Neck Deep in Death (HitokiriChibi, I)ragon)

[MaskedLegend]

The seaside city, Corshire, was famous for it's beautiful landscape, successful shops, the vast resource of the nearby sea and its valiant guard watch. Nothing got past the guards, the willing and brave who kept pirates and marauders at bay. They were the highest authority in the sheltered city, other than the eccentric mayor who hardly left his mansion and allowed no one inside. But, there is no such thing as peace without chaos to balance it.

The Captain of the Guard, Joshua Rolfe, was renowned as the best swordsmen around and the most respected man in town, besides the mayor of course. He had single-handedly defeated one of the most feared of pirate lords, Captain Xavier Brigand. After their captain was defeated, the rest of his armada retreated, fleeing from Corshire, making the Captain a hero. Soon afterward, the mayor had made a deal, giving the Captain rewards for each criminal.

...but with temptation, then power... there is always corruption...

Rolfe empowered his militia to ensure he'd catch criminals, enlisting mages, warlocks, and other "assets" to help his chances. But he was also making a fatal mistake. Scaring off crime wasn't good for the captain. There was only one way to fix that...

...Organized crime.

The trouble-making guy was walking up the paved path, hoping to get to a place that had food. He looked to his left seeing plenty of trees, same to the right. So boring... Drake continued walking... but he was getting so hungry. He quickly crouched down, morphing into a yellow lab, his favorite kind of dog and immediately smelled something delicious... it was further up the road. H Also heard waves crashing against a shore... and smelled the salty air as well.

Drake dashed forward, hoping he could find a restaurant at this place or something before he starved to death. Drake continued at looked up ahead and saw a stone wall and a hope wooden gate . A town was sure to have some good food, all right. The smell was getting closer, more delicious, it made his mouth water... maybe being a dog made that happen, but it still smelled great. Drake hurried to the gate, and morphed back into his normal self to see that the gate was ajar.

Drake pushed, opening the large wooden door a bit more and stepped inside the city. Immediately, he saw a sign that depicted, "Corshire" in gleaming letters to the left. Drake saw a busy crowd of people, buying things from outdoor shops and such. How was he supposed to get through to find some food or anything? He looked to the right and saw an alley. Hoping it would help him, Drake walked down it.

He rounded the corner and the next thing he knew, he was being tackled by a man with a hood over his face and was hit over the head with something heavy. Drake fell unconscious and he did not like where this had landed him... he was in a group holding cell, in a jail. What just happened? He saw a guard walking down the halls and the gaurd stopped his route and headed over to Drake.

"What happened, I was ambushed and I wound up here, why am I in a cell?" Drake asked, rubbing his head and feeling dried blood.

"Silence, criminal! Alec Johanson, you are under arrest for theivery, assualt, running from authorities and murder!"

"Excuse me...?"

OoC: Muahaha! I hope you know where this is going if not, PM or IM me!

[HitokiriChibi]

It was a good day in the city of Corshire - the sun was shining in a cloud free sky, the weather was warm but the sea breezes kept it from getting to hot and there were lots of big crowds flooding the renowned market place.

In between the crush of people drifting from one store to another, there were groups who stayed still, watching the performance of tricksters and musicians and giving their purses a rest from the flurry of purchases they were doing.

A young man with golden tanned skin that set off his ice blue hair was watching these performances, evaluating them and the crowds reactions with intriguing purple eyes.

However, his viewing was interrupted when he saw a movement in a path leading between stores at the corner of his eye, and he turned to look more sharply. Frowning at the sight of an empth alley, he made to continue viewing the acts when he saw the motion again and he realised someone was beckoning him.

"Someone is beckoning Joker to a dark alley...?" he murmured to himself, knowing it was a bad idea but finding he was just to curious to let it slip by.

"Ah well... if it's anything bad Joker can just portal away, assuming they don't knock Joker out," snickering at the possibility of that happening he slipped away from the crowd, easily making his way through the multitude of shoppers until he reached his destination.

"Hey... come here!" The whispered command came from Joker's left, and he turned towards it just as something seemed to drop behind him.

A sharp pain at the back of his head and Joker knew no more.

