Racing the Storm

Pterano · **Reply #820 on:** January 11, 2015, 02:02:42 PM

Vergil remained in his meditative state on the chair, apparently unresponsive, though how true that was was anyone's guess. Tony looked over at Axel here, and gave a small smile and nod. "Yeah... I'm... I'm glad to be back in all honesty. I don't know how either but... maybe we'll find out, maybe we won't." he said, shrugging.

He was soon interrupted by Rio, who was asking just who Kojuuro was. "Oh... that's... Kojuuro." the ferret said. "Without a doubt the strangest member of our group... if you can even call him a member..." Tony muttered that last bit.

He took a seat at the table, sighing. "It is good to be back... I... missed everyone." he said, looking around the table and picking up his fork before digging in. "I'm glad to see you're all alive, truth be told. I was worried that after that... well I wasn't sure what to expect. So... we actually encounter this bastard Kalis yet?" he asked, looking around again.

Nick22 · **Reply #821 on:** January 11, 2015, 07:28:56 PM

No, Not yet " rose sighed as she took kojurros pie away from him ' ' we'll run into him soon enough I'm sure' She said as she took a seat at the table. " Kojuuro, please sit down" Kojurro grinned and did as requested. 'good to be with you lot again.. i.. guess i went to seed after our last parting.' he said.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #822 on:** January 12, 2015, 11:40:50 PM

Nairda lay in a dazed stupor all night. When the morning sun shone over the horizon and the nocturnal mold crops closed up their spores for the day, he continued to stare straight ahead at the stucco ceiling, his mind still several hours behind from the marathon of impossibly kinky sexcapades he'd just experienced.

What will I do now? he wondered, now that I've experienced the best day in my entire life?

--------------------------------

As the daylight shone through the open window, Emilena found herself rousing from a dreamless sleep. But it was going to take a lot more than consciousness to get her out of bed, she decided. She was perfectly content to lie here for the rest of her aching, miserably sore life.

Last night was a dizzy blur, and not the good kind that came from tripping on multiple drugs in the privacy of one's safe house. Slowly her brain mentally pieced together the events involving Stryker, Vergil, and something with Lily at the end...

I'll worry about that all later, she thought wearily. Got to make sure she was still in one working piece first.

She tried to raise her arm and hissed. Her joint was not happy to be disturbed. Slowly she shifted onto her side so she could face away from the window, and realized that she felt...crusty.

What the hell? She scraped a dried film off of her stomach, confused. That was certainly not part of her memories from last night...

She became aware of the sound of running water. Someone was in the apartment shower. Combat instincts flaring up, she rolled off the bed and creeped to the bathroom door. Grabbing the clothes iron from the empty closet, she listened for a few minutes, hoping to gather some information about the intruder's gender or weight.

Then the shower turned off, so Emilena threw caution to the wind and kicked the door open. Swinging the iron reflexively, she barely prevented herself from braining the startled fuchsia blur that flailed backwards screaming. "Flora?"

"Please don't kill me! Oh god I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Flora tried to dive out of the shower, got tangled in the curtain and wound up sprawled on the floor cowering in a ball. "Please don't!"

"You didn't mean to what?" Emilena took a few mental steps backward and tied some clues together. "Flora, did you..?"

"I didn't-- I-I shouldn't have, and I'm so sorry!" Flora sobbed hysterically, backing up into the corner and viewing the clothes iron with wide open eyes.

Emilena set the iron aside. "Flora, look, could you please calm down? I have a really bad migraine already and you're not helping!" When the folf couldn't stop panicking and babbling apologetic gibberish, Emilena pinned her and wrapped her hands around Flora's snout. "Flora," she said sternly. "I'm not. Going. To hurt you. Do you understand?"

Flora nodded her head, still shaking uncontrollably.

"Good. Now, I'm going to let go, you're going to sit down with me, and we're going to talk about this. Okay?" When the folf didn't object, Emilena grabbed her by the arm and directed her back to the bed.

