Khellendrosiic

"Hey boss, you've got mail," said Mini Bot miliseconds before a huge explosion went off in the distance.

"Think you could choose a better time to remind me?" asked Toy Dispenser as he ducked under a sword swing from a wild looking scrapper.

"Well, it did just sort of pop up," Mini Bot replied as it leapt on top of the scrapper's head and stabbed both tentacle blades into the hero's eyes. The poor [censored] dropped his sword and clutched his eyes while screaming until Toy commanded his subserviant Heavy Blaster to skewer the poor guy.

As the hero faded away due to his mediporter activating, Toy took the brief pause in the battle to face Mini Bot squarely and put his hands on his hips.

"Ok, what is it?"

"Something from ten years ago, boss," Mini Bot answered. "But since I just noticed it, I think it was sent out recently. There are some other e-mails from the same guy soon after the first one, but I'm ignoring them cause I don't want to break casuality again."

"Good to hear you learned your lesson from the first time," Toy muttered as he accessed his e-mail account and read Dr. West's message. "Huh. A meeting of the minds, eh? I can't say I'm that much of a scientist but I suppose I am damn smart."

"Comes with the territory, boss," Mini Bot as it nervously watched a tanker forcing her way through the nearby mob of Arachnos toward Toy's position.

"I suppose we ought to go and check it out," Toy mused as he absently directed the Heavy to take the tanker out. "After all, we've got this iteration of the dimension firmly in our grasp."

"We're leaving then?" Mini Bot said hopefully.

"Yep," Toy answered. "Round up the others and we can get going."

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Mini Bot shouted as it jumped up and down, performing a cartwheel to slip between two Bane Spiders as it ran off to find the other bots and help them disengage.

"Should be interesting," Toy said as he flicked his hand at a blaster who had appeared behind him, trapping the rifle-wielding hero in an impenetrable detention field. As he waited, he commanded his Heavy to sit on top of the bubble so that the hero couldn't go anywhere. Once the field ran out of power ten seconds later, the air was filled with spurting blood and quickly stifled screams.

"Very interesting indeed," Toy Dispenser repeated as he and his bots left Recluse's Victory for the real world.

************************************************

"I am perfectly willing not to shoot bad guys if they don't shoot at me....or shoot anyone else while I'm around....or do anything villainous like blackmailing or something," Solid said. "And anyway I'd mostly be going for Essex. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many disciples of Pedobear on the other side of the fence, if you know what I mean."

"'fraid not," Solid said as he absently rubbed the back of his head and stepped further into the room. "The guys I usually hang with are more the brawn over brains type. Maybe that Moonscribe dude but he's more mysterious annoying knowledge of oddness than actual book smarts."

"You could always ask that Toy Dispenser merc," Solid suggested. "He might be an [censored], but he's good in a fight and smarter than I am. I could totatally kick his [censored], though."

Nodding to himself, the blaster took another look at the busy reploids before glancing over at West.

"You need some muscle for this task force you're whipping up? I'm kind of in between worlds needing to be saved at the moment."

"Knock knock," came an amused sounding voice from the hole in the wall. "Could someone explain to me why a drone belonging to a known villain kicked me in the shin as I was coming in? And why they blasted a hole in the wall when they could've knocked in the first place?"

Solid Shot, on-and-off member of Repliforce Paragon, stepped gingerly through the bit of hole that the reploids hadn't patched up yet and tapped the top of his assault rifle on his shoulder in an impatient manner. The flat grey blaster bot examined the room before him and, finding no damage on any of the reploids or Dr. West, chose to lower his rifle and sling it back under his cape.

"I know you guys have a lot of friends on the other side of the fence but geez, couldn't you have picked some with better manners?"

OOC: *looks around* Can I come in now?

OOC: More like three TENTHS of a second. *rolls eyes* Certainly less than a second for trained military personnel, I would think. >_> And hope.

