Mini-Grand 5110 <Round 2: Chrome City>

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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Lady Jaska suddenly found herself in the middle of a busy street, unlike anything found in her world. Perhaps the place it most resembled was the metal cities of the dwarves. The buildings were at their foremost functional, as they certainly were not beautiful. This was a city that was built to be lived in, not one that had been built to be looked at. It suited her well.

The streets were filled with people, most of who were followed by a tame battlemonster of their own, as such Lady Jaska and Haskill, in theory at least, fitted right in. The one thing that might have been said was that Jaska looked out of place, and indeed she did; though it was more the bloodstained leather jerkin with its criss-crossing belts lined with knifes and daggers. She attracted more than a couple of nervous glances.

Lady Jaska frowned and glared down at her Warpion. It had undergone some changes since she last saw it. Haskill was bigger, and more ferocious. His chitin was now a pale shade of red. His tail was visibly different; it stood rigid in a diagonal position. Had he been captured by someone from a more technologically advanced world they would have recognised it as the barrel of an artillery gun on a miniature scale. Jaska spent a couple of moments scrutinising the battlemonster, her frown deepening.

“I don’t believe there would be much point admonishing you for your actions.” Lady Jaska said irritably. “I doubt you can even understand me. You might at least, since you were changing have saw fit to address the concerns about weight, speed and subtlety.” She paused and gazed off across the street. “Or changed yourself for a different monster entirely. Hmmm…” Her gaze quickly swept across the battlemonsters being led down the street by their owners.

“It would seem that the stealthy approach is out.” The assassin said. “Follow me if you can monster.” Lady Jaska strode out into the street, clearly expecting people to move out of her way. Someone else might have done this and stumbled through the throng bumping into everyone and their battlemonster. Jaska stepped through the crowd with ease. Though Haskill tried his valiant best to keep up he needed space and that was something that the people of Chrome City did not seem to want to give up.

A couple of minutes later Jaska went into a clothes shop and emerged in a plain outfit, her long red hair tied back into a ponytail, on her head she wore a baseball cap with the brim angled low. If you really examined her clothing you would notice the way that it seemed to bulge slightly at the beltline, as if concealing something, though you would not have time to do so. Jaska stepped into the crowd, and seemed to disappear, indistinguishable amongst the sea of faces.