Also, no Scorpio is not going after Jiston

"Of course I can fix this. And watch your language, young man." She fired up her working servo arm, grabbed the track with her non-functional one, and ground the elevator to a halt (assuming it was in free-fall). She peered through the grated floor to check the damage.

The damage is extensive... she mused. "Sparky, get down here stat! Elevator's compromised," She called on her headset. She turned to the others. "My staff will handle this. Hang in there."

((For future reference, all posts not related to the actual storyline should be in two brackets, for convenience :P))

"Shiiiiii-take mushrooms" muttered Jiston under his breath. Well, whatever it is he accidentally blew up clearly survived the blast. To what extent, he could not say. Perhaps he should help them....or.....it? He spent a few seconds, pacing around, trying to form an idea in his head. Finding where the broken elevator was on a different floor was not an option. Clockwork elevators are spread out everywhere, which really left just one option.

First, he primed his Shivermist Buster. Then, he plucked out 4 teeth from the Wolver ("There goes my lunch") fashioning them into two picks with his Hot-Edge. Finally, he let his Shivermist follow in his Nitronome's footsteps, dropping it down into the abyss. However, an unexpected clang of metal confirmed that certain parts above the elevator had been blocked with broken parts. Regardless, the cool blue mist slowly started to rise up, encasing and lighting up the (now broken) gears in a thick layer of ice. Hopefully it didn't permafreeze whatever beings were in the elevator as well, and if it did, well, at least their injuries wouldn't worsen.

"Oh dear Vog" said Jiston, as he peered down.

"Well, I have one shot at this" he sighed, and leapt down into the shaft, digging the picks into the ice-encased gimmicks.

"Shweeeeeeeeee!" went the picks grinding against the ice. On the bright side, it was working quite well so far, the picks were slowing his fall down to a safe rate, on the down side, he was going to have to speed up a bit if he wanted to get down before the ice thawed. He decided that removing one pick would speed it up, but not too much.

He was wrong.

The pick broke, and the next thing Jiston knew, he was spiralling down into the darkness. Unless he wanted to be smashed down into a pancake, he had to something quick. Removing his Royal Jelly Shield, he placed it below his feet, and did the same with the Wolver corpse he still had strapped onto his back. Then he pressed his entire body against the two, hoping that the impact would be spread across his body, and now just focused in one place.

"Oh please, please, please, please!" he prayed.

This wasn't quite the way he wanted Winterfest to be. The last thing he remembered was slamming down onto platform, surrounded by other figures of similar attire and anatomy, with one of them talking on a headset.

"Elevator.....staff.....handle....there"

Nothingness.

"There's.... always.... something.... isn't there?" Caite asks nobody in particular, her words seeping through ground teeth.

Her irritation towards all these obstacles was reaching a critical point.

As the elevator fell, she had used the hooks on her shield's cord to grapple to a part of the elevator's machinery that was jutting out.

Once the dust had clearly settled, she slowly lowered the cord slowly.

She then hears Gwen mention fixing the elevators and something catches her attention.

"A staff? No way,"

She was forming the question in her head, trying to pick the right words when suddenly a figure falls from the sky and lands near Gwen

Which causes the elevator to dip down even further.

She sighs to herself, and continues to lower the cord until both her feet touch the ground.

"'I'm wiliing to accept the magic powers and the super strength, but to have backing as well? I've had enough, who exactly are you girly?"
---
Elsewhere Keep dreams about the past.

Past friends, families, lovers, enemies....

'Hahah', he laughs bitterly in his dream. He never had any of those things.

Just his sister. Just.... her....

He's spent his whole life on her, for her. And what now? She's not even here right now.

But wait no, he spent his life for her because she's the only thing in his life that matters. Everything else, all else that he strived for had either failed in the end, or proved to be wasted effort. Caite is the only thing in his life worth anything,

....Isn't she?

He loves her, hates her, love, hate, love, hate, LOVE, HATE.

The swarm had done enough damage to corrode his mind, but not enough to control it.

A final idea crosses his mind in his dream-like state.

"I'll kill her, her and everything else that stands in my way."
---
GAAAAAH, NINJA POSTS

EDIT: FIXED SO HARD

DAMMIT THIN, YOUR NINJA POSTS ARE TOO FAST.

