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

[acidgypsy]

Maji’s eyebrow arched sharply as her grin got wider. He was steering the subject away, huh? Did he honestly think she’d let him get of that easy? Heh heh heh. No way. She wanted to see how red he’d get by the time she was done.
Oh yeah. Majidah Alharad was a meeeaaaan little girl all right.

”You’re putting off answering me…”

She murmured, lightly grabbing his chin with one hand.

”Were you thinking about it? I’ll be able to tell if you’re lying, you know.”

Fighting to keep her face carefully blank of amusement, she leaned across the table to bring her face closer to his until their noses were inches apart. Her odd shattered stained-glass irises glittered despite the lack of light as she speared the hapless sapphire haired SOLDIER with an impassive stare.
Bwahahahah. Poor Rike. Maji loved her mind games far too much than what was necessary… but good lord it was fun to watch him stutter and scramble for a suitable answer in an agitated fashion.

Tossing her head slightly to get her hair out of her eyes, she blinked once very slowly; never taking her eyes away from his nor her releasing firm grip on his jaw.

”Rikelus… don’t leave me assuming you were undressing me with your mind again.”

Oh god. It was getting harder not to laugh.
A corner of her lip twitched as she fought to keep from exploding into laughter at her partner’s increasingly flushed face; exhaling slowly to keep herself under control. For all his years of sagacious experience, it seemed he wasn’t better off in the romantic sense than she was.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

“Fuh---.” He was somewhat flabbergasted for a moment before he interlocked his hands with hers twisting them down below and leveraging her back onto the table his nose still inches apart. Now it seemed that she was the one getting flushed. Of course she pushed and tussled back with him flinging him off and he stumbled backwards slightly that grin wide on his face as Deverell grabbed onto a control panel hitting a button that opened up a steel door on their side of the laboratory that lead into a large exhibition hall. “What the---C’mon..” He spoke softly and distractedly as he walked towards the opening looking at a stalactite cavern of shrapnel and twisted pipes jutting in every direction.

The suspense was overcoming, and Rikelus felt as though Maji could probably cut the tension in the room with a fingernail and one would explode if he took the wrong step. He was careful in making sure he stepped over all the cable lines leading to specimen tanks, monitors, and other electrically powered instruments of blood baths. The atmosphere reeked of horrible darkness as the urban jungle grew thicker and thicker. His glare intensified as it shot from side to side looking to see if anything was still alive in such a desolate place.

..monster...

...are you afraid?...

...afraid of what?...

...what she’ll do to you?...

...she won’t do anything!...

...muwaahaahhaha..or so you think Deverell...

Rikelus Deverell shook off the voices echoing and arguing inside his head ignoring the white phantom’s chides glancing back towards Maji posing the question, “You alright? I know this place is a little bit overwhelming.” He responded nodding to her reassuringly as they passed abominations floating in free stasis inside specimen tanks filled with liquids. It was like something out of a circus he had seen when he was a kid; but more twisted and mangled by Hojo’s god complex. He was surprised that they actually found hairnets big enough to contain his ego and his skull.

Rikelus’s cutting glance shot back over to Majidah and his face was carved with that switchblade smirk and he stopped in midstep turning to her, “Besides even if I were caught undressing you with my ‘eyes’…” His grin widened even further… “It was because you set me up, and wanted me too.” Ooooooohhh…. He winced slightly expecting the slinging of fists, metal, and quite possibly everything a woman’s scorn could toss at him although his comment was worth the pain he was about to be inflicted with the redness on her face was all worth it. Watching her eat her words as if they were E-32 rations was a wonderful thing when you were surrounded by cloning equipment, monsters, and halfway down into a reactor that was falling back into the earth from which it came..

[acidgypsy]

Maji rolled her eyes, but surprisingly refrained from responding with a fist in the face.

"Perhaps... but you never seemed to regret taking the chance to look if it presented itself."

She replied serenely, studying a specimen in a tank with polite boredom as if she was being shown an interesting curio. Seemingly without conscious thought, she threaded her arm through his—comforted from the chill menace emanating from the tanks surrounding them both by Rikelus’ protective aura.

”Ugly little blighters aren’t they? I wonder what they were intended to be…oh.”

