[ Fifteen minutes after the crash ]

Never in his life had he ever thought that the stars and the two moons softly glowing against the dark night sky were the most beautiful things he have seen, even if it was dimmed out by the harshly bright city lights and interrupted with smoke and fire. It was a sight he had not expected to see for some five years now, after all. He took a long moment just gazing at them, ignoring the injuries he had gotten and the annoying alarms blaring over the city that told him that he really should start moving again soon, absorbing the view and musing that memory truly does it no justice at all. It was the right decision to move to higher grounds. Definitely.

"Hey, you! 0553!"

"Hm?" He turned to see the familiar but bleeding face of the man who lived three cells away from his. Number 0526, his mind supplied the information helpfully, pyromaniac serial arsonist and terrorist despite being a pulsed viridian. The dark turquoise haired man always seemed rather friendly and normal, and very talkative, but he knew better to believe that was all to that man. He knew what the man did to have been landed in Darkrock anyway, and so did many others, and he had heard rumors from them that the man looking at him could manipulate his aura to work different from the usual healing and nature ways. But maybe those were just that, rumors. He had a lot of his own too, anyway, and not all are entirely true. "Yes?"

"Why are ya just standing there? Don't ya wanna leave this sh*thole? I don't know abou ya but that's my priority. That and finding the dude who blew this ##### up, and thank him properly." The viridian paused to lick at the blood that reached the corner of his lips and made a face, before closing his eyes in concentration. The blood and the rather serious looking head wound, and various of injuries decorating his lean body, began to slowly disappear, or rather, be absorbed, which confirmed the watching man's guess that yes, they could all use their aura again.

The satisfied other focused back on him again, green eyes gleaming contemplatively as they looked straight at the color of his hair and eyes. "Hey, ya wanna help me out? Your aura's dead useful ya know, now that ya can use it and all? Of course, we are all gonna need some practice and stuff though, since it's all rusty now."

He stared up over the edge of the huge crater caused by the now-wrecked prison out to try and catch a view of the city that was being consumed by panic and chaos, and gently nudge his ability to live as he touched a piece of the broken walls. For a moment, he was almost afraid that it would be another failed attempt, yet again, but it came. Slowly, sluggishly, but surely, waking to his call like a hibernating cat rousing. With it, came the knowledge of how the walls worked as part of the structure that kept them trapped and weakened in that floating cage. It felt as though he had always known it but he simply could not remember, just like all the other times he had used his powers.

A content smile curved his lips. He had nearly forgotten what it was to feel knowledgeable, powerful and alive again.

"Come on, we ain't go all the time in the world waiting. If ya don't want to, just say so and I'll scoot. Well?"

Charcoal black eyes slid to meet a pair of impatient ones, as he gave the offer some serious consideration before nodding once. "A mutual agreement of assistance and non-interference, will that work? There are some people I am looking for, and I don't want to be tied up by anyone else."

"What do ya know, I was thinking the exact same thing! Great minds think similar... same... whatever!" The man grinned and made his way nearer with unexpected agility of a cat. "Alright, we have wasted enough time here. Let's get going before those pesky law enforcing and those bounty vultures come looking for scraps. Some of the others are already up and moving, and I could have sworn one of them dealt with the guards who were still alive. I saw a few of us who ain't gonna make it when I climbed up though. They got too banged up from the fall."

"I could have joined them then, since my ankle is broken. But you'll help me, won't you?"

The eyes that he was looking right at widened for a moment, then shot a glare at him. "Ya shoulda said it earlier! Were ya testing me? When I said I'll help, I'll help! Give me your hand!"

Looking immensely disgruntled, the viridian grabbed the offered hand and a rush of power rolled into his body. He hissed and gritted his teeth to keep from screaming out with pain, as he felt his bones adjusted itself back and mended together, and his torn muscles and skin regenerating all at once. A few seconds later, the physical agony vanished, living him feeling tender but otherwise, completely fine.

"I really need more practice. And I was never good with healing other people to start with." The man dropped his hand unceremoniously and squinted at a particular direction, presumably towards where they could get out of the ruins of the prison. It looked like the broader edges of the prison which was tilting upwards had cut into the lower slum level, and there was a high chance that they could vanish into that disorganized maze of the slums, although they have to get through the wreck of the prison itself to reach it. "Can we go now while the coast's still clear and all?"

The darker haired of the two tested out his healed ankle gingerly, then nodded in satisfaction. "Alright. I should probably do something to our MiCell so they can't find us, but that can wait."

"Ya can? That's cool! Ya can do other things with it? Oh nevermind, ya can show me later, let's get the freaking hell away for this place first." He took a few steps forward then stopped, tilting his head back with a thoughtful frown. "Say, I still don't know your name, and I dunno about ya, but I don't exactly want to hear that number they assigned me again. So, the name's Rue Ferilea. Yours?"

The words that he had not heard or spoken for five years rolled out of his mouth smoothly, and he smiled.

"Maikel. Maikel Venries."

[OOC: I'll post with my own darling character later. ^^ Maikel and Rue (pronounced as R-i-u like 'dew' only with a 'r') are very powerful NPCs, and I don't want anyone making contact with them carelessly, got it? They may get more attention later and things may change, but that really depends. I'm just using them to show the things over at the prison side.

*EDIT* Read the latest OOC post (LINK) to get a better idea of the situation and stuff before you post.]

Tommy stared on in disbelief as the ground began to collapse out from under him. The impact from the prison caused the ground to collapse for a long distance around it. Tommy used began to pull the air up under him, slowing down his fall greatly. When he landed, his legs locked, than collapsed. He after a few minutes, he stood up on weakened knees. "What the hell just happened?" He asked himself several times.

After he pulled himself back together, he looked around for that girl he saw. He didn't see her anywhere. Tommy was lost, he had no idea which way was which, not even where he was anymore. He sat there, listening to what was going on above him, he could hear people screaming, and others crying out. He looked around him as the dust settled, there a few dead people, and several injured. He got the data on most of the people there using the chip in his shoulder. He wondered around, helping those he could, and trying to soothe those who had lost family.

Then he saw her again. He ran after her, when he caught up to her, the illusion exploded into a burst of flames, he was sent in towards a wall. He hit his head, and lost conciousness.

OOC: his unconciousness will only be a for a veiw hours.

[OOC: My english is still somewhat crappy, so if there are any mistakes/problems please feel free to correct me.]

Soft chinks echoed repeatedly in the dim-lit flat. Li Ai Ling sat against a wall, jean-clad legs drawn up against the black singlet that had been pulled over her chest, and gazed blankly at her surrounding, right hand ever working, flipping her new switchblade open and shut, open and shut. Her mouth tore through what was left of a loaf of bread held up by her free hand, less than mindful of its contents.

20 minutes since she had escaped her 'home' of three years, and Ai Ling was at a total loss of what to do. She never had to do so for the past three years, life imprisonment from those stinking men and all, what more could she want?

Of course escaping had not been her idea either. She had been comfortably asleep in her nice little white cot until a vague flying sensation hit her and she opened her eyes to find herself face to face with a very familiar white wall.

Hello Ceiling. Goodbye Ceiling.

It was probably sheer luck that she had escaped relatively unscathed. What with gravity suddenly asserting itself again sending her plunging straight into a padded wall, bouncing into another wall, and crumpling against the cold hard floor out of the way of the path of the aforementioned cot that had followed her descent. A mild concussion was all, and by the time she had re-oriented herself again, lo and behold, the door stood proudly against its hinges, opened for the world to enter and exit as they pleased. Against her will, and unable to deny her 'sister' of anything she wanted, Ai Ling stepped out of her cell.

15 minutes later found her exploring a ruined flat, hunting firstly for painkillers, a weapon, then food, and finally a change of clothes. Another five minutes left her here, and she still didn't know what to do.

//Just go out of this place. // Ai Wen urged her for the third time. //We can figure out what to do as we go. //

//There are men around here! // Ai Ling protested. //Who knows what they'll do if they see us! //

//I don't know... But I don't like this place. Can we just go? Please? //

//Oh alright, we'll go. There's no map in this place, so bear with me if I get lost, okay? // Ai Ling sighed, pocketing the switchblade, and picked herself up from the dusty ground. Slipping into a pair of black sandals, which were a size larger than her feet, Ai Ling walked out of the flat, into the slum, and proceeded upwards, out of the underground.

"Now. Be a good boy and--"

BOOM. Suddenly a wave of perception swept over the nurse's senses. Screams. Explosion. Death. What had happened?

Plum turned to a window, forgetting about the boy's cut hand, her dark hair flowing with ribbons and feathers, her oddly-colored eyes changing under the light. She could see something... there was something unusual about Anginyu, the slums... and then her perception was drawn to a red balloon, and back to the fires spreading, and then to a man running with something under his arm. Probably some kind of bread or... stuff. She could not concentrate enough. Not enough, never enough.

But she was sure something bad had happened. Ugly. Explosions and death, and pain and screams, and fear. She could perceive fear. People screaming. People running.

She did not notice the word "Darkrock" on people's lips. First, the hand. Then, bandages. Clean. White. It's okay now. Good boy.

A great rumbling, somewhere in the infinite Above. Although the shock wave had knocked him off his feet where he lurked, down in the darkness of the sewers, as deep as he could go... Simon barely paid attention, for his mind was focused on one thing only:

Hunger.

It was one of only two things the one called Simon could identify with. The other was fear. The faceless men made him afraid, and told him to do things, to hunt and stalk and to kill. Hunting made him hungry, and killing sometimes took the hunger away, but there were no faceless men now, not here... But still the fear remained, certain that they would follow him, certain that they would make him afraid and make him hunt, make him... hungry. Simon fled, into the shadows, as far down as he could go, and hid from the faceless men who were not there, always hid until his hunger forced him to go upward a short ways for a little while, until he could find something to send the hunger away again. Simon did not hunt very often now, for he had always hunted when the faceless men told him to, when they made him afraid, but sometimes... sometimes Simon had to hunt, had to feed the hunger, and he had been resisting the hunger for days now. Something inside told him that if he did not eat he would not have the strength to hunt when the faceless men found him again, and they would be angry, so he went upward through the dark, so silent and so careful, through his tunnels which smelled of death and decay, through the tunnels where none but he and the shadows lived, searching for something to eat...

Something was different. Different was wrong. In his part of the sewers, all the vermin had gone away, no quick snacks for Simon, so he had to climb the mold-slimy metal ladder up into the maintenance tunnels, where hateful gangs of workers shined their bright and blinding lights and made a terrible racket... and it was so hard to get one alone, for they were as afraid of the dark underneath as Simon was of lights, and for good reason... Simon was there, watching, waiting, but he had never caught one. Sometimes, when he was very hungry, Simon thought of attacking a work-gang, throwing his blades from the darkness and taking whomever he could get, but so far he had never tried. No matter. The maintenance tunnels were also strangely quiet... Night time, then. No crawling things to catch, no workers to attack... Shivering, Simon realized that he had to go... upward. He found the narrow stone stairway, and crept upward... toward the place where mostly people lived. Maybe he would not have to hunt... maybe he could find some food... but the hunger was everything, and Simon was willing to do anything to satisfy it. Anything.