Joker came awake abruptly awhile later, slowly sitting up and gngerly shaking his pounding head.

"Ara... Joker doesn't recall getting drunk... then again if Joker had been drunk he wouldn't remember anyway... so Joker must have been drunk..." was his mumbled conclusion of why his head pained him so much. Reaching back a hand he winced as his hand connected with a large lump, a gift from who ever had knocked him out.

"Oh, you weren't drunk at all, laddy," the rough voice came from above Joker and he looked up, frowning to see bars between him and the speaker.

"Why are you in jail?" The jester asked, his mind still confused enough not to see the truth of the matter.

The man barked out a laugh, his eyes humourless and cold as he looked down at him, "Oh, I'm not the one behind bars," drawing himself to stand taller the guard intoned, "Cale Istravis, you are under arrest for forgery, counterfeit, stealing from the masses and nobility and assaulting a man of the church!"

Joker blinked, tilting his head in confusion, "Joker isn't... assaulting a man of the church? Joker didn't realise that was a crime as such."

[I)ragon11]

“we.” Started one.

“Wee we!” Sang the other.

“Wee Wee Wee Wee Wee we”

Then, in unison, they pair completed the song: “Wee Wee Wee Wee wee wee wee wee we we we we, we...”

“When I was a weewee tot, they took me off my weewee cot and put me on my weewee pot to see if I would wee or not…”

“we. Wee we! Wee Wee Wee Wee Wee we, Wee Wee Wee Wee wee wee wee wee we we we we, we...”

“When they saw that I could not, they took me off my weewee pot and put me on my weewee cot, AND THEN I GAVE IT ALL I GOT!”

“we. Wee we! Wee Wee Wee Wee Wee we, Wee Wee Wee Wee wee wee wee wee we we we we, we...”

The two frineds laugh, the girl a little more then the boy.

“Aaaw... that never gets old” Said J.

Roery chuckled a little more, keeping pace beside J as they walked along the forest trail. The two continued in pleasant silence, listening to the swaying trees and singing birds. The sun was sliding under the horizon, letting off a golden red glow through the trees. It would be dark soon. And seemingly just in time, a town came into view through the trees and at the base of the hill.

It wasn’t long before the pair reached the front gate to the port town.

“I win!” J said as he reached the gate first and opened it.

Roery rolled her eyes at him and followed after.

“Corshire... That’s a stupid name” J said as he stopped to read the sign. Ignoring him, Roery walked on into the city. It was just like most cities; the typical bustling markets, shanty houses, a few odd races of people here and there. “It would be cool if we had a way of actually... making money... instead of rationing what we have left...”

Ignoring him once more, the young women continued on her way. “How much food do we have left?” she asked without looking back at him.

Taking off his backpack, J opened it and searched inside. “Wez goooots... some meets, some berries, a few not good tasting things,”

She groaned kiddingly. “You’re such a picky eater.” She said, grabbing the bag away from him and looking inside. “Humm, we'll need to grab a few things...” she tossed the bag back to J and headed into the market. J flung the bag over his shoulder and followed after. The streets were surprisingly crowded and the two had to walk near the walls of the buildings to make their way around. Passing a narrow ally way, something caught J’s ear. It sounded like a muffled scream. Tugging Roery’s sleeve, J slunk into the dark corridor.

“J- what are y-” She asked as she followed him into the ally. A dark figure, barely noticeable and hidden partly by a wall, slipped backwards and out of sight completely. J jogged forwarded and turned around the corner. Just as Roery turned the corner also, there was a loud thud and J was flung back out into the ally, activating his armor just before slamming hard into the wall. Roery yelped as J flew by her and instinctively activated her own armor.

“Ow.” J mumbled as he slumped down to the ground, a trickle of blood running down his face. Spinning around and snapping a gun into her hand, Roery pointed it at the strange man before her. He had a long, dark red cloak on, with a couple black bucks strapped around his chest and waist, his hood down and covering his head completely. Obviously, he looked like trouble. Wasting no time at all, she immediately fired a plasma disk, aimed strait for his head. The cloaked man looked startled for a split second before throwing up his hand in front of him, barely in time to shield the disk as it caused a large explosion over his magical barrier. Roery took a step foreword and released her second gun from her left arm compartment, catching it as it dropped and raised it to her opponent.

