NationStates Jolt Archive

((OOC: Sorry, I tried to make this first post as short as I could. This is a big event though, so it was hard.http://e.deviantart.com/emoticons/a/animesweat.gif ))
Screams of anguish. A symphony of lights both frightening and beautiful. Endless firelight, reflected off the flailing arms of the tormented.
This is the place that those of Iesus Christi and likeminded countries called Hell, where ironically so many of their former people made their homes. The souls in the bottomless brimstone lake were all punished for some transgression while in the living world, be it theivery or mass genocide. Their arms and bodies, twitching wildly for something to grasp on to and pull themselves out of the torment, were eternally proforming what the more sentient denizens of Hell called the "dance of agony". Among these dancing agonized souls was that of Sara Resi, daughter of the now-dead CEO, whose only crime was that she no longer wished to live. In the beginning she had felt she was done an injustice by the system, but she had sense got over it. Injustice or no, nothing could change her present state. Her Earthly body was destroyed, she had nothing to hope for or go back to. She just had the increasing agony inflicted upon her soul to look forward to. Each day challanged the lake to inflict greater ammounts of pain upon her, and the awful lake answered its call in full force, almost consuming her in its fury and pain until she felt like she was no more, only to realize her soul had a lot more left as the lake continued to make it writhe in pain.
But lately something happened that confused her. She was getting "breaks" from the pain, and during these breaks she saw an old friend of hers staring at her analytically. She couldn't quite pin a name on the face (it had been over 100 years of torment, after all), but it was someone important to her. Considering that after this long she barely remembered her name, this little detail was an incredible feat to remember. Sara clung to these breaks with as much strength as her wounded soul could muster, but she invariably slipped back to her hellish reality. The breaks were getting longer, though, so she kept up hope.
* * *
"Sara? Sara, wake up!"
"Unnnngh... ah...."
Sara's eyes snapped open, and the blurry world came into focus. She was in another break, but this one was different. She felt, and could move around. As she slowly came to terms with her world, she found herself suspended in a thick liquid, so thick it constrained her movement. It was like being suspended in jello, but somehow being able to breathe. Wriggling through the mess, she reached forward to swim and felt a hard surface break away under her hand as she broke through a barrier of some kind. Seconds later the mess spilled out of the container it was in, taking Sara with it. She ended up face up on the floor, completely nude and having the coughing fit of her life.
But that was the thing, she was ALIVE again! If she hadn't taken in a quart of the jello-like material, she'd have been a lot happier about this fact, but as it stood she had to purge herself of it else be sent back to Hell. One coughing fit later, the substance came out of her throat in a big lump on the floor, splattering into a goopy blue puddle.

Now she was fully awake, and took in her new surroundings. In front of her there was a large, plain metal table with blueprints on it detailing something... she couldn't quite tell what yet. Near the desk was a chair with a labcoat on it, the kind a doctor or a dentist would wear that was kept immaculately white. This was her primary objective, to get the coat before she was found naked and very vulnerable. Somehow her muscles had escaped atrophy, and she climbed to her feet and stumbled forward with relative ease. She grasped the chair and kept herself from falling, slowly sliding the labcoat off of the seat and on to her dripping wet body. Next, she had to find a weapon, then... probably a shower, although a way out of whereever she was would be nice, too. Turning around and proping herself up against the chair, she saw just what she wanted. It was where she and the goop had come out of, a crystalline tube that she had shattered with her bare hands. The material was probably made for just such a purpose, which ment that she was probably ment to punch her way out of it. Still, that didn't mean the shards of it weren't sharp, and she managed to scoop one up off the ground and tuck it away in her pocket before moving on. Walking came more naturally to her now, and she was able to hobble along with the best of them. Dragging her feet through the gunk and glass, she made her way down the only hallway out of the place.
* * *
"Professor, you need to see this,"
"What is it... aw shit, you have to be kidding me!"
"No ma'am, it's live video feed from sector 5. I'm afraid this is real."
"But I haven't even found her mind data yet, let alone actually uploaded it."
"Then how is what we're seeing possible? She's already put on your labcoat and armed herself with a piece of glass."
"The only scientific explanation is that someone hooked up our network to the internet and a roaming A.I. found its way into her body. From the looks of that piece of glass, it hasn't found its built-in weapons systems yet, and must've been a pretty bad A.I. not to detect them in the first place. Still, given enough time it WILL find them and prove to be a major pain. We have to recover that body and neutralize it as soon as possible."
"Ma'am!"
* * *
Klaxons blaired as Sara Resi ran down the hall. Having just relearned this ability, she used it in full force. The walls slid open, and robots emptied into the corridor. They did not fire their onboard weapons, however, and she slipped through them with ease. She didn't even bother to slice them as she went by, she knew her glass would do little against full-on buckyball-silk. She had no idea WHY she knew this, but for the time being she was more than content to go with instinct on this matter. The robots gave chase, and she gave them something to chase by outrunning each and every one of them as they tried to tackle her, akin to some bizarre form of football played by half-naked women and robots. Looking far off in the distance, she saw something that she had not seen in a very long while. The light of day.
* * *
"Why the HELL is the door open?"
"I... I don't rightly know. This place is supposed to be sealed."
"But it isn't, and the main door is open, and if she sets a foot out there you're going to be fired."
"Ah, so I should close it then!"
"Gee, you think? Just do it!"
"..."
"What?"
"It... won't close... it keeps telling me there's a flagrant error with the door, whatever the hell that means."
"Then activate the robots and my powersuit, I'm going after the body. I won't let any bit of code take my pet project away from me."
"...done."
"Oh will you look at that, looks like she's out the door."
"Ma'am?"
"Clean out your desk."
* * *
She was outside, in the fresh and crisp morning air. It blew in a soothing breeze acrossed her skin, making her feel truly alive and exciting every bit of her being. She closed her eyes and shouted in glee, but doing this had its disadvantages. Not only did she draw notice from the entire area, but she ran headlong into a bystander.
((OOC: Right now Sara's in one of the market districts of Resi City, the capital of the Resi Corporation. There're likely to be tourists everywhere, so RPing as anyone in your nation is entirely acceptable. Just try not to make it someone with OMG UBER superpowers. One or two special abilities is acceptable, but please keep it limited.))

Gabriel Martin had always been a traveller, and had set himself the goal of seeing as much of the world as was possible in his lifetime. And it was in the attempt to fulfil this goal that he found himself in the middle of one of the market districts in Resi City. He had been in the nation for a couple of days, and was familiar with his location, having accommodation only a stone’s throw away, or more accurately a couple of streets away.

He pulled his rucksack on his shoulder, favouring to wear it only on one rather than on both, which he saved only for his larger bag. He looked at the latest curio he had just purchased, hoping that his parents would find a safe place for it until he returned home to claim it. He had to find a mail service sometime.

Lost to everything other than his own thoughts, he frowned for a moment wondering what had made him buy such a monstrosity, when suddenly the object of his fascination was knocked from his hand, smashing into a hundred pieces on the ground. Turning suddenly towards the thing that had bashed into him, he had an oath on his lips, which was swallowed as he looked at the cause. “What the…?!” He shook his head. “Watch where you are going, lady!”


[ooc: If the bystander was meant for someone else, let me know and I'll edit]

((OOC: Naw, "Open RP" means "Open RP", I would've said something if I expected the bystander to be someone specific. :) ))
IC:

Sara was knocked back by the collision, and fell flat on her back dropping the glass. She stumbled around for a bit before noticing the man she ran into. She still hadn't come completely to terms with her surroundings yet, or for that matter the English language, as she was about to demonstrate.
"I... sorry..." she said, taking long pauses between the words, as if she was contemplating some deeper meaning behind them, "I... d-not... mean... harm you."
Climbing to her feet, she caught a glance of the... thing she had destroyed. She couldn't quite tell what it was anymore, but knew it definately wasn't fixable.
"Sorry... about... that..." she muttered, looking up at Martin.
No sooner had these broken words escaped her lips than a battalion of robots marched out of the open vault door a ways behind her. Hovering over them was a mechanical suit, military grade, that obviously contained a human. Sara seemed oblivious to the approaching army, instead focusing on the item she had ruined.

OOC: Sera Resi is Back!? What in the hell does it take to extinquish the fricken line anyway.

And being that the only person left in the world...(well maybe not) or the closest psudo relative she has happens to be the Overlord of the Var...Eris's Godson (now isn't that a tenious conection) I might just send a few people to investigate things...(but no Var unless all "Hell" breaks loose.)

Appolgize for some of the weirdness to my fellow Rpers. But all of this is actually involves previous characters involved with the Resi family at some point.

IC:William sat with his back to the fire and the large pool at his summer palace. He was buisly reading some new mystery when he felt a chill in the air. A cold wind was running down his neck.

'What have you done' echoed out in a booming voice.

William turned in his chair, his right hand looking for the secret compartment containing a small pulse gun. His eyes widened a bit at the sight.

It was of a figure, in a black cloak with a sythe in one bony hand.
William stopped looking for the pulse gun, it was useless and likely unneeded.
"I have no idea who or what you are talking about Charon."

'I have demons all over Purgatory looking for a soul that has escaped'

"And this has to do with me...." The Overlord was getting tired of playing this game.

"It is the soul of the one known as Sera Resi..."

"Resi...Sera...As in Jai's girl...the one who died just after or before Jai and Eris got married?"

The specter nodded.

"I have no idea...no clue...and no need for Sera Resi to be buisly running about on this plane of existance."

The specter turned back towards the pool and the boat sitting in it. A moment later both vanished back into the fog.

"Sera Resi...escaped Hell...nothing I can do...but if Eris finds out I did nothing I will be up to my arm pits in golden apples. Damned if I do, damned if I don't...[/i]"

He rose and walked over to his desk and pressed a button. "I need to raise a few souls. I have a personal mission, oh and see if you can get Preistess Kena on the line, I think I need to send her on a little trip."

Huh. That's Odd.
Belanova Orlove looked on as a half-naked women stumbled outside, yelling and being persued by what looked like a small army of mechinical soldiers. The robots approached quickly, but the women stopped and started to apologize to a bystander she had collided with.

She should probably keep moving.
The women still did not budge. The robots were almost on top of her, raising thier weapons. Belanova walked across the market and tapped the women on the shoulder.
run."
"Hey, lady, I don't know if you are aware of this, but there's a bunch of robots coming after you. You should probably run."

[ooc: I hate to do an ooc so soon into the thread...in fact, I hate doing oocs. But Before I go on posting in this thread, I need to know whether I can expect this kind of thing before I continue. You see, I have always held the belief that RPs work better if people do not have the easy solution to everything.

And I may be a bit dense, but why the hell would someone in a market be carrying 100 gallons of compressed and electrified water, which would weigh up to 800lbs?

If this is the way this thing is going, it would probably be best if I pull out now.]

[ooc: I hate to do an ooc so soon into the thread...in fact, I hate doing oocs. But Before I go on posting in this thread, I need to know whether I can expect this kind of thing before I continue. You see, I have always held the belief that RPs work better if people do not have the easy solution to everything.

And I may be a bit dense, but why the hell would someone in a market be carrying 100 gallons of compressed and electrified water, which would weigh up to 800lbs?

If this is the way this thing is going, it would probably be best if I pull out now.]
((OOC: That's usually what we call an "iffy RP", which is probably just an innocent mistake as opposed to a flagrant disobedience of the laws of physics to attain more power, which is a Godmod. Besides, the woman could have bionic enhancements or some sort of holy powers, as I've brought both future tech and fantasy into this with my mentions of robots and hell, respectivly. However, what irks me is that my robots don't fire projectiles generally, and certainly wouldn't in this case as they're not only trying to avoid damaging Sara because they need the body back in one piece, but any attack could provoke her to fight back, and as the antagonist has hinted that's something they really don't want.

So, for RPing one of my characters, I'm going to have to ask Ravea to remove that post, or at least edit it. You also have to remember that the robots don't look particularly threatening at this point, and they aren't likely to do anything that looks too threatening besides detain Sara. Hurting or scaring bystanders is bad for business. However, it would be particularly wise for everyone in the market to get the heck out of the way of the parade of robots, as they don't particularly like to stop once they're in motion.

Oh, and tLoW, fantasy is acceptable here as long as it's not crazy uber-powered. I'm trying to keep everyone at a pretty low power level here, for a balanced RP. That's another reason why the robots can't fire.

And yes, I hate OOCs too, so that's it for this one.))

OCC:Edited! Sorry, I've just always wanted to use a can of Boom, a drink/Weapon that my friend thought up.

Huh. That's Odd.
Belanova Orlove looked on as a half-naked women stumbled outside, yelling and being persued by what looked like a small army of mechinical soldiers. The robots approached quickly, but the women stopped and started to apologize to a bystander she had collided with.

She should probably keep moving.
The women still did not budge. The robots were almost on top of her, raising thier weapons. Belanova walked across the market and tapped the women on the shoulder.
run."
"Hey, lady, I don't know if you are aware of this, but there's a bunch of robots coming after you. You should probably run."
((OOC: Still pretty iffy, what with the robots needing to be non-threatening and all, but for the sake of less OOCage I'll let it slide.))
IC:
The robots merely raised their weapons so as to show Sara they were serious, and they would've done a darn good job if it wasn't for two factors, the first being that she was far more concerned with the damage that she had caused than the approaching robot army behind her. The second factor was also why she was more concerned with the broken item than the robots, and that was simply because of who she was.
Sara didn't even turn to Orlove, she simply glanced past her and turned to the robots. Weapons drawn, they stared her down as she stood in the middle of a public square completely unarmed. If they were so inclined, she knew they could fire and tear her frail body limb from limb with powerful laser weapons, effectivly ending her life once more and sending her tumbling back to the pit. But she was Sara Resi, and the programmers of the Resi Corporation often didn't do they work they didn't have to do.
"Stop," she said forcefully, in straight English, "I am Sara Resi, Executive First Class and daughter of CEO Jai Resi. You are robots of the Resi Corporation, produced in factories around the globe to serve us and others who pay for your services. I am the heir to the corporation, and to harm me would harm yourselves."
She remembered how her dad inserted this bit of code into the basic programming of all robots, for just this purpose. If there ever was a rebellion, he told her, if all else failed, she would be safe no matter what. She remembered her father, Jai, and all that he had done for her. She remembered her life, as de facto leader of Bandonia and a great college student as Greater Corporate U. But that was it. She was still missing a great bit, a darker bit that had yet to rear it ugly head and spread into this incarnation what plagued her last stay on this planet.

The robots could not fire. They would not fire. To do harm to the corporation ment no upgrades, no maintainence. Sara was, in their code, the corporation incarnate. The same bit of code that kept them from killing themselves kept them from killing her.

"Capture her!" the woman in the mechanized suit yelled, but the robots would not listen. They could no longer lay a finger on her, they would not.
Cursing to herself inside the suit, the woman flew the suit down to Sara's level and grabbed her on the arm through the robotic fingers of the suit. The green visor of her suit stared Sara intently in the eyes, daring her to move.
"You're coming with me, like it or not." the woman in the suit said to her.

((No more Gods or such from me...I just had to have some means of getting IC knowledge that Sera Resi is no longer residing in the Inferno...and the fact that Charon never really liked the Resi's that much. Although by now Jai and his first wife are likely together again...
And G.T. if you find that first post way out, that is about as far as I am going...now just some high powered personal weapons and that's it. Well and a small gravcutter to get them to Resi City...))

The wall vid-phone beeped the double chirp. Two blue eyes sprung open while a petiet mouth issued a moan of displeasure. The woman turned her elegant head to look at her sleeping partner for the evening. What was his name? Oh, f*** She rose and hit the voice only button.

Kethlord Vera?... the drawl of the House steward forced the woman's nude body to come to attention. "yes..."

This is the Steward, The Overlord needs someone with tact and a wide range of skills investigate a little family mystery.

