[IC] Dragon's Awakening

[Riddles]

By the time Ralph had gotten a decent-sized pile of berries at his feet, Val and her foxes had caught a few rabbits. That, along with the berries, should be enough to feed the group for a day, at least. He followed Val back to the cave, hoping the others made it back alright.

Upon making it to the cave, Ralph saw Tony, Connor, and Deravan, as well as a few others.
"Hey. Glad you guys made it back alright." He said. For a moment, he didn't recognize the guys they brought back, but then he got a closer look. "God damnit." He said. "Tony, what the hell are these guys doing here?" He didn't think Tony and Connor were stupid enough to trust a group of bandits, but apparently he was wrong. "These guys can't be trusted. Can't you tell that they're just waiting for us to let our guards down?"
Ralph couldn't believe that the only people they could get were a bunch of bandits that tried to kill them. For a moment, he'd completely forgot about the arrow in his shoulder.

[Evanist]

As Celes hears what Robert said, she nods, before going to MIles, ready to help on flying him up the tower. She though a bit.
"I.... kinda have a bad feeling about this though..." she says, looking up towards the top. Something told her this was not going to be as easy as they though. She then breath deeply before giving some flaps of her wings, ready to go and fly upwards, trying to get to the top of the tower as quick as she could. Seriously... who would build a tower like that and not expect people to fly upwards. There is probably going to be something there.... she just knew it, but she still had to try. If they can get up there without a problem though, then it would be much easier then passing by and going up the floors. There probably wasent a elevator either. She breath deeply. Well, here they go...

[KaBling]

Eh, fuck. Now I question whether I should hide the world I created in my head...

We had something against flying in our roleplay, just to skip things and get on with the story. Y'know, forcing a gust of wind down on the sides of the building, just so our characters could experience reality show-like pain. While I am thankful that physics applies, I'm rather concerned about the onset of magic - magic is the ultimate excuse for anything, especially in this world. Also steam. The traps are powered by steam, somehow.

"Woah, you sure we can get up there without any resistance?" Too late. While I was fumbling for an excuse to ensure we wouldn't break our necks, Chance and Robert already began flying upwards. "Uh, I think it's best to make sure they can actually get up there, Elena." I said to her, rather concerned about what would probably happen. I could be wrong though - I think we ended up in Japan instead of Hollywood. So, I spent my time looking up and making sure they wouldn't fall flat on my face.

[Lugia]

[Robert]

For some reason, Miles was complaining as I started to, with Elena's help, carry him up with us to the top of the tower. The flight was difficult, even with Elena's aid, and we almost made it to the top when I started to find myself very tired... we were only a couple floors away from the very top of the tower, yet, I couldn't fly any higher without risking the possibility of everyone falling to the ground and getting injured, or otherwise hurt. I crashed through the giant and flimsy window near where I started to reach my limit, and flew inside, making sure to take Miles and Elena with me. Before I could rest my wings, I hear someone shouting "HELP!" From a nearby room... I look back at my teammates, wondering what to do until Chance finally makes it. He couldn't fly as high as Elena and I could, presumably because of his armor, however, he was able to just climb the walls, somehow. "Well? Should we help whoever that is, or just continue on?" I ask the group, unsure, myself of what to do in this situation. I could hear some strange noises from the lower floors, and the constant hissing sound of steam from the copper, or, at least, copper-colored pipes that lined the room. There appeared to be several valves attached to these pipes, and some blue doors that didn't look as though they'd budge. Thankfully, none of them were in our way, either to help the guy, or to get to the next floor via stairs. Of course, if this was supposed to be a place of business... why the heck would anyone want to work here?

