What Fate had in Store (Duke, Altamira, Sakume)

[Zorolo]

OoC: Well, let the hysteria of this thread begin. ^_^

BiC: The clunking of heavy boots against the metallic ground. Two rather normal sized figures walked, holding a figure by his arms as they continued to walk. The two figures stopped in front of a small cell. Without much of a thought, the two figures threw the man they were slightly propping up into the cell, his body passing through a strange wall of energy.

The sound of the body hitting the ground, not a new sound in this prison, echoed through the halls of the prison setting. The two men that had held this person began walking away. Each one was dressed entirely the same, wearing half plate armor over the top of their body, covering their sternum and ribcage area. The silver colored armor was standard issue, and was worn over the blue, full body suit. Aside from that, the guards all held a kind of rifle type weapon.

As the police left, the man sat up. Dressed in an entirely black set of clothing, a long sleeved shirt that was really unpleasant, and a black pair of pants. The shirt had a symbol tagged on it of crossed swords. The fencer looked at the symbol, pondering what it meant as he ran a single hand through his green hair. Where in the world had he wound up, and what in the world was going on?

Suddenly, Zorlo thought silently what had happened prior to his waking up here. The fencer thought about his current plight, and tried to reach into his aura, but found they were impossible to reach. Interesting. My aura is sealed off, I have none of my effects, and I'm in some kind of a cage holding cell made of energy. Well, this isn't very pleasant at all. The fencer shrugged his shoulders and looked out the small window in the solid wall in the back of the cell.

Stretching for as far as the eye could see, stars and the blackness of space filled the area. "Okay, can't say I was wholly expecting that," Zorlo said as he casually smiled. "So, I've been captured, my powers have been locked away, my effects have been take from me. Am I missing anything?"

A voice actually answered that question. "Yes, in fact," a man said as he looked in. The man wore pants that were, for lack of a better term, poofy. The pants clung tight around the waste, but flared out around the hips and thinned down near the knees and kept that close fit around the rest of the legs. The man wore a pompous shirt of a similar style, buttoned up to the top, with a very eccentric collar. What really made the man look most queer was probably the fact he wore face makeup. His hair was short and blonde, his skin not covered was an odd peach color, but he wore white makeup on his face with purple lining around his eyes and light red circles around his cheeks.

"And... you are..." the Aura Master asked, awestruck by the strange way the man was dressed and the fact he looked almost exactly like a clown.

"I am a bounty hunter, but I'm best known for my psychic powers. Reading minds is all but too easy for me. And to answer your other question, there is a barrier around this whole facility that prevents everyone not wearing one of these bands," the clown person said as he pulled his sleeve up slightly to reveal a bracelet around his wrist, "from being any stronger then a normal human."

"To make it more fun, these bracelets will only respond to the person who's DNA is matched to their processors. So don't think that killing a guard will get you your powers back. As for what this place is, it's a prison for interdimensional prisoners, such as yourself. You'll have guests soon to join you, so don't worry. People you know should be here before long. One will be your cell mate, and the others will be in the cell next to you," the clown person stated as he pointed at the cell next door, which could be slightly seen into due to the partially translucent, orange energy wall.

"Let's say that, by some chance, I were to try to escape, how would one go about that skill?" Zorlo asked the nameless man as the fencer looked at the clown person, who seemed to think about the question.

"FIrst, you'd need to have a reason for a guard to use their keys to actually open the cell, since these barriers as doors are one way. Things go in, they don't come out, understand. Your next task... well, I'll let you figure that one out." The clown attired man began to leave, looking back just long enough to say, "By the way, my name is Iggoram. It was nice to meet the infamous Zorlo, the Fencer of Tasogare, before he is to be executed."

The fencer smiled as he sat down, looking at the leaving bounty hunter. "I've heard that threat before. Well, this teaches me a lesson for training so hard," the fencer said as he rubbed the back of his head, laughing a little bit at his misfortune. The only thing that Zorlo wanted to know was who these people were that were being brought to this prison.

