Under the Hill - Fourth Circle: Greed [IC]

[Notus]

Rose, Enya, Kenny, Ethic, Mr.Taylor & Marcus

In the exact moment when Kenny put up his barrier, a click echoed through the room and one of the locked doors opened.Through it stepped a bald, bearded man wearing a suit apparently distracted looking at a list - that is, until all the noise woke him up to reality and he stared dumbfounded at the fight going on inside the room.

"What the... HEY YOU! STOP THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW!" the man yelled with his face now flushed red in anger. To help make his point, he tapped his foot twice in the floor and suddenly six heavy automated machine guns dropped from the ceiling, each taking aim at one of the adventurers. "Would you care to explain what is going on here? Who are you, what's your business, and how did you freaking manage to get here?"

[Sutoratosu]

"Holy shiiiiiiit....." Ethic said, putting his hands up and reaching for the sky...erm, floor in this case. He recalled his whip blade, looking down the barrel of the Machine Gun. These things looked like they could do serious damage, especially at close range, and he wasn't all that eager to go feeling a boat load of hot lead tearing through his flesh. On the other hand though... maybe this was just what they needed to keep the Psycho in check. Time to start talking.

"Well, one could say We're travelers, you see," he said in his friendliest tone, turning to look down towards the old guy with a crap ton of fire power at his disposle. "We kinda...wondered into hell by accident, it's a long story, but I'd be more than happy to sit down and to tell it all to you and explain ourselves; if you'd be so kind as to call off these guns... keep them on the guy still on the ground though, please...he's hellbent on killing anyone he can get his hands on, which is the reason for the little fight you just walked in on us having..."

[Rosesong]

Ixidor

The strange man looked around in surprise, seeing himself suddenly trapped in some sort of enclosure. Taking out a sword that had been hidden from sight, he tapped at it curiously. Upon hearing the clink of glass, he smirked, and in one deft motion spun in a circle with his sword. The glass shattered as the man stood in the middle, unharmed. Instead of rushing Ixidor, however, he stuck a hand out. "Well lookie at you, you can do some fancy stuff," the man said respectfully. "Name's Robin, and I'd like to form a partnership with you," he said with a toothy grin. "Whataya say?"

The Bank Gang

Rose gasped in surprise as Kenny lifted them into the air, only to see that Marcus had been coming at her and Enya. "Thank you, Kenny," she said, eyes not leaving the guns or man that had just come into the room. Carefully she shifted her body so that Enya was shielded, and she was dealing with two of the guns. "Sir," she called, "please. We're innocent travelers trying to get to the next circle. He," taking a moment to point at Marcus, "was coming to attack us, I think, but they saved us." Glancing around, she noticed the body of a younger man, but chose not to comment on that. "We've come from the previous circle, and just want to leave, so grant us passage please."

[Flux]

Phantom moved through the other dimension, having already planned routes through what he could see of the town. His goal for now was to get on top of the building where the woman had been standing. He could sense that she was still up there, and she was a person of interest. Her weapon especially interested him. He couldn't remember ever having seen such a thing, though that didn't say much. There were a lot of things he couldn't remember. He circled around the block, finding himself at the back of the building. It appeared to have good enough handholds for him to pull himself up, albeit with some minor difficulties. As he reached the top, he walked towards the edge where the woman had been before. However, he could now sense two new people. One seemed to be somewhere in the streets below, from what he could tell, and the other appeared to be in... midair? Regardless, he drew his sword and created a portal behind the woman, returning to the real world. In the blink of an eye, he was behind her, the tip of his sword on the back of her neck, his other hand ready to restrain her if things became difficult. His ethereal voice echoed through the empty city, despite seemingly being a whisper. He spoke a single word, forming a question.

"Who...?"

[CURIE]

Well, it looked like Edward was still in hell. Reason being, he had never seen or heard of a place quite like this on earth before. The Slums extended as far as he could see, even at his height. Definitely too big for Earth. What's weirder, is that in the middle of all this run-down wreckage, stood a single, big, fancy-looking white building. The sky was thickly overcast to the point where it just looked like a grey dome, and the only living things visible were crows flying around. What's the sinner's punishment here, having to live in shoddy houses while a big nice building (he guessed it was a bank) was just down the street? Honestly, Edward would take that over what he'd seen in the previous circles any day.

