Romanadvoratrelundar – Nearly there

{Romana’s telepathic extension, inside Jake’s mind}

She could see Jake become aware that she was there. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was almost over...

However before Romana could speak, she noticed the woman’s reaction to her. This can’t be good. Before Romana knew what was happening, she found herself unable to move. She kept her eyes on the woman, worried. She didn’t like the way this was going at all.

“J-a-k-e,” Romana struggled to say, calling out to him. “You must...wake...up...”



{Romana, normal, present}

Having watched Roy and Charles sparring, Romana made her way to Lunar’s Office also, K9 obediently at her heels. She wasn’t looking forward to this next bit, but she supposed they needed to get it over and done with. She wondered what Lunar would have to say to them all...

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Hiryu: Doc's bag is a portal. She's actually from another dimension and when she jumped into it, she ended up at a desk with a browser open on this site. That's how she found it.
We have a Doctor Who thread now. Doctor Who threads are cool.

Isarabi White: The Road to the Wizard? aka Lunar's Office.

Isarabi was still on the way to Lunar's office, when she heard footsteps behind her, and then Scael's voice. She had taken note of the way he preferred to eat his food and felt a kind of connection with him because of it. It wasn't every day that you saw a fellow meat eater having a go at a practically raw piece of meat. She was pretty sure that Romana wouldn't be caught dead eating a piece of meat that raw! She chuckled a bit and turned her head and her shoulders a bit till Scael caught up with her and took her leisurely time looking at his appearance. Her eye was calculative and slightly appreciative. "Nice scales" She gave him an impressed smile, and internally compared his scales to her own pale purple ones. His were hard and more protective while hers were more apt to stretch and soak up sunlight. With her kind of poison, she didn't really need the shell of protection, but that didn't mean that she didn't appreciate it.

She cracked a smile when Scael flexed for her, and was reminded of a big dragon, a big puffy dragon that would burn you if he was ticked. Kind of amusing. Answering his question, she commented "Clean is a good look for you...although the blood and guts wasn't half bad either." She smirked a bit and they continued walking to the office. Her first reaction to the question of hobbies, she was a little surprised that he asked for more information. "Oh." She paused a moment, and though of some things. She wasn't used to this small-talk, but it was slowly growing on her with this team. "When I'm not working or preparing for the next job, I usually read or mess around with my poison for a bit, exercise, eat...sleep." She paused and for the life of her, couldn't think of anything else. She realized that a lot of people would find her boring at that moment, and then remembered who she was with. She wasn't exactly working with normal people, and she was beginning to appreciate it. She thought that she saw Lunar's door up ahead. "What about you?" She was genuinely curious as to what people 'like her' did for fun. It wasn't every day that she got an opportunity to figure these things out.

_________________
Doctress Who-CURSE YOU AKAINE AND FENIX. *Shakes fist*
Musicmac-INNUENDO... STRIKE!
Innuendo Squad Leader
Dare to join?

{Roy}

_Lunar's Office_

Roy in his full mechanical glory, gently set down Adrian beside the office door silently. His body despite being mostly machine was designed with a lot of sound damping mechanisms as stealth was a key factor. " Do yourself a favor and stay sleep Adrian. " Roy commented to the slumbering Adrian. With the way he acted earlier, Roy could assume he was drunk and it had to be magically induced since he had no scent of alcohol. The problem was, since its magically, a field he has no idea about, its hard to say how long the effects of being magically drunk will last. " Or otherwise, you'll do something fool hardy and we can't have that. Not now at least." He added.

His right was in the air as electric blue blocks popped into and out of existence reconstructing Adrian's huge sword, a 7ft long and 3ft wide blade. "I must say if I wasn't in DIM, I couldn't even lift the blade so its surprising you can use it so effectively. " Roy said as he admired the sword, examining the craftsmanship with his own eyes. The blade gleamed off the electric lighting in the area, his electric eyes were arrows as he chuckled. The sword looked positively brand new as if was just forged, Roy set the blade right next to its owner, leaning it against the wall. " Polished, Sharpened, and Scratch free, you're welcome, but then again yours thanks goes to the DTM." Roy went to say and then added " However, I'll say Romana did it as an apology."

Roy then turned to his Dual Armor that was carrying his tray of food. " By the way, Shadow Man. Nice job out there." Roy complimented Kallis, which he figured he would be at Lunar's Office by now at least. The man had no presence to him, he always faded into the background, but he's handy like that. It was makes him very stealthy at least that's what Roy thought of Kallis.

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"Fate smiles on the strange. So its a good thing, I'm the strangest of all." - William Livingstone, Cirque de la Nuit

Scael shrugged. "I like to hunt, but that's fairly obvious already I suppose," he replied. "But man, those Wildlands are no joke. Beasts the likes of which I've never seen live there. It's crazy." He paused a moment in thought. "I'm not that fond of reading... last time I picked up a book I ended up shredding the pages with my claws just trying to turn them." He made a dismissive gesture and continued. "Other than that, I like to travel. One of the perks of working with a mercenary group like this is that you tend to see new places and things. Do you know that some places even hold a sort of 'Monster Olympics?' They're like a triathlon of physical ability for odd creatures, mutants and half-humans like myself. It was quite an experience. Rich, fat, weak-looking humans would place bets on us and we'd get a huge prize at the end if we made the top three. Kind of degrading, but fun. There's a race, a vertical obstacle course and some other events here and there. The whole thing was built into a mountain. Quite a sight.

