"The Last-Forever Conspiracy"

[Chronos]

Ensichrys moved up swiftly behind 501. He rested the talon-points of his right hand against 501's head.

"Trying to destroy us again, eh? What's it going to take, robot," Ensichrys snarled. He had never before seen someone so nervy as this avian cyborg. "It's ok, Eve," Ensichrys yelled. "I think I've got him under control."

[Mitsukai]

((In the Forest - Near the Cages))

Nynaeve blinked once in surprise before she swiftly hid her true emotions behind a mask of a bright smile. Not what she expected, but she would adapt nonetheless.

"I certainly hope you've got him under control hun, though he looks to be of no harm," she called back with a hint of amusement. Nothing would hurt her, even if that mechanical bird pulled the trigger. It was that self-assurance that allowed her to approach them without hesitation, her stride casual and steady.

[Cirrial]

501 stands dead still, slowly raising his hand, ion pistol aloft. "Okay, okay, I'm a little jumpy. I'd like to see how you'd fare if you had some kind of evil jelly flaying your mind like confetti. Honestly, what's ruffled your feathers?"

He looks over to Nynaeve and calls to her in reply. "No harm to someone who's intending to do the same to me! That is, uh, no harm intended by me to whoever's intending to not... I don't want to harm anyone who's not also intending to not harm... Okay, let me start over! Are you still listening? Okay, well, uh, I won't shoot if you don't fight! That's basically the general principle I'm trying to convey here!"

He turns his head to Ensichrys. "Well, I think I made my position clear. Did I screw that up? Who is this person, anyway? You seem pretty certain she's not going to attack, after all. Then again, I'm pretty certain you're not going to attack, and, uh..."

He tapers off, deciding not to start arguing, just in case he did provoke an attack. After all, based on his recent mangling of the common tongue, he might end up slipping up and insulting someone's parentage, like the last world he was on the survey team for.

---

From the bushes it watches her. ~No. I will not strike this one down, for it is, in essence, of my kin. But the others. We strike when the others are distracted, together.~

~None shall escape the clutches of my Mistress.~

[Kazumaru]

The mist that was Kazumaru shimmered. He was having trouble holding himself together, and beginning to feel rather sick. He tried to avoid misting specifically because it disoriented him so much.

"CP is the pikachu..." he hesitated, thinking of the correct way to describe the rat's position. Finally, he decided on "... inside me."

((Also, yay, someone caught the blatant FMA reference ))

[Mitsukai]

(( Anyone who's read FMA... has to get the reference. It's like, impossible not to!))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

((In the Cages))

Nynaeve tilted her head to the side, looking utterly confused. CP.... Pikachu.... those words seems so familiar-

Another tingle and the thought was lost.

"CP... Pikachu is the mousey?" she thought outloud, trying to make sense of the new information. Her face lit up when it finally fitted together.

"Ah! CP is the name of the mouse!" she exclaimed, focusing on the mouse in the mist.

"It's nice to meet you CP! I'm..." and she paused. She should know this....

Another tingle and the thought was lost.

"I... don't remember who I am actually... but it's nice to meet you!" She finished with a wide, happy grin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

((In the Forest - Near the Cages))

Nynaeve fought the urge to snicker at the mechanical bird's lack of ability to get his thoughts out. He managed to do so though; she'll give him that... but not much else.

A tingle. How strange... something must be happening with her other self. No need to worry though; there are more important matters at hand.

It seems that plans would have to be changed, but it didn't matter since there's more than one way of achieving her goal. Hopefully she'll be able to put things in motion...

Another tingle snaked itself down her back. Shaking it off, she did not let it affect the facial mask she had on.

Inclining her head slightly to indicate that she had indeed comprehended the gist of his message, she continued her steady steps to the group.

"I'm Nynaeve," she replied clearly in answer to his questions. "I was originally with this group before I got seperated, but I managed to get away."

She paused to gauge their reaction. Anticipating the... lingering thoughts they might have after knowing that she was "captured", she spoke again to put them to rest.

"It's lovely to see you Ensichrys, and Cloud again. What happened to the clone from before? Where are Muan and the others? Do tell me they weren't captured..."

There. Enough to show that she did know them, enough dismiss and suspicions.

"And who would you be?" she asked cordially, flashing him a smile.

[Kazumaru]

The kazmist dropped, becoming a layer of liquid around the rodent's feet.

~I... don't feel too good.~ Kazumaru thoughtspoke, causing heads in neighbouring cages to turn.

[Coolpikaaa]

Coolpikaaa stepped out of the puddle, quite disgusted.

"Kaz....when you...feel better, can you help me open these cages?"

He was now quite concerned about Eve.She seemed to have completly forgotten...well...everything.

"After that, we need to re-group. There isn't much we can do in small pods like this."

-coolpikaaa

[Kazumaru]

~If I reform, you will be crushed.~ Kazumaru thoughtspoke. He was right, of course: CP's cage seemed smaller than his.

[Fade]

A portal suddenly opens up behind Cloud, Ensichrys and 501. It appears to be your standard blue portal, except for the black and red that was mixed ominously in with it. Out of the portal steps an apparently human female, dressed in form fitting blue clothing coupled with a blue jacket and boots. The woman is quite tall at 5'7, and has her long bright blue hair tied back in a neat plait. She has pale skin and cold, emotionless watery grey eyes.

This was Evil Council member and assassin Fade, who'd just come back from some work she'd been contracted to do. It had been relatively quiet within the Cave so she had taken a job in a different dimension, partly for the money and partly because she did not wish to become sloppy with her work.

