open The Circulation

[Chickey 383]

Misha went to reply however stopped when Zeke began to seem to talk to no one. He sighed and let out a grumble to himself and waited for him to be done. Misha nodded once Zeke explained himself. "Better to be safe then sorry I guess." He got in before he noticed Zeke's body began to flex it's arm. He gave a confused look twitched a bit in the face. But he began to realize that Niveus had already taken control once he spoke. "Well well well. If it isn't the quantum thingy himself. Hundred percent chance to make this harder than it should too." He commented.

[Samurshy 708]

"Cease the vibrations of your vocal chords, nave. Zeke was correct in assuming a ward has been fabricated. There is an 91.53 percent chance there is a magical ward around Vertlyn and a 62.01 percent chance that the ward has an automatic hex system stipulation." When Niveus spoke it sounded quite different from Zeke, it sounded as if Niveus was speaking in water, but more audible." Niveus replied.

[Chickey 383]

Misha didn't seem to take much offence, if anything his grin only grew wider. He tried to hold in a laugh but failed most of it. "Nave? Wow I haven't heard that in a thousand years." He replied, sounding like he was enjoying himself. He gave a slight cough as he adjusted his vocal chords and tried his best to imitate Niveus' voice. "Calculations have come to the conclusion that the accent in your speech is: Fifty percent robot, fifty percent kingly, and one hundred percent hilarious." 

[Azura 1,107]

Hikari noticed that Sayaa looked excited when she entered the car. She buckled up, revved up her car and slowly drove out of the parking lot and onto the road towards the music store. It was located on a street which sells tons of instrument-related things, and it's a eight minute drive from the apartment. Hikari hooked up her phone to the car so she can listen to some music. She played a catchy Japanese song from an anime she found a few weeks ago. "You could pick the next song if you want, Sayaa." Hikari said with a smile.

[Samurshy 708]

As the car droned on for twenty more minutes the scenery began to change from lush roadside to signs of human population. They passed a few truck-stop gas stations, and a sign that pointed to the exit they needed to take to enter Vertlyn. As Misha turned onto the exit the duo's eyes were met with a small metropolitan city off in the near distance. The city wasn't too small or too large, it was more of a city where you could get everything you need but not everything you desired. The city was split into three districts, residential, business, and warehouse.

Unbeknownst to Misha and Zeke, they had already passed through the spell ward, however Niveus knew the moment they passed through it. Niveus began to wear a nervous expression, which was weird for Niveus because showing discomfort through emotional gestures had never been possible up until now, for Niveus. 

"With the current parameters, all data correlates that there is a 92 percent chance that something detrimental may happen." Niveus said.

[Chickey 383]

Misha bopped his head against the handle of the steering wheel as he heard Niveus speak. "Oh come on, look around King HAL the nine thousandth. This place ain't so bad. We got stores. Some citizens. A hot dog stand I think. Unless the McDonalds over there has some weapons of mass destruction I don't know what could go wrong. We did the switchy thing. Your processor must be malfunctioning. I compute eighty seven point two percent chance of an overreaction." He replied as tried to pay attention to the street as he drove. 

Edited October 9, 2014 by Chickey

[Octavia's Bow 2,035]

Hikari noticed that Sayaa looked excited when she entered the car. She buckled up, revved up her car and slowly drove out of the parking lot and onto the road towards the music store. It was located on a street which sells tons of instrument-related things, and it's a eight minute drive from the apartment. Hikari hooked up her phone to the car so she can listen to some music. She played a catchy Japanese song from an anime she found a few weeks ago. "You could pick the next song if you want, Sayaa." Hikari said with a smile.

 

Sayaa had to think about it for a moment, scrolling through the songs available. She didn't really know what kinda stuff Hikari had on her phone, but she had to assume the newer hits were there. That being said, most new stuff was just electronically modified junk. Eventually, she settled on this:

 

 

(You can bite me Hypno. I love my PMVs.)

