Endgame

<I see.>

*Eve stares up at the clouds*

Rain or snow is the last thing we need.
---
*Monu keeps his hand on the wall*
---
*Tirea slips off to follow the Terrible trio*

Noct liquefies the water, and puts it back into the flask, "By all means."

--

Mortal tenses slightly at the mention of there being others in the tunnel with them, and asks, "Can you tell where they're going?"

<Of course, it's no trouble at all.>

*Tirea sees the assistant lead them into a kind of sun room. She opens one of the sliding glass doors, leading out to an area the size of a moderate kitchen with a few trees for shade, a stone bench, & grape vines moving up the walls. At the moment, a glass ceiling protects the space.*
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*Euryale shakes her head, ignoring the fact that Mortal can't see it.*

E"No. They're...on the other side of these walls. I can't see how the tunnels connect, much less where they're going."
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*That's when she hears heavy footsteps at the top of the stairwell. Kane grins smugly on her, his hands folded behind his back.*

Kane<Don't you know that it's rude to spy on people? Not to mention against the law.>
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*As they pass an alley, a trio of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] begin following the cop car. The officer looks at the rear view mirror nervously.*

<Uh...friends of yours? Heh heh...uh....>

Eve:<Seeing as I lack friends and everyone wants me dead, we probably need some help.>

Astarte visibly focussed her attention on the flask water and pulled it out and closer to herself. She froze it into a block and shifted it about in the air before splitting it into something sharp. She thrust her arms forwards a few times to make it cut air between the two Benders, then smiled bashfully, "It's not as fluid as water... well obviously.. but, yeah, I can do this."
She split it down further so that she had three smaller, quicker tools and cut air some more, "Where should I aim? I mean, say Kane was standing where you are now."

"It's lovely," Hector said, looking around the little garden. Stefan kept his look of barely subdued scorn and Eduj stood by the door with his arms folded. Hector turned to the assistant. "Thank you again."

Dalia shouldered through the door and threw a ball of fire up the stairs at Kane before slamming it and fleeing further into whatever room she found herself in, lighting a torch from her fingers if necessary.

"Well, think of it as you would any blade," Noctis said, "Go for the soft, and unprotected parts of the body, like the neck, and eyes."

--

"Alright," Mortal said, "Lets just get out of here then."

OOC: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

<Sure.>

*The assistant leaves, noticing Tirea on her way out.*

<Uh, can I help you?>
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*The next exit puts them in an alley a few blocks away from the apartment. They have no difficulty sneaking up to the back door. Euryale taps it with a finger to unlock it, & then they have basement access. After shutting the door behind them, Euryale turns on the lights.*

"Stairs are right over there."

*She nods.*

"I think they stopped watching the place for now, so we'll check all 3 apartments for anything useful. Maybe get some coins for Monu to practice on. Still, best to stay on guard."
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*A puny door that Dalia could get through certainly wouldn't stop Kane. They find themselves in a cellar full of beer kegs.*

<Great.>

*He stomps kicking up several bricks, & then punches them each at Dalia one after another. While he's distracted, the children run from the corner behind him & out the door.*
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*One stays behind them, while the other 2 drive up on either side of the vehicle.*

<Well, that's definitely illegal.>

*He thrusts out a hand, causing one of the motorcycles to skid off course. The driver abandons it, jumping onto the police car. On his other side, 2 bolas break through the window. One grabs the officer by the neck. He grabs it & coughs as he's pulled down to the passenger seat. The other grabs the steering wheel, the cyclist somehow able to keep them on-course. Smoke fills the back window from the 3rd cyclist's cycle, to keep the other cars in the escort ignorant when the assailants turn into an alley & force the cop car to come along. Up ahead, a steel door slides open, revealing an entrance to a tunnel.*

Astarte nodded, and then hesitated, "I... I don't really want to kill anybody... or badly hurt somebody... I hit one of Kane's guys in the face with boiling water when they came to my house. I just felt horrible. Could you show me how to take someone out without maiming or killing them?"
She brought all of the ice back together in a block.

Dalia jumped and rolled, coming up to spray a stream of fire along some of the kegs and then at Kane.

