Welcome to Gaia! ::

((...seeing as the dust is settling, time for Drake's perspective.))

Drake watches with some concern as one of the few stable people in the area is dragged unconscious into the passenger seat of the Humvee. Upon hearing the thudding of bodies on the roof of the Humvee, instinct drives Drake to pop out the window and prepare to stab disgusting zombie-esque things off the roof. Seeing as there are no zombie-esque things on the roof, Drake drops back into the Humvee and stares out the window, watching for anything that might leap out at them. His katana seems to have taken on a golden hue as his eye darts along the passing scenery...

The whine of the claxon continued, even moments after the strobing red lights faded from existence. Bright flashing lights and blaring noises were made to act on the fight or flight instinct built into living things. Things that were unliving may even have been drawn to the signal at their own folley.

The city inhaled. A ghastly breath that drew loose trash towards an epicenter of destruction. Dust, like snow, fell from the sky. Lingering in the air before settling on the ground creating a low-flying cloud effect around the block.

Finally the siren stopped. The bright orange edifice fired a beam of light into the sky and everything went silent.

Chaos, the yawning void, shifted that block of the city into a berthing position ready for death. Ground separating, exposing several areas to the sewers below. With that a dome of solid-state fire filled the area. Reaching an invisible border half a block in either direction.

A fuel air bomb that seemed built to destroy city blocks one at a time with little to no collateral damage outside. Such pressure and heat would reduce everything in its grasp to its base elements before the blast wave could cast them aside. Microbes, bacteria, and proteins were vaporized leaving this pock mark on the face of the planet utterly sterile.

A smooth, incredibly shallow crater. No wreckage from buildings, no charred corpses. Only blackened dirt in a near-perfect circle.

The explosion faded quickly with little but a light wind settling through the area.

Hikaru looked back to see the inferno, wondering if he should have been back there to absorb some of that heat and become rather more powerful. However, when his nuero-sensory and wizardric sensory systems recorded energy enough to vaporize bacteria, he was glad to have hitched a ride on the humvee. While holding tightly on with his right mettalic hand, his left went down to his side.

"Are we safe?"

Hikaru asked, not knowing who he had chosen as allies and who the enemies were. He really just wanted some conflict so he could absorb the heat of explosions and the carbon often placed into the atmoshpere from them.

The spot that Hikaru's left hand hovered over began to glow.

Owle felt the heat and thought she was going to die. She fluttered and chirped, fluttered and chirped, sent an I love you to her son and then...

The noise stopped. The heat faded. She was still alive.

Singing a joyous song, the little bird hopped out of Kalis's pocket to see what was going on, to see if her other friends had survived. She had, however, forgotten one crucial fact.

They were speeding away on a motorcyle.

The swift breeze created by their passage knocked her light body backwards, sent her tumbling end over end in a dizzying spiral that ended with her impacting the asphalt and rolling into a sewer grate. The bars were too close for most things to slip through...but Owle was just a little bird. She slipped, she fell, she tumbled, and she landed with a splash.

Sputtering and disoriented, Owle began flapping her wings like crazy as the current carried her off with it.

It was long after the light from the grating had disappeared behind her that she finally managed to lift herself above the surface of the water and get her bearings once more. She turned to her more human form, not wanting to be swept away again, and took a look around.

There was fortunately a hole above her, letting the light through. In it, she could see that she was not alone. The figure of a man accompanied her, lying prone in the sewere where he had fallen.

He looked really familiar. And he was injured.

With a gasp, Owle went running forward to check him over, checking his pulse, making sure he was breathing, examining his injuries. It would be some time yet before she was calm enough to realize that his mind sig didn't match up to that face.

"No, the injury from the damn genetic freak is already healed. Apprently when you kill what functioned as a biological missile carrier, it'll shoot all its spikes out into the four winds. I was unlucky enough to be pinned into the metal wall at the main gate into this city. The damn spike went straight through my chest, taking out a lung and feris. I was lucky to have the last brew of a drink which when poured on the wounds of our species will spped up regeneration. Unfortunately for human and other creatures it would burn through them unless ingested. As long as we speeding away mind if I ask about your story? Why are you here? And how did you get here?"

"So essentially your body is built similar to a Guyver unit minus the lasers and plus a volcanic power? And felt some wanderlust? Is there a human or other creature inside that armor or has it bonded with your body inseparable?"

When the bomb went off, all Drake heard was a light thump, as though someone had taken their cupped hands and lightly tapped them over his ears. Shaking his head to clear it, Drake sits and enjoys not having to fight for his life for a few minutes...then he consciously realizes that there are people on the roof. Not entirely human people...but who was he to judge? He taps the roof twice with his armored fist, and shouts a greeting out the window.

Drake: "Welcome aboard, gents! The Hellhole Exit Express seems to be running on time!"

He chuckles to himself, then leans back in seat and keeps his eye on the scenery...he's relaxed, but not that relaxed.

After hearing Drake's greeting he moves from where he is perched on the back of the roof he lowers his head so that it can be seen through the window. He sticks his head in the window because it was not closed by Drake after he open, and so he could be heard. He hopes that his sudden apparence doesn't make Drake do something like shoot him or attempt to slice and dice him. "Hello, Drake! Long time no see! How did you get here?"