Ruarc ran for the boat, hearing some odd secondary explosion. He looked towards the smoke, and saw that wannabe Dracula had, well, poofed. He slowed down to a jog, then stopped. He pulled the magazine from the pistol, counting 7 rounds left. He switched it out for his normal mix of Hollow point and armor pierceing rounds, and stuck the pistol back in his waistband, turning to the group.

[I]"You're welcome for that."[/i] He said, a smirk on his face. He eyeballed Titsua, the smirk disappearing. [I]"OOF. You seem to be uh, taking that owie pretty well there. What's the secret? I know shock could be a pretty big factor... Who the fuck was that? Why was he dressed like Dracula's ugly cousin? Is there any place to eat around here?" [/i] He asked, scratching his neck. He looked around at everyone else.

[I]"Glad to see no one got taken out by a flying tank. Seen that before, not pretty at all....[/i]

Tsitua, hearing the voice of the man responsible for nearly killing Jack, let his control slip. Blue flames appeared all over his body as he turned toward the man and pushed the entire group aside with his one good arm. As he did so, his arm was mainly against Amuné, who had shifted to the front during the pushing. Coodaudu, the daemon inside the hybrid was audibly rumbling a low growl that echoed off the metal buildings. He took a few steps toward the human before something stood in his way. Shiva, with an icy barrier around her hands to keep from ending up like the red hot pavement under his feet, was holding back. "No, please don't. You'll kill him. And he's /human/." She warned.

Speaking with two voices, his own, and Coodaudu's snarl, the hybrid growled without looking away from the soldier. "Pwart shnii." It was the demon language. 'Bring him', it meant. With that, he boarded the boat. "Yes, my lord." The girl complied. Releasing the ice as he walked away.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Shiva turned to Raurc. If he had listened, this wouldn't be happening.. Or had he counted on this? He was a spook asset after all. They had a tendency to be crafty. "Don't bother with that gun." She warned, "it'll do you no good where we're headed. She took his arm like he was a prom date and guided him to join everyone at the boat.

She hoped to the Angels whatever was coming to him wouldn't involve Marcus.

Orion retracted his Kagune and followed the group onto the boat. It took them on a similar trip as before, passing fish and underwater volcanoes up to where the sun was shining from above the surface. This boat was different. It was built like it fit into something. To no surprise, it didn't break the surface of open water. Instead, it docked into a relatively average size vessel. He guessed that decompression had either occurred in the boat, or was happening on the craft they were now on. Either way his ears were popping like crazy. Shiva sat them all down in seats and had everyone strap in with fairly simple harness like devices that were attached to the walls like a roller coaster he had seen from far away. The same woman joined their new leader in a cockpit with an automatic sliding door that sealed behind them. Soon after, the craft made a sound like it was starting up before it started to move. The ghoul hoped that wherever they were going now that it would be significantly calmer.

[ I wanna say that I like Raurc a lot lol and everyone please excuse the early post. I need to move us forward again. Go ahead and fill in the happening of this trip in the boat. ]

Kreos watched as the human man set off a chain reaction of multiple exploding tanks, attempting to kill the devil. The Demigod braced himself as the explosions hit, putting his arms in front of himself as flames engulfed him. He made a quick slash with his scythe, parting the settling flames around himself. Out of the parting flames a tank flew towards him, and he had just enough time to make an upwards slash, slicing the tank in half so that it split off to Kreos' sides. He searched for the devil, but he saw none. He knew this trick. A child of Loki made an attempt on Kreos' life once, using this same trick of going invisible and stabbing him in the back. He doubted Kabuto was going for him, but then he realized how vulnerable the others were. He rushed to them, but it was too late. Thankfully, Titsua got there before he did, dispelling the devil back to the underworld.

Kreos raised an eyebrow at Titsua's missing arm, as Kreos himself only suffered albeit quite a few burns, he didn't get something really that extreme. He didn't really question it, however, as the hybrid didn't seem to care all that much. The Demigod raised his scythe, getting ready to strike down the human man, but Shiva simply took Ruarc's arm and led him aboard the ship. Kreos frowned a bit and called after them, saying, "But we still didn't get answers from him yet!", however they continued on, not seeming to notice the demigod's remark. He shook his head and turned to Jack, Amuné, and Jareth, gesturing to the entrance of the ship-like vehicle. "Hopefully they have some kind of training area here. I still need to teach Jareth how to handle a weapon to protect himself with." Kreos said with a smile.

