Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[roymbrog]

So Ranyin was leaving. Synthia was kinda sad. “Well, ok I guess. Thank you again for the notes. I hope you have a safe trip home,” she said. She stood there a moment unsure before pulling the mage into a quick hug. She might never see him again, after all. “See ya, Ranyin.”

-----

A moment later and the fight was over, leaving the man wounded on the ground and the girl yelling at the now dispersing audience. Valter, for his part, was still completely clueless as to what the fight had been about. Perhaps Mandy or Faatina had a better idea. As he began walking towards them to ask, however, Bert just rode straight towards the girl. Well… that was direct. Valter followed. “She was fighting that man over there,” Valter interrupted, jerking a thumb at the injured guy on the ground. To the girl, he asked, “Do you speak common?”

-----

At some point Volga had crawled closer and now began making a pitiful whining noise. Katrina wasn’t about to let go of Fyodor just because her wyvern was being jealous, but the guards would probably get annoyed again. Wait, actually, let them get annoyed. Why did she care~?

[Snowy_One]

"That... Does not help me. I need to know where Raquel is. Especially since, if people have noticed my absence, there will be some worry about me." I hope.

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya stopped and sighed. "Robin, the group's gotta come back to the Leverager sometime, they wouldn't leave all the stuff in the Dauntless behind. But if ya would rather wander around randomly, that ain't my problem," she said, before continuing on her way through the market. Not a whole lotta brains in that one, that's for sure.

[Snowy_One]

Robin watched as Nadya walked away. What a stuck-up ass. Robin groaned softly before looking about. That had proven fruitless. Raquel was still absent and Robin was still without a clue as to where they were. She would have no choice but to keep looking and hope to find her. Taking a deep breath she started to head off through the people again, trying her best to keep her distance from them, as she moved through the crowd, taking care to avoid the marketplace as best she could. There would be nothing but trouble for her there.

[Phoenix]

Raquel and Gabbie

"Hmm, you're not going alone, right?" Raquel asked John when he offered to go gather the others.

Shadrak and Reign

"You too." the crewman said before going back to doing absolutely nothing.

Shadrak sighed. "So we're calling it quits for now?"

"We have been all over the southern area of the docks. If there was a ship down here, we would have seen it, I wager." Reign chimed in. "On the bright side, at least if we get stuck here for a day or two, we probably won't get into any messy business. The guard presence here is actually pretty decent. Well ... save for the sense that they're mostly concentrated around the docks ..."

"I just hope Raquel found a ship, like Veronika said. I don't want to be here any longer than we have to be."

Aftermath

That was two pegasi showing up in one location in this town. Things were already a little strange, and then one of those pegasi's riders came up in person to inquire about what happened. He must have missed her taking down that persistent jackass, but apparently the other one didn't and summarized the situation. It wasn't specific enough for her though. "I protected myself," she replied defensively as she crossed her arms. That also seemed to be enough to answer the strange eyed man's question too, so she left it at that for the moment.

"Hah, from what? That guy? He didn't stand a chance." Mandy spoke up.

"Of course he did ... I just kept it out of his reach ..."

Household

<"I'll tell you everything after I find your daughter and cut down the White Devil. After that, there won't be anything else I need to accomplish. Would that be alright?"> Katsu asked as he finished packing. As far as he was concerned, it didn't matter what happened to him after he had recovered Daichi's daughter and avenged his brothers. Though it would be ideal if Atsuko didn't have to get involved in any of the blow back. She'd paid enough for the group's mistakes ...

Salon Thing

<"Oh Lord Valdimarr and I just like to work off the stress. If he wants me to be his wife, sure, I don't mind, but he's better off with the little dove. She actually loves him and ... whatnot."> Bryn explained. <"Oddly enough I actually miss hearing all of that fawning she does. It's kind of cute ...">

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, unless someone else wants to tag along,'' John answered. ''Though the options are limited considering almost all the rest of the fliers are elsewhere.''

''Well, I wouldn't mind going,'' Sophia said.

''You just want to keep watching the city from the air, don't you?''

''Maybe...''

