Glayp'neir (Arc 1)

As she attempts to listen close to the conversation, she hears a few keywords about "experiments" and "taking him away". It appears Marcus has been slain for sure, so Airgetlam pulls back further into the shadows. It looks as though they'll try and take him into the labs to get rid of him. Perhaps though she can dispatch the servants, or convince the lab tech to hand him over. As far as she knows, Dahaka isn't even aware that Airgetlam exists. Then again, Dahaka might have surveillance of her realm, so she cannot say for sure. She walks ahead a bit, trying to keep ahead of the servants if they decide to come through the hall, and get them by surprise. She fiddles with the mechanism that makes her cloak work, and turns it off for a moment and waves over at Sharpe and Jack.

"Psst! I'm going to head them off at the pass, not a good idea to go hot! Don't do it!" she whispers.
 
She turns her cloak back on and melts back in, just in case.

Sharpe looks nervously at Jack.

"Uh... so far magic seems to be a bit wonky here, I'm kinda fine with my kinetics..." He says, trailing off. He goes back to thinking about the jewels he had. He quickly checks his pockets and remembers that he doesn't have any of them, he gave them all to Doc. The only thing he has is the motion tracker, which he checks the screen of.

"Jack, you realize i gave that stuff to Doc, right?" he says, and notices across the hall, Airgetlam materializes and waves at them. He makes out what she says and nods.

"She's right, I'm not about to go after them until I know what they can do, and from what I see of Janette, she could give me a run for my money. I'd rather not budge this."

Jian turns the last corner... The rooms. They're in reach and he sighs in relief, looking back to make sure that the maids follow him closely. They do, thankfully and he then stops to open the first door. The group of civilians are revealed and they all throw thier looks towards him. He gulps with this nervous wave rolling over him. He gets it together though, rolling the carts in, revealing all the food to them.

"I... took my time to cook up something that you all should like. It's something regional from where I come from, eastern food. Sorry if it doesn't please some people's taste... I tried hard to find a generalized dish which could please a general audience. Please... Go ahead and enjoy, but keep in mind that you shouldn't eat too much and too fast for now, your body will have to get used to being able to digest food daily first."

He bows in his sorted attire, then walking back into the hall checking on the maids. He follows Ayame into the next room, repeating his words to the next group. He then is doing the same in the room the other maid went into aswell. After everybody is supplied with food, he grabs some himself, then flipping out the chopsticks he grabbed, sitting down next to the maids to eat, watching the others in the meantime.

Dr. Atrium laughs at Lady Dahaka as she walks away.

"If only you knew what I knew, you wouldn't be so eager to kill me."

He slowly moves so he is sitting on his knees, his shoulder bleeding still and he is starting to feel dizzy from blood loss.

"So your a vampire? I am not going to lie, I have always wanted to meet one. Very rare virus. This has been a good few days hasn't? I got to befriend a fairy and I am talking to a vampire. Very rare someone gets to see one or the other but never both in the same few days."

He starts laughing again looking down at Marcus.

"Thank you for killing that scum, though I wish I got to kill him but I can't complain. Dead is dead."

He looks back up at Lady Dahaka.

"So you are taking people from the streets to get power so you can leave? Why would you pick just anyone? Wouldn't it make more since to find people how have power? I am just trying to understand what you are doing? Also, the crystal I found in your "storage" area. Is that tied to you?"

hhhmm...calculated risk is favorable. Yes Jack, you have my permission. Go and defend the hero.

"Sharpe, Air, I'm sorry but our friend is bleeding heavily. We must do something or he won't last even enough for them to perform the experiments that would kill him."

Jack swiftly loaded his gun and stepped out of the shadows as stealthily as possible, trying not to give away the others' positions. He took his shirt off considering how torn and blood stained they were along with how torn and blood stained they would become if he left them on.

"The situation would be much better if there was some way to get those crystals, but I guess I'll just make due with what I have. Remember Jack, go easy. She's a demonic vampire, but she's a demonic vampire possessing an innocent girl."

