Khellendrosiic

"Hello, Dr. McCourd," Khell said as he nodded at the man. "And yes, the higher-ups are doing their thinking again. They have to have some excuse for the kind of pay they get."

"Sorry I'm late, Chief," Khell huffed as he jogged up to the conference room door.

Straightening his jacket and adjusting his shoulder holster, Khell stepped through the door, nodded at everyone inside, and took up his post on the right side of the doors. Khell had pulled this duty before, but not that often, and knew that he was supposed to stay quiet, look guard-ish, and stop anyone who tried to open the door. It was the other guard's job to question the person who wanted in.

"Dey joined da winning side!" Ghoul shouted as he jumped and pumped his fist into the air. "Da Ghoul side! Boo ya!"

Grinning madly, Ghoul snatched a water balloon from the pile and let it fly at Rosie.

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

"Silly humans, -_-" Toy said as he walked over to the sandbox and waved at Moonscribe. "Hi! I'm Toy! =D"

"And we're his bots, blah blah blah," Combat Toy said before it jumped into the wet sand Moonscribe had made and started making a hill.

"Bots make city! ^_^" Toy said happily as his toy robots started pulling the sand togther to make little sand skyscrapers and hills.

Khell sighed and bid goodbye to Sarah before jogging down the hall to the nearest elevator. A couple of people called out to him as he went past, but he only spared them a wave. Generally, when Jason said that you needed to be somewhere asap, it helped to do what he said.

Sideling into the elevator next to a couple of other people, Khell flashed them a quick grin and pushed the button to take him up to the conference room floor.

"I'm en route," Khell said over his radio. "Any idea why we're needed?"

"Very well," Archlich said, closing Shiro's folder with a snap. "There aren't that many children here of your age. I would suggest making friends with Feliks, or Commie, as he likes to be called."

Archlich stood up and started walking out of the door, gesturing for Shiro to follow him.

"Right in here is the entrance room. Nothing fancy, just here for parents dropping their children off. Over there is the center room. Snacks are along the left wall and various toys along the right. The door to the left is the playpen. In it are various oversized comical novelties, such as giant blocks for building forts. To the right is the stairway leading upstairs. Bathrooms are up there, one for each gender, as well as the sleeping rooms. Since you are an older child, you will probably share your room with only one other person. Go to the center room and then around and past the kitchen to find the door leading outside. You'll find the others there."

His speil done, Archlich folded his arms and looked down at the little trouble maker with his glowing blue eyes.

Toy shot forward, Ginstar and Essex in tow, before snapping to a perfect stop about ten feet away from the recon drone. The sudden shift of gravity took a moment to take full effect and Ginstar and Essex snapped forward like on the end of a whip. The two of them couldn't hold on and continued flying toward the drone until Toy's wrist flanges whirred loudly and spat white sparks, encasing the two of them in a force field that halted all their momentum.

The settled slowly down to the ground, where the shields disappated.

"Exciting, huh," Toy said as he looked at the shield in front of them.

"Typical," Archlich snorted as he tossed down the file in disgust.

Putting his head in one hand, Archlich grabbed a pen and dragged the file back over to him.

"Ok, kid. I'm going to ask you some simple questions and all you have to do is answer them. You don't want to answer, tell me why. If you don't have a good reason I'll wait until you've answered the rest of the questions and then dig it out of your little head."

Sighing, Archlich picked up his head and rustled the file.

"First question: How old are you?

Do you have parents?

Do you know where they are?

Do you display any unusual talents?"

And so on and so forth.

OOC: Assume pauses between each question for an answer.

">_>" Toy's face shifted as he followed Feliks outside.

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

"Hardly," Archlich said. "You can walk right back out that door for all I care, just don't take anything of mine with you."

Letting Shiro go, Archlich led the boy into the office where a large desk covered in papers, a flat screen monitor, and colored folders took up half the room. Motioning for Shiro to take a seat in a bean bag chair set up on the left side of the room, the lich walked over to the fax machine.

"Good, your files are here," he said. "Wait there while I look them over."

Sitting down in his straight backed hardwood chair, much marked up from Archlich's armor, the mage started reading through Shiro's file.

"My bots are the bestest, =P" Toy happily said as his toys rolled around, acting as though Essex's back was shooting back.

"Now we should go outside," Toy said. "Essex is showing the new kids awound."

