While the other patrons made various bets, violet eyes met violet eyes as the two duelists stared each other down. Larra moved first, faking right but speeding to the left. Ta-vora blocked her first strike, but had to dodge the second as his sword was occupied. With attack after attack coming in from many different directions, the catlike humanoid was forcing to take on a dodging-blocking style as Larra attempted to wear him down.

This went on for a while, and would have gone on longer, but Ta-vora took the first chance he got to get out of her range, then ducked back in with his own attack. Larra swept one sword forwards to meet it, but flipped the shining blade back at the last minute. The momentum of his own strike made Ta-vora momentarily lose his balance, just long enough for Larra to take the upper hand again.

OOC: Okay, I am a little impatient today...meh...your turn, Ta-vora.

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

See how much fun i bring you guys when i come in and make fun of you? Now The Green Somthingorother, we need you in the Boozy Bar! Oh and the Albatross Sucks.

------------------
...and phantompenguin is one of them.
(url="http://"http://www.freewebs.com/ericspad/")Eric's Pad(/url) My Site is awesome! Come check it out.
No car, no license, no cash, no life. Coincidence?

OOC: I'm lacking the vocabulary and imagination to describe a good sword battle, so forgive me if this sounds a bit simple. To get a better impression, when Ta-vora fights, he uses moves that come from a Karee martial arts technique that is often refered to a "Battle Dance", since the opponents seem to "dance" around each other while fighting. This basically means that Ta-vora never stands still during a fight, which makes him an opponent hard to hit or predict. Some opponents that didn't know about this became extremely upset, as they thought he would try to fool them with his dancing movements.

Ta-vora immediately regains his balance, Larra tries her trick again.
“That trick won't work with me twice.” he says.
“I know some more tricks.”
Larra does a sideward attack, but Ta-vora blocks it. Their blades lock.
Now Larra attacks with her second sword, but this one doesn't hit its target as well. Ta-vora suddenly has a two-bladed dagger in his left hand and the sword low lies burried in the gap between the two blades. Barbs prevent her from pulling the sword back out. She looks at him, visibly surprised.
“Where'd you got that dagger from?”
“You're not the only one who is good for surprises.” Ta-vora answers, grinning.
Twisting the dagger, he pulls the sword out of Larra's hand. It lands on the ground with a clattering sound, dissolving into nothing.
“Now the playfield is even.”
Ta-vora puts the dagger back in its scabbard on his back.
Larra draws his sword away and strikes again, but Ta-vora again blocks.
She's fast, attacking as if she were angry. But she doesn't attack blind.
She directs a series of fast strikes against him, Ta-vora tries to dodge. He feels a sharp pain on his right cheek.
“Bridle your temper, or do you want to harm me seriously?”
“Sorry.”
Ta-vora spins thre times around his own axis to do three mighty strikes. The sword leaves a blue trail at every swing. But Larra had already jumped out of range.
Now she attacks again. Ta-vora blocks and the blades lock again. With a fast move, she manages to rip the sword out of Ta-vora's hand. It falls to the ground, the blade retracing back into the handle. She sets the tip of her sword onto his chest.
“That was a good one.”
“Guess I win, eh?”
“Guess you forgot something.”
“What?”
With a lightning-fast move, Ta-vora pulls his dagger back out, locks Larra's sword between the twin blades and pulls it out of her hand. It too falls to the ground with a clattering noise and dissolves into nothing.
“This.”
“That was a mean trick.”
“I wouldn't care if I really wanted to kill you.”
“So you're the winner.”
Ta-vora puts his dagger back into the scabbard.
“I'll leave the victory to you. Someone might challenge me and one fight a day is enough, I think.”
Ta-vora sticks out his hand to catch his sword which he picked up via telekinesis.
“Sorry.” Larra says.
“For what?”
“I hurt you.”
Ta-vora touches his cheek and looks at the blood sticking to his hand.
“Oh yeah it's alright.”
He closes his eyes, concentrates on his matrix and looks at the damage with psionic eyes. Then he causes the cell regeneration to accelerate. The visible effect is a healing that takes only a few seconds.
“That's a useful ability for sure.”
“One of the first matrix-magics they teach a Ka-nuth is how to heal him- or herself.”
“Magic?”
“That's the direct translation of the word.” Ta-vora answers while putting on his cape.
Then he orders another Saalian Brandy.
“This stuff is quite good, but nothing against Tempest.”
“What is Tempest?” Page asks.
“A Karee drink that needs to be prepared two days before you can drink it.”
“Nothing if you are thirsty.”
“It's used for special occassions only.”

