|| b.i.r.d.s of a feather__

[rikelusdeverell]

“Haha, the chances of you dying are quite slim now actually..” he mused before noticing a Deep Ground soldier advanced to within a few feet of him before the soldier hammered down on the trigger only to hear a faint, click, click, click sound. Rikelus’s grin widened, “Should’ve checked your magazine rookie.” He lifted his foot and delivered a swivel kick the enemy soldier twisting his gun out of his hand and lifting his elbow up and outward before jerking it back towards the far end of his body bitch slapping the Soldier with the gun following by upper cutting him with the butt of it. A loud moan of pain was heard coming from the soldiers mask before Rikelus tossed away the gun as if it were a trivial toy.

Rikelus looked at the oncoming onslaught that fled from the elevator before sighing, blowing a lock of stray azure hair out of his face. Commodore Deverell lifted his finger in the air before he used a stray piece of sharpen to cut it open and leave a circle around him before he began chanting and a bright green Mako colored glow rose out of the ground around him. Rikelus disappeared for a moment as an array of different colored materia replaced his being, until it shifted to a bright red orb, “Hades..” his voice echoed throughout the battle worn chamber as the cloaked demon appeared on his place boiling a cauldron of pure destruction. A low growling noise emanated from the devil as he laughed coldly and literally froze a set of buttresses as the demon poured over the cauldron of steaming black liquid which washed over the area instantly killing most of the Soldiers, while the others were inflicted with more status effects than there were colors in a prism.

Hades soon dissipated with leaving only a maniacal laugh and a crouching Rikelus Deverell who grabbed onto the chain wrapping his legs around the other and began shimmying across it towards the other side with a smug grin on his face.

If misery ever had a face, then this place fitted right in with the usual suspects perfectly. It stood barren, utterly abandoned to decay and rust. It’s a shame that such an ancient fortress, built of metal instead of stone, was left to deteoriate. I almost slightly mourned the demise of a it’s pristine architecture. It came from quite a glorious era, when emerald-green life had flowed through its veins. Still deep down he could smell the life blood of the planet coursing a few levels down. Apparently time hadn’t stripped away all its dignity.

Upon reaching the other side, Rikelus walked across hefty girders which supported metallic bridges to ominous passageways which leaked of water damage. The empty staircase they reached left him blinking once or twice before he descended it into the ruinous site. He noticed the railings had been broken off recently, along with the patchwork of electrical cables he had fixed were torn apart. “It’s changed quite a bit since my last travel, it seems something else has been down here as well..” Rikelus noted to her as they exited a door two levels below looking at an ugly horde of metal stretching across to Mako ducts which arched downwards. “Our best bet is to take the Mako ducts down to the refinery, the only thing holding them in place is iron grates..What do you think?”

[acidgypsy]

She smirked and rolled her head upwards on her shoulders, thumbing her chin in mock contemplation.

"Well, seeing as our exit is blocked by a horde of insane bastards with machineguns intent on our bloody and humiliating demise, there really isn't any other option, now is there?"

Maji's laugh was a bit tense this time-- either from nervousness or fatigue, or perhaps both. Or maybe it was the dreadful forboding that she got trickling down her spine whenever she got a whiff of Mako from the ducts looming up from the gloom like petrified leviathans of titanium alloy and steel wires. Something wasn't quite right here...

Peering into the murky darkness with narrowed patchwork eyes, she strode boldly forwards, assessed the bolts holding the ducts shut with a tilted head, and took a deep breath. If she thought the Mako stench was bad now...

WHUMPH.

Her torso torqued neatly to the side, twirling with her momentum in a roundhouse kick that left a sizable puckered dent in the corrugated metal. A second kick blasted open the ducts with perhaps unnecessary force-- ripping the duct doors off their hinges and sending them tumbling away into the blackness of the tunnel.
Forcing the urge to retch from the overpowering scent of Mako oozing forwards in an invisible cloud of noxious fumes, she wrinkled her nose and glanced over her shoulder at Rikelus.

"You'd think they'd have the wits to use air freshener or something... this stuff's giving me a headache."

Indeed, Miss Alharad looked rather pale under her tanned complexion; an irritating buzz had started to undulate in her ears in accompaniment to the rise and fall of a tide of whispering voices she couldn't quite understand. The few words she could pick out, however, weren't even vaguely pleasant.

