(Ch. 6: Day 2)

Zaka51 · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:50 am

Paxton stood stock-still as he digested Ace's answer. He stared straight ahead, a distant and troubled gaze that wasn't really looking at anything in front of him. For a good while, as the others interacted, he simply stood there, blank.

The dog inhaled deeply and turned away, walking towards the treeline. All he said was, "I have to make a call."

It was at this point that Tyra had wandered over out of curiosity--or boredom. She gave the trudging agent only a glance before brushing him off her mind, and instead stood behind the others. "So, we found the Ace guy. Goody. What now? We done hiking yet?" she asked in her usual pushy manner.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:08 am

Ivan was a little bit befuddled by the fact that the piranha was not tamed by his friendly words, but luckily Ace spoke up before he could do anything regrettable. He nodded slightly as things started to come together. He soaked in all the bits of information, including the bit about Li Fang having been killed.

Then Tyra chimed in with her pushy statement. Ivan grinned, and walked over to her, throwing an arm over her shoulders in an all-too-friendly fashion.

"Yer a bit of a negative nancy, ain'tcha? You need to kick back. I be havin' just the thing." He said before reaching into his coat, and pulling out an unopened bottle of liquor.

"It be on the house." He said, trying to wink; unfortunately, he had only one eye, so it just looked like he was blinking.

Sheff · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 1:24 pm

"We hike it halfway across the world, and you still insist on tryin' to get yourself killed?" questioned Geoff with befuddlement upon Ace's request, but there was a good-hearted laugh backing up the statement. The finding of Ace alone had raised the hedgehog's spirits considerably; never had something so out of reach just fallen right into their laps without any effort. It almost felt too good to be true, but if there was a catch, he wasn't going to bother considering what it was quite yet. Those murky guesses could wait for later.

Greens · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:30 pm

The serval stared and blinked, somewhat dumbfounded by the girl's possession of such items. He would've said 'you didn't strike me as the type,' but that could've been considered rude. So instead... "Huh," he said. "Thanks." He caught the lighter in the palm of his hand and slid out a single death-stick, and was puffing smoke before long. A calming fireball rolled from his center to every limb; it might've sounded odd, but that was the one thing he needed to stir his senses to a sharpened point.

"That's two I owe you." The words blew out with the smoke, and the lighter flew back in her direction. "Ace, by the way."

Heart · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 5:43 pm

Catching the lighter, the girl brought the cigarette package back down to her satchel - responding to the cat with a short "Pleasure."
Before stuffing it back in her bag, she studied the white-and-brown sticks - briefly debating getting one for herself. Succumbing to her addiction, the piranha took one of the cancerous sticks out and held it between her index and middle finger as she stuffed the rest of the package into the red bag.

Soon, her own smoke joined Ace's. Avatar threw the lighter back into the satchel as it had served it's purpose.

"What exactly are you people tryin' to accomplish anyway. Other then findin' him." The piranha asked, pushing herself to her feet, then gesturing to Ace. "Don't mean any offense, but is he that important that GUN has to get involed?" After breathing out a mouthful of smoke, she continued. "You mentioned somethin' 'bout some guy named 'Li Fang' - that Ace apperently killed - and a Nordan Circle? Wha'zat?"

psikeout · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:04 pm

"What I wanna know is why every stranger we meet's so gall-dang pushy," Casey mumbled aside to Ivan, blissfully unaware of (or intentionally, abrasively unconcerned with) the other pushy stranger of the party who may have been offended by the statement, Tyra. That particular stranger had already been with the party a while, though, so maybe he was just used to her presence.

Fortunately, the group was on the move, so at least they were getting somewhere--somewhere they could explain what was going on in relative safety, and figure out what they were doing next.

"Oh, Ace!" blurted the hog with a sudden turn in the cat's direction. "We picked up yer clothes where you left'em at the hospital. They're kinda buried in my luggage, but I'll get'em out for you once we're in the clear."

