Sour Blood [Open to those taking part]

[Anemoi (DELETED 2809)]

Anemoi was trying to listen to what was going on, he didn’t want to stay here at the door, he wanted to go help Mike. After a few more impatient moments he said, “**** this.” He said and took off across the room to where Mike had disappeared to. He didn’t give any thought as he went pass the blonde and jumped down the hole. He slid down and tumbled once onto his feet. “**** its dark down here.” He said, spotting the light from some pair of eyes that seemed to dual as a flashlight. He moved towards it only to trip over something. He sighed, “Think I tripped over one of your little friends.” He said, pushing himself back up onto his feet. He took out his cell phone for the light and looked to the pathway that had scattered robot parts down it. “Something sliced up that one..” he said.

[Amalea]

She was beginning to wonder if it was such a wise idea to gather a group for this. The thought crossed her mind that it would have been a lot less complicated to do this on her own. The downside would have been that it would have been far more dangerous and time consuming for a single person. There was this little voice in the back of her mind nagging that the red head should have just asked Amara for her help instead of all this. It was a bit too late for that now.

Alex she was pretty ok with. It had been all the humans that gave her the creeps and frankly she was thrilled most of them hadn't bothered to meet them here. Even the two guys were a bit too much in her current opinion. The Greek seemed to be a bit of a loose cannon to her, one that she frankly wasn't sure she could trust. The other seemed decent, but she was still wary of him given he seemed a bit off to her based on her observations. There was also the not so little issue of trust; currently the female felt as though Alex was the only one present who wasn't likely to harm or betray her.

Shaking her head, Amalea tried to put that thought from her mind. It wasn't that it was an unusual thought for her - trusting a vampire so explicitly - as she trusted Amara above all others, save Aysel. However, at this very moment, that line of thinking was rather dangerous given she knew practically nothing about her male companions and whether or not they were actually alone in this creepy, old, dilapidated building.

There was a soft sigh as she watched Alex approach and examine the section of wall that Mike had just fallen through. At least it sounded like he was fairly unharmed and that his excursion hadn't attracted any unwanted attention. The light, familiar touch of Alex's voice in her mind drew her back to the situation fully. As she listened to the plan, she took a quick glance towards the door and its guardian, hoping that he was doing his job. Nodding her assent to the vampire, she waited for the woman to make her move.

Mike's reassurance that he was fine and there was a passageway was wonderful news. The fact that it was trapped, on the other hand, was not. At least not until he confirmed that the trap had indeed been neutralized by one of his robots. There was a slight wince as the female acknowledged to herself that there was probably bound to be many more robotic fatalities before the day was through. A swift mental note was made to try to pay back Mike for the loss of his inventions when this was all over.

The Greek passing by Alex and jumping down the hole after Mike didn't register for a couple moments. While she was quite sure of what she had seen and heard, what confused her was the fact that he had been able to overcome Alex's power. In Lea's book, that made him incredibly dangerous. Looking towards the blonde, she raised an eyebrow, wondering what the hell had just happened. After she was sure both males seemed otherwise engaged, she just had to ask the obvious question, though she kept her voice low, "What the heck just happened?"

[Alexandrea]

As Mike ignored her request to just nod and yelled up at her that he was fine and that there was a way out but it was trapped, Alexandrea cringed. "So much for trying to stay quiet..." She muttered to Red, feeling annoyed at her young friend but Mike was alright, that was all that counted. The sound of foot steps running towards them caused her to pull out her gun, leveling towards whomever was coming at them.

Just before Alex could pull the trigger she recognized Anemoi and stopped. Then groaned at herself for stopping, she could have shot him and used the situation as a pretty good excuse. Oh, well. Maybe she would get another chance. The fact that the man had gone against her wishes and left his post was unsettling as well, with all the powers she had used on him it should have been impossible.

Windbag didn't say anything, just dove down the shaft. Making another racket as he did so. "Oh for the love of Nox..." Alexandrea hissed, shaking her head and then turning to face Amalea "I have half a mind to ditch Abbott and Costello down there and get the frack out of here!"

Before the woman could reply, more footsteps could be heard moving rapidly towards them and this time there was no doubt of two things. There was more than one person coming and whoever they were there was bound to be trouble.

