An Insidious Partnership pt.3

[Primusa]

It has been about a month since I became a prophet, and the progress was already noticeable, my strength has grown considerably with my new abilities, and getting stronger all the time. Arthria and I are now entering a country town near the frontier mountains, ripe for gathering followers.

"Where do you plan to go first Ezekiel?" She asks this coldly while staring me in the face. Looking into those dark eyes, I can see nothing but emptiness. Elise, are you still in there somewhere?


The same appearance, the same voice, I begin to feel sick to my stomach with guilt over what I had done. I can't stand talking to Arthria, and try to ignore her as much as possible. "She's only a tool", I tell myself in my mind.


No different than a sword or shield. I compose myself quickly, I'm wasting too much time. The best thing I can do for Elise now is quickly defeat Hydria and be done with this business as soon as possible.


Walking down the dirt road next to Arthria, I look at the farmers in their fields lining the sides of the road, and the beautiful blue sky. What god do these people worship, and how can I disillusion them with their faith?


Just then, I hear footsteps behind us running towards me. "Hey, Ezekiel, is that you?" I turn around to hear this voice, and am shocked to see who it is. It's a male young adult with short blond hair and gray eyes, wearing modest and practical leather clothing while carrying a giant backpack.

Unbelievably, it's Samson Fairfax in the flesh. Inevitably, all students at Moonvale have heard of him. He was of course an S-rank student, but he was considered so superior to his colleagues that a new category was created just for him: SS.


He had never lost a battle in his short time at the academy before his graduation, and I saw for myself how he simultaneously defeated all three of his opponents (he was considered to be too strong for just one opponent) in his final exam without moving a muscle at the exact time it started.


There was much confusion and speculation on how he was able to do it, but he held his cards close to the chest on that front. I had talked to him a few times myself, but we weren't overly familiar; frankly I'm surprised that he remembers my name at all.


"Hey Samson, it's been a while hasn't it?" I try to sound friendly, but can't hide a slight distaste in my voice at the interruption in my plans. "Indeed it has, can we talk in the town tavern?" I'm a little annoyed at this, and try to get rid of him.


"Sorry, I'm a little busy at the moment actually". He reassures me: "Don't worry, it will only take a few minutes". At this point I realize that it would be more troublesome to get rid of him than to just indulge him, and agree to talk for a bit.


The three of us sit at a round table inside the tavern, and an awkward atmosphere fills the air. "Is it true that you've become Arthria's prophet Ezekiel?" Oh, so it's about that. "Yes, in fact, her avatar is this girl sitting right here".


He sighs and says: "I figured as much. In any case, why have you chosen this?" I answer: "To champion the cause of humanity, and vanquish the wicked god Hydria". He laughs loudly at this, and I get angry at him.


"Do you have any idea how hypocritical that is? You can't champion the cause of humanity while serving a god. There's a reason that gods don't take prophets anymore, this world was almost destroyed the last time a war between them broke out.


You'll risk throwing this world into chaos again just to satisfy your own self-aggrandizing quest!" Angered by his rant, I retort. "Yes, because helping humans achieve better lives is a just cause. Wouldn't you say?"


He does not answer this, and instead begins a story of his own. "You know, I used to be quite similar to you, until five years ago when a grand quest changed my life, as well as the close friends I met there.


Now I travel from village to village, helping the people on a small scale in any way I can. Why don't you learn to do the same?" I scoff at the suggestion. "Well isn't that weak of you, wasting those talents of yours on such meaningless tasks.


The world will never change unless I take the responsibility of championing justice for all of us on a larger scale". He appears to give up on me at this point. "I understand what I have to do now, people like you are all the same.


It's only a matter of time before you begin roaming the countryside, causing terror in the hearts of innocent people to get them to follow you, and killing anyone who gets in the way of your goals.


Arthria, will you let me be your prophet instead of Ezekiel, I can assure you that I am many orders of magnitude stronger than him". What the hell? Is that even allowed? Arthria, who had been observing our conversation with much interest, finally enters into it.


"Well then, it seems like there's only one way to settle this. Shall we head outside?" Out in an empty grassy field, I equip my old gear and prepare to fight while Arthria lays down the rules.


"Alright, neither of you are permitted the use of my powers for this fight, and it only ends when one of you is dead. Do you both find these conditions agreeable?" We both say "yes" in unison.


"Begin!" Arthria shouts. I doubt I can win this fight, but I have to try, otherwise all of this will have been for nothing. With that in mind, I quickly take out my rocket launcher and fire it directly at him, causing a large explosion where he's standing.


As I'm at the point of celebrating, I feel a hand on my shoulder, and Samson sarcastically says: "Hmmm, pretty good shot there Ezekiel, I would have been hit for sure". Not missing a beat, I swing Prometheus behind me, only to find that he's vanished and reappeared about 10 meters away.


"Are you done yet?" He asks this will a playful grin on his face, as if he's mocking me. Long past the point of losing my temper, I take out my dual-flamethowers and charge at him, spraying it in all directions, setting fire to everything around me while shouting wildly.


Standing a safe distance away from me, he looks at his watch dejectedly. "Unfortunately it seems that we're out of time, you've left me with no choice Ezekiel". A bloody knife appears in his hand, and a sudden burst of pain from my abdomen emerges.


I look down, and my shirt is covered with blood as the stab wound continues to bleed. Unable to resist the pain, I collapse onto the ground, confused as to what just happened. The world fades to black as I see him walking towards me.


Shockingly, I wake up in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown and with medical tape across my abdomen. The full reality of what just happened sinks in, I'm no longer a prophet, and it's all my fault. It's too much for me, and I burst into tears. I failed. I'm sorry.


I should never have gone to Arthria's temple, I shouldn't have been so selfish. Now the world will never change, Elise will be stuck as a soulless puppet forever, and it's all my fault. My god, what have I... what has he done!? Damn that Samson, I had it under control!


Just a little bit more time, and I would have... Yes, why didn't I see it before? He must be an agent of Hydria, sent to stop my heroic quest from ever succeeding, sent to stop justice from prevailing. If he thinks he can obstruct justice, then he has another thing coming!


I'm trembling with increasingly uncontrollable rage as a hospital nurse enters the room. She smiles, saying: "You're very lucky to be alive, that knife wound was in a nonlethal location, and you had such a nice friend who carried you all the way here".


I grab a scalpel that was carelessly left on the bedside table, and before she can react, slam her against the wall while holding it to her throat. "Where is he!" She gives a brief whimper of pain before answering.


"He should be just down the street, they just left, just please let me go". I oblige, and promptly leave the room to chase after Samson. It's the dead of night, and I come upon them crossing a scenic bridge in the middle of town.


