There is a note about the attacker's original inspiration at the bottom of this, in post co-write notes.
Also appearing: Becky Joy and Cattaras and Catrina Whiteclaw.

We've finally got some action here, in addition to characterization! Dig into it; it's like the 72" perfectly grilled steak of AIL action!

 
With midnight soon to hit the city of Honorburg, little notice was given to the chimneys, ramshackle shingles and occasional gargoyles and grims on the architecture surrounding the docks of the port. Nor was attention given to the mysterious ship which drifted into the harbor through the mostly empty, quiet night. Absolutely no attention is given to it at all... save for a mysterious pair of eyes watching from a distant rooftop.

Being the one most familiar with the town, Dash had been called to the captain's quarters while the others were allowed to get a precious little more sleep.

"We'll have to register with some local port authorities, I'm sure." Dash paused. "I'd say we just dock. I'll head there when we get on land and take care of it. If I remember right, it isn't far in land."

The Captain just nodded.

"Will we have room for the three princesses we'll be saving?" Dash asked. "Come to think of it, will you be able to stay around for the duration of this mission?"

Morgan nodded. "Aye, we'll be here. I like to give the lads shore leave in new harbors. Find out if we'll be passin' this way again." He thought for a moment, then nodded. "As to your princesses... Figure it'll be better for me to just give up me stateroom for the trip home. It's the best accommodation on ship- and the lock on the door actually works."

"Aye, captain." Dash nodded. "And thank you. We'd best go alert my allies.. and Catrina's ilk."

"Aye.. but before we do, lad." He paused a second, not sure whether he should ask or not. "I'd like to hear your side of the story."

"Which story is that, sir?" Dash asked cautiously, wanting to be sure before he started talking.

"Now, don't get me wrong lad I know it's probably not my concern. But I've already gotten a lot of bilge from Catrina and I'd be wantin' to give you your chance to respond."

Dash let out a weary sigh. "I don't know what's in her mind. It seemed like things were going fine until..." Dash paused. "The details don't matter. Aside from the fact she tried to kill me before taking over the Knob Goblins, I'd have thought the change in her is fairly palatable. She's changed. Are you telling me you haven't noticed that for yourself? The sinister way she looks at everything... like we're something to be killed, or used and then killed when we no longer suit her needs."

Morgan shrugged. "I noticed a change, aye- but then again Catrina was a bit... odd when we first met so I just put it to that at first. And I wasn't as close to her as the two of you were, at least she didn't try to crawl into my lap all night."

"I'll get to the bottom of it eventually," Dash answered. "But for now, my only priority is the three missing princesses."

Dash nodded, turned and left to round up the guys, leaving Captain Morgan to wake the ladies up. The two met back up on the ship's deck under a near starless sky. The other adventurers started to gather, with the first one (after Dash) being Aleena. Her spandex-like armor dripped with seawater and reflected the light of the moon from a recent swim. The Captain took his leave for other matters as Dash smiled at her, leaving just the two of them for the moment. "Ready to see my old stomping grounds?"

"Aye, I would. Sadly though, I didn't see any giant sea monsters on our way in here."

Dash looked at her oddly. "Well, there's always the round trip back, I suppose."

Aleena grinned and nodded. "Aye. Anything you'd like me to wear before we disembark?"

Dash looked her over. "As odd as it sounds to say, I think your cysuit would draw less attention than the outfit Konall gave you. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like it, but it won't brand you as an oversea'ers."

"As opposed to an otherworlder. Alright, thanks! Let's go."

"We should probably give the others a few minutes to show," Dash said. "So we can hopefully get on the same page."

Aleena didn't seem to be in a waiting mood, however.

Within a few minutes, Dash and Aleena found themselves in the harbors of Honorburg, making their way towards the streets.

With a surprising flash of light, a figure in green and white appeared between the two, swinging a curiously sparking broadsword at Aleena. Dash immediately pulled his own longsword free, ready to strike at a moment's notice, but despite Dash's amazingly quick reflexes, the figure vanished as soon as it became apparent that the longsword would have intercepted the intended parry. Dash and Aleena looked around, confused but prepared for additional attacks. He motioned her to keep silent, although the gesture was unnecessary.

