The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

Cheerfully, the Orin seized Giles's extended hand (or as well as she could, considering the drastic size difference between both creatures' hands) and shook it, grinning that devious grin of hers. Wasn't this furless one quite the character? Piix's interaction with humans was quite minimal, but she had always heard from those who had socialized with them that they were rather boring in comparison with other aliens and assorted creatures hailing from other planets. No magical capabilities, no defensive qualities such as the quills and poison Orin possessed, and no vibrant fur colors to distinguish them. How on earth could they tell each other apart when their appearances were so decidedly dull?

Piix nodded her head, and, after shaking Giles's hand, released it. "Pleasure's all mine," she said happily, then folded her legs and leaned against the side of the table with one elbow, the opposite arm still gripping her mallet. "So, Mister Lord o' the Ashes. What business d'ya have here?"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

The man simply stood for a moment, watching. His eyes drifted to the side of the circle for a moment. His weapon from before, a slim, hard and futuristic-looking thing, the damage-dealing end covered in a big, unpleasant patch of tar, was laying on the pavement next to the circle together with the briefcase from before. Both had ended up there for some odd reason, and he guessed that things that were brought into the circle ended up outside them when the fights were over. But, as with everything magical, he guessed that the rules concerning things like that were still somewhat fuzzy.
   Sunlight. A dim forest in either early winter or the middle of spring, in sunlight and fog. The wolf wanted and would have cover on his side. A good choice then, to get close with a blade, if the vegetation around and under one's feet wasn't too dry and thick. Stygian sighed, then stepped into the ring, and immediately found himself under tall, great trees. Tramping a bit with his boots, he noted the direction of the sound of the stream immediately, and then walked slowly and as silently as he could, listening carefully.

[TheGreyRonin]

 Even as the lightning released her she began to fall. Her limbs still twitching, the Queen tried in vain to force her body to twist as it had so many times before...and failed.

She slammed down onto the ice-covered plain on her left side, her exoskeleton smoking in nearly a hundred places where it had been the grounding point for enough charge to power several large cities for decades.

The hailstones continued to fall, battering her already badly damaged and abused body. Her opponent was beyond physical reach, she was injured...though in time she would heal, at this point there was only one course of action given the nature of the challenge.

Mental shards steeped in hatred and agony slipped into the dragon's mind. "I submit."

[Cogidubnus]

 Padding softly through the forest soundlessly, the wolf kept his ears perked, and he paused every few moments to take a sniff of air, searching for that particular scent of the man - the alcohol from the bar, mixed with an air of blood, ashes, and smoke.

His ears flicked. In the silence of the forest, he could hear the man's tramping steps, his boots crushing the pine needles and frosted growth beneath them, and a moment later his strong scent hit the wolf's nose. Silently, the wolf darted forward, circling 'round to the edge of the forest.
Following his scent, from the edge of the circle inwards, he finally saw the man's fog-enshrouded form walking between the trees, moving towards the sound of the brook nearby. He crouched down, low to the ground, and behind the ample cover provided by the large trees and the undergrowth began to follow him, waiting for an opportunity. A glimpse of the wrong thing in that fog could prove...not deadly, but unfortunate.

* * *

Giles took a puff of his pipe, the smoke again hazing around him. "Business? Eh...well, burning. Mostly burning. Things, places, people, whatever." he shrugged. "It's what I do."
He grinned. "And I'm damn good at it too. Hopefully those people out there will get done soon, and I can finally get off my ass and show it."

"What brings you here?"

[Stygian]

The wolf had found the man first. Yet unbeknownst to him, the man had also located him. Or, at least he had heard that something was approaching him through the undergrowth. Not immediately, true, but after a short while, as he neared the other, Stygian caught notice of him. The wolf was both swift and silent, but not silent enough. A large creature could not go entirely without making some sort of sound in surroundings like those. And the man's instincts were quite well-attuned. Locating the direction of the sound and feeling though, was far harder. That should be him. Quick of him. But I do intend to find out how fast he is before he can strike surely at me... he thought.
   When the wolf had followed the man for perhaps a dozen, slow seconds, suddenly he sprang, with surprising speed, and vanished behind one of those large trees. The low sound of his running footsteps faded quickly.

