Return of the Emblem Chapter Four: The Human Condition

[Zsword]

"No problem miss." He said as he held is his staff by her side. Though when she held her hand by his shoulder he looked inquisitively... " WOH, I didn't even notice, thank you miss," he told her gratefully, completely taken back by the fact he was also hit and didn't notice. Though once all was said and done, no harm was done, As she pointed out where she was going he gave her a quick nod. "I"ll go make sure they're all alright over their." He indicated over to Gytha's group. "I hope we meet again, I've never had a chance to talk with a Avian before, let alone a Dark one." He said with a bow, before he started to jog over to Gytha and Amon.

[Snike]

The cavalry had arrived it seemed, as troops rushed into the room, armed to the teeth. They surely would save the band-

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" someone shouted, as the reinforcements drew their weapons and fire indiscriminately. Without thinking, Axel leaped towards Veronika, pulling her down before the Ursians opened fire. The dreaded sound of a volley of gunshots rung through the lancer's ears, for all too long. Some of the bullets found flesh. Other bounced off of armor with a loud pang. After what seemed like an eternity, the hail of metal finally came to a stop. The man rose cautiously, as the last of the experiments were dispatched, and pulled his teammate up, to survey the scene.

Bodies, bodies, everywhere, but not a ringleader in sight. Only half of those on the floor were the artificial humans, the helmed man noted. The ratio soon increased as dozens of volunteer survivors picked themselves up and dusted themselves off. The reinforcements, elite Ursian soldiers, he guessed, were talking to the commander of the raiding forces, and the lone surviving mutant - the serial killer? -, and exchanging information, perhaps. It wasn't his concern at the moment.

"Let's get you to a healer," Axel said, spotting a healer during his look at the scene. Right as he said that, though, the building rocked to the sound of an explosion happening under the army's feet. The lancer involuntarily took a step to steady himself. What was going on down there?

[roymbrog]

“Oh… goodness…” Synthia mumbled as she reached Gytha. Her arm was almost taken off; it was not a pretty sight to behold. The healer was beginning to feel a little queasy. “Uh, here. This is going to hurt a bit…” She carefully tried to move the mariner’s arm into a more natural looking position before applying her staff to that and various other wounds on her body.

So many wounded… “I’m going to help take care of the volunteers, if there’s any left. Amon, could you help me figure out which ones are… are still alive? Please?” asked the healer. She made sure to heal Amon as well beforehand.

-----

Valter took the glasses and thanked Bert and soon he could see again. He didn’t like what he saw. Bodies were strewn everywhere, as were rubble and the wounded. It was a great relief when he saw Joanna alive and relatively unharmed.

Ignoring his other two teammates for the moment he hurried over the rubble to his charge. “Joanna, are you alright?”

[Zsword]

Shadrak skid to a halt when he saw Synthia with Gytha. Oh right, Synthia's with them, they'll be all right well then.. who else... He thought as he looked around the room, it was then he noticed Bert and Ran, changing course he ran over to them, checking anyone along the way for a pulse as he did. "Hey, Sir... oh crap... uh, Sir Yells-a-lot! Are you ok?" Shadrak called out to him as he progressed as quick as he could. Boy he's gonna love you for that one... dummass.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika was staggering a little until she heard the call to get down. She was about to do so until someone came up behind her and knocked her to the ground.

When she opened her eyes she groaned a little, mostly from the pain. "I could have gotten myself down without your uncalled for tackling you know. I wouldn't expect your armor to repel every bullet aimed at you in the future either," she chastised him, grimacing while getting herself up off the ground. "I suppose I could use a healer though," she admitted.

Nadya went over and applied her staff to the guy she thought she remembered seeing ride the wyvern earlier, since he looked pretty bad off. She was starting to get a little dizzy though, so she wasn't displeased at all about seeing the other healers take over.

Edited June 12, 2011 by -Cynthia-

[Mercakete]

"Urgh..." Bert half-grunted, half-sighed at what the guy running towards him and Ranyin called him. "Who wants to know?" he asked, not in the mood to get into a shouting contest. When he looked up, he saw this guy had a staff. Great. A staff guy. Whatever. "Ranyin here seems to only be a bit stunned. This blood on him isn't his. I'm glad you're so worried about us, though; really creative nickname you came up with there," Bert replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gytha got up and began rolling her shoulder, stretching her freshly-healed arm. "Thank ye, Synthia. I'll just wait until yer both ready and then we can look around t' see what all's goin' on," she mentioned to her teammates.

