ENTER: Houndras Furrer

They found her standing by the portal, looking into her message screen. She appeared to be typing something, then clicked the "send" button. The message window closed and she shrugged. "Looks like you guys just barely caught me." The girl beamed at her friends. "I thought I would be able to sneak away real good!"

"aggea, you can get in some serious trouble. unless you know some hacks that is...then you'd be fine." ryo stated, seemingly cutting shin off before she could say anything. "This, this is pretty serious. you can get banned for life for messing with this stuff without the right codes."

shin was full on scowling right now. "I'm not happy with this...."she muttered while pulling up a list of hacks. "this is bull sh*t and you know it aggs."

"Heh! This character won't be any good soon anyways." The girl shrugged and titled her head. "Anyways Ryo, I don't think we have enough time for some hard core hacker training. It's true that we don't really know what we're up against... Since I don't know how they're going to use the data."
When she spoke, Aggea only made eye contact with Ryo. She seemed to ignor Shin's comment, something that Shin'yuu took notice of quite quickly. Now it was Ryo stuck in the uncomfortable postion, only unlike Aggy before, he wasn't being ignored, he was being middle ground.

"well...I guess if you're going to make a new character...that'd be fine." the bat spoke softly this time, any and all confidence that was oozing out his facade was now gone. "I'll just give you a level inhancer code. that way you can up your level or bring it down when ever you see fit...be careful when you use it."
shin pushed past, clearly something about this whole issue struck shin in the wrong sense. "lets just go...I doubt she'll need it..we'll be in and out in a jiffy." her voice was colder than before, more childish and selfish in it's tone.
without another word the brunette raised her hand and started entering the command to gate out to the aqua server's main town.
once there the group would notice it was relatively calm. there weren't wars exploding out, but there was a certain tension.
if one cared to listen to the mumbles of various groups they'd hear mumbles of different rumors of various secret weapons that enemy gangs have.
frowning shin pushed forward, "lets go...bach has a shop set up for guild members."

Other payers seemed to be going about their business, then casually exiting out of the server, some eyeing the three for gradually going the other way. No one else appeared to come in after the group.
Aggea scanned the other players as they passed. "It's more of a ghost town then I expected it to be."

"the aqua server here is the salt water server...the freshwater is a pk free zone. mostly rpers go there."shin explained while eying one of the vendors giving them the stink eye. "bach's usually there when he's not here....the brat is always getting into trouble like this." she muttered while making a sharp sudden turn away from the group and entering the market district.
"are you sure he's here?? I don't know if he'd stay after you told him to leave."
"please...he'd stay BECAUSE I told him to leave. like I said he's a total brat."

Commotion roared suddenly from a shop down the road. The sound of a loud crash of some sort seemed to come from one of the shops, followed by incomprehensible yelling. This set Ryo jump back, showing how skittish this whole venture had him. "Gah! The hell was that?!"
The shorter brune eyed Shin'yuu, both ignoring Ryo and giving him time to recompose himself. "That the kind of trouble you were talking about?"

(( LOOK AT MY HEAD CANON FOR BACH HE'S ADORABLE ASFJDKL;WDFJAKL;JASDFKLJASKLJASDFKL;ASDFJKLASDFJKL;JKL;ASKLASDFJKL;DFJKL;    
[Only admins are allowed to see this link]  ))

shin could only nod and push past the crowd, not totally sure the others were following. there in the center of the crowd was a dark skinned snake boy with neon green stripes running along his scaled body and pale silvery green hair propped up against a crate.
upon shin breaking through the naga's eyes darted over to her and held her gaze before he snickered weakly. "so you made it. here I thought the quest was too much trouble for you."he said while winking one of his bright yellow pupils.
the attackers backed off somewhat when seeing shin and ryo move up and begin to help bach up. "shut up...you're such a little punk...I told you to leave."shin hissed at him.

While Shin spoke to her cousin, Aggea pulled out her staff and spun it around with on had, as if it was a simple baton, then she pointed it at the other players. It was all for show, but seem to work as she caught there attention. "Back off. Go back to one of the other servers and try trading instead of stealing. It'll work better for you then getting pked."
It only took a few seconds before one frantically scampered away and the others followed.

