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"Scyrix NO!"

Those words echoed with the small girl's head.

"No...? Scyrix no?" she quietly repeated, turning her head to look at the man.

His mouth opened... but nothing came out? Did he try to mouth something to her? What was it? He looked distressed and at the same time angry. Why was this? Did he not like his voice?

Not really focusing on the surroundings or anything in the area at the moment, as minds of children often wander, Nel didn't notice Scyrix fall, but the thud his body made she heard... and at it's sound jumped.

Pressing herself against the wall, hands together near the chin, the symbol looked at the fallen figure. "S-ee-rik-ss?" she questioned, looking for some sort of response.

Was he really human? Those tentacles didn't look too human like.

So, the lass did what she thought was right. Taking the lid of the trashcan as a shield and ripped slipped as a sword, the metallic child knelt and started poking Scyrix in various places, as if waiting for something to happen.

The tendrils twitched and Nel yelped in return, hiding behind the lid, her frame so small that the the top of the trashcan completely covered her.

"Do not cry. You should not cry?"

A voice once more. It hurt, she winced and shuddered, but even though the kid felt weak, she didn't budge... with sparks flying from her eyes.

"C-c-cry? I'm not crying... a-are you?"

That was all that the entity said, leaning to the side of the lid to see what was happening on the other side.

"Are you um... mmm... a-alright?" the girl asked gently, looking not at Scyrix but at the tentacles. They were so weird... Nel has never before seen tentacles in her life... not that she could remember at least, so tentacles on a human seemed even more strange... then again... were normal humans supposed to have them?

"Sci, I'm going to find you, okay?"

The lass closed both eyes and shook her head. It hurt.

"Ssi" she pronounced. "S-ee-riks"

Looking up at the sky for a minute, now standing, the symbol considered that "Sci" was definately easier than "Scyrix"

"W-who is going to find you?" Nel asked secretively? "Why are you hiding? Is it a game? Oooh! Oooh! Can I play? Please?"

Games. Such fun, especially after being alone for so long...

"I have to go now"

"Aww... a-alright... Umm... I...I... umm..." the girl studdered a bit, small sparks appearing near her eyes.

"Alright..."

"Will you really come back?" Nel asked skeptically, leaning in, hands behind her back. People that would stay with a seemingly vagrant child didn't exist to the girl's knowledge and Scyrix... he was the first. By all means, the symbol looked like a normal child through the pigmentation of dust using constant surges of energy, but the feel of her was anything but human. Her weight was equal to a that of a motorcycle. Her skin was hard and sometimes incredibly cold or deathly cold... the temperature jumped around often, but it was a normal "warm" most of the times.

"A game, really? What kind of game?" the symbol did her best to ignore the pain coming from this telepathic communication.

"If he thinks that I'm not hurt, maybe he won't go" that was the current thought process.

The entity blushed by applying proper energy focus to the dust in the the face area when Scyrix had figured out that the lass had been staring at the tendrils all along.

"Are you sure you can't stay?" The small figure asked, playing with a pebble by poking it with her bare toe.

I cannot stay. There is someone who needs me right now, replied Scyrix quietly, but I promise I will return before night comes, if you wish. He looked up at the sky, noticing how dark it had become already, though he surmised that the color was mostly due to the stormclouds that had swept over the city. This was good for him, because it meant that he didn't have to concentrate on hiding so much. He wouldn't have to expend so much energy.

The tendrils slipped out of his trenchcoat again, and he continued on the ground, deciding not to use his magical ability because of the pain in his scarred eye (his focus). With some effort, he contacted Kari. Her relief was nearly palpable and he let it wash over him before communicating with her.

What has happened? he asked. The woman replied in short bursts, her attention obviously somewhere else.

We've been intercepted by the Technocrats--Scyrix quickened his pace--There are two men here with weapons: a gun and some sort of crossbow. There's also a van in front of the alley. I don't know, but there may be more men inside. One of the two in front of me probably knows you're out there--he's the one with the gun, be careful. Radus has made a deal with them. I'm to go free.

Sci, I want you to stay unseen, but get as close as you can. If anything bad happens... I'll keep you posted... With that, Kari severed the link between them. Tentatively, Scyrix leaped to a rooftop, and was relieved to find that his head didn't hurt so much anymore. In a few moments, he was within eyesight of the van.

He wouldn't return... no not at all... would he? She would never see him again.

"Can I..." started Nel as the man started walking away. Kicking the pebble with which she had been fooling around for the past few minutes, the girl hesitated.

"... go with you?" the lass finally uttered at the very same moment when the man flew up on to the roof of the building near which they had met.

"Mmmm..."

Sparks started flying from the portion of the shell that were shaped like eyes.

"I know..." the symbol's face suddenly lit up. "This must be the game he talked about. What if he started now but forgot to tell me? It's hide and seek! I'm good at this one!"

And with that, the entity ran in the direction that Scyrix was headed. Quickly looking around to make sure no one was watching, the entity altered her gravitational pull, pushing off the metal and shell from her body and herself from the earth with an initial "Whoo!" followed by a series of "Whee!" after a few somersaults in mid air.