OOC: Darkvapor. Stop posting. Now. Give other people a chance to catch up.

BIC: The grenade Ghost had fired at Essex froze in midair, landing with a heavy thump on the ground about a meter from its target.

"Now just what is the meaning of this?" Archlich said angrily, his voice cutting through the sounds of combat like a hot knife through butter. "Can you fools not leave your bickering for more opportune times?"

Glancing down at the little pink android, Archlich snatched the metal orb from her hands and then teleported one hundred feet straight up. Now floating in space above the damage research station, Archlich tossed the orb up past his head and then teleported back into the portal room.

"Guns off the girl, [censored]!" Solid Shot suddenly shouted as his own foot thrusters ignited and he shot forward, clearly intending to ram into Ghost and slam the both of them into a wall.

"Query: Intelligence: Enemy operatives," Cher'tak said as he held both arms up in front of him, weathering Radiator's blast as well as a high threat level Rikti boss could. The Chief Soldier was pushed back along the ground slightly, leaving skid marks on the floor, and was lightly crisped but otherwise ok. If Radiator had been able to build up to full power, however, things might have been different.

But such possibilities were of no concern to the Warmaster as he stalked forward, unlimbering his bladerifle and bringing it up in an uppercut in one smooth motion.

Toy's bots, on the other hand, were knocked about by the minor atomic blast like unpopped corn in a kettle. Mini Bot and Toy Bot flew back at least twenty feet before grabbing onto something that arrested their flight while the protector bots were knocked onto their backs and sent skidding across the ground. Only Combat Toy managed to keep its feet, but even then it was heavily charred on the side facing Radiator. Toy built his bots tough, but there were limits.

"Mother [censored]," Combat Toy grunted as his torso pivoted toward Ghost, blasting out with a couple of plasma beams before turning back toward Radiator and releasing its hefty wrist blade.

"I'm going to enjoy this," stated the assault bot as it rushed forward, coming at Radiator from a different side than Cher'tak was on.

***********************************************

"Oh [censored] me," Toy Dispenser said as he got Acid's warning. "Acid, if you need any help in the next thirty or so seconds, just ask. I'll be the closest guy around until I get back to the main group."

"We should go now, boss," Small Toy said as its head tilted up to look Toy in his eyes.

"Indeed we should," Toy Dispenser replied as his anti-grav system hummed to life and sent the two hurtling back into the research station.

Solid gave Ineffable a look before looking Hammerhead and Ghost over.

"I guess you guys could be heroes," he said. "Scanner registers you as such and you certainly aren't as odd looking as Lord Darkity Dark the reformed demon. Then again with people like the Technicolored Dreambot here running around, you can't really judge people on how they look."

"Or on how they act!" Mini Bot added. "The boss is usually a lot nicer than some of the heroes we've fought before!"

Toy Dispenser rolled his head a little bit in exasperation.

"It doesn't really matter," he said. "As it is, we don't need any new hands. We still need to find a ship, which I'm going to head out and help with."

Toy turned to Grey as Small Toy trotted up next to its boss.

"Small Toy and I are going to exit out one of the airlocks and see about scanning the vicinity. That should give Acid a little less ground to cover. I don't anticipate running into any problems, but if I do I'll have one of the bots inform you."

"We'll probably see anything coming though," Small Toy said confidently.

"Airlock: Indicated direction," Cher'tak said, nodding at Toy Dispenser as he pointed to where an airlock would be. "Door code: Same: Earlier used."

"I remember it, Cher'tak," Toy said as he turned around and walked between the two new guys, trusting that they'd move out of his way rather than get poked in the eye by his shoulder guards. Small Toy trotted alongside, unfolding its sophisticated sensor array as it went. Once the pair got outside, Toy would grab Small Toy and use his anti-gravity system to float them up above the research base at a sufficient height to give them a significant scanning radius. Toy also called up Acid and told the other mastermind what he was planning on doing so that they could coordinate more effectively.