---

[Tony]

"Uh... yeah, actually, I do, why?" Michelle replies to Connor. I was about to add something, however, Ralph suddenly barged in, and instantly criticized my work. "Well, yes we can trust them... and between you and me, they were the only ones willing to join, so we kinda have to trust them," I say back to him, whispering that last part to make sure that only he... and possibly Val and Deravan heard. Mike then adds "Look, if I was going to hurt ya again, I would have let out this wolf lady, right? Heck, I was the only one here for about a half hour, and nothing bad's happened," Mike then turns towards the wolf lady, and asks, with a somewhat menacing voice "So... what are you planning?" Continuing with "I already know that this whole 'helpless' thing is an act, just tell me if you've sent any backup, or if you've somehow told your funny little group that we're here, and I won't have to zap you," Michelle seemed scared, and didn't give a response, which, of course, led Mike to shock her, after which, she replied "I... I didn't... call for backup. I could have, but I didn't... ack..." Mike seemed unimpressed, but must have figured that another zap would kill her at this time, so he said "I guess we kind of have to try to take their base tomorrow... if she's telling the truth, then we don't have much time until she finally decides to call backup, and if she's lying, then we'd be better off on the offensive than on the defensive anyways," I nod, and add "It's kind of a shame nobody else wants to join us, but, she did say that this was their weakest base..." after that, my stomach growls, and I ask "So... how'd the hunting go?" It wasn't too hard to tell that I was hungry at this point, because, well, I'm sure that everyone was.

[Evanist]

Deravan looked at the group, his stomach growling slightly also. He sighed.
"I do hope that the hunting went well, or else I will need to go hunt for food quickly. Since this whole... thing.... I kinda feel like I could track pray easy." he says, showing a slight grin after that. He breath deeply before looking at the exit, thinking a bit.
"I feel though that if we were to go and attack, we would need the element of surprise." he whispers to the group, thinking a bit.
"Maybe a attack from bellow... using earth magic to dig under their base and strike from there. That is when we do attack... but better wait to tomorrow to plan this out.... I think we are all hungry anyway." he says before sniffing the air a bit, and shaking his head. He looked at the wolf lady, and looked at everyone else.
"Look, if we don't want a dead body here, or any more trouble, it would be best to not go and beat her up. Also, we might want to at least give her a little bit of food, possibly something not big like fruits and plants... nuts even. Things that would not be too hard to get." he says.

---

Elena, as she landed up on the floor, breath deeply, having gotten lots of difficulty to fly as up as this. She looked at the group before hearing the cries for help. She looked at Robert, and though a bit.
"It might be best to see what is going on with that cry I guess. If it is someone in trouble, we might get some back up when we get to the top floor. If it is a trap, then I think we could get away quickly if we are careful. Possibly some steam would be good if we have fire and I use my water to make a screen so they could not attack us easy.... then getting away Robert you could shock the steam and make lightning travel quickly to those that want to hurt us. Just a little bit of strategie here." she then says thinking, before moving towards where the cries were coming from, hoping nothing bad would happen.... and anyway, they could possibily block the doors from closing. She looked up at the pipes. What was passing it it? Steam? If so... then she could use that in her advantage.

[Riddles]

"We can't just welcome them into the group with open arms." Ralph said. "They tried to kill us. We've got to keep an eye on them, at the very least."
As much as he didn't trust them, Tony was somewhat right. If they were going to get rid of Humanity's Hope, they would need all the help they could get. Even if they were bandits, they were the only ones who would join them, at this point.

Deravan asked how the hunting went, taking Ralph's mind of the bandits for a moment. "Well, we got attacked by a golem with a crossbow, and you can see the result." He gestured towards the arrow sticking out of his shoulder. "Oh, and speaking of which, I need someone to pull this arrow out. I'm no expert, but I don't think this'll heal properly if I leave it in."

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was interrogating Michelle. Mike asked her whether or not she'd called for backup, and she didn't answer at first. A bolt of electricity was enough to solve that problem. She told them that she could've called for backup, but didn't.
"Hold up." Ralph said. "What do you mean, 'you could have'? Do you have telepathy or something?"
Michelle could be more of a threat than they originally thought. If she could contact the other Humanity's Hope members, then she could tell them exactly where they were hiding. They could get attacked at any moment.

[KaBling]

So, for some reason, there was no fan pushing us down, let alone anything that would keep us from coming up.

Maybe there really was a degree of realism to this world. Y'know, knowing that a huge fan would be impractical, and... well, seemingly magic wasn't around. Reluctantly, I had allowed myself to be carried up by Robert, realising that we wouldn't get forced down.