"Right," Archlich said as he looked down at Shiro suspiciously. "I think I can handle him, car jacking skills or not. Thank you for bringing him here, officer. Come along, Shiro."

Archlich took Shiro's hand and started to lead the kid into the Children's Home.

"I got it," Archlich said as he headed toward the door. "You do the tour, I'll fill the new kid in on what he's missing."

Lamenting his current situation in life, Archlich pulled open the door and then carefully discharged the energy that he had instinctively gathered upon seeing the police officer. Looking down at the six or so year old kid, Archlich looked up at the officer in disbelief.

"What did he do? Illegally park his tricycle?"

"Hi Wowwow Man! Hi Felix! ^_^" Toy said happily as he somersaulted backward and jumped to his feet, spreading his arms wide. "Dese are my bots!"

"Yeah, we're his bots," Large Toy as it looked up at Workout Man. "So don't try to take us or nothing."

"I wouldn't mind," Mini Bot said. "I like playing."

"That's cause you're a girly bot," Combat Toy snorted. "You don't even have a Kung Fu grip."

"Yes I do!" Mini Bot shouted indigantly and hopped up and down. "Watch!"

Running up behind behind Essex, the plastic drone pointed its arm at her and pressed a red button on its shoulder. Little lights flashed on the end of its arm, playing over Essex's shoulder like little laser bursts.

"Laser attack!" the rest of the bots shouted and they all opened fire on Essex.

"My bots are awesome, =D" Toy said.

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

"Whatevah you gonna do to the girls," Ghoul said as he loomed over Reikoff. "Ghoul wans in."

Khell chuckled as Fred described Penny's race to her office, causing an office worker to look at him curiously. Khell waved pleasantly at the man and moved on. But when Fred mentioned VanLoosen, Khell's face darkened in a scowl. He had never liked VanLoosen, the man reminded him too much of his boss back in Crey.

"Ten four, Fred," Khell said over the radio. "And lucky me I should be right on top of him."

Turning a corner, Khell saw VanLoosen further down the hallway talking to one of the junior managers, Sarah something-or-other. From what Khell could see, VanLoosen looked as smarmy as ever and Sarah looked preoccupied. Guessing what the conversation was about, Khell sped up a bit to make sure nothing untoward happened. He sighed in relief when Sarah managed to brush the louse off and duck into her office without incident.

"Hello there, Mr. VanLoosen," Khell said amicably as the man tried to hurry by. "Good to see you around today."

"Ah, yes," VanLoosen said, a bit startled. Normally Khell didn't greet him in the hallway randomly. "How are you...Officer Dracan, is it?"

"I'm doing fine, Mr. VanLoosen," Khell said before clearing his throat and pointing downward. "But I think you might have forgotten something."

VanLoosen looked down at his pants and saw that his fly was open. Paling a little, VanLoosen zipped it up and tried to laugh it off.

"Thanks a lot, officer," he said. "I must have forgotten to adjust myself after going to the bathroom."

"Of course, Mr. VanLoosen," Khell said and smiled widely as VanLoosen walked away.

"Yeah, I think he's a bit paranoid now," Khell said into his radio. "And give me a moment to check if his latest 'attempt' victim is alright."

Walking up to Sarah's door, which was open, Khell rapped politely on the doorframe and then leaned in.

"Hello, miss," he said. "Just checking to see if everything is alright."

OOC: Who the heck gives a robot blush generators?

"Jason's always grumpy," Khell said as he walked into the elevator and hit the button for the fifth floor. "But I don't hold it against him. And yeah, Mr. Tharomar came in just a little while ago. I predict stormy weather, surprise fire drills, and pay cuts all around once he leaves again."

Khell sighed and leaned back against the elevator's wall as it rumbled slightly going up to his floor. He was getting a little too old for this. But he still had a few years left in him, maybe more if he could ever get around to visiting the gym again. The elevator finally dinged and Khell stepped out, taking an immidiate turn left to start his patrol.

"So how have you been doing, Fred?" he asked, wanting to keep a conversation going. Fred was just about the only person on the team other than Khell who talked more than was needed to do his job. This generally led to some interesting conversations, especially when Fred had heard a rumour that Khell hadn't run across yet.

Ghoul chose to be magnamious and ignore Io's remark about his intelligence. Not that he knew what magnamious meant.

