Racing the Storm

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

"I guess they didn't want us dead," murmured Lily. "Only distracted..."

She snapped her head up. "Have any of us seen Vergil and Triste since the drugging? They didn't even come to visit us in the hospital! We need to check and make sure they're okay!"

-----------------------------------------

Flora's eyes lit up. "You're Emi's son? I should have guessed!"

"No no no...for god's sake," Emilena cut her off. "To answer Rio's much more intelligent question, we are going to make our way to the beaches and rent a boat. Then we'll see what we can do on the deep blue sea. Foley, you're in charge of navigation, do you think you could map out the currents and wind directions to figure out where Nairda most likely washed ashore?"

Foley's mouth went agape. "...No? Why in the nine levels of hell would you think I could do that?"

Emilena waited silently for the punchline.

"...but I bet if I asked my buddies online we could find someone who can," he concluded.

"Great. That's what I want to hear." Emilena led the way towards the non-checkpoint exits. "Any questions?"

"Do you think you ever actually could be a mother?" Flora asked excitedly. "Have some cute little cubs with a dashing gentleman...or equipment-compatible gentlewoman?"

Emilena wrinkled her nose. "I assure you I'm as infertile as they come. Thank god."

She glanced at Rio and almost added, "No offense, Rio," but figured he knew what she meant. Truth be told, he was significantly more likeable than she thought any child ever could be.

[Nick22]

Rose stirred in her hospital bed, and soon realized she was strapped down. ' Where.. am .. I?' she said in a tired and strained voice. "In the medical wing at Voltaic Center' the Giraffe nurse said " Good to see you are awake Miss Rose.." My drink.. was spiked ' Rose muttered ' Yes,with a very high dose of Biproxytol. your body  had some Resistance to the drug, indicating past use ' yes I was heavily addicted to the stuff, but had been sober for the past several months.. why do you think someone spiked the drinks?' Rose asked the nurse. " well, whoever did it either knew a lot about you, or knew that biproxytol is one of the worlds most addicting drugs- its lethal in high doses to those who have not used it before- and wanted to get even for something, who knows."
 Marie stirred a few minutes later and moaned' gods , i feel like i was walking barefoot over a course full of red hot coals. " the nurse turned to her ' ah good, you're awake Miss Marie. the toxin is out of your system and you should be free to go in an hour or so.' Marie sighed as she sett;ed back against the pillow.
 The Nurse then went over and unstrapped Marita allowing her to get out of the bed and get to her feet.' Thank you' Marita said ' just have a seat and be quiet for a bit, while i tend to your friends ;' the nurse said as she went over towards Rose and Maries beds.

[bushwacked]

Axel's eyes widened as he took in what Lily said. "Son of a bitch..." What if she was right, if whoever had drugged them had done it in an attempt to get them out of the way to isolate Vergil? Are Kalis' guys behind this? From what he'd seen of them, it was more likely his men would put a bullet through their skull while they slept... but it was the best explanation they had so far.

"Shit... alright, well, if they are okay - if nothing's wrong - they'll probably be in their room, getting ready for when we look for the..." Axel looked around nervously, making sure nobody else walking through the corridor could hear them. "Well, you know." He nodded at Lily and Soren, his tail flicking anxiously. "We should try heading down to the rooms, look for them there."

----------------------------------------------

Rio caught the quick glance Emilena gave him and he looked down at his feet, almost smiling. He kept quiet as they passed the exits and walked up to the artificial beach. As they emerged, Rio squinted his eyes against the glare thrown up from the sun reflecting off the golden sand. Before them, people were stretched out sunbathing, swimming in the ocean or playing in the sand with their friends.

The relaxed, familial atmosphere made Rio feel intensely uncomfortable.

Clenching his hands, he scanned the beach and saw a small dock just up ahead where guests could rent out boats. Hoisting his bag further up his shoulder, he turned to the others and pointed towards the small line of people waiting their turn. "Hey, looks like that's what we need." There was a light impact against the back of his leg, and he turned to see a yellow beach ball rolling to a halt near his foot. A short way away, a young child was running towards them. From his excited expression, he clearly expected the ball to be passed back to him. Gathering his strength, Rio kicked the ball as hard as he could, causing it to soar far over the kid's head, fly across the beach and splash down in the sea a fair distance away where it quickly started to float away. The child looked shocked then started to cry, turning and running back to his parents who hadn't seen anything.

