Memories Lost

[GamingLord]

Tiamos: "Hehe, it tastes better when it's properly seasoned."

*As it turns out, they had guest fireproof swimsuits, and loaned one to Black. Tiamos reached over for the book Black had choosen from her collection.. it was kept safe by a fire-proofing charm, so it wouldn't burst into flames.*

Xylanthos: "Yes, this is definitely one of the perks of being a soul guider..."

*Xylanthos let himself sink up to his chin in the fiery stuff, a calm expression on his face. When Black asked about the bite mark, he glanced over*

Xylanthos: "It looks healed to me... just a little pink. So, what book are we reading?"  

[Inazuma Sky]

Inazuma wasn't very good at blocking things out of her mind once they had the ability to get into it (some demons that have tried might have found her to be rather dense, but most human beings could be considered this). The addition of the mind grub wasn't helping the situation and every now and then she would pick up very minor glimpses of what was going through Rosemary's mind.

It was definitely disorienting, but it gave her an appreciation for what the vampire was going through. She was busy chopping a path through the abandoned that had almost literally crawled out of the woodwork at them and was forever grateful for the brief moment of clairvoyance that Rosemary had about the tunnel she was thinking of taking.

After doing an about face, she grabbed whoever she could carry and made a rapid dash towards the tunnel that would lead them out.  

[GamingLord]

*As they ran, Thas carefully used a bit of his energy to make Rosemary's mind less chaotic so she could think clearly again.*

Jacob: "If you're going to fire at them, aim for their bellies! It's less dangerous that way!"

*Bursts of flame burned holes through the small demons, causing them to fall to the ground and wail pitifully as they died... the sight was unnerving. Aside from trying to kill them all, they acted a little too much like human babies.*

*CREEEEEEEAAAAAAK*

*The abandoned had decided to retreat at that noise, for the most part... A few giggled childishly as they spat their acids at the tunnel's walls. The group only had a split second to wonder what the sound was, and why the abandoned began to act oddly. The tunnel split in two, and everyone found themselves sliding out, and falling. It all happened so fast... those with flight abilities couldn't react quick enough, and they all were plunged into deep icy water.*

GL:... Euuugh.. that smell... Is this a se... Nevermind, I don't want to think about it...  

[Inazuma Sky]

Inazuma had actually grabbed GL on her way out into the tunnel that had collapsed, and suddenly she found herself trapped underneath him, under what felt like water. It took a while the push him out of the way and break the surface, where she took a deep breath and imediatly wished that she didn't.

Gods! That's disgusting!

She broke into a coughing fit and fought just to keep her head above... whatever the hell the liquid they wre swimming in.  

[GamingLord]

GL: It'll probably beat wading around in this slop anyway... Eugh, the smell...

*There was another loud moan..... metal being stressed. Everyone looked up cautiously, unable to tell where exactly it was coming from as small bits of debris and dirt splashed into the less than sanitary waters*

Jacob: Well if we're going that way, let's be quick about it!

*Everyone scrambled into the new tunnel. Only about a minute later, a good chunk of the ceiling came down in that room, along with several heavy looking pipes. Something screeched as it's black guts were splattered on the walls, crushed by one of the heavy pipes.*  

[Inazuma Sky]

Inazuma was leaning against the wall when she was told to hide her wings. Even though she didn't want to be stuck in the dark she was happy to follow Rosemary's instruction. She was getting tired and dropping anything that would require her energy at the moment seemed like a good idea.

She thought of the energy potions that she had when she first arrived in Limbo, and suddenly thought that those were a good idea. She didn't know if anyone had one, but those that were listening into the group mind would have known that was what she needed if she were to continue and be worth a damn.

When she saw the glowing eyes of those who had them, she chuckled and the word "flashlights" rang in their minds. The word was then quickly followed by an "oh s**t, I forgot that I could do that."  

[GamingLord]

*After a few twists and turns, the group came to the source of the wind... a giant fan, slowly rotating behind a metal grate. From there, three paths were open to them.*

GL: Well... crap. Which way do we go now?

*Air seemed to be flowing out from the ones in the middle and to the left. The other had no such breeze, but Rosemary could make out the sound of dirt hitting metal in the distance. Perhaps it was a pipe that lead to the outside?*

*Their pondering was cut short as something screamed, followed by an explosion. The middle tunnel light up for a moment, as something came flying at their feet, landing in a burnt pile. It was a torso, with dark yellow skin... the head had four black eyes, and a mouth full of sharp, small teeth in several rows. It's remaining arm twitched.. it was long and muscular, with only three digits on it's hand.*

*In fact... Rosemary had seen this creature before... in a video game during the festival of souls... it was a war game, now that she remembered it. The villians had been referred to as...*

Eztli: "s**t... Inakum. Oh hell, what are they doing HERE!?"

Jacob: "Well... this certainly explains why we haven't come across many niearcim mages or demons..."  

