Khellendrosiic

"Hmm..." was all Solid said as he turned on his boot jets and sailed up into the air, spinning around so that he was flying upwards and backwards.

"Come on then," he said to Essex. "Might as well get back soon."

"No, it isn't," Solid replied with a bit of concern in his voice. "I wonder why... Did anything hit you on the head recently? Perhaps a member of the Circle of Thorns?"

"You just have something on your face," Solid said as he rubbed it out with his thumb. "Probably a bit of splatter from one of those zombies I shot, nothing to worry about. Ready to go?"

Solid paused and reviewed the last few seconds from internal memory. Yep, he had seen something green.

Closing the door behind them, Solid led Essex to a sliding door leading out onto a small balconey extending over the sidewalk a bit from the fourth floor that they were on. The purpose of this balconey was for ease of access to flying supers. But they did have to swipe their hero ID before entering, which they wouldn't have had to do if they went in through the ground floor.

And since Solid and Essex could both fly, Solid slid the door open and stepped outside. But as Essex stepped out with him, he held a hand in front of her to stop and then turned her head to one side to get a better look at the green spot.

He was betting it was in the shape of Hal's lips, the little bugger.

"Ok then," Solid said, getting up and pushing his chair back. "Let's get going."

Walking over to the door, Solid grabbed his rifle from an automatic reloader that looked like a simple gun rack and then pushed the door open. He stepped out and then held it for Essex, nodding at one of neighbor's as the man poked his head out of his door.

"Hey George."

"Eh," George grunted and then vanished back into his own apartment.

"MANY THANKS, FELLOW DO GOODERS!" Wielder shouted at the Longbow as he pulled back and let them go after Pain Killah. A villain from the Rogue Isles was more Longbow's venue anyway. Those stubborn bastards never went down fast enough for Wielder's tastes.

You might want to get the tall skinny guy now, the Painpipe said.

Spinning around, Wielder noticed the Pariah attempting to escape into the sewers. Charging forward and pointing his pipe at the villain, Wielder shouted, "HALT EVIL VILLAIN AND FACE JUSTICE!"

Solid waved his hand dismissively and leaned back in his chair.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just a little worried about you knowing such...questionable...people," he said. "But I suppose if you've gotten this far then its none of my business to mess around. Now then, what time is it? I think we might have to be rescued soon."

Solid sat up straight, looking at Essex with a worried air about him. From what he gathered, this Archlich guy was one badass villain and this Rosalind didn't seem much better. What was Essex doing hanging out with those kinds of people?

Then again, this is the girl who knew a Zenith Mekman and once brought home a Nightwolf. She seemed to be the luckiest person in the world.

"Nothing bad I hope," Solid said, remarkably nonchantlantly. "And you like a lot of people, huh?"

"THE PAINPIPE CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED BY THE FORCES OF EVIL!" Wielder shouted as he rocked back and forth, trying to keep his balance as the shockwave rolled under him. "THE GREAT OAK THAT IS GOOD SHALL NEVER SUCCUMB TO THE LUMBERJACK THAT IS EVIL!"

Grabbing his pipe in two hands, Wielder held it upward, catching Killah, literally, on the pipe before heaving forwards, throwing Pain Killah away. Once the villain's attack was thwarted, Wielder surged forward and bashed him in the head with the Painpipe.

"Them again," Archlich hissed, swiftly dismissing his scrying spells and cloaking himself in a field of invisibility.

Continuing forward, Archlich tried to get close enough to get a good look at the figures without getting close enough to let them notice him.

...

O______________________________O

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soviet! We will miss you!

And Reikoff, and Curtis, and Marcus, and Snikker, and Prikker, and Ramier....am I forgetting anyone?

*deep breath*

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

*consoles himself by not shooting any Trolls the next time he goes through Skyway*

"A skeleton-man who's old, is good at magic, and doesn't like you very much?" Solid asked rhetorically as he drummed his fingers on the table, TV show forgotten. "Sheesh, makes me think of a mix between a CoT mage and a Banished Pantheon zombie. And if he doesn't like you, why do you still like him?"

Briefly connecting wirelessly with his computer, Solid quiered the main Freedom Corps database about an Archlich and Rosalind.

