[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

"Nothin' compared to what I'M gonna do to him." Kid mumbles under her breath as they approach the area near the office where they had talked to Riddel.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Serge pokes Kid in the side at her comment. "We're wasting time. Got better things to do then listen to you and her trade insults and slap each other."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Norris gave a sigh of relief as they left they General's office, still curious as to whether he should warn Lady Riddel of what her father was now involved in. "Leena...once we return to Professor Luccia's I may do something daring and wreckless. There will be no need for you to get involved." He mentioned hoping to risk any lives but his own. With that they made their way back having left the decoy in Viper's office.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Norris raised the key in his hand, "I acknowledge my defeat...good fight." and with the spare hidden he tossed the boat key to Janice. "However, I WILL win this key back since I now have to transport off the ship without it." With that said he nodded to Zappa and Miki, as he left the platform.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Fargo groaned as he removed the Beeba suit in hiding, "Argh, I haven't been this sore in some time. Ya owe me one girl." he muttered rubbing the large lump the Cybot had given him.

Alice approached her master, "Um...Miss Janice?" the seemingly wornout and confused Tragedenne spoke quietly to Janice.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Janice accepts the key from Norris, giving them a half smile. "Somehow I doubt both of those statements." she replies to herself in a rather low tone.

She rubs one of her large paws along the back of her neck, nodding quickly in response to Fargo. She tries her damnedest to keep the pesky need to laugh at his costume to a bare minimum.

She turns around to Alice, "Yes?"

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Miki simply nodded and followed.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

"That guy told us to lose...why would he tell us to do that? He said make a good show then toss the fight. That's why I feignted at that fake Cassowary's weak hit back there." A sweatdrop appeared over Alice's nondescript darkened face. "What do you think he's planning?" she asked cocking her head to one side slightly. The befudled Cybot walking into his resting spot still confused by 'why that blondie didn't wanna win' as he put it.

Once outside the arena Norris turned on-heel to face the others with a smile, "Now, we will be seen as captives...let them think they've won, meanwhile, we shall look for this Sage in peace." Leaning foreward to Miki, he feigned whispering something intimate in her ear. Whispering he spoke, "Sorry for involving you in this little spy game, but you are the LEAST conspiquous one to them, keep a good hold on this." Palming the spare key into her hand, "Hide it somewhere safe..." to any onlooker it would have seemed he had just been foreward with the young dancer, one thing he had learned in his trade, was to seem convincing. "I know this isn't very comfortable for you, but we need to keep up appearances. Taking this pose will make them think I'm either intimate or making pass at you. If you'd rather they think the latter, now would be a good time to convincingly slap me." as he finished whispering he leaned back once more upright, "Do you aggree?" He asked with a light smile, still uncertain what to expect from a celebrity.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

"I'm not bothered." Leena responded, with a quick smile. "I'm a free woman, unmarried, and with none to tend too. I have one little, bratty sister. My father's been gone for years. No, no, you may need my help. I'm not going to leave. I'm ready to fight."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Norris brimmed a light smile laughing, "You'll make a wonderful partner, Lady Leena." with a light wink. Holding open the door for her as they entered the lab, "But first let us 'check in' with the doctor before we go play hero."

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Zappa cast a dubious glance at Norris with his single eye, then glanced away, secretly wondering why he, man of countless adventures, didn't think of such a simple plan as Norris thought of. He allows a small "Harrumph" to escape his throat before falling silent.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

"Yes, I could definatley tell that you all were holding back considerably in the fight." Janice replies. "I was suspicious from the very beginning but, when you failed to block that one PARTICULARLY simple attack from the Cassowary, I was certain. I taught all of you better than that..." she finishes with a quite disappointed glare and a sigh.

She slowly unfurls her right paw and examines the key to Norris' boat. Her eyes narrow as she contemplates the situation. "Anyone with half a brain could see where this is heading..." She quickly motions for her assistant to watch over thing in the GrandSlam for a while as she skips towards the exit.

She begins to make her way down the main hallway. "Who does this man think he is, really?! Thinking that he can actually pull one over on me, ME, that easily! Ooooooooooh!! This makes me soooo mad!!"

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Fargo rubbed the bandages covering his lump, "I'm really losin' it when I get clobbered by a Cybot, ARGH." He muttered humiliatedly as he shook his head looking out at the ocean, "You'd probably find this funny, wouldn't you, Zelbess..." He gave a light rimanescant smile...his look growing distant once more.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Janice taps several quick times on the door to Fargo's cabin and pauses a moment before entering. She makes a mental note of his banged up appearance as she walks in, but wisely decides that this is not the best time to annoy him any further. Instead she carefully stifles a small smirk in her greeting. Humans...

"Captain, something was bothering me during the latest... but I decided it was best move on my suspicions just yet." she begins, resting one of her paws on her hip and lowering her head so that her now bangs covered her eyes. "I'm quite certain of it now. As rediculous as it seems, I am convinced that that 'blondie' and his comorades were trying to swindle me! ME! Swindling a swindler, can you believe them?! Ooooooh!!" she growls as clenches her paws tightly. The only thing that can compare to her hatred for losing a fight is her hatred of being underestimated... ESPECIALLY by humans. She takes a breath before continuing.

"Alice has informed me that they were most definatley ordered by the blonde man not to even try to go for a win." she states, carefully leaving out the bit about them having gone quite easy on their Captain.

