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Larry was so close to that little ball of laundry dryer fluff that he could just taste it. His muscles bulged with adrenaline as he scraped the bottom of the barrel for energy. He was thankful that he didn't have to go another hundred or so, otherwise he might have simply tossed the cat over and filed it an occupational hazard. Taking advantage of the increased amount of tree limbs to hop and jump on, he quickly monkeyed his way up the tree and landed himself on a branch near the top. It was good and thick, so he sat down and stretched and massaged his sore muscles. "Ohh, thank you God." he told the sky, while simultaneously popping his neck.

Now, not more than three or four branches over from the stranded cat, Larry was just loving life. "What's new, pussycat?" he asked the cat in a sly tone. The cat just looked back at him with wide eyes and its ears folded back. Slowly, carefully, Larry crawled along the branches and made his way toward his feline prey.

Then, just as he was about to spring out and grab it, another set of human hands tightly seized the cat!

Conference room B, MMHQ

With a loud click, the door closed behind the mercenaries. Joel accepted the water with a word of thanks to Riku. He slid out a chair and sat down, unconsciously choosing a position where he could see the door. Picking up a sheet of pale blue paper, Joel glanced at the the first few lines, confirming details of the mission which he had heard described over the phone. Satisfied, he put the paper back down. Joel took a slow sip of water before speaking.

"If you've spent any time here, you already know that about twenty miles south of here there's a large city, population several million, with a tech level in the information age. Internet, skyscrapers, cars, standard stuff. Recently, their police received a complaint from, "Joel looked at the mission description, "Sunny Days apartments complaining that the guy next door was shouting in the middle of the night. The cops told him to be quiet, and the problem was solved."

A tiny gust of wind blew at a paper on the table. Joel placed one of the empty glasses on top of it and resumed speaking. "What caught the attention of higher authorities was that the man was screaming the name 'Thanatos.' Thanatos is the name of a demon from a minor world who is heavily suspected of supporting illegal portal activity. He's been sending his priests offworld recently; there's a note here that an agent here code named Requiem has some experience with these priests. They have other reasons to believe that this man is connected with Thanatos, although - " Joel looked at the mission profile again, "they don't say what those reasons are." Joel took another sip of water.

"The bottom line is, we have to extract someone who is most likely a hostile evil cleric from a building full of civilians. Any questions?"

Opening an eye, he quickly shut it again. The light, what little there was, was still too much for him. Eventually, with much blinking, he was able to see clearly without searing pain. He noticed that he was in a room that almost looked like a hotel room, except for the metal door and bars lining the window. He wasn't even shackled up or anything.

Trying to stand up, Cyrith fell over, creating a loud bang. That was when a little slot on the door opened up. "So. Our little guest is awake. Would you like some cheese? Well, too bad. Only COWS can have it." Cyrith looked confused. Cows? What did the animal have to do with the hoarding of cheese? Did they finally revolt against the farmers, and instead milk them instead? The captor saw this thinking, and quickled rebuffed him.

"Not the animal, you idiot. COWS. Cheese Over World Salvation. God, you're a moron." This made Cyrith mad.

"Well, I'm not the one that is stealing cheese just to rule over the world, you big meanie head."

"Poop head."

"Diaper face."

"Butt licker."

"You Girl Scout."

"You....you...argggh. I'll get you yet."

"I win. Yes!" All the people around that could hear the exchange just graoned at the immaturity of the two. How did that guy become our leader, and why were we dumb enough to follow him? Oh, yeah. Money.

_Agrotera accepted the water with a soft murmur or thanks before looking at Joel as he began talking. She beladtedly realized he had asked her about her codename and she had not answered. I will tell him when he's finished. She listened patiently while the two spoke and explained the mission and the things they would need. Fortunately she could easily attach a light crystal to her swords so that they would work on these creatures.
_She took a slow sip of the cool water, looking down into the swirling depths. She brushed her hair out of her eyes then turned to dig around in her bag. From the depths of the tiny bag she pulled forth a metallic black laptop, a little blue light on the side blinking steadily that matched thier comm links, which meant it was hooked to the mishaps base. She pulled up a screen and began typing, pulling up information.
_"Lets see here. O, and Joel. I suppose my codename is Styxx. Thats what the bosses have been calling me over the comm.
Anyways, we do need those crystals. And we need, if at all possible, to get the civilians out of the surrounding buildings, because I have no doubt that this will get ugly, fast. And the last thing we need are lots of mortals running around in a panic screaming and possibly hostile shooting at these things if they see them. Which will hinder us, and simply piss off the demons in the process. So, if we cannot easily get the cops cooperation to extract the cilvilians, we can arrange for our techs to pull the fire alarms and send the people scambling for safety. Once outside, have some of our tech'S holding them back, place some toy smoke bombs in the building so that it looks like a low level fire. Then say some kids were playing a prank and let them go on about thier lifes. While this happens, we will be inside the building and to the target before they are released.
_If you do not wish to do that, I can guage the time where the most civilians will be out of the buildings due to work schedules and we can pop in, kick a**, and begone before they are home for supper."
_She took another sip of her water and smiled. "The internet is a marvelous little toy. Can find anything here."
_Glanceing back down she typed in the Sunny Days apartments and looked up the building next door, then pulled up the police report to see it herself. Reading down she frowned and scanned it again before looking up.
_"Do you have the man's name on your files Joel? Because if not, its classified information, and though I can get it if I try, that would mean the man has government or military connections so that he remains nameless. Which will not bode well for us. Adds lots of little,... complications."


