Re: Fools! There will be a King!

[Albert Wesker]

The giant of a turtle from hell stared at the group before him with his expression unmoving, locked into a twisted grimace of irritation and confusion at the sheer unlikeliness of the situation. When Miranda mentioned there being other trouble they might be able to assist with, barring the situation from so long ago with the bandit issue, the monarch only narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, maybe there is some other trouble," he grudgingly admitted, his eyes sweeping to one side to fix the nearest koopa with a positively incendiary stare. The poor turtle, even not facing his king to see it, shivered reflexively. The incompetence sometimes on display among his Troop was infuriating...

Then his eyes snapped back to Miranda in the space of a single blink as she made mention of introducing herself. It really wasn't like the giant turtle tyrant cared...but he just let out a low huff of breath, only faintly laced with smoke and said nothing. Miranda Frost. Some unnecessarily fancy title about knights or something. Fascinating. He resisted the immense urge to roll his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, great, fantastic....nice to meet you."

The ensuing kerfuffle when Miranda smacked one of her companions upside the face with her glove didn't even draw so much as a smirk from the tyrant. Not even another irritated huff. It reminded him too much of the moronic nature his own troops displayed for that.

When Zack spoke up an introduced himself, it only drew a "hmph" from the king. Such an informal introduction. Refreshing. "Yeah, bandits aside there's always trouble around here. Not all of it from the outside." A small jet of flame whuffed out of each nostril as he let out an irritated growl. "At this point we don't have the luxury of turning down outside help."

And then there was the next one, and oh boy was this one a treat. It wasn't exactly a bad feeling, per se, but it was just plain odd. He could only blink at the nonstop torrent of stupid pleading and attempts to sound pitiable that came falling out of the mouth of the man that introduced himself as Drake Oneir.

When he finally finished with his whole spiel, ending with his "The Omniverse needs you!" Bowser could only slowly lean forward, one scaled hand over his eyes, letting out a long, deep breath of frustration. "Right, right, yeah....we'll talk about that when we get to terms and whatnot. Not like we don't have the turtlepower to spare..."

He lifted his eyes, his expression having adopted an annoyed, bored cast, ready to get this over with more than anything, and settled on the final one among the odd group, who had said nothing to this point.

The soldier program lifted his sword arm up, across his chest, point crossing over his opposite shoulder, and inclined his head. It was an odd gesture, but it wasn't easy to figure out what it was: a salute. "My name is Colonel. I am a soldier, initially here by chance, and have signed on to assist in the matters of Miranda and Zack in quelling the bandit problem." He dropped his sword arm back down to his side. "Though with that issue seeming on the back burner, I'll still lend my sword to the other issues at hand." He paused for a moment, before he added, "....and I am also a member of the Omniverse Institute, and would second the request of Mister Oneir. That would be further reason for my lending assistance and compensation enough."

The giant dino-turtle just clacked his claws on the arm of his throne, slowly leaning back once again. "Right...all well and good." He turned to the koopa he had terrified with the weight of his disapproving gaze moments before. "Did you manage to get that report about the incident written up?"

The comparatively tiny turtle snapped to attention and nodded in the affirmative. "Yes we did, Your Surliness!"

"Great. Get a copy made for each of these guys." He waved a hand lazily at the collection of four, and the koopa saluted and scuttled off with all due haste. He turned his gaze back to the motley collection of Primes before him and leaned forward, arms resting on his knees now. "Right then...I'm guessing you'll be wanting details on what this is all about." Without waiting for a response he growled out another whuff of fire. "Suffice to say someone broke in and stole a very important item. And only that item."

He closed his eyes, looking very much agitated as he continued, one foot tapping incessantly at the floor. The ground below it seemed to crack and splinter as his claws clacked against it. "How they got in, much less managed to avoid detection, we don't know. Who they were or why they even wanted it, we don't know. But the item they took....it's not good to have out there who knows where. It's got an important function and it could do some real badness in the wrong hands." He snapped his eyes open, the glare of the many torches flickering in the angry glare he directed down at the group. "I'd bet my throne some unsavory group that moved into the Steppes lately has some connection to all this. It just stinks of conspiracy and it's too convenient to be unconnected. And that whole massacre of North Village...." He shook his head. "Despicable. Completely unnecessary. Can't even conquer something if it's dead and gone."

"And one last thing...." He lowered his voice. "Call me paranoid or crazy, but I'm positive the Empire is involved in this somehow. They're got a spy here, or a double agent or something. Always watching. No idea what for, but with those crazy bunch? It doesn't really matter. So keep your heads down." He leaned back in his throne. "Take care of that particular issue and I might have a little something extra for you all when this is said and done. I don't like uninvited guests."