Aberrant: 200X - [Gods of War] Gods Playground [Complete]

[Kazuo]

Einherjar's blow sent Kazuo careening through the air like a scarred, Japanese, and cranky rag doll. Kazuo hit the ground and bounced, once, twice, and then he rolled, caught himself with his hands and pushed off of the ground mid-roll, catapulting himself back up onto his feet. Though Kazuo's superhuman dexterity made it all look almost like he'd planned it that way, the truth was that he had not expected Ein to land that blow!

Kazuo spit some blood from his bitten tongue onto the ground at his feet and then gingerly felt his tongue, exploring the extent of the damage. The veteran Elite wasn't about to admit it or let it show, but he was still feeling the jolting, freezer-burn sensation of Einherjar's Frozen Storm attack. Kazuo'd always wondered what Ein's signature attack looked like up close, but now that he'd experienced it first hand (and that was the barehanded version, too - he did not want to find out what that whole 'Mjolnir's Kiss' technique of his felt like!), Kazuo was left wondering what the hell he'd been thinking!

He made a show of grimacing at the damage he found in his mouth, but otherwise Kazuo didn't let on that Einherjar now officially had him feeling just a bit concerned. He smirked at Ein's witticism and, with a wry half-smile, said, "Yeah, well it took ya long enough ta get here, man. I been waitin' out here ferever."

Having said so much, Kazuo fell silent and went about holstering his pistol, but Einherjar could tell immediately that it was still Game On between him and Kazuo, as he could feel the force of gravity itself turn against him. Kazuo glared silently at his opponent with his one good eye as Ein could feel his weight (and the weight of his weapons, for that matter) literally double in the space of a heartbeat. As impressive as it was, Ein hoped Kazuo was at least smart enough to know that this alone wouldn't stop him.

But then, in a flash, Kazuo leapt into the air, launching himself into a high arc that was clearly going to end with the scarred Elite body slamming him with nova-class force. It wasn't until Kazuo was virtually on top of him - and it was becoming obvious that the blond giant wasn't going to be able to get out of his way in time - that Einherjar noticed how unnaturally fast Kazuo's descent had been.

And then Kazuo slammed into him with all the force of a Mac Truck and Ein was sent reeling. He could hardly believe that anyone - nova or not - who didn't have a name ending in Pax or Mal could hit that hard! Ein knew for a fact that, at this moment, he could've shrugged off a direct hit from an artillery shell without even flinching, and yet whatever Kazuo had just hit him with had blown right through his quantum-charged defenses like they were made of wet toilet paper! It was a testament to his own durability and fortitude that the big Elite didn't go down. If it had been anyone else on the receiving end of that hit, they'd probably be dead!

Einherjar's vision blackened dangerously for a moment, but the iron-willed Elite wasn't going to go down that easily and he just barely managed to hold onto consciousness. But what was most impressive (especially to Kazuo) was that he didn't even lose his footing! Kazuo'd been all but certain that he had Ein cold - the fight was over - but instead his opponent didn't even have the good grace to fall over. What was this guy made of?

Frowning with irritation, confusion, and now concern, Kazuo Kanai lunged in to finish the big, viking-wannabe bastard for once and for all. Einherjar might've managed to keep his feet after Kaz's last hit, but as Kazuo grabbed for the man (with the intention of tossing him into the next country over, if possible) it was obvious he'd only just managed it, so Kazuo figured this was going to be easy. But it wasn't.

At the last second Ein's big arm came sweeping up and slammed Kazuo aside, catching him completely flatfooted and effectively ruining any plans he might have had to finish this fight early.

Shit, thought Kazuo as he watched his opponent visibly gather his wits about him again with alarming speed, I shoulda teamed up with ol' Skull Face to take this guy out...

Click to reveal..

Athletics Roll to Mitigate Knockback: Roll: [6, 10, 8, 1, 9, 5, 4, 10, 2] + mega [6, 3, 10, 5, 4]. Total Successes: 7. Knockback reduced to about 9 meters and a die of Ping damage.

Rolling Ping dice for Knockback and Einherjar's Burning Claws: Roll: [8, 4]. Total Successes: 1. So Kazuo's taken 3 Lethal levels (all of his Bruised HLs) and a Bashing level (Hurt). Ouch. Spending 1qp as an auto-action to heal the Hurt level. 23qp left.

Multitasking roll: Roll: [8, 7, 6, 1, 9] + mega [4, 10]. Total Successes: 6. QP total now at 22.

# of Actions: 5; penalties are -2, -3, -3, -4, -4.

Gravity Control: Einherjar *rolls* 8d10: 10+4+1+6+1+3+5+8: 38. 2 successes vs: Centimane *rolls* 6d10: 3+7+5+8+1+7: 31. 4 successes. So, 2 net. Effective gravity in 18m radius, centered on Kazuo, is 2G. Kazuo gains +1 Mega-Strength and Stamina (which adds +1/1 to his soak and an additional Bruised HL), while Einherjar loses 2 dice from Strength and Stamina. 3qp spent, 19 remaining.

Density Control: Activating Density Increase for 3qp, gaining 2 levels of DI, and spending 2 more qp to gain 2 more. Gains 4B/4L soak, for a final total of 40B/35L. Remaining qp is now 14.

Aerial Splash Tackle Maneuver: [Centimane] 4:04 am: last 5 megas. Centimane *rolls* 13d10: 1+10+8+6+10+2+6+4+3+8+10+9+2: 79. 10 successes total. Net of 8 after the +2 difficulty of the maneuver.

[Einherjar] 4:06 am: Last 3 megas. Einherjar *rolls* 11d10: 3+2+10+6+8+7+4+10+5+3+6: 64. 4 successes. Leaves a net of 4 successes on Kazuo's attack roll.

Damage: [Centimane] 4:12 am: Ok, it's an 'Aerial Splash' tackle maneuver from XWF, so damage is [30] + 8 (str+3) + 12 (q-leap*lvls/m.str) + 8 (lvls/density). Diff penalty of +2, so he had 7 net, against 4 defensive successes, for a net of 3. So [30] 30d10 Bashing.

