Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Revelations

[scorri]

Erion pulled out one of his knives and handed it over. "Right then. Lets head up." Starting up the next set of stairs, he made his way up them quicker this time, hoping that he wouldn't find any unwelcome surprises when he reached the top.

[Ether]

"Are you gonna be okay in there? From the sounds of it, that place isn't as empty as you thought it might be." Faatina called up to the duo that were starting to ascend the building, making her way a bit inside, towards the base of the stairs leading to the floor they were on.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Ether

[-Cynthia-]

"Magic and explosives aren't things I'm very familiar with either, but you are right in that we must adjust our strategies in accordance with our enemies. On the surface, rescuing Jethro should have been a simple mission- go in, stab or crush or incinerate all the criminals, grab him and go. But these are nothing like any normal criminals I know of," Veronika responded to Arietta, frowning.

[Ether]

"Yeah, heavily organized group like this ain't nothin' like a clump a' thugs hangin' down a dingy alleyway... s'almost better t'think of 'em as an army more than brigands... they're damn well equipped like one." Arietta replied with a sigh, as she looked over the stronghold, infiltration still midway.

"And as safe as Raquel should be... with those insane Emblem jumps a'hers... I'm worried about that clone a'her. No doubt she's in there, and's got the real thing to boot. Gar's pretty good at what he does but that sure as hell ain't protectin' anybody. If that girl, or anyone else, can stop Raquel from warpin', she's as good as dead... that's what's got me more uneasy n'anything else." The bodyguard concluded, giving her head a shake.

"Not that there's anythin' we can do about it now."

[-Cynthia-]

"I'm not sure if Raquel's 'clone' can stop Raquel from using her emblem powers or not. There's very little information on what the emblem's true powers and limitations are- it's a powerful tool, but not especially reliable," Veronika admitted. Arietta was bringing up her worst fears about the operation and the prospect of sending Raquel and Gar in to certain imprisonment and death was...troubling. We should have all been in on this operation- why gather a group of individuals like this so that we can stand outside and wait? It's too late to change now though- charging in would just make things more chaotic. More waiting it is...

[Ether]

"A'course, s'not like we coulda stopped 'er. So long as she had Gar on 'er side and a way t'get the two of 'em here, she'd a gotten this done all on 'er own... we'd still be too far behind t'do anythin' if she got caught even if we went in a good bit ago." Arietta responded, though the atmosphere had grown notably heavy.

"Ah well... all we can do now is believe in 'er, aye? That and beat any runners to a pulp." Arietta continued, donning a smile as she placed her maul down before her, hand resting atop the grip as the steel bludgeon was held vertically in front of it's wielder.

"Y'probably can't hear me in there, but... you'd better not mess this up, Valcyn. Like hell I'll let you rest in peace if you get yourself killed rushin' in alone, and leavin' all us behind."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika gave a small smile at Arietta's robustness despite the grave situation. "You're right- all we can do at this point is the task that has been given to us. Let's have confidence that Raquel and Gar will succeed and come back safe," she said, trying to raise morale. She could have offered up a prayer of some sort but...best to leave that to the more religious types who would sound a bit more authentic.

[Ether]

"Aye, that's good. Chin up, right? Even when it's hard, that's what a leader's gotta do... t'keep their men's hopes alive and well. We don't gotta give a worry about if they'll come back... that ain't our fight... all we gotta do is get our heads around what we'll do t'greet 'em when they get back here, prize in hand." Arietta replied with a hearty laugh, eyes still scanning the fortress as she spoke.

"About now, one'a the Zeroes'd be givin' some chant and cheer for erry'one to jump in on... well, the more amiable of'm would be anaways... but I s'pose this close to 'em, somethin' that loud and noticeable ain't ideal, aye? Not before the real fightin' starts."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

What shall we do with a drunken soldier?♪ "Is this Samael guy the one who was being all arrogant and condescending when we left the fort?" Gar asked. Put him in the guard room 'til he gets sober♪ "Because if he is oh boy do I actually want him to come with every single person you have so I can talk circles around his dopey ass." Gar grinned in anticipation of the confrontation. Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him♪

[Phoenix]

Unease

"Fine so far," Reign called back down, trying to get his voice to carry without stirring any 'living' surprises that might still be higher up. "Watch it, though ... three bodies: two demons and one man." After that, he began following Erion up to the third floor. There was blood leading all the way up the stairs, leading Reign to believe that the man who'd died back there managed to score two kills and injure the third before succumbing to his wounds. That was impressive, it not a little sad. Still, he didn't expect to find anymore demon corpses if that man was the only able fighter.