"Lady Dahaka, at last we meet. Your stories of pain and suffering has earned my sympathy. However, the bloodshed you and your servants have caused is unforgivable, and here you stand, about to kill my friend. I can't allow any of this to go any further. In the name of the heavens, HAVE AT THEE!!!"

Once more, Jack let loose his new angelic powers and an elgant wing grew from a back while his head wore the same half circle halo from before. Jack was so drunk with his new found power that he was numb to the fear of his powerful adversary. He lunged forward courageously.

Lady Dahaka is about to answer the doctors question as suddenly jack appears out of no where. She turns to face him, standing still without flinching or any signs of moving out of the way.

Before jack arrives, about to throw a heavy punch, Janette jumps in front of her, holding two cleavers crossed in front of her face to block the blow. It hits surprisingly hard and pushes her back, though she recovers near instantly, leaping forward and taking a swing at him. He manages to dodge with surprising speed, causing her aggressive swing to go wide and make her flip over and laugh out loud. She uses this momentum however to slide past him, and jump back, turning in maid air with both cleavers in hand to take a hack at him, hoping to connect and an insane smiling visage on her face.



Meanwhile with the refugees, everyone is eating and feeling the first sense of relief and peace in a while.
Ayame turns to Jian. "Thank you." she says, blushing a little. "I'm really thankful for you and your team..." she says and pokes around in her food. "This food is really delicious... its given me a calm and rested mind-set I haven't had since coming here." Oblivious to the battle, the survivors and maids together with Jian enjoy their wonderful meal. Everybody happy about the delicious food and getting to eat after such long time.

---

FP Chatlog:

Airgetlam takes advantage of the distraction and runs over to doc, pulling him close and throwing her cloak over him, so that now he too is enveloped. She looks down at him and looks at the shoulder wound.

"You're really bleeding heavily... You're a real idiot going and confronting him yourself, you know that?" She sighs and takes out a bottle of water, pouring it over the wound a bit.

"That'll do you for now, but i need to get you to safety. Can you walk? If you can, please take my cloak. I've worked without it before so i know what i'm doing. It's not my crutch. Right now, you'll need it more. Please get to Jian and see to it he gives you something, some food and herbs'll do you good. I need to stay here in case something really bad happens. So far, Jack bought us time, and Sharpe'll be a real force to be reckoned with, so having me there makes it three on two. Please Doc, be careful."

Sharpe sighs, facepalming and shaking his head.

"God damn it." He says and unsheathes his sword, running up and between Jack and Janette and with the speed of a lightning bolt. He brings the blade as close as humanly possible without making a cut into her throat.

"You really want to do that? I'd thought maybe i could help you out, but i guess maybe the way i thought helping isn't how to help you. Maybe it's some other way." He grins and stows the pistol for a moment.

"You're facing a swordsman of expert training, you yourself are using cleavers. Honestly, the odds aren't in your favor. I'm actually surprised they didn't arm you with something better. It's too late now anyway, so you're just going to have to settle for cooking utensils. I went into this thinking it'd be another Straylight run. This isn't a Straylight. It's nothing compared to that."

Janette stops in the spot, barely keeping herself from running into Sharpe's blade. She smiles at him and then jumps back, throwing a cleaver at him. It runs past him and jack, not harming anyone. She then hears someone talk and her attention twitches towards the stealthed figure. With incredible speed she whips out several knives that fly into Airgetlam and Doc's direction. Unable to dodge, two of the knives bounce off Airgetlams arm with a sharp 'ting~' and a third lodges itself into her side, not very deep. She follows up throwing her second clever. It flies past Airgetlam, ripping into her cloak and destroying a small box on the side of her hip.

Airgetlam unstealhs, unable to bend the light around her. Her side bleeding from the knife stuck in it.
Janette cocks her head at her new target, her twisted smile growing even more as she see's the blood. She laughs hysterically and throws several more knives at Jack and Sharpe before dashing over to Airgetlam.

