The Forsaken Art

Ryuga wasn't happy. He had a scowl on his face, as usual, and he was holding some Drunk Roman guard against a wall, threatening to pour molten metal down his throat. He wanted information about CORE, and the Leaders whereabouts, but he hadn't gotten anything except for rumors, and lies. Ryuga planned to confront the leader of the group himself, since he hadn't gotten an invitation, he would have to get one himself... Ryuga punched the man in the stomach once more and pushed his own face closer to the Guard's. "Tell me the Truth... Or I'll kill you..."

"I Swear I don't know anything else! All I heard was that the Czar was murdered, and that some woman with a big ass was summoned to Rome! I heard from a guy who heard from a guy that she might be the leader!"

Ryuga pushed the man against the wall, and walked off, heading for the train station where all trains entered the city. "Good boy..." If this was a dead end like the other tips, he would find, and kill the man.

So... The leader of CORE is a woman... He thought to himself.

Jaide felt her heart melt a little at Jack's concern. She sent him the biggest grin she could muster despite her exhaustion and said, "Don't worry, Jack. I'll be fine. It'll take a couple more than a few idiots who can't even keep an eye on their leader to take me down."

She didn't notice Ret approach but she did hear the purple-haired lady's words. Jaide gave Ret a nod and piped up, "That makes a lot of sense. What kind of question did you have? And did you find what you were looking for?"

She then noticed Garreth was out of bed and bit down on her tongue. She was about to scold him for being out and about but she remembered what she said earlier. Her blush came back to the fore and she whipped her head away from him, staring blankly at the wall.

"I don't believe I've met most of you."

Jack rolled his eyes when he heard the broker come in.

"Yeah, so why did you have to ruin it now?"

A half-smile tugged at Garreth's face as he bowed to Jack and spoke, sarcasm dripping from his words. "My sincere apologies, possum. I had figured, that since I've brought what may be the most extremist magic faction down on my head while enjoying your hospitality, a faction that, might I add, would slaughter your whole organisation for aiding and abetting me for even so short a time, I had figured I should input my information and expertise. If you do not wish my help, I shall simply leave you, retrieve my Eisha'n and kill them once they're weakened from exterminating your cause." At this point he snorted. "Don't look a goddamn gift-horse in the mouth, Jack Ardai."

Jenna looked at the new woman. Pruple hair? That was intresting... she never worked with that before. Her thoughts shifted to how cool it would be to walk around with purple hair.... Of course Roy would never allow it unless, of course, she had to impersonate someone with purple hair. Wait, what was going on? Roy nudged her side to wake her up from her purple daydream as a man entered the room. Oh yeah! The guard thing!

"Actually," she said slightly delayed, "it takes time to correctly impersonate someone. You can't just look like them, we have to share thier mannerisms and shape our vocal cords so we sound like them too. If Roy walked up to them as the Czar swinging his arms and sounding like himself, they'd know in an instant. More people know the exact details and voice of the higher-ups than that of the guards.... Unless you have a high-ranking officer just lying around somewhere that we can study or we stumble upon one, it won't work."

"Or we could just switch places with a guard." Roy added. "Not to brag, but I can identify many of their gestures and speech patterns within 15 minutes or so." He glimpsed at Jenna, who seemed to be almost hypnotized with something about the woman. At first he considered commenting about it, but didn't want to make a scene. "We could actually stalk a guard for about 10 minutes, pull them away for 5, and have a complete disguise ready before anyone notices they're gone! But it's best if we........" Jenna really seemed to be out of it. "Uhh, you ok?" Roy commented, grabbing her attention.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine! 3 minutes stalking, 15 alone, right?"

Roy was speechless, she never acted like this before.... But he finished his thought, reguardless. "It's usually best if we examine the situation for ourselves before deciding how to go about this. There could be a much simpler alternative."

Jack was about to respond to the broker, when he remembered something.
"How the hell do you know my surname?"

"Men of 1000 Masks..." Garreth muttered to himself. He'd had 'dealings' with the organisation before. Usually when its members had been hired to kill him. He decided it would be ebst not to interact with those two. since he couldn't be sure whether they would attack him or not. He turned to Jack. "It is my job to know things, and a surname is a trivial thing to know."

"Don't ever make such a threat in my presence again," Ret stated bluntly, glaring at the man who knew Jack's full name, "If Jaide agrees I get my uncle to form a portal to the Mana Spirit Plane within CORE's walls. As the source of it won't be in Manaflayer presence it won't fluctuate at all and it will allow the Chosen and Mana Spirits' combined armies to operate out of CORE's HQ while keeping pace used here to a minimum on their end."

She then added, "And I assure you, CORE being wiped out with the Chosen and Mana Spirits around is quite unlikely..."