[Azura 1,107]

Hikari didn't particularly like the song, but as long as Sayaa was fine was it, she didn't really mind. "Have you ever thought about where you'll go if we succeed or fail at locating the God's Hand?" Hikari asked Sayaa, knowing that she didn't really have a home before everyone met one another in the cave where they found the key.

[Samurshy 708]

Raiya despised people who couldn't keep their word. Even though integrity and honor are not the most notable of traits that gang leaders tend to have; Raiya figured if at least she had some core principles that would be enough to keep order within her ranks. Today was no different from any other day, another visit to the same business that had refused to pay the agreed protection fee.

Raiya strutted in through the front door of an antique shop, the ornate metal entry bell ringing as the top of the door bumped through it. Raiya loathed the scent of the antique shop, it reminded her too much of the scent of the monastery when she was a nun, which seemed like a lifetime ago (but in reality was only about ten years ago). If there was one thing she hated, it was being reminded of her past, which is why she had tried so hard to defy it. Even though the scent of the antiques in the shop angered her, she wasn't an irrational person. The olfactory factor was not what made her do what she was about to do. In the front of the shop were three rows of antiquity, without saying a word, or even gazing in the direction of the nervous lanky middle-aged man who sat behind the counter with a look of terror on his face; she raised her hand. An pink etheric magic circle with all manor of different symbols circling within it appeared in front of her extended hand. within two seconds of the magic circle appearing, the shelves seemed to just explode. Explode might not be the proper term for what happened. Every one of the antiques on these three shelves, and the shelves themselves, seemed to just dismantle themselves in a violent manner. 

Raiya instantly turns to the shop owner unsheathing from her lower back a horizontally worn black Celtic dirk. Walking briskly over to the counter, the man now whimpering, she stabs the knife into the register counter. 

"You see this!?" Raiya exclaimed as she waved her arm to the pile of dismantled objects and shelves. "This is what happens to people who request protection services from the Crux Gang but refuse to pay their monthly fee." 

The man whimpered out a, "I could have gotten you your money if I had more time."

"Blah, blah, blah. Does the Dragon Gang wait politely until you have enough money before coming to rob everything you earned? No, they don't they just ransack without question. Which is why I did this to show-" Raiya stopped talking when her phone issued a ringtone that was only for the emergency alarm.

"I have to take this." Raiya said. She grabbed the dirk and slid back into her horizontal sheath on her lower back. "We aren't done here." She said pointing at the nervous man as she walked out the door. 

She unlocked her phone and quickly dialed her second in command's phone number, the Templar Saul. The phone only rang once, as per usual, before being answered. 

"What is the situation?" Raiya asked

"An anomaly has entered through the eastern side of the ward." Saul answered.

"What do you mean, anomaly?" Raiya asked

"Well, that's just it, it isn't like anything we have seen before. It carries some slightly slightly similar essence traits to a demon. But here is the thing, the essence was scanned at the same time the essence of a mage was scanned. So, no doubt they are together. Maybe the Dragon Gang is sending another Summoner to try and attack us again. I don't know." Saul replied.

"Well we can't take any chances. Where are they now?" Raiya asked

"The traffic cam just picked them up turning off of Interstate 87." Saul said

Without another word, Raiya closed her phone and used a spell which created another pink etheric magic circle, but this time under her feet, and she sank into it.

v

Niveus was on full alert now. Every ounce of his essence burned with the sense of imminent danger. And then he saw it, the danger, in the form of a woman, now standing in the middle of the road. Her hand extended outward towards their car. An instant later a blue projectile of light shot from her hand to under the car, making and explosion that send the care airborne. For a moment Misha and Niveus were weightless, Niveus's hieghtened senses alowed him to move quickly before the car touched ground and fully erupted in flames. Niveus touched Misha on the shoulder and quantum leaped. He didn't know where, but he knew they had to leave the car, so wherever was better than this.

Misha and NIveus came out of quantum space, and they only had time to shake off the fuzzy restless feeling of a quantum leap before they realized just where they were. That was when Niveus decided to turn the reigns back over to Zeke. It seems that Niveus jumped them into a bar of some sort. Possible a dance club, but what was waiting for them was not alcohol and dancing bodies, but instead people surrounding them with wands, books, and even swords.

