Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Chapter Two
The chime signalling halftime went off, and the players from both teams, simultaniously relieved and exhausted, exited the field. All except for Typhus, however, whom nonchalantly waited by a water cooler on the Piata Penguin's side of the field. Typhus had made a good showing of himself, scoring three points, and the score was now tied 7-7.

Richard Isahn was extremely angry. Not only did he have to keep up this rediculous charade for the entire first half, but it was becoming increasingly frustrating to try and please the obnoxious and half-intoxicated crowd. Rich was not born to entertain, and at one point began making rude gestures with the costume's flippers toward several garrulous drunks that kept harrasing him. Ironically enough, this seemed to make everyone laugh, so he kept it up, miming all kinds of obscenities, mostly toward the opposing team's mascot. Even so, he was getting tired of it, and finally so was everyone else. He was out of ideas and out of patience.

Fwoosh!

The sudden burst of a flamer knocked him off his feet and face-first into the ferro-steel of the grandstand. Flickering red and orange flames covering his entire costume, he could feel the extreme heat beginning to melt away the mascot disguise.

With a yell of outrage, Rich used his cybernetic "muscle" to tear the burning costume off of him. Now exposed as a hunter, the shocked crowd could only gasp in more disbelief. Quickly bringing up his wand, the Forbidden Wand, crafted from the remains of Lassic's staff, he frantically glanced around, looking for any sign of his cowardly attacker. Damn. The crowd seemed just as confused as he was, as if the flame burst had came out of nowhere.

"Typhus!" Rich yelled into the earpiece, "I need your help! Please tell me you saw something!"

From the sudden yell of Richard from the ear piece,Typhus became partially def due to his sensitive hearing,he knew he could easily fix this problem with a dimate later,so he answered back,"Next time say it a tad quieter,I think I'm partially def and I did see something,I think."

Typhus looked around but couldn't see anything unusual so he said,"Could be a false alarm though,meet me behind the Acadamy after the game,I don't want to blow my cover yet."

So the game went on and Typhus scored two more points, the Penguins won 11-9. Then Typhus waited behind the Acadamy for Richard to show up.

Richard Isahn approached his fellow hunter behind the academy's main faculty building. There was a small nook where the maintenance shed was contained, and he spotted Typhus. They were both back into their full hunter's equipment, and Isahn was just itching to get this crook and whatever cronies and employers he may have had and bring them to justice...his way. He chuckled inside at the macabre thoughts that welled up into his mind....

No... don't let the darkness take hold...not yet...there was still too much to be done.
Mentally willing himself free of any negative emotion, Rich glanced at his companion.
"So tell me what you saw. I don't care how insignificant it may seem, we need a lead, or this mission's as good as over..."

Typhus quickly replied to Richard, "I think I saw a hand, with some sort of tattoo, I also think I heard someone whisper foi, then the flamer came on you, but I'm not one hundred percent sure." Typhus looked at the floor and saw the image again, then he heard the voice, "the voice sounded too young to be any adult over the age of seventeen."

Suddenly Typhus' eyes looked lifeless, remembering about his own home, where he hid for so many years, then his eyes returned to normal. He had, however, hoped Richard Isahn hadn't notice these eyes.

"Let's go investigate the techball arena, if we're lucky we will be able to find something else, " with that, Typhus led the way to the techball arena.

Richard Isahn's mind was working furiously to try and come up with some soluble facts from what Typhus described... a kid... tattoo... foi... the techball arena...
Hmmm....

He followed his fellow hunter, staying close behind as they re-entered the now empty arena. Only a few janitor-drones were now there, cleaning up the inevitable trash left behind by the clamoring fans.

They both looked around, furiously searching for any hint of what could be a clue as to Rich's attackers or their whereabouts.

While Rich was inspecting a trash dumpster, he saw a glint of metal. Quickly reaching in, he pulled out the flamer. So, they had double-teamed him...one crook used the flamer while another used foi to ignite the stream of chemicals at the last minute...that would explain why no one saw where it came from. This meant a either a professional team of assassins was at work or they had very specific instructions.

After further inspection, he found dumped clothing, and... two Piata Penguins season ticket stubs?!? Idiots, he thought to himself. They were overconfident, and had miscalculated badly. Well, he could rule out his attackers being professionals. No one that knew what they were doing would make a mistake like that. Judging by the seat numbers, they were very close to where he was "performing."

Wait... a kid with a tattoo.. ah... yes. He remembered now. He recalled seeing two students sitting there, and one had tattoos... but why would students of Piata attack the mascot of their own team? Perhaps they were being threatened or paid off? Or maybe it was deeper than that. The Penguins won, after all...

"Typhus," Rich said calmly into his earpiece, "I have a lead. Tell me, do you know a tattoo parlor around here? I believe it's time we made some inquiries..."

Typhus said back after hearing this,"The closest tattoo parlor I believe is in Zema or Nayla,but that tattoo would cost at least five thousand meseta,something a student couldn't afford."

Typhus was puzzled now,so he said into the ear peice, "You continue to look here, I'll go ask questions in Piata, also if you're in trouble, don't yell in the earpeice, send a tech high up into the sky so I can see it." With that said and done, Typhus went back to the locker room and changed back into his school uniform. So it wasn't a student, Rich thought carefully. It must have been a couple of kids hired to look like students... hmm... he knew that Typhus had led a street life once; Cole had obviously not known the attacker, at least on sight, but maybe he knew someone who did. You don't grow up on the streets without getting to know people, that much Rich did know.

However, Typhus had gone to investigate in Piata, while insisting on keeping radio silence, which probably wasn't a bad idea. Rich began wandering around the outside of the Academy building, and... what was that?

He heard a slight crackling to his right, and leapt just in time to avoid a pulse rifle blast. Isahn had to hand it to these kids... they knew how to sneak. He knew he could easily overpower them if he got the chance, but they currently had the advantage over Rich. He pretended to stumble and threw his hand straight up, using a wat technique to shoot a thin stream of ice into the atmosphere. Hopefully, Typhus saw it and came running.