Repercussions (CHAPTER TWO)

[Tanasha Arati]

:~:Through the smoke and the chaos, Crash’s terrified cries reached Tanasha, pulling her from a dark moment in her past back into the hellish present. Watering and bloodshot, her eyes frantically scanned the area for perhaps the only living creature in the building worth saving. Although desperate to protect the angel, Tanasha could no longer stand the heat rising within her. Once pale skin flushed angry red and burned with what might have been the heat of a hundred suns, contained only temporarily beneath the fire-resistant uniform issued by the hospital. Between the sweltering corridor and the flames raging inside, the firestarter was finding it difficult to think or even breathe. She clawed violently at her coveralls with such force that rather than unzip, the zipper tore free of the treated, green fabric. Wrestling clumsily with the ruined clothing, Tanasha had stripped to the knees and was trying to kick them off when one of the remaining guards brave enough to approach alone grabbed her from behind. Free at last, she did not struggle or resist as his powerful arms locked around her bare chest, but instead lay back against him with her head propped against his shoulder. With a relieved sigh, she smiled at his pained gasp as her skin burned him through his own uniform. With her back pressed against him and her hands gripping his, she finally allowed what was warring inside her to consume them both.

As though drenched in gasoline and wielding a lit blow torch, the pair went up in an enormous explosion of flames. Unharmed, Ta clung to the thrashing guard whose tortured shrieks rose above the roar of the fire and resounded through the hallways. The man’s flesh blistered and blackened before falling away from his face and arms entirely. She held him to her until his wails died down and eventually ceased. Fueled by a lifetime of painful, hateful memories, the fiery column shot straight up to the ceiling where the ceiling tiles soon were engulfed as well. With little use left for the blackened corpse, the naked Tanasha spun once and then heaved it towards a small gathering of guards now staring horror-struck in her direction. She was surprised to find the grogginess brought on by the darts now seemed a distant memory as the drugs had been burned away by the fire inside her. Completely aflame, she moved slowly, though unhindered, down the hall towards her original destination.

Drawing on her hatred of the hospital, she kept the aura of fire around her without the need to urge it on or control it in any other way. Beaten and sore, she wouldn't have the energy to try. The smokeless flames leapt from every inch of her and lit the way through the gloom to the guard’s entrance. Eyes peeled for the missing angel, she took it as a good sign that the woman was nowhere in sight and that the only ones who could have taken her were either dead, close to it, or fleeing. If only to spite the hospital further and with no real concern for his well-being, she paused long enough over the sprawled form of Chayne to grip his ankles and drag him unceremoniously to freedom. It was his good fortune that he too played with fire or else his first few weeks of life on the outside would be spent recovering from burns caused by her hands.

When the door opened easily, Tanasha let her fear that Athalia had yet to escape die, assuming she’d taken the planned route out. Without so much as a glance back, she retook the tagalong’s limp legs and pulled him into the guard’s station before kicking the door shut with one bare foot. As she expected, it was deserted and the short trip to the actual exit was uninterrupted. She stopped only once more to force open their less than secure outer door. Lifting him as though he were a sack of potatoes and risking his life in the process, Tanasha hauled Chayne over her shoulder. The flames licked and bit at his clothing as she took off as quickly as possible around the building in search of Crash. Silently she dared anyone to try and stop her, though the possibility that when the rage was over she'd be left too exhausted to fight for long. So very close...she pushed on.:~:


(A bit rushed. Ick. I'm on a deadline though...damn.)

[Rayn]

Chayne woke up being carried around like a sack of flour, but he felt as if he was on fire. Kicking his legs and arms he rolled off of Tanasha ungracefully and fell on all fours sweating from the intense heat that Tanasha was emitting.

"Tanasha.....what...where?" he stuttered while looking at Ta with his newly obtained bright blue eyes.

Groggily gathering himself up off the floor, he took a moment to let his eyes focus and to notice his surroundings, which seemed to be some sort of doctors office that was once barricaded from the look of it. It looked as if someone was trying to hide, or create a barrier of some sort.

Ta was busy looking for something, her face flushed a crimson red, and only then did it strike him that she was naked. He had seen a womans naked body before, but it was more of a question why was she naked? It was a known fact that fighting naked was the best was to fight, as not to give the opponent any kind of handhold while fighting. Remembering the fire retardent material that Ta was forced to wear, he came to the conclusion that she must have ripped it off in her rage in order to fight.

