Furrae Chronicles: Webs of Destiny (IC) [M] {2}

[Gareeku]

As Jakob created the gold, many of the bandits wore uncomfortable or angry expressions on their faces. They could feel their minds being investigated, intruded upon. However, no one seemed to notice the ones who had been drawn into a daze.
"Seems like we've got us a little braveheart." the feline, who seemed to be the leader of the group, growled. "Leona, you know what to do."

Stepping forward, a female equine narrowed her eyes as she searched for whoever was trying to probe their minds. Almost immediately finding the culprit, she then put a hooved hand to her head. The next thing, Jay would find himself knocked back off of his feet.
"Leona here is rather skilled in psychic abilities." the feline explained, looking down at Jay, "So if I were you, I wouldn't try anything. Heh, you must really think we're stupid. We've been occupying the Devil's path for years. We've come across many, both being and creature. Hell, many of us used to be adventurers. But thank you for the gold anyway."

Gareeku, meanwhile, kept his eyes locked on the feline, a grim expression on his face as he did so.
"Next time, try not to do anything rash, ok?" he ask in a slight growl, his question directed at Jay. Hearing this, the feline smirks again.
"I'd listen to your friend, if I were you." he said, his comment directed at the group as a whole, before turning to the wolf. "And just what are you looking at?"
"Oh I don't know, really." Gareeku replied, a smirk now present on his face. "I want to say "adventurer", but then I realised that you're just too god-damn stupid."
"Watch your tongue, wolf." the feline growled, putting a knife to Gareeku's throat. "Or you may find yourself without it."

Gareeku, however, was not phazed, continuing to stare into the feline's eyes with a firm glare. Deciding not to waste his time with the wolf, the feline stepped away and nodded towards another member of the group, who promptly picked up the small lump of gold.
"Thank you kindly, but what we're after is currency, not bits of shiny metal." the feline remarked. "Currency tends to be a lot easier in that you can spend it quicker. Now then, mind handing it over?"

[Arcalane]

Some 20-30 meters away from both groups, another party was taking a certain interest in the goings on. Taking up position, Arc made sure the scope on his rifle was clear, then settled down and shouldered the rifle, looking through the scope.

[Dear oh dear. Kids these days can't take care of themselves, even in a valley full of bandits.]

He lined up the scope, looking first at the apparent leader, then at the other who had stepped forward. Arc paused for a moment, considering the ups and downs of which one to shoot first.

[Cut off the head and the body withers. Hrhrhr.]

A few final adjustments. Arc lined the scope up with the leader's head. With a zoom like this he could have counted the guy's whiskers. But that didn't matter, the idiot wouldn't be needing them much longer. He settled down, compensating for wind, his own breathing, getting the rhythm as the scope drifted up... down... up... down...

After only a second or two more, a single gunshot echoed through the valley.

[Aisha deCabre]

A hidden figure had been watching the bandits, drenched in the shadows of the hills and manipulating the hidden niches and landmarks to her advantage.  The traveler knew this path well enough in her field.  The bandits here were quite the prize...dangerous to any other traveler, but not those who knew how to manipulate their style of stealth and ruthlessness.

Now these bandits, so many of them, were swarming around this group like the predators that they were, greed and bloodlust their fueling marks.  But they had overlooked one more factor of their methods...cockiness.  It was what made them dangerous.  But what also led the bounty hunter to help turn the battle in favor of the adventurers, a few of whom she knew all too well to just give up and run.  She had to be careful and quick...the psychic one may have already detected something...

Suddenly, as if from nowhere (or up in a tree if one actually happened to look there), an object burst from the shadows and whizzed through the air with a silent and deadly accuracy towards the line of outlaws far from the leader's line of sight...he wouldn't have noticed until the audible shing...groan...thump, in that precise order.  But, before anyone could gauge the direction of the sounds, the figure cloaked in red had jumped out of hiding, a blade with a dragon-skin hilt having been drawn and sliced into a short line of those bandits circling the others (two or three) and giving the others an exit if any so needed, before any of those struck could blink.

