[Quiet Man Cometh]

"Tsae, wait! They have-"

*BOOM*

[Salone]

Eduardo watched with fascination, taking a backseat once again to real action as he watched the pleading bandit dispatched.

"Um, Tsaerri? Should hwe show them mercy if they ask for it? They are, er, human after all."

Oh hey, been a while since we've heard from Dan!

Dan drew his pistol from its holster, readying himself for a fight. For once he felt calm, he felt collected. He would be a beneficial asset to the team that could be directed and controlled. He would be-

Nope. No he wouldn't. Tsaerri's gunshot to the girl's head ricocheted horrible memories through his head. Instantly he was plunged in to the past as horror began to swirl around him.

No Dan. Not right now. For once, not right now.

His head swam as the memories were quelled, shaking his head to bring himself back to the present. Raising his pistol, he growled before speaking in a low voice.

"Bandits. Come on, time to murder a bunch of generic faceless enemies with no backstory to make us feel regret about our actions."

[Suzerain of Sheol]

"SERIOUSLY?"

Tsaerri comes running back up the stairs, her hair blown out of its pigtails, screaming. "WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?" her arms flailing in exasperation. Then she explodes into purple butterflies.

Meanwhile, the actual Tsaerri is busy below, having blinked across the distance to the bridge where the bandits have their canon mounted. As the gunner is turning around, she shatters the clone she sent above, a pulse of magical energy knocking him senseless and allowing her to shove him over the side into the water far below. It may have possibly caused Syrgei some mild discomfort as well.

And now I'm surrounded. But I took out the cannon guys! Any time you want to start pulling your weight, that'd be awesome!

[Quiet Man Cometh]

“Oh, Skritt!” Syrgei vaults the edge of the stairs and drops down past the first corpse, then rolls by two more who have their backs to him, occupied with the Mesmer on their cannon. The sudden very close appearance of the thief takes them by surprise long enough for said thief to unload several several shots into the group of bandits across the bridge, sending one tumbling after his other unfortunate fellow, and another collapsing on the catwalk.

Syrgei grimaces as the profusely bleeding and likely dead bandit falls over the thin railing and down below. His stupefied onlookers are now getting their act together and have drawn their weapons. Holstering his pistols, he snatches his daggers from his hip and twists to stab the first bandit back-handed before disappearing into a wispy cloud of black smoke.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

...did you really have to shoot them THAT many times? Maybe the shatter gave him brain damage...

Tsaerri's attention is diverted by the planking to her left exploding at the impact of a shot from above. She glances quickly up to see another of the bandits, this one wearing heavier armor, reloading his pistol frantically. Another behind him is taking aim.

I wonder how I ever decided I wanted to do this with my life... Oh well, it's kind of fun.

Just as the second shot is about to come, she throws down her temporal curtain, the wall of indigo light flaring up in front of her just in time to reflect the bullet. It bounces rather harmlessly off the gunner's armor, but it'll do.

Taking cover behind the curtain, she calls out Vis and takes careful aim with the greatsword, levitating it between her palms. The purple laser zaps out... and misses his head by five inches to the right, blowing through the railing behind him.

Okay, so I'm not the best at this!

Another couple of shots bounce off and the bandits, realizing their disadvantage, draws knives and start to advance.

Just... sit still... for a second... got it! She lasers the one behind right through the eye and drops him. Snaps for both her swords and jumps out to attack the nearer one. He lunges and swipes, but she isn't there, darting left and right and leaving after-images with each move. She cuts him once at the wrist of his knife-hand and again underneath his jaw.

Feh. Missed the artery. She moves her temporal curtain onto the nearby railing and detonates it, causing the energy to fold in on itself, pulling the bleeding bandit over the side.

Tsae can't help grinning at her handiwork, but once again her attention is caught, this time by more bandits arriving from deeper in the cave, behind Syrgei's position. And one more farther ahead...

"Oh, Lys you're too kind..." she mutters, recognizing the familiar face.

[Salone]

Eduardo proceeded awkwardly through the melee, unknowingly avoiding several attacks and badly aimed projectiles. He put his hand up in a polite halting gesture at bandits as they went running by.

"Um, excuse me- Er, yes could you just...Oh, hello, if you mind standing stil- Oh for the love of..."

He gave up in exasperation, clearly being avoided by the bandits for much more threatening and credible targets. Sighing, he produced his ridiculously large bag of money once again, dangling it like a treat before getting ready to wield it like the world's most expensive morning star.

"If it helps, I have money you know!"

Dan however is having much better luck gaining the attention of bandits!


"Come and get it!"

