Sundaes make it worthwhile (Open :B)

[Bao Yu Chao]

What a surprise, to think she actually managed to find some of the people she was ordered to look for and got a nice tip from one of the families. Well, it was chump change to her and a life wasn't worth a hundred bucks but whatever...she wasn't going to turn down their money since they literally forced it in her hand. The other people just paid her with thanks which was lovely considering she didn't want to punch someone's face in for being an ungrateful slob. Sitting upright with her clothes a bit scuffed up here and there, she just sat at the counter of an ice cream shop in one of the secured safe areas and stared at the sundae before her with a slight smile which could hardly even be seen. If most of her peers actually saw that they might of had a heart attack, but the place only had a few people here and there. Taking the spoon stabbed into the holy grail of desserts, she slid it into her mouth and closed her eyes savoring the moment in all its glory. Especially after finding someone's lost dog that surprisingly didn't go all...psycho to put it nicely.

Some of the pets weren't so lucky though, even if she didn't show it on the outside...this member of the Chao family hated having to kill living things and it was quite the burden knowing that chances were, even though the person was probably some average joe without a lot of money, they weren't bad people. Whatever the hell was spreading around had to be stopped, this kill or be killed lifestyle was growing old. Sure, she dealt with quite a few monstrosities of nature in terms of strange creatures and metahuman types, but it wasn't like she killed the majority of them. All she did was track them down, make it so they couldn't hurt or turn anyone else which usually involved a major beat down, then kick them over to jail or containment facility. Whether it was to cure them or put them down was beyond her...it was a case by case scenario. Either way, she just had to assume they got the treatment necessary for those diseased freaks. Continuing to eat her sundae feeling better and better by the moment, her little white and black pig with a panda color scheme was sitting upon the seat next to her.

Why did they even allow a pig in there anyway, wasn't that unsanitary?! Well, she frequented this place way before the rotting freaks of nature showed up and bribed them to allow her best friend EVER...then followed up with a threat when new management didn't want to make the exception regardless of money. At least now she had a moment to relax. Though...she couldn't help but be a little bothered by the memory of that huge armored guy with an ominous energy around him. Sure she was pretty certain he was from a parallel universe without the proper evidence, however looking into it further was something she had to put on the back burner until the bigger problem was dealt with. Namely because the lives of innocents were her top priority for the time being which meant getting to the bottom of all this. While snacking away at her sundae, she wasn't convinced that this was all coincidence or anything to do with the black arts.

There had to be someone or something behind it, maybe even a group for all she knew but regardless they were going down. Chances were with her funding depleting, she'd just have to work with what she could afford and had when the time come if it came. It was strange though...no matter how many times she reviewed the situation and looked into it, it was like a cold case. The big ol' metaphorical string of undead doom was obviously there but when it was followed...nothing. No way in hell was she going to give up though, there were other cases similar to this one Ms. Chao had yet to look into! Like Mockingbird Island for example, a recent mishap that the news didn't cover a whole bunch of. Placing her spoon back into the slightly unfinished sundae, she turned to take a look outside with those sapphire blue optics and quirked a brow.

"Panda Pig, you ever get the feeling that sometimes things are too peaceful for their own good?" Muttering those words in a fashion that sounded like a combo of professional with a hint of worry, her piggy pal looked up then oinked a bit before she frowned a bit since she could actually understand the little guy before responding, "Tch...yeah...exactly what I was thinking...like the calm before the storm. Let's just hope we're wrong." Some people may think she was crazy, but that pig was extremely intelligent and if people could understand it they'd probably expect it to wear a monocle with a fake mustache or something.

[echidna]

Four blocks away, a domed security camera twitched strangely, then fell in half, glass, metal, silicon, all of it cut cleanly with surgical precision paralell to the roof it was attached to , and fell away. Three more like it met a similar fate, smashing on the ground below in rapid sequence. The feeds they provided to security monitors merely shorted out - this was not enough to set off an alarm, though - it was a dull evening with nobody in stalls or inside but the teenage attendant using the lull as an excuse to mop the floor.

Black sneakers met pavement behind the station, and a femenine form, red hair sweeping behind her in a lazy arc. She was, aside her beauty, an unremarkable woman - she didn't even have a gun, only a slim, black-clad flat tube tied into her belt, worn flush to her back horizontally. At most, it was... a sword? She walked into the front door of the gas station brazenly. She didn't even draw her weapon when she saw the attendant - sometimes, she had to, but men... men were easier than women, sometimes.

