Plot Thread 2.2: Footfalls Revisted (THE TRUTH)

[The Siren]

The Siren was caught in a three way position, first things first, he grabbed Bast as she attacked and threw her to Kato's flame attack. As for Guo, he pulled his arms back -a hiss of air was heard- and thrust both palms forward as an invisible force ripped through the air and tore up the ground Guo stood on.

[glitters]

Jasmine blinked as she watched the fight, head tilted to the side.

"Huh...barriers don't work," she said, at a bit of a loss for ideas now. She supposed it was a good thing Andy was a good fighter.

[The Other]

"Well...that was unexpected." The Other retracted his arm and gave it an examination. He certainly hadn't commanded his fingers to splay away from the mysterious assailant, which meant that the problem wasn't on his end. "Ohhhhh, no. I don't think so."

With great hulking steps the Other spanned across the wreckage caused by the battle and into the room that they'd come from. Vaulting up each set of stair in a single wide step he leapt at last towards the wall in a Superman styled pose. Bouncing off it with only a dent to indicate his efforts he shook his head and grinned. "No one's around this time wall, and that means your luck is up."

Shredding his humanoid form the Other howled as his upper torso and head looked to disappear under a veil of terrible limbs, all while his legs melted into a stabilizing pool of flesh. All at once each horn, fist, claw and tendril bashed against the wall repeatedly till they all pulled back and thrust out at once, shattering the protective dense wall of the palace to reveal the outside.

As soon as the deed was done the Other slipped back into his humanoid form, chuckled to himself and leapt down to where the battle was happening, placing himself between the combatants and the trail from which they'd come from.

"Hey, ugly mortal. Where did you get that power from?" His stood with an imposing glare, his arms folded under his burly chest.

[Andy Jammer]

The Siren stopped, made no move to attack, instead he seemed to keep his distance and tense.

"...Duo has been observing you, all of you, for a long time now." he gestured to his arm, "he's not without preparation..."

The Siren seemed to be nervous, not of Other...not of Monthu...or even Kato...but nervous of Andy. As he ran out he tensed up, but just subtly.

[The Other]

While unsure of what spurred on the Siren's comment, the Other glowered down at the bandaged man as he felt ignored. The man was testing his patience, far past the point of his usual violent reaction to such behaviour. Oh, the things one must endure for information. He thought to himself as he placed himself a mere step behind the Siren.

"Look, boy. I posed a question to you, and now comes the time when you respond with the answer. Tell me what gave you your powers, before I decide that crushing you beneath my hand is more important than keeping all of my little crew here alive." His jaw snapped open with a sound like bones breaking as he let a hot gust of foul air brush down the Siren's neck.

"Please everyone, do feel free to make this a team exercise. Your lives depend on it." By the sadistic look in his soulless, yellow eyes, each and every member of the party would need only a single glance to know he was telling the truth.

[Dios Sarvo]

A sudden hand shot forth from the bandaged man's shadow, gripping tightly around his ankle, as Dios dragged himself through the blackness, a malicious smirk stretched across his face.

"Oh-ho, I like where this is going~" Dios cooed with an eerie amount of pleasure. "I'd do what he says bandage man, cause I know what he is, and it's not something you want to trifle with. Then again, if you'd rather talk to me and avoid Mister "Big-and-scary" here, what's say you drop that little shield of yours and let me drag you through the blackened depth for a nice private interrogation session," Dios spoke with a kind of twisted diplomacy as his began to pull hard against the Siren's ankle towards his shadow, forcing the barrier against the threshold between planes.

Dios had been way too crowded trying to fight on the bridge with all manner of bodies getting in his way, and had dropped out to play an observational role to all participating. Whilst walking through planes, he could see the barrier enveloping the Siren, all too aware of how it was fluxing against the shadow plane Dios floated through. Even more amusingly, he caught sight of The Other's renewed vigour in hammering against the door that had seemingly proven difficult before, yet shattered and splintered like cheap wood when no one was around, making the man all the more curious about the black beast.