Alexandrea was not too worried about her own safely but Amalea was another matter. "You better join the boys, Red. I'll be right behind you." She turned in the direction of the running footfalls and held her gun back up, ready to shot if necessary.

[Amalea]

Should have shot the arrogant ********, the red head practically growled under her breath, knowing that while the idiotic males wouldn't hear her, Alex would. Mike's fall and shouting was enough to raise alarm with anyone who might have been in the building even if it had appeared no one had. The human was rather pissed off that the other male had abandoned his lookout position, leaving them highly vulnerable - not to mention, he shouldn't have been able to do so in the first place. In Lea's opinion, Anemoni had just jumped to number two on her list of dangers. His very actions and words made her suspicious of him and his motives for joining this venture.

She eyed the shaft as the new round of chaos let loose, shaking her head as well. At this rate, they miswell have taken out a full page ad in the Harpers Rock Gazette announcing they had intentions of being here. "You'd get no..." The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps cut her rant off before it began as she gave the vampire a look that clearly said she was going to mangle the menfolk later for their lack of subtlety.

The goal for the excursion had just changed drastically. While the scroll was still important, getting out alive was now the primary objective. Alex's statement caused her to wrinkle her nose before nodding her assent as she knew the woman was correct. Quickly and quietly, she positioned herself to slide down the shaft, pausing only to softly warn the blond, "Don't linger behind too long,". With a slight push, she made the descent to the chamber below. Standing, she moved away from the landing area so Alex could follow. Keeping an ear open to above, she glanced around to get a more detailed idea of their situation.

[Alexandrea]

Red's warning to Alexandrea not to linger fell on deaf ears, mostly. Alex heard her and noted when the human female was out of harm's way but didn't take time to process the words, firing off a full clip as the Paladins rushed her. She nailed one in the chest and the women fell hard, clearly dead. But the two males seemed bullet proof. However in truth Alexandrea wasn't the best shot. They returned fire, and Alex took a few rounds in the gut.

The pair was upon her before she could escape and she drew her enchanted broadsword just in time to parry a lethal blow from the taller male. It was a short but bloody fight, both men managed to land several blows on her limbs before Alex was able to kill them and then jump down the chute to join her friends. As she slide down, her sensitive ears picked up shouting from someplace in the mansion. Once she was at the bottom of the shaft, Alex slipped in her own blood. Too many wounds to count.

"There are more coming, we have to get out of here. NOW!" She barked out the words in a growl as she struggled briefly to regain her footing and then Alexandrea gave Anemoi a deadly glare.

"Great job on being our lookout, Windbag..."

[Mike Barone (DELETED 2047)]

Mike was still tossing more robots down the hallway to make sure the rest of it was safe. They made it as far as he could see which was a good sign at least. He looked over at the man, "Windy.." he said, "I hope that wasn't our only exit you just left.." he added, while he was thankful that he was worried enough to charge in down a dark hole after him, he still wanted to get the hell out of here alive.

He moved the flashlight towards the chute that the females were now coming down and moved the light towards the wall. Noticing a switch, he moved over to it. Please let this be what he thought it was and not a trap. He pressed the switch and the chute closed up, sealing it. He let out a sigh. "Well, hopefully no one can follow us now." he said, then added. "I'm sorry...I'm such a klutz.." He didn't want them fighting and knew tempers were flaring.

He grabbed his a bag and headed off down the pathway, looking over the floor at what was left of some of the robots then spotted the working ones down a ways. Watching them keep on going without any problems until they ended up at a door. Frowning, he wasn't about trying to touch it.

[Anemoi (DELETED 2809)]

Anemoi rolled his eyes. “There’s only one of us who can’t be killed. And from the sounds of it being the lookout would have been a death sentence so maybe you should have put your *** there instead.” He snapped. He didn’t give a **** if they were upset at him but he wasn’t about to die for no reason. He patted Mike on the shoulder. “My goal right now is to keep you safe. You have a family out there.” He said softly.

He watched as Mike closed off the chute that they came down in so they couldn’t be followed. At least he hoped that’s what that would do. He followed after the young man down the hallway until the stopped at the door. He could understand why he wouldn’t want to touch it. He listened closely to the door before he touched the doorknob like it was going to zap him or something but nothing happened. He grabbed Mike by the arm and pulled him behind him before trying to open the door. “And it’s locked. Of course.” He said.