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

(This message has been edited by Ta-vora (edited 05-07-2004).)

Jeez! Only one post after mine? You guys suck!

------------------
...and phantompenguin is one of them.
(url="http://"http://www.freewebs.com/ericspad/")Eric's Pad(/url) My Site is awesome! Come check it out.
No car, no license, no cash, no life. Coincidence?

Quote

Originally posted by emainiac:
**Jeez! Only one post after mine? You guys suck!

**

A trout falls from the sky onto emainiac's head. The bartender grins contently as the fish starts beating the unsuspecting patron to death with its wriggle of destruction.

OOC: I havent posted in a while... So Page's in the Azula fixing up his ship.

Page stepped into the Azula's main hangar and let out a girly shreik when he saw his ship..
"Hrm.. I didnt leave it that way did I?"
"You Page Hamilton?" The Azula's head enginear asked Page.
"Yeah," Page replied, lighting a cigarette off a nearby welding torch.
"Some wreck you got there? That is your ship right?"
"Yeah its mine.."
"What you want us to do with it?"
"Eh I'll take care of it.. you can all leave.."
Page hopped up ontop of the huge twisted torso of his ship and kicked a big peice of armor. With a creak and screech the giant hunk of metall fell off, revealing a small hallway. Page hopped into his mech and began climbing down the cramped passage way. He finally reached a tiny roundish room wih a big comfy leopard print chair built in and about 15 hanging screens.
Something was odd about this room. Maybe it was the fact that it was upside down. Or maybe it was the fact that the smell of cigarettes was so strong it could kill a horse. But the fact that it was upside down was in the end made it so strange.
Page knelt down and opened up a tiny red panel on the floor.. well.. ceiling...
under the panel was a button.
"God.. Why am i doing this?" Page slapped his forehead. He pressed the button after much hesitation and regretted it once the Onboard computer came online.
At first it was just babbling un comprehensibly, and then the jabber of noise slowed down.
Battle Frame Orion Model 00 Online
"Welcome back," Page said lighting another cigarette off the remains of his last one, and blowing out a thick shade of smoke.
_Captain Hamilton! You know how much I despise smoke in the cockpit! _
"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Page... By the way how do you know I'm smoking, everything's busted.."
Generator five is running small amounts of Auxilliary power to all systems however the fra-
"Hey, didnt ask for a whole systems check, relax. Do we have any more penut butter."
Mr. Hami-
"PAGE!"
Right, Page, we have 6 containers left, although they are somewhat strewn about the ship.
"**** it, Ill grab some food later, lets fix you up."
Page slid his sword out of the roll of burlap and stuck it into a slot behind the large chair on the ceiling. The sword hummed in its slot, and the lights flickered on.
"Status?"
(i) Generators Two, Three, and Five online, all gauges offline or damaged. 30% ammunition remains, and Ether cells holding. Almost all motion functions offline and the interfaces for the arms and legs are inoperational. _
"Well ****.. Can we at least correct the cockpit."
(i) Yes. _
The cockpit spun around so the floor was where it should be. Page plopped down onto the big chair and grabbed the controls.
He put a pair of his black sunglasses on and glanced around the cockpit.
"OOH! whats this?" He produced up a large cigar and grinned wickedly.
"Lets get this over with."

------------------
Valence, Always aiming for the stars...
Then realizing he should have shot the bodyguards first...

"Ok, carry on with the fighting, people, I'll be back in a bit." DZ said, leaving the Albatross.

As he walked through the corridors of the station, he noticed an unusual amount of uniformed UE guards, all moving quickly, as if looking for something... or someone. That's odd... They're not usually out this strong. Fugitive hunt? DZ's pace quickened imperceptibly.

"You there. Stop." A soldier's commanding voice intones from behind DZ. DZ stops, and turns to face the soldier.

