A Game of Gods Season 3: Frontiers

Gotham Sewers

"Muscles. A pair of eyes to scout the place out beforehand. And risk-free sewer access to the Waste Disposal company, at least till those fucks at Arkham Island are dealt with."

The tail slam had startled the hell out of the goons at the back, and upon hearing his warning backed away from the massive alligator. One had almost raised his gun at it before another slapped it away on the off-chance that he'll do something they all regret.

Colossal fuck-ups barely averted, the mook leader continued. "Plus an all-you-can-eat buffet once we round them all up. That fine with ya, Killer Croc?"

Barry - Camoa

When another assault happened to the cart carrying the prisoners, Barry had the misfortune of being stuck underneath the overturned vehicle. By the time he slowly scraped himself out and ready for action, it was all over.

Damn it, that makes it two times already! And there's not a speck of blood present on his clean blade! Today just wasn't his day.

His mood however perked up at the mention of cities filled with okay-to-kill targets. Hot damn! It might take some time for people to get to it, but he sure as hell would be the first in the bandwagon to the invasion and get paid for it!

Then the guy(Gunther, if he remembered correctly) asked why they would do that. "Why, that's simple! It's because they want more than what they already have!"

"If they're truly as what this here cap'n says, then they would always want more. That's just how deviants are, really! One moment, it starts off small. Then before you know it, they're in it so deep that nothing makes them feel alive anymore until they have what they want to the point of unhealthy obsession!"

"... Well, that and they probably enjoy the act of hunting their prey. Can't complain there, I like it when my target gives a good chase from time to time too, gyahahaha!"

Daud - Adventurer's Guild

The ex-assassin had been spending his time in the guild hall. One way or another, he'd heard of a meeting between leaders that were being held here and though he wasn't quite able to participate or listen in on it being new and all, hanging around in a public space while taking note of anything he heard and see is the next best thing.

The blood-red rain was an ill-omen and the fact that all the leaders meeting up at the same can't just be sheer coincidence.

Of note was the mayoral election campaign being held in Gotham. From what he heard of his associates, they're no different than from the slums of Dunwall albeit more advanced tech-wise. Then there's news of kidnapping happening in Camoa, a town that can be accessed via crystal portal at the gate(a teleportation device that Daud is interested in acquiring).

Then there's the many, many notices of various mercenaries offering their services for pay. So just about any glory-seekers or aspiring adventurers can advertise themselves here? Talk about a lax rule.

All in all, he's just chilling out near a table, keeping note of anything of interest that's happening near him.

Edited by JustSomeGuy732 on Jun 13th 2019 at 7:08:40 PM

Scrooge - Aboard Ship

'''Got it, lass." With that said, Scrooge took up command and followed Gatomon's direction to acoast on the nearest beach. There, he opened the door and showed it to the cat woman with his hand. "Ladies first."

After she got out, he would follow her outside and take a look around the surrounding. After that, he would turn back to her guide. "Alright, so so if, say, I was a courageous adventurer in search of riches, where do you think I would want to go."

Starscream was intrigued upon seeing a few of his men beating up some lowlives. He approached to see the cause before noticing his beautiful face had been vandalized. That quickly made him angry and he turned to glare at the beaten-up criminals. "Good initiative, boys. Don't let disrepect like that get unpunished." The decepticon walked over to the vandals and began stepping on them repeatedly. He didn't care if they died from the further injuries he was making. He needed to let out his anger.

The question about Cody calmed him down a little. He let a wicked grin show on his face. "No, I didn't attempt to fight him; I didn't need to. He's just a simple-minded meathead who think simply beating up some low-leved criminals," he punctuated that last word with punching the gut of the guy he was currently stepping on, "is going to make him a good leader. He doesn't know a thing or two about true control. Whether he win the election or not isn't going to matter a bit. This city will go under my perfect control anyway."

The Joker communication was directly broadcoaster to Starscream's internal computer, which meant the message appeared directly on his retinas. "Tough obviously the the clown disagree. You can all seek the reward and keep it to yourself. Earthling money is useless to me anyway. Just don't forget to spread explosives around the city like I told you to." Yes, to the Transformers, whatever games the Joker wanted to play was completely pointless to think about. His own master plan would completely overshadow these anyway. Junko and the so-called Clown Prince of Crime would just be two amongst many of his stepping stones.

Char Aznable - Akihabara Guild -> to Camoa - It's time to get back in shape!

Char debated internally what to do with his wish tablet after he left Room 108. The others still had issues they were discussing but Char....he just was not feeling it. He did not wish to fight alongside any of them, truthfully he did not wish to remain in the city either. From this point forward he wanted to put politicking behind himself, to regain the warrior's spirit he had once held all the way back in the one year war. Still in his current body, he didn't feel anything like the soldier he had once been.

Roaring through the chaos of battle, the adrenaline of disabling the engine limiters and accelerating to the point the G-forces nearly caused black-outs, crushing the hull of battleships beneath the feet of his zaku, terrorizing federation soldiers just by appearing on the battlefield, his current body symbolized none of that. All it reminded him of was a job he hated and his unfinished fight with Amuro, but then a thought struck his mind and he pulled out the wish tablet.

"Change my body to a form that better represents my ideals."

And with that he crushed the tablet before continuing on as his body changed to resemble a Zaku II, granting him replacement weapons as his old ones faded.

Char Aznable - Camoa Pub

The red mech had arrived in the Camoan pub, and walked in just in time to catch the exposition on the drow...which was quite a bit really, and it nearly sent his head spinning a bit to keep up with it, but he managed to catch the jist of it. It looked like others from Akihabara were already here, but he wasn't quite sure if he should approach them just yet, it might look weird for him to just wander over and offer his help, they might think he had an ulterior motive...on the other hand these drow sounded like just the kind of bastards to start honing his skills on that no one would care about.

