DeviousMe

Brushstalker found the pried-open crates to contain...well, whatever they contained. Just not what he was looking for. After all, it was somewhat illogical for something like that to be just sitting around, accessible to the general public, even if said public didn't generally come down here - other than picking up and dropping off their property, of course.

The large, armored cargo door at the other end of the bay, however, certainly looked promising.

And tough. The thing had to be at least half a meter thick, and manufactured of the best steels money could buy. Combined with a sophisticated electronic locking mechanism that demanded both a magnetic card as well as a numeric access code, utilizing about the same system as a bank's ATM...

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

"Ah, much better." Hotaka let out a relieved breath as he placed the amulet about his neck. Acid mustered the thing curiously in response. It certainly didn't seem very special.

"So..." he pointed at the small circle of various ornately interwoven metals, causing a smirk to appear on the towering man's face as he began to explain.

"Simple, really. Remember how you told me about doing magic without doing magic?"

The reptilian nodded.

"Well, I took your advice to heart. It wasn't easy, mind you - you make it look deceptively effortless, believe you me. There was precious little reference material, so I had to go through quite a bit of trial and error, not to mention a ton of practice, but eventually I got the hang of it. True, I still can't go for anything very large, but a simple seeming is definitely within my power."

"So you switched..." Acid smiled as the realization dawned on him, "And you're using yourself as the power source."

"Correct." Hotaka's smirk grew even broader for a moment, but just as quickly returned to a fairly serious expression, "Sadly, that means I have to focus on it constantly. Oh, it's not much of a strain, but..."

He patted the flat of his hand against his head's side several times, "...whatever decided to go and poke me back there is making it very difficult to concentrate on anything, even that small."

"Hence the amulet. Alternate power source. Or does it actually contain the spell?"

Hotaka shook his head, "Whole thing. I haven't figured out how to integrate yet. So - you're not noticing anything odd at all, are you?"

"Not a thing." the Khelari shrugged, "I guess I'm just around the brothers so much that I automatically block stuff like this out already."

"Hm." Hotaka tipped his head to the side for a moment, considering this, then remarked, "Oh, that reminds me: you were right. We were being followed. I guess being paranoid can come in handy at times."

"How...?"

"The shadows know their master." the robed man merely chuckled, "And they tell me anything I want to know..."

The Spy

Boiling. Boiling over. Yes, that about came closest to her current mood as she once more beheld the unmistakable Rikti architecture of the Jade Moon installation. She turned to the portal that had brought her here, her scowl only deepening as it brought memories of her noticeably forced exodus. But as the fingers of her left hand tightened against one another, they met a familiar resistance. The scowl became a smile as she opened her hand and yet again she looked intently upon the golden watch that now lay in her palm.

It hadn't been there when she'd left. But now it was, a memento of...no. She could think about that later. Right now, she had to find out just where she was and how long she had been gone - and if at all possible, kick the one responsible for her removal in the rear with such vehemence that there'd be no sitting for a week. Who had it been, anyway? Or hell, what? It wasn't as if she'd gotten a good look; or even a look for that matter. All she remembered was that she'd detached from the scouting team for just a few minutes when she'd perceived something odd in the corner of her eye. Her robotic entourage in tow, she'd figured such a short excursion couldn't be that much of a hazard.

Yeah...right. Apparently, someone had it in for her then. Not only had she run into a gaggle of Jaegers, but in the commotion someone had brandished the audacity to sneak up on her and shove her into one of the Rikti portals that had supposedly connected this facility with others before Nemesis had stirred up trouble. Oh, whoever or whatever had done that would be getting skinned once she found out. Just because she was undercover didn't mean she couldn't be just as nasty as some of those Arachnos goons she'd been assigned to surveil. They knew it, villains knew it, and soon that jackass would as well: no one messed with her and got away with it. Nobody crossed her.

Penny Arcade.

Of course, first she had to find this individual...or robot, or spirit, or whatever - and as she thought more and more about it, this seemed much easier said than done.

Fine...back to the basics then.

Guiding her steps down the corridor of alien design, she set course toward where she remembered Vanguard having set up their ops center. It took a few minutes (and one or two about-faces), but she nevertheless found her way there again, and by the look of it, everyone was still here. More than everyone, in fact. There were quite a few more, the most notable being an armored skeleton, a fanged woman with a tail, some sort of bronze-scaled dragonman, and someone that might be best described as a...an inhuman Bedouin?

Before she could complete that thought, she suddenly found something clamped to her leg without warning, instinctively tensing up as she beheld what had just attached itself to her like that.

"Yay, Penny!" Mini Bot beamed happily, giving her a battle drone version of a hug, "You're back!"

A stone fell from her heart as she let out a sigh of relief, the little mechanoid's visage (though robotic and unchanging) wearing the greatest figurative grin she'd ever laid eyes upon, and before she could even think to say anything, a torrential squall of questions roared from Mini Bot's speaker system concerning everything and nothing, both about her absence and what had been happening in the meantime.

Though it took some effort, Penny eventually managed to piece together that not much time at all had passed here, and that this 'Acid' character had turned out to be a giant rat - well, against his will, apparently - whom everyone was after now, lest the Lady Grey perish from the loss of the elixir that kept her body from rejecting the years taken to keep herself going. At first, she couldn't believe what she'd just heard, but as she approached the woman herself with it, the confirmation came candidly and without a doubt.

