Stacking the Deck (Shirou, Etzolix)

Posts : 241 Synch Points : 1330 Join date : 2013-01-12

"God damn it! Every single fucking time!" He slammed his hand down on his desk, the armed men before him cowering. "How is it that the best private security force in MadCross-- no, all of FUCKING ABADDON keeps getting bested by a street gang? Its depressing how much you suck." A larger gentleman stepped forward, clearly trying to make his imposing presence the dominate one over the man behind the desk. His barrel-like frame lumbered towards Jake with his thick, beefy arms crossed across a black and navy blue Kevlar vest. His buzzed head rested above narrow and angry eyes while furrowed eyebrows expressed their displeasure. His bushy mustache wriggled above his upper lip, covering it. As he spoke, he concealed the trembling in his voice.

"Its not like that sir. They ambushed us. They used carbombs and had new weaponry." Jake sighed heavily and planted his face firmly within his palm, inhaling before continuing on. Perhaps he was being to hard on him. The Motherhood was a particularly nasty cult in MadCross-- a product of the anarchy. Anarchists like the rest of the city, who irnically were offering protection and order to the weak. What they offered was different from what they provided. Typically they killed all but a few of the males who joined in some blood ritual. Males born into the gang served them loyally, and almost all of the members believed that females were the true inheritors of all the races ever. In short, they were a bunch of feminist whores with access to guns and little impulse control. The very thought of them still existing pushed him to even greater rage, though he contained it rather well.

"Fuck your excuses! If you can't do it, I will find some one who can! You can guarantee that much." Okay, maybe not too well. He growled down at his desk, before a tone sounded from the side. "Motion detectors," he said blankly. He motioned to one of the women standing behind the large man and his affiliates. "Bring that visual up on the large screen, would you Franny?" She nodded and touched a small button just behind her, with a TV lowering down behind the large man.

"You can't replace us! We're the only organization in all of Abaddon willing to take on the types of tasks you assign." His voice was tinged slightly with worry. Jake waved at him, a direction given to the man that indicated that he should move.

"Step about three feet to the left," he said blankly. As the screen started to come into focus he added, "I was referring to replacing you, specifically. Not your company." The man's eyes went wide and terrified as he moved out of the way. As the image came into view, he saw two individuals entering though what seemed to be a maintenance tunnel into a part of MadCross. "Dee-Dee, what part of MadCross is this?" A woman adjacent to Francis, the woman he had addressed earlier as Franny, started poking at a tablet she held in her arms. After a few seconds she glanced up at Jake.

"Maintance Tunnel 1f4-yLeft. The northern part downtown of MadCross." He raised his eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" She nodded, and he smiled. "Interesting. They seem to be armed. Primitive swords. Warriors." His grin only widened as he looked to the large man. "Isn't this the area where the Motherhood lays their heads?"

"Uh, yes sir." His hand fidgeted behind his back, betraying the state of his nerves.

"Excellent. Prep cameras 24f, 24e, 25a, and 76a. Let's watch what happens from this point on. Perhaps I might have use for them."

Posts : 178 Synch Points : 1650 Join date : 2013-01-12

Shirou and Etzolix entered through a portal. It had been Etzolix's portal only due to lucky, truthfully. The two of them were in Altostratus after having met Azmot who was apparently the consul. They had heard of MadCross and how it was more suitable for their type of actions considering where they had originated. Looking around it had seemed pretty interesting that this place was so vast yet they had missed so much. However, looking in blind didn't seem to be that effective of a method either especially considering that this place was intricate and hadn't even a definite nor consistent structure. "So, yeah." Etzolix started looking around his white hair not even in the slightest wet.

It had seem that there weren't an enchantments that allowed them to breathe underwater but actual structures and buildings. He had assumed this would be similar to Atlantica but he was completely wrong. The familiarity of his octopus tentacles suddenly embraced his body in the same way the water would have had he not been protected but the underwater aquarium would not let the nostalgia make its mark. "I miss my tentacles." He exclaimed to Shirou making a reference to the Kingdom Hearts worlds that they had left not too long ago. He was especially fond of being able to change their pigment but perhaps it would take time for him to reach that in universe. Meh.

Looking at Shirou the two people showing a few variations in clothing he hadn't particularly noticed it until now. Most notable the upper torso. The hairs were contrasted of black and white and the sweater Shirou wore contrasted his hair while the jacket Etz wore did the same to his respective hair color. He didn't take note of the weaponry considering they were different but Etzolix did seem to be more aligned to dual wielding based combat. Perhaps it was just the fact that Keyblades didn't transfer older too well and these weapons were cross dimensional? He didn't give it too much thought.

