DeviousMe

"My dear Jake, that will..." was all the man got out in an annoyed tone before the assault bot had succeeded in bashing him into a corner of the room, a small avalanche of rubble coming from the already decrepit structure to partially bury him.

"Well, that's bothersome." he grumbled quietly as he got back up, "I still can't control this damn thing right. How do they all do it?"

Well, at least Jake wouldn't be getting away as he wanted. His goggles had erroneously analyzed the situation.

There was no hole in the field...

((Okay guys, this isn't really going in the direction I expected, so I'll be taking my leave. Have fun, all. Ciao. ))

Primeva
Nerva Archipelago

Arachnos wasn't the only organization interested in current affairs. However, it did have the capability as well as liberty of direct intervention.

Still, rules could be bent and twisted. If you couldn't do something yourself, hire good help. Or bad help, as might be the case - and where more anonymous to hire shady characters than in the dense jungle of the old Mu fortress still prevalent here?

"Our card." said one strange figure to another, handing a business card in the clawed fingers of a hand the hue of crimson embers.

A black glove accepted the token from what was clearly some sort of demon, looking more like a Behemoth summoned by the now-and-then passing members of the Circle of Thorns than anything else. Of course this was only on first glance, as this demon had decked himself out in a fine Gucci suit, complete with shirt and tie, though the large claws of his feet had made a matching pair of shoes rather hard to come by.

The demon's head was quite a bit more serpentine as well, and the large pair of wings that sprouted from finely tailored slits in the back of the suit clearly showed this was no Behemoth, but something else entirely. The briefcase in his other hand made it quite apparent what.

A lawyer.

The demon stood there with his partner, a man even taller than he was, bordering on three meters and clothed as a master of the martial arts - light robes of blood-red satin embroidered with golden edges, night-black cloth wrapped about his arms, legs and feet. A bamboo coolie worn in the fashion of a Tsoo sorcerer completed the ensemble, hiding the man's eyes and only showing half of his respectably tan face.

The one the card had been handed to seemed to fit right into this meeting, a figure in simple black veils and a solid mask to cover his face. From far away, an observer might have almost described him as a satanic nun of some sort, especially considering he stood just over two meters - which, while not exactly short, was quite eclipsed by the demon and his even taller associate.

"LMOUSVEV." enunciated the ridiculously tall man with a gesture of introduction as the figure read the card, "Long name, quality villainy."

"Indeed." the demonic attorney added, "And as you have paid half the agreed upon amount in advance, we of the League of Mismatched or Otherwise Unorthodox but Still Very Evil Villains are hereby at your service."

"I wouldn't expect anything less." nodded the masked man, pocketing the card, "Quality help is hard to find these days, and I need not only that, but also those not conflicted by something as antiquated as good and evil."

"Have no fear." the demon smiled toothily, "The Dragon of Decay and I are mercenaries. We're only in it for the money."

"I asked you not to call me that." the tall man huffed in exasperation, "But yes, he's quite right. We do whatever so long as the money's good."

"Glad to hear it." the figure nodded, handing the two an envelope, "This is the job. Read it, memorize it, and destroy it. I don't want any of this pointing back to us."

The two took the container and opened it casually, reading over the material contained within with casual nods of approval.

"You may request support at any time." the figure continued, "You may also request me personally. However, I will not be able to act as anything more than a tactical coordinator. Then again...personally, I don't think you'll be needing any help."

"Fair assessment." chuckled the lawyer as the papers went up in a burst of felfire, "Not to brag, but I do believe and arch demon and this fellow here will be more than enough to complete this to your satisfaction."

"I expect no less of you." the figure gave a chuckle, then pulled a conductor's baton from within his robes. A quick flick into the air, and a swirling sphere of darkness began to form, taking the appearance of a vortex projected into 3-D, "The gate awaits..."

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

A crack of thunder echoed as the gate's counterpart formed in the other world, and just about instantly, any observers would notice a radical difference to the portals that had appeared up to this point.

This vortex stood pitch-back and with menacing aura, but also seemed to be such a subtle weaving that it was extremely difficult to detect unless said detector was in respectable proximity. If nobody knew better, they might very well classify this as a stealth gate of some sort.

