[ Good morning, Mr. Phelps. Specifically, the morning of May 16th, 2091. For real this time and not by mistake, even. It's 7am and, interestingly enough, the local moisture has hit critical mass. Thus the windows of Kat's apartment are being pelted by one of those rainfalls that isn't enough to hamper major outdoor activity, but is heavy enough to make a nice droning sound from outdoors. ] [ The Lost Days are officially over; now Mars is getting back into the rhythm of everyday life after a weeklong holiday. Of course, unless she's repented due to hangover, Kat has a job to do. For a truly stupid sum of money, too. ] [ We will assume that she is in her apartment! Xavier, however, is almost certainly at his room at the Red and Gold. And the Krogstads? Who can tell what happened to them. Perhaps we'll find out because, game start! ] (oh my god sis where are we) (it's dark and i can't feel my nose) (Ninja live in the darkness, Zak. Get used to it.) (Well, Roch probably took the couch! Who knows where Zak slept.) (That presumes he slept.) (Good point. Anyway, no matter what, Kat's up early.) (Instead of sitting with his back to a wall, cross-legged, holding a knife.) (My couch. Touch it and I'll kill you.) (can't sleep kat will eet me0 * Rochelle is curled up on the couch and sleeping, because Kat's up at an ungodly hour but that doesn't mean she needs to be. She looks comfortable! * Zak is actually on the floor behind the couch, with a rolled-up jacket under his head as a makeshift pillow. From the way he's drooling and the manner in which he is sprawled, he's not going to have a fantastic morning. * Katherine 's apartment, no matter where people are sleeping, looks a lot like it did back in the bad old days. One big change is that she apparently isn't bothering to put her exo away, which means that it's in the corner next to that training robot she had, along with a large toolbox. And she's made that 'painting corner' that she had a bit less chaotic/makeshift, over the year. * Katherine is walking out of her bathroom rubbing her face, a blue halter top and black pseudoleather pants on, smelling of Floofy shampoo and with damp hair hanging down. She looks over at the two lazybones, smirking thinly at Zak, then walks over and kicks him lightly in the side as she says, to both of them, "Get up, the both of you." * Rochelle mrfls and rolls over. Now she is facing couch cushions. * Zak wakes up with a start, jolting upright. His hair has apparently bent at right angles to his head. "zzssNRKGAH! Gah! Aaahg.... uuuuuuugggggghhhhh." He flops back down onto the jacket. "nnng." ...space jesus, what decade is it? [ The AC fails to kick on. A shuriken is embedded in the cooling unit. (Not really) ] * Katherine smirks to herself, then heads over to her cabinets and digging around in them. "Early 90's now, Icy. Come on, I want to get this over with." I ... am takin' the floor hostage. For some DunnoLynol. * Katherine pulls out a pair of bottles and takes pills out of both of them and dry-swallowing them quickly. She then closes her eyes a moment and holds onto her counter. "Roch, not hearing your voice yet." * Katherine puts the bottles away, pulls out a third, and then stalks over to Zak to drop it on his head. "Jesus, did you try to drink everything Momo had, or you just got lazy?" * Rochelle somehow slept through Zak's screaming. You think she'd wake up because Kat's talking? (Meanwhile at his hotel, X is being carved up by assassins.) (He should've shared the floor with Zak!) * Zak futilely tries to shield his achin' noggin. "ow! ow." He clutches at the bottle, managing to get it open and not spill ALL of it all over the floor. He dry-swallows five or six of the things. "Out of practice." He manages to roll over, make it to his feet, and stumble into the bathroom. A few seconds later, there's the sound of running water. (That'll teach him.) (BAD END and now you have to go back and bubble more adorable monsters) (Haha.) * Katherine watches him walk with a thin smirk. Luanne and Kat agree, ya just don't mind watching him go. She then walks over to Roch and reaches down to her shoulder, shaking her gently before saying quietly, "Roch, get up." (Luanne) (Unless I