Us Against the World.

The shrill, far from empowered shrieks of fright from the small frame of a young woman might have easily pierced through the alarms, if not for the circumstances that reduced such an attempt to fodder. Solid, and tough against the kicking attempts to drive him off, Kai held firmly to his grip upon his younger sister. With his right hand, he had managed to subdue her voice; the palm patted down over her mouth absorbing whatever words might have been apt to escape into corridors. With his other hand, he had struggled for, and regained, control over the chain of an ‘Aether Proofed’ set of handcuffs; this object well at hand, he had managed to pull the girl along, reaching to within ten yards of the stairwell leading to the vehicle bay. They’d be gone, once hey reached there, and far from the reach of the Resistance, if not for the fact that Sarah still persisted to resist Kai’s pulling against her. “It hurts!” she managed to force these words out, even through the hand over her mouth.

While not having shown that he was aware of what she was saying, Kai was entirely perceptive of it all. His response to her pleas for release was iced over with easy words, spoken in a harsh manner, that made the words seem harsh in their own right. “You should have thought of that before you tried fighting against me,” he said to her, now just five yards away from the door. “If I let you go, you’ll run from me again, like you tried to do last time this happened. I won’t have it that way. Little sister isn’t leaving big brother’s sight after that little mess.” He yanked her forward, or backwards, as both were moving with their backs to the direction they were heading. Just as he made for the last pull, the alarms on their end of the building had died out, leaving them in an otherwise silent condition. They must have disabled the alarms on us. The guards might think the attack is over though. It’s clearly not though. I can still hear machine guns going off somewhere.

“That’s it!” he chimed, rushing his Aether through his veins as though it were his own blood, charging it, in doses, into each muscle that it came to. “We’re not playing it like this any more, Sarah. You’re coming, and there’s no way you’re getting out of it. That’s final.” Abandoning hope of stifling her shouts for aid, he turned around, facing forward finally, and commenced to simply drag her along the floor, covering that last few feet in less than a second. “NO!! HELP!!! HELP!!!” Her cries carried through the building, through every hall adjacent to her cell’s, and possibly through to others more disjoined from it. But it would have been too late at that point. She was already feeling the hard concrete bumps of the stairs as Kai continued to drag her petite body. She imagined herself as nothing more than a bagged bit of trash, something that was best disposed of, regardless of the worth it might hold to other people, were it given away, or sold. I guess this is where I say goodbye to home, again. Goodbye home.

Captain Greggs stood at the center of a small squad, consisting of roughly fifteen elite Sanction troops. They weren’t amongst the gifted; but technologically, the lot of them was well equipped with the latest of armors, and Aether based weapons systems. Their tactics, had thus far, proven effective in previous breakout attempts. “Keep it steady men,” Greggs said to the formation, backed in a corner between two corridors. “This corridor is one of the few ways deeper into the cell blocks. If we can hold out here, we should be able to push the resistance back.” Greggs himself kept his firearm at carrying level. But despite his relaxed appearance, standing in with battle-ready Sanction marksmen, he was by no means the most vulnerable of the group. He could have his weapon up in a flash, and at that, his aim had always been top notch.

“Here they come,” he announced, as the ‘main force’ of The Resistance break-in made its way further down the corridor. Greggs snapped the Aether Rifle to firing position, butt held firmly, but comfortably against his shoulders. “Ready,” he whispered to the troops. “Aim,” a second passed by before he spoke again. “Fire!” the magic word having been uttered the soldiers released a volley of projectiles unlike bullets. Each shot taken was composed of a form of energy derived from, but not quite Aether. Each gun carried by the elite branch of the defense forces operated on the basis of ‘Aether Cells’, which were siphoned to produce a material form of energy. In essence, the guns were most akin to lasers, or particle blasters than anything, for the Aether was merely fueling what they did, rather than producing the energy itself, granted of course that without Aether, the weapons wouldn’t be possible as such.

((I am currently putting together a profile for Captain Greggs)).

 

OOC: Meant to post before yesterday, but had a pretty hectic week. Should have more free time from now on, though. Anyways, post is rushed but here we go.

BIC:

As they rushed towards a left turn, Ace sensed a "normie" around the corner. "Officer," he yelled out to Noctis who launched himself forward with his Aether-enriched legs. An officer turned the corner and started to raise his gun, but he had no time to aim nor shoot before a spike burst through his stomach.

"Ugh..." was the only sound he could make as Noctis pulled out his weapon from the officer's stomach.

