♫ Peace is Nice. Peace is Nice. Peace is Better Than Chicken and Rice. ♫

Event Info:

'Have you noticed anything suspicious?' The thought was sent to her avatar spirits that were out and about, scattered all throughout Felidae City. A part of the Goddess of Ishgar didn't want to believe that anything could transpire to ruin the purpose of the grand gathering within Joya. The country was not one that she'd consider foreign to her. She had been there numerous times in the past and all of those visits were plenty pleasant. The other part of her knew better than to one hundred percent assume that everything would be fine. Joya had its own problems, and mix that in with all the other mages of the continent coming to the country for the Symposium there was bound to be an imbalance that would inevitably burst into an explosive wave of chaos. It had already begun in small doses.

Samira had decided to help out with the effort of keeping things orderly for the peace treaty signing by taking a position in the city patrol. Some might have assumed that, with her position and magical power, she would have volunteered for the honor of escorting the representatives for either Bellum or Pergrande. The young woman had no interest in that. There were those better qualified for their protection. She preferred having the protection of the entire city in mind and her magic was much better suited for covering the entirety of it. Some might have thought city patrol beneath her. That even the border defense was a step up from being a glorified mall cop. She did not, and she was determined to take it just as seriously as she would have if she were part of the other significant groups.

Her verdant gaze peered over the cliffs to take in the sights of the lush country beyond the city. She was at one of the edges of the lower city where the crowds were in no short supply. There probably was no shortage of that even in the more restricted areas of the city. Samira could hear the people around her. Arguments, debates, protests, basic worries, and conversations regarding the Peace Treaty. Curiosity, theories, suspicions. Trust came in small doses. Eventually, it all became the same noise to her. Thus far though, there was nothing to worry about. The city section she was in had nothing going on that required her to act. Just listen and keep alert. That was what her spirits were for. They were keeping their eyes and ears open in the other city sections.

'Nothing here! I even helped some of these joyans make some more signs!'
'If one more reporter asks what my position is on this treaty for their poll I will eat them.'
'You are not allowed to eat anyone no matter how annoying or disruptive they are. Is there any trouble beyond that?'
'Tsk. No. Just a minor scuffle that I broke easily. This crowd is full of weaklings. I don't even see the point of us being here. Anyone worth our time would be going after the top people. Not concerning themselves with the lowly rats.'
'She's just mad because she has to be in that form instead of her real one. Hehe.'
'Obviously. This form is wretched.'
'At least you are not surrounded by children singing about peace. I still cannot figure out what chicken and rice have to do with it.'

That was true. Kukulkan could not be in her usual winged serpent form. She was a gigantic and fearsome creature that had the honor of being the avatar of the ancient serpent god that shared the same name. Her true presence would have brought too much unwanted attention. The idea was to patrol by blending in. So spirits that could pass for the Joyan race were asked to help. Serqet, Kuku, Bastet, and Anhur. Samira herself also did her role to blend in. In fact, most would not recognize her at all. Very few had ever seen her take the form as an aspect of Sagittarius. Not only did her normally recognizable features such as hair and eye color change, but she didn't even appear human. Instead, she looked more like a horse-based Joyan. Hooves and all.

'Hmmm, I did hear something. A couple of these Joyans were whispering and acting suspiciously. I will keep my report from that brief. There are rumors that a group of rebels will attempt to enter the city. I do not yet know their true intent beyond that.'
'I see. Good job, Anhur. Everyone remain vigilant. If they are going through the trouble of sneaking into the city then it will be for a reason beyond taking part in the basic forms of protesting.'

At that moment Samira couldn't have known that her patrol group would increase. Or that Sabertooth would have an increased presence within Felidae City.

(Word Count: 815)
Title Reference because I couldn't think of another title for the thread

Kite didn't know much about the current political landscape of Fiore or for that matter Ishgar as a whole. That was before his leave of absence and especially now after his return but what he did know was no matter where you were or what side of the argument you may fall on things were always going to be messy. So normally Kite wouldn't have taken any interest but he felt like he had to due to the scale and the fact he was completely out of the loop with things so having some basic knowledge of current events wasn't a bad thing. He and Turq had just gotten back to the guild but along the way back he made sure to make some stops in order to get a better grasp of how the people of Ace of Spades were feeling about the current political climate and get some more information about it all. Kite had learned that Bellum and Pergrande's conflict was close to boiling over into a full blown war however the Empress of Pergrande and the Grand Cardinal managed to come to a cease fire and were going to have a conference in order to cement peace between the two sides and the location where this symposium would be in Felidae City in Joya with delicates from Fiore to also bear witness. Several Mages went to act as body guards for those delicates with other mages reinforcing the boarder. However Kite was concerned with the city itself, boarder security aside if anyone was able to get into the city people not involved with any of the politics could be at risk and that was enough for Kite to want to go but he didn't want to go on his own.


The Red Dragon inn was insight which gave Kite a decent idea. Kite stopped right in front of the door and looked up at Turq before entering the building. Hey head back to the ship. I will be along soon. With any luck I will have a guest. he would communicate and would enter the building. A guest? Who? Kite stood just far enough for the door to shut behind him and immediately scanned the the room trying to identify and single out someone specifically. He had only met her the once when he had returned to SaberTooth and based on the bottle of booze she had during that first encounter he had a slight hint that this might be the place that he could find her at.Yeah so be on your best behavior. as soon as he relayed this his eyes would lock onto who he thought he was looking for. After crossing the room and sitting next to her at the bar and confirming that it was in fact her. "Yo. Not sure if it would be up your alley but I'm taking a trip to Felidae City during this symposium thing to lend a hand to the city patrol." Kite would look at the barkeep and just hold up his index finger and then point his thumb at Vic to indicate one of his usual drinks for himself and her next one was on him. Luckily being a former Guild Master and a patron at the bar made it easy to communicate for a drink. "I'm pretty sure that I can handle things but I wouldn't mind having some back up in case things go ornery. Up for a trip?"

After discussing some of the details with her he would invite and lead her to his airship that he had all but fully restored back to its former glory. After giving her a small tour as to where she can go for the ride whether it be in the cockpit with him or in one of the other areas that were meant for lounging and introducing her to his dragon Turq which he wasn't sure how she would take it but as long as no one die especially Turq knowing the reputation of Vic's strength, everything would be fine. "Taking off now." he would relay on the speaker lacrima just before tailspin took to the air with Joya as the heading. He wasn't sure how talkative Vic was but it could be a quiet trip if she wasn't the sort to have a conversation.

Shortly after arriving and being allowed to land somewhere secure in Joya Kite would seek out whoever was in charge of the city watch to officially sign up for the city patrol. He was slightly underwhelmed with just how much the city patrol didn't know but it could also mean that there wasn't anything to really worry about. He decided it would be best to leave Turq back at the ship, he didn't want to create unnecessary panic by having a random dragon stalking the city but he was on alert and ready to leave the cargo bay at a moments notice. Looking at Vic and then back at the massive city he wasn't sure where to start. "So where should we start?"

WC:845

-Red Dragon Inn-

Dressed in her blue Steel Matron t-shirt, black skirt with black bike shorts on underneath it, and white tennis shoes, Victoria was sitting at the bar drinking a Cherry Charge soda. She had not had alcohol in a few weeks, not since that Kite dude showed up some time ago, but she was not really upset about that omission. As time went on she found that her "need" to drink alcohol was slowly decreasing. However, she still liked to drink a bottle of vodka or a couple of Screwdrivers on festive occasions like when she got home after completing a particularly tough job. She doubted that anyone would begrudge her that, not even her friend and mentor Florence Manderley.

Victoria was halfway through her Cherry Charge soda when she heard someone walk up to her and sit down next to her. The brunette turned to face the newcomer and noticed that it was that Kite dude who was chatting up Kenna some time ago. She faced him and listened to him tell her the purpose of his visit, which was to ask if she was interested in joining him on a trip to Felidae City.

She listened a bit further and learned that he was going to lend a hand to the city patrol during some "symposium" thing that was going on. The brunette quickly chugged the rest of her drink before making eye contact.

"OK. I don't have anything better to do today, so I'm in." Victoria agreed to accompany him to Felidae City. Her tone was probably not the best... it probably made her sound like she was only agreeing to tag along and help Kite because she was bored. In a manner of speaking that was true, but he did not need to know that. Having made her decision, she stood up from her barstool, walked over to the appropriate trash receptacle, and threw her now-empty Cherry Charge can inside, where it CLANGed against the back wall of the can and settled at the bottom. She then walked back over to Kite and spoke to him again.

"But before we go, first lemme grab some gear from my room in the guild hall. If we're gonna help the city patrol, I need to at least grab my armor." Victoria said to him. She stood up and walked away to go to the guild hall and grab her armor and backpack. She doubted that this was going to be a quick excursion, so she needed to prepare herself for a long time away from Fiore.

-In Joya, Felidae City-

Having landed in Felidae City without any trouble whatsoever thanks to Kite and his airship, Victoria disembarked from the airship and joined Kite in looking for the place they needed to sign up at in order to become official temporary helpers. Wearing her Azure Armor over her blue Steel Matron t-shirt and her backpack of supplies including food and water so that she had supplies if she somehow got separated from Kite, Victoria looked like she was prepared more for war than for peacekeeping, but she did not really care. She was in an unfamiliar land and she was not going to take any chances. If she was attacked during the course of the patrol the Azure Armor gave her some chance of making it out alive.

"Thanks for the lift, Kite." Victoria thanked Kite for giving her a ride to Joya. While she could have driven her Centaur to Joya, it would have taken her a lot longer to get here and by the time she finally arrived the symposium might have been over. Thanks to Kite she was here in time to help out. Speaking of Kite, he had asked her where they should start. Victoria made eye contact with her partner and spoke.

"Dude, I don't even know where to begin. This is my first visit to Felidae City and I'm just as lost as you are." Victoria answered Kite's question... sort of. She wished that she could have given him a better answer than what she had given him, but she honestly had no clue where they should begin. This was the first time she had ever visited Felidae City, so she could not help him when it came to navigation. She maintained eye contact with Kite as she asked a question of her own.

"Do you think we can find a map of the city anywhere?" Victoria asked Kite before they went tromping off into the city and got hopelessly lost.

[Post Word Count: 760]
[Victoria's Word Count: 760/4,000]

As time went on so did everything else. It was more of the same though. The treaty had yet to be signed and the day still was still young. Samira was grateful that thus far the rumor about the group of rebels entering the city was just that. A rumor. The rest of the tension and mild disruptive behavior was manageable and understandable. The city would remain in one piece if she had anything to say about it. She just hoped everything regarding the treaty and its representatives was going as smoothly. A summon had scouted those areas a moment ago and saw or heard nothing that required action before it hit those parties. Just more of the same as it was everywhere else, although the crowds looked worse. As entertaining as it would have been to watch the whole thing go on, the summon left to continue patrolling elsewhere.

Things took a quick turn in an instant at Samira's location. As she made her patrol through the streets of the city she heard screams come from behind her. A quick turn and a glance were all it took for her to see the cause of the disruption. Vines of all sizes spread out, wrapping around some citizens and tripping others as they grew along the street. The larger vines even began to smack against buildings and other things along the street, causing damage. The spell, while visually impressive, was not all that strong though. Samira could sense that much and even see it with the Zodiac eyes of her current form. In fact, as she looked further the vines differed slightly from one another. Was there more than one mage trying to cause some trouble?

One of the wrapped victims was tossed, flying through the air and screaming fearfully for their life. Understandable. Flying over the edge of the city unexpectantly was never fun. Lucky for that citizen Anhur was the first summon to act. The others were too spread out to make it there in time to do anything even if they immediately knew what was going on from the link between Samira's mind and their own. In his flying form, Anhur managed to make it to that city sector, going over the edge where the citizen was tossed and caught him well before he became a splatter mark on the rocks below the city. He flew back up and over the city edge and landed to allow the citizen to jump off and get safely away. The lion summon rolled his eyes as the man he just saved ran off screaming and flailing his arms wildly. A thank you wasn't expected but a small display of dignity would have done well to not darken his mood further.

As for Samira, she went to work with taking out the vines. Well, work might have been too much of a stretch. It was effortless really when the nature spell that was used was very weak in comparison to her own. The mark of the Sagittarius Zodiac upon her forehead began to glow a pale blue as its power activated, making the use of a particular spell possible. Slowly she approached the center of the tangled mass of vines. Many more vines grew out of it, and others appeared out of thin air as whoever's magic was used once again. The mage behind them had taken notice of her own magical presence increasing and thus Samira had become a target. She did not know what their intent was with the whole scene, but she did know their display of power would soon come to an end. Each vine that attempted to harm her instead made an impact with the celestial aura that surrounded her, resulting in the vines turning into nothing more than harmless stardust. So too did the main mass of the vines as she approached and gently touched it. The problem with that was no more. Now all that needed to be done was to find out who had decided to cause trouble and potential harm to those within the city.

Attention was drawn to a group of three Joyan girls that shared animalistic traits with goats. With the vines gone so quickly, they were now panicking and rushing themselves to make an exit. They even made the mistake of putting zero effort to continue to hide their involvement as they ran towards each other and spoke loudly. "We're done here! We need to hurry and make another distraction somewhere else!" One had said with the other two agreeing. The middle one stomped her hoof, adding magic pressure to the action and causing the ground beneath her to split and then turn into a small quake that shook those around off-balance. The three joyan girls then ran off together, confident that no one would be able to follow them as more vines were created to block the way.