Compared to the place from where he had come, the air in the slums was fresh and clean, although still filled with slowly-settling dust from that great noise which he had heard from down there, down there in the safe comfortable darkness, where he did not have to be afraid of anything. Simon stopped to consider, stopped to think of where he might find something to eat... and coughed from the dust. The noise. There must have been some kind of explosion, some kind of attack, some kind of disaster. Disaster meant death, and death meant food. Simon carefully began to sneak in the direction from which he remembered the noise coming, trying to stay out of the flickering firelight as he moved. There was more fire as drew closer, and hiding became more difficult, but Simon was well practiced, and patient. Soon, very soon, he would satisfy his hunger. And then he could go down again, and leave these foolish people to deal with the disaster. Why did they live so far from the safe darkness when the faceless men could be around here anywhere? Did they not know anything about fear? Simon did not bother himself with any more foolish musings, but instead carefully searched for something, or someone, to eat...

T looked up at the sky from his seat in a tower, and looked on as a massive, glowing object slammed into the ground many kilometres away.

"What the..." he thought to himself with a great frown upon his face. He patted the holster on his thigh, which contained his pistol and ammunition. As he observed the magnificent sight, he pulled out his pistol and pulled the slide, chambering the first round of the magazine. He then pressed the button on the side of the grip, ejecting the magazine, grabbing it with his left hand and slotting it into his pocket. "Everything I have done will go to waste, if they escape from this prison! Best not to travel with a fully loaded weapon, just in case..." He set the safety mechanism back on, and put the gun back into the holster. He then quickly headed out of the tower, watching as panicking citizens went about getting away or getting their families to safety. The more daring ones pulled out weapons, prepared to defend their homes with their lives. "These people do not understand... Guns won't stop those people put in that prison."

He hopped onto his motorcycle, turning the keys and revving the engine. An hour or so of driving would probably suffice in getting to the place he called home, where vigilantes and bounty hunters could find rest and accomodation. There he would gather information first, before making his next move. Rushing ahead alone would be pure suicide.

"Damnit!" Ai Ling swore under her breath as she peered through the windows of a car along a grimy sidewalk. It turned out that the streets were not as abandoned as she had thought.

Even if she were unable identify those men, the objects they held in their hands, she was familiar enough. They had tried to shoot her with them before her capture after all. Idiots all of them. No bullet could catch up with her, not when she could curve, twist and turn while they could only follow a straight path. Of course, that was then. Now, even with her ability back, she could barely avoid one, much less play hide and seek with a volley of them.

One, two, three, four... Ai Ling counted as her eyes swept over them. Some held guns, while some armed with strange machinery that she had not seen before. This was bad.

The streets were unfortunately open enough that any one of them would notice her if she ran, and there was nothing she could hide behind. She could already hear Ai Wen's soft spoken warning at the back of her mind as she reached for her new found weapon. No killing any of them, she promised absently.

Flicking a blade out as softly and she could, she lowered it, crouching as it went, preparing to pounce. Clothes rustling softly as she sprang into motion, Ai Ling leapt towards the one closest to herself, her knife out and ready to strike.

She plunged the knife deep into the man's upper thigh, then tore it out even before he could respond. By the time his mouth had formed an 'O' to howl in pain, a fist smashed into his face, his shout abruptly replaced by the sound of bone crunching.

Withdrawing from the falling man, Ai Ling headed towards the turnoff where she had marked her destination. Gunshots sounded behind and beside her, some coming close enough that she could almost hear them fly past her ears.

Another appeared in her path, pistol poised to fire. Ai Ling did the only thing she could. Duck.

Reflexively rolling forward to break her fall, she stabbed the bloodied blade into the man's foot, tore it out the same way she had earlier, and rolled to her left. A yelp of pain escaped her when a fire ball hit her bare shoulder. But she could not stop, especially with Ai Wen shrieking, //That's a Crimson! Run, Ai Ling, Run!! //

Biting back the pain gnawing at her burnt shoulder, she sprinted for her life. Even as another blast of flame hit her knee, burning a hole through the jeans and sending another spike of pain up her body, she did not slow.

Finally, after running uncountable blocks and rounding enough turns to run through a maze, she realized that she had lost them. And that she was lost again. Wiping her knife blade clean with her jeans, she slipped it back into her pocket, and paced towards a clinic-like building.

She froze at the thunderous sound coming from far away, and put the delicate hands on the hot glass, feeling the water drops on her hand and looking through the small window that didn't show something, a missing something. Water showered her back and even though she felt uncomfortable, something not natural to her -- a bath always ended the day. Shi was so used to look at that thing and think of the best way of getting to more action, to get more customers to pay her more money so she could buy better weapons and everything. Finally, waking from her paralysis, her delicate hands now turned the faucet off and Shi got out from the box and, as quickly as she could, got fully dressed to take action.

The landlord didn't even charge her for the day; he was packing and leaving as fast as he could, saying to her it was very prudent to scape now and avoid being caught by one of those blasted assassins. Shi smiled and said

"It's okay, I usually work with them; they're my preys... but..." she looked at the part of the sky that usually had the thing floating on and added to herself, "I can't get near one of these yet. I have to be stronger if I want to hunt them down...".

Shi scaled a nearby building, tall enough to let her see the ruins of Darkrock Prison and froze at the sight of all those people running for their lives, the civilians making their getaway, people fainting, screaming and pulling their children away. And got from her belt a bottle containing earth.

"Great Mother, please don't let people die there, don't let people hurt themselves because of this!", and putting it away, said to herself "Okay, stupid, run away you too, don't let them get their hands on you. Not yet, you don't want to die yet, life is better than this, somewhere... somehow.".

But she didn't move; still she stayed there and watched as the chaos spread and spread; and still she was there, waiting for her feet to move, waiting to her tears to dry.

"Return me My WALLET!" yelled Tai. Having to chase the pickpocket for four streets, Tai finally drew out nickel from the left side of his backpack. "Quartet!" Tai started playing his flute. Repeatedly, he played a short, five note tune as he ran. The wind started to breeze at their feet. Each of his steps seemed to be wider and faster, his body more agile, starting to close the gap between the pickpocket and himself.

Just as Tai was about to catch up with the pickpocket, he suddenly stopped playing and shout, "You can't run away from me!" BIG MISTAKE, he realized it himself, still running, but his movement speed seems to slow down, he continued, "AHH CRAP! I stopped playing!!!! DON'T RUN YOU THIEF! GIVE ME BACK MY WALLET!" With that said, Tai tumbles across a cable on the floor and literally pounced towards the pickpocket.

"Whoa!" Tai flew forward, "Symphony!" Just as Tai was about to play his flute, it was too late.

"Omph!!!" He landed on the pickpocket. Both of them struggled in a mess, pushing each other's faces while Tai tries to snatch back the wallet. "Give me back my wallet!" Using his flute as a rod, he continuously hit the arms of the thief, while the other hand tried to reach into that thief's clothes for his wallet.

"Alright! ALRIGHT! I give! I GIVE!" cried the pickpocket. Tai stopped his constant mauling for a moment. The thief then kicked Tai away, stood up while backing out and took a quick glance at what was inside the wallet. $2.65.

"WHAT?! You chase me four streets and five blocks for a STUPID STINKING TWO DOLLARS AND SIXTY FIVE CENTS?! Man, you are even more pathetic then I am?!" He stared at Tai furiously with both of his eyes open widely. "You can keep your wallet! Loser!" Then he threw Tai's wallet on the floor and walked away.

"GAH! My WALLET!" Then, the money fell out. "GAH! My Money!" The coins scattered all around and a few rolled away. Totally forgetting about his anger towards the pickpocket, he quickly picked up his coins and attempted to follow and grab the others back. Retrieving them one by one, his money led him to another area of the city.

From the far end, he saw an injured lady with burn wounds across her shoulders and knee walking towards a clinic like building. So he decided to follow her...


[OOC:This is a little sudden, but well. Hope you all don't mind. Thanks Dan for posting this for me. The English is a little bad, so I apologise for it.

Lance.]

When they were pleased, they used to allow him to stay in the darkness. If not, it was the terrible killing light, so bright that it hurt his eyes, and that was where they always took him to tell him what to do, who he must stalk and kill. "No one thinks to protect against a sharp blade, not when everyone has an aura. Fire counters water, but almost nothing can block cold steel. Remember this, Simon, and strike silently, from the shadows. Like we have taught you." Sometimes their voices came to him in his dreams, their teachings and their orders, to hunt and eat, to take away the terrible hunger. Sometimes he awakened afraid, certain that the faceless men were here with him, had only just ordered him to hunt, and so he would hunt... but in his confusion he rarely found a target, for the maps did not appear in his mind like he remembered, and there was no target. It was only after hunting for hours that he would remember that there were no faceless men here, that it had only been a dream or a memory... but he was still hungry. And when he was hungry, Simon had to find something to eat.

Now, running his tongue over his too-sharp teeth which lurked within a predator's mouth-hole, Simon thought about how to feed the hunger without stepping out into the flickering light that surrounded him now, the flickering firelight which was not at all like the terrible brightness of that other place, but still far worse than the comfortable dark of the Underneath, of his safe place. Here in the disaster area there would surely be many fresh bodies, nourishment aplenty without having to go to the trouble of hunting, even though the kill was half the pleasure of eating. The one they called Simon was not concerned about pleasure now, but only finding a way to appease that terrible hunger which plagued him, threatened to make him crazy if he did not feed it. But the flickering light held him at bay, made him long for the darkness, made him want to go away and crouch there until the hunger went away, crouch there in the darkness until there could never be hunger again, only... only a great rest. But if the faceless men returned, if they found him weak when they needed him, they would be displeased, and they would take him to the white-light-place, and make him afraid, and they would make him hunt even if he was weak, and there would be no pleasure in it. No, Simon knew that he had to eat, had to find something to fill the terrible void inside and then he could slink back down to the safety of his darkness. So he resolved to brave the stinging firelight, and sneaked with slitted eyes out from the shadows, hoping to find something, anything, which he could take and return to safety with.

It was too quiet here, even though the great destruction was slowly spreading throughout the slums, and Simon did not sense any of the terrible screams which he would have expected from such a great noise and shock, great enough to feel even in his underground safe haven, great enough to knock him off his feet into a rivulet of foul-smelling sludge... but even as he cupped a hand to his left ear-hole, to hear better, nothing came to him except for the sound of crackling flames, the sound of billowing smoke in the night, and the ever-so-slight sound of settling dust... unless it was all in his mind, which a great many things were and thus he did not trust his senses. Cursing his foolish risk, walking out into the light where he would be seen and exposed if any were here, seen and maybe then the faceless men would come and find him after such a long time of freedom, and even now his eyes were hurting from the all-around assault of light, dim though it was... Simon retreated to the shadows again, determined to move closer to the scene of impact, to find out what had fallen upon and into the city, and maybe there would be food there... maybe there would be something to feed Simon's great hunger.

//Ai Ling... // Ai Wen's tentative voice poked out of her little corner in their mind. //Does it still hurt? //

//It's ok, I can already feel the burns recovering. Don't worry yourself over it. // Ai Ling replied, a tiny smile gracing her mouth at her 'sister's' concern. Then she frowned. //More importantly, there's someone following us. //

//He's not one of those people who are after us... Is he? //

//Probably. // For the second time in the same hour, Ai Ling reached for her switchblade. The sharp blade glinted as it flashed out of its holder again, and followed its owner swiftly as she charged in the general direction of the stranger.