"I ended up getting second to some kind of human-sized salamander who was just really quick on his feet, able to climb through the obstacle course like it was nothing, and run like a cheetah. I thought I would get ahead of him on the pillar vault--that's where you have these six-inch pillars about ten feet apart that you have to jump across in order to move on. I could fly over them, but it slowed him down a bit. But he ended up racing ahead of me at the last stretch. Second prize was a good chunk of change, though. That's how I was able to afford some of those special weapons of mine." He sighed, reminiscing. "I wonder if that place is still around."

Moments later, they arrived at the entrance to Lunar's office. Roy was already here, as well as a still-sleeping Adrian and Kallis. "Hey guys," Scael said as they walked up. "Are the others on their way?"

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??? - Shattered Memories

Oh shit, Jake stared in something close to a mix of horror, surprise and fear at the same time. He felt it instantly, a crack somewhere in his mind was appearing from his emotions. Jake grabbed at the woman and shook her at the shoulders, making her hair shake back and forth. But no matter how much he tried, her eyes continued to burn into Romana like a roaring fire. Out of hope and desperate, Jake let go and raced towards the Time Lady.

The woman screamed at him for leaving.

Jake turned around immediately, expecting the worst. All around them before anything could even be processed or understood, the woman's scream ripped through the place. In an instant, the white walls and floors were torn asunder. Millions of shattered white floated up around them as if without gravity. Below them if Romana bothered to look despite her pain, they fell into an deep, black hole. It was a different darkness, much deeper than the ones she had encountered through this mind.

As they dropped, Romana could see that Jake was yelling for her. His arms extended, as if trying to rescue her. Up above him, a blur of red, yellow and white flowed through the air. It was the woman, slowly falling down through infinity without care. A white flame seemed to trail after her as she continued to fall. The color spread quickly as she descended, eating her up until there was nothing left but a white hot flame. She was completely covered and burning in flames.

Before anything could be done, the fire exploded. Blinding white burned into her eyes, sending a horrible pain through her mind. Inside, she could only hear one thing. I'm sorry, the words echoed.

I'm sorry, Serena, she could see it now. An image forming inside her vision, where a familiar swordsman stood over her with his blade held up high. Rain was falling upon his face and his face was wearing an emotionless mask. Thunder struck above her before the sword was swiftly plunged through her body, the feeling of death finally sending her out of her telepathic journey.

??? - Last Message

Dizziness and a headache were the first to be felt, before a feeling of almost fainting, nausea and severe vertigo would be inflicted. Nonetheless, Romana would fall down without a single chance of expecting it. Luckily, somebody seemed to have caught her from behind before she went down like a hammer.

"Miss Romana, are you alright?" An innocent male voice rang through Romana's eardrums in a blurry and incomprehensible manner. She would probably either recognize the blurry image or the voice for a friend's immediately. Lifting her up, Jake dusted her clothes gently and readjusted her scarf before continuing. "You almost fell over there," he winked and placed a finger over his lips before letting his eyes wander ahead at the others for just a minute. When he lifted his finger, he made a tiny whisper. It was barely audible but easily interpreted.

Thank you, he said as he walked past her. Slowly and gradually, it was seen that his walk became different, the dignified feeling it emitted disappeared and was replaced by a more relaxed pace. Still, the memories she saw still latched on to Romana's mind as he walked away.

_________________

Captain of Innuendo Strike Forces & Founder of Innuendo Striking Technique

-Frank, settling in-

Suffice to say, Frank wasn't terrible happy with Romana. Downright pissed perhaps described it better. Glaring at her, he decided to keep his mouth shut. As happy as he would have been right then to cut her open faster than she could blink, Frank recognized that'd probably cause way too much trouble with the others. Or more importantly, the bosses. So, he stood there and watched as she walked away, his teeth clenched. He waited there in the hanger until the others had left before he finally reached into his coat to get another cigarette. Lighting up, he took a deep breath of it, before deciding to find his new room. Seems he was the winner for the dead mans old room. "Lucky me..... wait, the fuck's that? Sons of bitches, where's my tour?!"

Angrily mumbling to himself, Frank used up quite a bit of their downtime just trying to find his way around the base. By the time he did note all the important areas and find his new quarters, he'd gone through several more cigarettes. Tossing his stuff down, he looked around at what Enine had left. "Huh. Real occult bullshit. Great." Grabbing a bag, he started grabbing everything Enine left behind and tossing it in, vaguely wondering if there was anything of value. The room cleaned of it's previous occupants junk, Frank decided he'd wait a bit before bothering to set up any of his stuff. They had to go meet for the next mission soon, or so he gathered. One object he did pay attention to, however, was his suitcase, carefully sliding it in a hidden spot. Satisfied his valuables would be safe, at least for the moment, Frank walked out, taking his time working back to where he thought he'd seen Lunar's office.