Zeke could see that after Misha shook off the initial quantum sickness, he was furious. 

"Calm down, Misha. I know they totally wrecked your car, but it's okay, you can buy a new one." Zeke said trying to assuage the situation. "We need to be on the best terms with the crux gang or Raiya might not be so friendly."

Edited October 10, 2014 by Samurshy

[Chickey 383]

Misha gave a heavy sigh, his angry look turning to a more disappointed one. "Yes... yes... I suppose I can. It's.... fine. Fine fine fine fine fine. However I had things in the car I wanted too. As long as the case in the trunk is intact it's no biggie. No problem. No issue. And I really hate rude people too. That was very rude of them Zeke. I had high hopes for this city." He said as he started to cool down, not paying much attention to the people around them. 

[Samurshy 708]

After the car exploded and landed on its backside, sliding 5 more feet before coming to a complete stop, Raiya pulled out her phone. She felt the presence of those inside the car leave immediately after the missile impact, so she decided to send out a mass text to all her subordinates. 

["A couple of Crux enemies have escaped me using a teleportation method I am not familiar with. The essence scan tells us very little, but be on the lookout for a wealthy man traveling with another humanoid anomaly. If you come across them, confine them to a cell under the HQ, and I will deal with them personally."]

Out of the group of gang members surrounding Misha and Zeke, one man stepped forward, obviously a higher ranking member of the gang. He was wearing the crux leather jacket, he had dirty blonde hair and pointed teeth with piercings in his lip. He was carrying a small oak wand.

"Well, well, well. What have we, here? Looks like these are the intruders. The boss was talking about." The gangster said as he took a few steps towards MIsha.

"Sir, please we don't want any trouble, and I wouldn't touch Misha if I were you." Zeke said

"I can't very well let you guys go. You are coming with me, we have cozy cell waiting for you back at our headquarters." He said with a smile as he placed his right hand on Misha's shoulder, his left hand holding the oak wand. 

Edited October 10, 2014 by Samurshy

[Chickey 383]

Without saying a word, Misha's disappointed look turned to a grin as soon as he laid his hand on his shoulder. In a rather smooth motion he pulled the man's hand off from his shoulder and twisted it to the point of snapping his wrist. Misha used the pain to bring the man to one knee before he empowered his free hand with golden energy and punched him in the chest, sending him across the room and into the rest of the gang members before he could act with his wand. 

 

"Absolutely rude. Should of learned to keep his hands to himself by now." Misha said as he ran his hand through his hair. "Well we might not of gotten the warm welcome, but at least we'll get a good fight. I'll be sure not to kill them, but I will have to teach them some manners one way or another." He finished. 

[Octavia's Bow 2,035]

Hikari didn't particularly like the song, but as long as Sayaa was fine was it, she didn't really mind. "Have you ever thought about where you'll go if we succeed or fail at locating the God's Hand?" Hikari asked Sayaa, knowing that she didn't really have a home before everyone met one another in the cave where they found the key.

 

Sayaa shakes her head no, "Either I'll be dead, or the world will be so drastically changed by it's power I couldn't plan for the aftermath. Either way, it's not worth thinking about." She smiles at Hikari, oblivious to her dislike. She yawned from her end of the car and watched for the shoppe.

[Azura 1,107]

"I'm sorry for bringing that up.. It just slipped out of my mouth." Hikari turned right and parked her car at the side of the road. In front of them was an entire street filled with stores that sells almost every single instrument you can think of. "Lets go find that cello, Sayaa." Both of them got out of the car, Hikari locking the car doors behind her as they started window-shopping.

[Samurshy 708]

The man was sent flying across the room and smashed into the wall, breaking the wall just a bit. As soon as MIsha finished his statement, all the mages in the room issued their war cries as they converged on the duo. 
 

