The duo of Broker of Fortune and Blue Joker swiftly left the Blue City in pursuit of fame and fortune in the most dangerous of places, a vast dessert as far as the eye could see. A steady tapping range out as they travelled, Broker's gun beating a steady rythm against her hip as they went. "So Joker, what brings you to the Blue Guild? PvP didn't appeal to you? Sweepers making the Black Guild too edgy?" Broker asked after she had finished inviting Problem Child to a private chat. It wouldn't be a hinderance in grinding as she was used to this kind of multitasking already.

"Eheh, something like that," Joker said with one eye on Broker and one eye on the wheel. Or something. His driving wasn't sloppy by any means, but it could have had some leg work to it. Assuming he wasn't just joy-riding on purpose with little remorse or care.

"Blue Guild's got a nice ring to it. Nice color, nice kids, nice chicks like you, eheh. Question for you is what makes you want to hang out with the newbie?"

Broker chuckled in response, finding it was easy to relax around a laid back fellow like Joker even if he didn't provide the smoothest of rides. Then again, they were now entering the dessert and off roading wasn't known for its comfortable riding experience. "Oh I have nothing against newbies, we were all there at some point anyway. If you're in the guild then I may as well help you as readily as I would Absinthe or Titania. Who knows? You could be leading the Blue Guild in the future and I'd hope you remember the nice chick that got you started!"

Despite the casual air of their conversation her eyes were sharp and caught sight of a

disturbance in the sands up ahead of them. "Shit! Turn turn turn!" She called as she raised Fortune's Favor and wrapped her fist along the side, Overhaul taking affect on Broker and Joker's weapons. From the sands in their path erupted a towering sand worm with a piercing screech. Upon exposing the many rows of teeth that it called a mouth, the dissolution charged forward as though to swallow the vehicle whole.

"Eheh, looks like we found ourselves in a real jam, huh? Not a big fan of the sand myself you know. It's course and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. You catch my drift?"

Blue Joker spun the wheel hard, drifting against the sand and spraying it over the massive Dissolution. He continued to turn until it looked liek they weren't going to be eaten whole before promptly driving in the opposite direction. Like hell they were going to stay behind and be someone's lunch.

"Really? Going to make that reference of all things?" Broker gave him an exxagerated eye roll even as they narrowly avoided a collision that would have wrecked their ride if nothing else. She turned around and saw that the worm had recovered from the near mess quickly enough and was in pursuit. "No point trying to outrun the beast if we came here to kill it anyway." Her arm snapped back with Fortune's Favor brought to bear and fired, the crack of the gun overshadowing the jeeps engine for a moment. There was a furious wail from the worm as it recoiled, a bit over half their health gone in a shot. "Even with that size and speed it shouldn't be too tough an enemy to farm. Turn us about while I reload, unless you wanted to throw something at it, Mr. Wheelman."

"Eheh, nah, I think you're doing a fine job Broker. You got this covered," Joker responded, keeping his vision on the "road" ahead. He looked down, a blue cube manifesting from his palm...before he crushed the thing and placed both hands back on the wheel.

"Don't think we've reached that point yet, right? Eheh," he said with a wink to...actually, who was he talking to? In any case, he continued to speed along, swerving the vehicle to avoid the lashes of the giant worm. It might have been troublesome for Broker to aim and shoot properly, but it kept them alive and that's what mattered.

"Do I even want to know what that point is? There has to be a critical mass for all that bad comedy in you- Jesus, I know we're dodging but a little stability is appreciated!" Broker ground out, one hand on the back of her chair while the other raised her gun at the pursueing worm. As much as she loved her chosen armament the drawback of a single shot weapon was making itself clear in this instance, even if the damage and accuracy usually made up for it. She narrowed her eyes while awaiting the perfect moment to fire where the erratic manuaveres wouldn't throw her off- "Got'cha." Catching the worm as it was busy taking a corner she fired, the bullet flying true to pierce the worm's hide and drop it dead, where it gradually despawned along the sand.

"That's one down. That leaves lord knows how many more, along with all their sweet loot." Kanbaru said as she settled back into the passanger seat and raised a fist towards Joker. "Damn fine driving, Joker. This your profession? Cause I think if we got you behind the wheel of one of the tanks it would be untouchable."

"I've driven around something like this a time or two, eheh. Say, were't you supposed to be meeting someone at some fancy club or something? Not like I was paying too much attention, eheh. You sure you can waste time around here?"

Joker eased the vehicle into a steady drive now, whirling back around to drive over the EXP crystals that had spawned in the dead Dissolution's wake. A few more dune piles began to unsettle and stir nearby, no doubt more of the death worms. He eyed them with a hasty grin, not quite sure if the two of them could take on a whole army.

"Hmm, you probably have a point there, but we only just got here..." Broker trailed off as she also caught sight of the rising mounds as the first death worms demise had signalled for reinforcements. If they had a bigger group, or a more diversified set of skills, then there may have been a chance of sticking around, but as it was... "Alright, I should actually get back to the club. Would have liked some more XP, but if one of those worms wings the jeep we are a long way from a safe log out. Alright Joker, let's call it a day, though if we get a bigger group this could be good for grinding."

"Eheh, sure thing Boss," he said, flooring it straight for the Blue Guild's base.Kanbaru kept her gun cocked as she settled in for Joker to extricate them from this rapidly escalating situation. Her gaze turned to the messager where she had invited Problem Child to chat while she had used a more austentaios name for herself..

> Dealer's Choice: I'm ready when you need me, Problem Child. On my way to Blue Castle, but I'm flexible as you should well know~

It seemed like Hellflame had underestimated the power of their numbers. The one Hellflame had been focusing on began to fight back, launching grenades that exploded around him. Hellflame had to move to the side to avoid the worst of the damage. Unfortunately for him, the mage was already providing support, summoning tentacles from the ground that homed in on Hellflame. Hellflame launched his remaining fireballs at them as he flew back, but only a few were struck, and they proved to be quicker than Hellflame expected.

Hellflame's leg was caught by one of them, and he began to be pulled down and ensnared by more tentacles. The bombardier was also launching more grenades, dealing additional damage to Hellflame. Despite his struggling, Hellflame could not get the things to loosen up, so he tried a different approach. Hellflame recasted his <Hellfire> ability and burned away the tentacles holding him down with 4 fireballs, then flying off before his health was depleted.

His health was now in the red zone, so Hellflame was now thinking about playing it more cautiously. At the same time, Hellflame wanted to take care of the two Outlaws he was facing. Hellflame unleashed his spells on the bombardier, casting another <Binding Hellfire> on him and launching his last two fireballs at him as well, sure that that would be enough to take him out. If it did, he would focus his attention on the mage.

@RoflsMazoy @Lucius Cypher

Things quickly got crowded when Train came by, followed by some fat guy, then Itsuko fell onto Hibiki, and then someone who knew Itsuko showed up. Hibiki's head hit something solid, causing her to be a bit dizzy. Nothing too serious, at least nothing bleeding, but it still hurt. but she was more concerned about Itsuko. She heard something crack and seeing that Hibiki still had blood in her head, it must have come from her new friend. "Itsuko!? Are you alright?" Hibiki looked as the purple-haired girl came closer to examine Itsuko. While she wanted to help, Hibiki had no medical experience. She has a hard enough time trying to figure out where the bandaids are, let alone something serious as a cracked rib.

Hibiki looked at the boy who mentioned something about chasing Train. His name was Asahi and Train was his cat. Hibiki would have tried to hold some sort of conversation, but right now her concern was Itsuko, not Train. "Ah, yeah, I found him one day and took care of him for a while. But that's not important right now! Itsuko, are you alright? I heard something snap!" Hibiki wished she had her bag with her so she could get her first-aid kit. Despite not knowing how to use just about any of it, it did have some things for injuries like cuts, bruises, and sprains. That's when she did a double-take towards Asahi and noticed that he had her bag. "Wait, that's my bag! Please give it to me, I need to get something from it!"