[Zsword]

"You think so?" Shadrak asked as he came up to them. "Thanks, I spent HOURS thinking it up, I'm glad you like it." He said with the most cheezy 'I'm proud of myself!' smile you could think of. "So, where all are you losing weight from there big guy, all I see is your side here..." Shadrak jested, reaching his staff over Berts wounded side as it glowed, mending the flesh.

[Mercakete]

"Oh, it took you hours? I thought it took you years, then you just decided to call everyone that because it was such a good idea. Your mental capacity is amazing," Bert retorted as his side was healed. The other side still hurt, but it wasn't bleeding, so that was good. It still wasn't in the best of shape though. Sure enough, just as the pegasus rider had predicted earlier in the day, once his side was healed, there was a large scar across his side. Eh. figured as much. Well, today's battles are officially marked on my body. Oh well. At least I can feel my strength returning somewhat there.

[Zsword]

"Yep, only hours, now the one took me years, and by Mercy's Light I tell you YEARS, was Retard, and I find it suits everyone quite nicely." Shadrak returned as he stood up straight and over looked the battlefield. "So my name's Shadrak, and as fun as calling you Sir yells-a-lot or Retard is, I don't think they'd be proper in a more public situation, so knowing yours would be nice." Shadrak stated as he scanned. His shoulder slowly growing more and more pained as feelings returned to it. Yep, that's a burn, and yep... that's a bullet punture...

[Phoenix]

Joanna

"Farewell for now, Sir ..." Hmm, I probably should have requested a name. I can't worry about it right now though. she thought. "Yes I'm fine now, Valter. Can you follow me for a moment?" she asked before dashing over to Xavier and with no clear idea just how hurt he was, sent light magic over his entire body. The man nearly disappeared under the torrent of healing magic before she was finished. "I hope I was able to heal everything." she said to him before getting onto her feet and looking around some more.

As the other clerics that were holding up near the entrances of the building began to funnel into the area. They began healing everyone they could find that was still alive and moving. "Are you hurt by any chance?"

Amon

"Oh wow, are we even going to get the chance? A lot of clerics just poured in here ..." he commented.

Patricia

"Alright, listen up! We're not finished here yet. The men behind all of this are down in the basement level. We have men clearing out the upper levels floor by floor-" Suddenly a gunshot cut Patricia off. The light in the room faded for a moment. The person that had kept themselves hidden on the second floor was shot in the back by an infiltration team member and kicked off the edge down onto the wreckage on the first floor. His light was replaced by a better one however, as some clerics stepped in with staves of their own.

"... and I thought I abused these things ... anyway. We need to find a way into the basement pronto. We thought it was in this room like the central staircase, but so far, there's nothing but walls and doors into other rooms on this floor."

"We've got several teams searching for it now. Also the General probably knows you're alive by now. The moment we saw you, we sent a report back to him."

"That's nice. Anything else?"

"Are the volunteer divisions in any shape to continue?" the soldier asked sounding reserved.

"Hmph. Why don't you go and ask them, yourself?" she replied. She sounded pissed all of a sudden.

Edited June 12, 2011 by Phoenix

[Snike]

"Uh-huh," Axel said, as he took the myrmidon by her free hand and forcibly drug her over to one of the unoccupied healers, Synthia. "And clearly you would have been able to get down alone without losing your innards or being shot. Just quiet down and get healed. This isn't over yet," he noted, as the military and militia groups prepared to descend to the source of the explosion.

Now that there was no immediate danger, the lancer performed a quick inspection on his status. His shield arm was still broken, but that could wait until everyone else was out of immediate danger. His shield and lance were intact, thankfully. Aside from the arm, everything else was as good as he could possibly make it, though there were dents he could feel in the backside of his armor from the bullet storm.

Edited June 12, 2011 by Snike

[roymbrog]

“Nevermind, it seems to be taken care of.“ As the military clerics started arriving Synthia figured her help was not as badly needed. Instead, she decided to concentrate on those with Raquel’s group, namely the soldier and the myrmidon he was dragging over. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but didn’t say anything as she healed Veronika. ”And you?” she asked Axel. She couldn’t easily tell where he was injured, so simply asking seemed a simpler option.

-----

“Yes, of course…” Valter replied, and followed as asked.

[-Cynthia-]

"I can handle my own injuries, I do not need you to be my caretaker," Veronika said to Axel. "Thank you Synthia," she said to the mage. She then proceeded to go over towards the soldiers, where she heard their question. She looked around the room, most everyone had been healed by the mixture of their own group and the clerics that had rushed in.