Her sentence trailed off into a startled intake of breath at the realization the ‘thing’ that she was looking at had its eyes open. Whether or not it was looking at them, however, wasn’t all that certain. It did seem to follow their movements with minute movements of it’s head, however, which was a bit alarming.
After a few moments, Maji shivered and practically stuck to the SOLDIER’s side; occasionally casting edgy glances over her shoulder.

”Geez. If I didn’t think ShinRa was creepy enough already… no offense Rike, but you have a horrible choice of employers.”

The mercenary was clearly uneasy about the potential attackers suspended in the specimen containment units; quietly recycling the fluids it held with puffs of hydraulics and the occasional squeal of machinery in the base of the pod.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

“I didn’t necessarily have a choice of trade per say, I was born into the business itself.” He responded somewhat grimly for a moment before he ran a gloved index finger down the side of the cylinder shaped glass containers. Could she feel it too? That familiar feeling radiating from the abomination floating in what appeared to be semi-suspended animation. The calling..The reunion theory..

“Professor Hojo started this laboratory many years ago, with the intention of fusing materia into a person’s being. A person isn’t capable of infusing the ancient’s knowledge into one’s core without a couple of modifications. First the materia has to be broken down back into the purest form, which is Mako, and then the person has to have a moderate amount of jenova cells injected into their body. Depending on the DNA structure of the person, the cells are either rejected and the person displays no characteristics of Jenova or the person cells are annihilated and taken over and transfigured into what you see in front of you.” Rikelus shut his crimson red eyes for a minute smirking before opening them and shooting a glance back over to her, “Then you have a completely different type of monster, living within us and former soldiers such as Cloud, and Sephiroth…You see although we bare no hideous claws or gouging teeth we’re monsters just the same—only deep beneath the skin. Our DNA structure differs because our cells bonded with the jenova cells creating something new entirely..”

Some would say that Lady Luck has shined down upon us, and granted us a great gift…at times it’s been known to be a curse. The gates of the lifestream are forever separated from our existence, and quite possibly death is just temporary for us as well. Perhaps we wink out of existence only for a minute to become transfigured again on the planet because of an anomaly due to Reunion…So much for rest in peace eh? Essentially have the stark possibility of becoming Ex Nihlo---or created out of nothing. Either way I didn’t want to die to find out…Through the grey haze, a full wall of sinister shadows and shapes were casted meaning quite possibly a war-zone would erupt resulting in gruesome death and total incapacity for logic yet again. Two figures chased each other down the hall in a frenzy for blood zigzagging away from their current position; but wherever they went chaos, and destruction followed.

He still waited for the question for Maji to ask, although it seemed like a laboratory, and abandoned reactor this place was a different type of facility all-together..What greater purpose did it serve?

[acidgypsy]

Despite her first sense of revulsion at the creatures quietly floating in their tanks, she felt a pang of pity; pressing her palm against the glass of one of the pods as if to offer some sort of comfort to the unfeeling thing locked in stasis. But even then she didn't remove her hand even when her body warmth started leaching away into the bitterly cold glass, leaving an imprint of her palm and spread fingers.
After a moment, she closed her eyes and removed her hand from the glass, turning away from the cylinder.

Poor, wretched souls... to think they had been normal people before...

"This isn't just... a reactor, is it? There was a different purpose for this facility."

From her no-nonsense tone of voice, Maji clearly wanted to get this over with and get out of here. Something was just...wrong about this place. she couldn't quite put her finger on it no matter how much she thought on it.
Whatever that feeling was... it wasn't anything good.

Maji shook her head vigorously, grabbed Rikelus' hand in her own, and started dragging them both forwards-- away from the cryo pods and their tragic contents.
Once she figured they were far enough away, she released her hold on the SOLDIER's hand, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering. Geez. This place gave her the willies something awful. Just look at those goosebumps.

"Er...Rike? Could we maybe hurry this up a bit? I don't like being stuck down in this ruined old monster pit as much as you do."

[rikelusdeverell]

“This reactor was Deep Ground’s origins, it was a medical facility where soldiers were taken for injuries and experimented on sadly enough. Not only were injured soldiers enough, soon people were recruited off the street and promised high dreams and taken here where they live out their lives in desolation. Our punishment is far worse than anything in this reactor…what we have to live with day in and day out..” His crimson red eyes cut across the room and he watched the blood-soaked demon drag his half living carcass across the floor towards them.

