The World Asunder

[Hoboturtle]

Lambert took his hand and leaned before, his head by the side of the rebel's leader's ear.

What came was a low growl, just loud enough for Kai and Ansa to hear, "Sir, what exactly are you doing here?"

A veil of politeness barely masked a sort of contempt. His eyes darted to from one side of the crowd to the next, seeing all the faces ready for a fight. He shook the hand up and down, giving a charade of an agreement, "Your friend Weidr told us that sparking an rebellion is not something you would usually do. Said that you left him as soon as he ran into a bit of trouble. So tell me what are you doing here?"

The volume of his voice threatened to increase and his grip started to tighten down on Kai's hand.

The people looked excited, and he could tell why, but this wasn't right. He didn't want his home to get plunge into a battle where they would only get slaughtered because of some foreign punk. No matter how much they wanted things to change, wishing hard enough wouldn't accomplish anything.

He left his mouth ajar and let out a breeze, before mechanically letting go of Fishwash's hand. He glance aside to Ansa before muttering, "Mr Fishwash, do you think that we might be able to have a word alone with you?"

He glance at the people celebrating, but if everything went well in their little meeting than this would end abruptly. He would let them this happiness a bit longer, but he figured that disappointment was a better end than the spilling of blood.

 

[Pichu2k7]

Karigen was suddenly startled awake by his phone ringing.

"Ugh...some noise" He said as he rolled in his bed and picked up his phone.

"Hello?" He tiredly let out. It was one of his friends from earlier. The voice sounded panicked and mumbled a few things quickly to him.

"What? What do you mean there's a splinter attack? It'd be on the news n **** like always." All Karigen wanted to do was sleep on his hangover, he'd had far too much to drink before he went to sleep. The person said more things.

"No, I don't care about the guards even if one of them is your friend, I have a sore head and I'm still half asleep. What? What do you mean they're evacuating citizens? That's the most ridi-" There was a chap at the door, Karigen quickly threw himself out of bed and grabbed his familiar, a small combat knife used by the Lokasen military so it was standard grade metal although he had it infused with Seithr so he could use it to fight other Seithr infused weapons and Splinters. He opened the door only to be met with a handful of guards fighting off splinters.

"This area is not safe, our men at the towers couldn't set off the alarm bell before the Splinters got them, you're to meet up with the rest of the civilians at the nearest park where we've set up temporary fortifications." The guard had a few scratches and burn wounds on him but the Lokasen guards were always equipped with enhanced armour, even if they weren't part of the elite squads they got lightly enchanted armour due to the amount of Splinter formations.

"You at the park?" He quickly said to his friend on the phone, they quickly responded with a one word answer. They then carried on and talked about meeting up somewhere else.

"Okay, I'll meet you there." Karigen said before hanging up the phone and nodding to the guard. He strapped his familiar onto a custom latch he had made on his jeans and set off to meet his friend at sprinting speed.

The sheer amount of splinters this time must've been because of the lack of attacks in the past fortnight, normally there's a splinter attack every few days but sometimes they just sort of pile up over time and all form at once causing things like this to happen. Whatever, I better meet her before we both end up as Splinter food. It's almost as if they...communicate it. Nah, they're mindless creatures living off instinct but still... His trail of thought cutting off as he stepped on something slippy like ice and fell over, twisting his leg in the process he quickly scrambled himself back up on his feet before letting out a grunt as he fought the pain in his leg and he limped off as fast he could to the meeting area.

 

[Lennox]

Kai was used to the occasional negative review from an employer, but this was the first time someone had badmouthed him to the Masked Knight. Next time he saw Weidr he'd have to give him a swift kick in the... actually he wasn't sure where. Maybe just stick with a smack in the mouth to be safe.

He eyed the woman the Knight had brought with him. She was APF, it looked like. He wasn't worried either way, now that he'd gone public any operative the king would send would want to see him hanged, not shot in the back. Show the people the establishment was still in control.

"Alone! Surely, yes. Just the three of us then."

