[IRP] Smugglers, Saints, and Spears

[WyvernSlayer]

Barry roared with laughter as he took to his heels to keep up with Cherise. As they rounded the bend, the scale of the fight came into view - two burly men with spears, and some kind of witch woman. Except she was a little prettier than your average witch. And she was ceaselessly spouting curses and blasts of light magic at Barry’s crew.

The two men seemed a little bit too preoccupied with launching light blasts of their own to pay much attention to Barry (although they had engaged Cherise). One of them was a recipient of a swooping attack from their wyvern rider. The woman was engaging Panika. All of these things were apparently what it took to overlook the sight of a titanic, bearded man off to the side, and Barry was not about to let his opportunity be squandered. He lowered his shoulder and picked back up into a run. He lined up his foes and kept up a silent hope that he wouldn’t be noticed. His feet slammed at the ground, and slowly, his pace increased, headed directly toward the nearest spearman. Closer, closer…!

The spearman disengaged from an exchange with Cherise and snapped his head up in Barry’s direction. Too late! WHAM! “Hrrraaaaagh!” Barry roared as he slammed into him, easily powering through and actually lifting the spearman off the ground a bit. His disoriented foe went careening into his superior, knocking them both to the ground and disjointing the battle. He scrambled over to the man he had just blindsided, who had lost grip on his weapon and was furiously trying to pick it up amidst the curses being unleashed upon him by the robed woman for his insolence or prudishness or some such nonsense. Barry stamped his foot down on the shaft of the weapon, anchoring it to the ground and fixing a terrifying glare on the poor fool who was attempting to lift it.

In a bit of showmanship, Barry cracked his knuckles and flashed a devious grin. If this guy wanted a piece of him, he’d have to throw down like a man.

[Val Ritz]

The two bodyguards, while formidable, were not prepared in the slightest for the psychological phenomenon that was Barry. The one who had tried to engage him first visibly paled at the prospect of a fistfight with this mountain of a man. At least, it was very possible that it was at the prospect of fighting him. Considering he had been launched into Brigitte by the bull rush, there were plenty of things for this soldier to be afraid of. Regardless, he regained his feet and drew a long knife from his hip, squaring off against Barry with a scowl.

For his part, the other spearman was planted facedown on the wind-scoured rock, still gasping for breath at the blow Gwen had dealt him between the shoulder blades. A few seconds of panting had him back on his feet and his attention fixed on the airborne woman. Without enough breath to really snarl properly, he settled for a pained grimace as he retrieved his spear. The Light magic was basically depleted, but it was better than nothing. The soldier reached for a pack that had been knocked clear by the wyvern wench, withdrawing a bundle of javelins. Needless to say, he had no qualms about hurling them skyward.

Meanwhile, in the far more exciting and animated world of twenty feet away, Brigitte was seeing red.

"Dang, woman, you're sure good at trying to get your victims to strip, eh? Do ya swing that way?"

The Inquisitor was momentarily and miraculously speechless at the allegation, but that was fixed very quickly. "I- you- I am not good at anything of the sort!" she shrieked, "If you would sit still and let me kill you, I assure you, your clothing would be far less expressive than it is now!" As if to prove her point, the blonde woman stood up straight and brought her right two forefingers down in a slashing motion. Blades of light formed above the combatants and screamed down toward Panika, Ray, and Cherise from all sides.

Cherise was not a fan of this newest development. "Oi! As enthralling as this lethal striptease is, would you mind not antagonizing the crazy woman who's trying to blast us off the mountain?" She quickly sidestepped a bolt of light, but was nearly thrown off her feet by the unexpected impact of it exploding as it hit the ground. That was new. The mercenary coughed and shook her head rapidly.

"I really, really doubt these are going to make you naked," she shouted, "I think they're more inclined to make you dead!"

Cherise circled quickly around the Inquisitor away from the two mages, waiting for just the right opening...

[Amoltamiss]

Panika remained calm despite her rather goofy statement at the time, and soon it appeared that she riled up the said Inquisitor as she simply claimed that she was not good at anything of the sort, throwing a weak taunt and accompanying it with stronger actions, releasing the blades of light from her forefingers into the air and having them scream down towards her, Cherise and the pretty-boy. Cherise wasn't impressed, but Panika really didn't give a two damns about it. "Not to worry, boss lady, you don't have enough faith in me?" Panika said, laughing as she flipped about like a calculated idiot, weaving and avoiding most of the bolts, some streaking through what left she was wearing and burning holes through them somehow. "Anger, after all, is the precursor to irrationality and evetually failure!" Panika growled as she began to create hand motions and blast balls of intense flame back at the Inquisitor whilst dodging the bolts of light.