brainwarped to MC4.) (Dammit! MC4 brain overlap.) (It is Luanne.) (L name, K name, you're lucky I remembered Kat.) (The crossover that nobody wanted!) * Rochelle mutters, rolls over again, and squints at Kat. Lights are bright. "Why?" * Katherine pulls her claw back and rubs her face. "'Cause we have to take that DunnoCorp softie to the TC Hall. Which still isn't sitting right. Why the hell would you just 'go there'." * Zak walks out of the bathroom, rubbing his hair with a towel. "Oh space jesus, Roch, we gotta outlaw sleythin liquor in TC. Or somethin'." * Rochelle frowns a little, then sits up and rubs at her eyes. "Y'know nobody'll go for that, Zak." Can we just, like, circulate my picture around the spigot jockeys or something? I swear I can feel the inside of my brain throbbin'. * Katherine rolls her eyes, mutters, "You tangle with Sleythin, you get what's comin' to ya," then heads back into the bathroom to fast-dry her hair. (Lemme know when you're ready to move on.) * Rochelle snickers and waits to have her turn with the shower. (Whenever! I just want to shower.) * Zak pulls out a comb and starts styling his hair as it frosts over. "Long as I can sleep while this thing happens." (I'm good whenever) (The only question I have is whether I should bring the suit or not. Probably would draw too much attention.) (It IS still TC.) * Katherine heads out of the bathroom, braiding her hair behind her head. "So, Zak, is putting on my suit for a stroll's a bad idea in TC nowadays?" * Rochelle darts into the bathroom like the ninja she is not and shuts the door after her. * Zak shrugs. "Still TC. Just because the gangers're teamed up doesn't mean there's no tension, grok? * Katherine smirks a bit. "So's that yes or no?" You're Kat the Wolf, who's gonna bitch? (the bathroom door is peppered with shuriken!) (Mwaha!) * Katherine nods. "Works for me." She walks over to her suit, taking the sword that's near it off the wall and putting it into a sheath that's actually strapped to the suit's thigh. "God, I guess last year kicked my rep up, didn't it." Kinda a tad. Showin' up out of the blue to command a ganger army's just a tad schway. [ It seems unlikely that Kat has a clock that chimes. The nearest visible chrono does roll over to 7:30am, however. ] * Zak raps on the bathroom door. "C'mon, sis, spaceplane for Splitsville lifts off in five-aught." * Katherine rubs her face a moment, then says, to herself, "Just filling in for a memory." She then walks over to her purse, grabs the card out of it, and walks over to Zak to grab his wrist and smack the card into his hand. "Here's the address. I've already got it in my head. You two head out, I'll catch up in the suit." * Rochelle says from the other side, "'m coming." * Zak looks down at the card. "Grokked, clawster." (FF whenever) (Yup!) (Yeah, sounds like a plan!) [ Behold, rain! However it is you get there, it probably doesn't take long to get to the Red and Gold, a surprisingly posh little hotel with a distinctly old school look... the type of thing Earthers go for. The desk clerk calls up to Xavier's room and, getting his confirmation, sends you up to his room! The door looms before you! LOOMS! ] * Zak raps on the door with his knuckles, wincing at the loud. "Planet X, you present?" * Rochelle waits a few steps back from Zak. Not that she's planning on flipping out and killing anyone. (she never plans.) (it just sorta happens.) * Katherine looms before the looming door, in a black, white, and grey exo. It's complexly colored! We can describe it on the wiki later if it's not already. She's holding her helmet in her hand so that people know she's not some sort of exo-all-the-time freak. [ There's the sound of muffled footsteps, and then the door opens! Xavier, looking lanky and awkward as ever, stands there looking... ready to go, actually. He's wearing a dark grey sweatshirt and some jeans, carrying a small suitcase with his things. "Please, don't ca..." The rest dies on his lips, because: exo. ] Don't worry. That's Kat. * Rochelle is so helpful. * Katherine looks down at him, with her helmet off. You can tell! "She hired protection, she got protection." [ This does not appear to convince Xavier, though that may be