Chapter 9: Sword and Shield

Hell's Gate: Command Deck

Again, Acheron found himself gathered up around the big see-through, or "holographic," representation of the planet, attending another sort of war council between mostly his father and Colonel Quaritch. The only real difference this time was that his aunt was standing to his right, slightly behind his father. Why she was still here he couldn't say, as he was certain that Ivy had gotten to the second guy, whoever that had been. In his mind that meant that there really wasn't any further purpose for his aunt to be there, but she was, so he should probably move on.

Quaritch was leaning forward on the display, both hands spread out. "So, it was Patel who tipped off the Navi?"

Erasmus corrected the statement. "Not quite, both Patel and Spellman were working in conjunction, if one is to believe Isabella and her methods, which I do." The god's right hand reached up to the hologram, shifting the sphere around until a blue box was enlarged and in focus. "This is the last piece of intel that Patel passed along, an assessment on this installation in the area the soldiers refer to as Grave's Bog, a very negative assessment."

The Colonel grumbled in assent. "True, that area hasn't exactly been a priority since the end of the last war as it's fairly deep in the former Timpani territory. The garrison should be just over twenty men not counting support staff, as skeletal as it gets."

Erasmus continued. "And so that places us in a fairly difficult position. How are we to act upon this intelligence without tipping our hand to the natives?"

Just the way the god said that drew a comment out of him. "Tip our hand?' What, you mean something like poker?"

His father nodded. "Yes actually, that is a very accurate simile. We're sitting on a full house, when we must convince the enemy that we have a measly pair." Erasmus went on, blowing up the holographic base still further. "I took the liberty of taking a gander at the construction of the outpost prior to this conversation, and I must say the prospects are rather bleak. Only four wire gates bar access to the inner compound on all four sides, gates that can easily be breached by whatever means the Navi utilized to break into Blue Lagoon. Twenty men, five per front, they won't last long under mass attack, and that seems like all the Navi are capable of thus far." The elder Overlord lowered his hands and his voice became grave. "Unless we want history repeating itself we somehow need to get reinforcements to the installation, and on a very short timeframe."

Quaritch scowled lightly. "And I suppose you mean you and your boy?"

Erasmus's head shook. "If absolutely necessary, though I had a far different target in mind for myself." His father spun the see-through planet again. "In addition to this early warning I also managed to extract the location of Doctor Augustine, here, in the Hanging Gardens. No specific coordinates, though I can narrow that down extremely quickly if I go there in person."

It dawned on him what the plan was. "So you want me to back up the base while you hunt down the Doctor."

A ghostly impression of a smile flashed his way from within the shadowed helm of his father's armor. "That is what I had been thinking, provided you agree to it of course." That helm turned towards Quaritch. "I imagine that a single Samson will not arouse undue suspicion amongst the Navi, and that a lone flight can arrive in time to render aid?"

A slightly malicious smile lit up the Colonel's face. "I'll get the flights prepped immediately. We can get one of you out to Grave's Bog in little over fifteen minutes if the pilot pushes it, and I intend to make sure they push it."

As Quaritch walked off to see to his self-appointed task Erasmus turned back towards him. "So you agree? You will assist the RDA soldiers in the Bog while I hunt down Augustine?"

He shrugged. "Sure, I mean it's probably going to be far more action packed than stomping through the brush following your nose." He chuckled a little. "That is how you're going to track her down right? Using your godly sense of smell?"

His father echoed the short laugh. "I do believe that is the plan, yes. And though it may be masked by several hundred other smells once I take to the field I remember her scent quite distinctly, if only for the reason that I found her attitude extremely vexing."

Out of nowhere, Ivy chimed in. "If that's the case, I'm going with Junior. I want action, not hunting."

He shot a sideways glance at his aunt in her red-leather bodysuit. "Ah, don't you think you're a little underdressed to be participating in a battle where the enemy shoots poison arrows as big as my arm?"

