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Zerrex nodded as he slid out of the limousine, the driver bowing deeply and continuing to hold the door open for the others as Cherry said apologetically for the hundredth time to the Drakkaren that was pointedly ignoring her presence: "Seriously, Boss, I really didn't think it did that..."

"What the fuck did you think it did?" Marina shoved Cherry hard, almost sending her toppling before the demoness did a quick flip through the air instead to land with all her limbs out and a silly grin on her face, but then she slumped and winced instead when Zerrex instead looked at her flatly, smelling of coffee and alcohol. "It was clearly labeled: ‘drink fountain: do not attempt to refill while moving.' And well, no, you didn't attempt to refill it... you attempted to pry the fucking drawer out where all the containers were, and you splattered Daddy with everything from hot coffee to cold beer!"

"And me." Cindy added plaintively, attempting a bit of a smile as she held out her wet arm and side and adjusted the new backpack she was wearing with her other hand... but it wasn't nearly as much as that which had soaked Zerrex's body and formed a large wet spot on his crotch. She paused as Marina shot her a deathly glare, and then mumbled one of Cherry's favorite phrases: "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"Yeah, no one around here has much of a sense of humor." Cherry muttered, leaning over to Cindy, and then she quickly trotted over to Zerrex as Mahihko stumbled out of the car last, lugging their duffel bag with him and running up beside Cindy as the chauffeur closed the limo door and bowed to their backs. "Hey, Boss, seriously, I really am sorry, and I'll make it up to you... how about a lapdance, huh?"

"Cherry, I can get a lapdance from you any time I want." Zerrex said stiffly, glancing over her with a look that made the demoness quail. "If they hadn't packed extra clothes for us at the Embassy, I'd be punching you in the head right now."

Cherry mumbled something, and then pressed against him and apologized yet again, looking lame and embarrassed... and finally, Zerrex sighed and nodded a bit, and she grabbed his arm and pressed close with a cheerful smile as they strode off the highway onto a short dirt road that led through a fence and into a dusty, cracked parking lot. A pause, and then Cherry straightened beside him, her eyes roving over the facility before she muttered: "Snipers with old rifles, more bush-soldiers than anything else I guess you could say... posted in the upper right in the shadows in that half-constructed building there, the one that's all girders and wooden panels between the floors. Ahead, there's at least one person on the roof, but he's just got binoculars..."

Zerrex nodded, glancing left, then right, taking in the red metal girders that made up the building to the far right of their group... and ahead of them was a squat but long building made of stone, and they were currently walking towards several closed loading doors. "I'm only seeing trucks on the right, but I can hear music playing faintly... and I get the sense there's a lot more people around here than we're seeing."

"Try about fifty more people. It's a small resistance movement." Marina said softly after a moment, and then she glanced over to the trucks, adding quietly: "They're part of the Northern Ire army... most of these trucks have just been painted over with Ire logos instead of those from the North's military companies and trading corporations..."

"You must be one of them psychics to know all that, missy." drawled a voice from around the corner of the second-last truck, and a tall bear strode out, chewing idly on the butt of a bent, unlit cigarette and clad in a trucker's cap, checkered flannel shirt, and a torn denim vest overtop this, hanging loosely open so they could all see the butt of a revolver with the initials: ‘C.M.' crudely written on the bottom in black marker. He put his hands in his faded jeans and kicked one dusty boot against the ground, saying dryly: "I hope you respect my privacy enough though not to go reading too much into my mind. I don't want you finding out too much about the separatist faction."

"So you're the one taking us into Ire?" Zerrex asked, tilting his head curiously, and then he gave a slight smile as the black bear nodded before spitting off to the side. "How do you know they won't check your truck?"

He shrugged a bit, then responded after a moment of glancing over the group: "They never have, they never will, so long as we go through Outpost 46 instead of down one of the main trade routes. Them military boys don't care too much about what gets through the borders, even if it was a new-cue-layer bomb. On the other hand, I can't say I'm not grateful for it... if they were a bit smarter, we'd have a hell of a lot harder time up here.

"Now listen, boys and girls. I hear from a mister Big Bird that you want to get your asses all the-" A pause, and then a flat look over Cherry as she snorted loudly at this. "And what's your problem, sir?"

"Big Bird. That's fuckin' awesome. And you're just so adorable." Cherry added teasingly after a moment, putting her hands on her knees and leaning forwards as Zerrex slapped his forehead. "Shouldn't you be home farming potaters and making chirrun between beating your wife?"

The ursine looked at her sourly, then he said dryly, the drawl dropping out of his voice: "I got a degree from Lawson University in philosophy and moved here twenty years ago after publishing a book on existential philosophy. But times were tough overseas and I moved here just before the Great War started and got sucked into the Irenic power struggle. So I moved up here to avoid the draft and just picked up the mannerisms from there and had to start over driving a truck. Now do you want my help or not, you butch bitch? And by the way, what do you do for a living?"

Cherry gaped dumbly, then she coughed and rubbed the back of her head, mumbling something incoherently before raising her fist and saying defiantly: "I beat the shit out of people, so... so you better watch it, mister tough guy!"

Zerrex shoved her over, and she squawked loudly as he said dryly: "I'm attending senior manager at a book store. I'm in charge of putting price tags on things and sorting the books out, and I'm not allowed to work cash because I scare away business."

"I'm a waitress!" Mahihko chipped in, and then he coughed when the bear gave him a strange look. "Er, I mean, I'm a waiter."

Marina grunted a bit, then muttered: "I'm an artist. I did an exhibit once in a small gallery, and they held a little party for me. It was an okay turnout, I guess, some seven hundred people in total over the course of the day."

A pause, and then everyone looked at Cindy, and she blushed a bit before rubbing the back of her head and mumbling embarrassedly: "I'm a biochemist specializing in viral biology and the application of genetic restructuring to wounded and infirm patients at the special military studies hospital." She shrank away a bit from the others, then added after a moment: "But I used to tend a bar back home. My name is Cindy."

"You know, that's the first time I've heard about someone's work life getting better after the war instead of worse." The bear said mildly, the drawl fading back into his voice as he glanced over them all, before holding out his hand, and Zerrex shook it, the bear's grip firm. "And I suppose you're Zerrex, right? My name is Curtis Mathews. I can take you as far as the capital and I'll do it as fast as I can, but you're going to have to ride in the back. After that, though, I have to keep going south, but I know a safe place or two where I can drop you off."

"Thank you, Curtis." Zerrex nodded appreciatively, and the bear grunted a bit in return as the Drakkaren glanced up at the large red transport truck, then over the badly-scraped cargo container it was attached to. "So I take it we're riding in the back?"

The bear nodded, then motioned for them to follow as he strode down the narrow path between his truck and the one parked beside it, saying mildly: "Come around and I'll show you were you'll be staying. Not the most comfortable to be sure, but it'll get you where you're going safe and sound. To be honest, I'd rather I had a different box, but this one should do nicely... like I was saying, Outpost 46 don't check you unless they have one of Ire's big shots currently at the base, and from all reports, there ain't gonna be a big shot there for a long time yet.

"Here, take a look." The bear firmly pulled a lever on the back to an upright position with a grunt, and the shutter on the back of the long metal container popped up before he managed to slide his fingers beneath it and shoved it open, revealing a few unlabelled wooden crates and cardboard boxes, but it was otherwise empty.

After a moment, however, Cherry squinted a bit and said mildly: "Nice. It's a holographic image." She looked proud of herself when Curtis looked surprised, then said pompously: "There's a distortion and it's not completely in-line with the walls... but it'd definitely fool anyone who took a quick look inside, that's for sure. Or it could just be because I'm made of awesome."

"Right... well, you folks go ahead in then. There's a curtain that the image is being projected over, just make sure you lock it taunt against the ground after you go through into the compartment. There should be just enough room for all five of you." Curtis said slowly, glancing over Cherry thoughtfully before nodding to them. "Just open the panel in the wall and knock if you need anything. I'll check on you guys at my first pit stop."

"Great, thanks." Zerrex nodded, and then he and the others climbed quickly inside, Cherry strutting to what looked like the halfway point of the container before seeming to simply vanish from sight, and the others followed her, Mahihko looking curious before letting out a bit of a whimper as they were left in the total darkness once Curtis slammed the door.

A moment later, however, light shone out of the holographic wall and Zerrex's arm stretched out of it, Mahihko staring before he was seized and dragged through the curtain with the others, and Zerrex absently patted him on the head as he giggled stupidly before staring around the sixteen-by-eight rectangle they were in, his paws pushing lightly down against the soft, padded floor, and then he hopped up and down a bit as Cindy carefully secured the curtain into the floor by means of a few hoops in the cloth and hooks in the metal. "This is neat!"

"You're such a tool." Cherry said dismissively, and then she grinned as Zerrex stripped off his shirt and pants, throwing them aside with his cane and boots as she said immediately: "Orgy party!"

"Fuck off and die." Marina muttered, and Cherry grumbled something about anger issues as Zerrex sat down with a grunt to slide a pair of pants on, Cindy pulling off her own shirt and tossing it aside, for now seeming content in only her bra. "Daddy, can we really trust Curtis if he's a separatist? From what I'm getting, they still tell each other scary stories about the Goth Legion and what they did here."