I RETRACTED THE QUESTION SINCE THERE WAS NO WAY CAITE COULD'VE ASKED GWEN IF SHE NEVER MANAGED TO ACTUALLY LAND ON THE FLOOR BECAUSE PAPAYA'S GUY MADE THE ELEVATOR FALL SOME MORE.

BASICALLY, CAITE DIDN'T ACTUALLY MAKE YHE QUESTION NOW BECAUSE REASONS

The elevator ride was smooth, to ay the least, as they descended, passing many enviro-domes most likely still filled with dangerous creatures and constructs. The atmosphere and mood seemingly changed as they passed each one. Then, a familar smell filled Diemio's nostrils. That distinctive smell which he could never figure out exactly where it came from.

The smell of Emberlight. The orangish tint all around as it descended down, eventually stopping at the platform. At least he wasn't immediately killed. That was a good start.

He walked forward a bit, and a booming voice eurpted from the relative quiet.

"Halt." came the voice. It was a Spiral Warden. "Identify yourself."

Diemios stopped to look up at the hulking warrior above him.

"Vanguard Diemios, sir." he merely replied. "I come here for confirmation."

The warden stepped aside. "Tread lightly."

"And with great speed." Diemios seemingly finished. The warden nodded as he passed through the energy barrier. He noticed more guards situated beyond, both knight and Gremlin.

Diemios walked by without a word as the knights threw strange looks hiss way. Probably because of his Obsidian Mantle. With all the Apocrean cultists running around, he could be mistaken for one by accident. Have to be careful.

"Crap Chomp I had smelt a wolver, but it's gone now," Ares muttered. After he discovered that the chromalisk smell had been nothing but his own delusions combined with a destroyed Tortodrone (which Chomp happily scavenged parts and ate, his loyalty finally giving out) the pair had wandered the floor aimlessly. Chomp, with renewed energy, was constantly flitting ahead and scouting for food, of which there was none yet. Ares had heard a commotion near the broken down elevator which was where he had smelt the wolver) but was too hungry to check it out. There was a chance they could be unfriendly and he didn't like to fight on an empty stomach. Realising that he could probably choke down a couple slimes if he had to ((who doesn't like Jell-O?)) he wearily shuffled into the direction of the nearest elevator..

And found himself on top of the talking, broken one. He swore. Chomp, however, was curious. This was the first talking elevator he had come across, and it seemed to have several different voices coming from within. He sparked an ember in an attempt to put some light down there.

Ares grumpily kicked a pebble. Chomp was still emitting a faint ember, somewhat lightening the top of the shaft, it still could not see anything, however, and did not want to risk bringing Ares over and him falling. Chomp's ears pricked up as he heard

"I am the Avatar for the Core."

Chomp growled. Ares looked around.
"Whaaaat?" he moaned.
"Grrrr."
"It said what? No you know what? I don't really care what it said. Ask it if it has food." This exchange was followed by Ares halfheartedly munching on a jelly gem. It tasted HORRIBLE.

Chomp then decided to follow orders, however shortsighted and petty they may be. He loosed an extremely weak Firebolt and sent it down the shaft, and to the occupants below.

Luke pocketed his change and slipped the alchemy book in his pack, then continued to look around for a blind mender. He wondered briefly how he would tell, as the menders usually covered their heads with a hood. He shrugged to himself, maybe the mender will have like a cane or a seeing eye chromalisk. He chuckled to himself and resumed scanning the room for a blind gremlin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beck sat in a tree and cleaned out his rifle. First the clip, the the barrel, finally a touch up on the silencer to make sure its in working order. He sighed and wondered what he would do about the mission. Before Syber went back to Haven, their initial mission was complete. But now that the group was getting bigger, they might need to focus on that.

A small notification lit up in the corner of his HUD. He opened it and started the scrambled channel.

"What's our next course of action?"

"What, no hello?" Syber's static-y voice returned.

"Hi, what did the council say?"

"They paid up and told me to get out. Sounded like they were discussing something."