She forced herself to ignore the distractions and motioned Deverell to hurry up with an impatient wave of her hand, striding with brash confidence into the velvety blackness and the ghostly silence while locking a duo of knives into her forearm plates.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

A ghostly silence haunted the eerie battlefield below the Mako pumps, it looked as if someone had got to the Deep Ground forces prior to their arrival. Heh, nothing like a trail of blood to find your way home, the acidic smell of blood drenched throughout the cavern floated through the darkness, brushing past broken buttresses which had soon fallen from grace. Claw marked holding tanks mourned the disfigured lavatory which they had arrived in after dropping down. Corpses near the computer terminals lay cold and covered in slight undergrowth. Where they had fallen was nothing but brittle bones, flesh had parted ways with the body long ago and nothing moved in the room.

At last, a sole survivor of the bloodbath stirred moving forth with his wide blurry eyes scanning the scenery before he found himself twisted in the ground, a pain that felt like a thousand needles tearing at his broken arm. “Rikelus Deverell..UGHhhhh..” The man writhed with pain before the Commodore had lifted the machine gun towards the soldier and fired off a round causing him to slump over and hit a key on the center console.

He froze solid on finally noticing a tall, figure in a white coat, seemingly translucent walking across what looked to be an elaborate laboratory towards a man resembling him in a holding tank pumped full of Mako. Upon tapping the tank, a keen pair of ruby-red eyes shot open and set fixated on the scientist. The scientist chuckled before speaking, “Rikelus Deverell, you never cease to amaze me. Hollander was wrong about you my friend, you surpass anything this world has ever seen. It would’ve been a pity had you been sent to Nibleheim, good thing you were wounded by that deteoriating shell of a Soldier..muwahahahaha..” .

Rikelus snarled out loud before tossing the machinegun at the control panel causing the white phantom to disappear before folding his arms looking over at Maji who seemed to be pilfering through items on a nearby table for usefulness, “Find anything useful? I doubt you’d ever have enough guile to sell any of that worthless junk to anyone in Edge even Don Corneo in new wall market.” Rikelus cracked a rare joke without laughing or smiling but simply bearing that incredibly stoic expression due to recent events. Not a twinge of emotion had crossed his limestone expressions during the entire time the recording had been played.

[acidgypsy]

Maji rolled her eyes, bouncing a piece of rubber from the debris she was scrounging through off of Rike's forehead with lazy accuracy.

"Oh shut it, you. At least I'm not the one who seems to have a fascination with undressing people with my eyes."

She elevated her chin in the air in mock snottiness, strutting off into a different corner of the shadowy lab to look for valuables with her usual 'I'm too cool for you' walk. So far she had found an adamantine ring, a scrap of alloy she couldn't identify, and a colorful orb of glass that she deemed shiny enough to merit attention. The rest was just knicknacks of varying size, mounds of dust, and a few bones of questionable origin.

Slipping the new ring on her finger, she cracked her knuckles noisily before debris flew left and right as she inspected each handful with practiced ease.

Iron? Nope.
Tin? Nope.
Heh heh heh. Fashion magazines? What did this scientist do in his spare time? Nope.
Ew. Bones. No thank you.

Maji growled in exasperation, rolling her weight off the balls of her feet where she was crouched.

"Aw man! Nothing but junk... you'd think something even vaguely interesting could be in here somewhere..."

A sheet of heavy metal alloy rang out noisily upon impact with the dust-laden flooring as she hurled it from her with a rancid curse; kneading her temples with her fingertips. Something was making her angry for no appearnt reason... and that damned buzzing was getting worse.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

"Vaguely interesting eh? This stuff is the heart of the ShinRa science lab, this is where the innovation took place for everything that made them infamous. Although it's a pretty grim story, it really puts it in perspective when your standing right where history took place.." Rikelus chided her as they continued their way around the room looking for an exit.

It took a long time before they found an exit out of the lavatory. The grim path had led them up further, growing more narrow until they had to crawl on their stomaches through a small side-vent which ultimately led them to an overhead grate at the end. Rikelus lifted it up with a slight grunt and climbed out first and helped Maji out who seemed uneasy about either the surroundings or something else. He glanced over towards a wide bridge that overlooked a complex network of platforms and pipes that trudged down below into that sea green substance known as Mako. In the far distance he could hear a faint howl over the continued rumble of machinery.

