Mithril_Zeta

[ QUOTE ]
"Let's meet outside of CR7," Khell said into his radio as he started walking to the elevator. "Fred, you bring a new camera just in case the one in there broke and the rest of us will hang around just in case something serious happened. Which I doubt."

[/ QUOTE ]

“Will do,” Fred said, tapping into a keypad. The electronics storage closet clicked open, and the small man grabbed a security camera.

He hurried to the elevator, waving at Jason on the way by. Jason, staring at the monitors, reached up and waved in response.

Fred stood, waiting for the elevator to come back down.

[ QUOTE ]
"Okay team, bossman says we need men at the LP and the Rail. I'll take the Launch Pad with my personal squad, Khel, I want you to take this goon," He pointed to the other guard at the door, a twenty-something grunt, "Fred, and three of the elevator guards from floors one, seven, and eight. Jason, keep watch over this building. Let's move!"

[/ QUOTE ]

“Okay, Cap. Jason, I’m transferring total control of the monitors up to the front desk and locking up.” Fred flicked three switches, typed in a code, and then vacated the monitor room. He shut the door behind him and typed a code into the security keypad. He tabbed his earpiece. “Khell, where do you want to meet?”

At the front desk, Jason’s fingers flew over the keyboard. The three monitors on the front desk started to alternate pictures every five second. A small smile appeared on Jason face as he watched the security camera images flash by. Things were right now.

The smile disappeared as a blank screen appeared on monitor three. His fingers danced on the keyboard again. The security camera for conference room seven was down. He tapped his earpiece. “Captain, the camera for CR7 is down again. Should we check it out?”

"No idea," Fred said. "Big Bossy just said send up two guards, so I'm sending up two guards."

Jason clicked in as well. "Generally, Mr. Tharomar wants to make sure no one gets into his meetings once they start. He had someone come in five years ago interrupting his presentation that was being broadcast to some Portal execs. He lost his temper, and lost the contract."

"Ah, yes, I remember that," Fred said.

[ QUOTE ]
"Send up two guards."

[/ QUOTE ]

Fred jumped and stared at the intercom for a moment. He pressed it down. “Affirmative. Guards being sent.”

He quickly keyed channel 7. “Cap, Mr. Tharomar just asked for two guards in the conference room. Khell, get up to the conference room post haste.” He looked quickly around. The front door guard was alone; Jason at the front desk was alone. The garage booth had two men in it. “Cap, I'm going to have to pull one of the garage guards.”

He clicked on the garage booth intercom. “Draw straws, guys. One of you has got to come inside for extra guard duty for the conference room. Not joking now. Something big is going down."

Fred leaned back. Typical. You have a carefully set up system, and some Big Bossy type comes in and makes immediate demands, and the structure slips. A little planning ahead would be refreshing. And more than two minutes notice would have been a true breath of fresh air.

[ QUOTE ]
"I'm sorry, I'm very sorry. I am late, men. Any activity?"

[/ QUOTE ]

“Captain! So nice to hear your soothing melodic voice,” Fred said. “Just a suggestion, though, next time take that final corner on all four wheels. I was afraid that boat you drive was going to tip over,” The small man grinned. “Things are smooth sailing. Nothing to report.”

Jason’s deep mournful voice came through on the intercom. “Captain, the various heads of departments are all heading towards the board room. Mr. Tharomar is already there.”

“What Jason is so subtly not saying is…aren’t you supposed to be at that meeting, too, Cap?” Fred grinned even broader. “Time to powder your bigwig and play politics with the administration.”

“And, she’s off!” Fred said looking at the monitor “Penny Five hurries by the HumVee, loses a shoe like Cinderella, hurries back for it, and is off again.” He loved his nicknames for the people who went by. It kept him entertained. Playing with her name – Penny and Nickels for Nicholson – was a nice play on words. He waved at her as she went by.