"Just remember, bandage man, I'm the human, and you might be able to squeeze some sympathy out of me, but this one...no, there's no mercy in those eyes," Dios remarked with a hint of sadistic pleasure, enjoying all to well the game of "Bad cop, slightly less bad cop" that he and the Other had caught the man in.

[Monthu]

Monthu suddenly took up a position between The Other and Dios, forming a triangle around their bandaged opponent. He had an arrow nocked and drawn, aimed straight at the bandaged face before him.

"Hmph. I may not have any crazy stupid powers like these guys... But I could put this arrow in your face from a mile away, I don't really plan on missing from this distance." There was a steely determination in his eyes that showed he didn't want to screw up here. The last thing he wanted to do was look weak, he was in the middle of the wolf pack, and definitely wasn't going to show up as the weak omega of the group.

"So you may as well give up now... Save us all a world of trouble."

[Andy Jammer]

The Siren, despite one ankle halfway through darkness, and threeway surrounded kept his attention looking among the plains of snow. Before turning back to three of them and commenting.

"You're not the only crew here."

For Monthu, a puppet like creature slashed out from the snow and knocked his bow out of focus, at that time bursts of blackish oil came from the ground and more came from around the ground. Including a large tyrant like creature, as this happened the Siren reached down through the shadow and pulled Dio's up out of his own shadow to eye level. There the Siren leaned in and whispered.

"Alberisato."

Before the Siren kicked Dios back, there was something the keen private investigator would notice...something that slipped their vision before due to the heavy coats and muffled voice. As the coat billowed in the air and revealed more of the body beneath the coats, the shape of the hips and curves of the body lead to a startling revelation.

The Siren wasn't a man, but a woman.

In the ongoing confusion The Siren slipped past the creatures and a billow of snow enveloped, like a portal of sorts and vanished.

"No!" Andy shouted, not knowing that Dios had been supplied with info -one on purpose, one accidental- he tried to give chase only to be cornered yet again.

[The Other]

"Hey who said you could go?" His arm swung high before crashing down as a giant fist into the cloud of snow. Drawing back he grumbled disappointedly at the lack of the Siren's gore where the impact of his attack had landed. "Fleeing like a rodent eh? Not that I blame him, for who would be so foolish to face one such as I?" Cackling maniacally the Other seemed far too busy to even take notice the creatures that were encroaching upon them.

[glitters]

Jasmine took notice of the creatures, anyway. Having been watching as Andy and the others dealt with the Siren and feeling like one more added into the group would only be more troublesome, she noticed right away when other creatures started showing up.

Really, it knocked her back to her senses, her hands immediately raising and automatically she started working on a series of spells. In the meantime, flashes of fire erupted from her hands instantly at the flick of her hand to distract and singe approaching beasts.

[Dios Sarvo]

Pausing for a second as the bandaged figures spoke into his ear, Dios' examination of the word and the oddly curvaceous figure of their assailant easily distracted him, causing him to accept the kick with a resounding "oomph." Reeling slightly from the blow, he had but a moment to look back at the figure before she disappeared in a wafting cloud of snow, leaving Dios to pontificate upon the sudden bit of information expressly delivered to him.

"Hmmm...why tell me...to throw us off? No, no, to sudden and deliberate to be misinformation. Not provoked from threats, or done to try distract, as seems to be able to teleport; could've escaped anytime. Was here for a purpose; the orb presumably; probably of some use to Duo, best to keep hidden for now. Something with the Andy kid though, connected somehow; requires more questioning. Still, why tell us? Being controlled somehow, perhaps; blackmail, hired hand, mind control; one if not a combination. Actions and words hint towards dissonance, can be used to advantage if encountered again..."

Dios' thoughts continued on about the situation, but the real pertinent question was what did he share with the rest of the group, or more specifically, with Andy. The creatures that lumbered towards them were of little concern, and Dios' suspected that most of the group, if not The Other himself, could take care of them.

Shifting through the shadows to find the young boy, Dios appeared in front of Andy, his usual smirk misplaced somewhere as he approached the red head.

