Eternal Rains (IC) [M] - Closed

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Although not savvy in the art of sign language, Keaton was easily able to interpret Sal's message when she tried a more direct method of displaying her intentions. However, any response she could have concocted was delayed by utter bewilderment, particularly because she was outright stunned at Sal's arachnidesque appearance. To an extent, she tried to detach herself from her shock so to analyze her visage, so that way she could pinpoint her exact race. She was obviously a spider of some sort (Keaton hated spiders), so she assumed she was an Insectis, but somehow she just couldn't reconcile the idea of this creature being something other than extraordinary. Too bad she couldn't talk, as far as she could tell.

Keaton frowned a little. If this spider-woman was capable of weaving together webs of near-indestructible strength (or, well, webbing strong enough to disable Izria), she didn't want her to flee the party. Not until she didn't  need her anymore, at least. For now, she simply tried to postpone the spider-woman's departure until she could conceive an idea to keep her in the party. Being unable to directly understand her was a major detriment to her negotiation skills.

"Look, I know you want to go, since there's some fucked-up shit going on here," Keaton tried to reason with Sal. "But we're almost out of here, okay? Just, um, stick with us for a little bit longer." She gestured to the woodpecker at the front of the group. "See that bird-gal over there? She's our ticket out of here."

Then Cross approached her. Keaton frowned at the message he delivered, and then the realization that Cog was, indeed, absent struck her like a ton of bricks. Panic instantly flaring in her, she shrieked an outraged "WHAT?!" and started whipping around in every direction, her eyes rapidly scanning the garbage-strewn environment. Fucking Hell, she hadn't even noticed Cog was gone! The bastard hardly ever participated in any of the fights, so she assumed he had merely retreated for shelter. If he had been abducted by one of the mechanical monsters they encountered earlier, or drowned in the maelstrom, she didn't want to imagine how horribly it'd set back all her plans...

In-between her panicking, Pandora finally realized what was amiss and strode back to the group, resting her large hands on Keaton's shoulders, anchoring her in place. Keaton froze on instinct and slapped Pandora's hands away reflexively, spinning around to face her. Pandora, although visibly bemused by Keaton's token overreaction, simply interjected. "'Ey, I wouldn't worry 'bout i'. All o' yah cool i'. If I know Cog - which I do, mind you - 'e's probably back a' my shop. Look, if 'e ain't there, y'can search the junkyard all yah like. But I wouldn't recommend it an' all, seein' as the locals wouldn't appreciate that much. In case yah'll run into something I c'n give yah some of my babies t' help."

Without so much as clarifying her ambiguous usage of the word "babies," Pandora turned and strutted away. Keaton arched her eyebrow, but resigned with a sigh. She looked to Cross somewhat tiredly, anxiety hovering behind the backdrops of her chocolaty irises. "You heard her," she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes. "Right now we need to keep moving, but hopefully Cog's back at this batty chick's house...."

---

...Pandora:

Quite visibly satisfied with her earlier solution to the problem while remaining utterly oblivious as to whether or not her theory would actually work, Pandora paraded back to the head of the group and gestured for everyone to move again. From what she could tell, according to the very familiar piece of wreckage resting near the furthermost garbage pile, they were nearing the scrap heap, where the various discarded metals were organized and left to smolder, constantly awaiting a fate of obliteration that would never arrive. It was there Pandora had made her home, as that location was not only on the edge of the junkyard, away from the more malodorous matter, but it provided ample material to craft her inventions.

Pandora hummed cheerfully, unaware of Witt approaching her. When the diminutive hedgehog-thing (Pandora had no idea what the little bugger was) caught her attention, she glanced amiably down at him, blinking. "'Eh?" She realized he was asking her about her weapons.

A look of absolute elation spread over her features. Nobody, other than her grandfather and Axiyne, had ever expressed interest in her inventions, even less her weapons. Probably because she hardly ever left the junkyard and she had a reputation in Holiday for being a lunatic, but those were all small details anyway. Still maintaining that delighted and slightly comical grin, Pandora hefted her sniper rifle, admiring its sleek metallic hide. "Oh shi', is i' thaaaaat obvious?" she asked, feigning humble embarrassment. Five seconds later this facade vanished, and she answered with a cheerful, "Yeah, yah c'n kinda call m' a weaponsmith. I'm inventin', mostly. I usually make more outdated models but I figured I needed a lil' somethin' with more kick-"

Before she could continue with her rambling, Fal'taq interrupted with a most unusual announcement and query. At first Pandora didn't think much of it, being more irritated than anything that someone had demanded her attention after she was finally stroking her pent-up ego, but when he mentioned the precise location of the disturbance he had detected, she paled visibly beneath her vibrant plumage. With an amount of horror which seemed unnatural for her Liverpudlian-laced voice, she croaked, "Wha'?"

