Maricola sprinted over and gave the creature currently calling itself Annatar a great big (and slimy, thanks to the loudspeaker demon) slap on the back. Granted, given Annatar and Maricola's current physical states it was less of a slap on the back and more of a volleyball spike directly into the pavement, but it was a friendly volleyball spike directly into the pavement all the same.

"Howzit going, Uncle Coobie? Papa wants to know if you're still working middle management for the kiddy fiddlers!"

Annatar hovered after Eris, trying to get her attention, "Meow, meow, meo-GUUUH!" Annatar was damn near pulverized into the ground by Maricola's spike. Both Annatar's creature form and humanoid form were fairly delicate, so a slap from the extension of a cosmic horror was not something he could take lightly. Still, as something of a cosmic horror himself, Annatar was able to make use of his ability to contradict physical laws to heal himself back into a recognizable form from the white and red puddle of meat he had been reduced to. Hovering around to face her, he sighed.

"Maricola, was it?" This statement was followed by an involuntary cough as a lump that hadn't reattached came flying out of his mouth, hitting the ground with a splat. Fuck. He had sensed the presence of Maricola's progenitor, whose name shall not be spoken, as soon as he had joined the academy. He had taken care to find out exactly who she was, and to keep his distance. After all, while Annatar lowered himself to understanding the 'logic', 'reasoning', and 'order' of mortals, and emulated it in order to better manipulate them, Maricola's progenitor, as well as others from the strange- charm- bottom- side of R'lyeh, chose to forgo any attempt at interface, preferring to induce madness in the lesser beings with their incomprehensible presence. At least that was the case before. Maricola's existence suggested a possible shift in tactic, though her unusual behavior was indicative of the incompleteness of their effort in making themselves comprehensible. While Annatar could attempt to interface with Maricola, such cosmic conversations could take eons, and as a creature with a physical form now, Annatar simply didn't have the patience. Still, now that they have made contact, Annatar felt he had no choice but to be Maricola's keeper, if only to keep her in view so that she doesn't throw his plans off track.

Flying over and landing on her shoulder, at first gingerly, making sure she didn't do something unexpected, then settling in, Annatar said, "I see the resemblance, you have your papa's $%#@%%#@%%." Seeing Eris now surrounded by a gaggle of other people, Annatar realized that he had, for the moment, lost his opportunity to recruit her. Oh well, there would be other chances, and plenty of other evil little girls (or boys) desperate for power. To answer Maricola's stinging question, he replied, "If you must know, I have been temporarily stripped of my position, but let's forget about that. We have a city to molest. On second thought, Annatar could have picked his words more wisely, given the implications of his job. Still, he doubted Maricola was even listening to him at this point.

On the topic of molesting little boys...Annatar paused and stopped himself from going down that train of thought. In any case, Annatar spoke up, "Maricola, head over to that boy in the backpack, I'm sure there is much devastation he could do in this city with his bag of tricks." If Maricola did not comply, Annatar would alight from her shoulder and approach Justin, "Boy, you seem...thoughtful. I like that. Annatar, Lord of Gifts, here to aid you in whatever mischief you feel up to."

@Duoya

The captain was unsure of how their attempt at friendship could have backfired so spectacularly, but they didn't let it discourage them. Following after the girl, Endemia tried once more. "Err... I didn't slander you, in fact I was trying to look out for you. I understand what you're going through. The solitude, the misery, the rumors started by weird pictures circulating the school... A-Actually, that's specifically just you, but I do know about people starting weird rumors about me! Err... Sorry." Despite being more than loud enough to be heard, Endemia's new friend pretended not to listen and kept walking away. However, she was quickly intercepted by two others, an imp and a human-like creature with antennae. It was then that a wonderful thought quickly dawned on the captain.

"A clique! We've got a clique now! See? When you're all alone like we used to be, people think you're weird or you're the stinky kid in class, but once you hang out with someone, other people get interested! Oh by the way, my name is Captain Endemia, but all my friends call me Endemmy."

