Recudor: Lost in Quarantine

Airgetlam lifts her left hand to her head and squints a little, then bends her knees a bit as she tries to cover at least one ear from the loud screech. She uncovers her ears. one side from her hand and the other awkwardly from her shoulder and looks down at the now cracked crystal. She looks at Doc and shows him it.

"Wasn't this one of the tracking gems the radar used to find us?" She asks of him. She reflects on what she heard as well, and she realizes the voice is very familiar.

"Did you guys hear that too? It sounded like a man.. sounded like Sharpe maybe..."

Lox quickly covers his ears as the ear piercing noise coming from the item Air had been carrying. After the noise passed, and wand like item had finished passing to them what seemed to be a message of some sort, Lox quickly shook his head to free himself from any residual ringing in his ears and raised a brow as Air turned to the group. "Kinda hard NOT to hear it!" Lox commented with a chuckle, he was still lost as far as these 'tracking gems' and 'Sharpe' went, it might as well have been gibberish to him though it still raised some questions. "Wait, so other people can track you while you're holding that? And that noise, it doesn't transmit both ways does it?" Lox began to scratch his chin quizzically. "The voice mentioned you two, and the quarantine. Though at the same time it said it would 'rather just wait for us'. Are the two of you expected back at the quarantined area?"

Lox halted his questions for the moment, he found himself in an odd position, not sure whether to wait in the wings for the other two to come up with a plan, or try to start brainstorming a plan for the three of them. obviously they were the ones the voice was searching for...or waiting for...or...something for. He wasn't really sure. Either way he had no intention of staying in this place any longer if there were no signs of a lab for him to break into, but at the same time. His future was incredibly uncertain right now, and he was beginning to wonder how much he should factor in from this moment forward. It's true that they were all in it together, but right now he had no proof that they wouldn't ditch him now that this odd tracking gem item was showing them some promise of escape.

Doctor Atrium pulls the gem out of his pocket and glares at it. He had forgotten all about, does this mean the other know where the hideout was? In a fit of anger he gets ready to throw the gem as hard as he can, but just before he lets go, he gets an idea. He walks over to Lox.

"Here you go. Having this makes you part of a small group we have. I want you to have this in case something happens to me, you and Air will still be found. Keep it safe."

He nods then glares off in the distance. He has always hated being watched or tracked without his knowing. He then looks down at his shadow. He stares at it, getting an idea. He pulls a small amount of life to power is shadow. He then focuses on it for a bit, then he feels it move. He then smiles. He knows were west is and because of that, he knows where east is.

"West is in that direction." He moves so that is left arm is pointing west, he then moves is right so it is in the opposite direction. "And that is east. Anyone have any idea on how to tell witch is north or south? I used my shadow to tell where the sun was setting and since the sun sets in west..."

He lets his voice trail off. Hopefully one of them can take it from here. They need to get moving.

Airgetlam looks straight at lox, then away, gazing off.

"I asked because I thought maybe I was the only one to have heard it..." she says.

she looks back at Lox to address his question.

"Yes, these are used by a radar that one of our friends possesses. We found it on our last venture and it has proven invaluable us far."

She pulls out the wand Jack gave her. Could it really pick up signals or was she mistaking it as the source when in actuality it could be something else?

She looks back at Doc and then up at the sky, looking to which way he pointed was West, and instinctively started walking in the direction of what she felt was South.

"If Sharpe is worried about us, he'd be in the South, since that's where the house is."

Doctor Atrium nods and he followed Airgetlam. He hopes that she knows where south, then again it is a 50/50 chance so if they are going in the wrong direction, all they have to do is turn around. Doc doesn't say anything as they walk, just looking around and keeping an eye out for anything. He hopes that he doesn't find anymore monsters, he is getting tired from all the fights he has had today. After awhile he turns to Air.

"How are you doing? You and Lox haven't gotten hurt have you?"

With a bit of a skeptical look on his face, Lox takes the gem from the doc and removes his backpack to place both the gem, and the stone he had reshaped for the compass they decided not to use. " I imagine it takes more than a gem to include someone into a group. " he muttered under his breath as the doc began to walk away. With a small shrug he pulled his backpack from his shoulders and threw the items inside before slinging the strap back over his shoulder and catching up to the other two as they strolled forward. He remained fairly silent for a while as they travelled mostly keeping to his thoughts, curious about the group the doc had mentioned and the ventures Air had mentioned.  Lox sighed a bit and began to wonder to himself. Would he truly be welcome into this group? His holding onto the gem couldn't guarantee that, he also wondered what the group would be like and if he could fit in among however many there were. After a moment Lox shook his head of the thoughts and instead began to wonder about the gem instead. If his thoughts continued on about this mysterious group he would bring himself down more than their current situation could allow for.