"Where are you going?" The soldier demands.

"Is this how you treat all normal citizens? You just stop a law-abiding bartender in the middle of the street and demand to know where he's going and what he's doing?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but we're looking for someone." The soldier is obviously not used to being talked back to by a common person.

"Well, look somewhere else, and leave me the hell alone, soldier." DZ whips himself in the opposite direction and strides off purposefully. That could've been very, very bad...

EDIT OOC: This is the beginning of the end. I'm kind of starting a subplot to end the bar. If anyone has any objections to it, just say so, otherwise I'll go ahead and build up to the 1000th post.

------------------
Proud member of
<A HREF="http://
thefifthcolumn.blogspot.co
m" TARGET=_blank>The Fifth Column</a>.

(This message has been edited by TheGreenFile (edited 05-10-2004).)

Quote

Originally posted by Valence:
**A trout falls from the sky onto emainiac's head. The bartender grins contently as the fish starts beating the unsuspecting patron to death with its wriggle of destruction.

**

A fish? No mere fish can kill me. Stabs, eats, cooks, and cleans the fish, though not nescesarily in that order.

------------------
...and phantompenguin is one of them.
(url="http://"http://www.freewebs.com/ericspad/")Eric's Pad(/url) My Site is awesome! Come check it out.
No car, no license, no cash, no life. Coincidence?

Emainiac then falls to the grownd clenching his stomach.
"That fish was poisonous," the bartender mused, as he cleaned the shot glasses. Emainiac was dead secconds after he collapsed.

------------------
Valence, Always aiming for the stars...
Then realizing he should have shot the bodyguards first...

Quote

Originally posted by Ta-vora:
**< snip>
**

Well not bad, but there's a few things you should know in case there's a next time. Don't bother editing, though.

The first is that her swords don't dissolve, as they weren't conjured out of nowhere. The strange metal the blades are made of is extremely responsive to Larra's shae telepathy. Long story there. Anyways, she learned to teleport them to her, but she can't send anywhere. The hilts follow the blades through the teleportation, though sometimes they need a little...encouraging.

She would remember Ta-vora had the knife, and during a fight where dropping her sword meant losing, she would do anything to avoid dropping that last blade, even if it meant trying to pull some kind of awkward flip to move with the blade.

Anyway..

===================

Larra grins, and her swords jump up from where they had fallen, sailing to her and sliding over her shoulders, until the unsheathed blades formed a long "x" across her back. It was how she used to wear them all the time, and since it took little concentration to keep them hovering there, they may as well stay.

Bored, Larra holds out a hand. Almost obediently, a bottle from the shelf behind the bar floats over to her.

"I've been wonder what was in this one all day," she said, examing the orange label and the writing. "Look's like a strand language, but not Azdgari. Igadzra maybe, it's orange. Ah well, let's go see what Page is up too."

She and Ta-vora headed out of the bar towards the docking bay. Cheerfully Larra pulled the cork out of the bottle as they walked, and cautiously sniffed the top.

"Ughh!" She made a horrible face and shook her head. "That smells nasty! Here, you smell it." Larra held out the bottle.

"I can smell it good enough from here, thanks." The catlike alien responded, holding his nose.

Laughing and debating what to do with it the bottle of whatever-it-was, the two made their way to the Azula.

"Aww hell," Larra finally announced, tipping back the bottle and chugging about a quarter of it. She swallowed with the same expression on her face she had when she had first smelled the drink, but about ten times worse.

Somewhere between laughing and cursing in some strange language, she managed to stumble into the docking bay.

"You do realize you could have just taken a sip." Ta-vora commented, amused.

Larra coughed. "But that's no fun!"

Reaching the Azula, she followed Ta-vora to the where the mech had been stored. It was strewed about the docking bay, with no Page is sight.

"Ah well, he'll show up." Causually Larra sat down on one of the mech's arms.

"C'mon," she extended the bottle towards to Ta-vora, "I dare you to chug the rest."

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

Rounding a corner to the dock area of the ship, DZ came to the Longbow 's berth. The gray crescent warship gleamed under the station lights.

