Author's Notes:

Good progress, fast progress. That's what I'm making. Gotta keep, going, gotta go fast, whilst I'm still feelin' it…

Disclaimer:

Iji belongs to Daniel Remar and his company, Remar Games. I claim no ownership to it, or any references found within this story.

Iji: Demimortal

Chapter 4: Kinda Green

Iji Soundtrack: Kinda Green

The two of them ended up in a small pit in the center of a hallway. To the right, they heard the marching of at least a couple of Tasen. To the left, the same, but to a slightly lesser degree, if they studied the sound for a little bit. Satuxim whispered, "So… Which way first?" After a few moments, Iji answered, "Left. Probably less Tasen that way." Satuxim, however, got an idea. "Actually, wait, how about I go right, and you go left? You never know which way either of them will lead, after all, and since there are probably more Tasen that way, it'll be safer for you. Trust me when I say that I'm far more... experienced… than you." Iji looked at him strangely, before nodding in affirmation. "No offense, of course. I can tell that you'd have immense potential if you had a greater penchant for killing. Not saying that you should start now, but 'ey, just throwing that out there." He remarked, before setting out to his appointed direction, Iji shaking her head when he got out of sight before moving out as well.

Satuxim ducked for cover the moment he saw the Tasen; three more of the green ones, and another that had blue instead of green on, and a rectangular shape jutting out of the back of it's head. A quick scan revealed that they were all female. 'Blue one's probably a higher rank than the others, though not by much…' he thought to himself, then took note of the terrain. Two of the greens and the blue were one side of the edge of a very deep-looking pit, with another green on the other side. Nothing much appeared to be in this area, though, aside from a Cyborg Station on the other side of the pit that read 'ST'. Just in case, though, Satuxim decided to check out everything, anyways. Focusing for a couple of seconds on the 'ST' over there, he let himself be enveloped by the darkness. About half a second later, he was there, behind the green one. He was right, there really was nothing there besides the Cyborg Station. Just one problem, though; he was spotted already.

The blue one called out a warning to the green one near Satuxim, and she quickly backed away, not accounting for one thing; she was already standing a couple of inches away from the chasm of a pit, and before she knew it, she was already tipping over the edge, about to fall to her unpleasant demise. 'Damn it!' Satuxim cursed in his head, 'I'm not let someone die merely because of my own curiosity!' He sprinted over as fast as he could, trying to reach for her hand, and, luckily, succeeding. Tugging on it and pulling her back with such force as to throw her a couple of feet, she was now safe, thanks to him. Again, though, just one problem; he was now falling to him own demise. The four Tasen looked over the edge, extremely surprised that what seemed to be a human would sacrifice his life for a Tasen's.

Keyword here, of course, being would; making use of his wings again, he slowed himself down before his most-likely violent landing would happen, and began to quickly ascend. The Tasen seeing this, backed away wearily, not knowing just what the Hell this thing was. Upon reaching the elevation at which he first fell, he put his feet back down on the ground, on the opposite side of the shaft that that he fell from, and began walking away. The Tasen, seeing as how he had just saved one of them, let him go free, swiftly contacting Elite Krotera to tell him of what events had just come to pass.

Meanwhile, on the young woman's side of the spectrum, Iji was walking swiftly, hoping to end this conflict as soon as she could. Coming up to a slow rise in the floor, she ducked behind a nearby crate, glancing over the side of it to see what was up ahead. She was most-likely right in her assumption that there were less Tasen on this side of the hall-way, as there were only two of them; a green, and, to Iji, at least, a newly-discovered blue one. The blue one was equipped with a bigger weapon than the green one; judging by the large size of the barrel, it was some sort of Rocket Launcher. Waiting for the most opportune moment possible to slip by unnoticed, she patiently sat there, biding her time. One both of their backs were turned, she made a run for it, quickly dropping down the ledge and running underneath the platform that hosted the green Tasen. Both of them quickly turned around and, not noticing anybody there, went back to their near-pointless walking around. She waited a minute or two, then ran for it again, seeing the Lift and hiding in a corner of it's shaft. Again, her progress went unnoticed, though she believed she heard the green one mutter something along the lines of 'Damned rodents…'

Iji sat there, taking a few, silent breaths to get rid of her exhaustion, and then patiently awaited for Satuxim's return, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get to her if the Lift went up without him. After a couple of minutes, she heard some yelling, and some gunshots rang out, alerting her to Satuxim's presence. She peeked her head out, and, seeing him about a dozen feet away, motioned for him to get over here. Satuxim dodged the bullets, and ducked out to the other side of the shaft, both of them glad to see the other unscathed. The lift then began to rise up. "Whew… I'm one lucky little git, not being hit by a single one of those bullets…" he muttered. Iji merely laughed a little. "Say, Iji… Can you come over here for a moment? I need to check something…" She complied, going over and sitting down about a foot away from him. "Okay… Now, reach your hand out…" Again, she complied. Her hand met his, and suddenly, she felt a jolt of pain, and an abrupt rush of information;

"Nanofield booting up… Procedures completed. Statistics: Health: . Strength: . Assimilate: 0. Attack: . Crack: 0. Tasen: 0. Komato: 0. Jump: . Armor: 0." Iji's eyes shot open, and she forced herself to get up, feeling quite under the weather. She saw, Satuxim standing up, with his voice monotonous and his stance rigid. Satuxim then shook himself, voicing his discomfort. "Okay, that was weird. Just, what the Hell, man. Ugh…" He collapsed, Iji racing over to break his fall, catching him by his torso. She was startled at how light he felt. "… That was… unexpected… I… think I need to sit down for a little while…" He sounded very sick whilst saying this. Iji complied, carefully setting him down own the flat surface of the Lift. "… Satuxim... What did you just do? And how long was I out for?" she inquired. Satuxim took a while to respond. "I… wanted to see how your Nanofield functioned… I… ended up getting a bit more than I… asked for…" Iji asked what he meant. "… Well… apparently, I've got a Nanofield of my own, now… Quite a turn of events, eh…?" Iji found herself a little shell-shocked, despite all of the events and the important role thrust upon her not an hour earlier. He tried to get himself up, but found it impossible to do so at that moment. "Ngh… Magic does not mix well with Nanotechnology... I'll need a couple of minutes to recover from this…
And, for your information… you were only out for about a minute… Haaa…" His eyes then closed, and he fell limp, quickly going unconscious. Iji looked concerned for him, but the Lift suddenly came to a halt.

Looking over the now-accessible corridor, she noticed almost half-a-dozen of the Tasen patrolling the area. Luckily, though, there were crates in the way to block them from seeing the two. Unfortunately, however, she heard one of them say, in a rather feminine voice, "Guys, the lift just came back up. I hope that means that the others found some more coffee…!" she said. A couple of them began walking towards them, and Iji almost felt like crying again because of this immensely stressful and possibly lethal turn of events. "Damn it…!" she muttered, "What do I do…!?"