Dust and smoke had been kicked up by the explosion, obscuring her vision of the man. Soon, a shadowy outline came into view, and Roery notice something she hadn’t noticed before. A young girl, about the same age as she, maybe a little younger. She was half lying on the ground, half hanging loosely by her collar that was being held by the robbed man. Scowling and flipping her guns back into her arm compartments, knowing her disks were too explosive to use around the young hostage, Roery took a few steps further and popped her fingers together.

The bandit turned his head from side to side, obviously looking for the best way out. In a blur of motion, Roery leaned forward and shot off her thrusters, propelling herself at the man with amazing speed. The startled man jerkingly raised a hand, small red flames beginning to form around his fingers. But it was too late. Roery drew her right hand back into a fist, and with a sickening thud... (Pause for dramatic affect) ...a limp, armored hand fell to the floor. There was a snap of black smoke and sudden, unseen movement. A slight fear gripped at Roery’s mind. Everything had happened so fast, she wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. And the growing pain in her arm was not very comforting.

Once again, the smoke cleared, this time to reveal a taller man in much the same attire that the first, only his robes where red and black, and he was pinning Roery by the neck to the brick, alley wall. The wounded girl choked and coughed, her mind nauseous from the pain in her arm.

“Fool, are you trying to get the attention of the whole town?” Came his deep voice, obviously speaking to the other man.

“I-I...” he stuttered, but was cut short when as a massive bolt of plasma smashed into the skin tight barrier over the tall robed man. “Roery!” In the same instance, J followed up with a flying kick to the man’s head. The mage simply raised a hand to intercept the kick, and with a flash of black light, shoved the armored young mans foot back with great force, sending J spinning backwards. He landed with ease, spinning around completely as he slid backwards on his feet.

“What have you done!” J yelled as he lunged forward for another try, but it was already too late. With a snap of his fingers, a black orb extended out from the red and black robed man, engulfing himself, Roery, the first mage, his captive and, continuing to extend, engulfed J as well. The tall young mans eyes widened as his vision all but left him, turning his head from side as he continued to move foreword through, what he thought, was the alleyway. Then the strangest sensation came over him as he felt an odd, almost liquid, feeling swirl against his whole body, and at the same time, made him feel weightless.

Before he could makes any sense at all of what was happening, his feet hit abruptly on an unseen surface and he fell forward, barely able to catch his fall. He looked up quickly to see blackness had faded away, and a plain stone wall stood before him. Jumping to his feet, he spun around in place, finding Roery slumped against the opposite wall of the small cell they were in. J rushed over to her and knelt down, “You alright?” he asked quietly, a concurred look on his face. Roery raised her left hand and coughed into it. Revealing to J the stump of her right wrist in her lap. Wincing at the sight, the boy put a hand on her shoulder and stood back up to his feet. “Don’t worry, where getting out of here.” He stated as he raised his left arm to the metal bars at the front of the cell and fired off a plasma bolt. The fist sized blast exploded against the bars and sprayed the hall, and cell across from his, with plasma.

“Ara! Who is shooting at Joker!” Came a startlingly familiar voice. J gapped in surprise and walked over to the cell bars. (which, he hadn’t noticed yet, took no damage at all from the plasma)

In the cell across from his, stood a ice blue haired young man with a dark, embodied vest over his pale shirt, and had deep purple eyes with light blue rings around the iris. The dream weaver was slightly crouched, with an arm covering his face from the spray of plasma that had never actually reached him.

“... Joker?!”

“J?” he asked, lowering his arm and standing strait. “It is J~! Joker be happy to see you~!” He exclaimed, pounding at armored young man. J winced and reflexively leaned back, as Joker would promptly be smashing right into the bars. But as always, he was taken by surprise by his friend as a portal opened up at the last second and another linked right to the bars in front of J. Joker flew into their cell as if the bars had never been there at all, and pounced on the unexacting soldier.

