Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[Toogee]

"Look around, no one's after us," Jam replied to Tia. "Everyone's watching Bird Lady cream those soldiers. Nothing to fear here. Besides, if they wanted to get me, they'd have to catch me first. Oh, and I do happen to have a little magic up my sleeve, in case anyone gets too close."

She snapped her fingers, causing a flicker of light magic to briefly spark before Tia's eyes. Shortly after, Jam witnessed several soldiers floating in the air from Lilith's magic, then set briefly down.

"Looks like she doesn't need anyone's help."

Edited July 30, 2014 by Toogee

[Nanami Touko]

At least it made sense to Tia, but that wasn't what she'd meant by her question. She put it in more direct words in her head, before speaking up again. "I more meant where you get all your confidence from, but... I understand why you're calm right now, at least." She'd managed to calm down her shakes as the magic barrage ended with the Vasilus lifting the soldiers up and then setting them back down. "No one's after us, but if she tosses one of those soldiers over here, I'm staying behind you..."

[Snike]

"Keep saying that when we have to fight some of them," Pete said, rechecking his bow's strings. He'd definitely be using it today.

[scorri]

Lumi grinned up at the man and pointed at her arm that was encased in ice. "Don't worry! I'm ready for that too! And besides, then we'll get to fight and that'll be exciting! Speaking of which... I guess we're just supposed to make sure this way stays clear or something?" She shrugged.

[Snike]

"I can't believe you're ready for more fighting after last night. Today was supposed to be a day off," Pete said, still scowling. "And yes, that is what we're supposed to do. Secure the exit route."

[Afterglimmer]

Luther didn’t have time to address the woman’s warning when the Rexian man that she pointed out signaled for the pair to follow. As they left, he began to debate whether or not he should follow them. They were clearly planning to bust Joanna out regardless if the wrathites authorized her release or not. With all the chaos going on, it would rather easy to free her without them catching on in time. The problem, however, was that the order would definitely try to convince the people to condemn the rescue party as criminals. He would very likely be forced to leave Europa, which would keep him from meeting up with the boss for awhile. Taking a deep breath, he mulled over his options before coming to a decision.

Merz, I really hope this is the right thing to do. Shortly after the group departed, he immediately rushed in the direction of the hall they departed in. He decided to put his faith in them; seeing as they were his best chance at getting Joanna out safely. At the very least, he could serve as a rear guard, or worst case, warn them of incoming wrathite platoons until he caught up to the Rexian and his friends. Hope they don’t mistake me for an enemy…

[scorri]

Lumi scowled slightly and scuffed her foot on the floor. "After this morning..." she sighed. "I need to feel like I can do this, ok? I was useless this morning. Worse than useless even. Just a liability. Couldn't protect anyone... So... yeah. It kinda feels like I need this."

[Snike]

"What happened this morning was not normal, in terms of fights. Don't kick yourself due to having trouble with a vasilus' servants," Pete said, clapping a hand on Lumi's shoulder. "It's all water under the bridge now, anyways. But, are you sure you want to do this? There's no going back."

[scorri]

Lumi shrugged. "It's not like I haven't made choices that I can never go back from before. We'll be fine. So long as we stick it out together, we'll watch each other's back and survive. Just like we have since we met. Right?"

[Snike]

Pete snorted. "Right. Just don't pick the fight unless you have to."

[scorri]

Lumi grinned at him. "Awww, come on. Would I do that? I'm such a quiet and responsible person! I'd never pick a fight unless I needed to." She continued grinning as she settled herself into a ready stance. Keeping an eye on her surroundings, she started to form the ice surrounding her arm into the more familiar tonfa shape that she was used to. "Hopefully they'll be back soon though."

[Mercakete]

Norbert was simply standing near the entrance to the hall that the others went into, leaning against Rizen's side. Evidently, Lilith was causing a commotion outside. At least, that's what he assumed when the hall began to empty somewhat. For now, he was glad for it. The less the Mercites and the Wrathites stayed near him, the less likely it was he'd be pulled into the fighting one way or the other. He was a little concerned, though, that if the amount of Mercites decreased too much, he'd have to eventually deal with a large group of Wrathites on his own. He was prepared to take that on, yes, but he really would rather not have to.

About then, someone came running over. As it turned out, it was the mercenary from earlier, running straight for the hallway. That's weird. Why didn't he follow Amon right away? Skeptical, Norbert pushed off of Rizen and stood in the hallway entrance, arms crossed as he studied Luther. "Hey, you. Where do you think you're going?"

[Afterglimmer]

Luther didn’t get far before a pegasus rider barred his path. He didn’t look like he was a wrathite or a mercinic. Could he be a part of the group that passed through moments ago? Regardless, he had to make sure he wasn’t an enemy. “You friends with the Rexian and avian from earlier?” Luther carefully worded his question to see who the rider was affiliated with. He really didn’t feel like picking a fight here with a potential wrathite and if he wasn’t one, he could probably convince him to stand aside.

