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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jun 17, 2014 11:30:54 GMT -5
The remaining five blinked in unison when the plan actually worked, and after that, promptly went their own ways before dropping their collected weapons.
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"Mind control? Have you been reading those pulp serials they print in the newspapers? You know how unbelievable that sounds..."
The older fellow watched and waited, skeptical. When indeed Connor appeared zipping about in the air though, some of the policemen having arrived on the scene and busy helping people, turned their attention to him.
"Hey you up there! Come down here for questioning!"
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Post by CJ on Jun 18, 2014 0:02:15 GMT -5
"Unbelievable?" Beth asked the older fellow with a scoff. "Are you kidding me right now? You've seen a man fly and shoot fire out of his hands and feet. I have been manipulating energy and auras before your very eyes. Mind control is hardly unbelievable right now."
Just as she had finished, Connor arrived on the scene, hovering above the crowd. His skin was pale and he looked terrified.
"Beth. You're OK?"
"Yeah," she said cautiously. "Why do you ask?"
"I thought I heard you shouting for help. You weren't doing that?"
Beth became nervous. Just what had happened when Connor went after the others? He seemed to recognize her, which meant he likely hadn't fallen under some spell, but he was still tricked into coming there. She stood on the booth and prepared for the execution of some trap. Already, police had shown up, perhaps local law on the island. She glared at them as wind blew her hair back, exposing the frayed short chunk of hair that had been damaged before.
"He's in no state to be talking right now," she explained. "I'll be speaking for him. The name's Beth Anderson. That's Connor. We're part of a little shindig called the Grand Path. It's World Government affliated. We came here to meet a man, woman or thing called Devastis. Instead, we were greeted by these folks, who I assume to have been under his or her control, still under control or under threat of it again. We managed to use our abilities to break whatever Devil Fruit power or spell was over them now. Fortunately, we didn't have to kill anyone, but I regret saying that there were some that were injured. If you don't believe what I'm saying, go check out those boxes over there. They're filled with thousands of cards addressed to us. They were trying to get us to autograph them, likely to scare us or lure us into a trap."
As she spoke, Connor landed nearby and kept close. He seemed somewhat frustrated at being effectively taken out of the conversation, but kept quiet.
"And speaking of traps, I'm not willing to go down there with you folks just yet. Unless you can prove to me you're not under Devastis's thumb either, I'm not going to trust you."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jun 21, 2014 14:53:50 GMT -5
"Does any of that seem normal to you?"
The older fellow asked the pointed question before the police arrived. Beth gave her little explanation, but a ways through, Kaede stumbled out of an alley. Bader was nearby, emptying the contents of booth registers now that everyone had their attentions elsewhere. It seemed she was too late though, and she looked horrified.
"No you can't-! You... told them about it..."
Although the police took note of her arrival, Beth and Connor were the main focus. One of the officers, perhaps higher ranking than the others, stood apart from the others and spoke more directly.
"It's not up to you to say what happens next, people have been hurt. I don't know who any 'Devastis' is, but we'll see about the cards. In the meantime we're taking you to the station. You can come quietly, or we make you willing to trust us. There's no choice in the matter."
With a nod he directed one of the officers towards the boxes, while some of the others neared Beth with cuffs. He himself approached Connor, the perceived threat here.
"You too, and think twice before any fire business. We aren't the marines, we do things differently here."
Kaede all the while just stood by, watching it all unfold. Under any other circumstance she would have intervened and cleared this whole mess right up, with an appropriate application of assisted persuasion if need be. Beth had dug her own grave though, and she could only watch now, leaning against a wall with a look of utter defeat.
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Post by CJ on Jun 22, 2014 1:26:58 GMT -5
Beth leapt down from the booth roof with Connor following closely after. She immediately approached Kaede, though paused and listened to the demands of the officers. She approached the girl, trying desperately to hide her frustration.
"Kaede," she said with gritted teeth. "If we weren't supposed to say something or do something or whatever, we needed to know long before this ever started."
Stepping forward, she turned her back to the officers for a crucial moment.
"We're not leaving until we know what happened here. You know what happened here. Right?"
"Don't touch her," Connor warned, holding one of his metal gloves out to some of the officers. It would have been impossible to use normal handcuffs on Connor with his gloves on. He couldn't stand between Beth and them all but tried his best. In his distraction, he failed to notice how close the higher ranked officer came.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jun 26, 2014 14:16:34 GMT -5
"This is the second rank fight! I thought Solaine would have told you by now, she should have, how was I supposed to know?!"
