Triste shook her head, her jaw tensing. "No. Nobody's responding." Her right hand closed into a tight fist. For years now, she'd been used to having constant communication with the Federation. The silence that was permeating her head, interrupted only by the list of possible scenarios she was running through, was deafeningly loud and uncomfortably disquieting.
She looked at Vergil as they walked. "We're on our own... for now, at least. I don't understand, Kalis is trying to find his way to the Cataract as well - how would he be able to find the time to find our headquarters too, and then launch an attack as well?" She bit her lip. "Something's wrong... I don't like this. We've got to move faster. We need to find the waypoints now."
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Blinking at the darkness in which the catwalk vanished into, Axel gulped and looked back longingly at the door leading to the public area. It seemed to promise safety... but he knew how much more likely it was for guards to be patrolling the hallways. Running a hand across his chin, he turned back and tried to smile encouragingly at Soren. "Hey, come on... you didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" Stepping past him, he clapped him on the shoulder lightly. "It'll be fine..."
Stepping out onto the metal grating, his shoes clinked lightly, the sound echoing lightly and then disappearing into the dark. From below came the faint sounds of rattling machinery. It sounded a long way down. Gulping again, Axel's tail drew close against himself anxiously as he took another few nervous steps forwards. "See? It's... it's completely fine..." he called back, his voice oddly wavering.
Axel squeezed past Marita, whose phone light could do barely anything against the gloom encroaching on all sides. Moving up to Lily, he leaned in to whisper. "Hey, I... I don't want to scare the others... I mean, we've all gotta be calm, but... Well, we still have no idea where Vergil and Triste are. If they're, ah, not alive anymore, we need to get out as soon as we can..." He shrugged, though in the dark Lily probably couldn't see it. "Think we could stow away on one of those cruise ships?"
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Rio watched, wide eyed, as Flora cracked Foley's back. "That was kind of gross," he shuddered, turning back to look across the beach to the sea. Flora skipped past into his line of sight, asking where Nairda was. "What d'ya mean? He's right..." Rio started to point to where he'd seen Nairda only a second ago, but he was gone. "Huh..." And where was Emilena? The two of them were nowhere to be seen.
All of a sudden, from further up the beach the was a low rumbling. "What the shit... hang on, I'll go check it out," Rio said, getting to his feet and starting to push his way cautiously through the thin layer of undergrowth between them and where the noise had come from. Large green leaves crackling as he made his way through, he reached the other side and halted. The beach continued on past the undergrowth. Just a short distance up, Emilena was on her knees at the foot of what looked like a collapsed cliff. She tossed up a long, thing object, and Rio saw Nairda, standing at the top, reach out and deftly snatch it from the air. Her words drifted across to Rio, something about not losing it. But when Rio looked up again, Nairda was gone. Emilena must have realised this too, because he could hear her shouting Nairda's name. And her voice... was she crying?
After standing awkwardly for a few moments, Rio stepped out and approached her slowly, quietly. He could gather that Nairda had left the group, for whatever reason. Emilena clearly wasn't taking it well. When he was right behind her, Rio reached out and gently touched her shoulder - being on her knees, it was within easy reach for him. "Hey, he'll okay, Emi. He's one of the faggiest douchebags I've ever met, but he's still kind of tough." Rio shrugged. "He can take care of himself."