Rather, we would instead embark on a rescue mission. In the middle of an apocalypse. Created by me. "Some landing, Robert." I said to him, as I stepped on broken glass without any discomfort. Of course he couldn't just lift us up by himself - not even Chance hung around to help. He just zoomed up the building and landed behind us. Oh, just shut up about your apology... we've got bigger problems. Anyway, the building was just liked I imagined it (though not as dark) - steampunk. Lots of pipe, noise and gears around. Just glue some gears on it, and call it steampunk... Pretty good song, though the place was actually steampunk. I really didn't want to know how the hell Carl could build a skyscraper with all of this. Maybe there wasn't so much realism to this world. Of course, the steampunk aspect of the building wasn't as exaggerated in this world, with panels in the walls blocking most of the pipes and such. Doors didn't like of steampunk origin too, rather looking like military-grade steel doors with locks. "Man, not only did Carl build such a tower within a day or so, but he did it with all this steampunk tech... it's like he knew the the world was going to shit. I just wonder where he's getting all his coal/fuel from..."

For some reason, I was rather ignorant of the help message. Robert kinda reminded me while I was muttering to myself. "Huh? Oh, sure. It's not like you've got enough energy to carry us up a few more floors, so let's rescue someone while we get up the tower.

[Lugia]

[Robert]

I turn back and smile at my teammates, saying "Right, then, let's go," to Elena, with a somewhat happy tone in my voice. I then run right over to the door, and, after opening it, notice some creatures in black robes standing over several creatures, one of whom, a brown gargoyle, was the one who was calling for help, earlier. The others were a green dragon, and a blue phoenix, both of whom looked as though they were either asleep or dead. The robed creatures then created a couple swords out of rock, and sliced the thing up, killing it. They then cast some sort of weird, unknown spell on the dragon, who instantly woke back up, and whose scales became more dull than they were once he died. That was just about the time that they noticed me... all three of them turned towards me, and said "Good... another zombie for our great and powerful leader's army," what kinda freaked me out, well, other than the zombie part, was the fact that they all spoke in unison, as if they were being controlled by a single individual... or, they were just creepy. They untied the zombie, and drew their magic swords... four against one, well, that is, until Chance broke into the room, saying "Hey, you could at least wait for the rest of your team before you get into a fight, right?" He then looked over at who we were fighting, and asked "I... is that a zombie?" I nod, and he says "You can handle that one, okay? I'll just pick on these mages," all three of the mages then try and thankfully fail to slash (at just about head-height, by the way) at me, with swords as final fantasy huge as theirs, and with their odd ability to ACTUALLY USE them, I probably wouldn't have made it out of that attack alive. Chance then comes up from behind them and thrusts his sword right through the back of the middle mage's chest, which didn't even so much as cause him to flinch... somehow. I then turn to my right and breathe fire all over the zombie dragon, who didn't seem to like it very much, and even let out a muffled scream, apparently of pain as the flames spread all over his partially-decayed body.

---

[Tony]

After Ralph asked me to pull out his arrow, I was more than happy to oblige. "There, that should help... oh, and this, too," I say as I start healing Ralph's punctured wing with that weird light magic that I used yesterday. I then overhear Michelle say "W...well... I was given a prototype 'communication orb' just before I left to go scout the city for any potential subjects. If I ever used it, it would have sent a telepathic message over to my HQ... they'd also know of my location and condition from that message, that, and I can apparently use it even while I have no magical energy and even while my hands are tied up, essentially, it works a little bit like having a hands-free cellphone, without all the button-pressing," that seemed a little odd... if it was so easy to use, why didn't she? Either way, after checking their 'catch', I gave Michelle one berry, and headed over to the meat. There wasn't much, but it should at least hold us over for a little bit... maybe long enough to try to attack that warehouse where those Humanity's Hope jerks are hiding out. This thought brought about a question, and I asked almost immediately "So... should we attack them today, or tomorrow? I mean, I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep this up, and, as she's explained, Michelle can easily call for backup at any time," I then, after waiting a bit, headed out to pick a few twigs off of a few trees, taking them back to the base, and setting them up in a conical shape, with rocks surrounding the twigs. "Ralph, would you mind starting a fire so we can cook our meat?" I then ask, waiting patiently near where the fire would start, with the rabbit corpse in hand.

