Cleaning House[Shadow Fall Mission][FINISHED]

"Angry? I thought that was your happy face," Styn teased in response to Bordeaux's justification of his actions. "I'm just glad she's still breathing, I make more money that way." Not exactly sure how happy command would be about a cold blooded execution. Probably think i was putting on airs or something. That's the last thing I need. "Your restraint is a boon to me, thank you."

An organization? Comprised of arrancar only? He mused over the implications. Either Bordeaux was an excellent actor and supreme spy, or their groups were on at least neutral terms with each other. Given how little Styn had heard of the gathering, they couldn't be very large. It sounded more like a small terrorist cell. I'll have to make it a point to see if there is anything in the archives. I find it hard to believe that the Eighth Circle is unaware of them completely. I'm sure there is a file buried somewhere. The name and the fact that its a force of arrancar should be enough for me to find out what Shadow Fall knows about them.

He then chuckled at Bordeaux's analytical praise, in regards to his injury, with a half shrug. "Well its by no means regeneration, not many demons master that level of bodily control. That particular skill is a talent more common among you arrancar last I heard," the demon challenged. Still he had to stop himself from taking a step back as Bordeaux was suddenly leaning in. And again, whoa! this guy is big.

Standing back up to full height Styn cocked his head to the side. "You want a better look? Its not a bad idea to know what your potential enemies are capable of. I'll showcase the biology as an attempt to compensate you for our organization's mistreatment." The demon calmly began to unbutton the suit top and long sleeved undershirt. Any attempts at Bordeaux to stop this are deflected with a good natured, "Nonsense its the least I can do."

Pulling open the side of his shirt the true extents of the injury were suddenly apparent. The hole punched straight through muscle and bone, as well as a nice portion of lung. Even with that being the case, the arrancar could clearly see that the lung itself has been separated, or that demons had two lung looking organs operating in tandem. The wound was easily three fingers in diameter. Jagged pieces of bone from the shattered shoulder blade could be seen near the back of the opening. At the moment the skin around the injury, as well as the insides, had a tensed and rigid look to them. It actually looks as bad as it felt.

"You might be asking yourself why I'm so calm about this, perhaps you have the mistaken impression that I'm actually pretty hard core," Styn joked. "In reality though, I've disconnected the nerves from this area of my body so I don't pass out. It comes with its own set of risks since I can't feel anything here right now." The demon shrugged. "I'm not actually a huge fan of pain. I think you'll find that while most demons are capable of this level of micro shifting, many don't make it a point to practice the skill set."

Styn looks toward the two demons that Bordeaux had fought. "Despite the fact that a sometimes large portion of our full potential is locked in our true forms, several demons won't even macro shift in combat. Whether from underestimating their opponents, or because they are slow at the skill set is a mystery to me. I'm hardly accounted a powerful demon myself, despite the fact that I seem to have come out on top today. My parents thought it would be good for me to be able to accomplish variations of shifting as quickly as biologically possible." Wasn't that just a fun lesson. The demon had lost track of how many times he had passed out before he got quick enough to disconnect his nervous system in targeted areas. He had also lost track of how often that had resulted in full body paralysis.

Having found that the casual cadence of his lecture had allowed him time to recover, Styn turned toward the grouping of rouge demons. Guess its time to deal with them. Yoko had been silent after her face to face with Bordeaux, and she avoided looking at the large intimidating arrancar. She clearly felt little of that fear toward the Knight of the First Circle who had beat her in two on one combat though. The woman's lips pulled back in a sneer. Styn was hardly the sort to be put out by such a display. Her bark is worse then her bite and the Ninth Circle will soon have her howling.

Walking forward Styn knelt down, with right palm on the ground, and looked over his shoulder toward Bordeaux. "I'm getting rid of these guys real quick, unless you have any parting words for them."

