Mani hated the fact that he just caused the biggest bar brawl he personally had ever witnessed. He felt bad, but not bad enough for him to go back down there. Things would have been a lot less messy had he just killed them. But then again, if he had killed them, then there wasn't much of a chance for him to find out why they had attacked him. The triclops was probably too drunk to really be a legitimate threat ("Especially considering how that blonde guy could fight," Mani thought)- with them still alive, there was a chance that he could still get some answers. On the flip side, however, with them still alive, then there was a chance that they could attack him again...

He stood perched on the roof of a building across the street from the bar, watching. The sounds of breaking glass and drunken shouts echoed throughout the streets of Brightsand. An occasional patron would be thrown into the street every once in a while, and most of the time he would run back in, swearing loudly. Soon after, someone else would be thrown out (presumably whoever threw out the previous individual). The cycle continued for a while, at least until a number of uniformed guards showed up to break things up. Mani had seen enough by then, and slowly turned away. He would have to take to the rooftops in order to get back to the inn- there was just too much of a risk staying on the ground. As he prepared to leave the area, Mani caught sight of a figure. That in itself wasn't all that odd, but the fact that the individual was also standing on a rooftop struck him as being a little more than a coincidence. Several buildings away was the silhouette of what appeared to be a man, a katana at his side. He couldn't make out details, but could see that the man did have short, dark hair and was dressed in solid black. The two stared at each other for several tense moments before the figure slowly brought his hand up to his chest, bowed slightly, then backflipped off of the rooftop.

<No freaking way...>

Mani began leaping across the rooftop towards where the man had suddenly disappeared, looking down into the streets below when he got there.

Nothing. It didn't look like anyone had even hit the ground, the sand was so perfect.

"No freaking way..."

There were strange forces at work in Brightsand, forces who apparently knew more about Mani than he knew about them. It was a very disturbing feeling, to say the very least.

He was finally able to return to the inn about an hour later, despite the fact that it was only ten minutes away. Mani had spent the rest of that hour on the rooftops and combing the area to make sure that he had not been followed. He was a paranoid sort of person, but found that he lived longer that way. As he approached the room that he and Eric were sharing at the inn, thoughts of sleep began to creep into his mind. Running from rooftop to rooftop and three-on-one brawls would wear out the hardiest of individuals. Upon reaching the room, Mani slowly turned the doorknob...

...and saw a half-naked Shari sleeping soundly in his bed.

"Odd," Mani found himself saying to no one in particular. He turned around to leave the room, but was nearly run down by Eric, who was wearing only a pair of pants. Mani looked at Eric, then to Shari, back to Eric, back to Shari, then back to Eric.

"An eventful evening?," he casually wondered.

Eric led Mani back into the room. "Hold on, let me explain...," he began.

Mani put up his hand. "I don't no whether to say 'You go boy', or to be upset because whatever went on here took place in my bed..."

"Someone attacked us last night," Eric quickly explained, taking care to keep his voice down. "Shari and I were walking around town when some elf chick and a couple of thugs started bothering us- she was too scared to go back home, so I let her stay here..."

Mani raised a brow. "You got attacked too?"

Eric nodded. "Something's going on here, Mani... I'm getting a little worried..."

There was a knock at the door, and before anyone could say anything, the door opened and Corina began to make her way inside. "Busy night out on the town, eh Mani?," she teased, a wide grin consuming her face. She then noticed that there was a third person in the room, a half-dressed red-head sleeping in the one of the beds. Cori looked at the girl, then Eric, then Mani. She blinked.

"Something tells me that I probably shouldn't ask..."

Mani shot Eric a quick glance. "YOU explain," he said.

Early the next morning (and after a quick change), Mani was back on the streets of Brightsand. Or, more specifically, the rooftops high above the streets of Brightsand.

He sat hunched over slightly, staring at the busy streets below him. Truthfully, he didn't even know what he was looking for- he was just trying to avoid a conflict at that time. Fighting at night was one thing, but in broad daylight... there would be too many witnesses. Besides, if he ran into those jackasses again, he was certain that they'd be a little upset about being the centers of a massive bar brawl... Mani caught himself humming the theme from 'Spiderman' as he sat on the rooftop. With catlike grace, he stood to his feet and leapt over to the next building, not making a sound as he landed. This continued for several more buildings, up until he arrived in what he referred to as The Guild District. This was where most of the guildhouses were located in Brightsand, or at least the most prominent of them all. Mani paused for a moment, taking the time to assume the hunched position he had taken to since his rooftop trek began.

It was fortunate that he did, for if was still standing when that Guildhouse in the distance exploded, the blast surely would have blown him off the rooftop.

Chaos erupted in the streets below as human and Mystic alike began screaming and running. Mani also ran, but unlike those in the streets below, he ran _towards_ the explosion.

<This keeps getting weirder and weirder...>

From the rooftop, he could see three figures bolting down the street, the two black-clad men in the rear most likely chasing the tall red-haired man up front. He was torn between going after them, but after seeing six of the black clad men attacking a lone blue-skinned imp woman, he immediately made his decision.

"Six on one, you guys have really got this fairness thing down!," Mani shouted as he leapt down into the midst of the group, katana drawn. The imp quickly regarded him with her pink, expressionless eyes, but soon was back to defending herself as two of the strange men turned and attacked Mani. In three swift motions (two to slash, and one to resheath the weapon), the men found their numbers down by two. Several of the others stared in shock.

"Boo," Mani hissed, glaring harshly.

"Cripes!" one of the men declared as he and several of the others turned and hastily ran (or limped) away from the area. Mani quickly turned to help the imp deal with the remaining two men, but soon found that this was no damsel in distress he was dealing with- she had cut the remaining two men down. There was one man left, a man with a crossbow, watching the entire engagement. With a quick motion, he fired a bolt.

With catlike reflexes, the imp deflected the bolt with her sword.

Mani placed his hand on the hilt of his katana, approaching the side of the imp. She turned towards him, and in a very harsh voice, declared "Stay back." Not wanting to make her even angrier, Mani chose to oblige.

"You're fast, imp," the final man declared. "But you're bound to run out of lives sometime."

"Not before you run out of bolts," the imp responded, her voice calm despite the situation. "You've fired five; that leaves three more." It was at that moment where Mani noticed that the imp did indeed have a bolt protruding from her forearm- it looked like one of those five had hit her earlier. For someone to continue to fight with a bolt in their arm meant an awful lot- he was more than a little impressed (not to mention slightly unnerved...).

"More than enough," the man hissed. He fired again.

In a quick sweeping motion, the imp deflected the bolt with her sword.

"One," the imp snarled. The man fired again, but this time the imp wasn't fast enough. This time, the bolt caught her in the shoulder. The imp staggered slightly, but amazingly stood her ground. "Two!," she growled through clenched teeth.

Now this was getting out of hand. Mani began to think- what would he rather deal with, an alive (and possibly pissed off) imp woman, or an alive and well nutcase...

"Die, bitch!," the man shouted, aiming his crossbow for his final shot. But alas, it was a shot that never got out, for the string of his crossbow was suddenly severed by a shuriken from Mani's hands. Once he realized his weapon was useless, seeing the look on the man's face was pretty humorous.

Humor aside, Mani had to admit he felt a little sorry for him as the imp woman suddenly cut his crossbow carrying hand off, slashed his knee, then pinned him to the ground by his shoulder.

<Ouch...>

It seemed that the two were having a moment of sorts, so Mani decided that it would be best if he didn't listen to everything that was being said between the two. That became increasingly difficult as he heard the man screaming in agony. Mani risked a glance over his shoulder, seeing the imp twisting the sword slowly.