"Yeah, we should tell them about the shit we didn't do." Cherry grunted, rubbing the back of her head as she settled herself down on a pile of pillows near the front of the truck, kicking her boots off as it started up and glancing idly over the other things in the truck as her horns and fins slowly retracted into her skull. "Dude, there's like... a snack cabinet pantry-thing here. And... eww, books. Looks like real literature too, I don't want any of that shit. But hey, Boss, remember when you got in shit for wanting to end the war?"

Zerrex snorted, shaking his head as he did up his fly and then snapped his fingers at her, and she tossed him a pillow as he settled in beside her, putting it under his head as Cindy carefully leaned over the two to inspect the books on the shelf. "Yeah, that was ridiculous... I mean, they gave me a frigging reprimand that I think is still on my record somewhere for insubordination. Then again, everyone knows that the war between Ire and the separatists should've ended more than half a century ago now... but it brings in a lot of profit to the military sectors and the shipping magnates, since the rebels constantly have to buy new materials, new tents, new guns... and then new lives, once they want to get away from the battleground that all of Northern Ire's become by now."

Cherry nodded, grunting a bit as Cindy pulled out a few books from the shelves, tossing one over to Mahihko, who blinked and then let out a loud whine as it bounced off his head and knocked him onto his back, the well-meaning female wincing. "Fuckin' Ire. We did do a lot of shit up there though, didn't we? Wars, killing, asskicking... that was even uh... that was where Homicide and you went to that lame-ass reader's group, right?"

"And you followed us and ruined the whole thing, yes." Zerrex said dryly, punching her lightly in the shoulder, and Cherry immediately hit him back just above the hip. "Excuse us for having brains. I think you need to inject some culture into your life sometime, Cherry, instead of just trying to rape everything you meet."

"I think you should bite my ass." Cherry replied mildly, then she grunted and rolled her shoulders slowly, then she grunted and rubbed slowly over her head, muttering: "Fuck, I feel so bald. Dude, no wonder you always refuse to shave your head. It's so fuckin' weird now."

Zerrex merely snorted and rolled his eyes, and then he settled himself down and closed his eyes, lacing his fingers together above his waist as he said dryly: "I'm going to just take a nap and pretend you don't exist for a few hours. Don't disturb me if we stop, alright?"

"Yeah, we'll probably switch out watches over the day and all get some sleep." A pause, and Cherry glanced over at Mahihko, teasing in a patronizing voice: "Maybe the baby there can stay up for all of us today, since he slept like a widdle child in the limo."

Mahihko bared his teeth at her, and Cherry growled at him in return, the wolf immediately whining and shrinking away as he lowered his ears... but Zerrex was already ignoring the rest of the group as he did his best to drift off to sleep.

But almost immediately, he felt something else coming over him, cutting through his tiredness... and then a voice said silkily in his head: You're a fool, Lord Zerrex. There's no way you stand any chance against that which awaits you in the Sanctuary.

The Drakkaren glanced back and forth inside his own mind as a world began to fade in around him, and then he looked down at his hands, murmuring first: "Another dream..." A pause, and then he looked up, watching as a field came slowly into view under his feet, and the sun rose in the sky above a cluster of short hills: it definitely wasn't any Row of Skulls, though. No jagged peaks, no bumpy hills... were they talking about something else, those demons Cherry was listening in on?

"Lord Zerrex." The Drakkaren glanced over his shoulder, and then he frowned when he saw an angel standing over a small, plain grave sitting in the center of a beautiful little garden of flowers, at the end of a path made from what looked like a single long rectangular stone. It wasn't any of the angels he had met so far, yet seemed somehow familiar, despite the metal mask it wore and the white robe that covered its body. Oh look, another bird... well, at least this one's more silver-blue. "I am the last person sent from Heaven to help you... the last they can send. After this, the High Lord has commanded us to avoid contacting you, as your journey into the Sanctuary spells almost-certain death."

"That's not the first time I've heard that from an angel and been successful." Zerrex responded quietly, then he frowned a bit as he strode through the small garden and in front of the cement marker, kneeling down and resting a hand on top of the tall grave as he murmured quietly: "I know this place..."

The marker read: ‘Placed in honor of all those who died in the Great War that ravaged the world. May their souls rest in peace.' This was followed by a series of thirty names, arranged in rows of ten side-by-side... names not taken from charity as the Irenic government claimed, but instead sold to the highest-bidder. And at least two of the names are fake... they arrested former Colonel Anderson and threw him in jail for faking his own death and abandoning the military, but he was released because they apparently lost all the evidence somehow. Last I heard, he received lenience in the military and now is serving in some General's office somewhere as a glorified lackey. "This is Joix de Vive Park, southwest of Liberation in the direction of the old capital, New Tears City."

"That is correct." The angel nodded, and Zerrex glanced up over it thoughtfully as the voice added quietly: "But we are forbidden to aid you, Lord Zerrex... so I cannot tell you anything other than that this spot has always stood, throughout time, as a holy place for those both mortal and not. Even Ire cherished it, and Joix de Vive has been left unscarred and untarnished for many years... at least, until now. It is one of three such locations throughout Ire, but the mortals have put the most stock and faith into... this one."

Zerrex stood slowly, tilting his head and saying quietly: "Are you saying... this place..." A pause, and then he looked down at the monument stone, snorting softly and closing his eyes as he rubbed a hand through his muzzle. "How could I have been so stupid, of course... the construction and ‘land development' of the park took almost two years... everyone thought they were just dragging their heels, but that's at least the time they'd need to start building up a bunkerized facilitiy..." He paused again, then frowned a bit, asking slowly: "But... I thought you weren't supposed to help me?"

"I never did." The angel shrugged slowly, and Zerrex could almost sense the smile behind the mask as it added quietly: "Like I said, this is a place holy for mortal and divine alike... and it was readily accessible in your mind. But remember my message... even if you succeed in your quest, the Sanctuary holds many creatures not much different from demons you have already battled, and some of them created by mortal hands. Even Lunis will prove pale in comparison to this and the danger that lurks ahead."

The Drakkaren nodded as he made a slight face, before he crossed his arms and opened his mouth to ask another question... but the angel rose a hand before he could, and everything faded away into darkness that was laced with a thousand more questions... and no answers.

Zerrex awoke a few hours later, blinking stupidly and mumbling under his breath, and Cherry glanced up from a book she was reading â€" I think maybe I'm still dreaming â€" to grunt a hello before closing the book and tossing it aside... and Zerrex grimaced at the title, wiping sleep from his other eye as he read aloud: "‘Bodily Functions?' Sounds like a crap book."

"Oh, ha-ha." Cherry said dourly, and then she glared at him before blinking at his stupid look, the reptile apparently not getting the pun he'd just made. "Er, but hey, how'd you sleep?"

Mahihko giggled stupidly before Zerrex could reply, clapping his hands together as he looked up from his story to say childishly: "Daddy made a poop joke!"

"He's not your Daddy." Marina snapped immediately, and the two glared at each other before Marina flicked his nose, and the wolf winced and grabbed his muzzle, immediately looking meek before she looked over at the Drakkaren, smiling brightly. "Daddy, why don't you tell the others about that little vision you had?"

Zerrex blinked again, still feeling slow and failing to remember if Marina had ever managed to skim through his thoughts so quickly before... but Cherry immediately sat up and asked: "Angel or demon? And do you think it's a trap, ‘cause like... I don't trust either of the fuckers. It could even be an angel pretending to be a demon pretending to be an angel, you know, and that's some real confusing-ass scary shit right there. Fuckers."

"Cherry, don't say things like this to me!" The Drakkaren covered his head, making a face as all sorts of paranoid thoughts came to him. After a moment, he peered over at her, and she looked back at him for a few moments before the reptile finally said simply: "It was an angel."

"I trust them least." Cherry said cheerfully, and Zerrex groaned before throwing his pillow at her, and then Marina glowered at her and sent several books dropping onto her head, which was far more painful and effective. "Ouch, fuck! Fuck! Fuck! You guys all suck!"

"That rhymes." Cindy said amiably, as she continued to peacefully read her own book, which caused Cherry to pause for a moment before letting out a loud ‘ha!' "In any case, Marina's been blathering to us all about it for the last half hour, except Cherry put all her concentration into figuring out the little words she could, since there are no picture books."

"You're shitting me. You guys were talking?" Cherry asked stupidly, and then she flailed her arms a bit, frowning and glowering at them all as her horns and fins popped back out in her apparent frustration. "What the fuck! Tell me when you're talking about important shit!"

Zerrex rolled his eyes a bit, but thankfully the next few hours carried in on relative calm with discussing the new information they had just learned. The Drakkaren still felt edgy about it â€" and he could tell Cherry did, too â€" but the other three seemed convinced... and after he allowed Marina to ‘experience' the memory with him by replaying it through his head while they watched, she confirmed that it had both been ‘beamed in' from somewhere else, so to speak, and that the angel didn't seem to be lying about anything.

