Return of the Emblem Chapter Six: Enemies Abound

[Acacia Sgt]

<Indeed, way out of hand.> John thought. <This probably won't end well, might as well...> With that, he decided to just get away. <Maybe I should see what Gil is doing or something.>

[Snowy_One]

A twinge of fear went through Robin as she was spotted so quickly. While she doubted that she would last for a long time, such a quick resolution to the conflict did not bode well for Callisto's chances of survival. Slowly she stepped between Gabbie and Callisto, blocking the formers chance to strike at the latter.

"I am making sure that we retain our humanity." she said, unsure of how to actually respond. "You are treating her like she is a animal, someone who can have their life decided on a whim, but she is a human being. If she must die, then let us not be her murderers and let us give her a degree of comfort on her passing. After all Shade drake, you do not want Siv to die tortured or alone, should we not extend the same courtesy to Callisto?" Her heart pounded furiously as she spoke, her words unsure but honest. She had never before had to stand up and argue like this, and now... she was defending a person she hated against what she assumed to be her own kind... who was willing to run her through with a lance.

[Phoenix]

Points and Counterpoints

"'An' ... 'an animal'. Anyway, it's already too late to let her doie on'er own since Shadrak stupidly healed her for the sake of this pointless debate. Now we have to kill her the old fashion way." Gabbie replied to Robin. "What the hell is with you people? If ya haven't noticed we've been killing people since day one! Is it her breasts or somethin'?! Seriously what the fuck?!"

[Zsword]

Shadrak rolled his eyes. "In amon's case, yes it is. She'll still bleed out if you leave her alone, I only delayed the inedvitable, not a full curing. Robin, if you don't get out of the way and let Wolfy givve her a quick and painless death, then I will. You might as well move aside and let her do it. If you're worried about this woman dying alone or unhappy, she's a devout follower of Wrath, I'm pretty sure a military execution is an ideal death for her, one that will definatly bring her favor in her master's court." He said to them.

[Mercakete]

"He was poisoned in battle -- like a lot of us were," Norbert answered the dark avian. By the time he'd gotten to the debate with Zel and Krystal, people seemed to be on the brink of attacking each other. Maybe I fit in more than I thought. "Hey, Raqeul, do you have an antidote on you? Thiz guy, Zel, could use a drought."

By now, Gytha was standing right near Raquel and simply asked her, "Mind if I end this? I can do it pretty quick."

[Snowy_One]

"We are not murders." replied Robin, doing her best to stand her ground. "I do not care that she is not Skotian, to kill her while she is depending on us for survival is the same thing as stabbing someone in the back. Are you afraid of letting her live because she might bring trouble to you? She is still a human being. We are not demons to decide the life of a person based on our own personal whims and desires. If we do so, then we are the same as them."

She knew she was on a losing side of the argument. Not only did she doubt she could actually stop Gabbie, but she knew that, regardless of if she did or not, if Shadrak actually tried to kill Callisto, the only way she could manage to stop him would be to shoot him, something she didn't want to do. However, she knew she had to stand her ground on the issue, if only because by backing down she would become the same as her killer.

[Phoenix]

More Arguing

"You're accusing me of that?! You're the one who's so desperate he'll stoop to being a fallen girl's pet!" Amon shot back at Shadrak before Robin spoke up again. But I DID stab her in the back ... he thought.

"'Murderers', Robin. 'murderers'." Gabbie corrected again. "And yes I am. You think I kill people just in self defense? I hate the enemy on a much more personal level than that." Thinking for a moment she said "Hmm ... I've got an oidea ..." quietly to herself ....

Deliberation

"Yeah ... here's an antitoxin." she said blankly and handed one over without even looking at Bert. Her eyes were on the unfolding chaos. Raquel merely stood there for a moment when Gytha asked her if she wanted her to do something about it. Is she my enforcer now or something? Well ... we should do something about this before it explodes. "J-just ... give me a moment, Gytha ... but ... come with me anyway. I do need you close by in case it gets violent."

She walked a little closer to Gabbie who promptly made eye contact. "Oh, foinally here to try and get some reins on the situation?" she asked mockingly.

"... it's my wagon she has to travel in, so it's my decision." she said with as much authority as she could cram into her words. "I've just got some questions to ask you first."

"Ask away, but I may randomly have to break off this little chat to beat the crap out of Robin if she troies anythin', just a heads up." Gabbie noted.

"Okay, just be straight forward and honest with me here; what could go wrong if we take her with us as a hostage. Is there any good it does as at all?"

