"Yeah," Lyle said, taking a drag on his cigar, "When you drink, does it dribble out your lip?" It earned him a deathly look from the newcomer.
"Doesn't anyone in this town look normal," Lyle thought to himself, chuckling softly. Another mutant, demon, whatever to deal with. Another mysterious punk with unknown motives and problems he'd have to watch out for.
"Oh no," Rebecca Morningstar suddenly gasped as she read the letter. "They're going to kill everyone. We don't have much time!"
Lyle was really starting to hate this town.
Lobe and Helsing were bad enough, one was loose in the head and the other was loose in the finger. He was going to have to be careful if he didn't want to be seen and have his insurance skyrocket. But now there were more, two more. A genetics hero and some sort of mutant or magic hero. They came in all kinds these days.
"My insurance is going to... thanks chum." he changed directions in mood as Sly Fox returned with a Jack Daniels on ice, 1:1 with ginger ale. Earth liquor had to be the most exquisit he had ever tasted.
Ivory pointed to a shelf in front of the window that displayed a number of impressive statues, charms and a sword rack now missing its display item. Among the trinkets and baubles was the golden statue that had once held Gideon, a white pricetag hung from its base bore the neat handwritting of Rebecca Morningstar: "New Item, Chinese Ornamental Dragon Statue. Gold Body, Bloodstone Features. Sale: $1800."
Ivory spoke in place of Morningstar, "Spectral prisons draw their energy fromwhatever is around them. If in the posession of a living being, it will slowly kill them. It takes a lot mroe then it really needs though so vessals like that, and mine, are good for ritual magics like that of the Thorns." Ivory took a slow sip form his drink and lifted it in gratiude to Sly. "But without a prisoner, the prison ceases to take in energy making it nothing more then furniture."
Ivory let out a loud sigh of comfort as he began to slouch in his chair, his left arm bumping his rifle sending it crashing to the gorund with a solid, metalic crunch. Ivory didn't seem to notice.
"Now. We think this gem might do a similar thing although in a slightly different matter. Seems that proper use grants you certain," Ivory paused and lifted his hand, showing that it was emitting a small candle sized flame before continuing, "powers. But at a very great price." The flame vanished.
Ivory stood from his chair and adjusted his hat though it sat perfectly uppon his head. "I'll go check on the Tsoo. I have certain gifts that should give me a competent edge in survailence." He eyed the new comer with the smokey mist around him, Ivory sensed the thing in the hero's voice also. "We can't simply go off picking fights with the Tsoo. Even in Paragon City we have to establish motive and retrieve a warrent, or at least establish heroic cause for intervention."
Ivory eyed the rifle the old man Lyle had been toting around, it bore striking similarity to Ivory's own custom model. It seemed only a Cynergetic Enterprise engraving and a few different parts distinuished the two, that and the thick coat of white ash and powder that had been accumulating on Ivory's model.
"Old man. You have a support for long range ammo?"
Lyle indicated he did, patting his rifle confidently.
"Good," Ivory continued, " I'll invite you to come with me. I'll need a spotter."
With that, Ivory slit a cut into reality before the heroes, white light poured from the tear. As Ivory stepped through he spoke, "I hink you might want to hit the streets and maybe take down a few Outcasts. See if you can get any of them to talk on our little stone there." Ivor ymotioned to the stone on the counter.
He stepped fully through into th frozen, lifeless world he called Limbo, the rift behind him staying open just long enough for Lyle to make a decision to come with or stay.
"You wanna know what these are for?" Cabas said to Lyle, as he pointed to his mouth. "What?" the old man replied. "I use it to rip the faces off of the cursed and anyone who gets in my way," Cabas said in a threating manner. Lyle looked uneasy. Cabas picked up a glass of vodka from the table and grab it with his feelers and tipped it back. He gave out a large gulping noise and threw the glass back into hand. He closed his mouth and put his mask on again.
"Well, lets get going man," Helsing said. Just beat up a few Outcasts, easy, but finding Carrie is gonna be hard, but then again, he thought. "Anyone wanna come with us?" he asked the group, holding the door open...