Guilt, bitter…self-hate all these mixed emotions frozen under a thick chunk of ice lay in each Soldier’s heart about that facility…Rikelus grabbed onto her hand dragging her in a zig-zag course across sneaky cables which wanted to slither around his ankles and immobilize him. Actually the cables looked more like a tentacle, and when he came to the realization that it was, you could almost see Maji eep for a moment. He ran across the tentacles coming from nearby creepy crawly, deformed monstrosities only spawned by Jenova of course.

Rikelus realized that danger was eminent and casted a protect spell followed by Regen on himself and took off towards a ravine, instead of leaping across it, he leapt downwards falling several levels before encompassing Maji in his grasp and hitting the ground ass first her weight knocking the wind out of him. He gasped loudly, for a moment seemingly out of breathe before he coughed sorely and visible pain was still on his face from the blow even after the barrier spell. He felt as if a typhoon had hit him…how many floors did they fall? His crimson red eyes glanced up at her, she had that topsy-turvy look still, even though it was him that was smashed around as if he were a rag doll with inflamed limbs.

A blur stood across from him, and the blur cleared and it was a Soldier, a familiar soldier, and that evil smirk slid across his expressions as a swarm of monsters gathered around the man’s presence causing the earth to tremble. The walls shook violently, as light fixtures fell, and the man became distorted beastily. His pupils became enflamed as if he was set a fire, and his body shook to the vibrations and rattled his very bony frame until something was pushed through the skin of his lanky body. He grew not only three, or four, but five times his size as the monsters seemingly swirled into his very being mutating into something else. Soon the beast ascended upwards towards freedom, before erupting a pair of serrated black wings from his now hulking purple leathery skinned back.

Rikelus looked up at him, “Your one ugly mother---.” He noticed Maji had put her hand over his mouth before he could finish his sentence and he moved slowly but surely hurt, as the monster roared letting out a battle cry signaling that the metamorphosis was complete. His face seemed alien, with tentacles for hair outstretched two feet in mid air in every direction as if they were hands reaching for any source of spilled blood on the scene. The monstrosity tossed back it’s head laughing, revealing a set of staggered, double set of teeth haphazardly placed in every direction. There was no doubt that this was the cause of Jenova cells thriving on his body, and that of monsters in the surrounding area.

[acidgypsy]

Straddling Rike's chest, Maji gaped open-mouthed at the creature towering over them; rubbing her eyes a few times with the back of a hand to make sure what she was seeing was really there. And damn if Deverell hadn’t been right with that last insult that she muffed with her palm. As if one super-sized baddie wasn't enough, but it had cronies too...?!
DAMN.

"Oh. ****."

Real articulate Maji. Good job.
A squeal came off from one side as a low-slung critter with far too many teeth came bounding out from behind the deep shadows of machinery; bladed tail lashing around it’s spindly ankles as it’s talons clicked a rapid tattoo on the rusted grate flooring. In a bound, it had taken Maji clean off of Rike’s chest and barreled away off to the other side, where it pinned her down with two plate-sized, callused paws, and chattered angrily. Ropes of drool hung from its purplish-fleshed muzzle, suspended between teeth, gums, and two large, serrated, under slung tusks that pressed against her throat. A bead of venom oozed from the tip of the ivory tusk and slid slowly down its length.
Maji, on the other hand, seemed either not to notice or not to care about the threat, and calmly rested a single finger on the creature’s flank.

BZAPP.

A huge surge of electricity burned the thing to a crisp and sent it still twitching into the air with almost lazy ease. The corpse landed a few feet away with a dry crunching sound as Maji rolled to her feet and dusted herself off—making a face as she picked a piece of the dog-thing’s charred hide off of her wrist. The rest of it’s ‘pack’ kept a wary distance and settled for growling and scraping their claws on the ground in frustration.

”Blech. Nasty stuff… shall we get this underway?”

The last part of her sentence directed at the still prone Rikelus, she rolled her shoulders, limbering up for what would surely make an interesting fight.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

Rikelus rolled on his hands and knees using his body weight to pop himself up onto his feet staggering forth out of the way of a leaping creature who was writhing like a demon unshackled from it’s prison. His crimson red eyes locked onto the exit and he ran across the floor hiking one leg up and running across a long table before leaping off and grabbing her hand twisting her around in a circle almost before pulling her along with him across a set of collapsing floor tiles. The floor seemed to give way, from years of dilapidation revealing shanty metal framework. “Not exactly how you expected to spend your day off with me eh?” He chuckled softly as he stood on one large section of tile with her and it slid as the flooring sloped down dramatically, the tile whisked them towards the bottom.