After Shiro stopped the waterfall of metaphorical blood pouring profusely from his skull, he finally returned to the table to see off his… friends?. Eris didn’t directly accept his offer, she just turned down any future mutual joint ventures, not that he was distraught by this turnout. He had prepared in advance for what seemed to be an inevitable turn of events. There was still room for spur of the moment bonds to be forged, and in the case that the operator was ever faced with that event, IG or IRL, he would seize it without delay. It was the early bird that got the worm. But controversially, it was the early worm that gets eaten. Eris had known this underlying truth well, so it would be prudent of her to leave things up in the air for now.

Something was gnawing at him though. Its canines had sunk deep into the back of his neck and were clenched quite tightly. Why had she already surrendered herself to the concept that all that lies behind her is one mishap after another. He didn’t feel like Eris was the kind of person to obediently accept this belief, wave her hand lackadaisically through the air while uttering the abhorred words c’est la vie. Then again, this could have just been a ploy on her part. Shiro still found it a strenuous challenge to zero in on her personality. And not the facade she puts up for everyone, albeit a fair amount of it was comprised of her true feelings. He just wanted to see the unobstructed Eris Reinhardt, for better or for worse.

He arrived right in time to wave off Cassandra and Aaron as they went off in separate directions while he threw back a sizable portion of his drink with the other. Out of the mall and deeper into its heart they went, respectively. The boy then pulled out his chair and took his seat next to Lina, then offered the girl an undecided shrug. ”Went a lot better than expected in my opinion. No shit or glass flung. Nobody went full yandere. And you know when you go yandere, there’s no turning back. A recognizable commendation, if I may be so humble as to say so myself!” He raised the glass up for a scant moment, obviously a little peeved by the turn of events. But the stars were very finicky and rarely aligned.

The student placed his cup on the table and reclined, shifting his now calmed gaze over to his boss. The boy mulled for a few seconds how he would break the ice before he opened his mouth, ”Got a busy night ahead of me, definitely going to need to stop by the cafe tomorrow morning for my fix.” It was at this point that Shiro realized the two were alone and didn’t have anything pressing on the agenda. Even after they hadn’t seen each other for some time, just as their meeting came around the corner he was pitiful enough to ask the girl to offer some empathy and to tag along on the spot. Although that dog’s fluffiness must have been out of this world, even that furball of joy was outranked by the girl relaxing to his side. So, the boy came to the educated decision to make some small talk. After all, he needed some time for R&R before he annihilated some jamokes in the dance off of the century. ”Hey, Lina. Just realized I’ve yet to ask you this, and I mean really ask you. How’ve you been? Y’know, life and all. Anything recent that’s left you speechless or throwing obscenities into the air?” Shiro chuckled, taking respite in the moment.

@Kimiyosis

Asahi watched the train wreck occur right before his eyes. First the cat ran into the little girl, then the little girl ran into the bigger girl, something cracked, a pun was made, the whole works. Granted Asahi has seen worse tumbles, but it wasn’t really fair for him to compare. The girl seemed to have split her attention between the girl called Itsuko and himself, and ultimately she attended to her friend. ”Ah, I can help too.” Asahi went over and rifled through his pockets for some bandages. He often carried a roll with some gauze whenever he gets himself into fights. The girl then told Asahi to give him the bag, which made him come to the conclusion that she must be Hibiki. ”Oh, right, sure.”

Handing the bag over to the girl, Asahi did find his bandages and such. No stranger to cracked ribs, he had a rudimentary knowledge of how to patch her up, though if she was seriously hurt she should see some help. Asahi unfortunately was only good at inflicting those wounds, not healing them. Meanwhile Train was loitering about without a care for the world, mostly because he was a cat. He detected the presence of another animal, but before he could run off Asahi swept him up into his arms. ”Oh no you don’t. We’re not doing that old song and dance again.”

@Ryonara@KoL

---

Retsu smirked at Yoshino dancing to a slower beat. She supposed everyone went at their own pace. She felt that this song was a bit too slow for her taste, so Retsu simply stood watching, admiring, as well as waiting for Broker of Fortune. Or her pseudonym in this instance: Dealer’s choice. It seemed like she was busy doing things in deep Ground, so Retsu cut straight to the point.

> Problem Child: I need you to deal with a character named Arms Slave. An upstart tool who has been a thorn in my side. He is one of the Sweeper’s higher level members, and thus more needs to be done than simply killing him. I need him removed from his authority and discredited as a Sweeper. Do whatever you must. Name your price.

@TheWindel@Lonewolf685

---

The duelist’s sword plunged deep into Christopher, it’s serrated edge causing violent bleeding into the cat. But the duelist wasn’t expecting the feline to get in the way of his attack, and certainly didn’t expect to take it’s attacks directly. While the damage itself was fairly small for the duelist, it was flashy and discombobulating, causing him to stumble back. In doing so, he lost his grip on his sword and caused it as well as Christopher to fall to the ground. “Fucking cat!” The duelist ignored the cat however, knowing that it was merely the Warlock Familiar. He didn’t expect it to be able to do much more in it’s current state however, so the duelist took out his secondary weapon and charged Arkadian.

Meanwhile the demon’s hands reached out to grab the rogue. But just in the nick of time, Arkadian’s staff intercepted it. The moment it hit the demon’s hand it closed its fingers around the staff and began to viciously beat it into the ground. Where this an actual avatar it would have made a bloody mess. The rogue was nicked by the hand’s flailing, but that was a better alternative to what would have happened if she was caught instead. Rolling out of the way of the hand’s flailing she turned to Arkadian, giving him a thumbs up before taking out her Spell Card. ”Innate Bounded Field: Star Fall!”

Suddenly, the scenery changed. The lone rogue had glowing green sigils floating around her, allowing her to stay in place while everyone else was falling. At least, everyone who didn’t have the ability to fly. Looking around there seemed to have only been darkness… But upon closer examination, one could see that they were not falling through an abyss, but through Deep Space.

The sudden change in location allowed the bombardier to avoid Hellflame’s attack, but with no means to fly he was sent into an endless freefall as he was randomly firing his grenades in a futile attempt to hit something while his health was still being drained by Hellflame’s previous burn. The mage had a means of flight in the form of a flying staff, riding it like a witch as he turn his attention back towards Hellflame. More tentacles appeared from a new portal, lashing out to grab Hellflame. This time instead of trying to hold him down, the tentacles were simply trying to grab and crush him.

All the while the other outlaws were free falling. The armless demon was unable to summon forth any arms, as it required solid ground for the arms to burst out of. The duelist had no range weapons, though he was only a few feet away from Arkadian, swiping his dagger fruitlessly in his direction. The last warlock seemed to be charging a spell in her freefall, and it was unknown what she intended to do with it.

@RoflsMazoy@Scarifar

The duo had returned to the Blue Guild's precious workshop and quickly became a solo act as Joker left to parts unknown, Broker now looming over a workbench with a serious expression on her face. Problem Child's message certainly didn't fail to live up to Broker's expectations of the work coming her way. Finger's drumming along the cluttered to a steady beat while she contemplated exactly how to go about taking down the infamous Arms Slave, but as her head drifted back to gaze upon the comforting sight of an armored tank she knew where to begin.

>Dealer's choice: I'll take the job, though if you can provide me any information on the target it would go a long way towards bringing him down. His projects, plans, and anything else I can undue to make him look weak will be another blow to his standing, and if I could get some access to their stronghold it would make things easier. Once he's been beaten down and made a failure in the eyes of the sweepers, they'll evict him out onto the street and straight into my sights for the killing blow.