Breathing heavily and erratically with all the ferocity of a wild animal, I charge at him while shouting, scalpel in hand. He looks quite shocked to see me, and brings his watch up before looking on in horror and shock at what it said.


Taking the opportunity, I ferociously swing for his neck, landing a direct hit on his carotid artery while drawing a lot of blood, spraying it into the air. He collapses to the ground, clutching his neck even though it was futile. "Why" He says to Arthria, just barely choking out the word.


She looks amused, and answers while looking at him with disgust. "Oh, you mean why didn't I let you shield your neck. Didn't you hear the rules of the fight? It doesn't end until one of you is dead, and until then, neither of you are permitted the use of my powers.


Of course, that means that Ezekiel now retains the role of being my prophet, now doesn't he?" He dies quickly after this, a pool of blood spreading around his body, and a giant flashing red "0" on his wristwatch.


"Hahahaha... hahahaha" I can only laugh quietly and irregularly at this development, with his blood staining my face and my hospital gown. Justice always prevails in the end, humanity has won a decisive victory over evil today.


The days of Hydria are numbered. In the end, I didn't face any negative repercussions due to Arthria's cleverness. She put forth the defense that the hospital had negligently used an older version of the rapid-healing medication (which had a side effect of driving people insane temporarily) without taking the proper precautions such as restraining me.


Thus, I could not be held criminally responsible for Samson's death, and I was acquitted. I heard that the hospital that had treated me was also shut down in the ensuing controversy in the area.

--------------------------


OOC: For those of you who may not remember, Samson's watch could only stop time for thirty seconds each day before having to recharge. Also, another 1800 word post!

[Contemplator]

OOC: I am heavily considering having the last RP as canon (to the extent where our characters went on some adventure together, in which they defeated many foes and eventually the main villain (the details can be made up on the fly). The adventure ended however with some kind of space and time distortion (which will explain any small irregularities)).
This is just an idea I'm considering to give Qilong and a few others more depth when (if ever) they are introduced, and is by no means nessisary. So if this in any way conflicts with anyone's plans for their own characters backstory, future, or anything at all, please let me know immediately, before anything permanent happens and I'll drop the idea, thanks.

Next a few more small things I want to mention:
First; powers are not unique, more than one character can have the same or very similar power in this RP.
Second; I'd like to apologize for stealing a few used/unused characters from the old RP, it's horrible I know, but I really liked their ideas.
Third; the AD post WILL be out today no matter what. The main plot will resume the same day or shortly afterwards.

Thanks for your patience with my idiocy.
-Contemplator

[Contemplator]

Elsewhere:

Jack knocks on a simple door with the letters A.D. inscribed on it. The door opens shortly afterwards to reveal the man himself, he nods to Jack and glancing down at the unconscious girl he's carrying grins, "Well done Jack, thank you. Come on in, and put her in there", here AD points to a nicely furnished if well armoured cell, "And make sure to put her bow in a high security locker until I'm ready to deal with it."

As soon as Jack finishes doing so he turns to AD saying "For my favour I'd like to know the location of the fountain."

"Really?" responds AD, "The fountain adds to an individuals power and ability in your case... well I don't know what would happen."

"I'm certain AD, I'm the only one of the top 12 who hasn't gone to the fountain, this is what I choose, will you honour your word?"

AD nods his head to this, "Of course, I'll even go there with you, but first I think we should go see the rest of the council, there appears to be a meeting, probably to berate us, don't worry though, I'll take all the blame."

A few minutes later Jack and AD walk into a large room, the inside arranged somewhat like a theatre with a large open square center, with several tiers going up each side with the seating of each tier more lavish then the tier below it. The majority of the seats are empty, though the top two tiers on all sides are full. AD and Jack both walk into the center of the stage and face towards the north section of the room. Silence falls as a few more people enter the room trickling into various seats, with only one person on each level on each side. After a few more minutes people stop coming in and the dim muttering that had started ends abruptly as people focus their attention on the north section as well, still less than a quarter of the sets are full when a sharp voice speaks.

"How dare you! How dare either of you to put a mission like this at risk! Do you understand the trouble you could have caused? The money that could have been lost to your meaningless games? If ANY of our employers people had noticed how OBVIOUS you made it that you were CLEARLY holding back on your ability, it would have cost us all the business opportunity of a lifetime!"

Here Jack speaks up "I was simply following orders from AD wh-"

The voice, now clearly belonging to a woman sitting in the second highest tier cuts him off "You do NOT take orders from him! He is below you, practically zero, nothing!"

At this AD grins and the woman turns the full blast of her rage on him "And YOU! What EXACTLY is so amusing?!  You've greatly overstepped the boundary's AGAIN!!! Why are you even here? This entire organization would fair better without you!"

"Clearly your betters disagree with you on that, as I am still here and alive, as for why I'm here? For the same reasons everyone else is QD. It doesn't take much to join the head  of the mercenary  guilds, you just need to be very very good at what you do, and for whatever reason want money above almost all else, and want a lot of it." AD responds calmly.

In the short silence that follows AD's statement a new voice, this one coming from above QD speaks "Well said AD. As for JD besides your small if understandable hiccup at the end there, your mission went perfectly. You accomplished the objective of destroying the power plant while clearly demonstrating to our dear employer the need to spend far more money to get the service they need, as well," and here the voice hardened "The risk they run of making demands of us. Let them dare to demand that we send one of our best for almost nothing now! Anyhow, I assume JD, that you left the proper cards with everyone before you escaped? Excellent, very well then you are forgiven, you may now sit down."

At this JD bows before walking off the stage towards the north tiers, he pauses however before beginning to climb them, "A question though, won't my obvious inability cause our employer to back out and simply refuse to hire us at all, or worse go to someone else?"

This time a voice from the west side answers, "Your right of course, as I understand it they intend to their next job without anyone's help, however when this fails, and it will fail, one way or another, they'll see the only way for success is with outside help. As for them hiring someone else? Everybody who's somebody in this business knows we were hired for this project... Nobody else will dare to take it, even if they could agree with their end goal. Which reminds me, someone make sure that group from the power plant gets an anonymous tip about the next target, we want to be certain it fails."

Satisfied Jack walks up to the third highest tier and sits down in a chair with the initals JD embossed on the seat, just as QD begins to speak again,"Well with that out of the way, what are we going to do about our useless upstart?"

AD once again grins at this "Useless? I don't think so in fact if I check the records I think I'm still far above you QD" he mocks.

Just as QD is about to respond a new quite voice sounds from the shadows of the stage in an almost singing tone "And the jester stole his thorny crown."