"Ah... er... I think you might be confusing me for someone else. I don't actually have the mind to understand things like anatomy." The arrancar was confused by the demon's willingness to shed his clothing in front of him. Along with that, Bordeaux was not known for being very smart. Tough and occasionally cunning, yes, but no smarter than the average person. All his arguments were ignored by Styn, who eventually to the point of exposing his gaping wound. The hole was almost the size of the one in Bordeaux's chest. Out of curiosity, the arrancar peered a little closer while his demon ally explained how he works. Able to disconnect nerves. That is impressive. The Highwayman thought to himself. He was tempted to poke the demon's wounds just to check, but he kept it to himself.

Styn then explained about how all demons can perform that technique, not many focus on it. Bordeaux glanced back at the quartet of demons breifly, but returned to to study and listen to Styn. For a time, the arrancar thought he was getting it. Maybe he was smarter than he thought he was. He nodded as the demon finished up his lecture. The level of control these creature displayed was remarkable to him. He actually left a little ashamed that it was so hard for him to control his emotions while other had accomplished controlling their nervous systems completely. And of course, the internal embarrassment started to make him angry again.

In his mind, he wanted to grab his 'ally' and rip his head off as compensation for being better than him. He wanted to kill him then kill the four that had brought on this embarrassment with their silly hatred of his kind. And then, just to vent his anger, he wanted to use his full power and lay waste to this stupid City of Lights. But, Bordeaux was stronger than his urges. Like he had done before, buried the urges and the anger. Stockpiling his thoughts for use later was his way to stop himself from doing foolish things in the heat of the moment while fueling his Resurrección's rage in the moment he releases. As he finished this brief 'meditative process' his Styn asked him if he had any parting words for the wrong-doers. He nodded and turned to them.

"You are lucky. Remember that. I could have easily killed you, ripped out your spines and devoured your souls. He looked the female up and down, driving home his dangerous nature, "They all look... delicious." The two peons he had fought actually started to shake out of fear. Bordeaux wanted to laugh at their pitiful behavior, but chose to simply turn to address Styn.

"If I could make a suggestion as to their punishment. Make them serve a powerful arrancar. That should teach them quickly to hide their hatred." He turned once more to the female demon.
"You think yourself superior, but you have not earned the right to hate so overtly."

Styn of course was completely oblivious to Bordeaux's inner struggle during his lecture. He was however amused by the suggestion the arrancar made. "Oh I think that can be arranged," the demon teased with a pseudo evil chuckle. "Just think of all the ways in which you could please your new master Yoko. That goes double for the rest of you, her entertainment value is at least obvious."

Whatever replies the quartet may have had to that remark were buried with shifting glances toward Bordeaux. It was refreshing. Styn hardly considered himself weak, but for some reason he was constantly being underestimated. Perhaps it was because he didn't have much of a temper. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't take himself serious, or really much of anything really. The clear fear and respect were definitely a nice change though. Sure is a useful guy to have around.

Another wave of dizziness overcame the Knight of the First Circle. A slow shake of his head brought the world back into focus, but Styn was beginning to grow concerned. Damn how badly am I hurt, might need to cut this short after all.

During the downtime after the battle, Styn hadn't really dared to release his true form. The intoxicating rush of Za Koa might be the only thing keeping him on his feet. Still, he had released some of the energy, if for no other reason then to make sure that Bordeaux wasn't alarmed by a battle ready demon making his way down the alley. Big guy has a bit of a temper, probably ended up being a good idea. He only hoped that his prior warning was ample heads up that he was going to do something flashy.

Styn once more filled himself with as much demonic power as he could hold. Lifting his right hand the demon focused on the lines of reality that made up physical space. He needed a gateway, it was time to go home. However, the problem with Kage Chokyo-shi, was that one had to know their starting location very well to open a portal. Fortunately, he'd been walking the city for a most of the day, and would only need a few more moments to rip a hole in the universe.

To Bordeaux he would seem to be just standing there imperiously, with a hand thrust straight forward, palm facing the wall just behind the restrained demons. If the arrancar were especially sensitive to the flow of energy, he might notice that the air in front of the demon shimmered and twisted. It was as if the world was fighting the flux of power that reached out to seize every piece of matter in a ten foot diameter.