Landing roughly but gracefully, a curled black tail with an emerald ring swishing from beneath the cloak, the figure picked up and replaced the bladed boomerang she had thrown and looked the group over.  Her eyes were partially covered in shadow with the hood over her head.  A few of the adventurers would have recognized those stealthy moves, even if after a few seconds.  She knew at least that the wolf leading them would.

The grin from beneath the shadowed cowl that the pantheress gave them told the ones who didn't know her that she was a friend, not a foe.  "Advice?  Either start running or start kicking tail," she said with a smirk in her tone and whirled, only pausing to jump at the gunshot.

[Tapewolf]

"Booby-trapped mind-shields," said Jay, rubbing his muzzle.  "I haven't seen those for centuries."  He folded his arms and took on an irate look.

"Look, let's be reasonable about this... there are a few things which I'm not sure you've considered.  In an emergency we are quite capable of teleporting out of here if need be, so to be perfectly blunt, and speaking for myself, I'm not scared of you.
"What does scare me is what might happen if we come to blows.  If you knew half the tales that follow some of our members," he gave a sidelong glance at Gareeku, "you'd shit yourselves.".

"I realise that you probably don't believe me," he continued, "although I hope I'm wrong.  I don't want to see another massacre or more soul-devoured corpses... because I was taught that all life is precious.

"Now my point is this...  if we give you all our coinage, we won't be able to achieve our aims when reach the phoenix temple.  That means we may as well leave now, in which case you get nothing and we have to look for another temple.  If we fight, some of us may die, but since there are several 'cubi among our party, many of you stand to lose your very souls.  Are you sure you want to risk total death for the sake of a few coins?
I'm sure we can come to some sort of compromise."

[Gareeku]

Turning to Jay, the feline snarled angrily.
"And what do you know?!" He snarled, "This is our way of life, so deal with it?! And one more word out of you, and you'll be finding an arrow through your head!!"
Glancing towards the canine next to him, the feline was about to tell him to pick up the gold when a shot suddenly ran out through the air. The feline stared on shock as blood began to pour out of the canine's ears, nose and mouth. People on the other side of the canine would see that a bloodied hole was now present in the side of the canine's head. Watching the now-dead canine drop to the floor, Gareeku smiled darkly.
Ah, that would be Arc's handywork... he thought to himself.

Less than a second later, the group of theives was attacked again, this time by a silent assassin who had killed a number of theives with a silent and deadly dance of the blade. Hearing the voice, Gareeku smiled upon realising who it was.
"Don't mind if I do!" he replied, quickly unsheathing his katana and, before the feline knew what was happening, knocked the leader's sword out of his hands, before delivering a powerful slash to his neck, slitting the feline's throat in the process.

"We're being attacked!!" one of the theives cried out in panic, signalling for the others to attack. However, before he could do anything more, he found a bolt of magic slamming into his head, sending him flying back unconscious.
"Way to state the obvious!" Gareeku replied with a smirk. By now, the theives had begun advancing on the group, which by now was most likely more spread out into a more comfortable position to fight. To each member of the member, there were 2 to 3 theives, each one brandishing their weapons menacingly, furious at the fact that this group had gotten the better of them, albeit with a little help.

"It's good to see you again." Gareeku said upon noticing Aisha was standing nearby him. He had not seen her since their last adventure, and his happiness upon their reuniting was evident on his face as he shot her a warm smile.

[Tapewolf]

"No..." wailed Jakob with a great sob, his eyes wide with horror as the canine died messily before him.
he was just a bandit... he wanted to kill us anyway... he means nothing to me...  Arc, you bastard... it wasn't my fault...
Visions came unbidden to his mind of times centuries past, when he'd seen a doberman's head burst open in exactly the same manner, and before that when he had pulled the trigger himself upon a feline, one of his own guards.
Jakob had never forgotten that killing, never really been able to shake off the guilt at what he had done.  It was these events which had made him come to despise the guns which he himself had designed and built so long ago.

..it's just a corpse...  it's just a corpse...
Jay would have been violently sick if he it wasn't for the fact that he wasn't a Being and thus hadn't eaten for several weeks.  His head began to swim and as his legs buckled, he fell to the ground in a manner not unlike the dead canine himself.
And then something rather curious happened.  As he lay there his fur began to change itself from cobalt blue to something paler.  Seconds later, it was not the raccoon demon Jay Farrow who lay there but the grey wolf incubus Jakob Pettersohn, alias Johan Cross.

