Chapter Four

The Predicament

Some prefer believe that addictions will act as an aid and ease the precedent pain. Light a stick, make the agony magically vanish like the swish of a wand. Inhale, feel the smoke surge through the walls of the human lungs, take it in, breathe it out; Its not so hard. Shut the lids and then maybe one won't have to see the suffering that they may be doing to their body. Their organs are screaming, their skin is maltreated. The only thing that they can do is give in to the green hunger, give up what had once seemed so important to them, the milky smoke clotting out their senses to see beyond the mists of pain.

Once upon a time commercials and advertisements had laid these things to a rest. The beginning of an era, where people just didn't seem to care about their bodies. They gave away the human body and replaced it with the industrial pleasures. What the victims of these industries refuse to apprehend, is that they are giving in to the molestations of infatuation.

Like nobody around here knew those facts. And still, even then, Nickoli persisted to place that same stick that caused his lungs to shriek in pain, skin to twist and shudder in agony, and he still managed to get wording from the street. "You'll die one day." "Those cigs will kill you." "They cause lung cancer! Quit while your still young." Like he didn't know, not like he has much years ahead of him to look forward to. Eventually he'll live out his sixty years, maybe even fifty, before he gives in to the darkness called death. But what else mattered to him? What was he going to lose?

Everything causes some form of cancer nowadays, anyway.

A room in a large underground shelter, a home, a cube with a door to slam shut. Pace around the quarters, leave to eat, come back, pace some more.... From one room to the next. If anything, he probably wasn't going to die from lung cancer. There was nothing more that Nickoli Olsen hated that self-righteous morons from the streets commenting on a barely breakable habit of his, thinking that he'd have something important to do with his life, anyway.

Scratch that, it was the second thing that he hated.

A wormlike tail, whiskers, blackened eyes, ragged gray pelt.... They had the face of the devil, as he had vowed, and for that, it had been his only given reason as he withdrew his gun from the holster, aimed at the creature who lurked within the shadows of the training room, and was given the duty to track it down. Nickoli Olsen; the hunter. With that thought, he smirked as he pulled the trigger, sending a metallic needle singing through the air.

There was the faint sound of a squeak, and a skitter across the metal railings of the shelves, knocking down various boxed of ammunition and artillery.

"Rats...." Nickoli whined, his voice released a shuddering sigh. "Of all the creatures of God, why rats?"

No matter, he fired again, this time he wouldn't-he did-miss. That time, the bullet had whistled through the air and struck the floor that the rotten little vermin had managed to scoot its way across the floor, dashing through the open door.

Now enters a tan skinned woman, with ginger hair that curved and draped down to her jaws, some strands curling downward and up towards her neck around the shoulders. Her face held up an intimidating look that was completed with crystal blue eyes. The woman wore short sleeve shirts and tight jean shorts (One leg reached down to her knee, the other leg was firmly rolled up about four inches below her thigh.), to add to her first sighted materialization, her face screwed into a sour that ruined her first appearing attractions, replacing it with a look as she took a glimpse around the room and its chaotic condition, and then turned back to Nickoli.

"TAZ!" she yelled, her fair almost flailing like mad flames. "What the hell do you think your doing?!"

Cringing, he took a couple steps away, holding up his hands, dropping his gun in the result of his sudden cowardice, not so much as for the rat, but by the woman. He shuddered upon the very sight of her rage, taking a few more steps back as she stomped towards his direction, fists clenches, arms out as though ready to strike.

"B-Beck...um...Bekah...." he said in a rattling voice, revealing that of trepidation.

"You rotten little ingrate!"

"I-Ingrate?" he inadvertently stuttered. "H-How s-s-so?"

"Xaden gives you full hospitality here, and what do you do in return of his kindness?" she said, irate, then pointed to the wall with bullets shot into it, smoke steaming from the outlet Nickoli had shot through. "You burn a fucking hole through the goddamned wall!"

It had been then when Nickoli found it hard for himself to speak. "Uh, I-I'm s-s-sorry?"

Nostrils flaring with anger, the woman named Bekah raised a shaking fist in the air, pushing Nickoli back so far that he was shoved up against the opposite side of the room, pinned to the wall. "Don't say sorry to me, you dumbass! Say that to Xaden after you get this mess cleaned up, and you better not come up with some sort of haphazard excuse, either." She backed away and gave him an infuriated look, Nickoli dared to open his mouth once, but seeing the sharpened glare in her ice blue eye, he was quick to close it.