I've gots some theme songs from my extremely limited list of music! Yay!

Archlich
O Fortuna - on Putfile somewhere

Solid Shot
Battlefield by Blind Guardian

Also, the Here With Me song is now my traveling music and Apocalypse Please by Muse is the music I play after I get killed.

"The Grim Reaper's like the who?" Solid asked, turning around as Billy ate a mutant chicken egg. "Archwitch?"

Solid sighed, he really should get paid for this.

"Ok, how about this. You go back home, tell Dr. West what happened. You can either stick to the Council plot or tell him that you went into lock down and I took you to my place for a little while, either or. Then, tell him I'll want to talk with him once he comes back. I'll try and sort things out then."

Rapping his fist against the table, Solid turned and flipped on the big TV placed above his desk.

"Now, might as well watch some TV for the last half hour. I think Billy and Mandy is on."

Archlich stalked along the path to the guest house, his cape flowing out behind him in a slight breeze the lich had conjured for just such an effect. Glowing runes surrounded his head and upper torso, alternately winking on and off as he scanned the area he passed through with several magical spells, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

OOC: Note: Archlich's disguise was blown off by one of the demon-ninjas. So right now he's in his standard armor. Except this time he's got a royal purple cape with red sigils woven around its edges.

And before I can post, what were the other buildings again?

At some point, Toy is going to go into business as a secret base salesman. He'll do it as something to do on the side and to have an excuse to create more specialized robots, very few of which any of you have ever seen.

"Aw, buck up, kiddo," Solid said, patting Essex on the head. "I'm sure however mad at you he may get, he still loves you."

"And besides," Solid said, leaning back and getting a conpiritorial tone to his voice. "If he starts pressing you about stuff you don't want to talk about, start babbling about how scary the Council base was and how you were worried you were gonna die or something like you usually do. Then he'll get so busy trying to calm you down that he'll forget about interrogating you. And don't ask me how I know this, I don't reveal my sources."

Solid tapped one of his two radio mounts and the beeping stopped.

"As far as the Doc knows, he tried to use your phone, got a brief signal from northern Independance Port, and then had it cut off," Solid said nonchalantly. "And I think you really want to go back home, right?"

Solid whistled.

"Good isn't the half of it," he said. "You've got a Full House. It beats just about anything short of a Royal Flush. Which I certainly do not have."

Gathering up the cards, Solid shuffled the deck and then dealt a new hand. Looking down at his cards, Solid nodded, satisfied that he could still deal himself a Royal Flush.

"Read em and weep, Ess," he said, displaying the cards. "This is a Royal Flush, the beat all of all hands."

"TREACHERY!" Wielder roared as he went down, bowled over both by R0CK-0N's and Pain Killah's attack. "I CANNOT SUCCUMB SO EASILY TO THE WILES OF EVIL!"

Struggling back to his feet, clanking all the while, Wielder went at Pain Killah, his pipe leading for an uppercut smash.

Solid scratched his head and looked around his apartment. He shrugged at the mass of machinery and then looked back at Essex as he picked up the cards and dealt a new hand.

"Five years," he said. "Ever since my upgrade right after the Rikti War."

He dealt out the cards and looked at his hand of crap. A five, a six, a three, an eight, and a ten.

"Ok, when you don't have a pair or straight or anthing, you have to go by your highest single card," Solid said as he laid down his cards. "So I've got a ten."

Solid sighed as he saw Essex still not comfortable. He put one hand on top of his head and then leaned that elbow on the table before tossing down his cards.

"I've got a ten, a jack, a queen, a king, and an ace," he said, pointing at each card in turn. "That nets me a Straight, which is pretty respectable. For a Straight you need five cards in a row that are mostly different suits. A suit is if they're clubs or diamonds or whatever. What've you got?"

OOC: LIES! Clearly I have a five of diamonds.

BIC: "Well, generally when someone ties with a pair, the winner is the one with the higher numbers. Since I've got a pair of fives and you have a pair of twos, that means I win this hand," Solid said as he collected up the cards and then dealt a new hand. "Now let's just play a few hands and I'll point out things as we come across them."