Truth be told, the shock didn't last too long - and it certainly explained how Vanguard had returned from a pile of ashes to a global power in such short order. Moreover, this Acid guy had been pretty clever about it, letting them do the work while he sat in the background and dispensed advice here and there, and to such an extent that Vanguard's uppermost echelon had been ready to trust him with their very lives.

"Indeed, it is with a heavy heart We set this trap into motion." the Lady Grey concluded her account of the plan, sweeping over everyone with an encompassing gesture of her hand, "We do hope Toy Dispenser will keep right."

"Not to worry." the mechanical mastermind nodded in their direction, his blank slate of a face plate almost seeming to...waggle eyebrows?..."We'll get him. That Sage guy seems to know a good deal too, so between him and me, I think we know enough about the guy to predict his movements."

"I sure hope so." Penny looked to the Lady Grey once more as she stepped beside Toy to aid him where she could, "How long?"

"Four hours, she said, give or take." was the mechanoid's grim answer...

Masquerade didn't get an answer from Acid - that guy had bolted. Seriously, he wasn't going to stick around if he had another choice, and the door was a pretty decent one.

He took off down the hallway like a freaking bullet, shooting a quick, "Hi. Teleporter. Bye." to 'Mr. Dune' with a motion to the open door, and then attempted to make good on what he'd told David...

"Whoa..." Hotaka wobbled for a moment before shaking his head to try and clear the sudden feeling of odd that had befallen him, whipping his skull about once in a surprisingly animalistic manner.

"You okay?" Acid wanted to know, but the very next moment had his question answered as he pointed at the ripples on the towering man's bare lower arm, "Um, dude - your skin's melting."

"I can see that." the robed man replied somewhat nervously, rotating his hands as he seemed to study them closely, the almost literally crawling skin perturbing him greatly, "Not good. Definitely not good. Uhhh...can you still teleport?"

"Yeah, why?" the reptilian cocked his head to the side, not even noticing the mental resonance in the air, "What's going on?"

"Explain later. Right now, I need you to jump us to my cabin. I need my amulet."

"Right." Acid nodded, not hesitating to grab the man's hand, and the two vanished in the characteristic pop of a vacuum's collapse...

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

Several men dressed as ship employees would probably feel the hair in the back of their necks standing on end right about now. The feeling of being watched, of another presence in the room, was simply beyond denial. Humans may have been at war with their instincts for the past few millennia, but this time said instincts came through and overpowered the standard senses.

Indeed, they were quite right. They were not alone. If their skills of observation had been honed thoroughly enough, they'd no doubt notice that one of the larger shadows in the area had grown just a little bit darker.

There it lurked...

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

"Eh?" was the only thing Henteko uttered as he developed what felt like a sudden itch in his ear, a moment later wiggling a finger around the lobe in an attempt to make whatever had caused it go away.

Fat chance.

"Weird." he shrugged, not thinking much more of it. Most likely, that drink had gotten to him...somehow. A short time spent meditating should clear that up, he figured, and began heading back to his cabin...

((Aye, Acid has somewhat of a 'condition' - I suppose one could call it a most severe case of inverse multiple personality disorder. Oh, and Sovs, do you mind if we synch up the timelines by saying it took you-know-who about the amount of time of the fight so far to get to the room? As in that they arrive just a few seconds after David and Odette escape?))

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

"Oh, what're ya gonna do?" grumblingly passed through Acid's toothy smirk to David, "Bleed on me? And in case you haven't noticed, neither am I."

A grunt escaped him as the surface of the detention field warped and twisted under excessive strain, the few remaining lamps in the room flickering ominously, giving just about anyone watching a good idea just where the reptilian had gotten the energy for the barrier.

Five seconds ago, he'd given the two five seconds to scram. Strangely enough, the field yet stood. Indeed, he'd done as usual and given them the very worst-case scenario, assuming all cards against him. The local area contained a good bit more energy than just what resided in the power lines, which of course was a card for him that he hadn't mentioned earlier because said energy was a decent bit more difficult to tap.

"Look, I'll be right behind you." David heard the Khelari speak as a strong, whiplike tail curled about him to dump the man in Odette's arms, "Now git."

Three seconds later, the detention field gave way under the strain. Hopefully, the two were long gone by then thanks to the promised speed boost. Not that Acid had nothing up his proverbial sleeve, but keeping that field up had definitely prevented him from going anywhere...

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

As the two reached the lower deck that had been their destination, Hotaka and the Khelari stopped at the door that led from the stairwell, becoming as silent as they possibly could.

They'd noticed the acoustic discrepancy at roughly the same time, the towering Oriental having tapped Acid's shoulder to get his attention to it during their descent.

Once the reptilian had gotten wind of the sound, his mind had of course gone twitchy. Both now suspected the nearest logical deduction of his characteristic paranoia: that someone else was on the stairwell somewhere close, and that this person had used their footfalls to mask his or her own.

Well, somewhat. Truth be told, Hotaka believed that someone was probably on the stairwell, but he wasn't immediately convinced that said someone actually followed them, and even if that said someone was good enough to time footsteps like this.

So they listened...

"I do, but the logic behind it makes my head hurt." Henteko admitted as Jess his the floor beside...

Wait a minute. Had he even moved? Logically, he would've had to, but for some reason or another, he didn't seem to have given so much as the twitch of a toe. Indeed, he'd very much been right in the amazonian blonde's line of fire, and yet she'd smacked into the floor beside the man instead. Was there some truth to what he'd said earlier?

One way or another, something didn't sit right about this guy - and yet he was, honest and forth truly, through and through human.