The travelers that stepped forth, however, were anything but - the demonic lawyer and martial artist blending into the bleak landscape about as well as a grassy patch in a flow of lava.

"What a dreary place." commented the taller man with a scowl, "I expected better."

"Beats hell." the demon gave shrug, surveying the area, which they both quickly discovered did not seem as empty as it had first looked.

Not far away rested a series of large boulders, and from beyond said boulders had come voices. Something about dreaming, pain, and death. Always a good proposition for the enemy.

Sadly, this likely meant that whomever that voice belonged to had noticed their arrival.

"Let us begin." the demon chuckled to his associate, "After you..."

((/pokepeople ))

Well, this wasn't good. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to shoot a crossworld portal with something that made transspatial gateways child's play.

No, there hadn't been an alternative. It had been a calculated risk. The leveled firepower just hadn't been enough, and a decision had to be made.

He hated making decisions like this.

At least with the containment field encasing the area, the Hydra couldn't swarm out and all over the place - the Crawlers would see to that.

So first order of business: get the gun back before it drew too much attention...

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

"Hm." the figure tilted his hooded head to the side a bit, the mask not betraying any clue as to his emotions, "I suppose I'll get back to you on that."

Something suddenly rocked the building, as if something enormous had just performed a rapid push-up on the roof. Then again, that might have just as likely been the Kraken below too. It clearly wasn't happy...

I'd say you're fine. I remember I had to shoehorn stuff around quite a bit for some concepts.

I found him in the observatory. My search hadn't lasted long. I knew he'd be here, and so taken that route as soon as I'd been able to escape the hospital. All things considered, I felt well enough, but sometimes I question the wisdom of fully articulated medical equipment - the kind with robotic arms that can reach anywhere they need to and you don't want them to.

The observatory wasn't large, the transparent armortroplon dome above just over a dozen meters in diamater, forming a niche the telescope array fit flush into. Many people didn't consider an optical telescope a piece of equipment that made good sense anymore, but then again, we'd always disagreed with most people on most subjects - so this ship would have one.

And so there he was, fitting the last tiny pieces together the old-fashioned way, making adjustments as things came to a close. After all, what else would he be doing on a construction site?

Then again, there were five of him.

They sat, stood, and hung from the equipment as if it was the most natural thing in the world, silently working...working to avoid thinking.

"Hey, Al." the Acid nearest the floor turned to me, "Good to see ya up and about."

"Yeah, it is." I scratched my head behind my right ear, stopping my own thoughts cold with a speedy blink, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this."

"It's all I know." another of him retorted as the other four started climbing down from the telescope, "You should know there aren't really any multiple mes by now."

"Sure looks that way to an outside observer." I gave him a wry sneer, "Your nature's still beyond me."

"Ah, but you know what they say." the first returned the gesture, raising a finger for a second, "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."

"You've been thinking again." I commented as the other four departed the room, waving my fingers about in an encompassing manner, "I thought you were working on this to, you know...not think."

"Can't help it." the reptilian sighed with a shrug, taking a seat at the ledge of the circular trench that ran about the room's perimeter at two-thirds radius, "This whole thing about me...not even really existing got me a little riled up."

"Understandable." I nodded, taking a seat beside him, "But I disagree."

"Hm?" he wanted to know, "How so?"

"Vern told me the whole thing." I answered calmly, giving my head a quick shake, "And I disagree with that. If you didn't exist, then I couldn't very well be talking to you right now. Unless I don't exist either, in which case from my point of view, you're just as real as I am. And if we're just comparing meaningful quotes, let me add that a person starts to live when he can live outside himself - considering you turned into a big ball of nothing, I'd say that's about as outside as things can get."

Acid chuckled, elbowing me in the ribs, "You just made that one up."

"No, really." I insisted, pushing back, "I've taken a little bit of time to study these humans of yours. Albert Einstein. Smart man."

"Hm." he nodded in response, "I guess you got a point. It was just...kinda creepy. I mean, I saw...well, just about everything. The big picture, everywhere - not just places where I keep a body or two."