The attendant became a drooling idiot when he saw her. Alesis was all that and a bag of chips. All she had to do was beckon, and the zombified attendant forgot the mop and bucket, and staggered in the direction of the radiant woman. She was gentle - she just whelmed him with a hummed tune, his eyes going blank as he crumpled, sitting onto a display with her help. The Fury giggled a little - the kid was cute! She planted a friendly little kiss on his nose and he burbled adorably. She wished all jobs went like this.

Before, she'd get any half-decent food from teh freezers, energy drinks, what-have-you... and then get the attendant to do her dirty work - often at swordpoint. Man, woman, old, young, they rarely complained or thought about resistance if pain or death was on the menu.

This time, though, she had no such luxury. So far, she had yet to commit a crime, so she perused the shelves at her fancy, picking out what her mistress called... 'the good stuff' - bread, soup, a strange dried noodle dish, some bottled water, a bunch of potions or something marked, befittingly, as 'Monster', frozen pizzas... and stuffed them all into a bookbag - she'd gotten pretty good at doing so, so far.

So far, it was shoplifting, but with nobody to call her on it, who cares? She looked up at the attendant. He gurgled a bit, and seemed to be taking a nap. With any luck, he'd be like that another five minutes or so. Alesis whistled a little as she forced open the register. This set off an alarm, but she couldn't give a rat's ass - she was here for currency, now.

Four hundred dollars, her hands told her as she emptied the register out for the paper and silver coinage. Not a bad haul for a small gas station! Mistress was pleased - she knew this from the link they shared. She knew where to look to see the Opal Beetle her mistress sent to watch over her, flashing the insect a grin!

[Bao Yu Chao]

Returning to her sundae, the watch upon her wrist concealed by the cuffs of her sleeves began buzzing like crazy. PEW went the scoop of fudge and ice cream plopping itself on the table for Panda Pig to lick up as she shrieked out a simple, "DAMN IT!" before tugging up her sleeve. Staring at the face of the digital clock, a message streamed across saying `ROBBERY! THREE BLOCKS AWAY! HURRY!`. Narrowing her eyes a bit with a frown twisted across her lips before feeling the corner of her mouth twitch...what a way to ruin her sundae eating! Slapping down a fifty dollar bill on the counter, she scooped up her piggy buddy and put him on her shoulder before jumping off her seat to run out the door like a bat out of hell. "Tch! Damn it all to the leeching poor people of this world! How the hell am I supposed to get there on time by foot?!" Grumbling out those words in a way that sounded like she wanted to shoot someone in the face with a machine gun, her little pig buddy oinked a bit before she quirked a brow muttering beneath her breath, "....why didn't I think of that?"

Taking out her phone, she dialed up the police station's direct line for her higher up, Trisha Waldgrave while looking at different cars as if she was going to steal one of them. With the ringing going on and on, she figured it'd probably get the answering machine up until..."Hello?" which sounded rather bland before she spoke while continuing to run along and avoiding what little traffic was left in the area. "Trish?! Look, I need a-" "Oh, right, it's recording...anyway, if it isn't obvious by now I'm not here and won't be for a while. Yeah by a while I don't know how long or you'd get an exact date. Gotham's pretty messed up and I guess they needed my help so I'll be there. Leave me a message and it'll get to me soon enough. Last time I checked the pigs here remember how to check my messages. Except the new recruit, she better not shoot my message machine or else she's on janitor duty when I get back. Name and number if I don't know who the hell you are, ciao. Oh, almost forgot...don't get bitten by zombies while I'm gone, folks....seen the commercial by S-Mart? Yeah, exactly what's going to happen."

Twitch twitch went the corner of her mouth as continued running like crazy befre snapping out in a bitchy tone, "When in the name of large corporations did you go to Gotham?! Don't those slobs have THE Batman to defend their pathetic peasants? MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY DIDN'T I GET THE MEMO?! TCH!" Hanging up her phone before her anger got the best of her, she continued running and dialed yet another number of someone she was getting closer and closer to with each rushed step. Ring ring ring ring... "SON OF A BUTCHER! ANSWER!" As if on cue from her less than kindly spoken demand was answered, a click could be heard with a, "Larry's slice and chop butcher shop! How can I help you?"

Even though she should probably be happy about a real person answering the phone, after listening to her messed up boss' recording she couldn't be too sure, "Larry?! That's you, right? I swear to my bank account and whatever the hell is left in it if it isn't you someone's going to be turned into an example of what happens when I'm crossed!" Actually growling after those words as though she was going to reach through the phone and strangle the hell out of the poor guy on the other end. "M-Ms. Chao? Do you need something?" OH THANK MONEY! She actually felt happy and relieved before rushing around a corner to a butcher shop that said `Larry's slice and chop BUTCHER SHOP`on a sign upon the door before kicking it and saying, "Yeah, time for you to pay me back for that business deal I got you and your dad. It's not going to cover the whole thing but if you don't give me a ride to the gas station, I won't hesitate to make an example of you later when you least expect it..."