"I saw a...rat.... It just came out of nowhere and-"

Her eyebrows raised, unable to suppress the sardonic grin on her face. "You saw a rat? Oh gee, Nickoli, that is going to go very well on your explanation to Xaden when I tell him that we're going to need some plaster to cover the holes in the wall!" She raised her hands and created a mocking gesture. "'Ooo, I'm a grown man with a fear for rats! A gun is needed to take out the rotten furred vermin, instead of using something less destructive!'"

The door swung open again, and in walked a dark, russet skinned-man, the receded hair over his head seemed almost as though it were natural for his head to have been in such a condition. His piercing narrowed eyes were enough to cause Nickoli to be down for respect for this man, as well, even though he rarely spoke of any words.

His name was Reuel Uzoma.

Nickoli felt like he could have screamed when he saw black eyes stare at him from the cupboards in the distance, located to the left of Reuel. Quickly, he pulled back up his gun and felt himself readied to fire again, when he remembered how much faster Bekah was then himself, feeling her hand grasp over his own and immediately forced him to withdraw when he discovered her hand tightly gripping over his gun hand, her stinging narrowed eyes convinced him further that what she had done was for the best.

"Beck, you know that I'm...uh...Rataphobic and all, and I-"

"That wasn't a rat," said Reuel, who'd been staring into the same direction as Nickoli had, his mind directed off into a dissimilar thought process than Nickoli as well as Bekah, that the two discontinued their feud and turned to him with quirked eyebrows. He added, "...that was a mouse."

Fighting the urge to throw his arms in the air, Nickoli exclaimed, "So, whatever! It was there, staring at me like the little demon creature it is! For all I care, it can be called a rabbit and I probably still would have shot it."

"Aww, bunnies," Bekah said mockingly with a grin.

"Thank you for staying with us in topic, Miss Berlington," Reuel smirked, then heard a sound coming from behind him in the hallways, the sound of hesitating footsteps. Ones that neither of them had ever recognized before.

Bekah had then took a deepened breath, before turning to the others. "Oh yeah, I just received word from Ragnar before Uri and the others left by phone. She wanted to let us know that-"

The door, once more, had opened, and Nickoli Olsen had raised his weapon.

***

There was an intense stench of metal surrounding the hallway that the woman was moseying down upon. It had almost been difficult for her to live with the smell, but after a while she couldn't help but find herself already getting used to the foul scents and distinguishing each twists and turns within the hallways that she traveled within.

It had been the sounds ahead, a set of voices as well as slight violent tones which had lured her further from the path that she felt she was designated to go towards, and ended up following the sounds. She walked further down, and started to hear them more audibly.

At first they were speaking of a mouse, the male voice sounded like he was distressed and angered, it was hard to tell. And then the woman voice yelled at him and mocked him. She obviously didn't like him very much as a friend, perhaps. The woman couldn't decide whether if it was the right time to impede on their conversation or not. She didn't know why but she felt the strangest urge to converse with someone else rather than wandering on her own. Perhaps it was the feeling of loneliness and complete confusion.

"Oh yeah," said the woman voice. She was hesitant when she approached the door, listening in on their conversation for a while, but now that she seemed to sound a little less tense, maybe now was the right time that she should halt her hindering? "I just received word from Ragnar before Uri and the others left by phone. She wanted to let us know that-"

Suddenly the feeling in her legs lost balance. Her knees trembled, locking together and weakening again just like they had once while she was at the hospital, causing her to tumble forward, her wrist twisting the handle and shoving her body forward to push open the door. She took a few steps forward to catch herself, until there was the blasting sound and the feeling of something sharp and metal skimming across her soft face. The young woman's body suddenly tensed and froze up, her arms pinioned to her sides and emerald eyes wide with horror, her muscles tightened at the sound of something loud stabbing her ears. She gulped and looked to the mists that seemingly skidded passed the air directly next to where she stood, filling her nostrils thick with gun smoke.

Quivering, she slowly turned to look upon three people with a horrified expression, still securely stiffened. She then gradually turned to stare over the group, looking over a balding man, a redheaded female, and a younger man whose had untidy dark auburn hair seemed to have nearly covered his chocolate eyes. He wore an extremely lose blue and white shirt that seemed way too big for his size, his voluminous jeans had the identical fitting. He didn't seem very threatening, other than the black weapon that he held in his hand.

