Plisken

~~~~ Meanwhike ~~~~
"Plisken"
"Mmph?"
"Damn it Plisken - Wake up!"
"What!?" the old man jerked awake, his hand automatically groping for the antique revolver that he was accustomed to keeping beside him while he slept, but not finding it. He looked wildly around the room with his one remaining eye as he struggled up from the Ssalan sleeping mat.
"We've got a situation!"
"What?" Plisken repeated, blinking as he took in Artemis floating nearby, framed in the doorway of the tiny storage room he'd been given to sleep in.
"A situation"
Sitting upright, Plisken coughed and cleared his throat, wincing both from the aches and pains knotting his back from yet another uncomfortable night on the floor and from the slowly healing wounds, inflicted on him during his torture.
"Plisken" Artemis tired again, a note of impatience edging into his voice.
"Yes, yes, I know" the old man irritably waved him away "Give me a minute"
"I ah..." Artemis rotated, mid-air to train his sensors up the staircase behind him "I'm not certain we'll have that long"
"Alright, you floating fish tank" Plisken snapped "Fine. What is it?"
Artemis wasn't exactly in his good books at the moment. Plisken had initially been pleased to see him after he had floated out of the Starbug's wreckage yesterday afternoon, but after Artemis had pointed out the flaw in his plan to use Sven to transport everyone back to the old crash site, his enthusiasm for his company had waned somewhat.
Stupid old man.
How could he have forgotten that outside of the local flux zone, technology ceased to work?
The old crash site was well over a hundred kilometres away, more if you counted the trek around the coastline of wide bay in between here and there; and it was well beyond the borders of the local flux zone, beyond which Sven and Arien, unshielded as they were, would be in immediate trouble.
"Listen" Artemis snapped "We've got trouble, there's -"
"Human" Plisken recognised Isaiah's rough voice, echoing down the corridor outside from the top of the stairs "Come. Now"
The massive Haruk and several others of his ilk rounded the corner and trotted down the stairs, each bearing wickedly sharp swords, which they drew as they approached Plisken's cell. Sven Ignatyev, stationed outside the room, shifted uneasily as they approached.
"Plisken" Isaiah growled "You come now. Zaharaz order it. More of your kind come"
"Who? More Dwarfers?" Plisken was up and on his feet in an instant. Zaharez was the matriarch of the house, who had graciously agreed to offer him and the others sanctuary in this city of horrors, and it was unwise to anger her.
"That's just the thing" Artemis said hurriedly "It's not them. A bunch of psychos have turned up with a squad of heavy combat 'bots and have started executing Haruk. They're demanding your return and if they don't get you, they're going to carry on with the killing"
"Damn it" Plisken hissed. Time with no Boundaries had finally found him
Isaiah's brow knotted in an all too human display of concentration as he struggled to follow the exchange. His lips curling to reveal an impressive set of yellowing fangs "You come now human"

<tag>
Artemis, Plisken, Sven and Arien - sorry for hijacking the thread, but let's make things interesting, shall we?
the Haruk want to escort you to Zaharez, the matriarch of the house, who may (or may not) be about to turn you over to Time with no Boundaries who are currently executing Haruk
what do you do, how do you get away (do you get away?), what else happens?
</tag>