Little lost dragon and I

[little lost dragon]

Fren shook her head "I don't blame you Guthrie, normally things that this are only figments of the imagination pieced together by the sub conshus and then displayed in the dream. You though it was a result of the curse breaking, and till now.... that was a sound conclusion." she assured him before sighing and looking around "If... if this copy of Avira is what we are dealing with.... seems your ward is not blocking her though Guthrie, even if the castle does not deem us a threat, it hasn't ordered Avira's copy off us." she said before looking around as the sound of stone moving came from there left. She spun around aiming the flashlight in that direction to find one of the tomb's now open. "I feel the same presents here that I felt in my vision and nightmare." she admitted her weapon powering up. She looked around and sighed before looking at Avira "Sooner we don't need flash lights the better." she admitted.

 

Vita looked around "Will continue to scan the area as we go, will notify if results are found that you do not know of already." he said

[Ryujin13]

"Actually that's easy. She's tracking us by scent." Avira said, tapping her nose with one finger. "Even if the castle doesn't see us on a map its servants can still see us, or more importantly, smell us."

Avira turned and walked over to the right path and aimed her flashlight up it before gesturing for the others.

"C'mon, Fren's right, the faster we get out of here the better." She said, already starting up the stairs.

It took what seemed like hours, though we're actually minutes, to reach the top of the stairs, and by the time they did everyone's legs were aching, except Guthrie and Vita of course.

As Avira came out of the stairwell she immediately moved to the side so that she could cover the room they had arrived in with her pistol, while not impeding the rest of the group from coming up.

the room they came to was just as dark as the tunnels, but bigger. It contained only six tombs, the difference being that the occupants stood as statues instead of decorating the lid. Another difference were the paintings on the walls, six in all, showing each of the occupants at a key point of their history. The final difference was a marble slab at the center of the room which had hundreds of rings carved into its surface, each one inter-woven with the others. Along the outside was writing that none of the group could read, but at the center sat a single book cube.

 

Alina stared at the cube for a moment, then poked Fren's shoulder gently.

"Mom, it's the cube!" She said excitedly before heading towards it.

Guthrie managed to grab Alina's tail as the dragon went by, the way he used to stop her when she was little, which caused Alina to stop.

"Remember what we taught you before we came back, don't touch anything until you're sure it's safe." Guthrie reminded Alina gently.

"I don't see any magic at work on it." He said. "But that doesn't mean it's not something else."

 

(It's like a force field thing. How you want to deal with it is up to you. I'm sure Vita can manage it. Also I'm leaving you in control of dark Avira, this is getting interesting.)

[little lost dragon]

(Just hope I don't blow it lol)

 

Fren narrowed her eye's and tilted her head looking at the cube, She did not see anything besides a more or less decorated room. Her chemical radar showed nothing but that had proven somewhat unreliable in this place. She stood up and slowly entered the room. She kept an eye on the six tombs, knowing sights like her nightmare where real and could be real, she half expected them to open and jump her. She reached the cube and went to slowly grab it while watching for movement then her hand struck a field that jerked her hand away from it. She paused and looked at the cube, the field was invisible to the naked eye, she had her helmet switch its sensor readings and then a small ball of energy being bent into a shield displayed. She sighed and motioned to the others it was safe "Only a shield of some kind around the cubes placement." she concluded. Lowering her weapon she went up to one of the six tombs and looked it over for a possible switch. Vita came in and his D-gun powered up "Vacate the room." he ordered and Fren quickly jumped out seeing the glow rapidly getting brighter. Once the room was empty Vita fired his shot hitting dead on the shield, a flash later a pop sounded a force sent Vita sliding out of the room his feet sending sparks up on the stone as he slid. "Shield removed." he said.

 

Fren went into the room and paused "Yes....." she said before one of her hearts skipped a beat as one of the tombs seemed to just lose its seal and opened a little. "Noting in this place like this is with out a price of some kind of challenge." she said stepping back as what had been inside came out. First sitting up before in a instant the head looking at the intruder, in this case, Fren. It slowly began to crawl out. She made a move to grab the cube but as she did so the zombie thing moved at lightning speed blocking her path to it. She backed up and took aim as it resumed its slow stumble towards her and the door way. Thankfully the door had yet to lock its self..... she hoped this was not some kind of arena challange like the janitor encounter. Most likely, they'd have to beat all 6 corpses. "Walking dead in here." she said a bit freaked about this. How does one kill something already dead?

[Ryujin13]

Avira stood stunned for a few seconds before letting out a laugh and drawing Varren's gun. With practiced ease she began to fire, the slugs from the gun practically vaporizing the targets heads. Within seconds the undead were on the ground and Avira was blowing the vapors from the end of the weapon with a smile.

"Always wanted to be in a zombie movie, guess this place isn't so bad after all."

A grinding noise stopped Avira in her tracks though and made her turn to see the heads of the corpses re-growing and the creatures starting to stand again.

"Now that's more interesting." Avira said, already blasting away.

