Re: Fools! There will be a King!

[Albert Wesker]

Outwardly, Colonel remained the picture of perfect calm. He merely followed along behind the others, his unblinking stare flicking from one side to the other, taking in details and curiosities of the place. Designed more for intimidation and ostentatiousness than any sort of tactical bearing such a fortress might normally be used for. Confusing layout, looked like it was intentionally designed to confuse any would-be interlopers that didn't have a guide that knew the place. When the blue-shelled koopa that had been guiding them instructed them to wait, even Colonel's implacable facade cracked with a deep huff of annoyance. It was all so predictable it was becoming rote at this juncture. It was exactly what he had expected, only even more bland and monotonous.

Dealing with apparent royalty under such tenuous circumstances was rarely ever expedient or enjoyable in any fashion, but this was just dull.

To pass the time, Colonel once again produced his dataverse device. In hushed tones, he made a simple order, "Run a search for any readily available information on this Bowser. I'd rather not walk in entirely blind."

"At once, sir!" came the rapid response of the navi occupying the device. It took only the work of a few moments before the search was completed. "Search complete. Minimal information available, here is what was located."

The information that had been found was scarce, indeed. If nothing else it gave the soldier navi some idea of what he was dealing with here. "Well done." He read through it as quickly as he could, not wanting to be caught waiting when — and if, for that matter — they were actually called in for an audience. From what he was seeing, good King Bowser wasn't known for being the most...amiable of monarchs. Hopefully their meeting wouldn't go as poorly as some of the recorded attempts at meeting with him had in the past.

A sudden, deep rumble of a roar, echoing clearly through the doorway their blue-shelled guide had gone through grabbed his attention, and the following snarl of "YOU JUST OFFERED THEM AN AUDIENCE WITHOUT MAKING SURE I WASN'T BUSY FIRST?!"

The mood in the hall outside the room went through a sharp turn, and even Colonel looked dumbfounded for once. He just slowly blinked, lowering his dataverse device to stow it away again. "It's never a good time for some people," he said flatly.

Another dim grumble resounded through the door before it creaked open, their blue-shelled guide poking his head out, looking sheepish. "I, uh...my apologies. His Ghastliness will see you now." And he pushed open the door the rest of the way, a second koopa guard taking hold of the opposite door and hauling it open as well.

Deep red carpet ran the length of the room, heading down an aisle flanked by torch sconce-toting columns in the shape of....some kind of monstrosity's head. Judging from the paintings in the hall, they looked to be in resemblance to King Bowser himself.

"Subtle, huh?" Drake offered, drawing a collective look of mild displeasure from every koopa within earshot, and a short chuckle from Zack.

Approaching the throne, they finally laid eyes on the big reptile himself, heralded by their blue-shelled guide. "King Bowser, this is the group I mentioned."

"Yes, I can see that," the giant turtle of terror grumbled, clacking his clawed fingers against the arm of his throne. Fiery red eyes glared down at the group of four assembled there, looking from one face to the next. "So. What it is you came here about?" He squinted his eyes in either suspicion or thought, it was hard to tell. "It can't really have been about that bandit notice, not as old as it is."

Colonel remained unimpressed, his usual cold mask of neutrality not cracking under the immense weight of the turtle tyrant's gaze, and he merely turned a sidelong glance at the others. They were the ones with business here.