy smile disappeared.

"Gre'shil." she repeated the word to herself and looked to Aineruda, "Those are the scaly people that like me, right? Okay. I'll go handle them. And you, the whistler - Durlap? You know, I don't care - you stay right here and get ready for a fight, because when I get back, I'm going to give you the beating of a lifetime."

With that, she turned to the elf who'd brought the news, "Take me there please."

"Ouch." Jade remarked with a frown of distanced concern while he watched the Khelari depart, following the elven guard. He to Durlan, and it became a smirk, "I think she took that as a challenge. I'd help you, but...heh, I'm just Outsider Pollution. Good luck. From what I've seen, you'll need it."

He then turned to address the rest of the group, Kethara in particular, seeing her eying her watch, "I'm going to go after those drums. With any luck, I can get the humans away before any machines show up. I'd sure be glad for help if I don't, though. If your mother gets back before then, please tell her."

With that, the young Dragon spread his wings and looked for a clear enough spot to take to the sky. He knew he wasn't the fastest flier, but it didn't sound that far away, and with Bisys and Akat tied up in their own business right now, he figured it was likely still the fastest way there...
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Ildela got a response right away. Almost instantly, to be accurate. Not something unexpected considering the time scale of the machines with which she attempted to communicate was on the order of nano- and picoseconds. Within literally the same second she'd sent her transmission, she received no less than about five thousand responses, all within such short fractions of a second behind one another that they appeared to have come at the same time.

BATCH NOT RECOGNIZED. RE-SEND.

Apparently, something like a greeting wasn't in the machines' 'vocabulary' - or at least not in the programming of those currently in operation. But while the flood of requests for the data to be resent was the initial response, it certainly wasn't the only one. Each machine Ildela had contacted sent the request three times, then forwarded what it perceived as the presence of a non-responsive element to the closest maintenance unit. While this didn't put all of them in motion, since they could communicate with one another after all, it did get the one closest to her on her tail, or more accurately, the location from which she'd sent the transmission. If she simply moved away from there, there was little chance the large, somewhat spider-like repair 'bot would ever find her...