What Lovely Specimens. PLOT

[Kirien Melantha]

The poor man whom Kirien had targeted looked nothing more than a bloody bag of flesh with legs. She continued hacking away at him, concentrating so fully on utterly destroying every part of him, that she hadn't realized that he was long dead.

Stephens' shouting sounded far off and hazy, but as soon as she realized that he had spoken the word retreat, she turned, searching for the owner of the voice. Her hands and front were soaked with blood, and she gave him a cheery smile that didn't fit the situation at all.

"I didn't say you could go." She told him, elated and bloodthirsty. She took two bullets, one in the side, and one in the back, before she took cover, stealing one of Scythe's toys away, and, with her arms under his, used him as a shield. She growled at the would-be imposing man, and pursued him like a starved animal, her human shield protecting her from his gunfire.

[morg]

With no grate to stop her, Morgan quickly hoisted herself into the duct. The girl muttered as she wiggled along the narrow space, glad she'd watched a few crime movies.

"And people say that television rots the brain," she muttered, chuckling slightly. With all the noise, she saw little reason to pretend to be quiet. Besides, everyone and their brother had to have heard her beating the grate in.

At last she came to the lighter grate, and shifted around in the duct. Grunting, she lashed out with both feet, easily dislodging it. However, she also fell shortly after.

Fortunately, her direction meant that she was destined to collide with the nearby scientist. To ensure this happening, she lashed out with both legs, flailing mid-air.

Kung-fu movies.

[aaron]

Aaron stole glances at Kiri every now and then, not sure what to do when the pace of her voice started to get more frantic, quicker. Suddenly, and faster than Star could react, Kiri's hand was torn away from his, and she was big and he was small. Star hated the size difference. He saw in painstaking detail every tear that fell from Kiri's face, her twisted expression of pure anguish.

[blue]"LOCKE!"[/blue]. The one word sent Star pinwheeling back into a wall.

Star yelled as loud as he could in his tiny form. "Kiri, stop!"

But she was gone.

And he was alone.

Underground, in a dark place.

Star reverted into his large form, took a few halting steps, then shivered. His clothes-glamour shimmering and flickering until he was curled up into a ball, naked.

It was assumed that Kiri needed him, but in truth she was the only one to keep him stable.

[Raelena St. John]

Constant healing, some shifting, and being drained by a demon had all caused Rae's energy to start waning. When Cylo released her hand, she was actually thankful for it. Her body could still keep up well enough, especially if she kept managing to stay out of fights. Of course, that wasn't very likely: the lycan couldn't avoid a fight... unless there were lots of bullets, apparently.

"Ye better be able ta bloody walk," grunted Rae. She shifted to get between Cylo and most of the fight, wanting him to be able to focus on getting back to his feet. Besides, the demoness and the dragons were doing well enough on the baddies without Cylo's or Rae's help.

"Mebbe ye should tap some o' th' baddies," suggested Rae, glancing over her shoulder. "Better then drainin' us. I disnae mind bein' ye battery a few times, but ye cannae do tha' all th' time. M'lass be angry if'n she has ta carry me."

Rae looked around for Eryk, finally locating the smaller werewolf in all the chaos. Nodding, she started whispering directions, counting on his hearing and their connection for him to notice.

"Try an' get around th' fight. We need ta be lookin' fir th' wee Fae lass an' th' jailbirds, nae fightin' 'ere. they should be focusin' on us, so ye should be able ta get through... jus' avoid guns..."

she then looked back at Cylo. "Ye oop yet or wha'?"

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke had been walking down the hallway when he saw Morgan jump out of the vent, and smash one of the scientists outside a door. Leave it to her to rescue herself, damsel in distress for nobody.

He was almost ready to run forward and try to help her with the last of his strength when something caught his ears.

[blue]"LOCKE[/blue]

That was....no, there was no way, it couldn't be...she could not possibly be here, how, why? Was she captured?!

Locke's body rejuvenated itself, she sounded tortured, it was a scream...what were they...what were they doing to her?!

The image that drove him mad before flew into his mind again and he shook his head hard, turning and running in the direction of the shout, which happened to be away from Morgan. He reached the first corner and turned around it, to almost crash face first into the very person he sought. That would all depend on her ability (or inability) to stop.