AD laughs spinning around, "AC! It's good to see you again! I'm glad your back!"
A lanky teenage boy looking about 17 and wearing simple jeans and a black hoodie steps into the middle of the stage, spinning the cord of his ear buds in his hand. He returns AD's grin and high fives him before simply lying down in the middle of the stage.

After another awkward silence the deeper voice from above QD speaks again, as though this were a regular occurrence, (which to be fair it was) "AD, QD has a point, your actions where foolish and risked a lot, think carefully about your reasons before you pull a stunt like this again. Now then for the final order of business, as it has been repeated it is important that our past and future employer's attempts fail, however in case our little renegade group of students can't accomplish the task, or worse they somehow do too good of a job, we need someone to interfere. Therefore the council has decided to send AH to monitor and act as she see's fit. One small note however, it is integral that we are not found out at this stage, as it could ruin all of our planning and work if we were, therefore AH is to remain hidden the whole time, after all our employer thinks we don't know what their next target is. That is all, you are all dismissed except for AC, who will remain for debriefing, good day and good luck."

As people began getting up and walking out the doors, AD turns and nods to AC "I'll catch you later, we need to talk, been nice seeing you." He then turns and walks out the door, as he's walking towards his quarters however his phone begins to ring, taking it out of his pocket he looks, not recognising the caller ID (or the lack of it your choice,) presses 'answer' "Hello, this is AD of the head of the mercenary guilds, you get what you pay for, and this is?

OOC: At this moment this post is not set in stone as it has not been reviewed by both GM's however I wanted to get it out. Hopefully there won't be much change as it took far too long to write but just in case. The important bit (the last paragraph) however will not change, so feel free to respond ToR. Thank you all for your patience, the story will continue after I get some proper sleep, (which might take some time be warned).

[Youmu Konpaku]

In the car Mr. Free pulls out his cell phone, completely ignoring that once again one of his group has crawled into the trunk and that another one has completely disappeared to be replaced by a little girl. Starting to drive he gestures for silence as he begins to call someone "Quite everyone I need to convince our employer that the building was destroyed before we got there and we are therefore blameless." Mr. Free's music is still at full blast however when he begins to speak on the phone, still you are able to overhear his half of the conversation:

"Yes."

"Yes that's correct."

"Yep, it was completely leveled when we arrived."

"No I'm afraid the previous fee cannot be revoked, standard policy."

"No I'm not just making this all up."

"Yes of course that ten story apartment building is a business expense and no I can't tell you what it's for yet, top security, just like your paying for."

At this point Mr. Free's phone buzzes and he glances at it briefly, frowns and starts talking again.

"Look, I understand your frustration, but as gesture of good faith I'll tell you that the next strike will occur at the Vasto Armory, a detail only a team as skilled as mine could have deduced from the wreckage of your power plant."

"Of course we're already driving there now." Here the car suddenly changes directions as Mr.Free spins the steering wheel around.
"Glad to hear it, I can give you a discount because of last time, all I ask for this time is that every room in that apartment building has really really big speakers installed."

"Excellent, glad to hear it we should be there shortly."

"Of course, pleasure doing business. Goodbye."

Here Mr.Free put's down the phone and grins, "Too easy." He glances across for the first time at Virgil and frowns, reaching over he grabs a small card from behind Virgil’s ear and looks at it.

The rest of you (minus Arthria) also notice a similar card tucked behind one of your ears, looking at it you see it's a business card, designed to look like a playing card, on it are the words (and name too I guess,):

JD

Jack de la Diamant

Phone Number: 110-0454

"You Get What You Pay For."

Frown deepening, Mr.Free tosses the card back to Virgil and continues to drive.

[Contemplator]

A small note; the previous uncertain post has been approved by all GM's and is good. 
Also after ToR posts unless I get any objection's the old RP will be considered vaguely canon. 
Thank you,
-Contemplator

[Primusa]

Wait, what? Did Mr. Free just say that we're driving somewhere ELSE!? It must be approximately twelve to two in the morning at this point considering how late it was back when we were at the power plant. It can't have been half an hour since we left the power plant; I don't think it seems likely that they would attack somewhere else so soon after unless they planned on bringing Elena along. Either that or they have a separate team attacking the armory while the blood man and card man bring her back to another location which could be a considerable distance away. As long as those two aren't there, I think we can make short work of any other common thugs they send. On the other hand... "If they show up to attack the armory so soon after destroying the plant, we can be quite sure that Elena is within a zone consisting of an imaginary ellipse on a map using the plant and armory as focal points. Finding them wouldn't be too hard even if we fail to defend the armory". Arthria finished the thought for me whispering into my ear, and said it much better than I could've. I was just reminded of why she's not completely unbearable in all situations. We begin to hold a conversation in low whispers, covered up by the sound of the engine. It's quite possible that Seras can still hear us due to her abilities though. I begin by asking her the question that's been on my mind all day. "Why are you okay with us doing this? Isn't this a waste of time?" She replies cheerfully. "I'm having a lot of fun actually, drawing up strategies and battle plans is something I haven't experienced in a long time". Her face turns into a mischievous grin. "Besides, actually killing people is a lot more fun than intimidating hapless villagers all the time. I think it's a nice change of pace personally. Sadly I can't join the fight though due to this child's weak body. I used to be quite the fighter actually, maybe I'll tell you about it later". I want to learn the details of this sometime; I can hardly imagine her doing fighting of any kind, it's a pretty funny image actually. Additionally, it seems that she was bored of trickery and intimidation just like I was. Leaving that aside, I'm mostly here to avenge the humiliation I experienced earlier, and I think it's a great opportunity to test out my abilities. However, I think everyone here is too tired to fight any more enemies, we've already been through a lot today. I'll be the one to speak up, but I doubt that Mr. Free will listen. "Can we stop and rest somewhere? We're all quite tired from many battles today and in my opinion quite incapable of defending the armory against another attack, if they even come tonight considering the last attack was so recent".

[Oneal812]

The adventure never ends with these people. Looks like we are already going to another fight. I would say this was all in Mr. Free's hidden good nature and that he just wants to rescue Elena, but I am 90% sure he doesn't notice that she isn't actually here. More money I guess. To be honest, getting punched through a wall isn't really what you want before a fight. Ezekiel seems to have the same idea and asked Mr. Free if we could stop and take a break.

"I agree. I kinda stabbed Seras, which might cause a problem later. She kinda needs that arm to shoot things. Also, Seryu is very tired. YOU HEARD ME MR. FREE. THE FOG IS SLEEPY."

