Tauron

Marlene Angel nodded slowly. "Certainly is worthwhile to exploit artistic endeavors." She said, finishing her wine and setting it on the nightstand.

"Time spent on Argos helped develop a deep appreciation in Art."

Krista nodded her head a little bit. "Do you understand the different parts of this contest? Has it been explained to you, yet? Do you understand what will be required,"she stressed this word, a thin brow arching, "of you?"

Marlene Angel smiled. "Do you want to see a Magic trick?" She said, leaning forward and bringing her eyes on Krista.

Darien Blackdagger leaned forward as well, more out of anticipation for watching this supposed magic trick than anything.

Krista gave a polite cough, shaking her head. "I did not come here for a magic trick, Miss I came here to make sure that you know what it is that we expect of you. What position you will be in."


She shifted a bit more, manicured nails tapping on her thigh as he head inched upwards, so she managed to look down on the other woman. "There will be more to it than just your physical beauty, and allowing to judges to walk in on you in a robe.. Scandalous!"

Marlene Angel couldn't barely contain her amusement. "Well excuse me, how preposterous of me to speak with the judges in a Robe! I should change at once!" She said, putting her hand to her mouth in a mock offended gesture.

"You keep yammering on about 'what's expected' I've been an LDA Agent for fifty years, I've seen crazier shit then you can even imagine. I've been catching bad guys since before you were a sperm in your daddy's nutsack." She said, leaning back. "What is it that's expected?" She said, holding up her hand, a piece of glass flying into her hand, then instantly melting into molten glass right in her hand, then it reformed into a solid glass rose.

She handed the ornate piece of perfectly formed glass to Darien. "Ta-dah!"

Darien Blackdagger raised an eyebrow. "Niiiice, indeed. Is this the Calx stuff I've read about prior to arriving here? It really is a wondrous material. Now if only it went in my suit's lapel." He gently put the glass rose on the desk. "Apologies for Krista's rashness. My next question continues the theme of education. Specifically, at what age do you feel that children should undergo sexual education?"

Marlene Angel was almost visibly offended. "No, It's glass." She said, before she pulled out a shimmering white crystal. "This is Calx, and it's not for children. This is a grown up toy." She then pocketed the Calx. "To manipulate matter... it's expected to have an understanding of how the universe works."

Krista managed a sneer. "Just because you worked with criminals does not mean you will be able to be apart of our contest." She sighed a little bit, shifting slightly, her heels scuffing the ground a bit."You have to be an upstanding citizen. You can not put your reputation at risk. You can not allow people to see you dressed unbecoming, unless it is in the swimsuit competition. You can not be rude to the interviewer."

Her eyes narrowed a little bit more, a soft huff escaped her lips, "This is a different type of -business- than what you were apart of."

"Krista, settle down!" Darien yelled a little bit. Clearly Marlene was being put on the defensive, and he didn't want her to clam up. "You're getting WAY ahead of yourself! I'm still waiting to hear what she thinks about sex ed!"

Maria stirred from her slumber as her instincts told her that something wasn't right. Her senses remained keenly aware of her surroundings even in the depths of sleep, and something had changed. The temperature of the air had shifted several degrees, and the scent of urban pollution had been replaced with fresh air while the sounds of Wing City had been replaced with the occasional sound of motor vehicles passing by somewhere overhead.

Her nostrils flared at the strange odors and dust from the dry earth she was laying upon and she raised herself to a sitting position.

With senses in overdrive she made her way up the embankment of an overpass situated a few miles outside of the city of Minos, but the higher ground didn't help her to gain her bearings. The surrounding land was strange to her.

There wasn't much to do for it other than to pick a direction. She glanced either way along the highway as cars drove past before she began walking alongside the road oblivious or simply uncaring of the illegality of pedestrians on the highway.

As Maria made her way along the roadway, which seemed to bear a starkly different design than the Streets of Terra. Maria would find herself walking on top of hexagonal panels, the road striping shimmering with a dull blue-green and a bright amber in the dark.

The strange figure walked several paces before he stopped.

"You should stop and smell the roses." He said, gesturing up into the skies. The vast starry sky lacked a moon, but hundreds, if not thousands of ships could be made out by the keen eye. Several of them could be identified as Reverences, And a handful of massive Reverence IIs could be seen moored in massive space stations. Scorpion Fleet Shipyards was fairly easily visible from Minos and the surrounding countryside thanks to it's orbital position.

"I've always wondered what happens to a werewolf when they're taken to a place where there is no moon." The figure said, as another car barreled down the road. A highway sign illuminated several meters down, they were twenty kilometers from the city of Minos, and upon a second glance, the white robed figure was gone.

Maria paused and narrowed her eyes on the robed figure, but she raised her eyes skyward at his gesture, and what she saw gave her a moment of pause. She had spent many a nights gazing up into the Terran night skies, and these skies were not her skies. No moon was visible, and the constellations were all wrong.

"Who are-"

She broke off as she realized the man was gone.

His musing over her nature left the same question running through her own head, but she didn't feel any different. She threw one last wary glance around before she continued on her way towards this city of Minos... whatever that was.

