A guy tries his hand at hackjob metalworking! But first a late night visit to old Tokyo. (Open thread)

[T.K.]

Eyes open staring at the ceiling of his apartment Terrence sighed deeply as he looked at the time "Dammit, its hardly past 1 am and I doubt I'm falling back to sleep after a nightmare like that.." he growled under his breath cursing the reason why he was awake. With a second sigh of resignation he kicked himself up and out of bed "Right then, if I'm up now I might as well be productive about it rather than bitching..maybe its about time to try working that metal abomination I made a while back into something more resembling a sword." Since the incident and the trend of getting caught up in shit seeming to be a thing Terrence had been feeling a growing frustration at not having a proper weapon on hand and so had not been idle these last couple weeks.

  He had been busy making outings around the seedier parts of the new city sniffing out pockets of gangs, having come across more of those 'Mechano Ravers' that he had a run in prior to the blob incident. He had a fairly good idea of where they tended to crop up and effectively mugging them of their money and weapons that he'd pawn off for a bit of extra cash. The funding he scrounged up from doing so was put towards buying supplies that he'd have delivered to his apartment piecemeal over the weeks and dumped into his storage once he got them out of sight of surveillance or other prying eyes. He'd been busy at home doing research watching videos and reading online documents on how to work metal, he knew well enough he couldn't do anything fancy or even with some modicum of finesse he just wanted -something- he could properly wield.

 Fast forward to tonight he decided to pull the trigger on his plan as he stepped out to his balcony now dressed in a dark grey hoodie and black jeans so he'd be harder to spot, glancing about briefly Terrence nodded once to himself as he leapt up to the roof of the next building over and started to hop from building to building in the dead of night heading out towards the ruins of old Tokyo where he'd be more able to find a place to work in peace, but first he needed to satisfy his curiosity about something...

[Justyce]

Scarlett had decided to do as the organics did when they worked a work week. She had been at for over 300 hours. That was just exploring and mapping the Amazon basin. It was an interesting placed. Ruins the current organics hadn’t discovered. The indigenous people who lived in the area. They didn’t use technology and decided it best if she weren’t seen at all. It had been quite the exploration.  The snakes that grew there were huge! 

She had to wrestle on just to keep it from attempting to crush her. It was fun because she had intentional let it cool her up to test it’s crushing capacity and it just didn’t realize that it may not be able to crush her. She freed herself after several minutes then wrestled it off as it attacked again. It was hunting and took her as prey. She just ran away so it wouldn’t harm itself. She then decided that since she had finished and didn’t have anywhere to be she would step away on a cargo ship and ride it to its next port. She hopped out in Europe and decided to request conduit back to her domicile in Old Tokyo. She just wanted to check in on her tree she was growing and see if any of the organics she cohabitated near had ceased life functions. She appeared in the building she ran around. It was at least ten stories and she used the upper most floor. 

She looked around after appearing. The chair, tree, table, and books were still there. That was good. She liked printed materials. They were interesting because the tactile responses to pages made her want to read more. It wasn’t all informational. Some was what organics called fun reads. She could see the organic mind produced interesting works of fiction. She stopped herself as she heard a noise. She spun her sidearm coming into her hand and stopped. It was a stray canine. How’d he find his way up here? It regarded her for a moment then trotted over and laid down in a corner. She just left it alone. It had as much right as she did to live here. 

She would go into the library after they left for the day and read on the care of organic canines. She had seen organics with them and asked the why question. The best answer would be to do it and see why organics did it. She had another idea. She would check on the organic who was there at the hospital. She would have to get to his and requested conduit. That was just in time to see him depart. He was usually asleep at this time. Where was he going? She would follow. She cloaked and gave chase. He was going to fight bad people. That was fun to watch. They started out confident but usually ended up tossed all over the place. He then relieved them of their items. 

Which from what she had observed of what the organics called street crime was the way the victors showed dominance. They already were the prey and the organic who had the designation Terrence was the predator. The question though as she extrapolated all possible destinations on his current heading was the ruins that were called Old Tokyo.

[T.K.]

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck raise as he traversed the rooftops Terrence knew something was following him although when he focused his life sense in that direction he felt nothing so that immediately greatly narrowed down the possibilities of who or what was tailing him. 'Right, must be synthetic. Maybe a drone? Or more likely that girl..still don't know for certain. Better not take any chances just yet..' he mused internally as he reached the city outskirts and as he stepped on the edge of the last building before the road to old tokyo he reinforced the top of the building before making a mighty leap that would have badly damaged the section of roof he had been on launching himself nearly  a full city block aiming to land off to the side of the road.

 Mid-leap it seemed like he did a forward roll as if to adjust for a better landing but was more for a quick opportunity to take look mid flip in the direction he felt who or whatever it was following him, seeing nothing however he narrowed his eyes as he landed. 'No drone, at least  I don't think it is, as far as I'm aware technology hasn't advanced here enough for cloaking tech, at least nothing I've seen or heard points towards it. Maybe magic but I don't think that's the case here, my guess is potentially Scarlett as she's seen me harassing gangs on a couple occasions. But that would mean she was in the area when I left my place..what was she doing? Questions for later.'

  It wasn't long at the pace he was making that Terrence found himself entering the ruined city and once more took to the roofs as he seemed to be going somewhere with a purpose rather than looking for something or someone at random, Scarlett would see him gradually touch down near a convenience store, the very same one that had been near the epicenter of an small incident a month or so ago. The fact he knew exactly where he was going indicated he ad played some part in it. Certainly did not seem like he was hunting gangs like her first estimation.

