Ch. 16 Rescue in the Ruins

[VirusZero]

OOC: This is for Andraia's bit dealing with the pantheons. @Vile you can go ahead and start with the Underwater miniboss.

IN:
A pair of blade wielding pantheons dropped along with a pair of rifle pantheons. 4 pantheons on the steadily rising platform. Even if these pantheons were brand new, they were still only pantheons. And Andraia ate pantheons for breakfast.

The blade arm pantheons moved forward quickly, quicker than Andraia had anticipated. One's blade zipped above her head as she dropped to the ground and rolled to the left... avoiding the other pantheon's strike in the process. She stopped rolling and pushed off the ground hard enough to launch herself, she engaged her flight and corrected herself so she landed on her feet. She could easily have just not bothered turning her jets off and flown up and through the exit. But she figured it'd be more fun to fight these pantheons. Plus where it was only four of them.

She pulled one of her busters and fired a few shots. One of the blade pantheons dodged, but the other simply raised it's sword and sliced a shot in half. Her shot dissipated upon being cut through. The rifle pantheons moved, trying to get around Andraia to take shots at her without risking shooting their allies.

Andraia slid her buster away and pulled a saber instead. She moved towards one blade pantheon and brought her saber down in an overhand swing. The blade pantheon caught the attack with it's own blade and the two sabers met. The hiss and crackle of energy echoed in the small area while the two sabers attempted, and failed, to push through each other and slice into the opponent. Andraia though pushed down and then gave a shove, which forced the blade pantheon backwards... into one of the rifle pantheons. The collision of the two pantheons sent them tumbling to the ground. Where Andraia promptly stabbed them both with her saber and they powered down.

The other blade pantheon then decided to make it's own attack, seeing that it's target's back was turned. Andraia heard the telltale sound of the saber swinging and quickly activated her jets and went skyward as the slice just barely missed where she had been. But this gave the other rifle pantheon a clean shot and it's buster loosed a single shot. The shot clipped Andraia in the side and she dropped back to the ground. The blade pantheon raised it's saber to strike again, though this time Andraia simply raised her's. Their blades met and, like before, locked. Andraia used the ground beneath her to push off and shove the pantheon. She quickly slid her saber away and drew her buster then unleased a trio of shots into the pantheon's chest. Each shot hit and knocked the machine back a little bit. After the third shot, she fired again, this time to the pantheon's knee which knocked it to the ground. Not too far off from her.
She got to her feet quickly, but the other pantheon was waiting. It fired a shot at her and caught her in the back. Her armour held but it knocked her forward and she tripped over the downed blade pantheon's side. When she landed she grabbed the blade pantheon's arm, saber still active, and stood up. She put her boot on it's back and with one hand pulled the blade arm off the pantheon. She then threw the bladed arm of the pantheon into the rifle pantheon's chest. The blade sliced through it's armour and shut rifle user down.

By this point they were reaching the top of the elevator shaft. And then Andraia realised that there was no opening and spikes had protruded from the ceiling. She looked to the walls and they seemed to be largely solid rock. She gave one a punch but it did little more than waste her time and energy. She engaged her jets and flew up the rest of the way to the top. Once she got there she could see the lack of exit for certain.

But she could hear the wind whistling from somewhere. There was a crack in the wall... She turned towards the wall and certainly enough a thin break was visible. She gave this section a punch also, just to test to see if that would do anything at all, and of course it was futile.

So she moved back and pointed her hand at the wall. She focused her energy and a second later a powerful beam of energy erupted and crashed into the wall. Chunks of rock began to break away and fall down towards the steadily rising platform.

With her powerful beam attack, designed for eating away armour, it didn't take long before she had created a nice wide hole in the wall. Large enough to walk through without too much trouble. Though she had exhausted most of her energy to do so. She wobbled a bit unsteadily as her thrusters, low on power, struggled to provide the necessary push to move her into the hole. Though they did and she dropped to the ground to save whatever power she could.

