Rp Posts Since That One Place

**melville** echo hadn't felt ready to leave the team yet. strong as the pull was, he had the feeling there was something that he had left to tie up here that was more urgent. he just hadn't figured out what it was yet. he'd made arrangements with rigel and aurora to meet them around central city after they brought the houseboats back up north across the ocean. it would take them anywhere from ten days to two weeks if they traveled fast, which echo felt would give him plenty of time to tie up loose ends and prepare himself for the journey ahead. he'd opted to stay at mel's house and made himself busy helping the mallard with any tasks that needed to be done that he could assist with. his willingness to help had returned with his confidence; if he couldn't help mel, he went off to see what he could do for team dark, and if that failed, he simply wandered around the town until he found something. manual abilities he'd once used often that had gone by the wayside during his slump, such as carpentry, were returning to him. reverb helped him practice and improve his skill with manipulation of earth; it was coming easily to him now and he'd discovered a few more water-based attacks he'd 'mimicked.' now he sat outside on the front porch, eyes closed and listening to the quiet sounds of the desert night. he wondered how different quiet in the mountains would sound from this. he'd never heard them quiet; there was always wind whistling around peaks or the roar of waterfalls in the places he'd been. how far in would he have to go before he found what he was looking for? he had no idea. he hoped not too far...but then again, that would be too easy. **melville** *shadow glanced over his shoulder and spoke in answer to bolt simply* shadow: i'm going to kill echo. *** echo closed his eyes and began humming to himself quietly. he was entirely unaware that shadow was approaching him; otherwise, he wouldn't have been nearly so relaxed. ~team dark: melville~ *jen nodded once.* "i suppose i should let foxworth and the mdf know, i'll keep my tabs on you specifically then since you're more of a worry than the rest of that lot." *she shrugged and looked at the door.* "you do realize, shadow's now going to go kill echo right?"

**melville** for lack of attention span and otherwise not-caring-ness of the author i shall say saxtus followed team dark to melville for his lack of anything else to do. throughout the week he just puttsed around town entertaining himself with brain teasers and such that he enjoyed making up and with magic staying away from most everyone. in which case he was now walking down the road in melville mumbling to himself puzzling over a problem in his head. "mmm, uh huh . . . no that doesn't work out right. bugger, i'm just too tired to figure this out . . . ." he looked about attempting to get his bearings straight. "hmm, think that's the one house all those people are staying at." he rubbed his eyes and made his way to the house looking rather tired. **melville** reverb frowned mildly. "why would i be more of a wor-" he cut off instantly and stiffened when jen's words registered in his mind. "no..." he started to bolt from the shack, but froze after two steps. "i can't help him or shadow will call me a traitor...and i'm not finished here yet..." he spun back to face jen, panic rising swiftly. "please, get echo and move him...and sarai, pearl, and biff...sirius...get them to central city. they're at mel's house. you have to, echo..." he hesitated. "echo...he's...he must live. please do this." *** echo suddenly cut off humming and opened his eyes. he didn't see anything on the street, but a strong, abrupt sense of intense danger had flooded into his consciousness. though he didn't know what he was running from or why he had the urge to do the things he now did, he teleported inside and started to gather his friends, beginning with sarai.

--*jen blinked and stared in confusion for a moment..... before nodding timidly. why? well... quite possibly only to mask her fear of opposing shadow, and because she liked reve for whatever reason she did.* "a-alright... i'll do my best... " *the meerkat vanished and re-appeared into mel's house(or wherever they are.) and looked at echo and sarai.* "you guys... need to gather your friends and come here quick!" **melville**

saxtus walked in the door of mel's house still attempting to solve his brain teaser oblivious to everything around him. he stopped for a moment remembering why he came in. "hmm, now who to ask for help on this one." he started wandering around aimlessly in the house looking for someone. **melville** reverb let out a sigh of relief and slumped in the doorway, then closed his eyes tightly and silently prayed that she would make it to echo before shadow did...and, to his mild surprise later on when he had a chance to think about it, not only for echo's own sake. *** echo blinked in surprise at jen's sudden appearance, but he only hesitated for an instant before he nodded and took off to get sirius. he sent sarai off to get pearl and biff, which probably wouldn't take long. he got sirius and light the chao, and was making his way back when he came across saxtus. he grunted slightly and paused for an instant before picking up the pace again past the bobcat, doubting he could afford the interruption. **melville** saxtus blinked in his half-asleep state and mumbled again, "wait, he grunted . . . that means . . . he knows something." he took off after echo yelling, "hey, get back here! i know you know something!" **melville** echo glanced back at saxtus in complete bewilderment. he let the bobcat catch up to him; he didn't sense him as the source of danger, and he had some sense of trust in him after the cat shared some of his drink in cryptic castle. they were in sight of jen now, since echo hadn't had to go very far away to find sirius. the foxwolf, for her part, was still more asleep than awake and complaining incoherently. echo realized that there wasn't much of a difference between her and saxtus at the moment and rolled his eyes. "so what am i supposed to know that i can about guarantee that i don't? if you don't mind, by the way, i'm kind of in a rush getting away from something really bad. i don't know what it is yet but i don't particularly want to find out the hard way."

**melville** saxtus arched an eyebrow thoroughly convinced that he was messing with him. he narrowed his

eyes and stared at echo, "don't play games with me, i know that you know that . . ." he trailed off completely forgetting what it was he was supposed to ask. "bugger, i forgot. what was that about something really bad?" ~team dark: melville~ "took you all long enough, now lets go." *the meerkat teleported everyone somewhere outside central city with no explanation, she needed to get them out of there.* **melville** echo slowed his pace as he neared jen and raised an eyebrow at saxtus, but explained in spite of doubting the bobcat would comprehend any of it. "i sense danger. i don't know what it's from or how i felt it so suddenly. but something bad is going to happen if i don't get out of..." he cut off as realization struck him like a thunderbolt to the chest. he winced and gasped as though he'd been stricken physically. "shadow..." it was at about that moment that jen teleported. echo squeezed his eyes shut tightly as a sudden pain tore at his heart, threatening to rip him apart from within. i'll never even get to say goodbye to the team... he didn't move for several long seconds even after he detected they were back on solid ground. eventually, though, he gathered the strength to straighten up and look at jen. his eyes showed his inner anguish even as he summoned the resilience to nod to her gratefully. "thank you." ~team emo: central city~ *jen nodded.* "you're welcome... but you should thank reverb, i wouldn't of done it otherwise." *she paused and studied echo for a moment.* "he was concerned for you, especially echo. he has business to finish on team dark or he would of came himself... " *another slight pause.* "anyone on team dark... you'd like me to tell you say good-bye and apologize you couldn't in person?"

**central city** saxtus fell over losing his balance, "stone me! what the devil was that?" he got back to his feet and looked about in the night. he mumbled to himself again, "too late in the day for stuff like this . . . ." he stopped talking, listening to the conversation. ~team emo: central city~ "if you insist." *jen snapped her fingers and rocks started chasing saxtus trying to hit him.* one stone hit him in the arm alerting him to the rest. he then set to running around while flailing about madly completely forgetting about his ability to block things like that. "gah! it's an expression woman, an expression i tells ya!" **central city outskirts** "reve," echo repeated weakly. he stared into space for several seconds until jen's offer registered in his mind. "if you could...tell reve, and sigrid...and anyone else who asks, long as shadow's not there. it'd help, since i may..." he swallowed hard. "may never see them again." the pain in his heart intensified, and all he could think about was the one that he'd thought the world of...until he forced him away. he stared sightlessly into the distance as he choked back tears and feebly whispered, "shadow, i'm sorry." he hung his head and momentarily forgot that anyone else was even around. he felt like he was back in one of his dreams. "i never meant to hurt you...i always..." he took a breath against memories of his errors that now flashed through his mind, each one like a new knife stabbing, twisting, further into his heart. "always believed...in you. i'm...so...sorry." he closed his eyes and began to sob openly, overwhelmed by agonizing regret at his mistakes and all they'd made him lose. one final time and entirely unbidden, a psychic link opened. it had never become strong, but it had been present. now it sent one last message: echo's apology and the agony that went with it, the hedgehog's entirely heartfelt regret in his unforgivable mistakes coupled with a faith that had never fully died. it all transferred to shadow in a heartbeat, too fast for the location of its source to be traced though shadow would likely have a general, vague sense that it had come from echo...and the link closed...in all probability, never to open again. sirius had been very amused by saxtus and jen until she heard echo start to whisper to seemingly nothing and realized how terrible he looked. when he started crying, she moved to his side and tried to comfort him, but he didn't seem to even realize she was there for the moment. ~team emo: central city~

*jen, felt everything echo did, said... she nodded weakly when she heard echo's request and she turned from the group immediately and the rocks fell, trying to hide that it affected her too... she was able to tune echo's and shadow's feelings the easiest, till now.* "alright... i'll let him know, i have to go now.. i'm sorry...." **central city outskirts** echo soon became aware of sirius' presence and leaned into her. he wept for a few more minutes until his inner turmoil finally eased up and he was able to straighten again. he dried his eyes and motioned to the rest in his group. his voice was still weak when he addressed them, but he was trying to regain his strength. sirius was impressed that he was able to recover so quickly from something she knew had to be disastrous to him. "i know where we can stay that should be safe until the boats get here. it's not far in from here. follow me. just don't fall asleep because i'm not carrying you." he smiled halfheartedly, then turned and started out toward the city. he led them through eerily empty streets and into the abandoned section, then eventually went directly to the building where he and the team had first encountered baron and elrick. he wasn't sure exactly what had drawn him there - sirius made it quite apparent that she didn't believe its safety - but as soon as he stepped inside, he felt far more secure than he had even at mel's. he glanced to sirius when the foxwolf's complaining got particularly vocal. "you can go out through this city to perry's on your own if you'd like. shadow would never think to look there." just as he'd hoped, that shut her up. **central city** saxtus followed in a state rather similar to that of a drunk man with everything barely registering. his head hung down, never looking up once. when they entered the building he threw his head up into the air and yelled, "hot dang, bed time!" he promptly took a diving roll into a corner where he curled up and pulled his hood over his eyes. "if you need me, don't bother." in 5 seconds flat he was out like a light lightly snoring and mumbling incoherently in his sleep. **central city** echo raised an eyebrow at saxtus. "uh...you do that." he looked around the large, empty entry room and sighed quietly as he remembered what happened here before...but he shook his head

and put it from his mind. he stretched out on his stomach against the wall and closed his eyes. he heard sirius come over and curl up near him, no doubt trying to reassure him with her presence. he smiled feebly and listened to the others bed down wherever they could find a comfortable place. after a few hours in the nearly total darkness, he finally drifted off to sleep, not to awaken until late in the morning. **central city** it was nearly noon by the time echo finally woke up. he heard sirius breathing the slow, regular pace of one still asleep, so he didn't bother to wake her. he sat up and looked around quietly. not much light came in from the few windows and cracks in the building's wall but he could see that it hadn't changed any from the last time he was there. he closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. he'd have to find a restaurant or something later. he doubted they'd be able to scrounge anything from perry's and his mind ran through all the other cheap places he could think of. he eventually gave up, deciding they'd probably have to leave the city proper to find their own food. he wished they could have gone to reve's orchard to gather their supplies...the last time he'd eaten food from there, it had been delicious. light the chao interrupted his thoughts. it woke up and tottered from its place near sirius toward him. it was almost there when it stumbled and fell headfirst into his lap. the gray hedgehog smiled and lifted it up so he could set it upright. "good morning, little guy." it squeaked happily. **central city** not long before echo, saxtus had woken up. he was still curled up with his hood over his eyes half asleep but listening to everything. his ears flicked about under his hood focusing on every little sound enjoying the relative stillness of everything. when he heard the chao squeak he shifted his head to get a better view and blew up his hood up just enough to peek out. it was then that the scenery change registered after which he promptly stood up only to fall over with a slight thud. he sat there in the corner with a puzzled look on his face wondering exactly how tired he was the night before, that or how hard he had hit the jack daniel's. the latter not making any sense to him since he didn't drink. **central city** echo and light both looked up when they heard the thud. the hedgehog raised an eyebrow. " 'morning to you, too." hearing echo's voice caused sirius to begin to stir and roll over onto her back, but the process of waking up took a while. she lay there with her mouth hanging open and the change in position made her begin to snore faintly. echo debated whether or not he should drop some water in her mouth, but decided against it; he didn't want her to choke.