"Funny," Lyle growled, "I've seen others rip off faces without having to have fancy crap comin' out their pie holes." Spitting on the wood floor he turned to where Ivory had left.
Lyle ran a hand through his hair, sighing. More altenate dimensions, he thought looking at the hole floating in the air. Still, at least this was something to do instead of just hanging around jawin' at each other. Getting up, he grabbed his M-20 and walked toward the glowing portal.
"Hey, slick," he called to Sly Fox. "Toss me a brewski, will ya." The teleporter threw a can to Lyle. Popping the top, the old man took a deep swig before wiping his mouth and following Ivory into the hole.
Haunt shrugged off Lyle's comment, his mind turning to the rest of the group assembled around him, trying to determine where their powers stemmed from. He was quickly interrupted, however, by Helsing returning, another man in tow. His eyes widened slightly at the man's facial display, but he soon regained his composure. He'd seen stranger, well, at least things AS strange, as him before. He couldn't help but chuckle at the short exchange between him and Lyle, however.
He watched Sly return from the corner of his eye, his arms full of drinks. Counting the various beverages in his arms, Haunt assumed one was meant for him. "Thanks for the offer," he said, as Sly passed him a drink, "but my odd appearance actually stems mostly from my, well, just about non-existent metabolism. I had a meal about two days ago, so I've got a good five more to go before I need to 'refill'."
As Haunt listened to Ivory explain, he was able to more or less piece the group's story together, though he still didn't understand several things. Suddenly the man turned to him, and said.
"We can't simply go off picking fights with the Tsoo. Even in Paragon City we have to establish motive and retrieve a warrent, or at least establish heroic cause for intervention."
Somewhere in the back of Haunt's mind, he considered retorting that three murders of his loved ones was enough 'heroic cause' for him, but he held his tongue. Three years of diligent training in the Arizona desert had taught him to watch his emotions, though he was sometimes prone to slipping when it came to the Tsoo. The man continued, talking of going off with Lyle, leaving the rest to go interrogate the Outcasts for information. Although he would have preferred going with them, he knew that he hadn't yet earned the group's trust, and, frankly, he didn't trust himself when it came to those monsters.
"Understood," he said, and watched as Ivory tore open a hole to another plane, Lyle following closely behind. At they disappeared into the trans-dimensional gateway, Eidolon didn't merely shudder, it quaked. Haunt considered a third reason for not going: Ivory didn't seem like the type of person he'd care to defy, at least not at this moment.
After hearing Kyle's offer, Haunt nodded to him, "I'm up for it," he said, trying to mask the range of emotions that he'd felt in the past few minutes at the mention of the Tsoo. He turned to the rest of the group, looking at them almost expectantly.
"Anyone else?"
Ivory looked behind him at where the tear he had opened sealed itself, Lyle stood looking a bit irritated but ready for action none the less. The frozen image of the heroes glew behind them like a smogy daybreak. Ivory's voice was like an echo in a hall of mirrors.
"Glad you decided to join me. We can take our pace as we wish, time has no meaning here." Ivory tapped his wrist watch. "There's a Tsoo haunt not far from here, actually, might have been a former base of operation."
The two walked the frozen streets of Paragon City, taking what felt like over an hour to cover the distance at the calm pace Ivory seemed to prefer, but barely had a second passed before they came to their destination. The two of them stood before an old corporate building, the bleached area of where a sign once hung displayed that the previous occupants had long moved on.
The two of them entered the building, stepping through the door like a curtain. Once inside Ivory stopped, amidst the grey, black and white of Limbo stood a strong figure, clothed in eastern robes and armor it bore a brilliant blue glow.
As it turned its head to Lyle and Ivory, Ivory spoke. "We'll only be sitting ducks here old codger."
Ivory violently broke the window to reality and the two emerged into the building, staring at the impressive figure hovering inches off the ground. Ivory in a brilliant display of blue flame as his suit cleaned itself, Lyle with a barely noticeable layer of white, ash like dust covering his shoulders and hair.
