@dragonmancer

The announcement was nothing new, villains were villains and they would always act against authority figures. The Presence would have had a hard time wrangling them in, had he not threatened their lives. Dianna didn't seem too worried about the threat though, bloodshed was simply too much of a bonus.

She had been sitting patiently, no one had taken a place next to her, and that didn't bother her much. Others gave her looks, she could feel all of their eyes. The pair that interested her the most was Ed’s, he had lingered on her a bit longer than the others. She wasn't quite ready to reveal herself, but she had a sudden itch to transmute his guns into squeaky toys.

She saw the amber eyes of a white haired boy peek over at her. Then the young man turned to the monitor, addressing it and asking what he was to do if he decided to get hungry and eat one of them. Dianna chuckled, holding Ms. Muffins II close. “Was that directed towards me or my cat? I don't think it would be in your best interest to try to eat either of us, silly goose.” She clicked her tongue at him, and went back to petting her kitten.

Phone Freak jumped when the gun popped out of the ceiling, throwing herself under the table as a shot rang out. She stayed down there for a moment before slowly raising herself up over the edge when no more were forthcoming. She noted the lack of any holes in and around her chair, looked up at the gun, then followed its gaze to the kitchen and the smoking hole near the two idiots whom she hadn't even noticed had decided to go in there instead of following some very simple instructions. She breathed a sigh of relief. When that thing had dropped down she'd been convinced it was for her. Her own warning conveyed what she's already discovered, but did contain an interesting tidbit: The Presence had not known what she was trying to accomplish with the door. That was interesting. It was not as all knowing as it made itself out to be.

Wiggle wiggle wiggle...

She crawled up and placed herself gingerly back in her seat, only a little embaressed that she'd moved when so many others hadn't. Regaining her composure, she cleared her throat, and decided to get on with it. "The gunslinging tool has a point, loath as I am to admit it." She said. "There's no assent necessary here. Just entering this room was like signing on the dotted line, so lets skip the bit where we all go Yea and just get to the most important points; freedom and discretion. Are we free to come and go, or are we to be kept cooped up here like good little tin soldiers until you need us? Are we free to tackle missions how we choose, or are you intending to micromanage our efforts?"

When the turret fired at the feet of the other two who didn't sit down, Maverick stiffened but didn't flinch when the gun fired at the floor in front of her, as well. Inwardly, she was relieved that it warned the other two first, otherwise her current macho display she was putting on would have faltered.

Maverick lazily raised her hands into the air and held them by her head, a sarcastic gesture of surrender. She eyed the bullet hole that was left on the floor, a small smoke puff rising from it's miniature crater. She could only assume the Presence had more weaponry up it's sleeve, as even these alleged "teleporter tracing turrets" would probably have limited efficiency against Loud Love. She could only imagine that some of these "villains" in the room were resistant to firearms in the least.

She also noted the amusing display but on by Phone Freak.

Maverick took a near Phone Freak. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her, and then looked back at the screens.

Her thoughts turned back to the situation at hand.
...Villains?
Samantha didn't think of herself as being...villainous. A criminal yes, but she wasn't evil. A lot of the people here seemed to proudly label themselves as villains, as the bad guys. She was being grouped together with these people? A sinking feeling set in as she realized she would be forced to do jobs with this new group, dragged along by a bunch where murderers and sadists are in the majority. Hopefully Maverick could root out the stable-minded and try to stay on their good side. If there was one thing she could use, it was at least one person who she knew wouldn't stab in the throat for the fun of it.

Metallia placed her chair among the other chairs when they came in, slightly behind the rest of the line if possible. After that, she has been sitting silently, watching over the rest and intentionally not involved herself.

... Hm. The Presence seemed to have quite the amount of control over them. Metallia pondered about the means which it gathered information, and as such also what means she could use to do things that the Presence wouldn't be able to sense. ... More on that later. She dispelled the line of thought immediately with the after-thought of "it might be able to read minds".

This post is also just a general "I exist" post, Metallia just watching silently on the side.

