User blog:Jerichow/Guardian/MGE Fanfiction

 　　Adam sat in the soft embrace of the plush, tall armchair, its red velvet and gold trimming fabric felt softer and smoother than any fabric he had known at home. This had to be made from an Arachnid’s silk no doubt, the Order would spare no such expense on faulty furniture, especially in the personal chambers of one of the Empire’s Grand Overseers.  　　And with that thought, he returned his attention back up to eye-level at the middle-aged woman in the room, staring out the clear glass window into the city she herself had been the sole caretaker and leader of for many years now. Her steeled brown eyes did not waver, and her posture had her standing tall and firm, still as a statue while she seemed to be waiting for something.  　　Clad in her ruby red and shining gold and silver robes of the Order, the woman was in her mid forties, a few gray hairs poking out between her normally brown locks. She stood an inch or so shorter than Adam, putting her right around five feet nine inches and barely a hundred and sixty pounds soaking wet. And yet anywhere she went, she carried with her an aura that made even the toughest of Templars and Knights shake.  　　Grand Overseer Lenaria, that was her title and name. Leader of one of the nine nations of the Empire and respectably, one of the most powerful and influential figures in the known world. If Adam’s current condition wasn’t putting enough strain on his worn and tired heart, knowing several of the things he had done over the last year, things that the Order specifically did not like, was enough to starting making Adam feel dizzy.  　　And why would that worry him? He had to wonder, and he could count off the top of his head a handful of things he’d been a part of that the Order did not take kindly to. Helping hold off an Order’s seige on a monster-friendly city in the Borderlands. Perhaps accidentally converting, or convincing to convert a handful of the Order’s Knights and Templars to the Demon Lord’s side. And lest he forget, the ever-growing list of mercenaries and assassins the Order personally contracted to eliminate key monster targets, all now dead and gone.  　　All thanks to him.  　　Oh yes, Adam had every reason in the world to worry, sitting in the office of a woman who could, with the simplest of orders, have him removed from existence. And given his current situation, Adam had no way of fighting off any aggression that may come his way.  　　Even in this modest and warm room, cold sweat had long since begun to drip from his brow.  　　Still, there was a good chance this conversation may not go afoul. As he knew this woman, quite well even, and was on friendly terms with her. He could only hope that those friendly terms were enough to keep him out of a dungeon cell or guillotine.  　　In this room Adam sat, silent. He looked around to admire the scenery, if only to try to ease his tense mind. From the deep red painted walls and marble pillars that held it up, to the large fireplace mantel that held decorations of gems and artworks on display, the room boasted exquisite craftsmanship and spoke volumes of the wealth its owner wielded. Even the coffee table before Adam was made of a dark stained Cherry Ironwood frame, etched glass adhered in the center with a handful of gold-trimmed porcelain cups and plates set in place.  　　But one thing stood out in this room, something that didn’t belong. It was impossible for Adam to miss it the second he stepped into the room. To his right, held up in an armor rack, was his armor.  　　Even now it sat in contrast to its almost medieval surroundings with its space-age design; the laser-cut armor plates, the geometric design, even the octagonal-plated synthetic under-armor that was still connected to parts of armor where it had not been burnt off or torn apart. Torn and exposed wires hung from pieces and other areas were stained blue from the fluids that leaked out of openings and internal mechanics that were damaged beyond repair.  　　The sight of it made his stomach knot, and his teeth clenched. Through his one good left eye, he could see the remains of a once prized piece of equipment he had labored years upon years to think up, design, craft, and perfect.  　　Now it sat, broken, mangled, destroyed. There was little left of the armor that wasn’t damaged or broken in some way or another. The helmet was completely destroyed, perhaps the only thing that saved his life, really. The right arm was completely severed from the body, hanging off to the side on its own. The right leg had half of its plating missing, the entire section from the hip down to the knee that covered his quadricep and thigh at the time was nowhere to be seen.  　　There were burn marks and charring scores across the entire right side of the armor, and even a few long and deep cracks ran across the chest plate.  　　Adam winced when he saw it. He knew the kind of pressure it took to crack the metal that made that particular armor plating. There was no doubt in his mind, had he not been wearing his armor that day, he would not be sitting here. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Flashes of the events that transpired that day came through his head, and pulled him away from the suit. He tried to press his hand against the throbbing side of his skull, but the hand never came. It was the right side of his head that was hurting, but when he looked down, reality had to remind him once again, that he had no right arm, or hand in which to press onto his head with. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The tea will be here shortly, Adam.” The overseer said, pulling Adam from his thoughts, “I had to request a that a special brew be made, one that would include a few herbs that will help deal with the pain I am sure you are going through.