The air seemed cooler, it was always cooler the further you delved into the abyss or so it was phrased to him that way long ago. He followed the path down the empty bridge before hearing loud footsteps. However he was prepared for the onslaught to come forth, but not prepared from the means which it came. Upon nearing the end of the bridge, hundreds of bandersnatches poured forth from every hole in the brick walls which seemed to reach up back towards the surface. The wretched cargo boxes and rusted containers were broken open and their contents sucked dry by the monsters.

Rikelus gritted his teeth slightly shutting his eyes for a moment before whipping out his sword and swinging it haphazardly in a golf club style with two hands on the hilt, “I hate bandersnatches..!” His voice sounding a little shaky for a moment as he knocked them too and fro off the bridge before they had all scattered. Upon them completely leaving the scene he shivered for a moment before his nose picked up a foul odor. He took a whiff of the air before looking over at Maji, “Get down!” A thunderous blast ripped through the cargo boxes as a shockwave of deep forest green smoke rushed forward coming from a nearby Great Malboro. Rikelus was hit by the breath and fell forward paralyzed on his face, with a funny look still frozen to his facial expressions. “Ughhh..”

[acidgypsy]

Between ducking down below the debris thrown about by the Malboro and the constant squeals of metal straining to hold the bridge steady, Maji barely had time to catch Rikelus' warning before a whiff of the paralyzing gas penetrated her senses; freezing her halfway into a crouch. So not only were they both stuck in place with one hell of an ugly creature advancing on them, but the Mako fumes were stronger than ever...

"Damn. This is humilitating."

Forcing herself painfully slowly into a standing position, she struggled to fight with the noxious gas pouring from the Malboro slithering towards them on it's many tentacle-like appendages; multiple muddy-yellow eyes trained on the two figures over gnashing rows of daggerlike teeth.

Murderer!

[/i][/color]

Quite suddenly, Maji stiffened, staring at the drooling beast with wide eyes. It seemed she was hearing and seeing something that just...wasn't there. but from the set of her shoulders and the clenched jaw, it wasn't pleasant.

Murderer! child killer![/i]

"No! I--it was a mistake! I never meant--"

You killed them all!

Each word from the hallucination cloaking the Malboro from her eyes fell like a hammerblow on the mercenary, reducing her proud stance into a protective crouch again, seemingly unaware of how the paralysis sould've kept her limbs anchored in place. And yet she drew several knives and leapt at the vision with a yell of defiance-- exacting bloody retribution on the Malboro that she ddn't even know was there.
What she saw were children.

The children she had killed, their mothers, fathers, siblings...

The accusing mob of ghostly people continued to chant and whisper maliciously in her ears long after the actual Great Malboro itself was no more than green ichor coating her boots and arms and a few forlorn tentacles and eye stalks wriggling around underfoot, keeping Maji in a delerium where anything that moved pointed an accusing finger and screamed her name with the utmost loathing.[/center][/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

“What the hell?” He murmured as the paralyze effect wore off completely and he shook his head, his jaws still feeling slightly numb from the overwhelming of his senses. Malboros were grown and killed after they reached a certain height and used for anesthesia in the old days. It’d be pretty hard to picture a SOLDIER on the battlefield taking a hit from a Malboro before going under the knife; but I was pretty sure that the story was so odd it was likely true. Rikelus’s crimson red eyes fluttered open and he staggered to his feet glancing over at her.

She seemed as though she was fighting invisible foes still, and her demeanor was rather woeful. Rikelus lifted a hand on his face before shaking his head, “Majidah?” He posed the question to see if she had control of herself before a grin slipped across his expressions. The taste of utter madness was bittersweet and called out to even the most misbegotten souls in the surrounding area. He ventured forward down the ghostly hall towards her and the dreaded silence wained heavily almost like a burden because of the darkness and grim features of the place was more insidious than he remembered.

He spoke softly, “Shhhhhh…Shhhh…Shhhhhhh it’s gonna be ok.” Rikelus was careful enough to keep his distance because of her new uncanny swiftness rivaled that of the guardians of the pagoda. His facial expressions seemed somewhat stern, although his keen hearing and vision seemed focused ahead as he slowly advanced close and closer towards her in what seemed to be an eternity before he heard the secretions of liquid dripping down from several feet. Rikelus wraped an arm around her mouth and the other around her waist falling back onto the cobblestone and taking a pretty hard blow to the lower back on the stone bridge. Luckily he had fallen behind what was left of a crate and the saliva from a hulking behemoth dripped down upon his forehead and his gaze remained forward and his limbs unmoving.