Finally taking note that one of those of the thousand masks was a bit mystified by her presence she sighed, "You've taken a shine to my looks. Don't go getting your loins worked up, I'm married." She said, gesturing at the softly glowing band on her arm, "Although... Here's a challenge for you, O lady of the thousand mask," She paused as she shifted form, "Is it possible for you to imitate a Mana Spirit?"

Garreth's eyebrow arched at Ret's words. "The Chosen? Mana Spirits? I'm sure both terms have passed across my desk from time to time, but I have no verified information on either. Would you be so kind as to enlighten me, as to why exactly, either of these entities would pose a significant challenge for an organisation that has existed for the past thirty or so years, killing any and all like me and our families?"

"I am one of the younger of my kin, aside from my children and even I have outlived them. I assure you, no beings other than Mana Spirits are more in tune with the flows of Magic. We have been forced to fight against beings larger than this very building, repeated times, and always prevailed, a strength most here would be hard pressed to match." Ret stated bluntly, "The Chosen were originally a group of mages who were intent on proving one thing: That magic is not to be feared or wiped out. They were driven to the Mana Spirit Plane 25 years ago." She smirked, "Yet one thing remains a constant. No matter who bars the Chosen's path, they will continue to return, time and again, until their task is complete and fulfilled."

"Hmm... then they sound like they would have groups such as Arcanus Opus felled. They may be a mage faction too, but they are extremist beyond measure, let me tell you. The figlio di puttana in charge ordered half of Firenze razed eighteen months ago in order to murder three individuals. Thousands died that night, and repair efforts are still ongoing. They only got one of their targets."

Ret sighed, "In the past 25 years the Mana Spirits were unable to form a stable portal to this realm, Nor are we at liberty to bring most of our force through prior to my main task here." She stated bluntly, "A task that you are not to be privy to."

Garreth shrugged. "I'll hear whispers. Whispers always find their way to my door. But this is unimportant. For now, there is a threat bearing down on these doors, and should be dealt with. Unless the Weeping Raven wishes to kill me, that is. at that point, you'd but have to give up Khloe and Amanda and they'd let you eb on your way."

"You are a coward." Ret stated bluntly, "Give them up? I'd be just as likely to see that happen as I am at killing my own children, which is impossible." With a flick of her hair she added, "If if whispers always reach you, then you'd know of what befell the mountain upon which the Chosen used to be."

"You seem to only listen to some of the words I say. Jack Ardai would have to have killed me first. A coward I may be, but I am not coward enough to give up my sister or my daughter, for anything. And I meant current whispers. Since I never heard the Chosen spoken of in my day-to-days as a normal man, I must presume who they were, they were more than, say, 17 years ago."

Ret just sighed, a small smack signifying her palm meeting her face, "Now I know how those who had to regularly deal with her feel..." She muttered to herself.

Garreth put his hand to his face. "Why thank you, Madonna. May I have another? Though perhaps we should stop trading insults and idle banter."

"Who?" Ret asked briefly, an eyebrow raised.

Garreth raised an eyebrow. "You come to Italia, yet do not speak its language? Fine. 'Madam' is that a term you are more familiar with?"

Jenna remained calm. Then, what the Mana Spirit ment suddenly hit her! "Wait, what do you mean by that? You don't think I was thinking about-" She would've blushed at the thought but, being a shapeshifter, she had control over the reflex. "I just thought having purple hair would be cool!"

"Wait," Roy mentioned, "oh gosh... Jenna, you know how noticable that would be, don't you? To walk around with purple hair? Don't. Please, just don't. It's so noticable."

"I know!" Jenna responded. However, she secretly wished that Roy would let her do as she pleased sometimes. She wanted to be noticed sometimes! "And I can mimmic anyone I want to!" Suddenly, the shapeshifting woman's hair had changed into a blue-ish color. Why was this so hard? She had formed purple cloathing before. With a silent strain, Jenna pushed herself beyond her normal natural abilities until her hair aquired a darked hue. Then, it changed until it had finally gained the right coloration. Then, with almost no effort, it fell out of the normal ponytail Jenna kept it in, having been kept that way by her abilities, and formed into what she thought was the same style that the Mana Spirit's did. A rushed transformation, but it would fool people at a distance. "Now for the body!"

Roy glanced at the Mana Spirit's bare form before looking around the room. Two other guys, the CORE leader, and a wolf was around. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You havn't even mastered shifting gender, let alone non-human properties!"

"I know what I'm doing!"