because he's not down with this entire affair to begin with, and that's patently obvious. Relieved to have anywhere to look but at Kat, he turns to Zak. "I don't think the Krazors would be happy to know I'm back, so please don't call me that..." ] * Katherine is also carrying a bag. Like yesterday. It probably has stuff in it! Maybe dead bodies ground up into powder. Who knows! Hey, okay. Whatever you say, professor. Ready to go? [ He nods. "Yeah... how are we getting back, exactly?" He steps out of the room and shuts the door behind him; apparently he's ready to check out already. ] * Zak blinks. You can tell he's trying to figure out how this is not a stupid question. "Same way we go?" [ Xavier gives Zak a sort of blank look for a moment and then just swivels to look at Kat without saying anything else. ] (I am correct in thinking that there's no real reason not to do a sub-orbital flight?) (I figured you would pick your own way of getting there, I don't have one prepped.) (I'm kinda asking Cham too.) (Overland (kinda bleh) or a hopper type flight seem like the right options.) (It's what we've used before. I'm going with it!) (From RNYC? sub orbital would work) (Snicker. I'd already typed sub orbital.) * Katherine looks to him and replies, "For the creds she's throwing at us, a sub-orbital flight will work. I won't even have to wear my suit all the way there." [ "Ah." He starts walking toward the elevator, without even asking the rest of you! It's the most assertive he's ever been! In the elevator, there is plenty of time to talk over the soothing sounds of Enya XII's 'no atmosphere' remix of 'Sail Away'. "I, uh... well, uh... how long do you think it'll take?" ] * Zak has gladly let Kat take over mission control, and is rubbing his temples in time with the music. * Rochelle follows the lot of them with a blank look on her face. * Katherine walks along and comments, "We'll be done with all of it by the end of the day if your boss wasn't lying." * Rochelle winces a little and rubs at one of her ears. [ Surprisingly, Xavier leaps to her defense. "Platina wouldn't lie!" He pauses, then clears his throat. Sail away, sail away. "Dunno's been very good to me. More than I deserve, anyway. So I trust her, why the heck shouldn't I?" ] * Rochelle blinks at Xavier oddly. Because he is being pretty odd. * Katherine rubs her temple. "Because she's paying me a half a million credits for a milk run." Something's gonna go wrong. * Zak leans back against the elevator. "Unless she's payin' us to shut up." [ The elevator doors open at ground level, just as Xavier turns to Kat in confusion. "So you're mad that she's overpaying you for something easy? I don't get you guys at all." Apparently he found a spine after a good night's sleep, and he walks toward the desk to check out. ] * Rochelle shakes her head. "Pretty sure something'll go wrong." This is Twilight. 's what happens. True enough. * Katherine watches Xavier go, glances to Zak and Roch (Roch for a moment longer), then rolls her eyes and murmurs, "Space Jesus save us from the temporarily innocent." She then says, "Stick with him," before walking out and past him to the outside. * Zak shrugs and sticks with Professor X. * Rochelle shrugs as well and also sticks. In unison, maybe! [ Xavier pays with a Dunno corporate cred stick! Hurray and stuff! He gives Roch and Zak a sort of nervous-ish glance before turning and walking outside! ] (I assume we can FF through... lots and lots of travel) (Works for me!) (If we're on a commercial flight I am so getting some hair of the dog) (Cue amazing race esque lines.) (Where would a commercial flight land in TC? Do they just shove you out at high altitude with parachutes and hope for the best?) (They have to have some sort of makeshift somethingport nowadays.) (It's hard to do useful shit without aircraft at some point.) (There's a wide open spot for temporary landing :P) (They probably had one before, too, unless they overlanded all their FloofyShoes.) [ A taxi takes everyone to the spaceport! Thankfully there's a decent carrier that does a few flights into a small airfield (spacefield?) outside the city. You effectively fly to TC on the spaceplane version of the Tijuana tourist