Glancing at her nude body, he quickly directed his eyes to her face slightly blushing.

"Wait...who...where's Athalia?" he said sluggishly.

Taking a few steps toward Tanasha, a blast of intense heat swept over him, hot for even him. Quickly taking a step back as not to get burned, his eyes caught a reflection of himself in the metal table that had been unceremoniously shoved to the side of the room. He traced his new blue mark on his face with his fingers, unaware of what had taken place back at the battle. Turning hurridly, nearly tripping over his own feet, questions just blurted out of his mouth.

"Where are we? Where's Crash? What happened? Why are we like this? What are you doing?" he said in one breath.

Tanasha just glanced at him and muttered one word. "Crash"

Assuming she was talking about Athalia, he shook his head to clear out the remaining grogginess and proceeded into looking for some sort of vent or door, something that The Angel would be able to escape from undetected.

(OOC sorry so rushed everyone, but I'm trying to get the plot moving. Hope you don't mind the small auto I used Poe)

[† The Jaxness †]

As her mind creeped back into consciousness, it was greeted with an intense headache. Her instincts wanting her to squint her eyes, she refused, keeping her entire body perfectly still as she focused her hearing on whatever place she was in. Her muscles ached from the previous spasms they were in, and she greatly wished to stretch them out, but despite her discomfort, she knew there were things to be done first. If she had company in the room with her, she didnt want them to know she was awake. She began taking mental notes, using what senses she could while remaining still, of what she sensed in an effort to get a grip on where the hell she was.

Touch- She was obviously laying on something hard, and would usually been cold but it had conducted heat from her body while she lay there, making it some sort of metal. The temperature being around 85 degrees, her best guess would she had been there for about an hour. She laid flat on her back, and her spinal cord was in a very straight position. The 'bed' that she lay on wasn't denting in from her weight, making it a solid metal, not a sheet. The room was at a rather cold temperature, and for her, it must have been below atleast 60 degrees. She was still naked, she didnt feel the warmth of any type of cloth or plastic hospital clothing.

Smell- Nostalgia washed over her as her nostrils took in the smell of a hospital. The scents of metal and rubber gloves, and the lack of scent of.... anything. If there was another person or creature in the room, she would have been able to smell it. No matter how many times you shower, people will always have a scent on them. Sterilazation was a hell of a thing when you wanted to rid a room of something, but she remained still nonetheless. Threw her sense of smell, she concluded that whatever was going to be happening to her in this room (no doubt one for more experiments) wasnt going to be pleasant.

Hearing- Absolute silence. Not even the hum of an air conditioner. The saying "so quiet, you could hear a pin drop" was an understatement. If you dropped a pin in this place, it would echo to the walls and bust an eardrum. She didnt hear any footsteps or murmurs of words. Not even the faintest of breath or the throb of a heart beating. She was definately alone.

Sight- With her eyes closed, she didnt see much. But through her eyelids, the room was fairly bright, and with her headache, it was all the more reason to keep her eyes closed. But she was in an unfamiliar place, and she had to get a hold on her surroundings so she could get out of this place faster.

Slowly opening one eye lid, the bare room started to come into view. After the first was open, she lifted the other lid to take on the full visual. Solid, natural colored walls, no windows, pictures or charts. She especially looked in the corners of the ceilings for camera, but she found none. Whatever put her in here must have barricaded it well enough to assume that nothing would be getting out of it since there wasnt any surveillance.

No cabinets or sinks. It lacked all the necessities of a hospital room, which was housed with every medical supply you would ever need. It was just a clean, solid room, with a door opposite the 'bed'. Sitting up, she swung her legs over the side of the ledge she was sitting on, turning to her left to see that one of her needs was met. A lid over some kind of opening. Using a single finger, she lifted the lid to see that it covered a single hole, though it didnt lead to anywhere. Her first guess was that it had been a toilet, but surely it would need plumming. Rolling her eyes at the fact that if she did need to go anytime soon, the room was going to be stuck with the stench. Spitting into the hole in aggrivation, she slowly set the lid slowly back down. Once it was completely lowered, a quick flash of light shone around the rim. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she lifted the lid to see that the saliva she had spit into it was now gone.

Blinking, she looked around the room one more time for any more surprises she might in store for, because where ever the hell she was, it was high-tech enough to with hold any creature she'd ever come in contact with.