Tears were still running down Flora's face. "I know it was bad," she whimpered, "I knew you would kill me, I don't why I did it, I just..."

"Quiet." Emilena sighed as blissful silence reasserted itself. "I don't want to hear what you have to say. I probably already know. Just let me talk."

She took a few moments to collect her thoughts. "Now, first of all, I don't really care that you raped me. So stop apologizing. I've been through much worse in the past 24 hours, and I would have loved if some of them had let me fall unconscious before doing their thing. Okay? But that said, this isn't happening again."

"I know," Flora nodded quickly. Her face was bright red and she was short on breath. "It won't, I promise. I'll never do it to anyone again!"

"Don't promise that," Emilena rolled her eyes. "You're a teenager, you're going to keep doing dumb shit. But maybe this is a good opportunity to for us to talk a little. I haven't been paying you the attention you deserve as a member of the gang." Emilena sighed again. "It's all been taken up by Nairda and his worthless problems."

Flora sniffed and finally met her eye. She was only now realizing that she wasn't about to die. "Okay, if you want to..."

(OOC: Converstion got long so I split it into two parts. If you had things to do last night, you can put them in your next post, just nobody seemed to protest a timeskip in the Skype chat.)

Nick22 · **Reply #823 on:** January 13, 2015, 12:32:16 AM

Marita stretched and yawned from her bed. The full weight of lsast nights events were finaly starting to sink in. ' they had gained 4 3 new members to the group ' Emilena, Flora and Rio ) Regained two old members (Tony and Kojuuro) and lost one member (Lily). It had been close to midnight by the time she had gotten to bed, and marita did not get the quality of sleep ashe normally got. Thus it was around 8 am when she got out of bed and chaneged into a fresh set of attire, before heading to the kitchen to make hersellf some toast for breakfast. Wasnt much of a breakfast, all tings considered, but marita needed something, ANYTHING to get the cobwebs out. Marie came in the kitchen about 10 minutes latter in her nightgown' You're up early.." Marie said stifling a yawn. ' Yeah couldnt sleep very well. we've got a lot of work to do, to become a more cohesive group..

bushwacked · **Reply #824 on:** January 13, 2015, 04:50:00 PM

Rio blinked and groaned, woken by the sound of murmured voices, turning over as the dim light of day washed over him, the sunlight forcing its way through slightly grimy windows. Rolling over again, he blearily sat up and rubbed his face, having to take a moment to remember where he was. After Flora had left the table to find Emilena, he'd stayed behind, watching the others talk. It was boring as hell, sure - most of it was talking about the things they'd done before, stuff he didn't understand... but somehow, he hadn't minded. It had even been kind of nice, the last time he'd been able to just sit down at a proper dinner like that was... well, never. Still, he had his limits, and after a few hours, he'd slipped from the table and flopped on the sofa, exhausted.

Where he'd just woken up. Sitting up, he stretched... and realised with dawning horror that his thumb was planted firmly in his mouth. "Son of a bitch..." he muttered, pulling his thumb out hastily with an audible pop. Standing, Rio yawned and padded into the kitchen from where the voices were coming from. Stepping through, Rio paused as he saw Marita, Marie and Axel sat at the kitchen table. He crossed his arms over his wrinkled T-shirt. "Hey."

Axel looked over, his conversation with the other two interrupted mid-sentence. "Hey," he replied. His voice was slightly husky. It looked like the rat hadn't slept at all, dark circles casting shadows under his eyes. Axel indicated towards the fridge. "There's juice if you want it." The corner of his mouth twitched. "No cigarettes though."

---------------------------------------------------------

Triste stared up at the slowly lightening sky, and with a despondent heave of breath, gave up. In the early hours of the morning, unable to sleep, she'd gone up to the roof of the apartment building, and set about trying to contact someone at HQ. Anyone. But of course, there'd been nothing.

Shit. Scowling, Triste retreated back down into the gloomy apartment building, her expression remaining just as dark as she made her way silently down the corridors towards Soren's door. We really are on our own... she thought, letting herself in.