Centimane *rolls* 19d10: 1+10+3+3+7+7+3+6+6+7+6+4+9+1+6+10+3+1+8: 101. 7 levels of Bashing, total. Leaving Einherjar at Crippled with Bashing damage!

Kaz's Athletics roll to stay standing: [Centimane] 5:02 am: last 5 megas. Centimane *rolls* 14d10: 8+9+5+8+5+2+2+10+10+1+6+7+5+4: 82. 7 successes, minus +2 diff, 5 sux total.

Ein's roll: [Einherjar] 5:02 am: last 3 megas. Einherjar *rolls* 11d10: 9+7+10+3+9+10+7+1+10+2+2: 70. More than enough - he stays standing too.

Throw: [Centimane] 4:08 am: alright, the last 5 are megas again. Centimane *rolls* 13d10: 3+2+4+9+4+7+10+7+9+1+1+6+3: 66. 6 successes total.

[Einherjar] 4:09 am: Last 3 megas. Einherjar *rolls* 11d10: 3+4+9+2+1+3+6+5+7+10+2: 52. 6 successes total. And the tie wins!

Current (Relevant) Statistics: Mega-Strength: 6, Mega-Stamina: 5, HLs: down 3 Bruised (Lethal damage), 1 Bruised and all other HLs remaining. Soak (for now) is 36B/31L. Remaining qp: 14.

[Eingar]

Einherjar gritted his teeth and took his turn to spit blood, sending quantum coursing through his frame to reknit bones and tissue that Kazuo had come all too close to turning into mushed jelly with his little stunt. Even as he healed, however, the blond elite grinned mirthlessly and pushed with his node, pulling another nasty trick he'd not shared with DeVries out of his hat like a particularly unpleasant rabbit. Kazuo, already harbouring well-concealed doubts about the wisdom of his course, felt the push against his own node and experienced another thoroughly unwelcome moment of 'oh shit' as his gravitic forcefield, that wonderful safe Jimmy Hat feeling for the worst of encounters, was suddenly turned off as though Ein had flicked a switch. Despite himself, Kazuo Kanai just knew that he was dead. He'd turned aside the worst of Ein's last punch, but now that freaking sword was coming back and round, the edges glittering with that fucking awful burning frost, and the big Viking motherfucker was going to split Mama Kanai's one-eyed boy right down the middle like a scarred (but ruggedly sexy) watermelon. Normally Kazuo didn't go in for all the samurai shit, but the way Einherjar spun the blade and half turned was a thing of beauty as the glittering metal came around in a deadly arc.

It occurred to Kurusu that Mama Kanai would have probably disowned him a long time ago. Not that it mattered, of course, but still...

Then he felt a nasty snapping painful sensation in his legs, as though someone had taken a steel i-beam and swatted him across the knees with it (that had happened once, and though Kazuo was a tough SOB, some things just didn't bear repeating). Kazuo became aware of the world doing a slow-mo flip, legs going thataway and head going thisaway, and then he was flat on his back with a damned inconvenient pain in his legs and that pigsticker's razor-sharp point under his stubbled chin. Fiercely glowing pale blue eyes stared down at him, capable of stealing the strength from lesser men (and novas), but Kazuo was merely impressed, which isn't as unimpressive as it sounds.

Einherjar was also impressed. Kanai was every bit as tough as his rep had hinted at, and though the fight had lasted barely a minute, it had taxed both elites sorely. Now it was time to see whether or not Kazuo was as smart as his rep hinted at. Not merely cunning or street smarts, but actually forward-thinking, able to appreciate a vision, if not actually conceive of one himself.

"What is your life worth, Kurusu?" Einherjar asked him in a calm rumbling voice. Kazuo grinned through bloody teeth.

"Looks like it's not worth shit where I'm laying." he said cockily, being very careful not to make any sudden moves. He was fast, but the big dude had a sword at his throat. He kept his gaze on Ein's, neither man noticing the softly glowing figure in the sky a few miles away and coming towards them. Einherjar grinned.

"It's worth a fuckload more than twenty million dollars, I can tell you that." he said with a laugh. Sheathing the axe but keeping that large sword to hand, Einherjar reached down and offered his hand to Kazuo. "Interested in some business that might actually take you somewhere?"

Click to reveal..

3 qp to heal 3 bashing.

Ein is currently on Injured.

1 qp to activate multitasking.

[Einherjar->Centimane]: lemme see if Multitasking is my friend today

[Einherjar]: last 2 dice are mega

[Einherjar]: *rolls* 7d10: 3+1+10+7+2+10+5: 38

4 actions: -2, -2, -3, -3

first two actions spent dodging as in above post

12 qp left

Using Disrupt agains Kazuo's FF, - 3 dice multiple action penalty.

Einherjar]: Can you indulge me with a resistance roll vs Disrupt?

[Einherjar]: Roll your Quantum + Node (7 dice in your case)

[Centimane]: Oh, sure. That's -- nevermind.

[Centimane]: *rolls* 7d10: 6+2+9+5+3+8+2: 35

[Centimane]: boo. 2sux

[Einherjar]: last 2 dice megas

[Einherjar]: -3 dice

[Einherjar]: *rolls* 5d10: 10+10+7+2+4: 33

[Einherjar]: 3 succs

[Einherjar]: FF reduced by 1 dot.

[Centimane]: that's all he's got

[Einherjar]: which means.... *makes a Millenium Falcon hyperdrive-out-of-order-noise*

[Centimane]: heh

[Centimane]: leaves him with 19/14 soak, then

2 qp spent

10 qp left

Sweep maneuver, using the flat of the blade. -5 dice total, +1 difficulty

[Einherjar] 11:08 am: last 3 dice are megas

Einherjar *rolls* 10d10: 6+8+7+10+6+9+10+9+10+3: 78

[Einherjar] 11:09 am: Now that's a hit roll

[Centimane] 11:09 am: wow

10 succs, +1 diff = 9 net successes

Damage: 15B + 7 (weapon) + 1 (Maneuver bonus) + 5 (extra hit succs) - 19 Bashing soak = 9d10B

Einherjar *rolls* 9d10: 5+5+9+8+10+9+8+9+5: 68

[Einherjar] 11:14 am: 6 bashing

[Einherjar] 11:14 am: That'll do

6 bashing damage, Kazuo's probably on a broken leg or two and on the floor (Crippled)

[Kazuo]

Kazuo looked up at Einherjar with a dangerously nonchalant look in his eye, chuckled, turned his head and spit some more blood, and then said, "Why th'fuck else didja think I dragged my carcass all th'way out here?"

