Boring, Boring, Boring. Most of those missions sounded just plain and uninteresting, with exception of Saint Material, and one that couldn't even be accessed properly. "What about Massachrist?" To Myriel's surprise, Tara raised her voice, it was rare for her to actually suggest a mission and had probably to do with her Origin Myth. Purposefully ignoring her for a second, Myriel had a hard time deciding between those two but her choice fell ultimately towards the more suspicious sounding one. "Hm, did you say something?" Myriel asked her servant after signing up for said mission but Tara just slowly shook her head, giving Myriel the chance to continue. "The mission is actually starting very soon, so let's make haste." With a slightly depressed look on the Demon Lord's face, she and her Mistress moved towards their next destination.

Aurora Transfer Tower

The tower was full of live as ever, Champions and NPCs alike in all colors and forms were going about their daily business, but nothing of that mattered to the lazy knight-hero who was taking her sweet time to follow her Master through the masses. Considering the nature of the mission Tara had actually expected a way more subtle location, then again, she couldn't be bothered. As they kept moving towards the main-elevator Myriel turned around.

"Could you please use your feet for what they were intended? We are running out of time." Usually, Myriel wouldn't care that much but given the mission she was actually excited enough that even her cat tail couldn't hold still; and her relaxed lazy bodyguard did nearly everything mechanically possible to make them late. Luckily for her Tara did listen and they both hurried towards the big elevator, taking them to another floor where they changed trains elevators. "Huh?" To Myriel's surprise no one except herself and Tara were in this one, maybe they took the wrong elevator? No, that couldn't be, Myriel wasn't stupid after all and thinking about it actually made more sense.

Leaning against the wall and riding that thing made the Hero really tired, giving out a way too loud yawn. To ease her wait, Tara simply took out a toothpick and started to play around with it a bit.

As the elevator doors finally opened, Myriel stepped out into one of the countless, but nearly empty, hub decks of the tower. Spotting two more people she moved towards them, unsure if they were her quest givers or not. One of them looked really odd though, while the other one seemed a bit familiar. "Hey~, the name's Myriel and this is my loyal Servant Tara. Whom do I have the pleasure with?" While Tara lifted her hand up with a rather disinterested "Yo.", Myriel had a warm smile on her face. Given the current circumstances, Myriel was pretty sure that both of them had something to do with the mission.

The Knight put her toothpick away and yawned yet again, how long would she need to wait now? No matter how she looked at it this was way too suspicious and she couldn't let her senses get dulled. "...!" That was, however, to no avail. As seemingly out of nowhere another person, a male at that, showed up. How could she have not noticed his presence earlier? Nearly frightening. Luckily enough he was the one to finally brief them about their task.

'This is not a mission issued by a human or corporation, but by a fellow AI.'

Really? Tara could only hope that it was indeed for a worthy and judge cause; luckily for her she could trust her mistress instincts.

"Alright." As the man finally finished his explanation, Myriel didn't even get a chance to consider taking the box onto her as the familiar looking one already snatched it away. A bit annoyed, she left those matters for later.

Ekho raised her hand, calmed after letting her anger burst like a bubble. Smiling, she thought to herself of how she put that hooded girl in her place. Ha! She didn't care what people thought about her, no, she just needs it to be clear that she is the leader and everyone will listen to her. They would fail if they didn't listen to her, it was inevitable. They would listen to her, they had to. She would make sure of it, though maybe blowing up wouldn't have been the way to assert her dominance. Ekho preferred the company of animals, it was much easier to show she was boss - just with a snatch of scruff and they were obedient. Champions, however, questioned everything. It was quite annoying.

"Are you dying?" She asked because of his obvious discomfort, if you could call it that. He could be mistaken for a skeleton at this point. Ekho wouldn't be surprised if he just fell over and croaked.

Ekho bent over and scooped up her spear, twirling it expertly before turning around to face the woman she had previously been attacking. "Sorry, I can't control my temper sometimes."

To assert your dominance to other Champions, you have to prove yourself: you have to be reliable, strong, intelligent, and charismatic. The charisma part would pose a problem, however.