{{ooc:Yesh! I am back, woo! Anyways, I just wanted to throw a curveball in there, if you would rather him be a clean civillian, I can always scroll down an be like, oops, there it is, missed it dear, false alarm! La!}}

Riku listened to Agrotera's idea, and nodded his head. "Good idea. However, we'll also need some of our men disguised as firemen; getting the real fire department involved will be too risky. As for those who can't or won't get out of the building, we'll need a way to remove them without drawing too much attention."

He then looked down at the map. "Now there's another problem. If, more likely WHEN we encounter the monsters, we'll have the problem of keeping the civilians from knowing what's going on. A distraction of some sort. Trust me, I've fought demons before; even low-level ones can create one hell of a mess."

Riku walked over to Joel and Agrotera. Something doesn't seem right about this, he whispered to them. Normally, when demons move in, they slaughter all the inhabitants of the location, then replace them with their own in disguise. Yet these civilians are still human beings. This concerns me.

Falling through the air, dozens of miles high it seemed, Larry fell after the cat burglar. He'd seen enough movies about spies and commandos to know that folding up his arms and legs so that he was like an arrow would help him catch up. Unfortunately, the drop was not anything like a skydive. Not only was there the issue of the wind rushing into his face, but also the risk of getting too close to the face of the tree and bouncing off of it like a pinball.

They were not quite as far up as Larry had hoped and the ground rushed up to meet them faster than he was able to catch up to his enemy. Every time he made a little progress in catching up, it seemed like he lost ground. Without warning, Larry's line went taut just seconds before he noticed his enemy's following suit. This opened up an opportunity for him.

Out of nowhere, the enemy agent felt an enormous WHUMP! in the side. Larry had wrapped his arms tightly around the agent's waist and was proceeding to lay a barrage of blows to his rival's face. The enemy agent was decked out, paramilitary jumpsuit, utility belt and pouchs strapped down here and there, which Larry assumed was for the heavy-duty stuff. The only thing that offset the look was the ridiculous sight of a cat stuffed in the front pouch, screeching like a senile woman being tazed.

Larry may have thought he had done something to tip the scales, but his punches were quickly met by several more just like the first one he had taken in the eye. Within seconds Larry's face and nose were throbbing with pain and he struggled to get the agent's goggles off to try and gouge their eyes out with his fingers. He got his fingers under the goggle strap and began to pull, setting off a very painful reflex in the agent's fist. "Errrgh! I'll get you ya mmrrrrfffgghhggrrrrr!!" Larry growled incoherently while the agent continually pummelled his now black eye.

Though the agent tried and tried to shake him off, Larry's hand stayed clenched around the goggle strap. Meanwhile, as the two of them fought, their bungees had almost completely slowed them down. Above, however, on the treebranch they were both anchored to, a single little tiny cell of the treebranch severed in half. It was too microscopic of a change to notice, but that was soon to change.

A sharp sound rang out like a gunshot firing, the branch snapped all at once like it was a twig. Larry and the agent fell helplessly toward the ground and Larry just knew it was all over. With a resounding thud, he hit the ground and everything went dark...