[Contemplator]

Riiiight, sleep! I knew I forgot something! Just kidding, but I did feel it felt Mr.Free's character. Response should be out tomorrow. Also Oneal812 I'd like to know which character of yours you'd prefer to have a boost, if any. Primusa I don't need to know until you've revealed your second character or your certain that either you don't want it or that you want Ezekiel to get it, and I've already been told by ToR which he'd prefer... Not that I know what to give him yet.

[Youmu Konpaku]

Upon hearing Ezekiel and Virgil's reason for stopping to rest, Mr. Free stops the car and lets out an exasperated sigh. He brings the car to a stop near the side of the road. Before any of you can mention anything, he opens up a hidden compartment near his seat.

Opening the compartment reveals a glass case which reads, "In case of retcon, break glass." He punches the glass, shattering it to reveal a glass of water, which he picks up and throws to the floor of the car, where it shatters upon impact. At the exact same moment, a bright flash emerges from the site of impact, instantly expanding over a very large area. You can feel your recent memories disappearing, and for a brief moment, it appears that you begin to disappear as well...

--Alternate timeline, several minutes earlier--

The occupants of the car remain seated as Mr. Free is having what seems to be, for whatever reason, a strangely familiar conversation.

The more astute of you can faintly hear the voice of the other person on the phone. "Look, I understand your frustration, but as gesture of good faith I'll tell you that the next strike will occur at the Vasto Armory, a detail only a team as skilled as mine could have deduced from the wreckage of your power plant."

"Of course. We will be there ASAP."

"Glad to hear it, I can give you a discount because of last time, all I ask for this time is that every room in that apartment building has really really big speakers installed."

"Excellent, glad to hear it."

"Of course, pleasure doing business. Goodbye."

Here Mr.Free puts down the phone and grins, "Too easy." He glances across at Virgil and frowns, reaching over he grabs a small card from behind Virgil’s ear and looks at it.

The rest of you (minus Arthria) also notice a similar card tucked behind one of your ears, looking at it you see it's a business card, designed to look like a playing card. It reads: 

JD

Jack de la Diamant

Phone Number: 110-0454

"You Get What You Pay For."

Frown deepening, Mr.Free tosses the card back to Virgil and continues to drive, updating the group on the new details. "Seems we've got another job. But first, I will stop at a nearby hotel where we will rest. I will give you more Deus E- I mean, medicine, once we get off. Expect to wake up early."

Several minutes later, you arrive at a modest hotel which is not very deep into the city's outskirts. Mr. Free secures rooms for each of the members of the group... minus Arthria. 

"Seriously, when the hell did this loli show up? She's with Ezekiel..." He mulls it over briefly in his mind, before a mischievous grin comes to his face. "Lolicon or not, he can share the room with her." 

You are each (minus Arthria) handed a key to your rooms which neighbor each other, as well as a bottle containing the familiar potion which healed your injuries from the... exam. After the exchange, Mr. Free walks off to his own room. You can hear him faintly muttering, "Better damn well have those speakers..."

[Oneal812]

Sweet, magical bullshit potion. My favourite. Taking the medicine and my set of keys I start heading to my room. People seem to be rather confused why the hallways are now filled with fog. Now that I think about it, I hope the room is big enough to fit Seryu inside of it. If it's not then my room will have creepy mist flowing out the doors and windows. I'm pretty sure that will lead to me getting kicked out of this ever so classy establishment. Finding my room I open the door to reveal... a hotel room. I honestly expected more at this point. No one has tried to kill us for the past few hours so there was a good chance there would be someone waiting here. Eh, whatever. As long as we can finally take a break and rela...

"WHAT THE HELL."

Entering the room further I notice that there is zero things odd about it. Definitely no speakers or anything. That was never a thing. Shut up.

"I guess a bit of sleep is better then none. Good night Seryu... Or morning... Who the hell cares."

[Primusa]

Walking into the room with Arthria; I braced for an unpleasant experience that would probably last for a while. I was hoping that Mr. Free would save me, but unfortunately he put us in the same room.

That said, he probably would have been stared out by Arthria until he complied if he refused to group us together anyways. I could have sworn that I saw a mischievous grin on his face as he grouped us.

Perhaps he thinks he's helping me get lucky tonight, which is pretty disturbing considering that my roommate is technically twelve years old. I can only imagine what the other members of my team make of us at this point.

After this incident, I've probably developed a reputation as a lolicon that has already been solidified among everyone. Such slander, I've slept in close proximity with her nearly every night since becoming her prophet, and nothing out of the ordinary has happened as a result.

It's pretty much normal for me at this point. Anyways, back to the main topic at hand. The unpleasant experience I alluded to numerous times throughout the day was the lecture I'm sure to get, perhaps a painful one if she's really mad.

Speaking of which, soon after the door closes, she steps on a stool to make herself look taller and says: "kneel down, filth". Shit, it's going to be one of those lectures. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to submit to this humiliation, seeing as she can easily dismiss me as her prophet and walk away in Elise's body, something I cannot allow.

She begins talking while looking furious. "First, why didn't you kill your opponents in the arena? Killing them would have demonstrated to the audience that we were a force to be reckoned with, and most likely gained us many followers."

For someone so intelligent, she's so easily blinded by bloodlust, this has always been her greatest weakness. In all the time I've known her, very few times is her ideal solution the least violent one. We're not the same in that regard, I'll kill anyone in my way if I have to, but if it's not absolutely necessary to my goals then I'll try to avoid it.

I'll attempt to explain this to her, but I doubt it will work. "A number of reasons. First, you know that I'm not strong enough to kill all of them together yet, the four of us roughly break even at this point overall. Second, I was in the middle of an arena containing the strongest fighters at Beacon in the audience. If I broke the rules of the fight and murdered one of my opponents, I would be collapsed upon by a hundred people and stand no chance.

Are these reasons sufficient?" In truth, these weren't all the reasons. I had gained a respect for my opponents in the short time I had fought them, and I understand that if I can't change the world, they'll always be there to defend the people I failed to save. She mulls over my proposition for a moment, and reaches a conclusion.

"That may be true, but then you shouldn't have gone in the first place if you weren't confident you could destroy three of them together. Did your victory over Samson two years ago make you overconfident?" She has a point, I had vastly underestimated their abilities. "No, I didn't even factor Samson into it. It was a total fluke that I managed to win that battle.

Additionally, it's been many years since I've seen the S-class so strong at one time". She interjects briefly. "You're wrong Ez, you won that battle because Samson lacked the conviction to kill you, and no other reason. He chose the path of peace, and died for it.

Even though he happened to be many orders of magnitude more powerful than you, the conviction to kill makes all the difference. Such power was squandered with him." I shift the topic towards her next grievance, feeling uncomfortable on the subject of Samson.