From up high, Nel never did spot Scyrix but instead a group of people, four of them.

"One of them must be Alice. I wonder if she's Scyrix's friend."

With that Nel let out another long winded "Whoohoohoo!" and ever so gently set her pull so that it would attract the pieces of the shell to her body. Even though most of the parts landed in the wrong places, due to the force and heat they molded into place anyway. Running, the child adjusted the temperatures and power outputs to give the dust a color that matched a human's skin.

"Ready or not, here I come!"

Yelled the lass as she neared the opening where four people held a staring contest.

"There isn't time! Look," Ren continued, in a tone that would have shaken even the staunchest soldier. Still, he could see why Alice might protest. Ren walked briskly, in a half-leaping sort of way, over to Alice's desk. The scrawny man, nearly taken aback by his own lucidity of thought, abruptly snatched a small, round, clear glass paperweight from her table, holding it dangerously close to her face in the palm of his mechanical hand.

"This appears to be a perfectly ordinary object. As far as you and I are concerned, it is." Ren paused for an infinitesimally short moment here, as he was unsure whether or not it was one of Alice's own foci--the personnel files on the panoptica were information to which he was not privy--but he discarded the possibility as "acceptably remote" and continued with his explanation. "However, it could be a focus for anyone, and there is no way to know for sure unless we see it for ourselves."

Ren's machine arm deposited the paperweight in its precise original position. "Thane and Diederich are both excellent field agents, but neither of them actually know that this... magic exists, nor what a focus is. You must tell them to confiscate any small objects immediately from their prisoners or, best case, they will find out the truth. I cannot guarantee that they will remain members of the technocracy once that happens."

Ren gently replaced his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He now felt much more comfortable, the probabilities surrounding him having resolved themselves and begun to act normally. Alice Sutter might have been a pawn of the Bydo Empire, but she was, if nothing else, very cooperative.

Scyrix practically flew through the streets, somersaulting around posts and leaping off the walls as fast as his tendrils would carry him. Had he been completely visible, he would have appeared as a formless black blur darting from wall to wall. As it was, his magical ability distorted the scenery, so that if anyone looked closely, he or she would be able to barely spot him as he zipped by.

Nervously, Scyrix glanced back to see if they were being followed. Surely someone would have heard the girl yell.

'The girl'; Scyrix snorted. He had never asked her what her name was. He stopped for only a moment, resting neatly on the railing of a balcony, his eye scanning the area. He didn't see anyone thankfully, but security cameras everywhere poked out of every nook and cranny. He slipped off the balcony, and continued to dash about, for the first time allowing himself to have fun.

Do you see those cameras? he asked the girl. They are an extra part of the game. You cannot let those cameras look at you, okay? Because if you do, the game is over. And if you see anyone else, you cannot let them spot you either. Scyrix's tone had become lighter; he seemed to be enjoying himself now that any immediate threat had been ruled out--for now, at least.

His heart lifting with excitement, the dark haired man slid silently in the opening of a chimney on a rooftop. She'd never find him in here, even if she looked for a million years! Sci grinned playfully, for the first time in many many months. The dilemma with the Technocrats was all but forgotten. Kari would be fine. She always came out of everything okay. So why shouldn't Scyrix be allowed to play around a bit? He'd worked very hard in the past. Nothing wrong with taking a break, right?

Besides, he hadn't ever had this much fun before....

Hey, what is your name? Scyrix called telepathically, making certain to distort the mental signal so that she would not be able to locate him. If he was lucky, she would forget to do the same, so that he could trace the line of communication from her and know precisely where she was.

The invisible assassin slunk further down into the chimney pipe, his thin frame easily slipping through the narrow entryway. A yellow glare emanated from the room the chimney was connected to. Scyrix could barely make out the relaxed tapping of footsteps below. Someone was home...

"Hey! SCI! Come back! That's not fair!" Nel yelled as she did her best to keep up with the mad acrobat, pointing out the fact that it was hard for her to keep up... and that she technically couldn't jump on roof tops... not to mention that she couldn't see the person hiding.

"Do you see those cameras?" this was just a start of the new rule that Sci had posed.

"B...b..but.. you can't add rules!" the symbol yelled, voice quivering almost crying... or sparking in her case. Still, she ran... but then... something occured to her...

"Hey Sci, what's a Kamera?"

Well gods me damned... after living wherever for so long, it really is no wonder that the child didn't know what a camera was. For all she knew, it could be a cat... or a bird... or one of those moving beasts with round feet.

"Hey Sci... where are you?" the entity asked the emptiness around her... not even yelling, but rather talking to herself. At the time, it seemed like a losing battle. Cheating. Was it really fair or not in this case? If Sciry turned invisible and jumped away when Nellesethai couldn't do that... was it right for her to improvise and fly... or draw things to her?

"Hey, what is your name?"

"It's... it's Nellesethai..." the lass answered out loud, her face turning red. "Why... do... why did you want to know it?"

Nel couldn't track mental signals nor could she communicate telepathically while still being able to intercept and recieve communications.

One more interception.

"Hey Sci, what does subdue mean... and what's a tranquilizer?"