Nick22 · **Reply #825 on:** January 13, 2015, 06:40:42 PM

Morning Rio" Marita said, as he came in ' we' have milk and juice in the fridge. what do you want for breakfast? We have eggs, if you like them.."
_
rose entered the kitchen and took a seat ' morning everyone ' she said sitting down at the table.

Pterano · **Reply #826 on:** January 13, 2015, 07:21:13 PM

Vergil had spent the night rejuvenating himself. The meditation also acted like rest, so it had quite the powerful effect of healing his injuries and resting his mind, and allowing him to recharge. Vergil had to admit... it was better than any sleep he'd had recently, that was for sure!

Opening his eyes, the gecko was finally cognizant of people being at the breakfast table, right as Rio walked in. As there hadn't been enough room for him to spend the night, Tony had gone off somewhere overnight (Vergil assumed home), but the ferret reentered shortly after Vergil opened his eyes.

"Hey guys..." the ferret said, looking around before taking a seat at the table, though he turned his chair around so he could rest on the back of it. "I didn't grab breakfast on the way over..." he sighed, his face looking a little heavy for some reason... but he put a smile on shortly after.

Serris · **Reply #827 on:** January 13, 2015, 10:19:40 PM

Soren said nothing as he sipped his morning glass of hot tea. Anne was munching on some oat cereal.

The Human looked at the gathered group. The scent of Marita's scrambled eggs made his stomach growl. "So what's the plan?"

Anne's ear twitched slightly as she sipped her cup of water. "Don't ask me. I know jackshit about this expedition."

"Then why are you coming?"

Anne smiled and tapped her metallic horn. "Someone with electronic warfare capabilities will prove to be quite helpful!"

Soren gave the mare a quizzical look. "Since when did your implant let you do that?"

"Since yesterday night. I just decided to do a little reprogramming on the software. It's got a range of about maybe five meters, tops."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #828 on:** January 13, 2015, 11:43:41 PM

"Now, despite your overly flirty attitude I know you don't normally talk much about yourself," Emilena started, "so how about instead I tell you what I've noticed over time, and you can tell me if I'm wrong. I'm not a psychologist, but I was a criminal investigator." Emilena consciously reminded herself to keep from settling into police-interrogator mode. "For an exhibitionist who's decided to make sex a huge part of their identity, you're oddly something of a loner. During all your time in my gang, I've never seen you actually get someone in the sack."

Flora looked at the ground. "That's because I'm so weird-looking..."

"No, it's because you act stereotypically feminine right up until you whip your cock out at the worst possible time." Emilena wasn't interested in sugar-coating things. "You're intentionally sabotaging yourself, and I know you're not dumb enough to be doing it on accident. I think it's because you secretly have a deep-seated fear of actually committing the deed." Flora didn't say anything. "That's also why you picked me to channel your romantic desires towards, because then you could act on them indefinitely without fear of reciprocation. Does any of this sound right?"

Flora's lip quivered. "I...don't know..."

"Well, think about it and let me know. I've got nowhere to go." Emilena folded her arms. She was starting to feel sleepy again, but she needed to wrap this up so Flora could forever bother somebody else with her hormonal advances.

Flora sighed. "I...guess that sounds a bit right..."

"Uh huh. Now look," Emilena forced her to make eye contact. "We all have weird things we do to try and feel unique, but acting like a walking dichotomy is just going to leave you unfulfilled. Go find someone and actually get laid. Get over it."

Flora's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Yeah, have sex with lots of people, as many as you want. Admit what you're packing from the getgo and find people who'd actually want that. Just give it a shot, okay?"

Flora nodded. "Okay Emi! I'll do that!"

"Great." Emilena yawned. "You should start with the trio of dogs upstairs. They're simple-minded, they're polyamorous and they won't charge money."

"Okay!" Flora bounded out of the room, leaving Emilena to gratefully lay her head back on the pillow and enjoy the silence.