“Oof... ah, hey Joker” J said with a half smile. “Good to see you too” he looked to the side, then back up at Joker, who had him on in a bear hug on the floor. He patted the jokers back, hesitated awkwardly for a second, then shoved him off.

“But what brings you to prison? Rape, murder, plunderings?” Joker asked as he sponge back up to his feet.

Roery coughed again. A blue light radiated from her body as her armor become transparent, then melded back into her body and the light faded away, leaving her in the same clothes she had on before. Her injured arm had already stopped bleeding but still didn’t look pretty and caused her a good amount of pain. Of course, not nearly as much pain as any average person would be in. J propped himself up on his elbows and looked concernedly over at his friend. He knew her arm would probably heal completely, hand and all, by the next night, but until then, it would be best if she didn’t activate her armor again.

OoC: *Looks back over his post* ...Man... I make long posts O_o Sorry it took so long ^^;;;

[MaskedLegend]

OoC: Jesus Christ, this will have to be the third damn time I have to write this post! The first time, I accidentily hit the back button trying to open a new tab and when I went forward, the post was gone. The second time, I ACTUALLY POSTED IT and then ZU went all retarded and offline, so I don't know but that somehow deleted my second post.

IC:

The young man felt a cold, hard texture against his body and his arms and legs were incredibly stiff and achy. Drake tried to gain his bearings and senses, but he felt so exhausted and sluggish, lethargic. He tried to open his mouth to let in a breath of fresh air when he couched, inhaling a rotten mix of a blood and sweat odor. Drake attempted to open his eyes and get a better look at his environment, but they were taking so long to focus and get used to wherever he was.

He tried moving his arms so he could push himself off of the ground, but he found that both of his hands were bound together by metal chain cuffs, tied behind his back, the main reason his arms were so stiff. Nevertheless, Drake rolled onto his back, feeling the metal cut into his wrists a bit and quickly arched his back and upper body forward, then planted his knees under the rest of him for support.

Drake slowly placed his right foot on the hard concrete floor and then steadily raised his other leg to stand up, his legs aching but the stretching was helping to clear that up. Wearily, he staggered over to the iron bars that kept him captive and sighed, trying to gain some of his stamina so he can stand by himself, without having to lean on anything for support. Trying to breathe in fresh air wasn't helping since the air smelled rotten and putrid.

Drake tensed when he heard heavy footsteps walking down the corridor and toward his cell. He peeked through the bars to see a guard heavily clad in silver and ornate armor, a ring of keys jingling from his belt, along with a sheath bobbing up and down as he strolled down the hallway. The guard headed directly toward Drake and cleared his throat as if he were getting ready to cite a prepared speech.

But before the guard had a chance to say anything, Drake blurted out, "What happened, I was ambushed and I wound up here, why am I in a cell?" Drake asked.

"Silence, criminal! Alec Johanson, you are under arrest for thievery, assault, running from authorities and murder!"

"Excuse me...?"

"You have been charged these orders by the Captain of the Guard himself and he will arrive shortly to issue the following punishment!" the guard barked and started to walk away.

"Hey, don't I get a trial or something, I haven't done anything wrong in this town, I just arrived here!" Drake pleaded, hoping the guard would listen to logic or -something-.

"If you are not a thief, is there any reason that you are wearing that black mask or is that just because you happen to feel like wearing one after a crime took place?"

Drake felt anger boil within him and he murmured, "None of your damn business..."

"Very well, criminal, enjoy your stay!" he yelled again and left, walking down the corridor again.

Drake sighed and sat on his cot. Just as he expected, it was stiff and bumpy, feeling the springs in the old, worn mattress. He to get comfortable on the cot, but it was just impossible. Plus he was just plain bored. He was wondering, like how come there isn't another fun to do in a prison cell, nothing, just blank concrete walls on every side except the iron cars to the side. He sighed and sighed, trying to find something to do. He couldn't escape by himself without changing masks and that was the last thing he wanted to do. He morphed into a kitten and burrowed under the sheet of the cot and fell asleep.

He started to awake, hearing voices... they sounded familiar too! He jumped down from the cot after stretching and yawning and morphed into a snake to slither through the bars and into the empty cell across his own to see who the new 'inmates' were. He saw it was J, Roery and Joker, the three he met at that hotel! They could help him escape and he hopefully wouldn't have to change any masks!