A family mystery? The House of Crawfnord was not known for entrusting just anyone to dealing with family buisness. After all they had to keep on their toes to avoid having another Great House use some problem within the family against them. "Yes...I am willing to take on the task..."

Eight Hundread Hours, at the Summer Tor you will be breifed by the Overlord himself...
"Yes, mylord I shall be there..."

She hit the button to close the channel and looked back at her bed. I don't have time to go to sleep, but should I let him sleep or kick him out before I take a shower. Well he was fun...so let him sleep before I put his tail out into the cold.

CEO Johnathan Tetragammaton sat back in his office, and observed the changing city below the crystal crag of a skyscraper that was Resi Tower. It had been months sense he took office, and the corporation was gearing for another golden age the likes it hadn't seen sense Jai Resi was alive. However, one thing still bothered him.
The head scientist, the cheif of ResiCorp R&D had long sense gone into hiding sense the previous CEO, Dae Narasagi, took power and turned the Resi Corporation into the Resi Collective. She never trusted Narasagi much, no one did. Jai was the only one who thought her fit for a job like CEO, and this was obviously the biggest mistake of his reign. This was irrelivant now, though, as Johnathan had single-handedly brought the corporation back up to its former status.
A slot opened in his antique wooden desk and a memo spat out. It was from the local Interior Management Director, whose job it was to keep Resi City running at optimum efficency. He was more a figurehead for an elaborate bureaucracy, as centralized power was no longer practical for a city the size of Resi City. Reguardless, he was an intelligent figurehead with a considerable ammount of clout, and a memo from him was something to look in to.
Johnathan picked up the memo and looked it over. On it the words "Massive robot gathering in sector 8. Specifics and cause unknown." were printed in plain black ink. He clicked his pen and scribbled out, "Send single squad of R-5 units with human support to investigate, fire the cause of the riot." before sending the paper back into his desk. He figured it was just another collective loyalist in desperate need of firing, angry at the corporation for returning to its roots.

Little did he know he was fueling an inevitable fire, one that would consume the city and himself alive.

Shandaril leaned against the wall with her arms folded as she watched the chaos about her. Well, chaos other than the typical chaos for the abyss. The half-human/half-succubus was enjoying the drama playing out around her. She had fought the demons and the devils of the abyss on far to many occasions to count, her human side turning against the demonic blood and flesh, while the demonic powers she possessed isolated her forever from the human nature inside her. The incident caught her attention. Not because someone escaped, it had happened before, but because it she enjoyed playing in the drama. The only question now was which side would she take. Should she bring the soul back and take the side of the abyss? Help the soul escape and take it's side? Or find the obviously powerful soul that managed to break free and feed on it as her succubus' needs demanded?

'Well', she thought, 'first things first, I need to find it.'

The essance was still strong and she followed it to the point where it had entered the prime material plane. Succubi were used as little more by other demons than mistresses. But a succubus fed on the souls of the living and could trace them quite easily.

A brief shimmer and she stepped into a room where a broken container lay on the floor from which still oozed some blue ichor. 'An alchemical experiment?' she wondered. She looked around herself, trying to focus on the life force she sought. She was dressed in nothing more than a thin, sheer, silk shift that left nothing to the imagination. Her beauty was unearthly. Dark brown, almost black hair that hung to her waist, light brown, doe colored eyes, tanned skin and a perfect body that seemed just a bit different to the individuals who viewed it, seeming to conform to thier personal desires. Even women seemed affected by her as her natural demonic charm called to them.

With Bass off at the 1st Annual Interstellar Gold Open, and Wily and most of the other Robot Masters(Who make up the government) playing in the Cherry Cup, Crash Man decided to take a short vacation(Hey, HE wasn't the interm dictator!) and visit on the the countries in the reigon. Resi seemed like the best, so he went there.

"While the master's away, the robot will mooch funds from the treasury and go on a "fact-finding" mission", said Crash smugly to himself as he walked into the marketplace, clutching a First National Bank of Robotopolis credit card('A Magic Zenny Machine', proclaims the front of the card). He ignored the screaming masses running AWAY from the marketplace, while visions of kick-ass weapon upgrades danced through his head. As he was about to enter a shop, Crash happened to spy a scene where-in, like, a BAJILLION robots and a person in a mech appearing to gang up on 3 seeming civilians. Sensing a chance to earn publicity and possibly a reward, Crash Man activated his visor as his hands slid into his arms, to be replaced with drill things. He then started walking towards the scene, waiting for something to happen, trying to look casual...

OOC: Hope you don't mind if I butt in, I'm trying to get some RP time to flesh out my new nation.

IC: Juan Hieronymus Bosquez woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. He looked around his room to see what had disturbed him, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, not even a moth slipped through the mosquito net. It was a still balmy night. He slowly pushed aside the mosquito net and walked to the open window to look outside of his cabin.

The full moon lit up the beach outside of his cabin pouring crisp white light over the palms, sand, and gently churning seas. Juan nervously stroked his thin moustache as he surveyed the unsettling stillness of the night. A crow glided down and gently settled on a battered old fence post.

"You've flown a long way, little fellow," Juan spoke casually to the foreign bird.

Juan and the crow held eye contact for a few long moments when suddenly a bolt of lightning shot from the cloudless sky. Juan tried to shake the light and noise of it from his head as he ran out into his yard. He stared at spot where the fencepost and crow had been.

He found no charred crow and no fence post. Just a perfect cross emblazoned on the white sand in charred black blood.

Juan Bosquez knew these were his marching orders. He threw a full few things into a suitcase and hopped the first plane off of the island.

He had dealt with Demons many times before, and he had learned there was no such thing as business as usual.

Shandaril leaned against the wall with her arms folded as she watched the chaos about her. Well, chaos other than the typical chaos for the abyss. The half-human/half-succubus was enjoying the drama playing out around her. She had fought the demons and the devils of the abyss on far to many occasions to count, her human side turning against the demonic blood and flesh, while the demonic powers she possessed isolated her forever from the human nature inside her. The incident caught her attention. Not because someone escaped, it had happened before, but because it she enjoyed playing in the drama. The only question now was which side would she take. Should she bring the soul back and take the side of the abyss? Help the soul escape and take it's side? Or find the obviously powerful soul that managed to break free and feed on it as her succubus' needs demanded?

'Well', she thought, 'first things first, I need to find it.'

The essance was still strong and she followed it to the point where it had entered the prime material plane. Succubi were used as little more by other demons than mistresses. But a succubus fed on the souls of the living and could trace them quite easily.

A brief shimmer and she stepped into a room where a broken container lay on the floor from which still oozed some blue ichor. 'An alchemical experiment?' she wondered. She looked around herself, trying to focus on the life force she sought. She was dressed in nothing more than a thin, sheer, silk shift that left nothing to the imagination. Her beauty was unearthly. Dark brown, almost black hair that hung to her waist, light brown, doe colored eyes, tanned skin and a perfect body that seemed just a bit different to the individuals who viewed it, seeming to conform to thier personal desires. Even women seemed affected by her as her natural demonic charm called to them.
Klaxons were still blairing as Shandaril manifested herself in the room. Around the room blue alarm lights flashed, the base's signal that an experiment needed emergency attention.

"The HELL is that?"
Josh Duran was a simple security guard in a not-so-simple research facility. After his boss had been fired, he moved up the chain of command and took over her post, the big cushy leather chair situated in front of a thousand-odd monitors. However, one of the monitors was glowing signifigantly brighter than the others, the base's built-in system for drawing attention to potential disasters. The A.I. that regulate but not run the security system had found a rather odd unidentified heat source in the same area that the breakout of Sara Resi occured, and had brought this to Josh's attention. As if driven by reflex Josh smacked the button on his console to deploy a mid-strength investigative force. This team of robots was programmed to remove the intruder from the building unless the intruder presented them with valid identification. Should the intruder be non-compliant, force would be considered a valid option.

Back in the chamber where Sara Resi once was, the alarm lights turned from blue to red and the klaxon kicked up a couple of notches on the scale from one to insanely annoying. Above the sirens and off in the distance, the clank of metal feet on metal floor could be heard as robots approached the lone succubus.

With Bass off at the 1st Annual Interstellar Gold Open, and Wily and most of the other Robot Masters(Who make up the government) playing in the Cherry Cup, Crash Man decided to take a short vacation(Hey, HE wasn't the interm dictator!) and visit on the the countries in the reigon. Resi seemed like the best, so he went there.

"While the master's away, the robot will mooch funds from the treasury and go on a "fact-finding" mission", said Crash smugly to himself as he walked into the marketplace, clutching a First National Bank of Robotopolis credit card('A Magic Zenny Machine', proclaims the front of the card). He ignored the screaming masses running AWAY from the marketplace, while visions of kick-ass weapon upgrades danced through his head. As he was about to enter a shop, Crash happened to spy a scene where-in, like, a BAJILLION robots and a person in a mech appearing to gang up on 3 seeming civilians. Sensing a chance to earn publicity and possibly a reward, Crash Man activated his visor as his hands slid into his arms, to be replaced with drill things. He then started walking towards the scene, waiting for something to happen, trying to look casual...
Sara saw Crash approaching, and took her eye off of the mechanical suit for a second.
A new model? she thought, her mind racing, Wouldn't surprise me, Kallisti knows* how long I've been in the pit.
And so, she tried the same old trick she had on the other robots.
"Stop! As Sara Resi, I'm the corporation's heir, yadda yadda yadda... just don't attack."
But Crash didn't stop. He was too far off to hear her, but she didn't know this.
Shit! She thought, looking on in terror, They must've deleted the code to save space!

*"Kallisti knows" is directly equivalent to "lord knows"

"Well THAT'S annoying", she said as the alarms got louder. She couldn't seem to identify the source but it mattered little. She altered the sound from a glaring warning to one of soft music and altered the light to that of a soft blue.

"Much better", she said smiling. The sound of metal on metal caught her attention and she turned toward the corrider. "Now the fun begins", she said as she waited for the armored men and struck a seductive pose. What approached was something she had never encountered. They weren't living, they weren't dead, not even undead. She placed one hand on her hip, cocking her hips in another, unconciously seductive pose and tilted her head slightly as they entered.

"And just what, may I ask, are you?" she asked them as they entered.

Juan Bosquez stumbled off of the plane in Resi. The battered old Constellation propellor aircraft from Verracosa looked absolutely medieval compared to the slick ultramodern jets taxiing about the airport. Trying to overcome the feeling of being a lost tourist in the future, he pulled a small tin compass from his pocket and started walking off across the tarmac in a direction indicated by his compass. Unfortunately this was not the direction that the frustrated airport personnel were trying to direct the passengers.

"Uh, sir, SIR! You can't go that way!" a young man yelled as he ran to grab Juan.

"Oh, oh just looking," Juan flashed his winning latin smile and melded into the group.

"That bumpkin was gonna get run over by a plane, you'd think he'd never seen a jet before," the airport man snickered to one of his friends as they set about pulling the baggage from the plane's cargo hold.

Juan wandered around the airport like a lost child for quite sometime, all the while exuding confidence and the air of one-who-is-not-completely-lost. There were no payphones in the entire airport, EVERYONE here has a cellphone. He spied an amiable looking passerby.

"Excuse me, m'am, but might I borrow your portable telephone, I need to order a taxi, and-" He gestured grandly around the airport and flashed his winning smile, "-no payphones."

"Well THAT'S annoying", she said as the alarms got louder. She couldn't seem to identify the source but it mattered little. She altered the sound from a glaring warning to one of soft music and altered the light to that of a soft blue.

"Much better", she said smiling. The sound of metal on metal caught her attention and she turned toward the corrider. "Now the fun begins", she said as she waited for the armored men and struck a seductive pose. What approached was something she had never encountered. They weren't living, they weren't dead, not even undead. She placed one hand on her hip, cocking her hips in another, unconciously seductive pose and tilted her head slightly as they entered.

"And just what, may I ask, are you?" she asked them as they entered.
The marching continued, even after Shandaril posed her question. Rank and file, the robots walked forward, steps coordinated to the millisecond. The sound was like a ghastly applause that echoed the halls, something the criminals of the Resi Corporation heard throughout their nightmares.
With a metalic KLIK CLAK!, the automated soldiers stopped, standing shoulder to shoulder and barring access along a hall that was perfectly designed for just such a proportion. At the front and center of the lines was a different colored robot that seemed a mite more armed than his counterparts. It began to speak, without lips, with a voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere.
"I AM AN R-BOTv2.5, MILITARY GRADE MODEL. MY ASSOCIATES ARE R-BOTv1.4'S, AN INFERIOR MODEL THAT IS MORE EXPENDABLE THAN MYSELF. WE ARE HERE TO REMOVE YOU FROM THIS FACILITY UNLESS YOU CAN PRESENT PROPER IDENTIFICATION. COMPLY AND YOU CAN KEEP YOUR LIFE. RESIST AND YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE. DO YOU HAVE A VALID IDENTIFICATION CARD?"

Shandaril laughed lightly, "Die. My dear, death is a sport. I take it your a golem. No sense of humor. You know mages could do that." The life force wasn't in this area, therefore the best thing to do would be to let them escort her, at least until they were taking her in a direction she didn't want to go.

"I would be MOST grateful for your escort from here", she told the robot and stepped forward to accompany them.

Juan Bosquez stumbled off of the plane in Resi. The battered old Constellation propellor aircraft from Verracosa looked absolutely medieval compared to the slick ultramodern jets taxiing about the airport. Trying to overcome the feeling of being a lost tourist in the future, he pulled a small tin compass from his pocket and started walking off across the tarmac in a direction indicated by his compass. Unfortunately this was not the direction that the frustrated airport personnel were trying to direct the passengers.

"Uh, sir, SIR! You can't go that way!" a young man yelled as he ran to grab Juan.

"Oh, oh just looking," Juan flashed his winning latin smile and melded into the group.

"That bumpkin was gonna get run over by a plane, you'd think he'd never seen a jet before," the airport man snickered to one of his friends as they set about pulling the baggage from the plane's cargo hold.

Juan wandered around the airport like a lost child for quite sometime, all the while exuding confidence and the air of one-who-is-not-completely-lost. There were no payphones in the entire airport, EVERYONE here has a cellphone. He spied an amiable looking passerby.

"Excuse me, m'am, but might I borrow your portable telephone, I need to order a taxi, and-" He gestured grandly around the airport and flashed his winning smile, "-no payphones."
Cindy Amison had spent the past five minutes undressing this exotic stranger with her mind. She followed him and observed his bewildered ramblings between terminals. Cindy was a businesswoman, and this was the ONLY way to spend the five-hour layovers in her life. When she finally decided to stop tailing the guy and turned her back on him for a second, the hot piece of exotic flavor actually walked up to her and asked her a question. It took her brain a while to process what he was saying, her mind was currently stuck somewhere between his humungous pectorals and his spicy foreign accent. It was the smile that brought her to. Ahhh, the smile.

She giggled like a schoolgirl, blushed slightly, and handed him her phone. "Make as many calls as you'd like," she said, with a wink.

Shandaril laughed lightly, "Die. My dear, death is a sport. I take it your a golem. No sense of humor. You know mages could do that." The life force wasn't in this area, therefore the best thing to do would be to let them escort her, at least until they were taking her in a direction she didn't want to go.

"I would be MOST grateful for your escort from here", she told the robot and stepped forward to accompany them.
"HUMOR AND EMOTION ARE NOT ESSENTIAL IN OUR DESIGNATED TASKS," the head robot said with all the lack of emotion one would expect from it, "SUCH THINGS ARE ONLY INCLUDED IN INFERIOR CONSUMER MODELS. NOW PLEASE, FOLLOW US."
The robots marched in precise formation and created a box of metal bodies around her. Then with another quick KLIK KLAK!, they began to march forward. Contrary to what the robot leader had said, this was less of a following motion and more of a "move with us or be trampled" sort of thing.