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After exiting through Etzolix's portal, Shirou found himself in an area that he had not expected. From what he heard, this place, MadCross, was submerged in water. He had expected a similar scenario to Atlantica, where he would be magically transformed into a sea turtle. Instead, they were in some sort of underwater city, completely barred from the waters above. Shirou felt somewhat disappointed. He missed the magic of the world. This place, it seemed held none.

It seemed as though Etzolix had been thinking the same when he complained about not having tentacles. Shirou made a face. "You could always follow in the steps of Lenneth--" or Hrist, Shirou never knew what to refer to the strange man as, "--and create your own tentacles," he replied, his tone teasing. Shirou didn't miss his shell. It was ironic, really, as he was a speedster, and being a turtle contradicted that purpose.

"So, uh, is it me, or do we seem to have arrived in the red-light district, because that building over there seems like a strip club," Shirou asked, pointing to the focused building. It was a shady kind of building. Dirty. It had a bright, red neon sign reading, "Le Tits" and it had a picture of a girl performing fellatio. "Kind of...blunt," he added, put off by the forwardness of it. There weren't much strip clubs back in their universe, and Shirou never bothered to attend any. No interest in mingling with the low and dirty people.

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Jake watched the screen with an ounce of glee and a slight chuckle as the two men approached 'Le Tits', which happened to be one of the main operations of the feminist whores. He looked over to the large man who stood as still as possible and held his breath. A grim expression hung over his brow filled with worry and fear. "You should be afraid," Jake warned. "Its entirely possible that these two could be your replacements. Of course, if they're strong enough they may not desire to be under my employ or have my assistance so you may have nothing to worry over at all. I'd say the chances of them replacing you is about fifty-fifty." He may not have shown it, but the large man wanted to cringe. This guy, Jake, was unlike anyone else in the city. He was connected, cruel, and merciless. His calm demeanor was scary enough, but his anger was... he shivered.

"Yes sir," he said as emotionless as possible, "I understand."

"Good," Jake nodded lightly, eyes on the screen. "This is going to get interesting soon I think."

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"Don't mention Lenneth's tentacles." Etzolix said cringing, playing along with the joke. Looking around as Shirou pointed out the fact that they were in the red district. He hadn't noticed anything particularly odd...girls giving fellatio on a dirty building that wasn't particularly weird. Etzolix had seen some crazy shit in Lenneth's club so he thought that was relatively normal opposed to tentacle rape. Wait..that wasn't from the club. Oh yeah...flashbacks. He shuddered to the thought of being sexual harassed.

"You wanna go? I mean you are lonely, aren't you? You seem lonely." He said nudging towards the idea of getting him into the strip club. He was kind of projecting that Yukina wasn't here with him but he didn't plan to go in there and buy a dance for himself. So, he was using Shi to do it for him so that way at least one of them wouldn't be lonely if he was. Moving around he began walking in a direction either towards or away from the club depending on if he wanted to go or not. "Truthfully, I just want to fight."

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Shirou chuckled as Etzolix cringed. He rolled his eyes when Etzolix pointed out his apparently loneliness and offered to take a trip to the club. He did have a point. Shirou was perhaps the loneliest he had been his whole life. Although he had not known that he held Asher's soul within him, where it lay dormant, until recently, he felt more lonely without it. But he was accustomed to loneliness. He spent most of his life being alone, from being an orphan, to sending his free time in an empty mansion, to ruling a world. Loneliness did not bother him, or at least, it did not cause him to yearn such sexual pleasantries. "I'm lonely, not desperate," he replied, defensively.

The duo walked away from the strip club, and Etzolix voiced his desire to fight. Shirou nodded in agreement. "Same here. That Albatross, or whatever the name was's place was too stingy and stuck up. Can't even stop some street thugs without getting harassed," he said, sighing. "Maybe this place will be less...uh, that." Shirou jab his thumb out to the side, pointing to a building that they were passing by. The building's sign read, "Anal Play," though the 'Play' portion was burnt out, so it only showed 'Anal'. Shirou was unsure what exactly happened in there, and he didn't want to find out. "I just want to get out of here. I feel dirty."

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"They didn't go in, sir." The large man showed a slight amount of relief at the two of them walking away. The chances of those two replacing him was growing ever slimmer.