OoC: Okay, a few thoughts, I guess. The cell arrangements, I'd hope, should be obvious, but that's something else. Alti, I guess we can place this after CR, but, for Zorlo's purposes, before he starts his intensive battle gauntlets. Anyway, let the fun begin. ^_^

[Altamira]

“Cadenza Madrigal is the biggest b—”

An elbow to the nose cut the sentence short, until it morphed into the sound of blood spraying from a nostril. The sight turned even the stablest stomach.

This was the first time Cadenza’s Dome duties had brought her into the reaches of space; and she was now learning that what they said about truck stop food apparently also applied to spaceport food. What they said was: don’t eat the food if you’re intending to leave anything but life afterwards. It was good advice.

Green in the face but still in control of her senses (if only for the time being), Cadenza avoided a particularly deadly knee to the gut and shoved the knee’s owner into the face of a man running towards her. They collided head-on and fell to the floor, groaning on impact, and soon became just another bump in the sea of discarded boarding passes and paper cups.

Screams sounded throughout the spaceport.

Frightened people gave up on waiting for their delayed ships and fled the terminal, some even going so far as to leave behind expensive articles of baggage. They cried out for the spaceport guards; and unfortunately for the brawlers, the guards responded to their calls.

In this futuristic world, the guards were ordinary, nondescript men; but to Cadenza, they looked like something straight out of an old, space-themed video game. They wore silver armor over much of their torsos, with a sharp, straight, crisp-edged design, and underneath they sported fully-body suits that were like a cross between blue footie-pajamas and a padded SWAT team uniform. Those, Cadenza thought, were two things she’d never thought she’d see merged--and yet, if there ever was to be a combination of those two, there it was, covering average bodies running towards her and holding guns.

One of them leveled a gun at her, and glared.

“You’re under arrest. All of you.”

The guard spoke in the tones of one accustomed to obedience--and indeed, most of the fighters jolted to a stop at his command. Cadenza however, not knowing how this whole thing was supposed to go here, just resisted the urge to smile.

This was going to be something she’d laugh about later, she thought. Nothing serious. How many times had she heard that line? Probably too many to count. And how many times had she actually been arrested afterwards?

Not once.

But that thought, and the smile that came with it, faded away as something that was certainly not a bullet launched at her from the gun, and struck her in the stomach.

She fell to the ground with a muffled, “Ugh”, before passing out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cadenza was vaguely aware of a faint shimmer of orange underneath her.

And then, groggily opening her eyes to the oppressive dark, she saw the stars below that. They looked light-years upon light-years away.

She blinked, trying to feel the energy field beneath her. Her eyes felt huge and overwhelmingly open in the blackness, and in that blackness the light-years stretched out, and filled the cell, displaying their unfathomable lengths before her eyes; a sudden, dropping feeling gripped her as the orange floor disappeared for a second, and then she was falling, plummeting helplessly into the abyss of space. Somewhere in her mind, where she wasn’t recovering from the lingering effects of a cheese-and-questionable meat sandwich, she screamed.

And then a cough broke the silence. She sat up, and glanced around. More blackness, stars, and orange energy. Even she was dressed in black. Belatedly, she wondered where she was--and, more immediately, who the hell had undressed her and changed her clothes. Someone, she thought, was going to answer for that one later. Probably with a fist to the face.

Cadenza thought she saw just the target when a clown appeared before the door of the cell.

“Evening, Miss Madrigal. Or morning. It’s sometimes hard to tell here. I just wanted to drop by to say that we are honored to be the first prison to be graced with your famous presence. I’m sure it’ll be an interesting experience for all of us…while it lasts.”

And with that ambiguous statement, and a little slip of paper informing her of a little thing like…oh say, she was going to be executed soon (and that charges here apparently did not have to be made known to the convicts), the clown left the woman to her own devices. Which, at the moment and unbeknownst to her, were severely limited.

OoC: That was really fun to write. :3 And sorry I stole your clown, Z. ^^;;

For my own timeline purposes, this comes after everything Cadenza-related to date except for "The Chain of Pursuit".

[Duke of Clubs]

So I'm sittin' here, right, and I'm just watching the show. It's a good one. I don't really remember how I got here. That building. With the doors. Yeah. That's it. Open the door and you're down the rabbit hole with the hares and the hats and the crazy, drugged out caterpillars...

