New Allies

[Ivan Sarkozy]

[[You bastard!!!! @"Jaxen Marveet"]]

[Tan Li]

The power within made everything brighter and wen another joined in on the cacophonous chorus Li's eyes flowed not to the object fluttering in the sky but to the man wielding the ancient power of the gods. The distance was too far to see with the naked eye, but his eyes were not naked, the men who had been with the woman were at the other end of the gathering. It was like a convergence of things. The man weilding the power Li did know personally Mik had flirted while he sparred. The other two - they had been with her. The man with the scar unforgettable. And the other brought down the lights.

Li smiled at Nhyssa. "The men who were with your friend are the at other end of that kite with another man who can weild the power of the gods. The scarfaced man and the one who brought down the lights are together with the man floating the kite. It seems more than just some street fair is going on here." His smile lingered a bit while he looked at the beautiful eyes of the dangerous mistress in front of him. "And we are in the middle of the arena. Perhaps a different location?" Li wasn't sure he could do much with his own use of the power, he certainly could bring down the lights, but there was very little he could do to protect this crowd from the wrath of the gods.

[[ edited. Li actually knows Mik - my bad completely ]]

[Yun Kao]

The intrusion of the woman into her party was ill-noted but well received. No one balked. Yet no one knew her either. But that didn't seem to matter much as she joined them.

"A man who can reign fire on us still has attachments. All men including the Ascendancy himself can be manipulated if the right strings are tugged." She had her agents in the Kremlin, but nothing like these Atharim who she'd been in contact with. Her game was small compared to them - it was hard to imagine something quite so world-encompassing - yet they had remained secret for a long time. For how long she'd never know. The man was tight-lipped, but he at least spoke, unlike the boy god who had turned tail and run. She would find Durante and he'd die if she couldn't control him.

Her other claw dug tight into Sarkozy's throat, yet she felt the disquiet in him. He wasn't like his father. "Men have other weaknesses as well. It's just a matter of finding the right one." Perhaps Yun didn't need to use the father and the family against Sarkozy, The stick chaffed some. As with Vega, perhaps the carrot. But what would spur the boy. Power wasn't useful to him. "And sometimes positive incentives help - what would a man of great unlimited power want from life if they didn't desire the ambitious plights of his lesser men?". It was idle amusement but Yun thought on what to do...

[Oriena]

She wasn’t sure she’d expected an answer, or cared to hear one, but she did listen. Secrets had been Oriena’s favoured currency for years, and she spent them as frivolously as she hoarded depending on her mood -- they were the only sorts of power currents that amused her. Sometimes losing was as enjoyable as winning, but others rarely understood that about her nature. At least until they found themselves cut by the sharp end of it.

She laughed and slid her gaze to the woman beside her. “In my experience it’s usually that they think with their cocks.” She winked, though she imagined Yun would find it crude for all its truth. Oriena had built an empire on its promise. Dig into the club’s origins and it was apparent where the money had come from, a fact that did remain buried but hardly for the sake of Oriena’s pride. 

“Trouble in paradise, sweetheart?” If Yun was trying to control a channeler with bribes and manipulation she might as well be trying to drop the moon in a bucket. “They want to feel in control, and a woman’s leash chafes most of all. Play beta. Let them think they’re calling the important shots.” She shrugged, dismissive. Yun had built an empire of her own, she hardly needed the advice. Still, the curve of a mischievous smile lingered. “Who's the problem?”

[Yun Kao]

Yun smirked at the crude comment. Men certainly did but she said nothing about the matter. It was not a plausible effort at the moment - others perhaps, but Sarkozy no. If only the one who got away - the Atharim - that was different. He hadn't thought the same either.

Yun shook her head. "No trouble. Baby gods as they like to call themselves think they are better than everyone else and don't have to play by the rules." There was a thought. But Sarkozy wasn't in charge. Releasing his parents on his assistance? That might work for a little while. But not for long the leash chaffed. and then she'd have nothing to hold him to her. A carrot was harder to manager - she'd have to think on it.

The sly little minx asked for a who. And Yun didn't want to give her any ideas of who was important. So she lied but it wasn't exactly a lie - he was a problem and he had gotten away. "A boy - young man - who had betrayed his brethen because of what he was. Gods and god killers don't play nice" Yun laughed - the idea that these zealots had weapons at their disposal in both gods and god killing devices and yet they toss one loyal to them away. Stupidity...The world was changing, what did a mere man expect to do against the power that The Ascendancy had shown existed in these men and women. "I had been told that Durante would play nice because he was ex Atharim. My informant had been wrong."

[Oriena]

“Baby gods?” She laughed, dark and throaty. That sounded like snake bullshit, dismissive and terrified of the power her kind wielded. They were better, but fuck if Oriena had ever had any respect for rules even before the power changed her. A channeler could crush Yun and her pretty strings if they chose, for despite the authority the woman had clawed to herself through sweat and blood, she was irrelevant the moment another spied her crown and fancied the fit for themselves.

Ori presently found her interest piqued though. Storm-blue eyes shunned the gathering and her previous preoccupation for this interesting new morsel, with only the barest hint of discomfort for the faint swarm of whispering in the back of her head. The glitter of her attention was like broken glass as the gears turned inside. Some swayed to that mischievous energy and some baulked from it, but fortunately for Yun she was currently under wing. “Nox Durante?”

The man was a sarcastic and overconfident shit, but Oriena did not forget the shield of his back while she snarled and bled on the floor. Unasked for, but still. She’d known what he was on some level since then, and perhaps it had shielded the brunt of her stark hatred for his kind. Or former, apparently. Either way, it was particularly that kind she desired, and talk of the tablet had even spouted first from Nox’s lips. Not why she had sought the distraction of a crowd this night, but Ori never minded when the game changed. A perk of burning the rule book and casting those ashes to the wind.