Dan was for once in his life in his element. He ran about the enclosed battlefield, deploying his turret and rolling for cover as he fired a net projectile at a hapless bandit who was so generic he said the same taunt line as the one right next to him. Dan let out some sort of...cackle? Growl? Charr have different vocal cords, a grackle. Let's go with grackle. He let one out. Anyway, he took cover behind a wooden fence to reload, breathing in deeply and enjoying every breath.

Really Dan? None of this bothers you? I watched you black out in fear over a jalapeño once. Not to mention the business with the ooze from earlier. Wouldn't actual gunshots mess with you?

Dan shook his head, firing blindly from cover with one hand as he prepared a sticky glue shot with the other.

"Nah. One time experiences are the ones that get you. But experience life threatening experiences too much and you get burned out on them. Easy as pie."

Dan, you do know that pie isn't an appropriate way to convey the difficulty of a task, right? You know it's an item of food?


"It's a phrase! The humans say it! Ask a human!"

Dan rose upward as a bandit came running by, grabbing him with a massive claw and pinning him to the ground. Inches from his face, Dan roared at him.

"ISN'T 'EASY AS PIE' A FIGURE OF SPEECH?!"

The bandit screamed, this one less generic than the others by a slightly less amount due to having some time in the story, but not enough for an actual speaking role. He'll break out in to the big leagues one day. In the meantime, all he could do was scream helplessly as his one time experience of nearly dying was giving him a panic attack. Dan reared back, shooting him point blank to ease him by confirming his fears.

"Fine! Easy as eating a pie or something then!"

[Suzerain of Sheol]

"All right! Who thinks they can just walk in here and start killing my -- oh. Ohoho, hello there, little one. Long time, no see."

Okay... okay... not messing this up. Tsaerri glares up the ramp at Two-Blade Pete, the leader of her former gang. Don't just rush him, he's way too strong, let's see, what's the best-- oh, Goddess, he's charging.

Tsae tries to get a shot off, but he's closing too fast and she misses. She distorts just as he crashes into her, going insubstantial for less than a second, but enough for him to nearly throw himself over the side of the decking.

"Well, that's a neat trick you've got there. I'll get my hands on you yet."

Yeah, that's never happening... Though, being honest with herself, these narrow quarters don't favor her at all. It's hard to dodge when the wrong move will send her plummeting. A brief glance reveals her allies still pinned down by the reinforcements.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Originally Posted by Quiet

Still reeling from his wound, the bandit was unaware of the thief's reappearance behind him until another dagger cracked through his spine. The bandit dropped, quite dead, and Syrgei heard the deep growling laughter as Dan joined the fight, followed with the staccato of turrets.

Syrgei made quick work of the second bandit in his immediate vicinity, sidestepping his first attack and slicing the back of his hand, forcing him to drop his weapon.

Turning fast to meet the oncoming reinforcements, Syrgei catches a glance at Tsaerri, who now faces another opponent, this one looking far more capable than those they had been fighting up to this point. If I go to help, we'll get boxed in on that bridge...

He quickly scans the area, judging how much time he may have before the oncoming bandits reach his position. Let's hope so. Gripping one dagger in his teeth, he pulls out his pistol again and takes careful aim at the bandit leader. He fires one clean shot, but isn't sure of the result as something connect hard with his back, knocking him to the ground. His dagger goes clattering a few feet away.

[Quiet's internet died.]

[Suzerain of Sheol]

"Aw, bloody-- look what ya've gone and done!" Pete clutches at his hip with a grimace of anguish, half-slumped over the railing. His feral eyes glare at Tsaerri up the ramp.

"I DON"T NEED YOUR HELP!" Tsaerri sees a massive bandit wind up and clock Syrgei flat on his back with a sledgehammer. "IDIOT!" she screams down at him, not really caring if his fancy coat protected him or not.

More important things to worry about...

"Wow, that looks painful." She smirks at Pete as she advances on him, flipping her sword in the air.

"Gahhh, come'on Tsae, I taught y'everything y'know, ya don't gotta do this."

"Wow, you know I hadn't even considered that. I do NOT, in fact, have to kill you." She shrugs. "I still want to, though."

"By th' Gods, why? I never did nothin' but good for ya, you'd'a starved it weren't for me. Don't look a' me like that, I never e'en touched ya, Gods know I should'a bent you over--" He finds it suddenly difficult to express himself with the barrel of Tsaerri's pistol inside of his mouth.

She doesn't even dignify him with a retort, looks in the other direction as she pulls the trigger.

