Lurp sifted lazily through the shallow tide pools of his hidden grotto. Most of the alcohol he had hidden had been washed away and lost to the sea, but his lost cache had nothing to do with his lethargy. The truth was he felt trapped...

His recent excursions beyond the confines of Shokushu had made him privy to the fact that he had finally been tagged. Despite his excellent infiltration, emulation, and memory drugs, something had managed to slip through the cracks. He had discovered his file in the ADD database of wanted renegades. No picture had been associated, but there was a description of Bismoean abilities as well as the psychological workup he had received prior to his tribunal. He poured over the memory of each of his victims, trying to figure out where the leak might have come from, then it dawned on him.

There was one ship he had failed to fully disable before ravaging the pilot, it was such a small ship that he didn't think it could've had in-flight cockpit recorders. The ADD must've analyzed the information and put pressure on his government to release his data to them.

Lurp bubbled angrily at the thought of his own people selling him out. Banishment and exile were one thing...but he had once been the finest Assimilator in the Bismoean Collective Military. Surely he deserved better than to be bartered off like a bargaining chip.

Angry and bitter, he gathered his gelatinous form into a rounded mass and bounded off towards the forest, crashing through foliage and brush, paying little heed to the care he usually took to move stealthily and quietly.

"Fortunate that they didn't release the information on my resonance frequency, but if they were going to sell me they may as well have done that too!" He burbled to himself as he rolled into a clearing.

Kiwagar was standing on the edge of the clearing in the tree's shadows to avoid the sunlight which harmed him greatly. He spotted Lurp and looked curiously at him. He took a step foreword toward the gelatinous creature and rustled some of the bushes around himself.

"Reapers alive!" He cursed to himself as he detected movement in the brush around him.

Nearly instantaneously he formed ihimself into a shrub and stood still except for the occasional swaying of his branches by the wind.

If it was simply a student they would probably pass it off as their imagination. "Control you anger Lurp..." He chided himself sternly, it was precisely the uncharacteristic slip up that had landed him in this mess.

Carefully he scanned the area around the clearing. His attention eventually settling upon a tall figure that was somehow managing to skulk in the shadows. He may have missed noticing the thing entirely he hadn't bothered looking upwards.

The thing...was staring straight back at him.

I looked like myself, though with normal ears and without wings, but still in my gossamer gown of translucent white. And I emerged from the brushes in my own area, staring at the gelatinous creature. "And what are you A puddle of goo? Ejaculate, perhaps?"

Ejaculate! Indignation crept in and replaced the surprise almost in an instant. This shrub ruse was pointless, slowly Lurp melted down into his normal rounded mass and drew himself to the edge of the clearing.

Glancing at the massive figure in the shadows he decided to forgo dealing with what appeared to be a reptile and address the girl instead. Staring at her fixedly he reformed his figure until he looked exactly like her, down to her clothes and hairstyle, and addressed her using her own voice.

"Perhaps you'd like to try again wench." He spat, his adopted voice filled with contempt. "You don't smell or act like a student," he sniffed "but the ADD has sorely underestimated me if they think the likes of you can bring me in."

It was a calculated gamble, his instincts told him that the ADD was unlikely to hire giant reptilian aliens, so his guess was that if he didn't provoke it, whatever it was, wouldn't get involved.

The woman however bothered him. She definitely wasn't a student, not only by the way she dressed and acted, but her ability to appear out of nowhere and surprise him, filled him with suspicion, even despite the fact that he hadn't exactly been discreet with his movements through the jungle.

I laughed a warm, friendly laugh and my skin seemed to glow, though many would dismiss it as a trick of the eyes. "Oh, creature, I think you'll find that my ability to not smell nor make a sound on approach is not from some training, but rather an innate quality. One that I'm sure would interest you nearly as much as the propositions of this place do."

"Stranger by the moment..." Lurp thought to himself as he noted the glow of light which seemed to spring from beneath the girl's skin.

"Innate quality you say...that suggest that you are not what you seem...and I have little interest in sharing anything with someone who does not show her true form...I'm in enough trouble as it is." With that, Lurp melted down the girl's features and returned to his natural spherical shape, his body becoming nearly transparent.

Slowly he started backing away from the clearing and into the surrounding foliage.

My index fingers pressed against one another above my ead and I drew in the air a circle, and a ring of golden light followed my fingers. Once my halo was complete, my large wings unfurled from nothingness behind my back and my ears formed points, "I am Altima, Herald of the Almighty. And I am here to grant you more than a day-to-day existence in this place. To invite you to a Holy Crusade that God has called down onto this land." I smiled, "The creation of a Carnal Kingdom, a Heaven of Pleasure, on this simple slavers' world." I gave a warm laugh, "A worthy challenge, no? One far more befitting the more talented creatures here than the common hunt of common prey that surely becomes all to redundant, and perhaps even boring, though sexually satisfying.."

Lurp stopped in his tracks. His guess had been right but this was much than he could've expected. His study of human culture had led him to believe that the existence of angels, though probable, was more likely myth than fact. However, his surprise, quickly dissipated as he considered the myriad of other strange creatures he had encountered in his life.

Drawing himself up into a simple humanoid shape he addressed the angel once more. "I am not bound here Altima...anymore than you are, and as far as creating a new kingdom is concerned..." Lurp shook his head slowly, "I am far done with empires, kingdoms, nations, and the like...I serve no one."

"My quarrel is with the ADD...the students here are no more to me than pleasurable distractions, and I don't suspect that they'll ever be more." With that simple statement he continued sizing up the angel before him.

"The Directorate is proof that humankind is capable of more than you expect. They are small and frail, but they constantly better themselves, they grow and change in ways most other creatures don't. Each race has it's gift, and the gift to humans was their self-evolution, their capacity to become more than they are, and more than you expect," I was calm, "So, the choice is this, creature; do you serve in Hell or reign in Heaven?"

"Nothing is ever as guaranteed, herald." Lurp responded inflectionlessly. "I do not presume to lecture you on the extreme nature of your proposition so you should take care not to classify me in your view of the universe."

Slowly he begin shifting through all the different human forms he had taken throughout his life. The effect a strange and surreal display as one image shifted to the next. "I will neither serve nor reign...the flux of existence itself is all that is needed."

Suddenly he stopped, then returned to his natural form. "At this moment...this...is enough."

"When the time comes, and you wish freedom from the mundane, you will know how to find me, I trust?" I offered kindly and warmly.

"I'll remember your face." Lurp responded, nearly whimsically, as he shifted his form to match her image once again, complete with the wings, glowing skin, and even a make-shift halo.

"Altima." He repeated in her own voice. "At the very least we understand each other...you may call me Lurp."

Slowly he returned to his original form.

Kiwagar emerges from the deeper shadows to show himself. "I have no clue what you guys are talking about.. except that the directorate are very annoying..."

"In time, they won't be a problem for anyone." I said simply, though ws fairly convinced that I wasn't going to gain any ground here.