Upon reaching the gate, however, the robots stopped as soon as their formation touched the light of day protruding through the door. After a second or two, the twenty or so robot voices spoke out in perfect unison.
"ERROR211 - EMERGENCY STOP ORDER CONFLICTS WITH BASE PROGRAMMING. INFINATE LOOP AVOIDANCE MEASURES TAKEN, ERASING ORDERS."
And so they just stood, blocking all movement through the hallway.

"Well", Shandaril said, "it looks like the Magus who made you needs to check his spells." She pushed aside one of the ones in front of her with surprising strength for a normal appearing woman and continued on, following the trail of the essence.

Juan gently took the cellphone from her hand, "Thank you ever so much."

He began to dial a cab company, then stopped. "Excuse me, I am so rude, Juan Bosquez," He held out his hand for the attractive stranger. Even when dealing with forces of darkness in what could potentially be a battle for the souls of mankind there is always time to flirt with a pretty girl, he reminded himself.

"Cindy Amison," she replied failing completely to restrain her giggle as Juan kissed her hand.

"Thank you for the use of your telephone, I will be quick," he said as he finished dialing in the cab company. THIS NUMBER IS OUT OF SERVICE. He mentally cursed himself for buying such an out of date tour book.

"The number, it is out of service... Say... you would not happen to know your way around this town would you? I garauntee you that I would reward your help handsomely," he said pouring on the charm as thick as concrete.

"Well", Shandaril said, "it looks like the Magus who made you needs to check his spells." She pushed aside one of the ones in front of her with surprising strength for a normal appearing woman and continued on, following the trail of the essence.
With a loud CLUNK that echoed throughout the halls, the robot fell over. It twitched a little, but for all intents and purposes it was broken. All that was left was for the ferral street nerds that roamed Resi City at night to harvest through its remains and take its military-grade RAM and hard drive out of its corpse.

Shandaril followed the trail along the path it had taken and exited the building. More of the golems were outside and the architecture was completely unfamiliar. Odd metal beasts roamed the streets, and a multitude of people seemed to be milling about. She straightened her sheer shift, the thirst to feed on souls becoming almost to much. She had a purpose here, and that particular soul was close by.

Juan gently took the cellphone from her hand, "Thank you ever so much."

He began to dial a cab company, then stopped. "Excuse me, I am so rude, Juan Bosquez," He held out his hand for the attractive stranger. Even when dealing with forces of darkness in what could potentially be a battle for the souls of mankind there is always time to flirt with a pretty girl, he reminded himself.

"Cindy Amison," she replied failing completely to restrain her giggle as Juan kissed her hand.

"Thank you for the use of your telephone, I will be quick," he said as he finished dialing in the cab company. THIS NUMBER IS OUT OF SERVICE. He mentally cursed himself for buying such an out of date tour book.

"The number, it is out of service... Say... you would not happen to know your way around this town would you? I garauntee you that I would reward your help handsomely," he said pouring on the charm as thick as concrete.
Cindy blushed a deep scarlet, and couldn't believe her luck. She was a ResiCorp local, but she had just come in from ViZion and was due on a flight to Menelmacar in a little over four hours. But it was FOUR HOURS, she reminded herself, and when would she get another opportunity like this? A hot and sexy stranger not only doesn't notice her stalking him but asks for her help in getting somewhere, probably a hotel or something. She couldn't care less.

A good half-minute had to have passed while Cindy fawned over Juan mentally, which was pretty strange to say the least. Breaking out of her trance/fantasy, she spoke up.
"Um.. car! Out back!" she said, then paused and tried again, "er... what I mean to say is that my car's in the back lot. I'll drive you whereever you want to go. We just have to get on this tram, then take this bus to section 2-A, then take the monorail, go down this escalator, and..."
After journeying for what seemed like miles, and probably was...
"...we're right next to my car! Hop in, it's a little messy, but I wasn't expecting such strong company... I mean, company!"
She blushed again, apparently having quite the problem with it, and climbed into the car. Cindy waited for Juan to do the same.
"So, where should I take you?"

Sorry DR, but that was my last RP for the night. :p

I'll reply to yours in the morning though, don't worry!

That's okay, bedtime here soon anyway :)

Juan gracefully slid into the passenger seat of her car. He stared at her for a second or two and made a mental note to tone down the charm a notch before she passes out.

"I need to get to the *mutter* Hotel, for a business meeting. It's okay, I can give you directions... I have a map," while charming Juan was a terrible liar but he banked on his driver being distracted enough not to notice.

He peeked into his briefcase at the small tin compass. It would lead him straight to the escaped soul, and the demons seeking to return it.

"Uh, west. The hotel is west," he pointed west.

Early Morning Telegram
To: Mr. J. Tetragammaton, CEO of Resi Corp
From: William Crawfnord, Karlord of Crawfnord,
Trustee of Kristalli Trust

Mr. Tetragammaton,
A matter of some delicacy and urgency has arrisen recently for the Kristalli Trust, particularly in reference to the Resi family. As Resi Corp is currently the steward of all Resi family records and remains, we ask you for assistance in this matter. Specifically for permission to access familiy records and conduct some non-invasive testing of the remains of Sera Resi. Obviously the request is a bit unorthodox in Terran culture, but security concerns make revealing more via this transmission unwise.

We have rerouted an auditor and family lawyer from another task to investigate this sudden distrubing news. As such I hope Resi Corp will provide them with the same access as you would any member of Eris's immediate family.


-------
Afternoon, Resi City
The grav cutter slowly decended towards the earth. The sixty feet of gray hull was sleek with a pair of stubby wings pointed downwards out of the sides, three shallow humps along the centerline and some odd looking tribarrel weapon making up the nose.

The upper decks of the ship was equally rounded with small slits of windows indicating two decks. As the craft came to a final hover ten feet above the surface a gangway decended out of the hull.

Two women, both in their early thirties decended down the stairs. The first was Kethlord Vera, pretending to be Vera Witdraw the Crawfnord family attorney. She was dressed in gray slacks and a gray jacket over a black blouce with a pair of thick black rimmed glasses over her eyes. She carried a single metalic gray breifcase.

Behind her was the Priestess, dressed in a slightly more relaxed look with a blue skirt and blazer. Her cover idenity was as a forensic scientist named Dr. Peach Hill. The woman had startling blue eyes and her black hair was placed back into a single pony tail. She carried a gray metalic case, and a long black tube over her arm.

The pair reached the tarmac and began to look about...

Shandaril followed the trail along the path it had taken and exited the building. More of the golems were outside and the architecture was completely unfamiliar. Odd metal beasts roamed the streets, and a multitude of people seemed to be milling about. She straightened her sheer shift, the thirst to feed on souls becoming almost to much. She had a purpose here, and that particular soul was close by.
"Psst! Lady, over here!"
From a narrow alleyway between one of the fifty thousand McResi Burgers shops on the island and a quaint little coffee shop a man's face stared out of the shadows, half-conceiled by the artificial darkness.
"The way you dress..." the voice went on, "you're part of the Movement, right? There's some sort of distrubance a few blocks from here, some woman is being assulted by a bunch of robots, or something like that. I heard it on our frequencies, but my receiver's a little shakey. Mind filling me in on the details so I don't have to go down there and check it out to make sure it's not a situation? You do have a working transmitter, don't you?"

Juan gracefully slid into the passenger seat of her car. He stared at her for a second or two and made a mental note to tone down the charm a notch before she passes out.

"I need to get to the *mutter* Hotel, for a business meeting. It's okay, I can give you directions... I have a map," while charming Juan was a terrible liar but he banked on his driver being distracted enough not to notice.

He peeked into his briefcase at the small tin compass. It would lead him straight to the escaped soul, and the demons seeking to return it.

"Uh, west. The hotel is west," he pointed west.
((OOC: Heh, Cindy's such a spaz. I love making her character overact like that. :p ))
IC:

Fortunately for Juan, Cindy wouldn't have cared if he said that he was going to the hotel to off a foreign leader. Not only was she distracted, she was what her co-workers called a "total airhead", but only when her back was turned of course. Her fellow co-workers, especially the female ones, speculated that the only reason she achieved such a lofty sales representation job was due to the flimsy miniskirts she loved to wear around the office on casual fridays... or even on formal workdays, if the mood struck her. According to these rumors, Cindy's chauvanist boss excused her from his own glass ceiling rule that he created in sort of a passive-agressive stance against HIS boss, who was a woman and hadn't promoted him sense that one Christmas party where he got loaded on spiked punch and called her a couple things that didn't fly too well with her.

But those were just rumors.

"West, huh?" Cindy said, taking the park brake off her R-250 Sportscar and throwing it into reverse, "That should bring us straight to the market district. The hotels they have there are so nice, you must be a millionaire!"

With a squeel of tires, Cindy punched the gas, then turned the wheel, stomped on the break, shifted to fourth gear, and punched the gas again, sending the tiny sportscar roaring out of the parking garage.

"Do you know what street this hotel is on?" Cindy said as her car caught half a foot of air on the way out of the garage, "It'd be helpful to know, especially because the market district is in a multi-level sector."

"Psst! Lady, over here!"
From a narrow alleyway between one of the fifty thousand McResi Burgers shops on the island and a quaint little coffee shop a man's face stared out of the shadows, half-conceiled by the artificial darkness.
"The way you dress..." the voice went on, "you're part of the Movement, right? There's some sort of distrubance a few blocks from here, some woman is being assulted by a bunch of robots, or something like that. I heard it on our frequencies, but my receiver's a little shakey. Mind filling me in on the details so I don't have to go down there and check it out to make sure it's not a situation? You do have a working transmitter, don't you?"

Shandaril approached the man in an erotic sashay that was as unconcious an action as everything else she did. She had no idea what he was talking about. People never complained about her movements and typically ogled it with lust. "Sir, I'm not diseased so I'm certainly no transmitter of diseases", she stopped suddenly.

"I AM AN R-BOTv2.5, MILITARY GRADE MODEL. MY ASSOCIATES ARE R-BOTv1.4'S, AN INFERIOR MODEL THAT IS MORE EXPENDABLE THAN MYSELF. WE ARE HERE TO REMOVE YOU FROM THIS FACILITY UNLESS YOU CAN PRESENT PROPER IDENTIFICATION. COMPLY AND YOU CAN KEEP YOUR LIFE. RESIST AND YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE. DO YOU HAVE A VALID IDENTIFICATION CARD?"

'R-bot', she thought.

some woman is being assulted by a bunch of robots

'R-bot. Robots.' She pictured the chamber in which she entered this world. The r-bots that came to gather her. The chamber in which the soul had emerged from the abyss.

Faster than any mortal should be able to move and with far more strength than one should possess she grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him off the ground, her eyes beginning to glow an orange-red. She lifted a hand from which razor sharp talons were beginning to grow, "Where is this woman?"

Early Morning Telegram
To: Mr. J. Tetragammaton, CEO of Resi Corp
From: William Crawfnord, Karlord of Crawfnord,
Trustee of Kristalli Trust

Mr. Tetragammaton,
A matter of some delicacy and urgency has arrisen recently for the Kristalli Trust, particularly in reference to the Resi family. As Resi Corp is currently the steward of all Resi family records and remains, we ask you for assistance in this matter. Specifically for permission to access familiy records and conduct some non-invasive testing of the remains of Sera Resi. Obviously the request is a bit unorthodox in Terran culture, but security concerns make revealing more via this transmission unwise.

We have rerouted an auditor and family lawyer from another task to investigate this sudden distrubing news. As such I hope Resi Corp will provide them with the same access as you would any member of Eris's immediate family.


-------
Afternoon, Resi City
The grav cutter slowly decended towards the earth. The sixty feet of gray hull was sleek with a pair of stubby wings pointed downwards out of the sides, three shallow humps along the centerline and some odd looking tribarrel weapon making up the nose.

The upper decks of the ship was equally rounded with small slits of windows indicating two decks. As the craft came to a final hover ten feet above the surface a gangway decended out of the hull.

Two women, both in their early thirties decended down the stairs. The first was Kethlord Vera, pretending to be Vera Witdraw the Crawfnord family attorney. She was dressed in gray slacks and a gray jacket over a black blouce with a pair of thick black rimmed glasses over her eyes. She carried a single metalic gray breifcase.

Behind her was the Priestess, dressed in a slightly more relaxed look with a blue skirt and blazer. Her cover idenity was as a forensic scientist named Dr. Peach Hill. The woman had startling blue eyes and her black hair was placed back into a single pony tail. She carried a gray metalic case, and a long black tube over her arm.

The pair reached the tarmac and began to look about...
Official Communication from the Desk of CEO Tetragammaton:

Unfortunately for all concerned, the remains of Sara Resi were cremated after her death almost 100 years ago. All accounts detail that she didn't have many coherant remains after the plunge she took out of her penthouse in the residential section of Old Resi Tower. Most of her remains were her artificial limbs, which could not be destroyed by anything weaker than the same plasma flame Melkor uses in his Sky Furnaces. One item of hers that remains is her robotic right hand, with torn artificial skin still attached to the metal workings. It is displayed in a carbon-60 case atop her monument in Angel Park, reaching for the heavens. Her limbs were one-of-a-kind, and we hope this will be enough to conclusively prove that she is dead.

Signed,
CEO Tetragammaton
----------
Waiting next to a limosine at the end of the tarmac was a thin dark-skinned woman clad all in black. Her hair was a completely unnatural color, a sort of golden-blonde that bordered on white, surpassing the avarage platinum blonde in brightness. This was the hair's natural color, and was the result of extensive genetic engineering that was considered a status symbol among the people of the corporation. Hair like that marked her as an indistinguishable member of the Resi Corporation elite, born into money and making nine if not ten figures of income a year. She was carrying nothing, but a careful observer could notice a discolored rectangle of what looked like skin on the underside of each wrist. This was really a holographic laptop built into her body that she could call up with her mind and conduct everything from business to Solitare on.

She approached the four people, removing her matching black sunglasses so as to make contact with her piercing green eyes. Her heels clicked sharply on the tarmac as she walked towards the group, a ridgid staccato very indicitive of the all-business no-frills persona the wearer kept up. Reaching the visitors, she extended her hand so that the leader of the group would come out of the woodwork and shake it.

"Good afternoon and welcome to the Resi Corporation," she said, with a false smile that came naturally after years of practice, "I'm Angellica Kradii, Secretary to the CEO of the Corporation, and I'll be the one escorting you to his office via motorcade. Before we disembark, would you mind introducing yourselves?"

Shandaril approached the man in an erotic sashay that was as unconcious an action as everything else she did. She had no idea what he was talking about. People never complained about her movements and typically ogled it with lust. "Sir, I'm not diseased so I'm certainly no transmitter of diseases", she stopped suddenly.
'R-bot', she thought.

'R-bot. Robots.' She pictured the chamber in which she entered this world. The r-bots that came to gather her. The chamber in which the soul had emerged from the abyss.

Faster than any mortal should be able to move and with far more strength than one should possess she grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him off the ground, her eyes beginning to glow an orange-red. She lifted a hand from which razor sharp talons were beginning to grow, "Where is this woman?"
"Holy shit!" the man screamed as he was sweapt of his feet by the succubus, "I have nothing to do with her!"
His doopy-brimmed hat that conceiled his face, made popular by an old TV show called "Gulligan's Peninsula", blew off in the gust caused by Shandaril's rapid approach, revealing a scared teenage boy. His unnaturally dyed green hair and multiple piercings placed him as a deviant in soceity, and branded him a member of the ellusive "Movement" terrorist organization that was little more than a mild itching sensation in Resi City. However, the members of the Movement were well-trained in what they do. Dispite his age, he was a expert information tracker, wadger of street warfare, and resister of interrogation.
And so, he regained his cool despite the growing claws and looked Shandaril straight in the eyes.
"I could kill myself easily, and you wouldn't get any information out of me," he said with a grin, "I've got a suicide poison pill implanted in one of my teeth, all it takes is one swift bite and I'll be just another corpse for the robots to clean off the street. So how about we make a deal. You're obviously not one of us, and your methods are nothing like what corporate spies would do. So why don't you tell me what you intend to do when you find this girl, and I'll tell you exactly where she is."