The sound of a rat scuttling across the floor caused the behemoth to charge down another corridor, only to by two overly large Dark Dragons who had deep green throbbing veins visible underneath soft spots on their necks. Rikelus let out his breathe that he had been holding slowly before he released his hand off her face hoping that she didn’t mutilate him. He could feel her elevated heartbeat with his hand and then he noticed where his hand was in relation to her own anatomy and he quickly removed it seeming somewhat surprised for a moment. "Ughhhhhh---I--Uhhh." He cut himself off in midsentence before his crimson red eyes shifted their gaze through a hole in the crate to look for advancing predators.

[acidgypsy]

Maji's eyes cleared, looking extremely puzzled as to how on earth she had suddenly phased from fighting a Malboro to being unceremoniously stuffed under the remains of a crate. She couldn’t remember much other than a blur of color and sound… and something she didn’t like. Couldn’t quite put her finger on it, though.
Speaking of fingers…
At the faint pressure over her ribs, Majidah’s gaze shifted downwards towards the expanse of her flesh, blood, and bone where Rike’s hand had hastily vacated…
She reddened considerably and crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive gesture.

"…we’re going to have a talk after we get out of this mess, you pervert you."

Her voice was deadly quiet, for fear of drawing the attention of the creatures she heard scuffling around not far away, but it was tinged with embarrassment and the usual dose of humor. It seemed she knew better than to think he groped her purposely. Rike could hardly talk straight when embarrassed, for Pete’s sake. Any chance of concentrating on lecherous activities like that under the current circumstances was less than nil.
Slowly, ever so slowly, she inched out from the comforting warmth of nestling against her partner’s chest and poked her head out around a broken piece of rotted wood; pupils narrowed against the darkness as she probed ahead for movement.

However, she hurriedly pulled herself back into the little shelter of the broken crate at the first signs of movement; heart pounding.

”There’s too many of them to take on. We’ll have to lure them out one by one.”

She murmured grimly, making sure all her gear was locked in place.

”I’m faster than you, so I’ll play as the bait. Once they all get on to the bridge, I’ll double back and we can break the hinges holding the overpass in place, okay? Wish me luck!”

She exhaled long and slow, flashing a grin and a thumbs-up before wriggling out from the broken crate, rolling to her feet, and spinning to face the looming darkness where she knew several creatures capable of killing her in one swipe hid. And how, you might ask, did she get their attention?
…er…not in a classy way, that’s for sure.

Flipping the old one-fingered salute, she smirked and yelled at the silent shadows in the most obnoxiously arrogant tone she could think of.

”Oi! Your mom’s so dumb, she got locked in a grocery store and starved to death! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, suckers!”

Wether the beasts could understand her or not, they certainly didn’t like her tone of voice. She barely had time to turn and bolt before several nightmare creatures thundered out from the dark like angry bison, stomping, snorting, howling, and generally giving off the idea that none of them were all that pleased with Maji’s insults.
And our dear Miss Alharad?

Tch. Doing what she usually did of course. Made it worse

”Yeah, you heard me! Your mom’s so fat, her cereal bowl comes with it’s own lifeguard!”

…and so on and so forth. She had a knack for being bait, didn’t she?

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

Rikelus lay outstretched for a moment with his arms casted outwards before he lifted is pallid half buried face from the crate and vaulted forth lifting his large sword into the air charging forth for a support pillar. An unnatural hush spread throughout the atmosphere. No movement made. No breath released from his diaphragm as he pulled the sword backwards until the highest point extended was reached. It seemed as if time itself stopped during his mad dash. He glanced out of the corner of his eye before putting the full brunt force of his weight and arm into the blow nearly ripping his arm out of socket.

The pain on his sullen face was war torn and he displayed such a spiteful visage as a loud clamor erupted echoing throughout the poisoned reactor. The herd followed thus forth past the falling Miss Allharad skidding past her onto the weak cobblestone. The weight of the hulking figures caused the bridge to collapse and one of them swiped at Rikelus who ran up the creatures muscled outstretched arm ending at the beast’s neck before kicking off the back of his head jumping forward across the collapsing structure.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh---!” He shouted out, reaching for the edge of the cliff. THUD! Rikelus’s body slammed against the side of the crumbling cobblestone and he furiously reached out grabbing onto a solid piece of rebar pulling himself up before it crumbled causing him to tuck and roll forward and stand up dusting himself off shrugging at her as if it was nothing before he pulled his sword up and hurled it past Maji’s head whisking it through the air as if it were a knife until it hit an approaching Dragon Zombie knocking the odious monstrosity through a kettle used for cooking chemicals.