the crowd didn't stay long after that, apparently there was nothing else to see after that point. this didn't stop the act to go on. "begone! I'm fine." the reptile boy sighed while moving out of the grip of shin and ryo.
"I had not expected you to come with others darling hero. I was under the impression you'd come alone and aid me in my time of need." he spoke so easily, there wasn't a single hint of snide or 'I'm better than you' syndrome but he was genuinely speaking to the group in a friendly manner, even if it was in a faked english accent.
tilting his head he closed those black voids with yellow centers he called eyes to smile welcomingly to the group. "no matter! I'm glad I have three heros to aid me instead of one, lonesome warrior. ah! silly me, you mammals must be exhausted from your long treck! come, come, my little post doubles as a cozy little abode!" bach motioned to the player shop behind him and made a motioning gesture to indicate he wanted them to go in so they could talk.
"ugh....really?? I hate going into your house...all the weirdos gather there." shin groaned while moving past the naga towards the player home and entering it.
"weirdos?? I must confess I know not of what you speak of dearest shin'yuu, hath thy lady of might begun to snap??" NOW there was a snide hint in his tone as he rushed the others into his home. "however I must inform you that there are but no weirdos, tis just us and my merry minstrels. they however have stepped out and will be arriving shortly dearest warriors."

Aggea was the last one he shoved through the door, "Others, you're not still planning on going to the caves, are you?"

once inside the snake slid past the group, causing shin to flinch when the amphibious reptile's arm frills bumped up against her. a wave of disgust washed over her as her real's arm felt sickeningly cold. "I'm afraid not dear traveler, I prefer to take the serious matters into my own capable claws. my minstrels aren't ones for....fighting. they would like to gain greater prowess in battle, however it seems increasingly hard for one gifted in the art of music to gain noticable skills." he addmitted while moving over to the fireplace in the far end of the room.
it was clear this player home was much nicer than lyserg's. from the entry way one could see three other rooms, a hall way with several other rooms leading to a back room and a stair case leading up stairs. god knows how many other rooms this place had in it. it wasn't too decorated, but the items it did have fit. hell the walls were painted nicely, with wooden beams in the corners for support beams. the furniture was also hand picked to make sure that nothing clashed.
coming back bach set a tea kettle on the table with some tea cups. "come, sit. I shall tell you of my proposition!" he smiled while pouring a cup for shin whom was already pulling up a seat.
ryo nudged aggea and smirked, "pretty cool right??he likes to collect roleplaying items...everything in here is interactable."he snickered while moving over to the table to sit.

"No kidding?" she walked over to him and whispered back. She wasn't as excited as one would assume, as she was still stuck on trying to understand what the naga had just said.
She sat down next to Ryo and squished close to him, not knowing with Bach's large size and where he usually sit, or if he even does for that matter, how much space was going to be needed.

bach curled his tail under the table and poured the two their own cups of tea. "so you're quite the collector, aren't you bach??"ryo asked while bringing the cup to his character's lips and taking a sip.
"oh, yes I suppose my collection of goods is quite extensive. none nearly as impressive as dearest shin'yuu's collection. However dear heart seems far too modest and prefers not to flash her blessings like the modest warrior she is." bach seemed a little too eager to compliment shin'yuu whom was now resting her feet on the table and rocking her seat back. it would seem she was the most relaxed out of the whole group. why wouldn't she? she'd only ever known him her whole life.
"the job bachrom...the job.."the fox finally said while snapping her fingers.
"oh! pardon my idle rants. I must confess I haven't had company for many a nights, but I digress; see my problem lies in the fact that I have no one to hold down the fort, so to speak."
another snap of the fingers stopped everything that he had been saying. stopping bach looked over to her with a questioning look."new age english please." she said simply.
"right...well..see...I need someone to watch this place while I head over to the caves to make sure no one else is over there. I've made several trips before and haven't had any problems, I just need to make sure no one steals from the guild like you saw earlier. also opya and urya; my newest recruits; need to be watched. they want to head off to the sea caves, but I can't let them do that. I know what's going on...I just need help keeping aweful things from happening any further." the naga explained as he dropped the accent and started to speak normally.

Aggea took the opportunity to cut in here, secretly revealed that she could understand what they were talking about fully. "So you want us to just stay here while you go to the caves. Why are you so insistent on interfering if you know so well what's going on? It would be better to just let things happen, wouldn't it."

"well...there's the problem. because I know what's going to happen and I know that there are innocent people that may get caught in the cross fire I just...I need to do something. for all I know this could be a beta session repeat." with those words shin tugged on bach's scarf pulling him closer so she could look at him eye to eye, looking on you could see small pixilations in the scarf's design that fizzled up briefly from shin's touch.
she turned off the public chat and turned on a private chat with bach. from the outside one could see them talking but not hear their words. one thing was sure bach looked nervous

This made Aggea and Ryo look at each other as they sat. She shifted away from enough so they could make eye contacted. He saw an anxiousness in her avatar's eyes, and a furry in her brow. A private chat symbol appeared on his screen. "I don't like you that much. You know that and I know that. But I' gotta know, what do you think of this?"