So he walked over to lady figuring 'what's the worst that can happen'?

"I see that there's trouble over here as well, I'm not entirely sure of what's going on but I caught enough to know that the drow are bad. If you'd like some extra muscle for fighting I can offer my assistance."

Lady happened to be just in time to catch information about exactly what she was looking to learn about, which conveniently settled the matter quite nicely. These Drow would make a fine target for her field test, and she was sure she could get a paycheck out of it as well. Before she could begin negotiations, someone appeared behind her, and she turned to see yet another robot joining the ranks of Ges and Char and probably at least a few others she hadn't met. She smiled at the heavily armed robot.

"If there's one thing I never turn down, it's someone who knows how to handle a gun and explosives offering to help."

She extended her hand.

"Pleased to meet you, name's Lady, Demon Hunter."

Elize and Teepo- Adventurer's Guild w/ DSR-50, M16A1, and Enterprise

"Ooh! Ooh! Window seat, please!"

"Ah.. S-sorry!" The girl blushed, then turned her head to the new, white haired woman who walked in on them. "I-I can explain!"

"Very well then, understood. Let's jam." the Octoling-possed Princess smiled back.

This whole thing was, to her, honestly kinda impressive. Fake hostage ruses aren't something people do everyday (at least, she hoped), but they seem to be really good at it.

Barring any interuptions or last-minute concerns, the Agent stepped off, trying to put on her best dejected act. At this point, it was all a matter of playing it off.

Edited by Boomer75 on Jun 13th 2019 at 9:39:01 AM

Yue - Office to Adventurer's guild

Yue had declined LV's invitation to go with him on his search - she had an appointment with the Targ villagers in Akihabara that morning, hopefully to finalize their resettlement in the city.

"Good luck finding your sibling, though." She said, kneading a crick in her neck as she pulled her hat off of her makeshift hatstand. "I would say, 'if you need help, give me a call' but we haven't re-invented the cell phone yet. And you can't talk. Hmm."

She tapped her chin in thought for a moment, eyes closed for reasons of sage contemplation and not at all sleep-deprivation-related. "That's going on our to-do list. Telecommunications. I have some ideas. let's meet up here at the end of the day and touch base, at least."

Plopping her hat onto her head, she stepped out and down the stairs to the street, fingers flicking up an air shield to deflect the red drizzle.

—

In the time it had taken a group of faction leaders to meet, hold a council, and disperse again (just purely as an example), Yue had both finished her own meeting and managed to scrounge up a quick breakfast. Sipping something hot and caffeinated, she found herself loitering in the adventurer's guild to avoid going back out into the rain, expression distant as thoughts of telepathy charms and atmospheric thaumaturgic contamination idly circled her mind.

Maria & Chun-Li, Adventurer's Guild

"I cannot let you waste one of your wishes on my own problems, but thank you for the offer and once we gain additional Permits, I shall make sure we meet up again!" Maria smiled as she took Sonia's hand to bind the promise, but soon frowned as if unhappy about something. "Besides it does not seem like either of us are leaving this place any time soon, and that is what really worries me."

After picking back up her spiked bracelets, Chun-Li left Room 108 to head into the Adventurer's Guild again, following Satsuki so as to know where the Hospital was. If Siluca left Room 108, she would find Maria Renard saying her farewells to Sonia Belmont.

Juri, Koopa Casino

"Oh, so you've all met that weird clown ball thing?" Juri asked Bowsette, Cagliostro, and Mr. Scratch. "He's on everyone's bad list, isn't he?"

Who Could it Be Now? - Joker's Office

Suddenly, the Joker's phone went off! Regardless of whether he picked up or not, a rather calm voice emanates from the speaker.

“Congratulations, Mr. Napier,” said the voice. “You've become quite the mastermind while I was in Jump City. You've managed to deal with the sudden disappearance of the Batman quite well. I'm proud of you.”

The mysterious voice claps loud enough to be heard over the speaker.

“You've even survived past the first wave of Outsiders and even recruited a pair onto your side. Impressive... I'm glad Gotham is heating up right now, I must say. It's much more interesting than dealing with Robin and those accursed Teen Titans.”

Gunther - Camoa Pub

“You have a point there”, noted Gunther to Barry.

He began thinking about his precious brother Franz. If those underground cookie-munchers laid a finger on him, they'll taste Gunther's fury faster than a hot one when it's dropped. Trust me, familial love is the strongest force in the universe.

“What if they get so greedy, they begin targeting loved ones? Even a guy in 24/7 armor like you knows what love is, right?”

Gatomon - Coela Point

After exiting the boat, Gatomon scratched her chin with her left paw. She mumbled, “If I wanted riches, we could head to the nearby ruins. Normally, they would be underwater, but Devimon dragged them onto land to show his might.”

Gatomon pointed out a set of empty ruins off in the distance. Even from a distance, these ruins used to be a prosperous city from the Ancient Greece era.

Entry 4 Part 17 (Lune, Milliana, and Malia - Bandit Town Oil Refinery)

In defeat, I walked towards the oil refinery with Malia. To make sure the Brittanians bought our act, I faux-glared at Milliana and spat in her face. Even though I was acting, I was a heel for disgracing my cinnabun's face like that.

“Darn it! You won't get away with this!”

Milliana, assuming the role of hostage-taker, did a perfect noblewoman's laugh. Now that I think about it, it's way better than Naga's laugh. I had to admit. She's a real good actress when she puts her mind to it.

“Ohohohoho, criminal! But I just did... These guys will help me get my life back on track!”

Edited by josh6243 on Jun 15th 2019 at 11:47:23 AM

Bowsette shrugged and waved her hand at the man's question, instead taking another moment to bask in her casino and watch for reactions to it. This would be the first impression any foes got of her after all, she had to make sure it was a good one. "I don't care much about that, and I'm sure you wouldn't trust any ideas I had anyway. Regardless, this should happen inside."