Coming up on it, he noticed many of the others in his new team standing around. Walking up into their midst, he looked between them. Dropping the finished cigarette butt still hanging on his mouth to the floor and crushing it with his shoe, he spoke up. "Great, so, mission time. You all sure you're actually ready this time? And really, could someone wake up the mutt? Sleeping on the job. We might need his sorry ass." He stated, waving one arm towards the sleeping Adrian. Personally, he was ready to go. Just standing around with his "allies" was starting to irritate, but perhaps only because he hadn't found one he liked. Frank was positively itching to get to a new fight, though he kept his outside appearance calm.

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Isarabi White: Lunar's Office

Isarabi listened with an interest: it wasn't very often that she talked to someone similar to her, nevermind about what they were like personally. In a small way, she wanted to reassure herself that she wasn't a monster. This was a thought that usually popped up when she was around normal people...or at least humans that didn't show any outward changes. She was raised alone, mostly because she didn't play well with others, but as she grew older, she quickly noticed that she was the odd one out, a 'freak' compared to normal humans. She normally didn't feel bad about it, or even insecure, but it was more of a 'society' kind of issue. Even in the laboratory, she still heard what the scientists had said, read what they had written about her, and conversed (even if only for a short while) with normal human children. The difference between them had been even more noticeable as a child. The sharp features of her snake-genes hadn't smoothed out so much over time as the human children's baby fat disappearing and puberty almost removing the distance between their features, aside from the discoloration and occasional scales. The only thing that she never really learned before the 'project' was disengaged was what she was created for. Her thoughts never dwelt on the thought for too long, as it didn't really matter to her, so long as she kept on living.

She realized that she had zoned out for a moment and frowned slightly and was glad that she was adept at multi-tasking to the point that she heard all of what Scael had said, and only had to wait a short moment before it sunk in. "Monster Olympics?" She frowned slightly and wondered if the 'monsters' were allowed weapons. "Funding is always required,"she agreed, giving a nod that the money to fund their kind of lifestyles would be worth the degradation once in a while. "Somehow I find it hard to believe that you lost to a human-salamander", she said as she considered the idea as she noted that they had made it to Lunar's office. At the present, she was in a good mood: showered, decently well-fed, and she was enjoying the conversation. "Ello" she said in greeting, and noticed that Adrian was still sleeping. And then the newcomer arrived. Thinking 'Who the hell is this?', she looked at him for a moment, didn't say anything and ignored his not-so-subtle suggestion. If she wasn't mistaken, the new guy was ordering everyone around? Well, she wouldn't be ordered around until someone with a position higher than herself decided to tell her what to do.

_________________
Doctress Who-CURSE YOU AKAINE AND FENIX. *Shakes fist*
Musicmac-INNUENDO... STRIKE!
Innuendo Squad Leader
Dare to join?

~Lunar's Office-

As the group filed into the room, they were greeted by the sight of that familiar shadow shrouded figure,and the feeling of distant pressure, this time standing with it's back to them. On the opposite wall in front them, false wood paneling had shifted to reveal a series of large video monitors, currently showing what appeared to be various angles of a playback of the teams recent encounter.
"Ah, there you are. I was just taking a look at a replay of your work. Almost impressed, it's not horrible for a first outing. I admit I didnt expect so many guests to show up to welcome you, or that they'd shut down the port, but, then again i've apparently underestimated how many people you've screwed over..." He said, gesturing towards Frank.
As Lunar spoke, he began pacing, still watching the monitors. "Anyway, it was quite a haul. Yes, the Reward ought to just about help you break even when we subtract the money for the funerals from it. Speaking of which," he added, finally turning those burning red eyes on them, " Can one of you please explain to me why so many of them had too die? It's the just about the only major fault I have with this performance."

_________________

{Roy}

Lunar's Office_Some Answers_


" The underlings on Team 2's end caused quite a stir and if I recall they gave them a deadline, which they couldn't follow. So a fight was inevitable." Roy said as he began to answer Lunar's question. " They came at them with snipers and vans, all sorts of force to shut them down so I don't blame anyone for choosing their lives over the enemy." Roy added, his arms at his sides as he mentioned everything he asked Charles about, about what happened on his end. " The underlings on Team 1's were easy to neutralize as long as you can be stealthy about it, some had trouble with that." He continued.

" The Heads of the family, well that you can blame me on." Roy said, admitting blame as he had no intention of sparing any of them and was disappointed that some of them didn't want to die that day. " Honestly, I figured the heads probably had the money and influence to stay out of jail unlike their underlings and old habits kicked in." He mentioned and then started to explain his old habits. " By old habits, well back in the day whenever I saw potential problems, I made sure to take care of it immediately, because those things always bite you at some point."

