Interweaving Threads

Laur · #31

Laur, once more deposited upon the ground in a most undignified manner proceeded to join them in standing upright. She had bent over slightly in order to brush her modest clothing down delicately, however upon completion of this task came face to face with the minute yellow form of the plucky, legendary CP.

The mutant resumed standing straight, regarding the little hero with a most confused expression, until something appeared to click within the womans mind.

"Coolpikaaa, I am Mrs Laur Doyle, please just refer to me as Laur. Although it is true we have never met, I am aware of you and your preceding reputation, little hero. I must admit to being relieved you appear ignorant of mine. Unlike our companion, which poses the particularly difficult question of whether I should inform you of it"

Laur paused, appearing to all intents and purposes, lost within the confines of her own thoughts once the introduction was done with. The womans arms folded themselves around her torso until she proceeded to unravel a single limb to point in the direction of the luminescent, blinking blue light.

"If we head that way we are certain to find inhabitants of this unique place. The woods are so full of life it is difficult to distinguish a potential sapient from a potential predator. I would recommend heading in the buildings direction"

#32

Blue turned her head to look at CP, the yellow mouse apparently had completely missed the sarcasm oozing off her one word.

Then she turned her head towards Laur, who spoke as eloquently as ever yet still managed to hold on to that vibe that you shouldn't trust her. Or maybe it was just the draconic girls imagination sparked by memories of the past that gave her that impression.

Either way "Well, I'm going in that blue light's direction" she told both of them and started to trudge off "you can stay here and let him know about your horror filled past if you want, Laur, or you can move and talk about it. Frankly I've had enough just being a small part of it" she didn't even look back as she was talking, Laur might be useful, helpful, perhaps even trustworthy on this 'team', but she'd never be anyone Blue would be happy to see "and I'm sure I won't be surprised by anything else you have to add to it"

#33

Preceding reputation...? He hadn't known he had one. Yet if people he hadn't before met recognized him by his heroic actions, he certainly wouldn't help but feel a little honored. Despite also being called ignorant by her (in the same breath), Coolpikaaa had to say this Mrs. Doyle sure knew how to butter people up.

"Well, Mrs. D- Laur. Unless this... "secret history" of yours contains anything we really should know for the mission at hand, I'm sure we'll be alright with... Err..."

Coolpikaaa had just now noticed Blue was shying away from the conversation, eventually storming off altogether with a few choice, scathing words. Where had that outburst come from?! Of course, CP hadn't been completely oblivious to the tension between the two. Unfortunately, it seemed like this was going to be a bit more than he expected.

"Well, either way, we should have no reason to have any mistrust between us, Mrs. Doyle. We're all on the same side now." he said with a quick smile before chasing after the draconic woman and the mysterious blinking lights.

#34

Meanwhile, on a totally different planet.

Furnace stood over the prone body of Fade, staring at it. The assassin was still breathing, he could just about see. But mostly he could hear it, and it sounded loud and wrong.

The mythical beast lowered a massive claw next to the mutant, and gently pushed her over until she was lying on her back.

But nothing happened, until Fade drew a long, deep breath and promptly sat up, erupting into a violent coughing fit. She coughed until she brought up a lump consisting mainly of this worlds strange soil, with a little phlegm.

Fade stared at it, wrapped it in a small piece of cloth, then put it one of her pockets before finally standing up.

"It doesn't appear that we can survive on this planet for long" were the first words the assassin spoke after her violent coughing fit, since she saw no point in seeking an apology. "so we should move as quickly as possible to where we are needed"

The dragon snorted, unwilling to show how glad he was to see that he hadn't permanently if accidentally damaged the mutant. "I would but you soft-skins are so much slower than we are" he haughtily told her "you'll slow me down"

"Indeed" Fade agreed, much to the fiery reptilians surprise "which is why we should use your speed"

"Fade" the fiery reptilian loaded that one word with so much displeasure, as what she was getting at dawned on him "are you suggesting...?"

