Recudor: Party's House

Jericho takes the bolts as RD walks around the two of them as he goes to check up on the girl. He bows when Airgetlam says she is leaving. He shuts the door then to talk to RD. Jericho listens to what the man has to say but just as he is getting ready to answer when Sharpe calls out to RD. He sighs as the man lets himself out of the room. While he is gone, Jericho walks over to the book again and opens it. He waits for the characters to appears and looks them over once more as he waits for RD to walk back into his room. When he does, Jericho is ready to answer.

"Yes, I was able to figure things out. As you can see, all the pages in this tome are empty but when you wait..." He turns the page and hands RD the book. "Those characters appear in all the pages if you wait. The characters read 'White Claw is dangerous. Anna's five books.'"

Jericho thinks for a bit as the name 'White Claw' rings in his mind.

"That name rings a bell...Wasn't there a wanted poster for a 'White Claw'? Ether way, if there are five other books, I would really like to get my hands on them. This is very interesting."

Jericho then listens to RD as he says how the book might be tracked by magic. His eyes widen and he slaps his forehead and shakes his head.

"Gods damn me, why didn't I think about that! I am such a fool!"

He walks over to the window again and uses the moon's energy to cast a detection spell on the tome to see if there is anything on the book.

Jack felt uncomfortable, like a train that has gone years without any maintenance made of more rust than metal. Still, he chugged forward upstairs

At this point, nearly everyone was sorted out into their rooms. Staring at the doorway to Jericho's, he felt unnerved by the hypocrisy that he was reprimanded for steeling the little miss badass' bag, and yet Jericho is sitting in their right now, sifting through her book. With light feet, he scurried down the hall to his own room.

He sat at his desk shooting a blank glance at the radar. Figuring out how the trinket worked felt like the only contribution he made to the group that only he could've done, and even so it wasn't much. Whether it was fighting the undead at the castle or protecting Jian's girlfriend in the quarantine zone, Jack felt a hollow pit in his stomach imagining how anyone else in the group could've done exactly what he did, only better and far more efficiently.

He switched the radar on, jokingly imagining it would start rattling, most likely sensing some protraction in little miss badass' bag downstairs. Imagining what contents lied in her bag other than that awfully suspicious book, a sense of worry cross Jack's mind as he pondered on what shady activity this girl was getting involved with.

Sharpe nods to RD setting down the necessary supplies for blade maintenance.

"Yeah that's the stuff, thanks Rich. I'll make sure it doesn't get too messy." He says to him and he unsheathes his sword, the slightly curved blade shining at certain angles of contact with the incandescence of the room. He sets the whetstone at a decent position, the stone itself being quite large and having plenty of surface area to work with. He reaches for the oil and and keeps the cloth somewhere handy where he can reach for it instinctively. As he's about to apply the oil, Frazil makes her way downstairs and makes it known of her plans to cook. At the mention of food, his stomach ushers a loud growl, and the man realizes he really hasn't eaten at all today.

"Can't say no to that, what'll you be making?" He asks, and while he waits for the answer he gets to work on the sword. He notes the edge which isn't actually even dull at all, but since the blade does not function so much like a common blade, he decides it won't hurt to give it a good sharpening anyway. He coats a decent area of the stone's surface and the mineral oil, and with the utmost care brings the blade down onto the stone, its edge aimed away and he starts to slowly push it forward, while angling it so that the friction follows the curvature of the blade. He does this for that side a few times and then switches, the grip now in his left hand. He holds the blade up to his eyes, and satisfied with the grind, he applies oil to the sword itself and wipes it down with the cloth, and any other metal part of the sword. He then sheathes the sword and wipes down the whetstone, and resets all of the tools in the places RD initially laid them.

Air perks up a bit at the mention of food, less so that she's hungry and more so that she's interested in what Frazil is planning on cooking.

"Sure actually, um, is it fine if I watch? I'm kind of interested in what you'd be making." She says, and plods on over to the kitchen, standing a few paces behind her.