---

FP Chatlog:

Jian blushes at the words of Ayame, then looking away for a short moment. Their eyes meet again shortly after, with him smiling.

"I am glad that you enjoy the food... I didn't expect such a positive reaction, given the fact that I was doing this rather fast to get it done as quickly as possible. Even more I am suprised, that it even has enough impact to calm you down... I... just don't know what to say"

His laugh after saying that is warmhearted. He's feeling odd for some reason, so... at ease. He's shivering slightly, as he notices looking at the chopsticks in his hand. Is he nervous...? His heart is pounding a bit stronger aswell. He feels warm inside, so happy. Ayame... seems to have some impact on him. He continues eating, heaving a smile on his face the whole time, peeking over to Ayame now and then. She really looks carefuly with eating her food... so... graceful. He sighs once to calm a bit, he doesn't want her to think anything wrong or such, so he tries to keep eating, sighing lightly between each bite.

Dr. Atrium laughs at Air when she gives him grief about going of alone. He winces when she pours the water on his wound, but he thanks her. He is about to get up when the cloak gets ripped off. He sees that Air is hurt and he helps her to get out of the way. With the help of adrenaline he has forgotten about the pain in his shoulder. When he is sure that Air is in a safe spot, he looks at what it going on. For some reason Jack is an angel and fighting Janette with Sharpe's help. He sees Dahaka has turned away and has stared walking away and slowly sinking into the floor. He slides under Janette and charges past Jack and spear tackles her and they both sink into the ground.

"Remain calm Jack ol'boy, anxiety means higher blood pressure, higher blood pressure means more bleeding. focus and deep controlled breaths"

The knives flew passed Jack as he dodged them at blistering speeds. He leaped into the air with the grace of a swan landing right in front of the blood thirsty Janette. He delivered a powerful blow focused on knock back in order to stall her for long enough. Without anytime to explain, he reached into Air's pocket and pulled out one of the crystals. The, he took the gold wires from before from his trouser pocket and wrapped them around the crystal to form a crudely made wand.

"Air, there's no time to explain, take this. If Lady Dahaka uses any magic or energy based attacks, use this to redirect them back at her, and what ever you do, always hold it with you prosthetic"

Jack leaped back into the fray trying to control his bleeding and continue his fight with Janette.

Janette boosts herself towards Jack and Air, ignoring Sharpe. She doesnt anticipate Jack turning and leaping towards her and ends up getting knocked into him. The both of them collide and jack is thrown back, hurling towards Airgetlam. Janette uses this opportunity to leap up into the Air, getting ready to come down on the two with knives and cleavers, but misjudging the height and missing ever so lightly. She dodges away, rather safe than sorry, and leaps onto the base of the stairs laughing hysterically. Without a word, she goes through various hand signs and suddenly sharpe's radar vibrates in his pocket. From all around them a great number of servants appear, 14 of them, dressed in butler and maids attire, some with knives, some with cleavers, and some with strange pots filled with sizzling liquids. Airgetlam realizes these were like the servants they encountered in the attic as they all attack in unison.

---

FP Chatlog:

"HEY! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!" Sharpe exclaims and rushes toward Janette with his sword. He swipes at her with a speed unrivaled by any of the party members, and he keeps bringing the blade in powerful and precise swathes across his field. 

"NOT USED TO SOMEONE AS FAST AS YOU, HUH?" He yells at her amid the swings.

He swings a bit slower deliberately this time, and as she dodges that he comes back with a very fast sidekick that hits her squarely in the abdomen. She is pushed back, but of course not so far as she gets knocked down. However, he's not aiming to get her pinned just yet. He's relying on their ace in the hole.

Note:

Airgetlam reaches down with her silver arm and takes out the knife embedded in her side. She winces, but it's not too bad, it was quite light compared to some of the worse injuries she's seen. She spies a servant appearing and throws the knife at the servant, but it misses.