"i am" Fade answered, not even needing to hear the rest of Furnaces sentence to know what he was thinking "since it was you and Swix that were so eager to help on this quest"

The mythical beast looked more displeased than ever, though he didn't argue "I'm still going to talk to you about that"

Fade raised an eyebrow, very slightly, at the dragon. She hadn't forgotten about that, and she was a bit puzzled at why Furnace felt the need to repeat himself. "Then you can talk to me about it when we're moving" the assassin told the much larger reptilian, then turned and pointed in a seemingly random direction "we should go that way"

Furnace tilted his head to the side, a little concerned by this strange behaviour from the coldly logical soft-skin. "How do you know?"

Fade turned around, and slightly tilted her own head, copying Furnaces earlier movements "I... am not sure" she answered, her voice as cool as ever "I saw something when I was unconscious. Now I just know"

The Dark Fire Dragon fixed the assassin with as concerned a look as he could possibly give "Show me"

#35

ES and Harpy trudged through one of Anas forests together, although their lack of words to each other might make one think that they had simply met on the road and just happened to be walking in the same direction. In truth though, each one was calling the other as many nasty names in their heads as they could think of.

"So Goldilocks" ES said, sticking with the earlier name "any idea what this pink collar is supposed to do?"

"Do I care?" Harpy retorted, keeping a particularly sharp eye out for civilisation, anything pink or just any reason to get away from Swix. "we find it, we leave, simple enough"

"Uh huh" ES said, lacking the enhanced senses of the bird girl she had little option but to keep heading in the same direction until she stumbled into somewhere or something "simple huh? Nothing's simple when she's involved, I know. What did she do to you anyway?"

"Who?" Harpy asked, looking at ES with a puzzled expression on her face

"Oh you know, tall, black female figure" ES started, exaggerating the words with her hands as she did so, like she was talking to someone with a bad memory "got a tail and wyverns legs-"

"Oh" Harpy did not look impressed "her" but Swix wasn't finished "-a long tail, skinless wings-"

"Alright" Harpy interjected more sharply, hoping to stop this steam train of ES's. It didn't work, of course. "-red pools for eyes oh and let's not forget the snake head hands" ES finally finished her list, with a mean and trumphant glint in her eyes. Harpy rolled her own overlarge green eyes and then threw up her arms at the evil woman. "Gods" she exclaimed "I get it already! Are you this obnoxious all the time?"

"Depends who I'm talking to" Swix said, making a show of looking in a random bush before looking back at Harpy "So? What did she do?" the evil woman asked again.

Harpy shrugged her feathered shoulders, wondering just why this woman she'd never met before had such an interest in this "I dunno" she conceded "last thing I saw was a snakes tongue, then I was blind and my head hurt a lot, then I wasn't blind and it hurt even more. Still hurts a bit now, come to think of it"

"Did she say anything else?" Swix continued to press the issue, much to Harpy's dislike.

"Does it matter?" the golden girl threw another question back, this conversation was getting tiring.

"Yes" ES answered, as seriously as she could manage. When dealing with the Collector, everything she said mattered. She'd learned that from experience.

"Something about promised payback later. I don't remember it all that clearly. Look" Harpy stopped and turned abruptly to face ES, she'd had enough of this already "just why are you so interested anyway? What was it she called you in there? 'Mine' yes, that was it. What are you, her slave or something?"

Evil Swix's expression darkened suddenly, and just as suddenly the humanoid stepped forwards, grabbed hold of the collar of Harpys top and roughly shoved the avian mutant against the trunk of a tree.

"Never call me that" the dark woman slowly spat through clenched teeth "call me her servant, agent, minion, but never call me that"

Harpys eyes widened at this sudden display of physical aggression, she hadn't meant to push Swix that far. "Okay okay" Harpys words came fast from the surprise "I won't, take it easy"

ES glared at Harpy for what seemed to them to be a long time, even though it wasn't, before Swix finally let go of the yellow clothing to walk away angrily.