A minute passed in relative silence.

It was broken in a gravelly obscenity. "FUCKIN' 'ELL, MY SHI'!" Pandora screamed, and sprinted off, her absurdly long legs propelling her into motion almost instantly, but nearly tripping her over once or twice as she struggled to adapt to her accelerated speed. All throughout her run, she started barking out an assortment of profanities which would have made Witt shed a tear.

And standing in her dust, Keaton could only stare after her in surprise, wondering what the hell had happened, and if she had said ship, or shit. However, the matter faded quite quickly out of her concern when she realized her ticket to the Kamei'Sin Capital was running away for some Gods-fucked-up reason and she broke in a run after her. "Follow me!" Keaton shouted to the rest of the group.

---

Pandora had been mortified to discover the mangled metal that used to protect the front door of her hangar, and had wasted no time in pounding an extra round into her rifle and charging in, her body quickly warping back into her furless, magic-tolerant human form during the few milliseconds it took for her to pass through the doorframe. Keaton, accompanied by the rest of the group, reached the doorframe moments after she stormed inside the hangar, allowing whoever needed to to prepare themselves for any potential assaults. Arming herself with Catastrophe, Keaton burst into the hangar, and then almost immediately stopped cold when she saw the vessel seated in the center of the hangar, among the nest of platforms and crossbars.

"Holy shit..." Keaton murmured.

"WHAT TH' 'ELL IS GOIN' ON 'ERE?!?" Pandora screamed, a look of utter fury etched into her formerly comical features. For a moment, she looked absolutely horrified as she stared around the chamber and her eyes locked onto the fallen magnet resting atop something she couldn't see. Instantly, she assumed the worst. "Axiyne!?"

Much to her eternal relief, the familiar brown ball of feathers (or so Pandora would affectionately refer to him as) poked his head out from the box room. The Gryphon had taken sanctuary there along with Cog before the magnet fell. "Pandora?" he asked. His pilot's cap was askew and his eyes were wider than usual, the scarred one dully contrasting with its opposite companion.

"Fuckin'... Christ, Ax -" Pandora breathed out a heavy sigh of relief and ran over to the Gryphon, skidding to a halt and crouching next to him. Almost instantly, her arms went around him and she pulled Axiyne close to her in a bone-crushing bear hug. "GOD Ax I was SO WORRIED I'm so sorry I left ya all alone an' unprotected an' OH MY GODS it'll never happen agaaaaaaain..."

Axiyne would have responded, but he couldn't seem to be able to breathe. He tried to get out some sort of word of precaution, but fortunately that was no longer necessary, as Pandora relinquished her grip on the avian-creature a moment later. "Wha' 'appened, Ax?" Pandora asked.

Axiyne shuddered heavily, massaging his neck with a talon. "S-Somebody came," he explained in a short breath. "H-he had these... things with him, and he - he said he was a friend of yours, but he got really angry when Cog showed up... He's over th-there." To prove his point, Axiyne pointed over to the magnet, and the body partially wedged under it.

Pandora turned her head towards Arcwelder, her eyes narrowing as she struggled to identify the mechanical madman. Moments later, revelation almost pleasantly illuminated her face, and her humanoid features started to melt away. In a few seconds she was restored to her standard woodpecker form. "Arcwelder?" she exclaimed.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt's eyes lit up when he realised the bird had -built- the gun, not just maintained it. By the gods, if she'd built that, she could build just about anything. Which meant he could either get some more ammo, or get something else that had more ammo, in her workshop.

He was about to broach this idea with her when Fal'taq interrupted, she broke off, and took off. Before even Keaton had shouted, Witt was already on his way. No -way- was he going to let a chance to get some serious firepower slip by. Besides, he might manage to make himself useful, and that wouldn't hurt.

The profanities she was uttering were an interesting mix, too. Heck, he might even pick up a new one...

However, by the time he arrived, she already had the situation, such as it was, under control. He returned the knife and the gun to their places, and sauntered jauntily over to the stuck necromancer - while making sure to stay out of reach.

"Well, well, well. What have we here. You look like you're in a fucking pickle, there. Need a bloody hand, you weasely cocksucker, or should we just jump the fuck up and down on the top?" He raised an eyebrow at the semi-crushed metallic monstrosity, and grinned, nastily.

[Tezkat]

The black jaguar stood unflinching as tons of metal came crashing down in front of him. Somehow none of his clothing or gear had been affected by the electromagnetic field. The dust settled. After such a deafening clang, the whirling gears and droning clicks of the hangar seemed that much quieter by comparison.

Tipping his hat back, the dark feline raised an eyebrow. He looked up at the freely swinging chains where the magnet used to hang, then over at the control booth. He sighed and shook his head.