"Well then." he remarked dryly, shrugging to Alyssa, "Wanna go up on deck and see if there's anyone around to talk to without picking a fight...?"

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

"Ryuu Hotaka." the towering Oriental took the word, his soft-sleeved arms folded in upon one another as he performed a curt bow with a most benevolent smile, "Teacher of various styles of the martial arts."

He stood straight once more, though he still chose to hide his eyes beneath the large hat of bamboo, "And you may rest assured that so long as your mis-"

"He won't be." Acid hastily stepped in front of his much taller companion, which created a somewhat comical picture as he turned his head toward his rear a bit, "Didn't you have a mysterious crate to show me?"

"Ah, yes." Hotaka's visage lit up, having seemingly forgotten about the people in the elevator - at least for a moment, until he turned to the left with an indifferent visage, "Come. We shall take the stairs..."

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

"Here." Odette perceived a calm, dry voice form the ceiling. A moment later, Acid's clawed feet struck ground beside her, a sly, toothy smirk on the now-crouching reptilian's scaleless lips, "You were saying something about a speed boost?"

He held an arm outstretched toward Masquerade, indeed sensing him quite clearly. Even bodies that produced no heat of their own weren't environmentally isotropic.

"Don't worry, I've got him." the Khelari stated assuredly, referring to the detention field he'd snapped around the wildly slashing man. Since Masquerade had been busy tearing apart a large amount of room for the last several seconds, there wasn't any way he could've avoided it.

After all, it would've been senseless of Acid to stand there and do nothing. After no more material had impacted the shield he'd spanned across the short hallway, he'd dropped it and jumped to the ceiling, clinging to it with his claws following the teleportation. Unfortunately, though his method of the jump allowed him to do so in zero time, he still needed a little bit to reorient himself in order to properly target the detention field.

But since Masquerade had been slashing wildly during this time, he'd thankfully given the reptilian said little bit. The detention field once more operated in zero time, locking its prey down not from one instant to another, but in the very same snap of time.

The man was caught; this was a fact. The detention field's fabric extended far above space-time, meaning even a teleportation wouldn't get him out. Simply put, there was no way under, over, or around it.

Sadly, like any sort of energy field, there was an obvious (if somewhat difficult) way through it.

"Go." Acid told them calmly, not letting his gaze off the still-slashing Masquerade, "Got about five more seconds before he busts out of that - less if he decides to make an HHe bomb appear..."

"Nono, that's fine, I'm perfectly alright with that." Acid rapidly answered as his head snapped back to 'Mr. Dune', making an attempt to smile innocently, glancing sideways at Hotaka for a moment, murmuring to him, "Means nothing. Trust me, Sam here could get a rocket launcher into Air Force One."

Indeed, the reptilian was glad as could be. His shorts and open shirt clearly didn't hold any weaponry, and 'Mr. Dune' most likely had no trouble seeing he'd have a decided advantage here.

"Wait..." a perplexed look entered Acid's eyes, the reptilian pointing a clawed finger at 'Mr. Dune', and then thumbing in the direction of the mental scream he'd perceived, "So if you're not here to kill me...did one of your guys bring a psi-bomb or something...?"

"No." Henteko smiled generously to Jess, "But in your present state, I doubt you'd pay attention long enough for a clarification, so I won't bother."

"Could be." he told Alyssa, figuring she was still together enough to make sense of things, "I'm not really clear on how the whole thing works. All I know is that it does. So...if she passes out, what're we gonna do with her...?"

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

((Hope I read this dark matter stuff right. Also Spade - go post. Move Whit. ))

Fat chance. If Masquerade had bones, he might've well broken his fingers against the suddenly appeared barrier between Odette and himself, a convex field of pale-blue energy flaring up to let his powerful slash crash against an unmoving outpouring of resistance.

"Nice-" Acid started, but didn't get the chance to finish his one-liner as he felt a wave of something come rushing at him. He couldn't see it, but it felt dense, decidedly disturbing, and moved pretty damn fast.

Unfortunately, not fast enough.

Another barrier flared into being, this one stretched clear across the hallway from the door, keeping the gunk from reaching its target. Good thing he'd thought ahead...although he'd expected the guy to throw something different, actually. Like a trumpet.

In any case, by now his shoddy memory had been kicked enough to notice that he'd seen David and Odette earlier, and that she'd been trying to kill him during that time.

Aw, how sweet. So I guess that's her boss...ooh, he don't look happy. Heh, guess I wouldn't be either if my hitwoman fell in love with her target.

From the bit he'd gotten during these past few moments, this was all of course a perfectly logical conclusion, which meant that chances weren't good that Odette was stronger then Masquerade. After all, so-called villain groups tended to work with the higher-ups being in some way stronger then their subordinates. Not often was this mold broken, at least on Terra.

Oh yes, he could still very much see them - well, not visually, since they'd become invisible and all that, but he wasn't a decent nocturnal hunter for nothing. Body heat tended to be a dead giveaway, and when one's next meal at times depended on your ability to track it across a 'geologically unstable area', one tended to get pretty good at differentiating pretty minute variations.

Sadly, that wouldn't help very much at all as he heard the words, "Explosion Strike."

Oh, bloody hell...

"Ah, I see." Henteko nodded with understanding, smiling as he concluded, "I guess bragging rights are desirable every now and then. As for him...no, can't say I did. Must've been some other person."