Well, that was some good news for the ragged old cat, anyway.

Zaka51 · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 10:51 pm

Tyra opened her mouth to rebuff the hare, but stopped mid-breath when he suddenly produced his little gift. Her expression actually softened a fair bit, looking more uncertain that aggravated. She stammered a bit, "Uhh, I don't really...drink any... Ehh, forget it." With a shrug, she took the bottle and looked over the label. "Um, thanks?" The wolverine's face had done a complete 180. The angry glare had been replaced by an actual smile--not a big one, but taking a bottle of booze from a strange one-eyed man dressed like a pirate seemed to have perked her up considerably.

"I understand that this is a happy moment for everyone, but we need to get going."

Suddenly, Paxton was back, looking a little graver than when he had left, PDA still in hand. "Getting out of here is a good idea, and the sooner, the better. We can all take a rest in Starlight and get caught up there. We can get explanations out of the way while we walk."

With that, the agent started heading back the way the group had came, back to Starlight City.

- - - -

Night had fallen by the time the group returned to the city. Paxton had led everyone to the Sky Rail station, a public enough place where they would easily blend in with other people. If there were any spies or prying eyes, they would have a hard time watching them in such a busy place. The station itself was, aside from bustling with activity in the young night, a prime example of engineering. Hanging from the multiple magnetic rails were a number of orange rail cars, each of which looked like a cross between a typical cable car and a large river ferry. It all looked like a subway station, if the subways rolled through the skies instead of underground.

Fluorescent lights above, ticket booths, benches here and there, people coming and going on their business, a cool breeze drifting through the large open entrances, and the occasional arrival and departure of a rail car is what greeted them.

"Well, here we are," Paxton announced, not like anyone needed him to tell them. "The Sky Rail station is as good a place as any to get our bearings.

One of them certainly seemed in need of bearings. Tyra had gulped down the entire bottle that Ivan had given here on the way back down the mountain. It seems whatever liquor the hare had given her had a strong effect on the wolverine. She had a dazed look in her eyes, slightly swayed from left to right, and continuously hummed a random ditty with no real structure to it. Tyra had significantly brightened up, for better or worse.

Sheff · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:37 pm

A sense of ease came over Geoff as they entered the station, finding the crowd an easy excuse to stop throwing glances over his shoulder. Even in the victory held by the finding of Ace, he couldn't help but worry it wouldn't be in their grasp for long. Not with Li Fang's men possibly on their trail, anyway. Here, though, they could just vanish amongst the people for a moment. Getting the first rail car out of there would probably be their best bet.

In the meantime, though, the hedgehog walked over to the yellow serval who now, once again, was amongst them.

"You holdin' up alright?" he asked with some concern. "Don't think most guys can take a plunge over a waterfall and walk it off with a smoke without feelin' it afterward."

Greens · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 7:47 pm

Ace walked alongside Geoff, as well as the rest of the ragtag crew, merrily strutting himself down the sidewalk with his raggedy old clothes in his raggedy old body with a raggedy old cigarette between his teeth. Maybe it was odd that he was handling it all so well, but Ace was in his element now, and it showed in his smile. Was that really so terrible? He spared a look in the 'hog's direction as he replied:

"Iunno. Maybe I jus' got tired a' feelin' like $%@& all the time," he said with a chuckle. "Or maybe I still haven't run outta my-- nine, lives..."

While his focus was on Geoff, Ace couldn't help but notice the wall behind him, and whatever it was he saw must've caught his attention, because he rapidly decelerated his pace until he wasn't moving. Without another word, he advanced towards the building nearest him, and paused to examine a poster taped to its face. Whatever was on it seemed to sink his otherwise glowing mood considerably.

'cause for alarm' it said.

"No kidding..." he answered.