OOC: Or how to spell it. >_<

"Sorry Jason," Khell said as he got out of the chair, groaning a bit as his joints ached from sitting still for so long. "I gave you a break last week and my old bones need some stretching."

Scratching at his beard again, Khell resolved for the umpteenth time to finally get a shave. Looking up at the sour face of his fellow security officer, Khell chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

"You really should try and talk to people more," Khell said as he moved out of the way and let Jason take the chair. "Especially that young Moore girl up on third floor. I've seen her go out of her way to run into you while you're floating."

Grinning, adjusting his belt nder his slight paunch, and making sure his various guns were in their right places, the sixty-odd guard said goodbye to his younger counterpart and made his way to the elevator. It was a Thursday which meant he and Fred had the odd numbered floors today.

Flicking on his radio, Khell called up the monitor room.

"Check one two. That you in there Fred?"

The miniature Combat Toy stuck out a foot and blocked Kreigg from rolling over anybody. The plastic toy poked the rock and looked it over curiously.

"Shouldn't you be in a garden or something?" it asked in a voice a bit too deep for its size.

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

Little Toy jumped up and waved his hands wildly.

"I'm Toy Dispenser! =D" he shouted. "I'm a wobot and I gots lasers! And I gots bots! Bots say hello!"

Mini Bot raised its hand and flopped down on the ground.

"I'm Mini Bot."

"I'm Large Toy."

"I'm Block Bot."

"I am Toy Bot."

"...i'm Small Toy..."

"Yo, I'm Combat Toy."

"And we're ACTION FIGURES!" they all shouted at once. Mini Bot stuck its hand up in the air again and waved it around.

"We are not doooolsssrrrrrr......" Mini Bot managed to get out before its eyes dimmed and blinked off.

"Perfect timing," Large Toy muttered and began cranking Mini Bot's wheel.

Then Ghoul sat up straight and looked around, focusing mainly on the crybaby and the smart pantses.

"Ghoul is Bwutif Ghoul!" he said, pointing his thumb at his chest. "I'm da ruler of da playpen, da king of the hill, an' the boss of alla yas. 'Cept Rosie, cause she's stupid."

Ghoul stuck out his tongue at Rosie and crossed his arms defiantly.

"Sure you are," Archlich said sarcastically before reaching down and prying Io off of Static. "And you, young lady, had better calm down."

Setting Io down between Ghoul and Kathode, Archlich formed a glyph in the air and placed it on Static's back.

"That should keep you from shocking anyone else," he said as he walked away. "You can show them around, Essex. I'll sort out the forms and get them filed."

"Good afternoon Mr. Tharomar, sir," Khell said as the boss of the conglomerate walked past the entrance security desk.

As usual, the man didn't even bother to acknowledge a lowly security guard such as Officer Khell Dracan, but that was ok, Khell was used to it by now.

Scratching at his bushy grey beard, Khell checked the sensor readouts displayed on the monitors at his desk. A small revolving image of Mr. Tharomar occupied the dominant position, small lines pointing to various places on the figure that said either CLASSIFIED or ALLOWED. These generally pertained to things on Mr. Tharomar's person that wouldn't normally be let inside but were ok due to his privileges and allowances.

"Hello, Khell," said a light voice just in front of him.

Khell looked up with a grin and accepted the ID card from the attractive blond in front of him. He quickly swiped it through a scanner and handed it back.

"And hello to you too, Ms. Clark," he said as he directed her to move along through his main scanner.

Trisha Clark pouted a bit and adjusted her knee length pale tan skirt before stepping through the almost invisible sensor strip.

"You are allowed to call me Trish," Trisha said jokingly. "It's not like you haven't seen me working here for five years."

Khell wagged his finger at her and swiped another ID card that was given to him by a pimply looking man from R&D.

"Now now, you know the rules about fraternizing with your superiors," he replied as he waved the man through.

Trisha snorted and shrugged before changing the topic.

"So are you still free tonight?" she asked. "Bobby's normal babysitter canceled and I've got this important meeting that I can't drop. I was wondering if you could maybe take Bobby over to your place or out to a movie or something."

Khell nodded and whipped out a little datebook that he always kept in his pants pocket. He flipped the book open to today's date and scribbled down something about picking up Trisha's kid for movie.

"Can do, Ms. Clark," he said. "Have a good day."