Once more the undead went down, but no matter how shattered they were, no matter how much they were destroyed, disintegrated or burned they always reformed to lurch closer to the group.

"Well this isn't working." Avira said finally as she blasted the six down yet again. "New plan!"

Without another word she jumped over the already moving bones and grabbed the cube before turning and jumping back over to the group.

"Run!" She called, landing and taking off only to be pulled up short with a cry of pain. One of the skeletons had managed to grab her tail and was already trying to pull her back towards it.

Avira gave another yowl of pain before turning and blasting the creature that had grabbed her.

"Ok, ok, ok, we pick another path and go that way, away from the zombies!" Avira called going down the stairs as fast as she could without tripping.

When they reached the ground floor again Avira and the others could already hear the sound of more tombs opening.

"Right pick a tunnel." Avira said, rounding the corner and waiting until Guthrie gestured to the center path before taking off with the others.

"I think we're in luck!" Avira shouted as they rounded a corner and ended up squinting into a lit room. As they all stumbled in, the opening behind them closed with a clunk, leaving them in a lit room with a single door across from them.

 

(Up to you if evil Avira shows or not.)

[little lost dragon]

Fren frowned as Avira laughed before blinking in suprize as Avira seemed to like these foes. "What?" she asked before they got back up. Fren looked back at the zombie things and gave one a good kick sending it flying back beffore turning around after Avira got the cube. A cry of pain from Avira stopped her and she turned to see one had caught Avira's tail before getting blasted by Varrens plasma beam riftle. Then the group left that particular room and after another turn and a door closing they escaped the zombies. She looked around and sighed. At least it was lit. "Even with there regen.... that felt kind of easy." she said then shook her self "Avira? What was that you said about always wanting to be in a zombie movie?" she asked not sure what to make of that.

 

Before an answer could show up the only other door way opened up to show.... Avira, runes covering her and some deformations but unmistakable. She stepped in before giving the group a bright smile "Greetings." she said before her eye's locked on the real Avira "I beleive you have stolen something hun, it would be best if you returned it sooner rather then later." she said in a matter of fact tone before looking at Fren "And you have an appointment with the... as you call them, janitor fabercation area. We got some things for those like you." she said walking over as Fren narrowed her eye's "I'm going nowhere." she flat out stated before Vitas weapon became charged again and he took aim.

"Vita, I'm sure you know full well what I can do, your defences are paper, that Avira, he ability's are far below my own, and Guthries pithetic magic, has no affect. Now, I'll be taking Fren with me if you don't mind." she said before Vita fired at her. she frowned as the shot hit her and sent her into the wall but like a janitor, it just left a sever burn mark. "Ow." she said before taking out her pistle, it looked just like the real one Avira had, but when she fired it at Vita, instead ot bouncing off harmlessly like it should have, it went right through his body knocking him off his feet "Anyone else?" she asked before Fren's foot seemed to come out of nowhere in a attempt to smash her head against the wall. The sound of a skull cracking was heard then it sounded again and she look fine. She smiled at Fren "Anyone else want to try?" she asked as Fren backed off fast as the corrupt fox girl began walking towards her again.

[Ryujin13]

"Well there are these mo-" Avira started before growling at the castles new servant.

She listened carefully to what was being said, a growl still deep in her throat.

"You aren't taking any of us you *!" Avira said, taking a step forward. "You're just a cheap knockoff, I'm the original!" She yelled, already charging.

Needless to say the fight did not go well for Avira and she ended up hitting the wall across the room within seconds.

Still, she managed to get up and charged again, this time at least managing to get a few kicks and punches in before ending up on the ground again.

Guthrie meanwhile was spinning spells as fast as he could, his fingers a blur and strange words pouring from his mouth. Runes began to fire at the group, hitting Fren, Alina, Vita, and especially Avira. Hundreds of green runes stained her fur as they landed, healing her and increasing her strength and toughness.

Avira immediately launched another attack and though she was obviously better off, her movements blurring back and forth with her copy, she was still outmatched. This became evident when a powerful blow hit her flat on the chest, knocking her down and driving the wind from her lungs. A second later the doppelgänger's foot kicked Avira in the stomach once, twice, three times until Avira was curled up whimpering as the runes faded from her fur.

Alina stepped in almost immediately, breathing a long tongue of her black flame that became wider the further it went, freezing everything it touched.

 

[little lost dragon]

Avira's copy seemed to vanish as Alina did her attack and once Alina had finished her attack the copy seemed to just faze through ground her fist punching Alina hard in the gut enough to send the dragon into the air a little. Fren hissed at this and went in again but even with the runes and her advanced hand to hand training. The clone knocked the air out of Fren before knocking her feet out from under her before stomping on her knee making the Shatong cry out in pain before she shook the clone off her and retreated. The clone wipped out her weapon again and smiled as it aimed at Guthrie's head "Its been fun this little brawl you all seemed to have wanted." she said before looking at Fren "You will come with me, the price for taking Varren's body would have been paid with Avira, but then you tried to remove the agreement from her, and by doing so, you did what you wanted, and now your going to be the payment." she said with a calm smile.

