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Post by Rider on Oct 13, 2008 12:23:30 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]"So... you killed him and now you want to bring him back? Want to explain to me exactly how that works?"
"Don't ask questions and we won't change our minds," Rider said, not coming off as terse and irritable as she had intended. Something in Keng's voice was striking chords that went back to the first Guild Wars, and Shino's assassination. "Suffice it to say, our intention is not to harm him - well, so long as he doesn't go looking for revenge or anything. The debt he owes us won't be solved by his death, and we were fools not to see it to begin with."
She paused, as if lost in thought. "He's our albatross."
Feeling Goosh's stare on the back of her neck, she added, "Yes, I read a poem, try not to faint." [/glow]
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Post by Goosh on Oct 13, 2008 13:38:48 GMT -5
"Oh, I believe you. I'm just surprised it was something above a Dr. Seuss level." Goosh grinned. It was getting sort of crowded in the room, so he wedged himself into a chair and started flicking through magazines.
"Oooh, they're making a Stalor Moon movie. That oughta be good."
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Post by zarikrahia on Oct 14, 2008 20:47:50 GMT -5
"Negotiations are proceeding pretty much as planned, except the phoenix broke on of our robots and stole a classified book from the library."
Zari blinked. "Fine him then get on with our lives, that's all I can say. Wait- the negotiations! I forgot to mention to Fraze that some of the regular fleeter's have magic-or-similar. I'm okay, I'm okay!"
On that slightly hysterical note, Zari catapaulted herself off the stretcher and skittered down the medic ward and out the door.
Umbra shrugged. "That's her way of saying 'Thanks muchly, but I need to go.'. It's normal..."
--
The residents of Spacefleet were long used to the behaviour of the three Illhvrenans in their ranks, enough to hardly bat an eyelid (or four) when the youngest of that three whizzed above their heads and crash headlong into a wall.
Zari recovered her balance, inspected her crowded surroundings, and decided to walk. It took approximately 20 minutes more, but there were no head injuries, which was a plus. Resolving to walk more, she continued down the corridor with enthusiasm.
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Post by Ikkin on Oct 16, 2008 9:40:38 GMT -5
Ikkin did her best to cover up the fact that she was feeling rather sick from the mess hall food, but was fairly sure that she wasn't succeeding. The spacemen might have been far more advanced than everyone else in many ways, but they clearly still hadn't figured out how to make mass-produced food taste as good as proper cooking. of course, Ikkin was quite possibly one of the most picky eaters around, but that really wasn't much consolation for her. She really didn't want to let Fraze know that she didn't like the food, though, so she decided to excuse herself under the pretense of needing to get back to the Mages.
"Thank you for your hospitality," she told Fraze. "I really do need to be getting back now, but here's hoping that our discussion can bring a new sense of cooperation between the guilds." With that, she summoned Sev with a thought.
***
Sev flew around the civilian area of the Spacefleet base randomly, looking for Ikkin. It really would have been much easier if the kitsune just stayed in one place, he thought.
Before he could find Ikkin, however, an announcement came over the loudspeaker for him to report to the guard station for a private message. Oh, joy.
Fortunately, he didn't have to go anywhere, since a little robot came up and informed him "You have. one. message. Would you like to read it now?"
As it turned out, it was a message from Hunty telling him to get back down to the Weewoo. Well, he couldn't just leave Ikkin up here, even if he didn't know how long it would take her, so he thanked the little robot and continued his search.
Just when it seemed like the search was futile, Sev received his summons from Ikkin and appeared by her side in a moment. A few quick goodbyes later, both phoenix and kitsune disappeared from the base on the Moon and reappeared right next to Hunty in the spaceport in Tabloid Town.
...yeah, that was lame. But, it should move things along, at least, and that's what's important at this point.
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Post by Speck on Oct 16, 2008 15:03:27 GMT -5
Speck’s hand closed over open air as the monkey held the lemon bomb away from her. She spun the monkey around, grabbing her other wrist. She held tight to the wrists, feeling the monkey’s pulse.
“Yes,” Speck said to Jina, still looking the pickpocket in the eye. She directed her next comment to the monkey, “Give it to me, and you will not get hurt.”
