Welcome to Gaia! ::

He looked at her with the expression a puppy would give to their first owner after they stopped scratching his belly.
"The boy, her brother. Danni's brother." He brought a hand up to his temple to remember the name. He couldn't remember. When he had the conversation with Danni moments before, he was concentrated more on Lin, not the boy himself.

His hand fell and wrapped around her. "No matter. That boy has feelings for you. Very strong ones, at that. And I had thought... your feelings were the same for him.. But only because of the way she told me. I couldn't really fight the green vision I caught. It doesn't matter, Lin. It doesn't matter because you're right here."

He held onto her tightly. "You're right here, and with me." His hold loosened to shake off his already unbuttoned shirt. He let the piece of fabric fall behind him in a clump. He leaned back far enough so that he was lying on the bed. His stare, unwavering, was directed at the Lin above him. His platinum eyes were almost glowing. He traced the outline of her Elven ears down to her jawline.

"You're too alluring for your own good. Too winsome, too beautiful. It's hard to believe someone like you is real."

An abrupt series of knocks were heard on Dymetri's door. His body raised. "What in hell's name do you want?!"
"Mr. Valen, I just wanted to remind you that your Night class will be starting a bit earlier now. It begins in one hour. I'm deeply sorry for bothering, but they asked me to remind you."

"Fine, fine," he yelled at the door. He heard muffled curses on the other side of the door and he smiled at Lin jokingly. He laid back once more and caressed her hair. "I'm going to be late anyway."

He kissed the tip of her nose and kept kissing her magnificent features until a thought struck him. *They* asked him to remind me? Who was they? Most of the administrators were out looking for the Headmaster.

Something wasn't right.

Ophiuchus smiled dangerously at the guard, and followed him to the elevator.

Nathan followed the guard as well, but he was a lot more nervous than Ophiuchus. It wasn't fear of the unknown, but the exact opposite. Mr. Enlil knew what the engineers were capable of at this company, and he certainly did not want to be on the receiving end.

Ophiuchus stiffened slightly and put his hand on Nathan's shoulder. He had felt a small aura explosion from Ialo. Hardly a few seconds later a material explosion followed, the power going out completely. Red lights came on. "What's going on?" Ophi murmured to himself.

Nathan cleared his throat. "The emergency lights have come on. It means all the generators have been too damaged to continue suppling full power." It was soothing in a strange way, reciting the old emergency procedures. "The elevator still functions, however. The shaft is braced with a unique tress pattern that disperses stress and provides lateral support."

His eyes glazed over, Ophiuchus stopped listening and began twirling some strands of his hair.

".... Let's go."

"Hmm?"

"It's safe to go," Nathan explained.

((Your post was awesome, Victoria! biggrin ))

Lin's heart beat had picked up considerably when Dymetri shrugged his shirt off his body and then laid down on the bed with her still on his lap. Why had he taken off his shirt? And why was her heart beating so much faster right now? This was quite interesting... Yep. That was how she was going to look at this, interesting, nothing else. Nope...

Anyway, before she could get consumed by any other feelings at the moment, she was still quite confused about what Dymetri had said. "Are you speaking about Ambrose? Is that who Danni was speaking to you about? Dymetri, Ambrose's sister is... well, she's different. I do not think you should believe what she says. Ambrose does not have any feelings for me other than friendship, honestly."

She then shrugged her shoulders and smiled down at Dymetri. "It does not matter, anyway. My heart belongs entirely to you. I love you and only you. Well, there is my family, but besides them..."

She laughed softly and then leaned down to begin kissing Dymetri slowly and softly. However, rapid knocks on the door interrupted them. She let Dymetri... respond to the person on the other side of the door. Was 'responding' really the correct word? Yelling was probably more appropriate. Lin should have been disappointed at how Dymetri behaved, but she just wasn't! Not at all! He was just too adorable, and they just wanted to be with each other after being apart.

Lin's eyes lit up and she sat back up in Dymetri's lap. "I have an idea!"

Her eyes grew mischievous and she winked at Dymetri. "Alright, both you and I have extensive knowledge on herbs. Surely we can create something quickly that will allow me to disguise myself. I could pretend to be one of your students and go to class with you! Might be interesting. What do you think?"

The elevator doors closed with a gentle whir of air, a noise so soft and yet so intimidating all at once. They were in a reinforced metal cube rising into the air at the complete will of their adversaries.