**central city** saxtus blinked and looked about still confused but rather used to waking up in a different place than he remembered on a regular basis. "uh, mornin'" he paused still looking about, "to you to." he looked at echo, "mind telling me, uh, where this is and, uh, how i ended up here? last thing i recall is chasing you for some reason or other." **central city** echo shrugged slightly. "you were following me and i was trying to get out of there because...someone was after me." he decided it was probably a good thing saxtus couldn't remember the night before; the bobcat wouldn't recall his meltdown. "jen brought us all here. she took you because i guess she was in too much of a hurry to find out if you were with me or not. we're in central city." **central city** "right." saxtus scratched his chin seeming to recall the name jen. "jen . . . hmmm, aha! i knew that name sounded familiar. she still owes me a some tea from back at that castle!" if sirius wasn't awake by then she'd probably be after his shouting. he hopped about excitedly slamming his fists together, "i'll give her the ole' one-two and she'll think twice next time before she offers tea and doesn't gimme any!" he immediately regretted doing so as he clenched his stomach and fell over yet again, "bugger . . . ye don't 'appen to 'ave any vittles do ye?" **central city** echo shook his head as sirius sat up in mid-snore and grumbled something incoherent. "not now. when everyone's up i think we'll have to head out into the field to gather food supplies. i don't know what condition the restaurants and storehouses around here are in after what miles did to the place. i'm surprised this building is still standing." *** sarai rolled over and grunted, flicking her tail so that it covered the exposed part of one of her legs. she grunted somehting in her sleep and stirred. **central city** saxtus sat up cross-legged and slapped himself across the face and nodded. he hadn't exactly

noticed anyone else asleep until that point and felt bad about his outburst. "good point. until then . . ." he rummaged around in his robe and produced a few tea bags, "got any water to boil?" **central city** as if on cue, sirius identified saxtus as the source of the racket and threw an orb of water at him. echo smirked. "water's no problem. we just have nothing to put it in that i'm aware of." after a moment he got up, holding light in his arms, and made his way over to sarai. he shook her shoulder gently to wake her up. **central** sarai blinked and .. blinked.. soem more, before she woke up egnough to realize that ehco had. woken her up. ()i'm tired. did you guess? xd) "'mornin.." **central city** echo smiled slightly. "morning. better get conscious, we have to go find some food to last us a couple days." he stood up and went to get pearl and biff next, but left light with sarai to help wake her up fully. **central** sarai glanced at the chao and poked at it, half-asleep-ly. "whoo. . . teh chao.." **central city** by some stroke of luck, or in saxtus' case bad luck, sirius' water orb smacked him straight in the face and for a split second a look of shock much like that of a cat caught in a downpour was visible. he quickly clasped his hands to his face and hissed jokingly, "gah! i'm melting!" he lay on his side and silently cast a spell to make him invisible slowly starting from the head down. as the spell moved down he slowly slipped out the bottom of his robe for all intents and purposes making it look like he'd melted right out of his robe. he stood a few feet away from his robe silent as a mouse grinning ear to ear invisible to all but the trained eye. **central city** sirius stared at saxtus' robe wide-eyed for a long time before she turned to echo, who was watching it all with a purposely blank expression. "what...exactly...just happened?"

light squeaked and butted up against sarai. it was determined to get her up sooner or later. *** resisting the terrible urge to fall over laughing, saxtus made his way silently over to them both of them and positioned himself just behind them. he stared at his robe and started talking just like nothing had happened, "say, what're we staring at?" at which point he dropped the spell revealing himself standing there in a white t-shirt. **central city** sirius yelped, summoned an orb of water in her hand, jumped forward a full three feet, and whirled to look at saxtus, all in the same motion. echo burst out laughing so hard he fell over backwards. "that was classic, siri. classic!" **central city** it was all saxtus could do to keep himself from laughing as well. a smirk briefly crossed his face then snapped back to a blank look. "all i wanted to know was what we were staring at. jeez, nut case." he turned toward his robe again and acting like he hadn't seen it until then, "oh, so that's where my robe went. pesky little thing keeps sneaking off on me." he walked up to it nonchalantly and slipped it back on. he turned back toward them, "now about that tea." **central city** echo calmed himself after quite a time and sat up to look at saxtus. "if you have the teabags, then i think all we need is something to put water in and a place to heat it up." he hesitated, then got to his feet. "sounds like we should make a trip to perry's, if it's still standing." **central city** echo gathered everyone up and headed out along the streets. he led them back the way he remembered toward the docks. as he'd hoped, but still to his surprise, the stores there were still standing, but it was clear they'd seen much better days. he almost walked by perry's because the sign was gone. he had to move some rubble to open the front door. inside, it was dusty, but virtually nothing had changed from what he remembered. he made his way to the back of the store to look for a tea kettle and check to see if the stove still worked. if that failed, he could use the large fireplace. **central city** saxtus walked about the front of the store amazed that so many buildings had survived. "looks like nobody's home . . . ooo, nice fork." he walked up to a table with a fork on it that someone

had neglected to put up. in the blink of an eye he snatched it up and it disappeared into his robe. "i wonder where they keep the cash . . ." he thought out loud hoping to mess with someone. although his morals could be quite loose, he usually didn't resort to stealing money. just random shiny objects. **central city** echo heard saxtus from the back of the restaurant and shouted back, "steal anything from here and you're dead!" he frowned at the wall that saxtus was somewhere on the other side of, then fiddled with the stove until he got a flame going. he half-filled the tea kettle he'd found in a cabinet with clean water from the air and sloshed it around to wash it out. he dumped the dirty water out into the sink and repeated the maneuver until no more dust came out. then he filled it fully and set it on the stove to heat up. he then wandered into the pantry to find some honey to use for sweetener. he was surprised to also find a lot of canned goods that had survived since the restaurant was abandoned. even though he normally avoided canned food at all costs, his growling stomach quickly got him over that inhibition and he gathered up some cans of soup that sounded halfway decent to warm up for everyone. it was better than nothing...marginally. he found a can opener in the same cupboard he'd found the tea kettle in and set to work opening cans and cleaning pots as he needed them.

**central city** saxtus laughed being in good spirits thanks to his ruse working earlier. "don't worry, just kidding!" he shouted back. normally he would have put back the fork but he thought that maybe in some odd circumstance it would be useful. it was doubtful but he really liked the fork for whatever reason. he walked into the back room noticing the tea kettle on the stove. "still need my tea bags or did you find some?" **central city** echo shrugged while washing out another pot. "i'll need them, but not until this comes to a boil." he pointed to a cabinet close to where saxtus was standing. "there should be mugs in there. get me six, please. by the way, what kind of tea do you have? herbal, i hope." **central city** "mkay" he reach into the cabinet and pulled out all six at once, three in each hand by the handles. he set them down on a counter near echo and thought for a moment. "um, maybe. it's a

possibility." he blinked forgetting exactly where he had gotten them from. "i have no idea, i just wanted to make them and find out. for all i know they could be lemon-guava flavored kool-aid tea in leaf form." ~central city~ *three humans having heard rumors of some mobians that had been 'nesting' in the are. they made their way to the docks, and crept into a building to search it for signs of mobians... sure enough, they found them purposely traveling in their manner to make it so that they approached echo first, and from the back. deciding he looked like the group's leader. all three were male, one carrying a led pipe. another a rather large net. the third, a machete however having a gun obviously clipped to his belt, a handgun. the one with the led pipe hit the hand not holding the metallic cylinder, and approached echo. tapping his shoulder.* pipe man: "hey you rodent, you wouldn't happen to have paid attention to the news have you? your kind aren't welcome here, we don't need another infestation like miles." net man: "we're your welcomeing committee if you don't skit right now, you got that?" *the man with the machete said nothing, but stared at echo's group coldly, and some reluctance to be there. * **central city** echo picked up a teabag and sniffed it, then set it down. "i think it's herbal. good, i hate caffeinated tea." since echo's position gave him a clear view of everything in the preparation rooms, he spotted the men approaching from a ways off. even if they didn't have weapons out, he would have known they weren't there for anything pleasant. he turned around and edged sideways so his back was to the doorway leading into the main restaurant rather than the counter, scooping up the teabags in the process out of an odd habit. he did a surprisingly good job of keeping his voice level and calm in spite of the fear that sparked within him as he remembered the news reports he'd brushed off as ridiculous. somehow, he doubted reasoning would work for these three, but he tried anyway. the last thing he wanted to do was fight. "i'm friends with the owner of this place and i've come here countless times. i'm not 'like miles'; he was a maniac. you're mistaken if you think all mobians are like that. i'm glad he's gone. we all are." ~central city~

*the man with the gun put the machete down and drew the gun* machete man: "unfortunately... miles caused the death of my daughter... a weird black hedgehog killed her mother in freak attack when we lived in station square, i moved away to get away from that mobian infested continent... there are no good mobians." *the gun was aimed to fire at sirius, and the man went to pull the trigger as his fellows had moved forward to attack, the guy with the pipe trying to stab echo's gut with it... though the next instant, some crates behind the man with the gun fell over on him, causing him to miss fire and shoot randomly into the air, falling over unconscience. his fellows looking back to see what happened, to see a fourth man who appeared completely unarmed there, his appearence was nothing short of 'odd' for a human. he wore a windbreaker, some sweats, and a t-shirt with "ccu" on the front of it with their mascot.* ????: "i'm not going to sit back and let you dolts attack more mobians, get over yourself they're sentient beings. some good, like me compared to you. and some bad, like miles. " net man: "i heard of you, you're practically the leader of all the mobian sympathizers in this city! we may as well take you down this instant with these pests." **perry's** sarai glanced quietly up at the humans- haveing finally woken up at some point and followed the group to the diner. she tilted ehr head slightly. "saying that all of the mobians are bad just because of miles is like .. if i said that all humans wanted to blow up the moon just because egghead did." sarai was technically only half mobian, but she had grown up werewolfish egnough to forget at times. just like how she forgot she was a werewolf on occasion. **central city** it would have been difficult for the man to have aimed at sirius, since echo and saxtus were the only ones in that part of the building. echo growled and sprang away from the pipe onto another nearby counter. he was probably much more surprised than the rest of the men when the newcomer showed up, but he only let his focus shift for an instant. the next second, he jumped at the man with the net, twisting in midair to aim a flying kick at the middle of his back while he was distracted speaking. he sent a strong blast of water at the man with the pipe in the process.

sirius joined sarai...apparently within sight of what was going on. she frowned. "somehow, sarai, i doubt that logic is going to have any effect on them..." *** *the man with the net fell over writhing, a pressure point was hit so he basically collapsed. the pipe man hit the wall, and freaked out slightly as he realized what just happen. then ran off to try and escape any further attack. if sarai and sirius were in sight, the gun man most likely could find a way to aim at the latter, so bleh to lacking current details in latterposts and wanting to not read back.* ????: "well, looks like you won't need me here, will you? good luck to you, but a hint, you should all leave soon. " *???? began to walk off now, not wanting to stick around in case he too was hunted down.* **central city** echo frowned as the pipe man took off. he clearly wasn't much of a fighter. sirius pulled sarai back into the other room where they'd be safe from any more shots that might be fired at them. echo looked up when his rescuer started to leave. "wait a moment..." he motioned to indicate the men on the floor, keeping one eye on them to make sure they were staying there for the time being. "is this kind of general attitude everywhere in the human cities? all just because of miles?" he sighed. "i heard the reports, but i didn't believe them...up until now, except in a few rare cases, my dealings with humans have been fine. i'm friends with the owner of this restaurant, in fact. i saved his life in the mountains." ~central city~ *the man looked back with a frown and shook his head at echo.* "heck no, miles was just the last straw with 97% of the human population. there's been recorded history of many human conflicts. the first report on the news is odd and bogus and can be disprove fairly easily, but if not for it shadow the hedgehog would still be one of the top criminals to the nation of humans of all times. it's only because he took down his kin supposedly in the name of helping gun and humanity that he and his followers are now accepted." *the man looked over his back, as if to make sure no one else had showed up yet.* "human and mobian conflicts have been present ever since modern human development, maybe even as far back as when humans first started appearing on the planet. it's name is mobius for a

reason, not humania or something stupid like that.... the reason there are few if no mobian civilizations left in the southern northern continent region is because all those civilizations been taken out by humans, some even as recent as when gun became larger. people really need to learn to be more diverse in what they learn... i'd love to chat, but you let one of them get away. more's gonna be back, and they want my head as much as they want yours and probably the owner of this resturant's now since you dragged him in as your friend... since i can't fight, and was just lucky with my timing... i'm gonna get while the getting's good. run away, live to protest another day. " *the man turned and ran now, because he was serious about the ramifications of that one man that got away. he hadn't done what he'd been doing over the past week just for it all to end now... he had to much left to do, in life in general. * **central city** echo's ears flattened back against his head as he listened to the man. he didn't stop him this time when he took off, as he finally realized just what kind of danger they were in. he only said a quiet thanks as he took off. the hedgehog then returned to the counter. he turned off the stove and dumped the soup into one large pot, which he handed off to sirius when she came back into the room, and took the teakettle from the burner; they could come in handy later. he grabbed some spoons from a drawer and handed them off to saxtus as he walked back into the main restaurant area to gather the others. "we're getting out of here. we'll follow the north river until we get to the lake...sirius, you'll have to call your parents and tell them to take the west tributary around central. we'll have to hope we meet up somewhere north of the city." he put a hand on his stomach as it growled loudly. "we'll have to eat when we're out of the city...let's go, the faster we move the better. maybe i can try to teleport us all once i get my bearings." with the filled, hot teakettle held carefully in his hands, he motioned with his head for everyone to follow and started out of the restaurant and onto the street to start north, not feeling nearly as secure as he had earlier. ~central city~ *the man wasn't seen after he was gone.. though the man with the pipe was already forming a rater loud group of new rioters, which let out a cheer that could be heard several blocks away as they approached perry's. this time some carrying torches, others hatchets, others with handguns, and a couple mixed in show swords that were worthless for the most part. they had planned on not only smoking out and killing the mobians, but killing the human that