[Gareeku]

Before anybody could say anything more, however, Gareeku heard someone sobbing. Turning to look, his eyes went wide upon seeing Jay turn into none other than Jakob.
"Jakob?!" Gareeku exclaimed in surprise. Before he could say anything more, however, the wolf looked as one of the theives, filled with rage, raised his sword for an impaling strike. "JAKOB!! LOOK OUT!!"

Almost instinctively, Gareeku lunged, tackling Jakob to safety. It was then, however, that the wolf felt a large pain in his leg. Crying out slightly, Gareeku turned round to find that the theive had followed through with his impaling strike, driving the sword through the wolf's leg. Growling angrily, Gareeku grabbed his  sword and, still on the floor, drove the blade through the chest of the attacking theif.

"Damn it..." the wolf cursed, clutching his bleeding leg. It was then, however, that the wolf turned to Jakob.
"Jakob...I'm sorry you had to see this." he said apologetically, knowing the wolf incubus' dislike or violence. Rising to his feet (or rather, to the foot on the leg which hadn't been stabbed), he looked around to see how other were doing, pulling Jakob back onto his feet in the process as he used his katana almost like a walking stick.

[Arcalane]

Arc lined up his scope with Leona and fired off another shot, then moved his scope down to try and pick off anyone who got too close to the now-wounded Gareeku, firing on any of the bandits who dared move too close to him.

[Guess this is what it feels like to be a guardian angel. Damn, times like this, makes wish me I packed a nice bolt action rifle.]

[Tapewolf]

Fortunately for him, Jakob's faint lasted only for a short time.  He opened his eyes muzzily to find Gareeku supporting him.  Although his sight was dimly returning, it was the senses in his mind which were prevalent.  There were strong emotions abound, and he used these to fortify himself.  And then he had a brainwave.. he entered his own mind and fed upon his own horror, removing it in a bizarre act of emotional self-surgery.

All trace of his weakness gone, Jakob released himself from Gareeku's hand and howled, like a feral wolf on the plains.  His eyes burning with rage and fury, he scanned the ranks of approaching bandits for the equine mage.

"Leona," he screamed, "this was your fault!  I could have put you all into a nice little sleep while we went our merry way.  Your leader could have lived.  You could all have lived!  Yet you chose to interfere, and now look what's happened!

"You like playing mind games, eh?  Well you're good, Leona, but you're still only a Being.  Pit your wits against me if you dare, you nag!  I promise not to hurt your soul too badly..."

[Gareeku]

Among the fighting, there knelt Leona beside the dead body of the feline. Tears were streaming down her face as she held him in her arms.
"No...Johnathan...no...!" she sobbed. It was then, however, that she heard Jakob's call of rage. Looking up, her face turned from one of grief and sorrow to one of pure rage.
"YOU!!" she yelled, "I loved him, you bastard!!"
Rising to her feet, she began to slowly walk towards the incubus wolf. "You have no idea!! We were theives because we had to be!! And you are one to talk, Johan Cross!!" she screamed with anger, "Yes I know all about you! I could feel it in your mind!!"
Screaming with rage, Leona then unleashing a powerful wave of psychic energy at her target. She may have been only a Being, but was she was a very powerful one.

[Tapewolf]

Jakob gave a peal of laughter at Leona's outburst, as he scanned the area behind and around him with the heads of his wing tentacles.
"Bullshit," he sneered.  "You held the pass for almost a decade, remember?  That's the mark of greed, not desperation.  And as soon as you saw who I was, you knew that you were all out of your depth.  'Loved him?'  Ha!  If you really loved him you would never have let him get into a fight which you knew he couldn't win!"

As he spoke, he ducked, Leona's burst of energy causing a rush of agony as it passed through the tips of his ears and careened into a bandit he had seen creeping up on him.

