"I thought I smelled something up here." He said.
Haji drew himself between Diva and Alessandro as the man stepped out of the elevator. Though the chevalier was likely aware he wouldn't be able to do much, the chiropteran king still scoffed at him.
"Please, you're a coke can on the street. Roll out of the way or you'll get stomped on."
The elevator doors closed behind him and he glanced at them as the light began to descend towards the main entrance. Chances were Saya had called it.
"I see. So the hybrids weren't good enough. That's what you get when you turn a human into a chiropteran with inferior blood, diluted no less." He mused out loud.
If they could just hold him off until Saya arrived perhaps they could escape… trap him in the complex maybe. Diva wasn't exactly partial to trapping anyone somewhere forever due to her own past but she'd get over it. That was assuming, however, that they would survive more than a minute.
"I gather your boy-toy has cleared everything up about earlier." Alessandro spoke, still not moving.
"Saya found out herself. She's nice to me now."
"I see… then it will just be all the more amusing to see her expression as I pull you apart."
Diva gave a short mocking laugh and noticed a fire extinguisher nearby.
"Been there. Done that." She spoke before leaping to the wall and pulling the fire extinguisher free. Despite her current physical power there was enough adrenaline running through the girl that she could hurl the cylinder over at Alessandro. He stepped out of the way and the thing banged into the elevator doors.
"Try again." He teased, but Diva's expression didn't change.
"No, I think I did just fine that time."
His eyes narrowed for a moment as the broken fire extinguisher sprayed him and the area about him with its contents. It made it impossible for them to see him, but the reverse was also likely true. She and Haji neared each other and a form jutted from the white haze. It grabbed hold of someone's throat as it reached them, covered in a white substance itself.
"Did you really think that would…"
Alessandro scowled as he saw that he had grabbed Haji's throat, not Diva's. The chevalier held his arm still as Diva made her escape. The king shoved Haji away after a second or two of struggling and once more speared towards her. However she leaped and he flew past, carried away by his own momentum. Haji got to her, though, and in an instant they were by the elevator, the doors already beginning to open…
"Well now, isn't that an interesting strategy." He mused, though he sounded decidedly angrier now than he had beforehand.
"And you think I'm going to just let you get away, do you?" He growled before he turned around and the black blur that was his moving body darted through the white haze. They hadn't suspected that he would have been able to get to them before they had gotten into the elevator. Fortunately it was still difficult enough to see that Haji had been able to push Diva aside and take the attack that was meant for her.
Diva fell straight back into Saya's arms as her sister looked first at her and then at the two men outside the elevator. Sticking out of Haji's back was a stained-white hand covered in blood; it looked like crimson snow. Even still the stout chevalier gripped the king's arm both in front and behind him to hold him still.
"Go! I'll hold him off!"
"Haji!"
"Saya! You must escape!"
Saya, Kai, and their friends were frozen, but Diva fortunately was still able to move. She lurched forward, still in Saya's arms, and kicked the button that would take them up to Joel's floor. Saya screamed Haji's name once more before the elevator doors closed and they began to ascend. Holding back tears, the elder twin managed to ask Diva if she was alright. Telling her yes, Diva stood up and steadied herself, watching the elevator go up floor by floor.
Below the walls were shaking, likely due to the "battle" down below. Everyone could just hope that Haji would pull through as he always did as they continued making their way up to the office of the leader of the Red Shield.
"You really think this will accomplish anything? Letting them get up a few stories in a building?" Alessandro asked as Haji fought to hold his arm still.
"It's my duty to protect Saya however I might be able to, no matter how little a help I might be. If it aides her I will do whatever it takes."
"Hmph. Such strong words for such a tiny bug." The man said before turning around and whipping his arm at a wall. The force he put behind the swing sent Haji flying into the concrete wall with a shattering thud. His body formed a crater in the construct and small pieces fell to the ground as he did the same.
"Don't overestimate your significance; the only reason I haven't torn off your head and pulled the doors open to go after them is because I don't really need to. There isn't anywhere they can go that I can't find them; least of all in a big concrete box."
It took a tremendous amount of effort, but after healing his wounds Haji rose up from the ground and allowed his body to exhibit its chiropteran characteristics; two bat-like wings sprouted from his back and his other hand turned into a chiropteran-like visage as the first one always was.
"So scary… are you going to give me a high-five?"
"Your inability to take your enemies seriously will be your downfall."