"I can see that. I'm not blind," he laid his hands together in a pyramid as he spoke and with a relaxed grin on his face, with menace and malice thick on his teeth like plaque he added, "They are pits deep in Motherhood territory. Somebody has likely already informed them that they are there." He looked to Francis and nodded at her vaguely, her eyes betraying that she knew exactly what he needed her to do. With a smooth motion she pulled a metal item from her coat, pointed it at Dee-Dee's head and fired. Dee-Dee's head splattered outward and she fell over with a twitch onto the ground. Francis knelt down and rifled through the woman's pockets, while the large man looked to Jake and raised an eyebrow.

"Did she do something?" Francis found the item she had been searching for in the dead woman's pockets, producing from them a large handgun. The barrel was half again as large as the one Francis had used, and had the Motherhood's crest emblazoned upon the hand grip. The man nodded slowly as Francis approached Jake's desk and sat the weapon upon a stack of papers in front of him.

"You see, it's not what she did; its what she was going to do. Interesting how quickly Motherhood agents turn on each other when they have an assigned a task to complete." Francis looked at him skeptically, and as he tapped his fore finger against his desk her face went agape. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she clutched at her stomach, blood pouring onto her hands from a blade wound. The blade itself had already retracted into the desk, and as she slumped over with her eyes dramatically closing. She banged her head on his desk on the way down, sliding off with the majority of her weight until her forehead leaned against the edge of the desk. "See? You couldn't even identify the Motherhood agents standing in the same room as you. Having been in my office countless times over the last month, you should have noticed the change in staff." He stood up, and walked the around the desk to the lifeless corpse. He pulled down on her collar, revealing a tattoo of the Motherhood crest between the top of her left breast and collar bone. "Perhaps if it had been tattooed someplace I wouldn't be looking, like her face or personality, I may not have noticed." He kicked her corpse off his desk and returned to his seat behind it.

"I see," the large man said blankly.

"So do I," Jake replied. "Now watch the rest of it. It looks like the two of them may have trouble."

Posts : 178 Synch Points : 1650 Join date : 2013-01-12

Etzolix stopped as he heard footsteps behind him. Turning he looked back to the place filled with potential strippers. He only thought potential due to the get up that the female was wearing and she obviously had too much clothing. Well, not only that but she also had an unneeded amount of armor considering the area but then again considering that the two males here came due to the lack of warriors in the sky perhaps down below it was the opposite. Maybe this was a metaphorical Underworld. As she pulled out a gun Etzolix pulled out a finger and aimed. They both went for the face and the reptile was hoping he would be able to pull this off. He understood how guns worked considering Lenneth used to have a pair. It was actually an inspiration for one of his later spells of a higher tier. He clearly didn't have the energy for it now, however, a bluff didn't always hurt.

As he taunted, "How cute. You actually need a physical device to help you? Not all that powerful, I suppose." she wouldn't audibly respond. His other hand was near his pocket, a single thumb in just relaxing -- or so it seemed. As she pulled the trigger he was lucky fr the distance that they were at or else he would've had to use magic. Moving his head slightly to the side the bullet scraped his cheek and in a single moment he had never wished to have had his old tongue back more than he did now. Pulling an imaginary trigger she flinched and when she did he put his hand into his gauntlet. However, he didn't fully do so and only put in his fingers as he threw it towards her neck in the direction she was flinching.

She would fall to the floor her neck pierced and she was supposedly dead. "Huh, at least she has her eyes." He shrugged to Shirou. Going to pick up the weapon he checked for a moment and by the time he did that it seemed that a bunch of people had Shirou and him surrounded. As he looked at the body he noticed it was a puppet, a very lifelike puppet but it had been disguised with magic to seem realistic. Perhaps he should've used his Alveus Oculus? Doing so now his Sclerae turned black as he picked up the gun. As he remembered he didn't particularly remember anything special needed so he looked around at the group of six and then pulled the trigger towards on of them his claw in his other hand since he had picked it up.

The gun didn't fire but the three females that were aimed at him did happen to shoot. Having been expecting things to go wrong because, who wouldn't? As three portals opened up for the respective gun shots and a portal at each side of their heads would appear the women effectively killing themselves. As they fell to the floor he noticed they too were puppets which is why he had no qualms with destroying them. He could at least now remember the specific waves of synchronization for that race. He wondered if Shirou had already taken out the three that went after him. He wondered why they were being attacked but it didn't seem like a reason that was too bothersome. Might be how the city functioned. Neat.

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Shirou heard the footsteps as he felt the presence appear. He turned around, and saw an armored prostitute behind them. Did she want customers? With that outfit? She was barking up the wrong tree--wait, wait, she had a gun. Probably not a prostitute...unless she was into some weird, kinky roleplaying shit. Which, was also unfortunate, as Shirou had never been fond of roleplaying.

