Hikaru: Gah . . .hungry . . .
Lloyd: Have a cookie! ::gives Hikaru a cookie::
Hikaru: I don't want a cookie!
Kratos: Wow, that must be a first.
Hikaru: I need REAL food!
Lloyd: Here, have a . . .uh . . .
Kratos: ::whispers in Lloyd's ear::
Lloyd: Oh yeah! Have a whole pizza I ordered from Sbarros!
Hikaru: !! SBARROS! GIMME!!
Zelos: Bill's on you, Lloyd.
Hikaru: Never mind. Disclaimer time. Who shall be the next victim?
Zelos: Er . . .Who's that one genius kid whose books you're always reading?
Hikaru: ARTEMIS FOWL! Oh, Arty!
Artemis: My father calls me that. Are you my father? I don't believe so.
Hikaru: Whatever! Just do the disclaimer!
Artemis: Pardon me, Hikaru, but you've never written an AF fanfiction before, and yet you seek me as your muse, among your many other muses?
Hikaru: Just because I haven't written one doesn't mean anything!
Artemis: Look, just because your sister Solo wrote an AF story, doesn't mean you can use me as your muse!
Hikaru: So what! Just do the damn disclaimer!
Artemis: Fine. Hikaru doesn't own the Artemis Fowl series and—
Hikaru: Not that one! The ToS one!
Artemis: ::sigh:: Hikaru doesn't own Tales of Symphonia, which NAMCO does own. Happy now?
Hikaru: Yesh, believe it or not, The Vampyre Solo is in fact my older sister. Be envious!
"Computer! Administer absolute and complete lockdown of both Renegade Bases! Lloyd! Kratos, everyone, take Raine and get the hell out of here!"
Kratos, Lloyd, and Sheena cast about perplexed glances around the corridor they were all standing about in, unsure if the situation was dire or not. Evidently it was, for at the next moment, red alarms flashed and sounded throughout the entire base. The door, which separated Sheena and Lloyd from Kratos, slid shut, automatically bolting itself. Kratos heard Lloyd gasp in surprise, and then heard someone banging his or her fists on the door, which he presumed to be Lloyd. His voice came trembling, but only slightly.
"Lloyd, Sheena . . .this is lockdown. Once the order is executed, no one can get in or out."
Lloyd growled in response.
"Dammit, then how are we supposed to escape?"
His sentence was cut short when there was a loud screeching noise on the opposite side of the door Kratos was standing in front of. The Seraphim's heart rates skyrocketed. Raphael, without a doubt.
Without further reservation, the ceiling lights flickered and died, leaving the base, or at least the corridor Kratos was standing, in impermeable blackness. From the opposing side of the door, someone screamed.
Panting heavily, Genis and Zelos quickly sprinted into the nearest room, the former Tethe'allan Chosen carrying Raine in his arms. Little Genis plopped to the floor just as the doors all locked themselves shut. The young half-elf took in his surroundings, Zelos doing the same.
"Hey . . .We're in that cycle lock system room." Genis commented.
Without bothering to wait for a reply from Zelos, the pre-teen ambled over to the small computer monitor that stood a short ways away from the three cylindrical energy charger pillars, bringing up the main commands menu.
"Let's go to the control room, so we can see if we can stake out an escape route."
Genis murmured, his fingers flying over the keyboards. The keystrokes he entered were fast and certain, and in less then a minute, the door to the control room unlocked, sliding open.
The newly gaping doorway seemed vaguely foreboding, with the new apparent danger going around. Zelos rushed on ahead, disregarding Genis. It didn't matter, because the little half-elf was hot on his heels anyway. Up the stairwells, turn a left corridor . . .The two males stopped running as soon as they came across the entrance to the control room. Raine's eyes half-opened as she groaned in Zelos' arms. The door slid open as Genis and Zelos approached it; the control room was rather dark.
"What happened? I thought the auxiliary power was supposed to take over the main power grids." Genis commented, bravely walking in the blackness that was the control room. That was a mistake.