I saw this face, right. Beautiful. Bright, blue, an' shimmering. I see it when I go on my little trips. It misses me. It told me so. I dunno. It makes me...relax, right? Calm the f*** down already, you know? And I chill, and the face kind of morphs into this shape of something that I long for so much that it hurts. But the colors got in the way. They always do. And I know I want it, but I still have no idea what the hell it is...

And that's not it.

Who're you...uhh...

***

A scream woke him up. Crimson eyes stared through a transparent viewport into the swirling infinity of the universe. Funnily enough, they were in space and he had, in fact, heard the woman scream. Familiar voice, too. Johnny shunted those thoughts aside. Maybe this was an afterimage. Post hallucination. That'd make sense. The zombie reached for the healing magic to clear the LSD from his system, but nothing came.

Hm. No magic. He was still "alive," though, so no matter what kind of trouble he was in, God wins.

"Awake, are you?"

Really, now? Seriously? Maybe he was dreaming. The person he wanted to be with was separated from him by a wall he couldn't break, and the person he leasted wanted to be with was right beside him.

"One can only imagine," Johnny replied enigmatically, sitting upright and leaning against the bulkhead. Zorlo looked back at him with his irritating, permanent smile. Johnny sighed. "Well, this is a first. Hard to imagine you getting arrested."

"On the contrary, many people seem to harbor less-than-favorable thoughts about me." Oh, yes. Johnny noted the significance of that sentence.

"No, I mean it's hard to imagine you physically being arrested. I was drugged."

"They drugged you?"

"Good Lord, semantics are really nailing us today, huh? No, I mean I was drugged out. Where are we? Beyond the obvious."

"Space jail, waiting to be executed."

"Same old song and dance in a different theater." Johnny stretched, thick muscles straining against the cheap black fabric. He grimaced and tore the sleeves off. Magic or not, he was still a strong mofo and his biceps had been complaining about the lack of room. "Well, this blows like a sophmore whore. A sophwhore, if you will. Got a plan?"

Zorlo's smile lessened slightly. "No. Our powers--"

"I'm aware. Just because I go from tripping to unconciousness to regular, snoring sleep doesn't mean when I wake up I won't be totally aware of things. God will show us the way. Preferrably a way that involves you being left behind as a decoy while I bail."

Zorlo grinned.

[Sakume]

Darkness…. Yes, she could even call it a void. She vaguely heard deep voices, speaking in low, hushed tones to one another, and felt as if she were gliding, although in reality two men were lifting her light form.

“Is she with him?”

“I believe so.”

“What should we do with her, then? She was wandering around asking for him, so she obviously needs to die. Who’s going to do the strip this time?” She felt a hand barely brush against her dress, and then pull one of her boots off.

“I believe I’ll take the ‘duty’. Wait, she’s coming around. Quick, give her another taste of it.” The angel cringed visibly as a wet rag was placed over her face, the fumes, although she didn’t make out a smell, knocking her out once more. Even in her demented unconscious state, she still felt the men removing her clothes…

Thud! Her eyes flickered open as she fell, her body feeling more weakened than she had ever known. “W… where am I?” she asked in her soft, innocent voice, straining to sit up. She wasn’t alone, she soon realized. Beside her sat a woman a bit older than she, with a lovely appearance, and even prettier peacock feathers in her illustrious black hair.

“Zorlo?” she asked almost inaudibly, her voice escaping her with a sudden noise to her left. She gasped and shrunk back from that side, a group of unsavory and rough men eyeing her closely.

“What’s wrong, pretty one? You all alone? I’ll make that betta’ alright!” Laughing hoarsely, he elbowed his two friends beside him, exposing the fact that he was missing quite a few teeth.

“Y-you wouldn’t dare!” she finally stammered, trying to appear brave and strong, her knees trembling together.

“Just you wait and see, love.” Another one of the men replied with a smoker’s cackle.

“You’d b-be sorry!” She attempted to spark a bit of her white fire in her hands, which were no longer gloved, but failed. She tried again, but with still no luck. It seemed as if they were blocked. Even her wings weren’t visible, almost like she were trapped in her human form. Absorbed in her own confusion, Selene ignored the person in her cell for the moment. A dim light soon revealed two figures in the right cell, one which, upon further inspection, appeared to be someone the angel knew quite well. “Zorlo!” she exclaimed, moving towards him, only to smack straight into the un-glowing energy wall. After she struck it, the wall began to glow a dim orange.