The silver-haired woman just crossed her arms and smirked. "I can take care of myself, nephew."

His father added to the conversation. "I hate to criticize, but Acheron does have a point even if he does not know it. Normal humans, and even if you do not wish to admit it dear you are far closer to normalcy than either Acheron or I, are required to wear a special breathing mask to survive outside of the buildings. Without one, you apparently will not survive for more than a minuet."

Ivy shrugged the concern off. "Pft, I can handle that."

Erasmus nodded once, slowly. "Very well. Now why don't you go on ahead and find yourself a spare mask, I would like to have a word in private with Acheron." The god wrapped an arm around his shoulder and tugged him aside. "Look, as confident as I am in Isabella's abilities, I'd appreciate it if you could keep an eye out for her safety anyway."

He glanced over at his aunt's retreating figure, eyes uncomfortably draw towards her swaying derriere, and shrugged once he tore his gaze away. "Sure, I can do that. So long as you do what you agreed to do on your hunting trip."

The elder Overlord let out a short chuckle. "Don't worry Acheron, I haven't forgotten." His father gave him a light shove towards the door. "Now go on, go kick some ass."

A smile appeared on his face and he flashed a thumbs up sign towards his father. "That's it, lighten it up Old Man." On his way out the door he paused and called back. "Hey, happy hunting, give the bitch my regards."

Erasmus returned the thumbs up. "I will. Good fortune to you in the Bog. May many fall by your gun."

He left the command building in high spirits, itching for action.

Hanging Gardens:

Erasmus stepped off of the Samson and found himself surrounded by what looked to be an RDA base, or at least the remains of one. The closer he looked the more it seemed to be the latter. There were gaps in the metal shells of the buildings, the yellow mechanical behemoths scattered around seemed very, very far from functioning, and so far as his eyes could see there was no one else but him to the distant edge of the tree line.

The pilot of the Samson, a woman he had never seen before, called out to him from within the craft. "Look, I know you probably have something important to do here, but I'm not sticking around to figure out what it is. No one else has been here since the end of the war, and the jungle is already taking everything over again. I'm getting the hell out of here back to the Needle Hills. You call when you do whatever you have to do."

Without waiting for a response from him the pilot spun up the engine and took off, threading a small hole in the green canopy overhead. Once the sound of whirling rotors faded into the distance an almost deafening quiet descended, as if the jungle were holding its breath, waiting for the inevitable eruption of violence. His gaze swung left and right, alert for even the slightest disturbance in the brush around him, but there was none. With a single bound he leapt to the top of one of the ruined pieces of machinery for a better vantage point, but still his piercing vision revealed nothing. Convinced that he was, at least for the time being, alone, but still exceedingly wary, he took his focus off of sight and turned to smell. Even as the air stung the inside of his nose as he drew it in he could discern the scent of his prey on the wind. But as soon as he caught the scent the wind shifted and the smell vanished. He could, however, take a rough guess as to the origin of the scent. He turned to his right, geographic North according the GPS device still strapped to his gauntlet.

Eyes narrowed with determination he jumped down from his vantage point and set off for the edge of the foliage. Little more than half-way across the cleared area though a branch snapped loudly close by and he froze, once again on high alert. His eyes swung to the pile of brush which had produced the noise and he waited. After a long moment, just long enough to the point where he almost started to think that he had imagined the noise, a single Navi burst from cover and charged him wielding a jagged bone blade. Quicker than an eye could blink he ripped Soul Edge off of his back and hurled the blade to impact dead center of the lone Navi's chest. Silence fell again, as deafening as before, but there was a sense of lightness to it, as though he were no longer being observed by those with openly hostile intent.

He moved to inspect the corpse and retrieve his weapon, ignoring the complaints of said weapon about being thrown. As for the body, there was a distinct lack of tribal tattoos. So, what did that mean exactly? Was this Navi an outcast? Feral? Chose to leave willingly? He shook his head as possibilities swirled around inside his brain. Right now he didn't have the time for an internal academic debate.