As she said this, she worked her magic. Speck began to force the monkey’s blood to rush to the head, as though Anester had been hanging upside down for a long time. If all went accordingly, Anester would start to feel dizzy. If anything, forcing Anester's blood to go against gravity might cause considerable pain.
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Post by Jina on Oct 16, 2008 23:36:32 GMT -5
"Give it to me, and you will not get hurt."
Anester frowned. She could set off the bomb... but there were so many people she wanted to steal from. And.. there was something that pirate was doing, she could feel it. Blood was rushing to her head. It hurt. And with her condition, she would probably faint, too.
"He-here. Take it."
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Post by Huntress on Oct 17, 2008 12:38:54 GMT -5
"Don't ask questions and we won't change our minds."
"Rider," Hunty said, her voice bearing a heavy note of warning. However, she didn't add anything to it and turned away to look at the floor instead. Silence filled the small room. The squat man behind the counter eyed the whole scene curiously, trying to figure out what to make of all this.
All of a sudden, the scene included a phoenix and a kitsune. The captain, who'd sunk in an almost trance-like state by then, blinked and looked up.
"High time." She glanced at Keng, then at the man behind the counter, then ran the entire plan through her head again, gave an inward sigh - what the heck are we getting ourselves into, again? - and cracked her knuckles. Bloody Mary, who knew that motion as 'okay, I don't really know what I might cause with what I'm about to do, but let's think about it later, shall we?' sat up on her shoulder with a resigned look and gave the newcomers a lazy salute.
"Ikkin, I'll be hearing your report later, and I hope for your own good that they're good news cos we don't need any more things to worry about right now, Sev, I got a task for you, or actually a request, well, doesn't much matter, the result's still the same..." she glanced at the man behind the counter again, "let's have a word outside, shall we?"
She kicked the door open and ushered the phoenix outside, the meepits clustering around her feet. Hunty didn't much care if anyone followed them, but she preferred to get away from any redundant fleet-ears.
"Alright, so," she said once they were on the empty street, and paused. Dealing with Sev was always a diplomatic issue. "I'll level with you. You already know that we need info from the Fleet and that we don't have access to it and that trying to get access to that info would be suicidal." She sat down on a pile of crates by the wall. "Therefore... if you don't get lost right now, I'll have your liver for breakfast."
The street kid behind the crates jumped up and disappeared down an alleyway.
"Yep, this's definitely going to improve the pirates' reputation in this city," Bloody Mary said.
Hunty shrugged with a grin and turned back to Sev. "So, I'd rather not risk with anyone in my crew. Wouldn't want to get them killed, or kill the diplomatic relations if they get caught, for that matter. I intend to send someone who wouldn't be associated with us but who'd have a reason to help us... and I have someone in mind, but he was rather inconveniently executed this morning, and that's where you come in."
She leaned forward. "Long story short: you know where the ship is. Go there, find Cyborg's body, it should be on the bottom of the ocean right off the starboard, the bottom's good there so he should be easy to find... have the blarf bring him up or something if it doesn't work otherwise."
"Unless the blarf ate him," Bloody Mary pointed out. Cyborg had been reclassified as 'food' in the kraken's book ever since the last war.
Hunty grimaced. "Don't think so, you know he doesn't like 'em metallic bits. Find him, revive him, and bring him here. As quickly as possible."
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Post by Ikkin on Oct 17, 2008 13:44:53 GMT -5
"High time," said Hunty as she finally noticed Ikkin and Sev. Bloody Mary just gave a lazy salute.
The pirate captain wasted no time getting down to business. "Ikkin, I'll be hearing your report later, and I hope for your own good that they're good news cos we don't need any more things to worry about right now, Sev, I got a task for you, or actually a request, well, doesn't much matter, the result's still the same..." Hunty looked sideways, apparently realizing that they were being listened in on, then continued, "let's have a word outside, shall we?"
"Aye aye, cap'n," Ikkin said when Hunty finished. "Don't worry about the news, it's all good."
Hunty kicked the door open and led Sev outside, followed by the Meepits.