Drake slithered out of the cell and morphed into a new random identity to surprise them. A tall man with blond, spiky hair and blue eyes, a dark red shirt with blue jeans, brown boots, a black sweater and finally black sunglasses. He made sure no guards were making their rounds and walked to his friends' cells, asking, "Need some help busting out of this dump?"

[HitokiriChibi]

Joker spun around at the new voice, his eyes widening in delight.

“We’re SAVED~!” Joker threw himself at the bars, this time not jumping through and mashing himself against them, trying to reach the other person.

“Hey, Joker man! You’ll hurt yourself like that!” J snagged the back of Joker’s shirt and tugged him away from the bars, ignoring the flailing youth as he continued trying to show his appreciation.

“But we’re saved! We has a saviour!” Joker wailed, looking at J with tearful eyes, “Joker has never had anyone save him before! Joker feels like a … a … PRINCESS~!”

“Ah…” J couldn’t help but look at Joker oddly at that statement as he released him.

The mysterious person also seemed taken aback but managed to regain his composure, “So, how about it? Wanna get sprung or not?”

“Yes! Joker wants to be freeeee~!” Joker squealed, jumping happily from foot to foot. In his mind he was wondering what technique the man would use, whether it would be lock picking, explosives, digging, narcotics –

“Hey… isn’t that…” Roery’s weary voice piped up as she moved closer to the bars, peering at the man closely while cradling her injured arm to with her remaining hand. Her pain filled face was reflected in the glasses that shielded his eyes from her view as she frowned, trying to find something.

“What is it, Roery?” J asked, also moving forwards and preparing himself to activate his armour if it turned out to be a trap of some sort. He didn’t want Roery to injure herself further before she had to heal this injury.

Joker tilted his head, sensing some of the vibes and looking woefully at the lack of weaponry on his person. He hadn’t even paid attention enough to realise Roery had been injured – something he would have to try and rectify.

“Will we need weapons?” He asked in a stage whisper to J, who merely gave a waiting motion in return, his attention on Roery.

Throughout this, the man hadn’t moved from his position, merely smiling at them in a carefree manner and awaiting their response.

“Is that… Drake?” Roery asked hesistantly.

The smile grew wider and Drake laughed, “How did you know, Roery? I don’t think I’ve used this form in front of you before.”

Roery, J and Joker relaxed and grinned at each other in relief to see it was their friend and not some elaborate trap.

“Of course I’d know who you are! You’re my friend after all,” Roery teased, then gasped as she jarred her wrist.

“Roery!” Her name echoed throughout the cell, with the three males reaching for her simultaneously.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. I’ll be better tomorrow,” she grumbled self-consciously, “I’ve had worse… I think.”

Joker frowned and opened up two different portals, one leading to the hallway and the other to a room of his in the Dream Realm.

“Drake, come join us for a bit in here and tell us what happened with you. Joker thinks he has something to help Roery with the pain at least…” The last he said as he shoved his arm through the smaller portal, rummaging around with what was on the other side and pulling out a small jar of ointment.

“Smear that over her injury, it will numb the complete area. Joker would advise doing it with your armour activated or your whole hand will be useless for awhile.”

OoC: I know, i know, I'm a horrible Chibi >___< Sorry it was so long in the making, I've had little time and when I did I had no inspiration what so ever ;-;

[I)ragon11]

“Smear that over her injury, it will numb the complete area. Joker would advise doing it with your armor activated or your whole hand will be useless for awhile.”

“Thanks... Joker.” Roery said with a weak smile, carefully removing her hand from her wound and taking the jar. Drake obliged also and stepped through the portal and into their cell. He immediately stepped over to Roery put a hand gently on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah... I’ll be fine...” she said as he helped her to sit down against the stone wall. Roery concentrated on her good arm for a second, materializing the armor just over that arm. She then popped the lid off the jar and dumped some of the content into her gloved hand, and carefully smeared it on her stub, a constant wince visible on her face. Drake kneeled down beside her as J deactivated his armor and stepped over. Joker was watching Roery, subconsciously contorting his face to match Roery’s own at the gruesome sight.

