Sabertooth in: The Sunny Tower Of No Return!

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

The Demon Slayer sat in his personal chair aboard the Tailspin prepping the ship for take off while he waited for his fellow guildmates to arrive. He fiddled with some of the knobs and looked over the multiple gauges all indicating how much fuel the ship had, it was more than enough to get them too and from. After he was satisfied with his inspection he leaned back in his chair, making good use of the chair’s arm rest and the fur seat cover he had installed for extra comfort while flying the ship, and he contemplated what sort of day he had signed himself up for "Strangers coming aboard my ship, going on a mission that I know nothing about. What could go wrong? “ he spoke out loud as he gazed out the window, looking at the magnificent Fortress that floated in the sky and he smirked, "but I don’t think I would have it any other way.“ he said admittingly and just as he noticed that someone was approaching the ship, making Kite smirk "Well looks like I have passengers.“ he said as he pushed himself out of the chair and made his way around the chair and walked down the small flight of stairs that led down the neck of the Tailspin, the small hallway where there were 5 alcoves , two on the right and three on the left. These were the cubbies that would lead down into the rooms for the crew or teammates once he got some that was.

His boots clinked and clunked on the metal grates as he walked through his ship. He emerged in the dining area but made a quick left and made his way down a flight of stairs that led to a catwalk that hung above the cargo bay, where there was a man standing in his ship or rather walking through his ship, passed that Cargo bay and made his way to area that was initially the passenger lodging but converted into a lounge room, there he placed the paper on a table and so he waited. Kite quickly made his way down the stairs and entered the lounge area where the man stood with his pet by his side and a sharp rock in his hand and called out asking if anyone was here. He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorway,"Point of interest, coming aboard a vessel that isn’t yours with a weapon like that is a good way to find yourself in a heap of trouble.“ He said to the man and paused for an instant  "but I’m guessing you must be here about that job I’m suppose go on, I’m Kite Wilhelm Captain of Tailspin. Got a name there stranger? “
" “

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

Even before revealing himself to the stranger aboard his ship, Kite could sense the amount of tension that was coming from the stranger on his ship, well he wasn’t a total stranger, they were in the same guild but never had actually met up until this point. Shortly after mentioning how it could be dangerous to carry a weapon drawn aboard a ship that wasn’t his, a ship he was expressly given permission to board for that matter but seeing as there was work to be done the Demon slayer overlooked this fact as the man apologized for it and explained himself and how one can never truly tell what is coming from around the corner. Hearing this made Kite smile a bit for it was a valid reason to be a weary "Can’t say that I can argue that. Mighty fine point. “ he admitted outloud just before his fellow guild member introduced himself as Mashyuu and announced he in fact was a Earth Dragon Slayer, one of many slayers that were members of the guild and he also introduced his partner and companion Rocky which by just looking at it, anyone could tell he was an earth elemental of sorts. Kite reached for the extended hand and gripped it tightly and gave a firm handshake, "Nice to meet you...Neat, so I think we have one more guy showing up if I recall “ he said and just as the saying went, you speak of the devil and he shall appear, a loud thud could be heard at the ships cargo bay which caused Kite to look in that direction. As an addition to the earth Slayer who he had just met there now was gigantic man who towered over the both of them, and with Kite being over 6 foot himself that was saying something, even Mash mentioned in a low voice that the man was massive and shortly the goliath of a man asked the both of them if the three of them were going on the job. Mash confirmed this also including the pets, his rock man and the Rockman’s little chippie...adorable, Kite noticed the grin ”Well now, big fellow I guess it’s safe to assume that you are my last passenger for the day Let’s lock her up and we can get down to business. “ he said as he walked up to and past the big guy and pushed two buttons on the console near the bay door which closed up and then immediately after he approached the two of them as Mashyuu started to conjure ideas like going over it now or on the way their or if the Kite and the big guy wanted to just charge in, Kite enjoyed the thought of it but something popped up in Kite’s head which made him answer upon his approach. "Well if we are tossing ideas around I think first thing we should do is speak about our plans now seeing as the second we take off you are going to be confined to the head for the flight. If I recall correctly Dragon slayers and transportation don’t mix very well.“ he said matter of factly before sitting down in one of the chairs surrounding the table. "So, lay out the details for us. Also before it slips my mind again, what’s your story big man and what’s your take on the job?“

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

The Dragon Slayer had given Kite a questioning look when the topic of getting sick came from the Demon slayer’s mouth. Kite was taken by surprise a bit by the apparent lack of knowledge from the dragon slayer, more specifically that he didn’t know about the motion sickness. Kite knew of it but only because Haretsa, a dragon slayer he knew that used his shadow to hide from said motion sickness. "Yes, but we will revisit that once the time to take off is upon us. First thing is first, anyone who has information to how we are going to go about this job now would be a good time to make say your piece.“ he said outloud for anyone to take center stage and reveal what they knew, he would but since he didn’t know anything about this job except the destination and who the enemy was his input wouldn’t have been relevant. That is when the large man revealed some that was of interest to the group, it was a scroll with script of some sort, not one that Kite had ever seen before but soon enough the big guy went ahead and explained the story of how someone had went into some great effort to infiltrate the cult and managed to dig up information that was of use for them including day to day routines and information on various markings and symbols and their distinct relevance. Minh left the scroll out for them to look upon and then mentioned a few possible plans, two in fact, one was was they could pose as the cult and invade their ranks to take them down from the inside, the second was they could just all out attack them but made it clear that an aerial attack wouldn’t work out well for them. Kite took a second to think about what sort of hand they had to play with.

Kite’s eyes looked over at Mash who was asking The Demon slayer if he were any good at sneaking or tracking and went to say that they need to find the girl for fear of her safety. "Well the girl’s safety I don’t think that is our worry from what flyer says she might be there of her own desire and among their numbers, not to mention unless the cultists have this exact request form they won’t know to harm her or use her as leverage.“ he said to Mash and then added "As for your earlier question about  tracking I think your nose would be better than mine, but unless you have something of the girl’s you won’t know her scent any better than someone else there, and more importantly do we even know what the girl looks like?” he inquired, if they recklessly attack than we might hurt her ourselves. "but why don’t we cover our bases a bit here Why don’t we do both. One of us goes in while the other two..er four take a walk around the park. Maybe find someone to beat the information out of find out if we can find any leads to the whereabouts and possibly a description of the girl.“ He suggested  as a plan which might be crazy enough to work. "Seeing as I have a fair amount of heat on my side I might be able to appeal to them on some level while you two rock their world. then crash the party once I find the girl.“. It was shortly after things were figured out that Mash asked him where Kite wanted him. "Well I figure you can either rude in the Latrine in the common area but not alot of room for you and your dog, so you can relax in the infirmary, buckets and bed pans a plenty not to mention plenty of room for your pet to join you for the ride.“ he said and pointed down the cargo bay to the door opposite of the bay door, "Go through that door and down the stairs to the right and you can’t miss it on your left.“ Kite then turned his gaze to the large man "Never caught your name friend, where do are you fixing on going during the our trip? wanna stay down here,in the dining area, or shotgun in the cockpit “ he asked and waited for an answer as he climbed his way up the stairs of the cargo bay and up towards the cockpit.

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

Kite looked back and forth between the big man and Mashyuu waiting for one of them to speak up about the plan he had had come up with but soon his gaze locked on the large built man as he commented on Kite’s suggestion for a plan, he kept it short and sweet saying that if he had to settle on a plan that the “Demon Slayer’s” plan would be the one he would go with. Kite’s eyes narrows lightly and his ears perked up upon hearing this man whom he had never met calling him by his magic’s name. ”It would seem I am a step behind this fellow, I will have to keep this in mind.“ he thought to himself while the man added a bit to his plan, he made the suggestion that Kite should take Cheepie along with him as he infiltrated the tower that way when he found the girl he could send Cheepie back to them and that would act as a signal for them to make their move on the tower. "That would make things a tad easier, wasn’t sure what would be a good way to signal you guys without giving away my position. I think that will be it then, time to go.“ he said as he started to make his way to the stairs across the way near where the control panel was located. He took a few steps up set of stairs and he hit one big red button which began to close the loading ramp. It was from there he saw Mash make his way to the Infirmary and Minh took his place at by the boarding ramp, taking a seat on some crates but he didn’t notice cheepie make it’s way out the door as it shut. Kite reached the first landing and then turned to walk up the next flight of stairs that lead to the catwalk that wrapped around the upper level of the cargo bay and stopped where the cat walked reached the next flight of stairs that would lead to the fore passage that would lead to the cockpit but before he climbed them he looked down at the bay and smirked "Let’s get this show on the road.“ he said out loud right before making the climb and within less than a minute he passed where the bunks where the main crew would sleep and climbed up the short flight of stairs and he entered the rather spacious cockpit and reached up for the radio for the com system. "Attention passengers this is your captain speaking, take your seats and prepare for take off.“ shortly after he took his seat and ignited the already prepared  ship engines which slowly pushed it up off the ground until it was airborne along the way up Kite noticed that he had a little passenger right outside his window "Looks like you are riding shotgun with me.“ he said just as it got to the correct altitude Kite initiated the turbine rotation and the ship went flying west from Sabertooth’s guild hall. After about a half an hour after passing Crocus Kite altered course and headed south east until he parked his boat about a mile or so away from the tower.

After landing, Kite made his way down to the cargo bay where Mihn was still sitting and he could hear the displeasure Mash was having in the infirmary and as he exited and made his way out to the cargo bay, Kite smiled when he heard the Earth Slayer refer to them as devils "Well its sorta in the name.“ he said with a smirk as he pulled out from one of the cargo containers a roll of wrapping which he wrapped around his arm up by where the Sabertooth Emblem was stamped on and then used the entirety of it to fully wrap his sword from tip to pommel and placed it on his back. "Alright so i approach directly going north east Might be a path I can take while you two take a stroll around the park, see what you can find out.“ he said as he pressed the correct button sequence to open the ramp and he proceeded to exit but stopped as soon as his boots touched the ground. Kite scooped up some dirt and patted on his clothes some on his face and tore the knee out of his pants. "Cheepie, you coming along?“ he asked the bird and waited for him to land on his shoulder before he strolled off on his own. Kite journeyed across the mile or two of land before he reached the ominous looking mystic tower, home to the sun cult and possibly the missing girl, with a small gulp "Little man, if thinks get ugly need you to go and get the others okay?“ he asked the bird before approaching. Soon enough he reached the tower’s entrance where he was greeted by two men, dressed in ceremonial garbs both ignited their hands in a bright white light which created a strong amount of heat “Stop, what is your business here?” the one asked with the second one following up “Yeah State your business or toast we will make out of you.” hearing this made Kite sigh "Woah take it easy, I am looking to seek entry into the tower. I have read up on much of your ways and i want to know more, I want to know how to better worship the sun.“ Kite let the fire flow from his finger as he drew one of the signs he saw from Minh’s scroll. Both men stood down and turned “ you may enter stranger, follow us.” he said and Kite followed with the irony of it all, the further he went in the darker it became. "So Fellas, get many strangers here?“