[roymbrog]

Oh, so she did speak common. That made things easier. “Why was he attacking you?” Valter asked.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"One has to wonder if the docks are as well-protected at night as they are during the day," Veronika wondered aloud. "Luckily, the Organization seems to have lost track of us and I intend to keep it that way. If Raquel didn't find a ship here we'll probably have to go to the Ursian side of the port...hope they don't ask too many questions," she said, frowning.

Ida

<"I'd miss my sister too if she got kidnapped. Aren't you worried about her? I heard something about humans being involved?"> she asked Brynhildr nervously.

A New Challenger Approaches

Clara was filling Perseus's trough with water in the run-down stable as she talked to her sisters. "You know...I supported Simon delivering the report initially, but it has been an awfully long time. I hope nothing happened to him for his sake...and ours," she said nervously, recalling Layla's hard line stance on mission failure.

Meanwhile, Layla strolled through the abandoned town with Ripper by her side, casually looking at the sentries and snipers on the nearby hilltop. Would normal humans really be unable to spot them- they're so poorly hidden I could have seen them from miles off. It's a wonder 'naturals' manage to do anything really. she thought to herself, looking at the buildings. Sardis would choose a useless dump as his base of operations, fits him perfectly. Now where would he be hiding... he's probably the tavern trying to drink his failures away. she concluded, striding towards the building.

[Mercakete]

"If ye see Robin, mind guidin' 'er back t' us?" Gytha asked John, "She was here a little while ago... Not sure where she got off to."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, that explains some things. Norbert thought as Valter appeared and answered his question, though he was surprised that it was this girl who'd taken down the man on the ground. It certainly didn't look like a fair fight judging by the sizes of the combatants, but the results might have proved that wrong, at least in terms of fighting ability. It also hadn't occurred to him that she wouldn't know Common. I should maybe think about those sorts of things more often when I talk to people.

As it turned out, she did, in fact, speak Common. In addition, she'd been protecting herself, apparently, though Mandy didn't seem all that convinced of the story. She seemed to have been able to handle it well enough anyway, so that was good. The pegasus rider found his irritation rising a little, though, and would have asked his question had Valter not beaten him to it. Well, it didn't matter much who asked it so long as it was answered, so, Norbert wound up just listening for the girl's reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katsu's suggestion carried complications of its own. <"Please understand, Katsu-kun, that I have oaths binding me to do my absolute best to gather information about things such as this. You are an honorable man...so I trust that you will return and tell me everything, as you have proposed. However,"> Daichi replied hesitantly, <"in your absence, unless something more urgent demands my attention, I will be investigating what happened to cause the White Devil to cross Kigen all the way from the southern border to the northern one unnoticed.">

He wasn't entirely certain if telling Katsu what he had to do was the wisest decision, but regardless, he was acting in good faith, so Daichi responded in kind. It was sad how Katsu seemed so resigned to whatever punishment he thought he would receive for what he had done, and even then, he was asking for permission to do such selfless acts as avenging his brothers by slaying a powerful demon and as finding his own daughter. The Hikibain simply could not refuse his request. Part of him even wanted Katsu to escape to the north or to the sea with the way he was talking, but that would have its own consequences.

Edited January 1, 2013 by Mercakete

[Ether]

"Ah... far too long, really. I've lost track of the years. I would rather not speak of it anymore if it can be helped." Kit replied with a somber tone.

********

There wasn't really much for her to say, seeing as Faatina still had no real idea what was going on. Opting to merely stay silent for the time being seemed the best option.

[Acacia Sgt]

''If she's still on the docks then it will be no problem,'' John answered. ''Unless we're also gathering everybody else now to tell them.''

[Phoenix]

North Side

As the wyvern riders muscled through the crowd of guards and imperial soldiers, the three taking statements from the fox woman continued their work. "I understand that it is not comfortable to talk about, and so that can wait for now, but I would like to bring you down to the patrol ship. The captain will want to speak with you. He can have the empire informed about your situation and we can get you some help." he explained in as sympathetic a tone he could manage.

Meanwhile ... "Well we don't have a ship or a crane yet, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to let them explore a little longer, but seriously, nobody just wander off on their own. I need every group to have at least two people in it, or we might not ever hear about a problem if there is one."

South Side

"Bets on whether she got held up by something completely unrelated?" Reign responded.

Shadrak looked over annoyingly. "Let's not go there."