A lazor shot came from seemingly nowhere and struck her weapon knocking it out of her hand. She seemed to be caught off guard this time before more shots hit her. she growled as the shots where rapid though did no damage to her, each hit knocked her a step back still. "think on it Fren, you can hand your self over willingly, or you run the risk of all your friends dieing and being turned sooner rather then later." she said before seemingly vanishing into the wall. Her weapon no longer around either. Fren looked at the source of the shots and Vita sat at one end of the room his chest sparking but his weapon arm aimed and powered. Seemed that robot would not stay offline with just one damaging hit.

Fren looked at Alina and tried to stand up and cried out as her knee felt like it was in peices and collapsed. she knew Guthrie was alright, he had not directly attacked the clone. Everyone else who had was now hurt. "Alina?" she asked moving her self over with her arms and tail.

[Ryujin13]

Guthrie's spells turned to healing the moment the clone retreated as he rushed over to Alina.

Truth be told Alina was probably alright but he knew Fren would tell him to go to their daughter first. Truth be told it was a great good thing as Alina mewled in pain, one of her wings flapping almost half heartedly above her.

Alina's stomach was a mess, the clones fist basically ignoring any protection they may have given and instead driving right into the young dragons gut like a sledgehammer. She was coughing blood and was struggling to breath as her front feet tried to law at the floor to get her moving while her back feet were strangely unmoving.

Guthrie immediately set to work, the long glowing vines that were his trademark gently touching Alina as he assessed the damage. The moment he was finished Guthrie summoned a huge ball of energy to his hand and pressed it against Alina's wound.

Instantly she started getting better, the spasms stopped and her breathing returned to normal.

Finally she fell asleep, her wings and legs folding naturally.

The moment this was done Guthrie went to Fren and repeated the process with her leg, although he seemed very tired.

"She had eight broken ribs, a punctured lung, internal bleeding and her back was almost broken." Guthrie told Fren quietly. "She's lucky it wasn't worse... We're lucky it wasn't worse." He said softly, looking back at Alina.

After a few moments he went to Avira and gave a small pulse of energy which healed her wounds, which overall weren't to bad considering.

Finally he returned to Fren and held his wife and daughter close, trying to comfort them with his touch.

"S-She's asleep until I-I give the signal, so n-now is the perfect time t-to say this. We s-should send her back." Guthrie said, his already tense demeanor finally beginning to crack as he started to cry and hyperventilate and twist his hands together, while his stuttering resurfaced. "I-it's to dangerous, and I-I don't want to l-lose either of you. T-that's why y-you go back too and I g-give myself t-to that thing." He managed. "I-I won't let t-them take y-you again. N-never again."

[little lost dragon]

Fren sighed as her knee was healed. She held her mate and sleeping daughter close as well. She looked at him as he began to break and she gave him a gentle squeeze "Guthrie, you leave, or Alina leaves, it can bring us back anyway, there's no escape till our mission is complete. No one is handing them selfs over to it either, not you, not Avira, not Alina, and not I, we figured out how to beat a Janitor Guthrie, one of the most powerful beings the place has to offer." she said before giving him a kiss "Besides, I made a promise to Alina a long time ago, I keep my promises. She's already seen the horrors of this place, she knows what being here means." she reminded him "We finish our mission, then we get to return home. Avira's clone is just another wall for us to get past. With you as our healer, as long as we repel her, we'll be ready for her."

 

As Fren spoke though Vita lowered his arm as the hole sparked "Main power source damaged, need assistance." he said "Self regen not sufficient, system damaged." he said slowly getting up before his gyro's seemed to give out and he fell to the floor with a loud crash causing Fren to look up in his direction. She looked at Guthrie "Come on, we need to help another team member." she said giving Alina's sleeping head a kiss and a gentle hug before she got up and went over to Vita. She helped him back up but keeping him balanced was really hard with his eight. "Balance system need more power.... power source damaged." he said again. Fren looked over at Avira "Say know how to patch up things like robots?" she asked.

[Ryujin13]

Avira got up and walked over to Vita when called, already shaking her head.

"I'm not the person who you should be talking to, that's Rachel my tech expert. I can use a computer for it's intended purposes and hotwire an engine, but that's about the limit of my expertise." She said. "Maybe Bor or someone could help him?" She asked, opening the new book and leafing through it. "Because we can't move him, we can't fix him." She thought for a second then looked up at Vita. "Maybe one of those repair drone things?" She asked, remembering the last time Vita had been damaged.

Finally she went to where Vita said his power source was and looked at it.

"I don't know how to help Vita." She said quietly. "Robots and stuff are a thing on my earth, but nothing as advanced as you. I don't even know what you run on. I could try and describe it to you, and maybe you could tell me how to fix it or something?"