An instant later Kazuo added, "Nice axe, by the way", at about the same time as Ein realized Kazuo wasn't lying in front of him anymore. And that he couldn't feel the weight of said axe on his back anymore. Einherjar might have called that 'troubling' but, just like saying that the Morrigan's bloodswords were 'kinda sharp', it would've been an huge motherfucking understatement. Ein hadn't so much as blinked - as if he would with Kazuo Kanai on the other end of his sword - so he couldn't really say the guy had 'vanished in the blink of an eye', but the little bastard (hey, everyone was little from Ein's perspective) had still managed to vanish somehow.

Already knowing what he was going to see before he saw it, Einherjar whirled around with a speed that no baseline could have even followed, let alone matched - so why didn't he feel all that fast at the moment? - and was met with the sight of Kazuo standing maybe fifteen feet away and hefting Ein's enormous carbon-steel axe in one hand, swinging it idly as if testing its weight and balance. Einherjar didn't know what game Kazuo thought he was playing at, but the one-eyed idiot needed to learn that he didn't play - not when it came to battle. Einherjar brought his enormous claymore around with every intention of really slicing Kazuo down the middle like a scarred watermelon this time, even as his hyper-intelligent mind considered the unpleasant reality that Kazuo had just passed up a perfectly good opportunity to flay him with his own axe and was attempting to work out why that was.

Kanai saw what was coming and immediately stopped swinging Ein's axe about, instead taking a step backwards and bringing both hands up, the one without the axe in it held palm-outwards in placation and the other holding the axe itself off to one side with the bladed edge clearly pointed away from Ein and said hastily, "Whoah! Hey, hey! Chill, big guy! Chill! Fight's over, you win!"

Fortunately for Kazuo, Einherjar hesitated and stopped, lowering his sword even as he narrowed his frigidly cold blue eyes and leveled a truly disconcerting glare on the thuggish Japanese Elite. Even as he watched, it was evident that the last of the damage he'd inflicted on the man was healing itself, as was any damage to his Eufiber outfit, leaving Kazuo looking a bit dusty from rolling around in the dirt and grass, but otherwise free of any signs that he'd very nearly died only a moment ago. Ein had known for some time that Kazuo was as clever, crafty, and unpredictable as any kitsune from Japanese legend (and also an asshole, but everyone knew that, really), but this was beginning to annoy him. The huge Elite had known he'd been holding back in his fight with Kazuo - he couldn't really offer a job to a dead man, now could he? - but now he was being confronted with the potentially damaging-to-his-personal-pride-as-one-of-the-deadliest-Elites-alive possibility that Kazuo had been holding back as well. Which begged the question of just how much he'd been holding back and, even more importantly, why?

Kazuo (who, because he spent the majority of his time around nova-class social powerhouses like Aušrine and was thus largely inured against the affect they generally had on others, was one of the few people around who could meet Ein's glower without flinching) had been watching Ein with an intent look - and a very annoying smirk - on his face as the other man had worked all this out in his two-ton brain. Realizing what Einherjar was asking himself, and what the accusing look in his eyes meant, Kazuo lowered both hands and grinned sharkishly - but somehow self-effacingly as well - and answered Ein's unspoken question with no self-consciousness. "Nah, man. That was all you, just now. Yer right; I wasn't tryin' ta kill ya, but I wasn't plannin' on gettin' my ass handed to me either, yunno?" He chuckled again and added with a mutter and a smirk, "That wuz fuckin' embarrassin', actually."

Einherjar stared hard at Kazuo for another moment, but then his glare vanished and was replaced with a large grin and a laugh. "Well, fuck me", he commented.

"No thanks", Kazuo fired back, amusement in his eye and his shark-like grin firmly back in place.

"And here I thought...", Ein's voice trailed off as his sharp mind made a connection and he looked back at Kazuo. "Of course!", he said with an easy laugh, now that the pieces were all falling into place in his mind, "You wanted Stephanie to let me know you were coming."

"Shit, man", Kazuo exclaimed with mock-hurt in his voice, "how much of'n idiot you think I am, anyway? Like I'm really gonna go ask fuckin' La Perra - the head o' the fuckin' Cuban Secret Police, who's still gotta huge-ass crush on you and who hates my fuckin' guts - if she knows where you are! I just needed t'make sure you were lyin' low for a bit. It'd kinda put a damper in my plans if some other joker managed t'take you down 'fore I got to ya." Kazuo grinned again and added, "Though if I'd known wutta fuckin' hardass you really were inna fight, I wouldn't a bothered. Shit."

"So you never planned on collecting on the contract on my head?", Einherjar asked, privately very amused at the way things were playing out.

Kazuo shot Einherjar the kind of look that would seem baselessly cocky and self-assured coming from most anyone else and said, "Hell yeah I plan on collecting on that, man! We're gonna need all the startup cash we can get if we're gonna be able to pull off whatever crazy-ass plan you've cooked up for this godforsaken country."

Einherjar couldn't help himself and burst out laughing at that. "Kazuo Kanai, you are one shady fuck, you know that?"

Kazuo just grinned back at him.

About that time the former Elite happened to glance upwards for moment and realized that Aušrine was approaching their position at a rapid pace. She was becoming hard to miss, really, what with her brilliant and beautiful Vesper Lights cascading off of her even more beautiful form as she flew. "And here comes your better half", Einherjar commented as he watched her approach, "I'd been hoping she would come this way."

"What?", Kazuo asked, the smirk vanishing from his face as he turned to look where Ein was pointing. "Fuck", he exclaimed under his breath when he saw the sunset-blaze of Aušrine as she descended on them. "What the hell is she doing here?"