[Deleted]

*He smiled.

His thin lips stretched over wide teeth, as he sat there watching the monitors, while he leant back and brought his hands together at the top of his head. Moving his hands down so that they were now laced together, he placed them at the back of his neck, rolling his head around in an attempt at dispelling the sudden onslaught of tension he felt in his neck and temples.

Screen 2 showed Stone had defied all odds by managing to escape from his cell. He had somehow made it into the main lab area and was now clearly hell bent on causing as much destruction as he could. A young technician by the name of Adrian, proved both brave as well as foolish by attempting to calm Stone down. He was dead within seconds as a piece of flying debris hit him squarely in the temple, knocking him unconscious so that he fell into a pool of water that was sparking from the live wire that was flickering over it. Stone was quickly destroying everything that the Tower had been working towards, yet still, he smiled. The Vermin Lord should be arriving soon, and after he had shown Stone who was boss, the Tower thought that Stone would undoubtedly be the next arrival for the Graveyard.

Josh and Bianca had escaped. While he had not noticed their escape attempt until after the cameras had caught their first kiss on film, the Tower had merely watched from that point and even as they escaped and ran out the door, he did nothing but smile. It served his plans for Bianca and Josh to have some time alone together for a while. He had seen their kiss, and could sense the electricity building between them and his smile broadened as he thought of the possibilities of what could happen if their relationship was allowed to develop. The prospect of future offspring of such a dynamic duo was enough temptation for him to allow the couple to escape and he merely shrugged as his obsidian orbs flickered back to the screen that showed the outside of sector 4.

A naked Tanasha and an equally confused Chayne had also escaped, though they had only ventured just outside the premises. The fact that they had not disappeared as quickly as Bianca and Derek, showed him that they were searching for Athalia before they ventured out. Their search would prove futile however, as the Tower reached out and pressed the big red button. “Yes sir?” rang out the clear crisp voice he had expected to hear, and the Tower’s grin broadened even more as he gave directions for a team to be dispatched to retrieve Athalia from the waste reciprocal she had tumbled into.


“Once you have our Angel, take her to the Graveyard. Extinguish any flames you come across, our favourite fire starter has been a busy little bitch. Have Team B go outside and circle the perimeter. They are to use full force to capture both Cheyne and Tanasha. Then, have your team head to the Lab to assist the Vermin Lord in the capture of Stone. Once he is under control, take him to the Graveyard too. If he is so intent on breaking out of our cells, lets see how he manages it down there..” Nodding at the “Yes sir!" that rang out from the loud speaker near his head, he leant back on his large black leather chair and continued watching the screens.


His dark eyes zoomed in on the screen that featured the hallway that housed the door to the elevator that led down to the Graveyard. Beyond that, his cameras did not venture, at least, not officially. The Graveyard was the Doctors domain, and he grinned as he anticipated the torture that must soon be happening to both Sadie and the shape shifter. Picking up the phone, he pressed the doctors number and waited for her to pick up. Hearing her voice on the other end of the line caused his right brow to perch precariously above one ebony eye as he spoke.

“Prepare the Graveyard for two more ghosts. One is our fallen angel, she should be quite comatose for some time after her capture, so you can still focus on your current patients. As soon as Stone is caught, he too will be arriving shortly. I trust all is well with Sadie and Lord Fattington?”


He let out his breath in one long shallow sigh as he waited her response.*

[The Joshness ™]

Stone was not at all going to be subdued, not in his mind anyway. There was no logical way a horde of bumbling retards like these guards could truly stand a chance against him. Stone saw any guard, any orderly, any patient as a target, as a host. The hallway he stood in was dim and chaotic after the lights had been strangled by his electromagnetic pulse, but not for long, as all living creatures, human and animal alike, would soon feel Stones corrupt pull. He was starting to glow, as would all living beings in this hallway for Stone is drawing out the electricity in their veins. It wouldn’t hurt them, or even affect them mostly; Stone was simply magnifying the electric current in their body and pulling on it. Rats, snakes, creatures of smaller nature on the other hand are a quite bit more open to his pull, as many would have theirs plucked from their tiny bodies.

“There is shallow grave upon the hill, it is my home.”