[little lost dragon]

(Sorry about the delay)

 

Vita paused before he started to explain step by step to connect what to what to get a patch going. They ended up using the acid from Frens gernads in tiny amounts to 'sodder' the connections. Once they finished Vita with some help got back up and was able to walk. "A call for aid has been sent out, one of the patrols will try to locate me as we go, D-gun is offline and combat effectiveness is 25%." he reported and Fren sighed and looked at the others "Tanks down in otherwords." she summarized. "Avira? Did you learn anything or.... well did anything happen that may help us learn about your clone?" she asked "Beyond her being stronger and faster."

 

 

[Ryujin13]

Avira was actually rather proud of herself for getting Vita moving again, but was less happy when asked about the clone.

"Obviously it's stronger and faster." Avira said, sitting against the wall for a short rest. "It looks like Guthrie was right though, it knew everything. Every move, every tactic, every block, kick and punch I use, it knows. I know my teammates fighting styles as well, their quirks and strategies. I tried them and it knew them too. Every strategy, every counter, everything..." Avira sighed and let the words hang heavy in the air while she took a drink of water from her canteen. "The only way to beat it would be to do things outside of what we normally do, of course if it knows how I think then it'll expect that."

Avira shook her head, knowing that it was a never ending loop she was falling into.

Finally she shrugged and sat back, unsure of how to proceed.

"She's going to go into shock you know." Avira said suddenly, pointing at Alina. "It happens with cases like hers. A soldier goes down with life threatening wounds and are put under so that surgery can be performed, then when they wake up they go back into panic mode because their mind says that their body is still hurt. You're going to have to be careful is all." Avira explained before going back to her thinking.

"She's probably right." Guthrie said, nodding and turning to Fren. "It's the first time she's ever been hurt that badly, and it's her first combat wound as well. She's going to panic."

[little lost dragon]

Fren sighed and nodded and stood up and went over to Alina before sitting down. The dragonness was too large for them to carry around so they'd have to wait for her to wake up. She gently moved Alina's head so her daughts head rested in Fren's lap as she gently stroked her daughters neck gently and lovingly "Best we can do is let her body know its cared for. It can go a long ways even if there not conshus yet. The senses still function." she explained as she continued to stroke Alina's neck. Her tail coming around to rest along the dragons side.

[Ryujin13]

Guthrie followed Fren to Alina's side and sat as well, carefully rubbing the spot that Alina always liked, even since before he had met her. They sat there for awhile, just keeping Alina's sleeping form company as Avira began to read the new book.

Finally Guthrie looked at Fren and nodded once before gently tapping her shoulder twice and murmuring a few words.

Alina twitched, her eyes flickered a few times, and then she was thrashing again, her whole body moving this time as her claws skittered across the floor, trying to get a grip so she could stand. Her yellow eyes were large and wild looking, the panic obvious there, and her her breathing had reverted back to its ragged form.

"Alina!" Guthrie called, adding his voice to Fren's as they both kept Alina down so she wouldn't hurt herself or anyone else.

It took about ten seconds for Alina to finally realize that she was alright and relax so that she slumped to the ground again.

She looked up at Fren and Guthrie, then curled in close to Fren and cried quietly.

"It's ok Alina, you're alright, there isn't anything here that will hurt you." Guthrie said, gesturing at the rest of the group.

Avira gave a rare smile and waved at Alina, trying to comfort the dragon a little. It seemed to work because she at least got a wave back, but Alina was still crying and frightened.

Finally Alina calmed somewhat and managed to sit up, carefully folding her wings as she did so.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly, shaking her head.

"There is nothing to be sorry for." Guthrie said with a smile. "You were very brave."

"But I didn't do anything, and she hurt me, and then you guys because I wasn't fast enough."

"Alina, it doesn't matter, what matters is that you tried. Everyone is fine now, including yourself. That's a good thing."

"But..." Alina started, only to be interrupted by Avira, who came over and knelt in front of the young dragon.

"Alina, I understand what you're trying to say. You think you failed because you didn't help. Instead you got hurt and were out of the fight. Here's the thing, when you're fighting a war, when you're on the front lines like we are? It doesn't matter how many people you defeat, or if you fired the most shots, or if you won the most medals. What matters is that you helped the people alongside you, that you can look in the mirror and say, 'I fought with courage, and I tried my best to help the ones I love most'. Theres an award called the Medal of Honor, it's given only to the bravest of the brave, the ones who went above and beyond the call of duty. Some of those men? They didn't kill anyone, they instead sacrificed themselves to save their comrades, their friends. In battle, in war, the only thing that matters is that you did your best to support the people you're with. If you can do that, then you have nothing to be ashamed or scared of." Avira explained before smiling at Alina.

The little dragon smiled back and gave Avira a hug, which the vixen carefully returned a smile on her face.

"Why don't you talk to your parents a bit more? I need to read this book." Avira said after a second before standing and going back to the wall where she sat and began to read.