Another flash of light appeared, though rather than revealing a sword wielding assailant it instead enveloped Dash before fading away, taking Dash along with it. Meanwhile, on a nearby rooftop, the attacker stood, watching and grinning as the light appeared thirty feet away from the rooftop, depositing Dash into the air five stories above the ground. As Dash began to fall, the figure was visible for a brief moment: a familiar looking man in green and white armor with a green fedora, translucent goggles and a broadsword. Years of conditioning and training forced Dash's body into action; it wasn't the first time he'd been in such a situation. Operating on a more instinctive than conscious level and using the sword for its slight additional weight, Dash spun his body, trying to twist himself midfall, towards the nearest solid object. Somewhere near the end of the fall, Dash's free hand found solid grip on a light post, of all things. Dash twisted his body around it, breaking his fall. Even so, he still hit the ground with bone shattering force, rolling through to alleviate some of the pressure. Dash ended up face down on the ground, but quickly pushed himself back up, fully expecting an immediate followup to the attack.

The followup did not come, at least not for Dash. With another flash of light, the person in green was beside Aleena again, already midway through a slash of his sword.

Aleena didn't even bother trying to parry the sword; instead she punched out with her fist aiming for the centre of the green mask's hidden face. The Figure in Green took the damage seemingly without caring, though the backwards momentum did throw off his sword swing, reducing its force. There was a definite crack of bone breaking, though a careful observer might have noticed the now-misshapen nose slowly shifting and mending beneath the cloth mask. Even if Aleena lacked that sharp eye (which she doesn't), her cysuit would have let her know as much. The steel of the sword rang out as it struck Aleena; like hitting a rock, it bounced off her as her suit resisted the blow.

"I like this city. Welcoming visitors with lethal force!"

With a concealed grin, the figure vanished and appeared on a crate some distance behind Aleena. "We do what we can. Nice suit there. What's it made of? More importantly, is it conductive?" So saying, he reached into his pocket and threw a small dart in Aleena's direction, its tip sizzling with an electric charge.

"Don't tase me, bro," Aleena replied as she leapt after her teleporting opponent. Her suit did conduct the electricity safely to the ground, leaving her entirely unaffected. She shrugged, offering an apology. "Sorry, just something I heard somewhere."

Suddenly, Becky Joy ran up to Aleena, panting. "Hey, where'd everyone go?! It's like the ship is empty, except for Cattaras, and my Knobbies, and the pirates, and, and.. and..."

"What?" Aleena straightened from a fighting stance and backed away from Becky and the figure. Becky just blinked.

"Is there some-1's behind me you wanna fight?!" Becky asked, confused.

"Not anymore," said the voice of the figure, on top of a crate removed from the action. With a wave of the hand an energy field surrounded Aleena and attempted to transport her into the water. "Let's see just how much that fancy suit can resist...will it also shrug off teleportation?" he asked rhetorically; the elf disappeared and re-appeared a short distance away, in the water.

Aleena's suit reacted immediately to the change in environment as a helmet snapped onto her head, formed by a nearly explosive growth of nano-material. "Teleporting... that's pretty powerful. But I shall get to the bottom of this, have no fear."

Meanwhile, Becky frowned and whimpered towards the stranger. "You gonna make my friends vanish, I won't have anyone left, you.." Becky's face shifted as anger kicked in.. "You.. SILLY!"

The figure frowned at this. "Oh, no...you're not with The Caravan, are you? I hate those guys..."

Aleena slipped beneath the waves, using her suit's shapeshift ability to form flippers. Swimming quickly upwards, she shot out of the water like a dart and hoped the element of surprise might let her grapple the teleporting foe. Meanwhile, Becky pulled out a toy yeti and started brushing its toy hair. As she did, a thick frost suddenly formed over the enemy's legs, quickly looking to encase him in the ice!

The figure blinked in surprise at the torpedo-like speed of the swimming elf and lacked sufficient time to evade. The resulting rolling and grappling pushed them both out of the path of the quickly forming ice as they skidded along the dark boardwalk. Becky's face lit up as she saw her 'friend' who wasn't a friend returning; Becky threw several rapidfire snow blasts at the stranger, looking to put him on ice for good!

The ice and snow rolled over the two grapplers, freezing them into a single chilly block. "Ack! Cold, cold, COLD, cold..." shivered the green swordsman.

"Hey, Aleena you don't gotta be in there," Becky said, confused.