It doesn't exactly take a genius to tell that the big white (bank?) building is where the entrance to the next circle is. Plus, Enya was there, so obviously he should WAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT. HOW does he know Enya is in that building? Did he have psychic powers and not notice? Did she have psychic powers and he didn't notice? Did... did the TEDDY BEAR have psychic powers? Hey, that would actually make sense. The super power giveaway seemed to give powers based on the people's personalities, so it obviously a little girl in her "teddy bear stage" would get an actually sentient teddy bear.

Well, this mystery gives him even more incentive to reach that building. Maybe he should travel there on foot, so that he doesn't get spotte-

"Hey you up there! What in nine hells are you doing?"

Too late. Well, time to bust out "new trick I invented number 527". He flew to the tallest building in the immediate vicinity, looped around it, and once out of sight of little miss yellow text, apparated past several buildings in the direction of the white house (Yeah, he's totally going to call it that from now on). Anyone who saw him would assume he landed behind the tall building, when he was in fact several blocks away.

Now he would have to pace himself. He could reach that building in less than a minute if he wanted to, but it would take a serious amount of energy. And he had no idea what awaited him when he got there, maybe he would need all the energy he could get. He bounded down the streets towards the white house in long strides, occasionally passing lost souls and no doubt leaving them bewildered as to what just happened. At one point, he had to jump straight over a guy. Anyway, when he was about 3/4 of the way there (yeah, apparently the "Enya sense" tells him how far away she is), he stopped to rest. Hey, come to think of it, he had passed dozens of these houses- but never thought about what was inside them...

[Notus]

Phantom

The woman gasped, surprised with Phantom's sudden appearance, but made no movement besides that. On the oter building, the man's eyes went wide and he immediately pointed his rifle towards the assaulter. "You let go of her, or I blow your brains out !" The man yelled in an angry tone.

Then, surprisingly, the blonde let out a small chuckle. "Calm now love, if he wanted to kill me he could have done it already." she said in an amused tone. "Well mister, you sure have some interesting tricks... And more sure yet, you must be new here if you don't even know the infamous Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow! Now now, if you would be so kind as to lower this dangerous toy of yours, I think we could do a little talk and reach some kind of agreement. What do you think?"

***

The Bank

"You... wondered in Hell by accident? What kind of idiot can manage to do that?" The bald man asked amused, completely ignoring Ethic's demand regarding the guns. Then he listened to Rose as she confirmed their story, sighed, and put the palm of his hand on his forehead. "Damn, why does this kind of stuff always happen in my shift... Ah, whatever." He then stood still, took a good look at all of them and kept talking.

"You are in the Fourth Circle of Hell, and this is the Fortune Hall Bank. My name is Gestas, chief of security, and the guy you DON' T want to piss off around here. Now, regarding passing to te next Circle, I have no authority nor power to allow that and you'll probably want to talk with the Bank Manager about it." He quieted down after that, waiting for them to absorb the information and say something.

[Ragnar]

Ixidor was dumbfounded as he hesitated to shake the archer's hand, he could have sworn he was about to rob him a moment ago, well its better to be friends with someone rather than being enemies with them, and besides its not the first time Ixidor teams up with the citizens of hell,so why_not?

"Sure mister Robin, Partners.."the boy briefly shook the hunter's hand. "so what now? do you know the way out of here?"

Edited November 19, 2014 by typhlosionrulez

[K_H]

as soon as Gestas finished speaking, Kenny remembered something that Edward had said in the Third Circle, and decided to ask about it.

"About the Bank Manager, his name wouldn't happen to be Pluto, by any chance?"

[Notus]

The Bank

"Nope, and I'm not allowed to tell anyone of his identity." Gestas answered Kenny with an annoyed look. "Anyway, he is a pretty busy man and it is not that easy to get an audience with him. Even I only talk to him when he calls me." Then a glint came across the man's eyes, as if he realized something. "Wait a second. You lot are actually alive right? That could be useful" He scratched his beard a little, considering the options he had to deal with them.

"Well, let me make a proposal to you: why you all don't you work for me for some time? You'll have a special treatment here if you are part of the Bank staff, and if you work diligently enough it is possible that the Manager will hear you."

[Sutoratosu]

"What would we have to do exactly?" Ethic asked from the ceiling, before adding a quick "Sir." Alright, maybe this whole thing would work out OK afterall... If the killer down there managed to keep himself in line, that is. But Ethic was fairly certain that was a very big If.

[Flux]

Phantom slowly lowered his weapon, thinking over what the man below had said. Blow his... brains out? What did that mean? The man had a similar weapon to the woman, though Phantom still didn't know what it did. Perhaps it moved the air around strongly enough that it literally removed the brains from people? If this was the case, then lowering his weapon was certainly the right choice. He may be able to kill the woman before his "brains were blown out," but there would be no way he could escape unharmed. He would speak with them. He waited silently for the woman's proposal.