[Inazuma Sky]

Suddenly everyone was speaking Greek to her. She had no idea what an "Inakum" was, but she knew that if it could make Eztli curse after all that he's been through, that these probably weren't a good thing. An idea of about how tough these things were made itself apparent after Rosemary's precautions and statement about something that she couldn't break.

Inazuma was about to ask Rosemary a question on how she knew what to do with these things when she took of down the hallway, wearing a set of barely visible wings that she didn't know the vampire had. There was an odd familiarity to them and she found herself needing to know if they were once Kaze's.

She turned to Sephiroth, who was standing closest to her and just pointed down the pipe that Rosemary had disappeared down.

"Was she always able to do that?" she whispered the question at the much taller man before practically jumping out of her skin by the subject in question's sudden return.

it wasn't so much that Rosemary had startled her, but rather that the telepathic warning in her head suddenly reminded her that the party had a good chance of hearing her thoughts - as was evidenced by the flashlights comment. She suddenly felt kind of bad for her suspicions since she was not informed about this fact.

The panic of the situation seemed to stave off as Rosemary jumped straight into the reports of what she's seen. Inazuma could only guess that the vampires self-assigned mission had become important enough for her to not have noticed. Which was good because it allowed Inazuma to ask about it at a better time. For now she focused on the diagram and pondered.

To be honest... I think it might be best to take the route that leads away from the battle just because there are so few of us. In the past we had help from Limbo's soldiers, but not now.

She paused and took a deep breath in order to try to pull words out of the jumbled mess of thoughts that ran through her mind and she turned to Jacob.

Do you know another way of getting where we need to go without having to go through that mess?

She hated to admit that their time restriction on this mission was beginning to get the better of them, but that was slowly starting to become the truth. It was starting to seem more and more like they really shouldn't have come here in secret like they have, but they had progressed far enough along that it would be just as dangerous to go back... that and she wanted GL to succeed.  

[GamingLord]

*Jacob sighed, a bit of frustration noticable in his features*

Jacob: I'm afraid not, we're running blind down here. I've never been in this part of Ni'Jitogrimiz before. Never knew it even existed. Worse still, the niearcim may have moved their ceremony into the actual city due to the Inakum. We're going to have to travel into the heart of that city, and dig up some information... That won't be easy. I can disguise myself as a lower mage, and snoop around. But it's risky.

GL: This... This is just getting more dangerous. It's... "We should go back. Wait until next year. It'd be somewhat safer then, right"

Jacob: I wouldn't be so sure of that. I've studied a bit on how the inakum work, and... they actually may have a chance to crush the Niearcim. We can't be guaranteed that the mage that cursed you will even be alive later if their battles get too fierce.

*The sound of metal stepping on metal made all of them pause. It was distant, coming from the same pipe the inakum corpse tumbled through. A woosh of some sort, then metal. Woosh, metal. The group scrambled to hide in one of the other pipes.*

*Some sort of robot or droid came into view, moving on all fours. It had boosters on it's back feet, enabling it to make rapid jumps through the tunnel. Stopping at the mutilated inakum corpse, it reached it's hands into the body. The sound of various tools in it's hands could be heard at work, shifting around organs, prodding at the remains. Seconds later, a second droid came down the tunnel. It was best described as some sort of strange crab/spider looking hybrid. Coming up to the body, it produced several buzzsaw like attachments and began to cut up the remains into smaller chunks. It stored these somewhere on it's being, and both droids went back the way they came.*

*When they came out of hiding, all that remained of the inkaum was a pool of drying blood, splatters on the walls from the "surgical procedure", and small bits of gristle.*

Eztli: The longer but safest route sounds good to me...

*It was settled then. Even if the second safest route had little activity, it was still an unnecessary risk. As they continued on, the reapers shared all they knew about the Inakum with the others. How they have two brains... one for thinking, and a secondary as a backup that's also in charge of tissue regeneration. That simply destroying their head wouldn't be enough to kill them. How their "scouting parties" were still powerful enough to take on entire armies. Of their many strengths, and few weaknessess. They even enlightened Rosemary on a number of subjects, since she hadn't been able to learn everything about them from the game she had played, aside from how to kill them efficiently. Aside from crushing the brains, you also want to make sure the Inakum wasn't growing a fetus clone in it's womb organ. Otherwise it would emerge from the corpse later to kill you.*

GL: I remember from my history lessons, they're NEVER alone. If there isn't another inakum around, there's going to be at least a couple of droids in the area. Medical support, scavangers, "fodder-droids", or the worst, the ones meant for destruction and demolition. Their tech is supposed to be almost as good as Limbo's, if not a little better in some areas. Probably helps that they don't have much in the way of ethics and morals slowing down their learning...

Eztli: Never thought I'd see one in person, really. They've only been to Limbo once, and that was well over a thousand years ago.

GL: Yeah, didn't they cause the "sunken city" to be that way during their attack?

Eztli: Not too sure... you know our history records are messed up. Could've been demons, Inakum... who knows.