[techmaster-glitch]

   The man listened to both [Siolen] and [Rip] before speaking again, in his hollow voiceless voice.. "I did require, or at least used, magic to live, once. I did play the hand that I was delt. But when I needed it the most, the one time in my life where I had nothing else...magic failed me." The cloaked man almost spat the word 'failed'. "It is because magic failed me that I...that I am the way I am underneath this shroud. But I do not regret what happened to me, I have embraced my new form fully. The reason I hide is because I have learned that many seem to to take exception to my form; it disturbs them. It save me many inconvieniences to hide, but I do not do it because I'm ashamed."
   [Rip] spoke to [Siolen] breifly, then turned to leave. But at the last moment, he turned back, and asked the cloaked man for his name.
   "My...name?" The man said slowly. "I...haven't used my name...for some time...it means nothing now." The man then turned and left without another word.

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

At the mention of burning things, Piix's expression adopted more of a clandestinely devious edge to her venom-toothed grin. While far from a pyromaniac, there was something about Giles's nonchalant way of presenting his intentions that garnered her attention--particularly for a rather far-fetched reason. Setting people on fire wasn't exactly something Piix approved of, but she wouldn't question his lifestyle if he didn't question hers.

Bioluminescent, inverted eyes raked inquisitively over Giles's appearance for a moment. Piix smirked, then pointed to him. "Setting people on fire, 'eh? Ain't that a job we c'n all strive for," she said coyly, lacing her fingers together like a steeple beneath her chin. Then, suddenly, she pointed to Giles's armor. "I don't see a flamethrower on ya... would it be stupid t'assume that y'use magic?"

Humans using magic... now that would be something Piix had never seen. Trailing away from that tangent, Piix continued with a sly flap of her four-fingered hand, "But as f'r me... I'm lookin' for someone. I dunno if ya'd know anythin' 'bout him... but he's a distinctive guy. Trust me on this, if I described him to ya an' if ya'd seen him before, ya'd know what I'm talkin' 'bout. He doesn't like fightin', though..." Piix's brow furrowed, cleaving deep shadows beneath her unkempt, bedraggled fur. "So I don't think he'd be 'ere. I'm mostly 'ere for a break from the three weeks of solid searchin'."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 The man darted into the woods, and almost taking a jump back at the man's sudden movements the wolf simply bared a fang. Humans didn't have those sorts of senses; hearing the wolf would have been next to impossible.
As the man bounded into the woods, however, the wolf simply backed up into the forest and faded into the mist. Running through the woods wasn't the wisest course of action to take - low hanging branches and thick, old growth would make navigating at such a high speed difficult in the extreme, and possibly dangerous - the rules didn't say who had to draw the blood. What's more, the man might think it odd that a four-legged variety of wolf was here, but he shouldn't know that it was literally Cog. The wolf faded into the forest.

He made for the area where his coat and sword lay, and laying down in the misted environment hid himself in the undergrowth, practically invisible and utterly silent, and kept his ears and nose alert.

* * *

The blackguard simply grinned wide at the alien, and with a gleam in his eye made a flourish with one gauntleted hand, making sure to keep the fist moving for a few moments. Flames danced along the appendage, moving from finger to finger and then to the rest of the hand, turning into shapes and then rising into the air as a perfect image of a small, burning figure before dissipating entirely. Before it faded into the air, it could be perceived that the little figure was flipping the bird to the entire room.

"S'not....magic, precisely. I don't know what you are, but humans can definitely cast magic, s'far as I know. But I don't need no damn flamethrower or spell. I am a flamethrower." he said as he grinned wickedly. "But if I'm to take it you're just wantin' to blow off some steam here..."

He looked outside, and then back at the Piix. "It look's like that fight w'the glacier innit is about to end. Could probably make some steam w'tha." he smiled, blue eyes appraising as he looked at the poisonous-looking alien, wondering if those spines and that hammer were as deadly as they looked.

[nikename2]

Hmmm....to each his own.

Rip shrugged, then made his way through the door and out of the Doctor's office. During his absence it appeared that another newcomer to the circle had arrived. A somewhat small; bizarre creature, garbed in only a cape and hood. Rip paused for a moment and raised an eyebrow at her, scanning over her features. For a few seconds, half of him was in a state of confusion, and the other half just wanted to run over toward the inferred woman and hug her. So....adorable....not...right...!!..?.!.

Rip spaced out for a few more seconds, started to fall over; then immediately snapped out of it and regained himself. Quietly laughing it off, he walked over toward the bar with a forced smile on his face and ordered a bottle of Smirnoff. Sliding payment toward the barkeep once he recieved it, he walked back over toward the pool table, trying to keep himself together. Placing the bottle down he gripped it with one hand and raised his tail up above it. The tip of the stinger began to glow, and in one swift strike he pierced the bottle cap straight through the center, shattering it off. He took a swig, racked up the table once more and donned his cue from the cue rack.

"Heh, this oughta been good.", Rip commented as he leaned down; then broke, sinking three stripes and two solids off the first stroke. Nice....

[Stygian]

Perhaps a couple of minutes lasted, before the man even made the slightest movement. Peering around the trunk of the huge tree, he drew long, slow breaths, utterly silent and taking in what scents he could. No luck though; the scent of pine and moisture and chill was much too hard and strong. Almost grumbling, the man made his way, face first, down the side of the tree, scaling it in a way impossible to any mere human. He planted his glove-less hands on the ground, and carefully flipped forward, placing his boots on the soft dirt and then straightening back onto his feet. Muttering a bit, he rubbed a finger and then put it in his mouth, cleaning it of some sticky, unpleasant sap.
   So. Something is stalking me. And it makes a tactical retreat, Stygian thought, pulling his tight gloves back on. I can't tell whether if it was the wolf or not, but it sure does act like it knows what it's doing...
   A metallic snap and a latching sound echoed through the forest, as Stygian drew one of his pistols and readied it, pulling the mantle and moving the first bullet into the chamber. Silently, he began making his way through the woods, moving in the opposite direction of before...

- -

Few noticed it at first, but as the thing came closer to the rings, the hulking shape sort of became harder and harder to ignore. Carrying a set of massive somethings on its back, the coated humanoid seemed to be walking almost leisurely, in spite of what had to be an uncomfortable load. When finally the humanoid reached the outside of the bar, it lifted off the massive baggage, revealing itself to be what looked like steel bags that were more like crates, a large wrapped bag of some kind and a cylindrical case, as well as some hanging belts of cylinders, and even bullets. When it placed them against the wall, it send a shudder through the structure. Standing around for a bit, the newcomer examined the rings from underneath a hood for a while, and then turned around. It walked over, placed a hand on the door, and pulled it open, walking in.
   The scraping of boots against the grille on the outer steps, and then on the doormat to clean any clinging dirt was the only noticeable sound of the figure entering made, save for the whine of the door and some shuffling of clothes as it walked in. Hidden underneath a hooded coat on top of another, it walked casually in, and then seated itself on one barstool, which creaked a bit. It observed Stygian's coat laying on the stool next to it.
   When the thing's voice came, it was... strange. Just a slight bit disjointed at places, and just a bit hollow, it sounded very, very close to a human one, but metallic in a way. And the explanation for that became rather apparent as a pair of gloves slipped off, revealing strange, black metallic hands, reaching up and pulling back the thing's hood as it shrugged the coat. Seven dimly glowing red eyes, the one in the center considerably larger than the others and set right in the middle of a slit which divided the obsidian metal shell covering its smooth, almost human-shaped head in two. Smooth, deep silvery seams in its flexing metal 'skin' ran down its mostly black neck, the rest of it hidden under a coat and shirt.
   ':i'll have a vodka. straight up,' the machine stated, the synthesized female voice smooth and self-confident.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

To say Mel was surprised to hear the words of submission would have been an understatement. After all she was submerged in a river up to her nose trying to wash acid out of rather deep burns while at the same time trying to heal the wounds. Her second surprise was when the river and glacial cave disappeared and she was standing back on the hard dirt of the yard, the Queen laying on the other side. Limping a bit on a burned leg Mel made her way back to the bar doors. As she moved her size returned to a more building friendly six feet, her clothing reforming at the same time. She winced a bit at the feel of fabric against her burned skin and ragged scales. She sank into the first chair inside the door and just let herself concentrate on healing.

