[Day 3, morning] And a red sun rises

[diamond_edged]

Who: Rufus, Elena, anyone else who has been invited to the spaceport or wishes to show up
Where: Spaceport
What: Plans, plans, and more plans. What else is a scheming ex-President good for?
Rating: PG
Warnings: Dun.

Comments

[generation_bug]

* ....oh gee. You can guess what goes here. *

* WHY YES, another instance of yellow car parked where it had no business to be parked, watching and waiting. *

Except that the car was outside, and Rufus was inside.

[diamond_edged]

It would be a matter of time before anyone responded to the invitation, which suited Versace Rufus just fine. He fully intended not to be at the spaceport long enough to be pinned down, trapped and possibly killed. If it was one thing he'd learnt over the years, it was that funding the rebellion didn't always pay off.

He'd begun searching the compound, anyway, looking for torches, equipment, rations... and of course, the all necessary weapons. Lightning wit didn't kill everyone.

Said searches had turned up a particularly fascinating piece of synthetic paper-like material, and had brought Rufus to the window.

There was a car parked outside.

A car.

Such things would not be out of place in a city as hitech as this one, but he hadn't seen any form of vehicular transport over the past two days. Besides the ships, and one aircraft. Perhaps someone important was here. Perhaps it was even the self proclaimed ruler.

[generation_bug]

Or perhaps it was the self-proclaimed ruler's self-appointed nemesis. Which was a pretty gutsy thing to do, when you were Bumblebee and your enemy was Starscream.

Bumblebee's scanners kept track of Rufus inside the building quite easily, although some of his processes ran smoother than others after AB had finished throwing a fit inside him. The little bot couldn't really do much to hurt him, but it had made a very, very spirited attempt.

They'd reached a cautious truce after spending most of the night watching Bumblebee try to restore electricity to the store. The minibots might never trust him fully, but at least he'd convinced them that he wasn't out to ...that thing they'd said.

Shudder.

His little journal unit thing sat in the front seat. A metal claw extended and jacked in, scrolling a message that would appear on Rufus'.

[I'm here if you're here.]

Nevermind he knew damn well that Rufus was there.

[diamond_edged]

The journal beeped. Like the well trained executive with his Blackberry PHS, Rufus checked it immediately.

And frowned.

And reached for the weapon he wasn't carrying.

Relax, he told himself. It wasn't as though the stranger were staked out somewhere, watching him run around... amusing himself by painting crosshairs over his head...

Right?

[Inside], he shot back. [Main waiting area.]

Which was a lie, of course. He wasn't that stupid. Fortunately, the waiting area was overlooked from the second floor by a corridor, and he positioned himself there with a clear view of the doors.

[dictator_to_be]

And somewhere else, the self proclaimed ruler, who didn't need sleep -- what a stupid, human thing to need -- was busy checking these stupid backward little journal systems.

Hm.

Well. That was a human trying to be sneaky... except that broadcasting his location on an unsecure network was just the epitome of stupidity. This Versace McClatchy or whatever his name was, he was going to get it. He and his little rebellion.

[mask_of_truth]

It wasn't as though there had been anything delaying him, and though this one was evidently no Hylian, simply a Human, that didn't mean Sheik would falter in his service; his arrival was prompt - in fact, he'd been leaning against the wall of the corridor on the second floor for several minutes, unseen.

Observing, of course, as he was so prone to do, all the more so now. Something about the man distinctly reminded him of the one yesterday; something utterly unfamiliar cloaked beneath the surface, bubbling away. A little too odd to be deemed paranoia... Still, for now he would simply have to let it lie. He had no experience, no knowledge, no part in this place, in their place.

Now was the time to be seen, and he was quite abruptly there, shifting from his position against the wall to stand straight, eyes seeming completely focused yet calculating absolutely everything.

"I replied to your message," he said in greeting, offering a curt bow of the head, "My name is Sheik."

[generation_bug]

((dropping down from above. feel free to ignore until a suitable moment.))

...to admit a girl. A brown haired, blue eyed girl who glanced around the spaceport cautiously and proceeded to the waiting area.

And waited.

[diamond_edged]

The appearance of the stranger caught Rufus by surprise, and he stopped, turning quickly. He'd been sure that no one else had arrived yet... well...

Movement out of the other corner of his eye told him that the doors to the spaceport had just opened, which meant that it was probably the owner of the car.

"Pleased to meet you," he said, exchanging the bow with an inclination of his head. He wasn't about to shake anyone's hands around here. And this Sheik... well. There was much about him that screamed 'Fighter' to Rufus' mind. "I am ..Strife."

It still felt odd to call himself that.

[mask_of_truth]

'Strife', hm? Seemed entirely like an alias; one didn't require the Eye to see that, but Sheik wasn't about to argue it. He'd simply bear it in mind. "How many more are you expecting?" He asked abruptly, leaning upon one hip in a gesture a lot less nonchalant than it was meant to appear.

