Unkown58 — Roleplayer Guild

Arkin Rey, James Harris, & Arthur Pendragon

As the full moon became visible against the colorful dusk sky, The three men arrived at their destination, none of them knowing exactly what to expect. All three of them, however, were not expecting the organization from their respective letters to be housed within a building emblazoned with the words ‘VOLCANO INSURANCE CO.’

There was something overtly fishy about the whole thing, like a low-budget parody horror movie. The letter’s promises were probably as bogus as the need for volcano insurance in western Texas. Even a catastrophic yellowstone eruption would only douse a place this far from the epicenter in a ton of ash. As James parks his motorcycle and Arthur dismounts Arkin, the large wolf is the first to approach the building, though not through its front entrance. Arkin first leapt up onto a nearby building, before jumping on top of ‘Volcano Insurance Co.’ It was only two stories tall, but being able to leap atop buildings from ground level was a nice, if surreal perk of being a giant wolf.

The roof bore only modest shin-height railings and was largely utilitarian in nature, featuring ventilation ducts and solar panels. They were a bit small for Arkin to use for infiltration, but luckily the stairwell into the building wasn’t kept locked.

Leaping back down to rejoin the others, he did his best to convey his intentions by gesturing towards the roof with his head, since he is completely and totally incapable of communicating through simple barks.

James watched Arkin’s actions, momentarily confused, but quickly grasped his meaning. “You want us to go through the roof…?” That’s about as sketchy as this building’s obvious cover-story.

Exchanging a look with Arthur, James tilted his head in question, receiving a shrug in response. People doth call it ‘animal instincts’ for a reason.

 …Alright then. James can’t really argue with that, so guess Arf’s leading the way. Besides, if this supposed organization really ends up being that easy to infiltrate, James’ll know that they aren’t worth wasting time with. Adjusting his leather jacket (a jacket he hadn’t previously worn, having bought it on a whim after discovering his powers because of its style reminiscent of plague doctors), he took his aluminum bat out of his sidecar and shouldered it. “Through the roof it is then. I’m not seeing a ladder anywhere though, can you still jump like that while carrying us?.”

Arkin simply bent down, like when he was letting Arthur climb aboard. The two men got on and held on tight as Arkin was barely able to repeat his previous jumps. Infiltration by roof still seemed like the best option, though he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to perform jumps like that quite as well every time.

In any case, as they entered the empty stairwell and descended into the building, they found it empty, devoid of any life or conspicuous aspects. When they reached the second floor, they took a peek inside, only to find an office workspace with the lights off, full of empty cubicles with the ‘VOLCANO INSURANCE CO.’ logo strewn about, adorning marketing posters and abandoned coffee mugs. Perhaps whatever organization that invited them here was in need of logistical support staff, or perhaps the obvious dummy company kept up pretenses here. Either way, a cursory examination revealed that it was very much not in use currently, unlike the first floor whose lights could be seen from outside.

As they returned to the stairwell and made their way down to its bottom floor; the ground floor, they exercised a bit more caution. Arkin led the way out as James held the door. There was only one other person discernable in the office space, and not having to wear shoes actually did wonders for minimizing the sound of one’s footsteps. Before he even knew what hit him, Arkin pounced on the man clad in a standard white dress shirt, holding him down by his shoulders as Arthur and James followed to begin the interrogation. Contrary to expectations however, the man simply grinned as he reached up and began petting Arkin’s sides with both hands. “Doggie! I knew you’d come!”

It was so jarring to see the man, Greg, react this way that Arkin froze up for a second, unsure of what to do in this situation. After thinking it over, he resolved to show Greg that they meant business and let out a series of angry barks that were so loud and visceral that even Arkin was having second thoughts about traumatizing the poor man. He had never tried to bark or growl at something to intimidate it. He never even practiced it, but the sound he made screamed ‘I am going to violently maul you’ and he found it a bit disturbing. James, never having heard what a dog about to attack sounded like, also couldn’t help but grow concerned about how far their wolven friend was willing to go.

The barks themselves managed to get Greg to shut his eyes, perhaps to avoid Arkin’s moist dog breath getting into them, but after he was done, he simply continued smiling and started talking to him like he was a baby. “There, there, you’re not in the best mood, are you, big guy? But your fur is so soft, yes, so, so soft. Nobody with such soft fur can be that bad.” He leaned his head over to one of Arkin’s legs and began nuzzling against it as he gradually dropped the baby-speak. “Well I’m here for you, big guy, just think of me as your best friend. You wanna tell your pal Greg what’s wrong?”

Arkin was starting to get uncomfortable with this situation, so he got off of Greg, who promptly sat up, briefly dusted himself off, then leaned forward on his knees to hug Arkin, who tilted away from it in mild annoyance. He was starting to really dislike this guy. Arthur himself felt a little saddened and disappointed that he was no longer the only person to have hugged Arkin today.

Meanwhile, James was doing his utmost not to laugh at the turn that the situation took. No matter how funny it was, they needed to present an united front right now, besides the poor wolf was obviously in distress, and intervention was called for. Clearing his throat, he took a step towards Greg, staring him down through his helmet. 

