[table] [row] [sup][h3][b][color=2e2c2c] ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ [right]▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[/right][/color] [/b][/h3][/sup] [/row][row] [cell][color=2e2c2c]______________________________________[/color] [right][img] https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/819789441597964298/826518919962689556/image0.jpg[/img][/right][/cell][cell] [indent][color=ff6130][h2][b]Ellie[/b][/h2][/color][/indent] [color=Ff6130][sup] [b]_____________________________________________________________________________________[/b][/sup][/color] [color=Ff6130][sup][b]Tenebrae City[/b][/sup] [sup][b]The lab[/b][/sup] [sup][/sup] [/color] [color=Ff6130][sup][b]______________________________________________________________________________________[/b][/sup][/color][/cell] [/row] [/table] [center][color=ff6130][h2][b]3…2…[/b][/h2][/color] [color=Ff6130][sup][b]______________________________________________________________________________________[/b][/sup][/color][/center] That didn’t work. And to make matters worse, now their plan was derailed, and one of the intruders was dangling Dream over the lava. Ellie’s heart was racing, stress was being put on them to give the heart up. They had to do something, [i]fast.[/i] Ellie’s mind was running through through ideas. The heart wasn’t worth Dream’s life. Ellie definitely wasn’t about to sacrifice her to secure this objective. The man was pretty large, a head taller than her, and had to have a lot of strength if he could hold an adult woman over the ledge like that. Linus was behind her, face checking the man with a detonator and obviously failing. Whatever he was saying was being tuned out by Ellie, who was hyper-fixated on getting Dream out of that situation. [color=5a6b7c]”Do it.”[/color] Linus said. Ellie’s head swung back to him in surprise. [color=5a6b7c]”Trust me, just give [i]it[/i] to him.”[/color] The tone in his voice was all she needed to hear, for all the animosity Ellie had been harboring over Linus’s return, she couldn’t deny the way they fit together in these kind of scenarios. She held the heart up to her chest in her arms, which were glowing a brilliant gold. Not enough to blind someone, but enough to warrant keeping your distance. Like glowing steel pulled from a forge. She steadily walked up to the man holding Dream from death. The casing of the heart was starting to feel a little warm to the touch. [color=ff6130]”Pull her up.”[/color] Ellie said in a low energy, demanding voice. [color=Ff6130]”Pull her up and let her go, and I’ll give it to you.”[/color] She glared at him dead in the face, trying to conceal the stinging pain she started feeling in her arms. She was channeling sunlight, ready to flood either him or the heart with it, and it felt like she was about to start burning. That wouldn’t be good, especially underground with seemingly no easy way out. She didn’t have to tell Linus what might happen if she burned up, or even burned [i]out[/i] in a time like this. So, she maintained a tense facade, ready for a blast-off like the days of old. Whenever the man would pull Dream onto her feet, and, god willing, let her walk away, Ellie would slowly hold the heart out, keeping her gaze on the man in case he pulled a gun on either of them. Surely he wouldn’t expect one last trick up here sleeves in a spot like this. Once Dream was out of the way, Ellie made her move. It was as if the sun had fallen into her hands, and threw the three of them a lifeline. Everything came down to this very moment. As the man reached for the heart, the brilliant glow encasing Ellie’s arms was slammed into the heart as violently and roughly as Ellie could handle, and the resulting strain sent out a very brief flash of light. Like a solar flare, or a bolt of lightning. In that instant, the heart had become engulfed in the glow, all of the energy built up in Ellie’s body over the last several minutes was being compressed and bottled up in the device. Ellie’s intentions were to overload it beyond it’s capacity, hoping with all her being that it would burn up. If there were ever a time for her understanding of meta sunlight to fail, this would be the worst. And then, she did exactly what they wanted, she gave the man the heart, very profoundly. Raised it over her head and hurled it at him, with all her might, square in his chest with a bright burst of light. Her arms were starting to feel fuzzy, like a hot flash. Most, if not all of the sunlight compressed in the heart would shoot on contact, similar to thermal energy being transferred when you touch cold metal, and into the man’s body. A very, very unpleasant feeling, to be sure. She turned around and shouted directly at Rainsinger, who was about to pull off the best damn clutch of his life. [color=Ff6130][b]”NOW!”[/b][/color] [table] [row] [sup][h3][b][color=2e2c2c] ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ [right]▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅[/right][/color] [/b][/h3][/sup] [/row][row] [cell][color=2e2c2c]______________________________________[/color] [right][img] https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.sFi08CC_AQKusiYB1V2bzAHaLH%26pid%3DApi&f=1[/img][/right][/cell][cell] [indent][color=5a6b7c][h2][b]Rainsinger[/b][/h2][/color][/indent] [color=5a6b7c][sup] [b]_____________________________________________________________________________________[/b][/sup][/color] [color=5a6b7c][sup][b]Tenebrae City[/b][/sup] [sup][b]The lab[/b][/sup] [sup][/sup] [/color] [color=5a6b7c][sup][b]______________________________________________________________________________________[/b][/sup][/color][/cell] [/row] [/table] [center][color=5a6b7c][h2][b]…1, Hail Mary.