Kai gestured over to a canvas overhang that had been strung up in a corner of the park with a radio, a table and a few chairs, a sort of a makeshift command center. He flexed his hand as the huge blue-armored man released it, concealing the pain of his tight grip. He wondered whether it was the armor that gave him his strength or something else. Maybe the mask? He absentmindedly touched his left hand to his own mask, dangling by a cord from the back of his belt. Kai had seen photos of the Masked Knight, but mostly blurry, far-off ones, and he hadn't been entirely prepared for how big he'd be. Still, he had bigger on his side.

"Unless of course you'd also like to bring your womanfriend here, she's welcome too. Harkaras! Come on, let's talk."

 

[Hoboturtle]

Was this guy trying to intimidate him or did he believe that this discussion would lead to a fight? He wouldn't want to hurt themember of orgekind. The man was from the same place as he was. Either way his opinion of Fishwash wasn't improving. Hopefully this would end quickly and they call all move on with their lives.He strutted to the canvas. He thought about trying to relax the people around by giving them a smile but could only glare as he felt deeply that they were all making a mistake. He moved under waiting for the others to join him.

 

[Lennox]

Kai was relieved to see that Harkaras was nearby. Of course he didn't need the muscle; even if he did think the Masked Knight were the type to try anything drastic, they were on his turf. But the thryth knew more about strategy than the Miriel boy ever had, and as his main connection with the trade unions he knew he'd be an important player going forward. But most importantly, Harkaras was the only person on Avalon that Kai was sure actually had some loyalty to him. He'd seen that in the battle for Haven Park and its aftermath.

The four of them reached the tent and Kai took a seat, taking an apple from a nearby barrel.

"So, as you know I'm Kai. Mr., uh... Knight, I think we might've gotten off on a bad foot here. I didn't ask for it and I don't know how it happened but somehow I ended up as spokesman for these people, and a couple of them are out for blood, yeah, but most of them just want a better-off peace. I think together we might be able to help make that happen. Apple anyone?"

 

[Hoboturtle]

"Sitz, Lambert Sitz. The concerned father of Romy and Karin Sitz, two young girls that live down at the Water district of Lower Avalon"

"Tell me, you're this rebel leader that I've just heard about. How exactly did that happen?" Lambert crossed his arms, "Running away from a lonely group of splinters to taking on the whole kingdom of Avalon. How far you have come in just a day. Tell me just how you were able to make that change?"

First things first. Discrediting this so called leader might put the early end to this rebellion. Easy surrender. Easy punishment. If anything, the kingdom might make a superficial deal. Something that would please the public in the short run.

 

[Lennox]

"Guess I'm good at doing words," said Kai, taking a large bite of the fruit. "They're good apples. No?"

 

[GigaRidley]

"I'll take one."
Ansa had remained silent up to this point because of the moderate nausea she felt from the Masked Knight's jump and somersault over the wall.
"I'm Ansa Hifhildr, current head of the Avalon Protection Force. I have to ask, but have you lived in Lower Avalon? I agree with what you say about a better peace for the people, but what makes you qualified to speak for them?"

 

[Hoboturtle]

Vongola

As Tal tunneled down the earth of one of the many mountain ranges of Vongola. He must've not known of the tunnel that Ulrich la March had chosen to rest in. Not unbelievable as there were so many mines, both in use and abandoned that it was not hard to believe, however in his quest of peace, in order to avoid a fight, he should've watched his claws as they dug through the earth as soon they met this exact tunnel and his claws slash through the soft flesh of the innocent(?) La March. His blood splatter against the wall of the cave as his skull was pierced.


You Are Dead!!!


...


...


...


Wait, are you telling me he isn't?

...

You sure?

...

Cause he looks... no wait he's getting up.


Wait a minute, there is just way too much blood. Like way more than there is in the avenge human body. There is too much of it for him to be breathing, let alone moving.

The amount of blood here is enough for you too fill a bucket to stick your head in and drown.

I am trying to paint you a picture here, do you understand what I am saying?