Listening to the plan of the girl with the antenae, the captain attempted to visibly nod their head in a knowing fashion, but had to move their whole torso for a similar effect. "Sounds like you're going to need an expert on Vegas for this. Good thing your pal Endemmy is here, I know all about Vegas. After all, this is where I'm from!"

@KoL@TheWindel@McFazzer

Maricola's face remained as blank and impassive as always. If anyone nearby had been able to identify the subtle, tetrachromatic haze of color that emanated from somewhere beneath Maricola's skin, however, they'd have noticed it begin to darken in hue as Uncle Coobie spoke. This, it seemed, was a sign of concern.

Maricola's right arm tripled in size, the now ham-sized fist engulfing most of Uncle Coobie's body and raising him to eye level. Maricola cocked it's head and stared at it's fellow monster for a second before speaking.

"Golly, Uncle Coobie~. Has this place really hurt you that much..?"

Uncle Coobie was considered something of an eccentric in the non-euclidean space monster community. Not because he loved feeling up small children, as one would have thought, but because he had turned such a casual hobby into an obsession of a highest order. Sure, there wasn't a higher-dimensional being worth their salt who hadn't impregnated a high priestess or two, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a one that stuck around to raise it. On the whole, ultimate lifeforms had a bad tendency to pump and dump.

But Uncle Coobie wasn't content to just seed a world with his baleful progeny and get on with his life. No, he'd somehow gotten it into his head that he wanted to groom these Earth primitives in order to meet some arbitrary quota of despair and anguish, and was generally regarded by his peers as the cosmic equivalent of a shut-in otaku. Maricola had a rough understanding of the whole situation, but it hadn't become evident just how bad off the guy was until Maricola met him in person. Uncle Coobie was in serious need of a couple millennia's vacation.

A lightbulb went off in Maricola's head. Of course! All he needs is some time away from those little girls he was always on about, and he'd be right as acid rain! There was only one problem: How did you tell if someone was a girl? Uncle Coobie had said something about backpack when he looked at the seated one. Was backpack a sex organ?

Maricola walked over to Justin Case's bench, oversized hand and Uncle Coobie trailing slime as they dragged along the pavement, and touched him on the shoulder with a free appendage.

"Hey, are you a girl~?"

@Duoya @Stern Algorithm

As Gary looked around he noted a variety of scenes all of which were pretty mundane to the vampire but they warranted some study. While patience was a virtue, or rather an inevitability for his kind, the Malicious Missionary was not feeling all that virtuous at least not in that way. Gary knew that he was working against a ticking clock, as he had no idea how long he would be allowed to saunter throughout the City of Sins, and the fact that he had not heard so much as breathing from this lad did concern him.

The vampire's face contorted into a grimace, pursing his lips and lowering immaculate eyebrows. He shut his tome as he once again removed his shoulder and turned to face the man he thought was destined to be a part of the conversion process and spoke. "My, my well how time flies. I see that, by your hhrm, wordless demeanor and astute attention to the processes of rigormortis that you are so entranced by the shiny baubles of light. So... I'll erm..."

Gary scratched the back of his head as he thought about how to conclude his departure with the man. In the back of Gary's mind, he had an idea. Among his kind many were esteemed landed gentry who existed in a high echelon of respect and power, while at this particular juncture in time Gary was not. He knew this and the thought of it occasionally crept up back into his mind in between breaks of unholy prayer and studying of the scripture.

This would be an excellent time to have a test against a subject who clearly would not judge him if he failed to properly vocalize the articulation patterns associated with the aristocrats of this day and age.

"Observe you on the side of the flip... you uh, dig, my lupus familiaris..." With that Gary gave an uneasy smirk, pointed at Nero and began waggling his right index finger at him before quickly scurrying off.

@Scallop

Well, now that the Malicious Missionary sorted out that maladroit meeting, or rather attempt at it, he now needed to focus his attention on a group of individuals he could easily find some common ground with for a chance to parlay it into a more advantageous position in his primary goal of conversion, but also his own personal goal of climbing the metaphorical ladder of hierarchy. So that ruled out trying to join up with the ogres and related creatures, as Gary was not that arrogant to assume he could rub shoulders with them as brothers. It ruled out a fair amount of the goblins as even they held too lofty of a standing for now. The harpies might have been a possibility but he was nowhere near sufficient enough to participate in their games of gossip.