--------------------------------------------

Triste clenched her jaw as Vergil stepped forward through the scanner... but he didn't melt into a puddle of gecko goo. She let her breath out slowly, her fist itching to break Jenkins' nose at his chuckle.

Shaking her head, she took a tentative step forwards - and ended up standing next to Vergil, also unharmed. Breathing a sigh of relief, she glanced at Vergil. "Alright, well... it looks like they areaccurate." Still, she wasn't exactly looking forward to any other scanners they'd have to pass.

Glancing up the corridor, Triste gestured then turned and met Jenkins' eyes. "Shall we?" She was keeping a neutral expression, but inside she was uneasy. In such an enclosed environment - and without their weapons - any potential attacks would leave them especially vulnerable.

[Pterano]

"Of course..." Jenkins responded, smirking as he led them onward towards the facility. They were in more like a tunnel now it seemed, as it ran from the hotel into the mining facility. As they entered into the station, a faint hum could be heard from deep within, and the dirty and grimy corridors were a stark contrast to the cleanliness of the resort they'd just come from. Red lights cast sickly glows on the walls, and before long, Jenkins led them into what appeared to be a break area or conference room. This whole area reminded Vergil of old WWII ships' interiors he'd seen pictures of. Spartan and militaristic.

"Have a seat." Jenkins indicated. Vergil sat down, clasping his hands together on the table as a large monitor blinked into life. An older man with a thick gray mustache appeared, staring at them.

"So... these are the two who claim they can fix the problem?" This must be Grierson, the station's head of security. "I hope for both your sakes, you're not full of shit."

"Ahem... as a matter of fact... we aren't." Vergil stated flatly, looking at Grierson as best he could. "We know you've been having problems with your mining operation beneath the waves... seems the entire ocean is turning out to attack your deep-sea mining..." Grierson twitched a tad at this.

"There's no way you'd know that... how did you find out?"

"I have my sources... just like you." Vergil responded simply, narrowing his eyes. "Anyway I figure we can cut a deal." the gecko stated.

"A deal? What kind of deal?" Grierson asked suspiciously.

"We handle your little problem, and in return, we get access to something you're sitting on top of down there. It has no value to you, or anyone in your organization. We get full access to it, and the use of one of your deep-sea submersibles to assist in getting down there. We clear up your problem, it's ours, deal?" Vergil asked.

Grierson narrowed his eyes. "What exactly is it?"

"Not as valuable as what you're mining, take my word for it. It's a map..."

"Pfft... like what a treasure map?" Grierson asked sarcastically.

"Something like that... but I get to access it... and your defenses don't blow us out of the water."

"You realize there's sensitive equipment down there, right? Proprietary mining equipment registered solely to Judaken Industries."

"Sure I know." Vergil answered. "I'm not interested in any of it. I'm just interested in the map." he assured him.

"It's suicide heading down there... three of our teams have already been taken out, and the machinery itself is being threatened." Grierson explained.

"Well then you got nothing to worry about. Still... I know you're on the verge of total collapse... so you either take your chances with us, or you risk your entire operation." Vergil put it simply.

"You know way more than I'm comfortable with about our situation..."

"Perks of what I do." Vergil responded plainly. "I'm here to solve your issue... so you either go with us or you get shut down. What's it gonna be?"

Grierson hesitated a moment here, eyes narrowing again. He sighed. "So you need a submersible?"

"Preferably one capable of defending itself. Deep sea suits would be nice too. We might need to get out." Vergil explained.

"Heh... fine. You're welcome to this stuff. You get whatever it is you're after, and in return, you fix our problem."

"Deal." Vergil stated, smiling here.

"Heheh... cocky little lizard, aren't you? You won't be so cocky when you get down there... anyway, Jenkins will provide you with the equipment you need... I hope the rest of your stay on Voltaic Station will be... superb and relaxing." Grierson commented, his voice dripping with sarcasm, and he cut the video feed.

"Wait here... I'll be back with your permits." Jenkins stated icily, and left the conference room. Vergil grinned at Triste.

"Well that worked. We get access to the waypoint, and see what we can do about solving their problem." he stated. "Pretty brilliant, eh? Oh and if you're concerned they're listening in, don't be. There aren't any microphones in this room." he told her simply, though he showed no visible signs of having scanned the room beforehand.