“Selene! Are you alright?” Zorlo asked as he approached the wall, placing a hand upon it, as was the best he could do. He noticed she was also dressed all in black, much like her other personality, Dark Selene would have been if she were still inside the angel.

“I… I think so…” She pushed herself back up from the ground to analyze the wall. “Zorlo… where are we?” The naïve woman had never been to prison before, much less anywhere like it. She was not used to such conditions. She also pressed a hand on the orange, her eyes squinting slightly to make the fencer out better in the near dark.

“I’m not sure, but our powers are gone and we seem to be in a good deal of trouble for now. Don’t worry, though, I’m sure things will be alright.” He gave off his normal, reassuring smile.

Even though Selene met Zorlo’s hand on the barrier, from behind her the normal catcalls continued. “Don’t worry, dear, we’ll ‘elp you out before you’re executed.”

Selene’s face suddenly lost much of its color. “Executed?” she squeaked. She had never been very courageous, which Zorlo more than made up for due to his constant adventures and risks. “W-what do you mean?”

Just then, a blood-curdling scream echoed out from the nearby window. The men in the cell grinned at the angel. “Just that, poppet. Seems someone just took the easy execution, and we’re next.”

Tears quickly began to fill Selene’s eyes at the thought. “Zorlo…” she tried to remain strong, though it was difficult. For once, she felt little comfort since she could not touch him. He did attempt to the best of his ability to comfort her, but it wasn’t working very well. “Zorlo, I want to go home,” she choked out, her hand dropping as she huddled down next to the wall, hugging her knees. “I just want to go home...”

[Zorolo]

OoC: Okay, to prevent any confusion, there is no posting order, but I would like that everyone post in a round. That's all. ^_^

BiC: As Johnny continued to inanely ask obvious questions that Zorlo, justly, answered. Answering the obvious was something that the Aura Master did, simply under the logic of "you ask, I tell." Even so, something in the zombie's last comment made the fencer chuckled heartily. To laugh, at a time like this, may have seemed odd, but to the fencer, there was no better time to laugh. Laughter helped a person to relax and took the edge off of what seemed to be an inescapable death for two known for their strength.

The Aura Master had not yet seen Cadenza, given he was still looking out at the stars and had only noticed the dead man when he had entered into the cell. "Anyway," the fencer began, "if you leave me behind, who are you going to turn to for help in your grand escape?" the green haired man asked as he turned to see the dead man pointing at someone in the cell next to them. The fencer turned his head towards the cell next to him and took his first sighting of the gypsy in the cell next to him. Things did seem bad indeed.

"Ah, hello, Cadenza," Zorlo said with a smile as he looked at her. Her glance half turned and looked at him, and then turned back to whatever she had been staring at. The fencer blinked a few times and then turned back to his cell mate. "Well, this is probably the most interesting thing I've seen in a while. Three people that have all eluded some kind of capture by someone, all in the hands of police that we've never even heard of. Does that seem ironic to anyone?"

The sounds of the ship filled the fencer's ears, but no responses. Well, that was rather an annoying thing, but the green haired man just ignored it and continued to stare out at space. This was truly an adventure.

Gears turned in the Aura Master's head as he tried to think of a way to escape, but his thoughts were distracted by something. Selene had been thrown into the cell next to the Aura Master, and he couldn't believe what he saw. This couldn't be happening.

As Zorlo spoke to his lover, his mind raced with reasons why she could have been captured, and he couldn't find anything beyond the fact that she was associated with him. Even with that, was that even a feasible thing to charge someone with? Knowing a wanted person? Knowing the government of temporal people that seemed to be gathering up dimensional fugitives, it did seem so.

The fencer punched the wall. What an awful feeling. The feeling of being totally powerless to do anything at all. What made the feeling all the worse was the fact that the Aura Master couldn't even defend the person he cared most about, at this moment.