"You weren't planning on her being here as well?", Einherjar asked mildly. He'd been looking forward to speaking with the beautiful Lithuanian since he'd heard from Amanda that she was coming, but he'd automatically assumed that Kazuo had planned for that as well once he'd learned of the man's other machinations.

"Shit no", Kazuo grumbled. "I mean, yeah. Eventually. But not yet." He brought his free hand up to rub at his scar in exasperation and muttered, "Man, she's gonna be pissed when she sees me." Then he suddenly seemed to remember something and glanced down at the axe still in his hands. "Here", he said and tossed it to Einherjar who caught it easily. "You might wanna put those away", Kazuo said. "She's probably gonna be pissed at both of us once she realizes we're not actually tryin' ta kill each other. So, you know, best not to have sharp objects layin' around, follow me?"

[z-The Morrigan]

It was a secret to everyone that Morri tracked time with the accuracy of a clock. It could even be said to be a secret from her, as the young feral couldn’t tell time from a watch. She could tell you the time, if anyone had decided to ask her. But she couldn’t read the clock – why would she know the time?

So that left her squatting on a filing cabinet, staring moodily out the window and counting the passing seconds. Each change of the numbers without Eyen made her more and more nervous. She knew exactly the amount of time bad things took. She could have said how long it took Hatchins to finish hurting her inside last time, to the microsecond. She could have told anyone who asked how long it took the silver snake to bite her. She was an expert, albeit silent, on the amount of time various tortures required to perform.

As she ran down her list and ticked off the possibilities, Morri became more and more nervous. “Hey. Retard,” Miner said. There was a bit of jealousy between the pilot and the youth, but Miner was careful never to let anyone else really see it. She was jealous of most novas; it just happened that this was one she was going to see every day. Einherjar had made his position on the young girl clear: she stayed and he’d be rehabilitating her. On a more personal note, Miner had been through some bad shit in her life, but no one ever rescued her from it. Of course, it had never been as bad as Morri’s troubles, but the way Einherjar doted on her annoyed the pilot. He spent too much time fussing over the retard, in her opinion. “Morri-tard,” she snapped when the feral didn’t turn.

That got her attention. “You’re making me nervous. Go play outside.”

Morri straightened a little. “Go?” she asked, her red eyes blinking.

“Yeah, scram.” The feral was gone before the last hum of the final ‘m’ had left her mouth. She shook her head as she got to work, utterly unaware that Morri had just taken her command as an excuse to go find Einherjar.

Morri had watched Einherjar go, so she had a good which direction to move in and if there was one thing Morri did well, it was move. Her four-limbed gallop ate up an impressive amount of ground as she raced in the direction he had gone. Einherjar had not been able to fully test her ground speed; what had taken him minutes to cover took her seconds.

Approaching from downwind, Morri caught Eyen’s scent and slowed. He wasn’t alone; another male’s scent was mingled with Eyen’s, as well as the scent of blood. Those smells made her crouch, using objects for cover as Eyen had shown her to do. She crept in on silent hands and feet, peering through the brush at her savior. The second she saw the other male, Morri froze. Only a slight shiver passed through her body as panic filled her mind.

- men speaking in a foreign tongue, their skin brown and their eyes slanted. They haggled over the price – the price for her. They shouted at her when she sobbed too loudly, one of them going for the cattle prod when she couldn’t choke back her cries-

That scene was only half-remembered, but Morri had seen others like it, before coming to Vyse. Bad men exchanged money for her, buying and selling her like a thing. Men like this stranger, with their lean features and a shark’s smile. She watched Eyen talk with him, the stranger holding Eyen’s axe. What was Eyen doing? Had he not hurt her because he was going to sell her? Morri felt a hurt in her chest that she couldn’t remember feeling before: betrayal.

The stranger made Eyen laugh and Morri felt her eyes sting. Why had she thought Eyen wouldn’t hurt her? All males hurt you, even when they said they didn’t want to do it. The bad man gave back Eyen’s axe and they both looked up into the sky. Morri crouched lower, slitting her eyes to not betray her position. Intently, she watched and waited for the final signal of betrayal: grasping hands and moving them up and down. She’d seen that before; she knew it meant she’d been sold again.

[Aušrinė]

Aušrine couldn't fly fast enough! She'd taken to the air almost as soon as the airplane that had flown her into Douala had landed. Her intuition, and her connection with Kazuo, were both telling her that he was already here and that there was already trouble. Aušrine had a lot of things that she needed to cover with her Elite partner; ground that needed going over and secrets that she'd never have believed existed between them until a week ago that needed to be uncovered, but that could wait until later. Right now she needed to stop him from doing something terrible - or dying! Either one would be awful and neither bore thinking about.

She hadn't even flown half way to where she'd been told she could find Einherjar's new Elite compound (she couldn't quite understand how the man had already managed to build his own Elite company, complete with trained staff and even a few novas, but Amanda had assured her it was true and she was looking forward to hearing Einherjar tell her how he'd done it) when Aušrine's attention was captured by a very loud - and very close - sonic boom. She searched the skies for the cause and was rewarded with the barely-glimpsed sight of something that blazed with a cold blue light disappear into the jungle several miles to the East. It was so far away that if it hadn't been for the sonic boom and the aurora of light that Ein gave off when he exerted his power (much like her own Vesper Lights) Aušrine would never have seen him. Thanking whatever gods might be listening, Aušrine changed her course sharply and flew with all possible speed towards where she'd seen Einherjar vanish.

No more than a few seconds had passed before Aušrine had to slow down and fly with more care, as she quickly came to realize that there really were a lot of trees in the area and it was not easy to tell just exactly where Einherjar - and, she feared, her partner Kazuo - might be. Something that sounded like it might have been gunshots reached her ears, carried on the wind and badly distorted by the distance the sounds had traveled before reaching her, but enough for her to gain a better bearing on where she need to go and Aušrine shifted course yet again. Several seconds later, she finally spotted them. Them! It was as she'd feared - Kazuo was already there ahead of her! Aušrine launched herself through the air with new vigor, the blazing red light of a gorgeous sunrise (sailors take warn - a storm named Aušrine was coming!) streaming off of her in all directions.