The small earthquake stalled Samira momentarily as she too was knocked off balance and had to regain her footing. Walking around in the Aspect of Sagittarius form was difficult enough without someone creating ways to purposely knock her down. She was not amused by the action, or of the chaos those girls were creating for reasons unknown. Anhur dashed up to the wall of vines and sliced through them with the firey claws of his flying form. What remained of the wall of vines burned away slowly until the small flames died out.

With there being a clear opening, Samira took the opportunity to capture the girls before they could complete their goal of creating more "distractions." Three celestial arrows appeared in front of her, having been created by the powers of the Zodiac she took the form of. With a simple motion of her hand, they all soared forward through the air and towards the Joyan triplets. The intent was not to harm them but to stop them, and that was what they did for two of them. The arrows were infused with magic that stunned and immobilized their targets, and so the two that were directly hit halted immediately, taking the pose of their last step and being unable to move.

The third arrow had missed, hitting a small obstacle instead. The target stopped and looked back. The thought of saving the other two crossed her mind, but once she saw the lion right behind her she quickly tossed that idea away for now and continued to run. The goat-girl knew the city layout well and had excellent mobility. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to lose the lion summon completely. He'd lose sight of her for only seconds even with her methods of using the landscape around her to hide and change direction. It was only a matter of time before the master of the summon caught up too. That was when she had the idea of leaving the city. Temporarily, of course. Just long enough for the lion to lose interest and stop chasing her down.

The Joyan rebel had almost reached her goal. Almost. There were no further obstacles to use or ways to get that beast off her tail. Just a wide sky for him to spread his wings and fly. And then land right on top of her, knocking her over and placing a thick heavy paw on her back to keep her there. The capture had happened right in front of the two totally not lost Sabertooth mages, who Anhur barely even noticed were there. Their visit to Felidae City for city patrol was already proving to not be entirely boring.

(Word Count: 1267
Samira Total: 2082)

Kite was quite pleased with how little hesitation he got from Vic and while her tone didn’t really radiate any sort of real enthusiasm he was still content that he made a wise choice in seeking her out for this little adventure. Kite would down his beverage as Vic would walk to dispose of the can that she was drinking from into the nearest trash can. With his own beverage finished he slid the his empty glass towards the bar tender before turning to face a returning Vic. As she explained that she would need to grab some of her equipment to properly prepare for any sort of city patrol. Kite would nod at this obviously having no problem with this considering she was doing him the favor here and travel time wasn’t an issue. "Alright, go get what you think you will need. Got plenty of room on board for it." before he would let her go he would explain where his ship was parked at the time and would tell her he would wait for her there.

After their arrival Kite would hear Victoria express her gratitude for the ride to the far away city, "Yeah of course no problem plus I don't think we would have made it in time if it wasn't for the ship" It was certainly a quicker trip than he had initially expected but it would give them some time to get their bearings of the city or so he would hope. Kite would look to Vic to get some input on where she thinks they should begin their patrol but as it would turn out like himself she had never been to Felidae City. This meant that they were both equally lost. "Yeah lost wouldn't be inaccurate" he'd say in response to her. There was no clear answer for them at the moment but Vic did bring up a very good question to them finding a map they could use to find their way. "That may not be a bad idea. Maybe we can find a general goods shop nearby." He'd suggest to her, now as to where that may be was beyond him so he would pick a direction to travel and hope for the best.

Before they could made any real progress in solving their problem of being lost there would be some sort of disturbance nearby. The sound of people screaming and running in a rather frantic manner away from something. In a panicked state a man would run into Kite which would feel like a brick wall to a degree. Looking the man in the eyes "What's going on?" He would ask the frightened man who would look at Kite and then Victoria in her blue armor. "Strange vines came out from the ground and attacked people over there!" he would point in the direction he had just came from. A grin would grow across his face at first as he looked at Vic "It's no map but we at least know where to go. he would say just as he started his approach. "Let's go that way Vic!"

On route he could feel the rumble of the earth under him following a sudden burst in magic pressure. Kite was excited to get into action right away. He hadn't had the opportunity to really let lose with the new magic he had gotten with the help of Kenna but not wanting to go into the middle of a fight unprepared he started to let loose an orange colored Aura. The heat from his which starting to radiate from his body like a furnace however when he reached the skirmish it would appear that the situation had been settled and settled by nonother than Samira and her summons. She was another one he hadn't seen since his departure and seeing her in this city was certainly a good surprise. "Well this wasn't expected. I didn't expect to run into any other strong mages while we were here in the city" he would look at her with a smile showing no signs of any disappointment that he wasn't able to get in on the action. "Long time no see Samira." He would break eye contact to see her lion with a goat woman subdued as well as two others close by. "So anything exciting going on?"

Wc 726
Kite total 1571

From what she had seen from Kite so far he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Not only had he patiently waited for Victoria to gather her gear, he had also ferried her to Joya in his airship free of charge. Now Kite was remarkably calm about them being in a unfamiliar place with no clue where to go. He calmly went along with her suggestion to go find a map they could use instead of getting angry at her for not knowing what to do or making fun of her naive and simplistic suggestion.

"I agree with you, Kite. Let's find a general store and see if we can't pick up a map there. If we can't get a map there maybe someone can point us to a place where we can get a map." Victoria agreed to his idea. It was a good one and she did not have any real alternatives to it, so it was prudent to go along with his suggestion. With that having been settled, Victoria prepared to follow him in whatever direction he chose to set out in. She had no preference... she would follow Kite wherever he went.

They had barely gotten started on their quest to find a map of the city when she heard a lot of commotion coming from a place that was not too far away from their current position. The brunette remained calm and tried to pinpoint the source of the commotion, but that endeavor was interrupted when a visibly panicked man literally ran into Kite. Kite wasted no time in asking him what was going on.

He told the pair that vines had suddenly emerged from the ground and attacked people. The man followed up his words by pointing in the direction of the commotion from earlier. Kite smiled before he looked at Victoria and suggested that they head towards the chaos. Victoria did not need much convincing.

"OK Kite, let's get going!" Victoria readily agreed to his idea. She then followed him and as she followed him towards whatever was going on further down the path she felt the earth shake beneath her feet, but it was not strong enough to hinder her progress. Still, whatever could cause the ground to shake like that had to be really powerful.

As the pair drew closer to their destination Victoria saw Kite exude an orange aura and felt a noticeable rise in the ambient temperature like she was standing in front of a heater or holding a blow dryer on her face... judging that it might be time for her to bring out a weapon, the brunette brought out her Light Machine Gun because she was not sure what kind of opposition she would be facing. She was not sure how many hostile entities she would be facing, so she chose to go with a weapon that could be used for suppressing fire until Kite could get into position to use his magic against their opponents.

The two Sabertooth mages eventually reached their destination ready for a fight, but as it turned out, someone else had already taken care of things. That someone was a female horse creature Victoria had never seen before. Just who were they?

Victoria listened to Kite talk to the female and heard him greet her by a familiar name.

Samira.

Victoria looked at the person and blinked.

She was Samira Nassar?

Victoria never knew that Samira could change form so drastically, but if Victoria could go from a short and flat-chested brunette to a tall and curvy one thanks to magic, Samira could change from a normal human to a horse-human hybrid. Taking her mind off of that subject for the time being, the brunette looked around the immediate area and saw that the most powerful mage in Sabertooth had taken care of things here. A goat woman was lying on the ground and was in no position to threaten the Sabertooth trio.

Not sure what to do now that there was no fighting to be done, Victoria lowered her Light Machine Gun and faced Samira.

"It's good to meet up with you, Samira. Now we know that we're not the only Sabertooth mages in the city." Victoria calmly greeted the famous Sabertooth mage.

Victoria's Light Machine Gun:

[Post Word Count: 712]
[Victoria's Word Count: 1,472/4,000]

With the third goat-girl incapacitated, Anhur could now claim that she had been captured and dealt with. He bit into the Joyan's shirt carefully and then threw her into the air where she would then land on his back. A second later he was in the air and heading back towards where he had left Samira. The poor Joyan girl was then dumped right at her feet face first with his paw once again on her back to keep her still. Being gentle was not a notable trait for him whatsoever.

The other two troublemakers were still immobilized, looking more like fleshy statues that couldn't harm anyone. The Rune Knights that had been alerted to the disturbance were there already and attempting to move them. As a precaution, anti-magic bracelets and cuffs were placed on the wrists of the goat-girls to keep them from using their magic to attempt a getaway or cause more trouble. Those two wouldn't be trouble. Now they just had to do the same for the third one that had been delivered. Samira allowed them to do their work with no interference. After all, it was more their duty to take things from there. Her part was over for now.

Samira stayed back and watched them work while also mentally communicating with the spirits she had spread out throughout the city. Were those goat girls part of the rumor regarding the rebels? If so then the rumor had already become outdated. They were no longer trying to get into the city. They were already there. More concerning was that the Joyan trio were creating distractions. Distractions for what? Samira twirled a finger through the purple and blue strands of her hair, thinking and mentally zoning out from the world during the conversation with her summons. Until a voice she hadn't heard in years broke her out of it.

Coming out of the zoned state, Samira blinked her eyes and then turned her head to glance in the direction of the voice. He certainly was familiar, although a different hair color than she recalled. The rest was about the same, including the aura of magic that was still lingering in the air from when he had rushed in ready to fight. One of Sabertooth's former guild masters stood there. Kite Wilhelm. An interesting place to see him again. The matter of his disappearance from the guild never concerned her so she never pried into it, but she supposed him standing right there was indication enough that he was alive and well. However unexpected that revelation might have been. Although, him being there and stating her name out in the open did put a dent in her plan to remain unknown and blend in more than if she walked around as one of the Goddesses of Ishgar. He had been the only one to see her Aspect of Sagittarius form in the past during a mission and thus the only one in the world that would have recognized her. It was amazing how things worked out like that.

Samira had been frowning during those few silent seconds that she stared. Mostly because she had been caught off guard with Kite's re-appearance in the world and thus apparently her life. Once she took notice of Victoria that frown purposely transformed into a polite smile and her body turned fully to face the two mages. She remembered Victoria from the Valentine's Day festival nearly a year ago. Both of them single yet both of them wanting to get out and see what the amusement park made for couples day was all about anyway. They had not run into each other since then but Samira at least knew the brunette was still active in the guild. Unlike someone else.

Samira nodded respectfully, acknowledging their greetings. "Hello, and yes, it has been quite a while since I have seen either of you. I am glad other members of the guild have decided to be here for this significant occasion." At that moment Samira hadn't run into anyone else from the guild and her spirits hadn't seen any. That didn't mean they weren't there somewhere though. At least, she hoped more were around. It would be a shame if the guild fell into a state of obscurity because its members were never around for such world-changing occasions.

"Are you two here for the security patrol?" She questioned curiously before stepping aside to let the Rune Knights take the third goat girl into custody. Anhur had stepped off of the captured Joyan and backed away, transforming into his normal form immediately after making the gap of space. "You just missed a disturbance. The first one today that has reached the level of magic usage. I do not suppose you two have heard anything about a group of rebels or their goals while in the city, have you?" Samira had her suspicions and she thought it best to begin to brief her two guildmates on what she knew, however little it might have been.

The three goat girls had yet to be questioned, mostly because two of them couldn't exactly move their mouths and the third had just now been allowed to stand. She struggled as the knights took hold of her and slapped the anti-magic cuffs on her. "Just because you got us doesn't mean you've won! We stand with the Inquisitor of the People and she will succeed even without us!"

(Word Count: 908
Samira Total: 2990)

Kite’s suggestion to locate a general store so they could purchase a town map was well received by Victoria. Despite them both being lost in the city it was nice to see she was taking that fact well. She would further suggest that if they weren’t able to locate a shop that perhaps they could find someone to point them in the direction of the proper shop. Kite didn’t consider doing that when he suggested the idea initially but the cliche of men not wanting to ask for directions exists for a reason. “That’s a good idea.” He would point in the direction that he wanted to check out first. “It looks like there are a bit more people that way. Might be a business area and if not it wouldn’t be hard to ask someone for directions there.” With Victoria following behind him, he would go to where he wanted to check first but the commotion that caused people to flee as well as the individual telling them that civilians were being attacked cut that plan off forcing Kite to rush in that direction ready for a fight. However there wasn’t a fight waiting for him, instead the sight of Samira utilizing her Aspect of Sagittarius, a form that he had witnessed her use during a previous team up.

Kite had met her during an invasion taking place in Beanstalk and once more recruiting her from her guild Lamia Scale. Through several hilarious interactions between himself and EDI, Samira and Samira’s spirits during the course of this mission he felt that they were a mix when it came to missions and at the least a friend. He maintained the smile on his face upon recognizing her due to him being genuinely happy to see her, however both the smile and the happy mood slowly faded into a more neutral expression when he noticed that in that short amount of time she was obviously frowning upon seeing him standing there. It hadn’t really dawned on Kite that his leaving affected several people with how abrupt it was. Up until this point anyone he had reunited with greeted him in a positive manner but he should have been aware that there were bound to be some that might not have that same reaction. Confirmation would be established that this was the case when Victoria greeted Samira while lowering down her firearm, that Kite didn’t know that she had. And I thought I was packing heat. Was the joke that came across his mind initially but this wasn’t the time to joke nor did he feel like saying it at the moment.