"But you didn't exactly deny it, did you?" Harpy called after her, she couldn't help it, it was so obvious. The dark woman stopped her march, clenched her fists and didn't say anything. Not until "Searching like this is going to take too long. We need to find a way to go faster"

"I have an idea"

#36

Blue stopped just before she came to what appeared to be some sort of settlement full of houses, the mysterious blue blinking lights turning out to be whatever the inhabitants here were using for a light source inside their homes. It also turned out the lumps were in fact houses made of a clay like substance moulded on top of each other, with the higher floors connected to the other houses via crisscrossing walkways. The inhabitants can't have been all that big as the doors were no more than four foot high and the same width, while the lowest window was a mere two feet from the ground. Blue frowned-though not for the size problems that were trouble enough. What if the inhabitants reacted badly to being woken up in the middle of the night? What if they just reacted badly to their team of strange creatures? Worst of all, what if they were in league with Lykaios? They'd give themselves away far too early. "Should... we knock?" the draconic mutant finally asked the other two, at a loss for what to do next.

#37

Huh.... So they lights were from a settlement. Interesting. The whole idea of being on an Alien world and just wandering into one of their towns was just so strange for the electric mouse, he hadn't really considered what to do if they actually found one. Would this people attack them? Could they even understand their language?

"Well... there's lights. That means some people wander around out here. Perhaps we should try to find one of them first, before banging on doors in the middle of the night? To be honest, I'm not expecting the greatest reaction, at any time of the day." Cp explained, once again trying to bring up the fact they really didn't belong here. "If they look as different as this place, we could really be misfits here. Getting captured for study will definitely put a kink in our plan..."

"Err... Also... We could just avoid the locals entirely. Adapt to a stealth mission, and avoid any sort of hassle. Like this Wolf guy, if he was here, he probably left some clues right? A trail of destruction? Footprints? Ectoplasm?"

The ectoplasm was more of a joke. But that was kind of their fault for not being extremely forthcoming with who exactly they were looking for...

#38

"Ectoplasm?" Blue said curiously, tilting her head at CP as apparently the rest of his words were forgotten in the oddness of that comment. The draconic mutant then shook her head to snap herself out of her staring and backed up a step. "He's... not a... ghost... No, if he left footprints he wants us to find them, he usually walks above the ground. Footsteps would more than likely lead us into a trap. But, I do like your stealth idea"

The draconic girl then opened her large wings, flapped them once and was gone into the tree above them.

#39

"Very well" Fade consented to the dragons request, although she wasn't quite sure how.

"You need to keep the memory at the f6refront of your thoughts" Furnace told the mutant, in an uncharacteristically soothing voice "and lower your defences around that one thing"

"You promised me you wouldn't invade my mind when I agreed to this" Fade suddenly snapped, her eyes f6cussing clearly on the beasts snout. Furnaces own eyes blazed more intensely in anger "And I still intend to!" he snarled, sounding like his old self "besides, your mind is too icy for me to want to venture out of what you allow me to see. Now, you agreed to show me, did you really mean that or not?"

The blue haired assassin nodded her assent and then did as she was asked. One might think she was relieved to see Furnace being Furnace.

The dragon was allowed to see the dream, or vision, the assassin had just had.

It started off as being in a spherical area full of what appeared to be honeycomb shaped screens showing other places- one showed a black hole sucking in the system that had once orbited it, another, dust partickes fusing to become a new star, yet another showed meteorites hurtling through space. They weren't all celestial scenes though, there were others under oceans, showing deserts, forests, jungles, tundras-even lava filled chasms. They weren't all empty either, there were animals, alien races just beginning, testing their first space flight, or on massive ships. One showed Fade and Furnace as they had been minutes ago, and this one panned in the direction Fade had been pointing before hurtling forwards through the strange forest. It didn't stop until it seached a village made from the strange trees, homing in on the very centre that housed what appeared to be a fountain of silver liquid, where it paused then dove in, ending up aack inside the strange spherical room.