It was a multistage process. First Styn identified the space he was in. Then he seized the current space directly in front of him, thinner then a hair, but round and circular, in an almost two dimensional shape. Next he reached out his mind to an area in the demon world where a small squad of First Circle technicians waited. This part was probably the most complex, as it involved bypassing the multitude of security checks that normally prevented connection to the demon world. However, Styn wasn't a member of the First Circle just for show.

There was finally a moment where he knew everything was connected. The mental bridge between realities was firmly established. All that remained was to tear and rend the laws of nature to fit his established image. Styn's hand clawed at the air, thrusting at the disturbance he had spent several seconds generating. Fingers seemed to find purchase and grip onto something. With a backward pull he tore a hole in reality, a portal into the demon world was born, the dark crimson currents raging like a river of molten lava, just below the surface.

Reaching down Styn hefted one figure after another and carelessly tossed them through the portal. Turning toward Bordeaux he bowed respectfully. "Your understanding in this manner is once more appreciated. I'm feeling a bit light headed and in need of healing though. We'll have to do this again sometime, only you know, without the ambush and violence." Styn cocked his head to the side in good humor. "Or maybe with us doing the ambushing next time." It definitely had possibilities and allowed him focus on the present, because he certainly wasn't looking forward to the healing aspect of his return. The damn Ninth Circle is stingy and mean to boot, getting healed by them is almost as bad as getting interrogated by them.

The demon would wait any parting remarks and may even have something final to say himself, but it was clear that he was on his way out the door so to speak. Styn, never particularly skilled at subterfuge to begin with, was obviously starting to feel the injury now that adrenaline wasn't surging through his body. Bordeaux would easily be able to see that this wasn't an attempt to brush him off.

Watching these demons nervously glance between him and protesting against Styn was nearly laugh worthy, but there was still more than enough anger within him that soured any jovial feeling relating to them; whether it was at their expense or not. Bordeaux continued to glare at them until he started feeling the power around Styn begin to fluctuate. It seemed that his ally was feeling his injuries more than he wall letting onto.

Bordeaux had enough control over himself that the sudden power usages warrant anything more than a few reactionary twitches. The arrancar leaned against the wall of alley while waiting for his new demon friend to do whatever he was doing. Styn's opening of a portal of some kind gave the Highwayman a brief sense of vertigo.

He was honestly a little sad to see his new ally leave so soon, but he understood why. The man was severely injured and had prisoners to deliver. Quite a busy itinerary ahead of the demon. He grinned as Styn joked about going on an ambush some time with him.

"I'll hold you to that, demon. Jusqu'à ce que nous rencontrons à nouveau Until we meet again" He lifted a hand and waved as the portal closed behind his friend. At least this first encounter with demons hadn't completely stained their image to him. Maybe next time he met a group of these abyssal creatures, he might wait for them to identify themselves before he thought to crush them.

Pushing down his boiling blood, Bordeaux removed his coat, revealing more of the fine vest and cravat underneath it. The only real casualty of this fight. The arrancar growled in disappointment and annoyance.He really didn't have any money to buy a new coat, nor did he want to ask anyone to fix it for him. He was plagued by countless thoughts on how to approach this new 'problem' until something left behind caught his eye.

The many bags of several designer stores that the quartet had bought before starting the fight were sitting abandoned at the entrance to the alley. The arrancar grinned as he approached them and started rummaging through with a fiendish grin. So many expensive things left all alone. It would be unreasonable to not save them now that their purchasers were gone. All at once, Bordeaux picked up the bags and made a hasty retreat out of the city. He was off to find somewhere safe and quite to thoroughly look through these packages and gauge their worth.

Things seemed to have ended well enough and Styn was content to give a polite nod at the arrancar's words before stepping into the portal. All and all it was a good days work, and potentially an ally for the future. Perhaps he'd treat himself to some time off before throwing himself back into the fire. Then again if Sinthia has anything to say about it I'll be back out here tomorrow, injured or no. He would have to keep grinding away at it most likely. As the the portal closed behind him, Styn couldn't help but wonder how high he'd have to climb to get a little peace and quite.