Mr. Gun and the Depths

[nutcase17133]

"It can't be a normal virus, obviously." Nutcase said as he quickly searched Tobin's Spirit Guide. "Aha, here. Spectral Plagues. There's many such ailments, many of them varying in effects and overall deadliness but I'd have to say this qualifies as such. They can either come in true bacteria form or in the form of some form of animal. Most likely an insect orother form of invertibrate. There was an X-Files episode in the first season that delt with something similar."

Clown Man flinched, remembering the episode clearly. "Ugh.....I remember that one...Mulder and Scully were suspicious of even each other being host to the madness-inducing parasite..."

[gantzgun74]

Honestly, Gantz had never watched 'X Files'. Never planned on it either. "That is a good comparison. Yes." He then took notice of Infi's question. "Honestly... I don't know myself..."

At the confused looks, Gantz looked to the mural. "It's little more then rumors... Shantotto had told me that Him had been experimenting with something odd, but she's not really sure what..." He shook his head. "That's when this mural came to mind. I had remembered reading something up about it in the Void City library, but it didn't give me all of the details on it. In fact it didn't give me any details at all. The page that WOULD'VE described what the mural had been about was missing."

Metal considered this a moment. "Well... That IS suspicious..."

Climber, surprisingly, figured out the rest. "So... To learn more about this picture... You had to come down here and read the real thing."

"Correct Climber." Gantz pointed to Climber to emphasize this. "I'm still not sure if this mural has any relevance in the plot to come, but it was worth looking up all the same. The fact that something has caught Him's interest has caught my interest."

Kosumu shivered at the mural. "It scary."

Talim nodded, "Indeed it is." She looked to Gantz a moment. "Well, in any case, it is an interesting story... It almost sounds like something Soul Edge would do." Though truthfully, Soul Edge could do infinately worse. Talim had the unwanted opportunity to see it in action.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Uh oh... whenever someone says 'That sounds like something insert-person-here would do', that means it always is," Taffy's eyes were rather wide, which meant they looked even MORE puny than his glasses already made them look.

"Yeah, foo. And besides, yoo said Him's got dat Soul Edge thing!" Todd added. Tree had gone to looking at the mural as well and pulled a spray bottle out of her jacket. She shook it up before beginning to spray the clear liquid inside over the mural. Snowy was the first to catch glimpse of this act of "vandalism."

"Tree! What the hell are you doing?!" Snowy yelled.

"Checking for hidden messages, hidden clues, anything! 'Cause, dammit, if there AREN'T any, I'm leaving without you guys. We've been hanging around this place too long, Him's just waitin' for us, and dammit, I need to get back to beating the shit out of Flamel's group again. It's been a week since I've gotten a chance to properly beat the tar out of them, dammit," Tree called. She shook the bottle up again and got back to spraying before stopping for a moment and pulling a twenty-sided die out of her jacket and rolling it. "...Nineteen. Oh, so close. Anyways, oh, and by the way, Gantz, you're a lazy little bastard and I think you're plenty strong to fight this Him guy already, and are just too scared to do it! Probably 'cause your girlfriend's definitely gonna be there under his mind control."

At Infi-FF's questioning look, Snowy shrugged. "She has to roll a nat20 or she automatically fails tact checks."

"...That's rather sad," Infi-FF said. "Tell me, did someone drop her on her head when she was little?"

"Nah. But I kicked her down the stairs at least twice back at AAU," Beatrice put in.

"That would do it," Infi-FF said. She returned her attention to Tree, who was still rather busy spraying the mural, checking for any secret message. At one point, a familiar stone glowing with dark energy dropped out of her pocket, but she bent down and picked it up again.

[nutcase17133]

On instinct, Nutcase pulled out his PKE meter and scanned the rock. "Interesting. A class 6 paranormal artifact. Mind telling us what that is exactly? Such a thing could be very dangerous."

[gantzgun74]

Talim's eyes widened; she remembered that little shard. Tree had shown her and the others that stone some time ago back at Bonsai Village. She had forgotten about it given everything that had happened... But now that she's had some time to consider what the shard was, and get a better feel of the energy, she couldn't believe she didn't recognize it sooner. "It IS dangerous..." She looked at Tree crossly. "You are aware your carrying around a shard of Soul Edge do you?"

Tarosuke interest was caught back into the conversation upon hearing that. "WHAT?!?!" Putting his fists on his hips, he glared at Tree himself. "Do you have ANY IDEA how bad it is to keep something like that on your person?!" He shook his head slightly. "I remember Gantz talking about you, your an alchemist. What? Do you want to wind up like Ivy Valentine?"

Gantz rolled his eyes at Tree's accusations, and at Talim and Tarosuke's comments. "Oh I'm sure she does know." Looking back to Tree, he frowned deeply. "And for your information, TREE, the training was necessary. Him is even more powerful then what you realize. Beating him, even as we are now, will not be easy. The training insured that I'll stand a better chance in a one-on-one fight against him, and my magic's grown stronger because of it." He patted the sheath carrying Soul Calibur. "And besides, if Him decides to pull out Soul Edge, we've got our own little secret weapon."