"Pft. Soothes your guilty consciences for awhoile I guess. But other than that, nothin'. Taking her with us also means she'll have to be at least as restrained as Siv here, gag included or she could just make a lot of racket at the military checkpoint in Europa and we'll be busted. I moight add that Weyland's not going to have any incentive to pay us for Siv's capture if he's got to reach a settlement with the Wrathoites just to avoid prosecution. Assuming we don't get caught, if we make it to Weyland's place with her, he's just going to wonder why we didn't kill her out here with the rest of'em. Eventually he's just going to make me do it. The only way she's going to get out of this aloive is if we let'er go. And let me just tell you roight now what a great fuckin' oidea that is." she said, her last statement so blatantly sarcastic that Raquel grimaced.

"... and ... what do you plan to do after you kill her?"

"Bury her and the rest of'em in unmarked graves a little ways off the road. Buys us a little toime. Though, we still have to kill a few more of them thanks to Robin's lousy shooting." Gabbie replied while gesturing toward a couple of survivors to injured to move. "Tell ya what though. I understand that some of you are complete idiots who are genuinely compelled to stupidity every so often, so I've decoided that I'll run with this if you'll work with me."

"Work with you?"

"Yeah. I can't keep you people from gettin' yourselves arrested and interrogated for capturing an officer if you go through with this, and if that happens, Weyland's going to have to pay them a fortune to make the whole mess ago away, and there's no guarantee the Wrathoites won't still try to take advantage of that. However, I can at least make sure that you don't fuck up this entoire mission by delivering Siv to Weyland myself whoile the rest of you try to bring her to Europa ... for whatever reason. At least that way when you get caught, the mission isn't botched. I'd rather just kill her and we keep travelin' together but I don't want to have to stab the archer to do it. I loike to think of you people as teammates, after all."

"No, we shouldn't just split up. Besides, teammates or not, I don't think most of us trust you to get us our gold in prison."

"Ah, some logic. That's been pretty rare in this little argument." she replied with her arms crossed.

Edited September 15, 2011 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

John took one more glance at the group, not yet out of earshot, and stopped walking. <Hm, maybe seeing how things turn out may not be a bad idea either.> He thought. <Though I'll not be saying much on the matter then. It is still too tense as it is.>

[Snowy_One]

"Why don't you go bury the bodies that are here now?" asked Robin, also not interested in making it blow up into a fullblown fight. "I'm not saying we should take her as a hostage or even heal her to the point where we know she lives, but just not be murderers and give her at least the chance to recover or leave her with someone who can heal her." she sighed as the stress combined with her still-recovering body started to make her feel the need to sit. "If you promise to not kill her, at least for now, and at least be with her so she doesn't die alone, I'll be more than willing to help bury the bodies with you."

[Mercakete]

Norbert handed the antitoxen off to Zel and followed Raquel a little ways while Gytha stayed at the merchant's side. She'd already drank her vulnerary, so she was in tip-top shape again. "How about we vote?" Bert asked, "Sounds like we should just do away with her to me. There's no way we'll get away with this. If we kill her and her friends at least we'll probably get into Europa without being detained and executed as a worst-case scenario. I've done my best at keeping away from fellonies. Sure would be a shame to die for something as simple as not covering my tracks."

"Aye, a vote sounds good t' me, too. Have t' say, I hate goin' against th' military, but they shot first. That's at least somethin' we could usually use t' our advantage. Not sure if leavin' 'er here and alive is such a bad idea, though. Sure she could lie an' ev'tythin', but th' truth should win out, aye? I say leave'em here and alive. Fight's over and they can't do us any more harm as they are. We kill'em now and th' law has somethin' against us since it's not self defense anymore," Gytha put in, "Don't know about all o' ye, but I don't want t' be restricted from Ursian ports once all this is done."

[Zsword]

Shadrak sighed at Amon's comment, Shade had his reasons... that's all that matters. "You know what, you can just settle this on your own then." See if I care... oh well, Gabby will probably win out anyway, simply because she's just gonna do it by herself on her owntime when the rest of them aren't looking anyway, which is a win for me as far as I care.

Zel took a swig of the bottle and capped it, he just needed something to boost his immune system. Kinda suprised it can't handle this on it's own... I'd figure the years of small doses of lesser poisons would help branch out to these larger ones, but I guess not... He didn't care about the current argument... atleast, he didn't want to upset anyone so he didn't say anything... instead he just took Sliep around to the shady side of the wagon and waited for the dispute to end.

Krystal saw how the fight was escalating, she didn't like it... all the emotions and voices running rampant over somethnig so simple... but she didn't say anything... she didn't want any of them to be upset at her... so she just stowed herself away in the wagon and waited for it to settle down.

