SERIOUS: Reconnaisance Unit, Chapter 2: Broken Bonds and the Mysterious Predator of the Valens Mountain Range (OPEN to Shad0w and Cryptic Terror)

Jade was a bit concerned that she had a psychopathic lunatic on her hands - which meant a lot coming from a throat slashing creature such as herself. Her pursuer was a confusing thing - he seemed willing to fight but with an undertone of creepy friendliness that she could not quite understand. She had enough of this nonsense. The land may be due for a new master.

She turns with fury in her eyes and she brings her blades in front of her. Play time was over, it was time for this clown to die. Just then she is startled by soft explosions at her flanks. She narrows her eyes as she observes two dome shaped nets meeting in the middle the surround her perimeter. Did this fool really thing a lion could be restrained by a net? The nets fell around her, coating her body and snagging her blades. She worked to free them and as she moved she felt sharp pain. Upon further inspection she noted that the net was covered in sharp barbs.

Furious at the thought of being captured by such a cowardly means, she struggles and tears at the net, emitting wild feral roars of a jungle cat. The more she struggles the more she is cut. Unphased, the cuts only make her angrier and make her struggle more. She failed to notice the sea stone tips securing the net, making her unable to damage it.

Soon her cuts are so bad that her rich golden fur is completely coated in crimson blood. Barely holding on to consciousness, she falls to her knees - a weaker creature would have already died of blood loss. It would take her body a long time to heal this and lacked the ability to remain conscious while doing so. As she fell to the ground, her body shifted back to its human form, making her wounds look significantly worse since they were distributed over a much smaller area. Not a single inch of her was free blood, save for her hair. There would be no reason for anyone to assume she was still alive with that amount of damage and blood loss. Slowly she slips out of consciousness, still angry, hissing, and willing to fight until the last breath.

"Tsk, what a wild one you are, still struggling after so many wounds." Brosko comments just shortly before the amount of injuries make Jade fall on her knees, slowly warping back into her human form. Upon she is back to being 100% human, Brosko narrows his eyes, and inspects her bloody body, while biting his lower lip, with a query expression on his face. Then, while he has just approached next to her, he moves his large, heavy leg backwards, taking a kicking position. His eyes shimmer in what seems to be disgust, or was it anger? "Who told you to revert back to your less-sexy form!" Finishing that, he lowers his leg, firing off a devastatingly powerful kick, aiming right at her head. What a cruel, horrid beast!

"Nonetheless ... you are quite the babe. Guys, take her to our hideout, and patch her up perfectly. Go go go!" He then adds, returning to a more sane, and at the same time, stupid facial expression as well as mood. "AYE! BUT .. HER HAIR LOOK TASTY! CAN I EAT THEM?!" The goat screams, then bleats equally loudly. He is wearing a pirate captain's standard tricorn hat, and also mysteriously has a dark brown cigar on his lips, to which he actually chews on rather than smoke.

Jade's unconscious frame apparently undergoes further abuse. It was easier for her to heal while in smaller human form but the further kick to the head inflicted further damage, slowing the process more. All of the blood made it difficult to tell how bad the damaged was. Her face could be caved in for all anyone could see. The once majestic creature was reduced to a sleeping pile of blood and gore - and for once, it was her own blood.

Her wounds were deep and deadly. The cuts inflicted by seastone were not easily healed, and bandaging them would deprive them of the precious oxygen they needed to heal faster. She could have been more careful if she had noticed the seastone - cuts from this were so much harder to overcome. She was in trouble now and barely alive. More blood was pooling around her head but with all of the other blood in the way it was impossible to know where it was coming from. Hopefully her nakama were in better shape.