By the time Maria had reached the city of Minos, the sun had slowly started to come up over the city's skyline.

The sun was rising up with a bright orange glow, the star-ships in the sky casting pillars of shadows down onto the ground below them as they moved through the skies towards their destinations.

Inevitably the highway gave way to a four lane divided avenue with statues and trees lining the median. Maria would enter the City of Minos just as the morning rush hour was starting. Futuristic and rather sleek automobiles whipped by at dazzling speeds, while others were caught in bumper to bumper traffic. The people here weren't as diverse as those in Wing City, predominately dark haired, olive skinned individuals that spoke a strange language.

Strange symbols also dotted storefront signs, two alien languages with one font larger and above the other.

Unlike Wing City, this city had a police officer on every corner, their brown overcoats and stark brown uniforms had them distinct from the rest of the Citizenry. But along with these officers, there were officers in sleek blue and white uniforms, the Confederation Protection Force.

Though Iblis had disappeared, Maria was still being watched.

Maria's nostrils flared at the odors of the city and she threw wary glances at the strange foreign people. Even the stench of the people were unfamiliar to her as she walked her way down the road.

A car swerved past her, narrowly missing clipping her as it railed on its horn. Maria threw only a sidelong glance at it, seemingly oblivious to the general rules of the road - or the danger she was causing people by walking down the center of it.

She pegged out the officers for what they were easily enough. Their uniforms and guns smacked of the police back on Terra that she had seen, but their make and badges were as unfamiliar to her as everything else about this place.

As cars swerved to avoid the woman in the road, a single Heraclitus unit pulled up in a stark black and white, rather sleek patrol car. red and blue lights flickered and flashed as the patrol car came to a stop, which meant traffic behind it was slowing down and coming to a stop.

With two chirps of the siren, and a following black and white CPF Car, Maria would find herself confronted by the Police.

"Three one dispatch, I have a sixty-six in progress." The Heraclitus officer radioed, before he stepped from the car.

"Esý ekeí, érchontai edó̱ pou chreiázomai na doúme kápoia anagnó̱risi̱." He called out to the strange woman.

"Na mou peis giatí eísai sti̱ mési̱ tou drómou ?" He asked, handing out his hand as if he was expecting something, while the CPF Officer emerged from his car, hand on his expandable baton holster.

Maria turned her eyes on the officer and her gaze dropped to the baton holster at his side. She might not be able to comprehend the words he spoke, but she knew how to read body language.

The primal beast in her wanted to rise to the subtle threat and react, but the woman in her responded with words.

"Where is here," she growled out. Her words were so thickly accented with her G'ael accent as to leave her common difficult to comprehend at times.

Meanwhile her wolfish eyes shifted from the officer to the other officers nearby in the distance. She was calculating, and assessing her surroundings, and potential threats to her person before she turned her attention back to the man who had spoken to her. During this brief exchange she still made no move to get out of the middle of the road and traffic was beginning to back up.

"Ti̱s omilías vasikó , Káprikan íso̱s?" The first officer said, while the second officer shrugged, and the Heraclitus officer turned back to Maria.

"Anagnó̱risi̱, éngrafa, tó̱ra!" The officer demanded, handing out his hand.

"Den tha zi̱tí̱so̱ kai páli , éngrafa!" He demanded, as his own hand reached for the Disruptor pistol at his sides. All while the people began to assemble around them, bystanders and onlookers, some with phones out taking video.

"Katanomí̱s, écho̱ éna synergásimos, endechoméno̱s Káprikan. Klí̱si̱ gia voí̱theia." He said into his radio, and then he turned to sternly look at Maria, while yet a third Minos Police unit pulled up. With Three agencies now on scene, things were beginning to tense up as whispers permeated the air.

Maria could sense the tension in the air as more people were beginning to gather, and her own body reflected that tension. She had shifted into a state of readiness, and every muscle and bit of sinew in her body was tensed and ready to move. Her own body language was that of a woman ready to react.

If the officer so much as began to draw his side arm, she was ready to close the distance between them.

The initial advantage went to her as the officer was expecting to be contending with a human. Her speed and strength would catch him off guard. But she was well familiar with guns, and she respected their capabilities. The others wouldn't be so easily caught off guard once they knew they were dealing with a supernatural.

The Officers continued to talk among eachother in Tauron and into their radios, eventually though, the tension would snap as the Heraclitus officer attempted to grab Maria.

"Syllamvánesai." The Officer spoke, reaching out with one hand, while grasping a set of binders with his other.

The CPF officer now had gone from his baton holster, to his own firearm, while the Minos officers, with three more on the scene going for their own weapons.

The entire thing had billowed into a massive standoff, so far no tactical units had arrived, but one by one more Police cars were pulling up as the radio chatter got out.

No one spoke basic, as Maria was far removed from any International hubs that would warrant such an education.

Unable to understand the words the officers were speaking, Maria's more primal instincts took over. Officers' hands reached for their firearms as Maria moved with inhuman speed. She grabbed hold of the Heraclitus' officers wrist which cracked easily under her firm grasp. Her other hand found his neck before she turned him about and drove his head through the drivers side window of his own car. The unexpected speed and strength of Maria likely left the officers assuming that the erratic woman was strung out on PCP or some other local street drug. The language barrier likely made her seem all the more irrational and dangerous.

