"Yes, Daniel. This is my oldest brother, Komodo..."

Danyr, on speaking his brother's name, seemed to grab his bow almost out of habit. He didn't have it drawn back yet, and wasn't threatening in a single instant, but it was at least closer... The problem was, Komodo was inscrutable if you didn't know the exact situation. His lack of emotions meant he was always working precisely according to an unknown plan...

Komodo seemed content to let Daniel process that information for a few seconds before speaking. He hadn't made an aggressive move yet, but Danyr's tone and actions made it clear that he didn't consider Komodo any sort of ally, despite the blood connection.

"I'm here with an offer from my employer. There is... Sensitive research going on here. He believes you capable of disrupting this, and wishes you to go away peacefully."

The research Komodo spoke of was apparently ramped up since before. The sheer amount of shade-people existing here had apparently multiplied by quite a few times...

Brother? Well, that was a surprise. Daniel showed it there for a moment. Though, his expression changed shortly thereafter, around the time that he made the connection that Danyr didn't seem at all fond of his brother. And then the statement about sensitive research came into play, prompting Daniel to vaguely remember the insides of the tower he and Zera were in, and a little bit of what the man inside said about it.

Of what he remembered about it, Daniel Kerington did not approve.

"Sensitive research . . ." Daniel trailed off.

Sensitive research my arse. He was about ready to proclaim this as some sort of mild mannered battle cry, echoed right before he delivered a concussive blow--but then he stopped. For once, he thought ahead. If Danyr could've seen the gears grinding in Daniel's head, he might've been proud of him.

"Sure. Foine. We'll leave, but under one condition."

Daniel had a massive list of approached he could take right now. He'd been amounting them over time--really just methods of approaching an interrogation, but they were useful in bargaining situations, too. And others. One such was to try and act cool. Another was to be deliberately intimidating. Another was to attempt a good-guard bad-guard routine alongside Danyr. But those all would've been way too awesome to waste on this guy. He seemed way too stoic to be affected by them, after all. So, he went with old faithful:

Determination.

"We're here for a friend. Your sister," Daniel announced quietly, "Bring her to us unharmed, and we'll turn this wrecking party around roight now."

He was tempted to add a "what do you say?" or some other means of friendly negotiation at the end of that, but recalled in mid-sentence that this wasn't a time for friendliness. Though it was very tempting. Daniel wasn't a mean spirited guy. He could be nice to a bad person with relative ease; it just came natural to him. The difference here was that Zera's life was either in question or in danger. His willingness to beat the snot out of someone and ask questions later was significantly higher under these circumstances.

"That is acceptable. Though I will need one of you to return to Utopia first. Then the other can leave with Zera."

Danyr frowned at this response. It was too easy. Komodo didn't lie often, and that was the problem. What was so important that he was just going to give them back Zera to go away? That wasn't like him at all, or whoever he was working for. Speaking of which, that was its own problem...

"Wait a minute. Your research? Is that what's turning all these people into the creatures they are? How can you expect us to just leave you to do that!? How many people are dead already? And we let this go on if you let Zera go?"

Komodo seemed unfazed by Danyr's outburst, unsurprisingly.

"That is the offer."

Danyr looked to Daniel for a bit of guidance. He didn't want to drag Daniel into something he wasn't ready for, but... It really didn't seem right. In fact, judging by the number of people, Daniel's entire hometown could well be enveloped by this point, in whatever they were doing...

Crap. That's exactly what he was hoping Danyr would not do. That could potentially ruin what he had in mind. Yes, he was thinking of that. Yes, he had every intention of addressing that in the future--but it was just a matter of taking care of what he could right here and now, first and foremost. Get the living people that mattered the hell out of this place, then worry about the future.

How to keep the opportunity alive, though? Daniel was ultimately thinking of everyone but himself. As far as he was concerned, he was mostly expendable, and willing to take these risks. And he was okay with that. It was just a matter of setting up the chance to do it . . .

So, Daniel went out on a limb.

"Any chance we can't 'ave a minute to talk between ourselves?" Daniel asked. He didn't think he'd be given that chance, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

Komodo turned to face Daniel for a moment, his expression unchanged as usual, then nodded. He walked away between two boulders, Danyr watching him carefully.

"Two minutes."

With that, Komodo would move around a boulder, obscuring him from view. There was no real reason to think he was lying, really. Or being truthful, for that matter. But he was out of sight if nothing else... Danyr would move closer, speaking in a rough whisper.

"You can't make deals with my brother if you're hiding anything. It would be easier to attack him than to try to trick him. We wouldn't even see Zera until one of us was gone entirely from the area... And then, I wouldn't put it past him to kill the person left behind..."

Danyr didn't know who his brother might be working for, though. That was something of a wild card. But, if Komodo was here, that meant everything was planned down to every degree it could be... And slanted in his brother's favor. Komodo was much better at that than anyone else in the family...

Once Komodo was gone--but not quite that far away--Daniel felt a little more at ease trying to talk Danyr into going with the idea he had.

"Danyr, c'mon," Daniel whispered as quietly as possible, trying to convince him to his idea. "Look, oI can get you and Zera outta here safe loike this. Nothing to hoide at all. We'd be doing just loike the man said: you'd go home, oI'd secure Zera, and then oI'd be sending Zera to you. That's all he's gone over, roight? He didn't say anything at all about whot's next."

As if trying to act in an indicating way, Daniel opened his right hand. He flicked the coin into the air, high into the air. It released a hollow whir as it descended, only to be caught by Daniel, who turned his attention back to Danyr with a confident grin upon his lips.

And Daniel said nothing at all about going back to Xexoria with Zera . . .

"And all the people...? Oh."

Danyr quickly realized the other half of Daniel's plan; as much as Daniel might have hoped, he was not a master of manipulation. Nor anything but straightforward, for the most part. And here... Well, he put too much faith in his own abilities, for Danyr's liking. Not because Daniel couldn't do some impressive things, but because he was going to get himself killed...

"Here's the other thing you've got to realize. This could all be a trap in the first place. Any plan Komodo offers is secure exactly as long as he wants it to be. If it's ever more convenient to kill us than to send us away, he would do that in a moment. Even with me being his brother...."

Danyr suspected that Komodo was simply trying to split them up, in the first place. Or if nothing else, get the two of them into a position that was more favorable to them failing...

"Only way back to our world is in the tower," Daniel affirmed.

That's where they were when Zera sent him back. Daniel would be able to send Danyr away--then, upon meeting Zera, he'd be able to send Zera to their world, too. And then, after it all, he could stand near the transporter, deliver a pretty grand one liner, and proceed to jump the crusader business: rush, take out as much as humanly possible, and destroy any chances of these people starting up this whole terrible research project ever again.

He had it all planned out so far. And it just made so much sense. They wouldn't even have to break into one of the towers; going there under escort would probably be part of the peaceful solution.

"oI mean, the other option is we kick his arse now and ask questions later," Daniel added for the sake of a doable alternative. That tactic had worked brilliantly so far.

Actually, they hadn't gone wrong with that tactic yet to this day.

"I'm not willing to go, Daniel. I have a better chance of sorting this out than you do, if one of us has to leave..."

Daniel was similarly likely to be unwilling to travel back to Utopia alone and wait for Danyr. Not at such a late stage. Months of traveling through some of the most hostile areas in the world, just to be at the effective mercies of an unfeeling monster like his older brother? That was no good...

"We'll have to move quick if we attack him. He's a hell of a martial artist, and that weapon is just as deadly..."

As Danyr finished speaking, the sound of two boots approaching would be heard, as Komodo walked back around the boulder he had recently left behind. He seemed unfazed, and likely didn't hear what they had said, as promised...

"Two minutes are over. Your decision, please."

Komodo faced Daniel, as Danyr slowly slipped towards his brother's back. He still had his bow in hand, but he looked to Daniel for the initiative. He was going to follow his lead, it seemed...

