The EC have taken over.

[Micheal_Rawlings]

As Bog vanishes, a warp portal appears, and from it, a rageful shout issues.

"WHAT IS THIS?!"

Flanked by a rather angry-looking mech (however that works), Rawlings storms into the discussion. Noting the nearest EC badge in the room, Micheal makes a beeline for HollowEyes, stoping him from leaving. For some reason or another, HollowEyesseemed to be leading this venture, and thusly, just the man to voice his complaint to. Rawlings stops at arms length from the Council-member and regains his composure. The mech, meanwhile, stomps around the forum pointing its weapons at the various occupants before coming to a stop behind Micheal.

"Your overthrow of this government is having an adverse affect on my Corporation. Specifically, I cannot spare any of my labor force for your Friday foot rubs! And I personally find it offensive that you would think that anyone of my stature would stoop so low!"

There is a loud clanking noise as the mech shifts positions, keeping its guns trained on HollowEyes.

"That aside however, your newest blockade of item usage presents a serious problem for my conglomerate. Sales of key products have dropped due to the fact that no one spare the Evil Council can purchase or use anything!"

Rawlings finishes his points and calms down so that he can continue the next part of his rant.

"I have always complied with the government's requests, provided that they were in the best interest of my company. If they were unreasonable, I would not meet them, and they would be disregarded. I understand that some of these..." Mike pauses and looks around the room, "... rebels have made some demands. I personally see them as unreasonable to this new regime, and you have no need to fulfill them.

"However, I have a few demands of my own, and I expect that they be met. Under the rule of TheDarkPsycho..."

The mech shuffles menacingly on the floor.

"Try to silence me and you will see your end..." Micheal growled to the EC.

"Like I was saying, under the rule of the Psycho, I was free to do business as I pleased. My demands are that I be granted that freedom once more. Firstly, all Corporation employees are to be exempt from the foot rub Fridays requirements. And secondly, either you open up the free item market once more, or the Evil Council pays my corporation the amount that is lost due to your restrictions."

Rawlings took a step closer to HollowEyes.

"Well? Time is money, what say you?"

[3kul]

"If the Corporation wishes to remain a part of Hackstar's economy then it would do well to understand that, like everything within Hackstar, it would belong to the Evil Council." HollowEyes appears to be unphased by the mech, and neither is Little Sister. Hardly surprising considering that this isn't exactly the first time that they'd came face to face with a Corporate mech, but if Rawlings was to observe closely he'd notice a faint white shadow circling around the pair of them. Little Sister had wasted no time in willing her powerful bodyguard to come to their aid after Bog's failed assassination attempt, thought the God of Nothing was remaining hidden until it was absolutely necessary for him to intervene here.

"It sounds to me like our problems originate from the same cause. Item usage is restricted due to the presence of rebels, and Corporate labour is required because too many slaves are rebels. I suspect that you'll encounter more problems from the rebels in the near future, they tend to deal in absolutes - if you're not one of them, you're against them. Hence why we seek to wipe them out before they can become an ongoing problem."

He pauses for a moment, thinking this over. He had to be extra careful with his wording here, the chance of a Corporate-rebel alliance was almost non-existant, but Rawlings would be sure to make this a battle on two fronts if HollowEyes didn't make a Council-controlled Hackstar seem worth the man's time. "Naturally under the rule of our illustrious headmaster the Corporation will have far more freedom than it ever had under Hackstar's previous master - it should be quite obvious to you that we don't care nearly as much about this world as he did, there are certain resources that we wouldn't necessarily miss if they were to be snatched up by somebody who wished to make a profit from them."

This should be enough, HollowEyes thought. He wasn't as experienced in business dealings as Rawlings was but he believed that the Corporate head would be hard pressed to turn his arguments against him. He'd probably get into quite a bit of trouble later for making such an open-ended promise, but for now the important thing was to avoid getting on the bad side of the Corporation.