Shandaril looked the young man over. The green hair was indicitive of a woodland kin, but the only green haired type she knew of was the Nymph, who were all female. The piercings were indicitive of the Thayvians and if that were the case then this young man would be high ranking, but he was too young. Not to mention that a Thayvian would die fighting rather than commit suicide. She grinned at him and stepped forward into the alley.

"Go ahead and kill yourself. Then I'll find you in the abyss. If you think you know pain, you know nothing. I'll get my information over the centuries of unbelievable torment that you'd suffer."

She stopped, thinking a moment. 'Of course mortal life isn't measured in centuries. I forget that', she muttered.

She looked at him, "I don't know yet what I'll do. I just enjoy playing with the demons who seek to take her soul back to the abyss. I'll consume her soul, or take her back, or help her escape. That depends on her when I find her. Now where is she?"

Shandaril looked the young man over. The green hair was indicitive of a woodland kin, but the only green haired type she knew of was the Nymph, who were all female. The piercings were indicitive of the Thayvians and if that were the case then this young man would be high ranking, but he was too young. Not to mention that a Thayvian would die fighting rather than commit suicide. She grinned at him and stepped forward into the alley.

"Go ahead and kill yourself. Then I'll find you in the abyss. If you think you know pain, you know nothing. I'll get my information over the centuries of unbelievable torment that you'd suffer."

She stopped, thinking a moment. 'Of course mortal life isn't measured in centuries. I forget that', she muttered.

She looked at him, "I don't know yet what I'll do. I just enjoy playing with the demons who seek to take her soul back to the abyss. I'll consume her soul, or take her back, or help her escape. That depends on her when I find her. Now where is she?"
"Argh, not a cultist chick," the punk grunted out, then coughed, "Do you mind? Your unusally strong arms are cutting off air to my brain, and I'm pretty sure I need that to answer your questions."

Shandaril had had enough. She snapped his neck, dropped him and relied on her own natural senses, tracking the essence by it's feel alone. It would take a bit longer but it was less of nuisance than mortals who considered themselves important. She would exact revenge on this one later, once she returned to the abyss. She made her way through the strange landscape, ignoring the strange metal beasts as she followed the essence to the source.

Shandaril had had enough. She snapped his neck, dropped him and relied on her own natural senses, tracking the essence by it's feel alone. It would take a bit longer but it was less of nuisance than mortals who considered themselves important. She would exact revenge on this one later, once she returned to the abyss. She made her way through the strange landscape, ignoring the strange metal beasts as she followed the essence to the source.
And reach it she did, but her progress was halted by a crowd of people that forced her temporarily to stay on the sidelines and watch the events unfold.
((OOC: Sorry, but I wanted to do something with Sara. I also need to wait for another nation to do something at this point. And yes, I know Shandaril is more than likely to (hell, let's face it, she would) suck the souls out of the people in her way before moving on as opposed to waiting, but I really want to give this guy a chance to RP, so please bare with me. :p ))

Okay, just let me know when your ready for her.

Sara saw Crash approaching, and took her eye off of the mechanical suit for a second.
A new model? she thought, her mind racing, Wouldn't surprise me, Kallisti knows* how long I've been in the pit.
And so, she tried the same old trick she had on the other robots.
"Stop! As Sara Resi, I'm the corporation's heir, yadda yadda yadda... just don't attack."
But Crash didn't stop. He was too far off to hear her, but she didn't know this.
Shit! She thought, looking on in terror, They must've deleted the code to save space!

*"Kallisti knows" is directly equivalent to "lord knows"

Nearing the scene, Crash Man saw the woman turn towards him and say something to him, which he couldn't hear because she apparently can't speak up for some reason. "WHAT?!", ws his reply to the mumble, "Try speaking up once in a while."

"And hey, do you need any help with that massive leigon of robot death behind you? Because I just so happen to be a fully-equipped combat android", at this point his flexes his right arm and his drill spins a bit,accompanied by a smug grin. It's obvious he's not taking this seriously, "And a card-carrying representative of Robotopolis." His flexed arm's drill receedes into his arm and his hand comes back out, carrying his ID Card.

Nearing the scene, Crash Man saw the woman turn towards him and say something to him, which he couldn't hear because she apparently can't speak up for some reason. "WHAT?!", ws his reply to the mumble, "Try speaking up once in a while."

"And hey, do you need any help with that massive leigon of robot death behind you? Because I just so happen to be a fully-equipped combat android", at this point his flexes his right arm and his drill spins a bit,accompanied by a smug grin. It's obvious he's not taking this seriously, "And a card-carrying representative of Robotopolis." His flexed arm's drill receedes into his arm and his hand comes back out, carrying his ID Card.
"Sure, whatever, kick some ass," Sara said, doing her best to keep from being pulled off into the sky by the mech suit, "just do something before this crazy chick kills me!"
"You stay out of this, if you know what's good for you!" the woman in the mech suit growled menacingly.

Juan regularly peeked at his compass in his briefcase to tell Cindy which way to drive. He could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck stand as they drew closer to the escaped soul and the demonic forces pursuing him/her. He mentally prepared himself as he drew closer.

He was only 8 years old when the Verracosan Revolution began. His village had been one of the first to join the rebels and also one of the first to suffer the retribution of the government forces. A platoon of government soldiers stormed in and began to brutally rape and murder for their own amusement. The soldiers seemed to be under the almost hypnotic influence of their commander who ordered them to commit horrible atrocities. Juan's family was killed before his eyes and he was left for dead.

He was found found a week later living like an animal in the ruins by a group of travelling monks. He was raised from then on at their monastary. It was there he learned of angels and demons, of supernatural forces that drive men to madness. He swore to be a crusader for good, a slayer of demons and devils.

Juan would have been crying but the tears had dried up years ago. The compass awoke him from his thoughts, that was the building.

"There! That's the hotel!" Juan pointed to a non-descript building with excessive security and a collection of strange figures gathered in front. It was obviously not a hotel.

"Sure, whatever, kick some ass," Sara said, doing her best to keep from being pulled off into the sky by the mech suit, "just do something before this crazy chick kills me!"
"You stay out of this, if you know what's good for you!" the woman in the mech suit growled menacingly.

"Hah! Unfortunatly for you, I wasn't build with a self-preservation chip!", yelled Crash at the chick in the mech.

Deciding that his first priority was to get the woman down , Crash quickly returned his hand to drill-mode, and both drills started rotating. Crash lept into the air towards the mech suit, seeming like he was going to drill into the head, instead took aim and...fired? Yes, the two drills shot out of his arms and headed for the shoulder joints of the mech's arms, with what appeared to be a flashing button at the end of each one...He then landed on the head of the mech, and bounced to a position near the relative position the mech would have if it wasn't flying.

"Lady, if I were you, I'd cover up!"

OOC: You know what a Crash Bomb is, right?

Juan regularly peeked at his compass in his briefcase to tell Cindy which way to drive. He could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck stand as they drew closer to the escaped soul and the demonic forces pursuing him/her. He mentally prepared himself as he drew closer.

He was only 8 years old when the Verracosan Revolution began. His village had been one of the first to join the rebels and also one of the first to suffer the retribution of the government forces. A platoon of government soldiers stormed in and began to brutally rape and murder for their own amusement. The soldiers seemed to be under the almost hypnotic influence of their commander who ordered them to commit horrible atrocities. Juan's family was killed before his eyes and he was left for dead.

He was found found a week later living like an animal in the ruins by a group of travelling monks. He was raised from then on at their monastary. It was there he learned of angels and demons, of supernatural forces that drive men to madness. He swore to be a crusader for good, a slayer of demons and devils.

Juan would have been crying but the tears had dried up years ago. The compass awoke him from his thoughts, that was the building.

"There! That's the hotel!" Juan pointed to a non-descript building with excessive security and a collection of strange figures gathered in front. It was obviously not a hotel.
"Are... you sure?" Cindy said, slowing the car and eyeing the place suspiciously, "it seems a bit seedy, and they don't have a sign or anything..."
The car stopped in front of the place. The guards were on edge, stuff like this generally didn't happen unless it was a government official or a terrorist.
"You can stay at my place if you want," Cindy said anxiously, eyeing the guards with apprehension, "I'm not sure this is a hotel..."

Shandaril sensed two drawing near. Two of power. Demon-hunters, Holy knights, Priests, Clerics, whatever they called themselves in this time and place. She began grabbing at people and throwing them to the side. Whoever or whatever had called this soul from the abyss had to be found. There were worse souls in hell than this one and if someone knew how to get them out then things would get far worse than they were already. The holy ones wouldn't listen to her, she knew how pig headed they could be and she didn't have time for subtlety. Those of the abyss would be looking for the soul, or for her and they wouldn't be kind to those who got in thier way.

Juan smiled sadly at Cindy, "Yes, this is the place, I'm sure."

He pulled a wad of money out of his briefcase and handed it to her.

"Thank you ever so much for your assistance. I am sure you have someplace you must go to now... Things here may get dangerous, and I would not want such a lovely creature as you to be hurt," Juan said as he climbed out of the car.

He eyed the gaurds, and they eyed him back. Then he looked up and saw three people flying through the sky, they appeared to be fighting over a woman. Setting down his briefcase he checked the compass again. The woman was the soul, the two metal men must be some for of demon he had never seen. No time to waste clearly.

He pulled a bulky old silver cross from his briefcase, the Cross of St. Inigo, a truly powerful atrifact.

"DEMON! UNHAND THE EARTHWALKER! I adjure you, Satan, enemy of man’s salvation, acknowledge the justice and goodness of God the Father, who by just judgment has damned your pride and envy; leave through the sign of the holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen." He cried the ancient prayer of exorcism up to the skies, hoping it would be enough to at least knock them to the ground.

Then he remembered that Cindy was still waiting in the car and had seen this whole event. He hoped she would drive away in fear rather than require him to explain this.

'So', Shandaril thought, 'the golems are demons of some sort, at least he hasn't noticed me yet.'

She had no idea who this man was whose name he called upon, but she was certain that he was some sort of holy man. If the golems could keep him occupied perhaps she could get to the corporeal phylactery of the escaped essence and get away. Then she would have to find out how it escaped and hope that she could stop whoever or whatever was behind it.

Juan wavered. Something wasn't right, the demons had no reaction to him. Then he remembered the dark woman standing around. He'd been too distracted by the spectacle of the flying struggle to follow his initial instinct. He spun and faced her holding out the cross. He was confused and his focus was wavering. There was something supernatural about this woman, something subtle. She wasn't a full fledged demon, but she wasn't ordinary. There was definitely something off about the flying metal people, they could be angels or product of technology, but they weren't demons. What Juan wanted at this moment was someone to tell him what the hell was going on and who to slay and who to rescue. Unfortunately in his line of work there were rarely mission briefings.

"Excuse me, but are you a demon?" Juan politely enquired.

Shandaril dropped one of the people who had been in her way and turned to face Juan. "A bit new at this sort of thing? I suppose your answer would depend on your definition, but right now I need to get to that woman", she said pointing toward Sera. "I can tell you more once that's accomplished." The man was distracting to say the least. Handsome, pleasant voice, dedicated.

"That is unless you have something in mind?" she asked, the charm weaving out from her. A charm that, unfortunatly she couldn't control and would, therefore, affect anyone else around her.

"Well, I'm new in town and- OUT OF MY MIND! The woman is mine, back temptress," Juan shouted trying to clear his mind, she was not helping him focus at all. He blinked a few times and thought of what that demon did to his village so many years ago.

"Exorcizo te, immundissime spiritus…in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi! RECEDE! " He yelled the words of excorcism at her in Latin focusing his energy through the Cross as he'd been trained.

The language was fluid but completely unrecognizable to Shandaril. Elven perhaps. "Look, we don't have much time. I'm not TRYING to do anything. I'm half-human. The essance has escaped from the abyss, we need to find out how or there'll be far worse than me to deal with. There are some souls, as I'm sure you know, that are better left in the hands of my kind than loose on this plane. Now help or stay out of my way."

Juan lowered the cross, "Worth a try, I guess. Go grab her, I am assuming you can fly?" He stepped aside and gestured towards Sera Resi dangling high in the sky.

OOC: I'm done for the night.

*grins* (actually I nodded of already, doing this post then heading to bed.)

"I can teleport and pass between here and the abyss, but I can't fly. I'm only half demon," Shandaril replied.

(OOC: Resi there is only two women. I guess my last post was a bit confusing...sorry)

The two women looked at each other for a moment and then at Kradii. Vera spoke for both of them, "I am Vera Witdraw, senior legal advisor to the Crawfnord family and this is Doctor Hill a forensic scientist with the Crawfnord Institute. We were not planning on needing a motorcade. However we are both pleased to make your acquaintance Secretary Kradii."

Secretary to the CEO? What the hell is that?[i] Vera was trying to recall all of her training to find how someone could be [i]that postion. The only Terran title of Secretary she recalled was usually of some important post, like Secretary of the Treasury. But a CEO was Cheif Operating Officer not some large complex beuracracy. Unless they had multiple CEO's, sort of like some people said that Terran banks had more Vice Presidents than Managers?

Juan smiled sadly at Cindy, "Yes, this is the place, I'm sure."

He pulled a wad of money out of his briefcase and handed it to her.

"Thank you ever so much for your assistance. I am sure you have someplace you must go to now... Things here may get dangerous, and I would not want such a lovely creature as you to be hurt," Juan said as he climbed out of the car.

He eyed the gaurds, and they eyed him back. Then he looked up and saw three people flying through the sky, they appeared to be fighting over a woman. Setting down his briefcase he checked the compass again. The woman was the soul, the two metal men must be some for of demon he had never seen. No time to waste clearly.

He pulled a bulky old silver cross from his briefcase, the Cross of St. Inigo, a truly powerful atrifact.

"DEMON! UNHAND THE EARTHWALKER! I adjure you, Satan, enemy of man’s salvation, acknowledge the justice and goodness of God the Father, who by just judgment has damned your pride and envy; leave through the sign of the holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen." He cried the ancient prayer of exorcism up to the skies, hoping it would be enough to at least knock them to the ground.

Then he remembered that Cindy was still waiting in the car and had seen this whole event. He hoped she would drive away in fear rather than require him to explain this.
Cindy took the money with wide eyes, not expecting a payment for her services.
"Th-thank you very much! Oh, wait! Before you go!"
She took a pen out of her nearby purse, clicked it, and scribbled down her number on one of the smaller bills Juan handed her.
"Call me sometime, like, I dunno... if you need directions or something!" she said, putting the pen back in her purse and handing Juan the bill.
She wanted to make sure he entered the hotel unharmed by the burly guards and robots, so she parked her car beside the curb and let the engine idle. After all, she was his only ride anywhere in the corporation, what if this actually wasn't a hotel and she was right? It didn't seem to be as friendly as most hotels in the market district are...
A new song started in on the radio, after the DJ introduced it as a classic hit. The radio had been on low during her travel with Juan, just to set the mood and encourage convirsation, but Cindy's foot got tapping and she turned up the volume. Sighing, she eased the seatback down and relaxed, closing her eyes and feeling the bass pound through her collossal amplifier in the trunk. It was like a heartbeat, shaking the whole car and probably a few objects outside it. The music drowned out all the world's problems in her brain for an instant, and she slowly relaxed as the throbbing bass massaged her and eased her body of its troubles.
The music ended, fading and awaking Cindy from her little dreamworld. Her first thoughts were of Juan, and how he was doing getting inside the hotel. He had to have been checked in by now,it had been over five minutes, and there was no sense waiting for him to come out to her and tell her to leave. So she shifted the car into gear and took off the park break, putting the seat back up and turning the radio down just enough to hear other drivers cussing at her for blocking traffic. Slowly she started driving forward, just to spite the cretins, then accelerated to her usual speed of just under 100 mph in just two seconds. Who said that all higher technology had to have a practical use?
This went on for a couple of blocks, much to Cindy's contentment, until something caught her eye. She slammed on the breaks, sending the car screeching up on the sidewalk, stopping just shy of hitting a screaming hot dog vendor. Turning off the car, Cindy threw open the door and got out, looking behind her vehicle and seeing a sight she could not believe. It seemed to be Juan, the romantic stranger she just met, consorting with some sort of half-dressed lady of the night. If she hadn't been blinded by this, she might have noticed the screaming crowd or the people flying through the sky, or she might not have. With Cindy, it was hard to say.
Marching over to the assumed couple in a blind rage, Cindy got up close to Juan and shouted, "OH, AND WHO'S THIS LADY?!"
That outta show 'em.