[Phoenix]

Outnumbered Outgunned ... and That is Irrelevant

They had more weapons, magic, people at their disposal, and even a superior position; Lilith was completely surrounded, by both the few wrathites Athrun could scrounge up, and half a battalion's worth of soldiers from the city, who reluctantly joined in once they realized the implications of leaving the Prince to fight a vasilus alone.

If they're going to leave through that entrance, I might need to draw them away from this area, Lilith mused as she counted heads.

"You won't get the order to turn against Lord Wrath like you did, Lilith," Athrun warned.

I guess I'll have to use him, Lilith concluded. The only reason such a large group would gather to fight her after that last display was because their prince was in danger, otherwise, the weaker willed ones would have fled the scene or at least gotten to safer distance. Instead, she was completely surrounded, with soldiers looking for ways to extract the prince and then throw everything they had at her. Lovely. "I'm going to at least try. In the end, Athrun, you're going to have to decide whether you want to serve Wrath until his return or for the rest of your days. It's going to be one or the other, I assure you."

"Curious," Athrun scowled.

Smash and Grab

Malik left Desmond's office with the box under his left arm and quietly shut the door behind him. When he saw the bullet hole in the wall opposite the door, he realized that the time for subtlety was over. He was surprised no one had shown up yet. Rather than wonder where everyone was, he quickly made his way back toward the the Hall of Wrath and hoped his path wasn't blocked.

Waiting

Shadrak sighed. "No, not really," he answered Eva. Nadya decided to stay in the end too, and he wasn't entirely sure why. Maybe she just didn't want to be on the front line if they got stonewalled further up ahead. Either way, he wasn't going to dwell on either of them or their reasons for stopping off here, not while he had some contingency planning to do.

Targeted and Steamrolling

Amon didn't want to kill anyone here, not outside of self defense, but as the only door they had come across that was actually being guarded came into view, he knew he had to decide how to deal with the guards, quickly. They could wait and see if the guards responded to their approach, first; they hadn't even noticed them just yet. They could also run them over and then check the room to see if Joanna was inside. Just running past them seemed like a bad idea, because even if they did just let them on by for whatever reason, they would be sure to try to cut them off when they came back hand in hand with the talk of the town.

"Take them down, we're checking that room, next," Amon instructed. Whatever means they wanted to use was fine by him, though he hoped they could just settle for keeping them from being able to attack them on their way out.

Finally, seeing Amon's group coming down on them at high speed from their left, the two guards readied their weapons. One of them quickly knocked on the door with his fist, signalling trouble to the three other wrathites inside. The door opened and a heavily armored wrathite, as well as a mage stepped out into the hall. They quickly formed a four man barricade.

"No further, outsiders," one of the sword wielders warned.

Signs of Battle

She was used to having her beliefs discounted without any consideration, but it seemed like every wrathite with leave to roam the cathedral was coming into this room to speak with her. The three standing in front of her were no exception. She'd wasted about twenty minutes explaining her doubts about Wrath's plan and the order's methods of aiding him, but they weren't hearing any of it.

Just as she was about to resign herself to another hour of hearing partially explanations and assumptions about Wrath, there was a low pitch knock, more like a banging, at the door. Two of the wrathites stepped out to deal with whatever the issue was while the last one remained inside, shrugging. He doubted it was something the four outside couldn't handle. Joanna had a feeling this might be serious, though.

[Mercakete]

Norbert's wary frown gave way to a slightly amused smirk. Apparently, this guy didn't recognize him. That was fine -- it wasn't like he'd had a lot of time to memorize what they all looked like. The fact that he was being careful with his wording was good, too. Not a lot of group members were that careful, and it was refreshing to hear. "I appreciate the discretion. You don't have to worry about me, though -- I'm with Amon and the others. The Avian just joined up, and it might be temporary. Anyway, we're both trying to rescue Joanna, right? If you want to help us out, I've got a suggestion. If you want to try to break her out on your own, well..." Norbert frowned. "You'll probably get in everyone's way, so it'd be better if I just stopped you right here."

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

Valter didn't hesitate once he got the go-ahead and it became plain that the path of least resistance to rescuing Joanna meant getting rid of these four. It was better to have to kill four than forty, after all. So, he stopped his running, lifted his bow, pulled back the string and fired his first arrow. The arrow flew through the air and planted itself right between the mage's eyes. As he pulled another arrow from his quiver, Valter quietly mused aloud, "Let's keep range on our side, shall we?"

His eyes were already trained on his next target: the torso of one of the more standard-issue guards. They'd locked on as soon as his last arrow hit, but his second was on the string before then.

[scorri]

Hoshi gulped and and ran through her options quickly in her head. With a slight nod, she formed a few dark spheres as quickly as possible. They would serve both as an offensive attack if needed and also as a barrier of sorts. Suddenly she frowned. She called out to Amon, "Uhm... that mage isn't the only aura here. There's another... close by. Maybe in the room they just came from but... I'm not sure. I'm not good enough to tell exactly but... there are for sure two auras here."