Meanwhile, at an unknown location, inside what seems to be a large, white (apparently no one was interested in changing the colors even in artificial creations around here) dome, there's a cage floating above the ground, held by number of thick, somewhat rusty chains. And inside this cell, that actually looked like an over-sized bird cage, Hawks and Ginji are seen, sitting on the cage's floor, with their hands crossed and heads lowered down. Seems that they were caught. The room looked completely empty aside them trapped in this thing. Also, they seem to be .. napping? Well, there's not much mobility in there at all.

And, to another location, and after apparently quite some time after her severe beating, the wounds are carefully and perfectly cleaned and patched up, whoever was placed to fix her up obviously did a wonderful job. I mean, other than the fact that she was .. roped down on her knees, with several thick ropes pinning her in that position, a metallic collar around her neck as well. When would she wake up to see her new situation?

After fading in and out of consciousness for some time, Jades eyes opened. she tried to stretch, only to discover her predicament ... and why the hell was she wrapped up like a mummy? Viciously she tore away at the bandages, some of the wounds opening here and there. It was much more difficult for her to heal when her wounds were denied oxygen. Whoever had put her there had secured her with seastone restraints around her neck and around her knees, securing her to the floor.

Her precious stolen shirt was ragged and bloodstained as a few newly opened cuts wept fresh blood. Her head was badly bruised though the swelling around her eyes had finally gone down so she could open them completely. She couldn't transform even if she wanted to, not only did the seastone around her neck prevent it, it would also probably kill her because of all of the seastone inflicted cuts on her body. She cursed her weakness against something so simple as a stone - it was the price she paid to borrow the skin of the mighty sphinx.

She hoped her crew members found a better fate than hers. She felt ashamed for being captures by such a weak imbecile. Why the hell did her want to capture her anyway. No one has any use for an untamable, hungry beast. That creature was clearly insane or, more likely, brain damaged. The prospect of being captured by a brain damaged imbecile did not make her feel better. Her blood loss was making her dizzy again ... but she fought away unconsciousness. She had to think of an escape plan.

"Are you feeling any better now, sweetie buns?" A voice is soon heard, one with an overly casual and flirtatious tone. "So, what brought you here, to my lands?" the voice, that weirdo's voice, is heard after some seconds of silence, but he is no where to be seen. His voice does sound a tiny bit blemished, sight that he was probably talking to her through some sort of broadcast or sound device located nearby her current location. Actually, there was in fact a small pole not too far away from her, with a Den Den Mushi wrapped on top of a small surface at the top of the pole!

"Are you going to be a good girl and answer me?" His voice, with an obvious tone of mischievousness and a sense of a troll, mixed with what seemed to be a somewhat failed attempt to sound mysterious and intimidating. Still, the thing was, that he was actually having the upper hand for now, so it didn't exactly mattered that he was a moron. He was a moron that had her captive, and there was little she could do in her situation.

A jolt of annoyance overtook Jade as that voice was her. That idiot. She was not amused by this entire situation and seemed unbothered by the fact that she was near death. She tried to calm herself to conserve her strength. At some point that coward would show his face and she would save every last drop of energy waiting for the moment she would have the opportunity to tear his head from his shoulders ... even if she choked herself trying. A raspy voice escapes her swollen lips. "Go to hell..."

In response of her not-so-polite "suggestion" to visit hell, Brosko reaches for what seems to be a button, since Jade could surely hear the sound of a button being clicked. After some moments of awkward silence, a mumble is heard, and another voice claims that the man holding her a hostage apparently "clicked the wrong button" and "Oh God, why this button, do you realize what you've done?!" in which in response, the ape man was frantically saying that he was, according to him, clicking the wrong buttons on purpose, to add some more suspense in this whole "hostage" situation. Soon after that pitiful display of mecha control however, a sudden, sharp surge of electricity zaps intensely through that collar around her neck. "That's not very polite, ya know." the voice goes, in a somewhat taunting tone. He was obviously not too good at this, on the contrary, but if the one of the receiving end of his sub-par captivation and interrogation skills was chained like this, as well as injured like this, then it didn't mattered all too much that he sucked.

