[FIN] Dangerous secrets (Talon and Shun)

[PuddleInk]

Moe let out a satisfied coo, nuzzling into that petting hand. It gave Talon a ' Ha ha, mine' look that oddly got no reaction this time. Talon had other things to deal with. Like, suddenly remembering that the carion bird was somewhere nearby. Probably perched somewhere randomly blinding some poor sap on the streets to pass the time.

Well, that's what Talon would be doing if he had shiny wings and such.


Scratching his chin, talon thought on the first answer. Well, at least that was an honest answer. He couldn't use it in court, but he'd believe it. He gave Shun a blank look when the pilot trailed off about the roulette wheel. Huh... Maybe he should go back to bothering the big wigs about that one. Clearly this guy wasn't as high up as originally thought. National hero seemed to be a useless title these days.

Talon got a sense that he was being accused of something. Lurking about in dark places, spying, paying a PI and all that junk. Dirty investigation basically. He frowned and raised an eyebrow. "I actually had a hunch when there was a parade down the main thorough fair led by some hero that killed someone that not only murdered their commanding officer, but folks around him. " Talon crossed his arms and glared lightly at Shun, "Then, I got really suspicious when suddenly this 'hero' was promoted and presented his claim to the Imperial Court. And to ice the cake, the story was shoved down my throat every day I walked into the office. " He grinned at Shun, "Call me paranoid, but a story like yours is rather outlandish to folks like me that want proof. But if I voiced that, I'd have been kinda... Well, dead. And dead is useless to the military. "

Long massive speech done with, Talon figured the guy was going to ask questions himself. So he raised an eyebrow and awaited them, doing a good job of ignoring a tentacle rummaging through his pant pocket to find the bag of 'treasures' that had been stashed there. Thankfully Cuddle's had the decency not to attepmt to steal back the treasure while Talon had been speaking. It would have ruined the seriousness.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun was doing his best to ignore the cuddlefish that as seemingly trying to pickpocket its master. Though out of the corner of his eyes, seeing tentacles reaching up a guy's pants just looked incredibly awkward.

"Yeah most people that spoke up about it ended up dead. I get the impression that the people on top don't exactly like to be wrong no matter what. If it weren't for that fact a very different story would have probably been presented to them," he mumbled. It was that sort of mentality that allowed his story to work in the first place after all. Well that and the dagger he showed off, "But believe me when I say I'm as sick of the whole damn story as you are."

He had to wonder how much suspicion there was around the 'murderer's' old story as well. Quite frankly he personally hadn't questioned it until that day. Considering how the Empire seemed to like to run, he momentarily questioned his reasoning for wanting to become a soldier in the first place.

"You didn't answer the question on who you are," he pointed out. Sure he got the idea that this guy was a fellow soldier who probably despised him at this point but that was about it.  

[PuddleInk]

Talon finally noticed the tentacles and hopped to the side instictivly and stared at Cuddles. The 'innocent' creature seemed to blink and hold out its tentacles wanting. The bag of treasure was removed and given, where all but the paperclip was discarded. Talon felt his eye twitch in frustration. Well, maybe he should just take the darn thing to an office supply store from here on in. Screw convenience stores.

"No... They really hate it it seems. Guess they don't like the truth. " Talon frowned in thought, though nodded at the other. "I'd say you were lying if I hadn't the hunch in the first place. But kudos for it working, I guess? "


Oh right. Who he was.. Well... some formality would be nice " Special Ops, Raptor squad. Call me Talon. " And Talon flashed him a grin again. It was a more friendly grin. With all Talon's questions answered and pretty much proof that he was right, he could happily wander away now and be just as, if not more happier than a clam in a sand bed. Moe let out a squeak and demanded to be introduced. " And Moe... " The little Dino seemed to grin proudly.

Cuddles was too busy playing with the paperclip to know what was going on. Pft... The thing bent in so many ways it was soo awesome!  

