Re: Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer

[quackers are yummylicious]

Kira moved closer to Luke, sighing contently as she looked up at the sky. It was odd. If someone had told her seven years ago that she would live in a tree house, in the middle of the forest with someone from almost the other side of the world, she never would have believed them.

[Big Uri]

"Man, I can't wait to get this forest out of the way and safe," Luke suddenly spoke up. "I've grown to love this place, even if it a bit too flammable to keep me from worrying."

[quackers are yummylicious]

"Yeah..." Kira agreed, shuddering at the thought of the forest being destroyed. "Losing this place would make me really sad as well..." she trailed off, before her voice brightened up as she rolled onto her side to look at Luke. "I'm glad that you like it here, though! That makes me really happy."

[Dobi Boshi]

Eithne skidded to a halt, whistling to himself as he did so. The ground was good, he concluded, so he'd quickly flashed around the area surrounding Paul, leaving a good eight or nine feet between them as he did - briefly storing small amounts of kinetic energy in the ground around the other man in a circle.

If things worked how they were supposed to, when Eithne triggered the deposit of energy in the ground now bellow him, it'd domino in both directions, creating two separate chain reactions, which would tell him something - if Paul could deal with more than one set of explosives at once.

There was also the area of effect - the clearing would get totally decimated and force Paul to try and adapt to the sudden change in environment, and hopefully create enough dirt and smoke in the fallout that Eithne would have plenty of cover to get the drop on him.

If everything worked out like he hoped, that was. There was only one way to find out, though. "Badda-boom," he murmured, stomping the heel of his boot into the ground, before disappearing with a burst of speed thanks to his kinetic step as everything exploded.

[Stabberz]

"Shall we leave?" Nathan asked Sage once she'd finally gotten dressed.

[Ra The BlazeWingPhoenix]

"I suppose..." Sage said rather glumly.

[Stabberz]

Nathan caught the glum look and frowned. "I know you don't want to leave, but you'll be safer this way..."

[Ra The BlazeWingPhoenix]

"What about everyone else...?" Sage asked. "Kira, and Luke?"

[Creation of Pokerus]

Sensing the energy in the ground, Paul lifted himself into the air via removing the gravitational energy below him with a three foot radius. He looked down to see the floor beneath him crack, split, and break away as well.

"Well, shiiiiiiiiiiit," Paul swore, trying to think about how he was gonna avoid falling into those rocks as he slowly descended.

[Dobi Boshi]

"Huh, didn't expect that," Eithne grunted, scowling slightly as he appeared a good ten feet away from his makeshift dirt bomb. "How troublesome..." he sighed, before vanishing again. He didn't try and neutralizer that one, though, maybe he can only handle so much...?

Deciding it was better to use the environmental as his weapon this time around, Eithne reappeared in the midst of the falling rocks, opting to blast them at Paul instead of attacking him directly. Dashing from rock to rock, aiming to clip Paul as best he could without doing serious harm.

Though he was cussing to himself under his breath with every fresh rock he sent Paul's way, they were giving him some nasty cuts too, and he couldn't afford to stand still to long and aim properly, least he get hit by another rock unawares.

[Creation of Pokerus]

The first rock sent Paul spinning out of the 6 foot diameter of the anti-gravity field, casing him to lose focus an send all the rocks in the field crashing down. Not entirely what he had hoped would happen, but improvision worked too. He was hoping it would give him a second to numb the bruise forming on his right arm.

[Dobi Boshi]

"Motherfucker," Eithne swore, throwing himself backward in another burst of kinetically enhanced movement. Taking a moment to check how badly injured his hands were, he took a quick glance at Paul to notice that he too was starting to nurse some minor injuries.

"I reckon we should call it there," he shouted, a little rattled at how easily Paul had been able to handle everything he'd thrown at him. He'd always prided himself on being a powerful and competent fighter, but if Lillian had anyone like Paul on her side then he'd be as help as a sack of dirt... "We keep at this much longer we'll probably seriously injure one another."

And I don't think my pride can take anymore beatings at this point, Shaking his head, he nursed his bloody hands with a solemn expression.

[Creation of Pokerus]

"That's probably for the best," Paul agreed, rubbing the back of his head where he'd banged it against the ground. At least the man had learned a little bit, that his strength couldn't beat everything down.

