A tall, thin man in a rumpled gray suit stood at the door. His expression was condescending. His eyes were stormy gray, and he regarded the group with one eyebrow raised.
Timelock stood and walked over and grasped the man's hand. "Henry, nice to see you. How've you been?"
Henry, or The Inquisition, lifted his head in acknowledgement. "Well, thank you. Though I do not appreciate being made to wait." He aimed this last part at Gravitas.
The gravity lessened noticeably as the two glared at each other.
“Caleb...” warned Timelock.
The gravity returned to normal -- or, well, to what it had been before -- as the three walked back to the table.
Gravitas pulled out a chair for the Inquisition. "You have news?" he asked.
"I have indeed," The Inquisition said, his accent slipping now that he wasn't undercover. "I assume thou knowest of the Epics who rule this fair city, what they do ?"
"'Course we knew," said Architect gruffly as he bet. "We do our research. Raise you ten, Ricky."
"Enough with trivial news," ordered Gravitas. "I want to hea--" He cut off abruptly as there was a rumbling noise outside the window.
The Architect leaped from his chair, striding over to the curtains, which parted on their own as he drew near.
"Um, guys? You're going to want to see this. There appears to be a pile of ... zucchinis. An it's getting bigger."
"You can't be serious," Timelock snapped. He stood and walked over to the window. His eyes widened. "On the other hand, there does appear to be a large amount of zucchinis. And a group of Epics." He looked back. "I'd better go take care of this."
~~~
Timelock dashed through the lobby, shoving through the doors. Everywhere around him, objects stood still as he sped up his own time. He ran, stopping a block or so from the giant pile of vegetables, which was surrounded by Epics.
That's the Financier with the top hat, he thought. And I don't recognize some of the others, but that's the Metal over there. Well. This was going to be fun. He slowed his time back down just in time to see one of the Epics melt the pile of veggies into mush.
Oh, dear.
He started walking over as the Financier started screaming at the other Epic. The Financier calmed down a bit as Timelock drew near, and he could hear what they were saying. "...her. And fire this… heathen."
Timelock cleared his throat. "Ég meina ekki að trufla, but may I ask what is going on here?"
The Epics turned towards him.