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Karia laughed, then started towards the bathroom. He needed to change his appearance, and he wanted to make sure it looked good. There was no way he was rolling up to this party without looking amazing.
Harina, hearing Sam's tone, looked up at him with a look of thinly veiled terror.
"Uh… what? I told you stuff… what else do you need?" She tried, voice wavering slightly.
"You see," Sam said, still smiling, "My weapon is a knife. Knives are made of metal. I, of course, will not risk losing it. That's where you come in! I need to turn you into a non-metal weapon. I'm thinking mallet." Sam smirked some, using one hand to tilt Harina's face up a bit more as he held her with the other.
"Just in case I need to bash Moriarty's head in."
As Harina listened, her look of horror slowly became more pronounced. "You… you're… you're going to turn me into a weapon? How is that even possible?" She exclaimed, voice loud and panicked. "You're going to kill Moriarty? With me?"
"How is it even possible I turned you into a doll?" Sam pointed out. "And if it comes to that, yes. Karia wants to try to talk her into switching sides, but if it doesn't work out I won't have much opportunity to try to doll her, so killing it is!" The man tucked Harina under one arm, reaching into his pocket to grab his knife.
Harina let out a frustrated breath, lips curled down in annoyance. She looked like she wanted to argue, but knew there was nothing she could say that would change Sam's mind.
"Are you ready?" Karia called from the hallway. "How excited is Harina for her new job?"
"I'm ready!" Sam pulled his knife out, holding it to Harina's cheek. In a moment, he was holding a mallet instead of a doll, putting his knife away.
"And not at all~!" He stepped out, holding the mallet with both hands. "Then again, it's not really like she can complain now, and I doubt she's dumb enough to do it when she gets turned back."
"Classic Harina." Karia peered at the mallet. He now looked like a short man with very wavy brown hair and what he thought was a very attractive face. He'd tested it with Oci, and it seemed like he'd been correct. "I'm guessing that's her?" He gestured at the thing in Sam's hands. "Moriarty will be so embarrassed if she gets killed with that." Karia giggled.
"Mhm!" Sam confirmed. He swung the mallet loosely in a circle to test the weight balance, nodding to himself in satisfaction.
"And I bet anyone would be, really, if they had any self-respect. I'd love to add someone with her kind of power to my collection, but I can't risk my knife. I could always try some fancy maneuvering, but it's too risky even for my taste." The man let out a sigh, moving to Karia's side.
"So, shall we go?"
"Really! You are so interesting." Karia shook his head, grinning slightly. "Yeah, that makes sense." He sighed, then nodded. "Indeed. Let's go get them with your fantastic Harina-mallet and your knife! And I will provide moral support and backup. And maybe negotiate, depending on how things go."
"If she's smart she'll negotiate," Sam said, laughing some. He slipped his hand into Karia's, smiling at the thought of what was to come. "Now, let's go infiltrate that base!"
"Hmm, her being smart? That's debatable." Karia wrinkled his nose, glancing down at Sam's hand in his. "As you wish, my dear." A second later, they were standing in the abandoned house where they'd started their scouting mission. The second floor, because Karia wasn't messing around with the non-existent stairs. "What do you say we come in from the top? It'll be easier than the front door, at any rate."
Sam chuckled some, looking around as they arrived at the building.
"That sounds like an excellent idea to me." He let go of Karia's hand after a moment, humming some.
"Perfect." Karia nodded and started towards the roof. He had a small smirk on his lips, excited for what was to come. Karia settled down in the same place they'd been in the first time and peeked into the courtyard. There wasn't anyone in it at the moment.
Sam followed Karia up to the roof, quiet as he settled down. He sat the mallet in his lap, for the time being, peeking out as well.
"Mm…" This would be interesting, then. He had no real way of judging just what was going on with no one to judge off of.
Karia scanned the courtyard again, eyes landing on a shadowy figure in the corner. He narrowed his eyes at the shadow, wondering who it would be. A few seconds later, a young woman stepped into the sunlight, looking towards the door. A group of people walked past her, followed by a dark-haired man. "Oh! There he is!" Karia gestured towards the man excitedly. "It's Adrian!"
Sam looked over the man who appeared, nodding some.
"And I'm to take it the woman who stepped out first was Moriarty? This could be tricky. We could head down right behind Adrian, but she might be able to do something to my knife before I can cut him. If we attack her, though, Adrian and the others could escape."
"You're right." Karia nodded, pressing his lips together. This was an interesting situation. "I could take care of her while you do something about him. Just to be absolutely sure, I could take her somewhere else for the time being? That way there's no chance she could do something to your knife. What do you think?"
"Sounds good to me! Want a mallet just in case?" Sam chuckled some, offering the Harina weapon to Karia as more of a joke than anything.
"Hmm, I do." Karia grabbed the mallet and smirked at Sam. "Now, want me to drop you off behind him?" Karia glanced down at the courtyard. Adrian had stopped and was talking with one of the people. James was still standing there.
"Yep! I'll wait the time of takes for you to get Moriarty out before pulling my knife and knocking him. I'll deal with anyone else who tries anything, too. Hopefully this shouldn't take long at all." Sam smirked still, watching Adrian with greedy eyes.
"Sounds like a plan." Karia grabbed Sam's hand. "Here we go." In a second, they were standing behind Adrian. Karia let go of Sam, gave him a wink, and teleported to Moriarty. She had pulled her knives out the second they appeared, but apparently wasn't ready for him to move so fast. He grabbed her arm and teleported out of there before she could react.
Sam laughed as Karia left with Moriarty, pulling his knife out as soon as she was gone to leave a long slash down Adrian's back. Moriarty would be the real fight, after all, if Karia left her alive long enough for Sam to join. He grabbed Adrian by the wrist as he started to shrink, pulling him neck and away from the others.
Adrian was obviously not expecting a fight, and neither were the rest of his people.
"Who– what did you do?" One of them shouted, staring in horror at Adrian.
Karia had brought James to an abandoned factory in the outskirts of the city. As soon as they arrived, Karia let go and stepped back for her– for his own safety.
"Who are you– Waylin?" James frowned in confusion, stopping her attack for the moment.
Sam wrapped his arms around Adrian as he shrunk, using his fingers to keep his mouth open like he had Augustine.
"The exact same thing I'll do to you if you don't leave right now," Sam said, laughter in his voice. He held the now doll Adrian up, showing off just how alive he still was.
The people's eyes all widened. They'd been in all sorts of strange scraps before– even more, once Moriarty had joined them– but this was another level. Most of them, almost at the same time, decided that this was no longer worth their lives and fled.
"Oh, it is me! How did you find out?" Karia gasped. "Wait, let me guess. Was it the fact that I snatched you from under the nose of that wonderful Adrian like no one else could?"
"Waylin. Why did you take me away? Who was that man?" Moriarty asked, giving him a glare.
"Don't worry. It's Adrian we're after, not you. If you just scuttle off and don't bother us," Karia gave her a dangerously sharp smile, "then you can go free. What do you say?"