<Ouch...>

That continued for some time, but soon he heard the man shouting something that sounded pretty insane. Perhaps he had been driven mad by pain, it wouldn't have surprised him. "And you're dead. All of you. Dead." There was some maddening laughter, but that soon stopped as the imp removed the sword and plunged it into what looked like the man's head from the angle Mani was at. <Ouch...>

The imp calmly stood to her feet, pausing for a moment to clean her blade on the dead man's cloak. She slowly turned to regard Mani. "Who are you?," she calmly asked, staggering slightly.

"I'm Mani," he introduced. "Are you all right, Miss?"

"No..." The imp then collapsed to the ground, weak from blood loss. Mani immediately ran over to check for a pulse. She still had one, albeit a weak one despite all of the fighting she had just done. Mani then turned around as he heard a large group of people approaching the scene of the explosion- it would seem that the city's authorities were on the way. He looked about the area- there were several dead bodies, a dying imp, a recently exploded guildhouse, and to top it off, a bloody katana at his side. Mani sighed deeply as he scooped the woman up in his arms.

"Wrong freaking place..." He disappeared into a nearby alley. "...wrong freaking time..." By the time the authorities had arrived, there was no sign that the two had even been there. However, if anyone had bothered to look up, perhaps they would have noticed a man dressed in black with an unconscious imp slung over his shoulder making his way across the rooftops of the city.

Tina suddenly screamed, more as a reflex than out of genuine fear. Mani had suddenly popped into her and Corina's room with a bleeding imp woman over his shoulder- sights such as that tended to unnerve most sane people. Cori stared at the two, a look of shock etched across her delicate face.

"What the hell...?"

"I'll explain later," Mani quickly remarked, laying the imp onto the bed. "But in the meantime, you've got to heal her..."

Cori shook her head. "You've got to get those bolts out of her first..." Mani nodded as he slowly reached down to the one in her shoulder, silently being thankful for her being unconscious. He hadn't known the woman for very long, but he was sure he would have gotten an earful (and possibly a broken bone or two...) had she been conscious. With a quick jerk, he removed the first. The imp stirred slightly, but stayed knocked out. Mani was halfway through getting the second bolt from her forearm out when Eric suddenly made his way into the room. He was by himself, so Mani assumed that he had already taken Shari back home.

"I heard someone scream, I was wondering..." He suddenly paused as he beheld the sight of the imp on the bed. His complexion paled slightly as he pointed down, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Yes Eric, we're well aware of the fact that there's an unconscious blue-skinned imp on the bed, thanks for asking," Cori quickly remarked, turning her attention back to the task at hand. By then, Mani had removed both of the bolts from her body. Cori began to concentrate, and was soon surrounded by an aura of blue, which soon began to surround the imp. Her wounds began to close and some color began to return to her paling complexion. Mani noticed that Cori was having a much easier time casting the Cure spell that he had seen on earlier occasion- that Bodystone must have amplified her skills somewhat.

"She'll be fine, she just needs a little rest," Cori informed Mani. "Now, care to explain what's going on?"

Mani began a hasty explanation of what had taken place, from the explosion, to the fight, to their escape back to the inn. Upon completing his tale, Cori slowly shook her head. "You know, when we heard that explosion, we figured that you'd be in the area..."

"Hey, at least I didn't cause it." Mani turned towards the window, taking a moment to examine the streets. "I'm going back out there, I've got to find out what's going on..."

"Not alone you're not," Cori made known, standing to her feet. "Every time you go out by yourself, you either get into a fight or a building blows up. I'm coming with you this time."

"Yes mother," Mani teased. He then turned towards Tina and Eric. "Take care of her," he requested, motioning towards the imp, sleeping soundly in the bed. "Oh, and try not to make her mad..."

"Will do," Eric answered, taking a seat beside the bed. Tina nodded and also sat down, some distance from Eric. Mani and Cori were about to go back out into the streets, but Mani suddenly paused. He went back over to the sleeping imp, took her silver sword, and placed it a good distance away from her, on the other side of the room. "Better safe than sorry," he casually remarked as he and Cori made their way back out to the streets of Brightsand.