[Evanist]

As Elena looked over the group of zombies, she growled.
"Using zombies to attack others and hurt everyone.... Have you no shame for the souls of the dead!?" she then yells before quickly getting her energy ready, actually feeling the darkness in those guys. Maybe she could use this to her advantage.... They were using it to raise the dead.... well, maybe she could do something about it. She then saw one of the big swords about to strike her, only for her to quickly rise a water barrier up, and deflect that attack. She then striked the guy right in the chest, making him chuckle at the pitiful damage that Elena did, until he felt his energy being drained. He quickly pushes Elena back as a large dark spear appeared in her hand. She then quickly stabbed the man with it, changing the energy to her needs, and striked the man hard, making it flinch from the unexpected kind of attack. He then swong his sword at her, attempting to strike her down, missing from barely as she strike the arm hard enough to make the guy drop his weapon. The hooded man then hit her hard on her arm, making herself lose her weapon that dissintegrated in the air. Just then she striked right at the hooded man's face, pulling away more dark energy out of him. She then backed away, breathing deeply from that kind of attack. It was something to use that dark power she had, it was another to actually sap away the power of someone else. The man kneeled down on the ground from the attack, breathing deeply, looking at Elena with hateful eyes.

---

Deravan walked to where the meat was, and the took some slices of it, He though a bit at the low quantity of food, and though about Tony's question. It would be risky but... what if they attacked during the night. There would be less people propably to guard, and they could have a better element of surprise. He then though about that wolf girl. He looked at her and though. He sighed, splitting 1/3 of his meat, waiting for the fire. He then walked to Tony, and whispered to him.
"I am not sure if it would be good to actually go and say we are going to attack, cause she might be able to warn them. We could actually say we are going tomorrow, but do it tonight, making it better for a element of surprise. Also.... she might call them if she end up about to die from hunger... lets get the fire going, I am gonna share my portion of meat slightly with her. I don't need too much food, always was like that. Let's say I was use to living with what life gave me before all this." he told Tony, before sitting down, thinking a bit more. He went to the berries and took some small ones, eating them a bit. He waited.... Tonight they would strike probably if everyone agreed to this.

[Riddles]

"I say we go tonight." Ralph said, quietly enough so only Tony and Deravan could hear him. "If all this she's saying about the telepathy is true, then they could attack at any moment. It would be best if we hit them first."
Tony went out of the cave, and came back with a bunch of twigs, which he used to build a campfire. Ralph sent a few small embers at it to light it. This was the first time he'd used his powers outside of combat, strangely enough. He never really had a reason to use them for anything else until now.

"So, what's the plan for attacking their base?" Ralph asked. "There's no telling how many people are there, ready to defend it. Plus, if one of them has telepathy like her, they might call reinforcements from another base. We need to be ready for that sort of thing."
He began to think. If they wanted to get everyone out of there alive, they would have to do this quickly, before the reinforcements got there. It wouldn't be easy, but Ralph had a feeling they'd be able to do it.

[KaBling]

"Uh-oh crap?" Yes, oh crap. Just to insult me, we had 4 mages that could use GIANT FUCKING SWORDS.

But, the thing that disturbed me the most was that damned zombie. What would happen if I were to touch that thing? Would I be zombified too? Would I just decay to death? Or worse, get mauled by 'black magic' that's in zombies? Meanwhile, everyone else seemed content on fighting. As if the dragon and phoenix didn't warn them.

And is that a... Jesus, just why did I have to give life to the Articuno Monica? Hopefully it's just some poor schmuck. "Alright then, let's... yeah. Just aim your flames AWAY from me!"

So, I rushed up from behind Robert, unsure what to do. Fire seemed to piss off the zombie, whereas physical attacks didn't work too well on the mage. That meant... I didn't want to burn myself like I did at the cave, but it looked like I would have to do such a thing. So, after rolling into a ball and staining a mage's robe, I rose up and began spontaneously combusting. I felt a bit embarrassed on burning myself, especially as this was a mage, not a zombie. However, if swords don't work, then something's gotta kill these things.