Conrat looked to the two who had sat next to him. They were both strange in their own ways to say the least. Conrat couldn't accurately describe, Joe, he was like nothing he had ever seen. I mean tight clothing was one thing, but this was another. He was friendly enough though, and, as if Joe's suggestion was a command, Conrat slouched ever so slightly in his seat and crossed his arms. Ed was different, he looked normal enough, if a bit scruffy, but it would have been a bit hypocritical for Conrat to even mention that, let alone take it into account. His strangeness came from the incident earlier, of which Conrat only caught a glance at.

Conrat jolted in his seat as the unfamiliar sound of a gun echoed through the room. He immediately straightened up, grabbed his sword and had unsheathed it halfway before The Presence began speaking again. He quickly put his sword on the ground, he was no longer embarrassed or anxious, he was on edge. The Presence seemed to have the base on lockdown, and no doubt with weapons like that this would be a tough, near impossible fight if this was a trap.

He kept his back straight, Joe's suggestion of relaxing would fall on deaf ears after that kind of shock. The Presence spoke like a noble, Conrat had met once. He was a ponce to say the least, and actually confessed to be a paedophile after his army had been defeated by the Demon Army. The promise of riches and bloodshed was nice enough, but Conrat didn't take the demand for 'obedience' very well. Obedience was something he gave to those he respected, and someone who couldn't even face a team they'd assembled was not someone he respected.

Things were heating up that was for sure. It seemed in accordance with the new additions, The Presence was eager to trim the numbers. She could understand him firing off a shot at LL and Mako, after all they had practically raided the mans fridge. Maverick, however, was just standing minding her own business, surely that wouldn't require being shot at. As if to demonstrate a small amount of her so-far secret powers, Tereska's finger slyly morphed into a talon, she used the extremely sharp nail of sorts to scratch a small doodle into the expensive-looking table in front of her. Her other hand remained, cupping her chin as her boredom became more and more obvious.

@SunsetRoses@Mr_pink

Jackal gave her a rather overconfident and cocky grin. "If you get on my bad side then you may want to worry about how my kin are at being ambitious predators." Even from here, he could smell the residue of magic from her, though she didn't appear to be the only one to cast spells, there was definitely a difference in quality and type. There was something, instinctual nostalgic of it. Afterwards he began to take note of more of his contemporaries. One of the girls seemed to have embarrassed herself, and the other was almost in trouble as the presence may have shot her had she continued whatever it was she was doing that was unknown to Jackal's attention. Speaking of instinct-based nostalgia, He noticed another striking character, a man with a giant sword. "Nice to see some variety, I appreciate the use of a more primitive weapon." He called over to Conrat. Most of these characters seemed tolerable. Well except for two. One smelled of seafood, the other wasn't wearing any clothes, and had been the center of misfit behavior for this meeting. He tried to ignore them for now, annoyances for another day.

His mind having wandered off from boredom, the sudden sound of gunfire caught Nergal off-guard. Tensing up as his gaze snapped to the ceiling he relaxed slightly when he saw the guns seemed to be pointed elsewhere and the Presence voice growled at the three who still had yet to sit down. So it seemed that they weren’t completely replaceable or else he would have imagined the Presence would have wounded or killed those three for ignoring its instructions, though as he gave the guns another glance he figured there was unlikely to be anymore warning shots.

Looking at the rest of the group he gauged their reaction to the scene, he noted that most of them seemed to be undisturbed by the gunfire, including those that had been shot at. The naked boys reaction was particularly curious and amusing, to have such a blatant disregard for a tool that was designed to kill him spoke of either great mental fortitude or mental damage. Then there were others like Phone Freak which he couldn’t help but chuckle at, her comments just far made her seem like a smart individual so perhaps she was just unused to combat situations? The warning the Presence aimed at her was curious as well, giving him an idea of what kind of powers she might have.

When the gunshot rang out next to Mako and the naked one, mako resisted the urge to jump. When the presence spoke and told him how these guns could punch through titanium a small grimace formed on Mako's face, "A fine waste of a bullet since I was going to seat myself anyway." Tupperware dish in hand he made his way back to his chair and after moving his "Party Gear" on to the table he sat down and continued eating raw salmon filets, now right in front the entire group.