Sparks shot up into the air dramatically as he wrapped his arms around her, the wind whisking it’s cold hands through his hair causing it to form haphazard shapes in all directions. Loud grinding noises erupted as the tile became smaller and smaller until he was encompassing her against him inches away. “You plan on drooling on me like those creatures?” He asked her jokingly and she seemed to spaz out almost as if they were about to die for the fifty third time. He always joked around in life or death situations because it helped him not to freak out.

The slope evened out and he twisted her away from him still holding onto her hand as if they were ball room dancing amongst all pending Armageddon. One free hand pointed towards the exit to the next level and he spoke, “There” before shooting her a switchblade smirk and wink of one eye. He ran towards their goal with warm, hot breath of hulking abominations hot on his heels. She beat him through the door and he hurried through slamming the large iron door behind him with an audible grunt and grimace on his face as he twisted the circular lock on it tightening it down and wedging it with a piece of rebar that had been laying against the side of the door for a purpose.

Truth is he had been this far before, but only this far before he turned back due to that ominous feeling he received earlier when entering the laboratory. The white phantom was there still clinging to life somewhere…he felt it.. . .He slumped up against the wall and sank down to his knees stretching them out feeling the sweet relief of relaxed muscles as his heart beat slowed, “You alright babe?”

[acidgypsy]

The frantic rush downwards from the tile had left her with a somewhat nervous twitch; Maji had buried her face in Rike’s chest all the way down that damn tile ride, and didn’t even bother to make her usual witty comeback to his cocky ‘oh-mai-gawd-I’m-so-sexy’ routine. She did, however, give him a swift kick in the shins before sprinting her butt off through the door and tumbling head-over-heels into the silence of the safe room. Well… the safe-er room. She didn’t like the looks of some of the medical instruments gleaming coldly on the rusty metal counters.

Her breath hissed between her gritted teeth as she got slowly to her feet, gripping her shoulder hard with one hand. One of the beasties had been quick enough to take a bite out of her arm while she was preoccupied with not getting squashed flat into the dirt by that big one’s flailing arm/tentacle/whatevers. Man, did it smart! But she didn’t even want to consider the possibilities of just how many chances she had of getting the wound infected with some nasty mystery disease.

”Oh yeah. I’m fine babe, other than this chunk of muscle I’m missing. Thanks for asking.”

She growled, tearing a strip of cloth from her shirt to tie around the gaping wound. It didn’t do much other than soak up the blood and prevent a trail, but it would do for now. Or so she hoped.
Taking her attention away from the rapidly darkening flower of crimson blossoming on the makeshift bandage, she slid down into a cross-legged position next to Rikelus; her head in her hands. Her fingers shook from a mix of exhaustion and frayed nerves, but she attempted to cover it by intentionally shaking out her shoulder-length hair to get rid of what felt like pounds of dust and debris that had collected and was starting to itch like mad wherever it touched.

Majidah breathed slowly to calm her heartbeat, and cuffed her friend upside the head with her uninjured arm; responding with her usual snappy spitfire sarcasm. It seemed even repeated near-death experiences didn’t keep her down for long.

”Drool, huh? Coming from the guy who peeps at his partner? I don’t think so. Get a little more maturity and I might think about it.”

She smirked faintly, and rested her cheek on her crossed arms, closing her eyes halfway.

”Good god, Rike…. I’m bushed. Could we take a break?”

[/center]

[rikelusdeverell]

Rikelus reached into his coat pulling out what looked to be flask made of ornate silver with a gem encrusted wolf on one side of it. He popped the cap on it taking a swig of it, that all too familiar mix that he had received in North Corel came to mind. It tasted exactly like the mysterious concoction he had ordered from the bartender. Upon quaffing the liquid he coughed slightly and his eyes seemed to catch a fire for a minute or two before dying out and he offered her some, “Here take a swig of this and you’ll be back to normal but not too much.” The drink was brewed from a behemoth that was mutated and corrupted by Jenova’s cells. Such a drink was foul and could be disastrous for a normal person; but to Rikelus or Maji it was if they were sipping on a Megalixer.

