[story] The Rabbit's Yarn, Into the rabbit's hole we go

A brightly burning campfire was surrounded by travellers cloaked in black. As the moon came through the clouds overhead the emptiness of the world around their grove of trees came into view. From this utter emptiness a rabbit walked in carrying a mallet over his shoulder. Stepping between those in the circle around the fire he sat on an old stump and grinned.

"This is a true tale, one where the fabric of the world can be played by those with enough imagination. A constantly changing world where the moon can laugh and a cat-bus full of smurfs will attack a comic shop. Where chesire cats and dormice are to be feared and demons are ruled by ancient Japanese warlords. Those who step in can change the world for the better or corrupt it to their own ends. It is a world that has been reset many times. These are the events that took place when I visited last to a city called megatokyo but in this world there are still many tales to continue. If you so desire you can leave this abyss and return once more to a world of fantasy. To a large city an ocean away from the one I came from."

As the rabbit spoke the person to his right smiled and vanished from around the campfire. The moment he had vanished he stepped off a train in the center of a sprawling city, a grin on his face and a cane in hand. He took his first step, and with a pulse of energy vanished from sight appearing a block down the road. A second later the train station erupted in a massive column of flames, "This city is definately to my liking."

But then his hair caught on fire, since he'd been dumb enough to stand too close to the train when it exploded.

One of the cloaked figures looked to his left and snapped "What'd you do that for? It was just getting good."

"Harrumph" He snapped his fingers, causing a thundercloud to build up over the trainstation, dumping out a torrent of rain, and the occasional frog.

As the rain began it was no match for the fire which seemed to consume the remaining shadows around the man on the street. He looked up to the sky with an overjoyed smile and spread his arms large black wings spreading behind him. "Welcome to 'Endsville' Hatsuharu." And with that Canti vanished in a well of flames as they died down, another from around the fire found themselves dragged into the world.

"Heh" the cloaked figure smirked, looking at the newly opened spot to his left. "Well, things are starting to get interesting again... let's give things a little jolt to help them along."

Eyeing the clouds above the trainstation, he snapped his fingers again, sending an arc of lightning rumbling down towards the new arrival.

Hatsu dodged aside and ducked into a cafe as the lightning bolt struck where he had been.

"Oh come on," he glared upwards, "it's called 'convection'! Don't you know anything about basic physics?" Hatsu sighed, then ordered some tea and a bacon cheeseburger from the catgirl waitress, who was looking at him like he was some kind of wierdo.

Arwael waved a hand dismissively, teleporting to the table below, opposite of Hatsu.

"As if I'd let something as trifling as physics get in the way. Besides, lightning isn't affected by convection, being an electrical discharge and all." He paused, signalling the waiter for a menu, "As for the storm, the fire provided all the warm air I needed. Just a matter of helping things along from there."

The catgirl waitress brings over a platter to the two, and opens the lid. Inside is not the bacon cheeseburger ordered but instead a small robotic squirrel.

"You two are really going to argue about physics in a world where I can exist? Shame on you."

Handing Hatsu his burger, and Arwael a pipe bomb the squirrel scampers off to the back of the store.

"Well... on one hand, it's not a menu," Arwael hefted the small bomb with one hand, " On the other, it is kind of entertaining. So... red wire or blue wire? Or maybe the green one?" He popped off a small hatch on the side, "Oddly complex for a pipe bomb, but eh, who am I to complain?"

"Why mess with the wires?Wouldn't it be better to take out the explosive material?" Hatsu called out from his new seat on the other side of the cafe. As a result, the cafe quickly emptied.

This post has been edited by HatsuharuZ on Feb 20 2012, 08:39 PM

Another of the shadows shifted into the world and landed in a chair upon the balcony across from the cafe. Within his hand he held a small trigger device and smiled as he clicked the safety shield up and down over the trigger. Finally, leaving it up he flipped the switch blowing up the pipe bomb and the cafe. "Hail to the king baby," Daemon smirked as the shadows vanished in the light of the exploding cafe. Now to get some more bubble gum and find Canti.

From under the burning wreckage of the cafe, a muffled voice rose out, "Ow. That stung." The voice paused briefly, as if considering something, "I'm going to have to have words with that Robo-Rat. This was one of my good suits."

A quiet grunt emanated from below, as a small slab of concrete shifted to the side. "Well, no use worrying about it now." Arwael sighed, dusting off the suit with one hand. He rose from the wreckage, "Heya, Hatsu, you alright?"

"I'm fine, but I didn't get to finish my cheeseburger" Hatsu's muffled voice said from a pile of rubble. He emerged shortly and dusted himself off. "Check, please!"

The roller blade wearing arctic kitsune skated out of the mist and slid to a stop in front of the blown out cafe. "Aw man! That's the third time this week. I was really in the mood for a cheeseburger, too." He then sniffed the air. "I smell bubblegum!" He sniffed again "and gelignite! Oh crap, Daemon is back!"

maldrul pulled his smartphone out of the hip pocket of his cargo pants and started to type a quick text message. He then looked up at Hatsu. "Did you see which way he went?"

"The squirrel? No idea." Hatsu rubs the fox's ears on instinct. "Fluffy..."

Climbing up the kitsune's leg to sit on his shoulder the squirrel peeped at the phone. "Hm? Oh I was in the back making sure all the girls made it out in time. These demolitions are pre-planned you know Mal, you just have the worst timing when you're hungry I guess."

Reaching down Cinky began messing with the phone screen. "Anyways who ya texting Mal, and what does this button do?"

"Ahem" Arwael stared at Cinky, "And what was the purpose of sending a pipe bomb to our table?"
"Honestly. That could've hurt somebody if everyone hadn't already run out of the place in a panic." He tsked at the Robo-Squirrel.

Continuing to push buttons, Cinky answered without looking up. "Oh that? Some weird guy gave me a ton of them for no reason. So I decided to make an event out of them, you know like demolition Tuesday, or something like that."

"Besides," turning to look at the annoyed man, "you survived just fine, so what's the problem?"

"Well, having a bomb explode in your face tends to offend. That, and this was a good suit. Now it's covered in concrete dust." Arwael listed off, "Also, that thing stung. A lot. Being buried under the building didn't help."

"And didn't your creator teach you not to accept gifts from strangers? I'd say parents, but I'm not sure if robotic squirrels have parents." he berated the Robo-Squirrel some more. "Anyways... any clue to what this guy looked like?"

maldrul's eyes rolled back as he accepted the ear rub, then quickly shook his head and waved off Hatsu. "yeah, yeah... fluffy." What is it about humans and their need to state the obvious?

"Nothing, cuz your mechanical fingers don't have the right biometrics. And I'm trying to send a message to a friend about a certain sociopath that likes to play with explosives." maldrul gave the robo-squirrel a sideways glance.

A normal squirrel (its really just a normal squirrel but it appeared in campfire 1 several times) wandered up to Maldrul's feet and dropped a cheap phone set to speaker mode at his feet. "I thought you would appreciate the fireworks to celebrate the reunion of some of us. Although my Rabbit friend will not be joining us the rest of us are free to roam around this city once more." Daemon's voice projected the smirk on his face even through the phone. "This phone and the six pipe bombs still in that area should detonate in approximately... now"

"Oh shi---" Arwael hit the deck, materializing a steel helmet on his head. The six simultanous explosions hurled chunks of concrete and rebar through the air, and the smaller blast from the phone pinged bits of plastic about.

A bit of of debris plonked off the side of the helmet as the blasts faded.
"I'm getting really, really, tired of those things!" he yelled, as the dust settled. "Honestly. I don't think there's going to be anything left of this suit by the end of the day..." he muttered sulkily, "Just glad I had the helmet nearby. Now, if can get the rest of the pack out from the rubble... unless that's been blown to bits too..."

"Dude, why are there so many explosions?!"

Another guy came up from under the debris, rubbing his head. "All right, it was one thing to randomly end up in some diner-like place, but the place I show up in gets blown up? What's going on?"

Once he got out, he saw a lot of familiar faces. "Um. Again, what's going on?"

Hatsu popped out of the rubble beside the poor, confused man, then patted him on the shoulder. "Well, I hear police sirens, so I think now is a good time to go clubbing."

Then, at the speed of a commerical break, the group found themselves at a rave in an exclusive club called the Cave of Black and Grey Morality.

Daemon walked toward a strangely remniscent club as he softly began to sing to himself a short tune. Stepping down the stairs he looks toward those dragged in from the coffee shop and then to the other side of the room where Canti is sitting back with a smile. "Small world isn't it?" and with that question he flung two pipe bombs, six times more powerful than the last, at the two groups. A wide grin spreading across his face, "Vho Way Rah."

Reacting instantly to the bomb approaching him Canti surrounded himself with his black wings as the area around him is suddenly engulfed in flames. The patrons of the club near him are instantly consumed by the flames and before the bomb can get too close it detonates from the heat.