LOTTON CROMWELL
Gardenian Hospital
Another piece passed overhead, and left quickly (Ryou Shosuke). Lotton had a passing sense of it, but it left, quickly. Lotton did not perceive it as a threat, and then waited for the piece inside (Mathias Cruven Dominus) to make a move. He waited for a short while.
...
Lotton stood there, hand behind his back. His House of Cards allowed him to bring objects he, "carried," with him to be brought out of seemingly-nowhere, as long as no one could see where he brought the items out from. If they could acutely sense, that would qualify as well, but, even then, there were ways. Like portals. He stood like that as his senses began to kick in. He was a human, and one might think that he was a stranger to combat, but he was not. Lotton was usually on very high-alert. His senses would become sharper, his mind clearer. He was not a bloody knight who fought without a reason but to fight, but fighting was calming, in a way. He reacted to fighting as a scientific problem, peeling back layers of defense until he was ready to destroy the vital organ underneath those layers. His technical knowledge returned to him, but a side of it that was different. He could see himself leading and operating in teams that fought and hunted some experiments that ran loose. Often, the more dangerous ones killed more people. But through it all, Lotton survived. He always killed what he was aiming for, because that was what he always had tried to do. To kill. He was skilled enough that he could always make another specimen. The instincts of fighting did not occur to Lotton, though. they never did. He did not know why, but he seemed to treat the problems he would fight as problems on a study-desk: To be solved. Without strong emotion. When fighting seriously, he would calm down and deal with it like a math problem. Another piece, he sensed above the hospital (Nienna Elanesse), and looked up. Unlike the other piece, the one that flew above him earlier, this one was more visible. He could not make out much, but he could tell that it had wings.
The piece he felt inside (Mathias Cruven Dominus), he was curious about. If need be, he could use his portals to escape. If not, then he had a wide variety of combat options, to say the least. And then, the suitcase he carried with him could probably help as well. Before entering, he reached behind his back and drew the handgun from his hammer-space. It was loaded. He did not need to check for that. He moved the portal, to a higher floor, but below where he sensed the piece in the hospital. The winged figure had wings, but he had instantaneous movement through space. And really good shoes. If she was stronger than a human, he should be able to compete, at least. He hoped this was the case as he launched himself through the portal entrance, and launched out of the exit, through the glass, and into the building. He landed safely, and took off running. He could sense them both, close, but the other was faint. Lotton just noticed how faint it was. He could barely sense it, not matter how focused he was. The winged piece was ahead of him, slightly, but that distance was growing more and more. By the time he got there, the crowd seemed to block his view for the instant it took him to see at least the wing, turned away from him. He heard gunshots, and a crash of glass, but at different times. It must have leaped out of a window. Whatever the case, Lotton couldn't imagine it not using it's wings to escape, as he could no longer feel the presence of either piece in the hospital, anymore. The only reasons he could think that it would escape without it's wings was to throw Lotton's calculations off, or because it had a more expedient method. Like he did. Lotton ran to the roof to check if it was flying anywhere, and to gain a better vantage point.
Lotton reached the roof, and the rain resumed it's falling. The city and it's lights looked even more beautiful from up here. Like when he was falling. He couldn't notice it before, because he was sleepy, but he was relatively awake, now. He could feel the winged piece flying nearby, and felt the fainter presence of the piece that was in the hospital. He looked in the direction he felt, and saw that the winged piece was indeed carrying someone. Lotton needed to chase them. The portals from before had dissipated earlier, but he brought new ones. They were very small: Both were the size of Lotton's eye, and one was following them, keeping pace while the other floated in front of his eye, giving him sight. His sight moved closer, until he could clearly see that they were what appeared to be a winged female, and a man wearing clothes that did not seem fitting for him. she landed on a rooftop, and remained there. She seemed to be waiting for something. Maybe she sensed him. Whatever the case, he was tired of not knowing another piece. And then, he moved the portal around to look for their seals. He searched until he found them, and then he saw what he needed to see. These were Lotton's king and queen. Lotton moved the entrance to the floor in front of him, and expanded it, after placing the exit on the floor of the roof two buildings away, that had the winged woman and the naked man on it, and expanded that too. Using the relative-constant of gravity, and making a slight adjustment to his starting position, Lotton allowed himself to fall through the portal, face-first, holding his hat. He fell through the portal, and the force of himself entering the portal while falling face-first to the floor was about equal to the force it took to launch him to a standing position out of the exit on the other roof. He stood, and placed his hands into his pockets and looked at the two, smiling, walking towards them. The female was beautiful, her hair was beautiful, her body was attractive, and all. But to Lotton, he could not help but want to see her internal muscle structure, and her magical capabilities. Rather than the beautiful face, he saw meat and bones. Cells and magic. Atoms and quarks, and even smaller. Lotton always had a weird sense of beauty. Lotton saw the man, as well. His king seemed to mostly human, but, through the clothes, Lotton could tell he was muscular. Even as a regular human, he would be a force to be reckoned with, in the right context. Seeing what he has seen, he did not really think the man was human. But, he may be. Whichever, whatever. The point was they were his current government. He would follow them until they couldn't benefit him any longer.
"Pleased to meet you, and sleepy, who you're holding. I think I'm your rook."
Lotton moved closer and stepped foot in the winged humanoid's aura. He felt a calm and peace enter him, and what hit him was like a brick. He felt too peaceful, and his thoughts were beginning to come into an order. He stepped back, safely out of the ranged, and looked away for a moment. He felt...better, stepping closer to the winged humanoid. He was calmer. It was a shock at first. Things that probed in his mind usually were broken. Many people who had a video feed of what his thoughts were like had killed themselves. In fact, the majority had. It felt good, but not too good. He would rather live without it. He felt that he could lose himself if he exposed himself to it for too long.
"... I think we should go back to the castle."