"But in front of these other men and the person that hired us...." He, nervously, responded. Just what was she trying to do. It wasn't like she would actually try, would she? Jenna knew what she was doing. Roy watched as she formed her body into a pretty effective replica of the Mana Spirits. "Point proven! You don't have to...." As soon as Jenna dispersed the light-magic outfit, showing the thin shirt and pants she wore underneith in case Charlie negated thier magic, Roy freaked out! Without thinking, he stumpled forward and grabbed her arm to stop her from attempting to replicate the Mana Spirit's modesty patches before she was exposed!

"You won, Jenna... you won. No need for that! Now please, just wait until there's less people around and you'll be free to practice all you want!"

"Hmph!" Jenna responded, pulling away from Roy. "You don't let me try anything fun. Is there a room nearby that's more private than this one?"

She didn't even dignify the man's comment with an answer, smiling at the woman who'd changed her form, "A nice attempt. but your hair doesn't have the same... flair, as my kin."

Garreth's lip curled up in a smile, and he noticed a change in the taste of the air. "Here come the mooks. I'd advise you hold back. This first lot will go down with barely a whimper."

Anna slipped out from beside Amanda just as Aldron knocked on the door. She slipped into a loose sundress, bright and comfy. She slipped her long sword over her head, resting the hilt next to her shoulder. She slipped out of the room, waving silently to Amanda, and walking down the hall with Aldron, who's scythe was in hand. They moved to find Jaide, and Garreth, Aldron saying, "when would a convenient time be for the funeral?"

Anna, on the other hand, said, "why is the creepy guy smiling?"

Amanda came out with Anna, and when she saw Garreth's face, she froze. She hadn't seen him in 15 years, and yet, finally seeing his face, she recognised him in an instant. "You... You... BASTARDO!" She shouted, running up to him, and hitting him with her fists, though somewhat weakly. "Hey, hey, hey. I'm sorry, Amanda... I would have told you, but I was trying to protect you from these sons of bitches. Same sons of bitches who were responsible for 15 years ago." "For... Okay. Kill these pieces of shit, berate you later."

Jaide's face fell a bit when asked about the funeral. She shook her head and it was apparent she didn't want to talk about it at the moment, "Whenever you're ready and we aren't being attacked, Aldron," Was her vague reply. She looked at Anna and noticed the twin seemed a bit in a better mood. Jaide didn't comment on the way Anna and Amanda showed up at the same time and looked like thoroughly satisfied women. It wasn't any of her business.

"Which one?" Jaide joked, motioning between the men in the group.

Jaide was a bit more than happy to leap into action. It seemed like drama and fights were following CORE around today and, as much as she loved a good laugh, sometimes she really didn't want to deal with it. She leapt into action, her face taking on the mask of a warrior, and withdrew her daggers. Charlie growled and moved his head down, baring his teeth. He seemed determined to put his massive tiger body between the intruders and the group in the hallway.

A man appeared behind Ret and wrapped his arms around her waist. Charlie whipped around and nearly snapped at him but bowed submissively when he realized it was the woman's husband. He kissed at Ret's neck, keeping her in an intimate embrace, and whispered in her ear, "It seems that it's been too long since I've had a good fight with humans. Would you care to join me, my love?"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

James heard some commotion that sounded very familiar to violence. In a very big-brotherly way, he pushed Lauren behind him and cursed loudly when he realized he left his sword in his room and the training one behind. Of course, there was no way he could have known that some weaklings were going to try to attack CORE... but still. It seemed like he was going to have to rely on his magic for this one. He took Lauren's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Did you want to try that spell we were working on? What did you call it... blindingation?"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Jaide seemed to be the first one to go into battle mode out of the group she broke off from.. She ducked underneath a swinging blade and then gave the man a firm uppercut, followed by a knee to the stomach. He doubled over and she kicked his skull, sending him flying backwards and requiring two men to catch him. She grinned as the mooks seemed to be enraged by this, swinging wildly and roaring like it actually scared her.

"Silly amateurs," Jaide said. The shadows around her seemed to be gathering. It was strange to see them slide down the walls and into her own. Her eyes started to turn black and then the shadows took an almost solid state, thrusting themselves upwards like tendrils and swaying back and forth. She allowed the men to stop and stare for a few seconds, seemingly a bit dissuaded by solid darkness. Then again, the darkness never hurt anyone.

Jaide nodded her head towards them and herself and the mooks were encased in a thick dark barrier. It was impossible to see inside, at least for them, and the panicked screams got louder as shouts of pain came from their comrades. Several believed they went blind before being struck by Jaide's dagger. The last sight they had was of her gentle brown eyes as her hand, coated with their blood, plunged the dagger deeper into their heart.

She shattered the shadow mirage, it dissipated like crystals but fell harmlessly against the wall or floor. They slid to their respective owners and the torches suddenly looked less.. awkward.

"Lazy bums," Jaide teased.