He tensed up as the wind shifted again, once more bringing Augustine's scent to his sensitive nose. This breeze was stronger, and he had a very good idea of direction out of it. A yet to be determined distance away to the North-West Dr. Grace Augustine was cowering amongst her Navi allies, just waiting for him to crash their little nature-loving party.

Grave's Bog:

Acheron craned his neck back to watch his former ride fly away into the sky, slightly queasy internally but utterly determined to not show it in any way. He'd been here for, what, twenty seconds and he already knew why the place was called Grave's Bog, the smell of rot was absolutely pervasive, so much so that he was momentarily concerned that it might stick to his armor and body for long enough that he'd scare off his mistresses when he went home. Then again, he'd probably smelt far, far worse when he'd first run into Boa Hancock, but that shouldn't really count because he didn't get into her good graces, or panties, until later.

Before he had taken two steps away from the departing aircraft Soul Calibur's voice filled his head. "Thinking perverted thoughts again?"

He shot a half-second glance at the weapon as he walked further into the base. "To a degree, always. Just now though, only a little bit."

A giggle escaped the crystal weapon. "Ooh, can I guess about who you were thinking?"

He stepped into what seemed like the center and stopped. A strange feeling washed over him, one of inexplicable vulnerability. To his left and right a large lane ran straight through from one end of the wire-enclosed compound to the other. And after a quick check he discovered an identical situation to his front and back. Each lane ended on both ends with large, extremely flimsy looking gates. There were of course big mounted guns above each, but he remembered what had happened at Blue Lagoon. Those manned guns were just glowing targets to the Navi.

Soul Calibur barked at him. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

A soldier was approaching him tentatively, so he quietly shushed the female weapon. "Give me a second, alright babe?" He turned his gaze towards the approaching soldier. "Sup?"

Clearly taken aback by his casual greeting the soldier, a lean, pale faced man with matted black hair, responded hesitantly. "Ah, who the hell are you?"

He glanced over at his aunt, who was staring off into the jungle intently, before responding. "Acheron Killgore, Overlord, and today, your savior." The man started to sputter but he cut the soldier off before they could start speaking. "Look buddy, now, how do I say this, oh, you're about to get hit, and I'm here to make sure all of you don't die." He shrugged lightly. "Or, failing that, to kill all the Navi. Whichever happens first."

Still relatively speechless, the soldier stammered out a question. "How, how do you know we're about to be attacked? The Timpani cleared out of here weeks ago. I heard they were almost wiped out."

Again, he shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not the Timpani. And as for how I know, well, a fat mole told me, indirectly." He pointed up at the big wall-mounted guns. "But right now the most important thing you've got to do is get those guys up there off of those guns. Because they're the absolute first thing the Navi are going to shoot at."

Hesitant, the man nonetheless seemed to accept his logic and callout to the one of the men on the wall guns. "Hey Ramirez, get down here."

The man dubbed Ramirez stood up and turned to face the interior of the base. "What's going-"

Without warning the ex-gunner was speared from behind by three Navi arrows and pitched forward off of the wall to lie face down in the dirt. Panic erupted as the other wall gunners scrambled out of their seats and made the substantial jump to the forest floor, shouts of "we're under attack" rose up, and general mayhem threatened to ruin his day.

He spoke up, easily making himself heard over the bedlam. "Everyone shut up!"

Like magic, the nineteen remaining soldiers clustered together in the center just in front of him. Maybe it was just his animal magnetism, but more than likely they were looking for someone to tell them what to do. Soldiers were like that, or so he was starting to believe.

He took a deep breath, only half-noticing the burning sensation, and outlined a basic plan. "Ok, we've got, what, nineteen guys left? So let's make it six, six, and seven on the South, East, and West gates. I can take a whole army by myself so I've got North covered. Take cover behind the buildings, and try not to get impaled." He thought for a second to see if he had overlooked anything, not thinking of any oversights he continued. "Sound good?"