"Now, I warn you, if you show any hostility at all on the upper levels the guards will not hesitate to dispose of you. The Brigadier General has requested a personal audience with you in Lab 9, but I'm quite sure he wants Mr. Enlil dead in the least. So in all honesty, if you want to live long enough to see what Brigadier General Krauser wants of you, do not show hostile intent."

BING.

The doors opened, and as the officer stepped out, a shot exploded out of the back of his skull. As he fell, the others became aware of Riser standing in the doorway, gun smoking, pissed off look on his face. "What a senseless waste of human life" He said with a wicked grin as he blew the barrel of his revolver. "I love it."

"Drop the firearms. Now!" They were here already, standing some twenty feet behind the God, rifles poised.

"Do not follow my lead. Do not. When they look to you, have your hands up in a gesture of surrender and innocence. You had no part in this, I'll be back ********. You." He whipped out both revolvers and fired blindly, striking one guard in the leg as the others riddled his body with bullets. He fell to the floor bleeding immensely.

A flash of what seemed to be a mixture of green and red light burst from the lead guard's helmet and struck the pair in the elevator.
"That's them," he motioned to the others. "The Brigadier General wants them in Lab 9."
He stepped towards them rather peacefully. "Come with us please."

((Lovin' the recap, Lizz.))

In the forest, watching the events through a dark orb, Arzol, Gambit, and Dunstall stared in disbelieving astonishment. "Shadow Runner...commited suicide?" Dunstall said softly, eyes dark with what looked suspiciously like grief. Though Arzol was shocked as well, he forced a laugh of triumph, a hard smile coming onto his face.

"Yes, yes she did, the weakling. Suicide is the ultimate sin, and a coward's way out. Her soul will go straight to the Master, and finally she'll be under his control." He said with some satisfaction, but suddenly their orb went blank, replaced by a wall of pitch black that contained only a voice and a shadow that had them all shivering.

"You're wrong, fools. Your job is not yet complete. The Ancients have snatched her soul. They're either keeping it hidden with them in the world between worlds or putting it to use. Either way, it's gone. Find it, boys, and bring her soul to me. That's an order."

Then, just as suddenly as they had disappeared, images of the scene taking place in front of the school reappeared in the orb, as though nothing had ever happened. But all three of the Hell's Guard members knew now that this went beyond anything they'd been trained for. Somehow, someway, they'd ended up with a runaway spirit...How did you find something like that?

They took several turns in the numerous hallways, and eventually were lead to a large bay door. The lead guard stepped forward and flashed an ID card over a hidden spot in the wall.
The door split down the center and the two halves slid into the walls. An eerie turquoise light spilled from the room and bathed the small group.

As they entered, they noticed many of the researchers and scientists exiting; some through the bay doors, some through unseen exits.

"Welcome, welcome" he boomed as he clapped his hands slowly. "To my laboratory. I trust you arrived here with the utmost care, yes? You really should thank my Lieutenant; were it not for him sending the guards rather than the troopers, you would be splattered on one of the walls. An awful mess really, but nothing that can't be cleaned."
He walked over to a small monitor and typed out a lengthy series of commands. The wall behind the monitor suddenly began to lift towards the ceiling as some sort of vapor exuded from beneath. A massive tank of liquid the size of the wall slowly came into view; turquoise lights somewhere inside caused that same eerie light to bathe them even more deeply with color.
There was someone inside, someone chained to the floor of the tank. His arms were stretched out and the chains mounted to a massive pair of steel rings on the floor. This person had obviously been the result of one of Krauser's sick experiments; all across his body were hastily implanted cybernetic enhancements. The left side of his face had been torn apart to mount some form of targeting system in place of an eye, the chest bore many places with scars and metallic devices jutting through the skin. Both arms had been shredded and replaced with artificial muscles. His teeth had most likely been torn from his gums with pliers to mount jagged spikes of metal.
"AWAKEN!" Krauser raised his fist and slammed it through the plexiglas tank. He stood perfectly in place as thousands of gallons of unknown liquid rushed over him in a torrent after the tank had shattered. He stood, dripping wet, and began to clap once more. "Auf Wiedersehen, Mr. Enlil."

The person in the tank ripped free from the chains and viciously made its way between Krauser and the pair; all others had left the lab in the commotion. With this experiment blocking their path, Krauser calmly made his exit to a large door behind him; the locking mechanism sounded large and difficult to smash through.

The person stood, wheezing due to his liquid filled lungs.
His jet black hair hung callously over his face, dripping wet. As he looked up, the scope mechanism in his head lit up bright red.
He bared his metal teeth in a savage expression.