Yeah, didn't think that was gonna work..., she remarks in her mind and she takes out the shortsword she has and plunges it into the servant's neck, then rips it out. She backs away from it and brandishes her crossbow, and aims it for Janette.

Nice try, bitch, but i'm packing more than invisibility. She cycles to a normal bolt and eeps her finger on the trigger. As Sharpe keeps her busy, she takes advantage of her diverted attention and takes the shot, aiming at Janette's hand.

Jian finishes up his soup and noodles, then taking some dessert. The fruit-salad is smiling at him with it's sweet looking glory, topped with that little bit of cream. He nervously gets up, walking towards the bowl, grabbing a small amount of it, filling up a smaller bowl. He then sits down next to the maids once again, starting to eat the dessert. He's surprised how well it turned out after taking a bite, as it was what he rushed most. He nods to himself then continueing.

"Mh.. This fruit salad turned out better than I expected it to be... You should give it a try!", he says after a short bit, holding a grape between his chopsticks.

"Here..", he then says, holding the chopsticks in front of Ayame's mouth with the grape at the end, as in being ready to feed her,"Have a try, it's really good"
He blushes lightly while doing so, hoping for a positive reaction to his approach.

Ayame looks at Jian, then down to the food. She blushes a little as she looks back at him unsure what to do. He shyly nudges it and she blushes harder, closing her eyes and opening her mouth to receive the food. "Ahhh" she goes, expecting the food to arrive in her mouth any moment. Suddenly around the two, shadows start coiling out of the ground, black tendrils sliding around Ayames waist and shoulders. She suddenly gasps in surprise and shock as she is dragged into the ground, throwing her plate aside and reaching out a hand towards Jian, trying to hold on.

Quick Break of Rotation:

He smiles as she opens her mouth, just about to let the grape slide in. Before he could do so he's being pulled out of his little act by Ayame being dragged down. His eyes grow wide and a incredibly huge bloodrush kicks through like a tsunami through his body. Jian drops everything as this is happening, instantly trying to grab onto Ayame's hand. He grabs onto it, holding it tight. His other hand tries to grip onto something else, to make him remain with having a hold. He grabs an edge of the bed, trying to grip it just as firm as he holds onto Ayame. His eyes just close due to the amount of power he tries to use to keep her up. It even is a bit painful to be streched like he is at the moment.

"Try... To hold... on!", he manages to say, his voice surely strained by the effort of keeping holding on to her.

Jian tries to hold on tight to ayame. Her arm being the only thing sticking out of the black darkness beyond. The tendrils grow larger, putting a strain on Jian and then suddenly lashing out, striking the bed post and snapping it. With a quick swoop both Ayame and Jian are pulled into the shadows, dissapearing from sight with no trace left behind. Around Jian, everything turns dark. He feels sickly as if he was moving around in all directions at once, twisting and turning. At first he is freezingly cold, and then uncomforterably hot as the darkness wraps itself around him.

---

FP Chatlog:

"No,no,no not now!"

Jack began to feel light headed. He poured some energy into his gun and retracted his wing to stop his bleeding, so he could stay conscious and stay in the fight. He pulled out his knife. The world around him slowed down as the bleeding subsided and adrenaline flooded his veins. He watched as a bolt left a crossbow and fly across the room approaching Janette.

"I imagine that'll hurt the bloody thirsty monster, but we ought to finish her off"

Jack calculated that the bolt would hit her hand. He calculated where head would be when the bolt made contact and aimed his gun for that direction.

"Feel the heavens' burn, hell spawn!!"

Janette is pushed back, taking a small hop backwards. She pulls out a knife, getting ready to throw it at sharpe as she reaches for a hidden cleaver. The gunshot suddenly fires, drawing her attention. She swings herself around, flicking her wrist to send the dagger flying- and suddenly screams out loud in pain. The servants around them suddenly stop, some of them falling from the speed they were running at, and others simply standing still, or sitting down on the ground.