That left him realistically with two choices.

The first of the options were to introduce himself to the the small shushu, a rather particularly nasty breed of cat that for some reason or another wished to be buried in its owner's hair. Gary assumed this was its attempt to chew through the skull in order to pilot a bipedial being in an attempt to further the parasitic process. Of course he had not taken enough courses to be sure whether or not that was what the cat's purpose was for such activities but he had a good hunch about it. Handling that cat was, oh dear. Oh dear, that was the thing that had changed Doctor Dreary, the Mysterious Transfer Student X. Once upon a time long before that transfer student arrived, Doctor Dreary used to be a proctor full of piss and vinegar, a man who was feared for such brutality and carnage. But then he had the misfortune of having to test that one over, and over and over again breaking him down into the miserable and apathetic wretch that he was today. And lastly they were with the "Toy-boy", some child who had no real proper faith.

While converting and showing light to the faithless would be a fine test, Gary did not want to press his luck with the thing or deal with a shushu attempting to burrow into his skull. So he was left to go with the other group and so he sauntered over to them. Well he would've sauntered to all of them, but it appeared that one of the fellow lowlifes was voted off the island, so to speak. Or perhaps they were exiled for bringing the collective group of the insectoid woman, the purple gremlin and the hazmat suit down. Gary was not sure and it would be impolite to ask this upon a first meeting with the other two maidens and the suit.

The vampire took a moment to adjust his cravat with his free-hand and return his Dastardly Book of Dick under his left shoulder, before giving a flourish with the right hand and bowing his head slightly. "Salutations dear developing debutantes in waiting..." As he begun that his eyes focused on the Captain in the hazmat suit trying to figure out a polite way to speak to them, "...and aspiring soldier? Gaseous cloud entombed by a suit? Multiple persons stacked upon each other attempting t-"

Raising his head back up, Gary shook his head. "At this juncture such a thing does not hold too much warranted importance. What does hold importance is that of scheming, of plotting most malevolent machinations and I, I am at service here for such things. I am Sir Harding, Gary Harding. Missionary." With that Gary bared out his fangs trying to show off a proper smile of enjoyment and not so much that of a more monstrous grin.

@McFazzer @KoL @CommanderCool @TheWindel

Bethany perked up when someone mentioned the idea of a casino heist, straight out of- oh, what was that movie? "Sea's Eleven", or something? In any case, while outright theft wasn't quite the demoness' style, she was certainly intrigued. True, most of Hell would treat the cash as worthless, but a Greed demon could use money and other valuables as fuel for spells. Surely, they would be willing to trade.

"I would love to rob these fools blind alongside you, Flicker. However, turning off the power would be difficult at best. I would suggest picking pockets- slower, but safer. Can those insects of yours carry off someone's wallet without them noticing?"

@McFazzer

Justin was close to being done tinkering with the Albion - he accomplished nothing more than taking apart the hydraulics in one of the arms before putting it back together extremely quickly. It had been several minutes since he sent her out, and Justin was prepared to move onto the second step of his plan. Or, he was, until the small creature and Maricola walked up to him.

"Boy, you seem...thoughtful. I like that. Annatar, Lord of Gifts, here to aid you in whatever mischief you feel up to."

The small creature, which Justin had initially dismissed as one of the other classmates familiars or some dumb animal, was the one who had spoken. Justin calmly reminded himself that he would need to remember the name and update Pandora's files on his classmate. The Tarrare slowly hummed, heating up as one of Justin's villainous classmates approached within 5 feet of him. A simple tap on the chassis quieted him instantly.

"Well met, Lord Annatar - I, Dr. Minccia, am thankful for the aid. My plan is simple - My GPS can tell me the location of every major jeweler in Las Vegas, and with this knowledge, we will steal-!"

