Malaja District

The Decanus nodded, and then turned to his two legionaries. "Very well then, we'll return to our duties."

It was then one of the Legionaries caught something in Kyle's pocket, shouting to the Decanus and pointing his musket at the boy.

"Ecce!" He barked. "Explosivae! Explosivae!" He shouted, pulling back the hammer on the Musket. "Manus tua, da eis!" He barked, the Decanus backing up a step. Putting himself between Kyle and Adriaan.

"The kid has a bomb!" The Decanus hissed.

Tahir's eyes shifted to Kyle's hands in his pockets as he was still refusing to place them on his head. Given the gun strapped to his back, there was very real potential that he had another firearm concealed in his pocket.

The psionic didn't need his eyes, or his hands to search the boy though.

Tahir spoke briefly to answer Kyle's question while he was performing his subtle sweep of the boys possessions. "You're being placed under arrest for the unlawful carrying of an illegal firearm," he explained.

Meanwhile what he detected in Kyle's hand with his minds-eye wasn't a gun, but rather some sort of triggering mechanism, as well as a vest of some sort. He couldn't be sure what the device in Kyle's hand went to, or what the vest was capable of, but with the argosian yelling something that sounded an awful lot like the common terran word for 'explosives', Tahir opted for caution.

It took only the slightest of telekinetic pushes to sever the wiring within the device remotely, thus silently disabling its ability to send a signal to wherever it was designed to do so. The boy would likely never know until he tried to push the button and nothing happened. Simultaneously the screws and catches on Kyle's gun were subjected to Tahir's swift telekinetic administrations. It was likely that the weapon would simply fall into its disassembled parts all over the street at Kyle's back with little warning.

The police meanwhile moved in swiftly to restrain him now that he was down on the ground.

Kyle heard the waves of telekinesis, he then felt his gun get lighter and full to the ground in pieces.
That was when Kyle's face finally changed, he quickly turned and picked the pieces of his rifle up and he shoved them into his pockets. It was a good thing he keeps inter dimensional storage pods in his pockets.
"Well too bad, I would've let you take me in if you didn't fuck with my stuff." Kyle spoke in an angry tone. This was the second time he couldn't use his gun.
Kyle pulled the detonator out of his pocket towards Tahir. "You can't hide your wavelengths from me" Kyle shouted at Tahir in anger. "As for you fuckers" Kyle turned back to the officers. He had more than one remote detonator, he pushed the button in his pocket. This caused 2 large powerful explosions to occur, originating from Kyle's body.

Kyle called from the top of a building. "You have no witnessed the illusions of McLoughton!" Kyle had set explosive at his feet that were equipped with hologram nodes. Allowing him to escape while looking like he was still there.
"Now how about you enjoy some fireworks!" Kyle sounded insane. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and threw 4 pipe like items in the air. When they detonated, they didn't explode, instead they fired small rockets towards the crowd and police vehicles. Kyle used this to get away via the rooftops.

Unfortunately for Kyle, his gun was scattered in pieces all over the street with screws and rods rolling across the ground in all directions beneath stomping feet as the cops attempted to physically restrain him. It would take a lot of scrambling to retrieve all of the pieces while the cops were trying to force him down onto the ground.

In addition, Tahir had already searched him and felt out the items in his possession, and thus a second detonator in his pocket was no more useful than a first. If Kyle managed to evade the cops, and get his hand back into his pocket while also scrambling to grab all of the parts of his gun, then he would find the button jammed and the device as useless as the first.

Meanwhile Tahir took note of the apparent value of the rifle to the kid - after all he could have simply fled, but instead he remained to try and grab the scattered parts despite being surrounded by cops - and the avorian guard capitalized on the situation. While Kyle was shoving parts of his rifle into his pockets, several of the remaining rifle parts including the main body of the gun were tugged away from Kyle's reaching hands as if by unseen strings before they flew into Tahir's open palm.

"Unless you want your toy turned into slag in about five seconds, you'll cooperate with the officers," Tahir warned.

Further down the street in either direction the other police vehicles en-route were beginning to arrive as people tried to clear out of the way so the cars could get through. As the three cars pulled over alongside the situation, more officers got out.

Kyle picked up the remaining pieces on the floor and allowed the police to grab onto him. Kyle placed the pieces into his pockets followed by his hands. He attempted to stay calm.
"Please can you return my pieces? I will do as I'm told if you return them." Kyle asked in a calm fashion. His body was shaking out of stress, causing his spine to glow in much more intensity.

Kyle received a signal on his eyepiece, it was retracted but designed to react to signals from teammates. Kyle knew that Vladamir had arrived, he needed to go to him.

"Here's something. Give me my pieces back and you can escort me to the port. I will pay all fines on the spot and leave the city. Good enough?" Kyle ran his negotiation ideas while setting his signal to inform Vladamir that he is in trouble but will attempt to get to him.

