Pryde Kitty: I love it when I'm right. - Shadowcat is one of the coolest characters, but I gotta say, Nightcrawler and Gambit are tied for my favs. Blue fuzzy and Cajun card-shark, need I say more?
I have made a decision. Since I can't seem to find a website or source that can detail me on Saffron, I'm just gonna say screw it and play freelance with the whole damn thing. Revamps may come later when the manga/episodes containing the pain-in-the-ass Phoenix come out or if/when I actually find a source. That being said--WHOO-HOO, I'm scot-free for the summer!! Hellooo, sleeping in! [Is waving pom-poms] Let the story continue!
Chapter 16: Web-walker's Weavings
====================
Yusuke watches in deep admiration at the display of skill before him: in the yard of the temple belonging to his teacher Genkai the Psychic, Hiei and Rei playfully spar. Light flashes off of Hiei's blade and the silver-wire bracelet around the girl's wrist, virtually the only things visible to the untrained eye. Both wear smiles as they dodge and weave, bounce and attack and block to bounce away again in an incredibly intricate dance that takes them all over the yard.
The Spirit Detective follows as the match shifts beyond the yard and into the forested area just beyond, the trees providing both cover and launch points for the pair. Finally the branch that Rei is crouched on snaps under her weight, and she starts falling. She manages to get her feet under her and lands safely, but the point of her opponent's katana is centimeters from her throat when she looks up. "Ah, damn," she says cheerily, "lost again to some dratted bit of wood."
"Good match, for a ningen," Hiei replies in almost as cheerful a tone, and Yusuke snorts.
"Hey, Hiei, did ya forget I'm human? How'd ya like to take on the guy who beat Toguro?" Hiei looks over at him.
"Is that a real challenge, Detective?"
"If it is, I'm betting all my cash on Yusuke," Rei says firmly. "The guy who killed that demon is going to easily thrash an apparition who's put in rank 'B'." The look Hiei gives her can be called nothing else but baleful. "Sorry, Hiei, but in terms of pure power Yusuke would flatten you. You'd gain a minor advantage with speed and maneuverability, but then again, since I wasn't there for the Tournament, I'm not certain as to what Yusuke is fully capable of." She clears her throat, drawing the diminutive apparition's full attention back to her. "Now, would you please move the katana?"
A short while later, Hiei and Rei are sitting outside Genaki's dojo while her unfortunate apprentice is getting drilled. From the sounds of it, he's being made to balance on a spike while in a fingerstand again, with just his spirit energy being used to save him from having his entire arm ripped up. It's a favorite torture of Genkai's when Yusuke is being particularly stubborn about something.
"Did you mean what you said earlier?" Rei jumps at the quiet words, turning wide, startled green eyes at her friend.
"Oro? About what?"
"About Yusuke's abilities compared to mine."
Rei sighs. "One of the techniques I know and can use is called 'Soul Reading' and is actually a means to read a person's ki, their spirit energy, as Koenma calls it. Any of our energies compared to a regular human or apparition is like comparing a bonfire to a candle-flame, and being able to tell what kind of fuel is being used and for what kind of fire. Incredibly enough, when you're comparing energies like yours and mine to people like Yusuke and that boy Ranma Saotome, it's like comparing a lit match to a wildfire. There is simply no comparison. As much as it pains me to admit, I will never be able to reach the levels of physical ability people like them are capable of. Kind of like that old saying, 'there's always someone who's gonna be stronger than you'."
The two are silent for a moment, and then Hiei speaks again. "And I? Will I always be in the shadow of the Spirit Detective?"
A laugh. "Hardly! You're one of the bogey men for the other two realms, Hiei. Good and bad. Yusuke's just the bogey man for the bad guys. Apparitions and spirits will remember you when the last human dies, while Yusuke will be all but half-forgotten when the Spirit Detectives after him do something of equal or greater challenge." A snort of amusement. "Kurama in his Youko form is almost as scary as you sometimes, by the way. That abrupt shift in his power levels is nearly frightening, and when you go into your fully-demonic form I about have heart attack." Her eyes suddenly hold a distant look to them, as though she reads from something Hiei cannot see. "Now, Ranma. He has the potential to be the strongest person in the world, period. Greater than the 'Z-fighters' you hear about sometimes on the other island, greater than that monster called Cell, greater than anything on this planet and many, many others. It's positively awing to think of how much potential is locked away in that human body."