She continues: "second, you failed to defend the power plant. How do you expect to change anything if you can't even perform such a simple task?" I really have no excuse for this, and just remain silent. She looks increasingly angry and begins to shout. "You need to be puuniiishhed fooorr thiiiisssss".

Oddly enough, the power drains from her voice, and she falls backwards onto one of the beds, completely asleep. I can't help but smile to myself, the exhaustion from today saved me this time. That said, it's time to go to bed myself, things will be much more of a hassle to deal with tomorrow. Lying in my bed, I'm filled with the familiar smell of wood from the bed frame, and feel like I'm back home for the first time in years.

I wonder if my teammates also carry heavy burdens from their past. I think that they could potentially have very interesting stories to tell. I admit that I'm a little curious about that, perhaps they'll be reflecting on that tonight. Not much time to do that in the heat of battle.
--------------------------------------------------------
OOC: Last section is more what I think than what Ezekiel thinks.

[Oneal812]

From outside the office I could hear sirens. Looks like they finally showed up. A few officers enter the building and then into the office. They ask for my teacher and all exit the room together. After a few minutes one officer steps into the room.

“Come on, were leaving.”

Wow, rude. I was busy complaining and he just has to interrupt me. Nothing to be done about it now. Getting up I follow the police officer out into the main hall, where many students are on looking. Most of them look scared or confused. There was one group of people who looked more concerned than anything else. Huh, I was so wrapped up in the situation I forgot about them. Those 3 were the basically the only friends I have here. Glen, Lena, Mae and I all met on the first day of school. We are all basically in the same boat when it comes to what we think of this school and met at the opening ceremony. We were all being edgy in the corners of the room when we were stuck in a group for the opening day activities. From there we all just complained at each other until we realized how much each of us had in common. I probably would have dropped out by now if they weren’t here. I don’t want to worry them, so I need to get this problem sorted out fast. Leaving the school and going into the police car we drive to the station. The police station here is massive because its area of operation is home to many rich families. The holding cells alone might as well be a prison with how many there are. After the officer finishes whatever paperwork he needed at the front desk he brings me into the holding area. There are quite a few empty cells near the front but for some reason he felt the need to bring me to the cell that is the most far away from the entrance. Maybe it will build dramatic tension later. Either way, processing takes way longer than it needs to here, so I might as well get some rest.  Going over to the sad excuse of a bed my cell had I climb in and drift off to sleep.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

“Ehhhhhh, what is that…”

Waking up to the sound of the station alarms I climb out of my bed and go up to the cell door. Gunshot noises and screaming can be heard from the other end of the massive complex. The other prisoners around me are all pacing around and muttering to themselves. Overall, this situation is not ideal. The screaming was getting louder as the seconds went on until they were very close. Worse than that, there were also far less screams then there were before. Whatever was doing this was clearing out every hallway in this building. Then suddenly, silence. A large shadow appeared at the end of the hall, slowly getting bigger as what appeared to be a human from the shadow approached the corner.

“Stupid dramatic tension cell.”

The man finally rounded the corner and I got my first real look at this killer… kind of. The hallway became surprisingly foggy when he entered. I could still make out some features through it. Namely the fact that he was, like, twice my height and could hardly walk through the hallway with how in humanly buff he was. Behind him I could make out figures of more normal looking people carrying guns, scanning all the cells. Unlike the other prisoners, the ones near my cell seem rather calm despite this whole scenario. Maybe they put all the sociopathic, crazy prisoners in the back. Wait, I’m in the back.

“WELL SCREW YOU TOO THEN.”

God damn it I have to stop doing that. The goliath stops in the middle of the hall as the armed men approach my cell. As they get closer I notice that they all look familiar. In fact, the uniforms they have on almost look the same as the ones the kidnappers that broke into my school were wearing… This may have something to do with me. The guards slam my cell door open and drag me out while holding me at gunpoint. The giant begins walking up to me and I notice some of the stranger things about him. He had large holes all throughout his body being held open by metal rings and a necklace that seemed to have some sort of machine inside of it. Once he made it up to me he began speaking.

“You.”

Okay, speaking is stretching it. One word sentences don’t count as conversations. I should probably go along with this anyway.

“Hello there?”

“You are Virgil?”

“Yes.”

“…”

Oh fuck this is bad. He just said an ellipsis at me! I didn’t know you could even do that.

“Um, uhhh, I-I’m not afraid o-of you?”

The fog that is still surrounding us appears to go through his arm as he reaches out to the cell next to him. He grabs onto the bar closest to him and drags his hand through all the others, ripping out all of the bars on the cell, turning them into a very large club. Lifting it up above his head, he prepares to swing down at me. Well, this is it then. The end of the line. I’m glad that I’m going to die due to protecting some ungrateful classmates. Well, they had to be stopped at some time. If I had not have done it, then who knows what could have happened. Mae and Glen’s class was the next class over. If they had this many people ready then they could have planned to take from multiple classes. That’s right. I saved them as well.

“At least I’ll die knowing that I protected some good people. I only wish I could do it more…”

There I go again, thinking aloud. Speaking of which, I should be dead right now. Looking up I notice that the giant has stopped mid swing. It looks like something is pulling back against his arm. At that moment, the necklace starts to glow and all the fog in the area began to visibly move through all the holes in his body. They got pulled in every direction, ripping him to pieces. After that, the detached parts all fly into the grunts that had surrounded me, either killing or severely wounding them.

“What the hell was that…”

Crawling over I pick up the glowing necklace. I open the front cover to reveal tiny machinery surrounding a small glowing gem of some type. The glow fades away as all they body parts around me fall to the ground. So this is what was controlling all that fog. Someone turned something as harmless as that into a weapon that could do all this? Getting up on my feet I begin walking through all the carnage to get to and exit. What even caused all that? There is no way he was so stupid that he killed himself and all his men with this thing. Even if he did, it should have stopped after he died. That could only mean that this thing worked by itself? Looking at the back there is an engraving.

“Prototype V-1, experimental elemental control device.”

Ok, something has to be going on here. There is no way in hell this gang made this thing. It looks like it could be military, but then how would these people have gotten it, and why would it kill them? Also, HOW THE HELL DID IT KILL THEM? I guess it killing them could have been a glitch in the system, which would explain why something that works as well as this would be considered a prototype.
Leaving through the front door and picking my stuff up on the way out, I put on the necklace and begin walking back to the school. I have to make sure everyone there is alright and see if I can find any information.

“Hrm. Glitch or not, it did save my life. It may be just a weapon, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have saved me on purpose. I hope you really are 
sentient. I talk to myself a lot as it is already and having someone around to listen would help. Well, if you are listening, you’re going to need a name. Does Seryu sound good?”

