Roc's eyes flashed to the thrown blade, then to the thrower; a big grin spread across her face, showing each of her sharp, hooked teeth. Magistrate might be swallowing back the full depth of her angst for the sake of professionalism, but Roc made no such courtesy. "Don't you try to tell me what I can and can't do, SP," she snickered, seeming to find amusement in the idea of Magistrate challenging her and perhaps forgetting that DragonierMan would likely be backup for his SP in such a confrontation. "What's wrong with calling a spade a spade? Pull the stick out your ass,
Magi" she shrugged.
DragonierMan busied himself relaying a message to the area at large, which went unanswered, at least for now, and a message to Yasu, which was answered much more quickly.
Quote (Yasu)
It sounds like that bastard deserves to be killed... we don't need more threats and the last time we took hostages, even ones who could resist jacking out, it did not go well. That said, it's not worth inflaming the NP over. Once he's locked up without his arsenal, he ought to be relatively harmless. Let them have him. However, in the future, if you ever meet psychotic aggressors like this one or any active member of the ROT and are not being followed by the NP, you may dispatch them with impunity.
My apologies that your mission once again ended up more dangerous than expected. It seems we court such peril wherever we go.
----------------------------
Inside the control room, SafariMan raised his eyebrows, then gave a hearty laugh from the diaphragm, still sounding remarkably genial for such a depraved individual. "My apologies- I was not totally clear, it seems, and I understand your confusion," the man chuckled, picking entirely the wrong thing to apologize for in this situation. "Gala
is my daughter. She's being held by the Mafia, you see. Not that it's any business of mine, of course... She's a grown woman and long since left my care," he finished, smiling nostalgically. "I'm sure she's enjoying herself, wherever they've locked her up. She can hardly do otherwise. As for why the Mafia chose to imprison her, when she was supposedly on their side, I imagine she was making a nuisance of herself! That girl always was a handful."
Only half-listening, HoundMan grunted a short distance away as he finally got the lid open. "Aroo! There's a girl inside!" he exclaimed, grabbing Suzume's arm and pulling her over so she could see. Perhaps predictably, Pest, one of the only players who'd yet to make an appearance, was inside, dressed in her usual uniform. "What an unusual looking navi! I wonder if she's another one of his weapons, aroo?"
"No, no, dear chap. She was a bargaining chip I pocketed early on, in case everyone wanted to fly the coop. I figured if no one wanted to stay for the hunt, I'd give them a nudge in the right direction by showing them I had a captive. It wasn't necessary, of course! The challenge caused the cream to rise to the crop. That's far more interesting, isn't it? Those who'll stay and fight for the thrill of it, rather than some sort of sentimentality! Hunters at heart, that's what you and the dragon are," he smiled.
"Kidnapping?! Your list of crimes gets longer and longer!" HoundMan barked, seeming offended. "I recognize her uniform; she's one of the Neo-Shogun Empire soldiers, right? Suzume, do you wanna take her back to base?" he asked, drawing up his lip into a tight frown. "I'll have my hands full with this guy."
"Tut tut, there's one more thing we ought to address: your reward. I've left it with the GNA handler; there's no need to worry. You can trust me! Apart from the necessary step of crafting the whole 'Zodiac Challenge' ruse, I've been nothing but honest with you, haven't I?" he asked again, not begging forgiveness, but rather, simply assuring Suzume that she would be paid for her efforts as he'd claimed.
"Alright, alright! Suzume, just let the NP know if there's any problems with payment, okay? I'm gonna get this guy going to his cell! Aroo!" HoundMan finished, snapping a sharp salute. "Good working with you, civilian!" he finished. Suzume perhaps would have preferred "soldier" or "officer," but one might imagine that there was a big addendum to the revised NP handbook stating not to add momentum to the growing empire by honoring their titles.
"And a fine hunt," SafariMan added, tipping his hat. Amusingly, the hair beneath was silvery gray, a stark contrast to the rest of his sooty, char-roasted appearance. With that, the two vanished, leaving Suzume with Pest.
-----------------------------
The combined unit of AyaShade had plenty left to fight, but the fighting now would be even more pointless than it had been earlier. As such, Aya decided to flee, but she left behind a present. The summoning was a fine idea, allowing them to use the pad to get back to their precise coordinates, then wreck the thing so nobody could follow them. The only downside would be if anyone had any sympathies for the mini-swordsman, because no matter how strong his blade, he was completely buried by chisel-wielding monsters by the time Nightshade had imparted a few quips and the two were taking off.
On that note, the scene on the other side of the teleporter had devolved greatly since they left it. The whole clearing was covered in flames, broken stone men, and leveled weeds. No rocky creatures were moving, but neither was Bullrun... she appeared to have either vacated the area, moved on, or otherwise been EJO'd.
-------------------------------------
Around this time, DragonierMan would receive another response, this one from Oxybelle outside:
Quote (Oxybelle)
Good work; HoundMan just explained the rest of the situation to me. The NetPolice really owe the Empire one! The robots in this area are deactivating and I think everyone's gotten the message to jack out now. I'm going to call in a team to make one last sweep, now that comms are open again. We can handle it from here.
Presumably, they were free to jack out and grab their things at the GNA now. Of course, chances were, even locked up as he was, this wouldn't be the last time the group would encounter SafariMan.
Swordy3HP: 180
