Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Many thanks," Na'fiel chuckled, taking the t-shirt from her and sliding off of Arkus's shoulders. She landed with a 'thump' in a drier part of the stairway, taking the t-shirt and pulling back her pant legs to dry off her tails. Slowly, they turned back into legs until it looked like she had two legs with fins attached. After wringing out the t-shirt again, she dried them out as well, returning to her normal state.

"Can we get somewhere dry? There's no guarantee how long I'll stay like this if it's so wet," Indeed, when she stood up, she found herself surrounded by puddles of water. There wasn't really a place that she could step without her feet turning back into fins. Ehhhh...this posed a problem.

Damn...that guy was so close. The one that they were supposed to destroy, that is. He was just beyond those doors and she couldn't get there! If she stepped in any one of those deep puddles of water, she'd change right back into her aquatic form. Arkus wouldn't be much of a help either. His clothes were as soaked as hers were. Erk!

[ Message temporarily off-line ]

"That doesn't really help me if I ca-" Na'fiel started when a blast of flame snaked its way over the stairwell, drying out the water and charring parts of it as well. Na'fiel blinked a few times.

"...Nevermind," she finished after a pause and climbed to her feet, walking along the dry area towards the door that the elf had just opened in bare feet. Well, at least it was dry in there. Even the humidity in the stairwell was beginning to give her skin a sort of shine to it. Best get out of there before she started gaining scales again.

"Well, since we made it this far, we might as well start hunting for his office," she looked around the room. Was there maybe...a closet in here...or something... Something that might give her access to a pair of shoes...? After looking around, she opened a door that seemed to lead into a large walk-in closet. Well, this was progress. Coats and jackets were strung on a few hangers and one lone pair of running shoes lay on the ground. Well, these would have to do. They fit, thankfully, since Na'fiel had average feet. Black and not at all flattering, but confortable, she figured that she could do with these until a better pair were offered.

Closing the door to the closet, she walked out into the room and started for the door.

"Let's go,"

Z'Kort polished off the last of the chips and tossed the bag into the trashcan. There was still salt clinding to the tips of his fingers and he licked them, always careful not too waste food. The elf sauntered out the door behind Na'Fiel and danced around her to the minotaur.

"Hola, mi amigo! Scout at yer service, here to find doors to bust through at your pleasure!" He smiled charmingly and walked off, opening doors all along the hallway.

Kort's feet were light and he finished perusing all the doors in the first hall before long. "These are all office rooms," he called over his shoulder, turning down a hall. Looking down it, the speedster realized that there were no doors. "And there are no doors here." He paused, confused but shrugged and moved on, there was another hall across the way.

The elf stopped, annoyed. "No doors here, either?" He muttered to himself, walking all the way to the end of the second hall. Obviously someone was toying with him. Z'Kort knocked softly against the wall, his delicate ears twitching for hollowness. He moved slowly, careful to check every inch of space. But it was just a normal hallway...without any doors.

"The other hall, maybe?" He walked over and rapped his knuckles on the end wall.

Thunk. Thunk.

"Bingo," Kort murmured, smiling seductively. "Thank you, wall." He walked through the hall and back towards the group.

"At the end of this hallway, you will find an empty wall. This wall is no ordinary wall, it is a special one," he whispered secretively. "It is a HOLLOW wall." The elf nodded fervently. "A hollow wall in need of 'busting.'" He grinned.

Following Kort now, she had Shan'naal in hand, and her features were hard as stone as she calmed herself for the fight ensuing. Though once she heard the elf begin to knock on walls she hissed..

"Fool! Do you really wish him.." Then as Kort returned and explained his discovery, Zaniah slapped a palm to her forehead and muttered ".. to know we are coming..." If that was his office at the end, he would have heard the knock and would be ready. Sighing resignedly she asked Kort in a business like manner.

"Did you find any other way in? Maybe another office with a side-door?" He would be waiting for them now, perhaps with a vicious sort of magic or one of those 'guns' that these humans seemed to carry around alot.

Franz stared at his door. There were no other ways into his office. He didn't want to ever be surprised. He knew who was out there. A 'bull-man' a girl with venom in her wrists, a dark-skinned pointy eared woman, and a pointy eared man. A minotaur, a mermaid, a drow, and an elf. He wasn't human. He knew what they were, their capabilities, and knew their weaknesses. Franz listened the attempted muted whispers and walked away from the window in a slow gait. He had a few guns on his person as well as weapons. He stood in a corner. Hidden from sight.