Broker withdrew her share of the XP crystals that were acquired from killing the Death Words earlier, a few more having proven unavoidable on their return trip netting 1000 XP for the both of them. "Going to have to send Absinthe an IOU and grind to replace these later." She muttered to herself as the engineer spirit coursed through her, a tension to her features as she borrowed some of the munitions for the tank to break down into components. Far easier to convert an existing HE shell into a timed explosive then building one from scratch. Broker settled her goggles over her eyes and straightened the peaked cap atop her head as she got to work preparing for the challenging job ahead.

>Dealer's choice: For a job with this much risk and liable to shake up the power dynamics around here so severely, I'll need 50,000 xp, 20k up front so I can secure my next level.

@Lucius Cypher

Christopher's attack had worked just as planned, but without Cosmosis charging his health would fall into the critical very quickly. He needed to act fast.

"Christopher!" Arkadian called out as they entered freefall, "Come here!"

This bounded field wasn't something Arkadian had ever seen before. It wasn't something he could really do anything in... but this was Christopher's home turf. The Duelist and him began to plummet but Christopher took flight. Wounded as he was, he could still fly. He plunged downwards into Arkadian's arms. Christopher immediately began to charge Cosmosis as Arkadian began to remove the sword. Christopher's health dipped much lower than he would've liked, but he didn't die and his health began shooting back up again.

Arkadian let out a happy sigh and looked around a little. If only for a moment he had a slight reprieve. The Duelist was doing his darndest to try and get Arkadian which was understandable. He took a look at the other mage that seemed to be with them and noticed he had flaming wings.

"Demonic Hellflame... Huh..." He said.

He'd hardly gotten a chance to breathe since the battle started so this was nice. The reason for their battle was above them now a little away from them which made him somewhat relieved. There was just one more thing he could really do right now, and that would be to run interference on the enemy Warlock... Well, he didn't have to. He didn't like putting Christopher in danger but right now, there wasn't anything he could do about that.

He patted Christopher on his head for good luck and turned away from the Duelist in front of him.

"Just one more time, Christopher..." He whispered.

Then he threw the cat straight at the enemy Warlock.

---

@Lucius Cypher@Scarifar

"That was much more cathartic than I thought that it would be." Eris commented as she got back to her room. She had thought that Hildr wouldn't be here when she returned, her mother never was the type to sit in one place and mull idly and she could be doing other more productive endeavors (even if not all of them were, erm... savory activities); Eris didn't even bothered to comment on her mother's absence, though she considered if, one day, she would develop such a habit as well.

Either way, "You are not making much sense now, Cassandra but, I can see where this comes from. Which is funny, since I always wondered what it would be to be less individual. Then again, I guess that's how it's supposed to be; everyone longs for that which they don't have. That's what drove humanity forward for ages, conflict, the mother for evolution itself. Nevertheless, it seems that the era of humanity's progress is over, as a race, we stand to stagnate and die. All because cowards chose to hide themselves under the wings of a silver-faced god..." Eris said, perhaps sounding a bit more compassionate then she usually is, as she made her way to her room and began to undress, while talking to Cassandra. "A god who stole our drive to live, to move forward. A creature that tamed the creator, like sheep, blissfully ignorant of everything even as they march to the slaughterhouse."

"The will of a single man has been enough to change the world many ties throughout history. Yet, even these persons, martyrs of their causes, can't guarantee success to any of their endeavors." Eris said, looking out of the window, to the city's skyline which faded slowly under the inexorable advance of the night's blanket. "The only thing that a voice calling in the desert can do is reach others' ears. It has no power to compel them, or instill change, if the people doesn't wish to change. Perhaps, had I realized this before, a great deal of suffering might have been avoided?"

"Even then, mulling about the past will do no good. One can't change what has already happened, only strive -fight- for their vision of future, even if the whole world is their enemy. Success will most likely not come through one person's efforts; change takes time and blood to happen but, it doesn't mean that it's not worth fighting for. What's the point of being human, if we can't choose for ourselves? If we were so afraid of loss and pain, our race would still live on caves, eating raw food. Mankind was made to win, to dominate, ridiculous concepts such as Fate, no one will ever change the way how I think, even if I can never change the way how others do."


"Either way, Cassandra, I guess you are right, in more ways than one." Eris said as she picked her nightclothes and went to the shower, washing herself quickly, before coming back to the dining room to meet Cassandra again. "I cannot avoid eating for a whole day. Furthermore, throwing away the food that you brought would be a major offense. One does not refuse gifts such as these unless there's a serious reason behind it. Let's eat; after that I plan to spend the night on Deep Ground and answer a certain someone's invitation."

"I would like if you could spend the night here. You can feel at home, though I'm afraid my clothes might not fit your... silhouette" Eris said, once again eyeing the difference between her and Cassandra's physiques, "Also, we will have to share a bed, since this is an apartment designed for a single person. You don't care, do you, Cassandra?"

"Y'know, Prez?" Emma said as Thomas took the ticket from her hand and asked her to let him go "You really do have a lot to learn about how to make company to a girl. Bluntness has it's charm points but," Emma let go of Thomas' arm as he wished, just as Aaron was closing in on them and immediately pounced him, "There's only so much you can get with it."

"Thank you, my noble knight!" Emma replied to Aaron before taking her drink back, finishing the rest of it in one gulp, "What do you say of coming to the cinema with us? Tonight's my treat, since I got these free tickets. And, after that, how about we go play for a bit? I have a good feeling about Deep Ground; with the servers going up again there should be a lot of easy EXP to cash in."

"D-don't worry, Hibiki, other guy." Itsuko said to Hibiki and Asahi with a shaky, but more composed, voice. "That w-was already like this. I just fell on a b-bad position, that's all." Apparently she still hadn't noticed the presence of a certain purple-haired guardian that was standing a few steps away from her, as she said, "Also, you can't bandage my chest right in the mall's door, h-hehe. Anyway, I think that I'll not be going anywhere tonight, after that I need to catch a second wind... if you catch my drift."

As soon as Huntress' voice reached Itsuko's ear, the blond turned around to look at her friend and caretaker, almost tackling Huntress as she jumped on her (despite the sore rib). "What are you doing here? I thought you've said you was going to come over later?" Itsuko said, practically clinging to Huntress' waist. "Anyway, this is Hibiki, she helped me at school and we're friends now." Itsuko said pointing to Hibiki, then at Huntress "And this is Huntress, the person I've been talking about, Hibiki."

Absynthe took another look of Azure Panther, noticing a certain likeness between her and the Blue King, or better, with Maribel herself. So, there were people out there that had avatars that looked like their real selves, huh? Interesting...

Either way, after acknowledging her mistake, Absynthe "Oh? You're really Bel, erm... Titania-sama's sister, huh? I'm sorry for not noticing it before; my HUD must be broken or something like this, ehehehe... Yeah, that! Anyway," Absinthe said as she scuttled toward Azure Panther, almost glomping her, before continuing, "what can this servant do for you? Would you like to explore the Guild? Get some EXP? Or wait until our great King comes back from doing her... kingly stuff?"

Absinthe waited for Azure Panther's reply silently, though her swishing tail, ear to ear blush, betrayed her eagerness.

---

Thomas stared at the ticket for a little while before Emma let go of his arm and he noticed Aaron coming up to them. As Emma talked amicably Thomas began to think. He had choices now, he could either run away or stick around. The thing he had to talk to Emma about was journalism club stuff and it was best left between the journalism club, so he'd lost the main reason to stick around. In fact, the only thing holding him back was an obligation to socialise. But he was pretty sure he didn't want to do that either.