bus full of chickens and old women. ] (As long as the Chickens are alcoholic versions of Product 19.) [ There is no in-flight movie, just a loop of yesterday's TVNet news, including another story on that kidnapped girl from Red South Africa who has yet to turn up. ] [ Surprisingly true to its origins, you DO get a choice of drink: bottled water, or a highly suspect-looking bottle of tequila. Most people take the tequila. ] (Oh god, tequila. It can't be infected, alcohol will cleanse it all) * Rochelle watches the news. Mmm, TVNet. * Zak takes a glass of the tequila and sips at it. His forehead slowly unwrinkles as the headache eases. * Katherine doesn't go with no drinkings. She focuses on a datapad instead, inbetween looking over at Xavier to make sure he didn't spontaneously combust due to tequila poisoning. (Somewhere in Zak's bloodstream, a handful of shuriken lodge into his DNA.) [ Xavier, thanks to your fabulous accomodations, has basically locked up like he was yesterday; he's perfected that way of sitting where his knees are slightly drawn up, his arms are in his lap, and he's staring straight ahead and trying not to think. ] (*laughs*) (Dammit, L, get off my plane.) * Rochelle turns her attention to Xavier after the third loop starts to go through and asks, "Why're you so freaked?" [ He turns to look at her as if she's insane, and his tone of voice during the reply carries that through, too: "Why are you NOT?" ] * Rochelle blinks. "Because I live there." Just asking because you said you trust what's her face, so you shouldn't worry. Home sweet crater. [ Xavier turns around and stares forward. "I trust her that I'm not goin' to some deathtrap she set up for you guys, not that whacked out gangers aren't going to take a drug-crazed shot at my head for fun." He clearly loves Twilight City. ] Hey, hey, we got 'em to cut that out. [ Your client's expression suggests his disbelief. ] * Rochelle nods. * Zak nods. "Chillsville. Have a drink.' * Katherine looks over at him and says, lowly, "That's what we're getting paid for. Less panic, more normal worrying. Unless you want me to carry you." [ "I'm perfectly capable of getting where we're going," Xavier responds stiffly. ] Sure. * Rochelle goes back to watching TVNet. [ In relatively good order, you arrive at Last Chance Field at, interestingly enough, 8am local time. The actual name of the place is long forgotten, sitting as it does at the very edge of the ion curtain. It is every cliche of the small town airport and more. You are left with your things on the tarmac, along with a handful of other people. ] Schway. Time to groove these walkin' shoes. [ Twilight City -- and Olympus Mons -- loom in the distance, for all the reconstruction still looking like the abandoned sprawl of some long-forgotten civilization. ] (I think we're going to get into the city proper and cliffhanger things, I am rapidly losing cohesion x_x) * Katherine 's things include her suit, which she unhinges so she can step into, BGC2040 style. She then pulls out both of her pistols and a special holster which holds the both of them across the exo's chest, and straps it on. "Alright, local guides. You can lead, X in the middle, me covering from the back. Grok?" [ A few of the people you were on the flight with meet other individuals, who head off either on foot or in a groundcar. The vast majority, however, head to shuttles obviously owned by corps; there's a big group of Floofy employees, for example, probably off to the shampooo mines deep below the mountain. ] * Zak keeps an eye on the corporate interests, but responds "Grok..." * Rochelle just walks along, not looking very worried. [ Xavier, for his part, seems relatively heartened by the corporate types shuffling off to their new life in... this. As everyone walks, the Krogstads' comments on the plane give him something to talk about, at least. "Why do you stay here, anyway?" ] (Low cost of living.) (And all the spare Clarity you can stumble over.) Cause I got the chance to change it? * Rochelle shrugs. "And I'm here 'cause he's here." The change thing's nice, though. [ In a completely random fashion, your path into the city takes you by the ruins of a former park. It's