Taking a step back, gasping real quick when she noticed the exasperated look on the other woman's face as she turned to him, her hand moving faster then the eye could see as she brought her grasp up and enveloped her fingers around the nose of the steaming firearm, pulling it down.

"You idiot," she droned to him, her eyes narrowed. She then growled, "There isn't anybody around here worth shooting at, she might have had someone behind her and you could have just shot someone. You honestly don't think about anything, do you?" she turned, her expression hadn't changed awfully much, but enough to give her the comfort that she wasn't disgruntled with her as well. "Sorry about that. You must be the new person that Ragnar told me of."

"You speak of the issue like you expect me to stay," the young woman said solemnly.

"Well, visitors we don't get often," the female said, more lenient towards Rei now than she had previously been with her own friend (or at least that was what she had been led to, since they were all living together.), "and since none of the guys ever find any girlfriends to bring home-not that I'm complaining, of course.-So none of us seem to have any other life than we would like to."

"Oh gee, couldn't have spoken the truth any other way, Bekah," the dark-skinned man told her, looking like he was trying to smirk but remained unable to do so. When she turned to look at him, she noticed that he seemed to have been a middle aged man, yet still there had been a sense that she had felt; A feeling more so of desolation within him. The lacking of an ability to smile reminded her very much of herself as well, and the thought of it made her think of him slightly differently than most others probably had at first glance.

Leisurely, she turned back to the rest of the three, finding herself in the middle of a room of arbitrating faces staring at her again, which had left her with a discomforting feeling that made her stomach churn. She began to turn around, when the young woman found herself being pulled back by the one whom the man had called Bekah. "Hey, we didn't say you had to go. Geez, don't even say goodbye...what manners you have lacking."

She felt herself flinching at the nearly tightening grip Bekah had over her arm. "S-Sorry...."

"Don't you remember what we talked about last time? That talk?" the middle-aged man droned, rolling his brown eyes but still holding up his sheepish smirk. "We don't take hostages anymore."

Bekah turned to him with a grin. "Aww, but they just make the perfect shields," She then looked as though she had just forgotten something, turning back to the woman with more of a smile than the one that the other man was capable of. "Oh yes, I'd forgotten to introduce ourselves to you, makes you almost wonder what's becoming of me. I'm Bekah Berlington, behind me is Reuel Uzom-"

"You don't have to introduce me to her," Reuel said. "I can talk, you know?"

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgot about that," she chortled. "Anyway, this screw-up behind me is Nickoli, also known as 'Taz,' because he doesn't know the meaning of hair gel and a comb. Just don't pay any attention to him, kay?" she glared at him again from the corner of her gaze, and then veered to lift one of the ammunition boxes that had apparently been thrown down onto the floor, taking up a few and holding a pile under her arm before walking towards the door behind her to exit. "I'll be out in the Field if anyone needs me. See you around."

Bekah left, incapable to send a gesture of her departure for her arms were occupied by boxes, not even giving the young woman much of a chance to even introduce herself, and now was left with Reuel and Nickoli. She looked at them, back and forth within the unnerving silence. Reuel didn't seem like much of one for talking, and Nickoli was too busy fighting himself against the urge to ultimately cry, muttering to himself almost incoherently. "Goddamned.... I hate rats...I hate rats...I hate rats...."

"I think rats are very smart creatures," she told him, looking at Nickoli to break his thoughts. "I think that's the reason why they used them for experiments. Plus they are one of the most intelligent rodents there are. I don't know why people would be so frightened of them." Nickoli looked up at her, stunned. Reuel leaned against the wall, watching in some anomalous amusement, he most likely thought that it was impossible to get Nickoli out of his phobia of rats, or that was what she seemingly observed. "Seriously, uh...." she paused to remember his moniker, waiting for a moment until it finally came to her again, then apprehensively pressed on. "...Nickoli, have you even touched a rat before? They're really neat creatures."

Nickoli shook his head slowly. The woman wasn't so used to men older than her crying, after all, he had to have been somewhere around his early thirties, but when he cried he looked much like a mere six-year-old. "What the hell are you talking about?" he snapped. "Who are you?"

"My name...." she hesitated, thinking about it for a moment. What was written on the tag again at the hospital? Miyako? But that wasn't her name...not from what she reminisced. Instead, she decided that it would be best to tell him the title that she decided to go officially by, the one she had just managed to barely grasp from the back of her memory. "...Rei."