"Yeah, Vern told me." I shrugged, "The Pyramid was there, by the way. What else did you see?"

"A lot." Acid took a deep breath, "But I think I'll need a good bit of time to sort through it all. Oh, and about the you not existing thing...you know, only when the illusion knows it is an illusion can it know reality."

"You just made that one up." I smiled wryly.

"Guilty." he gave a nod with a shrug, "Doesn't make it any less true, though."

"You and your philosophy junk." I rolled my eyes, "I swear..."

"I get it, I get it." he waved me off, placing a hand on my shoulder, "And don't worry, I'm not gonna fall apart over this. You know me."

"That's what worries me."

"Touché." he admitted, "But seriously now - I think I'm starting to come to terms with it. At least now I know that I can't be killed, or at least not like that. Of course, that just trades one issue for another."

"The what happens if you can't actually die?" I ventured a guess, prompting a solemn nod as Acid looked at the scaffold through the transparent dome.

"Yeah." he finally answered, "I mean...that's why I turned down It's offer in the first place. I don't wanna live forever. Have everything around me move on and just be stuck myself…no. Just no. I think that scares me more than even the thought of disappearing into...well, myself. The other myself."

"I get where you're coming from." I told him, standing again, "But how about we cross that bridge when we come to it?"

"Fair enough." he nodded with a smirk, following me to the door, "So what now? Food?"

"Food."

"That'll have to wait." the intercom broke the conversation, Kerat's announcement echoing through the observatory, "Halfspace tracker's showing contacts, and not few. I think our secret's out. They're heading this way."

"How long?" Acid questioned with a focused visage as we kept walking.

"Ten hours, give or take." came the reply, "But I don't think we can take 'em."

"You let me worry about that." he gave me a malicious, toothy smirk, "I think it's about time ol' Taahk got to know me for just who I really am."

"Hm?" I preformed the equivalent of cocking an eyebrow, "So you figured it out? Who you are?"

"Sure did." he just kept smiling.

"Well?!" I urged him on, "Certain other people would like to know as well here."

He spread his hands in a hapless gesture, then gave me his answer, "Just a stranger, my friend. Just a stranger..."

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

Fin

"Oh, I'm quite sure you'd like me to take that and leave well enough alone." giggled the veiled figure with a hapless hand gesture, "But if you'd like to imply ownership by temporal proximity, it is quite technically mine. You see, the good Dr. Malcolm is duly in our employ, and I should hate to see his spotless record tarnished by something like this. Therefore, we would ever so much appreciate our property back."

Penny had of course no way of knowing for sure, but everything seemed to tell her this guy wasn't lying. Something about the tone of his voice, the ease of his words. Nobody could lie this convincingly.

"Besides," the garbed man turned to look out the hole in the building, "if you go after him with the key still in hand, you must consider the possibility that he will kill you and subsequently take it from you."

He turned back to Penny with another chuckle, "And frankly, you are in no shape to face him, neither physically nor mentally. I should know. Now, are you quite sure you won't help me out here? If you did, perhaps I might be able to help you."

"This is getting bothersome." his tone suddenly turned very staunch and serious as he looked outside again, "Not to mention truly dangerous. You're all taking too long."

Without waiting for any sort of reply, the figure's hand drew a conductor's baton from his robes and struck it out towards the portal with all the force deserving the crescendo of an overture.

A sun-bright beam of pure white came from nowhere, without warning and from one instant to another. Strangely enough, despite its brightness, the pure white was not blinding, nor even remotely irritating to the eye. It was just...bright.

What happened to the gateway, however, was certainly not. The flash of light it vanished in was bright and painfully so, forcing almost everyone to avert their eyes as the gateway imploded out of their view.

It didn't last long, but did obscure the scene almost completely, rendering it utterly unknown if the gate had let something through before its destruction for a few more moments.

But that wasn't the half of it.

If one traced the beam of white back to its source, one would find it to be the top of a nearby skyscraper, or more specifically, the strange-looking cannon sitting there.

