[PXFIRE] [RP] PXFIRE Roleplay - A Game of Storms

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Jadeblossom City, Gracedia Intelligance Agency Building
Affected RPers: N/A
We Can Haz A-Team?

The Gracedia Intelligence Agency Building was a building preferring width to height, low to the ground, surrounded by a few patches of astro turf. Nora never saw it in action, but apparently there were missile batteries hanging under the turf for the occasions that the Black Lotus thought it acceptable to try to bomb them. It definitely happened once. The wreckage of the airplane that tried was still on display at the war museum.

The inside of the building was a bit of a maze. Yes, they had signs, but even then the layout was quite confusing. Nora hadn't bothered to memorize it, and only now escaping a mild hangover, Nora was definitely relying on Yesley to guide her through the halls and the numerous buildings, each one likely possessing separate committies endlessly debating the nature of Ante and how to counter it, among other, more mundane things. Nora still had a standing order to fish up a dead Onyx Circle member just to see if they have Ante-and if they do, what it is.

Finally, Yesley inserted a keycard into a reader in a door, and the click of a lock coincided with a green light. Yesley opened the door into a room with eight others.

Nora swept her eyes over the eight others, briefly. The one on the farthest-left was a Tyranitar, who's fearsome getup was tempered by the uniform of a local resturaunt. A fairly good resturaunt at that. He even touted a kitchen knife in his hands. The one to his right was a Bronzong, only recently having de-invested his time from the local newspaper to look at Nora. The third fellow was a Mienshao with an eyepatch who looked deeply distressed at some immaterial thing, even now. The fourth, center-left, was a female Heracross-who had heavily pierced his horn with various metal rings. She was the only one smiling. the center-right was the epitome of stereotypical military muscle, a beefy Machamp with a camoflagued getup and even some kevlar vest already on. The sixth one was a Furret so utterly, totally normal that you'd have to be really attentive to notice if this Furret was following you. The second from the right was almost the inverse, a smeargle so utterly covered in paint you'd be forgiven for being unable to peel your eyes away, not just from the colorful display but from the amount of demented happy faces painted all over the already crazed display. The final one was the only true quad in the group, a Mightyena-no, wait, not a Mightyena. That was an illusion. Stupid Zoroark.

Nora rolled her eyes as Yesley made the introductions. "It looks like we're all here. We don't have much time, so I'll introduce you to one another now. The Tyranitar is Boraz Ilian, and the Lilligant is Nora; they're two of the top assassins in the Order. Boraz's secondary skill is cooking, and Nora is addicted to everything I can think of as addictable-and exploits it well. The Mienshao, the Machamp and the Bronzong are, respecitvely, Anshan Ivory, Baragan Bales, and Ichabold Ulio. They aren't part of the GIA formally, but are loyal members of the Gracedia Order all the same; they've been picked up from our army for special duty, and they're the 'muscle' for this operation. They're not going to be a part of your secondary goal, they're there to make sure you can authenticate your claims as full-on competitors and nothing else. The Zoroark and the Furret are Talian Halsey and Faraday Galvant; both expert operatives specialized in infiltration. Finally, the Smeargle and the Heracross are the faces. The Smeargle, surprisingly, isn't a runaway from the Prankster Platoon-" Nora's ears and senses perked up at this, as did the other GIA agents. That phrase- 'isn't a runaway from the Prankster Platoon'-that was code. Code for 'kill this guy, he's a Black Lotus spy.'

Yesley did a much better job at containing his surprise over the sudden abrupt violence this time. Everyone in the room who was an actual GIA agent so swiftly pulled a weapon or readied an attack that their target didn't even manage to look surprised. The Smeargle had no clue what hit him. Nora did-it was about two bullets, a meat cleaver, a Focus Blast, and a Dark Pulse, near simultaneously. The Smeargle was dead. That was two in a day, a record for Nora when she wasn't on a mission. OK, it was tied with two other days, but they weren't both Black Lotus. The other three looked extremely confused and panicked, but as the others put their weapons away (bar the Tyranitar, who checked a pulse and then hacked the dead Smeargle's head clean off as a doubled assurance), they merely returned to being especially wary.