“Yeah this room’s safe, we’ve got about ten more floors to go, I suppose camping out won’t take a bit if you’ll drop the peeping tom bit, you’re infringing on my character.” He replied rather sarcastically as well leaning his neck back against the cool rusty steel behind him feeling it’s ice cold tinge of on the back of his neck causing the hairs on it to stand straight up. Such a paradoxical feeling, hellishly hot inside the reactor due to the Mako production; but the steel was freezing due to cryogenic materials located on the other side.

He slumped heavily against the wall further down before curling up and holding out an index finger swirling it around in the air leaving traces of flames behind his movements. Small flames dancing in the air whimsically before touching the ground and heating the steel so that it wasn’t overbearingly freezing anymore. By the end of his little magical acrobatic act, he had his head laying down upon his two clasped hands with his eyes shut resting and trying to recover from the physical trauma he had endured during the twelve hour marathon it seemed like they ran.

[acidgypsy]

((Gotta make this short-- martial arts practice in ten minutes. D:))

Maji paused after taking a sip of the drink, screwing the cap securely on the rim before leaning over to murmur into Riike's ear; his soft azure hair shimmering with morement as her spice-scented breath broke over his skin. She could see the goosebumps rise along the nape of his neck, drawing a smug expression to her face.

"Character infringement, hmm? Well if it makes you feel better, I forgive you for your little slip up."

Her soft lips pressed against his neck briefly before she pulled away and settled into a napping posture-- curled up on the floor on her uninjured side with her coat draped over her in a makeshift blanket. Her hat, meanwhile, served to cast a deep pool of darkness over her closed eyelids to allow her to sleep more soundly.

Ten more floors to go... She hated to think what would've taken up residence down there.

Whatever it was, it had to be something awfully nasty. The masses of creatures were getting rarer as they went; perhaps because of a malicious presence that wouldn't hesitate to eat anything and everything in sight.

[rikelusdeverell]

Although not many people could fall asleep within a Lion’s Den for more than a minute, Rikelus Deverell had sprawled out for more than four hours before waking to the stirring of Maji who was tugging at his collar. “Huh…” was his only response to the wake up sunshine line she coyly delivered before he added verbal enthusiasm to his coy smile, “And I thought you were here only to steal my sunshine.” One by one, Rikelus's vagrant senses began to return. At long last, he opened his blurry eyes halfway. To his great bemusement, he found himself a rumpled mess flung upon a composite of metal garbage, the world around him in upheaval, and the smell of blood fumes ran up his nose. The dazed man struggled to sit up. Meanwhile, the clamorous din continued to pound against his eardrums. The ground beneath him wouldn't stop trembling, nor could he disperse this clinging dizziness to grasp the situation.

Rikelus grunted a curse: How long had he been out? More importantly, what the HELL had happened while he was out?! Desperate, he tried to string the last few events into chronological order. An Explosion…? Rikelus remembered an explosion while he was sleeping that stirred his senses for a moment until he passed out from fatigue then the rest fizzled to black. For all he knew, he could be dead and this could be an illusion.

However, as he sluggishly climbed onto his feet a sharp pain pierced his left temple, blatant proof that he was very much alive. Rikelus pressed that side with one hand then peered into his palm. It was smeared bright red. His head was stained with blood from where shrapnel had streaked across it. "Catastrophe," he hissed. No single word better described the situation. Rikelus's clothes were singed and tattered, silky black combat BDU’s were torn at both knees, his hair was covered in sweat and patches of crimson stuck to the side of his neck and face clinging on for dear life. He rose to his feet hobbling a step or two before reaching down with a hand extended to help Maji up while leaning on a steel strut for support.

He blinked twice before looking down and noticing that he wasn’t standing on the ground at all now, but rather a knot of struts, beams, bridges, and architecturally woven rebar. First thing which struck him was to get the hell out of this chaos, and find solid ground. Apparently the night had held more in store for them than what he had imagined. What a hell hole…

He turned his sight skyward and noticed the gaping moon glaring back at them still as a faint trail of Mako whisked it’s way through the cracks towards the surface suffocating the above floors. He knew better than to look down, but what the hell…He glanced down and noticed it was about sixty or seventy feet into a steaming hot swirling Mako pit amidst twisted girders, smashed crane equipment, coupled walls, and torn sheets of iron strewn about. In other words, it looked like a forty five to sixty meter-long urban jungle. He beheld an ominous abyss at the bottom, as the green swirling mist seemed to stretch open wide and await their arrival.

“You do NOT want to look down, stay close to me Maj..”