After that, there was a short break as Curtis pulled over for dinner, and he said the restaurant here was safe if they wanted to join him. Zerrex figured it was a fair idea, and the group did, Cherry assuming a form that was a bit less-obvious than the other ones she had so far and posing as Marina's boyfriend, while Cindy went as Zerrex's wife, and Mahihko and Curtis just as friends. It was an unnecessary cover story, as was getting two separate tables back-to-back, but it was always better to be prepared, even if they were only in a smoky, greasy truck stop that served bad short-order.

On the other hand, it also meant they were prepared and got away without a fight when the place was raided by Irenic Military grunts and they were all kicked out and sent on their way. Zerrex recognized the team and brute-force tactics they employed from Northern Regiment 23: a small army group that was based out of a series of large military bases in the heart of Northern Ire, and which exerted no small amount of control over the entire area. They were cruel, heartless bastards... and although he was pretty sure they were just kicking everyone out so they could gang-rape the waitresses, sleep in the inn, and leave with all the money in the morning, he didn't want to put aside the possibility that the enforcers might have been ordered to sweep for a group of Drakkaren.

Either way, they slid out the back door when they had the chance and made it safely to the truck, which roared off with the rest of the transports and other vehicles: civilian cars would be stopped, but since the trucking companies paid for and brought most of the supplies from Ire into the Northern separatist country, they wouldn't dare touch any of the cargo or even the truckers. It meant the getaway was clean and easy, despite the fact several armored humvees had pulled up... and Marina murmured after a few moments: "We're safe. The soldiers weren't looking for us... they just wanted some fun, as the captain of their platoon put it."

Night passed into day passed into night, most of it uneventful and spent on the road, with a few breaks here and there for food and the use of the nearest bathroom... but before morning of the next day, they slowed as they pulled into the military outpost the bear had spoken about, and Zerrex could hear faint voices outside as he motioned for Cherry to flick off the light and for everyone to stay quiet.

Almost twenty minutes passed... and then they were slowly pulling away, but Cherry murmured: "Don't celebrate yet... we're turning. I think they might be doing an inspection."

Mahihko whimpered quietly, and then there was silence other than the quiet rumbling of the vehicle for a few moments before there were raised voices outside... and then the engine turned off. A minute or so later, Zerrex heard the back shutter rise up as Curtis pleaded with a soldier, his drawl vanishing quickly: "Come on, what's one truck? And look at this, there have to be around twenty guys here with guns, and three trucks being inspected from top-to-bottom..."

"Chuck, I'm sorry, I really am, but I just can't overlook anything..." replied a strained voice, likely the inspecting soldier, and then there was a crack of wood and a grunt before he muttered: "Artificial cheese blocks. I'm not sure if that's illegal, but it should be... I guess it's food to some people, though..."

"It's Curtis." The bear corrected, and then he sighed and asked after a moment: "What are you looking for, anyway? You don't have one of those fancy book-thingers with you that tell you what's illegal and what's not."

"Criminals. We have a report that they're trying to get from the northern empires all the way into Ire, and that they're likely using a transport of some kind, so we have to check every single goddamn truck for them." The soldier muttered, and then he tapped the side of another crate, asking: "Have you picked up or dropped off any weird cargo lately?"

"Once I had to bring a shipment of bondage equipment to a specialty sex boutique in the south. I don't think much of anything's weird after that." Curtis replied, and the soldier snorted before there was another loud crack, followed by a shriek and laughter. "Oh, relax! They're fake!"

There was a scuffling sound, a squelch, a grunt, and then the transport rocked a bit as at least two more soldiers climbed up... before one of them laughed and there was that weird slick squelch again. "Hey, what's this for? It ain't Halloween!"

"It says on the manifest they're going to some movie studio..." the first soldier said, but now he sounded surly. "That's gross. I thought they were real."

"Well, shit, what do you think they're going to look like if they're going to a fuckin' movie studio, noodles?" said another voice, and then there was a hammering sound as it added: "Get your ass back out front, there's obviously nothing here... besides, Curt's an old-timer. He's been transporting things for years and I ain't never heard word one of a complaint... but I thought for a minute there you'd gone all separatist on me, you lousy shit."

"Great as always to see you too, Hank." There was a pause, some mutters, and then the sound of people leaving and someone else climbing into the transport, before the bear grunted quietly: "By the way, I thought we were supposed to avoid references to that?"

A snort, and then Hank replied quietly: "Yeah, but it's more suspicious to constantly avoid referencing something than it is to say it once in a while and otherwise only talk about it if other people already are, especially in an outpost like this one. Anyway, watch your ass. I hear they're doing random searches along the highways, too."

A moment later, there was the sound of someone climbing out, followed by a loud hammering... and then Curtis left the back. The shutter closed behind him... and a few minutes later, the truck started back up and they were back on their way.

Fifteen minutes later, the truck slowed appreciably, and Zerrex glanced up at the small, closed window in the wall as there was a knock at it. He stood and slid it open to see the bear looking in on them from his own little window in the back of his cab, asking mildly: "You all alright?"

"Yeah, we're good, hillbilly. Thank you." Cherry said loudly, and Zerrex rolled his eyes before stepping on her stomach, and she let out a half-cough, half-gag that splattered Marina with saliva, the youngest daughter immediately glaring at the female and punching her in the nose, which caused Cherry to yelp.

"I think we're surviving for now." Zerrex answered after a moment, and Curtis nodded, looking somewhat amused at the sounds of fighting echoing through the open slot in the front wall of the cargo container.

"Alright. We have about twenty hours to the capital... I'll drive for as much as I can, but at some point I'm going to pull over for a meal and a nap, just so you all know. It shouldn't be too much more than a day more, though." Curtis said mildly, and Zerrex nodded in return to him before the bear withdrew and closed his little window, the reptile doing the same before he sighed and went to breaking up the wrestling match Marina and Cherry were currently engaged in, the older female currently attempting to strangle the younger one as she ducked and weaved under books Marina chucked at her using her telekinetic abilities. I wonder if Hell is something like this... stuck in a metal box with little to do with people who don't get along.

Around noon on the next day, Curtis let them out at a small junkyard, where they were greeted by a golden retriever with one arm dressed in old military fatigues. He stood up on the porch of his small little home, made mostly from discarded scraps as Zerrex slipped off the roof, and the retriever grunted as he stepped down the short wooden stairs, grunting: "If it ain't the legend himself, Zerrex Narrius... the infamous terror Captain Ravenlight. When I had kids, I used to tell them horror stories about the shit you pulled, you know. Kept them right in line."

"Hey uh... we didn't kill them, did we?" Cherry asked dumbly, as she jumped down out of the transport after the others. The old dog laughed a bit at this, though, and she looked relieved. "Well, I'll take that as a ‘no,' then. Good, ‘cause I don't feel like running from twelve gauge buckshot today."

"Nah, it was one of them ‘anti-terrorist attacks...' a grenade went off near me, took my arm and... burnt down my old house up there." He paused, glancing up at the sky and rubbing the back of his neck slowly, before nodding to Curtis as he closed the door of the transport and walked around to the front of his truck, and a few moments later he pulled away and back onto the road, leaving the little group standing in the dirt road the led into the junkyard beyond awkwardly. But a moment later the dog looked back at them with a smile, nodding and saying amiably: "Come on, walk with me. I dug you up a vehicle so you can get yourselves around the city without much of a problem."

Zerrex nodded a bit, watching after the old dog curiously as the golden retriever continued to talk in an easy voice, and the Drakkaren noted that the dog wasn't even carrying any weapons, despite the shotgun Cherry had obviously noticed resting against a rocking chair on the porch. "You know, before the Great War, when I moved here, it was originally to get away from the fighting up north... when I was young, oh sure, it was a great cause... but after I lost my family to it and almost all of my friends, I began to realize what a damned fool I was to be fighting a war that no one even knew was about anymore... and a war that was almost exclusively run by Ire, too. I think we all knew that at any time, the mighty Irenic army could have walked in and destroyed us all, and hell, we all suffered at the hands of that there Goth Legion you ran... but here I am, makin' a fool out of myself all over again." The dog stopped, turning and reaching a hand out to Zerrex. "My name's Belmont. Chad Belmont, formerly from the Northern Ire Freedom 55 Brigade."

The Drakkaren nodded, smiling a bit as he shook the dog's hand gently. "And you already know who I am... but you might not recognize Cherry, the one with the banana fins sticking out of her head. The other female with the fin is my daughter, Marina, and the last is her older sister, Cindy... and the little wolf is Mahihko."

"I wish you wouldn't call them that." Cherry said sulkily, and then she grinned when the dog turned his eyes her way, looking proud of herself as she added: "As you can see, I've changed a bit over the years, and-"

"She-Devil, we used to call you." The golden retriever observed, halting Cherry in mid-flow as he added: "And the first things our spies said to us was that you were the loud, annoying one who was always clinging to the leader. The second was that we should just run away if we saw you, though, since you were almost impossible to hit. Your name's Cynthia too, ain't it?"