He didn’t catch Victoria saying it right away but Samira’s return greeting made him more aware of the current situation regarding Sabertooth. “Wait you’re in Sabertooth?” he had heard some rumors around the guild that Victoria was a power house in her own right and during his time away evidently Samira had joined the guild! This was HUGE, Samira was super powerful before he had left and she was no slouch so it was far too likely that she was stronger than the last time he had seen her. “Yeah It has been a while. You look good.” and he didn’t mean that in any flirtatious way, she looked like she was going well for herself but whether she would take it in any other way would be his guess. “Yeah it was a pretty big event and I didn’t think it would be worth missing. Right?” he would look towards Victoria seeing if she had a similar train of thought. Before he could state the reason why he was in Joya and asked Victoria to join, the celestial mage would ask if they were both there for the security patrol of the city. Kite would nod at first looking at Victoria with a slight smile before answering, “Yeah that’s right.” he would answer her and let Victoria speak if she wanted. He would be sure to give the Rune Knights plenty of room to apprehend the goat woman that was pinned down by Anhur. Kite would give a slight chuckle after Samira mentioned that they had missed a disturbance involving magic and asked if they had any sort of intel regarding the situation in the City. “Yeah we heard the commotion from over there.” he would point over his shoulder in the direction that he and Victoria had come from. “I am glad it was these small fries and no one got hurt but that last part is thanks to you and Anhur.” he would give a friendly smile to the lion spirit . his smile would fade and his face became slightly more serious as he answered her question “To be honest I can’t say that I have. I heard some bystanders back in Fiore were concerned that someone would cause some trouble in the city. Figured that having at least one strong mage from Saberooth could act as a deterrent and with Vic the more the merrier for sure.” He realized he didn’t really ask Vic if she had any intel but he figured that if she knew anything she would have said something on the way to the city.

Kite’s attention would be directed at the only goat girl that wasn’t rendered motionless as she struggled against the knights that had secured anti magic shackles onto her wrists. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Samira literally stunned the other two during the skirmish. She would yell at them stating that they weren’t the only ones with the attention to cause trouble and went to the trouble to name the one who was likely the leader, The Inquisitor of the People. "Wouldn't hold your breath for that one. You guys are toast." he would say to the goat girl. After taunting the girl Kite would bring his attention to Victoria, “So good news, we have a name and something to do. Bad news, more bad guys and a big city.” His eyes would lock onto Samira. "You are more informed than us. Might be best to bring us up to speed on the situation.” He would go to look over his shoulder, “We can chat in Tailspin….” he would drift off remembering that he and Victoria were lost. Even if either of them wanted to regroup at the ship he had no idea how to get there. “Right. We never got directions or a map...You don't happen to remember which was the ship was parked do you?” he would look to Victoria to answer before turning back to Samira to either follow her lead if she wanted to go elsewhere, to the ship if Victoria might have remembered the direction or if she was going to explain right there and then.

post WC:1135
Total WC:2706

Having arrived too late to get in on the action thanks to Samira taking care of business, Victoria stood around with the barrel of her Light Machine Gun pointed towards the ground as the trio began to exchange pleasantries.

Victoria saw that Samira Nassar was frowning and the brunette was more than a little concerned. However, when Samira recognized Victoria she smiled and greeted the brunette like they were lifelong friends. The mood whiplash was so strong that Victoria almost suffered neck pain from it.

After greeting the newly arrived Sabertooth mages Samira asked the pair if they had come to assist the city patrol and Kite confirmed it. Victoria decided to throw in her two Jewels even though it was a slightly longer way of saying "Yes."

"Yeah Samira, I came here to lend the city patrol a hand. Kite was the one who told me about the gig and offered for me to join him. I took him up on the offer and here I am." Victoria gave her response. She then listened to Kite assert that the Ishgar Symposium was too big to miss and heard him ask if she shared his opinion. She turned to face him before speaking.

"Yeah, Kite. I didn't want to miss this either." Victoria replied in the affirmative, keeping her answer short and sweet. What she was not telling either of her guildmates was that she had fought in the border clash that preceded the Ishgar Symposium. As much as Victoria disliked Pergrande for its militant anti-mage stance, she did not want to see a second border clash break out any time soon. She had a personal interest in making sure that the peace conference was not disrupted.

Samira asked her guildmates if they had heard any loose talk about "rebels" while the duo was trying to find their way around the city. Victoria's face showed surprise at the mention of rebels. She faced the teal-haired mage before speaking.

"I haven't heard anything about any rebels, Samira. I might have accidentally scared some of the locals into silence. I don't think that me walking around wearing military-grade armor made anyone feel like exchanging local gossip." Victoria replied in the negative and put forth the possibility that the intimidation level of her armor might have contributed to the locals being less than talkative. It was not like she could blame them for being silent. They had no idea who she was or what her intentions were.

When she heard Kite explain that the source of what little information he had was rumors he had overheard in Fiore before coming here the brunette quickly chimed in on the subject.

"The first I've heard of any rebels was just now when we met up with you, Samira. I didn't hear anything about it in Fiore. Then again, I was so focused on drinking a Cherry Charge soda that I might have missed any loose talk floating around." Victoria admitted to the teal-haired mage. While one of the three goat people was being taken into custody by the Rune Knights the goat person spoke about some "Inquisitor Of The People" who would manage to finish what their followers had started. After the goat person issued that defiant remark Victoria ignored them and turned her attention to Kite, who had given her a "Good News, Bad News" summary of the new information.

"We're gonna have our hands full, Kite. We've got a lotta ground to cover, but I don't think we should split up unless there's no other choice. Who knows what kinda heat the Inquisitor chick's packing and how many people she's got working for her?" Victoria chimed in, suggesting that the trio stick together in their search for the Inquisitor and her followers.

After Victoria had thrown in her two Jewels' worth about how they should approach this situation Kite suggested that the trio talk things over in his airship before his voice trailed off like something terrible had dawned on him. Victoria was puzzle as to why he had trailed off. Then she thought about the matter and reached an unpleasant realization.

She had forgotten where Kite had parked the airship!

Kite asked the dreaded question mere moments after she had that unpleasant realization. She had been asked a question to which she had no good answer, but Kite needed an answer. Victoria made eye contact with Kite before she reluctantly broke the news to him.

"Dude, I have no idea where you parked the airship." Victoria admitted in embarrassment before her face turned red. This was great. JUST great.

Victoria stood in awkward silence for a few moments before asking her guildmates a very important question.

"So what do we do from here? Try to find Kite's airship or move on to Plan B and try to find somewhere else safe to chat before we begin our search?" Victoria asked her partners. It was likely a dumb question and one that would take time to answer that the trio might not have to spare, but running off without at least a basic plan was not going to help the trio stop the Inquisitor in time. However, planning was not Victoria's strong suit. Either Kite or Samira would have to take on the vital task of planning the trio's next move.

[Post Word Count: 888]
[Victoria's Word Count: 2,360/4,000]

A simple slow nod was all that was given as a response regarding her membership of Sabertooth. It had been quite a long while since she had joined, although to that day she still kept her ties to it at a minimum. After making the decision to disband Lamia Scale, along with other personal matters, the summoner had decided to keep close to as few people and factions as possible. Even her friend Leona was not as close as others have been in the past. It was preferable that way in case she too decided to disappear one day without a word.

"Thank you." The comment of her looking good was not taken in any negative way. All three of them were healthy and strong individuals. If that was considered looking bad then the definitions sure had changed since she last checked. "Both of you look just as lively as I remember." The fact they came as soon as they heard a commotion made that evident enough. Although there were some concerns in the back of her mind regarding that. Nothing too major to bring that up though and so she remained silent, instead choosing to listen to them both as they answered the questions she had already asked. She folded her arms over her chest, not out of anger but just as a way to stand idly as she concentrated on their words. The answers were a mix of relief and disappointment. Relief that they were there to help out with the patrol but disappointment in that they didn't know much more than her. They must have not been in the city long enough to learn anything.

Kite had brought up making a plan and chatting more in Tailspin, which Samira remembered that to be the name of his airship. Honestly, she saw no point in going there to have a chat. She didn't know anything more than she had already said. It was best to remain in the city and look for further clues regarding the rebels and their plans. Perhaps even questioning the ones that had already been captured. Samira was about to tell her thoughts and shift the focus to that when Kite asked Victoria if she recalled where the airship was parked. The brunette claimed that she had no idea. Samira died a little inside upon hearing that. Did they just park it and blindly run into the city? Her concern for the two of them grew. That was a nasty habit, and she truly hoped that it wouldn't become an issue that day anymore than it already had. She had already seen Kite act similarly reckless before on a different mission, and that was not something she wished to witness again. Nor did she want Victoria to take that role.

Samira tried her best to remain composed when faced with that silly issue, but her eyes widened slightly in surprise and she had also blinked a few times rapidly with one slow long blink at the end. It was as if she had to replay that instance in her mind to make sure she had heard it all correctly followed by her brain coming to terms that her perception was indeed correct. Her mind had trouble recovering from the state of "wtf" she had been forced to go into. As for Anhur, he stared. He glared. He grunted irritably and turned away. "This is stupid," he growled, his deep voice showing no lack of disdain he had for what he had just heard. He now preferred just watching the Rune Knights deal with the captured Joyans. He could have helped. He knew where he had first seen Kite and Victoria and therefore could lead them there easily, but he chose not to be helpful at all.

There would be a bit of luck for the three mages, however. A new clue from the same captured Joyan rebels. The immobilization spells had worn off on the first two that had been detained. Now those two were struggling to get away and pleading to not be taken back further into the city. There was even mention of a magical bomb. Their loyalties were apparently not as strong as the third one's was. They wanted to live and since they had been caught they couldn't get out of the city like had been originally planned.

Samira had turned her glance that way, overhearing the yells and begging coming from the goat women. A new plan had formed with that new information. Hopefully one that worked. She turned her head and focused her gaze back on the fellow Sabertooth mages. "Kite, is your ship capable of detecting a bomb?" As much as she would like to say that her spirits could detect a bomb, they couldn't. Not until it went off and its magical energy could be sensed. That left Kite's ship hopefully being able to get that job done. Unless Victoria had a way to detect one as well. She didn't know the brunette's full capabilities to assume anything beyond it being possible. Victoria would have to speak up if she did have a way.

If Kite did have a way for his ship to detect the bomb Anhur would begrudgingly lead the way to where he first ran into Kite and Victoria at Samira's request. From there it was up to them to locate the ship. If not well then so much for that plan. Hopefully they had another forming in their minds.

(Word Count: 917
Samira Total: 3907)

Kite would watch as Samira would give a simple nod in response to his question regarding her membership to the Sabertooth guild. He wouldn’t make any sort of audible noise of excitement but if she were paying attention to his face at all she would definitely notice the excited smile. “I’m glad to hear that. Sabertooth is lucky to have a mage of your renown.” He would say in response to her not. It was something he sincerely meant as well. Between her ability as well the patience she showed for his own shenanigans during their last mission it was something the guild certainly needed. Luckily when he told her that she looked good she didn’t take it as him flirting but just as he meant and even thanked him for the compliment she made note that both he and Victoria were as lively as she remembered them to be. Kite looked at Victoria briefly at Samira’s comment and couldn’t help but think to himself that perhaps that is why he found that being on a mission with her was rather comfortable even including being only a little bit lost. The phrase birds of a feather stick together was what crossed his mind. Hopefully she wasn’t equally as reckless as he had been in the past. As Samira would have witnessed first hand. Truth of the matter was Kite was definitely embarrassed by that looking back on it. That embarrassment wouldn’t be shown on his face other than an expression of momentary deep thought.

Kite has gave his confirmation that he was here to help with the patrol and would allow Victoria to speak her piece which was a short summary of Kite essentially recruiting her for the gig as she called it. At Victoria’s agreement to not wanting to miss this Symposium thing he would give a slight smile at that.

The topic of if they knew anything about some sort of rebels was denied by both Kite and as he listened Victoria was also in the dark about them. Kite had assumed that Samira had more information and offered that they converse about it in his ship. The idea caused him to remember that they were lost and had hoped that Victoria had paid attention more than he did as to the direction to his ship but she had no idea where it was. He would give a sigh,”Well shit.” He would say simply. Their conversation would causes Anhur to express his frustration of this particular situation with a “This is stupid line.” He wasn’t wrong. Kite had considered making a sarcastic remark in response but before he could pull the verbal trigger his attention was drawn elsewhere just shy of Samira’s reaction time.

Kite would turn his head in the direction where a small company of Rune Knights were actively detaining two goat women similar to the one that Anhur had under his foot when Kite and Victoria arrived. Their appearance and their resistance to this arrest were certainly similar. This was regarding the distinct difference between these two and the one from earlier however. The first one he witnessed her shout they wouldn’t win and was steadfast in her belief that this Inquisitor would succeed where these two would show otherwise. “Hey let me go you mindless cogs!” One would shout showing her disdain for the authority in the city. “Yeah no one got hurt. Let us go!” The other could be heard chiming in. These pleas and insults fell on deaf ears as the knights paid no mind as they were being hauled away. One of the two changed their tune and tried to bribe their way out of being arrested, “Fine I Guess you don’t care about the magicbomb that is going to go off.” Kite could hear it almost as clear as if she had stood next to him and told him directly. His eyes widened and any sort of cheerful or playful look on his face quickly changed to a very serious expression. The simple patrol became a race against the clock now. “Well it looks like we just got more than we bargained for. Definitely glad you are here for this.” He would say to Victoria as he looked at her before fixing his gaze back in the direction the knights took the goat girls.

