MINSTRELS TALE: THE UNDERCITY

" I promise It wont be long. I know we got reservations for dinner tonight, but from the sounds of it Wrench made something pretty damn cool. Or.. at least thats how Gabe mentioned it." Nate chuckled and drove his truck into the ramp of the garage, since it was day time it was always open for members to get in and out of. When he found an open spot, he parked his vehicle and leaned in to steal a quick kiss from his husband before hopping out. " im not gonna lie, i like the update of putting the command center with the garage"

"With Malyk's new toy, I guess Raf probably had to," Dev replied, leaning in to return the kiss before he hopped out of the vehicle. He'd been in this garage almost as often as he had the Order Garage, and in a way, both of them felt like a second home to the lawyer. "Did Gabe tell you anything about what it actually was she's making?" he asked casually as he followed his husband through the house.

"Rift opener? Or something.. he didnt give me much details but~ from the sounds of it Broms been bitching about it. I didnt hear what Malyk had to say about it so we're just going to have to find out." Nate reached into his pocket to check the time on his phone and if he had any other messages, since he didnt he stuck it back in and started to make his way towards the secured door. Nate pulled out his flutter and used an app that was programmed by Raf to gain access. The reaper was used to the technology now, about 4 years ago he would of been more impressed but he had seen so many things through his experience.

"...Do you have ANY idea what you are doing with that thing?!?" came the raspy, growling voice of Brom on the other side of the door as it started to open. "You can't just go around opening rifts anywhere you damn well please! Do you have ANY thought where that rift leads to?!? ANY AT ALL?!?"

Dev let a small smile cross his face at the sound of Brom's voice. "..Yeah, I'd say he's a little upset..." he mentioned slightly amused as he headed into the command center along with Nate.

" Youve been screaming and hollering this ever since we finally found a reliable power source for this bad boy!" Wrench yelled back, she made her way passed the mystic and started to fix the bolts on what looked like a giant machine arch way. Towards the top was a glowing white crystal that Tori was able to get from Forge, it took awhile to find something that had more power than 10 nuclear blasts. " You know what? tell that to the wright brothers when they were testing their early models out, if they didnt do it than we wouldnt be in the air right now" The girl replied back with a snide tone.

"Hola, amigos" Nate came in with a friendly grin. " ..well look at that." The reaper snorted and crossed his arms in front of his chest to eye Wrenches work. " Its sleek... Tori design it?"

"The WRIGHT brothers?!?!" Alix shouted out incredulously. "They at least knew where they were going you foolish girl!" He looked over towards the two that entered into the large room for a moment before continuing his tirade. "If you send something through there, if you don't know where it is going, you very well could upset the balance of space and time itself! How can I get that through your thick skull?"

Tori poked his head out from a workstation off to the side and gave Nate a wide grin. He was letting Wrench and Brom fight out the morals of whether or not they should use the machine. All Tori had to do was design the thing. "Heeeyyy!" he called back, getting up and heading over to where Nate and Dev were at. "You like it? Thought I'd go with a little different style this time than normal... gives it kind of a futuristic look, you know?"

" Wheres your sense of adventure?! This could be something vital to us! Your a mystic arent you? Dont you get off on shit like this?" Wrench yelled back and continued to tighten the bolts. " Besides, if things go wrong we can pull you right out. See those?" She said pointing towards a tray on the table with bracelets on it. " Its a tracker, the crystals actually homed to it so where ever you are; itll find you and beam you right back. Think of a reset button"

" Yeah, kind of a star gate feeling. Its cool nonetheless." Nate replied back to Tori and looked over to hear both Brom and Wrench out. " So.. you really dont know where it actually leads you? the rift I mean?"

"You know nothing of what you speak. I create these, yes, but I know where they go, and what I expect to find from them!" he croaked back. "And does your reset button undo any... damages your subject causes? I have devoted my life to the study of time and space, and you build yourself a machine in a week without thinking about the consequences!"

Dev stood there with his arms crossed a little, feeling like Brom probably had the better point, not the least of which reason was because he had experience with these issues. He pursed his lips and glanced over at Tori. "What's Malyk think about all this?"

"Not exactly, no. We can't really know what we're going to find until we test it," Tori replied towards Nate, watching the argument intently before glancing over at Devyn. "Actually, he took one look at it and sort of just walked away. I kinna got the feeling he probably agrees with Brom, since he seemed pretty pissed off, but doesn't feel like fighting it," he explained with a little shrug.

" The rift leads you to this exact spot. Its a different dimension so even if something goes wrong there, its not going to effect us here! The only problem is.. well, Im not quite sure what the time frame is. There may not even be a house in this spot... maybe a cliff... but we're not going to find out until we try it!" Wrench claimed. " As long as we have the power, we can bring them right back." The girl muttered and made her way towards the trey of bracelets. " I got 2. I figured if there is a cliff, why not send someone who can fly?" Her eyes landed on Nate and Dev. " Cmon guys.. pleeease, it wont be long."

"Wait! dont start yet!" Schroeder exclaimed as he and his friend Eugene quickly made their way towards the work shop. " Did you send anyone? Can I go? I'll go!" The scout volunteered and raised his hand.

"That's just it! You have NO idea how these dimensions are connected!" Brom retaliated. "The fact that you can open a path at all shows that there IS a connection that you have not bothered to attempt to understand!"

Devyn bit his lip and looked over at Nate, wanting to know what he thought. On the one hand, if they were going to do this, then maybe they should have someone thinking about the reprocussions along. Still on the other hand, he wasn't entirely sure what to expect out of the whole thing. When Schroeder showed up and started to volunteer, he raised an eyebrow slightly, a little concerned by his eagarness. "Are you sure you know what you're asking for, Schro?" he asked, knowing the boy had always been just a little impetuous.

Eugene followed along behind Schroeder. He had no intention of going anywhere, but Schroeder was excited about the new machine and he... well, he didn't want to be left alone, did he? In his hand, he had a can of Pepsi that he was sipping nervously as he looked over the enormous portal, a mix of both awe and fear on his face. "Count me out. I ain' goin' through that thing!"

" we'll see where it is first! If you guys just step over and if its stable ground we'll start from there. Thats all alright?! Geeze!" Wrench let out a growl and handed Nate and Dev their tracking bracelets. " Just step in for a few seconds.. maybe look around, but dont go too far. We'll beam you back in 1 minute"

Nate reached for the bracelet and eyed it for a second before looking at his husband and then Brom. " ...ONLY a minute?" The reaper asked, wanting to be assured.

" ONLY a minute" Wrench confirmed

Schroeder let out a groan and crossed his arms in front of his chest, he never got to do anything cool! The boy pouted a bit and slumped his shoulders.

"...Fools," Brom intoned before sweeping out of the room. If he wasn't going to stop them, then he sure as hell wasn't going to be around when it happened.

Dev took the bracelett and pursed his lips for a moment. He didn't exactly like the idea, but somehow, he trusted himself and his husband more than Schroeder on this sort of journey. "Just in, look around, then back out, right?" he asked towards Nate as he slowly slid the bracelett on.

" Yup, exactly. What if we were ment to do this guys? I mean.. we could find something that could help us out. You know we're always looking for all the help we can get especially with times like this." Wrench said with a nod, a smile crossing her face at the thought. She knew she could always count on Nate and Dev.

Eugene wasn't really paying much attention to the debate behind him as he apprached he machine, just wanting to look at it. But he was a little too focused and didn't see the cords that were stretched across the floor. Once he stepped into them, he stumbled and flailed trying to catch his balance. "Whoaaaa!" he cried out, grabbing the control panel for stability, his palm landing right on top of a large button.

When Eugene accidentally activated the machine, the power of the house began to flicker on and off violently. " wait.. whats going on?" Wrench asked and looked over at the controls to see Eugene gaining his balance. " Oh my god! what did you do?! Dozer why werent you wtaching the controls!"

" wait, what just happened?!" Nate asked, within his hand was still the bracelet. The reaper was about to slip it on but the flickering lights caught his attention instantly.

" Eugene!" Schroder gasped and looked over to see the crystal above the arch glowing brightly, jolts of electricty started to spark around it and with a quick blast it aimed for the bracelets. Since Dev was the only one wearing it, he was the only one that was sent through the rift!

Upon entering, Dev witnessed a bright flash of light and the sound of his team mates banters only echoed through his head from the demension he came from. Thankfully, there was a floor for him to stand on; but from the surroundings.. the intern house was completely destroyed. It looked as if the sun was about to set since the sky was blood stained red and the intern home that was once a shelter were nothing but bricks and broken supports. Towards the view of where he and Nate stood before to admire the city; was what looked like a battle ground. Most of the buildings were broken and the stratosphere had broken mid point, you could still see the large sky scraper laying on the ground now.





Devyn hadn't been truly ready for the jump and when he landed, he felt a little queezy from the jump. His first focus was trying to balance himself, followed almost immediately by the realization that his husband was not with him. His heart started to race as he looked around, getting a sense of where he was. It looked devestatingly familiar, like the product of every nightmare every member of the Intern and Order could ever fathom, only infinately worse. He swallowed and looked around, trying to not go anywhere. He had one minute, and they'd bring him back. The sight alone was sickening enough for him to have no desire to linger here any longer than was necessary.

" Bring him back!" Nate demanded and ran over towards the controls, the arch way that was now glowing started to dim already. " You said he had aminute."

" I said he'd have a minute if we have the power for it, the crystal wasnt stable!" Wrench said in a panic and looked up at the gem that was no longer glowing. " Dozer, we're going to need one of those!" She knew if they talked to Forge they could get another one, it would be costly but they needed to get a team member back.

"Why the hell'd you have it on if we weren't ready?!?" Tori demanded, his own heart pounding as he rushed over and shoved Eugene out of the way of the panel. "It over powered. It'll take at least 2 days to get a new crystal, and that's if Forge's guy has them in stock!"

Eugene fell to the ground and slid a little across the concrete. "I'm sorry!" he called out in a panic of his own. "The cords...." he tried to explain, looking up at Schroeder with wide eyes, hoping that he at least would understand.

"2 days?! FUCK" Nate punched an empty counter and started to pace around with a look of disbelief, his green eyes watching the arch way. " ...hold on baby" Dev had been standing in the same spot for over 5 minutes now. Around him were memories of what he once had, under his shoe however was a sound of what looked like newspaper.

During the third minute, Dev went through a moment of panic. He knew full well that it had been longer than 60 seconds since he arrived (not the least reason because he counted it out). Clearly something had gone wrong. His heart started to pound as he thought of his husband and being seperated from him like this. He swallowed as he realized that if something had gone wrong, he could not count on the other side to assist because he had no idea what was the issue. It could be the bracelet didn't work, or that there was a problem with the connection. Either way, he knew now that he needed to handle this himself if he was going to stand any chance of getting home. He took a deep breath and looked down at the newspaper, cautiously picking it up to read it over in order to get a better sense of the time and place.


The newspaper was dated July 14, 2040. The headliner however was enough to catch Devs attention. ZERG INFESTATION. There was a picture of the city with the streets filled with what looked like giant bugs. As Dev continued to read the short article, he was updated with the fact that the infestation actually grew across the nation. the borders of mexico and canada tried their best to quarantine the united states but it looked like they were able to seep through.

Zerg infestation? Devyn had heard about what had been going on in the inner city back home, but to see this... Suddenly, he realized how big of a problem it genuinely was. Once he got out of here, he would certainly have to look into it further. However, the longer he was in one spot, the more vulnerable he became. He was going to need some essentials if he was going to be here. Before finding a way out, he needed to be sure he had a way to stay alive while he was here. That would mean food, better clothes and, from the looks of things some sort of weapon. He started to head down the road towards the crumbling city, staying quiet and allowing his eyes and ears pealed for any sign of trouble that he might run into so that, hopefully, he could avoid it.

The pathway to the main city was lonely and as the sun continued to set the lights that werent broken flickered on. The city was dead and no human could be seen, near by him however the detector would be able to sense one body. Before he could even search for him, a rattling sound could be heard around him. There werent any fire arms near him, only poles from broken signs that could be used for melee weapon. Without another warning, Zerglings the size of wolves started to unburrow from the ground, their razor sharp pincers were battle ready as 5 of them started to surround the order veteran.

Dev heard the rattling and instantly felt himself on his guard. He looked around and grabbed the nearest pole as the wolf zurgs jumped out from the ground and started to encircle him. "You guys wouldn't consider giving a newcomber a break?" he asked his gray eyes shifting around to see if there was anything about these creatures he could read and use against them while at the same time crouching down defensively.

[center]

The zergs all let out a scream, signaling that they found a humanoid. Within seconds, they all started to charge at the order at the same time, their sharp pincers getting ready to tear the man apart!

"Yeah... didn't think so," he said with a calm sigh. He steped back, swinging the sign post as best he could to block the creatures that were charging at him, sacrificing space for time. He wanted to be sure that he hit each of them hard enough that they would be wary of him before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his ring of keys. Most of them were ordinary, but there was one very elegant skeleton key that he grabbed. He held it in his palm and shouted "RELEASE!" to summon his enormous wolf-sized husky next to him. It only took Denali a second to understand the danger Devyn was in and he quickly charged back towards the zurglings with a deep growl, swiping at the two on the left with a massive clawed paw. "I really did give you the chance," Dev said towards the creatures, trying to use a little humor for himself to combat the direness of the situation.

The 5 zergs continued to attack, all of them surprised by how much he was putting up a fight but they werent giving up. More screams could be heard and 5 other zerglings burst from the ground and continued to charge towards the new comer. BANG. BANG. BANG. Echoes of a rifle could be heard from afar while a few of the Zergs dropped to the ground from the sneak attack. Towards one of the building windows was a man aiding the order member. " In here!" His voice yelled out as he pulled away from the broken glass and made his way out of the door, he cocked his shot gun and shot another one that was near by before rotating his rifle like a bat and swinging at another bug like a baseball!

Dev had never been one to give up hope, but once the Zurgs doubled in strength, he was starting to feel like he might be in over his head. When the man showed up to help him, he nodded. "Denali, go!" he ordered, and the hellion instantly charged back towards the door. Dev moved with the man, still swinging his pole at the bugs and helping to cover their escape.

"Get in the building" He told the stranger and saw another group coming, his brows furrowed deeply as he outstretched his right hand, the finger tips began to spark before he shot a jolt of electricity towards a car. The surge was strong enough to make the broken car explode, thus making a few zergs fly from the impact. The stranger then turned to run into the building and closed the door shut. " The backway." The stranger said in a quick manner and lead the way out of the building, once he got to the back and quietly opened it to peak out. Nothing, the coast was clear. " we need to hurry"

Dev followed along, not getting in the way of the man who obviously knew what he was doing. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate to get a sense of the man's electricity and quickly 'borrowed' it, his eyes shifting in the dim light, feeling more comfortable with an ability he'd used before, thus had an appreciation for. Behind them, Denali padded along as quickly as he could, his claws tapping on the concrete. "How far are we headed?" he asked quietly as they looked out towards the empty back of the building.

" not far " He repiled back, impressed that the stranger seemed to have experience in fighting. " but guessing from your look, your not from here. Either that or~ you take really good care of your things even in times like this." The stranger ran down the alley way until he got to a manhole. He waved his hand about, the electrcity within his body thinning as he used static to lift the covers from the street. " Zergs bury within the grounds of the earth, they tend to go around the metal structures underneath.. now at least."

He replaced Denali back into the keychain when they got to the manhole, simply because it would be easier to get him into the sewers like that. "Not exactly," Dev mentioned with a grim nod, watching the way the man used electricity, unable to help a touch of curiosity run through him. "I would think the metal would be tough on their pincers... especially if you charged it..." he added, giving the stranger a little look before starting to decend down into the world below.

" How do you think I was able to survive this long?" The stranger asked and hopped down into the under tunnel below, he placed his hand on the wall until he felt a chord and allowed the jolt of electricty from his body light the stringed lamps underneath. " we set the lights down here, obviously we come here alot.. its where we bring the survivors. or.. at least the few we find." His eyes landed on the stranger and instantly his brows furrowed deeply. "...you look very familiar."

"It's possible," Devyn admitted with a small nod, looking back at the man now that things had settled down a little. "This may be a shot in the dark, but you wouldn't happen to know anyone by the name of Aguilara, would you?" he asked, his mind clearly working rapidly to put two and two together.

"..thats my mothers maiden name." He said with a nod. " why do you ask?"

"Because I where I came from, I knew a large family with your ability. The law of large numbers says that there was a possibility that you were related to them. Devyn Delmort," he introduced holding his hand out for the man who looked to possibly be older than him.

"...I see" His brow raised from the name and nodded. " Mat, short for Mateo. Mateo Mackerbee. Devyn, I ...really think you should come with me." With that he started his way down the tunnel. " you will need some kind of weapon to defend yourself, here take this for now." He reached for his side sheath and tossed him a machete. " We're im taking you is our field office, its a place where we run our operations. I basically run a small band of superior survivors to help as many as we can. We call ourselves, the Circuit. It was named after an uncle of mine who helped many.. unfortunetly, alot of our family members were taken. "



"....Mackerbee?" Devyn asked with a small smile crossing over his face. "As in Rueben?" In a way, he was somewhat pleased to have found so good a friend. Perhaps this wouldn't be as difficult as it may have been not long before. "How long have things been going this way for you, Mat? And how many do you have?" he asked, taking the machette and holding his palm out to show the boy some sparks eminating from his fingertips. "I can defend myself as well as any superior, as long as there is another superior around," he explained quickly, feeling a sense of trust in the young man; feeling as though that was all they had.

It all started to make sense to Mat, enough so that he wasnt surprised that he knew names. " Ruebens my father.. he taught me everything I know. Its because of him; that Im able to hold my small band together. As of now, we only have 3. Only because the others were captured.. Its been this way for about 3 years now, at first they were sparatic attacks.. but the numbers growing underneath the city easily overtook our population. It wasnt long before they grew even bigger.. so big infact, that humans are almost extinct. its funny how you show up now, we're going to need all the help we can get." After he said his statement, he lead him into a chamber of what looked like computer wires everywhere! towards the middle was a control room of different computer monitors and data. " welcome to HQ."

Two men were already in the middle, one was dark haired with his brows deeply furrowed from the screen he was looking at. He was shorter than the others and looked as if he was squinting to get a good read of the information; while the other had duel swords behind his back sheathed. He wore tattered robes to protect him from the harsh conditions and his lower face was hidden with a tattered scarf.

Devyn pursed his lips as Mat told him what was going on. "I don't know how long I will be here. I was sent ahead in time, I was supposed to be pulled back after a minute, so... if we are to do anything at all, it must be quick." When they got into headquarters, he looked around towards the people inside, a grim reminder of what could always be, and yet, a part of Dev felt a great deal of pride that they were still fighting regardless. He made his way inside, looking around to get a sense of what the place was like now.

The duel blader glanced back to see Mateo coming in with another person, another survivor? His eyes grew to see who it was and almost instantly he charged foreward with his blades ready. He dashed foreward and started to slash at the stranger without warning! "

Trey! Wait! Hes a friend!" " Who are you?! Where did you come from!?" He demanded and swept a foot underneath dev and bashed his chest with the handle of his duel hook swords to make him stumble back, who ever this guy was.. he was very skilled in hand to hand combat.

Dev was surprised by the attack, but quickly pulled the machette out to defend himself as best he could, though he still stumbled backwards towards the floor. He winced on impact and looked up into the attacker's eyes, just trying to deflect at this point. "Devyn. Devyn Delmort..." he answered with a furrowed brow, getting a reading of Trey's style as he defended himself in the event that he might need to go on the offensive.

"whoa, whoa WAIT! Whats going on?!" The other man stood up from his seat with his jaws dropped.

" Where did you come from!?" He yelled again and hooked the end of his swords together and began to swing it around, he spun the blade like a helicopter to slice at Devs head but then rolled onto the ground while keeping that same momentum to swipe at his feet. When he rolled back onto his feet, he unclasped his hook and continued to throw a barrage of fluid strikes, all of which Dev was able to block!

"Robin! hold him down!"

" are you kidding?! not when hes like that!"

"2014," he replied through the fight, rolling to his own feet in a crouching defense. "From Rafael Aguliara's command center..." he added, wondering exactly how much hold the name of Mat's uncle might have to at least stop the fight that was going on. "I'll tell you everything when you stop trying to attack me..."

The man dashed towards Dev once more and spun hs hook swords in a fluid motion, while doing so he hooked the end of his swords with Devs machete and disarmed him and in a smooth combination swept his feet from underneath the order member so he fell onto the ground. When Dev fell he placed a foot on the orders chest and pointed his sword at him directly. "...you died." He said simply and pulled off his scarf to reveal his whole face. "...you died 10 years ago." When Dev looked at his face, he would be able to see something very haunting yet mesmermizing at the same time. There was a defenete resemblence. " ..dad"

"Alright, outside this manhole will be our starting point. Robin, your sure theres fuel for the truck you were talking about?" Mateo looked over at his team with a serious expression, he had his shotgun equipped behind him and another machete he was able to acquire back in town. The leader of the Circuit made sure Dev was equipped with his own pistol and machete for melee purposes.

" Yes, even triple checked it." Robin confirmed with a sigh, out of the group he had the lightest protection. He had a backpack filled with medic things just in case and two pistols he was experienced with. The thing he had to focus on was the running.

" The others are trapped ontop of a rite aid, they went in to scavenge for anything that could be useful. Unfortunetly, the building was attacked but they were able to get up to the roofs. The barricade wont last for long and they have been there for a couple days now; so you know theyre going to be weak." Treyton briefed.