After she'd stepped through the EC meddled portal, which was the reason for the useless other coloured swirls, the first thing she did was raise her eyebrow at the sight that greeted her. Cloud she recognised, but the organic and synthetic avians along with Nynaeve she didn't. She was also very sure that these cages weren't here before either.

"It seems I came back at a bad time" she remarked, her voice as cold and emotionless as her eyes were "perhaps one of you can explain what is going on?"

[Cloud]

"Now that would take forever to explain and I don't think we have the time," Cloud spoke mysteriously, "Something is not quite right..."

His eyes locked onto the cages. He had to get them out. Cloud was not a compassionate person by nature but his time spent captured by the goo made him decide that no one should go through that experience. He stepped purposefully towards the cages, ignoring everyone else.

((I'm guessing that someone's going to be stopping Cloud from getting to the cages here ))

[Cirrial]

501 is about to introduce himself to the stranger when he hears a wooshing of air behind him. He turns around. "What the five... What or who or when or... Who are you? Who ARE you? Bad time? I'll say this is a bad time! Look around you! There's an invasion! Oh, yes, definitely a bad time as far as I'm concerned!"

He holds up his ion pistol and aims it at Fade out of protocol. "And you'll have to excuse me, but my life has never gone particularly well shortly after someone's just warped right next to me. So I won't be putting this thing down until I get some answers!"

He holds up his free hand towards Ensichrys, his claws as flat as they could go. He didn't want this zealot pre-avian interfering in his right to paranoia a second time.

---

~Your mistake will be your death!~

With a metallic and heavily distorted screech, the shiny angular ersatz 501 leaps out from behind the bushes once concealing it. It bears more resemblance to some spectral velociraptor than to the robot it was once a flawed duplicate of. It sprints and leaps at Cloud, its beak wide open and its long, thin talons splayed out in front of it.

~DIE, INTERLOPER!~

[Chronos]

Ensichrys' head was whipping wildly around. Fade was here now, and Ensichrys was glad that he'd finally get to work with her. He'd not yet gotten the chance to meet her.

And now 501 was aiming an ion pistol at her. Just as he moved to cleave the pistol in two with his now razored talons, Ensichrys was held at arm's length. He snarled in response. Suddenly, a creature much like 501 leaped out of the bushes at Cloud.

Fortunately, it was not faster than electricity. Ensichrys aimed his left hand at it and fired a stream toward it. His first thought was that 501 must be in cahoots with this creature, but then he did remember him mentioning a goo clone. The new arrival must die.

[Fade]

Fade did not move much, save to fold her arms. There was no real underlying emotion behind this move, it was simply to show that she was not to be intimidated. But then, that in itself was related to the emotion of fear.

The organic avian-reptilian made a move towards the mechanical one that was threatening her, before snarling once it realised it was being held back and turning its attention to Cloud. Just from this the assassin realised that this person was an ally, possibly a new Evil Council member that she had yet to meet.

The robot was demanding her attention now however.

"That was all the information I was looking for" she responded coldly, whilst an invasion was the first thing to occur to her logical mind, Blackstar was seldom logical so she required confirmation "as for your other questions. 'Who' I am is a secret I'd prefer to keep to myself. However, you may call me Fade"

The mutant stopped there, to take a breath and allow the mechanical creature to process that before continuing on " 'What' I am has several meanings, but I will give you the simple answers. I am a Mutant, which some in my dimension laud as the next step in human evolution" she paused again "I am also an assassin and Officer in the Evil Council"

Fade took another breath, throughout the entire thing neither her emotionless tone or cold eyes had changed one bit "Now, I have answered your emotionally charged questions" Fade told him, reminded once again why it was good that she had pushed the chaos of them out of her mind "I do not intend you any harm. Who are you?"

[Cirrial]

((Time to kill two birds in one post! ...Although, hopefully, not literally.))

501 slowly holsters his ion pistol, looks to Ensichrys, and hesistantly places both arms at his sides. "If you so much as try to touch me again, whatever you are, I'll treat you to a free ride through a one-way vector clamp straight into Terra Primus. ...No, wait, that doesn't have any relevance to you. Umm, a one-way portal to somewhere not particularly pleasant."

Turning to Fade, he looks to the ground and sighs. "Who am I? Right about now I could ask myself the same question, what with goo clones being rampant and all. But, there are certain questions I cannot answer, due to my position and my own personal desire to keep certain facts obscured until, say, a more appropriate time. You can call me, uh, "five-oh-one". 501. I know it's not much of a name, but it's mine. As for what I'm doing here, I have no idea. I just... turned up here. This guy can vouch for that." He waves to Ensichrys.

"Also, Evil Council, huh? I've heard of you guys. Aren't you treated with some mix of fear and admiration and also aren't as evil as everyone says you are? Or is that the other one, the, what were they called, Guarding Council?"

---

The alter-501 leaps at Cloud, screeching still, until Ensichrys' electrical bolt hits it in full impact. It screams, sounding like the amplified sound of two rough pieces of metal being scraped together violently, and its body begins to liquify, unable to keep its form together.

Falling to the ground, half-solid, half-puddle, it writhes and continues to scream. It thrusts out a hand, grasping at the air in the hopes of something, anything, allowing it to survive... With one last strangled scream in explodes into airbone blobs of liquid, before falling into an inert puddle, slowly spreading across the ground, apparently inert and lifeless.

[Cloud]

((That was easier than expected. I didn't have to do anything to kill the cloned 501 ))

Cloud glances at the puddle of the once-solid 501 clone.
"What the hell was that about?" Cloud asked, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly.
Pulling out a dagger from his boot, Cloud cautiously approaches the puddle suspiciously. He starts to prod the liquid with his small blade, ready to step back the moment it becomes dangerous.