The Best Mistakes

[Nayt]

Daniel didn't like this, but not for the same reasons as Danyr. Danyr just didn't trust Presmodia, which was understandable to almost anyone else. What Daniel didn't like was the complexity of the situation. This was more than him rushing into battle while Danyr flanks the enemy with a volley of projectiles. This was sneaking and all that fun stuff. This was well beyond Daniel's average capabilities. He glanced around awkwardly, progressively feeling more and more out of place with each passing second.

Presmodia, on the other hand, could do nothing but shrug his shoulders and release a sigh. Well, he could only suppose that he brought it upon himself . . . not that he was going to fix it or anything. Danyr would just have to learn to get over it, and that was the end of it.

"Ugh. First off, Fretznac is a pushover, and kiddo here--" Presmodia began, but was cut off suddenly.

"Um, my name is Daniel . . ."

But Presmodia continued on as if Daniel hadn't said a word. "--would probably scare him to death just by standing around and looking dumb."

It didn't take very long for Daniel to take offense. Unfortunately for him, he actually was standing there in a fairly absent-minded fashion, looking around for something to focus on for an absolute lack of anything to focus on. Certainly, the conversation didn't merit all of his attention . . .

"Hey, whot's that supposed to mean?" grumbled Daniel, ignorant to what Presmodia was implying.

Once again, Presmodia completely ignored Daniel. "Sanguine is tough, though; he could break one of these entire structures apart and use it for ammunition--just imagine what he could do in a city full of unused buildings! He's nothing compared to Zeto, though. I really think Zeto could make God flinch. We wouldn't stand a chance against either of them. Believe me, I know. They are--" Presmodia paused for a second, shutting his eyes and shaking his head, "--they were good friends of mine."

It didn't take a genius to figure out why they weren't good friends anymore, either.

"Anyways, Christoph--that's exactly what we're going to have to avoid. Fretznac is needlessly paranoid, even fidgety, and while we can take blind spots on the way up there, he probably has the outside of his home rigged with eyes. The only place he can't look is up. Rooftops are permanent, irrevocable blind spots, buuuuuuut they make us so easy to spot that a blind man could pick us out from miles away," after he said his peace about his "former" companions, the Ersatzshad was finally able to go on about what task they had ahead of them, "Which means I can lead you and get you close, but then we have to take the rooftops, preferably for the shortest amount of time that we possibly can."

[Zach Kaiser]

Christoph also didn't like it much either, for both reasons: a detour made it that much longer before he could reunite with Mimik, and he didn't trust Presmodia to really take him to Usurii's place. The reason was that, the way Presmodia sounded, he had no reason to go there other than that was where they wanted to take him. What was preventing him from simply leading them into the arms of his allies as soon as they were through with Fretznac?

He also didn't like the idea of getting involved in doing anything to aid one side or the other. He was neutral to the division between the Ersatzshad, and he preferred to remain that way.

Still, he figured it was best if he contributed to the plan. "If that's the case, and if Fretznac isn't a threat in person, then it sounds as though the best option would be to get as far as we can, send a single person in over the rooftops, and when it's safe the rest of us can enter from the street."

If they have nearly the entire city under their eye, I should be able to find Mimik from there. And that would eliminate the need for Presmodia's assistance, something that couldn't come soon enough.

[Ramlock]

Danyr was surprised that Presmodia wasn't going to lead them into combat with his former friends. That was... Well, something that would probably come later. Danyr didn't believe Presmodia's story still, but for now... They could intimidate Fretznac, whoever he was. That was all they were going to do, but still... Part of him really did wish they had drugged Presmodia or otherwise left him in the street. At least then, they wouldn't be at his mercy to remain hidden...

"He may have something. I can get there without being noticed, I promise..."

Danyr, if nothing else, was used to sneaking. Putting away his bow, he would look around once more reflexively, unsure of what was coming...

[Nayt]

It seemed that the time to move was now. Presmodia didn't want to wait as much as anyone else, if only because now they shared a common goal. Shutting down the system would benefit them all, not just Christoph, Daniel, and Danyr. Bricriu would find benefit in this, in the end, and that by default benefited Presmodia.

"Just don't screw up and get yourself killed," Presmodia sighed, "He's probably got something in there with him, and I'd hate to get myself killed because someone else's screw up."

That said, he started down the street just a bit, until he reached the corner. If memory served correctly, there was actually an eye on that street. He glanced around the corner once, and concluded this to be accurate. He quickly recoiled back around the corner. It was for the best.