As the scientist was clearly exhausted with this particular social interaction Beringer set his hand lightly on the shoulder of the large man that stood beside him. "Sometimes, it is best if you say nothing at all Ulysses." Beringer advises. Ulysses might have an overreaction, but he wouldn't be able to do much here. Beringer slowly walked up to Delphia, sitting down on his heels, he offered his hand forward (The one without the Gauntlet), "My name is Beringer, it seems, as of now, you will be accompanying us on our daily routines. Why you would take any interest in such things is not of my concern, however, I feel as if we should get to know each-other." Beringer turns towards his mission allies, "I think we should stay as a group for now and introduce ourselves" his gaze remained on Koemi, who had already separated herself from the others, near instinctual anti-social behavior it seemed.

Beringer looks back to Delphia, tilting his head somewhat, "Now, you obviously won't be benefiting from people who withhold their emotions, so Ulysses may actually be more beneficial to you than anyone else here, just be mindful not to pick up his stupidity or brashness" Beringer murmurs. Speaking up Beringer once again turns to his associates, "Koemi...is it? In what way do you think you're completing this mission by withdrawing yourself?"

Ulysses HAMMERJUSTICE

As Ulysses stared ahead, occasionally sipping at his coke, something astounding and improbable had happened.

He actually realized what the hell he was actually supposed to be doing.

Suddenly, he felt quite stupid and a little embarrassed, but decided to make up for lost time. With more stupid. "Oh, we're supposed to have the girl follow us while we do... stuff." Ulysses said, obviously having trouble thinking of any specific examples, as 'daily activities' was quite vague. The creepy cyborg guy suggested that it was a good time for introductions, and Ulysses agreed. "Yeah, I'm Ulysses! But, most people already know that..." How could they not, Ulysses was really damn hard to miss. "And that's the guy that's... well, everywhere. And that's the Crow-girl that took Tom away." He said to the Blue-haired man and the crow-girl, respectively. He was still kinda bitter about Tom... never even let him finish his cheeseburger... "And... I don't think I've met you. Sorry..." He said to the other Robot. Other cyborg champions were on the rare side, so he tended to try and make friends with them. He might as well, seeing as how most champions were small anime girls.

In any event, crow-girl was talking to, what else, a crow, Blu hair was upset, the scientist seemed confused and frustrated, and the cyborg was the only one actually trying to do anything. He didn't really hear the cyborg insult him, so no harm done. He walked over to the Girl, and went down to a knee. "Hey, what's your name? I'm Ulysses." He said as he offered the girl a hand. The girl just sort of blankly stared at him, no emotion whatsoever in her eyes. "Don't want to talk yet? that's alright..." he said. as he lightly picked her up, and put her up on his shoulders. "Well, with you up here, you'll see more stuff! It's called the high ground, very important." He said with a bit of a laugh. "Well, we should head out, no sense standing around being disappointed in one another." Odd. That last sentence showed an unusual level of awareness.

Goddamn guild, making me double post...

"Righhhhht..." Gaul said as the priestess put her sword to his neck " Well my compatriots are discussing the issue with your mayor and I guess you could say i'm running reconnaissance." When she put her sword down he was a little relieved, Holy weapons were one of the only things that still bothered him and having a blessed sword so close was kinda scary. "I shall be setting up an advance guard and sending out some scouts, and as I was trying to say earlier any information on these creatures would be very useful."

As he spoke he began the short ritual necessary for him to raise his undead servants, Green energy beginning to form around him and coalesce in the staff before reaching a critical point he strikes the ground sending the energy pulsing into the ground. After a short delay eight skeletons wielding rusted blades pulled themselves from the earth around him. "Take up defensive positions around this gate" he commanded and his fighters obeyed turning and shambling to different spots around the entrance. "except for you two" he said to the two closest skeletons who stopped and turned and faced him. With a twist of his staff and a word of power the two skeletons exploded into a cloud of swirling ash and smoke that coalesced into the vague form of a wraith it's two pallid arms hanging limply. "I want you to scan the forest and find what you can about where these things have been coming from" He ordered the creature who nodded its affirmation and flew off in a swirl of darkness.

"You three front and center" he commanded another batch of skeletons over to him, when they arrived he uttered another word of power and made another gesture with his staff and the three skeletons crumbled into dirt before in their place arose from the earth the hulking armored form of a Grave-lord. "You will be taking the center point" Gaul told it "Let no enemy pass alive." The Grave-lord nodded its silent acceptance and moved in its slow methodical way to stand right next to where the priestess was.

Looking around at his handy work Gaul was satisfied the four defenders would be able to hold the gate easily with a little assistance and the wraith would give him a bead on Stitchenstein. Feeling a little knackered after all this summoning Gaul walked under the gate out of the rain and sat on the ground crossing his legs and began meditating, the closest to sleep he got now.

The astonished waiter, moreso surprised than angry or troubled, picked himself up with the aid of Ki, brushed himself off, and silently picked up what he could from the wreckage. With his tray, he retrieved the porcelain pieces Ki attained and mopped up the spilled liquid with a white towel slung on his apron. Before he could even take her offered cash, however, a boisterous voice commanded Ki lower her hand and keep the change.

"Wahahaha! No need lass, I can take care of this. I'm rather sure my pockets can handle the bit of loss." From behind Ki and Mai, a tall, muscular, and dark figure approached, his crimson cape trailing behind like some sort of flagrant superhero. His lizard-like, eyeless face grinned merrily as he retrieved a small wad of cash from his pant's loose pockets. "More than enough to compensate!" he roared.

"I can see by the markers placed on y'all that you're the ones I need to meet, eh?" the champion flung a finger at some unseen object above their heads, likely placed there by Zade... Zane sometime ago. It was invisible to the three champions, but Reilcall was adamant in seeing them. "Where's the third?" he asked, scoping out the cafe with a hand held over his non-existent eyes. "Ah!" Beckoning for Mai and Ki to follow, he found his way to Marian's table, and plopping himself onto the fancy chair, nearly flipped the table with his crashing weight.

"Good, we're all here, yea? I'd love to get along. Got a TV series I'm missing, actually," slapping the table, he went on, "mission statement, blah blah, there's this guy. His name is Sprite. He wrecks stuff. We need you to find him and capture him, or kill him if that seems impossible. If he respawns at the hub, he'll be captured in an instant. 'Capiche? Now obviously, three pretty dope champions have failed getting him themselves, me included, so don't take him lightly." Reilcall (or at least, that who he presumably was) pulled out a small folder filled with documents and threw them onto the table, their contents sliding over to the seated champions.

"In there is what info we got on him. Use it as you like, cause it's all we got. Questions?" he darted his gaze between the three girls quite rapidly, as if conveying he expected them to have none, really.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



"Opposition?" The man considered for a moment as Vydia took the box into her keeping, "Not that I can think of. We've managed to keep pretty hidden thus far, so I doubt anyone in particular is looking for us, or you for that matter now. Can't say sky pirates won't try to rob you blind, though," he winked playfully. A look of recollection overcame his face, and he rose a finger as if to raise a point.

"Ah! And that brings us to the next step." The man rolled up his sleeve to reveal a watch-like device around his wrist, which he quickly tapped on. One of the open windows meant for allowing sky ships in and out of the flight deck was suddenly covered up slightly with an immense shape. From invisibility to opaqueness, a large ship made itself apparent, quite obviously the transit they were destined to take. "Miss Helia will be your guide to Nihon. She'll be on board." As the man said as such, the back cargo bay door to the ship hissed open, lowering its ramparts onto the flight deck and beckoning the champions inside.

"If you've got any concerns, ask Miss Helia, as I will not be in contact with you. She'll still be just as informed, rest assured."

Mai walked behind her sister, keeping her eyes up to the ceiling, wondering what type of cute girls at this cafe. Now that was very important. Variety is key in these types of harems, giggling to herself as her imagination flourished. She didn't really have to look where she was going, having turned on her sort of "power" and was just gliding thruogh the crowd behind her sister in ease.

Man, I should've done this earlier, I almost took this guy's head off for bumping into me... that would've been ugly...