" But the world has certainly changed more so than I thought. I never imagined we would have to take care of funeral arrangements of criminals now. " Roy mentioned as it a shocker that his company cares about criminals and what to do with their bodies after they have expired. He then added " Hmmm, I take notice of this. "

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"Fate smiles on the strange. So its a good thing, I'm the strangest of all." - William Livingstone, Cirque de la Nuit

Scael stared back at Lunar, nonplussed, if not a little chilled by his fiery gaze. Was this really happening? None of them had been told to minimize casualties as far as he remembered. Why were they being chided for a few kills, especially those in self-defense? Granted, Scael had been the one to draw first blood at the port. However, in his eyes it was a necessary act. Perhaps he did owe some kind of explanation. But how should he phrase it...?

After a moment, Scael puffed out his chest. "Sir," he said, as calmly and professionally as he could, "with all due respect, what would you have done if one of us had been killed? Would you have asked the organized crime syndicates to pay for our funerals? Would they have complied? And if they didn't comply, what would you do then? The idea that we owe it to outlaws to be fair and try not to kill them when they are clearly intent on killing us is utterly laughable. When someone threatens you with violence, the choice should not be to let them do as they please or accept death. No man, human or otherwise, should be given control over other people's freedoms. It doesn't matter if they're a petty thug, a mobster, a crime lord or a government official. We do not let tyranny exist unchecked.

"A wise man once said, 'Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither,' and I would do everything in my power to live by that creed. Now, that said, I can exercise tact if it's necessary, but I will do everything I can to make sure my own team survives an encounter when presented with lethal force.

"So..." Scael opened his arms, resigning himself to whatever fate Lunar thought appropriate. "How will I be punished for my actions?"

_________________

Jake Long - Second Opinions

"Sir," the hardness that delivered itself with the voice was accompanied by an equally hard thump of a boot against the wooden floor. Jake was standing as straight as he could right next to Scael, face almost emotionless except for a small sign of respect for whoever he was talking to, who in this case was his new boss. "With all due respect also, I will be willing to accept any punishment for my-", he paused for a second as if in thought, "...disorderly unconsciousness and being unable to aid the team during engagement with-," another pause, a few years on the road had dulled his vocabulary, "...the enemy when they assaulted us." In other words, I was sleeping in the back of the helicopter for some reason. What happened anyway? He ended his sentence without the best of confidence, but he had meant what he said. But he was not exactly finished.

"But," he said the word carefully, as if he was handling some fragile artifact, "with all due respect to everyone in this room, I must agree with-", crap, what was his name? "our squad leader... and Scael that, from my perspective, there may have been a mistake regarding our, uh, Rules of Engagement. Because from what has been said in so far, I can gather that the only guidelines we were acting upon had been a simple case of taking action when necessary." Jake paused again, his eyes were firmly locked on Lunar now. "And from what has been said so far, I can probably conclude that," a brief look at Scael to his right, "a presence of lethal force, lethal enough to take lives if action was not taken, qualified more than enough for whatever choices were made."

"Again, with all due respect, Sir, this is only an opinion based on my own observations and as I have already mentioned, I was apparently sleeping without permission in our transport during the incident, which gives me the least of any authority regarding the matter. Which is also why I will accept any punishment for my actions and lack of aid when I was needed most by the team, Sir." Jake's fists unclenched themselves as he finished, and the tension that had built up from the moment he talked disappeared as quickly as his nervousness. The swordsman took a step back, as if he was retreating now that he had nothing else to say, but kept his eyes forward, something he had been taught to do in situations like these since he was young.

_________________

Captain of Innuendo Strike Forces & Founder of Innuendo Striking Technique

~The Boss's office-
"I never said anything about punishment or blame," Said Lunar. "That wouldn't exactly be fair considering I never gave you the guideline first. And If you were to die on a job, I wouldn't expect the enemy to foot the bill for your funerals...I'd do it." he added, in a disturbingly off-hand manner. The shadow shrouded figure began to pace in front of the screens, looking every once in a while to them, then the assembled employees.

"Look, Im not saying that deaths aren't ever going to occur, because that would be an impossible standard even I unfortunately could not hold myself to. Now that you work here though, youre held to a much higher standard, and if you wanted safety, well, not only are you in the wrong corporation, you're in the wrong business all together. No ones asking you to let criminals go, or to commit suicide, but..." Lunar paused as Scael gave his speech.

