Elysium Core - L'Internet du Soir

[Snakeskin]

The sky blackened as a chill filled the air, and a vortex of hellish orange light tore a swirling hole in the clouds in the distance - above the island that was now the Dark Colony. The Master was reaching into the net once more.

[Deleted]

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(Blah, fine then )

A silhouette hidden by the darkness of the sky walked along the ground of L'Internet du Soir, but stopped to gaze up to the activity in the sky.

" ..."

The navi of this silhouette had last been seen in this network, but has (for the most part) been MIA until this time. He was different than before, too. Happier, or at least less gloomy, one could say.

But at the sight of the Dark Colony, his eyes sharpened and pierced the darkness the still hid his form. There was indeed some unfinished business to be dealt with.

" He's back."

The area began to illuminate again, revealing the figure that was previously clouded by the darkness cast over the area from the portal above.

A yellow shirt.

A black jacket.

A black scarf.

And golden eyes ignited with a fire of enmity.

" ... and things will be different."

There was no time to waste -- Warrior made his way to the Dark Colony yet again. Wave had yet to be avenged.

[Team Active Star]

It wasn't common that Rikaru found himself in the Netopian networks, but he had no real direction to go, and decided it wouldn't hurt to scope out some usual contacts of his for any work. He wasn't exactly bad off, but he wasn't well to do either. He found himself leaning against an enterance to a back ally, which led to the usual hang out of a navi he had done work for in the past. Shadier work admittedly, but work was work. And after the last stunt with the ONB marking him, he was less then interested in doing anything for them immediately.

He had checked back where the ally led, and saw no sign if the one he was looking for, so he decided to wait for his contact, and see if there was anything worth doing through him.

[Unknown]

[bgcolor=black]

As Rikaru waited there, he could hear footsteps echoing from the back of the alley that he was standing next to. Despite not seeing anybody there, just a moment ago, his ears told him what his eyes could not.

" I have no bounties for you."

Rikaru would undoubtedly recognize his voice as the his previous contact -- the one that had informed him on his last bounty: 'Wave'. The contact was wearing a brown, jedi-cloak this time, though, that covered its entire body, head to ankle. Black shoes (almost feminine in size) stood underneath the bottom of the cloak.

Surprisingly enough, the brown cloak wasn't torn at the bottom. That seemed to be a trendy thing nowadays -- a trend that this contact chose not to follow.

" ... But I do have a Job."

The Navi's voice changed ever so slightly as it approached the end of its sentence... almost as if it was using a malfunctioning voice-altering device, or as if the Navi was trying to disguise their voice naturally, but failing to do so properly.


It would be difficult for Rikaru to accurately detect, much less determine, the validity of such an assumption, though. The Navi said nothing more, but handed him an orange file and walked back into the alley from whence it came.

It's footsteps echo'ed down the alleyway, then suddenly stopped. If Rikaru were to turn the corner again, he'd see nothing different than what he'd seen before: emptiness.

[Team Active Star]

Rikaru's attention focused immediately on the sound of foot steps coming from the allyway. Inwardly he chuckled softly, knowing that his contact was obviously more careful then usual. That was a good sign for him.

The first words spoken, while a let down, was not a flat out no,nothing for him to do. And this was confirmed by the next words uttered. He accepted the file handed to him, noting the strange breaking of his contacts voice. He had assumed the navi took precausions like that to try to keep his hands clean, but hearing it change like that, while interesting, was not his concern.

The file it's self was both to the point, yet vague...to he expected given the type of job it sounded like. He tapped into one of his lesser used powers, a chill sweeping around the immediate area, as the file iced over. He dropped said file, which shattered into tiny shards upon impact with the ground. In seconds the ice would melt off, and the scrap data would blow away, no trace left to what it was originally.

Rikaru pushed off the wall he was leaning against, crunching some ice shards underfoot, as he walked off, his destination chosen. He had work to do.

Location change. Forest network.