Stone leaped forward in a panicky rush towards his foes, his feet working their way through debris and obstacles that proved to be no problem for his accurate feet. Though everyone’s bodies, skin mostly, are illuminating the area there is still an odd darkness to him movements as every light he passes that still operates, dies under his powerful influence. As he passed beneath a light again and before it died, a long crooked piece of rebar is apparently in his right hand, chunks of cement still clinging onto it. Stone has himself a weapon.

[Dr. Berlin]

Eevee was a pleasant sight of organization and shuffling papers as she stepped into the Core. Without pausing, the Doctor stepped over to one of the computer monitors, glancing between the printouts and the far wall of screens, one screen for each of the rooms, and yet only two were lit up, giving arial views of the two ghosts.

"No.... no sympathy. Sympathy is for the Devil, is it not? I don't look like the devil, Eevee, now do I?"

The smirk that danced over her features belied the fact that the ghosts would have been better off had the devil actually have been their Doctor. She began pulling folders from a drawer as she spoke, tearing off the protruding tab and dropping it into a flash bin. Each folder was then marked with numbers assigned to the rooms. There would be no rubric, no chart listing which patient was where. Eevee and Dr. Berlin had discussed the dangers of paper trails. They had practiced, honed and professionalized the Method of Loci, an elaborate memorization technique, though it would only be needed for the first month or so. If that. Their ghosts were all so different, surely once the testing started there would be no way of forgetting.

"And you look nothing like that stuffy Mephestopiles, dear. Besides, I don't deal in contracts. We take their blood and give them nothing in return. They're volunteers, afterall..."

She paused, lifting her eyes to the monitor for the computer once more, but not looking at it at all. She had another flash of a woman in green, and blood. Ever since her meetings this afternoon, that woman was in her mind. She didn't like it. Not one bit. Before she could start the process of laying out the experiments, she noticed Sadie sit up. And the phone rang, stiffling her excitment. "Yes?" There was no hello, or using her own name. It was another part of protocol in the Graveyard. Like a common graveyard, there were no names used, no titles, not acknowledgement of identity, even for the two staff members who would be overseeing the procedures. There would be other, but how much they knew wouldn't matter. They would never leave the Graveyard either.

“Prepare the Graveyard for two more ghosts. One is our fallen angel, she should be quite comatose for some time after her capture, so you can still focus on your current patients. As soon as Stone is caught, he too will be arriving shortly. I trust all is well with Sadie and Lord Fattington?”

Athalia. A pity, really. But the doctor wasn't about to let her temporary affection for the girl get in the way of scientific progress. She had warned her, after all. Stone, though. The arrival of Stone would be a great pleasure.

"Sadie and Lord Fattington are dead. Our ghosts, however, are right on schedule. The female has just discovered the disposal unit. We'll be commencing round one testing shortly. I look forward to the arrival of the others. It would be a shame to let all of these elaborate tests go to waste. Do alert me as soon as Stone is killed. I want to welcome him personally to the Graveyard."

She hung up the phone, content and amused. "Eevee, Let's have a little welcome party, hmm?" She turned to the microphone and depressed the intercom for Sadie's room. There would be no obvious speakers, no specific direction that the voice was coming from. She was going to say her hellos, but noticed that Lord Fattington was still out cold. That would never do. He had more than enough time to rest. Time to wake up. She motioned to Eevee to do the pleasures, sure that her trusted assistant wouldn't reveal their names--not that most wouldn't know them already--but total domination of another individual required strange tactics: disorientation, confusion, denial of sustanance and slowly providing them with minimal food and water. It was a tactic well used by fascit governments and internment camps. These ghosts would not only never leave the Graveyard, they would never want to.

As Eevee took over the interaction with Sadie, she turned her attention to Lord Fattington's screen. He was asleep on the same kind of metal bench that Sadie had been. With an annoyed sigh she scanned the pannel of buttons before her. Her manicured finger trailed down the buttons until she reached the one she was looking for. She depressed the button once, holding it in for five seconds, a satisfied smirk on her lips. The button electrofied the bench in the room, unleashing enough jolts that only a comatose patient would be unable to respond. Five seconds wasn't a lot, but enough to cause severe pain, and enough that she was willing to turn up the voltage if necessary. She almost hoped he didn't respond, that way she could electrify the floor too. And it would serve him right. Her finger moved again, depressing the talk button for the second microphone.

"Sleep time is over. Get up. I won't tell you again."