He noticed in the monitor from the front that Jason watched Penny rush across the lobby to the elevators. Jason sort half raised his hand to wave, and then lowered it without actually waving. Fred raised his dark eyebrows. Ole Stone Rook was about to have a human moment. Imagine that.

Movement in the parking garage. The hummer bounced a little. As he watched, one of the women from the secretarial pool got out of it and hurried to the stairs. A few moments later, Stephen VanLoosen got out as well, brushing his awful comb over his head, and took the elevator. “Graybeard, you there, HumVan is on way up to his office. Give him a knowing grin for me, would you, and tell him he forgot to zip his fly.”

[ QUOTE ]
Sting turned toward the basement steps. “I don’t know, some crap Mystic cooked up to get us to the Rogue Isles. I don’t do the planning around here I just beat things up. So if you want to tag along into some of the most dangerous areas outside of Boomtown or Eden then let’s roll.”

[/ QUOTE ]

Newton watched the two of them head downstairs. Newton tuned in on his singularity that he had sent after the girl. Sting was right; she was going to be a target for someone – Circle, or maybe just the Skulls or Hellions looking for a piece of @$$, in which case they’d probably be dead. The girl was powerful.

But, then again, so was he. He was easy to underestimate. On purpose.

The other thing he hated to admit to himself. She and her brother had come into the Two Six’s area of King’s Row. That made them his…and Mystic’s and Sting’s…problem. He couldn’t just let a walking earthquake loose in their area.

Besides, he thought as he packed several bag lunches, if anyone was going to wreck miscellaneous buildings, it was going to be him. He grinned wryly, thinking of the beauty shop he had helped destroy by accident.

Resolutely, he walked out of the door, started to hover, and pushed himself through a wormhole after the girl.

[ QUOTE ]
"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.

[/ QUOTE ]

“Things are humming along pretty well. Sheryl is feeling mighty pregnant, but then again she is seven months along. She’s almost as grumpy as Stoney is, ” Fred said, glancing at the monitors. “Ms. C is safely in her office now,” he reported Ms. Calloway was one of the few that Fred didn’t have a nickname for. She kept her ear to the pulse of the company too much, would hear the nickname, and she knew who Fred was.

“We’ve got all sorts of bigwigs powdering their bigwigs for Big Bossy today. Have you heard anything about what he wants? I just want you to know, that comment of paycuts all around makes me very nervous.” He grinned.

[ QUOTE ]
"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."

[/ QUOTE ]

Jason had a flash of surprise cross his face, and quickly pulled his poker face back as he sat in the chair. He through a quick glance at the monitors. So few. He sighed.

[ QUOTE ]
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?"

[/ QUOTE ]

“I’m on, Graybeard,” Fred said, spinning round and round in his chair. “How’s Stoney? He was looking pretty grumpy when he left.” He grabbed a clipboard. “I left off in the conference room on fifth," he said after he checked it. He rubbed his pug nose. "Did I just see Big Bossy come in? Do you suppose Little Bossy is going to get chewed out again?"

Jason Hunt looked from the security monitors to the clock. It was his turn to head out to the front desk. He sighed. He didn’t want to leave the monitors. That’s what was important. Someone else should spend their time being the glorified doorman. His skills were wasted while he was out there. He just wasn’t a ‘people’ person.

“Time to trade places,” Fred Veraldi said, coming into the room. Their sub-department of security had four jobs – one on front desk, one in the monitor room, and two floaters. Jason preferred the monitor room, Fred preferred to float, and Khell preferred the front desk, but the chief insisted they switched places every so often.

“Yeah, I know. Jason grumbled and stood, finishing his coffee. He was a tall man, slender to the point of being gaunt. He had a heavy brown, and his blue eyes were deep set. He had a long, beaklike nose, which made him look a bit like a crow or a rook. He hung up his Freedom Phalanx mug up on the peg next to coffee maker, and got out of Fred’s way.

“Now go play nice with the public, Stone,” Fred said with a grin as he settled into the chair. Fred was just about Jason’s opposite – short, gregarious, animated, a jokester. He called Jason ‘the ole Stone Rook’ because of his deadpan expression and his beaklike nose. It bothered Jason when they first started working together, but Fred had a nickname for everyone, and they frequently were very accurate.

