foul play in England

First topic message reminder :

" Alice made reservation I believe." Charles said to a man in a dapper brown coat and dress pants at the front desk of an inn. Charles himself wore a black suit with a cotton button up shirt underneath the black blazer.
" Yes sure right this way." The man led him away from the dining area where men from all asorted parts of the English empire were getting drunk and acting as though this were a brothel towards the woman waitresses. It disgusted Charles and he would have beaten all of them to a bloody pulp if he didn't have a mission as it were.
" Your room is the third door on the left." The man finally told Charles after leading him up stairs and threw a hall to the left. Charles fixed his tie and his jet black hair, ruffling it so it didn't look like he had cared to style it even though all men were to look at their best charles found that deplorable and refused to ever look too neat aside for the suite because a suite on a man just looked far too good. Never the less he opened the door to the room.

he moved to his work table in silence grabbing a towel and wiping the grease and the tooth paste from his hands. The silence killed Charles he fidgeted in nervous expectation until-" Come on Duke just tell me!" He shouted.
" I'm getting to it hold your horses!" Duke snapped back he threw the towel towards the messy area and put the glove back on the workbench and finally closed Charles panel on his back. " Now I'm sure you've heard of mercenary and kill for hire groups since your one of them." Duke started.
Charles nodded following so far. " Well there are how should I say the opposite of those groups are protection groups, the biggest and most power of said groups are The Knights of Purgatory," Duke looked grim. " That is their mark." He said pointing to the cross and snake. " they're strongly connected to the Church and Royals they're big news."
Charles gripped the end of the table until his knuckles were white. " the only force on this earth that even stands a chance is Kingdom Come, their the opposite of the Knights being assassins like yourselves. Except the Knights and another group of their kind the Freemasons are allied not even Kingdom Come can take them on, if the Queen's in their hands you might as well give up."Duke advised .
Charles let his grip relax. he stepped away from the table and put on the tunic. " thanks Duke but you know as well as I do why we can't. " Charles stretched his right arm ." Thank you for everything." He thanked Duke and started to leave.
" If your serious about this then you should head towards London you'll head into THAT town on the way their, go to the local taverns and ask for a a Blue Bloody Marry." Duke gave him the instructions.
Charles nodded and thanked Duke again.

Alice listened very carefully to everything Duke said. Things had gotten very interesting now, and it was time to bring on their A-game. Alice nodded to Duke in thanks and then followed Charles without a word. Something just wasn't sitting right inside her, but it didn't seem to be extremely important at that point in time.

When they had left the Interface and were back out on the streets Charles gave a mighty sigh. " Well things just got ten times more complicated huh, we'll have to ask for double the pay after this is done." Charles said looking on the bright side with a small smile. He ruffled his hair with his newly made arm. " I guess we should get a carriage, and start heading to-" Charles shivered he didn't even wanna say the name of the town. " just to you know where." He finished.

"Yes, this job is definitely the most interesting I've ever taken. And you shouldent let them off that easy, i think this may be worth even more than double." Alice said with a small, sly grin. She stood by the roadside, looking for a carrige to flag down.

Charles couldn't help but feel the excitement when Alice was also into the job he didn't know if it was something about her esper powers or what but when she was feeling the rush the mission always turned out to be a great adventure. Charles say that Alice's eyes turned to the rode he figured she would be looking for a carriage. " I don't think any of them will drive us once we say where we need to head we'd have a better chance stealing a ride than buying one." Charles said not seriously meaning it but then realizing that was probably a good plan.

"Ah, so we're going to be doing a litte Grand-Theft-Carrige. I like it." Alice grinned, a little more than usual. She was more than willing to roll up her sleeves and lend her comrade her sixth sense and esper power whenever it was needed. She started to sense the heartbeat of two working horses and nodded to Charles, signaling to him that this was their best bet.

Charles rolled his shoulder and moved from the cobble stone side path to the middle of the street he placed his right hand onto his left's bicep remembering his right arm was now the weakest part of his body. That would cause problems considering Charles was right handed. Charles focused now though the carriage started to race towards him the driver shouting to move he couldn't stop the steads they were in a hurry now going full steam ahead. Charles pulled his fist back pulling his entire shoulder with it while keeping his legs facing the carriage.

The carriage closed in fast as it was right about to hit Charles he swung his fist but opened it so that upon contact the full brunt of the carriage's momentum hit Charles' palm and it just flat stopped, the driver didn't though he was sent flying over Charles' head and off farther down the street he face planted but was alright just a little bruised.

Charles dusted himself off picking imaginary lint from his cloth he moved to the side of the wagon and open the door taking out the steps he turned to Alice. " After you madam." he said making extravagent gestures towards the door way.

Alice was so impressed by Charles display of sheer force she almost clapped. "Why thank you." Alice grinned as Charles opened the carrige door for her, bowing a little and then climbing into the carrige.

" My pleasure." Charles replied and hopped up onto the driver's bench of the carriage. " alright gitty up!" Charles said as he tugged on the reins which was way more efficent than cracking a whip considering his inhuman strength. The horses raced off at full speed.

several hours later~~

Charles hopped off from his driver seat and cracked his neck it was really giving him a pain, that long drive had been nothing but boring so Charles had leaned against the actual wagon the whole time and it had left a sharp pain in his neck. he kicked open the door to the carriage now in a bad mood. " Welcome to the lawless town of Birchvale." Charles said to Alice spreading his arms wide.

Alice herself was now in a less-than-pleasent mood , and she was quick to get out of that old carrige despite where she was at that moment. "Great, so glad to be here." she grumbled as she rolled her shoulders and cracked her sore neck and back. Those bumpy carrige rides really sucked.

Charles quickly cut the reins off the horses and let them run free as they wished. He looked over the street they were at the start of already he could pick out several bodies of either dead people or passed out drug attics. " Alright let's work quickly so we don't have to be here long." Charles said trying to get this over with. " It's been a while since I've been here, the businesses never stay open for more than a couple years or so." Charles seemed to have a bit of sadness in his voice at the failure of the businesses in this town but only for a moment before he was over it. " The tavern Duke was talking about must be somewhere in the center of town then." Charles reasoned and started to walk it to the center of town dreading how the town would most likely get worse and worse as they got closer to the center.

Alice followed quietly and cautiously behind Charles, keeping an eye out for anything that looked shifty or dangerous. Of course, she could always just sense it, too.

ooc: okay before I forget cause I keep forgetting there are two people tailing Alice and Charles and I wanted to tell you cause Alice would probably know this by her sensing powers.

Ic: Just as Charles had predicted the town was only more and more like a gangs hang out as they reached the main street of town. Charles had already seen several knives pulled out as though to scare him or Alice. He scoffed at the pathetic people who thought a knife was threatening they would mostly look at him like he was crazy after that and walk away. Businesses weren't exactly booming but at least a pretty normal number of people went about buying things from shops and such.
" How does this place function?" Charles wondered since most people either stole or murdered for anything they needed. He sighed and looked around trying to find a tavern as Duke had instructed. He saw one off in a corner of his eye. " I suppose it's that one." Charles guessed the tavern he had motioned towards wasn't the greatest of places. The only enterance was from the door that Charles had noticed just a simple wooden door. He started to move towards it.

Alice stared straight ahead, but only for one reason. She could feel two presences lurking nearby, but she didn't want them to know she was onto them. "Be careful." Alice warned especially strongly.

Charles raised an eyebrow. Her tone He pondered it for a second but only a second he realized something was going on if it were to be a fight Charles would be more than happy to give them one. He cracked his knuckles and opened the door they opened immedaitly to stairs his face contorted into a look of pure disgust at the filthy smell from the bottom of the steps. He tried to ignore it as he made his way down.

the stair led straight into a dimly lit bar. Punks and the assorted thug went about their business slurping down alcoholic beverage after another. Charles sat on a bar stool face opposite of the bartender who walked over while wiping clean a mug with a rag. " what'll it be." He asked his voice gruff and unpleasant.

" I'll have a blue bloody marry my good sir." Charles said rather slyly and softly. Looking at the man to see the reaction, he squinted and looked around but the bar goers didn't seem to notice anything." The far edge of town there's a lake the things you want to know are somewhere there don't ask me where but it's there." He said and place a glass right by Charles. Charles grabbed the glass and drank it whole the liquid fire burning down his throat. he didn't like beer it always tasted horrible to him. " thanks." he answered and slipped out of the bar. " Again we have to leave quickly I swear it feels like we're on a wild goose chase. " He complained to Alice.

"Well, that's just the way it is with our job." Alice sighed with a small grin. She didn't order anything, just gave a small wave to the bartender to let him know she was fine.

" I suppose." Charles agreed. The walk to the lake wasn't a long one but when they got there Charles seemed tensed he kept carefully away from the water as he scanned he immedaite area and decided there was nothing here. " Okay this was pointless let's go back and kill that bar tender for giving us useless information." Charles said very casually.

ooc: the two stalker people that were following them are below them.

"Wait." Alice growled quietly. The two presences she sensed that we're making her feel so uneasy were now clearer than they had been before, and worse they were right nearby. Or rather, right below them. "I have a feeling what were looking for is right. Under. Our. Feet." Alice hinted, putting emphasis on the last four words in the sentence.

Charles nodded understanding. Below us is only bedrock and limestone and i don't have a drill that can dig threw that. He stroked his nonexistant beard since he had shaved it only yesterday. He squatted at the waters edge and gritting his teeth a grim expression spread across his face. He pointed down into the water looking at Alice. " This isn't good." He whispered to himself biting his thumb nail. " They shouldn't be able to hear us threw the bed rock." Charles said to Alice. " This isn't good, they're probably in a cave system the lake will most likely connect to it." He sounded very nervous as he said it eyeing the water dangerously.

"I'm trying to locate discrepincies in the aura of the area around the lake that could possibly be the exit of a cave system, but I'm getting nothing. Perhaps they've disguised it....." Alcie mused as she read the flow of aura in the land.

" I guess I get the feeling they want us to come though." Charles noted he sighed. " well there's no avoiding it we need to get down there." He said as he took off the tattered tunic Duke had given him.He turned to Alice. " Follow behind let me go first, it'll probably be an ambush." He warned as he dove into the water. Charles being made of mostly metal sank like a rock. He hit the bottom in a few seconds he looked at the shore he had previously been on. " hmmmmmm." He murmered as he extended his leg to the side and almost started to change it into a his hammer but stopped and just walked over to the shore the lake was a good 50 meters deep so he figured he could hit the side of it without the danger of the shore collasping.

Charles breathed out causing bubbles to glub up to the surface. Charles like normal people needed oxygen to move his body but he didn't need it to live so he could afford to breath out in the bottom of the lake. As he breathed he swung and with a heavy punch rocks started cracking off of the land and as he swam up for more air he saw the cave.
Charles broke the surface and took a breath before talking. " Yeah the cave's down there it was hidden by some rocks but they're gone now. He said as he bobbed there just above the water.

Alice followed Charles down just like he had asked. She was a surprisingly good swimmer and could hold her breath for a good amount of time. She also saw the cave when Charles unearthed it. "Brilliant. Well what do you want to do? We could risk checking it or we can move on." Alice asked him.

" I guess we should risk it." Charles decided and dropped below the surface. He swan quickly to the cave before his body forced him way down to the bottom. He slipped into the cave and looked around still in water he looked up and was luck enough to see that there was a high ceiling to the cave meaning it extended out the way he was facing and wasn't filled with water. He turned to Alice and pointed up while swimming that way. Charles head broke the water's surface and he gasped for air only to be met with a kick in the face.

The force of the kick left him above the water holding his chin and just as he started to fall down back into the drink he was met with another kick. The one right to the gut blasting him into the cave wall.
" Finally we've been waiting for you." The attack said playfully. Charles looked her over she was as tall as Charles wearing a skin tight black jumpsuit. Charles' vision moved to another person in the room it was a man with close cropped blonde hair wearing sunglasses that prevented Charles from seeing his eyes.
The man spoke this time. " Automation model number zero zero Charles father wants word with you."
" Automation models zero one widow," He said back naming the Girl first," and model 34 Venwith." Charles coughed

Alice instinctively jumped forward to protect her partner, even when they were in the water. Alice knew that of the team she was the one who was the better candidate to be a body shield because it was a know fact that only Espers could kill other Espers. Those guys could beat her to a bloody messy pulp, but without another esper to finish the job she would live on to see another day. She had no clue who they were, but she knew she didn't like them.

Charles slid off the wall in a groggy state he looked to the woman he knew the name of widow.He watched as the same noise as when he changed his body was auidable. His vision finally steadied and he saw what Widow had been doing from her hip several holes had opened up and from them sleek spider like legs had came out they were longer than her normal legs but a large bit making the rest of her body hang in the air. " I don't know why Dad was so subtle he should have just named you black widow like the insect you represent." Charles mocked.
" I'm not an insect!" She shouted and struck out with one of her spider legs Charles side stepped the leg blasted right into the lime stone and bed rock wall. Charles blinked at the destrucive power. I get hit with one of those and it'll run me threw. He thought his eyes growing wide. If only I could morph then I'd win easily. Charles regretted he couldn't morph if he did then water would get into his inter workings and disrupt his movements completely.
Charles had been distracted by his regret the same spider leg that had launched the previous attack came in a swipe to his face. It smacked him and Charles stumbled but only for an instant as he moved under Widow and leg swept to knock her back to the ground but realized his leg was long enough yet another problem he could have fixed with morphing he didn't let the thought distract him though he looked right at the legs antisapating the next attack he rolled away from her as the spider legs all stabbed inward.
I would have been swiss cheese if I hadn't moved. Charles reconized the deadly power of her attacks even more now. He looked where he was just as he had thought he was right on the water's edge Alice would come up next to him in any instant now.

His vision turned to the model number 34 Venwith who seemed to just stand there his eyes studying Charles while hidden behind his sunglasses. He's the key Charles realized coming up with an idea. " Alice, how would you like playing bait?" He asked.