After listening to all the voice had to say Mako simply shrugged, "Human riches hold no appeal to me...bloodshed however is more my scene..." Mako smiled to himself once again letting his razors show a bit as he thought about all the interesting people he was going to eat. "Yeah what about when we aren't doing stuff for you? You gonna lock us up? What good are riches if we are to be slaves?" Mako continued to eat fish while sitting in his chair directly across from the man with the large sword.

@Kiss Of Night @dragonmancer

Dianna laughed, placing Ms. Muffins II on the table, as if displaying a weapon of mass destruction. The kitten stared at everyone with the wide eyes of a doe, focusing softly on the man eating raw fish, before scratching at the table. Dianna smiled at the cute little pet, stroking her behind the ears. “Even the most ambitious predators have fallen at the hands of Ms. Muffins II!” She announced enthusiastically, and the kitten meowed sweetly in response.

She remembered the many ways Wise One would punish her if she became overly cocky. Some were funny, others...not so much. She knew that she wasn't going to hold a dagger that had once been a spoon to the man's throat, that would give off a bad impression, and not everyone took it as lightly as she did. Instead, she would do something more playful, with quite possibly a sour result.

“Columbae.” She muttered, pointing at his chair. The wooden piece of furniture he was once sitting on became a small flock of doves. As soon as the initial shock wore off, they flew up into the rafters, leaving the white haired man without a seat. Dianna smiled warmly at him, before turning her attention to the man eating fish. He had brought up a good point. “Yes! That is a grand point! I would much rather go home, than stay here after we are done. A festering hole of criminals is not a place for me.”

@SunsetRoses

At first Jackal chuckled at the sight of her trying to make her cat sound threatening. However he was soon left in surprise as his chair disappeared and was replaced by a flock of birds. Annoyed Jackal tried to catch one but his reaction was delayed. No longer having a chair he was forced to stand up in front of the table. Crossing his arms he glared at the witch and her cat too.

“Columbae.”

Maverick watched the situation from her new seat (that was so respectfully recommended to her by their new host), and the girl who gave her bad vibes seemed to be some sort of...witch? A magic word ended the conversation between her and another patron, turning the chair into a flock of birds that now were festering about on the ceiling. Great.

Suddenly, a shudder ran up and down Maverick's spine. An after effect of being shot at. She exhaled and leaned forward, placing her elbows on her thighs and resting her cloth covered chin in her hands. The longer the night went on, the harder it was becoming to stay cool. This was representing an unfortunate trend. She hoped this Presence didn't plan to keep this group of misfits together for long.

She had spent most of her time twirling a piece of the red side of her hair with her finger. Looking around the others had not quite interested her. The only ones that she had really seemed to notice were the cute ones. When the guns fired off Queenie tucked her head down so that her forehead was touching her knees. She protected her head with her arms screaming, "Eep!!!" As she hid from the bullets. Luckily for her, she hadn't been the target and the pain never came. After a moment she raised her head and looked around. So many of the others seemed unaffected. The fish-eating one sat down as well as Naked Lad and the one concealing her face. "Oh! Okay!" Queen seemed to confirm something to herself and continued on grinning at the others. Mako in particular. This newcomer had a strange aura about him that she liked a lot. And it wasn't just because he was dressed as strangely as her either. The thoughts going through her mind were sinister along with sexual, which was normal for her but this time she had her sights set on the fish boy. When that one guy fell down after that kitten lady cast some magic spell, Queenie burst out laughing.

"Ahahaha!! That was so funny! I love magic!" Then something occurred to the strange young woman. "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU CAN'T KEEP US HERE, I'VE GOT PLACES TO BE. MY GUESTS AT THE ASYLUM WILL MISS ME IF I'M GONE TO LONG!!" At last she had processed what the booming voice had said, a little late. Queen folded her arms across her chest with a pouting express"No fair!"

"You will be allowed to do things in the outside world, but know that I am always watching you and if you betray the group then you will be taken care of" The Presence spoke to the group.