He sighed as he reached in his back pocket and pulled out his Immortalized Gloves and pulled them on. Etzolix quickly disposed of her. Whoever these people were, they weren't actually people. He felt more presences, and saw that he and Etzolix were surrounded. Three of the puppets were pointing theirs gun at him. He raised his hands up, as if surrendering. As they pulled the triggers, Shirou opened three dimensional rifts, surrounding him. The bullets sailed through the rifts and came out of their respective rifts, which were positioned behind the assailants, effectively killing them.

"Odd," Shirou said, turning towards Etzolix, though keeping alert.

Posts : 241 Synch Points : 1330 Join date : 2013-01-12

"Efficient," Jake said coldly. He fingers fell from a pyramid to an interlock. "Tell me oaf, can you do that?" The man shook his head. "Thought so. Let me explain to you what I just saw. I saw two men-- say it with me now: Two men," he cooed in a jeering tone.

"Two men," the man repeated as unenthusiastic as possible.

"Were ambushed by the Motherhood," Jake drug the words out so the man would have to taste them.

"Were ambushed by the Motherhood," he felt like throwing up.

"And won."

"And won."

"Now, let's keep watching. I want to see what they do next."

"Yes sir..." he clenched his fists. He would act soon.

Posts : 178 Synch Points : 1650 Join date : 2013-01-12

"So there is obviously fishy business going on in that building." Etzolix said looking at Shirou. It was obvious that he still wanted to go explore whatever it was that was there. He wondered if Shi was having the same thoughts considering what just happened and why avoid the fun things in life? He wondered if his hint was obvious enough.

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Shirou looked at the building, then back at Etzolix. He thought for a moment. Then he sighed and said, "Fine, we'll go in the fucking strip club." He motioned for Etzolix to lead the way, where he would then begrudgingly follow. Although, the prospect of being attack by a room full of naked room was an interesting one. You couldn't exactly say that happened everyday.

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"Now they are interested," he cooed. "Brave. Not retreating though they understand that there are aggressive people in the area. It seems that they actually want to fight the Motherhood. I don't expect the to fair well as unprepared as they are, but I doubt they'll die." The large man remained silent when Jake address him. "Tell me oaf," he hissed as he picked up the gun before him, "do you know what's odd about the two Motherhood agents that were killed moments ago?" He shook his head. "Bullshit," Jake spat. "You know full well. You were the operation director, weren't you? Dee-Dee wasn't wearing the wire. Francis was't wearing the wire. Why would they have two agents here and neither of them wearing a wire? The motherhood is too paranoid to let an operation like this go on without supervision." A curtain of silence fell.

"So you knew," The man growled. "How long have I been made?"

"For three weeks," Jake replied blankly. "I watched your performance during the ambush too. Killing your own men. Well, I suppose they weren't your men were they?" He cocked the gun, and aimed it at the man's head. "I suppose this was the outcome from the start. There was a reason you were the one being replaced." With a pull of the trigger, the large man slumped over dead. "Back to the game," he said to himself as his attention returned to the screen, "Halftime is over."

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Taking lead Etzolix walked triumphantly as he made his way to the building filled with warrior prostitutes. He wondered if they would all wear the same garment or if they would actually be prostitutes. As he cracked the door open it was already suspicious seeing as there was no music playing. Looking to Shi he made it obvious that this was most definitely a trap and as he turned back to the door his smile grew in wider and toothier. Preparing his weaponry he needed to make sure everything was properly placed so he would be able to react instinctively when the time came. As soon as he opened the door he saw that there were a bunch of people already pointing with guns. There was also a lever. Wait, why did they have a--fuck. Immediately after pulling the lever the building turned into a giant creature made of concrete. If Etzolix knew what a robot was then this would be the equivalent to a giant concrete robot...so a golem of a strip club if you will was now standing above them and was huge. The size of a building, really.

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Shirou rolled his eyes as Etzolix made it clear that they were walking into a trap. Nothing good came out of strip clubs. As Etzolix prepared himself, Shirou did the same, which wasn't much. He preferred fighting with his fists first, and he already had his Immortalized Gloves on. He made sure that Hybrid was easily accessible. As they opened the doors, they were greeted with guns pointing at them. Of course. More guns. Maybe Shirou should get one. See how they liked it, with a gun pointed at them. And then...there was a lever? Why the hell was there a lever? After pulling the lever, Shirou briefly wondered if a cage would fall down, for kinky stripper sex time, or if just naked hookers would fall down, brandishing knives and more guns. But, they were not that lucky. The building changed and turned into a giant golem-type of creature. Shirou raised his eyebrows. That was an interesting change of pace.