Lox looked over his shoulder for a brief moment, deciding to leave the gem in his bag instead of pulling it out for an examination he figured he should stay on his feet seeing as they weren't out of danger yet, they were heading out into a quarantined area after all. He simply pondered on what Air had said about the wand. It seemed to serve as a waypoint for some radar that someone else had. Useful in it's purpose, but in their current situation it barely served as more than a talking stick. The person in possession of the radar could find them, but without any way of knowing what awaited them they could very well walk straight into a deathtrap by the enormous monster the doc had fought. The thought of a group of those things sent a chill up his spine. Not to mention all the patrols they could run into. Lox let out a soft sigh and looked to the wand Air had in her hand and began to wonder if there was any way to send a message through it. Nothing came to his mind immediately, though he was suddenly struck with a separate thought altogether. With the prolonged silence and the rather intense staring in Air's direction Lox began to realize how creepy he must have been coming across to the others. His face became a slightly flushed as he suddenly blurted out an answer to a question that wasn't even directed at him. "We're fine!"
...

...

...After a moment of awkward silence Lox cleared his throat and averted his eyes from the other two and simply continued walking in silence.

The three walk through the district for a while, mostly lost in their own thoughts and trying to find a way out of the central area. They leave the underpass, heading up a pair of stairs. to a cross section. To the right of the cross section is a little open space between buildings with a small park in the middle. Dr. Atrium considers for a moment, taking into account what little he remembers of the very few times he's been to this part of the city. It looks very similar to an area they had visited the previous night- and in fact was the very same open space where he had decided to launch Jack from to distract the guards. A funny memory to be sure. He turns to the group to explain their current location. They aren't very far from the southern district. Just across the park and around the corner to the gate. Although getting through the gate would prove to be difficult with all the guards that will likely be standing guard. It is at that point that the group realizes how dark it has suddenly gotten. Without them noticing, some thick clouds have started forming overhead, casting out the sun. The faint rumble of thunder fills the air around them. It will likely start to rain soon, followed by what will likely be a quickly passing storm. Airgetlam's silver arm begins to tingle.

Suddenly the thunder grows immensely larger. Loud deafening cracks emitting from the clouds above. The sky turns an eerie purple as the clouds continue to spread. As the group looks up at the storm brewing above, a massive  distortion tears itself into the sky, Pushing the clouds aside and distorting the view around it, almost as if it was pushing reality itself apart.
Without any forms of warning, Dr. Atrium feels a sudden surge of power emitting from the tear. So much his chest and head begin to ache. At the same time Airgetlam's silver arm stings in great amounts of pain. Looking up to the solid black tear in the sky, a small shining glint can be caught.
Mitsuki suddenly materializes out of a full sprint, appearing before the group and almost stumbling forward. "Doctor!" she yells as a massive explosion erupts.

...

Moments later, the dust clears. Both doc's and Air's pain subsides. It's incredibly cold at first but the warmth is slowly returning. Looking at the sky, there are no clouds, no ominous black tear, nothing. Just the bright blue sky, and the faint whispering rumbles of a storm long passed. Doc and Air are the first to recover, though it takes Lox a while to get his bearings himself. In total disarray the three look at the sudden crater that once was the park they were just about to cross. Mitsuki is lying a good whiles away from the crater, blown away by its force and unconcious. The buildings are fine, although the glass of the windows has all shattered and light flakes of frost and ice are falling all around. The crater itself isn't very massive, but its quite deep. Ice and frost cover the entire surface and parts around it, though it melts rather quickly and begins to pool into the middle where the loose silhouette of a passed out woman begins to form inside the pool of water.

Airgetlam's vision darts about, and she looks at her arm and clutches it, then patting it, feeling no more pain flaring up. She looks at the sky, at a complete loss for what happened. She looks across the way and sees the mage they keep seeing across the way. She is out cold, or possibly worse, so she sprints across the park. As she nears the side of the crater, she can't help but take a passing look inside it, she abruptly stops and yells to Doc.

"Doc! There's someone in the crater too! Come help them while I get the mage over here!" She yells as she points. She hurries over to the mage and shakes her.