Cherise may not have been impressed by Panika's words and taunting, but the thief-sorceress made her best to show she could back up her trash-talking with ability and skill.

[Breadophile]

Cherise is sneaking up behind... Might as well create a distraction. Fuck it, I'm just gonna do like I always do and burn everything like Kalin's cooking.

There were spears of light coming for him as he was thinking. He didn't have the dexterity to dodge them, so he simply put up his hand and book in front of his face as they crashed into him. He hated being shot at. Come to think of he hated everything.

Every wizard has a different way of casting magic. The days of simply reading from a book were long over. That's where Ray shined. Fire magic for him was powered by anger. All he had to do was imagine anything and everything that had invoked that emotion. For him, it was an activity most distant from anything that could be described as difficult.

"GRRRAAAAH!" A bit of yelling got him going too.

A colossally sized fireball emerged from above him, which he promptly heaved at the inquisitor. He couldn't create nearly as many as the other mage could, but his were substantially bigger.

"EAT SHIT!" He screamed as he heaved the fireball towards the inquisitor, attempting to avoid Cherise. He couldn't get paid if she was dead.

[Darcune]

Bor hurtled over the hill top, booted feet pounding as he followed his employer and Barry into the fray. He had lagged behind purposefully to arrive last, and his efforts were rewarded as he spotted the lone spearman who wasn't actually engaged in melee with anyone. Instead he noted the javelins and their deadly purpose, and sprinted headlong at the man in a blurring fury.

The spearmen heard him coming in his clattering armor, and shifted aim to hurl a javelin. Bor brought his glaive up in a flashing slice and deflected the attack, still thundering down on his prey. The spearman switched tactics and snatched up his spear to defend himself, but the switch was his own undoing. As he stood back up Bor leapt in a mighty arc, his glaive high above his head in a great swing.

He came down with crushing force, feeling the hot pain as the spearman's weapon pieced his side, but his own struck true. With a mighty blow, his glaive struck straight through the spearman's skull, cleaving it in twain, and lodged itself in his breastbone. His body collapsed like a puppet who's strings had been cut, and Bor wrenched his blade free with a grunt of effort. He looked about for a new target, panting slightly as his bloodlust warred with the pain of the spear lodged firmly in his rib.

[WyvernSlayer]

Barry’s rattled foe found a way to gather his courage and stand up to the beast of a man, drawing a large knife from his belt and holding it up in front of his body, as if warning Barry to stay away. Barry scoffed at the gesture and raised his powerful arms into a guard. He was used to dealing with armed foes – people were always keeping short blades and knuckledusters on them in bar scraps. Hoping the shock from his sudden entrance hadn’t completely passed from the man, Barry took a quick step forward, a juke.

His opponent stutter-stepped backward but kept his knife outstretched. So, he thinks he’s safe with that blade, eh? Barry dropped his guard down a bit and circled ‘round his foe. The guardsman, sensing an attack of opportunity, lunged forward with a stab. Clang! Barry’s arms came up at the last moment, deflecting the attack off his left wrist guard. He winced a bit as the blade followed past his forearm and pushed across the back of his tricep, inflicting a shallow cut. Barry roared as he counterattacked, connecting with a straight shot to the man’s face from out of his guard. He shoved the man’s outstretched arm aside and followed through – left! Right! Left! Right! Titanic blows rained down on the unfortunate guardsman, and in a few short seconds, the knife fell from his hand, and he fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Barry reached down and snatched the knife from the man’s hand – there was no resistance. He had punched his foe unconscious. Tossing the blade aside, Barry finally took a glance at the injuries he had suffered. It was a long cut that seeped blood, but it wasn’t deep. Just a scratch, Barry decided. He left his crippled foe where he lay and was about to turn his attention to the woman he had shoved the guy into. His plan was to maybe sneak up behind her and put her in an arm lock or something to subdue her and get some information…

“Oy. Nevermind,” Barry said out loud to himself, upon watching his target go up in flames from Ray’s magic. Guess I’ve played my part here…

[Val Ritz]

Cherise swore loudly as a fireball screamed past her and slammed into the witch-hunter woman. Though she quickly turned to one side to avoid getting too terribly burned, the flames still washed over her in a wave. This fool was going to get them all killed! "Ray! Is it too much to ask that you tell me when you're about to unleash utter hell?" she snapped, brushing embers off her coat. The smoke slowly began to clear...