Dev had salvaged what he could to make himself some body armor, some makeshift pads that probably wouldn't hold up very well, but surprisingly helped him to have a better groove with his body from his experiences with Jason, and always using body armor. He had also checked and double checked the pistol he had, salvaging some extra clips to take along with him. He was sure that ammo was precious, but he had to balance that with the lives of the team members, which he held to be in even higher value. "What do we know about how many of these things are surrounding them?" he asked, glancing over at his son, a gleam of pride in the boy along with a determination to show that he was every bit the father that the boy had always known etched across his face as he finished securing everything needed for the mission.

"Never underestimate the numbers, so always expect a high amount every single run. " His gray eyes shifted over towards Robin and offered a friendly hand on the shoulder.

" Its going to be more than likely that once we open the cover, we're going to be greeted with nothing. Take that as a warning and run for the truck." Mateo ordered.

" Im going to need to jolt it for it to work."

"Thats why you and Robin are vital. Robin increase your numbers when ready and dash out. Use your clones as a shield around us for easy targets, stay right in the middle."

" Got it.." The boy nodded and pulled out a couple of red hankerchef, he handed one to Dev and also Treyton.

" Here dad..." The assassin handed with a soft smile. " If you borrow Robins ability, have the red scarf out somewhere. That way we know its really you."

Dev took the hankerchief and gave a little smile. "That's brilliant," he told Tray as he stuffed the cloth into his pocket before nodding. "We ready?" he asked, now looking around at the team.

"Ready."

" Stay Close" Mateo called out and threw his hand towards the metal cover, his finger tips sparked violently and with a quick motion a jolt shot out the metal outward for the team to quickly get out onto the street. Robin was the first to get out knowing it was his cue, once he was out he quickly winced from the suns light and started to run towards the gas station where the Mac Truck was parked awkwardly on the curb. It was quiet but as he dashed images of himself appeared in numerous spots, all of them identecial to each other as they all ran in formation. All the Robins hopped over the benches and slid across car hoods in a quick manner!

Mateo was the next one out, as he stepped onto the streets he quickly reached for his shot gun and started to run after Robin with the red hankerchief behind his pocket. " GO GO GO!" As the boy yelled, screeches could be heard from every direction and zerglings all burst out from the streets!

Devyn climbed up next and started to run at full speed behind the others, pulling the hankerchief out and wrapping it around his neck. About that moment, several copies of him started to run off in other directions, supporting Robin and giving the zergs even more targets to aim for.

When his friends left he gave his father a soft smile before running out with his team. When the screeches could be heard from the zerglings he quickly unsheathed his duel hook swords and started to dash up with his team. His gray eyes shot a glare towards a zergling attacking a robin clone and mauling it until it vanished while another took another from the opposite end. If he didnt stop them they would soon be taken over. Poofs could be heard from above while the sky now continued to rain copies of the assassin. All of them landed on each designated target before dashing off to fight the swarm off!

" Get the fuel! Robin get the fuel!" Mateo yelled and hopped over at the driver seat of the mac truck. It was locked of course so he had to get the butt of his rifle to break the glass. Once broken he slid into the driver seat and started to spark the ignition.

"Im working on it!" The real Robin yelled and slid under the Mac truck, he rolled back onto his feet and started to fiddle with the gas tank. " You gotta turn the engine off! its not safe!"

" what do you mean its not safe?! just put it in!" Mateo yelled and saw a zerg jump onto his windshield. " argh!" He reached for his shot gun instantly and shot the bug through the glass!

Dev ran after Robin, twirling the machette around to back up the young man as he carried the fuel. He sliced through several bugs that were getting a little too close as they filled the truck. "Just fill it. You ever watch NASCAR?" he asked loudly over the sound of the bug all around them. "It'll be fine!"

"Alright Alright!" Robin quickly pulled down the nozzle and started to fill the truck! " Mat you okay over there?!"

" Shit!" The boy winced when he saw another Zergling climb onto the hood, he threw his hand out and shot a bolt and made the bug fly out to the other side. With that, he kicked the door open and cocked his gun to shoot at another that was near! " Protect the truck!"

"Faster if you can," he told Robin as he pulled out his pistol and started to shoot bugs that got a little too close, having poor luck at bringing them down until he discovered the best spot to shoot, right under the maw, especially as they opened their mouths.

More slashes could be heard from the opposite end as the real Treyton twirled and swung his hook swords in a fast yet fluid motion. As he continued to block and retaliate every strike that was thrown he threw a kick at one and shot him with electricty. With a static stomp he jumped into the air and threw his hook swords in a duel motion. While doing so, he had both his empty hands outstretched with a link of static holding the connection. As he continued to flip, he controlled the violently spinning hook swords in every direction by borrowing his friends abilit.y

"Alright its full!" Robin pulled the nozzle out and hit the side of the truck to make a loud bang! " Get in!"

Treyton landed in a crouch and threw his hook sword at the side of the long cargo truck. With that he dashed towards it and hopped to jump off it for leverage so he could get onto the top of the cargo. He then stabbed his other hook sword ontop and used it as suppor as he reached his hand out for Robins. When he pulled him up he then reached his hand out for his Dad.

Dev turned back quickly at the call, glancing at Mateo for a brief second, reaching out to take Tray's hand and shooting out a blast of static that numbly actually brought the two hands together so that he could get a better grip. Once on top of the cargo, he lay down with his pistol out, aiming for the nearest enemies. "LOADED UP, LET'S MOVE!" he shouted out towards the front of the cab, ready to roll!

Mateo slid back into the driver seat and shifted the gears, a sound of metal grinding could be heard before the truck finally pulled off the curb and started to make its way up the dead street. " HOLD ON!" He yelled out as he pushed cars out of the way.

Treyton took a knee and reached to hold onto his sword that was still pierced ontop of the cargo. While at the same time his gray eyes watching as the enemies around them were starting to make their way closer.

" whoa!!" Robin stumbled backwards but quickly reached on to the edge of the truck, his heart was racing from the fact that they werent dead yet! " I can see them, Theyre coming!"

" Static Shield" He told his Dad with an expression to show that he had a way to defend themselves. " Help me" The bottom of his feet started to electrify and connect to the metal cargo underneath them, he was now at least stable as he stood up straight and threw his hands out to make a static shield! If its strong enough, they can repel anything thats in the way!

A smile crossed over the lawyer's face as he holstered the gun and cast out the static in the way that Rafael had taught him over time. "Spread your energy as wide as you can, mano," the operator had once described. Ironically, despite the danger, Dev couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of adrinaline he was getting from this mission, just like always. He locked his feet down on the tractor and spread his arms out wide, casting his shield offset from Trey's in order to cast an even wider net, while at the same time, strengthening the central part of the shield where the gravest threats were.

As the truck continued to pick up speed, the visible yet light static shield could be seen charging through the air. When any obstacle was near the truck it would simply repel as the static forced anything to shoot outward. The lamposts would flick on and off violently as they passed by and any Zerglings charging in would be shocked! " Trey you were never to make iit this strong before!"

" Thats because there was only one of me." The mimic teased and gave his friend a side glance look.

" keep it up, we're almost there! I can see the parking lot!"

Dev glanced over at Robin's comment. Yeah, that would be the one Milo raised, he thought in his head. "How close can you get us?" he called out towards Mateo, unable to deny that getting some provisions loaded into the truck would certainly be a nice bonus.

" Not long, im sure we're more than well known now!" Mateo yelled out and turned the truck into the parking lot, as he did so more of the parking lots concrete started to burst open and Zerglings all started to crawl out, along them this time were Hyralisks. The larget insect took a resemblence to a centipede and a mantis, but from the looks of it the acid spits is what they needed to watch out for!

" Static isnt going to repel their acids." The assassin admitted and lowered his hands so he could store up some energy. "I think I see Faith! FAITH!" The boy threw both his hands up and waved to get her attention on the roof! I told you we would get you. The leader of the group gave a soft smile as he send the message telepathically towards the female. Get everyone ready

From the roof, Faith looked on in despair to see the swarm that was enveloping the truck. She pursed her lips and furrowed her brow before turning back to the others. "Time to go," she declared to them.



Ari looked a little dazed in his position next to a busted air conditioner. He was exhausted, as he had to do the most to keep the Zerglings away from the roof, as the other two were less the physical types. "Let me guess... they came with friends," he asked in a quiet voice as he struggled to his feet.



Frank rolled his eyes a little. "Maybe next time you'll listen to me about bringing only half the team on a fuckin' supply run," he grumbled, helping Ari to his feet.



"...Frank, shut up. We don't need that right now, we have to hurry."

"Keep your panties on," Frank taunted the girl, who gave him a look, but decided against punching the shit out of him. What could she say; she was raised with three brothers.

Dev glanced up at the edge of the roof as the three Circuit members approached the edge and caught a glance. It only took a second before he had turned to face the Hyralisks and let out a loud, focused scream at them!

" Cmon.. cmon cmon.." The leader licked his lips and turned the truck around so it rotated properly. The truck began to slow down and parked about 3 feet away from the edge of the wall . The cargo was tilted slightly since half the truck was on the pavement after all.

" Shit here they come!" Robin looked out to the parking lot and saw swarms of Zerglings coming their way in a quick sprint!

Treyton stood on the edge and looked behind him to see Ari, almost instantly his own iris began to rotate to catch ahold of the mystic and the assassin hopped off to a crouch on the floor. In a calm state he held out both his hook swords out from him and started to slowly walk towards the oncoming fight. With his brows furrowed he swung his sword across to slash the first zerg before barrel rolling into the air to dodge another. As he landed, an earth pillar shot up to uppercut the zerg that was near by and he quickly hopped onto it to back flip over another. He landed ontop of another Zerg while stabbing the back of his head and threw a wind slash to clear an area with a powerful gust! As he did so he spun his metal sword and made it spark against the curb to create fire; spinning it around him and shooting it out to burn the zerglings within the area. Once his area was clear, he crouched and allowed a pillar of earth to shoot up from under him to launch him into the sky! While doing so, his gray eyes rotated once more and a quick motion hsi body split into many clones spreading out into the battlefield to get everyone some time!

"Show off," Frank muttered, shaking his head as he observed Treygen flashing everyone's ability around the parking lot. "Who's that....?" he then asked, pointing at the one who as screaming. "Not another of you fucking screamers... you know how hard it is to sleep at night?"

"Frank, I sware to god, if we didn't need you, I would've thrown you to the zergs 2 days ago," Ari replied through gritted teeth. In truthfulness, he wasn't sure how much longer he could handle his shit!

Dev turned around and jumped down onto the ground, creating a crater which instantly lifted up to roof level with himself on it, like an elevator of sorts. As Dev moved up to their level, Faith gave a little smile towards him. "Treytan's dad..." she answered towards Frank with a smug look on her face, recognizing the man in front of her from a few babysitting adventures around the old Order house when Vince and Pierce still lived there.

"Any day now guys cmon!" Robin hurried everyone to the top of the cargo, once everyone was on he stomped on the ground and let out a loud whistle. " Got em, time to go!"

"Trey! time to go buddy!" Mat yelled out to the battlefield and reved the engine up, he started to rotate around and started to run over other zerglings. When the truck started to move he hopped up into the air and allowed the element to glide him ontop of the truck.

" damn!" Robin cheered and gave a big grin. " that was nuts!"

" next stop, back at HQ!"

Dev helped to load everyone onto the truck, and particularly in setting Ari down so that he wouldn't loose his balance. "I'm gonna guess it was roughest on you," he said towards the half-mystic before getting up to assist Trey in another shield wall to help them get back to the base.

"What, no one says hi to me anymore? What am I, dried bug?"

"Honestly, Frank? You don't think your shit can maybe wait until we're back at base with fewer things trying to eat us?"

"we're still in need of supply." Treyton said calmly and watched as the truck looked as if it was escaping an infestation. " Thankfully we got the team back but ~ its not going to be easy to do without you. " His gray eyes landed on his father with a sad sort of smile. " ...but I'm happy to know you and dad are alive in another place. Thats enough to keep me going here"

Dev felt his face fall a little. "Once I get back," he said with a deeply furrowed brow, "I don't intend to use the portal anymore. Just too many risks. But... If I can, I will try to send some supplies, as much as possible," he said, pursing his lips somewhat as he reached out to place a hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Treyton."

" You know sometimes Im all sad cause I remember living up here all the time.. enjoying the air and everything you know? and then I come up here and see all this shit.." Robin talked nonchalantly towards both the boys. The 3 had been walking up on the streets sneaking from alley way to alley way. it wasnt a good idea to go out in the open streets. Not for a long period of time at least.



"Your not far..." Mouse breathed out and gave the two boys a cock eyed look. " And when we get there, you promised Id get a shot in the group.."



"Yeah yeah, sure sure.. just hurry up Im starting to get the chills up here. Its so ... quiet."

"I think we all are, Robin," Ari replied in a sharp quiet tone. It wasn't good to draw attention to themselves up here on the surface, and every noise they made was another chance at getting caught.



"its just going to be around this corner.. theres a 7-11 that hadnt been raided yet."

"wait whaat?! 711?!" Robin asked with an excited expression. " you know what that means doods? slurpeeees "

"...Without power for god knows how long? More like... mushies," he muttered, keeping low to the ground. The hybrid rubbed his hands together nervously, looking back and forth at the slightest sound. All in all, you could say the soldier was a little twitchy on the surface

"iew your right.. mushies dont sound too good. slurpees yeah.. but mush? no" He winced a little and shook his head lightly. " But at least theres the most important cargo of all... " His eyes landed on the creepy guy with a hoody. " right?"

"Like I told you.. un..raided. There fridges are fully stocked.. even the beer section"

Robin joined in with a confirming nod. " YES. YES!" He raised a hand to high five his best friend who was only giving him a look.. " fine" Robin pulled away and raised his hand towards mouse..untl he realized it was mouse so he got grossed out and started to walk away.

Ari let out a sigh and shook his head when Robin tried to high five him. He really did genuinely wonder if Robin actually understood the trouble that they could find themselves in, really only by getting spotted. Raided or not, he didn't trust the 7-11; Zerglings didn't bother with beer sections. "And your sure the Zergs aren't anywhere around?"

"dude, I didnt see any.. not even ONE on the way over here. Its deserted" Robin declared and started to make his way out from the corner. When he did he instantly heard a screech of a zerg coming from the 7-11 direction! " SHIT!" Robin gasped and hid behind the corner where his friends were. " MOUSE YOU FUCKING LIED!" Robin declared in a sharp whisper. "What you want me to bug spray the area before coming? if we had bug spray we would be using it now, wouldnt we?!"

"SHhhhh. they have good hearing"

Ari reached around with his hands and covered both their mouths. "We should go back. Right now," he breathed in a whisper starting to pull the boys backwards away from the clickling.

"but the alcohol.. and theres only ONE. I can beat that" Robin said with a confirming nod and glanced behind his shoulder to see a single clone appearing.

"There's NEVER just one!" Ari snapped back in annoyance.

"it would be nice if we know how many is over there..." Mouse added with a nod.

" well.. I DONT SEE ANY!" He told his best friend before eyeing the other boy." you said they cant detect rodents.." The circuit member reminded and literally grabbed him by the shirt and throwing him out to the street! " Go look!"

" Ahh~" Instantly, the boys body shifted into a small rat. It squeeked when its small body flopped on the floor but it quickly got to its feet and started to scurry towards the 7-11.

Ari gritted his teeth, giving up the moment Robin threw Mouse towards the store. "...If we die our here, Mateo's never gonna forgive your ass," he warned, moving behind a dumpster and peaking over to see if Mouse was gonna draw out any attackers or not.

"..that doesnt even make sense dude. think about it.. we're dead. why does it matter if he doesnt forgive us?" Robin snorted and rolled his eyes, some stuff Ari said sure was dumb! After a few minutes he saw a plumy little rat making its way swifty down the road.

Once the rat got in a safe spot he shifted back to his lanky self and scrunched his nose at the boys. " theres 5 of them.. all of them are zerglings." " at least the spitter isnt there. I hate those ones.."

"...You're seriously going to do this?!?" Ari asked raising a brow, and feeling his heart starting to race with adrinaline. "5 on 3... and you, Mouse... can you even fight?" he asked in a whiny voice. "And once we start fighting, there's gonna be a helluvalot more than just 5. They call each other, remember?"

"we just gotta do it fast! a quickie! your used to those arent you, stud?" He teased his friend and gave a small laugh. " look, we take them out.. one by one. snipe em out you know! kinda like what Mateo does.. kachoww kachoww" He pulled his pistol out from his side and pretended to shoot it out like a gangster. Only thing was; he wasnt even close to what Mateo can do with a gun. He was able to hold up a decent gun fight; but he was more clumsy than anything with it.

"you have a gun... cool..." Mouse declared with a creepy stare.

"........................................................................."

Ari blinked several times, trying to let the stupid process itself out of his mind. The shouldn't be here. For anything. But especially not for fucking beers. And the more they talked, the more it felt like Ari was going to be the only one doing anything here... and worse, they didn't even have Faith there with them in case something went wrong. If they went down here they'd never be heard from again. It probably wouldn't even be until Mateo or Trayton went looking for them that they'd even know they were gone. They would simply... vanish. He gritted his teeth as he eyed the gun. "..Did you remember to bring the silencer for that?" he asked, wanting nothing more than to turn around and get the fuck out of there!

" Why would I bring a silencer? Guns are needed for fights. fights are loud." Robin replied, knowing a silencer would actually be GREAT right now!

" There were 2 patrolling the spot and 3 of them were inside.. the beers and stuff are okay, it looks like theyre just resting.. or something."

"So we have an upper advantage then~" Without warning the wall they were hiding behind broke open as a scythe stabbed through; the debris stopped it for a second before it pulled bag to see a zergling inside! It then let out a loud scream, warning the others that there were intruders in the area. With another bash of its body it finally broke through and started to slash at the 3 boys!

"ahh!!" The young man shifted back into a rodent and started to zig zag around, it was able to slip underneath the zerg and started to run up the side of a building!

Robin stumbled backwards when the zerg revealed himself and instantly he shot it right in the head, making the blood splatter everywhere before turning to run towards the gas station! " ahhhhhh!!!"

Ari jumped back, but having been the most on edge already meant that he was also the most ready of the group. He rolled backwards, slamming his hands down towards the ground and shooting himself up into the air with a large chunk of earth, doing a forward flip as he rolled through the air and landing in front of Robin, his hand out in front of him and forcing the ground downward to absorb him landing in a crouch before reaching into his pocket and grabbing a lighter...

"looks like its we fight or die Ari~ and we cant die yet. Theres drinks in there!" Robin declared and rushed passed his friend, 2 zergs were already charging from the gas station! " Ahh!" As robin lead with his war cry, 2 other clones appeared next to him and dashed even faster foreward to meet with the two zerglings! When they were close enough they both upper cut the zergs in time and made their bodies flail up. Instantly, 2 other clones appeared next to the original clones and they both did a backflip kick to shoot both the insects in the air. When they flew upward, Robin came to a halt and pulled out his duel pistols to shoot them from ythe sky! bang bang bang bang!

"...So much for subtle," Ari hissed, looking over towards the side of the building and watched as another Zergling approached. With an impassive look on his face, he ignited the lighter and, with his free hand, pushed the fire towards the Zergling as an enormous explosion erupted where fire met bug.

"yeahh, burn those suckers!" Robin laughed and saw another emerging from the floor. He spun his gun playfully and shot its legs so it collapsed before shooting the forehead! " AND another!" He declared and saw one charge at him! " whoa!" A clone quickly pushed him out of the way and became a scape goat, while at the same time the fighter rolled back onto his feet and shot the zerg!

"How many of these fuckers was there supposed to be?" Ari asked, gritting his teeth as he looked around, his lighter still ignited as he looked around for more targets.

"I dont know, but this is more than 5!" The boy declared and found himself back to back with his best friend,, around them 4 others started to pull themselves from their burrowed positions, their eyes locked on the two who seemed to be trapped. " where the hell did mouse go!?" Robin asked and saw even more starting to surround them.

"The hell'd you expect him to do, nibble their eyes out?" Ari asked, by this point clearly aggrivated with the whole situation. He let his eyes shift back and forth as the Zerglines closed in on them. "Robin? Next time I say we don't do this, promise me one thing..." he muttered before lashing his feet backwards to kick his best friend to the ground as he held his lighter up to his mouth and quickly blew the fire out from him like a flame thrower, spinning all the way around to try to take care of all four Zerglings at once before looking back at his prone friend. "We DON'T FUCKING DO IT!"

"What was I suppose to do!? its rare to find it, and we found it! its right over there!" he said pointing to the building, the 4 zergs were torched successfully so he reached for his friends hand and started to drag him towards the entrance!" Missions almost done!" Robin declared but halted when the ground started to shake violently, his eyes started to grow from how much it was moving! " ..something isnt right." a loud roar could be heard from under them and instantly the two heroes were tossed into the air by a giant figure revealing itself from a burrowed position. The two fell onto the hard parking lot; only to be greeted with the biggest zerg in the nest. The ultralisk. It stands about 40 feet high and its massive 4 scythes was large enough to slash a building in two! It stood there on all fours, its shell harder due to its size. "....holy... shit"



"...YOU THINK?!?" Ari screamed out as the ground started to rumble. When the enormous Zerg burst its way out of the ground, Ari fell back, hitting his head hard on the pavement and dropping his lighter. "Fuck this shit, dude, we gotta go! NOW!" he shouted out, stumbling a little to get to his feet, his hand reaching out to grab Robin by the neck of his shirt in an effort to get them away from the monstrosity! Even Treyton knew to run away from these shits!

There was no way they could fight that! Especially if it was just them two, Ultralisks took everyone to fight and it was too massive for any of them to handle by themselves! " run run RUN!" As he stumbled to his feet, clones appeared in every direction, all of them acting as a scape goat as the real ones started to make their exit! The ultralisk let out another roar and stood on his hind legs before slamming its massive feet down to make a small tremor, the shaking of the earth made a couple clones trip and making them poof before it started to slice towards the bodies that were appearing out of nowhere! " shit!" He ducked in time before a scythe could hit him but tripped when he ran over a pavement. " ugh, fuck" Robin winced and grabbed his ankle. The Ultralisks gaze shot over towards the fallen human who didnt disappear when he fell and started to charge over with its massive body!