"Sure, but it won't change anything. So, remind me again. What are we doing once we get back to Ursium?"

Streets

The girl's arms quickly came up to her hips and she explained the situation with all the agitation one might expect. "He and I were after the same criminal. I'm not a bounty hunter, but the reward was substantial. I merely beat him to it. He attacked me because he thinks that investing six months of his life into a failed mission makes him entitled."

"You can't throw him a bone?" Mandy chimed in, though she was mostly joking.

"I'm not throwing him anything after that. People like him deserve to go hungry. But enough about him. Where are all of you pegasus riders coming from? I rarely see people who aren't Ursian riding them."

Town Place

"I'm sure he's alright. He probably just got lost on the way back or had to rest for a few extra days. His horse would have needed lots of rest too, I'm certain." Cecily assessed while leaning against a support. Proteus was fast asleep it seemed. "Though I guess either way we'll be going without him for awhile. We could always send a message back there if you want to check on him." she added with a shrug at the end.

Elsewhere in town, Cassandra sat by herself on the floor with her legs crossed and her head down. She had not, but she seemed to have lost consciousness while meditating. Her head quickly came up as Sardis entered the room, though. "What is it?"

Sardis stood there by the door with his arms crossed for a moment, just scanning her. "Results ...?"

"It's only been six hours ..." she frowned back at him as she began to stand up.

"Oh? Well then I'm fairly certain you have something impressive to show me then, don't you?" Cassandra looked down to her left hand as she raised it up with the emblem fragment she was given. It had a faint glow to it, but that wasn't what Sardis was looking for. "Show me."

I couldn't believe I didn't figure it out sooner. I just had to set everything else aside. Nothing else matters, not my father, not me, not anyone or anything. All that matters to me right now is ... As Cassandra's thoughts began to center on the emblem fragment in her hand, the glow intensified and the emblem began to grow. Sardis stopped crossing his arms and took a step back while waiting for the results. Within a few moments, that fragment had taken on the shape of a sword hilt, and a fine golden blade was beginning to sprout from the top, growing longer and longer until she was holding a longsword. The glow vanished the moment the weapon was completed and Cassandra glanced at Sardis.

He slowly returned a smile. "I was right about you. Let me see it." Cassandra handed him the blade, but within seconds, it reverted back into the tiny fragment it once was, much to Sardis' displeasure. "Hmph ... finicky little thing ... as usual. You should eat something. Come with me. We're going downstairs."

Household

Katsu nodded at Daichi's explanation. <"That's fine ..."> He figured that Daichi would most likely be waiting awhile for the answers he was looking for, if only because anyone who knew about what happened was dead, in another country, or disinclined to say any more than Katsu already had. He felt Atsuko was smarter than him, so she would be fine if questioned too.

Salon Thing

<"Yeah, don't spread that around. The clan's looking soft as it is without the others knowing one of mother's daughters was taken by humans. They'll think she's dead since the kigenese took her, but what they don't know is that those kigenese were acting on Steinn's orders. I don't know how the bastard managed to pull that off, but he did.">

[Mercakete]

Ah, so that was the story. Bounty hunters after the same prey and one just couldn't handle his loss in a reasonable manner. "He should've just tried to improve his skills and take another job," Norbert commented more to himself than to anyone else, "Hope he learned a lesson."

The girl seemed curious about there being two pegasi in the immediate vicinity. He hadn't been expecting the query, but after hearing it, it did make sense. I'm really used to Ursium, I guess. But even in Sanctuary they had pegasi...which I never got to ask about, come to think of it. Darn it... "I'm from Ursium," he clarified before casting a glance at the other pegasus rider before stating, "Not sure where Mandy's from."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daichi gave a solemn nod, then, taking note of the furoshiki, he asked, <"Well, it seems we are finished here. Where would you like to wait for Sumire to finish with the rest of your supplies?">

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Probably heading back to Weyland's. With the resources at his disposal, you'd think he would be able to locate something on the Organization. If he didn't find anything, we could always try go back to that contacts list we got a while back. There was some 'John Rinaldi' guy Raquel recognized, some priest or something I think," she said, shrugging. "We could also try showing the list to other people in the group- maybe they know more people on it than Raquel or myself," she added.