Her mood and expression soured visibly as Scratch made his approach, thinking very hard about just frying him where he stood right now and not deal with him for a second longer. She side-eyed Cody, frowning as she asked. "Is this runt really with you? I remembered you dealing with good guys, not murderous bad guys and creeps."

She really didn't want to let him in. But as she stared him down, and mused over his offer, a dark smirk slid over her lips. Tapping a black nail against her chin, Bowsette did little to hide her amusement at the idea as she said. "Alright, I accept your offer. If you break any of my rules, or cause any problem, I'll burn you to a crisp where you stand. And yes, it is." She replied to Juri, her look saying everything it needed to.

With her temper at least temporarily extinguished, she turned about and marched towards her casino. The interior was what one would expect of a casino. Full of bright flashy lights, constant electronic sounds and music, and dour schmucks slowly draining themselves of money. It also had the typical Bowsette touches. Namely big spike-shaped lights, symbols of what seemed like a grinning dragon or demon◊ embedded in the walls and floors, and various other odd choices. The front desk was manned by a blonde girl in professional attire, but with an odd hairstyle and hair tie◊. She greeted them with a warm smile, but stayed where she was when she noticed Bowsette. The horned woman led them quickly through the foyer and into the fairly busy casino proper. She paused for a moment to think, before turning and striding towards what appeared to be the restaurant portion of the building.

Striding past a set of security with a nod, she brought the group to a more private section. Sitting herself down at the large table and waiting.

Shigure, Bandit Town Sewers

Threats and a brief waterboarding session done with, the Exorcist crouched down by their interrogated thug with a smirk. "Well, why not start with telling us more about those rich folk you kept in touch with together with your pals."

"Given the current situation, ideally we would have a number of governments working together to ensure some capability of safety." The Ethereal offered his own three Taucents on the whole matter of law and order. For all of his easy-going attitude, Lio's approach to the law painted him squarely as an inevitable opposition in establishing some kind of Tau'va in this place. "But to see what is needed, one has to observe."

"I bid you goodbye and a thanks for your help." Giving Scanty and Kneesocks a nod and then beckoning O'Kais to follow, eventually the two of them reached the hill with the creature of supreme power and dignity perched atop it. This must have been the one bringing certain people in here. Unlike him, the Fire Caster was summoned by the being's power, as was Lio and, presumably, those "demon" sisters. Were certain people simply considered "special"?

"So far, Shas'O, this is looking to be a fu'llasso extraordinaire, although not for reasons we are usually accustomed with." He concluded the situation at hand - a "political knot" was one way to describe a gathering of independent forces all trying to work out some sort of compromise. "But I suppose to fully understand the scope of it, we need to ask the one responsible for it." Thus, he approached the Nameless with a nod of reverence; clearly looking to be asking questions from the incomplete godly being.

An entire city of people to slap around with no one calling him out on it as immoral or what not? How was that bad news? In fact, Blobespierre seemed unable to contain his excitement in full at the info, bouncing on his seat excitedly like a kid about to get their first Happy Meal. "We can have Akiba people just go down and kick 'em around.", he wrote down in a message for Van. There surely would be some guys willing to join them on this merry extermination.

As if on cue, people showed up. The blob waved at Lady's party. "Case in point", then he wrote one more message for the militia leader.

Like a shadow, a hand gently landed on Elize's shoulder, an attempt to reassure her. The spindly bugbeast nodded slowly, then, one rustling of papers later, offered a piece of paper to the girl. don't worry about it, it said. As Enterprise approached and got engaged by one of M16's friends(?), the Vessel gave her a wave too.

Junko - Ace Chemical Building

So, Joker knew Scarecrow’s civilian alias but not his name. That would make finding information on him difficult. He seemed to be a doctor of some sort but there was no telling his field of specialty without asking him directly.

The people of Gotham would not care even when someone was being clearly eaten, huh? It was truly a despairing thought. To Junko, it didn’t matter that much who was being eaten, but perhaps something like that could be arranged.

”Noope, just looks like random people. But eating people is still eating people! And that’s tewwible!”

After hearing that The Joker was starting to take action, she said, ”Okay! See you around!”

And then Junko continued going through the data and watching the footage herself.

Then, all of a sudden, Junko received a message on her phone, though from the looks of it, it was a pretty hefty bounty on the mayoral candidate. It didn’t seem like it was addressed to her specifically. There was no telling whether Joker even had all 5 million dollars, even though it was pretty easy to gain money just by looting people’s houses or killing them outright, but it’s not like that really mattered.

Maybe her intuition was getting really rusty, but she hadn’t quite expected that the Joker would act on her information so soon. Junko didn’t actually need Cody Travers dead so long as her lifestyle of violence and despair remained intact, and she had a few ideas how to try and kill Cody himself or at least damage his reputation if he did end up winning the elections, but with this super-public bounty, putting those plans into action would immediately tie Monokuma to the Joker. Plus, Cody would be expecting it, more than the other ineffective assassination attempts.

Junko really hated Cody and his guts, but maybe she could try joining him, and sabotaging his efforts to free Gotham from crime from within. Or it would let her live in peace while she got ready for the biggest most awful tragedy in all of Frontiers’s history. These bounties would likely draw the attention of more Akihabarans, so Junko needed to prepare for when the Joker was taken down. Plus, if she wanted to do any plans involving that Scarecrow formula, she’d need to get close somehow.

Actually, maybe she could just have her goons raid the place to try and get the formula instead. Maybe it would distract some of those Akihabarans from helping Cody and get some of them to even work for Scarecrow long term.