[Lord Fattington]

Lord Fattington:

Lord Fattington awoke, due to an electrical shock, in a sterile white room. He didn't have much time to explore the room, let alone hear the words that were spoken to him, before his animalistic side made itself known. It wanted to smash its way out of the room, while the human side wanted to think it through. Eventually, the human side won out. Comming back to reality, he found himself lying on his back looking up at white nothingness.

Rising, he glanced about the room noticing a bed, and a toilet. Such luxury he laughed to himself. I wonder if this room is sound proof.... Lord Fattington then shifted his larynx so that it resembled a howler monkey's and began howling as loud as possible. If the room wasn't sound proof he'd soon grate on the workers nerves, if it was then at least he would be enjoying himself. While being a nuisance, he continued surveying the room looking for any weak points, so far the door seemed the only spot. He was curious as to how strong the door was, since not much could stand against some of the forms he is able to assume.

He decided to hold off on the barbaric approach. Just as he was about to sit down and continue howling, he had an idea. Though when he looked around the room he realized he didn't have enough space. For now he would wait for an opprotunity to present itself.

Kirk

Kirk had just made it to his room when he got the call for him to attend to Stone. "Boy, you guys sure fucked up today." He said while slapping the guard on the shoulder. While on his way toward the location where Stone was supposed to be, Kirk began conjuring and summoning more vermin. He knew Stone's powers quite well, and thus had worked out how to counter them. His body already acted as a resistor thanks to his extra skeleton, not to mention the fact that he can remain ungrounded due to his wings. The closer he got the more Vermin surrounded him untill it was nearly impossible to see through the swirling mass.

He had left a slot for himself to see out of, though once the fight would begin that would close over. If Stone wasn't carefull the fight would be very short, Kirk's vermin could surround him and inject enough venom to knock him out for a good while, all in a matter of seconds. Now that Kirk was nearing the spot where Stone was supposed to be, Kirk removed his tank top letting his wings free. He was not going to be caught off guard, so he took flight making sure he wasn't grounded.

[Athalia Mischavitch]

Athalia pulled herself up, she could feel the thousands of tiny pricks pushing deeper and deeper into her body, Athalia began to sob, the pain in her head was so intense now she could barley make out her own emotions and thoughts. With the last of Athalia's strength she managed to lift her frail body out of the dumpster, she pushed herself up so her arms were propped up against the rim of the dumpster. Athalia tried to swing her leg over the side of the dumpster so she could simply pushed herself out, but she realised, looking down that her right leg was useless, it hung numbly at her side, no feeling or movement possible. With another groan Athalia pushed her other leg deep into the dumpster, she grinded her teeth together as to not scream as her leg dug deeper into the thousands of syringes.

Athalia managed to pushed herself off the syringes and over the edge of the dumpster, she almost lost consciousness but something pulled her back, as her vision began to blur and the world darken she felt an emotion wrap around her like a blanket, it was panic, fear and rage.. It was Tanasha.

"Tanasha!"

Athalia managed to croak out loudly, she tried to maker her way towards her but forget about her injured leg, she crumbled to the ground painfully. The leg was beginning to throb and tingle, it was a good sign, it was getting better slowly. Athalia froze in place though, she could feel other emotions, desire, disgust fear… it was the guards. Athalia preyed silently for Tanasha to come rescue her.

[The Joshness ™]

Stone watched the Vermin move on him, from every direction and crevice like the plague itself. Sighing deeply, he takes a step back and draws in a heavy breath. In hardly a moment, the bioelectric energies from the mass of rodents and creatures attempting to kill him in a white storm. His target was not them, no, he was going after the guy flying at him, and he meant to end him. The lives of the rodents were extinguished, along with all the little buggers and stuff as even they have a tiny bit of it in them, but instead of retracting it all into him, Stone does something uniquely different. Instead of pulling the bioelectric pulse to him, he forces it (along with a large portion of his own energies) at the Vermin Lord, but not in the traditional manner. Though for a moment, the air is filled with a light blue essence that is hard to see as the electricity is almost compacted enough to form a solid mass but its still too spread out. In mid-air, after being thrusted towards Kirk very quickly, the electricity itself expands in a super heated fashion, the oxygen molecules exploding and forced to expand with it causing a horrendous boom that is very capable of shattering ear drums anywhere near the hallway. The heat itself is hot enough to turn the walls and floor red and scorched under its extreme pressure, turning the entire hallway he pushed it in into basically, a giant cannon. The explosion would indeed fracture the hallway in many many points causing cave ins and even entire structure failures in the entire building. The force of this superheated cannon like effect could be compared to about 5 or 6 thunder bolts at once being forced in one direction. As for people caught in the barrel of this cannon, armored exoskeleton or not, the temperature would be hot enough to bake all the flesh in the body instantly if not completely burst every internal organ and blood vessel instantly. This heat was enough to weld a solid slab of steel to the floor in a half melted glob. Stones own ears rang violently, he thought they could be in fact bleeding, which wasn’t a good thing at all. His hair singed in a few places and all the hair burned off his arms and legs. Though he wasn’t in its path, he still had the backfire.