After all, they had to get moving quickly, if the information they'd been fed was anything to go by. Only an idiot, over-confident and unwise, would not be trying to keep track of absolutely everything. Inmediation, obviously. Then again, there did seem to be a distinct lack of wisdom about him, and Sheik was strongly reminded of the Imprisoning War, when Ganondorf had been young, and stupid, and driven himself mad.

Hn. They would have to work quickly. His attention flickered at the sound of the door, and he instinctively stood straighter, taller. He'd feel much, much better when he was in possession of his weapons. The lyre had power, but he couldn't use it to rip someone's throat out.

[deadly_runes]

After the minor confusion of people scattering in the darkness Kimbley had spent the night dozing on and off in the front room of a darkened building just off one of the main streets. The remains of a second orange he'd snatched from a table the night before made a poor breakfast, but it would do. He was already out and wandering the streets again when the journal device he'd been given made it's little announcement. It was something different, at least, and provided a few explanations.

His wandering eventually brought him back to his original starting point of several days ago and he stopped to stare across at the spaceport, brows drawing down slightly. He couldn't recall there having been anything of particular interest in there, but he'd never gotten that good of a look at the place. He supposed a closer look might be worth it, it wasn't like he had much better to do at the moment. He headed for the nearest entrance.

[diamond_edged]

(From here)

There were escalators of sort that linked the mezzanine floors with the lobby. Right now, with the power out, they were as dead as the rest of the building. Rufus eyed them dubiously for a moment, then decided that the risk of them exploding was minimal.

Fingers itching for his absent shotgun, he set off in the lead, trusting that Reno and Sheik were following. If it was a trap, well. At least there were sofas to hide behind.

[generation_bug]

The girl was waiting for them.

She looked singularly out of place with the tanktop and jeans and slightly fixed expression, and didn't twitch a muscle at their approach, not even the normal nervous shifting of weight. She didn't even blink, in fact, as brown eyes focused on Rufus in the lead.

"Are you the one who called us?" she asked without preamble.

[deadly_runes]

Whatever he'd been expecting to find in the spaceport, it wasn't a small group of people already here. He paused just inside and a few steps to the left of the entrance, looking them over with assessing eyes. "Well, well. What a cheerful little gathering we have here." No one he really recognized.

[lil_rookie]

Reconnaissance. It wasn't something she hated; in fact, she found it was one of her strong points, surprisingly enough. It was just so damn boring. Go around, look at this. Go around, spy on that person. Go and watch, watch, watch. But in the end, she gave thorough reports, picked up on mannerisms and things that normal people would miss, and found she listened to her wonderful "woman's intuition" more than she ever gave herself credit for.

Those were on the good trips; this one held no such gems.

Sighing a little, she dusted off her clothes as she walked into the spaceport. Then stopped. So many people were around, and --

Reno!

She fought the urge to run up and embrace him or sock him in the arm, so she made a quick-paced walk towards them, looking as professional and proper as one could given the situation

[diamond_edged]

Rufus found the general sense of confidence and security radiating from the unknown girl to be rather unusual. The city had just been taken over, this lady had told them not to go up against the enemy, and here she was, well. Not exactly acting as though she owned the place, but Rufus found the absence of any aura of wariness on her part to be... somewhat disconcerting. He was used to being the unreadable one.

The sound of approaching footsteps forestalled Rufus' immediate response. His eyes flicked towards Elena, nodding minutely in response to her report, then again to Reno to make sure he had both Turk's attention.

"Strife," he said, by way of introduction, extending his hand. "And I prefer the word 'invited'."

[zoto_yo]

Reno glanced at her and snorted. "You know you missed me, rookie."

Shoulder still torn up from Roxas' strike, Reno wasn't in one of his better moods. Still, Elena made it a little better. Worse to worst, he could try to spin her up and let her loose. Sooner or later some idiot male would try to hit on the petite blonde and then he'd get to enjoy the sight of her drop-kicking him across the room.

Oh wait, this wasn't one of the bars in Edge. Damn. Scratch that plan. Standing back with Elena, his attention looked to be wandering more than anything although he was just waiting. If anything came at Rufus, damned if he wanted to be kibble right off the bat. Glancing at the woman, he took in her measurements quick enough (for security purposes, of course... never knew where one might hide a weapon) and waited silently. He met Rufus' eyes briefly, looking as slouched and relaxed as he always did. However, if this chick twitched the wrong way, she would be meeting the pavement.

[generation_bug]

The girl hesitated before taking Rufus' hand, eyes moving to it as though she wasn't quite certain what to do with it, but her eventual clasp was firm and solid, if a tad bit cooler than one might expect.

"I'd say nice to meet ya, but I'm not sure it is. At least under these circumstances." She stepped back, gaze resting on each individual in measured succession. Outside, Bumblebee's scanners blipped and recorded information. "Anyone have any luck in locating their stolen weapons?"