"Hey, are you ok? Please say something, you took a nasty blow from... whatever that was..." She says, pulling her so that the upper half of her body is facing diagonally to the sky instead of completely perpendicular to the ground. She rubs her cheeks a little, seeing if that will get a response. As well, she reaches to her wrist and pushes her clothes' sleeve up, pressing her middle and index finger and feels for a pulse.

Doctor Atrium slowly gets up and looks around. He feels his chest to see if the pain is gone, when it is he looks around. He hears Airgetlam, as he is running to the crater and looks down into it. He then gasps at what he sees. He slides down into crater and gets close to the person that is laying in the water deep inside. He is just in awe at what he sees, it looks like a person but instead of skin, it looks like she is made of water. Her upper body looks human but her lower half is a puddle. This whole this is just weird and fascinating. He reaches out to check her pulse but his hand goes through her arm. He jumps back at this. He wasn't expecting that. He then looks at his hand, the water he felt was freezing. He walks back to the water lady.

"H-Hey! Are you awake? I-I am going to move you! Please don't panic, I am a Doctor and I am here to help."

He makes two big claws to scoop up the water lady up. He climbs out of the crater and makes the Claws fallow him. He walks over to Air and Matsuki.

"Is she ok?"

He bends done and checks her vitals. He smiles when he feels that she is well. He then uses a simple heal spell to heal her cuts and scrapes. He remembers that Air doesn't know who she is so he is going to have to act like he doesn't know ether. He makes the claws stay behind him and keeping the, cupped so the water lady from dripping and if she wakes, she won't be covered in darkness.

"This is the lady that helped us earlier right? I hope she is well. Do you happen to know her name Air?"

Frazil is severely shaken by the method of her arrival. She vaguely understands someone say "doctor" and "help" and feels herself scooped up by something. She thinks to herself, At least they can transport me, that means I'll be ok in a few minutes.

She begins to re-collect the water around the area as she is being moved and Dr. Atrium realizes that there is no dripping over his claws, quite the opposite in fact, as water slowly trickles to the woman he is holding, not from. What shards of ice remain in the vicinity melt far too quickly to be natural, and all water in the area that is not contained in some way is being drawn towards the figure resting in the grip of darkness.

As the water rushes toward her, Frazil's mind begins to clear and she mutters to herself, "That son of a... *sigh* ...oww." She drapes the extra water around her like a blanket, wills it and herself into a solid form that looks more like a frosted ice sculpture than melting jello, and sits up within the hands, scanning the area. Where the hell am I?

She finally speaks aloud, with a voice reminiscent of arctic wind through glass chimes, "Umm... hello?"

Airgetlam looks down at the mage, she had been familiar with the girl but she never caught her name.

"No, come to think of it, she never told us nor did she ask..." She thinks for a moment, and turns to look at Doc with a confused look about her face.

"Do you know her name, Doc?" She says. Suddenly she hears a voice, that of chill and as if winter herself decided to make known it's sentience. She looks round and sees the woman who was in the crater, now standing within Doc's shadow-hands. She is shocked at how she failed to notice the finer details of her form, the sheen of ice and trickles of water flowing back to her. She lets her mouth run agape a small bit, and she slowly comes to a stand.

"H-hello? You sort of came out of that... tear I guess you could say? There was a large tear in the sky and you must have fallen out of it... maybe it was some other..." She begins but then trails off, realizing the glacial figure might be connected to the- no. She shakes it off. Those things were darkness and pestilence. This woman is not of that nature.

"Are you ok at least? Can you tell us your name?"

After shaking away the ringing in his ears, and the blurred vision from the tremendous impact, Lox focused his vision until he spotted the pseudo liquid woman being carried away in a shadowy hand. After a moment Lox rubbed his eyes again to be sure he was seeing the situation correctly, and once it was confirmed, simply sat back with a single brow raised. The woman seemed to have tore open a rift in reality, created an explosion strong enough to knock out the woman he had met on the boat at the beginning of the whole ordeal, and she was getting rushed treatment from the doctor? After a moment Lox simply shook his head and decided to hang back, he had no real medical expertise and figured he would only get in the way. Instead he decided to remove his backpack, and retrieve his brush, inkwell, and now almost dish shaped stone. Upon examining his inkwell he could see it was running low, now maybe at a third of the max capacity he frowned a bit and shrugged, he had a second well of ink so it wasn't like he was in danger of running out. His eyes turned to Air, helping the unconscious Mitsuki before turning his attention to the woman made of water. Lox's eyes narrowed a bit in skepticism before turning his eyes back to the items he had removed from his pack.