Selene had balled up, and the fencer couldn't help but feel empty. He couldn't do anything, so what was it worth thinking about? In an instant, the fencer shook his head. That wasn't true, there had to be some way out of this hell; however, the best way would require an impossibility. The fencer turned his eyes to the dead man, and then to the gypsy. They'd been buddy buddy of late, but that didn't mean they'd help Zorlo.

"Cadenza, Johnny, our only hope of escape to avoid our deaths is to work together. All four of us need to help each other, otherwise we'll all die." The fencer wasn't sure what Cadenza's response would be, but he could already guess Johnny's. If need be, perhaps Cadenza could convince the foolish man that this was, really their only hope. "What do you say?" the Aura Master asked, looking at Selene. If for no one else, he had to help her.

[Altamira]

Cadenza looked up. The girl with her was crying; full-on, gasping and shaking, rip through a box of Kleenex crying. Some guys in the cell to their left were shouting some things that even she shouldn't be hearing; let alone some innocent girl who probably didn't even know what a prison was. As Zorlo tried to comfort the girl, the gypsy stood, and walked over to the wall that separated them from the catcallers.

The men blinked, and glanced up at her. One made the very astute observation that this woman wasn't crying. Another tried a wolf whistle, but it was to no avail. Cadenza's stare was cold and apathetic. That wasn't fun.

"Eyah?" one called, grinning uncertainly. "Whatcha lookin' at us for like that?"

"It...looks like it's your turn," the woman said.

The men followed her gaze across to a pair of guards brandishing weapons. A sudden, heart-dropping silence fell over them.

Cadenza turned away and headed back for the corner she had nestled herself in as the sounds of boots and screams trailed off down the hall. Zorlo shot the woman a surprised look as she sat back down, but it was soon replaced with a smile. It seemed broader than his usual; the man had a whole wide range of expressions it seemed he could communicate with subtly different grins.

"Ah, hello, Cadenza," he said.

The gypsy met his eyes for a moment, but her gaze drifted away to the endless stars below. She had just realized, in that moment where she had tried to use the shadows on the men in the next cell, that her powers were gone. A little late on the uptake too there, she figured. Zorlo seemed calm. He probably had noticed a while ago.

She absent-mindedly watched as Selene desperately pawed at the wall between the guys and them, tears streaking down her face. Zorlo tried his best to comfort her, but there wasn't much he could do; and some part of her, admittedly, stirred at this. It wasn't the nausea from before. She felt bad for the girl.

Quietly, Cadenza mouthed a tentative, almost nervous, "It'll be okay..." that she wasn't quite sure if the angel heard. She wasn't used to being the comforting one; she couldn't even bring herself to look at the girl and see how her weak first attempt had gone afterward.

The woman had only just noticed that Johnny was sharing the cell with Zorlo when the fencer addressed her again; "Cadenza, Johnny, our only hope of escape to avoid our deaths is to work together. All four of us need to help each other, otherwise we'll all die."

He said this with his characteristic Zorlo conviction; but along with it, he shot a sort of pleading look at Cadenza, as if he wasn't sure what her response to this would be. Then, his eyes falling upon the quivering angel, he added, "What do you say?"

No bloody prison had ever been able to hold her; that was Cadenza's first thought. The first and last time she had ever been in one was when she was sent back in time with a dragoon by that solider's sword, and even then she was released immediately after. She'd be damned if she'd sit around here and wait for execution now, so, inevitably, her answer was: "Yeah, sure. I'll help."

[Duke of Clubs]

Johnny sat with his back against the wall, his index and middle fingers rubbing together unconciously as if there was a cigarette there. He really wanted a smoke, but the bastards had taken all his stuff. The good news was that the jacket had pockets even he didn't know about, so surely the supplies were still there. The only problem was how to get to them.

So, this was Zorlo's girl, huh? An interesting couple. One didn't know what fear meant and the other was flooding her cell like a destroyed water main. Christ, it was getting on his nerves. He glanced over to the weeping girl, rolling his eyes, but caught a glimpse of...Cadenza? How the hell...

All four of us need to work together...he'd heard that one before. Probably untrue. If he had his weapons, he could probably do it by himself, powers or not...but he didn't, so it'd be pretty damn hard. Free help was hard to come by, but he could think of quite a few people on the ship who'd be more than happy to help him escape, since that would mean their escape, too.