"Okay, I think we've all played along with your little tale of "self discovery" for long enough. Now, I've got things I know you'll want, but you're not a charity case, so you want 'em, you gotta pay in kind, kid; info for info. For starters, you can explain who just attacked us, as they most assuredly knew who you were," Dios remarked with a stern seriousness, his body no longer conveying the usual aloof swagger that it so commonly did.

Dios wouldn't care to admit it, but this wasn't just to fill in blanks in his own personal notes regarding the current series of events, but rather that he knew Andy was of far too much importance to the situation. Specifically, he'd be good tool should they encounter the bandaged woman again, as he seemed to be a source of dissonance that they could exploit. He wanted to keep Andy around for that purpose, but he was still having doubts about the kid, and if he was gonna tag along with him, he needed to know more about who he would be working with.

[Andy Jammer]

Andy wanted to protest, wanted to argue again and again, but this was getting tiring in more ways than one.

"Actually, this is one question where I don't know." which was true to that degree, "I never met this person...well, I guess I should say maybe I did but...I don't recognize whoever it is..."

Andy crossed his arms in thought, "Knowing my name is one thing, I mean, after everything that was done most people in Allorum know my name...but, he said it was a sense of familiarity like he really did know me."

One more puzzling situation after another, Andy paused in his thoughts, "What were you mumbling about earlier...?"

[Dios Sarvo]

"Thought's more than anything, but till I get actual answers, you get nothing but more questions. My next one is regarding this..." Dios continued with a bit of frustration, reaching into the shadows in his trench coat to pull out the luminescent orb he had claimed earlier...but try as he might, the shadows seemingly refused to acquiesce to his whim, and the orb seemed displaced somewhere, and with no inkling of how such a thing could happen, Dios whipped his hand out of blackness with a dissatisfied and agitated grunt.

Pausing for a second to rub his eyes, Dios glared down his nose at Andy once again, stuffing his hands in his pocket as he clenched his hands in annoyance at the situation.

"We're not done with this little Q and A session, but I've got things I need to do right now. All I'll say is our next destination is in Alberisato; a bit of advice your little friend was gracious enough to pass on. I'll meet up with you there once I've found what I need, and then we're finish this little chat," Dios told Andy with a stern tone as he stepped back, slowly sinking into the shadows. "And don't think you can avoid me, kid. People smarter then you have tried, and oh how gloriously they've failed. So get your facts in line, cause you're still a loose end in my book, and Dios Sarvo leaves no loose ends undone..."

Plunging deep into the blackness, Dios left not a trace of his presence, save for a destination and a vague threat against Andy that he'd reconvene with the boy later on.

[The Other]

"Hahahaha-huh?" The Other ceased his insidious laughter at the feeling of four of the mannequin-shaped monstrosities slashing their cruel blades within his body. A bothersome feeling to be sure, he glared down at the pests before him. "A coward is one thing, but to insult me with such...droppings. That ugly mortal will pay for this pitiful attempt at harming me." From around the blades that each mannequin held a tendril slipped from the Other's torso around it, their arm and finally their head. Struggled as they might the snaking limbs were as a boa to their fragile flesh, and in a sharp and sickening crack their head and arm convulsed for a moment before stillness took them.

"You!" He pointed a large challenging finger out at the tyrant before him. "At least you have the form of something worthy of my time. Have you any last words to utter before I make a doll of your husk? You might even join the others, I have quite the troupe now." He smirked to himself as the tendrils still tightly ensnaring the bodies of his defeated foes held each up and wriggled them around, making dancing playthings of their corpses. Indeed, their forms were far more fitting of marionettes the way the Other paraded them around before the mighty beast before him.

[Andy Jammer]

Andy shrugged as Dios left...it seems he hasn't let go of the idea that Andy and Duo were connected, which they weren't.

The larger tyrant glowed with a more fierce aura, giving it a berserk like aura around it. It stamped its foot and began a shoulder-run at the Other. Andy noticed it and grabbed his sword, fired off a strong Hadoken and rather than fire it at the creature itself he shot it at the ground and the explosion caused it to stumble and lose its energy gathering from the charge. Pretty certain the Other could end it there more easier.