He picked himself off the ground and stretched, looking at the time of day. "I should get back to making shells," he said offhandedly, before looking at Eithne, "You do know the four hundred is a hell of a lot of people, right? Even if we ambush them correctly, assuming this plan works, the firepower I have isn't gonna hold them for every long."

[Dobi Boshi]

"Yeah," Eithne nodded, running a hand through his hair. "You can bet that-" whatever Eithne was going to say, he never got the chance to finish as he turned away mid-sentence, eyes wide. "Someone else is here,"

"Astute as ever, I see," the cold baritone voice was all to familiar to Eithne, the words carrying on the wind as the man who spoke emerged from the treeline not far from where he and Paul had been sparring.

"Oliver," the blue haired man nodded as he drew up close to them, keeping a few feet between them. It had been some years since Eithne had last seen Shima's former right-hand man, who had disappeared not long after Shima's death. He hadn't changed much in that time, his electric blue hair was longer, more unkempt, long enough to reach his shoulders, still pushed back like how he used to keep it. His clothes looked worn and dirty, dressed in that old travelling cloak he liked so much, his strange eyes sweeping the area for anyone else. But what really got Eithne was the fact their was an body slung over Oliver's shoulder. An unconscious girl.

Both of them looked bloody and beaten, obviously having been involved in a recent battle. Oliver himself looked about ready to pass out from exhaustion. But he was forcing himself to stay upright. Eithne trusted Oliver about as much as he trusted Shima - not at all, so he instinctual sunk into a defensive stance should the older man try anything funny.

"I am not here to fight you," Oliver spoke, eyeing Eithne with apparent caution, having picked up on his stance. "I come with a warning: Lillian's force are coming."

"We're aware of that, thank you," Eithne replied dryly, not taking his eyes of the former Illuminati for a second.

"You misunderstand, I was already aware that you knew Lillian planned to attack you." Oliver rebuked, the slightest hint of a frown creasing his brow, "What I mean is that they're coming. Now."

---

OoC: Spanner in the works time - I figured we should probably try and speed things up or we could end up just dawdling in random conversation without any real plot development for who knows how many pages. The now doesn't have to right now, just FYI, Lillian's lot could just be a lot further ahead of schedule than thought, or something like that. Hope I'm not over stepping my bounds but I just figured we all want to get to the good stuff at this point - aka the big ass mother fucking battle. -Shrug-

[Big Uri]

There was a barely audible crack, tiny pebbles splintering off a large stone before Tom came walking out of the rock face. Though his face was difficult to read as always, he still harboured quite a bit of resentment towards the blue-haired man. He had, after all, had Sabina killed rather callously five years ago at the tournament, and he had been close to the man who had ruined five years of Tom's life.

"I was informed you were dead," the blind man grunted, keeping some distance between himself and Oliver. Even annoyed, Tom wasn't the sort to be reckless.

[Creation of Pokerus]

OOC: I have no qualms with it, but I suppose Stabz may throw a fit.
---

"Shit!" Paul swore, "How much time?" The worst possible moment it could have happened, right when they were taking down the walker to convert it's turret to artillery. They didn't even have any of the guns loaded or anything.

[quackers are yummylicious]

Heidi frowned as Tom disappeared silently. While she knew he had gotten into the habit of doing that, it still freaked her out quite a bit. One moment he was there, and then she looked back and he was gone. "Y'think he'd at least give some sort of notice..." she muttered to herself. She couldn't even tell which way he'd went because of the fact she couldn't sense Flows. Goddammit.

[Dobi Boshi]

"Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated," Oliver replied with a completely straight face. Eithne just groaned. "I understand if you're less than willing to trust me given our track record - I don't want to be here anymore than you want me too be here.

"However, the situation warrants me to put aside my personal opinions for the time being. But the least you could do, even if you don't trust me is treat the girl," he said, nodding his head to the side to indicate the unconscious girl on his shoulder. Turning his gaze to Paul, Oliver nodded, he had liked Paul - at least more so than the other Acers. "Impossible to say, within the next twenty four hours would be a safe guess, however."

---

OoC: Stab wants to get to the battle as much as I do, hence me trying to speed things up. If he don't like it, tough shit.

[Creation of Pokerus]

Paul nodded, not really giving the girl a second glance. "I'll start putting up defenses and ready my people," he replied, before facing Eithne, "Just a heads up, we're gonna try to drop a couple phosphorus rounds over them, so stay off the field until you see the burning people."

