"Excellent, I shall do just that." You say to the woman before leaving her to her duties.
With measured haste, you give Louise a jaunty wave and make your way into the giftshop. Ceramic dishware, poorly stitched clothing, and other merchandise that is covered in colorful words and emblems litter the room. The place is reminiscent of those merchant stalls that clog the streets of the Imperial City, designed to entice visitors into spending their money on worthless items that will likely not survive long past being used as bragging rights to those too 'unfortunate' to have made the journey to the city, the objects that do remain intact will be abandoned to an eternity in some dark corner out of sight.
Several families are wandering between aisles of memorabilia when you enter, children begging for cheap toys and teenagers jokingly stepping into gaudy clothing to entertain their friends. You avoid them all and find a relatively isolated corner in which to discreetly perform a bit of magic. Though you are not nearly as skilled in Mysticism as you are in most other branches of magic, you grab a smooth white platter that is painted with a verdant lines and the letter 'V'. A smooth and reflective surface is necessary for your effort and after searching for somebody in the building who matches Louise's unflattering description of this director Piggot, you manage to coerce the dish to reflect what the woman's office window would rather than your own surroundings. Scrying a present or future event is never an easy feat even with proper tools and a short distance to the target, so you're lucky that the woman in the office has no way of knowing what you are doing.
The image you get is distorted and of such poor quality that you must rely on color to make up for the lack of clarity to identify anything in the scene, but the important thing is that you can hear the words that reach the glass. "-n't know who that is, tell them to make an appointment."
At the impatient female voice's command, you hear the familiar sound of the receptionist respond, "Ma'am, he came in with that Louise girl."
"Fine." The first voice says with a sigh after a moment of silence. "Is Clockblocker in yet?"
"Not yet ma'am, his father's visitor schedule changed last week, so he will be at the hospital until eleven at the earliest."
"It can't be helped then. Make sure the... girl is properly distracted when he gets here. She's enough of a nuisance as it is, I don't want them together in my building if I can help it. I'll have somebody escort the old man to my office, just keep him from leaving. " Piggot orders, ending the conversation without waiting for a response. A series of rapid beeps follows and you hear her say, "Shut up, get down to the lobby, bring our 'visitor' up to my office, and behave yourself. Do you understand? Good, now hurry up, he's the one with the ridiculous beard."
When no more sound come through for a minute other than clacking noises and grumbling, you shift it around to several other rooms to try to find out more, but the image is too murky to make out anything useful. After only several seconds of this, you are forced to end the spell before it completely drains you.
Carefully setting the platter back on the shelf it came from, you inspect more useless baubles and wait impatiently. You briefly contemplate casting an illusion to make your facial hair appear thrice as large, but immediately dismiss the thought of wasting magicka on such a thing. Thankfully the wait isn't long before a man in rust red armor and an opaque glass mask over his upper face enters the shop.
At the immediate adulation of those in the room, he flexes his biceps in a flamboyant manner and states, "Yes, yes, I know I'm awesome."
"Assault! Can I get a picture with you?" One of the young women asks nervously, squeaking in surprise when he immediately sidles up cheek to cheek with her and holds up a small device that flashes.
Tossing the small pink rectangle into the air for her to fumble, he puts an arm around your shoulder and announces, "Hope that's good enough, 'cause I gotta take my gramps here to meet girl Battery. Not that we're an item or anything. Wink wink."
Letting the man lead you away from the disappointed masses and into an elevator, you wait until the door closes before giving him an unamused look. He doesn't seem to notice as he leans against the wall and asks, "So you're from another world? I'm Assault by the way."
"That is not a name." You reply, not answering his question.
"Well... no, but secret identities and all that. Besides, Assault and Battery sounds way better than Eric and Jane or any other normal names, right?" Assault says with a grin before the elevator opens. You hadn't even noticed that it had started moving.
Warily stepping out, you follow the irreverent man down the hall and around numerous corners. The entire floor is one giant trap. They're subtle about it, with the winding corridors that are of uneven length and corners that are slightly more or less than ninety degrees to disorient invaders with a small labyrinth. Someone without your genetic modifications or a Detect Life spell might think these people complacent for having no guards stationed in the hall, but you notice the way every office you pass gives you the faint sensation of people hiding on just out of view. You doubt this woman you're meeting is even on the top floor of the building as would be expected of the leader of a faction based in a tower.
Clearly they are prepared for the chance that you might turn hostile... or they at least think they are prepared.
When the two of you finally pass a security checkpoint with the first visibly armed guard you've seen since leaving the elevator, your guide doesn't even bother knocking, simply throwing open the door to your destination and strolling inside with a crisp salute. "Assault and Beard guy, reporting as ordered."
"You... do realize that I am technically a diplomatic envoy, yes?" You can't help but ask the man, not even insulted at the name, just bewildered.
At his careless shrug, Piggot grits her teeth in annoyance and dismisses him. Louise wasn't exaggerating with how unhealthy the woman is. Her weight is enough that even resting her breathing is labored, her skin has a sickly pallor, dark rings under her eyes are poorly masked with facial powders, and her silvery blonde hair lacks any sense of life or vibrancy. If you had to guess, you would say she was suffering from severe organ damage and possibly an increasing level of blood toxicity.
