The Sheikah stopped at the sound of grinding chainmail. Only one person on the team had that kind of equipment. She turned around, and immediately regretted it.

"LINK!"

Her tightening hands released the boy before he came to any harm. This monster needed to die. Now.

An unnatural ember arose between the Sheikah's hands. In her right mind, perhaps she would've held onto this ace—after all, who knew who was watching in the shadows—but unfortunately for Merkava, that was not the case.

The flames swelled into a ball and zoomed past her comrades and their foe; its conductor guided it along the earth, so it could pass safely around the combatant's feet. Once it was free of the struggle, its glow began to fill the tunnel. The little ball was growing, feeding on whatever power the Sheikah could put in it—and it was coming back. The speed of a baseball met the strength of a furnace, heading straight for Merkava's back.

Henno drove the big rig, doing what he was told.

"Where do you bloody stop around here?"

Veigar sat silent, where they went didn't matter to him, contemplating these events. They still didn't know what the Summoner wanted them to do here. They were supposed to fight Soulless shadows, but no other information. How would they be successful in these conditions?

Team 1

At this point Merkava seemed largely indifferent to the harm coming his way, trying his best to dig as deep into Link's flesh as possible, sate himself, suck the Existence out of her. Not even the blade seemed to work in making the beast relent...

Until Sheik's attack threw it away from a swordsman, its jaws releasing the bloody remains of her shoulder as it hit the floor with a shriek. Scattering to get back up it eyed Sheikah with what seemed to be a curiosity, but also... anxiety. "Pulling all the stops? You want me to stop playing around?" The distorted voice asked as Merkava hunched backwards and released a ball of foul, purple energy coming straight at Sheik.

"Wise. Enjoy your stay on Earth." Allistair said in response to her resignation.

Well, this was quite a depressing end to this, wasn't it? It even seemed that the weather itself shared this pessimism. It was raining, a sudden thunderstorm raging outside.

...in the main hall someone seemed to be waiting for her. The police force outside was still separating the curious crowd from the situation at hand, but this man here seemed invisible to them. The man in question, dressed in an impeccable black suit with a red tie smiled pleasantly albeit a smile in question seemed cold and devoid of emotion. He was also peculiarly short, about as short as Ami herself - if not even shorter.

"Greetings." He spoke in a light, captivating voice. Whoever he was seemed to have no hostile intentions... or he hid them well.

"There'll be a warehouse where you can park the thing. For now, see you there, can't stay 'round for long!" With those words said, the man in leather drove off to the right, likely towards said Sarsasparilla Street where the team was supposed to park.

Team 2

Sailor Mercury took her time going down the flights of stairs, staring at her boots with dull eyes. What kind of guardian was she if she couldn't even help three people? She hadn't even bothered releasing her transformation, too sad to care about it. She barely realized that there was someone standing in the main hall until he spoke.

"What do you want?" Ami asked the man in the suit, in no mood for politeness or introductions.

Team 4

Henno saw the warehouse as mentioned. Once the big rig got there, he made the truck come to a full stop and turned off the engine before he took the key with him.

"Coast is clear, but be vigilant." The SAS operator told the others as he was the first to dismount. He crouched down while he shouldered his assault rifle.

Team 1

Link cried out in pain as the fangs of the monster finally released her torn, mangled shoulder... drops of red running freely down her tunic, waves of pure pain making her whole arm tremble and twitch. She dropped to one knee, gritting her teeth as Sheik attacked... and obviously provoked the ire of the monster. Whatever it was, she had barely done anything to hurt him... but it was afraid of Sheik and their flame.

Bitting hard on their lip, Link stands up... sheathing her blade as she shifts her shield from the wounded arm to her main one... awaiting an attack... and when it came aimed at Sheik, Link tried to jump in the way... to defend them from attack "A-Attack them, Sheik! We need you to finish him!"

Team 3

Sypha Belnades followed Gabriel to wherever he was taking them, wondering where they were going.

Sheik could barely catch her breath before Merkava attacked, and she could barely notice the attack before Link dove to stop it. How much she wanted to hit the idiot! But that would have to wait. Right now, she had to finish this fight.

The Sheikah twirled in a green light and vanished, spawning as close behind Merkava as she could manage. Then with her last drop of power, she cast her defensive spell around her and Merkava's head and shoulders. The blue diamond encompassing them lasted only a moment, but it should be enough. If all went according to plan, the creature's body would be separated from its head and perish.

In the back of her mind, Sheik felt disgusted with herself; she was using Nayru's Love as a guillotine, not a shield. But she would face the consequences later, once the monster joined Ganon in oblivion.

Team 1

The foul energy smashed right into Link's shield. Instead of dispersing however it began spreading through the entirety of it, crawling like a parasite to encompass the whole of shield in question - and perhaps Link's hand holding it.

However, Sheik's attack was successful. Before the void monster could realize what's going on, the magical guillotine went off, severing the head from the rest of its body. With a loud thud the slender frame collapsed on its knees and then on the ground. Lights that were in place of Merkava's eyes waned into nothingness as the entirety of the creature vanished into a black smoke.