With a venomous, bitter tone that clearly indicated such a threat was going to have a follow up if he didn't comply. Clicking the end button on her phone before putting it back in her jacket, she stared at the man across the counter who looked like he could just about piss himself from how scared he was right now. For a pampered, rich brat, she definitely wasn't some fragile flower. Frantically, he smacked the wall with his phone, missing the cradle bolted to the wall a couple of times before finally hanging it up and reaching into his pockets to find his keys, she reached her hand out and started walking over to the counter. If he didn't know she was on the police force at the moment, he could of sworn she was a classic mugster! "Hurry up, Larry, I don't have time for you to be some moron who can't find his own keys! A business owner is losing money you nit wit!"

Snapping out those words in a demanding tone, it seemed like he finally found the keys in his pockets and quickly handed them over which she took before turning around to rush out the door again. "Thanks, Larry!" Saying those words in a surprisingly professional town with a bit of edge to it, she kicked the door open and Panda Pig squealed out it's own thanks as well before the pink and blue haired girl ran over to the butcher van. Sure, she wasn't sure what to expect when she got there but she hoped it was either some random loser or one of the werewolves she was trying to track down earlier before this zombie land thing happened. Quickly opening up the door with the key before jumping on in to put the keys into the ignition and turning on the butcher mobile. Putting Panda Pig in the seat next to her, she buckled herself up and began driving off to the gas station. Damn it damn it damn it she hoped she'd make it there on time!

Speeding down the road like she stole it, there was a stray zombie in her way and that thing got smashed with the truck she was borrowing knowing for sure she was close. The particular gas station getting stolen from wasn't exactly in the safest area, so the stray zombie was a nice little indicator. Some of the flesh chunks smacked into the windshield and to that she went "Tch..." before turning on the windshield wipers and rolling her eyes. Boy oh boy did she hate all these stupid undead almost as much as she hated her funding getting cut bit by bit. Pulling up in front of the door, she stopped the meat delivery vehicle and turned it off before getting out and motioning her panda colored pig buddy to follow her. The piggy even hopped up to push the door a bit closed with its adorable snout as his owner stuffed the car keys into one of her jacket pockets before pulling a a sling shot. Honestly, most people would laugh their butts off at that being her weapon, but the next thing she pulled out of her jacket was the razor blade and that wasn't exactly a laughing matter.

Pulling back on the rubber band of the weapon of choice she selected, the Chao family's heiress quietly opened up the door but was thwarted by the happy little DING DONG of the bell and wished she used the back door but to hell with it, chances were it was locked anyway! Looking around, she was trying to find her culprit but her gaze stopped on a girl who looked like a bimbo...and...had...stolen good...oh dear giving bosses of the world....seriously? This almost felt retarded....busting someone in a shop where the workers were zombies...just...wow...aiming her slingshot at the woman, she spoke up in an authoritative tone, "In the name of corporations and bosses willing to share their money with peasants of the world, you're under arrest, drop all that crap and put the money away nicely or we're going to have a problem."

[echidna]

Alesis turned at the sound of the butcher's van driving up. She'd expected no resistance - how stupid would people be? The living attendant gurgled in the pile of stuff - he was coming to. She had the register, and was just finishing up sacking up her spoils in her messenger bag... and then a girl popped out with a slingshot and a pig? What was she supposed to do - Alesis laughed outright at her, shouldering her burden and pocketing the money.

"Oh please." She didn't even need to use her magic, she decided... with her burden safely stowed, she decided to teach this girl a lesson. It'd been a while since her blade had tasted blood, and a gutsy, annoying girl spouting something about politicians (she's a fury, how the heck is she supposed to know any better?) was going to get the short end of the stick.

Practiced fingers flicked and broke the seal of the metal button on her sheathe, and the sword came out in a single violent motion, in a very obvious and violent motion designed mostly to unsettle a twitchy hand's... trigger finger? Regardless, she didn't take a chance. In the same motion, she jolted sideways a half-foot and dashed for all she was worth at the girl, brandishing something that could only be a sword!

There were reports, warrants for a girl with red hair and a sword - she was... a murderer, perhaps even a serial killer, not some random thug robbing a convenience store. The manic grin on her face played on this - she looked mad, her eyes an honest-to-god shade of red as she closed the distance.