Ari slid to a stop, looking back over his shoulder. "Fuck... me..." he groaned whiping his hands around one another to bring a sweeping gust of air up behind Robin to hopefully blast him forward towards the half-mystic. He reached out to hold his friend up, helping him support, but trying to move them forward anyway. "Can you walk?" he shouted, stumbling away from the Ultralisk at a much too slow pace.

"fuck.. i think I twisted it.. it isnt broken cause I can still feel my toes you know?" Robin winced and looked up to see the giant Zerg coming, his heart was racing in his chest from the sight as he pointed. " Here he comes!" He yelled, knowing this was going to hurt alot.. As the boy watched in anxiety, the blood that was splattered on his and Aris body repelled off them and flew through the air swiftly towards the ultralisk. It wasnt just from their bodies; but all the blood that was stained on the floors and walls from the zerglings liquified into the air and all shot like needles through the massive monster. As the thousand points shot through every direction, a cloud of blood that belonged to the hyrdralisk shot outward to mist. It lingered in the air for a moment before the pool of blood just fell onto the floor along with a loud THUD from the dead zerg. "...whoa.. holy shit did you see that?"

From afar, a figure of a man was standing calmly from the gas station. He was dressed oddly, though still dirty from the dirt and times. Even still, the man who stood in front of them had somewhat of a proper look; his bright blue eyes watching the two carefully. " ...survivors" He called out with a small nod. " If you want to continue living, your best bet is to leave this city. Theres a post in laughlin."

Ari fell downward, holding onto Robin as they ducked down below the sudden attack. He looked up after a few seconds, blinking away his disbelief. "...We have a post here. A couple hundred," he called out, almost foolishly... but then again, it wasn't a Zerg he was revealing information to... it was someone who just destroyed an Ultralisk... by himself. That was next to impossible. He slowly got to his feet and looked up at the man with a furrowed brow. "Who are you?"

"Viktor Cursor" He revealed to the two and started to calmly make his way over towards the two. " Your post isnt going to last long, not in this area. Out of all the places I've been; this is the most infested. I was able to help a post in Reno.. about 80 of them. If your looking to transport them; it may be possible. "



"Wait, how do we know we can trust you?" Robin asked narrowing his eyes.

" well you could either trust me... or that." He jabbed a thumb towards the giant dead zerg behind him. "..im sorry, I didnt catch a name?"

"Ari Kiser," he replied, having an immediate sense of trust in the stranger and he flashed a look at Robin for a second before turning back towards Viktor. "I'd say you've earned my trust. You'll need to speak to our leader, though. If anyone can convince this post to move, it'll be him." He took a deep breath and nodded back towards where they came from. "We should get below ground. Mouse, if you're out there, we're going back!" he shouted out for the third companion to follow along.

"I'll provide the information, but its not up to me if your post stays or leaves. If your leader declines, I must be on my way." Viktor said simply and eyed the 7-11. " ..before we go, there is one thing I need. Its the reason to why I'm here."

"...yeah and whats that?"

"Alcohol." He said simply and turned to calmly make his way towards the gas station

. ''......YUP, i trust him." Robin grinned and didnt hesitate to follow the stranger! " So whats your drink? you look more like a .. schmirnoff kinda guy!"

"Wine.." The man said simply, knowing it was cheap wine since it was a convenient store.

" Wine? heh.. yeah thats alright. dont know too much about it but if you drink it fast enough, it can really fuck you up."

" I dont particularly care for the effect.. but I think you would if i were to switch to the alternative.."

"Whatever floats your boat dude.."

Ari felt his jaw drop and he actually hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. Really? There had to be ANOTHER one?!?

When he entered the store a single zerg was waiting for them, it let out a hiss and charged towards the man. Viktor however, simply backhanded it out of the way and made the bug crash into the wall. As he did so, he calmly walked towards the box of wine and broke the box open until it was the cheap plastic container holding it, his eyes flashed blue before he allowed a single fang to grow out and punctured it so he could drink it out from the container.

"...did. you. see. that" Robin mouthed to his best friend, watching Viktor like he was some kind of freak show!

Ari had headed inside the store, rubbing his temples as he made his way behind the counter where they kept the lighters. It was long past the time of being picky and he grabbed a dozen Bic lighters and slid them into his pockets with a heavy sigh. "No, I didn't see it, Robin," he replied, his tone showing he was still a little aggitated.

"well, lets get a couple of cases and head back." Without hesitation a few clones appeared and started to loot the place, everyone had their arms filled with SOMETHING! Viktor reached to grab a couple of boxes himself before looking at the two. "...I need these" He defended, not wanting to explain himself at the moment. "Alright, well lets head back"

"...Are you sure about this, Mateo? Remember the last thing he built for us? Frank still has the scars..." Ari reminded his friend. Yes, Drew was Mateo's brother, but they were like night and day different. While Mateo thought things through and protected the undercity almost singlehandedly... with some help, Drew locked himself away in his room, reading and dreaming. It had been a long time since the half mystic had anything worth dreaming about. "I mean, can we really trust whatever this thing is to really work when we need it to? I really have no intention of dying because of some technical issue or some shit..."

" Prototypes are called prototypes for a reason. Frank will even agree that the first model would always have its ups and downs.. Besides, when it comes down to it. Drews never failed me.. .hes never failed any of us. " Mateo defended softly and continued to walk down the dim dirty under city neighborhood. " Ive been meaning to ask.. and actually im kind of nervous on hearing the numbers but.. exactly how many were we able to recruit for our mission to laughlin?"

Ari lowered his eyes towards the dirty pathway, biting his lips. "Not as many as I hoped. We have about 800 people to move. But only a hundred fifty-three volunteered. Most of 'em are afraid to move at all."

"Its about time we get out of here." Aria called out from behind the two, she had an interest of what Drew had in store. Though she never really complimented it with words, the twin of Ari defenetly showed her gratitude by always supporting the next upgrade. If they werent able to upgrade their medical field, they might as well upgrade the fire arm to fight against those insects. " Unfortunetly, everyone has to do their part. If we stay, we're guaranteed to die..."



"...They're afraid of going somewhere they don't know," Faith added in a sad voice. She could feel the confusion and fear that ran through their home. "At least here, they know who to trust."

"Always the optismist there Aria, thank you." Mateo added matter of factly with a nod.

" Oh, no problem. " The girl replied back with a shrug,she had mutual respect for most of her team mates. Except for Robin, he was a sexist idiot.

"Nonetheless, we're sworn to protect them. They trusted us enough to defend their homes here.. they should have the same respect when it comes to guiding them to a better place."

"...Laughlin? out of all places?" The female asked with her brows arched.

" Viktor says there are more survivors. If we can rally with others and gain allys, then its defenetly an opportunity im not going to pass up."

"Most of them don't see it that way," Ari reported glumly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dirty army jacket. His eyes lingered on a few old women at a marketplace who were giving him a sort of dirty look; at least it looked that way to Ari. "They see it like we're trying to force them out. We're going to have to make them understand..."

"Help..."

"What?"

"Don't make them understand, help them understand..."

Ari gave Faith a lingering look for a second. "...We're gonna have to help them understand that it's worthwhile. Us leaving will probably light a fire under a few asses, but they won't like it."

" If others decide to stay then let them stay. We're leaving cause we want to live. If they die, then its their own fault." The medical fighter muttered.

"...They're thinking the same thing about us wanting to leave," Faith countered softly, giving the ladies at the market a soft smile to try to reassure them.

Mateo sighed and lowered his eyes towards the dirty floor. "..politics." He muttered and saw that they were coming to his brothers workshop. The latino lead the group into the familiar grounds, machinarys were piled neatly to the side while the pipes and mechanics seemed to twirl within each other elegantly. Mateo admitted in the past that his brothers workshop was a piece of work. The things he created using the rusty pipes were very creative. '' Drew? You in here? "

" What they think we're betraying them?" The female snorted at her friends comment. " Faith, that is TOTAL bullshit and you know it."

"I'm telling you what they think, not what I'm saying. We need them to know why we're asking them to risk their lives on an unknown journey. That's all I'm saying," she defended as they entered the younger Mackerbie's workshop that looked like some sort of steampunk forest actually.

"...And the gallant knights entered the humble abode of the lowly workman," came Drew's voice from off in a shadow on the far side of the dark room. A sizzle of energy crackled a moment later, lighting up the young man with shades of dark blue as he continued to weld the pistol looking object in his hand with his own electricity. After a second, he stopped and stepped out to join the rest of the team, holding out a raw looking metal pistol that weighed just a little more than a normal gun for Mateo to examine.

"What'dya think?" he asked, crossing his arms and stepping back while nodding towards a target that was painted on the far wall to look like an old archery range.



When Mateo heard his brothers voice, his bright eyes panned over to Drew with a light smile. " what did you do to it?" The leader asked curiously and examined the gun. " Feels a little heavier than usual.."

"All the better to bash a bugs head in, my dear" Aria added with a playful smile.

Drew just rolled his eyes and nodded towards the target again. "Try it out..." he urged with a smirk.

Ari took a step back all the same, uncertain about Drew's... modifications.

He bit his lip and eyed the gun for a moment before giving a soft nod. " Alright..." Mateo breathed out and aimed the gun at the target. " ....here goes" He warned and counted to 3 in his head. 1.. 2.. 3...

Before the leader could shoot, the female shot both her fist into the ground and motioned it to an upward thrust to make an earth wall in front of her.

A high pitched sound echoed through the chamber. PHEECCHHWW! It kicked back a little heavier as a bolt of blue-white electricity sizzled out of the end of the blaster and more or less towards the target. In his hand, the butt of the gun felt a little warm to Mateo, but other than that the prototype seemed to work pretty well. "...So?" Drew asked with a playful, rogueish smile crossing over his face. "What'chu think?"

Mateo snorted at what he saw and nodded with approval. " Do you know how much ammo we're going to save if we upgrade to this? Please tell me that this baby can be charged."

The earth wall shifted back into its normal state and out came Aria with her brows arched curiously. " Already, its going to be a big help with the militia. Half dont know how to fire a gun, have the ammo with the ones who can shoot. "

"That's actually the beauty of it!" Drew replied excitedly, rushing over to his work table to grab the plans. Even though the others didn't really see what he saw in the mechanics, he always liked to show it off. "It charges itself. See? Right here... the crystal is magnetic. I discovered it trying to work on uncle's lightsaber... This particular crystal? I don't know what it is, but it has magnetic energy. When combined with another magnet, the two ignite like you just saw!"

Ari took a step forward to examine the gun with heavily furrowed brows. "And you're sure it's stable?" he asked uncertainly. It almost seemed too simple.

"Well thats even better news" Mateo added and looked over the schematics with his brother. "....one question though. how many crystals do you have left so we can have Frank manufactor these?"

That's when Drew sucked in the air through his teeth and dropped his arms to the side. "Yeeeeeah... that's the thing..."

"....That's the only one, isn't it..." Faith said as a statement rather than a question. "...And this one wasn't easy to get..."

"How'd you guys guess?" he asked brightly as he got a map out from the table. The undercity was drawn as a rough city in the center, but around the sides were hundreds of tunnels drawn out. Many times more than existed on the official maps that Ari and Mateo used. "...What are these tunnels.." Ari started to ask in horror seeing all the access points he didn't even know about! "Don't worry, I don't even unseal them. Not like Matty's sheild works on me anyway," he shrugged off the concern and pointed to a spot that looked like it was about 2 miles from the heart of the city, though his scale was... difficult to see. "I found it here. But... when I went back for more... that was the only one I could find. Unless I get more of those crystals, that's the only one..."

"So we have some kind of breakthrough on fighting these guys off and we dont even have the resource to make more...figures" The girl snorted and placed her hands on her hips.

"no.. theres gotta be more." Mateo replied with his brows furrowed. He was determined to keep fighting. " We'll just have to look along the way. Its not going to be long before we pack and go..."

"Well, until then whose going to get the lucky gun?"

"...faith, I want you to have it. If your unwilling to take it then give it to whom you think is worthy."

"just not Robin.."

Faith reached out for the gun. "Like I'd give that dick something like this..." she snorted, taking Mateo's position before lining up the sights and firing three times in rapid succession, managing to light some of Drew's papers on fire. "Whoops!" she called out apologeticly, putting her hand over her mouth. It was only seconds before Drew was blasting at the fire with an extinguisher he had handy.

"Don't worry. That's all stuff I already loaded onto my pad," he told her waving a hand to tell her it was no problem.

"...I think Ari should have it," she said, holding the gun out towards the half mystic to take.

" Dont even Faith." The girl interrupted. " Hes able to handle his own without firearm. No offense but even your fists cant do that much damage against a zergs shell."

"You can handle it," he told the girl, setting down the fire extinguisher and coming around to help her get the right grip. "It's just the same as any other gun, but a little heavier. So, it's gonna kick back a little harder. Take it easy until you get used to it," he offered with a small smile.

Faith blinked and lined herself up for the spontaneous lesson. She glanced at Drew for a second as she lined up, almost telling him to back up a little. She took a deep breath and fired, this time only one bolt to get used to the blaster. She caught the gun this time and the bolt sizzled right on target, exploding against the center of the bullseye. "Okay.. I suppose I can make it work."

Aria stood aside and watched as Faith shot another bolt out, she couldnt help but grin on how cool it was to see a bolt shoot out like that! " If its ready, I'll send the blue prints to Frank. Even though we dont have the crystals, he could make do with what we already have."

"Just make sure he's using extra parts... No sense wasting a good pistol on a crystal that might take us a while to find, you know?"

Sounds of footsteps could be heard running and soon the doors opened to reveal Robin. He was tired from the sprint but the urgency in his eyes was dead obvious. " Oh mannn, we got a HUGE problem.."

"if its one of your alcohol ordeal, Im throwing you in the sewer lakes."

The boy continued to pant heavily and was now pacing around in circles. " No.. no its not.. its not that." robin gulped and placed his hands on his hips. " Someone.. someones in trouble. Theyre in pain.. and I think its the bad kind " His brows arched as he gave the two girls a look
.
It took her a second to figure out what the hell he was talking about, but after a moment her expression was starting to turn serious. " ..someone may be infected?"

"its in their stomach.. its really gross." Robin added with a concerned look.

"SHIT"

"Cmon we gotta hurry" The smallest of the group dashed out again, he had to lead them to where he saw it!

"....What exactly is the good kind of pain again, remind me?" Faith demanded, raising a brow at Robin suspiciously, holding the gun as she crossed her arms.

"...Doesn't really matter. Come on, we may have to put her out of her misery,"Ari muttered, knowing that they all had delt with infections before. It wasn't pretty, but it had to be done, for everyone's sake.

Drew bit his lip and grabbed his tablet following the others out. He hated these moments; he genuinely did, but he always went, hopeing to figure out something that would help stop the infections. From above, a soff hoot echoed through the workshop and a snowy white owl figure flew down to follow the group out.

"This way! we're not far, just down the alley way here!" Robin panted out and turned a sharp corner, he saw a chained fence coming up and knew that his team was capable of jumping this. Besides, it was a short cut! The smallest male quickly created two clones in front, both of which had their hands low to hoist him over. When Robin got close, he lept up into the air and was ollyooped over to the other side. Luckily, he created another group of clones for him to land on and use them as cushion before dashing foreward.

When Mateo saw the chained fence coming, he threw his hand out towards the nearest trash can. The lid flew over by static as he hopped on it and allowed it to levitate him over, once he was in the air he kept a crouched position as he glided behind Robin.

The obstacle wasnt a match for the female twin. She lept into the air and once she landed on the ground, the earth softened to charge her momentum before a pillar shot her over like a cannon. The female flipped in the air and landed with skill before running after Robin.

Faith made a run at the fence, simply jumping up onto it and hoisting herself over, landing gracefully next to the inelegant Robin and giving him a glare. Some 'Man' needing 4 people to help him get over the fence...

Ari pressed out the earth underneath the fence creating a quick tunnel for himself before filling it in behind him, running off after the others.

Drew rushed towards the fence, his owl flying close above him. He flicked his tab open to the correct book in the anthology he kept. "...Nearby were set several brooms in the room of flying keys...." he read the single line, but that was enough. While around them keys appeared looking like flies flapping around the area, Drew looked over to see the old broomsticks. "Come on Hedwig... let's fly," he smirked, taking one of the brooms and hopping on to zoom after the others!

Once the team was over, Robin turned another corner and started to make his way through a street of people looking out to the crowd gathering just up ahead. " MOVE!" The circuit member yelled with his brows furrowed. " Let us through!" He demanded as he started to squeeze through the people just standing there!

Mateo kept above everyone and when he flew passed the crowds of people he saw a middle age man squirming on the rustic floor! He lowered his altitude and allowed his static to pin the trash lid on his back like a holster before making his way to quickly observe the man infected.

"We need to get everyone out of here," Ari muttered as they approached the large crowd.

"Let me handle it," Faith proclaimed, closing her eyes. In the minds of the gawkers, the bell for lunch started to toll. They might be a little confused when they found out that it rang a few minutes early, but with everything so regulated in the undercity, if it was lunchtime, you went to lunch, or you went without.

''Sorry, excuse us .. MOVE" Aria spat out and finally got through the people. When she saw Mateo checking on the infected the medic quickly ran over and took a knee. She always had a small medi pocket bag around her waist and quickly she reached in to get the necessities. " ....does anyone know how long ago this happened?"

" ....i.. remember him mentioning he was attacked like.. a week ago?" A voice called out from the crowd.

"WHAT? what do you mean a week ago?! and you didnt say anything?" The girl glared at the boy looking frightened, Mouse opened his mouth to say somethign but.. nothing came out. he was speechless. " We were trying to help"

"You left the city without authority or protection!? " Mateo snapped

Robins jaw dropped from the 'surprise' that Mouse knew a way out. " you what?!"

"A weeks worth of infestation. This is fully grown by now, not to mention the effect of what it MAY have when he was carrying it." Aria looked at Faith with a worried look.

"Relax, Matty," Drew said, kneeling down next to Aria with his pad out. "Did you see him attack anyone, or did he just like... suddenly fall over like this this morning?"

"help me!! DEAR GOD HELP ME GET THIS OUT OF ME!" The man pulled up his shirt to reveal his stomach violetly shifting with spikes poking out from within. It wasnt sharp enough to cut through just yet but there was defenetly movement.

"This just happened maybe a few minutes ago, he wasnt feeling good then all of a sudden he just violently yelled. " Mouses heart dropped when he saw the man squirming, the bug was defenetly in his stomach!

" We have to end him, its the only way" Aria hushed

"NO PLEASE I DONT WANT TO DIE!" The people around them were now terrified from the commotion.

Faith furrowed her brows deeply. "There's only one way to fix this now..." she muttered under her breath as Ari stepped forward, his palm already holding his lighter.

"I'll do it."

"Will you please show SOME class?" Faith demanded through gritted teeth. "Even if we have to, don't be so glib about it..."

"...What's your name, sir?" Drew asked, sitting down Indian style next to the the man, tablet held in his lap and biting his lip. He hated these moments, and really despised that they still hadn't managed to find a way to help the people; he had to do his best to make them at least comfortable.

" Erick " He answered the boy with the tablet with his eyes closed tight . " JUST DO IT. DO IT FAST" The man knew what happened to those who were infected, if there was a cure for it they wouldnt be hiding out in the undercity. " I.. I just wanted to see the outside was all." He admitted, knowing it was frowned upon to leave without going through the proper procedures. " I missed the sky...argghh!!" Before Ari could burn his body, his stomach blastd open shooting blood in every direction! This time however, it wasnt a Zergling nor anything big or vicious. This was small, about the size of a rat and hundreds of them were now scattering in every direction!

The few people who were around all screamed when they saw the bugs pour out, as they ran for cover the little insects began to crawl after them and started to make thier way into dark corners of the area. A good many of them would die since they werent aggressive, but there was a slim chance that our heroes could find all of them....

Drew reached out to touch the man's hand gently. He was going to talk him through it, keep him thinking about the sun and the sky, but it was already too late. He could feel the throbbing in the man's hand and jumped back just as the rat-bugs started to jump out in every direction. "Holy shit!" he muttered, watching them going in every direction.

Ari immediately responded by igniting the man's body with a wall of flame, killing all the bugs that were still within him before stomping his foot down on the ground to create a 2 foot wide trench encircling the man and the group, focing many of the bugs into it. "Fuck... We're not gonna get them all, Mateo," he muttered, already seeing a few of them scurrying towards the corners on the far side of the trench!

"HOLY SHIT!" Robin yelled when he saw the bugs! He was able to step on a couple, squishing its body as goo splurted out but there was too many! Clones puffed in every direction, all of which trying their best to just stomp them all!

Mateo watched with horror as the bugs all scurried in every direction, quickly he hopped into the air and allowed the lid to return back to his feet. He floated from above and began to shoot jolts of electricity towards any insects! Some fell into cracks while others slipped into broken windows and walls of homes. " ....this isnt good."

Aria was able to kill a few herself and watched as a few slid into the cracks of floor. She furrowed her brows and clapped her hands foreward, forcing the wedge to come together to kill the bugs that were hiding in it. " ...we've been infiltrated." Aria stated with a worried look . " its not going to be long before they get the message out."

Faith tried to calm the people around them and pulled her gun out, but it wasn't worth firing the weapon. The bugs were too small and too fast

. Ari turned towards the trench and drawing water from a nearby well, flooded it over and about a hundred bugs floated to the surface tying, unsuccessfully, to swim. "I think we found a way to get the people to leave," he muttered, not particularly being a fan of having to move so quickly.