Brigitte stood with her hands on her hips, considerably singed, but not much worse for wear. Her face appeared calm, but a certain... madness in her eyes betrayed her true feelings. She stepped forward out of the smoke and dust, scoffing at her guards. "Imbeciles and weaklings, all of them," she muttered. The inquisitor looked out at the assorted mercenaries and raised her voice. "I see that you have successfully outmaneuvered my guards. A noteworthy feat, if not particularly surprising. What is surprising, however, is the fact that you-" She whirled around to point to Ray- "-just tried to kill me with magic, when you wear one of the Most Pure and Sacrosanct Church's most ubiquitous tools around your neck. Admittedly, though, yours is a tad outdated, so perhaps the fault is in your ignorance." Brigitte paced slowly, eyeing each of them in turn warily. "Well... I suppose all that is left... is to surrender peacefully."

She smirked. "If you'd lay down your weapons."

Cherise saw the woman turn toward her, but too late. Before she could sidestep or bring down her blade on that stupid blonde head of hers, the Inquisitor made a motion not unlike hauling in a fishing net. Strands of Light magic bit into her armor, and she yelped, tumbling to the ground. With a cackle, Birgitte pinned her to the ground with the magic, then reached for the rawhide case tied tightly to Cherise's belt-

"...Hm? What's this?"

With a small silver-inlaid dagger, the inquisitor cut the casing free and examined it. A long, smoking crack ran up the front of it. "No..." she murmured at first, and opened it quickly. A plume of smoke rose from the box. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Her screechings echoed off the cliff face as she withdrew and waved about a partly blackened and charred, but still visibly golden, book. "Do you see this? Do you see what happens when you let filthy, evil, stinking mages run amok?

The bonds around Cherise fizzled and faded, but she remained in place, white as a sheet. That was their pay, burning in that woman's hand. Impossible, the casing had been shielded against all kinds of Anima magic- Oh. Oh no. It hadn't been shielded against Light magic. "The case must have been cracked by one of her bolts, and then..."

The red-clad woman screamed to the high heavens, a slow aurora of magic starting to coalesce around her. "Heathens! Traitors! Fools!"

[Amoltamiss]

Oi vey, now would be a good time for me to be figurin' out that stupid Lemegeton now! Panika inwardly... panicked for a moment there, as she realized the gravity of the situation. So the thing they were supposed to be protecting, you know, their goddamn pay, was destroyed, just like that. Upon realizing what had happened in the span of mere moments - and conveniently ignoring the inquisitor's own trash-talking of the prettyboy - Panika heaved and huffed and pulled out Lemegeton proper, her own golden implement - a book, anyways, and hurriedly flipped through it after pacing backwards, in an attempt to try and figure out something she could do to rectify the situation. Of course, it didn't help when the inquisitor began to speak all funny and an aurora of magic began to revolve and coalesce around her.

Panika growled and hurriedly flipped and read random incantations in the Lemegeton, only half-aware of what she was reading... Anma... Niba.. Mi... Hong... Panika fiddled about in place some more, looking intently at the inquisitor before her. "Bu-duan, bu-za, bu-zhu...! Jing-ang-syou, zi-lian-guang!" Panika was only yelling what she was able to comprehend and read, in some incredibly archaic and foreign language that might have reminded one of the plains folk, though it was a wonder how plains folk could even come up with such fantastic incantations.

In her panic and recklessness, what Panika ended up doing was shooting rays of light into the sky, which exploded into fancy lights and a display of stardust, and it seemed to do nothing at first, only serving as a fancy light show, but what would happen mere moments later would cause even more chaos - the stardust descended into the field indiscriminately in the form of lasers and hail.

[Breadophile]

"Ray! Is it too much to ask that you tell me when you're about to unleash utter hell?"

"Amongst all of the ample opportunities to do so, you've somehow not gotten yourself killed. Why would you rush headfirst into an enemy like that instead of hitting them at range?"

Ray could see the madness in the inquisitor's eyes when she looked at him. It was much like mother, only less mad and not nearly as awesome.

While watching the scene unfold, he summoned another ball of fire. He then compressed in his hands, or at least as close to compressed that fire can get without touching oneself. She was about to find out why he still went by "Ray".

No, it had nothing to do with him firing a ray, he just knew that she was going to find out and it would be kind of embarrassing.

Then he noticed the book.

(A golden book? hmm...)

Ray put away his cook book and took out an old science manual.

(Now where's that chapter in here? Aw, here we go. "How to paralyze people otherwise highly resistant to magic")

And then he saw the book smolder. (Well fuck. Still, no reason to stop now...)

Something distracted Ray as he was charging up. A lot of somethings, actually. First, a magical net started forming around him. It was easy enough to deal with, though. Ray was no idiot, he knew how the magic triangle worked. He simply held the ball of lightning in from of him and the net dispersed into something too weak to do any real damage. But it took time, and that was important in battle.

Next up, laser beams (and hail).

"Arrgh!"

Right to the face. He groaned in a daze.

"Sweet Elimine, woman, it's a wonder how you even learned magic in the first place."

Taking a moment to recover, Ray finished charging his bolt of lightning and aimed it at the woman. Unfortunately, with all of the distractions she had plenty of time to take an action to protect herself. Ray hoped she hadn't noticed what he was doing.

A deep breath, and then he fired.

[Val Ritz]

Cherise could scarcely see this situation getting any worse. Their job was all but null and void now, Gwen and the other musclebound schmuck had gone and bolted, and the future was starting to look a lot more full of explosions. She took one look at the impending mystical doom that was about to smite their ruin on the mountainside, and made a split-second tactical decision.

"Oh, fuck this."

The mercenary scrambled to her feet and went tearing off back toward the mountain path they'd come from, shoving her sword back into its sheath. Burning hail and beams of scorching light started to rain down, and she dodged as best she could, but the worst was yet to come, and she sure as hell didn't want to be around when it did. She cupped her mouth with one hand and yelled:

"Barry! I think in this delicate situation, we'd be best served by gettin' the hell away from here!"

She didn't wait to see if he followed. All that mattered was getting far, far, far away from the three mages behind her.

=====================================================================

Brigitte, longtime Inquisitor, slayer of many a heretic hedge wizard, dangerous alchemist, or budding necromancer, was at this point well and truly beyond reason. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her mouth foamed, and her hands seemed glued to the partly charred magical tome she held in her hands. Power that had once before nearly brought about the end of the world now coursed through her veins; power that, truly, she was far from being competent to control, even had it been in proper condition.

A high keening sound slowly grew louder and louder, and the corona of light that surrounded Brigitte roiled and sparked. One of the intense beams from Panika's spell lanced down and struck squarely on the book, and what had previously been ominous became outright terrifying. The beam stayed locked in place, then pulsed once. Twice. The luminescence around the Inquisitor began to echo the pulsations, adding and amplifying the feedback loop. Two magics that had never been intended to mix now mated, and grew. The other lasers and stardust from Lemegeton warped and bent, pointing inward in a perverse array of stage lights until they all shared the same focal point as the first. Brigitte's feet left the ground, and she hovered in the grip of the mingled magic, which was now flashing and flickering once per second. Everything seemed to hold its breath.

A crackle of Anima. A blast of lightning screamed through the air from Ray's fingertips, and the circuit broke.

There was a shockwave, thunder without sound, so strong that it resounded in Cherise's chest, even from as far away as she was, like the heartbeat of a dragon. Brigitte made no noise as she vanished in a pillar of white-hot plasma. The mountainside lit up with cold, stark white brilliance, each shadow sharp and defined like the sun had descended from the heavens. The pillar extended steadily outward, burning into the rock wall behind the path and out toward the two mages, before faltering a scarce six feet from either of them, and retreating. In a matter of seconds, what had been a white-hot trunk of the largest tree became little more than a spear of light, and then it was gone.

In its wake, nothing remained of the agents of the Church of Sanctity, save a pit in the solid rock easily thirty feet deep and glowing a cherry red.