Kite wasn’t really focused on anything in the short seconds after his statement to Victoria and hearing her response. There was no point in saying anything obvious at the moment. He was much more focused on thinking, thinking about what he could do, what they could do as a group. Samira spoke up asking Kite specifically if his ship could track the bomb. Kite’s head would snap very quickly in Samira’s direction. “Samira, that's brilliant!” He would say but would quickly add, “By itself no but I have been rebuilding the ship ever since I got back.” He would make a fist and tap it into his open hand. “But EDI could definitely do it.” He was  absolutely certain about that. “Just have to get back to the ship.” Kite would watch as Anhur would begin to walk in a direction and signaled them to follow. “Looks like someone knows where we parked it, Vic.” He would smile at his partner for the day and begin to walk with them as a group toward where Anhur was leading them.

On the way to the ship Kite felt like it was as good of a time as any to say what he wanted to. Causally keeping pace with Samira during the travel to the ship. “Hey Samira, since the likelihood that things will be getting much more interesting there is something I’d like to say if you don’t mind.” He would say plainly just to get her attention. “I swear I’m not trying to make a habit of this but I owe you an apology for what happened during the last mission we were on.” He was making eye contact initially but he looked in front of him and paid attention to where they were going, “While I was gone in the place I was I had a lot of time to think . During our second mission I acted recklessly more so than necessary which endangered the mission as well as myself. Definitely causes more harm than good and for that I am sorry.” He would look at her before finishing what he wanted to say. “I can’t promise I won’t run towards the danger that’s not who I am but I won’t be making those mistakes again and putting the mission at hand or myself in unnecessary harm.”

Once the area of the city that Anhur was leading them in began to look familiar he was able to remember where the ship was from there. “Man. We weren’t that far from it after all.” He would say to Victoria scratching his head a bit. Once at the ship he would push the buttons to lower the ramp to the cargo bay for them all to enter. “I will see if I can get EDI up and running real quick.” Almost on cue a synthetic female voice can be heard over the intercom. “Always when you need something isn’t it?.” Kite would blink in confusion. “EDI? You are working? I thought you were still broken…. When did you start working??” He would question her in a way showing his confusion and his annoyance. “I haven’t been broken at all.  You left and I wasn’t in the mood to talk to you. Plus it was fun seeing you get frustrated trying to fix me. . But I see you have guests and need my help.” Kite frowned a bit. “Yeah. I guess I deserve it. EDI There is supposedly a Magic Bomb that someone might be looking to set off in the city. Could be more. Can you locate them with the ship’s sensors?” She would hum for a moment, “If they are magic in nature I don’t see why not. Come up to the cockpit and I’ll show you what I find…oh” she would trail off. “It’s good to see you again Samira. And nice to meet you officially Victoria. I would have spoken sooner but that would have given away the surprise.  Welcome to my ship. Which of you did Kite piss off?” She would ask knowing it was likely the case for one reason or the other. Kite would point at the viewfinder in the cargo bay. “Bomb first. Roast me later.” EDI’s camera would focus in on him, her version of narrowing her eyes. “Fine. Searching now. Please all who would like to see what I find come up to the cockpit. Kite would head up to lead them if they wished to follow.

Wc: 1471

After learning from the subdued goat people that the rebels had a leader named the "Inquisitor of the People" Victoria was ready to hunt down the "Inquisitor" and stop them before they could really set their scheme in motion. However, there was a tiny problem. That problem was that she did not remember where Kite had parked his airship.

After admitting her ignorance as to where Kite had parked the airship Victoria could tell that Samira's opinion of her had dropped a little. Victoria was a little upset about that, but she could live with it. What she could not handle was that gold dude hanging around Samira dropping a pithy remark about how stupid the situation was. That was just kicking someone when they were down.

Victoria frowned and briefly made eye contact with the High And Mighty Gold Dude before turning back to face Kite and Samira. While the mistake was one that could have been avoided had she paid a little more attention to where she was when she disembarked from the Kiteplane, she did not need comments from some random guy telling her how dumb the mistake was. The brunette was painfully aware of how dumb she looked in front of Samira Nassar and did not need reminding.

The brunette took a deep breath before she said something to Samira's golden pal that angered the Goddess of Ishgar and instead listened to the goat people disclose the existence of a magic bomb that was primed to go off at some point somewhere in the city. Victoria's frown somehow became even deeper. Kite put forth his opinion about the new development and expressed how glad he was Victoria decided to take him up on his offer to tag along for this job.

"Yeah, things just got a lot more interesting. And I'm glad I could be here to help out." Victoria remarked to Kite, refraining from saying what she really wanted to say about how this situation was going south with each passing moment. At least she was working with Kite and Samira, two veteran mages of Sabertooth who were a lot smarter than she was. She would need their help to find the rebels and stop their bomb from wrecking the city. Samira asked a simple question that led to Kite making a string of observations that led to him recalling a way to detect the bomb the goat people were talking about, leading to a feeling of hope in the brunette.

After a rough start, everything was starting to come together.

Gold Dude must have decided to help out in his own mysterious Gold Dude way when he started wordlessly walking in a certain direction. Kite picked up on what he was doing and called to Victoria to follow them to the airship. Feeling another surge of hope, the brunette eagerly followed Samira's pal and her Sabertooth guildmates towards their destination. She listened to Kite and Samira talk about the past and kept her mouth shut the entire time. Apparently the two had more history than Victoria had suspected, but that was to be expected when she was still something of the new chick in the guild.

Eventually the trio reached the airship and Victoria heard Kite exclaim that they had gotten lost not too far from the hangar. Victoria sighed. That was just insult added to the injury from earlier. At least they had not been too far away from their destination, so there was still time to board the airship and stop the rebels quickly and in style. Victoria was so pleased by this development that she set aside her grudge with Gold Dude and spoke to him in a friendly manner.

"Thanks for the help, Gold Guy!" Victoria cheerfully thanked Samira's pal before dispelling her Light Machine Gun and boarding Kite's airship.

-On board the airship-

Victoria boarded Kite's airship with Samira and Kite and soon heard Kite get a tongue-lashing from an artificial female voice. Without missing a beat Kite and his sassy artificial companion chatted back and forth. After some time the voice introduced themselves as "EDI", welcomed them to "her" ship, and asked which of the two female mages Kite had angered to the point of hostilities. Victoria was somewhat amused by the blunt manner in which the question was asked.

"I don't have any problem with Kite. I think he's pretty cool if he's willing to take someone like me with him on an important job like this one." Victoria said to EDI in a bit of self-deprecation. Victoria was not the smartest mage in Sabertooth, as she had demonstrated earlier during their quest to find the airship. If someone needed brute force on a job, then they had the right mage. If someone needed planning ability, then they were advised to pick another mage. EDI interrupted the brunette's musing on her strengths and weaknesses to tell them where they could go to see the fruits of the AI's search... if they were interested in doing so, that was.

"Dude, I'm in." Victoria enthusiastically replied to EDI's statement. With EDI's help the Sabertooth mages just might be able to pull this job off. Things were looking up for the trio.

[Post Word Count: 872]
[Victoria's Word Count: 3,232/4,000]

Well, it looked like they had somewhat of a working plan after all. The ship, with the help of EDI, had the skill of tracking down a bomb. She made no mention that she had to practically force Anhur to lead the way by way of mental command. That little detail was best left unsaid or brought up any further. The lion spirit was very unhappy. Helping out a pair of fools play a scavenger hunt game for a ship had not been on his agenda for the day. Of course, he was already in a very bad mood as it was because he was dragged to the Ishgar Symposium as if anything that happened that day would matter in the long run. He was an avatar of a god of war. If he knew anything it was that peace never lasted, and signatures on a piece of paper were not going to magically make it so. There were much better ways to spend time. Like dealing with more important things than Ishgar politics or being a part of some security team dealing with rebels. The Rune Knights existed for a reason and yet there he was with Samira doing their work. The whole day was just a stupid waste of time.

'If you are so negative about the treaty you did not have to come at all.' Samira telepathically told Anhur, using her magical link with him in order to do so. Although he could read her mind it didn't quite work in reverse, although, she did not need that ability to see that he disapproved. He was more grumpy and less tolerable than usual. To Kite and Victoria, it would appear that Samira was just silently following along despite having an actual conversation between the minds of Anhur and herself.

'This was the lesser of two evils, or as I have heard the phrase go. To not come would mean that I would never hear the end of it from the others. I still have my duties and I cannot neglect them every chance I get. I remind you that helping those that do not have the foresight to recall their parked transportation for future use is not a part of my ancient contract to your line.'

'Noted and appreciated all the same. Thank you for leading the way.'

Anhur just lowly growled, resisting the urge to roll his eyes or say anything more. It wasn't as if he had much of a choice in the matter so the gratitude meant nothing. He continued to lead the way. Silent, as was his usual way, but also alert and on guard. He cared little for the well-being of the two foolish mages, but he supposed he could at least make sure they didn't find a new distraction to run off to and once again get hopelessly lost. He'd just take care of any new rebels that made themselves known along the way. Fortunately or unfortunately none appeared. They were in a different sector of the city by then perhaps.

The walk after that conversation had been quiet with Samira just sticking with her own thoughts and solitude. She had been expecting Kite and Victoria to talk to each other at the very least, but in a strange surprising way she found herself being forced into a conversation instead. One that she did not expect or think was needed given the context of it. Upon hearing her name her attention was drawn towards Kite, her glance looking over in his direction for a moment so he'd know she was listening. An apology. The scene was memorable since he had done that very same thing the last time. Although, she supposed the current one was less entertaining. It lacked the qualities that had made her laugh before. Thankfully. She did not want Victoria to get the wrong idea about them.

She allowed him to finish before taking her gaze off of him and putting it back to doing the work of seeing what was straight ahead of her. Her expression was neutral. There really was not anything that could be gained from an apology years later. Truth be told she didn't even think one was required at all. It had happened years ago. They both survived that day and had moved on. Getting an apology for his reckless actions had never been on her mind. After all, he had paid for those decisions already. "It has been years so I am surprised you remember that well enough for it to trouble you so, but then again you have done this before because another transgression bothered you. You say you do not intend to make this a habit but I am convinced this is just how you are. Not that I consider it a bad thing." At least he was someone that apologized, even if a bit late. There was some wisdom in that old phrase of "better late than never", Samira guessed. Until the apologies became too common and lost their significance. Kite was not quite there yet. At least not with her. Samira hoped he was speaking truthfully and would work on the apologies no longer being necessary in his mind. Starting with not repeating the mistakes of their last mission.

"Your apology is unnecessary though. I am not angry with what happened back then or even hold it against you. Your injuries from that day were more than sufficient to strike that pride of yours. If you want my forgiveness so you can feel better about the past and move on then you have it. Just know that this day, or any time in the future, I will not be giving you the five minutes to fight on your own as I did back then. That was a mistake on my part and for that, I am the one that is sorry. We had our roles to play and as the more responsible one, I should have known better than to allow it. The whole thing could have ended quite differently." Granted, Kite would not have suffered the injuries to learn his lesson about being prideful and reckless. It was difficult to know which was the most important thing. His mental well-being, or his physical. Sure in the end it all had worked out, but there was a high chance he could have become a corpse instead. Such were the complexities of life. Samira felt no guilt any longer over it. She had accepted the consequences of what happened a long time ago. Still, she had to acknowledge that while the apologies were being passed around she had her own mistakes to make up for. "If this conversation is to continue it really should wait until later. We have different priorities, and I am afraid of what Victoria will have to apologize for just so she does not feel left out of the conversation entirely." Samira sent an apologetic smile Victoria's way. It was never her intent on having such a conversation with her around and therefore making her seem or feel like a third wheel to whatever history or friendship Kite and herself had.

Eventually, the trio would reach their destination. Anhur stopped walking and allowed the others to take the lead. They knew their way from there. He arched a brow when Victoria thanked him and gave him the nickname "Gold Guy." He had zero clue what kind of name that was supposed to be. Still, he took her gratitude and acknowledged it with a low grunt. It was his normal "I don't give a damn" attitude. He did really appreciate her saying so though and kept it in mind for the future. Victoria had earned some brownie points with him even if she did not know it. "I will keep watch of things out here." He told Samira before walking away to find a spot to stand idle in. He didn't like those metal birds at all. Samira simply nodded in understanding and followed the others inside the airship.

The ship was at least familiar. Or from what she could recall from the other times she had been inside it. Samira didn't really understand the workings of ships like that though so she just remained quiet and stood out of the way so Kite could do whatever he needed to do to get things with EDI working.... which apparently was just talking. EDI had the same sort of attitude as some of her spirits. Samira could empathize with Kite.

The interactions between Kite, EDI, and Victoria she listened to quietly. She would have to give some credit to Victoria for her modesty. Samira wasn't sure if labeling Kite as "cool" was an accurate description, but there was some amusement in labeling a mage that uses fire with a word that was just a touch shy of cold. "If Kite had made me angry in some way as you suggest, EDI, I would not be here and he would have the mark of a slap that I would have given him." That was a thing. Samira slapped those she was angry with. Kite was mark free so the Goddess of Ishgar was very far from being pissed off about anything. "But thank you for the greeting all the same." After that, Samira followed Victoria and Kite up to the cockpit. She needed to see for herself what EDI found. If it was the location of the bomb she needed to know so she could have the spirits that she already had scouting the city get there asap and disable it or at least deal with those that were setting it up.