[/b][/h2][/color] [color=5a6b7c][sup][b]______________________________________________________________________________________[/b][/sup][/color][/center] [color=ff6130][b]”NOW!”[/b][/color] [color=5a6b7c]”Tough break, fella.”[/color] The spiraling shield that he’d put up had changed. It was no longer a shield, but a barricade. Linus stretched it out so that it was no more than two and a half feet tall, touching end-to-end with the wall. He then sent it forward, the water barricade slammed forward into the legs and bodies of every Triad member in front of them with the force of a ram. Including the man with the detonator. Anyone standing upright would have their legs swung out from under them and blistered from the sheer impact. Anyone possibly knelt down would have the impact directed more at their bodies, and the feeling would be like being body-slammed by a car. This would not be enough to kill anyone, none of them would break a rib badly enough to puncture a lung for example. It would, however, knock the wind out of everyone in the hallway that stood in the way of it, as well as knocking them on their faces. Once everyone was flattened, he dove onto the Triad with the detonator, he wanted to tear it out of his hands and hit the deactivation switch. After all, surely these guys at least [i]preferred[/i] walking away alive as opposed to nuclear detonation. He never worked on a nuclear sub, but Linus knew water, and it sucked up radiation better than anything on earth. Tenebrae would die of dehydration, radiation sickness, or both. Come to think of it, whoever they were working for would be likely be affected by that as well Unfortunately, it just disappeared. None of them saw the blinding streak that whipped past them. Whatever it was, it was faster than a shadow, and too blurred for the naked eye to catch. Did he call the bluff after all? It didn’t matter, it was time to make like a sack of bricks and get the fuck out of here.[color=5a6b7c]”Grab that thing and let’s move!”[/color] He called to Dream and Ellie, and once one of them picked the heart back up, they stormed their way out, after Ellie stole a handgun off of one of the winded men before they started moving around. The three of them rushed through the halls and corridors of the lab as fast as they could. Water swirled around Rainsinger’s shoulders as it occasionally shot out to bludgeon someone who stood in their path, lab security, Triad gunmen, and so on. If someone got to close, Ellie leapt forward and slugged them across the chin with constant ebbs and flows of golden light through her hands and feet. [color=ff6130]”If we can get to that elevator we can get out the way we came in.”[/color] [color=5a6b7c]”I’d bet they got the place locked down tighter than that.”[/color] [color=ff6130]”Everyone down here’s evacuating, they’ve gotta be going somewhere.”[/color] [color=5a6b7c]”Sure as hell hope you’re right, kid!”[/color] [b][center][h2][color=5a6b7c]Just[/color] [color=ff6130]like[/color] [color=5a6b7c]old[/color] [color=ff6130]times.[/color][/h2][/center][/b] [color=ff6130] _______________________________________________________________________[/color] [color=5a6b7c]_______________________________________________________________________[/color] What Dream witnessed with these two in front of her as they made their escape was unlike anything her impression of Rainsinger could have been when Ellie rushed out of her apartment earlier that day. Ellie made him out to be a menace to Tenebrae in the way she described him, and yet, here the two were, working in tandem in ways most people struggle to. They flowed back and forth around each other like the sun’s rays along the waves of the ocean. Rainsinger and Ellie spoke no words to each other in their mad dash to the exit. No matter how many continued to plague their advance, they simply weaved and danced around their adversaries with skill that commanded respect. Whenever someone would make an advance on Dream, one of them covered her backside so she could make a move safely. Either Ellie sideswiped a baton-shaking guard, or a barrier of water would emerge in a snap to divide Dream from bullets. It was as if all fear, all tension and anxiousness had been detached from the two. They did not hesitate, they did not flinch. They simply raged against everything that dared to slow them down in their attempt to carry the heart to safety. Linus was not the type for big introductions, and they hadn’t had time to get properly acquainted before now, but Dream had ample evidence in front of her stating these two went back a long, long way. In another time, circumstances such as these would be met not only with water and light, but with fire and gravity as well. This was not entirely out of Ellie’s comfort zone, she remembers a time when this was commonplace for her, when this teamwork got her companions through another day. Linus, too, never bat an eye at the forces that came to slow them down. In the old days, he and a good friend made places like this look easy. There were few things that stood in the way of people like them, back when Tenebrae knew the names Rainsinger and Sunrider. The old man would’ve been proud. And so they ran. And ran. And ran. Eventually they finally found a place where they could escape…an elevator, where everyone was evacuating by the dozens. They caught the door and kept their heads down. Home free.