"See if you can get something for this bit of info: part of the group we split up regrouped and are slowly gaining more manpower, and they have this one person who can apparently smell like a snarbolax."

"All right, I'll see what I can do. What about you?"

"I'm not sure, maybe I'll scout the other knights in the area, maybe not."

Caite being the unprecedented level of genius that she is, took only one listen to the mess of clicks and guttural roar, runs the tone and pitch through her memory, and soon deciphers it to be some kind of greeting.

"Nice to meet you... I think. But if that series of noises you made was your name, I think I'll just call you 'Skittles' from now on, easier to say."

Caite then cocks an eyebrow at the newcomer and shows a menacing smile, "I'm gonna hazard a guess based on your primarily explosive repertoire, and say that you're the reason our elevator broke down, most likely from a case of clumsy fingers.

"In which case, you caused us a lot of trouble and I hope you're ready for a spanking. My name is Caite by the way, you're gonna remember that because I'm about to bend you over and make you squeal <3" she threatens with faux cheer.

Followed by a very intimidating knucle crack.

Ares jumped back from the elevator shaft when he heard yet another bang come from the elevator shaft. This time, a bullet (from the speed it was probably a Magnus bullet) sped out of the shaft. Chomp was still flying over the elevator shaft, apparently unscathed. Ares's mood had improved, as in the time Chomp was investigating, he had happened upon, killed, cooked (with the Pepperbox) and ate 3 chromalisks. But, he was coming off a year of hibernation, so he was still understandably hungry.

"So i'm guessing you asked them then? They seem kinda selfish down there, I could actually repair that elevator," Ares mused, talking as if he intended to be overheard. Chomp made a battle-spritesque attempt at rolling his eyes, which was really rolling his head and a bit of purring (yes, purring).

"Don't be like that, Chomp, you know our elevator was worse than this, and I fixed it," Ares replied defensively.
"By the way, that was nice, dodging that Magnus bullet, your reflexes are improving."
"Grrr." came the self-contented acknowledgement.
"ANYWAYS, I am still hungry, and they're a large enough group that they either have food, or know where to get it," Ares strode forward purposefully.

The elevator muttered something, and a Drakon flew up from the shaft, seemingly scouting the area. Chomp was impressed, first it talked, then it could do many voices, and then it said intelligent things,like Avatar of The Core. That was impressive in its own. Now it had summoned a battle sprite? INCREDIBLE! Maybe it really was the Avatar Of The Core, whatever that meant.
"Look Chomp, you got someone's attention," Ares stepped towards it. He strapped a biting glove (Originally for protection against Chomp's habitual biting) on his arm and reached towards it.
"Let's see if they sent it in peace, then I decide if I negotiate with them," he said.

"You're the avatar for the core?" Says Scorpio with a combination of awe and excitement in his words. They could march on to Haven! They could destroy Creos! They could eradicate the swarm! And most of all, they could save Haven! *YAY*. "We HAVE to go to Haven," says Scorpio, in a childish tone "We could defeat the swarm!" He says, excitedly. Suddenly, his Drakon tapped him on the shoulder. "NO I AM NOT GIVING YOU MY LAST FIVE STAR MATERIAL!" His battle sprite started to cry. "Oh fine, here you go." Scorpio reached into his backpack and pulled out a Dragon Scale and tossed it to his battle sprite. "These things eat anything you give them." he said to himself.

I mean antagonist/bad guy

I meant Creos(A.K.A. Shadowy figure). There is also Strom, Emberbreak's other character.

I didn't mean to say it twice.

Lyn looked at Gwen, "My turn to return the favor," Lyn grabbed Gwen and jumped backwards firing a Tundrus charge shot at the wall sending them flying. "Just try to land on your feet, and not that gimpy arm. Did you dislocate it?" The ground was approaching fast and Lyn landed on her feet, the force of Gwen causing her to collapse on the ground, knocking the wind out of her. She caught her breath and noticed the strange bomber, they had landed a few yards behind him. Lyn raised her Tundrus and fired a shot while trying to lift Gwen off of her.

Luke nodded, "Does he happen to be a demo?"

They were troublesome, but since the swarm attacked, gremlins seemed to be more busy with their own problems then attacking the knights.