Less than a minute later the rising platform completed it's journey to the top and the ceiling's spikes stabbed into the floor of the platform. Thankfully no one was there to get skewered.

[Jet]

After blasting through the wall Andraia (and maybe Raven) found themselves in a new chamber, one that was considerably warmer. Ahead of them lay a pool of magma, covering most of the length of the room. The heat made it hard to see, but on the other side of the room it they could see a soft golden glow from atop a safe platform. The trick was getting over there. There were no visible switches to press, no platforms to drag into position for a bridge. Andraia's eyes traced over the wall, looking for anything hidden, perceiving only a small hole at the base of the left wall where a small pile of sand had been deposited.

To her right however was another dark passage leading further into the ruins. There was something off about this room, if Andraia wanted, she could choose to bypass it altogether and continue on her way.

[Vile]

OOC: This is Vile's post since the server changes deleted it.

A lone latter. How unfortunate. One would ponder if the area flooded recently, but slow processors just made Rai ponder how deep this puddle went. He tugged twice on the chain and shortly after Stark came hovering down, staying above water.
"I.... don't notice anything around here, it appears we're going under." Rai said. He then disengaged the rod and plopped into the water. Perhaps not the smartest way to fall in, but running slow yoy don't think things through.

Rai quickly sank, bubbles clearly giving his position away if anything was near. Water engulfed and filled the cracked bits of armor. This.... was not well thoughtout even more so. Zanji left multiple tears through Rai, and while makeshift welding was a thing, it was a mastered art here.

The two hit solid ground, looking about there was a glow in the distance. With a gaze and a unison shrug the two walked towards it. It should be noted, water sucks. movement was restricted, and thus sluggish. However that was soon put to the test! The floor shot out from under them! Rai hopped back, feeling the movement slightly before it commenced, and drifted back farther than expected. Water effects and all. He looked up only to find blasts coming is way. No matter, it may have bounced off the floor but his shield could take it. He held up his arms and engaged his shields. ... or not. Nother happened. No energy, no electricity. ... a short circuit! The water that entered him must have his his electrical generator and temporarily disabled It. The blast clashed against Rai's arm, breaking bits of his forearm armor. The sheer force of this combinded with the energy disbursement knocked rai right on his ass.... then he rolled onto his chest. Today.... today was a bad day.

Having now been rocked by this horrible thing, options were limited. Not exactly something in the comfort zone. Options where what he always had! No matter! Magnetism still worked and perhaps this thing had enough steal to utilize it. Still laying low, Rai aimed with his good arm now, ol lefty, and let loose his chain rod for whatever it may do. well water isn't clear, nor dose slit. His shot missed, right under the eye. No matter, he recoiled it, hoping to shoot himself but rather a platform emerged from it, covering the spikes. If he held it in place, Stark could get in, or if stark distracted it rai could.... hopefully. Either way it opened options.
"Stark, can you hear me through the water?" Rai called on the com link. "I found a platform for this thing! We can zone in on it."

[VirusZero]

Stark dropped into the water, following Rai. More bubbles flooded to the surface as Stark sank and water replaced air in crevasses of Stark's armour. Stark followed Rai slowly. He didn't like being underwater since it affected movement slightly. Though Stark didn't notice it like Rai was seeming to. Perhaps it was because Rai was an electric user? Or maybe he'd just taken more damage than Stark did...

Then when whatever it was attacked Rai and knocked him on his butt, Stark went to the left. He engaged his thermal/IR vision and the outline of a large machine could be seen. It was massive with a huge circular 'eye' that glowed warmest (indicating most heat present). It had a large row of something near the bottom that could only vaguely be made out given that they weren't emitting any heat at all.
Stark wasn't sure what that was but he didn't want to find out.

