Welcome to Gaia! ::

Outside, Tom took no heed from the shadow, the hallway already kinda dark thanks to John slamming the Kryptkey into the wall, shaking the foundations and shifting a few of the lightbulbs from their seatings. He stayed crouched at the corner, his grip on the machien gun firm, his eyes clean and narrowed at the vault.

He could just shoot randomly into the vault, but then he had no garuntees that the ricochets would harm his first opponant - he had clearly gotten the drop on the giant man, but his bullets didn't seem to have an effect on him. Oh well - he'd see how a bullet to the eye would affect the big man...

Outside the vault, the Kryptkey demon began to shift the vault door off it's body, it's pulped muscles regenerating, its crushed bones snapping back into place. Meaty hands grabbed the edges of the vault and lifted it slowly, it's tendril-filled maw opening to let out a small squeal of exertion as it did.

Within the vault, John felt a little abused, watching his shadow dissapear from his side. "I'd better get that back in a minute..." He muttered to Raven as he walked to the edge of the door, crouching down to look at the Kryptkey as it began to push the door up. It felt strange having no shadow - he didn't like it. "Hope you've got a plan brewing, Rae, because our only other option is me getting pretty hurt as i try to take them both down."

He had a plan for it, but it would involve stepping into oncoming fire - not something he shied from, but he had promised to tone down on the self-harm around Raven...

Tom frowned as the Kyrptkey demon's progress was halted for a moment - the demon was stronger then that, it should be able to move the vault door effortlessly now - but then he saw something move behind him, the shadow of something looming over him -

He twirled and fired instinctively, shooting for the centre of the shadow, his eyes crisp but unfocused, relying on his soft vision to allow his aiming to take care of the target...

...As the Kryptkey demon pushed hard, the tiled floor actually beginning to crack and crumble as the shadows pulled it up, still sticking to the vault door like taffy.

John blinked as the thing pulled the floor up and off with the vault door, even taking a few sheets of translucent skin along with it with the shadows that had been holding the door to it's own body. He growled as the monster's muscle, thick and corded now, began to emit a soft glow, the creature's whole body seeming to eminate a gentle shimmer which ate at the darkness surrounding it...

john moved as fast as he could, scrambling up onto his feet and charging at the monster as it flipped the vault door up, one hand pushing the thick metal up whilst the other pulled at the black gunk that had obscured it's four eyes...

Tom shot half the magazine of his assault rifle into the shadow before he realised that it was only a trick, stopping to spin back around and watch John kick the Kryptkey's arm away from the door, the slab of metal slamming back into the monster's body as John leapt and body-slammed the thing hard, crushing the creature again.

He lifted his rifle up, taking careful aim at John - as a lithe figure suddenly alighted from the vault door. He had no chance to take in details - focusing on the advancing creature, he unloaded the rest of the M4's magazine into the centre of Raven's shield, a full second and a half of unrelenting bullets which would bounce harmlessly off her shield - before he tossed aside the assault rifle and drew his side arm and knife, weilding the 9mm handgun in his left hand whilst his right hand gripped the knife in an underarm fashion, the blade sticking out of the bottom of his fist as he readied himself to take on the advancing thing...

As John stood up, grasped the edges of the vault door and hefted it up, wrenching the thing off the Kryptkey - and, grasping his left wrist with his right hand as the creature tried to sit up, suddenly pulled his metal arm off to swipe it across the creature's face, tendrils and purple blood flying into the wall as John's shoulder pulped it's face. Planting his boot on the thing's chest, the creature gripping his leg, John began to whail on it, smashing his arm into the thing's head and torso again and again, flecks of flesh and blood splattering against him as he let out an almighty roar, the bloodlust beginning to overwhelme him as he reattached the arm - the clothes he'd been wearing now severely ruined - and, bending down to grasp the creature and scoop him up, held it up with one hand - and thrust his other fist into it's chest.

The thing flew up, smashing into the corner of the wall and ceiling and wedging into it, concrete and tiles shattering around it as it was crunched into the wall with an almight BOOM...

...But even as John stood there, shaking his hand in pain from the power of the blow, the thing began to twitch and move, its arms gripping the edges of the crater to pull itself out, falling to its feet before John, its crushed chest and face reinflating to become full and whole again, much faster then previously.

"Just die you big s**t!" John roared, advancing on it once more.

Tom hit thee ground with a grunt, almost dropping his gun as he whipped his body aeound to fire at the girl, pointing his weapon point blank at her as he lay on his side. He didn't have time to aim properly, but then, ast this range, he didn't really need to.

