Gerend grinned and inclined his head at Tina's compliment. Waving his hand nonchalantly and strolling up to the bars, he remarked, "Kicking? Who said anything about kicking? Me'n Aramil here are good with more than our feet, don'tcha know. I've seen Aramil win a pretty penny or two punching through a piece of timber, and... Well, I don't like to brag, but I'm the one who taught him how to do that." Grinning sheepishly, he pulled a piece of white chalk out of one of his pockets. With it, he started to mark a ring around one of the bars, carefully making sure to stay level with his markings.

Aramil hung his head in emberasment and pleasure at his friends praise, blushing like mad and trying to hide it. "Aye, that you did, mate. Now, let's see what we can do about these bars, here..." Taking a closer look at the bar Gerend had marked, he tried to judge the power the two of them should hit it with. Remembering one of their pattern dances they had used to earn money one night at a local inn, he spoke up thoughtfully. "Hey, Gerend?"

The big man looked quizzically at his friend, wondering what was going on between those pointed ears of his. "Aye?"

"Do you remember a couple weeks ago when we were doing that pattern dance for money? I think it was 'Serpent Style, Modified Accent', right?"

Gerend thought for a moment. Yeah, that was two Sundays ago. But how is that relevant...? Going through the motions of the dance in his mind, he suddenly found what Aramil was hinting at. Giving Aramil a sly look, he said, "That might just be crazy enough to work..." His look widening into a wicked grin, he asked, "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

"Hell yeah!" Aramil exclaimed, grinning even more wickedly than his friend. His canines glistened in the low torchlight, and his eyes seemed on fire, a look of twisted excitement written clearly across his face. Looking to Saien and Tina, he cautioned, "This might be a little... over-the-top. Would you two mind backing up a little ways?" He looked quickly back over at Gerend. "You got the right..." He shot Tina a furitive look, "... Materials, for this?" he asked him.

Gerend looked smug, though he wondered why Aramil had looked at the elf like that. He must want the theatric suspense. Typical of him, really. Ah, what the hell, I'll play along. "Always," he said, pulling a little bag of red powder out of the topmost pocket of his bandolier. "You got the gear?" he asked back.

Aramil's grin became even more wicked, if that were even possible. "When do I not?" he countered, reaching down, each hand going to a different pocket. His right hand returned carrying two pairs of gloves made of thick leather, with curious little circles cut into them on the first and second knuckles of each hand. His left hand came out with a handful of small metal hemispheres, each having a bottom thicker than its sides with a hinge attached.

Gerend walked to the cell bars, accepting one of the hemispheres from Aramil, opening its hinge and carefully pouring some powder in before even more carefully closing the hinge. He repeated this eight times, then handed four of the hemispheres back to Aramil, accepting a pair of gloves in return.

Simultaneously, the pair slipped the gloves onto their hands, seemingly as if they'd rehearsed it. Which we have, thought Aramil, remembering the countless attempts they'd had to run through before perfecting the movements. After they had done this, each of them, still in-sync with eachother, twisted a hemisphere carefully into the indentations on the gloves first knuckle, then the second. "Ready?" Aramil asked, bursting with built up adrenaline as the potion's effect started to take hold.

"Ready." Gerend agreed, feeling much the same effect as Aramil. Taking 3 paces back from the cell bars, he aligned himself with the mark he'd made, Aramil doing the same behind them.

Aramil looked around at Saien and Tina. "Last chance to back away, ladies and gents. This one's gonna blow you away If you don't!" He locked eyes with Gerend, cackling madly and evilly with the adrenaline rush. Gerend's rich baritone chuckle slowly emerged, and the two souds inermixed and swirled together, until in one final roar of sound the pair leaped towards the marking on the bar, spinning through the air with all the seemingly effortless force of a tornado, simultaneously striking the opposite sides of the marking.

Tina was staring incredulously at the whole thing, and although she didn't like the half-elf one bit, when he told her to step back she did. She glared at him when he looked at her furtively, obviously withholding information. She scowled, standing up and crossing her arms in front of her chest as she backed away. Maybe... 3 feet? She smirked to herself. That should be enough...

The two men seemed to be mirror images of each other, moving completely in sync. Well... Mirror images except for the fact that they looked nothing like each other...

Tina watched, almost mesmerized, as they jumped into the air and began twirling, moving in perfect harmony with one another. Then, as if they had done this way too many times after seeing it in the theater, they landed their punch in the exact same spot, with the exact same force.

Then, as if a dragon had just been loosed, an explosive crack filled the air. The noise was followed instantaneously by a great flash of light, and as the light just barely encompassed Tina she felt an extreme amount of heat. As a reflex Tina jumped backwards, out of the heat, but her ears were ringing and her skin felt a little raw. She stared at the point of impact, waiting for the blots to dissapear from her vision and for the ringing to stop. If anyone had looked at her, they would've thought she was staring at something unbelievable. And, really, she was.

At the point of impact, ripples spread throughout the bars, radiating out from the center. The ripples grew and expanded until, after a split second, the bars bent, creaked, and finally broke. Well... not so much broke as...

Let's just say there's a circular hole where bars used to be.

"Never, in all my hundred years, seen anything like that!" She shouted, unable to hear herself speak otherwise. Now that the explosion was over, she ran over to the new hole in the bars. "How did you guys do that?!" She asked, staring at Aramil, who was now against the far wall.

Aramil picked himself free of the Aramil-sized crater in the back wall of the cell. Grinning with true joy at her question, he replied, with Gerend echoing from across the room,

"With a little bit of luck, a bit too-much explosives, and a whole-lotta practice!"

Saien said nothing at first, letting the two, ovbiosuly long-time friends, do their job. But, he, of course, stepped back when asked to. Even though he doubted that whatever would happen could harm him, he knew that it was impressive enough, there would be questions why it didnt. One of the reasons why he never stuck with one group for long was that it was always hard to keep up image of a living and relatively normal being for too long. Saien was often too careless and forgot something this little thing and hide that small strangness until it all summed up...

Standing at the far wall from the two friends, he watched, clearly impressed. He, like many of his kind, liked art and this was art of sorts as well. Art of movement, of sinchrony. And of strength. For a moment there, while the image of the bar-less cell sunk into his mind (after he blinked few times and could actually see it), he stood nearly not breathing and then started clapping, wide smile on his face. "That was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen! It is like you simply... erased the bars from there. Amazing! Good, no great, job you both!"

But then he turned serious, suddenly leaning in the direction of doors at the far end of corridors. "But I think its time for us to move... This wasnt silent enough for only us to hear. So, gather whatever belongings you have got and lets leave this place. We can leave the official thanking part to a later time," Saien said, pulling the bag higher on his shoulder and crouched slightly, as if he was about to run. The blue potion he had been given was now added to the little content it had.

Tina nodded. "Probably." A bright smile stretched her lips and twisted her features. "Of course, that was awesome, but not very quiet." The elf looked thoughtful for a moment, then perked her ears. "The guards would probably be coming right... about... now."

And, as if on cue, rustling could be heard from up the stairs. Two men, both human and wearing standard armor, were running down the stairs in a panic. Their voices could be heard before they were seen. "What was that?" "I don't know. Sounded like an explosion!" "Oh no! If they escape, the boss'll kill us!" There was a scoff. "Even if they don't escape. The damage to his precious bars will make him angry enough to kill us."

At this point the two guards were at the bottom of the stairs, frozen midstep. "Oh..." One said, staring at the travelers. Both had their weapons drawn. "I'm glad we drew these on the way down." The other one said.

Tina sized them up with her burning eyes, looked to Gerend, and smiled. "This should be fun..."

Gerend, reacting immediatly to the guards and barely hearing Tina's comment, shouted, "Aramil! Lights out, NOW!" Swiftly snatching what looked like a vial filled with a white powder, capped with a thin wooden stopper in the middle out of the lowermost pocket of his bandolier, he then threw it at the guards.

Hearing the signal for darkness, Aramil quickly manipulated the little ball of it hovering next to him and flung it as it expanded towards the now-confused guards. It settled over that end of the room right as Gerend hurled his vial,

shouting as he did so, "VINDICTION TO THE BLAST!!!!". Two purple spheres each exloded out of his

and Aramils's gloves, suprising Aramil so much he dropped to the floor.

Gerend's spheres settled over him and Tina, while

Aramil's did the same for himself and Saien. Just as the bottoms of the spheres hit the floor, one could hear the small sound of glass breaking.

Although mostly everyone was unable to see anything at all, the explosion would have been heard for a mile in every direction. And, if not for the fact that they were currently underground, the explosion would have incinerated the entire building. As it happened, however, all the magical bars were incinerated instead, debris from the bedrock ceiling showered onto them, and the building above was launched a considerable distance into the air.

Thank God no one else was inside at the time...

As echoes of the recent explosion finally died, Tina felt it was safe to open her eyes again. The darkness was gone, finally. And as Tina glanced around, she noticed everything else was gone too. She turned to Gerend, a shocked expression on her face. "Ok. I know the bar-thing was cool, but what in the nine hells did you just do? I mean, you destroyed everything!!" The elf stared wide-eyed at Gerend, open-mouthed and waiting for an explanation.