Yesley's throat cleared the room better than any janitor. "Oh, so sorry we couldn't tell you about him. Err, we accepted a known Black Lotus spy into our organization and have been feeding him misinformation for weeks to disable the Black Lotus to the best of our ability. He couldn't be around for the briefing," Yesley said, turning to the three soldiers. "Just so you know... The secondary meaning of what I uttered? That's only valid if the speaker is a GIA member. But you're going to be GIA members for the duration of this, so do remember that. Even an actual disgraced former member of the Prankster Platoon shouldn't be referred to in those terms... Moving on. Our last member here is Yvonne Gelia the Heracross, who was working with our diplomatic efforts until recently, and has foiled various assassinations on various VIPs," Yesley said, gesturing to Yvonne. "Also one of our better drivers."

"With everyone introduced-and the mole eliminated-it's time to get you up to speed on the assignment. To keep it brief: Your mission is to retrieve the Master Blaze Jewel being offered as a prize in the Tempest Festival, by any means necessary. To this end, we have arranged for you to move to Lytala city and participate in the Tempest Games, in an attempt to aid the Gracedia Order in retrieving the Master Blaze Jewel directly. We've assigned you to multiple events to play to your strong suits. Your schedules are out on that table to the left," Yesley said, pointing to a small coffee table to the side, where a stack of nine. "Don't take the folders with you, just the papers inside them, keep your schedule on-hand, and please, try to keep your survival as a higher priority than actually winning-but hang in there as long as you possibly can. In addition, the retrieval of any body of any suspected Ante-user, dead or alive, is to be retrieved and stowed as securely as possible in an attempt to research this 'Ante,' if you can. A reminder; the Onyx Circle aren't invincible. We just haven't gotten them into one of our mortuaries for study."

"What I have just said to you is your mission, and you will refer to it as such. However, there is another part of this mission. I said to retrieve the Master Blaze Jewel by any means necessary. I mean any means necessary. We have very little faith in the idea that the Black Lotus will honor the implicit bargain of handing over the Master Blaze Jewel to just anyone. While we will attempt to fight and win it over fairly, the odds of us so much as escaping the city intact with it are nil-the Black Lotus would consider us the 'terrorists' we are the minute we left the stadium and bring out as much force as possible to deliver it to Taiya, if not just deliver us a fake. Indeed, the way Blacklocke has managed to 'supply' it for the Tempest Games rather than simply being forced to hand it over reeks of suspicious activity. We do not know to what limitations the Master Blaze Jewel operates at this time-if they operate similarly to regular Blaze Jewels or have their own set of rules. However, if it is being offered as the absolute grand prize, we can tell that it is being advertised as a force unmatched openly, one Queen Taiya is unlikely to part with willingly. IN other words, the Gracedia Order believes that the game is rigged; even if the Gracedia Order or another faction were to emerge victorious, there would be no chance of retrieving the gem normally."

"We have not signed you up to cover every day-there will be days when all nine of you are simultaniously exempt from all events. On those days, as well as any other time you can, I want you to investigate Blacklocke Arms, the ones who apparently discovered the Master Blaze Jewel in the first place. Your primary objective is to secure the Master Blaze Jewel by any means necessary-and we believe that the only real chance of doing that is by stealing it directly from them. Your secondary objective is to discover how Blacklocke Arms came into possession of the Master Blaze Jewel-if it was found in some ancient dingy temple for archeologists to dream of, or manually created by some force. Anything else you discover along the way, related to the Master Blaze Jewel or not, would be welcome news for the Gracedia Order. For the most absolute secrecy possible, I must request that any discovery you make is at any point not uploaded to any device connected to the internet in any way or is in any way able to be hacked or bugged, in case of Black Lotus operatives hacking your personal computers-and we suggest that you do not get the aid of any third parties equally interested in this information. The Master Blaze Jewel, and the information surrounding it, should not fall into any hands that aren't the hands of the Gracedia Order."

Nora would honestly have preferred hearing the grim news of being the newest assassins for Queen Taiya to that. Blacklocke Arms were perhaps more dangerous than the Black Lotus or the Tempest Festival. Sure; they didn't send assassins to your door, and Nora knew that they weren't strictly providing to the Black Lotus on every occasion. But they had a reputation for being impervious to break ins. It was well-founded. Nora knew of nine break-ins, all of which failed. And that wasn't getting into how the headquarters of the Blacklocke Arms corporation were but two blocks away from Queen Taiya's palace, and anyone with a brain could tell you that Taiya had reasons to keep Blacklocke Arms on her side moreso than any other-which meant that some of the meanest Black Lotus agents they had would swarm the place if it was so much as touched. It was terrifying, therefore, that the Black Lotus were only instrumental in stopping a break-in once of those nine times. To steal their most recent and most prized possession right out of their hands was unthinkable.