While this was only a half-truth, the man felt no qualms whatsoever in it passing his lips, laxly going on to explain to Alyssa, "Oh, and because he's not real. Well, not 'real' real. It's kinda complicated. I would say he's an illusion, but if he is, he's jumped out of someone else's mind and into the physical world. Kind of like...a demon, I suppose: a being brought to life by a large enough amount of belief."

At this point, he didn't really care much about the antics of Jess or what she might now. It had nothing to do with his job, and all her commotion about the topics of nudity and sex was just strange American attitude as far as he was concerned - another reason he enjoyed Japan so much. Many people there just regarded talking about these things openly as perfectly acceptable...

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

"What the...?" a certain bipedal, scaleless reptilian remarked as he entered a certain luxury suite from which a whole lot of ruckus had come.

Needless to say, Acid was quite perplexed standing just past the doorway there, trying to make sense of the situation. People fighting, this was clear from the blast of energy that had just done whatever. At least one of them being a hero, this was clear too, as they had the annoying tendency to just keep attacking you as if everything was still normal no matter how seriously they'd been hurt just moments before.

Rule 29: a sucking chest wound is nature's way of telling you to slow down.

Personally, Acid wasn't sure just how they did it - when someone gouged a chunk out of him, he sure as hell suffered from it. One of these days, he'd have to devote some time to figuring it out. It'd sure come in handy at times.

Right now, however, he surmised this was just a tad more important.

"What'n blue blazes are yalls kickin' the tar outta each other for?!" he exclaimed with horizontal, open hands, hoping to stop the whole thing dead in its tracks...

"Ah, finally a welcome worthy of one such as myself." the skinless skull of the ostensibly ubiquitous Archlich remarked as he stepped from the churning energies of Vanguard's advent portal with what could very well have been a smile most smug...had the undead sorcerer possessed lips, that was. Being purely skeletal remains, however, Archlich's dark, otherworldly tone came across naught but bare bones bleached by time, "Althoug... I must admit, it is a trifle forceful, would you not agree?"

The inverse-deltoid formation of Vanguard Wizards and Adepts he so eloquently addressed looked about hesitantly, placing their staves upon the floor once more as word of Archlich's earlier presence made the round.

"Heh, I could take 'em." the woman who emerged from behind the undead man smiled broadly as she seductively leaned on his bony frame, her downright fang-like canines now giving her previously mischievous smirk a truly dastardly aura. Rosalind was still charged and in her element from the battle against the golem, mostly due to it having put her in some sort of time field that hadn't let her participate in the brawl nearly enough for her to work off the energy she'd put together in anticipation. She glanced at the collection of arcanists, shooting them an even more menacing grin, "Don't soil your pants, boys and gals, I'm just having some fun with ya."

"Your idea of fun is going to get us killed one of these days." grumbled the creature that had emerged from the portal behind the were-human: Balsk, resident bronze-scaled draconian and current beat cop of the Soul Police Chapter, "Or at least seriously maimed. You might be able to regenerate, but I for one am very attached to my remaining limbs, thank you very much."

"You just need to mellow out." the almost perpetually cool and collected Thermoplast remarked in his distinctive tone, resembling more or less a cross of lawyer and surfer bum, "Take a breath. Let it out. Roll with it. I trust her, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah." the wayward traveler rolled his slitted eyes, inhaling as suggested to calm down a bit. His heart still raced from the fight, and he had to admit the lungful of air did him good. A roll to loosen his shoulders accompanied the exhale, as well as a slight flex of the large pair of wings upon his back, jostling the extra-long broadsword sheathed at his side. It and the belt that held the sheath around his waist seemed to be the only stitch of clothing that Balsk wore. Considering his reptilian nature, he didn't much feel the need for clothing - well, that and the issue he'd run into with getting a tail into pants. That Balsk wished to avoid best as he could, even if the limb was partially cybernetic.

Rosie only smiled toothily as he stepped away from Archlich and led the four into the Vanguard command chamber. She knew Balsk was just trying to look out for them, and reminded herself to do something nice for the lost crossworld voyager later. For now, however, she had a conversation to strike up with the approaching Lady Grey, not to mention the members of Delta Team.

The account concerning the runaround in the last refuge of the Rikti gods didn't take particularly long. With a healthy amount of somewhat bored detachment, as well as a scowl or two from Archlich (who really didn't like this whole 'cooperation' thing; he hadn't to begin with, but Rosalind had somehow managed to get him on her side...just how, of that he still wasn't too sure), the were-human covered the events that had taken place there. Unfortunately, the guardian golem had been the high point of the outing, and it had revealed about as much regarding the fate of the Rikti gods as a regular-old piece of dead, silent, completely uninteresting rock.

Well, to most of them, anyway. She had a sneaking suspicion that Archlich had gotten just a bit more out of the encounter, but she'd wait until the skeletal arcanist judged the time to be right of his own accord.

Thus her manner remained comparatively laid-back as she recounted, placing special emphasis on how she hated to be denied the chance to sharpen her claws. But as soon as her turn to listen came around, the comfortable smile that graced her face abruptly vanished, Rosalind's eyes widening in horror as she heard the tale. Balsk quickly noticed the change in her demeanor, stepping beside her, and while Archlich seemed to not give a damn, even the normally untouched-by-all Thermoplast grew most intrigued at what they'd missed.

"That doesn't make any sense." Rosalind whispered with stricken tone, shaking her head in disbelief. Usually, she could hardly be called emotional - far from anything even remotely resembling thus - but this just struck her hard, "It just...I know Ace. He wouldn't do something like this. He just wouldn't!"