"I think we are ready to proceed soon if necessary," Veronika replied to the soldier. "Though we would prefer not to be used as cannon fodder," she added as an aside.

Nadya breathed a sigh of relief as the clerics came rushing in and sat down on the ground to take a short rest.

[Mercakete]

"My name's Norbert but you can call me Bert if you'd like. Either way," Bert replied. There wasn't much more to add. He insults himself enough that I don't even have to. ... Alright, then.

[Zsword]

"Kay then, it looks like reinforcements have arrived, so I'll just let you rest while i... go do the same." Shadrak said as he walked into the quietest, and safest corner he could find and sat down, Resting while he waited for the cue to continue.

[Phoenix]

Patricia

"So then, are you looking for some extra cannon fodder?" she asked the soldier, the source of her anger becoming more obvious by the second.

"W-we're looking for the basement, Ma'am, and Truth knows how many of us it's going to take to put an end to this. If the majority of their manpower is hold up down there like we suspect, this could be a much longer battle." he answered.

"Much longer battle? Did you hear that blast? If I hadn't one my homework, I'd think the place was structurally compromised after that blast and ready to collapse right on top of us." she shot back. "I don't mind the volunteers helping us clear the basement, but they are not going alone."

"Ma'am, we haven't been cleared to proceed any further yet, so we'll have to wait for a decision from General Remus. If you want, you're free to continue the operation, as he has not relieved you from it, however, my men can't assist beyond defending the immediate are, Ma'am." he explained keeping perfectly calm this time. He wasn't backing down.

"Ugh. Just let the scientists get away while he sits there and deliberates, huh?"

Raquel having been listening in for awhile now stepped a little closer and spoke up saying "You need our help to catch the scientists, right?"

"We don't need you but it certainly couldn't hurt to stick you in with our forward teams ... once they find the damn entrance to the basement." Patricia rudely clarified. "If you want in on this, I won't say no, just make sure you're ready for this."

"Uh ... sure."

A Way Into The Basement

Ever since the explosion occurred, Gabbie had been wandering around looking around for signs of ... something. She suspected Craig had pulled the explosion just because she knew him to do catastrophic things like that on occasion. Surely enough a voice called her over, and only she seemed to notice. Lured over, she leaned up against a wall and listened for another moment.

"So ... it's in here ...? ... look for the maaarking ... ooookay." she repeated in a low voice. She still seemed to be alone, even after she got back off the wall and began searching around the room she had wandered into. It wasn't long, not even ten seconds before she found what she was looking for. This marking on the wall. "Oi! I think I found somethin'!" she called out to the soldiers right outside the room. As they funneled in, she pointed to the marking. "Hidden basement entrance, or stash of naughty paintings, take ya bets, ladies and gentlemen."

"... ... ... I'm gonna go with basement." one of them in the front said.

Edited June 12, 2011 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

"Do we even know what's down there? I wouldn't want to be walking into a deathtrap," Veronika asked the nearby soldiers talking to Raquel.

[Phoenix]

Asserting The Risks

"There's probably just more goons down there guarding the scientists ... unless they already left and just blew up the escape tunnel on their way out so we couldn't follow them." a soldier suggested.

"Man ... how much toime have they had to escape, already?" Gabbie asked rhetorically. "If we're gonna finish this and get paid, we betta hurry the hell up."

"Don't rush, Gabbie! It's more important that we're ready before we send you guys down there. We ... already had a casualty." Raquel said before looking over to where Damian had fallen. The arrow sticking out from his head made things rather obvious.

"... it happens, especially to the good guys, now are we gonna do what we came here to do or just sit here and whine until they get away?"

"You know what? Fine, if you guys are ready, follow Gabbie and whoever else is going in there, but don't be stupid and money driven like her so you can actually get back here alive." Raquel announced to the others turning away from Gabbie and crossing her arms.

"Heheh. Cute. Loike I really don't know what to expect down there ..."

[Rothene]

As soon as he heard a lone voice commanding everyone to fall, Ranyin instinctively complied. All Kigen youths were drilled to be ready for basic war maneuvers such as forming ranks, marching and most important of all, tactical disengagement. Those who did not respond fast enough were punished severly. Ranyin always felt such training pointless as he never was into warfare apart from reading the history of it on a comfortable desk. His instructors, in his opinion however, were paranoid about potential Fallen invasion, hence want to at least provide enough training for even mages to be able to form a conscript army swiftly in case such an invasion happened. What happened after Ranyin lay on the ground made him grateful for all those lessons.