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

As the blackguard flourished his gauntlet-clad hand in the air, weaving and wreathing together jagged tongues and escaping gouts of sizzling flame into intricate knots and networks of fire, Piix watched the pyromancing process with absolute fascination enlivening her features; the black backdrop of her eyes glowing a faint orange in the light of the funneling flame the instant before the fiery specter was disintegrated. Faint, wispy tendrils of smoky fumes wafted from the wavering outline of the dissipated image, still reflecting the afterglow of the faded mirage. In the coattails of her amazement, Piix realized the shape of the actual image, and burst out laughing--clearly not mocking Giles's presentation, but appreciating the obscene glory behind it all.

Piix listened to Giles's explanation with interest, her ears pivoting upright at the mention of "blowing off some steam." At first, Piix assumed that was some sort of pun, pyromancer abilities considered, but when Giles regarded the glacier-laden environment outside she fully understood his intentions. That ubiquitous grin returned to Piix's muzzle once more. Grasping the mallet's--Orpiment's--handle tighter, she thrust it into the ground, then leapt off of the stool, the mallet remaining perfectly straight despite having the burden of Piix's weight on its form.  Hopping away from Orpiment, Piix spun the mallet around like a baton, then stared at Giles.

"Sounds like a marvelous idea, good sir," she said cheerfully, then extended her arm towards the nearby door. "Please, after y--eek!"

Suddenly, the Orin stiffened and tensed, her virulently-colored fur bristling and prickling like thousands of needles on her body, as she watched the eerily-structured, humanoid machine robed in multiple layers of baggy fabric stride inside. Once the machine-woman had seated herself (itself?) on a stool discomfortingly close to where Piix was once sitting, beside a coat draped over another barstool, she breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head. Machines. Bloody machines. Always scared the piss out of her. Especially when one arrived in such a lugubrious manner. Her expression a little dimmer than before, Piix walked towards the door, hopefully with Giles following her.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 As Stygian walked through the forest, the serene silence was suddenly broken with an earsplitting crack, then followed by a distant groan, and then a loud, dull thud that echoed through the mist. The sound, whatever it was, came from the north, a little ways from where the brook would have been.


* * *

The blackguard grinned at Piix, and pushing himself off the stool he was sitting on thumped heavily into the floor. He set his pipe down, the bitterly black thing still smoking, and made a very crude bow at the little alien.
"Ladies fir..."

He paused, watching the little fantastically-colored alien react very horribly to something, and turning his head he watched a baggy-clothed, eight-red-eyed android calmly set down two building-shaking crates and walk into the bar, and without preamble order a vodka, straight up. Giles could empathize with the little alien - that was something vaguely intimating, and unsettling.

He followed the psychedelic alien outside, and waited for the last circle to open up.

[Boog]

Boog quirked an eyebrow at the machine woman. He didn't like machines. They almost never thought, they just remembered. The lowest form of intelligence. A goldfish could pull it off, albeit not for very long. The clothes were a good sign; nudity taboos were things that thinking creatures worried about. Still though. Besides, he always felt that making perfect sense while never doing what one was supposed to was something he had dibs on.
"Welcome to the Honor Circle, yadda yadda..." He set out the cup with a 'clunk' and poured the alcohol, "Hope you enjoy your time, etcetera, Vodka straight up, drinks ain't free."

[Stygian]

The noise made the man stop mid-step, frozen, not moving, not even so much as trembling. A couple of seconds passed before he eased up and turned slightly toward the direction of the sound. Either he's calling me out, or it's a diversion, he thought immediately. He could have timed that in, and be coming right at me from another direction. So, what? Does he think that either I can move toward the sound, or away from it? Or, I can just sit where I am? He went over the situation again and again. I'm in the open... There is no breeze because of the trees, just air moving a bit, and all things considered I wouldn't be surprised if he can smell me. It comes down to who can find who first, in theory. So... If your enemy gives you two options, you choose a third...
   The man looked upward. The thick, green shapes of the trees stood above him, tips swaying just the slightest far up there. It seemed that there was at least a slight bit of wind farther up. And with that pine scent...
   Slipping the gun in his hand into its holster and snapping it shut, the man looked around in the direction of the noise, eyes searching upward. He found what he wanted, and then leaped, at least twenty feet up, landing on a thick branch close to the trunk of a nearby tree. He climbed up a bit swiftly, and then he began making his way, tree by tree, toward the source of the sound.

