Kagato awoke with a groan. His head hurt. It really hurt. Was it a hang over? No, he could feel the bump on his forehead. Then he remembered.
"That Damn kid with the baseball bat... Wait... How could he hurt me?"
"How indeed...."
Kagato turned and noticed that No.9 was lurking in the shadows.
"Things are a little off, I do declare. Surely you must have noticed it, before you got it, that is..."
"What exactly are you babbling about?"
"Think, first of all, the references to the Black Man..."
"Yes yes, Nar-"
"Also our Current location."
"... Innsmouth?"
".... Doesn't something strike you as odd?"
"... Over than the fact we're at the location from a Lovecraft story?"
"... Exactly, that's pretty much my whole point."
"I admit, it is surprising that his story was accur-"
"Ever searched for Innsmouth on a map?"
"... Yeah, that's how we got here, What are you going on about, No.9?"
"But... Innsmouth is a made up place."
Kagato froze.
"... Correct. But, then again, so are-"
"No Breaking the Fourth Wall! I'm onto something here..."
Kagato groaned at the irony of that comment. Then he noticed something off.
"... Yes, yes, of course you are... Why does that Calender show a few extra weeks crossed off?"
"...That's actually the correct date..."
"I Was Out For How Long!?!??!?"
"... A while, we are all ready and set to leave now. I'm going drinking to celebrate! Wanna come with?"
Kagato's head throbbed, despite the reason for his headache not being drink related.
"I'll pass, and see if I can investigate on what is going on here."
"You mean, you're taking my theory seriously after all?"
"... Not all of it. I know Cthulhu exists... I went to highschool with him."
"... Oh... I bet he was a hit with the girls..."
Kagato gave No.9 a look, then deflated with a sigh.
"Actually, he was..."
"... Ah."
"Uh huh..."
"Well I'm going, before I learn any more facts I could probably do without..."
"Have a good time... But try not to drink too much..."
"I can take my drink!"
"It's not just that, we are on tempermental terms with that Order, I believe? I don't want you doing anything to upset them... Like you did with all those other cults you joined... Remember what happened with the Church of the Stars?"
"... Hey, it wasn't my fault that the Church Of the Stars burnt down."
"... No, how were you supposed to know that your flame thrower party trick would be so explosive at a function with Drinks."
"... or that they would react so violently!"
"Just be careful this time..."
"Sure sure..."
With that No.9 slamed the door. Kagato sighed. He had better put the bolts on tonight, and warn the others to do so too. In the meantime, he had to investigate into what exactly was going on here. The Black man. The Way everyone was acting. Their location. The "intelligent" shoggoth. It was all wrong, but how exactly?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kagato had had a long day. His investigation had turned up practically nothing. Bits and bobs, that made no sense yet, but maybe if he had more time. He would have to delay the departure. But maybe a good night's rest would help him. He, after checking the bolts a couple more time, checking his notes a couple time more, laid his head on his pillow and went to sleep. His sleep was restless though, as he was plague by a strange dream...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kagato awoke coughing. That was one seriously messed up dream. He would have trouble getting to sleep after that. Then he noticed someone was trying to open his door.
"It's Bolted!"
"Don't shout that, you fool, you'll wake 'im!"
"I think he's already awake, I can hear him moving in there!"
"... Give Us the Defiler, Outsider, and we won't keel you!"
"We won't?"
"... of course we will, we just want to, you know, fool him..."
"oh."
">ahem< What do you say, Ousider?"
Kagato rushed to the door that connected his room to No.9's and rushed in.
"... I don't think he's falling for it."
"... Knock his door down."

Kagato shook No.9 awake.
"uuuurrrrggg... Did you have to wake me? I have a hangover, and I just had one heck of a weird dream...."
"Why are the Innmouth locals trying to break down my door, asking for "The Defiler"?"
"... I don't know..."
"... You don't know, or you don't remember, 'Defiler'?"
"... I remember bits...."
"Oh you complete... Say, why did they try my door, and not your's?"
"Something to do with my poster maybe?"
"What poster?"

Meanwhile outside.
"Maybe we should try the defiler's door again... Maybe th-tha-that thing... has fallen to the floor."
"You first, I never seen anything so unspeakable in my life! And we WORSHIP the unspeakable..."
"Where on earth does one find a naked picture of Abe Vigoda?"