"Now, moving on to your first. You all will be robbing The Central Bank of Europe. I have a plan that is guaranteed to the work if you all do your jobs. You will be leaving for Germany in two days, so get yourselves prepared."

---

2 days later

The Presence had them journey to Frankfurt Germany by means of an experimental military jet with the capability of landing vertically. The pilot of the plane was mercenary under contract with The Presence. The flight only took a few hours and while they were on their decent towards a rural field.

"Remember to keep a low profile and when you get into Frankfurt, I will lead you through the plan" The Presence said to them as the plane landed.

---

Andrew exited the plane and had a look around at the Germain landscape.

"I always wanted to see what Germany was like" he said out loud.

Conrat was confused to say the least. He knew what a bank was, but he couldn't fathom a bank for the entirety of Europe. Did everyone have to travel to Germany to use it? What about the Britons? Did they just not use banks? What was the point of a bank anyway? Who has enough money to keep it lying around?

What overpowered his confusion was an overwhelming sense of joy. He hadn't been back in Germany since he was initially frozen solid. The centuries had moved him all around the place, but he'd never actually been brought back to his fatherland in all the time he was frozen.

---

1176
40 miles from Hamburg
Die Traurige Brigade camp

Smoke lifted and danced in the air as Conrat left footsteps in the snow on his way back to his parents. In his arms he carried a bundle of sticks and on his waist rested a sheathed, oversized sword. A noble had enlisted the brigade to assist in a battle the very next day, and anxiety was high as per usual. There was no telling how the battle would go, especially with the weather being as it was.

Conrat unloaded his delivery of sticks onto the fire, his adoptive father, a tall broad shouldered man named Jonas sat, a grim expression on his face as he scraped a sharpening stone down his longsword. As if Conrat had just appeared from thin air, Jonas' head shot towards looking at him, a small smile grew on his face. At first, Jonas was hugely against the boy. He only tolerated him for the sake of his wife, but over the years and throughout the battles he had grown to love the boy as his son.
"You feelin' alright, Hannibal?" He asked. The nickname was something he'd picked up in a book strangely enough. The book was a historical recount of the Carthagian invasion of Italy led, of course, by Hannibal.
"Better than alright! I have a great feeling about tomorrow!" He said, confident as ever.

The next day the battle would turn in favour of the opposition. A great deal of Die Traurige Brigade was lost, and a night raid resulted in the loss of, Conrat's mother.

---

Conrat leaped out of the helicopter, pushing past, Andrew with a large forearm and displaying his joy evidently on his face. He took in the field that lay before him, even the grass looked different to him, looked homely. He was forced into casual wear, carrying his armour and sword in an exceptionally large sports bag. He wore a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a pair of jeans and a rather scruffy pair of converse shoes.
"Ah, the fatherland" He exclaimed, joy and nostalgia evident in the tone of his voice. He turned back to the rest of the group, hoping to engage a few in conversation while they made their way into Frankfurt. "I wonder how it's all changed since I was frozen, I hope they still sell bratwurst!" He said joyously, oblivious to the heavenly taste of currywurst.

Phone Freak stepped lightly out of the plane, bag letting out a muffled clanking sound as she did. She was still dressed for heavy, cold weather and still wearing her mask. Turning back, she cast a long pointed glance at the military grade jet still kicking up a cloud of debris around her. "Looooooow profile!" she said, giving it a thumbs up. "Got it boss."

She'd been lucky she'd gotten those two days to head back to her workshop and prepare. She'd gathered materials she thought she might need for this job, but as the plan was as yet forthcoming that could be practically anything. It'd also given her a chance to check up properly on this new team, and it had not been pretty. Even if she wasn't a paranoid who guarded her identity like a nucleate launch code she still wouldn't take her mask off in front of some of these people. It was just a bad move letting that type know your face. She'd have to ditch the helmet when they got near Frankfurt, but she figured that by that time she'd have ditched them to. It would be dangerous for her, but they'd probably run into a phone line before they got to the city.

