The Ing that was attacking Helena was completely vaporized by the beam, its body disintegrating into blobs of dark matter that quickly faded. The second one hissed and dissolved into a pool of shadow, as did the others. They swarmed around in circles around the group, and eventually one of them pulled itself out and attacked again.

"Not this time!" R.D. yelled, thrusting his hand out and firing a charged Lightblast at it, scattering many bolts of light at it. The beast hissed again as its body ignited on fire.

Matt hefted himself up with a groan. "Mental note...watch back."

"Matt, get the hell up!" Hugo shouted, waving his pickaxe, ready to fire.

"I'm goin', I'm goin'!" Matt stood, briefly dusted himself off, but the rest of him remained alert, ready to attack. He glanced back at Helena, who was looking at her hands. "You okay, Helena?"

She tore her eyes away to look at Matt. "Yes, but...how did I do that?"

"Do what?"

"You'll see...if I can do it again."

The flaming Ing stumbled around, and R.D. took the chance to stab it right in its large eye with his Phase Blade, killing it. It staggered and fell, the light-based flame burning its corpse away to nothing.

Alasea skipped away backwards as the Ing she fought got up and fired three beams of light through the portals at her, and nearly walked right into one of the crystals. It was then that she noticed that the beasts stayed away from the crystals.

The third Ing pulled itself out out of its shadow form and used two of its arms to strike at Matt.

"Of course!" Matt swept his leg in front of him, knocking away the shadowy arms. "Light hurts them!"

"Yeah, real quick on the followup there!" Hugo shouted.

"Shut up!" He entered a bold pose, his fists on his hips. "Behold! Shining Justice!" His body suddenly emitted a blindingly bright aura, one so powerful that all present, even Hugo, had to cover their eyes or risk becoming blind. "Behold my awesome GLORY!"

R.D. and Alasea turned away sharply, throwing their arms over their eyes, and the two Ing screeched in terror and fled, opening dark portals to leave.

"Turn it off!!" R.D. yelled.

Matt rubbed the back of his neck, turning off the powerful light. "Okay, maybe I overdid it a bit."

"A BIT?!" Hugo snapped.

"Look, they're gone now, aren't they?" He glanced at his fingernails, rubbing them against his shirt. "Thanks to me."

"Whatever." Hugo looked to Helena, whose condition was steadily worsening-the scales, slowly but surely, now ran up her arms. "We need to find out what's happening to Helena, and how she could fire that bigass beam."

"Bahamut could know," Alasea said, "But we have no way of contacting him."

R.D. looked around, then started slashing a few of the crystals off of their stands and handing them to each person in the group. "Here," he said, "These seem to protect from the atmosphere. We should take them with us."

"Don't leave without us..." Blane said carrying Kite on one of his shoulders as he followed Kalmar and Blazen.

OOC:It just occured to me how many times THD and RD have dropped the F-bomb in this topic... >_>

Matt slid his crystal in his jacket pocket. "Sounds better than nothing."

Helena took her crystal uneasily. "I dunno how this'll help," she said, clenching it tightly. Her free hand ran up her arm, running over her scales.

"It'd better," Matt replied. "We gotta keep moving anyway."

(OOC: Realistically, teenagers swear, especially in apocalyptic times. >.>)

"Let's make it to the next building," R.D. said, "I don't want to wait for those freaks to return."

With that, he lead the group back outside.

OOC: *shrugs* Teenager's curse. Healthy = No. Acceptable = Yes! =D

Kalmar kept up with Blazen as he set the new pace, but when he heard a voice behind him he stopped. "Wait," he told his comrade as he turned to see Blane carrying an unconcious Kite on over his shoulder.

"Blane, we are heading North," he glanced at the man over Blane's shoulder, "is there anything you can do to get him on his feet? We need to move fast, and you hauling him won't do us any good."

As the group moved out, Matt walked next to Helena. "Hey, you okay?"

She looked down. "Yeah...I just..."

"You in pain?" He lowered his voice to a more secret level.

"A little bit," she whispered back.

Matt's concerned expression eased. "Don't worry. I'll help ya out if you need anything."

She smiled. "Thanks."

"Hey!" Hugo suddenly said to the two. "What're you talking about?"

"None of your fuckin' business," Matt quickly shot back.

R.D. looked back as they spoke, but remained silent on the matter. They entered another building, needed it to get over a wave of crystal that was like a cliff. They group could hear chittering noises, and Alasea groaned.

"Well, looks like we won't be alone in here," R.D. said, gathering light energy into his right hand.

"Maybe I should try to cast a repel spell or something," Matt said. He raised his arms to prepare to cast it.

"Knowing you, it'll just bring more of them to us!" Hugo interrupted. "Let's just run like hell!"

"Fine." Matt looked backwards, seeing if any Ing were sneaking up behind him. "Helena, you think you can do what you did before again?"