She stretched comfortable in her seat. Slyness touched her smile, curious to see what might hook on the bait. “He’s playing hard to get? Sounds about right.”

[Yun Kao]

She knew Durante? "You know the boy?" Yun growled at his audacity. She had no idea how infuriating he was. Or maybe she did. "My informant said he was pliable - he would be complacent with giving me information. But he was stubborn. A child really. He can't even die when he's told to."

How he adverted the sniper she'd set on the door still alluded her. But the sniper's laser had gone awry. "If he won't play nice, that's his problem not mine." Sadly he wasn't exactly easily found either. Her men couldn't find him. He was no longer at the Vega estate, and even Vega himself could not find the boy. Though through alternate sources she knew he was working for Domovoi now. And he'd be easy to track down, though killing him outside the police stations were not a good idea. And every time he left he disappeared into the tunnels where Abt had died. No one dared follow and no one could find the boy. "He is allusive."

[Ivan Sarkozy]

The guy- Mik?- eyed him up and down like a piece of meat. Ivan couldn't help but laugh. Was this how a girl in yoga pants felt when she walked into the gym? Like an antelope approaching a water hole occupied by lions and hyenas? He laughed at the thought. Guilty! He played along. "Great? You know it."

Ryker explained and the brief levity left him. So this guy knew Yun Kao. And if Ryker enlisted him, that meant that he was willing to... what were they going to do, anyway?

Mik seemed like he was high or something, manic- antsy anyway. The man flicked out his lighter and Ivan suddenly felt the now very familiar dread as threads of power- fire, earth, air and water- shot out in complicated patterns he had never seen before. What appeared in the sky was a dragon of fire, undulating and flying about like a kite. A kite indeed, since Ivan could see the lines that wove back to Mik, though not to his hands. From him.

Ecstacy showed on his laughing face, as people screamed with delight at the spectacle. Ivan couldnt help but smile. Soooo....maybe this was doable. The man had skill, obviously. And Ryker gave the impression of someone deadly- a knife blade, naked and undisguised. Yeah, this might be interesting.

Ryker explained his idea. Break what was apparently this new relationship between the Yakuza and the Syndicate. Or at least drive a wedge. He did like the idea.

Mik caught his eye and winked. Before Ivan could respond, the dragon started to go out of control. Heh. Evidently, this took all his attention. He quipped, half joking, half serious "Stop thinking with your dick. You might burn some people." Though come think of it, that might just be the simplest way to get rid of Yun.

He felt shame at the thought. He was no murderer. He arrested them. No, he wasn't going to get out that way, not unless his family was in front of him and threatened. Still, he was glad for the introduction. If Yun ever tried to use them that way again, Mik might be willing to take out the people holding his family
while she focused on him.

But for now...he looked at Ryker, thinking. His eye wandered, then, into the crowd. Yun had more than himself out. He saw two other plain clothes detectives, a couple beat cops,, and...shit, Lt. Petrovitch. She had always seem to have his back. Had she recommended Ivan to Yun? Kao seemed to be showing off. He didn't doubt that there might be a judge or lawyer in the crowd, though he'd probably not recognize them. He hadn't been a detective for that long so as to spend a lot of time inside a courtroom. A demonstration of what she could do for the Yakuza.

But he did have an idea. Yun had had him do a few more little things after he had gotten rid of that evidence. One of them had been to provide some security as one of her people met with some sort of manufacturer. He hadn't recognized what kind of hardware they were talking about- it wasn't like he was trusted enough to be near enough to hear, but he knew by the way the guy couldnt stop staring that they were wanted.

He looked again at the form of Petrovitch near some food cart, a slow smile forming. To Ryker he pointed with his chin. "I think I may have an idea to put Yun in a less trusting mood."

[Mikhail]

Mik liked how Ivan let it roll off him. Idly, he wondered if he had a shot. No biggie if not. But he liked a square jaw. And nice eyes. And those shoulders were bowling balls.

But Ryker had an idea. After his fun with the dragon he let it dissipate. Letting the power go was something he didn't do, though. Not when he could almost feel other people with his eyes.

Ryker wasn't too far off. He was pretty fluid. Beauty was beauty. He didn't really understand how people didnt get it. Or why they limited themselves. It seemed stupid. People were people. If they were hot, who cared?

Anyway, dragon gone, he pondered Ryker's words. He had seen the Spider with Ori. He knew Ori. He had done his research. His job was information, after all. And he was surprised at how deep her claws reached. He'd been to Kallisti...and didn't know she owned it. He was impressed.

But it gave him an idea. Not that he had a problem with the Syndicate. Not in principle. But one...he was bored. Two...he didn't like there being a single player. And three...did I say he was bored? The Spider wasn't entitled to anything. And Mik wanted to have some fun. The Lady raised an eyebrow daring him.

Ori against Ori. He wondered which of them he got to fuck over. Or to fuck. In whatever way...

"Yeah, like the Great One, I think I have an idea." Junichi was looking pretty lonely. And Mik had a line to sell.

He had a rep after all.

[Ryker]

Ryker's smirk touched the half of his face that wasn't melted by nuclear fallout. It was lopsided, and annoyingly numb, but darkly amused none the less. It seemed he had picked the two perfect compatriots for their game. Now let the hunt begin.

He clapped both on the shoulder and bid them good luck. In the meantime, he was content to stroll through the crowd and aim to get a blowjob by Yun Kao.

He grabbed a hot dog along the way and snagged some sort of fizzy flavored water shit. Both were perched in one hand as he approached her platform. Muscle-bound goons eyed his approach, but Ryker deferred to higher power to grant his admittance to the seat of power. 

"Madam Kao!" he bellowed with mock deference.