As Thomas and his puppet stalked away from the black guild hall, he checked the feed on his puppet and was somewhat alarmed to see a new enigmatic figure with some authority, one that he didn't recognize. He had a vague idea of who it could be, some suspect rumors about the secret leader of the sweepers, but when he dug around for info, he came up short and the credibility of the original poster was questionable. And it wasn't his point to chase up rumors anyway, he wasn't trying to make a tabloid. He'd rather rely on the facts he had, and the fact was that he had no idea who this new figure was.

Thomas, acting as his metal puppet, glanced around his surroundings once more, making sure that the black building was the same as it had been since he last checked in, before moving his puppet down. His avatar stumbled a little and he momentarily cut his skill to see that he'd bumped into a half destroyed wall. He clicked his tongue in annoyance before dodging around the wall to continue on his journey. He could walk while sharing his sight, technically, but he couldn't see small obstacles or things at a distance. His puppet made up for it somewhat, he could get it to notify him if it detected something within a certain range, but the range was limited so it only helped a little. Nevertheless, that was all he had to work with.

He turned his sense share back on. He directed his puppet to move out of the building into another one, slightly closer to the action itself. On a floor lower this time, because he was sure that they were talking about something important and he wanted to hear about it. On the second floor of a slightly shorter building, he settled his puppet and began listening. A quick check of the names of the amassed avatars revealed that the new figure's name was Dark Wraith, not that it meant much to him. He spotted a familiar face, paper moon, and the rest were strangers.
[i][color=gray]"Soldiers, I suppose."[/color][/i] Thomas thought idly.

As he listened he was reminded of an elaborate chess game, or a strategy game, like command and conquer or something. It seemed an apt comparison as Dark Wraith was like the Queen while someone like Paper Moon was a bishop. Arms Slave was like a knight, or maybe a Rook, who went with the guild's best interests in mind. The pieces moved to react to the enemy's movements, in this case, an assault on the marketplace. Thomas was about to move his soldier to follow the detachment heading to the battlefield when he was interrupted by a tap on his back. He immediately stopped walking and cut his skill. As his vision returned to normal he was suddenly made aware of figures skulking ahead of him. Fortunately, he was in a particularly dark alleyway so he likely wasn't seen, but he stayed a safe distance away anyway.

A group of avatars he had never seen before moved urgently ahead, as if on a mission. He listened in on their leader, a girl by the name of Argent Maiden, as he shadowed them from what seemed to be a safe distance. It was somewhat difficult to make out what exactly she was saying but he'd got most of it. A rendezvous point and a hidden objective.
[i][color=gray]"They're not sweepers then."[/color][/i] Thomas concluded.
If they were sweepers they wouldn't be heading to the sanctuary in such a large group. They also wouldn't be talking about taking a war machine. Thomas guessed that they didn't know the situation in the black sanctuary, they wouldn't be talking about it so easily if they did. This fact also highlighted the issue with the chess metaphor.

Thomas decided to shadow the group at a distance. He didn't need to hear them so much right now, he just needed to follow them. His puppet followed quietly behind him and he quickly checked back on his other puppet. The sweepers would soon move, so Thomas directed it to discreetly join the ranks. There were plenty of weirdos to blend in with and the puppet looked like any other player (due to Thomas's body armor) with no face. It would get some passing looks but it had a blade and a gun and it could fight, so they didn't need to care. Thomas took a few screencaps before switching back to normal vision.

As Thomas sat in the shadows, he thought about the whole situation some more. Dark Wraith and Paper moon and the rest may have been pieces but Chess only worked when you knew all the pieces were there. The black guild battle, as Thomas had taken to calling it, had many hidden factors that few knew about. And besides, chess only had 2 sides. The black guild was one side, the blue guild was on another and the enemies of the black guild were the other side, though he wasn't sure how many facets that particular side had.
[i][color=gray]"And chess never had bystanders anyway."[/color][/i] Thomas thought.
He was a bystander, for now. He may have been chasing this for his own self interest but he wouldn't get involved unless he wanted to.

King, Queen or pawns, a journalist watches them all, and right now, he was a journalist.

[@KoL]