[Nexus] The Black Dragon's Den X

[FireFox]

Reynard doesn't even look at the drawing. He just keeps staring at Rein with an expressionless look that professional poker players and double agents would love to have. Why?

[Reinholdt]

"Professional courtesy." Is Reinholdt's reply.

"But I'll play the game. When Angela was sacrificed, it was believed by many to be to Lucifer. All well and good, but I studied under Lucifer. And there's no way in literal hell that Lucifer would just take a goddess of lust and not torture her, corrupt her, or even just kill her for the fun of it. And certainly no way that he'd put her up in a hotel and wait for her friends to just up and rescue her. That should have clued my friends in right away."

"More tenuous than that is this girl. Using both arcane and divine magics, a purview generally attributed to the most powerful and devout. Or to Loki, one of your aliases. She could very well be you, or just working for you. I don't know."

"I'll be the first to admit that there are other explanations and possibilities for these occurrences. But after our last encounter I..." Reinholdt pauses, looking confused for a second. He... he did something, but what was it? Why couldn't he remember? Shaking it off, he continues, "I learned more about you to better prepare myself. And honestly, one cannot overlook the connections when you literally sign your name on the apartment building Angela was found in. Sk'elep aka Coyote aka Reynard."

Reinholdt taps the picture. "So let's start again, shall we? What do you know about her? And if you feel like rambling, tell me about Mithras next, since I'm going to ask you about him anyways."

[FireFox]

Oh Reinholdt, I really have missed talking with you. You're so much more clever than most people I've met here. The Trickster grins. Very well, in the name of professional courtesy, I'll tell you about Callie Pyrsol. She is Angela's daughter, from some alternate universe's future, brought back to HALO on the Nexus' whim. As I understand it, that is quite common for HALO. She has innate magical abilities, but started learning druidic magic to complement her sorcery. Very flexible and innovative... in combat, I mean. She left HALO well over a year ago and disappeared from the Nexus, resurfacing now and then to do various things. I ran into her by some fortunate happenstance and hired her for a job or two. When I stole Angela from Lucifer, Callie was happy to take care of her until her family rescued her. It is in my interests to not have Lucifer, or, indeed, any other Devil, corrupt someone who wields as much power as Angela does. It is also in my interests not to draw any attention from her family. Such is the game of neutrality I play to keep myself amused.

[Reinholdt]

"When there's the chance, I'd like to talk to her." Not that Reinholdt has any idea at all what he'd say to her.

"Now tell me about Mithras. What did he want with her? What was the point of the sacrifice?"

[Ashen Lilies]

Daedalus halts halfway through the door, turning around to look at the demon who's finally decided to speak up. Almost forgot he was there. "Naaaaah. I'm thinking we're good without getting armies involved in this dealio." Or at least Day is. He's actually looking forward to causing some havoc without two-dozen angry supersoldiers at his side to steal all the kills.

"I assure you that the incoming strike force will be of a manageable size. The High Heavens tend to frown on us bringing armies into the Mortal Realms." Says Sel mildly.
"In any case, The Iron Queen plans to act whether you desire it or not, and has been since before this little get together occurred. I merely thought it might be intelligent to co-ordinate our efforts, as opposed to tripping over ourselves in our desire to grind this whelp into paste."

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Fight Club

"Fine then. If you're bringing muscle you can help defend the cannon 'till the rest of us are in and if you've got anyone sneaky, they can tag along." Daedalus says, tapping his foot impatiently. This whole planning dealio feels like it's taken weeks.

[Ashen Lilies]

Marciano Hate Club

Sel smiles a small smug smile.
"Of course." He says. Go ahead. Tell the devil of Pride what to do. I'm sure he'll follow your requests to the letter.

Abruptly, a red portal opens in the ceiling and a handsome devil in a stylishly ruffled tuxedo swandives through it, performing a roll as he hits the ground and springing up into a casual salute.
"Agent Double-O Seven reporting for duty, sir! Subject acted in as insulting a manner as predicted!"
Sel's smile widens slightly, losing some of the smugness.
"Very good Agent Bond. I will call in Agent Bond and four Spooks as planned, to aid in our assault. Stand over there please."
The Lounger does as told, and Sel waves a hand calmly, opening up one of his typical purple portals.
A moment's pause, and a masked and tuxedoed devil identical to the first saunters through, followed by four more devils with considerably more upright gaits. Each of them has rather bland features, downright forgettable even, and like the umbrella-men, wear suits and bowler hats, although instead of charcoal gray their apparel is in the deepest ink black. They lack umbrellas of course, but oddly, the ubiquitous masks of most Hierarchy devils as well, instead sporting menacing looking reflective shades.

[Lady Serpentine]

"Delightful...", Mayhala says quietly, sounding quite pleased with the new additions to their group. "And now that our forces are all here, I believe that it is time for us not to be. So if those going in with me would come over here, please?"

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

Cassidy shakes her head at being ignored, but does see the gist of the devil's assistance. She approaches Mayhala. "We're hitting the top, right? You got some Comp-4 in case the vents aren't a way to get in?"