He noticed that she was shooting him that unconquerable gaze and then another memory flooded in off the reactor, a loud buzzing noise seemingly blocked out everything she was saying along with the discordant hum of the machinery nearby. His mind sped out of control and seemed to scramble a zillion times over. In this delirious moment his eyes traced and invisible figure’s presence throughout the walkway. Rikelus lifted his hands over his ears as he heard a blood-curdling scream that didn’t actually exist. He blinked furiously a couple of times before he took off throughout the maze past blasting winds. Oncoming beasts were met by a phenomenal power that sized his body by the spine, Rikelus pulled his arm close towards his body before leaping towards the Dark Dragon backhanding it against a rusty ladder causing a platform to come crashing down upon the beast.

His aura seemed ghastly distorted, almost a deep red as the crave overcame him, another oncoming ShinRa defense mechanism pelted out hot lead towards Deverell. The Commodore reached into his pocket sliding on a tough ring before rolling forward ripping at the ground tossing a large chunk of it as if it were a discuss after spinning around hitherto twice at least. The sheer contact between the piece of concrete and the machine caused a geyser like force that swept the defense mechanism into a bowling ball like form down the road. His face seemed distorted slightly as a visible throbbing leathery purple vein strained his face into diabolical proportions. His pupils were burning a bright flaming red nearly out of their sockets as he snarled out-loud seemingly representing the beauty of wanton destruction observing a maelstrom of oncoming Deep Ground soldiers.

[acidgypsy]

Maji blinked a few times, puzzled by Rikelus’ strange reaction, but figured she’d best leave him alone until the more immediate threat of Deepground Soldiers was addressed.

”Heads up!”

Using Rikelus’ shoulders as a springboard, she bounced lightly in an arc and invoked the Bolt 2 materia she had recently purchased.
Arcs of snapping, crackling white electricity immediately ran through the blades attached to her forearms in fascinating but frightening potency. She didn’t feel anything other than a slight flutter through her body from the extra energy. The soldiers she sliced through, however, fell into throes of agonized death behavior as limbs jerked and thrashed uncontrollably and voices were raised in a hellish disharmony of screams. Even those she merely touched with her fingers got a nasty jolt, such as the man she had sidestepped and now gripped tightly by the collar as she tossed him back at his squad. The hefty bulk of the thrown soldier knocked the others over like ninepins.
This power…

She paused in the slaughter, eyes closing at the delicious sensation of sheer force enclosing her senses in a thick velvety blanket. How easy it would be to just lose herself in it… to just… surrender.
So effortless.
A shriek of agony came from the man huddled below her boot, twitching spastically, eyes wide with fear. He couldn’t be more than nineteen. His scream, however, snapped her out of her euphoria and she delivered a mercy killing with a quick pass of her knife over his jugular—shuddering in disgust at how close she had been to caving in.
Never again. She promised herself that cruelty like before would never take over so completely.

The stench of blood, mako, and other unpleasant fluids permeated the area, along with the cries of the dying and grinding machinery in an avalanche of information as she reeled backwards several steps and glanced back at Rikelus.

”Rike?! Come on, snap out of it!”

Dodging a spray of bullets, she backpedaled and took Rikelus by the shoulders, shaking him back and forth furiously with her nose inches away from his. Clearly from that glitter in her patchwork irises and the way her hands shook, she realized her friend and partner had perhaps surrendered to his inner demon whereas she had not.

”Damn it, that’s on order Deverell! Fight it!”