He didn’t care, but something beneath the building roared immensely in a horrendous screech of something that couldn’t possibly be human. He had triggered them, and he didn’t have to hear that inhuman screeching to feel what was no stirring about. “Hehehe” He laughs a little bit at first, then the whiff of roasted dead guards that more than likely caught a portion of the blunt of his last assault, and the unrelenting stench of dead vermin. Then he thought about it “There coming for me. HahaHAha, they are HERE for me!!” What he spoke of was not his reinforcements, no, he had none of those. What he spoke of now was the big secret he was willing to share with the Big Bad before…well…this. All around the compound, starting at the lowest and least guarded sectors, all sorts of smaller ‘things’ will be spotted and most likely taken care of. What were they? Crawling hands, Heads with spider legs and even cats with octopus tendrils. Each of these things are decked out in various mechanical devices supporting their movement. All their extra appendages made from machinery but each one seeming to operate on their own efficiency. They wouldn’t be attacked, just popping up in strange places and well…crawling out of the toilets and any open sewage line and into the building. His creations were coming for him. Only now, he wasn’t sure why. Only that there would be death. Many of them. And there wasn’t anything they could do to stop it. But as for right now, Stone was ready, prepared beyond a doubt for the raising of more of the damn Vermin if he in fact did not kill Kirk. But its is highly unlikely anything living could survive the blast of heat in such mass quantity in closed quarters without prior knowledge.

[Tanasha Arati]

:~:Tanasha moved through the hospital yard like a wolf stalking prey. The way she honed in on the pained cry of what had to be the missing angel suggested she intended to eat and not save her. Almost completely unaware of Chayne, she gathered her energy for a last burst of speed and took off in a blur of flames towards the sound. Sprawled and injured, Athalia lay in sight when at last she called for Tanasha by name. Extinguished solely by a need to touch, the flames leaping around her shrank until only reddened skin remained. A quick glance behind her told Ta they had little time to chat before they’d all be surrounded and all hope would be lost. As gently as possible, she forced her arms under the battered woman and lifted her off the pavement. Hatred boiled again, hot and violent, as she noticed the tiny red pinpoints marring Athalia’s usually flawless white skin from her bath in the syringes, though exhaustion and a deep desire not to set her on ablaze kept the fire within at bay.

Fighting the urge to collapse, Ta staggered for the guard’s parking lot. Yet another search of the area prompted her to pick up the pace. Crushing Athalia to her, she broke into as much of a run as she could manage, barefoot and carrying a full grown woman. Sure Chayne would be traveling with them, she left him to do so. There was nowhere else to go. Her muscles groaned in protest with each step, but as they brought her closer to freedom she pushed on towards the tree-line. The thin strip of woods would provide cover briefly as she contemplated where they would go next. Hijacking a car was first on her list. She figure out if she could still drive when the time came. Hoarse and strained, she whispered to Crash.:~:

“We’re out of here, Crash. I’m getting you out of here.”

:~:To Chayne.:~: “We need a car. Now. Do you know where the road is? I don’t get out much.”

[Eevee]

"No…no sympathy. Sympathy is for the Devil, is it not? I don't look like the devil, Eevee, now do I?"

Eevee grinned faintly, a slight curving of pale lips usually reserved for the commencement of a new “procedure” dreamt up by the doctor. Grey eyes fairly dancing with anticipation, she tossed back a few dark, errant curls from her face and grinned again.

“Devil’s daughter, maybe. Prettier, more cunning…and a snap with sin.”