"You keep mentioning this 'Ranma'. Have I met him?"
"He was the boy with grey eyes and the black pigtail, wearing the Chinese clothing. At the sparring match between me and Akane, remember?"
"Hn." A gleam in the maroon eyes. "So he'd be the ultimate challenge?"
"Wait a year or two, Hiei. He hasn't unlocked the half of it, yet."
The koorime seems to consider something, and glances sideways at his companion. "What is his balancing force, then? You told Kurama and I that everything has a balancing force."
A secretive smile, the one Hiei recognizes as Rei being her most cat-like. "Not what, Hiei. Who."
====
"RANMA NO BAKA!" BANG!
"Oh, my. It appears we have another hole in our roof. I'd best call the repairman."
Five minutes later, a female voice. "Geez, you tomboy, didja hafta knock me all the way to Kuno's mansion? I still ain't sure I ditched Kodachi."
"Akane, don't put holes in the ceiling like that."
Glare. "What way should I put them there then, Daddy?"
Fountain tears. "Oh, Akane, don't look at me like that!"
"Great, Akane, you had to set him off again. You know how Dad still is sometimes." Akane sighs and flops down onto the cushion she had vacated a few moments before.
"Sorry, Daddy. I should have dragged him outside before hitting him."
Ranma flinches at the temperature of the water a considerate Kasumi pours over her/his head and glares at his fiancée. "What'd I do, anyway? You ain't hit me like that for a few weeks, why start again now??"
A sigh from the short-haired girl. "You know, I'm not really sure. Something's had me on edge all morning. I'm sorry for hitting you through the roof again, Ranma. No hard feelings?"
The martial-artist shakes his head. "Nah. Tell the truth, I kinda missed my morning bird's eye view of Nerima district. Kinda." The two smile at each other, and then leap about a foot in the air when Genma and Soun start gushing again about 'joining the schools' and all that bull. "Whoa, hey, loookit the time, wouldja?! C'mon, Akane, we better get to school!"
"Right behind you!" And the two flee, leaving Nabiki to walk all by her lonesome. Or not, the materialistic Tendo daughter finds out, as she walks out to the front gate. Waiting there is the handsome boy who's been horning in on some of her betting pools, which have been reduced lately along with Akane's shows of temper.
"Saw your sister and her guy a second ago," he says, grinning lopsidedly at Nabiki, "so I thought I'd walk you to school. We can talk about things on the way."
"Like what? And I'll have you know it's a five-hundred yen charge per ten minutes to walk with me."
A laugh. "I was thinking about a partnership. What do you say? That way, we can split the profits and not have to waste time or money competing against each other." He hands her the correct-sized yen-bill and they start walking, deep into discussion about some ideas they both had that wouldn't work with only one person running them.
The front yard to the school is littered with unconscious boys and one very pretzeled Kuno, Akane and Ranma nowhere in sight. Rei is poking at Kuno with his own bokken and looks up at the two with a grin. "Hey, Nabiki-san. Tomo-san. I'm pleased to report your sister has gotten even better at dispatching Blue-Bozo here, Nabiki-san. Oh, and it looks like you owe me some money."
"Oh, really?"
"Mm-hm. After all, I should get royalties for shots like these." And she holds up several candid pictures of herself in various locations, including P.E. with her gym clothes on. "How much have you been selling these for?"
"Couple thousand yen each," is the casual reply. Rei laughs, standing up and tucking the photos into her bag.
"Naughty Nabiki. You like gouging rich fools, doncha?"
"When the opportunity presents itself. Tell you what, Rei, meet me at lunch and we'll include you in our business discussions."
"Mm, perhaps tomorrow. I have business to take care of myself during lunch." Rei declines politely, and heads into the school by the fastest means possible. She jumps. All the way to the third floor, where she simply catches hold of a windowsill and pulls herself in.
"That girl'd do great as an Olympic competitor," Tomo mutters to Nabiki, who sighs an agreement and informs him how hard it is to convince any of the local good martial-artists to compete for anything besides water from Jusenkyo.
====
"Lessee, link this here, cross here," Rei mutters to herself as she walks in an apparently random pattern on the roof of the school during a break. Hiei simply can't tell what she's doing, but apparently the three other Element kids can, since that girl named Kohaku tells Rei she tangling something. Rei walks backwards to the previous turn point and Kohaku nods cheerfully.
