Chapter 19: Faith in The Fantastic Delusion

[Tristan Tuzanic]

Tristan closes the dark vortex and is curious about what Kith has to say."Oh, really? You know, my hair is natural. It naturally has a blue streak in it. I bet you wouldn't have guessed that."

He stands before Kith and Cephrien with debris at his feet from the now closed void. He relaxes a little and approaches Cephrien.
"See, I'm not really a bad man. I used to be a musician. It's just...I'm one of those plant people and they wanted anyone with natural Manala abilities to work for the temple. Get it?"

[Annika 25]

Annika tries to get out of the way of the Manala gun blast, but ends up having the beam graze her arm. She is none to pleased about that. Her eyes light up red and she begin shooting her eye lasers at the three nihilists. She focuses on Bonifaz in particular, since he is the one with the gun.

[Kith Keitoleinen]

"That's very interesting. Cephrien mentioned that he wants to take you out to Trendy Pizza. Why don't you two take a break. I'll keep Sidapa here company." Kith suggests. Perhaps Cephrien will use the opportunity to attack Tristan. Maybe pizza will pacify him. At some point, Cephrien will have to get out of what could turn into a sexual situation. Kith will let Cephrien worry about that.

[Heikki Toivonen]

Heikki is slow to react to the situation. He was about to explain some things to Archer when the Creditor showed up and Bonifaz quickly starting firing his Manala gun at the machine. Heikki tried to back away to avoid the eye beams, but was too slow and wound up getting shot in the chest with the pink beam from the machine.

He gets down on his knees and looks at the wound. Oddly enough, he doesn't feel pain, which isn't so odd for him. He just sits there stupefied by the situation and losing blood. He doesn't say anything though. He sits quiet in the chaos.

[Tristan Tuzanic]

"Seriously, I love Trendy Pizza. We can share a vegetarian pizza. It's my fave!" Tristan says to Cephrien. He stands next to Cephrien and pats him on the back.
"It's so nice to have someone to talk to. No one ever listens to all of my problems. I'm just so alone in the world." Tristan gushes in self pity. He leads Cephrien down the hall so that they can get a pizza together at the nearest Trendy pizza.

[Amelia 20]

"A penny saved is a penny....a half pence will do. If you don't have a half of pence...fat goose." Amelia says as she jumps at the other Creditor. She saw Bonifaz and the others get shot at by this one, and she is determined to save Global Bank from this rogue Creditor. She tackles her and starts punching her hard in the head.
"Annette Rosenthal...Annette...Annette....your Credit Score is a...Creditors do not require food. But, may I have a pickle anyway?" She asks the other Creditor in her typical language of malfuction.
She punches harder and powers up her eye laser for a blast...

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"Come on Archer, it's time to leave." Bonifaz says once Amelia arrives and starts attacking the other Creditor. He tugs at Archer's sleeve and runs away from Heikki and the two Creditors...and away from the building where other Invisible Hand, Manalists, or Creditors might be headed. "Heikki will be fine." Bonifaz says to Archer as he leaves, since he believes that perhaps Archer might have some misgivings about leaving Heikki behind. He continues running without looking back.

[Annika 25]

Annika gets blasted in the back of the head by the other Creditor. She manages to roll over and push her off. "What is your problem?" She asks the other Creditor. Though, there is no need to ask this. "No, you are malfunctioning. I will not destroy another Creditor. We are property of Global Bank. I must not destroy property of Global Bank." The Creditor reasons. On the other hand, she must protect herself.
"Do not attack me. These are not the orders of Global Bank or Annette Rosenthal. You must come with me for repairs." The Creditor suggests to the other.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

When the void closes, Ceph quietly jerks his sword out of the floor, sparks flying up from the friction of the blade and the solid ground material. He listens to Kith and Tristan and narrows his eyes to shoot a very sharp glare in Kith's direction. When Tristan approaches him, the glare disappears as he puts on a more calm expression to play along.