Rai though had managed to land a hit on the machine and pull a section out that served as a platform. Stark's comm crackled on as Rai called he had found a platform.
"Got it" Stark replied. He activated his jet boots and they pulsed lightly, sending a wave of water down and shooting him forward. He landed on the platform and raised his palms to unleash a blast of energy that both served to prevent him from sliding off and blast the enemy in the 'face' section. The blasts hit though they didn't seem to do much at all. Stark pulled back and energy flooded to his knuckles before firing off as a pulse bolt. This attack struck the monolithic enemy in the 'face' also though like the repulsor blasts it did little at all. The giant didn't even seem to recognize it had been struck.

"I've hit this guy with a few attacks, but they aren't really doing much to him." Stark reported to Rai. Though the second he finished, the eye of the machine began to glow and soon a blast of purple energy ripped forth from the eye and struck Stark in the chest. The force of the impact knocked him off the platform and back by Rai. Stark landed on his back, a cloud of sediment rising up in the water to obscure his body slightly.



OOC:
This is the mini-boss right?

And how close is the platform to the enemy? Within punching range?

[Zanjitsu]

Raven trailed behind Andraia, he was about ready to accept his fate and die in that trap, but he was glad he was with someone. He wouldn't have had the firepower to blow through that wall after all. The pantheons from earlier were easily dispatched, there were three more from behind, all blade users, but with his ranged capabilities, he managed to kite and shoot them down. Fortunately these 'Zero'-like pantheons were fairly weak, and did not have the capacity to evade proficiently or strike his bullets down.

Wordlessly he followed Andraia through the opening she had created, his agility allowed him to catch up with her without much trouble. The room they entered was quite overbearing, thick, and honestly unpleasant in his opinion. The magma was something he never wanted to go anywhere near.

"Out of the frying pan and into an oven, am I right?", he joked to Andraia, wiping his forehead with the usual stupid smile on his face. But what to do now...? There was another path, and normally you would go there, in fact if it wasn't for him noticing the way Andraia was being careful, he wouldn't darted down that path no hesitation.

[VirusZero]

Andraia gave a bit of an exasperated sigh at Raven's joke. Though he did have a point. This room was hot, very hot. A fact Andraia found useful. Heat caused movement of air, she could use that to recharge her energy systems for later.

She had already looked over the room and nothing really seemed to present itself as an option about how to make it to that glowing thing. If they even really wanted to... She wasn't getting any sort of energy readings from it. Unless they were just so high that they were beyond her sensors capacity to understand.

After a few seconds she responded,
"I don't think we should go down that path. It seems too obvious. I mean why set up a death trap like this complete with magma only to offer an easy way out. My guess is if we go that way some massive doomball is going to drop and crush us. Or it's going to be a dead end with trap to send the magma flooding down in there. If we want out, we have to go up. And whatever that glowing this is... that's got to be part of the key to making it through here."

Once she finished speaking she closed her eyes and manually engaged her energy absorption protocol. Heat from the room rushed towards her and began to fill her energy tanks with power, she remained in that position for a short time. Until she had basically a full charge again.

She turned again to look at the sand. This sand had something to do with this room. It was related. But she couldn't figure out how. Throw the sand onto the magma? No that'd be stupid and wouldn't accomplish anything. But what if the sand was blocking a key or button or something to raise platforms?
On the other hand it could also just be a trap if they disturbed the sand. With a full tank of energy she realized that the easiest thing to do was to just fly.

"Up we go." She stated before directly grabbing Zanji's hand and igniting her jets. Of course with the extra weight she had to increase her thrust slightly, nothing she couldn't handle though. And seconds later she reached the safe platform with the shining thing on it.
Now to find the mystery of this shining item...

[Zanjitsu]

"Hm hm", Raven was nodding as he listened... She made a good point. He would've realized the same thing about this path, but he would've realized too late... He didn't consider it flooding with magma either, so he's glad he didn't have to consider experiencing that... As she continued her deduction, with the switch and everything...