[Notus]

Phantom

Bonnie grinned as Phantom stood silently. It seemed she got his attention... "Hehe, you're the silent type uh? Very well, then I shall explain the situation as well as I can.."

"The place you are now is the Fourth Circle of Hell, made for those that are deemed greedy in life. We are forced to sleep here in this filthy slum by night with absolutely nothing we can call ours, and during the day work at the Bank in the middle of the town, moving stuff from a safe to another like working ants. The thing is, some of us are hella tired of this... And I'm sure you will be too if you stay here long enough. We have some pretty skilled friends, and we managed to steal some stuff from the Bank - my weapon for an instance - but we want more. We want to make a robbery like no other in history and bring the Bank Manager down once and for all. I'm sure your little magic trick would be extremely useful, and I think the benefits of destroying this sick system are clear enough for you to comprehend so... What do you say? Do we have a deal?"

***

The Bank

Gestas looked to Ethic again with a grin, happy for picking their interest. "Well, we have been facing some problems with robbers lately. This scum is supposed to work in the Bank by day, carrying the things they hoarded in life on their shoulders in order to atone for their sins. The trouble is that somehow things started missing - which was supposed to be impossible until recently - and I can't run a proper investigation... You see, we Bank Staff are also atoning, and as such we can't leave the Bank. Without going into the Slum were the condemned live, it is hard to find and punish the culprits." He said, anger clear on his voice.

"Now, since you lot are alive, you are not necessarily bound by the same rules as us. What I want you to do is to go there, find the thieves that are robbing the bank and bring them to me, dead or alive. You'll also help wit patrols, investigation and routine stuff during day, but the main reason is for you to be a hunting unit."

[Sutoratosu]

"Alright... sounds straight forward enough," Ethic said, still staring down the barrel of the Machine Gun currently pointed in his face. "Listen, I don't speak for that man who's on the ground, but my friends, Rose and Kenny, and myself will help you out... Isn't that right, guys?" His tone of voice and emphasis on the last word had one clear message in it for the two: Don't fuck this situation up.

[Chevaleresse]

Marcus's eyebrows perked up at the man's proposition. "If our, ah, comrades here decide to let me go, I'd gladly help you chase down a few of these thieves. I'm a pretty good hunter, if you know what I mean."

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

The child in Rose's arms grunted and mumbled in her sleep, however, her mumbling was too incoherent for even the good lady to hear. After that she fell silent and warm as though she were recovering, sleeping peacefully, and unaware of the war they were about to be thrown into.

[Flux]

Phantom stood silently as Bonnie explained the situation, his white mask hiding any thoughts he was having. When she had finished, he sheathed his sword and held a hand in front of him, slowly clenching it into a fist. He turned to look at the large white building in the distance, before returning his gaze to Bonnie. For some reason unknown to him, this situation brought back memories of Meredith, the first "friend" he had made. He nodded once before speaking.

"Yes..."

He paused for a moment before adding hesitantly,

"...friend."

[Notus]

Phantom

Bonnie was a bit surprised by Phantom's last greeting, and it showed in her face. She shook his hand anyway, staring straight at the eye slits of his mask. "Now now, it's good to see that you trust me mister, but ain't you going a little too qui-"

As if to ilustrate her thought, a bullet passed whistling between them, followed by the voice of an irritated Clyde. "Hey, you don't get too close pal. Allie or not, Bonnie is my girl you got it?" Bonnie answered by rolling her eyes, unphased by the proximity of the shot. "Weren't you saying we should save ammo, dear? Jeez, don't go scaring away everyone like that." Then she turned and started deftly going down the building, signaling for Phantom to follow her. "Come, we must discuss some stuff before sunrise. There's much to plan off."

[Supernovae]

Mr. Taylor rolled over and stood up. The now younger man smirked, it had worked finally he could be the man he wanted to be. But, still becoming younger was just the first part of his plan. For now there was a lot that needed to be done.

"Where in the hell am I now?" the man said in a near impeccable southern accent.

[Rosesong]

The Bank Gang

Rose looked up from where she was tending to Enya. "Sir..." she started, unsure of what to say, "I'll help you, but I have to take care of this girl first. She's not well." As Rose stared at the man, she saw out of the corner of her eye that the strange young man was beginning to wake up. "Where in the hell am I now?" he asked to no one in particular. Keeping her gaze locked on the hell-dweller, she answered in a low tone, "You're in the fourth circle of hell, specifically a bank. Now keep quiet lest you get us all killed," she snapped, hoping to alert the stranger to the guns still pointing at them.