"Hah!" Caite sniggers from atop her Tortodrone perch, "Skittles here just tried to show me up! How quaint.

"I'd show you a much more impressive show than that, but doing so in such tight quarters would only end badly for all of us. Fine then, have your moment Skittles. My generosity knows no bounds, I shall allow your metallic posterior to remain untouched- for the moment. Or at least, until my grace expires."

Ares could detect the unmistakeable scent of burning metal in disbelief. He turned away from the strange Drakon and muttered grumpily,

"Great, figure you can extort some food from them, and it turns out they can find their own way out." It had been a bad, but interesting first day awake. Sure he was hungry, but he had found that the Clockworks could actually be a place of refuge. He had never expected to run into anything other than the regular set of enemies, and he didn't know if it was good or bad that he couldn't find any. So running into a bunch of knights, albeit knights that were clumsy enough to trap themselves in an elevator, could be seen as good fortune somewhat. However, he only really wanted their food, and even though he was willing to work with them in exchange for food, that state of mind would only exist as long as he was on a one track mind for food. Once he was back to normal, he was a loner, preferring not to be around others, or work in teams.

He paced, which was what he liked to do when he was debating with himself. Chomp seemed to have taken particular interest to the other Drakon, perhaps attempting to decipher the situation with the elevator. Ares focused once again on himself:

"Should I try and tag along with these guys?" he mused. (* represent thoughts)
*Well they do seem as if they at least know where they're going, and you need all the help you can get, remember The Swarm? Who says you can truly survive in The Clockworks?*

*Please. I don't need anyone or thing but Me, Chomp and my equipment.*

*Really? You might want to ask your stomach if it agrees.* As if to accentuate this point, Ares's stomach emitted a low and steady grumble.

*I can hunt for myself, protect and shelter myself, and when the time is right, I will get myself of this planet as well.*

*And who are you to accomplish all this by yourself?*

*...*

*Let me give you a reminder of the power of The Swarm. You still feel the marks where the gremlin axes hit you, don't you? Consider that you have been resting for a year and they are still causing you pain. Do you think The Swarm has just relinquished all it's control and gone back to hide in The Shadow Lairs? Fool.*

*It doesn't matter. Eventually I will need to leave and I will get MYSELF to this point, without help.*

*No, you won't. You can't even get yourself to the point of a full stomach.*

Ares looked back to the elevator shaft with maddening agony in his indecision. And soon he may well have been left behind.

"Dagnabbit woman, what the heck did you do to my elevator!?" Sparky screeched over Gwen's com unit. "I didn't do anything to it, I swear!" Gwen protested. "It just got bombed, that's all." Sparky huffed and retorted, "That's all, huh? Yeah, 'cuz bombing elevators happens all the time. Remind me again why I work for you."

"Because you love me, and I pay you well. Thanks a bunch!" Before Sparky could retort, she closed the channel and turned to the others. "I don't have an answer to your question, Auto. I guess we ladies are just fascinated by male behinds. I'll try very hard not to touch yours, if that makes you feel any better." She pursed her lips and gave him a teasing grin, adding, "Keyword being try."

Ares was on the verge of leaving the elevator shaft, broken with knights stranded in there or not. His ego was shattered when he found out that they could seemingly fix it themselves, as he thought he had been making strides in this 'new age' by himself, and wanted to do the same, i.e., show-off to others. He had decided to eat on the matter though, as he found a few of the fire-spitting (what was their name again?) Chromalisks.
The natural pepper in the meat had invigorated him, and he walked about with a spring in his step for no reason. Chomp eyed him curiously, not used to seeing Ares walk with purpose if his life wasn't in danger. Ares was still pondering the matter and had seemingly decided to leave the shaft, his thoughts on being able to provide for himself bolstered by the magical appearance of another Chromalisk.

"C'mon Chomp let's g-" Ares bumped into a tree before finishing his order. He scrutinized the tree... there seemed to be more on it than simply bark. He turned on his floodlight, and saw unmistakeable patches of blood. The tree was gouged out by some unidentifiable object and an indistinct word was carved into it, starting with A.

