Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[Jet]

Andraia and Raven managed to beat back the first wave of crawlers, but they were boxed in and there didn't seem to be any end to their foes. Raven spotted light in the distance further up the passage, he and Andraia cut a path through the crawlers and made a break for the exit. The passage opened up, actually taking them outside of the ruins. Their path had become a stone bridge leading to some sort of shrine in the distance.

Behind them the pantheon crawlers emerged from the passage, continuing the pursuit. At least now they had clear visibility and they were only coming from one direction, the pair of them probably wouldn't have an issue holding the position. Then a rapid fire burst of energy struck the bridge, narrowly missing Raven. A squadron of jetpack pantheons swooped in, firing as they closed the distance.

As they looked to the sky Andraia and Raven noticed how cloudy it was, and that every so often lightning would pierce the gloom absent of any thunder. It had been hard to tell down in the forest where the treeline made it hard to see the sky, but neither of them remembered the weather being so stormy.

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Jody was walking through the labrynth, still trying to locate the distressed voice. It seemed to be coming from the center of the area, though how to get there was beyond her. She stopped suddenly when she felt something trickle down the back of her neck, quickly swatting at it with her hand and finding that it was only water. Strange. Where had it come from? What began as a trickle suddenly became a brief torrent. As far as she could tell the whole ceiling was leaking, and suddenly she found herself standing in ankle deep water. Around the corner she heard a yell and a splash, and she quickly backtracked to locate the source of the noise.

The hole that Stark entered was still damp, but most of the water had been drained away and diffused through cracks in the stone. Suddenly the passage widened and he found himself in free fall. The drop was too short a distance to even activate his jets, landing on all fours with a splash.

"Oh it's you," he heard someone say. Jody rounded the corner and extended a hand to help him up as Rai dropped down the hole and knocked Stark back into the water. "Nice of you two to drop in," Jody laughed. "I was wondering how I was going to find you guys in here, this place has a way of turning you around."