Battered and wounded

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter staggered around forests near Minervum, blinded by he pain in his arm. He stumbled up to a large oak tree and sat down at the roots. He drifted out of conciseness, and began to dream. He dreamt of finding the bunker, digging holes, Scept, Kite, and Ferus. He remembered fighting a screaming swordsman while being sniped by a mysterious gunman. His life seemed a bit... hectic. Darklighter awoke feeling worse than a pile of crap. He felt someone tugging at his PEHD, trying to steal it. Let sleeping dogs lie. He thrust his arm blade into the face of the robber. Blood splattered on his goggles. Dammit. Now I can't tell my own blood from this yahoo's. Darklighter searched the pockets of his victim. He dug a few gold coins out the robber's pockets. "Loser."

[Rising Dragon]

"Don't tell me you're still mad."

"Why shouldn't I be? We only evaded Ymaggion staff Sentinels and Minervum's Angel Police division after a price was put on my head."

"They let us go, remember? So why are you still mad?"

"Pfft. I'm not mad at them, its whoever put out that price on my head that I'm pissed at."

Alasea sighed, watching her boyfriend pace back and forth in the small meadow they had taken refuge in, in a forest nearby Minervum, having logged in just outside of the city. Morning had just broken over the horizon, but the forest was still mostly dark, shielded from the sun by the tall towers of the City of Wisdom. Looking back slightly, she found a dark-colored boulder at the edge of the meadow, and eased herself up on the side of it before turning back to watch Rua. A grim expression was on his face, and Alasea could only frown in return.

What had happened, anyway? Sure, the staff never really trusted him, but to suddenly turn on him like they did? It didn't make sense to her. They had to figure out how... but what was more important? They did come to Minervum with a specific goal in mind, but all of the books and documents they had been researching had been forcibly left behind at the Grand Library. Their list was incomplete.

So what do we do? she wondered. Find the reason why he's hunted, or find the Secret of the Dragon Tribe for protection?

Soon, Rua stopped, looking out towards the edge of the forest, towards the city. He frowned. "C'mon, let's get out of here," he said, motioning to the brunette girl. "I don't want to be here if they send Knightmare Frames after us."

Though puzzled at first, she quickly nodded. "Yeah, that wouldn't be good. You can't take over one?" she asked.

"No, not really," replied her boyfriend. "An Angel wouldn't come out so easily, and I don't really know how to operate one anyway. I can operate a Nine-Breaker, but that'd be impossible to hijack anyway."

"Okay," she said, walking up to him. "Let's go deeper into the forest then."

He nodded, and turned his back on the forest edge, walking deeper into the forest.

"So, what do we do?" she asked, leaning her upper body forward while her hands were clasped behind her, looking up at him. "Go after the Staff, or go after the Secret?"

He hesitated for a moment, then came to a decision. "We'll go after the Secret first," he said. "That way I can at least get myself access to the Crystalis again, so the Angels won't be a problem. It'd be safer then."

"Are you sure, though?" Alasea asked, concern evident in her expression and tone. "You don't..."

"I know. But some of its power is still in me, so I should be able to access it again. All I need is to expose myself to an Ao-Gem again... been too long."

"Alright."

After a few minutes of walking, the two came upon a rather grizzly sight. A man in black, toting a gun and some sort of computer device, and covered in blood, was searching the pockets of a bandit with a bloody gash-like hole in its head. Both of them stopped as the person--a player, according to the game interface--took some coins and insulted the bandit's corpse.

This was awkward.

"You look like hell," Rua said finally, noting the wounds on him. "You get into a fight with a Wyvern or something?"

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter looked up at the person above. "Nope. Do you know who Ferus is? I was fighting him. And his minion Kite." Darklighter tried to get up, but collapsed, not caring how he looked. "So why are you guys out? Hiding from Angels?" He rolled away from the corpse, stopping in a patch of sunlight. He glanced over at his arm. "Do you have anything that would help patch up my arm? Ferus caught me as I transported out." He pulled out his laptop and connected it to the PEHD. Damn, I need to make a better battery system. Darklighter grinned at the newcomers, then let his head sink back on the soft grass.

[Rising Dragon]

Rua and Alasea shared a knowing look at the man's words about Ferus and Kite. Rolling his eyes, Rua motioned for them to approach. "Got messed up with McKnights' troubles, huh?" Rua said, deciding to ignore the bit about hiding from Angels, though that was exactly what they were doing. "He's not a minion of Flayon's, but usually when you're around one, the other won't be too far off, trying to kill each other."

Alasea knelt down in the grass before taking hold of his arm, examining the wound. "Hold still," she said, taking one hand and channeling healing magic through it before holding the arm about an inch over the wound. She let the Healing Palm spell do its work, while Rua went over and picked up the body of the corpse, heaving it over his shoulder and walking over to some bushes before tossing it in. "So, who are you, anyway?" he asked, turning back to him and Alasea.

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter felt the healing magic run through his arm, fixing the torn muscle. "I am Darklighter, a hacker. You guys should get moving. Angels are currently... Never mind." Darklighter sat up and blinked a few times. "So who are you? Oh well. Life's a bitch, right? I mean one minute, you are on top of the world, hacking the system, then you are in a cave shooting at zippers. And now, I am in a forest with some guy trying to steal my junk, and people healing my arm. What's up with that?" Darklighter passed out again. He saw Ferus rushing around him. He saw yellow light flash around him as he transported out. He then returned to consciousness. Darklighter, half mumbling, said "I really need to fix that transportation issue. Oh well." What am I talking about? "Sorry about all that. I'm a bit... distracted right now."

[Rising Dragon]

"Take it easy, Darklighter," Alasea said when he woke up. "You've lost a lot of blood."