"it's weird that shin would pull something like this...she's a very open person, I know you know my brother, and I know you know he was one of her first friends here. all that time we spent gaming with her she's never just turned public chat off.maybe it's personal? what do you think he meant by the beta session??" his response was lengthy, but unsure, continuing on he sounded cockier, "ya know...I'm not such a bad guy once you get to know me. you'd be surprised how many women hate my guts but end up falling for me"

"Pffffffffffffffffffffffffft Boy, I said boy, ain't no body got time for your pickuplines!" Aggea's words came out eventfully sarcastic. It was clear she wanted to go off topic some more, but her mind knew that this wasn't the time to have fun, so her next line dropped to a serious tone after a small silence. "Maybe it had something to do with that corrupted coma area." she paused at the word 'corruption', as if she was hesitant to even acknowledge the word exists, "or maybe it has something to do with the information she got from her contacts earlier. She wouldn't tell us about it at the time.
"Speaking of Lyserg, where is he?"

"cram school. bro insists on getting a good footing in life."
leaning back on his chair he sighed softly while his ears twitched slightly"I suppose it could have something to dowith her information. she had quite a few info brokers on her original character. there were only a few she trusted though...if you'd like I could send you a list and you could check out the scene...I mean, if you tell them you're shin's informant looking for info they'll tell you what you need to know and will only ask for pay if you ask something that might jeopordize their operation. hell I'll even help you if you want." ryo was oddly charasmatic about all this. it was obvious he'd poked his nose in shin's affairs before.

That doesn't sound like a bad deal actually. Ha! Soon I'll be following him. At least he's staying out of this mess now. On a side note, if Shin caught us sneaking information, you know she would be pissed. Still, it might be something I'll need. Send me the info. The other winked like she was pretending to be really sneaky, and then giggled a little.

"actually he's been looking into more stuff involving it. at least I think...he's been looking into that thing he saw with you the other time he was online...what was that by the way??" opening up a panel to send the message.
there were fifty or so names, but separating a few was a line. "the ones at the top are the ones that should help you no problem...tell them Ryojin sent you they should help you. also don't worry about them asking for payment, I'll take care of all that."

"Thanks. I'll remember that." she achieved the information into a new folder in her messages, the continued, "I have no idea what it was, but it..."

At that moment, her mind flashed back to the event, to the thing sending her messages "do not mention these messages to the green haired boy...", and then shook her head.

"...was just werid." she finished, hoping Ryo didn't notice the pause.

ryo's character opened his mouth to say something when shin's voice cut him off. "no, no, no, no, no and no! I wont let you mess around with that! we're going with you and that's final." shin snapped while shoving the chair away from the table and standing up.
"sh-shin...I don't thin that's a good idea..I...but...you...please, you don't have to. please I just want to keep this private."
"well then I'm going. nothing's more private than your aunt...besides I need to do this. if it has something to do with the comas I want to know more."

Aggea got up, her eyes now meeting Shin's. "So we're going.... Indefinitely....?"

all eyes were on shin now. ryo gave her an expecting look as if he already knew what she wanted to say. it just wasn't his place to say anything.
"yes, we're going."
"shin, I...I don't think this is a good idea! please reconsider..."
"we're going. and that's final...."shin muttered while turning away from him and moving over to his weapon selection counter. "I don't have super special items on me...do you have any that I could borrow??" the rouge turned back and cast a sparing glance at her nephew whom nodded and went to aid her in the selection.

"this should be interesting...you sure you want to go? no one's making you go at this point...we're just extra baggage for these two at this point. I'm sure shin wont be slowing down for you to keep up...you should stay behind."

((ugh that last part was from ryo...))

Aggea eyed Ryo, taken back by his words. What? I have to come. You need me... you don't think that I can handle it? Look, I just know that it's dangerous, okay?

ryo shrugged his shoulders while turning private chat off. moving over to the door he looked back, "I'll wait here for the two girls. I need an excuse to do some shopping around anyways." he smirked while eyeing aggea and leaving the player home.
after a while shin turned to aggea and frowned, a sudden wave of not knowing what had just gone on washed over her. "did ryo leave??" she asked. yep. didn't hear a single word he had just said.
"good...I'd prefer someone to stay behind for the twins...they can be...difficult and at their levels I'd hate to drag them into this. I, uh, shall we go then? if you two are ready that is..." was it possible for someone to be so awkward, especially since they played such a confident character? probably not since bach was a weirdo.

"Right."
Aggea nodded, and beamed a smile at her friends, hoping to clear up the anxiety in the room. She toddled forward so she would beat Shin'yuu out the door. In the virtual street, all was quiet. As the cliche goes, the calm before the storm.