"Well, that's weird I guess," Ares muttered. Observing the other trees, he found that there were splashes of blood on seemingly random trees, all with the same gouges and the same word or symbol carved into them. So far what the A was eluded him. Until he happened upon the last tree. He had walked along the path of a five-pointed star, which was now completed with this tree, and it was clear that this was some sort of ritual. The words in the tree were quite clear as well:

BEWARE THE APOCREA

Shaken, Ares left the abandoned (or completed) ritual area. Between this and mentions of some "Caina", Ares realised he had no freaking clue what was going on. He sprinted back to the elevator, sending Chomp ahead to beg them to wait.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Jisston and Sparky had been working together on the same broken elevator. Sparky finished repairing the main lifting screws, but the elevator still didn't wasn't working. He concluded that something else must have broken on the platform itself, but before he could gather his traversal equipment, the machinery hummed to life. "Well whaddya know? Looks like they got a mechanic up there too..." he said to himself. "I doubt the ol' Lady handled that, though. Such a lazy-rat, that one..."

His right ear twitched suddenly. Something was still off about the elevator. He glanced at the nearby terminal; the elevator was destined for a new depth! Uh oh. The whole Clockworks is gonna get screwed-up now. This is bad, really bad! He slung his gear over his shoulder and raced for the quick-travel shaft; he *had* to reach the laboratory and halt the Clockworks before anything got out of hand...

Machinery is a beautiful and complex structure. Like many things out there, it talks only to those who stop, focus, and listen. Gremlins being a good example. They might seem simple-minded, vulgar, and talkative (to the point of annoyance) but they spend a surprising amount of time being quiet, focusing on the hum of the clockwork around them. Technology isn't just an inanimate object(s), it's alive, it talks, and it listens. It told Jisston what was going on, in the language he spoke and understood.

Deciding that their safety was more important than their perception of his sanity, he primed up his Heavy Deconstructor, one of the only things that could get past the defence mechanisms of the lift, not surprising, as the Gremlins designed it. When it started counting down, he jammed it into the area that the main power chord was located. Hopefully it would stop the lift from moving, without destroying anything else. He hoped everyone else wouldn't freak out.

Ares was feeling just slightly panicked at the fact that two cults, essentially, that he didn't know about, were mentioned on the same floor he was on.
"Not scared at all," he whistled while he ran. So when he saw Chomp circling the elevator, he was frustrated, and a lot more frustrated than he had right to be.
"WHY COULDN'T THEY WAIT?!" he yelled, exasperated.
Chomp, unused to Ares in such a state of hysteria, loosed a very weak Firebolt in Ares's face, it burned, but only a little. The target calmed down.

"Thanks, Chomp, I needed that," Ares said. Chomp purred (yes, purred) in reply.

"Ok let's see, those knights were obviously heading somewhere, right Chomp?" Ares started. Chomp loosed a Firebolt upwards.
"They were heading up? How do you know?" Ares asked. Chomp pointed at the new Drakon, which had just been floating there, keeping to itself, which suddenly started flying upwards. Ares looked in the shaft, and saw that it was joining it's owner, who had just finished climbing up the shaft.

"Well i'll be damned. So anyways, that knight, hope that was a girl for the record (Chomp rolled his eyes), was heading to the floor above this one, so that's probably where the camp is, if there is one," Ares mused. He pulled out his com link, activating his (self-made) Clockwork Analysis feature. By his readings, the next Clockworks shift (which would probably cause that elevator to fall), was due in the next minute. If that girl (he readily, and happily assumed) had been a minute slower, she would've found herself on the wrong floor. His app also predicted that the floor would shift to the very floor he was coming from, and would stay there the rest of the day (certain floors could be fickle).

"Excellent," he grinned. He had decided to try and help the people in the elevator too, given the compromised structural integrity of that thing, they were on trajectory to fall near the Shadow Lairs, or some other mass of Swarm darkness. He used his e.m. beams to spark the outline of the platform and the part of the shaft directly under it to the maximum possibility.

"Unless they're too far down already, this should pull them all back up, Chomp," he said. Chomp, naturally thought his master was a genius, giving him an affectionate bite.
"Please, anyone could do that, now let's go to that camp," Ares replied resolutely.