Thomas stood quietly as the gears turned in his head before his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and opened the message, reading the contents before making a discontented face.
"Sorry Emma, I've gotta bail out." He said, shrugging, before putting his phone back into his pocket.
He walked over to where the other boy stood before handing him the ticket.
"Aaron Flecther, right?" He asked. "Have fun with my subordinate, would you?"

With that done, Thomas turned took a step away before he stopped and turned back around.
"Almost forgot. Emma, make sure to show up at the clubroom tomorrow at lunch." He told her. "See you there. Oh, and good luck Flecther."
He waved at the pair before heading off to the exit.

@KoL@Mega Birb

Cassandra fell silent, listening as Eris spoke. Sometimes, she knew, silence was all you had. There did not seem to be anything else to say, at least not right then. She couldn't think of much, or an argument. Maybe that was okay. But...she hesitated, before saying, softly

"you are right about many things, Eris, but in this you are wrong. Humanity isn't stalled, it will always change. Sometimes it just takes longer then others. The very fact of humanity is to keep on trying, even when it seems all else has failed, after all. But yes, it will take the effort of many people.

The thing is, change won't happen until someone is willing to make it happen, to make people think that maybe what's currently is isn't the best way. I guess we will find out what happens. And maybe have a hand in it"

She fell silent, and went to the kitchen, finding herself searching for bowls, spoons and checked on the soup to make sure it was still alright, as Eris bathed, thinking to herself, she smiled to herself, thinking how homey this felt, discussing things while they went about life activities.

She made her way back to the dining room as Eris came out, a little taken aback at the request to stay the night. She didn't know why she should be-Eris was after all unpredictable. She couldn't help a blush as Eris studied her physique. She was only slightly taller then Eris, and if you took that into account, she wasn't that much thicker.

"I don't mind" she said with, despite the blush, a smile. "as for clothes, well, you're the only one here. A little bit tighter, a little bit shorter, what does it matter, with you?" although the prospect made her feel nervous, spending the night with Eris was something she wished to do. "I,uh, found bowls and spoons but didn't want to hear the soup up until we were ready"

Lina sighed, as the group dismissed themselves, moving on to do their own things. However, whether she was sighing in relief that the situation didn't escalate, or perhaps in disappointment of a rather anti-climatic end. While logically speaking, it was almost a given that Eris would decline, it was still quite a loss. That much firepower, unused. It's like keeping the mileage low on a car for a better resale value. Not only that, but if Eris had accepted the invitation, it would've made things a lot more chaotic and amusing. "It's almost a waste...could've laid to waste to many." She sighed once more, before downing the rest of the soda into her mouth.

Shifting her gaze towards her subordinate and friend, she pondered over the problem of corruption within the ranks of Sweepers. While technically she was a Sweeper as well, the only one she really contacted on a frequent basis. Seeing the boy shrug and speak, Lina smiled. "But, there's nothing wrong with being slightly yandere, is there? Although I do think Cassandra has a bit of that trait inside her somewhere." Laughing as she gave her opinion, she leaned back in her chair.

Listening as Shiro started speaking again, seemingly as just a normal conversation, Lina's smile became a more teasing one. "Well~ a certain boy had nigh on openly mentioned how much he cared about a certain someone, and not only that, but even brought me out to a mall, which can technically be taken as a date~" Along with her words, she had remembered the girl that had dragged Thomas away, and her actions to fluster that boy. It was too tempting not to do something similar!

Lina shifted her seat closer towards Shiro, before hugging his arm against her chest. "Comfy~?"

//KAWABATA_SHIRO.EXE has stopped working

//Rebooting cognitive thought drive… error

//Emotion management protocols are out of order

//System in general is FUBAR

The brown liquid just an echelon short of pure caffeine remained stagnate, unabiding to the sudden shift in movement. The atmospheric ambience had dulled, quieted, almost to the point that the mall had become a vacuum in space. Shiro, who had just been passively relishing the bitter taste of the espresso in contrast to his smoothie, was now in a predicament. One that escaped the grasp of feasibility. Rather, had taken the boy into its own grasp entirely, and subsequently, literally. Like a mantis, Lina was poised for the kill and struck forth to bring her target into a warm embrace. Or was that heat the steam emanating from the teen’s head as a rosy hue began to take form. Flustered couldn’t even dream to describe the rosy red that filled his cheeks at such a swift rate.

A number of emotions attempted to materialize themselves on the boy’s face. This turmoil only made his reaction just that much more comical. If Lina sought to tease the boy, she had surpassed that boundary by far. For a scant second, the thought that perhaps this ploy was genuine popped up. Either way, the characteristically easygoing Shiro Kawabata had been ensnared by his own words which had left his mouth without a second thought. They had gone from point A to point B as smoothly as the flow of water.

Not even a moment prior he was listening to Lina’s dialogue, yet it was only a tactful ruse to distract his conscience. A lone eye had widened at the word “date”, though unfortunately even with the boost from the caffeine coursing through his veins, his boss was nonchalantly a step ahead. Still unable to process the sensation that enveloped his arm, he made the daring attempt to open his mouth and articulate something remotely close to human speech. ”Y-yeah.”

Well obviously. It was like his arm had been frozen and locked in its current… state. Shiro was always the offensive player IG, despite his archetype. He always placed himself on the vanguard, right beside his comrades, forthright to the core. Even in the midst of combat the rogue would sprinkle words of humor as he never wavered concerning his relaxed demeanor. Rallying up a sortie was second nature to him. Because of this devoted mentality, a prospect had taken fruition in his mind. There were matters that needed to be tended to, but Shiro had read enough novels to know that everybody always hated the dense characters who never reciprocate other’s feelings. He was in between a rock and a soft place. Well, two actually.

He finally came to a decision and placed the stammered words at ease. ”Twenty.” He spoke clearly, composed just like how his expression now was. ”Just twenty minutes, and then my agenda’s cleaner than a whistle. We can explore this mall for the rest of the evening. You can even have me for the entire night if you so wish.” Perfectly aware that this trek laid within dire straits, the boy acted with this notion in mind. He freed his arm from the grasp that had suddenly loosened and weaved his pinky around one of hers with the very same limb. ”It’s a pinky promise. I’ll eat a hundred thousand ghost peppers if I break it.” In spite of the lack of feeling in his legs, Shiro got up from his seat and noted the way to the arcade. He looked down at the blonde with a kind smile, ”Oh, and- um… Thanks for earlier. I’m in your debt once again.” With those parting words he proceeded to the arcade, hoping that the gang had something damn well pertinent. Before his arrival, Shiro sent a message to two individuals he could rely upon if things went south.

To: Arms Slave, Phantom Regality
From: Shiro Kawabata
Subject: Time for a dance off
1 attached link

”Hey guys, it’s Moon. About to confront some shifty characters at the local mall’s gaming center, probably got some super spooky secret stuff to talk about. At least I know for sure it was instigated when they found out I was a Sweeper, so I’m gonna go off on a limb here and say that it’s something concerning the group. If you legends are in the area and are free, mind meeting me by the entrance? Look for a kid with an eyepatch, orange hair, and is about a yeigh high. I need a hero, lads.”

They stuck out like a really, really sore thumb. Although a few of them were playing games and fitting in, the head honcho and the humongous ball of fluffiness looked incongruous to the scene. Shiro stood at the entrance, stealing a glance over his shoulder every so often to check on his backers. The gang would probably spot him any moment, but hopefully his two friends will have arrived in time as well.

@Kimiyosis@Lucius Cypher@Mega Birb

Abyss Walker accepted her employer's trade request, and silently walked off, leaving the gargantuan behind as she made her way to the Black City. She wasn't exactly sure how long it would take to arrive on foot, but she didn't mind putting in the time and effort.