"You too, Khell, you're a lifesaver," she said and blew him a quick kiss before hurrying off.

Smiling to himself, Khell went back to work making sure nobody smuggled a weapon or bomb into Tharomar Enterprises. Not that he was worried. He had worked here for ten years ever since Crey terminated his contract and not a blessed thing had happened.

"Gotta love the cushy jobs for us old geezers," Khell said to himself.

Archlich sighed and drew a quick rune in the air, sending a rush of healing magic into Schizo.

"Now then, everyone take a seat," Archlich said, looking out over the group.

Toy and Ghoul were already sitting and watching intently. They remembered seeing Archlich like this before and it could get reaaaallly entertaining.

"You won't be killing anyone," Archlich said as he suddenly loomed over Blightlord. "And if you would stop playing with the chemistry sets..."

Archlich reached down and plucked the set from Blightlord's hands. With a snap of his fingers the chemistry set was back in its rightful place in a flash of blue light. Another snap of his fingers sent out a summons to everyone in the building. Regardless of where they were or what they wanted, they would all be teleported into the center room. Only Archlich, Essex, and the ones already in the room were exempt from this.

"Fast is as fast does," Toy said as he and Ginstar fell forward at a rate of five gravities. "And what is up with you people and toast? I mean, sure Essex can make it, but saying toast in Spanish? When does it end?"

"Hey! >_<" shouted Toy as he jumped forward. "Le' em go!"

Stumbling forward, Toy tripped over his own cape blanket and hit the ground. The impact caused him to fire a bolt of energy from his hands right at Cobalt. The bolt wouldn't do much more than stop the girl in her tracks though.

"I got the hand, Archie," came a small voice from around Archlich's knee.

Looking down, Archlich saw one of Toy's action figures holding up a skeletal hand. The lich quickly snatched it up and reattached it before patting the plastic robot on the head.

"Good job, Mini Bot. Now go and gather up your master and the others," he said. "It's 'snack time'."

Sighing again as he noticed Moonscribe's rainshower and Rosie's wail, the lich steeled himself against doing anything violent and set about fixing things.

A quick hex negated Moonscribe's stormcloud and a heat spell evaporated the water out of the carpet the kid was sitting on. Since he seemed to enjoy being wet, Archlich left his blanket alone. Then, he reached over to a convenient table, pulled out a couple of paper towels and knelt down in front of Rosie.

"Hold still, girl," he said as he wiped her face clean. "Just remember that you can always get him back for it later."

"Ghoul would so win," Ghoul huffed as he toddled over to the snack table and snagged a trio of peanut butter granola bars. He glared at everyone around him, daring them to take them away, before waddling back over to a bright colored chair on the left side of the room to munch.

"Los'a people. O_O," Toy said from the foot of the stairs. On the steps above him were arranged his toy robots, all six of which were talking to themselves. Every now and then, one of them would suddenly slump over and stop talking. Some industrious cranking of their back crank would start them up again.

Ghoul stuck his head closer to Nessie and squinted in an attempt to see through her glasses. However, he forgot about this when he heard Rosie's declaration.

"Rosie not boss!" he said, hopping up and down angrily. "Ghoul is boss! Ghoul kick butt!"

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

"Got bots!" Toy Dispenser called out happily from the top of the stairs.

The multi-colored mastermind was now more of a techni-colored mastermind, looking like he had stepped out of an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. A smiley face was currently being displayed on his blast visor as he pointed at the six large action figures that lay at his feet.

Flopping down, Toy started cranking a wheel on the back of the Mini Bot toy, his face changing to a squinty eyed smiley of concentration.

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

"Yes yes, I'm coming," Archlich irritably told the door as the doorbell rang again. "Why did everyone have to pick today of all days to show up. I was getting so close to nailing down that one incantation and-"

Archlich pulled open the door with his left hand and looked at the two parents, the blue pinpricks of light that served as his eyes focusing on the child in the man's arms.

"-Welcome to Bright Star Children's Home. We do babysitting, boarding, and orphanage duty. I am Archlich, the junior councilor of this establishment," he said and then gestured inside.

"Come inside, hand me the child, fill out the forms behind the man and the Titan, introduce the child, and then go back to doing whatever you were going to do," Archlich said in one breath before waving his stub. "I don't have much time until the children find my hand and do something with it that I'll regret, so the faster this happens, the better."