Bad News

Ash and Michael were moving out checking every hallway for any case of either Kishins or Melody. They had already encountered one or two Kishins, but that was nothing more then a quick exercise. The thought that three of their friends would soon be sentenced to their deaths was more then a good enough motivator.

It was hard to swallow the fact that they were running away from the location of one of their friends. That they were leaving her by herself for the time being. It hurt them both, but they had to ignore it. May was under the protection of Vigrid, nobody would touch her. They just had to find Melody before she got into any trouble. It wasn't an easy decision, but they made it. They just had to hope it was a good one.

"Did you hear what Vigrid said?" asked one of the Kishins who were walking down the hallways. Michael held Ash back. This could be vital information discussing their invasion or even the plans they had for the war. Michael wanted to hear it. Hopefully, it was good news.

"About what?" asked the second Kishins as they stopped to talk and share information. "I haven't heard anything past about the intruders that we found out about. Does Vigrid have some sort of plan to deal with them or is it our job?"

"Never mind that information!" shouted the first Kishin. He slapped the second Kishin upside the head to make sure he knew not to talk again. "I'm talking about the prisoner we got. The little girlie." This time Ash had to hold Michael back to make sure he didn't charge at the two of them. "Apparently, Vigrid has reason to believe that the intruders infiltrated this base just to save her, so Vigrid is gonna execute her! HA HA HA! Just imagine the looks on the faces of the intruders when they get all the way to the prison just to see her beheaded corpse! It'll be hilarious!" The second Kishin joined in laughing.

Michael and Ash snapped at the same time. Ash charged out and with a mighty swing of his arm, he brought Xander's sharp blade around and into the Kishin's soft and unguarded neck. The blade swept straight through leaving a clean and neat cut. The second Kishin gasped with horror as he tried to move back, but Michael was behind him holding him still. "What's the matter?" asked Ash as he moved towards the Kishin with his blade already extended as he lifted it towards the Kishin's neck, "I thought you found beheaded corpses to be hilarious."

(-With Melody and Shi-)

Melody stumbled through the halls. She was starting to breathe heavily now. She was running almost all day today and she didn't even get a good night's sleep. Her heart was beating fast. She wanted to believe that it was because of the insane running and exercise, but she also believed that it was because she was slowly growing more and more afraid. She was all alone in this base filled with monsters, anxiously awaiting for her to get tired and drop down. Not to mention her ankle was still crushed from the last fight.

She was rushing as fast as she could through the halls trying to escape Kishin. She double checked the halls every few seconds just to make sure she wasn't being followed. Her heart was just speeding up as she tried to remember which paths the Kishin had took her down, which turns he had taken. She didn't remember anything...she was all turned around. When the Kishin was taking her around the base, he was on ceiling, but now Melody was on the floor. The paths and turns were all switched up, she couldn't tell which one was supposed to be lefts or rights.

She would just have to ignore the idea of finding her way back to the group and just head to the prison. Michael and Ash should be heading to the prison to rescue May. If she headed there, she should be able to meet up with them. She took another step forward and nearly fell forward. She grumbled as she crawled across the floor careful to avoid putting more pressure on her foot. She backed up against the nearby wall and leaned against it.

She looked around her and noticed some pipes in the wall above her. Melody struggled to her feet and sent Shi up, wrapping the yo-yo around the pipes. She pulled down on it breaking the pipes off and sending it clattering to the floor. Melody used Shi's blades to slice it down and cut the segment of pipe into a perfect size. She then stood up using the pipe as leverage. The pipe made a crappy cane for her to use and walk with, but it definitely was better then limping around on her ankle.

Melody clambered forward on the makeshift cane and tried to figure out where the prison was. Melody peered out one of the windows and checked the outside. They had ran around the base nearly two times. When she looked outside of the base and at the surroundings she tried to put her location together. If she could then she could backtrack using the windows rather then running around aimlessly until she chanced upon something that would help her.

She frowned as she looked outside. She should've expected what she saw, but she let her hope get the better of her. The Kishins were based in the desert...so everything around them looked the exact same. A desolate wasteland with only a few sand dunes and a few cracks in the earth...nothing that could help Melody pinpoint her location. She backed away from the walls, "Shi do you know which way to go?" she asked as she looked down the halls frantically.

Shi's reflection bit its lip. Ze looked around the hall trying to find a way out. Ze found nothing. Shi shook its head and looked up at Melody, "I don't know. I was wrapped up in the huge cord the entire journey, I didn't see anything except the cord. I know! We should shout and then Ash and Michael will hear us and come running!" Shi took in a deep breath.