Amuné saw the attack coming and shouted a warning to the group, but she couldn't tell who would be the target. Tsitua came to the rescue, however, and Amuné shielded her face from the violent counterattack. This Tsitua, whoever he was, had a lot of power. But even as their opponent's body vaporized, she could tell that he wasn't completely gone. Tsitua's forearm, however, was. "He'll be back," she said softly, as their leader gave Jack a hug.

Jareth gave the others a shaky smile. "But not right now, and that's good enough for me. I need to sit down for a bit. Look, I'm shaking!" He held out his hand to demonstrate. Amuné acknowledged the hybrid's praise with a slight upward curve of her lips and the inclination of her head. She didn't feel it needed a voiced reply.

The moment was ruined by the strange soldier. He was an idiot, but then he didn't seem aware of how powerful the stranger and Tsitua were, nor did he have the advantage of foresight. The young woman sighed and shook her head as Tsitua lost control of his anger but was stopped by Shiva. The soldier had no idea how close he'd come to being a burned shell, and she doubted he'd appreciate it. He seemed the sort to take a cavalier attitude towards the supernatural. Jareth's eyes widened at the display, and he took a few steps closer to Amuné. "Wow," he said softly. "That guy's really powerful, isn't he?" She replied with a nod. And then the moment was over, and Shiva was taking the new guy to the ship. Kreos made a comment about teaching him a weapon, and Jareth gave an uneasy smile. "If the people we're facing are anything like that, I'll just get in the way," he told the demigod with a rueful smile. "I'm just glad everyone is more or less okay...."

Jareth was impressed by the new ship.  It displayed evidence of the same advanced tech he'd seen on the "frog", and his fingers itched to examine it.  But he kept his desire in check and settled for just looking at it from his seat, for the moment.

He stared down the...whatever it was that was growling and making a fuss at him, his brow furrowing slightly. It wasn't his first brush with death, nor would it be his last. He also made note of the scythe wielding dude, who shouted about extracting information from him. He looked over his shoulder, shouting "Good luck with that!"[/I]

[I]"This gun, and all it's accessories, are coming with me. It came out of my own pocket, and at $8,000 worth of shit on it, I'm not just dropping it in the water. Think of it as my security blankie." And with no resistance, he allowed himself to be lead onto the boat.

He did worry about all the other gear that was being left behind. He would figure out a way to get messages to the CIA, he was pretty smart for a PMC grunt. It would all come out of his paycheck, though.

He also thought slightly of what was coming. It wasn't his first time he jumped into the unknown (figuratively and literally). Which is why he pushed the thought away from his mind. No need getting nervous, he wouldn't be able to think straight with his nerves in a bunch. [I]"Where are we going?"[/i] He asked the tough, but somehow attractive looking woman on his arm. If anything, suicide was an option, and would be quick, yet real painful, via a fake, cyanide filled tooth. It was only a last, 'Go fuck yourself' resort.

It was a good feeling to have to feel everyone was alright and Orion was close. That was until Jack spun around hearing her name from Tsitua. She came almost face to face with the daemon. The quick energy that came between her head and the attacker caused her to fall back a little bit accidentally dropping her dog, who landed just fine with a little yip as she fell beside him. It was cold, she had a bit of frost spike out from underneath her. She carefully got up in a bit of shock as Tsitua landed again beside her. “Your…” She managed to get out as he pulled her close to him in a hug. She kept quiet, her eyes still a little wide thinking over what had just happened.

Bruce was on his own at the end of his leash most of the way, sticking close to Jack’s feet as she carefully followed the rest of the group. He was again on her lap when she sat down sticking as close as he could to her. Jack’s hands mindlessly started petting and playing with his ears, once again her calming mechanism, her security blankie.

Jack new she was going to have to get use to that kinda thing, turn it and make it fuel her abilities. Which she still needed to get a handle on. Hopefully there was still an easy way to do that at their destination. Finally looking around, she got use to the faces surrounding her.

The dropship was there waiting, as arranged. Tsitua, still fuming, entered the cockpit along with Shiva. They each took the two pilot seats as they flipped switches and punched in calibrations to the holo panel, starting the engines up with a hum. The hybrid allowed Shiva to take the controls on, account of her having two complete arms at that point, so he could inspect his wound. It was beginning to crust over with drying bodily healing fluids. It would have to be scrubbed clean and have the dead flesh debrided off. The nerve endings would be fresh and ready to accept a prosthetic though, and for that he was thankful.