"Okay, here's an example . . ." Presmodia stated as he motioned for the others to follow--hoping they would slowly, and wouldn't dart out into the street ahead of him. He didn't go out into the street just yet; that would have been risky, especially if his allies here didn't know what the hell they were doing.

Once there, Presmodia would motion towards something in the street. Like every other street of the metropolis, it was lined with residences, presumably empty, but there was one particular structure that stood out--literally. It was a couple floors taller than most others. Presmodia was motioning towards that, and it wouldn't take too much effort to see what he was pointing out: a small gray rectangular box fixed near the top of the structure, facing down, with a small black lens on its front, staring down at the street. It was far from an eye, but it could move--and it did move. Regularly. It was on a constant and slow swivel from side to side, but only went so far, never perfectly facing either side, always leaving just a bit of leeway. It was possible to get past it without timing out an approach--fortunately. With Daniel with them (considering how dumbfounded he looked, still searching for the damn thing), that would've been suicide for them.

"We basically have to hug that side of the street for this one. Simple, right?" declared Presmodia, his tone suggesting that he figured they wouldn't guess that if he didn't point it out.

"Uh . . . sure," Daniel replied with a shrug.

[Zach Kaiser]

Christoph agreed with the notion that it should be Danyr sneaking into the place--while he could be stealthy if he needed to, the ranger was much more adept and sneaking than him, judging by the way he'd disappeared in the fight and reappeared on the rooftop. Daniel and subtle did not seem to go together, and he didn't trust Presmodia by himself.

He wasn't entirely trusting of Danyr either, but he'd proven reliable thus far, and he didn't think he would do anything to put Daniel in danger. He had saved his life, too, so perhaps under his gruff demeanor he was kinder than he let on.

Following Presmodia's gesture, he quickly spotted what he was talking about--a small box mounted on top of the building. So that was the "eye" he was talking about...it seemed to be mechanical, and while Christoph had little experience with machines his brief time in New Xexoria left him passingly familiar with them. Something that let a person see when they weren't there, though, was not something he'd ever heard of before.

"I see..." Judging by its movement, it was reasonable to assume that it had a limited field of view--swiveling regularly caused it to expand that view. Otherwise, there would be no other reason to draw attention to it by having it move.

I wonder how many times we've been spotted by these already. They weren't avoiding them before, so they were likely spotted by them before ever encountering Presmodia. Did the Ersatzshad simply not care that humans were entering the city? Or was this Fretznac too distracted by other events--such as the war Presmodia described--to pay them any mind?

In any case, he'd hopefully get some answers inside. For now, he followed Presmodia's lead, hugging the wall to avoid detection and keeping a particularly close eye on Daniel, whom he figured was the most likely to give them away.

[Nayt]

Offtopic: Moving things along.

"God . . ." Daniel groaned quietly, "'ow much longer do we have to wolk?"

Presmodia refrained from shouting at Daniel, though it was certainly tempting! "Not too much longer. Jeez. Is it too much to ask for some patience?"

They had been walking for quite some time. It was a dainty task, difficult to pass, easy to fail. It was the type of thing that took a lot of attention to detail. The whole time, they--Christoph, Danyr, and Presmodia--had to keep Daniel from giving away their position. Stealth was not what he was built for. Oddly, though, Danyr had to go under the radar by conventional means, too, just like the others. The machines themselves gave away the illusion of an absent body. Technology--it was awkward and profound. Far superior to anything New Xexoria, the country which lead the technological revolution in their world, even had planned.

Fortunately, though, the plan didn't involve anything but physically avoiding the cameras . . .

Though not an easy task, it was possible. Presmodia knew what to look for, and over time, so did the others--well, Daniel was catching on by the time they got as far as they were going to go. It took hugging walls, for the most part, and crawling at other times. There were a few times when there were large groups of Ersatzshad moving down an adjacent street like some sort of organized unit, prompting Presmodia to rush everyone else into at least a nearby alleyway, where they could glance around the corner--if cameras would not restrict this--to check the status of the group. Fortunately, they managed to evade these, too.

These asides didn't keep them from progressing ever onward, though.

"Here it is," Presmodia remarked as he stopped walking.

They were in the middle of an alleyway, and Presmodia was prepared to stop anyone from passing him by. That would make this whole ordeal into a complete waste. The only way to proceed any further was, well, up--and only one person could do that efficiently . . .