"My point exactly." Toy Dispenser reaffirmed his deductions, "He wouldn't...at least I hope so. That junk that got into him, though...well, it doesn't seem to have any reservations about it. That means we'll have to track him down and get it out of him. You know...I hate to admit it, but I kind of want the guy back too."

"I'll tear that crud out of him myself if I have to!" Rosalind declared with a forceful snarl that bared her fangs, her clawed fingers curling dangerously against one another. Before anyone could even respond, the rage in her eyes whipped the were-human about in a one-eighty, Rosalind barking out, "And what the hell do you want?!"

The figure she'd launched her ire at had only now stepped from the portal, and stood at a height slightly greater than two meters (perhaps two point two), clad entirely in an assembly of dull gray robes that left no clue to his actual features. A thick cloth in the style of a 'reaper' covered the lower half of his face, bulging outward as if some sort of truly maniacal dentist had just stopped working on the jaw beneath. The same cloth extended onto the head over his neck, coming down onto the stranger's forehead like a hijab.

The only visible clue to the new arrival's nature sat in the cloth's opening for the eyes: a pair of large, set-apart oculae that contained slitted pupils with irises of almost blood-toned crimson. They surveyed the scene about closely, as if scrutinizing every detail of every molecule within their grasp. A few strands of long hair in the same crimson hue hung at the edges of the gap, and the man's skin seemed to possess an orange or persimmon tint, as well as a decidedly strange texture. Details were hard to make out in the shadow cast by the thick bulges of head-covering wardrobe, but said skin surely wasn’t smooth. The figure was without doubt not human, and his unfamiliar scent now deeply irritated the were-human.

"Guess I came at a bad time." the figure seemed to look about sheepishly, turning his head to get the portal into the corner of his eye, "Hm...guess I can't come back later. I do apologize if I upset anyone. I didn't know..."

"Relax." Thermoplast took the word, placing a thick-gloved hand onto the robed figure's shoulder, a gentle smile in his tenor, "She's just a little edgy right now."

Rosalind, opting to find something else to focus her anger on, in response grumbled off with something to the extent of, "I'll give you edgy...haven't seen me edgy..."

Thermoplast merely allowed himself a hollow chuckle as he pulled his hand back beneath his wide cape, telling the figure, "Don't worry, it's not you. So who are we addressing anyway?"

"Call me Sage." the robed man answered amicably, the conversation soon returning to the matter at hand. Throughout, it seemed that Sage remained unperturbed by anything and everything, merely giving a silent nod every now and then in acknowledgement of this or that, and listening most intently as people filled him in while they returned to going over the isolation ward recordings for any clues they might have missed. Until Acid made a move, they figured it was best to wait until he sprung the trap.

However, this lack of defined, open reaction did raise a bit of suspicion from one around here: Balsk. Like Rosalind, this guy's presence just didn't rub him the right way. Strangely enough, it didn't really do so in anything that he could've called a bad way - just somehow...odd. Yes, that was the word: odd...

"In that case, you may wish to head over to the arena." Henteko advised Jess, "Some people are messing with an invincible ninja over there. Of course, they're not going to win, but they still try."

"Was what necessary?" he genuinely inquired of Alyssa, "Oh, the bow? Yes, actually. It is tradition. Tradition is good...well, at least so I am told."

The last words he'd said with a seeming sideways glance, the man truly a bit unsure of the merits of tradition. In his opinion, efficiency mattered most, and to his great dismay, Ryuu Sensei almost never saw it that way.

"And why would you want to meet a dragon?" he wanted to know as he sat down again, "Provided they exist in the first place. I know, Paragon City, but most of those are just humans with mutations."

Henteko began counting off his fingers as he tried to remember, "So far, I've heard of...shark people, eel people, wolf people, fox people, cat people, alligator people...or was it crocodile? I can never tell the two apart...bird people, snake people, and of course the lizard slash dragon kinds."

"I think there are too many chemical vats around there." he finished with a shrug, "But yes, I wouldn't want to. It would probably just try to eat me..."

The Lady Grey

"It appeared dear Randall would indeed keep correct. As we covered the recordings, the conclusion that the vile substance had twisted Mr. Zero to its own whim grew into ever-deepening firmness, soon leaving not a doubt in any of our minds. As the one we had believed unscathed had approached the stricken aspect of Mr. Zero, he had shot forth his fingers and grasped the wrist of the other before said version could react. Within moments, we saw the same horrid, sinister smile upon the faces of both, and as the first curled from the field stretcher with an ease that revealed his unconscious state had been but farce, the second already lent him a steadying hand."

"They spoke only briefly, regarding a plan to be acted upon, the nature of which we stood unable to determine at that time. However, a small number of key details proved sufficient for Toy Dispenser to bridge several gaps, concluding that this Mr. Zero now intended to somehow 'infect' the full number of his separate aspects, as well as the various beings with whom he traveled the stars. Suffice to say, this came to be a prognosis most grim."

"However, the logic of Toy Dispenser also allowed for a glimpse of light: he insisted upon the certainty that the aspect that had escaped us was but a robotic duplicate - highly sophisticated and lifelike, and perhaps true life upon itself, but not the original, biological body. He explained to us that said form seemed to be some manner of key to Mr. Zero, and though he found himself unable to comment on the nature of the relation, he stood convinced that if we could return 'Mr. Zero Number One' to his former state, he could continue the process from there - and as he made a point to distinctly assure, just that primary form still very much resided somewhere among us."