A vision of literally heavenly beauty careened down out of the sky onto Kazuo and Einherjar as Aušrine, blazing like a setting sun that had chosen their little patch of grass to set upon, stopped herself just short of slamming into the ground at slightly more than two hundred miles per hour. Aušrine dropped the last few meters lightly to the ground before the two men and, as she realized that both of them were still alive, her Vesper Lights suddenly changed from the brilliant, angry red of an oncoming storm, and the trees and grass for many dozens of meters in every direction were suddenly bathed in an ever-shifting and almost indescribably beautiful array of the most exotic and lush colors that the horizon-bound sun was capable of producing. Intermingling delightfully with each other were colors ranging from a red as thick as blood, to an orange deeper than any found in autumn, to a yellow so pale it was almost white, and slipping in between all of them were those shades of incredibly deep blues and impossibly rich violets and purples that honestly did not seem to exist anywhere else other than in those in-between times when it wasn't quite day and it wasn't quite night.

Too soon, the almost magical light show was cut short as Aušrine shut down the powers keeping her afloat and stood before them as just herself, in all of her near-perfect beauty. Her face was a study in unconcealed relief, happiness and joy as she took in the two still-breathing men, but that too - like her Vesper Lights - came to an end all too quickly to be replaced with a look of consternation. Frowning, the most beautiful Elite on the planet looked from Kazuo to Einherjar, and back again. Einherjar smiled confidently at her and said, "hello Aušrine", while Kazuo just looked blankly at her for a second or two before finally saying only, "hey". Both men, despite their best efforts not to, had the look of people who'd just been caught in the middle of doing something they shouldn't have been doing.

"Why aren't you two fighting?", she asked finally.

[Eingar]

"You're looking well." Einherjar told her with a faint grin as he slid his weapons away. Ausrine was not the mega brain that he and Kazuo were, but she wasn't stupid either, and whether you called it 'female intuition' or simply common sense she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that something here was amiss. She narrowed her beautiful doe-like eyes at Kazuo, who looked more rumpled than usual and had a big scorch mark in the center of the chest of his eufiber, where it hadn't healed yet. Her partner also had blood on his lips and chin, and was wearing the air of 'innocence' which, on Kazuo Kanai, meant he was guilty as hell. Ausrine looked at Einherjar then (which wasn't hard) and noticed that not only was he packing those two tank-killing weapons, but that he also looked bruised and bloodied. Those marks faded before her eyes, and she folded her arms underneath arguably one of the most perfect chests in the world and stared hard at both men with an arched eyebrow and a purse to the beautiful lips that spoke volumes. Any moment now, she'd tap her foot.

"We were talkin'." Kazuo said with a shrug. Ausrine's raised eyebrow went up fractionally higher and she looked at Einherjar.

"Talking about why we shouldn't fight anymore." Ein said with a grin that made Ausrine (who was by no means made out of stone) face the fact that the big elite was damned attractive in a way that had little to do with quantum, and a lot to do with the personality behind that crooked smile. Let's be honest, Einherjar had a roguish charm that caused fluttering, especially when he was giving her that 'boys will be boys' grin. She kept in mind that she was angry and concerned, and looked back at Kazuo, who was easier to be angry at.

Ausrine's foot began to tap.

"We fought. We're not fightin' now. End of story." Kazuo said. "And Ein's made me an offer."

"You too, if you're interested." Einherjar rumbled with another smile. Ausrine decided she'd had enough.

"You..." the next five minutes were filled with a wide-ranging and expressive statement of Ausrine's views on Kazuo Kanai, and his willingness to be an assassin who'd kill a (fine) fellow elite like Einherjar. Her beautiful voice drew on every octave of female ire short of the screech as she varied from English to Slavic and then to Japanese for the invective that Kazuo had only heard when she'd been drunk before. She told him how scared she was that he'd die or kill a man that didn't deserve it, her glorious eyes brimming enough to make even a hardass like Kazuo feel like a shitheel. Then she turned on Einherjar, hands on her hips causing the big Nordic elite to blink as she leaned towards him and told him what a fool he was for being called out like this, and how she'd never have forgiven him for killing Kazuo, and that she'd been so worried ever since she'd learned that there was a price on his head (exactly why she'd been so worried was glossed over as unimportant right now). She waved her arms. She wagged her finger in both men's faces as they tried not to a) step away and laugh at the incongruity of being two of the most dangerous elites in the business being scolded by the hottest elite in the business.

Finally she wound down, panting fetchingly as she ran out of steam, all the pent up anger and worry spent. Einherjar blinked at her, then looked at Kazuo, who shook a Lucky 7 from the crumpled packet in his pocket and lit up.

"I think I'm in love." Ein said with a wicked grin.

[Aušrinė]

Aušrine's eyes widened at Einherjar's boldly flirtatious and charmingly flippant remark, and the very distracting rising and falling of her chest ceased altogether as her breath caught and her cheeks took on a positively delightful shade of rosy red. For an instant so brief it almost might not have happened, a tiny, shy smile played adorably around the edges of her perfect lips, and it almost looked like it might win its battle to claim her equally perfect face. But then Aušrine seemed to remember herself and, with visible effort, mustered her forces, suppressed whatever that outrageously charming thing she'd been doing a moment ago with her mouth was, and made a valiant effort to glower at Einherjar so that he would know she was still angry with him.

She wound up smouldering at him, instead.

Kazuo rolled his eyes and stifled an amused snort by taking another drag from his 7.

Ein, meanwhile, wasn't pulling any obvious faces like Aušrine, but he would have to give his novaness complete and total credit for that minor miracle. Ein had been on the receiving end of a positively epic number of looks that smouldered, given by an equally epic number of generally gorgeous women. But if the least impressive of those looks had been burning candles, and the most seductive raging infernos, then the look Aušrine was hitting him with at that moment was a solar flare. It was a look that threatened, in all of the very best ways, to melt the icy core of frozen passion at the center of his being with its heat. Through it all, Einherjar kept the wickedly charming grin firmly plastered on his dangerously handsome face - because he was a stone cold, lady-killing pimp, and not even the concentrated, if unintended, sex-vibe Aušrine Vasiliauskiute was giving off in waves was capable of making him drop the metaphorical ball at this crucial moment - but even he had to wonder if he was maybe in over his head. Belatedly, he was realizing that Aušrine was every bit as dangerously sexy as Jason Bellefleur or Danielle Waters, only she actually was a she and she actually liked actual guys.