"E-Eh? Fly? Over that?", it didn't look like he had any other option, other than shooting the switches, but that was risky... Reluctantly he accepted and held on. He was mostly reluctant because below them would be boiling magma, and that wasn't exactly a fun prospect.

Fortunately the flight seemed to be short, and without any difficulty it appears. They were on a presumably safe platform, with some kind of shining device, switch or some other... Regardless, it was time to properly examine what it is they were seeing.

[Jet]

Andraia managed to ferry both Raven and herself over the lava and landed on the platform on the far end of the room. There didn't seem to be a path onward, just a flat stone wall proclaiming a dead end. Atop the platform however they found two items of interest. Now that they were up close they could see that the glittering object in the distance was an ornate silver capsule which was reflecting the magma's glow. The capsule was about two feet by two feet long, and there didn't seem to be an opening. They'd have to break it if they wanted to get inside. The other object was more troubling. It was an energy gun, one of those that were standard use by the resistance footsoldiers. If the gun was here, where was its owner? Andraia and Raven looked back and forth between the gun and the capsule curiously, both wondering whether the flight over was worth the trouble.

------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile Rai and Stark were still battling underwater. After blasting Stark off of the extended platform the wallbound enemy retracted its platform with such force that it nearly pulled the chain rod out of Rai's hands. The energy blasts were still coming, and although they were slow they had a tendency to ricochet off of the walls several times before dissipating.

While Rai and Stark were focused on dodging the shots the walldroid tried a different tactic. A hole appeared at its base causing the water to drain out and sucking Rai and Stark toward it. There was no telling where the drain fed into, and in the meantime they were being sucked into a bed of spikes which lay between themselves and their foe.

[VirusZero]

Andraia stared at the silver capsule. There didn't seem to be an easy way to open it. No visible switches or buttons visible anywhere on the device. She contemplated breaking it open, but part of her worried that it was a trap in and of itself. It wasn't a terribly large capsule but in her current condition (down a hand) carrying it wouldn't be possible. Plus she wasn't even sure if whatever was inside would be worth it. On one hand it could be an explosive... On the other it could contain discs full of valuable data or a unique weapon.

She noticed the resistance fighter's gun laying on the ground. That was coming back with them. They were a bit too precious to be leaving haphazardly around. Plus if it had any modifications or unique properties they could still be useful. She quickly reached down and grabbed the gun in her good hand. She placed the buster above where she held her current buster. Although it was a bit awkwardly placed and not exactly locked in, it would still stay in place for simple things like walking or some flying.

She turned toward Raven and stated:
“I'm going to open the capsule up... You might want to step back just in case it's booby trapped. Better safe than sorry here.”

---

Stark and Rai had been dodging the shots their enemy fired fairly successfully even though the water made them a bit slower. Though their enemy soon realised it wasn't working and switched tactics... a vortex kicked up and began drawing the water from the room towards the base. With the activity generating some level of heat, Stark could just make out the rows of spikes where they were headed.

Stark grabbed Rai by the hand and activated his thrusters. Underwater they were no where's near as efficient or powerful. But they were realistically his only option. He pushed the power to his jets up and used his spare hand to try adding extra thrust with his repulsor blasts.

“Any ideas Rai, I can't keep this up forever.” Stark stated through the comm system.

[Zanjitsu]

Well this was... Well it looked like treasure, like they found a secret spot or something. This capsule looked like it might have something nice in it. It wasn't possible to get here without flying or insane jumping skills, so it being a trap was kind of a dick move. Knowing Arcadia, yeah they kind of do that anyway, but it'd be neat if something nice was in it. In any case, Andraia picked up the spare buster laying there and told him to step back so she can check the silver capsule.

"Alright, but think I can take that buster for myself? I've got two holsters right here for my twin busters anyway so I could use it and holster the other two for later use", he suggested, like a side-arm main-weapon setup. It didn't look like she could secure it well enough, so this could be best. He already had the two holsters for his two modified hand-busters.

