The Path to New Babylon

[Sasuke Uchiha]

The roaring and booming alarms sounds, that had been ringing throughout the course of this invasion, had all but deserted most of the marketplace, save for a few straggling merchants, members of New Babylon, and one Demetri Malius

Demetri Malius was done. He had ventured as far as his talents could take him, and he was happy about it. Sure, there would be no debriefing of battlefield victories to his headmaster, but that wasn’t his chosen employment anyhow, no, and in that regard, Demetri had attained a wealth of knowledge that would certainly satisfy the Institute. Only time would tell how this new found information would play a role for the citizens of Nippur. Until then, Demetri would await his punishment in the bowels of the palace’s dungeon, a place where King Gilgamesh’s cruel, malevolent imagination dominated the inhabitants.

“So, what are the charges?” the thief questioned as he passively submitted to his adversaries.

“Assault, for starters…” Sasuke spat as he stood between the steam captain and Demetri, “…Destruction of property, resisting arrest, and the conspiracy to commit acts of war against New Babylon. Guards, remove this prisoner from my presence. Place him in the infirmary and see that his wounds are tended to. He’ll need his health in order to repay his debt to Nippur and its people.” As the king’s hand ordered, so it was; the guards swooped Demetri up, locking their elbows with his, and began to carry him off.

“NOW WAIT A DANG’ON MINUTE!!!...” the steam captain bellowed, his frustration expressed by the plumes of steam wafting from his ears, “Just what the hell is going on around here?!”

Sasuke turned to face and reply to the cankerous, old codger, “Oh, right, as for you…” pausing only for a moment, allowing his Sharingan powered eye’s to gleam the captain’s threat level and ability, “Stand down this instance and you will not be charged with acts of war against Nippur. We will allow you commerce… and protection within our walls, however, you will be charged with destruction of property. A debt you will repay with the sweat of your brow, repairing the damage you have caused here.” As the youth finished his retort, he used his index finger to indicate the crater made by Donnel, followed by a nearby workbench, which was conveniently equipped with shovels and the like, necessary for the job.”

Stephan Donnel scowled in response.

“It’s an immensely better option than the alternative.” Sasuke smirked, and as the king’s hand’s words left his lips, the surrounding Nippur City guards readied their weapons and fell in line behind their leader; present New Babylon members did the same.

"Yea, yea, yea, but what about you lot? We're trying to conduct business here! Damn kids breakin' up all the goods and we're just s'pose to take it?! Just look at--" as Donnel pointed towards the stand Sasuke had clobbered Demetri into, he found a neatly standing booth with all of it's equipment and supplies intact. The guards must have taken to sorting the matter out amidst the chaos. "Well, shoot..."

Demetri will be hauled off to New Babylon's medical bay to treat his wounds, then tossed in the dungeon. This is a prime made dungeon, so, have fun depicting it and what is in it as you wish. Please do so in a new thread. (I like "The Tale of New Babylon: A Theif's Redemption" but you are free to title it however you like as well ^_^)

Stephan, you may surrender and if you do so, we'll only make ya do some petty, manual labor for firing your canon off inside the walls. Otherwise, you may continue with the fight. Proceed at your own discretion.

[Stephan Donnel]

Stephan shot a couple of glances around. Well, shit, who knew kids are gonna be running a damn city? What’s this guy? Like 15? Seriously? How are we supposed to deal with stuff like that? Well, punting is always an option, although he does have his punch set real good, gotta admit that much. Still, with all those guards, and whatever that guy Donnel punched in the face a few minutes ago is, he would probably be bette…

“Bah, you kids keep playing your games.”

Captain turned on his heels, waving his right hand dismissively. Yeah, I guess that works too. He began walking away, stopping for a second to pick his hat up and put it back on its rightful place. Well, this works too. Heh, the face of that kid now… It’s like he is still trying to cope with the fact that someone DARED disobey him. Damn, he’s gonna be angry later. Meanwhile Stephan has already reached the cloudrunner and was climbing inside.

“And keep the damn booze!” – he yelled before slamming the lid closed from the inside.

Good thing about the steam-engines is that if you didn’t completely turn it off, and that is - vented every single ounce of, well, steam, you don’t need to start them up again. Just push the right lever. Which the Captain promptly did, activating the propellers and sending an unanchored vehicle forward, while both bringing down the impromptu stand with the example bottles that he had set up from the boxes a couple hours ago and losing the unsecured tarpaulin that was covering the cargo initially.

Not exactly happy about how this day worked out Stephan sped off along the streets, deserted due to the recent sirens that still echoed somewhere in the distance. The guards near the gate were on alert, helping themselves feel useful by shoving the carriages away, so they could finally close the gate. Well, that worked out just nicely for the speeding hovercraft, as it only had to push a guard, too stupid to jump aside, away, instead of a whole damn horse, or camel, or whatever that scaled thing is.

Leaving dust, curses and two crates of damn good alcohol behind him Stephan sped off into the sands.

[spoiler]So, unless someone wants to start a fight over a ruined pavement…
Feel free to send the dragons after out of spite thou.[/spoiler]

[Victor Wolfe]

Victor reached the gate out of the city, he spotted his target the Osstel riding on a speeder escaping into the desert beyond the gates. He knew that in such a wide open space he would have no way of catching up to them. He sighed giving up the chase, the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth. “I wonder how the others fared against the thief and that old man" Victor though, he jumped up the gate grasping on to ledges and using his ability to jump great heights to reach the top within a few seconds. He looked over the city of Nippur its people seemed to be calming down ever so slightly Looking towards the market place Victor saw the reason why the thief was incapacitated and being dragged off to what he assumed would be the prison. He also noticed the old man getting into his vehicle much to the apparent annoyance of his fellow New Babylon members, they started to give chase causing a smile to creep over Victors face, he had allowed the rodent to get away but this man would not be so lucky. After all he still had a good amount of rage in him mind from the embarrassment caused by the rodent earlier, and if this old man was going to be an enemy of the state then he was as good a target as any for some well due stress relief

Pressing the button on his belt he activated his stealth waiting for the vehicle to pass bellow him, and with the grace of a gazelle he then dropped down towards the vehicle landing at the middle of the vehicle just behind the main cabin being careful not to make too much noise, once Victor was sure the old man was none the wiser he maneuvered himself over the metal surface the sun making it hot and uncomfortable to the touch., lucky for him there were plenty of areas to grasp onto making his journey across the surface rather quick. From what he had noticed the vehicle seemed to float across the sand on a balloon, it looked soft compared to metal he was moving across. When Victor reached the sloped sides of the vehicle he drew one of his daggers and carefully but precisely lowered his arm keeping a firm grip with one of his legs and his other arm. Reaching the balloon he used all of the strength in his good arm to pierce and rip through the material, he then carefully moved backwards allowing him to rip an even bigger hole in the material. The vehicle started to leak out its contents causing it to start to drop speed at an increasing rate. This allowed Victor to stand up without fear of the wind knocking him off as he looked towards the captain’s chamber hearing grumbling and complaints

The Captain was not happy about these developments clearly noticing a drop in pressure he was already moving towards the gap to try and patch it up. He was clearly suspicious of foul play as he swung his leg aiming a kick at the area he thought Wolfe would be, unfortunately for him Wolfe saw the kick coming and with a burst of movement avoided the blow, unfortunately for Wolfe the Captain did not give up and began swinging his fists wildly, he knew that one blow from those fists could knock him off the vehicle and possibly break a good number of his bones he could not keep up the dodging for too long, rapid burst of acceleration took their toll stamina wise, the pressure started to build , the horrible smell of steam and metal, the heat of the sun burning his skin and the sound of very powerful fists being swung at him forced him to use his ace in the hole to put himself in a better position. he hit his daggers together causing the captain to be blinded temporarily, as the Captain stopped his punching and kicking flurry this allowed Victor a chance to charge energy into his daggers, he took aim planning to deal damage to the arms of the captain hopping to knock him off the Vehicle whist leaving him weakened until his allies arrived.

Using tier 1 super move -Now you see me costs 1 sp, have 1 sp remaining now. 713 words according to word

[Jak Mar]

Daxter the rebel hero, that's what they would call him. He survived it all thanks to a little help from his .... friend? Daxter gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for a second "D....Demetri... Thank you pal"

As Daxter's bike reached the exit of Nippur with IRIS, he swore he'd get IRIS's creator some help. But not like this. The ottsel was injured. One of his legs were broken and he at least could still drive the thing. He had to find Jak and tell him to stay away, don't do what he did... for his sake.

Daxter looked IRIS in the eyes and frowned "IRIS, that's your name right? I promise you we'll find Demetri on another road, but I need to find Jak, he'll know what to do... I hope..

Daxter turned and looked down at IRIS "Can you track Jak's last location? Please, he's my buddy."

Daxter didn't hesitate to not look back at New Babylon where Demetri put himself in danger for the little guy. What a hero in his heart this would be. The first time had made him lust for revenge against Vic and New Babylon but the second time had made him fear for his very life.

Daxter would now have some very crazy stories to tell with IRIS by his side. During Daxter's very crazy adventures with IRIS, Daxter squeezed the bike handles and let IRIS do the driving. Daxter tried to pass the time with his past adventures.

"So there we were, against New Babylon. With a bit of sand in my hand, I slung a sand ball against Dante's Abyss champion, Sasuke. He felt the pain and me and Demetri cheered. We realized we were against a opponent so powerful, we had to get our asses out of there.

Daxter kept driving toward the endless dunes and it took a while to get to the portal. He did however pass the Town of No Name.

There was a eerie silence as the ottsel stared around the town. Hopefully this place was far away from more dangerous territories. Daxter gripped the motorcycle with IRIS in it and asked someone for a glass of water and some well needed bandages for the ottsel and some communication area.

Daxter stopped and sighed typing to the dataverse

"Dear Jak,

Buddy I really need you right now, I have just escaped from a place called New Babylon, ya know, that city of Nippur that tried to mock us?"

I'll find you, I promise. I have a buddy with me and I need all the help I can get right now. Please, if you see this. I'm bleeding and need medical supplies.

I'll tell you a lot of crazy stories when I get back.

Thanks,
Orange Lightnin'

After some person decided to help Daxter, he gave Dax some water, and some medical supplies and various other things to survive the harsh wasteland.

"Thanks, pal... me and my buddy really couldn't thank you enough. I wish I could repay ya for your kindness"

The man smiled and said "Oh there's no need... Just be careful out there, alright?"

Daxter nodded and took a sip of the water, wrapping what he could around his leg.

He held onto the other supplies and looked at IRIS "Hey, you alright? "

IRIS nodded and turned her head, ready when Daxter was.

[Shay Cormac]

Quickly turning a corner, Shay's pupils began to dilate as he saw Victor skid across the ground, watching the strange vehicle fall into pieces within the sands. The old man piloting it falling soon thereafter, Shay noticed this and took the time to lean over on the wall of the building he was closest to, breathing heavily. Thinking about it for a short while as he caught his breath, Shay assumed he had never sweat so much in his life. What made matters worse is that he was in one of his most formal uniforms, too.

Shay grumbled, "I'm about to start regretting ever coming here," speeding up into a light sprint once again, really not wanting to fight out in the hot desert sun. With that being said, he saw Erik and Sasuke immediately jump down from... wherever, and get to chasing the already standing escapee.

Following as quickly as he could, Shay could feel his chest tighten as he even came somewhat close to the four Primes standing in the middle of the desert, passing into the unfamiliar territory beyond the gates of Nippur. Nonetheless, the Templar found himself quite aggravated this old man was causing him more trouble than he needed, all while his closest ally he's gotten so far was sleeping peacefully in bed.

Getting a closer look at the mechanical oddity in front of him, Shay inspected the old admiral, noting his distinct look as a captain of some sort. He was about everything Shay could imagine the future looked like back at his home world, and it gave the Templar a bit of a scare, in all his honesty. Shay's thoughts stopped in their tracks as soon as he saw all three of his allies tense up for an attack, before he slowly walked up in all his breathlessness, raising his hand for all of them to loosen up a bit.

For some reason, even the likes of Sasuke obliged to the motion, though they were just as confused as Stephan, the steaming admiral in front of them all. Shay reached for one of his rope darts hidden beneath his sleeves, watching the old man turn a few shades redder, in obvious anger. It was then, Shay spoke, a clear lack of respect in his voice.

"Captain, might I ask your name?"

Stephan cocked an eyebrow, still tense. Hesitantly, he replied, "Stephan, Stephen Donnel, what of it?"

"Figures. I've got an eye for that sort of thing," Shay began again, taking a short glance at all of his teammates, Victor being in the worst shape out of all of them, still trying his best to stay collected. Sasuke had his arms folded, waiting for Shay to make a move, whilst Erik remained somewhat confused as Shay continued, "Tell me though, why had you thought it was a good idea to cause such a mess here?"

The admiral grumbled, before bursting out in the lowest voice he could, which was basically yelling to any normal person's ears, "THAT kid of yours thought it'd be a great idea to destroy a fellow trader's supplies, and that ain't good for business!"

The Hokage sighed as Stephan pointed in his direction, Shay shifting his weight in preparation to reply again. Erik, watching all of this unfold, almost thought it was slightly amusing, but that thought immediately vanished upon seeing Victor's fists tighten around his blades, increasingly annoyed at Shay interrupting the fight for petty talk.

Taking note of his obvious discomfort, Shay looked back, sharing a glance with Victor, nodding towards him. It took a moment for that gesture to register, but Victor immediately got the cue as he saw Shay raise his right arm ever so slightly, Stephan having no clue as to what was going on in the Babylonian's heads at the moment.

"Reasonable," Shay spoke, before continuing in a bit of a harsher tone than last time, "but flawed. As the authoritarian figures, Nippur has every responsibility to clean up and fix all collateral damage that was done in pursuit of it's criminals. I'd think as a captain, you'd understand how that would work, but even after Sasuke showed and explained to you here, you still decided to bribe us and leave."

Stephan continued to listen to this, getting angrier and angrier by the moment. How dare this heathen mock his place as captain? All four New Babylon associates cracked some sort of expression of amusement as the old man's face began getting redder and redder by the second, Victor not included, still squinting his eyes in preparation for an attack.

An attack, that was soon carried out by Shay.

Throwing out his rope dart, the blade shimmered through the hot sun's rays, cutting through the air as it quickly moved towards Stephan's chest, before eventually it pierced his makeshift skin with the loud, distinctive noise of metal being torn open. The captain merely stammered backwards a bit, his expression telling everybody in the general area he was pissed beyond belief.

"For that," Shay yelled, "you're being put down, you poor excuse of a captain! Victor, NOW!"

The Templar immediately pulled back on the rope he held, causing Stephan to trip slightly whilst Victor let out a mighty grunt as he jumped forward, blades slashing into the air as the two Primes closed the distance within each other. Erik and Sasuke immediately followed, but not with nearly the amount of force as Victor put into his attack, seeing how both of his blades seemed to illuminate with energy for some odd reason, though in Shay's perspective, he might have mistook it for the sun's reflection. Either way, it was intimidating, and either way, Stephan did not care in the slightest.

With that said and done, Shay couldn't help but feel rather spiteful as all three Babylonians closed in to attack the captain, with all the intent to put him down under.

[spoiler]

986 words for this post!

[/spoiler]

[Sasuke Uchiha]

A cloud of sand, left in the wake from the steam captain’s departure, amassed around the remaining members of New Babylon, who stood just outside the city’s gate, dumbfounded at the refusal made by one, Stephan Donnel.

Sasuke shook his head, reminded of the hostility commander Hammond’s lieutenant, Cody Smith, had once regarded Primes with, and was now beginning to understand why. The audacity and entitlement this prime exhibited was perplexing, for what cause had the steam captain forced Sasuke’s hand? Knowing what he must do, the Uchiha sighed.

“So, what do we do now?” questioned the confused psychic, Erik Vrell, “Do we accept the alcohol as repayment?”

Sasuke took a deep breath, “No, absolutely not.” He stated with a healthy assurance, “We go after him. He has refused to comply with the terms of a court order, and is now an enemy of the state. For guilt may not be abolished with feeble attempts at bribery, Erik. This is Nippur and in Nippur, we serve the King’s justice, not the Empire’s corruption. Can I trust you to serve the King’s justice?”

“Yes, my lord hand! Of Course! At your command!” replied the newest recruit of New Babylon, whilst offering a formal bow, the likes of which he had observed during the court audience of earlier.

“Then, make haste. We have bigger fish to fry than this steam captain!”

***

"For that," Shay yelled, "you're being put down, you poor excuse of a captain! Victor, NOW!"

Erik, alongside the duo of Shay and Victor, meshed well together, strategically pooling their wits, and descending upon the steam captain, with such team work, they nearly allowed for Victor’s blades to tear the captain’s defenses asunder.

Nearly, but not quite... He certainly took some damage, as Victor’s blades howled with a vigor Sasuke knew not he possessed, but Stephan Donnel was a f*cking tank of a man, and while he looked old as dirt, he shrugged off many assaults with ease. Feats Sasuke would have been impressed with, had the captain not been such a nuisance for his faction.

Irritation swelled within Sasuke. Here he was, playing ruler in a giant sandbox, and he was still no closer to achieving his revenge. Suddenly, a wild urge to abandon this city and its people, grew within him. What was he doing here? Had he lost sight? Lost focus? His heart raced as shame invoking thoughts of despair suffocated his conscious.

An image of Gilgamesh flashed within Sasuke, giving cause for reflection.

“Stand with me friend, enjoy in such splendor, as we rule with an iron fist of justice. No foul, rogue shinobi shall thrive under my reign, we shall out this foe, and you shall have your vengeance...” The gilded king of Nippur spoke as he strolled across his gleaming, chambers of gold, plucking a grape from an, also, golden goblet to eat from, “Or, have I not shown my divine right? Do you not wear that Grand Championship around your waist? Act as hand to his lordship, and there will be no measure to what we will accomplish.”

Sasuke’s took a deep breath and his eye’s flared open, displaying crimson pupils; his hands wild with the language of the shinobi. He had made his decision then and he would hold true to it now.

“OUT OF THE WAY!” Sasuke roared as a thunderous crackle boomed and copious amounts of lightning infused chakra, in the form of a bright, hot, white light burst into existence within Sasuke’s right hand. A beat later, he had closed the distance between him and the captain.

Beseeching sounds of a thousand birds screaming, pleading, and calling for death’s embrace, befell the drunken trader, as members of New Babylon followed Sasuke’s command and abandoned their current assaults to do so.

*BOOM*

The area surrounding the shinobi and his prey shook, as a blinding flash of white light consumed them. When it dissipated, Sasuke knew a giant crater would be left in its place, and he would be only too happy to repair it.

[spoiler]

Used Tier 1 Super Move: Chidori on Stephan.
. Sorry if its not that good, I'm swamped right now >.>

[/spoiler]

[Stephan Donnel]

Well. Shit. Stephan was mad. I mean… Seriously? First the little shit talks back, like he owns the place, then his bodyguards show up, then he has to drop off a box of perfectly good cargo for a dent in a crappy pavement AND THEN this girly little shit…

Barely keeping his footing on treacherous sands below Captain stepped back from dashing Victor, swinging his sabre in front of him, just as the blonde tried to exploit the opening left by the flash.

…shows up and trashes his ride AND AFTER THAT THIS UNSHAVEN FUCK...

Slight pause in Victors attack was enough for Donnel to grab onto the rope with his free arm and yank it, while simultaneously taking another step back, with such force that it had snapped almost square in the middle, causing, Cormac this time, to tumble forward.

…only to START TALKING SHIT.

Pretty much as soon as the rest of the “peacemakers” reached melee it resolved into complete mess. The blonde blidgebiter was swinging his shivs around, jumping back almost every time he tried attacking. “Almost” because he tried to parry Stephans strike once, and barely managed to hold on to his dagger.

Erik held back for a moment, as jumping straight into the fray while you can throw some psyhiky stuff first isn’t the best idea. Shay had no such reservations, as his ranged potential was quite hindered with all those allies and only one enemy. Doing this. Exact. Thing. You know the one. The one where you run towards and not away from the person you just pissed off by pushing all the wrong buttons. Yes, that was definitely not a good idea.

I don’t know what Cormac was expecting, but that sure as rustles of Rustling Jimmy Rustles wasn’t a handful of sand that was sent toward his face by the heavy boot of the Captain. This could have been the end of Shay, as the barrage of blind strikes wouldn’t even slow Stephan down and he was quite ready to let Wolfe get a stab on him to off this smartass.

But at this moment, Erik finally came into play. A purplish ring, tinted in gold along the edges buy the desert sun, came into view, only to crash itself into Captains head with a hushed hiss. Charred remains of the hat sunk into the sand from the drop and Donnel tumbled a couple of steps sideways.

As he regained footing, Victor didn’t waste his chance and took his clear shot for Stephans exposed back. Several sharp flashes of pain and what was likely most of Victors mass caused Donnel to, once again, stagger forward, but it seems blondie made a usual mistake of aiming for the heart, which has, for quite some time now, lain rotten in a ditch somewhere far-far-far away. Due to the stunning revelation of his target having no immediately vulnerable internal organs all the damage done by this “lucky” strike boiled down to a long gash of torn cloth along the whole left part of Captains back and a dent in the armoured plating beneath.

All this time a skinny teenager, who Stephan at that very moment believed to be the culprit of all his problems, hanged out behind letting his mooks do all the job. Or at least it seemed so. Between knocking several more strange floating discus away from his face and trying to finally get a solid strike at the red-caped bastard Donnel didn’t really have time to look.

A completely unexpected thought came to his rage-clouded mind for a moment. He could probably take any of those four in a fair fight and triumph. Blazes, probably two at once weren’t exactly bad odds. Before this, actually somewhat reasonable, line of thought could continue thou, the oldest, and at this point the most foul-mouthed of the bunch decided that it was time to end this fight and performed a risqué manoeuvre.

Swiftly changing his sidearm for a thrown one the turncoat used that to distract his opponent. If you could call “throwing a knife into ones eye” “distracting”. But luckily for Stephan at almost the same moment Victor tried to put his “stab” on again and what little movement it provoked was enough for the dagger to slide almost harmlessly off his armoured left temple.

Cormac still went along with his plan, gripping his sword with both arms and delivering several brutal overhead smashes that were, of course, blocked, if with some effort, by a steam-belching appendage raised overhead. Which was just what Shay wanted. Turncoat took a swift step forward and underneath the metallic arch and delivered a lightning-fast strike to the throat of his opponent with a blade that suddenly came out of his bracer.

Well, what can I say? A steam powered eye has to get that steam somewhere. And in this case it was GMD. Which was where the heart should be. The most efficient way to transfer steam is a pipe, I stand correct here, no arguing. And that exact pipe was going right along the natural one, also known as “wind” pipe. And just as Cormac was already anticipating the final gurgle of this unexpectedly resilient enemy he felt that his blade slid along and off its target, leaving only a deep scratch on the neck and chest and causing quite a bit of dirty, almost brown blood to spill out.

Once again, this could have been the end of Shay Cormac, as deadly appendage still hanging overhead began its short decent, but at this moment the kid in the back suddenly called everyone off. Obeying on a reflex more than anything the still perplexed turncoat felt a sharp hiss pass by his, now scalded, ear and could only watch, with a grin slowly creeping onto his face, as the Kings Hand descended upon the troublemaker, who met this new danger by a straight-on saber strike, like a blow of literal lightning.

[spoiler]992 words before adding forum editing (italics and stuff), according to Word word counter[/spoiler]

[Sasuke Uchiha]

The sizzle from a wealth of live, electric current crackled, chakra pierced steel, and the steam captain’s trusted blade tore asunder. Sasuke’s Chidori triumphantly howled with the vigor of a thousand birds, as it then clashed with steel where should be flesh. A fortitude of impressive prowess, but it waned under the shinobi’s jutsu. His preverbal lightning, a damnation of jolting and debilitating sensations, exploded upon the ironclad skin of his foe. Boom. And as the cerulean devastation grinded against metal opposition, ricocheted streams of electric shrapnel littered the desert sands, creating beautiful works silica with each kiss of its live current.

Finally, once the azure energy had dissipated, Stephan Donnel lay defeated, in a crater of sand with thick, obsidian-like liquid flowing from his open wounds. He appeared to be less man and more machine than had previously been thought.

Sasuke, down on one knee, breathed heavy and wiped sweat from his brow, attempting to refute his fatigue. Shay, followed by Erik and Victor flanked the king’s hand, allowing them vantage of his handiwork, before someone spoke up, “Well, that was quite something. What do you say we open with that next time, huh?”

It was Shay who spoke, his demeanor now lighthearted, and a dramatic contrast from his earlier temperament. Sasuke chuckled, shook his head, and found his feet before replying with, “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Now, Stephan Donnel,” Sasuke addressed his defeated opponent, “you have been charged with destruction of property, resisting arrest, assault, and now bribery. For these crimes, and your refusal to comply with a court order, I sentence you to—”

Sasuke’s attention diverted, as his eyes caught glimpse of an insignia, written in the sky with gilded beams of light. Such fuckery, only the Omniverse could provide. Sasuke just shook his head, he’d never get use to this place.

“To the residents of the city of Nippur: I, Sinestro, represent the LAW. Your so-called king and those with whom he associates are now wanted for their actions against the peace and order of these lands, as well as the murder and exploitation of many others. And to those who would follow Gilgamesh? Join or die.” a voice boomed loud overhead.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re being attacked… Again?” Sasuke balked.

“Actions against the peace?” Shay snorted in contempt, “Humph.”

“Well, at least no lions were harmed in the making of this death threat.” Victor pointed out, causing an unexpected roar of laughter from Sasuke.

“Ahem.” the Uchiha cleared his throat before continuing, “Right, well, I guess we better attend to that.”

“What about him?” Erik, the newest member of New Babylon, questioned with a forefinger directed at Stephan Donnel.

Sasuke hesitated a moment, “We don’t have time for this, nor can we spare the man power to transport him to the dungeon…”

“Just let me take care of him. Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.” Victor stepped forward.

“Victor…” Sasuke began.

“No, I let that rat escape, hell I brought him along for that mission… This is all my fault. Let me right these wrongs.” Offered the assassin.

Sasuke felt he had a good idea of just how Victor intended to do so, but he hadn’t the time nor the energy to debate over it, “Alright, but be quick about it." He then turned to the others, "You two with me!”

And with that the shinobi became a blur of color, rocketing back towards Nippur with Erik and Shay in tow. As Victor watched the trio of primes take their leave, a devious expression overtook his visage.

The assassin plopped down on top of Stephan Donnel, straddled his waist, and introduced his open palm to the captain’s cheek, “Wake up! I want you awake for this!”

Stephan stirred, “Bastard kids… Need a good spankin’, I tell yuh’what…”

Victor introduced Stephan to his open palm a few more times, leaving hand prints all across the captain’s face, “Snap out of it! I don’t have all day!"

“GET YUR ASS OFF ME!!! YOU GIT!!! I’LL KILL YOU!!!” Stephan roared as steam billowed forth from just about every orifice the captain had, however, before he could make could good on his threats, Victor plunged a syringe into the captain’s neck and squeezed the plunger.

“If you see Violet down there, send my regards.” The assassin cooed as Donnel’s whole body thrashed violently, while a mixture of shock and anger overtook and painted his face. Suddenly, the captain’s body stilled and, with the lightest whimper, a poof of smoke enveloped his form. Once the smoke cleared, only black ashes remained.

[spoiler]

Victor used 1 Banishment Circle on Stephan Donnel.

[/spoiler]

[Sasuke Uchiha]

Sasuke Halted.

Erik looked to Shay for understanding. Why were they stopping?

“You two, go on ahead without me.”

“But, my lord hand, New Babylon is under attack!” Erik stammered.

Sasuke turned and faced the members of New Babylon, “Aye, as it is every day. The Dunes are a dangerous place and its inhabitants are constantly at war. When we wake tomorrow, we shall have another threat at our door step, but I have found the men and women under our banner resilient, and our king a pillar of strength!. We must answer any and all threats to our nation, and that includes enemies both near and far. You two offer the city your aid today, and I shall crush Baron Deathchew and end the threat of tomorrow.”

“When I return, I expect a full debriefing.” And with that the shinobi took off in a direction that led away from the beautiful city of Nippur.