"If there's something I hate more then walking, it's being forced to walk and if there's something I hate more then being forced to walk, it's an Astral." Ivory spoke in a calm and controlled tone as he placed the but of his rifle expertly against his shoulder and let a slug fall into place in the loader.
The Astral went into a charge twords the two.
<spinning text>
MEANWHILE AT REBECCA's ANTIQUE STORE
</spinning text>
The heroes had only just watched Ivory and Lyle leave through Limbo when the bell on the front door gave a simple, innocent jingle and a man dressed in golden yellow shorts and a flack jacket with a pair of stylish goggles covering his eyes popped his head in. Golden blond hair jetting back in sharp curved strands covered his head and were it not for an aura of arrogance and misdirected charm, the man may have been the most attractive male on earth. A cat's tail dangled from his behind.
"Hey cats! Don't suppose you are outfitted to sharpen Tri-Sol folded steel are ya?"
A pearly white grin so bright it could give sight back to the blind stared the heroes dumbly. Those that had caught the newspaper recently would recognize him as Galactic Jack. A scrapper with almost as many solved cases in the last month as he had sexual harrassment based restraining orders filed against him each week. Both were very impressive numbers.
"Dam stuff gets everywhere," Lyle cursed silently, looking at the white powder that stuck to him as they walked through the otherly world. Ivory suddenly stopped, directing Lyle's attention to the robed figure in front of them. The black and white reality around them seemed to shatter, leaving the two back in the real world.
The figure charged them as Ivory raised his rifle and took aim. The slug caught the Astral in the chest, tearing a hole in it. The thing howled in pain, but stayed on its feet.
"Well, at least I know bullets can hurt it," Lyle threw the automatic switch on his rifle and opened fire on the Astral as Ivory continued his assault. Pieces of its robe were torn off in tatters as it was forced back. It suddenly reared back, some form of energy shooting out of its hands.
The blast washed across Ivory, scorching the ground as Lyle dove to the side. Lyle thought he saw a hint of blue flash across Ivory's suit as the man shrugged off the attack. Hearing the tell-tale thunk of a slug round from Ivory's weapon, Lyle switched his rifle to shotgun ammo, hoping the combined heavy rounds might tear something vital off the creature.
Lyle jumped away from another blast. Landing on his side, he took aim at the thing and fired. The Astral took the slug near its shoulder and the buckshot in its legs. Howling again, it dove backwards into a nearby wall.
Lyle slowly rose to his feet, looking around the room carefully. Had they killed it or had it just retreated? Lyle's eyes roamed the walls, expecting it to jump out of one of them at any moment.
The two men watched each othere's blind spots perfectly but the monster was nowhere to be seen. Ivory slowly opened the loader to his rifle and fished a large beanbag round out of his coat.
"Switch and load a sniper round." he said, knowing that the old man might find the timing ill placed, but would trust his judgement. Nothing like an intense gun battle to get two men to trust eachother.
As Lyle switched his firing mode, Ivory fished the small mirrored ball from his coat. The targetting device he had once before revealed to th heroes outside the Steel Canyon Yellow Line. Flipping a switch, it lifted itself into the air besides the heroes and briefly bathed the hallway in a sheet of red light before it began to simply hum and hover.
After what seemed like solid minutes of silence a single red beam shot from the floating drone, painting an electronic bulls eye on the Astral as it came through a wall and took physical form once again. Ivory fell cloer to the ground and spun, landing almost cross legged, and fired his bean bag into the chest of the Astral, Ivory's barral at only knee hight to Lyle.
The being stumbled back and began gasping in shock it simply stood motionless, unable to move.
Lyle took aim.
Contact looked at Kyle and then at Cabas, narrowing his eyes behind his dark glasses at the threat. Both were absolutly out of their gourds and likely as dangerous as the people they were suppose to be hunting. The creature hadn't been here more then 5 mins and already had resorted to threatining his supposed compatriots.
"To be blunt, I really don't want to be involved in the collateral damage the wonder twins there are likely to cause," he jerked a thumb towards Kyle and his newly arrived friend. "It's dangerous to civillians and bad press."