So, once Junko was finished going over the stuff her Monokuma had collected, she had a few random schmucks working for her drive off to Amusement Isle to potentially drop off a hard drive with a copy of the footage and data, along with Junko’s personal analysis of the scene. She also had a bunch of her goons follow her back to Sionis to pep talk everyone into preparing for the raid on the hospital and laying out an overall plan. She still wasn’t sure if she was going to try and participate in the raid herself, though for now she felt like tailing Cody and his crew.

Junko then handed her main phone to one of her Monokumas, and swapped it out for a new one. She had already memorized the Joker’s phone number, so she could just call him on this one if she felt like it.

So, after a brief change of dress, Junko drove off.

Junko - Koopa Casino

Junko drove all the way to the former Falcone Casino, and then stepped out her her vehicle with this outfit, lifting up her sunglasses as she followed the group ahead.

Naga, she had expected to be there, though she had only barely recognized the alchemist from her first days here. That was two people who knew she liked to switch things up often, but she’d try to keep up a relatively normal expression.

Bowsette and Cagliostro really had fixed up this place compared to what Junko saw on TV.

”Hey Naga!” Junko said as she approached the others, but stopping just before the private area, ”Didn’t expect to see you here at this time of day! Who are all these friends of yours?”

Junko then pointed to Cag with a smile, ”Hey I remember you! You’re that alchemist girl! Guess all these golems must be your doing!”

Junko looked around at the others with feigned merriment and curiosity, even though she had already seen them from the Monokuma footage.

Junko waved at everyone, ”Oh yeah, I’m Junko Enoshima!”

Edited by CathariSarad on Jun 14th 2019 at 9:33:23 AM

Flashback, Meeting Area — Kylo Ren

Once Kylo Ren was certain that there would be no witnesses, interruptions or listeners-in to his discussion with Char, he turned and punched the wall. There was a long, pregnant pause as the Knight of Ren simply let the pain and his simmering anger roll through him in steady waves. "Char." He slowly turned to look back at his partner. "This is a strange way to strengthen our position. In fact, if I didn't know better, I would suspect you were self-sabotaging." Venom dripped from every word.

Present, Camoa Pub

In the interim Kylo had decided to investigate the claims of kidnappings, feeling it would do much to reinforce his credentials when it came to security and order. Apparently there was a vast city controlled by a race known as drow, and they were responsible the kidnappings. Currently he didn't have his helmet on, feeling it would only hinder attempts at discussion - though for now, at least, he was simply content to wait and listen.

The casino was.....well, pretty much what Velvet expected. She'd been around the city long enough by now to know what the general tastes of the locals were now, lots of bright, loud things, and while this was a little more then the norm, she chalked that up to it's bombastic owner. They were, thankfully, lead to a privite area. And then some random fucking girl who reminded Velvet of Magilou more then anyone else she'd met suddenly followed them, claiming to know a couple of the people. Velvet wouldn't stand for having to deal with yet another annoying person, and moved to stand in front of her, arms crossed, unknowingly acting like the bouncer of the club.

"This is a private gathering." Velvet said to her. "Not a place for kids. Beat it."

Velvet was many things. Diplomatic was not one of them.

Char - Flashback

"You ever considered what we got out of guarding the portal kylo? Did it get us any respect? Was there anyway we could actually leverage the power by declaring the gate off limits to someone else without the other factions trying to crush us?" Char waited idly, letting Kylo collect his thoughts. "If we had failed and something eventually got through the portal, and make no mistake that time is rapidly approaching, we'd be held personally responsible."

He just stared off into the distance. "Besides Kylo, with everything in place now your First Order can actually grow. Do you think Siluca would have waited for you to be ready before she started a war? Do you think Kaga would have cared if you got caught in the crossfire? Enterprise probably wouldn't even bother considering our reputations respectively and she's already got a heavy tank running from what I heard in the rumor mill." His voice just sounded mellow, like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulder by all of this, then he just laughed.

"But hey, I'm free now with the only thing to guide me being my own ego." He turned his head to face Kylo, and for one of those rare moments, the glow in his eye seemed less threatening and more like a sign of positive emotions. "I'm gonna go investigate some rumors I heard about this place called Camoa. You should come along, could probably give you better training than what you can get around here."

Char - Camoa Pub

"Oh yes, I don't know if we ever properly met but I'm Char Aznable, former gate guardian for Akihabara. Nice to meet you Lady."

The red mecha shook Lady's hand then gestured to Kylo.

"This is my comrade Kylo Ren. We came to Camoa because we heard the rumors of what was happening but it sounds like it was worse than we thought. Good thing I came fully loaded for battle."

Lady's eyes widened a second as she realized she knew that name.

"Oh, you're Char? Huh, ok, someone must have given me the wrong description of what you looked like. Good to meet you, I haven't heard much, but I can respect someone who's willing to do the thankless kind of job you were doing. But, former? I heard there was some big meeting going on today, what happened, did they fire you or-"

Lady then happened to look over at Kylo Ren, and anyone around her would see the formally composed woman's eyes suddenly go wide in shock as she staggered backward, her back impacting the hardened wood of the bar.

"Wha-V?" She gasped. "But, what are you....how are you even..."

Then Char introduced him, and Lady blinked a few times.

"Oh, erm, er...." Her face started to turn red as she shook her head a few times. "Oh boy, erm, I'm sorry, Mr Ren, you just.....look very much like someone I knew once. The resemblance is.....uncanny."

She had to focus on something else, reset her brain here, so she motioned behind her.

"Anyway, behind me you'll see my employee, Destroyah, a second candidate for employment who's with me today for a field test, Shigo, and a good friend of mine and skilled adventurer, Hydaelyn.

She pointed at each of them in turn.

Char - Camoa Pub

Char took a moment to observe lady's brief reaction to Kylo....it was weird, and honestly Char probably would have had a grin on his face just from finding it funny, but he'd have time to try and be a human being again later. As lady introduced her comrades, Char took note of each of them. The only one he had any real information on was Destoroyah, the crabby Kaiju who had helped in the assault on the fire nation and worked alongside the black mech in Gotham. The Catgirl adventurer and the woman in the green and black outfit were unknowns to him, which only meant that the coming adventure would be more fun since he had so many unknowns to think about.