"Don't call me that." Cherry mumbled, then she pouted at Zerrex, crossing her arms and saying loudly: "Boss, I don't like him. Let's eat him."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Cindy sketched a curtsy to the old dog, and he smiled in return. Marina simply nodded and grunted, and Mahihko gave him a bit of a wave, looking embarrassed, before Cindy added: "Marina's a bit antisocial and Mahihko's somewhat shy... but we're hoping for the best in this mission we're on."

He nodded, then turned and continued to speak as they walked deeper into the junkyard, following the well-trod dirt path as Zerrex strode in time with him, leaning a bit on his cane while Cherry glared distrustfully at the retriever. "Well, I wish you all the best in that endeavor... and God knows I wouldn't be here today if I thought you didn't have a chance. But I remember what you two did, and I've heard many a thing about the rest of your little family here from Big Bird and some of the others in Hez'Ranna, and I'd much rather have you as friends than as enemies." Chad paused, then added: "It looks like time and war have caught up to you, though, Captain Ravenlight."

"Please, just Zerrex is fine." The Drakkaren nodded a bit, then he smiled a bit and shrugged, adding quietly: "And I guess if you spend your entire life fighting, you end up looking like me one day, no matter how strong you are."

The dog grunted in agreement, and then he stopped, pointing across at an enlarged muscle car. "I found this out back one day and had some of the boys who work for me fix it up as best they-"

But Cherry was already gone with a squeal of delight, leaping at it and slowly, lovingly rubbing her hands over the vehicle, mumbling: "A restored eighties Thunderbolt, from the redesigned A2-Series built for Dragokkaren... rectangular base body, steel rims, all-terrain tires with the ‘tornado' grip design and bulletproof glass in the windshield, and a full-metal body painted in raven-black... Zerrex, I think I need a towel!"

The Drakkaren slapped his forehead with a groan, and the dog laughed a bit. "Well, I'm glad she likes it, Zerrex. It's a pretty car, I'll give you that much... they don't make tanks like that anymore. The engine system's been replaced, too..." A pause as Cherry immediately flipped up the hood to peer interestedly at it, and the dog glanced over to Zerrex before nodding to him. "But I guess I'll let her do all the tellin'-you that you need. I'd offer more, but the military raided here a few days back and took half the equipment in my junkyard, bulldozers included. They might be back, so I reckon I shouldn't hold you up and should just let you get out of here."

"Thanks, Chad... I won't forget this." Zerrex said quietly, and he shook the dog's hand again before adding: "And... I am honestly sorry for any hardship I caused you and yours in the past. I know it isn't much, but I'd like to offer whatever I can to make up for what I did."

"Zerrex, if you succeed in your job here, then I'm sure most of the souls lost during all these tragic years between Ire and Northern Ire will be able to rest easy." Chad responded firmly, and he patted the Drakkaren's bicep before nodding to him with a smile. "Now you'd best get on your way."

The Drakkaren nodded back, then he turned, watching as Cherry closed the hood with a grin before immediately dancing around to the driver's side door and cursing as she found it locked, tapping her fingers across the black roof of the car with a frown. Chad laughed a bit at this, then held up a hand and dug in his pocket for the keys and tossed them over to the female, and she grinned widely, catching them easily. "Thanks, old dude! I'll take good care of her, I promise!"

"See that you do, she's a mighty-fine piece of machinery." Chad replied, and then stepped back off the road as Cherry opened her door and slid inside, the female unlocking the passenger and back doors as she started the ignition, looking blissful at the utter lack of power-anything, one of her hands settled firmly on the stick.

Zerrex shifted his seat a bit as the others climbed in the back, Mahihko sitting awkwardly in the middle, before Cindy said mildly: "Daddy, there's no seatbelts in this car. I don't feel safe with Cherry driving."

"Well, losers, only the little wolf bitch knows how to drive stick properly, other than me, and he is so not touching this beauty. Look at this! Maple paneling, black leather seats! Fucking hand-crank windows!" Cherry let her tongue loll out, Zerrex leaning away from her with a wince as she eased the car forwards without bothering to look, easily avoiding a small hole in the road before adding as she adjusted the rearview mirror: "And you guys aren't even squished there in the back, either, which is great for everyone, right? Sure, maybe we should've thrown the junk in the trunk, which is where junk should be... in the trunk."

"Cherry, no one likes you or your puns." Cindy said flatly, and Cherry glared over her shoulder as she turned down the road at the same time, Zerrex wincing and mumbling to himself about finding a happy place. "Keep your eyes on the road, you're going to make Daddy have a heart attack."

"Mi-mi-mi-mi-mi, daddy-daddy-heart-attacky." Cherry muttered in a high-pitched, mocking voice, but she turned her attention back to the road, running a hand back and forth over the steel steering wheel as she turned on the radio and searched for something appropriately metal enough to go with the car. "Oh, I miss the days where everything was unsafe like this..."

"I don't. There's always unsafety as long as you're around." Zerrex mumbled under his breath, and Cherry looked at him sourly as he added dryly: "Go find your way to the senate building, so we can get out of this car."

"Yeah, well, the nice thing about giant-ass cities like this, is that they're about fifty-billion miles big." Cherry replied with a wide grin, and then she rolled the car out in front of a transport truck, Zerrex wincing before she accelerated suddenly, laughing as the truck's horn blared at her as it missed the silver-steel rear bumper by inches. "This is so fucking awesome!"

The ride was stressful for the male Drakkaren, to say the least: in a normal car, Cherry was bad... but a muscle car like this made the female's ridiculous amount of testosterone flare up, and she began to drive even more offensively than usual, cutting off cars, racing anyone stupid enough to challenge her, refusing to signal for anything, and causing as many car accidents as she could, at one point letting go of the wheel and yanking up her top and bra to flash a driver next to her, causing him to gape before plowing into the back of an ice cream truck before she quickly swerved between two cars ahead of her with one hand, and then hit the gas to shoot narrowly between a pair of turning transports, almost losing the mirror on her side of the car as she cackled and Zerrex covered his eyes.

It took a little less than two hours for them to reach the inner city from where they'd been in the suburbs, and now Cherry became more serious, driving far more normally to avoid attracting attention as she leaned over to Zerrex, muttering: "This is worse than our first visit to Hez'Ranna... there's cops and military everywhere, and I swear I saw a guy hover over our heads in one of those Aerial BAD setups, too."

"ABADs?" Zerrex frowned a bit, then he paused as he leaned slightly out his window, glancing up to see three of the aforementioned fly slowly overhead in a V-formation. BADs with jetpacks, wings, and grappling hooks. I think whoever came up with that idea needs to be shot. Twice. In both kneecaps. "Yeah. They look like they're performing a patrol... we must be moving towards the heart of the city."

Cherry nodded, then cursed at the traffic as she looked over her shoulder at the enormous duffel bag, asking dryly: "So like, how do we get that through security? I mean, I can't exactly morph into a soldier and then say that I arrested you all single-handedly or that you surrendered and admitted defeat to John or Jane Doe Cop."

"I thought we were using the word ‘shift' to describe your ability to transform into whatever." Zerrex said, glancing over at her curiously, and she looked back with a shrug, putting her hands behind her head and sighing a bit as they continued to sit in traffic.

"Morph, shift, whatever. Transform sounds so stupid though: ooh, look at me, I'm a transformer!" Cherry rose her hands and shook her head back and forth wildly as she made the scales on her head change different colors before going back to their usual green, adding irritably: "It's a dumb word. Like poop. Who the fuck came up with the word ‘poop' for kids? I mean, half the adults these days don't realize that stool is the fancy scientific word for shit."

"It is not. That's excrement." Zerrex responded absently, glancing out the window. Neither he nor Cherry were really paying much attention to their banter, however, both of them instead concentrating on how they were going to manage to get into the senate building without being noticed by the increasingly-tight military presence, as Cherry finally grasped the wheel again and made a right turn behind the truck ahead of her, nodding to the sign ahead of her.

"Saint Luthor's Row... Saint's Row, that's where the senate building is, right? Along with uh... city hall and the governor's office?" Cherry tilted her head curiously, and Zerrex nodded as he rubbed his head slowly. "Great. We're going to get there and end up sitting outside in the fucking car. I mean, Marina and I could get through the building easy... but shit, with this much action going on, we won't even be able to reach the fucking place without fifty assholes in BAD gear asking to see our ID and then making us lay down on our stomachs before possibly violating us." A pause and a grimace. "I wouldn't mind the violating but the prison part afterwards might be bad."

Zerrex nodded, then he glanced over at her and asked mildly: "Do you have any other neat demonic tricks or magical spell things that could cover you and Marina and get you two inside? I'm being serious here, by the way, because I'm running quickly out of ideas."

Cherry made a face, then jerked around a truck that squealed to a stop in front of her, flipping him off across Zerrex before pulling in front of him and driving slowly along the street, ignoring his honks before they came to a halt with a squeal. "Dude, if I could actually remember the useful spells, believe me, I'd perform them, just to watch the sparkles. But even though the Sisters taught me them, the only ones I can still remember clearly are a few binding spells, one to get rid of evil spirits, one to create a fire wave, and uh... this is really stupid... but one to summon a really big, harmless unevolved snake."

