Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Oh we totally can, I'm just so sick of every single job I do running into some jackass who thinks he's top of the world invincible," Gar sourly commented. "It even happened that one time I was hired to get a cat out of a tree. I mean, the first dozen times it was kinda intimidating fighting all these boisterous clods, but it just kept happening, over and over and over and now I can't even take enjoyment in the surprise when they die simply because they've annoyed me too much beforehand." Sword-guy came into the conversation at one point, talking about the hood guy and some invisible girl? The hell was that? Gar looked around for both, saw hood guy glow-staffing nothing. Well that answered both of those questions. "I'd say ten to one odds hood-guy also works for the fort-guys and this is now the greatest bout of inter-faction rivalry I've ever not caused." Gar crossed his arms in annoyance of the situation.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Script

[Eail]

Oh dear... this wasn't good.

"Hey Kat, we'll figure out just how the carrots taste in a little bit okay? Right now I need to make you better." Just as he said this, Mushirah came back with the Anti-Toxin, perfect timing. "Yeah this'll work."

"Oh, Kat, do you want something that tastes super good? Here, drink this, I promise it'll taste great!" Putting the bottle to the small Wyvern Rider's mouth in an attempt to make her drink the cure.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Anyone can be killed...but our group is simply overmatched by theirs both in numbers and individual strength. We need more powerful allies... Veronika thought to herself before Blake gave his report. "I don't know either- I'll go ask," she said, heading over towards the hooded man.

"Excuse me, I don't recall seeing you before. Who are you and what are you doing here?" she asked him, deciding to get to the heart of the matter.

Underground Coliseum

"I can help you succeed in this rescue mission where the failure may lead to the deaths of your children. Steinn and the humans have likely prepared for any direct assaults, which means that the most effective approach may require some...finesse. Clan Tarren is skilled at dealing with delicate situations like these," Sigrid explained.

[roymbrog]

“Oh, this is good?” Kat asked, taking the bottle. She took a huge mouthful, and immediately made a face before swallowing it. “Mmph, eww. I can’t believe you lied to me, Zachy…” Her eyes were starting to tear up, both from the horrible taste and the perceived betrayal. The antidote got to work, however, and soon she wasn’t entirely sure what she was sad about but was quite a bit more lucid. “Ew, is this an antidote? Those things suck."

[Snike]

"You'd think they'd give up on us after what just happened," Blake said, after Gar's initial comment. Then, Veronika went over to ask about who the robed man was. "Well, I guess we might find out."

***
"I was hoping for Raquel herself to come over here, but you'll do just as well," the robed man said, lifting his staff back away from the unseen Ayano. "Who I am is a question that would take time to answer. I, at least, do not have the time to go and explain it just yet, though you could try asking the vasilus inside the emblem. Anyways, just tell Raquel to make her list as soon as possible. And tell her that her mother, sister, and cousin are all going to be protected. We all can sit down and talk about this once your group is settled down for the night."

Edited May 12, 2013 by Snike

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

I was kind of expecting a name, maybe where he's from...not that he's supposedly friends with the dragon head. The fact that he knows that much about us does indicate that he's probably not just a wandering healer at any rate. "Very well then, we need to get moving quickly regardless," she said to him with a nod before heading back to Raquel.

"He said he'll discuss his identity later. He stressed making your list as soon as possible and that your mother, sister, and cousin will be protected. He also said that the vasilus inside the emblem might know of him- although without the emblem I'm not sure how you would contact him," Veronika reported when she returned.

[ReformBlade]

"It may taste bad but at least you aren't rambling about, oh what was it...?" She started listing things off. "Frogs, cheese, walls, among other things. Still, hope you're feeling better soon..."

[Eail]

"You'll thank me later sweetheart." Zach said as he watched Katrina take the bottle of anti-toxin. Lying to a friend was never fun, but when it came to possibly saving her life a little white lie was certainly worth it. Patting the girl on the head after she chocked down the nasty fluid.

"Yep, it's anti-toxin, you got poisoned pretty bad. Those Pegasus Knights managed to hit you twice, so a double dose of it. Looks like it's on the arm and leg, could have been worse thankfully."

Sitting down next to the girl he gave a shrug "Probably need to sit back and rest for a while though, just until the antidote takes effect."

[scorri]

"Hmm... Pete, do you see that smoke? Something's not right up ahead. You wait here, I'm going to go check it out." Quickly climbing up onto Star Hunter, Lumi whistled to him and the two of them sprung into the air. Flying up high, Lumi arrived above the scene of the flight from the fortress and raised an eyebrow. Hmm... that's a good sized group. Might be safer for us to join with them for a while. Though... they look pretty beat up right now. Well, I should tell Pete about it at least.

Flying back the short distance to where her friend was waiting, she quickly dismounted. "There's a group up ahead. Not sure exactly who they are, but they look like they were just in a fight. We could join up with them if you think it's a good idea. The more people we have around us, the better these days. I don't want to risk ourselves or Star if we could prevent it by traveling with another group. They look like they were headed in this direction, but I'm not sure. If they are though, we'll probably run into them before nightfall."

~~~~~~

Marella shook her head at the man, and sighed. "Do whatever you want. I'll leave it to you. Suppose if I trust you with my life I can trust you with my money too."

[roymbrog]

“…Frogs?” Kat repeated. What type of poison had that been? Zach patted her head, but the wyvern rider merely slumped against Volga and sighed. She had no trouble following his advice. “I hate poison. I was out for a while I think though, and probably don’t remember much from when I was awake either… what happened? And… thank you, for the antidote, even if they do suck,” she said, the last part directed towards Mushirah.

[Mercakete]

Once Luka had gone off for his nap, Norbert set Rizen into motion and clicked his tongue a couple times in case Rika responded to more sound-based commands. He was holding her reins in one hand and Rizen's in the other and Rika didn't seem opposed to just following that leading, though, so the rest of the trip to Hannah and Aneda was a quieter one. The pair proved to be fairly easy to locate.

"Hey," Norbert greeted as he rode and led the pegasi over. Initially, he was glad to see she looked fairly unscathed, but the look on her face told him she was probably brooding about something. Whether she was just thinking deeply about something serious or just angry about something, though, he couldn't tell. Either would make sense after the mess they'd just come out of. The question he followed up with, however, sounded more uncertain than concerned, though. "Are you feeling okay?"

[Eail]

"One of them might have been a hallucination inducing toxin for all we know, or you could just have a bad reaction to it. Either way it's nice to see that you're feeling a bit better." Zach commented on the rider's situation. "We got beat Kat, to put it simply. Almost everyone got taken out, and Raquel lost the Emblem Piece. Right now I think we're just regrouping a bit and making sure everyone is okay."

[ReformBlade]

"I'm not really sure exactly what happened, I got so darn nervous out there. Honestly, if it weren't for your wyvern, I don't think I could've gotten out of there, Kat." Dwelling on that prospect for a moment made her go weak again, but Mushirah smiled as she looked between Kat and Volga. "So I think I owe you and your pal here a nice big thank you. Anything I can do for you?"

"No, Bert." Aneda started, "No I'm not okay. All this secrecy and underhanded bullshit is driving me nuts. Why is it so hard to get a straight answer out of anyone?"

[roymbrog]

Well that was not good news. “Oh, shit, really? I… No one else died, did they?” Katrina asked. She scrunched her eyes and leaned against Zach, bracing for the answer. Her head was clearing up, but damn, this news sucked worse than the antitoxin did. While waiting on that, she responded to Mushirah. “Well I’m glad we were able to help you out, despite my failure here... Do you think... maybe you could get me some water please? And if you want to thank Volga, she likes getting scratched behind her head spikes.”

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Exterior

"Vasilus inside the the emb--he means Hypnos," Raquel realized. "No, he's still here, actually ... though the dragon head sort of upped and left with the piece I used to have for some reason," she explained. She didn't think Gar would be too happy to hear that, but maybe Hypnos could fill in. The two may have been separate, but apparently they were still the same person. her head was hurting enough already, so she didn't spend much time trying to think about that one.

I wouldn't call either myself or the dragon a vasilus ... not anymore. Now isn't the best time to explain.

And why the heck not?! If the dragon head hadn't flipped out on us back there, none of this would have happened. You owe me an explanation for that too since he's not here anymore!

Indeed, but this still isn't the best time. I'll explain everything once you and your people stop to rest for the night.

Are ... are you sure you and the dragon head are the same person? You're a lot more straight forward than he was ...

Complete obscurity hasn't served us very well ... not when this is the end result. I'll just have to trust in you from now on.

Once fully healed, Ayano returned to the wagon, carefully making her way past people until she was back to her previous spot on the floor.

Dauntless: Interior

Reign was still inside, but didn't notice Ayano this time around. That was when a bit of weirdness happened. Since he thought she had left the Dauntless altogether and possibly for good, he decided to take her old spot on the floor. It was actually a good view of the Dauntless interior as opposed to where he'd been sitting, but when he actually lowered himself, he found that Ayano had returned and ended up sitting on her lap for a moment. "Whoa what?!"

"Mmph ... ... ... you're heavy ..."

"Where did you go?" Reign asked as he lifted himself up and sat back down beside her.

"Nowhere."

"Right, well I doubt you're occasionally intangible too, so I'll just assume you had to take a restroom break or something. So exactly why aren't you leaving? No new orders or something?"

"If you keep asking those kinds of questions I'm not going to talk to you anymore," she warned, though with that flat tone of hers it hardly sounded like one.

Sighing, Reign said, "Alright, fair enough." At least we've established some boundaries now ... though I'm not sure what else I'd ask her. This definitely isn't the time for idle chitchat.

