Episode 29: The Man in White

I hugged Griever to my chest wondering how soon I would have to use it. High Dive had been gone almost ten minutes just trying to find a way to spy on Katashi Blade's office. It doesn't normally take her so long, but then again Katashi Blade doesn't have your everyday kind of office. And then there was Rei tucked down behind one of the console-desks; where had she been? The fact that she brought Balder with her certainly went a long way towards her credit. If she had searched out Balder, then she probably wasn't planning to come back just to wipe us out for the First Minds.

My thoughts were interrupted as the elevator by my shoulder began to indicate an impending visitor. I hoped for Kiyoshi and Moses, but prepared for Katashi Blade. What I got were two Hei-Shi and some scared looking office guy with an ear bud. "Bamuna of the Reikoku nest?" he stammered. I nodded, "Yeah". "I was told that a Rei and Balder would be here as well... Where are they?" I informed him that my companions had done what they wanted to do. (In this case it happened to be hiding behind desks in the room, and staying hidden.) He wanted to escort me to my fellows in the main plaza. "Are they still alive?" I asked with a sardonic twist to my mouth. Much to my chagrin, he checked with his ear bud to inform me that they were indeed still alive. Yeah, but for how long? I promised him that I would take myself to the plaza, and took a flying leap out the broken window. Man, I would have loved to look back and seen his face...

I dove down in Vorax form to the plaza expecting the worst. On the negative side there were six squadrons of Goshi soldiers in the plaza facing my friends, on the positive side they weren't attacking yet. I called out to get Kiyoshi's attention and braced my talons to show him my intentions. He didn't move away, so I took that as permission to take him out of there. Moses was standing at the focal point of all the soldiers. Damn. It's so frustrating not being able to just pull him up out of trouble too. At least he can take a lot of scrapes and come through okay.

Then things got strange. A wind started picking up the the sky was filled, and I mean filled from horizon to horizon with stone-colored? stuff. This was immediately after one of Moses' shields appeared in front of me and some crazy red lightning danced around him. Great. What in the heck is happening now? If Moses thought we needed protection then something nasty was coming. I booked it to the roof of the nearest building with some sort of shelter.

We landed, and Kiyoshi was about to expound upon his suggested plan of action, when some beflagged strumpet in black and yellow strolled up. She spat something about clan honor and Kiyoshi and all companions needing to be killed. I rolled my eyes as her (lovely I must admit) bracers activated to shift her into a mecca. Kiyoshi and I jumped off the building planning on a smooth getaway, but the woman jumped!

She managed to land a slash on me while I was carrying Kiyoshi, which made me slam into the side of the nearest building. With the extra weight, this unfortunately sent me into a barely-controlled dive/spin to the ground. So there, back in Goshi plaza, all of us but High Dive faced off four stunningly dangerous creations... as it began to rain nevergems. Long, sharp, nevergems. Was this really what Moses intended to do?

Faced with people that we really didn't want to kill, Kiyoshi began to glow silver and laid a thick layer of guilt upon us all. Should I have physically restrained my brothers and sisters from the Last Flight? I'm sure I could have saved at least one... In the end, one mecca joined us against the others, but the other three remained stubborn. The crystal storm was also getting intolerable. High Dive showed up under an overhang, so we all hunkered under Moses and dashed that direction. Kiyoshi told Rei to teleport us to Geneva Minor, and as our little group touched High Dive we disappeared in a whiff of smoke...

...and appeared not in Geneva Minor. We were by some train station outside of Geneva Prime. I gave a questioning look to Rei, wondering if I gave her too much benefit of the doubt upon her return. "I told Surgeon that I would meet him here," Rei explains. Ah. Baldur and Surgeon. She's either really understanding who should stick together, or she's really kissing our arses so that she can catch us all unawares later. I of course prefer to think the former, but still worry about the latter.

Trainload after trainload of people arrived fleeing the city, as we contemplated the poster with 35 years for Kiyoshi's head. (High Dive was very annoyed that she wasn't regarded as equally as dangerous, and proceeded to draw up her own poster which portrayed her as a squirrel having a very very bad hair day and worth tons of years.) Moses spoke briefly with the crowd about what he felt was the right course of action for them, and then Surgeon was put in charge of making arrangements. Moses' people were supposed to go to Stardown it seemed. But of course, we had to figure out how to get rid of Katashi Blade first so that they weren't all slaughtered on the way.

Speaking of Katashi Blade: While we are at the station amongst the throng, the screen alongside the track illuminated to show the face of the man in white. A very very very angry man in white. Mr. I'm-So-Cool proceeded to lay out the most rabid string of insults and threats you could imagine. I didn't know he had it in him, literally. He reaffirmed that he would not let anyone leave the city upon pain of death, and that Moses was welcome to come and get him. I liked that last part best. Aww, he wants to see us again, how sweet! I touch the handle of Griever reassuringly, "Maybe it's time we introduced you two to each other."

After our resident machine-people affirmed that could not send an equally taunting message back to the entire city, we linked hands once again and puffed off to Geneva Minor. We landed a bit away from the flophouse, so Rei went to check that everything was on the up and up. She came back to affirm that it was indeed on the down and down. What a perfect day - sheesh. We decided that Moses and Kiyoshi would go to get the Senin (Kiyoshi had one of those "I will be okay by sheer force of will" looks on his face as he departed for the deeps of the bay). I sighed, but I knew that Moses wouldn't let him get die. Baldur and I waited in view of the front door in case things went bad, and Rei took High Dive to sneak (green glowy sneak? Oh. No. Smoky shadowy sneak.) into the basement room where all of our companions were being held hostage.

This could all go really smoothly, with us all on the Senin before a single (conscious) Goshi soldier knew we had been there. But as Baldur and I waited in the too-quiet dark, I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach...