Take the damn pants... [Tal!]

[Anonymous]

(( <_<; I'm rusty with her, I hope there's stuff to reply to xD))

Running a hand through her deshelved blue hair, Xala looked boredly off into the distance. They were finally here, took nearly a whole damned day, but, they were finally at the stupid little city of Adela. No, it wasn’t stupid, she was just cranky, and agitated. The cuts on her stomach and cheek were healed from her odd scaley form of knitting the wounds that wept the silver itchy blood. Xala could still feel the scales on her back from her little side course of healing, and they were itchy with her shirt on. She looked at the irritated burn mark on her hand from when the cyborg, Cam, wanted to see the fire. Now, that one stung like a bitch, and doing her scaly form of healing would only make the scales crawl up her neck and stay on her cheeks for the next while. A long dramatic sigh and Xala looked behind her. “Oh, damn.� She’d managed to lose him.

Mentally Xala cursed herself, where the hell could the guy have gotten to? Did he end up following the other person who left their little trio? Looking at the ‘entrance’ to the capitol city of Adela, Xala simply wanted to sit on her butt on the dusty rocky ground take a breather. Well, more like a rest, her legs were tired. Though, she supposed that would be inconvenient for people riding into town so she might as well wiggle her way over to the grass. So Xala got up, wandered over to some grass a little ways back into he forest and laid down, spread eagle on the ground, her arms covering her eyes and face. Damn bastard ran off with her itchy trench coat. Oh well, she could always get a new one. A hand moved down to her tummy to scratch at the rash her blood left and she growled vocally, something her dragon half let her do. If she really wanted to, Xala could breathe fire and make her breath hot enough to sizzle skin. She should do that to Cam if she ever saw him again.

There was the off chance that he just wandered away and could find her easily enough with some remote… sensing thing coming from those odd metal limbs of his. Bah. Screw it. “Might as well take a nap and waste time.� She spoke this aloud, not really meaning to, but she was supposedly alone so, it wouldn’t do too much damage. Xala was in the perfect spot to get pounce on by something or another, and she didn’t even have her clawed gloves on to protect herself. Not that she really needed protecting.

[Tally]

"X…Xala?" Now where did she go off to? He was sure he had been following right behind her and now she just wasn't there.

<I>I think maybe…I got lost in my own head again.</I> Likely the AI had taken over his personality for a few minutes.  And while he was perfectly happy to follow Xala and get himself some pants, the AI really didn't really care about pants one way or the other and had sent him off in some other direction for whatever reason.

Well, he needed to find her again.  She was his only friend and she'd seen what his…uh, <I>affliction</I> could do and still she was willing to help so he had to find her.  And since he had no real idea where she was in relation to him…

"XALAAAAA! XAAAALAAâ€""

Something caught his eye and just like that, in a split second, the AI assumed control of his body again.  It was cutting of his nerve signals as they left the brain and sending its own signals in their place. He was conscious of this but couldn't do anything about it, so when the AI decided to up and take his body off into the woods…well, he just had to go with it then, didn't he?

It was tracking something and shifting the spectrum of his vision as he went, turning the world into a moving kaleidoscope that made little sense to Cameron. Yet it was following an energy trail through the trees, and its path carried him to the edge of the city. It's magecraft, he realized. He was <I>seeing</I> magic. A lot of it. And he had tracked it to its source, a group of young people all dressed alike seated on the grass before an older man. A magic class?

<I>This isn't going to be good.</I>

The instructor adjusted his glasses. "Can I...help you?" he said, the students behind him murmuring and pointing at Cameron.

Of course the AI had no need or interest in conversation.  It walked him over to the instructor, the magic in the air so thick Cameron could feel it prickling his skin. His artificial hand grabbed the man by the arm and Cam then experienced a sensation altogether new to him. It was the sensation of energy flooding down conduits and into power reserves.  The force of it made his <I>teeth</I> ache. It roared in his ears as veins in the mechanical arm began to glow blue-green and the man seizured. <I>It's draining him like a power source!</I>

The students were on their feet, an intense pressure building in the airâ€"spells in the midst of casting. He was paralyzed, unable to communicate with his body, but the AI was fast and easily triggered into self-preservation.  The newly charged biomech arm struck out and the AI's <I>intent</I> was to throw up a barrier of energy.  What actually <I>happened</I>â€"as one would expect from any glitchy machineâ€"was a malfunction. His arm shorted out and the raw energy inside arced outward from his hand in bolts of lightning. They struck everywhere, blasting up dirt and leaves, sending students flying, and searing fire in their wake.

His stupid, broken artificial mind chooses that instant to snap back into place.  There's a brief moment of blackout then he's back in control, watching the fires around him grow…

And grow….

<I>Oh snap! I'm gonna burn the whole bloody town down!</I>

"XALAAAAAA!!"