  Terrence paused as he looked at the convenience store "Well this brings back memories, first day in this universe and I had gotten caught up in something unexpected.." he said more to himself than anything as he glanced down the street further to where the cultists attempted demon summoning had taken place and saw part of the collapsed roadway where things had started coming down around him and Rayne back then. "Ugh..I'll probably have to clear some rubble to check something" with that said to himself he entered the convenience store and went back through the hidden entrance to the subway and as he made his way towards where the the rubble was blocking off the way to the entrance to the attempted summoning room he reached over his shoulder and with a ripple of space pulled out that mass of metal of a large metal street light folded and hand-wrought into a veerrrry crude sword shape but ended up being more club like.

 "Well..nothing to do but get started." he grumbled as he very faintly glowed along with the metal and started to smash/cleave the rubble out of the way obviously making his way towards a destination a short ways away.

[Raijinken]

Ryuusei was roaming the streets of Old Tokyo for no particular reason other than boredom. The place kind of reminded him of home but with better weather, and after the whole thing with that cult and their attempted Demon Summoning...he found himself prowling these streets a bit more often, just in case some other weird shit happened...

...Well something was going on as after coming out of an alley in a familiar area...he saw a familiar face entering a certain Convenience Store.

(What's he doin' here?)

He knew Terrence had fucked up a few gangs lately, was he after another one tonight?

In his patrols of the area, Ryuusei hadn't gotten wind of anyone setting up shop where the cult had been; too many rumors of the place being haunted...

...Well more than usual, the whole fucking city had that vibe!

Still, the teen discretely fallowed the older man into the ruined store then through the passage into the subway. There were noises echoing in the distance, like someone was digging? The sounds were coming from where that alter is, was someone trying to break back into it?

He quietly fallowed the sounds back to their source and found Terrence trying to break through that wall of rubble.

"I see someone got bored beatin down bikers."

[Justyce]

Scarlett wasn’t sure about the organic designated Terrence. He seemed to have other organics safety as a priority over his. The same could be said of other individuals she had witnessed. She watched his feat of power as he leaped and calculated his landing point and teleported be overhead on a roof to observe his actions.

He landed and seemed intent one something and then went along his way like he didn’t need to have concern. She watched as he moved off again and continued her pursuit. She was now running through his reasons for entering the old city. The best part was she wouldn’t lose him for long as he didn’t have a very different energy signature than the normal organics that covered this planet. Her thoughts drifted to the canine confinement facility and realized they were all incarcerated for reason being rather weak.

She would free them later. She already had to acquire food for the canine she was now cohabitating with and that meant hunting down the bad people in her area. It kept bad people away when a string of them went missing and were never found. That was always nice as it allowed a modicum of quality of life for the organics. She was. Or a resident but she had seen video feed and how you interacted with organics. It was not needed because organics didn’t understand that just because it appeared to be technology to didn’t mean you should attempt to capture it. That was an issue she had also dealt with during he away time.

She had to locate and dissuade a platoon of professional soldiers that this was a mistake. She had definitely showed them the error of harassing her sister. Old sister if she were to go off the sitcoms different family styles and she decided she was the older sister type. She had been tracking him while she examined some of the media she had witnessed and decided that was not something to examine while tracking. She focused and detected another energy signature that wasn’t your normal organic one.

Odd a second one approaching from the southwest. It was the other guy from the street with the blob. He didn’t have a designation but he seemed to be committed to protecting the public. She would observe him and see what he did, Terrence had enter the building below her and now another. She waited as the other guy entered. After he was inside she teleport and approached. She stayed cloaked just in and she would have the element of surprise and followed the other guy down. She kept her distance so she could silently move out of the way of the shifter in her direction. She wondered why Terrence was breaking the wall. She could cut it but he didn’t ask her.

When the other spoke up she watched with interest to see how Terrence would react. She also wanted to see what he was doing in Old Tokyo. He may have come here but she hadn’t been here for 300 hours. She wanted watch this interaction.

[T.K.]

Having felt his presence from some ways away as the kid had a fairly unique life signature Terrence wasn't surprised in the least as he was trailed by yet another person. Quite confident now that it wasn't a drone but the girl who designated herself as Scarlett that was trailing him given how the direction he felt being observed from had gone from behind him to some ways ahead of him instantly leaving him to assume some type of teleportation technology built into her. In his mind she was harmless enough so he didn't call her out as of yet.

The kid on the other hand caused him to slowly turn and rest the hand wrought lamppost on his shoulder as he spoke "Somehow I'm not surprised you were slumming around this run down place. Now how do you know what I do? Sides they ain't bikers, call themselves the Mechano Ravers or whatever they call themselves." He sighed and scratched the back of his head briefly "Since I doubt you're goin anywhere now that your here I might as well tell ya what I'm up to...and you as well missy" He said seemingly to no one but his eyes glanced past Ryuusei to what seemed to be an empty space past him down the passage a bit, while he couldn't see or sense her energy he could tell she was looking at him and the guy with him. "You've been following me since I left my place have you not?"

 With that said he thumbed back to the rubble of the collapsed subway that he had been working on "I'm making me way back to the attempted summoning location to satisfy some curiosity. Gotta clear this passage though, I mean I'm havin a bout of insomina so I figure I might as well be productive about it." turning back he his makeshift club in the very rough shape of a sword off his shoulder and once more started cleaving away large chunks of debris with obviously unnatural strength for his build. "With any luck I won't bring more of this place down on my head and will make it over there in like..fifteen maybe twenty minutes if uninterrupted."

  He once again paused and turned to speak "As for why? I'm satisfying my curiosity, that whole stupid blob and disease incident happened like hardly a week after this did, I want to make sure there was no connection between the attempted demon summoning here and what happened then. I'm not a summoning or magic expert but I've seen enough in my travels that I shooould be able to figure if things were actually legit or not if given a few minutes to inspect them. Assuming there is enough left in there to really look at."