[Danikat]

"If you don't mind," Danikat said, in a voice that made it clear she was going to say her piece wether Holloweyes, or Michael, minded or not, "Holloweyes' assumptions on our attiude towards 3rd parties in this little...misunderstanding is not entirely accurate. Whilst its true that we have not seen eye to eye in the past we would be happy to view the corperation as bystanders and to leave you untroubled in this conflict. Or, if you so choose we'd welcome you to join us in ousting these upstarts. I trust that you don't need my advice on reading between the lines of a contract, but still I ask you to consider this: what advantage are extra resources if getting to them requires you to surrender yourself and your corperation to EC rule? It might seem like a good deal for now but mark my words the day will come when they consider it in their best interest to seize your assests, and then where will you be?"

[Dr Tanner]

VW waves her hand dismissively in Danikat's direction.

"These pathetic nobodies will say anything to scrape together more allies for themselves, I swear. How tragic."

[3kul]

"Indeed." HollowEyes agrees frowning. "Grasping at straws much Danikat? EC Rule is not at all troublesome to those who don't resist it, and despite your expert insight on the workings of our Council, we are happy to accomodate Mr Rawlings if he is happy to accomodate us. Corporate and Council interests aren't so different, and unlike rebel desires, as Mr. Rawlings here pointed out, are not absurd and unnecessary."

"Oh, if it isn't the infamous Danikat."

Little Sister was now addressing Danikat directly, totally ignoring Rawlings and his mech, a maniacal grin plastered on her face. "You're pretty much leading the rebels, right Danikat? They weren't doing very much until you came and stirred them up..." She stopped talking as she noticed that she was drooling slightly, so she quickly wiped it away and turned back to Rawlings. Not that she really cared what he thought but she knew that HollowEyes would be incredibly angry at her if she messed up whatever negotiations he had going here. "Excuse me Mr. Rawlings," she said as politely as she could (it was probably the first time she'd ever called anybody 'Mr'). "I have a rebel to kill."

Lunging towards Danikat with a pair of woven blades, Little Sister slashes at the one of the Council's most well-known enemies, aiming to slice her arms off. A smaller, thinner, almost ghostly white claw followed alongside her as it surfaced up out of the ground, shooting forward to grab Danikat's leg and prevent her escape.

"We were almost assassinated just a few moments ago by a sniper who claimed to be a rebel - it's a fair enough assumption that since Danikat is here she had something to do with it, so I trust you'll excuse my sister's behaviour." HollowEyes added, wondering just how much longer this was going to take.

[Mitsukai]

"Ahem."

Gweneth, a rather pretty blonde with almost lifeless blue eyes since this whole ordeal began, tentative approached the previously talking individuals.

"I appologize for interrupting my masters, but would it not be more... satisfying if you waited until the battle to kill her? To kill her now would mean a lack of... fighting, and thus fun, from the other 'rebels'..." she spoke hesitantly, her hands wringing the material of the "new" shirt they had given her as a result of her becoming a slave.

Inside she felt sickened for having those vile words leave her mouth, but she knew that others depended on the outcomes of her little speech. There was little she could do... and this was about it... but do it she must.

[3kul]

"Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Rawlings." HollowEyes said to the Corporate businessman, wondering just how many more interruptions there were going to be. He half expected for the sniper to show up again. "The rebels shot first slave, and Danikat is probably more aware than most as to what would happen if she were to publically interfere with Council affairs." He did not like that this slave felt inclined to approach them and object to what they were doing in such a cleverly worded manner, to him this indicate a possibility of her becoming a rebel.

None of the other slaves seemed at all willing to do what she'd just done, many stepped back as if they didn't even want to associate themselves with her. "The fact that we have to fight these rebels is not 'fun' slave, it's an annoying necessity. I don't know where you get such ideas, but perhaps you'd benefit from a trip to one of our 'special' clinics?"

A pair of grunts seemed to react to what HollowEyes just said and began to move towards Gweneth, though a stern look from the Second-in-Command told them to stop. This was not an actual request from him, this was the kind of request meant to seperate the rebels from slaves. Gweneth would have to be very careful about how she answered this, as many of the other slaves seemed well aware of.

