[Arni Village, Alternate World]

Leena sat on the edge of the dock, settling a disagreement between her younger siblings. A flicker of movement at the end of the pier caught her attention. Looking over, she saw the girl that had been found at Cape Howl. Turning back to the children, she finished up. "Just because Josh hit you does not give you a right to hit him back, Kyle. Don't let this happen again." The two boys swam back out, splashing water at each other as they went. "Don't swim too far out, do you hear?" She called after them before standing up and heading over to Kid.

"Hi, I'm Leena. Do you need help?"

[Fossil Valley, Alternate World]

"Solt, keep him moving!" shouts Karsh as he marches through Fossil Valley.

"He is movily moving," Solt responds, poking Serge in the back with his axe.

"S-Sir, what exactly are we doing with him?" Peppor asks the Deva.

"I don't know yet... but Peppor, stay here and make sure nobody's following us..." Karsh responds. Peppor nods at that and leans against a side of the valley, waiting for anything. Karsh and Solt march on, Serge in tow.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

"Okay, open the gates!" Karsh shouts at the guards to Viper Manor. As the gates open, he drags Serge him, the boy's hands tied. The trio slowly walks up toward the throne room, Karsh carefully turning the dial three times to the right, then six times to the left before entering. Solt tosses Serge down in the chair before pressing the button on the chair's arm. In a quick movement, Serge finds himself tied up to the chair, at which Karsh shouts over, "Hey, Viper! We caught the ghost-boy!"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Serge squirms and whines in his chair. "Do I HAVE to be tied up? I came along willingly...Untie me!" Serge writhes in his seat to the best of his ability. "Come on...Not even for 1 G? Pleeeease let me go? Just untie my hands? I'll pay ya one G!" Serge puts on his best smile for Karsh. Realizing this won't work, Serge sighs and slumps back into his seat, silent and mulling over his thoughts until General Viper gets there.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Harle tilts her head to the side, hearing the news that Serge was there. "Serge...? Oh yes...the ghost boy. I zee..." She looks up at the ceiling. "And vat are you going to do with him, Monsieur Lynx...?"

[Arni Village, Alternate World]

Kid blinks and walks over to the red head that greeted her. "Hiya." she starts. She begins to rub the back of her neck uncomfortably as she looks out at the water. "What the heck am I gonna say?" she thinks to herself.

She sighs. "Okay, I went to Cape Howl earlier and sorta saw this poor bugger gettin' ambushed by three soldiers. I think they said his name was 'Serge' er somethin'. Do ya know him?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

"One G?" Karsh asks with a bit of a laugh. "Do you honestly think I'm that stupid?"

"Why don't we just forcingly force him to give us ALL his G?" Solt asks Karsh.

"That's dishonorable... We wait for Viper or that guest from Porre to tell us what to do with him..."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Serge blinks, and sighs, fuming. "WHO is this guy anyway?! I'm getting sick of waiting! I'm just about to try and break out of here..."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Luccia stepped slowly out of the shower, goosebumps raising along her arms as the cool air hit her skin. An arm languidly moved outward to clasp a towel, bringing it to her and wrapping it around her nude (*gasp*) body. She obtained another towel to wrap around her soaking purple hair and headed out of the small bathroom and into her living quarters.

Within a few moments she was completely dry and fully dressed, more than happy to be rid of the red goo. She didn't particularly mind being dirty, but the sticky feeling that accompanied the would-be-glue was not something she enjoyed. Luccia spent a few minutes brushing out her hair and placing it up before she left her rooms entirely, heading out towards the balcony to visit one of her current projects: NeoFio.

The (mad) scientist gazed down at the little leafy-greens poking up out of the water, sighing. "Vat vill you be like vhen, if, you kan be brought to life? Ve need de life sparkle, da? I vill have to send some of our men out to kollect some."

She turned from the sentient plant to go seek out a few of the militaryofficers. "You vill go to de Hydra Marshes for me, da? I need somet'ing kalled de 'Life Sparkle.' Dis you vill bring back to me." The officers saluted and trotted off to do her bidding. Mwahahaha!

[Arni Village, Alternate World]

Leena blinked, surprised. "Yeah, sort of." she said cautiously. "So... You fought these guys... and lost?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

"Hey, Luccia!" Karsh calls over to her, peeking out of the room that he has Serge tied up in. "How are ya? Wanna watch the interrogation?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Lynx slowly opens the door behind the chair Serge is entangled in. As he moves closer to Serge the lights he passes by ficker out like a darkness is following the man everywhere he goes. He walks up to Serge, standing in front of him.