"It's nice to meet you all, and yes former. but no they didn't fire me, I turned over the position to the city as a whole. Stress level wasn't worth it and I think I can be beneficial to society now that I have more freedom....also I'm just done with politicking. I won't reveal what happened at the meeting but trust me I do not ever want to have to be in a room with a few of those people again. I'd rather be out in the wilderness, where my rifle can do all the talking."

"Understood."

Morrighan took another sip from her cup of tea while she listened to the things Mila planned to grant the residents of Akihabara as thanks for the difficult task ahead of them. Unfortunately, there was not much that the goddess of war and revenge could offer in terms of rewards or incentives. That being said, there was something that intrigued her about what Alalia had mentioned earlier...

"Out of curiosity... other than Alalia, did anyone else here receive a Permit of Perpetuity?"

"I personally do not know who was tasked with that, but I can ask around," Eve responded with a shake of her head. "Admittedly, this was only my second incursion into the wastes, and everything I encountered in there was hostile... which brings me to the second phenomenon."

With a few swipes and taps on her holographic interface, Eve replaced the footage of Wulfrik's wasteland battles with the static image of a figure coated in shadows◊, with a pair of glowing eyes filled with malice and an ominous aura being the only noteworthy elements of the otherwise pure black silhouette.

"I have given this individual the alias 'Aggressor'," Eve explained, "due to its unnaturally violent behavior. This humanoid possesses considerable physical strength and speed, as well as some degree of proficiency with its weapon. By itself a potential threat, albeit probably not an unbeatable one... however, energy readings suggest that Aggressor may be undergoing some form of possession or corruption, likely both on a physical and a psychological level. Prior experience with various forms of corruption has shown me that it is possible it could spread to other individuals. We would not know its origin, or the full range of effects it could have on the psyche or body. All of this, of course, assuming this is indeed an outside influence and not Aggressor's usual state of being. I would advise to tread carefully nonetheless, and to avoid venturing into the wastelands alone."

Architect - Adventures Guild

Sadly for every one else, after Kaga left to go do her thing, Architect just kind of sat there blankly, thoughts running through her head as she stood there watching a wall. In reality there was now many thoughts running through her little processor, not all of them good, but not all of them necessarily hostile either.

After a little bit of this, she eventually shook the head of her main body and came back too, "Huh, what was that? Sorry I didn't hear you... I was busy thinking of important societal projects that did not consist mostly of us playing with the trains and finding a way to make propaganda selling other people on the joy of explosions."

When she noticed Cynthia present another one of her dummies gave a wave to her, before doing a little pose and forming a peace sign over her eye, "Soooo your going to join us?", if you want to touch them I guess you can."

Shirakami - Powerplant

For her part, figuring that this would be a simple stealth operation at the moment Shirakami began to play with her little robot buddy in the tanks cockpit, and honestly got quite distracted by it until she began to hear "clang, clang, clang, clang" inside the vehicle and checked the monitors, only to notice that she was being hit.... by quite a few stray bullets really... while her cammo seemed to be holding and it was just an annoying amount of strays dinging the paint, she took this to mean that the time for stealth was over, and set her pet back down, taking the controls back into her hands, with a couple switch flicks, her main monitor switched its display over to.... something else.

The vision of of the tankette which had been brought with them, the little vehicle wheeled away at full speed from its position, making its way to the direction of the people that had just lobbed a grenade at one of its friends, and opening fire with its little machine-gun... spent shells raining down the side of the vehicle as it tried to loop around, and draw some fire of its own.

This was unusually odd. Reiko was having trouble with the one thing that came most naturally to her: not sniping, but sleeping.

The rain outside was soothing, and aside from an earlier interruption by her boss' lapdog she hadn't been bothered all day. No problems, no new contracts from the man in the bucket hat, nothing. Reiko was comfortable.

And, yet, as she stared at the blankness of her empty room, she wasn't asleep. This was a problem.

Her cat, Desmond, jumped up to her face and immediately said "MAU" loudly, which translates as "my food bowl is not empty but I can see the bottom of it, fix that". Reiko returned her cat's dumb, blank stare, unblinking.

That face he was making, even if it was the face he always made, said this to her: "You need to go out and do something today to be productive and show your worth to the world, you ungrateful child."

Unfortunately, as Desmond started to lick his balls, Reiko couldn't give a good reason as to why he was wrong.

"...Mmmmmngh. Alright..."

So, she got up, took a long time putting some clothes on, stuffed a certain piece of clothing into her case and left on her bike.

And then got to her place of work.

Now fully assembled and awake, Reiko stepped foot into Giovanni's office unannounced. And, in rare form, she initiated the conversation!

"...Did you...mean for the apartment...thing...to be used for something? If it's an order, I'll take it..."

Gotham Sewers

-Killer Croc lumbers forward,◊ tail dragging behind him as he looms over the unfortunate gangsters, grinning at their obvious discomfort.-

Deal. Ah'd shake on it, but I figger ya maht need yer hand later.

That said, y'all're gonna need to warn when yer gonna be movin' down here. Mah gators don't ask who their food works for. Ain't that raht, Mary-Beth?

-Several long, dark shapes bob up to the water's surface, one of them hissing in response.-

O'Kais, Hill.

Yes, Aun'el. Although I have been unable to convince it to join our cause, perhaps this will be possible once we succeed in establishing contact with one of our worlds and the Water Caste can do its part.

Edited by Chabal2 on Jun 15th 2019 at 11:23:44 AM

Kisara and Witchcrafters - Koopa Kasino

The Witchcrafters and I took a seat at the lizard queen's conference room. They were busy sketching the room and everything they see for future projects. They were always diligent, it seemed.