Drew set his pad down as he watched Hedwig going bug hunting while he pulled out his own lightsaber prototype. He slammed it point first into the ground as he sent a wave of energy down through the blade and into the earth, shocking some of the bugs who'd gotten below, but not nearly enough.

"....Emergency meeting for the circuit. Afterwards, we'll have to convince the council of our Idea. Time is defenetly, not on our side this time." Mateo allowed his eyes to look over to his friend with somewhat of a frown.

------------- and hour later --------------------

" The council will hear our appeal tomorrow, the only problem now is the dangerous of the people. We dont know what those bugs are capable of, they can obviously strategize. " Aria crossed her arms in front of her chest as she eyed the giant map table in front of them, it was the resrouce map they used to use when they needed to go up ground 0 to find supplies. Unfortunetly, everything within a 10 mile radius from them had been depleted from previous missions.


Treyton was standing to the corner, his eyes towards the ground with his own arms crossed in front of him. He was quiet through the meeting, just listening in on what needed to be heard. The assassin wasnt an expert on Zergs breeds, but he knew how to kill and handle most of them.



" You said they were smaller in size? " Viktor asked from the opposite side of the room. " and many came from a single hosts body? They were scouts, egg scouts. Their purose, is to make more of them.."

"...Another reason why it's time to leave. I don't know how many times we need to remind people how nice they have it here. Not having to go up to the surface, but everytime we go, the harder it gets..." Ari added.

"Yeah, but they were like.. SUPER easy to kill." Robin added to what Viktor said. " We can handle those."

"What are you? dense? It needs a host so it will take whatever human is near by.. and then create hundreds more of it? Theyre purpose is to overwhelm us " Aria replied with a snort

"Which then leads me to think.." Mateo sighed and gave his team an unsure look. " ...who is safe to bring with us or leave behind?"

"...So, wait... what your saying... is that we wait until tomorrow to have the damn council listen to us, by then, a hundred people could be bitten in their sleep and we'll have to fight the fuckin' war here...." Frank muttered, raising an eyebrow towards the group. "...The fuck are you all, fuckin' stupid? We can't wait for the council. We gotta go now. And anyone shows any symptoms at all... Fuckin' waste those bug sitters..."





"Exactly why some of them wont show it." Aria declared. " They know what happens if they are infected. If they dont want to die by those bugs, im sure they dont want to die by our hands either.."

Drew was quiet in the corner, sitting cross legged on the table while sketching out something on his pad. He tried to not listen to most of the strategy meetings because he ended up feeling worse about the whole situation. Why wasn't there a cure? There HAD to be... they just had to find it. Nevertheless, he managed to look up at what Aria was saying. "Is there any chance of finding a cure? Maybe I can make something that will help keep someone who's infected isolated so we can try testing some things."

"...No one wants to be a test dummy either, Drew... This really is no win..."

"...Suppose next your gonna say we can't just leave 'em either," Frank snorted out at the group. "I say fuck the council. If people want to survive, they better start listenin' to common fuckin' sense!"

"And who's gonna determine that, Frank?" Drew asked somewhat heatedly. "You? What happens if they get you? Then what?"

"...Then you better fuckin' kill me before I destroy the colony." He looked around at the rest of ther group. "Anyone who doesn't agree with those terms, should be left behind to fend for themselves."

"........then its going to have to be messy. Theres no choice, if we handle it by any other way itll jepordize our security. " The leaders bright eyes lowered to the map, his frown clearly showing right now. " ..im not a fan of this, therefore im taking a vote on our next move. "

"...what do you have Matt?" Aria asked and pursed her lips to the side.

" my plan has 3 objectives. First objective... we stabilize a general area for people to go to so they are quarantined from the city. All eligible guards will be there along with our medical units to check on symptoms. Everyone who is within that area will be coming with us. "

Ari looked over at Faith. "It'll have to be closely monitored for people hiding symptoms. I'm not a fan of telepathy, but..."

Faith simply nodded determindly. "I'll keep an eye on it. Anyone tries to hide anything, I'll know about it," she advised them all simply.

"Second objective, I.. Drew and 2 others, preferrably Treyton and Frank to come with me to the top. Drew, do you remember what Uncle Raf and Oscar helped with the transport train? It may still be
there at the old intern house"

When Treyton heard his name he peaked over and pursed his lips to the side, he nodded to what Mateo said and continued to keep his ears open to what everyone was saying.

Drew narrowed his eyes as he set his pad down. "Probably the best idea I heard all day. I'll go through the notes see if theres anything to tell us where it's stored; probably in the old garages."

"..and the third objective. We'll need our arguement against the concil. Frank is right, they wont like what theyre going to hear but unfortunetly, the Zergs dont care about politics. The circuit is unable to protect the city if the city is unwilling to cooperate. Viktor, since you have experience with ground 0 more than we have, it might persuade some of them that we know what we're talking about. Aria, Id like for you to go with him."

"Oh I can argue all day." Aria snorted and placed her hands on her hips.

"Arguing isnt the key, its to get our message across. The people who do decide to come with us will have to be quarantined, as sad as it is to admit it. The few hundreds that we have in this city will dwindle down greatly.."

" So you find your train and you bring it back here, that is our source of transport?"

"Me and Ari can take care of the quarantined!" Robin declared and patted his best friend on the shoulder. " your going to need some clones patrolling the area...oh and Faith can handle the medical stuff and the nurses.."

Ari looked down at Robin, raising an eyebrow and deciding not to say anything as his eyes flickered over towards Faith.

She just smiled at Robin. "You better hope that you never need medical attention. I might just decide that I'm afraid of blood at that moment, you fucking pig."

Ari snorted and shook his head, not about to defend his friend on this; if he did, he'd have to answer to his own sister. He headed over towards the map. "We need the spot nearest the exit we plan on using. I'd say this square kilometer here... Last thing we need is to catch an infection on the way out the bloody door."

"..is anyone against this?" The leader asked. " I mean.. morally I am, but is anyone against the actual act?"

Aria bit her lip and shook her head. " just know guys.. that after the council, we're not going to be a fan of alot of people."

"were not even fans NOW" Robin snorted" They dont respect us out there"

Drew raised a brow from his table seat, setting down his pad and crossing his arms. "...Losing morals and honor are the first steps towards losing ourselves," he said, letting his eyes linger on each person in the room before finally landing on Mateo. "...What did our parents all fight for? What'd they die for? We're ripping people from their homes, subjecting them to death if they get the slightest bit sick, and the worst part about it is that most of them don't even know why. That man today, Erick... All he wanted to do was see the sky. That was all he wanted. We tell people the rules are to protect them, but we never show them why. He went up to the surface alone and wasn't able to handle himself... all to see something that's a birthright!" He hopped down off the table and made his way to the map. "We don't need councils, we don't need killings, theres a lot that we don't need. What we need is a hero. Someone who really fights for the people, and who the people can trust."

"They don't trust us," Faith declared looking up into Drew's eyes.

"Of course not!" he replied, letting his gaze linger on the older woman. "Why should they? Robin's out stealing their alcohol, one of the few things that can be considered a luxury around here. Ari, you're going out telling them we need to move and that they have to fight or die, but you don't tell them why. The storeyards are empty, so it looks like you're not doing anything..."

"...Storeyards are empty because there's nothing to fill it with..." Drew raised a finger.

"Doesn't matter. All the people know is that there's nothing there, and they wonder what you're doing. If you want the people's trust, then you have to earn it, starting with the council. Those are the elected leaders. They might not be the best at their job, but they at least have the trust of a majority of the people."

" Then maybe it would be a good thing for you to go with Viktor and Aria." Mateo added. " Convince them, we're here to help. But we cant help if they dont allow us to."

He frowned at his brother's request. "...I'll argue for the quaranteen, but I won't argue for killing. We're better than that. We need to find a way to beat this. Otherwise, all we're doing is slowly killing ourselves off. All we're doing is the damn bugs job for them."

"Then we have what we need to do for now. Drew, ill need whatever information you find on uncles train. Blueprints of it, information regarding it.. anything pertainting to the subject will help. Ari and Robin, start the camp for the quarantine tonight. Have the perimeters secured from bugs, triple check every thing before setting up the fences. Tomorrow, Frank , Treyton and myself will go to the ground 0 to find the train. We'll be back as soon as we can, but its probably going to need some quick repairs so after the concil meeting be on standby" He patted his baby brothers shoulder and offered a soft smile.

Drew found himself still frowning. This was why he hated being at these meetings. He never ended up walking away happy from them. There was still a world out there, one full of posibilities and hope, but never at these meetings. They were always about the averting disaster. There wasn't enough hope here, and that was why the people dispared and didn't trust the small force that was essentially the military backbone of the small city. He took a deep breath and finally nodded. "I'll be ready with everything tonight. Come by after dinner and we'll look over it then," he said quietly as he turned and reached for his pad on the table and headed out of the room, tired of the plans.

Faith watched as Drew left, bitting her lip. She could tell he was hurt by the solution that they came up with. She looked around at everyone and muttered, "Excuse me," before following him out. If there was anything else said at the meeting, she could get filled in later. Drew had the strongest heart of anyone on the team, and she truly did hate to see that tarnished.

“Drew, wait up,” came Faith’s voice calling down the dark, dank hallway.  The lights flickered, casting odd shadows on the young man and the owl that sat on his shoulder.  She watched as the bird turned his head around and looked at her was bright yellow eyes.  In a way, it sort of creeped her out, and yet, she couldn’t necessarily feel upset by it because Hedwig was an integral part of Drew and who he was.

The conduit stopped and closed his eyes before turning back down the hallway to see Faith approaching him.  He didn’t particularly want to wait for her, or for anyone.  All of them, with their ‘do what must be done’ mentality ate at him in ways that he hardly completely understood.  Why was it that it had to be this way?  Why couldn’t they be both protectors and heroes?  He waited for her to catch up, pushing his hair back away from his eyes, in silence.  Once she caught up, he just kept on walking, giving her the cold shoulder, which he rarely did, but she had hardly stood up for him in there.  In fact, she had agreed to invade people’s minds during this quarantine.  

“...Do you hate us all for what we just decided on in there?” she asked, biting her lip and looking up at him, walking along on the side of Drew that didn’t have the owl perched on it.

Drew just looked at her for a second, furrowing his brows.  “I don’t hate any of you.  I just feel like we’re giving up.  Even Mateo’s saying he doesn’t agree what what we’re doing morally.  What are we when we start to throw out everything that even makes us human?” he asked, shaking his head in disappointment as he led the way out into the city itself.  His eyes were cognizant of the eyes that followed him and Faith, eyes that wanted to ask if the rumors were true, if there were Zurgs in the city that the great Circuit couldn’t eradicate.  He pushed his hands down into his pockets, not wanting to meet any of their eyes, not wanting to have to answer them.  To him, it wasn’t the bugs that bothered him as much, it was what was happening when the bugs took someone and it was eating away at his heart that he was somehow a part of all this.

“Well, what should we do?” she asked, a hint of irritation rising up in her voice.  “Keep the bugs the infected spawn and raise them as pets?  We don’t have a choice, Drew!  The ones who get bitten are a danger to everyone!  Even you have to agree that a single life is less valuable than the entire society!”

He let out a little snort and looked back at the people going about their daily task.  “Do you know why we have bugs loose in the city right now?” he asked, keeping his voice low as to not alarm the citizens while moving as fast as he could back towards his quarters, thinking this conversation was actually better in private.

“Because that man was selfish and scared to die...”

“Because he was scared to tell anyone about what happened to him!  We just automatically kill these people, Faith.  Doesn’t matter how far advanced the condition is, we just kill them, and we make ourselves feel better by saying it’s more humane.  How do we know?  There’s so much we don’t know!”  He stopped and turned towards her, licking his lips, his eyes intense and his body shaking a little.  “Look, I don’t know what the answer is,” he said quietly shaking his head as he reached up his rough fingertips to lightly touch the girl’s face for a moment.  “I... just can’t believe in my heart that this is the way...”

Faith took a deep gasp and stopped along with Drew, pressing back against a wall.  “You’re looking for a prince in the real world, Drew,” she said, her voice softened and sad.  “I grew up with my mom telling me that I’m a princess, that I’m delicate and that the world wanted me to stay that way and would protect me.”  She looked into his eyes for a second before pulling away from the boy’s hand and looking down and away.  “And, I grew up with 3 brothers who taught me that the only one I’ll ever be able to really count on is myself.”
Drew pursed his lips a little as Faith pulled away.  The two of them had been sort of toying with one another for years, both obviously liking the other, but neither one willing to make the first move, almost as though they were waiting for something, some sign that would tell them to take a step.  At least that was how he saw it, and the pull away was just another sign that they weren’t ready for it yet.  Not that it was disappointing; it was simply how things were.  “So, what’s your point?”

“My point,” she replied somewhat heatedly, “Is that you can’t rely on those heroes to show up.  Sometimes you have to be the hero you’re looking for.”

“What are you talking about?” Drew asked with a little laugh as he started to walk again.

“I’m talking about that you can’t just sit around and wait.  You want a hero, then BE the hero, Drew!  You have the heart, you just don’t have the drive!  And you know why?  It’s because you never get your head out of your books!”

Drew stopped again just outside his room, looking back at Faith slowly, not sure what to think of what she just told him.  He held his hand onto the handle of his door. jaw dropped and blinking.

Faith took the boy’s moment of silence to press on.  “Drew, you can’t sit around and wait for some happily ever after.  I know it’s easier, but you have to get your head out of the sand.  The stories you believe in... they can’t happen unless someone brave takes a stand.”  She reached up and this time it was her turn to lightly caress his face, looking into his eyes, her sad gaze there for him to take in.  “Where would Snow White be without the huntsman, or Aurora without Phillip?  If you want your happily ever after, you have to be the Prince.”

He looked at her eyes, his own dark orbs sad and heavy.  “...I don’t know how...”

“That’s an excuse and you know it.  If anyone’s ever read the how-to book on being a hero, it’s you.”  She let her hand move down towards his chest, resting her palm lightly over the top of his left breast.  “It’s in here.  And you know it.  You’re just afraid to do it.  Let your heart lead you, Drew.  Even if you’re the only one who believes it.  That’s what makes you who you are.  And it makes you a hero unlike anyone else here.  You were right with what you said back there.  We shouldn’t let them make us something we’re not.  But, how do we do that without losing the fight?”  She pursed her lips for a second.  “I don’t think anyone knows the answer.  But, I bet if there is one, you’ll be able to find it.”  She then leaned up to give the younger Mackerbie a light, but lingering kiss on the lips.  “Don’t give up,” she said quietly before walking back the other way towards her own quarters.

Drew didn’t say anything as he watched Faith walking away.  He swallowed and slowly raised his fingertips up to his lips, looking down at them as she faded into the distance.  His heart was racing in his chest at the first real kiss he’d gotten since before the Scorge that drove them underground.  He bit his lip and, after a minute, made his way into his quarters where he lay down on his bed, thinking about what Faith said, and the kiss she’d sealed it with.

Mateo was the first to come out of the sewer cages, it was early morning so the chilly air was there to greet the 3 heroes emerging from the darkness. It was a quiet morning and if it werent for the fact that most of the buildings were destroyed somehow it may have been peaceful. In an eerie way, it was peaceful due to the lack of life around them.  " The intern base was located west from here, near the mountain side.." Mateo revealed to Frank , he knew that Treyton would know where it was since he had a tie in with the old houses.



"Not that I actually care where it is.  Just get us there," Frank muttered, holding an arsenal around him.  Across his back he had two machine guns along with two sashes of ammo across his chest.  Then, from his belt hung two pistols, one, Drew's new  concoction that Faith had lent him for a field test along with one that was a little more... reliable.  On his shoulder, he carried a rocket launcher; all in all, he was equipped like a one man SEAL team.



Treyton pulled down his face mask and eyed the city that was once home. Though it was a quiet morning, the assassin was still on his guard.

"Theres a reliable vehicle just over head. " Mateo pointed, there were only certain amount of people that were able to handle themselves on ground 0. So the thought of people stealing near the tunnels wasnt stressed about. There were a couple beat up cars along the way, some of them were missing tires while others were just battered in every way possible. When they got to a pick up truck ,Mateo hopped in the driver seat and reached under the car mat to find the pair of keys his team would usually leave.

Treyton took the liberty of hopping in the back of the truck, he unsheathed a single hook sword and stabbed the roof of the vehicle for support as he got ready to defend the truck as they moved.

Frank jumped up into the back of the truck with Treyton, using suction cups attached to the bottom of one of the machine gun's tripod to steady it against the top of the cab.  "So, you actually think this hairbrained idea's gonna work, kid?" he asked the assassin casually as he banged on the top of the cab twice to indicate they were ready.  Yeah, this team had a little experience.

" I dont know" Treyton admitted with a shrug. " even if it doesnt work, im not planning on leaving the team behind. If we die, we die together." He said simply and crouched slightly to get a good balanced as they drove down the destroyed road.

Mateo didnt have to remind his team to keep their eyes pealed, they were professionals and he trusted their acts and judgement. He reached to lower down his window so he could hear his friends clearly in the back.

"Spoken like a true hero," Frank snorted shaking his head.  Since the meeting last night, he'd been openly mocking the idea of a hero that Drew still believed in.  Frank had no illusions about what he'd do when the chips were down; it was him first, team seconds, city last.  He didn't do anyone any good from the grave.

Treyton allowed a very soft smile to grow from what Frank said then returned to looking around for any signs of life form. If for some miracle people who weren't infected were found, they would save them. It wasn't unheard of since they were able to find his dad that way, though the risk of being infected would be very high. From the sounds of it, the Zergs are plotting to find their last city.

The leader drove through the city as best as he could, he couldnt very well step on the gas since things like building chunks and destroyed cars were all over the streets. Still, this was much more effective than walking along with the fact that they would be able to return supplies they happen to find. " ..quiet morning." He called out, knowing not to take that lightly.

"Won't be for long.  Probably caught our scent already," Frank replied with a sarcastic smirk as he cocked the gun.  Actually, the gun had already been prepped, but he just liked the sound.  "Come on motherfuckers... where the fuck are you today," he muttered, eyes open to look for any sign of movement.

The drive through the city seemed to be uneventful, at times they would at least run into one or two zerglings on patrol but everything seemed to be in a dead stand still. Even though it was quiet, Mateo was still on his guard. After about half an hour of driving they finally turned off the ramp and started to make its way up the lone pathway that once had the intern home.

Treyton looked up the still sky, it was party cloudy out so there were sparatic areas that were shadowed from the sunlight. Often times, they were mutalisks. Giant dragon like bugs that would swarm from above. Today however, had no signs of any kind of zerg activity.

"...Fuck, if I'd known it was gonna be this boring, I'd have told you to bring Robin.  Do the kid some good to be somewhere where he's NOT gonna try and blow us all up," Frank growled low under his voice.  "I don't like how quiet it is..."

" If ammo wasnt such a neccessity, you would probably take this up for a sport wouldnt you?" Treyton asked as he peaked over to give the other man a side long look.

A smirk crossed over Frank's face.  "Why not?  More than enough shit to shoot at.  Just most of 'em aren't trying to rip us to pieces."

From atop the Intern house, a shadow quietly watched the team.  The sun kept him hidden while reflecting off the top of the shiny truck.  He had detected traces of he quarry to the city of Las Vegas, which he was now overlooking from the amazing vantage point of the roof of the house.  It may have once been a beautiful, thriving city, but now... now, he knew why his path had led him here.  The one he was chasing had found fresh blood.

No matter how many times Mateo made his way back to the intern home, he couldnt help but feel chills spread through out his body. This was the base his father once trained in and the memories of what his father and mother lingered within his heart. When he came to where the old drive way was, he parked the car and gradually came out to examine the old home once again. " ...we're going to have to make it underground. There used to be an entrance way where the garage was and the library."

When the truck came to a stop, Treyton pryed his hook sword off the roof of the vehicle and spun it back onto his holster. He then hopped off the back of the truck and slowly started to walk towards the house. His two friends not far behind him. " which way are we taking?"

"Well... this is where the garage used to be.." Mateo pointed to a pile of broken materials, all of which collapsed on top of each other. He slowly made his way over and threw both his hands out, electricity shot from his finger tips as he felt the metals within the pile. Slowly, the crumbled walls and shingles shook off as Mateo began to drag metal supports out from under the pile.

"Does it really matter?" Frank muttered, having no real attachment to the place.  "Let's just get the damn thing and be done with it..."  He hopped down off the truck and crossed his arms leaning against the side.  "You know, I'm sorta beginning to think the other way might be a little faster..."  He sniffed at the air and scrunched up his nose.  "...I could really do with a cigarette while we wait..."

Treyton made his way a couple of feet from the leader and allowed his iris to rotate, he caught Mateos ability and shot both his hands out at the same time to move the pieces faster.

" Either or.. we're going to have to dig through all of this." Mateo muttered and shot another hand out to move another piece out of the way.

"...Let me know when you're done," Frank replied, turning around and rolling his eyes, mounting the gun again on the back of the pickup truck to get their backs while they worked.  That kind of labor?  Yeah, not what he was equiped for.

The man above the team watched them go about their labors in silence, watching and waiting.  After sevearal minutes, he made up his mind about them.  He wasn't sure what they were up to, but they weren't tainted by the bloodsucker, that much was certain.  He lept down off the edge of the building, his black cloak fluttering in the breeze as he landed down in a crouch next to the others.  He let his bright blue eyes scan between the two who were doing the lifting, ignoring the one with the gun behind him.  Treyton would be able to sense someone who registered like a vampire, but with something odd... his heart continued to beat in his chest, pumping warm blood through his veins.  "Allow me," he muttered, reaching out with a single hand and lifting a large block of rubble out of the way for them to the point where a hole could already be seen down into the garage.

Mateo was surprised by the voice and when he looked back to see as  tranger his brows arched. " ...uhm" It wasnt long before he offered the help and moved a large amount of mess out of the way. " ..thanks, im sorry but, you are?"