Climbing aboard and making his way to the cockpit, DZ took his usual seat and booted up the ship's computer. Choosing to use a non-sentient interface, he began searching and deleting files by the hundreds.

------------------
Proud member of
<A HREF="http://
thefifthcolumn.blogspot.co
m" TARGET=_blank>The Fifth Column</a>.

(This message has been edited by TheGreenFile (edited 05-11-2004).)

Wow. This bar is still alive? Go Albatross

------------------
-I am a nobody, nobody is perfect, therefore I am perfect.
(url="http://"http://members.surfbest.net/brokenvessel@surfbest.net/html/")Broken vessel(/url)| (url="http://"http://www.princeton.edu/~mafia/mafia.htm")Mafia, the game(/url)|(url="http://"http://tvulive.com/radiou/")RadioU(/url)

OOC: Not much longer. After this post, there are 28 more until it reaches 1000. Then the bar will be closed. I hope they don't delete it, though, as I want to copy/paste the entire bar into a text file and see if I can put together the various threads.

Ta-vora looks in disgust at the orange fluid in the bottle.
“I'm not sure I want to drink urine.”
“What? You don't think it is that, do you?”
“I've never tried that, but I'm sure that if you fill some urine into a bottle and let it stand for, shall we say, a year, the smell could be quite alike. And judging by the look in your face, the taste is not better.”
Ta-vora than waves one of the crewmembers inside the area.
“Have you seen Page?”
“Yes, he's inside of this wreck. I assume he tries to get it back to work.”
“Thanks.” He turns to Larra, “I suggest we just let him do whatever he does in there. Although I have no idea how he could repair this.”

OOC: Ta-vora is not going to drink this stuff, whatever it is, but wouldn't that be a perfect revenge for a certain shapeshifter? (I have not said a thing. ;))
BTW, sorry about the sword thing, I thought they were some kind of psi-matter or something.

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

(This message has been edited by Ta-vora (edited 05-14-2004).)

Come on guys! You only have 30 posts left!
You can make it!

------------------
...and phantompenguin is one of them.
(url="http://"http://www.freewebs.com/ericspad/")Eric's Pad(/url) My Site is awesome! Come check it out.
No car, no license, no cash, no life. Coincidence?

Quote

Originally posted by Ta-vora:
**OOC: Not much longer. After this post, there are 28 more until it reaches 1000. Then the bar will be closed. I hope they don't delete it, though, as I want to copy/paste the entire bar into a text file and see if I can put together the various threads.

**

OOC: Good luck! Did you see any of the first half or so?

Larra shrugged mildy and swirled the liquid in the bottle around a bit. "Well if this smells like urine, I'm sure glad Demon didn' t need any paper training." There was silence while both resisted the urge to laugh, then the two cracked up.

Presently, Larra pulled a deck of cards out of nowhere, and began dealing them out on the floor like some sort of solitaire game. "Cheat much?" Ta-vora teased, noticing her set aside a good twenty jokers, all with different popluar backs.

Larra laughed. "Only when if involves mind reading. Those aren't for playing with."
The catlike alien was about to respond, when Demon came flying over his shoulder, and landed right where Larra was dealing the cards, scattering them all over.

"Demon!" she complained, "I was winning!" Ta-vora snickered, knowing full well she hadn't been.

With a flick of her wrist Larra called all the cards back to her hand, about the same time that Demon noticed the bottle of Igadzran liquor on the floor.

"Oooo what's that?" he asked, trotting over.

"Save some for Page," Larra advised, "He might like it."

Ta-vora watched in amazement as Demon chugged back another quarter of the drink, without flinch or bad expression. "Not bad," the shapeshifter remarked, staring at the label, "What is it?"

Larra gave Ta-vora a funny look and mouthed "Cast iron stomach".

"Urine," the Ka-nuth answered the shapeshifter, keeping a perfectly straight face. Demon immediately started yelping and spitting, while Ta-vora and Larra burst into laughter again, occasionaly broken by Demon yelling between coughs"Hey! What's so funny?"

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

OOC: Part of my monologue again.