"You realize that under the terms you talked of, I should be killing almost every single one of you right at this moment, rightNot that there would be a damn thing any of you could do to stop me if I chose to do so at this point, but almost every single one of you is guilty of some crime or another. one of you is a war criminal, more than one is an interplanetary fugitive, The person you just rescued has mob connections, And YOU yourself committed at least two murders today alone Mr.Clawver, and only one of those could be argued was self defense. If committing a crime was all it took to earn a death sentence, none us would be leaving this room alive. Argh, it's not the words that piss me off as it is the hypocrisy and self righteousness..."
Despite not being able to see his features the Head of Lunatic Inc appears to actually be slightly upset, and the mysterious pressure filling the room seems to fluctuate slightly, as if reflecting this. It's only momentary however, and within seconds, Lunar sighs, taking a seat on the large desk in front of them.
"Look, the point is this. 90% of those men you fault were normal, baseline humans, with weapons frankly insufficient to take on who they were fighting, And the only thing keeping you and me from being the type of tyrants Mr.Clawver likes to talk about is the standards to which we hold ourselves. And that standard to which I hold you now is, if you are capable of slowing down time, or throwing things with your mind, or teleporting weapons out of your enemies hands, or stopping bullets with your skin, and youre fighting a living, sentient being who is not an obviously evil, debased psychotic who eats babies, and you have the means with which to reasonably subdue them without killing them, At least attempt to do so. Im not even saying you cant cut their limbs off to do so, thats what we have medical super science for. As far as regulations go I dont think this one is so bad."
He stood up,, walking back to the wall of screens to point at them. "To reiterate, this, I have no problem with," he said, pointing to a clip of Scael roasting the huge gangster with the flail after being crushed by his attack, "This however," he said, pointing to a clip of Scael savaging one of the two gangsters that had first approached them while his back was turned, " Was the action of an animal, an animal that didnt know how to react, and so fell back on instinct and savagery. Youre NOT an animal, Mr.Clawver. Dont act like one."
Message delivered, the being in the shadows retook his seat behind the desk. "Youre free to go now. No bonus for the captures, but youre still getting paid for the work, so try to get some rest. And keep in mind...if I didnt believe that sometimes, people deserve a second chance, then none of us would be here now.Try to get some rest."

((You start back outside the office. It evening now))

_________________

Christopher stepped into the town, dragging one, still-twitching undead tree in one hand and a twitching brown bag in the other. Damn necromancers, he hadn't had the heart to destroy the... he knew she wasn't really a kid but...well, it's not like they wouldn't take her alive-ish. As for the tree, it must have been the original or something because it just wouldn't stay dead. He had to stop and re-pummel the damn thing each mile. Now the main problem was, where to hand them in. Even if the police force here hadn't gotten themselves killed, a back-water town like this wouldn't be prepared to deal with her. They'd been lucky he'd come looking for her anyway, she wasn't really worth the price on her head and those hunters who would be bothered to seek her out could see that. For now...He guessed he'd just rent a room somewhere for the night and wait till a cab got here that would let him come on board with his "cargo" though god-knows how long that would take, and if he commissioned some other ship to pick him up, they'd probably charge him half his bounties worth. People fricking hated bounty hunters. People tended to be basically okay with freaks and oddities these days, most of the time they recognised the fact that it wasn't entirely voluntary. Being a bounty-hunter on the other hand, that was a choice. Maybe he should just join a company instead of being a free-lancer. At least they got perks, the companies looked after their workers, but then every other free-lancer and company would hate him, instead of just every other company, and he'd spent a lot of time amongst the free-lancers. It would be a shame to throw all that away now, plus, you just didn't get the same amount of freedom.

He kicked the brown bag, silencing the pathetic crying that was coming from it, the crocodile tears didn't work but they made him uncomfortable and would look bad as he dragged it in. Although when he saw the people rush to him cheering, and the calculating look in some of their eyes, he changed his mind slightly. Better not let the crowd get the hands on the necromancer lest some old-fashioned mob justice took place. After a few minutes of discussion, the crowd began to disperse, leaving Chris with a bag of monies, a flower necklace thing and a bottle of wine. Looked like good quality too, though he preferred whisky. He grinned a little, it was good to know he'd made things easier on them, and it was nice to be thanked too. The rumours about these old and isolated colonies really were slanderous. Although...

The more critical part of his mind started t say. Maybe they just remain nice to the big giant 6 foot 6 monstrosities who help them out. Chris though about this for a moment, then shrugged. For now, he'd just enjoy the weather, put his feet up and relax for a bit. He'd seen a park back there, he' sit on a bench, watch the people go past and in the evening he'd ring up a ship for tomorrow, no other option. Unless, by some fluke chance, a ship showed up here. Anyway, a minute later he was sitting at the centre of the park, at the crossroads, getting a few odd stares, yes, but being left alone to enjoy himself, which he was. It was a good day right now.

_________________
“One day you wake up and realize the world can be conquered.”

Isarabi White: Outside Lunar's office

"Well that was fun." She said softly in a serious tone. She had felt for Scael, because she too, had felt the need to bite and attack. It was any creature's baseline instinct: to attack when danger is too close for comfort. However, she did also agree with Lunar, that they must have some sort of control over their instincts, and they should only be let loose in the more dire of circumstances. She looked at the rest of her teammates and wondered what to do next. She was thinking about going for a jog or working out in some sort of fashion. The steak she had eaten earlier had filled her sufficiently enough for some minor activity. Afterwards, of course, she'd be hungry again and would probably raid the fridge for a midnight snack.

Rubbing her tongue on one of her extended canines, she narrowed her eyes in thought, which to most would look like she was angry, but to the contrary, she was just trying to figure out where the weight room was. She was never any good at directions, as hard as she may try to hide it. She wasn't forgetting what Lunar said, but she was moving on. Lesson learned, etc. She didn't like to dwell on things that couldn't be changed. What she did like to do, was prepare for the future.