Drake pulled his eyes away from her and looked at both J and Joker, remembering Joker’s question. “Oh... umm, it’s nothing important, just falsely being imprisoned for something I didn't do... you?”

J raised an eyebrow and Joker nodded solemnly, “Same did happen to Joker.” J milled this around in his head for a bit, only coming to the conclusion that the same had most likely happened to that young girl before himself and Roery had intervened. And that there were some very powerful men out there that were doing a very good job of capturing outside wanderers, that no one in the town would know, to frame for their organized crime.

At that moment, a prisoner slammed himself into his cell bars and pointed at the jail cell that housed the four friends. “Guards!”

Four heads turned simultaneously to their jail mate, bewildered as to why anyone would do such a thing.

“Guards, they’re escaping!”

J looked aghast at the man and took a step forward, contemplating whether to shoot him in the head or not. Joker leaned forward, put a finger to his lips, and hushed the man loudly.

As expected, the sound of many footsteps filled the corridors, some from the guards that were coming, most from the other prisoners shuffling to the front of their cells to see what all the commotion was about. A wood and metal door slammed open, followed by half a dozen armed guards. Joker, Drake, Roery, and J all glanced at each other, not entirely sure what the best move to make next would be. Almost instinctively, J reactivated his armor in a flash of red light and glared at the incoming guards.

As it stood, Drake was now wearing his happy morphing mask, J had his armor, but wasn’t entirely sure if he could even get past the imbued cell bars, and Joker had portals to anywhere and everywhere, and Roery was injured and, at the moment, as powerless as a teenage girl.

“Quickly, into Jokers portals!” Joker hissed as he sprung to help Roery stand and a six-foot portal opened next to her. Drake stood also, nodded once to Joker, and walked with Roery into the opening in the air. The dream weaver then beckoned to J, who glanced once more at the now sprinting and yelling guards, and hopped into the patrol, Joker following after.

[MaskedLegend]

The masked man quickly helped his friends through the portal and jumped through as the portal closed before the guard could have a chance to reach them. The group appeared in an alley outside, much like where they were first captured. He looked back and forth and saw no guards, sighing with slight relief. Suddenly, a leaf on the ground nearby cracked, giving off that crackling sound. Drake scanned about, looking for an sort of spy but didn't see anything. He was getting a little too paranoid.

"More guards after Joker and his friends?" Joker asked, looking about wildly after hearing the sound as well. J helped Roery to her feet and the two helped look around, still, no one saw anything.

"We should really get out of here, this town is loony," J commented, deactivating his armor as well as Roery's. Drake nodded in agreement and morphed into a wolf, sniffing around for an unfamiliar scent. He growled as he picked something up, not smelling anything like a guard from before but strangely, it smelled familiar. Drake couldn't quite recognize it but still, he paced down the alley, leaning his nose to the ground and then up to sniff the air.

"What the...?" he asked as the smell disappeared instantly. "What are you doing, Drake?" Roery asked, looking at him curiously. He turned back and shook his head, not really knowing what he was doing and morphed back into his normal human form and walking with the other three toward the end of the alley. He kept close to them as they were back into the main street, still crowded with many people from the town, the commotion and jabbering was enough to give Drake a migraine.

"Excuse me, we're looking for a group of escaped people..." Drake heard a guard mutter. The group quickly head back into the alley, frightened. These guards were everywhere and Drake was sure that they must have patrols out and extra men watching the exits of the town. The four friends were trapped in this insane town without no way to escape, perfect. Drake sighed in defeat, anxiety slowly taking him over, he started to panic and looked back and forth hastily.

"Hey, who're they?!" a guard yelled out. The group heard metallic footsteps rushing toward the alley from both directions. Drake panicked more, the black mask on his face started to glow a strange aura as it was about to shift into a different mask. All of a sudden, a black silhouette wisped by on the rooftops of the house. The guards' footsteps suddenly stopped and loud thumps of metal against stone were heard.