"That's done it, I think. Koi, what'd you think?"
"The time-constraints formulas look about right, Falcon. Horse?"
"No flaws in the linkage pattern, and no bumps in the distance-folds. I think it's ready, Fox."
The red-head smiles. "If Taro found out we were doing this, he'd give me such a talking to. Oh, and Hiei, your ki just flashed. You need some more practice with it."
"It would seem so," he agrees blandly, appearing beside her. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"Oh, just a quick transport spell, is all. We have a lunch meeting with someone too far to reach before class resumes. I'd invite you, but we'd have to rework the whole thing and we don't have time for that. Koenma's got nothing for you to do, I take it."
"Nothing. Much longer and I may go mad."
"Well, the results of my meeting should stir up some trouble for you to relieve your boredom on." Hiei gives her one of his rare smiles and vanishes again. Rei cocks her head, 'feeling' for him, and smiles. "Damn, that koorime moves quick. Twenty miles away already according to his Thread."
"Good. I checked his head and you're right, that boy's got too many memory gaps as it is." Kalerian shakes his head. "Damned if I know how he gets into the places that he does."
"Neither do--eeek!" Rei shrieks as a small blur suddenly attaches itself to her chest, cackling.
"Hiya, sweet-stuff! Nice place you got here." Rei slams him into the roof headfirst, snarling.
"Damn you, Happosai! I thought I'd woven you onto a new uncharted desert isle!"
Kohaku's lip curls. "Ech, is that the old pervert the girls keep telling us about, who kept raiding the girl's locker-room for underwear? He doesn't look like much, does he?"
"Tell you what, my gorgeous young goddess, why don't you'n me go out on a date and I show you just how good I am," the chibified lecherous Grandmaster of Anything-Goes Martial Arts suggests cheerfully from his perch on Kohaku's shoulder. With a similar growl as Rei, Kohaku just punts him skywards, gasping when her chest bounces more than it should.
"Damn him! He swiped my bra!"
"Whatta haul, whatta haul!" Happosai cackles as he flies off, Kohaku's bra dangling from one hand.
"Remind me to kill him later," Kohaku mutters to Rei, who nods in furious agreement.
"Right, right, but we've got somewhere to be right now, remember?" Kalerian says gently, already in his persona's costume. This time he also wears the face and form of himself several years older, as does Masaya. Short, neat beards color the boys' chins and creep up their jawlines.
"True," Rei sighs, and in a cloud of threads and mist, respectively, she and Kohaku change forms. An adult Rei looks at her friends and gives them a smile. "Now, shall we go scare a little respect into a bird-king?"
====
"Sire! Great Emperor Saffron!" A child with long black hair and two golden streaks on either side of his face looks up from his toys. A bloody, battered and half-conscious Chard is almost dragged into the throne room by Kiima's two lackeys. His arrogance vanishes into an expression of deep concern, and he pushes the table with his toys away from him.
"What's going on??" he pipes angrily, using one tiny hand to check the injured man's pulse. "Why is Chard like this??"
"Message," Chard gasps, and half-collapses on the floor, too heavy for the others to support. "From…Weaver."
"Honestly, I gave you a few wounds and it takes you this long to arrive, Chard-san?" a mocking voice questions, and the Phoenix man flinches, a small sound of terror escaping from him. Saffron looks from him to the four adults standing before him, and back again to his injured subject. "I expected you to have given him the message days ago. But I guess you weren't as strong as you thought you were, are you?"
Chard shakes his head fervently, and the woman with ruby-colored hair smiles. "Who are you?" Saffron demands, standing. The four merely look at him, unimpressed--even though we know who they are, he doesn't, and a six-year-old sized boy is nothing to be impressed about.
"I am the Weaver, Emperor Saffron. I hold all destinies in my hands. You should be thankful I do not level this mountain before another second passes," the woman snaps, voice ringing in the high-vaulted chamber. "Your foolish subject chose the wrong person to brand, and dared to try and lay claim to one of this world's masters."
"I am this world's only master, stupid human woman. You need to get your facts straight."
"Amusing, soul-sister." The woman with silvery-white hair smiles a rather predatory grin and glances at the first woman. "He's exactly the arrogant little prick you described him as."