*********************************************

"I shall return to the Rikti world as well," Archlich stated as he started walking toward the portal, giving no reason as too why he suddenly decided to follow along.

"Are you all coming? Constructs, mortals?" Archlich asked over his shoulder as he went.

During Sheldon's explanation Archlich had stood as still as a statue with his arms crossed and cape lightly stirring in an unfelt breeze. The only outward indication of his annoyance gradually turning into anger at this mortal's idiocy was of his eyes glowing steadily brighter and more intense. But it appeared that the inventor's apology had its effect, as Archlich's eyes dimmed slightly and the lich offered him a slight nod before focusing on what Cory was saying.

"Simple artificial sentience, however unexpected it might be, does not automatically confer a soul upon the construct," Archlich replied after Cory had finished speaking. "It is instead the foundation that a true soul can be built. A construct is inherently 'born' without a soul and only by consistently acting above and beyond the limits of its programming can it begin to gain one. And even this takes time, you see."

Archlich paused for a moment and then continued with a note of irritation in his voice. "But of course I have had little conclusive proof of all that. This construct here and Toy Dispenser are the only bases I have for my hypothesis and I have yet to find another such suitable construct to examine and study the growth of. Perhaps these 'Ryat' constructs already have souls. Perhaps not. I would require an artifact not currently in my possession to observe that."

******************************************

Cher'tak tilted his head back in thought as he fished back through his memories to see if he could remember how a standard research base was set up. Unforetunately, he had no clue and could only rely upon his general knowledge of Rikti space stations, which was lacking even there. Before he spoke to Lady Grey, he made sure to send a mental query to Sah'Teece and Lk'Onik asking for their advice on the matter.

"Best approximation: Indicated direction," Cher'tak said as he pointed in the direction the team had found Acid in. "Portal technology: Mainly replaced: Inter-system: Transport. Docking bay: Located: Older section: Research base."

"And around and around and around we go," Solid muttered as he slung his rifle and started walking around to the rear of the group.

"The next question would be if there are even any ships in the docking bay," Toy said. "We'll have to assume there are, though, because otherwise we'll have to try the portal again."

Archlich just stared at Sheldon after he made this comment. His eyebrows would have been hidden in his hair at this point if he had had either of those but the slightly slack-jawed look to his skull expressed that emotion easily enough. It took Essex's outburst to snap the lich out of his disbelief.

"How a mortal, even a human scientist," Archlich began with a tone of sheer disbelief. "How even a human scientist could not believe that one is born with a soul is the greatest folly I have yet heard. One is almost always born with a soul, you fool, and those few who are truly soulless are to extended our pity and support for they are truly cursed by the gods."

Shaking his head, Archlich continued. "I will not argue with you that one may grow a soul of their own, after all, I live with one such example, but every living creature capable of thought already has one. And I emphasize that it is folly to believe otherwise. But if you need proof," Archlich huffed. "Then I can provide it for you. I hear that mortals such as you often require firsthand evidence of things they do not understand."

As answer to Essex's question, Archlich merely waved his hand at her in a shooing gesture. He was not much interested in the Rikti right now, this foolish mortal had gained his full attention.

***********************************

"One: Moment," Cher'tak said to Grey as he cocked his head and ran through what Lk'Onik was saying. He need to be absolutely sure that the Psi-Scout wasn't accidently garbbling his own speech. It was known to happen when a Rikti got overexcited or stimulated.

"Situation: Worse: Than Imagined," Cher'tak said at length, translating what Lk'Onik was still babbling out. "Lineage (Science): Nemesis: Controlled. Leadership: Automatons: Unknown: Other: Rikti."