[Jet]

Andraia and Raven moved back to a safe distance after picking up the resistance gun and cautiously fired a few shots at the capsule. The first shot appeared not to damage it, but the second and third shots dented the container. Not wanting to risk damage to whatever was inside, Andraia approached and jammed her fingers into a crack that had appeared and forced the hole wider until she could see into the capsule. She and Raven breathed a collective sigh of relief when the container didn't blow up in her face or trigger some kind of trap. Instead, it was a cache of energy crystals. The two of them emptied the capsule and divided up the crystals, but there was something else at the bottom. Some sort of disk inside a clear protective casing. There was no indication of what information it contained, but they decided to take it with them and see if Cerveau could find something of value on it later. A physical disk was an odd find though, a very outdated way to store and transmit data. Not to mention how easily broken they were. They'd have to be careful with it as they moved through the ruins. In any case, there was no sign of the resistance soldier or any way to move onward, it looked as though they'd have to fly over the lava again and take the passage they'd seen before.

[VirusZero]

After they had successfully cracked open the container Andraia handed over the pistol to Raven. He could use it without issue whereas she didn't really have enough space (her thighs holsters were full with her twin sabers, her own buster was safely tucked away in it's holder on her back and she was down a hand anyway...)

"Sure, here you go." She stated simply as she handed over the pistol.

After that she took a few quick looks around the platform just to ensure they hadn't missed anything plus to see if there was another way out she had missed before...

"Well, we might as well go that way now. Doesn't look to be anything more of use here or any other pathways. Even straight up isn't an option." she stated before igniting her jets and lifting off slowly.

She extended her good hand towards Raven and indicated to grab hold.

[Vile]

Ooc: I may just try and make this quick. Phone posting.

IN: Stark held them at bay from meeting ana oncoming doom of ripped body parts and torn armor from a bed of sheer death. Really though, who still used spike pits? It was so archaic. The water was forcefully unending. Pretty odd for how much was draining. However this had been quite enough For Rai. He was gritting his teeth. Aggravated at the situation, the mission, the pre-mission tournament, acradia in general.

"Enough of this I say!" He angerly boosted. His temper was getting the best of him. Stark had a firm grip, but Rai wiggled loose from his wrist. The water pulled, adding a fair share of momentum as he took of running toward the 'eye' in the wall. He over the spike pit... hoping this would work. The water was pulling him down though, and to couter this he fired off the chainrod above the eye at about mid jump. The chain flew at an awkward angle, but reached the wall. The recoil effect however wasnt all that grand, as rai pushed against the raging H2O.

In this moment the rushing water push against a tear or crack of his forearms armor, ripping a small chunk of it off and into the abyss below. He did however endure, and ended up body slamming into the eye. His hand magnetically attached to his rod so he wouldn't fall. The impact shook him to the core, and damaged his left shoulder, causing a light malfunction if it was lifted overhead. Angry, he reputedly pounded his free hand into this glowing 'eye'.

[Zanjitsu]

After being handed over the pistol, it looks like it was time to head back to their original spot. It looks like the only place they can go is the passageway they saw earlier. The flight back was as smooth as the flight to the platform, and all they got out of this was a new gun and a disk of some kind. It could be data, or it could be a cyber-elf. He knew for a fact that cyber elves were sometimes found in these.

As they landed back, he waited a moment for Andraia to properly recover from the flight before they went off down the passageway. It was a single hallway it looked like, so there wasn't a need for anyone to scout ahead, now would it be a good idea to split up at this point anyway.