Fast forwarding through the events, the pair wound up at the “end of the line” due to a bandersnatch which had got loose from a cage and tripped an explosive causing quit ea rukus. Instantly Rikelus looked to Maji before following behind her making her descend through the nightmarish jungle-gym as if she were a monkey, lifting her and acting as a support at times so she could shove off his hands and make certain long jumps through tangled pipes and cables which outstretched like vines. HE pushed a hunk of junk out of the way, and chance brought him to a very steep overhang in which he leaned forward before leaning back on the grider and taking off after he leaping across a patch of rubble.

“So much for worrying about heights….” He muttered under his breath as he hurried across the rugged terrain trying to avoid falling debris, before tripping over some obscure rubble barrel rolling onto hard concrete floor looking up at a flustered and sweaty Majidah who didn’t seem to be amused at the entire situation. An explosion below must have destroyed the reservoir area judging from the feeling of the impact and hole to his immediate right. Upon looking into the hole, he noticed a thick patch of Mako sludge, smoky debris, and swirling shrapnel. “Ughhh…could it get any worse..?”

[acidgypsy]

"Whoaholy--"

THUMP.

Blinking away dust from her eyelashes, Maji rolled her eyes and pushed herself up from where she had sprawled unceremoniously over Rike's prone form. They were both drained, bleeding, and breathing hard... almost as if the nap earlier hadn't done much at all for either of them. Figures... the moment she actually needed respite was when the place decided to spontaneously blow up. ****ing hell in a popcorn bin.
After a second of true struggling to get her muscles coordinated, she collapsed again and rested her cheek on Deverell's chest; either not noticing or not caring about the mako fumes washing her body in a dim green-blue haze, or the strongly acidic fragrance of the stuff as it filled the immediate area in a thick, choking blanket. The rusted metal plates hanging ghoulishly askew from the walls, the murky hallway... the unnatural oceanic cloud of concentrated mako fumes obscured it all.

Her eyes stung like the rest of her body-- one big mass of stinging muscle, raw bruises, and weeping cuts.

"I'm starting to think...this was a bad idea..."

She winced at the sound of another explosion that rocked the flooring and sent a shower of pebbles bouncing off her back and head; stifling a curse as she struggled valiantly to her feet. The few steps she took kicked up wraithlike puffs of dust and dirt, which swirled eerily around her calves and ankles as the huntress helped Rike up to his feet again.

How many floors did they have now? She didn’t know. The time they had both spent down in this terrible twisted travesty of an underworld had blurred together into one continuous wave of pain, fright, wrath, and fatigue. Really all she wanted now was to go back to the comfort of the bed in Rikelus’ apartment and sleep for a week.

She bent at the waist to rest her bloody hands on her scuffed knees, head lowered and sides heaving as her body struggled to maintain equilibrium.

”How far…do we have to go…? I’m nearly at the end…of my rope…”

Maji flinched a bit at how she must’ve looked—a once proud, powerful hunter reduced to a badly beaten young girl that jumped at anything that moved. Pffft. She needed to train more and harder to prevent scenarios like this from repeating itself. That is… if she made it out in one piece. But that was starting to look less and less likely as time passed.

[rikelusdeverell]

Rikelus coughed gruffly before glancing over at the broken girl who seemed to be downtrodden by the recent events. He quirked a brow although he had to force it because of his fatigue and a smile crept out of his blood bathed face and his pearly whites were visible. “One more floor and I plan on laying in bed for a week, how about you Maj” He replied to her before getting up and walking over to what looked to be a piece of sharp metal fashioned in the shape of a curved slide. Rikelus looked over at her before grinning and walking over plopping down and sliding down towards the drifting stench of death which arose from the depths below.

The Mako concentration was extremely less potent below, but the monster content was high. A sole soldier stood in the middle of a vicious circle of them and Rikelus yelled out, “What the hell are you doing Soldier get out of there..!” The Soldier removed his helmet revealing equally unique kaleidoscope eyes before a grin shot across his face and the monsters ran towards him, he spoke solemnly and only one time, “I don’t think that’ll be a problem commodore..” The room was flooded with a bright white light emitting from the man and the monsters leaped towards it becoming transfigured and dissipating from view. Upon the return of his vision, he noticed a large hulking blurred object moving about, what the hell was it…a dream?