"Unfortunately," the first woman agrees, glancing over at a man with sea-green hair dressed--in Saffron's opinion--peasant clothes. "Koi, you doing all right?"
The man gives the woman a half-smile. "I'm all right, Fox. You should be asking Falcon. She's the one who's Queen of Air, not I."
"Who the hell are you people??" Saffron demands coldly, a staff bearing a crescent moon with open-side up and three rings suddenly in his hands, warm air starting to circle around him. A gesture from the silver woman and the heat and breeze is gone. Saffron gapes.
"You don't listen very well, do you, bratling?" Falcon questions, voice sharp. "I control everything air, I am its ruler. Which means, by definition, I am your specific ruler as well. So just shut up, sit down, and prove those things on your head you call ears are for more than decoration."
Kiima steps forward, eyes glittering, and suddenly has three feet of steel held against her neck. "I wouldn't try that, little bird," the man with amber hair says calmly. "We're here for only talk. Don't make us turn it into bloodshed." She reluctantly steps back to her place beside the throne, and settles for Death Glares all round. The man is suddenly back with the other three, and no one has seen him move.
"You want to know who we are, child-Emperor. Do you ask in earnest? You will not like the answer."
"Tell me who you are."
"Very well, then. Allow me to manifest my Office." The red-haired woman takes a single step away from the group and raises a hand. Cupped in the palm is a crystalline spider the size of an apricot, that turns in a circle before dropping from her hand on a nearly-invisible thread. It dangles for a moment before beginning to spin--literally, like a top. Light begins to grow from it, and the spider becomes a globe of white light with a small core of crimson red. Threads, rainbow-colored ones, begin to swirl out of the light like a tangled spool on a high-speed sewing machine. "I am the Weaver of Destinies, Queen of all things heat and flame. To put it simply, little phoenix, I am Fate and the Element of Fire."
"I am Time, and the Element of Water, and the one wronged by your servant," the man in blue nearly spits, pulling up that worn sleeve to reveal the feather-brand. Several guards step forward and stop in their tracks, hands going to their throats and water pouring out of their noses and mouths. "Toy with me at your own peril." The guards retreat, coughing, and the water ceases.
"I am Life, and Air," the silver woman says calmly.
"I am Spirit, and Earth." The last man, the one who had held the sword to Kiima's throat, stands there with the point of his blade sunk into the thick carpet, hands resting on the pommel-nut.
"The reason we are here, is to inform you in no uncertain terms, that you are to withhold any and all activity in the world beyond this mountain, save for the collection of edibles and clothing, blankets, fuel, etc. for the duration of two months. This is by our decree," the invisible force of the four's joined ki fills the room and makes it hard to breathe, "and any breaking of this decree is punishable by total extinction. Your life and soul will no longer exist after the first offense. Is this clear?" The look in those dangerous emerald eyes brooks no argument, least of all from the terrified Chard and the stunned Saffron. "Very well, then. I shall be seeing you in two months, Emperor Saffron."
Again that mocking smile as they vanish. "You be a good boy, now."
====
The foursome rematerialize on the roof of the school, still in their adult forms, and they nearly jump out of their skins when Hiei comments, "That's an interesting trick you four have."
"Jesu, Hiei!" Rei snaps, reverting back to her normal body and school uniform in a cloud of cinnamon-scented smoke. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
Kalerian shakes his head in resignation as the rest of them revert as well. "You weren't kidding, Rei. He really does have cat in him somewhere."
"Told you." She turns her attention back to Hiei. "So. What's your opinion on this?"
He regards her with those unreadable maroon eyes from his perch on the fence. "About what? You have a similar trick to that idiot toddler, and another I wouldn't mind learning. Mind you, the clothes are strange, but since I don't have to wear them I don't care." Mild confusion darts through his eyes at the sigh of relief from all four.
"Hiei, you just gave the safest answer. Tell Kurama I'll see him after school, all right?" And with that, Rei drags her other three friends back into the school building just as the end-of-lunch bell rings, leaving Hiei to stare at the access door blankly.
Safest answer?
====
Two weeks later…
"Damn, Ranma, what happened to you?" Rei questions when Ranma drags himself into the emptying dojo. Several of the younger students look at him curiously, but the older ones are well used to seeing walking wounded (especially Ranma) around Nerima, and merely give him sympathetic glances.
