mmdr | [EVENT] Welcome to the City!

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[EVENT] Welcome to the City!

The rift is rather quiet, lately. It has been for some time. Long-time members of the city know better though - that was only the calm before the mechanical storm. Soon enough, the rift rumbles again and a new wave of visitors begin to arrive all at once!

Some of these newcomers might notice a bright red metal device fit perfectly to their wrist. There is no apparent way to remove the device and any attempts to break it prove that it is nearly indestructible. More troubling is the ominous digital timer on the top of the device, slowly ticking down from 01:00:00. One hour.

What the new arrivals don't know is that in one hour, the devices will explode... Into confetti! The device is basically a timed Party Ball you wear on your wrist, complete with happy jingle and a teeny-tiny banner that says, "WERCOME TO HAPPY CITY, ARR OF GUEST!"

(Welcome to the DR! As with all events, this one is completely optional, but we thought we'd give you something fun to start with! The DR is now officially open to IC posts! We again ask that you please read the rules and familiarize yourself with the setting before posting! Have fun!)

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Zero put on his business face and looked Marino straight in the eyes. "As far as I know, someone or something brought us here. At first I thought it was just someone playing a prank on me or something, but there's probably more to it than that since according to you I'm missing a good chunk of memory.

"I don't know what's going on yet, but I think we're in deep. Whoever brought us here doesn't want us leaving, otherwise we'd be free to use our GPS and also teleport out of here if needed. Our best bet is to talk to a local or two and get some info, then hightail it out of the city limits before half an hour is up. If this is explosive, I don't want any innocents caught in the blast."

"Spoken like a true Hunter." The idea that this was an explosive wasn't exactly one Marino was wild about. Then again... it was hard to associate a ticking timer with anything but a time bomb, wasn't it? She spared a glance at the nice view their high-up vantage point provided -- this place was definitely very different from the packed, vertical efficiency of Giga City. The place seemed to sprawl out for quite some ways. As far as she could tell, they must have been somewhere close to the center of the city: no signs of an end to the urban jungle, from where Marino was standing. One direction's as good as another, then, she supposed.

"Sounds like the best plan we've got, given the situation, but I'm not sure we've got enough time on our hands. We might be quick, but we're gonna hafta seriously kick it into high gear if we wanna gather some recon and get out of here before our time's up." She rose up onto the balls of her feet, tensed and ready for motion. As serious as the situation was, she couldn't resist taking a second to curl a finger at Zero, beckoning him playfully. "Try to keep up," she told him, then took off, vaulting off the roof's edge.

Zero was used to that kind of layout for a city, as Abel City was a fairly large metropolis in its own right, not to mention the other major cities around the world that still existed, and still had the room to do so. They were only about a mile away from downtown, but if they kept to the rooftops and gunned it they should be able to make it past the suburbs in time.

He smirked at Marino's playful tease, then deftly followed after her. He used the wall-sliding technique to keep from making a mess of the sidewalk when he landed, glancing around at the other buildings at the locals.

"Hey," he called out to one old man on his side of the street, "What's the name of this city and which country I'm in? I just arrived here and my GPS system's on the fritz."

The balding human looked up and squinted, then grinned and replied joyfully, "Oh, a visitor! Wherever you're from, you're far away from home! This place is called Happy City, and you'd best get used to it! You're going to be here a while, boy." With that the old man stepped passed a bewildered Zero.

"Who the hell names a place Happy City?" he said to himself, glancing over at Marino.

"Maybe we're in the red light district," Marino offered. It did seem a little forcefully... Stepford-ish, especially in light of the old guy's ominous parting words. Gonna be here a while, huh...? Well, sounded like a slight improvement over the "gonna be here for maybe thirty minutes or so" alternative the bracelets seemed to be suggesting, at least.

"Well, whatever it's called, this still smells fishy to me. He didn't even bother asking where we were from before telling us we're far from it, for one thing. For another... is it just me, or did he not even recognize you?" Not taking notice of Marino? No big deal. All the better for her, really. But not recognizing a famous hero-type like Zero? That was a bit hard to chalk up to octogenarian forgetfulness.

She cast another look down at the band on her wrist, then shook her head. "We'll just have to sort it out on the run, alright? We haven't got time to waste standing around."

"Old people aren't bothered by much at their age," Zero answered. "At least, the ones that are happy with their lives. Even if he did recognize me, he probably wouldn't care."

He nodded to Marino's last statement and leapt atop a shorter building, then wall-jumped to the top of the next. As soon as his feet hit the ground he was dashing westward, away from downtown, at full speed.

It still seemed out of place to Marino, but she let it go: that was hardly the biggest issue they had on their hands, anyway. Things were much easier when she was on the move -- to be honest, some part of her was at least a little grateful that she'd run into someone as quick as Zero instead of, say, Massimo. It was nice to have somebody who didn't slow you down.

These little acrobatic stunts were what she was built for; even if it was disturbing to think just what outcome she might be racing toward, just the act of racing itself was a bit soothing. She kept pace with Zero, falling into that quick, easy run she could keep up forever.

"You know," she mused aloud, one rooftop giving way to the next in a dash-boosted leap, "I always had a feeling I'd go out with a bang. Never figured it would be quite like this, though."

"There's probably a chance we'll survive, considering how tiny this device is," Zero replied, glad Marino could easily keep up. She was very quick, and he wondered how well she fared in combat. Considering her weapon of choice, she probably also knew quite a few vital points and also how to bring a big enemy down quickly.

When they finally cleared the city, Zero rested away from the roads and neighborhoods. By that time they only had 3 minutes left on the timer, and he mentally braced himself for a whole lot of pain.

Marino's cooling system had kicked in by the end of their run, breath coming in light pants. Another look down at the band confirmed it: only a precious few minutes left. Not enough time to pull together some sort of last-minute miracle solution.

Well, however it turned out, at least she wouldn't be alone. A bit of a morbid comfort at best, admittedly, but silver linings always had been more Cinnamon's kind of thing. Marino tore her eyes away from the timer steadily ticking down. "Que sera, sera."

Ten seconds... five seconds... one second. Marino winced, steeling herself against... a whimsical spray of confetti? The device popped open harmlessly, complete with twee little greeting and cutesy jingle, and fell off her wrist without further ado. ...Oh. Well, then.

Zero pat Marino on the shoulder once, glancing at the timer only one more time before closing his eyes. When his own internal clock finished the countdown, no pain came. Hell, he didn't even feel heat, or see a bright flash or anything.

Instead, a spray of confetti burst from the device with a little jingle and badly accented greeting, and he noticed Marino's did the same at the exact same time.

Zero could only stare in open-mouthed shock and befuddlement as the device came off and plopped onto the grass.

After a moment, the only thing he had peace of mind to do was huff a little. Geez.

Marino, meanwhile, had settled for stunned silence. Seriously? That was it? That stupid thing had been an overglorified party popper all along?

Slowly, the barest little hints of a grin began to tug on her lips. It took her best efforts to keep from bursting out laughing right then and there -- the whole thing was just so absurd. It was hard to get too indignant about such a playground-level prank.

"I can't believe we actually fell for that! An S-Class Hunter and a master thief... and we got suckered, hook, line, and sinker."

It was ridiculous, to be suckered like that so thoroughly. Well, whoever made those things certainly had an interesting sense of humor.

In spite of himself, Zero cracked a lopsided grin and chuckled.

"Oh yeah," he agreed.

Well, if nothing else, Marino supposed, at least she got the chance to see Zero lightening up a little. There hadn't been much occasion for merriment back in Giga City, between Zero's original I ANGST ALONE mistrusting mentality and the looming threat of Supra Force Metal.

"That's one little problem out of the way, anyway, but our mystery prankster's not off the hook yet. So we're not about to explode... but we're still stuck here, aren't we?" She turned back toward the urban sprawl that they'd fled from mere minutes before, surveying the city with an expression hovering between thoughtful and mischievous. "Might not be so bad, though. New turf means plenty of treasure ripe for the taking."

A pause. "...Hypothetically speaking, of course," Marino added with a wink.

"Maybe I'll just make the most of this surprise vacation time. I'm sure a busy Hunter like you could use a few days off too, huh?"

Zero looked around the landscape as he listened to Marino speak. There wasn't much, but there were at least roads and highways going in and out of the city. Perhaps there were other towns nearby, maybe some ranches and farms. There had to be some kind of agricultural support for a city as large as Happy City (god, he'll never get used to that name).

"Uh-huh," Zero said with a teasing smile at the hypothetical treasure swiping, "Try not to get in trouble with the law." He turned back to her and the metropolis and added, "I might, but I'd feel better if I knew everyone else I know and care about is safe. In the meantime, I'll try to get to know this place as much as I can so I can find a way out."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Marino replied, in the all-too-casual sort of tone that was just a little bit too innocent. Couldn't be in trouble with the law if you didn't get spotted, of course, though that might not have necessarily been what Zero'd meant.

"Well, if you're set on it, then I won't get in the way of your work. How about trading communicator frequencies? I'll let you know if anything useful makes its way to me."

"Sure thing. My frequency is 76.9, channel 3," Zero replied, making ready to add a bookmark to his list of friendlies for his comm. All Marino had to do was recite hers in return. "I'll be sure to do the same for you."

Her equipment, admittedly, was civillian quality -- nowhere near as fancy as Hunter tech. Still, it'd do the job just fine. No need to worry about range or signal clarity if they were going to be stuck within the same city. She may not have any of the perks that came with working for the suits, but it was more than enough to get by on her own.

"Same channel, 149.3. Lucky you. Barely even here for an hour, and you've already got a lady's number."

A lady that he'd already met, at least from her point of view, but it was hard to resist the temptation to tease. She began walking back toward the city, raising a hand in farewell. "Don't be a stranger, Zero. Unless you've got a warrant."

Zero input the frequency and channel, smirking just a little at Marino's tease.

"Yeah, seems to work out that way a lot. Take care of yourself, Marino."

He returned the wave, then dashed back to the city. Time to see what was what around the place.

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[EVENT] Welcome to the City!

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