((OOC:  Hey all!  Sorry I dropped off the face of the Earth there for a moment, but I'm back in business now!  Let's get this show back on the road!))<br/><br/>((EDIT OOC again:  Everyone currently RPing please check out my latest blog entry<a class="postlink" href="https://aryion.com/modules.php?name=Forums&amp;file=weblog_entry&amp;e=213">here</a>.))<br/><br/>Outside the S.E.M. building in Hempstead, the First Sergeant watched the foxboy turn smugly away and frowned as the protesters settled in.  He grabbed the private beside him and whispered, "Pass the word to keep the protesters in sight at all times.  Tie them to drainpipes if you have to."  The private nodded and hurried away.<br/><br/>Just at that moment, someone tapped him on the shoulder.<br/><br/>"Excuse me. I believe the three of us would like to join you," came a voice.  The First Sergeant turned to look and saw a male anthro-bat, a female human, and a half-tigress standing before him.  The girl was armed with an elderly revolver, and the half-tigress was wielding two blades, each one's hilt designed to slip into a palm, pointing the blade forward from the knuckles.<br/><br/>The First Sergeant raised a thin eyebrow and looked the three of them over.  "Uh... okay..." he mumbled.  He was at a momentary loss of something to say.  As a non-commissioned officer, he hadn't been trained on recruitment.  His late lieutenant hadn't done much of it himself, so he had next to nothing to work from.  He thought for a moment and realized that maybe it would be best to ask them why they wanted to join the Resistance.  After all, they were peaceniks.  So he asked.  "Why?"<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Lady Alhanda paused for a dangerous moment and rose from the table.  Immediately, the guards beside Karogen pulled him harshly from his chair and stood him up.  The Lady gestured at him and they shoved him painfully to his knees.  With careful consideration in every step, the absolute ruler of Kazmer approached Mark Karogen.<br/><br/>"You will stop wasting my time now," she growled, her controlled exterior cast aside.  Each step was deliberate and menacing as she drew near.  "You know that Eric Lentan is the leader of the human resistance."  She took another step closer.  "You spoke his abhorrent name and pleaded with him to stop hostilities."  Another step.  "You call this man your friend.  You know whom he mated with."  Another dangerous step.  "You understand that just possessing this knowledge makes you a member of his wretched organization in the eyes of many."  Another step, this one a mere yard from Karogen.  "Including myself."<br/><br/>The guard's hands were forcing Karogen to face the floor, but Lady Alhanda leaned close to him, her voice a harsh noise in his ear.  "Your own band of mongrels could be a front for his operations.  At this moment you should be thinking of anything you can do to convince me otherwise."  She bared a claw before his face, as if displaying a prized possession.<br/><br/>At that moment, an attendant - the one who had left earlier - returned to the room bearing a small file of papers.  Lady Alhanda slowly left Karogen's side and approached the bowing servant, taking the papers and looking them over.  After a few silent moments she let the papers cascade onto the table and strode to Karogen, drawing very close again.<br/><br/>"Your friend Lentan has an infamous name.  His mother had been vored for disobeying her master.  His family was part of a failed slave revolt in House Javier's lands to the north.  His father and brother were killed in that revolt.  Lentan's blood is ridden with hatred and violence.  After the revolt was crushed, he and a few others escaped into the foothills and were never found."  She drew impossibly closer.  "There is no record of a slave with the Lentan family name in Kazmer.  He could not have hidden for this long without returning to slavery.  He assumed a false name to avoid capture.  Which means...<span style="font-style: italic">he told you his true name</span>," the words were a ripping, infuriated whisper.  Her breath was hot on Karogen's cheek.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"I'm waiting."</span><br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Inside the Slayer Cult safe house, Janus felt Chiro's hand on his shoulder and listened to his words.  He had no voice to reply with for the moment.  As the scalie left for the events outside, he looked at Collins' body and thought.  Chiro said they could bury him.  He and the others deserved that.  A tear threatened to glide off the rim of his eyelid and mark territory across his cheek, but he wiped it away with a sleeve.<br/><br/>The Slayer girl, Sara, passed into the room that moment.  ""Mad made it in. She's in the Lady's court, where she's speaking to someone called Mark Karogen," she said to Baz.  Janus had never heard the name, but it was a human one.  His grief kept him from wondering why the Lady would be entertaining a human in her Palace.<br/><br/>Outside in the street, Halvorson and O'Toole watched Bane's antics largely speechless.  The medic, still watching from the doorway of the house, approached him warily, holding a bandage.  "For your leg," he said quietly.<br/><br/>O'Toole heard Chiro sniff and judge her emotional state.  She looked at him.  The scalie really<span style="font-style: italic">could</span>smell emotion.  Her amazement bled through onto her face until Chiro turned away, putting on a display of ferocity as he spoke.<br/><br/>"Get what we need to get, then we must move. My sister hears her. The terrible one that did that to her," he said.<br/><br/>Halvorson looked at Chiro's retreating form, then back to Bane.  "Finish tripping soon.  We've got to go."  He turned away and followed Chiro, catching up and following him inside.  He saw Heretic still standing by the window and said, "Pack up, we're leaving."  He repeated it, addressing the whole room.<br/><br/>Janus looked at Halvorson.  "Sir... what about Collins?  What about the other guys?"<br/><br/>Halvorson looked puzzled only momentarily, then his face grew hard.  "We can't wait.  Something big is coming."<br/><br/>"What?" asked Janus, looking at Chiro.