Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lowe didn't even hesitate to move the moment he heard Em's voice start to falter, and he soon had the woman's head against his chest with one of his arms about her shoulders. His face was passive and calm, though he had to turn away rather than look down at the top of her head. He would have to apologize for yanking her away from Marsh like that, but Lowe knew that sound - the sound of a heart about to break.

As a Sun hunter, he had heard it many times. He and his faction were sent out on the front lines to fight, to kill, and he enjoyed doing so with each passing mission. He had made no friends in keeping his promise, and when the time came to mourn he regarded each body as a hunter gone on. But why...why couldn't he stomach Em's voice? Had sleeping with her, and with Marsh, really changed him that much? Where was the Lowe from the day before?

"Em. I'm here. Em." He kept his voice as calm and steady as he could, his arm not even trembling as he kept things steady. He would not let her fall. They needed to be strong. "The dead will not help us if we stop to mourn them."

Marsh didn't object, didn't take offense, at Lowe's quick action; he'd frozen, for a moment only, when he realized what the blank hiss of static over the headsets meant. He knew the ragged edge of despair in a voice, had heard it over and over in the field and in the labs, his hands covered in blood.

He only laid a hand on Em's back, not speaking, offering his silent presence.

For Miri there was Lab mode and Battle mode. Having come from a small outpost, anyone that could fight was usually called on and being a Fear Hunter meant that usually she was out there fighting with the rest of them. Though get her going about something in her lab, and Neil might have thought she was one of those crazies he'd heard stories about. Running tests, looking over results and working all night until the desired results were produced was what she used to live for between missions. Once you got her out of the lab though, she was usually pretty friendly and tried to keep a more positive attitude. Smiles were infectious after all, or so she liked to think.

Though the discussion about who was going to pilot was bringing her down some at the moment. With Alexi refusing to take the position it really only left Neil to do it... if he was willing. To have her take the helm seemed almost suicidal... no offense to the other Hunters, but having a Fear Hunter not on the attack didn't seem like a smart move. "Well Neil, if you would be willing to pilot us, I'll have your back. Usually I wouldn't mind taking the helm but... and please don't think I'm saying you all aren't good at your job, but it just doesn't seem like a smart move with the current situation if I'm not on the attack right now. If you can keep us patched up Alexi and help provide a bit of a buffer, I'll do what I can to take a bigger attacking roll... if that works for everyone of course."

The scent of blood and ink precede his coming. His foot falls and the sound of prayers and crying women whisper in his step. The wind sweeps through his robes, releasing memories bearing ancient shouts of victory and the softly abrupt thump of bodies collapsing in defeat. The silent slide of tears echoes in his breath. With every step those below feel a momentary loss of hope, of freedom, of worth. For one brief moment, they are a conquered people.

Pale and slender with the sharp, cold beauty of a blade, Conquest walked above the teeming celebrations below. From rooftop to rooftop, his pace was steady, unrelenting.

In the center of it all, Velda turned to look in its direction, face void of expression.

"They're having issues with the shields below, it's unlikely they'll all be placed in time. Liam's cautious nature once again biting us all in the a**. I've finished setting up the..." The assistant trailed off as he noticed where her attention was focused. "You want to tell them to run? That you'll handle it yourself?" Henry's voice was urbane as usual, but she could feel the tension in the man as he came up behind her to look out into the night.

"We've already done that once tonight, and now we have no Ferdinand. No John..."

"Just a Velda."

She looked up at her assistant with a small, sad frown, "She's not enough." She never had been.

"And a Henry."

The frown softened slightly, "And a Henry." Still not enough.

"Do you want to tell them to run?" He repeated, never one to be distracted long from the questions he felt mattered.

She looked off into the distance, nodding silently, and he reached down to gently cover her hand with his own. Turning her headset on, Velda's words sounded softly over the channel but without uncertainty or hesitation, "Stand ready, one of the four is approaching from on high. Watch for aerial attacks."

It was like the force that pressed him back into his seat in a rollercoaster, like the moment of pressure that pushed him back into the arc of a swing, the kind of breathless invisible tightening that took hold of Marsh's lungs if he ate mushrooms, but heavy and constant and everywhere, in every muscle and organ and bone. They'd barely had time to arrive. Marsh staggered, choking on nothing, the unexpected constriction folding his legs under him. He clutched Miyako's grip desperately; his other hand went out without thought to catch at Lowe's shoulder, keep him from dropping heavily to his knees. His head swam.

Em was collapsing too, folding into a fetal position on the ground, and Marsh tried to call out to her, but the crushing force bearing in on him was pitiless, and a bare breath of air ghosted out of his mouth. He struggled to keep from collapsing entirely. This wasn't like gravity, not pulling him down, but the crushing pressure made every join in his body want to fold and tuck and curl him into a tight ball.