A pair of arms grabbed the silver-haired half-elf almost as soon as he entered the control room. The young mage struggled with whoever was holding him, then he dropped him on the floor. Genis heard whomever it was hurriedly run out of the control room past him and Zelos. The Chosen gently set the now conscious Raine on her feet, going into the control room to turn on the lights. The Professor was wearing her orange jacket, but her cotton white shirt was torn, so she was sporting a cream colored long sleeved shirt, and of course she was still wearing her black pants and white boots. She gingerly touched the place where Zelos, under the influence of Raphael, had stuck his arm through, still feeling quite a lot of pain. Noticing this, Zelos apologized for the millionth time.
"Professor, I'm terribly sorry about your wound."
Raine waved away the apology.
"It's not your fault. Raphael was possessing you, remember?"
Genis flipped the switch that controlled the light spectrums in the control room, shedding light on the multiple computer monitors in the room. An uncanny scream ripped out of his body. There, on the floor before him, lay the mutilated, bloody and shredded body of Yuan. Raine walked toward the dead body, inspecting the whereabouts of the deceased half-elf's hand.
"Genis, Zelos. Look at this."
She pointed out a message that Yuan himself wrote in his own blood before he departed from this world to the next. The message read, in sloppy, but legible crimson:
Raphael, son of Cruxis Raphael. Stop him.
Zelos grimaced, unsure of what to say to that. Yuan died writing information that would help them how? All they really learned was that Mr. Leonazium was the son of Cruxis' Raphael. How was that of help? He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of rapid keystrokes of the keyboards made by Genis. Zelos looked over the half-elf's shoulder. He was looking up every surveillance camera for Raphael, and he was busy securing an escape route.
"Hey, kid. What're you doing?" The redhead asked, curious in spite of the dire situation.
"I am staking out an escape route, as well as securing it by releasing many magitechnology machines specializing in the ways of military combat. Prototypes of sure machines of mass destruction, too. It appears that Yuan was preparing for a war, or something akin to it. I'm also searching for a way to free those of our party that were trapped during the lockdown."
Raine, too, was taking up a computer terminal, taking up the job of freeing those endangered in the lockdown. A bare minute passed by before the Professor announced that she was done. She turned on the intercom, speaking through it to guide those that were lost.
"Everyone, stop what you are doing this instant."
"Everyone, stop what you are doing this instant."
Regal and Presea froze when Raine's voiced boomed throughout the base. The president of Lezareno dared to answer.
"Professor Raine. Is that you?"
"Yes, it is, Regal. I can see you in the video feed in the control room, as well as everyone else. Listen carefully." A hefty stream of static accompanied her statement.
"Somehow Raphael broke into the building, and he killed off Yuan. He's still in the facility, no doubt seeking to kill the remaining angels. Colette, Kratos, and Lloyd. Be careful. Zelos is up here with Genis and I." She continued, regardless of the quality of her transmissions.
Presea glanced around the room, taking up notice of something.
"Where is Colette?"
The silence that followed was absolute.
Kratos fumbled hastily in the dark that engulfed the corridor, searching for three things: The escape route. Colette. And Sheena and Lloyd. The purple-clad swordsman had conjured a small flame in the palm of his hand to light the ways he was running. Just a little longer, he promised himself, rounding a corner. The lights abruptly flashed back on, rendering the flame ball Kratos held obsolete. The fire burned out, as there was no need for it. Kratos skidded to a halt right outside of the Rheaird hangar. That was without a doubt the escape route. The door surprisingly slid open as he approached it. Kratos wondered why it did, with the lockdown still apparently active. Raine was such a genius. The swordsman stopped walking toward the Rheaird dispatch unit when a drop of blood dripped in front of his foot. He immediately glanced skywards. Colette was bent double on the bridge above the Rheaird dispatch unit, the majority of her body bathed in blood.
"Colette!" Kratos shouted, instantly flying up to her side.
Raine, with the use of the intercom, guided Regal and Presea to the Rheaird hangar, where they were surprised to see Kratos healing the already wounded Colette on the bridge suspended above them. The burgundy-haired angel descended down to the other two newest arrivals, carrying Colette gingerly.
"Okay. Genis, Zelos, and I are heading to the hangar now." Raine's static-ridden voice announced.