"And also, another of my monsters has just reported that the larger of the blonde man's companions left the arena for several minutes prior to the fight." She pauses for a moment before holding the key to Norris' boat into Fargo's view. "That one easily carried the appearance of a blacksmith. Wouldn't you agree, Captain?" she finishes with a clever grin.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Leena smiled again. Were Norris a little younger, she would've made a pass. Dr. Luccia was still in her lab. "Any luck?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Norris followed, smirking in thought, were this girl not but a few years older. He'd probably have been more foreward in advances, looking to Luccia, "What have you found, Doctor? The decoy is in place for the moment, though I doubt Sir Lynx is unaware of it. We best be on guard, that cat's cleverness and attention to detail is quite infamous." Watching the doctor do her work, occaisionally glancing at the cage in the corner.

[S.S. Zelbess, Home World]

Fargo looked over his shoulder with a smug grin, "Let'im think 'e's won, Janice." He turned around, "He'll show'is hand in time." he stated with a poker reference, next to sudden death roulette it was one of his favorite games. "Until then...see if you can get any information out of him, nicely." Turning back towards his window looking outward, "I'm uneasy about strangers messin' with Marbule. ESPECIALLY Porre Military strangers...ARGH...get my drift?"

He went silent feeling his point had been made, "As for him swindlin' ya...let it go, this world's full'o skalleywags far worse'n us...some even do their dirty deeds on a payroll. Swindlers more often swindle eachother anyway...it's part'a the game." With that tidbit of advice he went silent, the distant look once more washing over him.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Luccia turned her head over her shoulder when Leena and Norris entered the room, then sighed with relief when she saw who it was. "It is a very interesting jevel. . ." she muttered, holding up the infamous dragon's tear. She began to rattle of a plethora of scientific terms describing the jewel's make up. "In short, it is like no otter jevel I have ever seen. . ." she finished.

"Ve should not linger here long, just its magical 'mark' kould be enough to varn Sir Lynx. I do not know how perceptive de man is."

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Norris nodded in aggreement, knowing full well, how unnatural Lynx's perceptiveness could be. "I aggree, Lynx is a very danger ous man..." The look on his face shown some disdain for the feline. In his last attempt to discover Lynx's plans it cost his partner her life, unable to prove that 'Sir Lynx' was involved he was held accountable and for a short time left the Black Wind. Even now with the Porre Nation's returning apprehension regarding the cat's loyalties, he wondered if it was not too late. "The two of you should go to the west tower, the people you seek I believe should still be there, entertaining Lady Marcy. I still have much to do before I leave this place." With that he abruptly headed for the door, "Take care...I'll be back. I promise." With that he left, before either could stop him.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Kid pulls Serge and Glenn {whom I assume is still following us} over behind one of the pillars in the large hallway that is adjacent to the library's wing of the manor. "That office place that Riddel took us to right before the fight is that way, ain't it, mate?" she asks, pointing towards the stone-ish chair at the uppermost part of this hallway.

"That Karsh-bloke pressed a button er somethin' to make it go down when they were leadin' us to the library for that bloody fight with the lil' brat girl. If we press it from down here it should take us back up, don't ya think?"

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

At that moment Norris ascended the stairs still dressed as a Porre Major. His helmet hiding the look in his eyes as he passed the pillar hiding the trio. Pausing for a moment his gaze moved towards the pillars, all of his covert training kicking it as he thought of an ambush. Silently moving up to the pillar he pressed his back against it, listening closely for his moment to see his would-be assailants.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

As Kid was awaiting a response from either Serge or Glenn, she chanced to hear the very faintest 'click'. It was something like that of armor pressing carefully against a large stone surface. Her ears immediately pricked in attention and her heart began to race wildly. She was determined not to be apprehended, not until she had at least had a chance to ATTEMPT to accomplish her objective involving the cat man.

Cautiously, from their hiding place, she peered to the left and right of the main hallway. She did not see any guards, at least not in the immediate area. "Looks like yer a smart bugger." she thought to herself as her form became even more tense. She quietly pulled out her dagger and, in an instant, had twirled into full view of the opposite side of the pillar itself.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Norris' right gunbarrel was level with the girl's sight, beneath the helmet he raised an eyebrowe quizically as he measured up his wouldbe opponent. "Truely wreckless...breaking and entering shouldn't BE so clumsy." He said with a smirk, Hm...this girl is no older than 17, though well developed, an athletic/slender build, blonde hair, blue eyes, wears a red outfit...if you can call it that much, and carries lavender antique jewelry.

"You know, Miss...as wanted as you are one much of the continent I could profit doubly by turning you in." He paused knowing the rumor's of the infamous "Kid's" wild nature. "I must say though, the sketches do you little justice." His smile faded as he reholstered his gun, "Guess it's unlucky of me to not have the time to turn you in, hmm?" Taking one step towards her he spoke quietly, "Are you alone?" He asked, deciding to allow her time to answer his volley of questions.

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

From behind Norris comes a yell. "YOU AREN'T A DISHWASHER!" and the pommel of Glenn's sword finds the back of his head

[Viper Manor, Alternate World]

Norris gave a look of surprise, spending so much of his efforts watching Kid's actions he was caught offguard, recognising the voice of the young Dragoon, Glenn. Falling foreward from the blow he attempted to stop himself from his stomach meeting Kid's still readied dagger. Falling instead upon the young girl, "I'll take that as...a...no..." he replied dazed, his helmet rolling off, luckily it had takken the brunt of his blow. Shaking off the hit as he tried to clear his mind once more, lifting himself off of Kid. "Just because I am not who a appeared to be, does NOT in any way mean I am an enemy, Sir Glenn." Norris added calmly rubbing the forming lump at the back of his head, looking to the young man, "General Vipor is in VERY possible danger." he spoke his eyes returning to the young girl still on the floor, extending a hand to help her up.