Much to their surprise, not only did the man not draw his weapon, he dropped into a crouch merely seconds before she could reach him. The blade that had been meant to stab his torso fell forward in midair, and soon gravity and the laws of physics were in motion.

Tripping over the crouched form, Ai Ling tumbled clumsily into the ground, her burnt knee coincidentally first to encounter the rough, uneven dirt-filled flooring and she gasped in pain, clutching at it as blood soon began to flow out from the injury.

[OOC: Hope his reaction fits in the situation ^^;; Feel free to use Ai Ling in your posts, she usually is very cautious and untrusting around men, but now that she's injured...]

Seeing that lady writhe in pain, Tai could not help but to apologise. He looked at the lady and instantly dug into his back pack. He took out two crummy looking shirts and a pair of brown 3/4 pants. Then, he tore one of the shirts into two.

The lady look at him confused, she thought that he might bring her harm. Straight away she reached for her hand knife back and then charged it at the side of his neck threatening him to back off. But Tai didn't, he just carried on with what he was doing.

"Relax, I mean no harm. I just saw you injured from far and thought that you might need some help." her knife was still placed at the side of his neck. "I know I am not a Viridian, so I couldn't help much, but you really need to wash your wounds clean in case of infection."

Tai drew out nickel, "Prelude!" he started playing a soft tune of melody. Water from all directions charged towards them and slowly formed a thin clear water barrier. The lady was startled but she did not let lose of her guard. Tai let stop playing and instantly most of the water fall from mid air. He tried to catch as much as water as he could with one half of the shirt. He plays his flute again and washes the half shirt. Repeating the process a few times till the shirt is somehow clean.

"This should do. I need to wipe your knee clean. It might hurt a little." He passed her the other half of the shirt. "Bite on this, it might help you relieve the pain somehow. Don't worry, I really don't mean any harm." With that said, he started to wipe her knee with that dampened half shirt. Gently and firmly.

The Lady bit on the other half of the shirt. Her eyes wincing in bits of pain. Tai accidentally rubbed a little too hard, sending her yelling out. She slightly slit across the side of his neck out of accident. Tai quickly apologised, "Oh! I'm so sorry, I really am. Is it very painful? I will be more careful next time."

Totally ignoring the cut at his neck, he cleans the wound and washes the cloth and cleans again. Then he washes the cloth one last time and tied it around the lady's injured knee like a bandage. He then wet the other shirt and slightly dries it a little, leaving it a little moisturised.

"Judging from your attire, you must be from that falling prison island rock thingy aren't you? I don't really care what you actually did, but you seriously need to get some new clothes. You can't see the doctor with those clothes can you? These clothes might not be the best, please bare with it a little." She finally drew back her knife. "I keep the shirt a little bit moistured, it isn't good for your wounds definitely, but it will soothe that pain on your back a little. Then we will go see a doctor. Since you don't have an ID with you, you can impose as my sister later."

He pointed to her an alley and continued," You can change in that alley if don't mind. I need to clean up this ermm, little cut here." Pointing to his still bleeding neck, he gave that lady a smile...

[OOC : I hope this post is okay. Thanks Yume and thanks Dan for posting this post for me. I hope her reactions is fine. You can use Tai however you want by the way.

Lance.]

Plum closed the box lid. They had told her she would be free to go home once all patients had been properly healed or taken care of, and there did not seem to be many of them. Everyone able to walk or somehow else move had left, anyways. Explosions and screams scared people away. Funny, eh?

Carrying the medicine box loosely among her fingers she left the hospital carefully closing the door behind her, oblivious and whistling in very bad tuning something that might have sounded like a lullaby. Who knows.

"If you're hurt, sir, you may, mmm, might want to get into the... what's it called, ah, the hosp... Hospice. Hospitality. Hospital... sounds funny, hm?" Plum looked down at the wound man, an innocent smile on her face, half talking to herself. "There are some doctors that can help you. Oh no, they left. Yeah. They're gone. One of them got shot. I saw him. And a balloon, it was red and floating. Ah, sorry. Want some help? I have some medicine. Painkiller, if it hurts, until you find a nice Viridian person to heal you."

Ai Ling changed into the new clothings awkwardly. Physically recovering, she was, but mentally swirling in confusion too.

//He's a man! Men are evil! They capture us, bully us, and put their filthy paws on our body as though they own it! No man is good! // Ai Ling protested vehemently, but the faint burn on her cheeks was prominent.

//He didn't do any of that... he didn't even care when we put a knife against his neck, and helped us when we were injured... // Ai Wen persisted. // Maybe.. we can trust him? //

//I don't know... I don't know! // In her desperation to clear her thoughts, Ai Ling shook her head almost violently. But not only did it not work, pain jolted her again as her injured shoulder rubbed against the over-sized shirt, and her bandaged knee against the 3/4 pants that she had put on.

Carefully, she rolled up a side of the pants so that its end rested just above her bandaged knee. Once done, she stepped out of the alley.

The strange man, as she had come to name him, sat on the ground, the wad of cloth that he had given her to bite now resting casually against his neck, his hand keeping it in place. Before him stood a strangely dressed girl. They appeared to be conversing, though the girl seemed to be doing most of the talking.

After a while, the girl opened the white box in her hands and handed him a silver strip. Recognition flickered in her eyes as Ai Ling peered closer at the strip. Neatly placed in a two by five formation were ten tiny pink round tablets. The same ones as those in the asylum had given her. If not for the incident that had landed her in Darkrock, she might have liked those little pills, only because of the nice numb buzz they gave her.

Her right hand dug into the pocket where her trusty switchblade now resided and she walked towards the duo. If they had any intention of drugging her silly and taking her somewhere, she would prove herself to be more than a fight for them.

Simon could smell burning meat, carried upon the hint of breeze that even here in the slums flowed so lazily along. The great impact, still affecting the city of Anginyu in terrible ways, mostly in collapsing the levels upon each other, was mostly in the past now, no new destruction except for the fire's fuel. Down in the slums, there had never been adequate fire-protection, but obviously the citizens had taken matters into their own hands, for the blazing inferno which should have been was reduced to small blazes which soon burned out. But still... Simon could smell burning meat, and something inside of him cried out for it, demanded that he find it before the fire consumed it, so that he could feed his own hunger. Has some dead person fallen into the blaze? Are there burning bodies, boiling blood, screaming victims running to escape? He grinned to himself, in his own strange fashion, from under his wide-brimmed hat.

There were no people there when he arrived. Instead, a meat-seller had apparently abandoned his shop soon after the fall of Darkrock prison, leaving even as the fires advanced in this area. Now, only smoldering ruins remained, and... meat. Usually, Simon did not bother with cooking his food before eating it, for when he ate it was in the grips of great urgency and desperation, but as he devoured a well-cooked lump of indistinguishable flesh, pulled from the hot coals at the cost of burnt fingers, he noted silently that it tasted much better with some heat to it. And now... and now, back to the darkness, where the faceless men cannot find Simon.

Unfortunately for him, Simon never made it back to his refuge...

Ai Ling slowly approached Tai and the nurse. She could hear their conversation clearer and clearer. With her hands in the pocket, preparing for an assault any time.

"These are emergency painkillers, do not try to swallow all at once okay? Save some for your sister." the nurse handed Tai a silver strip that neatly placed in a two by five formation were ten tiny pink round tablets.

"Okay, haha. Thank you so much Madam! Thank You so much!" Tai Laughed and smiled to the nurse. Then he took 5 of the tablets and swallowed them down.

Seeing Tai swallowing down the pills. Ai Ling was stunned and fell into another mental confusion again. But her hands still holds the knife just in case when something goes wrong, she would be ready to strike.

The nurse became furious, she lifted her hand up high and wildly smacked across Tai's head slightly.

"Ouch! Hey, what is that for?" cried out Tai, hands rubbing against his head.

"You are not suppose to take so much at one go because you only had a slight cut... These painkillers are suppose to let you and your sister last till the morning, since its already late at night so most of the doctors might not be available. Rather then to search for a doctor throughout the whole night, why not get some rest now, then seek for medication tomorrow?" she scolded Tai as though changed into another person. "Oh sorry. I don't mean to hit you in the head." She seemed to change back to her original self again.

The nurse handed Tai five more pink tablets before she left, giving Ai Ling a courteous bow before she go. Tai then happily yelled out to the nurse "THANK YOU!" He noticed that Ai Ling had already changed her clothes and with a rather angry and confused look, one of her hand was clamping onto something hard in the pocket.

He thought about why Ai Ling reacted like this and gave a huge laugh, "Ahahaha! Don't worry alright? We meant to harm, that nurse saw me handling my neck injury when you were changing. I told her that you are my sister and was burnt by accident. She kindly give us some painkillers and well... I'm sure you've heard the rest of our conversations."

He then smiled to Ai Ling. "Now, we need to get you some food first, then a place to retire for the night. Tomorrow we will go see a doctor. Don't worry about money, I can do some performing in the morning and earn some cash before we leave."

Ai Ling let lose of her guard against Tai. Totally surprised by his actions.

Tai carried his backpack once again and them grabbed onto Ai Ling free hand, which stunned her even more. "Come on, lets go before the convenient stores closes. We need to get you some food before we find a place to stay for tonight okay?" With that said, he dragged Ai Ling along heading towards the nearest food stores...

[OOC : Tai had only $2.65 left, so that could only buy some bread. Haha, I hope Ai Ling's reactions is alright. Thanks Dan for typing this post for me.

If I am correct, the nurse should be plum, if yes, I made her little fierce for she is a nurse after all and what Tai did is not good for the health, so she would be a tad bit furious than usual.

If the nurse isn't plum, then don't worry about it at all. (Edit : The Nurse isn't Plum, do take note now!)

Lance.]

Warm light diffused from antiquated lighting apparatus' added a touch of soft peach to her pale skin as she basked in a dark brown, synthetic leather arm chair. Her hair, straight and fine, pooled against her sleeve where her arm bend to hold a damp white cloth over her eyes. She tilted her head back, pressing it firmly into the firm but yielding cushion. A long sigh escaped her lips, it had been a long day. A street fight between rival factions had resulted with several minor injuries and two patients in critical condition. Of course, the two critical cases should have gone to a hospital for treatment instead of her small clinic. However, both sides of the fight were reluctant and she had been too concerned over their condition. LE had arrived, late as usual to take the men after they had been healed. The other factor members having disappeared after seeing to their friend's health. The hardest case had been Mrs. Noric's ectopic pregnancy. The poor woman had been trying to get pregnant, only to abort several times. This time, the egg had fallen into her abdomen cavity and had to be aborted.

She turned her head to one side and nuzzled her face into the chair with a grimace, shoveling the thoughts of the woman's grief to the back of her mind. It was a quiet night as far as the slums went. She intended to make the best of it. An alert sounded off in her mind, her Micell helpfully supplied that Faen Liath requested entry. She consented mentally. The door downstairs opened soundlessly and locked once it was allowed to fall back into place again. She attempted to relax every muscle in her body. Thuds raced up the stairs as Faen propel himself at full speed. The door to the room slide open as the breathless youth threw himself through and ran to the side room without even a greeting. She heard him tossing his bag with force to the floor. The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement.