The Warmaster crossed his arms and put his head into one almost unnoticeably shaking hand. He had feared the worst and this was almost as bad as it could be. The Lineage of Science was very influencial in Rikti politics and was in a prime position to allow Nemesis to do whatever he wished with almost no questions asked. As long as he didn't trample on the domains of the other Lineages, then Nemesis would remain undetected and unchallenged. Seeking to find something to distract him, Cher'tak glanced over at Grey and saw his home slowing panning by the porthole.

"Beautiful: Yes?" Cher'tak said as he lowered his arms and walked over next to Grey. "It has been: Forever: And a day: Since last: I saw this: Sight. My: Our: Home."

Cher'tak had made a special effort to conform his thoughts to the human way of thinking in order to properly convey the emotions he felt at seeing his homeworld once again.

"And yet: I return: Enemy: Not ally."

************************************

"I'm not sure I want to know what that haze is made out of," Solid said to anyone nearby as he peeked inbetween Cher'tak and Grey to see what they were looking at. "Looks damned unhealthy, whatever it's made of."

"Hopefully it isn't," Toy replied. "It will be a pain in the [censored] to make sure the humans on our team can breathe properly in that case."

"Your belief in redemption makes one of us, warlock," Archlich said briefly before Cory started talking to Essex.

The mage watched in silence as Cory praised the young construct's mannerisms and creation and regarded with interest Sheldon's dismissive response. As Essex walked over to greet Ryat66, Archlich looked at Sheldon.

"There is another point where she differs from your creations, mortal," Archlich said as he shifted in place so as to face the two androids. Somehow his voice managed to reach both Cory and Sheldon's ears clearly, despite his change in facing and lowered volume. Cory would probably be able to identify slight traces of the modified vantriloquism spell that allowed Archlich to do this.

"She, despite being artificial life, has clearly developed a soul," he said, pausing a second to observe Sheldon's reaction. "I know of few other constructs that can lay claim to such an achievement, so I would suggest you do not take her at face value. She has an odd inner strength to her."

This last sentence was pitched even lower as though Archlich was mainly speaking to himself, though both men would be able to pick it up.

"Something else that might interest you, construct," Archlich said, trying to gain Essex's attention. "Toy Dispenser is currently assisting Vanguard in their tasks through that portal over yonder. If you wish to help, I believe they are looking for any heroes or villains that consider themselves up to the task. Regardless of how powerful those volunteers might be."

Ghoul had given Naylor a quizzical look after the technician had blurted out this seemingly random statement.

"But I was busy smashin' some Malta goons a couple of days ago," he said hesitently to himself. "You sayin' we're in some kind of time loop? Well [censored] that, I have better things to do than go in circles."

"Hell yeah I remember you," Ghoul nodded to Power Breaker. "You and I pounded on some Rikti for Vanguard about a week ago. Brutish Ghoul's the name, if you forgot. And who's this Poe [censored]? If he's got me going for a spin just because I stumbled across you guys, then I want in on the action."

"Can't compete with that," Ghoul sighed as he shoved the tickets back into his pocket. "So where the hell are you guys goin' that's so important? And if you're goin' to kick someone's [censored], can I come? Might as well be kickin' someone's [censored] if I can't get at the one I need to kick at the moment."

"Hm. So much for assuming that town had been destroyed by the Rikti," Archlich mused after Cory mentioned Kingsdale. "And as for combat, Sheldon Wallace, let me reiterate that Cortland has nothing to fear from me at this moment. If we did, however regretably, engage in a test of wills, then I would still be sure to impart no lasting harm on the boy. There are few enough true practioners left in the world for me to slim down that number."

Archlich's eyes narrowed as he looked Cory up and down.

"I do not except that curtosy to be returned, however, as purging one's bloodline of the taint requires an unremiting sense of good and justice in the survivors. I honestly would expect nothing less than my complete destruction would he to prevail in battle against me. But I would not be much of a lich if I-"

Archlich suddenly stopped talking as the little girl approached the trio timidly. The mage seemed to squint at her for a second before he spoke.