Out of all the things they had done to get here, Kaede figured at least that the Andersons would know to keep the game under wraps. The fights had always been more or less discreet, or at least isolated, so she figured they would have been able to put two and two together even if Solaine hadn't told them when she really should have done. There wasn't a significant risk posed by the odd person knowing about the game, but if lots of people became aware that the Government was at least allowing something like this to go on, it could be bad.
She wasn't sure what would happen now, and what kind of trouble could come of what happened, but she sat down in exasperation at the situation and not being able to help anymore.
"I saw the whole thing. Devastis influenced the townspeople and there was a fight. His carriers fled when you started stealing energy, and they managed to shake Connor from their tail."
All the while the police had an easier time of apprehending the couple, now that they were on the ground. In response to Connor, not because he was particularly intimidated by the chef, but because he would rather avoid a conflict altogether, the head officer tossed a pair of handcuffs across the ground to slide to a stop by Beth's feet.
"Fine. Put them on, and come with us."
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Post by CJ on Jun 29, 2014 22:20:47 GMT -5
Beth felt somewhat embarrassed. She wasn't intelligent enough to weave a story clever enough to fool the innocents caught in Devastis's trap. Even if she had known not to break the information, she wasn't sure how she would have explained it.
"Influenced the townspeople?" she asked with a frown. "You're going to have to explain to me later what that was all about."
She caught Connor glaring menacingly at the chief as he kicked handcuffs toward her. She wanted to avoid any more confrontation so she needed to act quickly. Turning around, she waved her hand at the police, aiming to suck the energy right out of them. She wanted to comply with them, but with the threat of Devastis looming close by, she couldn't trust them.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jul 1, 2014 10:45:33 GMT -5
Without much a chance to react, the police collapsed.
"So it was you."
The older fellow had been there the whole time and though things seemed to be winding down now, especially with the arrival of the police, he saw what Beth did. He didn't understand it, but he knew she was responsible, and he wasn't the only person to see.
"Hey! What did you do to them?!"
"Did you see it? That one, she put them all to sleep!"
"They must have done this, why are they here?!"
Already the first stone was thrown before the nearest person to see was finished talking. The remaining vestiges of the crowd were much quicker, but also much more violent to act, and hurled a sight more than garbage at the couple. Of note was Bader nearby, having set up a crude, makeshift stand with a sign "Rocks: 10 belli ea." though it wouldn't be long before the onlookers got tired of hurling rocks in favor of metal cookware or even knives.
The principal difference of note however, was that these people had an entirely different interest than the crowd from before. They didn't care about autographs or the situation behind the couple, but instead simply wanted them to leave. For the sake of protecting their downed loved ones, and to prevent further cases such as what happened to the police officers from happening, on this they based their attack. They didn't approach the couple as before, in fact they mostly kept their distance. They only sought to drive the Andersons out and didn't pursue them, perhaps as they would have acted in the same situation that a wild beast wandered into town and started attacking people.
"Ah! Hey, let go!"
Kaede all the while saw what was happening, and though she hoped to duck out perhaps and avoid any trouble (even giving the Andersons a route to follow her away from this place), the older fellow finally made a move and grabbed her. One hand at the back of her neck and the other on her only arm, restraining her was easy enough especially since Bader didn't seem to notice over all the commotion. He merely restrained her and watched the couple as the other townsfolk enacted their hostility.
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Post by CJ on Jul 2, 2014 23:40:48 GMT -5
"Hey! Stop it!"
Beth dodged a few incoming rocks, wishing not to sustain any further damage to herself. The stab wound on her palm still bled and seered with pain. Nearby, Connor actually started to catch cooking utensils and placed them in the large pocket of his apron.
Unlike before, the situation was easily controllable. All they had to do was leave and never come back. Unfortunately, they had a bit of a hold up.
"Kaede," Connor nearly whimpered. His quick bout of apparent despair completely extinguised the flames about his hands and feet. Beth knew that sadness all too well. He hardly talked about it, but he also felt guilt over what had happened in Seven Gates. If it wasn't for Kaede's sacrifice, he wouldn't be alive today.
She had to get Kaede and him to safety before that sorrow turned to rage. If anything happened to her, she wasn't sure the people around her would live to see another day. For a moment, she forgot about Bader. She barely remembered Kaede was her own person. In her mind, she was incapable of protecting or defending for herself, so she had to save her.
"Let go of the girl," she said to the older fellow. "We have nothing more to settle on your island. We're leaving. Now."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jul 3, 2014 10:56:37 GMT -5
"You leave and we'll let her go. I can't just release her in front of everyone, or they'll turn on me next."