was long gone taking a backroad, and burning down the restaurant to set an example for future 'mobian sympathizers. "* **leaving central** sarai joged up along behidn echo, carrying the chao in her arms and glancign back and forth almost nervously. "why in the blazes.. just becasue of miles?" **central city** echo shook his head. "according to what that man said, miles was just the last straw that broke humanity's back. i don't get why they're so gung-ho against mobians. they've had plenty of their own wars and fights with each other, what makes them any better than our kind? we were here first anyway, no one even knows where they came from to begin with." he stopped short when he heard the rioters ahead and narrowly avoided spilling hot water on himself. "dang..." he looked around quickly, then sighed and and moved back until the others were around him. as soon as they were close, and when the approaching gang had just come into plain view, he teleported his group. they reappeared in a field north of the city, near the river. echo stumbled and had to quickly set the teakettle on the ground before he spilled it and sat down behind it hard. he'd never before teleported that many people at once, never mind over that long a distance. he sighed and looked back at the city that loomed a couple hills away. "siri...call your parents...we'll get moving again...soon as i catch my breath." the foxwolf nodded and took out a cell phone rigel had given her to do as she was asked. echo formed an orb of cold water and splashed it on his forehead. **north of central city** echo looked over at sarai and blinked as he recovered from the effort he'd used in the teleport. "...what?" **outdise central** sarai bilnked. "iwth the panting and the.. yeah." **outside central** echo smiled wryly. "i need a gym like i need another shot at teleportation. i'd probably end up with cardiac arrest if i tried either." sirius had gotten through to her mother and relayed echo's instructions. **outside central**

saxtus blinked slowly thinking over the events of the last bit. he'd never had much to do with humans surprisingly enough and couldn't fathom how anyone could think to interrupt a man while he's making tea. he switched his thoughts to echo and noticed his heavy breathing which reminded him of the all the times he'd seen his brother like that. "hold still just a minute, mate." he cast the same spell he'd used on raven in the past and one very similar to the one jen had used on shadow back at the castle but on a much smaller scale. to put it simply it transfered some of his own energy to echo bringing him to a point of not-so-tiredness at the cost of making himself a bit more tired. **outside of central** sarai handed light to echo randomly, about the time that saxtus instigated the happiness (xd) "look! chaos make everythign better." **outside central** echo smiled faintly and nodded his thanks to saxtus, then blinked (again) when sarai handed him chao, which promptly snuggled up against his chest fur. "uh...sure, why not." sirius ended her call and returned to the group. "she says they'll do that. it'll add some extra time but they should get here in the next couple days. if we head up to the lake...maybe another day if they don't meet us first. and they'll watch out for humans." echo stood up. "now that that's settled, we'd better get as far away from the city as we can as fast as we can so we can set up a fire to finish this food without risking being seen." he frowned at the pot of soup sirius picked up. "maybe i can find some fresh stuff to perk that up a bit. let's get going. sarai, would you mind carrying the teakettle?" he started walking several yards away from the river's edge and into some undergrowth. he was paranoid that humans could be patrolling the river - humans that would be about as accommodating as those in the city. he didn't want to be caught in the open. **outside central** sarai nodded. "sure." she picked up the kettle and picked her way after echo, glancign aroudn back ad biff, saxtus, pearl, and sirius. "i knew mamo was onto somehtign hating humans . ."

**outside central** echo shook his head firmly. "no. no matter what happens, i don't hate humans. there are some very kind ones out there. like perry, and the weapons dealer we met back in scenic knolls...and zeigen and the thunderhawks. they're no different than mobians in that way. some are good, like reve, and some are completely evil, like miles. that's how it is for everyone. race alone has nothing to do with it. i'm not going to hate all humans just because some are nuts because then i'd be no better than the humans that hate all mobians just because a few are bad." he frowned. "...i just strongly dislike the idiots like that in any race. mobian or human." **outside central** saxtus followed echo a bit and halted at the underbrush. "ya know, if you want visual cover i am a mage. i could like make everyone invisible and stuff for a while so long as you know where you're going since i can't keep it up forever." he pulled out one of the spoons from his robe with a twisted grin, "and if that fails and we're spotted i can always cut one of their hearts out with a spoon. that'd teach 'em." *** sarai couldn;t help but laugh slightly at saxtus's comment (her sister havign rubbed off) before glancign back at echo. "hate's a strong word. but qwerewolves are form the same place the humans are, and back there it's prett ymuch impossible to find a tolerant human that ain't delusional." **north river** echo laughed aloud at saxtus' remark and it did wonders to improve his mood. "that'll show 'em if nothing else does!" he glanced back at the bobcat. he'd halted a few feet into the undergrowth, having been ahead of saxtus when the cat stopped walking. "it would certainly be easier for travel if you could cloak us...but i wouldn't want you straining yourself. as for destination, i don't really have one in mind that we can reach anytime soon. i just want to get away from the city. even a small clearing in this brush would work for a short meal break, but i don't know how long it'd be before we found a suitable spot. you can try it if you want to, though." the hedgehog then looked to sarai. "i guess i'll just have to stick to the delusional ones. they're more entertaining anyway." sirius was impressed and very glad to see echo taking charge again. getting away from team dark truly had been good for him. he was meant to be a leader, not a follower. the foxwolf had often wondered just what it was in her friend's bearing that made him seem like he'd be the one to take control of a situation if he was able. he'd been that way since she met him. he had some severe confidence problems at times, sure, but he always recovered (eventually) and never failed to step up if he had to. it may take an extreme situation, and if there was someone else that he viewed as a leader present then he wouldn't challenge their authority, but he could do it. she had the feeling

it had to do with something in his unknown past. she sincerely hoped that someday she might learn just what it was. **north river** sarai grinned slightly. "true dat." **north river** echo smiled back at sarai. after a moment of thought, the hedgehog started out along the edge of the undergrowth. he kept a sharp eye out for anything on the water so he could tell everyone to take cover if anything passed. he knew he was being paranoid, but if it could keep himself and his friends safe, he felt fully justified in it. sirius groaned faintly. "hey echo...how come you're the one carrying the cute and light chao while us girls are carrying the heavy pots?" "it's the girl that gave me the cute and light chao to begin with," echo replied. not missing a beat, he looked back over his shoulder and flashed her an impish smirk. "as for you, maybe if you complained less, you'd get the lighter loads." "who's the one that whined the whole time i was building his first boat because 'it didn't look like the one in the picture book'?" the foxwolf shot back. echo winced. **river place** sarai arched her eyebrows, an image flashign across her head of the echo she knew now doing that. she giggled accordingly. ((that makes my first character ever to giggle. frightening.)) **river** saxtus followed in the underbrush and chuckled at her comeback. suddenly the urge for tea hit him again, "um, go ahead and pick a spot. i should be able to cloak us, fire and all, for quite a while so long as we aren't moving much. and if anyone moves around a bunch," he flourished the spoon keeping a straight face, "they shall suffer the same fate as any human unfortunate enough to interrupt my tea time."

**north river** echo heard sarai giggle, imagined what she was probably thinking of, and rolled his eyes. "i was twelve, siri." "yeah, but you can't say you haven't complained." sirius grinned toothily, then tilted her head back to look up toward the sky reflectively. "for the most part, though, you were very mature for your age...i've never seen another eleven-year-old loner fend for himself out in the world for a full year and actually do a good job of it. you musta got an extra helping from the common-sense fairy." echo shifted his weight, suddenly looking a little embarrassed at the praise. he never had known quite how to respond to it. he was relieved when saxtus spoke up. "well, if you think you can..." he handed light off to pearl and made his way into the undergrowth quickly, disappearing from view. he reappeared a moment later. "okay, in here. it's not full cover from the river but it'll do." he retreated back the way he'd just come from, snapping some branches to clear a path for the others to follow to the small clearing he'd found. **north river** sarai blinked a few times, but it wasn't until around whatever itme it was that they sort of settled down in the hiding place that she managed to bring herself back to "blah" ness **north river** he followed them into the clearing and looked around sizing up the area. he decided to set up a dome like thing around the clearing that functioned like a one way mirror. i was a bit more straining than the other options but required less focus on his part. he took a seat at the edge of the clearing and cast the spell explaining, "mkay, no one can see us from outside the clearing. just hope no one happens to wander in the dome. go ahead and start the fire just keep the smoke to a minimum, mkay?" **north river** sirius gladly plunked the soup pot down and started rubbing her arms. echo settled down and gathered some tinder for the fire from his immediate surroundings. "thanks. i don't think smoke will be a problem." he looked up at sarai. "i know you can make a lot of kinds of different fire. isn't there a smokeless one?" he started to look around the area to find some sturdy sticks he could use to build a support he could hang the teakettle from while he waited for a response. sirius started looking for wild-growing herbs.

*** sarai shrugged. "yeah.. but if it's gonne kep goinging without me thinkign abotu it, we've gots to have the right kinds of wood." **north river** "what kind?" sirius and echo asked at the same time, since they were both looking for things anyway. echo tossed a couple sticks to the center that he deemed suitable for his purposes, commenting that those weren't firewood. *** sarai pulled her father's signature smirk. "has to be manufactured by the government." she snapped her fingers for effect and hovered the fire over the ground. this had been a favorite of most werewolves, and generally was one of the first things a fire elementalist would try to do, so she knew the trick relatively well. **north river** echo paused and blinked at sarai's remark. "o...kay. why do i get the feeling i just missed something?" he gathered up three more pieces of wood and returned to the center. he stood four pieces up, two on each side, with twigs at the end (he had to snap a few to get the right shape) supporting each other and forming x's, small at the top. he set the fifth stick over top, then put some stones around the base and used some twine from sirius' pack to tie the ends securely so the rig would stay upright. last, he drew his knife to carve a nook into the center and hung the teakettle from it. he directed sarai to move the fire underneath and set some more stones around it to mark the fire pit. he sat back when he was finished and sirius returned with some herbs and wild-growing green onions she'd found. he took them and nodded in approval. "these should do well." the foxwolf flopped down next to him and watched sarai's fire. "there's a lot more where that came from. i think this might have been part of someone's property at some point - an herb garden, to be specific. we'll have to stock up on stuff before we move on." she made a face. "but not until we eat. i still don't know why we're heating up the tea first." "you can survive a week without food, but only a couple days without liquid," echo answered flatly. "you can wait ten minutes for soup." *** sarai blinked a few times.

"yeah. . .so did i." she moved the fire over and looked around. ". . . whoo. plants." -- she was tlakign about what siri had dragged over., **north river** saxtus hadn't moved from where he cast the spell looking half-way relaxed. he was more focused on the spell than anything else but was still very much alert searching over the area. "that and tea is like pure liquid awesomeness." he nodded at his own comment, "also let's not forget that i would go insane without it. why else would i carry around tea bags?" **north river** sirius glanced from the fire to saxtus. "i hope you carry some cups around with you, too, because genius here didn't grab any." "or honey," echo muttered, and turned his head toward sarai. "they're herbs for the soup, specifically. canned soup has to be one of, if not the most bland thing ever invented." **north river** saxtus blinked thinking that was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. he stood up and walked toward everyone else looking like he'd just been hit in the face. "uh, duh. who doesn't?" he peered into his right sleeve and gave it a shake. seemingly out of nowhere the 6 spoons, the fork he'd ninja'd, 6 mugs, a jar of honey and other various small objects he'd picked up over time came spilling out. he quickly stuffed the other things back into his robe and pointed at the mugs and such. "see?" **north river** "like chucking cans of it at people?" echo smiled mischievously at the thought that planted in his mind - namely, dumping a giant cauldron of boiling canned soup on the humans that had assaulted them in central city. it quickly faded into a look of astonishment at saxtus. he and sirius both stared down at the items. echo recovered first, though, and had the mugs and spoons set up for everyone in about three seconds before he sat back down in his spot and snatched up the honey jar. "mine." **north river**

saxtus kept the same strange look as he replied, "yeah, no problem. not your fault you don't have my, er, nack for picking things up." he reach into his robe and pulled out a rubix cube. he held it up looking it over with a puzzled look and gave it a few twists. "while we're waiting for the tea, anyone wanna take a crack at it?" **north river** saxtus kept the same strange look as he replied, "yeah, no problem. not your fault you don't have my, er, nack for picking things up." he reach into his robe and pulled out a rubix cube. he held it up looking it over with a puzzled look and gave it a few twists. "while we're waiting for the tea, anyone wanna take a crack at it?" *** sarai clapped and looked over echo's shoulder. because she was behidn him cuz i said so. "go!go!go!" **north river** echo chuckled quietly, but it was clear that his main focus was on the cube. "hold on..." "you can't rush genius," sirius remarked. the hedgehog shook his head at her, and started twisting the cube. he worked haltingly, checking to make sure he was going in the right order every few twists. he steadily began to get the colors together. the teakettle was starting to make noises but it wasn't quite ready to whistle yet. *** sarai "pfft'd" "yeah you can. if you'd done it before and memorized it for this time, yeah." **north river** "i haven't done it in a long time," echo said with a shrug. he frowned at the cube when he realized he was a bit off. he huffed in annoyance and stared at it again for several more seconds, then eventually figured out what he was supposed to do and started twisting again, working in another direction. he was so engrossed that when the teakettle finally began to whistle, sirius had to get up and take it from over the fire so she could pour it out for everyone. she set echo's mug in front of him and had to pull the curious chao away before it burned itself.

