Excitement at the Expo (part 1)

After a rough night of sleep, Dr. Jackal woke up feeling very disoriented. He had forgotten where he was and that he was no longer on the run. After calming down he looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost sunrise. After rubbing his eyes a bit he forced himself to get up and make his way to the bathroom to freshen up. After a shower and shave, he was feeling much better. Then he changed his clothes to a new gray suit with a red vest and gray top hat. Seeing as canes were provided he selected a black cane with a red crystal on top of it. As he looked out the window he flinched from the bright light and then remembered to select some sunglasses and put them in his coat pocket. Since he had very few personal items, everything he was wearing was loaned to him. Seeing as he had to wait until breakfast he decided to continue reading the book Sasha loaned him.

Sasha had awoken bright and early just as the sun started to cast a goldish sliver on the horizon, once out of bed she put on her clothes from the day before, no sense in wasting clothes during training. She ran through her typical routine the best she could in the new environment. Push ups, sit ups, a run and swordplay training. Taking a shorter stint today so she wouldn't be tired if something went happened at the expo that needed her on top form. Sasha then returned to her, shed the old clothes once more, bathed and put on a new set of her outfit. She got a small breakfast of oatmeal, and some bacon, on the way to return her plates to the kitchen she informed the doctor she was read, and the two set off to the expo. Once they arrived before stepping out of the carriage Sasha looked at the doctor. "Docteur..." she paused. "Are you ready? We must be sharp and keep our eyes out for anything odd, but you as much so as me, you know the behavior of the serum more than any of us."

Doctor Jackal nodded as he took a breath to collect his thoughts before he replied. He looked around and replied, "Aye. I'll keep a look out for anything familiar and hopefully leave the rough stuff to you. The last thing we need is the other guy making a mess of things." After a bit of self motivation they entered the Expo with their pins and began looking around. They passed a few food stalls, merchant advertising, souvenir shops and saw the Eiffel Tower before arriving at the Palace of Machines. The Eiffel Tower, built especially for the Exposition, was the tallest structure in the world at the time. A competition to build what was simply called "A tower of three hundred meters" with a base one hundred meters wide.
A second monumental building on the site was the Galerie des machines. It was a huge iron and glass structure which contained the industrial displays. It occupied the entire width of the Exposition site, the land between the avenue de la Bourdonnais and the present avenue de Suffren, and covered of glass windows.
The Gallery of Machines used a system of hinged arches (like a series of bridge spans placed not end-to-end but parallel) made of steel or iron. Although often described as being constructed of steel, it was actually made of iron. Another new technology that was promoted at the Exposition was the safety elevator, developed by a new American company, Otis Elevator. Otis built the elevators carrying passengers up the legs of the Eiffel Tower to the first level. There were pavilions especially devoted to the new machines and others devoted to maritime navigation, and another, the Palais de Guerre or Palace of War, to developments in military technology, such as naval artillery.

As Sasha and Dr. Jackal walked around they saw many new revolutions in technology never before seen by the world. The Expo was designed to quickly spread the word of the new marvels. Among one of the new machines made that seemed to be gathering a large crowd was the Steam Powered Saw Mill. It looked like a train engine powering a saw blade with a large leather belt. Many people seemed amazed by how well the demonstration was working out.

Counter to her usual stoic stance Sasha stood on her toes a bit to see over the crowd to see all of the machine. "Truly fascinating what you can do when you know the machine's timing." Sasha pointed past some people. "It loads and unloads it too." she swept her finger to the end of the system. "You'd have to be accurate by centimeter to not muck up the whole system." she noted, going back to feet flat on the ground. "Probably silly to think something so mundane compared to everything here as 'fascinating' but just a wonder." she shrugged. "Tiny watches make a sort of sense, little gears with not much place to go, scaling it up so big you have to the be so much more accurate on your measurements and the teeth on the gears, tension of the springs and belts. Méticuleuse...Meticulous." she said in both French and English.

Dr. Jackal looked at Sasha was pointing out the highlights of the machine she took an interest in. He did find it ingenious and very useful for its purpose as well as possible to be used in other industries like the textile industry. He looked around to see who was around the crowd since he was more focused finding any clues to Dr. Lemaire and any shady individuals. On the stage he could see some big wigs giving several speeches to promote the machine. Off to the side he could see many people interested in the machine. One in particular was a young blonde girl in pink standing with her butler. He found it odd that a young girl would be interested in a saw mill unless she was the kid of one of the bigwigs on the stage. That seemed to be the most likely reason she was there. The majority of the kids nearby wanted to eat sweets or look at other exhibits. Then the Doctor asked, "See anything odd Mrs. Lagrave?"