Noct tried to think for a second, "Well... what do you consider 'maiming'? There is the back of the ankle and knee, which'll stop someone from chasing you, and won't kill them. You could always just bonk them in the head really hard too."

--

Mortal nodded, and followed after Euryale.

"When you say 'the back of the ankle and knee', what do you mean?" Astarte asked, looking down at her own. "I don't want to cripple people."

"Eduj, fetch some water will you?" Hector clicked at Eduj, who nodded and stalked off to find a pot of water. Hector and Stefan sat on the stone bench.
"They're going to screw us," Stefan whispered angrily. "Why are we sticking around? Seriously!"
"We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it," Hector said mildly, looking up through the glass ceiling. "This is the safest place for us in the city right now, and we could be doing a lot worse for company. I need you to keep that in mind, until this business with Kane and Senthose is sorted out."
"Senthose?" Stefan raised an eyebrow and looked at Hector, but went unanswered.

*Eve sends a stream of white fire out of one of the broken windows to alert the others in the escort, then falls over in a fit of coughing*

<What...the hell do you people want?>

*Through the smoke, she tries to open the passenger door*
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*As does Monu*
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*Tirea smiles*

<I'm just looking around.>

R"Is it clear?"

E"Should be. I mean, I guess someone could be hiding in your bed like some kind of horror film, but in that unlikely event, you can just signal us."

*Euryale takes her hand off of the wall. As Roatha enters his apartment, she enters her apartment with Mortal.*
=========================
???<Equality!>

*Fortunately for her, the smoke is pretty much thinned out by the time she gets it open, as the cyclist who started the smokescreen kept going to act as a diversion. Unfortunately, they're still speeding through a tight alley of concrete, blacktop, & brick buildings. The cop manages to kick the emergency break. As they begin skidding & swerving, he cuts himself loose, prompting the car to mount the curb, its front end speeding toward the side of a building. On the other end, Eve can see the cyclist swerve, stopping in the middle of the road & tossing aside her broken weapons.*
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<Uh. Okay.>

*Of course, no sooner does she turn around than she runs into Eduj again. Her big, fake smile doesn't quite hide her mounting annoyance.*

<Do you need something else...Sir?>
==================================
*Kane ducks & spreads his arms, creating an earth tent to intercept the flamethrower & the wave of flames washing towards him. After one of the bricks hits Dalia in the stomach, a tremor shoots out from Kane's earth tent.*

*Eve unbuckles her set belt, then jumps from the car, mimicking Keter's jet propulsion to attempt to soften her fall*
---
*Monu follows Euryale and Mortal I guess*

Noct ran a hand through her hair, "Uh... alright then... I suppose you could use the ice to make the floor slick while you run away, or freeze people to the ground, but that is really just running away." She shrugged a bit, "If you're going to fight you can't be afraid to hurt someone. Playing nice defeats the purpose of defending yourself in the first place, I'm sure Euryale and Mortal will say the same thing."

--

Mortal looks over her shoulder at Monu, wondering why he wouldn't go with Roatha, who was now alone, then remembering that he was trying to learn from Euryale. With a shrug, she just followed along, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"I guess..." Astarte stretched her hands out and turned the block of ice into a long, thin spear, and after jabbing the air with that a few times and pulling it back to herself she liquefied it and turned it to a ring of water, which she then froze around her forearm like a bracelet. She liquefied it again and held it in the air. "I suppose as a politician you have had to be cautious about people wanting to hurt you."

"No," Eduj walked past them and to the kitchen to fetch a large pot of water.

Hector and Stefan sat quietly in the garden.

Dalia ended up sprawled on the ground, hardly in a fit state to be fighting in the first place. She jabbed outwards with her fists, sending haphazard balls of fire out into the room and into the beer kegs, while looking for another door.