The thing looked like an artillery piece designed by inhuman minds, only the general shape of a cannon barrel with running lines of twisting deep-green luminescence across its deep-blue metallic form immediately recognizeable. The barrel was at least half a meter wide and maybe ten times as long. Quite a heavy weapon, it seemed.

And it most certainly hadn't been there before...

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

There. That took care of the gate. Now he just had to get the key back somehow, and then the 'heroes' could take care of the rest.

And then it hit him.

How was he gonna get his gun back...?

((Zis?))

Portal Incorporated, Paragon Campus
Peregrine Island
1452 Hours Local Time

Gabe didn't know how right he was.

ENERGY SPIKE DETECTED ON DESIGNATED ULTRALOW BAND.

There were many things about the mysterious Portal Corporation the public did not know.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH. TRANSLATING.

One of these was that a small section of the ULF band was constantly monitored for certain eventualities.

DECEMBER NIGHT. CODE CONFIRMED.

This was one of them.

ACCESSING SATELLITE.
REACTIVATING DRIVE PARTITION ALPHA_

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

Geostationary Orbit

Nobody quite knew for what purposes Portal Corp. had shot a satellite into orbit. Few even knew it existed, but it wasn't any great secret.

Supposedly, it was a communications hub to allow the Peregrine Campus supercomputer accessible to any of their facilities on the planet. Indeed, this was true.

But there existed an ulterior purpose - a small part of the satellite allowed the complete opposite. It allowed the mainframe to access any other facility, among other things.

One of those other things was a hypercom unit, no larger than a fingernail.

But it was powerful.

BEGIN TRANSMISSION_

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

Deep Space

GLX 0249.
TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.
REROUTING.

It had always been a prerogative - a very important one.

GLX 1742.
TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.
REROUTING.

Terra's position was nobody's beeswax.

GLX 0261.
TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.
REROUTING.

Especially not the Concile's.

GLX 1102.
TRANSMISSION RECEIVED.
REROUTING.

That's why long ago, someone had set up a galaxy-wide network of tiny relay stations that shot transmissions from and to Terra all over the place. Every now and then, one of them was discovered, but that didn't matter - it would terminate upon capture, and there were far too many to ever find any scheme between them.

And only a few of them had any relevant data at any given time, which was passed on constantly. Being this, the relays bounced the transmission around until it hit one that currently had relevant data.

In this case, GLX 1019 - which had the current position of the APOCALYPSE...

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

Freedom Corps Headquarters
Galaxy City
1501 Hours Local Time

The beating of rotor blades echoed from above as a MI-26 HALO arrived on the scene, and had it not been for the pitch-black paint job, it may very well have been just one of the many cargo lift choppers Longbow operated.

Then again, the people that this thing belonged to had never felt they looked good in red and white, so their helos weren't either.

Still, it seemed to have clearance, descending slowly onto one of the free helipads on the roof of the building, powerful hydraulics gurgling the rear cargo ramp open before the wheels had even made contact with the pad.

On the ramp stood a tall and slim figure covered entirely in a heavy, drab-gray cloak, every feature hidden by the veil complete with quite the large hood.

Longbow agents on the roof continued their drills, but couldn't help but give a raunchy glare ever now and then as the figure stepped off the chopper and started toward the roof door at a brisk pace.

Some of them knew who he was, others thought they knew, and still others had heard who they knew thought they knew, but didn't really know anything.

What they did know for sure was that the Red and the Black had always had their differences, but for now the guy wasn't to be shot at on sight.

The chopper's turbines idled as it sat there on the roof, its crew not bothering to show themselves, nor any Longbow going aboard. They had an understanding about that, and so the figure made its way downstairs with suspicious direction, almost as if there was an exact spot in the building this man had to get to.

Indeed there was.

Soon he came upon it.

But the spot was not a spot. It was no location, instead a person.

Gabe.

"Yyyoouu rrang?" the figure imitated a Lurch voice almost perfectly, coming up behind the hero with all the telltale noise of a ghost's shadow...

"Oh, believe me, I quite am." chuckled Acid with a toothy smirk, "With something else, you might actually be able to injure me."

Now Hotaka snickered as well, leaning to the reptilian, "I do believe you were right."