"One of the longest weeks of my life," he groans, going over to a bench and flopping down. "My mom showed up and took my girl side clothes shopping, and then some guy shows up, tricks Mom into thinking he's me, and tries to get the second half of a technique Pop created. So then I hafta learn it, and end up getting into this fight with the guy--"
"And emerge victorious, I'm guessing?"
She is rewarded with a quick lopsided grin. "Yeah. Like usual. So now Mom knows he ain't me, the first technique is sealed away with the second again, and I don't hafta worry about it anymore. My Mom's a diff'rent story."
Rei sits on the floor beside the bench, cross-legged and fully attentive. "How so?"
"Pop's stupidity goes back a long way. When I was a little kid, I think two or three he told me, Pop took me off on the huge long training trip I told you about."
A nod. "Ah, yes, the one that ended at Jusenkyo."
"Hai. So before we leave, he makes a contract with her that says I'll either grow up to be 'a man among men'--whatever the hell that means--or he and I commit seppuku and Mom acts as our second before slitting her own throat."
"And since you're the unlucky person who took a dunking in 'Spring of Drowned Girl' that presents some serious problems." Rei finishes for him, nodding. "Oh, that sounds exactly like something that stupid panda would do. No offense, Ranma."
"Nah, 's okay. I feel the same way. He's sold me out--literally--too many times for me to really trust him or even respect him much anymore." Ranma winces and puts his right hand on left shoulder, rotating his left arm in its socket and listening unhappily to it pop several times.
"Sounds like you need a full-body going over."
"A what?"
Cheerful exasperation, "A massage, stupid." Ranma's face lights up.
"Really? You'd do that? I'd go to Tofu's place but Kasumi mentioned goin' over there--"
"And no one is safe when Kasumi's around him," Rei laughs, standing up and walking towards the small storage cubby in the back of the dojo. "Take your shirt off and lie on your stomach on the floor and I'll see what I can do." Happily Ranma complies, dropping his ragged shirt to the floor and stretching out on the floor, grinning with anticipation. Most of the kids who get into fights regularly know that Rei is the best to go to when you need to get muscles loosened. His shirt gets balled up to use as a cushion for his chin. Rei walks back a moment later with a small squeeze bottle filled with an apple-green liquid. "You like the melon-herb scent, right?"
"Hai." Rei grins at him and sets the bottle down beside him, straddling his upper legs (A/N: Minds outta the gutter! :P) and placing her hands on either side of his spine at the small of his back.
"First things first. Inhale." Obediently he takes a deep breath. "Exhale." Slowly he releases the air while she pushes firmly upwards along his spine. Numerous cracks and pops are heard, the sound of his spine realigning. Ranma grunts slightly as she does it once more before he finishes the breath, and chuckles.
"Damn, that was worse'n last time." He winces as she pushes down on his hips, an especially loud snap! echoing off the ceiling and walls.
"I can't imagine why," is the very dry reply as Rei reaches over and grabs the bottle of massage oil. She squeezes a small amount into one palm and sets the bottle down again before rubbing her hands together to coat them both and warm them. Ranma inhales appreciatively as the sinus-clearing scent of melon and several sharp herbs waft past his nose.
He spends the next fifteen lovely minutes getting turned into a puddle. Rei goes over every single muscle in his back, arms and neck, making Ranma feel as though he's now mostly water once all the tension is eased away and his skin heats from the application of the oil. Then she goes over his legs, pushing up the legs of his pants and politely keeping her hands away from…err, inappropriate areas, going no higher that midway up his thigh but all the way down to his toes, popping those as well. She has him roll onto his back for his feet, though, since that would be more comfortable for both of them.
Neither say much during the massage besides a few acidic comments on the state of Ranma's body from Rei and a few defensive ones from Ranma, and by the time Rei is finished, Ranma is half asleep and looking utterly relaxed, not to mention about ready to start purring.
"Bet that feels better, hm?" Rei questions gently as she cleans the oil off her hands with a towel, giving the back of one hand an appreciative sniff and her friend a smile. "Must say, I approve of your choice of oils. I like this one, too."
"Hmm," is the drowsy reply. Rei just chuckles and helps him up and over to the vacated bench, laying him down and grabbing a light blanket and pillow from a chest by the cubby. She gets him settled and murmurs one last thing to him before slipping out and turning off the dojo lights.
