Mein Teil
Eight
Maria stared at the Reactor Core. The casing was not just cracked, but split wide open, a result of having a Carnis Minor field-goaled into it. She started looking around for a way out. The door she came in through was sealed fast with no way to open it. There were three other doors in the room. One was open, the Carnis Minor came from there, the other was the one Makkisar ran to, so most likely that was not the escape route. The third door held more promise. Above the hatch read in huge letters "To Surface". Maria's face lit up as she began running towards her hope. The Reactor Room was beginning to come down around her. Explosions were knocking huge chunks off of the ceiling and walls, throwing them around and down. The longer Maria lingered, the smaller her chances of escaping were. As she reached the door, it slid open revealing a narrow passage with a singular, slim ladder going completely verticle into the darkness. Not wasting any time to see if it was safe, she threw herself onto the ladder and began to climb faster then her limbs would let her.
The ladder kept ascending into nothing; never ending. She pressed on, though, the thought of Safiria's smiling face forcing her to push past her limits, put the pain in her arms and legs into the farthest reaches of her mind and continue. She no longer could feel her wings or ears, most likely due to her panicked state at the moment. The sounds of the reactor exploding countless meters below her began to fade into nothing, however the computer's audible countdown until obliteration was still ringing in her ears.
"Warning. Warning. Reactor-Core: Overload. Estimated time until detonation: One minute and forty one seconds remaining." It repeated. Maria kept cursing to it to shut up, that it wasn't helping, but she stopped after a while, after she realized cursing at it wasn't helping either. As she passed part of the ladder, something caught her bra. She looked down and sneered a half-growl. Not wasting any time, she pulled hard up, tearing her bra free of the nail it was caught on. She never cared that it fell down the ladder.
"Damn Drakel. Why can't you cut those things off?" She muttered, pressing onwards. She smelt something burning to her right and, instinctively, she paused just long enough for part of the wall above her to explode, expelling something very familiar. "Oh, there's where you ran off to." She smiled, catching her Tube Launcher as it flew across her vision. Slinging the weapon on her back, she got back to climbing. The ladder rungs were beginning to hurt her bare feet, but, like the pain in her palms and arms, she ignored it, pressing on; promising never to deal with the Drakel again, provided she lived.
Above her, she saw something shimmering. Never pausing, she looked up. It was a ray of sunshine. Literally. There was a window embedded into the wall which was showing the outside. She was slightly above ground level, but note a fall that would kill her. Unslinging her Tube Launcher, she began to beat the six by eight window with the blunt end of the gun.
"Warning. Warning. Reactor-Core: Overload. Estimated time until detonation: forty seconds remaining." The computer spoke again as Maria gave the window another good whack. The last hit formed a crack down the middle of the glass. Delighted with this, she continued to hit it at a faster, stronger pace. The crack grew wider and began to spread to other areas.
"God damn Drakel and their god damn Tempered Glass!" She shouted, giving the glass one last very strong hit to the center of the cracks. This shattered the glass, sending into a shower below. Wasting no time, she hoisted herself up onto the window sill and pushed off into a leap out with a great grunt. Hitting the ground, she still had to get out of the glass dome which surrounded the city. Fortunetally, it was close. She ran across the grass in her bare feet with the Tube Launcher in hand, pointed towards the glass. Firing the rest of the clip off, she watched the glass dome crack heavily. Hurling the empty weapon to the ground, she placed both arms up to cover her face as she rolled towards the dome at the last second, breaking through and out into the open of West Darkovia. Never stopping, she got up and ran away. She could still hear the computer as it counted down the city's last seconds.
"Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Reactor: Overload complete." The shock wave overcame Maria before the explosion could be heard. A sweeping wave of pressure picked Maria up, threw her fifteen feet away and into a tree canopy. She felt her body slip out of the tree. The last thing her conscious mind picked up was how hard the ground was. And the last thing her conscious eyes saw was a huge explosion in the background with a very large and very black pillar of smoke rising from the epicenter of said explosion.
--Some Unknown Amount of Time Later--
"..uys! Come quick! I think I found her!" A female voice called to unknown people off in the distance. Maria tried to move, but she was too tired to even open her eyes. "HURRY YOUR ASS UP, WOLFBLITZER!" The female voice called again. This name seemed to give Maria an untold surge of energy into her limbs, allowing her to at least flip herself onto her back. She cracked an eye open to see a woman standing over her in Battleon Guardian Armor. It was black with red trim, the red cape snapping in the cold Darkovian wind. "Maria? Maria Despair? Can you hear me?" The woman asked, moving her long light silver hair out of her eyes. Maria managed a weak nod. "Good. Maria, listen. My name is Orta Dragoon. I'm a Medic from Battleon. You're safe with us." The woman reassured Maria. Suddenly, she could hear bushes rustling not far from her. Orta looked back. "Crystal, Wolfblitzer! Hurry up! I'll need both of you to carry her back to town."
"Why the hell should we do it? You've got a perfectly good set of arms Orta." Wolfblitzer said. Something touched Maria's shoulders. Hands, by the feel of them. "Whoa. Okay, forget I said anything. Oh, while we're at it, mind if we take the long way home?" Wolfblitzer asked after walking around to stand at Maria's feet. He bent down and took hold of her ankles with that smile Maria loves so much on his face.
