[center][h1] Bak and Gilliam and Naseraph[/h1][/center]

She was in there? Clara had been in the ball!? Bak felt some sort of screeching, meal on metal groan echo through her entire body as she stiffened up in sheer mortification. How had she not put that together?

Gilliam, for his part, felt his teeth involuntarily start to snap together as Alto fell from the orb and gracefully caught the floating student in his arms like a knight in shining armor. [i]Tak Tak Tak Tak Tak[/i] went his pearly whites, loud enough for even Bak to hear. She turned and looked at him as he slapped a hand over his mouth to try and contain himself. He reached down quickly and helped pull Bak to her feet with his free hand.

Still, this was a perfect opportunity. Clara and Bak were here and, while not in the best shape, could still fight from the looks of it. St. Laural's best fighter was down, Alto had a hostage to worry about, and while he couldn't expect Rurik to lend his aid perhaps Christine, Yuuto, and even Thobias would get involved. King was here, yes, but there was no guarantee he would interfe-

"King." Came an annoyingly familiar shout from somewhere above. Indistinc, now lit only by the moonlight, three shadows stood on what remained of the roof looking down on the scene below. The one that was talking sounded like poultry. 

"How do you suppose we report this?" Naseraph continued. "There's no proof we killed a greater demon here tonight. I would hate to think that we aren't going to get paid for the trouble we went through."

Like that the opportunity to take out Alto was ruined. If those three were going to be here they'd back Alto up and the math was suddenly much more even. He was about to walk away when Bak spoke up.

"You did not kill greater demon!" shouted Bak. "We killed greater demon! We got beat up! It was us mostly!"

"You didn't even want people to know you were here, how are you ever going to get the money?" Naserph replied. 

"You will give us money! We already got you much money tonight, you will give us the demon money!"

"There is no money yet you mistake of creation! I am trying to establish the existence of money. Be! Silent!"

Naserph was completely done. Nothing had gone his way tonight. He drawn into battles he had no interest in. He had missed the midnight tournament. He hadn't been able to talk to the ghost boy. He hadn't even seen anything out of the big three that he couldn't see on the recordings of prior tournaments. He just wanted something, anything, to show that tonight wasn't a complete waste of his time. If that came down to money, then so be it!

He couldn't hear the click of Bak's missile pod opening up and had no idea how easy it was for her to line up a shot on him using her thermal vision. Luckily for him Gilliam had heard that and, while he did consider letting her blow that annoying vulture out of the sky, placed his arm over the ports before she could fire. He didn't know what they were talking about or how Bak had come to know these people, but starting another fight was not to their advantage. "What [i]tak tak tak[/i] are they [i]tak tak tak[/i] talking about?"

Bar was about to reply when Rurik found the door. That was right, she couldn't tell Gilliam here. Alto was here. He might hear the whole plan. "I will tell you later. Was good plan, I am proud of it." She said, casting one last dark look at Naseraph's hot red outline before making her way unsteady across the rubble. 

Gilliam watched her go, then made his way over to Clara and bowed deeply. "My Mistress, my sincerest apologies for my performance on this mission. My long absence, while not entirely my choice, is in itself inexcusable. Please, to make up for it, allow me to escort you away from, at the very least, prying eyes. We could speak of some interesting matters I discovered concerning Master Vittorio. Did you know he was wanted by the police?"

Bak, meanwhile, stood on the precipices of a great undertaking. She considered the stairs. She thought about how long she would roll if she too a tumble from the tenth floor. She thought about the possibility of rolling over someone. Then, taking a page out of Rurik's book, she raised her voice. "Thobias!" she called out. "Escalator please."

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