(OOC: Resi there is only two women. I guess my last post was a bit confusing...sorry)

The two women looked at each other for a moment and then at Kradii. Vera spoke for both of them, "I am Vera Witdraw, senior legal advisor to the Crawfnord family and this is Doctor Hill a forensic scientist with the Crawfnord Institute. We were not planning on needing a motorcade. However we are both pleased to make your acquaintance Secretary Kradii."

Secretary to the CEO? What the hell is that? Vera was trying to recall all of her training to find how someone could be that postion. The only Terran title of Secretary she recalled was usually of some important post, like Secretary of the Treasury. But a CEO was Cheif Operating Officer not some large complex beuracracy. Unless they had multiple CEO's, sort of like some people said that Terran banks had more Vice Presidents than Managers?
((OOC: Eh, sorry, my bad. :( ))
IC:
Angellica, her hand still extended, looked back and forth between the two women. She hadn't quite expected no reaction to the proposed handshake, and the lack of a response caught her completely off guard. Hiding her bewilderment and regaining composure, Angellica put down her hand and proceeded to explain.
"Just a custom we Terran nations observe. Oh, and the motorcade is to take you to the CEO, if you wish to speak with him, or to Angel Park if you wish to see the reminants of Sara Resi. However, as the CEO's secretary, I'm fully qualified to be his represenatitive in all matters, and anything I say can be quoted as if he said it himself. Obviously, he can't trust just anyone to do my job."
She said this last bit with a sly smile, looking at the two.
"I suppose, should you feel safer staying within eyesight of your mode of transportation, we can conduct business on this tarmac. What suits you?"

"Hah! Unfortunatly for you, I wasn't build with a self-preservation chip!", yelled Crash at the chick in the mech.

Deciding that his first priority was to get the woman down , Crash quickly returned his hand to drill-mode, and both drills started rotating. Crash lept into the air towards the mech suit, seeming like he was going to drill into the head, instead took aim and...fired? Yes, the two drills shot out of his arms and headed for the shoulder joints of the mech's arms, with what appeared to be a flashing button at the end of each one...He then landed on the head of the mech, and bounced to a position near the relative position the mech would have if it wasn't flying.

"Lady, if I were you, I'd cover up!"

OOC: You know what a Crash Bomb is, right?
((OOC: Right! Sorry I missed this post. :( ))
IC:

"Great, a robot that can judge fashion," Sara said as Crash caught her, "I'll have you know that the half-naked white robe look is in this season. Or it will be until I can find some better clothes."

The mech suit, having been "disarmed" ((OOC: Ha HA!)), shot pressurized oil out of its arm sockets like twin guisers of blood in a crappy anime samurai flick. Its hundred-odd moving parts seized up, and the mech crashed to the ground as a solid hunk of metal, landing on several robots with a huge metallic "WHUMP". Cracking the asphault into a small crater shape, the mech suit wriggled around a bit before the head and part of what was the shoulders snapped off with a hiss, and a cloud of steam blew out of the open suit. A figure slowly emerged from the suit in a coughing fit, a black humanoid shape in the fog the suit spewed out.
"Useless consumer models..." the figure grunted.
"Robots, detain her!" Sara snapped, and the hundred or so robots all pointed their weapons at the figure.
"Now why didn't I think of that earlier?" Sara muttered to herself.

However, all was not right. Off in the distance the whirring of jets could be heard, and fat metallic bodies could be seen swarming off the ground between the skyscrapers of the corporation, creating a cloud over the streets.
"Shit..." Sara said, looking at the cloud, "R-5's... they were built from the ground up, they don't have the over-ride code..."
"They're not mine," the figure said, her hands over her head, "I don't use the things."

With the holy one distracted by the jealous woman and the vessel on the ground and released by the strange golem Shandaril leapt forward. It was a leap that no mortal could match, over the heads of the crowd and into the center of the circle.

She wrapped an arm around the vessel and turned to leap again. Before she did she looked toward Juan and Cindy, "HEY! He likes it kinky!", she yelled toward the woman and winked, blowing her a kiss. She then tightened her grip a bit on the vessel of the essence and leapt for the nearest window.

With the holy one distracted by the jealous woman and the vessel on the ground and released by the strange golem Shandaril leapt forward. It was a leap that no mortal could match, over the heads of the crowd and into the center of the circle.

She wrapped an arm around the vessel and turned to leap again. Before she did she looked toward Juan and Cindy, "HEY! He likes it kinky!", she yelled toward the woman and winked, blowing her a kiss. She then tightened her grip a bit on the vessel of the essence and leapt for the nearest window.
((OOC: Roffle. :D ))
IC:

The figure and Cindy both spoke in unison.
"What the Hell?"

With a crash Sara and Shandaril burst through the second-story window of a unique bazaar acrossed the street. Bazaars like this one were scattered around the market district, and were in reality all owned by a subcorporation of ResiCorp called "Unique Bazaars, Inc." instead of by the low-level Mom-and-Pop owners that everyone assumed ran them.

"Ouch," Sara groaned, "That sucked. Thanks for saving me from those robots, I guess."

"We're not out of danger yet. Did you live here before you died? Do you know a safe way out of the area?"

Shandaril was hoping that the jealous woman would keep the holy one occupied long enough for them to get out of the immediate area. She was fast becoming convinced that these new golems could cause a problem for her.

"We're not out of danger yet. Did you live here before you died? Do you know a safe way out of the area?"

Shandaril was hoping that the jealous woman would keep the holy one occupied long enough for them to get out of the immediate area. She was fast becoming convinced that these new golems could cause a problem for her.
"Lived here?" Sara replied, "Hell, I practically owned the place. Still, they've got cameras all over, there's practically nowhere they can't find us. They're less likely to find us if we're underground, but I don't know where we can find an entrance around here. We've got a whole mess of catacombs under certain parts of the city that got built over and forgotten. This whole district's built on top of ruins like that, it's mostly only bums that live down there there days. If only I could remember where the closest entrance was..."

((OOC: Eh, sorry, my bad. :( ))
IC:
Angellica, her hand still extended, looked back and forth between the two women. She hadn't quite expected no reaction to the proposed handshake, and the lack of a response caught her completely off guard. Hiding her bewilderment and regaining composure, Angellica put down her hand and proceeded to explain.
"Just a custom we Terran nations observe. Oh, and the motorcade is to take you to the CEO, if you wish to speak with him, or to Angel Park if you wish to see the reminants of Sara Resi. However, as the CEO's secretary, I'm fully qualified to be his represenatitive in all matters, and anything I say can be quoted as if he said it himself. Obviously, he can't trust just anyone to do my job."
She said this last bit with a sly smile, looking at the two.
"I suppose, should you feel safer staying within eyesight of your mode of transportation, we can conduct business on this tarmac. What suits you?"

"We have no fear of leaving our transportation." Vera added. Finally remembering about the hand shake buisness a bit too late. "We were just taken off guard by the high level reception. I suggest we discuss the matter that brings us here in a more private setting."

(Assuming that they entered the limo)
As the two women sat down in the seat, Vera began again. "We have a bit of a problem, some one with quite exstensive knowledge of the Confederacy legal code has brought suit against the trust to open up our files to help prove that she is..."
Vera looked at Dr. Hill for a moment but the doctor just finished the sentence without pause with her light Welsh accent, "That she is the granddaugher of Sera Resi"*

OOC: *Cover story only not a real plot point.

Shandaril pushed Sera to the side and slammed her delicate looking hand into the floor, cracking the flooring and breaking the boards. Several more hits opened a hole and she grabbed Sera and dropped to the first floor where she began repeating the process.

"We have no fear of leaving our transportation." Vera added. Finally remembering about the hand shake buisness a bit too late. "We were just taken off guard by the high level reception. I suggest we discuss the matter that brings us here in a more private setting."

(Assuming that they entered the limo)
As the two women sat down in the seat, Vera began again. "We have a bit of a problem, some one with quite exstensive knowledge of the Confederacy legal code has brought suit against the trust to open up our files to help prove that she is..."
Vera looked at Dr. Hill for a moment but the doctor just finished the sentence without pause with her light Welsh accent, "That she is the granddaugher of Sera Resi"*

OOC: *Cover story only not a real plot point.
"Now that's news," Angellica said, slightly amused, "How does she substantiate this claim? Does she have photographic records, DNA tests?"

The limo passed through a underpass, and came out behind two identical limos and alongside two humvees on either side.
((OOC: Sorry about the short post, not much to say.))

Shandaril pushed Sera to the side and slammed her delicate looking hand into the floor, cracking the flooring and breaking the boards. Several more hits opened a hole and she grabbed Sera and dropped to the first floor where she began repeating the process.
"That's one way to do it," Sara said, "Or you could always do it my way."
Pointing her arm down at the floor, a gunbarrel dropped out of her wrist, seeming to have been built into her arm. Half a second later a blinding light filled the room as a blue-white beam shot out of the weapon, but died down instants later. There was a moderately-sized perfectly circular hole in the floor where the beam passed through.
"Sweeeet..." she giggled, "it still works!"
Her wrist twitched once, twice, and then she pulled her arm back and looked at the barrel.
"Damn, out of energy. This body isn't as stable as my old one."
She turned to look at Shandaril.
"And yes, I just realized I had that, too. I'm sure you know what some years of torture in the abyss can do to your memory, being a succubus and all."

((OOC: FYI, she was in Hell for 100 years, she (sorta) knows what Shandaril is.))

"Now that's news," Angellica said, slightly amused, "How does she substantiate this claim? Does she have photographic records, DNA tests?"

The limo passed through a underpass, and came out behind two identical limos and alongside two humvees on either side.
((OOC: Sorry about the short post, not much to say.))

"Ah well you see there is a good deal of similarity physically..." Dr. Hill began. But was interupted by Vera. "The problem is that she filled a petition for records of a Fallen House to prove her decendence. Unfortunatly, there are no current living members of the Resi family which places the burden on us to have some fair test that she is not Sera Resi's decendent to keep her out of the Kastilli family records"

Vera looked at Hill. Hill picked up the thread of conversation, "We were hoping that with access to a body we could get a DNA sample and image the stress factures on her pelvic remains...to demonstrate that she had not ever carried a child to term. So what we can only hope is that you have a DNA sample including midoconrial DNA of Sera to demonstrate that this woman is not decended from Sera Resi."

"Ah well you see there is a good deal of similarity physically..." Dr. Hill began. But was interupted by Vera. "The problem is that she filled a petition for records of a Fallen House to prove her decendence. Unfortunatly, there are no current living members of the Resi family which places the burden on us to have some fair test that she is not Sera Resi's decendent to keep her out of the Kastilli family records"

Vera looked at Hill. Hill picked up the thread of conversation, "We were hoping that with access to a body we could get a DNA sample and image the stress factures on her pelvic remains...to demonstrate that she had not ever carried a child to term. So what we can only hope is that you have a DNA sample including midoconrial DNA of Sera to demonstrate that this woman is not decended from Sera Resi."
"Falling out of a mile-high tower has its ways of destroying your remains," Angellica said flatly, obviously without emotional connections to the subject she was discussing, "We're lucky to have what we do of her, if the wind was different she would've been sanded into a fine mist by the side of the building. Besides, even if she died in one piece, I doubt the bone structure analysis would do you any good. Sara lived by different standards than your avarage human, she was born a quadrapalegic and had what was at the time a risky procedure to give her artificial limbs indistinguishable from real ones. I'm almost certain the grafting of her legs to her pelvis would've distorted the bone structure. However, they had to get a DNA sample at the scene of the death in order to confirm her identity beyond a shadow of a doubt as dental and prints obviously weren't options in the way of biological evidence. If we could get DNA from this faker's family tree in addition to Sara's death records, we could disprove her claims with a couple reverse-maternity tests. Do you think you could obtain those, or is she not a national of your country?"

Shandaril picked up Sera once again and dropped down to the next level, now below street level.

"Of course I know what it does, that's the point of it. I'm amused by these benevalent worshippers who think that the abyss was created by thier benevalent god in order to imprison evil souls. The truth is that it was created by the dark forces to build thier armies. The torment is meant to wipe the minds clean so they can be replaced with proper training."

Shandaril looked around, "Which way?"

Juan turned to Cindy, "I don't know that woman, she's some sort of- never mind, I must get to the earthwalker before the- never mind, I've got to go!" Juan sprinted off into the unique bazaar asking passerby if they'd seen two half-naked women run by. Just then he saw Sera and Shandril crash through the ceiling on the other side of the bazaar he ran over there and saw a gaping hole where they had broken down through the floor.

Juan crossed himself and jumped down through the hole after them.

Shandaril picked up Sera once again and dropped down to the next level, now below street level.

"Of course I know what it does, that's the point of it. I'm amused by these benevalent worshippers who think that the abyss was created by thier benevalent god in order to imprison evil souls. The truth is that it was created by the dark forces to build thier armies. The torment is meant to wipe the minds clean so they can be replaced with proper training."

Shandaril looked around, "Which way?"
"Which way? You're acting like we know where we're going."
No sooner had these words escaped Sara's lips than the mumbling of robotic chatter reached their ears.
"INTRUDER KNOWS RESICORP INNER WORKINGS, PROBABILITY OF UNDERGROUND ESCAPE: 96%. PERSUE AND ENGAGE."
"How the hell will they get down here?" Sara mumbled, to which the robots responded by shooting beams of their own straight through the ground.
"Right then!" Sara exclaimed, "Away from that!"
She and Shandaril ran away from the robots through a ruined residential neighborhood. How'd they know I know the corporation? Sara thought, They don't even know who I am...

Juan turned to Cindy, "I don't know that woman, she's some sort of- never mind, I must get to the earthwalker before the- never mind, I've got to go!" Juan sprinted off into the unique bazaar asking passerby if they'd seen two half-naked women run by. Just then he saw Sera and Shandril crash through the ceiling on the other side of the bazaar he ran over there and saw a gaping hole where they had broken down through the floor.

Juan crossed himself and jumped down through the hole after them.
Cindy just gaped and stared. She stood here for the longest time, just staring, not knowing what to say.

Later on, Cindy missed her flight. However, for some reason your boss refused to punish her, and even promoted her for "strategic shunning of Menelmacar".

Her co-workers grew to hate her even more.

Just as they began to run Shandaril saw the holy man drop down to thier level, "I would watch out for those magic missiles, love muffin."

She looked toward Sera as she ran, "We need to go up. They think we'll go this way, therefore we have to do what they won't expect."

Just as they began to run Shandaril saw the holy man drop down to thier level, "I would watch out for those magic missiles, love muffin."

