Sono was running through the forest, unsure of what he just saw. He just knew that he had to run, to warn the others. Beasts and trees flew past him, blurred in his speed. He refused to look back, in fear of the creature being right behind him. So he just ran. And ran, almost entirely unaware of his surroundings. He ran past Cicero, past Luke, past anything in the forest.

Sono soon found himself tumbling down Anguis's hole. He struggled to comprehend what he had just witnessed, where he had gone, what he fell down, and even why he was there. So he just laid there, face-first in the ground, before passing out from all the stress.

"It's fine." Cicero says calmly, supporting the Valkyrie. "So what are you doing down here, anyways?" He asks.

Xindao jumps down from the cliff. Landing his feet on the ground, he spins fast. The gavel releases gray energy everywhere, and it forces its way into the Wolvers. They fall over, paralyzed, as a gray tentacled parasite is latched to their backs. This will keep them fed for days, pumping nutrients into their body. But they will be unable to move. The parasite will keep them in line. Gold and fuchsia lines run all over the parasite's body, and it throbs like a beating heart.

Xindao walks over them, finding a key. He shoves it into a gate, and continues walking through the darkening forest. The creatures cower in fear behind the trees, seeing what happened to their fellow Beasts. Turrets lift up, but the power from them is cut short. Xindao continues walking. Any coming in his path, can meet the same end.

He grins.

"This will be easier than I thought."

Sono woke up to the sound of beeping. He wearily stood up. Despite his regeneration ability, as well as his Almirian blood, he still regains energy as fast as any other Isoran. His other senses slowly coming back to him, Sono checked the message Blesse sent. 'Dang, Luke got separated too?' He sent a message back to her: Alright. I'll make sure to greet him when we meet up.

Looking up at the hole he fell through: Hey Blesse? It looks like I fell through a hole down to the next depth. Do you know where the terminal is here?

Once he arrived at the Terminal area, Sono attempted to pass through the field. However, he was shocked and burned at the hand, the noise startling the Researchers. "Name, Rank, and Business," one of the guards asked him.

'Ugh, not this again...' "*clears throat* Sonosuke Mokuzaki, Defender Elite. I received a request from Intel to activate the Terminal here."
One of the Researchers look at him, confused. "What do you mean? The Terminal is already activated." He typed in a code on the console to allow Sono inside the field, then showed him the Terminal. It was up and running.

"What the...." Sono inspected the Terminal. "Intel says you turned off the Terminal's auto connection with Haven."
"We've not even touched the Terminal since we arrived here. Are you sure Intel sent you?" Sono nodded. "Strange, something must be wrong with the system. Nothing a reboot can't fix, anyways." The Researcher restarted the Terminal's system.

Blesse, we had to reboot the Terminal. Are you getting anything from here?

"Haven still isn't getting anything." Sono looked down the message. "Are you guys running anything on the mainframe?"
"Only the security system, and we need that to keep the field up. Why?"
"How many guards are here, and what are their ranks?"
"Abel here, along with 4 others. All Defenders."

"Intel is requesting a blackout and reboot of this command center so they can connect here to Haven. I'm gonna need four of the Defenders at each of the walls protecting the base. Abel, come with me and the Researchers to restart the Generator." The Defenders complied and headed to each of the walls as Sono, Abel, and the Bio-Techs went to the generator.

As the went inside, growling could be heard in the upper levels. Abel pulled out his Strike Needle. "Stay here." The Researchers nodded as he and Sono headed upwards. Up on the roof, an Alpha Wolver managed to sneak into the base before the field was set up. It was chewing on the Antenna.

"Well, good to know we didn't have to make a Blackout," Sono casually said as Abel shot the Alpha into the force field, frying it as it passed through.
"We still need to fix the Antenna."

The head Bio-Tech ran up to the roof. "We heard shooting, what happened?"
"Nothing special, just need to fix the Antenna." Abel put his Needle away and radioed the other guards. "All clear."

Once the antenna was fixed, Sono messaged Blesse: Something was messing with the Antenna at the base. Do you have a clear connection now?

Once the inten was fixed, Blesse saw the Map on the Hollow-map light up showing the full outline of there depth.