[Justyce]

Scarlett didn’t mind the uniqueness of done organics. She actually sought then out without knowing she was seeking. A buried protocol in her basic instruction set had her do this on her own. It was buried in all units containing and 47 in their Cygnarian unit number. She had listened to what he was up to before moving closer and then as she was invited she had since moved to be closer and appeared standing next to him where he could easily grab her with his free hand while his makeshift weapon rested on his shoulder.

“The way you used missy sounds annoyed, are you annoyed by my presence? I could formulate why you would be. Although I have chosen the designation Scarlett, as it’s easier then my Cygnarian designation of Scortara Caratophera Forx Suvu. Which is also a language that hasn’t been spoken out loud for several billion years.”

She wasn’t going to go into the inflection and how is voice changed when he used the word and she wondered why he stressed certain syllables in the word. She stopped and she looked at his lamppost again.

“I was returning from my duties on another part of your planet. I just happened to be in the area when you left. So I followed. We aren’t far from where I reside currently.”

She didn’t think it was such an error to conceal herself. She had seen what happened when you didn’t monitor your surroundings and avoid organics more advanced than this planet happened to be. They became obsessed with a living AI she stowed it gave her own query.

“If your concerned about it there are much more efficient ways to get into where you wish to go. You’re strikes cause vibrations which then further cause materials to shift. That can lead to a cave in anywhere in the tunnel you wish to access. Out of three beings here who gets conduited out and put back together in such circumstances. I offer my assistance.”

She teleported to Terrence’s other side closest to the tunnel. She was small and fit in the space nicely. She could opened it but would need her sword tuned to a vibration nullifying frequency. Easy but she would get permission first.

“I can make precisions cuts that won’t cause a cave in and allow passage. That is if this missy is considered acceptable help?”

She had read a lot of books and seen all of Earth’s materials on sexism and the battle of the sexes. She found it novel for a race who killed each other in droves with weapons of mass destruction made of nuclear energy. She had to question the sanity of a race who detonated such weapons in their own biosphere.

[Raijinken]

Ryuusei shrugged. "Used to run a crew of my own in my old neighborhood, so I keep my ear to the ground. As for th summoning shit...beats the fuck out of me." Mainly being familiar with 'elemental magic', so much so that his Artes were always seen as magic, even though he could use them practically instantly and without a chant. Enchantments and Hexes were a little beyond him, and he'd only HEARD of a couple Summoning methods.

"I've heard of a couple things," Back home. "but nothing like what these faggots were doin! One used something called a 'Rune Ring' with a gemstone and you make a contract with a Spirit who has an affinity for that gem. The involves High Elemental Magic; spells so powerful they actually tap into their respective Spirit. And if the caster's strong enough, they can pull the fucker to wherever they are."

"Thing is though," Assuming the methods he heard about were even true; the first was a Fairy Tale where the rings were forged by Dwarves, who eveo on his planet were considered 'fantasy creatures. "both these are brief; Spirit's only here long enough to do  maybe one or two things! Get you a beer, and char the guys right in front of you."

But was Terrence even paying attention? He seemed to be talking past the teen now, maybe to one of the ghosts who now supposedly haunt these tunnels?

Well his answer came pretty soon as the girl who acted like a robot, appeared before them. "Ya know, big guy, I think she likes ya. Miiiight not wanna tell that cop you traded in for the new model."

Joking aside, she had a point...and despite actually being shorter THAN her, none of his techniques could really get them through safely. He had a few things that'd be great for digging...if there wasn't the risk of a skyscraper collapsing on them. "If she thinks she can get through, she's got my vote."

[T.K.]

Even if he couldn't see her, Terrence was gradually getting used to the android(?) girl's presence or lack thereof. It was remarkably difficult to track her movements unless he was aware of her presence, the way the flow of ambient life energy in the surroundings hinted at her current positioning as it shifted around the non biological entity. Inwardly he huffed 'There is no way I could track her in a busy area, maybe with time I can refine my senses..' he mused to himself in thought as 'Scarlett' finally appeared out of cloaking beside him.

  He grinned slightly and shook his head "Annoyed with your presence? Naw that's fine. I've gotten the impression your not a bad sort so I don't mind you being around. Its more trailing me while cloaked like that, if your going to follow me you don't need to be unseen like that." He shrugged and chuckled "Knowing someone or something is following me unseen puts me on edge like I'm going to be ambushed by assassins or somethin, wouldn't be the first time." From his expression and tone it was obvious he was telling the truth about the source of his annoyance and the fact he didn't mind if she was there. Her actions during the incident the other week left him with the impression she was trustworthy and  seemed willing to help others in need.

 He lightly patted her shoulder "So yeah sorry bout that.." he said referring to his irritation and calling her missy. When she teleported away to inspect the rubble he returned his focus to the green haired teen and at the 'replacement' joke couldn't help but laugh at that "Don't let Rayne hear you say that. I'm pretty sure as someone in her caseload I'm probably causing her plenty of headaches." He shrugged at that "To be fair she ain't a cop. More a government worker for a branch that deals with offworld or other unusual entities. So basically a branch for the supernatural and alien."

He briefly glanced back at Scarlett as she was apparently making more subtle progress than what he had been doing through blunt force "Honestly that was a risk I was willing to take when it was just myself here, I could handle this place collapsing on me and I'd be able to get out afterwards." He nodded to Ryuusei "However I'm in agreement, if you can get through the rubble with causing a further collapse of the area that would be preferable. So Scarlett by all means if you can make us a passage please do."