Ghost Town

"Yes, it think we should do that, contact the other base to see if Simon and the message got there all right. Although how do we send a message here? I don't think we're allowed to use the messengers without permission," Clara thought aloud.

Meanwhile, Layla went up to the tavern door and flung it open. Several people were inside and Ripper let out a low, angry growl at their presence. "I'm meeting with Sardis. If you know where he is, tell me. If you don't know, stay out of my way and don't waste my time," she said to the room authoritatively.

Ida

<"I'll try to keep it quiet, but I heard the rumor on the street so it might have spread a little already. So I see, Lord Steinn is holding your sister to make Lord Valdimarr angrier...wait that doesn't really make sense. Making Lord Valdimarr angry really shouldn't be anybody's plan,"> Ida said to Brynhildr.

[roymbrog]

“Eh, I don’t think they care that much,” Cloe said, standing from her spot beside Thadeus. “Just ask them how we can send a message to him.”

-----

So this had just been a squabble over reward money, it seemed. Most of Valter’s interest was lost from the conversation after that point. She asked about all the pegasi and the riders were equipped to answer that question on their own. He nodded in agreement to Bert’s opinion of the bounty hunter, but didn’t really say anything because his RPer was tired.

[Phoenix]

South Side

Reign grimaced slightly. "Any plan on Sardis himself? I mean from what I've heard, we're in serious trouble if he finds out where we are and shows up before we're ready for him ..."

"Feel free to come up with some great plans, guys." Shadrak countered. After all, the tactician, the opinionated guy, the dangerous spy, and the second in command were all present. Surely they could come up with something.

"Only thing I can think of is that pair of snipers. Try to keep him from attacking with diplomacy until they can line up their shots. Should work as long as they're not stupid and he's not immortal." Reign said before shrugging, putting his hands behind his head, and continuing to walk along.

Streets

"Someplace faaar away~" Mandy gave an unhelpful answer right after Norbert.

"Hmm," she squinted her eyes at the latter for a moment. He had some pretty dark hair for an Ursian and she wasn't sure those dark red eyes were all that common, either. "Ursian ... okay then. I'm satisfied. Is there anything else you guys wanted to know?"

"My turn. How long have you been studying magic?" Mandy spoke up.

The girl shrugged. "Only a few years if you can believe that."

"Impressive~"

Stables/Tavern

"It's worth a shot. Let's head over to the tavern and ask." Cecily decided. With Proteus napping, she had little else to do anyway.

Meanwhile at the tavern ... "It's her again." Hayato warned the others. "I'm sure Sardis will be down in a minute. Just take a seat somewhere."

House

<"Perhaps back in the dining room?"> Katsu suggested halfheartedly.

Salon

<"Uuuugh. Matriarch's orders; don't spread that outside of the province, period."> Bryn instructed before sighing. <"I hope we can trust our own people to not say anything to embarrass us ... as for pissing off Valdimarr ... well it seemed like a sound strategy until the Slaughter of Siblings came up ... now he's just going to take out all of that rage and frustration on his brothers. I bet he'll use the boundary spikes to kill one of them too ...">

[Acacia Sgt]

''Very well, just the other dock group then,'' John said, and with that, they were soon after back in the air and heading south.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"My preferred plan of attack against this Sardis guy would involve so many bullets firing that he literally gets lazy and doesn't do anything because it's too much effort to do something about them all," Gar offered his silly ideal scenario. "But since that's just so very silly, the other option would to be exploiting character flaws and weaknesses in his attacks." Gar shook his head. "Don't know how feasible that is though. Bullet storm might be more viable even."

[Mercakete]

Norbert raised an eyebrow, a little confused by the girl's reaction to his nationality. He was more expecting her to be more satisfied with the answer than she appeared to be, at least at first. Then Mandy asked how long she'd been studying magic and the answer was that it'd been only a few years. Heck if I know anything about magic other than it hurts if it hits you. I guess a few years isn't very long to be studying it, though, judging by how they're talking about it.

Being somewhat disinterested in the question, Norbert continued to wonder why she'd scrutinized him for a moment. "Do I remind you of someone or something?" he wound up asking, still fairly confused. Or maybe there's just something on my face. Wish I had a mirror or something around if that's the case.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<"If that is where you would prefer to wait. After all, you have a long journey ahead of you,"> Daichi replied as he picked up one of the furoshiki and began carrying it out of the room, only setting it down once he reached the dining table.

<"Ah, you're already done packing?"> Sumire asked. She was still working on gathering supplies, but some had already been packed.

<"Yes, but take your time. Noon is still a ways away,"> Daichi answered.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Well we don't have teams of snipers or gunmen on hand, so that's not really an option unless we acquire some somehow. I guess we could try killing off all his allies and surrounding him...probably would have a high casualty rate then though," Veronika said, crossing her arms and frowning.

Tavern/Stables

"Is this how Sardis lets his subordinates act? I am your superior officer and superior in every other fashion as well. Command me again and it will be the last thing you will ever do," Layla said to Hayato, her voiced laced with irritation. Ripper added a low growl for emphasis.

Clara decided to go with her sisters over to the tavern, when she noticed who was standing in the doorway. "Well looks like Simon got back...probably" she said in a hushed tone to her sisters.

Salon

<"You know I used to envy the nobles, but after speaking with you it seems like you have a lot of problems. I'll try not to spread the news...hope you get your sister back. I'd offer to help but I don't think what your sister needs is a haircut,"> Ida said, laughing at her own joke a little before stopping abruptly in fear that Brynhildr may not have found it as amusing.

[roymbrog]

As the conversation quickly turned to things that didn’t involve him, Valter left to go get his horse. The horseman simply mounted up and waited for the others to finish talking. Phyllis was happy to have a friendly face around again after being left Tali.

-----

Cloe left for the tavern with her sisters, and oh look! It was Layla. “Yep. Wonder if he survived afterward, though,” she whispered as they approached. “Any idea as to why she’s here?”

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Ha, if they aren't exaggerating his power than I doubt even Platoon-sized unit could take him down. Gar thought about the max amount of firepower the Guild could set up. "Maybe Weyland has a crack team of commandos with the latest in rifle technology just waiting for Sardis to show himself again." Gar joked. "But yeah, you aren't gonna have that many sharpshooters just laying about unless you're a Marshall and that isn't exactly anyone here soooo, outnumber rules. Yay." Gar scratched the back of his head in frustration. Without seeing how the jackass acted he couldn't really come up with anything other than vague and useless comments.

[Snike]

The silence was short-lived, as after a few minutes Reign began a discussion about the port's security, which eventually led into what they'd be doing in Ursium, which moved again to a strategy for taking on Sardis.

"Thanks for contributing," Blake immediately remarked after Shadrak's useless comment, before going into his own theories. "Even with him alone, Sardis has enough firepower to take us on, unless his whole tank-demolishing feat was a fluke. No, we have to disable his magic before anything else. After that, well, the physical fighters should just pummel on him, and hopefully he isn't trained in physical combat, like most people with his power. If he finds us before we're ready, though..." the Ursian looked away from the rest of the group. There certainly wouldn't be a good outcome to that. "Well, we'll cross that bridge when the time comes."

[Phoenix]

Come on, Come on

John and Sophia were leaving again. Gabbie was getting tired of waiting so spoke up again. "Let Zach deal with this fox thing. There's a huge stack of coins waiting for you at the W.E. office in town. Let's go."

"We can't just leave him here!" Raquel protested despite the bait Gabbie presented. That was unexpected. The girl actually seemed to give a damn about these people after all.

Okay then, plan B "Raquel, there's a reason I'm in a rush. If we don't go through those dossiers soon, we'll be stuck here for the next week! We have to pick a ship and book it now!"

"What?" seemed to be working. "Why?"

"According to Anna, they update the dossiers daily, because the ships come and go daily. There's no way in hell our ship is going to be here tomorrow. Hell, they'll probably be setting sail this afternoon, but you'd rather oversee this strange business ..." Now if Connor could just play along and not say anything to the contrary ...

"I ... uh ..." Raquel glanced at the guards as they moved a bit closer. They really wanted to get the fox woman onto their ship, and Zachary was still neck deep in it. And the approaching wyvern riders only added to the tension, because Raquel had no earthly idea who they were. "Can I just see if he'll come with us really quick?"

"Foine, but hurry."