He crouched by the trapped figure. The mechanical necromancer had been too preoccupied to notice him earlier. Squashed under several tons of industrial equipment, the strange man-machine certainly wouldn't offer much sport now.

+ + +

"You might need to yell a bit louder. He's out cold for now."

Having temporarily lost interest in the junkman, Edge had wandered off to study the strange vessel. He came over to greet the new arrivals, stopping next to Witt and the fallen magnet.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt sighed. "Bugger." He leaned over, and tapped the metal "half-helmet" of the head poking out from under the heavy magnet. "Strange bastard, he is. I wonder what his story is. Probably not worth the effort of not killing the motherfucker while he tells you, though." He shrugged, and stood up again.

"So. What now?" He gazed around at the workshop, at the various things around the walls, with an eye to possibly adding to his weaponry - assuming Pandora was willing, of course.

[Tapewolf]

"So," said Cross, entering the hangar, frowning at Pandora and ignoring the apparently-dead Arc on the floor.  "Ms. Rosendahl...  We now face a problem.  The Family are after us.  Following their attack in the harbour, it seems the police are after us as well.  And now that Paige has committed soul-murder upon at least one Mer, they are after us as well - or will be as soon as they put two and two together - and, I'm sorry to say, that in taking us here, our associate, Cogidubnus has probably visited all these plagues upon you and most likely your Gryphon friend as well."

"Anyhow.  Cog told us that you may be able to take us off the island.  To be honest, I was somewhat sceptical," - so was he -   "...but it has since occurred to me that a skilled engineer could easily construct an airship or similar vessel.  That, I suspect, is why the Mer were after you.  Either way, we are all in the same boat and it is sinking fast."

He let the question hang.

[Stygian]

Hearing Cross' words clearly as she walked in, the spider-woman gave him a look that clearly said something along the lines of 'speak for yourself', and then cast a long glare at Arcwelder under the pile of magnet and crap. She would have showed concern or friendliness toward Pandora and her companion under normal circumstances, but at the moment she was too shook up and distraught to manage anything more than a sympathetic gaze. Instead, she sneaked around behind Jakob and walked over beside Witt, looking down at the... creature between them, a frown on her face.
   Cog had just about found his piece and poked his head out of the control room again, and Pandora almost released Axiyne when the spider managed to catch Keaton's attention. Out of habit, the arachnid made a quick sign-language gesture for 'bothersome', and then got down on her knees. Holding the jackal's eyes as well as she could, she half-reached for Arcwelder's head with both her hands, then made a hard, twisting motion with them, as if she were holding it between them, and looked questioningly around. It was obvious what she was asking; 'Should I snap his neck and get it done with?'

[Aisha deCabre]

As she walked alongside the group on their way out of the junkyard (and hopefully without the godforsaken smells of the dead alongside), Aisha had nothing much to add...just to simply think about the situation and what was going to happen next.  Echoing the dark gray wolf's point to Keaton in her thoughts, probably they weren't about to go anywhere without their runaway comrade.

That's when Fal'taq made Pandora and thus everyone stop in their tracks with an observation...a disturbance of some kind.  Aisha quirked an eyebrow...being a demon she could have probably heard something to go with it.  It was hard to tell whether or not it could be picked up by anyone.

Regardless, the avian's response was priceless as she dashed off in a flurry of curses that made even Aisha's ears pin back to the skull.  Following Keaton's harried order, she reached behind for her bow and dashed after.

When the group reached the scene of the destruction on the inside of the hangar, even the panther's eyes widened.  Pandora made sure her own comrade was safe while the place was assessed.  So Cog was there somewhere...and under the massive magnet, Aisha's ear quirked upon hearing that they had also found their second-to-previous adversary unconscious under the thing.  In fact, people were already calling dibs on putting the pain to the ass.

As the silent hooded stranger made her intentions mostly known in a rather brutal signing motion and expression, the panthress's hand rested on the handle of her boomerang.  "Por claro...Normally I'd say let him try to talk now that he's under our mercy now, but seeing what we've seen, I doubt I have objections to getting rid of him either," she said with a dark grimace, pointing with at them with the jerk of a thumb.

[SpottedKitty]

As Fal'taq ran behind Keaton and Pandora — far behind, and getting farther behind every moment — he decided it might not have been such a good idea to tell the bird-Were so bluntly that there was something odd up ahead. She'd run off as if he'd said her house was on fire, with Keaton right behind her as soon as the jackal realised their guide through the junkyard was getting away.

Argh... getting... too... old... for... this, Fal'taq thought as he huffed and gasped for breath. He was running along with the rest of the group, but only the occasional sight of Keaton's tail vanishing round the next corner proved they weren't just rushing about at random through the junkyard.

By the time he'd reached the hangar and scrambled in through the wrecked door, Fal'taq was almost ready to fall over. His legs felt like rubber, and there was a twinge in his back. He propped himself against a wall and concentrated on getting his breath back... or at least not sounding like a leaking bellows.