[Jet]

With the disc, crystals and resistance weapon Andraia and Raven made their way down the darkened corridor. They moved cautiously, wary of any traps lying hidden in the semi darkness. As they moved onward they were further alerted by a loud banging sound. When they got close they found that the noise was actually coming from a chamber below them. They were standing in front of a window, and in the room below they saw Jody doing battle with some sort of club armed golem. After dodging around its strikes and climbing onto its body she succeeded in crashing it through a wall. Andraia and Raven tried calling out to her and banging on the window, Jody appeared a moment later unharmed and with an armload of energy crystals, appearing not to hear them. Apparently she couldn't even see them because she scanned the room one more time and pried an old shutter open to leave the room. It occurred to them that the window might have been designed for one way viewing and was likely soundproofed as well. And it was strong, even turning their weapons on it would not break the glass, they had no choice but to continue their separate path. When they turned to go one of them spotted the glowing red eye of a pantheon piercing the darkness behind them, then several more appeared. The pantheon crawlers had found them, and had Jody's fight lasted any longer their ambush might have succeeded. As it was Andraia and Raven found themselves surrounded in the darkened tunnel.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile Rai had managed to evade the spike pit by hooking his chain rod to the eye and drawing himself into striking range. A few more attacks cracked it, and it ruptured under the water pressure. Now that the machine had been destroyed the suction was not quite as strong, and Rai and Stark managed to hold on as the water finished draining. The trouble was, now that the water was gone it was apparent just how large the chamber was, the ceiling seemed so far away now. They could attempt to scale the wall and find an exit somewhere, but another solution lay much closer. If they dared, they could choose to drop down into the hole where the water had drained.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Jody found herself in a new room, offering a number of tunnels to choose from. Since she was alone and they all seemed equal to her she elected to take the left passage. As long as she maintained a consistent pattern she would be able to find her way back. Or so she hoped. One fork led to another, and another, until she found herself in a literal labyrinth. She only hoped she wouldn't bump into a minotaur reploid in there. She soon detected a voice in the distance, someone calling for help. It didn't sound like anyone from her team, though she wasn't familiar enough with them yet to say for certain.

"Where are you?" She called back. "Hello?"

"Help, help," the voice called, "I'm here!"

Jody tried her best to locate the source of the distress call but the maze twisted and took her in directions she didn't intend to go, until she became hopelessly lost herself. "Help," she called out dejectedly.

[VirusZero]

As they turned to continue down the path Andraia couldn't help but feel unnerved. The glass they had just encountered was absurdly strong. Too strong for what would really be necessary in this area. Her sabers had no effect on it whatsoever and they normally could slice right through armour without much trouble at all. Something very odd was going on here and she didn't like it.
Seconds later it became apparent just what the issue was... Pantheon crawlers had found them. In the darkness of the tunnel, their red eyes stood out quite well. Andraia drew one of her sabers from it's holster and ignited it, and once more it's green glow stood out to pierce the darkness.

One of the crawlers leaped towards her. As it flew through the air, she raised her saber and swung it forward slowly so that the pantheon's own momentum carried it into the glowing blade of death. Andraia heard the sound of that pantheon's metal contacting her saber's blade and it sizzling then slicing through the weaker metal. The remains of that pantheon dropped to the ground with a dull thud in the dirt, a tripping hazard normally.
However Andraia reared her leg back and gave one half of the fallen pantheon's body a swift boot. Her kick caused the part cadaver to fly through the air towards another of the pantheons. A resounding clang of metal on metal told her that her attack had worked and that secondary pantheon was struck, though no idea how damaged it actually was.

---

Meanwile, Rai had finished off the massive wall mounted machine without too much trouble on his own. It was a very direct, if slightly reckless and risky, strategy. Thankfully it had worked. Stark didn't want to have to carry Rai's body back...

But now the dilemma about where to go. With most of the water gone it was somewhat easier to see and move around. The ceiling was fairly high up and for Rai climbing that could be tricky. Stark though had no issues... He ignited his jets and took off slowly. He surveyed the ceiling once he got closer, but in the fight the way they had came in had sealed itself off. Going back was no longer an option.