[little lost dragon]

Fren gently took hold of Alina as she woke looking into her eye's as she and Guthrie kept her from harming anything. After Alina realized she was no longer hurt and curled up next to Fren she put her arms around the hatchling gently hugging her daughters as the dragoness cried. After she sat up and had a small talk with Avira and Guthrie Fren knelled down to Alina's hight and put both hands on either side of her daughters neck and looked deeply into her eye's "Alina, you tried, that's what matters alright? You did what seemed to be the right course of action based on what we knew, no one knew the target would just faze into the floor. Learning to adapt Alina, partly needs one to not blame them selfs too much when they could not get done what they feel they should have. This is not a training situation, the target is a being of wild cards, you did well with what you knew. Keep that in mind alright? Who knows what might of happened if you had not tried to freeze her." she said before gently pressing her forhead against Alina's "Its one of the many things we all must learn in conflict like this, not everything goes to plan." she finished off saying giving her daughter a smile now "On another note, you can say you've been offically introduced to real combat now, and your alive to tell the tail, many don't get that chance, congrats Alina." she said before giving her a quick kiss before pulling back "Shall we continue? We have a cage to secure, a castle to shut down, and friends to avenge." she stated.

[Ryujin13]

(Sorry it took so long to answer, I strained the muscles on the left side of my body so that kind of put a damper on things. Anyway, I'm thinking about having the armies invade here soon. What do you think?)

[little lost dragon]

(Np and kind of wondering when they'd show up lol)

[Ryujin13]

Alina seemed to be in a better state of mind after the pep talk that everyone had given, and she stood up after wiping her face off.

"Alright, let's go." She said after giving Guthrie, Fren, and to everyone's surprise Avira, a hug.

Avira smiled and nodded, turning to look up at Vita.

"Can you get us to your closest repair drone?" She asked. "I'd prefer to find one before we even think about going after the next key, especially with that clo-."

 

Noise erupted from everywhere as an explosion rocked the castle, causing the group to momentarily leave the ground then meet it just as quickly.

Screeches, roars, battle cries, and the sounds of weapons clashing, clanging, and firing could be heard seemingly from everywhere, followed closely by the cries of the wounded.

"And there's the war." Avira said sardonically, readying her weapon and keeping it aimed at the door.

 

Outside the sounds of movement could be heard, and it sounded like an entire platoon was going past. Then the moment of truth as the door was pushed open and three bird things stepped into the room. Each was easily eight feet tall and carried a staff with a blades on both ends, each of which glowed blue.

They surveyed the group, then turned and bowed as both Bor and Medad entered the room, Bor in a set of green and gold armor, Medad in blue and gold.

The birds each took up guard positions at the entrance to the room as Medad and Bor surveyed the group.

"You've been tangling with the castle haven't you?" Bor said, watching as Alina and the group nodded.

"It was a clone or something like it of me." Avira said, giving Bor the rundown on their new foe.

"That's worrying." Bor said quietly. "I've never heard of a construct like what you described, and that's bad news. I'll tell the troops to keep an eye out for it, but somehow I doubt anyone but the people with or around you will see this being." Bor looked at Medad then gestured at Avira.

"Of course." Medad said, his voice still calm and collected. "As I promised my brother, for the duration of this event with my sister Nuria, to be determined by said brother Bor, all boons, knowledge, favors and powers granted to the benefit of friendly troops or allies will be considered gifts, requiring neither recompense or favor in return with the understanding that all gifts can be taken back if any of them would do harm to the endeavor or its subjects, again to be decided by Bor and I." Medad announced loudly before taking out a scroll, signing his name, sealing it, and handing it back to Bor.

"Bor I need to lead the troops. If we don't establish a foothold then we are doomed. I'll try and take some of the mid-level rooms like the galleries. If we can establish a command base we can begin true operations." Medad explained before tossing Bor a vial of water and disappearing.

"Alright you lot, let's see, besides the marks of healing magic you all seem to have come out ok, except for Vita." Bor said with a grimace. "Unfortunately not much I can do about that. I've had reports of a couple of your repair drones floatin around though, I'll put word out to keep 'em safe for you. Anyway, it's good you got another book, but with the fighting it'll be a lot harder to get where you need to go. Our forces will help however they can, but Nuria's managed to get ahold of the entrance hall, and she has us outnumbered. We have to fight smart, which means hit and run style tactics. The good thing is that she doesn't know where the keys are. The bad thing is that she has enough firepower to force her way around until she finds something. We've got the books though, and once we have the keys... Well we don't really have a plan for what happens then, but if we can we destroy them, if not then we find a way to keep them away from Nuria forever. Any questions?"

[little lost dragon]

Fren braced for trouble when the sounds of a war suddenly erupted around them. She kept on her feet when they all left the floor for a split moment. Sounded like all hell broke loose past the doors now. "Of course it starts when Vita's down." she muttered. He was there tank. She took aim at the bird creatures that came through the door that where around her own hight before she lowered her weapon as Bor and Medad came through and the bird creatures took up guarding positions at the door way.

She nodded with everyone else as Bor commented about them tangling with the castle. As they spoke Fren listened and was glad to know Medad would not be trying to get them bound to him now. That much was good news. She looked at bor as he explained the situation and asked about any questions. She stepped forward "Is there any word as to how we might free Jak of your sisters spell? He's the head of the enemy army, take him we then can command the enemy against your sibling which would aid us all greatly. Even if only half of it obeys the new commands. And can you copy Guthries area spell? If so you can place it on your troops and the castle will not actively try to purge your men, that would leave the enemy being actively being hunted by the castles Janitors and I'm sure with this much chaos, it will active them all, and make more out of the body's it can scavenge." she explained "Use the castle against our foe as it where."