The older fellow seemed to be more concerned about the after-effects of the Anderson's presence, rather than just the immediate wellbeing of Kaede. Although he had restrained the girl in order to hold her against the couple, with all eyes on them now, he couldn't just let her go for all to see. Unlike these strangers, he actually lived here, so how things went here could have a negative impact on his situation in town.
"Don't stay if they're going to hurt you, forget about me!"
Kaede tried to express her stance on the matter, all the while still trying to break free, but she was surprised at how strong her captor was. Her disabilities probably didn't help either, but that was an afterthought, at least for her. For the older fellow, he was starting to notice more and more just from where he was holding her that she didn't feel right, like there was something solid beneath her skin. That could be determined later, for now though, the standoff with the couple continued.
Bader meanwhile had gone from selling rocks to throw, to selling stolen cookware to throw. Assumedly he would move up to knives when the crowd felt so.
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Post by CJ on Jul 6, 2014 23:42:46 GMT -5
Connor managed to deflect some knives and cooking utensils with his metal gloves. Inevitably, he couldn't stop all the attacks. A few knives flew at Beth from all sides. With only a few simple motions, she dodged every single one of them, most of which she couldn't possibly have seen coming at her. She even caught one by the handle that would have hit Kaede and threw it to the ground. It was unnatural. Connor couldn't explain what it was but something was different about her.
"I could never forget about you, Kaede," she said with a pained smile.
Stepping forward, she sighed and shook her head.
"This girl nearly gave up her life for my husband's," she said. "I'm not letting her go. It's not out of obligation or gratitude. No, it was her choice to go through what she did. She's my friend and I'm not about to leave her behind. So if you're scared to let her go, I'll force you to."
"Beth," Connor said uneasily. It was too late. She already pulled her hand back to suck the energy out of the older fellow. She then rushed forward to grab onto Kaede, hoping to catch her before she fell with the victim.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jul 8, 2014 11:33:37 GMT -5
Beth's plan worked well enough at least to knock out the older fellow, and she could catch Kaede from falling no problem, though she would find the girl to be very much heavier than her size or build should have indicated. The problem however was her crutch, which had been lost in the commotion between her being grabbed and then released again. Without it, she could not move at any significant pace.
"Beth... if you need to get out of here, then just go! Don't worry about me, they can't even do anything that would hurt."
As if on cue, a flaming cocktail touched down, spreading fire across the ground. With Beth's action against Kaede's captor, tensions ran higher among the victims of Devastis, perhaps due to the ineffectiveness of their attacks upon the couple to try and make them leave. Thus, rather than continue to watch as Beth dodged every thrown object and Connor caught the rest, they acted in a more indirect manner. Unaware of Connor's nature, they figured as well as any other angry mob, that fire would have a better effect of making them go away. Exactly how or why they had suddenly resorted to this method wasn't exactly clear, but maybe it had something to do with the now much more well-made stand selling "Molotovs; 500 bellie ea." and run by a suspicious looking metal orb with what appeared to be a pair of fake glasses and mustache.
"Oh... well nevermind, I'll be fine I'm sure."
A few more touched down, further lighting the area up. A glimpse of fear could be seen in Kaede's eye behind the reflection of the fire, but she did her best to seem confident.
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Post by CJ on Jul 8, 2014 23:39:12 GMT -5
Beth sighed when Kaede told her to get out of the situation. When was she going to realize that she'd never do such a thing? She didn't care if they lost the fight at this point.
"Beth!" Connor shouted, running toward them. "The citizens could be hurt by the fire!"
"I don't care anymore!" she shouted back. "We're getting Kaede out! Grab her crutch and let's go! They're not our problem anymore!"
She was surprised to feel just how heavy Kaede is. She didn't know much at all about what the girl was composed of. All she knew was that she had to get her out of there. Fortunately, the energy of the people she had sucked dry before powered her enough to carry her with relative ease.
"Look," Beth said to Kaede through gritting her teeth. "I respect your decision to not use those prostethics of yours, but maybe you could wear them during work hours? I don't mind carrying you like this, but I'm not always going to be around to help."
The Andersons tried their best to make their way through the now burning marketplace. At this point, Beth was trying her hardest not to curse Bader for making the situation all the more worse. She made a mental note to ask Hikaru how to punish the machine without hurting Kaede later.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jul 20, 2014 4:34:43 GMT -5
"The situation isn't always like this, these aren't normal work hours!"
Her response was marked with exasperation. Kaede was not blind to the truth, and Beth had a good point, except that this was a fluke situation where she got involved. Certainly Connor and perhaps Beth should have known by now that the acting coordinator never got involved in any fights, so this must have been a dire situation for Kaede to do so. And indeed it was, though the results were unexpected.