"Hey, are you a girl~?"

It took several seconds for Justin to calm himself after that. His psychiatrist always said that he had anger problems that were unhealthy for someone his age, that he got obsessive and compulsive while angry, and he should avoid situations that could spark it. Luckily, he wasn't easy to infuriate - he just had to make sure he didn't get angry in the first place, or it'd take awhile for him to calm down. His face was flushed red from embarrassment when he spoke again.

"...I personally thought the lab coat hid my feminine hips. To answer your question, Dr. Minaccia is most definitely a man."

Justin cleared his throat, pressing a few keys attached to the Pandora's Box before looking at a small screen on the side.

"Anyways, I'd be more than willing to split the loot evenly in exchange for assistance. While my robots handle a few other locations, I believe we should head... That way."

The largest jeweler in Las Vegas - enough gold to supply wiring and computer chips for dozens, if not hundreds of robots, even after splitting with his two classmates.

"If you are still having second thoughts, I will also concede the right to pick the name for our temporary alliance. Just be sure to make it have flair."

With another knock on the chassis, the Tarrare began to follow Justin - the Albions following suit. Justin turned as he walked, hoping that the others would follow - with their aid, he was sure he could clear the entire place out before the police arrived.

@Stern Algorithm@Menhir

It was always impressive how Uncle Coobie could use his ventriloquist skills to talk even when he was completely covered, but Maricola had no time to appreciate them at the moment. Speed was of the essence!

"Nnnnnnot so fast, Doctor Mamacita!", Maricola chirped as it's left hand expanded in kind, scooping up the wannabe supervillain and gripping him tightly around his waist. Uncle Coobie might have liked this backpack, but jewels were no good. After all, jewels meant diamonds... and diamonds were a girl's best friend! But Uncle Coobie hated girls, especially little ones! By transitive property, that meant coming into contact with jewels of any kind would spell certain death for Maricola's papa's distantly-related colleague! This would not stand!

"But what could be the opposite of jewels..?", Maricola wondered aloud, drooling a little from the sheer effort of thinking and retaining bodily function as it dragged both fists, along with their unwilling occupants, away from the direction Dr. Marg- Dr. McKra- Backpack had been walking in an attempt to get as far away from the sparkly rocks as possible.

Diamond's were a girl's best friend. And the opposite of a girl was a boy. And an adult boy was a man! It was all so simple. The best way to save Uncle Coobie was to expose him to man's best friend: Dog.

"TO THE CITY POUND!", Maricola shouted moistly, raising both fists in the air as it sprinted headlong in the direction of the nearest animal shelter.

@Duoya @Stern Algorithm

Nero blinked as the man suddenly embraced him. He turned with a devilish smile and then froze. How did he respond to someone like this. Such a classy man with an intimidating aura that shadowed his own very easily. Church of Voguish Rogues? That was some sort of organisation that seemed way too fancy and high tech for the likes of Nero. Who was this guy? He seemed so upper class in terms of power and scheming, how was he in the same class as nero and all these others?

Nero blanked out and kinda just stared at the vampire for the longest of seconds until when he blinked, he had went to join the larger group. Cursing under his breath, Nero hurridly dug his phone from his coat pocket and began texting his contacts around Vegas for some drop offs of new outfits or what not. He wasn't here to be over shadowed or forgotten, nah the electric menace that was Nero harvey wasn;t one to sit around whilst others have fun. He'd take that vampiric man up on his offer.

With a flashing grin, he dashed back over to where Gary had left him to wander off to, grinning wide and copying what he had done earlier with the arm around the vampires shoulder with a smile at all the others he was before.

"hehehe sorry bout earlier Gary, had a bit of a daze and I was thinking about what we could get up to." He flashed a grin at the others in front of him. A hazmat suited being. Oooh this was gonna be fun. "Name's nero harvey, been a bit low key with the big acts and flashy performances recently, but was thinking maybe all of us could paint this city red eh? It'd be a great bonding experience, right Gary! Surely someone with experience like you must know, you gotta get your name out there!"