[Touch of Ruin]

Flopping down on the bed, Seras laughed in relief. Finally some fucking sleep after all that today. It certainly was not a boring day but it wasn't a good one either. Aw well, at least they had a chance to rest up before the next shit storm. Drinking the medicine (the label read Deus Ex Narcotica for some reason) her arm began to feel better almost immediately. Which was good cause getting stabbed kinda hurt. Rolling over she fell asleep rather quickly.

[Youmu Konpaku]

--Hotel--

The early morning sun begins to peek over the horizon, just as your alarm clock starts blaring out nightstep. A new day has arrived, and with it, a new mission.

--Vasto Armory--

The armory looms over the quiet underbrush that surrounds it. A solidly built building, crafted carefully decades ago, with security updated yearly. The building has walls several feet thick, comprised of seamless stone, made more to ensure the city is still standing when the thing inevitably explodes than to keep anyone out. The building is kept carefully separated by a well maintained glowing magic electrical fence, and is carefully isolated from the main outer highway by a single, long, closely watched side road. Still the building had seen better times, and in an age of tightened budgets and significantly more things to protect, the once impenetrable fortress was definitely less so. That was not to say it was undefended however. Though the security team was smaller than years past, they were well trained and prepared. They knew the layout like the back of their hand and had stopped several large, well organized and equipped attempts to take the armory, all before they made it halfway down the side road.

Which perhaps was why everyone was so surprised when several heavily armed vehicles instead drove through several acres of the heavily forested area behind the armory.

Outside the Armory:

Three of the large vehicles sit silently in front of the magic electric fence, as the back door of the fourth opens and a tall well built man walks out, and takes a deep breath, as if glad to be out in the open again.  The man is dressed in a long red cloak a shattering white cross design on the back, he stands still for a moment or two, seeming to enjoy the silence, before finally turning around to face back inside the tank with a sigh.

"Alright, we're here you two, get out...Now!"

Shortly after there's movement inside and two people, a man and a woman, hop out of the tank holding hands. They're dressed similarly to the first man, except on the back of their cloaks surrounding the broken cross is a big pink heart that definitely looks like it was added onto the outfit. Together their motions in perfect unison they walk towards the fence and stand in front of it facing each other.

Rolling his eye's the first man walks past them and up to the fence, he reaches out to it and just before he makes contact with it suddenly vanishes. The fence instantly begins to smoke and hiss before the section in front of the other two people stops glowing and falls down. The man appears on the other side instantly afterwards and grins, glancing back at his companions;

"Come on then you two! Let’s do it!" He laughs before starting to walk towards the armory.

The other two look at each other, before walking after him, talking quietly to themselves.

"Tell me dear darling, how come we couldn't just drive straight through the fence like we did all those trees?"

"Ah, that's because the fence is quite special, my darling dear, why we'd have a better chance of digging our way in with broken plastic spoons. Far faster to do this part ourselves."

With that the two elegantly step over the wreckage of the fence and move on, almost seeming to glide across the ground, eerily in sync with each other, talking quietly all the way.

[Primusa]

I groggily open my eyes, and see an ominous sight upon waking up. Arthria is sitting on the stool and intently staring down at me with a look of deep contemplation. It appears that she has woken up before me, quite an unusual sight, to be sure. She appears to hesitate, but then decides to talk to me. "Ez, I have something to tell you, will you listen?" I'm not really in the mood to protest. "Sure, what is it?" She begins to ease into an explanation. "Do you know why we're able to have a relationship like the one we have?" I'm really confused right now. "How should I know? I guess I became your prophet?" She interjects. "That's not what I mean, do you see it as odd that I'm able to show traits like embarrassment and possessiveness despite the fact that I'm a god?" I respond to this nonchalantly. "Not really, I just kind of assumed that all gods possess human traits, and that some are more cruel than others". She replies knowingly with a grin. "Therein lies your problem Ez. Among all the gods in this world, I alone used to be human. I alone can understand your plight, because to them you're not any different than an ant." I'm genuinely shocked at this revelation, I didn't think it was possible. "You seem shocked, in case you're unaware, let me explain. Everybody knows that humans are the only ones capable of killing gods, but very few know that after killing one, you have the option of taking their place. This is why I would occasionally see both ambitious and terminally ill people come to my temple in the hopes of obtaining immortality, quite a cowardly decision in my opinion." This explains a lot actually, and helps me justify why Arthria is different than the others. This is the answer I needed, and why I can accept help from a god in the pursuit of taking out another god. I still have much more questions though. "If that's the case, how can you justify your own deicide of the last Arthria?" She appears to settle into the discussion with a smug look on her face. "First off, Arthria is a name of my own invention, the previous incarnation was called by another name. I'll start from the beginning so as not to confuse you." It seems like she might settle into a monologue, I'll probably be in for a long discussion now. I have to say though, I don't mind learning about this side of her, and I'm very interested to know more.
--------------------------------------------
OOC: ToR, you should finish your goddamn backstory.

[Primusa]

She begins the monologue. "I was born a very long time ago, I can't name the exact date from your perspective, but it was around the same time that Elena's bow was made". Her face took on a reminiscent expression. "I know that for sure..." I interject here with a question.

"Is that the reason you dislike her?". She responds defensively. "Well, that's part of it, but I'll get to that later". She coughs to discourage further interruptions from me, and continues. "I wasn't born on this continent though, it was on a different one far to the north of here. It appears to me that temperatures are mostly temperate around here, but up north it is very cold.

The harvests were difficult, and its winters harsh. There was only about a two month window in which viable crops could be grown. As a result, we turned to war as a way of supplementing our insufficient harvests through looting other nearby countries of their food. We didn't do it out of malice, but out of necessity for our survival.

Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself, I'll make sure to return to this later." I begin to formulate an idea of how she got over here with what she's told me so far, but I'll wait for her to finish her story. "You might not believe it, but I was actually the princess of the northern continent". I nearly spat out my nonexistent drink, it was so incredibly ludicrous and out of character for her.

She just about has the worst manners I've ever seen, very unbecoming of royalty. She appears to pick up on my thoughts as she continues. "In contrast to my attitude today, my upbringing was quite strict, but for the most part, happy.

I did all of the things that my mother and father expected of me, and embraced the weakness that was forced upon me due to my birth circumstances." Her face contorts into a complicated expression, displaying both reverence and disgust simultaneously. "Then the best and simultaneously the worst thing happened, and it changed the course of my life forever.