Greg noticed James' approach and immediately backed away, realizing his faux pas. “Oh! I’m sorry! Does he belong to you? Sometimes I just can’t help myself, I gotta pet the dog.”

James gave a nod in reply, the picture of seriousness. “I understand completely, if ya gotta pet the dog, ya gotta pet the dog.”

Arkin did not agree with his first statement, but wasn’t in an adequately linguistically capable position to object.

“But no, Arf does not belong to me. We just live together. Getting back on topic, though, I assume you’re the Greg from the letters?”

“Ah, yes, that would be me.”

Nodding at the confirmation, James gave his bat a little twirl, keeping his tone conversational. “While the invitation was appreciated, I could have gone without the underlying threat.”

Greg simply shrugged as he inched closer to Arkin, who simultaneously inched further away. “I was given suggestions on each letter by my superiors, based on the intel we gathered. Yours was the photos of your family, right?” 

James nods.

“Oh man, yours was one of the hardest. I think my coworkers took pictures of six different families before I had to give up and photoshop them around using pictures from fakebook. I think they just wanted to pass off a random family as yours, and I can’t blame them. They probably don’t get paid enough to go digging through public records in order to travel to a random suburban house just to take some pictures. If you thought they were photos though, that must mean I did a good job!”

“Uh…”

“Oh, you probably want to meet with my boss, or maybe just a manager? Well, you’ll find them in the floors below. You can take the elevator over there.” Greg pointed to the elevator sitting off to the side of the front desk. “Mind the kunai turret by the front door. Wouldn’t want the heckin’ pupper to get hurt.”

“Much obliged.” Taking a step in the direction Greg pointed, James paused before turning back to Greg. “You know, I like you, Greg. You seem like a diligent young man, and you’re obviously a talented photoshopper, so I’m just gonna say this once. No more pictures of my family, fake or not, okay?” Giving the young man a very friendly pat on the shoulder, James turned back around and made his way towards the elevator with Arkin. “You take care now, Greg.”

Arthur himself had held back, waiting for James and Arkin to get a little further away until they were what he hoped to be out of earshot Before turning his gaze to Greg the Wise. With one hand still gripping the hilt of his sword Arthur took a step forward, amused slightly as the man took a single step back, before leaning in closer, speaking in a firm but quiet tone. ”That dog has a name. It’s Arkin, and he belongs to no one. You seem nice, but remember, he is his own…” Arthur stopped for a moment, faltering at the realization that he couldn’t quite say he was ‘his own man’, before shaking away those thoughts and regaining his composure. ”...What I mean to say is ask before petting. Otherwise you won’t remain Greg the Wise.” Spinning on his heel Arthur hurried to catch up with his companions, feeling a slight shame for having blundered his words.

Greg responded with a smile, still not taking his eyes off of Arkin as he left with the others. “I thank you for your wisdom, Arthur Pendragon, one true king of the holy land of Britannia, protector of the weak and downtrodden!”

Arthur pretended not to hear that.

They all entered the elevator, which apparently had the ground floor as its highest floor, and waited as James selected B1, figuring they’d reach a reception area for whatever ‘Volcano Insurance Co.’ was a cover for.

Meanwhile, in a certain central control room, a goon smiles deviously as he presses a few buttons before leaning back in his swivel chair and taking a sip of his coffee. “Man, I love my job.”

Perhaps only a second passed between the elevator door closing and the lights flickering out. The entire elevator seemed to start shaking as red hazard lights replaced them, flashing rapidly enough to cause a seizure. They were arguably more blinding than the complete darkness that preceded them. Loud klaxons blared, as if to pretend it wasn’t a trap from the start. Gravity itself seemed to betray the three as they entered freefall and came to sudden stops randomly. The elevator, if it could even still be called that, was clearly not moving in a single direction anymore.

”WHAT IS HAPPENING!? WHAT IS AN ELEVATOR!?”

But before James could answer him, the elevator jerked at one particular moment and partially opened its doors, sending Arthur tumbling out, but keeping the large wolf in, who consequently blocked the door, preventing James from following suit. With Arthur out, the doors shut, the elevator stabilized, the lights turned back on, and its descent continued. It was evidently going past the first basement floor, taunting its occupants with relaxing music 

After stabilizing himself again, James glared at the now closed door. Great. Just great. Not only was he certain that this was no interview now, Arthur was alone somewhere. Who knows what’ll happen to the kid? “Damn it.” Sighing, he gave Arkin a pat. “Thanks for the save, big guy.” Everything will be alright, Arthur can take care of himself until they find him, the building can’t be all that big, they’ll find him soon.

When the elevator doors opened again, Arkin and James found themselves in a nondescript hallway, empty other than the green carpet laid out along its length. Naturally, the elevator buttons became unresponsive. They walked down the hallway cautiously, wary of further traps, but nothing seemed to be there. That is, until a trapdoor opened up beneath them, going so far as to cut into the previously seamless carpet, and leaving them nowhere to stand. The two of them both manage to react in time to the trap by grabbing the edge of the pitfall, but unfortunately Arkin lacked the means to grip the edge, causing him to plummet into a white room below. Before James can think over his options, the trapdoor swings back up from beneath him, tossing him back up onto the green carpet.