"I... don't want to know what you did with the last one." Zerrex said mildly, and in the back seat, Cindy immediately covered her muzzle and made a sound of disgust. Then he made a face as the car ground to a halt as ahead, a car merged into another lane in front of someone else and the truck behind it crashed into the bumper of the smaller car in front of it.

There were yells of irritation from all down the line, and a tired-looking elephant in a suit climbed out of the car, waving a bit at the lioness in the truck, who had a hand on her head and was waving her other hand, looking almost horrified, and he went over to calm her down as a toddler stuck his head out the driver's side window, the young boy sucking his thumb as he watched curiously. Ironically, the problem came from behind them, when the truck Cherry had flipped off earlier crashed into them with much-greater force than the small bump that had occurred ahead, and Zerrex whacked his head off the dashboard before blinking and righting himself, rubbing at his forehead as Mahihko scrambled to get up from where he'd been thrown between the seats.

Cherry, on the other hand, looked as if she'd been punched, even though she hadn't even been nudged out of position and had even stopped the car from bumping into the van ahead of her despite how hard they'd been hit. For a moment, she continued to gape out the front window... and then she snarled and shifted her form slightly, her horns and fins vanishing with her breasts as she became a male version of herself, cracking her knuckles with a snarl as a lumbering dragon climbed out of the car behind her, slamming the door and already yelling profanities at them, before he threw the cell phone he had in one hand into the ground, his glasses toppling off with them as he roared and shouted, before he jerked a tire iron out from the back seat of his car with the other hand... and Zerrex stared, grabbing Cherry's arm and saying quickly: "Cherry, it's not worth it, don't do it-"

The asshole behind them then smashed in the signal light on the back of the car, and Cherry tore off his shirt and the bra that had fallen down around the now-his waist, before she snarled as the dragon dented the trunk and then slammed the tire iron into the back window hard enough to send cracks twisting through the thick glass as he continued to rave, Mahihko and Cindy both shrieking in fear. "I have something to do, Boss."

Cherry threw the door open and stepped out, towering over the dragon's seven feet even though he was only a foot or so taller in her current form, cracking his knuckles and looking unafraid of the bulky, likely steroid-driven hulk, before the now-male snarled in a rumbling baritone: "Hey, prick, do you know what this is? This car is a fucking treasure, just restored, and now you've gone and ruined it."

Zerrex made a face, then he glanced back and forth and gave a disgusted look to the military patrols on both sidewalks, several of them pulling out their wallets as they muttered into their headsets. They're making bets on who wins. The bastards are so secure, so certain that everything's going to go according to the master plan that they're not going to intervene... hey, why bother, free entertainment, right? And who cares about anyone that gets hurt... Ire's motto. It's all fun and games, as long as you aren't the one dying.

"Fuck you! I saw you flip me off and pull ahead of me, bitch, and I don't care about a shitheap like this!" The dragon struck the rear back door now, before he grinned inside to the girls, asking in a huskier voice: "Tell you what, gimme one of those chicks to borrow and I won't kick your ass... and I'll try not to rip her up too much so she can fit on your little dick when I give the whore back."

"Don't talk about my sisters that way, asshole." Cherry snarled in return, and Zerrex could sense the growing rage inside the now-male as he added darkly: "Now stop hitting my fucking car, and put the fucking tire iron down, and leave. Otherwise, I'm going to break your face and tear off your balls."

The dragon snarled, and whether or not he was intimidated, he was apparently too sure of himself to notice the deadly gleam in Cherry's eyes. Before he could reply, however, the lioness that had been in the accident walked forwards past Cherry, holding her hands up, and his eyes widened in surprise as she said quickly: "Hey, let's all just calm down-"

The dragon struck out at her with the tire iron, and she let out a shriek of pain as her hand snapped backwards, her wrist cracking audibly as she fell forwards on her side, and Zerrex snarled, half-tempted to get out of the car... but as the dragon struck what would have almost certainly been a fatal blow to her skull, Cherry's arm lashed out and he caught the end of the heavy metal bar, holding it tight in his hand as the dragon grunted and tried to jerk it free, his eyes widening as his muscles bulged through his tight dress shirt, but unable to do anything to budge the bar as the now-male said darkly: "You so should not have done that."

"Fuck you!" The dragon shoved the bar suddenly forwards, and Cherry yanked it with him, the dragon staggering forwards with the suddenly jerk and his own momentum and running straight into Cherry's other hand, his muzzle connecting painfully with the now-male's palm before the dragon fell backwards with a cry of pain and surprise. The lioness quickly crawled out of the way of the two, the elephant no longer looking so tired as he grabbed her and helped her quickly to her feet, almost holding her as Cherry threw the tire iron down and kicked the other reptile hard in the side, snarling: "Get up."

The dragon groaned as he slowly got up to all fours... and then his eyes settled very obviously on the tire iron before he looked up at Cherry... and immediately made the stupid mistake of diving for it. In midair, Cherry snagged him under the neck with the top of her combat boot, not in a kick but merely halting him only inches away from grabbing the weapon... and then he jerked him hard back up to his feet and punched him hard with a simple right cross, knocking him flat on his back again.

The military next to the car were laughing and chatting amiably, as if this was a prize fight or a television show... and then Cherry kicked the dragon under the jaw when he sat up before grabbing him by the shirt and jerking him to his feet. He swayed a bit, moaning in pain, arms limp at his sides, only begging for it to be over... and Cherry only grinned cruelly before the now-he stepped forwards and in one swift motion, lifted the dragon above his head, almost as if performing some sort of dance.

A soldier across the street clapped, and he was joined by a few others as Cherry continued to grin up at the dragon, who was flailing and kicking to no avail... before the now-male stepped forwards once more and shifted the dragon to one hand, his shirt tearing as Cherry spun him around before slamming him face-first into the concrete, and the asshole's body spasmed as a loud ‘ooh!' came up from a few of the soldiers, followed by some more laughter. Finally, one of them stepped into the road, saying clearly as Cherry stepped forwards: "Okay, okay, sir, that's more than enough."

"Come on, pal, one more for the road?" Cherry asked in an earnest voice, and the soldier glanced over at his buddies, who shrugged, one of them nodding almost amiably. He finally grinned and nodded himself, and Cherry laid a hard kick into the dragon's side, causing him to gurgle and roll slowly off, moaning in agony. "Thanks. And thank you for the fun, fuckwit. Maybe try actually doing something next time, huh?"

Cherry headed back to the car, looking proud of his male self... and then another soldier, this one looking far-more surly, stopped him and said irritably: "We're going to have to impound this vehicle, sir. Please ask the other passengers to get out and take everything you need with you."

"Oh come on, Carl, don't be a sore loser!" shouted one of the soldiers, and the others laughed, not bothering to hide the money they were counting... and inside the car, Marina murmured the same words, her eyes flashing a bit.

Outside, Carl twitched and his features went slack for a moment... and then he sighed and said loudly: "Fine. Get in the car, sir. I'm having your vehicle towed to a repair shop, then... as a favor to you guys to show just what generous guy I am. Make sure you pull over to the sidewalk once traffic begins to move."

Cherry nodded and didn't bother to respond as he slipped into the car... and then quickly put his clothes aside and reverted to her usual female form, wincing and rubbing at her head a bit as her horns popped out. "Fuck, I gotta remember to hide these better..." A pause as she glanced over her shoulder to Marina, adding mildly: "And thanks, kid. It's good to see you behaving like a team player."

"Yeah, whatever." Marina replied dismissively, glancing out the window and muttering: "It's so confusing when you turn to male. I don't know whether to refer to you as a he or a she."

"Well, right now I still have a penis, so you can call me either." Cherry said comfortably, then she leered over at a sour-looking Zerrex. "Wanna see? I'll hold a special sock puppet show if it'll cheer you up, Mr. Grumpypants."

"I hate this city. I hate you. I hate everything." Zerrex muttered, crossing his arms and shrinking back in his seat as Cherry snorted amusedly, then paused and touched her head lightly, carefully shrinking her horns back into her skull. "You abuse your shapeshifting ability too much... and put on a shirt, you're attracting looks."

Cherry grinned out the window at a passing couple who were staring in shock at her... and she reached up and fondled her breasts, looking at them suggestively. Immediately, the female growled as her male counterpart gaped, and then jerked ahead into traffic to the angry honking and squalling of many different horns. Satisfied with her perversion for the day, Cherry then put her bra back on and slipped into her shirt, muttering: "Thank crap for body-fitting fibers... but hey, you know what? I'm awesome. And I'm like clay and can turn into any-fucking-thing scaly. So I have every right to do whatever I want. Now do you wanna see my penis or not?"

"No, I do not want to see your penis, Cherry." Zerrex replied acidly, and then he looked out the window as an ABAD touched down nearby and the soldiers immediately saluted, giving some half-assed status report before the ABAD took off again. "This place sucks."

"You're telling me." Cherry replied, as the vehicle ahead of them slowly started to move. The soldiers in the area all began to move on, even Carl no longer paying attention to their car, and Cherry followed traffic idly before looking up curiously at honk, and leaning back into the dark interior of the car as the lioness rose her hand to them from her truck with a wince, and Cherry waved back, mumbling: "I hate people like that. She's a douche for getting involved."