They'd been working on making mortar shells for the past week now in between drills and training. None of his people really knew how to use their Flow and only about half of them actually had anything combat related anyways. They'd be mostly relying on their guns and their PAFD(Personal Anti-Flow Device) for protection, the latter an invention of a rather mad scientist he'd met on his travels and had employed for quite some time.

Plans were already setting up in Paul's mind, as he thought of where he could he could place his men and set up traps. Most likely, he'd make a couple IEDs for effectiveness and confusion then hammer them with the Phosphorus. Depending on how much the OpFor cared for their own peoples, he was hoping they'd catch them unaware. He had no hope of making a defense in the village, not with the man who can destroy anything, so he'd have to improvise cover.

One thing Paul was counting on, however, was that the OpFor would strike during the day, otherwise their best guy would be useless at night, barring if it was a full moon. Which it probably wouldn't be. So where was Nathan's big plan now?

In any case, Paul was wondering how the hell he was gonna repel 400 men who may or may not be armed with guns, big or small(he hoped small arms), possible helicopter support, not that that was hard to take out, and maybe vehicles. He'd be surprised if they didn't have vehicles to move supplies, otherwise the people would be armed with little more than what ammo they could carry and their flows. Maybe they were hoping on using their Flow, which would make sense.

[Stabberz]

"They'll look after each other..." Nathan answered calmly. "I'm just making sure you're safe." He folded his arms and looked out the window, he still had to make sure that the mountain was created.

He walked over to the doorway. "We'll grab Melaney and other you and then go."

[Ra The BlazeWingPhoenix]

"Ok..." She said with a slight pout again.

[Stabberz]

Nathan saw the pout and suppressed more of his frown. "What's up?" He pressed.

[Dobi Boshi]

Eithne, had reluctantly, lead Oliver to the make shift infirmary Amelia had set up to help treat those injured in Tabaris' attack. He noticed a lot of strange looks being shot his way, though he did his best to ignore them all. Oliver was only a few steps behind him, carrying this wound girl bridal-style now.

As he had expected, Amelia was still treating a few of the more seriously injured without any hint of being ready to leave. He should have guessed as much. Carly sat not far off from Amelia, tending to Lucas.

"Find a spare bed to put her down on," he ordered Oliver gruffly, glaring daggers at the back of the blue-haired mans head. Moving away, he intercepted Amelia. "Guess who just showed," he muttered, nodding his head at Oliver. He watched her eyes widen in recognition before narrowing with pure hatred. He didn't say anything, there wasn't much he could say given the history Amelia shared with the bastard - the man had killed her sister after all. He just laid a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look at him with eyes brimming with angry tears.

"I know, I know," he muttered, pulling her into a tight hug, letting her cry into his chest as he rested his chin atop her head absently stroking her strawberry blond hair as he did so. "I know you hate his guts - I do too, but the girl with him is beat up pretty bad. Can you at least try and take a look at her?" She nodded against his chest and he sighed a soft thank you into her ear.

"Where is Nathan," Oliver demanded, crashing the moment as he drew up behind the pair, ignoring the glares pretty much everyone present was sending him. To some he had always been the enemy whilst to others he was a traitor who had abandoned their cause. Oliver was far from winning any popular awards.

"I'll be right back, okay?" Eithne whispered to Amelia, before jerking his head for Oliver to follow him - debating about whether or not he could get away with just killing the bastard now and been done with it. Better he try it than anyone like Amelia who well bellow Oliver's league but was nursing a very large grudge. Scanning the village, he picked up Nathan's signature pretty easily, before leading Oliver to him.

"Sorry to interrupt, English," Eithne called banging on the door, "but I got someone here who wants to see you."

[Ra The BlazeWingPhoenix]

"I..." Sage started to say, before backing away from the person that just suddenly...appeared.

"Go..."

[Stabberz]

Nathan's eyes darkened as he sensed the flow signature that had accompanied Eithne and must have been the prompt towards the interruption. His knuckles were white as he clenched his fists before turning to walk down the stairs. He stopped near the top and turned to face Sage.

"Please make sure you go and join everyone at the teleportation point..." With this last plea he let his eyes linger on the young woman once more and then like any emotion on his face he was gone. Most people in the village would have felt an unstable burst of desperation that was normally associated with Nathan's Darkness flow. It would have been and gone in a split second.

In seconds he had blurred and gone through the door. Oliver and Eithne would have felt their hair whip about as he sped past them and appeared on the roof of a house opposite them.

"You best have a good reason..."

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