And then there was one. Pulling himself up, James immediately started inspecting the floor. Looking for any cracks and stomping on it to try to force it open, to no avail. “Shit...” There was nothing for it. He’d have to continue on and try to find them through the path ahead.

James Harris

James almost couldn't believe what he was hearing when the kid responded.

"It hath been, a few days shy of a fortnight hence I last ate a true meal, and longer still sense I hath felt the comfort of a warm bed. But worry not magic man, for I have freshly hunted for venison with success. Thou art welcome to join me in supper if thine wishes, but alas I have no bedding or shelter to share."

Ignoring the medieval speech for now (James figured it was a part of the kid’s hero persona) – the kid had basically just admitted to being homeless. James couldn’t help but wonder if that was the reason the kid did something so reckless as to try to treat a bullet wound on his own. The boy was probably afraid of being found out by a social worker, or if he was eighteen, he probably didn’t have any assurance and wouldn’t be able to afford any over the top medical bills – that doesn’t explain why he didn’t at least make a stop at a free clinic, but James will shelve that particular lecture topic for now. Instead choosing to focus on the issue that was currently more pressing: The kid’s living situation. From the comment about venison, James could only assume the blond was living in the woods. That was not a good long-term plan, especially not if the kid was planning on making getting injured a habit…

Opening his mouth to relay exactly that to the boy in front of him, James was interrupted before he could even get the first syllable out. Instead, he watched, stunned silent as a literal freaking velociraptor straight out of a freaking Jurassic Garden movie went barrelling past them. Once his eyes could no longer track the speeding dinosaur after he/it/they(?) disappeared into the treeline, James closed them and brought both his hands up to his helmet – wishing desperately for a moment that they could melt through just so that he could rub his temples. In that moment all his slowly healing injuries just ached and he simply felt tired - desiring nothing more than to fall face first on his bed right now and to never get up. All he wanted was to grab some take-out from Wu’s before enjoying his first night off in ages…instead he got involved with a darned museum heist (even if his only role so far had been to supply first aid) met a dragon (who seemed to have gone off somewhere while he was occupied with the blond – currently homeless – boy) and was apparently turning into someone who gave gold star stickers out like they were candy on Halloween! How did his life become so weird in less than a night?!

His moment of mourning must’ve lasted longer than he thought, as the velociraptor soon returned. Reporting in a raspy voice that "The enemies have escaped." before inquiring "May I know who you are? The kid immediately struck a pose, standing tall and proud as he introduced himself. "I am Arthur Pendragon, one true king of the holy land of Britania. Protector of the weak and downtrodden. It is my sworn oath to protect this land and its people." Well, alright then. He based his heroic persona off of the legend of King Arthur…explains his medieval vibe.

Looking between both James and the raptor, Arthur then proceeded to follow up his introduction with the following question. "Might I inquire as to the name of my saviour, and to you, who art noble enough to aid in our fight without request?" After giving their new arrival a chance to respond, James gave him a polite nod in greeting before opening his mouth to answer as well, only to notice that their little group had been joined by more heroes as one of them approached, hands in the air – probably trying to show that he meant no harm. “Well, I’m no king, but you can call me Crystalis, and I guess I missed whatever happened here. Is anyone hurt?”

Subconsciously, James pulled his leather jacket closed to try to hide the bloodstains – wincing as the movement pulled against his wounds. He’ll be fine after a shower and a good night’s sleep, so it’d be pointless to bring attention to it. Instead, he kept his voice light as he answered Crystalis’ question.  “None I know of that can’t be fixed by a good night’s sleep and some food.”  As he said that, he gave the new arrivals a critical look, scanning them for any injuries. Upon not finding any, though, he gave a satisfied nod before introducing himself as well.  “I’m…uh…call me…Medic.”  He would have used his real name, but the last thing he wants is for someone to trace what he did here back to him. If his family were to find out about his powers from the media and not him, they’ll tear him apart.  “And the rest of you are?”  Turning back to Arthur after the others finished introducing themselves, James put a hand on the boy’s shoulder to help steady the blond if he needed it, disguising it as a simple friendly gesture (making sure to keep his touch light and easily shaken off if unwelcome). His next words were said quietly, meant only for Arthur and the wolf that was still right next to the boy.

 “I know that isn’t a name, like you requested, but I’ll be happy to tell you once we’re back at my place. Because that is where we’re going after this and while there you will eat a proper meal and get at least twelve hours of sleep. I did not fix you up only for you to die because you didn’t have a safe place to go to.”  Giving a nod to the wolf, James also addressed him in that same quiet voice,  “You’re welcome to join your friend too, of course.”  That settled (and it was. James will drag the boy there by the ear if he had to) James turned back to the other gathered heroes, clearing his throat slightly.  “So, is the rest of the museum secure then? No more troublemakers?”  

[@everyone currently assembled at the current location]

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