Alessandro's demeanor changed back to that of a furiously deranged psychopath.
"What the hell did you just say? Did you just tell me of a 'weakness'?"
The man's teeth ground together so hard Haji could hear them cracking.
"Don't you dare assume so much boy!" He roared as his voice changed and the man's eyes glowed.
"This is all I can do at the moment… Saya, please run." Haji thought, charging across the hall.
The elevator dinged a final time as the doors opened and they could see Joel waiting for them in his office. How he had known they would be the first ones to make it up to him was something they could only imagine.
"Saya, what is going on? Have you been able to repel the chiropterans?"
They walked out of the elevator, into his office. The monitors Kai had used to help some of them out were affixed to one wall, all empty. Other than that, the siege didn't seem to have touched Joel in the least. It was as if his office was a manifestation of Joel's constant inner calm.
"We did, sir, but Alessandro managed to get into the facility during the commotion. Haji is downstairs… holding him off."
There was a silence for a few moments. Of course, it was Joel who eventually spoke up.
"I see… well, we mustn't let his actions be a waste; we have to respond."
It was David who spoke this time.
"But sir, all of our men are at the entrance. There isn't much we can do."
Joel seemed to go into thought.
"While neutralizing Diva's abilities might have seemed like a good idea previously, we, in essence, ended up shooting ourselves in the foot, so to speak."
The long-haired girl certainly wasn't going to object; they definitely would have had a lot more options if both of them were capable of fighting right now. Even she knew that.
"So what should we do?" Kai asked.
A few more seconds of deliberation and Joel looked up at David.
"We have no other choice; David, signal for the members of Red Shield to evacuate via the underground tunnels and then activate option D."
Option D; it was the codename for a complete-destruction protocol. It had taken out a secret lab disguised as a nature conservancy center, Red Shield's primary headquarters, and the Metropolitan Opera House. Now it would claim one of the last defenses they had. And hopefully Alessandro along with it.
"But what about all of the chiropterans?" Luis asked.
"Unfortunately we'll have to leave them alone for now. They are admittedly a lesser threat and we know for a fact that they don't have the ability to create other chiropterans. In the future we might be able to find a way to attract them to a specific source. If we can do that they will not be a substantial problem."
David went to another part of the office, presumably where the controls were to destruct the facility. Joel, meanwhile, moved towards a wall with a large picture frame on it. He pressed a button on his wheelchair and the top of the painting descended at an angle. It was then that everyone could see it was in fact a metal ramp that led into a passage. The passage most likely led out into the mountains. Though it was unlikely there wouldn't be a path due to Joel's condition and the escape route having been designed for him in the first place.
"This passage will take us to an underground river corridor that splits into three sections; one of them funnels in from the ocean, another leads into the city, and a third empties out into a nearby lake. I have transportation waiting at all three exits and they all have different destinations."
"So we'll all go one way and make him think we split up so he won't know where to go?"
Joel frowned. It seemed so unnatural for him.
"I'm afraid not. You see, if we're to defeat Alessandro we have to think strategically. That is why Luis and I will go the city route, David and Saya will go towards the ocean, and Kai and Diva will go to the lake."
Most everyone was surprised at Joel's decision. It wasn't like him to be so amorally objective.
"What do you mean? We can't just split up!" Kai shouted.
"Kai…" David began, "if we're all serious about destroying Alessandro then we must do whatever it takes to accomplish that mission."
"But what's the point in defeating him if no one else is left when he's finally dead?" Kai spoke once more.
"Kai… it's alright."
It surprised him when it was Saya that had spoken up. Everyone turned to face her as she gripped her sword and continued.
"I'll cut myself and put blood along the tunnel walls in the direction I'm headed. That way he'll come after me. If we move quickly enough we can get away before he even makes it into the passage and the rest of you will have plenty of time to escape."
Kai and Diva both began to object at the same time and canceled each other out.
"But Joel, I do think that we should meet up in the same place eventually. Whatever plans we can come up with I don't imagine we can accomplish any of them without Diva and I working together."
It took a few moments before Joel responded.
"You're right, Saya; if we are to truly win this war we will need to hold on to our humanity just as much as our lives. Each and every one of us must survive for us to achieve a true victory. After all… our mission is about preserving life, not bringing about death. Though we might part ways for now, I know that in the end we will all reunite, and we will finally be able to close the book on this tragic story in our world's history."