"Though honestly what you've eaten here you didn't bat an eye to so I'll venture to say cuisine is largely the same."

Richard stares at the characters as they appear rather ominously on the pages before him. He doesn't understand the characters, it was a script he hadn't read before. He raises an eyebrow as Jericho explains what they mean and thinks back to the bounties once the man mentions having seen the title before. Without looking up from the strange characters RD mentions, "He or she is a four star. Speculated to be hiding in or around the mountain range near here. Said to be a gang leader of some sort. If ya wanna take it up i'm game."

Richard goes onto the possiblity of the items being tracked from there, to which Jericho responds with a facepalm that RD can't help but smirk in response to. "Eh, no biggie. I was late on the uptake as well. Better late than never i guess? Be careful though, I may be being paranoid, but there may be a trap on it as well so you may wanna be a bit prepared just in case." He then flips though the pages a bit more and examines the book closely, seeing if anything else appeared aside from two rather ambiguous phrases before snapping it shut and offering the book back to Jericho for examination.

As he begins his examination Richard continues on the topic of the book. "Well, since this 'White Claw' is referenced to directly by the book maybe he knows a bit more about it? Is that what you're thinking? Hm. I wonder who Anna is though... and if the other five are similar to this one... and to a greater extent, what exactly lies at the end of these books... either way if you want to find out more we're gonna havetah start first thing tomorrow... Or maybe tonight. I was planning on heading back out to check out the bounties Feli offered me..."

Glancing at the two slips within his pocket he instantly remembers exactly why he remembered the bounty so well, White Claw was one of them. "Heh, I'm starting to think my ruse didn't work at all... Looks like we may just run straight into Lil' Miss Badass if we keep pursuing this." He hands the bounty slip to Jericho for him to see, unable to keep an excited smirk off his face. "This is one of the bounties she handed off to me, 194... the bounty for White Claw. Now i'm really curious about what stories these books seek to tell. If you want, you could come along, i could definitely use the back up." Richard then cocks his head to one side as the offer presented two new problems. "Thing is, One, do you have what it takes to handle yourself at the moment? Two, Is it wise to infer that we know anything about the book to the person we just recently stole it from? That is assuming the books are exactly what we're in it for, if we attempt to make a grab at it, or keep going after the clues that lie within these tomes she'll know we're the ones who snatched her stuff, cuz lets be honest, we'd have no other way of knowing about the rest of the books otherwise..."

Well, I figure eggs are eggs, regardless of the bird they're from. Surely you have some kind of noodles in here, and veggies... spices. I figured I'd just do a simple one pot stirfry. Frazil turns on the water tap, and starts collecting water from it to add to her little pool. She uses the water as though it were extra hands, and pretty much takes over the kitchen with it, She stands in the center in order to have full view, and begins opening cabinets to collect foodstuffs and a pan. She gently pushes Air with a column of water so that she won't be in the way, but can still watch. The cooking itself is a fairly boring affair, and except for the water doing all of the work, and many tasks at once, (cutting veggies, frying eggs, boiling noodles, shaking spices) it looks much like a kitchen with a few cooks in it would.

Jericho focus on the tome and what his spell is detecting. He lets out a sigh of release and looks over at RD.

"Well the good news is that there is no tracking spell on this tome. But there is something else that is rather interesting. I can detect that it uses shadow magic to communicate with others. If I had to take a guess. Anything that is written in this book is shared with the other books and vise versa."

Jericho then walks over to RD and thinks.

"It is true that I myself am lacking energy, but as long as we remain outside, I can pull what JI need for a spell from the moon itself. The thing is, if we go inside or the moon gets blocked by anything, I will no long have anything to pull from. So its rather risk. I would be willing to go though, I want answers. So I leave the choice in your hands. You are better at making plans then I"

Sharpe shrugs, his eyebrows matching the movement of his shoulders.

