[Arc] Apex

Blitz waited when Leo tried to point out that he didn't fly, but it seemed that Leo didn't need a reminder or a re-telling, as while his memory was scattered during his time as his 'other' self, it seemed he been made aware of a few of his abilities in that state. Or perhaps just possesses lingering bits of memory. Or even both, Blitz thought. His condition is certainly not a common one.

When Blitz mentioned elves, however, both blinked at him for a moment, then Eris clarified. "Wait, so there were elves back on Earthland?" Blitz asked, then looked thoughtful. "I suppose it wouldn't have been too big a hurdle for them to ensure that their representatives were always human, to avoid revealing that fact, and I certainly didn't see any in the capital where there were members from nearly every country to a certain extent. Minus Bosco because of all that war business. Surprised they managed to keep that information from going public. Or rather, completely public," Blitz added.

Blitz wondered if the seal could be 'refreshed' somehow, but Leo seemed less than optimistic that it would be that simple. "Perhaps, but my concern in the other direction is that a new seal would need applying, which implies it would need the old seal to come off first, which, in turn, isn't great." he pointed out.

Before they could debate the idea further, however, they were interrupted by a transmission blaring in over the radio, mentioning something about the ship being contaminated that they didn't bother to clarify, but the wonder twins clearly knew something about it. "Friends of yours, I take it?" Blitz asked, moving to the front cockpit and seeing the ships with their guns armed. "I'd like to tell them where they can stick their own contamination, but this is your ship and those are significant-looking guns - so what's the call?" Blitz asked, glancing at the duo.

He shrugged. "Like I said, it's a small country. Always has been, really, unless you traveled outside of Fiorean borders frequently during your days on Earthland it's likely you just might have never heard of them, although I don't believe there was any intentional cover up."

Eris shook her head, though it was in agreement. "No, I lived there for some time, they were about as amiable with their identities as anyone else was with me given the circumstances," she added with a brief sigh, eyes glazing over in reminiscence though its connotation had a less positive inclination than one would initially expect.

At Blitz's comment she bit her lip, contemplating their options even as she responded in speech. "If they wanted us dead, they would have opened fire by now. Blackjack was in good condition until earlier today, but she’s old and not really meant for a dogfight - I don’t have that level of skill either, not when we’re trying to get to a place and not away from it. Alternatively, they do want us dead and just want to savor the moment, which of course is foolish but not off the table considering what they’ve done before. Regardless, our best chance, our only chance, is to land and face them on the ground."

Leo took a long stare at Blitz, then back at the ships, then back to him again. The man was averse to lying, he had made that abundantly clear in a conversation some time ago, but at the same time… it was the safest option to get him out of the mess they had just been wound up in. The Ebony Hunters, of course, had no interest in an ordinary human being, even with magical powers and happening to belong to the past, but if Blitz were caught in association with them, well it would not be a good thing. And if it came to a fight, he saw the bandages wrapped around Eris’s shoulder as her sweater hung down to reveal them, the familiar pulse of life that echoed from her muted - and Leo could not trust himself to hold a sword now, much less the one his gaze fell to, adorned on her belt. At least, not when Blitz was around, as much as he hated to admit it. They could not mount a sufficient defense, though the metal mage certainly had quite a few tricks up his sleeve they had all been taken aback by automatons before, and judging by the size of the vessels they were surrounded by there had to be at fifteen, twenty foes, no that was likely an underestimate.

Even as he thought, his fingers tapped out a familiar rhythm on the back of Eris's chair, a nervous tic he tried so hard to snuff out, but no, he was not even thinking on that and still it cropped up, likely a result of the pounding headache that was beginning to onset but what was to be done about that? Nothing, it was the acute pull toward those ships that loomed outside, to the lives they contained within them, he tried to blot it out of his mind, to rationalize a proper course of action. "Blitz, these are not friends you want to get mixed up with, and by associating with us I’m afraid you will be. Their numbers are too great to fight head on, not without help or...." he trailed off, glancing down at the floor as his face contorted into a pained smile that could best be described as throwing it all to hell, before it lessened. "If you pretend to be our hostage, or, well, similar, luckily they’ll be too bigoted to even question it, it’s the way things tend to go. Slip away at the right moment, there should be a town nearby to get you wherever you want to go." He began to pull out of his wallet a note, an offering for passage back, without even considering another option, for what was the point of Blitz going through all this trouble anyway? Maybe the Hunters were right, maybe they could do something, for he feared there truly was no way out of it, not their current predicament but the one that was tearing at his soul.