Closing his eyes, he scanned the area for the newly-dead, his lips taking on a smile as he spotted Jonathan's shade.  Apparently he had either decided to stay and watch the fight, or he was waiting for Leona to fall as well.  Well, that's just too bad, he thought and reached for one of the flints.
Throwing a fireball at Leona to distract her, Jakob clutched at one of the crystals in his pocket and stared at 'Jonathan', who suddenly gave a look of terror as the spell took hold.  The crystal grew warm in his hand.

He turned his attention back to the equine.  Prepared for any further booby-traps, he began to attack her mind-shield.  Forced entry into an unwilling mind was extremely painful for the victim...

[Aisha deCabre]

Hearing the wolf's comment, Aisha was about to answer when she was interrupted by another bandit coming up toward her.  Her sword came up in the split instant his came down to block it.  Struggling to hold her ground, that was when she answered him with a smirk.  "Good to see you too, Gareeku.  Though I must say," she laughed and shoved the bandit away with her foot, "Trouble seems to follow you."  With a snort, she turned to help the others.

Hmph, and I was hoping that this wasn't going to be such a violent affair, the panther thought as more bandits fell by her blade and that of the others.  The scent of blood stuck in her nostrils like so many times before, except she was always a little shaky when it was a Being...she was more used to taking assignments on the heads of Creatures.

Once the ones that were ganging up on her were cut down, something caught her eye and she turned to glance at one of the party who was suddenly on the ground, and with concern and slight interest, watched him transform.  That instant, memories of the previous adventure with this group shot through her mind, as well as a name that was pushed in everyone's face several times...those affected by its influence.

Her mouth went wide open in shock.  "Jakob?"  She always preferred to call the wolf incubus by that name, although he also had the Johan Cross alias.  Well, there's a surprise.

But it would be time for greetings later.  Things were happening quite a bit fast to keep up with...Gareeku's wound, Jakob's outburst, and the equine woman's attack.  Aisha simply tried to keep the remaining outlaws away from them, releasing her boomerang into the air like a flying sawblade...

[Hilary]

Anzimani stared at the newly transformed wolf, dumbfounded. She would have continued to stare while mentally processing all that had just happened, had it not been for the bandit who lunged at her from behind.

She heard the whoosh of a weapon at her ear, dropping just in time to avoid a sword blow that nearly severed her head. A couple of black feathers floated down beside her-- the creature had clipped the top of a wing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the weapon coming at her again from above. She dove to the side, doing an awkward half-roll over her right shoulder. She stood up as soon as her feet met the ground, spinning around with sword drawn.

Facing her was a sharp-faced fox demon. In his hands was a strange blade; blue light pulsed up and down it in a spiral, not unlike a very sharp barbershop pole. His own eyes reflected the helix of energy, giving them a demented look. However, his next blow was very controlled and skilled; he definitely had his senses about him. Anzimani barely deflected the attack, the greenish shine of her own sword mixing with the blue sparks of the enemy's.

She wouldn't last long with swords-- she needed to get in closer. She took a step forward, sword arm hanging loose at her side. There was a brief moment of confusion and suspicion on the fox's face, but then he raised his arm with a smug smile on his face; he was clearly more than ready to run her through. Anzimani tensed her wing muscles until the feathers trembled. Just as the fox threw himself at her, she shot upward, rolling forward in the air in a quick whirlwind of feathers. She threw her sword while airborne, the powerful throw stopping the feline being that had slipped silently behind the fox literally dead in his tracks. She landed behind the fox, little puffs of dust raising around her feet. He spun around deftly, quick and prepared. He grinned when he saw that she had foolishly gotten rid of her only weapon. He lunged at her again, forcing her back. As he struck once more, she whipped the dagger out of her sleeve, stabbing the fox in the heart. He didn't even have time to be surprised.

[Tapewolf]

"Don't you remember what I warned you?" taunted Jakob, as he continued his assault on Leona's sanity.  "I said that if we could reach some kind of compromise we could all walk away from this with our souls.  But you fucked that up, Leona, and someone had to pay the price for your interference.  Guess who it was?

"Hehehe.. don't expect to meet Jonathan when you die, Leona," he cackled, "Because while you were playing dodge-the-fireball I was busy eating his soul!  How does it feel knowing that the spell I'm going to kill you with is part of him?"