-------------------

Emile stirred, and sat up with a yawn. He noticed Nairda was awake and smiled lopsidedly. "Morning, son. How you feeling?"

"Absolutely fine," Nairda still felt dazed. "No, that was amazing..."

"See?" smiled Lena sleepily. "I told you, mother knows best."

"How about you come with your old dad and lay the moisture tarps on the mold crops?" Emile slipped his work pants on. "It'll be like when you were young."

Nairda hesitated. "That would be fun, but...after that, I need to go find Emilena. We need to patch things up."

"At least stay for breakfast!" Lena stretched before picking her bathrobe off the ground. "Your father had an amazing haul last night, and the autostove makes great slow-roasted seal breasts."

"Well, okay," Nairda submitted, climbing out of bed. "We can do all those things. But after that I have to leave. I left my true love somewhere in South Africa, she could need my help."

"We'll miss you Nairda," Lena hugged her boy. "It's so hard to see you all grown up. But I'm so glad you've grown up with all your limbs still attached."

"I'm proud of you son," Emilen patted him on the back and handed him a baggy coverall. "Here, you'll want to wear this before we visit. Unprotected exposure to the mold crops can cause dermal mycosis."

"And when you do find this Emilena girl again," chuckled Lena as her two men left the house, "make sure to put what we taught you to good use!"

-----------------------------------

Flora burst through the apartment door and pointed directly at Marita. "I want you!" she declared. "To get fucked by me." The finger shifted to pointing downward. "With my penis."

bushwacked · **Reply #829 on:** January 14, 2015, 12:00:25 AM

Coming through the door just as Flora entered the room, Triste was treated to a loud statement of Flora's intentions. It didn't help her mood. "Nobody's fucking anyone," she muttered, slipping into the kitchen and leaning against the kitchen table. "We need to figure out our next move."

Axel stared at where Flora was pointing. "You have a penis?" he asked slowly, his expression dumb-founded.

Nick22 · **Reply #830 on:** January 14, 2015, 12:24:44 AM

Marita gaped at Floras almost absurd frankness and it took her almost a minute. " Well.. Flora.. thats not something you come out and tell people in public.. especially when said people are trying to eat breakfast.." she added looking at her plate
- Yes" Rose nodded. " thats a bit too much info. besides there are kids present.' she motioned at Rio. " even if he really doesnt act like a kid ...
_
i would say good morning to you Flora, but after that.. outburst.. i don't know where to start' Marie said " i mean.. its good you've taken an interest in Marita.. but usually you go out on dates first before proceeding to the bedchambers. i .. think you have the order mixed up..
marita looked at her plate a for couple minutes in thought then go up, and walked over to Flora, and took her by the arm "Come along with me to my room.. and we can.. straighten some things out.. I do owe you a favor. since you beat my time getting from here to the forest by 8 minutes ' she added. " So pretty much anything is fair game... but we do need to have a chat first..," she said to Flora, but her face was not showing any or displeasure. She stopped as Trieste interjected " But first things first.. we have to plan for when we leave.. which will be very soon..' she pulled away from the folf and returned to the table..

Serris · **Reply #831 on:** January 14, 2015, 02:08:23 AM

Soren spat out his drink at Flora's blunt exclamation. "What the fuck!? Shit, I'm blunt but at least I don't go flaunting my junk around. Seriously. What. The. Fuck." He shook his head and then facepalmed. He then got up to get a dishcloth to clean up his spilled tea.

Anne started laughing at Flora's bluntness. She pushed her empty bowl of cereal aside, not caring she knocked over some spam USB sticks that she had planned to disassemble. "That's the most unsexy pickup line I've heard since 'I want to be the charger so I can plug into you'."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #832 on:** January 14, 2015, 10:29:54 PM

Flora flipped them all the bird. "Y'all just jelly."

Then Emilena trudged into the kitchen and pegged her with the undergarmets from her outfit. "Clothes. Civilized people wear clothes when in the presence of others," she murmured grumpily.