Varanus rounded the corner, not concerned in the slightest if his quarry had set a trap for him or not. He wasn't Lord Kalis's heir for nothing, after all... fixing her with his beady eyes, he began stomping towards her.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Lily led the way to the receptionist. "Hello, we'd like to know what room our friends are staying in," she smiled warmly.

Receptionist didn't look up. "We don't give out room numbers."

"Can you at least call Vergil Speicher or Triste..." Lily realized she'd never learned Triste's last name. "Just Vergil Speicher, see if he accepts our call."

The receptionist held the phone up, dialing four digits. Lily noticed that Soren was standing in such a way that he should have been able to see what numbers were dialed. "Nope," said the receptionist, hanging up.

"You didn't even say anything!" protested Lily.

"He's not in his room at the moment."

Lily stepped away. "Something weird is going on here..." she murmured. "Axel, could you call the girls and see if they're okay? Soren, did you see what number the receptionist typed in?"

(OOC: The receptionist typed four numbers because in most hotel phones, the first digit is either Pound or Star to indicate an internal call)

---------------------------

Emilena's team zipped out of the docks on a speedy two-person love yacht named the Microcosm.

"Why did we pay for a boat anyway?" asked Foley, who was getting the satellite computer below decks working. "We never pay for, like, anything!"

"We rented it, we didn't buy it!" shouted Emilena over the sputtering engine. Plus when Nairda bitches about having been framed, drugged and thrown overboard, I can use the fact that I paid for a search boat as proof that I still love him, she thought to herself. "How are you on navigation?"

"Good, I got a guy on instant message walking me through this!" The computer had a little map of the ocean that was constantly updating with their location. "With online local weather readings, this thing can calculate our direction and position to within 5 degrees!"

Emilena wasn't stupid; she knew that five degrees off was pretty bad when it came to cartographic navigation. "You know the boat came with this telescope thing that keeps track of direction, right?" Emilena pointed her thumb at the glove compartment.

"Yeah, but that would involve looking outside, and it's a full moon right now..."

"What are you talking about? It's the middle of the--" Emilena looked out the windscreen and instantly averted her eyes. "Ohhh...." On the front deck, Flora had taken all her clothes off and was leaning her head over the front bow, panting happily as wind and surf sprayed across her face.

[Serris]

(Voltaic Station)

Soren nodded. He looked around to make sure the receptionist was away. He leaned over to Lily. "She typed in the numbers four-one-five-nine," he whispered.

He then backed off from Lily and looked at Axel. The Human wrung his hands. "Axel, aren't you concerned that whoever poisoned us earlier aboard the ship might try to finish us off?"

----------------

(Falchion)

A gunshot ripped through the air as Marion fired her pistol the moment she saw Varanus's head peek out from behind the corner. It was a shot nearly impossible for a Baseline Human to make, as Marion was practically standing on the sheer steel wall.

She detached her piton and fired another shot further down the hallway, swinging into position near some exposed armored electrical conduits. She activated her grappling spikes and clung to the pillar, concealing herself from her attacker.

[bushwacked]

Axel pressed a hand against his left pocket, and was relieved to feel that his cell phone was still there. Fishing it out, he scanned the area around them, searching for anybody who looked suspicious. He couldn't see anyone who looked out of the ordinary, only crowds of relaxed guests milling around, enjoying their vacation. That didn't exactly mean much, though... knowing who was after them, it wasn't as if they'd make it obvious.

Chewing his lip, Axel turned his head in Soren's direction. "Yeah," he murmured quietly, flicking through speed-dial until he reached Marita's number. "That's one of the reasons why I think regrouping as soon as we can wouldn't be a bad idea. I mean, right now we've got no way of defending ourselves, but at least Vergil's got his... you know..." He waggled his fingers. "Mind stuff." Axel found what he was looking for and hit the dial button. "Just... keep your eyes open," he whispered as he raised the phone, the dialing tone humming in his ear. "If whoever tried to get us is here... which they probably are... it could be any one of these guys."

Someone on the other end picked up. "Marita! It's Axel," he said quickly, his ears perking up. "Me, Lily and Soren are at the reception... look, we can't find Vergil or Triste. Something... something bad might've happened. Just... get Marie and Rose, and get here as quick as you can, okay? We don't think we're safe."