A small dark orb was thrown into the alley from the roofs, the group looked down at it strangely. The top half of the orb broke upon and red smoke blasted out. Drake's eyes started to water and he coughed heavily, falling to the ground. His vision blurred and he slowly faded from consciousness, feeling every limb go limp, every muscle clench and everyone vein slow.

The silhouette stood above and jumped down, clapping its gloved hands twice together and four other people, wearing the same attire of black cloaks and red scarves, their faced hidden by hoods, jumped down, hoisting the group away, making sure no one was following as the walked into a rather large estate on the outskirts of town. Each of them was placed on a cot downstairs and one of the black-cloaked figures stayed behind to watch over them.

The figure tapped Drake lightly and suddenly its form shifted into a black and gray cat, lying next to J and yawning. The morning soon came and the cat quickly shifted when J rolled over onto his back. Drake slowly woke up to see everyone in a cellar, nothing inside except for a table, a few chairs and the cots. He made sure Joker, Roery and J were there, sighing in relief.

"Where are we...?" he asked nervously.

"The Syndicate Hideout!" a familiar and excited female voice piped out, from out of nowhere. Drake tried to recognize the voice but couldn't. He looked around to try and see if there was anyone else in the room but didn't notice any other person. He sat up on his cot to get a better look, seeing a familiar cat next to J, who was slowly stirring.
The cat lied on his chest and yawned, curling up and falling asleep.

J woke up and looked at the cat lying on him, quickly holding her up in slight surprise. "Hi, J...!" she said, struggling to get down. It took J a few seconds but his eyes widened, finally recognizing her. "You silly Salad...!"

[HitokiriChibi]

“You silly salad!”

Joker stirred, opening his eyes and looking in surprise at his surroundings. He could only assume they had been taken by whoever had thrown those smoke bombs – all that needed to be known was whether or not they were friend or foe.

Shaking his head, he leaned up on his elbows, noting that both Drake and J were awake and looking at a black and grey kitty that was sitting on J’s cot.

“Who’s the kitty?” Joker asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Whatever was in the bomb had muddled his head a bit.

The can turned to look at him with hazel eyes, “I’m Salis! We, being the Syndicate, picked you guys up before those guards got to you.”

Joker frowned, “So… the Syndicate is a group of talking cats?”

The cat gave a funny laugh, “No no, we’re all human. I just happened to… acquire… that guy’s abilities, which must be shape shifting.”

Sitting up, he looked from both Drake to J, confused, “What’s with this Syndicate… and where’s Roery?”

“I’m sure Salis here will be willing to answer our questions, they did after all take us for a reason no doubt,” J pointed out and then added, “Roery is in the cot next to yours.”

“Ah~! Joker didn’t see her!” Turning, he looked at Roery’s pale face and sighed that she seemed alright.

“Right, now that Joker knows Roery is alright… What is the Syndicate and why were we taken? For that matter, Joker wants to know why were imprisoned in the first place since none of us did anything wrong in the extremely short time we’ve been here,” Flipping himself out of the bed he started to pace up and down the room, to both warm up his muscles and to distract Salis if she was up to anything.

“Joker also wants to know why we had to be knocked out, if you were helping us you could have just left us and gone for the guards, so that means you all want something from Joker and his friends! On the topic of helping, has anyone looked at Roery? She might need more care for her hand. What is wrong with hospitality when a girl looses a hand and doesn’t even get the proper treatment!”

He flicked a glance to the side and was pleased to see that everyone was staring at him with a confounded look upon their faces.
“Joker… maybe you should sit and calm down…” Drake said hesitantly.

OoC: Yeah I know Joker babbled but I didn't feel right getting into what's happening XD

[MaskedLegend]

The black and gray cat looked at Joker strangely, taken aback from his questions. She looked down at the ground, dejectedly. She jumped down off of J's cot and sighed, looking at the ground. Suddenly, she morphed back into her original form, a black hooded cloak covering all of her and a red scarf dangling out of her hood, shimmering brown hair in her face. She had a lot of explaining to do so she sat down on an empty cot.

"It all started when this city used to run by another crime organization, muggings and gang-fights happened on a daily basis," she started.