"Is that you, construct?" he asked. "I did not imagine you rated as powerful enough to be in this area of your city despite what Toy Dispenser might claim."

"Darkvapor?" Ghoul said quizzically as he looked around the room. Not seeing anyone but him, Breaker, and Naylor, Ghoul decided that the man really was drunk. But...

"What was that you said about gettin' a group together?" he asked, ignoring Breaker's question. "You plannin' on invadin' that Shadow Shard place or somethin'?"

The runes having been wiped away before Wallace had walked over, Archlich simply glared at the hero until he turned away to yell at the warlock. The inventor having successfully defused the situation, Archlich let the glow of his eyes dim back to their normal levels. He instead crossed his arms and watched Wallace and Cory glaring at Matt as the scrapper walked off.

"I have had several apprentices like him," Archlich said in response to Cory's statement. "They all ended up dying at the hands of various do-gooders who came from time to time to kill me and end my blight upon the world.

"I do assure you, however, that if I wished to start an altercation I would certainly remove us to a more suitable premise for such a combat. But that is neither here nor now. Rather, I would prefer and speak with Cortland here regarding how his bloodline has fared in the years since their sundering. I am greatly intrigued with how your people have avoided becoming corrupted once more."

Ghoul glared back at Power Breaker, although he didn't seem so much angry as just miffed.

"Crunchy Creams are crap," the brute snorted. "A box of Dippin' Donuts PLUS those awesome little donut holes they make. I have a friend of mine who can drop em off every Tudesday afternoon."

Archlich gritted his teeth at the presumption of this mortal warlock. In answer to Cory's horn sprouting, several runes flashed into existence around the lich and seemed to pulse with eagerness to be unleashed.

"I recall the events you speak of," Archlich hissed out after Matt had spoken. "It was a unique event and one that I was quite glad to record. I would be very displeased to have to end your line for the simple fact of provoking my ire. I prefer to embark on such momentous occasions with far more gratifying reasons behind me."

Forcing aside his anger, Archlich swiped his hand across the runes, erasing them from the air. At the same time, however, the glow of his eyes increased slightly to the extent where it would hurt the eyes to look at them for too long. He continued as stare at Cory as he addressed Matt.

"Were it up to me, mortal, I would gladly eradicate the abomination you control from this world," he said curtly. "It is of my belief that magic should remain seperate and inviolate from the advancements of science and technology. Mine is an ancient art, perfected and improved upon for thousands of years before the invention of the automobile or the machine gun. Once science has put a few more centuries under its belt then I shall consider it approaching the magnificence of my art."

"Heeeeeeeeeey!" shouted an irate voice from just outside the CoT temple that Naylor and Power Breaker were in.

A giant of a man wearing nothing more than some heavy, tattered jeans, an equally tattered cape, an oversized shoulder guard, and some bone tattos on his deathly grey chest squeezed through the door and glared at Power Breaker. He was holding a pair of ticket stubs in his hands.

"I was just about to bribe him!" Brutish Ghoul growled in indignation. "And I think tha Jonny Sonata tickets I got trump your damn donuts!"

Ghoul shook the pair of tickets in Breaker's face to emphasize his point.

"But yes, we do have some," Toy said after Sybil finished speaking. "Not many and not in an easily accessible location, but they are in existence."

The mastermind firmly ignored any stares directed at him as he folded his arms and seemed to glower at Sybil. It was easy to tell there was some bad blood between the two.

************************************************

"Then you know what I'm talking about," Block Bot muttered as Hokata answered his question. "And you know why it is a particularly touchy topic to me. To all of us, I suppose, though the others hide it more easily."

Block Bot sighed as he put his face in one hand. "It is still so hard to get used to these new emotions that I occasionally have trouble controlling them. And I'm afraid I just don't remember you at all," Block Bot said to Hokata. "Neither you nor your human form. Which isn't that hard to believe really. With our main databanks gone, we've had to compress our memories in the same fashion that humans do. It results in annoying memory loss."