Sasha craned her head to see more of the crowd. "What do you make of that?" she asked as he subtilty pointed out a trio. A rather thin and sallow with the hunch of bad posture, though not medical looking man who was looking around a lot, like someone who sensed he was being followed, flanked by two men both quite large but not freakishly so. The build of a worker, maybe dock work, maybe previously a lumber jack. The were also looking around, but it was more of a scan the area, "The two large men must be bodyguards of some sort, but what do you make of the man with poor posture Docteur?"

Dr. Jackal looked around till he saw the men Sasha was referring to. He was impressed by her watchful eye. Sasha was indeed correct that two of them looked like goons while the other had a much different aura about him. He looked somewhat delicate and dangerous at the same time. Dr. Jackal remembered seeing a similar manner the man gave off as he ran many memories in his past then he noticed the man looking at someone to the side and nodding. As Dr. Jackal looked to see who he was nodding at he saw the butler next to the girl in pink nod back at him with a smug sneer. This puzzled Dr. Jackal as he wondered what they were up to. Surely they would not make a scene in such a public place with to many witnesses. He muttered to Sasha, "Something is off about them. I think they are connected to that snooty butler by the girl in pink. Either that or I am seeing things again." Dr. Jackal was not sure of himself these days since he had been known to hallucinate off and on in the past.

Sasha grabbed the doctors wrist. "We need to get closer." she whispered and started to pull him through the crowd, her other hand on a throwing knife. She hoped to not have to use it, but she'd do it if she had to. Pulling the doctor along to the front of the crowd near the Butler and the girl in pink, not yet approaching but on the edge of the crowd to the protests of the event goers. "If a confrontation should occur Docteur please stand clear, I know your 'friend' can fight but it would be a right mess for him to show up." she said.

Dr. Jackal did his best to keep up with Sasha as she pulled him along through the crowd. He muttered, "I agree. It would be best to avoid any confrontation with him involved......" Then suddenly the big wigs hosting the event for the saw mill began promoting the machine again. However they were cut short as the man with the two thugs casted a spell and launched an explosion at the steam engine running the saw. The explosion freaked everyone out as they panicked. One man was tackled by a few men and the girl in pink seemed frightened as she called out, "FATHER!!!!" The girl in pink was then stopped by the butler who grabbed her by the back of her hair. Then the out cold father of the girl in pink was quickly removed from the scene by his bodyguards. The girl in pink seemed awfully troubled by her dad passing out and carried off without her. Seeing as the mage was still blowing up the machine, Dr. Jackal then picked up a folding chair and struck the butler in the back to make him let go of the girl in pink.

Sadly the mage decided to take a cheap shot at Dr. Jackal and his explosion caused a chain reaction to explode the steam engine. This cracked a column nearby and it came crashing down on Dr. Jackal and the girl in pink. Out of desperation Dr. Jackal grabbed the girl in pink and swung her over towards Sasha before the large broker column fell on him and crushed him like a grape. Dust and smoke blinded everyone nearby but Dr. Jackal was no where to be seen.

The girl in pink was in a state of shock as her whole world just began falling apart in front of her. Her estranged father was still to busy working to talk to her, a mage tried to kill her father, her father's guards snuck him away without her. her butler just confessed to trying to kidnap her and she was saved by two strangers. To make it worse the man who saved her from her butler was killed by falling debris. She had nowhere to run to and was in a state of panic. As she looked at the dust she hoped that the man somehow survived so she could return the favor to him, but it didn't look good. In her moment of shock she inhaled some dust and began choking and rubbing her eyes to clear the dust.

"Mon Dieu." Sasha said shocked, she couldn't see the doctor only the debris. She then saw the two large men shaking off the confusion of the sudden chaos, and they were heading their way. "las Mademoiselle, please cover your ears." Sasha told the girl she was still slightly propping up as her other hand dipped into her coat, pulling out a strange gun. At a glace it looked like some old flintlock but was far more, the young woman just barely got her hands over her ears before a thunderous shot rang out. Just missing but the pillar behind one of the thugs exploded in a shower of bits of stone. If it had hit that man would have been done for. "Move." Sasha commanded, dragging the girl with her behind cover as the thugs pulled out pistols of there own, though they were far more traditionally arms. Behind the cover Sasha semi-forced the girl into an uncomfortable laying position that kept her out of any line of fire. "Keep your head down las Mademoiselle." Sasha said, as she flicked a small lever on the gun and pulled out a large casing in the single fire weapon putting in another.

co post with Jaxx