- -

The machine thing seemed to... peer at him for a second, the mouth or whatever it was beneath the lower 'chin' end of that black metal closed shut. The Boogeyman felt just a bit of an unnerving feeling from the mechanic thing's direction, and then 'she' thrust her hand down into her pocket.
   ':i suppose you don't take cards...' the thing almost seemed to mutter, before producing a couple of coins between tightly pinched, black-glistening and smooth-jointed fingers, and snapping them down on the counter.

[Cogidubnus]

 The wolf stayed perfectly silent in the undergrowth, hidden within the mist and under the shadows of the leaves above. Across from him was a felled tree, the sound of which had almost been deafening - and swaying in the breeze was his coat, obscured somewhat by the fogged environment.

Even though the very light ringing in his ears, however, an unmissable sound echoed through the forest. At first, the wolf was confused - the sound, staccato and loud, wasn't coming from any discernible direction. As the sound got closer, however, the wolf looked up at the high canopy, and watching one large pine tree shake, saw....something, jump through the mist from one tree to the next.

The wolf grinned in admiration. As he was, getting to the man like that would be almost impossible. Wolves couldn't climb trees, and much as he wanted to win, fighting in the buff wasn't his big thing. Still...

The wolf watched as the man moved, wondering if he would become distracted by the swaying coat - a secondary concern, at that point. He positioned himself just right, and waited until the man was about to jump to the next tree.
Moving stealthily, and making not a sound, the wolf inched forward, and began to concentrate, the wolf taking a deep breath and gathering himself. His eyes, gleaming yellow, closed, and then opened again, the feral eyes somehow serene.
He waited - now! As the man jumped for the next pine, the wolf barked silently, an oblong wave of distortion slamming into the large pine with unimaginable force, hitting the trunk and cracking through with a deafening crunch. Even as the man leapt through the air, the tree already groaned and tipped.

[techmaster-glitch]

   As the cloaked man walked back into the main bar, and saw two newcomers. The first one, some sort of strange alien, he already knew had entered, even though he was in the medical ward with [Siolen], he had kept his attention everywhere. With a little surprise, he noticed the one who had just walked in. A machine. A pure, honest-to-goodness, machine. The cloaked man didn't know whether to feel incredibly jealous or extremely interested.
   He kept back into the darker part of the bar. [Beginning analyzation of two new entities...]
   The man stood back, and waited.

[TheGreyRonin]

The Queen managed to stand, gathering her energy as much as her dignity.

After a pause of about a minute she made her way out of the Circle towards the bar, leaving behind a sizzling trench of her own blood. She passed by the patrons near the door, ignoring them as her limp became a more fluid walk.

She scanned ahead, pushing her senses to note the newer patrons, noting their energy fields. Striding inside she ducked, then turned and looked directly at her last opponent with a snarling hiss.

Moving to the corner, the Queen began to make a sound like a cat hacking up the universe's largest hairball. She carefully spate a steady stream of an organic, viscous fluid over the booth, then turned and settled herself into the mass.

Drawing her head back underneath her massive crest, she began to heal...and plot revenge.

[Stygian]

The attack caught the man off-guard, but not unprepared, and the wolf caught sight of the same exceptional speed that Siolen had noticed. The crunch made the trunk of the tree twist a bit as it loosened from its base, yet the sheer size of the tree worked in the man's favor. Twisting mid-air, he put his foot against the trunk, and kicked off in the other direction, flipping backwards in a slow arc in the air. Fortunately, the ground was clear enough for him to do a simple crouching landing, and he came up with his guns out, searching for whatever it had been that had attacked him.
   What the hell was that distortion?! The shockwave that had passed through the air had been too sudden and odd for Stygian to make out a clear direction. I can't hear him, but he's there. I just need to... feel...
   A shot rang out in the wolf's general direction, near but not on point. It snapped into a tree trunk a couple of yards to his side, spattering wood.