His aunt's voice drifted over the group. "Make it nine and ten on East and West. I can take a whole gate by myself as well."

He blinked slowly as he looked over at Aunt Ivy, whom was playfully twirling her sword between two fingers in her left hand. "Ah, ok, if that's what you want. You take the South gate then." His eyes drifted back to the soldiers. "Ok, well, you heard her. Spread out, try not to die, and shoot everything blue. Simple."

He made a quarter turn to the North and started walking, and he made it about four steps before Soul Calibur started whispering in his head. "So, can I ask you now?"

He kept walking, but his voice made quite clear how befuddled he was. "You're still hung up on who I was thinking about? You aren't, I don't know, more excited about killing stuff?"

The weapon snapped back at him. "We kill stuff all the time. But I don't always get the chance to pester you about things."

He scoffed as he portaled through the North gate to the outside. "Really? That's your logic? Well fine, it was Hancock. Happy?"

The weapon grumbled as he pulled her from his belt with his left hand. "Oh, spoilsport, I wanted to guess."

He ignored the remark and stepped further away from the base, brandishing Soul Calibur before him while arming his right hand with the Mace of Doom. "Hey, blue freaks, I'm right here, come and get me!" He whispered to the crystalline weapon as the bushes frothed with imminent attackers. "You ready babe?"

The re-formed Soul Calibur laughed as he raised her. "I was made ready."

As the first Navi burst from hiding to charge him he aimed along the crystalline black spines along the length of Soul Calibur's new barrel, drawing a bead on the face of the first club wielding native. He pulled her trigger, producing a sound like an electrical discharge as a blue fountain of flame spat out of the crystal gun. Seemingly in slow motion his first target flash froze in mid step and shattered like glass, pieces of shrapnel flying off in wild directions and wounding the surrounding Navi.

Elated and astonished he looked at his new gun for half a second of dumbstruck awe. "Babe, you are fucking awesome!"

Giggling while spitting electric death, Soul Calibur responded. "I know I am."

He shot three more Navi, killing maybe twice that number with shrapnel, before a sound started to tease his ears; a low, thundering rumble that grew steadily louder until it rivaled and quickly surpassed the Navi war cries. The ground beneath him shook as a large beast emerged from the foliage about a ship's length away from him. It was massive, red, blue stripes, and had a horn on its apparent nose that ended in a bulb that looked amusingly, or disturbingly, like a penis.

A realization dawned upon him as the animal charged. "Oh… So that's how they bust through the gates." Reality set back in with a jolt when he realized he was about to be trampled. "Oh shit!"

Purely out of reflex he swung the Mace of Doom at the rushing creature, swinging up from his hip and striking the beast on the chin. The subsequent detonation of the mace's shockwave caused the animal's head to explode like an over-ripe melon. Further, what was left of the creature performed a shocking backwards somersault from the impact, transferring all of its forward momentum up and back. That was apparently how badass his father's Mace was.

A thought occurred to him as he resumed shooting at the natives. "Wait, they wouldn't have been stupid enough to bring just one…"

Literally the second after he voiced this thought to himself a cry rose up from inside the chain-link walls of the base. "Sturmbeasts!"

Sure that the Navi trying to killing him, with extra emphasis on "trying," would still be here if he took a short break he jumped back through the intact North gate, using a portal again so as to not damage it. As it would happen the East and West gates had been breached by the rampaging animals. Clearly, normal bullets and firepower was simply not enough to deter these creatures, so they probably had a brain about the size of a pea, or less. Oddly enough that brought to mind something Gnarl had once told him about dragons, which was completely unrelated on a topic basis but almost spot on as far as words went. "There is nothing noble about a dragon, it's ten tons of flaming muscle driven by a brain the size of a gooseberry."