"Oh...yes..she...does," shivered the figure as a flash of light surrounded them both and deposited them not too far away on the top of some crates being held aloft by a crane. "This should...give us some...time to get out of this without your friends interfering." So saying, he began struggling in the ice to reach into his cape. As he struggled, a pair of images flashed through the dark. This time, it was Sebastian Dash who got the drop on the enemy!

"Let's try this again!" Dash said, pointing the longsword at the enemy. Dash suddenly paused as if recognizing the figure. Dash's mind raced to place it.

The pause was all the struggling figure needed as it managed to reach the thermal flasher in his cape. All the ice touching his clothing either melted or shattered, releasing him from the icy prison (while having the side effect of releasing Aleena as well.) Not trusting his luck in the presence of the two, he slashed his own broadsword at the rope holding the crates, causing the boxes to plummet!

"Dash! Help me with this fool!" Aleena cried, but maintained her grip on the man, as both plunged into the water.

"Aleena!" Dash rushed over, grabbing for the elf, but was too late.

While the three were carried by the inertia of the crates they were standing upon, the figure vanished and reappeared only a few steps away to just behind Dash, ready to club him with the hilt of the blade. Seeing the figure vanish, Dash spun around, successfully parrying the stranger's attack.

"Gotta do better than that, rookie," Dash called out as he defended himself.

At that, the green swordsman leapt backwards before the crates crashed, avoiding the resultant rubble. "I do well enough."

Dash alternatively dodged and sliced the rubble, hardly coming away unscratched but still ready for a fight. "We'll see about that."

Dash's guard suddenly dropped, however, as he caught sight of the stranger in a chance shaft of moonlight. "Oh! I remember you.."

The figure blinked, surprised. "You do? Who...oh! You're-"

He was cut off by a flying blur of fur as Cattaras pounced him and drove him to the ground. He landed with his full weight on the stranger, growling and baring fang at him. "I'm afraid, friend, that the privilege of killing this man is not to be yours."

"Stand down, Cattaras!" Dash ordered.

Cattaras growled. "You have no.." But his words were cut off by a lilting laugh. "Oh go on and humor him, brother dear. Perhaps they'll entertain us and kill each other." The bid tiger backed off with a growl. Dash extended a hand to the stranger, ignoring the voice.

Aleena ran a wet finger along the back of Dash's neck. Dash's body tensed. "Aleena.. meet Cyber Sunset."

"I should have known," Aleena replied.

With a flash, Cyber Sunset was out from under the cats, and standing up in front of Dash, tipping his hat. "Well...Sebastian Dash...it's been...quite a while..."

"Yeah, quite a while," Dash said with a bit of a smile. "You weren't attacking me last time either."

Catrina made a face. "So they're not going to kill each other? Pity."

Cyber Sunset scratched his chin. "You weren't walking off a pirate ship and walking past the port authority last time I saw you, coincidentally enough."

"Past the port authorities?!" Dash paused, thinking. "I figured they were still inland, like always. I was heading there!"

Cyber Sunset pointed at a small shack by the edge of the water, near where the boats disembark. "Port Authority and snack bar. Register your ships and get some chips."

Dash rolled his eyes. ".. of course."

"Anyway," he said, sheathing his sword, "sorry about the attack. I thought you might have been involved with some kidnapped princesses. This ship was coming from roughly that part of the world and, well... pirates and all that."

"No, He's only involved with one princess that I know of." Catrina said cattily. "Or do you have some others stashed away where I don't know about, Dash?"

Dash continued to ignore her, focusing on his old ally. "We're here to find three princesses, actually. They were visiting my homelands when they got kidnapped. That's why we're here; we heard that's where the three were being held."

Aleena swore under her breath and gave a withering look to Catrina -- if only she could see it. Instead, all she saw were the six impassioned red sensors lit along the front of Aleena's helmet.

"If you have any leads on them," Dash asked Cyber Sunset, "we'd love to hear them."

Catrina padded proudly over to face her, her tail swishing behind her. Instead of her usual bikini Catrina had chosen an outfit that was more sedate- yet more... Well whatever the word for it- the leather bustier and pants made every effort to let the sexiness of the Feline Queen show through. "What's the matter, honey? Feel a need to hide from your betters?" She smirked.

Dash glared at his ex ally and lover. "You really need to back off, Catrina."