"The 'Secret Weapon' would appreciate not being treated as an inanimate object." Came Soul crossly. "Either way, I agree with the crazy bat. We're about as ready as we'll ever be." Gantz nodded in agreement.

"So we're taking on Him then?" Gene grinned at the prospect. "Good to know, it's time to get Rosaline back."

"Not yet."

Everyone glared at Gantz...

"Hey, I have a good reason for it this time!! I have to reconnect with some pals of mine back at the Temple of Balance. After that, we go after Him."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Tree didn't even look up from what she was doing as the others asked her why the hell she had a shard of Soul Edge. She only placed the shard back in her pocket and shrugged. The moment the shard went into her pocket, its energy signature practically disappeared. Finally, Tree finished up and put the spray bottle away.

"Nothin'. Damn," Tree sighed and stretched. She paused in the middle of stretching to look over at the others as they discussed going to the Temple of Balance.

"Count me out."

Beatrice, Taffy, Ark, Snowy, and Infi-FF all gave Tree a questioning look. It wasn't so much a questioning look as it was a "What the hell are you smoking" look.

"I'm not welcome in the Temple," Tree stated. "Yin might let me in, but Yang will beat me harder than my dad did if I even step in there. And my Pseudo-Philosopher's Stone ain't helping things, especially if it really is a piece of Soul Edge."

She started heading down the tunnel Gantz had frozen earlier with Todd in hand. "I've got business with Mr. Copycat anyways. Not like he can meet me at the temple. He's a doppelganger, after all."

Snowy sighed and started floating after Tree. "Looks like we're splitting up again... Sorry." Ark looked a little regretful for a moment before following after Tree too.

Beatrice scratched the back of her head. "...Damn. That bitch never worked well with others before, but this is... damn."

"Guess failing back at the Kangaroo Rune 'cause of her own guardian angel hit Tree hard," Taffy said, shrugging. "Nothing like the whole world ending because your guardian angel went mad on power."

Infi-FF looked over at Taffy as he spoke. "...So that's why, huh." Infi-FF stated. I'll have to remember that. She could be made to break if I so needed her too. Doesn't look like it'd take much, too. She's already pretty emotionally unstable. Still, she clenched a fist over her own heart as she thought that to herself.

[nutcase17133]

"Well, someone's got to deal with those freaky dopplegangers." Nutcase said thoughtfully. "There's no telling if any of our lost friends fell prey to them by now, and if we do find them chances are they'll be one of them instead."

Slimer shuddered at the thought of seeing an evil Ray, Egon, Winston, or Peter. Though Peter even on a good day was still kinda rude, he was a good man at heart. But his attitude would get him in trouble in an instant, so it would be likely Dr. Venkman could be one of the enemy now with this info.

"Well, I have to say it's unfortunate that we'll have to split up, Tree." Clown Man said. "But if ya gotta go you should."

"Yeah, you might run into a few of our friends if you do. Try to help them out if that's the cse, ok? We'd really appreciate it." Nutcase said finally.

[gantzgun74]

Honestly, Gantz was a bit concerned for Tree when he heard what he heard. Mayhaps he shouldn't have been, but still... "It won't take too long. We just need to head to the temple and pick up our other friends."

Seeming curious, the Climber gave Gantz a small look. "What all friends do you have at the Temple Gantz?"

The boy grinned lightly. "Misty is one of them, but I also found those alternate versions of Wally and Otto. Along with them is this little guy." He pat Tarosuke on the head.

"The name's Tarosuke, thank you." He pushed the hand away from his head. "In any cases, we should get going, no use sticking around here any longer. I want to kick some demon butt, and we won't do that so long as the others are away."

Nodding, Lilia motioned for the others to follow her, using her fire powers to light the way. "Shall we get going? I agree with Tarosuke, the longer we wait around here, the more time we give Him the oppurtunity he wants to use whatever powers he may have now."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"Yeah, let's go," Beatrice said. "I don't like any of this at all, and besides, that bitch Tree's got her own work to do. She'll probably get back to us later on the Mr. Copycat subject thing."

"Wonder what she did to piss off Yang, though..." Taffy thought to himself.

Infi-FF didn't comment. In fact, she looked rather smug with herself for some reason, and she kept looking at Gantz, like she'd figured something out....

[nutcase17133]

"So what o we do now?" Clown Man asked.

"Make a copy of that mural, clown Man." Nutcase ordered. "We may need to use it later for research."

" it!" Clown Man said as he got to work. Using the scanner on the P.E.T he called home, he made a digital copy of the mural.

[gantzgun74]

Gantz nodded upon seeing Nutcase copy down the mural in his P.E.T., and motioned for the others to follow him. "Well... Let's get going guys..."

As he looked out, he could've sworn he saw Infi-FF looking at him smugly, as his gaze passed her by. When he turned back, Infi-FF's gaze was off him... Narrowing his eyes a moment, the boy finally turned back and shrugged. Weird as that was he had bigger concerns.

"Come on, let's go!" Lilia called further ahead of them.

Gene nodded quickly. "Yeah, we've got bigger fish to fry."

[And I think this concludes the Depths.]