"Quite." Acid nodded, still looking to Kanata, "But I do feel I need to make a point. One, I highly resent being called a monster. Trust me boy, you'd be surprised how ugly you look to a lot of people, including myself. Two, he bit me first. It's in my nature to bite back, and since my people evolved from a predator, you can't well blame me. And three, don't bother. As I said before, we are leaving."

With that, Acid snapped his clawed fingers a pale-blue field of energy quickly expanding about his hand, converting itself into a drab, gray fabric as it went.

In only seconds, the reptilian held another cloak wrapped about his arm, then proceeded to drape that over his head and back again as the two departed...

((Sorry Leo, but with the main plots dead and hardly anyone still posting, this really isn't holding my interest anymore. So I'm out. Peace.))

"Oh, I'm sure you do." giggled the veiled figure, performing a leisurely shrug to Jake, "But just how do you propose to stop me?"

"No, don't bother." the man continued lightly, holding up a hand in a pre-emptive gesture, "I already know what you're going to say. And trust me, it's not going to work. What you're dealing with at present exceeds the comprehension of your tiny head."

"Oh no, that wasn't meant as an insult." the figure moved the palms of its hands together to indicate an object about the size of a baseball, "From my point of view, your head is just...small. That's all there is to it. Of course, by my opinion, you're also not very smart. But then, I can't exactly expect that from your specie...fic organization - Arachnos, that is."

"Now, Miss Arcade," the figure turned to Penny again, seemingly not the least bit perturbed by the truly horrific images the gate presented its audience.

Was this man perhaps from one of those worlds? Did he wish to destroy the key to deny access to them? And if so, did this mean he was not a man at all, but one of those...things in but a brilliant disguise?

It was certainly possible - for where the multiverse was concerned, possibility was endless.

"Please give me the key. Or destroy it yourself, it really doesn't matter. All we wish is for all this nonsense to cease..."

[ QUOTE ]
Beep beep. Beepbeepbeep. Beep. Boop.

Diaaaal Toooone.
Diaaaaal Toooone.

"Hello? Is this Dominatrix? The Praetorian? Yeah, it's Statesman. Listen, I was wondering what you're doing for dinner Friday night..."

[/ QUOTE ]
*falls over laughing*

"Masterminds are overpowered."

"Oh, we know all about that." retorted the veiled figure calmly, "Though you are partially mistaken. But I'm afraid I'm not allowed to go into that. All I'm here for is the key, and I suppose now to destroy that...heh, 'gate' if your efforts fail by some highly unfortunate perchance. Oh no, do not worry yourself - I do not actually want the key. I want but its destruction."

"Oh, that does remind me." the man chuckled, raising a finger, "I believe your suit may be quite damaged. You are presently broadcasting our conversation still. Not that I mind, but I surmised you might..."

((Yah, not much. We're all waiting for Jennifer. ))

The timing of this is eerie...

Ya may want to be more specific on this one. Are you asking 'how to roleplay' or 'how to roleplay on these boards'?

If it's the former, I got squat for ya. I've based all my characters on either myself, close friends, or people I otherwise know - and how they act, of course. Some of the more experienced people here who RP true fictional personas should be able to help fine, though.

Tarnation, I just wrote an oxymoron.

If it's the latter, there I can help ya out. Have some guidelines:

1) Be polite. Don't write the actions/reactions of other people's characters for them. There are exceptions to this, but hey, that's why it's called a guideline.

2) Characters exhibiting 'powers' tend to follow the way these work in the game. While some may not be quite accurate (Black Hole), slinging a lightning bolt usually doesn't need much modification. Again, this is only a guideline. Some characters have been shoehorned into the game and therefore tend to not follow those mechanics as precisely as others.

3) Try and keep with the spirit of things. If you enter a thread about...I dunno, gnomes or somethin'...dangit, I don't think I've been in this thing long enough to explain this. Basically, try to stick with what's in a thread when you enter it. Introducing something vastly different or more powerful can actually break a story very nicely. It's happened before.

Like I said, I may not be the person to go to here, but I hope I helped at least a little.

((A covetous sorcerous cadaver whose conspiring is corroborated in his clash of case? Cunning! Moar!))