Jack turned a bit to look at Adriaan, but not so much that he couldn't keep an eye on the goings-on across the way. While the police (or whatever the local authorities called themselves) seemed to be on top of the situation, those sort of things had the uncanny ability to go from "under control" to "absolute chaos" in a matter of seconds. This he knew from experience. And he had no desire to be caught unawares should things go bad, especially not without being armed himself.

"I don't suppose," he addressed Adriaan distractedly, "that you might know of any quiet villages away from all the noise? I was sort of hoping to find work and residence where there's some peace and quiet. Had about enough of big crowds back on my home planet."

That was exactly what he needed right now; peace and quiet. He needed sleep, if he could actually get any.

Enda snorted at the scene, fighting laughter. The edges of her lips turned up, but she managed to keep her composure. "The kid must be new. Especially with that attitude."

The knight glanced between Adriaan and Jack. "A friend of yours?" she asked the avorian, nodding towards the man. "Hey, don't be too uneasy, yeah? This doesn't happen that much here. Wing City, sure, but this is a whole different kind of place."

"I know what you mean," Adriaan replied with a quirky grin. "I don't mind the city now and again, but peace and quiet is definitely not something you're liable to find here. Though admittedly it's usually traffic and crowds you have to worry about instead of things like that," he explained with a nod of his head towards the officers and Kyle. "Let's see... there's Jincai. That's about a half hour outside of the city. It's a small agricultural town. I was planning to head that way myself. They had a sip go down out there and could use the volunteers to help with the survivors if you want to tag along."

Meanwhile Kyle would have a hard time continuing to pick up the remaining pieces of his gun with the officers restraining him, and they certainly weren't going to let him put his hands back in his pockets. The officers twisted Kyle's arms behind his back to slap on a set of binders. The restrains were made of volarian steel and well suited to soak up an immense amount of physical and magical force. They were swiftly patting him down for more weapons.

Tahir seemed unimpressed by Kyle's offer and he nodded his head towards the officer vehicles. "Empty his pockets and get him out of here," he told the officers as they finished their search. Having searched Kyle earlier, Tahir was well aware of the interdimensional pockets that the pockets of the coat contained even if the officers failed to realize them for what they were.

One of the officers confiscated the interdimensional pockets before two other officers dragged Kyle by his arm to put him in the back of one of the vehicles to be taken to a secure holding facility where he could be questioned.

"C'mon I said I would do as you ask if you give the pieces back!" Kyle raised his voice while e allowed the officers to drag him into the vehicle. "Guys can you get the rest of the pieces please? Just hold Onto them of you want. Just please keep all the pieces together!" Kyle begged, his eyes began to water with the thought of not having all of the pieces of his rifle.

With his storage pods gone, Kyle was weapon less. Even if they allowed him to put the pieces into the storage pods, they wouldn't be able to open them anyway. But he still has his MechAr he could use, but the weight of the binders showed that he couldn't break them. But he has always fought without using his arms much, if he got stressed out anymore he could activate element mode to escape. But he needs to t his rifle pieces and storage pods first. He was only here to meet Vladamir and be picked up by Patraeko. Maybe they could let him go if he payed the fine.

"If I pay the fine, can you let me go? I won't return to the city. I'll leave, I was only here to meet some friends." Kyle was desperate to receive his items. Even if he just had his rifle pieces, Patraeko could build him new storage pods. They would be useless to anyone else anyway.

At the mention of the trouble, Jack gave his full attention to Adriaan.

"Well, I was looking for paying work, but if these people really need help, I'm willing to pitch in and see what I can do. I don't have a lot in the way of practical skills. But if a strong back and weak mind is needed, I'll be glad to help." He added that last bit with a grin. No one could ever truly accuse him of having a weak mind, not with the sort of work he once did.

Enda stood by silently as Adriaan and Jack spoke, watching as Kyle whined about his rifle. Well, that was one crisis averted and another terrorist taken into custody.

The knight looked between the two men, but otherwise, did nothing else.

As Kyle was taken away in the police vehicle, the gathered crowds began to go back about their business now that the spectacle was over, and Jack, Adriaan and Enda would find themselves being jostled by the press of bodies once more.

"Well, a lot of the poorer towns and villages can be a bit wary of strangers," Adriaan explained. "I imagine a bit of aid would go a long way in warming them up to you about finding some steady work."

Volaria held a better grasp over crime and violence than its neighbors across the sea, but they were still subject to all the ails that came with living on Terra. One could never be too sure what untold threats came on the heels of strangers.

"Come on, no need for us to stand around in the middle of the street," he said. He ruffled Rijul's hair. "Stay out of trouble, eh?" Adriaan told the lad before the trio moved off into the flow of the crowds.