Faen glared down at his school bag. His textbooks had spill from the opening where the zipper had failed. He sighed and gave himself a shake. Sitting down on the small bed, he worked at the laces of his shoes, kicking them unceremoniously to one side once he had freed his feet. The small side room was the spare bedroom in the apartment over the clinic though it was pretty much his. She never had house guests, well, not that he had known of. With the usual lack of concern for cleanliness of a teenage male, he left his books and bag on the floor as his trod out of his room, the soft carpeting padding his feet. The main room was sparsely decorated, but at the least the few items were tasteful.

"Hey," he said belatedly, walking over to the kitchen area.

"If you aren't going to arrive on time to help, you might as well just go home instead of raiding my fridge," she said, her voice as balmy as summer breeze. He froze, hand hovering over the handle of the fridge door. He tossed a glance over his shoulder. He couldn't see her eyes but her tone had no bite in it and yet... Then he saw it, the smallest of smiles touching her lips. He grasped the fridge door opening it to peer at the contents.

"It's quieter over here." A contemptuous snort replied to his comment. It was followed by a languid sigh.

"While you are over there why don't get me a cup of tea, noncaffeinated." He paused in his looting of sandwich components to fill her request. He delivered it on a small tray, setting it on the small end table.

"Myrise." She lifted, the cloth from her eyes in response and smiled. Dark sea green eyes emphasized by the contrast with her skin. To the unobservant, she looked innocent, but those eyes brimmed with intelligence, he thought and smiled back. She fold the hand towel neatly and placed it on the corner of the tray, then took the mug.

"Thank you, Faen." He nodded and returned to the kitchen to finish making his sandwich.

"Midterms, Faen?"

"Yeah. All I got left is bio, though. And that's a breeze. How was work today?" He took a mighty bite of his sandwich, eating with relish. Myrise sometimes acted cool and detached, but she always kept stuff he liked in the fridge for him. He took his dish over to the dining table, still chewing on a mouthful. "Ignoring me?" He muttered through the food. She looked at him with mingled disgust and irritation. It amused Faen. A woman that had seen enough gore in her short career to send a fourth of the slums reeling to spill the contents of their stomach, could still be revolted by minor personal habits.
She turned her head away. "Mmm." She took a sip of her drink, refusing to answer his question. Myrise stood suddenly, tilting her head and frowning. Faen swallowed prematurely, feeling the partially masticated lump of food slowly make its way down his throat uncomfortably.

"What is it," he queried, his voice thickened.

"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling." Her frown persisted as she paced to the window. Her eyes darted across the streets as if searching for a threat. He got up as well, joining her at the window.

"I don't se-" The floor suddenly shook violently under them, a cacophony overwhelming their senses. Myrise fell, she clasped her head protectively. As he reached for her, he felt his own balance give out. Then it ended as abruptly as it had started. The pair climbed shakily to their feet.



"What was that?" Myrise frowned and shook her head. Swiftly, she turned and walked up to the roof access, the young man trailing behind her. At first, she saw nothing but the normal city lights, then noticed a reddish glow to the west and something else. Sky. The familiar buildings were gone. Replaced. With some outlines that were vaguely familiar. Inventive curses flowed eloquently from her lips, Faen stared with curious awe.

"You don't realize what that is do you," she said, her voice unusually harsh. "It's Darkrock." The young man's light green eyes widened, his head snapping back to stare at the structure. The piercing sound of the siren made her shudder. Faen pressed his hands over his ears ineffectively. He removed his hands warily when the sound stopped, then turned to Myrise.

"What are we going to do?"

"Get out of this dust before it clogs our lungs for one. Then see if we can round up some help to check out the crash site. We are the closest." The dark sea green eyes closed, as her mind made a list of needed supplies. "It is not safe, I'd prefer if you-"

"No way," he replied flatly, light green eyes shining like a young leaves in flames. She sighed.

"Come on then."


As it turned out they didn't have to hunt down help. Several of her acquaintances, mostly bounty hunters, former LE, and the like showed up at the clinics door. Myrise answered the door, wearing a respirator.

"New fashion statement, Myri?" A lanky redhead in his late twenties leered at her as he leaned against the doorway.

"Burn up in your own flames, Darst." Something about the implacable man brought out the worst in her. Grinning, he stepped forward, arms extend to pull her into an embrace. She ducked under his grasping arm, kicking him sharply in the shin and slipping past. Faen glowered at Darst and pushed him out of the way as he walked by. Darst's fraternal twin brother, Dev sighed and rolled his eyes at his siblings bad behavior. Behind the man, stood the rest of their group.

"We are agreed that survivors come first right? Avoiding the criminals."

"Yes, Ma'am." Was the gist of the replies. She nodded in approval. The group moved off steadily in the direction of the prison with the goal of saving the remaining inhabitants of the neighborhoods impacted by the crash. Darst brought up the rear, sulking.




OOC: pretty tired right now, hope that is understandable

"Do you prefer chocolate or plain?" The strange man asked, both hands, each holding onto a loaf of bread, held out in her face.

"..." Her eyes uncharacteristically wide, especially for her age, Ai Ling simply stared at both bread, then back at his grinning face.

A moment passed in awkward silence before he turned back to the shelf, muttering, "Plain it shall be then."

The same routine repeated when they went along the drinks corner, and they proceeded out of the store uneventfully minutes later with the owner, who appeared to be in a hurry to leave, a bag of purchases in hand and the man dropping the 65 cents back into his wallet with a mournful sigh. It was after yet another moment of silence that he spoke up again. "So what's your name?"

"... Ai Wen." Ai Ling mumbled, ignoring the loud 'Tsk tsk' from her twin sister's corner.

"Hmm... that sounds familiar.. " he tapped his wallet against his chin, as if in deep recollection, then gave up. "Anyways, I'm Tai. Guess we'll be sticking together for awhile ne?"

Ai Ling nodded, absently fingering her sixth finger.

"So where are you headed?"

"Somewhere, anywhere but here. Up maybe." she replied simply.

[OOC: I'm not very sure how to go about getting a place to rest o.o'' Ai Ling's okay ^^ Though I think now you'll have to refer to her as Ai Wen >.0 It'll be a little confusing, but that's what appears on her MiCell as well, so... ]

Tai brought Ai Wen to a deserted building, it seems like a really old building structure that was yet to be demolished. Setting up a camp fire in the basement of the building, Tai burnt up Ai Wen's prison attire. "Now that we have burn your prison clothing, what is left is to remove that MiCell. We will leave this city and find some powerful technopath to remove it for you."

Ai Wen just kept quiet, starting at the fire, sitting while resting against the wall.

"This building has been quite deserted for a long time. I know it because I've been here for 2 weeks and not a single police patrol have I ever hear it once." He then walk towards Ai Wen and pass her those painkillers. "Take these and get some rest. If you wake up in the morning and find me missing, don't panic. I will perform in the morning at the nearby park for the senior citizens there and hopefully some business passerby. Then I will straight away fetch you and bring you to the doctor right away during late morning"

She took the pills and drank up what was left in her water bottle.

"After seeing the doctor, we will right away leave this city and hopefully to somewhere save. If someone ever find you here, please don't fight, run as far as you can. There is a fountain in the nearby park here two streets north." Tai point towards the north. "If you could prevent yourself from being captured, meet me at there during midnight. But this is just a backup plan, only when something goes wrong. For now, you should really get some sleep." With that, Tai passed Ai Wen a blanket.

30 minutes had past. Ai Wen was still awake, even though the painkiller's effect had already set in. She could still feel the stinging pain each time she moves a little. Not to mention, it was on her shoulders, which made it even harder for her to rest lying down.

Tai looked at Ai Wen, watching her to be in a major discomfort. He then picked up nickel and spoke to her, "Couldn't sleep? If you don't mind, would you mind if I play for you a song?"

Ai Wen said nothing, but she gave Tai a slight nod. That nod made Tai smiled a little, he whispered, "Rhapsody..." and starts to play his flute. The melody was a mix of both peace and serenity, slow yet morbid, but each tune would somehow calm down the atmosphere of the surrounding. The camp fire seems to dim down a little.

She turned to look at Tai, he was smiling and playing with his eyes shut, enjoying himself very much. Slowly, she felt that every segment of her body was somehow, cooling. Each of her muscle starts to relax, every of her cell seems to be tender. Her hands and fingers became vaguely weak, yet she could feel that somehow mysterious nervous tingly sensation of pure joy from within. She couldn't feel the pain of her wounds anymore. Rather then burning pain, she felt cooled down, like eating peppermint.

Tai finished the tune and continued to speak, "I hope you enjoy this piece..." He opened his eyes and noticed that Ai Wen was sound asleep already. He smiled and then walked towards her and covered her with the blanket properly.

He then looked out of the building, staring at the 2 moon. Then whisper to himself, "The moons sure are bright today..."

[OOC : You can decide which to write for the next day though. I was hoping it to be that he came back to fetch her safely because it will be easier to write. But having the police to trace her up would spice things up a lot too. Which leave for you to decide. Up to you le, Yume. Thanks Yume and Thanks Dan for typing this post for me.

Lance.]

As T turned the corner on his bike, he thought he heard something out of place...

Music.

"Music, at this time, in the middle of the night, after what just happened? I must be crazy..." T shook his head and continued down the road, only minutes away from his destination. He increased speed, noticing that there were very few vehicles moving around in this part of the city. Once he arrived, he parked his vehicle at his usual spot. He pulled the keys out and hopped off his bike, pocketing the keys and pushing open the door.

"One-Letter Man!" shouted the barkeeper as soon as the doors flung open and he stepped in. After all, where these people gathered, there would be drinking and the spreading of rumours. Perhaps even weeping and the gnashing of teeth as a barfight took place. But as long as he was there, most of the bounty hunters and vigilantes observed the rules that he had set in place. That was after one tall, arrogant, obnoxious fellow with a bodybuilder's physique, who felt that the bar owed him a round of free drinks, decided to smash up the place and beat others up to prove his point.

He ended up being taken to the ground, armbarred and his arm broken in less than three seconds. He got up, but found someone jumping onto his back and applying a backchoke on him, from which it was impossible to escape, even for a man like him. After another thirty seconds of struggling, panicking and flailing, the muscleman lay unconscious on the ground in ultimate defeat.

Standing over him, heaving for breath, was none other than T. His colleagues dragged the body out into the alleys and threw him into a pile of garbage, and returned to clean up the mess.

"You saw Darkrock prison fall, didn't you?" asked the barkeeper as T took his usual seat. He nodded in response, and listened intently. "I heard that some groups are putting up high bounties for some of the escaped criminals... Looks like there's going to be trouble around here soon enough. This is one of the few places in town where people are actually still around... Pretty soon there's going to be nobody here any longer, except maybe us and the police trying to capture those criminals. You'd better watch yourself. Lurkers who've got a grudge against you love times like these."

T smiled and nodded, then turned around to survey the bar, looking out for new faces. There were always new visitors, new discussions and new notices on the bulletin board with prices on the heads of new targets. He hopped off the seat and went up to the bulletin board, looking out for new developments.