[Cogidubnus]

"The Mer already knew, dammit!"

A voice called out from the control room located about a story above the hangar floor, followed by the sound of something large and metal clattering about, and then Cogidubnus's head popped into view. The wolf's eyes flashed at Petersohn for just a moment before turning somewhere else, and the wolf appeared a moment later descending the stairs bolted to the inside of the hangar. A massive, black-powder rifle was slung over his shoulder, and the shapes of three cylinders of something jutting out of his pants pocket was unmistakable. He walked towards the party, his face a mask of confidence over the sheer terror that still flowed through his system.

He didn't give any explanation for his running off, simply giving the trenchcoated wolf another dirty look as he approached Pandora. "Why the hell do you think the Mer were there in the first place? Us?" the wolf shook his head. "Stupid sunuvabitch, you walk into a hangar with something like this in it, and you wonder why those fishheads were after us? Fuck, they even asked for her, and you think we're her big worry?" He said, looking towards Pandora.

His eyes instantly lost the anger they had towards Jakob, his face showing a bit of shame. "And...the asshole here is...kinda right." he said, making a somewhat chagrined expression. "I...may have gotten you into some trouble." he said, not quite meeting the woodpecker's eyes. He looked outside the hangar again before speaking.
"We...well...it's a damn long story, Pandora, and I know I've sorta disappeared off the face of the earth for awhile here, but damn do I ever need a favor. The Mob is...really after my ass. And...you know those sirens, earlier?" he asked, giving a weak grin. "That was us."

He scratched his neck. "I think you're going to need to go anyway, though, Pan." he peered for a moment at the massive magnet sitting on top of the insane, mechanical lunatic. "I...well. The Mer were looking for you. I think they know."
Cog fell silent , his gaze cast low. He removed his hat and scratched his head. "I...sorry about your magnet, too."

That seemed to remind the wolf of something, and he turned at looked at the yellow jackal twitching her ears at all of this. He made a halfhearted grin, and nodded to the body of the clearly incapacitated Arcwelder. "I got the guy, though!" he said, clearly fishing for some sort of praise from the yellow jackal.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Sheathing her claws Paige stalked into the hangar, whistling at the sight of the mechanical mass that was suspended there in.

"I doubt anyone could reconstruct that body well enough to tell Mr Pettersohn, why else do you think I froze and shattered it hmm?" Paige said poking her tongue out at Jakob. 'Wasn't even a decent meal either, but beggars or people wanting food at short notice can't be choosers' She thought outside her shield

"Oh! I'm the so called soul murderer, but most call me Paige." Paige said impishly as she waved to Pandora, her head tilted to the side and her wings folded comfortably against her head and back.

[Tapewolf]

Cross was not at all pleased with Cog, but held his temper.  He is probably unique, he reflected... The only person to call Johan Cross an idiot to his face and actually walk away from it.  It was a struggle to keep things that way, but from the panic Keaton had shown, the junkie was evidently critical to the venture in some mysterious way.

"Excuse me for not wanting to watch as someone's afterlife is destroyed," he said, briefly flashing a sour expression at Paige.  "The specifics don't matter so much as the result - regardless of who did what, we are in deep shit, with three major powers after our hides and/or souls.  We must escape now, or die.  If Pandora is able and willing to help us in that, excellent.  Otherwise, we will have to teleport the entire party elsewhere - an exhausting process, even with the large number of Creatures in our party."

[Paladin Sheppard]

Paige waited for Jakob to turn back to the others before whipping a tentacle over so it was directly behind his head. Morphing the tip of the tentacle to resemble a pair of floppy rabbits ears, Paige wiggled them about before retracting the tentacle before the gray wolf could notice.

[e_voyager]

Epyon looked around most of the people here were in fact creatures like  Peterson had said.  he placed his had on the winded mage and mutter a short revitalising spell. it wouldn't making his young again but it's ease the fatigue of the day and tap some of his body's stored enters and using it to restore his stamina for a while. it was pretty much a win win for the mole as he'd feel better and probably loose a few pounds of unwanted fat.

Epyon wasn't sure why he preformed the spell right then and there but maybe it was the realization that unlike the bird and the spell blade. even the junkie wolf  was some kind of creature from how similar he looked to the bird. the mole and the thife were probably the only beings there. the he remembered to close his upper eyes again. it was like drawing a shade over the room as everyone's inner lights seems to wink out. he wondered if anyone had seen him but at this point it didn't really matter did it? most everyone's had show there colors why should he be different? because he was different that's why. he needed to be careful and that was that. dying once was bad enough he wasn't about to do it again any time soon.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When Penny got inside the hanger the first thing that caught her attention was the large airship, quite naturally since it was so huge. It was only when the cloaked newcomer crouched down beside the large hunk of metal on the floor did she realize that the homicidal loony with the animated garbage minions was trapped beneath it. When she mimed snapping his neck Penny nodded agreement, and kept her crossbow pointed at him in case he tried anything. She'd blow him to bits if he even twitched in a threatening way. Not that she thought he would actually be killed, creatures always stood up for creatures and she didn't expect today to be anything different. She did smile a bit despite the stress when the two cubi started squabbling and Paige made bunny ears behind Pettersohn's head.