[Torchman]

[Came from: reconstruction site]

The door to the Jade Dragon opened up to Erat with a half healed arm. Erat didn't know why, but the pub seemed familiar to him. He could almost feel certain memories return, but only to have them blocked in a haze. He could picture views, but not people. Sitting across from someone, but no voices. It was a start to recovering, but he had no clues to go on.

But for now, he just wanted a drink. He wanted the heaviest stuff they had to dull the pain of a arm that had been almost cut off healing. After all, he had all the time he wanted. He wasn't working, he had no one to answer to, he had no one to care for. Only himself, his axe, and a nice drink.

He made his way over to the bar, getting a couple of glances along the way, and sat down, the stool groaning under the weight of both him and his armor. "Strongest thing you got." He asked from the barkeep. Yep, it was going to be a long night.

[Deleted]

Without warning, a message popped up in front of Erat.

"This weapon contains an Item, would you like to recieve it?"

At the lower corners of the message window were two buttons. A check and an X.

[Torchman]

Erat looked at the message in surprise, then realised that the sword that Serix had left behind that he had picked up must've contained the item the message was describing. Without hesitation, he hit the checkmark, curious as to what the weapon had been hiding from him. He was so transfixed he barely noticed the drink the barkeep had put in front of him.

[Deleted]

" That bad, huh?"

Nobody ordered that unless they were having one heck of a bad day. Or unless they were already drunk.

Judging by the severely wounded arm that this fellow had, it was left to assume that Erat wasn't of the later category.

Sitting next to Erat was an individual equally as familiar to him as this bar. To describe it briefly, he looked like a carbon-copy of the Remnant he had seen earlier -- or rather, Remnant looked like a carbon-copy of this person.

Rather than shrouded in blackness, the young man's skin was a plain tone and his hair was brown. His clothes were black, though, sans a gold T-shirt and a few gold patterns scattered around the black jacket he wore. He had bright golden eyes, too -- bright enough that they'd almost shine in a dark room -- a trait that he certainly didn't share with Remnant.

To Erat's knowledge, this guy and Remnant were either one and the same or just some freak accidents that coincidentally looked alike. He wouldn't have time to ponder much longer about it before the bartender had brought up the drink he ordered.

The brown-haired guy took a sip of his own drink -- water, interestingly enough (maybe he was just weird like that? ... or just that poor?) -- then put his drink down and looked at Erat's.

"... Careful with that stuff."

[Deleted]

Item Recieved:

SE:

Sonrie
Shot
Fire
Erat shoots fire out of his mouth. (need i say more?) 335 damage, +10 damage per successful use, until it fails, to max of +50. x1 use per turn. (by succesful use, i mean actually making contact with an oponent. so the next turn I would add 10 damage) Undodgeable, Cuts Auras.

[Torchman]

Erat made note of the item and stored it in his weapons program. It was an... interesting attack to say the least. He definitely saw potential in the attack for future use though.

Then someone decided to involve himself in his affairs.

"I can handle my drink thank you very much." He answered rudely, not too happy that someone was acting like he was a lightweight. He took a large drink, wanting to get it in his systems as soon as possible to dull the pain. 'Oh how I wished this would heal faster...' While he didn't show it, every single moment was agonizing, every little movement sending a fiery wave of pain through his body.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at his conversation partner. Surprisingly, he found it to be the navi that was capable of splitting into multiple copies who was sitting next to him. Erat didn't know if it was mere coincidence, or if the navi had followed him here. Either way, he found his earlier question rather redundant. He had been there, he had seen the axe go through Erat's arm. Why was he asking?

"You know darn well it's bad." He said angrily as he took another drink. "You saw the blade tear through me like I was butter. So why are you asking about it now?" He really didn't want to be bothered at the moment. A quiet drink was one of the few pleasures in life he allowed himself.

[Deleted]

"You know darn well it's bad. You saw the blade tear through me like I was butter. So why are you asking about it now?"