Roger. All area's of the map are visible. Camera's are coming online and the Research data is streaming back into backups on file at the Lab. Tell the Researcher's they are clear to leave if they want, but I think it would be best to have a party go out and have a look at the beast bells. Some one or something has been destroying them. If you found out what it was feel free to tell me for I haven't been paying attention to the communcation feeds. Too busy working on the backup program of the Bells.

"Alright guys." Sono clapped his hands together. "The connection has been established. You're all clear to leave and return to Haven."
"Yes, but we've been monitoring the bells here and noticed they've been getting destroyed." The head Bio-Tech looked out into the woods. "Abel requested they search for what's destroying them."
"Perfect. That's... actually what Intel told me to tell you in case you decide to stay. Make sure to contact Intel if you find anything."

*This is some hacks right here.*
'Yeah, but I'm not complaining. Makes my job as 'Messenger Boy' a lot easier.'

They're sending a search party to find the bell bombers. I told them to contact Intel if they found something.

Luke was stumbling in the general direction of the group. At first he had messed up, reading the Co-ords wrong. Now he was heading the other way, trying to catch up. He broke through a bush and saw another bell. It had been destroyed completely. The marks of an explosion were obvious on the remains of the bell. Ugh, I probably too far behind to catch up. Then his head snapped up as a sound registered in his mind. Something else was moving through the bushes towards him. Luke drew his Swift Flourish to defend himself.

A knight appeared.

The biotech was one of the first ones to find a bell on his radar. He crashed through the bushes in excitement and stopped as he saw the knight ready to attack. He froze, not knowing what to do. The knight also seemed puzzled so he posed a question,

"What are you doing here?"

Luke sighed in relief, "I'm looking for my team, have you seen anyone else in these woods?"

The biotech replied, "There is one other knight that might be from your squad, he's back at our camp." He pointed off in one direction.

Luke saluted and heads towards the camp. Arriving, he notices Sono talking to another Biotech. Walking up, Luke waits till he's done talking then speaks out.

"Hey Sono where are the others?"

In a burst of flame, the Wolvers are thrown apart. Gore flies through the air, and blood saturates the ground as the Wolvers are eviscerated. Cicero stumbles forward, and slinks to his knees. His face goes pale, and blood clots his armour. A huge gash in his throat stands stagnant, and he falls foward, unconcious.

Xindao sits up on his knees. He fumbles around, but finds his blindfold missing. "No....no!" he yells. "Where did it go?! Whe~?!"

He stops and grins widely. Tilting his head, he faces upwards. The forest was quiet, and he was domed by the branches above. Did he still live? This was a strange feeling...

He stands, and the air suddenly turns to darkness. The trees turn to a blaring white, and a glowing red river runs in the distance. The air thickens to black mist, and rolls past Xindao's figure. He begins running, and many different colored eyes float in the air, staring at him.

He stares back.

---

He remembers himself running. The forest is normal, and he is hammering Wolvers off the side of the platform. He runs closer and closer to the Terminal, jumping over the Party Members button and propelling himself over the Gate ahead. He lands, and slides into the Terminal.

"Who needs them? They don't want you. So you suppose if they won't take you, you will take them." he giggles to himself in the dark as the Terminal suddenly falls.

"OK!"

Luke remembered his last screw up with directions.

"Er, lead the way..."

The blood stops flowing, and it quickly become apparent that Cicero is dead. His hand twitches slightly, as he finds himself back in the room.

A serpent floats by, smoke curling off of it. "Oh Cicero. You have a knack for dying, don't you? Oh well. Guess there's only one thing TO do."

Cicero pulls out a sword, he didn't know he had and swings at Vog. It dissipates in flame.

"Ballsy." Vog comments. "Not many will swing a sword at an all powerful being of flame."

Cicero snaps awake to find Freya/Gwen/Creepy standing over him.

"Ah, f***! What the hell are you doing?!" Cicero demands, wiping the saliva off his neck.

Cicero gets up, standing slightly wary of Gwen now. He sheathes his sword like nothing has happened, and begins to walk.

"You coming?"

The vibrations above ground were numerous and loud, as the serpent slid beneath it all. The beast slithered through it all, trying to figure out which one was his partner felling Wolvers, and which were just the other annoyances in his realm. His attentions were turned when he heard a sound similar to an incendiary detonating, and the now familiar sound of dead wolvers impacting the earth. Anguis made way for the location, silent and swift, the ground shaking not even noticeable in the current conditions.