 

Vita came forward as well abit slowly though "I detected a repair drone on its way right now, but its escort reports they are behind the new enemy lines, fighting as been registered up front but friendly forces do not show good chances of winning, if we aid that group, we might be able to get to that construction K-bot. They can repair as well." he explained and Fren nodded "I believe the humans had a saying, out of the fire and into the frying pan?" she asked

[Ryujin13]

"Out of the frying pan into the fire." Avira corrected as she leaned out the door and took a look. "So what's the actual play right now Bor? What are the immediate objectives?"

 

"Pretty much what you heard." Bor said as another explosion made the floor rock beneath them. "Nuria and her army have managed to create a defensible position around the main entrance hall and some of the surrounding corridors. They are sending war bands out to scout for us, the keys, and anything else that might be useful while her forces slowly expand their influence. Our troops have managed to get a similar position to Nuria, in our case a barracks and a place where a bunch of different stairs meet. In between the two armies are hallways that have turned into little more then a killing ground. Barricades are being set up as we speak but those halls are basically dead ends.

As for the spell you designed Guthrie, we've already implemented a similar one, but then, so has Nuria. She's not stupid and neither are we, which means the castles fighting blind. That might also explain why it's making weapons like this clone of yours. If it can't see its enemies then it makes an intelligent creation that can track and find said enemies.

Cadence is... Well we don't really know. She's been working, that much we can tell, but there's only so much suggestion can do, and Nuria has her army on a tight leash. There have been a few challenges from different clan leaders but it didn't end well for them, which only increased the strength of her hold over the army. As for Jak, well he's still an unknown. Nobody but Nuria hears him talk unless he is asking Nuria something, and the only interaction he has with the troops is when he is addressing them. He's a figurehead and that's it. She needs him to unlock the cage, and once that's done he will probably be killed. Truth be told freeing him will probably kill him, sad as it is to say."

 

Avira listened quietly, nodding along as she considered Bor's report, trying to see a weakness in Nuria's plans. Jak was the obvious one, but they were already trying that, which meant that the keys were next in line.

"Ok, we need to get to Vita's repair drone as quickly as possible. Then we need to get the keys. Without the keys Nuria's stuck and her army will disband after enough time. So, can you help us get to Vita's drone?" Avira asked.

Bor smiled and nodded, gesturing for the group to follow him. Outside the troops had stopped flowing as fast as before, but there were still units hustling by.

Bor waved a group of what looked like Elves over and gestured to the group.

"Ner! This is the group I told you about earlier." He said, introducing everyone. "They are the key to stopping this whole disaster, but in order to do that they have to recover a repair drone. It's four halls behind Nuria's lines, but it's slowly moving this way. I need you and five of your best scouts to help these people reach that drone and get back safely alright?" Bor said, having to raise his voice over the sounds of battle that echoed around them.

"By your word Al'therey." The elf said, putting a fist against his chest and bowing. He raised his voice and gestured at five of the elves before him, yelling something in his own tongue before coming over to the group. "We will see you to your goal travelers." He said politely.

"See that you do." Bor said with a nod. "Now the rest of you, I have to go and actually lead the troops. You have the horn, but now is a critical time. Do not use it unless there is no other choice open to you. Understand?" He asked, before nodding again. "Alright, the rest of you follow me." He roared, standing straight up.

Suddenly Bor wasn't in front of them, but a huge, wingless dragon. Suddenly it's neck split, and in a moment there were three heads, then five. The armor that Bor had been wearing also covered the creature, including its heads, necks, tail and other important joints.

The hydra that was Bor let out a long screech, then turned and headed off towards battle, lightning arcing down the spines on the things back.

"Come, we must go quickly before your drone is destroyed." The elf leader said to the group, waving for them to follow.

[little lost dragon]

Fren nodded and frowned. "Jack would rather die then complete the goals she has for him. He may not show it, but he has no choice in the matter due to her spell." she muttered half to her self. She moved with the group and the elf team assigned to assist them.

Once they reached the combat lines it was a case of bolts and shots of stuff going back and forth in a hall way. Neither side dared to advance or they died. Fren frowned looking at the situation and wondered how they get past, then it hit her. "Guthrie? Looks like we'll need that shield as cover." she said before looking at Avira "Your the smallest out of us, it would be best if you took the shield and closed the gap, the shield seems to be able to with stand everything, just like Jaks sword able to slice anything." she said before looking at the elfs "A trinket we picked up in our time here so far." she explained.

 

Vita came to a stop "Repair drone escort at 75%, few losses, other teams are finding it hard to advance further as well. Bases still operational though though a few out posts are under attack but holding." he reported

[Ryujin13]

"So I close the gap and what, die?" Avira asked incredulously as a burst of light and sound lit the battlefield.