What the trio of mages inside the ship did not realize just yet was that they had been followed. Other members of the rebel organization were around to see the three faun-like joyans get caught and arrested. They had kept themselves hidden and blending in with the crowds, of course, but they could see everything that had happened. Hear it as well. They knew those Sabertooth mages would be trouble. A threat to their plans and grand scheme. Considering these particular two rebels had helped make the bomb they wanted to see the results. It was for alchemical science! They followed the Sabertooth trio without being noticed. They were skilled like that despite being scientists. The moment they saw the airship they stopped and stood back, watching the three get into the ship and seeing the... lion Joyan thing walk away elsewhere. They didn't know what he was. It wasn't truly one of them.

"Huh, so they do have a ship. You think it'll find anything on the bomb?" One asked curiously while adjusting the pair of glasses on his face.
"Don't know. Don't want to take the chance." The other replied coldly. "The boss won't be happy if surprised guests ruin everything. We have to take care of them now before that ship finds anything."
"Aye aye. So how do we go about this?"
"The usual. We bomb it. Slow them down. Poison them. Shouldn't be hard. If we can capture one as leverage it'll be even easier."
"Eh, I don't think it'll be that easy but it's worth a shot. If nothing else the boss and the others can stop them if things go south for us."
"We're not failing this."

And that was that. Their little plan was set in motion. They didn't even have to get close or make their presence fully known. Their magic with bombs was long-distance when it needed to be. All they had to do was toss them. So they did. It all started with the ship being struck by several of them. Sticky webbing appeared from the small eruptions, covering the entire ship and connecting it to the ground. The intent was to prevent it from taking off if anyone had the idea of leaving or buying time for the ship to find the bomb. The strong webbing was good for that. The ship wouldn't be taking off until that webbing was dealt with. But anyone that left the ship would have to have some fun dodging the next round of bombs. Of course, it was very likely these two alchemists were overestimating themselves and clearly underestimating their targets.

As for Anhur... he didn't care so he stayed out of it and remained where he was far away from the bomb tosses. Webbing was not enough to make him move or go into action. The actual mages could handle that mess.

(Word Count: 2094
Samira Total: 6001)

Kite would smile and nod at Victoria’s response, interesting. Interesting was definitely an accurate word for how things were beginning to develop. “Interesting is right. Hopefully we can nip this problem in the bud.” At this point he definitely wanted to prevent the destruction from damaging any part of the city. Worst case scenario he could try to eat the any sort of flames or heat produced by the bomb. Kite would follow with the rest of them behind Anhur who was leading them back to the ship. Kite’s enhanced hearing allowed him to notice the grumbly growl as they moved. He couldn’t be completely sure but it was likely a conversation going on between Samira and her lion friend that they would never know about.

During the trip to the ship Kite had managed to get Samira’s attention in order for him to deliver another apology to her regarding the actions during the Demon hunting mission years back. He didn’t notice her neutral expression when he apologized, he was looking ahead as she responded to it. As she explained to him that she was surprised by him remembering something from years back on a random job. Kite hadn’t considered that fact, while it had been years for everyone else that wasn’t the case for him. While locked away in the void the perception of time was different, he felt the years go by but to him when he returned, it felt like he had just left.  So to him the stuff that happened during that mission felt no more than a week or so. He listened as she spoke, bringing up the other time he had apologized to her back in Hargeon and was convinced that it was his nature despite not wanting to make a habit of it. It was sort of embarrassing to hear it out loud like that but he could see her point. She would accept his apology but state it was unnecessary for him to do so due to his injuries being punishment enough for it. She even made mention that she was at fault for giving him five minutes to fight on his own which she said would never happen again. He was glad to hear this and heard her make mention to say that if they were to continue this conversation it would be best to do so later. “I would definitely like to. There is a bit more to it all but allow me to clarify one thing.” He would give her his full attention when saying this, “My apology isn’t just for that five minutes or even jumping the gun when stuff went south, although you gave me a good whack for that. It extends to those who were enslaved to the demons. Your spirit told me that it reminded you of something else. Didn’t go into specifics and I didn’t ask. But I am sorry if that did hurt you in some way.” That would be all he would say regarding the apology.

Upon reaching the long lost ship Victoria would be the first to speak and thank Anhur but refer to him as “gold guy.” Kite would chuckle at this little nickname she gave him. Anhur would grunt and say he will keep watch outside. Kite would look at him, “If you get bored out here you’re more than welcome to come inside.” He would offer to Anhur if he wanted to. With everyone on board that wanted to be he would announce he would try to get EDI working. This would lead to a bit of a roasting from his ship’s AI. There would be different responses to this with Samira mentioning had Kite pissed her off there would be a noticeable slap mark on his face. He knew this was the case and would rub the spot on his head where she had hit him last time, and wasn't looking for another one of those. Victoria on the other hand countered the remarks with a  compliment stating he was a cool dude if he was willing to invite someone like her. “Someone like you? Don’t sell yourself short. You’re a skilled mage and I’m lucky to have had you come along.”

EDI would ask anyone who wanted to see what her scans picked up to go to the cockpit. Kite would lead the way up the catwalk to the upper deck and lastly the cockpit down the hall on the right. “Alright EDI show us what you found.” He would say to her. A projection of the city of Felidae would come out in front of them and spread on the map were red lights almost like heat signatures. “The red areas on the are concentration points for ethernanos.” She would zoom on the ship, “you see on Tailspin we have two large signatures? Those are Samira's and Victoria's,  Kite’s there but a much smaller magic signature.” It wasn’t what she said but how she said it that pushed Kite’s buttons. She would zoom out again to show them all across the city. “As you can see there are very few signatures that would be considered high but over in the market area you can see that it’s the largest in the city that isn’t you on the ship or those at the Symposium. Based on how it’s radiating it’s likely under the marketplace in the sewer system or just an underground tunnel in general.” A smile would break through the frown he had seconds ago. “This is great. We know where to hit them but what’s the best way to go about it?” He would look at the map thinking of the options they could do. “Maybe we can try to defuse it?” He would ask out loud. Bombs weren’t his strong point but maybe one of the other two would have some idea.

Right after they could speak their mind on the matter the brain storming would come to a quick end when the sounds of explosions could be heard right outside of the ship. “EDI what was that?” Kite would ask her changing his tone to a very serious one. “Someone threw bombs at the ship. No damage detected.”  Being in the middle of the city he didn’t want to get into a fight where people could get hurt. “Someone is bombing my ship! EDI take us up.” She would immediately chime in, “The turbines aren’t stuck and won’t rotate. If we engage them we will fly into the buildings in front of us." Hearing this news he would figure there was no other choice. They fight, his aura started to spike a bit which would raise the temperature in the ship a bit before he came up with a better idea. He would quell his aura for now and walk out of the Cockpit he would head down the hall towards where the bulkhead that would lead into the gally was. “This ladder leads to a hatch on top of the ship. They didn’t come up on the scanner so they might be out of its range. Vic I saw your firearm earlier. If you have something with range they might not expect anyone to go up there so you  could catch them off guard. Also give us cover to lower the ramp and try to counter attack.”

Back to the two that attacked the ship with the bombs they were watching the ship looking to follow up with their assault. Unfortunately for them they weren’t expecting the reinforcements to show up. Flying from up in the sky keeping an eye on things, Turq had seen everything that had happened since Kite and Victoria arrived in Felidae. Including the bombing of the ship. Without making a word the dragon would land with a thud right behind the two alchemists. “I found some pests bombing Kite's ship. You guys are screwed.” He would let out a loud roar to signal to whoever wanted to retaliate against the bombers this was where to find them.

WC 1341

Victoria was glad to hear that Kite had really wanted her to tag along and not just because she was a meatshield to draw attention away from him and Samira. She had said the remark mostly as self-deprecation, but there was an element of truth to it. She felt lucky that Itori had not made sure that Victoria had met with an "accident" in the Phoenix Mountains after backtalking her about taking the slavers in alive. After that Victoria tended to work alone so that she did not run the risk of getting on the bad side of either Sabertooth's top brass or long-serving mages who had the ear of the guild's top brass.

"I'm glad you want me here, Kite. I said what I did mostly as self-deprecation because I'm not good for much else beyond fighting. Even then there are better fighters in the guild." Victoria explained her remark. She was sure that she looked dumb for saying what she did, but no one had ever accused her of being intelligent. The brunette tended to find a way to say the wrong thing at the worst possible time and this was no exception. Samira and Kite needed to be locating those rebels and preparing to end the threat they posed, not assuring Victoria that they had a need for her beyond being a meatshield.

"But thanks for having me here anyway, Kite." Victoria followed up her explanation with a heartfelt statement of thanks. Now that the emotional stuff had been taken care of for the time being Victoria focused on following Kite to the cockpit of the Kiteplane... er, Tailspin. Once she had made it inside EDI had helpfully brought up a map of the city for the Sabertooth trio and had also helpfully marked areas of interest so that they did not have to spend time making heads or tails of all the markers.

Victoria listened to the briefing that Kite's sassy AI partner gave them and learned that there was a really big magic signature in the market area, a magic signature that was bigger than either Samira or Victoria. The brunette paid attention to that part. She also paid attention to the fact that they might have to go underground in order to locate the bomb. Kite suggested that once the trio located the bomb that they defuse it before everyone had a bad day.

"Dude, don't look at me. I don't know how to defuse it." Victoria immediately disqualified herself from bomb squad duty. For one thing she lacked the necessary armor to protect herself. For another thing she lacked the expertise necessary to defuse it. She did not have time to find out if Samira had training in defusing bombs because the sound of explosions outside the ship caused the Sabertooth trio's conference to come to a screeching halt.

Kite learned from EDI that the ship could not get airborne without suffering a fatal accident by plowing into the buildings in front of them, so the trio could not retaliate against their attackers with some old-fashioned death from above. However, they were far from defenseless. Kite guided the brunette to a ladder that she could use to climb on top of Tailspin and rain fire on the attackers from that vantage point. Victoria was game.

"OK Kite, I'll climb the ladder and give those bomb-throwing goons something else to worry about!" Victoria said. She quickly climbed the ladder and soon reached the top.

-On top of Tailspin-

Victoria closed the hatch behind her and carefully moved forward until she could get a glimpse of the attackers. There were only two of them, but there was also a huge dragon standing behind them. Victoria's face showed momentary alarm when she spotted it and she briefly panicked when it roared.

Where the Hell did they get a dragon from?

They had brought in some serious muscle to make sure that Tailspin did not get off the ground. She was not sure if anything less than her Rocket Launcher could take it out. She prepared to summon the Rocket Launcher so she could deal with it before it could wreck Tailspin. Then she watched it for a moment and realized something.

It was not attacking the ship.

Unsure as to why that was, Victoria did not question it. She needed to attack before the element of surprise was gone. Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun, set the bipod on top of Tailspin, and went prone. There she took aim at the first of the two bomb-throwing opponents and fired a carefully counted ten-round burst on full auto at them.

The shots landed all around them and one of them might have even grazed their left leg. The element of surprise was now gone, but the whole point of her being here was to be a distraction. Victoria stayed where she was and fired off another carefully counted ten-round burst at the target. This time she definitely grazed their left leg with one of the rounds, but they were still standing.

The brunette might need to switch to a more accurate long-range weapon if she really wanted to hurt them, but for the time being she would keep at them with the Light Machine Gun since it was well-suited for laying down suppressing fire and suppressing fire was what Samira and Kite needed from Victoria. Samira and Kite had better hurry up because she did not know how long she could occupy their attention before the enemy got serious and threw some explosives her way... or got that dragon to attack her.

[Post Word Count: 936]
[Victoria's Word Count: 4,168/4,000]

Once the Sabertooth trio were in the cockpit a projection of the city spread out in front of them for proper display. Red dots were scattered all around. Some large, many of them smaller. Samira just stared and said nothing after stepping to the side and leaning back against a wall. Rather than try to make sense of it herself she patiently waited for EDI or someone else to explain what it was they were looking at. As knowledgeable as she was with magic it was the complete opposite when it came to any sort of tech, magitech, or whatever else people tried calling it. The renowned Goddess of Ishgar could barely figure out her iLac most of the time.

EDI was quick enough with her explanation. The red dots were signatures of ethernanos. The more of it there was then the larger the dot on the projection was. One of the larger ones was right in the middle of a marketplace, perhaps even under it as a way to hide it until everything was set to blow. Samira had to admit that was a clever choice to get attention and make a statement. A much safer one too since the more significant choices would be much more highly guarded. There was a bit of doubt though. The dots on the screen that represented herself and Victoria were just as large so that rogue dot could have just been another mage like them. That level of power was rare but that didn't make her concern one outside of the realm of possibility. They'd find out soon enough, she supposed. It was the only lead they had.

'Kuku, you are the nearest if I recall. Could you please go investigate?'
'I was already there. Nothing. Obviously. It's underground, isn't it? What do you want me to do? Transform to my true self and slam my face through the ground? I'm a winged flying serpent, not a burrowing earthworm.'
'I advise calling on Janus and dealing with this yourself. Allowing Kukulkan to do anything more than patrol is asking for more trouble than I am prepared to witness.'
'Hmph, cute but accurate.'
'I will meet you there, Samira.'
No one bothered communicating with Serqet. The scorpion spirit was still making herself busy by making signs instead of helping with the patrol or bomb situation. In her carefree mind nothing was wrong and therefore nothing was there to worry about.

The conversation was cut shorter than planned. The loud sounds of small explosions could be heard through the walls of the ship. A short explanation later made it clear that the ship was under attack. Samira frowned deeply. Anhur had not reported anything outside the ship. An attack should not have happened period with him standing there. Physically, Samira remained calm and idle while Kite and Victoria took control of the situation. She barely even registered the two of them talking and moving. 'Anhur, what is going on?'