OOC: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

*As a wall of kegs collapses, the flickering flames hint at a staircase in the corner, before the ground shakes & a cloud of dust nearly extinguishes the flames. In what little light comes in from the outside world, she can see Kane burst from the earth tent, leaping into the air & swinging his cables at her.*
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OOC: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

*Eve skids across the ground, developing a nasty case of road rash on her hip, face, & arms, & leaving a small trail of blood, but is otherwise unharmed. The cyclist produces bolas in each hand & starts spinning them, as the cop stumbles out of the car.*
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*It doesn't take long to spot something out of the ordinary, considering their whole place has been trashed. The floor is littered with stray stuffing & random junk, & it looks like someone stabbed up their couch. The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is playing slightly over static.*

"Looks like they were searching for clues. They just threw what they were searching onto the floor, if they didn't find anything. They cut into the cushions thinking that we might have been hiding something in them."

*Euryale moves to the bedroom, where it's more of the same. In particular, she heads to a broken shelf surrounded by candles, many of which snapped in half at the fall. She kneels down & scoops them up with her forearms.*
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<Oh...good, then.>

*And so the assistant heads off, stopping to turn on a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] sitting on a shelf.*

*Eve rises and sends a stream of fire at the cyclist*
---
*Monu shakes his head*

<I'm so sorry.>

"Actually," Noct said, "It is more from my law days. You'd be surprised how many rotten eggs you meet as a lawyer. My first time meeting Aamon was behind my desk at work, actually."

--

Mortal frowns, feeling incredibly violated, and tries to quell her rising anger, "Savages... I'm going to make them pay for this." As she heads into the room she checks to see what became of their pictures.

Astarte furrowed her brow, the memory of Aamon an unhappy one, "How often would people attack you in that job? It sounds rough."

Eduj came back to the garden with his pot of water, passing Tirea on the way but ignoring her. Hector rose to his feet as Eduj came into the garden and stretched his arms, "Good. Thank you, Eduj."

Dalia tried to make a break for the staircase, throwing her arms out behind her to release two plumes of flame in Kane's general direction as she ran.

*Kane does not appreciate this. Once he gets up, she can hear him thundering up the stairs. Dalia now finds herself in a bar with a quartet of large Pai Sho tables separating the bar from the seating area, beyond which is a stage.*
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*Ven just kind of stands around awkwardly in the back, occasionally casting fearful glances at the broken candles.*

V"They would anger the Spirits? Not very wise...."

*A few of the pictures have been knocked over, but appear mostly untouched. They can hear Roatha enter the living area.*

R"I got it! ...The Hell happened here?"

*He then wanders into the bedroom, holding a large wooden box.*

R"Oh, there you are. I got it, but what the Hell happened here?"
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*The cyclist ducks backwards. Hearing sirens approach, she tosses both of the bolas at the cop so that he raises a wall to defend himself instead of attacking her. Then she revs up the bike & turns around. The grate the attackers tried to take them to begins sliding shut.*

"They ransacked the place," Mortal said, righting the pictures she saw knocked over, "If you got the sword, then we shouldn't wait any longer."

--

Noct shook her head, "Well, it wasn't really that often, but there are indeed outbursts when you're arguing that someone should spend their lives in prison, or something like that."

*Monu nods in agreement*
---
*Eve waits for the cops to arrive*

Astarte gave Noct a melancholy smile, then sent the water back to her, "Could you please try to hit me with this?"

While Hector withdrew a whip of water from the pot with his eyes closed and began curling it around his arm, Eduj walked back to the door and poked his head out, looking for Tirea.

Dalia ran for the stage, weaving her way around the tables and any people inside.

*Bar's closed, fool. Kane then crashes through the door, knocking it off of its hinges & breaking it in 2. Noting that the floor is wood, he fires a cable at Dalia.*
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*Eventually, the 3 cop cars pile into the alley. One of the officers steps out.*

<What's going on, here? Is everyone okay?>
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E"I suppose you're right...we'll have to cleanse the apartment once this is all over."

*She heads over to turn off the radio.*

R"Assuming I'm not fired by then, I'll explain to the plant that you weren't the one using the electricity. If they won't listen, I'll just replace it."

*He holds up 2 fingers, emitting small blue sparks.*
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*The assistant then walks in & raises an eyebrow.*

<May I ask what you are doing waterbending in the dining hall?>

Eve:<We were attacked by cyclists, I'm alright, but I'm not sure if he is.>

*She gestures to the officer that had been driving her car*
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Monu:<That doesn't sound very safe.>