"What are you going to do to him?" Shiva asked, finally breaking the silence. The cockpit was soundproof, so they wouldn't hear. "I have two options." He began, "Either I punish him for nearly killing one of us, or I commend him, raising the opportunity to depart a class one Devil. He was reckless and stupid, but ultimately he accomplished the take at hand." "What about his employer?" She added, "He's a spook, so you know he's only here to gather information and report back." Tsitua chuckled, "Our ship is an eighty-three kilometer station built into a hundred kilometer asteroid in orbit around the sun among the other asteroids in their 'asteroid belt' it's cloaked, and has a frequency barrier that only lets approved signals get through due to a firewall program put up by the greatest engineer that we have ever seen anywhere. If he gets a communication out, I'll give him a medal. Besides, even if he does, it'll take a couple months just for the signal to get to earth." "Good point." The girl replied, "but why did you let him listen in the first place. We could have easily rendered him unconscious and he would never have been involved at all." "Shiva, the demons are going public now. They're making appearances, so we can't hide anymore. We can't be whispers and legends any longer. We don't have the luxury. The CIA is going to have to work with us, or humanity will be destroyed." He said, just before Shiva flipped a couple switches and wrenched back the controls. The dropship launched up and out of the water, then the atmosphere, then the gravity field. They passed the Earth's Moon in a matter of one hour. Then she fired the main engines until they had enough speed to make it to the /Mother/ in five hours. The interior of the ship was equipped with an anti-gravity stasis chamber. The g-forces normally exerted were reduced dramatically, along with each seat being equipped with gyro tech motion resisters. It just felt about like a cheap rollercoaster.

Suddenly, Orion felt the ship launch upward, but it didn't feel as dramatic as he had expected. When Tsitua had mentioned going to orbit, he had expect some kind of dramatic launch. All he felt was the motion, none of the g-forces he expected seemed to be there. His body was capable of handling a lot more g's than some of the others. That was why he could move with such speed. He thought of his old nickname, "Blankface, fastest ghoul alive" it sounded like a silly carnival advertisement now. As the dropship flew out of the Earth's atmosphere and their planet of origin was visible through a window, he decided he wanted a new mask, and a new name.

_box

(( More like half an hour. It's something like eight light minutes from Earth to the Sun, and about 22 to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Also keep in mind that it's very sparsely populated. You can pass through it and never see an asteroid at all. Also Jareth is looking forward to seeing the feats of this engineer, though firewalls are more computer tech than his sort of engineering.))

Outer space? And so few Gs felt, not to mention there was still apparently gravity inside the ship! It was amazing, but Jareth wrenched his gaze away from the windows to focus on the young woman with the dog. "Jack? I'm glad you're okay," he said, smiling at her. "That was...wild. And I don't mean in a good way, either." The man shook his head. "I'm really not used to this. I don't want to be anywhere near a fight like that again. No offense, Kreos," he added.

"Hush," Amuné cautioned. "He's not one of us, and I don't trust his intentions." She was already identifying as part of the little band. "Next time try not to get in the middle of something if you don't know the abilities of those involved," she added, before getting out of her seat and going to knock on the door to the cockpit.

((EDITED))

[ ask yourself this, do they plan on staying in the asteroid belt? That approximation was out there for a reason. 😉]

((Good point. Gonna modify my post a bit because of someting I missed earlier.))

On the outside, he was calm and collected. But as the ship shot forth, proceeded to climb upwards, in his head was a constant chant of 'OHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCK, SPACEOHFUCK.'

Soon, they shot past the moon, and the chanting intensified. There was no SERE'ing his way back to Earth from space. He turned his head away from the port, looking around the group. Outwardly, they looked like they were taking it well, just like he did.

He, too, got up, and went to knock on the door, standing next to Amuné. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms "Sooooooooooo...." He trailed off, hoping she'd have something to converse about. Only topic he had was how much waste could a human body produce? Because he was sure he just deposited it all in his pants. (Figuratively. He didn't actually shit his pants.)

The Seer frowned at Ruarc. "No, you go sit tight until we get to our destination. I don't think you in the same room as him is a good idea for a while. Or did you forget how close you came to being a charred husk, hm?" Amuné gave the man a steely-sweet smile. "Besides, /Mister/ Mook," she added, "until we know who you work for, and what they want, I don't trust you farther than I can spit. And I can't spit very far." She figured needling the stranger a little wouldn't hurt, especially since it might knock loose a little information. And she was being casual about it, so hopefully there'd be no serious repercussions. Her head was telling her that much more use of her Sight would result in a major headache, so she wasn't inclined to use it unless absolutely necessary, at least for now.