She looked toward Sera as she ran, "We need to go up. They think we'll go this way, therefore we have to do what they won't expect."
"We could hide in the rafters," Sara mused, "but they might expect us to do that. Then again, they could expect us to expect them to expect us to keep running, and check the rafters. Or... ow... my head hurts."
Sara clutched her forehead with one hand as they kept running.
"Outwitting even stupid robots isn't that easy. They're too logical to be predictable. Ah wait!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers, "they wouldn't expect us to split up! These are R-5's, they're soldiers and not law enforcers. They expect us to think of saftey in numbers. Run a little ways, then hide under something thick. Now go!"
In one swift movement Sara pushed Shandaril forward and dove herself inside a nearby houses, swinging the door shut slowly on her way in.

Shandaril had no intent on losing the essence. She kept her senses open and called on her demonic powers, making herself invisible. Then she moved closer to the advancing robots and off to one side, expect that they wouldn't expect thier quarry to move toward them.

Juan rifled through his briefcase looking for an effective tool: silver cross, bible, necronomicon, moustache comb, vial of holy water, and a wooden tent spike. He would just have to follow them until an opportunity arose, but damn these ladies were in good shape, he running at full sprint and they were still losing him.

He knew that if whatever he was sent to slay could be killed by conventional weapons he wouldn't have been the one sent to slay it. He took heart in this, but he had doubts if this dark and mysterious woman was indeed his target, and this lack of faith disturbed him.

Shandaril had no intent on losing the essence. She kept her senses open and called on her demonic powers, making herself invisible. Then she moved closer to the advancing robots and off to one side, expect that they wouldn't expect thier quarry to move toward them.
"HUMANOID HEAT SOURCE DETECTED, OPTICS READING ZERO. CLOAKING DEVICE DETECTED, ELEMINATE THE INTRUDER."
Four of the eight robots that were following them broke off from the others, and moved to box the half-succubus in against the wall. Their hands retracted into their arms, and their beam cannons were ready to fire.

((OOC: THAT's why Sara told her to hide under something heavy. But I'm sure she can take care of these things herself.))

He saw them split up and duck into houses about 200 yards up the road from him. Then he heard a terrible mechanical roaring sound and saw an army of flying silver beasts coursing down the tunnel behind him. He didn't know wether they were demons or technological terrors, but his instinct told him not to lead them to the earthwalker, he kept on running past the houses they hid in hoping that the beasts would follow him.

OOC: oops, thought they snuck up to the surface, not reading carefully enough I guess :P

((OOC: Actually, they're underground right now...))

'Damn, what are these things?' Shandaril wondered. They had infravision, that was obvious. "Well", she said, "lets try this." She spread her hands and powerful bolts of electricity jumped toward them.

Juan turned and saw the bolts of electricity slamming into the metal contraptions. Then he remembered something... 10 years ago when he was apprenticed to the great demon hunter Friar Carlos Gonzales he had encountered a succubus in Paris. It shot bolts of lightning like that and it was also took the form of a shapely woman. It had escaped and was not the target of their mission, but he remembered the friars instructions on how to slay one.

It would take cunning to trap her he thought, even if she wasn't the target of the mission he was sure she could provide information if properly coerced. He stopped running and turned to watch the battle. He would await the result rather than rushing into the fray unarmed.

"Falling out of a mile-high tower has its ways of destroying your remains," Angellica said flatly, obviously without emotional connections to the subject she was discussing, "We're lucky to have what we do of her, if the wind was different she would've been sanded into a fine mist by the side of the building. Besides, even if she died in one piece, I doubt the bone structure analysis would do you any good. Sara lived by different standards than your avarage human, she was born a quadrapalegic and had what was at the time a risky procedure to give her artificial limbs indistinguishable from real ones. I'm almost certain the grafting of her legs to her pelvis would've distorted the bone structure. However, they had to get a DNA sample at the scene of the death in order to confirm her identity beyond a shadow of a doubt as dental and prints obviously weren't options in the way of biological evidence. If we could get DNA from this faker's family tree in addition to Sara's death records, we could disprove her claims with a couple reverse-maternity tests. Do you think you could obtain those, or is she not a national of your country?"

Dr. Hill nodded quietly at the statement. "Yes well obviously that would have to be taken into consideration....I wasn't aware of the exstensive modifications...Although the truth is that I am surprised, humans have been known to survive falls of upwards to 33,000 feet without assistance*...or is this mile high structure actually much greater that 6,000 feet?"

Vera was the one who answered the last part. "Here we have the problem, she has specifically specified Resi Corporation as a usurping party. In effect we can't use your tests to determine that she is a fake because the...Judges would see you as severly biased. And no she is not a citizen of the Confederacy but has petitioned as a citizen of the Klatch. A bit too convienantly I might add...we are attempting to find this supposed daugher of Sera she is decended from, unfortunatly records in Fasta have became a mess after the fall of the Benjian Government. It is proving difficult."

Dr. Hill picked up the thread of conversation again. "We can however do a similar test ourselves using several facets of female line gene propogation in terms of DNA and Midocondrial DNA...we can at least disprove this woman with Sera's DNA sample."

Vera nodded, "At the moment my employer worries about what may be in the files. Personally, we think that this woman is after something relating to Jai Resi and is actually a front for a undisclosed third party."

Hill seemed to look at Vera with a momentary odd look, but then shrugged it off.

OOC: *RL fact actually Check Flight Attendent survived being blown out of a jet liner from 10,000 + meters :P

'Damn, what are these things?' Shandaril wondered. They had infravision, that was obvious. "Well", she said, "lets try this." She spread her hands and powerful bolts of electricity jumped toward them.
The energy pulse blew the circuits of the robot to the farthest right of Shandaril, among them its heat regulator circuit. It frose up, then after two seconds exploded in a giant fireball, shooting its upper body and assorted shrapnel directly up off of its heatsink-less midsection. The explosion threw one of the remaining robots directly into another one of the remaining robots, sending them both flying off down the dimly lit hallways.
"SHE GOT JOHNNY!" the other robot said, looking at the remaining torso of his fallen comrade, "INSTITUTING COUNTER E.M.P. MEASURES!"
Shandaril could see in the mid-darkness as the robot raised up its back-mounted gatling gun to fire, and then let loose a stream of bullets to exact vengance upon the killer of its brother-in-arms. Through the gunsmoke and background heat, it was impossible for the robot to see if it made contact with its target in the current close quarters.

The shrapnel and bullets were a temporary inconvenience, but a delay non the less. She dove for cover staying out of the way long enough to heal from the attack. It also served to infuriate her. "BASTARDS!" she shreiked at the robots, "DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW EXPENSIVE DRIDER SILK IS? YOU'VE RUINED MY BEST DRESS!" She stood, her eyes pure red now and unleashed another bolt of electricity.

Dr. Hill nodded quietly at the statement. "Yes well obviously that would have to be taken into consideration....I wasn't aware of the exstensive modifications...Although the truth is that I am surprised, humans have been known to survive falls of upwards to 33,000 feet without assistance*...or is this mile high structure actually much greater that 6,000 feet?"

Vera was the one who answered the last part. "Here we have the problem, she has specifically specified Resi Corporation as a usurping party. In effect we can't use your tests to determine that she is a fake because the...Judges would see you as severly biased. And no she is not a citizen of the Confederacy but has petitioned as a citizen of the Klatch. A bit too convienantly I might add...we are attempting to find this supposed daugher of Sera she is decended from, unfortunatly records in Fasta have became a mess after the fall of the Benjian Government. It is proving difficult."

Dr. Hill picked up the thread of conversation again. "We can however do a similar test ourselves using several facets of female line gene propogation in terms of DNA and Midocondrial DNA...we can at least disprove this woman with Sera's DNA sample."

Vera nodded, "At the moment my employer worries about what may be in the files. Personally, we think that this woman is after something relating to Jai Resi and is actually a front for a undisclosed third party."

Hill seemed to look at Vera with a momentary odd look, but then shrugged it off.

OOC: *RL fact actually Check Flight Attendent survived being blown out of a jet liner from 10,000 + meters :P
((OOC: Bet that hurt in the morning.))
IC:

"You have to realize that Sara wanted to die at the time," Angellica said, folding her hands in her lap, "So her chance of survival was signifigantly less."
After listening to the bit about the legal measures the fake had taken, Angellica let out a small sigh.
"I doubt any of this will hold up in court. Although ResiCorp isn't strictly a hereditary organization, preference would be given to a true heir to the Resi name. The fact that she hasn't come into our nation and tried to take back her supposed great-grandfather's office will have to come out. But reguardless, it's best not to have to sue for what's rightfully ours. I can get you her autopsy files from the main ResiCorp office right now if you'd like, I'll just pull them off the appropriate page of our website and put them on a sDVD* for you."
Angellica tapped a panel on her right, and a tub of ice with a wine bottle protruding out of it came out of the wall behind her on her left, and three glasses came out on a platter from the wall on her right.
"Wine, anyone?" she said, picking up the bottle and uncorking it, "This' been fermenting for over 100 years now."

((*OOC: sDVD's are our main mode of information storage. They're about the size of a minidisk, but have upwards of the compacity of a DVD. However, they're a bit thicker than your standard minidisk, as they contain extra burn layers. Makes 'em harder to copy, too.))

The shrapnel and bullets were a temporary inconvenience, but a delay non the less. She dove for cover staying out of the way long enough to heal from the attack. It also served to infuriate her. "BASTARDS!" she shreiked at the robots, "DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW EXPENSIVE DRIDER SILK IS? YOU'VE RUINED MY BEST DRESS!" She stood, her eyes pure red now and unleashed another bolt of electricity.
"HA HA HA, FOOLISH HU-MAN." the robot laughed in a monotone that would've been scarey if it was actually dealing with a human, "EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN GENERATE AN EMP THAT KILLS US ROBOTS, WE CAN DEFEND AGAINST IT."
It retracted its hands again and pulled back the minigun, charging the laser beams in its arms.
"BY THE TIME THE GUNSMOKE CLEARS, YOU'LL BE DEAD." the machine chuckled, the whir of its cooling fans increasing as it diverted energy to its arms.

((OOC: Bet that hurt in the morning.))
IC:

"You have to realize that Sara wanted to die at the time," Angellica said, folding her hands in her lap, "So her chance of survival was signifigantly less."
After listening to the bit about the legal measures the fake had taken, Angellica let out a small sigh.
"I doubt any of this will hold up in court. Although ResiCorp isn't strictly a hereditary organization, preference would be given to a true heir to the Resi name. The fact that she hasn't come into our nation and tried to take back her supposed great-grandfather's office will have to come out. But reguardless, it's best not to have to sue for what's rightfully ours. I can get you her autopsy files from the main ResiCorp office right now if you'd like, I'll just pull them off the appropriate page of our website and put them on a sDVD* for you."
Angellica tapped a panel on her right, and a tub of ice with a wine bottle protruding out of it came out of the wall behind her on her left, and three glasses came out on a platter from the wall on her right.
"Wine, anyone?" she said, picking up the bottle and uncorking it, "This' been fermenting for over 100 years now."

((*OOC: sDVD's are our main mode of information storage. They're about the size of a minidisk, but have upwards of the compacity of a DVD. However, they're a bit thicker than your standard minidisk, as they contain extra burn layers. Makes 'em harder to copy, too.))

((Yup Paralized...))
Dr. Hill nodded. "Well the autopsy would do us nicely...I was hoping for an actual DNA sample..." Vera nodded, "Yes I'm going be arguing for months with this artist of con's legal advisors about testing, your testing methods, validations of your data. Really it leaves us in a bad postion to be relying only on your ah...antiquated techniques...."

Dr. Hill took a glass of wine while Vera polietly declined. "Ah one quick question?" Hill asked before she drank. "Is Kristallism still a major religion in Resi?"

'Two', she thought. She leaped forward, placing one between her and the second and grabbed at the head, twisting with a vicsous and unnatural strength.

((Yup Paralized...))
Dr. Hill nodded. "Well the autopsy would do us nicely...I was hoping for an actual DNA sample..." Vera nodded, "Yes I'm going be arguing for months with this artist of con's legal advisors about testing, your testing methods, validations of your data. Really it leaves us in a bad postion to be relying only on your ah...antiquated techniques...."

Dr. Hill took a glass of wine while Vera polietly declined. "Ah one quick question?" Hill asked before she drank. "Is Kristallism still a major religion in Resi?"
"The DNA's a part of the autopsy," Angellica said, pouring herself a glass, "they had to get a sample at the scene of death to verify the identity. Seeing as the autopsy's pretty straightforward, no elaborating about the cause of death or anything, the sample should be on page one. We do testing, chip implantation, and automated medical cateloging on a daily basis in this era, it's just that this data came from, well, a simplier time."
She corked the bottle and put it back in the ice, pressing it down with a satisfying "crunch" sound. The bottle and the tray for the glasses retracted into the wall behind her.
"We call the religion 'Discordianism'," Angellica said, sipping her wine, "and it still has a following, though not as much anymore as it once was."

'Two', she thought. She leaped forward, placing one between her and the second and grabbed at the head, twisting with a vicsous and unnatural strength.
"CEPHILAL MOTIVATORS DESTROYED," the robot beeped, "HEAD MOTION IMPEDED, EMERGENCY REPAIRS NECESSARY."
The jist of this is that the robot was still functional, but its head was stuck on backwards, which obviously impeded aiming.
"Rip out the optics!" Sara yelled from somewhere.
"PRIMARY INTRUDER DETECTED," the machine spat out, "MOTION IMPEDED BY SECONDARY INTRUDER, ELIMINATION OF SECONDARY INTRUDER INCREASED IN PRIORITY."
Waving its handless arms around, the robot released two large blasts of laser energy.

Juan saw his chance as Shandril leap to attack the robots, he charged into the fray and attempted to grab Sera and drag her off.

*OOF!* She was significantly heavier and stronger than she looked, Juan reeled off to the side and fell down like he'd just attempted to tackle a concrete pillar.

"Sorry, my name is Juan Bosquez, I am here to help chu. We mus' go before the demon-" he gestured towards Shandril tearing up the robots, "-finishes," Juan rambled with some urgency his accent coming out from under his usually perfect english.

Juan saw his chance as Shandril leap to attack the robots, he charged into the fray and attempted to grab Sera and drag her off.

*OOF!* She was significantly heavier and stronger than she looked, Juan reeled off to the side and fell down like he'd just attempted to tackle a concrete pillar.

"Sorry, my name is Juan Bosquez, I am here to help chu. We mus' go before the demon-" he gestured towards Shandril tearing up the robots, "-finishes," Juan rambled with some urgency his accent coming out from under his usually perfect english.
Sara folded her arms. She was skeptical of this man, she had no reason to believe anyhing he had to say. If anything she trusted the succubus more than him even though she was from the pit.
"What are you exactly?" she said, "Why the hell should I trust some ethnic guy I've never seen before who runs in to take me away to god-knows-where?"

"Optics", she said, "WHAT ARE OPTICS?" She was keeping the one between her and the second while preparing to strike at that one when the lasers went off. She spun out of the way, mostly.

'DAMN', she thought. That had HURT. Though she was healing from the hit, it was alot slower. TOO slow. She had to end this somehow before one of them got a lucky hit. She moved to attack the second but went down, the deep cut in her hip attesting to the damage the weapons could do. She quickly rolled behind, or rather in front of, the first robot and got to her feet, staying close to it so it couldn't bring it's weapons to bear. Ignoring the pain she lifted it and falling, more than moving, forward she attempted to slam it into the second robot.

"I'm a demon hunter. I've been sent by a higher power to ensure that you are saved from the pit. Come with me if you don't want to go back there," Juan recovered his composure and held out his hand to her.

"Time is short," he looked at at Shandril fighting the robots, "You must decide quickly."

"Optics", she said, "WHAT ARE OPTICS?" She was keeping the one between her and the second while preparing to strike at that one when the lasers went off. She spun out of the way, mostly.