No. He was a Hunter. He couldn't give in so easily. Miyako -

Miyako keened, a high, distressed sound. She had no charges. She couldn't heal him. Without his strength to wield her, she could do nothing. In his mind, she writhed and screamed in frustration and despair.

It was funny, a little. Here he'd been determined not to give in to despair, and yet the force slowly choking the air from his chest and the life from his body felt so much like the inevitable weight of sorrow.

Velda's voice came in clear through the radio, her instructions impeccable. There was something unreadable in her soft voice, and it did nothing to soothe Selena's nerves-- but at least, now...she had orders.

"I'm going to pilot," she said to Mark and Stacie, her normally blank face absolutely stony...although, her eyes were bright. "I trust you two," she said, voice hitching, green eyes flicking between the two of them. "Don't let me die, if you would?"

Pulling the gloves and visor on, she swallowed at the visage before her, dark traces of FEAR everywhere. The Argus floated above her, and even though she could still FEEL Mark and C next to her...she felt surprisingly alone.

The helmet was isolating, and horrifying, and ...disorienting all in one. Selena didn't even have time to rip the helmet off before the flocks of birds started their riotous rebellion against the energies invading their city. <********!" One beak sliced up Selena's bare arms, and she felt a swarm of angry clawed feet and beating wings battering her body. It was pigeons and crows, seagulls and robins-- a mishmash of avians that were half mad on their own.

The force of the flock thrust Selena to the rooftop's cement, the pecking becoming more and more relentless--

by the time they moved on to a new target, Selena was well bruised and ******** New York City. Christ."

((HP: 40/40 - 15 = 25/40



ROLLING FOR MY DOOM))

Flair gestured for the rest of the group to head toward a tall building. As she walked through the streets she pointed to everyone and spoke their names so it was clear for everyone, she began with herself and went around. “Flair. Aki. Nico." She paused and offered her younger cousin a grin before continuing. "Dylan. Mercutio. Everyone knows everyone else’s names now?” she asked.

She ascended the building’s stairs, one hand resting against the rail as her boots clacked against the steps. Occasionally she turned her head to stare out the large windows to observe the celebrating below. Flair felt a pang of envy, but quickly bottled it up and faced forward again. She had a job to do. However, her headset crackled to life as she recognized Velda’s voice. Jaw clenched, she slowly continued up to the rooftop as she took in the piece of information. “Looks like we’ll have to be carefu—“ Just as she reached the final level her ears filled with the sound of flipping wings. Gloved hands reached for her weapon, but the birds didn’t allow her much opportunity to pull the trigger. She stayed mute as she swatted at the creatures, perpetually tweeting and ferociously pecking at her. However, a figure stepped in and took the blows for her. Flair blinked a couple times before she realized it was Mercutio.

“Thank you,” she murmured quietly before, pushing past the birds and stormed her way toward the Argus.

They were going to get to the Argus and get into the air. She was going to make damn sure of it.

HP: 60/60 - 0 [ Chi agreed to take it <3 ]

Neil wanted to bristle at the suggestion. He was a moon hunter, trained and conditioned to be a protector and defend the other squads. It was his job dammit, his mission in life eerr- moon.

But she was a fear hunter, and Alexi was good at healing. that only left him to do what had to be done. The blonde let out a heavy sigh and plucked on the gloves and let the item go about on route. "Then I guess I'll pilot it." he said with a pout, like a child who had to eat his vegetables. All it took was a few flicks of his wrist to get the thing mobile, give a kid a toy and he'll be entertained for five minutes, at least until he broke it or hurt himself.

And the feeling of his body crashing down onto the rooftop definitely counted as hurting himself. There was supposed to be air, where did all the oxygen go? the boy with the blue eyes frantically clawed at the ground to try and turn over a breathe, but the lungs refused to take in a decent amount of air. The ribcage was too busy snapping like toothpicks and puncturing the lungs. femurs, and metacarpals snapping and he wasn't even sure if it was his own, alexi's or Miri's. But the distinct CRACK! sounds filled the air as the crowed roared from below in raucous glee.

Neil wanted to cry, to beg on his knees and bow for mercy. to plead for a yield, its impossible to do so when internal bleeding turned external as the red fluid frothed from his lips, speckling the floor with aerated, bloody bubbles of some raspy sound.

he was only 16, in the prime of his youth, practically grew up within the confines of deus ex, the closest thing he had to a family now. The faces and names of a former family was gone left in the memories that was steadily becoming far to painful to remember. But even as the pressure exerted on his head grew, Neil could only wonder if Jonathan was ok. The person he looked up to, respected begrudgingly and followed without regret.

He had to live on and teach the moon squad what it means to be a defender, a savior. A protector.

The once sky blue eyes of Neil Hartfield opened again, the blood vessels around his eyes constricted beyond normal levels, red bloodshot and weeping tears or red, before erupting in a shower of flesh and crimson.

And pluto, He was gone.