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Moe was cheering from his seat as Talon was driving--for lack of a better term- the spider creatures away. If he didn't know better, Talon that is, he'd suspect these little things were having fun. If walking oil cans could have fun. Why were creepy things always around him?

Something was mentioned from one of the others about the whereabouts of the Seeker. "Atelius? Probably ahead looking for a way out or someone to help... eh? "

Talon heard a soft whoosh of wings... well, sensed that Atelius was back from wherever he had some from. With the Biters at bay, Talon glanced over and watched this shadowy figure approach. He frowned and paused his efforts. He was alarmed, but didn't think that now was the time to attack something that Atelius appeared to not be screeching about as a warning. Moe squeaked and seemed to be chittering happily at this approaching being.

Human, female... Strikingly familiar to that one crazy lady he met in that temple where he got blessed with Cuddles and a flying library. Talon grinned, continuing to bop the spiders away... You'd think they'd learn that they can't fight a giant stick.

Zutnic continued to attack the biters completely ignoring Nick's approach. The other two he managed to trap fell victim to his two tail pincers, one on each side and were cast aside harshly. Their limp mechanical bodies smashing against the wall with a loud thud. Once those were dealt with he turned about face and chased the ones that had managed to get away. Three more of the annoyances were quickly taken care of by Zutnic's jaw and caws.

Atelius was having a hell of a time swooping for the remaining biters and not being shot by Ranee's weapon. The bullets would have done nothing to his armor, but it was still irritating to the metallic bird. Atelius only managed to grab one of the flaming spiders on his third pass by. He carried the flaming arachnid back into the entrance room where he than proceeded to toss the thing against a wall. Ranee's weapon managed to take out another leaving just one more flaming spider whom was luckily occupied by Talon's stick. The little guy was determined to conquer it.

With a chuckle Nick tapped her clawed finger on the metallic object she was holding onto. Three of the seven spiders paused in their pursuit and turned to face the source, tactfully avoiding the striker all the while.

Seeing the barrels of two guns pointed at her only made her grin widen. A sight she was used to by now. It did nothing to halt her steps toward the group however. One of the group remembered her through their last trial, the other seemed in limbo with his mind... the last, a new face.

"Many others have tried..." Nick chuckled, her voice dark and eerie. Much of what she used to sound like before had been permanently twisted with the voice of the Iron Judge, much to her dissatisfaction. "...tried and failed miserably."

"Oh for th-, don't shoot at the great mother's organoid!" Atelius screeched as he entered the hallway again. He couldn't help but feel a little prideful his human was the only one not to point a gun at the Iron Judge, Zutnic would have to get an earful latter about this.

Ah! That voice. He knew that voice. That was the voice of the crazy lady that thought him amusing. Little foggy on the details, but he did remember that much. Barely paying attention to the poor little flaming Spider trying to beat his stick, Talon snickered to himself.

With the screeching of Atelius to confirm his mental drama, Talon addressed Ranee. "'Leyenda', if I remember correctly... " Moe scoffed and was wiggling his little bum to jump, but then heard the clicking of the Biters and squeaked, clinging to Talon's shoulder. The flesh man winced and hissed through his teeth. Already five minutes into this and here he was injured from his own MRZ. Talon was about to mention how Nick looked well, but Shun beat him to it. So he shrugged and returned to toying with the spider.

Aww...its kinda cute... Not very bright, but give it a match and it could be brilliant! Naturally, it would be alight and make a good ... Hmmm.... Talon knelt and studied this little thing, using his walking stick to keep it away from him. "Hmm.... " The grand enterence of Nick was momentarily forgotten. No doubts she was going to end up leading them on some dangerous adventure resulting in the meeting of those nasty fire breathing dragon things depicted on the walls. Might as well start out somewhat relaxed.

Zutnic was very quick to take out another of the two Biters with his jaws and than another one with his large claw. The two left just barely managed to make it around Zutnic's tail as he slammed it on the ground. He continually made a very threatening clicking noise.