No, Daniel wasn't going to go, either. That was just out of the question. He was expendable; Danyr and Zera were not. They had things to go back to. They had a home, family, friends--they'd everything going for them, and every right to return to that. Daniel's only want was to give them that chance. Daniel, on the other hand, hadn't a thing to return to. He couldn't recall a family, friends, or anything like that. His memories began with meeting Zera. The only friends he could claim were her and her younger brother. For them, he was more than willing to make a sacrifice.

Before he had a chance to say anything more, though, Komodo was back. Daniel tensed up and kept his back turned for a moment, trying to think quickly--trying to figure out how to approach this on the fly. He could have still gone with his original idea. He'd be betraying his friend in the process, but for his safety, was it worth it?

Daniel shut his eyes tightly and tensed up in frustration.

"Oh, 'ell with it," he groaned.

Without a moment's hesitation, Daniel spun around to face Komodo, his right hand swiped out in that very instant, releasing the coin in his grasp and sending it out for the man's shoulder. Daniel was a pretty good throw, and the coin was extremely lightweight--and they weren't too far from each other, really. For Daniel, it wasn't a tough thing to land. Especially without any warning. As soon as the coin was out of his hand, he drew in his fingers, ready to snap his fingers at a moment's notice--at one very specific moment.

If he could land it, he could end this in one fell swoop . . .

Komodo, it seemed, was waiting for just such an occasion. As soon as Daniel spoke, his hand was traveling towards his hip. When there was no fear, no anticipation, no emotional reaction... It was easy to react quickly and reasonably to most things. And it gave Komodo an edge in situations such as these...

Komodo's left arm would move up in front of his shoulder as he began to move to the right, his fist clenched and the back of his forearm blocking the coin from striking his shoulder, whatever Daniel had intended. At the same time, however, he was already drawing the pistol from his hip, the barrel soon to be directed at Daniel's chest and fired, obviously intending to kill...

Danyr, only reaching Komodo's left side before Daniel struck, would quickly begin to draw an arrow to fire, but he was just a bit slower than the initial two reactions... It would take a greater fraction of a second to draw and fire...

Komodo, however, wouldn't quite have the opportunity to draw his gun. It didn't quite matter where the coin struck him. Daniel most preferred a non-lethal spot, some place where he could just wound him enough that he'd no longer pose a threat to them and perhaps go along with the coming interrogation quietly and informatively, and that fortunately was what he'd likely get out of this situation. Daniel had no intentions of killing anyone here. He'd all the hope in the world for mankind, and all the belief that bad people could change.

There was never a need for slaughter.

But Daniel himself wasn't privy to letting himself get slaughtered, either. If it was truly a matter of kill or be killed, then so be it. With Komodo, it hadn't reached that point yet.

It was the moment that the coin smacked against Komodo's wrist that the battle might be cut short--or at the very least Komodo's arm. Daniel, watching for the moment that the coin struck something upon his person, snapped his finger at the very instant.

The flash of light was almost instantaneous--but ever so brief. It took only a moment's time, less than a second, before the humming began. Released at once was the blade, unique like all others before it. Its figure was of a sword: a blade with a vague curve at its center that progress to a point at almost three feet long, where it wasn't so much a point at all, but the sudden outcrop of a short, curved sickle, curling in on itself in the fashion of a spiral's commencement. Its was the figure of a dark F-Clef turned to a hilt borne weapon, a hilt surrounded by a thin chakram-turned-hand-guard.

Depending on the angle in which the coin struck Komodo, he'd either the blade jabbed into his arm, stabbed through and through to the chakram hilt, or the blade upon the ground and little more than a bloody stump set where he'd initially batted the coin away.

Perhaps even more obscure than that was the blade's habit of constant vibration. The humming sound, so barely slight, so nearly audible, rose only in pitch when moved about with any degree of speed or roughness. It made the weapon a potentially difficult object to hold, but the constant vibrations made it capable of clean, smooth cuts . . .

Komodo was surprised, or at least what approximated it. And yet, a part of him perhaps expected something like that. Daniel's gambit wasn't likely to be nearly as successful as he figured it...