That was all in the future though. Right now she was stepping out to survey the German wilderness. Or the field, at least. "Oh, he's been chugging along." She said to Conrat conversationally. "Around 1871 it all became a single country. Famous for cars, beer, and trying to fight the entire world all at the same time. Twice. But that's all behind them. Now they've settled for being the biggest economy in all of Europe. Which is why the bank we're knocking over is here."

Dianna stepped out of the plane, thanking the pilot kindly for his work. She adjusted the strap on her bandolier and thumbed the daggers on her hips, hidden from all eyes except hers with the help of a little enchantment. Ms. Muffins II stepped out alongside her, taking her rightful place at Dianna’s feet. She meowed, for the first time since they had started their flight. She was a good little travel companion, always quiet when the situation called for it.

It was their first team effort, and Dianna was not one to disappoint. She could lay low all she wanted, in casual street clothes that Wise One would probably disapprove of. She hadn't seen the others in two days, and in that time she had prepped new potions and practiced her magic.

“Germany. Lovely place indeed, yes, folks here know me well.” She giggled mischievously, referencing her times slaughtering the innocents on the streets in Germany. Her eyes gleamed with nostalgia as she remembered the romp she and Ms. Muffins had here.

Ed stepped out of the plane carrying two duffel bags one of them was the same one he had during the meeting. The other was one he prepped during the two down days they had. He was wearing his usual cloths which basically pass for low profile. He had no guns on him all of those had been put in the duffel bag. At least he wasn't the only one carrying a big bag of course referring to Conrat who had his big sword hidden in a big sports bag.

"Well take in the view, but make it quick we're probably on a tight schedule." Ed said while of course also taking in the view. He's been in Germany before but never had the time to look into it.

‘... Sir.’ Metallia would attract attention to herself after The Presence's little explanation. ‘You are no doubt aware of my skills. Is there anything in particular you'd require me to build for your plan during these two days?’

Two days... was plenty to develop something brand-new medium-sized from scratch without blueprints if necessary, assuming she focused all her efforts on it and took parts from the other robots. Or, if it's something smaller, she could build a few with relative ease. If nothing special was needed, she could probably arrive with 25 regular robots.

______________________________________

Metallia wore a jeans-jacket above an expressionless black dress, and then a black cap with the visor forward casting a shadow over her eyes, her white hair still sticking out under the cap in numerous places. This was apparently her idea of low profile. She stepped out calmly, walking along. Her headpiece that she used to control robots was currently in her jacket-pocket.

If The Presence had not provided such means, Metallia would have spread out small communicators that'd fit in a pocket to the team. To keep an open communication-line, just press the button if you wished to speak when apart. You could even configure them to speak to a specific target. That, in addition to small items to put in your ears to just listen in, practically unnoticeable unless someone actually directly examines your ears. … Unless, of course, somebody objects because maybe the communication-waves would be traceable or something, or if the Presence complains about them and has a better method of communication. Metallia just felt it'd be appropriate for distance communication, and as such made a few.

‘I took the liberty of laying claim to a nearby relatively unused underground garage. It currently contains my constructions.’ Metallia said, having prepared ahead of time knowing where they were going. She had smuggled them in using a few trucks. ‘I can command them out at any time. This would include whatever The Presence might have instructed her to build, but if not, then assume it's just a bunch of the regular soldier-robots.

… And I can also summon my chair from there at any time...’ She looked down at her black out-door shoes with a disgruntled frown. Seems like she didn't appreciate having to walk, since flying on her chair would not be low profile. Seemed like, in her mind, regular walking was beneath her.

Jackal left the plane with dread. He didn't carry anything with him, as he didn't had a desire too. But he was frigid cold and held his arms against himself. Even though the temperature was mild. "This place is horrible." He muttered to himself as he was a bit envious that the other crew didn't mind the weather at all. "Does someone have an extra jacket, or a fire..something." Jackal asked the group with chattering teeth as he drew closer to them. "Germany of all places, the landscape is dreary, temperature is freezing, and security hear is high I heard, not to mention this country housed people that slay my kind." He let out a sigh between shivering. "Why couldn't we have gone to I don't know, Madagascar or Australia.."