Merkava was no more.

"I'm here to take you to a safe place." The man responded, not at all phased by Ami's lack of politeness. "It is unusual for Mr. Rasmunsen to let go off his prey, but that can be used, if I may so. My name is Akrasiel, Archangel of Magic." The tiny man bowed courteously before looking back at the girl. "Mizuno Ami or, should I perhaps say, Sailor Mercury, correct?"

Sypha and Marisa were taken to a small estate notable for its certain austere appearance: it looked quite like a fifteen-century house, if only to make least technologically knowledgable member of the group comfortable. "It's nothing special, but after all this you deserve some rest." Gabriel said. "Guess you can handle the rest yourselves. If there's anything you need help with, merely think of me and I'll be there or send someone to assist you." With those words said the golden-haired angel smiled and bowed once again before walking away.

As for Doomguy he was led by Raphael into a lab-looking building and from there into a small office. The lab-coated man took a seat in a swivel chair before staring the marine down. "Alright. What hit you? Before you ask, yes, that's important." He addressed the man, taking out a small notebook and a pen, likely to note anything noteworthy.

Sheik collapsed on the ground, exhausted and relieved that the fight was over. She never noticed what was happening to Link's shield, but as she sat on the ground with two quaking arms holding her upright, she stared at the decapitated head of the monster and was disgusted; at Merkava, and especially at herself.

In a frail spark of rage, Sheik kicked Merkava's head away from herself, unintentionally in Link's direction. Then she crawled over to the nearest wall and rested against it.

Team 2

Archangel of Magic? What kind of title was that? And this Akrasiel man knew her name without her telling it too- both of them. She wasn't sure if she could trust him, but really, she had nothing to lose at this point.

"Yes, you're correct," she said. "A safe place would be nice... but why should I follow you? How do I know you aren't just working for the mercenaries upstairs?"

Team 3

Having gone through more than enough wounds and medpacks to kill then save an army of people since the beginning of my career with the USSMC (and that's even before talking about my duel tour through Hell), that I was going to be looked over by an actual doctor almost seemed posh. Not having to dig my hand through a bundle of half used bandages and injectors filled with stimm was almost a miracle in of itself. My medic for today may not seem to be the most friendly of people, but considering who he was I doubt he'd be the type to skim on the pain killers.

After being unceremoniously lead to what looked to be the most technological building in the join and into the expected office, I took a seat and began to unravel the gause. The lab-coat wearing angel took his own seat and weilded a pen a nad paper before asking me what I was attacked with. Again not the best best side manners I've ever gotten, but far from the worst.

"Well," I started to explain, finally getting the bandages off a moving a few armor plates so he could get a better look "It was these two fished headed demons, with metallic hands that could change shape. The fuck-for-brains changed them into chainsaws and got me here and here" I pointed at the one across the cut and the shallower wound on my shoulder. I looked at them closer myself and, while the kid's healing had done something, they still looked fairly ragged and torn appart. Not completely healed over, but the body was already trying it's best to heal.

"So what do you think, doctor? Will I ever be able to play the piano again?" Well, it's not often one gets to make bad jokes to a celestial being.

edited 14th Aug '14 2:59:37 PM by Luke_Prowler

Team Ami

"If I were, would we speak to each other? Wouldn't I simply shoot you, seeing as you don't pay much attention to your surroundings?" The man countered with his own question, still donning this emotionless smile.

Team 2

Ami blushed and looked down at the ground again. "Er...fair enough," she said. She was used to having more people to watch her back, so it was no wonder she wasn't being very attentive. But then again, the man could be trying to lure her in with a false sense of security. She'd have to wait it out and see. "I'll believe what you're telling me. How do we get out of here?" she asked.

"Hmmmg!" With the enemy defeated, it should be a moment of respite... however, Link could see... and feel how the foul attack was spreading through their equipment... even felt its touch for a mere second before she dropped the shield right onto the ground. Groaning, bloodied, wounded and tired, she felt to her knees before her shield... panting for breath as more blood dirtied her clothes... her wounded shoulder aching like crazy... but she still couldn't rest just yet. With effort she unsheathed her sword with one hand... stabbing with the magical blade at her darkened shield. The blade was magical... that much she knew. It was made by a power of good, a power that was sacred. Perhaps, the blade's magic could dispel the darkness on her shield.

Team Thr— err, Sypha

Sypha began looking over the house... It looked like a house from her time, but she was still somewhat suspicious about it. However after studying the house a bit, Sypha walked in and sat down in a chair, exhausted but not enough to just decide to sleep.

As the creature died beheaded,Viktor stared at his two other companions,the heavily armored woman was wounded by the creature and it seemed like some sort of darkness was overtaking her shield,while the thief...was acting in anger for some reason.

Emotions...such a unneeded thing.. He thought.

He looked at his two other companions,which seemed exhausted,and said.

"We can't sit here in this tunnel,we must move out immediately out of here and bring this boy out,as i calculate that we might get another ambush from another void-being like the one we faced here" He said.

Viktor's sudden comment surprised the Sheikah; where had he been for most of the fight? As far as she was concerned, Link had earned her trust—but the giant Armos was far from loyal.