Zeke shook his head, but he couldn't help but crack a smile. "Well, then, I suppose this was unavoidable. "

The scene was hectic as spells were flying and whizzing by Misha and Zeke. Zeke's hightened awareness and reflexes allowed him to dodge them without much effort. Two men ran out of the fold with swords raised above their heads, clearly charged with some sort of spell. 

The swords made a downward arc at Zeke. Zeke charged his light energy and manifested the plasma lance which he was holding like a sword. He held the plasma sword up horizontally as the swords came down, and as soon as the metal passed through the plasma the swords were sliced in two. Zeke then leaped in the air and kicked one of the swordsman in the side of his head, his foot connecting with with the man's ear. The man fell to the ground unconscious. The other man switched targets, and sent a punch of magical energy at Misha.

[turndown4whut 9]

Shane considered the words of his friends with much care and contemplation. "Well, as they say in Rome, "PIZZA TIME!"" With that, Shane unleashed a flurry of pizza slaps onto the prodigal counter strike lookalike. 

Several hours later, when Shane had gotten bored, he decided to take a stroll to the local cello shop his family owns. After perusing through its wares, he decided it no longer needed to be a cello shop, and so Shane took all of the instruments on the premises, and used them for firewood. You might ask Shane, "What is the fire for?" The answer to that question would not really surprise you.

 

Pizza.

Shane removed the "Cello Shop" sign from the outside of the building and replaced it with a crudely drawn picture of a pepperoni pizza.

"Now this is my best work!" Shane patted himself on the back.

 

 

Put the pussy on the chainwax

 

Edited October 11, 2014 by turndown4whut

[Chickey 383]

Misha used his already empowered hand to block the punch and cancel out the energy with ease. He quickly kicked the man right in the chest to knock him over and then fired a nonlethal bolt of energy at his head to knock him out. He seemed to not move all that much, waiting for the gang members to attack him first before he goes for a counter attack. 

[Samurshy 708]

The crowd started to converge upon them, the attackers closed in. Eight men in particular circled around them, carrying brass knuckles, magic tomes, wands and swords. 

"Misha, without slaughtering all these members, it may be a bit difficult to take them all down in this cramped area. We need to start fighting our way out of here." Zeke said looking over at Misha

Edited October 11, 2014 by Samurshy

[Chickey 383]

Misha nodded. "I suppose that may help. Need a bit of breathing room and I smell too much alcohol in here." He commented as one of the gang members tried to attack him from the side. He quickly turned to face him in time to see the man throw a punch. However Misha quickly ducked under it and brought his elbow up and into his face. After taking the hit the man simply slumped over, knocked out. "Make haste, we might run outta people to fight if we don't leave quickly." He added with a laugh. 

[Samurshy 708]

Zeke followed Misha as he made a path through the people, every so often a gang member would jump out of the fray in front of Zeke. Zeke had a variety of different take down moves, his favorite was a concussion blast of charged energy; non-lethal but useful for situations like this. Eventually, after a few minutes of parting the seas, Zeke saw light from the door to outside. As soon as the stepped through the doorway, Zeke knew they were in even more trouble than they bargained for.

To begin with both sides of the street were surrounded by crux members. At the top of the small two story buildings on the other side of the street, a few crux members with rifles and bows were posted. About forty yards away on the same street as the club they were just in, the burning husk of Misha's car was flip-side up in the middle of the road. 

Even though they were surrounded on all sides, for some reason no one was attacking, all the spells had ceased, but they clearly weren't just about to let them walk away either. In the middle of the fray a pink magic aetheric circle appeared, and a figure rose out of it. The figure was a 25 year old, 5'8" female. She had straight, black hair, with long bangs that hung a bit in her eyes. She was wearing a black leather jacket, a thin sterling silver chain necklace that held no pendant, a black canvas skirt with two zippers on the front running from the bottom to the top, black fishnet stockings, and dangerous looking stiletto heels (the heel of the shoes being made out of metal).