Private Veed Conference:

Jenna wasn't sure whether to be angry, sad or ecstatic. Each of the victims had committed acts of mass murder, but that didn't mean they deserved to die. They had been doing what they thought was best for themselves and their people. Is murder morally wrong when it is the only way to save your own life? Then again, the murders were not being committed only against their enemies but against innocents and children. Jenna knew that any leader willing to allow millions or billions of innocents to die was unworthy of a leading role; but is the difference between one murder any more vile an act then the murder of millions?

"Yilta. Why?"

Yilta turns smoothly toward the questioning tinker, the meddler. She was very useful and her creation, the Veed interface, was the only thing that had allowed her to come into power. She was also a good person, even if she sometimes went against what was best for the galaxy. "I did what I had to do friend. Yilta had committed an act of murder at a council, and she had broken the honor code of another member. Both crimes are worth of death. I hated doing it. You know that she was my friend as well as yours, but if I had not stood against her there would have been a civil war."

"You're rambling again. You knew this was gonna happen. You had the Veed set up to read minds; you could never have beat her with a sword otherwise."

"I didn't understand the capabilities of your system. I thought I could check the primary thoughts of everyone in the room and prevent any outbreaks. I was a fool. I was overwhelmed by the emotions of the people; it wasn't anything like being in Veed."

"No, it isn't." Jenna's voice was filled with an uncharacteristic scorn, but she was still calm and coherent. "You didn't just use it as a weapon, you used it as a torture device. I saw her eyes as you spoke that pathetic assault on poetry, each word was her worst nightmare. You went beyond violating her body or her mind. You destroyed her soul."

"Jenna, you've seen me with a sword. I'm a disgrace, I needed every advantage I could get."

"You even calculated your final stroke, where it would hurt her most. Where she couldn't get up anymo' but she'd live for quite some time. Then there was the spitting; that was evil. Yilta, you didn't need to. Why?"

Yilta was tired, Jenna never let up and she was sometimes to smart for her own good. So what if Yilta had gotten a little carried away, it all worked out for the best. The Confederacy was reunited, even expanded. The Igadzra were the only race not severely influenced by it, and even they were having a hard time refusing it. "Jenna, it was politics. I couldn't show myself to be a weak leader and be merciful. I had to be brutal, but I also needed the support of her remaining faction. My actions saved the Confederacy and will eventually bring peace to the entire galaxy."

"To hell with you and your peace. You plan on using the Confederacy as a tool, already the Miranu, the Zidagar, the Azdgari and the UE are under your thumbs. The Strandless rely almost solely on your importing and exporting. You plan on having a galactic wide trading coup. Then with the superior power the Igadzra would be forced to either surrender or be annihilated, and the Voinians wouldn't be far behind. It would be peace, but it would be a peace enforced by a dictatorship. A peace that would last a decade and bring about the bloodiest civil war you could ever imagine. Do you want that power?"

Was she really that transparent? Jenna was a meddling girl at the least, without any thought or knowledge about politics. She spoke sternly, one final time. "Jenna, there is no other way. I'm doing what is best for everyone. If this war continues the trans-dimensional bombs will come into common use and there won't be a galaxy left to save. Now leave me be, I have important work to do to prevent that." With that final phrase Yilta disconnected the Veed. "Fool, she understands so much but not the basics. I am going to save all life that we know. The Voinians, the Strands, the Emalgha, the Humans; they're all to foolish to do anything but kill each other. She wouldn't allow them to destroy the innocents, the children. Why did they have to die?

Pax: Dogover system

"Just what I needed, a summons half way through regeneration." K'shatok nearly started in surprise at his own words. "I must be picking up A'Jenna's sarcasm; and she says I don't understand it." He walked down the brightened halls, the station was on a night day rotation. The system worked very well for the Voinian and human inhabitants as the Voinians were nocturnal and the Humans were light-lovers. However, it made some difficulty in negotions and extra-racial "friendships" as he and Jenna had oddly formed. Perhaps it wasn't so much of a friendship, he did whatever Jenna asked and she thanked him for it, and treated him like an individual. It wasn't something most Voinians did to each other, but he was able to return the strange "friendship." It probably helped that he would have given his life and his brood in exchange for another chance to feel her creations, but he had found himself enjoying just being around her. "I'm becoming human because I spend too much time around them. Why don't I feel like I should kill myself, then?" He was in the human compartments by this point and there were no Voinians to hear him. Since the humans didn't know his language, he hoped anyway, and were too busy trying to avoid him he wouldn't have to worry about any new reason for assassination attempts.