"It is indeed a miracle that this mortal did not manage to kill himself and everyone around him while tampering with a Dragon's Heart," Archlich said as he glanced at Matt. "As little as I care about your lives, I would advise you to consult more expert assistance when attempting work of this calibur again. The destruction of magical artifacts is always a thing to be avoided, even if they are but mere copies."

"And you," Archlich continued, turning his gaze on Cory. "You are a warlock, am I correct? How is it that one of your kind stills exists in this day and age, not to mention under the mantle of a 'hero'? I have encountered very few of your brethren among the channels I usually tread."

For the moment, the lich was going to overlook Cory's snide remark about his loyalties. The time would come to even himself with the warlock, but for the moment he was more intrigued than irked.

*********************************************

Toy easily caught Lady Grey's reaction to seeing Acid. After all, aside from his command and control functions, he had been designed to notice just about anything that went on within his vision. Figuring he would press Acid for information later, the mastermind fell in step with the Vanguard leader as she began walking back to the main room.

The rest of the group followed, Solid Shot making a point to walk near to Lady Grey. As a former guard droid, he was going to guard her whether she liked it or not. His position came in handy as Lk'Onik came barreling in, knocking Lady Grey off her feet. Respressing the urge to overcharge his fists and slam the Rikti, however friendly, away, he instead lunged forward and caught Lady Grey before she hit the ground. He had her set back upright and had stepped back in order to get a clean line of fire into the main room before she could offer more than a slight yelp at the injury to her dignity.

Calm yourself, Psi-Scout! Cher'tak projected strongly, attempting to broadcast his own firm discipline to help Lk'Onik get himself under control. You are of no use in such a condition! Calm yourself now and tell us what has gotten you so riled up!

Toy Dispenser had barely seen the Rikti coming and had stepped back out of the way, neatly removing himself from a potential collision. As with Solid Shot, he set about assembling his pulse rifle and looking out into the main room just in case something had happened in there. At the same time his robots, who had been providing rear guard, went into high alert and took up covering positions.

It never hurt to be too sure about one's safety in an alien environment.

"It's none of your business," Block Bot spat out as he took a step away from Baalial. "But since it seems you'll kill me unless I explain, then I shall do so."

"Our methods of communication have been denied to us," the android said with a barely concealed tone of frustration coloring his speech. "As have the means of our longevity. The manufactory satellite, the secret to Toy Dispenser's might, was destroyed a year or so ago. The bodies we had then were all that remained of our many iterations and he decided that he could not afford to lose us. He designed for us new bodies, utilizing advanced and sometimes esoteric technology to give us advantages where we had none before."

Eyes glowing bright red as his tone shifted to anger, Block Bot continued.

"And then that god damn Elitest managed to find some way to hack into our signal and use it for purposes it had not been designed for, spreading a crippling virus to all of us. Two months we were crippled, unable to do a thing as Toy Dispenser forcibly shut down the links and strove to cure us."

"Do you know how much of an agony it is," Block Bot said, staring right into Baalial's eyes. "How much of an agony it is to be trapped within your own body. Unable to move, to speak, to do anything? All while your mind can operate at speeds faster than any mere human can comprehend but can do nothing except loop in upon itself in an endless cycle!?!"

Block Bot's voice had gradually risen to a shriek at the end of his rant, causing several rebels to leap to their feet to see what was going on. The android automatically pacified them with a flexing of his psychic muscles, keeping the rebels from asking uncomfortable questions.

"That is why we can no longer speak to one another as we once could," Block Bot finished, his voice completely under control and his eye dimming. "How the six of us, once effectively one, are now split in twain. Are you quite satisfied?"

*********************************************

"This is too convenient," Toy Dispenser said aloud. "We just get this sudden arrival of reinforcements, people from our past, and events start cascading out of control. We've made more progress in a single day than in years of long fighting and guirella actions."