((OOC: To Mr. F, now might be a good time to check that darn cat's vital signs xd ))

ooc::: Meh its late I know, but it's black out week at work Dx Biggest week of the year fer us. SO they've been litterally forcing us poor little depraved cooks to make gyros at the hand of an evul whip Q~Q

Anywhowho, Profiles will be updated sometime to tommrow, (Dunno when that'll be) I just gotta write down all the info ryou guys gave me and organize it. And, uh, go on a codename givin frenxy Cause most of you guys are still going on a first name basis which is a nono for missions ;x

And this the last Kairin, Xinrie together post. Now She and I and Ryanna shall be using our own accounts to post actions. Just FYI

~*~*~*~

Kairin stretched her neck to look upwards. A gloved hand shielded her eyes from the blinding spotlight. Before her, a dozen beautifully clad women and two men danced in a medley of graceful twists and turns. Their form fitting outfits shone with glittering stars and their ribbons waved behind them as they effortlessly leaped from one end of the stage to the other. The crowd was mesmerized, entranced by the sparkling lights and entrancing music. Kairin had to hand it to the owners of this circus, they did a good job. Even she felt drawn in by the enchantment. It was no wonder Ryanna’s niece had been so drawn to this. She doubted anyone, even Ryanna herself, could resist the magic.

Just then, Xinrie plopped down next to Kairin, her arms stuffed full of cotton candy, popcorn, soda and Pocky. “Can you believe that none of these stupid vendors sell Pocky?!” She said through a mouthful of popcorn. “I had to convince that guy with the long beard to drive me into town. Nice guy. Had sort of a womanly figure though…”

Except Xinrie. “Will you quit stuffing your face and watch. We need to be sure we can follow ‘Runaway-Rindell’ back to her tent when this is over.”

Xinrie sighed. “Jah? And how are we supposed to locate her if we don’t even know which one she is? I mean, look at ‘em! They’ve all got to be, like Asian or something. They all look the same.” Taking a bite a Pocky, Xinrie kicked up her booted feet onto the seat in front of her, completely disregarding the head of its occupant. “She could be any of ‘em, I mean, which one do ya’ think she is?”

“Oh, I don’t know, how about the one with the WHITE HAIR?!” Kairin would never understand how it is that Xinrie could be so good at fighting if she missed such key details. “Ah! I think it’s ending.”

Xinrie straightened up in her seat. As Kairin followed the acrobat’s movements. “Look! Clowns! Pfft-Bwahaha! Ahhh…funny monkey. Hey Kai, did you see the monkey in the tuxedo?” Xinrie grabbed Kairin’s head and turned it in the direction of a dancing monkey that had high jacked the clown car.

Kairin tore her head away from Xinrie and back towards the acrobats. They were gone. “I lost them!” She shouted as she exasperatedly grabbed at her hair. “Great Xinrie, now how are we supposed to find them?!”

“Wha- oh, just check every tent. The bearded man with the womanly figure will help us. Now, watch the show. Ha! Now it’s driving into the crowd…Oh…maybe that wasn’t part of the show….”

CRASH! Larry woke up to the sound of the bungee-propelled tree branch hitting the ground, miraculously away from his head. It felt like a death metal band was playing in his head. He slowly moved all of his limbs to make sure that he was not paralyzed, all of them passing the test. Larry rolled over onto his back and upon getting halfway, felt a stabbing pain in his ribs. He groaned and coughed, trying to suck some air back into his lungs. From the top of his forehead blood trickled down to his ear.

It had been a long time since something this bad had happened to Larry and he was not about to let it be the last time. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, he slowly sat up and undid the bungee straps. After he had gotten enough air, he looked over to his side. There, face down beside the tree, lay the lifeless body of the rival agent. Still clad in jumpsuit and a now shattered set of goggles, the body was perfectly preserved. Larry hadn't noticed before, but the agent was also wearing a mask that completely covered and only left a slit for the eyes and nose.

In the front pouch the cat was struggling to get out, the perfect opportunity to complete the mission and scram. After regaining his reflexes a little, Larry crawled over to the cat and unzipped the pouch, grabbing it and taking it in his arms. He wasn't going to look at the corpse any longer than he had to, it was only one of many he had seen in his life. Looking up, Larry noticed the old woman who had been sitting eating popcorn earlier.

"Heya ma'am." he told her politely, despite his cracked ribs killing him slowly "This must belong to you." The lady responded not by thanking him and patting him on the head like the grandmas in his old neighborhood would have. No, instead Larry recieved a crippling blow from behind which sent him to the ground. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear the cat screeching again as the old woman put a collar around it's neck that pacified it immediately.

"You're right..." Larry saw the lips of the old lady say in a gruff man's voice "It does belong to me!" Larry was horrified to see the old woman proceed to remove her hair, her face, her ridiculously-patterned dress, all the components of a disguise. Now, in her place stood a swarthy mediterranean man with black-brown hair and stubble. His eyes pierced into Larry's heart as the rival agent from before, who beyond imagination was still alive, grabbed him by the scruff of his vest and stood him up.

And there he stood. Outgunned, out-equipped, out-manned and out-trained. The unmasked man stepped forward and clutched Larry's face to his.