"Possible that they just never thought to visit Fiore. Given that we were involved in war with Bosco for quite some time - and across multiple wars - it's entirely reasonable that they didn't feel it was terribly safe to wander over and introduce themselves amidst everything that was going on." Blitz paused. "Morgan." he said, and his hat twitched, then an orb of light shot out from under it to float a few feet from Blitz's face. "Sir?" said a voice akin to that of a older man from the orb. "Bring up the file on Stella? The talk of elves is sounding weirdly familiar all of a sudden, but I still can't recall seeing one." The orb bobbed in place - its version of a nod - and said "Of course, sir." before a screen with text appeared in front of Blitz, the metal mage scrolling through curiously before clapping his hands. "That's right, I had no memory of seeing the elves because they never left the forested area! I went to a few other countries back on Earthland, but I never visited Stella, and they were likely busy. Though given the Blight, that forest is likely not looking too good right about now..." Blitz said after a moment as he tapped the screen with a fingertip and it disappeared, Morgan moving to hover over his right shoulder.

As for the new 'friends' Eris said that they probably didn't want to have a dogfight in space with them, given the age of the ship they were in and their experience with spaceflight space-fight being mostly when escaping, not trying to break through a blockade of sorts. "Define 'old', because I have a feeling you and I might have different meanings for that term," Blitz said with a slight grin, "But I do see your point."

Blitz glanced out the cockpit window at the ships outside - Blitz hadn't seen the type before, but they looked streamlined and more advanced, at least from the outside, than the Blackjack. A dogfight wouldn't end well for them if they tried it. I have technical skills, but piloting a spaceship isn't one of them, Blitz thought. I could probably operate it without issue, given my gifts with machinery, but even getting 100% out of the ship with some selective hacking wouldn't tip the scales in our favor as much as I'd like.

Leo explained that Blitz shouldn't be associated with them if it meant getting targeted by the ones outside, and that the best move would be to pretend to be a hostage - Leo even pulled a bill from his wallet, presumably for safe passage. Blitz glanced at the note, then put his finger against his thumb to flick it out of Leo's hand. "I get that these guys are bad news, but if they're going to label the ship as 'contaminated' because someone unusual is on board, then I'm going to end up making enemies of them anyway. Might as well make it official." Blitz said. "Besides, if they're aware of your 'other' nature, then the idea of a hostage isn't going to fly. Can't exactly take a hostage with someone who dices anything that moves into confetti. Even if you actually were holding me hostage, they wouldn't buy it, particularly with viewpoints that narrow." Blitz paused, then tilted his head slightly. "You trailed off earlier, when talking about what we'd need to get past them. What were you going to say?"

Eris flashed a grin in Blitz's direction, though her hand ran over the dashboard of Blackjack all the same, contemplating his question. "I tried to best put it into your terms, oh, what would you say?" She looked over at Leo, who was counting his digits, the rapidness of his movements still conveying stress although his words were to the contrary. It was easier to dwell upon the past, the recent past, of course, or at least from their perspectives. All was well, all had been fine, simply waiting for the day when they would be called to action once more, yet this had been the opposite of what he had expected, the opposite of what he had hoped.

"Casino, arguing over a dueling match while playing a game of cards - probably a hundred years ago at most? Old for a ship of this size, not for us."

He blinked in surprise at Blitz's rejection, not bothering to retrieve the paper that escaped his grasp, its sum a considerable amount yet it meant nothing in their current situation, nothing to him in general. Did the man really care, though, he had little to gain by sticking around with them, didn't he? The task that had brought them together was already complete, nor had they offered anything for his continued companionship. Leo's visage held perplexity in it, so rare was it for someone to stick their neck out for him with no expectations in return, or perhaps it was merely Blitz's sense of morality that drove him to action. "They don't, well, they shouldn't. Not that it matters, though, it's a foolish endeavor anyway," he said, the breadth of a stammer traceable as he first began. At Blitz's query Leo merely pointed at himself before shaking his head.

"That's a bad idea," Eris answered for him. Leo nodded, eyes falling to the floor as he traced its patterns subconsciously, the glimmer of a smile soon forming on his visage as he looked back up at Blitz. There was a less reckless course of action, even though he wanted so terribly to act upon the pulsating echoes just beyond his grasp, it would not do, only further consequences would result by unleashing the very thing they had come to Stella to contain, although it was him and there was no denying the alternative vision of the Ebony Hunters' vessels residing below his true sight, masses of steel and flame collapsed inward on themselves, condensed into a barren, undecorated coffin.