"Corshire is a province of our kingdom and finally our king decided to establish a firm military program here. The gangs were rooted out and the Captain of the Guard, Joshua Rolfe, was rewarded. Every time he rounds up ten criminals within a month, he is handsomely rewarded with gold, fancy linens, polished weapons, more reputation..."

Salis paused, stretching out on the bed. "Buuuut... Mr. Rolfie scared all the baddies away and when there is no bad guys to catch in Corshire, the Captain of the Guard loses his bonus and then the King is displeased..."

Her expression started to sour. "So the 'clever' man made criminals of his own men, finding whatever reason he could get to imprison then. But then he thought that he might get snitched on... so he started to go for the newcomers... now he has a steady flow of incoming cash because a lot of people visit now that we have become a popular 'crime-free' town."

Salis glared at the ground under the cot she was sitting on. "That's where my Master comes in... he doesn't like Joshua Rolfe -at all- and he wants him dead. Unfortunately, Mr. Rolfe's estate is almost a fortress, heavily guarded and whatnot. So he bailed out some of Rolfe's victims and they swore to follow and serve Master for saving them, thus forming the Syndicate. Master has collected a lot more members now and we're in the hideout right now."

"That's why I had to knock you all out... our hideout is secret and he doesn't want to risk its location, he was going to let you die but I decided quickly and knocked you out..." she trailed off, looking down at the ground sadly.

Salis looked over at Roery and then her head. "We're doing our best to see that Roery is cared for but we're not much in the way of doctors... still, we're trying... and we don't want anything from you, Joker, or your friends. They're my friends too, you know...." she said, sulking slightly. With that, she stood up off of the cot and walked out of the basement. "Wait here, I'll bring you some food..."

The door closed and Drake heard her footsteps get down a hallway. He walked up to the door and tried to open it, finding that it was locked. He heard Salis's voice and someone else's. It was muffled through the door and he couldn't exactly make out any words but the other voice, a man's, was loud and aggravated. Both the voices stopped and the footsteps parted, one coming back. Drake quickly headed to his cot.

Salis opened the door and staggered down the stairs with a rather large platter. "All we have right now is stuff for sandwiches..." she muttered, setting the platter down and lying on her cot to rest, rubbing her shoulder. Drake took two slices of bread and felt them, still soft. At least the food was decent, he shrugged and put some of the meat, chicken, roast beef and ham in between the bread, quickly eating.

[I)ragon11]

J frowned at the sandwich fixings. He hated sandwiches. Of course, he would have one, and he would pretend like he didn’t hate them, but that was just to be nice. And although he was starving, he had a more important Salad to worry about now.

“Hey... You alright?” He asked as he sat down next to Salis. She smiled up at him as best she could and nodded slightly. He smiled back and grabbed her arm, pulling her up into a sitting position next to him. Salis said nothing and leaned her head on his shoulder, starring sadly at the ground.

Roery and J exchanged concerned looks, her concerned for Salis and him for Roery’s injury. The blond haired girl then smiled at J reassuringly, letting him know she’d be all right.

“Joker made you a happy sandwich~!” exclaimed the dream weaver, taking the top slice of bread off the bottom slice to show Roery the arrangement of sandwich fixings that made up a happy face that looked more like Jokers own face then one would think possible. Roery’s eyes widened at Jokers suddenness and she couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“... Thanks Joker.” She said, graciously taking the sandwich from him with her good hand.

“It be Jokers pleasure.” He stated, bowing low to her before zipped back over to the sandwich table, sticking out his tongue in concentration as he started to create two more masterpiece’s for J and Salis. Drake merely gave the dream weaver an odd look as J chuckled softly.

After ten minutes or so, the group had warmed up to each other all over again. Roery and Drake sat next to each other as Drake did what he could for her injured hand. J and Joker sat nearby, J constantly laughing at Jokers ridiculous adventures and stories. Even Salis had started to lighten up a little.

“... And that’s when Joker learned that you should never try to get a hippopotamus into a woman’s bikini @_@”

The groups laughter was cut short as the main doors slammed shut. Three men wearing dark cloaks and red scarves obscuring their faces stood before the door. The largest stepped forward and nearly barked his orders. “Our Master will see you now.”