"Though the records showed him to have departed the isolation ward by means of teleportation unknown to Our person, no ship had departed the Jade Moon, and Toy Dispenser stated as fact that Mr. Zero held not the power to jump the whole distance to the planet. He would need a vessel - his own or another; this We felt did not matter - but he would require a craft without doubt."

"The order to secure all space-worthy craft we had since discovered raced through the divisions of Our Vanguard, and it undeniably seemed that we had locked the found ships down in time – one after another and in rapid succession, they all became accounted for, and Mr. Zero had been spotted near none; neither the interior nor in the surroundings. Mr. Grey of course brought to light the thought none of us had dared speak until this point. Unfortunately, in the same manner as Our person, he knew of no means to prevent Mr. Zero from acquiring a vessel we had not yet discovered."

"However, it came at just this time that a foreseen, yet... unexpected event took place. Foreseen in that it had been inevitable. Unexpected in that We had not anticipated it to come to pass so quickly...and within the course of only a few minutes, the whole of our situation changed in its entirety..."

"I meant metaphorically." Henteko remarked with a shifty glance to Alyssa, wondering if the drink had gotten to her as he picked up the glass brought for him, "As in will light a fire under your rear if you aren't doing everything correctly to the last minute detail."

As the glass neared his lips, he inhaled a quick whiff of the drink's aroma, then sipped a bit from the rim of the thing. The two women could see his eyes widen behind the sunglasses, eyebrows deftly rising for a second before he tipped the glass back and emptied the whole thing in one swig.

Lazily dropping the glass back into the bar from roughly a centimeter above the finely carved wood, a broad smile now graced his cheeks as he exclaimed, "Nice! This is way better than that junk the old coot makes me down! Nastiest garbage ever, I tell you."

"Oh right, how rude of me." he stood again and curled the fingers of his right hand about the fist his left had become, both held close to his chest as he performed a curt bow, "Kaze Henteko. A pleasure to meet you."

Across the bar, likely unnoticed by either of the women, a certain can-throwing shmuck collapsed with a muffled gargle, the imprint of a particular empty glass nicely red against the back of his head...

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

"Oh geez." Acid remarked through the side of his teeth as the familiar visage confronted him through the open elevator doors, his slitted pupils widening just a bit, "It's you. Uh-oh. You're going to shoot me, aren't you?"

The towering Hotaka's head turned perplexedly toward the Khelari, the bamboo coolie at an even steeper angle now, "What? Why would he shoot you? And with what? They don't allow guns through the metal...are you listening to me?"

Acid wasn't. Indeed, he seemed to have spaced out completely for a moment, his head quirked somewhat to the side and at the ceiling. However, said moment was decidedly only so, the reptilian wanting to know, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Hotaka inquired, now only more thoroughly perplexed...

"Now I've seen everything." Henteko remarked with befuddlement as he returned to the bar, slouchily slumping his rear onto the next-best stool, "Seriously though, what's with the arrogant-aggressive act then? There's gotta be a better way to find people you'd like to talk to."

"Or is that a mandate from your boss or something?" he wanted to know, eyeing the luminescent beverage suspiciously as the bartender set it down, "I mean, mine might be a real dragon, but even he doesn't make me just go out and pick fights with people..."

"Actually, I'm not." Henteko remarked with a sly smirk, having stopped and turned about just past the soft cone of light one of the overhead lamps let flow to caress the fine carpet of the floor, "Nope, just regular-old human here."

"Well, maybe not regular-old." a finger tapped his sunglasses, "Never much liked the light. But I digress. Go ahead, do please tell us who you're pretending to be."

Henteko may have been human, but he was no fool. He had good reason to suspect the amazonian blonde to be nothing more than a fabrication - and he was pretty good when it came to shadows and seemings. Slight of hand, one might say.

With his eyes (and the sunglasses; well, thermal optics, to be more precise) he gave the woman a scrutinizing once-over. Invulnerable or not, that punch should've elicited at least an exchange of momentum, and more often than not, what had just happened took place because the person one had punched wasn't even really there.

In other words, Henteko suspected the woman to be no more than an illusory decoy - and his glasses would either confirm or deny this...

[ QUOTE ]
"Don't you have anything better to do than sit here annoying me?"

[/ QUOTE ]
"I doubt it." chuckled a man's voice as its owner set a pair of large water jugs onto the bar before the blonde.

Kaze Henteko.

He stood of average height, clad in the general attire of the typical tourist, as evidenced by the sea-blue Hawaiian shirt dotted with palm leaves and lemon wedges. His white shorts and black sandals formed a mellow, yet somewhat noticeable contrast with the short-sleeved shirt, and the innocuous attire lent itself well to get a good eye at the lean man's build. Not that he was muscular by any definition of the word, but an observer would have been truly ignorant to take no notice of the utter lack of excess body mass on this guy.

"You can probably use these more than she," Henteko grinned sinisterly with a motion to the jugs, the mirrored sunglasses he still wore only accenting the mean-spirited smirk of teeth, "seeing how withered-up and dry you are. Yeah, I know. Age is a terrible thing."

He snickered again, giving her a gesture of goodbye, and then turned his steps toward the exit...

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

"But yeah, I'd say it all worked out." Acid concluded another anecdote in the process of swapping stories with the towering Hotaka, "I knew him well. He wouldn't have wanted to go out any differently, that's for sure."