 With his agreement given he finally got around to the information that the teen had just given him about what he knew about the cult and certain objects they were using. This interested Terrence greatly  as it was always good to know about how different magic and summoning systems worked as he never knew when it might suddenly become -very- relevant with his luck. "These guys were a worrisome mix of incompetent and fanatical, the fact the leader had some of the actual tools to call up something is even more so." He thumbed over his shoulder towards the chamber they'd soon get to "All the more reason to take another look now that things are quiet. If any of that shit is still around I'd like to see it stored away in some safe vault or if I had it my way destroyed so there was no risk of anyone else gettin their hands on it."

  He plunged part of the makeshift weapon a half foot into the ground to keep it in place as he folded his arms "However that does also raise the question, if this ring is supposed to only summon things temporarily then what were they planning? Did they not know? Or were they insane enough to try and mix summoning systems, maybe using that ring as a catalyst along with the sacrifice combined with the etchings I had seen in that room to forcefully bind an entity to this plane. That would have gone poorly for all involved I think."

[Justyce]

Scarlett heard everything they said while she examined the caved in rock and materials. It would be to hard she had to figure out exactly at what frequency everything resonated and that would take a moment for her to figure out.

“I’ve seen this magic you speak of and really just using energies from the universe to bring creatures from dimensions organics have no business accessing. It also is what lower technology leveled organics consider what I do when I fight and use my weapons.”

She had figured the resonate frequency and summoned her sword. The weapon was one that was two handed and more suited for Terrence than Scarlett’s slight frame. It looked like a a Terran bastard sword. It was decorated and at the cross piece bored the Cygnarian Collective symbol. The blade glowed lightly due it’s composition of Hard Light.

“I’ve examined these objects they call magic items. They contain energy. I mean it’s really how the user controls the energy. Rings and weapons seem a good conduit for these energies they have harnessed from the multiverse.”

Scarlett started to draw back and then stopped. She was going to need some room to cut her way through this and she did want the organics to be clear so she could work. She turned and decided a passage as tall as Terrence 1.778 klu and the other undesignated organic was 1.727 klu.

“My model has nothing to do with organic rituals to attract the opposite sex.”

She had avoided the governments of this world because of their views of her. She didn’t really have a need to truly interact with any organic. She could have easily avoided them all and completed her scouting of the planet in 10 weeks but that meant she could see the culture or cultures which added to the data they collected.

“Whatever they were doing you can soon see.”

She drew back her blade and plunged it into the debris and cut an arch. Their was no noise from the stabbing or the cutting. She quickly went back her entry point and cut the arch the opposite direction. It was sound less again. She took a step back and then gave it kick as she altered her gravity to match resonance of the stone and shattered it. She repeated the process until they could access the tunnel.

“Alright we can access the tunnel now. It’s dark. Allow me to lead with my low light vision unless one of you thought to bring a means of illumination. I mean after all I didn’t expect to be here either but I can see on totally dark conditions.”

She let her eyes flicker to the correct setting and looked back at Terrence and undesignated organic with green eyes.

“Are we going or staying. I’m going to look either way. Oh and what are you doing with a mangled street lamp post?”

She had finally noticed what he was using was a makeshift weapon. She had scanned it.

[Raijinken]

He moved out of the girl's way before continuing the conversation. "I dunno, you got a better look at the whole thing than I did." By the time he reached the chamber, he had to turn right back around as everything was going to hell. "Did you see them using any objects, or was it just a bunch of chanting or what?"

When Scarlet was finished making their opening, he got a whiff of something from the chamber. "Holy SHIT that's foul! Suuuure you guys still want to go in there?""

[T.K.]

Taking a few steps away Terrence gave Scarlett room to work and admittedly was quite curious as to how she was going to make them a path, however he did keep his attention towards the still unknown kid thats been around since the sludge incident. Didn't know his name as of yet but figured he'd give a name if need be, and since he had shown the drive to protect civilians back then Terrence was more than content to let him come along for this especially since he also seemed to have some experience with supernatural things as well.

 He let out a quiet 'huuuh' as Scarlett summoned some type of broadsword, but considering her nature it was obviously technology based as he noted the glow, more importantly however was the fact she opted to use a medieval weapon as a base for it which he couldn't help but be curious about not to mention how large it was for her petite frame. Still she handled it without effort as it began to carve into the stone without noise or effort. "Not a physical construct maybe?" he murmured under his breath as it seemed to carve thought he rubble without a sound.

  Briefly shaking his head he looked to Ryuusei "Fair point your making, It wasn't long that I was in that room but I did get a good look at that head cultist and what seemed to be some type of ritual dagger that he was holding, assuming this place hasn't been cleaned up or out it ..shoooould be on or near his body somewhere, keep an eye out for a marking inscribed dagger of unusual shape. Also if memory serves me right there may be a book..tome maybe that he was looking at during the ritual."

  With that said he went back to the girl carving through the rubble with far more efficiency than he could with the tools he had available and studied her appearance as she worked. "Say what you will but there was obviously some thought behind making you look like a cute teenager. Your a scout right? Then certainly your frame could have been something less conspicuous considering your cloaking and  the such you have no real need to interact with us yet your appearance makes it easy to speak to you." He spoke to Scarlett as she worked getting near to the room and already he could get faint wafts of something unpleasant. Not surprising if the bodies were still there.

  Even as she finished clearing a path Terrence pulled his makeshift weapon out of the ground and moved forward into the passage despite the stench of death, it wasn't the first time he's dealt with the odor of corpses. "Ugh, foul odor but not unexpected with the bodies in the room ahead."