Atelius swooped down with his claws spread wide. His wings swiveled forward to cause some resistance in his pass so he might have a chance at grabbing one of the Biters. However the both managed to roll out of the way of the claws causing Atelius to scrape the ground and send some sparks, which in turn caused the little guys to become engulfed in flame as well. Atelius had no time to dwell as he corrected his flight path to prevent himself from plowing into Zutnic.

"Oh right, the fog made our last encounter seem like a bizarre dream... most of it anyways." Nick shrugged as she removed the object from its resting place on her shoulder and adjusted her grip so the sharp end was pointing downwards. "I've had some minor modifications since than. My employer is under the false impression that the less humanity I have the more obedient to -it- I become..." Nick shook her head and laughed. "How's your leg doing by the way?"

One of the three biters broke away from the rest and charged toward Nick. It quickly found out what it was like to be a shish kabob. The other two marched forward at less of an ambitious pace.

"Incognito, sure." She respond to Talon, though her focus shifted to Ranee

"And a new face to the group. You look the pampered sort..." She chuckled and tapped the metallic object with her sharp claw once again. This time the remaining two, now on fire, turned about face and begun to scurry toward Nick at an uneasy pace.

It was now even more personal than before. The small determined little biter made a bibbling noise as it lept toward the stick with all appendages spread wide. The effort seemed so promising, however the little devil was once again sent rolling to the wall. With all the tumbling it was loosing a lot of it's fire fuel and thus the ball of flame was beginning to flicker. Its red eyes were also starting to turn purple.

talon figured it was only fair. After all, the girl had freaked when the information was revealed that Shun and He had hidden these great mechanical marvels from the Empier for so long, it was only going to result in a fairly similar freak out. Possibly worse. Hell, the woman had a gun in her hand. Talon liked living. A lot.


"To be fair, you should have seen her freak at the unintentional reveal. It's kinda cute, isn't it Moe? " Attention was pulled back from the humanoid organoid and to the slowly bluing Biter. Aww...its loosing steam.

Moe chirped back at Bent-tail the findings. Seemed like the spider wasn't interested in Talon; it was the stick that was the evil being. Aw... Moe crawled down the stick, tilting its head to one side, then the other. And held out a paw to the eight legged stubborn thing. A sort of a ' Hiya! You okay little burning flame thing? ' .

Talon was quite aware that there was danger looming just beyond the shadows, but he'd deal with that when that came. Did he really want to think of rolling boulders and sudden drops into pits of flames? Not right away. Give it a few minutes and he'll be annoyed, grumpy, and doing everything he can to distract himself from Doom.

As the first of the four spiders approached Nick she took another step than drove the sharp end of the metallic object through it's back. Shun's gun quickly did away with the other one causing it to explode and the fire quickly engulfed the two that were already impaled on her weapon. Nick ignored it completely. She only smiled at Shun's first question.

"You would know if it was." She spoke with amusement. He had almost gotten to see the Iron Judge, he caught the beginning of it. So far Talon was the only one to even see a mild version of that persona and even that was noticeable.

"They will be released by the end of it I'm sure, but no, I have something more important to deal with here." Using the tip of her steel toed boot she scraped the two burning corpses from the end of her stick than placed it back on the ground so she could lean on it.

Two more shots from Ranee's gun removed the rest of the minor threats from the room. The only Biter to remain, not trapped in a wall compartment, was busy trying to conquer the stick.

Zutnic, having been satisfied with his work, walked back to Shun's side with his head lowered to the ground. His jaws and claws were covered with a thick layer of oil from his assault on the explosive critters. It wasn't an issue, he couldn't taste and for the most part was invulnerable to fire. Luckily he could not see that it made his armor less shiny in the areas it was plastered on.

Like Zutnic, Atelius returned to his master's side. His head was held high proudly. Unlike the striker, Atelius had managed to avoid getting and of the oil of his armor and thus remained as shiny as he had been.