---

---

Even though Angela had passed through the portal with the rest of the graduates, she had spent some time typing on her tablet away from the group upon hearing what was their destination. This was Las Vegas. A city filled with neon lights, casinos, hotels and lots of wealth exchanging hands. However, it was not only currency that counted as wealth. Oh, no. Items also held monetary value and, while one may look to steal necklaces and diamonds for this, the demoness has another plan in mind.

First off, she was thankful of the service she managed to hire back in Hell. Even over here she could get access to the internet! This was quite handy, as it provided her with the unfiltered mass of knowledge that was the World Wide Web. "Let's see... what was the name of the show, again? Oh, right!" The demoness googled away and, to her surprise, she didn't have to search for very long. Hell, the shop even had their own website! Not only that, but they announced their address just there! Piece of cake.

"Delightfuly devilish, Bellacorno..." smirked the white haired woman to herself as she used the GPS to get the exact location and a quick route to the Gold & Silver pawn shop. She figured that, since the place was famous from that show in the History channel, there would not only be valuables stored inside but also the possibility of items with magical potential! If this impromptu hit worked, then Angela could brag about it for the weeks that come. However, if she failed, it would probably be recorded and aired in the show's reruns for the future years to come.

Despite every attempt to be nice to this poor fellow loner, the good Captain Endemia was finally losing patience with the girl. If she wasn't insulting the captain, she was outright ignoring them. Waiting just long enough to make her turn around and walk back if she wanted to confront the captain, but not too long so their insults would go unheard, Endemia let loose. "It's probably for the best that we kick her out of the group. She acts like she's somebody, but here she is catching a cab in a dress she probably made herself. Who does that?" Turning to their new friend, the vaguely insectoid girl struggling to cope with the excessive light, Endemia put their hand on her shoulder. "We don't need her, she would just slow us down. Uhh... You alright there?"

Before their friend could reply, a well dressed young man introduced himself to Endemia's clique of two whole people. "Oh no, I'm none of those things. I am simply Captain Endemia, but my friends all call me Endemmy." Scheming? Service? Missionary?! The first two things were quite interesting, and possibly very useful. The third? Not so much. "Well now Gary, I am quite interested in your offer. I was just talking to my friend, uhh... Her here about doing something super amazing and great, something this city has never seen before. But perhaps you have some ideas? We shouldn't start with the grandest of plans after all."

Once again, before their new friend could offer his input, another student approached. Is this what popularity is like? It was honestly kind of annoying, but perhaps it gets easier over time. But this time? It got more annoying as the new girl walked right past them and spoke to the bug girl. "Err... Excuse me, but I am in charge here. I am Captain Endemia and pick pocketing is not cool so we will not be doing that." And again, before Endemia could get anywhere with the current group, another joined in. This time a man dressed in a rather simple, and quite boring, style. He even went so far as to introduce himself as boring. "I see uhh, Nero... Don't you think you're a little... Under dressed? Even this girl here has a cool cape and even cooler belt... But I suppose I could give you a shot of joining my clique, but you should really think about getting a cool mask."

@KoL@McFazzer@Williwaw@blackdragon@Scallop

It should come as no surprise that a heavily populated local near constantly inundated with foot traffic between establishments as eager to serve alcohol as they were to take your life savings would also have good police response times. A conflict in the casino can always be handled by well trained and discrete security, but past their doors it was an issue of public concern and that required a prompt response.

The anonymous call from a certain fashionista with a flare for the gothic and accompanying photos was worthy of a single squad car, two officers old hands at the beat pulling up five minutes after the call went out and arriving to find the picture matched reality. An officer with a balding head and pronounced gut cautiously approached the group of costumed youths with a hand resting against his thighs in easy reach of a holstered taser while the other remained in the vehicle manning the radio.

"All right ladies and gentleman. We've received reports of an unusual gathering here tonight. What seems to be the trouble here?" The officer asked, his tone diplomatic and calm as he tried to assess the situation. By all accounts this wasn't a case of loitering considering their lack of obstruction and outlandish attire wasn't a crime here of all places. It would save him the hassle of paperwork if he could see them on their way without making an issue of it.