still, you know, ruined... but there is a Sleythin tourist standing next to the remains of a fountain, snapping photos. Its robe, against all logic, is Hawaiian print and there is a massive straw hat on its head. ] (Cham the Sleythin.) (Awesome.) * Zak eyes the sleythin, then looks around like he's taking note of his surroundings. "Wonder what's up with that. Have to ask later... maybe we could squeeze some tourist money out of it. ... The Sleythin? I don't think it's staying. * Katherine looks around, in helmet now. "S'good to see the place pick itself up. Not that it was ever that great to begin with." She glances to the Sleythin and grins a bit, before saying, "That's an odd one. Maybe Ian and he could get together." [ Xavier either... doesn't see that, or WILLFULLY doesn't see it. Either way, he keeps on walking, and ignores mention of any Sleythin! "It needs changing, that's for damn sure. It's probably not worth it." ] Gotta be looking at some point of interest, right? Put up a sign, sell tiny fountain statues. * Katherine looks at the fountain again and rubs her head a moment, muttering, "Looks kinda familiar. In the..." she trails off and looks around. "... Is this it, really?" [ That makes Xavier stop, turning to look at Kat. "Is this what?" ] * Rochelle looks to Katherine. * Katherine is silent a moment, then another moment, then she says, "Slight detour. Stick with him." * Katherine heads over towards the Sleythin. * Zak sticks with X! [ There's a cute moment as Xavier mouths the word 'sleythin?', then follows Kat's path and sees it, snapping to D: pretty immediately. ] * Rochelle sticks, yo. [ The tourist sleythin, for its part, snaps a few more photos (or TSM photos or whatever the fuck pictures are in THE FUTURE!), giving Kat a wave with one of its free arms as she gets closer. "Oh my, hello there!" It sort of even... SOUNDS like it learned English from Ian. ] (KILL IT BEFORE THE INFECTION SPREADS) * Katherine looks at him and waves slightly, before saying, "Wondering why you were interested in this fountain." A moment, then she adds, "I'm not security or anything, just... wondering." * Rochelle blinks, then looks around and focuses on the sleythin. * Rochelle glances some more. "Bad feeling, Zak." * Zak blinks. ".... ah, fuckin' frak." * Zak starts looking around a little more carefully. [ For some reason, the sleythin... extends a hand to Kat? He will actually shake it (far too vigorously) if she takes it, too. "Well I'd heard from a cousin's brother's sister's uncle's mate that a certain hero of ours slept here once! Came on out here to get some photos." A beat. "Marly'com, owner of Tlashedo's Hearth, fine sleythin baked goods, 498 Ashbury in Red Atlanta, open every day at 6am sharp!" He continues to pump her hand while say (while say) (while saying this.) (Oh my god it's a cultural fanatic otaku sleythin, we must apply fire now) [ Zak and Rochelle's being unnerved unnerves an already unnerved Xavier, who starts whipping his head around like a complete fool. ] * Zak plops his hand onto X's head. "Steady, Prof. No sudden moves." * Katherine takes the hand and grips back. At least she's got some SS to match! She nods slowly and says, "Huh." She continues looking at him and goes, "Taluun'tzo? Yeah, I'd heard that too." [ The scariest sleythin ever is about to open his mouth when there is the distinct *PWANG!* of gunfire ricocheting off a solid object, much closer to Zak and company than to Kat and her new friend. There's even a little telltale cloud of dust from the impact on the ground. But no shooter in sight?! ] (reactions then we'll close this puppy up) (Dad's talking to me, I'm sorry.) * Zak throwns himself onto Professor X bodily. "Down!" * Katherine starts suddenly, dropping the guy's hand like it were suddenly Zak's, and says, "'other time, Marly'com. Get out of here," as both her hands reach for her guns. (Poor Zak.) * Rochelle also gets down - she doesn't need to be told... at all, really. (My city loves me! That's all I need. Oh wait.) [ Xavier squawks and is tackled! The air is thick with tension! What could be going on? ] [ A sleythin in a Hawaiian shirt says, "Oh my!" ] (Kasumi-Ian.) [ ARE THESE RELATED? FIND OUT... NEXT TIME !]