[Phoenix]

Burials

"No point in gettin' out our shovels until we know how many people we'll be burrin'." Gabbie replied to Robin while gesturing at Callisto behind her.

Democracy

"Your group needs a designated leader. Voting only goes to show just how divided this group is on given matters." Atsuko commented.

"If a vote's the only way to decide this, then maybe that's what we should do ..." Raquel said in spite of Atsuko. Electing a true leader wasn't going to happen before this issue was settled, so there was no point in getting into it.

"Wa-wait-wait. You want to leave her here?" Gabbie asked Gytha. "The only reason I even suggested we kill her in the first place is because if we leave her here and she survoives, we're probably gonna see her again sometoime and I guarantee you she'll bring a better troops next toime. Besoides, she doesn't have to loie to nail us in the end. She troied to arrest us and it got voiolent. There's no actual law against fallen being in Ursium, but we were holding one hostage, which regardless of race is a croime that she has the power to arrest us with. We also resisted arrest, and killed nearly all of her troops. The healers will be jailed for years, and the ones that did the killin' will probably be executed if they foind out about this."

[Mercakete]

"Eh, I'd rather leave'er, but if that's the case," Gytha began replying before whipping out her gun and shooting Callisto in the head. She'd positioned herself casually for the shot in case it came to that. Norbert just kind of stared at Gytha blankly as she began reloading her pistol. "....Well, I guess that ends the discussion," he comented.

[Acacia Sgt]

<..., well, I guess that should be it.> John thought. <Though I'm sure this will probably result in yet another argument. This probably changed nothing in a certain way.>

[Snowy_One]

"<You bitch! You stupid, thugish, pirate bitch!>" screamed Robin furiously. "<You coldblooded murder! How could you do something like that?!>" As quick as she could, Robin reached into her quiver and pulled out as many of the iron arrows that she could before flinging them hard at Gythia hoping at least one of them would hurt the woman, though in truth she didn't care if they did or not. Outright furious, she turned about and stormed away, not looking any of the people in the eye until she reached the back of the carriage, where she promptly sat down in the corner, facing away from everyone.

[-Cynthia-]

Death and Stuff

Unable to speak, Callisto thought she saw before her...a gate? She hesitated in going through, she had so much more left to do...but the gate pulled her through and then she saw no more.

Connor was unfortunately looking at Callisto before she got shot "Uh, seeing people get shot sure looks different than it does on practice dummies," he commented.

Nadya began looting the bodies as people discussed what to do with the leader. She was a bit distressed when Wolfy mentioned that they might not get paid if they kept her alive, but the sound of a gunshot seemed to signify the end of the discussion.

"Can we get moving sooner rather than later? I'd rather deliver the Fallen before we run into more trouble. If we get away from this quickly enough, thwey probably can't implicate us...not immediately anyway," Veronika said, somewhat glumly.

[Mercakete]

Suddenly, the woman with the unnatural stomach began shouting at Gytha in a language she used to hear sometimes back at home. She ignored it and finished loading her gun. Then she saw arrows flying at her -- sloppily shot since it was a few at once -- and she easily dodged them. The archer had turned around and was beginning to storm off. "Oh no ye don't. Not after that," Gytha practically growled in a low tone before firing again, this time hitting near the middle of the back of Robin's right thigh.

This was getting interesting. Now if only I had something to much on while I watch this... Norbert thought as the scene played before him.

[Acacia Sgt]

<I knew it!> John thought, looking as the events unfolded. <This is getting worse by the second. The least we need is for a fight to break out between us.> That certainly wasn't a good outcome.

[Phoenix]

Luca

Luca had been nosing around the corpses following the scent of gold and found two whole bags. That was all he could carry and raised up to return them to Nadya. That's when he heard the first gunshot. It made him flinch, but he wouldn't drop the gold, not a chance. Instead he hurried over to Nadya. The second gunshot didn't surprise him as much and now he was waiting to see if he and Nadya were going to leave the party to shoot each other and find another herd.

Everyone Else

Raquel and Siv gasped! Both of them even spoke at the exact same time when Gytha shot Callisto.

"W-whoa! We hadn't even finished voting yet ..."

"Quick! Quick! Use ice! Preserve her! Please?!"

When Robin started throwing arrows at Gytha, Atsuko and Gabbie just stared, each having similar opinions.

"Ooookay, that's not the best technique for revenge, but whatever floats'er boat."

"You should be firing those, not throwing them ... and not at your allies. She executed an enemy of ours, not a friend."

Then Gytha's retaliation came ...

"Gah, holy crap, Gytha!" Raquel yelled fearing the worst ... though she wasn't sure what the worst was with a thigh wound. "Nadya, get over here, now! We need a healer!"