A load roar resounded, as the beast which had formed from the combination of so many, and what seemed to be a sole soldier took flight. Rikelus groaned…his ears definitely did not betray him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe and tossed it to Maji who was sliding down the metal. “Get a sample of it’s blood, and we’ll get the hell out of here.” He motioned that he was going to take point before he took off towards the monster reaching down and picking up a large piece of concrete attached to a rebar and twirled around twice before throwing it and slapping the creature which seemed a lot like a Dragon, and snake combined, in the hind leg. The head lashed out at Rikelus and he evaded to the right narrowly escaping fangs that could most likely crush a grown human’s skull into dust..

“This doesn’t look good eh?...”

His crimson red eyes blurred for a moment and he snarled slightly squeezing his fist tightly before rolling to the left again letting the creature snap before he shoved his fist through it’s left eye socket, sending the creature writhing in pain and the secretion of various membranes and liquid squirting from the open wound. He moved his face to the side, the liquid splashing across his upper neck, and sticking as if it were part corn syrup before bringing his other fist down upon the top of the head. He missed…just great…

The creature roared and threw back it’s head sending Rikelus Deverell failing in the air down it’s back nearly halfway before he garbed onto a wing, and twisted his arm around his sword’s hilt slicing into the sinew and bone using his body weight and falling momentum to rip up the wing like a hot knife through butter.

[rikelusdeverell]

Majidah rolled forward leaping up and jabbed the creature in the neck swinging around it’s hulking trunk of a neck as if she were climbing a tree and pulled out the sample from the syringe springing off it’s back and to safety. Deverell pulled his sword around hard to his left and sliced into the right hind leg hearing a loud crunching sound before fleeing towards a Mako pipeline. He blinked twice before looking at Maji then to the rusted leaking pipeline, “Hold on, this isn’t going to be pleasant.” He thumbed through his leather overcoat pulling out a small grenade pulling the pin out before rolling it across the ground. The forrest green grenade rolled across it’s elicately designed edges before it came to a stop near a Mako holding tank. The first class Soldier lowered his shoulder and rammed through the rusted pump and fell shortly with Maji before the tank exploded back flushing the air through the bottom of pump upwards.

The rush was overwhelming, and Maji seemed to squeeze him harder and harder by each second before yelling, “Damn you Deverell couldn’t you just have taken the trainnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn--.” Whoosh!

After a couple of seconds of turbulence they were shot out and landed on the flat of their backs outside of the reactor near other storage tanks. Rikelus glanced over at her and began to calm her down, she was shaking furiously and had a mad look in her eye for a moment. The madness enthralled her entire being and he could feel her shaking hands against his side stammer until she snapped out of it yelling causing Rikelus to wince for several seconds. He opened his eye and saw his sword flipping through the air before it came down towards his legs. He scooted backwards and split his legs as if he was going to stretch and the sword slammed into the ground halfway bending from right to left.

The Commodore lifted a leathery gloved hand to his forehead to soak of beads of sweat that had collected off his wet skin. His breathing slowed and with a groan he stood up and put his sword in his sheathe before lifting Maji up, “Up ya go.” He tossed her over the shoulder and began to make his way back to the building. After a short walk his PHS rang and he further multi-tasked by lifting it to his ear and clicking the receive call button, “Nice to hear from you too Aimee”

The robotic voice spoke back to him, “You’re in bad shape Rikelus, the chances of you making it back to the facility without retrieval is impossible due to my calculations...”
Rikelus laughed gruffly before wheezing and speaking into the phone, “That’s the thing about life Aimee, you can’t attach a number to something when somebody cares about another..I’ll make it home, you can bet your circuits on that.”

He flicked his head back letting thick blood soaked locks of hair stick to his sweating forehead on the left side so he could see clearly on his right.

“But—Rikelus----“ Rikelus cut her off, “No Butt’s Aimee, I’ll see you when I get home.” He clicked the off button and let the phone fall out of his hand and into his pocket. It wasn’t a quick trip; but eventually and surely just as Rikelus said it they had made it home. Taking the elevator and catching the glances of other Soldiers a slight amicable smile slipt across his face as the clack of his boot heels was the only sound heard on the hallway to his apartment. The door opened as he walked within a certain proximity and he sat Maji down on her feet, apparently his valkyrie of death had taken a short nap prior to arriving at the apartment and groaned before stripping off clothes on the way to the shower which made Rikelus topple over a table and flip into a rather strangely shaped chair where he slipped asleep.

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