"Oh my." the robed Oriental's tan hue had become just a little paler at the recount, "And Kendre...Kendr'as..."

"Yeah, he's okay." the reptilian affirmed with a smile, "And yeah, I've given up on his full name a while ago, so I recommend you do the same. It's not worth the brain strain."

"I shall heed that." Hotaka nodded as they reached the elevators again. Neither of them really knew what floor they'd ended up on, nor if there was anyone else around - it wasn't like they checked...or cared, for that matter...

"Very interesting." Acid remarked with a nod, several seconds after the battle below had dissolved once more. He turned to Hotaka, "Think it's got anything to do with that crate of yours?"

The towering man replied with but a shrug, adding a curt, "Do you?"

"Nah. But show it to me anyway, would ya?"

"Of course." Hotaka merely smiled, extending a hand to the hallway that led inside, "We walk?"

"We walk..."

((True, there was no conflict, but there are people who would've liked to participate in it. Ah well, don't worry about it - just consider that yalls two aren't the only ones on the boat next time, aiight? ))

"Roar Blue Dragon?" Acid remarked deridingly, performing the equivalent of raising an eyebrow at the scene. A sideways glance to Hotaka followed, the reptilian's toothy jaws muttering a faint yet distinct, "Uh-oh..."

"No no." the towering man calmly waved the notion off, "I'm fine. Really. I've...started to come to terms with it."

The Khelari nodded respectfully as he turned back to eye the pitched battle a few decks below. The veranda they watched from lay a few floors above, covered in nearly complete darkness. The stars of night above and a few deck lights below provided the only means of illumination with the veranda's own lights extinguished.

"Besides," Hotaka went on with a sinister chuckle, "it seems we're already much too late, and it would be oh so rude to interrupt after things get hectic enough, wouldn't it now? So how about we just sit back, relax, and let things run their course?"

Acid merely shrugged. Yeah, he didn't have much of a problem with that...

((Torrent, Spade, you two do realize you're running away with the thread and leaving the rest of us in the dust, right? It's getting pretty hard to keep up with this thing. ))

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

Now Acid stood even more puzzled than before. What was this guy, why did he feel half-baked, and who was this John Ballard he referred to?

"You have a...?" Hotaka began, absent-mindedly pointing a finger at the odd individual, but the Khelari's shrug preempted the completion of his question.

"Mmmaaybe." Acid drew out, eyes shifting to and fro as he cursed his shoddy memory once more. Seriously, with just three around, logic should've dictated that he remembered things extremely well right now. Unfortunately, as always when it came to the tenuous relationship between the reptilian and what made sense, things first came differently and second than one thought.

Before things could go on in that direction, however, the heads of both Hotaka and the Khelari jerked about to an upper corner of the cabin. Though the towering man's partially hidden visage made it hard to tell, Acid's predatory appearance gave the distinct expression that he'd caught scent of something - something he either didn't like, or found highly interesting...or both.

"Excuse us." Hotaka told White Masque as this curious character named John Ballard did not arrive within the next few moments.

"We'll get back to you on that." Acid finished the sentence, then wrapped his fingers about the robed man's hand to establish physical contact, and jumped without hesitation, the vacuoles their teleportation had left behind collapsing with the distinct clap of rushing air...

OOC:

Gah, how could you, Spade? You're brrrreaking my heart.

Anyway, this cake is great. So don't worry about it - you've inadvertently given me a catalyst to take things where I haven't been able to before. Turns out in the world of CoX, an alien is usually accepted very easily (especially now with Kheldians), whereas in the real world, Acid would probably have his personal pursuing religious zealots decrying him an abomination. Or something to the like. Doesn't need to necessarily involve religion, but usually does.

Hmmm...actually, that gives me some ideas. I'm going to have to get some pieces of me onto this and see what develops.

Oh, and before I forget: go post in Whitmoore already, Valor and I are waiting for you.

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

BIC:

Hotaka reeled back from the elevator's selector panel as White Masque jammed his hand into the doors, the sudden shock of his appearance confusing him greatly. Acid seemed to take his appearance a little better, not having moved from leaning against the cabin's back wall. Still, his eyes grew quite wide for a moment as well.

"You know, you could've just waited for the next one." the reptilian remarked, quite taken aback as the elevator doors now rolled open again, "You gonna be okay...?"

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

Henteko of course couldn't help but overhear Shioh's question, snickering at this table as he watched the fight with one measure of his attention, and listened to this most interesting conversation with another...

((Ope, didn't know he wears regular clothes on the job, my bad. ))

Acid had set to speak when the man hurriedly conveyed he wanted to be on his way. Now his blood nearly boiled. After copiously ignoring the reptilian's presence at the Blackjack table with Gabriella and Odette, indeed treating his desire to join their game as nothing more than a desire so reviled that he'd kept ostentatiously regarding his person as a non-factor, this guy had the gall, the audacity to pretend he didn't know what Acid spoke of.

No, not pretend. This was worse. The reptilian couldn't believe this human's abhorrent behavior, relinquishing Acid's being to a status so low that he didn't even carry enough worth to be entitled to an apology. Instead, he just carried on the facade.

"You know what?" the reptilian's eyes narrowed, the tip of his tail tapping irritably against the carpet as he growled at David, "Forget it. Scum like you isn't worth my time."

With that, he stepped into the elevator cabin that had just arrived, not wanting to bother another moment with a creature so respectless as this human.

Hotaka, however, felt differently.