"Hahah!" Gabbie laughed, finding some humor in the exchange.

Amon gawked at the scene, the only thing that could distract him from his shoulder, which he knew for certain was dislocated.

Atsuko just sighed. "So much violence without authority figures ..."

[-Cynthia-]

"Silly soldiers, carryin' all these bags of gold around," Nadya said, cheerfully taking the bags from Luca and depositing the gold into saddlebags. She heard Raquel call after that. Sighing, she stopped the looting for the time being and went over to Robin. "Take the bullet out and I'll get to work. Y'know, I should really start chargin' people personally for dumb accidents," she remarked, staff in hand.

What part of 'get moving' meant 'shoot each other' to them? Did my Common suddenly get worse? Veronika thought to herself, forehead in her palm.

[Snowy_One]

Searing, burning pain shot through Robin's thigh as Gytha's bullet ripped into her leg. Robin cried out in pain as she dropped hard to the irrelivantsurfaceMercaketewantsmetochange, hitting the ground hard as her leg crumpled beneath her. Her hands wrapped around the wound, trying to stem the flow of blood as it started to pour out like with her prior wounds, but the sheer unexpectedness of the pain... She could barely handle it. Lying on the floor, clutching her leg, unable to move or fight back, and pain clouding her mind, she was helpless.

Edited September 15, 2011 by Snowy_One

[Snike]

It was just a standard day on the road, for all Blake could notice. Merchants wandered by, wagons weighed with wanton wares. Patrols passed back and forth with wary eyes, arms at the ready in case of a bandit attack or otherwise. They were only here to protect, as much as he hated to admit it, travelers like him who only knew the basics of swinging a sword around. Eventually, that would change. But that would be a while away. For now, he would have to rely on their shields to make it to Ursanctis, where there might be some jobs he could take. For experience, not the monetary rewards, just yet.

As the inexperienced swordsman trekked on, he happened to pass what seemed to be a heavily-armed merchant group, who appeared to be resting for a break. Must be selling quite the wares, for that many swords, he thought. It wasn't a completely out of the ordinary sight, so he passed by without a word, letting the group slip his mind for a good fifteen minutes.

An blinding projectile rocketed by Blake, missing his head by inches. What. As he turned right around, he could see, in the distance, a battle. It was too far to make out distinct figures, but it looked like a patrol skirmish. Maybe there would be some action.

By the time the swordsman got within clear sight of the fight, it was over. Blood covered the road and the uniforms of the patrolmen, slain by... that merchant wagon? What madness was this?! About fifty feet or so away, aside from a dark-skinned lady -and her horse, oddly enough- looting the corpses, the assorted sellswords were surrounded around what appeared to be another of the poor Ursian soldiers, judging by the uniform. Blake drew his sword, and began to approach. This group was probably way out of his league, but he would be dead the moment they stopped lounging about.

One of the members - a pirate? - stepped forward and shot the prisoner, which caused all hell to break loose. A Neviskotian - why hadn't he seen them earlier, there was like a half a dozen of them! - reacted badly and threw a few arrows - weren't those supposed to be for bows?- at the pirate, who in turn dodged the projectiles and shot back at her attacker. What was going on? Enemy civil war?

[Mercakete]

"... Oh, I must've dropped it..." Norbert muttered to himself as he realized his poleaxe was neither in his hands nor strapped to Rizen's tack. So, he guided the pegasus back into the carnage as he looked for his poleaxe. He found it fairly easily but that wasn't al he saw. There was someone standing nearby, staring. As he picked up his bloody polaxe, he couldn't do much else besides mirror the man with the sword. ...This doesn't look good. If he reports this, it could be...bad... Maybe he'll just keep walking and decide no one will believe him. With that hope, he took hold of Rizen's reigns and began to lead her back to where the others were. He really didn't know how to deal with the onlooker.

[Acacia Sgt]

John just sighed. There was really not much he could do. <Maybe I should just go back to Gil.> As he turned around, and that's when he noticed. Someone was approaching the scene. <Oh great, just what we needed.>

''Eh, guys?'' He said. ''Looks like we have company.''

[-Cynthia-]

"Well I doubt a calvary patrol would only have one swordsman reinforcing them, so he's not necessarily an enemy," Veronika replied to John, not feeling like leaving the wagon at the moment. It still hurt quite a bit to move.

Robin started clutching her leg, which was going to make it awfully difficult to get to that bullet. Luckily she seemed to be in enough pain that she topped clutching the wound, allowing Nadya to take out her trusty skinning knife and carving out enough space to remove the bullet. She applied the staff immediately after that, sealing up the wound on Robin's mangled thigh.

Edited September 15, 2011 by -Cynthia-