"Rei...." Reuel murmured. "Dunno why, but that name sounds familiar. Heard it somewhere before."

Heart jumping, Rei put her hands behind her back, trying to acquire an chaste aspect. "Well, I'd doubt it. I mean, I am not all that well-known around here in this area. So, um, it's not like what you think it'd be."

Arching a brow, Reuel stared at her oddly, creepy almost, before he sighed and responded. "Yes, and I suppose you would know exactly what was going on in my head, don't you? You have a pretty good idea, hmm?"

"No," she replied thoughtfully. "No, I don't."

She then turned and walked out; No one said another word.

***

The sound of gunfire rang through her ears and released a loud, redundant, humming sound through her earmuffs. Bekah Berlington had finished with her first few rounds of practicing at the Field, a vast training room for the people who are in need of exercising their skills, to sharpen them. Of course, Bekah was still better than she ever could have been, but she felt that just merely keeping them worked out.

It had been a month or so since they had last seen any sightings or words of attacks. For a long while the others had even come to believe that there weren't anymore to come around, but Bekah had thought to herself that things always remain calm for the longest while before something big comes up. She'd been thinking to herself this for the all of the silent months, they were out there, watching, studying, even though that the creatures were said to have held their assaults at bay. Xaden didn't allow anyone to leave because he somehow believed that that was what they wanted them to do; Drop their guard. And the last way that she would prefer to die was to be attacked from behind while she remained oblivious.

After she was done with practice she flexed the muscles in her fingers, looking down at the sore flesh. The skin in her palms had grown bright red from her overuse and abuse of the durability of her skin. She started to rub her palms together so that she could release the dust from her hands, then reached for another custom handgun when she heard the entrance door from where she first entered flew open.

"Dammit, Taz, I thought that I told you not to disturb me while I'm-" she stopped when she'd seen who it really was, the two standing at the doorway with a bag in one hand, both grinning widely like a couple of boys off to go and play. "Oh...you guys look like your all...decked out and ready to leave to go...." she said, almost unable to voice out any other sort of words. "...hunting?"

"Damn straight we are!" Teji said, proud as he winked. "Care to join, Beck? We have extra room in the Humvee just for you."

With a smirk, she nodded. "Count me in," she said, holding up her now loaded gun and pressing her palm down on the opposite side of the trigger, smirking with a quirked eyebrow. "How long has it been since we've last had one?"

Teji shrugged. "A while, actually. C'mon, let's go!"

They took off, opening the lock which opened the china hutch, that led to the entry lounge of the shelter, and at the same time came across a wandering young woman, who flinched and turned upon their appearance. She had been backing away from them as though she was about to burst into a run but had nowhere to go, like a scared animal.

Raising an eyebrow upon the sight of the girl, Bekah took a while to remember the name, and then realized that she had no recollection of even taking the time to have asked for it. "Right," she said with a sigh, looking over at her with inquisitiveness. "Well, kid, how about a joy ride?" She tossed the gun that she had previously held and used for training at her.

Catching it with fumbling hands, the discreet-looking woman looked up at Bekah with speculation, tilting her head. "Kid? I don't believe that I am a kid. Judging by the passing years while I'd been in rest, I do believe that I am approximately twenty-five...." She bowed her head low, as though trying to avoid the disapproving demeanor Bekah had shot to her, as she added. "What exactly is going on? Where are you going?"

"I say we take the girl on her first hunting," Ragnar said with a smirk, then turned to Bekah. "This is our newbie, Rei Emiko, in case if you hadn't already met her."

Rei Emiko. Sounded like a name for a fragile little girl. Something about it that Bekah didn't like, as well as the girl's features. She seemed too discreet in appearance, too gaunt. Unsure as to what the others might have thought in this case, she decided that it was best not to speak her mind about this quite yet, best to stay quiet.

Nodding, Bekah replied, "I don't believe we were fully introduced, though."

Smacking his hands and rubbing them together, Ragnar turned to Teji, "So, shall you go get the Galahad while I get the others?"

Teji shook his head. "No Galahad. This is a simple mission, just a trip to the hospital. We don't even know how many creatures there will be there, if there are any at all by the time we get there," he protested. "Besides, what am I going to do when if someone sees a giant robotic running down the street? It won't fit in the hummer."