"No! We have to get her back! Who knows how long she's been laying out in Darkovia stark naked in this cold!" Orta barked.
"Well, she's not COMPLETELY naked, per say. She's till got her underwear on, so...But I can fix that if you want! Then you can rightfully say we found her stark naked in Darkovia!" Wolfblitzer smiled. Maria managed a weak, yet effective smile. With a great exertion of energy, she threw her head back to see who had her shoulders. It was Crystal Lion. Her black armor blending in with the darkness of Darkovia was the perfect camouflage. Crystal Lion's black hair, which was very similar in style to Maria's was twitching in the wind. The only thing that permeated this scene was the yellow hue radiating from behind her. Maria strained to see the source. It was a sword.
"When in the hell did you get a Blade of Awe?" She muttered weakly before fainting again.
--Later, in Battleon--
Since Battleon had no official hospital, Crystal Lion, Orta Dragoon and Wolfblitzer brought Maria to the next best place. Yulgar's. Maria could tell that by the sweet scent which was thick in the air.
"What's her condition, Orta?" A very heavy-set male voice questioned.
"Well, that depends. Are we talking physically, or mentally here?" Orta responded, a slight sarcasm in her voice.
"Both." The male voice responded.
"Well, physically, there's nothing wrong with her. Just the occasional scratch and nick. And, of course the obvious lack of clothing which Wolfblitzer so cautiously pointed out three-hundred and sixty three times on our return journey."
"Hey! Who's counting!" Wolfblitzer questioned, a kind of glee in his voice.
"Me." Orta barked back. "But, it's not her physical condition I'm worried about. It's her mental one. Her brain is a Hybee Hive of activity. Her brain-wave activity is up nine-fold, and her adrenal levels are off the charts. Dangerously high. Whatever went on in the two months she's been gone, it wasn't good." Something about that last sentence didn't settle right with Maria. What was it...
"TWO MONTHS!" The Sea foam-haired Guardian shouted, shooting into a sitting position.
"Yes. You've been gone nearly eight weeks now. Warlic said you'd be away for a bit, but everyone started getting worried when you hadn't been back for around, oh, a month and a half. Which, I still think is too long."
"We'll discuss that later." The heavy-set voice responded. She now recognized it's owner as Paladin and Leader of the Guardian's, Atrix Krieger. He was smiling at Maria with his arms crossed approvingly. "We're just glad to have our wonder girl back." He placed a firm hand on her shoulder, and pushing her back into the bed. "But for now, you need to rest.
"So...thirsty..." Maria proceeded to groan. Atrix smiled.\
"I don't see why? You downed twenty gallons when you got back." He spoke.
"Oh, how simple your mortal mind is, Captain Krieger. It is not lack of water which bothers Maria so...it is lack of something...far more plentiful in this room." A refined voice spoke from a window.
"Oh, hey there, Scary Vampire Lady." Wolfblitzer spoke. Maria shot up again.
"Safiria?" She shouted, gazing onto her girlfriend.
"Hello, my dear. How have you been?" She asked, spreading her arms.
"I don't suppose I could...Well...You know..." Maria diverted her eyes, almost as if she were afraid to ask it.
"Certainly, Maria, dear." The Vampress responded, bringing her right arm forward. Before anyone could realize she'd moved, Maria had pounced clear cross the room and was now clamped down fast on Safiria's wrist, sucking away. "She's so beautiful in a frenzy, isn't she?" Safiria questioned, smiling lovingly onto Maria. As suddenly as she began, Maria stopped drinking from Safiria's arm and collapsed to her knees, her head staring up.
"Oh god... I feel alive again." Maria cooed like she'd never done before, save for that one fateful night when Safiria and Maria met.
" 'Alive' being a relative notation with Vampires." Wolfblitzer used the finger quotes.
"Oh, shut up you lecher!" Orta barked at him.
"Wh-What? It's true! Isn't it! Help me out here, Crystal!"
"I don't know you." Crystal responded, walking away some.
"Feeling alive, but still...need more..." She turned towards Orta, a lust in her eyes.
"Uh oh. Hey! Wait! Don't look at me like that!" Orta backed up.
"You wouldn't deny a fellow...bloodsucker a little...milk...would you?" Maria wrapped an arm around Orta, whispering in her ear, twirling her hair. Orta looked very uncomfortable.
"Uh oh. She's turning on the old 'Vampress Charm' again. Don't give in, Orta! That's how I met her."
"I thought you met because she PowerBomb'd you off the bridge to the Female Dormitories..." Crystal stared at Wolfblitzer through narrow eyes.
"Yea, well, she had the Charm on then, too. But still."
"If you help me out, Orta, I would be more then willing...happy, really...to do anything for you to make you happy...Anything. Just name it." She was drawing circles on her chest plate suggestively.
"Okay, I think we'll leave you two alone for a bit, alright?" Atrix smiled, motioning everyone out.
"HEY! Hey, come on guys! Don't leave me in here! Especially not with her!" No one responded, they simply left. "I DON'T WANT TO BREAK MY CELBECY VOW!"