Treytons eyes shot over to the stranger and instantly his iris rotated to get a reading of what the stranger was. Since he was humanoid, he didnt react to attacking him. They would need all the allys they could find.

"...The fuck?!?" Frank spat out, pulling out Drew's energy gun and blasting it at the stranger out of shear reflex.

"Get down!" the stranger called out, grabbing Mateo by the shoulders and blurring out of the way by several feet, allowing the blaster strike to pass them unharmed while making a small explosion in the rubble, clearing a larger hole.  "...Perhaps you should have used that first..." he muttered towards Frank before turning back towards the other, more cordial ones.  "I am known as Virgil of the house Valerious," he explained, his accent clear and his manners old.  "And who might you be?"



Mateo was able to create a quick static shield around him to protect him from the blast, when the dust settled from the blast he looked over to the stranger with his brows slightly furrowed. " Mateo Mackerbee, designated leader of the circuits. These are my friends, Treyton Delmort and Frank Lee.."

" Your not fully vampire are you?" Treyton asked. " Your reading is.. odd"

The young man's eyes flashed for a second as he looked at Treyton.  "I'm not vampire," he declared heatedly, glaring at him for a moment before standing up and looking among the 3 of them, knowing that he would have to explain a little more, but detesting the idea.  He took a deep breath and upon letting it out, felt more calm once again.  "I carry the curse, but not the taste of the monster.  My father developed a way to live with it.  As long as I perform the rituals, I retain myself, as a human."

"...Sure look and act like the vampires I've seen..."  Frank barged in, figuring if Treyton said he was vampire, then he was vampire.

 "...Where have you seen vampires?" he asked, his expression turning calculating and suspiciously towards Frank.

"We have one claiming to help our people out of here. As you can see, there arent many of us left. The ones who was able to survive find refuge in our home under all this." Mateo replied

Treyton kept his eyes on the new comer, his actions showing alot more than he may wanted. He kept a careful hand over the hilt of one his hook swords just in case, although he was humanoid it didnt mean that they were always friendly.

"And what has he told you?" Virgil asked in a quiet voice, growing already ill at ease with how deep the demon-spawn may have already gone.

Mateo nodded. "That there are other survivors.. like us. With more resource to get by.. its said that there are still humans that ruled countries. That north america is quarantined from the rest of the world... we need to get out of here, we need to find a safe haven."

"Try if you must, but I fear you'll find no safe haven here.  Anyone that is already established will have a price you must pay to take refuge.  Sometimes, that price may be steep."

"Really, sounds like a lot you know..."

"It should," he replied back, looking directly at Frank.  "My family has been hunting predators for a millinia.  Vampires, werewolves, monsters of all kinds.  They're all the same.  Either they destroy you right away, or they play with you.  Before you walk blindly into this vampire's lair, be certain it is not a trap.  Some may offer protection.  Before you accept it, make sure you ask yourselves if it's worth the price."  He'd gotten the information he needed.  He wasn't going to force himself on this group, but they were the key; the next step to finding the monster he sought.  "Good luck to you, Mateo Mackerbee," he wished, bowing his head and starting to walk away, curious of their reaction.

Mateo watched as the stranger turned to walk away, he lowered his bright eyes to the tunnel that was now revealed from underneath all the debris. The seed of what he said was now in his head and whether he liked it or not, it was going to be in there until he talked to his team about it.  

Treyton kept quiet and nodded his head lightly to Virgil, when he saw Mateo clearing the path for the tunnel he slowly made his way over to examine the dark tunnels.  the tunnel would lead them to a long ramp which would eventually lead to the bottom, where if he remembered the workshop was located.

Frank watched as the stranger walked away.  "Ooooookay," he muttered to himself, loading up his weapons and decending down into the tunnel with the others.  "Did either of you guys think he was just... weird?" he asked, gritting his teeth and wishing even more for that damned cigarette.

When Mateo followed he allowed his right hand to spark with electricity, instantly it was attracted to the wirings which lead him to walk over and grab ahold of the wires. As he powered the tunnel, the old drive way flickered on to life, giving that same abience as before only empty. There was no sign of life and the eerie buzzing of the light only added to the feeling of once was. " You dont think Viktor is hiding anything do you?" Mateo asked the other two, his brows furrowed from the paranoia.

"if it worrys you that much, we can ask him when we return. " Treyton answered.

"You think he'll just up and tell us?  Oi, Vikky, wait up a sec, hey listen, is there anything you're not telling us about your friend?  ...Yeah, he'll open right up to that," Frank replied rolling his eyes as they made their way into the empty abyss.  "Convienient that he's someone the telepaths can't get a read of either.  One stranger's word vs. another, and our whole home in the balance.  So, you know, no pressure."

Mateo pursed his lips to the side as he listened to what Frank had to say, in a way he was right. It didnt help that either of the strangers are able to hide from a telepath.  He knew that it would only be a matter of time before the zergs would find the under city. If Viktor didnt come along like he did then they would be forced to walk wanderlessly. They had a heading, Laughlin. " ...theres no where else to go. if we stay, we will die. The zergs found us, its time we leave. we'll handle any problems along the way cause thats what we're suppose to do." Mateo added and continued to descend into the under ground lair of the intern home. They finally got to the car lot where many of them were destroyed, one that was clearly missing was the silver sting ray that belonged to the time mystic.

Frank just shrugged.  He had a simple plan; if things got bad, he'd leave, taking out anyone who got in his way.  "Did Drew tell you where to look?" he asked, his eyes shifting around the rubble filled garage wondering where exactly you would park a large train in a place like this.

"Yeah, where to look isnt the problem. Its how to start it." Mateo passed the intern cars and slowly made his way towards the heavy metal door that denied them access to the workshop. " Luckily, we have enough fire power for this." Mateo muttered and patted Frank on the shoulder. " Do your thing.."

Frank rolled his eyes and reached into his the pouches on his belt filled with C-4 caps.  He stretched them out across the weak points in the heavy metal door and pluged in the detonator.  He got himself about 50 feet away.  "Um... be ready in case some of that rubble gets dislodged..." he muttered towards the two of them to sheild them all with their static... thing.  "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he then called out and pressed the button to explode the charges with just enough firepower to take down the door.  "You know, really this house isn't as secure as your parents thought it was..." he muttered through the smoke that slowly vanished to reveal the workshop beyond the door.

"...you wouldnt have got this far if they were still alive." Mateo defended and allowed the static to die in front of them. When the dust and rubble died down they saw broken droids all over the workshop floors. The cement floor was destroyed with cracks and dirt holes.

"...wait" Treyton eyed the dirt patches that were scattered sparatically all over the workshop. His brows furrowed deeply as he kept a hard look on a single one, very lightly the sand shifted and Treyton knew it was a trap. " Theyre burrowed" The assassin revealed, almost on cue 12 zerglings all flew out from the sand pits and started to charge towards them!

"Shit, how'd they know?!?" Frank asked, pulling out the blaster and hating that they were underground.  Otherwise, he'd blow them apart with the goddamn rocket!  He started to back up, moving against a wall he could trust instead of back up the tunnel, knowing the Zergs liked to surround and destroy as he started to blast them away, the gun sending out bolts that threw the bugs across the room and actually managed to blow them up from the inside.  "...Mateo, as long as this shit dosn't blow up on me," he screamed out actually in surprise.  "Then you can tell your brother I'll make as many of these fuckers as I get parts for!"

Treyton withdrew his hook swords, his iris rotating to get Mateos ability as the Zergs charged foreward. He held onto his swords tightly as he kicked a zerg in the mouth to get it off balance before swiping upward to slash at its throat. Treyton then blocked one of their pincers with his sword before stabbing its stomach with the other  and barrel rolling out of the way to get swiped by another. The assassin was able to slice at another bug before throwing it like a boomerang, his blade spun violently in the air before he shot his hand out to create a static link and recalled it back from his throw.

Mateo gritted his teeth and reached for the shot gun that was on his back, he flipped it foreward and shot a zerg straight in the head before reaching for a steel door with his static and forcing it to crash into another bug. He gasped when he sensed one behind him, but a simple shot from Franks Electricity saved him from the attack! " Glad you like it!" Mateo teased as he rolled out of the way and shot another Zerg in the throat, goo splattering everywhere! " I always told Drew the best way to manufactor is for the investor to like it!" ------- meanwhile -------------

"Alright... we're next." Aria told her team and started to pace around in circles. The girl was more than a little antsy and was starting to think that maybe she should of gone up to ground 0 for a little action herself. Still, fighting wasn't everything. Hell, who was she kidding.. her Uncle Malyk was probably the best UFC champion. She even remembered the time that she won her first match against him, still the girl took in favor of her father and mothers practices and decided to get into the medical field. Though it was a human practice, she was happy that her father didn't deny her of her elemental training. " ...shit" The girl peaked through the opening and witnessed one of the council members sit back into his seat. " our bestfriend is here." Aria whispered, obviously referring to Herman Peevak, an elected deligate who always bad mouthed the circuit.



Drew sat back in his seat, his trusty pad out in front of him as always. At the moment, his fingers were tracing over it with intense focus. "Will you sit down?" he asked, looking up as he reached up to move his hair back out of his eyes. "You're making me nervous. Besides, pacing around like that isn't going to help our case at all..."



"Influences may help our chances" Viktor added, he stood aside patiently with his hands in his coat pocket. When the last speakers made their way out of the room he looked at both Drew and Aria with a nod.

" oops, cant sit down. Time to go in, lets go" Aria reached for Drews sleeve and tugged on him to get up before leading the other 2 into the council chambers. From the looks of it, they were on a break since they were all chatting with each other. There were 13
speakers, the odd number were to break the ties if needed.



Drew's arm traced across the pad when she pulled him up, but he didn't have time to correct the error right away. He pursed his lips and made his way inside reluctantly. He wasn't sure exactly how this was supposed to work, sort of being in the outer level of the Circuit, not at all interested in the politics. Somehow, he'd managed to get roped into this when he should be up above working on the train!

"You may take your places," an elder, genial looking man called out from the center of the long bar facing the table and behind it, the gallery which had nothing more than a reporter and an elderly couple who somehow still felt a sense of civic duty to attend council meetings. Everyone else was about their daily labors and amusements, such as they were, out in the undercity.

Drew looked at the table and sat down at one end, setting his pad down in front of him and slouching a little in the chair. Once the witnesses were seated, Mayor Hiller banged the gavel to bring the council to order. "The next item of business is the Circut Defense Network Weekly Report and Apprasial," he summoned, looking down his nose towards the table. "I trust you three speak for the Circuit, and that Commander Mackerbee has good reason to miss this engagement?"




"You bet your sorry as~ He really wanted her to attend this?" Viktor interrupted as he puled on the females arm. The vampire was able to sit her down before taking the stand from his own position; he was used to orderly government and practices. The home he was in had a similar structure, if you disrespected your king you would be dishonored. The same structure was desired for in human society, luckily Viktor knew that. " My name is Viktor Cursor, my title is no importance to your kind though my experiences and point of views may be vital to your knowledge."

Drew felt himself heat up at the mockery he sensed in the man's tone about his brother, but Viktor took the stand fast enough that it was probably hardly noticed. He remained in his seat, his fingers now mindlessly moving across the face of his tab, already feeling somewhat bored of the meeting.

"Whats thissss?" The man hissed from behind the tables of the elected deligates. " And outsider? Have I not heard that we are now infected within our own city? Everything was fine until you came." Herman gave the group a dark ominious glare, more towards the outsider than the other two.

"...To our kind? What, pray, do you mean by that, boy?" the mayor asked, holding a surprising amount of decorum for a place like the undercity, which probably explained why he had been re-elected mayor so often. He presented the face of good, sound, familiar government. He waved a hand towards the other council members, his brow furrowed towards the outsider, but his eyes indicating that he should take this oppertunity to explain himself and how he came to stand for the Circuit.

"Your kind is in the brink of extinction. Why else would you be hiding under ground. Forced to leave a home that is rightfully yours?" The young man asked, starting the debate with somewhat of a vampiric charm. " It wasnt half a century ago that superiors were surpressed.. as time continued, they were known and even in some circumstances tolerated...and then 'they' came." His eyes shifted crimson red and the room around them began to fade out into the blackness, images of the cities being burned and attacked by swarms of insects flashed. " ...and here you are today." Viktor muttered out and allowed the illusion to fade back to reality. " My clan offers our protection, because if you are to die out.. then we are to die out also."

Aria watched as the illusion around her shifted about, her brows furrowed deeply from the images and once it was done she quickly darted a glare towards Drew. Who the hell was this guy?



Mayor Hiller looked decidedly concerned in his seat from the images the outsider was displaying. He shifted somewhat and looked around at his collegues before clearing his throat in an attempt to regain composure.

Drew was barely paying attention and hardly raised a brow at the images of the Scourge. It was a particularly painful memory he had no intention on reliving, so he just... avoided it in the drawing he was creating on the tablet.

"Hem. Hem," came a soft, unnaturally high pitched sound from one end of the long council bar, belonging to a woman who was short and dumpy. "Excuse my interuption, Mayor, but I have a question for the young outsider." She turned her gaze and smile upon the vampire, sizing him up. "And you are here today, as I understand it, because a fool and member of the Circuit organization ventured up to the surface in search of... what was it?" she looked down as if at her notes, "Oh, yes. Alcohol. And they could not defend themselves. And, as my esteemed collegue has already mentioned, things began to rapidly deteriorate from there..." she tilted her head at the people from the Circuit before her. "...And, I believe, one of the people who was in need of this young... man's assistance..." she turned her gaze to Aria, rasing an eyebrow. "...was your brother, wasn't it, Miss Kiser... So... tell me... why is it that the Circuit even exists at all? Are they our defenders? Or do they bring with them the blight this young... creature so politely reminded us could destroy us all?"

That voice was like the grating of fingernails on a chalkboard. Drew actually flinched from the woman, having no idea what her actual name was, but feeling like Umbridge was the appropriate title that should be placed in front of her.

"We're here cause we're to protect the people from a full scale invasion!" Aria slammed a fist on the table, her eyes glaring at the stumpy woman. " If you want your head cut off and your body filled with parasitic insect then be my guest!"

"...Excuse me, young lady. Did you just threaten a council member?!?" The mayor asked.

Viktor looked over to the group and sighed. Was this part of the plan?

A wicked smile crossed the old woman's face as she sat back, satisfied with clearly getting under the woman's skin. "It's as we have been saying all along, Mayor. They think of themselves as our betters. We are to live under their rules and their laws, which have them at the top and the rest of us eating out of their, I'm sure must be generous, palms while they gallivant into the open and bring with them plague." Her smile continued to curve up the sides of her mouth. "I move that we disband the circuit, remove their mandate, and hire a security force which is more... apt to listen and obey Council edicts."

" Heres the deal" She got up from her seat and made her way towards the middle of the council, once she was there she stomped her feet to make pillar of earth raise so she had some kind of a podium, the girl didnt give a damn that she vandalized the 'government' grounds. " This a city.. NOT a fortress. We've been busting our ass getting supplies for all of you just so you can live day by day like nothing happened. Have you ever been to ground 0 after the migration?!" Her eyes panned over to the people glaring her down. " The fact is, we're out of supplies. Were out of food, were out of ammunition and to top the sundae off with a cherry, our city is now infected. " Her eyes shot over to the stumpy woman and pointed to her directly just for the sake of pointing, (it was rude) " Security force? WHAT security force? We ARE the security force, get off your high horse cause by a couple of days? Everyone WILL be dead. The zergs know where we are and we cant stop them. Now its either you wise up and get ready to depart when our commander gets back, or you DIE. Simple as that."

"And just where is the commander?" she asked raising a light eyebrow at the group. "You say we are to listen to him, but he is not here, nor, I see, are the ones responsible for all this. All that is before us is an outsider, a hotheaded medic who had best watch her manners lest she find herself in very big trouble, and a daydreamer. Hardly an impressive group to plead your case. So, I ask again, where... is.... the commander?" she asked, pausing after each word to lean forward and add emphasis as she bored into Aria with her dark green eyes.

"He's not here," Drew finally said, setting down his pad, that he was staring at through gritted teeth. "He's getting a ride so that we can take the entire colony with us when we move."

She sat back, looking at the daydreamer her smile only growing. "So, he defies the council and continues dangerous missions wasting lives and resources we can scarcely part with without our authorization?"

Drew stood up and glared at the woman in disgust. "First you say my brother does nothing for you, then you accuse him of treason or something when he takes an initiative? If he was gonna wait for your authorization, we'd be here for 2 damn years! You sit here and talk and complain about the most unimportant thing. Where were you, though, when the Mitchells wanted to try to plant a subterranean garden? Or when Robert Novaro wanted to train everyone in the city in basic self defense? Where were you guys when Erick was sick and dying, but afraid to tell anyone because the only solution anyone in this city has ever come up with for the infected is to kill them! You sit up here like your the people's representatives or something, but you all live at the top of this tower, furthest away from what the people YOU claim to serve have to live through every day. Are we perfect?" he asked, his dark eyes now moving among each of the council members, "Hell no! But my brother is trying his best, and you should listen to him, because no one else in this city has any fuckin' idea what's actually waiting out there, ready to destroy us!" He stopped looking back at the woman again intently. He swallowed, realizing how he had changed his tune from yesterday. But if the alternatives were Mateo's plan, or these fool's, he'd take his brother's any day!

"The choice is yours council.." Aria added a few seconds after Drews speech, it was silent so the girl took the liberty of breaking it. " We are leaving when our commander returns.. will you allow this and allow us to gain favor from the public.. or will you outcast us, in which case.. i dont give a flying fuck because this city? Will no longer be here when we leave."

The mayor looked back and forth between the members of the council, unnerved by the way the session had gone, both from the children before him, and from the squibles of the council itself. Either course of events presented great danger, though his history of cordial, if not always agreeable, relationships with Mateo led the mayor to trust his judgement for the most part, this was a leap of faith, and deep down, the councilman knew that if they were not united in this decision that panic would ensue. "Very well. I will place it to a vote. Do you the council of the Undercity, Las Vegas, acting in the best interests of the city and those who call her home, support the granting of emergency powers to Mateo Mackerbee to lead those who will from this place in search of new settlement? All those in favor, signify by saying 'aye'..."

------------ DIMENSION A

"Alright, coordinates have been set like the last time. The portals going to open up to whatever dimension you were in last time." Wrench called out to Dev as she read the schematics on the machine that the circuit made. " Dozer, get ready to flip the switch when the droids come with the supplies."


Nate was in the workshop also and was leaning against an empty counter, he allowed his green eyes to watch the droids pushing a cargo of supplies to the teleporter. " Got the neccessities I see." The firefighter nodded and pushed off the counter to see the supplies neatly placed in the box unit.

"Certain arsenals, even upgraded components from our own inventory." The female added and pointed to a stack of boxes titled 'shatter bullets'  " Milos favorite." Wrench mentioned and made her way over the screen that Dozer had up.

Dev pursed his lips as he looked at the pallets.  Most of the supplies were weapons and ammunition, though there was also a box of Bud Light for Robin, and a blanket hidden in the middle of the pallet.  It was an exact copy of the first blanket that he and Nate had bought once Silvia told them that the proceedure worked and that young Treyton had begun to grow.  It was something for his son to remember his fathers and how much he already meant to them.  "I just hope it'll be enough to last them a few months," he said quietly and looked back at Dozer, smiling a little at the extra kick Wrench had been able to give the arsenal.  "Whenever your ready," he said quietly, focused on the task at hand, sliding an arm around his husband's waist to watch the techs work; not wanting to get in their way again.

"The explosives should be good too.  They're top of the line Cyrax," Tori nodded, chuckling a little at the box.  "Whoever your friends are, they're gonna be able to put up one hell of a fight..."

" Got a couple of goodies for them too.. well anyways, You heard the man Dozer. Flip the switch." The girl reached for her goggles and slid it over her eyes before moving to stand to a safe spot from the portal. " Clear"

Tori stood back.  "Clear!" he repeated, holding his hand up in a fist to show the portal was going active.  "Alright guys..." he called out to the droids who were holding the boxes.  "Just get in there, set 'em down, then you're out.  10 seconds, most, as long as you keep those braceletts on."  He looked up at Dev and cleared his throat, remembering how they'd said that to the mimic once.  "Here we go, in 3...2...1...." he pressed the button and the droids and cargo started to vanish, moving through time and space to the other dimension, emerging right in front of a battle!



--------- Back in Dimension B --------------

"I think we got em all....." Mateo breathed out and finally slid his shotgun back to his holster behind him. Around him were the skeletal bodies of the insects, all of which splattered and diced in every direction. The team had to have taken out at least 20. From afar he could see the front of the parked steamed engine and instantly his eyes grew from finding the new transport. " There it is guys.."



Treyton slid both his hook swords into their sheaths before following Mateo with a determined expression. The sight of the train made him smile lightly at the thought of leaving, it was about time they left. The assassin knew, that even with his training, he wouldnt be able to fight off the whole army of zergs. The only way of winning this, was to outsmart them.



Frank gritted his teeth and threw his gun over his shoulder casually.  "Whoa, baby," he exclaimed with a laugh as he looked at the train ahead of them, actually smirking somewhat as he approached it and slid his hand over the outer part of the old locomotive.  "And we're sure this puppy actually works, right? Cuz... I'd hate to come all this way for nothin', you know?"



"With enough power... itll work." Mateo reassured and started to walk towards the train. As the heroes grew closer, the floor under them began to shake violently. Soon, the left over concrete that werent damaged from the zergs began to crack and soon the ground raised, making the dirt and rocks fall from the rising level. A figure began to emerge from the ground and once the 30ft titan ultralisk unraveld its giant scythe outward.