Edging over to the wall of monitors as she continued to skim those papers entrusted to her earlier by Berlin, Eevee slipped a pair of fashionable, dark-rimmed glasses from her pocket and adjusted them on the slim bridge of her nose. The only other adornment, of course, was the understated silver ring in her right nostril; though a piercing may have been considered unprofessional in her “official” line of work, Eevee enjoyed a plethora of other, “unprofessional” embellishments to her person—to accompany the electrifying amount of liberty both Berlin and the pair’s mysterious benefactor provided her with.

"And you look nothing like that stuffy Mephestopiles, dear. Besides, I don't deal in contracts. We take their blood and give them nothing in return. They're volunteers, after all...”

Before pushing the intercom button to Sadie’s room, Eevee allowed herself a soft giggle. Mephistopheles she was not; his love interest, maybe, should the dashing demon fancy an impossibly wicked mortal woman…but the horned creature himself, she was not. Grinning, Eevee flashed Berlin a conspiratorial grin.

“Think ‘ol Meph’s the dating type, Boss?”

Allowing her grin to linger just a bit longer before snapping back to ice-cold mode, she resumed her earlier stance and pressed down on the small, black button…speaking in a clipped voice to welcome her first Ghost.

“You’re awake. Good. Is the room cool enough?”

Her devilish smile positively begged for an answer.

[Bianca Bartlett]

*Bianca rubbed her eyes and blinked rapidly as they began to water from the harsh glare of the midday sun. Standing on the top step of the stairs that led up to her motel room, Bianca took her time looking around as she had not had the chance to view her surroundings in the dead of the night when they had arrived. They had slept later then they had intended, due in part to the fact that they were exhausted from the escape, but also largely due to the fact they had spent most of the night exploring their new role as lovers. For Bianca it was a strange and foreign world, one that she felt slightly more secure in now that she knew Derek loved her and would kill to protect her.

Stretching her hands up and over her head, Bianca tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder as her blue eyes continued to look around. She saw a small café called “Rosies’” not far from the motel and she smiled nervously as she turned and walked back into the motel room.

Derek was still asleep, his naked body sprawled out on the side of the bed that he had claimed, his arm reaching out for her, even in his sleep. Bianca paused to bend over and kiss him softly on the forehead as she reached over to the bedside table and selected a ten dollar note from the small pile of money they had. Dressed in a pair of jeans that were only one size too big and a tight black singlet that was one size too small, Bianca was grateful for the bag of clothes that Derek had stolen from the car in the parking lot the night before. Slipping on her own shoes, she left the room quietly, closing the door behind her. The walk to the shop proved uneventful, and she did not notice the blue car parked on the side of the street.

She had only planned on being a few minutes, just long enough to get some breakfast for them both and perhaps some coffee. “Rosey’s” was clearly the most busiest café she had ever seen though as it took quite a long time for the waitress to notice the quiet girl standing at the back of the large crowd. Finally, after a good half an hour wait, Bianca returned to the motel room with a large paper bag in one hand and a tray containing two cups of coffee in the other. Balancing the coffee on her knee while she tucked the bag under her arm, she hoped that Derek had not woken while she was gone as she turned the doorknob, opened the door and stepped inside. *

[Rayn]

Chayne's ears perked up when he heard the faint and slightly muffled cry for help. Indeed, it did sound like Athalia, and he saw Tanasha's eyes flash when she heard the Angel's voice. Ta was gone in a beautiful blur of golden yellows and dark reds, and Chayne hastened to follow. For an exhausted pair, they both held an amaizing virtue of stamina.

Speeding toward Athalia's voice, he screeched to a halt before the fallen Angel. The sight was horrifying and he felt his rage start to boil again. The creamy, white skin of Athalia had been marred by countless numbers of red pinpricks from the syringes she so unluckyily fell upon, and she looked so pitiful and defenseless lying on the ground the way she was. He felt his breath being caught in his chest as he noticed a few syringes still remained distilled in her immobilized body, and he rushed forward to remove them slowly and gently. With each one he pulled out, a twitch escaped him as he saw the needles pull upon the skin before dislodging themselves completely. Glancing at Tanasha, who had lowered her blaze of fire to a cherry-like redness, he saw the infuriated expression on her face as she knelt down gently to pick up her injured Angel. He stepped back quickly to allow her to carry Athalia while he kicked aside the fallen syringes.

Seeing the strain on Ta's face wanted him to help her, but he knew better than to come in between a crazed woman and her best friend. Her eyes swept across the scenery before them and they fell upon a small grove of trees.