The scientists next to Morgan that was still standing seemed momentarily stunned that someone had dropped from the ceiling, and turned towards her. He now had his side to the door and had his head turned to face her. He started reaching for something quickly.

[eryk]

A wolfish grin slid across his muzzle as his alpha started whispering. Tail high he didn't turn toward her but his ears perked at the sound of her voice. He hadn't much liked that boy feeding off his alpha but he'd deal with that later. Next time he'd be the food. He gave a snarl then keeping low to the ground Eryk laughed mentally. This lycan had been built for speed, but not as fast as the red headed fellow. He was still pretty fast.

Eryk kept to the walls as he sped along dodging the rampaging dragons, and axe girl. He leaped over a wounded guard and was down the hall in a flash. Someone might have spotted him, might follow him, but he was pretty sure they were more concerned with the massive war dragon promising their deaths. Or the psychopathic, blood lusted female with the sharp weapon. Did she carry that hing everywhere?

Focusing back on his mission that Rae had given him he made his way through the halls trying to pick out a young girl'svoice.

[morg]

Morgan wasn't about to let a scientist involved in kidnapping her to reach for anything. She barely waited to gather herself, instead springing to her feet. Whirling, she brought her foot up to roundhouse kick the scientist's face. If that didn't work, she'd follow with another kick, then slide forward, employing martial arts she'd actually bothered to study.

Once the learned individual was down, assuming he was, Morgan would begin searching him, looking to see what exactly he'd be pulling out, or key cards... or weapons. Morgan was willing to take just about anything at the moment.

She could just hear a familiar voice screaming. She looked up, grinning at the noise. "Sounds like a rescue party's on the way..."

[Garion DeLuse]

Garion was about to run in the other direction when he saw the scientists blocking their path. And then a miricale descended in the form of Morgan Cavan to squish an unwitting scientist.

"Morgan, are you alrig-"

Somewhere out of the corner of Garion's eye, Locke turned around and ran for reasons he could not comprehend. "Locke! LOCKE!" The blue haired boy could run "You! Follow him!" Garion barked frantically at Matt, frustrated at Locke's stupidity. Garion would follow and yell at Locke himself, but he was tired, and Matt had longer legs.

Garion turned just in time to see a glint of... something come out of the scientist's pocket. "Morgan..!" he said warningly, tilting is head. He waned to conserve his strength for an emergency.

[Kiri Honeywater]

Not really paying attention to where she was going she collided with something. Falling to her bottom she seemed to be knocked out of her frantic mindset. Enough to realize many things at once. One Star wasn't with her, two that something had been a someone, and that someone had blue hair. Eyes instantly filling with salty tears she leaped for him.

"Locke!" Her arms outstretched she went to tackle that adorable, loving, amazing boy of hers. "Iwassoveryworried. Ithoughtyouweredead! ThevoicesIheard. Thepain,thesorrow,yourvoice. Everythingwassohorrible. I'msogladyou'reokay." And on and on and on...Tears rushed in torrents down her face in relief of finally finding him.

Little did she know what had become of Star, what mess she had left behind. Selfish, panic did that to people. They did o forget their friends. The ones who'd helped them through the darkness. The ones often left behind.

[matt]

Matt groaned and slapped a palm to his forehead when Locke took off running. Didn't that guy see any zombie movies? When you were in a group, you had to stay in the group. Never wander off, or leave anyone behind, because the first guy who goes off on his own is the first guy to die!

He was torn between rushing to help Morgan and running after Locke. His chivalrous nature urged him to help the girl, especially when the scientist she'd dropped on reached for something that could be a weapon. But she'd more than proven she could take care of herself, from interrogating the scientists to performing martial arts on them, and Locke was wounded, and probably not thinking clearly.

He was about to tell Garion to stay with Morgan - splitting the more worn-out members of their party into two groups was the best decision he could make - when the boy told him to follow Locke. He gave a nod in agreement, muttered a "Yeah, see ya," and bolted off after Locke.

[Locke F. Herald]

Locke felt something collide with him, and stumbled back. He would have fallen down, but whatever hit him wasn't too tough, it was only the short cry of surprise that made his eyes open as he looked down, at the clump of blond hair that now jumped at him. He didn't have the strength to support her, and fell to the ground, Kiri atop him. She was crying and sobbing into his chest, and he felt like doing the same, but he had to be the strong one. How she got here, and what she was talking about, he didn't know, but he had to move. This place wasn't safe.