What was chiefly of interest in the responding officer's mind was the one in what appeared to be a hazmat suit, one that didn't look cheap and fabricated for an office party to say the least. While they had no reason to suspect anything he still turned to Endemia and asked, "Sir, could you please remove your hood for identification purposes. It would make this process much smoother and we can all be on our ways tonight."

Gary simply smirked as he noticed an officer, an actual honest to goodness police officer, coming over. He simply gave his newfound associates a glance over, not bothering to remove himself from Nero's grasp. "More matters shall be maundered upon in just but a moment, for now I simply advice a dash of silence while I discuss." he said to the group. This was a matter that would be easily solved with a few astute observations, gleamed from his keen vampiric senses as he heard a distinctive ringing sound of telecommunications of this day and age while noting that others were moving away from the larger group of classmates he had set out for as another classmate engaged in a joust of the barbed tongues, and a few pieces of dialogue. Really the only thing he'd have to worry about is if any of them cracked and prematurely engaged in blood-lust.

Well if that happened, Gary supposed he would be obliged to give them a brief tour of the city. The dumpster burial grounds for the 'family business' was always a bit of a pleasant sight.

"Oh, nothing at all apart from a most ill-tempered sort wanting to spoil a good night being had. This girl was just upset that she didn't get to join in jovial bonding with friends. A rather impetuous demeanor, certainly does not help in maintaining any friendships, so she must have made a phony report. There is nothing to worry about officer, well apart from your eternal soul, but if you have but a moment sir I'd like to talk to you about the Church."

@CommanderCool @Lonewolf685 @Scallop @blackdragon @McFazzer

---

Holy shit, someone actually knew her name. Between the people in this class who were either delusional or blind, Pucca would have thought such small-time crimes committed by her would have gone unnoticed. But this bug girl actually knew her name, let alone the type of crime that drew her attention. Because as Flick spoke and detailed her plan, Pucca’s grin curled into a sadistic little smirk. Before long, she was finding herself nodding along in sick agreement, ignoring Eris entirely now.

“You know, that sounds mighty fun to do….er, Flock? Fluck? Fuck. Yeah, I’m just gonna call you that. That sounds pretty fun and dangerous, Fuck.” Just the thought of causing a mass power outage tickled the imp’s funny bone. And it seemed like the party was getting more and more guests, the arrival of Captain Endemia catching her eye. He was a funny boy…or was it a girl? Regardless, Pucca had to admit this strange thing would come in handy if they were going to be causing mayhem in Vegas. After all… “You know people in here? Look at you with the connections,” she whistled as Endemia’s proclamation.

Pucca’s smirk deepened. “Tell you what. I bet we can-huh?” Oh yeah, Eris was still a factor. And it looked like her overall disgust with the group had peaked to a boiling point. Dragging her away, Pucca could only stare back at them with dusting heels as Eris made her phone call and called a taxi. Before she was promptly stuffed in the car, Pucca fished around in her skirt pocket before tossing something small right at Flick. Assumedly she would actually catch the object, otherwise it’d make the imp look like a bigger fool than she already was.

“Keep that around, Fuck. You might find it comes in handy for your heist,” the imp snickered, before being crammed into the car alongside Miss Edgelord Supreme. The roar of engines humming into the clear night, Pucca finally paid attention back to her new friend now. Oh yeah, the card. She still had it in her hand. All smiles, she slowly scooted closer to the Valkyrie with the card offered up to her. “Whoah, whoah now Princess, you trying to kidnap me? Pretty sure that’s illegal, both in Hell and in the human world.”

---

"Well met, Lord Annatar - I, Dr. Minccia, am thankful for the aid. My plan is simple - My GPS can tell me the location of every major jeweler in Las Vegas!"

"Anyways, I'd be more than willing to split the loot evenly in exchange for assistance. While my robots handle a few other locations, I believe we should head... That way."

"If you are still having second thoughts, I will also concede the right to pick the name for our temporary alliance. Just be sure to make it have flair."

