VRDET Op: The Marraketh Connection
Seg #7: "Roughing It"
By: Nexxus Kline
==================================

	The street was alive with the sound of vendors hawking 
their wares, revelers and traffic of every sort imaginable. Nexx, 
Shadur and Phoenix dodged their way through the hustle and bustle 
towards the south gate of the city, keeping a eye out for pick-
pockets along the way.

	Once at the gate, Nexx shouted loudly to get the guards 
attention. The guard, appearing slightly annoyed, waved an 
entrant through before turning around. Nexx immediately bombarded 
him with a quick series of questions. "Have you seen my friends? 
Two of them," she said, holding up two fingers. "A male, human, 
about this tall." more waving of her arms. "Another male, human, 
about this tall. Or maybe a female was one of them?" The guard 
blinked and gave her a blank look. Peeved, Nexx went through the 
whole line of questioning again, this time in level 3 and at the 
top of her lungs. "Stupid idiot guards." she muttered under her 
breath as the guard shook his head to indicate he hadn't seen 
them and turned back to his duties. "No luck." she informed Shad 
and Phoenix. "Guess we should head back to the hotel for some 
quick food and then begin our searching." The disappointed group 
turned, headed back in the direction of the hotel.
	They had gotten no more than half a block away when their 
collective silence was broken by a loud commotion and someone 
running up behind them. "Nexxus?!" Hearing a distinct earth 
dialect, she swung around, shocked to find a rather scruffy, out 
of breath, and slightly more than nervous looking Selvane. He 
glanced over his shoulder quickly. "Could you get me out of 
here?"
	"What?!" Nexx exclaimed and looked in the direction 
Selvane had come from. "Dammit! Not again!!" she whined to 
herself, frowning at Selvane. "Put your hands over your head and 
don't move." she ordered.
	This was obviously not the answer he was expecting as he 
went slack jawed, "What?"
	"Stand still!" she ordered, a little more than annoyed. 
"Unless you'd like to be shot. I can't do anything for you until 
you've been taken into custody so you'll just have to play the 
good little prisoner until they haul you to the keaetoonk."
	Selvane, looking a bit disappointed still, sighed in 
resignation. "Aris is back at the gate." he informed them before 
turning around to face a rather large and disgruntled looking 
unit of guards behind him.
	After answering a few standard questions for a guards 
report on the whole incident, and making a quick call to an old 
friend, Nexx turned to Shad and Phoenix, "Lets go claim Aris 
before she lands herself in the keaetoonk too."
	"First Shad, now Selvane..." Phoenix was interrupted by 
Shad's elbow prodding him roughly in the ribs. "Ow."
	Nexx snickered, "Come on." and began walking towards the 
gate again. By the time they had made their way towards the gate, 
Aris had gotten herself into Chi-Lin, *the legal way*. She was 
haggling with a silk vendor. Nexx watched the last half of the 
purchase, "You were cheated." she told Aris, turning back to the 
table. After much yelling and threatening, Aris walked away about 
$10 richer. Nexx snickered, her hand over her mouth, as the two 
walked towards Shad and Phoenix, who had gotten distracted by a 
Muide vendor. "What?" Aris asked.
	"Oh, nothing," she said, "except that you probably just 
got the best deal on silk in the whole city. I didn't see the 
amount on the last bill you were handing over, and thought it was 
another twenty..." Aris laughed with her when she heard this.
	"What happened to Selvane?" she asked as Shad and Phoe 
joined them.
	"Shut up in kaetoonk for assaulting a city guard," she 
said. "I'm waiting for notice of the custody transfer." Aris 
nodded and remained silent the rest of the way to the hotel, as 
did everyone else.