[Blade Kuroda]

"I guess," he grumbled. Shun's thoughts trailed off on the matter before looking back at Talon as he finally had a better idea of who it was that figured it out. So he was a part of the raptor squad. He had heard a couple things about it but there wasn't much really. From there he wondered if he should bother introducing himself formally since Talon already knew who he was. Eh, might as well.

"Shun Kuroda, Private First Class," he said in a more neutral tone, "And that's Bent-Tail."

Hearing his name, the rat let out a happy squeak while lifting his right metal paw in a sort of wave to acknowledge what was said.

Now that was done with, there was actually one or two more things the soldier wanted to know or confirm.

"You said she's doing alright, right? And... where or how exactly did you find her in the first place?"

Talon had said something along those lines initially but it might have just been to grab his attention more than anything. The last time he saw her was when she was being strapped to a wall by a bunch of chords when the Jury was going nuts so it was a fairly legitimate concern.  

[PuddleInk]

He really didn't care about the whole formality thing. It was protocol and protocol had to be upheld else chaos would ensue and what not. Talon nodded as the other introduced himself, and gave the rat organoid another pat on the head, seeming more enthused about the organoid than the pilot.



Cuddles finally caught on that there had been something nifty going on when its 'steed' squeaked and moved. It peered around and flailed some more, wanting attention. But alas... something shiny in the dirt caught its attention and it was off in a flash to 'excavate' spare change from the sand. The paperclip was being used as a shovel... despite how ineffective it was.

Talon watched this for a moment, not too sure he should point out the discarded remains of a spork not a tentacle's reach away. He was interrupted by a rather interesting question. How he had found this woman.

"It was an utter accident. I'm fascinated with the ancients and their belief system, so I knew of a temple on a previous scouting mission I wanted to go back to and really look into. Stumbled across a room that hadn't been there before... " Talon stopped...and realized that this place was still rather open for that sort of talk. Sigh... Idle chatter would be the death of him. He sighed and shot a glare at Moe. "You can actually blame Moe on this one. It's all its fault when you take out the fact that I had hardly a choice afterwards. I'd tell you the entire story, but I'd rather not... 'Leyenda' was quite persuasive in hush-hush. "

Talon blinked and then pointed to the cuttlefish that seemed very intent on using the paperclip...it was about 1/3 of the way done in the 'Digging of the Quarter'. "This guy ruined a shirt and has lasors on the end of its tentacles by the way. " SUBJECT CHANGE FTW! And Cuddles didn't hear any of this.  

[Blade Kuroda]

The cuddlefish seemed to have a relatively short attention span as Shun saw it decide to dig around the dirt with a paperclip. An amusing little thing it was...

Happily giving out another squeak as he was patted on the head once again, Bent-Tail found himself shifting a little closer towards Talon, possibly hinting that he wanted more pats and whatnot.

At the story presented, Shun raised an eyebrow. So it seemed that Talon had found her in somewhat of a similar fashion to his own encounter. She was in the one temple to find strikers, so what exactly was her whole agenda? Mysterious woman.

"This area isn't really ideal for that sort of thing anyway..." he mumbled while hesitating with his next few words, "But... good.. to see you're still in one piece. The temples around here seem to have... a number of structural hazards if I recall..."

At the sudden shift in conversation, Shun blinked and stared at the one digging in the dirt once again.

"...That's nice."  

[PuddleInk]

He obliged the rat with more pettings out of intense training Moe put him through. Seriously...if something squeaked and seemed to like human attention, it wanted to be petted. And if he petted it, he wouldn't get bit on the ear or bit anywhere.

Talon nodded, and sighed. "They really keep you on your toes... Temple running is great exercise regiment. I recommend the plaster tiles of terror. They're a smashing hit. " The endorsment was completed with a salesman smile and a thumbs up. Talon was far from serious. He was still in the point of view of throttling that engineer that came up with the plaster tiles over the pit of doom. That would be a fun day indeed. "But she did seem fine... After she threatened my life because Moe woke her from a nap. " The little dino on Shun's shoulder let out an indignant squeak and sniffed crossly at the accusation. How dare his human say such things! The human was the one that fell causing the little guy to tumble into the nice lady.