Placing his next two shots carefully he put one blast into the large eyes on the sides of each sturmbeast's face, killing them cleanly. He then of course looked for a fourth, as it didn't make sense to him why the Navi would have gone through the trouble of roping three dumb-as-rocks animals and not go the last step to get one more. The South gate was still intact. Why was astonishingly apparent; outside, standing ankle deep in a mire of bloody chunks as big as his fist, was his aunt.

Ivy Valentine-Killgore stood with arms spread wide and shouted at the jungle, voice slightly distorted by the mask she was wearing. "Is that it? I haven't even broken a sweat yet!"

Dumbstruck was the word, just not quite strong enough, and the words he was thinking tumbled out of his mouth without voluntary effort. "Holy fuck, my aunt is a badass."

And then he looked to his left and right, at the Navi pouring out of the jungle to the East and West, and rushed off to continue killing.

Hanging Gardens:

Erasmus Killgore slowly lifted his head over the fallen tree that shielded him from the sight of the Navi encamped around the small metal structure in the middle of the elevated clearing. If his nose was right, and he felt confident that it was, the metal box was one of the "link chambers" that Doctor Grace and Jake Sullivan were required to use to utilize their Navi bodies. If that were the case he could simply sneak inside and murder Augustine with no one the wiser. If he did so, he could only imagine that the controlled body would simply drop dead for no apparent reason, and he would give quite a bit to see the reactions of the surrounding Navi if that were to happen. He imagined a scene of panic, but that potential future was quashed when he spotted a Navi woman clad in a red shirt and cream colored shorts, clearly not one of the natives, and clearer still Grace Augustine.

He dropped down behind cover for a moment to think, to plan his course of attack. It went without saying that he wanted to eliminate as many of the encamped Navi as he could, but by simply charging in like a barbarian he would run the risk of letting a significant portion of the natives to scatter to the four winds. And as fast as he was there was no way he could run them all down should they scatter thusly. Still thinking he peeked around the side of his hiding spot, letting his infernal eyes scour the clearing for anything he could exploit, with a particular eye for sentries posted high in the trees. He saw three of the latter, along with a scattering of semi-alert Navi with their backs to the larger jungle. Those he could use to his advantage if he were quiet. But the three archers in the trees remained a problem, they had an unsurpassed view of the clearing, and his armored bulk had no chance of hiding from all three of them, nor could he quietly eliminate all three of them before one of them noticed the absence of the other two.

Although, his strategic mind started to make things click into place, if he could eliminate one he could kill the other two in one fell swoop given that he timed his actions properly. He took stock of their positions. The one closest to him was certainly the highest in elevation, but there was a deplorable lack of leaf cover. He would be seen in an instant. The archer on the far side of the camp was comparatively low, and yet almost completely concealed from prying eyes. The only difficulty would be that he was not sure that he would have a clear line of sight on the first sentry from that post. The archer in the center was out of the question, as the only way he could scale that tree were if he walked right into the center of the encampment. Also, the position was completely exposed. It was viewable by all that simply looked up, unless the archer leaned back a little. So, all in all it was a judgment call on his part, and he was leaning towards the far post.

He ducked around the lower end of the fallen tree, into the extended cover of a large stand of shrubbery. His path, planned out to the millimeter, might as well have been painted on the ground in fluorescent colors. He would follow the line of brush up to the link-chamber, duck around the back, scale the tree, and assassinate the Navi in the secluded tree nook. The plan became slightly murky after that point, because at that point it became more about reacting to the situation as it evolved.

The brush shivered as he touched it, shifting to accommodate his armored bulk with little more than a whisper. Moving silently was not a matter of not touching branches and such, but more of how you touched them, letting the boughs slide off of you slowly and not springing back into place suddenly. Taki drilled that into his head early on when he insisted that she teach him all that she knew of stealth. There were additionally certain arcane spells he could use if things got out of hand, but they were subtle, and wouldn't help him if he were actually seen.