"Even if I got close I couldn't do enough damage before they killed me!" Avira shouted, her hands holding her ears down as the fighting increased.

"Not true actually." One of the elves said as he moved closer and held up a sack. "There are five demolition charges in here that activate via remote. Those doorways should offer enough cover to let you get close, throw this into the middle of their forces, then we set it off."

Avira took the bag and peered inside, then looked back at the elf.

"Where'd you get explosives like these?" She asked curiously.

"Dwarves." The elf replied simply.

Avira sighed the took the shield and nodded. "Fine, but you owe me." She informed Fren, removing her pack and doing a few stretches.

The hall in question was about 100 yards long and was a constant firefight, with bullets, energy blasts and everything else one could imagine flying in between. It was slick with the blood of the dead and dying and chocked with corpses as well, with no ground being gained on either side.

The elves that had been given to the group as a guard were already spreading the plan through the troops fighting in the hall, then took up positions as well.

"I can give you a couple of runes of speed and shielding, but the shields will only protect you for a few shots before they run out of energy." Guthrie said, his hands twisting in the air before he pressed his fingertips to Avira's forehead.

Runic lines and sigils appeared there, not completely unlike the ones that the clone had sported, although these glowed a healthy green.

"Thanks." Avira said with a halfhearted grin. "Ok, I'll throw the pack, And Fren, you trigger it." Avira said, handing Fren the remote. "Hit it the moment it lands or they'll just throw it back."

Without anything else to say she turned, readied the shield and took up a sprinters stance. Her tail went stiff and she took a few breathes, rocking back and forth on her legs before she finally took off hitting her top speed in seconds.

The moment she entered the hall she came under fire, the shield obsorbing most of it and Guthrie's protections taking the rest. That being said, Guthrie's protections went down after a few seconds, and Avira almost immediately took a shot to the upper thigh, which caused her to stagger and slip in the blood.

The shield was the only thing that kept her alive at this point, and when she got up it allowed her to limp to the cover of a nearby doorway.

Avira was about half of the way down the hall at this point, but the closer she got the more resistance there was.

A clanking sound made Avira roll from cover and start running again as a grenade of some kind landed near her hiding place.

The explosion lifted her off her feet and sent her flying towards the enemy to land in a bleeding pile.

Everhthing slowed down for Avira in those seconds after the grenade went off, and everything took on a sort of dreamlike quality. She was laying face up, the shield on her left arm still and the satchel laying within reach of her right. She could see the trails of bullets through the smoke above her, she could smell the scent of blood, death, and a hundred other things, but she couldn't hear anything but an odd ringing sound.

Avira knew there was something she had to do, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what. She couldn't even remember why everyone was fighting. Seemed stupid really, why not get a nice steak and watch a movie? Fighting was so stupid, and she was so tired.

Suddenly things came rushing back to her as she remembered why she was in the hall.

Her hearing returned and her hand grasped the satchel, pulling it close as she rolled onto her stomach, the shield up so she could stand again in cover.

Parts of Avira's body weren't responding, but still Avira got close enough to throw the satchel into the enemy forces.

 

The explosion was titanic, and it threw Avira back a few dozen feet to land in a heap as the allies charged forward to take the enemy position. Avira meanwhile couldn't seem to move anything, not that it mattered to her. For some reason she was feeling an utter sense of peace that she hadn't felt since she was a child. Nothing mattered, not the war, not the past, not the future. She could see her friends faces, and darkness overtaking her until she finally knew no more.

 

(After they get Vita's drone)

 

"18 bullet holes, five of which were poisoned, two energy blasts, 22 broken bones, a collapsed lung, two dislocated spinal vertebrae, broken eardrums, a concussion, and general trauma to her internal organs. She's lucky to have survived the grenade blast, it's a miracle she managed to tbrow the satchel, that she survived to get medical help is beyond belief." A voice said. "We fixed her up, but it took eight different healing spells to get her straightened out. Frankly if Bor hadn't insisted we would have given her up as a lost cause." The voice said some more things, mentioning 'triage' then moved off as Avira managed to crack her eyes open.

"You owe me." Avira croaked to Fren, taking the glass of water next to her and sucking on the straw in it. "Did we get the repair drone?" She asked, taking a breath and sitting up.

The group it turned out had been moved to a side room which was functioning as a triage center for the wounded.

Already one of the medics, in this case a kind of pink, octopus looking thing, was moving over and asking the group to leave as every inch of room was needed.

"Where are the elf guys?" Avira asked as she took an offered hand and pulled herself up so that they could exit the room.

"They went back to the front after we got the repair drone." Guthrie explained quickly. "Are you sure you should be up? You were in pretty bad shape when you came in."

"Just a little sore." Avira said, stopping any more concerns from being voiced as she walked into the hall, twisting and stretching a bit. "Besides we need to get that key as soon as possible."