Gerend replied, "Eh?" Opening his eyes at Tina's odd comment, he took in the scene before him. One eyebrow raised, his mouth dropped open, glancing around in amazement. Checking his bandolier, he noticed the lowermost pouch was open, and upon examining it's contents found two more vials of white powder. Furrowing his brow in confusion, he looked from the vial he had removed from the pouch, to the empty building site, then back to the vial. "Hm... Why are my phosphorite vials in that pocket...? I could've sworn I'd put the coalcarbonate ones in there..." he muttered, mostly to himself. Looking puzzledly around him once more, he turned to Tina, scratching his head. "I pulled the wrong vial," he said simply. "No real harm done, though. The only other people in the building when I snuck past Mutt and Jeff back there was us. Ah... did anyone happen to see where the building went?" he asked.

Tina finally looked up. The ceiling was still pretty much in tact, although most of it was now on the floor. However the top of the stairs, where the main building had been, now exposed a very nice veiw of the sky. Her features twisted in thought. "Good question..." She asked, moving towards the stairs.

Saien had seen lot of things in his life, but these two didnt cease to amaze him, at least for this... How long was it? Maybe half hour he knew them. And if Gerend and Aramil planned to conitnue like this, Saien had feeling he will soon have suprises and explosions enough at least for few years.

He had nearly fallen at the explosion, and now Saien was still shaking his head as if his ears had fallen shut. Well, actually, they had. The nosie had been too much for his ears. After few more moments, his hearing returned to somewhat normal again, but now his mouth was left open, as he stared about. Saien gathered quickly, though. "Well. That was impressive. Very much so. But I cant say it was very wise," he commented.

"After approximitely five mintues, I think half of the city will be here to see what happened," Saien said as he started climbing up the ladders. "Maybe we can use it for our own good, though. Merge with the crowd, act as if we are one of the watchers. And then disappear. It would be good if we had any hideout, though..." The elf looked over his shoulder back at the other two men questioningly. It felt strange to be the voice of reason within any group, but then again, he thought with a inner laugh, that matched his cover up of a wizard. "Now, if Iantha was here..." he paused his thought in middle. He didnt have time to think about anything else, but the current troublesome situation. And here he had thought everything would go smoothly and simply.

Tina looked at Saien as if she had suddenly remembered he was there. "Right... Half the town and all that. Sounds like a good idea." She looked to Gerend, completely disregarding Aramil. "What do you think?" The elf's ears twitched as she listened for Aramil's reply, figuring that he would feel atleast offended by being so conspicuously ignored. And that, then, he would speak anyway. That was, actually, the hope. She kept her smirk mental. She could learn to like these people...

Goddamnit, why in the nine hells does he get all the fine women? Not that Tina'd even consider for a second if I attempted to court her, but still... "We've got safehouses all over the city. Some in the strangest places, too... Any of them you'd prefer to bunk at, Gerend?" Aramil asked, putting an almost unnoticable emphasis on the word "bunk". "I'm all for going to the Lively Elf, it's close and we can resupply there too." Aramil smirked. I hope Tina won't mind it's a gentleman's club... not... Tonight's the honeylove's act, so this ought to be interesting.

Gerend caught Aramil's reference to the safehouse, nodding slightly to show he was in on the joke. "Sound's good to me. It's just two blocks down on the left. Aramil here's friendly with the owners of the place, so hiding there won't be a problem. Now, let's get moving." Oh gods, Aramil, you're going to tell the Honeyloves to include her in the act, aren't you... May luck be with you. Heheheh.

Saien smirked sligthly, not having to look over his shoulder to see what was going on into the minds of two men. That dream, hope or at least thought field reached him in waves, soaked into his skin and sent the feelings to his brains. The elf still remembered that he had nearly fainted when he had felt this for the very first time. It had felt so overpowering, so strong... Iantha had done so much better back then and now... Now he was the one furthest from this reality than her. And Saien was glad for that because it was both burden and blessing. He shivered as reality kept slowly drinking up his energy, trying to dissolve him into the dream being once more. But he was ready to bear these hardships. He had to find her.

"And this is going to be fun," Saien thought, smirking wider. He wondered what exactly was the thing Aramil was setting up, for he could only feel the wish of success and mischievous thoughts, and how it involve Tina. But when he faced the first people already gathering, he suddenly started to hope that even if they lost each other in the crowd, which was most possible, they will all find the "Lively Elf" (he chuckled again at the name).