"Shhh, I'm ok. I'm ok, we're all ok. But we need to get out of here...." Something occurred to him, as he tried to sit up. How did she get in here?

Looking at her, he dismissed that, she probably didn't remember. Locke merely stroked her hair and tried to coax her back to her feat. "I'm ok, now that you're here. Now lets get out of here."

He tried hard to smile, to be strong. He noticed that the cuts of his were marring her clothes, with blood....

[Admin]

By now, the center was little more than organized chaos. They had not been anticipating an attack of this magnitude, and clearly they'd underestimated the abilities of both the captives and the rescuers. By now, they were just desperate to maintain a minimum amount of losses.

Stephens began barreling through the halls, having managed to more or less escape the main fight with his skin intact. Only those men who were directly in the grasp of either Kirien or Scythe remained, and those were more desperate to flee then to fight. No one wanted to deal with the mad power expressed by these individuals.

The huge black man ran past the elevator, and the young boy crouched there. Stephens only had one mission in mind now: find the Director.

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

The Director was determined to make things as smooth as possible. He'd already ordered a retreat, and his various underlings were scrambling away from the entrance the invaders had found. By now several had probably escaped, taking important research with them.

That was what the Director wanted.

He himself casually strode through the halls, eying the chaos with apparent disinterest. So they'd underestimated these people once. It would not happen again.

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

Niplik's eyes fluttered open, and the scrawny scientist sprang to his feet. He soon collapsed back down, moaning and rubbing his head. Apparently the little brats had done a number on him. And it looked like everyone was retreating now.

Niplik was intelligent enough to start running. He joined the throng, praying that he wouldn't be held accountable for what was going on...

[Kiri Honeywater]

Nodding to Locke she sat up rubbing at her tears only to find something wet rubbed back. Kiri lowered her hand to find blood on her dainty hand. Eyes going wide she looked to Locke in horror.

"Who did this to you?" A little more together she saw him, truly saw him. Taking it all in she felt her bottom lip quiver, but with a harsh intake of breath she stiffled more tears. This was not the time or place for this. They needed to focus on getting out of this horrid place.

She stood and held out her hand to him. Her hand, holding someone's hand. Why did that make her mind feel fuzzy? "Star! Oh, no!" Whipping around she stared in horror down the hallway. He wasn't there. She'd left him. Left him alone in this nightmare.

"Oh...No...I'm horrible. I left him. I left him." Kiri turned back to Locke tears flowing anew. "Help me. I have to find him. He helped me so much. He saved me, and stayed with me." And I abandoned him.

[aaron]

Star's pupils were dilated. Fear ran through him like venom, turning him into an animal. He couldn't take it anymore. The whir and smell of machinery, deafening him. The weight of the ground above him pressing onto his chest. The artificial light worse than no light at all.. and he was so, so alone. He was completely unaware of his fears until now, when they all attacked him at once.

He had to escape. He must escape. He shivered, darting around and crawling on his hands and knees. Escape. That was all that mattered. Escape.

He slowly crawled into the labyrinth of hallways, looking for a way out, a skylight, or a friend.

Little did he know he was crawling away from any of these.

[Eve Stone]

The dragoness dropped her latest victim before turning around to gaze at the wreckage. Three beings had caused this. Shivering she started walking away from it leaving the other two to have their fun. Eve headed for Rae her arms swinging losely at her sides. She'd seen the grey wolf running off into the hallways, not really knowing why, but thinking he knew what he was doing.

"Now what?" She hitched a hand onto a hip as she stared at the people who'd stayed back from the fight. That number was very...low. They hadn't come with some great army, but they sure cleared the scene like one. Her eyes went to Cylo then to Rae, and repeated the sequence until her eyes shown with sharp anger.

The dragon stepped close to the lycan as if creating a wall between her girl friend and the red headed speed boy. That made her feel better and she reaxed visibly. A scream brought her attention to the fight in front of her as Scythe did something rather nasty to one of the enemies.

"That man is sick. I don't trust him." She whispered to Rae then glanced down at Cylo hoping he'd heard. "Once you fight with someone you learn things. That man gets off on it. I'm starting to think the little axe weilder does too."

Eve made it a point to look at Cylo with that comment since the two looked like they were a thing and all. "He licked the blood off his fingers for heavens sake, Rae."