Ki of course, was being her usual klutzy self, though thoughtful, bumping into someone and making a sort of scene in the cafe. Mai didn't seem worried, knowing that their bodies are much more durable than any normal human, still looking at the scene in an incredulous gaze. She stammered something even she couldn't even understand, Mai turning away as she brought out cash to compensate. That must've been the third time this month.

Just then, a lofty looking man come up from behind, Mai having already taken a step further back as he approached. The girl tried her to best to shake this weird feeling from this corporate sleeze, but made an attempt to grin, albeit a little crooked. For some reason the way he messed up his underling Zane's name ticked at the back of her mind.

"Sorry about that, my sister can be clumsy sometimes." Mai added plainly, secretly shocked by the large amount of cash he had produced. Her eyes crossed to Mai for a moment, looking at her with a look that read "Holy shit."

Looking up when he said markers, she could say this wasn't the first time, so that's probably why she didn't really pay attention. Following her supposed employer, she saw another had joined the party, her eyes only slightly recognizing the individual. She could've sworn she'd seen her somewhere before, but couldn't remember anymore about it.

She made sure to sit after the man had shooken up the table, keeping the laughter to herself as she kept beside her sister. Curious as to what T.V. series he was talking about, more so she very much liked his simple explanation. They just had to catch some guy, dead or alive, one that three corporate funded parties couldn't do on their own? That shold be fun, not many people can escape her once she's locked target, so it would be interesting to test just how good this guy really was.

He then tossed out a few documents, the girl scanning them a little lazily. Leaning back, she'd rather just let her sister handle all of the reading, since she liked to do that anyways.

Looking across, she eyed this stiff-lipped Marian, giving her a quick introduction, "Hey there, I know it doesn't really matter to you, but I'm Mai. Nice to meet you."

Marian saw the reptilian champion arrive and make a complete ruckus and trash about in the cafe. How was he able to even get inside was something completely unknown to Marian. Weren't she as serious as she was, her jaw would have dropped comically while opening her eyes with disbelief but rather than that, she just sipped some water from her glass. 'Damn this high budget champions. They are always so flashy.' Not that she had chance to talk, being dressed in the oldest looking dress someone could find in the Victorian era. But she wasn't a damn lizard with no eyes that tried to be funny by apparenting he indeed had.

She sighs and tries to duck just below the table, to avoid being seen by the gigantic reptile, but it was already too late. As they approached, she took out a shitty excuse. "Oh, I'm so very sorry. I dropped something." She says with a friendly smile, but the male champion pays her no mind and sits down to brief them on their mission. Marian listened attentively to what the lizard had to say (She had no actual interest in his name), after all, any information on this Sprite guy is very welcome. However, the lizard's explanation was blunt and short, to say the least. Other that this guy seemed to be powerful enough to take out high-budgeties, there wasn't anymore info that could be helpful for Marian. She sighs again.

'Ah-ah... Can't they say something about their psychological profile? It'd be easier for me to work with something like that.' She glances in the direction the Champion is. 'And it seems obligatory to send in the most muscular and less intelligent guy to debrief this missions.' She is about to take the folder the guy just threw in the table, but before that, one girl speaks to her. She introduces herself as Mai. This was the moment for which she had been relaxing her muscles for. She puts up the best smile you'd ever see in your whole day before starting speaking. "Why, hello there Mai! Don't present yourself like that, it makes you sound less important to how you really are. I am Marian, a pleasure to meet you too." Marian turn around to the other girl, which name she hasn't heard. "And hello to you too! In case you didn't heard it before, my name is Marian." She puts up both hands, so she can shake hands with both sisters. [B]"Let's do our best in this mission, shall we?"

[IGNORE]

[IGNORE]

As the man pulled out the large sum of cash, Ki returned the glance to Mai - Holy shit, indeed. However, she was quite relieved she didn't have to spend the rest of the cash she had with her, she'd probably need it later for transit, anyway. Ki, as she put away her money inside of her jacket, touched the pouches holding the nine Najisefas to make sure they were all there. As she touched Sol, he opened a soul link between her and him. Instantly, information about her surroundings froze her in place for a few seconds, before the flood of information from the last few hours stopped.