Janette collapses onto her knees, for a moment seeming to forget everything around her and brings up her shaking hand. A crossbow bolt has pierced between her fingers and lodged itself through her hand and up her arm. She trembles in terror touching the bolt and wincing in pain, unable to believe her eyes. Sharpe takes a step forward and she twitches, her attention suddenly focused on him as she tries to leap backwards but instead stumbles and falls over against the stairs. "M-My hand..." she says in a shocked tone. "My hand... you... you ruined my hand!" She suddenly gets up, her eyes widening and her iris becoming small. As she stands, her arm falls limp, blood dribbling down and onto the ground. She pulls out a fan of knives with her good hand and dashes past sharpe, so fast he could barely react. She ignores him, merely using him for cover and then pushes herself off a ledge, sending herself flying towards Airgetlam. She throws the knives in midair, directed towards Air while reaching for her cleaver.
"YOU FILTHY DOG- YOU RUINED ME!!" she exclaims.

---

FP Chatlog:

"NO! YOU WILL LEAVE HER UNTOUCHED!" Sharpe yells, and runs with all his power toward Janette. His legs are speeding up and his muscles are starting to pulse with energy, the adrenaline is now taking over completely. He no longer feels tired. He no longer feels hunger. Only strength and the air split against his face. He reaches out and grabs Janette's collar and yanks her back, then impales her from the front with his sword, blood starting to run out and down his blade. He clasps the hand he used to drag her back onto her shoulder to hold her steady.

He leans close to her ear and whispers.

"Janette. I'm sorry about the situation you are in. I really am. You were made a slave, you were corrupted from what you once were, whatever that might have been. Maybe you were attracted to this, but lost sight of what you really wanted, or maybe you were brought her against your will, your free will stripped away. Nobody, nobody in this world at all should have to be subject to such horror.  So for this, I'm sorry, I didn't know of a way to help you besides setting you free this way. Forgive me, Janette." He speaks solemnly.

"May you find peace." he utters as his final words to her.

The knives go wide, passing by both Jack and Airgetlam without harm.

The pain was instant, but passed just as fast as it had arrived. Janette leans against Sharpe, her eyes wide and blood running down the side of her mouth. She struggles to breathe, simply staying in that position. Her muscles tense and flex, trying to protect her body but it is to late for her. With her working hand she grips Sharpes arm tight. "...Sister..." she utters. Her voice is soft and calm as she closes her eyes. "I just wish... we could have been..."

Throughout the room, all the servants become limp. Their bodies do not decay but merely fall to dust. No acrid smell fills the room but a chill sweeps through, lifting the tense mood in the air. Janette rests against Sharpe, her arm against his chest, her eyes closed, with a blood stained smile and tears running down her cheek.

---

FP Chatlog:

Airgetlam gets up and walks to Sharpe, a saddened look on her face.

"A sister, huh?" she remarks quietly.

She takes Janette's hand for a moment, feeling how cold it is becoming.

"I'm sorry too." She says simply, and she slides out the bolt, being careful not to disturb the body any longer. She places it in a secluded section of her quiver, the section she reserves for damaged or unclean bolts.

She begins walking and puts a hand on Sharpe's shoulder.

"I think it's about time we got some food, then go see if we can find Doc."

She moves close to his ear.

"Maybe leaving her in a dignified position would be nice, out of sight too. Just a suggestion." she whispers and she stows her crossbow, starting to walk away from the scene.

He leans in, examining the dead corpse.

What did Sharpe mean 'You were made a slave'? Was she always like this? Was she corrupted into becoming this

Envisioning an innocent Janette before some wicked force transformed her into the beast whose corpse laid before him, a wave of sympathy fell on Jack.

"The voice in my head told me not to worry for my sister... Maybe the both of us should stop and just hope their alright...Your not going to get redemption, but maybe it could give you some peace"

"I guess there's nothing we can do for the doctor now. If there's a single god willing to listen to the voice of one crippled servant, you make sure that man comes back, alive!"

Jack hadn't prayed since he was a child. But back then, anyone Jack would've prayed for was dead then.

"Let's go make sure Jian's ok."