Noise. So much noise. Did people even realize how much noise they made? How loud they were not only when they spoke, but also in their thoughts and dreams. Probably not. They were sure all their thoughts, big and small dreams, little hopes they made uncosciously ("I hope the weather is good tomorrow", "I hope there will be some cheese left in the shop") are soundless, making soft, or sometimes slightly screeching sounds, only in their own minds. But by the Gods, they were so loud.

Especially if you hadnt heart them for... Iantha tried to concentrate on her own thoughts for a moment. Hm, it had to be at least last year, because before that, she had resisted, had not let it win her over completely. A year of all swallowing silence. It had been so blissful, even if soul and thought devouring... And that had been thrown away only for just a feeling. Feeling she couldnt put in words. A sensation of tingling in her spine, then running to every inch of her body. Something that pulled her away from the silence, that dragged her half against her will towards the noise.

She was still far away from the city, but the noise was already making her head ache so much it seemed it would explode any moment. What would happen when she would start walking next to someone? Would she die? Go insane? Iantha didnt know. She just kept walking, following The Feeling.

Tina looked interested. "The Lively Elf? That sounds like a good time. Which direction is it?" Tina's expression gave nothing away. Either she was truly oblivious to the joke, or she just chose not to show it. "And how far it is? I'm starting to thirst for a drink." A smirk finally broke onto her lips, spreading them across her fine features. She still ignored Aramil, acting as if Gerend had spoken all these things. It slightly irked her that the treatment hadn't seemed to effect him so far, but she would keep trying. It had to aggravate him eventually.

Climbing up the ladders, Aramil and Gerend led the way through the gathering crowd, many of whom were still on the ground covering their ears from the explosion. After walking for about a block and a half, Aramil turned and and stood, legs apart and hands on his hips before the doors of a two-story wooden building, looking up at it. The outside edges of the wooden double doors were ornately carved with the likeness of a scantily clad elven girl relaxing on a bed of vines. The vines from the top and bottom of the bed continued onto the top and bottom edges of the doors, which each had about a foot of space between themselves and the door frame. A brass plaque mounted above the doors on the building stated in an elegant and curving script, The Lively Elf. A relaxed sigh escaped from Aramil's mouth as he gazed fondly upon the plaque, unconsciously licking his lips in what might have been described as a predatorial gesture. Not turning to look back at the group, he said, "Home, sweet home." Without further ado, he pushed the double doors open with both hands and swaggered into the establishment, looking every inch (in his opinion) the returning hero, Gerend following close behind with Saien and Tina.

The inside of the establishment was comfortably situated, with tables and chairs at various points along the floor and a stage with a spiral staircase leading into the ceiling in the back left corner. A few patrons glanced up as the group walked in, and some of them waved to Aramil and Gerend. There was another spiral staircase to the group's right, also leading to the next floor. In the right back corner of the room, there was an old mahogany bar, behind which stood two young half-elf women.

Noticing the patron's waving, one of the women looked over at the door and squealed with delight, running out from behind the bar to embrace Aramil. He laughed and twirled her around, setting her back down in front of the group with a quick peck on the cheek. She was around 20 years old, with bright green eyes and waist-length nut-brown hair, bosting a slim, athletic figure that was slightly tanned. She wore a simple green cotton dress, over which was a white apron tied at the back. "Aramil! And Gerend, too! It's been too long since your last visit," she giggled, eyeing Saien and Tina. "And who might I have the pleasure of meeting? Do introduce us, Ari!" She laughed at the pleased blush that grew across Aramil's features at the use of his nickname.

"Alianne, it has been too long!" Aramil said happily. Sweeping his arm to indicate Tina, he said, "This is Tina, elven femme fatale and swordswoman extrodanaire." Going over to Saien, he clapped a hand on his shoulder. "And this dashing rogue is the mage Saien Sapnis, master of the Art Arcane!" Turning back towards Alianne, he said, "Alianne, could you be a dear and show Tina to the ladies quarters? I would myself, except I'm not allowed back there!" He laughed. "I heard you had to move the men's quarters, though?" he asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Yes, we did have to move you and Gerend's quarters to the alley, I'm afraid. Remodeling, you understand. And I would be honored to escort Lady Tina to her quarters." replied Alianne. "If you would follow me, miss?" she said, beckoning to Tina and moving towards the stairs on the right.

Aramil turned to Gerend and Saien. "Well, lets get settled in, gents," he said, going outside again with Gerend and motioning for Saien to follow.

Tina rolled her eyes at Aramil's showy introduction. It aggravated her how everything about him had to be flashy. A frown curled her lips and creased her forehead. It could get them killed one day...

Tina eyed the bar counter, deeply wanting a drink. But she followed the half-elf woman, almost... curious as to what was in store. A secret smile flashed across her features, but lingered in her eyes. If anything, she would make it interesting.