"What's wrong, does the mean old Cherry feel bad that an innocent civilian got hurt? Is that the faint rumblings of a tiny little shriveled heart in there?" Cindy asked from the back seat teasingly, and Cherry glared over her shoulder at her as the female added: "Besides, she seemed nice, even if I only saw her. There should be more people like that in the world."

"Five bucks says the bitch is possessed." Cherry muttered, then she became more serious again as she carefully pulled around a van to turn down a narrower, far-les travelled street, driving slowly between an archway guarded by two soldiers in thicker, larger BAD armors. "We're approaching the Marble Dome... that's the senate building, right?"

"That's right." Zerrex nodded a bit... and then the two stared at the sight of several busses slowly pulling into a parking lot that was mostly empty, five uniformed, pretty girls standing in front of a pair of double doors at the side of the massive, unsurprisingly dome-shaped building instead of along the front, long marble stairway that led up to a huge, pillared entranceway. The main doors were heavily guarded... but Cherry quickly turned into the side lot and slipped behind the other bus as it halted, and hissed: "Get out, leave the bag of stuff on the floor!"

The four quickly did as Cherry said, and female stepped on the gas the moment they were out, the car's engine rroaring as it half-spun into a side parking space, before she leapt out and charged over to where they were. Immediately, the female guided them around the front of one of the busses... and the group stared as people of all ages climbed out, most of them younger but a few older people as well, before Marina leaned to the side and murmured: "Landsdale University's entire law class; there are four professors here and roughly eighty students. And no, none of the professors can even recognize if they're really students or not or half of their own seminar group, and nor do they care."

Cherry grinned widely, then muttered over to them: "Perfect. Let's move forwards, then... hang back a bit, though, step into a space if you see one." A pause, and then she demonstrated by deftly striding forwards into line and walking into one of the four groups forming, one of the apparent tour guides in blue speaking in a cultured but nervous voice.

On the other hand, only Cindy and Mahihko got away without odd looks from the other students... and then one of them whined, adjusting his glasses: "You aren't in our class. I don't think you're in our class. Who are you, what are you-"

Cherry reached out and took his glasses before he could attract too much attention, then crushed them to dust in one fist, and immediately everyone looked away as the cheetah turned pale, the female muttering: "Not only am I in your class now, I'm your best friend. Now shut up and act like it or I swear to God you'll be losing your virginity to either a broomhandle or my foot, and either way the penetration will be very, very deep."

Zerrex, on the other hand, had a different problem, as a possum peered over him while slowly rolling a joint, before he asked curiously: "Dude, are you in a band?"

"Uh... no." Zerrex said after a moment, looking down at him with confusion and leaning a bit away from the bright-color-wearing new-ager.

"You should totally be in a band. Seriously. Even if you can't play anything worth shit, you should totally be in a band. That'd be epic." The possum nodded, adjusting one of many rings in his ear before sticking the freshly-rolled joint in his muzzle and then pulling a lighter free from a brightly-colored band around his wrist, lighting up and asking: "You want a hit?"

"Er, I'm good, thank you." Zerrex shook his head a bit, then added lamely when the much-shorter male didn't seem satisfied with that answer: "Maybe later, if we have to listen to too many speeches from the G."

"Awesome, dude. Just ethereal." The possum grinned stupidly, coughing a bit of smoke into the air before adding: "Wherefore art thou, freedom, right?"

Marina, Cindy, and Mahihko had ended up near one-another, and Cindy was peacefully chatting away with people, while a chubby skunk with a fair number of tattoos down her arms and a purple-dyed line of fur from her forehead to the end of her tail poked lightly at Mahihko's muzzle piercings, the wolf looking awkward as he swayed back a bit. Marina, meanwhile, had already stolen someone's notebook and another girl's pencil case using her psychic abilities, and now she was complacently sketching as she stood in the middle of a group of people. Someone then made the mistake of attempting to peer over her shoulder, and almost immediately he managed to ‘trip' backwards and fall heavily on the pavement, one of the professors helping him to his feet as he looked back and forth in confusion.

Finally, the head guide said something worthy of note: "Although you'll be splitting up for the beginning and end of the tour, we'll all be meeting at the viewing gallery above the senate so you can all experience firsthand how it works and how laws are passed and reviewed. The next meeting convenes in half an hour, so until then we'll be giving each of you a short tour around different areas of the building. Now, normally the gallery is reserved only for news reporters and..."

Zerrex stopped listening, glancing around at the others, and he received slight nods from everyone in turn before glancing forwards again and tuning back into the speech as the head guide wrapped up, clapping her hands together. "I'll now pass you all over to your respective guides: group one will be going with Maria, group two with Beatrice, group three with Felicity and group four will follow Julie. Please stay with your group and your appointed guide, since you don't want to get lost! The building is a very big place!

"But I'll see you all at the senate gallery, then. Please remember to be quiet and respectful, as there are currently several caucus meetings taking place in several different areas of the building, and as always, enjoy." The head guided bowed a bit to them, and then strode quickly to the large double doors that were guarded only by two security officers, opening them wide and then stepping aside, her smile pasted on her face as the group walked in and saying things like ‘enjoy!' and ‘have a good time!' randomly in a too-happy voice.

It wasn't the worst infiltration Zerrex had ever done, at least, as he carefully slid through the group to avoid the new-ager still blissfully smoking his joint. On the other hand, instead he ended up by a musclehead who slapped his bicep lightly, the muscular fox making lifting motions with both his hands and saying up to him in a slightly-too-fast voice: "Hey, I bet you can really pump a lot, right?"

That is so... inappropriate. "What?" Zerrex said stupidly instead, however, before he could stop himself. The fox only laughed and grinned however, making a few punching motions now.

"Yeah, lizard, you know, like, move a lot of weight! Damn you got some guns on you, hey, do you fight?" The statement turned into a question at the last moment, and Zerrex only stared as they reached a fork in the path and thankfully moved to the left, instead of up the stairs, but the todd continued as if he had answered the question. "So like, where do you work out? Are you a townie or are you from somewhere else? I'm from a small town myself, came for the football stayed for the chicks, know what I mean? Yeah, football scholarship, that's how I got here... glad too, ‘cause the student loans are murder, aren't they?"

Zerrex continued to stare, and the fox faltered a bit, wincing back as he slowed right down and mumbled, rubbing the back of his head: "I uh... I'm sorry, I just transferred from off-campus way over in Valise, and I haven't really seen anyone here who's buff enough to look like they were interested in the same stuff as me, and-"

"I'm from Valise. I was born there, then moved back after the War." Zerrex interrupted, and the fox brightened at the Drakkaren's halfhearted conversation attempt. Ugh. I'm getting too soft in my old age.

Cherry, on the other hand, was doing the opposite, holding the poor cheetah tightly around the shoulders and squeezing him against her side, the cat looking terrified at the feeling of her flexing, bulky muscles against his back as she explained calmly, gesturing with her other hand as her group made their way up the wide stairs on the right: "So you see, since I've always been so interested in the law, that's why I'm here, and that's all you need to know. Now you're going to help me out, isn't that right?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The feline babbled, nodding rapidly as he looked up at her with complete submission, and she grinned widely, leering down at him as he tried to shrink away.

"That's a good start." she said teasingly, then glanced over him thoughtfully, asking amiably: "So, do you have a girlfriend? And you know, I feel sorta bad for calling you a virgin earlier... you know, unless you are one, then I won't feel so bad, but I know that nerds need and get lovin' or at least a dry fuck now and then, so like, you know. What kinda sex have you had?"

The feline only stared, his mouth falling open as they stepped up to the second floor and through a pair of open security doors, and then Cherry said in a cold voice: "Yeah, I'm serious. Now tell me or I'll chuck you down the fuckin' stairs."

"Language, miss." said a voice firmly, and Cherry glanced over her shoulder at a stallion in a cheap grey suit, his red-and-white-striped tie fluttering a bit as he strode up beside her, hands behind his back... and then whatever question he had died in his throat when Cherry glared and rose a hand, flexing enough to make her bicep bulge larger than his head, instead mumbling an apology and walking quickly ahead.

"Um... I'm a virgin." The male squeaked, and he tried to shy away when Cherry licked her muzzle in an almost-hungry fashion. "I'm... bi-curious, I kissed a guy once? And we touched one another but... but that's it, please ma'am, I don't want to talk about it in public like this!"

Cherry snorted at this, looking over the male with a slight grin as her eyes gleamed. "Oh, come on! It's like porn, but not... anyway, tell me more, you little bitch, and you better start talking damn fast."

Cindy, Marina, and Mahihko, meanwhile, ended up on the third floor, touring a hall filled with paintings of governors, Marina completely ignoring everyone around her but the other two at least half-listening to the tour guide. Then Marina glanced up as the tour guided added: "And although some people think it's in bad taste, we also have a picture of Patriarch Narrius on the wall here, surrounded by those who served as important ambassadors during the Great War..."