"....Sweet mother of fuckin' god," Frank called out, his eyes going wide as the ultralisk burrowed up and THROUGH the house above them.  About the only thing they had going for them was that the bug was larger than the room they were in, but with the way the rubble was coming down, that wasn't going to last long.  "That is one big fuckin' bug," he muttered, pulling his rocket launcher off his back and taking quick aim before firing!

"........." Mateo came to a halt and watched as the zerg in front of them revealed itself. His team never took out an ultralisk, even when all of them were together they would simply retreat. This time however, they were trapped within the confines of the workshop. They needed the 1NT3RN 3XPR355, if they didnt get it then the people in the city will die. " ...Defend yourself!" Mateo yelled and reached for a metal rod on his tool belt. With a quick flick the wrist it fanned out to a metal platform and the circuit leader hopped on to quickly levitate out of the way!

Treyton stood there with the same serious look as before, When the giant scythe flew towards him he simply stood there and waited. When it was the right time, his body vanished as he lept up into the air and landed on the flat portion of the scythe. In a quick second he lept up onto its armored arm and unsheated both his hook swords, the tip of them scraping against the plates created sparks as he continued to travel up the giant bug.

Mateo flew around the giant bugs body while at the same time controlled the static from his feet to his board. The leader kept a low crouch as he zoomed through the air and barrel rolled out of the when the scythe was flying towards his direction. Once he found an open shot, he reached for his shot gun and shot it under the neck, the hard armor was punctured but it wasnt enough to stop the giant monster from flailing!


"SHIT!" Frank yelled out when Treyton jumped up onto the hulking bug.  "I'm shootin' high incinderies here!!!" he screamed, dropping the rocket launcher so that he wouldn't hit the assassin and instead, pulling out a quick shot rifle, aiming for the weak spots that Treyton was opening up for him, but it would never be enough; not with something that big!

Treyton kept his focus foreward, the sound of gun shots could be heard from behind him as he knew Frank was trying to shoot the trail he was leaving behind. When he was coming to the end of the arm, he lept off to a backflip and threw both his hook swords in seperate directions. As he did so, his iris rotated to catch Mateos ability and instantly his finger tips generated static to control the spin of the swords. They each spun around the ultralisks neck before flying back to Treyton who now landed in a control crouch.

From the opposite direction, back up the tunnel they'd come, an enormous slab of concrete smashed through the walls and cruched into the bug's exoskelleton.  A moment later, a fog of deathly smoke shot into the room, moving like a bluring comet, aimed for the legs of the hulking mass, slashing through it to bring it down.  On the ground, the young man crouched, hands spread out wide with a glimmering scythe in his hand, dripping with the black blood of the ultralisk!

Mateo zoomed passed the ultralisks back and watched as a black smoke entered the battlefield to aid them. When he saw who it belonged to he quickly flew towards him while shooting bolts of electricity at the giant bugs body. " Thanks for the help!" Mateo yelled as he quickly glided passed Virgil.

Treyton continued to stay in his crouch, under him his feet were charging with electricity as the area around him began to discharge with static. Small pebbles began to float from the energy in the air and with a quick jolt, Treyton launched himself high and onto the forehead of the ultralisk. As he landed on the hardshell, he reached for a single hook sword and jabbed it through. With that he quickly lept off and rolled onto the floor to tackle Frank out of the way from a swiping Scythe! '' Argh..." Treyton groaned and saw himself ontop of the human. " ..sorry" He muttered out and quickly got off.

Frank barely had time to move his gun out of Treyton's face, firing it up into the air, accidentally shooting into the Ultralisk's mouth.  He groaned and coughed when Treyton knocked him over.  "Sure.. no problem..." he groaned sarcastically, shoving the assassin off of him and to move that knee away from his crotch.  He looked up just in time to see the scythe limb coming closer once again.  "FUCK!" he shouted out and quickly shot towards the joint, the best weak spot that he could quickly see on the arm!

"You may thank me later," Virgil replied back, his eyes icy blue.  He lept up into the air using nothing but pure strength.  He moved so fast he was starting to trail smoke behind him, but was not yet turning to a full vapor form.  About 10 feet up the bug's belly, he slashed his scyth deep into the flesh and digging in, using the force of the weapon inside the bug to not only slash the bug from the inside, but also to swing himself higher, making his way another 10 feet up and repeating the process.  When he arrived at the top, he thrust the scythe into the bug's neck, right underneath his left tusk and held  as the bug thrashed against being torn up this way!

When Treyton planted the hook sword into the bugs forehead he landed from a safe distance and hopped off his board. He furrowed his brows as he lowered his stance and began to slowly move his arms in a slow motion. His finger tips began to spark from the concentrated flow and quickly, the sparks began to charge up his arm, neck and then eyes.

As Mateo coninued to charge, his eyes began to glow even brighter. Screeches could be heard from the compressed power and when the bug turned to look at him he threw both his hands out to shoot giant bolt of lightning into his forehead! CRASH~ Thunder echoed within the area; though it was powerful Mateo knew it would only be a matter of time before more Zergs heard the noise!

The ultralisk let out a mighty roar from the barrage of attacks, when the lightning bolt hit him its giant body fell onto the ground and shook up the area around them. The ultralisk was fried from the inside while its body was severely injured from the outer attacks.

Treyton watched as the giant bug fell. He stood where he was, calm and collected as the sound of a projectile was flying towards him. THUD! The hook sword spun and landed into the ground only a couple of feet in front of Treyton. The assassin took a simple step foreward, pulled his hook sword out and sheathed it before making his way towards the train.

When the surge of electricity flashed past him, Virgil vanished in a cloud of smoke, flowing down rapidly to reemerge in the mist of the team.  "....We will need to move fast.  The others will have heard that," the survivor muttered, seeing that this team was well trained, yes, but how experienced... he had no idea.  All he knew was there was no one that he trusted with his own safety, even if that meant stating the obvious.  "...Yeah

"Hellen fuckin' Keller heard that," Frank muttered, cocking the gun and reloading it.  "You gonna power this motherfucker up, Mateo, or you gonna let mommalisk come after us too?"

"I didnt have a choice, we never took one of these down before." He defended and reached for his board, he forced it to fly back to his hand as he quickly folded it and slid it back onto his holster. Afterwards, he started to make his way towards the train. A portal opened in the middle of the battlefield and with a bright flash of light a cargo box appeared along with 2 droids that look lost!

The two pit droids ran around in a circle, wondering where they are! The coordinates are the same but it was nothing like it remembered a few seconds ago! The two then looked at each other and began to argue, its beeps going on as they both shaked a fist at each other.

"....The fuck is this shit?!?" Frank asked, not really looking at the boxes at the moment.  "We gotta deal with fuckin' robots now?"

When Treyton saw the supplies appear, his brows furrowed slightly from the thought of who it came from. He turned from his path and quickly jogged over to inspect it. "..its from my dad."

" Pit droids" Mateo snorted and nodded at the robots. " My uncles friend made them, they were actually really useful." The leader added and peaked at the two arguing. " ....Pit Droids," He called to them, when their names were called they both stood at attention. " Bring the cargo into the train." With that, they saluted and quickly picked it up from the bottom and began to slowly carry it over.

Virgil watched from the side patiently as the team had the box brought over to the train.  Frank made his way over to look as some of the stuff.  "..Holy fuckin' shit..." he muttered, going though the weapons and looking back at Treyton.  "The hell'd your dad get all this?"

" My dad was an operative for cyrax. He always had his ways " Treyton watched as the robots carried the cargo over, he would have to rummage through them later to see if his dad left anything for him especially. Knowing them, there had to be something... or at least he hoped. When they got into the wheel house Treyton observed the dusty command center.

Mateo made his way towards the command center and with a simple wave of the hand, the static in his palm was shooting dust away.  " Pit Droids, secure the cargo and shut the hatches." Mateo ordered before moving to place his hand over a reader, this is where they would set the coordinates for the tracks. " power source..." Mateo muttered to himself and found the small hatch of wires, he reached in and held onto it tightly as electricity shot into the train!

Frank hopped up into the train, pulling out the ammunition that Wrench had sent them, examining it with a smirk on his face.  "You know, Robin'd probably like this shit... if we gave it to him..." he teased with a light laugh.

Treyton made his way to the back of the wheel house and saw that this was a single car. " We're going to need more freight cars.."

" The train was designed to go without tracks. If we get to a train yard and hook it up with the our wires, theyll respond to my uncles technology." The latino continued to charge the wires and within a few minutes the lights above them began to flicker on.

The weapons master got up on top of the cab after the train started to come to lifeand mounted his weapon to prepare for any attack.  "Ready when you are, Mateo!" he called out.

 Virgil waited patiently off to the side.  "What happens when the train passes?  Does it leave an easy trail for the creatures to follow?" he asked simply with deeply furrowed brows, looking at the faded tracks in front of the train.

" If we are on soft terrain like sand it will, but we're able to connect with train lines through out the country too." After another minute the screen above them switched on along with a map of train tracks across the united states. " Alright guys.. all aboard!"

"Perimeters are secure..and trust me, the guards positioned there are DEFENETLY on our side." Robin reported to his best friend and saluted him playfully as his friend walked by, the two were within the declared zone that Mateo wanted the transported to go. " We got faith and the nurses checking people out before they could even get in, so far so good." He gave Ari a thumbs up and peaked over towards the gates fence which had clones of himself marching back and forth with a rifle over his shoulder.

Ari's expression was a deep pout. "What about the moats?" he asked through gritted teeth. Within 5 feet of all fence lines was a trench that Ari had dug down, 20 feet deep, followed by another 20 feet of highly compacted earth (he had dug the tunnels by forcing the earth DOWN and not up) and filled with water. If a bug tried to burrow into the quarantine zone, they would come up in the water, and no bug Ari had ever met could swim. "I need those checked every 5 minutes. If anyone sees a bug in there, we got serious problems." He didn't like this operation. There was too much that could go wrong and the quarantine was too hastily set up. Even at 20 feet deep, the moats were not perfect. If something got in underneath, they were fucked. Not to mention, there was still the little issue of actually getting everyone into the zone. People were scared enough as it was without having to leave their homes and what lives they had for this. He looked out towards the guards Robin had placed and pursed his lips. Not enough... the former soldier thought to himself. Not enough by a ton.

"Sir yes sir!" Robin saluted again and turned to make his way towards his clones. " You heard the man, check those ditches, bitches!" Near Ari and Robin was a station for people to be checked up on, there were already a count of more than 170 people within the quarantined camp while a line of people were waiting to see if they were qualified. Others however, were standing outside from the chained fence wishing to be within it but was obviously denied.

" Your free to go.." One of the medics called out to a middle age female. " Its okay, Sarah.. just let them see you and I'll meet you on the other side." The female called out to her 7 year old daughter who was deathly afraid of the people looking at her.

"its not going to hurt much.. is it?" The small girl asked, she was obviously scared but was trying to be strong for her mother. " Ive seen you out there...helping people.. thank you" Sarah added as she gave Faith a very small smile.

Faith gave the girl a small smile, sensing the fear in the young girl. "No, it's not going to hurt. Just a little prick to make sure you're okay," she said, trying to reassure her. This had to be the toughest job she had ever done. Already, she'd had to tell an elderly gentleman that he couldn't go on because his test came back positive. It'd been all she could do to not cry when the man's wife, who was cleared to go, decided to stay with him instead, despite knowing what it meant.

She'd begun the day by steeling her heart because she had to, but it was the most difficult thing for her to do. When that couple had made their decision to stay behind, she wondered what their names were. Drew would always make it a point to find out, but Faith never had the time. Maybe Drew would be back soon and could help make things a little easier for the ones who were positive. He always had a way with them, helping them to see the world one more time before.... She closed her eyes to bring her attention back to the young girl in front of her now. "You're welcome," she replied in a soft voice a few moments before she injected the needle into the girl's arm to get the reading. It was a fast readout, less than a minute per person. But within seconds, she could already see the numbers on her meter we well above normal. There was no doubt about it, this girl was positive. She swallowed and blinked, trying to keep up a brave face, but it was damn near impossible for her. Slowly, she pulled the needle out, trying to keep the girl from fearing; something that wouldn't last for long. She looked at the chart in front of her with the girl's ID. "Listen, Sarah... Your numbers are really high," She said as apologetically as she could, once again having to force the tears back. "You're going to need to go this way," she pointed to where the others who were rejected were sent, some frantic, some terrified, and then there was the old couple, sitting together on the ground, leaned up against the fence, almost like they were at peace with themselves. "Someone will be by in a little bit to do some more tests, alright? You see that couple there? The ones sitting down? I want you to go to them. Keep them company, alright?" she asked, wishing there was something, anything that could be done for these people, but there wasn't enough time! They would never last through a proceedure! At least, no one had yet...

Sarahs eyes were on the virge of tears from what she heard, nonetheless she tried to stay strong. From afar, she could see her mother covering her mouth knowing that she wouldnt be able to sneak in. "..okay...." Sarah nodded and lowered her eyes, he heart racing in her chest from the thought of being left behind..alone, her mother was the only person she had left. "NO! Please no!" The mother yelled from the cleared side, she ran passed the guards since she was able to leave if she wanted and ran over towards her daughter to hug her tight. " im not going to leave you behind baby.."

"You have to momma, its the only way."

" I cant believe your making us do this!" She yelled at Faith with her brows furrowed. " You were sworn to protect us, so why wont you protect us?!"

Faith lowered her eyes, her heart shattering. "I am protecting you," she said in a dry, saddened voice.

"So this is what its come down to." She said in a harsh tone as she made her way passed the medic with her daughter within her embrace. " ...go, leave us. we are nothing to you anymore." The woman added with anger

. "...somethings moving from afar." A robin clone reported from the west side of the gate. " ..Zerglings!" He yelled, the people outside of the crowd began to scream and panic. Sounds of rifles could be heard going off as the clones began to shoot the zergs that were weaving in and out of the alley ways!

" Ari!" Mouse quickly hobbled his way over, there was a hoody over his head to conceal his face. " I was able to sneak in and about certain houses, besides the parasite that grows inside you.. some are actually infected with the zerglings. Theyre starting to multiply around the city!"

Ari's face fell and he looked back at the fence. "It's not going to be enough... and we won't have enough time to get everyone in here," the half-mystic muttered, swearing as he shook his head. He turned towards the small table that was set up as the 'command base' for the camp and handed Robin and Mouse each a radio. "Robin, I need to know exactly which parts of the fence are being attacked. We need all forces to those spots. Mouse, get me as much intel as you can, where they're coming from, where they're headed and how fast. Go!" he ordered, feeling his heart racing. "Dear gods, we stayed too long," he muttered to himself after they had left. His eyes darted back and forth in the direction of commotion, but it was getting rapidly more muddy as people started to scream from different angles as they discovered what was going on! He then looked up into the heights of the undercity, looking for a specific mark he had placed on the ceiling years ago. When he found it, he cupped his mouth on one side and let out a narrow, focused scream. The point on the ceiling was a small hole which widened out his call and sent it echoing to all corners of the undercity. The loud wail had never been used before; but it was now, echoing louder and more desperately than any fire alarm ever could and it was designed to send a single message: Bugs in the City!

The mayor looked back and forth between the members of the council, unnerved by the way the session had gone, both from the children before him, and from the squibles of the council itself.  Either course of events presented great danger, though his history of cordial, if not always agreeable, relationships with Mateo led the mayor to trust his judgement for the most part, this was a leap of faith, and deep down, the councilman knew that if they were not united in this decision that panic would ensue.  "Very well.  I will place it to a vote.  Do you the council of the Undercity, Las Vegas, acting in the best interests of the city and those who call her home, support the granting of emergency powers to Mateo Mackerbee to lead those who will from this place in search of new settlement?  All those in favor, signify by saying 'aye'..." At that precice moment, a loud screaching echoed throughout the chambers, something entirely unfamiliar, yet known to all for what it meant; bugs in the city!

"Do you deign think us fools?" the woman asked with a wide wicked smile.

It didn't matter what the woman said or did.  Drew had already grabbed up his pad and was rushing towards the door, his palm outstreached and filled with static.

"Where do you think you're going young man?  This session is not dismissed!" she screamed, her hair going all over the place as she stood up, hardly improving upon her height!  

"...I'm going to help the city... whoever wants to help can come along," he answered back dryly as he kicked the cheeply made door down off it's hinges.  He spread the electricity out underneath him as he opened up his anthology on his tablet, surfing through the air on his door-board towards the site of the camp!

"What is that alarm?" Viktor asked with his brows furrowed, he looked out towards the door they came from and watched as Drew quickly made his way out. He took the hint and followed, unintimidated by the council in front of them.

 " The cities under attack." Aria gasped and answered the vampire, when Drew left she quickly turned to jog after the others. When the woman  yelled at them, she glared back and threw a kick as a gust of wind forced her back into her chair. " Either follow us or stay behind, the choice is yours." Aria stated and left the council room. When they were outside, people could be seen running in every direction. "..Zerglings!" the girl yelled and saw one leap from an alley way to kill a man.

Viktors eyes shifted into an icey blue, without hestiation his body blurred passed the road and backhanded a zerg off the human. He allowed his fangs to grow as he hissed at another bug glaring him down. When it swiped at him he rolled out of the way  near a wall, lept up to jump off of it so he could fly over the bugs head; snap it and land in crouching position.

Drew was only half watching where he was going, flying on instinct as he came upon a passage on his pad.  "Wait Prince Phillip.  The road to love may be barred by still many more dangers, which you alone will have to face.  So arm yourself with this enchanted Shield of Virtue, and this might Sword of Truth, for these weapons of righteousness will triumph over evil.  Now come, we must hurry!" he read and, as he spoke, the shield and sword from the story shimmered and appeared out of thin air.  He charged his pad and stuck it to his back as he he faced the bugs that were coming at them, his heart racing the whole time, directing the door downward and crouched low, aiming several swipes of the sword at the bugs he was barring down at!

Earth shards flew in different directions, all of which landing into the skulls of these bugs. Aria stood there in a hard position, her eyes glaring to the zerglings surrounding her. " HRGH!  ARGH! HYAH! " Her strikes were fierced and percise as earth chunks flew outward and broke through the shells of the insects. The girl lept up to a flip in the air as she bent the element to allow her to jump higher than usual. She landed in the streets and swiped her hand, making a wheeless car flip over to its side. A gust of air flew by and forced it to smash a bug into the wall, while another earth pillar shot up from the ground and stabbed another in the neck.

"Arghh!" Viktor whacked another bug across the street and into a building. He watched as one lept up from behind him but he was able to grab it by the neck before smashing it in the ground! He pinned the bug there and blurred up the street, scraping its body before throwing its dead carcass at another zergling!

The sound of a gun exploded in Aria's ear as just behind her another zurgling exploded from a gun shot.  On the opposite side of her, the Mayor stood with an old single shot rifle.  "Lead on, child," he murmered and nodded to her.  Behind him, two other council members were there, armed and ready.  The rest, it appeared, could not be bothered with the defense of the city.

"right." Aria smiled to see the mayor and eyed the street above them. " Clear the way! All those who want protection follow us!" The girl yelled to the people who were being saved from the zergs. She clapped her hands together as the road in front of him parted to make the two zerglings sink into the earth, afterwards she squished it back together before dashing foreward with full speed! " Go go go! We need to get to the camp site!"

Viktor watched as the crowds of people ran behind the girl, he looked up at one building and noticed a zerg perched for an attack. He eyed a giant chunk of broken debris next to him and quickly threw it over to break through the wall where the bug was resting! Afterwards he ran with the crowd in normal speed so he could protect any zergs that came from the side!

Drew spun his weight on the board, feeling the pincers trying to grasp at his legs and pull him down.  He leaned down and smashed the bug in the head with his shield.  He kicked another bug off the other side, smashing down on his head with the pommel of his sword until the creature let go.  "How'd they all get in here?" he shouted, feeling frustrated as he turned a corner to find a family with a small daughter pinned against the end of an alley by 3 bugs.  He hopped down off his door and ran to a stop behind the bugs.  "Hey!  YEAH YOU!" he called out, raising his sword up in the air nervously as he tried to get their attention.  "Hey bug heads!!!" he reached down to throw a rock at one of the bugs to get them to chase him, which, after a second, they all did.  "Oh.... shit...." he muttered under his breath as his eyes went wide and he started to run....

The mayor and the council nodded and started to follow.  There was fear in their eyes, much like the people they were helping to get away from the menace that threatened their way of life.  But there was also determination; a determination to fight back and to live.  Something that hadn't been in his eyes when he had been leading the council in the chambers.  He reloaded the rifle, his fingers somewhat shaky, but he was going to be damned if he led the people who trusted him as their leader see him as a coward!

Aria continued to lead the people down the street, as she turned the corner she could see a horde of Zerglings rushing towards their direction. " Shit.." The girl whispered and furrowed her brows, all of them were at least on the road for a clear hit. Still, she needed to get all these people to the camp where all her friends were. With a deep breath she closed her eyes and allowed her body to relax, with 2 sharp punches she cracked 2 areas on the road and within seconds water burst out from both ends. With a flowly motion, the water began to spread out even faster and when the bugs all ran over it all of their feet froze into the now iced road. Sounds of gunshots could be heard from behind her as the people shot them all down like sitting ducks. " Nice job" The girl said giving the mayor a thumbs up, afterwards she cleared the ice and continued to run foreward.

Drew was running awkwardly, stumbling through the dirt of the undercity.  "Shit..." he muttered again, taking his sword in his shield arm, and running against the sides of the buildings, while he reached down to try to pull his shoe off.  He finally got it on the third try, kicking it way out in front of him before removing the other one; rubber stifles electricity.  Once he had both shoes off, he energized his feet, both of them glowing a light blue from the static (that his socks actually helped with) and, with a grin, he turned sharply towards the nearest building, running up it and out of the zurgling's reach!