**north river** "i haven't done it in a long time," echo said with a shrug. he frowned at the cube when he realized he was a bit off. he huffed in annoyance and stared at it again for several more seconds, then eventually figured out what he was supposed to do and started twisting again, working in another direction. he was so engrossed that when the teakettle finally began to whistle, sirius had to get up and take it from over the fire so she could pour it out for everyone. she set echo's mug in front of him and had to pull the curious chao away before it burned itself. **north river** sarai sniffed at the tea with her head tilted, and took a tentative sip. the fire died slightly for a moment as her concentration was taken away to focus on not entirely burning her tongue. she looked over the cup and grinned at the chao. "aww.." **north river** the chao looked up at sarai and blinked its large eyes. it got away from sirius and made its way over to sarai, but tripped and somehow rolled into her lap with a squeak of surprise. echo worked faster as he realized that he was close to the end. he soon held it up triumphantly, all the colors on the correct sides. "hah! not nearly as fast as i used to do it, but still, not bad for not having even seen one of these in the past two years." "food." sirius flicked a pebble at him. the hedgehog deflected it with a quick hand movement and got up to hang the soup pot over the fire. "yeah, yeah, yeah." he glanced back at sarai. "if you like it sweet, two or three spoonfuls of honey should do nicely." **north river** saxtus swiped a mug full of tea and dumped a copious amount of sugar into it from several small packets he produced from his sleeve. "wait . . . there was something special about that one, i think." the rubix cube whirred and clicked softly, "oh yeah, that's it." he took a sip of tea and motioned with his hand, "set it down a bit away from everything."

**north river** sarai shruggeed slightly and took another sip. "i'm goo--" she managed to slop a little of the tea around when the chao rolled into her lap. "ah- shoe--" **north river** echo looked confused, but set the cube aside as he'd been instructed. "as long as it doesn't cause a massive explosion or anything...while i'd normally be very amused by that, circumstances are not quite normal." he returned to his spot and began spooning honey into his tea. light squealed when some of the hot tea landed on him and grabbed the edge of sarai's shirt to wipe it off. **north river** saxtus took a gulp of tea, "oh no, of course not. i've got plenty of other things that do that." the cube whirred again and at first let off a small, white flash. after a moment it set off several earthen colored flashes all to the beat of a catchy old celtic ditty it had started playing, sounding as if a flute were right there. it wasn't anything terribly flashy but it certainly wasn't anything to sneeze at either. the song lasted a few minutes and the cube fell silent again. saxtus hummed along with it taking sips every so often smiling the entire time. he retrieved the cube and it disappeared into his robe. "now if you want something that explodes i can easily arrange that." *** sarai stared at the cube and twitched. that hadn;t been what she had been expecting. her cup steadily tilted towards light the chao. **north river** light spotted the cup tilting and reached one arm up to push it back up so it would be level. echo sipped his tea and listened to the cube quietly. he smiled slightly when saxtus put it away. "that's kinda neat. where'd you get it, if i may ask?" **north river**

sarai blinked a few times and realized the chao was there"oh, sorry.." she set the cup down and moved her hands to pick up the chao. **north river** light chirped happily when sarai picked him up and the ball above his head turned into a heart. he had become particularly attached to sarai since she'd been the one to help him out of the egg he'd been trapped in, but he certainly enjoyed echo's company as well. the hedgehog just seemed more occupied with other things at the moment. **north river** sarai stroked the chao's head. "and how is my little guy here?" **north river** light made an odd sort of half-purring sound of contentment. **north river** sarai hugged the chao tightly, before releasing him back onto her lap. she pointed to the mug, which was still farly full. "you want some, little guy?" **north river** light tilted his head at the mug as a question mark formed from the ball above his head. he knew full well that something very hot was in there and he was understandably leery about it after having some of it spill on him. still, if sarai had been drinking it...it had to at least be okay, right? he stared at it for a while longer before doing the equivalent of a shrug, as if to say, "why not?" **north river** sarai smiled. "yee." she took off her tube.. thing on her back, and rummaged around for a momen tuntil she found a random measuring cup.

wondering how it got in there, she heated it up to get rid of bacteria that was undoubtedly there, took the heat away, and pouredsome tea into it, handing the chao-sixed measuring cup to light. **north river** light took the cup and examined its contents for a moment. it had cooled down a bit by the time the chao finally took a tentative sip. it looked undecided until echo, who had noticed the chao's plight, stirred a bit of honey in. light tried it again once it had settled and this time squeaked happily and tilted the cup back so it could drink down the contents of the whole cup. **north river** sarai grinned. "aww. he's so cuuute.." **north river** echo nodded as light held up his cup to ask for more. "he's definitely growing on me." "get my soup." sirius chucked an onion stalk at him. echo pulled a wry face at her and went to take the pot of soup off the fire. he gave it a stir with a suitable stick that he'd been sure to clean thoroughly beforehand and began seasoning the soup with the green onions and herbs. *** "well the cube i probably swiped offa someone but as for the music and lights that was my brother and i. we were gonna use them for entertainment purposes but never got them qui-" he was cut off as the eighteen-twelve overture exploded from his robe. he whipped it out, gave the cube a few twists stopping it immediately and stuffed it back into his robe in one fluid movement. he cleared his throat and continued, "quite right. things like that kept happening if we forgot to reset it." **north river** echo blinked a few times, then finally laughed. "do you happen to have any other tricks? i wouldn't advise using them until we're well away from the city and other human areas, but it'd be interesting to hear about it." he finished seasoning the soup, and realized he didn't have any bowls to put it in. since it didn't look like anyone was done with their tea yet, he picked up a rock and began shaping it into a bowl. sirius blasted it with hot water to clean off the dirt, moss, and whatever else was attached,

and echo formed a ladle by the same method and used it to spoon out the soup into the bowls as he made them. sirius passed them out to everyone. **north river** "heh, of course. i'd be glad to show off . . ." he waved his hands about in front of him trying to think of how to word it, "all the stuff we've worked on." saxtus gladly accepted the bowl of soup, "thanks marm." he sat down finally and began working on the soup savoring the food while focusing more on his spell now as he felt it start to affect him more. although no one would be able to tell by looking at him, splitting his focus so much was beginning to annoy him. **north river** "maybe when we get to the mountain village. i'm sure the prejudice hasn't extended that far. mobians and humans have always existed together just fine there." echo smiled slightly. "and dragons." **north river** sarai tilted her head at saxtus. "you planning on running a joke shop?" **north river** saxtus looked up from his soup grinning, "nah, they're mostly left over from when i put on shows with my brother. but now that you mention it . . . ." he trailed off seriously considering the idea of a joke shop after no one wanted them dead. suddenly the word dragons registered in his head. "wait, what was that about dragons?" **north river** echo had briefly turned his attention to light until he heard saxtus question him. he grinned at the bobcat. "yeah. my friend arc and his family live there. they're all dragons, don't speak our language but i can speak dragon language and they can understand us well enough. they're extremely intelligent. i'm counting on arc to help us out in the mountains." **north river** echo and his group finished their food and got on the move again. the young hedgehog had fallen quiet toward the end of their rest break and led the way through the edges of the undergrowth along the river silently. his thoughts had shifted back to ilith and shadow.

what had gone so incredibly wrong? he'd lost them both when johnson took the twins. none of them seemed to have been able to recover from that, and though he tried to get ilith back, and tried desperately to recover his relationship with shadow after he'd left the flagship in a moment of total confusion, she hadn't placed much heart into a response except to look for every negative thing he did to use against him and shadow was no better. echo wondered why he'd even bothered to help ilith at cryptic castle. it didn't help his standing with her at all and he knew kite would have saved her just fine anyway, and it had ruined any chance he had at getting close to shadow again. even as he questioned it, though, he knew the answer: he couldn't stand by and let ilith be hurt. it was in his nature, rooted firmly in every instinct he had, to protect...especially to protect someone who had come as close to him as she had...even if it meant going against someone else. yet any hope for a finding a family in the team that he'd started to develop were dashed to pieces...just because he'd tried to do the right thing. the hedgehog growled as frustration at life in general rose within him. he hated how every single thing he tried to do right blew up in his face. people hated him because he "changed," and then they still hated him when he began to get back to "normal." there was no pleasing anyone. he halted his thoughts and glanced back at sarai, pearl, biff, saxtus, and sirius. at least he had them...but he couldn't help wondering if they would desert him the next time he made mistake just like ilith and shadow had. his ability to trust had been shattered along with a good portion of his spirit. being with team dark had built him up, only to knock him flat on his back and stomp on him in spite of any attempt he made to recover himself. a solid question formed in his mind, one he dearly wished to know the answer to: if what he strove to do really was "right"...then why did he have to face so much heartache? **north river** saxtus' only reply to his explanation about the dragons had been a simple "cool," and a nod followed by gulping down his remaining tea and soup. **later-ish** he caught echo's glance and sensing a perfect time to interrupt someone's thoughts pulled the craziest face he could muster. his ears flicked back and forth, drew back the corners of his mouth, crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue while making that "ahhhhh" sound that doctors and stuff make you say when they stick that tongue depressor in your mouth. it lasted only a split second, just long enough for the glance and he went right back to his poker face. **north river** echo blinked several times at saxtus. "...you're a nut." light the chao jumped from where he'd been riding on sarai's shoulder over to echo's and

squeaked as his emotion ball turned into a question mark. the hedgehog reached up to rub its head and sighed quietly. **north river** "nut?" he looked shocked and appalled that anyone could even suggest that. still pulling the appalled look, he moaned, "nuuuuuut? how dare youuuuuuu . . ." he trailed off at the end and fell into an undignified slump on the ground. strangely this was his way of turning an already awkward situation into a funny one. that or making it even more awkward, whichever worked. **north river** echo paused walking and stared at saxtus for a long moment. without a doubt, this bobcat was crazy, but it was providing a good distraction for the hedgehog. sirius stopped beside saxtus and began poking him with a stick. **north river** saxtus waited a moment and mumbled, "stickey stickey stick . . ." he brushed away the stick and rose up. he slicked back his hair, or whatever fur was on his head, and turned to sirius, "i can has a stick?" **river place** sarai gazed in mock horror. "it's gonna have a seizure!" she pointed a fur-covered finger at saxtus. **north river** sirius drew her arm back and threw the stick over the bobcat's head. "go fetch!" echo raised an eyebrow. "the canine is throwing a stick for the cat. what's wrong with this picture?" **north river** saxtus shot a small beam of magical light out of his hand behind his back catching the stick on fire and burning it up before it even came close to the ground. he spun around just as it fizzled and put on his best frown. "aw, poor thing. spontaneous combustion is becoming such a problem these days, what a way to go."

**north river** echo's gaze dropped back down to the ground for a moment. then, quietly, he glanced to sarai. "are you really sure you want to come with me after all the mistakes i've made? how do you know i won't screw up with you, too...even worse than i did with ilith?" sirius pouted. "aww, what'd that poor stick ever do to you?" **north river** he spun around to face sirius again, "whad'ya mean? it spontaneously combusted, i had nothing to do with it." he started sniffling and rubbing his eyes, "poe stickey . . . ." **north river** sarai was strung back down into reality. "i.. dunno. maybe because.. ilith used to be the only one who cared. .." it was.. odd, but it .. well it didn;t make sense to her- but it was the only thing that did, even so. **north river** sirius wasn't convinced. she sniffed the scorched air as they passed the stick's remains. "riiiiight..." echo was silent for a short while. "guess i shouldn't judge my successes and failures based on experiences with one or two people...though the way i screwed up with those two people was nothing short of ridiculous. after all they meant to me...i don't know what i was thinking." after another pause, he added, almost inaudibly, "i don't want to hurt you too." **rivery place** sarai flicked an ear and tilted her head. "come again?" **north river** echo sighed faintly and raised his voice closer to normal speaking volume. "i don't want to hurt you like i hurt ilith, and i don't want to lose you like i lost shadow. aside from that, i don't want to see you get hurt in the mountains because you followed me. they're dangerous. do you really want to take that chance?"