Arms folded over his chest, Presmodia turned to face Christoph, Daniel, and Danyr, a stern look upon his face. "This is where we stop. Danyr, you need to get onto this roof to our left. The next two streets are littered with eyes. The only way to avoid them is the rooftops, but if there are lookouts . . . well, even someone as dense as you guys should know how that'd go."

[Zach Kaiser]

As they moved on, by watching Presmodia and the way he had them move, Christoph began to get fairly good at spotting the eyes and estimating how far they could see. He and Danyr were both adept at moving stealthily (though Danyr much more so), and it would have been fairly trivial if not for one thing:

Daniel. The other three had to keep a constant eye on him to make sure he was following directions. Sometimes it seemed like he didn't understand them, other times he apparently didn't get why they needed to move a certain way. Most of the time, though, they just had to keep him from spacing out and stumbling into view of the eyes or some of the patrols that were wandering around.

He was seeing now why Presmodia called it a warzone; the closer they got to Fretznac's, the more frequently they encountered eyes and patrols. It seemed as though they'd just lucked out and arrived on the opposite side of the city from the fighting.

"Good luck," Christoph intoned. All he could do now, though, was wait for Danyr--and put up with Daniel no doubt complaining if he took longer than a few minutes.

[Ramlock]

Danyr nodded, drawing an oddly shaped arrow from his pack. It was covered with a thin layer of padding, and had both a fairly thick rope and a small piece of wire extending from the back. Drawing his bow, Danyr would step back somewhat from the side of the building, quickly drawing the arrows and firing it, gripping the length of wire as the arrow neared its peak. As he did, a catch of some sort was released, and 3 prongs would spring outwards into the head of a grappling hook, which would land silently on the roof.

"I'll be back once it's safe."

Danyr would then return the bow to his back, gripping the rope and pulling himself up. The buildings were remarkable tall sometimes in the city, and it would take him half a minute to scale the building, though he showed little to no sign of being affected by the height. Then, he would kick his legs up over the edge of the building, rolling onto the roof and disappearing from sight...

[Nayt]

Offtopic: Sorry for the wait, been busy on my end.

Daniel watched Danyr go, until, well, he couldn't anymore. After a certain point, Danyr had simply disappeared. Man, that got him into trouble sometimes. If Daniel were talking to someone, and trouble came up, and Danyr suddenly disappeared, leaving Daniel no backup whatsoever. Or that time when they were fighting Presmodia, and Danyr pretended to be dead, which really screwed Daniel up; made him think he needed to avenge Danyr's death, which damn near got him killed, too. Danyr hadn't mentioned anything about it; it nearly got Daniel in some serious trouble.

Man, he's really been a jerk a couple of times.

"So, we just wait then, roight?" Daniel scratched his chin as he tried, and failed, to look up at the rooftops for signs of Danyr.

Presmodia nodded.

"How long you think it'll take?"

Presmodia nearly deadpanned. "How the hell should I know that?"

The target's house was, incidentally, blocks away. It was easy to tell that it was closer, though; the "eyes" on the side of buildings were becoming more and more clustered with time, to the point where they didn't need to move to see everything. Everything but the rooftops, at least--which would prove to be some difficulty, with tall buildings next to small buildings next to even taller buildings. It would require climbing, and with that came a risk, especially by one point, where a single story house sat next to a fifteen story building, with no means of passing by other than crossing the street--where the "eyes" were otherwise immune to optical illusions--or breaking out a window and using the building itself as a means of crossing . . .

Time continued to pass for Daniel and the others.

"Oi Chris, why are you here again?" Daniel asked as a means of wasting the time of waiting away--and maybe getting to know Christoph a little better, even though he'd already asked this question before, and completely forgot about it.

[Zach Kaiser]

Because I was saved by a shady archer and an idiot kid, and there's safety in numbers. That thought didn't get voiced, though Christoph did sigh. Didn't he explain this once before, at least briefly? He was vaguely aware that he should make a better effort to be friendly--idiot or not, he did help save his life--but if Presmodia was correct this city wasn't safe, and he still hadn't found her...though he hoped if everyone thought similar to the haughty Ersatzshad they'd leave her alone so long as she remained near those he left her with. Still, it made him agitated, being separated like this, far more than it really should...

"I'm looking for a friend of mine, named Mimik. We were separated, and she should be here under the care of Usurii and Hazker."

He had no more stake in the internal conflict than Daniel and Danyr did, and he didn't intend to get involved any more than he had to to find Mimik. He wondered how many would accept his help here...was Usurii and Hazker's xenophobia the norm, or Presmodia's opportunism?