 He raised his free hand and generated a sphere of white energy that generated more than enough light to illuminate the way "I did come here with a plan for that at least, only doing this in-front of you two because neither of you are normal civilians unexposed to the supernatural. I do my best to keep civilians outta this sorta shit as many people are unwilling or not ready to deal with being exposed to it." As they neared the chamber he glanced to his 'weapon' "Honestly before I came across you two I was planning on finding a place to set up a temp workplace to try my hand at refining this into a more workable weapon shape. Harassing the gangs has helped me fund buying tools and other supplies."

  Finally as they entered the chamber, the stench of dead decomposing bodies that had been left there since the incident was hard on the nose "Might have to scrap my plans tonight for that however.." he murmured quietly as he projected the orb he had hovering further into he air near the ceiling now illuminating the partially collapsed area. Still the walls that were up showed some kind of markings, probably etchings to help with the summoning and there were a number of cultist bodies strewn about either half buried in debris or had been killed by him when he came in to help Rayne. "Right, so just over there is where the head cult dude person had been, lets uncover his body and look for that dagger and keep an eye out for any tomes that might have writing similar to the etchings on the walls here." As he spoke he rested the mass of metal off to the side and started pulling away large bits of fallen concrete where he knew the body to be.

[Justyce]

Scarlett had been listening to the conversation as she worked and found that organics were as varied as they were particular. She had found over her nearly three thousand years that visiting the multiple dimensions she had visited and they had different outlooks and different ways of doing things. The more technologically advanced they became the more they either fought each other or found peace and explored their universes. 

"Yes it is a construct of light or electromagnetic radation."

She had answered almost absently when he muttered about her sword. She was following along nicely deciding the best way to answer Terrence about his question about why she was made to resemble what she resembled. 

"There were five-hundred thousand minds that were digitized at the end of their lives to create me. I have searched out historical records to see if I resemble any living Cygnarian and my only conclusion is that I am combination of all former organic Cygnarians."

His other question about why she needed to interact with people was another good question.

"I have to be able to study cultures and peoples at close proximity and that means not using my abilities of stealth all the time. You can't get knowledge just from books and media alone. I have been given anthropology programming to better understand and catalogue socities."

The light was nice and her eyes adjusted to the new light source without an issue. She followed along sending her sword away to come up with her sidearm. She hadn't thought about how organics did not like the scent of their dead but her olfactory sensors did detect the decaying organic materials as she worked and she looked at them both.

"They are dead and you have decided to find what they carried or used. This is what one would call a tomb for these dead. I can understand not wanting their materials and tools to fall into the hands of others like them. It could be catostrophic. Allow me to assist you with moving this debris."

She sent her sidearm away and started to kick large pieces of concrete out of the way and the ones she couldn't kick off to the side she easily lifted and threw over to create a pile of debris. She then scanned bodies and laid them out in rows out of respect for the dead. She had studied funeral rites on many planets and this one was from when she had found a village dead and she had buried them all in accordance with their customs.

"I find it alarming that organcis would die for power. It makes no rational sense to give your life for something that you cannot even hope to control. You two have power and yet you choose to use it for the betterment of organcis. Why would they choose to use it for personal gain?"

[Asch Lee]

"Why not?" A deep, quiet voice echoed from the darkness behind them.

HiRyuu entered the chamber, the remnants of the energy that had been manifested surrounding him, causing his skin to prickle. The light in his eye flickered and danced like the flame of a candle. The stench of death and decay permeating the cavern didn't bother him. Growing up in Yomi, he'd long grown used to the smell.

He walked the perimeter of the cavern, his finger tracing the remnants of sigil that remained, trails of flame briefly illuminating each one as he did so. "Humans, for the most part, believe they are superior beings. Not just over lesser creatures, but also each other. They dislike being made to feel inferior. Power gives them that sense of superiority they crave."

[Raijinken]

He gave a shrug at Terrence's answer. "Shit, can't really help you there. :Where he came from, he'd never heard of any magic performed with a dagger, but that didn't stop him from drawing his own conclusion. "Did the fucktard use it on anyone" Then he gave a nod when asked to keep an eye out for it.

He rose an eyebrow at the girl's explanation of the sword. (Made of light, huh? Interesting...) Observing this may help with a little project he's been working on.

He rejoined the conversation. "Then how many of these...five-hundred thousand," Repeating the number made him raise his other eyebrow. "wanted the 'teenage girl' look?" He left out 'cute' since he wasn't really feeling it. "Seems prrrretty illogical for a bunch that's all about logic." At least by how she sounded. "...Unless collecting genetic samples is also part of that knowledge?"

He was about to say something else when another voice cut him off.

"Oh goody, we got a Full Party now..." He said while rolling his eyes, then immediately his right hand shot up. "dibs on Thief!"

[T.K.]

Having somewhat underestimated the size of the chamber, but at the time he really didn't have time to get the full scope of things so he brushed off the idle thought of how large this chamber really was, instead he pumped up the glowing energy sphere so it was a bit larger and more intense as he pushed it further away near the ceiling  close to the center of the chamber where it did a good enough job of illuminating the area that the runic script on the walls were legible. A presence pinged on his life sense a ways back down where they had just come from and he had to hold back a frown on his lips as he'd only encountered this presence once before and that was at the hospital. 'Been following for a while, unfortunate but it is what it is. I swear there are some kinda strings of fate at work here or some shit drawing us together like this.' Terrence grumbled inwardly.