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

Kite continued to follow the cloaked men as they lead him through the tower, they acknowledged his question but neither one of them answered his question and without a word they both looked forward again seemingly ignoring him which was about to get on his nerves but then one of them began to speak, responding to his question a little later than he would have prefered but better late than never, “No, it isn’t often that we have get visitors here. Not many know about our organization.” Kite kept his eyes locked on the back of the head of the man who was speaking to him. While the answer was pretty simple over all it did help him narrow down some important facts that he didn’t know up until that point which was that the chances of him finding someone who is a newbie would be more in his favor possibly. Kite couldn’t give away much of his position but he needed to ask questions in a casual manner as if he was genuinely curious and not seeming like he was investigating. ”So does that mean that I will be soloing it during the orientation then?“, the question was simple in nature and far from suspicious. The same man let out a sigh and glared at him over his shoulder and answered again “Yes, or that would be the answer if there was an orientation. You are the only one who will be getting examined and depending on how you are judged by the higher ups and if you pass you won’t be put through the trials of Sol like the last visitor.” Kite let out a gulp mimicking someone who would be worried ”Trial.. of Sol? Last one? You sure made that sound ominous.“ the man snickered “You are afraid, that’s good, the last one, well lets just say she is still going through her trials.” he said and said something of interest to the Demon Slayer and mentioned a She. ”could the girl he meant be the one I am looking for? But if that’s true how would she send letters home to her parents… maybe a cover up?“ he thought to himself analyzing the bit of information but there was one more he needed to know about ”What did she do to be forced through this trial? Anything I need to know?“. The man snickered “ yeah, just do as you are told, the little lady came here but when asked to do…. a “Special” task she refused, that high and mighty bitch is now going through the trial and has been for months now. So be respectful and you might get lucky.

With this bit of information Kite had to detain his anger, if he cover was blown in the early stages of the job then it will end not so good for me or her and so he remained quiet for the rest of his ascent with the cute cheepie resting in his hair, he was surprised that no one questioned the bird in his hair yet and hopefully they didn’t. It wasn’t his bird and he had no idea what the bird could do so he wanted to keep it that way until the very end. The two men had lead Kite to a large room in the tower where he was met by an older man who examined his body poking at his muscles, his skin “Hmm good, good high body heat, that means that the sun will be strong with you. Before we start any sort of training you must complete a special task to prove your worth to me.” he said, which made Kite wonder what it could be, ”Alright, what’s this task?“ he asked plainly which caused the old man to smile with glee “It’s simple young man, you see we as the order of the sun take initiation seriously and we seem to have a recent member much less… compliant than yourself and she has been taking her trials but won’t submit to our ways. Your task is to convince her by any means necessary.” Kite’s eyes widened, he didn’t want to torture anyone but he had no choice but to agree or atleast seem like he agreed, so he bowed his head ”Consider it done, let’s get to it lead me to her the faster this gets done the happier we will all be..“  he said to the man and was lead down a different set of stairs which had him descent down several flights but before he could go far he saw several windows which might be his only means to send Cheepie out so he kept it to memory. It was a matter of minutes until Kite was in front of a large wooden door that opened up to reveal a girl shackled to the floor with bruises and cuts, clearly from being beaten and burns from the use of heat. Kite drew his sword and looked at his escorts  ”Leave us, this won’t take long.“ Kite approached the girl with his sword in hand and she sobbed and it wasn’t until the door shut that he smashed his sword into her chains and kneeled down to check on her condition ”Don’t worry I’m not here to hurt you.“ he said to her which caused her to ask him questions “Who...who are you?” she said but a little louder than he would prefer at this moment so he placed his finger to his lips ”My name is Kite Wilhelm, I’m a member of Sabertooth and I am here to get you out and home to your parents. Can you stand?“ he asked her in a whisper, to which she went to speak but Kite once again pressed his finger to his lips and she nodded instead. ”Good. Let’s get you home.“ he said to her and looked at the door, the only means of escape. ”This will get interesting, and I need to get Minh and Mash informed….but how? “ he was trying to figure it out and he wasn’t coming up with anything, that was until he saw a hole in the roof of her room  where the sun shined brightly in. Kite poked at Cheepie gently ”alright little buddy you need to fly and find Minh, if you can give him the signal to attack.“
”“