"Nnnnnnot so fast, Doctor Mamacita!"

"But what could be the opposite of jewels..?"

"TO THE CITY POUND!"

Despite having been engulfed in Maricola's fleshy appendage, Annatar was at least still capable of communicating telepathically, though he wondered how the boy felt, hearing Annatar's thoughts while seeing his small mammal body slowly get sucked into Maricola's meaty arm. "I have no desire to name the alliance, so you may keep that honor for yourself." Annatar thought-spoke to Justin.

At that moment, Maricola made her declaration and headed towards the pound, with both Annatar and Justin in tow. Annatar doubted Justin had any interest in whatever Maricola was up to, and was afraid that if this continued, Justin would lose interest and seek help elsewhere. Seeing as Justin wanted to steal jewels, he could surmise that Justin simply wanted to accumulate wealth, a common and simple motivation for humans. But seeing as how Maricola had decided to seek the opposite of jewels (pets, or somesuch apparently according to Maricola's unfathomable mind), Annatar would need to strike some sort of compromise. "Maricola, wait! If you are against jewels, we could steal something else. And I don't mind being stuck inside you, but at least let our friend her go, please? We could steal something else instead, our new friend seems keen on getting filthy rich. Having hung out with, ahem, 'youth' your age, I know a thing or two about 'technology', which you seem to be a master of. Couldn't you easily 'hack' these gambling machines to award us with money we haven't won? That way, we accumulate wealth and don't even seem to be doing it illegitimately. How about that Maricola? Or maybe, you tell me what you're interested in?"

Yes, Annatar realized, he was indeed babysitting.

Oh, joy. The police are here already. What a way to spoil our fun. Bethany started to tense up as the cop came by- sure, a lone mortal, even an armed one, wasn't much of a challenge for her, but where there was one, there were bound to be more. A fight with half the police department of a major city wasn't one they could win.

"Nothing at all going on here, Officer. Just a bunch of teenagers hanging out. Honestly, I'd think you should be more concerned about one of the tourists starting something. Alcohol and gambling make a dangerous mix, as you're probably aware working in this town."

---

---

The unmistakeable sound of a car pulling up close to them snapped Angela away from her train of thoughts. She peeked over her shoulder and, when recognizing the shape of an american patrol car and the stereotypical doughnut loving policeman, she saw an oportunity. The demoness made sure her glamour was up and running properly: after all, her plan depended in being escorted to her destination and not to a holding cell for having potential weapons attached to her head. She used the front-facing camera of her tablet as a mirror, and she began to fixe her hair, remove any possible traces of sulfur and other residues from portal passage and, all in all, attempted to look as stunning as possible.

When done, she discreetly made the tablet vanish and turned to face the cop(s). A confident gait took her towards the policeman, a walk that she thought would be cool and interesting but in truth would be best fit for common hookers. When close enough to the man, she'd flash a charming smile and begin speaking. She wouldn't use magic, hoping that normal acting would do the trick. "Hey there~ Mind helping me out with a little thing? I wanted to go see that place from the TV shows, you know it, right? But I got lost and I forgot my phone at my place! Mind taking me there, sir?"

There could've been better ways for doing this, like taking a cab as she saw someone do. However, even in so-called vacations (if you could even call them that) she was sure that people were watching them and grading them as they went, so being original would be a way to get in the good side of the teachers both by thinking of a way to get a ride on the spot, and for getting the class out of a possible pickle with this. But there was a much more flagrant reason of why she was doing this: She didn't want to walk all the way over there on high heels.

The longer Maricola was around Uncle Coobie, the more evident it became that this backwater planet had all but bent him over a table. First fooling around with children, and now a gambling addiction? This place had turned him into a bona-fide delinquent!

"Doctor, we need emergency treatment, STAT~!"

Arm unfurling into a tentacle, Maricola reared back and whipped Uncle Coobie's mortal vessel towards St. Euphemia Municipal Animal Shelter with spine-cracking force, sending him through the surprisingly large bay windows at roughly 110 miles per hour, tripping a burglar alarm, and crushing the night shift man's windpipe.