Jason checked his gun and stun gun as he walked through the hallway and into the front desk area. “I’m here for my shift, Khell,” he said sourly to the guard who was sitting at the front desk. “Of course, if you want to stay here, I’ll float or go back to the monitor room. As long as we don’t let the chief know, right?” he said hopefully.

[ QUOTE ]
"And we care about your friend because why," Nadia asked before she took another sip of soda.

"Nadia."

"What," she placed the can on the counter and spoke loud enough for Sting to hear, "All I'm saying is we're bending to the rules of Mr. Chubbs, Hott Head, and Cocky over there and as far as I'm concerned I could have just let them all die under this building while we merrily escaped."

[/ QUOTE ]

“Wouldn’t have happened, chickadee,” Newton murmured. Mr. Chubbs indeed.

[ QUOTE ]
"Nadia stop it," Aidan's eyes narrowed at his sister as his voice firmed.

"WHatever Aidan. You can be friends with this misfit justice league. But I don't have to listen. I'm done listening. You're too nice Aidan. And its time Twin sis called the shots," Nadia started to walk toward the front doors.

Aidan reached a hand to stop her, but she produced a stalagmite that came just short of his forearm. Aidan pulled back quickly and looked confusedly at his sister.

"And oh yea, your little rock statue left through the front door last night. Guess he didn't like you either," she finished with a turned back as she exited the building.

[/ QUOTE ]

“Gee, she left just when we were getting along so well,” Newton said lightly. He frowned slightly as he sent one of his friendly little singularities after her.

[ QUOTE ]
"What the heck has gotten into that girl? Umm, never seen her like this. It's like a new side of her. I mean, her attitude's shifty, but not like this. And she has never attacked me before."

Aidan pride swelled inside him, "Thats cool though. She wants to be a big girl, I'll let her see what its like."

[/ QUOTE ]

Newton glanced at the young man. ‘Oh, yeah, that attitude will last all of about two hours.’

[ QUOTE ]
He turned to Newton, "In the meantime, how bout that portal," he asked as he looked at Smurd who may or may not have heard Nadia's comment about the Golem.

"Hope it doesn't come down to fisticuffs with that guy," he whispered to Newton as he thought of Smurd's role in the situation downstairs, "Don't know what I'd do," he finished with a sarcastic smile.

[/ QUOTE ]

“Ah, the innocent confidence of youth,” Newton said. “Don’t underestimate those around you. You never know what they may be able to do.”

Newton walked over to Sting. “Now, this isn’t any sort of order. I know better than to order you. I’d have all sorts of extra holes in me if I did that. Would you be willing to go with Rocky here downstairs and work on the portals. After my last experience with them, I really don’t want to go into another one.” He shuddered. “I have a couple things I want to take care of up here.” His green eyes flickered towards the outside door.

[ QUOTE ]
“Wait a freaking second! These two attack us in our own house, almost bringing the place down, and we are going to invite them for tea?!? How about we beat them senseless and then interrogate them?”

[/ QUOTE ]

Newton looked at Sting, trying to get him to shut up. It was obvious to him that these two were super-powered runaways, looking for a place to crash. Threatening them or anything else get them running again. Newton understood, better than the kids or Sting could know.

[ QUOTE ]
Sting saw the look of exasperation on Newton’s face. “Oh %&#$! Ok fine, we’ll play nice with them. But one false move and someone gets perforated.” Sting grumped as he marched into the conference room and sat down in the corner, arms crossed.

[/ QUOTE ]

“Don’t mind Sting,” Newton said calmly. “He threatens to beat up everyone who comes into the Two Six.” He raised his eyebrows at the two youngsters. “You are aware that you decided to crash in an old police station, aren’t you?”