- -

When she received her drink, the lower part of the machine's face slid aside with a just barely audible metallic hiss, no more loud than the ticking of a pocket watch, revealing a stylized, straight-edged mouth of some sort. Putting the drink to her cold lips, the mechanoid sat there, just drinking for a while and easing into the surroundings. She scanned the surroundings thoroughly with her sensors, mostly passive but also a few pulses of short-wave active scanning. Not that she made any outward signs of this search, or her findings. She was a machine. To her, it was just a few operations and protocols.
   After what might have been a couple of minutes of silence, and another drink for the machine, 'she' turned on her seat a bit, and then asked aloud; ':so, that guy with the coat... the blond guy with a scar on his cheek... is he in the bathroom or something?' At least, it seemed as if it were directed to no one in particular. None could really tell precisely where her attention was directed, with her face as it was.

[Cogidubnus]

 The wolf nearly gaped when the man flipped himself in midair, and recognizing the attack for what it was in that split second of hangtime, land and kick himself off the trunk to land in a crouch, flipping his guns out. Nearly gaped - as soon as he saw the man kick off the trunk, the wolf was off like a shot.

Even as the man somehow managed to shoot through the fog and undergrowth to the wolf's location, the broken tree continued to tip, and after the resounding gunshot echoed through the forest, the tree hit the ground with yet another earsplitting crunch, the sound almost deafening the wolf. No longer concerned with noise, the wolf circled round, and in the hideous noise of wood smashing into the ground tore through the forest.

About two moments after the gunshot, and a moment after the tree fell, the wolf sprang up and flew through the air at the man, teeth gleaming and claws outstretched.

[Boog]

"I take cards, I just don't give 'em back. Enjoy," He returned to watching the fight outside, and then the machine woman spoke again. 'or something?' Colloquialisms; also encouraging, but easily programmed. We'll have to see, "Styggy? He's in the circle right now." He jerked his head toward the door, "You looking for him?"

[Stygian]

The machine shook her head slightly, and then leaned forward, 'chin' in her hand. ':no. not looking; i just enjoy keeping myself appraised of the situation. i'm in his company,' she said, and then downed half of the current drink. For anyone who thought it strange that a machine should have a taste for alcohol, the statement that she were with Stygian might have proved a bit of an explanation.

- -

Mist and snow swirling around, the man looked up at the approaching form, face in a deep frown and dark silvery guns gleaming. He had a chance at a shot there, but it was not clear or accurate. The wolf was moving much too fast and at an awkward angle. So instead, with his hands occupied, the man tumbled backwards, bruising his back a bit but nevertheless getting solid support, and kicked out one leg. The wolf landed on it, and as he flipped over, he also threw the lupine away with a good bit of strength, enough to land him quite a few yards away, a bit away from the split tree. Scrambling to his feet, the man raised one pistol, keeping the other up beside him.
   'Fighting in the buff?!' he exclaimed, moving around a bit. He might have had a shot there, but if so he did not take it, out of sheer surprise if anything. 'Are you some sort of idiot or something?' he mocked.

[Sunblink]

...Piix:

Initial awkwardness about encountering the android aside, Piix managed to edge her way past the android without any further outbursts, attempting unsuccessfully to mask her discomfort. Fortunately the android didn't seem to notice or detect her, neutralizing Piix's paranoid fear that the android would somehow become supernaturally aware of her discomfort and vaporize her to no more than just a sour spot. Once she had edged out the door, the Orin breathed a weighty sigh of relief and wiped away the sweat that had culminated on her brow with the back of her hand.

Immediately, her vision latched onto one of the unoccupied circles, which she cheerfully approached, twirling Orpiment. Piix threw Giles a grin over her shoulder. "I don't know half a shit about how these things work," she admitted, deciding that if she vehemently remained self-confident about her nonexistent "intimacy with technology" they would be there all day. "But I guess we work out th' terms of condition t'the battle. Personally I'm up f'r anythin'. Oh."

Piix lifted an index finger. "'Cept for killing. 'Cause I kind of need t'be alive, an'... all that jazz."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 The wolf had hoped that the gunshot and the crashing tree would have masked his approach, but the man was too quick for that, and with a swift maneuver was sent sailing a little ways into the dirt. Almost as soon as he hit the ground, the wolf flipped to his feet, and was again off like a shot.