--------------------------------------------------

Rio held on tightly to one of the seats as the small boat raced over the waves, the motion throwing him around uncomfortably. He heard the commotion and leaned forward to see what they were talking about. "What? Why are..." He caught a glimpse of Flora's not-so-lady parts and flinched back, shuddering. "Aw, fucking hell..."

Gritting his teeth, he slid forwards, popped the glove compartment and pulled out the telescope. Standing up unsteadily, Rio clamped a hand onto Foley's shoulder and peered through the device as he scanned the sea's horizon before them. "I... I don't see anything," he muttered, frustrated. Suddenly, a zoomed in image of Flora's business end appeared in his scope. Rio let out a distraught cry.

-------------------------------------------------

Triste nodded at Vergil. "Not a bad plan," she admitted, standing up and looked around the room. The dark, claustrophobic area really was a stark difference to the luxury of the hotel. "Although... Vergil, do you have any idea how many of those things're down there?" she asked, turning around. "Fighting these things underwater... it sounds like we'll be at a big disadvantage here."

She shrugged, leaning back against the wall and listening out for Jenkins' returning footsteps. "If we can manage to get access to the waypoint without drawing attention, might be safer to just leave. Do we really need to go out of our way to help these people?"

[Pterano]

"I was thinking no... we don't." Vergil shook his head here. "I'm not interested in finding out the reason they're having problems down below. As far as I'm concerned, they're probably causing it anyway. Looking at the Federation's reports, Judaken started a new mining technique last month, and I'm willing to bet it's causing the ocean to go crazy. They're using new sound waves to blast into the ocean floor... the frequency of which may in fact be causing everything in the ocean to attack the mining facilities. They're either too stupid to see it... or they're leading us into a trap; I'm willing to bet it's the former, for what can be gained from trapping us? They don't even know who we are." he commented.

"As for fighting at a disadvantage... what choice do we have? The waypoint is down there after all, and we need all five to locate Torment's Cataract. Hopefully their submarines at least have decent armament, and once we get down there, I'm making straight for the waypoint... unless of course you think we should shut down their machines and see if that quiets the ocean any, giving us a clear run to the waypoint? Naturally that'd most likely turn Judaken against us, but then it's a choice of fighting their mercs or fighting the ocean itself. We fight the ocean we don't have to worry about our extraction after we're done... we fight their mercs our return to the station might not as peaceful. What do you think?" he asked her here, getting up as well and resting his hand on the back of the chair.


Varanus was ready, his lightning reflexes causing his reaction to be perfectly timed. He sliced through Marion's bullet with his blade as if it were nothing, and began charging down the hall now even as she withdrew. "You aren't getting out of this alive!" he called out after her. "But if it's a game you want to play, so be it!" he yelled, now switching over to hunting mode as made for the pillar.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Lily looked at the people around her, spooked by Axel's warning. She tried to read their minds or something, but her psychic powers were orders of magnitude below Vergil's; the only thing she managed to sense was that the man who limped past them on crutches had a pained leg.

"All right," she said softly. "We need to go check on Vergil as soon as possible." She led the way to the room number Soren indicated as fast as possible. As she walked, her imagination ran wild with worry, until she finally reached the door gripped with paranoia.

"Vergil!" she shouted, banging on the door. "Are you all right? Please answer!"

---------------------------------------
"No, you've got to turn it on," Foley tried to explain how to use the telescope. "There's that button on the left that starts the....uhh, oh let me do it."

He clicked the telescope on and turned a dial while scanning the horizon. "Okay, computer was a bit off on direction, compensating. Oh hey, thing can even locate upcoming atmospheric phenomenon, check this out."

He plugged the telescope's USB10 into the computer, which begin refreshing. After a few seconds of whirring:



"Flora!" Emilena shouted out the window angrily, making the folf jump. "Get your ass out of the damn way of the--!"

"--Hold it..." interrupted Foley. His face had taken an ashen pallor. "That's not Flora. That's a tropical storm. And it's coming right at us."