His enemy stared back at him, an expression of shock in her eyes.
She didn't notice the tears in Jakob's own eyes as he wept for the bandits murdered by Aisha and Anzimani, or the pain in his face at the terrible things he was saying.

Weakening his fierce grip on the equine's mind-shield for a moment, he sent a telepathic message to the vixen in their party, his mental voice filled with anguish as he pleaded for her to help.

Gabi!  Stun someone... for Gods' sakes!  Please... please... so there can be at least some survivors...  I don't think I could bear another massacre...

But acting comes naturally to 'cubi, and there would be time to mourn later.  So, marshalling his thoughts, Jakob composed himself, and when he turned back to face Leona, it was with a cruel, sadistic expression of triumph.

[Gareeku]

When Jakob turned back to face Leona, he would find that she had charged at him. Her grief had by now totally overwhelmed her, and she didn't even have the energy to launch any psyhic attacks. Instead she was pounding on his chest with her fists, though her strikes would be very weak due to the sheer grief filling her emotionless, which would be incredibly strong to the incubus wolf.
"No! No no no no!!" she wailed, tears streaming down her face as she continued to pound weakly, "You b-bastard! No!!"
Completely breaking down, the equine fell to her hands and knees. Then, out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted Anzimani's sword. Quickly grabbing it, she held it against her. To Leona, now that her beloved virtually no longer existed, life was simply not worth living anymore.

"You've taken everything I ever loved...I hate you..." she whispered, looking up at Jakob with a sad expression, the tears still streaming down her face as he looked up at him. Then, with all the strength she had, she plunged the blade deep into her heart, dying instantly as her body slumped to the floor in a pool of blood.
For a few fleeting moments, Leona's shade stood on the spot, her eyes closed as what seemed like a tear trickled down her face, before vanishing from the mortal plane.

Seeing this, Gareeku's face displayed one of shock. Turning to another attacking theif, he turned his sword, choosing to smash the hilt into the theif's jaw and knocking him unconscious. In his eyes, enough blood had been shed. It was then that he turned to Jakob.
"I hope you're happy." the wolf spat, a look of disgust on his face as he spoke, before turning away and limping off, looking to help out those who needed it.

[Tapewolf]

Jakob barely noticed Gareeku as he stared down at his foe's corpse.  Without a word he threw her remains over his shoulder and vanished in a flash of black light.

[Arcalane]

Arc carefully lined up and picked off one last bandit who was stupid enough to have hung around. He then stood up from his sniping spot, reloaded his rifle, and took a few minutes to replace the spent ammunition from the magazine with a new set. He also carefully picked up the casings and looked down on the group in the valley.

[Stupid kids are gonna get 'emselves killed.]

He stood there for a minute or two, watching, then slung his rifle over his back and silently moved on, starting at a jog.

[Hilary]

Anzimani stood still for a moment, bloodied dagger in hand. Bringing it up to her face, she looked at it, studying the trickle of cooling blood as it traveled down the already cold blade. She slowly shifted her gaze, staring down at the bodies at her feet.

She fell to her knees on the path. She stared at the dagger again, breathing hard, then flung it with a growl at the nearest tree where it stuck fast in the trunk, quivering with a metallic sound. Slowly, she kneeled and put her head on her knees.

She had never killed before.

She had injured, yes, and she had, long ago, assisted in the trapping of a soul. But she had never done this. Now she had killed two, and her sword had been the death of another.

She always knew she would be able to do it, if the need arose. Half of her brain was still reminding her that if she had not done what she had done, it would be her and maybe her companions lying in the dust. But the other half was screaming that she could have stunned them, done something other than kill them. But her own self-preservation instinct had taken over, and it was done. Even now, her muscles were tense, ready to retaliate if more attackers came. She loathed herself for that readiness.

[Gabi]

Everything had happened too fast. Gabi had barely managed to stun one thief upon hearing Jakob's call. Then Leona had killed herself and that seemed to mark the end of the attack. Others had died too. It wasn't the first time she'd seen someone die, but it didn't feel like something she could easily get used to.

"At least they weren't innocents this time," she thought, remembering the sight she had encountered on her first day in Ha'Kun. "At least I managed to save one of them." She wondered whether she had only saved him so that he could go on commiting crimes and eventually getting himself killed anyway. But that wasn't something she could know, or do anything about. At least he had the choice now.