[Amoltamiss]

Panika realized in the chaos of magic that Cherise and who she presumed was one of the muscled guys retreating - the wyvern rider and the other muscled guy seemed to have conveniently vanished. Perhaps they were making the right decision here. Regardless, there was no time for Panika to run. She was too busy making sure she wasn't getting wrecked by her own spell. Panika couldn't find any place to hide behind but soon she found out the hail and lasers were actively avoiding her (probably because she cast the spell). Then she realized that the inquisitor she had been trying to stop with her spell had gone quite literally bonkers.

The power coursing through that lady was way too much for her body to handle. It certainly didn't help that the book was slightly damaged. Eventually, one of the lasers from the violet storm had struck the book and the energy from the anima magic was actually trapped in the book, and eventually what happened was light and anima magic began to fuse, in an unholy union that should not be freaking possible by any stretch of known magical theory, but there it was. Panika learned something new today.

And then Ray freaking shot a spell at the mixture.

Panika opened her mouth to protest, but what happened next literally took the words out of her mouth. "Um, ma'am, I don't think magic works that wa--" Panika blinked and shielded her eyes as a brilliance flashed before her and Ray; and just as she thought she was toast, the light faltered mere feet away from her, and then retreated back into some sort of reaction. What was left?

Nothing but a goddamn crater. Panika was silent for a while. Then she spoke.

"...I absolutely can't believe that worked. Man, if this kind of tomfoolery is what we're going to deal with, I'm freakin' glad we came out of that alive! Look, boss lady and one of her boy toys already retreated. They value their lives more than the money, and I sure as hell am inclined to agree!" Panika sighed and peered at the giant pit. It was also glowing cherry red.

"And why the hell is it glowing red?"

[WyvernSlayer]

Barry didn't need to be reminded. He kept up close behind Cherise, and the two of them made haste back up the mountain path, away from the cave.

As they sprinted, Barry turned his head back in the direction of the conflict, expecting to see Ray or Panika following behind him. Instead, he was greeted by a brilliant shock of light. His running slowed, and he spun around to face the source of the light. Even though his vision was obscured by the mountain face, the light made him squint with discomfort.

"Oy! Cherise! What about-" he began to say.

Suddenly, a ripple of force impacted Barry, carrying past him and continuing on along the path. There was no sound. It was as though the entire world had been muted as the flashes from the cave intensified to a dazzling climax. Barry shielded his eyes. Another shockwave, stronger this time, pushed into his chest and nearly knocked him off his feet. Finally, the light faded, and Barry was left standing in the middle of the path.

"What in the HELL was that?!" he exclaimed.

[Breadophile]

Ray was knocked into the air and back on his butt by the impact of the explosion.

"Urgh... what the hell... just happened...?"

Ray looked at the crater and could not figure it out for the life of him. One thing was for sure, though: the inquisitor was gone and so were most of Ray's group.

He got up on his feet and started walking out of the cave.

Looks like I'm not getting paid.... Assholes! I want to stab somebody!

[Val Ritz]

"If I had to wager a guess? I'd say that was our paycheck blowin' a hole in the side of the mountain the size of Ilia. But that's just me."

Cherise rubbed her eyes and groaned. This was just great. Halfway to Bern, and they get jumped by a pack of clergy with a grudge, who just so happened to be out here waiting for them (which required its own set of questions as to how they knew that their party would be coming). Couple that to the fact that their resident explosive experts had taken it upon themselves to nearly kill them all, AND their cargo to boot, and this was beginning to look like the headache to end all headaches once she got back to camp and had to report to Mother.

"Barry, do me a favor. Actually, scratch that. Two favors. One, let me buy your grizzled ass a drink once we get back to Etruria. Two, if I ever decide to hire mages for another job ever again, just punch me real hard. Let's go see if there's anythin' left of 'em that we can pawn off to make some sort of money offa this job."

She sighed heavily and stuffed her hands in her pockets, wandering back toward the blast site.

[Breadophile]

Ray walked outside to overhear Cherise's conversation.

"Well excuuuuse me princess. How the hell was I supposed to know the spellbook was so shoddy that it would explode? Much less that from a lightning strike meant to stun instead of kill. My fire tomes, er... tome, and my thunder tome are warded extremely strongly against most massive movements of energy by design, which includes that induced by lightning strikes and combustion. Think of them like fireproof trees. They have to be warded or they would destroy themselves in the hands of most mages.