[Snuggles]

Anton landed behind most of the group and walked inside of the hanger folding his wings back to their normal position. He got a sense of suspicion from the group as they entered but he was feeling a little bit better. He took a look around and was in a little bit of awe of the large ship. His attention was then drawn to Paige and Cross and almost blurted out laughing and turned it quickly into a feasible cough.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt raised one eyebrow at the hand movements from the cloaked stranger, and blinked. Then he responded. "Yes, the bastard is bothersome, and it'd be downright handy if he wasn't to survive, but I think he might be a friend of the lady in wings, since she knows his name, and she might take it pretty fucking poorly if we were to off him."

He coughed. "Plus that's a bloody big gun she's got there, so I'd rather not be on the wrong fucking end of it, if you get my drift."

Having said his piece, he sidled backwards a bit - at least out of blast radius if the arachnid decided not to take his advice, and shrugged out a knife to clean his nails. He glanced up at the trench-coated wolf, and commented "You've got something in your hair, there." before swapping hands with the knife. When he was done, the knife vanished again, just as smoothly as it had appeared.

[Stygian]

Witt's response caused the spider to flinch, and lose all her attention on the grotesque under the magnet for a short while. She looked at him, then blinked with all eight eyes in a strangely telegraphed sequence. Hesitantly, she brought her hands up, then signed a few more times with her hands. It was Khachin sign language, developed by the original mute Khachi people, more advanced and at the same time more compressed than the adapted forms of sign that had been adopted by mutes of other races, who hadn't developed under the same circumstances. Not to mention it was significantly harder to understand. But if this thuggish hedgehog could understand it...
   You understand what I am saying, is that so? The spider's fingers flickered and angled, using a combination of questioning and colloquial form. The ending form to the question, not to mention her expression, should also have told him that she was quite doubtful.

[SpottedKitty]

Fal'taq blinked and took a deep breath as the effects of the restoration spell flowed through him. He murmured a few offhand words of thanks to Epyon, but his thoughts were not quite so grateful. Why did he do that, I wonder? What does he hope to gain by helping me like that? He'd glimpsed the winged fox in the fight with the mechanical creatures, then against the Mer. An adequate fighter, Fal'taq thought, but there seemed to be something else about him. Those eyes — he's a Mythos. That might... complicate... matters if I try to suborn him as one of my tools. Perhaps one of the others, then, now that I have seen them fight?

Witt was still a possibility, if you ignored his tongue. The mole watched him as he taunted the unconscious machine-thing lying under the wreckage. The fisher, Light, was another. Whatever her skills as a thief, she was a good shot with her crossbow; but did she use any other weapons? Some of the party, though, were definitely unsuitable. Paige for one: the wolf might act like she was a mere decorative fluff-head, but a 'Cubi was much too dangerous for him to use. Particularly one who cheerfully boasted of eating souls... Pettersohn had been dropping unsubtle hints left and right about his nature: if he wasn't another 'Cubi, or a disguised Angel, Fal'taq would eat his hat. And the Demon, Aisha... he suppressed a shudder. The black jaguar would probably turn him inside out just for daring to threaten her, so his usual methods of persuasion should definitely be avoided.

[Tezkat]

Edge looked down at the unconscious mechanic and shrugged.

"So do we pull the tin man out from under there or put him out of his misery? He could still be dangerous if he isn't too badly injured."

The jaguar raised an eyebrow at Paige's blatant display of Cubi abilities. He hadn't been present for the more dramatic show during the Mer battle. Was she already comfortable enough in this company to flaunt her race so casually? He shook his head, and his expression soon softened into a smirk at Petersohn's expense.

"If you've pissed off the Mer, then escape over sea could be... interesting."

He jerked his head towards the enormous airship and directed his gaze towards its apparent owner.

"Does that contraption even fly? And do we have supplies enough to make the journey?"

[Tapewolf]

The jaguar was not the first person to have giggled at Cross, and that made him suspicious.  He glanced around, and suddenly noticed the enormous vehicle behind him for the first time.

It was like nothing he'd ever seen before, some monstrous love-child of a dirigible and a VTOL aircraft.  When he glanced back at Pandora, there was awe in his voice.