Standing inside of a clothing shop, Rebekah had paused in her perusing of various articles to chat with another customer, smiling as she interacted with the woman. Exchanging gossip and various bits of information about Volarian and UDW cultures, the agent was rather enjoying herself, pleasantly amused in the back of her mind that Avantia had requested time to get to know her people.

As well, off all things the Volarians had to offer in a treaty, her womanly eye glanced about the shop once more, clothing could be quite lucrative.

Rebekah's exploration of the city had revealed a great many sides of Volarian culture, and though Avantia was a popular figure among her people, and well liked - there were the uglier sides of Volaria as well. La'ita Hara was not without its poor and its homeless, as most cities weren't. The over-crowded streets spoke of population issues as well, but Avantia it would seem had made no effort to hide these aspects of Volaria when she had requested Rebekah take the time to learn of their culture.

La'ita Hara was one of the most prosperous regions of Volaria though, and within the capital the ills of Volarian society were oft overshadowed by the rich culture that Rebekah had found herself immersed within. The City was marked by a low-crime rate and a generally positive level of contentment from its citizens - though this was not always the case in some of the less developed regions of the country.

---

While Rebekah was perusing the wares of the store, a young boy of maybe eight or ten years was wandering down the street from stall to stall and shop to shop trying to peddle his own wares to whomever would buy them. With the thick crowds it was easy enough for him to go unnoticed by the shop owners while he tried to earn a few coins. His unwashed face, the somewhat worn state of his clothes, and their appearance of being a few sizes too small suggested the boy was probably little above the lot of a street-urchin.

"Ma'am? Map, yes?" Rijul asked in Volarian.

Mistaking her for a tourist, he didn't expect her to understand him so he held out a map of the city to her. He had more tucked under his other arm.

"Five chota," he told her as he held up five fingers.

The maps were rather over-priced, but the lad was banking on most tourists not being familiar with the money conversions.

Turning, slightly surprised as the young boy addressed her. Thankfully, the words were simple enough to understand, due to translation software, and she paused but a moment as she ran the numbers through her Comglass unit. Smiling, she took the map, extending in her other hand changed currency.

Replying in Volarian, she winked slyly. "For the young merchant, fifteen chota."

Over-priced they might be, but the woman had seen too many like him, and oft far worse off. The memories tempered her smile somewhat, but the tough-as-nails exterior was really just armor. It had its chinks.

Rijul's eyes all but bugged out of his head as Rebekah held her hand out. He shoved the money in his pocket and all but bolted out of the store, clearly excited and in a hurry to get somewhere. Likely home.

Tahir paused as the kid nearly barreled into him and he raised a brow to let the lad through.

"That was generous of you," he told Rebekah in Volarian before switching to the common tongue of Terra.

The avorian male had spent enough years away from Shintenchi that there was only the faintest trace of a volarian accent to his words.

"Your Volarian is getting good," he told her. "I'm Tahir," he explained.

The man was clad in the white and gold-trimmed surcoat of the Volarian Royal Guard.

"Thank you Tahir. Rebekah, though you likely know that."

Glancing the avorian male up and down, she noted the livery and nodded to herself slightly. The psionic talents she could feel on him, likely how he himself had found her. Gaze traveling back to the man's eyes, she slid her hands in her pockets.

"Is something needed, Tahir?"

A careful expression had come to her face, the recent Cybran attack all too fresh on her memory, as was the capture of Vlad.

"The Matriarch heard of your actions within Port Astria today," Tahir explained. "She extends invitation for you to dine with her at the palace tonight."

It was difficult to get much of a read on Tahir behind his words which maintained a level - though amiable - neutrality. Psionics weren't pointedly common among the volarians, but wherever Tahir had been trained he seemed well disciplined. Very little of his internal feelings and thoughts were being carelessly projected.

That Rebekah took from verbal cues, rather than psionic ones, left her equally in the dark as to reading Tahir. Her specialty was a more combat focused art.

Nodding her head, the woman turned, thanking the shopkeeper for his time and mentioning she might be back at a later date. Gesturing to Tahir, the Agent smiled. "Well then, Tahir, lead onward. Likely the crowds will make it take nearly that long to return."

Jack considered Adriaan's words as he glanced back over to where the police has contained the situation. He'd known that it was likely he'd have to work at being accepted wherever he decided to settle it. The idea didn't bother him too much. Being from a military background, he was no stranger to hard work. In fact, he often enjoyed it, so long as it didn't put him in the spotlight. He wasn't keen to draw a lot of attention to himself. That was one mistake he wasn't apt to repeat.

With a sigh, he shoved his hands in his pockets, idly rattling around some spare change. The sound of it reminded him just how little money he had. And he didn't have a clue what the conversion rate would be to get local currency. He was going to need a fair amount to get himself properly set up. Yeah, if he was going to have to ingratiate himself to the locals, he'd need to do it as soon as possible.

"Do you think," he asked of Adriaan, "that you might be able to point me in the direction of that ship? I'd like to see what I can do to help out those people."