Talios jumped and pulled Alicia with him, glad that Rico seemed to be able to take care of himself, whatever was ailing him.
"Hey, does anyone know how o stop this thing?" He called looking arounf for anything remotely electrical or explosive looking...

Breech pulled a staff about three feet long out of her belt and looked up at the cyborg, "Let's see if an electrical overload can deal with this glorified scrap heap!" she snarled.

She twisted the staff and it extentended by another three feet. She then clicked a button on it, and a massive electrical current ran through it.

She raised it up, ready to strike.

Then the cyborg swung at her, knocking her back about ten feet into a wall. Unfortunately for it, that meant it got an electrical overload, stunning it.

"Raaaaaaaaaaarrrrg!" screeched the Cyborg miserably with an eerily Mobian tone amidst the metalic racket.

The Cyborg staggered backwards inside the vault and began violently banging it's head on the inside wall.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

"Raaaaaaaarrrg!" screeched the Cyborg again.

Zu looked at tghe Cyborg in shock, as if he were looking at a ghost.

"That armor..." trailed Zu, he hadn't taken a sip of his alcohol in a while, and for once his brain wasn't as befuddled as it normally was.

The Cyborg suddenly and frantically began knocking what little money was on the shelves of the vault all over the floor then knocked the few gold bars to the ground as well until it uncovered a chest burried under a mound of legal documents. Without a second thought, electrical sparks still causing the Cyborg's head to shake violently, he smashed the chest open with a heavy fist and pulled out a hilt.

The hilt was plain looking, angular and black with a square handguard, but there was NO blade! The cyborg clibbed the hilt to his belt then madly charged out of the bank. He pushed Zu roughly onto the floor as he passed by then dashed down the dirty streets of the town.

"My goodness! That armored thing tore up the bank!" exclaimed Alicia.

She turned her head towards Talios, "Oh! Are you ok, sugah?"

Inside the shattered remants of the bank Zu staggered to his feet and shuffled over to Breech.

"You ok?" asked Zu, managing not to spit when he talked this time.

"I feel like a wall hit me," Breech muttered, trying to stand up, "Oh, it did..."

She looked at the remains of the bank, "What did it want with some dumb sword hilt when there's all this money around?" she asked the world in general.

She tucked a couple of gold bars into her jacket pocket when nobody was looking.

Astral growled and shoved the fox off him. Rico up watching the cyborg flee before added to Breechs commentary. "If it wanted a junky old sword it coulda had mine. Not like its any use to me."

ooc: ok I'm totaly lost, but as I'm curently drugged up the eyeballs in parrasetamol and allergy tablets its kinda understandable. So I'll just go with the flow, can't be bothered trying to corect the cronology.

IC:

Rayne heaved himself back to his feet, pulling the rag back up over his muzzle and examining the scene of distruction that met his eyes... "Nobody sends a mecha after peaces of junk.. not even priceless anteeques are worth the damage and pubblicity" the coon rambled to himself from behind the mask. Colectedly, and clearly still irate about the rugby tackle he'd just received, the rac picked his way across the rubble and though the hole that had been the front of the bank. He stopped and looked at the gaping scars that littered the humble room, the door to the safe laying some twenty feet behind him, embeded in the shop across the road.

'Not any of your buisness Rayne' A small voice mutterd at the back of his mind 'you get involved and you're gona get your self hung'

For a second, he faltered, muttering "What could it have been sent for" benieath the mask. Then he turned heal and walked out of the bank, heading back to the alyway where he had been stood before, intending to watch, maybe listen to what would happen next.

Zu grasped his head, "Uhhg..."

He fished out the flask from his pocket and realized in a panic that the flask was gone.

"M-my drink!" exclaimed Zu, panic-stricken.

Much to his horror he saw his flask, crushed and empty on the ground where the Cyborg had stepped on it. Zu scrambled over to the flask and picked it with both hands and held it over his head.

"Nooooooooooo!" hollered Zu.

"Put a sock in it," snapped Breech.

Zu stared dejectedly at the empty flask and through behind him then trudged outside where Rico was.

"'Spose sumbody aughta follow that thing? That hilt might belong to somebody," conjectured Zu.

Rico grunted, "Normally I'd tell you to blow your ideas out that pink ass of yours. But I have no reason to stay here, and there's something strange about that thing. Trouble has always followed us around, so if that trouble left me alone. Well, I'd rather take a slim chance than not take a chance at all."