The loud noise from one of the friendly's twin guns was bad enough, an entire platoon firing their guns in unison was beyond what Ranyin was used to listening to. Long after the battle was over, he was still suffering from partial deafness and could not perceive his surroundings properly. Someone must have called out to him or something, but unfortunately the world was a silent blurry place to Ranyin.

Finally recovering his hearing, Ranyin recalled that his clothes were covered in enemy blood, otherwise he was amazed to have suffered no injury. Sigh, if only it was torn instead, sewing would've been more relaxing than cleaning, thought Ranyin. He then noted that Bert had just finish conversing with the shaman of the group.

Is it just me or is there something sinister about his presence, wondered Ranyin as his psychic energy suddenly alerted him as he watched the shaman leave. It was a different type of fear compared to the one when he was in the presence of Gytha. This one felt more...dangerous, although less paralysing which made him feel more wary of the shaman. As soon as the shaman was safely resting in a quiet corner, Ranyin approached Bert and said, "Hey, you alright? Your wounds opened up? I can do some bandaging if you have any cloth on you."

[Mercakete]

"Oh good, you're okay," was Bert's initial reaction to seeing Ranyin up and about. Replying to Ranyin's question, he pointed to the large scars on his sides, "They're closed now. That guy, Shadrak, closed them up with his staff. I'm fully fit again, not that my sides aren't still mad at me for taking so long to find a healer." He looked over to where it looked like people were beginning to gather and continued, "Looks like we're moving on. I guess this fight's not over yet. Are you hurt at all? You'd probably want to talk to someone with a staff if you are. I'm going to take a look at what all the commotion's about. Could you get Valter and Jo and meet me over there?"

[Rothene]

"Hurt? Surprisingly, luck was somewhat on my side this time round. The only injury I've got is a slight bump for dropping down to quickly," said Ranyin still amazed at his good fortune, then continued upon hearing Bert's request, "alright I'll get them."

Running across the rubble nimbly enough to make an amateur thief proud, Ranyin swiftly reached Valter and Joanna. Not bothering to check what they were doing, Ranyin decided to speak to Valter first as he assumed that the nomad was the least busy of the duo.

"Wal...Valter right? Bert's asked me to get you and your partner to him immediately," he said, then took a quick look around the surroundings and realised the large number of injured people around that require healing and added slightly ashamed of his inconsiderate behavior, "well actually, I suppose he's in no rush if your avian partner wants to go around healing, just hope she won't take too long."

[Snowy_One]

Robin could feel the life slowly flowing and ebbing from her body and out upon the floor about her. The axe wound had hurt her bad. Very bad. She was lucky to be alive to be sure. That the wound had not been fatal was a miracle in of itself, however, there was yet a greater miracle to come. Convincing a Ursium healer to heal a Neviskotian girl. She could barely breath, the blow having at least smashed all the air out of her lungs if not actually damaging them, yet she drew all the breath she could to call out.

"<Help!>" she gasped out, her conscious state barely strong enough to keep her awake as she called. "<HELP!>" she tried again, hoping that her call would be strong enough to carry over the cries of the wounded and dying. "<HELP!>"

[Acacia Sgt]

An explosion? The quaking of the building was almost to send John tripping due to his injuries. Making his way back up to his feet, finding a healer was still his top priority right now, so he went on trying to find one. 'First those guys now this.' He thought. 'They're not kidding are they?'

It didn't took long, and he sighed in relief when he was spotted by one of the church clerics and got healed. ''Thanks.'' He managed to say afterwards.

Back to business, it looked that they would be heading into the basement next. Just great, this wasn't over yet...

Edited June 12, 2011 by Acacia Sgt

[Ether]

The avian had come over and healed his wounds. The pulse of her healing magic was more intense than the mid-battle patch up he had received, and both of his wounds were closed completely. The dull, oppressive pain in his chest also subsided.

"Thanks Avi- ... heh, I still never got your name." Xavier remembered as he tried to thank her, rubbing the back of his head, embarrassed. Offerinh out his hand to shake, he introduced himself to the Avian woman.

"M'names Xavier, Xavier Fournier."

[Zsword]

Shadrak was startled out of his half nap by some... odd word, a couple of them, all the same word, and it was growing in intensity. Looking around he saw a Skotian girl laying in a pool of her own blood in the corner not to far from him. The other clerics must not of noticed her back here. (or if they did, didn't care enough to go out of their way to heal her) With a sigh he quietly walked over to her and began channelling energy through his staff to help her. As he did he began racking his mind for what little Skotian he knew, though he was pretty sure she knew common, and just desperation was forced to call out in her natural language.