[Lugia]

--Deleted post--

[Lugia]

[Robert]

After Celes sapped the energy out of one of the mages, it just sort of fell over, yet, it didn't seem like anything was in the robe... it was just an empty robe on the floor now. Miles then caught one of the two remaining mages on fire, which seemed to be enough as some sort of dark energy just floated away after that, leaving nothing but the robe's ashes to remain. I nearly get my left arm cut off from one of those giant swords, of course, it still managed to hit me, it just severely injured my left arm rather than cut it clean off. I shout in pain, and try to breathe fire on the remaining mage, missing thanks to me not being able to focus due to the amount of pain in my left arm. Chance then had an idea, and sliced the robe of the last mage into pieces, letting the dark energy escape, and leaving the zombie as the last one left. The thing was going for me, but I was more than quick enough to dodge its... horrible, green breath, even while holding onto a gimped arm. I tried to zap the zombie, but the lightning bolt hit the floor instead, leaving a burn mark in the tiled flooring, and leaving me to almost swear over how much pain I was in at the moment. "Hey... why the heck am I the only one that ever gets hurt around here?" I ask my team, jokingly at first, but then I start to realize that I might just be right. After all, back in that cave, I had my entire jaw pretty much shattered, and recently, I was the only one who actually got hit with one of those giant swords, which, of course, left me as I am now... in pain, and only really able to use one arm... even if I was a righty this freaking hurt. Bad.

---

[Tony]

After Ralph lit the fire, I cooked the meat, and started to slice up whatever little we had into enough slices to feed all who actually needed to eat. I also divided the berries pretty evenly, and we seemed to have some of each left over after everyone was done... which was odd, considering how hungry everyone was. I gave the leftovers to Michelle, saying "Here... um... thanks for not calling for backup," of course, that food would have probably gone to waste if nobody ate it, given that it was just some small scraps here and there, we'd probably forget about it and then they'd just rot, which wouldn't be good for anyone. I then, with the help of the rest of the team, started to build more of those support beams until nighttime came. "Alright... let's go," I whisper to everyone on the team. I then start to head towards that warehouse, with whoever would or could follow me follow. I honestly needed everyone I could get to help me here, so I didn't even assign anyone to watch over Michelle, who I assumed would just stay there, as usual, doing oddly little to get out of her situation. Once I get to the warehouse, I look back and see the trio I just recruited. "You three. I'm going to need you to separate from the main group. We'll head in one way, and you'll try some other way... er... try the back, they probably have a back entrance," I say to them. They shrug and head off towards the back of the warehouse, and I just sort of wait, taking note of the guards, most of whom seem to be tired, and also wearing that same lab coat that Michelle is wearing. This made them look less like guards, and more like scientists, for whatever that's worth. Oddly enough, they didn't seem to have any weapons, so, I just had to assume that they'd be able to summon their own personal weapons, similar to how Michelle made that sword in our fight against her.

[Evanist]

Elena saw that Robert had been hit, and quickly rushes to his side, seeing the zombie going to attack again, breathing it's weird gas. She quickly move in front and then moves a water wall up, cutting the gas before it would hit them. Unfortunately, part of the gas passes the wall. She tried to not breath, but some of the gas got to her, making her fall on the floor, feeling bad, as if poisoned. She growls as she then suddenly blast the zombie away from the group. She then uses her energy and remove some dark energy from the zombie from a distance, but not enough to finish it off. She was now breathing deeply, taking back some of his energy, trying to see if she could heal herself or something from the poison by any way possible... She just did not know how she could even do that.... unless.... Water was what most part of the human body was... What about her? Maybe... maybe she could try and work on moving the poison out of her body using her water magic by moving the blood around. That though would be risky. She just hoped the group could finish that thing off.

---

Deravan finished his own meal before fallowing the group. They had to go attack that group, but the question was how to proceed. He looked at Tony, thinking a bit, before moving closer.
"Tony, i was thinking.... because both of us can use ground magic.... maybe we could make a tunnel from bellow and attack from there. That way we would have a surprise attack and have a advantage... unless we try to go with assasin like moves and take those guys down from the shadows without them knowing...." he then says, thinking about how to proceed a bit more. They had to take that group down, but even if thinking about that was nice, they needed to actually do it. He was also wondering how many people they would actually fight? If they were all as strong as Michelle, then this would be a bigger pain then anything.