"This can't be coincidence," Combat Toy rumbled. "Not only that, but suddenly Blightlord ups and gets himself killed? As much as I loved seeing that power hungry [censored] get his just desserts, I can't believe that it'll be this easy."

"But there's nothing we can do at the moment," Toy continued in an annoyed tone of voice, crossing his arms in a furstrated gesture. "All we can do is secure it and hope that things keep falling in our favor."

"And we should really keep our eyes open," concluded Small Toy.

"A warlock..." Archlich said to himself as he ignored Matt for the moment and watched after Cory briefly. "I have not seen many of those for quite some time now. I shall have to speak with this one, find out where he obtained his power."

With the experience gained that one could only garner from living hundreds of centuries surrounded by magic, Archlich had quickly and easily been able to determine the root of Cory's magic. It helped that demonic energies generally had a subtly different feel to them that most other wizards missed.

Turning his gaze back to the scrapper hero and his abomination of a vehicle, Archlich walked over to the bike and examined it more closely, taking care to avoid the shining headlights. His right hand traced several runes in the air as he walked, unlocking several variations of the standard identification spell in order to piece together what this thing was made of.

"Where did you get this machine?" Archlich asked Matt, not even looking in the scrapper's direction but somehow making his voice reach him loud and clear. "And from whom did you purchase it?"

**********************************************

Toy Dispenser stepped to one side as Lady Grey approached, signalling Combat Toy to move further down the corridor with the rest of the bots in order to free up more space.

"Lady Grey," Toy said with a nod. "Allow me to introduce Acid Zero, an associate of mine that I have worked with on several occasions."

"Oh joy, another money grubbing mercenary to fill out our merry band of misfits and renegades," grumbled Solid as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and leaned against the wall so he could see and hear what was about to happen.

"I've always said we need more aliens," he continued sarcastically. "No offense, Cher'tak."

"None: Taken," the Rikti replied as he too watched the conversation with interest.

<QR>
As a CoVer, I'm not sure if I approve of this. Let's just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

"Nothing that I know of could cause such effects," Toy Dispenser said as he edged to the side a bit so Jake could step forward and get more involved in the conversation. "If I had access to Hero Corps databanks at the moment, I could probably browse through their files and find some heroes and villains with powers that can disintegrate matter. But without that resource, I can't do much."

"Maybe it only fries organic bits," Solid suggested from in back. "It would explain why the armor has been relatively undamaged."

"Kinda reminds me of Ghoul's problem, boss," Combat Toy muttered as it leaned closer to Toy Dispenser.

Toy grunted noncommittently and then gestured at Grey.

"Well, we're not going to solve anything just standing around and talking. Let's inform Lady Grey that we found Acid here and then continue on as a single group," he said.

*********************************************

Archlich flinched slightly as Ryat fired a bolt of electricity at a patch of air. Closer examination revealed some odd black smoke that was floating over the ground. Cursing himself for his inattentiveness, Archlich reactivated the various wards on his armor, their runes flashing blue once to indicate they were active. Almost immidiately, Archlich's senses were assaulted by the brutish magical presence that was somewhere nearby and coming closer. It didn't feel like a living thing or a being of pure magic, but rather had the odd taste of metal and the sense of being restrained in some fashion. Repressing the annoying feeling, Archlich turned around and looked out in the direction that 'Mad' Matt's motorcycle was. He still kept one eye on the scientist and his pet robot, however. They were worth watching for now.

"'bout time," Ghoul muttered after Martin finished ranting. "Talkin' while there's a bunch of Council to smash.... Pfft, capes."

Ghoul flicked Klaus the finger as he turned around and caught up to Martin with one bound.

"No way in hell am I lettin' you get all the action, cape," Ghoul said to the hero with a cocky grin that looked a bit out of place on his dead face. "Hows about I demonstrate how we handle Nazis in the Isles?"