"Sorry, brah, I didn't have a choice," Noctis said casually, but there was a subtle tone of sincerity barely hidden in his voice.

"Noc," Ace said as he and the group caught on. "This guy was just standing there, he wasn't moving until I yelled out he was there."

It only took a moment for Noctis to realize what Ace was getting to. "He knew we were coming..." he whispered. "Damn it! Alaric, keep your guard up! We need to hurry!" He yelled out to the group. "NOW!" He demanded as he turned around and continued to lead.

Ace followed suit again, jumping over the body of the officer. You deserved it, he thought with a scowl on his face. They ran in silence, except for the occasional "Hurry," "this way!" or "Anyone around?" from Noctis. The latter always got a negative response from Ace, who couldn't sense anyone around for awhile. He didn't even realize the alarm had stopped ringing, but the hallways were still flashing red. All of a sudden, a group of normies appeared on his mental radar. At first, he was relieved. He had begun to think something was wrong when he couldn't sense anyone outside their group, but then he realized it was a large group of them. "Noctis! We're in trouble!" He yelled. There was no way their group would be able to handle all those soldiers. Too many of them were inexperienced.

"What?" Noctis called back, turning another corner and keeping his eyes forward. Both spikes were out and he was ready to react.

Ace had hoped Noctis would slow down, but he didn't. In fact, the distance between them was slowly growing. "Damn it," he muttered as he tried to pick up his pace. He was unsure if Noctis didn't know his own speed or if he was putting himself in front to test the waters, so to speak. What's wrong with him?He wondered, struggling to catch up. But it was too late. Noctis reached the corner before he did. As his old friend turned, a quick expression of shock flashed across his face.
"No!" Ace yelled as he heard a series of gunshot. Aether exploded from Ace's body, reaching the group behind him and Noctis. As the Aether made contact with them, a flurry of thoughts entered Ace's mind and a splitting pain spread through his head.

Damn... was Noctis' only thought as he saw the Sanction in front of him. His arms flew up in front of him, as to shield himself, but he knew it was hopeless as the officers started firing. Cursing his stupidity, he readied himself for death, only have a strange feeling come across him. He never closed his eyes, out of shock or anything, and saw his vision blur as a shroud of Aether covered him.

 

Alyssa's eyes widened in shock as she saw them shoot and Noctis and Ace protect him from behind Ace, she could feel the sheer power coming from Ace. She knew they were in trouble. She looked at Ace, "You okay? What now?" She was tempted to just run through them and send the officers all to sleep but she did not want to do something that put the rest of the group at risk. She decided to just wait for what everyone else decided.

Lucas was nearing in on the group now, he knew they were setting a trap and he might just be able to get there in time.

 

Ears still ringing of the sharp sounds of his squad’s volley, Greggs ordered the lot of them to ease, waiting the right moment. Down the hall, halfway, maybe a bit more, or less, two of the enhanced pushed through injury to retreat back around the corner. “No doubt there are more waiting for us over there,†he whispered to his men, some of whom still seemed flustered by the impact of their target’s previous defense. Those that had recovered were making preparations to give pursuit.â€No,†he ordered in a hard, but still soft voice; the soldiers stopped and turned. “Whatever you do, don’t charge them recklessly. I’ve already got plans in set, and you guys getting your asses killed doesn’t work well with it.†From his pocket, the captain manifested one the more unlikely devices that a person could have needed in this life or death situation: a pocket phone, which fit fully in the grasp of his hand. He fiddled with this device for just over a second before tucking it away into his gear again. “One… Two… Three…â€

Just after three, the hallway around the corner burst into the same sharp sounds of gunfire, Aether fueled energy blasters in the hands of a detached unit from the other side of the building. It was a pincer tactic: two forces enclosing an enemy from two sides of a narrow path way. “Alright!†Greggs said, the sound of his voice carrying as powerfully as a yell. “Let’s move in now!†Captain Greggs spearheaded his squad’s charge, advancing faster than most of them to the halfway of the corridor, where some of the younger members got overzealous, rushing out in front of him. All of them were being trigger happy, firing off more rounds per second than the guns were really meant to. He didn’t do much to dissuade them from pressing on though. They were excited about this mission; they had trained for it, and anticipated it for months now. His single action to their caution was a verbal warning: “Don’t get careless up there!â€Heh! Kids. Just can’t teach them to be patient, can we?

((Shorter post. But it gets things done. Kai really won't need much yet anyways)).