"Man, did I get a paper cut or something?" Ulrich said with a dazed smile.


No! You can't call that a paper cut. It's coming up like a geyser. It looks like a freaking ship leak down here.

"I'm just going to put this bandage up there annnnd done."

Because that makes perfect sense. There is nothing such as brain damage or death via blood loss. Bandages apperantly fix everything.

Ulrich turned to gedric to he seemed to have bump into and gave him a toothy grin, "Hello mate, I don't mean to trouble you at all but I'm seem to be lost"

 

[Lennox]

"Hm." Kai tossed an apple in the direction of the fae woman. "Well when you put it like that I guess you could make a fair argument I ain't. You wanna do it?"

 

[GigaRidley]

"Not sure if it's my place either."

Ansa studied the ripe apple for a moment, then took a bite. Gods, this is good. I've forgotten how hungry I am.
It seemed that in the action of the night, Ansa had blocked out any senses with her adrenaline rush. She noted that her lower leg where the Splinters had slashed her was beginning to throb rather painfully.

"I've only lived in Lower Avalon a few years myself. Never even intended to stay this long, but I guess those plans changed when I saw that I could help these people."

 

[Pichu2k7]

Karigen took his phone out while he was hiding in an alleyway by the Zeldrid Centre train station. He quickly made a phone call.

"Alright, I'm there, where the heck are you? Damned splinters are everywhere and I hurt my leg earlier. Oh! Yeah I see you." He ended the phone call and walked up to a young woman just a little bit smaller than him, she had her hood up so her facial features were hidden but she was thin and rather fit.

"See your still causing trouble? I had a mole approach me earlier yesterday crying about how he was assaulted and had his stand robbed." She said, Karigen put his hands on the back of his head and leaned back a little.

"I don't know what your talking about." He said with a mocking smirk which quickly earned him a slap across the face.

"Right, right. I did steal from his stand, so what? You know it's near impossible for me to get a proper paying job when everyone punts me off because of my race."

"That's not an excuse to be stealing valuable gems that are worth more then you are!"

Karigen was being scolded again by the same mysterious girl, she never mentioned names when around him and was always trying to change him from a thief to a well respected member of the public.

"Anyway, a train will be here shortly. Don't ask me how I know there will be a train coming during the splinter attack but it'll take you to a village located on the outskirts of Lokasen that's used as one of the trading posts between the kingdoms, there are good people there and you should be able to get yourself employed as a trader or something while you're there. Now behave yourself." She said as she left the train station, walking past multiple splinters that didn't seem to notice her.

Karigen had always found that woman strange, he'd known her for a long time even when he was in the orphanage but he never knew her name or anything else about her besides the fact that she wanted him to change but he never knew the reason for it. After five minutes of evading the splinters in the area a green train stopped at the station and the doors opened. Without spending an extra second, Karigen ran straight into the train. The doors closed when he got on and he sat down and checked what he had on his person.

His familiar, a bag of coins in case he needed to pay for anything, his phone and the two uncut gems he had stolen from yesterday. That should be enough to keep me going...I'll miss that hunk of **** computer back home though but I can always get another one.

His right leg suddenly broke into pain, he had completely forgotten that he'd twisted it in his fall from earlier. He held it as if that would help the pain until he had positioned it somewhere that the pain would fade. As the train left the station, he leaned back into the chair he was on and took the time of the journey to rest up. Splinters weren't fun, they're presence enough to paralyze some in their tracks leaving them as helpless pray if they were found. He'd seen it happen before and it was a gruesome death if that happened.

 

[Hoboturtle]

"I've live here my whole entire life and because of that I can say that we aren't ready for any confrontation. While everyone out there is celebrating over capturing a park, they don't seem to realize that they're going up against a whole kingdom. I dunno know how large the APF is, but I can't imagine their in spitting distance to the royal army." Maybe that came out a bit rough, don't want to piss off his ally in this debate. He turned to Ansa,"Not to say that you're aren't doing the best you can, but while some of your men are skilled and armed, I don't think they have the power to go against soldiers who do nothing but train and are better equipped. They're a bit tougher of a fight then the low ranked splinters."