"...since when do I get left out of conversations between the Cap'n and Sev?" Ikkin asked Rider, kind of finding the turn of events a bit odd.
***
"Alright, so," Hunty started once they had left the building, then paused. Sev smirked, finding it amusing that she apparently felt the need to be so careful with her phrasing. "I'll level with you. You already know that we need info from the Fleet and that we don't have access to it and that trying to get access to that info would be suicidal. Therefore... if you don't get lost right now, I'll have your liver for breakfast."
Sev was following her right up until the last bit, which confused him until some street rat kid jumped up from behind a crate and ran away. He really had no idea where the kid had come from, or how Hunty managed to notice - but, then again, he wasn't exactly paying too much attention. He had better ways of dealing with people who listened in.
Of course, Sev's way would hurt the pirates' reputations even more, so...
After a quick aside with Bloody Mary, Hunty got back to her explanation. "So, I'd rather not risk with anyone in my crew. Wouldn't want to get them killed, or kill the diplomatic relations if they get caught, for that matter. I intend to send someone who wouldn't be associated with us but who'd have a reason to help us... and I have someone in mind, but he was rather inconveniently executed this morning, and that's where you come in."
So, basically, all this was just for a simple resurrection. Sev wondered why the Cap'n had felt the need to bring him out here alone just to tell him this; usually, those kinds of things were dealt with through Ikkin.
Not that it was really an issue; whoever she needed resurrected could be done easily enough, if it was just from that morning.
"Long story short: you know where the ship is. Go there, find Cyborg's body, it should be on the bottom of the ocean right off the starboard, the bottom's good there so he should be easy to find... have the blarf bring him up or something if it doesn't work otherwise."
Ah, so it was Cyborg. Sev could certainly understand why things happened the way they did - and why he might come in handy - now.
"I'll have fun with this one," Sev smirked as he disappeared in a flash.
He really would, he thought as he flew in a lazy circle right over the starboard side of the ship. Especially since it was much easier to find Cyborg than it would be to find any normal dead body - the robotic parts still had electricity in them, and he could use that to sense where he was.
Within moments, he'd pinpointed the dead Kougra's body and shot an arc of healing phoenix flame down through the water. Since it wasn't really flame in the normal sense, it wasn't stopped by the water, and should resurrect Cyborg just as well as if he'd been on land.
...well, almost as well, Sev thought with a smirk. The Kougra was still under many feet of water - and Sev didn't feel like getting wet, so he'd have to swim back up on his own. Without any oxygen in his lungs. Which would probably mean repeated death, before he managed to make it to the surface.
Yeah, this one might be a bit of fun.
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Post by Cyborg on Oct 17, 2008 15:10:48 GMT -5
Falling, he was falling, or something like it. Cyborg was all of the sudden in his ....... body? Yes that's where he was and he was out of oxygen. Cyborg began to swim up, towards the surface of the water, he was about a quarter of the way up when everything went black.
This was repeated a couple more times until Cyborg reached the surface. " Sev what in bloody hell's goin on?"
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Post by Speck on Oct 17, 2008 18:10:02 GMT -5
Speck released Anester, snatched the lemon bomb from her, and pushed the pickpocket away. Before the monkey could recover, she stood up and walked ahead of Zylaa and Jina (assuming neither of them had merely walked on), following the weasel's directions toward Huntress. Her hand tossed the lemon bomb up and down as she walked along.
In no time, they were outside of the dingy Spaceport entrance. The entrance hall, which reminded Speck of the reception area of a hospital, was crowded with more people than she had expected. She paused to look around at everyone, staring longer at the bright spectrum of colors that was Merpo, then strode over to the nearest seat and sat down.
“Hey, everyone,” was all she said before she chose a magazine from the rack and started paging thought it. If she had any sense of how long it had been since her encounter with Joce Farlap, Speck might have been fidgeting more.
Joce Farlap took a step out of the hovel, turned, and transported herself to the bathhouse room. The mage had expected Speck to be in the room, still tied up, still thinking about the offer. She didn’t expect Speck to have any friends with her; she knew the pirates were on shore leave, why should they go into town with each other.