"So much eastern food lately..." He mutters to himself. He has to admit though, Jian's a pretty good cook and he knows where to find the good stuff, so the food hasn't been bad. Perhaps Frazil will have more to add to the dish. He looks out the window for a moment, and looks up at the moon. The white pallor of it's surface glows, the evening is illuminated by it's presence and thus the streets are not as dark as they normally are. He turns around walking toward the staircase.

"I've been thinking lately, even if I don't look it. I'm going to call a group meeting over food. At least, those of us who know we'd be in combat. And I'm not talking about the gun-toting kid. It's high time we got to fixing what's up with this city." He says and heads upstairs to see if he can talk to Rich and Jericho.

He knocks on Jericho's door with his knuckles, his palm pointed towards his face.

"I hope I'm not intruding, but I have some thought's I'd like to express. Some things I'd like to try out, and a plan of action I'd like to propose." He waits for a response for a moment and adds on to it.

"May I enter, kind sirs?"

That book is going to be the key to all of this, and he has a feeling they're all going to need to formulate in their minds the significance of it all. And more importantly, how they're going to go about pulling the sheets off this whole thing.

Air lets herself get pushed aside as the hands of dancing water do their work. She finds herself almost entranced, keeping track of each one without issue. She steps back a little to give the vectors some room and her attention becomes fixated squarely on Frazil.

"So I guess you really do have much of the same cuisine we do... I would not be surprised if we had much the same customs and traditions as well." She says, and turns around at Sharpe's mentioning of his business. She nods slowly, figuring the man must have had a realization.

She turns back to Frazil.

"I'm guessing also that you don't really need any help? You seem not to need another pair of hands."

She decides to take a seat and watch the process from further away.

Richard shows a somewhat disgruntled face in lieu of this new info presented to him by Jericho. "So... in that case, its a definite possibility that this is just a trap set to attract us to this bounty, set up by another who possesses one of these books? Hm. Added what you're essentially saying is, outside you've got my back, but if and when we need to head inside a structure of some sort, i'm essentially on my own...Hmph."

Not that going alone was a problem, originally it was exactly what he intended to do, but with the situation surrounding the books getting more and more complicated he couldn't help but think grabbing a capable buddy may not be a bad idea... Then again, Jericho wasn't on his A game. There was no denying that. It would definitely be a problem to have the team's only healer out of commission because of a possible mistake. Maybe it would be best to leave him here and go alone... A though decision indeed.

There's a silence within the room for a few moments as RD considers the options, during which there's a knock on the door. Followed by Point-Man's voice. After a short request to speak with the two, Richard turns his gaze to Jericho for his approval or dissent with a smile and a shrug, "Why don't we hear what Sharpe has to say?"

Frazil glances back at Air, while adding salt and pepper to the eggs, and then scrambling them them in butter. At this point, her movements look somewhat uncanny. Airgetlam gets a mental image of a puppeteer conducting a symphony, while practicing some kind of flowing martial art.Oh, I didn't realize you wanted to help. Sorry, I usually did the cooking for the team because, well... as you can see, it was more efficient. Plus I like cooking. She chops up some veggies, mostly things she hopes are green beans, broccoli, and onions, (they look, smell, and taste close enough) then douses them with some spicy seasonings. The pot of noodles gets carried over to the sink and the water just jumps out of the pan down the drain, leaving the noodles mostly dry. The now scrambled eggs are added to the pot of noodles and the whole thing is set aside off heat, while the veggies get tossed in a bit of butter on high heat.

I hope it's ok that I'm using the stockpile. I was going to offer to buy my own food, but you guys have a full pantry here. The scent of the food is all kinds of confusing to Airgetlam. It has an eastern basic concept, but the eggs seem to be prepared in the local style, and the veggies have a mix of seasonings that just don't make sense. I hope cajun goes over well. I haven't seen any of that style around, so I figured I'd give it a go. It should be something a little different for you guys... speaking of, what's the group's spice heat tolerance? I like my food to kick me in the face, but that's not common where I'm from.