She took a look at the rest of her group. Some were wounded, but luckily none of their injuries seemed to be life-threatening. She was glad to see Aisha again. She had come to like her during her previous adventure together, even if her attitude towards creatures had originally reminded her of the kids that used to bully her as a child. But she knew Aisha was different from them, as her prejudice came from bad experiences rather than an irrational hate for anyone who was different, and as such it could be countered with enough good experiences.

Anzimani looked upset, but Gabi didn't know her well enough, so she doubted she could do anything to help her and was not even sure if she should. Arc had left again... thankfully. Gabi could never be calm when he was around. She was worried that next time she had news of him might be because he'd killed someone again, but she had her hands full as it was. Maybe after they'd managed to rescue those who were missing, if they could make it, she could try to do something about him. For now all she could do was hope he didn't cause too much damage in the meantime.

"Ok, the time for reflection is over," she told herself. "It's time to do something useful."

So she went to tend to the wounded, giving Aisha a smile as she passed by her side and telling her it was nice to see her again.

[RJ]

Blaze's eyes widened when he heard the gunshot, followed by the sight of one of the bandits falling with a sickening thump of the ground.

Crap... he thought.

Suddenly, it was chaos as the bandits charged forward to attack. Blaze felt pain as a thrown dagger left a gash in his ear and continued to fly away.

"Hey, Fluff-Butt, not too quick upstairs, are we?" asked a voice thick with some unrecognisable accent. "Maybe your pretty wings are draining the blood from your head?"

Blaze turned, seeing a female rabbit twirling a dagger in her hand.

"He's quite the looker, but I'm not in the mood for fixing a date at the moment," commented a female feline that stepped up next to the first woman.

Blaze could only stare with a slight cringe as he noticed the un-lady-like clothes they both  wore. Before he could blink though, they leapt at him, throwing carefully aimed daggers.

"Sorry ladies, but I'm not in the mood for games either," he frowned, forming a fire shield before himself. The daggers melted before they even hit.

Blaze dispersed the shield, noticing that the women had vanished into the chaos. His brow suddenly twitched as he heard a noise behind him. He turned, just as the women leapt at him and kicked him in the gut. Blaze doubled over, gasping for breath.

"Geez, this fire mage is pathetic!" groaned the rabbit. Her partner nodded.

"Who said I was just a fire mage?" whispered Blaze.

The womens' eyes widened as wing tentacles grabbed them by the wrists and held them up in the air where they flailed and kicked to get free. Blaze held them just out of reach from their kicking feet.

"Play nice, kiddies," Blaze warned them with a scowl. "Or else I might have to get rough."

Damn, I'm just outta shape for stuff like this, he thought. I haven't had any real serious battles in years now... He watched the battle unfold before him, throwing fireballs to distract and injure those who attempted to jump him and grab the two women he held hostage.

A flash of black caught his eye suddenly as he was sure he saw someone vanish.

What was that? Blaze asked himself.

Before he knew it though, the battle was over. The bandits who were not dead or seriously injured had fled, leaving only corpses and those in Blaze's group... though with a few exceptions.

Things... don't seem to be going quite our way, he thought with a sigh.

"Hey! Hey! What're you gonna do with us?!" demanded the rabbit he was still holding up.

"We'll sort it out later," Blaze growled as he walked towards the others. "Just stay still and you might just live."

[Tapewolf]

Jakob strode through the forest with the body of his fallen foe.  He listened carefully as he walked, the birdsong dying away as he approached.  This was good - if the birds had been silent already, that would mean he was not alone.
Finally he reached the graves they had dug for the other two bandits - Arc's victims - and a short way away he laid the corpse upon the grass and began to dig.

Wolves in the wild are capable diggers and the fact that Jakob was humanoid in appearance didn't present much of an issue.  Indeed, his incubus heritage eased the task as he was able to toughen and sharpen his hands.  A physical task like this was what he needed to distract himself from the grief that the battle had filled him with, but it didn't stop the trickle of tears down his muzzle.