"My word.  You built that?  On your own?  Without access to a wind-tunnel or a mainframe computer?"  It'll never work, but I guess we'll have to try it, or swim.  I hope she sees our point of view.  Having to kill her and steal it would be a waste.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Her disbelief at having seen the unknown vessel faded, Keaton quickly edged her way to the giant magnet which currently held Arcwelder immobilized, where Witt was antagonizing the unconscious mechanical-madman. Keaton found it quite fortunate that Arcwelder, to her knowledge, was not endowed with super-strength, and that he wasn't awake to hear some of the insults the diminutive hedgehog was liberally dishing out. Around the time she approached the magnet, she realized that the formerly-absent Cogidubnus was nearing her, and her ears perked. Relief flooded her, and she allowed herself a relaxed sigh. Good, the wolf was in one piece despite his encounter. Keaton didn't want to imagine how she would have had to alter her plans without Cog involved.

He seemed angry, though. He was talking loudly, which quickly agitated Keaton, judging by the way she grimaced and winced. Then it made sense to Keaton when she looked at the vessel one last time. The Mer wanted Pandora because of that thing. There was no other explanation for it; she just couldn't imagine what it was for. All those propellers and jet-things... at first she couldn't think it belonged on the water...

"I got the guy, though!" Cog had said, with maybe just a hint of awkwardly-conceived pride there.

Keaton closed her eyes and muttered begrudgingly, condescendingly, "Yes, Cog. You got him."

It seemed everyone else's attention was momentarily divided from Arcwelder to the matter of whether or not the thing could fly. The idea made Keaton boggle, slightly. Fly? That explained why the Mer were so dead set on finding Pandora. If someone had an alternate method of transportation outside of their "protected" boats, they'd be out of business if it meant evading the high prices and seedy, unscrupulous background. Keaton managed a skeptical sneer. Only an idiot would defy the Mer like that.

Oblivious to how Keaton was looking at her, Pandora glanced to Cross, then grinned. "Well, uh, Axiyne 'elped me a lot with this. Couldn't'a gotten th' shi' finished withou' 'im. 'E got me parts, and worked as a model..." Pandora gestured to Axiyne. "It's m'baby. It should fly... as for supplies" - Pandora glanced to Edge - "I think I've go' some stuff in m'shop. I stockpile stuff. It's all cheap shi', tho', and mostly liquor. I can't afford bull."

Pandora was walking over to the magnet and checking Arcwelder's body for signs of life, much to Keaton's befuddlement. The woodpecker looked rather confused, at first, having no idea if there was some sort of special method of measuring someone who was part machine's life, but tentatively determining him to be alive. Axiyne, the little Gryphon, scuttled over, his head canted quizzically. "Pandora, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm tryin' t' figure ou' a way t'get Arc ou' from under 'ere," Pandora explained, much to Axiyne's (and Keaton's) visible shock. She stood up and addressed Tyrannius, assuming he was the strongest one out of all of them due to his immense countenance. "'Ey, you. Big guy; I could use some 'elp over 'ere. C'n y'lift this?"

"WAIT WAIT WAIT, what the hell are you doing?!" Keaton exclaimed. Her ears fell flat and she fixated her face in a snarl, outraged. Why was she helping him?

Pandora looked up at Keaton. She looked kind of confused, again. She probably didn't know why Keaton was so angry, or was wondering why she got angry so quickly. Then she looked slightly intimidated, even as she answered, "Uh, didn't ya 'ear me? I said I'm go -"

"YES I know that!" Keaton snapped in retaliation. "But why are you helping him?! He tried to kill us!" Quite obviously, she mirrored Sal's sentiments about snapping Arcwelder's neck after how he accosted the group, judging by how she gestured to her. Axiyne was watching the movements of Sal's hands with a great deal of fascination.

Pandora frowned in a way Keaton didn't like. She assumed Pandora was belittling their situation. Pandora responded after a moment of consideration, "Look, I know, I know. But I need Arc 'ere. I need more 'elp around the shi', an' 'e knows a lot 'bout mechanics," Pandora narrowed her eyes. "I've been meanin' t'ask 'im f'r a while. It's no' like there're people on th' market t'ask 'bout this. Axiyne's jus' a little guy - no offense, Ax - an' my significan' other..."

Pandora breathed in, then exhaled furiously. It looked as though she was angry, and the way she grumbled only confirmed that. "She's pissed a' me. Wants nothin' t'do wit' me, she said, after she caugh' me wit' the painkillers 'gain. But look, tha's tha'. Arc's comin' wit' us."

"You -" Keaton looked quite aghast. Her ears flattened again, and she snarled, her eyes narrowing. Her chocolate pupils shifted from Arcwelder's prone, vulnerable form, and she felt the urge to run over and rip Pandora's throat open, then storm after Arcwelder start to swell inside of her. She wanted blood, and this bitch was depriving her of vengeance! The only thing - possibly - which prevented Keaton from acting on her impulse was the reminder that they still needed Pandora, and as far as she knew they had to adhere to her wishes. As Keaton struggled to keep her emotions in check, this left Pandora to kneel beside Arcwelder and glance back up at Tyrannius.