Not that he thought for a second he was any better off in his company, friendlier or no.

[Ramlock]

Danyr didn't have control over his power- he could only try to judge what it was doing and react as possible. He'd explained to Daniel before, but not really to a satisfactory degree... He'd always still been there to help, though, when Daniel needed it. Even if Daniel was impulsive enough to make Danyr's life very difficult on occasion...

On reaching the building, Danyr had to make a choice. He could try to climb 15 stories, but that was extremely impractical. Even with his equipment, that would be very difficult, with little room for error. Moving along the outside was an option, but one that could possibly end in him being spotted. He was adept enough at picking locks; he would simply look for a window on the building within reach, and move through it...

[Nayt]

"Mimik?" Daniel asked as he furrowed his brow, "And Usurii and Hazker and Presmodia and-- . . . . . . ." there was a long, long pause, "So many weird names . . . wot koind of mother comes up with these?"

Presmodia interjected immediately: "I don't have a mother."

Daniel felt a sting of guilt. "Oh. oI'm sorry . . ."

Presmodia smiled. "It's fine! Just means you can't blame my mother for naming me! After all, I came up with my own name."

"You-- wot?" Daniel asked, dumbfounded--until he realized what he'd done. "O-oh, uh, s-sorry."

____

There was an accessible window near, though it required some dangerous leaning. There was a three foot gap between the building and the house Danyr stood on, with no other windows nearby that were closer. The others were actually closer to the ledges of the house, and too dangerous to access. They seemed boarded up from the inside, anyways. This one, however, was no; it was locked from the outside, but after a moment of tedious balancing and cautious picking of the lock, Danyr would be inside.

Once inside, Danyr would find that, although the building looked fine from the outside, it was a complete wreck on the inside. It appeared to be an apartment complex of some sort, with a long main hall that stretched from one side of the building to the other. There was a window on each end of the hall, and impractically, a staircase leading down on one side, and up on the other side--rather than a stairwell. Unfortunately, the window on the other side of the hall was boarded up from the inside, and it seemed that each and every door was just an exercise in examining broken locks, and seemingly impossible to break frames--at least without something very, very heavy.

Danyr would have the option of turning right and going downstairs, or progressing down to the opposite side of the main hall and going upstairs.

[Zach Kaiser]

Christoph couldn't help but be amused by Daniel. He himself didn't know the origins of Mimik's name; it did seem unusual, but then again she was a very peculiar girl. But of course, different cultures (and races) were going to have different names; he wondered what Daniel would think of a Cizokian name.

"Why Presmodia? Does it mean anything?" he inquired. He simply assumed that by saying he didn't have a mother, Presmodia meant he never knew her; it didn't occur to him that Ersatzshad might come into the world under very different circumstances from humans...

[Ramlock]

Danyr would handle the situation as gracefully as could be expected, pulling himself into the building with quite a bit of relief. The inside of the building was impractically deserted. Who had broken ALL the locks, and why? Had anyone ever lived there? Was someone hiding something? He'd never know. Proceeding to the end of the hall, he would go upstairs. There was no point in going back downstairs to the ground floor.

Climbing up the stairs, he was more concerned with them rotting beneath him than with running into anyone. From the looks of things, no one at all had entered the building in years...

[Nayt]

"It means wisdom," Presmodia replied, "In an old, dead language that doesn't even have a name anymore. It's just called LT601 in this book our "Master" used to have."

"Wisdom, huh?" Daniel mused.

Presmodia didn't strike Daniel as the type to possess some inherent and overbearing wisdom--but then again, Daniel himself wasn't the epitome of wisdom, either. He'd sooner walk blindly into a trap than consider the possibility of traps in the middle of, say, enemy territory.

The Ersatzshad promptly lifted one finger and uttered a phrase he remembered from the book, "Legot ak nehr presmod. In all the ruins of that place, most cemeteries had that phrase carved somewhere. It means: Even the dead are wise."

________

And yet another series of doors with broken locks ensued--except for one, but for all the fortune that boasted, there was ample enough misfortune to overshadow it. The next staircase had collapsed already--and the floor above it for that matter. Where there once was an option to go upstairs--or use the opposite window, for the matter--rubble blocked off all access, a veritable mountain of it that blocked off the window and the opposite door. The window closest to Danyr was also boarded up from the inside, incidentally blocking access to his destination, the other side of the apartment complex.

The only door in the hall that could be opened was on the right side, close to the rubble. As the only accessible apartment, it was either that, or down to the bottom floor.