Every time that idiot spoke, Jade felt worse because she had been been captured by a creature who was clearly clinically retarded. She heard a creak when the scuffle about the button happened. The door to her cell opened but it didn't matter .. she was still collared and lashed to her knees with seastone restraints - more things that were making her heal slower since it was suppressing her abilities. They were apparently trying to resecure the door but the broken hinge held it open. It still didn't matter. Hopefully her nakama had the good since to leave her here and complete the mission. She was never really one of them anyway. She wouldn't even be in this situation if she didn't have such a bizarre and unhealthy relationship with that damn magician.
Was this idiot really giving her a lesson on being polite? She was sliced to bits, battered and bruised, and held captive as this weirdo's plaything.There was little she could do this weak, so she slept to conserve energy and to heal - every time she got angry, it slowed her healing even more. Soon sleep found her, accompanied by rather pleasant dreams ... but whose name was she whispering while she slept?

Meanwhile, people have gathered all over the cage that was holding the other two members of the team. All the people are with heavy clothing, despite the fact that at least in this dome, the temperature was actually tolerable, and they all seemed to have the same face. Not facial expressions, but face, they all had similar noses, eye color and shape, everything looked similar. It was rather creepy as their clothes were also quite similar.

"Boss said that we shouldn't really try to do something until he is done with his girl." One of them mumbles, as the rest are inspecting their captives.
"I say we actually begin to interrogate them as well!" Another one fusses, clapping his hands like a retarded seal.
"What a moron, this blonde one huh? This red sash was making him so glaringly visible to everything. They should be glad we caught them, and not any of the "Super Polar Bears"!" a third one also says. They all seemed to have the same voice as well as tone, this was too creepy and weird, Jade would surely flip out seeing about 20 of them, that's how many they were, being as they were.

As neither Hawks nor Ginji seemed to be moving, it got those goons of sorts to get a bit worried about whether their captives were not well. "Dude, you think they are too cold and passed out?" Another one gets a stick and pokes Hawks's side. While they continue to behave like a bunch of weird morons, Hawks narrowly opens his eyes and looks around. "Shall we make our move, Ginji?" he whispers. "Lovely yes." Ginji also replies, surprisingly just as soft and without yelling as he usually does. What were they up to?

Jade's eyes fluttered open as she felt fingertips under her chin.  blood ran down her face like fresh tears as she leveled a gaze at the cloaked figure in front of her.  A monotone voice spoke as a gloved thumb ran over her jaw line.  "You're a lucky one - you've survived much longer than the other nine.  Did you see all of those domes?  Every time one of his wives dies, we get a new dome here. Now if you can just learn to keep that tight little mouth of your shut and put it to better use ... " He runs a finger across her lips - just as her eyes begin to glow an ominous shade of green.  

Her lips part slightly before she inflict a savage bite upon the offending finger, severing it the hand.  The cloaked creature creams in pain and uses his other to backhand the chain sphinx along her jawline.  "You bitch!  You'll pay for this!" The man pulls a knife from his cloak and just as he nears her, a dull sound is heard before an arrow sprouts from the center of his chest - where the guard outside of the broken door had loosed an arrow into his back. "Now now - we must not soil the master's new prize.  This pretty one has work to do."  Before he leaves he tosses a clean cloth at the prisoner. "Wipe your face.  You're bleeding."  The fresh blood from the finger still ran down her chin as her eyes regarded the enemy who was clever enough to stay out of her reach.

The dying man was left there in her cell within her reach.  What a convenient treat for a hungry, angry sphinx.  She would not even leave the bones behind of this one - and yet she had worse in mind for the creature who put her in this place.

A bit later, after her "dinner" a tickle at her side awakens her from a nap.  A tiny scorpion scuttles along her arm and stops to blink at her.  She didn't recall Sasori having such a tiny form - perhaps it was him and perhaps not - but either way, she recognized the look of a scorpion after treats.  She shuffled through her pouch and retrieved a cricket. With a vague smile, despite her wounds, she watches the creature happily scuttle off with his tasty prize.  Soon the a combination of fatigue, blood loss, and eating too much calls he back to sleep.