At the top of the next set of stairs, the trail of blood came to an end. Reign's fire spell revealed a third demon corpse. "Hmm ..."

Hope

"They were cornered. Their last line of defense had fallen, and they had nowhere left to run," the driver continued his reading, more quietly this time, "Caroline's heart filled with anger, drowning out both her fear and her sadness. No longer did she care if she lived or fell by the axe and joined the rest of her family and the other villagers. She charged the gravely wounded barbarian, evading his blade and tackling him to the floor. When her friends saw her overcome him, they quickly joined in. The brutal man died a brutal death, beaten to within inches of his life by his would-be victims in a desperate attempt to survive ... and when he could no longer cling to life, the last he saw of this world was the woman's tear soaked, enraged face. They had won ... against all hope, they had won."

Robin had been listening to the man's reading from inside the transport, only having been separated from him by the transport's walls. It was surprisingly gruesome, and yet, she was glad to know that in the end, they survived. That was the end of the story, wasn't it? Now she felt almost compelled to ask.

Less Hope

"You just can't commit suicide by yourselves, can you?" Colin rolled his eyes at the two of them. "Follow me," he waved before starting down the hall.

They hadn't quite thought of a safe workaround to Samael just plain not giving into their demands, as Colin was suggesting, so she tried went over the possibilities in her head again and again. Things weren't looking good as long as she didn't know where Jethro and Hayato were, though.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Pull out the plug and wet him all over♪ "I plan on living a rich and long life where I'll completely forget today's events because I'm so damn old," Gar shot back. Tie him to the taffrail when she's yardarm under♪ "Let's go," he told Raquel before following what's-his-face. Heave him by the leg in a runnin' bowline♪

[roymbrog]

Katrina’s nap before the mission had certainly restored her energy, but she wasn’t quite sure that had been worth the cost of missing Raquel’s departure. She hadn’t woken too soon after they had left and asking around gave her the general direction they had headed, so she hurried to grab Volga and make up for lost time. They caught up when the wagon was a little over halfway to the destination. Kat had Volga land and follow after on foot as not to draw obvious attention from the sky. Once it became clear the rest of the group was stopping, she left her wyvern a fair distance behind as she walked over to the wagon and those gathered around it.

[scorri]

Erion frowned. Lowering his bow slightly, he glanced around. "That... something doesn't make sense here. Unless... Ok, theory time. This Organization got attacked along with others around here. They fought back and were strong enough to win with limited casualties. Otherwise..." He shook his head. "Otherwise we're still missing bodies."

[roymbrog]

After arriving on the scene, Kat stopped next to the wagon to take stock of what was going on. Nearly half the group was gone, and though she knew Raquel and Gar were on a mission she wasn’t sure where the others were. Veronika was speaking to Weyland’s employee with the club, there was a girl she didn’t recognize eating an apple, Synthia looked like she was trying not to collapse the way she was leaning on her staff, and Gytha seemed to be doing warm ups. In general, it appeared people were just waiting. Katrina frowned slightly. She knew her involvement was supposed to be limited, but she had followed them all the way out here hoping to be useful.

After a few minutess of doing nothing but watching for trouble, Katrina remembered why she hated waiting. Frankly, it was boring, and that boredom in what was a tense situation was making her restless. Really, the mariner cycling through sword techniques had the right idea. Kat hefted her axe off her back and approached the empty area Gytha was in, intending to practice similar footwork with defensive blocks. “Hey Gytha,” she said as she neared. “Would you like a warm up partner?” Plastering on a cocky grin, she twirled her axe (as much as one could twirl something that size, anyway).

[-Cynthia-]

"Right...I think singing in this situation could be rather counterproductive. They likely suspect that Raquel and Gar did not come completely alone, but no need to give more information on us than they already have," Veronika said to Arietta. I'm not much of a singer anyway- not sure I'd even know the proper words.

[Mercakete]

Gytha stopped and smiled when Katrina came over. "Ah, ahoy! So, ye decided t' come after all."