*** sarai shrugged again. "i'm from team dark. .. i'll be fine." *** echo grunted. "that's no guarantee of safety. the team's not here. and i know that my survival skills certainly haven't improved since i joined team dark. i never got to use them." *** sarai snickered. "details." **north river** saxtus gave up acting for the moment to listen. "hey" he addressed echo, "stoppit with the thinking, it's not good fer ya." he cleared his throat taking on a serious tone for the first time in a while, "so what if you screwed it up with those two, they seemed like they suck anyways." he chuckled, clearly joking. "the princess was annoying and the cultist looked like he'd kill his own kidney if he suspected it of treason. trust me, i've made so many mistakes just trying to stay alive that it makes me wonder sometimes if i have s*** for brains. and you all can rely on me for the whole not-dying thing as well, it's my specialty. sorta, kinda . . . maybe." he grinned broadly half expecting someone to tell him off. **north river** echo cast an irritated glance back at saxtus and was indeed about to tell him off until he paused to consider what he'd said. ilith and shadow had changed at least as much as he had from what he'd known to what they were now. he eventually just nodded and drew his laser pistol to check it. he hadn't used it in a while and he had the sudden urge to make sure it was in working order. "guess we all mess up...some just...handle it better than others." *** a couple miles north up the river, two porcupines sat on a broad boulder at the water's edge. elrick lay on his back with his eyes closed, seemingly enjoying the sunlight's warmth. his companion, however, was less pleased and scowled at the lighter one. "dunno how you can stand this. it's too hot and too bright and too...light." elrick opened one eye to give baron a sour glance, but it was lessened from what he would have normally intended. "you'd live your life in the dark in a cave if you had a say in it. get used to it. i, for one, am quite glad that we haven't heard from dark rage or seen those nuts in a while." baron scowled. "i don't like having nothin' to do. i need action." elrick closed his eye and stretched his body out fully. "then go look for some. just let me stay here while you go...do...whatever. go kill something. like fish. i'm hungry." the darker porcupine's scowl only deepened and he poked his partner with the tip of his dark

sword. elrick grunted and rolled over to get away from it. "reptiles are supposed to like sunning themselves. you're warm-blooded." when he got no response after throwing a pebble, he growled and slid down from the rock. "fine. you sleep the day away. i'm bored." a tiny, cold grin appeared on his face as he started walking southward. "maybe i'll find that echo and some of his friends...that'd be nice..." "sure, whatever. have fun." elrick yawned and rolled onto his back again. he was just glad to be rid of the other porcupine; maybe now his constant chills would finally go away and let him really enjoy the sunlight instead of faking it. *** sarai stretched back. "oh, hey- aim at this man." sje formed a ball of fire and sent it out ahead of them- it would make a hole somewhere wherever echo hit it- with lasers or normal rounds. **river** echo hadn't been expecting target practice but he supposed it couldn't hurt. he hadn't used his pistols much in a while, and now that he was out traveling again with a much smaller group than team dark, he knew the ability to draw fast and aim true would be very useful. he snapped the cylinder back into place, flicked it up and fired in one incredibly smooth movement that looked like nothing more than a twitch. a very accurate twitch, as it turned out; he hit the ball of fire dead center. *** sarai clapped and the fire rearranged itself, moving back and forth sporatically. *** echo narrowed his eyes as a deeper form of concentration that he hadn't let himself slip into in a long time began to take over. his pistol tracked the fire precisely, but slightly behind, until it finally doubled back on its path for an instant. echo pulled the trigger and the laser shot lanced off, again catching a dead-center hit. he nodded to himself in minor satisfaction and waited for it to reform again, every sense intently trained on his target. *** sarai cast a sidelong glance at echo and began to move har arms randomly- sort of like.. when one has a slappy fight, except more random.- a harder target. *** echo grunted under his breath and let himself sink entirely into his focus. his first couple shots missed their marks, but on his third try, he nailed it. again he waited, but flicked his ear. "doesn't need to be that fast. nothing worth shooting at moves that fast."

*** (saeai laughed* but ya hit it. soy ou still win. **river place** saxtus watched in silence feeling much less crazy and slightly in awe at echo's skill. his arms were limp at his side and he wore a dumbstruck expression. after the last shot he clapped remarking with a hint of awe, "it seems i'm in the presence of a master marksman. how'd you learn to shoot like that?" **north river** sarai arched her eyebrows in sync with saxtus's statement. "i'll say." she cast a sideways glance at the othe rpeople of randomness (pearl, biff, and siri) **river** it took echo a while to come out of his intensely focused state. he shrugged in response to saxtus and looked back down at his pistol. "dunno...i've always been a good shot since i picked up a gun from the first time. of course, i didn't get my skills to the level they're at now for a while...guess it just came from a lot of practice." sirius smirked and looked at the bobcat. "don't let his modesty fool you. he's been a dead shot for as long as i've known him. i think he learned it before his amnesia and just doesn't remember how he learned...kind of like his harmonica playing." light had jumped from echo's shoulder in surprise at the first gunshot. it made its way over to sarai and squeaked, pressing up against her leg in a request to be picked up. **north river** sarai glanced down at the chau and lowered her hands- the flame disappeared and she lifted the chao up, blowign raspberries onto its tummy. **north river** light squealed and waved his arms, the ball above his head turning to an annoyed squiggle. echo holstered his pistol with a flourish; in spite of his modest inability to accept praise gracefully, he couldn't help but show off just for the sake of showing off now and then. "i don't

think he likes that." **north river** sarai made a face and held the chao above her head, still walking. ***it took him a second for what she said to sink in and a puzzled look came over his face, "amnesia? interesting, when was that?" **north river** echo looked over to saxtus and explained the story he'd told countless times. "i woke up in a hospital when i was nine with no memory of who i was or where i'd come from. i don't know anything that happened before then. ever since...for all my life that i remember...i've been trying to find any hint to my past. i don't even know anything about my family, assuming i have one at all." he glanced down at the sword sheathed at his side. "this is the first real clue i've had and the guy that gave it to me found it in the northern mountains. that's why i'm going there. i want to find something about my past." light squeaked and waved his arms, enjoying this a lot more. **north river** saxtus was silent for a minute thinking over what he'd said. "hmm, the northern mountains huh? nice place, i've been there before a while ago." he put his hands behind his head deciding to not ask any more questions. "i've got nowhere else to be so i might as well help you look. besides, every good group needs someone for a good laugh. prevents emotis doncha' know?" he gave a toothy grin and jumped as a firecracker went off in his robe. "yikes!" **north river** echo raised an eyebrow at both the firecracker and saxtus' statement. "'nice place?' i guess, if you like ice, snow, avalanches, high winds, treacherous passages, falling rocks, dark caves, venomous snake-y...things...and whatever else is there that i can't think of at the moment." without missing a beat, he added, "i'd be most worried about the avalanches if your robe is going to be exploding the whole time." **north river** sarai ticked the chao's belly with a finger and jumped in surprise when the firecracker went off. "holy galat. what in the?" *** saxtus dusted himself off and shook his robe until the shell of one lone firecracker popped out. he tossed the empty shell at sarai, "firecracker, sorry. pesky buggers."

he turned back to echo, "oh, sounds like things have improved since my last visit. so long as the rest of the firecrackers don't get antsy it should be just fine and personally i don't mind the cold and snow and stuff. the rest should be fun though." he paused thinking back to the last time when he'd been there and chuckled remembering how he'd thought it was a good idea to hide out in them. that certainly had been . . . entertaining. he soon found himself wondering where he hadn't been to at one point or another. **north river** echo grunted. "i'd hardly call it 'fun'...but at least it should be interesting." **north river** sarai sidestepped the shell and nudged it away form the river with her fot. "i say we set them off on purpose.that's always fun."

**north river** echo glanced toward sarai and shook his head. "please don't joke about that. avalanches are no laughing matter. i'm sorry if i'm being a stick in the mud, but i need to know that you're taking this seriously." **north river** sarai rolled ehr eyes. "pardon my making a joke." **north river** saxtus already had a strand half-way out and quickly stuffed it back. "aw, i thought you guys were serious about the explosions." *** sarai glanced back at saxtus."if it wer emy mom.. she completely would have been." **north river** echo ducked his head and rubbed behind his ear guiltily. "sorry. i'm just...edgy. after all that's happened...and what's going to happen...it's a lot at once." light started squirming to get out of sarai's grasp.

**north river** echo nodded quietly, then let out a short, humorless laugh. "listen to me. i'm the one that used to tell ilith not to worry about the mountains." he rolled his eyes at the memories that brought back. "you're right, no point in getting concerned until we reach the village." sirius nearly dropped the soup pot that held all the other equipment echo had brought along when her radio came on. echo took it from her so she could answer her mother's voice. "what is it, mom?" "good news, siri," aurora said cheerfully. "the wind shifted and we caught a strong north current. we should be past central city early tomorrow - by way of the slipstream - so if this keeps up, we'll be able to pick you up tomorrow evening." echo grinned and spoke up so he could be heard over the radio. "that's great! you have diablon with you, right?" "of course we do," came the answer, followed by a laugh. "i think he's getting very tired of water, though. we had a stop at a small island earlier just so he could run laps around it for about half an hour to release some energy. i'm sure he'll be glad to reach the coast." echo smiled at the thought of that. "good to hear everything's going well." "well, that's all i called to say; i was just about to make dinner when this came up. we'll be seeing you tomorrow if things keep going well. talk to you then, honey." after a pause, she teasingly added, "you, too, sirius." echo ducked his face as his cheeks turned slightly red. sirius rolled her eyes, but she was smiling; this kind of joking was very common with her family. it was made all the more popular by echo's never knowing how to react to it. "yeah, thanks, mother dear." she turned off the radio and took the pot back from echo. light pointed at the ground and squeaked. *** baron fairly skipped southward down the riverbank. it was a relief to be away from elrick's constant oversight. he didn't know why elrick insisted on staying by him after he'd made it very clear to the other porcupine that he wasn't wanted. then again, that was before they both got hired by dark rage. they hadn't seen even a hint of monetary payment for their efforts yet...but baron enjoyed the work. killing things was always fun. so was using chaos control, not that he'd ever gotten much real training; in his opinion, it was more fun not knowing what was going to happen. pity elrick didn't agree. the porcupine's mind was more than slightly bent. it always had been. this was demonstrated on his southern jaunt by the way he made a point of stepping on whatever small creature he came across in a way that didn't kill it instantly, but allowed him to watch with intense interest as it

writhed in agony before finally succumbing to the internal damage it had been dealt. all the while, he imagined what it would look like for a larger creature to share the same fate. the scenarios he came up with were interesting, to say the least, and in no way even remotely sane. presently, he thought he heard voices ahead. as he moved farther along the bank, they became clear enough for him to recognize them. he grinned broadly...a little too broadly...and scampered over to the underbrush, then up into a tree. he curled up just enough to camouflage himself in the shadows of the branches and waited for his next full-size victims. **north river** saxtus quickly lost interest in everything when he realized that the conversation was going away from blowing things up. he blinked and blinked again, lost but still in a general state of mehness. he dug around in his robe and pulled out a spoon and his fork and started fiddling around with them. acting like the spoon was a grindstone type thing he started scraping the fork on the spoon making a rather grating noise while staring at it as if in deep concentration. tongue sticking out to the side and all. he looked up for a second only to remark, "you guys are weird" and went back to scraping. **north river** echo winced sharply when saxtus started grinding the metal and his left eye began to twitch. sirius clamped both hands over her ears. "please...stop that...before i remove your hands." light made his way back to pearl and somehow ended up sitting on her head. *** 'right-o," saxtus flipped the spoon back into his sleeve and threw his hands into the air determined to make something explode. it just so happened that another one of his small explosives slipped out and sped at ground a few feet away from him exploding on contact. it was only a small flash like most fireworks, not enough to start a fire in the brush, but plenty strong enough to kick up some dirt and brush nearby with a rather loud bang. he clapped his hands and cheered not realizing it was his own doing. "yay explosions!" **north river** sarai ducked at the explosion and an eyebrow twitched. ".. whoah. splosions." **north river** echo jumped when the firecracker went off and turned his head toward saxtus with a scowl. "how

many more of those do you have?" *** up ahead, baron quivered with barely-contained excitement at the prospect of starting a battle with echo. the hedgehog sounded like he was in a foul mood; it would be very entertaining to take him on now, especially when his companions looked much more sedate than usual. what the porcupine dimly noticed yet failed to take into account was that the past battles he'd had with echo had been when he was having a confidence meltdown, and even then he'd lost; such was not the case now. *** muscles in elrick's legs started jumping almost as soon as baron was fully out of earshot. he tried everything he could think of to get the muscles to calm down, from massage to pounding to rolling from one position to another in the hopes of finding relief, but nothing worked. finally, relaxation completely gone, he got up and started south at a jog. he knew that the message his twitchy muscles were trying to send was that he had to find baron before he got himself into more trouble than usual. *** saxtus grinned and turned to him, "shoot man i got plenty a . . ." he slipped into a southern accent as thick as molasses making anything he said a complete garbled mess that only someone used to talking like that would understand at all. if translated it would be something along the lines of "i've got enough to blow up a building and deafen anyone within a four mile radius." of course no one would be able to tell that. he stopped with a blank look on his face, "i was saying?" **north river** sarai's eyes widened. "you sound.. like . . ... that guy.. on that one tv show." **north river** echo stared blankly at saxtus for a long moment before finally shaking his head and resuming his pace. "riiiiight..." he heard an odd hissing sound just as he noticed something shooting toward him out of the corner of his eye and threw himself to the ground. the object narrowly missed his head and thudded into the ground a couple feet away. he absorbed it all in one quick glance: it was a long hollow quill, dark brown with lighter mottled areas, no doubt barbs on the tip that was buried in the ground, quivering from impact as it stood pointing back the way it had come. echo turned his head and followed the path with his eyes to find himself looking directly at the branches of a tree.

the whole process barely took two seconds. a sharp hissing sound identical to the one before sounded and echo rolled to his right, closer to the tree, again scarcely getting out of the way of a quill. he now had a fallen log between himself and his attacker, who he already could guess the identity of. he looked back over his shoulder at his companions. "get back! out of range! saxtus, shield them!" he drew his pistol and prepared to return fire when he was sure the others would be safe, and not a moment before. baron's taunting voice came from the tree. "whatsa matter, hedgie, hiding already from just a couple little quills?" "thanks, but i don't want to be a sis-kabob today," the hedgehog shot back dryly. **north river** "tv?" his train of thought was interrupted by a hissing sound of the quills and echo shouting. he wasn't sure if he was just messing around until he heard the other voice reply. he immediately set to backing up behind a tree for cover and setting up a barrier around everyone individually. he peered around the tree as his eyes darted back and forth in the direction of the voice attempting to get a look at whoever was out there. he figured he could find out what was happening after quill things weren't being flung at them but in the meantime he couldn't resist asking "friend of yours, mate?"