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

Things were about to get very interesting in the tower, the problem was that with this girl here it could get a little too interesting but he had to figure out a way to get her out safely while dealing with the men that were waiting for them outside the door. He could blow the door out on them, catch them by surprise but too loud of an explosion could alert the guards to the internal attack that was taking place. The other option would be to lure the guards into the room but by doing that, seeing that the girl hadn’t been harmed in any way would reveal immediately that he had no intention of completing the trials which would cause them to most likely break out into a fight and have reinforcements here in minutes. Kite looked around the room to see what he had to work with so he could conjure a solid plan but there wasn’t much here, the room was circular and the only real coverage was the two pillars that were adjacent to one another, where the chains that were holding the girl had been anchored to. He wasn’t done looking around the room before the girl said in a concerned yet sarcastic tone, “So genius, how are we gonna get out of here?, there is only one door in and out.” Kite turned the girl and put his finger to his lips letting out a loud shushing noise. ”Shhh. I am keenly aware of this girl pointing out the obvious ain’t helping none. So I would take it as a kindness if you wouldn’t speak unless you have a plan.“ and ironically the girl had just given him a good idea, he turned and faced the door and saw something of interest to him. Hanging well above the door was giant skull trophy. The skull was white similar in shape and design to that of a ram but on a much larger scale in size and judging by those facts alone he could tell that that the ram head was anchored to wall by several bolts and metal wires. Kite smirked as an idea popped up in his head, an idea that might be crazy enough to work. ”Girl, I have to ask you a question. How is your grip strength?“ this caused her to look at him crooked, her brow creased “What sort of stupid question is that? How’s my grip strength like that sort of thing would matter..” she was trying to ridicule his question and belittle his train of thought but Kite wasn’t going to have it, he wasn’t a stranger to such things but now wasn’t the time for it so and even less time to wait for her to finish her belittling him. Kite had grabbed under the girl’s armpits and tossed her over his head and launched her up to the bullvine skull which she grabbed by the horns and held on for dear life but not before yelling on the way up. With the notion of her screaming already in his mind he had already had a plan for that. ”Flame Demon’s Flare Fist.“ he shouted and as he threw his fist in the direction of where the girl was chained, sending out an over sized fist made of his white demon fire causing an explosion to follow.

Between the scream and the explosion the two guards, the initiates that were stationed outside of the room burst into the room and while they were expecting to see Kite and the girl so it was safe to say that they were surprised to see that it was just Kite alone in the room and where the girl had been chained was nothing but smoke and broken chains. One ran up to Kite and gripped him by his shirt while the other one had made his way over to where the girl was to inspect it. “What did you do?” the man said, standing over the girl’s supposed resting place while the one who had Kite gripped by his shirt shouted in his face “Where is the girl!?” but the first man turned and looked in Kite’s direction and noticed the girl hanging on by the bulls horns while Kite had a grin on his face and slammed his fist into the gut of the man, thereby loosening his grip and Kite took a step back, ”Batters up.“ he said as he pulled his weapon off his back and with the blunt end of his blade out instead of the sharp edge and with a full force swing and drove it into the man who was hunched over and sent him crashing into the second man with a solid thud. Kite took two steps back and held out his arms to catch the falling girl who smacked him across the face “If you ever do that again…” Kite cut her off ”What save your life? You’re right, next time you get all captured like I’ll just stay home.“ he said and dropped her onto her feet and walked over to the two men and stood above them with his sword over his shoulder ”You know it’s awfully compelling for me to end you right here and now, but lucky enough for I ain’t in a killing mood so you can either luxuriate here in this room quiet like or I can make you quiet.“ The man laughed, “and you will go where? this tower is tall and there are many of us, you won’t make it out of here alive and the last thing you will see will be the light of the sun as it fries you to a crisp.” His eyes were filled with confidence and a smile was grew on his face as he tried to struggle from under the body of his friend, meanwhile Kite let out a sigh ”Well, darn.“ he said plainly as he dropped the sword across his head and then did so to the man he had hit first. Both men would be out for some time, plenty of time for them to leave at least. He stormed out the door and grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her with him. ”If things get ugly, you hide behind me or the nearest cover while I fight.“
”“