Emilena had quickly found it impossible to fall asleep without taking a shower, and after the shower she was awake enough to feel how impossibly hungry she was. For some reason Flora had been wearing almost two complete outfits, and Emilena had helped herself to the larger of the articles.

She collapsed in a chair, grabbed the cereal box and began eating handfuls straight out of it. She spared a glance at Vergil, who appeared far healthier than she remembered. "Well damn, somebody's looking peachy. Lily gave you a better heal than she gave me..."

Then she noticed Kojurro and could only emote dull surprise. "Never mind what I said about civilized, Flora. Apparently they're letting anyone in here..."

Nick22 · **Reply #833 on:** January 15, 2015, 12:56:48 AM

marie put some eggs on a plate and gave them to Emilena ' hope you like them scrambled ' She said.
-
Yes clothes would be proper Flora' Rose said ' You can take some of mine. I have plenty'
_
Well well, Officer Emilena. Long time no see' Kojuuro smirked in reply. ' still working for old whatisname. eh?' he laughed "it had been several months since Kojuuro had seen Emilena, but at least he remembered her.

Pterano · **Reply #834 on:** January 16, 2015, 09:05:14 PM

Tony looked over at Anne, and nodded. "yeah... that'll be useful for sure. I doubt many would know you're capable of doing that... and it'll be good to have you along." he said softly, smiling at her. He'd been worried about her the whole time, but then a portion of his life had been stolen after he'd blacked out, and he'd lost it. Still... it was good to be among friends again.

Vergil began eating. "Well... it's either Egypt or the Sudan... I haven't had time to check the coordinates yet what with me getting abducted and all." he stated flatly. "So when I do, we'll head there. It's the second to last one so... after this, one more to go and we find the warship. Somehow I get the distinct sense that Kalis already knows about that one in China so... makes me wonder if he'd only need this one, or if he's got none of the others either. Still, I suppose he doesn't have the full picture, since we aren't dead right now." he half joked.

Tony nodded solemnly. "The home stretch then." he exhaled. "Egypt or the Sudan... can't say I'm a fan of the desert but... we gotta do what we gotta do. I'll fund our flights of course... anything else we need if we need to restock."

"That'd be a good idea." Vergil nodded. "We need to covertly get weapons into the country..."

"Yeah well that won't be a problem... pretty sure my dad's got contacts over there." Tony replied.

"All right... I think I heard Anne mention something about electronic warfare... that'll come in handy. We've got the hacker with Marita, the muscle with Soren, Emilena, and arguably Axel, and yadda yadda yadda. Also Emilena's former law enforcement... she can navigate that kind of stuff. Anyway, I figure we'll take stock of what we need... book our transport, and get over there. The sooner the better cause I'm all for wrapping this one up and taking Kalis down!" Vergil stated adamantly. "He's messed with us long enough!"

bushwacked · **Reply #835 on:** January 16, 2015, 09:47:33 PM

Triste nodded. "Agreed. Kalis needs to be taken down. And fast."

"Right, let's show Kalis that he screwed with the wrong people," Axel said, a slight smile playing at the corner of his mouth for the first time since last night. And I'll find Ejlert, Lily. I promise.

Rio frowned. "I still don't know who Kalis is."

Axel glanced at him. "He's a psycho who wants to control the world using a massive warship, and we're gonna find out where it is, get there first and, if I have any say in it, fly the warship straight up the bastard's ass."

"That sounds about right," Triste said, nodding slightly.

"Oh, okay." Rio snatched a fistful of cereal from Emilena, then suddenly brightened. "Wait, a warship?! That blows stuff up and shit? And we're gonna be taking it? That's fucking awesome!" His eyes glazed over. "I could do whatever the hell I wanted then..."

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #836 on:** January 16, 2015, 10:41:22 PM

Emilena nodded. "I've smuggled guns before. Way more dangerous than drugs, but not when the mafia's on your side."

Flora brushed Marita's lips with her finger. "I'll bust my nuts in your mouth later, lover. I won the bet, after all." She looked at Rose. "You used to be a whore, right? I'll take an outfit, but don't give me one of your whore costumes. Girl's got to have dignity."

