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"I'll be fine, thank you," said Rage, waving his good arm towards the bar. "You're free to take as much orange juice as you like, y'know. I'm not gonna judge you. I need to make sure I stick with Sun and Grendel out there. I've gotten myself into a mess that shows no signs of allowing me out of it."

Somehow, he hadn't caught the name of the man who had gone tearing off a bit before. For some reason he felt the name Grendel suited him. Why?

For the same reason he felt Fuzzy suited Madison.

"Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that the princess has been kidnapped by her evil stepsister, and it's up to a bunch of intrepid young heroes to go and save her. But since nobody has a plan, the whole fairy tale kind of falls apart."

He shrugged, then looked out towards Sunstrike. "I'm waiting on the Salamander to explain things a little more, since it seems like he's got some sort of plan."

He had to come, there was no question left. Perhaps he had done something evil, and we must all fear evil men, but there is another kind of evil, which we must fear most, and that is, the indifference of good men.

Grend--Max wasnt exactly sure that the door needed such a swift kicking open. But Sun was having a moment, and far be it from him to rob anyone of a smile the size of the kind on the other mans face.

He gave Katie a stout appreciative nod...mainly because Sunstrike had. He wasnt aware the woman had carried him in, and he wasnt aware she was asked told to stand guard. But if he had done something worth appreciating, anything worth doing once is worth repeating. His eyes fell from Katie down, to look at the bunny girl and give a matching nod. The majority of a fresh steak hanging from his mouth, his teeth holding it in place as he slowly cocked his head to the side, holding his gaze. He knew her. He couldnt place where or how, but somehow he did. And no sooner did he realize that, than did he realize he was staring, and suddenly look somewhat embarased, offering a wave to the little one before addressing both women, and saying.

I'm sorry you both had to see all that.

Somewhat shyly, before following Sunstrike the rest of the way in. The two might notice, that the fangs Maximos and black eyes the Shadow had earlier displayed were now smaller, rounder, his eyes were back to the mismatched black and white they had on the original chopper ride. It was as if the monster they'd beheld was fading away. Of course offering Rage a similar stout nod. This time for the use of his facility. When his stomach was feeling better stocked he'd be sure to exchange these "I owe you" type of nod's for more meaningful words. These people, every one, deserved it.

Sun mentioned a show. And the tables were arranged in an odd sort of way, but he assumed the answers would come soon enough. For the moment he was content to enjoy his meat, and scan the room for a head count of sorts.

He took first note of Anuksu his personal responsibility, then Twitch closest to Anuksu, Damion and Lazenca denizens of the chopper, Dietric and Asherah both contestants from Heaven or Hell. And lastly, but not leastly Ichigo.

Where are the Ravens? Where's Quin?

He said softly to no one in particular. Max didnt sit, he stood behind a chair, the chair beside Anuksu, and just watched for a moment. His bag empty, he stole a slab of meat from Sunstrike's pile and bit into it far more humanly, using a napkin to wipe clean his face after each bloody bite, there was no fixing his shirt. Someone else entered the establishment, others left, but Max wasnt an employee. He gave it no real thought.

Everyone was asking the questions he might, and so he was content to watch.

Sunstrike had already started to sketch, slouched over the huge piece of paper, and even climbing up onto the tables to get to certain ends. He was thinking too fast again, and muttering. It wasn't that he was ignoring people, just that he was trying to get something right in his mind enough to recreate it for everyone else's benefit.



For the moment, it essentially looked like a blob. Every now and again he'd hold out his hand as if he were counting, or measuring up, then would either shake his head and rub something out, or nod and move on.

Once he'd gotten that part down, he'd start laying down little sketches and x's over significant area's and locations, even before he was halfway through the design, people would start to realize that this was a giant representation of their home, their continent. How the hell did Sun know?

Sunstrike was a collector and a creator. He loved figuring out how things worked. And knowing where things were, even very simply like this, was part and parcel of knowing how they worked. That, and he'd had a lot of free time on his hands in the early days of his arrival at the stadium. With Latent being a port town, it didn't take two and two to figure out where he'd amassed his knowledge, even if some parts were a little sketchy. Like said giant table map.

"Right. We...are somewhere, around here." He marked Gambino's X with the name of the island. "The other major cities, as well as Latent Town, are here, here, here....annnnd here, not hugely accurate, but you get the gist."

He stood back, then went to the far west and sketched something else. A skull.

"During HoH, it became more and more apparent, that lines of communication were ceasing along this route. Places like Barton Town have completely changed their structure in order to compensate for the growing force of...something, headed our way."

Lines and arrows were drawn to indicate movement.



"Now, I'm not askin ya to fight an army, s'only about ten of us anyway...I propose, we visit some key places that...I'll...just...mark. Er...hmm."

He looked at the map, then felt around his pockets, as if he'd managed to cart any stuff around with him after the fights.

"Anyone got a red pencil?"

"You can do what you want; and my arm's fine, thank you." In short order he was being pulled along by the shorter woman, deciding it would be best to see if he could at least get a decent view of the project Sun was working on. He had gotten himself involved in this mess, and now he felt he had to do his part to get everyone out of it. At least it seemed like things were moving again, with Sun drawing out what looked like a... map?

Durem, Barton... Latent... Aekea....

There was another X at the top of the major land mass.

"'Ey, Chief. What about that one up north?"

He tried to block the thoughts out of his mind. Despite all that had happened there, he began to wonder about the town where he spent the early years of his life, and the town where he had known his mother to live in, last he checked.

... this was more widespread than he thought.

The rabbit had looked up with Maximos' apology, she wasn't entirelly sure why he was apologizing. It must had been a vampire thing. She nodded smiling in acknowledgement as she didn't want to disturb Sunny's work that was being done on the table.

Madison nodded as she continued to watch Sunstrike mark out the map. She was actually for once listening rather intently. Maybe it was cause Reiyvian should up, and naturally she wanted to be good, considering their relationship. She had a great deal of questions to ask her in private, and mainly they were about Shin. But of course, that was meant for another time.

She had than noticed the Siren who was rather quiet at that point, she seemed a slightly worrisome about her now. The woman was acting slightly like a blank slate. But it wasn't long till Madison noticed the large mysterious X. What on Earth could that be?

Ichigo watched and listened to Sun's explanation as he scribbled upon the parchment, creating a fairly good improvised map. Of course, being improvised, it was expected to be a little sketchy, but at least it got the details out for what Sun needed to say.

It was a hell of a lot better than Rukia's illustrations. If she had drawn the map it'd be full of unneccessary crayon marks and bunny rabbits.

Nevertheless, Ichigo got the point. They were facing an enemy heading from the west, heading east. Or was it east to west? Sun didnt draw a compass on the map, so for all Ichigo knew he was only seeing it from his position of facing Sun's direction. Then again, the titles would most likely indicate whether it was right-side-up or not, so he just assumed it meant eastward.

And then there was that big, black X next to Barton, with a line trailing behind it. What could that mean? What did the line mean, even? People were no doubt thinking the same thing, and Ichigo was going to be the one to ask the question the others had on their minds.

He stood up, placing his hands on the table, almost as if this was a courtroom. "Wait a sec..."

He then leaned forward, pointing his index finger at the map where the mysterious X was written. "What's that big X next to Barton supposed to be?"

Even though he asked, the thought started to enter Ichigo's head shortly after, as if the conclusion was dawning on him from memory. Could that have been...?