((Well, you said it had a lot of momentum going, and generally hitting an inclined plane some distance before your intended contact point will divert the course of anything with good momentum. ))

"Yeah, I get that one a lot." Acid shrugged his shoulders somewhat, commenting on Kanata's reaction. Now that its purpose was rather moot, Acid released his cloak and let it hit the floor. It was clearly rather heavy, falling with more force than such fabric should have, and not a few seconds after the reptilian had released the stuff, it dispersed into thin air.

Acid himself wore something more standard, at least where he came from. A pair of what seemed to be black cargo pants, complete with heavy boots of the same hue, a white T-shirt, and an open black jacket draped over that. On his back sat a triple-holster, though currently only two of the three attachments were occupied with rifle-like weaponry.

However, Acid made no motion to reach for either, though if anything could be said of his current mood by the slow sway of his long, whiplike tail, this wasn't going how he'd wished it.

"And you've got another one calling you Demon." Hotaka gave comment with a helpless gesture.

"At least this one doesn't use dual energy blades." Acid retorted, remembering the last time the notion of being demonic had gotten him into a nice little situation. He turned back to Kanata, "Okay, first of all, I am not a demon. Let's get that much straight and hopefully save us some trouble. Second, as he already said, we knocked, no one answered the door, so we let ourselves in."

Acid chuckled a bit before continuing, "If you're wondering what the reason for the cloak was, let's just say the last time I went without it here, I was too easy to find - I was always in the street with the mass panic."

"I remember that." Hotaka grinned, "That was amusing."

"You didn't have a bank that closed at sixteen-hundred hours to get to at fifteen-fifty."

"Touché." replied the tall man with an even wider grin, motioning with an arm towards Kanata, "But I believe this young man has extended a challenge to you. Shouldn't you accept?"

"I see no reason to." answered the reptilian.

"I didn't know your people were so nonviolent."

"Oh, we're not. My first impulse there was to eat him, but humans don't taste good, and they tend to scream a lot - and you know I hate making people scream. If I were to accept, there's a chance I'd get tempted." he turned to Kanata, "So that answer is a no, just in case you didn't get the idea..."

((Burning, you instigated the main plot here. What's with the sitting back and eating, hmmmm?

Oh, and Leo, if this wouldn't happen, please tell me and I'll edit right away. ))

As he noticed the movements of the naginata, the unprepared Acid had just enough time to look from Hotaka to Kanata again before the thing made contact. His right arm came up, but apparently caught itself in the reshuffled cloak by the cut, making it much too slow to stop the strike.

Something else, however, most certainly did.

The staff made contact in the darkness under Acid's hood, tapping onto something hard and sliding upwards at a low angle long before the face that Kanata had expected to hit was ever reached.

Kanata reacted in reflex at the surprise, loosing his fingers about the handle of his weapon and sliding his hand up partway, then grasping firmly again to obtain a better fulcrum. His arm then jerked the unbladed end of the naginata upwards as he rotated the staff about his elbow to bring the cutting edge to bear again in preparation for the expected counterattack.

But as the staff went up, so did Acid's hood, the cut cloak once more falling apart halfway and releasing its haphazard grip on his head.

Kanata had indeed struck his target, hitting the man's face dead-on.

Only it wasn't a man's face.

Acid wasn't even remotely human.

His skull stood reminiscent of that of a dinosaur, like the portrayal of velociraptors in popular culture, a streamlined head descended from reptilian ancestry. The slitted eyes only underscored this, though the scaleless, deep-green, and leathery hide that stretched like some manner of organic armor stood in stark contrast to the reptilian features of the skull and eyes.

Thicker ridges above the eyes and finely developed lips rimming a very large mouth filled with rows of clearly carnivorous teeth allowed a wide range of expressions - though the present one was rather obvious to anyone: annoyance.

"Nyeh." Acid blinked a few times as he ran a handful of five clawed fingers of the same deep-green, leathery style across the bridge of his skull, where the naginata's handle had struck, "Well, there goes that idea."