Either way, it didn't take long at all to get away from the area in which the festival had been set up, and beyond that, was the rest of the town as normal as any. Only, for obvious reasons, the streets were empty. Occasionally some unrelated townsperson, unaware of what had been going on might have happened past, but that was the extent of it. Finding a quiet place here, would be no great trouble, though it was obvious to tell that people were still reeling from the attack in the distance.
"Well, I guess that's a loss? I mean unless you want to go back there and continue. I don't think he's here anymore though, Connor scared him off."
Connor meanwhile, assuming he could get nearer to the crowd unscathed before he fled, would have no great trouble finding the crutch, though it was partially splintered from the commotion and probably wouldn't support much anyway. Eventually though Bader zipped out from an alleyway, jingling a bag of money and bobbing in the air ecstatically.
"You guys should goad more angry mobs more often, it was almost like they were handing me their wallets! I mean, I took those as well, but still..."
The tone of it's voice seemed to indicate that it was fairly unperturbed by what had transpired not long ago.
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Post by CJ on Jul 22, 2014 1:12:08 GMT -5
"Sorry," Connor said to Kaede. Her crutch was battered and probably unusable. They were lucky it was the only thing damaged. If Kaede was hurt even more, Beth wasn't sure her husband could mentally handle it. Then again, he couldn't mentally handle most things, especially these days.
Kaede's analysis came at a shock to the married contestants.
"A loss?" Beth quipped. "The bastard ran away before we did! If anything, he lost, not us! Unless you mean that we have to hunt him down like an animal to win."
She paced back and forth, torn in frustation and anger. Sighing, she tried to control herself.
"You know what, it doesn't matter. Now that you and Connor are safe, I can properly see this through to the end."
"Beth, you can't go alone," Connor spoke up, stepping forward as he held his hands nervously toward his chest.
"You can't go at all, Connor," Beth continued as she shook her head. "It'd be different if those people were participants, but they're innocent and you can't keep your powers at bay even knowing that. Besides, someone has to stay and protect Kaede. Bader certainly can't be trusted enough to do his own damn job."
Sitting down on the ground, she took a wooden box out of her pocket. Inside were compartments that fit tiny bottles, filled with bright, colorful blobs of energy. She lined up the bottles in front of her and began to analyze them, perhaps to plan out her strategy. Connor stood silently nearby, looking understandably defeated. He didn't have any ground to defend his case after nearly taking out a crowd of people out of misinformed anger.
Beth took out a small knife and cut the remainder of her hair that hadn't been damaged by the laser attack. It was a bad cut, but she didn't have time to worry about appearances.
"I'm not asking for answers or hints, Kaede. I just need to understand what I need to do to make this count as a victory. Do I peg the bastard or what? Make it quick because I better leave now, before I act on my anger and smash Bader into fragments."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Jul 23, 2014 2:13:23 GMT -5
"He didn't run away, he's still there. Connor chased away some of his beacons, but they just followed him back right after. He doesn't want to lose anymore than you do, he wouldn't flee a fight locale completely."
Kaede had never met Devastis before, but she knew a little of how he worked, based on reading reports compiled by Solaine about previous Grand Path graduates to have beaten him. She herself wasn't actually aware if Devastis had any other puppets in the crowd when they all fled, but she just knew that he did, she didn't need to go and find out to be sure. In that respect, it was technically the Andersons that lost for running away, even if only temporarily.
"Hey, I don't need to be babysat, I can take care of myself! It's not like they could even do anything to hurt me, and I wouldn't even have been involved if you hadn't broken one of the most basic rules!"
Kaede did not like the idea that the fault in this situation was hers. Already Beth talking about her prostheses made her feel like she was being talked down to, and now they couldn't proceed because someone needed to stay and look after her? At no point was the situation ever not in her favor, even when she was at the mercy of the angry mob. At least, that was the way she felt.
"Hold onto the phone, you're going to do what to me? Your own family will have trouble recognizing you by the time I'm finished."
"Wait."
The robot had been counting coins, but heard what Beth said and promptly extended another arm holding a sock. With the first arm it gathered up a pair of pool balls, put them into said sock and swung it around a few times to get them nice and proper towards the end, and create a rather nice makeshift bludgeoning weapon. Before it could attack though, Kaede raised a hand to stop it. She didn't like the way Beth had acted towards her, but she didn't want any further trouble happening because of her. What more, she actually felt that Beth going on alone was probably for the best, at least in this situation.
"Since he won't run away, just knocking him out would count as a win. He's somewhere here, in town, he can't go far. That he's already using beacons to act in his stead, means he's pushing himself. He'd never abandon all of them, just let them all be taken out, even in the worst case scenario he'd always keep one around to return to him after the fight."
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