-------------- Towards the camp ---------------

" People who cant fight get in the barracks! HEY YOU! YEAH YOU pick up a gun and shoot at those things!" Robin ordered as he pulled out his pistols and started to run towards the gate, his other clones with rifles continued to stay where they were and began to shoot at the Zergs that were poking in from the alley ways. The real robin shoved passed the crowd of people, some of which were trying to force their ways in the camp but now he couldnt really tell them to not to. " Let me through!" Robin yelled and shoved his way out of the camp where most people were crowded, he could see the zergs starting to cave their way in!

After Ari had sounded the alarm, he let out a long sigh.  He looked down at the table and saw the pistol that was sitting there.  He hadn't worn a weapon since he had left the army.  On the one hand, he didn't need it, but on the other, it was also a symbol of leadership.  He didn't have time to think or argue with himself about it.  He grabbed the pistol and wrapped the holster around his waist and headed out of the command tent.  He hoped that Mateo wouldn't be long.  If there were bugs in the city, they were in very VERY serious trouble.  "Robin, Mouse, I need those reports," he said clearly into the radio as he moved to the center of the camp.  Wherever there were weak spots in the fencing, he needed to shore those spots up, and he needed to do it quickly!  When he got to the center, he stomped down on the ground and elevated a hill for himself to stand on, giving him the best possible view of the battlefield.  "Don't go too far, you two.  We need to defend the camp..."

"South side of the camp." Mouse breathed out from his radio and stumbled about, he tripped on his feet but quickly got back up before running down the fence way. " Theyre eating the fence away over here." He reached for the gun he had, his heart racing as he pointed to the bug and pulled the trigger. BANG BANG BANG. Blood splattered from the hit and Mouse quickly ran away from it and threw up from the sight, this was too much!

Faith jumped up from her station when the alarm sounded, her heart racing.  She shoved aside her table to reveal the weapon crate underneath which she brought out to show to everyone around.  "Anyone who can fight, grab a weapon!" she called out loudly, taking the machine gun for herself.  She never asked about it, but according to her brother, it had once belonged to one of Geno's... friends.  "Ari!  Are we closing the gates, or we still letting people in?" she asked into her own radio to the half mystic as she started to blast away a few approching bugs!

"Uhh..MUCHO problem over here buddy" Robin reported on the radio, he was in the middle of the crowd but from there he could see a line of zergings and hyralisks. "...acid spitters!" He yelled out, knowing the snake like creatures are even more deadly from range! " Ari, my clones are in position. If we close the gates all the people who are infected will be slaughtered. IF we keep it open, theyre going to leak in!"

"South side," Ari's voice repeated as he faced that direction.  He stomped down and a wall of earth shot into the air 20 feet high.  It wouldn't hold, not for long.  Hopefully, it would be just long enough for help to arrive.  "Yes, for gods sake, let them in.  For all we know, the goddamn quarantine's already compromised!" he snarled, listening to Robin's report.  There wasn't any time to second guess anymore and he wasn't about to approve a wholesale slaughter on his watch!

"Theres more coming in from the south! I need help!" Mouse yelled out frantically and saw a zergling breaking into the chained fence! " ahhh!!" He then pointed his gun and shot it in the head, its body flopped foreward to block the hole in the fence.

"Let them in!" Robin yelled out to his clones and the people who were standing guard, once the order was out the crowd of people slowly began to enter the camp grounds. " ..alright, you wanna tango." He cocked both his pistols and aimed it foreward. " lets dance." With that being said, 10 clones appeared next to him; all of which lined up in a line as they all began to fire in different times! BANG BANG BANG BANG. The lines of ammo all shot foreward, shooting the first wave of zergs down!

"Draw them to the main gate, goddamnit!" Ari screamed at Mouse.  "The clones can handle them.  Robin, I'm on my way."  He jumped down off the mound after taking one last glance and started to walk with purpose towards the main gate, trying to avoid running that would start a panic among the already frightened people in the camp.  All the while, his mind was racing and he was gritting his teeth.  Too few.  They had WAY too few people to handle this!  Where were the others?!?

Faith stood aside and nodded towards the side pen.  "Defend yourselves!" she called out to those who had been denied entry into the camp as she rushed forward, taking aim and blasting away several lines of zurglinging in just the first few seconds, her eyes filled with a grim determination fighting for their lives!

The superior shifted into a mouse and quickly dashed across the camp grounds, when he got to the east side his body shifted back to normal and saw that there were a couple burrowing from the side.  "Ari! Theyre digging from the east side!"

"Ari cant be in two places at the same time! Who do you think he is? Me!?" Robin yelled out in the radio and allowed his clones to charge into the line of zergs. He watched as they all puffed away from the strikes while at the same time the real one was making sure everyone was being pushed into the gates of the camp.

Drew was freerunning across the city, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in his static feet, gripping the surfaces with unusual strength.  As he approached the camp, his eyes went wide as he spotted one of the acid spitters.  Continuing his run, he pulled off his tab to read the next line from his book.  "Thou sword of truth fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure!"  He threw the sword with all his might at bug.  The sword spun through the air before striking true, digging into the bug's flesh and dropping it down onto the ground, revealing the warrior just on the opposite side... Faith.

"he told me to report, im reporting!" Mouse defended with his hear racing, he shot another zerging from his side of the fence before running away from the east side and towards the north where Faith and her line of militia was.

"HOW MANY are digging in from the east side?" Ari nearly spat into the radio, wondering if it was such a good idea to be having Mouse report EVERY detail over the radio!

A giant earth fist was thrown down the road and bashed a horde of zerglings into a near by building. From afar, a females body could be seen running down along with a group of people following her! " Ari!" The girl yelled, yelling for her twin instantly. Their bending is stronger when theyre within range of each other.

Viktor blurred from one zerg to the other, every time he grabbed them by the neck and would slam them to either the wall or the ground. Once he was close the to camp site, lept high up into the air and landed within the confines of the defended base. His eyes looked around, getting the sense of the urgency before blurring to the main gate and helping Robin defend the waves.

Faith had just turned to face the acid spitter, raising her gun up to it when the creature seemed to be struck from behind.  She lowered the gun slightly and held her ground as she watched the creature fall forward, dead, with a sword dug deeply into its back.  She had a look of shock on her face until she looked up to see Drew and gave him a welcoming smile.  "...Welcome to the party," she teased as she cocked the gun and let out another spray towards the line of Zurglings following the youngest Mackerbee.  "...My prince," she added as a taunt when the bugs fell dead.

Drew recoiled from the bugs Faith was shooting down, but gave her a wide, half smirk when she taunted him.  He kept up the running, his energy feet guiding him as fast and as well as ever.  He yanked the sword out of the bug's body and continued through to another small group of zurglings, hacking and slashing his way through the bug bodies.  "...We have to get everyone out...We can't defend this for long!" he called out as he moved in back to back with Faith

Faith gritted her teeth.  "That's gonna be a problem...  Before the alarm went up, there were already quite a few we had to deny entry to," she commented heavily, blasting away another swarm of the bugs before changing cartridges on the gun.  "What?" Drew asked, raising his brows and actually looking over his shoulder at Faith, his heart falling.  "Several?"  "...Several," she repeaded, her words heavy on the air, knowing what was going on in Drew's head, because she'd already felt it herself.


"Aria!" Ari shouted out, hearing his sister's voice which instantly gave him a second wind of courage.  With a heavy cry, he rushed the fence, the earth turning elastic underneath him and shooting him higher with each step until he launched himself over.  He flipped in the air, reaching into his pocket for his lighter before landing in a crouch.  He raised the lighter to his lips and ignited it, blowing softly over the flames.  The mixture of fire and wind was instantly combustable, shooting a fireball out towards the bugs blocking the path to his sister, incenerating the soft insides of their bodies and only leaving behind the heavy crust!

When she saw her brother flying towards her direction a smirk instantly grew, when he landed next to her she raised her hands up defensively as they got into a back to back position. The two continued to rotate around in circles, their forms of strikes moving together as Arias earth shot out towards the zergs around them while Aris fire and wind effected the area they were swarming in! With a stomp, she cracked the earth where the water pipe was and allowed the water to stream out violently before bending it around them to their advantage.  When a swarm of hyrdralisks was spotted away from them, she raised an earth wall to block the acid before lowering it back down for a clear shot. " Magma" The girl hinted, knowing the 3 elements they needed to focus on was fire, earth and air. With the fire spinning about them, they swirled it outward along with earth and fused it together to melt the earth into a hot liquid state. The two were needed for this as both their forms were identical to each other as they shot it out to burn and melt the swarm of bugs!

Ari didn't have to reply.  He refocused his fire into her earth, fusing them together until the rock literally boiled.  "So... what'd the council say about the plan?" he asked almost casually as row upon row of the bugs were being taken care of.  They were starting to handle themselves, but it wouldn't last forever.  That was the bug's secret weapon, no matter how strong you got, they just... kept... coming.

"A few liked it, the ones who did.. are with us right now." Aria jabbed a thumb behind her, somewhere in the crowd was the mayor shooting zergs up with them.

" The numbers are increasing, its like ground 0!" Robin yelled and started to retreat backwards, his pistols still shooting outward. When the last of the public entered the camp, the clone maker quickly ran in to join his friends.

" We need to split them away" Aria muttered and threw both her fists towards the earth, the cracks quickly spread through the ground and soon the zergs above them collapsed within the ditch.

Viktor lept up to the nearest building and blurred up until he got to the top. Once he was there, he eyed the city from his position and watched as the cement sky above them was starting to crack. " .....they found the city." The vampire revealed and lept off to land within the camp. " They know of this city, the tunnels are going to be swarming with them. "

"What do you mean they found the city?" Mouse called out to the radio, the vampire was next to him so he heard everything. "....look up guys."

Farther North from the camp, earth could be seen collapsing from above as the cement that domed the city was now starting to crumble. As big pieces of debris fell from position and destroyed anything that was under it.

"...If they found the city, then how are we going to get out?" the Mayor asked, having navigated near the Circuit members who were there, mostly since they were more or less in charge of the defense.

 Ari looked up at the cracking ceiling, feeling his heart starting to drop in his chest.  "Fuck me," he muttered through gritted teeth.  Nothing they could do was going to be enough.  It wasn't possible.  And even if they COULD get everyone out, if Mateo and Treyton couldn't make it back with the train, then being up above was no better than here.  He looked at the others and shook his head.  They didn't have a choice.  "We make for the rally point.  We evactuate the city," he declared, looking around at everyone for agreement.  "The only hope is that Mateo gets that train to the rendevouz.  If he does, then we leave.  If not... well, it won't be any different than if we stayed..."

" we need to dome the camp. " Aria told her twin with a nod, once everyone was inside the camp the two made their way towards the front of the camp and thrusted their fist outward. Slowly, earth began to rise around the camp and within minutes they were completely sealed in a hard shell. The limited light poles that were in the camp flickered on and the people who were within the shell now stood in the darkness.  " the earth shell isnt going to hold back the zergs forever."

" it wont be long until they burrow through it..." Robin added

"...we're going to have to tunnel the people out" Aria told her twin with a nod. " we're close to tunnel 2B, we'll just detour in and go up to ground 0 where Mateo is going to have the train waiting anyways.."

"Robin, I need your guards to be spread throughout the crowd.  ANYONE shows any symptoms... you know what to do... BEFORE the bug can emerge," Ari ordered, hating the order, but knowing it had to be done since there were those who were infected in the crowd.  

Drew pursed his lips at the order.  He didn't say anything because he could sense that it wasn't time for an argument, but deep down, he felt a wellspring of pain bubbling up inside of him for those who would be coming with them, only to be killed by their own security forces when symptoms occured.

Faith reached down for Drew's hand and took it in her own, holding it tight.  Again, she knew what he was thinking.  It was all over his expression, and in her heart, especially after having already had to look several of those infected in the eyes, she knew exactly how hard it was for her friend to stay quiet.

 The mayor pursed his lips and looked down.  "...Try to keep it as clean as possible," was the only thing he requested as he walked away slowly to address the crowd, suggesting that they follow Ari's lead out of the city.

Ari looked around for objections.  When he didn't receive any, he pursed his lips and nodded.  "Alright... Let's move," he muttered, glancing at his sister and starting to rush off towards tunnel 2B.

" Stay close together and try not to make too much noise, they can hear the vibrations of the sands!" Aria called out to the people behind her and Ari, the two of them were in the very front as they did their deep stances to get a better sense of the earth element. With every swipe of their fists, the tunnel they were creating began to dig itself.

" we should be uhm.. here hold this." Robin handed his clone a flash light as he quickly unfolded the map of the undercity. " we're uh.. right here." The youngest of the 'official' circuit ~ since mouse didnt count. " We need to keep tunneling south. "

"...." Ari looked at the map and pursed his lips, not exactly trusting the homonculus to get the exact specs right. He was a good friend, just.. not very good at strategies. He nodded and took a breath. "Here goes nothin'," he muttered, sweeping earth up into the tunnel ahead of where they were, hoping to slow down any bugs coming from that way.

Faith held her gun, down in a one knee position as she watched the tunnel ahead for any signs of movement. Until it was completely filled in, they were at risk of being overrun. Next to her was the mayor, shaky, but there.

He kept an eye up ahead and had to blink a couple of times to be sure that he was seeing the shadows up ahead flickering. "Hurry!" he urged, not wanting to know if he was right or not!

Viktor was part of the team in the end, the camp ground began to get smaller when they began to travel and once the last person entered the patheway it was clear for them to go. " Thats everyone." Viktor muttered out and offered a soft nod towards Drew. "...I'm sorry it had to be this way, I can sense that your deeply torn from the hard decisions." His eyes quickly panned towards the dome around them, the sound of dirt falling was a sure sign that the zergs were about to break in. Sure enough, a large platform fell from above and landed a hundred feet away from them. Upon the platform were 2 hyrdalisks, their fangs were extended out as they shot a jet of acid towards the two heroes! Viktors eyes shifted to a crimson red when the acid was sprayed and quickly he lifted his leg up to stomp on the ground in front of him. An earth shard of broken cement flew up from the impact and with a quick punch he shot it out to catch the acid and bashed the insects forehead.

Drew kept a focused count, forcing himself to think about the people entering the tunnel, and not about the bugs that some of them might be carrying and what that would mean. He looked over at Viktor and let out a soft nod. "I still don't believe it does... I still think there's a way we can help the infected. There has to be." At that moment, his eyes turned and narrowed to look out at the creatures ahead of them. "...Shit..." he muttered, diving back and firing a quick bolt of static charge at the other hydralysk out of surprise, but it gave him a little more time. He switched to his anthology on the tablet computer and quickly flipped through the pages to find the appropriate part. "...And he shall smite the wicked and pluge them into the firey pit!" he read out, looking up to see a large slab of rubble come off the top of the dome and hit the hydralisk in the head, knocking him off balance and into the remenants of Ari and Aria's magma pit. "...Cool..." he muttered to himself with a small smirk as he picked himself up; he never exactly knew how his books would interpret his words, and sometime the result was more surpising than others. He turned to the vampire and nodded. "Come on, let's go..."

Viktor nodded to what Drew stated and before he could turn into the tunnel he witnessed the dome finally shatter around them. Screeches from the bugs could be heard but none could be seen due to the heavy dust cloud. "we're going to need to close the tunnel...go, I can blur to catch up with you and the others."

"Don't take too long," Drew agreed, placing a hand briefly on the vampire's shoulder and rushing off down the tunnel with the others, pad out, hand charged and ears open in case any trouble got up inside the tunnel, even though he knew there wasn't going to be much chance if they did.

The shadows ahead were starting to get closer and by now, Ari had only finished filling in about half of the tunnel, but at least now they had a baracade of cover.

"Mother of God," the old mayor muttered as he started to hear the clicking. He swallowed and fired his weapon, the loud crack echoing in the tunnel. Ari had to move slower than normal for two reasons; first, the bugs would sense the vibrations, and two, they needed to maintain the integrity of the tunnels. If he moved too much earth at once without support, then the entire tunnel could collapse, sealing everyone inside. When the old man let loose his rifle, he actually paused what he was doing, feeling his jaw drop considerably. "Shiiiiit," he muttered, feeling the reverberations from the weapon echoing through the tunnel. With a quick stomp, he finished sealing the tunnel and turned back to his sister. "I think we better go a little faster," he muttered, adding his own assistance to her, building supports of heavy compacted earth mixed with groundwater to help maintain as much stability as possible!

He watched as the Drew enter the tunnel and once he was in he looked out to the clouds that were settling around him. Slowly, figures of zerglings and hyrdalisks were forming. There were 14 of them, all of which cautiously making their way closer to the vampire. Viktor knew it would only be a matter of time before more would join them, the city was defenetly infected now. The few who are still within the city will most likely die now, meaning the 1000's of people that once lived here now dwindeled in the 100's. The vampire took a deep breath and took a knee, both his fists dug into the cement of the camp grounds. When the first zergling hissed and charged foreward, his eyes instantly shifted red. His wrist was quickly wrapped with chains and with a thrust of the palm he shot one outward to wrap around the zerglings neck. He jolted it towards him and threw the zerg towards another before shooting the whips of chains in every direction!

Even though he was able to defeat the 14, the numbers around him seem to keep adding more and more. The vampire continued to flurry through the barrage of bugs, some of which running to the entrance of the tunnel! " NO!" Viktor yelled as chains shot out from the ground to stab through the zergs who were close to getting in. He blurred backwards and lept up into the air, with a hard force he landed ontop of the tunnel grounds and collapsed it so no one could get in. The vampire was in the under city alone and from the looks of it he was going to be defenetly out numbered. As he stood within the broken rubbles of the tunnel entrance he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, with him he could feel two entities by his side. They couldnt be seen at the moment, but he knew he was protected..Viktor would need to get out of the under city and meet with the others at the redevouz point. Even if he didnt know, he would be able to track them down with his vampiric tracking. At the moment though, he needed a way out and from the looks if it was up. His crimson eyes looked up to the broken dome of the city and already he could see bugs quickly swarming out to take over. " ...protect those who trespass against us." Viktor muttered out and crouched to a charge, with a hard leap he flew up into the air. Behind him, giant bat wings shot out as he quickly glided up the only exit!

Drew turned back at the collapsed tunnel once it fell behind them. "...VIKTOR!" he shouted out, having trusted the vampire to join up with them! He was out of breath as he stared at the dust cloud, his chest heaving a little bit while waiting for it to settle. "Come on..." he muttered to himself, watching the dust clear. "Come on... be there... be okay..." When it was clear that there was no one there, he punched the wall next to him. "NO!" he cried out, not caring about the bits of rock and dust that fell into his hair. He clinched his teeth, looking at the wall for several seconds before taking a deep breath and turning around, hating himself now for having gone on!

When the tunnel was sealed off, Faith closed her eyes and stood up. No use being upset about what was already done. She moved towards the front, weapon aimed at the dirt ahead of them, just incase they dug out anything... unsavory.

The females strikes were hard and precise as earth pillars grew from side to side to support the tunnel. Her breathing was heavy, showing that she was getting tired from the fighting and now impromptu escape. " Need... to..keep.. GOING~ARGH!!" A second wind came into her body as she hardened her stances and punced the dirt wall they were digging through. In one rapid motion, the tunnel looked to be pushed by a cylinder shape of a sewer tunnel. " We're almost there!" Aria yelled, from the sounds of her breath her lungs were about to give out; it was a clear sign her father told her about when she was younger. When she would train too hard, her breathing would be affected. It wasnt sensatives like her mothers but the condition was still there.

Faith's focus changed from the dirt ahead of them to Aria's heavy breathing. "Are you alright, Aria?" she asked, with a deeply furrowed brow and reached into her shoulderbag, looking for the old drug. It was long expired and probably didn't have a huge effictiveness, but she handed the inhaler to her friend anyway, sometimes even just a little bit would be enough.
"yeah.. just.. almost THERE!" With the last punch the tunnel they created broke into the sewers 2B. Once she entered the dark sewer tunnels the girl moved to rest against the cement wall. " Go that way!" She pointed to the crowds of people, her body hunching over to recover from the extreme work out.

"Aria," Ari muttered, leaning down to place an arm around her for a second. "Take a few seconds... I have to keep going, alright?" he asked quietly. "Mayor, Robin, with me. Faith, stay here with Aria."

"Make a right guys, follow the tunnel." A robin clone instructed as he stood by the impromptu entrance of 2B. " We're almost there" Another clone directed from another corner and pointed to where the people needed to run.

"..yeah.. i'll catch up with you." Aria breathed out and gave her brother a smirk. " Ari" The girl called out once more. "...you totally kick ass you know that." Aria giggled out before letting out an exhausted cough.

He gave his sister a sad smirk. "Not as much as you," he teased back before leading the remaining residents of the city up towards the surface. "Be ready... It's gonna be bright out there and they might be waiting for us," Ari muttered low enough for only his teammates to hear him, not wanting to panic the people. "We're gonna need to get up fast and secure a perimeter. Hopefully, the other's will be there when we get there..."

The real robin was by his best friends side with his duel pistols. As they contiued their journey upward the air was starting to lighten. Soon it was fresh as they came to the gate of the sewer tunnel. It didnt have a lock since Zergs couldnt turn latches so with a quick lift Robin was able to unlock the gate for them. The boy was first to hop off and upon landing 5 others puffed around him and quickly spread out to check the perimeters. " ...its clear "

Ari was the second one out, lighter out in his hands. He had to shield his eyes for a second from the bright light, but once he could see, he felt confident that Robin was right. "Get your men up here and keep the perimeter secured. It won't be long before they realize which way we went."

The mayor was surprised to see the daylight. When they broke through and the members of the circuit started to secure the site, he took a deep breath. "Ladies and gentlemen," he called out, looking into the tunnel towards the people. "We've reached the rendevouz point, and we'll be moving out shortly. Thank you for your patience and understanding today..." Once he had finished with his somewhat uninspiring speach, he poked his head back up. "So... how are we getting out of here?"

Ari had already been thinking the same thing. The surface was completely clear, no sign of any living thing... and that included the train that was supposed to get them out of there!