[Lady Serpentine]

[MHC]

Mayhala grins wickedly. Or her helmet does, anyway. Kind of creepy, when you get down to it, considering it should be an inanimate object...

"We're hitting the top, but... Who said anything about vents? We're going in through Shadowside; we should be able to just drop ourselves wherever we want to be.

And I'm afraid I don't have any of whatever that is, no."

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Hate Club

"Hold up a second, what's Shadowside?" Cause, y'know, that would have been something to mention a bit earlier.

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

Cass nods to Daedalus. "What he said. I think you mentioned it before, but you didn't explain what it is."

[Lady Serpentine]

[MHC]

"Shadowside is an alternate dimension. If I might be allowed a demonstration...?"

Mayhala lets the question hang in the air, the shadows around her writhing an curling, diving through the floor and out again, as well as taking on strange forms, some almost human, others animalistic, and others a blend, as well as yet stranger things.

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Hate Club

"And if Marcy thought to tele-lock his pad you're all gonna be looking pretty stooopid." Shrug. "Your lives to gamble."

Unhooking a walky talky from his belt, Day tosses it towards the group without much care who catches it. Or if anyone does. "Gimme ten minutes to draw off the air defenses and I'll call ya when you're good to go."

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

Cass catches the radio with no trouble. Yeah, I'd rather use Comp and blast our way through, but I guess that's not an option if we're not preparing."

[Lady Serpentine]

[MHC]

"Indeed. And since he seems unwilling to wait, I suspect that preparation is something we won't be doing. So if you would take my hand for a moment, please?"

As she speaks, Mayhala offers her left hand to Cass; should she take it, the shadows forming the gauntlet will start to flow up the human's arms, and, a moment later, they'll be transported to Shadowside.

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Hate Club

"Well I'da given you more time if you'd asked." It's not like he can read minds. Well, not their minds at least.


V Alright then, edited

[Lady Serpentine]

It would have taken a few seconds for Cass to take Mayhala's hand and the shadows to go up her arm, even assuming she complies with the instructions at once, so theoretically, Day would have had time to tell them that, I think.

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

"Well, you waiting to wait a week, so I can get Comp 4 and Panther missiles?" Something tells Cass that the answer will be no.

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Hate Club

"Yeah right. You've got an hour, tops." In a week Clarissa'll have stolen all the good kills! She's prolly gotten Marciano already, with how long this was taking. "Tho' I guess I could hook ya up with some explosives if you really need 'em that bad."

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

"Yeah, I thought not," Cass says. "All I really need is some plastic explosives. Unless this guy's got choppers or something."

[Ashen Lilies]

[Marciano Hate Club]

"Explosives? Will Hellfire do?"
A portal opens up, and a small pile of clockwork explosives tumbles to the ground. Some are squarish, and look like they could be smacked onto something before being detonated, others have more the resemblance of grenades.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Marciano Hate Club]

"If not I guess I can get you some plastic explosive." Although he'd rather not. Teleport travel always gives him the distinct feeling of having been turned inside out mid-transit.

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

"As long as it blows through reinforced concrete, I don't care what it is," Cass says while picking up the square bombs.

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Hate Club

"Right. That everything? Anything else you'd like to chatter about or can I start making crud blow the hell up?" The question appears to be largely rhetorical for Daedalus has already called up a portal, the space around it distorting and scrunching up to make way, like the warped reflection of a funhouse mirror.

[Devixer]

[Marciano Hate Club]

"Yeah, that's all, omae." Cass turns back to Mayhala, stuffing the clockwork explosives into an inside pocket of her trenchcoat. "Hey, you still got that Shadowside thing?"

[ThirdEmperor]

Marciano Hate Club

Aaand the subtle insult goes flying right over Day's mono-linguistic skull!

"Sweet. Call ya in ten!" And with that he's gone, Markus slinking through the portal after.

[FireFox]

"When there's the chance, I'd like to talk to her." Not that Reinholdt has any idea at all what he'd say to her.

"Now tell me about Mithras. What did he want with her? What was the point of the sacrifice?"

Here's how I contact her for jobs. Reynard wills a Post-it and a pen into existence, writes down an email address, and tries to stick it to Reinholdt's nose. You mean Mithra. Mithras is an old God. Well, technically, Mithra's also an ancient god. But you want a mortal human with the Persian name of Mithra. The Trickster shrugs. I don't know why he chose Angela, but it looks like Mithra wanted to sacrifice someone to the Devil in order for an obscene amount of power. Your typical Faustian pact, but without the noble motivation of boredom. And that's all I know. Don't see a good reason to get involved... yet.

[Reinholdt]

"Right Mithra." Reinholdt says with a scowl as he takes the note off his nose. Great. Now he has to figure out this... E message thing. Search engines were hard enough.

"Where can I find him if I need to?"

[FireFox]

Reynard looks... embarrassed. I don't know. He just disappeared. Might not even be in the Nexus anymore. Or he just found a way to hide from gods and you'll find him before I do. He shrugs again. Anything else?