_________________
Doctress Who-CURSE YOU AKAINE AND FENIX. *Shakes fist*
Musicmac-INNUENDO... STRIKE!
Innuendo Squad Leader
Dare to join?

{Roy}

_


" I like the part when he said "at this point". Best part of the whole thing." Roy said with a chuckle, he then stuck his hands into his tan pant pockets. " Now that is something to work towards and to achieve if we survive." He said as he started to drift away from the group. " It was also good news to learn that the rumors about their information network was indeed true. " Roy went on to say as he shook his head from side to side. " War Criminal, really? I was really hoping for something more positive and worst of all, he knows my real name ...." He trailed off on with a sad expression on his face.

"Hmmm, Romana I'm heading towards my room. We'll have our discussion there. " Roy mentioned to her before he left. He could use a nap, a power one to be exact to recharge and to relax his mind from the dreadful ordeal that was today. At least enough before Romana came by and did her long winded final attack. " Still it would be fun to find a way to counter it. " He remarked as he entered his humble room. The private bathroom he shared with Isarabi was still steaming, he wondered if there any hot water left for the entire vase.

Tiny electric blocks suddenly began to engulf his body as he approached his bed. Each block that covered him also disappeared as soon as it appeared, taking a part of him with it until his entire mechanical body was exposed. He spun around plopping hard onto his bed shutting off his electric yellow eyes. The bed was specially made for him, reinforced for his weight and made for absolute comfort. "Its good to be home. " Roy said.

_________________
"Fate smiles on the strange. So its a good thing, I'm the strangest of all." - William Livingstone, Cirque de la Nuit

'Not an animal...'

The line stuck with Scael, struck something in his mind and held his breath firmly, and it felt like he couldn't breathe for a few minutes after he left the room, and he had to force himself to calm. It was the only thing he really took from that whole discussion, other than the fact that he hadn't been killed for his indiscretions. He was really grateful for that, but somehow he got the feeling that Lunar knew more about Scael than he did himself.

Not an animal...? But that went against everything he knew about half-dragons. They were born with a reptilian brain that developed higher brain function very quickly and were self-aware, but they were still dominated by that reptilian brain and had an instinctual hunger for blood. They were, for all intents and purposes, animals with a slightly higher degree of intelligence.

Then... what did Lunar mean by that? Was Scael just being self-conscious, and taking more into the meaning than there was? Maybe Lunar just meant that he had faith in Scael's self-control or something? Not that he had done much to show it during the mission.

He shook his head. He was thinking about it too deeply. He would head to his room, and sleep on it. By the morning it would be mostly forgotten.

_________________

Jake Long – Useless Distractions

A sigh, long and tired, shattered the silence around him.

Jake stared at the lights in his room, a simple pair of lightbulbs held up by a faux candlestand imitation screwed into the wall above the bed he was lying on. The glow was bright and yellow, slowly burning itself into his eyes as he continued to stare. It was an irritation he found no uncomforts in. An odd buzzing noise was inside his head, like a fly trapped within his consciousness, its wings beating rapidly and annoyingly. Jake closed his eyes and stared into the darkness, the lights making their existence known with only a faint ball of yellow at the edge of his blindness. Then he saw them.

Memories.

Countless memories, significant and insignificant, they were running through his mind on a loop, replaying and rehearsing themselves until they could become permanent. He saw things he never tried to remember, and things he tried hard to forget. "Serena...", Jake muttered the name as if he were recalling a nice, faraway place. He opened his eyes again, flinching slightly when the light flooded his vision, putting an arm over his face and blinking repeatedly in reflex. The flash of pain in his eyes seemed to burned away what he thought, but he knew they would come again soon.

"Screw this," he muttered as he sat up, went over to the toilet and closed the door behind him. After a few minutes, a quick, hot shave and wash, a change of clothes, and a quick check of his things, he walked out of his new quarters. It was late in the evening now, the darkness outside the window at the end of the hallway was enough evidence. Looking back into the room as he shut the door, he wondered who would be mad enough to share a room with him. Certainly not the squad leader, nor the green one, nor the one with the ears either. In fact, the only person Jake could see himself talking with had been Arca or Scael. However, Jake was not as encouraged to talk to the latter as much the former who had gone AWOL moments ago. Scael had merely been a reminder of the people who he usually respected as a rule, soldiers of discipline. The meeting before with Lunar had been more than suffeicent in confirming it.

His hair was combed back, his face was clean, and his clothing was simple but of good taste. He had on a white oxford shirt, its sleeves folded up neatly, black slacks, along with the green tie from before and a simple black belt with a silver buckle. The casual-formal appearance clashed with his almost military boots and the new, black, fingerless gloves he was wearing. The three swords were unseen as usual. Ignoring the little details, he almost seemed like a man going out for some lunch. Jake had other ideas in his mind, however.

