Mini-Grand 5106 [SUDDEN DEATH]

Originally posted on MSPA by Ixcalibur.

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"What do you remember?" Zafira asked, as they ducked through the corridors avoiding the patrols of the white uniformed henchmen. It was impossible not to notice the oversized weaponry they carried. They were essentially guns, though where you would expect to find a magazine upon the weapon there was instead a transparent glass capsule, through which could be seen crackling electricity. Though Pascal and Zafira never got close enough to examine the weapons in question, for obvious reasons, they would have been prepared to bet there was a little dial upon the side which could be set to stun, kill, or perhaps mega-kill?

"I remember more than I would like." Pascal replied, feeling uncomfortable at his actions in the previous round. "We're going to need help to take down Ataya, and that isn't even taking the spider into consideration."

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Though well trained, the two henchmen, Aaron and Marcus, were not quite mentally equipped to deal with a violent assault from a remarkably strong and ferocious naked woman. As Sara pounced atop him, slamming her fists into his face, it was like Aaron's worst nightmares had been made flesh.

Marcus fumbled his lightning rifle from its holster, clicked it to stun and pulled the trigger. A blast of electricity streaked through the air, easily finding it's target. Sara halted in her physical assault, Aaron's face having been long reduced to a bloody puddle upon the metal floor. For a brief moment the chik had stopped stock still. Then she turned upon the remaining henchman and glared at him.

"Now now Sara." Ataya's voice was strained. She gripped onto the handrail that surrounded the platform as if holding on for dear life. "Don't hurt the poor guy too much. We're going to need him."

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Further up the winding structure of the thunder tower Mindy and Debbie leafed through Mattilus's battered tome. "Look, I'm sorry." Debbie's voice was more disgruntled than it was apologetic. The tome was in some places rather unfortunately rendered unreadable by thick globs of mud, or elsewhere stained with blood. While Debbie had with little effort found a spell to render the target completely silent she was having a tough time finding one that could undo this effect.

With her hands cuffed behind her back, and her voice magically suppressed Mindy was reduced to communicating through awkward body language and facial expressions alone. She was rather remarkably good at it, the message that she had gotten over her distress at Mattilus' death and was now more pissed off at no longer being able to communicate was made as clear as if she'd been able to voice it through more conventional methods.

"This book was supposed to be our secret weapon." Debbie muttered, partially feeling the need to vocalise her every thought to make up for Mindy's enforced silence. "But it is so absurdly dense. I have no idea how Matty ever found what he was looking for in here." As Debbie continued to rifle through the book, occasionally making wry observations about the contents thereof, Mindy took a step back.

Her attention was rather quickly drawn to the sudden abundance of massive black spiders with beady red eyes. They crawled along every surface, making their way down the inside of the tower and along the winding series of platforms. As far back as she could remember Mindy had always had a thing over spiders. The thought of a spider in the same room as her had always freaked her out. The only reason her phobia had not reared its ugly head before now was that any situation where she was in the company of Naiima there was always a lot going on. It was not, until this point, just her and a horde of spiders. As hard as she screamed she couldn't make a sound.

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The doors of the communication suite opened to reveal a pair of white suited henchmen, who, from a casual glance, you would not notice were handcuffed together. It turned out that once they had a reason to work together Zafira and Pascal actually made a half way decent team. The couple of henchmen that manned the communications suite were quickly taken care of; a blast from the lightning rifles Zaffy and Pascal had 'confiscated' quickly incapacitated them.

Zafira was at this point willing to accept any help that was offered. She hoped that Mindy and Debbie were okay, but did not pretend that she cared about them half as much as she cared for the fate of Sara. She took a seat upon a hard metal stool and stared out of the full length windows that looked out upon the constantly crackling electric core that rose through the thunder tower. Pascal sat down next to her and started messing with the radio, trying to get a good signal.

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Marcus was in a lot of pain. All it had taken was one punch to the gut and he had collapsed to the floor in agony, and though the pain had now faded, he had quickly made the decision that it was a lot safer option to play dead.

Sara was distraught upon hearing that the light of her life, the only woman she had ever truly cared about was suffering, disconnected from the thing that made her her.

"Don't worry my pet." Ataya said, her voice strained; her pain obvious. "When this battle thing is over we are returned home. I will be reunited with my river yet." She took a deep breath. "You can help my dear." Ataya whispered what must be done to her faithful servant, and without hesitation she did so.

Sara knelt down next to Marcus. His eyes were closed; he didn't see her tear at her own skin with her teeth. Sara bit into her wrist until blood flowed. He heard the gnashing and he felt the splatter. With her free hand she grabbed his head, and she pressed her bloody wrist to his mouth, holding it there, letting her blood drip down his throat.