Finally he laid her to rest, removing the sword which she had used upon herself.  He would have left it there to avoid further damaging her remains, but he was pretty sure it belonged to a member of their own party and it would only be honest to return it.

Upon a rock he carved an epitaph as he had done before:
LEONA, BANDIT QUEEN
SLEW HERSELF TO
ESCAPE JOHAN CROSS
..which wasn't strictly true, but was probably more than she deserved, all things considered.

I'm going to have to book another appointment with Delna, he thought.  By an intricate series of self-manipulations he had managed to choke off the raw grief, at least for now, but he still wasn't quite ready to face the magnitude of his failure.  That would have to wait.. he still had to resume the quest and rescue his father first.
No, not yet... he thought.  They'll still be fighting.  Killing each other.  Why did it have to be like this?  He found he was crying again at the prospect.

Then an idea came to him.  He made a pass and left the forest entirely, finding himself back in his bedroom in SAIA.  Taking a shower to clean off the mud and gore, he rummaged around the apartment and took three things:
The chain of soul-pendants which he had left behind, a large bag of money and a black leather trenchcoat - just like the ones that Johan Cross had worn.

Well, he thought to himself as he wriggled his wings into the holes of the coat's back, if this mess that Arc and Gareeku have got us into is going to be blamed upon me, I guess I ought to at least look the part.

He was almost ready to leave, but there was one more thing he had to do first.  Fishing the flint crystal from the pockets of the mud-stained clothing he had just removed, he strode off to his laboratory.
Right Jonathan, he said to himself, it's time we had a little talk.

[Aisha deCabre]

By the time the handle of Aisha's boomerang was back in her hand, she had more than witnessed enough carnage for the day.  The blood of Beings, albeit evil ones, coated the bladed edges, a sight that was never pretty.  She straightened herself and found a small boulder nearby on which to sit and rest, just before she'd rejoin the others in cleaning up.  It seemed Jakob had gone to do just that, with the body of the distraught bandit woman.

Her face, still shadowed by the cowl, looked on about the others of the group; curiously at the ones that she had yet to be introduced to, and with a smile at the ones that she already was.  She replied back to Gabi that it was also good to see her again...in the last adventure they had become friends, as Aisha had with pretty much everyone, despite the fact that her attitude wasn't the best in the world.

Wiping the blood from her weapons with her cape, Aisha's hand came up and lifted the cape hood from her face, revealing the black jaguar's young face and piercing red gaze.  She watched Gareeku with concern, but certainly with Gabi's healing he would be alright, as well as the others who were injured.

"So...I'm guessing nobody's on this path for a friendly business trip," she chuckled, trying to lift the somber mood with humor that was even half-hearted.

[Gabi]

"I wish," replied Gabi, looking at Gareeku's leg. "We're trying to solve a nasty mystery, but we have too few leads and things just keep going wrong..."

She tested Gareeku's leg with her fingers.
"It's a large cut, but it doesn't seem to be broken," she told Gareeku. "Can you move it?"

[Tapewolf]

Jakob strode towards his private laboratory, only to find that he no longer had the key.  Suddenly he remembered that he'd lent it to Ash.  Now where would he be?  Sitting before a VT100 terminal, he called up the department schedule and soon found that his deputy would most likely be in the electronics lab at this hour.

There wasn't a class scheduled for the lab so it was being used by a number of students for their own private projects, and Ash would be minding it to ensure they didn't get up to anything... students being students, after all.
As he entered he saw that his friend was huddled over a small hunk of equipment which he was discussing avidly with another feline incubus.

"Oh hi Jak," he said, "I thought you were off on leave.  Have you got a moment?  This is more your area, I think."

"I'm just dropping in," said Jakob.  "I'll have to be off again pretty soon, but I can spare you a few minutes if you'll lend me the lab key again.  What is it?"

"Oh, Alexei here has brought in a nightsight that isn't working.  Care to take a look?"

Jakob prodded the disassembled device with a pair of 'scope probes, looking for the point where the signal from the vidicon tube disappeared.  "Looks like this op-amp has blown," he said.  Pressing his finger against the IC, he felt it with his mind, scanning the circuit tracks inside it.  His finger glowed momentarily as he created a new track over the break, the small screen flickering for a moment to reveal a picture of the desk.