That was a corrupted fantasy, though, useless and detrimental to the task at hand, no matter how often his mind kept on deferring to it. "Eris and I can draw their attention while you take this exit," he tapped the floor of the ship with his foot, bringing to attention a faint squared carved into the steel, part of an emergency hatch although it could be manually activated as well. "I presume we'll be landing in a forest somewhere, if these coordinates are even somewhat correct. If you can cause a distraction on the far side of them, or even just attack them outright, it will give us a few moments of confusion to try to slip away. Maybe. Otherwise, we go with the bad idea."

Blitz grinned at Eris' response, before listening for a moment to Leo confirming the numbers. "So a century old or so....I don't know the average spaceship age just yet, but a hundred years of work would show on any form of transportation, I imagine." Blitz glanced at his hand as light blue circuitry lines ran across it briefly. "I could overhaul some of the software processes with my machine magic, but that would just bolster the reaction time of the ship and maybe reduce the time lag on some inputs, it wouldn't address the wear-and-tear on the systems themselves."

When Leo made the offer to pretend to play hostage or just outright bolt, Blitz refused, though Blitz's reference to Leo seemed to make him stammer briefly. Either the situation has got him wracking his brains, or casually mentioning his other self isn't something he's used to, Blitz thought. A moment later, when Blitz asked what his idea was, and he pointed to himself, Blitz had the follow-up thought of ...yeah, definitely the latter of the two.

Eris, of course, was against it, and in her defense, for good reason. "Can't say I'm a fan of it, either. Not unless your seal will take care of itself a bit faster than last time - you only stopped before because you ran out of things to dice up, and I have concerns if our enemies flee and you're still in a destructive mood." Blitz said pointedly. While he hadn't forgotten his own thought of trying not to casually mention it from moments ago, there were certain points of no return that needed to be addressed before crossing them.

Eventually, though, Leo pointed out the trap door in the floor, and suggested his plan, which sounded good in theory - have Blitz draw them off so they could slip away once they were in the forest. "A good plan, with one issue - if they know who they're looking for just by the ship alone, they might ignore me if they realize I'm not their target. But as it so happens, I've got an idea of sorts for that. It might be a bit flashy, but it should do the trick." Blitz said, moving over to the hatch to prepare to drop.

"Oh no, I hate it too. It's less of a choice and more so something that probably will happen, though, if this goes wrong," he replied, his voice defaulting. Even as they discussed the final details of the plan did Blackjack touch down upon shadowed soil, twilight having crept into the atmosphere. The darkness would serve to their advantage, though, as it always did, obscuring movements and faces, illusions and facts. Even as Blitz brought up his concerns with Leo's hastily constructed idea did he shake his head, sighing. "No need for flattery, it's an absolute piece of shit with about a thousand ways to go wrong. We're just going to have to improvise if anything does happen, which of course it will. Bottom line is to get as far away as possible when things do go south."

Eris pointed in the direction the nose of the ship faced. "Maescia's house is in that direction, while we don't want to bring the fight to her it may be the inevitable - if you get separated from us go there and just tell her who we are," she said, then glancing out the window itself to see the vessels that had followed them touching down out of view. "Right, then, it's showtime." Applying pressure to a button found in the middle of the dashboard did the emergency exit slide open with a minor creak, yet at the same time did she toggle the main ramp out of the starship, before both Leo and Eris walked toward it. He stole a long glance at one of the cabinets as they passed, prompting a short slap on the wrist by her. "Now is not the time," she muttered, in which he winced, having barely registered his own subconsciousness beforehand.

They emerged from their vessel, stepping into the moonlit clearing where glimmering, beady eyes stared, focus drawn entirely upon them. Swords, firearms, even a few crossbows were trained upon them, yet on the forefront was an authoritative figure who blended in all too well with his surroundings, greatsword secured upon his back although it was far from being drawn. His severe expression was almost noble, had Leo neither scorned the concept nor known the reason why he gave off such an aura it would have been. Yet the message that escaped the man's diaphragm held its malicious content quite definitively, almost with a snarl. "Surrender now, you who have committed the most grievous of all sins."

Leo's visage formed into a grin, the words so familiar yet laughable in their irony. "Sorry, I've done many things that might as well qualify for that award, what is it now?" he asked, posed as an inquisitive statement with such innocence to it were one to gloss over his actual speech, with such malice if one had half an ear tuned into it.

The man clearly heard the latter, however, which was all the better as his expressions turned a shade of rage. "You dare insult the sanctity of human form, disgusting creature!" he roared, a chorus of similar sentiments echoing from his posse in slightly less poetic ways. With it did Leo simply frown, to a degree genuinely disappointed although of course he had expected no better, had held only the slightest slimmer of hope that it would be something else they prosecuted for once.