"I think so." She raised her claws, and to her, they became increasingly warm.

They made their way through the first room, and R.D. decided it'd be a bitch if any Warrior Ing showed up, as it'd be nearly impossible to fight them in here.

The Ing appeared the next room. However, it wasn't what they expected. The few Ing in the room looked like tiny black stalks with the same rubicund eyes of the Warrior Ing. They all stared at the creatures, which stared back.

"If it weren't for the fact that we've seen the others, I'd say they were pretty cute," Alasea said quietly.

It was then that they all started to attack. The began rearing their heads back and throwing tiny but painful globs of dark matter at them.

"Ah! Shit!" R.D. swore, ducking under one of the globs and vaporizing another with a light beam.

"Real fuckin' cute!" Hugo muttered, making a quick roll foward before landing back on his feet, firing at the stalks of Ing.

Helena pushed her flattened claws foward, and the same burning beam shot foward at the Ing. Her surprise came back again with the attack, but soon a deep sense of worth began to make itself known in her chest-this would be useful after all.

"Say hello to my little friends!" Matt whooped, pulling out twin tommy guns and blasting at the Ing with excessive amounts of lead.

Matt's bullets, R.D.'s Light Beams, and Helena's fire beam quickly eradicated the Inglets. Once everyone was done and over with, R.D. muttered as he rubbed a spot on his shoulder where a glob had struck him.

"Let's just get the fuck out of here. I'm already tired of this place," he growled.

And with that, the group quickly made it up to the second floor, blasting any Inglet that dared to move in their presense.

"Well, that depends on your way of planning plans, and I might have planned to take into acount your possibly planned plans, which you could have planned to use."

"Touche." Poncho said, tilting his hat so that it covered his eyes once more.

"So, shall we begin this plan that you've planned? Or shall we think of another plan of action to counterf your plan of planning to find a place to rest?"

Blazen skid to a halt and looked back to see Kite and Blane. Kite being carried by Blane. He grimaced, this would slow them down and Blazen was in a hurry. He debated between just leaveing, assumeing they could fend for themselves, but to him they were his responsibility. He could not just leave them, wishing them luck.

Blazen sighed as the managled sight of the two. He approached them and looked over Kite, he cringed. "We may need to wait until he can fend for himself." Blazen said reluctantly. Being here anylonger would only bring more hardship but going on would risk Kite's life. It was too much of a risk to go on in his condition.

"I'm fine, put me down, Blane..." Kite said hopping down,"Let's hurry..."

Kalmar instantly took off, seeming to glide across the ground as he looked back and waved for them to follow. I hope Kite can keep up with me, a small hint of apathy showing in his thoughts.

Edited by Fallen on February 14, 2007 at 16:06:56.

"So what're you gonna call it?" Matt asked, whipping out his blade to slash through an Ing.

Helena blinked. "What?"

"That beam. It needs a name. A bitchin' name. One that makes people say 'oh, shit' when you fire it."

"Um...I dunno."

Matt sheathed his sword and rubbed his chin. "Hmmm...how about 'Inferno Vulcan'?"

She shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"Well, at least that's what I'll call it," Matt remarked.

"I think it shouldn't have a name," R.D. said, firing a Light Beam to kill an Inglet.

"She doesn't have to shout it like I do," Matt protested. "What else are you gonna call it? 'That red beam thingy she does'?"

Hugo's energy blast tore through an Inglet. "Is that really important right now?"

"Well, it's somethin' to talk about, I guess."

"Well, if it has no name, the enemy underestimates it, only to get vaporized completely. Remember what she did to that one Ing?" R.D. said.

The group came out of the building above the wave-like cliff, and R.D. looked down it, seeing a wandering Ing. "They weren't kidding when they said they were known to come out during the daylight."

"Hey! What's that?" Alasea said, pointing off into the distance. Through the disappating fog, they could see a very large structure, and the twisting pathway to it flanked by ruined buildings.

"I hate it when places make pathways like that," R.D. said, staring at the crystal road.

"Sounds like a good idea ta me." Gilgamesh spoke up.

Meta turned to Kouken. "Would you perhaps join us? We will go find a nice place to set up camp, or, if possible, find some empty houses or a castle or something."

Kite saw Kalmar go fast so he decided to kick it into his full speed as well, Nice try, but i'm just as fast as you...

Blazen chuckled as the men ran off. He turned to Blane, smirking. "Shall we?" Blazen suggested, implying they catch. Blazen then darted off behind the two and quickly caught up, but would not push himself to be any race. He would merely keep up with the two.

"Still, that big building looks important," Matt noticed, rubbing his chin. "We gotta check it out."

"What if there's Ing in those buildings?" Helena asked, worriedly looking at the buildings on both sides of the pathway.

Matt glanced at R.D. "Shoot them with your red beam thingy."