My father died of pneumonia one winter, and my uncle seized power that year. I certainly couldn't claim the throne because I'm a woman." Her face turns into one that conveys both pain and hatred, I know because I've worn it so many times myself.

"He truly was a sickening individual. My mother disappeared shortly after, probably connected to him in some way, but it wasn't like anyone cared. Because I was a popular public figure, he needed a different way of getting rid of me, and the method he chose backfired spectacularly.

As a result of his poor management of the food distribution, which mostly went to his political allies and the higher classes, we were left with a serious food deficit at the end of the harvest season heading into an especially bad winter.

The shortfall was not covered by our raids into neighboring countries, so much more drastic measures were required, and he saw the perfect opportunity to eliminate his political enemies and solve the food shortage simultaneously. The largest mobilization effort in our nation's history took place that year, with the goal of raiding the southern continent and robbing it of its abundant food supplies.

That was the public goal anyways, we were never intended to survive the invasion, and it would temporarily relieve the crisis by eliminating 300,000 mouths to feed. This fact was made painfully obvious because the invasion force was made up of my uncle's political enemies, convicted criminals, and with a ditzy princess commanding the army. I didn't know what to do, I was so scared that I could only sit in my room hugging my knees for hours.

 Unfortunately for my uncle, he was nice enough to send my father's old great generals with me, who were veterans of many campaigns in nearby countries. They took charge of the army temporarily while tutoring me on the tactics of the battlefield and how to fight. After only a year, I was ready to command the army, and had immense success with it.

I took their conventional tactics and innovated them to fit my own designs, tactics that the enemy was completely unprepared for. In the course of four more years I turned the mismatched fighting force of criminals and political prisoners into a formidable fighting force, capable of defeating the south's armies wherever they confronted us, even when outnumbered.

I was committed to completely defeating the south's armies and returning home triumphant to take my throne back from my uncle using the army he had unwittingly assembled for me. It would have been the perfect revenge. Unfortunately for me, after the initial successes of the first two years of my command, a new general took control of their armies, and he favored a delaying, non-confrontational strategy.

He reasoned that if enough time passed, we would no longer have the strength to fight them. He was a formidable opponent because he was aware that my army could not stand against the tropical diseases such as malaria that permeated the region, diseases we had never encountered before.

In fact, more of my army died from insect-borne diseases than ever died from combat under my command. In the last year of the war, I became increasingly desperate and mounted a last-ditch effort to save the invasion. My plan was to defeat the God of Insects, gain their powers, and use them to destroy the south while simultaneously eliminating the problem of insect-borne diseases.

The first part of the plan was a success, but I didn't realize that becoming a god would involve near-permanent cryosleep as a result of the lack of worshipers." She looks sad, as if yearning for the good old days. "I guess my army was probably destroyed without me, huh?

I think part of my resentment towards Elena comes from the fact that she wields a weapon that my old enemies sometimes used to kill my soldiers." A little bit understandable in my opinion, she might not actually be that old from her perspective due to the cryosleep.

The transition across many thousands of years was probably very jarring for her when I showed her the outside world. She continues with a melancholy expression on her face. "I was only woken up at various points in time when a few dozen or so people challenged my divinity, you being the last of them.

 I think I didn't kill you because I knew that we were fundamentally the same back then." She assumes an apologetic expression and looks down in shame. "To be honest, I attempted to take advantage of you to gain enough followers to assume divine form, then ditch you in favor of getting my own revenge before discovering that I had traveled to the far future, and for that, I'm sorry."

I'm totally astonished by this, I never even imagined... Not only was she once a human, but our pasts and motivations are essentially the same, and I've treated her like garbage all this time due to my prejudice of her being a god. For the first time, I'm not seeing her just as an annoyance and a tool, but as an equal partner. Overcome with emotion, I embrace her, taking her a bit by surprise.

"It's all right, there's no need to apologize. I've just using you as an instrument to fulfill my revenge as well." She chuckles softly into my chest. "Heh, just what I'd expect from you Ez, we are similar after all." I continue, a bit drunk on the excitement of discovering that I wasn't the only one in the world who could understand my plight.

"It's fine now though, we can work together as equals from now on." She nods excitedly while smiling, as if affirming this. "Can I ask you something Ez?" I nod, at this point I'd do anything to reassert our relationship. She continues. "When we're alone, can you call me by the name I used to have?

Arthria as a name makes me feel very uncomfortable, it dehumanizes me. Please call me Aria from now on, but I'll make sure only you can call me that." I chuckle to myself, that's pretty clever actually, she only added three letters to her old name to make her divine one, and it still represents the nature of her divinity.

"Alright, sure Aria, I'd be happy to". Unfortunately, it doesn't seem we have much time to brood on this before someone comes to check on us, and being found like this would be really embarrassing and probably cause a misunderstanding for any observer. As such, I release her from my embrace, and we both walk out of the room changed people.
-------------------------------------------------
OOC: To ship or not to ship? Even I don't know at this point!

[Oneal812]

"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

What is with this place and nightstep. Turning off the alarm I get up and get ready for the new adventure ahead. We have a really magical day planned. Such activities include NOTHING BECAUSE MR. FREE DIDN'T TELL US ANYTHING. I love being lead around by the most incapable leader imaginable. This would be so much easier if he just told us what his plans were. I hope he at least notices that we are down a person and doesn't bring us into a fight we can't win. We could be worse off. At least Ezekiel didn't lose his magical loli. We would probably be screwed if we didn't have crab armour. Finishing getting ready I exit my room and out into the halls. Whatever he has planned, it can't possibly go as bad as last time. I mean, what are the chances of that happening again? Yea, we'll be fine.

[Touch of Ruin]

Saul chuckled lightly into the phone and spoke softly.
"Hello AD, this is SV. I hope you remember me. I heard your company was doing well and I wanted in on the action. Think you could help me out? Oh and say hi to Jack for me."



----------------------------------------------------
Seras woke up and immediately destroyed the alarm clock. After that business was taken care of, she got out of bed and went downstairs to find the others.
"Lets hope nothing else awful fucking happens"


-----------------------------------------
OOC: I haven't posted because I had legitimate things to do. In other words, shut up Jeremy. Like seriously Jeremy, SHUT UP.

[Youmu Konpaku]

--Hotel Lobby--

Mr. Free growled impatiently as he waited with Ezekiel and Virgil for Seras. It started to feel like they had been waiting for weeks, when Seras finally met up with the group. With the group assembled, Mr. Free sighed. “Took you long enough. No more wasting time, let’s go.”

With that, he dragged them all into the car and drove off for their destination, which they had reached no more than 15 minutes later. Mr. Free drove madly towards the building, drifting the car towards a stop near the entrance, giving the group some last words before the mission began.