He crossed behind the link chamber and reached the tree housing the sentry without incident. And scaling the tree housing the sentry was equally as easy, but the difficulty came with how he was going to kill the Navi from his awkward position without causing too much of a fuss. His eyes fell, happening upon the quiver of arrows, and the idea struck him. Gingerly, as if he were handling glass, he removed one arrow and adjusted it in his one-handed grip until it was like he was holding a knife. As chance would have it, just as he moved to strike the Navi turned slightly towards him, causing the arrow to bury itself in the center of the sentry's forehead instead of left-side temple as he had planned. No matter, the Navi died without so much as a twitch or whimper as he punctured its brain.

Delicately draping the corpse over the branch upon which it had formerly been standing he took the Navi's place in the sheltered alcove, finding quickly that he actually did have an acceptable line of sight on both of the remaining sentries. Further, he had the silent means to dispose of them at his fingertips. He appropriated the longbow off of his latest kill, notching an arrow and testing the draw as he watched quietly for the proper moment. Ideally, the overlooking archer in the center of the encampment would be looking away from his compatriot in the slightly higher point. That way if he placed his shot correctly noting at all would look amiss and he could eliminate the last sentry with impunity. This was difficult, mostly due to the raw size of the arrows the Navi used, and which he was utilizing temporarily.

He waited for maybe five to ten long minutes before one of the female Navi below stood and started to leave the clearing. The archer in the center started watching this other Navi, potentially out of either boredom or sexual desire; he did not care which, and took his eyes off of his partner in the higher position. He took the opportunity and let the shaft fly, scoring a clean hit to the second sentry's left eye, pinning them to the trunk of the tree they were standing in. Not taking any chances he took another shot immediately, striking the final sentry in the side of the head and likewise pinning their body to the respective tree.

A smile crossed his face as he discarded his borrowed weapon back on the corpse it had originally belonged to. "Say what you will about the technological superiority of guns, sometimes the old ways are still better."

He took a quick head-count of the Navi remaining; seven if he counted Augustine's blue puppet, plus the female that had walked out of the clearing. Speaking of whom, he turned his head to notice the Navi returning, bearing a large clay jug that he could presume was filled with water. He did not want that thing to shatter, as such a sound would give him away, but fortune smiled upon him and the female set the jug down before wiping her brow with the back of a forearm. Again, seizing the opportunity presented to him, he leapt from his hiding spot and tackled the oblivious female, breaking both her neck and spine in the same motion.

Staying low he spun about on his heels, creeping back towards the encampment to visit his wrath upon the remaining Navi.

Grave's Bog:

Acheron Killgore liked to think of himself as a man that could suffer through a lot of bullshit before crying uncle, but this situation was really starting to push the shallow reserve of patience he clearly had. The Navi had to have been throwing themselves forward to die in a blue fireball for, oh he had no sense of time so he had no idea. But he was sure it was a really, really long time. They were being funneled through both the East and West gates now since both of their living battering rams had been killed at the North and South, which made it comparatively easy to pick them off. Not that it was completely one-sided; three of the men had been pegged by arrows, dying only moments later. About seven others had been wounded by other weapons, so they'd probably live.

He shot yet another Navi, causing it to explode into black shards of glass for the umpteenth time. "Anyone else starting to get sick of this bullshit?"

His aunt hollered over the shooting and screaming. "Speak for yourself junior! This is the most fun I've had outside of the bedroom since your father conquered the world I met him in."

He froze momentarily as his mind unwillingly processed the statement. "Too, much, fucking, information."

Ivy cackled like a witch. "Oh please, do I need to remind you of what your father said before?"

He shuddered. "No, no I'm good. I'm fine with shooting an endless swarm of pretty much helpless space elves." Shaking his head he looked towards the lead soldier. "What the hell did you do to piss these guys off so much?"

The wounded man winced and choked out an answer. "Ah, we killed almost a whole herd of sturmbeasts in the area."

He forced a smile onto his face. "Well, sucks to be them." He sighed and shook his head before muttering to himself. "Come on dad, any day now. I could really use a good laugh about now."