The doors to the training room were pushed open slowly, but with a firm confidence. As he walked in, he noticed Isarabi walking towards him at the edge of his view. "Mind training with me?", the request was sincere and serious, the look in Jake's eyes seemed to enforce that if Isarabi were to notice as he took a step backwards and held the door open. From where she was, he looked almost as if he was entrusting her with an important duty by granting what he asked. In a way, this was correct. The images from before would eventually swarm his head unless he distracted himself with something, an outlet to let it all out until his exhaustion could take over. For now, Isarabi would be his outlet.

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Captain of Innuendo Strike Forces & Founder of Innuendo Striking Technique

Isarabi White: Training?

She hadn't really been paying attention to where she had been going, and almost walked into Jake, but stopped herself smoothly, little of the jar back to reality showing physically. "Oh, Training?" What kind?" She was in the mood for some exercise, or just something. She had too much energy that should be spent before she attempted sleep. She knew that with their group, that training could consist of many different things. With some, it might be learning restraint, with others, it might be getting in better shape physically. Or it might be like what she sometimes did; try out new bullets/weapon upgrades on a possibly not-so-willing guinea pig. She pushed long black hair over her shoulder as she awaited a response. She personally hoped that the training would be physical, she was a little jumpy, annd very few things relaxed her as much as the endorphines running out after a good workout.

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Doctress Who-CURSE YOU AKAINE AND FENIX. *Shakes fist*
Musicmac-INNUENDO... STRIKE!
Innuendo Squad Leader
Dare to join?

Adrian Myoto ~ Starting to Feel it

Clink......Clink.......Clink, the sound of metal on metal drifted down the halls as the once towering figure of Adrian made his way through them. The effects of his poisoning were starting to fade, the downside being that he could now comprehend just how sick it made him. His stomach felt as though it were in a perpetual spin cycle. He needed to throw up. Had he done it already? It was so hard to remember anything when this happened. Adrian continued struggling down the hallway, grasping the hilt of his sword for dear life as a crutch. Occasionally the blade would skid across the plating and nearly impale him in the process. "I won't crawl....I refuse to crawl like some broken down mutt," he stubbornly grumbled.

By sheer happenstance he stumbled across Jake and Isarabi, barely able to offer either of them little more then a nod as he continued his hobbling. When was the last time he'd slept? Not counting his little nap before the meeting it'd been at least a day, maybe more. "...Sick." He groaned under his breath. At one point it finally became to much for the young half elf as he dropped the blade and fell into the well, barely managing to catch himself in the process. "Ugh....Barracks....," he muttered. "Where are the da** barracks!?" Finally Adrian stumbled to the floor. After awhile he managed to prop himself up against the side of the wall. He wouldn't crawl but he could at least sit down for awhile.

Scael had been trailing behind as they left Lunar's office, lost in thought. When he started walking in earnest towards his room, he started to pass Jake, Isarabi and Adrian, the latter of who was now slumping visibly, dragging his feet and generally looking downtrodden. He finally collapsed to the floor after intimating that he was trying to find his room, which he called a barracks. If he had been thinking about it, Scael would have glanced around, as if to look at the place to check and see if it actually qualified as a barracks. Instead, he walked up to Adrian and carefully grabbed him under the arms, lifting him gently to his feet. Didn't want to give him whiplash or something by jerking him upright. "Come on, Adrian," he said. "I can take you to your room. Which one is it again?" He hadn't actually been there when they picked rooms; he had woken up in his in the morning after going "hunting" at the Wild Lands. So he'd have to rely on Adrian being competent enough to at least tell him a room number.

Ugh. What am I getting myself into...?

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"Don't know....Wasn't assigned one." Adrian mumbled groggily as Scael hoisted him up. "Just drop me somewhere that isn't occupied by the pink bimbo, the old man, or the unconscious brat." Adrian wasn't sure if that was the poison talking or just his honest opinion of his squad mates. Either way, retracting it wouldn't get him to bed any sooner. "Thanks for the lift though. Remind me to buy you a drink when I'm sober."

"I'll hold you to that," Scael said with a wry smile, and glanced down the hall. Scael didn't know which rooms were occupied; he could check each of the rooms in turn to see which ones were vacant... but there was a better option. "See you guys later," he said to Jake and Isarabi, and guided Adrian down the hall.

He stopped by a laundry room and picked up a blanket for him, threw it over his shoulder and moved with Adrian to the lounge. Scael urged Adrian to the sofa and set him down, then handed him the blanket. "We'll find you a room in the morning." Gesturing towards a recliner, he said, "I'll be over here watching TV. If you need something or you feel like you're going to puke, let me know." Scael wouldn't need much sleep to feel rested, and the recliner didn't look too bad, it could probably support the weight of a creature such as himself. Satisfied that Adrian was okay, he walked over to the chair and sat down. Picking up a remote, he turned on the TV, turned down the volume to a barely audible level, and started flipping through the channels for something to watch, looking for something interesting enough to get into but boring enough to fall asleep with, like a nature documentary.

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Romanadvoratrelundar – Some revelations

Romana had not expected to be so affected by what she saw and experienced. But something like that doesn’t just leave you. The pain she had felt and what she had seen...