That upped her threat-factor by, like, a hundred thousand trillion, to quote Mr. West.

And then: "Hey 'Rin", Kazuo interjected gruffly, completely shattering the mood, "ya want me ta warp up t'Belgium an' pick up some chocolate for you to dip 'im in before ya eat him? Or can we maybe get back t'the business negotiations n'shit?"

[Eingar]

Einherjar was more relieved than amused when Ausrine blushed scarlet and turned to scowl at Kazuo, silently letting her partner know in no uncertain terms that she had no intention of dipping Einherjar in chocolate. Or honey. Or maple syrup for that matter. Nossir. The fact that she'd been glaring at Einherjar was entirely because she couldn't believe a guy would be so flippant and off-handed when she'd just torn a verbal strip off him for trying to get himself killed, and nothing to do with the fact that she hadn't had any in longer than she cared to contemplate and Ein was, for want of a better word, interesting. Yes, that was the word. Good looking bad boys were two-a-penny. Good looking bad-boys who were also kinda noble as well as having that whole 'deep tragic loss' aspect to them were rarer. She didn't have a crush, let it be understood very clearly. She liked Einherjar. As a friend. Or something. And chocolate (or other sweet condiment of choice) didn't figure (much) into her reasons.

Kazuo wasn't buying it, though he didn't much care either. The small part of him that looked out for his partner mentally shrugged and thought that at least Ein wasn't a namby-pamby douchebag like some of the men Ausrine had dated, getting all tongue-tied and staring at her face, or ass, or tits rather than actually talking to her. Hell, from what Kaz knew, maybe Aus would get to second base without the guy in question fainting or messing in his pants. Either way, he'd be ready with some pithy quips from the sidelines, because one thing Kazuo Kanai wasn't was restrained when he saw an opportunity for exercising his wit and pointing out that the metaphorical Emperor was stark naked.

"Indeed, let's talk business." Einherjar said with a small cough as he took the opportunity to breath after having Ausrine damn near singe his eyebrows off. He wasn't completely made of ice, after all. Just mostly. He looked at the other two elites and smiled faintly. "If we have our truce, I've got some plans to share with you both."

"Sure thing." Kazuo said with a shark's grin, stepping forward. "When you say it's more than twenty mill, how much more are we talking?"

"A couple more zeroes." Ein laughed like the rumble of distant thunder as he and Kazuo shook hands. "At least a couple more."

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri hadn’t been sure what to make of the woman who arrived. She was interesting to the young feral in a way that she was neither familiar nor comfortable with feeling. Those feelings were tied to something dark in the girl’s mind, something she had shut away rather than deal with directly. The fact that Ausrine was a woman made a kind of bypass, but it still harkened to Morri’s fear of being hurt inside again.

Then the woman started to yell at Eyen and the Bad Man! Morri forgot to slit her eyes for a moment, she was so startled. A woman who yelled at men was the closest thing Morri had seen to a role-model since her memory was wiped. It might have been love for Morri too, had not the woman’s scent told her the truth: the woman wanted Eyen to hurt her inside too. She was sick like Mine-er and unworthy of Morri’s regard.

Then Eyen reached for the man’s hand. Time seemed to slow – though she knew that wasn’t true – as the hands came closer. She heard the word ‘million’; she had heard that many times. And as they grasped hands and shook them up and down, they spoke of numbers. Her protector, her Eyen, was selling her. Morri’s wild little heart broke in that terrible moment.

Her quantum flowed through her body as she twisted time instinctively. The seconds that ticked in her mind changed, the beats between them becoming longer, more pronounced. In between those beats, Morri moved.

All three of the adults blinked as she seemed to appear in their midst, Einherjar wondering if she’d just developed the ability to teleport. To Morri, those blinks took eons as she slipped in and out of time itself. To them, it seemed to be watching a film that had frames missing from the footage; she skipped forward outside of time, where they could not see her. “Mor-” Eyen started and then she was between beats again, his voice faded and indistinct. Her sword, a wickedly sharp short blade, came up in a thrust powered by her inhuman strength.

Her scream cut into Eyen’s word off as she came back into a second; it was the shriek of the deeply wounded, a grieving child. Alone, the cry wouldn’t have been so bad for the three hardened elites. They had heard as bad from the dying on the battlefield. It was the peculiar thump her blade made as jammed into Kazuo’s stomach and caught on a lower rib that was so much worse.

“-ri!”

There were so many words that could have described what she wanted to say to her blue-eyed hero. But Morri didn’t know any of them anymore; she was restricted to a limited vocabulary. “No! Sell!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, twisting and wrenching her blood blade free. She turned on Eyen, her red eyes brimming with furious grief as she shrieked, “NO! SELL!”

[Eingar]

He resisted the urge to react, to draw weapons in the face of that terrible screaming Fury whose eyes burned, to grab Morri, or to step back or assume a defensive posture. Einherjar's mind wasn't susceptible to shock or surprise reactions: everything he did was planned and considered from step to step. It had been that way in the fight with Kazuo, and even in the face of Morri's unexpected appearance and attack, the big Elite's quantum-fuelled mind caught up, analysed the words and the grief in Morri's voice, and realised exactly which end of the stick his young ward had grabbed.

"You're right!" he said in a loud voice, projecting rather than shouting. "Morri is right." He indicated himself, then her. "I am not selling you. This is not about you, Morri. I would never sell you." he added more gently as he dropped slowly to one knee, looking her in the eye and raising one palm towards her. "I never have hurt you, Morri. I never will hurt you. I promise."

"Ausrine, get Kazuo back." he said quietly. "Morri, look at me. I want to help you, and look after you." he kept his eyes on hers and his palm raised, the dust and blood of the fight with Kazuo still on his face. "I want to be your friend. Please let me."

