"Damnit." I muttered to myself. Time was up, dawn was fast approaching, the Master apparently had teleported out, I'd have to find this "Nathaniel" and infect him, I didn't see why the Master wanted to recruit him, he had seemed rash, confirmed even more by his willingness to take on the Master. But it was no matter. I still had around 50 remaining swarm troops, divided into the nooks of Haven. I gave the mental orders, the hunt for the commander of the rose was on.

Haven was a warzone. The smell of decay was fresh in the air. I took another big whiff, what a great day. It had been only about two hours since the attack had stopped. The search to find the commander was long and tedious, Haven was huge, and the fact we had to stay out of sight was worse. From an alleyway i spotted an unusual sight. A necron, a medic, and...Feron? The Lieutenant of the Order was vulnerable, but he wasn't the thing that caught my eye. On the floor was a passed out knight. Nathaniel. I immediately called all forces into the area. I emerged from my hiding spot in the alley. With a brisk pace I walked straight into view. "What a lovely day isn't it?" I said casually to the knights assembled. "It'd be a shame if something went wrong." With a single snap around 20 swarm monsters spawned. "Hand over the commander of the rose, and I'll promise that this day won't get any worse." I said, barely containing my excitement to rip these idiots apart. It was daylight, but I was content that the swarm forces would be able to handle three knights.

Just as I was finished talking with Feron, yet another knight burst onto the scene.
"Hey, guys! Can't you see he's wounded? He needs medical attention, now!"
She pushed Feron and I away, and knelt next to the unconscious knight.

Here's a feisty one.

The knight unveiled a slew of medical supplies and went to work. When finished, she stood up and saluted Feron. "He's all yours, Lieutenant." Feron saluted back, but stopped her as she turned to leave. "What squadron are you in, soldier?" She turned back around and put her hands on her hips. "Spiral Medical Squadron, sir. I'm the sole member of my squad, sir." Feron, looked concerned. "Ma'am, I humbly request that you stay with us for a while. We're in the middle of a battle zone with numerous wounded, and we'd greatly appreciate your assistance." The knight looked around for a moment, then conceded. "As you wish, Lieutenant." She gave her patient a bottle of water and some rations before darting back out to tend to the other wounded.

As I turned back to my original task of having the wounded figure on the ground transported for interrogation, I noticed a shadowy figure in the corner of the Square. It seemded to radiate animosity. Stepping into the light, I saw the abomination for what it truly was. A monstrosity of Swarm, formed in the likeness of the Isoran people. "What a lovely day isn't it?", The suspicious figure casually remarked. "It'd be a shame if something went wrong." With a snap of his fingers, a couple dozen Swarm infested creatures materialized around us. "Hand over the commander of the rose, and I promise that this day won't get any worse."

Commander of the Rose....?

I glanced at my feet toward the wounded knight. Was he the reason all of this had happened? I had no trouble believing that!
I faced my opponent and looked him in the eye.

"Well, like the gunslinger priests of old used to say, Not in my town."

With that, I telekineticly grabbed a fallen lightpole made of steel, and hurled it at my adversary, knocking him back into the rubble.
I used this moment to my advantage, selecting a few metal scraps off the ground, and melding them into one, long sword. It's razor-sharp edge gleamed in the light of the morning.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Oh, I'm just getting started," the abomination shot back at me. It lifted an accursed blade from its side, and plunged it into the earth. Magenta crystals imbued with the Swarm started shooting up in a line toward me.

Move, idiot!

I rolled to my right, and looked up just in time to block a void gremlin from sinking its ax into my head. I parried it's blade in the fluid style of my people. Shifting my stance, I sank the blade into the monsters mangy fur. It snarled and tried to claw at me. Concentrating, I vibrated the atoms of my sword. The heat energy generated burned the gremlin from the inside, ending its false attempt at life.

I looked around me at the mayhem. Lieutenant Feron was struggling to hold his ground, as well as protect the Medic and her patient, the "Rose Commander". But where was the Swarm leader?

A poking sensation on my arm gave me my answer. I glanced over and saw him attempting to stab me.

I scoffed. "You're gonna have to do better than that. I'd have thought the Swarm would know more about a race as old as my own. Our skin is like the very element we hold sway over."