"Tok, plug in." He was being as moody and introspective as usual. Sometimes Jenna found herself looking inward more then outward and wondered if some of his paranoia and depression was rubbing off on her. She knew better; it was the fact the galaxy was on a course towards destruction that depressed her. "I've got it nearly ready, I just need a final test and then distribution. We may be able to create a lasting peace between the Human race and the Voinian race. Perhaps even more..."

"I would be honored to test the system again. I cannot even begin to comprehend the beauty and despair you've put into it. Perhaps it is because I am not human."

"I'd say you're more human then most Humans. No, it isn't humanity, it's love. You have more understanding of love then any human I know of." Jenna paused and glanced at the now ready Voinian. "I guess I'll just turn it on." With a simple thought command Jenna activated the machine and I'Kshatok was lost in another world, one more time.

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

**I love year and a half old topics...

They say most bars and restaurants fail in their first year... but the albatross... man, got some staying power here.

_bomb

**

------------------

Page's head popped out of his wrecked mech. He jumped down to the hangar floor.
"Hello all," he muttered wiping greese from his hands on his pants.
"Hey Page you want this?" Larra asked tossing Page the bottle.
"Oh hell yeah," Page caught the bottle and tipped it back, emptying it. The bottle fell to the ground and shattered. Page face crinkled up and a he fell to the floor and began convulsing.
Larra, Ta-vora, and Demon all sat laughing at the writhing vellosian. As quickly as he began convulsing he stopped and shot to his feet.
"What?" Ta-vora asked.
Page's eyes scanned the hangar carefully. Then met with Ta-vora's.
"You might want to get this ship up and running, I have a distinct feeling that we'll need to leave soon. I'm gonna go see what's going on out there."
Page slowly made his way out of the Azula and to the bar.
He took his regular seat and ordered a random drink. There were an awful lot of people in the bar wearing the same uniform, and many of them wore intimidating plasma rifles.
A few of the uniformed men started to get pretty rowdy, as they were obviously drunk.
"Hey," One of them whispered, "that guy over there looks kind of out of place, we should check him out."
Page rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. Soon after he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Hrm?"
"Excuse me sir," The soldier behind Page said. "Do you mind telling me where you got that pistol on your waist."
Page rolled his eyes behind his glasses. " I made it.."
"In this sector of space that kind of tinkering is very close to breaking the law, do you have all your permits?"
"Errr," Page checked his pockets to buy himself some time. "Must’ve left em at home."
The soldier frowned, and several moved towards page slowly after his response.
"And where would home be?"
Damn! Page thought. "Well, funny story, I live in a ship and, um, I lost it.."
"Do you have your docking pass on you sir?"
Page responded by delivering a swift uppercut to the offending soldier. A few others jumped into action, but by the time they had readied their rifles Page was around the corner and a good 10 feet down the corridor. The soldiers swarmed out of the bar and into the corridors of the station.
"****! ****! ****!" Page yelled dodging bolts of plasma, and rounding the corner again. He ran directly into another group of soldiers. Hitting the head soldier pretty hard, Page reeled back into the line of fire of the other group.
"Is that the guy we’re looking for?"
"I DUNNO GET HIM!"
Page looked around franticly, at a loss for what to do. The wall next to him caught his eye.
"Please don’t be the only thing between me and space." Page grabbed his right arm and knocked his body against the wall.
--------------------
Eric and Natalie Porter decided to go to Atlantic Station to celebrate their honeymoon.
After months of planning they caught a shuttle to the station.
"Hello, can I rent out one of the honeymooners suites?"
The receptionist smiled with her full red lips. "Of course you may sir, how many nights would you like t stay?" She asked in her cheery tone.
"Just one," Eric replied, putting his arm around Natalie.
"Okay then, Room 203, fifth door on your left, second deck, have a wonderful evening."
The newlyweds made their way to their room, and dropped their things off with the bag boy.
They got to their room and opened the door. Eric scanned the huge suite excitedly. Natalie gasped when she saw the king sized water bed.
"It’s like a palace!" Natalie said as she jumped onto the bed. Eric joined her there after paying the bag boy.
They sat on the bed enjoying the silence for a few moments. That all went to hell that is when the wall closest to them exploded open. A man wearing tight black clothes rolled out into the middle of the room and immediately bolted out of the door. A swarm of UE troops followed. Natalie and Eric watched in terror as their honeymoon was destroyed.
--------------------
Page made his way to the lower levels of the station after losing the troops.
"Psst.."
He heard from a crack in a hangar door.
"Yeah?" Page replied lighting a clipped cigarette he found on the floor.
The hangar door opened and there stood the bartender Page had seen at the bar since he arrived.
"Hey!, That’s a cool ship!" Page stared at the sleek crescent warship, wide eyed and drooling.
"Erm, thanks?" DZ replied confused.
"So you hiding from the troops too?"