Airgetlam notices that the water spigot is still running, and none of it is being allowed to drain. Frazil just keeps adding it to the pool at her feet, which has grown quite sizable.

Jericho sighs deeply. He can see that the night is going to be long and he isn't going to be able to work on his spell. He walks over to the window and grabs both of the Lace Agate catalysts and turns back to RD.

"Seeings how I will not be able to work tonight, I will bring these. As you know, they have lunar energy inside of them. I will use them when we go into places. Don't you even think about leaving me behind. Since Atrium was good enough to find another one of these lovely stones, it will be like I am fully charged. As for the book. I don't think it is a trap. If there are only five of these books, why freely give them out? Sure we didn't get if from whomever but why give them a rare tome if it is only a trap. To me, it seems like the books or sort of a radio but not as easy to spy on. My guess is that your rifle girl is part of this 'White Claw'."

When the door knocks, Jericho frowns at the door. "There is never a moment of peace...is there? He says to RD in a volume that only he would hear. He sighs.

"Come on in. I was wondering when you would be showing up to talk to me. Have to say, it is much sooner then I thought. What's on your mind military man?"

Jericho says this while he lets Sharpe into the room and shuts the door behind him.

Jack watched the radar flicker rapidly as it was almost finished calibrating. Suddenly, a tremendous force impacted his head. He felt two arms latched around his head, one covering his eye. In the chaos, he tossed the radar aside. The crystal powering the contraption flew from its loosened socket, and the radar shut off with a dying chirp. Jack pried his assailant off his face to discover it was Hitomi all along. The fairy gave a pleasant smile coupled by cheerful bark. Jack felt it was heart warming that the pale stick girl wanted to play with him, but glancing over at the old radar, it was obvious he wasn't going to get any work done in reverse engineering it while Hitomi was distracting him. Jack made his way downstairs with Hitomi piggybacking on his shoulders in the hopes of finding someone to look after her while he worked. As he reached ground level, he noticed an aroma of spices. Nothing ultimately gourmet, but pleasant nonetheless. He subtly peered into the kitchen to see Frazil cutting away at some vegetables. The lack of meat made Hitomi lose her appetite. The abundance of tension with the chef made Jack lose his. He made a 180 degree turn only to head back upstairs to Jericho's room.

"So what have you been up to so far? Anything interesting in the bag" Jack sheepishly asked.

As the discussions upstairs continue and Frazil cooks the day's last meal Airgetlam hears the hissing of the little white cat. Air turns towards the big window that takes up most of the wall besides the main entrance. It's begun raining. Nothing unusual- except for three uncanny figures standing a good long ways infront of the house. It's hard with the rain to make out the details of their attire but all of them are wearing the same kind of tight clothing, clearly designed for maneuvering quickly through tight spaces. All three are facing the house. All three are wearing masks to obscure their faces.

Before Air can make out any more details the middle one gestures around each side of the house, and just like that the other two figures run off in two separate directions and disappear into the rain. The cat hisses again and jumps off the table running off somewhere into the house as the remaining figure melts into the ground and disappears from sight.

Airgetlam breaks the stare as soon as the middle man disappears into shadow. She whips her head around straight at Frazil.

"We're in for a fight. Get ready. Now. Get the girl somewhere safe too." She states to her, calmly and without hesitation. She picks up her face and picks up her crossbow, keeping the stock tightly pressed against her shoulder. She runs up the stares and opens Jericho's door, where all the voices seem to be coming from.

"Heads up, we have company, one's moving by shadow and the other two are moving around us to flank. Looks like infiltrators or assassins judging by garb. I'm going to get Jian up, we're going to need him. Strength in numbers." She says concisely. She heads over to Jian's room, and opens the door, and shaking him lightly.

"Jian, wake up, danger has found us! Where's your armor you had made?" She whispers so as not to take him completely by surprise.

"They think they can catch us while we're asleep, hopefully Feli isn't on the way either." He looks back at Jericho and Doc, and Jack since he's here now too.

"What I was going to say will have to wait, sorry to get your hopes up." His attention turns to RD.