Whoever she was, this woman intended to kill the girl.

[Bao Yu Chao]

That irritating laughter while pocketing the stolen money just pissed her off that much more, but then again most people had a good laugh before she handed their butts to them in a paper bag. Werewolves and vampires alike thought nothing of this irritable teen's main weapon seeing her as a joke. The pink and blue color scheme she had going on with her hair probably didn't help at all! If only murder was legal she'd scheme on killing this bimbo but that's something she hated having on her hands, someone's blood and knowing she took their life. Maintaining her aim and after hearing that `Oh please` pass the thief's lips, she rolled her eyes and lowered her aim a bit seeing that she was trying to get what was on her back....and...it was a sword. The craftsmanship definitely didn't look cliche and normal...there was something about it AND this woman...but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Oh crap, now wasn't the time to be figuring out what this girl was, what she did to the cashier who...was...er...kinda normal...yuck she'd hate to be in that loser's position.

RIGHT! Now she was charging over in her direction which prompted her pet pig to hop off her shoulder while snapping out, "You know what to do!" Aiming at the fiery haired challenger's stomach, she quickly released the band and decided it'd be retarded to fight in this place, but for now she didn't have many options. Soon after she fired the razor blade at the sword flailing thief, her face was a bitter reminder of something....this girl wasn't just some stupid thief...she was a murderer too! Crouching down before rolling out of the way while her piggy pal rammed the door open to the point where it'd stay put. "Tch! Let's hear you laugh at this you cheap peasant!" With those anger infested words, she spun on her knee and slammed her palm on the ground tightening her grip on the sling shot only to swiftly swing the tip of her foot at the back of that woman's knees in hopes of making her fall into the open doorway so they could literally take this fight outside of the establishment. As pissed of as she was, the girl was also on edge since like HELL she'd die at the hands of some cheap ass chick and ready to duck and roll out of a sword slash's way.

After combating various creepy crawlies of the night, this girl of the piggy empire wasn't exactly some simple to deal with push over and wouldn't be so easy to defeat like the average cop. Chances were she had more training than most of them and for good reason too. All she had to do was treat this like fighting a freak of the night werewolf...avoid the claws and kick its ass to the best of her ability as if she were wearing all the right custom equipment for hand to hand combat....er...and...change up the end where she slaps cuffs on her and has someone take the trash out. As for Panda Pig her assistant, it was outside making sure not to get out of the way and keep on the look out for zombies until he was needed again.

[echidna]

The first blade had been aimed at her stomache, but she was moving pretty quickly, and with her lowered stance - experience with guns taught her that a target coming low and fast was REALLY hard to hit - had not accounted for this. The blade impacted her in the FACE dead on, the tiny piece of metal shattering with a DOINK. God DAMNIT that hurt like hell!

"Yeeeeeeow!" she cried out, almost getting into melee range before... where the hell was the girl? All she could see was smoky skies and an empty street with a crappy meat-monger van parked badly in the street and...! Why were her legs hurting and going in front of her head? She caught a glimpse of the girl she'd attempted to kill, and soon realized just how stupid she had been.

Then she hit pavement. All of her speed and momentum was very suddenly turned against her, and the texture of rock cuddling her face was leaving a bad taste in her mouth. Some ten feet and a curb later, Alesis sputtered and fought the intense urge to cry. Big Furies didn't cry. Hell, small ones didn't either. So tears were unacceptable.

Gathering herself up, she was... unharmed? She pushed herself up to her hands and turned. She... wasn't even scratched? She got hit with a razorblade to the face, bitchslapped across the street, and ate like fifteen feet of gravel... and her face was a little red? She growled a bit, eyes flashing with murder.

"You little...! Arg! That hurt! Um..." she thought about it a moment - she... DID try to kill the girl. She looked to the bag she'd stolen of stuff, and tried to weigh it all... Mistress's orders. Bloodlust. Orders, violence... Couldn't she do both? She set the money and bookbag down on the opposite street, and flicked her sword a bit as she looked around. Was that one of those metal trees? She grinned! One slash cut it at a horizontal angle, creating a sharp edge, and her free hand caught it. Slish, slash, instant spear!

Brandishing the improvised spear in one hand and her... re-diculously sharp sword in the other, she grinned at the girl. "Hey, fair's fair, I *was* trying to kill you... just not very hard, y'see... So lemme get to the point... I'm here for food, and nobody cares. You can't kill me, and I can sure as beans kill you. Let's just... call it a day and I won't have to cut you until you die from it, then use this stick here to have me a miniature spit roast with your friend."