[Nick22]

Marita felt her phone ring and flipped the screen open, noticing the number was Axels " Hi Axel.we're recuperating in the medical wing . We'll be out in a couple minutes. We .. well we were lucky. that dose of biproxytol would have been fatal in minutes to anyone not accustomed to the drug. Marie's only alive because the docs got the antidote into her in time. I don't know where Vergil or Trieste are, but if I had to guess they're somewhere on this ship trying to get access to the waypoint."
- Rose was unstrapped by the nurse and got out of bed. she took a few deep breaths, she still had a strong aftertaste in her mouth, but once she got moving, that would hopefully dissipate.
 Marie was the last to be unstrapped and got out of bed. Marita  paused in responding to Axel to slide the nurse a credits card for their bill. ' the credits passed muster and the nurse nodded ' Alright, you three are free to go. I've got two Bison and a  Leopard coming in here. food poisoning, bad shellfish , I think.' Rose and Marie hobbled over to Marita. ' Axel, we're on our way. we should be there in about five minutes. Marita Out.' Marita hung up the phone and headed out of the room.
' Who do you think put the stuff in our drinks?' Rose asked as the girls began headed down the hallway. ' well, I'm not sure entirely, but if I had to guess, I'd say Emilena. She blackmailed me in Lanthae into assisting in her little investigation, not something you do to a friend. She knew that you and I had been in a relationship and had both used biproxytol, and used you to get me to do her bidding." That little bitch' Roses eyes narrowed.' So you think she knew what dose of the stuff is harmful and slipped us some?" Her , or her associates.' Marita said.' You're not 100% sure though' Marie said, she was leaning on Rose for support, as she walked down the hallway. the trio turned and  reached a more crowded hallway. a sign pointed to the receiption area, which was on their left, two hallways down.

[Serris]

(Voltaic Station)

The hair on the back of Soren's neck curled as his heart raced. A lean Krait holding a spray bottle of cleaner and wiping down an ornate mirror. A young Human woman clad in a bathing suit and chatting on her cell phone and with a cocktail in hand as she loped down the carpeted hallway.

Ever since the incident aboard the Breman II, everything began to look like a threat.

He had offered to wait in the reception area for Marita, Rose and Marie while Axel and Lily went to get Vergil. As soon as he made that offer, he began to feel nauseous. What if the duo had walked into a trap. He took a breath to calm himself down and munched on a roll procured from the buffet (the chance of ingesting drugged food from a buffet where literally hundreds of people ate was almost nil. At least, if they were trying to target him specifically.)

"Marita! Marie! Over here!" he exclaimed, waving his hand in the air.

------------------

(Falchion)

Marion swore as Varanus approached. His hyperfast reflexes meant that shooting him was impossible ó unless he was distracted. Luckily, her exoskeleton and prosthetic limbs granted her reflexes that were well above the Human baseline.

The Human withdrew an spherical object from her flying frame's integrated backpack. A stickyfoam grenade. Upon detonation, it would spew out a liquid adhesive that reacted with air to form a hard, glassy substance. She pressed the trigger mechanism and lobbed it in Varanus's direction (thanks to her helmet's enhanced hearing picking up his footsteps). The second the grenade touched the ground, a large burst of viscous clear liquid exploded forth.

[bushwacked]

Triste chewed her lip for a second, mulling it over. Finally, she looked across at Vergil. "Keeping a low profile would be the best option... We don't exactly want a shootout in a place like this." She shrugged. "Alright, how about we assume that we're following your plan. That we find the waypoint and deal with whatever's down there."

"But," she held up a finger, "If it looks like the situation's too risky, we abandon helping Judaken and just focus on getting those coordinates. If it comes to it, I'd rather fight an enemy when I can stand on dry land." She smiled drily. "And I really, really don't want to die at the bottom of the sea."

------------------------------------------------------

Axel stood back as Lily pounded on the door, his stomach twisting when nobody answered. "Nothing? Hang on, let me try." Sliding up beside her, he rapped sharply on the door. "Vergil? Triste? Come on, if you guys are there you've gotta answer!" Silence.

Grimacing, he turned to lily. "Shit... I don't know how long it's been since we arrived, but it can't have been too long, can it? So why... I mean, if nothing was wrong, wouldn't they have tried to find us?" Visions of Vergil and Triste shot, stabbed and bludgeoned, lying sprawled in the room beyond started to flash through his mind. "Goddammit..." Axel looked up and down the long hallway they were standing in. A fair distance away, a laughing couple fumbled at their door then fell through - and then Axel and Lily were alone in the corridor. Cameras could be a problem though...