Ragnar shrugged. "But most likely we'll be needing it. Its best to take it."

Sighing and smacking his forehead, Teji shook. "I don't like this, though...."

Rei, puzzled, spoke up. "If I may ask," she said quietly, "what exactly is going on at the hospital?"

The others looked at her and blinked. Ragnar sighed and grabbed Rei by the shoulder, Bekah began to follow, pushing his hand over the scanner in order to make an exit way out the front door. "C'mon, we'll explain along the way, okay kid?"

"I'm not a kid," Rei said finally, disgruntled.

Clapping his hands together, Ragnar turned to Teji with a smile. "So, you gonna go get it or what? I'm sure you can just give it a little test drive around the city, nobody should be up this late of hour since mostly its under stratocracy. People should all be in their homes or drunk off their asses. Do you get what I am saying?"

"Fine, I'll take it for a test drive...." With a sigh, Teji lowered his head in defeat.

***

Xaden had already gotten himself dressed in the clothes that he had worn before when he gotten his hand mangle by clouting the wall, plus his favorite jacket was ruined in the process of being attacked earlier as well, but he wouldn't go anywhere without it. He thought about just leaving, splinted arm or not, he can't stand being in one place and remaining there like a good boy. Uri always played with him like that.

And then, before he could take a step out, the door burst open, splinting into many pieces of wood. Xaden covered his head with his good arm, rolling to the side of his bed as someone ran into the bedroom, becoming face-to-face with a very apprehensive Nook, but then was pulled back out by another pare of hands. Xaden watched from the bottom of the bed, startled. Blood spilled onto the floor, the screaming of a person had stopped, and then a thud.

Thinking fast, promptly had Xaden grabbed hold of a lever from the bed that kept it up with his good hand, easily tearing it off the divan, now competent of using it as a weapon, holding it close to his chest. He was just about to get up and bash up of whatever was trying to make its way in. Being quick to his feet; the pipe raised, he was only to find Uri aiming a customized pistol Fia had created not so long ago, the Jinx, one of the emergency weapons that he remembered having set in the cars. Nook made his way from under the bed, with a large smile appearing on his face, and barked.

"Whoa, watch where you point that thing, okay?" Uri raised her hands in defense, "it's just me."

"No really, you think?!" Xaden snarled, almost throwing the pipe across the room, mainly aiming it at Uri whom his anger was mostly directed at towards the contemporary moment. "I've been hearing all sorts of crap going on out there, what's up with that?"

Gunfire. Xaden's eyes rolled around, looking out the window. "And what's going on?"

"For some reason the hospital is under attack. The first sighting we've had in about two or three months, actually. Since we weren't really prepared for this, we have to get you out of here, and fast," Uri said promptly, as though she'd been in a rush to leave, now holding out her hand and gesturing for Xaden to follow her.

"What about the others?"

"What others?"

"The other people of the hospital. Are we just going to leave them here?"

"Look, there are barely any others that are-"

"Then we're going to stay and get them out," Xaden snapped.

Uri raised her other hand away from the gun, leaning her weight over the bed and turning to him with an aggravated sigh. "It's okay, but we have to think about ourselves first. We are the only people here with weapons. That's right, only three of us. If we don't get ourselves out then we might all die. I don't think now is the exact time that we all should go down, Xaden."

A flash, something out the window. Xaden saw it. There was some sort of strange yellow flash moving rather strangely. Xaden blinked, trying to figure out what it was. "Is that...?"

"What?" Uri walked to the window at Xaden's side, looking in the same direction that he was. "Oh my god...." she muttered, her eyes widened and almost dazed, making Xaden worry about what to come a little more than he thought he should have.

"What? What is it?"

"He actually brought it."

"Brought what?"

"Galahad."

"Really?" Xaden finally was noticing it, but he wasn't angry, unlike Uri. As a matter in fact he was more intrigued, since he'd heard stories from Teji and his brother about the development of the machine, but he never had the change to ever actually see it before. "Then we have to get out of here and meet with the others. I wonder if that is Teji actually driving that thing, just like he had been saying...?"

"Must be, he's the one that made it," Uri said, grabbing Xaden by the shoulder and pulling them out.