This office wasn't like any normal office and was spacious. It had that much room for a reason. To prevent attacks without possibility of surprising the surprisers. Franz now stood in silence, drawing his revolver and holding it up. He was completely in the shadows, his office normally in the dark. The papers on his desk saying about two creatures able to take a person away from this world. To shift through planes, and go somewhere else. The dream of every Shadowkind to return to their old home...

Franzs' eyes stared at the door, his hand ready to attack with the trigger. To kill his enemy. The first would more likely than not be the minotaur. He would probably rush the door. They would expect a small office, not one with ceilings that were 15 feet up, and a room larger than the ghetto homes. He had built up his empire. He would not fall without a fight...he never would...

Hybrid found the room and gritted his teeth. There they were. Laying down before him. Tortured, drained. He began to remove their shackles and touched them both. Their bodies slowly regenerated. A man suddenly shouted his surprise, but one loud shot ended the outburst. Hybrid had turned, his revolver going off. The creatures looked down at him with saddened eyes. "No...go. Leave here. Don't let people take use of your abilities. Find your way home to the Shadow world. I remain, to save those I feel need saving. It isn't my time to go yet, so return now."

The two creatures watched him and listened. They then turned, both forming a portal and flying through each their own to their home. The portals stood open. Hybrid looked at them. He stepped out and touched one then the other for a few moments.

"The doors open, the doors close, people form, and men become. It isn't my time yet, and it will be much later. I have powers I've never known. I've heard rumors though. The god of mercy, of luck, and of saving. Is that where this power comes from?...Bahamut give me strength, Chronepsis watch over me, Hlal keep a record of my doings, Lendys show me the path to take, Tamara show your mercy, and Io...great Io protect me and keep me under your wing at all times. Teach me the ways and show me all."

Hybrid stared at the portals as they closed. He turned around to think. He could save those about to fight Franz. If he didn't, they would be arrested. There would be an inexplicable amount of policemen out there...then he thought about it for a long time and walked toward the door. He was leaving. He would not get them out...he had other plans for these more...amazing heros.

Arkus placed his fists together. He would need to do one of two things; either hurl the door towards the man in the office without revealing himself, or use the door as a shield and hang onto it, as to save himself from those bullets that so many men and women these days employed through the use of guns.

His bullish eyes closed, and he began to focus the energy, the pure, powerful, unrefined and chaotic energy of thrasher. It needed considerable focusing to be this deadly... this powerful...

He felt the energy flow to his hands, forming protective barriers over his fists and a kind of energy that would be classified as potential until it collided with the door, being released into the door as massive kinetic force; not in a straight line but in a cone to make a sort of kinetic energy wall.

Being hit by a minotaur's punch at a charge was like being hit by a car.

Being hit by a minotaur thrasher's punch at a charge was like having an aircraft carrier hurled at you from miles above with the tip aimed at the whorl of hair in your scalp.

And Arkus was, through extensive training back in his homeland, no ordinary thrasher. His energy, while it took longer and more focus to harness properly, was symbolic of the bull. Once tamed, it could be a powerful weapon.

He pulled his hands apart, and charged towards the door, lashing out simultaneously with both fists, in order to catch the door instead of sending it barreling forward. He had a hunch that the man would be out of the way anyways, and his impact would most likely make a sort of protective cone around himself and any behind him.

The door busted off of its mechanical places, Arkus' two fists visible in two imprints on the other side of the door. As the door buckled around those two impact points, it became a protective shell, almost, a shell with the back open.

He barreled into the office only slightly, the door completely from its former place and bent in a sort of broad-nosed cone, like the nose of an airplane.

This was going to get fun, now...

"Well, that decides it," she murmured, rolling her eyes. As he collided with the door, Na'fiel ducked in, trying to get a grasp on the situation before too much happened.

Just as she did so, she was nearly decapitated. The long blade of the sword cut through the back of her hair as she ducked down, taking a good chunk off. That didn't really matter. What mattered was that there was definately going to be a long battle ahead.

Down in a crouch to escape the deadly steel, Na'fiel was thinking of some kind of plan to outwit this opponent. Okay, so he had a gun and a sword. Might as well take advantage of her position. Shifting her weight, the mermaid swung her leg out wide and low, aiming to trip him and perhaps gain some kind of advantage that way.

Hopefully the other two wouldn't be too far behind her. That way, they could take him down if her attempt didn't work. Well, hopefully it did, but there was always that chance that it wouldn't. Definately a good chance.