I managed to break free from his grasp after the explosions. My heart was pounding in my ears, and my hearing was slowly returning. I quickly got up from the ground, and grabbed my Heavy Pulsar, slinging it over my shoulder. If all Knights were like this, I better get out of here. Fast. The Swarm cut had festered more, and I had a small headache. Hopefully I could get it out of my system before it finished the job of transforming me. Just as I got to the end of the block, I heard a croak from the Knight.
"Help...", he moaned. I looked back and he was lying on the ground, not too far from where I was. I had every reason to run away from this man, but something resonated in me that motivated me to help this Knight. I ran over to him, Pulsar still on my shoulder. I got on the ground and tried to lift his body on to my shoulder.
"A... little help...", I groaned out, trying to get him off the ground. My legs shook under his weight. He was pretty well-built on the outside, but I found myself unable to pick him up. I guess I didn't have enough muscle.

As I looked down, there was no one below, which saddens me. "I guess they moved." I thought in my head. After all that then I moved back to that bunker thing I was in.

And then a explosion of some sort hit. ((OOC: That would be nathanial.))

The noise of it was astounding, with tremors that match the sound. I closed my eyes and cringed. After the explosion passed, I opened my eyes and looked around. "Huh." I said aloud to myself. "I guess this place IS essentially a bomb shelter. Good to know." As I looked around, everything was unchanged. Well, except maybe the china in the cupboards, but that's normal. I looked over at the window I had peered out of earlier and... yep. Glass is still there. Either that wasn't as bad as I thought, or that glass is as thick as the length of my arm. I realized I hadn't searched that guy I killed for valuables, so I did. I found a key that I assumed led here. I locked the door and put the key in my pocket so I could return here if need be. + I didn't see ANY positives of having civilians being in here. Well, positives for me.

I went up to see the devastation, and saw one spot was in mostly ruins, while parts farther off probably only felt tremors. I was luckily in that part of haven. In a bomb shelter. Huh, there goes my luck again. Looking around, there were a BUNCH of injured on the floor, and something strange. That something strange was that heir were swarm monsters around, even though I'm pretty sure the attack ended. I decided to jump down and run over there to see what's happening, because screw subtlety at this point, everyone who could see me is dead, unconscious, seriously injured, or busy helping the dead, unconscious, and seriously injured. I probably should keep my distance from the swarm monsters when I get there though, I don't want to get attacked by 50 people at once.

When I was almost there, I saw some guy collapsed on the ground with a ~half wolver girl trying to get him up. Something seemed strange about this scene, but I couldn't put my finger on it as I ran past. After just a little more running, I could see what was going on. Well, literally, but not at all figuratively (A.K.A. I have no idea what's going on). A medic and an unconscious man were surrounded by swarm while some guy made of rock ( I probably should pay more attention to what kind of species there are on cradle, but I don't care enough to do so) and Feron fended off swarm. I hated Feron, he's the one who gave me my ban, not that I've been following it at any rate. Other than the swarm, there was a man turning dead bodies into swarm, probably one of those swarm copies I heard about (at least I knew that). I feel as if this scene could be a metaphor for something. I probably should join the swarm in fighting, but I have absolutely no idea their trying to achieve. Maybe if a stare long enough, I'll understand what to do. I looked at those people I saw earlier. "Their a safe distance, right?" I wonder.

I got up from the ground, knocked down from that shadow-blast thingamabob. It knocked me right of my feet. I was probably laying here for 10 minutes or so? Doesn't matter, I was swarmed now with Swarm Zombies all around me. Gathering my strength, I swung a fierce 180-degree swing that took out all of them at my right side. One tried to swing at me but I kicked it and stabbed him before it knew what happened. I teleported behind the mob and began to chop them up into pieces. After a few minutes, all that layed there was a pile of black-purple dust.

Then, I took in my surroundings. Haven was in chaos. The attack was still going on. It seemed that there had been several explosions around Haven as well. Then I felt the jolting pain at my side. I looked down at my waist. There was a nasty cut where a zombie must have scratched me. It was a purplish-black. My mind raced. I needed to find a medic. I looked out but I just saw more and more swarm monsters. I took out my Acheron and charged.

I raised my blade in the air and struck down, a cut on his right shoulder, it was over, the target had been infected. "NO!" the startled scream of Feron rang fresh through the morning air. I laughed, the infection would take a few days maybe, but it would happen. "Until our blades cross again!" I shouted to the necron. With another snap of my fingers the swarm monster vanished into shadow. I then pointed at Feron "Nothing on Cradle will save your doomed Order lieutenant, submit to the swarm and I'll make it all go away." I said manically, while gesturing to the destruction around me. And like that, I disappeared into shadow. I could FEEL the fear radiating from Haven.