((OOC: How unnecessarily gore  ))

"Nyaaaaaaaah ha ha~!!" Brosko seems to be in high spirits, as he hums and sings, both done horribly badly, and, he is actually standing tall, in his beast's form, while a man with a costume, and on top of a ladder, is actually taking proportions of the large creature. "Make it extra fancy! My babe loves it when it's flashy-OH, IT RHYMES~!!"
"Boss, it will look wonderful, those things look always good for ya, you're born a husband!" The lion head says, while taking a rigorous, prideful and prestige posture, with the broad chest and mane being prominent. That was until the goat randomly bit the hide. "SORRY, I THOUGHT IT WAS LEAVES! Also; long live the couple!" the goat was wearing a police officer's cap and also had an ice cream cone stuck on one of it's floppy ears. That all made no sense, again, but, seems that the over sized monkey was in the process of having a tuxedo made for him, and it was for some sort of marriage!

Jade woke up to the sound of another guard leaving water before he quickly ran out at the sound of her stirring. Apparently the fate of the previous guard had spread among the ranks. Much of the blood had been cleaned from her face. She felt a bit better after eating so much. Many of the cuts had begun to heal while others still wept blood. The swelling of her face had gone down a bit but there was still a bit of bruising. Her lips were only swollen enough to make her look a bit pouty.

For the first time she noticed the seastone collar had a ribbon tied in a bow around it - making her look rather like a gift ... or a pet. She removed the ribbon, using it to tie her hair away from her face. Somehow those supreme idiots weren't smart enough to take her dagger from her. She used it to chip away at one of the smaller bones of her victim - eventually she would make a tip thin enough to try to pick the collar's lock. She had learned a hard lesson about trying to fight steastone with brute force.

Suddenly, the doors open, and several goons surround Jade. Reluctant to draw nearer to her, they squirm around, until three of them suddenly pull out some long pole-like contraptions, and poke Jade with it. They were no average, normal poles however. Pointy tips were visible at the end, and, as they were pulled away, droplets of some purple-colored substance drip down on the glassy, freezing floor. "This is a powerful sedative, don't struggle, we need to get you ready for the ceremony." one of the goons, or rather, he seemed to have a more professional and important air around him, tells to her, while removing what seemed to be a hockey mask, to reveal a handsome face, with soft and healthy skin, blue eyes and faint blond hair. He did kinda looked like Hawks actually .. or, was all this an after effect of this thing they injected her, already getting into her?

She had managed to loose the lock at her legs but shuffled her work away when she heard footsteps near. Thanks to Ginji's nonsense and her Sphinx blood, she had developed a high tolerance for sedative. She lashes and claws at them, still intimidating in her human form. Her eyes begin to blaze a bright green, causing all but one of the minions to back away from her, lest they be eaten. It eventually takes effect but never completely puts her to sleep.
She places her sleepy but deadly focus on the masked creature who was too stupid to run from her. She certainly would not turn down another meal. She's poised to tear him apart ... and then the mask comes off. Just as her hands come to his throat - she sees his familiar face?! - was she dreaming?! Her hands come up to cradle his face with confusion - a single bead of moisture falls from her eye and shatters on the floor as she whispers "I'm so sorry..." She falls against his shoulder, eyes closed ... possibly sleeping.

"Wow, so the boss was right, huh?" One of the goons remark, after some moments of silence, as Jade was seemingly falling into a slumber. Blue orbs glare down at said goon, making him gulp for a moment, before the man fearlessly walks into the "danger" zone, basically the zone in which this cannibal, as they referred to her, could be able to get a grasp onto someone, and puts his hand, inside a silky glove, just like Hawks, under her chin, raising her head up, and examines the female's face. "She seems to be affected well enough for us to work without fear. Let's get on the move." The man then moves away, and once again glares at that one person that spoke before. "Of course, seems that they are subordinates." He speaks, with apathy. Who was that mysterious figure?