**north river** echo scoffed bitterly. "he's as much of my friend as shadow. or ilith, for that matter." he grated his teeth as baron's voice sounded again, now from a slightly different spot...but echo hadn't seen movement. "oh-hoh, really, now? since i doubt we've become best buddies during our time spent apart, i'll take it that means you've had a little falling-out. fascinating!" echo whipped up his pistol and fired off a quick shot at the sound of baron's voice. there was only brief pause before the porcupine continued speaking, from yet another new location, as thought nothing at all had happened. "i suppose this means you're on your own, eh? no protection, only...these with you. what are they, the team dark rejects?" the porcupine laughed hysterically for about three seconds and then continued, again, same tone as before, no trace of laughter but filled with high amusement. "you couldn't beat me without help of better warriors than this before, you won't stand a chance now!" echo rolled his eyes. "you go on thinking that, we'll see how for it gets you this time. never worked out too well before." he sensed something odd near his head. alert as he was, he teleported instantly, closer to the river

itself. a quill, apparently out of absolutely nowhere since this side of the log was away from the trees, thudded where his head had been a moment before. echo stared in disbelief until he remembered: baron could use dark portals. and apparently he was very skilled with their use. he hedgehog brought his eyes back up to the trees and they narrowed dangerously. "you're one to talk about being afraid, baron. hiding in the woods, using portals to try to attack me with projectiles? that's not very bold. as a matter of fact, i believe it's called 'yellow-belly.'" an angry snarl sounded out from somewhere in the dark foliage. echo let off a shot before the sound had even finished and there was a loud crashing noise as the porcupine hurled himself away. echo caught a glimpse of quill and fired another quick shot, as fast as his reflexes with sarai's fire target earlier. he was answered with a shout of pain that was soon echoed by his own cry as a portal-carried quill buried itself into his right arm. he stumbled back and was scarcely able to twist out of the way of another quill. **north river** echo took shelter behind the log again. he gritted his teeth and yanked the quill out of his arm with a barely-contained squeal of pain. he stared at it with his eyes narrowed to slits before he snapped it into pieces in his hand. he was now beyond annoyed. he closed his eyes and let his focus sink into the earth. he sensed pressure wherever something was lying, but only one thing was moving in baron's direction. he sent the ground up around the porcupine's feet to trap him, then released his concentration and teleported. he came out just in front of baron. the porcupine bared his teeth and tried to lunge at echo, but his caught feet made him come up short. the hedgehog smirked. "you'll need more than portals to get you out of this one. where's your buddy?" "i don't need him," baron snapped, and echo jumped back out of necessity and surprise as the nearly rock-hard mounds holding the porcupine's feet suddenly crumbled and he lunged, sword at the ready. echo stepped out of range of the initial swipe and had his own blade drawn to parry the next. the hedgehog rolled out of the undergrowth and sprang back lightly as baron followed with a sliding stab, oblivious to the bushes he'd just plowed through. echo hopped forward and swung diagonally down at his head, but baron snapped his own sword up to block. his greater strength pushed echo's blade away easily and the porcupine spun faster than his size should have allowed, swiping at echo's legs. the hedgehog blocked, tip of sword in the ground for extra support to keep baron from bowling him over, and flipped out his switchblade to stab at his opponent. baron twisted out of the way, pulling his blade free, again swung and was again parried. the two of them proceeded to exchange swift, powerfully precise blows, neither turning from the other for more than half a second, neither one gaining or losing their ground for more than an instant. echo's speed was a perfect match for baron's raw power and both of them were incredibly light on their feet as they dueled in a complete deadlock, dust rising from the ground as they moved nimbly up and down the bank.

*** elrick was soon running full-out down the riverbank. he had the same odd sense of impending doom he got every time baron got out of his sight. he knew he was getting close when he dimly heard the strange clang-shink! of a metal blade against baron's dark sword ahead. **north river** saxtus cautiously made his way toward the sound of the metal colliding. he knew well from experience it wasn't wise to interfere in a sword fight like that, it was much too quick and complicated for him to help anyone. with his luck it'd be more likely he'd get echo killed rather than help him. he kept a good distance away from the duel watching for any way he could help. he left the shielding up only on himself thinking the others would be fine unless they followed. **north river** echo and baron's fierce battle took only a minute to slow down drastically. both combatants were greatly hindered by their injuries - echo, the hole in his arm left by the quill; baron, the gunshot wound in his side - but neither of them were about to let up. elrick soon arrived at the site. he had to pause to catch his breath from having run as fast as he had for as far as he did; he didn't notice saxtus, but it was likely that the bobcat would have a clear view of him. the porcupine straightened after a moment and held his light spear at the ready, eying the battle. he waited until their footwork brought echo around and closer to him. he then raised his spear to shoot a beam of searing light energy at the distracted hedgehog. **north river** saxtus took stock of the battle as it slowed down taking note of the apparent wound to the hedgehog's arm. as soon as he saw the newcomer he decided he wasn't there to help and pressed himself against a tree attempting to keep out of sight. when he spied him raise his spear up the bobcat dropped his own barrier and popped more out in the open. using his advantage of not being seen he shot a beam of magical light aimed at the weapon/his arm type area in an attempt to disarm him. if nothing to prevent the cheap shot he knew the guy thought he was getting. he immediately jumped back behind the tree and made his way closer using whatever visual cover he had.

**north river** echo spotted saxtus' beam of light out of the corner of his eye; not having seen where it came from, he instinctively threw himself to the ground. baron had just started to swing at him. with his target suddenly gone, his own momentum continued to carry him stumbling forward. echo twisted his body around and caught the porcupine with a strong kick to his midsection. the force caught him just right to spin him around and he collapsed to the ground with a yelp. echo was back on his feet a moment later, eying his opponent. elrick saw saxtus' attack just in time to put up a barrier of light to block it. the porcupine narrowed his eyes and turned to scan the forest, searching for a sign of whoever had interrupted him. **north ruiver** sarai attempted to rememebr where she had seen the purcuipines before- because she knew that she had. she attempted a burst iof flame inthe directionof elrick, for experimental purposes.. and possibly distractory. **north river** elrick made a spinning motion with the tip of his spear that likely dissipated the fire sarai had sent at him. he frowned at baron, who didn't look like he'd be getting back up anytime soon, and looked back at echo. he knew that taking on the hedgehog alone at this point would be near suicide; he wasn't nearly as skilled at physical combat as baron, and if he'd gone down like this... "i don't want to bother you," he muttered, eying the hedgehog's sword. "i'll take him and leave you alone. i have no reason to fight." "then you'd better get yourselves out of here fast," echo snapped. *** still in cover, an idea struck saxtus as they were talking. seeing as the situation had turned less dangerous he decided to add his own bit of flavor to it. he flipped out the fork and cast his cloaking spell doing his best to sneak up on elrick all stealthy like. assuming he was successful and hadn't been detected he stuck the fork in between the porcupine's quills and did his best dirty harry impression. "you've got to ask yourself one question: do i feel lucky? well, do ya, punk?" **north river** elrick's expression went flat and he responded to saxtus in like tones. "why would i need to be lucky when you're poking me with a fork?" not too far away, in spite of the gravity of the situation, sirius snorted with barely-contained laughter. ***

saxtus scoffed and stopped poking him with the fork. "and what if this fork shot out fifteen foot tall flames of doom or exploded or something? i bet you'd have to be then." he turned around and started walking away rather disappointed that he hadn't managed to make him even crack a smirk. but at least he'd managed to cause a bit of confusion which was what he lived for. **north river** elrick rolled his eyes when he heard saxtus moving away and started to move forward to retrieve baron. however, the darker porcupine, seeming to sense that his opportunity was about to be taken from him, suddenly got to his feet and stumbled away from his counterpart. he whirled and snarled at echo, but elrick stepped between the two, facing his partner. "don't even think about it." baron's eyes looked strange. it wasn't quite clear what, exactly, he was feeling to cause it, but it was enough to make elrick move back half a step involuntarily. "you're not going to get in my way...not this time...not when i'm so close..." "yeah, you look close," elrick snapped. "come on, give it up already. you won't get anywhere in this shape." the dark porcupine showed no response for a long moment. but then, without warning, a dark portal opened up around elrick. he made an odd noise and tried to jump away, but it closed with an audible pop and suddenly reopened a short distance away, throwing elrick into a tree. the porcupine slumped to the ground in a daze. baron bared his teeth, took a step forward, and lunged at echo. the hedgehog sprang straight upward and kicked out so he wouldn't come down to land on baron's quills. the porcupine straightened just as echo landed. he started to turn, but echo was far more agile. as soon as his feet touched the ground, he kicked off again, curling into a ball in midair that changed his trajectory into an arc that brought his spinning ball form into baron's skull with a crash. echo bounced off and uncurled in a crouch, but it was clear after a few seconds that this time his opponent was down for the count. echo straightened slowly and dusted himself off. "that was easy." he glanced back at elrick. "uh...would someone mind taking a look at him?" sirius was shocked by echo's attack on baron. she'd never seen him use such a direct attack before; usually he fought on the defensive, aiming to immobilize or chase off his enemies. this was the first time she'd seen him intentionally aim an attack that could have killed just as easily as it ko'ed. startled as she was, she didn't even think to question why echo wanted her to help elrick; she just did as he'd indirectly requested. **north river** saxtus turned around just in time to see elrick slam into the tree. after the scuffle ended he blinked and looked at elrick again, "guess he wasn't feeling too lucky after all."

he assumed sirius could handle whatever had happened to elrick in his battle with the tree and put his hands behind his head, thoroughly un-phased by everything that had just happened. suddenly it hit him and he snapped his head toward echo, "hey, wasn't your arm stabbed or something?" **north river** echo glanced down at the wound in his arm. it wasn't bleeding as badly as it had been at first, but since he hadn't had time to wipe the blood away after he was injured, it looked a lot worse than it actually was. the hedgehog shrugged mildly. "sirius can look at it when she's done with elrick. it's not as bad as it looks." elrick slowly regained his senses as sirius gently felt his head to examine for injuries, careful to avoid his sharp quills. the porcupine winced as she hit a tender spot. "ow..." "sorry." she sat back. "seems that it's just a bump. nothing too serious...why am i helping you?" she glanced back at echo. the hedgehog frowned. "because he was trying to stop baron from fighting me. it didn't work, but he tried. he helped me right then more than anyone on team dark has." he snorted and stared off into the trees distantly. "my pack...yeah right." **north river** saxtus rolled his eyes and muttered something about emoitis. holding out his hand, palm facing echo, he cast a healing spell and his wound closed up good as new. maybe a bit stiff and painful but completely fine. he walked over to elrick and sirius, "i can fix that too if you'd like. you wouldn't believe all the times i've lost to a tree myself." **north river** echo blinked in surprise and flexed his arm as if he didn't quite believe it had been healed that easily. "thanks." elrick grunted and shook his head slightly. "i'm fine..." he hauled himself to his feet and waited for the world to stop spinning. then he made his way over to baron. he hauled the darker porcupine up over his shoulder and swayed for a moment as he adjusted to the shift in balance. he glanced around at the assembled group for a moment. he looked like he was about to say something, but changed his mind before any sound formed, and turned to walk into the trees. sirius scowled. "well, that's some way of thanks...he didn't say anything." echo watched the porcupines disappear into the trees and shook his head. "you expected him to?