'DAMN', she thought. That had HURT. Though she was healing from the hit, it was alot slower. TOO slow. She had to end this somehow before one of them got a lucky hit. She moved to attack the second but went down, the deep cut in her hip attesting to the damage the weapons could do. She quickly rolled behind, or rather in front of, the first robot and got to her feet, staying close to it so it couldn't bring it's weapons to bear. Ignoring the pain she lifted it and falling, more than moving, forward she attempted to slam it into the second robot.
Sara turned away from Juan for a bit.
"The EYES, dammit! Throw something at it, shoot 'em, do something!"
She then turned back to Juan, and she reassumed her impatient look.
"So what exactly do you plan to do about the robots?"

Meanwhile, the fight with the robots wasn't going exactly well.
"I'M SORRY, JOHNNY," one of the functional robots said to the robot with its head on backwards, "THIS HURTS ME MORE THAN IT DOES YOU."
The working robot raised its arms and blew a hole straight through the broken robot, narrowly missing Shandril's head and singeing her hair. The first robot collapsed to its knees, holding its hand out to its comrade with its dying breath.
"NO... JOHNNY... HOW COULD YOU...?" the robot said, leaking oil, as it collapsed to the ground.

((OOC: Yes, they're ALL named Johnny. They all have serial numbers, sure, but they all refer to each other informally as "Johnny".))

"I'm a demon hunter. I've been sent by a higher power to ensure that you are saved from the pit. Come with me if you don't want to go back there," Juan recovered his composure and held out his hand to her.

"Time is short," he looked at at Shandril fighting the robots, "You must decide quickly."
"Those robots are after me," Sara said simply, "If you're hiding from them right now, how do you plan to handle the other ones that are after me?"
Just then, she heard Shandril groan with pain from the wounds inflicted.
"Get back to me on that," she told Juan, dashing out into the street, keeping low and prying the minigun off of the fallen robot, wires snapping and metal pealing.
"Try and stay alive," she whispered to Shandril, "my guns may not work but after I wire this thing to my brain it won't matter anymore. Just keep alive until I do."
Sara quickly ran back off of the street, into the same area as Juan again.
"Okay," she said, deploying her arm-mounted gun and beginning to rip the wires out of the minigun, "now you can answer."

Shandaril did the only thing she could. she squatting, let her talons grow and thrust upward toward the eyes, slamming the three inch razor sharp nails into them and continued shoving herself forward hoping to keep it off balance and prevent those terrible weapons from striking again.

Shandaril did the only thing she could. she squatting, let her talons grow and thrust upward toward the eyes, slamming the three inch razor sharp nails into them and continued shoving herself forward hoping to keep it off balance and prevent those terrible weapons from striking again.
((OOC: I'm assuming you did this to one of the robots that's still 'alive'.))
IC:

The robot was completely binded, and attempted to strike Shandaril with its massive arms to remove her tallons from its optics. This backfired on the unfortunate android, as its only working comrade was beginning to get up and was knocked down by forceful blows intended for the succubus.

Shandaril dove for the last one, the one that had been trying to get up, her talons outstretched. She slammed them into it's eyes, twisting and then rolled away. She rose to her feet and with a slight limp that was slowly getting better she made her way toward Sera.

Juan saw the robots were finished off and he turned to Shandril.

"Succubus, I demand to know your intentions for this woman. I would hate to destroy you in error if our causes are not in fact opposed," he said firmly as he mentally prepared for a fight.

"Brave man. NOW you choose to fight. You are as pathetic as the god you worship."

She dismissed him and turned to Sera, "We must find some place safe. I need answers."

"Brave man. NOW you choose to fight. You are as pathetic as the god you worship."

She dismissed him and turned to Sera, "We must find some place safe. I need answers."
"Just a tic, I almost have this thing," Sara said, putting the wiring from the gun in place in her arm.
WHIRRR BANG BANG! The minigun started up and discharged two shots that showed the wall it was facing who was boss. The wall crumbled instantly, being weakened from years of rot and ruin.
"Well, I guess it works. A little too late for those robots though... SHIT!"
In an instant a shape dropped from the ceiling and fell right on top of Sara Resi, knocking the minigun out of her grasp and onto the ground. A blade flicked from its wrist and went instantly to Sara's throat, and the other wrist folded down to reveal a small gun that appeared to be silenced.
"Shit!" Sara gasped again, "It's a SORO (http://members.cox.net/resicorp/soro1.htm)!"
"I SUGGEST YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE," the SORO said, moving the built-in SMG from Juan to Shandril and back, "I'LL BE TAKING THE GIRL."

Juan walked up to Shandril staring her down with a mad fire burning in his eyes. He began slowly muttering something inaudible. His voice steadily grew louder and it became clear that he was saying some sort of incantation in an ancient dead language. His voice continued to grow beyond what the human vocal cords could produce. Ancient power words and mantras echoed off of the walls and shook dust from crevices until the roar became unbearable. Juan had cleared his mind of doubt and focused with almost mad zealotry on his mental assault of the succubus. His field of vision filled with shimmering white light as it always did when he was in the heat of incantation. He didn't know wether the light was real or in his mind as at moments like this there were rarely witnesses.

Shandaril screamed in maddened fury and slammed into Juan, sending him toward the Soro and moved her hand quickly toward the blade, hoping that Juan's body would catch it off guard, and if the second weapon eliminated the self rightous little twit then so much the better.

"GUESS THIS JUST ISN'T YOUR DAY, BABE," the SORO muttered to Sara, maintaining its pose and watching Juan facing down the succubus.
"Yeah... you think he'd be more concerned about me. So who do you work for?"
"THE RESI CORPORATION, OF COURSE," the SORO said, "THAT'S NO SECRET. I'M A MILITARY ROBOT MADE BY THEM LIVING ON THEIR ISLAND, WHO DID YOU THINK I'D WORK FOR?"
"Ahhh, so you wouldn't mind me telling you that I AM the corporation, and you're doing harm to me by detaining me like this? I'm Sara Resi after all."
"NOT GONNA WORK, BABE. SARA RESI DIED A CENTURY AGO, AND YOU LOOK TOO HOT TO BE OVER A HUNDRED."
"So that's how much time I spent in hell..." she muttered to herself, "I wonder if anyone I know bothered to keep themselves alive."
"NOT LIKELY, WE'VE BEEN THROUGH TWO CEO'S SENSE JAI'S DEATH."
"Damn... I HAVE been gone long..."

Shandaril screamed in maddened fury and slammed into Juan, sending him toward the Soro and moved her hand quickly toward the blade, hoping that Juan's body would catch it off guard, and if the second weapon eliminated the self rightous little twit then so much the better.
The SORO straifed straight to the right, its upper body not changing posture in the least. Its hold on Sara didn't weaken even the slightest.
"NICE TRY, LOVE, BUT THAT'S WHAT I'M MADE FOR," it said, nodding its head towards Shandaril, "YOU'D HAVE TO OUTGUN ME TO BEAT ME, AND FRANKLY YOU DON'T HAVE THE FIREPOWER."

"Flirtacious personality..." Sara muttered, totally ignoring Juan who was lying bruised and battered over in the corner, "I made that part of you! Y'know, because you're a SpecOps droid, I made it to mirror those cheesy spy movies. It was my Programming Final in Corporate U, only got me a B+. That teacher was a bitch..."
"TRUE," the SORO grunted, keeping its eye on its two foes, "MAYBE YOU ARE HER. DID YOU LEAVE ANY EASTER EGGS IN MY CODE?"
"Um... yes?"
"WHERE?"
"I... don't know."
"THAT'S TOO BAD THEN, ISN'T IT?"

Shandaril had one last trick up her sleeve, though it would leave her with no escape options. She teleported behind the creature and immedietly grabbed for it's wrists while reaching her foot up, intent to rip it's arms out of it's sockets.

Shandaril had one last trick up her sleeve, though it would leave her with no escape options. She teleported behind the creature and immedietly grabbed for it's wrists while reaching her foot up, intent to rip it's arms out of it's sockets.
And so she did.
"OH, YOU DID NOT JUST DO WHAT I THINK YOU DID!" the SORO yelled, "YOU RIPPED THE ARMS OFF A $2 MILLION ROBOT! YOU THINK MONEY GROWS ON TREES?"
The robot did a flip and kicked both Sara and the succubus down to the ground, stunning them, before attempting to run off VERY akwardly.

Juan narrowly dodged the knife blade as he tumbled backwards onto the SORO. He looked into its beady mechanical eyes. It's some sort of independent machine. Obviously heavily armed and armoured, not much he could do to it with his barehands. The succubus possessed incredible strength and seemed to be unaffected by his psychic attacks. He still had tricks up his sleave though...

Rolled over on the ground moaning in pain and subtlely slipped a small peice of chalk out of his coat pocket. He dragged himself towards the succubus's feet, "Please don't kill me..." he implored pitifully prostrating himself at her feet. The fine chalk markings he made on the floor as he grovelled were almost invisible to the naked eye in the dark.

Shandaril groaned and rolled over, slowly climbing to her feet, "There are times when I wish I was full fledged demon", she muttered, rolling her shoulders and massaging aching muscles.

She looked at Sara, "But I'm not, and I don't have much left. This narrow minded, tunnel visioned, religion pickled, half-wit may worship a diety I'm not familiar with but he is a holy man non-the less. He's pushing my limits while I try to fight these things. We need to get some place safe that I can ask you some questions."

She looked down at Juan, "Kill you? YOU'RE the one who's been trying to kill ME."

Shandaril groaned and rolled over, slowly climbing to her feet, "There are times when I wish I was full fledged demon", she muttered, rolling her shoulders and massaging aching muscles.

She looked at Sara, "But I'm not, and I don't have much left. This narrow minded, tunnel visioned, religion pickled, half-wit may worship a diety I'm not familiar with but he is a holy man non-the less. He's pushing my limits while I try to fight these things. We need to get some place safe that I can ask you some questions."

She looked down at Juan, "Kill you? YOU'RE the one who's been trying to kill ME."
"Well," Sara started, picking up her minigun, "you've saved my ass twice, and this new guy - Juan, was it? - seems to have some fixation on hiding from robots and killing you. So... I'm going to have to go with following you. What did you say your name was, again?"
She walked towards Shandaril. Completely ignoring Juan had become almost habitual to her at this point, and she saw no reason to fix what isn't broken.

((OOC: Last post for the night! Thanks for some good RPing! :D ))

Juan continued his pathetic blubbering at the succubus's feet. In his head he was struggling to remember the exact details of the rune that he was secretly sketching at Shandril's feet. He had never had to draw this one without a book as reference before. "Pleeee-eease don't kill me, I'm sorry! accent mark a squiggle, I DON'T WANT TO DIEEEE!" He reached between her legs and put the last dot on the circle of confinement. Then he slowly stood up. He tried reached his hand out past the circle and felt it hit a solid barrier in thin air. Very nice he thought.

"I'm not here to kill you, though you may wind up getting us all killed if we don't get out of here."

She looked at Sara, "Shandaril. Sara is it?"

Juan slid his hand along the invisible barrier. "We have several options here: one, you kill me and starve to death in this box before you figure out the counter-incantation. Two, you try to teleport outside of the ring, as most demons attempt when trapped like this, usually there's a lot of ripping and goo and they end up back in hell. Three, we sit here arguing until more mechanical men come after the earthwalker and we both fail our missions. Four, you give me one good reason to put down the barrier." He crossed his arms and waited to be horribly devoured.

"Five", Shandaril said and uttered and incantation. The summoned demon was indeed torn apart by the barrier. 'He's better than I gave him credit for', she thought, but in the process the barrier was expended and she quickly stepped away from him. 'I'll have to keep closer eye on him', she noted to herself. "I give you credit young one", she said, now that he graduated to something higher than half-wit, "you learned your circles well. But I'll tell you this, something to remember, they're only affective against one. It can keep them in but it doesn't keep them from summoning another. You need to place the circle of repulsion as well as the one of containment."

"Touche," Juan responded.

"I'm curious as to why you didn't just devour me. All of your comrades in hell will say you've gone soft," Juan said as he rubbed the chalk dust from his hands.

"Don't misunderstand, I will slay you. But perhaps it would be best if we moved the fight to someplace free of these meddlesome mechanical men. After all we both fail out missions if the earthwalker is slain," he commented flatly as he brushed the dust off of his trousers and rubbed his hair back.

"I HAVE no comrades in the abyss", Shandaril replied with distinct bitterness in her voice, "they hate me as much as you. Probably more as I've had a few millenia to get on thier nerves." She looked around, trying to spot any more of the strange golems, "If I could kill every one I would."

She looked at Sara, "Can you move?"

"You're telling the truth," Juan had been trained to detect the lies of demons which were often quite convincing, but she spoke the truth. "I thought it made no sense for the dark one to send a succubus to drag a soul back to the Abyss, they usually send something... larger. The mechanical men are the least of our worries."

OOC: Done for the night.

(OOC - I'll forgo a last post for the night to wait for Resi or others, good night.)

"The DNA's a part of the autopsy," Angellica said, pouring herself a glass, "they had to get a sample at the scene of death to verify the identity. Seeing as the autopsy's pretty straightforward, no elaborating about the cause of death or anything, the sample should be on page one. We do testing, chip implantation, and automated medical cateloging on a daily basis in this era, it's just that this data came from, well, a simplier time."
She corked the bottle and put it back in the ice, pressing it down with a satisfying "crunch" sound. The bottle and the tray for the glasses retracted into the wall behind her.
"We call the religion 'Discordianism'," Angellica said, sipping her wine, "and it still has a following, though not as much anymore as it once was."

Dr. Hill nodded and seemed about to speak when Vera said in a firm voice. "I am sure it will be sufficent. Is there anything else you might want to do in Resi City doctor?"

Dr. Hill seemed to be making a decision as she hid her mouth behind the glass of wine. Then stated "Ah some shopping..."

Vera rasied an eyebrow. "Oh and perhaps vist a local Discordian temple. I wonder how the faiths have diverged in the past century or so..."

"Can you move?"
"Ow... yes, I'm fine," Sara grunted, adjusting her grasp on the minigun, "Are you two done squabbling over me yet?"

Juan looked at Shandril, "I'm finished, you?"

OOC: Lords of War seemed to be RPing the forces of hell earlier but then he disappeared. One of you want to take over that duty or should I?

"That depends", Shandaril said with a grin, "did I win?" She glanced around again, "Let's get moving, there's only one place I'm safe and she seems to be rather popular herself."

"You still live, for today you have won. Let's go," Juan gestured for Shandril to lead the way.

OOC: Any opinion on me RPing the demons? My concern is I could end up with some very monologue battles.

"Me lead, I know nothing of this place", Shandaril replied, "as for still being alive, your not the first who has tried to kill me." 'Though certainly one of the most talented to date', she thought.

(OOC: I don't particularly care. I know how pissy they are with Shan and could work that into RPing them and I'm sure thier not happy about Sara escaping, so Resi could as well.)

Dr. Hill nodded and seemed about to speak when Vera said in a firm voice. "I am sure it will be sufficent. Is there anything else you might want to do in Resi City doctor?"

Dr. Hill seemed to be making a decision as she hid her mouth behind the glass of wine. Then stated "Ah some shopping..."