She was about to add that she'd gladly spar with the shorter woman if she wanted, but then considered that that might make a fair amount of noise, and it may even wear the two of them out just before a real fight. Up until then, Gytha had only been doing light exercises. Then, having paused long enough for it to occur to her, she realized that Katrina might have just meant comparing notes or even just partnering up. So, Gytha asked in as friendly a manner as ever, "What did ye have in mind?"

[roymbrog]

“Ah… yeah. I was a little late in leaving, but I wasn’t about to leave all you guys on your own,” Katrina replied, her smile shifting a few shades towards bashful. She was right back to her usual enthusiasm, however after Gytha asked what she had planned. “I just wanted to do what you were doing. It looked like a good way to warm up, and I have nothing better to do while waiting… If you wanna continue your exercises, I can perform the appropriate blocks across from you. It’d be like sparring, but we wouldn’t hit each other, and it’d be less exhausting. You up for it?"

[Mercakete]

So, that had been her plan. "Sounds like a lot o' fun!" Gytha cheerily replied, just shy of laughing. "A'right, I'll start us off!"

And so she did. Gytha gripped her sword in her hands, then moved it back in preparation for a diagonal, cutting attack. Then, she stepped forward and swung the blade relatively slowly, moving her left hand off of the grip. With enough force, if she'd been seriously attacking and if Kat hadn't moved or blocked it, then the cut would have cut her clean from between her neck and right shoulder down and out to her left side.

[Ether]

Following Reign and Erion up the stairwell, and reaching where they had just in time to catch the tail end of Erion's theory, Faatina gave a frown as she saw the next body to be revealed.

"We can only hope that, being so close to their stronghold, the demons around here were wiped out pretty quickly... but, chances are we won't get that lucky, and this guy was just one that struck out on his own and went down swinging..."

***

"I s'pose you're right." Arietta replied, giving a nod, before looking over at the building that was currently being scaled.

"D'ya think they found ana'thing?"

[Phoenix]

Third Floor

It doesn't look like they actually got around to clearing this building yet in either case, which means there should be more demons. I don't see how they could have cleaned the first floor of everything but the blood otherwise, since they clearly didn't stop to pick away at their victims, Reign thought to himself, deciding to save any input for after they had a better look at the place.

"Wait a second ..." Reign spoke up as he raised up his spell to better light the area ahead of them. "What are those black things on the floor? Are they feathers?" There was more blood, as well, but very little and not as curious as the feathers themselves. He was hoping none of those flying demons had managed to come in through the window and finish them off with a surprise attack, but that wasn't exactly what it looked like given the lack of blood and bodies beyond the third hellhound's corpse. Even if a harpy did flank them from the window, the battle likely didn't end right here. If it did, then he'd be making a mental note to check the window at the far end of the hall in a moment, or at least ask Erion or Faatina to do it.

Third Story

"More bandits! There were more of them, downstairs," the driver read excitedly, causing Robin to flinch. "She could hear them coming up the steps, growling like animals at the loss of their brothers. They had to escape the village, but they were too high up to flee out the windows. A fall could mean an injury that would seal their fates."

Robin listened intently, imagining the horror the characters in that story must have endured. She was so happy for them when they overcame the third barbarian, too. Now things looked to be taking a turn for the worse. She frowned and leaned up against the wall separating her and the driver, silently cheering them on with a heavy heart.

"There was nowhere left to run. She and her friends had to fend the next group off with their bare hands or they would be killed where they stood. As their enemies reached the top of the staircase and saw their brother dead on the floor, they readied their weapons. There would be no mercy for this. None," Robin flinched again as he raised his voice, "They quickly began charging past the dead man, hoping to take everyone down with just a few swings of their weapons."

"No ..." Robin groaned.

"Then, out of the darkness, came a beautiful white winged savior! Glass shards flew harmlessly past them and showered the unsuspecting brutes as their savior beat his wings, coming to a graceful stop between the Caroline, her friends, and their would be executioners. 'You will not harm these people,' he threatened, raising his gauntleted fists in their defense."

"Yes," Robin squeaked in relief.

"Caroline was utterly speechless. She and the others could only watch in awe as the avian defeated the bandits one by one, with his bare hands, and shrugging off every injury he received. They were going to live! They were going to survive this horrible nightmare!"