So when she discovered that the chair was empty, ropes loose around its legs, she was furious. Joce took a deep breath, then briskly walked down the hallway of the bathhouse to its entrance. She ignored any and all bath attendants, all who were asking whether she would like a hot towel.
When she came to the entrance, she turned to the bathhouse receptionist, “Have you seen a group of pirates around here? One of them has got a black bandana, and a dark green overcoat?”
The receptionist began to shake her head in fright, startled by Joce’s harsh tone and cold brown eyes. Joce let out an aggravated sigh, and started towards the bathhouse’s front doors.
“W-wait! Miss! I-I saw some… they left here about 15 minutes a—“
“Which way did they go?” Joce’s head snapped back to the receptionist, hand on the door’s handle.
The receptionist pointed a shaky hand in the right direction. Before she could ask if Joce wanted to take a bath, the last of the mage’s cloak was disappearing out the door. On the street, she passed by a small, black monkey. Joce usually didn’t venture into the nastier parts of town (with the exception of the hideout), so she didn’t think to wear something less fancy. Her dark purple and blue clothes were trimmed with gold and silver. She also wore some very pricy-looking earrings, bracelets, cufflinks, necklaces, rings, you name it.
In other words, Joce’s outfit screamed, “Rob me! I’m loaded with shinies!”
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Post by Ikkin on Oct 17, 2008 20:34:45 GMT -5
"Sev, what in bloody hell's goin on?" Cyborg asked as he finally reached the surface.
Sev just smirked and let him continue swimming. "Good news, Cap'n Hunty doesn't think you're entirely useless. We need some information from Spacefleet, but we can't let them know we're the ones who want it. If you can get it for us, I imagine, you'll be back in the crew. If you can't... well, there's not much we can do for you.
"So, are you in?"
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Post by Cyborg on Oct 17, 2008 21:01:42 GMT -5
" You mean Hunty thinks that after she killed me, and let my body sink to the bottom of the ocean, that I will all of a sudden agree to help her?" Cyborg chuckled as he reached land and climbed onto the deck. " Sev, please take me to Hunty, I want to talk to her, and negotiate perhaps."
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Post by Ikkin on Oct 17, 2008 21:13:36 GMT -5
"You mean Hunty thinks that after she killed me, and let my body sink to the bottom of the ocean, that I will all of a sudden agree to help her?" Cyborg laughed as he pulled himself out of the water and onto the Weewoo. "Sev, please take me to Hunty, I want to talk to her, and negotiate perhaps."
"I would put it rather differently," Sev said, amused malice in his voice. "I would say she thinks that you would much prefer to keep your new-found lease on life rather than watch it go up in smoke. There's no negotiation. If you can't do exactly what we want, we don't need you."
Sev wasn't entirely sure that this was the case, but, he figured, it wouldn't hurt to let Cyborg think this was the case. He could always bring the Kougra back again if he went too far.
"But, if you're okay with that, I'll bring you to Hunty."
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Post by Kengplant on Oct 17, 2008 23:08:54 GMT -5
"... what were you and Sev doing at Spacefleet anyways?" Keng asked Ikkin after the fire bird had left with Huntress. "Normally I'd be up to date on these things but... I've been rather occupied the past few weeks." she winced inwardly at exactly what occupied meant in this case. Her hand trailed off to finger the blood stain on her shirt.
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Post by Amneiger on Oct 18, 2008 4:03:32 GMT -5
Amneiger followed the phoenix with the security cameras for a while. At one point it dropped the book behind a garbage bin; Amneiger made a note of it and continued to watch with the cameras as -
>>Autonomous security systems: Mage ambassador has arrived.
> Show me.
Amneiger got a glimpse of the phoenix and the kitsune before both disappeared.
"...Huh."
He'd review the logs for Fraze's and the kitsune's lunch later; right now he needed to pick up the book before anything happened to it. It would need to be analyzed, both to collect information about any cells the phoenix may have left behind and to see if there wasn't any evidence of where the book had been. Amneiger picked up a glass specimen container and a pair of sterile metal tongs and left his lab.
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