He raised his hands. “Don’t worry, we’re not cops or anything like that. I mean, look at us. Green haired fat man, dude with sword, and anti-social bug man. We aren’t the cops. Just a group of misfits that the court system didn’t know what to do with.”

Newton was nervously watching the walls. “Man, it’s too bad all our science types are gone. We really need to have someone double check the architecture. I personally don’t want the building to come crashing down on my head in the middle of the night. Enough things have hit me on the head recently.

[ QUOTE ]
The basement door slowly opened and Aidan poked his head out, "Ok, we learn your story, you learn ours. Then we decide if what happened down there, needs to continue. deal?"

Nadia continued to hold on to her brother's hand tightly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Newton glanced over at the other two. “Sounds reasonable,” he said. “Let’s head to the conference room.” He said, motioning towards one of the rooms off of the main entryway. “Would you like something to eat. I’d offer you some cold pizza, but for some reason, it has disappeared.” His green eyes twinkled mischievously.

“Oh, this is just nuts,” Newton said, picking himself up from the ground. Sting had just used him as a ladder, or a trampoline or something.

He sent out a friendly singularity to find the crazy catatonic controller girl. “Rocky,” he called out to the stone-covered boy, “I have a lock on her. I can wormhole her out of there! If she loses direct contact with the earth, will the earth calm down?”

[ QUOTE ]
Aidan raised the stone malet over his head again for another strike and nearly fell back at its increased weght. He scanned the room and turned up to see the heavy hero with outstretched hands toward him. Aidan responded with a backflip that upon landing, caused a small tremor and mediun sized boulders to erupt from the earth that caused anyone on the ground that opposed him to lose their footing. Aidan roundhouse kicked one of the boulders into the green-haired man's direction...

[/ QUOTE ]

“Eeep!” Newton squeaked as the boulder flew at him. With a panicked motion, a strong gravity bubble surrounded him and protected him from harm, but the pure force of the attack slammed the bubble back up the stairs.

As he sat at the top of the steps, Newton shook his head, trying to clear his vision. The boulder had really hurt. He wobbly stood up. Between the force of the rocks, his own present weakness, and the earth throbbing, he was having trouble pulling himself into focus.

“Okay, it’s not just my head,” Newton said, stumbling down the stairs. “Everyone out! I thought we were on pretty solid bedrock, but something’s pretty nasty here!” He looked to where Sting was. “Grab the chickadee and get her out of here!”

He looked at Smurd and the kid. "C'mon, get out of there." Newton watched the ceiling, wondering if he had to, if he could hold it up long enough for everyone to get out.

“Ah-ah-ah-ah,” Newton said as he floated about the ground. “That’s not very nice,” The green haired mutant raised his hands at the stone creature with the huge mallet. The earthen hammer suddenly seemed to weigh several tons as Newton tried to convince the stoner to drop the weapon.

Cold Heart shook his head, trying to imagine the meat as sentient. "You're right, Sword. They don't seem to have changed much at all."

They walked a few more steps. "Then why does the Avatar put up with humans like the Eviella family? Do we really need the humans?"

[ QUOTE ]
"I don't believe that we intend to simply cast them aside. For whatever reason, our attempts at revival have failed. The Avatar is much better at this than we are. If he is not capable, then it is likely the wand that interdicts. We may have just found a new weapon."

Sword stood by, as invisible as he could while Cold did his work.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cold Heart stood a few moments later. “That should do it,” he said with satisfaction.

“This is a strange world,” Cold Heart said to his fellow Lacerta. “It is still difficult for me to think of these humans as sentient. The human-like creatures we keep in the stables on Temple certainly are not sentient. Most mammals I’ve seen are not.”

Newton shrugged, put on his metal helmet, grabbed his back pack of food that, grabbed two Mountain Dews and followed Smurd into the basement.

[ QUOTE ]
“We will require more of a presence here.” Hoard-Master and Fusion were both dead, separated from the physical realm by magic that made their being brought back impossible, or at least too much trouble to bother with. One thug remained, with one arm functioning and the other blackened from the spirits’ touch. A revolver dangled from his hand, smoke still rising from the barrel. All of the Circle were dead.