Gesturing for Lily to lean closer, he pressed himself up against the electronic lock through which a card had to be slid to unlock the door, obscuring it from the CCTV. "We need to take a look inside. For all we know, they could be hurt, or..." He swallowed. "We just go inside for a few seconds, just to make sure they're not in there, needing our help, then we leave. At least then we'll know, right?" Axel nodded at her, then surreptitiously gripped the protruding lock and flipped his vision. "Keep an eye out... make sure nobody sees us." Grunting, he twisted the lock and eventually managed to wrench it to the side, exposing the wiring beneath. Staring down at the electricity coursing through the small cables, he made a judgement as to the correct path it should take, and snapping a green and red wire he joined the exposed ends together. There was a small click. Gingerly, Axel tried the handle and to his relief the door started to open inwards.

Glancing at Lily, he gave a shaky smile. "Okay... that wasn't too bad. Let's just get in, check things out, and leave before anyone knows we were there."

In the security room, a small alarm started to buzz.

---------------------------------------------------

Rio blinked. "That's... that's bad, right?" Already, the sea surrounding them had started to get rougher. His gut tightened, the loud voice that was his sense of self-preservation screaming at him to get the hell out of there, now. But if Nairda was close by...

"How long do we have?!" Rio squawked, standing up and desperately renewing his efforts of scanning the sea to spot a floating, doped up figure bobbing around.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

"Call Soren and get him and the girls up here fast!" whispered Lily, who wasn't even sure why she was whispering. She tiptoed into the room. "Vergil?" she called out. "Are you in here?"

Nothing. Her heart leaped into her throat. "We need to find clues on where they've gone!" She began searching the stuff. "I want us all to be back together before....more of us start disappearing...."

------------------------------------

"We don't have time!" Foley snapped. "We have to turn around!"

Emilena hesitated. Outside, the winds picked up, and Flora clutched onto the railings with a yelp to keep from slipping overboard. "No!" Emilena snapped resolutely. "We have to find Nairda! We keep looking!"

Foley pointed his finger incredulously outside. "Look through that?" The sky had grown dark with clouds and rain was now pelting the windshield. "Emi, if we turn around right now I can't guarantee we'll get back in time! Not to mention we lost our internet connection, so if we do anything but turn around we're lost!"

When the boat lurched over a broiling swell, Flora slid down the deck and hit the windshield. Crawling meekly into the cabin, she groaned and proceeded to shake rain out of her fur and coat the others in a fine mist.

"Just...five more minutes!" Emilena pleaded with Foley and the storm. "We can find him! We have to!"

A bolt of lightning struck the ship. Their antenna burst into flames, but almost as quickly evaporated into drenched ash and collapsed the roof on their heads.

[Nick22]

Marita heard Soren call her namre and made her way over towards him ' " Ah Soren. good to see a friendly face. Axel called me just a couple minutes ago, where did he go?' She asked noticing he and Lily were not there.
_ hi Soren " Rose said with a smile ' so i take it we wrent the only ones who drank the spiked drinks huh . good to see you pulled through.
_ Mariota thinks Emilena or her allies were behind that stunt; Marie said. " first we get everyone together then we go look for that pyscho and pay her and her friends back for nearly killing us.

[Pterano]

"There is... something we could try..." Vergil said here thoughtfully now, narrowing his eyes as he folded his arms across his chest and stared at the table. "It'd put a lot of strain on me and might not even work but... I could try and hold off the creatures with my mind... keep them at bay while you piloted the sub and took us right to the waypoint. You'd also have to man the sub's weapons in case I can't hold them all off and some start approaching us. Once we're close to the waypoint, I doubt they'd follow, since if my hypothesis is correct, it's the mining equipment that's driving them insane in the first place."

Looking across at her, he softened. "This way, we get the coordinates, and head back to the surface with a cover story that we found the cause of the problem, but we're going to need more time to fix it. Then we get the hell out of here on the next boat and get on our way." He stated. "What do you think? Shall we try it? Cause I'm with you... we aren't dying underwater."


The security team was pretty swift in responding, as they took theft of personal property very seriously, as they did any intrusion of the security of the station. A few were dispatched with high-powered rifles and riot gear down the hallway, and headed for the room registered to "Mr. and Mrs. Dorrien." As the two searched the room, the security forced headed their way, less than five minutes from the room.