 He however didn't let it show nor slow him down as that person was already here and approaching and there wasn't much to be done bout it, Terrence watched as Scarlett started kicking large rocks out of the way to start uncovering bodies, he on the other hand moved further in past her towards the main alter where the leader had sacrificed the sister and started moving debris as he parsed her responses to his musings. "Hard light weaponry..hnn..something to ponder later." he murmured briefly glancing upwards at his own chi orb before getting back to work. Ryuusei however beat him to further responses as he commented about the Cygnarians and why Scarlett looked as she did, which did cause an unconscious snort out of him.

  "A fair question, but perhaps there are others that fill other tasks that happen to have other appearances? Admittedly just a random ass guess but if there are that many different minds there might be some variety in appearances as I can't believe there is just Scarlett out there." As he spoke he uncovered a part of the leader "Ah here he is..still going to take some work to uncover him.." he murmured under his breath before speaking up to Ryuusei "Yeah that dagger absolutely looked like one used for sacrificial rituals, I've seen such before in my travels, I'm hopin to find it and either destroy it or get it tucked away in a safe place where it can't be used again."

    He glanced at the bodies being lined up, wondering what Scarlett was doing with them as he spoke "Tomb? I mean I guess you could almost consider this an unintentional one. But considering what these assholes were doing they don't deserve such a thing. Though we do gotta torch the bodies once we're done to cut down on any risk of some kinda disease or plague spreading from the corpses, city just got over some nasty shit..don't need somethin else comin up cause of these bodies."

  He moved a few more large chunks of concrete causing a bit more to shift and cover part of the body again "Bah.." he grumbled turning away briefly to watch the entrance to the chamber as Hiryuu entered speaking to Scarlett about why humans do such things, and certainly Terrence didn't disagree with the entire statement having seen more than enough proof of such. "Pretty valid actually, if you look through history time and again people seek power to rule over others. Its almost an instinct to develop a social pecking order and depending how someone is raised its easy to be lured by the siren song of power at the cost of others."

 He stepped down from where he was working to take a short break "Other cases I'd say mental instability. Getting sick of our social structures and just wish to change the status quo by any means necessary. Just a consequence of freedom of thought. Personally I seek power to improve myself and make sure I have control over my own life but not at the cost of other decent people. However as I've learned there is almost a universal law 'Power calls to Power' "

 He sighs and scratches the back of his head "Unfortunately seems like in that same breath you can also say power breeds conflict. Which in turn makes someone pursue more power. A wicked cycle to be sure."

[Justyce]

She stopped kicking rocks when the undesignated organic made a comment that she didn't like about genetic samples. She kicked a rock in his general direction and called out.

"Oh no...look out!"

He was capable enough that a small 2-3 ton piece of debris shouldn't be to hard for him to avoid. It was after all not that hard for him to move swiftly.

"That is not required and why would we need genetic samples of organics? We only collect samples of plant and animal life. I would think there are better ways to get them than through physical intimacy."

She actuallu seemed unhappy about that it wouldn't be betrayed in her voice. She delivered it all dead pan with a flat stare. 

"Yes five-hundred thousand minds. They aall melded to create me and others like me. We all have different purpose and programming. I think some organics don't have the attention span for explanation. I don't look like anyone that has ever existed on Cygnus Prime. My visage is to make it easier for me to collect information and most people are willing to answer a young woman's questions. You speak of logic but most organics can't grasp the basic concepts of multiversal travel and the energy it takes, let's just call it higher level astrophysics so as over explain it."

She realized that she was recapping this information for him again. She stopped when she heard a familiar voice and she turned without any weapons coming to hand. She gave him a look that really wasn't a look at all just an acknowledgement of his presence.

"Then there is this guy and the trouble he causes when left unattended, much like other organics. The pursuit of power shouldn't be their only pursuits although it seems that is the only thing organics find to pursue."

Terrence's discourse was what seemed to align with what she had told them and his postulation of the different faces on the different models was correct. She didn't mind those types of questions. After all it set people at ease to know that she was just here doing a job.

"Yes we do have varied appearances and jobs. Mine is just one among many and while I do know that others have the same features as me they don't all appear exactly as me as some of have a varied use as well."

She could see that about organics. She had been to many planets where the situation was less that acceptable for the organcis that were existing on them. She could see them wanting to change their situation but that usually did that through the means available to them on their planet. She had seen revolts and changes of government for the better and worse of organics. She had heard of magic that required sacrifice and while she had never witnessed it she would have stopped it due to her protocols. 

"Either way my appearance makes it easier for me to do my job. I haven't decided if organics are just flawed or that their very nature as organic makes them interesting and worthwile to study. I don't make that decision as I am just one who follows my protocols. I see why some organics wish power and others use it for good. This is the case for all places I have been. Those seeking power cause shifts in the people and they end up eithe rmaking their situation better or worse. Sacrificing organics for power though that only leads to having to do it more and more to appease the powers you wish to attract. Eventually you become a society of the dead."

That is why she was lining the bodies up for proper disposal with her Star Grenade. It would incinerate the body and ensure, if the funeral rites she had read, that they would be released from their physical form and they couldn't become the undead and wander this chamber in a rotting form. She had seen it before where they used magic on a world and considered what she did was magic as well. It was all technology of one form or another. 

"Social pecking order, you mean that some organics believe they are better than other organics. That is not true. All organics are the same as far as I can tell you. On this planet alone you all have the same DNA."

She looked at HiRyuu and decided since he wasn't causing trouble then she would leave him alone. After all he didn't seem to be threatening and would let the others decide if he needed to leave. She could leave on her own if she didn't want to have to deal with him. She shifted naturally to get assist Terrence with the debris he was having trouble with and easily held it out of the way.

"You going to get that dagger or not? It's not heavy but I don't want to hold it all day."

