Chapter 19: Faith in The Fantastic Delusion

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

Bonifaz listens to Archer's suggestions, which seem solid enough. He is about to add his opinion on the matter, when he hears a loud sound from the hallway. He gets up and peaks down the hall to see Kith and Cephrien involved in a fight again a guy with a giant, swirling vortex. Things are coming off the wall to be sucked into the thing. Bonifaz rushes back to the others. "Yeah, I think we better get out of here. The socialists look to be in a bit in trouble. No sense getting involved. I will call Amelia here just in case." Bonifaz says to Heikki and Archer. He picks up his phone and calls back to Germany, where his disfunctional Creditor is located. He orders her to their location. She is unpredictable, but generally helps out in a pinch. It is good having that messed up machine.
Bonifaz looks down the hall, but it is blocked by the fight. "If we want out of here, we'll have to go through a window."

He looks around the kitchen for a window they can crawl out of. At least they are on the basement level so..they won't have to worry about a drop.

[Sidapa Amparo]

Tristan's void suddenly becomes more powerful and sucks Sidapa's purse right out of his hands. His knife was in his purse as well as his makeup. "Be careful, would you man...you just got my purse!" He shouts at Tristan. But he has bigger worries. He is closer to the void than Kith and Cephrien. He feels himself being sucked in. He falls to the ground and tries to hold on to the floor, but the floor is slippery and the force of the void keeps pulling at him. He calls out to Cephrien or Kith. "Help me!" He begs them.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

I hear a loud noise coming from the hall after Kith and Cephrien leave with that other guy. I get up to see what it is, since it is very distracting and we can't have a meeting if there is all that noise. To my disbelief, I see a guy and a void, and ..Kith and Cephrien. Things are getting pulled into the void, and even at a distance, I can feel myself tugged at. I hang onto the entery way and pull myself back into the caffeteria. "I think we've got to get out of here! something bad is happening!" I explain to the others. However, the exit is blocked since the main hall to the caffeteria is where the fight is going on. "Is there an emergency exit?" I ask the others.

[Heikki Toivonen]

Heikki feels a little guilty just abandoning the socialists, but he would rather not be caught by the Invisible Hand or worst. He pushes a stool against the wall and tries to open the window. It's probably been years since the window was ever opened and the window has warped and settled into the frame. He can't get it to budge.

Frustrated, he gets a dusty pot from a nearby shelf and smashes it into the window. The glass is old and thick, but he is able to break the small window. He pulls himself out of the kitchen, through the broken window, scratching himself on the arm as he pulls himself through against the broken glass.

Once out, he waits outside for the others.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Ceph quickly takes the sword that is sheathed at his side and uses his demonic strength to drive it into the slippery floor. He holds onto it to keep himself from getting sucked into the violent black hole. With his gun in his other hand, he quickly takes aim at Tristan and opens fire, unsure if the bullets will have any effect in this distorted space.

When he notices Sidapa struggling to stay on his feet, he curses and puts his gun away into his coat. He takes the empty sword-sheathe on his side and uses it to make his reach longer. He holds it out to Sidapa for him to grab onto.

[Kith Keitoleinen]

"Well...this is a lot of unpleasant." Kith says when Tristan opens the void. Kith has some Manala based powers, but, his are related to healing. This generally isn't too useful against...giant, vacuumous voids. Kith doesn't bother listening to Sidapa. Instead, he just looks for something to hang on to. He pulls out his sword and slips it into the crack between the wall and the door of the janitor's closet they were going to use earlier. He holds on, trying to think of some way to avoid the void and deal with Tristan.

"The others are probably stuck in that room. They should probably evacuate. This might even be a good time to contact Li and tell her that things are not going so well..." Kith calls out to Cephrien.

[Archer Aylmer]

Things always seem to happen when I'm around Bonifaz and Heikki. I become alert immediately and don't bother to think about the Socialists or ask for an explination to this at all, I just follow Heikki out through the window as quickly as I can. My clothes get ripped on the glass, but really, that's the least of my worries at this point.

"What's going on? I think we should leave. This won't end well, I'm sure."

[Sidapa Amparo]

Sidapa was about to get sucked into the void when Cephrien lent him a hand. Now, he is dangling in the air before a void, with Cephrien's hand the only thing preventing him from getting sucked in. He can't believe that Cephrien actually helped him. He just looks at Cephrien in disbelief. The void takes one of his shoes, which disappears along with the papers and other debris.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Ceph starts slowly bringing his arm back. He is strong enough to resist the void's pull and bring in Sidapa. Though they were still uncomfortably close to the void, it was safer from where Sidapa was. Ceph tells him to hold onto him so that he won't get pulled any further. He doesn't offer any explanation as to why he helped him, instead, he turns his head to Kith.

"I'm sure they will find their own way out. For now, let's just concentrate on him." Ceph replies, reaching into his coat again to arm himself with his gun once more.

[Annika 25]

Annika 25 arrives at the building where there is supposed to be a rebel meeting of some sort. She walks towards the main entrance when she notices a group of people exit through a broken window. She decides to investigate them first. She scans them for a credit score. Bonifaz has excellent credit, but she can't get score on Heikki. Having no score is worse than having a bad score. She walks over to the group. "You must be some of the rebels that the Invisible Hand is after." She reasons. She prepares to fight them.

[Tristan Tuzanic]

"Don't you guys get it? The void will suck up anything you throw at me."Tristan explains. He once again increases the size of the void. Really, this is all pretty boring to him. He wishes that he could be back home in Helsinki hanging out with friends instead of doing the dirty work of the Manalists. He yawns and waits for his void to suck them up.

"Are you ready to surrender, or do you want to get sucked into my dark reality?"

[Kith Keitoleinen]

"We are willing to negotiate with you if you close the void." Kith tells him. With that void there, fighting Tristan will be too difficult, but, if he would close it, maybe they can talk about things and reason through this. Kith knows that most people working for the Manalists and the Invisible Hand are not blindly loyal.

"Maybe we can give you something you want..." Kith suggests.

[Tristan Tuzanic]

Tristan laughs. "Oh yeah? Can you get me a divorce? Get rid of my wife? Give me full custody of my kid? How about just a nice looking guy to take home so I can forget all the pain in my life." Tristan replies. He doesn't close the void, but at least he is curious. He wonders what they have to offer.
Anyway, it gives him an audience to talk about how much he hates everything in life.
"Getting sucked into the void would be a better fate than the living hell that is my life." He adds.

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

Bonifaz is annoyed that they must now face a Creditor. He hopes that Amelia shows up soon, but she is never very predictable. He draws his Manala gun and instead of wasting time talking to the machine, perhaps trying to explain who they are or come up with a reason why they are not the people she is after, he simply fires at her. Going to the socialist meeting may have been a huge mistake. But, perhaps they've just been lucky in recent months to avoid any conflict with Creditors or the Invisible Hand.

[Kith Keitoleinen]

"I am afraid we can not help you with your issues with your wife, but, Cephrien here told me earlier that he really liked your hair and that it was upsetting to him that such as nice looking guy was working for the Manalists." Kith says to Tristan. He isn't sure if that will work, but he seems pretty gullible and caught up on himself. Kith hangs on to his sword and watches Tristan carefully for a reaction. He glances over to Cephrien and hopes that he doesn't mind playing along.