I struggle to get up, even though it was no use. I crawl towards a wall, propping my back up to it. I quickly inventoried my stuff. My Volt driver still have around 16 shots left, including the 2 shots inside the clip. My Boltbrand was 84% charged, from the blast I fired at the Wolver. I laid there for a moment, not moving, resting for a while, when I heard howling. I turned to see a few Void Wolvers patrolling. I prayed they wouldn't look at me, and prayed. The patrol continued walking, not seeing me. It had almost passed me when the last wolver, turned his head to my direction, it's black, pitless eys boring into mine. It yipped once, and instantly the whole patrol had me surrounded me. I quickly readied my sword and gun, when the first Wolver pounced. I quickly knocked it aside, finishing him off with a shot from my Volt Driver. That's when the whole patrol jumped me. I knocked Wolvers right and left, stabbing each of them. But I was overpowered and outnumber. My blade was knocked out of my hand, and gun was out of ammo. That's when everything went black.

I finally found the Holy Angel. He was getting up from a stretcher, a cut scored into his side. I frowned and walked over, a grim expression on my face. I took in all the wounded Knights and hardened my resolve to destroy the Swarm. It had caused these innocent people suffering, and it would pay. But first, I had to finish off the Holy Angel. As I closed in, he gave me a puzzled look- he was probably questioning how I recovered so fast. For a second, I stared at him and readied my weapon. Gripping my spear, I thrusted the blade at him. He rolled to the side just in time and looked at me, wide-eyed. My eyes blazed red with bloodlust and my spear glowed a fiery crimson. The knight asked in shock, "What are you doing?" Ignoring the startled bystanders around me, I tightened my hold on my spear and whispered,
"Killing you."

OOC: Thin, you going to introduce this Lady of Light any time soon?
Sorry for the short post, but I didn't want to powerplay Ultima's character, so I'll have to wait for his reply.

i awake to cold, really cold, water splashing on to my face. "Hey, watch where you throw that!" I quickly try and get up, and instantly winced from the pain. "Hey, watch it! You've got some nasty wounds there, young man." I look up to see a young, beautiful medic talking to me.
"Um..... Oh......" I stammered.
The girl giggled, and without a word went away. I laid on the floor, mesmerized, watching the pretty nurse.
"Top!" I hears someone yell, and a figure leaped on me, crushing me with a bone-crushing hug.
"Ow.... Ow." I muttered, and I saw Raechal on me."Geroff, Sis." I smiled at her.
She followed my gaze to the pretty nurse, and she whispered, "You got a crush on her?"
"Oh.... Um..... Of course not!" My voice hysterical.
"Oh... I'll go tell her." She winked at me, and skipped at the the direction of the young nurse, tending to the wolver-girl that tried to save me.
I groaned, and closed my eyes, awating death.

I suppressed a groan. The continuous fighting was taking its toll on everyone. Slumped against the side of one of the only buildings still standing, I surveyed the damage.
Feron had fought valiantly. It's no wonder he's the Commander of all the Isoran troops! Nothing, not even hundreds of void creatures, could keep him down! I searched the wreckage for him, and much to my amusement, there he stood in the crowd gathered around the pretty little medic.
Shaking my head, I cracked a smile.

Figures...

Suddenly, I had an idea. Taking my sword, I melded it down around my forearm like a gauntlet. You never know when you'll need another one of these!
Standing up, I noticed a girl with ears like a wolver lying in the dirt. My Commander instincts kicked in, and I decided I'd better make sure she wasn't a threat like the more...."progressed" mutants were.
Walking over, I prodded her leg with my foot.
"You there. To whom or what do your allegiances lie?"

I stared coldly at the Holy/Chaos Angel as he struggled to his feet and slowly summoned two blades into his hands. "Please! I don't want to fight you. Why are you doing this?" He asked. A scowl spread on my face as I said, "You couldn't understand. Just know that I will kill you, and destroy your kind once and for all..." I concentrated my rage into the Angelic Spear and felt its fiery burn grow slightly hotter. My usually gentle gray eyes flared like a thunderstorm, and my face grew taut with anger. Spreading my wings threateningly, I ignored the hushed murmurs of the other Knights as I hissed coldly,

"You won't even live long enough to see the sunrise."
____________

OOC: Yay, dramatic ending! So, how do we proceed from here?

