[center] [h2]The retainers of[/h2][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/fab28ddb-9176-41b3-9940-dcd4f6d8648e.png[/img]
[i]Three days after Zeus’ death[/i][/center]
[hr]

In the depths of the Hephaestean lair, accompanied by endless clanking metal and pulsating plasma engines is the conniving jittering and tittering of a wicked breed.
Black prismatic cubes glitter in the reflective light of a thousand beaming buttons. Metal, tubes and roaring engines abound in otherwise unlit rooms. These are the hardware operating chambers where the upper Panther Platoon do the bidding of Hephaestean Protocol 2X v.21.
 
Beneath the level of the operating chambers are the levels where none of the Panthers really ever go. Not without protective automaton suits and forged masks anyway.
For these are the lairs to which half made experiments are relegated – the much dreaded Hephaestean menagerie, where madness lives.
Stored in this deepest level are the unwelcome shrill screaming of deformed animals, overseen by the cold unfeeling monitor lens of the ascended feline. Sounds and sights so nerve wracking that a normal human would not deign to peruse, but by anxiety be driven to look away.
Only the truly calloused thrive in the subterranean blighted world of the cat.
 
Not A Cat, but many.
 
With a snick and sneer the cats leer at one another from over their workbenches and customized monitors in the lair’s black prismatic laboratoria. The air was as ever tense with competition -- and musky pheromones.
 
The fellest leer was undeniably that of the wicked Hyperiax Dosteclopeles. The Extra-ascendent among the panthers of the Hephaestean workshop. This title elevated him over the others, for it denoted highest standing with Coeus. The smartest and cruelest of all the Panther Platoon, and also the most disliked by his peers.
Encased in a dark gold suit of ornamental metal, his feline distinction is evidenced mostly by the perking ears forged into his visor. Out of all the Panthera his countenance is the most stately. Though his unhinged nature is anything but.
[hider=Hyperiax Dosteclopeles][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/ffd45b81-a809-4d76-b094-b1e3ace0fc70.png[/img][/hider]
 
He was just reassembling his plasma onyx sphere when the whole installation binding it came tumbling down thither and hither, pieces of scrap and molten blobs of neuro plasma besmirching his desk. Infuriating – this was the last straw -- Hyperiax was going to give his leering colleagues a piece of mind.

"Skra skra.. trash! [b]TRAAASH![/b]
Where is the psychotropic Stygian spectrum of Hades?
Why haven't I gotten it?
And where… Skra! Pray where… Where is the damnable skra skra..  writ of Hermes?’’
Hyperiax slams his gold clawed fist on his desk, hitting a stray blob of plasma and splattering slimy droplets across the room.
‘’Transmit to Aether to kill those SNEAKING humies FASTER."
 
Gentle Raeditorious Strato-Jones was addressed during the first part of Hyperiax' irate scolding, as he was previously sent to the Underworld. He was made to withdraw in part to the spray employed on him as he deigned to approach the extremities of Hades’ realm.
He was waiting for his Extra-ascendent to stop monologuing before he could finally stammer his defense:
"Hades is so hecking mean Extra-ascendent! He just wouldn't let me near the stygian core spectrum last time I was dollypandering and philandering his resort. Makes me sad!"
Raeditorious is the only cat that actually looks the part, rather than being some chimeric anthropomorphic cyborg construction as most of the Panthera are – He is instead lite, with fuzzy red fur and appears to others in the flesh, despite being mostly seated in a large hoverboard  – however none of its machinery is integrated to his organic matter and he could at will disembark.
[hider=Raeditorious Strato-Jones]  [img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/0d702e0d-f68a-4ce0-bf9a-59a362fcc7ae.png[/img][/hider] 
The Extra-ascendant flat-out ignores him as he turns to a different monitor.
‘’Computer X1.Z --  initiate the femto-clarion astrolabe! Taze the Aether for a transmission immediately!’’
The software duly complies and sends a notification to the Grand Aether. Surprisingly it took only seconds before the Hephaestean workshop received a response, which read as follows:

[quote=The Grand Aether]
The villages:
-Eznaret.
-Deucalet.
-Saphe.
-Terraret.
-Cobolo.
Duly secured. All fibers eradicated. No trace of Olympian make.
Human fatalities: [i]3086[/i]
Now advancing south-westward on villages Sizhe, Lonville, Rivens and others.
Transmission complete.[/quote]
 
‘[b]No trace of Olympian make[/b]’…
The most upsetting detail to appear on his screen and Hyperiax clenches his clawed fist reading it. He hisses.
‘’Much of this would've been averted.. skra.. if Hades would permit us entry to his nether tricolor Stygian complex hardware magimajick heehree skra!
AND IF HERMES WASN’T A FIFTH COLUMNIST.’’
A wild accusation to be sure, but one readily taken for true in these confines.

Weighing the possibilities and future approaches, drawbacks and hypotheticals, the Extra-ascendent grows more unhinged with the second. His mind spinning so fast that he barely manages to finish a sentence before his words devolve, as they so sporadically do, to maniacal ticks and inane muttering.
‘’Skra skra heehehehehe.. I shall inject more plasma ether into the homerian tetrachromic vessels.. and unloose the hyper quantum voltage reserves to scan the whole province if need be. Yes. That is what I will do!
Meanwhile -- Unleash the next batch of Chimera.. and send XAVICULUS BROWN to Hades with a NEW proposal. The sooner we obtain the software, the faster we can advance to the next step.
In the guise of bargain he will forage intel and copy Stygian core data to the portable plasma floppy that I will duly provide.’’

Having overheard his summons, Xaviculus’ vessel hoists itself from his workbench with a cumbersome creak to trod reluctantly towards Hyperiax.
Xaviculus Brown similarly to his Extra-ascendent is wholly encased in metal. But unlike the shimmering dark and gold polished surface of his superior, Xaviculus’ suit is weathered, dusted and rusted. His overall model stout, hunched and squat. His visor has two bulbous iron eyes which is the only real allusion to a cat-like design.
[hider=Xaviculus Brown][img] https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/abbdc26a-6ac9-4701-969a-8872b1d2b2b9.png[/img][/hider]

With a hoarse monotone voice he asks:
‘’And how vill I convince the Stygians to let me access zhe data on .a floppy disc?’’
‘’Skra! Trash!’’ Hyperiax screams aloud, perhaps moreso directed at himself than Xaviculus.
‘’Inserting the plasma floppy into the system…  …you foretell either Hades or his lickspittles, it is part of maintenance to update Hades’ security apparatus... While simultaneously modifying it to accommodate the feline algorithm! Skra skra!"
 
Raeditorious applauds his Extra-ascendent’s bold plan, slapping his two front paws in attempted clapping. The paw pads muffle the sound of each clap and thereby his applause goes unacknowledged.
"That's hecking chonkers, Hyperiax! I could’ve never thought of it."

‘’Verry vell, if you decree so Extra-ascendent. Shall I bring a gieft?’’
‘’Yes. Deodorant so that you won’t have to smell his fetid corpses!’’ Everyone in the room chuckled.