Giving a strangely calm aura in the wake of the recently chaotic events, Lox simply stroked his chin as he curiously looked down at the stone before he finally dipped his brush into the ink and began to draw on the stone. He quickly traced the rune he had seemed to be using quite frequently, the same set that allowed him to make his stone fist much earlier. After drawing the rune onto the stone he placed his hand on the stone and once again began to change it's form. After a quick orange glow and a moment of concentration, the stone shifted into a disc about the size of his palm once again, this time the disc was a bit thicker than before, and seemed to change it's properties altogether. It was no longer a stone disc, but a metal one. The metal didn't seem to be a very sturdy one, most likely aluminum with what seemed to be a rune etched into the center. The rune consisted of a small circle with two lines zigzagging at an angle until they both intersected, forming a bit of a jagged 'X' shape through the small circle.

Doctor Atrium looks at Mitsuki with some worry in his eye but then turns to Airgetlam.

"No...She never told me her name. Though it was thanks to her that I was able to find the underground hideout to get the Soultrap fixed. I hope that-" He gets cut off by the voice that is behind him. He quickly turns and looks at the lady. He then quickly moves the shadow claws to gently put her on the ground. He then slowly walks to her. "H-Hello. My name is Atrium. I am a doctor and because of that people normally just call me Doc. I wanted to heal you but since you...well...aren't human, I didn't want to risk harming you. Are you ok? You fell out of the sky at such speed to make a crater." He looks behind him to see what Air is doing, then looks back at the lady in front of him. "The lady behind me is named Airgetlam, but it is much easier to call her Air and the man behind you doing...what ever he is doing. His name is Lox. May I ask...What are you?"

The strange creature of water and ice straightens as the claws lower her, shifting the blanket into an elegant ankle length, short sleeved dress, split up one side to her thigh. Her "hair" cascades down from a loose bun that seems more appropriate to a black tie event than a half exploded courtyard. Ice crystals become a matching set of jewelry that includes short dangling earrings, a bracelet on her left wrist, and a diamond looking necklace to accent the deep V of her dress. The transformation completes as her feet shift into what look like heavy soled, heeled boots and stop just short of touching the ground, as though she is standing on the few inches of air beneath her.

"Well, to start with, my name is Frazil, pleased to make your acquaintance. As for healing me, as long as I'm not dead, I heal pretty quickly on my own, but thank you for the concern. Finally, to answer your question, technically I actually am human. However; for practical purposes and for lack of a better term, I'm a water elemental. The details aren't all that important right now."

Frazil looks down at the unconscious figure being held by Airgetlam. " Will she be alright?" She then begins scanning her surroundings, looking for threats, and assessing the situation, but continues speaking in the process. "You said you are a doctor, you should see to her, I'll be fine..." Her speaking volume lowers, but is still audible to Dr. Atrium, though she seems to be talking to herself. ...Just as soon as I figure out where that bastard sent me, and how to get home.

Lox watches the water woman seemingly walk on air just in front of the doc, being within earshot he is able to catch the gist of their conversation, though he was focused more on the disc of aluminum that he had made and runed. After finishing his little project he took another look at the woman and then back to the disc before nodding and placing all of the items back into his backpack. Once everything was back in his pack, he threw it back over his shoulders and turned his attention to Air and Mitsuki, walking towards the two girls and kneeling down to examine the situation for a moment.

"How is she? Is she going to be okay?" He inquired in a hushed tone. He sighed a bit and scratched the back of his head as he continued. "Sorry, I don't have much medical expertise, if there's something you need me to do, just let me know."

Airgetlam nods at the being, still quite entranced by her appearance.

"I've never heard of a name like that... I like it." She says, says, earnestly. She turns her attention back to Lox and then looks down at their mage friend.

"She seems unconscious, but she has a pulse and seems to be ok, Doc healed up her cuts and bruises. We should probably try to rouse her, or potentially try to get her over one of our backs to move her. Or Doc could always use his claws but that would honestly look too conspicuous.

She shakes the girl again, trying to get her to wake up.

"Please? I honestly don't like trying to wake up people who didn't fall unconscious on their own power!" She pleads. She looks back at Frazil, measuring up her manner of dress. She would love to wear something like that, she honestly has not been able to for a very long time.

Doctor Atrium nods at Airgetlam and walks to Mitsuki. He takes his coat off, gently picks up Mitsuki and puts her on his back. He then walks over to Lox.

"I am sorry for checking on you last. Are you ok? Do you need any healing?"

He then looks at Frazil.