He huffed and twirled his arms as he thought of the situation, "Furthermore, we're in a terrible spot, the dead center of Avalon. I wouldn't think it pass them to surround and arrest us while we are celebrating. They're being overconfident if they haven't. Unless you captured this exact city over night. We're going to see a lot of bloodshed. Which i doubt, less you do something extreme and kidnap the king or something."

 

[Neosquid]

Pumice had finished hacking into Avalon's Direct Emergency Broadcast System (DEBS). His earlier estimation proved correct, it had only taken him a few more minutes to finish. He went back to the monitors to check on Kai, the Fae, and The Masked Knight again. They were still were they were before. Good, good.

He grabbed a supply bag, which contained the walkie talkie he picked up earlier, his laptop, a few wires, and his hand scythes, among a few other things. He opened the window and flew outside, having to be quick as to not be spotted. It took a few minutes, but he eventually arrived near a location in Lower Avalon known simply as the "Police Grounds". The Police Grounds were located on the edge of Lower Avalon, with a rather gloomy forest separating them from the city. The forest was not very large, but a disturbing amount of reports on dead bodies being found among the trees and in the creek was enough to ward people off. This forest was speculated to have been the hideout of a notorious serial killer who was known as "Spine Eater", due to the fact that most of their victims had their spinal cord removed, for some reason or another. Considering that many of the reported bodies were found without spines, the theory that Spine Eater operated here had quite a bit of support going for it. Spine Eater was reported deceased a few years prior, but their terrifying reputation forever remained to haunt the forest.

The police grounds themselves were nearly as depressing as the forest. It was a fenced off, loosely forested area that contained a number of Kingdom Guard buildings. Many of them were run down and no longer in use. Among the facilities still in operation were the Avalon Kingdom Guard base and the Avalon shuttle to the Kingdom Guard Airship.

The Kingdom Guard Airship was more of a small floating island than an airship. It used seithr engines to stay afloat, similar to the kingdoms, but it was much smaller, and was 100% artificial. The Kingdom Guard had various bases throughout Aravad, but this airship was the main headquarters. Only Kingdom Guard officers were allowed in and out, but on occasion they would allow outsiders inside as long as they had permission and were attended by a Kingdom Guard officer. The airship was constantly in motion, and slowly revolved around Avalon, the central floating island. The airship took almost a full day to make a complete rotation, but the speed could be altered if needed.

Anyways, Pumice had landed in the edge of the forest closest to the Police Grounds, as the Police Grounds themselves were guarded well enough to make simply flying inside unviable. He was somewhat uncomfortable having to be there, but it was really the best option he had. Hiding behind a cloak of tree leaves, he got out his laptop and started it up. He had set it up so he could view the AM11 camera monitors remotely. While checking the status of the Violet Hand Inn and Haven Park monitors, he noticed that Kai, the Masked Knight, and the Fae appeared to have moved from their earlier position. He figured they were still most likely there...he had to hope this speculation was correct. It probably was. Regardless, it was all the more reason to hurry up.

He started typing some things in, and after the clicking of a few more keys he got out his walkie talkie and held it up to the laptop.

"Units A5, A6, A7, B1, and B3 are to disperse through the Lower Avalon districts." was the voice that came out of the laptop, into the walkie talkie. It was a robotic feminine voice often used to give out orders. "Leave no area uncovered. Further orders will be given in short time."

Pumice had rewired the communication systems the Kingdom Guard used in Avalon. Instead of getting their orders from command, the lower officers would be unknowingly taking orders directly from Pumice. He had rerouted the command communication to link back to his laptop, which was currently recording whatever they were saying. Obviously they would notice this problem in very short time, but it would take at least an hour or two to fix, he estimated. The communication systems in Avalon as a whole were honestly a complete joke, he suspected that they had never had any notable hacker issues prior to this. His efforts would probably cause some sort of overall in the kingdom. Such an event would actually flatter him, he guessed.

Pumice heard running nearby, and quickly closed his laptop. He had been hiding nearby the only real trail through the forest, which was a tree-free path about 12 feet wide. Sure enough, the Kingdom Guard units he had summoned not a minute earlier were running down the path to their destination.

"Ahaha, I can't believe I'm fooling all of these noobs." whispered Pumice to himself. "They seriously think that I'm their commander. This is good, this is just too good."


He waited until they had all passed, and opened his laptop again. He checked the camera monitors, and as expected, the Kingdom Guard officers were already beginning to station themselves on the Lower Avalon street corners.

The laptop spoke into the walkie talkie again. "Hold your positions until 1100. If no further orders are given prior to 1100, remove the civilians from their homes and exterminate them on the street. Exterminate any passerby as well." said the laptop. Pumice, watching the monitors, could see many of the officers looking at each other confused. The time was precisely 1020, or 10:20, which left only forty minutes until this potential bloodbath.

He turned a dial on the walkie talkie, which changed the receiving end from the Kingdom Guard Units to the Direct Emergency Broadcast System. He held it up to his laptop again, which proceeded to speak into the walkie talkie yet again in a feminine robotic voice, but with a slightly higher pitch than before.

"ATTENTION CITIZENS OF AVALON. THE PALACE OF WINGS HAS DECIDED TO PLACE A BOUNTY OF ON THE MYSTERIOUS MASK KAI FISHWASH HAS IN HIS POSSESSION. CONTAINING THIS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS MASK IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THOSE WHO WISH TO MAINTAIN PEACE IN AVALON. ANYBODY PERSON OR PERSONS WHO BRING THE MASK, INTACT, TO THE POLICE GROUNDS WILL RECEIVE A REWARD OF ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND ARIVIS IN CASH. THE MASK WILL THEN BE TRANSPORTED TO THE KINGDOM GUARD AIRSHIP FOR SAFEKEEPING." were the words spoken into Avalon's DEBS. Moments later, Pumice heard this very message being broadcasted from a speaker in the Police Grounds. Since this was just one of many DEBS speakers located throughout Avalon, this meant the entire kingdom was hearing this message. "IF THE MASK IS NOT IN THE POLICE GROUNDS BY ELEVEN O' CLOCK, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THE SAFETY OF THE LOWER AVALON CITIZENS."

After hearing that message broadcasted too, Pumice laughed to himself. He had plans to steal the mask after it had been brought to the Police Grounds. However, his business in this area was not finished, he had come to the Police Grounds for a reason, after all. He knew the Grey Reapers would probably arrive to meet him shortly at the Violet Hand Inn, but they might have to wait a little. Not too long, his next project wasn't extremely time consuming, after all.

OOC: I don't believe we've established a main currency as of yet, so I came up with "Arivi", which isn't very creative considering it's just named after the planet. Whatever. The current time was another thing I was unsure of, so I guessed, but it can be changed if I'm off.

 

[Lennox]

"The king?" said Kai. "Harkaras, I like this guy!"

"I know there are plenty of things standing against us," Harkaras said to the two newcomers. "But let's talk about what we do have. First, there's--"

The thryth was cut off by a deafening audio feedback loop which seemed to come from center of the park. It was quickly followed by a voice.

It was a message from the Kingdom Guard, culminating with "If the mask is not in the police grounds by eleven o'clock, we cannot guarantee the safety of the Lower Avalon citizens."

Kai sat in astonished silence for a moment.

"What the fuсk was that? Is that a normal thing they do?"

"Not like that," said Harkaras. "I hate the Kingdom Guard as much as any of us, but they ain't buggerin' terrorists. 'The safety of--' what does that even mean? It's not as though they can just attack Lower Avalon. Even the Kingdom Guards wouldn't follow that kind of order. Right?"

"The uh, 'police grounds'," said Kai. "That on our turf or theirs?"