She strode across DGO in silence, her thoughts emptied except for her job and her destination. The time passed rather easily, with only the occasional passerby, though, luckily, it seemed that no one was suspicious of the living death machine walking towards the black city, at least at the time. The brute trudged through the streets of the black city in silence, attempting to avoid as many players as possible, to hopefully keep the awareness of her existence low for the time being.

Abyss Walker crawled through side streets and alleyways, silently making her way to the black guild hall, where the machines she was hired to destroy were supposedly stationed. Eventually, she did come before the gates of the guild hall, which seemed to be guarded by a couple of worthless goons. She was about to indulge in joyous slaughter.

Abyss Walker stood up from her place in the shadows, activating the outlaw declaration in her inventory, preparing to strike the goons standing around in front of the guild hall. Abyss Walker's preparation was suddenly interrupted by the impact of a rocket against her chest. The explosion knocked the brute off her feet, and she immediately scanned her surroundings for the perpetrator. A user named "Rocket Goon" stood a short distance from Abyss Walker. He had shot Abyss Walker from nearly point-blank range while she wasn't paying attention.

She was immediately enraged, shooting up from her spot on the ground, and leaping at the user with a rocket launcher for an arm. He seemed to be surprised by the speed at which Abyss Walker struck back at him, and stumbled backwards in fear. The user seemed to be only level 1, and had only done minor damage to Abyss, but her attack speed was still increased.

Abyss Walker jumped on top of Rocket Goon, and began to claw at the player whilst pinning him down. The player had begun to call for backup, realizing that he was unlikely to survive the encounter, and as his health fell to below 10%, he was able to fire another rocket blast right at Abyss Walker's chest. Rocket Goon rested on 2%, and Abyss Walker was blasted a few feet into the air. She suddenly noticed that reinforcements had arrived. the two players who were guarding the doors had begun to point their weapons at the brutish invader. Abyss Walker let out a short, sinister chuckle as she landed on her feet, as well as on top of Rocket Goon, who died from the resulting damage.

Abyss Walker checked her HP, finding herself to be at 86% health. One of the two guards had begun to fire some sort of laser rifle at Abyss Walker, while the other stood firm, holding an obnoxiously over-sized hammer. Abyss Walker didn't waste any time, and instantly rushed at the hammer goon, striking at his chest several times before dodging out of the way of his hammer. Abyss continued to kite around the two goons, striking at them effortlessly, avoiding their attacks as they flailed about hopelessly. Abyss Walker's health dropped slightly before the hammer goon fell to 0 HP. The laser rifle wielding goon didn't stand a chance, and crippled to Abyss Walker's attack not long after the hammer goon.

As soon as she got rid of those threats, she checked her health again. She was at 75% already, just from dealing with 3 players. Clearly, she would have to take a stealthier approach if she was to prevent herself from hemorrhaging HP. In most other cases, Abyss Walker would rush in a kill everyone, but taking on an entire faction single-handedly is too dumb, even for Abyss Walker. So, Abyss walker silently snuck into the black guild hall.

The next few seconds became a blur as the surroundings changed. One moment he had one of the Outlaws in his sights, the next nearly everyone was falling seemingly endlessly. To Hellflame, it was rather disorienting, but it wasn't much of an issue, considering he had an ability that allowed him to fly. Hellflame spotted the grenadier and watched him fall for a bit, the grenades he was firing no longer having the range to reach Hellflame, before returning his attention to the mage. It turned out that he had an item that allowed him to fly as well. As the tentacles came forth to attack Hellflame, Hellflame had an idea. In a long range battle, the other mage had the advantage, but if it were a close range one... it might just flip into his favor.

With not much to lose, Hellflame charged forward, unequipping his staff and equipping a short sword instead, feeling glad that he had chosen the Monodextrous Casting perk. The tentacles rushed forward as well, reaching towards Hellflame, but Hellflame was more accustomed to their speed now, dodging the majority of them, though a few still managed to wrap around his leg and arm. More was about to grab him, but Hellflame still had 2 Hellfire-balls left, and he used those to flamethrower away his restraints and fly off before they could completely hold him down. Rushing towards the Outlaw mage, Hellflame smiled a confident devilish grin as he began to extend his arm forward for a piercing blow. Perhaps it wouldn't do that much damage, but they were both mages; damage at close range was almost always something to be avoided.

"You maybe right about I being wrong, Cassandra." Eris said as she sat by the table and waited for Cassandra to finish whatever preparations she still had to do. "Then again, only time will tell which of us is closer to the truth. Let us not bother with such questions for the time being."


Once she was done with her dinner, Eris placed the dishes on the dishwasher. It was almost a pity to see how the domestic skills of the young German were as lacking as her social ones. One really had to wonder if Eris would be able to go through life on her own? The again it was still a matter of the future and better left for be found out later. At least she was god at using the hammer life gave her, that should at least count for something, right?

"Cassandra, I'll be on Deep Ground for a few hours. You can use the shower if you wish. Both the TV and my books, maybe some magazines, are right over there on the living room. And, of course, my clothes will be on the closet, pick whatever suits you best, though I have to tell you that I only have dark colors." Eris said as she went back to her bed and laid down, leaving as much space for Cassandra as she could. "If you want to join me, I'll probably be somewhere between the Black and the White Cities. See you, Cassandra." With a last, uncharacteristic, casual greeting, Eris left Cassandra behind to do whatever she wished of her house and logged in on Deep Ground.

The first thing that Eclipse Princess did after logging in was be assaulted by a group of lower level Strikers that had flocked to the first higher level player that they found, complaining about an unknown Outlaw that had just skirmished against some guards at the Guild's gate. That, despite the fact that Eclipse Princess had done the same thing not even a couple hours ago and kept on being an Outlaw herself, to top it off, Eclipse Princess was certain that those guys must be Sweepers as well, which earned a huge sigh from Eclipse Princess who had little but no other option than burying her face on her left palm. "Gahr... They must be either blind or total idiots to forget what happened not even two hours ago. Either way, I guess that I should look into it, even if I plan to leave this place behind, I can't leave random impersonators do as they please. It would tarnish my reputation otherwise." Eclipse Princess said to herself before slinging her sword over her shoulder and walking toward the place she was pointed to, with little hopes of ever finding something worthy of her time there.


After a few minutes of a monotonous walk through the darkened streets of the Black City and Eclipse Princess was already starting to think that it was a hopeless task. Who in their sane mind would even try to attack them right now? It wasn't like a single person could do that much damage to begin with, unless they were as strong as Stark Zealot, "As if. Most likely it's just a punk that wants to make a name for thems-" Princess was talking to herself once again just before she suddenly crashed on the source of the problem, that is, Abyss Walker. Princess took a couple steps backwards to avoid falling, before she turned to look at the unknown avatar.

"Tsc! This place is really a problem magnet, isn't it? I thought that it was just I, but it seems that the whole Strikers can't do any good." Princess said, ignoring Abyss Walker's existence for a second as she shook her head in obvious exasperation. "Either way, I have someone that I want to meet, let's cut straight to the part where I kill you, right?" Eclipse Princess said as she began to attack without the least consideration, after all both of them were Outlaws, right? "Spatial Collapse!" Princess, launched her signature attack, right on Abyss Walker's face.

---

”It’s Asahi.” The young man mentioned as the girl got up. He put his bandages away, not mentioning the girl’s comment about bandaging her chest. He had no problems doing a lil patch job here and now… But those perverted thoughts aside, Asahi felt like he was starting to become a third wheel when another girl arrived. The blondie seemed to know her and, while Asahi never minded being in the company of a bunch of girls, right now he didn’t really feel like trying to act like a playboy. ”Huntress huh? How weird.”