he probably doesn't know what the heck to make of this. i can't blame him. just let him be." he looked northward up the river and sighed. "best to keep moving..." ((i'll probably do a bit of a skip here to get to where they meet up with siri's family, if nobody minds. this need to get moving.)) **north river** sarai stared quietly for a moment, arching an eyebrow. "maybe.. that'll help our case later." **north river** echo shrugged mildly. "perhaps. at any rate, elrick isn't the one we need to worry about." sirius scowled. "he's the one that took me hostage and threw me in a stupid hole beneath a staircase. i heard them talking; they said it was his idea." echo shook his head. "i'm beginning to get an idea about those two that makes a lot of sense...and, except for baron's attacks on me, i don't think anything else they've done was done just on their own." "then who made them do it?" the foxwolf retorted. "if i'm right...probably dark rage." he glanced back at his companions as they walked. "i overheard a conversation between them and dark rage not long after we found you. i didn't know who it was at the time, since they were talking to him on a comm, but now i know that voice was the same as dark rage's - it had the exact same smooth quality. they called him 'boss.' i think they may be assassins that he hired to do his dirty work for him while he sat back and watched, toys for him to play with until he gets tired of them. "baron probably hates me for getting away from him, but elrick doesn't strike me as the type to hold on to a grudge for long. now, with dark rage sealed in kite's mana signature, he hasn't been able to communicate with them - or give them payment. if that's the case, elrick has no reason to fight us anymore, and though baron is dangerous, i doubt that elrick would want his teammate getting killed or want to deal with the consequences of him killing one of us." he paused, as if waiting to see what sort of reaction he'd get for piecing that all together. **desert near melville** ((this should make things interesting...for me, if no one else. tongue.gif)) a bizarre shimmer appeared a little above the ground just on the opposite side of a random sand dune from melville. to an observer, at first it would have just looked like an excess heat haze. but in a matter of seconds it became larger, more defined, appearing like a strange bubble of distorted space-time. it held that way for a brief moment before a shadow seemed to form in the

middle. it soon took the shape of a man, and like someone coming to the other side of the fabled looking-glass, another distortion formed and an oddly garbed human stepped through into this reality. the portal dissipated in ripples of space instead of water and the newcomer looked around himself in scrutiny. he wore violet robes with dark trim in a flame pattern and a gold sun symbol set with a red gemstone in the center pinned over his heart. his gray hair was combed neatly except for a clump that hung down in front of his face to completely hide his right eye from sight. this bit of hair alone was tipped with white. at his side he held a staff crisscrossed with a pattern of red lines that glowed softly underneath the gold latticework that covered the length of the weapon from the prism-shaped red firegem at its tip to the rounded stabilizer at the bottom. he squinted up toward the sun, then lowered his violet-gray eyes and scanned the horizon. "so this is the place...? odd, i would have expected him to pick somewhere less..." he blinked and rubbed his eyes. "glaring. good thing i'm not a water mage." as soon as he could see again, he turned around and began climbing the sand dune. as he'd hoped, he could see a town not too far away. after some more characteristic muttering to himself, he struck out across the sand to try to figure out just how far behind his target he was. **melville** as the man neared the desert town, he noticed that the few beings he spotted appeared to be some sort of sentient animals. he blinked in confusion. what time did these appear in? he'd never seen anything like them. he stretched his senses and detected, much to his surprise, that he could understand their speech. these creatures must know humans, then...to be certain, though, he'd have to approach and judge a reaction. if there were humans here, they shouldn't look too surprised. if there weren't humans...he hoped he wouldn't cause a heart attack. he spotted an odd-looking group in the street and raised an eyebrow; one looked a bit like a wolf, one was definitely a rabbit, one was...a meerkat, maybe? and some others, some whose species he recognized and others he didn't. there seemed to be magic users here. the fact that magic could be used here was encouraging. he hated to end up in time periods where magic had been forgotten or forbidden...or both, though not necessarily in that order. as he got nearer he raised a hand and called out. "hello! could i ask you something? i'm looking for someone, and he may have been through here..." **melville** gao li was about to respond to team rose, but he noticed the mysterious stranger. he squinted to see the figure for a second, and waited for them to get closer so he could talk to them. he glanced over at team rose, "friend of yours?"

~melville~ *kite frowned at the newcomer, he didn't appear interested or notice that he used magic. * kite: "never seen him before in my life. " *kite shrugged, but jen squinted at the man and walked closer* jen: "so.... does the crow caw at midnight?" **melville** the man stared at jen in confusion. "aren't crows asleep then...?" after a second he seemed to remember that he had a purpose for coming here and looked around at the assembled animals. "erm, you may have seen the guy i'm looking for. he's about six foot five or so, unnaturally thin...dark hair, weird eyes, wears a lot of black. ring any bells with any of you?" **melville** *for the first time in awhile, ilithyia stood by quietly, waiting for kite to finish introducing himself. she seemed uninterested in the fact that anyone mentioned team dark. rather, she was distracted by jen, and wanting to throttle her to get the secrets of self-healing--a technique that would come in handy to a young girl who frequently got herself into situations she could not handle. ilith's manner changed a bit when she noticed the stranger, and soon, instead of mirroring jen's moves, she mirrored kite's unintentionally. one look told her she didn't trust this guy* ilith: i've never seen him either. *she crossed her arms over her chest...then ran to jen's side and eyed the man warily, responding to his question about the crows* that's just what they want you to think!!!!!! they're really hosting dinner parties for the avian mafia. ~melville~ *jen blinked at ilith then rolled her eyes at the newcomer.* jen: "well clearly your magical prowess isn't any better than hers." *jen picked up ilith by the back of her coller, using magic to aid her cause*

jen: "she knows what they do at midnight on at least sundays. jeezn." *kite blinked in confusion* kite: "wait, this random person knows magic? also, on a side note. i don't know who you're looking for. a name maybe?" **melville** the man scowled. "forgive me, but i fail to see what magical prowess has to do with crows cawing at midnight." his expression returned to neutral when kite spoke. generally, he tried to avoid using specific names when he was in a different time period; he was cautious about his interactions. but he had to find this guy... "desmerick. he's a necromancer. the most powerful one where we hail from..." he shot a frosty glance at jen. "as i am the most powerful mage." **north river** saxtus followed, going over what was being said, "uh, what if he's like pre-paid them for a long time and left instructions? like a phone card or something. or," he whipped out his staff and thrust it forward, lunging as if it were a sword. "what if the cultist runs the rabbit through like that, 'cause they didn't exactly seem like friends? what would happen then?" it was more thinking out loud than honest questions. **north river** echo raised an eyebrow. "that depends on who's the cultist and who's the rabbit. even aside from that, dark rage doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would even have money. he doesn't need to buy anything when he can just appear in the middle of a high security vault and grab whatever he wants, if he so chooses. if he had to, he'd probably offer power as a bribe instead of money." **north river** saxtus put his staff away. "good point, he certainly had enough of it," he remarked remembering egging dark rage on back at the volcano. as surprising as it was at the time, it was strangely amusing to him in retrospect. "man, if i were him i wouldn't spend all my time trying to kill people i'd focus all my time on . . . on . . . ," he waved his hands about looking for what he'd do. "i'd focus all my time on destroying all the pineapples in the world. yeah that's it." he held out his hand and acted like he was blasting invisible pineapple plants while counting out loud. "one, two, three, four . . . ." **north river**

sarai tilted ehr head. ". . . maybe.. we shoudl just focus on getting over the mountians? if it's as dangerous as you say, ech, maybe they'll have a hard tiem following, if they do." **north river** echo raised both eyebrows at saxtus. "uh...huh." he looked up toward the sky reflectively. "if i had that much power...i bet it'd be a heck of a lot easier to find out about my past." he looked back to sarai and nodded. "that's what i'm hoping. i have experience in the mountains, but i tend to doubt that they do. and if they don't have previous experience, or else guides, a trek deep in there is practically suicide. once the houseboats get here, we should make good time and get well ahead of baron and elrick...but i want to get further north before we rest. and when we do rest, i want someone on guard at all times. we can take shifts until morning." **north river** sarai grinned slightly. "awesome. no.. for the houseboats!" she laughed. ~melville~ *jen set down ilith politely and shook her head.* jen: "to see if you had any imagination wise guy. the most important thing to magic... well maybe not to you, since you're some lowly mage." *jen shrugged, she was testing the newcomer. who's name, if mentioned... she actually already forgot. kite winced at the mention of 'necromancer.'* kite; 'i hate necromancers, the only one i've met was named umbra. he was pathetic however. " *kite didn't know the difference really between most magic user types, as he didn't really follow one. he'd labeled himself what jen labeled herself, magician. kite paused... he didn't know much about this guy.* kite: "he's human right? do you know what his tendencys are like? like where he may go?" **melville** the man smiled oddly at jen. "oh, i have an imagination. i really doubt you'd want to know what

goes on in it, however." he shook his head after kite spoke. "that's the problem with him, i can never predict him...the only thing that i can think of as a good bet is that he would most likely go to the nearest heavily populated area to try to blend in." he frowned off into space for a moment, then started muttering with a furrowed brow. "you know humans...and you know the language...yet there's nothing like you in any time i..." he blinked a few times, then, louder, asked, "what time period is this?" **north river** echo smiled faintly and continued leading the way northward. it wasn't until several hours later that he finally decided that it was safe for them to stop and rest. it was getting dark by this time. echo took first watch to let the others rest for a while before it was time for them to take their turns. he slept during the shifts of the others, and had strange, indistinct dreams. all that he could remember upon waking was that they'd involved the mountains...somehow...and a strong sense of danger. the dreams contained nothing that he didn't already know; they only served to reinforce his unspoken vow to protect his friends with everything he had. when morning came, he was the first one up and headed to the river to go fishing. when the others awoke, it was very likely that the first thing they would hear was the gray hedgehog cursing the fishing pole he'd had to make by hand. he had many skills, but the art of making effective fishing rods was not one of them. *** quite the opposite of her mother, sarai had woken up realtively early, after a surprisingly deep few-hour sleep while pearl had taken her night watch. she glanced around, and called (relatively sofrlt) to anybody who was awake, seing if they would be in need of a fire and if she shoudl start it now? **north river** sirius stirred slightly in response to sarai's voice and started to roll over. "hrrrm...noidon'twannagotothemallitstinks..." she ended up completely on her back with one arm across her face and her mouth hanging open. until she let out one loud, unexpected snore and jerked upright. she stared at sarai, blinking herself awake. "whodawhatta?" ~melville~ *jen scowled.* jen: "yuck... you're that immature? to think you looked like a responsible young man at first. glad i decided your mind wasn't worth trying to read then."

*jen responded this way, because she knew it'd likely annoy the newcomer. plus somewhere in her mind she found that an amusing response since it took what the man said possibly out of context. kite rolled his eyes. due to the nature of the stupid question.* kite: "last i checked to those of us natural to the time period, it's the common day era. the planet is mobius. we're mobians, natives to the planet. humans are another story. it's luck we speak the same language, because there are others even on this planet. what about you? when and where are you from?" **melville** the man answered jen crisply while rolling his eyes skyward. "hrmph. i never said that, and i'm not the one that came to that wretched conclusion, now, am i?" he proceeded to block the meerkat's voice from his mind as he repeated the foreign word kite had just used. "mobius...? planet mobius? what in...that...that can't be right...no translation?" he was talking to himself now, looking bewildered. "but this shouldn't...i couldn't have..." he suddenly dropped to his knees on the ground and started using his finger to draw a series of odd symbols in the sand. he looked more and more confused the more he read into it. "no...no, no, no...this is...this is wrong, i- i shouldn't be on another planet!" he looked up from his calculations and stared off into some distant point on the horizon blankly. "i didn't know i could go to another planet..." **north river** saxtus rolled over in his sleep and mumbled a bit of garbled sleep talk. suddenly his eyes flicked open and he groggily stood up holding his head. still half-asleep he shuffled over to the river, dunked his head in, took a gulp of water and collapsed on the river bank snoring loudly again. ~melville~ *jen continued to say various things to insult the newcomer in some mannerism, the author would right out her responses and rants but for the moment is attempting to not be redundant. kite frowned and choose to take off his armor and it fold back into a more compact form at this point as he put it away.* "so should i let you have your mental breakdown and be on my way then?"

