[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/59130ec9-ed14-4987-990a-43bfc6f37c8a.png[/img]

[sub][@Ponn][@ERode][@Izurich][/sub]

Elise rose a brow as she leaned against the wall next to the cell. Of course they’re still wary of any booby traps or fake outs, for all they knew Binky could’ve been a damn shapeshifter. [b]”Feel free ta’ double check, but I’m tellin’ ya’, most of ‘em were upstairs!”[/b] She added. It’d take a while to clear out the rest of the cells regardless, but with Binky and her grimoire freed they could call in some back-up to properly secure the area and get her back to HQ along with the arrested. 

Mission accomplished, as far as the agents were concerned.

[hr]

[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/49e43850-6b94-4e43-94d0-440214371bfb.png[/img]

[sub][@The World][@Nyahahameha][@Nakushita][@TaintedMushroom][@FamishedPants][/sub]

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI-7lvnAlYw][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/e143a16b-48e7-4ae8-9d2e-a4d0fef48873.png[/img][/url]

[color=tomato]"Ho ho! You’re approaching me?"[/color]

[color=888888]— Oros The Mad[/color][/center]

Oros watched with no small amount of amusement as Marrie tried to heal Finn. The effectiveness of any healing magic was largely dependent on how bad an injury was and the strength of the weapon that caused it. The wound was grievous, and the weapon was fearsome. There was little the meager healing magic could do, but the stabilization magic at least ensured he wouldn’t bleed out. Though perhaps stronger than the melody’s effect was what the gesture represented in present company. 

[color=tomato]"If you knew what that little runt did a few weeks ago, I wonder if you’d take his side."[/color] Oros looked away with a “humph!” while keeping her arms folded. [color=tomato]"But fine, I [i]guess[/i] I’ll depart for now. I’ll just call you or something and we can get something set up."[/color] She held her chin. [color=tomato]"Now that I think about it, she could just go on a date with me. But where would we go? All the good grocery stores are closed…"[/color]

While Oros was considering her options, she was [i]rudely interrupted[/i] by some masked freak. She was monologing about her while also coming across as a shady venture capitalist. But what was Oros but the queen of rambling thoughts? [color=tomato]"Oh yea, I’m like, super mysterious and stuff. Very deep. So deep. If your dad was as deep as my agenda was, you’d probably climax."[/color] Oros waved her sword a few inches in front of Himiko’s nose. [color=tomato]"But it’s like you said, I did a number on the kid. Meanwhile, you struggled with [i]mooks[/i]. I could have slain them faster than Rachel Zegler can kill interest in her own movie."[/color] That joke would age horribly, as most celebrity jokes do. But Oros didn’t care. [color=tomato]"I think a test of your abilities is in order. For starters, you will get Mika Fang to St. Bianchi church. The time does not matter, so long as it’s within four days and the place isn’t crowded. She also needs to come [i]alone[/i]. Secondly, your patron needs to remove the insinuation that you are an ‘oros’ from your champion script. Once you’ve taken care of that, I’ll treat your words as more than just the lip service of a charlatan."[/color] The mad esper pointed her sword off in the distance. With a roar, her form was covered in a cloud of hair and teeth. The cloud fell to the ground and scattered, and Oros was no longer there.

Without his instrument in his hand, Finn reverted back to his true form, as did his sword. 

But there were still other dangers.

Marrie was running towards danger, but Bardo was attempting to run away from it. The mantis abomination shambled along, but picked up speed as it learned how to control its limbs. The secret slayer flew right past the thing and sliced into a lamp post. While Bardo did have a solid idea when he threw away his weapon, the timing was wrong. Rather than firing the lamp post towards the palmaster, it launched the lamp post straight into the air. Perhaps a well-timed delay note would have allowed the lamp post enough time to fall to the correct trajectory before being fired off. 

Bardo continued to panic, and Marrie had difficulty seeing down the street with so little lighting.  Too late would she notice Bardo stumbling out of the darkness. They tumbled to the ground with the mantis hot on his trail. It stopped before the two espers before releasing some guttural warcry. It raised one of its scythe claws into the air, but the next thing to fall would be a [i]lamp post[/i], which pierced the creature through the back. It seemed that Bardo’s improvised ballista shot had decided to take a less direct route to its target. A monster would have easily resisted the attack, but the human palemancer at the mantis’s core did not enjoy such protection. The abomination collapsed into a heap, occasionally spasming 

The only remaining loose end was the semi’s fate.

The driver struggled to keep the vehicle on the road. The loss of the trailer’s left-rear most tires made for uneven weight distribution, not to mention weaker traction on one side. But that didn’t stop the driver from trying to get away. The petal was on the floor, and he continued to drive further away from Pax. Even the suburbs were starting to thin out as they entered cow country. 

Justin was able to target the semi’s door with their melody, and grab a hold for dear life. But there was about to be a slight complication. The driver of the semi wasn’t a normal human. Nor were they a paleguard, or even a palemancer. The driver was a man with a [i]dragon’s head[/i] wearing a tuxedo. It was quite surreal. If you ignored his head, he looked like a [url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/6d5003cd-6f78-409b-b408-7b4bf4789e83.png]regular guy[/url] dressed up for a formal event. Instead, the driver stared at Justin in shock. [color=gold]”Static scare!?“[/color] The dragon used one hand to keep Justin at bay, and the other to keep driving. But one hand wasn’t enough to keep Justin out of the vehicle. He managed to unclip the dragon’s seatbelt before attempting to wrench him out of the vehicle. What ensued was a game of tug of war as the vehicle swerved around more and more. The dragon braced himself against his seat. One foot was pressed against the dash while the other was on the accelerator. Justin had one of the dragon’s arms, and the other was trying to keep the vehicle going straight. But it very much felt like a stalemate. 

Until Kira intervened with a kick.

Justin and the dragon were thrown clear from the vehicle. Justin’s fate depended on how gracefully he landed, but the dragon man tumbled out of the truck with hardly a scratch. He immediately got up and ran. 

Needless to say, having an unstable, unmanned vehicle is never a good thing. Kira took the steering wheel and kept the Semi on the road. She didn’t even need to apply the brakes. With the trailer dragging behind her, the vehicle gradually came to a stop on its own. Out the side window, she could see the dragon man running for the hills. A series of golden sparkles twinkled behind the dragon man, and in the blink of an eye, he turned into a dragon. It spread its wings and took off into the night sky, where all could see the golden luster of its scales fade in the shadow of the night. 

The water had been recovered, and the threat had been dealt with. 

A successful operation?