'Two Joyans are throwing small explosive devices at the metal bird. It is now covered in webbing. Protecting the metal bird is not a part of my life's agenda, and even if it were the creature is fine.' Around that time the blue dragon had made his appearance behind the Joyans. It wasn't an enemy. It had made that much clear. Although much like himself the dragon decided to do absolutely nothing even though it was standing much closer to the alchemists. Unless roaring counted as being productive.

'What was that roar?' Samira asked, having heard it from inside the ship.

'Just a dragon.'

Anyone else might have been most impressed that a dragon was present. Summoner and summon were not. Anhur was never the sort to be impressed by anything. At least, that's what anyone could assume since he had never displayed it before. As for Samira, she disliked dragons a great deal. Somehow her frown managed to deepen even further with the news that one was right outside. As if the bomb and rebel group weren't enough there was now a dragon present to sour her mood. There was very little time that she wanted to spend with the current situation. The main bomb that was being set to go off in the marketplace was the top priority. And she now knew where it was.

'Anhur, you help out here if necessary. I am going after the main bomb.' Did it seem just a little bit reckless and irresponsible to leave her fellow guild members in the middle of an attack? Probably. Samira would even agree that to be the case under different circumstances. After all, she had just apologized earlier for allowing something similar to happen in the past. However, with the combined talents and power of Victoria and Kite there were no expected complications. Neither would be alone and together they could surely handle it. All three of them dealing with the bombers was not required. That was a waste of time and manpower when there was much more at stake.

"Janus, make a portal to the location," Samira told the portal master that was just as much connected with her as the rest of her avatar summons. This time, rather than the communication being entirely telepathic, it was made vocally, allowing those in the room, such as EDI, to hear her. Within the next few seconds, a portal opened underneath the summoner, and just like that, she was gone as she fell into it. The shimmering swirls of the magic portal quickly faded and disappeared altogether the moment she was completely through. Samira was now gone, having been transported near the location of the bomb's signature. Right into the underground tunnels below the city.

That left Anhur to continue to watch the show. Naturally, he still did nothing. He didn't need to. If those two needed help dealing with something so absolutely trivial at their ranks he had to wonder how Sabertooth got to where it was as a guild. As he stood there silently observing, the portal master Janus appeared beside him, teleporting himself to the Joya city. "Hello, old friend." Janus greeted the other, smiling kindly and raising a mechanical hand to gently wave.

The lion spirit glanced at him, acknowledging his presence but also out of mild curiosity. "What are you doing here? You are not a combative spirit."

"You're right. I am an old spirit, you know. Much too old for all of this excitement. I thought it would be a kind gesture to teleport those two to Samira when they are done here."

"Hmm, they will most likely run off to the location without asking for a portal."

"I could just get their attention when they run off." There was a bit of a pause after Janus made that consideration. He scratched his metal thin thoughtfully. "Then again I am an old spirit. I'm afraid that I cannot yell as well as I used to. And it is bad for my health to stand in front of rampaging mages. Oh dear, I do hope they take the time to notice and ask."

"Perhaps they will stop for some tea." A female voice suggested, joining in on the conversation just before the avatar spirit of Amaterasu made her full appearance in a flash of divine light. A tea cart full of snacks and the usual tea equipment and accessory assortment appeared beside her. "The herbalist from Beanstalk Village once told me that Joya has the best teas and spices in the world. After trying some myself I have to agree. Would you like some?"

"You have been shopping for tea instead of helping with the patrol?"

Amaterasu took hold of the teapot and began to fill one of the empty teacups for herself. Not once did she break eye contact with Anhur and yet the teacup was filled with no mess being made and with her knowing exactly when to stop before it had overfilled. "Your question amuses me. I had started to be of help with the patrol without being asked to, but the natives here assumed that I was a tourist from Midi. They immediately suggested that I try the assortment of teas. There were no suspicious activities around the teashops."

"No. Just a bomb being placed under the marketplace."

"At least I was able to acquire a variety of their teas before they are all destroyed."

Anhur and Janus both agreed. From that point on the three avatar spirits enjoyed their little tea party while watching Kite and Victoria handle the situation as if it were the provided entertainment.

(Word Count: 1436
Samira Total: 7437)

Kite had said his piece that he was lucky and glad to have Victoria along for this mission and it was the truth. He had not worked with her in the past nor had he heard sort of news about her one way or another but he could tell she was a strong mage even when he had met her. That  wasn’t the only reason he had asked her; it had more to do with him finding her interesting upon introduction. He listened to her response stating she was mainly making self deprecating comments at her own expense. She saw herself as someone who isn’t much good outside of a fight but went further saying that there were others who were better fighters than her too. Kite would shake his head slightly at this as she thanked him for having her there. “I don’t know much about you to say if it’s true enough but I doubt that being good at a fight is all you bring to the table and so what if it is. You are part of my guild.” Kite’s eyes narrowed slightly as he repeated what he had just said out loud in his head. For a brief moment in trying to reassure her, he had momentarily forgotten that Sabertooth was no longer “his” guild. While that was the case with how long he was with the guild and all he had gone through with the guild comradery was something he valued a bit. “You are a part of the guild and that is more than enough for me. Plus so far it's been fun.”

The fun was just getting started though. Up in the cockpit EDI showed the map that showed not only concentration of eithernanos but the concentrations that were both the bomb and a strong presence close to it. While trying to come up with a plan many thoughts came to mind. The one that he shared with the others was the idea of potentially defusing the the bomb. Samira didn’t speak up either way but Victoria certainly did and immediately shot down the idea of her disarming it due to not knowing how to do it. Honestly he was banking that between the two of them that Victoria might have a means to do it. He had a small idea that she was about the firearm lifestyle but there was a difference between ordinance and firearms. ”Damn then maybe…” thats when the ship would rock as a result of someone bombing the ship.

After a brief conversation with EDI about what had happened as well as the AI explaining that they couldn’t take off meaning the status of the ship was up in the air if they didn’t take action. Kite was more than willing to go out guns blazing out of habit but he knew that he would be going out there blind. While he couldn’t see anything going on outside, something of interest did catch his attention. From outside of the ship he heard a very loud roar and one that was very familiar. It looked like he had some air support. After showing Victoria to the ladder that led to the upper hatch he turned to look back into the cockpit with the intention to ask Samira what her plan was but as he locked eyes on her she would fall through a portal underneath of her and was now gone. “EDI what just happened?” EDI would respond matter of factly, “She asked something named Janus to open a portal and just dropped into one.” Kite’s mouth opened to say something but no words came out right away. Thinking back to the job and how he went off on his own outside of the plan he couldn’t help but chuckle. “So that’s what that feels like.” he had just gotten a taste of his own medicine he thought.  Looking at Victoria as she started her climb up the ladder stating she was going to give them something to worry about. Kite would smirk, “Now that is what I like to hear.” He turned the corner and immediately went down the stair for the cat walk above the Cargo Bay. Not looking to take the stairs he jumped the rails and landed on the Cargo Bay floor and waited at the ramp. He waited until he heard the sound of gunshots which meant that Victoria started her attack on the bombers. Exiting the ship he saw Anhur still standing in the same spot that he picked when everyone else entered the ship. Kite looked at him with a smirk, “Thanks for keeping watch, so which way?” He waited for Anhur to answer but he knew that he was as likely to be ignored but still waited. However in the event that was the case the roar of Turq before taking to the sky would give him a place to at least start. Eyes narrowing and with him being outside his aura flared again, taking an orange glow as it did he didn’t need to hold anything back now. In a flash of flame and heat bursting from his location causing anyone close to get washed in the heat he was producing, he was gone.

He would reappear hovering right above the two Joyan bombers who were already looking up because of the presence of Turq. Turq seeing his slayer friend beneath him would let out a laugh, “Turq give me a push.” Turq’s tail would swing down to Kite  would rotate in the air so his feet would make contact with it, “You guys are toast now” Turq would say, propelling Kite down at them like a missile. Kite would land between the two of them and move on the offensive immediately. Kite slammed a fist into the chest of the closest of the two followed by a quick spinning elbow to the other one catching him in the nose. The first one he had simply punched reached inside his clothes trying to dig out one of the flasks that he had been using as bombs. Grabbing his hand he would toss him into the air towards his dragon. “Turq give him a ride over to the top of Tailspin.” Kite wanted these two split up and was going to let that one be taken care of by Victoria. Turq would grab the dude with his talons and fly him over to Tailspin only to release him and spike him tail sending him crashing onto the roof of the ship. Looking down at the brunette Turq would speak to her, “Special delivery lady. Have fun Lady.” he would say to her as he flew off. Kite seeing this would shout at the dragon,“Hey watch the ship!” he shortly after yelling  gave his attention back to the Joyan bomber that would have the “pleasure” of having Kite as his opponent. Back in the day Kite might have played with this guy a bit but he wanted to have this to end as quickly as he could, he had no way of knowing what sort of bombs he had on him. “You bombed my ship can’t say that I am too keen about that fact. However I am giving you a chance here. Put down your bombs and come in quietly.” He was trying to reason with the bomber, best way to prevent any collateral damage from happening. “You sure do talk big. I don’t think you understand that you won’t be leaving here alive. We can’t have you interfering in the boss’s plans.” Kite would give a sigh that the negotiation attempt didn’t work. Kite wasn’t sure where this guy’s confidence was coming from considering there was a dragon literally flying over their heads. “Alright but remember I gave you a way out.” Kite ignited his aura to full now. The heat radiating from his was nothing close to what Victoria had felt earlier, less hair drying and more like being near a volcano level of heat. “Dragon Emperor’s migration!” he would shout, disappearing a blaze of heat and fire and reappearing right in front of the bomber. The bomber would hold a bomb in his hand and was ready to throw it but Kite’s reflexes were faster. His hand gripped around both the bomb and the bomber’s hand keeping it held in place. The other hand grabbed the bombers collar and lifted him into the air holding him up. No damage, no casualties just the end, “Dragon Emperor’s Roar!” He released a blast of flames and heat right onto the bomber causing an explosion kicking up smoke and dust. As soon as it passed and thinned out it would be seen that Kite was holding the bomber who was out cold on one hand and the bomb in the other. He would toss him off of the small roof top and into the sticky webs that were coating the ship which in turn made him stick to the ship. Jumping down and landing by the ship he would look at the bomber, “You just stay comfortable.” he would look to see Anhur but was shocked that it was not only him but a man seemingly made of metal and carried himself as if he were elderly as well as the swordswoman whom he had met during the last mission. He’d approach them but would greet her upon arrival as she was the only one of the two newly spotted spirits that he knew. “ It’s nice to see you again." He would say to Amaterasu. She was the kinder of the spirits that he had met of Samira's. He never met Janus prior to this but he did see him in passing when Samira greeted him in the past. "I guess you are too, I'm Kite nice to meet ya. Why aren’t you with Samira?”

Victoria continued to shoot at the two bomb-throwing enemies, not really caring if she hit them as long as their attention was focused on her instead of on throwing bombs at the ship. She was making sure not to hit that dragon because if she pissed it off her lifespan would be drastically shortened. She would live only as long as it took for it to fly to the ship and try to eat her or fire some sort of deadly breath attack in her direction.

Eventually Victoria observed Kite charging into the fray and held her fire out of fear of hitting him. She stood up and watched Captain Kite swing into action: it was something to behold, but the most interesting thing about the fight was Kite's interaction with the dragon standing behind the bombers. The brunette watched him grab and fling one of the enemies towards the dragon, who caught the enemy in mid-air and began flying with him in its grasp. Victoria wondered what it was going to do with the captured enemy.

Was it going to eat the bomber?

Was it going to fry him with a breath attack?

Or was it going to throw the enemy at the ground from low orbit?

Victoria watched the dragon fly towards the ship and began to grow worried. Her concern grew the closer it got to the Tailspin. It reached its peak when the dragon dropped off the enemy a short distance from her and it spoke to her. Victoria blinked because it could talk and she could understand it perfectly.

She also blinked because a talking dragon was a first for her.

"Um... thanks." Victoria said meekly to the departing dragon before dispelling her Light Machine Gun and turning her attention to the bomber who had been thoughtfully dropped off for her. Her first impulse was to keep the weapon out and riddle the bomber with bullets before he could recover from the sudden flight, but Victoria decided against that approach for numerous reasons. She would instead just knock him out so that the authorities could take him into custody alive.

Victoria briskly walked towards him as he began to recover. He hopped to his feet and faced her, then started to pull out a bomb from his clothing when the brunette's right fist hit him in the face and caused him to stagger back before he could pull one out. She ran towards him and followed up with a left straight punch that staggered him again. Before he could recover from that Victoria ran over to him and hit him in the face with a punch, then followed up with a one-two punch combo to the face that knocked him out.

The enemy fell onto his back and did not move. Victoria immediately bent down and checked his pulse to ensure that she had not accidentally killed him with that last punch combo. Once she was sure that he was still alive she grabbed his collar and began to drag the enemy down to ground level so that Kite could help her keep him subdued.

-In front of the ship-

It took a lot of time and effort, but Victoria had managed to carry the unconscious enemy down the ladder and through the ship until she walked down the cargo ramp, where she met up with Kite and three of Samira's summons at the bottom. One of the three summons was the one from earlier she had dubbed "Gold Guy" because she did not know his name, but she did not recognize the other two. Victoria blinked when she looked closer and saw that Samira's summons were having tea and chatting amiably.