"The Living room is yours friend, since you've got Rock Cleaver, though I imagine you won't be using it so much in the house. Jericho you sit with him, you know his abilities better than I do, so you're his support. Air said we got them 'round the sides so I'm going to do room sweep, see what's got windows and lock the doors that have access." He turns to Jack after setting RD and Jericho on their path.

"Jack I need you to check the other side, as I take mine. More ground covered in less time. Have your gun ready and your knife. If you don't have a knife on-hand... I've got my old war knife, and I believe RD may have a spare trench knife. Looks like we're gonna see some CQB here." He tells the man, hoping he'll heed the instructions given.

"Clarent... We need to get her somewhere she won't be so easily found, or keep her with us, but I don't want her getting hit in the flurry. Maybe with Air or Jian, though Jian isn't as capable. Frazil maybe? Maybe Mitsuki's around here and she can help us out. I don't know how much of a pacifist she is, but odds are they might strike out at her, I imagine self defense is still in her priorities."

He draws his revolver and looks back, beckoning.

"What's the matter, you wanna live forever?!" He says to them and gets going to check the rooms on the left.

"Hah! now why would i ever do anything like that!" Richard chuckles as Jericho grabs his catalysts , wondering why the other man would suppose leaving him behind was even a choice if grabbing his emergency reserves and coming along was what he originally intended. "And i suppose that could also be a possibility, guess the only way to find out is to get going huh?"

He shrugs with a rather peaceful grin at Jericho when he opens the door for Sharpe, and to a lesser and most likely unintended extent, Jack. "Ay Point-man, Jack! Whatcha need?" But as his ol' combat buddy prepares to respond they all pause at the sound of someone clambering up the steps followed by Air bursting into the room and quickly explaining they had a few unwanted visitors. Richard nearly jumps out of his seat, an almost sadistic grin flashing across his face for a moment as Point-Man orders him to take position in the living room with Jericho as support; the perfect position for the pair, plenty of room allows for plenty of chaos after all. Richard slips one of his trench knives out of its sheath the moment Sharpe mentions not having one on hand and places it in Jack's hand before practically leaping down the steps towards the more spacious living room.

Grinning at Point-Man's typical one-liner, "Some things never change..." He mutters happily as he begins to shift around the furniture within the room, hoping to get them as much out of the way has he can manage. He frowns a bit at the aroma sifting through the air as he works on clearing the area. Seems as though someone was making a meal... something egg based... His stomach mutters a mild complaint, which he fights down with the possibility of a victory meal. Still, he can't help but peek into the kitchen only to see Frazil at the center of kitchen work that seems to imply more than one person had occupied the space. He raises an eyebrow at the scene but puts the thought aside for the moment, "Frazil, I know i may be out of line asking for a favor here, but could you keep an eye on Jian and Clarent, the girl sleeping upstairs, while this is going on? I have a bad feeling... They might be in more danger than the rest of us. I'd appreciate it." He gives her a slight bow in appreciation and heads back to the living room. He then quickly finishes clearing the room in preparation for their 'guests' and walks towards the center of the room, slightly adjusting his equipment and stretching a bit he begins gathering energy in his left hand and unsheathe's his remaining trench-knife with his right.

Frazil chuckles and shakes her head at Airgetlam. I've been getting ready for about... she looks at the food as it steams in the pot then over at the water faucet where she's still collecting her weapon of choice... oh... 20 minutes now, I'd guess. I told you Jack was a dumbass. I'll get the girl, don't worry about that, she's got one of the 2 items that are likely to be tagged, and unlike Jericho, had no warning when it was given to her.

By the time Richard makes his way downstairs, Frazil is riding a wave out of the kitchen, towards the stairs. Yep. Air said the same thing. I'm on it. A stray stream sweeps her belongings from the other side of the living room, and the entire flow rushes up the staircase. Richard can see the bracers and weaponry being fitted into place by the water that is now climbing towards Frazil's neck.