Asahi was just going to turn and leave now that he had Train and gave Hibiki her bag, but Train seemed to be struggling quite a lot. ”Alright alright. I just don’t want you running off.” Asahi let his cat go, but instead of darting off to chase some shadow, it instead when straight to Hibiki. Asahi wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he did smirk. ”Well well.”

Hibiki looked through her bag for her first aid kit despite Itsuko’s protest. Hibiki didn’t care if it was already broken, if anything it was all the more reason Itsuko needed to be more careful. Hibiki didn’t even know Itsuko was in such pain. As she was about to take her first aid kit out Train leapt into her aims. ”Train, bad kitty! Not right now!” Hibiki tried to get Train off but he seemed very clingy. She looked over to Asahi since this was technically his cat. ”Can you hold onto him for now?”

Asahi got the cat, who was still struggling to get out of Asahi’s grip. While he held onto Train he looked between Hibiki, Itsuko, and Huntress. It was very strange, seeing this trio of girls together. He felt like he walked into something that probably didn’t need to involve him. There was still the matter of Train however. Asahi held his cat out, who was still struggling, and spoke sternly to him. ”Stay put. Be a good boy and you’ll get what you want.” Asahi’s normally jovial face took a turn for the serious. Maybe Train understood this, maybe he was just tired, but when Asahi set him down he simply sat there.

”Uh… Toho-san, I know this might be a bit awkward to ask right now, but would you like to keep Train?”

Because she was so busy getting the bandages and other supplies for Itsuko, Hibiki wasn’t paying attention at first, but then she looked to Asahi when she asked her to keep Train. Seeing that Itsuko was mostly fine Hibiki put her things away, giving Asahi her attention. She had to think about what he asked her since while she always wanted a pet, she didn’t know if she could actually keep him. ”I… Certainly don’t mind… But why? Isn’t he your cat?”

Shrugging his shoulders Asahi turned towards Train. ”Well, I think this is what Train wants.Cats can never really stay in one place. I was happy to have him while I could, but I think he wants to stay with you for now. I won’t hold him back, though he’s always welcomed to come back to me whenever. Plus…” Looking over at Train, the little black cat was staring right at him. He was being oddly obedient for once.

”Well… Things started to happen. It’s complicated, but the short and simple is that stuff is kinda getting dangerous around my place, so I want to keep Train away from that. I was thinking of leaving him at a shelter or maybe a friend’s house, but it looks like Train already likes you. This way this makes up both happy. It’s not a problem, is it?”

A lot of things happened today, so Hibiki was a bit dizzy. First she got into a “Fight” at school, she met Itsuko here and became friends with her, and now Asahi was giving Train to her. Either today was a very good day, or about to get a whole lot worse. Either way, Hibiki stood up and tried to deal with one thing at a time. First, Train. ”Y-yeah! I’ll take care of him! I mean… My parents never let me have pets, and the housekeeper might try to get rid of him… But I’ll watch over him. And um… Thank you. I hope you figure out your problems soon.”

Smiling, Asahi looked at Train, as if giving him the signal to go ahead and leap back into Hibiki’s arms. Just as he did he received a message from someone called “Shiro”. Apparently this kid was actually Paper Moon. Why the kid messaged him using his real name, Asahi didn’t know, but apparently he was at the mall and wanted back up for a meeting with a couple of young thugs. They knew he was a Sweeper and wanted to talk to him, which made alarms go off in Asahi’s head. Last time someone was dumb enough to oust himself as a real life Sweepers, the people Asahi had attacked went after the kid. He’s never heard from him since.

To make matters worse, one of his lackies in Deep Ground just received word that they were being attacked by another Outlaw Ebony Stryker, and this time it wasn’t Eclipse Princess. ”Shit…” Asahi turned to leave. As he walked away he said his farewells. ”Something’s come up. Sorry to cut this short, but good bye! Please take care of Train for me!” First, Asahi was going to find Shiro and make sure he was going to be okay. If he was alright, then he’ll see about getting him and Phantom, who was also in the message, and deal with things in Deep Ground. So Asahi ran towards the Mall’s game center as fast as he could. He… Isn’t very fast.

@Ryonara@KoL

---

> Problem Child: I can provide you information. As for EXP, I cannot provide you that much on short notice. It would be suspicious to simply pull that much EXP out of thin air as well. However I can offer you something far greater.

As a down payment Retsu sent Dealer’s Choice some bulky files containing files and data she may like. Retsu preferred to pay for services regarding Deep Ground without using Deep Ground assets. It kept her profile clean. And besides that, it was much easier for Retsu to obtain than EXP. Not that EXP was hard to gain, both legitimately and illegally, but it had it’s own share of complications. Either way Retsu continued after her files had been sent over.

> Problem Child: Right now he is trying to build up forces at the Black City. He has vehicles and cannon fodder. He intends to roam the zones to hunt “Outlaws”, however his intentions is conquest. I’d prefer if you’ve kept the fighting outside of the Black City itself, since a war with the guilds is the exact opposite of what I want. Fortunately, he’s made a powerful enemy in the form of Eclipse Princess. With any luck she may be also willing to deal with him. However she is also an Ebony Stryker, so try your best not to incite much more in-fighting.

Sending her message to Dealer’s Choice, Retsu noticed that Yoshino was gathering a bit of a crowd with her dancing. Not one to be shown up, Retsu left her posse and walked over to Yoshino. Instead of being Yoshino’s quite confident or assistant, she stepped onto the dancefloor as a challenger. As she approached a new song started, something with a bit more… Swing.

@TheWindel@Lonewolf685

---

The Warlock had his spell ready in his hand. He was going to hit the lone rogue with the spell when out of the corner of his eye he spotted the cat being flung at him once more. He had to make a choice: kill the caster and get his people out of here, or fight the cat and have to spend another few rounds charging up? He couldn’t cast another spell for a few more rounds if he wasted it now, but if he didn’t he may end up out of range to hit the lone rogue or worse, dead. “Shit!”

With no other choice, the warlock turned his attention to Christopher and fired his spell at him. “I cast…. FIST!” The warlock threw a punch at Christopher, and from his first emerged a large ethereal hand. It rocketed at Christopher, at least ten-times it size, and if Christopher dodged or couldn’t stop the fist, it would be on the path to Arkadian. Fortunately the first was slow; an immobile target like the lone rogue might but unable to defend herself but Christopher at least had some speed on his side.
Meanwhile the mage fighting Hellflames shouted at him. “Why are you stopping us? We’re both Ebony Strykers! That rogue is an outlaw that needs to be put down, and now she’s trying to run away from her crimes!” The warlock grew more desperate and started conjuring more portals to attack Hellflame with, and even fired off a few magical blasts himself. They weren’t nearly as effective as his tentacles were, but anything to keep Hellflame away. The mage tried to move away, but his broom wasn’t nearly as fast as Hellflame’s wings.

@RoflsMazoy@Scarifar@RoflsMazoy

As Shiro entered the arcade a loud song blared from the DDR corner. On it a bunch of asians were going ham on the dance pad, racking up combo’s and perfects like they would need or it die. But that was just standard practice for asian gamers. On the dancepad itself was the same fellow who called out to Shiro, thus he wouldn’t be able to spot Shiro while he was gaming. His dog on the other hand did.

The large pooch ran over to Shiro, nearly knocking him to the floor. Though instead of doing that what it did was get behind Shiro to ensure he couldn’t run away, as if ushering him towards the group. It nipped at his heel, pushed against his body, sometimes even bumping to his knees if Shiro even looked like he was going to turn away. No one else seemed to notice as everyone was too busy waiting for the song to end so they could play.