After the way some of the men had been talking to and looking at the women, it was probably not a good idea to share that plan just yet.

Ignoring Zorlo's plea for aid--pathetic--he sighed and stood up, stretching languidly. "For God's sake, pull yourself together, woman."

Selene didn't stop crying. A questioning look fell upon Zorlo through the haze of tears. "Who's t-that?"

"His gardener," Johnny said sarcastically. "Stop blubbering like a two-year-old and get it together. Zorlo, get her straightened out already. I've got my eternal soul on the line here and you don't see me whining about it. Hey, Cadenza."

She nodded greeting. Johnny didn't wait for a response from the Fencer, but instead trotted forward to the door and glanced around.

"That sounded like the last of the screams, so...yep, here they come. Here's hoping they're as idiotic as I thought."

Johnny leaned against the wall as the guards marched forwards in their ridiculous outfits. They deserved to die just for wearing that trash. Nevertheless, they had guns and he didn't.

"All right, we're gonna open the door now," one said. "Come out and put your hands over your head."

Aw, hell yes. They were as idiotic as he thought. Surely they didn't believe that he needed his powers to do everything?

There was a beeping noise and the energy dissipated. Johnny, being in front, went out first and, as per request, put his hands on his head. He heard a crackle as handcuffs charged with electricity activated and approached his hands...

His elbow snapped back and hit the man square in the nose. He whirled, grabbing the cuffs with one hand and pulling the man's pistol out of its holster with the other. Someone screamed "He's loose, he's loose!"

Yeah, that's right. I'm loose.

The zombie hurled the handcuffs into a second guard's neck; energy burned his throat and he toppled over, dropping his gun to paw at the wounds. A third guard levelled his rifle; Johnny dropped to the ground and scythed the man's legs out from underneath him. As the soldier toppled to the ground, Johnny's right arm snapped up. Sounds reminicsent of Star Wars echoed through the hall as he fired the pistol, sending two bolts of green energy into the final guard's face.

He flipped upright and landed on the floored soldier's neck, crushing the windpipe. The man gurgled and lay still.

The entire spectacle took less than three seconds.

"And that's the way the pros do it," Johnny said, scooping up the keycard and weapons that the men had carried, tossing a rifle to Zorlo. "They probably heard the shots, but if we're lucky they didn't. Either way, definitely a good idea to not stay here. I'd advise we find out where they stashed our stuff first."

He shoved the unconcious soldiers (and corpses, in some cases) into the cell they had just been in, sliding the keycard in to lock it. Grinning, he opened the women's cell.

"Gonna stop crying now, lady?"

[Sakume]

"What do you say?" Zorlo asked, smiling at Selene. Zorlo, Zorlo, Zorlo... how do you always manage to get us into these kind of things? I'm so... She clenched her fists tightly as she heard someone speak to her for the first time. He told her to pull it together, although she didn't bother to look up. She continued her thoughts, the tears increasing. I'm so tired of this! I just want to... to slap you! And say, "Stop getting us into so much trouble all the time!" Managing to ignore her frustration for the moment, she wiped her blurry eyes to ask, "Who's t-that?"

The reply didn't please her. Although Selene was naive, she was not stupid. She knew sarcasm when she sensed it. Blubbering? She was hurt. Wouldn't anyone do this in a situation when they were likely to die? She watched the men come to visit Zorlo's cell first and shot to her feet, ready to protect him to her death if necessary, again. I've died for him before, I'll die once more if needed.

...Nevermind.

Mentally, Selene made a note as she stared wide-eyed at Johnny. Do not anger this man. She could hardly move, her attention directed at the corpses piled to the right of her where just moments ago, the two men, both alive, had been.

"Gonna stop crying now, lady?"

She jerked her head towards him, blinking a few times to relieve herself of her shock. Come on, Selene. You're a princess of heaven. You need to wake up and stop being such a baby. You can fight, too. Don't be so helpless. She wiped her eyes and sniffed once, looking at Cadenza. The woman had attempted to comfort her. For that, the former prisoner was grateful. "Thank you..." she said softly to her before turning her attention to Johnny. "My name's not 'lady', thank you very much. It's Selene." She passed him and shrank to Zorlo. "What do we do now?"