She reaches the top of the stairs and surfs past Airgetlam and Sharpe, moving at quite a speed. The water splashes to the left, then right, then left again to make the turn on the wall into Jericho's room. She continues along the wall, using centrifugal force to make a loop of the room, and scoops Clarent into a protective cocoon of ice propelled by the wave. As she flies by, she snaps at Jericho. I'm taking her to the bathroom. No windows, and plenty of fuel for me. You get that book elsewhere. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll go after you.

Frazil and Clarent slosh back out into the hallway, and ride the wave down the stairs as though they were on a waterslide. As she does one last loop to make the curve through the living room, she calls to Richard. Didn't see Jian, this one's still sleeping. We'll be in here where there aren't any windows. Feel free to send Jian to us. She slides the unconscious girl gently to the floor and follows through the bathroom door. The sound of water being turned full blast in the bathtub and sink can be heard through the walls.

Jian, shaken a bit, twitches for a moment before his eyes open slowly. The herbal mixture of his left him quite knocked out for a bit. He tiredly takes a look at air, noticing that it's not daytime yet. He barely can tell what is going on, yet gets up as Air keeps shaking him Slowly on his feet, he's standing a little insecure, yet he notices the commotion of everyone rushing through the house under his feet.

"Wh.. what's going on...?", he just tiredly says, then sitting down on the bed. His state of mind and body nowhere close to it being in a condition for him to actually do much. He starts slipping into his armour as his mind starts gaining a bit more focus, soon to be dressed full. He rubs his eyes, looking around again.

"It's not even... daytime yet. I kinda don't feel like waking up early..."

He gets off the bed tiredly, ready to follow Air, though, he still doesn't feel close to ready for any sorts of hectic interactions yet.

Jericho waits in the room for a moment as he listens to all the commands and shouts that are happening around him. Too many people trying to be leader He thinks to himself. As he thinks about what to do, a smile slowly grows on his face. He watches Frazil come and go while riding a tidal wave. He simply shakes his head no to her, not listening to a word she is saying. He takes the tome and ties it around his belt. He makes sure that is it tight and doesn't move when he does, and when he is satisfied, he walks downstairs like nothing is happening. He makes his way over to RD and looks at the man. He is happy to see that RD is sharing the same smile he is. Somethings never do change.

"It always makes me smile when you and I are the only ones in a fight that aren't running around like we're missing a head. So..." Jericho has the two Lace Agates around his neck and in his shirt. He pulls out the apache revolver and fuels the chambers with his light magic. And has his other hand charged with a spell as well. "...you think this will be fun or just a waste of time?" He asks while he positions himself next to RD so they are side by side in the middle of the room while facing the door.

The anxiety of the whole situation made Jack somewhat queezy. Things did not get better when he heard the yawn coming from above his head. Hitomi seemed completely unphased by the ensuing chaos.

"Oh bullocks"

"Frazil! Frazil! Frazil Wait!"

Jack hastily hoists the fairy off his shoulders and places her gently on the groun pushing her towards Frazil.

"Take the little one too. I think the pressure of leaving her in harms way would give me a heart attack, and a heart attack would be terrible since in harms way is where I'd be. If you don't feel comfortable handling two girls, let Richard and Jericho look after her"

Jack quickly chased after Sharpe before Sharpe could make his way to his side of the house.

"Sharpe, before I check my side...which one of us checks the basement. None of us have been down there. None of us know if there's a way in there!"

There is a short moment of silence between the little amount of chaos in the house as everyone struggles to get their bearings despite being prepared for an attack. The moment draws out for a bit, with as Jericho and RD stand ready downstairs.

...  ...  ...

Then a faint scraping comes from one of the windows, and Jericho can feel some faint shadow magic as hands begins to feel up the bottom of the windows. In front of them the eerie stare of a masked person scans the room, and as soon as it's noticed it bursts into shadows, coating the window in dust that the rain swiftly washes off. One of the windows in the kitchen, previously left unlocked, slides open, letting the cold breeze from outside in to the house and the floor upstairs creaks softly, as if someone was sneaking about.