@Jedly@Mega Birb

> Rocket Goon: WTF why is there another Styker fighting us?
> Shade Charlatan: What are you talking about
> Rocket Goon: Abysswalker just killed me.
> Rocket Goon: But she’s in our guild. Wtf I’m not even high level.
> Dosh King: Where were you?
> Rocket Goon: I was watching the vehicles at the guild hall.
> Velveteen Rabbit: That’s why. You’re a Sweeper.
> Rocket Goon: so?
> Bubonic Touch: Sweepers need to get the fuck out of the Ebony Strykers. You’re making us look bad.
> Lunatic Renegade: If the Sweepers left you wouldn’t even be a guild. You’d literalyl have less than thirty people.
> Rocket Lancer: Oh god you’re not friends with Eris are you? Just because she has problems with the Sweepers doesn’t mean we’re all bad.
> White Power: You guys are literally cancer.
> White Power: None of this shit would have happened if you guys were a bunch of raging dick heads.
> Lunatic Renegade: Says the guy called White Power.
> Dosh King: You guys need to get your shit together.
> Shade Charlatan: Sweepers should have just gone back to being a non-guild. Now every faggot and 13 year old wants to be a Sweeper.
> Rocket Goon: Fuck you guys, if the Sweeper’s where here you would have gotten your ass beat by those Outlaws. Hell we probably would have taken over anyways.
> Aryan Chariot: Talk a lot of shit for someone who just got their ass wrecked.
> White Power: 1v1 noob we’ll see how great the Sweepers are.
> Fulminant Rage: Motherfuckers do you even realize what the Sweepers can really do? You fucks can barely get a raid going. The Sweepers made a guild. You can’t even organize your socks.
> Lupus Lupa: This is just the work of one angry bitch who has too much power in her hands. IT’s people like her why the Sweepers have to be around. Otherwise it’d just be a very power struggle between all the high level players.
> Hanging Tree: I hate the new patches. The game used to be balanced but now the only thing that matters isn’t skill but who has the most OP abilities and equipment.
> Baron Nasher: Get gud skrub.
> Walking Guillotine: Fuck y’all, Sweeper’s go home.
> Blueberry Muffin: Ima getcha.
> Crimson Hellhound: Hey guys where’s Abysswalker?

An argument flared in the Guild’s open forum as Stryker’s took to the streets. What started as an individual incident has now spiraled out of control. Players started activating Outlaw Declarations and were hunting each other down with a single purpose: Getting rid of each other. Sweepers formed parties and started ganking and ambushing lone players. Loyalist to the Ebony Strykers hunted down Sweepers who were caught alone. Players from both sides activated their Outlaw Declarations, making it nearly impossible to tell who was who. And while most limited their attacks to each other, a few opportunistic players stole Black Guild vehicles and used them against eachother.

Abysswalker and Eclipse Princess would find themselves right in the middle of that conflict as two opposing groups found each other and opened fire, with Abysswalker and Eclipse Princess caught in the crossfire. Because they both were outlaws and unaffiliated with the parties, it didn’t matter if it was an Ebony Stryker or a Sweeper who shot at them; everyone was free game. Bullets, magical missiles, Avatar Abilities, and much more were being used as the Black City started going to war with each other. Not even the sanctuary was safe has parties from both side camped the entrance and killed everyone that didn’t immediately identify themselves as an ally, even as they fought amongst eachother.

All the while, Weiss Reisen watched through his lone scout in the city. He didn’t care for the civil war, though he was pleasantly surprised. He shot a message over to Abysswalker to remind her of her job.

To: Abysswalker
From: Weiss Reisen
Subject: [No Subject]
Take out the vehicles. Forget the PvP for now, use the chaos to your advantage.

@VarionusNW@KoL

Donovan slurped his extra-vanilla dosed coffee, filling his mouth with a sweet combination of sugar, cream, in addition to more sugar. He knew damn well about how bad it was for him, but Donny didn't give a fuck: he just kept on drinking it with the same ol' jolly expression. Sitting alone at a table around the center of the cafe, the boy gave a sigh of satisfaction after finally finishing reviewing his first aid book, and he placed it under his human anatomy book. His studiousness usually drove him to the cafe, so that's where he was, humming, grinning, and being generally jolly. The albino teenager was more than ready to leave now, though, sitting for too long made him a bit stir crazy.
Time to go help out at the medical center! Or could go on Deep Ground and sell some of my sh-

Five rather shady looking guys sat themselves down at someone's table. His crimson eyes followed them before he flipped open to a random page in his book on anatomy. Donovan stopped humming, widened his smile, and started excitedly tapping his foot as he took glances at the gang; he listening intently to their exchanges. Fortunately, a girl saved the guy from the delinquents before it could turn into anything, resulting in the boy's foot-tapping halting along with his smile diminishing. However, his excitement returned the moment one of the thugs placed a hand on some orange-haired boy's shoulder. Shit. The hero-wannabe stood up and made his way to the trash can with his half-full cup of coffee, happening to be within accurate coffee-throwing distance of the gang leader during his walk. Each and every step brought the trash can closer, and with every step he felt his insides twist; the moment the trash basket was within range he felt a pain like no other. His attempts to get close enough to prevent an altercation cost him more than he could ever imagine. Donovan's hand shook as he let go of the source of all joy in this world and watched it as it fell into the darkness.

He forced back his tears... There were more important things that he needed to focus on. Looking around for the now absent gang, Donovan caught a glimpse of the direction the group was headed in, and the orange-haired boy followed soon after. The albino teen walked over, pretended to study some more for about half of a minute, then gathered his things prior to walking in the same direction he saw the gang and orange-haired boy go. The Arcade. He walked in, noted the gang's dank dance moves, and plopped himself down at some doctor-related game. He sucked at it. It didn't help that Donny didn't have much prior experience with video games, but he wasn't there to recall his own childhood pastimes: he had to prevent any altercation that may occur and possibly use his first aid knowledge if things went bad. Taking a quick glance around the arcade, the bad gamer saw the orange-haired boy with a dog close behind him, looking like it was attempting to push the boy towards the gang. The albino teen looked toward the gang. Luckily, they were all occupied with their dance game, but it may not be that way for long. Looking for a chance to be a hero, Donovan waited for shit to go down.

"The Ebony Strykers?" Arkadian said.

That was sort of a surprise. It didn't have much bearing for him because he wasn't actually affiliated with them or against them either, though maybe this event would put him at odds with them. He wasn't sure how true the statement about the rogue being an outlaw was, but all he knew was that the ones attacking her were the ones with names flashing red. If they weren't outlaws, then he didn't know what was.

The warlock's magic fist raced towards Christopher. Even if he'd been able to, Christopher wouldn't have dodged it but he was always forced unconscious when charging Cosmosis anyway. Just as the fist was about to hit, Cosmosis discharged, offsetting the force of the fist somewhat, but it wasn't enough to dissipate it. Christopher was sent flying backwards straight into Arkadian with a stunned status as well.

Arkadian caught him but he was propelled backwards as well, right into the waiting arms of the duelist...

"Got you now, brat!" He shouted.
"Huh? Oh shoot, I forgot about you!" Arkadian said.

He flailed his legs around like he was swimming as the duelist tried to grab for him. Arkadian managed to knock the duelist away but he was still going forward.

"Christopher, help!" He squeaked.

The stun status expired and Christopher's eyes flickered open. He started flying forward while Arkadian flailed his legs until they stood fell at a standstill(?). Now they were basically at square one again.

"Uhhh..." Arkadian said. "What do I do now?"

---

@Lucius Cypher@Scarifar

~Yoshino Tsugumi~

---

The Student President glanced back to see that Retsu was done with her business. That was good and it meant they could leave this place sooner than expected. So when the red-headed girl decided to switch it up and indirectly challenge her, Yoshino was taken aback. She hadn’t planned on staying long enough to actually have fun, expecting them to go in to get work done.