However, light spells don't even get anywhere close to combustable normally. The books that contain them are magic as well, so they too are warded against fire. Of course warded and impervious are two different things, though, which is why I swapped to weak lightning. But this is just bizarre. I've never seen that happen, and trust me when I tell you I have no shortage of experience in dealing with explosions."

Though... Could it be...? It definitely looked 2 millennia old. Hmm... Nah.

[Amoltamiss]

Panika glared as she saw Cherise wander back towards the blast site under the pretense that she and Ray were already gone. Panika was not about to give her that satisfaction. She looked away from the remains and went over to meet Cherise as well, who didn't seem too very pleased with the situation. Well, neither was Panika. "Hey, missy. Let's see what your sword-wielding butt would have done against some crazy stupid witch holding world-ending power? You should be glad you turned tail to run when you did, because you sure as hell were gonna melt had Ray and I not stopped it. Look. She's the one that took the goddamn cargo you were holding, and she had already invoked power, so the damn thing was lost to start with," Panika hissed, picking up a rock and throwing it to the side.

"Don't pin the blame on us when you were too busy running away saving your own ass. Did you think we were dead? No way, Jose."

[WyvernSlayer]

Barry’s face contorted into a puzzling glare as Cherise wandered back to the cave mouth.

“Not n’tirely sure what hirin’ mages has gotta do with this mess. Just a bad patch of luck, runnin’ into the Church, that’s all.” Barry stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed her. Just then, Ray came into view and immediately started spouting copious nonsense about the sensitivity of spellbooks or whatever. Barry tried to let it go in one ear and out the other, but once Panika rejoined them, he got an earful that was unavoidable.

“She's the one that took the goddamn cargo you were holding, and she had already invoked power, so the damn thing was lost to start with.”

Barry sensed that this little squabble might end up turning violent, so he quickly darted in between Panika and Cherise and held his arm wide to prevent the two from fighting.

"Don't pin the blame on us when you were too busy running away saving your own ass. Did you think we were dead? No way, Jose." Panika continued to snarl.

“Hey now, easy, Lass!” Barry pressed one of his palms against Panika’s shoulder to keep her from getting too close. “I don’t know as to what that book was about either, but there’s no sense pissin’ and moanin’ at each other about it now!” He turned his back to Panika and looked back at Cherise and Ray. “Now seein’ as how we’re up this creek without our paddle, why don’t we double on back to Etruria and give the word to the church?” Barry waited in silence for a moment, then walked past Cherise, back down the mountain path.

“Besides,” he muttered over his shoulder, “I was gettin’ thirsty anyway.”

[Val Ritz]

"Right, well." Cherise ran a hand through her hair, thinking quickly. "Barry's right, we need to get out of the mountains as soon as possible. 'We' meaning 'me,' because as of right now, you are all henceforth freed from your contracts, and all the stipulations and whatevers therein. Personally, I would suggest booking it back to Etruria, though by all means, if you want to try and slip through the rest of these mountains on your own to make a break for Bern, be my guest."

She secured her scabbard on her shoulder, and started a brisk walk westward.

[Breadophile]

"Geez, aren't you guys just the pinnacle of virtue? Well whatever, I don't need to add murder to the list of things I can be arrested for. Speaking of which, there's no way I'm following you to the church. Are we even still getting paid for this mess?

The big issue is really this: if there was one party that somehow knew our location and what we were doing, sort of, what's to say there isn't 10 more? I don't think these mountains are going to be seeing any blizzards any time soon.

Decisions, decisions."

[Amoltamiss]

Panika restrained herself from snarling further as the large fellow, Barry, attempted to diffuse the situation. Cherise said some nonsense which elicited Panika rubbing her face against her palm. "Etruria is gone now. Have you been living under a rock, or do you seriously believe that we would be going back there after what's happened? Believe me, if my homeland hadn't been ruthlessly captured like that, I wouldn't be needing to take on these vagrant jobs," Panika heaved.

"They're going to have me hanged if they catch me there, because for all I know they probably have like a billion bounties on my head or something. I'm going to high tail it another direction if you don't have any other smart ideas other than saving your own ass. 'Least the large fellow over here has a reasonable head on his great shoulders." Panika grumbled, subtly jabbing at Cherise's accusation earlier and commending Barry's response to the situation.