[Mitsukai]

Her hands froze their wringing movement along with the rest of her body, and she paled visibly. Normally she would have glanced up at him sharply with a determined "how-dare-you-speak-to-me-that-way!" type look on her face... but she didn't. Too much depended on her being careful for her to let loose to such fierce emotions.

And so, she kept her face free from any type of expression except for a look of "shame" as was expected of her- despite the anxiousness that was coursing through her from the impending danger that she felt. Her heart was already beating rapidly, and it thumped faster with the movement of the grunts that she caught out of the corner of her eyes. They seemed to have stop their approach, but she dared not let her guard down.

Slowly... ever so slowly... she lowered herself to the ground until she was in a kneeling "seiza" position; allowing her head to hang down so that all she could see was the ground and their feet and her hands to rest demurely in her lap rather than the proud position of her hands on her hips, her shoulders straight, and her head held up high. This was a position that she was, very much so, unused to.

"I humbly apologize for my impertinence my masters. It was not right of me to speak so freely in your presence, and it was not right of me to interrupt such an important discussion. I beg of you for undeserving forgiveness of such an error.”

[3kul]

HollowEyes glared at the slave, trying to probe her mind with his artificial third eye. He was not pleased with this mechanical addition, it was greatly inferior to his old eye, but there wasn't really that much he could do about that now.

As things were he'd been using his third eye far too much lately, trying to find if there were any rebels hidden amongst the slaves and it was currently pushed to it's limits, so he got little more than static from Gweneth's mind. Setting it back to it's power-saving standby mode, he decided that he'd save it to use on the rebels in the battle later.

She was insolent and spoke far too well for HollowEyes' liking, but she was more or less broken. Sending her off to one of the brainwashing facilities didn't seem necessary, and not exactly a great example of putting the slaves that they did have control of to good use in front of the Corporate man who'd been complaining that they were using his staff as slaves too often. However, he made sure to make a mental note to remember this girl for later, when Rawlings would not be hounding him with demands.

"Take her and the rest of the slaves away, there's no need for an audience here. I believe that the Headmaster wants some extra labourers to help build a monument in Hackopolis."

There were general groans coming from the crowd and many hateful eyes fell upon Gweneth, as if they blamed her for the SiC assigning them with back-breaking labour. Armed grunts moved in and began to herd the group of slaves away, roughly shoving Gweneth along with them. She'd managed to avoid punishment... for now.

((Feel free to resist my slight powerplay Mitsukai, though it's probably better for you to go along with it. ))

[Danikat]

Fortunately Little Sister's apology to Rawlings had given Danikat just enough of a warning to react. For some reason she wasn't able to step back, she thought she felt something around her legs but didn't have time to check just now, but she was able to pull her arms back and draw her sword to block Little Sister's woven blades.

At that moment their battle was interrupted by Gweneth, and Danikat took the oppertunity to glance down, trying to see what was holding her legs. She thought she spotted something faint and milky white wrapped around them, but she couldn't afford to do anything about it with those woven blades still so close.

Instead she seized on Gweneth's suggestion. "Insolent she may be - at least by your reckoning, but she's also right. Having agreed on a formal battle for the Dojo it would be inappropriate for either of us to fight here and now. Let's save it for the arena shall we, and if you so wish you can seek me out there to finish this."

[3kul]

Unfortunately for Danikat, whilst such logic may have worked on HollowEyes before the EC had taken over, it did not work so well on him now. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Little Sister never subscribed to such a school of thought in the first place, and nothing short of Danikat running away with her tail between her legs would prevent Little Sister from killing the rebel who so stupidly showed up before them.

"Your side shot first Danikat, and well before the 'formally' agreed upon battle. You then proceeded to attempt to sabotage the Council's negotiations with the Corporation with your lies and scare tactics. And now you ask that we release you, totally unharmed, so that you may be reunited with your rebel friends and try your luck at a united stand against us?" HollowEyes almost laughed as he said this, shaking his head - it was truly a ridiculous idea. "Typical rebel cowardice. Perhaps you are forgetting that it is you who declared war on us Danikat, we were perfectly comfortable with you as a slave."