"I would just like to take a moment and point out how fucked up this place is," Shirou said, dryly, indicating MadCross.

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As he watched the golem unleash itself, he raised an eyebrow. "I could have swore I dismantled those..."

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"How about we fight on two different fronts?" Etzolix suggested has he started moving backwards as the building progressed. As he looked and saw that there were windows and openings, granted small ones, he looked towards Shi and said, "You took the inside, I'll take the outside?" He wondered how he would take the outside but he would have to do something. At least enough to help Shirou if he agreed to go inside. He was sure Shirou could handle it. It didn't seem to be anything too crazy. The golem stomped and would send a shock wave that would send the two of them flying back a couple yards. Etzolix would land on his feet and wait for Shirou to enter the building if he didn't already. Whether through means of windows or portalling to the location they had seen.

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"Right," Shirou said, nodding. He withdrew Hybrid and opened a dimensional rift. He glanced up at the openings in the golem, scanning them and trying to see the people in them. He then threw Hybrid spinning through the dimensional rift. With a quick peace out sign, Shirou ran into the rift himself. He directed the output rift to a different location within the golem. When he exited it, he found that his Hybrid had struck somebody, and the people looking around, for the second rift. They then pointed their guns at him when they saw him and shot. He opened up another rift, and the bullets breezed through. The second rift opened above the golem, the bullets raining down on top of the golem. Shirou rushed forward, throwing a punch to the closest puppet, striking it down. He used it as a shield, to block the next barrage of bullets. He wondered how Etzolix was doing.

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He merely sat back in his recliner, watching things unfold.

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One of the arms pointed at Etzolix and it was pretty big. Like canon sized. Wait, that was a canon. That was a fucking canon. Using a portal he launched the projectile that was sent to him inside the building forgetting that she was in there. As the other arm swung down it seemed to be an axe and this is when he side stepped like ten times and shit to get out of the way and not lose balance from the shockwave. The canon did some damage but clearly not enough since it hit the center and didn't collapse the structure. What the fuck, man.

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Shirou noticed a portal open up. Was Etzolix giving up already--wait, was that a missile? Shirou quickly opened a rift and went into it. However, he simply stayed in the Space Between, rather than exiting it. After hearing the proper explosion, Shirou re-entered the room. That took care of all the puppet-type things. He wondered if there was a control center. With this inkling, he started to explore the golem's insides.

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"This is some kinky shit." He laid back in his chair, cross legged and content. These two warriors-- daring. Brave. He wanted them. Obviously they were clever and that was a problem because you see, he had a monopoly on clever. So these fearsome fighters needed to be his 'friends' right up until the point they became liabilities. Oh sure, he could give them thousands of luxuries. Practically anything in MadCross could be theirs. The question then lied with what? What do you get men who kill? A grin across his face. "Information," he cooed, "on better tools to kill with." Ah yes, perfect. If he could somehow 'build a better mousetrap' he could catch these mice within it. He placed his fingers together. "Perhaps I should pay them a visit soon."

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The building just stopped. He supposed that Shirou took care of the people soooo he wasn't sure why he was still in there. Well, this was underwhelming for a giant golem. It should've had an autopilot or something.

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After some stairs climbing, and walking through some questionably stick hallways, Shirou found himself a metal, locked door. He looked at it for a moment. He then opened a rift, and walked through to the inside. It was the control room. Nobody was in it, though. Shirou explored the controls. There was a large console in front of a giant monitor, which could be seen the surrounding area. He should get back to Etzolix soon, but he couldn't help his curiosity. It was an interesting contraption, powered by mechanics. There was a giant, green button on the left side of the console. With a shrug, Shirou pushed it, the monitor blinked red and the room started to shake. The screen said, "EMERGENCY EJECTION ACTIVATED."

"Shit," Shirou said, grabbing onto the console, pushing random buttons, trying to make it stop. But, to no avail. The room, and him in it, shot up in the sky, flying across MadCross. Some safety floatation/padding type of things inflated and the room landed roughly on the roof of a random building. Shirou landed roughly against the wall. While bruised, nothing was broken. Sighing, he walked out of the room and jumped out onto the roof. Where was he now?

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So appparently Shirou was gone...whatever, he knew their next objective was Agritera. Or at least the labyrinth. With this he would then go and make a portal and leave. This place was fun but one fight per area was a good enough start for the worlds as they were. He didn't want to drain all the fun out of Abaddon from the get go.

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