"... Anyway, We had better warn the others..."
Kagato rushed to the next Room, dragging No.9 with him. While No.9 did something about the door, Kagato awoke the guys. It had been decided, to keep costs down, that all the Male survivors would be in one room, while all the female survivors would also all be in one room.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"No.9 has down something to annoy the locals so much they want to kill us."
"Didn't they before?"
"... yes, but now they want to act on those urges."
"Ah..."
"Indeed, I'll go wake up the girls."
Kagato rushed into the next room, ignoring the hail of cosmetic objects.
"... Are you lot finished yet?"
A Vase hit him in the forehead, smashing.
"... Ow. NOW are you finished? Good, as the locals are angery, and wish to kill us. We need to get to our ride out of here, Right Now!"
"I get the feeling No.9 is responsible."
"HEY! I distinctly remember Ryoko, Airi, and Yosho being there too... at some point during the evening."
"We lost you when you ran off, claiming to be "King Wang". "
"... I don't remember that bit..."
Kagato shook his head.
"Alright, listen up. We need to get to the Sub. Fortunately, from day one I had drawn up this quickest route from here to the dock where the sub is docked. We will have to run through several more rooms, bolting the doors, occassionally pushing conveniently placed wardrobes in front where the bolt is missing, make a couple polygon perfect jumps from balcany to balcony, which can only be made if we are at full health, go through a warehouse using poorly implemented stealth, make our way through a burning church.... Etc etc, until we come to the Sub. Come now, speed is of the essence! Get through that door to the next room, now! We must hurry... No doubt they have discovered the last few rooms to be empty already, and are going to try to break down this door next!"
"Oh, I sure we have a while yet."
Kagato turned to Ryoko.
"What makes you so sure?"

Meanwhile, just by the door.
"You break the door down."
"No, you break the door down."
"I'm higher in the order than you! You do it!"
"I barged in last time! My voice is still slightly higher pitch! I'm beginning to wonder if my wonderfully horrid voice will ever be the same!"
"Do it, or by Dagon, I'll gut you like a fish!"
"After what they did to me last time, I'll take the gutting any day of the week."
"Oh come on, we're armed, what's the worst they could do to us?"
"Unspeakable things..."
"... You break the door down."
"Maybe we should knock first?"

[This is going to be the Actual RP focus for the First Poll week. Note, the Challenge is going in another Topic, you'll see why.]

Kazuma Kagato was abruptly awoken by someone who very much resembled his father, minus the mustache. From what he could collect, something was Very Much The Matter, and that he and the rest of the people here were in Very Great Danger. Or something along those lines. He wasn't entirely sure.
What he was sure of, though, was that he hadn't had a bath in a while, and that his (usually white) uniform was terribly dirty as well.
Kazuma tried to look for a familar face, couldn't find any, and resorted to dealing with it the way he always dealt with things he couldn't make sense of: He folded his arms and glared, waiting for a sign of someone who knew what they were doing to appear.

Airi slowly sat up in bed covering her naked self with the blankets. After everyone had gotten themselves inebriated the night before, Airi had no trouble at all shoving them out of the bed and claiming it for herself. Ever since Mihoshi had taken off with her ship (well actually it really was Mihoshi's ship) Airi hadn't had anything to wear except one of Mihoshi's bikini swimsuits and the toxic waste safety suit. The others all appeared to be badly hungover except Ryoko, so the only thing that Airi kept an eye on was the door. She was focused and ready to kill any form of male species that might make the mistake of bursting into the room as Airi tied on her bikini. Once that was done she took a look at the yellow plastic/rubber safety suit rolled up in a ball on the floor.

"Meh, I wore that stupid thing for a week without changing out of it. I need something else to wear!"

she muttered crossly to herself and then began to look around the room, trying to decide who's suitcase she was going to pillage. Her eyes fell upon Tsunami's and Airi remembered what had happened the day before.

"After rescuing Sasami yesterday, I think that you owe me a little something to wear Tsunami-chan, hehehe ..."

Then Airi tore open the suitcase and began to help herself to Tsunami's wardrobe.

[BTW, that wasn't yesterday, it was a couple weeks ago, in RPG time.-KTEG]

Outside the door, the Hotel's staff were still nervious about knocking. One had an idea.
"I know, we call for reenforcements! They won't knock the ... "penalty" for knocking down this door!"
"Yes,... though I called for back up from the Order a long while ago... they should have been here by now..."
"... Say, what's that faint 'Ding' sound I can just about hear...?"
"... Oh for crying out loud... Come on, let's go..."
They left the door.

"Alright, No.9, We're finally at the car... How are the others doing?"
".... I think they stayed in the room..."
"... Damnit, well we can drive by and collect them then... Come on!"