Surfacing a few yards away from the source, Anguis eyed the culprits, not his master but just two individuals. A downed Knight & An Angelic being ontop of him, mouth near his neck. The serpent slithered forward, almost stalking, observing from the shadows of the dense tree-line, eyes locked onto the two.

With a smile Blesse turned to the Console as she uploaded a program to the mainframe. Thanks to the reconnection of the Terminal Blesse was able to use the speackers dotted around the edge's of the area. Since the directional speakers where designed to have people hear the talker from anywhere on the map the only true blind spot was of course the dead center but that was blocked off by the Research camp which was no back online.

Cover your ears, this is a test of the Bell Program.

Blesse gave one warning waiting just long enough for anyone who was able to take in messages to cover themselfs. Once the time was up she started the count down of the Bell system, as soon as the clock struck zero the area would be covered in the tome of the bell.

You have Minus Thirty seconds before the tome of the bell.

Luke stopped. wait....but I thought... He quickly looked over her. She resembled Gwen but, still looked different enough to be someone else. Stepping forward, Luke spoke up.

"I thought Gwen was Valkyrie Queen?"

" Arf ! ( let's move ) " Lake barked to spark. " Arf Worf Worf ! Rrrr... Arf ! ( I don't like this feeling ! A powerfull pressence of a mighty beast is around ! ) " spark barked. Lake nodded , and ran to the elevator. As he passed by , he can notice a remain of some battle. [Tsk... Spark is right .. we should go to the nearest elevator to haven ] Lake said.

He then decend down to Roarsterous ruin ( OOC : Did i spell that right ? ) . As he arrived he is greeted by some zombies , He quickly draw his polaris and supernova . Spark began to dance around and began to bite the zombie inside out , while lake bullets began to expand..

" DUM ! DUM ! BAM ! " a large sound can be heared as zombie flies through the air. Lake quickly run , before the zombies can gain balance again. However he stopped near a nearby tree , he can hear someone is chatting nearby ( Sensory 2 ) ..... he draw his stagger storm and voltedge , preparing for a suprise attack if he gets noticed....

" rrrrrr.... Wof wof ! rrr... ( Shhh... Silent spark ! Be stealthy... ) " lake whispered ( Barked ? )

All across the level the sound of the bell tomed as it carried with it the effects of the normal station. As loud as a thunder clap the sound seemed to be louder because of how it was being played across the area. Well all the beasts are stunned for the next couple of seconds. As for anything else well sorry but test's come first.

(OOC: Since I've been gone for a really long time, the best explanation I have is that Renao's been Very, Very drunk- On account of meeting Jason.
Weird, Huh? Also, Very ironic that they didn't run into Jaxter. Should I mention him somewhere?)

"Jason, You certainly know how to ruin someone's day... Alright, I'm going off to the bar, So that I can forget everything that happened, and go along my merry life." Renao said, Hoping that it would be enough.

"One Shadowfire Special, Please." Renao said, quietly enough that only the Bartender could hear, As Darkmatter Drinks are forbidden, Due to what they do to the drinker. Thankfully, the Bartender's background was shady enough that Renao thought he might have some.
"Yes, I have some that I... Found. I'll go the the back and get it for you, Of course for a fee. Ten Thousand Crowns, Please."
Renao handed the CR, and ended the transaction. A few of the others started looking suspiciously at Renao and the Bartender, But if they knew their place, they wouldn't say anything.
Renao left, and headed for the emptiest place she could think of: The Arcade.
She took a drink of the Concoction and...
(I'm leaving this up to you to decide, Thinslayer.)

The bells resonated in Anguis' mind, just as they had done before on the level above, rekindling a fury which they had also created. The serpent's eyes shot open as he dove straight down into the earth, the ground around him shaking like a tremor. The ghost of the ground was on the warpath. The bells' resonance still rang in his acute senses, and allowed him to track some late ringers to their locations.

Fuelled on by an unsatiable rage, Anguis bull-dozed straight into 3 Bells in succesion, the noises from the "head on" impact not phasing him in his angered state. The serpent's mind was set on one thing as this point, to find the source of the bells, and put them out of commision.

Permanently.