[Riddles]

Now that everyone was fed, they headed out to the base. Ralph flew overhead at first, but once they got close to the city, he flew closer to the ground, careful not to attract any attention. Once they arrived at the base, they split up. Tony, Deravan, and Ralph stayed by the front entrance, while Tony's new recruits went around to the back.
There were a bunch of guards, all of which were wearing lab coats similar to Michelle's. They seemed to be pretty tired, which should make it easier to sneak past them. Deravan suggested that he and Tony use their earth magic to dig a tunnel under the base and attack them by surprise.
"Sounds like a good plan to me." Ralph said. "It should work, as long as our tunnel doesn't cave in."
The chances of the tunnel caving in were pretty low. Plus, it would be a lot easier than sneaking in on foot. Unless Tony had a better plan, this seemed like the best option.

[KaBling]

"I don't know, and that might've been how he did it!" 'He,' being Lugia or whatever. If I were to blurt that out again, someone would either dismiss me as crazy or- well, nevermind. Just crazy, thankfully. No one else knows the truth, and they're not paranoid or anything. "Actually: I don't know and I don't care!" That was more like it, as I yelled out loud while slamming another damn mage into the wall with sheer strength, denting the plaster. I held onto the withered robe and began hammering the pipe behind the mage with my sword. He tried to struggle, but I had already gagged him, and I sealed his fate by forcing him into a sharp path of steam. Behind me, we weren't going to die against these low-level scrubs - it was like a zombie left. Neither seemed like panicking, what with the zombie stumbling backwards and the mage still swinging wildly.

Oh, I gotta stop thinking. Anyway, I was looking at the battle at the moment... Robert wasn't in a good shape, Celes had fought bravely and Chance proved he had better swordsmanship. The remaining two, unconscious... bird and dragon were still on the floor, somehow avoiding the mayhem of our battle. I would've helped Robert, but they could handle themselves, and the gas was something I'd rather avoid. I ran over to the pair, sounding like a pounding fish and kneeling over the blue phoenix. "You two, are you alright? Hello?" I said, trying to wake both of them up. Nope, they weren't responsive for a bit. I really needed the name of the blue bird, 'cause I needed to know whether this world was linear or simultaneous with arcs.

[Lugia]

[Robert]

The zombie stops focusing on me for a while, and heads towards Elena, who seemed to be poisoned and also cleansing herself of poison at the same time. The thing opened its mouth, green drool dripping from its teeth, and it let out a groan before trying to bite Elena. I, however, wouldn't let this happen, and breathed a white flame that soon enveloped the entire zombie, leaving only a pile of burning body parts on the floor. "Whew... that was close," I say to Elena, who was probably a little shaken up from that attack. I then add "I couldn't just stand there and let one of my teammates get zombified... and I really don't want to be responsible for killing them afterwards," I then remember the pain in my left arm, and try to keep it from moving using my right hand. That mage must have cut through the muscle or something, 'cause the arm was completely limp and I was unable to actually control it at the moment. I wince in pain, and hear one of the three, particularly, the bird who we just saved, reply with "Name's Bruce... I used to be the manager of a nearby restaurant... what the heck happened?" The gargoyle, who was the only one who was awake at the time then asks "Hey, could someone untie me? I kinda want to be able to move," I then comply, cutting the rope with the claws on my right hand, letting go of my left arm for a moment, and I scream in agony instantly afterwards, and hold up my left arm after that. The gargoyle thanks me, and leaves the building... somehow, I feel as though I'll meet up with that guy again... I just don't know why I feel that way. It was weird, and it almost made me think that this was more than just a coincidence that we were here just as he started screaming for help. Shaking off that feeling, I manage to start to head upwards, and hopefully out of this mess, with my left arm hanging on by just a few threads, and being held up by my right hand... I really hope that I'm ready for whatever challenges might come next.