"NO!" shouted Melody. Her hands jumped back up to her mouth and covered it. She flinched as she looked down the halls. The last thing they wanted was anything that attracted attention. Without thinking she immediately dashed forward and dove into the nearest room. She was breathing heavily and needed a few moments to calm down, especially since she may have just made thousands of Kishins aware of their location.

In the best case scenario she would've just dove into the infirmary. She could use some of the medicine or equipment, but it wasn't the best case scenario. The room was without a doubt, probably the dorm rooms for the Kishin. The beds looked like they would collapse if even Melody would just lay down in one. She went over to the beds and picked up one of the pillows.

"Pillow fight!" exclaimed Shi. It was close to an excited whisper, he listened to Melody and understood her reason for not wanting him to yell. However, he also didn't understand what Melody was looking for. What kind of helpful thing would a Kishin keep in his bed? Especially when you thought about the fact that Vigrid kept an incredibly tight ship. Nobody would have anything just laying around. Chances are the Kishins here were too scared to even sneeze without his say-so.

Melody ignored Shi as she went over to the bed and tore some thread out of the sheet. Using the thread she tied the pillow around her ankle to help cushion any other blows she might take. She backed up against the door and peered out of it. She closed the door quickly as soon as she saw a Kishin walking out around there. Melody breathed deeply as she tried to calm down. It was hard to know whether or not the Kishin came here because he heard her yell or if it was just on his patrol. If it was the latter he'd be gone soon enough.

"I know I heard something over in this direction," he bellowed loudly. Melody collapsed into a pile on the floor. She was starting to worry even more as time passed. It seemed like trouble was coming her way. Maybe eventually he'd get tired and leave, until then Melody was trapped.

"Maybe they went and ducked into one of these rooms," questioned a second voice. Melody felt faint. She didn't see the second Kishin and now two Kishins were going to bust into the room and take her out. She was already tired, but she didn't really have a choice...now did she? Melody bent over and stuck Shi into the other side of the door and pulled it tight. It was rudimentary tripwire, but it should work and give Melody a temporary moment of a one-on-one fight.

Melody flinched as she heard the sound of glass break. The window that she had been looking out of and to the outside had been smashed into a million pieces by a big halberd. The halberd had split the window open with an incredible force and slid straight in. The sharp spearhead at the top of it had come crashing in and pierced one of the Kishins in the back causing him to smash into the wall.

"Wha?" shouted the Kishin's partner as he turned around to face the cause of the ruckus. He paused as he saw dozens of sheets of paper fluttering around him. He looked side-to-side frantically trying to see what was causing the levitating papers, but saw nothing. Finally all of the papers came flying inwards at him. They delved into his skin leaving small shallow cuts in his skin. One of those cuts wouldn't have done anything, but sting for a few seconds, however, there were HUNDREDS of papers flying around him. Each and every one of those sheets had swarmed around him delivering sharp and painful cuts into his body.

The two Kishins collapsed onto the ground with a loud thud. Melody froze as she heard two bodies hit the ground. She was completely unaware of whatever was happening outside of the room. She could only think about the noise and whatever was occurring, just five feet away from her. She was stuck in her room with some sort of fight occurring so close. It sounded like whoever it was was the enemies of the Kishins, but that didn't quite mean they were her allies.

She heard four voices. "That's three down...another couple million left to go," muttered a female's voice, "this is a pain. Eva, take over. I'm going to catch some Z's." Melody paused as she heard the faintly familiar voice.

"Helena!" whined another female voice loudly, "you can't just sleep out here! This is a Kishin base! What if more Kishins come here? Bridget? Zeek? Can you please help me talk some sense into her! I don't want to just wait around for another Kishin to show up!"

"We should just keep on moving," said a third female voice. "Its obvious that you are just going to hold us back. If what Elena said is right we are already falling behind the rest of the group. We already got split up from the other half of the group that we came here with. We came here looking for Melody and the rest of them. Since May was taken we all came here to save them and now not only have we not found them, we got split up!"

Melody perked up as she heard the familiar names. She stood up and burst through the doors. Sure enough, Bridget and Helena were both just outside the door. Melody was so happy to see a friendly face that the strength that was holding her up disappeared. She collapsed and fumbled into Bridget.

Okay, some nice sized surprises, eh? The two teams tied for the fourth character pair are currently Bridget and Zeek and Helena and Evalyn. They are tied at five votes a piece. In other words at least ten people have voted...I wonder how many people reviewed my last chapter...