... It also meant Nora would be rich for this. Really rich. To say nothing of being the potential owner of the Master Blaze Jewel-anyone in the network. And if anyone in Xia could do such a heist for the Master Blaze Jewel, it was Nora. Nora and this group of spies and soldiers. Hopefully.

"One last thing. While this is a recent development... One of the children of Athena Pallas, one of our other fighters in the Tempest Festival, has been kidnapped. It's precisely the kidnapping that's brought her into the Tempest Festival-apparently the Black Lotus kidnappers had it as part of the bargain. 'Come to the Tempest Festival or you'll never see him again'- direct, if nothing else. As with the Master Blaze Jewel, the odds of them playing fair regarding this are nil-and we suspect the worst. You're on the lookout for Marx, a Rowlet of about three years of age-if at all possible, retrieve him and return him safely to the Gracedia Order's headquarters in Lytala. You likely won't find him in Blacklocke Arms-you'll have to search. It's tetriary compared to the other goals... And you may need to, er-hem, remind Athena of her duties to the Order, should her parental urges compromise her."

Reminding them of their duties to the order. Quite obvious code, even the three non-GIA got it clear. It was code for 'kill her if she betrays us.' Every idiot who ever thought the Gracedia Order were just a bunch of lazy hippies were tripping harder than Nora ever could. The Order could not and would not tolerate differences in vision. Nora had been called upon to resolve those differences before-once.

"Of course, we wouldn't have let Athena get as far as she had if we believed she would succumb easily to the temptation. I have confidence in her strength of character, from her profiles. But just in case, don't hesitate," Yesley added.

"Are we clear?" Yesley asked, rhetorically. His voice was crystal and without double-meaning. There was no confusion. Eight heads tilted down and up in response. "Good, then. You are due in Lytala City today, before the events start. Take everything in the manila folders, except the folders themselves. They'll include your schedule, your passes for the events as competitors, a detailed map of Lytala city, and a 2-week long premium pass for the subway system in Lytala."

Nora retrieved the contents of her manila folder with only slight delay from her hangover. It had practically already gone. She made sure to get a cup of coffee to make sure that it didn't come back later while she interviewed her schedule... Huh.

Day 2, Blood Pit Arena Qualifier. Day 3, the Finals for the Blood Pit. Day 5, Field of Screams Qualifier. Day 7, Roadkill Warrior Competition (only day). Day 9, Field of Screams Finals. Day 10, Deadly Force Qualifier. And then the Deadly Force Final on Day 14. Days, 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 15 were all free.

"We're giving you the first day to recover from the trip, integrate yourselves with the order forces in Lytala, and prepare the best you can for the competitions ahead as well as the raid. As long as your attempts to raid Blacklocke do not compete with your schedule, you may attempt it at any time-though we have no competitions on days 6, 11 and 13 for any of you for a reason. Oh, and you may notice that none of you are assigned to Deathwish Endurance... Our strategic department has one and all concurred that the odds for that particular event are too heavily slanted, and as the ultimate reward is the master Blaze Jewel, it may become more dire to steal it away if the Black Lotus look certain to win it-even if we can't secure it, better that they look like they won't uphold their bargains in front of millions to the real winners than them being the actual winners. As they usually have," Yesley sighed. "Nevertheless, if you believe it may help, you may sign yourselves into the event personally, but the GIA doesn't believe it'll be worth your while."

"That is all. As of right now, the operation-Phantom Thorn-is a go. You are dismissed," Yesley said, putting the last little spin on it as he gestured to the door. Nora walked out, tension twisting her guts like a knife through her liver. Her poor, abused liver. Nora had to roll her eyes at the thoroughness of it all. It seemed the GIA had some instruction for every eventuality. Though, given the chaos of the Tempest Festival and the extreme importance this one had to everyone, perhaps such thoroughness was justified.

Nora was just hoping she lived.