"I'd check the voltage regulator as well, and preferably some of the supply caps too for good measure.   Otherwise it may happen again," Jakob added.

"Yes, thank you very much!" the incubus replied happily, reaching for the multimeter.  Jakob stopped dead in his tracks, and looked the cat over very carefully.  That voice sounded very, very familiar.  "Uh... is something wrong?" he asked, seeing Jakob's concerned expression.  The incubus' hair was black, but otherwise his coat was almost the same.

"Do you happen to know of a feline Being by the name of Arcalane?" asked Jakob.

"That would be my son," he said.  "Why do you ask?"

"He wants to kill me," Jakob replied.

[Arcalane]

((OOC: *dramatic chord!* ))

Alexei frowned and eyed Jakob.

"Have you been staying up late again? What exactly could you have done to have gone and got him chasing you, mmh?" Alexei pondered. "That reminds, he did ask for a particularly advanced model I'd brought in... I hope he hasn't broken it."

[Tapewolf]

"Apparently there's a price on my head," said Jakob.  "I did a number of rather questionable things a couple of centuries ago back in Ha'Khun.  Someone killed my best friend, and I went a bit funny.  I started calling myself 'Johan Cross', took over a couple of cities, killed a couple of ne'er-do-wells, threw a couple of rebellious Creatures out on their ear... that sort of thing.  Fa'Lina was very impressed, but I still wish I hadn't done it... and I guess someone's still mad at me." he sighed.

"That's why I came back to SAIA," he added.  "I wanted a fresh start, wanted to try and forget it all, to try and help people instead of treating them like pets.  But other people keep coming along and digging the past up."

He was silent for a bit.

"When this mess is over, I'm going to have to do a new documentary.  Film my own autobiography... set the record straight.  In the meantime, I have to play dodge-the-bullet with Arc."

[Arcalane]

Alexei nods.

"I do not doubt that. The shorter lifespan of Beings tends to lead them astray from the bigger picture, I notice. The past has a habit of staying unburied around them." He smirks. "My son is a good shot. I suggest you stay out of his way altogether if possible. He is not a man you want to be in the way of, I assure you." Alexei sighs. "He may be stubborn, quiet and destructive, but he is persistant, loyal and tougher than a pair of old boots! The only thing that seems to make him lighten up is his sister Anya. I tell you, he's a different person around her."

Alexei pauses and shrugs slightly.

"Anyway, I best get back to working on this nightsight."

[Tapewolf]

"Yes, good luck with that," said Jakob.  "Remember... check the power supply!  There's a load more op-amps in the drawer, but if you fry the camera tube, it's going to be very difficult and expensive to repair."

Jakob turned to go, but then remembered he needed the keys from his deputy.  Ash was standing there with a slightly wistful expression on his face until he came to and handed over the keys to the lab.  "Was it really so long ago?" he asked.

"Well, it's only been about a hundred years," Jakob replied with a faint smile.  "But I still wish people would forget.  And what's it all for?  I only killed ten people - Arc has almost certainly caught up with that by now.  Anyway, I must go.   I have work to do... dead people to talk to, and probably bandits to intimidate."

"Oh, so that's what the get-up is for, is it?" he asked, gesturing at the coat.

"Quite.  Don't worry Ashley, I know what I'm doing."  I hope... he added, mentally.

* * *

Jakob unlocked his private laboratory, and placed the flint crystal in a rather complex machine he'd designed, a fusion of magic and advanced technology.  It looked very much like an electron microscope or an ion lathe, but its function was totally different.  He put on a headset, specially designed so that the earphones and mic were in a suitable place for his lupine skull, and flicking the switch, looked at the screen as it warmed up.

"Hello Jonathan," he said.

You!  What... what have you done to me? came the reply, as the ex-bandit leader's face appeared on the screen.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Meanwhile back at the group...

Ephrael, an arrow noched in her longbow came running up the path to the others.

"I'm sorry I fell behind..."

[Gabi]

Gabi hears running and immediately turns to look. She's relieved to see it's Ephrael rather than another bandit... and a bit proud to notice her ankle has healed so well.

"It's ok," she tells her. "Are you alright?"