Rachel · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:56 pm

Jack felt no more at ease in the station than she did out in the woods; at least in the woods the only people in danger would be them, not the travelers heading to and fro. Frowning a bit as she tried to keep it to herself as she walked cautiously behind the group.

Geoff had said they took Ace right out of a hospital, would a train station really be so different? Her thought was abruptly disrupted by Ace's sudden pause. She followed his line of sight, blinking at the poster.

"Cause fer Alarm?" She asked Ace, reading the poster aloud. Jack wasn't aware Jam and Rock were in a band, much less that they where supposedly on tour.

Heart · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:57 pm

Trailing behind everyone else, was the groups newest - apparent - member. She had long since replaced the cigarette in her mouth with a pen. As she flicked the pen up and down between her teeth, the young piranha stared at her writing book. Ever since she'd learned everyone's name, she's since written them all down in her book as well as their personalities - which she'd picked up on through watching them interact. She read over what she wrote. Now all that's needed was some background stories.

Avatar took then pen out of her mouth and started writing again. Even though the teen usually wouldn't write in front of other people, for some reason, she felt more at ease around this group. It probably was because she knew none of these people were the type to taunt her, or beat on her. Probably the worst thing to happen here was if one of them saw what she was writing about.

psikeout · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 3:10 pm

Casey was somewhere in the middle of examining the train schedule and considering their departure when a small gathering of his party began to form by... a poster? A concert poster, more accurately, which he discovered upon plodding over to the group and peering over their heads. It didn't look interesting to him. Nonetheless, he squinted at it to read it, since it seemed like the thing to do at the moment.

"Cause For Alarm..." Murmur, mumble. "Live tonight, Starlight City Castle Hotel Ball Room..."

"Never heard of'em," he finally mumbled dismissively, and wandered off to get back on point. The mission. The goal. Where they were going next! It all warranted great concern, especially to his wallet.

"Hey, Agent?" he called out to Pax. "What's really the, ah, implication of all'a this on our mission? If Li Fang's dead and there's no more Norden Circle..."

This was doubtlessly leading to the do-I-still-have-a-job question.

Sheff · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 3:33 pm

Geoff was at least content to hear Ace's chipper answer as they walked along. It was probably for the best that the cat looked on the brighter side of his new found freedom other than sit around and be stagnant about his condition. Still, the serval still appeared to be in a need for a good look over of the medicinal kind whether he agreed or not.

Prompting a question related to that advice never came forth from the hedgehog, however, when everyone's attention became fixated on the poster. Being something Geoff would have just passed off on a regular day, Ace's sudden change in demeanor forced him to give it a closer look. It seemed simple enough, just being a regular advertisement... but there was one nagging detail that his eyes kept sweeping over before receiving more clarity.

He felt his jaw clench for a brief second out of a grudge-like tension.

"...that seriously can't be her."

Zaka51 · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 4:34 pm

Pax, with a lack of anything else to do, had grabbed some brochure about the Sky Rail's history from a ticket clerk and was skimming through the cheap pamphlet while seated on one of the many benches in the area. He greeted Casey with a smile, which was quick to sink in response to his inquiry. "Well, Mr. Casey..." he began, sighing as he spoke, eyes drifting away. "With the Li Fang situation taken care of...that leaves me--er, us with only one real objective here... If you want to keep getting paid, you're going to have to stick with me...and I'm going to have to stick with them." He nodded his head at the group gathered around the poster on the wall.

Gardyner slipped a hand in his vest and withdrew a compact radio transceiver and continued, "I'm still waiting to hear back from the lieutenant, so right now, my only job is to keep everyone together and go along with whatever they want until I get some real orders. So, as long as you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll still be getting consistent deposits."

"Wha's the big deal? Looks like a crappy kids' show that just got kicked outta daddy's garage."

Intrigued by the focus the poster was receiving but not understanding any of the implications, Tyra had wandered over and peered over everyone's shoulders as well as she could.

Mie · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:54 pm

(Ch. 6: Day 2)

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