[Asch Lee]

HiRyuu ignored the human youth's sarcasm, but grinned and wiggled his fingers in a sarcastic wave at Scarlett, unfazed by her emotionless acknowledgment of his presence. "I promise to cause twice as much trouble under your careful attention."

"Power calls power" was not far from the truth. The tendrils of power that remained in this room continued to beckon, sliding along his skin like the caress of a lover. The source of much of the energy seemed to be coming from a point near where the human called Terrance and the poisonous tofu female were standing. The dagger the human was after, no doubt.

Whatever had gone down in this place was some dark shit. The depth of human depravity never ceased to amaze him. Nor did the extent of their stupidity. While he didn't know the exact events that had taken place, the signs of human sacrifice and the sigils scrawled about the walls and the floor indicated a summoning ritual. Who they were trying to summon he didn't know, but he knew enough to know that the stupid humans would have had no hope of controlling it.

He leaned against the wall and watched Terrance and Scarlett pick through the rubble. "I hope you have a very good hiding place for that thing, boy."

[Raijinken]

As soon as the enormous rock flew in his direction, his right arm shot forward! A drill of air and lightning formed around his arm and pulverized the boulder.

"Guess someone needs her bolts tightened. She still under warranty?"

He approached a group of bodies as Terrence mentioned burning them. "In a minute." Then bent down and dug into the pocket of one of the robes. "Bingo!" As he pulled out their wallet.

He looked inside; a few credit cards and some bills, then folded it back up and proceeded to the next corpse.

He looked around at all the bodies then muttered to himself. "Dammit there's too many to just carry..." He called out to the other three. "Hey! Any of you got a big sack? Doesn't have to have a Dollar Sign tho that would be cool."

[T.K.]

A quiet slap sound came from Terrence's direction as he briefly watched Scarlett's reaction to the teen's 'sample' jab accompanied by Ryuusei destroying the debris with equal ease, dragging a palm down his face after facepalming as the youth seemed unphased and willing to taunt her a bit more "I can't take some people anywhere.." he grumbled with a chuckle somehow feeling almost like the adult of a car needing to threaten to turn it around and go home!

 He did however grin as his postulations were confirmed that there was different appearances and different roles of the Cygnian units. He'd have to speak to Scarlett more about that later but for now they had more pleasant business to deal with as he resumed going through the rubble while she took a verbal shot back at Ryuusei about his logic comment, he wasn't about to get between their little verbal sparring! Shifting a rather large chunk of rubble out of the way he could finally see part of the cultist leader's body, but once more turned an eye this time to the other person.

 ..and had to suppress his body's instinct to repel him. Every time he saw that man his instincts warned him of danger leaving Terrence on higher alert even if he didn't visibly show. 'Keep cool Terrence. he's not doing anything so just chill' he berated himself internally but it wasn't easy to force himself to relax enough to get back to work as the guy was speaking to Scarlett.

 His internal thoughts paused as he stopped to watch Ryuusei start looting the bodies, while he couldn't really say anything about that as he's done things similar in the past he at least called out "I'm not sure its the wisest idea to get so close to decaying corpses like that man, runnin the risk of them being diseased by this point and you catchin something, also no your not getting a sack."

 With that said he addressed the Cygnian girl "I'd debate that because organics are flawed its worth study as many times our flaws cause us to behave differently from one another, often breeding different habits, tendencies, mindsets and other such quirks." With that said he worked a bit more at his pile pausing for a moment to tug at something and pulling out a somewhat damaged tome near the still mostly buried body.

 Studying it briefly he chose to not open it "This book, I remember he was reading from this while chanting during the ritual lets not lose this. Also finding this means we're about done here.." he said half to himself as he stepped from the pile briefly to set the tome to the side before addressing Hiryuu "If we can find it, I'll make sure no one can use it again." he said with a certain finality. "Shit like this makes me sick, and if certain people who I didn't want to see killed were not here I'd have nuked this entire area on the spot."

 With that said returned over to where Scarlett had moved a large a large chunk of concrete for him, while he could have done it himself her moving it made it easier to finally unearth the leader's body. His lips worked into a fine line with his eyes narrowing as he started to inspect the crushed body.

..There was no dagger. What Hiryuu had been sensing was residual magics from its presence but the object in question was no longer here.

"Fuck. I don't know how or why but its gone." he stated in a irritated and frustrated tone as he searched around a bit more in the general area of the body where the dagger should have been, as the leader had been crushed holding it it should have been nearby like the tome had been. "Mmh that doesn't bode well, with no signs of this debris the only things I can come with off the top of my head is maybe since it was probably magical in nature it might have been on loan and it returned once this guy died which I don't like the implications of, or someone beat us here and somehow retrieved it without disturbing the area but either way this ain't good and will have to be something to watch out for later."

  He pulled the body out and added it to the rest before picking up the book. He really wanted to get out of here as this was just unpleasant business but couldn't just yet. "Lets get these bodies burned."

[Justyce]

Scarlett didn’t answer when the undesignated organic made another jab at her. She had already moved on after seeing that he could indeed exercise powers. The make organic also exercised one of her protocols of protect.

“No. No bags. Take what you can carry as I’m going to incinerate them when I finish here.”

She nodded in agreement about leaving the bodies alone. It was best she handled them. She couldn’t catch disease.

“I think from the many I’ve studied I’m attempting to calculate how many will make it to the stars? Organic tendencies and differences really aren’t all that different. You procreate, you teach, you coexist, and most of all you either learn to live together or you kill each other.”

She assessed what he said about ensuring this didn’t happen and why he restrained himself from destroying it. Restraint was a very good quality. Terrence continued to do good as did undesignated male that came with them. Not the dragon surely no.

“Rogue magical object? That is not a good situation. I’ve seen what rogue objects of power have done in the wrongs hands.”