They did not have to wait long. In less than fifteen minutes, Genis, Raine, and Zelos were all safely inside the hangar, Genis already inputting the codes to access the Rheairds and to activate the defensive system installed in the corridors surrounding the hangar. Multiple Rheairds were dispatched by the send off unit in the open landing space. Zelos clapped a hand on Raine's shoulder.
"What about Lloyd?"
Lloyd and Sheena dashed for their lives along the passageways, trying to outrun their two pursuers, Ino Hinata and Raphael, in the flesh. The duo rounded a corner, trying to go for the main entrance, since going to the hangar would without a second thought place everyone else in danger. Lloyd didn't want that. He reasoned that as soon as he and Sheena made it outside, he could fly off with Sheena. Clever as Raphael was, he couldn't fly. Raine had also said that she programmed the facility to self-destruct in fifteen minutes. They had to get out of there fast. When the entrance doors came into view, Lloyd's knees almost buckled with relief. With the last ounce of strength he could spare, Lloyd grabbed Sheena by the wrist, his wings flapping about to get the two of them in the air. The summoner whipped out a card, murmuring a summons spell.
"I call upon the maiden of the mist. I summon thee; come, Undine!"
The Summon Spirit of water materialized behind the duo, raising her hands.
"Ready?" Her voice echoed.
A tsunami of water erupted from the floors, engulfing everything that was on the ground. Lloyd now held Sheena by the waist, hovering well above the floor. The summoner took out a card of lightning.
"I summon the hammer of godly thunder. I summon thee; come, Volt!"
The mass of purple lightning appeared, sending multiple lightning strikes at the torrential flood below him. The electricity coursed through the water, electrifying it. Anyone who stood in the water would be severely injured, if not dead. Sure enough, the screams of Ino were heard as her body surrendered to the overwhelming shocks. Raphael, however, was using a grappling hook to hang from the ceiling. He glared at Lloyd maliciously. Lloyd sensed it was time to go. He hurriedly flew out of the entrance doors, still carrying Sheena by the waist. A cold blast of icy air met his face as Lloyd gained altitude in the air around the base. A few minutes passed by. Thankfully, Lloyd and Sheena spotted seven Rheairds leave the base, going up to join with them. The nine of them stared back down at the Tethe'alla Renegade base, which then exploded violently five minutes later. Lloyd allowed Sheena to scramble on the same Rheaird as Genis. After that, he descended down to the debris of the Renegade Base. The teenage angel searched high and low, hither and thither, but without success. Raphael was nowhere to be seen. Or so he had thought. In one haste movement, something silver flashed by Lloyd's face. The next thing he knew, he was doubled over on the icy ground, his neck pouring blood quite freely.
From above, Kratos couldn't see what was wrong with Lloyd when he dropped to the ground, apparently because of the oversized wings. Then he saw him. Raphael was emerging from the debris, clutching a medium-sized knife. The blade was slick with blood. Lloyd's blood. Far too late, Kratos leapt off his Rheaird, flying toward the two on the ice-covered grounds below him.
Lloyd couldn't keep track of everything happening all at once . . .all he felt was intense pain that mingled with the cold of the Flanoir fjords. His blood splattered out of the innumerable cuts Raphael inflicted on him as the vengeance-crazed human knocked him into the hard ground, still assailing him. The brown soil beneath the two humans blended with Lloyd's bright red blood. Raphael muttered something Lloyd failed to hear, and the next thing he knew, a tornado kicked up about him, along with the combined force of large chunks of ices battering his bloody form. Before he even hit the ground, Raphael cast Gravity Well. Lloyd screamed as countless heavy bolts of lightning struck him at random intervals, and after that, Raphael assaulted him with the knife once more. Shortly thereafter, Lloyd knew no more.
Hikaru: Oooh, yay, poor Lloydie is either unconscious or dead! Hehehhehe . . .Yesh, there shall be one or two more chapters until the very end! Oh, and sorry I killed Yuan. I just couldn't resist. Oh, and one more thing. I know the cycle lock system wasn't in the Tethe'alla Renegade Base, but it was too late to change anything. Just so you know. Yeah. Please read and review!