Third Law

Raquel wasn't entirely convinced Gar had plans for a long and fiscally prosperous life given how easily this could--and how literally it could--blow up in their faces, but she supposed to question him on that was pointless when she could just question herself. Why was she doing this? She'd thought on it before wanted to remove Jethro from the picture this time. She supposed, she was risking her life in the most direct and blatant way imaginable because of her guilt. Jethro could be pulled out of here in no time with a full on assault, but who would they have to say their farewells to this time? I'm doing the right thing, she repeated to herself, for their sake.

Soon, they arrived at the room Sardis was being kept in. Colin gently opened the door and peeked his head inside to find a few of the fallen warrior's men sitting around the room and reminiscing about various things. Sardis himself was awake, but simply listening as the men told him humorous stories and laughed at each other. Awful timing, Colin decided ... still ... this wasn't a social call, exactly. "Hey, Colin. Get in here, would ya? I've got one about your mishap adventures, too."

"Sorry, guys, but story time's over. Valcyn's here. She's right outside with a human bomb ... wants to see you, Sardis. Sorry to ... kill the mood and such."

"... good gods ..."

"Are you insane?! Don't bring them here," one of the others pleaded.

Colin stepped back, opening up the door for Raquel and Gar. When the former saw Sardis, bandaged up almost like a burn victim, and with no whole limbs in sight, she covered her mouth and took a step back. It was worse than she'd imagined. Far worse. She didn't know how to feel about her worst enemy ending up like this. Was it justice? Maybe, but even so, it felt wrong. She wasn't sure why. Maybe she wanted to be the one to punish him even though she knew now, in that moment, that it was never a possibility, not if she could barely stand seeing him injured like this.

"What? This is what you wanted, wasn't it?" Colin scowled at her. "Or maybe you wanted a clean kill, and not something that would give your average girl nightmares."

[Ether]

"They're too dark... can't really make them out against the floor." Faatina replied, as Reign pointed out something across the room.

[scorri]

Erion shrugged, walked forward and leaned down to the floor. Picking up one of the objects Reign had pointed out, he brought it back to where the others were standing. "Looks like a feather all right. Black... Could be one of those harpies... Could be a Fallen. Either of those don't bode well for us. Could be an avian with black wings but..." He shook his head. "Other two seem more likely."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Scrape the hair off his chest with a hoop-iron razor♪ "Pffft, there's enough bombs here that hiding wouldn't accomplish a damn thing," Gar informed the whiny guy. Give 'im a dose of salt and water♪ The door opened up to the limbless Sardis. Stick on his back a mustard plaster♪ He suddenly had a desire for roast chicken, weird. Keep him there and make 'im bail 'er♪ "Yeesh, that almost breaks top twenty," Gar commented, almost close enough to whistling at it. Give 'im a taste of the bosun's rope-end♪ "Can he talk yet? Can you talk yet?" he double-asked. What'll we do with a Limejuice skipper?♪

[Phoenix]

The Closed Inn

"The rain might have washed away any evidence, but I'll have a look at the window and see if there's any sign of a bad fall," Reign said, making his way toward the end of the hallway. "Unless they took the rest of this to the roof, we might want to check the rooms, too."

Visiting Hours

"How did you get in here?" Sardis asked, his voice weak and strained.

"He doesn't know they're here, yet," Colin quickly answered for them, hoping to clear up his ailing superior's confusion. Until Samael caught wind of their arrival, they likely had the freedom--that comes through the threat of incineration--to roam the place.

"I knew you would come," he slowly smiled. "If you want your revenge ... you had best be quick about it, Raquel."

"We're not here to hurt you," Raquel said, her response coming out on its own, "I'm here for my father. That's all I ever wanted."

"I ... don't believe that," Sardis heaved painfully. "Regardless, Jethro left this room a little while ago ... and I don't know where he is." It wouldn't take long to find him, of course, but for now, it seemed like they were all in a bit of a rut. The men in the room were all tense, hoping for some sign from Sardis or Colin about how to proceed. The former was completely absorbed in his discussion with Raquel, however, and the latter had gotten over the initial shock of being so close to a bunch of explosives and simply decided to be patient and remain calm.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Soak him in oil till he sprouts a flipper♪ "Much as I like it when things get more difficult," Gar commented. What shall we do with the Queen o' da'seas♪ "Someone go run around and fetch him. Go ahead and warn what's-his-face if you want too, it wouldn't matter." What shall we do with the Four Gods?♪