"You're darned lucky we don't have anymore classes today. Sleep tight, Wild Horse."
====
"Evening, Ranma. Sleep well?" Ranma yawns and stretches languidly before smiling at the cheerful foursome sitting on the lawn and playing cards by torchlight. It's full dark by now, and the sky is filled with an unusual amount of stars tonight.
"Yeah, thanks, 'Rian. How come so many stars are out?" He takes a seat beside the boy and looks at the pile of cards.
"Oh, just a little blackout. A few of the female Wrecking Crew were looking for you and took out a couple of key powerlines when they bumped into each other. The power company should be getting them back up soon, though." Kalerian studies his hand of cards, then glances at the discard pile and scoops up five, laying out all of his cards with a triumphant smile. "Gin! For the third time!"
Groans meet his declaration and the other three throw their cards playfully at him, all of them laughing. Ranma scratches the back of his head thoughtfully. "Since I got a nice nap, they didn't find me?"
"Nah," Kohaku replies, scooping up the scattered cards and beginning to put them back into a neat stack, "we gave them the ol' runaround bit and sent them off chasing a Mousse."
"Huh?"
"Sent 'em on a wild goose chase, Ranma," Masaya translates with a grin. "So what put you out for--" a glance at his watch, "--nearly six hours?"
"Long week and a real good massage," Ranma mumbles, and is grinned at by three of them. Rei just shrugs and helps gather the rest of the cards.
"Rei turned you into a puddle, eh?" Kalerian questions cheerfully. "I love her massages. They'll liquefy you to darn near perfection, and that's on a bad day." The others nod enthusiastically and Rei blushes slightly.
"Aw, c'mon, guys, I'm not that good. I can think of several people better than me."
Masaya leans over and lightly flicks her nose. "Yeah, and most of them are middle aged and been studying for decades. Cut yerself some slack, Fox. Hey, Ranma, you wanna borrow some of my threads? I checked in on you earlier and noticed your shirt's close to the rag-bin." A quick glance. "And your pants ain't far off, either. You're about my size, my stuff should fit."
"Well--"
"Lemme put it this way, bro," Masaya adds logically, "if'n you're wearing something that's gonna be easy to tear, if you bump into any of those girls they might take advantage of that fact."
"Point taken," Ranma says quickly. "Thanks, Masaya."
"Aw," pouts Kohaku as Masaya and Ranma rise and walk towards the house, "I was enjoying the view." Ranma turns bright red and starts walking faster.
"Think you scared him," is the light rebuke from Kalerian as he begins to shuffle the deck. "Fox, while those two are inside and Hiei is currently absent--he is, right?"
"Mh. His Thread has him back by Yusuke's place. I guess they finally got a mission."
"Okay. Since Mr. Pyro-kitty isn't here, why don't you let your ears stretch?"
"Nah. I can wait for a little longer." Rei grins at him, flashing her fangs in the firelight. "But thanks for thinking of me."
"Sweeto!" BANG! And a burned Happosai goes flying towards the nearest star, with Rei's shirt.
"Besides, I hafta go get a new shirt and go pound someone."
A laugh. "Have fun, sis."
Kohaku looks up from the cards. "Want some help?"
"No, next time can be your turn. Thanks anyway."
====
Late that night (or very early the next morning), Rei sits on the roof just above her bedroom and looks up at the stars. She gives a deep sigh and then glances furtively around her before cocking her head in the pose we are beginning to recognize as her running Threads through her awareness. Satisfied that those near her are deep asleep, she sighs again and stretches. When she comes out of the stretch, we notice new additions to her anatomy.
The sharply-rounded ears of a real fox emerge on either side of her head, a bushy tail curls around her hips and under her bent knees, all of it the same color as her hair except for inky black tips. Her eyes are a deeper green color, the pupils elliptical instead of round. She scrutinizes her new claws and smiles.
"I wonder when Ryoga will figure out he isn't just human?"
====================
mwahahahaOW! [rubs head]
Starling: Don't start with the evil laugh again, sugar.
Least I don't sound like Kodachi.
Starling: Thank the gods for that.
So what do you think, everyone? One of my readers was a bit disappointed that I didn't end the last chapter with a cliffie, so I decided to oblige.
Starling: and here comes the mob.
Crud. [takes off running] Read and Review, thanks!