The wolf didn't hear the man's taunts - instead running away as fast as he could, the sound of the wolf's pads slipping into the forest with a deathly quick, and his form being swallowed by the misted area.
He headed towards the sound of the brook.

* * *

"Eh, you don't look like you'd make much of a' barbeque anyway." the man said, grinning at the Orin. "So, Alreet, I can work w'that. No killin'." The big man neglected to amend that with 'No horrible burning', but he wasn't going to bring it up if she wasn't. "Aside from that, I guess I'm pretty much game."

He stepped into the circle, and waited for the Orin to follow. "You get to choose the arena."

[Stygian]

'Shit!' Stygian snarled, both out loud and in his head. He's thinking tactically, actually, the man thought. I can't give him a lethal wound, and claws and teeth are a lot better at drawing blood without grave injury than pistols like these. So I guess I'll have to take another approach...
   Putting his right gun back into its holster, Stygian pulled off the glove from his right hand, stuffing it in his pocket. As he drew his large hand out of the pocket, hints of black spread and moved down it underneath the skin, and his nails began turning black, sharpening and extending with a few low crackling sounds. His eyes went through some similar sort of process, black veins spreading inward, until his eyes were a pair of perfect, obsidian orbs. He would be ready to face the wolf head-on this time.
   Flexing his fingers, the man took a step, and then began running steadily in chase of his opponent.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Partially healed Mel hauled herself out of the chair and over to the bar. She needed some sustenance before she could do any more healing of her wounds.  Sitting heavily on a stool she sighed and requested, "Mineral water please, heavy on the minerals." There was a basket of popcorn sitting nearby. With a small burst of magic the fluffy white corn became heavy white quartz gravel. She popped a handful in her mouth and crunched away.

[Cogidubnus]

 Crouching low on the bushes, the low thumping of the man's boots pierced through the silence of the forest, and keeping himself silent and still the wolf waited. The boots moved closer - almost upon him, and still moving.

The man's form burst through the edge of his vision, his hand trailing some strange, fluid darkness. This was his chance! Before the man's damnable second-sense seemed to kick in, the wolf lunged out from the bushes, the mist and fog, and the shadows of the trees wrapped around him until the very last, his fangs and claws gleaming silver, flying for the man's back.

[Stygian]

Unfortunately for the wolf, the attempt to hide in the shadows had been an unwise decision under the circumstances. The man spun around immediately, quickly but not quickly enough to sink those black claws into the wolf's form. However, as he crouched and got his side to the lupine, he did get a good shot in on his cheek with a swinging elbow. Firing a missing shot that he hoped would nevertheless shock the creature, Stygian twisted around, backing up until he had a good foothold and raising his hand, long, knife-like claws ready to swipe. He snarled, sharp fangs and gleaming black eyes visible.

[Cogidubnus]

 The wolf snarled out loud, the surprise given up - it truly seemed that the man's second sense was infallible, even when distracted, and with little reaction time. Twisting in the air and trying to snap at the man, the wolf took a hit to his jaw, the action knocking the wolf's head back and stunning him for half a second while the man raised a clawed hand. A gunshot went off in his ear, disorienting him, and Cog caught sight of the clawed hand descending towards him.

Instinct took over - and with a eerie precision born of desperation, and the unnatural speed possessed of the were, he opened his mouth wide and snapped on the foremost of the man's claws, catching the bladed darkness in his mouth, and savagely twisting the elongated nails with all the might possessed in his jaws and in his body.

[techmaster-glitch]

   The man watched with interest as the feminine mechanoid started scanning around the room, sending out various pulses of scanning. His own eye treid to pick up and analyze the various emmision, with some, but limited, success. She obviously had some powerful tech packed into her, though he could guess a few of the things she might have.
   [Scattering Field at maximum intenisty]
   What he didn't thing of, however, was that she must also have enhancements for boosting her vision in the visible spectrum. While that wouldn't let her see through his cloak, it would let her see his face under his hood...
   Totally oblivious that she saw part of him for what he really was, he finished his surface analyzation of her and the alien newcomer, logged away the data, noting that he had no real desigantion for them, so logged them away as [Android-1] and [Alien-2]. He then redirected his attention to watch the battles outside.

   [Stygian] and [Cogidubnus] were putting up quite a show in their minature forest.