"ZEKE MOTHERFUCKING DANIELS!" Were her first words that were yelled from her mouth as she proceeded to walk towards Zeke and Misha. As she got within touching distance of Zeke, she removed her ornate black Celtic dagger from the sheath she had running horizontally along the small of her back. She promptly, and in one fluid motion, drew the dagger and held it to the grain of Zeke's throat in a split second.

"Ah, Raiya Davi. Fancy meeting you here." Zeke said, nervously. 

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't slit your throat right now." Raiya said in a harsh undertone. 

"Um... because that Celtic dagger is engraved with an enchantment, and my healing ability wont heal the throat wound, so I would bleed out and die." Zeke replied

"No shit, Sherlock. That's the point. Why are you back in my town, after I graciously gave you the means to venture off somewhere else? And for that matter, why'd you bring pretty boy, here, with you as well?" Raiya asked

"Well, you see... me being here actually has something to do with God's Hand." Zeke replied, as he scratched the back of his head.

Raiya removed the dagger from his throat and placed it back into the sheath.
"Oh, God. Don't tell me. Is it located here or something?" Raiya's face turned from anger to curiosity rather quickly. She grabbed a cigarette out of her coat pocket and used a flame from the tip of her finger to light it. She took a drag and blew out smoke. I am going to let him say his piece before deciding whether I wipe him from this earth. She thought.

"No. You see. The location you gave me to Lightlyn mountains sent me to this cave system that a bunch of other people arrived at at the same time I did. And I teamed up with some of them, and fought some of them, but we eventually found this ancient key relic thing that was a clue, our next lead to finding God's Hand. But after we got the key, and decided we would form a cool group, and got a cool group headquarters, a high level esper came in and stole the key. We eventually figured out where the esper went to through various means. But it turns out that it is being heavily guarded at some sort of top of the line facility in Axoana. And without this key, we cant continue our adventure. So..." This long winded explanation probably made no sense but he hoped that Raiya could look past the nonsense and help out of friendship.

"So you were hoping, I, Raiya Davi, the leader of the Crux gang, would just help you with this? Out of what? The goodness of my heart?" She issued a hearty laugh. "It does seem you in quite a situation, but you see, nothing is free. Just like the information to God's Hand costing you your home. Me helping you is going to cost you."

"So... you'll do it if I pay something?" Zeke sounded excited. "What will it cost, I'll do anything." 

"In order for me to help. You, Zeke Redsteele, formerly Daniels, will join as an elite member of the Crux Gang. I can't promise you a right hand position, because I have Saul over there." She pointed to the 6'5" templar with black shaggy hair and a boorish face. "But you could be my left hand man. I'll help you with your little raid, but in return you will forever be a member of the Crux gang." 

Zeke's heart sank. He had seen first had what the Crux gang did to people. How they extorted and injured people in the name of protection. But, Zeke didn't really have a choice. His expression turned somber, he let out a, "Okay."

[Chickey 383]

As Misha walked out of the building the first thing he saw was his car, no longer in what could be considered tip top shape. "It's even worse that I thought..." Was the first thing that ran through his head. However his attention quickly turned to the pink circle on the ground. As Raiya rose from it he grew a rather pleasant amused face. Everything was going as about as entertaining as he wanted it. He kept quiet as the two talked, but by the end of the conversation Misha's face began to sour. 

 

"No." Misha said as he smacked Zeke lightly on his shoulder before continuing. "No... no no no no nonononono. That simply will just not do. That's boring. And I'm afraid I didn't drive hours upon hours to do something as boring as beat up a few thugs and lose a brand new car." Misha started off before he paused a few moments, now looking at Raiya and not looking anywhere near as nervous as Zeke. "I believe I have a solution here. A bit of a bet I suppose. I don't think that the street trash that wondered in the bar has sated my drive for violence today. I need something a bit more. So, how about a duel to settle this deal. You, Raiya Davi, get anyone you want to fight for you against me, Misha Zoloto, who will be fighting for Zeke Redsteele, formerly Daniels. Sound good?" Misha proposed, mimicking the same way Raiya brought up names before in his own speech. 