Heading Back

"I actually like the bulletstorm idea, unavailable currently or not," Reign replied. "Have any of you ever heard of the Storm of Wrath? Basically the same thing but with arrows. You probably won't hear of more horrifying tales from neviskotian infantrymen. We probably wouldn't use them outside of that situation, but I think Raquel should invest in some guns, and lots of them. If we ever have enough preparation time, they should all be loaded and passed around. Fire one volley and then switch to your regular weapons."

"Not everyone knows how to use a gun." Shadrak noted.

"They should learn. They're quite handy in a pinch."

"Then why don't you have one?" Shadrak asked raising an eyebrow.

"Gave it to my mother. That's all you need to know." Reign decided to end with that. Blake's idea was also a valid one, though Reign wasn't immediately attracted to it due to the requirements involved. Guns were relatively easy to come by, magic seals weren't, and if they couldn't find a seal that would only affect Sardis(and as a necessary side effect, Raquel and Shadrak), then they would have to settle for a normal one that would seal off all magic and negate their ability to heal. That seemed like it was what Blake was suggesting, but that was one hell of an archaic beat fight waiting to happen. It was still worth considering, but he wanted to see if Blake had anything else in mind first. "My only problem with that is actually dealing with his magic. Did you have something in mind other than a magic seal, because if not, it could obviously get a little messy. Someone's bound to get killed before he actually goes down."

Interaction

"No one in particular. I just don't see many Ursians like you ... well ... any really." she clarified.

"And I would have been more on about the pegasus riding thing, heheheh. Not that I haven't seen men ride them before but this guy does it with maces." Mandy teased.

"Why not a lance or something with more range?" the girl asked.

Cohesion At Its Worst

"It wasn't a command, it was a suggestion." Hayato fired back. He also put his hand on his blade as he glared at the attack animal at her side.

"Now now," Colin cut in. "Sardis'll be down here soon, but you shouldn't have to stand there waiting; you could relax and have a drink in the meantime. That's all he was saying."

Hayato rolled his eyes after turning away from Layla and the giant wolf thing. Now he needed a drink.

"Hmm, it's probably about our last report. I'm going to ask her about Simon." Cecily decided after thinking on the situation for a moment. She didn't take a step closer due to Ripper, though. If he was on edge, she didn't want to take any chances. There weren't a lot of healers out in these parts ... "Layla?" she called the woman quietly so she wouldn't startle Ripper that way, either. "Did Simon make it back to the estate alright? Is he just resting there?" Hmm, poor choice of words in hindsight; if he was dead, she half expected a 'resting in pieces' for a response or some other play on words.

The Wait

While waiting with Daichi, Katsu began mulling over his options regarding the White Devil, Brynhildr. It wouldn't be like it was before. She came to him because he and the others had something she wanted back desperately enough to chase them to border. Finding her again wasn't going to be as simple as finding the fallen in general. He would have to either find a way to lure her back out, or ... the unthinkable, go to wherever she was. That was one suicide mission he wasn't willing to attempt just yet. Dying fighting the fallen was a waste if he didn't take her down first. So few options. That was when Weyland came to mind. Not his favorite employer, but he might be his only chance at avenging the others.

Sister

Bryn scowled at first but then muttered <"After spending almost a month with the humans, she probably does need a haircut ... among other things. Maybe a couple of dozen baths ... some therapy. We might come back here to handle that first one."> With that, Bryn seemed to be finished with her bath and began stretching her neck. <"Thank you. I feel a bit less like stabbing something than usual.">

Edited October 30, 2012 by Phoenix

[Snike]

"Yeah, that maneuver's pretty famous," Blake said in response to Reign's discussion of the Storm of Wrath. "But I don't think it will work here, given, once again, the fact that Sardis must be really fast or really durable in order to take out the tanks without significant injury, unless the tanks were inactive, which I somehow doubt given the circumstances. If tank blasts didn't stop him, I'm not necessarily sure how bullets can do so, especially given that guns aren't all that reliable after the first shot of an engagement."

Here, the swordsman paused to think about Reign's question. "... Well, if there are some sort of specialized seals to null the magic type Sardis is using, we could use those, but otherwise, we should probably use a magic seal. Maybe the other thing we could do is follow that up with gunfire, but, well, we don't know his full power yet, so it's hard to have a foolproof plan."