On the whole, not a bad start to the evening.

Hopping through the smashed window to follow its comrade-cum-projectile, Maricola giggled as it dragged Professor Backpack across the front office floor- not that there was any malice in it, he was just so quiet Maricola had forgotten he was actually there in all the excitement- and ripped the reinforced chain-link gate leading to the animal housing clean off it's hinges, tossing it overhead with a deafening CRASH.

"Oh Dog~gies~!", Maricola shouted, singsong, as it stepped into the concrete-and-sheet-metal room full of caged, terrified animals, "We're here to pla~ay~!"

@Duoya @Stern Algorithm

Justin's composure broke slightly as the fleshy arm surrounded his lower body, restraining him in a tight grip. He nearly reached over to tap onto the Tarrare, alerting it to begin attacking, before Maricola began to run the complete opposite direction. Considering she knew the direction to the pound, Justin drew the conclusion that she must have been in this city before, or perhaps had some extrasensory ability. A lot of updating had to be done with Pandora's files of his classmates.

Justin was thankfully able to reach Pandora's box, allowing him to move one of the tendrils into the Tarrare's access port - he didn't give the attack command, however, realizing the futility of doing so when she already had such a tight grip on him. The Tarrare could probably melt through her flesh, but not fast enough before she could crush him to death. Despite being mostly submerged, Annatar spoke telepathically to the pair.

"Maricola, wait! If you are against jewels, we could steal something else. And I don't mind being stuck inside you, but at least let our friend her go, please? We could steal something else instead, our new friend seems keen on getting filthy rich. Having hung out with, ahem, 'youth' your age, I know a thing or two about 'technology', which you seem to be a master of. Couldn't you easily 'hack' these gambling machines to award us with money we haven't won? That way, we accumulate wealth and don't even seem to be doing it illegitimately. How about that Maricola? Or maybe, you tell me what you're interested in?"

Before he could respond, they arrived at what appeared to be an animal hospital - with blinding speed, Maricola launched out Annatar at the glass window, shattering it immediately - as well as shattering the windpipe of the man who was at the front counter. He twitched briefly, convulsing on the ground just within Justin's peripheral view. It took nearly thirty seconds for him to stop - whether because he had went unconscious or because he had already expired was an unknown to Justin. The loud blaring of the burglar alarm and the cacophony of howling and barking dogs was temporarily deafened when Justin saw this, mostly out of shock. She had killed him so easily, and was holding onto Justin with the same hands that just took a life.

And judging by the happy way she acted, she wasn't the least bit apologetic or upset. Justin knew in that moment that he needed to escape these insane people, by any means necessary. He spoke, dragged along the ground with occasional glass shard cutting into his skin.

"I-if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to be let down at once."

If she didn't comply, Justin was still connected to the Tarrare - maybe he could escape if it cut off her arm? There was plenty of metal around here, so he would be able to leave without fear of the Tarrare being dismantled, even with the force that the girl displayed.

@Stern Algorithm@Menhir

I am inside someone's throat. Hello epiglottis, hello larynx. You know, it's been a long day. I am inside someone's throat. Good night epiglottis, good night larynx. I am inside someone's throat. I. Am. Inside. SOMEONE'S. THROAT.

"I-if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to be let down at once."

Annatar's crumpled body floated up limply and magically transformed into his humanoid form. He was pinching the bridge of his nose trying to figure out what to do.

"Oh Dog~gies~!", Maricola shouted, singsong, as it stepped into the concrete-and-sheet-metal room full of caged, terrified animals, "We're here to pla~ay~!"

"Hey, Maricola, I think Dr. Minaccia would like to play with the dogs too! But he can't unless you let go of him. How about it, let's all play with the doggies!" Annatar attempted to coax Maricola into releasing the poor child. He didn't know how he was going to explain letting one of his classmates die on vacation, though knowing the school, maybe they wouldn't care. he walked over to her engorged fist and tapped at it, hoping she'd let go.