Order and Anarchy

"Don't call me strange," was instantly said by Persephone after she heard it in her mind and glared at Arcaster, "If anyone's weird here, it's you." Disgruntled by this, she turned away from Arcaster entirely and looked at Broadside and Pianissimo as waited until Pianissimo was done talking before she started to talk, "Just give him the damn thing. I'm tired of this. They're gone and if little miss secret here wouldn't have gotten herself into that trap, we wouldn't even be here." She looked at the symbol of Broadside in Pianissimo's hand and continued to speak, "If he's lucky he can contact his Operator with that. They probably took it away because of this reason. No idea why they'd take it otherwise, he seems like your every day grunt." She floated sideways slightly, away from the three Navis and sat down in the air. "Tell me when you're done," she muttered and looked in front of herself.

Arcaster didn't reply to Persephone's remarks, nor did she try to stop the moody Navi from moving away. Instead, she was quietly and intently gazing upon the coin in Pianissimo's possession. When she was satisfied with her inspection of the artifact, the once-again green-hued Navi set about collecting data fragments left behind by their attackers. Her expression seemed thoughtful and distant, her virtual mind obviously elsewhere while she went through the motions of this activity.

Meanwhile, Broadside responded to Pianissimo's question, his voice still disinterested sounding: "I request that you return my Emblem and Core undamaged." The white armored Navi's disturbingly glazed-over-looking eyes were still locked upon the coin held in Pianissimo's hand.

Pianissimo nodded and strode towards Broadside. He knelt down, handing the coin over. As he did so, however, the same thought crossed through his mind as before.

Why are there two emblems?

Pushing the thought away for the moment, he handed the emblem over, deciding to worry about it later.

Standing up and turning away, he glared at Persephone. "It would seem patience is not among your list of useful traits," he said coldly before moving back to a position where he could look between the three others. "Nor is any concept of silence."

Broadside sat up, and accepted the coin from Pianissimo. He turned it over in his hands, examining it for a moment, then looked up at the assassin Navi and said "I am indebted to you." He waited a couple of moments more before standing up.

Once Pianissimo had stepped away, Broadside replaced the coin in it's socket, which triggered an immediate change. His form lost some of it's resolution for a moment as his graphic model reset itself to what it was originally. It took only a couple of seconds, and when it was over, Broadside's coloration had returned to the normal settings other Navis were used to seeing. This included his left arm, which had darkened to the deep shadowed gray that was once again at odds with the rest of his body. He reached around behind himself with his right, and pulled out the cloth sling the darkened arm usually rested in, and looped it around his neck. This done, he reached his left arm into the sling, and allowed it to rest there as it had before, but as he did so, Pianissimo caught sight of a marking upon Broadside's forearm that resembled the second symbol he'd seen on the reverse side of the coin. However, once the arm was resting in the sling, the mark was hidden from view.

"Broadside.EXE, jacking out." With this sudden and final statement, the Navi disappeared from the net. A moment later, Jared's E-mail address appeared in a small pop-up window off to one side on Duke's PET screen.

Arcaster, meanwhile, had paused in gathering data fragments to observe Broadside while the other Navi was replacing his emblem. Once he left, she resumed quietly picking up the few remaining bits of data that had been lying scattered about. Once she was finished, she walked back towards the other two Navis, her expression thoughtful. When she drew nearer, her gaze seemed to snap back to the present. She then addressed the two in her apparently normally cool tone of voice... "Thank you both. If you wish, I can return you to the Netfrica Net before we part ways."

"Thanks is unnecessary. We just happened to be their bait. And I can't stand being used..." said Persephone as she stood up, still levitating in the air, "That includes Operators, yes." Slowly she glanced over at Pianissimo and Arcaster, then shrugged to herself. "Farewell," she muttered and disappeared as she shot into the air as a beam of light.

"While I agree that thanks is unnecessary, it is more because of who I am than what she said," Pianissimo muttered softly. "Likewise, returning us..." he watched as Persephone left the net in a beam of light. "Rather, me, will be unnecessary." He gave a slight nod and turned away, just as his emblem flashed.

Bringing up a world news window, he read the urgent report about a war breaking out in Electown. A sigh escaped from the assassin, if for no other reason that he knew he would have to help out in some way.

"Hey," he added after a few seconds, glancing back at Arcaster. "Don't hesitate to call on me if something such as this happens again."

He stood, waiting for Duke to jack him out. It took a few minutes before Duke was awake enough again to do so. He noticed the e-mail address, and saved it for the future.

Finally, Pianissimo's body completely faded to black, then broke apart, scattering into innumerable black particles. While most of them vanished instantly, a few traced what appeared to be pen strokes, writing Duke's e-mail address for Arcaster to see before fading completely.

((Ah, as long as that took, that was fun. But FINALLY I get to do something else.))