The little biter's eyes were now completely blue and the fire was completely out leaving its armor black. The cover on its abdomen was replaced, the red glow was now blue as well signaling it was void of oil. In a bubbling huff it rolled onto its back and let its legs crumple up as if someone had killed it. As it did this it completely ignored Moe's greeting. Instead it made a constant bubbling/clicking noises as it rocked back and fourth on its back.

"A shame I missed it." She looked from Ranee to Talon and back again. Her eye brightened. "I'm sure you'll catch on quickly Princess... It's really not that hard to figure out when you see it from a different angle. Though, I can guarantee you will wish you had remained ignorant..."

Nick laughed as she jammed the metallic object in the ground than left it wobbling about as she turned around. Her hand had created some nice grooves near the base where she was holding it. It almost looked like a blunt sword.

"Best we get moving than.... Wouldn't want you soldiers out past dark."

Moe squeaked and crawled down and then peered at the poor spider. It hooted, squeaked and rolled it onto its feet. Talon just raised an eyebrow and held out a hand to the little thing. Poor thing... Probably was traumatized. And tired.

"Ignorance is bliss. More people should learn that. " He glanced at the still shiny Atelius and nodded. Awesome. Not a fleck of oil on him. No need to clean the pretty thing. Moe chirped and bounced over and practically leaped at Nick to climb onto her shoulder. Or at least get a pat. She may be more mechanical, but she was still a petter. At least in Moe's eyes.

Talon, holding the poor little spider, followed after Nick. Eh... at least she was honest. "Our babysitter might get worried. Wouldn't want that. Ooh..nice upgrade... " He said, observing the grooves in the metal. Very nice... He wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of that.

Zutnic puffed up at the praise. "Zutnic got more than the seeker too..."

However his ego was promptly blow when Atelius snickered. "Yes, and you've gone and made yourself dirty. Not so shiny anymore are you?"

"Still fight better.... " He hissed than quickly moved to the other side of Shun.

The Biter refrained from moving even as he was scooped up. Instead he continued to bibble. click, and twitch in his dramatic act. He was just frustrated that he couldn't win against the menacing rod....

Nick slowed enough so Moe could climb onto her right mechanical shoulder should he choose. Once up there, should he climb, would certainly earn a pat or two from Nick.

"Of course not. Heaven forbid you get put in time out..." She flexed her right hand, stretching the fingers before relaxing it once more at her side. ".... still a bit tight, but much better than it was." Not to mention heavy...

Ranee's comments went answered only with a grin. She would find out soon enough.

The long hallway was full of several of the cylinders protruding from the walls suggesting had the spike not been placed in time they would have been well overwhelmed, even if there were only ten Biters to a compartment. With the amount of circular runes on the walls it suggested their numbers could easily have made well over one-hundred. Thankfully there was nothing else to worry about down this long stretch of hall other than the anxiety that something would fall, crash, or even explode.

Next room was much larger than the entrance with four large pillars in each corner of the room. Against the wall to the left the walls were cracked suggesting a slight struggle. What looked to be a Biter twice the size of Nick lay sprawled on the floor, missing one of its forelegs and with its face damaged beyond recognition. In fact it looked to have been beaten to death by it's own leg as the numerous dents to its armor suggested. It's body was still smoldering in some places where the fire could feed off of the smashed smaller biters around it.

The only other opening in this room, aside the one they were coming from, was in the ceiling and by the looks of it that was nothing more than another compartment for the Biters, more specifically the large one crumpled on the floor.

On the opposite side of the room there were seven stone levers, one of which was already facing downward.

Nick drew her hood back before turning to face her 'guests' . "This, obviously, is as far as I got. One of those switches opens the pathway... the rest." She gestured toward the large biter with a quick flick of her head. "open more traps.... so who's up for a game?"

(( If your character pulls a lever randomize 1-6 in the thread.
-1 you'll only hear a click, but nothing happens. *wrong*
-2 a few clicks, something will happen *wrong*
-3 a few clicks and a rumble, something will happen *right*
-4 a few clicks, something will happen *wrong*
-5 you'll only hear a click, but nothing happens. *wrong*
-6 a loud rumble, something will happen. *wrong* ))