"I highly doubt you -should- need my help to rough up a few Outcasts," he smoothed back his blond hair, "but I have the feeling that 'something' will go wrong." Contact had a pretty good idea who those two 'somethings' would be, but let it go for the moment.
"I'll be in the area. You have my card... call me if I'm needed for the interogation," with that, Contact stepped out into the bright Paragon City sun and floated off into the sky.
The robed Astral burst from the wall as Ivory's gizmo targeted it. Lyle brought up his rifle. One thing he had learned over the years was that whether mutant, human, or magical creature, if it had a head that was usually were the important stuff was.
The bullet shot from Lyle's rifle with a crack. The sniper round was built to be fired from great distances, and at this range as it hit the Astral in the face, it took most of the back of its head with it.
Something splattered across the wall behind it as it convulsed a couple times and finally fell to the floor. Lyle walked over to where it lay, putting two more slugs in its head. Just to make sure.
"The walls are suprisingly thick." Ivory said as he knocke don one a few times producing a solid sound. "I doubt anyone inside the building actually heard that."
The two cautiously made their way through the reception area. Although abandoned by its former occupants the offices were suprisingly well kept. When they came to the elevators Ivory took the piece of paper taped to one and read it out loud with a sarcastic tone.
The neat painted script read clearly: "Tsoo meeting floor 12. Please check your coat and weapon with the Gaurdian up front."
Rebecca, still avoiding direct answers it seemed, merely looked at Sly as he passed out drinks...
Fox began to even wonder if this was the TRUE, original, Rebecca Morningstar that the old man had mentioned. Perhaps this was someone using her name? He filed that suspicion away for later examination. Whoever she was, Ivory knew her before all this, and he recognised her on site. Sly would have to be careful what he said from now on...
Fox was sad to see Contact go, and almost wanted to duck out himself. He had been through so much of this "idol mystic adventure," he sensed the headache beginning right behind his eyes...
However, Deth was obviously resting, and he wasn't going to follow Contact's lead with his friends about to face Outcasts anyway.
Plus... with the appearance of Galactic Jack, whom Sly DID recognize (he always kept tabs on competition), he wasn't even ABOUT to leave Deth floating with her eyes shut in a corner...
"Sheesh wats wit him," Helsing said as Contact flew off. That dude needs to get the badger out his a*s, he thought. "Guess not alot poeple like you?" Cabas asked him. "Hows that any different than LA?" Helsing responded. The two laughted while the others looked at them with hint of confusion. "Well so is that it? Anyone else?" he asked the crowd.
ooc:these little insults aren't personal, just a little bit of my char's fustraded side. He really is a nice guy, if ur not pissy with him.
A low rumble penetrated the room. Another, much more insistent, disturbed the air about the shop. Eyes strayed to the origin of the noise and found Lobe.
Grimacing and holding his stomache, Lobe informed the assemblage, "Ooohh! I am hungry. Lobe need to eat. But I have no money and I can't fit through the doorway!" His grimace dissapeared, replaced by anxiety.
Haunt shrugged and slumped down into a chair as Contact flew off. He was getting anxious, and he was starting to doubt his volunteering to accompany Helsing and Cabas. He'd met some loose cannons during his travels, and the impression he'd so far gotten from the men was more 'adventurous' or, perhaps, 'eccentric', than 'erratic'. Maybe he was just bad at reading people. He sighed, and decided it might actually be a good idea to have a drink, if only to calm his excited nerves. He tipped the drink at Sly in thanks before downing it, the taste of alcohol the only thing he could discern before the the beverage went down his throat.
He raised an eyebrow as the odd man entered the small shop, and could feel an almost palpable tension between him and the Sly Fox, like two rival warriors who have crossed paths.
Haunt looked up as the giant man's stomach began to rumble, and watched him as he bemoaned his fate, stuck inside the store with nothing to eat. Eidolon's faceless stare, however, remained fixed on the newcomer.
Haunt dug through his outfit, finally reaching into a hidden pocket within his dark gray shirt, and pulling out the chocolate bar he'd been holding onto. He tossed it to the mountain of a man called Lobe.
"I dunno how long that'll tide you over, but you're welcome to chow down on it for now."