" ..."

This guy got drunk really fast. He'd only taken a single sip!

"Oh... um. Never mind."

The young man's eyes widened ever so slightly as he turned his head away from Erat, looking quite uncomfortable after that accusation, and simply trying to avoid further trouble with this larger-looking fellow.

He tapped his fingers repetitively against his glass as his mind went back to what it had previously been set on.

It was probably weird to see somebody drinking water in a bar... but the boy's problems weren't ones that he could simply "drink away". No -- he needed to be sober-minded and capable of thinking deeply enough to find a way out of his own problems rather than finding a way to be momentarily carefree from them. That's just how his thought-process worked.

This place -- this environment -- seemed to help him focus more on those problems and find a way through them.

Well, it usually did.

But the young man's curiosity was too distracting at the moment. It kept itching at his mind, begging him to clarify what the guy next to him had just said.

And eventually it won out.

He'd finally stopped tapping his finger against his glass and turned his head back to Erat -- curiosity and perplexity only slightly worn on his face as one eyebrow raised and the other didn't. But that probably wouldn't be very noticeable underneath his shaggy bangs.

" So.... where do I know you from again?"

If Erat really knew him from somewhere, then this question would probably make him look like a forgetful person... But there was really no other way to find out than to just ask.







And besides. He was a forgetful person, anyway.

[Torchman]

Erat's patience was growing thinner and thinner by the moment. If anything, at the rate the young man was annoying him, Erat would be perfectly fine with burying his axe in his skull. "You know full well from where you've met me." Another pause, another swig. "Not even 24 hours ago, at the reconstruction site in Creamland."

He paused again, taking this moment to finish his drink. He slammed the empty mug down on the counter with a satisfied gasp. 'That always hits the spot.' The barkeep, who was desperate to keep the navi happy, had already brought another drink not even 5 seconds after Erat finished it.

With a silent nod to the barkeep, Erat grasped his new drink and continued. "You know darn well what happened there. A giant monster almost made entirely of gel that attempted to absorb the entire building, two navis were deleted in the fight, and there was a mysterious creature that caused my arm to be in the state it's in right now! You and your copy things were there!"

He turned back to his drink, waving the young man off. "But if you want to keep playing dumb, that's fine. Keep acting like nothing happened. But I'm not in the mood for your routine, and just want to enjoy my drink in peace."

[Deleted]

" ... Riiiiiiight."

This guy was totally drunk.

" How could I forget."

It was almost funny to hear that Creamland was attacked again.
Crap just never seemed to stop blowing up in that country. Like it was a weekly tradition.

But then again, the boy hadn't been paying attention to the news lately. Maybe everything that this guy was saying... was actually true?

" ..."

Well.... not likely.

It was clear that he was making this odd fellow angry -- and he'd be lying to say that he wasn't a little aggravated himself at this point -- but the boy really didn't have much else better to do at the moment than continue pissing him off.

" So..."

The boy looked away from Erat, but his voice was still directed to him. He had one arm crossed over the other as he leaned on the counter and gazed at nothing in particular in front of him.

" .... did I get my ass kicked as badly as you?"

[Torchman]

The curling and uncurling of fists. Heavy breathing. Frown lines. The heavy tapping of a foot. The grinding of teeth. All signs of a sober navi attempting to control his anger. 'If it wasn't for my bad arm, I'd punch him through the wall.'

But if he was going to make remarks like that, Erat could return fire just as easily. "He must've beaten the crap out of you that's for sure." He grunted between his teeth, allowing his next few words to form in his mind before he spoke. "One to many knocks to the head it seems, as it appears you can't even remember what you did today, let alone what you had for breakfest." Inside, he was chuckling at the remark.

He took a sip of his drink. "Now leave me alone. I'm done dealing with you. You're just being a nuisance and not helpful at all." He was not willing to put up with this, not tonight. Especially not after the nightmare he'd been through.