Vera rasied an eyebrow. "Oh and perhaps vist a local Discordian temple. I wonder how the faiths have diverged in the past century or so..."
Angellica stuck out her arms and flicked her wrists in unison, like she was unfirling a blanket. Instantly the two discolored patches on her arms lit up, and discharged a pair of lighted, semi-transparent two-dimensional panels into three-dimensional space. On the bottom lighted square was your standard QWERTY keyboard, numpad included with all the keys in the right places. Below that was a dark square, resembling the touchpad on a laptop. On the other panel, positioned at a 60 degree angle to the first, the ResiCorp logo flashed and then displayed the logo of the Resi Corporation's cheif OS, R.S.T.A.R., for all of two seconds. The panel flashed, and a new screen with icons appeared. Swish, tap, Angellica glided her finger acrossed the black square at the bottom of the first panel, and the screen changed again, showing her business e-mail page. She logged in, then clicked on the upper-right corner of the screen and a high security page flashed for a fraction of a second before the semitransparent panel was covered from the view of the foreign delegation by another more opaque panel that popped up for just that purpose. This black panel acted as a blinder, keeping people from seeing secure data. It was unclear if Angellica intended to to this, or if it just happened as part of the site's code.
The two watched as Angellica's fingers glided acrossed the keys, and her brow furrowed. Something was not right.
"Well, that's amusing," she said, giving the blocked screen a very confused glance, "Seems someone with executive access deleted the file, but only after copying it. It's not on the main Resi server anymore."
Her fingers twitched a few more times, "Alright, I've got their IP... what the...?"
She flicked her wrists again, the laptop dissappearing.
"It seems we have a new destination, ladies. I checked the IP on a list of ResiCorp systems, and the one it was on was in a supposedly abandoned research facility run by the late Professor H. J. Washu. She and Sara had a nice bond, it's a shame that they both died the way they did.
"At any rate, it's most likely a roaming A.I. that found the security clearance and minimal access security in the abandoned facility, and decided to find out more about this "Sara" person Washu elluded to on the same computer. Happens all the time, but not on this scale. A.I.'s that people abandon attempt to find out why they were cast aside, and in doing so look for a greater study of human emotion, and why people connect to each other the way they do. If left in one system too long, they've even been observed to be almost identical to the primary user of that system in terms of which pieces of their life that person leaves on there.
"The facility is abandoned, the doors sealed. There'll be a small escort waiting for me there so that I may go in and retrieve the data personally. I don't trust this data to simple grunts or robots, or for that matter half of the 'esteemed' staff of the Resi Corporation. Sharing it was a mistake, and I intend to have monopolistic control of the data with the CEO once I get it back. You two will see the data anyway, so you can come along inside if you wish, although an abandoned lab is traditionally no place for foreign dignitaries. I doubt we'd have much technology in there that's worth stealing anyway."
The doors of the limo they were in opened, the ride decelerated so smoothly not even Angellica knew they were stopping.
"Motion compensation," she explained in a soundbite, "I'm sure your spacecraft have it on a greater scale.
"Anyway, this is my stop. Do you wish to come along, or wait in the car?"

"Me lead, I know nothing of this place", Shandaril replied, "as for still being alive, your not the first who has tried to kill me." 'Though certainly one of the most talented to date', she thought.

(OOC: I don't particularly care. I know how pissy they are with Shan and could work that into RPing them and I'm sure thier not happy about Sara escaping, so Resi could as well.)
"Even if we did know where we were, where are we trying to go?" Sara sighed, "Robots from the Corporation are after me for some reason, robots controlled by an independant firm are after me for some other reason... and if I'm to assume the demons from hell are anything like you..."
She nodded to Shandaril.
"...they'll probably be manifesting shortly and be after me too. All we have is my minigun and whatever else I remember, Shandi's demonic powers, and your latin flavor."
She nodded to Juan.
"What we need are some allies, some allies that won't be worthless humans and that'll actually be armed. But ResiCorp is mostly an empire of paper-pushers defended... by... robots...!"
With a rush of excitement, she snapped her fingers. Her face lit up and for the first time sense the brief peace when they first went underground, hope was restored.
"When we got underground," she said, going a mile a minute, "We went west, right? Right? I'd say it was about five blocks we ran, so... alright!"
She swiftly aimed her minigun directly upward and let loose a volley. The thin ceiling quite naturally collapsed all over her and the others, covering Sara's doctor coat with a fine brown dust.
"Al.. *cough*... alright, Shandi," Sara said, gagging on the dust she released, "toss me and what's-his-face directly up that hole. You're the strong one in the group."

Shandaril stepped forward and picked up Sara. Eyeing the hole she angled her throw to get her somewhat past the weakened lip so as not to collapse it. Once Sara was up she did the same to Juan and then jumped up herself.

"The only sanctuary I have is in Dragonsreach, but I don't know how to get there without going through the abyss. As for the demons, thier stronger than I am, I really more on cunning than brute force, but my sense for souls is stronger since it's what I feed on."

Shandaril stepped forward and picked up Sara. Eyeing the hole she angled her throw to get her somewhat past the weakened lip so as not to collapse it. Once Sara was up she did the same to Juan and then jumped up herself.

"The only sanctuary I have is in Dragonsreach, but I don't know how to get there without going through the abyss. As for the demons, thier stronger than I am, I really more on cunning than brute force, but my sense for souls is stronger since it's what I feed on."
"Unfamiliar territory we're in," Sara muttered, "Stay on guard. The room they were in was indeed unfamiliar, and glistened with a million metal instruments. She recognised several vials on the walls as nanomachines, glowing with their typical grey-goo luster that seemed to swirl around even when no force was applied. Before her death, she recalled that the Resi Corporation was working on a project with nanomachines called "Project Bullet-Time". It was, in essence, a way to speed up the transactions between nerves by using nanomachines as conduits between cells. This also sped up thinking potential and response time, the theory went. She wondered if this was the rumored bullet time lab, but realized these nanites could be used for any number of tasks, from bodily re-creation to auto-repair on robots.
"You needn't worry about a base of operations," she said, tapping one of the vials with a short fingernail, "Once we clean out this base it can be our safehouse. Keep an eye out for any robots, and call me when you see them. They could shoot us before I have a chance to 'remind' them who I am, so we have to be quick."
As soon as she finished this sentance, klaxons blaired yet again and a red hall light went off.
"Speak of the devil," Sara muttered, "that happens a lot around here."
She readied herself for the oncoming assult, but first turned to Shandaril.
"Speaking of devils, you weren't planning on eating my soul, were you?"

"That depends on your answers to my questions. I'll decide what I'm going to do once I have them. Until then It's in my interest to keep you alive."

"That depends on your answers to my questions. I'll decide what I'm going to do once I have them. Until then It's in my interest to keep you alive."
"Hmm.... remind me to give them to you very slowly then."
In the red flashing lights of the sirens, five robots could be seen bounding up the hall leading into the room in full attack formation. There was no doubt about the situation as far as security was concerned - it was a break-in. The hole in the floor and the minigun proved just that, but sending robots was far from the answer.
"Robots, stop," Sara said, the practice becoming almost habitual now, "I'm the corporation, harming me would harm the corporation, blah blah blah. Don't shoot."
The robots, three of which were in midair when she said this, came to a grinding halt and dropped to the floor with a loud CLANG!
"Now get up and protect us," she said, "set priority level 10 on everyone without a priority level in the room."
In a flash the robots were on their feet and formed a circular formation around the party. They stuck out their weapons, waiting for battle.
"They're our minions now," Sara explained, "Priority level 10 means that they'll do anything you want them to, even if its suicide. But try not to give them conflicting orders, they don't like that."
About ten seconds passed as the party waited for the second wave, but none came. The sirens still wailed their ghostly sound, and the red lights still flashed.
In a split second ten panels dropped from the ceiling and dual minigun turrets came out of each. They whirred as they began to warm up to fire.
"Shit! No A.I.! I can't control these!" Sara shouted, "Everyone, split up and attack!"
With this, she raised her own minigun and let loose a volley at the nearest turret.

"Attack what?" Shandaril asked confused.

"Attack what?" Shandaril asked confused.
Sara pointed frantically at the ceiling.
"Those! Are you blind? Attack the minigun turrets!"
WHIRRR BAKABAKABAKABAKABAKABAKA! the gun turrets that sprouted from the ceiling responded, opening fire on the three humanoids while totally ignoring the robots. Sara dove under a thick metal lab table, and opened fire with her own minigun, tearing one of the turrets to shreads.

"On not these things again", Shandaril mumbled. She leaped up, grabbing the support for one of the turrets and then planted her feet against the ceiling. Used that leverage and her own strength she turned the minigun to fire on the others in the room.

Angellica stuck out her arms and flicked her wrists in unison, like she was unfirling a blanket. Instantly the two discolored patches on her arms lit up, and discharged a pair of lighted, semi-transparent two-dimensional panels into three-dimensional space. On the bottom lighted square was your standard QWERTY keyboard, numpad included with all the keys in the right places. Below that was a dark square, resembling the touchpad on a laptop. On the other panel, positioned at a 60 degree angle to the first, the ResiCorp logo flashed and then displayed the logo of the Resi Corporation's cheif OS, R.S.T.A.R., for all of two seconds. The panel flashed, and a new screen with icons appeared. Swish, tap, Angellica glided her finger acrossed the black square at the bottom of the first panel, and the screen changed again, showing her business e-mail page. She logged in, then clicked on the upper-right corner of the screen and a high security page flashed for a fraction of a second before the semitransparent panel was covered from the view of the foreign delegation by another more opaque panel that popped up for just that purpose. This black panel acted as a blinder, keeping people from seeing secure data. It was unclear if Angellica intended to to this, or if it just happened as part of the site's code.
The two watched as Angellica's fingers glided acrossed the keys, and her brow furrowed. Something was not right.
"Well, that's amusing," she said, giving the blocked screen a very confused glance, "Seems someone with executive access deleted the file, but only after copying it. It's not on the main Resi server anymore."
Her fingers twitched a few more times, "Alright, I've got their IP... what the...?"
She flicked her wrists again, the laptop dissappearing.
"It seems we have a new destination, ladies. I checked the IP on a list of ResiCorp systems, and the one it was on was in a supposedly abandoned research facility run by the late Professor H. J. Washu. She and Sara had a nice bond, it's a shame that they both died the way they did.
"At any rate, it's most likely a roaming A.I. that found the security clearance and minimal access security in the abandoned facility, and decided to find out more about this "Sara" person Washu elluded to on the same computer. Happens all the time, but not on this scale. A.I.'s that people abandon attempt to find out why they were cast aside, and in doing so look for a greater study of human emotion, and why people connect to each other the way they do. If left in one system too long, they've even been observed to be almost identical to the primary user of that system in terms of which pieces of their life that person leaves on there.
"The facility is abandoned, the doors sealed. There'll be a small escort waiting for me there so that I may go in and retrieve the data personally. I don't trust this data to simple grunts or robots, or for that matter half of the 'esteemed' staff of the Resi Corporation. Sharing it was a mistake, and I intend to have monopolistic control of the data with the CEO once I get it back. You two will see the data anyway, so you can come along inside if you wish, although an abandoned lab is traditionally no place for foreign dignitaries. I doubt we'd have much technology in there that's worth stealing anyway."
The doors of the limo they were in opened, the ride decelerated so smoothly not even Angellica knew they were stopping.
"Motion compensation," she explained in a soundbite, "I'm sure your spacecraft have it on a greater scale.
"Anyway, this is my stop. Do you wish to come along, or wait in the car?"

It was unlikely that Angella noticed the Vera's grip increase slightly on her case as she mentioned the 'essteemed staff' of Resi Corp. something in Angella's tone made Vera feel she was on very familiar territory again.

Vera nodded, "I believe our Navy, at the request of Eris herself, named the first of a new class of carriers in honor of Dr. Washu after her death. I personally would like to see her labs, if nothing more it will make an intresting tale around the...the..."
"Bar.." Dr. Hill interjected. "I will just streach my legs."

Vera and Dr. Hill exited the car. Dr. Hill seemed to be watching the general area while she walked a few paces with the long cylindrical case in her hands.

Vera held onto her gray metal case as she followed Angella. "You know if my government discovered a wandering A.I. they would be here to destroy it with severe prejudice."

It was unlikely that Angella noticed the Vera's grip increase slightly on her case as she mentioned the 'essteemed staff' of Resi Corp. something in Angella's tone made Vera feel she was on very familiar territory again.

Vera nodded, "I believe our Navy, at the request of Eris herself, named the first of a new class of carriers in honor of Dr. Washu after her death. I personally would like to see her labs, if nothing more it will make an intresting tale around the...the..."
"Bar.." Dr. Hill interjected. "I will just streach my legs."

Vera and Dr. Hill exited the car. Dr. Hill seemed to be watching the general area while she walked a few paces with the long cylindrical case in her hands.

Vera held onto her gray metal case as she followed Angella. "You know if my government discovered a wandering A.I. they would be here to destroy it with severe prejudice."
"The data is more important than the A.I., Miss Vera," Angellica said, the doors of the limo snapping shut behind the delegates, "We didn't know such an A.I. existed, or even that this base still had internet access. The important thing now is to get the file out of the computer. The A.I. should pose no problem as long as we just copy the file from the host computer, but rest assured we WILL format whatever hard drives it's taking residence on when the time is right."
It was a short walk, no greater than ten yards between the limo and the door of the base. The street ran right by it, and its huge door gaped open like a mouth, beckoning the party inside.
"Great job getting the door open, boys," Angellica said to a group of robots waiting over on the sidelines, obviously the ones intended to escort the women, "Way to pre-empt us."
"CORRECTION:" one of the robots stated, flat and simple, "THE DOOR WAS OPEN UPON OUR ARRIVAL, AND THE POWER WAS ON. APPARENTLY THIS BASE WAS NOT TAKEN OFF THE POWER GRID AS RECORDS INDICATE."
"Well obviously," Angellica replied with a haughty air, "A roaming A.I. would need a powered computer to run on, wouldn't it? The maps of the base have been uploaded to your hard disks with the computer containing the data plotted on them. Now lead us there."
"YES, MA'AM." the robot droned, apparently apathetic as to how much of a bitch Angellica was being to it.
"Right this way, ladies," Angellica said, motioning forward with her hand.
* * *
The three women made their way through the corridors of the base, kept immaculate over the years by cleaning nanomachines. Not a speck of dust, hair, or even an eyelash escaped their notice as it dropped to the floor. It was a nuclear-family housewife's dream come true, not a blemish anywhere in this hallway so absolutely clean it was almost foreboding. The sound of the robot's feet on the cold metal floor intermingled with that of Angellica's high heels and Vera and Dr. Hill's shoes. Over the quiet clatter rose a hard vibration, like a strong sound echoing somewhere in the distance, then dying out, all the while being so far away that discerning what it actually was became next to impossible.

((OOC: React to this if you want, I need one more post to set up what's going to happen. :cool: ))

Dr. Hill remained outside since her services would likely not be needed inside. The doctor was far more worried about communications in and out of the base at the moment than anything else.

Vera was decidely not wearing high heeled shoes. Personally she actually hadn't noticed the other woman's footware until now but found it decidely impractical in her view.
She also bit her lip at the "Miss Vera" comment. One only used that with a child. Foolish, arrogant Terran, you let A.I.'s wander about your computer system like kaka in a rusty hulk. No wonder your corporate state is so long in decline...you have had little leadership and too much self-supperiority to do little else

In reality Vera's masters, the Var and the human lords, loathed A.I.s. This exstreme prejudice could be traced back far into history. But that a story for another time.

Vera felt the deeper vibration more than heard it. Her eyes began to sweep the spaces while she attempted to isolate the sound out from the rest of the noise. Her hands seemed to be gripping the case less actually.

***
Outside Dr. Hill leaned up against the car and inserted a small black object into an ear. How in the hell did I wind up playing...what is it called...the calvery?...in this operation?

OOC: Thought it might be good to resolve this, seeing as how it stopped during the turret battle. I was meaning to get back in anyway.

Crash Man had been following the trail left by Sara Resi and her apparent captor for nearly an hour now, trying to locate her and get her to safety. Afterall, that army could still be looking for her, and that's no position for a woman to be in (Chivalry was one the things Wily programmed into each of his Robot Masters).

Nearing the end of his quest, Crash Man finally located the hole blown in the floor. He popped his head up...then quickly ducked back down, narrowly avoiding a spray of mini-gun bullets. A Crash Bomb is quickly fired up form the hole, exploding be fore reachign the ceiling, and hopefully the blast radius takes out the remaing turrets, or atleast disables them.