Jade was too distracted by the familiar blue eyes - they were always too distracting. She actually nuzzled the hand the was placed under her chin, giving the fingertip and gentle and experimental nibble while almost purring. It was odd ... he smelled and and tasted nothing like the magician - she'd never ever forget her favourite flavour. She wasn't sure who anyone was or why he was with them ... her head was spinning between the blood loss and the drugs. Was she dreaming? She couldn't bring herself to believe the magician would betray her. Why did he smell so wrong - and why was her instinct to eat everyone around her so heightened?

"Alright. Wake up." A voice is heard, after God knows how much time, must have fell like a moment, but how long was she in a half-drugged down state? The voice that was heard, it wasn't Hawks, and it definitely wasn't that annoying ape's voice. It was too serious and non-sweet to be either of them. The drug was obviously wearing off.
"Oh my God~! She's hot!" Brosko's voice is heard, as he just yells, and then squirms around, for some unknown reason. His cheek are all red, and his expression is that of the typical, stereotype pervert when his eyes gore down on some unsuspecting and poor "prey". What did he saw now?!

Jades eyes open. Her vision is blurry - she sees a few people quickly scuttle away from he. She feels uncomfortable - like she can't breathe ... he chest feels compressed and her waist feels squeezed - her legs were cold ... what the hell kind of drug would make her feel this way. A shiny, glittery texture caught her eyes. What in seven circles of hell was she wearing?! She begins to thrash and squirm, reaching out for the nearest creature to her. Someone was going to be eaten for this!

"Not so fast, woman." A voice is heard, and a leash is pulled, a leash that was connected on that collar around her neck. That Hawks-look alike walks around her, holding the leash, and then, while keeping strict and intense eye contact with her, clips on a red button on a small device held on his other hand, and a surge of electricity, much higher voltage than before, races through the entirety of the wiry ropes. "Resistance is futile, female. This collar, aside the fact that restrains your movement, is extremely durable and coated with Seastone, which has a constant friction with your bare skin to drain your powers. The ropes can also be pulled to the point of makin you crawl down. And, there's too many people here for you to handle. Just accept your fate." He finishes speaking, and then throws the device towards Brosko, who grabs it, and remains with a perverted face on, and a blush that was raising, it seemed that he'd soon begin to blow gas out of his ears and nostrils. But, aside him, what was going on with that Hawks look-alike? They even talked very similarly.

"I still believe that this dress is an insult. Too much skin is exposed, and her breasts are barely not just bursting out. Boss, couldn't you be more decent?" The mysterious figure then adds, but is largely ignored by the ogling cave .. ape, which leaves the man sighing and just walking away. Then the lion appears .. and the snake .. and the goat. What was going on? And was everyone dressed with formal clothing, yes, even the goat, but her?! A small, old and with a large hunch man walks slowly and jumps on top of a small podium, then he coughs up, and clears his throat. "Ehem, we have gathered here today, to unite this lovely couple..." Brosko just continues to stare down at Jade, or rather, her cleavage. But more importantly ...
A MARRIAGE?!

Jade was barely conscious and assumed the Hawks look alike must have been a side effect of whatever was drugging her. She's tear the imposter apart if she got the chance. Despite her drowsiness, she was very aware of her exposed skin. While it was find for her to never really buttoned her shirt, being squished and compressed into a tight garment that she was spilling out of what the most uncomfortable and humiliating feeling.

This wasn't a marriage, this was a hostage situation. She felt a combination of wrath and sickness. She hisses at the ape and spits at his face starling words that drip with venom. "You'll do well to kill me now - I will never submit to this." She takes the chain securing her collar and pulls hard in, hoping to bring her captor to the ground. "Furthermore, I'm already married - and so this really is quite impossible, you insufferable imbecile."