 

He began to give a chuckle for a moment before his voice grew a bit more theatrical. "But wheres the fun in a bet without a bitta' gambling? We gotta have some terms to make this interesting. If your fighter is able to beat me by himself, Zeke will join your ruffian posse for free. And you don't have to help at all. However... if I win..." Misha began as he walked past Raiya and slowly made his was over to his car, looking a bit melancholy about it's condition.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Chickey

[Octavia's Bow 2,035]

"I'm sorry for bringing that up.. It just slipped out of my mouth." Hikari turned right and parked her car at the side of the road. In front of them was an entire street filled with stores that sells almost every single instrument you can think of. "Lets go find that cello, Sayaa." Both of them got out of the car, Hikari locking the car doors behind her as they started window-shopping.

 

"Is that a fire?" Sayaa asks, pointing at on of the store fronts. "That has got to bee the worst drawing of a pizza I've ever seen. And it's on a pizza box... Wait, the storefront... That is not a pizza restaurant." She bites her lip and looks back down through the windows, seeing a pile of burning cellos. Who would do something like this? Who would possibly- SHANE??!?!?!!?!?!?!? She stood there twitching rather angrily for a moment.

 

Shane considered the words of his friends with much care and contemplation. "Well, as they say in Rome, "PIZZA TIME!"" With that, Shane unleashed a flurry of pizza slaps onto the prodigal counter strike lookalike. 

 

Several hours later, when Shane had gotten bored, he decided to take a stroll to the local cello shop his family owns. After perusing through its wares, he decided it no longer needed to be a cello shop, and so Shane took all of the instruments on the premises, and used them for firewood. You might ask Shane, "What is the fire for?" The answer to that question would not really surprise you.

 

Pizza.

 

Shane removed the "Cello Shop" sign from the outside of the building and replaced it with a crudely drawn picture of a pepperoni pizza.

 

"Now this is my best work!" Shane patted himself on the back.

 

 

(World class jerkorino right here)

[Samurshy 708]

A bet, huh? Raiya thought. 

"A bet could be fun. And I do like the idea of getting Zeke for free." Raiya said.

"YEAH! WHAT THE FUCK, MISHA!?" Zeke said angrily.

"However, it all depends on the stipulation of the latter part of the bet." She said.

That was when MIsha walked past her and over to the car. What is he getting? Is he about to pop the trunk on me, Blue? Is he getting some sort of weapon out of that wreckage? Nothing could have survived the magic missile I used. She thought

[Glaceon 793]

Jason awoke to a stinging sensation of being slapped. He looked around yet no one was around. He quickly realized that his were tied to a chair by a rope. Jason worked with the ropes for about half an hour before managing to get one of his hands free. He quickly unbound himself and looked around. He was in a decently sized apartment building; probably apartment belonging to Misha. Jason thought it odd that they left no one to look after him. He quickly looked around for a bit and found his knife and gun. Jason put the two weapons away. It was a new day and he definitely was not in the mood for a fight. "Now, I wonder when they will be back." He said to himself as he went and looked through the pantry for a light snack.

[Chickey 383]

Misha turned around and did a backwards skip to the car. "That's the spirit my dear!" He replied with a smile as he reached the trunk now. He almost fell over from being startled by Zeke's yelling on the way though. He didn't reply to him yet and just hoped Zeke would trust him.

 

As he inspected the now melted handle of his car's trunk Misha decided that using the handle would be impossible. He lifted his boot up and jammed down on the hatch as hard as he could to wedge it open. After a few tries the thing broke open abruptly and spilled out the contents. Most of the guns and weapons that fell out were broken, however he picked up the maximum security case he put in earlier, still in rather good shape on the outside. Whatever it was made of seemed to be rather strong. 

 

Misha walked back over with the thing and sat down next to Zeke with it in his lap. He began working on the large chainwax-lock wrapped around the whole thing in an X shape by searching for a key in his wallet. "The stipulations on my side are pretty simple." He began to speak in between opening it.