Sharpe gives a quizzical glare to Jack

"We have a basement? I don't remember that being in the floor plan."
His ears perk up and hears something nearby... Something sly.

"What was that?" He asks in a whisper, hoping to keep Jack attentive. His performance with the heist has proven the man I rather absent minded - the kind that gets you killed.

"Sounds like its in the next room. When we go in, check your corners. If you see the hostile, only open fire if I'm not in the way. Don't try to take impossible shots." He says. His revolver at the ready, he presses his head against the door, listening for whoever might be on the other side.

"I'm going to see you sit with Frazil, keep Clarent and Hitomi safe while we do the fighting. Give you some time to wake up a little. I'm sorry its such a rude awakening but you're going to have to get used to this." She says and takes him by the hand so he has some kind of guidance while he shakes off the torpor. She stops when she feels someone else moving upstairs - or something, as
it doesn't sound at all like the footsteps of the others. She deduces it must be one of the invaders. She looks back at Jian and puts a finger to her lips, opening the door a crack. She looks around and sees across the staircase, Jack and Sharpe are looking through their room. She looks round back to Jian and leads him out of the room and down the staircase into the living room, past Doc and RD. She looks over at the windows, and feels extremely unnerved, nevertheless she presses forward and opens the bathroom door.

"It's me, don't flush me!" She says and gently pushes Jian in the bathroom with them.

"He's a bit groggy, so I'm going to have him stay here until he wakes up a bit more." She tells her. She closes the door and shoulders her crossbow, walking over to RD and Doc, aiming at the open window.

Nothing seemingly is there, however she gets a bright idea and grabs a bucket from the kitchen and runs back to the bathroom.

"Can you fill this up? I'm going to see if maybe they're bound by the same rules I am when i'm cloaked."

"Hmm..." Richard grunts in approval with Jericho's view of the situation while glancing over his knife, making sure it was still in decent shape, since he'd missed out on his bit of work on it for the day. "Roger that, thanks again," he says to Frazil as she updates him on her status as well as that of the two non-combatants, Jack pushing Hitomi towards her as well.

There is an almost eerie moment of silence within the house as Richard pauses before answering Jericho. RD looks up from his blade just in time to spot a figure looking back at him through the front window, which he can't help but smile and wave at before it seemingly bursts into dust at being noticed. He grins a bit more maliciously, "Oh this? We're gonna have fun with this... If you don't mind let's have a bit more light Jericho, something that lingers for a bit, nothing too bight please."  

Figuring that the front door was no longer a means of entry for the shadowy intruders seeing as it was being watched, Richard quickly figures that there are about four more points of entry on the first floor that they could try. He turns to head towards his own 'room' but is stopped short by the opening of the kitchen window. As the sound of running water from behind closed doors combines and fills the room with the patter of the rain outside, Air hurries past the two men with Jian in tow, gently pushing him into the bathroom where Frazil had prepared her defenses.

As Air grabs a bucket and heads back to the restroom RD walks back towards the staircase, and stops near its base. "Look..." He says to no one in particular but loud enough that he can be heard throughout the building. "I'm not sure what you people want... But you've come to the wrong place. We don't have what you're looking for... What we do have... Is a very particular set of skills, skills we have acquired over some pretty long careers... Skills that make us a nightmare for people like you. So ya'll have a choice here. You can either back off, be on your way, and tell your bosses you weren't able to locate yer mark... OR... you can leave in a body bag. Your choice." He flaunts his indifference to the looming threats with a hearty shrug. Walking back to the center of the room with a casual saunter that further serves to exacerbate whatever enemies loom within the surrounding shadow. He grins at Jericho and shrugs again, "Its not bragging if you can back it up." He pushes the act as far as he can hoping the conceit and overconfidence would cause the shadow-walkers to reveal themselves; thinking the best way to get the rats out of hiding is to play to their self-respect.