(OOC: I hope that wasn't too intrusive on anyone's plans for their character(s)... If anyone wishes to have their character(s) pay that bar a visit or to start from there, go right ahead. It's where they gather anyway, and I felt that there should be some kind of base from which to work. If there are any problems or if I made any mistakes, feel free to inform me. )

Ai Wen did not know how long they had slept, but the loud gunshots shook her awake within minutes. Ai Ling, on the other hand, was dead to the world. It was a habit she had carried since young. If she had to do anything too mentally straining, tiring, or damaging, she would simply knock out the moment she fell into slumber, and for the next 12 hours, their body belonged to Ai Wen only.

Pushing the warm blanket aside, she noticed Tai's form already moving towards the entrance, his flute in hand. Quietly, she followed the youth as he headed towards the source of the gunshots. It did not take long for them to reach their 'crime scene'.

Two groups of people stood along the far side of the street. It appeared to be a gang fight of some sort.

Soon, guns were replaced by more esoteric weapons, and even splashes of water and flames had begun weaving their dance in the air.

A stolen glance at her side revealed a perplexed look on Tai's face. The boy was too kind, he did not belong in this city of chaos.

Turning her gaze back at the fight ensuing before them, she decided to wait it out beneath a shelter some ways far from the two groups.

[OOC: Egads, my brain is dead x.x Tis the best I can come up with for now. I be going to sleep. Taliet, Lance (and Dan), if there are any problems, feel free to correct me.]

"Gunfire? What the... Damn it," T said as he pulled out his pistol. He slammed the magazine into the weapon, and quickly headed out the door. "Speak of the devil..."

Before he could even react they had already spent their ammunition, and were now switching to using their auras on each other. He walked over to where the fighting was taking place - not far across the street inside the back alleys - and climbed by the stairs onto the roof of one of the buildings, observing the fighting.

"It's him! It's that guy! Get him!" shouted one of them as he flung a fireball straight at T, who stood with his pistol in his right hand by his right thigh, and his left arm outstretched towards the fireball.

The fireball disappeared right in front of his palm.

"What in the... What cheap magic is this?!"

Without a word or a second thought he put two rounds in the man's forehead, and did the same for anyone who showed any sign of preparing to attack him. In the meantime, his fellow vigilantes decided to flank them and cut their escape routes off, their weapons primed and preparing to use their auras for a fight in case they decided to make a break for it.

"You'd be smart to put up your hands and surrender, punks... No way you're getting T today," said one of the vigilantes, weapon primed and trained on one of the men in the group.

"Fine... But I just want to know, what the hell did you do? That fireball disappeared..." said one of those in the group.

"Fire doesn't burn without oxygen," hissed the same vigilante. "If you didn't drop out of school you might have actually learned that. Now put your hands on the back of your head. Turn around and line up against the wall."

"His eyes are shifting..." thought T to himself as he observed the same person who had asked the question. As he expected, he tried to run off - except he failed. The silent peacekeeper shot him mercilessly in the back, and he fell to the ground gasping for air. The gun and the rounds used had high stopping power, able to knock down targets upon impact to great effect.

"The same goes for anyone else who tries to run!" cautioned one of the other vigilantes, steadying his handgun. "Now line up against the goddamn wall!" They pushed the punks to the wall, frisking them for weapons while keeping their guns to the gangsters' backs.

T lifted his arm, carrying in his hand his pistol, and opened fire. The rest of the vigilantes followed suit, permanently removing the threat.

Little did they know, a young boy and his female companion watched the entire scene.

Tommy woke up in an old abondoned home in the slums. It was a ways away from the place he had fallen through the ground. Looking around, everything seemed out of proportion, but he ignored. He tried to stand up, and fell back down, quickly catching himself with the air beneath him. He lifted himself to his feet. slightly bending over, he rubbed his head. It stung. He created a small mirror made of water from the water molecules in the air. He gasped and the mirror collapsed and Tommy fell to the ground hitting it hard. His face right eye was burnt shut, and useless. He stood back up, and looked around for something to wrap around his eye. His clothes burnt and torn, he tore off the bottom of his shirt, and wrapped it around his eye.

"Tommy, are you okay." Tommy froze. It was not the same, but it was still that voice. A girl that had vanished from his life about 23 years ago. It was Aira. "Tommy, are you okay." She walked into the room, and walked up to him. "You lay back down." He listened. She took off the torn shirt patch and wrapped a damp warm towle around his head to cover his eye. She then sat down some clean clothes, and left him alone, shutting the door behind her.

Tommy stood up and put on the clean clothes. They were similar to his other clothes, and there were no shoes. He didn't care, he would just go shoeless. He drank the water on the table. He knew what had happened, and knew the eye was an accedent. She had set up a decoy to grab his attention, then knocked him out cold.

He left the room and looked around the house. It was dimly lit, and there was nothing much to it. A plain white couch in the corner of the main room, a couple of appliances, and two other rooms. The bathroom, and the second bedroom. He walked up to the bathroom, he heard the shower running, he turned around and wnt back into the other room, there he layed down waiting.

(ooc: I will put up Airas' profile when I get the chance.)

Watching the man being shot mercilessly. Tai grabbed on his flute tight, his mind seems to be burning in intense fury.

"I must do it! I must to it! I MUST DO IT!!" He thought to himself. "Concerto." He starts to play aloud a morbid Gothic tune. The music does not seem to have any effect, but it alarmed the two gangs in fight. His eyes was bursting in tears, he couldn't stop crying.

Then Tai broke the song half way and walked to the man being shot. He was gasping for air painfully. Twitching and squirming. He pointed his flute towards that "merciless demon" that shot him. "You! Why did you kill him?! WHY?!"

The "demon" remained silent.

"He is a life damnit! A life! No matter how bad he is, you still shouldn't kill him! You shouldn't!" he cried. Then he turned, seeing the other vigilantes with their guns pointing against the rest of their backs. "NO I won't let you kill them! I won't let you! Fugue!" He blew a 3 loud notes using his flute, then swing his flute towards the vigilantes' direction. Blasting them off balance.

"RUN!" he shouted to the rest as it started raining.

The "demon" had his gun aimed at Tai...

[OOC: "the demon"or "merciless demon" is referred to "T". this post is rather crappy. Haha. Hope its okay. Thanks Dan for typing this post for me.

Lance.]

For some reason, Simon took a different route back toward his underground refuge, thinking only of avoiding the flames which surely must have spread by now. For some reason, he had not found another sewer grate or maintenance tunnel entrance by the time he passed a strangely-noisy bar, noisy because everyone inside must have been very drunk... and strange because Simon had seen no one, dead or alive, since rising up into the comparatively open air of the slums. But here, outside the bar, there were many dead, and fresh ones by the look of it. Nearby, a group of men were about to kill some others, but another person was yelling something about stopping them. Simon paid them no heed. Keeping to the shadows, Simon avoided them and continued on his way, lost in thought. If only he had still been hungry, Simon might have had a feast, but the partially-burned meat he had eaten so recently would keep his hunger satisfied for at least a few days, and then... then, maybe he could return here. Mentally, he marked the bar's location before moving on. He had no interest in going inside, where even in a dim slum dive-bar it would surely be too bright (and far too loud) for Simon's tastes... anything other than dead silence or the sharp cry of death as his knives or his teeth sunk into his prey... anything else and Simon was immediately uncomfortable: neurotic and paranoid to the greatest extent, always certain that the faceless men would find him, that bar was no place for him at all...

Simon had stopped, wondering about the noise coming from that place, and having no interest in or knowledge of alcohol or its effects, he decided that a fight must be happening inside. It was obvious to him that some of the combatants must have spilled out onto the street, and he silently wondered if this might have had something to do with the great shock wave from earlier. Now that his hunger was sated, Simon began to feel something which he could never before remember feeling: curiosity. Something was drawing him toward the scene of the crash, something... something made him want to turn around and go back to the place where the flames were the hottest, the brightest. Something was calling to him. Like a Siren's song, luring ancient Greeks of legend to abandon ship and drown or steer themselves into rocks, to be dashed to pieces... something was calling Simon back the way he had come, even though like the ancient Greeks it would surely lead to his own destruction. He heard some wild flute notes, but ignored them, for now he was hearing a silent song to his own destruction that only he could hear... Having started walking again, having intended to keep walking until he found a doorway downward, Simon found himself once again passing the noisy bar's doorway, and in his newfound curiosity was suddenly interested in seeing what lay inside. Surely there cannot be many left alive, but the noise suggests a mighty battle... The knives are thirsty, though Simon's desire be satisfied for now, and he could always use the practice...

Battering down his fear of lights and sound, something nearly impossible before, Simon pushed open the door. The calling to see, to experience, to discover... it was stronger than ever now, and although the terrible fear washed over him in a wave something inside him pushed it away. The noise hit him like a wall, but it did not push him away. Instead, it surrounded him, accepted him, enfolded him... imprisoned him, even. Simon pulled his hat low over his eyes, made sure his cloak was tightly pulled around him to hide his terrible appearance, and entered. He knew that he looked different from other people, knew it from the look of terror in his victims' eyes before they even knew that they were going to die, on those rare occasions when his careful sneaking ability failed him... usually it was one of those psychics, but only the weaker ones, only the ones who could not read the intent to murder, and in their faintly amethyst eyes. They knew someone was following them, but not why, and soon after seeing the nightmare creature which confronted them they would surely die, for it was not only the element of surprise which Simon held. He was an expert and both throwing and stabbing attacks with his collection of knives, a skill honed both by his training in that too bright so long ago, and by regular use over the years.

Simon entered the bar, surrounded by terrible noise, his face in shadows and his arms inside his cloak, holding it tightly shut. Inside, his hands were clutching razor-sharp instruments of death, ready to enter the fight which would not be, and in his surprise upon entering the place and seeing no battle he let the blades slide back into their hidden sheathes... for although it was terribly loud here, the light was dim enough that it did not scare him overmuch, bring with it no memories of the faceless men and their bright whiteness and the fear... and everyone was simply... drinking something, from cups or bottles, and going to speak with the man in the back for more. Simon could not understand what could make them so thirsty, unless many of them had been involved with the deadly fight outside, and were only now recovering. He could see now that some were sitting, some actually taking part in some kind of wrestling contest, and others standing in groups around a few very bad musicians... but all were very loud, and all very, very drunk... Simon, not knowing or understanding drunkenness, thought that they all might have been injured, but did not wonder any further as he found himself walking to speak with the same man that everyone else went to see... The man was standing behind a low table of sorts, and Simon walked over, wondering what he would say.

"What will you have, mate?" Simon did not know what to say, did not know how to answer someone who did not goggle at him in abject terror, did not think that his death was near at hand. Simon, the predator in the shadows, had never before met a person who did not either expect to be killed... or send him to kill someone.

"Thirsty." Simon knew many words, for the faceless men had injected many things into his mind, and above all complete obedience to their authority. Never before being asked what he wanted, Simon could only reply with what he felt at the moment. The half-burnt meat had been dry, and Simon had planned on drinking from the drainage system upon returning to his darkness, but now he was not where he had intended to be. All of the people around him were drinking, and thus Simon decided that he would also drink.