"You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

- Kite

Kite had made his instructions for the girl perfectly clear, when things would started to get hairy she would either hide behind him or go for cover whichever was more readily for her. He made his way through the exit but had to stop when he heard a lack footsteps behind him. ”Huh, is she really not moving from that spot?“he had asked himself as he turned around to look at the girl who was standing as still as a statue with the exception of her left foot digging at the ground, looking down all docile like, “Mr.Wilhelm can’t I just stay here until you clear the way?” She looked up from the floor and locked eyes with the Demon Slayer with a pleading expression gracing her face. “That way I am out of the way and you can go wild.” While the idea of not having to babysit this girl on the way down the tower while fighting off who knows how many cult members but that last part is what troubled the Demon Slayer. He shook his head ”Sorry sweetheart but as much as I’d like to go with the notion you mentioned it wouldn’t work.“ He crossed his arms and took a slouched, one sided stance ”I leave you here and clear the way but who knows how many more will pop up from out of the hidden nooks we don’t know about. As much of a nuisance as you would be along the way you would be much safer near me than here alone.“ He paused and lifted his arm so his hand was pointing in her direction and he performed the signal with his hand to have her come with him. Her eyes grew more fierce as she approached “FIne, I’ll go with you, but I am not a nuisance!” she shouted right before Kite took her by her wrist and pulled her along up the stairs.

The flight seemed to take longer to ascend than it did to descend, it was either because it is usually faster to go down than to go up or the anticipation of a battle breaking out and having to protect her along the way. Luckily the journey up the stairs went by with no problem however when they reached the room where he had met the man who would give him the assignment to go through the trial of the sun he was greeted by two more men, dressed similarly to the ones were dealt with down stairs. Kite pulled the girl in such a way that she was now in a position where Kite was between her and the men. In the meanwhile the two men looked at each other then back at Kite who was fixing them both with a serious stare as the one on the right spoke up. “What do you think you are doing? She isn’t suppose to be out of her holding cell.” Kite held up his hands showing his showing he wasn’t trying to be aggressive ”Take it easy Fellas. The big guy told me to bring her to him when I was done with her punishment.“ Upon hearing this come from the demon slayer the second man peered around the Sabertooth mage to look at the girl and then back at Kite “If she were punished then why is she standing without a scratch on her?” Kite didn’t think of that oversight and that was a problem to say the least in terms of convincing them that he did in fact complete the deed. ”Uh well you see,funny story...“ he paused as the men awaited eagerly for him to explain himself but what they would be getting would be a lot less than an explanation and a lot more fire. ”Flame Demon’s Rage!“ he shouted as he unleashed a plume of fire that pushed the two men through the large stained glass window and had them plummet to the ground below. With both men out of the way Kite shut and locked the door that lead down to the trial room so that way the man Kite had left sleeping with a big bump on his head. Kite turned to the girl ”Those stairs are closed off now. That flight there goes leads down the tower and to the exit but most likely my associates are causing a scene down stairs so you get to stay here, until I get back now that it is secured.“ Kite began his climb down the stairs and stumbled upon a man floating his way up the stairs towards him and stopped when he saw the large sword wielding man a head of him. ”No one told me the king was going to be here. All hail your majesty.“ “You, I remember you. You had such fire I would have hoped you would join our cause. Now I have to deal with a whelp like you.” Kite smirked ”Well you aren’t wrong about the fire Stranger but we will turn up the heat in a second. First you get to meet my blade.“ He pulled his sword from his back and held it out with two hands and in a combat stance. Kite charged at the man swinging his sword blade first at the man with the crown but instead of flesh the man had a shield made of light, sun light blocking the attack. Kite was caught off guard for a short time but regained his composure quick enough to jump back as the Arch Mage made a blade out of sun light and slashed at Kite, slicing through his shirt but missing his actual skin. ”Oh that’s a neat trick.“
”“