A short drive later.
"Bah, those outsiders will be gutted like a fi-AHHHH!"
"Hey, we hit another guy."
"... I don't care..."
".... Man, I wish you had allowed me to drive."
" That's part of the reason I won't let you... HEY! YOU LOT UP THERE! GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

Airi heard shouts and went to the window.
"Hey, Kagato and that thing are back... with some... horrid truck..."
Kazuma Kagato looked outside.
"Yuck! I don't want to get in that thing... OW! That ape thing just threw a Rock at me, I'm going to go down there and tell him what I think of him!"
"Wait, there's people trying to kill us out there!"
Kazuma Kagato opened the door.
"... or not... Oh well, come on then! Let's check out!"
All Exit.

"You Idiots! Why didn't you just go to the room where the outsiders were?"
"Well, we were never told which number they were at..."
"It's Always The Same Freaking Rooms you fools!"
"Oh..."
"Um excuse me, we're checking out now, here's payment, ummm keep the change, as ummm tip, later bye bye now!"
"Thanks, and please do check in again... What nice guests.... wait a second..."
The locals turned to watch the Tenchi Crew dash out and into the waiting vehicle.
"... Dagon Damnit."

By the time the locals had run outside, the truck was way on its way to the docks.
"Well, this is sure a smooth trip."
Kagato glared at No.9.
"You did not just say that... Now something is going to happen!"
"Nah, see, the only one with the power to stop us, is that Black Guy, and he does what is unexpected, so since we expect something bad to hapen when I say that, nothing bad will happen."
"... but, don't we now expect nothing bad to happen?"
"... Poop."
Sasami came down from the roof.
"I think I saw the Black Guy laying something down on the road."
"Damnit, No.9, this is all your fault!"
"Wait, we don't know he is laying somthing bad for us, we only expect that!"
The tires burst.
"... or at least we did until I said that..."
"No.9, just shut up."
The truck swerved into a wall. No one was hurt, and everyone crawlled out of the damage vehicle, which certainly would not be taking them to the sub.
Then the Order caught up.
"Ha, you thought you could escape the order! Well now we... hey, what's she drawing there?"
Airi, as though in a trance, as beginning to draw something in white chalk. It only took a moment. When it was finished, everyone turned and looked. The Order members, regretted this.
"AHHH AN ELDER SIGN! AHHH I AM HELD IN PAIN AND FEAR FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON! AHHH!"
"Quick, let's get out of here... No, No.9, do not smash them all with that crowbar."
"Ahhh, but it's so tempting..."
"NO! We don't know if we have the time...."
"Oh, alright...."
With that, they all left.

"Everyone, We're leaving now! ALL ABOARD NOW!"
"What's the rush, Outsider?"
The Crew borrowed from the Order looked at Kagato with suspicion. Obviously word of No.9's activities of last night had not reached the docks.
"Ummm..."
"I want to watch something on cable, and we only have that on the sub. Gilman's hotel doesn't have it."
"... Oh. Yeah, we've been meaning to talk him into getting it... Alright, right you are Mister 9 sir, all aboard, outsiders and all!"
Kagato sighed with relif.
"Say, where's Katsuhito?"
"I think I saw him wondering off by himself, as though he was talking to Tenchi, something about being back home, and a wedding?"
"... Eh? Strange thing about that, actually, I actually called their home myself... no one is there. I even went there yesterday, for a minute, not a soul there... I even found a note there, saying they had all gone, and it was dated... well, round about the time Survivor started..."
"But Katsuhito said he had spoken to Tenchi..."
"... Indeed... This is very strange..."
"Sir, we're ready to cast off... or whatever!"
"Er wait, we've left someone beh-"
"Full Speed!"
"Ay ay sir!"
"You idiot No.9! Oh well, I'm sure he'll be able to look after himself... Come we had better go to the Reception Deck..."
"Right... well that went better than expected... I think we lost that Black Dude..."
A worker dressed entirely in black walked by, holding a sack of coal.
"I dare say you're wrong..."
We then walked off., grinning.
"Damn cheeky worker, I am never wrong! And say I am, well at least there's no way that Shounen Bat can follow us!"

Outside the ship, a small figure was moving accross the surface of the water, on rollerblades. He quickly caught up with the sub, opened a hatch, and jumped in, just before it sunk below the water.

"... No.9, what did I tell you about shutting up? Well come one all, Welcome to the Next Stage of your Journey to Atlantis! Welcome to The SS-Sojia. I took the liberty of renaming it... Come this way..."

To Be Continued....