“We got here behind schedule because someone, I’m not going to name any names though,” he said while giving Seras an obvious glare. “Didn’t meet up on time. Stop them as quick as possible, we don’t know what they could’ve made off with.”

After the group exited the vehicle, he sighed and muttered under his breath, “Hoping they don’t reduce the pay… worked hard for that apartment damn it…”

Vasto Armory:

Silence reigns inside the outermost sections of the armory as the robed duo survey their work of art. Several teams of robed minions are leaving through the newly redecorated entrance carrying several heavy looking bundles. The couple continue to stand still, seeming to simply enjoy each other’s company until the faint sound of a motor sounding, and tree's shattering is heard from outside, breaking the moment.

Suddenly the one on the left grins fiercely, "Well Daniel I think this is going really well, why there's hardly any resistance at all."
The other responds disturbingly quickly, "Well that's true Danielle but after they saw what we did to their colleagues it's hardly surprising they’re hesitant to try attacking us directly again, not to mention-"

Here the first one cuts the second off and continues talking "-We haven't gotten to any of the important stuff yet, right."

"Well then", the second continues as if nothing happened "We'd better keeping working then, it's bound to get interesting... eventually."

With that they both turn and begin walking towards their other companions (who'd gone on ahead) and the sound of gunfire.

OOC: We've got a pulse! It's alive!

[Primusa]

Previously on A Delicate Balance:
Colosseum Clusterfuck, Lolis on Motorcycles, Factory Boombox, Hotel of Eternity. 

Getting out of the car, I survey my surroundings and see that we have arrived at the Vasto Armory. I flex my arms and legs as soon as I step out of the vehicle. Cracking noises at least as loud as the ones Seras(wink) can produce ring out into my surroundings. Fuck, it feels like I've been standing in one place for two weeks, it really builds up the stiffness. Seeing as nobody else has taken the initiative, I guess I'll enter the factory first. As I'm strolling along, I feel a soft tug on my sleeve. It's Aria. "I'm going with you this time". I'm pretty surprised to be quite honest; I guess that this might be a result of our talk last night, or last fortnight, it's really unclear. Even if I appreciate the offer, I still have to object. "It's far too dangerous for you, you should just stay in the vehicle and wait". Her face appears to harden into an expression of indignation. "No". She states this flatly, leaving no room to argue. However, she continues anyway, trying to justify her actions. "Let me explain, this is an armory, and if I manage to find a weapon suitable for me, even a child could make herself useful with proper combat form. Besides, I have the feeling that somebody is trying to steal our title as the best ship." I mostly ignore this, seeing as I can't argue the point anyway, and we both walk into the armory.
----------------------------------------------------------
OOC: I did the liberty of giving a short recap for anybody who may have forgotten what happened while we were on hiatus.

[Oneal812]

That took about as long as it should have. You would think after we were in the lobby for that long we would have sent someone up. To be honest, I have no idea how long we were waiting. Whatever the case may be, we finally have something to do. getting out of the car I follow Ezekiel towards the armory. Maybe Seras won't get lost on the way out of the car this time. To be honest, she ends up like this every time we drive somewhere. Maybe she has motion sickness or something. Then again, I don't know what type of motion sickness knocks you out for that long. As long as she gets up and with us before everything goes wrong again I can't really complain. Entering the armory I prepare myself for the inevitable.


OOC: Messing with THE best ship? Let's burn the bastards.

[Touch of Ruin]

Seras decided to stay in the car and sleep for another two weeks.


Stepping out of the car, Seras laughed happily and followed her companions inside. Man it felt like she had been sleeping for two weeks and damn did it feel good. She was well rested to the extreme and ready to go shoot more people in the face. Although her teammates didn't seem to happy. She wasn't sure why though. Its not like they were just standing around for that long... were they?

[Contemplator]

Hey everyone! New post should be out soon if it isn't already! And guess what its time for the return of investigation mode! Feel free to look around and inspect some things that your curious about, or if you think you've got it, (definitely possible, you all seem intelligent) feel free to go on ahead just make sure you go as a team.

Actually, whatever forget teamwork, your each definitely strong enough on your own to take this mission solo (..AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....hehehee, hee, hee... whew...). But seriously though, it's your up too you and we've got plans either way. Note though that having the building blow up killing everyone is not going to happen anytime soon, so if you do want to check upon a few things don't feel pressured to hurry.

Also congrats ToR, your answer to the phone calls has managed to take what I thought would be a fairly simple response and make it so complicated I've been stumped on what to do for awhile and hesitant to commit to some intelligent suggestions from Youmu, however we've settled on something and it should be out tomorrow.

[Youmu Konpaku]

--Vasto Armory, Main Entrance--

Your group enters through the main doors with Mr. Free close behind. All around you lie's the aftermath of a battle, one oddly without any injured on any side. In fact the only sign that anything even happened here are several small craters in the floor, and the ruined remains of several security turrets, each pointing in sets at the empty space between them.

Adding to the eerie atmosphere are a few large lumps white scattered around the room, and the faint sound of an undulating high-pitched siren coming from within. Suppressing a shiver, you notice the room seems to be a little colder than before, when you hear a menacing growl from behind you, turning around suddenly you notice Mr. Free has his teeth bared and has pulled his boom box out from somewhere. Noticing you staring at him, he calms down a little. "I hate sirens! They mess with the sound of my music...," he frowns, pausing.  "Unless it's siren nightcore... hmmm yeah! That sounds like a good idea." With a grin on his face he pushes through the group and steps forward, further into the building, "Come on then you bun-AHHH" he yelps in surprise, as he slips suddenly, landing on his tail with a wince.

Glancing carefully at the ground you notice it has a slight odd sheen to it, when a loud boom echoes through the building.


--Unknown Location—

As if in response to Seras’s previous comment, Elena suddenly awakens in a nicely furnished, yet armored cell. Greeting her once she awakens is a severe pain in her head.

“Aagh,” she cries out, holding her hand to her forehead. A mysterious figure standing outside of her cell looking in then speaks up.

“Are you alright?” It asks her.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” she replies as she continues to rub her forehead. “I always get splitting headaches when someone says something stupid…” It is then that she realizes where she is, and who has been talking to her. She turns to the mysterious figure, darkened from her perspective as so to cover its appearance, which merely shrugged.

“Very well. Now that you’re awake, we have some things to discuss.”

[Contemplator]

Suddenly and inexplicably you realize you are wearing a birthday hat, looking around you notice that your companions, including Mr.Free are also wearing birthday hats, of different colours.

OCC: An explination and bonus if anyone figures it out in time!

[Sponsored content]