A strange weight of weariness descends on Tsaerri as she makes her way back down the ramp. I'm suddenly really tired of fighting.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

“IDIOT” echoes dimly in his ears as he pushes himself off the ground. “Yeah, probably,” he coughs out, taking great, sucking breaths to try and re-fill his lungs.

Half-prone and somewhat dazed, he kicks himself into a sideways roll and hears the clatter of the hammer on the ground behind him.

[Salone]

Eduardo looked about, rather upset that his boasts of wealth have still not earned him an opponent. His eyes and ears fall upon the unfolding drama, watching as Tsaerri and this Pete character share some sort of reunion. He paused from his indignation, enjoying the drama before him. With the final shot he jumped backwards in surprise, clapping his hands together quickly afterward in approval.

"Oh, bravo indeed! That was a fine display! What a show indeed!"

He wiped a solitary tear from his eye, moved by the experience. Clearly he was too easily distracted from the rest of the fight, but it appeared that the other bandits were in no position to divert attention to the pink and green fop while much more dangerous characters were still up and about.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Syrgei regains his feet, but still hunched over slighly as the bandit wielding the sledgehammer, bolstered by his hit, advances on him.

He holds up a hand, palm towards the bandits. "One moment...*gasp*...just...*cough*...give me a second here."

Drawn by his confidence, two more bandits flank their comrade, backing Syrgei towards the cavern wall. The thief straightens, finally regaining his full breath. "Okay, I'm better now."

All three attack at once.

Just as they bandits are about to converge on him, Syrgei leaps from the wall and over their heads, twirling as he does so and lashing out with his single dagger to bite at them. Instinctively following his opponent, one bandit, now sporting a bloody side, turns sideways and into the business end of the sledgehammer the other was wielding as he then turns in the oppotsite direction.

Syrgei lands with a crouch and retrieves his other dagger.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

The death of their leader didn't stop the remaining bandits from putting up a fight. The three bandits, now unofficially led by the one weilding a sledgehammer continued to pursue Syrgei though they gave themselves more bruises in the proccess. Down the cavern from them, a few others screamed or charged at the charr wrecking ball that was Dan Magnum while Eduardo clapped and cheered his adventurers on. Pete's corpse merely hung silently on the railing for a few seconds, before it fell to the edge of the walkway and slid beneath the railing to splash into the water below that was now blossoming shades of pink where bodies lay.

***

Syrgei continues to fight with the bandits, less one who slinks off cradling his head, and a too-heavy swing from the leader puts his side easily within boot range and Syrgei kicks him over the edge of the stone, leaving his fate to fortune and whether or not there is enough water to spare him. Befret of his back-up, the remaining bandit turns and runs, and Syrgei does not follow.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Tsaerri takes care to avoid the commotion with the remaining bandits as she heads for the exit. "I'm leaving, she calls to whoever happens to be listening. "I think we've done enough here. Send the Seraph to clean up, if it matters."

[Salone]

"WE ARE NOT DONE!"

Dan yells out in a feral roar as he fires point blank in to the chest of one of the hapless bandits. In the chaos he catches the movement of one of the more sane ones attempting to run away.

"Oh no you don't."

He breaks in to a run, loping after him. At first it appears as if he won't be able to close the distance, but then...

"HERE COMES KITTY!"

Dan's hind legs erupt in to fire as his boots ignite in rockets, propelling him forward. Claws outstretched, he figuratively explodes against the poor sod who made a poor and desperate choice because of his low socio-economic opportunities and poor education brought on by a 'trickle down' government policy and a lack of mandated standardized schooling. However, this was all lost on both Dan and the bandit, as Dan was incapable of pronouncing 'socio-economic', and the bandit was now dead.

My word, you can actually function for once. That's worth at least a gold star.

Dan roared again, descending in to laughter as he began to fire at the rest of the general banditry while standing over the beaten corpse of the impoverished vagrant that he had slain.

"Do you believe in your human gods?! I'll send you all straight to Grenth!"

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Syrgei somersaults into the hall shortly behind Tsaerri; shortly after Dan's cry of fury and hail of bullets. One ricochets off the stone just behind the thief.

"Sounds like Dan is taking care of that." He looks at Tsaerri as she's walking. "You're just leaving? We're suppose to at least act like we're escorting our sponsor, though he certainly seems to be enjoying himself."

***

Meleron looked up at the Guild office entrance. “Synod of Gods…feh.” She stalked up to the front door and pushed it open, looking about the hall for whomever it was she was supposed to meet. Few members, ambitious leader, easy enough to get in: Step one of breaking the racial divide. If these undead really are the threat they appear to be, I’ll go along with this.