This day kept getting weirder and weirder.

"Hey Kite. Hey Gold Guy." Victoria greeted the people she knew while hanging on to the enemy she had subdued on top of Tailspin. She walked over to Kite and dropped the unconscious enemy at Kite's feet.

"Don't worry, Kite. This guy's not dead. He's just knocked out. I didn't know a safe place to put him where he wouldn't be able to wake up and cause trouble again, so I'll let you handle that detail." Victoria said to him. She turned to the three summons having tea and asked them a question.

"Do any of you guys know where Samira went to?" Victoria asked the trio. She wanted to rejoin Samira as soon as possible in case that Inquisitor was packing some serious heat. The Inquisitor likely had some powerful weapons and spells ready in case their minions were defeated and Victoria wanted to be at Samira's side to make sure that the sinister plot of the rebels was foiled and all three Sabertooth mages made it home safely.

[Post Word Count: 794]
[Victoria's Word Count: 4,962/4,000]

The tea partying trio watched the action, making comments and critiques to each other about the scene. There was a dragon, flames, throwing, punching! An impressive action scene straight from the latest film trailer posted on the lacrima net, right? Eh, they were still debating that one even as the fight finished and the two Sabertooth mages had approached, both of them greeting and asking a question regarding Samira.

"I guess you could say that we are with her in spirit," Amaterasu replied jokingly to answer Kite's question, but also in a way answering it seriously. They were always with her in a sense. "Would you like some tea? It is the finest in the city from what I have been told." Was there time for tea when there was a bomb somewhere about to go off? Well, yes. Of course there was. Especially when someone was already on route to take care of the problem. The swordswoman summon was in no rush when it was technically her weekend or even her problem. That's what the other summons were for until things got really dire.

"You two had things under control. There was no reason for Samira to waste effort here," Anhur added to the conversation, answering Victoria's question. Sort of. It wasn't his job to help either of them fill the blanks with the obvious. He found it odd that the both of them came over to say hi and ask questions when they should have known to go straight for the bomb and whoever had planted it. That had been the reaction he had anticipated so to witness them taking time to stand around and talk was absolutely mind-blowing. When was the day going to end?

"Aha! Greetings to you both! I am Janus, a master of portals!" In saying that, Janus bowed respectfully, his mechanized parts squeaking and creaking during the movement. "I have transported Samira close to the location that was marked on the ship's map. I am here to provide you with that same transport service if you require it."

If Kite and Victoria decided to take the portal option, Janus would create a large portal near them. They need only step through it to be transported to the underground sections of the city that held the bomb. There would be a slight miscalculation though in that he was a bit too accurate with Kite and Victoria but not quite as accurate with Samira. Instead of being directly where Samira was, the two would find themselves in the large room that had the bomb all set up. In that same room would be the boss of the rebel group. The Chorda Inquisitor of the People herself. What? No one said Janus was always one hundred percent accurate with his portals. Naturally, Kite and Victoria could just choose to ignore the portal option and use their own abilities to catch up.

(Word Count: 485
Samira Total: 7922)

After hand delivering a bomber for Victoria to deal with, Turq began to fly away to observe the fight from up above. Thanks to his enhanced hearing he managed to hear the brunette mage say thank you. Shouting from a high altitude he would respond, “You’re welcome!” With the bomber that Kite had sent over to be dealt with by Victoria, he made short work of the one he left for himself. Charred and beaten the bomber he fought was now stuck on the side of the ship. Kite looked over to see how Victoria was doing and with no real surprise was climbing down the ladder back into the ship with the bomber in tow.

Kite jumped down from the building that was his battle ground in order to reach the ground where the three spirits of Samira had congregated. Kite landed before Victoria would have gotten to the cargo bay so it gave Kite the option to greet the spirits and ask about Samira. After he had asked but before any of them answered Victoria walked down the ramp carrying the Bomber she dealt with like a sack of potatoes. Funny enough Kite couldn’t help but think that the bomber probably put up less of a fight than a sack of potatoes when he engaged Vic in combat. She had greeted Kite as well as Anhur before dropping the unconscious bomber onto the ground just by Kite’s feet. She would explain to him that she knocked him out but was leaving any sort of restraint in Kite’s capable hands. Kite looked at the ship still covered in webs and came up with the same idea he had for this guy's friend. “Alright then leave it to me.”, Kite bent down and grabbed the guy by the back of his clothes and dragged him over to the ship, picked him up and slammed him face first into the side of the ship and the webs making him adhere to it. With him dealt with he rejoined the others by the ramp where Victoria asked a similar question in regards to Samira which Amaterasu answered his question more so with his question stating that they were with her in spirit. “ahh I see. I guess that would make sense.” he would mumble to himself but loud enough for her to hear. Kite would look back at her as she offered him some of the tea she was drinking, going as far as to state it as the finest in the city. The offer was tempting and he wanted to accept the offer but he would sigh and frown a bit, “I would love some but we gotta find Samira. No time for tea unfortunately.”

Anhur would add that they both had the situation under control and that Samira would have wasted effort here helping them deal with the bombers. “Wow. I am pretty sure that is the closest to a compliment I’ve heard from you.” He would smirk as he spoke to the gold guy as Victoria called him. Kite’s attention was taken from Anhur and given to Janus as he introduced himself to the two of them stating that he was the “Master of portals” and he was here in order to teleport them both to where Samira had gone. Kite had never met this old man or rather machine but he knew of Samira being able to create portals both from when the start of their first official mission together and the end when she literally saved his ass. “Oh so you are the one who makes her portals. Its nice to meet you and yes please that would be great..” he would look at Victoria, “Look at that Vic, we got a shortcut.” He would smile before looking back at Amaterasu, “Turns out there is plenty of time for tea after all, if your offer still stands.”

After walking over to the cart and pouring himself some tea, he would prepare Victoria a cup and bring it over to her, “Here you go. Might as well enjoy our short little walk right?” He would smile. Luckily there was no way that they could get lost since this portal would take them right to Samira right? Just as Kite was about to step through the portal he looked at Anhur and then his ship. He looked up, “Hey Turq!” Kite called up to his dragon who responded by dropping down to the ground and landing near them. “Turq Why don’t you take watch If these bombers get away or anyone hurts the ship torch them.” Turq nodded in response, “Perfect job for me. I was getting bored. They will have a rough time.” The dragon would turn to Vic, “By the way lady you got a mean punch.” Turq would say casually to her and give a toothy grin. Looking at Samira’s spirits he would smile, “You’re welcome to make yourselves at home in the common room while we handle this. You can even use the stove to heat up some tea Amaterasu.” He would wave at them all as he made his own way into the portal

Janus’ portal was open for them to walk through which he did while he was mid sip of his tea when they entered the portal but instead of Samira being there to greet them it was instead just the large bomb. With the cup of tea still touching his lips he would look over to see a lone person standing near the bomb looking confused by the sudden appearance of both Kite and Victoria. She looked as young as the two of them but had cat-like ears with red tiger-like stripes tattooed on her body. “It looks like you guys somehow got past Master hunter. No matter.” She would say pushing a button on the panel in front of her. The lacrima Bomb lit up like a Christmas tree.

Kite wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch, especially now but he was well aware that the bomb was well armed. Kite let out a growl as the Inquisitor of the people smirked at them, “You just sped up the process by coming here by yourselves.” The heat began to radiate but he tempered his flames as he leaned towards Vic, “I think I have a way to handle the bomb but I can’t do it and fight her back too long.” He sipped the rest of his tea before he got into a fighting stance after speaking, “I’ll have to break away to do it though. Can you handle her when I do?”

After Victoria and Kite beat down their opponents with some help from the talking dragon, saved Tailspin, and met up with three of Samira's spirits things slowed down for a bit. Kite talked with the summons and one of them, a metal guy who looked like he had walked off the set of a movie taking place in Ancient Greece, greeted him and Victoria. His name was Janus and according to him he could work wonders with portals.

"Hey Janus! It's nice to meet you!" Victoria cheerfully greeted the metal man. He was much cooler than Gold Guy because he was actually friendly and was not trying to be some "mysterious badass" like Gold Guy. Janus' ability to make portals was just a bonus that added to his coolness.

Eventually the metal guy said that he could create a portal that would take Kite and Victoria not too far from where Samira had went. The brunette smiled. This was the greatest stroke of luck the pair had gotten since Gold Guy had guided them to Tailspin after they had forgotten where they had landed Kite's airship. Kite remarked to Victoria on how the pair had just been gifted a useful shortcut and handed her a cup of tea.

"Thanks for the tea, Kite." Victoria thanked Kite for providing her with tea. She took a sip from the offered cup and kept a straight face as the flavor hit her tongue like a freight train. This tea was... OK at best. She sipped from the cup and watched as Kite called to the dragon and asked him to watch over Tailspin.

Victoria was glad that the dragon was on their side because if it had not been the defense of the airship would have been a lot harder than it was. The dragon could have fried Victoria without breaking a sweat. She heard the dragon speak to her and compliment her punching ability. The Sabertooth mage faced the dragon and spoke to him.

"Thanks. I learned how to punch hard from a young age." Victoria told the talking dragon directly and the others around them indirectly. She flashed back to Lawrence Sheridan teaching her his style of magic a few weeks after rescuing her from slavers and how her fortunes had drastically improved from that point onward. She then snapped back to the present, where the portal was open. Kite had already walked through it, so Victoria walked at a brisk pace and soon stepped through the portal herself.

When she stepped out of it alongside Kite there was no Samira anywhere. Instead there was some well-dressed cat chick who had red stripes that were roughly positioned in the same place as a tiger's stripes standing close to a large device that looked dangerous. When she finally put two and two together Victoria dropped the cup of tea and it hit the ground just as the bomb was activated by the cat chick. The brunette sighed. She had wanted to get here before the bomb was activated, but it could not be helped... that was just how things went sometime.

It was time to cut to the chase.

"You go do your thing, Kite. I'll deal with the Cat Chick here." Victoria said to Kite, who offered to handle the device while the brunette dealt with the rebel in front of them. The brunette felt the adrenaline flowing as her mind realized it was go time and acted accordingly. She looked towards the cat person, who knew that she was being challenged and smirked at Victoria. Victoria wondered how long she would keep that smirk when the Sabertooth mage gave her a punch or two to the face.

"All right, Cat Chick. It's just you and me." Victoria challenged the rebel in a way that could not be ignored if the latter had any fighting spirit whatsoever. The rebel transformed her right arm into a scorpion's claw using some kind of magic, most likely Take-Over. She then gave Victoria a "bring it!" gesture with her left hand, which was still normal.

Unable to ignore the challenge and devoted to buying time for Kite to disarm the bomb or otherwise neutralize the threat it posed, Victoria strode towards the rebel with her fists at the ready. It was too dangerous to use a firearm because one ricocheting shot from any of her weapons could set off the device and ruin everyone's day, so her fists would have to be employed despite the risk of going toe-to-toe with someone who used Take-Over Magic. Her fists should be more than enough to deal with the rebel.

[Post Word Count: 772]
[Victoria's Word Count: 5,734/4,000]

Samira appeared in the tunnel system. Not the exact location of the bomb, but somewhere that could be categorized as near enough. Thankfully it wasn't a tunnel system that was surrounded by darkness. Lacrima lights were strung along the walls, placed there at some point. Whether they were placed there when the tunnels were originally designed or done by the rebels much later she couldn't tell. They were active and that was all she cared about. It was comforting to not be lost in darkness. The Goddess of Ishgar looked straight ahead, behind her, and then straight ahead once more. The path was pretty straightforward. If there were any splits or forked paths they couldn't be seen where she currently stood. Samira chose to go straight ahead, allowing her intuition and instincts to guide her.

As promised, Bastet did make her own appearance. In her black cat form. The small feline used her own magic to walk through the walls of the tunnels and traverse them until she reached the summoner. Once there, she transformed into the human hybrid cat form that was very similar to the feline Joyans that filled the city. "I didn't notice anyone on my way here. Either the rebels are still scattered above or this group is much smaller than I gave them credit for."

"Hmmm," Samira considered that thoughtfully. She hadn't run into anyone either. The tunnels were quiet. Empty. Perhaps the bomb had already been placed and everyone got out of there quickly. It was times like that that made Samira just a little bit envious of the natural skill set of slayers when it came to their senses. Any sound or smell would have already given the enemy away if she had those same enhanced senses. Not even that of her summons could truly compare. Alas, she just had to trust her own human instincts instead. "Small or not they have made themselves to be a threat if ignored. We should still be cautious regardless. There may still be someone here guarding the bomb if that map was accurate and our assumptions were correct."

The feline summon agreed. From that point on the two of them continued traveling through the quiet tunnels without a spoken word between them. They remained aware of what was going on up above from the mental communications with the other summoned spirits. Samira now even knew that Kite and Victoria were... somewhere. Apparently, Janus had messed up just a tiny bit with the portal he had made for them. His grief and embarrassment were at maximum, but at the same time, he enjoyed using his normal excuse of being an old spirit. Mistakes were bound to happen if he was in charge of doing anything.

Bastet's ears twitched suddenly once they reached a split path. She could hear something coming from one side. Footsteps. Heavy metal. The too familiar sound of a weapon moving to become properly wielded. The low-powered lacrima lights did little to make who it was known from such a distance. "Someone is coming," Bastet said lowly as she took a protective stance in front of her summoner. Not that such a move was particularly needed, but it was her job nonetheless to protect Samira.