I will be needing your assistance in the future, so stop recording information. She thought.
No, wai- Ki slid her finger back across sol, disconnecting the soul link.

As soon as the man walked inside, Ki took out her book. She saw the table he was heading towards and sat next to the woman there, flipping the page as the man sat down, shaking the entire table. Enough to throttle Ki's arm, ripping a large gash in the page. she tried hard to hide her irritation, she really did. But her creased eyebrows refused to fold back to shape. As the man began the briefing, Ki put in the bookmark and put away the book.

How nice, I love fighting. Mai and I are going to beat the shit out of this sorry jerkbag and bring the payment back, bringing our money situation back to a stable way. I hope. That's how that should work, right? Ki shifted in her seat, antsy to start the mission.

Her eyebrows remained creased, even as she pulled up the information on the target. Ki read every page twice, reading it thoroughly and not going through any information. After what Mai did to the last mission, well... They needed the money. After reading it, Ki slid her finger up, taking a picture of the front and back of the pages. She then saved the pictures, sliding her finger down to close the menu.

Unfolding her eyebrows, Ki passed the booklet to Marian, "Hello, I'm Ki." She said plainly, taking out two earpieces from inside her jacket. She turned them to channel four, putting one in her sisters ear. It was built custom for her ear, blending in perfectly. Ki put in her own, tapping it twice to switch it on. She then tapped it once more to activate when she said the password; Naji.

"Sorry." Ki said, turning to Marian. "I only bought two. But if you add me as a contact over the phone; I can send you messages if we find him. You would do the same, naturally. Ki slid a number in front of her vision to the right, bringing it to Marian's field of vision.

Mai nods in response, having noticed the girl sitting there with a subtle severity to her expression the whole time, and now all of a sudden putting up a smile that would break the hearts of countless men. However, she wasn't a man, nor will she be swooned by a dark smile so obvious as that. She may acts like a little child, despite her tall size and her complaints, but knew a good actor when she saw one. Afterall, all of that watching would be for no reason, if she didn't learn anything from it.

The girl was simply too perfect, not missing a single beat or gesture.

Whatever her intentions were, it must've be something worth hiding. She wasn't going around pretending to do things, tricking people for no reason. Not many can hide, especially not from the eyes of The Watcher. She didn't exactly glare at the girl, but her gaze didn't have a friendly look either. The mood just yelled "tension", and was it swirling around the maid cafe in spades.

Worst off, there weren't any cute girls around.

Lifting off her seat just a little, she bent over the table, grabbing the hand and swiftly shakes it, "Pleasure, as long as we do what we're supposed to, there won't be any problems."

Letting go, she surveys the girl one more time, her eyes in deep recollection, "...Marian... Ah, the Gravity Mistress? I've heard rumors of your vast powers."

Skyswimsky said
"Hey~, the name's Myriel and this is my loyal Servant Tara. Whom do I have the pleasure with?" While Tara lifted her hand up with a rather disinterested "Yo.", Myriel had a warm smile on her face. Given the current circumstances, Myriel was pretty sure that both of them had something to do with the mission.

Syntia took notice as a gothic lolita and her servant entered the room. Servant? Is this girl royalty or something? Oh well, doesn't matter. "The name's Synthia, but you can call me onee-chan" she said with a wink and chuckle. It was meant as a harmless jest, she just couldn't resist. Somehow this mission may turn out to be more fun than she anticipated.

After the mysterious box-man briefed them all, Vydia immediately took the box. She seemed like the type to get things done, good. Besides, Synthia didn't want to touch that thing. Maybe she's paranoid but she'd rather not handle a freaky mystery box until someone else has first. She wanted to ask what was in it but knew it would be to no avail. Soon after their transport came Synthia boarded with the others, her boots making a familiar clank on the ship's steel. Sky pirates shouldn't be a problem, especially since the ship had cloaking. And if no one was gunning for them like box-man said, the mission should be easy... maybe too easy. She wondered why they were even needed, why couldn't Miss Helia deliver the box? A cold feeling in her gut told her to not let her guard down. Before she spoke with the others Synthia waited 'til the cargo bay door shut so box-man couldn't hear her. "This should be easy enough, just don't go stirring up trouble. I'm looking at you blondie" she said facetiously, looking to Tara who had been rather reticent since she arrived.