"You really should figure out one of those human form spells sometime." Hotaka chuckled with a smirk, "Though I'm told they're difficult to maintain for long periods of time. Not that I have any practical experience there, of course."

"Yeah, yeah." Acid growled in a low tone, his eyes now firmly on Kanata in case he got impulsive again, "And what the heck was that all about, kid...?"

This was quickly becoming an impass - he knew the Crawlers would prevent just about anything from getting out of the area (or at least his readings suggested there wasn't anything that gate could spit out that could make it past them), but for people inside it, things might soon get very dangerous indeed.

He looked down upon the dark gate. He knew enough to wipe the thing out in one shot, but that would not only give away that he was here at all, but also reveal his position to anyone with even a gram of good sense to follow the telltale trail of energy artillery.

No, they'd handle it. That was their job. His was not to be seen, and that's how it had to stay.

They'd handle it.

Hopefully...

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

"Of course, Miss Arcade." replied the figure in the dark cloak generously, following Penny without a second thought.

[ QUOTE ]
"Come with me - we need to talk."

[/ QUOTE ]
Uh-oh...I hope she didn't just notice that...

"Why, a dark gateway, of course." retorted the hooded man, still after Penny, "Somewhat primitive and haphazardly stablilized, though, but still potentially dangerous. Do take it out for me, would you please...?"

"Ah, but affairs here involve me quite vivaciously, if I do say so myself." the obscured man told Jake in a gentle tone as he lifted a final block of concrete out of the way.

He didn't seem surprised as Penny rolled to her knees in spite of her obvious injuries, his featureless mask giving the impression he'd expected it, as well as her threats.

"Verily, vivisection is not valued in my verses." he chuckled, spreading his arms in a disarming gesture, "But let us be brief. You have no intention of harming others. I can assure you, neither do I. I would but like..."

Though he kept speaking as if nothing at all was happening, the cacophony overpowered his voice, making his intentions rather irrelevant as well. The crackling thunder of shattered glass upon the floor eclipsed virtually all tone for a few moments.

The heated discussion was virtually ignored, the man's attention seeming to be somewhere else entirely for a few seconds. Still, it was quite obvious he overheard every word.

"Not quite accurate." he commented as Penny finished her explanation, "But close enough. Your friend does not understand much of dark gateways, I'm afraid. This is both a good and a bad thing, but I do agree it needs to be closed."

He turned to the gathered heroes, "I do believe you can handle this, yes? Oh, of course you can, what am I saying? Oh Miss Arcade, do wait for me, you still have something I need..."

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

Yeah, this wasn't good. For a moment, he'd thought the Shades had somehow survived and were starting another invasion attempt, but then the thought was dismissed as silly and illogical. They never would have attacked in broad daylight, not to mention without possessing things first. No, this was somewhat more mundane, but nonetheless threatening.

Along three streets leading into the area now approached somewhat strange-looking armored vehicles, silently rolling down said roads in groups of two. Stopping just outside the borderline that had once been the security force field, the Crawlers were clearly marked as belonging to an organization that really didn't fit the context here.

Portal Corporation.

The triple-ringed company insignia stood present on all six of them, and from their next action, the conclusion that Portal Corp really did operate these things wasn't far off.

The Crawlers themselves did nothing, but the security force field the trucks had formerly projected snapping back to life in even better integrity than before made it quite obvious what their purpose had to be.

Containment.

Their plainly visible armaments, however, suggested they could do quite a bit more.

The strange ripple that appeared for a moment or two at the apex of the containment field certainly was a clue there was more to this than met the eye. The barrier oscillated quite noticeably for that short duration of time, as if something large had passed through.

Whether in or out, however, was another question entirely...

((/em jumpstartmainplot? ))

"I just answered your question, kid." Hotaka retorted to Kanata with a sneer, "And I was talking about your buddy there. I'm guessing you just need someone to be angry at right now, otherwise you'd be smarter than how you're acting."

"There I have to agree." Acid chuckled, having twiddled the gash in his cloak shut as best he could, "And I'm told d-, I mean Hotaka's a great psychologist - when he's not off being ticked at the world for dragon symbolism, at least."

"Oh, who asked you...?"

This will make things interesting.