A corner wall was dominated by a massive framed picture of Narrius behind a quietly-buzzing electric field, and people murmured between themselves with both academic interest and scholarly distaste. Marina's head tilted a bit as she gazed at the cold red eyes and over the cruel crimson features of the massive Dragokkaren, the profile including his broad shoulders and the top of his black suit: behind him, the Black Double Standard had been painted, in the upper left corner â€" two towering Dragokkaren profiles facing one another like savage creatures, arms reaching out as if to grapple.

Mahihko's eyes, meanwhile, were drawn to a picture of a cruelly-grinning mugshot of a wolf on the wall, the only non-Dragokkaren image present. His eyes were stupid with malice, and his face handsome but twisted with selfishness, the collar of his leather jacket flipped up as if he was trying to make himself look cool. The wolf whimpered quietly and glanced down, and Cindy quietly touched his back before looking over at Marina, who was focused on the painting of Narrius... and a moment later, she smiled coldly, and a moment later all of the paintings shattered simultaneously into broken fragments, falling out of place and sparking as they collided with the electrical field, the tour guide letting out a shriek of surprise as many of the students laughed and began to talk excitedly with each other, Marina going back to sketching quickly as Cindy let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't the best thing that could have happened... but on the other hand, it wasn't the worst, either.

Down at the bottom of the stairs, the head tour guide cocked her head, before her eyes turned solid blue, a cruel smile spreading over her face as she reached down and slid a plain-looking locket out of her dress, speaking quietly into it: "Master... they're here. Shall I destroy them now?"

"No." responded a cold, soft voice. "Allow them to continue forwards for now... I wouldn't deny my weaker demons the sport or the Countess a chance at revenge. There will be plenty of time to torture them in Hell once they're dead, and I'll allow you first bite at them."

"Thank you, Master. You're too kind to your humble servant. I'll keep my eye on them." the possessed tour guide said softly, and then she snapped the locket shut and smiled, her blue eyes burning like fire before she blinked, and they immediately returned to chestnut irises... but still a terrible darkness lingered inside them.

Zerrex quietly sidled over to Cherry as the groups gathered in front of several sets of locked double doors, and she nodded to him silently before pushing the poor, small cheetah she'd attached herself to away, and then the Drakkaren tilted his head curiously as he stammered: "Do... do I have to?"

A glare, and the feline whimpered as the other three members of the family slowly made their way through the crowd, and then Cherry motioned for them to sidle carefully to the back of the group before giving a thumbs up to the cheetah... and his teeth chattered for a few moments before Cherry snarled, and he turned around with a scream, shoving people aside left and right as he howled: "They're after me, they're after me, they're going to rape me!"

Zerrex stared stupidly for a moment before Cherry jerked him backwards, and the Drakkaren and family turned and ran down the middle hall in the T-shaped intersection and around the closest corner, chaos erupting back in the crowd before several students and professors chased after the cheetah, who they could still hear screaming even from where they were. Cherry was holding her sides, attempting not to laugh... and then she let out a grunt of surprise as Zerrex grabbed her by the back of the neck and hauled her into a small office before closing the door, the others sitting down with sighs of relief as Cherry cackled. "Did you see the look on his face? That was fucking priceless!"

"Shut up, not everything here is soundproofed!" Zerrex hissed, and Cherry's laughter died down to giggles as she held onto her muzzle with both hands, Cindy glancing through the files on the desk and Marina already searching the bookshelves as he asked quietly: "So do you think we'll be able to find anything on the council leaders?"

"There's a memo here about the death of Lord Malthus... of course, on here it says that it was a boating accident, nothing about the Ophelia or even that he was near Lunis." Cindy muttered, glancing over the memo before adding quietly: "On the other hand, it does mention an Advisor Walter Bundy here. It says all questions regarding the ‘tragic death' of one of the two only known members of the Council of the Republic are to go through him... office number 308." A pause and a frown over to Zerrex. "Do you think it's worth checking out?"

"It's the only lead we've got... it sounds like at worst it'll lead to another lead or something we might be able to use." Zerrex responded, shaking his head a bit as he looked over at her before glancing to Marina. "Anything interesting?"

"Books on physics and chemistry... looks like a high school bomber's instruction manuals." Marina muttered, then she turned around as Cherry finally stopped laughing with a sigh, adding dryly: "You've had your fun. Try doing some work."

"Buzzkill." Cherry grunted, then she made a face before opening the door and stepping outside, saying easily over her shoulder: "Stay here for a minute. I'll be right back."

Twenty minutes later, and Cherry returned with a wide grin and several large file folders under one arm, shoving one of them against Zerrex's chest as she kicked the door closed behind her, saying in a pleased voice: "And the winner for the controlling faction of Ire, with a whopping forty-seven percent in control over all of Ire's major companies and utilities, including the Aztec Corporation and cronies like that suave white-suited motherfucker we saw, is none other than..."

Zerrex glanced down at the file, a thrill going through him before he stared at the name, and then he looked up at Cherry, saying stupidly: "No. No way. There's no way. Axel Jackson?"

"You mean second-lieutenant Axel Jackson of the Anti-Hez'Ranna Brigade, one of the unsanctioned military movements aimed at exterminating the Dragokkaren clones?" Cindy asked dumbly, and then she snarled and punched the desk hard enough to crack the wood, the others staring as she muttered: "That asshole... I remember treating his wounds after one of the attacks at the Silvan Front, when I went with Zerrex on a mission for Albatross. He was... angry. So angry at me, the whole time." She shook her head slowly, then leaned against the wall, murmuring: "No wonder Ire's in the state it's in."

The others exchanged a look, and then Cherry shook the files she'd discovered, saying in a more serious voice now: "The good news, though, is that there's apparently a special access route in the Marble Dome's Celestial Garden... and since most of the security right now is concentrated around the doors leading inside here, the private caucus sessions and the meeting hall where at least ninety percent of the senate's present, we might actually be able to sneak our way back out the side door and slip unnoticed through the back gates."

The reptile nodded, then made a simple gesture that neither Cindy or Mahihko understood, but immediately Cherry skimmed through the files and pulled out a good few papers, folding them up and then tucking them into pants at her hip before covering them firmly with her shirt, and Zerrex folded up the last few and put them in his pocket. The rest of the files Cherry simply tossed away, then snapped her fingers and they burst into flames, smoldering for a few moments before the fire snuffed itself out, and immediately she took point, Zerrex following close behind as she muttered: "Watch it. There's a guard coming. I'll take care of him and you toss, alright?"

"Yeah." A pause as Zerrex leaned back into the room as Cherry strutted out into the hall, saying mildly to the others: "Get to the side."

The three did curiously... and a few moments later there was a loud crack as Cherry slammed an open palm into the chin of the security officer that walked up to her, and she caught him as he fell, spinning him over to Zerrex, who caught him in his arms before turning and throwing him unceremoniously into the room, the horse landing with a heavy thud on the ground and groaning quietly before Marina punched him hard in the jaw, sending him into deep unconsciousness. Zerrex exchanged a glance with Cherry, and then she shrugged, saying mildly: "That was usually Vampire's job, wasn't it?"

"Usually. But we have a better replacement here." Zerrex said easily, and Marina beamed brightly, then shot a nasty, snide look over Cindy and Mahihko when the male glanced away. "Come on. We'd better get moving before he's found."

Cherry led them quickly down the stairs and out of the doors of the facility, immediately snagging the skull of one of the guards standing outside and cracking it off the concrete wall behind him, sending him down in a slumped heap as Cindy smashed her fist into the gut of the other one, the soldier gagging and then vomiting as Cindy murmured an apology, and a moment later he fell to the ground, his eyes rolling up in his head as Cherry gaped at the female, before asking: "What the fuck did you do to the bastard?"

"I twisted my fist when I hit his stomach and then pushed upwards with my palm into his solar plexus to cause a shock to his body and send him into angioedema..." Cindy made a face, half-leaning down as Zerrex quickly led Mahihko and Marina over to the car, muttering: "Shit. I hope he doesn't choke to death."

"Yeah, well... come on." Cherry muttered, and she ran quickly over to their junkheap car. She paused, however, at the sight of a ticket sitting beneath one of the windshield wipers, and she snatched it up as Cindy slid past her to get into the back before shouting and flailing her arms at the senate building angrily: "This is not a junkpile you sons of bitches, and it certainly isn't unfit for the fucking road! Come on out here, I'll beat the shit out of you, a few dents is not grounds for a hundred fucking dollar parking ticket that I'm never going to pay!"

"Cherry, get in the goddamn car!" Zerrex shouted, and Cherry let out a squeak and quickly slid in through the open window, managing to fit despite her bulk with an elegant twist of her body, landing in the driver's seat with a grunt and immediately twisting the key in the ignition, the car roaring to life as Cherry's grin returned, and she turned it on Zerrex, who quailed from her this time before she grabbed the wheel with one hand and settled the other on the stick shift, cackling like the demoness she was.

Either way, Zerrex immediately regretted not suggesting they go on foot as the tires of the muscle car squealed before the female spun the wheel hard, the car twisting to the right before shooting forwards as she let the wheel spin back, looking gleeful at the handling of the huge car as she caught the wheel and said over the roar of the vehicle crashing through the steel gates that barred off the public from the back gardens: "It's not the same as a fuel engine, but it's still pretty fuckin' epic! I think it's the 5500 model, because there's that electrical hum in the growl of the engine!"