------------------
Valence, Always aiming for the stars...
Then realizing he should have shot the bodyguards first...

OOC: I have read the entire bar so far. It is quite funny when they just kill each other, but it becomes pointless after some time, as it doesn't lead to anything. Actually it's a shame that the few storylines that developed here were not completed.

Ta-vora activates his wristcom and calls the Azula's bridge.
“Get the ship ready for take-off. We may need to depart soon.”
“Ayie, Kre. You may be glad to hear that we were able to fix the Plaser. It doesn't jam anymore while reloading.”
“Good work.”
He switched off the device and turns to Larra.
“Page may be right. I'm getting a distinct feeling that problems are about to come.”
The three of them exit the Azula and head towards the bar. They stop dead in their tracks when they enter it.
“What? Noone here?” Larra wonders.
Ta-vora looks around, notices that some of the chairs are knocked over and frowns.
“Page may be in trouble.”
At this instant, Ta-vora's wristcom beeps.
“What is it?”
“Kre, the control denies the take-off of any ship.”
“Is it about us?”
“No, it appears to be a general ban.”
“Thanks.”
He breaks the connection.
“For Kano's sake, what is it this time?”
“And what now?” Larra asks.
“Well, we search for Page and get out of here.” Ta-vora answers.
“We're not allowed to leave.” Larra reminds him.
“You should know by now that there's not much that can prevent me from leaving when I want to leave. And I doupt that you're different. Now let's find Page. We separate. Once one of us finds him, you still have the wristcom, I assume.”
They leave the bar and separate at the next fork.

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

OOC: I was wondering when this was going to pick up again...

Larra and Demon walked down one hallway, quite unconcerned about their present situation.

“Hey Larra,” the wolf asked, “You remember the time when...”

“...we got locked inside a space station in that dimension with all the blue people?”

“Yup. That was fun.”

The two grinned as they walked, happily remembering wrecking the place with Kamikaze , then escaping by flying through the outer wall as if it had been made of cardboard.

Larra suddenly stopped short as a laser bolt flew by just in front of her face, hitting the wall with a cracking sound. She looked in the direction the shot had come from, noticing, with what seemed to be surprise, the group of marines running down an adjoining corridor.

Like any other law-abiding (ha!) citizen would, she stopped to wait for them to catch up. Demon, suddenly a little terrier, sat down by her feet, a doggy grin plastered on his face.

The men formed a rough circle around the two, and the leader spoke. “You have been seen in the company of someone we are looking for. Are you aware of his location?”

Thinking quickly, Larra put on a knowing look and a Texas accent, and started lying though her teeth.

“Oh, you must mean Allan....my sister’s new boyfriend. The guy with all the piercings? We’re supposed to meet her here, but she’s late. Held up at the office, I understand. Did you know she’s the one of the president’s advisors? My parents were ever so proud when she was hired... Anyway, what did you want to know again? Oh yes, Allen. I haven’t seen him for quite awhile. But he misses my sister, oh yes, and he acts quite funny when under stress. I have no idea where he might be...” she trailed off, putting on a thoughtful look.

“Okay, miss, thank you for your help,” the leader responded, now not quite sure what to make of the present situation.