"Thirsty. Aren't we all, mate?" Not really understanding what Simon meant, the bartender began to pour a mug of the weak local beer, figuring that this strangely-dressed... stranger... was either too ignorant or already too inebriated to know the difference. He handed the odd person the mug, thinking that surely this one must know the rules here... to not pay up was to be badly beaten or die, depending on the size of the bar tab, and as the stranger quickly drank the bartender decided that he definitely knew the rules and was definitely already drunk.

Still standing there, Simon did not notice the bitter taste, accustomed to drinking tainted drain-water as he was, and as soon as he drained the mug he thrust it back at the man, "More. Thirsty."

"I'll need to see some money first, mate. Nothing personal, you see. Business."

"Mon-ee? Monneeyy? What is... what is money?" Simon tried out the word, having somehow not heard this one before. Affected nevertheless by the weak beer, for this was the first time he had ever had such a thing, Simon missed the look of exasperation in the bartender's eyes. The man reached under the counter, having heard a story much like this plenty of times before, and without further ado pulled a heavy pistol with practiced ease. Simon found himself staring into a barrel which looked as wide as the sewer's mouth itself, in his altered state of mind, and for once in his life did not know what to do. He knew that he had knives, he knew that he could cut this man quickly and easily, could make the man's blood flow and then Simon could drink his fill... first of blood and then more of this strange water... but Simon did not know where his knives were, did not know... did not... did not like this place anymore. The great noise of the place suddenly hit him again just as it had outside, and the dim lights seemed far too bright, and he tried to back up, tried to get away... but there was someone behind him.

Simon was trapped.

[OOC: Feel free to use Simon however you like, as long as he does not eat anyone and does not get killed... yet.]

Very afraid, but still very aware of what she was doing, Shi ran against the fussy crowd escaping from the crash site, trying to heal people that needed some of her healing power.

"Someone has to help these people... but what if they are the prisoners?" she frowned at this perspective. "What if they're trying to kill somebody else? I have to be careful, to try to recognize evil signals coming from them. But not always bad people have bad faces..." her eyes rolled to the sky. "Oh, my, you're badly injured, sir, I could heal you!" she had to scream to the person, bleeding in many spots, that didn't care and continued running. Little time had passed now since she left that tall building toand now she was closer to the something which had once been Darkrock Prison thanks to her speed.

Finally Shi made it to a clinic-like building and entered. Once there she would gather enough information because people there could have seen it better, and then think of something to do -- maybe she would help to put the prisoners back in jail, of course not by herself... some money could always shape one's mood and will, and so it did to Shi's.

Then she saw a little crowd asking to be nursed and healed, and some distance away a criminal-looking brunette woman, maybe 30, draw a switchblade against a dirty-looking man's neck. He wasn't defending himself at all, and Shi's first thought was "Hell to every ass like that, we should be always alert and prepared to things like an incident of this nature.". She looked at the crowd, healed some lighter injured people because she wanted to have some strength left -- who knows what could happen in this chaos situation -- and searched for somebody who looked back at her. Then she thought again...

"Do I have stop it? Well, nobody's paying me, maybe that's not of my business... But... if so, if this is not of my business, why did I run all this time yelling I could heal anybody who needed? Am I stupid?!" Shi shook her head violently. "AM--I--THAT--STUPID...? Maaaaaaan!! What should I do?!". Trying to control this apparently mad girl a nurse came and put her hands on Shi's shoulders.

"Come, dear, have some water. Are you okay?"

Her eyes widening a little, Shi decided that that row wasn't of her business and started asking questions about the crash, although every now and then she looked through the glass to check if the brunette woman had killed the dirty-looking man. A purplish girl left the hospital... the brunette woman was now stalking to where the dirty man was standing, her weapon in her hands...

Shi stood up, got out of the building and left the babbling nurse alone -- who was still talking to the air in general, quite unaware of her leaving interlocutor -- and ran towards these people she had been watching.

T stared at the child, his pistol aimed at the boy's forehead. After a tense moment, watching his tears flow like the great rivers in many legends, he shook his head and lowered the weapon, ending the misery of the young fellow struggling to breathe with a shot to the back of his head. He replaced the weapon in his holster and walked away, heading straight back to the bar.

His confused colleagues looked at him, and then at the boy, and sighed. They each lowered their weapons and followed T back to the bar. Enough ammunition and time had been wasted on street rats this night.

He walked back into the bar, through the doors and the noisy bunch, and saw the barkeeper with his pistol out and aimed at a strange figure in a hat and large coat, apparently hiding his appearance. Probably someone with an ugly mug, he decided.

As he walked forward, the fellow began to back up, until he walked straight into T's chest. The latter man's right arm swung around the former's neck, clasping the biceps of his own left arm, which hooked around and pushed in the back of his head, creating another backchoke from which it was impossible to escape (what we call a Japanese stranglehold). T kneed him in the small of his back to take him off his already broken balance, and looked at the barkeeper, who immediately knew what he wanted to know.

"He didn't want to pay! What do you expect me to do?" T's curious expression turned into one of exasperation as he let go of the chokehold on the man. And then he realised, he had knocked the hat right off his head when he went into the chokehold...

IC:

Upon the street in close proximity to the crash site were six unconscious people, knelt beside them was Myrise. They had all been in dire states, the debris had broken off from the city above and tumbled into the complexes they had been living in. Only six of probably hundreds from the city above and the slums below had survived long enough for her to heal them. She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. Behind her stood one of her least favorite people. Darst was watching over her as she waited for the hover car to come. Faen was off with the others looking for more survivors. He had the ability to identify where the living lay, that was the only reason why she had let the boy come with her. She looked over the direction where she heard his voice rising above the deeper voices of the others. His green-tinged blond head was shaking vigorously as he pointed out a direction. The other men redoubled their efforts in the area he had indicated.
She blinked as she noticed a light quick approaching them. The hover car pulled up beside them. Merdra, a tall, slender woman with brown hair and eyes, stepped out of the hover car.

"Hurry up and get them in. I don't like the way the convicts are eyeing my car," she said, her voice low with a touch of panic to it. Myrise cast a quick glance around, noting a couple men in clothing that clearly indicated them as prisoners were indeed watching Merdra's car with interest. The convicts had left them alone while they were hunting for survivors, probably too concerned with their own escape to bother with them. The hover car was another issue. She nodded at Darst. Together they quickly loaded the unconscious folk into the hover car.

"You may have to go up to the hospitals above." Myrise closed the door with a pat.

"Okay, as long as I get out of here," Merdra said with a grimace. After locking the doors, the car sped off. Myrise felt slightly relieved to see the victims off the streets. She closed her eyes wearily, then jumped at the sound of a loud crash. Varn, their telekinetic had dropped a large cylinder of concrete to one side. Selvin and Dev leaned over the hollow created and tossing aside smaller pieces of structural debris. They paused, then reached down to pull a person free by their arms.

Myrise climbed up the hill of debris to join them. She tripped over a block of concrete but caught herself before falling. Faen grabbed her arm to steady her, then helped her over to the victim. She knelt, sharp pieces of stone digging into her knees. The victim was a young woman, mid twenties at most. Her face was purpling with bruises, small abrasions ran across her body. Myrise slightly touched the woman's arm to assess her condition. Her pulse was slowing, blood pressure dropping, more of concern was her crushed right leg and multiple rib fractures. She was lucky not to have more serious injuries. Still, she was in shock and would have to be pulled out of the negative cycle. Myrise started with the ribs to help the woman breath more freely. After increasing sympathetic stimulation through our her system, she put a block on the local pain receptors as she moved the bones into place and increased the cellular growth. The bones knitted and she moved onto the leg. It was more problematic but well within her current capabilities. She adjusted muscles and bone and healed them through. With a sigh, she fell back on to her toes, then stood.

"She's stable, take her down." The twins nodded and carefully carried the unconscious woman. Myrise felt a hand on her back. Varn's purple eyes narrowed as he gazed down at her.

"Are you all right? Don't strain yourself," he said, his voice tense with concern. She massaged her own neck and nodded.

"I'm fine, just tired. I'd feel guilty if I didn't do every thing I could." She shuffled down the hill as Varn frowned at her.

"I don't think there are more survivors in this area besides the prisoners, I mean. I can sense that some of them are still in the structure," Faen murmured, his face was pale and drawn.

"Good work. We aren't about to head into the prison anyways. We should get out of here. Dev, Darst? Can you guys carry the woman back to clinic."

"Man, can't you do your own drudgery?"

"Shut up Darst and move," Dev cut off his sibling's complaints, then nodded back at her.

"Thanks," she said and led the way back to her home.



After settling the unconscious woman on a bed in one of her examination rooms, she locked up the clinic. Faen was left behind to monitor any status change of the young woman. The boy was exhausted, it was likely he would go sleep immediately. The examination rooms were hooked up to alert her of such things anyways.

The streets were relatively quiet in the area. This close to the crash site, most people had already abandoned their homes or locked themselves up against the prisoners. The prisoners themselves had mostly disappeared into slums. Even the bounty hunters hadn't been eager to engage so many dangerous individuals. LE was still not here, they were most likely having to fight through the panicked masses that were moving quickly away from the crash area.

"You sure the kid will be okay in there alone," asked Varn, brow furrowed.

"Yes, you know my security systems was one thing that I invested in. Unless an ebony is around he'll be safer there than anywhere else around here," she said with a faint smile. "I would have stayed myself, but you guys were so insistent."

"Come on, after a night like this, everybody needs a drink." Dev smiled placatingly at her.

"But since you guys begged me, one of you are paying for mine."

"Whatever you say, Doc," Darst said flippantly, grinning at her in a manner she detested. The truth was after using up so much of her aura today, she wanted something to take the edge off her mind. Besides that, they had been good enough to help find and save people trapped in the debris. So she followed them up to their choice of pub.

"Oh guys. This place? Could choose some place little less-"

"This is likely to be the only one still open with people in right now." Varn grimaced apologetically as Selvin merely smiled. She sighed in resignation. The sigh turned into a quick inhalation as she noticed several dark lumps laying in the street. She summoned up the last of her energy and ran over to investigate. The men followed her quietly. Kneeling, she inspected the bodies one by one. Several had be shot cleanly through the head, from a distance judging by the entry wounds. The burns and gun powder spray suggested that they had been shot at close range. All of them were too far gone for her to do anything about.

"Let's go Myrise. You can't save them all, you know," Varn said gently, then took her by the arm and pulled back up.

"I know. Those b*stards in there are probably the ones that did this." She closed her eyes and gathered herself. It wasn't like she didn't deal with the scum every day. Still it was hard to let go when there were bodies right in front of her. Myrise allowed Varn and the other to guide her inside the bar.

The place was stereotypically dimly lit. The occupants were mostly male, all of them in various states of inebriation. Myrise wrinkled her nose slightly. A hand on her back was guiding her towards the counter. She paused as she noticed a minor skirmish seemed to be occurring there. Her companions stopped walking as well. She blinked up at them and shook her head in annoyance. Making her decision she walked over the counter, well aware that her scant five feet and three inches and green hair were in no way intimidating.

"Hey guys, I don't like getting involved, but don't make more work for me okay?" She frowned as moved over to one side to get a decent view of what was going on. What could see told her that the barkeep was holding a gun.



OOC: bleeeeeh

//Oh. Dear. Lord. // Ai Wen thought, half in surprise, half in shock. The moment Tai had placed his flute to his lips, a creepy sense of dread had begun filling her mind. And it had proven to be true when he was practically held at gunpoint merely seconds later.

