Welcome to Gaia! ::

After the fight between Tresondros and Raphemal ended, Aveline went right up to her room to order some food and hopefully relax.

Normally room service doesn't take this long though, and in her boredom, Aveline picks up her Saiga 20: her only firearm she hasn't shot in combat, inserts a 10-round mag, then pulls back the charging catch, which cycles a shell through, to make sure it will still load: it does; she then pulls the charging catch back again to make sure the round extractor works: a black-plastic shell with a high brass band pops out onto the bed. It's a solid slug high-load, same as Thurgood fires in his Mossberg 500 (only in a different gauge). Being just an AK47-M that fires 20-gauge shells, Aveline is quite confident that it will fire when she needs it to. If it doesn't, there's always the rest of the siblings' arsenal up there...

Joe did nothing to stop the unwarranted destruction of his evening delight. He watched unmoved as his platter of pizza was knocked aside. The plate breaking at contact of the floor. The pizza splattering while one slice of pepperoni smacked the middle of his left cheek. A few goblets of wine stained his shirt.

An eyebrow raised, the only reaction acquired from his zen attitude. Joe straightened up in his seat - a bar stool - and heaved a great breath. The expanse of muscles, chest and back, widened and caused the fabric of his top to tighten. He was more built than he was before. A little larger from the growth of muscle.

As the batons screeched and crackled excitedly. Joe unbuttoned the sleeves to his blouse and rolled them up properly past the elbows.

Joe stood out of his seat. "I'll give you one chance to walk away. But, I'm afraid you won't take it, will you gentlemen?"

He was being nice as usual.

Joe'mante had his back to the one that attacked first. He only needed to listen to the rubbing of his clothing to warn him of the incoming attack. While the one behind the counter jumped onto it, Joe dealt with his friend first - swift and ruthless.

He backed up into his foe's guard, even when the baton was coming, and flourished his left elbow to strike him dead center in the chest. Though, it was no normal elbow when it lit on fire in a display of bright sparks. A mixture of blinding white, gold, red, and violet energy crackled and hissed like a firework display engulfing his entire joint.

It struck a fraction of a second before the mysterious foe could land his swing.

Crk-THoom!

It exploded in an astounding show of bright lights and sparks. The concussion blast was comparable to a small, well-controlled explosion that could blow a basketball size hole through a brick wall. To the mook, it could shatter bone, rupture organs, render flesh and cause internal bleeding in one go. It burned through the material of his clothing and scarred flesh.

It was enough to send him flying back, right out the way he came.

Once the aftermath of the explosion settled, there was a smokey haze left in the wake. Joe wasted no time to respond to the last goggled freak. He grabbed the stool by one of its legs and swung it to bash in the man's kneecaps and make him fall from the counter.

If he fell onto the side where Joe stood, he would continue to beat on him with the stool with no remorse.

He would beat him like a dog until the stool splintered apart and there was nothing but a stake left in his hand. If all went his way, he threw away the last fragment and stood dominantly over his downed aggressor.

"Damn it! Can't a man have his pizza and wine? It's one thing that I'm too late to be part of the tournament. It's another for you to annoy me and remind me about it!"

Evidently, Joe'mante had changed in more ways than one. His power set was different. His attitude was a less forgiving. He didn't beat around the bush or played patty-cake like before. His journey had stripped him of his free-flowing, air-bending powers to something more simple - something true to the soul.

"Thank god Rhonda isn't here to see me like this." Joe noticed the pepperoni on his face and grabbed it. He flicked it away and shook his head in disgust of himself.

He lost his zen.

Aetyra pounded down the stairs, floor by floor, anxious to get back into gear that suited her better than jeans and a t-shirt, even if the top, by virtue of being several sizes too small, did make her look pretty damn good.

Seventh... Sixth.... Fifth. Finally. She opened the doorway of the staircase back into the lush-carpeted hall, and immediately noticed something was amiss. Two stewards lay unconscious in the hall, seemingly thrown crudely against the wall.

"What the..." she muttered. Eerie silence. She immediately changed her gait to a more stealthy one as she hurried down the hall to her room. The death knight needed her weapons, and fast.

She swiftly closed the door, and double-locked it. Turning to her armor pieces lying arranged on the bed, she ripped off her flimsy garments, tossing the shreds aside as she methodically set to donning the saronite plating with concentrated haste.

[Aetyra's Room]

There her armor and weaponry rested, nicely put on the top of her covered bed. Whoever had placed it there did a good job in making it all organized. The weapon was aligned with the straightness of the bed's shape and the armor lied next to it properly. As she stripped her clothes off with haste, it was during the time between removing them and moving toward her apparel that something shocking would occur.

A large amount of weight pounced down from above her. It felt like a human being, though the appearance of covered arms around her neck could make one rethink that. The attacker fell onto her back from above, having waited for her to walk in so he could ambush her successfully. His legs squeezed around her stomach area while he had one arm hugging around her neck, the right hand free and holding onto a baton. Turning it down, he attempted to thrust it against her posterior to try to take the feeling out of her legs with an electrical charge.

---------------------------------------

[Joe's Hallway Adventure]

The woman didn't answer nor was coming to for Joe. Apparently, whoever took these people out, they did it effectively.

The suited man was thrown into the bedpost, a muffled yelp coming from him before he landed headfirst onto the cushioned bed.

But then the closet doors busted open, and out came another one of them, baton swinging and all. He performed a forward acrobatic flip onto the bed, then attempted to kick Aetyra in the face from his higher level.

Another one of the men was grabbed, and promptly thrown into the awaiting wall. The force that hit the wall made a very bone crunching thud, and he, too, fell to the ground, lying out against it awkwardly. Aetyra's words were met with silence.

That is, until the curtains were pulled to the side, and yet another one of the goons popped out batons swinging. The lamp over at the desk rose, too, the lamp shade being tossed out to reveal one of them hiding in the wood of the drawers, which split apart as he stood up.

And then the covers were thrown off the bed, Aetyra's weapons and armor falling to the side of the bed as another rose up from beneath. This one, however, possessed bolas, and threw the electrical cords at her to attempt to tie her up.