"I'm fine thankyou." he replied to the squirrel, "Do you know anythig about why whoever controlled that thing wanted that particular hilt?"
OOC: Sorry my posts are short but so's my time.

"If someone sent something that big after something so small, it's gotta be valuble," said Breech.

She rubbed her back and looked at the trail of destruction.

"Meh, what the hell," she said, and checked her staff. Fully charged, "Maybe the blade's somewhere else? Maybe you put them together and get something even more valuble?" she suggested.

"Well then it's decided!" excalimed Zu happily as he slung an arm over Rico's shoulder, "Travel buddies, we be!"

Zu marched in place with his knees high in the air. He then suddenly spun around and hooked elbows with Breech and did a little dosey dow before finally spinning around in circle on his toe then landing on both feet.

"Onward I say!" exclaimed Zu.

"Is he fuh real?" asked Alicia is disbelief.

The air seemed to change suddenly, as did the fox's demeanor. Scared they'd seen, heroic they'd seen, compassionate they'd seen. But the effect of the human touching the fox was something only those that had first seen him enter the tavern had even felt a wave of before.

As he finished his dance he felt those eyes on him again, shimmering emeralds digging into his back. He glanced back but the fox looked no different. He was glaring though, muttering, "I hate humans."

Talios looked in slight amusement at the dancing Zu, but he was also impatient,
Then he noticed the fox's expression.
"I hate humans" He said.
The collie walked up and pulled Zu away from the fox and Beech.
"Okay. That's over now. I guess you'll be off to look for your brother." He asked Rico.

Breech shook her head and untwined Zu's arm from around her waist, a slight air of distaste in her expression.

'I hate drunks,' she partially agreed.

She chewed her lip. It occoured to her that Zu would be a kind of decent guy when sober, but as a drunk he was just annoying.

"...ahhh @#%$"
Several people turned at the cursing, looking on at the coon who was now stood with a pair of old looking glasses to his eyes, goggles now on his head.
"We may have a slightly larger problem... that thing's headed straight for the Druidiam mines..."
"So?" Someone exclaimed from within the large group.
"Look we don't have the gratest helth and safty policies.. There's enough nitro in those out houses to make quite a bang.. more then enough to seal the mine exit an' kill everyone on site." For a moment he paused, then slung the benoculars over his neck, lowered his goggles and pulled the mask back over his mouth. "You guys do what you want, but if that thing wrecks the mine I ain't gona have a place to work at anymore... plus if no ones is alive when I get there, at least there'll be a whole load of ore for the taking."

Rico glared at Talios but before he could think of a scathing enough remark the raccoon fired off with more trouble. Rico grunted, "And just who is ON this site? More worthless smelly drunks?"

"Actualy" The coon muttered though the rag, looking over his shouldre at the fox "A sizeable portion of the work force is... how can I put this.. Requisistioned laber. The lucky ones are there by choice, but most are just working off debts, not that they ever will, with the tax-deductables and all. Some are there because one of their family realy pissed someone off or ran off when they couldn't pay. Then there are the real unlucky one's, the ones that get baught in or 'rescued' from the dezert... Me?" Rayne flicked the tail ends of his face rag of his shouldure "I'm one of the lucky ones."

A little twitch was visible in Rico's eye, "Slaves huh, shouldn't'a told me. I'm going with you." He snorted, "Besides that if these are people from all over, one of them may have seen Toby." The fox folded his arms, "Just to warn ya. You may not have a job when I get done."

It was dificult to read the coon's expression behind the masking outfit, though there was little 'too' read in the first place. Far from the frown, grumble or outberst expected when a man's livelyhood is threatened, Rayne remained remarkably uninterested in the posibility that the mine could be lost. The fact seemed to be that though he had forged some scrap of existance that resembled a life, he had not expected it to last, and thus had built no hope upon it.
'Whichever way the wind blows' he muttered to himself, and with that he turned to plow onward, now addressing the fox "If you must come then at least keep up. The path isn't long but its a bugger at this time of day, and there could be Dusters straggeling behind from the storm. An' if ya fall, don't expect me to be coming back for ya."

The fox simply followed, muttering back, "I never have."

Zu appeared visibally hurt by the sudden shove off by Rico.