"So, he got in trouble for hacking, huh?" Rua said to himself, out of earshot, sitting down on the grass on Darklighter's side opposite of Alasea. She was busy using the Healing Palm on his other wounds now, now that she had repaired his arm. She handed him a red-colored potion mixture from her inventory.

"Drink this," she said. "I can't restore your blood, but this should help."

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter sniffed the potion, and asked "What is this? Mojo? Voodoo?" He groaned and looked over at the healer. Who did you say you were? He gulped the red liquid and sat upright. He looked over at the PEHD. It was almost fully charged. How long was I out? He pulled out his smooth, silver coin and started rubbing it with his thumb. He glanced at his arm, and saw that the scar was almost gone. The three people sat in silence for a few minutes. "Well, I should get moving. I am looking for a nice cave to make a bunker. How does 'Bunker 47' sound?"

Darklighter passed out, and dreamt of the cave crashing in. "Son of a..." Darklighter, not bothering with sitting up, strapped on the PEHD. He pulled the URV (unmanned recon vehicle.) and started driving it around. He smiled, and watched it go.

[Rising Dragon]

Rua and Alasea looked at each other as they watched Darklighter's numerous blackouts and strange behavior upon waking up. Finally, Rua spoke up.

"Are you alright?"

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter, still on the ground, looked over at the healer. "Do you think Ferus would poison his blade?" He stood up and wobbled a bit, then put his back against the bloody oak tree. He checked the voice records of the PEHD. He heard the exchanges of dialog in the Bunker. "Hmm. My memory must have disappeared when I teleported out. Wow." He stood up straight, feeling much better. "So for the third time, who are yo people? I wake up with a bandit trying to rob me, then you guys show up and fix me. Answers would be nice." He rested his left hand on his .45, and the other on his Ka-Bar.

[Rising Dragon]

"I'm Rua and this is Alasea," Rua said, gesturing to Alasea. "We tried to tell you earlier, but you kept passing out. So you can keep your hand away from the gun and the knife."

Seems like the movement hadn't gone unnoticed by Rua. He motioned for Darklighter to sit down. "Now, about Ferus... he's rather well-known for underhanded tactics, including framing others and setting up traps, but out of all the times I've met him, I've never encountered him using envenomed weaponry," he explained.

"Its probably just an infection, or a weakness from blood loss," Alasea said. "I don't know how long its been since you fought against Ferus, but if you've gone with those wounds for a while without treatment, out in the wilderness, its possible you picked up a bug."

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter sunk to the bottom of the tree. "Rua and Alasea you say? OK. Well I'm Darklighter. Nice to meet you." Darklighter pulled out his .45 and began to polish it with an old rag. He looked over at his arm. It was almost completely healed. "We need a plan. Any ideas?"

Darklighter looked up at the two people staring at him. "So, want a cookie?"

[Rising Dragon]

"What do you mean a plan?" Rua asked, arching an eyebrow at Darklighter while he cleaned his gun. "Not much we can do except get away from Minervum and head for a seaport or an airport, and hope we don't run into a Knightpolice on the way there."

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

"Sounds like a plan." Darklighter holstered his .45 and stood up. "Lets get moving." Darklighter slung his shotgun over his shoulder ang started moving. "Coming?"

Darklighter thought about Scept and Darkrider, wondering if they made it out all right. He didn't about the wolf woman so much. He hoped his new companions would be more capable. And less lawful.

[Rising Dragon]

Rua shrugged, then stood up, holding his hand out to Alasea. She grabbed his hand and was pulled up onto her feet. She brushed some dirt off of the black clothing and armor she wore, then proceeded to follow Darklighter as he made his way out of the forest.

[BD]

Not far off, two angels entered the woods, panting and tired from their obviously long chase for Rua.

"Uriel, we need to call for Knightmares...this is getting out of hand..." said the angel farthest out. He wore white robes and carried a long white rod of steel in his two hands. He had piercing blue eyes

"No, they'll be too far gone by the time Knightmares are dispatched...we need local backup, are there any head staff in the area that could lend us a hand? Samus, The Chief, even Mcknights?" The angel, known as Uriel, replied. Uriel wore the same white robes, but had a black staff to match his skin color.

"Scanning..." The other angel said as he pulled out a small PDA, "Well, McKnights is in the area, but his allegiances seem to lean towards Dragonheart in this matter...any others i'd be clueless about. I put in the call for Knightmares though, they'll be here in 5 minutes."

"Sorry Castiel, but that's not good enough..." said Uriel.

Just behind them, a voice rang out, "Are you in need of assisstance?"

The voice belonged to a young man wearing jeans and a striped shirt. He looked up towards the angels, awaiting a reply.

"This is official business..." said Uriel in response.

Castiel turned to Uriel, "We need help here you know..." he muttered to him.

"I give tours of these woods if you need me to show you around...!" The man cried out again.

Uriel sighed, "Come along then..."

He and Castiel turned around and started to enter the woods when a slicing sound suddenly rang out as the man had stepped behind the angels and slashed both of their throats with a dagger he had hidden in his back pocket. He dragged them into the entrance of the woods and proceeded to stow the dagger back in his inventory.

"Nothing like padding Dragonheart's record. Now to just catch up to him."

The figure suddenly changed into black martial arts clothes and a masquerade mask from the casual attire it had worn before.

Now to just wear him down a bit so the staff can get to him and have their big fit over him while I finish my job. All I have to do is slow him down enough that the Knightmares get to him. By the time they realize the truth of what all has occurred, it'll be game over for them.

The masked man ran off in the same direction Rua and Alasea had headed, following the footprints and leaf dispersal.