Her tensed body relaxed as the vigilante lowered the pistol. Had he not done so, she would have sprung out of her hiding place and tackled the youth away, danger or no. After they had left, she tackled him anyway, and fireman-carried him on her uninjured shoulder back to their campfire as swiftly as she could.

"You IDIOT!! What were you thinking?! You could have been killed!" she half-roared at him after they had settled beside the fire.

"I couldn't just let them kill people like that!" Tai protested, his tears seemed to roll out unendingly.

"And you could have gotten killed too! What do you think will happen to us if you had died?!"

"I.. I.." Tai lowered his head almost as if to shrink back.

Her point had gotten across, but she felt no happier than she had minutes ago. Heaving a sigh, Ai Wen pulled the weeping youth into a gentle embrace.


[OOC: Not sure if this is ok ^^;;; If this came out in any way illogical or OOCed please tell me ^^;;;]

Aira stepped out of the shower, looking around throught the bathroom door, making sure Tommy wasn't in there, she ran to her room, and put on her clothes.

Tommy heard the shower stop, and got out of the bed. He headed into the main room, and went to knock on the other bedroom door.

Aira opened the door, and stopped as Tommy just about hit her head. "Sorry," he said backing up. He turned around and headed for the door outside.

"Hold on!" Aira yelled.

"We need to get to the surface," Tommy said. He looked at her and smiled, "Lets go."

He opened the door, and they headed out. Tommy looked at her strangely. "We really have a lot of catching to do." She smiled at him.

"Yes, we do." As she looked away, she sighed, "But I really don't know how you will take it." She whispered to herself.

A half hour later, they came across a horrific sight, Tommy hid, as did Aira. They were both hidden from the sight. Tommy watched as a man shot another, and watched as a boy interfered. The man shot the other in the back of the head, then walked off. Tommy was stunned by what he had just seen. Aira watched, unflinching. They turned, and headed in the opposite direction. Tommy looked around, not seeing anyone, or anything much. He soon found what he was looking for. A way up to the surface. It was only a ladder, but it would work. He hopped on and started to climb. Aira looked at him, thinking deeply, then she hopped on the ladder behind him.

Kill him, he abondoned you

No, they lied to him, he wanted to protect you.

She shook her head to get the voices to go away. The cruel one, that had taken over her for sever years, and caused her to kill all those people, and the other, trying to convince to harm no more than neccessary. Tommy moved the manhole using rain water, and climbed throught the hole. He reached down his hand, and helped Aira out of the manhole. He looked around at the rain as it fell, and he saw chaos, total chaos. There were dead everywere. It looked as though someone had torn them apart with their bare hands. He looked around absoulutely stunned. "The work of a pulsed Vermillion," Aira said quietly. "Varen."

"Why thank you for noticing," It was a high pitched, cruel voice, filled with hatred to a poin tof insanity. The words were followed by a high pitched shrill of a laugh. "Would you like to join them!!!" he screamed as he charged at them. Tommy reacted without even noticing. This Varen man, had picked a bad time to attack.

Tommy began to do what seemed like a dance, moving his hands, as though they were the flow of water, and lightning. Varen lept through the air at Tommy as he sent an whip of water at him. Aira tried to spark her flint, but the water prevented that. Tommy drew his swords as Varen came at him again. Blocking a strike from the pulsed Vermillion, Tommys arms shook and went numb for a second. It was too long. Varen punched Tommy in the face, sending him flying. Tommy stood slowly, and sent lightning at Varen as the massive almost monstrous man came at him again. The lightning merely knocked Varen unconcious, and Tommy passed out again.

Aira picked him up and caried him away. "You fool, you do not what you are dealing with." She said to the unconcious man as she ran away from the crash site.

Varen is a NPC, he is an extremely violent, agressive man, his body appears fragile and weak, but when he wants to, his body becomes almost like the hulk, only not green. And he doesn't grow uncontrolled.

The world exploded in tiny lights as Simon's air was cut off, and even as he felt himself slipping toward the beautiful darkness a sharp knee to his lower back brought him back to half-consciousness, where there was only pain. He did not realize that he had been released immediately, only that he was suddenly on the floor, hatless, and surrounded by gawking faces, most of them drunk. Snarling, like a caged dog being teased by children, Simon leaped for his hat, which had fallen at his feet when the stranger began choking him, and within seconds his face was obscured once again in shadows, that terrible skull-face which looked no more human than an automaton made of flesh might look. Simon regained his feet, cloak flapping with the speed of movement, and even as he whirled to face his attacker, bartender and gun forgotten now, a wickedly-sharp blade flashed into each hand, slipping from their places in his wide belt as easily as... breathing. The man did not back down, did not even seem surprised by Simon's terrible appearance, although several of those that had gathered around had now stepped back, appalled and disgusted by what they had seen in the short time he had been exposed in the dim light.

The stranger was wearing what looked like a modified military uniform, but surely he could not have been still active, unless he had just been through a war. Although the clothing was close to being correct, and the man was wearing some kind of projectile-resistant body armor, it all looked to well-used, too old and mismatched. Simon decided that this dark-haired man must have once been a soldier, and now clung to his past though his service was long past. Somehow, Simon knew a lot about the military, more than he should have from spending his time in darkness and light, in killing and hunting and eating.... He knew enough to notice, as well, that this one's eyes held no mercy. Simon clenched his fists around the handles of his knives, making no overtly threatening moves, trying to size up his opponent and find any advantages he might have here, on his enemy's home ground.

And then, from behind, him, "Hey! What about my money?" The bartender. The man with the gun. The last time Simon had tried talking to that one, he'd ended up choked nearly to unconsciousness.

Instead, he took a gamble. Relaxing slightly, trying to appear harmless, though he still held the knives, Simon addressed the ex-military man who had just finished squeezing the air out of his lungs. "What is... money...?"

[ Half an hour after the crash ]

'- the experimental shields around Anginyu activating and desperate citizens trying to evacuate could not leave the city by land or by air-'

'- the Anginyu Law Enforcers were tied down by the riots at the borders of the city even though the Special Forces-'

'- asking how this could have happen. The ARC has not released any-'

'- no official announcements from the Viathan government yet but sources are reporting that the more of the Viathan Army is being dispatched as we speak-'

Ryni pinched the bridge of her nose with the fingers of her left hand, her right resting on the hand-grip of her moving hoverbike. Her eyes remained on the highway she was taking, even though it was on AI-drive mode. "Jewel, switch off the news channels. Gemini, access the IBHA and TILEA networks. Highlight anything about prisoner information related to Darkrock Prison. Run this in the background, and show me the MiLocal map, focus on the hunters. Jewel, is my father and Aerin responding to my messages yet?"

A feminine voice answered with inhuman calmness. "No, Ryni. Should I place a call for them?"

"No, not yet. I'm betting they're being swamped by their work right now. At least they know I'm safe, for now, and stuck in Anginyu like everyone else." Ryni sighed. "Gemini, read the-"

Jewel's voice cut in smoothly. "Sorry to interrupt, Ryni, there's a phone call from 'Lester Jester'. Answering?"

"Lester? Oh good, yes, put it through."

"Hi there, babe. I thought you wouldn't have time to answer my call." A rich male baritone purred through the ear-piece set in Ryni's dangling earring. "How's the situation there? Can our little darling still stand it or are you going to need to call your personal SOS team?"

"Be serious, Lester." A smile pushed at Ryni's lips, despite her words. "I haven't got to see much of the point zero or the borders so I can't really say. Even after hearing the news, people are still rushing towards all the exit points, hoping that the shield will lift soon, so traffic's all crazy."

"No kidding. I saw the news, and the highways looked like clogged water pipes. Accidents everywhere as well. Those should know better to drive manual in this kind of situation."

Shuddering, Ryni took a moment to check that she did set her treasured transportation on the right navigation mode. "Are the riots as bad as the news say? I U-turned back when I heard about the shield and was too busy swearing to notice."

Lester's tone was grim. "Yeah. Could get worse, if you ask me. I know I wouldn't want Darkrock inmates running about in my backyard. That sort of thing can drive you nuts, you know? It's better for the world if none of those thirty eight survived that swan-dive Darkrock did. Makes our job easier too."

"You guys are coming here? What about Aerin?"

"Gee, what about your brother dear?" The light teasing tone turned into a laugh when Ryni growled. "Of course he's coming. He's getting his equipments right now, said he'll call you later. TILEA higher-ups are getting as many ELITEs as they can to come down and catch the big baddies making babies cry. Word was that ARC pushed. Probably didn't want their precious research materials getting away."

"They're probably the ones to slam the shield down on us... how are you guys going to get in here with that shield in place?"

There was a short moment of silence, which boggled her a little, since Lester would talk on and on if given the chance. Then he answered, his voice was deceptively light. "Hey babe, would you build a house without any windows or doors? It's just a matter of having the keys, won't you say? Besides, somebody left all sorts of important piggy-banks and trinkets in there. Those kind of stuff need to be retrieved, right? For the sake of our future together and all."

The last bit was spoken with the manner of a suggestive leer, and while Ryni understood the underlying meaning of the words, she could not help but roll her eyes. "Alright, I got the point. What's your ETA? And are you working exclusive? Wait, is Aerin still on your team even?"

"It kills me to find out that you have so little faith in me." Lester attempted to sound injured, but it ended up more amused than anything. "Of course he is. And we're allowed to get help should we need any, so yes, you can try and babysit your baby brother three hours from now. Provided you can find us."

"Shouldn't be a problem, unless you're going to play hide and seek. I will be..." Something caught Ryni's eyes and she squinted at it before confirming grimly that it was indeed a sign of the exit to the slums. Her left hand slipped into her bag to take out her pistol and placing it into its holster on her right side, then reached for the stun baton and flicked it into full length to rest casually on one thigh. "Scratch that, I am in the slums now. Just arrived, and heading for the crash site. I imagine some of hunters and pseudo rescue teams are already in that area."

"Gotcha. I'll see if I can get any release on the prisoner information so you and your little mousing friends at least know who to avoid on sight. I kind of doubt IBHA will release bounties on those fellows yet, not until the situation's more stable. Anyway, take care, Ryni. Don't worry Aerin so much that he cries."

"So shut it you. Now shoo."

"Aye, ma'am."

[OOC: 'TILEA' stands for Tyrean International Law Enforcement Agency, 'IBHA' for International Bounty Hunters Association and 'ELITEs' for Extreme Legal Investigation & Termination Enforcers. 'ETA' is for estimated time of arrival, which is a real life short-form. Yume told me that all you guys are an hour or so after the crash at this point of time, so when I post next, I can be a lot nearer to your timeline, which is a good news. If you need help understanding my post, just holler in the OOC.]

T only looked at Simon with the same wooden expression, searching for his eyes. He found out more about anyone through their eyes than their words an actions - it was a journey into the soul. Then he diverted his gaze to the bartender, and shook his head, raising both empty hands with the palm to face Simon, who carried a pair of glinting objects in his hands.

"Fine, I guess... What the hell, you're paying for it, T," the bartender said with a shake of his head as he put the pistol away. Now that left the problem of Simon squaring off with T. "Hey, hey, there better not be any fighting here; the last one was bad enough!" The former military serviceman nodded, now looking at the man before him, hat and all.