“Oh, you’re welcome!” Larra gushed, “I think I’ll go look for him too! Come Fifi!” She walked off the way she had come, leaving the men to shake their heads and stare after her. Suppressing a shudder at being called “Fifi”, Demon trotted after Larra.

Once they were out of sight and earshot, the leader radioed the rest of the searchers, alerting them to Page’s ‘connections’ to the president of the UE. They had to tread carefully. He also sent one of his men to follow Larra, in case she found him first.

Though Larra couldn’t hear that message, Demon’s dog ears did pick it up. “Heh,” he said, amused, “They fell for it, but they’re sending a tail.”

Larra smiled darkly, but still kept in character. “Then let’s make it hard for him.”

About fifteen minutes later, the two were on the opposite side of the station as their pursuer, laughing at how easily he had been outsmarted. Not to discredit the armed forces of the United Earth Confederacy, it was the pair’s experience, not the skill level of the tail, that added up to him being ditched so quickly.

“That stunt in the clothing store was a stroke of genius,” Demon snickered. “Who but us would be able to figure out the panels on the roof could be pushed aside?”

“You just like it because you got to go in the women’s dressing room,” Larra retorted, grinning nonetheless, the prissy Texan now nonexistent. "I think the best part is that he thinks we lost him without even knowing he was following us. ="

“Now let’s find Page.” It didn’t take her long to hone in on his telepathic signal, and in a short time the Acaran and the shapeshifter were jogging up to DZ’s Crescent Warship. Demon was talking to Ta-vora on the wristcomp, though he seemed intent on speaking only pig latin.

“E’reway inway ockingday aybay ourfay undredhay anday evensay! Agepay isay erehay!” he exclaimed.

“What?” came Ta-vora’s voice. Demon repeated himself, to the same reply.

“Hi Page, Hi DZ, what’s going on?” Larra asked happily, ignoring the shapeshifter’s antics. “What are all the UE troops doing here?”

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If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

(This message has been edited by Synesthesia (edited 05-30-2004).)

Ta-vora stares at his wristcom.
Did that dog just go crazy? he wonders, then growling at a patron who heard Demon's message and now grins at him in a stupid way. The man backs off and hurtles around the next corridor.
Ta-vora manipulates the device, loading Demon's message and transfering it onto the text screen. The micro-computer inside scans the words, finfs the key to read the message properly and displays it.

“We're in docking bay four hundred and seven! Page is here!”
Ta-vora sighs.
Sesa-vii, I fear this is too serious to joke.
He then hurries to the designated docking bay. On his way there, he passes a big hole in one of the walls.
Suddenly he walks into a bunch of UE soldiers.
“You there, freeze!” shouts one of them.
Another says: “You were in contact with a person we're looking for! Do you know his current location?”
Before Ta-vora is able to answer anything, one of the UE soldiers recognizes him as the captain of the Azula. The soldiers close around him.
“I have no time for this!” Ta-vora growls.
He takes out his Mesaj Ta Elysee, extends it and paralyzes four soldiers before they are able to respond. When the first one fires his weapon, Ta-vora is already around the next corner.
These humans do have slow reflexes.
He leaps into a dark corridor and concentrates on his matrix. Using the crystal's energies, he manipulates the light that flows around him and creates a virtual image. It is completes just in time when the UE soldiers approach.
“Have you seen a man dressed in a white cloak?”
Ta-vora nods. “Why, yes. He went thataway.” He indicates down the corridor.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
The soldiers run off, leaving a slightly amused Ta-vora behind.

When he walks around a corner, Ta-vora spots his friends, standing in front of a huge black vessel, which he recognizes as Crescent Warship. He approaches them.
“I guess we really are in trouble.” he says.
The others turn around.
“Who're you?” Larra asks.
Ta-vora looks down at himself.
“Oh, right, sorry.”
For a second, it looks like there is a sun-bright light behind him. The illusion fades and vanishes, leaving the normal appearance of Ta-vora in its place.
“Now that's a good trick.” DZ says.
“Thanks. Normal eyes are easily decepted. Now what's going on here? I just ran into a group of UE soldiers who were apparently searching for one of us.”

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The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

(This message has been edited by Ta-vora (edited 05-31-2004).)