As the officer crumpled atop the doorframe of his car, the other officers guns raised while Maria rolled over the front hood of the car to drop down on the other side of the behicle. It would gain some shelter from potential gunfire while she surveyed her immediate surroundings.

Coiling her muscles she sprang into motion and made for a small fenced gap between in two buildings. It wasn't quite large enough to be an alleyway, and there was no guarantee it wasn't a dead end, but the officers had the main road largely cornered. Her odds of making it past them without taking some gunfire were poor, and Maria had long learned to respect the destructive capabilities of guns and other modern weaponry.

It all seemed to happen in an instant. The officer reached for Maria, and then found himself crumpled on the door frame of the now slightly wrecked car. The Heraclitus officer would be severely injured from the attack. As the other two raised their weapons, a second, responding Heraclitus officer shouted.

"Pyrovoló̱!" He screamed. The officers began to open fire, sending brilliant bolts of green light downrange towards the fleeing Maria. As the bolts impacted the walls, they sent searing hot, molten debris spraying out in all directions. Only a couple of shots had been fired, and the officers took after her down the alleyway.

"méno̱!" They screamed, as they gave chase.

The weapons that the officers fired weren't weapons of a make that Maria was familiar with, but the spray of molten concrete was warning enough as to what they were capable of. One bolt struck so close that she could feel the blistering heat scorching along her skin.

Her shoulder struck a wooden side door as it splintered open, spilling her into a room full of confused cooks in the back of a restaurant.

Some where pointing and yelling in a foreign tongue, others were backing away from her towards the walls as she looked from one to the other, much like a caged animal. They made no move to stop her though, and she ducked through the kitchen and into the front of the restaurant where there were more exclamations of surprise as people rose from their chairs to avoid the feral woman and the police that were likely spilling into the building after her.

In her evasion of the gun fire, she had left herself pinned between the officers in the street, and those that had pursued her down the alley, with nothing but a bunch of civilians for cover.

With CPF and Heraclitus spilling into the dining room behind Maria, and CPF officers moving through the doors in the front, she would quickly find herself surrounded by officers in several different uniforms, pointing weapons of various makes.

"Den eínai thanati̱fóra!" A CPF officer shouted, while several CPF Officers engaged large, rectangular Hard Light Shields to try and box her in, while a Heraclitus rose a markedly different weapon, a compact SMG with a large kidney like tank on the top.

He opened fire, sending several audible pops followed by small rubber spheres containing a powerful Capiscum based irritant with a bright red color. Should the liquid make contact with exposed skin, they would slowly start to burn and cause immense pain, even though there was no actual damage to the Skin.

Tables were flipped over, and Officers were trying desperately to corral her. One rose what would amount to a net gun, discharging several bolas connected by a large net.

"Stamatí̱ste ti̱n!" A heraclitus shouted, while prepping a Tesla rifle for discharge. Outside the small restaurant, several Black unmarked SUVs with flashing blue lights screeched to a stop. Several men in all black uniforms emerged, with five to each SUV, and heavily armed.

"Go go go!" The Leader shouted, as they moved into the Restaurant, possibly the only words echoing in common.

"Hands behind your head! On your knees! Cross your Ankles! Now!" An LDA Agent shouted on the SUVs PA system.

People were quickly trying to file out of the restaurant, while Cops and LDA agents were quickly moving in.

Maria turned on the officers with a snarl, her eyes searching for viable exits. She was cornered though, and the only way out was through the armed officers that had her surrounded. She acted on instinct as an officer leveled a gun at her and she grabbed the nearest table to shield herself with.

Most of the spheres struck the table, but the one that connected with her thigh proved to do little more than enrage the volatile werewolf. The pain drew a snarl from curled lips before she hurled the table at the offending officer with a grunt of exertion.

In a moment she was upon one of the heraclitus with a speed and ferocity uncharacteristic of a human and she lifted the man by his throat. Her fingers closed about his windpipe prepared to crush the life from him, but a second officer raised a net gun at her.

She recognized it for what it was immediately, and with another snarl she threw the officer into the path of the net. Both officer and net were left crumpled upon the floor as Maria overturned a table to get at the officer who had fired it at her.

There was something primal in her wolfish eyes which had taken on an amber hue, and the officers were likely left assuming that the frenzy in her eyes and her inhuman strength were the result of a drug-induced haze.

The next rubber sphere caught her in the shoulder. It struck with force enough to cause her body to jerk from the impact, but it slowed her only momentarily as the frenzy in her eyes turned murderous at the searing pain that should have left her debilitated. The words of the LDA officers might as well have been as foreign to her as the local Taurons. With the wolf rising within her, her capacity for language comprehension had swiftly deteriorated beneath the instinct to fight, and to survive.

Her fingers closed about a gun, wrenching it from the hands of an officer before he could react to the speed at which she closed upon him, and he crumpled to his knees as she drove the butt of the weapon into his face. With a snarl she raised the weapon to strike him again.