Meanwhile, the car was shooting down a narrow cobblestone path, ripping apart bushes and flowers as people dove out of the way, before Cherry tweaked the wheel ever so slightly to the left to narrowly miss a thick lamppost in the middle of the path, instead splashing one tire through a shallow pond as the car shot between the two different decorative structures, before the damaged vehicle simply ran over a soldier standing in front of a steel gate that barred the entrance to hedge maze with walls of green leaf and ivy over twenty feet tall. Zerrex heard the splatter as the soldier was crushed a moment before the huge car slammed through the metal gate and the brick archway it was built into, the entire structure collapsing behind them and several pieces of brick and mortar raining down over the body of the car as Cindy and Marina shrieked, Mahihko clinging to the latter with a loud whine as Zerrex grabbed the dashboard, shoving back against it as Cherry howled with the straining roar of the engine as they smashed through several more layers of leaf-covered steel gate. She twisted the wheel suddenly after ramming through the fourth wall, and the car spun through the next hedge-and-steel-fence before tilting up on its side and threatening to roll onto its back for a moment, Cherry working the stick even as Zerrex tumbled into her, but the demoness barely budging, using one leg to lever herself against the door and hold herself in place as the other foot stomped the gas pedal when the car began to fall safely back to land with tires on the ground, but hit a solid wall instead of leafs and weak metal fencing.

The engine screamed, beginning to overheat as the wheel on the ground dug into the ground, churning up mud as the other tire spun rapidly against the concrete wall they were resting against, Cherry snarling as she flexed her body against Zerrex, the Drakkaren scrambling out of the way of her movements as best as he could as he managed to grab the seat, Marina in the back using her powers to shove Cindy and Mahihko up the seat and off her body before they suddenly jerked forwards, and Zerrex stared out the windshield at a stupidly-staring soldier in BAD gear down a narrow hall between two massive concrete walls, and a moment later they shot forwards with the car angled almost forty-five degrees, sparks flying as the car failed to fully straighten out in the too-narrow space, flattening the soldier despite his heavy armor. A second later, they fell with a loud thunk back to the ground as the car shook from both that and a moderate impact into the wall ahead as it twisted slightly to the side, Zerrex hitting his head off the dashboard as Mahihko flew with a squeal between the seats, Cherry absently shoving the wolf into the other reptile's lap.

The car had entered a wide archway, and three BAD soldiers were staring in horror from inside a round cement room with a small fountain in the middle... and Cherry narrowed her eyes as she twisted the wheel and hit the gas again, and everyone was thrown back against their seats as the heavily-damaged car shot forwards, crushing a BAD on one side as the other two panicked, both of them hammering at their keypads. The huge vehicle was already spinning around the rounded walls of the room, and Cherry ran into one before twisting the wheel hard and smashing the other with the side of the car, sending him flying backwards to crash onto his back with a cry of agony. Moving quickly, the demoness opened her door and strode over to the soldier, kicking him in the head to knock him onto his back when he tried to sit up, then stomping down on his throat as she pointed two fingers at him as they burst into flames, her wide grin still in place as she said softly: "Turn your BAD off or I'll blow you up."

As she spoke, her body shifted, returning to her demonic form... but a moment later, the soldier shuddered and fell limp. Cherry cursed under her breath, the fire on her fingers going out as she ducked and checked his pulse... and it was weak and erratic. Shit. I probably busted his kidneys or something hitting him with the car at that speed...

Zerrex, meanwhile, was clawing at his doorhandle... and when he realized it was stuck, he rose his good leg and simply kicked the door off, sending it flying into the cement wall opposite before he gagged a few times and then fell out of the car to land on his face with a groan, closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the ground despite the pain, one arm beneath him and the other stretched out, wishing weakly that he was dead. A moment later, Mahihko fell out beside him, moaning weakly, and Zerrex opened one eye to look at the wolf laying on his back beside him with his paws raised high in the air and hands on his stomach, trembling violently.

"You look how I feel." Zerrex muttered to the wolf, and the lupine opened his eyes and turned his head towards him, wincing a bit as he reached a hand up to wipe at the small trails of blood coming down his muzzle from a few of the piercings that had twisted awkwardly when he'd been thrown forwards: the wolf's piercings may have been designed to expand when he shifted size, but they were still hoops of metal, and they didn't stretch sideways at all.

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing to you." Mahihko murmured, and then the two slowly climbed to their feet, Zerrex sighing at the sound of Marina screaming at Cherry furiously. She almost sounds hysterical... this is wonderful. But I have to admit, she got us here, despite the fact about a hundred alarms are probably going off right now.

"We can argue later." Zerrex said loudly, and Marina instantly went silent and limp in Cindy's arms, glancing over at him and smiling in relief before the Drakkaren realized she had likely thought he was seriously injured... and he pointed to Cindy, who also looked a bit pale but at least calm, saying clearly: "You can take carry-duty, since you'll be the best equipped... stay near the rear of the group, Mahihko will protect you as the back."

The wolf looked up at this with surprise, then he smiled faintly and nodded, his body shifting up a bit from his girlish figure to grow more bulky, murmuring quietly: "I'll do my very best to keep you safe, Cindy."

"I know you will, baby brother." Cindy said gently, and the wolf beamed at this, losing his ill look as Marina gave a distasteful look from one to the other... but didn't say anything, at least, as Cindy strode over to grab the now-torn duffel bag, and Zerrex glanced down, frowning at a bleeding cut in her leg.

"Cindy..." he started, but she only shook her head a bit and smiled at him as she followed his gaze to her leg, and Cherry â€" standing over in the water fountain â€" blushed deeply as her own eyes went to the slash in the female's leg, looking suddenly guilty. She wasn't limping at all, though... but on the other hand, he'd seen Cindy fight using a fractured forearm and broken wrist, so it wasn't like her pain tolerance was anything minor or laughable. But for now... "Alright. Distribute gear, same style as we've been using. Cindy will carry the duffel, Marina, you take the backpack."

"Right." The female nodded, immediately taking the pack from Cindy and slipping it on as they pulled their gear out, and Zerrex made a face at the sound of alarms beginning to wail in the distance, looking over to see Cherry fumbling with some mechanism in the center pillar of the fountain before she let out a sharp ‘ha!' and leapt backwards as it began to drain.

The Drakkaren looked over... then stared as half the fountain floor slowly slid back, revealing a steep, spiraling staircase leading into the depths of the earth. Cherry grinned stupidly, meanwhile, quickly jumping past to grab her stuff out of the bag as she said cheerfully: "We should really get our asses moving before they set off an alert and close that fuckin' thing down. It should be a direct route to Joix de Vive Park... and as much as I hate to leave the poor car behind..." She looked over to the ruined muscle car, intoning: "We are going a place it may not follow."

Marina rolled her eyes as Zerrex stepped carefully into the fountain, walking to the front of the stairs and making a face as he glanced at his cane, then tossed it away, feeling like he wasn't exactly going to need it for what was ahead. He rolled his shoulders slowly, and then began down the steps as Marina came back, Cherry stepping into the middle position as Cindy and Mahihko took their place at the back of the back, the smaller wolf cocking his .45 as he glanced back and forth with a bit of a frown, ears laid back nervously.

Without a word, the Drakkaren began down, followed by his ragtag family â€" a demoness, a sexually-frustrated psychic, a proud-faggot wolf, and a gentle biochemist with seemingly-limitless strength. They descended down the spiraling staircase, Zerrex grunting quietly every now and then as the others threw him the occasional look of concern... but on this narrow staircase, the railing would have to suffice. On the bright side, even after the sliding floor shut once they were halfway down, there were still the faintly-glowing lights in the wall, so they weren't left in darkness as well.

It went down at least a hundred feet of spiraling concrete steps... and then they finally reached bottom, Zerrex letting out a wheeze as Marina touched his back, and he embarrassedly shrugged her off before straightening with a cough, heading for a rusted steel door in the wall and shoving it open with a shriek of metal, as Cindy murmured: "There's a lot of moisture down here."

"That's because there's a river." Zerrex said stupidly, and the others crowded through the door after him to stare at the quietly-flowing water as they stood together on a small concrete dock. A glance back and forth, and the Drakkaren pointed sourly at a pair of motorboats, saying disgustedly: "Oh boy. Quiet and effective transportation."

"Hey, they might be." Cherry said stupidly, rubbing the back of her head and grinning lamely as Zerrex turned a glare on her. "We'll uh... still make it there faster than if we'd taken the car."

"Depends on how anxious you were to get us there." Zerrex muttered, and then he rolled his shoulders with a sigh, mumbling: "Me and Cherry in one, the rest of you in the other one, since we're the heaviest."

A moment later, they were flying down the river, the whine of the engine cutting through the air as they went with the flow of the stream, at least. Zerrex sat sourly at the head of one boat, Cherry with her hand on the rudder bar as she checked over her shoulder to make sure the others were still in sight, Mahihko sitting between Marina and Cindy and looking remarkably uncomfortable as the latter female steered and drove along at a much-slower pace.