First, the blade would hit Komodo's arm, but wouldn't pierce. Rather, a metallic clanging sound emanated from what sounded to be some sort of metal armguard below the black sleeves of his coat. However, he couldn't stop the attack entirely, nor did he intend to. The vibrating blade, a quality that was very strange in itself, would deflect, tearing a ribbon of flesh from Komodo's upper left arm as it traveled parallel to his arm and away, but closer than he expected...

At the same time, though, failing to feel pain had certain advantage. Komodo's right hand wouldn't slow or falter in any way, though his movement to the right would increase in speed as Daniel's attack hit. Komodo's pistol would fire three quick shots, from right to left along Daniel's torso, shots intended to cripple or even kill Daniel, especially given the ear-splittingly loud gunfire and the power it inferred.

Danyr, in his position to Komodo's right, drew back a vicious-looking arrow with several sets of randomly facing barbs along the shaft. The pain it likely was capable of inflicting was likely immoral, but fortunately enough, Komodo didn't feel pain. Danyr just needed something that would cause some significant damage if pain wasn't slowing down his opponent. Drawing it, he would let fly at Komodo's right thigh, though a part of him wondered if Komodo was too close to allow him to fire again...

The chakram-blade skidded up Komodo's arm, passed his shoulder, and drew up into the air, to land several feet behind Komodo, the tip of the weapon embedding itself into the ground first.

A brief moment of panic struck Daniel when Komodo wasn't at all phased by it, but he reacted quickly. Fortunately, the shots weren't quite so well aimed, so when Daniel leaped hard to the forward left, he received little more than a nick on his side. Nothing of consequence. Instinct mostly guided Daniel's attempts to dodge, block, or parry an attack, and it usually guided him well. Usually.

He'd not stand still after this, though; relatively unscathed, Daniel broke into a run immediately following the shots--straight for Komodo. Daniel mostly had no problems with unarmed combat. Granted, he was far from a trained martial artist, but he improvised well. He was great at landing precise blows, deciding on the fly where the weakest points on a person's body were, and disarming an opponent.

It was the basics, really. Skill with the basics.

It was all a person truly needed.

Clearing the space between them would be easy enough, provided no new difficulties came up, and the instant he was in reach of Komodo, Daniel would go for the gun: to get Komodo by the wrist, force the gun to point somewhere he and Danyr were not, twist at his wrist, and punch it hard with his other hand. It'd all be two quick, successive motions. A broken wrist didn't bode well for shooting a gun. Of course, provided he could succeed with this, Daniel would likely push Komodo's hand towards his body and follow through with a hook for the man's face--but there was a fair chance that Komodo would react before Daniel could follow through.

Komodo's hand, after firing, moved back down to his hip, and the gun was deposited back into his holster, just as Danyr's struck his thigh, the tip quickly jutting out of the other edge of his leg and slowing his stride just a bit. Still, he was upon Danyr in just moments, his hands flashing out extremely quickly as Danyr reached behind his back with his left hand and drew a blackjack...

Komodo was quicker, however, almost impossibly so. His right hand, held flat in a chopping position, reached forward, past Danyr's hand that wielded a bow. His hand seemed to barely touch the bowstring with the side of his pinky, followed by an extremely loud twanging noise as the string split, the bow springing into a more upright position and unwinding terribly. He then brought his hand down into Danyr's temple, with enough force to knock him off his feet, all in a fraction of a second.

Daniel, at this point, would be upon Komodo, but Komodo's weapon was already holstered. He could still grab Komodo's wrist as his attention was partly occupied, but he may well be disappointed. His right wrist also had some sort of armguard, and on grabbing his wrist, he would find the metal plating was also wrapped partially around the man's wrist, and up the outside of his hand in a leather form. While Daniel could strike the wrist with intent to break it, there was just too much reinforcement on Komodo's joint to cause more than minor damage.

In the meantime, Komodo's left hand would strike out, palm first, at Daniel's solar plexus. If Daniel received the blow, he would see the other purpose of the armguards: the heavy metal objects lent a lot of extra weight to Komodo's strikes...