As Terrence moved the body she tossed the concert aside and decided to pose a general question to the room.

“I’d hide it a place no one would think to look. A black hole is pretty final. Although I have ask if this had been completed what would have been the outcome?”

She walked toward the line of bodies and as she did a small and miniature sun began to build as she walked in her cupped hand.

“I don’t disagree that is should be dismissed but, “ she was near enough and hopefully the undesignated organic far enough off as she grew it to basketball size, “I don’t even know what it looks like to be able to properly identify it.”

She dropped the miniature sun on the bodies and they incinerated in several seconds without leaving a smell. She looked at Ryuusei and waited until he had advanced.

“The one thing I don’t understand is why sacrifice your own kind? I’ve seen some extra dimensional creatures and from my experience they tend to get a taste for well humanoid flesh.”

As she spoke she built another miniature sun and incinerated more of the bodies. She repeated several more times and each time there was little to no ash. Only the scorch mark of her miniature sun.

“I have read your organic author designated Lovecraft and he spoke of extra dimensional beings and gods in his writings. I wonder if he had a way to see through the multiverse?”

She shad built another and this one was actually spewing some flares as she worked with it and it was a bit larger. She dropped it on the bodies and they went up we’re gone again in seconds.

“You know what I want to attempt when we finish here? I want to go to a bar. I’ve seen them on a plethora of worlds throughout the multiverse. Now I will visit one.”

She stated it as if she was going to go off and do it. She is never been in one so she considered her observations incomplete. She has studied aspects of a multitude of cultures ranging across galaxies for several thousands years. She had never been in one after doing work. Organics did and she wanted to know what they saw in the activity. Going to a bar and drinking something that was basically a poison to their bodies. Another organic concept and one she wanted a fuller understanding of the activity. She released another miniature sun and more bodies disappeared without a smell.

“Undesignated male, what would you like to be designated as? You as well undesignated male 2?”

She had been burning bodies efficiently as she spoked and the only indication that anything had happened was the black scorch ring of where the Star Grenade had been. She came to the last bodies and looked at designated male 1.

“You get everything you wanted?”

[Asch Lee]

Missing magical dagger. That was lovely. The area hadn't seemed to be disturbed, so it was unlikely another human had been the one to take it. Perhaps the artifact had been called to its rightful owner. Or perhaps another non-human entity had somehow entered and stolen it. Either way, it sounded like potential bad news for the humans. Scarlett was right. In the wrong hands, the thing would be truly dangerous. 

But ultimately something he likely wouldn't have to worry about. 

When Scarlett asked why humans would sacrifice their own, he snorted. "Humans suffer from a deplorable respect for the lives of their fellow humans. It's not surprising that they would sacrifice one of their own if they hoped to gain something from it."

He watched as Scarlett incinerated the bodies, only a little disappointed that she didn't leave any for him to burn. He perked a brow as she mentioned wanting to visit a bar. "I didn't think tofu drank."

[Raijinken]

"Then y'all lost your cut." As he tor pff a section ofa cultist's robe to use as a makeshift bag.

He continued to rob the corpses while listening to the conversation; Terrence warned him about catching some disease which...might actually be welcome as he can't recall EVER being sick before... even after arriving here.

"Yeah, I can't imagine the skill it'd take to reset this place to look undisturbed. If someone HAD taken it, they'd have to get in here through other means." Though upon saying it, it made him wonder if there was another passage into the chamber.

Scarlett's breakdown of 'Organics' immediately brought the image of his buddies being brutally slain by that Mechanoid and what respect he had for the girl plummeted. So his response to her inquirey at the what the cultists hoped to achieve was. "You answered your own question, these faggots wanted to end it all for everyone."

...Which was why he had no issue robbing them, spitting 'fuck you' into the eye socket of one of their skulls.

[T.K.]

While Scarlet had been incinerating the cultist bodies Terrence decided to risk opening the tome answering her question as he did "They'd have summoned a demon most likely..." he closed his eyes for a few moments recalling this particular incident sifting through his memory of what he could remember of the leader the instant before he took the nun's heart with the dagger. His lips tightened into a thin line as he recalled what was said at that moment.

 "Dragma is the name of what they were trying to summon.." he paused and hefted the tome "this was primarily used to translate the magical script to English, looks like some rites are n here but I dare not speak them, guts giving me some pretty bad vibes at the thought of that. Still we have a name of what they were going to summon and I'm fairly certain it was good that they didn't succeed." He nodded to the magical scriptures on the wall when he mentioned translating.

  He walked towards the exit of the chamber "Why they'd sacrifice? Greed? Foolishness? I don't know and most of the time I don't really care, my concern simply lays with stopping this sorta shit when at all possible. Individuals whom partake in rituals or human sacrifice are hardly worth the breath to speak about."

 Pulling the mass of metal he currently used as a weapon out of the ground he rested it over his shoulder while the tome occupied his other hand as he addressed the three "Anyone have a convenient means of stripping the scriptures from the walls so no one else gets any funny ideas? Otherwise they've gotta be damaged beyond recognition preferably without dropping this place on our heads."

 With that said he looked back at the mass of metal on his shoulder  as he considered what Scarlett planned to do 'I really want to work on this but that plan is kinda shot for now since I really hadn't been expecting to find these guys here and don't really wanna be observed while trying to make this thing look more like a weapon.' he mused inwardly  before sighing quietly to himself as he put that plan on the backburner for now. "Can't promise I'll drink much but..consider my curiosity piqued if nothing else." He said basically stating his intention to join for a bar run, a few drinks might be good to get his mind off of whats gone on here and the future concern that dagger might cause.

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