The part of this conversation that HollowEyes enjoyed the most (not that it was a particularily enjoyable conversation, he would've liked to have been back by now) was that Danikat would be unable to respond. Danikat had a bloodthirsty Little Sister and a semi-visible Noten to deal with before she'd have a chance to speak, all HollowEyes had to worry about was the trapped rebel and a rather unresponsive Rawlings.

Unlike Danikat, Little Sister was not restricted to one blade, and quickly wove a couple more to skewer Danikat in the thighs whilst she pressed harder against her opponent's sword. Of course, her woven blades weren't holding up to the metal edge of Danikat's too well and were beginning to give, but a second white hand was emerging from the ground, extending straight upwards as if it meant to take hold of the blade. The white hand that had already grabbed Danikat by the ankle tightened it's grip, trying to make sure that she couldn't get away.

((Hard to think of a reason to let you go in an RP sense Danikat, especially after you tried to get the Corporation to side with you just then. Perhaps if you'd simply become a slave and not bothered with all of this rebelling nonsense you wouldn't be in such a predicament, hm?))

[Netdroid9]

I must say, Liyao, you are persistent.

*Net walks up to Little Sister.*

Why do you continue to fight for the EC? You'll never by complete if you fight by Byule's side. Join the rebellion, if only for a second chance to consume that stolen half and become the creature you were intended to be.

((Saying that in front of HollowEyes is probably a bad idea...))

[Danikat]

[3kul]

With the additional force Danikat's sword easily cut through Little Sister's woven blades, but the Parasitian was already twisting the skewers in Danikat's leg as viciously as she could, determined to cause this rebel pain before killing her.

Net's words barely registered as she attacked, he was more a nuisance than anything. Talking as if he understood everything that she wanted, she wasn't so two dimensional that all she thought about was finishing off HollowEyes. There were quite a few rebels that she'd thought of eating on more than one occassion, and now that they'd declared war on the EC she'd have the perfect excuse to do just that. Of course, she didn't bother telling HollowEyes this, it was more fun to keep him on his toes.

"Seems that we've got all the rats coming out of the woodwork..." Not hesitating for even a moment, several wads of black and green charms suddenly appear in all of HollowEyes' hands. He believed that Net was making a dangerously tempting offer to Little Sister, and HollowEyes felt that he needed to be rid of the spirit quickly. "You'd best back off Net. I can't imagine that you'd enjoy me borrowing large amounts of your power without giving you sacrifices in return." This was taking far too long - why the hell was Rawlings just standing around and doing nothing? For somebody who considered his time to be so valuable he sure seemed to enjoy wasting it.

Danikat's hand slapped into Noten's, and not knowing what else to do he solidified it, preventing her hand from passing through his. It would prove to be much stronger than a normal arm, not easy to slap away, as it was a God's arm.

Little Sister hadn't been very specific with her commands in this sort of situation, which meant that she hadn't predicted it. She'd gone off the defensive and was focusing entirely on the offensive, which meant that she was leaving it up to Noten to protect her from harm. Noten was not particularily good at improvising however, and rather than go for her sword as he'd been previously doing he twisted his arm about to grab ahold of hers. An obvious mistake to most, but not so obvious to him. Noten had never met Danikat before, and thus he did not know what to expect of her.

[Netdroid9]

Is that what you've reduced yourself to? Can't fight like a man so he has to pull dirty tricks like that, eh? Well, I'm sure I could at least maim you before you knocked me out, I mean, you're a psychic. An overblown carnival freak, if you will.

*Net unsheathes his copycat blades.*

...If you really want to try, though, I'm more than happy to oblige.

((I'd forgotten about those charms . Net's good at shifting responsibility onto other people, I wonder if that works with charms as well...))