"A water elemental? Thats neat. I will have to see how strong your water magic is for myself but that is for another day, we need to get out of here." He walks over to Frazil and hands her his coat. "You should wear this. People around here are going to freak out and panic when they see you like...well, you."

Doc then looks around. "Lets get moving, the kill squad HAD to of heard this and I would rather not be here when they show up."

A soft but clear rumble passes through the crater, timid at first, but growing steadily. After not too long of a time part of the crater and the paving of the park collapses into a seemingly random underground tunnel, once again whirling up more dust as the roof of the entrance crashes into the ground. Some commotion meanwhile on the other end of the park catches the groups attention. There are several armed specialized guards standing behind a bunch of debris and rubble on both sides of the park trying to get their way through or over it.

Frazil replies to Airgetlam. "Thanks. I made it up myself... well with a little help from the Network." She then watches Doc as he walks around, awkwardly handling an unconscious person in what looks like it's supposed to be a fireman's carry. When he offers the coat, she responds, "I take it Novas aren't common here?

Beginning to reach for the coat, Frazil is startled by the sudden crash of the collapsing tunnel. She whips her head around to look for the cause and then farther at the authoritative figures gathering in the distance. Worry lines crease her face as she looks first at the doc, and then back to the armored unit heading their way.

I've been a hero for the past 6 years, and look where it's gotten me. Turned into a monster after 4, and now thrown gods know where in creation. Who knows if I'll ever get home?

"This is no insult to you, Dr. Atrium but she's just going to slow you down like that. Why don't you use the claws like you did with me?" She gives the figure on his back a purposeful look, and sadness can be seen on her face.

I'm sorry little one. I can't afford to be a hero right now.

Frazil lowers her hand from the offered coat, and shakes her head. "No... You don't seem too keen on meeting those nice gentlemen in the pretty suits, and even with the coat, I'm going to stick out like... well, me."

And if I was even halfway honest with him, I'd tell him they're a bigger risk right now than I'm willing to take.

"Go." She points at the collapsed tunnel. "You've got a perfect exit."

Her eyes shift to the second story window that was blasted open by the shockwave of her entry....and so do I

With one last look at the unconscious figure, Frazil stretches her arm toward the window she had marked in her mind, the hand extending to grab the edge, and she mutters to herself, "At least back home I could fly." Within seconds her body has shifted into pure water, clear as a bell, and flows up her "arm" to the window above.

She regains her regal shape, and looks down at the group below. Dr. Atrium thinks he sees her lips move and say "Good Luck." Before she disappears into the building.

"Network? Novas? I don't... nevermind, a story for another time." She looks down into the crater at the now-opened tunnel.

"Oh now that's convenient." She remarks.

As she's getting her stuff together she hears the mention of the kill team and immediately looks up.

"Kill-team?!?! Ok, no. I'm not staying here if that's the case. Nu-uh." She gets up and takes refuge in the big hole and checks her crossbow just in case. Still two iron bolts and one incendiary.

She looks up at Frazil and frowns.

"You could come with us though, we definitely have a strange rabble already." She says, but before it can really be considered, Frazil has already flowed off to the window.

She puts up her hand to say goodbye no less.

"See you on the far side I guess... Doc, Lox, this way. I'm not sticking around to become bloody pulp." With that she descends into the tunnels and looks around.

Lox shakes his head a bit at the doc's question, using a finger to scratch the inside of his ear a bit as he responded to the doc's concern. "I'm fine, thanks. My ears are just ringing a bit." He looks to the doc for a moment before turning his head back to the strange elemental woman. "No offense Doc, but I would be careful about that concerning side of yours. I know it probably comes with the job, but if that encounter had gone any worse you could have wound up dead. I mean you were the first one next to her, what if she had been hostile? Who's gonna heal the healer?" Lox chuckles a bit and allows his look of concern to be washed over with a friendly smile before watching Air wave to the woman and slink down into the collapsed tunnel with the quick finesse he had come to expect from her. Once again turning back to the doc and taking note of Mitsuki unconscious on his back. "You go ahead and follow Air, I'll catch up in a moment, I'd like to make an attempt to cover our tracks with some steam."

Lox stopped and thought for a moment before turning back to the doc and smirking. "I promise I'm more than a one trick pony, I can do more than just make steam." Lox removed his pack once again, removing the shallow inkwell and his brush so he could begin working on the steam rune he had seemed to be using so much recently. "With any luck this will at least keep them from noticing the open tunnel until we get a nice big head start."