"Out of the three that came here, were you the only one that came here to get me?" he asked her, standing in the middle of a hallway that was empty, the feeling he got from it was like that of a ghost town. He looked around, seeing that they'd been the only one there. Nobody else around to have made sure that Uri would have made her way through the upper levels of the hospital to watch her back. "Because I sure as hell hope not!" Right then it had only been as a matter of his being concerned about her safety.

Uri turned to him, blinking as she shoved the gun into the holster at her side. "Fia and Taj are in the lower levels waiting for us to get back to them."

"Taj? That's just great, Uri. Bring the kid!"

"Hey, if I had known that we were going to get attacked, then I would have brought a whole army, I swear to god I would have. But I didn't, thus that's all I have. I wasn't even able to get the right weapons, because I didn't want to stay out there and wait for the others to arrive while you are there prone and in jeopardy of being in danger. They're hanging out down below, and all I have right now is the Jinx, so if you want to stay and hang around up here, most likely get yourself killed, then be my guest," Uri snapped.

Impressed with her use of words, Xaden smirked, watching her with amusement for a moment; The way she looked whenever she was angry was quite entertaining for him, yet he had been the only one to have thought her anger to have been amicable. "Okay then, you watch my back?"

Uri let out a breath of disbelief, staring at him as though she could hardly believe what she had been hearing from him, whether alone the tone in his voice. "Watch your back? Didn't you hear me? I have the gun. Unless if these hospitals arm their patients with weapons, you aren't going anywhere."

"That's not what I meant," Xaden said, as he ran for the hallway, keeping his splinted arm close to his chest, just so that it wouldn't get badly injured more while he was moving within a quickened pace, stopping at a staircase. The walls were covered with blood and orange liquids, he wondered what those were, but until he remembered what the exuded animal's blood looked like. "Where are the others?" he asked, then looked up when he heard more gunfire. Uri was yelling, shooting at more monsters that were coming, rushing up at her as she'd been waiting for Xaden to walk back up.

They had blades on the sides of their arms, their legs jointed like a grasshopper's, their torsos looked much humanoid, and only they were somewhat of a reddish hue. Next to Xaden was an axe, a sign under it saying "Use In Case Of An Emergencies." He grinned, using the plastic splint on his arm to break the glass, which shattered effortlessly. With his good hand, Xaden grasped around the wooden handle of the axe.

"Uri," he called, "get down!"

Uri looked over at Xaden, and quickly ducked, but still managing to fire quite a bit out of what was left in the Jinx, just until all the bullets ran out. On the other hand, Xaden flung the axe with his good arm, which twirled in mid air. The creature looked up, it's red glaring eyes went wide with shock for a split second just before the axe's blade cut right through it's neck like butter, the head easily rolled off it's spine. While Uri had just finished reloading her rifle, she turned and began shooting more at the decapitated monster, which fell backwards just as soon as the bullets had burst through it's skin. She wiped her forehead, glazed with sweat, turning over to look at Xaden. "Gee, that was fun, wasn't it?" she said in a mocked tone.

Xaden nodded. "Sure, let's try that again," he pointed, Uri turned around and instantly began shooting series of shots at the same kind of monster, shooting huge holes through it's arms, stomach, liver, throat. It was amazing what kind of things these monsters will go through to try and kill someone. Now all he had to worry about was there anything that he could do while unarmed? Of course there was.

Before Xaden veer to block the incoming swish of movement that bolted passed him, Nook sprinted ahead of him, making a giant leap through the empty hallway, and his teeth bared into the monster's arm. The creature grunted, though barely in pain, for that was one of the few things that its consciousness was aware of throughout its existence. It waved its arm around, carrying Nook with it, jerking the inadequate animal around like a rag doll. Xaden couldn't bare it anymore, seeing as the monster flung Nook into a wall so hard the wall crashed down, the dog whimpered and then stopped, its limp body ultimately became inanimate.

Xaden yelled with raged, charging down the hall, his arm placed in front of him as he charge right for the monster that Uri was shooting at, only she stopped shooting, watching Xaden as he made his idiotic move to try and body slam the monster, pinning it to the wall. Just before the glow in its eyes dimmed, giving him enough time to speak to it within his usual deep, callous, dark tone, "Don't. Hurt. My. Dog."

He pushed the bullets into it deeper. The monster made some weak slashes that was meant for Xaden, cutting through his already mutilated jacket, until it's long arms fell to it's side, and stopped breathing. Xaden backed away from it, proud of what he had done. He turned to the wall, seeing that Nook had gotten up, a few scratched here and there, but other than that, the white husky was in pretty good shape. Stubborn, just like Xaden.