"It's ok I 'spose. Everyone can't like everyone else," said Zu to himself more than anybody else.

Zu stretched out his arms with a grin, "Savin' slaves, sounds good to me. I never did like slavers myself."

Zu took a step forward and promptly fell on his face, still drunk, "Ehg, yes... onward."

Zu picked himself up and marched after Rico with a respectable distance. Strangely, the feeling of pure hostility he had felt towards Rico when the fox had first ambled into the tavern had dissapeared, Zu couldn't remember why he had tried to take a swing at him, not that Rico seemed to remember either. Perhaps Zu was too numb to realize his true purpose.

"You comin' tuts?" called Zu rather brashly at Breech.

Lucas nodded as he listened to the Raccoon and Rico's conversation, but hte fox got a curious thought. If they found people in the desert and forced them to work - they could of done it to Toby. He knew Rico probally had the same thought and he decided he'd stick with Rico.

"I'll be sticking around, as well." he said as he walked next to Rico.

"Besides maybe I can come in handy." he added in a smirk.

Rico seemed a lighten his souring mood some and let a smirk cross his face, "Starting to see why I would have you around, heh."

The Cyborg trudged along steadily on the dirty road until he came across the mines. The singled red jewel affixed to the center of it's face gleamed magnificently in the sun as the Cyborg seemed to be analyzing the depths of the mine... searching for something.

As abruptly as he had stopped the Cyborg resumed his pace and stepped into the shady interior of the mines.

Talios left Alicia and went after the group,
"I'll come to. I've had some...experience with explosives..." he muttered, not caring if anyone heard but he followed after them, hoping they would reach the mine before anyone got hurt...or killed.

"That hilt looks important," said Breech, "And important means valuble. I'm in."

"For the money?" Rico looked at her with mild distase.

"What else?" asked Breech, "Besides, there's safety in numbers."

"As ah employee of the Bank of Dustweed, I must return that hilt to it's propah place in the vault!" exclaimed Alicia worridly.

She dusted herself off and followed Talios. Zu scratched the back of his head, "You work with explosives, eh? I like fireworks personally!"

Zu was slowly sobering up, whether he wanted to or not. Since the Cyborg had crushed his flask and returning to the tavern would mean risk losing his new companions, Zu decided to tough it out as they made their way to the mines.

Ooc: ... Ah... I just realised something. Are you guys waiting on me? X.X

OOC: perhaps

OOC: OK, I'll edit this post in a few hours and put up a propper movement post kay? Realy sorry about that guys >.<

Rayne stawked onward, seemingly unbothered by the heat in his all but ragged clothing, the last reminants of the storm blew across the vivid plane before him and sent small werls of sand though the fur on his bair feat. To any but those eyes hidderned behind tattered goggls, the desert seemed to strech on beyond the horizen, distorted into a rippeling sea of orange as the heat radiated from the cracked, dry earth. He didn't know if any had followed him, and frankly he didn't care. If the mine was distroyed, so be it, the least he could do was salvage some ore and tools to sell off before moving on yet again. Gradualy, the distortions became clearer, shapes some what defined in the distance slowly gaining volume and substance as he aproched, his pace set dead level the whole time, never running nore walking, as though he had all the time in the world, but would rather get there before anyone elce.
Then something elce emerged, just as the closest building became definable, it became clear that what had looked like a crain or larger tower beyond the first was actualy a long pillar of smoke, rizing fresh from the closest building, flashes of light only now just becoming visible above the sun's glear.
"Too late" He muttered beneath the flailing rag-mask. And yet, his pace seemed to quicken, as though the fact he didn't apear to care was not consistant thoughout his beeing, a small part of him urging him forward toward the ever rizing black surpent.

It was mere minuets before the ragtag group walked into the tiny above ground area that surounded the mine. The nearst building was already alight, trucks of ore were tipped over and a few bodies lay motionless amungst the distruction. The coon stopped, looking toward the three large mine entrances, two direct shafts with lifts for the miners and one open for the carts to be braught up that wound down to the upper level of the pit. Beyond this, lay a shackled shanty town where the 'unlucky' one's the Coon had spoken off were housed, bedreggled and rotting, its smell pungent even above that of the burning building to their left.
The entrance's seemed uneffected, yet there were fewer people on the surface then normal, and even fewer that were still walking.
"Where's that damn Machina..."