Welcome to Gaia! ::

The door slid open, and Riku stepped out silently. He slipped into the shadows, and looked down at the research going on. He noticed what looked like a large ring in the center of the lab, with two crystals fixed into it.

A portal? What could these guys be doing with it?

Two men began to walk towards the ring. One was a middle-aged man, dressed in a business suit, with a slick haircut. Riku recognized him as Mikhail Kavinsky, the multimillionaire owner of Kavinsky Technologies, Inc- the company that owned this whole complex. He was infamous for his brutal methods of obtaining what he wanted. The other man was an elderly man, dressed in cleric's robes and carrying a large staff. The two were talking in low voices, but Riku could understand them clearly.

"So, this portal shall connect our world with your master's world, correct?" Kavinsky asked the old man.

"Correct. When Thanatos arrives in this world, it shall be cleansed, and the worthy shall rise as his chosen people." The cleric made a sweeping gesture with his staff. "You shall take your place next to him as a King of this world."

Thanatos? The Thanatos I know will obliterate all of them as soon as he arrives. Time to step in.

Riku leapt from his hiding place, landing gracefully behind the two. He drew his katars, and walked towards them, one raised in a threatening manner.

"I cannot allow you to open this gateway," he said in a low tone. "Thanatos has already ravaged my world, I will not allow him to do the same to this one."

"Ah, yes. The Kitai's lapdog," the cleric said in a mocking tone. "Requiem. I was told you might come here."

"I no longer walk among the Kitai," Riku said. "I've been sent to ensure this portal is not opened. Meaning you must die."

"You dare raised a weapon to ME?!" Kavinsky roared. "I shall see you destroyed! GUARDS!"

Several dozen armed guards ran in, aiming their AK-107 rifles at Riku. They completely surrounded him, as Kavinsky and the cleric stepped back. Kavinsky raised his hands, and snapped his fingers.

For a split second, Riku looked around.

Twenty-three men. Each is armed with an assault rifle. This won't be easy.

Riku raised his katars into a defensive position.

There was the sound of clicking as the safeties were flipped off.

And then the guards fired.

A hail of bullets hit the empty air where Riku had been standing. The ensuing crossfire killed at least seven of the guards. Riku had leapt into the air a split second before the bullets reached him. He came down, landing on one of the guards. A quick slash from his katars slit the man's throat. He then proceeded to jump to the next guard, stabbing him in the jugular. He grabbed the next one and used him as a shield, manipulating his rifle to shoot another guard before snapping his neck.

"What are you doing, you fools?! Kill him, KILL HIM!!" Kavinsky roared in anger as he ran towards the exit. Riku dropped a katar, then pulled out a dagger and threw it. It just barely missed his head, embedding itself in the wall. He looked at it for a second, then ran through the door.

"Damn," Riku said as he picked up the katar. He then proceeded to charge into the guards, low to the ground, slashing in both directions with the blades. He looked around after his attack. Three guards remained, shaking in fear. He looked their way, and they dropped their weapons and ran in fear. Now only he and the cleric remained.

"Very impressive," the cleric said, clapping his hands. "As to be expected from the great Requiem."

"Don't call me that," Riku said. He raised his katars in a ready position. "And how do you know who I am, anyways?"

"Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself," he said in his mocking tone. "I am Kafziel, a cleric of the mighty Thanatos."

"You mean a puppet," Riku said in an angry tone.

"Call me as you like. It will not matter, for you will not leave this place alive!" He raised his staff, and the portal opened. Several strange monsters poured across from the other side, cloaked in shadows.

Great. Demons. This guy's serious. Riku dodged an arrow that one demon fired at him, then deflected another with his blades. He raised his katars, and began chanting. They glowed with a bright light, and changed form slightly.

"Light element. Very impressive," Kafziel said. "But not even blessed weapons will save you now, for-". He stopped as he felt the cold tip of Riku's blade at his throat. The demons all reeled back, then dissipated.

"How can you move with such speed?" he said in a suprised voice.

"'Rage of the God of Wind.' A special attack only the highest level members of the Kitai clan can master. By focusing my energy, I can move at speeds impossible to see with the naked eye. Your demons never had a chance." He pushed a little with his katar, adding to the pressure on Kafziel's neck. "Now, tell me. What does Thanatos want in this world?"

"You will not be able to stop him, fool!" Kafziel said, adding a maniacal laugh to his sentence. A strange force of energy pushed Riku back, and Kafziel disappeared. Riku suddenly heard a clicking noise behind him. He looked, only to see a strange device rising from the ground. He recognized the strange waves of energy emitting from the device. An atomic bomb! They're gonna cover the evidence by destroying it! He watched as the electric fuse plates began to connect, then pulled out a small crystal and crushed it.

He reappeared nearly twenty miles from the lab. With a flash that put the sun to shame, the bomb detonated. Riku watched the fireball consume the base, before a mushroom cloud ascended from the inferno.

Riku raised his phone to his ear. "This is Riku. I failed to kill Kavinsky. On top of that, he used a nuclear device to destroy the lab."

"This is not good. This was a five MILLION dollar job, Riku. Now we will have to hunt down Kavinsky again. Return to the base immediately." The voice on the other line disconnected.

This is not going to be good, Riku thought as he headed back towards the base.

((Will we end up having a Librarian? biggrin ))

((
We might, if somebody doesn't take the initiative and post in the base. There's supposed to be squad Null, that lizard guy, and and some rookies, but nobody's here. Rule of thumb, everyone - if your squad isn't posting, they're waiting for you. Any new people, make your way to the library, and I'll meet you. Or you can meet me. Or even just post in the base until I come out. I'm so lonely in here... *sorts book*
))

"Strange," Riku said to himself. "I could have sworn I've already been here."

He looked around, trying to get his bearings. He definitely had been here before. Or was it just because this place was so disorienting? He had been wandering around for almost two hours now, yet had seen no one else since he had entered the library. He felt strangely uneasy, as if the room he was standing in was, somehow- alive.

((Yeah, I was kinda waiting for Xinrie to post as her char, but that won't happen. I'll just come back and pick up some books, but they have to be pop-ups, alright?))