Still, Viktor was right. With a great amount of effort, an still holding on to the wall or support, Sheik made her way to the boy they rescued.

"Do you know how to navigate these tunnels? Where we can find shelter for the time being?"

edited 15th Aug '14 1:23:22 PM by TheodoreHastings

Team 1

The boy was still clearly shaken, but at least now he was capable of speech. "T-there's a settlement of us... not that far away from us... the opposite way from where I and that monster ran..." He spoke with some difficulty, taking shallow breaths.

Meanwhile, Link's stab did its work: the piece of void that stuck to her shield dropped at the mere touch of the blade, scurrying towards Merkava's head... now much, much closer considering Sheik was kind enough to kick it there. Without further ado the formless mass snatched the head and scurried to the opposite of the direction mentioned by the youth. Now all that was left was Merkava's frame, headless.

"Your hand, if you will." Akrasiel extended his gloved hand towards Sailor Mercury, his smile now genuine. "I will need physical contact with you, so that we can both be teleported to the destined location."

"Please, have some faith in my medicine. No pun intended." Raphael's deadpan response likely was an indicator that either he didn't enjoy or didn't care about marine's bad jokes. "You're lucky it was Chaos rather than any other of the Hell Angels. For whatever reason he doesn't fancy poisoning his chainsaws. Who would have thought, being sentient can make you stupid. Anyway..." The man rose from his seat, fishing out a small vial from the pocket of his lab coat filled with a toxic green liquid. "Knock yourself out. It'll heal up any damage and toughen you up against following Luciferian-based attacks, magical or otherwise." Without further ado he fished out two more before handing all three to Doomguy. "These are for the other two in case any of them feels like getting struck by a piece of heavy demon metal."

Nothing particularly strange about this house though maybe this was its strangest property, ironically enough. The one thing that stood out was a collection of books written by authors from time past Sypha herself. Even they looked quite like older pieces however. Everything to get her accommodated, most likely.

"Easy there, bro." The leather-wearing blonde grinned at Henno dismounting the rig. He and his haphazardly-pieced together bike stood on the opposite site of the warehouse. "Our boys got this all under control, the coast's as friendly as it gets. You all present?"

Team 2

"Right." His teleporting skills seemed to work the same way her own did, with everyone having to be in contact for it to work. Ami took Akrasiel's hand with her own gloved one and waited.

Sypha

Sypha merely began to take an interesting book and read it, waiting for something to occur.

edited 16th Aug '14 2:25:21 PM by GameGuruGG

Team 3

Marisa had remained silent all this time so she could think about things, something wasn't right with those celestials, she just knew it. Not only that, but she was quickly getting bored of that place as nothing of note was happening and that made her wonder if the celestials were just trying to stall them so they could get something else done, or maybe they were just waiting for Killboy to heal, still, there was just something off about them that wouldn't leave her mind.

She glanced at some of the books spread around the room and took a look at their covers, some of them were definitely making her interested and she considering borrowing them for a while, but right now she wanted to investigate something else.

"I'm bored, so I'm just gonna go look around the place. Since you're just gonna read those books, tell me which ones are long when I'm back, okay?" said the witch, grinning mischievously.

She then leaves the room, or at the very least attempts to.

Team 4

"From my line of work, there's no such as being too careful."

Henno said in reply.

"Being lax is bad for you."

Ami

The moment Sailor Mercury took supposed archangel's hand, the world around them turned into a whirlwind of colors. It felt quite like a sudden movement, as if she was on a bus that suddenly comes to a stop.

It lasted only a couple seconds. Afterwards, she'd found Akrasiel teleported them into some sort of giant metropolis, quite unlike the one she was in before teleporting. This one seemed... much cleaner, calmer perhaps? The air definitely seemed cleaner.

"Welcome to Heaven." Akrasiel said, smiling. "As we speak my colleagues gather other groups of people I imagine you might be able to recognize. Before you do a reconciliation however, my superior asked for a conversation with you." The man gestured to a building made entirely out of black marble, formed after a Greek temple. "Don't keep him waiting. Once you're inside you shall know the way."

As it turned out, leaving the house was... indeed possible, with no difficulties whatsoever.

Just outside was a familiar silhouette of Gabriel, resting his back by the wall and smoking a cigarette. He was already glancing at the witch when she left the inside of the building. "Hey there." He greeted her casually, flicking the ash off the cig. "Bored already?"

...upon resting a while the woman would notice that she feels... better than usual. As in, more energy, no pain from any would-be old wounds, the works. Was it the work of the air that filled Paradiso or perhaps the house itself? That remained unknown.

Otherwise however, nothing else happened. It always seemed like the people - or angels - behind this whole plan intended for Doomguy to recover completely before doing anything else... which could take an unknown amount of time all in itself.

"Point taken." The leather-clad blond nodded in confirmation. "Heard you busted a chupacabra. Quite an achievement and frees my hands to do something more interesting. Thanks for that. In any case, we're gonna be warping out of here soon. Orders are to get you to Paradiso and meet up with other teams."