"Well?" Pandora asked.

---

What Witt had picked up from raiding the Mer's corpse was basically an esoteric collection of objects and personal possessions; a small amount of gold, a gutting knife, and a chunk of iron cut crudely into the shape of a wave. A loop of leather, long enough to fashion the trinket into a necklace, was wound through a perforation in the iron shape. Any sufficient magic user could probably detect a faint, but dormant magical pulse emanating from it.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Tapewolf]

Cross regarded Arc for the first time.  He'd assumed the thing was dead, but now he thought about it he could detect the faint wisps of an unconscious mind.

"If she needs... that... to maintain the ship, I suppose we will have to bring him," he said, trying to appease both Pandora and Keaton.  "We will need to prevent him attacking us, but I'm sure we can do that somehow.  In the worst case, we'll kill him and trap his soul.  With the right kind of container, Pandora will still be able to ask him questions."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Witt raised an eyebrow at the quick signs, and signed back - albeit somewhat rustily, significantly more colloquially, and hence less likely to be used in polite company, or indeed any company you'd find outside your average dockside bar - Ooo, give the lady a big fuckin' hand, there. Yes, missy, I do. It's been a fair bloody while, though, since I last used it.

At about that point, he was suddenly distracted by Pandora's comment about the stores. "Liquor, you say? Did you want some help shifting that shit, then?" He rubbed his hands together. "Somethin' like that, I can get right fuckin' behind that, no trouble."

He grinned, hopefully. "I'll carry the liquor, you carry the supplies?"

[SpottedKitty]

Now that he wasn't preoccupied gasping for breath, Fal'taq could pay more attention to the huge interior of the hangar. Including what hung from the scaffolding overhead: he'd glanced up at it when he entered, but no more than that. The mole's eyebrows went up as he realised what he was looking at. "Oh my word," he muttered, "she built one of those? Yes indeed, the Mer would be after her head for such an... unwise move. No wonder that weather-witch was so insistent! Pettersohn and Cogidubnus are right, they must have known about this, or at least suspected." Fal'taq's remarks weren't directed at anyone, but a few of the others were close enough to hear what he said.

[Snuggles]

Anton's ears twitched as they all pilled into the ever stretching hanger. He loved to see new things, it was the reason why he left his teaching job. He started to take it all in. He had sooooo many questions but he guessed that they had to wait until they boarded the thing. He wanted to know everything about this, how it worked, what spells it used (or if it even had any spells). His body was reflecting his curiosity. His eyes were large and cute as he continued to stare at it. His entire being was in wonder so much that he ran into Fal'taq and fell over him. Being knocked out of his moment of awe, He tried to help the mole up. "I am soooooooo sorry. Did i hurt you?"

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog took a furtive look around them room, and sighed.
She does this. Gets distracted, and all. Well...perhaps for the best there. Can't say I didn't fess up or nothin'.

Cog walked a bit closer to the kneeling bird, and leaning over quite closely and coughing quietly suddenly yelled in the bird's ear. "PANDORA! WE NEED TO USE YOUR DAMN AIRSHIP."
He waited a moment for the inevitable explosion.

* * *

Although nobody was there to hear it, the sound of many feet squelching wetly in the mud and rusty, brackish water, and thumping into tinkling pieces of metal and motionless flesh. They stopped for a moment, and all was again quiet in the junkyard.
Two moments later, a starburst flare rocketed into the sky from the junkyard's center, it's blue-and-green fireworks explosion visible from practically the entire Island, a thunderclap in the sky. All eyes in the hangar snapped towards it, the blue-green glow tinting the inside of the metal building for just a moment.

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Well that can't be good." Paige said as the hanger was lit by the flare. "Who wants to go look and see whats that
about?"


Paige willed her wings into her body again.

[Sunblink]

...Pandora:

Despite how obvious Witt's intentions were, Pandora was perfectly oblivious to his ulterior motives. At the moment she was blinded by momentary gratitude at the concept that she wouldn't have to carry the rest of the liquor into the aircraft alone. Most of it had already been carted inside, but she was hoping in getting in all of it. She was in the process of moving most of her belongings and necessary equipment (including her most beloved inventions and prototypes and the most satisfactory weapons in her armory) on the ship before Navarro alerted her to the skirmish in the junkyard, anyway...

"Oh sure, that'd be jus' great, thanks," Pandora said cheerfully, "I've got most'a th' stuff on th' shi' but there's jus' a bit left..."