Cuddles stopped what it was doing, wiped away invisible sweat, glared at the sun and shook a tentacle. It was lost in its fantasy it seemed. No wonder this one was so speshul... Talon frowned softly at it and sighed. "Well... I suppose so... You don't happen to have anything on you that would work as a leash that's resistant to intense laser damage?" Talon rubbed the back of his neck and ever discreetly pushed the spork closer to the little cuttlefish.

The plastic was spotted and immediately tested out as a shovel. the cuddler seemed to contemplate the use of the paper clip and the spork... And it was working! The entire surface of the coin was now bare to the sky! The cuddler now was trying to lift the coin up so as not to disturb what possibly lay underneath. Seriously, this guy took excavating far too seriously.  

[GunSniper]

The noises proved to be a rather nasty distraction for Zutnic. Quietly he clicked to himself as she tried to adjust his view so he could get a look at what was making that noise. The humans tones had changed so it didn't seem like he would get to jump in at any time... it was disappointing, but not a total loss.

His curiosity might have blown his cover, or not... it was really up to how observant the human and his friends were.

Of all the things his focus fell to the cuddler. Familiar, the type was very familiar... where did he see that before... maybe if he had his other eye he would remember. Zutnic clicked silently cursing the loss of that eye...

Atelius caught sight in the sudden shift on the Zaber's neck. Curious... It took him a moment to figure out that that was one of the great mother's strikers. But not in a cluster of them? And being sneaky by itself? might have to investigate if it keeps moving toward the pilots.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Bent-Tail was quite overjoyed to receive more attention. Not that Shun didn't give him enough. It was just nice to get it from a different person for once. He wiggled his metallic rodent bottom before pausing as he noticed something moving on Fang. It was just Zutnic crawling around so he didn't pay the striker much attention.

Plaster tiles? It seemed the temple Talon visited had a few different hazards aside from falling ceilings of doom and crazy blade-covered machines. Speaking of such, Shun had his back to his zoid at the time being so he really had no clue that Zutnic was making his way towards them.

"Good to hear.." he said softly, almost inaudible. Shaking his head to himself, he glanced at Moe when it gave an indignant squeak and reached up to sort of scratch the little guy under the chin. His attention then shifted over towards the Cuttlefish which... was still rather engrossed with its 'archaeological find'.

"Can't say I do. The most I have to worry about are extremely sharp blades," he grumbled, thinking about the stowaway striker. It was probably a very good thing the strikers didn't have any sort of ranged attack... that he knew of at least.  

[PuddleInk]

Talon's eye caught movement on the quadrupedal zoid. He chose to ignore it, figuring that there was more to the guy in front of him than just the absolutely adorable and edible rat organoid. Talon would have sat down and played with Bent-tail right then and there if he hadn't the inkling that that would have looked no doubt strange and probably drawn eyes there way.

... Not that a cuttlefish digging a quarter out of the dirt wouldn't anyways, but that was besides the point!

Moe squeed a happy pur at the chin scratch. This one was trained too! Huzzah!

"Er..." Talon blinked at Shun, not sure how to respond. Talon was thinking of the bird creature that followed him around, so he was oblivious to the hitch-hiking striker. "Oh... I'll keep asking around then. Blades you say? Huh... I can't blame you on that...huh? "

Talon felt a tug on his pant leg only to discover that while he had been chatting and looking in the direction of Shun, Cuddles had somehow rigged a complex system of pulleys and levers with some found string. The quarter was being displayed proudly, held aloft by two tentacles. "Mine or.." The cuttlefish squelched angrily, hugged the new prize and started cleaning the dust off with the hem of Talon's pantleg. Talon just blinked and sighed, accepting that he was becoming meerly a chauffeur for small, cute, mechanical creatures. "Okay... Soo! Yeaah... Cuddles likes shiny things. And is something on that Zoid behind you? I swore I saw something move. "  

[GunSniper]

Zutnic made another quiet clicking noise as his head tilt just slightly so he could see what the cuddler had in its tentacles. Shiny... very glorious. Perhaps Shun human wouldn't mind if he ripped it from- OH! Those were with great mother at one time? bad, they were bad... no... Zutnic's small mind was strained for the moment as he thought in vein to figure it out.