[Amalea]

The red head tried not to growl at both the pair of males before her and the woman that was now, by the sounds, emptying her clip into their unwanted visitors. How successful she was at suppressing the feral noise, she really didn't concern herself with given the current situation. If she were to be completely honest with herself, the idiots in front of her were lucky she didn't try to shoot them though she was more than tempted. Instead, she unslung her pack, rooting around for the bag she had picked up earlier before heading over to the compound.

She found it as Alex slid down the chute, wincing at the sight of the woman. It was a wonder that she was still able to move as well as she could, she noted. The sound of sliding metal was a welcome relief, though she silently figured that a simple metal sheet wasn't going to stop their guests, not to mention that it would probably still open from the outside.

"Let's not worry about that now," she commented, "Alex is right, we need to keep moving. At this point, we probably should just concentrate on getting out of the building instead of getting the scroll." While she was sure they could find a way out of the building even without a door, she also knew they would be better off finding a door or other exit themselves. Anyone on the outside who would be able to help them would probably be unwilling to aid the menfolk, particularly the Greek one given his attitude towards Alex.

Letting the men take the lead, she hung back. Raising an eyebrow at the female vampire, she took her appearance into account as she asked her question, "You going to be ok there?" Making sure the guys were occupied, she opened the smaller of the two bags, pulling out an even smaller one full of crimson liquid. She offered it to the blond with a small smile, "Unless you prefer fresh and warm?"

[Alexandrea]

"No, Windbag. You're wrong. There's only one of us that is getting closer and closer to being killed and that's you. I won't let anything happen to Mike or Red but YOU on the other hand? I wouldn't cross the street to spit on you if you were on fire." Her eyes bored into his, twin spheres of flame. The image of a swarm of stinging and biting incests swarming all over the man dancing was in her head. But she held back, for now. She still didn't understand how he had managed to overcome her powers over him, it shouldn't have been possible but now wasn't the time to get to the bottom of that mystery.

Alex was hurting and she was pissed but when Mike blamed himself, she got calm quickly. "It's not your fault, Mike. It could have happened to anyone of us." She smiled gently at the young man and hoped he knew she wasn't just blowing smoke up his arse, she really meant it. "There's no way to know if that will stop them all together but you certainly did buy us more time, Mike." Alex said softly, referring to the young man's blocking off the chute.

Amalea and Alexandrea brought up the rear, Alex doing her best to not limp or give away just how badly hurt she was. She looked up in surprise when Red offered her a bag of blood and smiled as the young woman offered something warm and fresh.

*I'll be alright. And, thank you. This will do just fine.* Alex sent into the other woman's mind as she took the bag and drank it quickly, tossing it away before the males could see. She gave the human woman's hand a grateful squeeze as they continued on.

Anemoi's complaint about a locked door made Alexandrea roll her eyes. "Amateur..." She growled, and shoved him out of the way. Bending over the lock, Alex had the lock picked open in seconds. It was her career, after all. But she waved everyone to stay quiet as she slowly opened the door, closing her eyes so the only sense she was using was her vampiricly enhanced hearing.

After a few minutes, Alex nodded to the rest. "The coast seems clear. Let me led the way. And for Pete's sake? STAY QUIET!" She spoke in a low tone but hissed out the last two words, mostly directed at older of the two males.

[Mike Barone (DELETED 2047)]

Mike let himself be pulled off to the side as Windy checked the door, finding it locked. Of course it was locked, he was no lock-picker though, he had to guess neither was Windy but Alex was. Even after being reassured it could happen to anyone, he still felt like it was his fault. Things were getting too dangerous and it did seem like it was best to just get the hell out of here while they could.

He grabbed Windy's arm after he was shoved out of the way. "Don't start anything. We need to get out of here.." he said softly, knowing he didn't have the most cheery of personalities and he could see things getting out of hand. The two of them could fight all they want later after this was over.

He took out a spare snake robot, if he ran into anyone, he was just going to throw it. A person's mind will take a moment to realize that it wasn't a real snake and that should give people enough time to either run or take them out. "Lead the way Alex.." he said.