Edited October 8, 2014 by Ryujin13

[little lost dragon]

Fren folded her arms as Avira spoke with out thinking it over first. she was about to reply when the elfs stepped in and took over. For the most part it was a similar plan to hers. thus she had no objection. And Avira agreed to it, after making it clear she owed her now. "Technically where even now. I removed your curse and have a clone of you now hunting me." she said half to her self before realizing what Avira was about to do. "Wai-" and the fox girl was off. She was not suppost to do a standing sprint! That was bound to fail.

 

As she feared Avira went down moments after sprinting and Avira was now forced to hide behind the shield. If only she had crouched first then moved forward. Fren looked at Guthrie before back to Avira to see her mid air now and landing in a heap. Fren held the remote at the ready and kept watch as much as she could. Then she saw the whole satchel air born and she readyed her hand. As soon as it made contact she detonated the grenades. The blast force was felt even down here and Fren wasted not time advancing, firing at the dazed foes that survived the blast till she reached Avira. Throwing the fox lady's body over her shoulder she grabbed the shield and moved into cover before gently placing Avira back down. "Why did you do that? You needed to use the blasted shield to protect all of you!" she scowled grabbing the small worm like thing she had made a while ago and getting some of the healing enzyms it secreted to stop the worst of the injury's. Vita's lazors joined the fire down the hall as freindly troops pushed forwards.

 

After the push was done and Vita's repairs where started Fren argued with the elf medic and thankfully Bor showed up to also make sure Avira was patched up. Fren was not a trained medic so she could not heal Avira her self. But after a bit the fox girl was patched up and shortly after the elf medic left Avira seemed to come to. She smiled a little as Avira croaked again about owing. "At least the castle does not control you now." she retorted back before sighing "Yes, Vita's getting repairs as we speak, his own self regen is already working again and friendly's have secured this area for now. though reports of a Janitor in the east zones have popped up many times." she explained before placing a hand on Avira's chest to keep her from getting up "Rest up, you should be dead by your own peoples standards. the others are safe as well for now, I'll keep watch while you regain your strength." she told her

[Ryujin13]

"Yeah well, being deads overrated." Avira retorted, drinking again. "I don't have time to be dead. So, let's get moving."

"No we need to read the book." Alina piped up suddenly. "We can just go running like before, we have to find the keys and destroy them."

Avira turned and looked at Alina with a thoughtful expression, then nodded.

"That's true Alina, but we still need to get out of the way so others can work. Then we look through the book."

"Why read it?" Alina asked just as quickly, making Avira get a confused look. "Why not make something that lets Vita read it really fast instead of one of us just thumbing randomly?"

"She's got a point." Guthrie said, nodding slowly. "It doesn't make much since, and I'm sure Vita could find a way to read it all quickly."

Avira looked up at Vita questioningly, then shrugged and handed him the cubes they had collected, pointing out which was which.

"Let's take up a spare room while we wait for Vita to finish." Avira said, opening a random side room and entering, carefully leaving it open to the hall.

Avira quickly took up a spot on the floor where she drank more water and began to check herself over to see what the overall damage was.

Alina meanwhile seemed almost uneasy as she clicked her nails against the floor, watching Avira slowly stretch and move, relieving the tension that recently healed muscles had.

Alina seemed to wrestle with herself for a few moments before she wandered over and carefully tapped Avira on the shoulder.

"Alina, I can smell, hear, feel not to mention see, you move in the room, there's no need to be shy, what can I do for you?" Avira asked, looking up at the young dragon with an encouraging smile.

"Avira? Did weird things happen to you when you... You know, almost died?" Alina managed after a few tries.

"What like seeing a bright light of something?" Avira asked.

"No, like everything seems slow, and you can see everything." Alina said shyly.

"Oh that, yeah it happened back there and in other times in my life. Why?" Avira asked, now checking Varren's gun.

"Because it happened to me after I got hurt. I saw mom and Guthrie, you and Vita, all fighting that clone you." Alina said with a shiver.

"Alina, don't worry about it, it's just your bodies reaction to stresses. It was releasing chemicals to make you faster and stronger, plus it was going into shock. Sometimes when you're moving fast enough your sense of time slows as well. You see everything clearer, you notice all the details. It's just apart of combat, and sometimes it's all that stands between life and death." Avira explained, placing a hand on Alina's shoulder gently.

"Oh, ok. Thanks Avira." The dragoness said, walking off and taking up a laying position to watch everything.

 

 

[little lost dragon]

Fren snorted a little as Avira retorted back. She watched Avira and Alina banter a little then nodded as Guthrie said Alina had a point. "True, Vita just needs to scan each page and store the data then be has the book in his memory matrix." she admitted as they took the cube to him. He looked at it and looked at them "Should be possible." he said before starting.

 

As Alina went with Avira Fren sighed and came over to Guthrie and hugged him. "Many close calls...... and where not even near Jak or his slave master." she said quietly "Now a entire war is raging around us, and with the castle still swapping its parts around..." she sighed and pulled back to look Guthrie in the eye "I'm going to need you Guthrie, more then ever before. Even my own training does not... prepar someone for these kinds of odds." she admitted.

 

((Ghuaa sorry about the delay, busy over here x.x))