[Zorolo]

The green haired man looked at the energy rifle. It looked oddly like one of the things he'd taken a apart when he began gathering up futuristic technology for examination. Even so, this one was much more advanced, and the fencer took his time getting a feel for it. He opened a small side compartment and looked at the power flux module. Output was locked at stun, which meant these weapons weren't meant to kill prisoners, but take them to their ultimate fates. What an annoying thing to do.

"Just for kicks," Zorlo said as he turned up the power in his rifle, making it more lethal and less of a stun gun. That trick, however, wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do, since they had locked the gun on one setting. Turning it up only required... well, that was another story.

Unlike the other energy weapons that the Aura Master had gutted to see how they work and put them back together, a process that would up being much easier then he thought it would be upon first inspection, this rifle had a strange compartment built into the other side, away from the power flux module. That wasn't normally there, but it didn't matter. The green haired man opened it anyway.

A strange, handle looking device seemed to be sitting in the extra chamber of the weapon, and the fencer, upon inspecting it to make sure the gun didn't blow up when he touched it, removed the strange thing. The thin, plastic handle had a small button. Zorlo pushed said button, and a blade of pure energy came to life. "An energy dagger. Rather quaint, if you ask me," the fencer said as he turned the weapon off.

It had only been a few seconds since the whole incident, and the green haired man moved towards the group. Zorlo tossed the energy dagger to Cadenza, who caught the weapon and examined it. The fencer trusted she knew how to use it.

"Well now, if we're done standing around, we should probably-" Johnny began, but found himself cut off.

The sounds of sirens blaring echoed into the halls of the prison.

"Alert, alert. Prisoner escape! Prisoner escape. Send in all available guards and bounty hunters! I repeat, this is not a drill, prisoners have escaped. Send all available personal and bounty hunters to Block D."

"Well, at least this won't be boring," Zorlo mused as he readied the weapon. This would be a bit trickier now. Then again, what fun was escape without a challenge?

[Altamira]

At the first wail of the sirens, Cadenza turned the dagger over in her hands, and thumbed the button on the hilt. The blade hummed to brilliant, pulsating life. So, back to basics are we? she thought, giving it a twirl, That’s fine—I was in just about the same position two years ago, although, yeah, granted, I wasn’t in space. Still, no worries.

Rumbling footsteps pounded down various halls; the gypsy recognized them as the same heavy footfalls of the spaceport guards. They wanted their approach to be heard. The men carried guns of the sort Zorlo had just inspected, where one shot anywhere meant a trip back to drooling, numb darkness; but there was always the possibility that one or two rogue officers had dialed their weapons' power up just a tad to give some unruly prisoners more shock than they bargained for if they provoked them enough.

And they were sure going to be provoked enough, Cadenza thought. She could see the shining, silver breastplate of the first guard running up a sloping hall, his gun a stark black dot amongst the blue of his uniform and the orange of the energy walls. Selene gave a gasp, and anchored herself to Zorlo at the sight. Johnny moved forward.

Soon, the cell block was a storm of gun blasts and hyphens of screaming green and orange energy.

Another squad of guards jogged in from another hall; this time, headed by a clown. He was, to both Zorlo and Cadenza, unpleasantly familiar. The fencer detached himself from his angel for a moment to meet the bounty hunter head-on.

Back towards the center of the block, the gypsy stood, fending off guards and whoever the hell else the prison dished out with the energy dagger. At this point, she was hardly concerned with fighting in any way vaguely resembling fair; the blade found its place in necks, and certain male soft spots, and cheap shots were taken as men turned around at the sound of their comrades gurgling blood. Cadenza may have had her powers taken away, but she still had her speed, and agility, and it proved to be just enough to keep her out of countless gunblasts' way as she drove back the flow of guards as best she could.

In the haze of the fight, the woman only slowly became aware of Johnny calling her to a particular hall, where one way or another he had learned that at least some of their belongings had been stored down in that direction. Selene heard this, and cried for Zorlo to follow, but the fencer still seemed to be engrossed in a face-off with the clown.