The heroes found themselves on ground 0, the rendevouz point that the team set up was now ihabited by the few survivors. As of the moment, a small camp ground was set up as destroyed cars were used as shelter for the night to come. It was early evening and the train had yet to make it to the pick up point.

"...im hungry" Robin winced as he leaned against a broken van, around him were his friends circled around a small camp fire. " anyone happen to sneak out some food?"

" thatd be nice wouldnt it?" Aria snorted as she sat across from her twin, her eyes looking into the warm fire.

"oh yeah." Robin snorted and moved to hover his hand over the warmth.

Her eyes flickered over to the clone maker for a moment before glancing over to Drew, who out of all of them looked the most depressed. " ..Viktor was brave. " She said simply with a nod. " he help make sure we make it"

"I should've stayed with him," he muttered under his breath.

Faith had a blanket wrapped around him with her arm over his shoulders to try to comfort him, but he was only just staring at the fire. "Don't be stupid, then it's possible you'd both be gone." Faith was trying to cheer Drew up, but not much was helping. Ultimately, she knew he could handle it, that he would brood for a while before slowly moving on. It was what had happened when his father, and his mother, and his uncles had died. He always took it so heavily.

Ari frowned as he looked at the fire. He didn't say anything. He had experience losing a friend in combat and he knew there wasn't much chance that anything they would say would help at the moment.

Drew just pursed his lips and continued to watch the flickering flames. "...I could've helped him," he replied simply, his mind drifting through the events of the day, all the ups, and especially, all the downs.

"And you would of died." A voice called out from behind the group, from within the shadows of the area Viktor revealed himself with somewhat of a soft smile. " I told you I would catch up" He said simply and nodded towards Drew.

" whoa! Viktor!" Aria quickly got up from her spot, her jaw dropping from the sight of the vampire. " how did you~ did you kill them all?!"

"no, only a fool would think they could handle a swarm like that. Luckily, I have my own means of escaping." Viktor muttered. " my demonic side allows me to summon wings if needed. "

Drew felt his jaw drop as he blinked at the man who had not made it through the rubble. He slowly stood up, letting the blanket fall away and moved towards Viktor, his gaze shocked. "You made it..." he said, feeling somewhat stupid for saying something ridiculous like that. He felt his heart racing in his chest as hope once again kindled itself within him. It wasn't much, but it was something.

A simple smirk crossed over Ari's expression. "Glad you could join us," he told him quietly. "I'd offer you something, but I'm afraid we had to leave without provisions..."

" From the looks of it, Mateo hasnt made it yet." Viktor allowed his chocolate brown eyes to observe the area.

"Yeah, no signs yet.. but itll be any minute. Mateos never failed us before." Robin assured with a nervous nod, he hoped his friend made it! " Did you happen to see anything on your way?"

"As a matter of fact.. yes" Viktor muttered and started to walk away from the camp, while doing so he caught the attention of the others who started to follow him. " smoke, from out there."

"Smoke?" Aria asked with her arms crossing in front of her chest. "...like a steam engine?!"

"precisely." Rumbles could be heard from afar, so much so that the people began to mumble to each other. Fear obviiously in their eyes from the thought of being attacked out in the open! As the rumbling got closer, smoke could be seen from over head and not a moment too soon a steam engine dashed its way towards the point with at least 15 cars behind it!

"Thank God," the mayor muttered, breathing out long and deeply when he spotted the train approaching. He patted Ari on the shoulder. "I know we don't say this often enough, but thank you, sir," he said quietly, a weak, exhausted smile behind his white beard.

Drew felt his spirits lift again for the second time when the train approached. He let out a long breath and waited tentatively for his brother to jump down, his eyes wanting to be certain he was alright.

"WHOOOOOOOOO!" came a loud scream from the top of the train and in the twilight, Frank pumping his fist up in the air could be seen at the top of the train, heavily armed. "Hey, Mateo... looks like our welcoming party's here a little early..."

"Yeah.. but fewer than I expected." The leader muttered as he halted the train to a stop. The cars they attatched were hooked by a special wire and through his uncles technology was able to expand the invisible train tracks. The frieight carts then opened to let people aboard, they were spacey and a couple even had cargos of food they were able to find in the train yard. As the people hurried on board, the leader hopped off the engine to greet his team. " ...something happened, didnt it? "

Ari simply nodded. "We were overrun," he said in a quiet voice. "We had Zurglings and Hydralisks. We had to move." He turned to Robin, with a nod. "Make sure every car has at least one guard," he muttered, turning back to Mateo; he would know what that meant.

" You heard the captain" Robin ordered one of his clones to give the word out, he watched as it ran down to tell which clone to go to what car.

Drew couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped him when his brother stepped off the train. Even as Ari was giving his report, he reached out and pulled him into a tight hug. "We got as many out as we could, Matty," he told him apologeticly.

" .....I know you did." He replied back with his brows furrowed, so many had died the last 24 hours. Still, he couldnt help but feel that if they decided this sooner they would of saved alot more.

" We wouldnt have been able to make it without Viktor he~" Aria looked to see where the man was but.. he was now gone. " well, he was here." "Yeah I saw him a few seconds ago."

The young Mackerbee furrowed his brows and looked around. "Where'd he go?" he asked, partly curious and partly concerned. Ari was too exhausted to spend too much time curious about it. "Whereever he is, he made it possible. He blocked the entrance to the tunnel that let us escape."

" Im sure hes around, hes able to find us if he needs to. Besides, arent we heading to where he told us to go?" Aria added

"Laughlin" Mateo answered with a nod, he looked at the engine and pursed his lips to the side. " We met someone along the way, he helped us acquire the train but he told us something that kind of made me uneasy... ill tell you guys in the car. Cmon."

"all aboard!" Robin clone yelled at the last car. " all abord!" Another yelled half way before looking over to the real robin in front. " Everyones in guys"

"I want you guys to meet someone.." Mateo added before heading in the engine room with Treyton and Frank waiting by the controls. The two robots were towards the corner beeping away at each other. "...where did Virgil go?"

"...How the fuck should I know? I'm not his keeper," Frank snapped at the leader. "C'mon, we better get goin' if we're leaving. I don't like hunting these shiteaters at night..."

Drew agreed with Frank and pulled himself up into the engine, taking a convienient stool in the back. "Hey, Matty? When you got some time, I wanna go over these schmatics with you. I think it might be something that'll help the people who've been infected..."

"You think maybe the two are in cahoots with each other?" Robin asked suspiciously.

"....cahoots?" Aria asked and snorted at the youngest. She made her way pass the young man and looked out the window of the engine room. "...looks like this is goodbye under city."

Mateo pursed his lips and made his way to the control of the train, when his brother called to him he peaked back and offered a soft smile. " Yeah, let me just get the train in coordinates and then we'll look it over alright?"

"im JUST sayin, their both missing and their names start with the letter V "

"I'd be in... cahoots with anyone who puts some duct tape over your fuckin' mouth, Robin. Aria, hand me those goggles down there, please?" Frank requested.

"It doesn't matter. It's likely they'll both be able to find their way back anyway, if they wanted. Let's just get away from this place before the bugs catch us." Ari replied with a nod.

Viktor stepped out to the destroyed area of what used to be freemont street. Half the tunnel was broken along with the windows and doors of the old casinos. The once filled with life tourist attraction was now nothing more than a ghost town, left with only memories of what was once before. The vampires chocolate brown eyes shifted as he heard a crackle of noise behind him, instantly his gaze shot over to see nothing there. As the quietness continued his eyes began to glow a bright icey blue while his fangs began to grow in portions. Virgil is here..the problem right now is, where?

The dark shadows of the hollow city stretched long in the moonlight and the shape crouched low at the top of the crumpled canopy from the old light show, still about 30 feet in the air. Virgil watched and waited, his cool blue eyes watching the figure below, In his hand, a single, wooden scythe was held, as the breeze blew the shimmering black smoke off of his body. In a fluid, silent motion, he dropped down to street level in a crouch, his scythe outstretched as he bored his eyes into the demonic vampire. "You are leading those people to be your life flow," he charged shortly, his hunter's gaze hardened and focused on his half-kinsman.

When he heard and felt Virgils presence his icey blue eyes shot over to a glare. " Alot arent able to defend themselves, we offer their protection and life in exchange with something we need to live. Both theirs and ours will die without the other" Viktor replied with his brows furrowing slightly. " But your too dense in the head to comprehend that. Slay us all and you drive those people to their own dooms."

"Did you provide them a choice?" Virgil replied through gritted teeth. He stayed low in the crouch, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. "It seems their doom means a choice between a feast for the bugs, or a feast for you."

"They dont know whats for their own good. " The vampire snarled back. Apart of him wanted to take him down right now, however the vampire was at a total disadvantage. Virgil was very well known to the harvest, how he was able to slay even the highest ranks of the vampire along with his small circle of family. After the news was spread, hell was let loose as the high vampires death released the order of the vamperic codes. Houses went on a frenzy while others like the harvest, held true to their oath of balance. " You are blind." Viktor called out with his eyes narrowed, without hestiating any longer the vampire turned to blur away from the hunter by dashing through the broken tunnel.

"Nor do you," Virgil replied back coolly. The high vampires had been a calculated risk. While the individual covens became free of their control, they also began to fight amongst each other, assisting the reaper in elminating those who drank the blood of the humans. When Viktor blurred down the tunnel, Virgil was only a half second behind him, turning to black smoke as he gave chase, moving no slower than the predator he sought to destroy!

The vampire dashed through the rubbles and obstacles of the abandoned walkways and as Viktor continued the chase chains began to shoot from the ground all in a rapid motion upfront. Hundreds of which all shot upward to the broken roof of the freemont walkway and tightened so they were more bars than chains. The vampire gritted his teeth and blurred through the forest of cloth
lining links, forcing Virgil to become sold in very small places before quickly returning back to his smoke form. Vampires would often have problems with his way of chasing but this one had demonic influences for his advantage!

When in his smoke form, Virgil felt the air and environment around him, riding with the wind and, most importantly, in the wake of his prey. And this one had a few tricks up his sleeve. Nevertheless, the reaper continued through, the dark smoke blazing through the chain thicket, feeling it hardly slow him down. At the side of the bluring streak of smoke, another image started to form, spinning around in a circle, with black fire radiating out like a pinwheel as he allowed another of his scythes to slice through the chains, giving him a more direct route down the tunnel and out towards the city!

Viktor looked to see that he was coming up to the end of the tunnel, when he was ready he lept up into the air with full force and allowed his body to come to a dead stomp into the earth. On impact, the cement around him all shattered in different directions. Everything looked to be in slow motion as he eyed the smokey figure missling its way towards him, with his brows furrowed he punched the giant shard of earth and casted a wall for the smoke to crash into. The smoke couldnt fly through solid objects and this one was big enough to knock the reaper back into the middle of the chain forest. Viktor stood there and allowed his fangs to retract, his icey blue eyes now shifted to a crimson red and within seconds the thousands of chains that attatched itself onto the roof all tugged downward to make the whole tunnel collapse on the reaper! Afterwards he turned and dashed down the direction of the destroyed strip, the sound of the buildings breaking would more than likely attract zergs near by!

Virgil could feel the weight of the earth crashing down on him and in an instant, the smoke form attempted to change course towards a broken water pipe nearby, moving himself inside and away from the crushing tunnel which was a lost cause. He turned his attention to the pipeline and felt his way through, finding an opening nearby. He blasted through and shifted back into human form, black blazing scythe materializing in his hand as he gazed the nearby buildings for signs of the vampire; zurgs meaning nothing to him presently. He caught the presence he was so familiar with moving towards the strip. In a blur, he raced along a side street, his scythe trailing on the ground behind him. As they approached the remeniants of the Stratosphere, their roads came together. Virgil moved past a gas station, taking the large propane tank which sat unharmed from its position with ease. He blured to the spot where the roads came together, thowing the tank just ahead of him Viktor, his own bluring form just behind it. He slashed the firy scythe into the tank, vanishing into smoke form just as the the tank erupted in an explosion of black fire which ripped a 10 foot crater out of the earth where the demon had been bluring through!

Viktor knew he wasnt in the clear yet, Virgil was very hard to get away from! When the tank was thrown his mouth dropped from the surprise but was able to respond fast enough to prepare for the explosion. His momentum to his blurring continued as he lept into the tank and shifted his back to the front so two giant bat wings flew outward. It quickly wrapped itself and shielded the vampire from the fire! Flames were everywhere from the explosion and out from the smoke and fire came Viktor, his wings out as chains began to fly towards his wrists.

The reaper was bluring, smoke trailing after him as he raced around the sides of what remained of the once tower; about a third of the base was still standing, the rest of the tower collapsed and shattered around the area. At the top, his blurring picked up speed, the smoke shifting into a vortex that was reaching up into the sky, bluring so fast that the chains were being shot back at their originator with the force of the wind.

Chains collided with chains from every direction and the vampire took the liberty of allowing this to keep Virgil distracted. As he blurred foreward he allowed his wings to expand outward so he began to glide up into air. He kept his altitude low as he flew down the strip, flying wasnt as fast as blurring but more agile. He was able to turn into sharper corners and barrel roll out from obstacles. While at the same time, could be used as a shield from any incoming scythe attacks!

Virgil wasn't one to get distracted easily and it was only a moment before the dark wings were followed by the smoke that indicated he was right on Viktor's trail. This one was a difficult one, but he wasn't trying to fight; he was only trying to run. The hunter floated close to the ground, allowing his form to blend in with the reminents of the pavement. He shifted back into solid form, racing along with a chain scythe forming out of the smoke in his hand. It took a single twirl before he released the top of the scythe, aiming to catch hold of the demon's wing, even without catching it, though, he was driving him; pushing him down the street further, in the direction he wanted the monster to go.

"Argh!" Viktor let out a scowl when he felt the puncture of the chained scythe through his wing. He snarled at the reaper behind him before allowing his wings to fade into shadows. He rolled onto the ground and turned to face the hunter head on. Chains shot out from the ground once more and this time wrapped around his own wrists as his melee weapon while his icey blue eyes shifted back to a crimson color.

The reaper maintained full control of his eyes, never allowing a vampire to see the shade they could shift to until he saw their names. Nevertheless, his eyes shown natually blue as he landed back on the ground in a crouch. He stood up slowly as he faced his opponant, seeing the name VIRGIL VALERIOUS flash for less than a second in his mind. He stood up, smoke forming up around him as a single, standard scythe formed in his hands while around him, the shapes started to come together as five other weapons appeared and began to circle the reaper, each weapon unique. As the scythes began to rotate faster under his control, another name started to flash, only for an instant. VIKTOR CURSOR.

Viktor snorted when he saw the reaper prep himself, the 6 deadly scythes. All of which was rumored to have a story, though it was only a tale that vampires passed to help understand the ways of which Virgil hunted. Nothing was ever confirmed, since the vampires who tried to take the mission to hunt Virgil down met their deaths. As the vampire took a single step foreward, the sound of a familiar screech could be heard around them. Soon, the area of which they were in would be swarmed with zerglings! Still, the vampire continued to walk towards Virgil with every intent to defend himself. "Argh!" The vampire dashed foreward and saw the flurries of the floating scythes, he blocked the blades with his wrist as he shot blocks after blocks of swiping his chains! The vampires timing was precise with every swings and motions and around him chains shot out from random directions to cage the two in a circle arena!

The scythes moved at increadible speed, shooting out past the vampire and bringing him in rather than attacking him directly. Again, both names flashed up before his eyes, the clicking of the bugs ignored as he found them in a chained in arena. He looked up at Viktor, his attack coming in from all sides as five scythes shot in against the creature as though from the points of a pentacle, each one taking a deadly swing at Viktor, the slashes convirging on the small central area. Each scythe had an effect, each one was different, but all were deadly!

He snarled at the scythes flying dangerously close but he was able to block them all! When the timing was right he lept up into the air and shot a chain towards the broken hotels above him. The chains broke through the wall with ease and began to retract him high up into the air. When he was about 30 feet in the air he let go and aimed for the reaper below and wrapped around a broken vehicle. He landed to a hard stomp, enough so it created a crator which Virgil quickly dodged out of the way from. Once he landed he used all his strength to swing the car he was chained to towards the reaper. He helicopter it several times, each of which Virgil dodged before throwing the actual car towards him. It was only inches away from hitting him and flew out to hit a zerg that was perched. His eyes shot everywhere as large amount of insects began to surround them. "........"

Virgil dodged out of the way of each attack with ease, flipping back onto the ground as the car flew past him. He looked at the Zurgling that had just gotten hit before looking back at his prey, gritting his teeth. In a flash, each of his scythes made a blurred move to the next point, each swinging dangerously close to Viktor before sliding into a bug of their own. His blue eyes matched up against the demon's for a mere moment, acknowledging a life for a life. Besides; no bug was going to kill the demon he was sworn to destroy. He brought his wrists up and summoned his scythes to him, an instant later, a wild cloud of smoke erupted from where he'd been standing. The smoke raced through the lines of bugs, leaving nothing behind but writhing creatures, twitching on their backs in his wake.

Viktor took a simple side step when he dodged the scythe that flew dangerously close and into a bug that was near by. His attention then looked towards his side and felt the ground starting to rumble. His brows furowed from the feeling and after a second the roads around them all raised into the air to reveal about 5 ultralisks. Each able to slice a building in half with a good swing, besides the giant threats there were now hundreds of zerglings swarming in every direction; all of which wanting to take down both him and his hunter. Viktor let out a snarl, his eyes still red as a smoke of shadows formed behind him to cast out his bat wings, with a hard flap he flew towards the line of zerglings and began to swing away with his chains. One wrapped around a bugs neck and used him as a blunt mace to hit other bugs around before casting out another chain to burst through a zerglings head. With another fluid swipe, a shadowy figure of a sword shifted into his hand and with accuracy began to slash at every bug around him!

Virgil neither hesitated nor looked back. Behind him was a trail of dead and dying bugs, each one poisoned and able to infect the others if they tried to help or eat them, whichever might be the case. When the ultralisks appeared, he simply continued his assult, shifting into solid form with the poison scythe in his right hand and his fire in his left. All around him the other scythes did their dance. With accuracy and force, he threw the fire scythe with his left hand into a fake rock wall along side the ruins of Buccaneer Bay. The water had long ago drained away and the ships sat on their sides, broken. Yet, there was a line the reaper knew of and it was through that gas line the scythe flew through, exploding after a bare second on one of the ultralisks. Meanwhile, Virgil had already moved on after throwing the fire, and was continuing to poison any bug that got within reach of his bone-viper blade, which hiss and snapped at the victims, loud enough to match the clicking of the bugs.

Viktors slashes were clean and fluid the whole time, After stabbing the end of his blade into a zerglings forehead he flapped his wings to leap high into the air and threw his hands out to shoot 5 chains from every angle of an ultralisk. It wrapped itself around its scyhes, arms and legs before tightening enough that it actually cut off its parts. The vampire landed in a middle of a clearing eyed the small bugs around them, there were too many for even both of them to slay. More screeches could be heard and this time from above, the flyers were coming in.. when those came, they became more a nuisance than Virgil since theyre able to report from above! Both of them had to leave and they had to leave now! His red eyes lowered to the sword in his hand and slowly he raised his arm to pass his face. As he slowly rotated his arm around another could be seen standing in his place ~ A demon with a stoic expression stood there with his eyes bright red, his groomed black hair was in place as the bat wings behind him began to shift into what looked like black feathers. The demon quickly extended his angelic wings and as he did so, black feather missles flew out and broke through a line of zergs. With a single step, he blurred heading south to where the humans were told to go!

Virgil was starting to feel the pressure, his name coming up in his eyes more often than he'd like. He switched over to his chain blade, raceing up the back of an ultralisk, out of reach of the pincers. He swung the scythe like an oversized nunchuk and let it fly out around one of the ultralisk's enormous claw, pulling it taut with all his strength. Slowly, the enormous bug started to veer where Virgil told him to go... straight into his brother, driving the sharpened blade deep within him. Even as the crash occured, the reaper shifted to black smoke and blurring off after the demon who was heading towards the train!

The demon flew through the streets, every hit clear as bodies of bugs were being thrown in every direction. ~ The body shifted back to Viktor and soon his wings faded out into smoke. The vampire landed to a crouch and blurred foreward and eyed the flying menace from above. They shot acid towards him but he was able to barrel roll out of the way and slid on the ground so he slipped underneath a car. The car shielded the vampire as his momentum continued him to slide out to the other side and blur foreward once more! When a zergling lept out from one of the alley ways, an image of Auron back fisting the bug into the wall flashed in its way as Viktor continued to escape!

Virgil swirlled around the Mirage volcano, racing through the air as black smoke, pinwheel scythes moving rapidly around him. He came up behind the flying bugs, slicing through their wings and allowing them to fall to their deaths on the street below, one of them just missing Viktor as the bug body oozed black innerds on the broken pavement.

As the two raced through the streets, smoke could be seen from afar from the steam engine. Viktors eyes shot upward once more to see the flying bugs zoom pass them and turned to go a different direction. Shit, that ment they were changing their strategy to something else and from what it looks like it had to do with the train! " Like it or not, all those people will die if we dont do something!" The vampire yelled out to the reaper, from afar he could see flying bugs that were the size of eagles: Scourges, bat like monsters that literally crashes itself into structures. When they burst, it releases acid that could melt any kind of steel!

Virgil shifted back to solid form and looked over at Viktor. He gritted his teeth but the look on his face showed what was the first priority, and it was not killing the vampire. The bugs were a greater enemy. "To the train... They will have to help defend themselves," he declared. "I'll hold them off as long as I can. Get the defenses ready." He vanished into smoke once again, shooting up into the air where the scorges were approaching. He couldn't get them all, but he would at least be able to slow them down. Of that he was certain. Many names were flashing in his mind, but his own was not among them.