And there they stood, with the patrons of the entire bar looking at them as they stared at each other . Within moments, people were bashing the tables with their hands and their mugs, shouting in unison and rhythm, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!".

Ai Wen sat crosslegged at the fire, her eyes never leaving the flickering flame. She had been in this position since Tai had calmed himself and claimed needing some time alone with a small tired smile.

The adrenaline from the incident earlier remained in her body, and sleep would not claim her with it around. So she did the only thing she knew she would do. Meditate.

Slowly, Ai Wen felt her aura as it flowed in her body, just like how it used to three years ago. Slowly re-adapting to its feel at her 'fingertips' she directed it gently towards her injured shoulder. A gentle warmth emanated from the injury, and slowly but surely, the ache and tenderness began to ebb until it disappeared entirely. Elation bubbled up within her at her success, but she did not let her concentration lose. There was still more to be done.

Firmly redirecting the aura to her bandaged knee, she concentrated on regenerating the wound that had been bleeding anew after being jarred open with her tackle. This time, it took longer, but nonetheless, the job was done. Now she would merely have to re-oriented herself with their aura, and by the time Ai Ling re-awoke, her abilities would have returned by perhaps at least two-thirds.

There was no mercy in the stranger's eyes. Instead, something like... curiosity. At least Simon hoped it was curiosity. Simon did not expect mercy from anyone, had been taught that mercy was weakness and weakness was death. Death was failure and failure displeased the faceless men and the faceless men made Simon afraid. Thus, mercy or curiosity or hatred or whatever it was... Simon did not intend to fail here. He found himself adapting to his environment, as much as he would prefer to be down in the darkness again, and maybe that weak beer had helped a little in that regard. Somehow, the noise and light in this place did not hurt him as much as they had before he was choked nearly to unconsciousness, and he was able to focus completely on the one who had inflicted that harm upon him. The man appeared ready for a fight, but why he had not simply taken Simon down and ended him when the chance was there... Simon had no idea. The drunken crowd all around was screaming for blood, crying out for some violence to round out their evening, looking for the next entertaining catastrophe. Darkrock prison was not yet a day old in its new resting place, not yet even a night old, and still these people here, no... they were not people. These animals here yelled for someone's blood, be it that of their hero, for surely this stranger was very popular here, or that of the interloper, the bum, the... the outsider. They did not care, and as a mob they could not care. It was not in the mob's nature to desire anything but blood entertainment, and so the crowd called for a fight... and a fight was exactly what they would get.

Simon ignored the tall ex-soldier, for he was not the enemy here. Instead, he struck out at random, stabbing at one of the drunks who wandered too close, but the drunken man continued to walk, continued to yell until he ran out of breath, until he realized that he had a great stab wound in his chest. Crumpling to the ground as the air wheezed weakly out of his chest cavity, the man had consumed his last drink, and only now realized it. He had no more air to cry out, but the thump of his body hitting the floor told his story for everyone to hear. The mood of the crowd turned ugly then, if it had not been ugly before. This outsider, this... freak had just killed one of their own, no matter than it was a nobody before, just another member of the faceless drunken crowd, but this one had the nerve to come into their bar, insult their bartender by not paying for his drink, and not only start a fight but strike out and end the life of on of their own.... An outrage, a transgression, unforgiveable! The dying man tried again to get a breath, but only gurgled deep in his throat as his final grip on life faded away...

Simon watched a desperate attempt at escape go all wrong, watched them circle around him, the soldier forgotten now... They had called for a fight, and now they were going to have one. He could not strike fast enough to kill the whole crowd, could maybe wound a few... but then he would be borne down by the brute force of the organism which was the crowd, and he would be destroyed. His innate sense of self-preservation kicked in, and he shot a wild glance toward the door... the one who had attacked him was still standing calmly in his only path to freedom. Simon was surely doomed. He backed slowly away from the advancing mob, backed himself into a corner, gripped his knives firmly... and prepared to die fighting.

[OOC: Talietzin (or anyone else), feel free to use Simon as an NPC, in whatever way makes sense to you.]

A great brawl ensued, men trying their best to bash down Simon with everything and anything they had. In their drunkenness they could not even hope to see him properly, much less hit him.

T watched before stepping forward, approaching the brawl with both hands outstretched, preparing to use his aura.

Within moments, everyone in that area - including Simon - dropped everything and fell to their knees or rolled on the floor, struggling for breath. The gasped and gasped but nothing came through their noses and lungs - there was no air. He had just created a vacuum in that region of space, and was maintaining it as he approached Simon, whose bloodied knives were on the floor, and who was tugging at his neck as he struggled for breath.

And right then, he let the air back in and went to Simon's back, applying the backchoke again. He was too much of a threat to the safety of everyone; he had to be removed from the scene. There was no need to kill any more people this day, and so T dragged his unconscious body away, to be tied up. He would have some answering to do for the mindless killing of the drunkard. He might have been an annoyance, but he certainly meant no harm.

In fact, T wanted to let Simon walk free initially, but now that things had turned ugly, he had no choice but to make Simon a prisoner. Once Simon was bound, gagged and chained, he went back out to start cleaning up the mess.

"Great... Another ****ing mess," commented the bartender, cursing and swearing under his breath.

Tai walked out of the building while Ai Wen concentrates in her meditation. Still thinking about the scene of the gang battle, about how he witnessed a man helplessly die. He took nickel and starts to swing wildly, blasting waves of wind while the flute itself screeched a short piercing sound again and again.

But the more he tried to vent his anger, the more he was angry of himself. But he knew that he had to let it go, if not for the sake of himself, then for the sake of his injured friend in the building. Then he thought about how much Ai Wen's life could be at stake if he couldn't protect her well enough. He realised that he wasn't yet strong enough, he told himself, "I must be stronger. I must be stronger!"

Tai started to play the "Prelude" soft tune, summon as much water as possible, he formed the water into different kinds of shields and barriers, first it was a simple water fence shielding his front, then he changed it into a tower looking one where the shield stands tall with Tai standing in the hollow insides. Then he change the shield into a sphere which covers and surrounds him from head to toe 360 degrees. He then span the water sphere by blowing his flute harder, the harder he blows the stronger and faster it spins. But he ran out of breath soon, which breaks the shield, sending water splattering everywhere.

He took a break and set on the cement ground, catching as much breath as possible. After the break, he continue to play his flute. Repeating the cycle again and again...

[OOC : This is just a short write out on how Tai practices his skills. I hope its okay. Thanks Dan for typing this post for me.

Lance.]

Ooc: I'm really tired. XD Sorry for the lateness of this reply.
IC:

Myrise watched with growing irritation as more drunken idiots awoke from their stupor to join in the mindless chant for violence. She felt a slight pressure on her elbow and turned. Varn's frown hovered behind her. She looked back towards the unusual man. He had almost looked aquatic with the shallow nose and lack of lips. It concerned her that she hadn't never heard of such deformities appearing together. He seemed to adipose tissue either from starvation or perhaps lipohypoplasia, a rare condition in itself.

Varn tugged at her arm insistently, mentally sorting through her knowledge, she allowed him to pull her away. The volume of the crowd continued to escalate until a sudden moment of silence. Both of them turned to glance at the cause of the sudden silence. At first she noted nothing different until she pick a slow growing redness seeping into the floor. A man fallen, his body obscured from her view except for his feet. A backlash of sound broke over them once more as the crowd turned into a mob.

"Help me get through them," she said urgently, pitching her voice in order to be heard over the noise. She gripped Varn's arm staring up at him with unswaying determination. He sighed, closed his eyes, then nodded. The pair moved into the crowd. Like a boulder in a stream, the people flowed around them. Varn's kinetic push keeping others from colliding into them. She knelt by the injured man's side, a hand hovering over the stab wound. No one noticed them as they were all too intent on the threat that had harmed one of their own. His heart still pulsed faintly though his features were ashened. She healed the site of injury quickly preventing additional lose of blood. Increasing blood volume was next, she assisted his body in creating new blood cells and accessed water from his adipose tissues. Breathing out a lethargic sigh, she feel his pulse strengthened. She rose, wavering slightly in exhaustion. Varn assisted silently to a chair, then settled himself into the next chair. She lifted her weary gaze to assess the situation.

The man at the center of the issue was now bound, gagged, and unconscious. Was gagging really necessary? She spotted Varst advancing on the bartender and pitied the man. Varst set about insisting on various alcoholic beverages in insulting terms. The other two in her group joined her and Varn.

"A mess," Selvin said succinctly, his first words of the day. They all nodded in agreement. Darst return triumpantly with their drinks after badgering the bartender.



OOC: interferes, interferes. Such a blah post. XD

The darkness took Simon, took him and calmed him, helped him find his center, even though he lay there bound and gagged in some back room... presumably the bar's back room, obviously he had not been moved far when his enemy took away all his air like he had taken the air from that drunken man... But just as he went under, just as he was falling down into the real darkness, grasping at his own throat to find air there and finding none... Simon had seen another meddling stranger bending over his victim, tending wounds, healing... undoing Simon's work. Someone would have to answer for such a travesty, someone, but for now... for now, the darkness took him and he was whole again, even in chains.

Someone was there, in the darkness, but Simon chose to pretend unconcsiousness for yet a little while, chose to gather his thoughts that he might discover as much as possbible about his unseen enemy. By definition, anyone he did not know was an enemy... and since Simon had never truly known anyone but Simon... everyone was an enemy, automatically, even somoene who might have saved him from a very painful death. But Simon did not remember almost being beaten to death by a mob, did not remember the blows about his face and neck which, repeated often enough, would have eventually killed him if not for his oddly effective savior.... instead, Simon remembered only grasping at his throat, trying to find breath there, and finding nothing. His lungs were thirsty, and there was nothing for them to drink, no sweet fresh oxygen to keep his heart pumping life-giving blood through arteries to his brain... in that moment of memory, he hated the strange one who had surely saved him from death by nearly killing him. Hated, and would have killed, would have killed and eaten, although he was not hungry. Was not hungry and was chained securely. Was chained securely and was in the comforting darkness, in the best of places, where the faceless men could never find him. In the light, they were everywhere, in the light he could be seen and followed and ordered to kill and to hunt... but in the darkness, Simon was truly free, and in the same moment of hateful memory, he also felt something like thankfulness, although he did not recognize the feeling as he felt it. Along with alcohol, Simon had never tried thankfulness, had never tried friends or companions before. But the hate was stronger, much stronger, for now.

But greater than either the love or hate, the good or bad, the thankfulness or seething bloody murder... there lay upon Simon's mind a great compulsion, in the form of deadly curiosity, the same thing which had led him into this place at the beginning, when for all intents and purposes he had wanted to pass it by and go back to the dark and quiet Underneath. Something was pulling him, and something else, a quiet and voiceless voice deep inside, told him that he must eventually find his way to the crash site of Darkrock prison. Something was calling him, and though every fiber of him wished that it was not so... surely the only ones who had such power over Simon were the ones he called the faceless men. Could one of them have been in that terrible floating prison, waiting until some unspoken and programmed natural compulsion pulled Simon to this place, waiting for the perfect opportunity to get away, to crash and burn and escape and make use of Simon again? These thoughts were not, could not be put into words... b