I spoke up. “M-miss Bowsette... What, um, do you have planned for Cody?”

Clock King and Terra - Koopa Kasino

Jeez. Bodyguard work sucks. The Clock King's not the kind of man to accept such basic work. Then again, the Lord of Calamity will feast on his entrails if he doesn't comply. And trust me, he has seen her in action.

The Lord of Calamity just ordered some high-school prep to beat it. Not that the Clock King cares about fashion, but that kid's outfit is quite garish. If he saw the Lord of Calamity wearing that disaster, the Clock King would wonder if he took a hit of LSD. Not that the Clock King knows what LSD is. He was absolutely working on his Business Law degree at the time, and certainly not joining that loser Hippie movement like many disillusioned adults.

A kid wearing a supersuit flew into the casino area on a boulder within two minutes of the high-school prep getting reprimanded by Velvet. While pointing his pointer-hand themed sword at the kid, the Clock King grumbled, “Didn't you hear the rules...? No kids allowed here!”

The kid glared at the Clock King. Before levitating a boulder over Fugate's head as a threat, she retorted, “I'm not a kid, Fugate! I'm one of Ducard's enforcers, you know. I'm here to protect the Lord of Calamity.”

Not the type to fight a fellow helper, the Clock King quickly surrendered. “My apologies, Ms. Tara Markov! You can help us out for the time being! Your job starts in 20 seconds!”

The kid corrected the fallen crime lord. “It's Terra, Clock King... And do your job better next time.” With that introduction out of the way, Terra casually threw the boulder off into the distance, hitting a civilian by accident.

The civilian yelled, “My leg!”

Edited by josh6243 on Jun 15th 2019 at 3:10:47 AM

"Greetings, newcomer." Perhaps the first thing that the Tau would see upon their cresting of the hill would be a rather elongated armored figure speaking to them, his willowy height and crimson plate mail lending a certain sense of eye-catching impression of the one that went by Nameless. For whatever reason instead of a shadowy knight there was now a much more solid and substantial crimson figure adorned with a most decidedly war-like configuration.◊

The second thing the two aliens would find rather incongruous with the surroundings was the fact that fog was billowing atop the mound and an illusory throne room could be seen with a great seat of power hewn and empty atop the area before that disappeared moments later and the natural green meadows appeared once more. "State your questions. I shall endeavor to answer so long as they do not broach restrictive topics."

"Oh boy, I choose the Longlegs!" All but grinning by a buffoon while pumping his arm into the air, Point then began to bark out orders towards the rest of the excited buffoons who were hooting and hollering. Soon there was a big and noisy procession that led back to camp with the corpses in tow, with the local banditry congratulating themselves on a hunt well done and approving of their boss even further.

"Ah... er... them Euro-Britannian dandies were pretty clear. If we saw non bandits hanging around like them blokes from Melkia then we're supposed to tell them as soon as possible. Something about us being the only way to resupply oils, plastics, and metals at the moment for their hoity poity society and all so they wanna keep being king of shit mountain if you know what I mean?" Eyes shifting to and fro, the noseless man rubbed his hands together in a placating motion. "Just following orders, mate. No hard feelings right?"

Rico's move would work as intended, flinging the unfortunate man up and about to the nearest structure like a goon in a Spider-Man movie except much more painful due to him using sturdy metal cabling rather than softer webbing. The dictator over-thrower would then see that there was a rather noticeable ejection lever that had a twist, lock in, and then pull functionality.

If he actually tried moving the mech than a newborn faun struggling to walk on shaky legs due to the fact he didn't have the basic know how on piloting a bipedal rollerskating mech at all, though the freedom fighter could probably eventually learn how to properly at least make it chug along like a heavily inebriated drunkard once he stopped crashing and tripping the Glasgow.

Rosalina meanwhile would be rather effective in tossing the grenades back and causing quite a bit of screaming men to rain about the place, with Luma's wild escapades only serving to cause even more havoc and destruction in the area. With the tank fox firing from her armored vehicle and the squealing pig stampede, it didn't really take long for the current group to be incapacitated either by being dead or getting mauled by their wounds. Or people just playing dead because there was a freaking tank and captured mech around.

"Yes, therein lies the problem. How would you be able to properly send an attacking force of good enough size to properly besiege a magically protected underground city located kilometers beneath the earth, with the narrow pathways long and winding while clad in pitch darkness that the locals can easily see in? It is a home territory advantage heavily skewed within their favor." Steepling his fingers together while addressing the group of rather gung-ho volunteers that only seemed to multiply, Van Grants slowly shook his head.

"While I cannot deny your enthusiasm, the fact of the matter is going in half-cocked will only serve to alert the whole area in a manner akin to agitating a hive of hornets... or perhaps a pit of spiders in this case. Camoa itself is a tough nut to crack but we are greatly outnumbered by the drow and whatever else races lurk beneath the earth by twenty times the total population if what they are saying is true."

Sighing while tapping away at the table, the militia leader looked rather sour now that more information had been gained. "Instigating a war of attrition with people who are stealth experts and nocturnals would be foolhardy. The only reason why they haven't truly attacked Camoa directly yet is because they've yet to derive our own decidedly small population of 2000 or so people. Suffice to say, this is a bit of a situation we've now found ourselves in."

"This is... a place you have here, I guess?" Rubbing the back of his head while peering at the decidedly flashy place he found himself in, the man thought idly that at the very least it wasn't dealing with too bad a vices other than the gambling. Most places in Gotham had a lot more... sin to be had and whatever quirks the Koopa Kasino had at the very least it wasn't like those sorts of casinos that he had crashed in the past.