Tsitua got up and opened the door. There stood the seeress.. And the soldier. "Come in." He said to both of them, returning to his seat. He could tell Amuné had something to say, and he had a use for Raurc. He looked at the soldier, "Do you know how to field dress an amputation?" He asked, tossing him med kit. He knew the soldier's file, the question was rhetorical. He turned to Amuné, "What did you see?" He asked with a serious expression. He would take any news from a seer. No matter how unrefined. It had saved his life before.

Shiva's heart raced. She was terrified for Raurc. If Tsitua was was this calm now, that meant he had made his decision. Then again, he was trusting the man to patch his wound.. Sometimes, her leader was an open book. Mostly, though, he was impossible to read. What was he thinking in the tactical mind? He had to have so many different plans at once it would make all off their heads spin. She kept her eyes on the screen. 

He caught the medkit, setting it to the side, chuckling [I]"Do I know how..."[/i] He opened the medkit up, pulling out gauze, med-tape and pads. [I]"I pulled three soldiers back together in Afghanistan after their Humvee rolled over an IED. I know my SABC."[/i] He said, positioning the padding on the nub and securing it with tape temporarily. If he had been actually on time to roll call....

He wrapped some gauze around the tape, and pulled the tape tighter, attaching it to itself, before wrapping more gauze around it to snuggly secure it. He pulled the turniquet out, placed the plate on the inside of the bicep, about two inches from the armpit, and cranked that shit down. He grinned, admiring the work he had done.

[I]"Comfortable?"[/i] He asked, standing back up.

Amuné was surprised that Tsitua invited them both inside, but she didn't comment on it yet. "If he trusts you to patch him up, then perhaps you could give me a hand with my injury as well. I lost a couple fingers back there. Unexpected complications." The woman indicated her wrapped hand. The rag had been re-chilled by Jack a little bit ago, but still blood was seeping into the fabric. She waited until treatment was finished before looking at Tsitua. "I saw some things back there I wanted to ask you about," she told him, neatly avoiding saying what, or just how she'd seen them. The hybrid would understand, and the new soldier would remain in the dark. "But it's something you might wish to discuss privately." She wasn't sure that Shiva knew about what she'd picked up when Tsitua had touched her earlier. Judging by the woman's expression when he'd hugged Jack, Tsitua wasn't a very open person, and insights into his mind were precious to those who cared about him.

Closing her eyes for a moment, the movements brought back the memory of a little roller coaster with her brother from when they were little. Weird. Though it did end up making her a little sad remembering Jason, but he had let her go, both knowing this was going to be good for their future. Jack glanced out the window in amazement, that was a sight she never thought she’d ever see in her life. It was beautiful.

Her little bit of a day dream was broken back to reality by Jareth. She turned her head and offered him a little smile with his words. “Yes, thank you. I never expected something like that” She nodded “And I’m sorry, I know you’re Jare….” She said softly feeling terrible she couldn’t remember names better “I’m not very good with names” Jack apologized holding Bruce close so he wouldn’t fall from her lap. He wasn’t use to this kinda feeling and it wasn’t time for him to go exploring just yet.

In the time spent on the ship, Jack had calmed her temperature a bit. Her hands were back to normal color, the are around her was warmer. The only curious thing that stayed was the coloring of her hair. It might now always stay grayish blue and blonde.

Kreos shrugged at Jareth's response to the demigod's offer. "That's understandable. I suppose wits can be sharper than any weapon." He frowned as he sheathed his scythe, hearing Ruarc's remarks about the information he owed them, however he decided it was best not to push it for now. admired the inner decor of the drop ship, letting out a drawn out whistle. "This certainly is no Greece." Kreos said aloud.

Kreos took a seat across from Jack and Jareth, trying not to cut through the metal with the scythe on his back. He heard the hum of an engine, signaling that the ship was about to start. Kreos braced himself, holding on to the edge of the seat for support, just to find that there really was no reason to brace himself. He sighed and let go of the seat, scratching the back of his head. He slightly perked up when his name was called, taking a moment to realize what Jareth said. "Oh, uh, it's no problem, really." He said with a smile. "Death comes to us all anyways. Battle just shortens the way." he thought grimly to himself, though didn't express it. He kept his temptations to knock on the cockpit door and ask 'if they were there yet' to himself, knowing the others would most likely not appreciate it. So he waited.