**melville** the man continued staring into space for several seconds longer. then he shook his head and cast kite a sidelong glance. "my mind already broke years ago..." he smirked. "or years to come, depending on when you look at it." he stood up and shook sand from his robes. "at any rate, desmerick must have figured out how to go planet-hopping. i used a tracking spell to get here...i thought the transport felt odd." he crossed his arms in front of himself, hands disappearing into his wide sleeves, and frowned. "only that begs the question - once i find him, how on earth...or mobius...am i supposed to get back?" he stared quizzically somewhere into middle distance, then shrugged and looked back down at the mobians. he seemed to have become much more secure now that he at least knew what was going on. "would you mind informing me of where the nearest large human settlement is? a map would be most helpful, if any of you know where i could find one." **north river** echo paused in his battle with the poorly-made fishing rod to blink at saxtus. the hedgehog was nearly yanked off the log he was sitting on by something snagging on his hook - or, more likely, his hook snagging on something that it shouldn't snag - and he reflexively hauled back on the pole. a mud-caked boot came flying out of the water on an odd angle and ended up landing on saxtus in such a way that it wouldn't cause serious injury, but got him covered with mud. **north river** saxtus jolted up and threw his hands into the air causing mud to go flying everywhere. suddenly gaining a french accent he shouted "ack! ve surrendeer!" he looked about and rubbed his eyes only causing more mud to get on his face. "blech, mud." he took a diving run into the river without hesitation and started rubbing off the mud. all done while still half-asleep. ~melville~ *jen petted ilith's head, gave her a snickerdoodle cookie. then pointed at the newcomer.* jen: "now ilith, be a good insane little girl and wreak havoc on him. k?" *kite seemed to ignore the insanity that was jen and ilith and pointed the opposite direction of central city due to his bad sense of direction.* kite: "central city. that way. i don't have a map unfortunately." *he then pointed at gao li and mel's house.*

kite: "gao li and or mel may be willing to help you further. i have things i must do though, so i'l leave you to your vice. however, if news reaches me you and the crazy necromancer guy cause trouble... blades will bleed. come on, gals. " *kite turned to leave slowly now.* **melville** *ilithyia ate the cookie and growled at the strange man like an angry wolf...then she turned and followed kite when he called her and jen. she jumped onto his back after they were a good distance from the stranger, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders* ilith: kite, where are we going? *she seemed to have forgotten that she was angry at him by now* **melville** "i can assure you the 'crazy necromancer guy' isn't going to be returning to where he's supposed to be without a fight," the man said with the tone of someone who has had to deal with this too many times. "it's hard, fighting him...we can never seem to overthrow each other and i can't kill him in a different time period for it could wreak havoc with the universal timeline. but...so it goes." he nodded once to the mobians, a partial bow of gratitude. "thank you for your assistance." he turned away from them as kite started to leave and walked toward the panda he assumed was gao li. "would you happen to have a map...and perhaps know somewhere i could eat?" after an awkward pause, he added somewhat helplessly, "and money for it proper to this time and planet?" **north river** echo continued watching saxtus with a smile twitching to form on his lips. he turned to the treeline and called out, "anyone else find this guy to be a nut?" "me," sirius called back drowsily. **north river** sarai raised her hand. "yeah. but uh. so are we. so it works." **north river**

saxtus froze at the sound of the word nut. "nuuuuuuut." and suddenly collapsed beginning to sink and drift down the river.

**north river** "pretty much." he scowled at the fishing pole as it finally snapped and threw down the broken piece that remained in his hand. "i'm done! if anyone wants fish, they can catch their own!" sirius finally got up and stretched. she made her way down to the river and noticed saxtus drifting away. the foxwolf boredly reached out with her control over water to make the currents push him back to shore. she raised an eyebrow as her first coherent thought of the morning filtered through her mind. "i thought cats were supposed to hate water." **north river** he coughed and sputtered as he dragged himself onto the shore and relinquished two large fishes that managed to get lodged in his robe. "nobody doesn't like a bath, it's common . . . uh, stuff. yeah . . . ." he trailed off still feeling groggy. *** echo shrugged. "in the foster care home i was put in, my 'siblings' hated baths. i never did understand why...but to each his own, i guess." sirius began splashing saxtus with water. **north river** sarai blinekd a few times. "oh, hey, siri.. i've seen my mamo fish using her waterbending . . . could that work?" **north river** saxtus remained face down in the mud on the bank and mumbled something incoherent through the mud, "mmmffrmmm," which roughly translated to 'stupid fishes.' he catapulted a third fish that he had inadvertently scooped up at sirius hoping to catch at least one of them off guard. **north river** sirius pulled water from the river into a swirling orb that caught the fish. she grinned broadly at sarai. "it does work!"

echo pulled a wry face at the swirling river. "sure. i spend an hour trying to catch something other than pollution and she catches a fish that wasn't even in the water." **north river** saxtus made another muffled comment that sounded like "mmmfffffmmhmraaa" the last bit being because he lifted his head up. anyone fluent in mud speak would know he obviously meant that the mud tasted rather like steak. he dunked his head in the river to clean off the last of the mud and went to find a tree with a low branch to hang his sopping wet robe on. **melville** "sure thing buddy!" gao li looked towards the house, "lets head on in here. my best bud, mel should be able to fix up some lunch for you, and i'll show you to one of the maps..." he paused, "mind you, i'm not too keen to give money to a total, stranger, no offense meant at all, pal." *** "none taken. perfectly understandable," the man said agreeably. "i just thought i'd ask. sometimes it works, i won't complain if it doesn't. i'll be able to take care of my own food once there is some available, but right now..." he gestured grandly with his hands to indicate the barren desert and shrugged, then let his arms drop to his sides and grinned. "but, long as food is in the offing now, lead on!" *** gao li strode to the door and went inside, holding the door for the man, "so, did you say your name before? i don't think i caught it." he went inside to the living room and sat down on the sofa, pointing to an armchair, as if to invite the man to sit down. **melville** "vaaleron," the man answered, gladly accepting the invitation to sit. "or vaal, if you prefer." he looked around the room in mild curiosity, but it wasn't really the room he was paying attention to. "hm...are there others here? i seem to sense...presences." what he didn't mention was that he got the impression that these were important presences. important how, he wouldn't know until he met them, but he had a feeling it would be best for him to stay around a while...if he wouldn't be intruding. "nice to meet you vaal. yeah, theres folks around here. melvilles an interesting place, despite

being so very small. mel, he's the mayor, was the only one living here for a while. but a group of folks known as team dark came across this town by complete accident, and rebuilt it. now i think theres a couple hundred people living here." he paused to glance out the window at the town hall, "in fact, there are some unconscious members of team dark recovering in the town hall. they are pretty battered up." the phrase 'team dark' sparked something in vaal's mind. he attempted to determine exactly what it had been, but like trying to remember a vague dream, any details there may have been fled from his probing into the impenetrable haven of the subconscious mind. he frowned mildly in annoyance but remembered he was speaking to someone in time to keep the expression from becoming too noticeable. "fascinating. this team dark..." he pondered reflectively for a moment longer. "i may stay around until they wake up. they seem...interesting." he furrowed his brow. "is there anything i could do to help them? i don't specialize in healing, but, being a mage of my skill, i may know some things that could be useful. though...i hesitate to use magic when i haven't yet tested the resources of this...planet." **north river** ((i knew i was forgetting something...)) sirius brought the fish back to the campsite, followed by echo, who started trying to make a fire. he declined help from sarai, claiming that after his failure at fishing, he had to do something right himself. or at least attempt it, sirius remarked, and had to dodge a handful of sticks. light the chao, who had been sticking around pearl for a while, returned to sarai with what was becoming a routine trip into her lap. *** "you're certainly welcome to stay here... well, sadly, some strange... event has happened to a few of them...." he cleared his throat, "some of them have somehow become mechanical, you see... and sadly, i doubt magic could help them in that sense." "oh, right! you must be hungry, right? i'll go grab you a bite to eat. what did you eat on that other 'planet' of yours?" the panda said it somewhat jestingly, unsure if the magician was joking about the whole thing of being from another planet. **melville** vaaleron's eyes widened slightly at the idea of something living becoming mechanical. he'd heard of wizards that could do transmutations of animals and sometimes people - goodness knows people in later time periods love to focus their tales on the few that could do that - but it was always from living to another living form. unless, of course, the subject died from shock or a spellcaster's mistake...but he'd never heard of someone actually turning a living thing into something inorganic. what was even more puzzling to the man was that, by the way gao li said it,

it sounded as if the unfortunate beings were still somehow animated. robots, perhaps? the panda's question brought him back to reality. it caught him off guard; he hadn't thought of that. were there differences in food here in addition to differences in the main inhabitants? "well...hopefully what you have here is close to what i'm used to. i'm not picky, so as long as what you have agrees with my metabolism, anything you can make should be fine." *** the panda thought for a moment, ok, that rules out hot-dogs then...., "i'll find something." the fuzzy mammal disappeared around the corner, and the quiet opening and closing of cupboards could be heard in the other room. the bear called back to the sorcerer while preparing something, "so, this planet you're from, whats it called? i believe theres an alien with one of the team dark groups, if i recall correctly. maybe he could help you out." *** "it's earth," vaal responded. "and my time...i think is somewhat pre-medieval. people in later time periods sort of forgot about it and got it mixed up with the actual medieval times, so there are a lot of bizarre stories floating around, and it's rather difficult for me to even place myself when i'm talking with others from...say...the turn of the millennium. now that time period is a headache, let me tell you, what with those insane computers all over the place...sorry, i tend to babble when i get started on subjects like this." *** "don't worry about it pal. i babble on sometimes too." gao li emerged from the kitchen with two plates, one with a bamboo salad, the other with a simple blt sandwich. he passed the blt plate to vaal. he then plopped back down on the sofa. he took a bite of his salad, his large muscled panda cheeks munching the bamboo shoots happily. "so, if you want to see those team dark members, i could take you to see them tomorrow or sometime, they're still in rough shape today." *** vaal accepted the sandwich and examined it in pleasant surprise. "why, this is exactly like what we have from earth...remarkable, it's like they're somehow parallel planets. i'll have to see a chart of your solar system sometime." he took a bite and chewed thoughtfully as gao li spoke. "yes, i would appreciate that. perhaps i'll find something i can do for them. i won't know until i see them myself." *** "mhm... so, vaal, are you a human? or some sort of 'parralel' species? we have humans here, but recently, they haven't been quite as kind to us mobians... mind you, there are a few mobians who return the favour." he shook his head slowly, the panda liked humans, but they were responsible for the destruction of much of his tribes homeland, which drove them to almost extinction.

*** "yes, i'm human...i think." vaal smirked oddly for a second before shifting gears. "prejudice? you say 'recently.' what started it off now and how bad is it?" this sounded like something he'd need to know if he had any hope of mixing in until he found desmerick. *** "there was a war very recently, leading the losing side was a fox named miles. he was a mobian. that was the tipping point for the humans. many are beginning to think we are... too dangerous to have around." he glanced out the window, "well, in some of the large urban centers, there are pretty brutal attacks on mobians." **melville** vaal flinched slightly. that story hit far too close to home for his comfort. "i see...one person flips and everyone else goes crazy..." he went silent for several seconds. "on my world, in one particular time period, a very powerful mage goes insane and threatens to destroy the world. he's killed, but after that, the warriors and commonfolk decide that, because one magic user ruined it, magic itself must pay. orders are sent out to kill anyone seen using magic on sight. after twenty years of this, there are no more magic users. "i ended up in that time and had to fix that present by changing history...in that present. it was complicated. i succeeded in turning it all around. but the point is, i know how that kind of genocidal fear can start...and how it can go entirely out of control." he tapped his fingers together thoughtfully. "this conflict sounds like it needs to be ended before it reaches that point. the problem is, stopping something like that is nearly suicide. i nearly met my end at least three times on my little quest." another pause. "but not all humans feel that way, i'm sure. some must still support you. otherwise i'm sure i wouldn't have been welcomed into a mobian home so readily." *** during vaals story, gao li finished his bamboo salad. he wiped his mouth with a napkin and set his plate down as he let the magician finish. "melville has always been a place where different races or species would not be discriminated. we would become no better than the supremacist humans, if we refused you hospitality." the panda smiled slightly. he stared somewhat vacantly, pitying the man for the discrimination that was held against him for his abilities. **melville** vaaleron finished the rest of his sandwich without comment, though he returned the panda's smile and nodded. when he was done, he brushed crumbs off his fingers. "so how about those maps?" **melville -- vaal/gao li tl**

"oh yes! the maps! i have plenty out in my plane. follow me." the panda hopped up, and walked towards the door, pushing it open, holding it open for vaal to come through. "mobius is a very diverse place. even in a few hundred miles, can the culture change drastically. new races become dominant and etc. as for mobians, few retain their traditional culture, thats a result of human assimilation...." **melville - past...ish?** vaaleron followed gao li, nodding. "sounds like the regular animal life on earth - different in every region." as the panda got his maps ready, vaal found a scrap of paper and a pencil and started scribbling down calculations similar to what he'd done in the sand earlier. he had to try to figure this out or he may never find a way to get back to his own planet and time. once the maps were laid out, vaal put down his math and began studying them. he wasn't surprised to find that central city was in the opposite direction kite had pointed in and added its location to a new set of calculations. he made notes of a few other points of interest, as well. but these weren't nearly as interesting to him as the space map. that rendered him speechless for quite a while. finally, he shook his head in quiet wonder. "this...this planet must be a parallel of earth somehow. these planets are exactly as i remember them from earth's charts." he leaned back and stared into middle distance. "so my calculations don't apply...i have no idea how i got here. i must have...slipped into another reality, somehow...i wonder if desmerick is even here." **north river** echo helped sirius cook the fish and served it out to his companions on plates he made from large stone, which sirius remarked were a prime example of earthenware. light had managed to get into sarai's lap via whatever method was required and stared at her serving of food hungrily. **north river** sarai grinned and set her "plate" down in front of the chao and pointed to the array. "you got something you want, buddy?"