"I'm afraid that's something I can't change; more powerful men than you have tried," he muttered, Eris shaking her head for a moment with a smile of mixed emotions crossing her visage. He glanced among the crowd, hoping to catch a sight of Blitz enacting his distraction, before continuing. "In any case, please feel free to come back at a later date to voice an actual complaint, sometimes I fear the government has forgotten about me, isn't that right?"

She rolled her eyes. "We overthrew that one, remember?" He cracked a grin, taking a steep bow even as an arc of light flew out from one of the crossbows trained upon his chest, narrowing missing the place where he had occupied just a moment before.

While Blitz was trying to remain optimistic about how the ship might handle if they got into a dogfight, Leo quickly shut that idea down, as he seemed far more certain that it would quickly lead to disaster, no matter what overhauls were done in the time they had. "Point taken." Blitz said with a sigh.

As Blitz popped some of the safeties on the hatch, Eris pointed out where they were heading, and to let this 'Maescia' know of them once he got there. "Roger that - I'll lead them on a nice, merry chase, then loop back around once I've managed to ditch our rude newcomers." Blitz said, then glanced at the far-off direction Eris had denoted. Morgan, I've got some work for you, but make sure you keep our bearings, alright? he thought, and briefly heard Of course, sir in his head, causing him to smile in return.

As Blitz saw them drop the hatch, he didn't see the movement Leo made, but heard the slight pause and the whispered 'not now' - given their tastes, he probably wanted one last drink before the chaos started up, Blitz thought. Which....isn't a bad idea, actually.

A handful of moments later, Blitz was laying crouched under the ship, an idea in mind as he listened to the tail end of their conversation, and right as Eris shot a crossbow bolt at whoever was their leader - as he seemed to know them, or at least something they'd done, judging by his words and tone - Blitz shot out from under the ship and hurled something at the leader - a bottle of high-grade alcohol. But he wasn't planning to hit the guy with it, at least not directly - Blitz had Shoop fire a laser blast at the bottle mid-air, causing an explosion that rained flaming alcohol and fiery shards of jagged glass down over the group. A space-age, magic-powered molotov cocktail. Blitz himself wouldn't run, not just yet - they would likely be angry after that, and someone who caused it would focus their anger, and make them forget about their actual target, if only for a few precious moments. Besides, with something that wildly fiery near the ship, in a forest, he wanted to make sure he wasn't starting a forest fire in a forest an elf called home before he dashed off. Let's hope these guys don't think of that, Blitz thought privately.

As Leo ducked, he saw Blitz out of the corner of his eye and a moment later a bottle flying overhead. His visage split into a wide grin at the sight, an improvised weapon of that variety was always a thing to behold, as the glass shattered into a million pieces with a fiery explosion did Leo and Eris both take the cue to duck out of the clearing, leaving their ship behind. Yet even as they made a mad dash toward Maescia's establishment did he catch the flicker of something living transpose itself in front of them, the man that had previously threatened them appearing with a flash of white light. Pin pricks around them were soon confirmed by the emergence of more shapes from the forest, quite clearly they were surrounded. "As per usual, I am correct," he muttered.

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Eris retorted, grabbing his wrist with her thumb positioned over his veins. Her other hand reached toward a pine tree nearby, its trunk groaning even as branches barreled into the man, and as he was slammed to the ground Leo blinked in surprise, both by her rapid reaction and as she half-dragged him up the tree, its bough bending under their weight but also to her will. Still did arcs of light and more solid projectiles race past them, even as they settled about fifteen or so feet above the ground. His face was still perplexed, however, as she let go of his arm and grabbed the pistol from his belt, firing at some of the most severe offenders. Yet as she stopped for a moment did Eris grab her shoulder, the muzzle of the revolver still hot as she narrowly avoided pressing it into herself, teeth gritted. "They nailed me earlier," she said, just barely moving out of the way as another shot was fired, this time from the man who had seemed only temporarily incapacitated by Eris's attempt to bring him down.

The point of his greatsword glowed white, a dull hiss on Leo's mind that had temporarily flashed to the forefront of it as the bolt of energy had passed. She reached toward the hilt of Calamitas, yet he quickly shook his head, dropping down to the forest floor on his feet as a different weapon appeared in his hand, a sword far less familiar yet in such a time far more comforting than the edgeless depths of the option Eris presented. With a sudden jerk was the man's attention brought to him, charging the brilliant blade that dared to disturb the night's luminescence, its hue foul to his being. A straight lunge, filled with calculated decision sharpened by malice, and what did his opponent do but step back, suddenly apprehensive? Leo smirked, his sword then assuming a fool's guard as one image in the man's mind was replaced with another, one that he knew all too well to cater to, and enjoyed doing so at times despite the fact that it was far from the truth.