#40

"Oh great, she just flew away. Nice." Cp sighed to no one in particular, though Laur would very likely hear him. It was great that she agreed with him about keeping things low key, but really, couldn't the Draconian have waited around for them to at least discuss it? They didn't have radios, or any other means to communicate, and if everyone just started taking off into the shadows, there would be no co-ordination at all. Plus, there was the matter of...

"How are we supposed to get up there?" he asked, now actually more or less talking to the woman beside him. Neither of them had wings, and Blue had flapped her way up into a level beyond climbing. Well, maybe not beyond it. Just... Unfortunately high for the tiny rodent. Who just flies into an Alien Tree anyway? What if it ate people?!

"Well... Stealth. Ok...." Cp says, walking over to the base of Blue's tree, sizing it up, and pulling his bag into a better position before clinging on. When he asked to keep things quiet, he meant not go banging on people's doors, not suddenly become a ninja.

Right, let's do stealth.... Am I still bright yellow? Yes? Greeeaaaattt...

He scratches the bark a bit more in an attempt to climb, and very quickly finds himself sliding down onto the dirt once more...

#41

On Ana, a very strange sight soared through the skies. Well, slightly stranger than usual. It was a giant golden eagle carrying an average sized black clad woman in it's massive taloons. The woman was grasped by her shoulders and upper arms, and she didn't look happy about it either.

"What exactly is going to happen when we-I mean you-" ES corrected herself, she was obviously just along for the ride here "see this pink collar and land?" the dark woman frowned at the ground rushing past below them worriedly, then back up at the giant eagle that had turned a great, green eye her wax to glare.
"Why don't you concentrate on where you're flying. You might hit a flock of birds that are paying as much attention as you are" Swix snapped, the eye narrowed and the total lack of reply got on the humanoids nerves more than their earlier banter. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" she asked, and again got no answer but an even narrower eye that disappeared when the avians head moved back to 'watch where she was going!.

"Hmm" ES mused, then called back to the giant bird "your mother must've been a chicken because you're flying's atrocious!" She got an answer of sorts this time-her arms were squeezed to the point she yelped in pain, and the gigantic golden bird started a steep dive down at the ground.

ES's tendrils instinctively shot out of her back and grabbed hold of both of Harpy's wings, slowly forcing them open so the dive turned into a gentle glide.

"There's no need for that! ES choked out after her shaking stopped "You... can't talk in this form can you?" she asked, then waited briefly for an answer that wouldn't come. "Well, in that case I'm going to take a more comfortable position up on your back rather than danglling dangerously down here. You don't mind do you?" she asked, grinning "Great! I knew you just couldn't say no to me"

Laur · #42

Laur merely smiled pleasantly at her fellow mutants quip and the heroic yellow mouses parting comment before he proceeded to hurry after Blue. It was an insincere smile on her part, nothing more than an old, familiar mask she once donned so often. The once reluctant mutant followed the pair, reflecting on how much her life had transformed so recently along the way.

'And yet you still refuse to accept yourself'

An unwelcome, familiar voice assailed her ears, familiar because it belonged to her.

"Leave me in peace. I do not require your presence, it would be an unwelcome distraction to this task"

'I knew you were going to say that. Recall that you cannot get away from me so easily'

Laur replied with silence coupled with the thin lips of one whom is not amused, to her great relief the Voice reciprocated her silence

She walked up to join the esteemed pikachu and the draconic one, thinking herself fortunate the Voice had maintained it's silence long enough for her to understand their current situation.

"If the goal here is stealth perhaps we should explore avenues other than aimlessly wandering through treetops. For all we know the natives may nest in them, or possess hordes of ravenous birdlike lifeforms in place of dogs."

Laur remarked, paying careful attention that the sarcasm she felt did not seep into her words so they came across as genuince concern.

"Perhaps it would be more conducive to our efforts to establish a base or meeting place before we embark upon any attempts at reconnaissance, especially of these particular natives, as they do not appear to be nocturnal it is unlikely we will learn much at present"