Uri hissed at him, eyes narrowed with disbelief; "And people wonder why you get yourself hurt. You're a bad influence."

***

"Hey- No! Not that way!" Teji yelled, inside of the Galahad, his sunglasses pulled up all the way up his face to protect himself from the lights surrounding his head, protected by the rubber Head Pad. He had tried to warn a young boy of this, though the child had disregarded his words and turned tail to veer the other way, terrified of the giant automaton heading his way. "This was just what I was afraid of," Teji muttered to himself. He knew that people would be too scared to follow whatever he said. He didn't blame them, he'd be scared, too, if he had ran into himself.

The boy, just as soon as he was almost out the door of the entrance, was slammed into by a darkened figure, almost barely visible except for its misshapen shapes of skin, causing the boy's red blood to spray onto the glass entry window.

Barely animate batlike wings flapped lightly on it's back, the edges of the leathery flesh completed with sharp, razor bladed texture. It's eyes consisted of glowing, bright red orbs that were within its darkened sockets, appearing like it had been the face of the reaper attacking a small victim within its whim. Tearing apart the body with its talons, extending them right into the carcass of the boy, the kid that Teji had just tried to convince to follow him, mauling the kid like a doll, and kicking it with it's legs.

"Dammit," Teji muttered, taking the bladed arm and started dashing towards the "winged," as he'd come to call this genre of species. The creature's eyes shot up, dropped the boy, and started charging at the Galahad just the same. Teji wrinkled his nose at the sight of that defenseless mutilated kid, died in a quick second.

Drawing out the sword; the gun-arm in the Galahad's other "hand" ready, as he got in ready position for the winged to lunge for him. He took out the sword, which gashed through the winged's side, cutting right through it's wing that dropped to the ground, but it didn't stop. Teji lifted the gun-arm, pulled the button to the pressure pad in his hand, swinging the gun-arm and hitting the winged in the head.

While the winged was distracted, seeing that the armed mechanical arm had been a deep threat to it, as it gnawed at the thick metal, Teji lifted up the blunt sword, making a swipe at the winged, hitting it on the back of it's head with the edge of it. It looked up at Teji more a moment, then it's eyes went droopy, he fell down at the Galahad's side, causing the machine to fall over on the ground by it's back, leaving Teji pinned to the floor.

Pushing upon the push switch, the Galahad shoved the winged off of him, now the only problem was, was getting out. Teji stomped on the foot pad, but there was no prevail, the Galahad was just not made for this kind of activity, since it was the width was at least five feet across, as well it stood ten feet tall, outdoing Teji's actual height by about four feet. He felt like he was controlling a giant.

"Move, move, MOVE you damn piece of crap!" Teji kicked the foot pad with increased intensity, but the electric waves surged through the Galahad at a dangerous rate, as a spark lashed at his hand. Teji yelped and pulled his hand away from the push pad, cursing and muttering incoherently under his breath. He leaned against the head pad, his body against the shoulder and torso secure. There wasn't anything he could do until someone came to help him, or that winged woke up and was ready to finish him off.

"Having problems?" came a voice from the upper stairs. Teji turned to look up, seeing Taj and Fia on top of the stair case, currently upside-down. That had been Fia who was speaking to him, though it was hard for him to tell whether if it was her general smirk on her face or not, judging by the newly distorted angle that he was viewing her from. "I see there is still a few things that you need to work out."

Teji smiled, but then it diminished when he saw something crawling up from behind Taj. "LOOK OUT!" he cried. Fia turned around, she pointed the Anaconda pistol at a stumbling, stick-like figure, which blew a hole right through it, fluids spilling out against the wall and on Taj and Fia, tumbling backwards and out of Teji's range of sight. Taj coughed, however, Fia turned around and grinned.

"Nothin' much to worry 'bout there, eh boy?" she said, gesturing with the Anaconda.

Again, Teji smiled, glad that they were here and alive. Then saw Taj with a revolver. Taj with a weapon was never a good sign, but then again, him being in a hospital with those monsters weren't ever a good thing either. He struggled to get out, but then remembered that he was still caught inside of the Galahad.

He turned and looked up at them, brows furrowed to improve on a feeble look with his plea; "Hey, you don't suppose you can get me out of this thing, could you?"