("Nal! Nal, you must wake up now. We're all indanger. We need you, child" the voice of a woman draped head to toe in a white robe, face covered in a more sheer cloth. Her bright blue eyes blazed with concern for the man she cared for as if her own son.
Slowly the man's eyes begin to open. Though it took a while for him to put everytthing together, the haze of his confusion was replaced by the ever present mist of Inland. He then recalled the woman's name.
"Am... Amora.." Nal stated almost questioningly as he reached for the faint memories of how he got here. He immeadiately took note that the others were all here. Most distracting at the moment, was the presence of Loc and Locust. The tiny man stood next to the tall gaunt one. Both babbled senselessly at him as Amora was trying to help him to fully waken. Frustrated, the still uncertain man held up a hand to the two, signaling them to silence themselves. They did so at one looking down in unison, before turning away to speak to each other in whispers. He then looked to Amora and suddenly realized where they were. Cradle Mountain. The place where the Sleeping One rested.
A tiny young girl, blonde and pretty, embraced Nal around his neck. Her arms clung tightly around, almost suffocating him. He wrapped an arm around her consolingly. Poor Paranoia was shivering in fear. A chill ran down Nal's spine.
"Amora, what happened? Where is my body?" he asked the woman. She began recalling the details for him as she placed one hand on his shoulder, the other on the little girl's. )
Earlier that day....
The War Bishop exited the grid into Clon****. He clung to the back on his back with a deathgrip as he lunged for cover. The skeletal body of Thanos followed closely behind. They ran quickly inbetween the lights sepeating the shadows, making their way towards the target. The shed being very close to main office. Avoiding detection would be difficult. but this was part of the plan after all. Nal would have to put his faith in the others for the next leg of the journey.But that was secondary at the moment. Right now, what he had to do was get to the shed and place the package. Time was running out. The bomb was already ticking.
The man and the skeleton dashed the final few meters across the open path into the tiny building. One inside, Thanos immeadiately took a sentry position as Nal quickly moved to place the pack next to the prototype mining equipment. The explosion would cost Omni-Mining millions of credits in the time and developement costs of the yet untested devices. The gauntlet would be thrown down.
The hulking, armor clad atrox, Shirley "Powewithin" Drapkin, entered the door first. No suprise. Nal spotted the white tank armor he wore from far away before he entered the shed. The second was a suprise. Josh "Flubahoba" Fintarojii followed closely behind the first. Both with weapon in hand. The solitus cursed himself for not minding his HUDD's lifescan readout. It didn't matter, not really. The point was control. And not knowing about an obvious, yet unnoticed variable as a second defender was simply a pointless loss of control in some measure.
Thanos readied it's scythe. Nal drew his staff, immeadiately crossed it infront of his companion's rib cage, holding it back. The creature would probably prove more harm than good. Time for his assistant to be called back in. Suddenly the skeleton's form gave, ashes falling to the floor. Taking a combat stance, staff folded under his arm, drawn behind him, the man readied himself before noting the time. Time was running out. Time to make it look good.
Lunging forward, he brought his staff down hard against Drapkin's knee, then sharply upward against the rifle the atrox held. Drapkin appeared to feel nothing as he simply threw Nal against the floor with one of his huge hands, almost knocking the wind from him. As both atroxes laughed, Nal smiled under his helmet, again checking the time. "Josh", as the appearent leader called his buddy, questioned the reason for being here, not to mention the solitus's sanity. That was when he told them of the bomb, and that they had 45 seconds to get out.
Drapkin reacted immeadiately as the other two watched. The large one moved quickly examining the bomb. Determining there was no time to stop it, he ordered Josh to grab the intruder and get out. Nal was pulled up off the floor by his hand so sharply it felt as though his arm struggled not to dislocate, then rushed out the building across the tiny ditch outside. The two defenders were strong. Very strong. Even if the man truley wanted to escape, he would be unable to without calling forth Wormwood at the very least.
The three watched from outside as the shed exploded in bright flash that lit up the night and sent shrapnel flying. For a moment afterwards they all just stood silently, watching the burning crater left behind.
"Well, We must be going. See you two later" Nal announced, turning to walk away.
Drapkin and Josh halted him immeadately, calling him crazy, telling him he was going nowhere. Again, an appearant attempt had to be made. Again the target was Drapkin. Two ineffective powerstikes and one rifle blast from Josh and again Nal lay on the ground. This time however, bleeding from his right shoulder. He hadn't expected Josh to be that fast. Testing his arm. his fear was confirmed. Almost no movement possible. That ment no nano-program execution. The situation instantaniously took control from his hands, for the moment at least.
Hauled off to an on-site holding cell, and tossed onto a table like a rag doll, Nal lay bleeding, calculating. The atroxes stood gaurd over him, waiting appearently for someone. The only chance he had was now or it was never. He began talking to them as they mocked him, throwing insults, making small talk, but more importantly taking their minds away from the fact that they forgot to search him.
Nal pulled off his helmet, making a show of the fact that his eyes were tightly shut, speaking to them as he reached for his glasses. As he pulled them out, his fingers stuck a tiny black case underneath the table he lay on before bringing the glasses to his face, again making a show of putting them on correctly with one hand available.
Finally the person they waited on arrived. And Nal immeadiatly knew by her very aire, she would be a problem. Jenae "Demenzia" Markarian stepped in, eyeing him over instantly. She ment to know the things Nal knew, and she had the look of someone who knew how to get them. He was worried now, deeply infact. but he wouldn't allow them to see it.
Markarian took Drapkin aside, whispering something very low. Josh stood watching silently over the table, now focused entirely on his prisoner. For some reason, the woman suddenly looked at Nal, seeming to see something curious. Something that suddenly made sense.
( Inland. Shortly after Nal awoke to Amora's plea....
The woman in white continued explaining. Though Nal comforted the little girl as the story was told to him, he began to doubt there was anything else he could do for her. Little else he could do for any of them )
(( OOC
I would like to invite Powerwithin, Flubahoba, (Omni-Mining) or Demenzia ( Vector Blue ) to please feel free to "take the torch" from this point. You're personal perspectives are more than welcome. I also want to thank you all as well as Kristopher "Flashwing" Somani ( R.U.R ) and and especially Cristin "Swiftmind" Moscardelli ( Omni-Mining ) for making yesterday's event possible ))