Edited July 30, 2014 by scorri

[-Cynthia-]

"You have the dark avian known as Joanna in your custody unlawfully. Release her immediately and there will be no need for violence," Liam said to the men outside the room, stepping forward. They are not invading Aquila- so it would merciful to allow them to surrender. I have no intention of bargaining however.

Diplomacy appeared to be over before it began as the man from before fired an arrow into the mage. Such is the way of humans- solving every problem with violence. There was no turning back now and Liam fired an orb of light into the eyes of the sword wielder, attempting to blind him.

Edited July 30, 2014 by -Cynthia-

[Afterglimmer]

Luther relaxed slightly at the rider’s explanation and nodded in agreement. The fact that he knew the Rexian’s name and their plan was more than enough proof that he was with the group that passed by. He also brought up a valid point as they were already long gone. He probably wouldn’t be able to catch up with them in time or even worse, find himself lost within minutes. Hopefully, they were already closing in on Joanna’s location. Deciding to bet it all on Amon and his friends, he turned his full attention towards the pegasus knight. “I suppose so and for the record, I wasn’t planning to do it myself… not with force anyways. You want a hand with watching the hall? Another set of eyes might be useful out here.” Luther offered, pointing towards the still-arguing mob behind him.

[Mercakete]

"HAHAHAHA! I like you!" Norbert replied a little more loudly than he'd meant to, having been taken off-guard by Luther's answer. Grinning menacingly, though not intentionally menacingly, he good-naturedly clarified, "That's exactly what I was going to suggest!" His amusement subsiding some more, he went on, "The others went on ahead, so we're looking out for them. They'll let us know if they're in trouble, and we'll let them know if we're in trouble. Also, this way, we don't get flanked. I'll trust you for now since I believe your story, but know I'll still be keeping an eye on you since I don't know why it took you so long to follow us."

Norbert still uncrossed his arms and rested one hand on his hip while he extended the other out to Luther, though. "Name's Norbert." Then, he indicated his mount with a jerk of his head. "The pegasus is Rizen. Nice to meet you, Luther."

[Nanami Touko]

Seems someone else had stopped to join their 'party', so Eva gave her a wave. "Don't think I caught your name. Mind sharing? Mine's Eva," she said, before groaning a little at Shadrak's mostly expected answer. "Gods, you're dull. You need someone to take you out and show you a good time, honestly. I get not being cheery most of the time; you've got a lot in your head, but you do ever try to... I dunno, let it go and live a little? ...Then again, I guess I'm the only one here who's idea of 'living a little' is fighting off Wrathites. Nevermind..." Maybe I should've stopped with Lumi and the P guy, at least she seemed into this fighting deal.

[Ether]

'Well, that escalated quickly...' Angelica noted to herself with a scowl, as she edged closer to the fighting, still hoping to find some kind of potential vantage point in the decorative ceiling... and still failing to do so... what a useless design.

[Phoenix]

More Waiting

"I don't exactly enjoy fighting, you know," Shadrak replied, his face neutral, and his tone casual, if not a little aloof, "It's just a means to an end. I'd just as soon wait back at the wagon if not for how important this is."

Wrathite Takedowns

The wrathites weren't expecting to be attacked so suddenly; one that had managed to get off without being attacked ran right back into the room while the knight raised up a large shield and the blinded wrathite staggered backward. Amon wouldn't give up his momentum until it was well spent and leaped into the air to launch an attack of his own. The last thing the blinded swordsman sensed before he passed out was a firm boot forcing him straight to the ground. Amon rolled off of the man, which placed him well behind the knight, but even in an advantageous position like this, he couldn't bring down the guy quickly, so he left him for the magic users and made for the door the wrathites had been guarding. The one who fled in there wouldn't be too much trouble, and he knew backup would be right behind him.

[scorri]

Hoshi winced and then sent her dark spheres hurtling at the knight. She did her best to just imagine him as one of the suits of armor they had fought earlier today. The spheres slammed into the man and knocked him backwards into the wall. The dark magic was quickly making short work of his armor.

[Mercakete]

Valter loosed his second arrow, but not before drawing it back further on the string. The dark magic was disintegrating the Wrathite's armor, so it was at least weakened enough, he hoped, for his arrow to get through. Evidently, it was, as his arrow landed solidly square in the knight's chest. After seeing his mark hit, Valter hurried after Amon. Perhaps it was a mistake to keep his bow in-hand without drawing another arrow to nock to it, but the horseman was far too distracted by the prospect of Joanna being nearby to think about much else.

[Nanami Touko]

"Yeah, I figured I was part of a rare breed," Eva countered in her own casual tone, towards Shadrak's lack of enthusiasm for fighting, "but you just seem really gloomy about life. I guess what I'm getting at is, what do you do for fun? There must be something you enjoy doing." Sword seeming fine after a continued check, she slid it onto her back and sighed. "And pardon me for not knowing, but I really have no idea who this Joanna is, other than her being some avian lady. Mind filling me in on that?"