Her cat eyes glared down the tunnel of the noise. As the individual got closer she could see what was coming. A Joyan that looked more animal-like than the other ridiculous cat hybrids in the city was approaching. Her pointed ears flicked, hearing Samira say something but at the same time not listening. Bastet watched and waited a few seconds more. Then she saw the armored lion man begin to rush down the tunnel, axe raised with the intent to rid the tunnels of the two trespassers. Apparently not even their Joyan looks would get them a pass from such violence.

Bastet ran as well to meet him, summoning forth her whip and using its golden energy to lash forward and wrap around the axe. She pulled to divert the swing into a different direction to instead hit the tunnel wall while she went in on the other side to make a swipe with her sharp claws. He was covered with armor nearly everywhere but not so much his head. Her aim was at the eyes. She was sure he could still fight just fine without sight but it was her instinct that told her he would be caught off guard and disoriented enough for her to do much more. That plan didn't come to fruition, however. The armored Joyan was no stranger to adapting to the situation. The axe was dropped, freeing his hands to grab hold of the smaller being as she came in. Then with his superior strength tossed her away and back in the original direction she had come. The daggers sheathed on his back were now preferred as his choice of weapon while up against his current opponent. They were quickly in his hands during the moment that baster recovered herself. The two clashed once again.

Samira stared stoically. Then she let out a small sigh. There was no need to waste time fighting. She supposed she could continue past the guard while Bastet fought him. The avatar summon was very capable of winning the fight on her own easily. But it was so... Unnecessary. That had been what she was trying to tell Bastet a moment ago. There were quicker ways to achieve their goal without the time waster. The armored lion was nothing more than an obstacle to stall and waste time to her. It was time to end that fight and continue on.

Five crystals of various colors appeared as Samira called in the powers of one of her avatar summons, Nu Wa. They floated and orbited around her until she raised her hand and aimed in the direction of the armored lion and Bastet. The crystals stopped at different places, still in the air. Each of them then released beams of colored light that connected each crystal to one another. The result was an outline of a prism which then spread and created colored yet transparent solid walls. The layer was thin but extremely durable. The spell worked to imprison those within temporarily and that current scenario played out with that same expected success. Bastet left the large prism prison. As a summon of Samira, the spell did not affect her and she was allowed to pass through the shimmering walls.

"I am sorry, but we cannot stay here and fight any longer," Samira told the armored lion after she made her way to the prism and was close enough for him to hear her words. He had already been roaring angrily and banging on the walls of the prism. "As I am sure you know there is a bomb down here that must be removed and destroyed. Unless you are not part of the group behind it." It was possible he wasn't a part of it all and was just there for some other reason. There was room for doubt. Sort of. That didn't mean that he was going anywhere after that first impression. "Either way you have proven that you are a danger to our objective so I cannot let you go."

The lion calmed himself but still growled lowly. "You are not Joyan. You look it, but I can now see that you are not a true Joyan. You must have been born in one of the other countries of Ishgar to not understand what we are trying to accomplish." It was no secret or even uncommon for others that shared Joyan characteristics to exist outside the actual country of that heritage and culture. There were even past Wizard Saints that could be mistaken as a true Joyan, such as Aiyana or Izayuki. The armored lion knew their names and that of others. Even with those positions of power being held by such beings the people of Joya were still looked down on. There was still racism against them. Still they were treated as second class citizens despite the kindness and hospitality of their beautiful country.

Samira stared at him for a moment. She had almost forgotten that she was still using the Aspect of Sagittarius form. "You are correct. I am not of the Joyan people." There was no point in revealing her true identity or the fact that her form was nothing more than a magical spell to symbolize and act as a catalyst for the additional power of her Zodiac key beyond just the summon himself. "I do not want to assume the opinions of your people, but I do not think many would approve of what has been going on this day or your intent. You endanger them in many ways. As much as I would like to discuss this further with you, I am afraid that I do not have the luxury of time, as I have mentioned already. You will be speaking with the proper authorities from this moment on."

Samira did not allow the armored lion to get another word in. From her mouth came one name. "Janus." The portal master took the queue and opened another portal beneath the prism. Both it and its prisoner fell into it. The destination was right where Janus, Anhur, and Ama still stood by Kite's ship. There was already a security team there investigating what was going on and apprehending the two bombers that were causing trouble earlier. Now they had a new person to arrest and question.

Samira and Bastet were now free to continue onward. "I am surprised by what you did earlier. You normally are not the type to rush in unless absolutely necessary. It was not as if we were in any true danger like other times in the past."

Bastet swished her tail and motioned her ears back and flat on her head. "He reminded me of Anhur."

"Ah. I see." Samira could understand that. There were those that wanted nothing more than to strike a blow against Anhur. Bastet was no exception. The armored lion did have a similar appearance that was often rare to see outside of Joya, after all. How humorous.

(Word Count: 1706
Samira Total: 9628)

Kite smiled as Victoria gave her thanks for the cup of tea that he had picked out for her, “You’re welcome. As the nice sword lady said there is always time for tea. I hope it’s of your liking.” Shortly after that Turq made a comment about her Proficiency in punching hard. When she thanked him and explained how she learned to punch hard hee would show a toothy grin. “Ah yes I can see that. Very interesting.” Turq was taking a liking to this human and Kite knew it. He would take another sip of the tea as this interaction took place for it was quite good and was pleasant to drink. He’d continue to sip on his drink as the two both of them walked through the portal.

-in the enemy base
Janus,”master of portals” sure did get them to where Samira was.. sort of. It was likely that Samira was close by but Janus was off the mark as to Samira but he got them into where the bomb was. Wasn’t part of the plan but it would do but upon their arrival the Inquisitor of the people decided to arm the bomb to detonate. It would have been much easier if she had not done that so the two of them could take her down quickly but it was time to adjust. The two of them agreed on the course of action, Kite would deal with the bomb, Victoria would deal with the cat. While it wasn’t the ideal set up it was the one that was before them. Kite smirked, “and you can trust me with the bomb. One way or another I’m going to stop it.” He said to Vic as she gave him the go ahead.

With that he ran in the direction of the bomb but the Cat lady had no intentions of letting him pass by her. “Who said you can excuse yourself?” But before any sort of response was given a burst of flames and heat erupted from him and before she could react he was over by the bomb’s controls where he immediately went to work, “Sorry kitty id love to dance but you have a partner.” He’d quip while examining the console as the kitty started to tango with Vic.

It was a bigger and much more complex looking ilac system with a countdown timer displayed, with seconds left before detonation.  If he could connect EDI to it she could figure this out with no problem whatsoever. Pushing buttons trying to shut it down before the boom. As the attempts and  keystrokes continues the bomb started to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second. “Shit. This isn’t working.” He’d say as he punched the control box. Frustration hitting its peak he had half a mind to use his magic to reduce the bomb, the system and the ethernanos inside the bomb to ashes. He only stopped himself because Victoria was there too and even if the maximum damage of the bomb was reduced she would be caught in the blast. That’s when the metaphorical lightbulb popped up above his head.

Kite watched as the counter was just about done and started to flood the immediate area with his aura. With his magic his fist hit the ground, “Dragon Emperor’s Desolation!” Heat and flames spread out encircling Kite and the bomb with in the field of unrelenting and stifling heat. The sheer heat of this spell can contain and crush other spells entirely.

When the timer hit zero the bomb exploded within the field of heat. The initial shock from the explosion would cause the ground to shake but the actual substance of the bomb could be seen attempting to spread out to cause damage but it was being held back by his spell. As the spell continued to hold the explosion in place, more and more of the explosion kept burning away, growing smaller and smaller until there was no danger left. Once it was over he would end the stop the spell and disperse his aura. The material that comprised the walls of the room,the bomb consol and parts, and the ground underneath where the spell spread everything was melted. “Take that.” He’d say at the melted remains at the bomb spitting a small fire ball at the remains.”

Victoria strode towards the cat chick with her hands balled into fists. She seemed to welcome the challenge because rather than take evasive action or perform other maneuvers to avoid the brunette she stayed right where she was. She tried to bar Kite from getting to the device, but the Sabertooth mage found a way around the obstructive rebel, leaving Victoria and the cat chick to their climactic duel that would determine whether the Sabertooth mages walked away from this adventure or got caught in the blast.

The cat woman had already transformed her right arm into a scorpion's claw, but Victoria was sure that she had plenty of other tricks at her disposal. The brunette did not care if she could transform into a chimera and run around while firing lightning bolts from her eyes at the Sabertooth mages... Victoria had to buy Kite time to neutralize the device. With that Victoria strode towards the cat woman, who lashed out at her with the scorpion's claw aimed at her throat.

Victoria ducked under the strike, then lunged towards the rebel and swung towards the latter's face with her right fist. The cat woman saw it coming and ducked under it, then kicked upwards with her right foot. Her foot caught the brunette in the stomach, but Victoria's armor protected her from the worst of the kick. She lashed out with her left fist, but the cat woman blocked it with the scorpion's claw and countered with a swipe of her right hand, which had her claws exposed.

The claws raked her left wrist and drew blood, leaving three parallel red slash marks. Victoria saw the cat woman smirk at her again and the brunette clenched her teeth. She was going to wipe that smirk off of the rebel's face right now. Victoria drew back her right fist and the rebel raised her transformed right hand to block the incoming fist. The moment Victoria's fist was blocked she raised her right foot in a swift kick aimed at the rebel's knee.

The brunette felt her foot connect with the knee and the rebel recoiled. Victoria used her left hand to give the rebel the middle finger as the latter recovered from the kick, making sure the rebel saw the gesture of contempt. The formerly smug cat chick glared daggers at Victoria and transformed her legs into a smaller version of dragon's feet complete with claws. The rebel then leaped at Victoria with murder on her mind.

The brunette sidestepped the leaping strike made with the scorpion's claw, but the cat woman quickly recovered from the miss and turned around, closing the distance with the brunette and launching a spinning kick aimed at Victoria's head. Victoria ducked under it and popped up, then punched with her right hand, connecting with the rebel's face. The latter quickly recovered and launched another spinning kick at the Sabertooth mage, this one connecting with Victoria's armored chest.

Victoria staggered back and the cat woman pressed her advantage, using her astounding speed to close in and reach for Victoria's throat with the scorpion's claw. The brunette quickly ducked under it and was met with a kick to the face, which bowled her over onto her back. Thankfully her face was not gouged by the claws on the foot, but she had worse things to worry about. She rolled over onto her stomach and got to her feet just as the rebel closed in for another attack.

She reached down and seized Victoria by the throat with the scorpion's claw and lifted her into the air. Victoria's feet kicked at the cat woman and landed a few glancing blows on the latter's torso, but they were not forceful enough to make the rebel release her. More drastic measures had to be taken. Summoning the willpower to ignore the pressure on her windpipe, Victoria quelled the urge to struggle long enough to form her right hand into the shape of a gun and use her left hand to support her wrist. She aimed her right index finger at the cat woman's shoulder and fired a Hand Cannon shot.

The shot connected with the rebel's shoulder and caused her to scream as she released Victoria. The brunette landed on her feet and quickly recovered from the impact, taking advantage of the cat woman nursing her wound to close in and begin swinging with her fists. Victoria landed a one-two punch combo with her left and right fists to the rebel's face, causing the latter to stagger back a few steps.

Victoria decided to press her advantage and moved in only to get a dropkick to the chest for her trouble. The rebel recovered and rushed the staggered brunette, punching at the latter's face with the scorpion's claw closed. Victoria ducked under the punch attempt and quickly stood upright, then retaliated with an uppercut that hit the cat woman under the chin. The Sabertooth mage then followed up with a one-two punch combo that drove her fists into the cat woman's face.

At the moment the brunette prepared to punch the cat woman some more the ground quaked and Victoria gasped.

Was she too late?

She glanced towards where she had last seen Kite and saw that he had somehow contained the blast of the device. While that was not what she had in mind, it did the trick. Now that the rebel's endgame had been thwarted it was time to finish the fight.

The cat woman took advantage of Victoria's distraction to swipe at Victoria's face with the claws of her normal hand. Victoria raised her right arm and took the swipe with her right forearm, saving her face from being slashed. The brunette struck back with her left fist aimed towards the rebel's face and hit her in the left cheek, causing her to recoil. With that opening Victoria stepped in and began swinging with both fists, connecting with punch after punch until the cat woman fell to the ground.

The cat woman quickly climbed to her feet and looked like she was ready to resume the fight, but Victoria was not going to give her the luxury of a second round. The Sabertooth mage and rushed in, landing a series of punches and receiving a kick or two to the left knee in return. However, Victoria dealt out a lot more punishment than she took in that exchange because the cat woman fell backwards and moaned in pain. The Sabertooth mage ran over to the downed cat woman and delivered a swift kick aimed at her face, which was the knockout blow.

Victoria took a deep breath and grabbed the unconscious cat woman by the left foot with her right hand. She then turned and faced Kite.

"Well, I'm glad that's over." Victoria remarked about her exciting duel with the cat woman. With the device no longer a threat and the cat woman rendered unconscious, it was time to haul the cat woman to the authorities and call it a day. The brunette looked like she had went a few rounds with an angry honey badger. Some of her wounds were bleeding and they definitely hurt, but her wounds were nothing that medical attention could not fix.

[Post Word Count: 1,210]
[Victoria's Word Count: 6,944/4,000]

Word Totals So Far:

Samira: 9628
Victoria: 6944
Kite: 8989
Thread Total: 25,561

12000/12000 Event WC Completed
13,561 Words Left for Freeforms