[dib]

Dib tossed aside a random traveling brochure as he walked down the streets of the concrete jungle.

"So this place is called 'New York!'" He smiled triumphantly,

"But.. ... Is that the name of this whole planet? This is definitely Earth in another dimension.. But everything here is named different things, it wouldn't be out of the question for the planet to be named something else too. New York.. I wonder where they got that?" His eyes widened.

"... Wait, if we're in another dimension.. Is there an Irk here too!? ANOTHER ZIM?!" He started to sweat.

"I NEED TO SET UP THE SATELLITE AGAIN TO MAKE SURE EARTH'S SAFE! ... But first, I could really go for some Poop Cola." He grinned, before walking towards the gas station. He certainly hoped they had poop cola.. Or something similar. He walked right past the cotton candy and hot tamale haired girls engaged in some sort of kung fu fight, not even paying notice to the razor sharp blade that went right by his head as it hit the redhead square in the face. Even a few zombies wandering by seemed a bit confused at his lack of running away yelling something like 'Don't eat my brains!' or 'OH GOD WHAT IS THAT?!'

Finally, he made it to the convenience store attached to the gas station. At least some things were the same here compared to home! But he was stopped by a curious animal standing guard on the ground. He looked at it, blinking. It appeared to be a pig with the colors and markings of a panda.

"Did pandas and pigs fuse together in this dimension?" He looked at it closer, eyes narrowed in suspicion, before he shrugged it off, not even giving it a second thought. His expression became determined.

"I need that soda first!" And with that he would attempt to step over the panda pig to get inside.

[Bao Yu Chao]

What the...why wasn't she bleeding?! WHY WAS SHE UNCUT AND SAYING OW?! ....This was definitely not a normal every day run of the mill loser who had to steal for a living. The paranormal investigator with cotton candy colored hair grit her teeth and decided she wasn't going to give up, not by a long shot. Chasing after her while pulling yet another razor blade out of her jacket, if it hurt the little bitch then maybe it's be easy enough to keep hurting her until she gave up and stopped moving. There was an itty bitty part of her that ALMOST felt bad for not letting her take the food and be done with it, but what about all the other damn law breakers in this city? What if she let them slide like it was nothing at all?

They'd walk all over her, look at her like she was some sort of joke...think of her as a push over...give her dad MORE reason to cut her funding and make her more like a peasant! No no NO she didn't want that! That blade was apparently insanely sharp to such an extent that it was easy enough for the thieving bimbo to make a spear out of a metal pole. Crap....maybe if she was lucky enough she could get the thief with a murderous criminal record to fall on it and gouge her own eye out, especially because that girl said, she was TRYING to kill her. This place had so many crazies...it wasn't even funny how insane the population was! In fact it was pretty messed up by her standards and those were puh-retty high up there. Right now, she was EXTREMELY thankful for not being in Gotham and it was Trish who went there instead, she could of sworn that woman was a but of a nut job herself but that lady being her boss n' all she couldn't say jack diddly about it.

Tightening her grip on the sling shot, it was as though something inside of her snapped when this woman DARED to threaten her only friend in the whole wide world and wanted to make a spit roast out of him! There were SO many profanities linking up to this woman surging through her brain like a machine gun on cruise control. Even that all too familiar guy with lightning bolt style hair approaching just didn't catch her attention, not even to yell out a warning of some sort. "What the hell have you been inhaling you kleptomaniac?! NO ONE DON'T ORDERS ME AROUND! ....ASIDE FROM MY BOSS!" Snapping out those words with a scary amount of anger as though she was going to go over and attempt to rip that woman's throat open with her bare hands. Quickly aiming her slingshot up, she grit her teeth while glaring at her red headed opponent and fired a razor blade at her before dashing at the bubble brained murderer.

Pulling out several more razors from the depths of her jacket, about four or five, the girl with a cotton candy color scheme for her hair launched herself off of the ground for an aerial shot in an attempt to make it like this girl was getting rained on with razor blades following up with a flip back in hopes of keeping some distance. Sure she was extremely pissed off right now but after seeing what that sword could do, she planned on distance attacks for the time being. For who knows what reason, some of the zombies dumbfounded by the big headed boy's one track mind just...sloooooowly turned around to gnaw on and fight over some dog meal in the alley nearby. Panda Pig on the other hand was frightened by his owners rage and when the boy was observing him...with...a...analysis of him being merged with a panda in this dimension?! His owner would LOVE to interview this guy! When he tried to step over him, the little pig did his best to bite his ankle and BOY OH BOY! If that worked he was gonna try dragging him to the fight going on.

What a strange attempt to thwart soda purchasing plans!