Btw, since nobody knows why Athena hates "Holy" and "Chaos" Angels, here's some background info. Ultima and I agreed that the Archangels and Valkyries were created to defeat the Holy and Chaos angels, and the former's numbers were decimated during the war. Well, Athena had a boyfriend at that time, another Archangel (named Gabriel) who valued her more than he valued his own life. During one of the last battles, he and many of the other Archangels were killed slowly and bloodily right in front of Athena, thus sparking her hatred for the Holy/Chaos angels. Ever since, she's harbored a grudge against them, and hasn't been able to move on from her comrades' inhumane deaths, even after the Valkyries finally wiped out the Chaos and Holy Angels. And because Nate is a Holy Angel, she naturally feels the urge to claim vengeance.

I looked at my surroundings, a sinister purple light filled the area. The unknown passages had grown, expanding farther, but the light of the sanctuary, the core, and even the pesky valkyries kept the swarm at bay. Not for long. Suddenly a cold air blew through the area, the Master had arrived There was a cry of fear behind me. Surrounded by 8 void gremlins was a helpless knight. Heeding the Masters instructions I had brought a test subject. The knight was shoved viscously towards the dark figure at the end of the hall. The Master grinned. "There was something that you needed to show us?" I said questioningly.

My eyes lost focus for a second, something was happening. I found myself looking out of the Commander of the roses eyes. A figure in regal battle armor stood before him. "You won't live long enough to see the sunrise." I realized that it was the valkyrie. This wasn't good, I couldn't have her killing off our person of interest. "Attack you idiot!" I shouted mentally into his mind, as long as the wound remained I'd have at least some access to his mental functions. He seemed to shrug out the idea, and just remain in a defensive pose. "Sir, the target is being attacked, by a valkyrie it seems." I said to the Master. I waited for a reply, I wanted no NEEDED to fight the valkyrie her kind should know better, the knights were nothing but animals.

Deleted*

I grinned at what the Master was hinting at. Focusing my mind I reached out towards the knight, and successfully seized control. With another snap of my fingers, the knight was teleported back to Haven, unaware of the events that had just unfolded. The best part was, any influence I had on our sleeper agent wouldn't startle him, the actions would seem to have come from his own mind. I looked around at the war-torn city, too bad it was still in one piece. I found that "I" was now wearing the standard Spiral Order gear, Azure set, Aegis, Leviathan blade, and a valiance. Once I got my bearings, I sprinted off to the town square, I had to stop that fight. I found the scene almost immediately. The valkyrie was practically an inferno of hatred, I could even feel the malice and spite without my supernatural powers.

I calmed myself then charged in. "HEY! STOP!" I yelled. "We can't afford to bicker among ourselves!" I finally saw how much fear we inspired, everyone in Haven was caught in an aura of fear, even the valkyries were on edge. I got a fiery glare from the valkyrie, I could practically feel her eyes boring into my soul. Pathetic. I had withstood a lot more then glares, but if I wanted to even seem CLOSE to human I had to act scared. I let myself start to quiver a bit, and make my hands shake pathetically. "L-Look, I-I don't care who you are, but no one here can afford you guys to fight, especially now, not when the swarm's knocking on Haven's front door." I said, confidently, putting some fear into my voice to sound a bit more realistic. I looked between the valkyrie and the commander of the rose, if this ended up going downhill, we'd probably be losing our target by the end of the day.

Athena

A frown spread across my face as the boy said, "Beautiful Archangel, I mean you no harm. I am not an angel; I am just an Isoran who was gifted with a soul capable of using the powers of Holy Light and Chaos. So please, I ask you to stop this madness and join my team in stopping the real enemy: The Swarm." He gave me a seductive smile, and I could feel my face turn a red brighter than a Vog's bottom. No... That smile... That was the smile that my friend Gabriel used to give me... At least before he and many of my other friends were executed. I shook my head, trying to force those thoughts out of my head. No matter how much this guy reminded my of Gabe, no one could replace him. No one...

My mind snapped back to reality as I looked at the hand in front of my face. The boy had extended his arm towards me, smiling. I examined him a bit further and resisted the urge to slap myself. It was true; he really wasn't a Holy/Chaos Angel... How could I be so dumb? I really did wipe out the last of them... A sigh escaped from my mouth, and I continued to glare suspiciously at the boy. Suddenly, an irritating voice shouted, "HEY! STOP! We can't afford to bicker among ourselves!" A Knight rushed over to us, and I shot him a withering glance. After a few moments, he quivered a bit and said, "L-Look, I-I don't care who you are, but no one here can afford you guys to fight, especially now, not when the Swarm is knocking on Haven's front door!" I glared at him, my eyes raging with the fury of a hurricane. I sighed and said, "Fine. I'm here to destroy the Swarm as well." The Knight winced ever so slightly as I said this, but I chose to ignore it. Probably just nerves. I sighed and resigned myself to befriend these people. Perhaps they could help the other Valkyries and I in our mission to eradicate the Swarm.