Hanging Gardens:

Erasmus Killgore chuckled quietly to himself as he watched the last three Navi, one of them including Augustine. He had eliminated the rest of the natives quietly, of course now it was at the point where even the dimmest of minds would realize that something was going wrong. The last three, Augustine included, were clustered in the center, facing outwards. So, probably the time for stealth was over.

He leapt out of cover into full view, an arm's length from the two "real" Navi, speaking in his most velvety sinister voice. "Evening, you wretched creatures."

The two real Navi attempted to flee to both his left and right, but they failed to evade the reach of his limbs. He caught both of them by the neck and throttled them while Augustine fled.

He pounced, landing feet first on Doctor Augustine's puppet thirty feet from where he had left the ground. "Now hold on there, where are you going in such a hurry?" His right hand seized the top of the puppet's head, pulling it back. "We have so much to discuss. You declined your severance package earlier; perhaps we can renegotiate the terms?"

Instead of answering, the soulless flesh-sack went completely limp. He hesitated for a moment, uncertain of what had just happened. And then he remembered how exactly the avatar program worked. Sighing, he turned back to the link chamber, watching as the real Grace Augustine opened the door and shut it again as delicately as humanly possible.

He raced back, skidding to a halt at the foot of the metal steps. "Once again, going somewhere?"

The doctor whirled around, eyes popping with fear. "How did you-?"

He didn't bother to answer her half-formed question, going on with his diction. "You know, I was rather looking forward to the novel opportunity to kill someone twice within the space of an hour. You've denied me of that, and what have you to say for yourself?"

The redhead snarled. "How about, die!"

From behind her back Grace Augustine withdrew one of the assault rifles he had seen in the hands of many a soldier. And while he admittedly was a bit surprised he did not panic, he only raised his left hand in front of his face and endured while the stream of bullets impacted and caromed off of his armor. Honestly, he found it funny, and thought there was something oddly satisfying about the sound of lead hopelessly being beaten against a superior metal.

At the first "click" he lowered his hand and smirked. "Well, it seems you back an animal into a corner and it will show unexpected ferocity." He reached forward and clamped his iron grip down around both of Augustine's hands, lifting the scientist into the air and away from the link chamber. "I suppose now is as good a time as any."

The doctor struggled in his grip. "Time for what?"

He ignored the woman, lost as he was in his own thoughts. "Ok, so, what was the line again?" Once the words hit his mind he started to say it, and then sighed. "Oh there is just no way to say this in any dignified way, now is there?" He looked Augustine dead in the eye. "Looks like Lady
Luck just gave you the finger.
"

He took a deep breath…

Grave's Bog:

Acheron Killgore shot what seemed to be the millionth Navi and finally the blue tide seemed to end. There were so many bodies arrayed in front of him he imagined that he could take the blood from them and fill a pool large enough for Shirahoshi to live in. Not that he would, the adorable crybaby would get so scared that she'd bust an artery, and he'd feel perfectly horrible about it.

He let out a mentally exhausted breath and dropped back to sit down on the pile of corpses, he was tired enough to not care. "Ugh, damn, maybe I should have taken the hunting job instead." He looked skyward, spreading his hands in exasperation. "What the hell dad, we had a deal."

Instantly, almost as if in direct response to his indignation, a thunderous roar sundered the sky, shaking the very ground just with the power of sound. "I'MA FIRIN' MAH LAZAH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARHG!"

A pure black beam appeared in the sky, shaking leaves from the trees and bowling him backwards into the pile of Navi corpses just with the shockwave of its passing. And as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone, just echoing reverberations of his father's bellow remained.

He sprang to his feet, oblivious to the macabre state of his own person, and pumped his fist into the sky. "Yeah! That's my Old Man, that's my dad! You hear me? That is my dad!" He spun on his heel, some sixth sense warning him of an incoming sleight, and leveled a pointing finger at his aunt. "Don't you dare say anything perverted to ruin the moment."

He looked skyward again, revising his opinion of the whole day. All in all, totally worth it.