Deth awoke at the low rumbling. Assuming that the Nacht were moving tanks again, she stood ready for a fight. When she looked around, seeing that no one was ancy, she relaxed a bit and then heard Lobe mention hunger.
'Poor boy, is no one taking care of you?' Deth asked soothingly.
She saw Haunt toss him a chocolate bar and she caught it before he could.
'No dessert before real food. 'she said scolding him motherly.
She walked up to Sly Fox and reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Seeing how small and compact it was, she imagined that he had no issues to compensate for and dialed the local pizzeria. She order 4 large combination pizzas and then as an after thought ordered two more. She hung up saying ' Charge it to FSS.'
She grinned Fox like behind Sly Fox's back and then she noticed the new Cat that had walked in the door.
'Hello, I am Deth Aszicen and you are...hmmm...meow?' She smiled mischieviously.
She walked back to Sly Fox and briefly stroked his hand, whispering, 'Dont worry I prefer canines to felines'
She went to the back and started scrounging up plates and silverware.
'Rebecca, I hope may call you that, I hope that I am not being rude serving the boys but I know Lobe needs to be taken care of. Sly Fox will clean up after all this.'
Again she smiled devilishly. She started getting drinks ready and brought a tablecloth out and hovered behind Lobe tying it around his neck. She handed him a carton of OJ and at this time the pizza arrived. She took two pizzas to the back and handed the other 4 to Lobe.
'Sly Fox, tip the man. Lobe, don't make a mess dear for Miss Morningstar.'
She served out the pizza.
"Deth you are a goddess, but with a demon in ur head. I'm still a little miffed about that, but pizza is good enough for an excuse," Helsing said approaching the pizzas, only to be dissapointed that they were veggie ridden. He went out to the pizza guy's car and asked him if he could buy the pepporoni pizza in the back of the car. "What? Thats for another customer," he said. Helsing flashed two twenties and the guy handed him the pizza. "Thanks," Helsing said.
Cabas was diggin in to one of the pizzas. He had eaten 5 slices that he put on his plate whn he noticed some stares. He had been eating them with his feelers, putting his face into the plate and gobbling them up. "Um, sorry I fogot my manners, I normal use them, but its pizza and I haven't eaten since I got here," Cabas said. "Man you're six-hundred years old and you still eat like ur my age," Helsing said as he finished the large pepperoni pizza by himself. He crumpled the box up as if it were a piece of paper and threw it in the wastebasket. He and Cabas walked outside and let out resounding burps, scaring many passers by. Wonder if Contact heard that one, he thought. They walked back in, and many of the heroes were staring. "What? What is it? Why are you staring? Is it Cabas? I thought we had gotten over this? What?!"
Galactic Jack had been carrying on a private conversation with Morningstar for a while when the pizza arrived. He once used to explain to people that even though he had a cat's tail it had nothign to do with felines, simply an inherited trait form his home planet. But if something bored him, he was one to simply move on.
The group was eating their meal, it was almost comical to see the group of heroes sitting around an antique shop in full dress eating slices of Paragon Pizza Pie. When nearly finished Jack slid up like a snake to Deth's side and placed a hand solidly on her bum.
"Maybe now we can get that desert you were talkin about?" he said, the same blinding grin plastered across his face. Before she could retaliate to what Jack had only assumed was wanted attention a loud rumble came from outside. Helsing and company was outside directing rather super human burps at innocent bystanders. The entire room fell silent and for just an instant Deth forgot about the hand cupping her behind. Of course it was an instant short lived. No matter how quick on his feet, Jack could never dodge a woman's wrath.
Cupping the leftside of his face, Galactic Jack glared at the two neanderthals as they re-entered the antique shop as though they were certainly lesser life forms. Even the enormous man with a child trapped inside him had better manners.
"Wha.." Jack studdered, "what kind of heroes are you? Are you even licensed? My understanding was that you had to hold species classification above that of an ape in order to hero in Paragon..." Jack directed his words sharply at the two bafoons in the doorway who looked at the group as if they had done nothing wrong.
Jack stood up as though he was going to storm out of the store disgusted but instead turned around so his face sat mere centimeters from Deth's and he grinned.
