Welcome to Gaia! ::

Manfread was completely out of it until the mushrooms were out of sight. Slowly regaining composure he would eventually snap back to normal as he was carried away.

Bast followed behind Zane closely so that the crowds did not affect her sandwich-making. Mononoke brought up the rear, serving as an extra pair of hands in the creation process of the lunch. As soon as they broke through the crowds, Bast closed the baguette over its contents and took a large bite. A slight blush came to her face, but it wasn't enough to overpower the paleness of her skin to any noticeable degree.

"Zyonu always has the best ingredients!" she mused aloud. She took another chomp out of the sandwich as soon as she had swallowed the last one and immediately began chewing as hard as she could. She swallowed the mass of food and then held her hand out desperately. A few seconds and a cold drink of tea later, she gasped in relief and handed the drink back to Mononoke. She continued following Zane without thinking much about it.

The crowds nearby seemed to be in slight turmoil. If either Shinobi were to look over the nearest heads, he or she would see a rather stirring display of uncomfortable movement rippling through the crowd.

"I'd suggest waiting here for a moment. Internal threats tend to attack in stages, as even the animals understand the need for a lunch break. The call is really yours, since you're the captain of this particular mission."

She ate the last of her sandwich and took a swig of tea before setting upon the apple. It was a solid green and was a nice plump size that displayed its ripeness. She took a bite out of it and her expression remained unchanged, although a lot of the excited air that surrounded the sandwich's completion was now gone. It appeared that the apple did not quite fit her palate as much as the earlier food item, a sentiment which was all but confirmed by her frequent sips of tea between bites.

When the rain began and Zane freaked out, Bast flipped up her hood and pulled her cloak closed under the assumption that, if the rain were piercing, the effects would have been immediately noticeable. At the same time, Mononoke took the lunch box and uneaten food and disappeared from the area, leaving Bast with her semi-eaten apple in hand.

You're the leader, but you obviously don't know what that means, Bast thought to herself.

As the rain began to fall more quickly, Bast walked over to one of the nearby restaurants and stood under one of the large umbrellas of their patio seating arrangements. She was a few establishments down from Zane, so she spoke rather loudly.

"You're the leader here, you come up with the plans. I am requesting on behalf of a fallen friend that you do not harm, cripple, or seriously injure the enemy past the point of subduing him if possible."

With the fish out of the way, Al now had the opportunity to clear out the horrifying canals. Observing the location of the gently bobbing meat, he sprinted along the lip of the aqueduct to the junction coming in from the Art's district. Reaching around, he grabbed a rather large lever, and pulled it. If this was anything like Suna's aqueducts...
CLANG. A large metal hatch fell into place, shutting off the flow of water into the aqueduct, and rerouting it. In the household, the ponds and fountains would begin to overflow. Meanwhile, the entire Clocktower District lost running water. Hopefully this wouldn't cause and problems.
1/3

Returning to the sections of the area cluttered with chunks of meat, Al stared, then shrugged. Raising both hands, he summoned wave after wave of glowing red senbon, six per wave. As he slammed them into the chunks of meat, they sizzled and dried out, instantly becoming jerky. Many times, the effect spread out in the canal, dehydrating others beside. After a few minutes, the entire canal was bone dry, and littered with delicious mystery meat jerky.
2/3

Al jumped in, and walked around as he bent low, picking up jerky left and right. After sticking a few pieces in a pouch to save for later, he grabbed the rest and hauled them down to a vendor. After being told (with relief) that it was *mostly* beef, he picked up a bit of extra cash, and went on his way. Before he left the area, he created a clone, which quickly ran to the inflow and opened it, before being exploded by the sheer deluge of water. Smiling, Al wandered around and looked at the various stalls. At the household, the water pressure dropped ridiculously.
3/3 Clean the Canals: MEAT!

((Alright, well, I'm taking over until Zeo gets back so that we can move on with this.))

As Zane's silence dragged on, Bast determined that the sudden rush of responsibility had overloaded his mental circuits temporarily. She decided to relieve him of some of this burden.

"Alvard, please go smack the critter hard enough to get it out here. We're trying to subdue it, not kill it, so please don't do anything along the lines of a kill shot."