	After showing Aris a room and ordering up some food for 
her, Nexx excused herself to the balcony. She was expecting a 
messenger with news about Selvane. Said "messenger" turned out 
to be a boy, about 13 years old, with long, stringy, blue hair 
and dark glasses. He teleported in standing on the ledge of the 
balcony. "You Nexxus?" he asked, looking her over suspiciously.
	"You got my data clip?" she ignored his question. "Give 
it here." she ordered, pulling a card out of her pocket and 
tossing it at him. "And get lost, I don't need any attention 
directed my way."
	He grabbed for the card, tossing a small clip in her 
direction as he did so. "How much is on here?"
	"Around 10.00,000 CLc's, more than standard fee, now get 
lost." she motioned for him to go away.
	"Tas netrekk!" he exclaimed, leaning backward on the 
ledge till he began to fall and then blinking out completely.
	"Damn messengers." Nexx muttered before taking the clip 
inside and loading it into her laptop. "8pm, Booking." was the 
only thing the data clip contained. Nexx looked at the time. 
"Five minutes. I'd better hurry." she said to herself before 
grabbing her backpack and shouting to the hotel suite, "I'm going 
out. Be back in a little while."
	She didn't wait for a reply, instead she teleported out 
and onto the street a couple of doors down from the kaetoonk. 
This particular stretch of street was virtually deserted, to be 
expected considering the amount of armed security types. Taking 
a deep breath, Nexx walked herself in through the front door, 
past the front desk, and down the long, dark corridor which led 
to Booking.  She had made it just in time, Selvane was already 
being shuffled in for release. She stepped back into a dark 
corner as he was swiftly moved up to the desk, handed an ID, 
immunized, and returned his possessions. "He is now in your 
custody." the desk clerk addressed her. She stepped out of the 
dark.
	Not wanting to linger any longer than necessary in the 
kaetoonk, Nexx rushed Selvane out and onto the street as quickly 
as possible, ignoring a barrage of questions. He remained quiet 
until they'd gotten out the door and onto the next block before 
demanding, "How?"
	Nexx stopped and gave him a look before smiling and 
replying, "I have a friend in Chi-Lin Justice." grabbing his 
hand, she continued, "C'mon, let's go get the others." and with 
that, she began dragging him through the crowded streets towards 
the hotel.
	Not much later, they arrived and Nexx led Selvane into 
the lift and then out of it when they had reached the top level. 
She pulled him out of the elevator and opened the doors to the 
suite. He was busy inspecting the decor so she motioned for him 
to follow before stepping into the room. She was greeted with 
shouts of, "Nexx!", "Firefoots Feth'ra! Move, will ya?!", and 
"Hey, watch it!"  Nexx jumped back and looked, on the wall three 
figures did battle, swerving back and forth, blocking each others 
blows. Aris, Shadur and Phoenix were all reclined and sprawled on 
the furniture with controllers in their hand.
	"A video game?" Selvane asked.
	"Enough Mortal Kombat for now, guys," Nexx yelled over 
the thumping soundtrack. This was met with minor protesting and 
pouty noises but the screen went black and clicked off just the 
same.
	"Selvane Vladiva," she gestured toward the couch, 
"Shadur, Phoenix," Nexx introduced, "Shad, Phoe; Mr. Vegetable," 
the 3 on the couch found this to be quite funny, recalling the 
people at the gate throwing vegetables at Selvane when he was 
captured, and they all laughed.  Selvane chuckled too, in spite 
of himself.
	Aris, throwing a pillow at Selvane, pouted "That's for 
making me wait half an hour in the cold by myself."
	"All right you two, we'll talk about it over dinner and 
drinks. On me," Nexxus interjected.
        Shadur, never one to turn down dinner, jumped up saying, 
"Well, if it's an order..." and walked to the elevator, his ever-
present jacket leaping off its peg on the rack of its own accord 
and floating onto his shoulders.

	Nexx took them all to one of her old hangouts, a two-
story job that looked a bit like an earth sports arena. Street 
level was an extremely busy night-club while the upstairs was 
more relaxed, with booths and tables. The club was especially 
packed, as was the upstairs. Nexx managed to claim the group a 
quiet corner booth just the same, and it was here, over glasses 
and mugs, that they reminisced the last two days events.
        "And *THEN* he punched the guard out, right in front of
everybody!" said Aris, finishing her part of the days events. 
Selvane chuckled, as did everyone else.
        "*THEN* the locals started to pelt him with produce." 
Nexx added, before downing the last of her drykkur, but her mind 
was thinking about Kat, wondering if she should be feeling guilty 
having so much fun when her closest friend was missing.
        "No." Shad corrected. "After he comes up and asked for 
help, then gives you this blank look when you say to stay still." 
Phoenix laughed loudly, and the others joined in.
	Nexxus shrugged and attracted the attention of the waiter 
by standing up on her seat and shouting loudly. "Another drykkur 
over here!"
	The waiter, unphased by Nexx's behavior, approached. 
"Another round for everyone? Your food will be right up!" he said 
in an unnaturally cheery voice. He soon returned with another pint 
of drykkur for Nexx, and other drinks.
        Selvane addressed the table from behind his third 
tankard of Delao rum,
	"What did you three do while we were gone?"
        "We sort of winged it," Shad chuckled, and explained 
their harrowing flight. There was more laughter as the trio 
remembered, and the duo imagined.
        Without any warning what so ever, there was a slight 
buzzing noise, and the lights dimmed momentarily.  The music that 
was going full blast on the floor below suddenly ground to a 
halt.  The group looked around, mildly surprised.
        "A brown out?" Phoenix mused.
        A voice came over the PA, as if to answer his question, 
announcing that a power surge from the blenders had fried the 
kitchen. "Yer food orders are gone. No more munchies for tonight, 
sorry. But hey, free round for everyone, on us!" the voice 
sounded entirely too happy. A cheer went up from the dance floor 
at this announcement and any anger that may have been, soon 
dissipated as the music started up again and people went to claim 
their free drinks.
        "It's ok," Nexx shrugged, "We'll just get some food back 
at the hotel room." she stood up and the group followed suit as 
she started for the stairs, "Hey, you guys wanna hit the dance 
floor for a bit before we leave?" this suggestion seemed to go 
over well with Aris and Shad.
        "It's been a while, but what the hell?" Shad answered. 
Nexx and Shad hurried down the steps. Aris didn't follow right 
away but caught up with them at the bottom of the steps.
	Needless to say, nobody had any trouble falling.