Before she could continue that tangent, Cog leaned in and emitted what Pandora perceived to be the vocal equivalent of a bullhorn into her ear. Her reaction was instantaneous; she shrieked and leaped to her comically-oversized feet, her gangly legs pivoting slightly as she struggled to maintain balance. Looking somewhat deranged in her panic, her hands slapping atop her pilot's cap and goggles to keep them plastered to her head, Pandora spun around to face Cog. Her ears only partially conceived his words, but it was more than enough to deserve her reaction.

"WHAT?!" Pandora shouted, her boisterous voice surprisingly intimidating when elevated to such a surprising volume. Probably could be attributed to those lungs of hers. "Why th' FUCK d'you need t' do tha'?!"

Keaton managed to recuperate from Cog shouting so she could interject. "Because, the mob's after us and we need to get to the Kamei'Sin Capital." She said it as though it was the most trivial subject in the world.

Pandora squawked indignantly. "Are y'fuckin' OFF Y'R ROCKER?" Pandora retorted. She snapped her head in Cog's direction. "FUCK, Cog, I can't get the fuckin' MOB after me! Y' know wh -"

"Hey, you happen to be the dumb bitch who decided to go up against the Mer!" Keaton retaliated viciously. She was clearly losing her already limited patience with the woodpecker. "This should be nothing."

The corner of Pandora's eye gave a very unhealthy spasm. "Oh, y'r jus' askin' f'r a bullet in y'r brain, cocksneeze," she snarled, and hefted her sniper rifle. "In y'r eye. In y'r goddamn eye."

"Pandora, don't -!" she heard Axiyne's panicked voice. The Gryphon knew as well as anyone that Pandora did have a tendency to behave on impulse, most especially when angry. If she made a threat, she followed through.

But before she could follow through on that threat, the resounding roar of a deafening thunderclap swarmed her eardrums. Light washed over the interior of the hangar, bathing it in a surprisingly tranquil transition of turquoises and cyans. Her first thought was that the Dragons had finally decided to blow up the island, or someone had invented the Furrae equivalent of an atomic bomb. Or some Mythos had been experimenting with a volatile spell. But as the light started to die down and Pandora realized what it was, she found those earlier options much, much more preferable than their current threat.

Pandora stared in dumbstruck horror at the windows of the hangar. The vestigial light which had once drowned out the monotonous gray clouds in the sky was retreating back into its shriveling heart.

Paige was the first to speak. That seemed to snap Pandora out of her petrified horror. Quickly, she spun around to stare at Paige, her pupils very, very small. "NO!" she shouted, shaking her head. "No no no no no no NO NEED. NO NEED. WE HAVE TO GE' OUTTA 'ERE. NOW." She turned her attention back to Cog. Forcing the kind of saccharine-insincere grin which could be seen on a car salesman, Pandora gave him the thumbs up, although there was a certain desperation to her voice. "Cog, buuuuuddy. My shi' is y'r shi'. Welcome aboard and tally ho and all that. Right?"

She didn't wait for the "right." With that, Pandora frantically sprinted for the nearest ramp which led up to the networks of platforms. "Axiyne!" she shouted. The shellshocked little Gryphon flinched instinctively and glanced up at her. "We're takin' off! Come on! All o' yah! Big guy, get Arc out from under tha' thing!"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

Tyrannus observed in silence, for the most part. Polite behavior dictated that he left such deals to those who obviously had more expertise in such matters, himself usually needing naught but a kind word and an open mouthed grin to get people to be reasonable. Apart from that, Pandora scared him slightly. There are individuals in this world who, upon gaining possession of a firearm, become something new and terrifying as compared to the people they once were. This woman appears to have been born carrying one of those things. Guns were how Civilized people killed each other. He didn't understand them, and she obviously did to a worrisome degree.
However, he didn't let it show. Guests in her home, after all.
To Ty, letting Arc out from under the magnet made sense in terms of outright propriety. Mercy for ones enemies. One doesn't get more "surrendered" than trapped under a large weight. He lifted the magnet with one hand and dragged the steel-clad figure out with the other, hefting him over a shoulder before letting the magnet down.
"Of course, madam." He lumbered after Pandora, shooting a glare at the squabbling cubi in a manner that could only mean, in the politest manner possible, Is now really the time?

[e_voyager]

Epyon didn't know what that light was but Pandora obviously did. her sudden lets go additude  bothered the fox but he knew enough know that when every was running away or getting ready to run away then wherever you were was not someplace that you wanted to be. Looking around he realizing that the mole might have trouble with the ramps he grabbed him picking him up.

"Do forgive me mister mage but the birds in a rush and we don't want to be left on the ground when she takes off do we?"  With that in mind the began to follow the bird and saurian to the ship. "still..." Epyon mussed as he ran "do we really want to open this box" he wondered aloud as he made his way up the ramps.