"I have no fucking idea where the road is. The bastards blindfolded me when they brought me into this damned place." he replied while jerking his finger behind him.

"There has to be a parking lot for the staff though and I know how to hotwire a car" he added.

He walked fastpaced along with the strained Tanasha toward the trees, hoping they would get out of there alive.

[† The Jaxness †]

Cutting through the madness of silence in the room was a voice, one that held an air of authority and command as she sat on the steele ledge. It hadnt come from any particular direction, and there wasnt a speaker visible for it to come through. It was just.... there. The speaker's knowledge that she was awake led her to believe she was under some sort of surveillance, be it by a camera or not. Hell, if anything, the voice atleast had a sense of humor, asking of the room was cool enough. Parasych Park's employees in charge of supervision werent very skilled in their jobs. She had damned near come close to escaping. Had it not been for Lord Fattington going all Animal Planet, she could have slipped right between the doors of this place.

But since she had not escaped and was now imprisoned in the bright quarters of containment, she decided to lighten her mood and make the best of the situation. It had been awhile since they had let her converse with other people. The rec room didnt really count, as it had been filled with drooling wackos who's only plans for each day were to play chess and hope that the day's menu of slop tasted better then before. Nope, not her. She had better ways to spend her time. Her advanced train of thought was more focused on how she could subdue her cravings to cause pain among her watchers. Letting her desires take over was not an option. So in order to keep herself sane duing the rest of her stay, she had to give in to the impulse of screwing right back with their heads.

"Cool enough? Why, how nice of you to ask."

She had been sure to throw an evil smirk after the sentence as she glanced about the room, trying to pinpoint where the speaker's vision might be coming from.

"I am quite comfortable, thank you. And I must say, I just love what you'v done with this room. The whole 'hospital' theme is very welcoming, and adds to the genius decor of this loony bin. But if I could make a single request? The food served prior to my current situation was atrocious and I would take a much greater liking to that of some French cuisine or quite possibly some fettucini alfredo, if you dont mind. Oh, and do remember to include a glass of red wine. Would be such a waste to eat on sleeping taste buds, now, wouldnt it?"

[Athalia Mischavitch]

Athalia was semi-conscious, she knew what was going on around her, but her body simply wouldn't move, it wouldn't obey a single command. All she could manage was to sink her head into Tanasha's neck and gently grasp onto a fold of her best friends hair. Tanasha's body was warm, warmer than any normal healthy body should be. She heard Chayne's voice and Athalia could feel his desperation, it stirred something in her chest.

Athalia lifted her head

"Over there"

She said weakly, she pointed at what looked like a huge metal fence in the distance. It was at least 13 feet tall, not only was the top covered in layers upon layers of razor wire but so was the entire fence, it would be impossible to climb it at all. It hummed softly which probably meant it was also electrified. Inside however were at least 15 different cars. Athalia hadn't seen a car in at least 60 years… they had changed.

Tanasha had always taken care of Athalia, comforted her, believed her story of being a fallen angel when nobody else had, she had defended her, nearly died for her time and time again, her life meant nothing when it came to Athalia's… it was time to repay the many favours. Athalia felt a burst of energy, if it was indeed her own energy or something she had pinched she didn't know, but she struggled against Tanasha for a second, felt the girls worry and guilt wash over her

"You have nothing to be guilty for…"

Athalia said huskily, she placed her bare feet on the ground and looked up at the fence; her long tangled hair was a shambled around her face. She put her arms out of either side of her body, grabbing hold of Tanasha and Chayne tightly

"Don’t let go…"

She said softly, She had never tired this before…. Or had she? Her memory was fuzzy, she had a dream or a vision of it once, or was it really a memory, only god himself knew. Athalia concentrated and suddenly within the girl, something began to glow a brilliant golden colour, it was the same colour that appeared in the air when Athalia used her very limited telekinesis. Slowly Athalia began to lift off the ground. In the distance the sound of wing beats could be heard, but looking back there were no wings present. Athalia was out of it, she wasn't even sur if she was lifting her companions or not, she was just trying to get enough lift to move over the fence. Her feet dangled below her. She could see the fence, see above the fence.

They were over, they began to sink fast, at the last 5 feet Athalia let it go and she fell to the ground, hopefully with her friends on the other side. But that was it for Athalia she could hold onto consciousness any longer. She once again passed out, her head resting against Athalia, the golden light gone.