"Yeah, that's the thing. I have trouble keeping my wits about me in situations like that. One specific danger I can handle, but an outright fight? Nope." The young man shook his head. "It's Jareth," he told Jack, smiling. "That's fine, don't worry about it. I've got one friend who can barely remember her own name, much less anyone else's." He wondered briefly if his friends would be missing him, while he was gone. He'd not had a chance to do more than send a quick text to the ones he was closest with, and he was pretty sure that it took a while to send messages from space. There wasn't other life in their solar system, after all, so they must be going somewhere else. "What's the name of your friend? Can I pet 'em?"

"There's quik clot in there somewhere." The hybrid said to Raurc one finger pointing at the med kit again. He looked at the girl, somehow he had a pretty good guess as to what she meant. Her power had to be activated by touch as well then. Impressive. That meant she saw whatever was going on in his head at the time. "So you saw her then." He deduced aloud. He had a very good idea of what he saw. Any other demon, and he would have kept his cool and dispatched much quicker. But of all the demons, it had to be that one. "We can talk about this later." He said, "Both of you go back to your seats. We're getting closer."

Now Shiva's jealousy became confusion. That seeress had some kind of insight to her leader and she had no clue what was going on. She peeked at her leader, who was examining his new wound dressing I which Raurc did an exceptional job. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to tell her. Darn this new group. In a matter of hours they had already made her question everything she thought she knew about the legendary Tsitukaiza when she thought they were a close pair. None of this was okay in her mind. She pushed all of this aside, focusing on the task at hand. Soon, a large asteroid came into view. As it spun slowly and silently in space, the portions of the ship that were visible on the outside came into view in the distant sunlight. Shiva slowed the ship on the approach and carefully docked, entering a huge hangar bay. With finesse, she touched the dropship down ever so gently, as it accepted the docking locks. Once in place, they opened the pilot door and the loading door as the hangar bay door began to close. The ship had a hardlight barrier keeping the air inside the craft. It eliminated the need for ventilation upon departure, and made thier runs twice as fast. Victor was particularly proud of that one.

Shiva quickly exited the ship, pushing pas everyone and briskly walking down one of the catwalks. She went through a door and let it close behind her. She almost ran into a couple people on her way to her quarters. Eric, who was only a couple inches taller than her with long, white dredlocks and triangles tattooed under his eyes. He was blind, but he upside down double triangles under his eyes were runes that helped his ability to use chakra as sonar. He actually dodged her. After him, she managed to shoulder-check Mouse, the insanely hot, casually funny angel with a haircut that made him look like he was once a member of the band Atilla. He just looked at her with confused, shimmering, golden, cat-slit eyes while taking a drag of a high dollar cigarette.

When she finally made it to her room, she locked the door and leaned her back against it, sliding to the floor in a mix of emotions that she didn't even understand fully.

Once Shiva had stormed out, Orion got an amazing view of space out the hangar door. It took his breath away, as did the impossibly beautiful woman who Shiva had just pushed past that was waiting for them just outside the dropship door. She was nearly flawless. Her hair was wavy and bright blue, like the sky on a clear day. It was long, but shaved on the left side. She had warm, emerald eyes and fair, smooth looking skin with only one flaw: a horizontal scar across her left cheek. The mark only accented her beauty somehow, it was thin and pink and just as beautiful as the rest of her perfectly curved body. You could tell that she barely had to wear any makeup at all. "Hello everyone." She began with a strong, smooth voice as she boarded the craft, her eyes fixed on Tsitua's right, half of an arm. She was wearing a casual outfit with a shirt that was cut to show off the abdomen. As she passed by, Orion saw a birthmark on her stomach right where the liver would be.

Then he noticed Tsitua look at Amuné with one of those "don't freak out" looks.

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He looked her hand over, his brow furrowing slightly. [I]"The hell happened to your fingers?"[/i] He asked, grabbing some gauze as he exited the cockpit, wrapping her fingers when they sat in their seats. He tried keeping his thoughts on something other than his nervousness. He thought about the few tours in the desert he did when he served in the Army, and the missions afterwards for his PMC company, and how this was only slightly different.

He finished up with her hand as they were coming to a stop, peeking out the window at asteroids floating by. He swallowed hard. Looks like they weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

The woman named Shiva stormed off the ship the moment the doors opened, but he stayed put, eyeballing those who walked by, not sure of when he would be permitted to exit...