---

[Tony]

"That sounds like a plan, Deravan," I whisper to Deravan, making sure that I don't catch the attention of any of the guards who were patrolling around the area. I then take a moment to take a deep breath, and then focus my earth-based magic on the ground underneath me. I sink down into the newly-created hole, and use the same magic to dig out towards the base, just a bit before gesturing for the rest of our group to follow. Thankfully, my magic didn't make enough noise for the guards to notice... but, if there was anyone who was more awake than they were, the sound of the ground moving around underneath them might just tip them off to our location. I hope the entire group is still tired... I really hope they don't have anyone who became nocturnal after the change in there... that wouldn't be good. I think as I wait for the others to continue burrowing. It seemed as though Deravan would help, given that he also had earth magic... though, I figured that Ralph, being a bird, would feel a little uncomfortable in the cramped hole that's too small for him to fly and escape. Of course, he didn't have much of a choice, as the guards would probably notice a phoenix flying above their heads, and given that phoenixes aren't too rare nowadays, they'd know to treat the phoenix as an intruder rather than a wild animal, which would lead them to attack Ralph as soon as they saw him. I then wondered if the opposite group had some sort of plan to get in, or some way to avoid the guards... I assumed that the zombie dragon would be bait, given that he probably can't feel pain, or, at the very least, won't feel as much pain as the others. Maybe they'd ambush the guards after that, picking them off one-by-one, and hoping that they all go for the ruse... though, these were scientists, and they might not be as easy to trick as a typical passerby.

[Evanist]

As Elena breath deeply as the zombie attempted to bite her, she looked at it now that it was just a pile of ashes and shakes a bit.
"Thanks Robert...." she says before seeing his arm and how it was reacting. She looked at him worried now. They had freed the group but with the injuries Robert had taken.... She rushes at him.
"Woah easy there. You are not gonna go on in battle while in that condition mister." she says looking at his left arm. She then feels a strange energy inside of her. She slowly moved close and moved the left arm back to where it was suppose to me. She then started to pull out any dark energy that was in there and started to use the energy she was feeling, the arm slowly starting to reattach itself on Robert, threads by threads. After she was done, she fell on the floor, out of energy, breathing deeply now, feeling weakened. The arm itself was healed but it was still fairly weak.
"We need to take a minute or so just to be sure that everything will be fine" she says, breathing heavily as if she just did a marathon. Healing magic.... she had healing magic... That was really... strange. She needed to rest up a bit though cause that took more energy then anything else.

---

Deravan fallowed Robert, making it easier for him with his own magic as the group continued to travel underground. He was at the moment listening up, trying to catch any conversations that might talk about their own location. If so, then he would need to strike right here and now to keep the element of surprise. A good earthen strike to piece the guards right in place with stones might do the trick if they don't have their guards down. Though these guys might have magic also. They needed to be sure about everything and keep quiet. Anything to tip them off would send a alarm and that would be very bad.
"Careful guys..... don't move the rocks too much." he whispers in a low voice, working hard on keeping the movements hard to detect for any guards that might be more awake then the others. They might take it as a small earthquake if they were to move the stones everywhere at once. That what he might do to make the guards just think as it as natural... but that probably would fail.

[Riddles]

Ralph followed closely behind Deravan and Tony. The tunnel was narrow and cramped, which wasn't the most comfortable feeling for him. The guards would probably notice the ground moving beneath them if they made it any bigger, though, so he'd just have to deal with it.
"About how far are we at this point?" Ralph asked. "I think we're good. We should be right underneath them at this point."
Ralph was prepared to fight. As soon as they came out of this tunnel, all hell would break loose. They didn't know how many people there were, but he was ready for anything.

[KaBling]

And then, I recoiled upwards. "Oh, nevermind. Thought you were something else." I didn't make a mistake. That something wasn't supposed to be a living object in this world, otherwise things would get complicated. "Everyone's alright, I assume." Bruce had gotten up and kinda just left, though I didn't really know if he'd be useful to have around.

Of course, not everyone was alright. Robert's arm had a deep gash, looking sharp yet horrible. Well, to everyone else at least - when I saw it, I felt... hungry? Either way, he went out of his way to save Celes, so he was definitely our leader now. Chance had sat down to relax after fighting mages with bigger swords, pushing away some rotting robes while I decided not to have a go at the zombie's burnt ashes and body parts. As I sat down myself on the floor, I could see Celes was healing Robert so he wouldn't bleed to death or lose an arm. Oh. Right. Boss fight. I made a glum look, somewhat hard to see on a dragon. Regardless, I knew we'd have to fight a boss soon.

Problem was, I couldn't remember the boss. It was definitely Carl... I think he possessed something. Well, after all, he is kind of a wimp and will get enforcers to do the job for him.