[Aušrinė]

Aušrine screamed as time as the Morrigan defined it - and the reality of the situation - caught up with her. Kazuo, meanwhile, made a disturbing gurgling noise in his throat and then started to collapse as blood began to flood from the wound in his side in gushing surges. As Einherjar fought to gain and keep Morri's attention and calm her down Aušrine lunged forward and caught Kazuo in her slender and graceful - but immensely strong - arms, gathering him up in her embrace and dropping delicately to her knees as she supported his fall.

Tears had sprung to her impossibly beautiful eyes before she'd even finished wrapping her arms around her injured partner, and were streaming down the perfect skin of her cheeks before her knees had hit the ground. After all of her frantic travel and searching, to have finally arrived here just in time, and to have found both Kazuo and Einherjar still alive and well - and in good spirits, even - only to lose Kazuo so suddenly and when she least expected it! Aušrine hardly knew what to think or how to feel, but she made a concerted effort to keep her focus on Kazuo and her concern for him, because otherwise she was not sure she would be able to keep herself from throwing the little kale* who'd just stabbed him into orbit.

"Kazuo! Kazuo!", she cried in between the choking sobs that were threatening to turn into wails if Kazuo didn't stop acting like he was dying real soon. Blood was starting to coat her arms and pool in her lap, but she paid it no mind as she wept and cradled her closest friend.

Kazuo, meanwhile, was continuing to gurgle unnaturally as his good eye rolled around in his head so that way too much of the white was showing. He seemed to be struggling weakly against Aušrine at first (which only alarmed her even more), until suddenly he pushed against the Belarusian beauty with a force that even she had trouble resisting. "Ash", he wheezed, and a fine mist of blood sprayed from his mouth, "leggo! Yer gonna crush my ribs!"

"Oh, thank god!", exclaimed Aušrine gracing the world with one of the most gorgeously joyful smiles in human history even as she unthinkingly wrapped Kazuo in her arms and gave him a hug so fierce it threatened to fulfill his prediction about crushed ribs.

"Gah!", grimaced Kazuo, "Let. Go. Woman! I ain't gonna die. Shit!"

Aušrine finally gave in to Kazuo's demands and let go of him, though it was probably only so that she could wipe at the tears pouring from her eyes. Kazuo rolled away from her, still gasping and wheezing, and pushed himself up onto elbows and knees and then started pulling his feet under him again.

"Fuuuuuck", he groaned as he finally rose to a proper standing position, his face a thorough mix of frustration, irritation, and great pain. The gaping wound in his side where Morri had stabbed him had stopped bleeding, and it had it had shrunk somewhat in size, but it was still there and it didn't show any signs of healing further. Moreover - for once - Kazuo appeared visibly drained and tired - even pale. Even by nova standards, Kazuo was about as vital and superhumanly healthy as they came, so on him such evident weakness truly stood out.

Kazuo Kanai was out of 'juice', and it showed.

Weakened or not, Kazuo still looked pissed as all hell, and as soon as he'd gotten his feet properly underneath himself and had managed to stop swaying unsteadily he turned his full attention on Einherjar and the crazy little killer he seemed intent on playing nice with. Morri had her back turned to him and so couldn't see the cold, hard, killing look he was giving the back of her head, but Ein could. He could also see the scarred Elite's eufiber sleeve as it melted and ran down Kazuo's wrist and into his hand, forming into a matte black, sixteen inch long dagger blade that left no doubt as to its sharpness.

"Einherjar", he said, in voice that made it clear he meant what he was about to say, "you got ten seconds to either finish what yer little assassin there started, or explain this to me in a way that won't make me want ta start killin' stuff."

Click to reveal..

Kale: Lithuanian for 'bitch'. Yep, Morri made Aušrine angry enough to swear, even if only in her head.

[Eingar]

"Feral nova." Einherjar said in a calm, steady tone as he kept his gaze on Morri and his palm raised towards her. "Enslaved, abused, brainfried, freed by me, and has just learned to kind of trust me in the last 24 hours. Looks like she followed me here and jumped to the wrong conclusion. I need you both to stay calm." His deep voice remained in a soothing gentle tone. "Morri, it's okay. You're safe with me."

[z-The Morrigan]

Morri trembled with indecision. Every instinct she’d developed in her enslavement warned her to stab Eyen in the face and kill him before he could finish this. But her savior was on his knee, his hand raised, and she knew that if she stabbed him, all he would do was keep his hand in the air. The gravelly voice behind her made her realize her business with the Bad Man wasn’t quite done either. He was stronger than he looked and Morri made note that he was hard to kill. She took a step to the side and half-turned, snarling when she saw the black blade the Bad Man held.

“Morri.” The tension in Eyen’s voice translated back to the feral and she turned to look at him. Something hurt in her chest as she wrestled with her emotions. That raised hand called to her, a promise of a life where she wasn’t afraid and abused and in a cage. The last time she’d trusted Eyen, he’d let her kill Vyse and Hatch Ins; maybe it was the Bad Man’s turn. But more than that, the girl wanted to be able to trust someone, to know that they’d protect her. Subconsciously, this was the pattern that was most familiar to her and she wanted to feel safe again.

Grumbling softly, she pressed her hand to Eyen; he relaxed just as that knot in her heart eased a little. Reassured, the feral dropped her hand and turned to glare at the Bad Man. The look on his face was almost enough for her to put her blade in him again; that look left no doubt to his intentions. “Bad Man!” she accused, her glowing red eyes narrowing at him. Kazuo’s eyes, good and bad alike, narrowed further in reply.

“He has been called that before,” Eyen said with a grin. Neither Kazuo nor Ausrine smiled at his jest. “But-”

“Hurt inside!” Morri snarled. “Sell!” The jumbled memories of the early days of her captivity painted all the Asian men who had done harm to her with one brush and Kazuo looked close enough. More scarred perhaps, but not unlike enough to separate him in the girl’s damaged mind.