Turning her attention to you as her subordinate exits the room, the woman offers you a seat and begins, "I apologize for Assault's behavior, he's a valuable asset to the city, but his personality leaves something to be desired."
"That is unnecessary, but thank you none the less." You reply politely as you take a seat and refrain from smirking as you feel the red-clad man position himself against the wall of an adjacent office. "We are both busy people, so I shall be forthcoming about the reason for my visit. I am told that your attempts to question my apprentice were rebuffed. Perhaps I could allay some of your concerns in exchange for some answers of my own."
"As long as you understand there are some things I can't talk about." Since you weren't expecting any different, you motion you acceptance. "Alright, I'll begin by asking what your groups intentions are in coming to my world."
You raise an eyebrow at the woman, not having expected her to ask something that should have been obvious considering the lack of corpses. "Easy enough I suppose. We are primarily seeking to trade goods and services in exchange for vitally important resources and equipment that we no longer have the facilities to produce. I believe my apprentice has mentioned the cause of our predicament."
"Yes, though I hope you won't take it personally when I say her story about aliens blowing up your planet sounds completely absurd."
Shrugging, you fail to point out that it wasn't your planet. She doesn't need to know about the infinite realms of Oblivion. "Be that as it may, we would prefer to maintain a relatively peaceful relationship with the proper authorities of your nation if we can. On the topic of Louise, what is this I hear about your subordinates conspiring to contaminate her food with microscopic machinery?"
Grimacing, Piggot leans back in her seat and says, "It's nowhere near as terrible as she keeps going on about. Armsmaster, my powered counterpart, made a series of unobtrusive tracking nanobots to make sure the girl was safe. At the time, we were under the impression that she was a refugee on the run from a dangerous criminal organization. If she had been more cooperative or forthcoming, we wouldn't have needed to resort to such actions. Still, while your... apprentice has been the cause of an almost never ending headache, I can admit she's been a big help."
"Oh?" You say, prompting the woman to continue.
"Her first public appearance was when she interrupted a bank robbery and since then she's used her powers to heal a large portion of the city's population. If it wasn't for her help, I would have lost a lot of good men and women when Bakuda's bombs went off."
While she looked uneasy at the admission, she did at least sound like she was being truthful. Seeing that as as good of an opportunity to transition onto more serious concerns as you were likely to get, you ask, "Speaking of which, should we be concerned about the after effects? It would be monumentally foolish to establish a presence here after escaping one black hole only to be swallowed by another."
"No, as far as we can tell, the singularity is slowly decreasing in size and should fail in a few years time with minimal complications. The crystals..." She pauses uncertainly. "We're working on a way to halt its spread. Is there any threat from your side of the portal I should be aware of?"
"Just a group of technology worshiping zealots known as the Brotherhood of Steel. They are the only ones from our side that could even attempt to breach the security detail guarding the portal, but any group of theirs that manages to rush through would be lost and outnumbered enough to pose minimal danger to your people. I am more concerned with this Empire Eight-Eight."
Another ten minutes pass with the two of you going over everything you know about the two respective enemy organizations. You explain the powered armor and laser weaponry of the Brotherhood, including the discussion of tactical uses of Brotherhood armor you'd had with Shen. For her part, Piggot has no real new information on the Empire members other than Jotun's ability to grow stronger and more resilient by absorbing heat. She politely refuses to help with your shopping, not that you can blame her, and even the offer of a regeneration enchantment for her health problems does nothing to sway her. The main discovery is a list of bounties; a teleporting assassin, Hookwolf, a trio of mercenaries, a doomsday cult, 'the Travelers', a butcher, and a band of serial killers being chief among the targets due to their relative closeness compared to those in distant countries... though the warlord known as Moord Nag sounds interesting enough to potentially be worth the long voyage. The ability to conjure a shadow that kills with a touch could be useful.
The meeting concludes with you offering to ensure Commander Flagg or Bradford contact the woman. Rather than suffer the journey back through the maze, you surprise Piggot by opening the office window and leaping out to float down. At the base of the building, you find Louise in conversation with a boy whose white outfit is covered in clocks, the receptionist frozen mid-step in the center of the lobby. Clearly this is the Clockblocker child that was mentioned earlier.
"-me on, please?" The boy begs, falling to his knees and gripping your apprentice's hands. "I've been trying to catch you for days! I rushed over as soon as I heard you were here. I'll never bother you again, I'll be your best friend, whatever you want."
Status: Healthy
Magicka: (75/650)
Choose:
[] Find out what the boy wants and-
-[] Let Louise decide how to respond.
-[] Offer your assistance.
[] Beckon Louise to follow you and-
-[] have her introduce you to her local contacts.
-[] find a supplier of aircraft parts.
[] Send a bounty hunting target to Trobror:
-[] The Assassin.
-[] Hookwolf.
-[] The Travelers.
[] Return through the gate to the base with your minions.
-[] Bring prisoners/guests of Louise's suggestion: Write in.
[] Write in.
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A/N: I forgot to update the character sheet with Cynric's gene-mods and needed to go back through the story to find out exactly what you got other than depth perception and bio-electric skin.
No asking Piggot about Fawkes before checking his intended destination. Trobror's target choices are limited to those in the city until you can arrange transportation.
rofl:
