Roval Arms

[Terrador Bellator]

Terra almost brought the stone down as the bear confronted Giichi. He then realized there was no need for this stone levitation. If he had not done this, the bear could have gone about his buisness. With as much concentration as his body allowed, he attempted to set the stone down quietly. Doing so made his lower lip quiver and one of his eyes to twitch occasionally. The bear asked his question and the stone was so close to the ground.

"I act very strangely under pressure." He used as an exuse, relaxing his arms. The stone crashed down the couple inches it was lifted from. Hopefully the bear would just think one just randomly fell.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

The bear tilted his head sideways, giving Terra a very strange look as his eye twitched and his lip quivered. Then he heard the thump of the stone behind him, but as Terra wanted to he thought it was merely a fragment that had fallen from the hole he'd made. So without question, Maroon returned to face the pair, this time looking at Terra again.

"I just realized something. I think you may be the very first echidna I have seen in this place."

The bear picked up the statue, and held it out to Terra.

"Can you tell me anything about how much this could be worth?"

Giichi personally didn't think it looked like much, even now that they were getting a closer look. It certainly looked to be many years old, although given the context of this building he found it hard to distinguish real artifacts from reproductions created by the Roval family.

One thing caught his attention about the base of the statue though. The Tikal figure stood on a small circular disc, and on the edges of the disc he could see two small notches on opposite sides. They didn't look like they were there originally. They looked to have been cut by a modern day machine. The metal exposed by the cuts looked shinier and fresher than the rest of the statue. So, someone had made the cuts many years after the figurine would have been created.

He wondered what the purpose of them could be.

[Terrador Bellator]

Terra glanced at the statue. He could lie and give a false estimate and the bear would probably head off. He couldn't even put price on it, the thing looked worthless to him personally. But, he was an honest individual and not a very good liar to begin with.

"I could not." He replied with a nod. "My aplogies. I may be echidna, but I have no knowledge on ancient artifacts such as that." He went on.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Maroon Suit sighed, and handed it to Terra.

"I guess you can keep it. I would take it to a pawn shop or something, but I bet what I'd get wouldn't even cover the cost of gas. And like I said, if anyone asks, we didn't see each other."

And with that, he took off around the corner, leaving the pair of them behind. Giichi observed the statue now in the echidna's hands, and gave him a small smirk.

"Well, looks like you got a souvenir."

He gazed at the statue for a bit, wondering what they'd do with it. Giichi looked back at the little hole that the bear had made in the wall.

"I have to wonder why someone would want to hide something that looks so cheap."

[Terrador Bellator]

Twrra swaped looks between the statue and the bear as he held his hand out to accept it. The bear then left and he sighed in releif.

"Appearantly so. What to do with it though?" He pondered outloud as he further examined the thing. He then looked at Giichi upon his statement. "I have no idea, but we better not leave any traces of our pressence." He replied placing the statue back where it was. Even if it did have some hidden value, it didn't matter much to him. He pointed a palm at the stones. The marking glowed and the stones repositioned to appear as if nobody tampered them.

[Echo]

(from cross country)
A sonic boom sounded as the alien craft fell subsonic over the lush landscape below. Up ahead the towering spires of a large city were emerging from the expanse. "Alright, we're 6 minutes to touch down. Now I want a clean operation Am you hear me? I want you on the ball the moment your feet hit the ground. Remember you don't have time to goof off, with the reactor on the fritz we could only squeeze out enough time for you to be on the ground for two hours before you transform back into your own body again" Sarah informed Amiroo through the radio as Am checked over his equipment in the back.

"yeah, I know. I was there remember?"

"I'm just trying to cover everything Am, you can be wreckless sometimes. We cannot afford a foul up right now. We get exposed there's no one to come rescue us."

"I know that too, look everything's gonna be fine. This is a simple recon mission. We've doubled up on everything and covered all the angles. We'll swoop in, take care of business, and boogie on home with all the data you can stand."

Sarah shook her head and sighed

"Just stay aware is all I'm saying. The current temperature is 105 degrees outside,winds from the northwest at 30mph, looks like that storm we pushed through is heading this way so lets try to be in and out before it arrives"

" Ah, by the time that thing shows up we'll be making tracks long gone "

" ET 3 minutes to touch down. "

"copy "

The craft slowed considerably as it entered the city limits. The craft weaved passed buildings and over an unsuspecting city until it arrived over it's target and slowed to a hover.

"alright, change of plans. I think I'll be able just to set you down right on top of it." Sarah said looking through a small window below her legs.

"sounds like a plan. Will you be able to pick me back up from here or should I go the LZ?"

"here's good, I think our Intel was off a bit the roof doesn't seem as crowded with antennae as we thought"

"well, that's comforting. Wonder what else we could have been off about?"

"It's fine, I'll descend a bit and you do your thing"

"copy"

The craft descended to a large building and came to a hover just 30 ft from it's rooftop.

"whenever you're ready Am"

Am clutched a red lever on the side a large metal door he was standing next to and slid it back letting the harsh humid air spill in. It was as if he'd opened a door to a kiln.

"jeeze, it's cooking out here" Am said prepping himself and his gear to slide down a rope the aircraft had lowered to the rooftop below.

"Remember Am, two hours, that's all you've got" Sarah reminded him as he he pushed himself free of the craft and slid down to the rooftop.

" copy that super one zero, I'm on the deck and you're clear " Am said suddenly switching into business mode while detaching himself from the rope.

The craft quickly retracted the rope and began ascending into the sky.

"see you in a couple hours Am"

"I'll be here"

As the the light hum of the ship disappeared Am immediately went into action. He set his wrist watch to stop watch mode, grabbed his backpack, and began his search for a rooftop entrance.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

While Terra worked with the block (and was thus facing away from Giichi), a large frown crossed the cat's face.

Awww...if you didn't want it you could have given it to meeeeee......

But just as Terra finished, a loud voice boomed through the echoing, tomb-like basement. Giichi reflexively dropped down low, his ears turning like radar dishes to trace the sound as the rest of his head followed suit.

"Ah! Bruce! Nice to see you again old friend!"

"What are you doing here?" The second voice would be the voice of the bear they had just spoken to. Looked like Maroon Suit's name was Bruce. "I've got three more hours!"

"Come on...do you really expect us to believe treasure is buried somewhere in this dump? If you don't have the money now, I don't think you're going to get it. And three hours is plenty of time to skip town..."

"But I'm working on it! Why do you think I have this crap with me?!" A jingling sound indicated he was holding up his mining gear and it was clinking together.

In the meantime, Giichi waved for Terra to follow, and started to creep back down the hallway, hoping to catch a glimpse of who Bruce was talking to. As he peered around the corner, he would see four men standing around Bruce in the basement's entrance room, all wearing nice suits, ties, and fedoras like him.

"Whoa..." Giichi whispered. "Mafia thugs..." He wondered if he should jump out and try to help.

---

Since the owner of Roval Arms had designed this building to look like an ancient Echidna temple, it resembled a Mayan pyramid, with a little shrine on top. Except the "shrine" that Am stood next to had a plain metal door and appeared to be a maintenance room. It would be the most obvious way in for him.

[Terrador Bellator]

As the echidna finished, he realized he forgot to ask Giichi what he wished to do with it. As he was about to do so, the sudden voice caused hm to lose all train of thought on the matter. He followed the sand cat down the hallway and became suprised at the sight of the thugs. The bear looked like he needed some help and he was almost tempted.

"Shall we assist him? He asked. With the stone floor, he could easily immobilize the quartet by turning the ground into quicksand.

[Echo]

Am's eyes lit up briefly with a bluish hue as his cornea micro cameras activated and began filming what he was looking at.

"you getting this?" he asked

"copy, I'm getting a strong signal" came a voice in his ear through a small hearing aid like device in his left ear.

"Alright, I'm moving in"

"remember Am, nice and smooth"

"copy"

Am slipped silently through a metal door into what appeared to be a maintenance room.

"alright, super one zero, I'm in. You want me to start from the bottom and work my way up or what?" Am asked.

"It's up to you Am"

"I'm gonna start at the bottom. I don't want to walk around this whole place, tire myself out, and then still have to climb a bunch of stairs back up"

"copy"

Am made his way through another door which took him down a narrow stairwell. The stairwell was narrow and it smelled of coffee breath and tuna. It's walls were covered with flaking,white,stucco and brightly lit by naked light bulbs that protruded from the walls.

"place is kinda spooky. Looks like Hannibal Lecter did their interior design"

"copy that, glad it's you down there and not me"

"Don't smother me with love now" he replied sarcastically

He followed the stairwell downwards, only stopping once or twice because he heard voices somewhere, until finally he came upon another large metal door with a metal bar across it.

"push it Am, it's like a door handle" sarah chimed in

"ah, I see" he said gently pushing the door open to reveal a nicely kept hallway.

"ohh nice" he said slipping quietly into the hallway. The floor was hard despite being carpeted and the same stench from the stairwell clung firm to the air in the hallway as well. The walls were stucco, only flake free now, and interrupted every few feet by residential doorways. The hallway was lit very well via lights embedded into the ceiling.

"Alright, I'm on the bottom floor. Any Intel on how to get into the basement?" Am asked quietly keeping his eyes peeled for aliens.

"No, sorry. Our intel is limited about the interior Am. You're on your own."

"that figures"

"You remember how to read their language right?"

"of course"

"look around, these people tend to label everything with signs"

"oh yeah that's right, they don't use A.R. yet"

Am's eyes searched the hallway for any 'signs'. He chose a direction and began walking for a bit.

"Jeez this place is a lot bigger in person" Am said

Am walked for a few moments before he found what he was looking for which came in the form of a series of maps of the building on the walls of the hallway.

"hmmm...take a picture of this and save it for reference. I'll need you to guide my way."

"copy Am"

Am moved down the hallway taking pictures of the various maps hung on the walls. Each representing a different level of the building.

"do you have all this?" Am asked

"standby"

"alright"

A few moments went by as Am stood there in silence.

"Alright Am, looks like you need to turn back and follow the hallway until the third..no fourth hallway on your left. At the end of that hallway you'll need to take a right. Then you'll take the fifth right and at the end of that hallway there should be a metal doorway which will take you into another stairwell."

"That'll lead me below?"

"Roger that"

"Alright, I'm on my way"

Am turned and began making his way to his destination.

"Ya know, is it just me or does it strike you as odd that I haven't encountered anyone yet?" Am asked.

"That is surprising actually..oh and one more thing before I forget. We may lose contact while you're below. You're signal has been getting steadily weaker as you've descended. If we do I want you in and out in fifteen minutes, I'll be timing you Am, fifteen minutes."

"pffft, no worries sweetheart. I doubt there's anyone in this building that could take me on. I didn't survive the hazards of traveling almost 700 light years from home just to get whacked by some alien with a slingshot and an itchy booger hook."

"still...I'm timing you"

"copy"

[Giichi Twinkieland]

"Haha, those are cute toys you've got there," That would be the voice that had greeted Bruce originally. Giichi saw him stepping forward towards the bear. He looked like a human with long, jet black hair and an impressive moustache. He appeared to be referring to the mining tools Bruce held. "But like I said, you're out of time."

He pulled a small black pistol out of his pocket and started to point it towards the bear's chest. Giichi's eyes went wide. That sealed it for him. If they didn't act now, Bruce would be dead.

"Yeah! Let's do it!" As he said this, Giichi immediately threw a smoke bomb between Bruce and the gunman. Instantly the basement room filled up with smoke and obscured all sight.

"Hey! What is this?!" the gunman howled, waving his hands around and trying to make sense of the situation.

Meanwhile, Giichi drew out his sais and moved in closer. He was getting ready to beat some of them senseless in the smoke before they knew what was going on. The cat planned to start with the gunman, since he was the biggest threat right now.