Extraordinary Regularity

He chuckled genuinely at her question, as he reached behind himself and took a dogeared book from the desk and began to flip through it.
"Was. I was a great teacher, back in the 19th Century. But then I came to the realisation that one teaches to pass their knowledge along to the next generation, and since I get reborn into one of the next generations, I didn't really see the point to it anymore."
He grabbed a pen from the desk and began to scribble notes in the book.
"You aren't the first person to come to me with the same question, though as you probably guessed, they didn't win me over either. Unless..." his eyes ran up and down her body again before settling back on her eyes, "...you have something to order in return? Something they didn't."

 

Rid raised an eyebrow at her power. The rest stepped back as a wary fear took them off guard, as they became aware that this little girl and her bird were actually phenomenally dangerous.
Rid, however, seemed completely unpeturbed by the hole she'd formed, and formed his own hole in the ground - it was a lot cleaner, smoother, more delicate, and somehow more scary.
"Nice trick. I like it."
He looked up at Hema. "I like this kid. Can we keep her?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The woman smiled gently.
"No catch. Your agendas are suitable for my ends. I would very much like to see you control this world. To that end, I can help you."
She raised a hand and Neptunus suddenly felt a strange sensation rush up his body. Every cell of his body felt... calmer.
"You are now immortal." She said this casually and simply, as though discussing the weather.
"I will give you another gift. Take this."
She blew Neptunus a kiss. The "kiss" manifested as a whirl of energy that spiralled through the air and spread across Neptunus's torso. "You have gained the Zone of Returning. This zone returns all that once knew life in its existence within its borders to the prime of its creation. Even the dead may hold no secrets from you properly now."
She looked up at him. "Would you like a third gift, before you return?"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Exceptioneers looked at each other.
"I get the feeling that you'd not mind property damage as much as we'd like. We'll consider it." Bravado turned to go. "Come on team. It's taco night at Kenny's."
"REJOICE FOR TACOS!"
"You always get too into taco night."
As they walked away, Matthew and Kitty caught up to Logan. "You alright?" Matthew asked, the kids floating down around his head glad to be round their daddy again.

As the family headed out of the park, Hettem and his mistress moved in lockstep next to them, so seamlessly the only way they knew they were there was when Hettem spoke quietly looking at his old friend.
"Time has not been kind to you, Eldrich. I had hoped you had found peace - it seems I was wrong."

 

Neptunus looked at her, unbelieving in this so-called gift of immortality, "How do I know I'm actually immortal? I can feel the Zone of Returning flowing in me and at my disposal, but the immortality? All I felt was being somewhat calmer but regardless, I will take your word for the creation of a Zone is neigh impossible and you have done it. As for this third gift you offer, as greedy as this may be, I will accept a third gift if you wish to bestow it upon me."

Irene giggled both at the people getting scared, then at Rid's comment, "You're kind!"

 

Logan casually turned his head towards Matthew and shrugged.
"You say that like I was in any real danger to begin with. Seriously. I'm not about to let myself get killed by some ragtag group of misfits with hero complexes. More importantly..."
He took a quick glance back to make sure the Exceptioneers were out of earshot and looked back to Matthew.
"...Did you get what we came for or not? Today's been weird enough already so I'd really rather not go back to that Penton place if we don't have to."

 

Kitty looked down nervously. "I'm with Logan... I don't want to step foot in that building ever again." She sighed and looked around. "Should we really be discussing this here though? What if someone is listening?"

 

OOT: Did I miss something?

Keep, Leap, Steep Peep Meep Freep... "Deep." Hema said. She nodded. "The deepness of the keepness is leepness."
Lapsing into silence Hema surveyed the trees.
"Sure, she can stay with us." She replied to rid, not acknowledging the moment of oddity. "We should get going though."

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The woman raised an arm and a root from the tree she was sitting on suddenly tore up through the soil behind Neptunus. She flicked, and the root whipped sideways and tore Neptunus's head off.
His body collapsed instantly, but his head bounced off of another tree and rolled to a stop. The sensation was like being on a bouncy castle underwater to Neptunus, who was in no pain at all but still very aware of everything that was going on as though the rest of him had been heavily tranquillised. The woman beckoned and the root, still dripping with Neptunus's blood, gently brought his head back up to its former height, and with a sensation not unlike the feeling returning after pins and needles, Neptunus's entire body grew out from under his neck, the old one simply lying defeated where it lay. This left Neptunus completely naked, but the woman didn't seem to care.
When his entire torso had grown back and could support the weight, the root released Neptunus's head as the rest of him returned. The process took less than twenty seconds to regenerate an entire body from the neck down exactly as it had been less than a minute ago.
"Do you believe me now?" the woman asked, lowering her hand and returning the root to the soil. "And the third gift will come, in time." She waited for Neptunus to get his bearings - being decapitated for the first time was a bit disconcerting.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rid raised an eyebrow at them both.
"I've been called many things, little darlin', but "kind" never made the list. Thank you kindly."
He doffed an invisible hat.
"And as to that, my loquacious lady, you are the commander of this crazy little ship - sail unto the horizon."
The others were still wary of the three, and kept their distance.

The kids all nodded, bobbing excitedly, one of them glowing a slight blue that manifested as a heat haze in the air.
"They did. We'll still need a computer to access it though - that said, I am quite hungry. If anyone wants a bite to eat, now is the time, because once we get back to my place I am going to be all business," Matthew said.
He seemed to be speaking to the kids as well as them, who all cheered and looped over each other in the air (not that the others could see them.)

 

Logan shrugged.
"Yeah, sure, I could go for some food. I'm fine with anything so I'll let the two of you figure it out."
He waited for Matthew and Kitty to figure out where they were going and let himself get lost in his thoughts for a while.
"It's about time, too...finally, we can catch this guy and then he won't have any more excuses. Once that happens, well...actually, I don't know. Haven't thought that far ahead, I guess. Whatever. I'll just figure it out as I go."
What was he going to do once they settled things with the murderer? Would he just challenge Matthew to a fight on the spot like he wanted to before? He wasn't sure why, but the idea didn't seem quite as appealing as it did before...though that was his main reason for following them around and he still intended to go through with it.

 

Neptunus had turned around just in time to see the root come at him... and straight up killed him. He probably should have been shocked, in pain, but none of those were a reality at that moment in time and as his body had seem to be rebuild itself. After it was all over, he simply said "Ouch," before looking down at his now nude body. "I'll have to deal with clothing again later, the old ones are bloody now..." He looked up at the woman, "Thank you for these gifts."

Irene waits for them to get going!

 

Seth leaned forwards in his chair again.
"Oh, the others offered me money, power, station. Things I already have. But you, you can give me something I've been after for a long time..."
He held out his book to Melena, the open pages covered with scruffy notes and clearly bullet pointed instructions.
"A map of all known Undine settlements, as well as population spread and other general census things. Get me those, and you get your teacher."

 

Kitty nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty hungry after all that." She stretched. "It's always nice to take a break from time to time."

 

About ten minutes later, they were sitting in a McDonald’s, by the window looking out onto the street. The reason for why McDonald’s of all places was that the ball pit installed in the kid’s play area was suddenly a lot more active than it should have been for only a few kids being in there, balls moving apart and flying through the air seemingly of their own volition.
“What’ll you all have?” Matthew asked, addressing Logan and Kitty. He’d pulled his wallet out and was counting notes.

The bunch of psychos headed towards the city, Rid and Nom taking it in turns to give Irene piggy-back rides.
“So what’s a little darling like you doing out here all alone?” Rid asked curiously, checking she was seated comfortably on his shoulders. “And where did you get the bird? Can I have one?” He looked back at the bird that was trailing lazily behind them, one eye on the little girl.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The woman smiled, and the sight was more beautiful than a thousand stars. “Good. Now go forth, Neptunus. The world is yours.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neptunus suddenly found himself back in the now deserted park where he had left from, strange new power flowing through his veins.

 

As Eldrich walked with the Silverlight family he noticed that Gabe was still perched on his shoulders, Kneeling down he let Gabriel off and addressed what Gabriel was talking about.

" I cannot disband my honour and chivalry in my speech, I shant change how i speak, I must make sure people understand I am a knight. I am sorry Gabe, a Mother and a father should be walking with their son, you should join them Gabe." once Gabe walked to them and locked hands with them he noticed that a new entity was beside him. hearing his voice he thought it was familiar. He turned his head and saw Hettem.

"Hettem, My friend. I cannot find peace until I have beheaded Althalos, if he is already deceased then I must be too late. and I am incapable of finding peace." Though Eldrich was suspicious of Hettem working with the old king he remembred what the court thought of his practies and ignored that thought. "So what happened of you the day of sentencing?"

OOT: Flashback scene will be posted at the end of roys section.

"No Thanks Matt, I haven't had McDonalds in a long time i'd like to keep it that way." Roy turned to Logan, and made sure Matt was also attentive. "So is there any intel that either of you two can tell me? The exceptioners are going to be a nuiscance to deal with if there is ever a spur of the moment event we have to stick with. We should cut deals with them, is definitely one thing we need to do." Roy would wait around for a quick conversation with everyone. He noticed a new face, it was Kittty. be he didn't know her name yet.

"Hey, My name is Roy." While he kept sitting around he started to feel uneasy. It wasn't so much Roy feeling uneasy it was Vincent. Closing his eyes he talked in his head.

"What is it, Vincent?"
"There is something watching us, all of us from the park."
"Just act like nothing is around for now, we can deal with that later."
"But Roy..."
"I can sense the disturbance too it doesn't feel human, but it also has no murderous intent. for now we can relax."

------------------------------------------------ Flashback ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Eldrich rode on horseback to an open meadow, the breeze blew the overgrown grass and the branches of trees and various bushes. The sun was setting, the sky glowing a vibrant tangerine color. lining up on the side of a second horse rider he reached his arm out towards him and spoke
"Are you ready for the night Hettem?, It will be a long one. We'll both need to track and hunt these monsters, if we get hungry. feel free to eat pieces of them. I only need some evidence of the dragons death."

Eldrich readied his steed and grabbed the reigns after Hettem shook his hand.

 

Logan was blankly staring at the children's play area which seemed to be moving all on its own. He seemed fascinated and a little amused at this bizarre sight. He replied nonchalantly to Matt without even looking in his direction.
"Big Mac combo-- everything but onions on it. Fries. Coke."
When Roy asked about the Exceptioneers, he shook his head and replied, again not even bothering to look in his direction.
"Never heard of 'em, don't care."
He continued to stare at the play area, occasionally laughing quietly to himself.
"It's like something out of a cheap horror movie, right before the lights start flickering and somebody takes a cleaver to the face."
He kept these thoughts to himself and continued to watch the children he couldn't see playing around.


Gabriel looked back to Eldrich, still holding his parents' hands.
"Are they friends of yours, Mr. Eldrich?"
His eyes starting to light up again and he started to smile widely as a thought came to him.
"Waaaiiit...are they both knights, too? Like, are they your knight friends? That'd be way too cool-- meeting THREE real knights in the same day!"
He noticeably had a slight skip in his step now.

 

Kitty pondered for a moment, deciding on what to eat. "I'll have a... fish fillet! Those are good." Her mouth started to water at the thought of fish.

 

Seth gave a cursory glance to the book she had just dropped.
"As I suspected. You Undine are very set in your ways. Tradition this and customs that. It's no wonder you have been hit so hard by the changes in the world."
He got up from his chair and picked up the book, handing it back over to Melena.
"As for my intentions, I merely wish to archive the information. No more. No less."

 

Irene held onto her carrier with one hand, the other slipping on her visard mask as she spoke. Half way through her putting the mask on, the projection of her voice changes due to the mask. "My parents died so I live out here!" She giggled briefly, "Fluff appeared magically so nope, you can't have one!" Fluff perked up at the sound of his voice, getting closer to the group yet still keeping its distance.

Neptunus looked around him and speculated what he saw - a large area right in the centre of life in this city with an absurd percentage of the population passing by it daily; a perfect place to build his place, his base of operations, his home. He strode over to the middle of the park and raised a hand - his left due to swapping his cane around and holding onto it with his right. As he clenched his left hand, a breeze of air escaped his fingers yet there was something different about this, it wasn't colourless as per usual yet instead was a slight shade of pink. It quickly encompassed the area around him, 180 metres by 180 metres and seemed to thicken, blocking out vision of the inside from outside and vice versa. Everyone with the exception of Neptunus within the mist quickly found themselves suffocating as they inhaled the mist yet it seemed to stop as soon as they left the area.
Time went past and with nothing to see or smell, all that could be heard from within the mist was screams and shrieks coming from varying ages,
each as painful and loud as the other.
More time passes and the mist slowly dissipated, flowing away from the park, up into the sky, revealing the newly built building - or better yet, castle.
Upon first look, nothing could be seen excluding the 30 foot castle walls surrounding the entirety of the 180x180 area. There seemed to be no way in or out other than above these walls. Inside of the walls however, things got slightly prettier. The ground was paved with smoothed stone, a metre wide river moving around, twisting and turning to form pathways similar to that of Venice. Scattered every now and then were trees and exotic flowers, livening the currently dormant environment with their flavourful fragrance and blooming colours. There were also five different housing sections, four for his supporters, one for him. The housing blocks for his supporters were placed strategically around the north-east, south-east, east-west, and north-west around his home, keeping at a distance of 30 metres away from him. Each housing blocked contained 4 separate homes sized at 20 metres long and wide as well as 6 metres high. Each separate house contained 4 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a split kitchen and a split living room. These houses were made out of solid handmade bricks, each seeming to stick together without the need for any kind of extra chemical with windows spanning all around, 2 per wall.. Around the houses were also plots of land spanning 10x10 metres which could be used for farming and other agricultural needs. The structure for these buildings were deep in the ground, making it hard for even the strongest of people to move due to their intricate lacing and solidification.

The main building for Neptunus however, is where the real fun begins. Sitting at an astonishing 50x50x60 metres, the outside was plain, seemingly metallic. The inside was much different - it was brightly lit and mainly empty with hallways splitting off into all kinds of different directions including up and down yet it could be noted that there were no windows and no actual source of light. Also, the halls were littered with what seemed to be statues of varying sizes and design. Some howling wolves, some mighty minotaurs and many more, each blocking a different route through the halls with ever-staring eyes. At the very bottom of the building are more than a dozen set of cells, each being constructed out of metal bars known as Potentium which has the ability to absorb energy or forces being used on it, rendering escape nigh-impossible. Along the dungeon walls were sets of manacles, each coming in 2 sets, 1 for the wrists and the other for the ankles. Each had been shortened so that the chains hardly allowed movement. These were also made out of Potentium. Beside each set of manacles was a little tray full of surgical equipment and different chemicals, some rusted yet others brand new. Each had a specific, blackened scalpel - an obsidian scalpel which are known to be sharp enough to not tear through skin cells but instead cut between them meaning the wound will hurt more, but will also recover quicker. There was also a separate room similar to that of a surgical theatre but no need to talk about that at the moment.

Upon the top of the building, more specifically the roof sat Neptunus on a bone-forged throne, one of his hands resting on the skull placed at the end of the arm rests, the other held up as the pink mist seemed to enter it and... disappear? He took a long, shallow chuckle and stood up, walking to the edge of the building and looking out, allowing his low liquid chuckle to escape his lips one more time. It was wet and cold and had no humanity within it and it echoed out, seeming to bounce around the entire area that was now his, moving out and into the city before finally ending having reached the ears of every living, and dead being.