"You really are just a tremendous jerk." the towering man huffed quietly at Talisman, "You've no decency at all, have you? All he wanted was to play cards with you and your female company - and you toss him aside like garbage, not even bothering to acknowledge his presence, despite him greeting you with such amiable a manner."

"And now, you dare speak to him as if he lacked even the most basic of cognitive functions." Hotaka went on, his own tone now nearly a growl, "As if he is incapable of remembering your vile behavior. Well, dear Sir, I hope you change your ways with haste, for one day soon you may well encounter one that carries not the great amount of patience and forgiveness of my companion. Good night to you."

With that, the towering man stepped into the elevator as well, sternly pressing a finger against the 'door close' button...

As David headed for the elevators, his super hearing may well have caught the conversation that came from down the hall.

"And you don't know what's in it?" Acid queried incredulously, shaking his head somewhat, the towering man and he waiting for an elevator cabin to arrive, "As in: at all?"

"No." was once more Hotaka's calm retort, "We do not."

"Okay, let me get this straight." the reptilian's had performed a gesture of summation, "You're on a cruise ship. There's a big box. It's got armor. No one knows about it; supposedly. Am I about right there?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm just not getting this. Why in the galaxy would you...?" Acid's questioning ceased as he spotted David coming toward the elevators, the reptilian's face growing a tad sour as he crossed his arms. It was clear his attention was now on the club-attired Talisman, "Well, well, if it isn't the guy from the Humans Only Club. Lose your hang-ons already...?"

OOC:

That you did, CM. That you did.

As for locations, here's everyone as far as I can tell:

Casino upstairs, sitting at Blackjack table: Odette, Gabriella, David.
Casino upstairs, walking away from Blackjack table: Acid, Hotaka:
Casino downstairs, spectator lounge: Harry, Henteko, Miranda, Orchid, Shioh.
Casino downstairs, arena floor: Famine, Gunner, Grey Masque, Silk, Danny.
Unspecified stairwell: John Ballard, White Masque
Unspecified cargo hold: Jake.
Certain 1st class suite: [CLASSIFIED]
Luau: 'the cat'.
Limbo: Prodigy, 'Mr. Dune', assorted goons., Black Masque.

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

BIC:

"Either way, just forget about them." Hotaka shook acid comradely, "Wasn't there a box you wanted to see?"

"Yes." the toothy smile returned to Acid's face, "As a matter of fact, I do seem to recall there being one. Now?"

"Now." the towering man gave a nod, leading the two out of the casino and toward the paths that led into the lower decks...

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

Henteko couldn't help but scratch his head at the mayhem. Kid Aggressive had suddenly grown a brain stem, and that seemed to be only the started to a night of weird.

He shrugged. Might as well stay and see what came of all this...

[ QUOTE ]
"Get me a double jack and coke if you would please." David flashed a smile at the waitress. After winning another hand he looked at Odette, "My luck has yet to fail me. It has always protected me." Yeah, maybe it's their way of making up for what happened to me all those years ago.

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
“Oh, I’m sorry…did I stir up something nasty” Odette apologizes
“We are good listeners you know…” Gabriella leans in closer.
While David’s attention is towards Gabriella, Odette attempts to slip a small pill into David’s drink while masking it with an illusion of her listening intently.

[/ QUOTE ]
"Just let it go." Hotaka gently placed his fingers upon Acid's shoulder, the reptilian having instinctively let out a minute growl at what he perceived ad David's attempt to ridicule him, "They're only human."

"If he keeps up this kind of behavior, that luck of his'll run out faster than he thinks." Acid exhaled sharply through his nostrils as the towering man fully wrapped an arm around his back to lead him away, "Ph. Good listeners indeed."

And then they wonder why people consider them primitive.

Truth be told, the Khelari didn't really like that thought, but David, Gabriella, and Odette treating him like some animal that wasn't worth even a look had stung. The man's follow-up had just plain hurt, flaunting about most cordial words while he utterly ignored the being who'd just wanted to socialize a little in a most offensive manner.

"I dunno..." he told Hotaka with a sigh, "Sometimes I want the days back where everyone here was just afraid of me."

"You don't mean that." came the clam and collected reply over smiling lips.

"No...I guess I don't. Still, though...it's hurtful. It really is. Hotaka - why do humans behave like this?"

"If you can't answer that, I'm at an even greater loss there." the robed fellow admitted, Acid knowing well he meant this in reference to the archeological digs the reptilian had performed...

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

[ QUOTE ]
Harry leaned back in his seat and propped his feet up on the table, sipping deeply from his drink.

"Y'know, it may scorch the palate," he said contently to himself. "But I STILL say it's dang tasty."

[/ QUOTE ]
Henteko couldn't help but blink twice as the man he'd just spoken to didn't even acknowledge his presence. He quickly spread his fingers and looked at this hands. Nope, he hadn't gone invisible or anything. Were this guy's senses disabled or something? He sure didn't look like he was blind or deaf.

"How rude." he huffed at Harry with a scowl, then sought out another table, mumbling something about stuck-up heroes to himself. Apparently, more and more people were taking after Statesman these days - which to be honest, Henteko found extremely disturbing.

Indeed, these thoughts perturbed him so much that he didn't even start rooting for one or the other person, let alone take due note of the chaos Miranda had caused. Somehow, that just didn't seem as important as it should've been right now. Henteko's thoughts were elsewhere entirely...

((Eh, I suppose you could read it that way. Some of the language is pretty implying, like "drawing them in" and "to swallow them up", but I can see how those can have propositional meanings as well.))