[continues from Of Dragons and Angels.]
Eathan feels a slight tugging sensation, and... Kat watches him disappear. With a shrug, she turns away; she can take her time getting back to him. Now that her temper has improved somewhat, she's taken a bit of time to think about her situation.
The angel nod... it has started, and he is ready for the next step. He knows where Ethan is headed, and also Brem, the Dr. and Dart. He smiles, //Time to deal with the wild card.//
The kid is important, even if the headshrinker doesn't like her around. It was easy enough to forget with everyone else nearby and distracting her, but when someone with the obvious power of Israphael sponsors a nobody like Dart, that means he sees something in his protege that happens to be valuable.
Kat happens to be attracted to gambling prospects.
He moves closer, not yet ready for her to see him, waiting, biding his time.
Unfortunately, she cannot for the life of her find the kid. She searches, but too late she sees Dr. Guiles and Dart exit the scene through some sort of window. When she arrives, it looks like an Industrialist painting of New York City has been hung here.
~So, Kat, you fancy yourself as a gambler, hmm? What would you say to an untimate game of chance... the stakes are high, but the reward would be well worth it to you, I can assure you.~
The transmission causes her to put on a sour face for a moment.
The Angel watches her, a smile crossing his features... glad he cannot be examined by any of the crowd around them. Four nuns walk past, toting sub-machineguns, one holding a bible and cross, with the gun swaying at her hip. All of them wearing badges listing them as "Peace Keepers" in this place. Israpheal sighs, then turns his attention back to the strange woman sitting on the bench.
She sighs, and sits to observe.
The angel appears on the seat next to her, his smile genuine and full of friendship. "Are you up to a challenge?"
Her head turns, and she looks at him with narrow eyes. "The last guy who asked me that killed me. What's your game?"
"I don't play games, Kat..." The angel says, dangerously narrowing his eyes. "...but I don't tell secrets, either." His smile shows a spark of something more frightening than any evil a mortal could be aware of, and a ritious fire burns in his eyes that makes him look through Kat, as if measuring up her soul.
Kat turns away, looking back at the painted scene, which seems to have changed subtly while she wasn't looking. "You're playing games. Tell me what you want or go away."
With a whisp of air and a scent like honey, the figure vanishes. ~You will find only pain if you take the next tram, Kat... I can assure you. But if you take the carrage behind you, you can find riches like you've never imagined.~
Another game. She acquires prospects, she doesn't play games. Besides, why would she take a tram here, when she could as easily walk?
Kat doesn't even look at the carriage. The promise is too similar, and too easy. With a sigh, she wonders why Whozis even bothered. All she wanted was to travel, and look where *that* got her. Maybe she'd go find Eathan. That was guaranteed to be an interesting scene.
Or maybe she'd poke around here for a while, pick up loose change or maybe a couple strays or something. With this many people, life is bound to pick up soon enough.
Kat looks around, shrugs, and stands up. She smirks and walks into the crowd. She'll find this spot again soon enough.
It's been a day. She has managed to pick exactly one pocket, but it netted her a few dozen bills of loose cash, quickly converted to a form she recognizes. Twenty dollars, twenty-some-odd cents. She has not been caught by whatever local authorities exist here, but some nagging feeling has made her turn the wallet in at the information center.
Still, it feels good to be able to eat whatever fast-food she craves for a day. A knife would be nice, but she doesn't need a blade to defend herself from whatever might crop up. She walks into one place, and slips out with a couple of plastic sporks, just for the heck of it.
Maybe she should find a place to sleep.
And she does. Not that she's sleeping in any comfort, but being able to shift shapes helps. Just another stray dog. She hopes she doesn't catch the mange, or something worse.
This place seems to be central to most of Nexus, and hundreds of thousands mill through at all hours. Occasionally a cop eyes her; but there are others who don't seem to leave the station.
Kat finally decides she's feeling overcrowded. She sizes up a portal, then pokes at a nearby directory. This one leads to the middle of a cornfield, and is two-way. Perfect, except that cornfields don't let one breathe. Well, maybe it's winter there. She steps through.
And there, in the middle of the cornfield, is a brightly colored carriage, with odds and ends and whatnot dangling from hooks and fasteners of all kinds. A smooth, friendly-looking face pokes out of a window and calls to her.
"Hey, how are you? Looking for someone?"
Kat growls. She feels like she's being followed, and doesn't like that. After a moment, the sensation fades, and she steps up to the carriage. "No, I'm not really looking for anyone. Who are you?"
[continues in Look What the Kat Dragged In.]
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