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"Right? I don't understand it at all." Karia shook his head, poking the gash a little harder. Allx made a slight groaning sound but otherwise stayed silent. The woman appeared to have chosen silence because she didn't make a single comment at Sam's words. Still, Karia was almost positive her eyes showed fear.
"God, what it is with people in this area trying to act all high and mighty by keeping quiet? Does your pride matter so much you'd let yourself be tortured for the rest of your life? When you're literally in someone else's hands?" Sam sighed, shaking his head. It was stupid.
"Ah, well. I'll get you to scream eventually." Sam pulled his knife up, slipping the tip into the side of her face. It came away with a pop, and the feeling of her face being ripped off came with it. Unfortunately for her, she was a ball-jointed doll, and Sam wanted at her rubber bands.
"Apparently." Karia shrugged, snickering at Sam's words. He temporarily forgot about the doll in his hand, watching Sam intently. When the woman's face got ripped off, he winced. She appeared to be biting back a scream, but couldn't hold out. "Oof, seems like that worked somewhat. She said something, at least. Well, she made a sound." He laughed.
"It's a start, at least," Sam said, laughing some. Sam turned the woman's face in his palm so she could look at her own body.
"See those rubber bands? Every time I take one off, one of your limbs is going to fall apart," the man explained. "Tell me where Mycah is now, and I'll just put your face back on. What's your choice?"
Karia nodded, turning his attention back to his victim. "Look at that, Allx!" He turned the doll so he was looking at the woman. He gasped slightly, a word– maybe 'pan'– slipping from his mouth. "That looks painful, doesn't it? If only you had a way of stopping that… oh, wait. You do! Same deal as her, hmm?"
"Fine!" The woman exclaimed, staring in fear at herself.
"Don't, Pan!" Allx yelled, voice panicky. "You can't–" Karia sighed and covered his mouth, cutting him off.
Sam smirked some as the woman gave in. He'd barely had to do a thing to her!
"See, that isn't so hard," Sam said, turning her face to look up at him. "Now, where is Mycah hiding, hm? And don't forget, if you give me the wrong information just to stop this, I will make sure you're in pain for the rest of eternity." Sam offered his not-so-innocent smile at that, waiting.
"A-alright." She took a few deep breaths, looking to be in severe pain. Probably a combination of physical and emotional, Karia guessed. After all, she was betraying people and her face had been ripped off. Not very nice at all. "They headed for downtown. They have a penthouse there under the name 'Seya Creed'. That's all I know."
"See, this isn't that bad." Sam moved to put Pan's face back on, humming as it clicked into place. That pain disappeared as quick as it had come, though Sam wouldn't bother with anything emotional.
"Shall we head out then?" Sam let his hand and the woman drop to his side, flashing a smile at Karia.
Pan gave a soft gasp. Allx appeared to be trying to scream, but Karia's hand over his mouth stopped that. "We shall. I know a good place." He held out his other hand to Sam. There was no way he was walking all the way downtown from there. It was just too far, and he was feeling very lazy.
Sam let the hand with Pan fall to his side, taking Karia's hand in his.
"Perfect, then. I hope this Mycah is fun, because if not? Pan and Harina are pretty easily the most fun, and that's a major disappointment. Harina's small fry, and this chick isn't even a leader!" Sam shook his head some, but he was smirking still. They'd find some more fun dolls eventually.
"Ooh, that's really disappointing. I hope they're interesting too." Karia looked at Allx. "Is your boss fun?" Allx declined to respond, so Karia poked at the gash in his back aggressively in retaliation. He concentrated for a second, thinking of the place. They teleported into another alley– he had most of them in the city memorized for easy travel– the next second. "Alright, if she's talking about the place I think she's talking about, it should be a few blocks from here."
"Got it." Sam smirked some, looking around once before back to Karia.
"How hard do you think this'll be? I'm thinking if they ran they aren't much of a fighter, but who knows. Not to mention anyone they have guarding them." Sam looked down at Pan, lifting her up again.
"Any more useful tips you'd like to share with the class?"
"I don't know… they're a mystery." Karia shrugged, turning his attention to the doll in Sam's hand. "Yeah, tell us anything you know!"
"Do not, Pan!" Allx yelled. Karia yelped and shook Allx a few times in anger.
"Why did you do that? Did we ask you? No. Shut up." Karia adjusted his grip so that he was covering Allx's mouth.
"Uh… I-I d-don't…" Pan stuttered, glancing between Sam and Allx.
"Pan." Sam tilted her so she had to look at himself and Karia, finger under her chin. "If you do know something, and you don't share it, your punishment is going to be much worse than just being shaken around. You've only had a taste of what I can do to you, and I doubt you want to learn more."
"They can do the same thing as him!" Pan burst out, gesturing towards Allx as much as she could. "And they… they're not good at close-range combat." Allx tried to say something, but Karia's hand was thankfully preventing that.
"Huh. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" He laughed.
Sam chuckled as well, letting his finger drop from under Pan's chin.
"This is good news indeed, then, seeing as my main strength is close-range combat. This is going to be fun indeed." Sam turned to Karia, smiling some still.
"Shall we go claim our prize, then?"
"Ooh, yeah!" Karia nodded. "I can't wait to see you just… destroy them. It'll be fun. Especially since they're supposed to be so amazing." He laughed. "Of course! Onwards!" Karia stepped out of the alley, glanced up and down the street, and started walking. He was 90% sure this was the right way. And then after that, he was about 75% sure he was going towards the right building. It was one that many people in the shadier types of business used, though they probably all thought they were the only ones using it.
Sam had no idea where they were, or where they were going. He just hummed and went along with Karia, holding Pan in one hand and the other resting in his pocket.
"This is going to be fun indeed," Sam said once again. "Bringing them down to size."
"Heh." Karia snickered, peering down the street. His certainty had dropped down to 85%, as he couldn't see the building yet. It was probably just a little farther down the road than he had thought. Probably. Well, if they ended up being lost, they could always stop and regroup. It wasn't like they were in a hurry. Mycah didn't know that he and Sam were after them. They probably thought that they were safe. What a wrong thing to think!
"So, how far to this place?" Sam looked to Karia for a moment, head tilting as they walked. He wasn't so quick to say there was no chance they would face problems with all of this- still, they had two dolls who could be convinced to tell them what they need to know if the time came.
"Um… a couple of blocks, probably. It could be longer if it turns out I don't know where I'm going." Karia laughed, shrugging. "I'm probably right, though." He peered up, trying to see the building. It was pretty tall, so it shouldn't be too difficult– oh, there it was. "Yeah, a few blocks more. It's just right there." He pointed to the building.
"Got it." Sam looked at the building Karia was pointing to, smirking some.
"So, what's the game plan?" Sam looked back to Karia, head tilted. At least some direction would be good.
"The game plan?" Karia looked over at Sam, looking as though he'd just remembered that there should probably be one of those. This was mostly because he had. "Um. Walk in there, take them, and leave?" Karia paused for a beat. "I don't have one. Do you have one?"
"If they have the same abilities as Allx, I think we should have more than a bare bones plan just in case. At the very least something along the lines of surprise- if they think they're safe for the moment, if you're able to get me close to them without anyone seeing us then it would be a lot easier than just walking in and starting a huge fight. Though, don't get me wrong huge fights are fun, but they're also a risk we'll get hurt or, more likely, the target will get away." Sam sighed, thinking.
"Yeah, probably." Karia nodded. "Our first plan will be me getting you close, then. After that… um, big fight?" He shrugged. Planning wasn't his strength. That was Oci, every time. He just popped in and out, did what he was told. Karia could always leave if things got bad, after all. But he had Sam this time. He didn't want Sam to get hurt. Plans were better.