When Serge looked at his face he saw a demi-human feline. When looking at his dark complection he noticed his dark clothes with the shimmer if white from the bit of light left in the room. As Lynx's orange eyes met Serge's he asked, "Do you know who you are?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Karsh and Solt casually slip out of the room now. The two do not ride, but leap off of the chair, down to the main level. They both head down to their rooms in the bottom of the Manor.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Luccia turns to Karsh's voice but, before she can even move towards the room, the ominous figure of the cat-man Lynx enters the room, sending a chill up her spine. Luccia shudders and walks quickly past the room and down the stairs, refusing to look."Vhat vill kom of all dis, I vonder?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Serge looks up at Lynx and feeds him the happiest smile he can muster at that point. He wasn't too thrilled to see a demi-human standing over him, asking him who he was. "Well...Isn't that a rhetorical question?" Serge asked politely. "My name is Serge. That's who I am."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Grobyc stands in the shadows, watching the whole scene involving Serge and awaiting orders.

[Arni Village, Alternate World]

Kid mumbles a barage of obsenities. "Yeah, you could say that." she replies.

"The strange thing is that I dunno this Serge guy, yet I can't fight the feelin' that I should help him... ya know?" she adds, looking out over the water. "I've got a notion he's been taken to Viper Manor and, since I got unfinished business there anyways, might as well kill two birds with one stone."

She side steps her way closer to Leena and places an arm around her shoulder. "...'Course, since ya KNOW this Serge guy, ain't it fitting that ya join me in this minor little rescue mission?" she grins sheepishly.

[Arni Village, Alternate World]

Leena nods and then a thought occurs to her. "Wait, what if one of the guys you fought is left at Fossil Valley? Wouldn't he recognize you?" Leena quickly began thinking about how she could disguise the girl.

"I actually don't know this Serge very well, he'd only arrived this morning." she said. She left out the fact that the Serge she knew had died ten years ago.

[Arni Village, Alternate World]

Kid takes a few quick steps back, a puzzled look crossing her face. "Disguise?! Yer gettin' a little into this ain't ya?" she asks in a bemused tone. "What exactly do ya have in mind?" she adds reluctantly. "And fer future reference, ya can call me Kid."

[Termina, Alternate World]

Guile is sittting at a bar, as usual. "This really stinks. I've been here all day and had no excitment whatsoever. I wish I could go see the world. Oh well. Hey, bartender, another shot please."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

The cat man looks down at Serge, raises his paw, and is about to strike Serge across the face when he stops. He thinks to himself for a moment and says,"What I mean is, do you know WHAT you are?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

The purple-haired scientist idly watched her two caged bulbs hop around in their cages, listening to the incessent whirring sounds they made. It was rather comforting, actually - At least it didn't annoy her. Her gaze then flittered down to the bulb on her work table, shrugging thin shoulders. She really couldn't do much with the thing until she tried it out.

She sighed and sat down on a rather uncomfortable bench, steepling her hands on her lap. It wasn't that she got lonely, she didn't mind the absense of people, it was just the lack of test subjects at the moment. She'd sent all extra soldiers out to find the life sparkle and didn't have any left to test her bulbs on.

Luccia turned her head to the side, thinking back. She'd really had very few friends in her life. There had always been her experiments. . . And she got along with the four Devas all right - She even felt a strong affection for, and watched over, little Marcy from a distance. But sometimes, despite her cold exterior, she missed her age-old friend Lucca a great deal. Lucca had been so intelligent, but had had a kind heart to go along with it. Luccia wondered if it'd been exhausting, it looked like it should have been. "I vonder vhat life vould be like if you vere still here Lucca. . ." She trailed off into her thoughts, sighing gently.

[Guldove, Alternate World]

"Hmmm..." Korcha mutters as he walks through the town. "I'm bored as hell... I wish there were some babes around..." He rolls his eyes a bit as he walks toward the bar. Suddenly, an idea strikes him. Running past the bar, he quickly climbs up to the upper level. "I know!" he shouts. "I'll pray for a girl to come in need of my rescue!" He quickly runs into the shrine, ready to pray.

[Shadow Forest, Alternate World]

At the entrance to the forest, Zoah plays a game of checkers with Solt. "WHY DO WE EVEN GUARD THIS PLACE?" he asks Solt with an annoyed, echoing voice. "NOBODY EVER COMES HERE."

"It gives us time to strategically strategize," Solt responds, "so that one day we can claim a victorious victory over Dario in checkers."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

"WET ME OWT OF HEWE!" Pip shouts, rattling the cage in Luccia's lab, though nobody is around to hear him.