“No,” Eyen said firmly. “Kazuo has never abused you or sold you. He is not that kind of bad man.” A thoughtful look passed through his eyes. “Someone who looks like him, perhaps. But not Kazuo. He doesn’t hurt girls like that.” His hand was still in the air, offering a promise of freedom and safety.

Morri wanted to believe that this time would be different. She wanted to hope that Eyen was right. That desire warred within her, logic battling with hard experience. “No hurt?” she asked, visibly calmer and trying to talk herself into standing down. “No sell?”

“No hurting and no selling. I promise,” Eyen assured her. There was a long moment where the small group waited for the nova to decide; then she tossed her sword away to discorporate and pressed her small, dark hand to his. This time, it stayed there, even if she still watched Kazuo warily.

[Kazuo]

Kazuo stared warily - and with a certain amount of rage - right back at Morri for a long moment. He'd followed what Ein had tried to tell him well enough, and could read enough of Morri's behavior, to get a rough idea of what was going on, but it didn't mean that he was suddenly ok with getting stabbed for no reason by some scrawny little red-eyed busu. A lot of thoughts ran themselves through the dark, murky, mysterious, and dangerous pathways of his mind, but the one that stood out the most was his memory of the incident in that ratty Shinjuku alleyway from so many years ago that had left him with the vast majority of his scars - the physical ones, mostly, but a good number of the mental ones, too.

What Kazuo wanted to do was to rip into the Morrigan with self-righteous indignation - and, ok, he sorta wanted to rip into her physically with his knife, too - but only a little. She'd just tried to gut him without warning, and now there she was acting all lovey-dovey with Einherjar, like he was some sort of saintly father-figure, while accusing him of being a 'bad man'! And sure, Kazuo could agree that Ein was a pretty decent fella - but only if you were comparing him to other Elites. By nearly any other standard the guy was a dangerous killing machine with way too much brainpower! And besides, between the two of them - as far as Kazuo could tell anyways - Einherjar wasn't carrying around a collection of lifelong scars or missing an eye as a result of his attempt at stopping 'bad men' from doing what they'd apparently done to Morri.

Kazuo was.*

But the truth, Kazuo was just honest enough to admit to himself, was that he was a 'bad man', and there wasn't really any getting around that. In a perfect example of the Gettier problem, Morri was entirely right about him, but for all the wrong reasons. Since Kazuo didn't give a shit about obscure philosophical conundrums he decided to just let the whole thing slide. At the end of the day, it was probably for the best that a kid like her stayed away from an asshole like him. They'd both been kicked and abused by the shitty side of life, and they'd both come out the other side of it all kinds of fucked up, but whereas he'd surrendered any part of himself that might once have been considered 'good' or 'pure' a long time ago, she was obviously still in possession of at least a portion of hers and was struggling desperately to hold onto it. And the last thing Kazuo needed on the raggedy, malnourished thing he somewhat hesitantingly guessed at as being what passed for his conscience was the knowledge that he'd dragged some stupid kid down into the shit with him.

So after the long moment had passed, Kazuo's murderous glare turned into something more like a derisive smirk. "Che", he muttered disgustedly, and shifted his gaze off to one side. His eufiber knife melted back into his sleeve and the hand that had held it was raised to his face so he could rub the corner of his dead eye, which was aching just then for some reason. Finally he turned back to Einherjar and the Morrigan and said, "Fine. I oughtta gut 'er right here an' now, but in the interest of 'solidifying our new partnership' I'll let it slide. This time."

Behind him, Aušrine had pulled herself back to her feet and, still looking rather puffy eyed and moist about the eyes and cheeks, she said in meek and somewhat awkward tone, like she was trying very hard to cover up some strong emotion, "Einherjar, does your compound have any medical facilities? Kazuo's injuries don't seem to be healing up right..."

Kazuo rolled his good eye at this, but a look from Aušrine stopped any smart remarks or 'tough guy' protestations he'd been about to make, and she turned back to Ein with a questioning look.

Click to reveal..

*: I've never specifically stated how Kazuo earned his scars here in 200x, so for those of you unfamiliar with his other iterations in games/forums outside of 200x I'll explain here: almost all of Kazuo's scars - including the nasty one on his neck and the even worse ones on his face that cost him an eye - came as a result of his attempt at stopping the rape of a girl named Ryoko Mendo, whom he'd had a crush on, by several drunken Yakuza. Kazuo was still a baseline teenager at the time and so, unsurprisingly, he failed in his attempt at stopping the rape. Both he and Ryoko nearly died; Kazuo was left with all of the physical scars that he's now known for, while Ryoko was left so emotionally scarred that she couldn't stand to be with any man - including Kazuo.

So you can see how this subject is personal for Kazuo as well, though for very different reasons and on an entirely different (and arguably lesser) level than it is for Morri.

[Eingar]

"We've got a good paraphysician." Einherjar said reassuringly to the Belorussian beauty. "He'll fix Kazuo up."

"No fix bad man." Morri grumbled. Ein frowned at her slightly.

"Kazuo isn't that sort of bad man." he said firmly. "Kazuo is my friend, do you understand? And he won't hurt you or try to touch you, but you will not hurt him either, Morri." Morri met that glowing blue stare unflinchingly for a long moment, but dropped her gaze first and shuffled her feet.

"Morri no hurt." she said in a small voice, then looked at the glowingly beautiful (even with tear-streaked cheeks) Aušrine, pointing and giving Ein a questioning look.

"Aušrine, and she is my friend too." Einherjar said more gently.

"Friend like Mine-er?" Morri asked bluntly. Einherjar, to his credit, didn't cough or bat an eyelid.

"No. Not like Miner. Now I need you to go and find Ford. Tell him that I'm bringing him a patient." Ein told the girl, who nodded jerkily and streaked off in a blur of red and khaki, intent on tracking down Ford and telling him that Eyen was bringing him a pay-tent.

"We'll take the slower route." Einherjar told the other two. Aušrine firmly gathering Kazuo up and followed the blond warrior up into the sky, sunset colours and arctic aurora a strange contrast as they headed towards the base. "We'll get Mr Kanai fixed up, rustle up some grub, then I'll share my little plan with you both." He smiled a little, a crooked one-sided grin. "I think you'll find it interesting."