"So there's a demon inside ya? Don't suppose that's a figurative expression?" he said as his grin grew.
Jack's was certainly a mind of a gentleman, if not one left rolling in the gutter.
<spinning letters>
MEANWHILE WITHOUR OTHER HEROES
</spinning letters>
Ivory and Lyle were standing in the elevator, Ivory calmly leanign against the wall. The elevator slowly and silently made a climb up the stories, the numbered buttons lit up in sequence.
Breaking the uncomfortable silence Ivory inquired, "So... where do ou think they get this music?"
Haunt frowned at Deth after she grabbed his chocolate bar that was headed for Lobe, but it quickly deteriorated into a chuckle.
"Mother knows best, I suppose," he said with a defeated sigh and a half grin. As she ordered the pizza, Eidolon's serpentine head slowly snaked its way toward her, and sat there poised for several seconds before finally making a lunge for the chocolate she was holding. Deth quickly moved the candy in question out of its reach, and administered the creature another scolding as it seemed to grin wildly, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Haunt chuckled as Deth prepared Lobe for dinner, finding her motherly attitude almost comforting. It'd been more than two years since he'd heard the tone she used with the gargantuan hero, and he had to admit he missed it. He sighed as he thought about this for a few fleeting moments, before turning to the conversation going on behind him, watching the three with an amused look on his face.
He grinned when the pizza arrived; only needing food once weekly sort of takes the enjoyment out of having a good meal, and most of his feeding had been relegated to ramen or junk food: it was cheap, and gave him enough energy to keep himself going. Pizza was definitely a treat.
He'd grabbed two slices of the pie, and sat back down. He lowered the cloth obscuring his mouth, and began to chow down.
As he sat amongst the similarly eating heroes, he figured now was a good time to get caught up with what had brought the group here.
"So, would anyone care to explain just how and why you all emerged in this shop a little while ago? Eidolon here can usually sense when people shift between realities, but his response to your appearance was different than anything I've seen before..."
He quickly added, "the brutally short version is fine too, I'm just curious, is all."
Rebecca Morningstar swallowed a bite of pizza and replied, "Oh, they were all in a Demon Princess' prison unknowingly being used by the imprissoned Princess' worldy persona, Ivory, to entrap her origional captor who was under the impression they were taking him home in exchange for being shown the exit from hi own prison."
Morningstar nodded to herself.
"Oh and Sly, he was my father, but only by the meaning that I was born of his seed to a mother he impregnated." She took another bite.
After being forced to scrounge in his pockets for loose bills to "tip the man," and not knowing WHAT Contact would think when he saw the Pizza bill and Sly's phone number, Sly had been getting Deth a refresh on her drink in the kitchen.
When he returned, wondering how he was going to clean up all this by himself... he saw Galactic Jack... with his hand... on... dessert!? ... Sly's eye twitched. When the belching began outside, he slowly took off his hat and placed his shades on the counter.
Deth slapped Jack... Sly slowly walked towards him... Haunt said something... Sly walked around the counter... Rebecca finally answered his question, Sly walked up behind Deth towards Jack... Jack said something about manners, then turned around inches from Deth's face and said
"So there's a demon inside ya? Don't suppose that's a figurative expression?"
Sly placed a hand lightly on Deth's shoulder, and gently scooted her aside.
He looked at Galactic Jack up and down... thought about it for just a second... and sucker-punched him square on his grinning jaw.
Sly blinked... then looked around at everyone. Seeming to gain back his notice of the entire room, he saw the mouths open of a few of the heroes, and simply said, "What...?"
((ooc Jack speaks with an accent similar to an Australian's but he doesn't use the same vocabulary... just thought it might help you image the character better))
Feline or not, Jack was in his prime at 3022 earth years old and instinct had well settled in. At first he thought these quick jabs must have been a customary greeting by earth males but he soon learned otherwise. Jack leaned quickly and deftly out of the range of Sly's extended fist with a movement so fast that all who saw it could only assume the punch connected solidly.