She was thankful someone was there to catch her. “I’m fine,” she replied quietly, trying her best to compose herself and disregard the fact that she felt terrible. It didn’t take her too long to recover, however. She glanced up at Jake with a mixture of dazed confusion and silent understanding, a barely visible nod of acknowledgement as he walked away.

The Time Lady briefly shivered as she tried to process all she had seen. Poor Jake. It was such a personal thing, that Romana felt as if she shouldn’t have seen it. However she couldn’t help but suspect that Jake, or the other characters inside his head, had wanted her to see it. Why, she could only guess. But she would respect Jake and not tell any of the others what she had seen.


{After the meeting with Lunar}

Romana had listened to the goings on in Lunar’s office with a look of vague bemusement, and a silent ‘I told you so’ glance to the more pro-violence members of the team. Not that she voiced this; she didn’t feel she had anything to be particularly proud over herself.

She was also amused to learn that there were so many criminals amongst the group, too. And ‘interplanetary fugitive’ certainly fitted her own crimes suitably well. It actually sounded a bit nicer than the label her own people would have given her for running away like she had.

Walking out of the office, she spared a glance at Roy and a raised eyebrow and his comments. “All right,” she nodded to him. “I’ll meet you over there shortly.”

She glanced about her. Most people seemed to be drifting off to other places. Hands in pockets, she questioned anyone else who happened to be still around, “So what are the arrangements with rooms anyway? Does anyone know?”


{Later}

A little while later, after Romana had tidied herself up a little and sorted something out for the injury on her face using one of her medical kits, she stood outside the door to Roy’s room. K-9 had been tucked away into one of her bottomless pockets again. He was a useful little automaton, but she didn’t trust the robot dog not to interrupt when he wasn’t wanted. If anyone was going to reprimand Roy, she would rather be the one to do it. But she wanted to listen to what he had to say and discuss with her first.

The time lady knocked firmly but politely on the door of Roy’s room and waited for a response.

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Hiryu: Doc's bag is a portal. She's actually from another dimension and when she jumped into it, she ended up at a desk with a browser open on this site. That's how she found it.
We have a Doctor Who thread now. Doctor Who threads are cool.

Jake Long – Training

"Anything's fine, as long as it's physical," Jake said in reply to Isarabi's question before heading into the training room with her. Inside, he could see another example of how the laws of space and dimensions seemed to be slightly bent here. The room was much larger than it could possibly be, almost the size of an average sports stadium in fact. Colours here were monotone and subdued, all gray walls and a flat, white floor. Bright lights were fixed into the ceiling high above them, effectively illuminating the whole place. It was almost identical to the old training rooms...

Jake closed his eyes for a moment and let out a quiet sigh, remembering what he was here for.

After a brief while of looking around, the swordsman turned around and directed his attention to his training partner. "How about a simple one-on-one?" he mentioned while pulling at his gloves to get rid of any feeling of looseness. "No complicated rules, procedures or anything over the top. Just a duel between two people," he put his right hand to his hip and closed his fingers some invisible object. The flames were small at first, harmless little embers that eventually engulfed his hands with its heat. It spread quickly but gently, flowing down like a river of white until it formed the shape of his weapon.

"Ready to go when you are," Jake said as he placed his left foot in front of the other, offering himself some solid stability. That one step seemed to be the only action he needed to prepare himself. To be honest, he almost seemed much too relaxed about this. In fact, Jake never really gave much thought until now about how they would be training. He had been too busy focusing on his need to distract himself from his own mind. Jake looked up at one of the lights, squinting slightly at the irritation the glare gave his eyes.

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Captain of Innuendo Strike Forces & Founder of Innuendo Striking Technique

{Roy}

_The room_

The door opened allowing Romana to enter his shared room with crimson walls and red wood floors. Pass the see through piano, the scattered yoyo's laying on the floor, and the bookcases was his bed where he rested, Roy the so called leader of this team of escapees from the island of misfit toys. He laid there silent and still like a statue in his full mechanical glory, a golden body with red highlights.

The top of his head looked he wore a three tipped crown, a visor was where his eyes supposed to be, and a face plate to cover his mouth. His shoulders were red ovals, his forearms and forelegs were red boxes, and the tips of his knuckles were red diamonds. Roy's hands were human in shape and form with four fingers and a thumb for each hand, but his feet were oval and pointed. His upper torso had the appearance of muscles. Yellow electric squares started to appear on his visor forming in the shape of eyes.

" So if I tell you I'm planning on dying, can I have you keep that secret? " Roy asked her as he sat up on his bed. " You're too much of a problem so I figured it was best to tell you so you wouldn't be later on when I kill my brother." He said nonchalantly as if dying wasn't really a big deal to him. " I respect Charles, and he really does have a heart of gold. He would stop me, but it must be done. I love my planet far too much to see it ruin because of things like me."

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"Fate smiles on the strange. So its a good thing, I'm the strangest of all." - William Livingstone, Cirque de la Nuit