Decidedly out of his element as he loitered around like a giant among children, the mayoral candidate then turned his head on over to regard Junko with a raised eyebrow while noting that there was a sense of... offness to the cheerful girl that he couldn't quite put a finger on, the man could know at the very least that she didn't quite like him due to the fact that he had the anime martial artist power of sensing bloodlust.

Apparently he wasn't liked by the girl considering the negative intent he could glean from that quite frankly diabetes laden facade so that bore some keeping tabs on, especially when she had all but shown up unannounced at just the right time. Still, he couldn't really figure out an excuse to throw her out just because of a gut feeling that someone disliked him so that was kept mum for the moment, with the muscleman turning his attention towards Scratch.

"Whatever it was you did, you sure didn't make any fans here. Are you really the sort of man that I need as campaign adviser? I know there's no free meal in this world so you're obviously in it to fulfill some sort of nebulously mysterious goal that'd benefit you, so just lay it on me. I can make due with being used as long as your service is beneficial enough to Gotham as a whole." Sighing as all the dishonesty roiled about, Cody Travers promptly cut through the bullshit while reclining back on a chair that ominously creaked under the weight of an absolute unit.

Cagliostro for her part simply smirked both at Mr. Scratch as well as Junko, especially when the former looked rather uncomfortable and the latter was quite obviously looking for a bit of vindication. Though there was no outright verbal statement, the immortal simply let the sheer smug grin of audacity do all her work for her, arms crossed and head slightly tilted back as a form of mischief... even if there was no warmth to be found in her gaze in the least.

"Why yes, I am here to join you on your expedition into the wild and unknown world. I admit I'm a bit full of wanderlust at the moment after being in one place for so long so I'll be coming along for the ride." Clapping her hands together in a pleased manner after seeing just how cute the Architect body was being, the Pokemon Trainer simply let her hands drift forward to do a chin scratching session◊ along with some head patting and gentle ear rubbings on the side. Though she always asked for permission before doing such, once given there was no holding back in the least.

Adventurer's Gulid, Food Court — Yo, Arrancar

I swing my feet idly beneath the table as I sip my iced coffee through a metal straw. Before I came to the Frontiers, I'd never had something so exotic and amazing before, but now I can have it every day! On top of that, I'm here with Starrk and Lord Aizen, my two favorite people in the whole world! Nothing can bring down my mood, not even that weird rain falling outside! After all, Lord Aizen isn't worried about it, so why should I be? Yep, life is good!

The only thing that's not perfect about today is the dress I have to wear. According to Lord Aizen, it's called a "sundress" — another thing that was new to me. We didn't have sundresses in Heuco Mundo. After all, there was no sun there, only the moon! Even the blue sky and lighting in Las Noches was just artificial, unlike in the World of the Living. Anyway, what was wrong with my original, more comfy clothes?! That was my uniform as part of Lord Aizen's army, for goodness' sake! Nobody complained when I wore it then! Why was it suddenly 'indecent' or whatever these stupid Europeans called it?! What right do they have to judge what I wear anyway?! I may look young, but I'm like at least twenty times older than them!

"Oi, Lilynette," my best friend interrupts my train of thought, "You're thinking about how you want to wear your old clothes again, aren't you?"

"What?!" I squawk indignantly, blanching. Lord Aizen was the one who told me I had to dress like this. What will he think if he knows I'm unsatisfied with it?! "I am not!"

"Yeeeeah, I'm pretty sure you are."

"Am not! Stupid Starrk!" I lash my foot out under the table and kick him in the shin for good measure. He lets out a satisfying groan of pain in response. Ha! Serves him right!

"Fine," he grumbles, slouching with his chin in his gloved hand, "Have it your way." Meanwhile, Lord Aizen just sips his tea calmly as usual. Phew! He hasn't noticed! Maybe he's lost in thought. ...Who am I kidding, of course he noticed. Nothing escapes Lord Aizen. At least he doesn't seem angry about it, though. Safe!

Trying to distract myself so I don't dig myself deeper, I return to eavesdropping on the conversation of the ladies a couple tables over. This talk between "Toriel Dreemurr" and "Lucy, Lord of the Land Down Under" was fascinating. The relationship of this "Strike World" with Earth sounded sort of similar to how Soul Society and Heuco Mundo were with respect to the World of the Living, only Strike World was divided into more than just two separate dimensions. It seems like they both come from interesting places and lead interesting lives, based on what they've talked about so far. Plus, their reiatsus are weird. Neither feels like anything I've sensed before, but they're both unusually strong.

"Are you wondering about those women's reiatsus, Lilynette?" Lord Aizen murmurs conspiratorially, staring across at me with a faint smile.

Wow! How does he know what I'm thinking?! That's Lord Aizen for you! I nod quickly, returning my eyes to him from where they'd wandered to the side.

"I admit I've never sensed anything like them, either," he whispers, taking a measured drag of his drink, "If you're curious, why not ask them about it?"

I perk up immediately. A scouting mission! "Right!" I agree in a hushed voice of my own, then rapidly drain the rest of my coffee. It'll melt by the time I get back if I just leave it here! "...Gack!" Brain-freeze!

By the time I shake away the throbbing in my head, Toriel has already left for another part of the building. Damn, I better hurry up! At least my other target is still there. I slip out of my seat and hustle over to Lucy's table. ...Wait, shit, what do I say? I can't just call her Lucy. Then she'll know I was listening in earlier! Uhhhhhhhh...

"...'scuse me," I start after a few moments of dead silence, gripping one of my arms uncertainly, "Your reiatsu's really unusual. I've never felt anything like it before. So I was wondering, er... what are you?"

Adventurer's Guild, Quest Board — Meanwhile...