"Hey now chum I'm sorry, not my intention to steal away a fine lass such as this one from such a handsome fellow as you." Jack said as he slowly pushed Sly's fist in a direction less threatening. "Besides," he straitened his jacket and ran a hand through his hair, "she's not my type; bit too mommy for me eh lug?" Jack playfully nudged Lobe with his elbow as he lounged propping himself against the counter.
An obnoxious series of musical beeps and chirps rang from the beeper clipped to Jack's short pockets. Jack lifted his glasses off his face revealing his alien eyes, a pure clean white with a featureless golden center. He looked at the beeper and clicked at the button on its side a few times prducing quick chirps and beeps from the device.
"Sorry chaps but Galactic Jack's got some business to do. Jack's publicist says beloved pop idol Weather Lovely has been taken captive by Outcasts." Jack clipped the beeper back to the inside of his pocket. "And Jack's out to make a new fan."
Jack moved a bit closer to the ground and suddenly disappeared in a flash of light, a smoking trail led outside the door which was slowly falling closed. The bell chimed innocently at his departure.
Sly seemed to be missing a few extra greenbacks from his pocket.
Thankfully the missing money was counterfeit, as I used up all my real cash to tip the pizza guy... Sly smirked as he thought to himself.
He could have sworn he hit Galactic... he must have as much practice as Sly ducking blows...
In the back of his mind he knew he didn't actually HATE the man... he just wasn't allowed to do what he just did with the girl he just did it with, and something within Fox had gone on automatic pilot...
He turned around and looked at Deth. "Sorry, but he had to learn only I'm allowed to talk to you that way..."
He winked at her.
As the elevator rose, there came a muffled boom from below, followed by a faint roaring that quickly increased in volume.
"A booby trap," Ivory stated calmly, reaching up and opening the hatch in the top of the elevator.
Lyle and Ivory jumped up to the top of the car.
"There," Ivory pointed at an approaching door, "that's the twelth floor." A few heavy rounds from their guns were enough to blast the door open.
The explosion below them finally caught up with the elevator and the car jumped and scraped against the shaft, spraying sparks, as the fiery explosion hit its bottom.
Ivory and Lyle stumbled slightly, but managed to jump for the open door to floor twelve. They flew out of the elevator shaft, quickly rolling to the side as fire and debris exploded out from the door.
Once it had subsided they got up, looking into the scorched elevator shaft just in time to see the ruined car plunge past them, falling back towards the ground floor.
ooc: I've got a new character comin in
Helsing had been in his apartment only ten minutes before emerging out into the streets again. He had discovered so many things in this dimension(even if he had been here for about 5 days), but this was absolutly astonishing. This could be the key to returning to his home, but find out how this had happened. Not only that, but he had found a few new "friends". He did find he and Barkansis weren't the only ones through the portal, but two more have come through and he found one. Life was good, for the moment.
He walked back to the shop with some new found enthusiasm. He entered the shop seeing what had happened as he was out. Looked as if nothing was new, 'cept the guy who Helsing walked in with. "Who the hell is that?" one of the heroes asked. "This is my good friend and mentor, Cabas," Helsing said as he pointed to the new face.
He was ludicrisly tall, he wore a red, long sleeve shirt with the right sleeve ripped off, revealing a disturbing deformity. He had a blackened, bone thin arm; yet, still as long as the other arm. He had cloth drapped around his mouth.
"Hello everyone, don't worry about introductions, Kyle told who u are," Cabas said, in a very deep, distorted voice. "Whats with the cloth? You a ninja or something?" one of the heroes said, jokingly. Then Cabas removed the cloth, revealing a regular mouth, but with a triangle shaped hole in his lower lip. Then he opened his mouth and showcased another strange feature. Out of his mouth came four strange proboscis, each with a large, sharp tooth. They were connected with pieces of flesh, like the webbing between your fingers, to each other. The bottom two had a row of smaller, sharp teeth. When it was fully out, his mouth kinda looked like the Predator's. Many of the group showed their surpise and uneasy-ness, while most were unaffected by the appearance. He tucked them back in and said, "Any more questions? No? Well this means I'll be hanging around with you guys."