[spoiler=Underground Coliseum]With Valdimarr cooperating for the most part and not moving around much, the medical teams were able to quickly extract him from the arena. They were almost immediately swamped by those hoping to get Valdimarr's attention and get a word in or some other thing, but working together, they were able to keep everyone at bay. They carried the sovereign out of the coliseum and began heading back to the Spire Palace. There he would be able to recuperate and be rebuilt once he was deemed ready.

"You may try your hand, but I know with certainty that Architect Fervor is involved in this plot to some degree. Any favor you hope to gain in this will be threatened by her. Not directly, yet still enough to warrant a mention," Urd explained. "I'll arrange the meeting. You should carefully consider how you're going to make use of it."

[Ether]

"Well, I can't say I'm in the mood to fight anymore, t'day." Arietta replied, as she made her way over to the wagon. How much longer had the fighting gone on after she went down?

***

"So a guy with connections to those... spirits, I guess, inside the Emblem, and an all around mysterious aura about him shows up right after all that went down... if he was gonna help us out it would have been nice to have him back there, but we're not exactly in condition to refuse him, right now..." Faatina noted, somewhat disdainfully, as Veronika went over to question the hooded figure and promptly returned.

"Anyway, Raquel. Sharif is pretty much unscathed from the fighting, my wounds are healed, and that blasted poison seems to have died down, so I'd say I'm probably in good enough shape if you need anything done."

***

"She wouldn't let me heal her... you're connected to this one too, huh? Guess I shouldn't be surprised, since she seems to use a lesser version of whatever it is you do to cloak yourself..." Kit noted, before walking away from the hooded man.

"Oh well. Even I need something to work off of before I can get information out of someone, so I guess that's all I can expect from you, huh?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"He appears to be an ally, which is something we are in dire need of. It would be nice to know who all of these mysterious newcomers are, but I don't plan on looking a gift horse in the mouth."

Underground Coliseum

"The Architects have always been valuable to past emperors," Sigrid said neutrally. When I am Empress they will learn their place or I'll have their heads on pikes. "Thank you for making this arrangement Lady Urd. I shall leave you to your business," she said with a curtsy.

"A pleasure as always my lady," Erasmus said with a bow, before his daughter grabbed his hand and led him out of the stands.

Edited May 12, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Snowy_One]

Robin looked at Shadrak, a small smile on her face as she wiped away invisible tears. "That is an interesting way of looking at it. Thanks." she said before looking at him nervously. "When we reach the next town... do you want to go get a bite to eat together?"

[Eail]

"No, nobody else died.... it was a really close call though. Marella took a hit that should have killed me, probably should have killed her too, from that leader guy Sardis. Then I got hit in the back while try to make sure she was okay." Leaning off of Volga to show that the back of his jacket and shirt were basically destroyed. "I'm not too sure what happened after that. Just that I woke up near the Dauntless and basically tried to get everything moving."

[roymbrog]

The news wasn’t as bad as she expected, and Katrina relaxed again. “Oh… well, I’m glad we’re all ok. I don’t want to lose anyone else…” she said. “Marella’s doing alright, right? I mean, I was the one who convinced her to go in there ahead of us, and if she's not...”

[Eail]

"Yeah, I think she's okay. Physically at least, but we kinda just had an argument, I don't want her to do something like that again.... I mean she still has family, people would miss her if she died doing something stupid like taking a hit for me. I don't have anyone... so she shouldn't risk dying for me." Zach explained

[ReformBlade]

"... What?" Mushirah responded to Zach's little story. "Maybe I'm not quite getting something but that doesn't make a lick of sense to me. I don't... see why you'd have an objectively lower value due to who's alive and who isn't, but... whatever..." She wasn't going to push the issue unless it came up again. Instead she went to go retrieve some water for Kat.

[roymbrog]

“You… what? Zach, you can’t say things like that!” Kat pleaded. “Even if you don’t have family, you have people here who care about you, right? How do you think it would make her feel to just let you die when she could have stopped it? I agree with Mushirah, you aren’t worth less than any of the rest of us, and if you're willing to die to let Marella live I don't see how it's bad for her to have the same feelings towards you.”

[Snike]

"Yeah, no problem. I'll take your share," Axel said, as he stepped into the Dauntless."So long as it isn't fire again. You can have that."

***

"Well, if he's discussing his identity later, I can't wait," Blake said, upon hearing the announcement. He clasped his hands behind his back... and felt bare skin. Oh, right, he had been hit a few times. He'd have to ask about that later. "Anyways, if we're done healing, we may as well move out, I guess."

***

"Learning more about myself is not going to help you nor your rebels, avian," the hooded man said. "But, anyways, it has been interesting. Farewell."

Then he was gone.

***

Lumi caught sight of the smoke, it seemed and went to check it, without so much as a word back from Pete. Well, he 'sposed there was no harm in checking it out, so the man waited for the pegasus rider to return. He frowned when he heard the report.

"Well, let's see where we're at tonight. If they ain't bandits, I don't see why not," Pete said, rolling his shoulders. "And if they are, they'll know better than to mess with us, one way or another."

[scorri]

"They didn't look like bandits. Seemed too well equipped for it. And Pete! They had pegasus riders! Maybe some of them will know other breeders who don't send their pegasi off to war! I could maybe work for them some day." She grinned at the man. "Surely it's at least a possibility, right?"