Stark slowly moved forward to check the rest of the ceiling and walls but they looked solid, and the fact they held water meant getting through them was not going to happen easily. In actuality they only had one place they could go...
The drain where all that water had escaped to gurgled slightly as a bit more water drained in. The hole leading down there was definitely wide enough to fit a reploid. Stark attempted to scan down with his thermals but with the water and depth, again there was nothing he could really see. Despite infrared being useful, it did still have it's limits. And suddenly Stark found himself desiring some kind of echolocation or sonar to help figure out what was down there. He half thought of dropping a bomb there, but realised that would only likely piss off any enemies that were there. And there was no need to unless they absolutely had to.

So he simply moved over top of the hole and slowly lowered himself down in.
“I'll go first this time if you don't mind...” Stark stated as he descended, until his last words were out and then his whole head was under water.
The water hole was fairly dark, but as Stark lowered himself slowly he didn't see any sort of movement. Though he also realized that could also just mean he hadn't disturbed anything yet.

[Zanjitsu]

"Well that's totally not creepy", commented Raven, as he holstered the spare and brought out his twin pistols. He didn't need a third pistol, but what he did need was something with more 'oomph', so he was thinking of having the spare modded for power or something else... With his own earnings of course. Maybe a shotgun type, or something, but he'll have to think of that later.

As Andraia leapt into action, two crawlers advanced upon him, but that wasn't a problem. The two were simply shot down, thanks to his dual wielding, but what was a problem, was that there were even more than simply two. As he shot down the first two, already more were charging in the cover of the first two's advance, forcing Raven to do a short dash under the next one's leap and then fluidly turning and unloading into it, destroying it as it became riddled with buster fire. There was still one more however, and he had his back turned... But this wasn't a problem. Sliding backwards, Raven did a short dash that seemed unique to the first one, because this one was poised in a stance ready to jump back in, and that's exactly what he did. Avoiding the leap, and almost immediately after doing so, he executed a launching kick, sending the crawler into the air, with Raven jumping after it, then swiftly he followed with a diving kick that sent it straight back to the ground, almost destroyed. Using the dive kick, he leapt higher, to get a good idea of their situation... Hopefully he can spot something from up here.

[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.

------------------------------------------------

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."

[Zanjitsu]

As they emerged from the ruins, with the gained ground Raven turned around and unloaded a barrage of buster shots back to keep them from advancing, though he only slowed them down. There was a stone bridge behind them, no other path, they certainly can't try and get back into the ruins, and the bridge looked like they should pass through it as quickly as possible.

Raven avoided injury just barely as he shifted slightly to avoid a shot, and turned to notice the jet pack pantheons appearing.

"Oh come on", he commented. There was only one way through, and Raven intended to get through that.

"Anne, I'll race ya to the other side", he was aware of the direness of the situation, but it didn't hurt to make it less tense.

Raven sprinted right at the jetpack pantheons, and for a moment it seemed he'd run right into their bullets, but he suddenly went low, and gained speed, sliding on his front foot in a foot slide, and as rode across the ground he fired at the pantheons from below, managing to hit their vital functions on their jet packs, if not their guns or faces. After managing to run past the main force he got back up at the end of his slide and kept sprinting forward. Occasionally zig-zagging with short dashes to avoid shots incoming from behind, but hopefully his stunt thinned out the jetpack pantheons enough for Andraia to clean up.

[Vile]

"Ill go first" He said. trying to take some thunder from the freaking lighting man here. Oh well. He could fly so if trouble was below he could just upward dash out of dodge. However, hanging was pretty dull in and of itself, ever more so when there's a broken creepy crystal eye gazing at you.

Some time had passed and Rai's broadem had gotten the best of him. Just chilling there, he slowly repelled down the wall with his handy-dandy chain rod. In retro spect, he could have chosen any weapon from the table. A gun. A sword. OOooohhhh a spear! But nope. A recoiling beam chain was the choice. and what a life saver it had been.

"Staaaarrrrkkkkk~ I grow weary of waiting on you, so I am coming for a visit down under." He cracked as his voice echo'd against the bare walls of the chamber.