Hopefully Miss Helia is less circumspect than box-man, that way they may be able to get more info out of her; the last thing she wanted was this mission to turn out to be a suicide mission. She'd have to chat-up Miss Helia later, work her magic. She just hoped the others won't cramp her style too much.

Oh my. How vicious. It seemed that even momentary contact with a being such as Ulysses was enough to drive a rational, kind scientist into a spiteful being that seeks only to make too-subtle jabs at the Fire Titan. Averus smiled slightly, wondering whether this was the true reason behind the 'inhuman' avatar of the scientist: to prevent others from seeing all the facial gestures he makes when he speaks. What was more interesting though, was a little piece of information regarding Delphia's emotional state.

She had emotions, but for some reason, she can't manifest them. Her learning capacity is high, which is probably something that they confirmed early on through alpha and beta tests. Yet still...why would a highly intelligent AI be unable to replicate the emotions of humans, and instead stay almost absolutely indifferent to her environment? And more importantly...how is this a 'Research' mission for the champions themselves, when they were pretty much just asked to go out on a playdate with Delphia? Not that Averus personally minded hanging out with some youngsters, but still, when he heard 'nigh-universal', he was expecting something more interesting. Like a sentient bug in the system that has the potential to bring the entirety of Agar Mythos crashing down.

Ignoring the antics of Koemi and her talking crow, Averus decided that, with such a ridiculous combination of three dimensional surveillance and titanic firepower, the group should be able to enjoy their date for as long as possible. Even though it's pretty damn obvious that they're protecting Delphia.

As he followed the group, with Beringer starting the not-so mandatory introductions between the team, Averus said, flicking a few strands of hair in a way that mimicked a certain American 19th century movie star, “Well, all you kiddies should know who I am by now, but I'm Averus Horo, the Archivor Ever-Present. And Koemi, if we really do have a malicious stalker lusting after Delphia, it might be more helpful if you didn't make your surveillance cameras so obvious. Something should be said about subtlety, yes?”

With that, he started up his 'personal' surveillance system, not for anything nearby, or even for the sake of the Research mission, but for his job of recording every mission and event that occurs in Agar Mythos. He lifted the frayed ends of his scarf, placed one of those miniature screens to each, and then enjoyed himself as all the sensory information flowed into his mind. Then, for the sake of focusing, he isolated himself from that, and continued onwards.

Ulysses was taking quite a liking towards their little doll, it appeared, and Averus called out, “Oh, by the way, Ulysses, mind bringing Delphie down for a bit? I need to take her measurements and such, for...personal purposes.”

"The lustful stalker is already here though." Muttered the girl, quietly under her breath.

As if humbly answering a call of attendance, Emi rose to her feet slowly patting her garters routinely. Pitch detached himself from the adorned fabric, quickly fluttering to his designated shoulder once again. And the swarm seemed all but amused from Averus' comment, seeming to chirp among one another as they stared at him with beady-black eyes. Letting out a brief exhale that sounded weak, followed by the shaking of her shambly legs the crows responded to this discomfort by raising their wings and taking flight. As the swarm made their way just out of sight, her glance fired at the instigator.

"Subtle enough, sir?" Koemi asked in a sarcastically polite tone, offering an equally dishonest curtsy to this performance.

After this, she lightly stepped over towards the semi-robotic gentlemen, and on arrival turning quickly towards the rather loud one. Her eyes shut, she was gathering herself, and after this short pause Emi looked to this person with an innocent smile and raised cheeks.

"Ulysses, you seem to be a friendly person, but if I recall correctly you are armed to the tooth and are a bit volatile at every inch of you. Wouldn't it be in the best of our interests to let her walk with us as a group? Not only would it be a great deal safer, but she'd draw much more attention to herself sitting atop a boisterous fellow like yourself."

With this small explanation, she continued to beam her smile and tilted her head awaiting response from the rather loud individual.