Sword turned toward the tunnel, “come Cold Heart, we have seals to close.”

[/ QUOTE ]

“It does seem odd to not bring Fusion back,” Cold Heart said as he followed Sword. “There are so few of us.”

The seals were simple enough. Cold Heart had seen their type many times, and had even created some during his lessons with the Arch Deacon. “Give me a few moments to close these. Any second year novitiate could do these seals in their sleep. If this is the best that the Circle of Thorns can do, we have nothing to worry about.”

[ QUOTE ]
Smurd paused to allow Newton to speak.

[/ QUOTE ]

“I don’t think the others left. We were all supposed to meet here, right, and then travel along together.” He frowned. “And what’s this about no donuts. I bought donuts yesterday. Did you eat the leftover pizza, too, by the way?” He glanced up towards the stairs. “Are any of the others awake yet. I find it odd that Mystic isn’t here yet.”

The Two Six

Newton opened the fridge and muttered, “Man, I know I had some leftover pizza.” He grabbed a Mountain Dew and frowned as he shut the fridge door. He opened it back up. It looked different than what it had when he went to bed. Food missing, Dew missing. One of those things of living in a building where others share the space.

It was morning, and Newton had finished his packing. He had memorized where the food was so he wouldn’t have to carry it; he’d pull it through his friendly little wormhole. It worked pretty well.

He sat down to wait, wondering if Mystic, Sting, the Golem, and the new guy – Smurd – were going to take long. He personally found it hard to believe that he was the first one up, but oh, well. He ate a few donuts as he waited.

((ooc: once again, Newton missed some valuable piece of information - the piece of 'We're meeting at the site.'))

((greetings, Cult of Mu. I apologize that I have been so negligent in the Forum. Things have been crazy at work. I am about to go on a trip to Washington DC, chaperoning 90 high school students. I then get to stay out there, my wife joining me, and vacation for a week. Therefore, I won’t be on line for the next 2 weeks. I’ll rejoin as soon as I can. Cold Heart will be praying in temple.

See you in a couple of weeks.))

[ QUOTE ]
Would you two like to test your skills in battle?
"Words are many, but I will follow and judge this for myself if you will allow it."

[/ QUOTE ]

“I would enjoy a chance to try my skills on this planet.” Cold Heart said. “I want to know how much the teleportation took out of me.”

[ QUOTE ]
As Fusion wandered off to assist with bringing others through the gate and working on his droid, Sword took Cold Heart aside. “You may already be aware, but I was part of the Black Guard on Hope. Consort-Inquisitor did not gain her standing by martial skills, but rather by cultivating the favor of the Avatar. In my short time here I have already nearly reached her level of recovery from the journey. Soon I will surpass her in every way. She will need to be replaced. When this occurs, I will need friends in the priesthood who have kept an eye on my deeds. Shield and I intend on doing great things for this incursion. It would be good to have allies.”

[/ QUOTE ]

Cold Heart nodded. “What you are talking about is quite dangerous,” the Lacerta man said softly. “It could be perceived as mutiny.” He narrowed his eye. “Tread carefully, brother.”

[ QUOTE ]
To Point-Defense, Sword nodded. “Even our newest guards are capable of seeing that too much compromising without enough information is going on. We would not usually allow any outsiders in the Temple without chains. Now worshipers roam freely, allowed to have their own delusions of power. This is because the Avatar is not provided with the required intelligence to properly subjugate them.”

“When the time comes, I will require your support. Unlike the Consort, who spends all her time in the chambers of the Avatar, I intend to extend a web of spies into Arachnos. It is to that end that Shield and I work now.” Sword nodded to both, and briefly awaited a response before heading out of the temple to go squash the enemies of Arachnos.

[/ QUOTE ]

“I will certainly spend time subjugating our enemies and aiding you with the spies.” He smiled. “I am not terribly good at sneaky, but I’ll help however I can to protect our people.”