The soldiers took advantage of the lull in fighting to regroup, and sprayed the hallway methodically with gunfire. Maji dodged a bit too late this time, having been intent on protecting Rike’s body with her own, and took several bullets in the side and back as she dragged them both into cover. The wounds itched a bit, but she figured they weren’t immediately serious, which freed her up to make an appropriate strategy to get around this new obstacle.
Damn. With Deverell going nutcase, that left very few pawns left on her side of the board… like one white knight chesspiece left against a full armada of black chesspieces.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

Free at last! And plenty of anger for fodder! The hellspawn within Deverell announced itself with a resonant roar so destructive, the sound waves shattered glass and tore metal and stone apart. Everything rumbled as he broke free from her grasp. The entire reactor seemed to groan, how could a fortress built by mere humans ever withstand the anger of a demon sculpted by the Devil himself? A paradox of emotions stirred beneath those fiery red eyes captivating and ensnaring all those living, inanimate, or supernatural that beheld his insidious glare. His figure evoked fascination as he bolted forth leaving a trail of bullets behind him biting into the concrete walls and rusted rails ripping them to shreds.

One by one, the screams filled the cavern as much like a hideous creature that he had been hunting he methodically picked them off one by one not ever stopping but to savor the glory of wanton destruction at his fingertips. He glided down a steel beam and leaped forward like a crazed calamity smashing a Soldier’s face into a pedestal into his helmet was nothing left but shards in a jigsaw puzzle like fashion. He was flushed out by an oncoming quarry of Soldiers against the opposite side of the room. The soldiers gathered in formation, some kneeling, the others putting guns over their shoulders and getting ready to fire upon Deverell’s position.

The demented demon descended from his spot towards them at terminal velocity reaching back behind his back and pulling out his sword and cranking a vial on the bottom of it until the liquid instead started to churn. Rikelus moved his stance to a lower one and a bright glow emanated from the vial and he clicked a button on it and a whirling sound ensued. Soon after, he swung the blade unleashing a shockwave of white energy rumbling towards the soldiers dissipating them into nothingness. He went down to one knee, and another loud clamor was heard as he let go of the sword and put both hands on his temples a gnarling expression appearing on his face before the words cut into his nerve impulses.

“M..M-..Maji?”

[acidgypsy]

Miraculously, one soldier had survived the shockwave, huddling in a terrified ball with his knees drawn up to his chest, head buried in his arms. Back and forth this pitiful bundle rocked, whimpering occasionally into the abrupt silence brought about by the wanton chaos Rikelus had unleashed.
The rocking soldier slowed to a stop, gasping between sobs, and looked up at the figure that had shielded him from his death. The single breathing person that had risked life and limb to save a lowly grunt regardless of a high risk of a bloody demise.

Majidah.

Badly bruised, flayed, and bleeding already from gunshot wounds, Maji swayed in place as she stood facing Deverell, lowering her arms from where she had crossed them over her face protectively. She was breathing heavily, and trickles of blood ran down from a gash over her left eyebrow. But amazingly she hadn't crumpled into a senseless heap like a normal person would've, and instead marched unsteadily up to Rikelus, drew back her hand, and backhanded him roughly across the face with a slapping noise that echoed all the way down the deserted corridor.

Ignoring the soldier that was staring up at her open-mouthed, she stumbled and caught her balance, using her grip on Rike's shoulder to steady herself. Her breath hissed between her clenched teeth as she winced from the sudden movement before she spoke.

"You idiot! Do you have any idea how hard it was to steer you away from bringing the building down around our ears?! And for all your preaching, you gave into your own personal devil and slaughtered nearly everyone!”

Pausing to catch her breath, she wiped blood from her eyes and locked gazes with Rikelus, deadly serious. However, the faint glimmer of an unshed tear sought to be noticed, failed, and was forced down to nothingness as she added somewhat hesitantly,

”Rike…you terrified me like that. I was scared you would die if you made even one misstep, and I couldn’t be there to help. And above all, I was scared you -the real you- wouldn’t come back.”

The steadily reddening imprint of her hand on his cheek stirred some regret for her actions, as she gently stroked his face with her palm, voice wavering slightly.

”I--I'm sorry...Just don’t scare me like that. Promise you won’t leave me behind again, okay?”

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

THWAP!

The sound of flesh against flesh echoed throughout the corridor down to the lowest levels damn near. Rikelus’s head was shifted an entire sixty degrees and canted downwards from the blow. Thick blood soaked former azure blue locks stuck to his face over the imprint which she had left across his right cheek. It happened so fast, that there wasn’t any pain, just the following burning sensation that made his skin tingle. A rigid silence followed her last phrase and he lifted his gaze fastening it onto hers, his eyes shimmering and a hue of amethyst was swimming around in a sea of burning crimson red before it was swallowed by the overwhelming red hue. “I won't..” He posed before raising a single index finger to his mouth indicating that it was ok, as he worked on calming her down.