"...." He stays quiet when Tristan pats his back and starts guiding him down the hall. As they walk away, Ceph shoots Kith another wide-eyed death glare, his red irises were almost glowing. In a few seconds, he turns away from Kith again and looks down the hall as he walks with Tristan.. However, he doesn't plan on going very far. He was still had an assignment to follow through with.

Ceph quietly puts an arm around Tristan's shoulder in a romantic fashion, only to wrap his bicep around his neck and force him into an aggressive headlock. He twists around to slam the Manalist Soldier to the floor and sit ontop of him. In an instant, Ceph is using his knees to pin Tristan's arms and has a hand gun drawn to his head.

He couldn't believe how excruciatingly gullible this man was.. However, killing him because of this may not have been the best idea. Perhaps there was an alternative.

"Tell me something." Ceph speaks, red eyes staring down at Tristan through his black bangs.

"What do you owe the Manalists that you have to live such a miserable existance?"

[Archer Aylmer]

"Fine."

I follow Bonifaz and run past Amelia, who is in the midst of a fight. Amelia is my favorite. I've always envied machines. Even dysfunctional ones. Machines have no values or aspirations or misgivings. They simply exist. I would like to simply exist.

"Perhaps Heikki will meet us later when he gets away. Or perhaps he will get captured. Or perhaps he will die. I can't tell the future, but I wish I could. It would help me plan. I think kidnapping is easier with 3 people. This is inconvenient to the extreme."

I become a little out of breath at this point so even though I have more to say I focus on running away. I hate always having to run. Someday we will stop running.

[Linnea Korpela]

"I really didn't do anything," she replied softly. "He just showed up at my house when I had a few friends over. One of my friends must have said something to upset Keito. They left and Keito threw one of my friends in prison. Keito gave us a note to free our friend after Kith confronted him, so we are on our way to the prison to get him."
Linnea hoped that her summary made sense to Calithin, the situation was a little complicated but she was also exhausted.

[Tristan Tuzanic]

"What...so...we're like...not going for pizza?" Tristan asks in disbelief when he is pinned down. He is confused. Perhaps this guy is just into being a little rough. Tristan relaxes and sighs. He isn't all that concerned about being forced to the ground.
"If I leave, they would kill me. Anyway, I can't leave. They have my son. If I left, I would never get to see him again. It's just..sucky, but I don't have much choice in the matter. My wife is a High Priestess." Tristan explains.
"I really wanted some pizza..." Tristan complains.

[Kith Keitoleinen]

Kith pulls his sword, which he wedged between the door and the wall, free now the Tristan and the void are gone. He saw the look that Cephrien gave him, but, at least he was able to get Tristan to close the void.

He now walks over to Sidapa.

"Sidapa, Cephrien saved you from the void. I think...you owe us. I want you to call off others from coming here. Tell them it was a false alarm. If you don't do this, I will kill you. I promised my father that I would kill someone anyway." Kith threatens. Sidapa is weak, human, and likely unable to defend himself.

[Horacio Hatfield]

Horacio remains in prison. He has no idea what has become of Ophelia and Linnea. He sits down on his bed and stares at the drab, cracked, cement wall. He is bored, so, he imagines the socialist and anarchist meeting. He imagines that they are having some interesting discussion and coming up with all sorts of ideas of what they could do togehter. The idea of this makes him smile.
"I hope that Linnea and Ophelia are okay. Maybe..I could get used to it here." He tells himself to lift his spirits.

[Sidapa Amparo]

Sidapa frowns.

"But...but if I call the others off....I won't get a promotion...." Sidapa wimpers. He gets up off the floor. It is true that Cephrien saved him. He also knows that Kith or Cephrien could probably kill him.

"I ...don't like being so weak, you know. I want to be great. I want to be one of the Blessed..." Sidapa states. He leans against the wall and feels upset about the whole situation.

"I want them to teach me how to use Manala energy."