Varanus managed to leap backwards out of the way of the grenade in time, though he wasn't able to catch it with his mind and hurl it back at her. Letting it explode in front of him, he began attacking the barrier and slicing through it with his blade, shattering it on impact. "Buying yourself some time is only prolonging the inevitable!" he shouted at her, hacking his way through as he continued down the hallway.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

As the guards did nothing to mask the sound of their footsteps, Lily heard them coming. "We can't let them take us like they did Vergil and Triste!" she gasped. Grabbing the metal bedside cupboard, she placed it in front of the window and then laid the knife sharpener from the kitchen on the cupboard. "Help me!"

Taking the sofa together, she and Axel rammed it into the knife sharpener, putting all the force of a battering ram onto a single point of the glass.

It was at that moment, as she dizzily regarded the scattered furniture around her prone form, that reality finally clicked and she realized that the window she'd just damaged overlooked the great blue ocean itself. "Uh oh..."

When the security arrived, they were treated to the sight of a spindly web of cracks, and two clearly drugged individuals lying under a window looking more and more like a spider web every second. An instant later, the window shattered, sending an explosion of water and broken glass flowing into the hallway.

--------------------------------------

The tiny boat was thrashed in the torrential rain and battering waves of the tropical storm.

"We just lost left engine!" cried Foley, whose face could not be more pale white. The water in the boat reached to their ankles.

Emilena knew that any hope of finding Nairda was all but gone. "All right, get us back to the station!" she finally conceded.

"Hate to break it to you, but I've been trying to do that for the last ten minutes!" Foley wrestled with the yoke.

With a crash, lightning struck the boat a second time. sparks flew everywhere.

"And that was our other engine!" Foley threw up his hands in defeat. "We're out of control!"

"We're still moving!" Flora pointed out optimistically. The storm was slowly developing into one large wave, and they were nestled securely in the curl.

Trapped in the vengeful grasp of Poseidon, the helpless boat unknowingly hurtled towards the very station it had hoped to reach...

(EDIT: Edited!)

[Pterano]

Vergil headed to his room... or more correctly, their room, since Vergil had booked himself and Triste into the same room, both on a whim and to maintain their cover. The suite was sumptuous, with an upper loft and a lower level with a kitchen, sofas, big-screen TV, and lounge area that looked out onto the expansive window that offered a stunning view of life under the sea. While all hotel rooms were under the water, not all had views of the ocean of course.

(Hate to have you edit your post and tell you that's not possible but... it's not possible. Good effort all the same though. Would've been totally awesome had the hotel rooms NOT been underwater. As it stands, that window's heavily reinforced to prevent the sea from actually entering the room, so yeah)

(Second Edit: Awesome! )

[Pterano]

(Done with permission!)

It was an incredibly stupid move on Lily's part, and it quickly showed as the entire room was flooded, which risked the destruction of the entire station. Normally such a thing would've been impossible, but somehow, they'd pulled it off. But the water rushing in was quickly sealed off, as the station had backups and bulkheads to keep it safe. What might've been a catastrophic flood was quickly contained, and the two culprits were swept out into the hall as the room Vergil and Triste were staying in was sealed off.

Pounding the butts of their shotguns into the flanks of Lily and Axel, the two quickly found themselves cuffed and dragged to their feet. "The hell you two DOING? You realize how many millions' worth of damage you just caused?" the chief of the squad shouted. "Sir we've got potential saboteurs in custody, taking them to lock down now."

Shoving the two roughly out in front of them, the squad began marching them off to the high-security facility deep within the hotel.

[Serris]

(Voltaic Station)

"Axel and Lily went to room four-one-five-nine. They were looking for Vergil," he said.

He then looked around. "Right now, I'm a bit worried that Emilena or her goons got a hold of them. It's been what, twenty minutes since they went down there."

The Human then finished off his roll and handed his dish to a Peregrine Falcon waiter.  to be washed. "Anyways, shall we go down to look for them?"

----------

(Falchion)

Marion swore as her sticky grenade failed. She looked up and noticed that the ceiling was thinne than the bulkheads.

Igniting her plasma blade, she plunged it into the ceiling and swiftly cut a small opening. Boiling coolant hissed out as she pierced a coolant line. Thanks to her helmet's air filtration system and far IR lights, she was unaffected by the cloud of hot vapor. Smirking, she also sliced through the power conduits, throwing off a massive shower of sparks in the process.

Soon, she had cut an opening to the room above and hauled herself up through the hole.

[Nick22]

Better Go look for them then'; Marita said in reply. the girls would eat later , once they felt up to it, for now the more important task was reuniting with everyone.' just hope they didnt get into too much trouble..