I turned to the boy and said -my voice notably less cold-, "Perhaps I may be of assistance."
----

Leonidas

I sighed as I took in the destruction inflicted on my home. Slain Knights and Monsters littered the streets, their blood soaking the roads of the so called "Haven". I gave a disgusted look to one of the rotting corpses and trudged onward. Entering the stately, pearl-white Law Enforcement building, I calmly walked towards Ozlo's office. He was chief of security, so he was responsible for this. A guard stopped me -Private Kana- and said, "State your business, Leo." I flashed her a grin and said, "Ozlo in his office today?"
"Yeah, the jerk's busy eating noodles." I smiled at Kana and replied -my grin growing wider as her face grew redder, "Thank you, my beautiful friend." I began walking down the hallway again, and was stopped once more by her. "Wait," she pleaded, her face flushing a Brit crimson, "While you're there, can you give Ozlo a punch to the gut? I caught him looking through my underwear again." I rolled my eyes; it wasn't uncommon for the chief to do stuff like this. "Sure thing," I smirked.

I carelessly kicked the door to Ozlo's office open and watched as the Chief promptly dropped his pad thai noodles to the floor. He scowled at me, then wiped part of his black mop of hair away from his face. Aghast, he looked at his spilt food and frowned. An irritated expression on his face, he asked, "What do you want this time, Leo?"

"We need to talk."
_____

OOC: Now what do we do? We need Liminori and any other missing characters to come in, and until that happens, I'm not sure what we could do.

By the way, if anyone wants, I can draw their character for free! I need more stuff to draw, so this is a perfect opportunity.

She blushed as she pondered upon the situation, and looked at me in disappointment, as if I was not the designated target she was looking for. She sighed as she glared at me in suspicion, when an irritating voice screamed,"HEY! STOP! We can't afford to bicker among ourselves!" A weak looking knight rushed over to us, and she shot him a withering glance. He shivered a bit and stuttered,"L-Look, I-I don't care who you are, but no one here can afford you guys to fight, especially now, not when the Swarm is knocking on Haven's front door!" She sighed and said,"Fine. I'm here to destroy the Swarm as well." She turned to me and spoke, her voice notably less cold,""Perhaps I may be of assistance." I retracted my hand as I smiled, and began to speak. "Alright then. We'll still need more members if we want to win. But we'll need a medic first."

I led the way to the alley way in which I was in before to look for Winter, the nurse. She was helping a knight in Miracle Armor to stand up, the knight in Miracle Armor pretending to be asleep. Obviously with his bad acting, it would not fool anyone. I walked close to Winter and seductively spoke,"Winter. We need your help in destroying the swarm. If you would help us in our quest as our medic, it would be a great help." I smiled at her again, hoping she would accept the offer.

"Hey, it's okay man! You're not the only person I know with prosthetic legs, and you certainly won't be the last. I know it's a little hard to control, but you'll get it figured out. Besides, people with prosthetics tend to be nicer and humbler than usual, which I think is kinda hot." I heard the nurse say. I dried my tears, and looked up to see a boy coming up to the medic, asking her in a seductive voice, ""Winter, we need your help in destroying the Swarm. If you would help us in our quest as our medic, it would be a great help." Winter nudged me, asking, ""What do you think, Top? Should we go?" We? When was I included into this 'quest'? Winter was grinning from ear to ear, so she clearly wanted to go. I tried to stand up, with help from Winter. "I guess so? I'll go if my sister is going." I glance at Raechal, who was peeking from the cover of a tree.

I arrived at my favorite hang out, Royal Jelly Palace. Well, not a NORMAL Royal Jelly Palace. It had been cleared of all traces of slime thoroughly. This was MY R.J.P, the one I used to break the record. I use it as kinda a base for myself, as I'm not "allowed" to be told where the main base is. They of course know I hang out here. "I'm getting kinda tired." I think to myself. I probably should go to bed. I head to the last depth, the place I made my "room" out of. I open the secret panel, press the button, and sprint to my little corner of living before the traps turn on. I placed them there in case anyone tries to infiltrate. I then lie in bed and rest for a while.

Darn, double post.