But the fact that she had gathered quite the crowd showed otherwise. Not one to be pegged down so easily, she flashed Retsu a wry smile before her own motions increased in speed to match the beat of the new song. Renewed confidence ran through her veins and she met Retsu step for step, gaze daring her to upstage her once more.

Inside the Arcade, the rapid DDR competition between Bel and Alex would be noticed by a certain albino boy. Outside of the Arcade, the whole commotion between Itsuko, Hibiki, Asahi, and that cat went underway. And throughout it all, Huntress watched with patience and silence. Despite that, a smile escaped when Itsuko practically glomped her, and she held the blonde girl with a strength that was hard to believe from her lithe form.

“Careful. You’ll spill your drink,” she said, handing Itsuko the melon smoothie before turning to Hibiki. “I see. Thank you then for taking care of Itsuko. I hope she wasn’t too much trouble for you.”

Yet more silence would follow as Asahi and Hibiki had a bonding moment before the cat, now named to her as Train, was given to Hibiki. Asahi left, leaving the three girls alone with themselves once more. Well then. So that had just happened.

Back in the Blue Guild inside DGO, Azure Panther slowly fidgeted away when it looked like Absinthe was going to glomp her. Bel had said something about her guild members being a bit…fanatical. Being Bel’s sister was probably going to earn her more than a few hugs or some weird thing like that.

“Um…yeah, I guess you can start with showing me around or something,” Panther finally answered, still a bit creeped out by this girl’s eagerness to serve. “You know, show me my choice to join wasn’t in vain and all that. Show me the places you like to hang out at. That kind of stuff.”

Back in the real world once again, the machinations of the newest player to this random and colorful cast of characters was sneaking about in a rather un-sneaky manner. The girl Hildr had employed, who went by the name of Dana, was waiting just outside her apartment for her target to show up. When she saw Eris approach with another girl in two, the shark-toothed girl snickered to herself and hid away from sight.

“Oh ho, she didn’t tell me the brat was dating another girl! That means she’s totes into some super spicy yuri! Oh ho!” Dana near cackled to herself before slapping a hand over her own maw. She didn’t want to be discovered quite yet after all. So she waited and watched, climbing up a tree to spy into the room, totally not imaging Cassandra or Eris without their clothes on or anything perverse like that.

So enthralled was she in her “investigation” that she failed to notice a particular boy-or was it a girl?-walk past, no doubt from her trip to buy another flash drive. Considering the old one had gone up in smoke and all that.

---

Broker paused in her work to release a small sigh at the first message received from Problem Child. She hadn't actually expected to receive the whole amount, but in negotiation you were supposed to high ball your estimate so the parties could haggle to an acceptable number. The offer was ludicrous, though Problem Child's response did give some indication to her capabilities if her main issue was time, not procuring the actual amount in question. "Meh, maybe I'm just thinking too much into it. Mysteries make people- Wow."

Then came the stream of files that she had requested, something Broker hadn't expected to receive and certainly didn't expect to get such a glut of information. If not for her own morally questionable activities of a mercantile sort there may have been reason to question why there were all of these detailed dossiers on in game characters for the Sweepers and Ebony Strykers. Maybe if this game didn't determine their future prosperity in life there wouldn't be so much effort put into it, but Broker of Fortune had to impressed by the time and manpower that must have been put into gathering all of this.

"Heh, that bastard thinks he can conquer the world with a paltry mechanized division and the lowest grunts in all the game?! Would love to see the look on his face when..." Broker paused, an oft ignored section of chat seeming to explode with activity. She quickly expanded the window and perused the last few minutes of activity. After sifting through the typical deluge of comments that ranged from anti-semetic to marginally informative, a picture of what was going on in the world began to form. "...seriously?"

>Dealer's choice: Okay, first thing I have to say is that I have not even had a chance to mobilize yet, so none of this is my fault. Second...yeah, that in-fighting you didn't want? Well someone named Abyss Walker just started a civil war between Black Strykers and the Sweepers. I'll see what I can to do about, well, quelling that, but at this rate the Black City is going to be a failed State. Hopefully I can get Eclipse Princess and my guild to help drop the hammer on this before the city is reduced to rubble...on the plus side, this is going to put a lot of pressure on Arms Slave and his ability to lead.

Even as she sent the message, Broker of Fortune was in motion, stuffing the completed bomb and a dozen HE shells into her inventory before clambering into the tank and starting it up. "Why are their four pedals if there are six directions?" Moving beyond the bizarre minutia of tankery, as there really wasn't time with everything that needed to be done, Broker straightened her cap before opening up the guild tab of her chat.

Guild Chat:
Broker of Fortune: Ladies and Gentleman, our good friends in the Black Guild seem to be having a tiff with the Sweepers and are about to trash that city we love to trade with. If we let this go on, the Blue Guild is going to find itself sans a source of income that Titania-sama is very fond of, and I'll be damned to let that happen while we have the best damn player base in Deep Ground ready to set things straight. Till Titania or Absinthe take charge, I'm calling for everyone here to load up at the motor pool and get a column moving to the Black City. we have XP on the table, and there is a lot of motorized targets out there that would make lovely practice fodder for these tanks of ours, people. Move out!

A thunderous roar erupted in the workshop as the tank sprang to life, exhaust belching forth to produce the intoxicating aroma of grisly combat to come. If all went well, then a sizeable force would be moving out to suppress the conflict, thus earning some brownie points for the Blue Guild as well as showing off their power to the other players around DGO. And with a show of force like this, our recruitment numbers will be through the roof. Titania-sama will be overjoyed, the guild will be awash with riches, and there will be plenty work to get paid for going around- Oh, should probably tell them about this.

To: Rook
From: Broker of Fortune
Subject: Need a Ride?

Mobilizing the Blue Guild to put down some trouble brewing in the Black City. If you want in, then get to the Black City or find something fast enough to catch our column on the way the way their.

We aren't looking to conquer anything, but we need this conflict dead and buried before a civil war gets into full swing. Still, there is going to be plenty of EXP up for grabs, so try and catch up with us. Also, make sure to smash any of the Black Guild's or Sweeper's vehicles if you see them.

To: Eclipse Princess
From: Broker of Fortune
Subject: Helping Hand

We don't know each other, but I'm aware of your reputation, which is why I'm messaging you. If you are still in the Black City, then you already know some of what is going on already in the world at the moment and I won't keep you too distracted.

What you need to know is that you were right about Arms Slave. He's up to something real nasty that will bring down all the Guild's until the Sweeper's are the only one's left, and it's all under the pretense of eliminating Outlaws when in reality he's aiming for world conquest. I'm attaching the attack plans I had smuggled out of the Black Guild and the Sweepers, but I need your help.

The Blue Guild is coming to try and suppress the civil war before it gets too far, but we need to use it to take out Arms Slave and his motorized army. You're a Stryker, and if the word is to be believed, still an Outlaw.

Please, for all of our sakes, you need to destroy his motor pool before Arms Slave can organize his invasion of all the zones. If it isn't stopped now, then no one will be beyond the Sweeper's reach ever again.

And if you happen to need a new guild after this, well, the Blue Guild could use a Valkyrur to lead these tanks in battle.

A pleased grin formed on her face as the rumble of other engines of destruction rose from other. If Eris managed to do their job for them, then Broker would be there to clean up the mess and support her with overwhelming firepower. If she didn't, then the Blue Guild is the savior of the day. With so many spinning plates in action, it was going to be difficult to keep things straight long enough to finish the job, but as the old saying goes...

He who dares, wins.