It was getting hard to focus on blending in.

Atelius shifted a little. Luckily for Talon he had a lot more focus than the striker did and was able to keep himself from getting too close for the moment.  

[Blade Kuroda]

When Talon didn't give him more pettings like he had planned, Bent-Tail felt rather sad. It was more disappointment than anything, so he tried to nose his hand to get his attention once again.

Raising an eyebrow, Shun stared at the other soldier as he sort of awkwardly replied. What was he thinking about exactly? Though, when Talon's eyes went towards the Cuddler, so did his. It seemed it successfully managed to excavate the coin.

"I can see that... and hm?" Shun's instinct was to glance behind at Fang, so that's what he did. He was able to spot Zutnic fairly easily, if only because he knew about the striker's presence on his zoid in the first place. After shooting the pointy little beast a glare, he shook his head and tried to lie, "No... nothing there..."  

[PuddleInk]

There was a cold metalic nose nudging his hand. Talon had to look down away from the cuddler, blink at the rat as the request was slowly processed, then continue on with the petting. Sigh... Oh well.


Talon was known to space out here and there, but at least Cuddles was a great distraction on both parts. Satisfied with the shine of the coin, Cuddles held it aloft and made a bubbly ' Dun dun dun DUUUUN!' sound. The coin was then hugged again as more happy bubbling sounds came from the silver cuttlefish.

It suddenly paused in its odd happy dance when it felt an old enemy's presence. The little guy tilted and peered in the direction of the Sabre Fang, trying to see what could possibly be there. Then, it spotted it! The coin was instantly dropped ( landing on Talon's shoe oddly enough) and the little cuddler sped off in direction of the larger cat. There, in the sand was a perfect specimen! A gum wrapper! It cooed and burped in a fascinated manner. Then pulled the shiny out of the dirt to inspect it fuller. Oooh! Shiny foil wrapper!

Dismissing Cuddles to its own devices, Talon raised an eyebrow as he observed Shun. "Really? I swore I saw something move along the metal. Really shiny, kinda reflective... could be something silvery... Bah... I'm probably imagining things. " Talon picked up the coin from the top of his shoe and deposited it in the pocket of Cuddle's treasures. Anywhere else and he'd have to deal with an angry cuttlefish with lasers.  

[GunSniper]

Zutnic clicked a quiet protest before it reluctantly begun to creep back to where it was before. His claws flexed when the cuddler made a dart for the gum wrapper. Kill, the thing needed to be shredded!

*KIICKCHISS* It finally clicked out loud aggressively before ducking back down against the neck. Bad move! Bad Zutnic!

Atelius rolled his eyes at the sight. Without their packs the strikers were rather useless... Perhaps that's why it wasn't attacking. .01 percent of thought power is not enough to go on. Need every last one of them to make at least 100% thought. At least he was doing just fine without his group.  

[Blade Kuroda]

"Yeah, you must have been se-"

Shun's words were cut off abruptly as a rather loud click-hiss sounded out from behind. What the hell was Zutnic doing? With a sigh, he gritted his teeth and watched Talon. Most likely the guy heard it as well.

Now finally getting petted once again, Bent-Tail made some soft happy squeaks of sorts. The noises stopped as he saw the Cuddlefish practically pounce on a gum wrapper, which was soon followed up by a loud sound coming from Zutnic. Silly striker. There wasn't any need to get all defensive here!