Meanwhile, at what appears to be yet another dome, there are several bodies fallen all over the place, and, in around that circle of taken down and beaten men, a larger circle encases what appears to be two men standing back to back in the middle of this pile of defeated ones. "These guys are so strong, how can this be?!" one of the goons yells out, while holding a pole axe in front of him, visibly shaken and scared. They seem to be at a disadvantage despite far outnumbering this enemy force. "We need to inform Boss, immediately!" another one yells, but a third one shuts his mouth, and glares at the opponents, also visibly affected and afraid. "If we tell him that our captives escaped like that, he'll kill us .."

"We got all we had to get from this laboratory facility, isn't that right, Ginji?"
"Waahaha, lovely indeed, though sadly it wasn't much. Guess our lovely plan to be "captured" didn't paid off as we thought it would. Maaaha~!"
"No matter. It should be enough to aid in reaching our destination. But .. let's inspect the other rooms too..!"

Those two were on the move, and apparently they were unstoppable!

Jades annoyance caused her numerous cuts to bleed a bit again. Being crapped into that undersized bandage of shimmering torture didn't help. If she move to suddenly or too forcefully - all of the wrong things would be out on display - even breathing held the very real threat of spilling over the top of that horrible garment.

Her green eyes glowed softly behind her hair. Her teeth were clenched into a snarl as she through of sadistic ways to tear apart every person around her. She would even find a creative way to off herself if this was her fate. She wondered if that idiot knew what seasone did - he complained about her human form while making her sphinx form impossible.

She'd certainly give him a show if her let her out ... a show drenched in blood and rage. Because of all of her wounds ad the sestone preventing them from healing quickly or completely, it would likely kill her but it would certainly be worth it.

Her chain is pulled suddenly, possibly snapping her out of her thoughts and vengeful plotting of what she'd do to that hardly amorous and mostly perverted and disgusting primate once she was released from those shackles and that .. barely considered garment. That small old man is speaking really fast, so it's hard to understand what is he saying, but apparently this fiasco of a ceremony was closing to the part where the two of them are supposed to exchange oaths of love and companionship. Everyone gathered seems to be getting delighted and impatient, outside of that goat head, who was currently with some very gangster-like shades across it's silly and oddly soul-penetrating eyes, while he was munching what seemed to be a tie. At the same time, the lion was checking around under its neck, looking for something. Maybe a tie?

Every time she felt a pressure tugging at her neck, she tugged right back. Not only did the look alike's scent not match, his eyes were all wrong - cold blue eyes flickering where red brooding ones should be. He may look like her nakama but everything about him was wrong. Even when Hawks had been in the creepy haze that he conveniently forgot ever happened, she knew it could not be anyone else, no matter how bizarre his behavior - she was sure it was her little toy -- but this creature was unrecognizable and had to be an imposter. Her eyes turned to ice when she looked at him and every time he tugged at her, she pulled back twice as hard. She would tear him apart if she got him close enough - it infuriated her that he had a borrowed face, she was tormented enough by the real one.

Every time she pulled back on the taut chain, her muscles contracted and her chest swelled higher, threatening to spill over the poor excuse of a dress that scarcely kept her decent. She cared more about spilling blood than staying covered but she would still be most displeased if anything ever popped out. Only one living creature ever saw her in such a state and even that time was never supposed to occur - he still hadn't recovered from that ... incident and neither had she,

Her green eyes had faded to a pale aqua, the coldness dancing somewhere between green an blue. Anyone could see thoughts of death and savagery danced in those cold and unfeeling eyes. If she could reach the old man she'd eat him too. She looked forward to sinking her teeth into the throat of that ape at the moment. What kind of idiot tries to marry a lion? He would not survive his stupidity - monkeys have always been lion food and she wasn't about to break that fine tradition.