John approached the monster as it dropped down, it's arms snaking outto grab onto his throat, lifting him up high to make hias legs dangle - as he slammed his hand into the monsters mouth, jamming the tendrils down as his steel hand grabbed onti it's upper jaw - and pushed, ripping the upper jaw up and off it's head like a pull tab. It dropped him as it staggered back, grasping at the empty area where it's head used to be - before the bone and skin began to reform from the gaping cavity, the brain literally growing back as the skull formed around it.

Johm was at his wits end - he was tearing pieced off this thing and it wasn't dying - there must be something keeping it here, on this plain...

He didn't realise he was stsnding on the robbers summon sigil, still marked into the ground with chalk, still spattted with blood...

Tom screamed out as his gun blew up in his hand, blowing the hand apart as his jacket caught fire, dropping his knife to pat ferociously at the flames, kick ing his legs to get the cat off him, pushing himself to his feet and tuning for the stairs as he did. "damn shapeshifter b***h!" He screamed at the cat before running up the stairs.

Before Rae couldgive chase, suddenly John wss before her, scooping her up to place her on his shoulder. "dont know how long till that thing gets back up...wer need to banish it, ******** it up doesn't work..."

Raven, if she cared, would see the create on the grounds completely dismembered, it's arms and legs tossed haphazardly away, it's head twisted completely around on it's torso...yet it still moved, the chest rising and falling as besides of limbs began to form from the stumps...

Join looked a sight. His clothes were shredded and he was covered in the things gore.

John whirled around as Raven jumped off his shoulder, scampering back down to the vault rooms. "Wait, come back..."

Above, Chirs almost fainted when he saw Tom burst into the room, his clothes soaked in blood from the still spurting stump where his hand used to be, his clothes shredded from the shrapnel, pieces of metal sticking out of his skin. "Gimme your ******** handgun!" Tom shouted at Chirs, not waiting for a reply as he walked up and pulled the gun out of the other man's waistband.

Back down stairs, John approached the sitting cat cautiously, watching it paw on the sigil as he crouched beside it. The monster was only four feet away from them, but its arms and legs were elsewhere, its vestiges nowhere near complete - they still had a bit of time for detective work. "It wont work Rae, look..." He said, pointing down to where he and her and the monster had slipped and scuffed over it, the circle and the symbol clearly broken in at least three places. "There must be something that needs to be said or done to dismiss it..." He said, looking around the room - not thinking that the guy in the vault, the comatose guy, the one who had summoned the thing, would've had something on him...

John's eyes narrowed. Something felt like static in his brain, skritching at the scarred mess of his synapses, and he looked to Raven. "...Are you trying to...say something?" He asked, confused, as he ran his fingers through his messy hair, his head starting to hurt a little...

He stood and walked into the vault, crouching down in front of the unconcious man. She had looked his way - perhaps he had something on him? Rifling through his pockets, John came across some quarters, some extra shells for his shotgun, a cell phone, and a notebook. Flipping open the notebook, he saw that it was covered in illagitimate scrawls, incants and sigils all noted down.

One sigil in particular had been ear-marked - the one on the ground outside the vault. A big name was written above the sigil - KRYPTKEY. Small descriptions followed on how to summon:

1. Draw sigil determining size of door or item to unlock
2. Give offering of blood
3. Invoke Kryptkey's name and plead he does your bidding

...And that was it. John flipped the page, but he saw nothing else on it - only the words scrawled down the margins YOUR JOB IS COMPLETE, written hastily and circled. "What the hell..." John murmured, not noticing the creature beginning to pick itself up, its legs and arms havign regenerated a lot faster then typical...

"Ow, watch it Rae!" Johgn exclaimed, scooping up the cat into his arm as he turned to see the monster lifting onto its feet. "Damn..."

One minute she was a hissing ball of fur in his arm - the next she was a weight as she slumped in the crook of his elbow, the Aesir needing to clutch him to her in order to keep her up.



"I'm trying to figure out how to tell her I've already got a dance partner..." John muttered, pulling Raven and him back to the end oft he vault, now trapped within the tiny room once more as the demon stalked into it.

Raven was exhausted, and he couldn't leave her alone now - if he took on the Kryptkey in this room, she would surely be hurt in the ensuing carnage. He could only clutch her close, even as she tore the page of the notebook up, hoping to shield her with his body enough to let her escape as the demon entered the vault, its breath foetid upon them as it lifted its hands, its fingers splitting messily to allow millions of tiny tendrils to snake out -

And unlock every single safety depoist box in the room, each tendril flashing out and digging into the keyholes to have the door swing open amlost immediantly. John's belt, pants button and fly were all opened, even Raven's bra was unsnapped, the Kryptkey doing it's job - unlocking everything in the room. It was like being felt up by feathers, the creature doing no harm to them whatsoever.

John blinked up at the monster, his arms still wrapped tightly around Raven, the thing's arms now hanging loosely by its sides, as if waiting for them to say something....