Rikelus figured the soldier might have betrayed them and warned others of their hideout by raising some nearby alarm; but he seemed well behaved and cowering still in the corner fearful of the Commodore. He murmured a soft phrase before a cool breeze floated in past holes in the wall from hot lead, and past rusted railways connecting to stairs and ladders. The cool breeze contained a light hue of white, and the white wind drifted across their current position caressing their wounds and healing them quite moderately.

Rikelus spat the sour taste of blood out of his mouth onto the ground below, the demon was subdued back into the abyss from which it came. He looked at her nodding and raised one of her hands clasping it with both of his before he laid a soft kiss on it and spoke, “We better get moving, we can make camp on the twenty eight floor, we’re close.” Rikelus nodded reaffirming to her before walking under the arched entrance, the path stretched down a long, broad corridor. Rikelus made his way through a thick drapery of darkness. He crept along the wall as stealthily as a cat, too wary of this tomb-like tranquility. It made his cautious footsteps sound quite loud compared to the sullen silence.

“The main laboratory lies ahead.” Indeed the moment he said that upon walking another step, the lights automatically turned on revealing a curious blend between a hospital and factory. ShinRa Inc. had clearly invested considerable capital into this centre. One only had to appreciate the vastness of this immense complex, with the multitude of chambers, doorways, and endless halls, each one more bleak than the last. Not to mention all the idle machinery running in the background keeping the computers to preservation tanks running.

Rikelus found himself a lonely drifter amidst a haunted labyrinth, unsure where the next turn would lead, he hadn’t been down this far before in the laboratory. The last time had had made an attempt to make it to the bottom, the monster had succumbed him earlier and he awoke on the thirty fifth floor. “Here’s a good place to rest I suppose.” Rikelus spoke offering a chair to Maji near a stainless steel work table and RF computer unit. Time dragged by. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Half an hour. Nothing.

[acidgypsy]

((Gwaaaah. Short post-- my fingers are sore from martial arts this morning. D:))

Before they left the lone soldier huddling in the dark, she could've sworn she heard him speak before they were out of earshot; provoking a small smile as she trailed along behind Rikelus like a lost sheep.

"...thank you..."

Perhaps in saving that single insignificant life, she had come closer to paying her debt. Her business no longer had any reason to stray towards extinguishing existance... Maji's "business" was to protect any little flame of life that she could find that was in danger of being stomped out on the streets like a lit cigarette. At this realization, a sense of great mental peace flooded her being, and the voices and headache dissipated.

She had her hopes and dreams. Finally.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

She smiled up at him from where she sat, head tilted slightly to the side. After an appropriate pause, she added naughtily,

"You'd better not be remembering the unfortunate accident that happened earlier... groping isn't something I'm all that pleased about."

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

He had paused for a moment to absorb the sheer height of the laboratory before his ear twitched as she spoke and his crimson red eyes cut to her, and he seemed a bit flustered for a moment before replying , “Ermmmm—uhhhh.” He blinked and the entire reactor seemed to shift as a webwork of supports shook above them sending visible clouds of dust downwards from the trestles and interconnected steel that arched from one side of the facility to another. Commodore Deverell glanced over towards the colossal black screen which was on top of a vast five panel platform of electronics. The screen practically spanned the entire wall from the floor up to the ceiling, large conductor tubes were visible near it’s own independent power supply.

“That’s the core data bank of ShinRa’s science files, whether they’re public or private you can tap into that system and access damn near anything.” It was hard to think that somewhere in this dome-shaped facility there lay ominous equipment. Everything was scattered to and fro as if even the control panels near the operation tables were relics of a lost civilization. Rikelus glanced over to the side thinking that he heard footsteps hoping that his dreadful premonition was just a permeation of his own imagination. Inside, he felt the white phantom tearing at him mentally trying to rip him apart..

...The blood suits you... Are you afraid, Rikelus?...

“Did you hear that?” He posed a question to her standing up and beginning to survey the hall for a second time. His attention being drawn to a smashed glass window where it seemed to be a little bit…to quiet. Rikelus jumped out and poked his head through the glass and noticed just a stray bandersnatch was the arbiter of his worries. He let out a sight of relief and walked back towards Maji putting his elbows on top of the table and propping his head up ont op of them looking towards her with a battle weary face.

.....I'm not the one that should be afraid..Hojo!