Scattered across the notice board, between all the rest of the quests patrons had put up over the weeks, sat twenty-three grave requests. Ten were pleas to investigate the sudden murders of Argus Anderson, Christopher Chandler, George Goldberg, Gerald Grimm, Lloyd Leatherman, Matthew Mason, Sebastian Smith, Timothy Taylor, William Ward, and Zachary Zimmerman. The other thirteen each asked respondents to search for different people who had gone missing, though there were few details on each request aside from what the person looked like, who to contact, and in about half the cases, a sketch of the missing person. The rewards varied, some offering gold, others offering the solver's choice of a series of products, and still others noting to contact the requester for more details on payment.

Presently, a stooped old woman with stringy white hair hobbled over to the board, and slowly withdrew a paper from her bag. Grabbing a pin with trembling, arthritic fingers, she stuck her notice there for all to see. As she swept her gaze across to glance at the other notices, however, her vision began to blur with hot tears, and her breath caught in her throat. Shuddering, she braced herself against the board and bowed her head, weeping bitterly.

Edited by darksidevoid on Jun 15th 2019 at 11:33:09 AM

Yue - Adventurer's guild, quest board

"Here, ma'am, is everything alright?" Yue's usual deadpan was coloured with polite concern as she came up beside the struggling old woman, lifting a hand to help support her as she slumped. Following the woman's previous gaze, she found the notice of Gerald Grimm's murder... and Lloyd's, and Matthew's...

The young detective's expression slowly darkened with concern as she found notice after notice. A constellation of killings and disappearances.

I haven't had time to look at the board in weeks... how long have these been piling up?

She thought back to the Targ villagers and their whispered stories of disappearances.

How long has this been going on?

With her other hand, Yue reached to flatten down the old woman's notice, tipping her hat back to read.

Edited by LittleMako on Jun 16th 2019 at 12:00:14 PM

The Joker - Funhouse/Joker's Office

Joker was more than happy to answer any calls made to him. What comes out were words of praise... and a name that he did not recognize.

A blink. "Napier? Now who the hell is ... Oh, oh, wait! Are you confusing me with the other Jokers in whatever world slash dimension you're in? Hah, now wouldn't that be a treat, a council filled with nothing but different versions of me!"

Jump City. Robin. Teen Titans. Could it be...

"Oh, Deathstroke! My man, how have you been? Well, maybe you're not the Deathstroke I know but since we're stuck here, you might as well be."

As for the praises themselves, "And awww, thank you! You could say I'm doing swimmingly well, being the de facto only crime boss worth a damn and kicking around this parts. You should try it out sometimes! Granted, I wager my lifespan's gonna be drastically reduced the moment the Outsiders turn their eyes on me, my allies included, but what's life without a few risks, eh?" Then, he heard a certain other radio broadcast being played out. "And something's telling me another gang just bites the dust without me knowing! Geez, I wonder if I'm next, ahhhahahahahaaa!"

"... Speaking of, you still accepting jobs? Got a couple lined up just for you, Sladey! Or are you just gonna go the lone wolf route and do your own fun little thing?"

Funhouse - Entrance

At the entrance, there were peeps already expecting a drop-off from Junko. After being handed said files, they in turn gave her shmucks what she requested from the Joker: records regarding Gotham's population and demographics, in addition to case files regarding various infamous known criminals populating the place.

For Gotham's overall pops info, trying to get a solid headcount is easier said than done as evidenced by how there's not one but several stacks of documents about it. Along with there being various versions of its records complete with different timelines, history or even geographical information of the place due to the nature of Gotham being a mishmash of all other Gothams. Add to that to the constantly increasing numbers of death happening, inefficiently corrupt officials getting killed and many other factors resulting from being a sheer hive of villainy, it's a wonder something gets recorded accurately, if at all. Should Junko make an effort to get through all that jargon and made countless cross-references, she'll be able to see that there's approximately around 40,000 to 70,000 citizens living in Gotham. Even then, it isn't solid data but at least it's something.

With the criminal records, she would have better luck: listing the latest information regarding the various infamous criminals from Blackgate and Arkham Asylum of his own world. Most notably, some of the entries have been circled out while the others have been crossed instead. The circled entries include Cat-Woman, Deadshot, the Joker, Killer Croc and Scarecrow while the crossed entries so far includes Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Two Face. Just as the mook at the entrance was about to be hand it out, he stopped as something was being transmitted through his earpiece before circling the 'Deathstroke' entry with a pen as well. At the end of it all was written a personal note by the Joker himself. 'Word of advice: Don't take this as absolute facts! I'm blaming parallel reality shenanigans but some of 'em might be way different than expected, like Freeze and his ice-cold puns!'

Gotham Sewers - Somehow, went off without a hitch

"Uhh, you have a cell with you or something? Or... wait, better idea. We'll leave someone with ya to tell you when we're coming," At this, he pushed a mook forward, much to his confusion and dismay.

"Wait, what the hell?!"

"You heard me, I'm the boss here. Don't like it, tough shit. Unless someone else would like to volunteer..." Unsurprisingly, no kind soul came forward to take one for the team.

With the sacrificial lamb uttering a series of curses under his breath, the mook leader turned back towards the docile Titan 'food' before looking back at Killer Croc.

"So, uhh, you wanna keep it, or...?"

Streets - Jokestar Boys

"Ya got it, boss! No idea what ya planning to do with all these explosives, but it sure as hell gonna be one lit day." He and his mooks were about to skedaddle and follow the Decepticon's orders until he turned back.

"Oh, one more thing. Joker's planning something on Arkham Island. Ya know, the one being taken over by that Italian mob guy? Word is he's gathering lotsa guys for a hostile takeover."

"And something else about a hospital or some shit like that. Could be another raid against those Hospital fucks, could be something more. The other Outsider might be involved too. Thought you should know."

And with that, if there was nothing left to keep him around, he and the rest of the Jokestar's would go on to advance Starscream's own nefarious plan for the City...

Edited by JustSomeGuy732 on Jun 16th 2019 at 10:28:53 PM