"Or what? Little miss Light Brite here will get mad? I'm looking forward to it, honey." She then looked at Aleena- well at her faceplate. "Anytime..."

The elf tensed visibly through her thin armor. "Are you angry that you aren't getting any? Must be lonely in that castle of yours."

Catrina's fur ruffled- then she laughed. "If you want to compare notes honey, you'll find I've been getting all I need- and from a real man who knows how to treat me- not someone who thought I was going to break if he pushed too hard."

Dash glared at her, but kept his words to himself.

"Surely you don't mean the Jester King? Ick."

Even Catrina had to make a face at that. "No, I mean my mate Daisuke. I'm sure if you wanted to come by that castle of mine he'd be glad to show you what you're missing out on."

Cattaras growled. "Catrina.... we have work to do with these people, not provoke them."

Catrina smiled, unable to resist. "Of course... my brother has been known to please almost as well." Cattaras blushed and stepped back from the pair.

"Why are you even here? You kidnapped the princesses once already."

Catrina growled dangerously. "If you weren't hiding in that suit, bitch, I'd..." She caught herself and calmed down, while Cattaras finished. "It was Jester and his pet without our knowing. It will be taken care of after we clean up their mess."

Aleena took off her helmet and looked down on Catrina, stepping closer. "A leader is responsible for the actions of her people."

Cattaras came between them, having to force his way between the two smaller women. He looked down at Aleena. "Which is why we are working to clean their mess up. Do not worry, they will get what is coming to them."

The elf blushed, and then backed up a step so the larger, heavily muscled feline wasn't looking down upon her any longer. "Fine, then."

Cattaras nodded, stepping back next to his sister, who was seriously fighting not to show fang as she spoke. "We will work together. We will rescue these princesses and return them to the Kingdom. We will not discuss this further until we are on home soil. But when we are, bitch, there will be a reckoning." Cattaras looked ready to break them up should need arise.

Aleena simply smiled.

"To answer your question," said Cyber Sunset, turning back to Dash now that the brief quarrel had stopped, "I do have a little intel. Not much. I found a coded message earlier that talked about it. The column wasn't responsible, I think, unless they're hiding secrets from themselves now. Though they might know more."

"Then I guess they're our first targets," Dash said. "I've had my share of run ins with them."

"You owe me a rematch someday, Cyber Sunset," challenged the elf, grinning as she looked carefully over the male hero. "You're a very strong fighter. Forgive me, however; I've never been to this city. Who are the column?"

"An enemy group dedicated to world dominance," Dash said. "Although in this city, that much probably goes without saying. A lot of their cutting edge technology is based on surprisingly old concepts and ideas."

The elf's ears visibly perked. "Technology, you say?"

"Nothing like what you're packing," a new voice called out. A familiar voice. One to make Aleena flinch with hatred. "But it should be almost as fun to tear about as your cute little suit is going to be."

The Jester King of Beasts was sure to keep his distance from the others, however.

Dash put a hand on Aleena's shoulder to restrain her. "Don't mind the pest, Aleena. The Felines brought him, so they can clean up after his messes. We've got actual important problems to worry about."

Aleena took a deep breath and shook, but straightened up after a moment and whispered. "Do you know what he did to me?"

Dash nodded, keeping his voice low. "I know, hon. But the lives of three very innocent princesses are on the line. The last thing we need right now is a full fledged gang war, an ocean away from home."

The elf closed her eyes. "Very well." She willed her helmet to reform over her head so that no-one could see her tears.

Cyber Sunset turned to the helmeted elf and nodded. "If you want a rematch, this is the best city for it. When we're all done, that can easily be arranged."

Aleena didn't seem to hear his comments, however; if she did, she gave no indication of it.

"Business time," Dash said, as that's ultimately what had drawn them all here. Slowly the others gathered around them as Sunset explained what he knew, and more importantly, the locations they could start investigating.

Of course, with a city full of madman and supremely powered heroes as its most normal feature, who could say which twists lie ahead?

Soo.. um.. yeah. But in COH it's a woman!. So really, it was a mixup behind the scenes with me being either stubborn or not getting a joke, but I just chalk it up to COH and Honorburg being different dimensions.

Everything from this onwards for the mission was posted by Dash (me).. although it's all co writes and the Finale. Becky doesn't play a big role here, but we will see more of her in action later on (next chapter, in fact). In fact, we'll see all the main players get action time later on!