"Are we taking any sort of public transport to Egypt? Cause if so, you'll need to do a better job of covering your tracks," said Emilena. "There's a reason both Veranus and I were separately able to track you to the Yungas airport, and it wouldnt have happened if you were on a private mafia jet."

Nick22 · **Reply #837 on:** January 17, 2015, 12:57:04 AM

dignity? you just said you were going to stick your enhanced gizmo in my girlfriends mouth! in public! theres nothing dignified about that! " Rose replied. 'you'll get what i'm willing to give you Flora.. no more or less...and i'm not a whore..i got rid of those attires after i moved in with Marita and Marie..' Rose replied.

Serris · **Reply #838 on:** January 17, 2015, 05:33:36 PM

Soren shot a dirty glare at Flora but said nothing. He wasn't interested in dealing with a Folf who'd seemingly fuck anyone, anytime, anyplace. "Anyways, what about weapons?" Soren asked. He pointed to his shotgun leaning against the back wall of his bedroom/workshop. "I can't bring that on the plane! And customs will be on my ass if I try bringing that into the country!"

"Thanks!" Anne clapped Tony on the back. In reply to Soren, she spoke: "Well, I've got horseshoes, a horn and brass knuckles." She blew some air through her nostrils. "Though how'd they'd fare against Kalis's forces is questionable."

Pterano · **Reply #839 on:** January 25, 2015, 04:41:44 PM

"Thanks... I'm glad to have you back." Tony replied to her with a smile as Anne clapped him upon his backside.

"Right... but I would caution against using that ship ourselves. I've been... thinking on it... myself. A race capable of building such a device would be truly evil... I don't think anything good can come of it and... I sense... something else with it as well that feels off. Almost like... there's A REASON that civilization doesn't exist anymore... I mean what's puzzling me is they build a giant warship capable of devastating cities but then... vanish? No... something's wrong about that..." Vergil trailed off here, looking into the distance.

"Anyway... it's something I'll be pondering over the next while... and hopefully we don't run into a nasty surprise along the way regarding it." he murmured. "So let's make our preparations."

"I'll arrange our transportation, and as far as tracking us goes... somehow I feel Kalis has always been one step ahead of us in that department regardless of how careful we've been." Tony replied. "In terms of weapons though, my father can easily smuggle those into Egypt or wherever we're going." he commented.

"Make the arrangements... I'm going back to my place to regroup and take stock... I'll be in touch..." Vergil said, getting off the chair now and nodding at the group.

The city of Aswan was not scorching in January, as it typically wouldn't rise above 85 degrees this month, and the city was actually a pleasant 75 today and dry. The desert stretched out on either side of the city, and the blue ribbon of the Nile cut the city in two, slicing through it majestically before flowing north to the Mediterranean, hundreds of miles away. The first cataract of the Nile was just south of the city, and further south were numerous others. Lake Nasser was above the city as well, having completely submerged the second cataract after the completion of several dams in the region; it made navigation of the cataracts much easier.

Vergil stepped out of the taxi into the afternoon sun, and donned a pair of black sunglasses as he looked around the streets. Tony exited from a cab that pulled up behind that one, and the ferret two was already wearing a pair of sporty looking shades. Their "gear" was in luggage in the trunks of said cabs, having been waiting for them after they'd deplaned from their private jet from Cairo to Aswan.

"According to the coordinates... the next waypoint is located up the Nile further south... past Abu Simbel and over the Sudanese border." Vergil commented, checking his phone.

"Right... so we need a boat... I'll go take care of that." Tony said, looking off in the direction of the waterfront.

"Preferably something fast." Vergil responded.

"Right... anyone want to tag along?" the ferret asked, looking around at the group as he began unloading some of the duffel bags and paid their driver.

"I'm gonna get a drink at the bar before we leave." Vergil said, pointing to a nearby local place that looked like a good place to hang out and gather information.

"I'll see you there!" Tony called.