Ixidor

Robin flashed another toothy grin. "Well, you see, we don't get those cool abilities like you do. I reckon it's time we go and meet with the others. That damned bank manager will finally get what's coming to him!" With that, he grabbed ahold of the young artist and started running. "The others had better be there by now!'

[Ragnar]

"Woah!?wait a minute... you mean to tell me there are others like you!?" Ixidor said as he being dragged by Robin throughout the alleyways. although it seems the archer didn't heard his question seeing how ecstatic and eager he is to meet up with the 'others'. Great, just great..what i've myself into? the boy thought to himself as he tries to keep up with his running with the man. maybe i'll get my answers wherever it is we're heading.

[Rielly987]

As Reil enters he finds him self in a dark alley way. He let's out and exhausted sigh and slumps against a building. As he peers into his back pack he grabs the only thing left in it, a ground out granola bar. Oh how he was screwed.

[Notus]

Reil

Clyde was stepping through the door of the ruined building he was hiding on when he heard a noise coming from the end of the alley - the same place where the masked guy and the flying boy appeared. Immediately he leveled his rifle and pointed is towards the sound, after all it seemed only weird and dangerous stuff spawned there that night.

What he sees there is a boy lying against the wall, holding what looks to be a cereal bar or something like that. It seems like he didn't even notice Clyde.

"Ey, boy! Who are you, and what do you want here? State your business!" He shouts, hoping that Bonnie and mask guy hear and come for backup just in case.

***

The Bank Gang

"Yup, it's as the girl says young fellow." Gestas tells Mr. Taylor. "Anyway, I'm not about to repeat all that speech again only because one of you overslept - by the way, you better don't slack off like this in work! Now, it is great that you agreed to cooperate, I didn't want to have to clean the room later." As he said this, he clapped his hands and the machine guns all went back to their positions inside the roof. "You can explain things to sleeping beauty over there and rest a bit, and when you're ready for a briefing on your first activities you come after me."

The bald man turned and went towards the door he had came from, but before stepping through he turned and added. "Oh, try not killing one another while I'm out, or I'll have to assume you want me to lock you lot in a safe and leave you there for eternity. Anyway, welcome to the team!"

And with that, the Chief of Security of Hell's Bank stepped out of the room.

[Rielly987]

"Oh god don't shoot!" Reil attempts to throw an ice shell around himself. "I'm just trying to figure out where I'm at please don't shoot me! Please!" He shouts Shivering the entire time.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Rielly987

[anethia]

Annie's fist tightened as she weighed her options. But the more she thought about it, the more obscure the answer became. Sighing, she shook her head and bit her hand, increasing her strength and she effortlessly threw the man into a corner before grabbing stones the size of her chest out of the rubble, even grabbing some furniture and slamming them on top of the man.

"Sure. Might as well." She replies to the man with a bitter taste in her mouth. "Tell me about this place."

[Notus]

Reil

Clyde's eyes widened when he saw the scaredy boy in front of him seemingly summon a wall of ice out of nowhere. Dang isn't anyone normal going to appear tonight?

"Eh, well, guess it's alright." He said, sighing and lowering the rifle. "This is the Fourth Circle of Hell, boy, and I am Clyde Barrow. This little trick you pulled there is pretty impressive... Mind if I ask who you are and how you do it?"

***

Annie

The cloaked man lifted an eyebrow as Annie disposed of the corpse in the floor. The girl's strenght was really impressive and could be very useful...

"Well, first things first let me present myself: the humble soul you are speaking to now is none other than François Villon, Master in Arts by the renowed Paris University, poet, and part-time burglar." Villon ended the phrase with an exagerated bow, but a moment later was up again smiling at Annie.

"Enchanté, mademoiselle. Anyway, this place we are now is known only as The Slums, and is part of the Fourth Circle of Hell. We, poor souls that have the misfortune of ending up here, are forced to work jour aprés jour in that white building you can see there - which is a bank by the way - and at night time come to rest our broken bones and soul in this town here. Bién, happens that, as pleasant as it is, some of us are a tad bit tired of working like dogs for gaining nothing, which is something I am sure the lady will undestand... So what I want to propose to you is: why don't you help our little bande with your amazing abilities? It would be a win-win situation in my view, don't you agree?"