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam swallowed silently. He had no words to say to this woman, not because he hated her or didn’t want to speak to her, but because he was still reeling from recent events. He wasn’t sure how he was going to speak to her. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　That seemed perfectly fine to the overseer though, as she continued speaking, walking back to him and sitting down in her own chair much like his across the coffee table from him, “I am glad to see you’re awake and moving about again. I am sure it is not easy after what you went through, but from what I have been told, you should not even be alive, so we may count our blessings that things did not turn out worse.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m not... I’m not sure how I am.” Adam muttered, looking over again at the armor. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The overseer too looked over at it, and sighed, “How did this happen to you?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I...” He tried starting but found it hard to put into words, “We were... Heading to ruins, to meet up with Rosette.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Meet up with Rosette?” The overseer asked, like she was shocked to hear the name, but Adam nodded, “Why was she coming to meet with you?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I, I don’t know. Lilith wouldn’t tell me anything about why we were going.... And Anna didn’t say anything either. They just kept telling me... I had to be there, or Rosette wouldn’t agree to meet up.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The overseer paused for a moment, and asked, “Lilith?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The Lilim.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Ah, yes, that’s right.” The woman nodded, resting her hands casually over her lap, “I have been informed that you are doing work for her, completing tasks for her.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam nodded again, “That’s correct.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And you are doing this because you are being compensated I assume?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I am.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Do you mind if I ask what sort of compensation you are receiving in return for working for this monster?” There was little malice or ill-tones in her voice. It was not in her nature to be spiteful or malicious, especially not with Adam. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“She has information I need.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Information?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam nodded. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Is it information... Regarding your home, or how to get home?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Again, Adam nodded. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And I assume then, she has not yet yielded this information to you?” A sigh came from Adam, “Well that is not very reassuring...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Their conversation was cut off when a knock came from the door behind Adam, and after the overseer called them in, the sound of a few pairs of feet could be heard waking towards them on the carpet floor. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　From both sides, butlers holding various pieces of kitchenware came into view. They quickly but quietly set the pieces down, setting a larger teapot on a square knit holder, others setting down small dishes with sugar cubes and milk to the side. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Thank you, does it have the herbs added?” The overseer asked who must have been the head butler, and he nodded, confirming her request, “Thank you then, you may all leave.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes, Ma’am.” He bowed and the two excused themselves from the room. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Please, have some tea, Adam. I had them add some herbs that will ease the pain you are feeling.” She already leaned forward and put a couple cube of sugar into her cup and poured herself a cup of tea from the other large teapot that was on the table. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It appeared she had this one specifically made for Adam, so as much as his gut had told him otherwise, he leaned forward to the table. Taking one of the dishes, he slowly pulled the sugar cup closer, and put a single cube into his teacup. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　When he reached for the teapot, the woman quickly rested her hand on his, and shook her head, “Let me.” She said, taking the pot and pouring him his cup. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The two took a couple of minutes to silently drink the tea in peace, the overseer taking a moment to refill Adam’s cup any time it was empty or near empty. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Much to his surprise, the herbs laced into the tea were surprisingly fast at what they were intended to do, and by his second cup, both the phantom pain of his right arm, as well as the still sensitive tissue under his bandages, had all but vanished. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The silence in the room ended a few short minutes later, with the overseer setting her cup and plate down on the coffee table, “So, Adam.” She started, leaning back in her chair and resting her hands once again upon her lap, “We have not spoken in some time, and as you will not be going anywhere any time soon, how about you bring me up to speed.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What do you mean?” He asked in return, putting the cup down on the plate and resting back into his own chair. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What I mean, is since we have all day to talk, and we are here now ready to have a nice little chat...” She stared him in the eyes, knowing she had his attention, “I want to know, from the beginning, everything you have done up until the most recent events with Captain Rosette in the ruins you speak of.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s quite a bit to tell...” He tried warning her, not because he didn’t want to talk about it, but because it really was quite a bit for one year. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“We have all the time in the world, Adam.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing with a half-smile, Adam took one last look at his broken armor before sitting back comfortably in the chair, readying himself for what would be, without a doubt, several hours of talking ahead of him, “Well, where to begin...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Why don’t you start with what you were doing back in your world before you came here?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Seems fair.” The young man concurred, “Well, it all started during a test regarding that thing over there.” He nodded his head in the direction of the broken suit, “I guess I’ll start with that.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;text-align:center;"> Chapter 1  <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“We’re about ready to begin the final phase of the new prototype, are you ready Adam?” A female voice asked the man standing in the large, vacant cubical room. Looking around, he was all too familiar with his surroundings, the steel plating of the walls, floor and ceiling; the small bolts on the corners of said plating, crafted in such a way that they sat flush with the plates they held to the walls. The air he pulled in as he took a deep breath through his nose, it smelled clean, crisp, without impurities, it no doubt had been purified repeatedly. It had to be, there could be no variables in the tests. Impurities like dust particles, or anything of that nature could alter the results or throw a reading off, with what he was testing, nothing was to be left to chance. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, I’m ready, send it up.” He replied to the voice after a few silent moments to himself, waiting for it to rise as it always did. Going over the last of the diagnostic data, the man stood still as small translucent screens appeared in his sight. Each one contained different pieces of data, anything from reactor output, to internal and external temperatures, the capacitor level currently sitting at ninety-seven percent and slowly rising as each tenth of a percent ticked away. The screens shifted with his sight, making sure never to get in the way of the center of his field of vision. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“We’ll be running the latest firmware on your HUD, it’s operational and stable, but it needs a few tweaks and it should be ready for deployment.” Again the voice informed him, seeming to know what he was thinking before even Adam himself knew it, “I know you wanted to run with the latest final variant, but we’re conducting a multi-spectrum test today.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I don’t see why.” He jokingly shot back at her, the smile in his voice was clear as day, “Last I checked we’re in no rush...” He paused for a moment, the smile fading, “... For anything really.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She knew what he was getting at, “I understand Adam, you’re still not recovered from your incident, but this testing will help the fire teams planet-side. The sooner we get this new software package tested and operational, the sooner we can get it uploaded to everyone.” Her voice was as always, soft, and caring. Perhaps that’s what Adam loved about her so much, or rather, that’s why everyone loved her so much. She always cared about you as an individual, always as if you were the only one in the world she was paying attention to, and if you weren’t, she was damn good at fooling even the most astute of minds. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, he removed himself of his resentment, removed himself of that nagging thought that strove to strip him of anything other than depression and anger, just as he was taught when he woke up in this world and began life training with everyone in The Academy. He’d had a few years now to practice steeling himself whenever his mind wavered, he had to, being a part of the research and development wing and lead prototype test pilot. It wasn’t an unreasonable statement to say that often times, his life hung on the balance of weather or not he could keep calm and refrain from getting distracted, by his opponent or even his own thoughts. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　As if for shits and giggles, he looked up to his left, as if he was looking at a large computer monitor that encompassed his entire field of vision, his heart rate had spiked for a few moments, and was going back down. A tiny square, translucent window had the stats for his heart on a chart just large enough to understand what was being shown, the most obvious of course was the unmistakable line, shooting up and down with each beat of his heart he could feel in his chest, sitting comfortably behind his rib cage and behind the reinforced plating of the armor that sat over that, over the body suit he wore, connecting him to it. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Looking as a humanoid figure rose out of a square hole in the floor exactly thirty point one meters in front of him, a tiny three-lined inverted triangle centering itself over the chest as it rose out of the ground pointed out to him. A rangefinder on his heads up display automatically locked onto the body, flickering from a pale gray color to transparent red as Adam recognized the figure. It was armored, a human suit of armor with a fully encompassed helmet hiding the entire skull from damage or weather conditions. It took Adam no more than the blink of an eye to recognize his target, an automated drone used for testing exact battle conditions in order to gather data. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was a very basic model, functional down to the core of its design. The armor traced and covered where muscles in the body would be, the faint but recognizable shift in plating as one section of armor covered or connected to the next in a very mathematically calculated design to shield the wearer, if it were human inside. There were very few circular or rounded shapes on the body, nearly everything had an edge, except for the visor. That gleaming golden dome that covered the entire from face and upwards to the top of the head was the only truly round shape on the entire body. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The alpha model? Seriously?” He asked, looking up instinctively as if the voice was watching him through some magic-mirror styled plate of metal, “I thought we were going to run with the newer test dummies?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Don’t complain Adam.” She snapped back slowly, “You tore the last one apart when you slipped up during combat. Until it’s repaired you have to make due with this one.” She paused for a few moments, but shot one last dagger into Adam, “And in the condition you left it in, I don’t foresee that happening any time soon.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He recognized her tone immediately, and a faint blush found its way onto his cheeks. Recalling the memory, he felt both a hint of shame for what he did, but also held no regret. It pissed me off. He would say, recalling the fight, and the nearly inhuman movements it was making to dodge his attacks. There was no way a person, creature, or monster could move in a way that it had been doing, and he damn well knew it. They could tell him a thousand times it was for testing against Gheist that were more nimble than others, but he would just roll his eyes. They weren’t testing the suit or its ability to kill any sort of demonic hell-beast. No, they weren’t testing the suit, they were testing him, testing his ability to keep his mind under control in stressful situations that seemed out of his control. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He may not be trained as a strategist or psychological specialist, but he knew, if they were testing for something like maintaining his composure, he wouldn’t be sitting in an early Beta prototype Accelerator Armor which had just barely cleared for testing. There’s no way they would move onto tests like that while the reactor of the suit he was wearing was also still being tested as a prototype. He knew this particular test was about the armor, so at least he had that going for him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　But then again, this wouldn’t be the first time he was subjected to this Blitzkrieg-Style testing, taking a suit, a weapon, and an operating system for a suit or weapon, straight from the lab and putting into a live combat training exercise while testing his ability to not lose his mind and go full on Barbarian style HAM on whatever was unfortunate enough to be caught in his cross hairs. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, again, Adam relented, knowing fighting was pointless. Pointless anyway, against the woman he was chatting with, as she was in all technicality his most superior officer in the entire installation and frankly, the world. All he could do is follow through with the test and fight the opponent in front of him until it fell, or he did. Staring at the face of the armor, that single white strip of light from ear to ear, the long, thin eye that no doubt had several cameras and sensors lining it to simulate sight in a near-complete circular field of vision. On either side of its helmet, two ear-like protrusions, again, packed with sensors for detecting height, speed, body position, and a myriad of other almost-redundant functions. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The armor in its entirety, like his, seemed mathematically calculated to have enough straight armor plating where it needed to be for protection, while in room-sensitive spots like his under-arms and inner thighs, it was thinner, or non existent, leaving only his under armor exposed. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　What he was wearing wasn’t just for show. This was a suit of armor for combat. Direct, face-to-face melee combat, and its entire design from top to bottom was sculpted over the centuries through the research and development put into every single variation that led up to this one. This one, which also one day would become just another variant in an ever-growing list of advances in technology. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　But until then, this was the best, the most advanced their forces had, albeit it had some kinks and bugs to work out; but once it was finished it would be the next stage in Accelerator Armors, and that knowledge gave Adam reason, and purpose. Everything he did up until this point had been for the people fighting planet-side, fighting against monsters that the creatures in nightmares ran from, hid from, and prayed never found them. They were the Boogieman’s Boogieman, the monster that slept under his bed, or in his closet as a child, that stole hours of sleep and sanity from him. They had given these monstrosities a name. Gheist. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The very thought of them and what they were, the destruction what they were capable of, shook him to the core of his soul, so he finally drew his weapon, a sword sheathed on his back. The most reliable weapon ever conceived in all of human history, yet fundamentally the most simplistic. Perhaps that’s why they used them? Used melee weapons specifically? They never had to reload, they never ran out of ammo like a normal projectile firearm would, he would never have to wear a combat vest or carry ammo in magazines which would only hinder him or another soldier on the battlefield when it counted the most. Whatever the reason, this was the ultimate weapon of choice as their adversary almost exclusively fought hand-to-hand. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The L-shaped hooks on the sheath let loose with a silent but mechanical hum, letting Adam pull the blade from the sheath, if it could be called that. It merely held the blade’s single sharp end in a contoured groove that ran the length of the blade, letting the entirety of the other half lay exposed, save for the three small hooks that ran along one side and wrapped around the back to hold it down. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sweeping it forward, he held the blade in his right hand, leveling it with the ground, his hand holding it at the hilt almost resting against his right hip armor plating. Raising his left hand instinctively to be ready to guard, he finally takes a deep breath and readies himself mentally, “Alright, begin the test.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Beginning test.” The woman’s voice says again, “Commencing Beta Accelerator Armor performance test in conjunction with the prototype Dark Matter reactor. Test four hundred and forty five. Pilot’s vitals confirmed, reactor output confirmed...” The voice continued rattling off checks, recording the entire event, no doubt cataloging it for being pulled up later for research, “All checks completed, begin test.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　By time the monotone beep from the speakers in his helmet let him know the battle began, Adam launched from the side of the cube room he was in towards the armor in front of him, already readying itself to deflect his inevitable first strike, a thrust. Two thin rectangular protrusions more than three feet long each when fully extended carried him forward, jets of cool air screaming out of more than a dozen small holes throughout its bottom halves. Boosters, an absolutely guaranteed accessory to any armor developed. The suits themselves weighed as much, and usually more than double the weight of the one that wore them, and such, a sufficient propulsion system to catapult the mass forward was needed, and his never failed to deliver. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Two tiny windows appeared on either side of his field of vision, one he knew right away, was the meter for how much power he was putting out of his boosters. Despite his breakneck speeds, it sat at a comfortably low four percent output; and the other was his capacitor readout, showing the boosters taking up fractions of a percent as he boosted forward. Both were critical in a high speed fight; boost fast enough to avoid attacks, or get in close enough to deliver your own, making sure not to go too fast, and make damn sure you don’t run the capacitor empty. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　With a violent battle cry Adam thrust his blade forward moments before reaching his target, giving one last quick boost in speed to give his momentum that surprising aspect he needed. The enemy however was a computer system designed to fight, it did not feel emotion and quickly swept its sword in the way of his, deflecting his blade to its left while side-stepping right. Twisting its wrist so the sharp end was angled at Adam’s stomach, it quickly swung forward, efficient as any human could expect a machine to be. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　This wasn’t Adam’s first time sparring with this particular machine, and the strike had long since been predicted, and dodged, hundreds of times. It was like a choreographed sword fight out of a top rated action movie. The two armored swordsmen lunged back and forth, swinging with forces enough to tear through the plating of armor like a hot knife through warm butter, but never contacting despite their nauseating speed. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Dodging a horizontal swing, Adam ducked under the gray blur of light that was attached to the sword arm of the machine, pulling his blade up from down below his right up across his opponent in an aim to sever its body in two from hip to shoulder. Knowing that was the swing Adam intended, the soulless armor quickly leaned back, its own boosters throwing it back in the nick of time as sparks erupted from the chest plating covering its right breast, Adam’s sword digging centimeters into it still. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The fight seemed to go on for several minutes, but felt like hours, Adam’s senses both trained and augmented to react quicker in a combat situation. The fight seemed to be an endless impasse, with his one swing cutting into the clear coat of the armor barely, being the only blood drawn in the fight. This was expected however, and like many hundreds of tests before this one, the fight would likely end in a stalemate between the two with no definite victor having been decided. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Exactly as planned, he knew. From only a few minutes in, Adam knew this test was about the armor and not himself, it was the only variable in the entire equation of this event, and once it was identified, the rest fell into place like the numbers of a math problem. He knew the outcome, he knew the end result, everything fit into place just the way it was supposed to, as if the law of nature made it so. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　An hour into the test, another bell finally rang out and the two bodies stopped immediately. Adam stuck in a near horizontal thrust forward with both hands clutching the hilt of his blade, surely white-knuckled as he had long since started to feel the fatigue of going all-out on this target that seemed to never tire. One thing was for sure, since he began doing these kinds of tests, he hadn’t needed to renew his gym membership since work itself turned into a grueling workout regimen in itself. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The test completed successfully, we got all of the data we need to move forward with the reactor.” The woman’s voice echoed again into his ears, “The suit performed perfectly, but I’ll let you go over the data yourself when you get back to your desk.” She was silent for several seconds, and that was almost never a good sign, “The reactor however, did show some unusual anomalies again near the end of that fight when you were approaching critical levels on your capacitor.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What happened?” He asked her, righting himself and placing the blade edge back into the scabbard, the three hooks grabbing onto it and pulling it down and securing it safely. Shaking the hand of the machine in front of him and giving it a simple follow-up fist-bump, it had become a simple formality he did with anyone, or anything he sparred with. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The reactor was operating as expected while you ran the capacitor between full and ten percent, but once you dropped below that mark, that’s when it seemed to fluctuate.” Her voice carried concern through the air so thick Adam could cut it with his sword, “As we know, it ran at optimal output of ninety percent maximum while you remained above ten percent capacitor. “ She paused for a few seconds. Adam felt he wasn’t going to like what he was going to hear next, “Yet once you dropped below that, your vitals spiked across the board for no apparent reason, but specifically your adrenaline output and secretion of neurotransmitters in your brain were exceptionally high.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s... Bad?” he asked, he was an engineer, but not a neurochemist, he didn’t work on brains made of tissue and chemical. He worked on brains made of processors, and millions of lines of computer code, so the words she spoke might as well have been in another language. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not exactly bad per say, but certainly not normal. It’s an anomaly, one that hasn’t shown up in any other person running this exact same test for the same duration, and with the same conditions. Nobody except for you.” The woman was certainly worried, if not for the reactor’s mysterious issues, but for Adam’s well being, “This is something we’re going to need to look at sooner than later.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What about the reactor readings? What was up with those?” He asked, turning and heading for the exit of the room that was to his right before he started the test. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Confusion laid heavily upon her voice as she spoke, “It’s weird, the reactor behaved almost as expected, it increased output to maximum in order to compensate for the increased load on your capacitor and it held that output just like it should have...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And that’s bad, how?” He inquired, confused, “Isn’t that how it’s supposed to react? Or is this the part where you tell me there’s something I’m missing and I’ll have to tear this whole power management rig out of this suit and test it again?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes and no, Adam. The reactor did go to maximum output, but your capacitor showed no signs of increased energy!” She yelled at him, clearly concerned over the results, “Given the rate of Dark Matter conversion to electricity by the reactor, there is absolutely no reason to believe the capacitor should not recover from a critical state almost immediately. We ran the tests, Adam, again and again, for the length of time you spent within the zero-to-ten range, you could have... No, you should have charged your capacitor at least four times over, but it’s like the charge never got to the capacitor.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So do we have a short in the wiring somewhere? Or a fault in the conductor circuits? I swear to God if our technicians skimped out on wiring this thing properly to get out of work early again, heads are going to fucking roll.” The man snarled angrily, this was not the first time their laziness had cost him time and effort, and it was among many things, something that had the power to shift his attitude from ‘anything’ to ‘tear-someone’s-head-off’ in the drop of a hat. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“No, I ran a diagnostic already, multiple times, but there are no shorts, no faults in any of the circuits, and the energy bleed from the conversion is well within expected parameters, in fact...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam cut her off, “Something else weird happened when I fell below ten percent right?” He smiled at the comment, knowing she could hear his jovial tone trying to cheer her up. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“This is serious Adam!” She roared, “The energy bleed was, it was nothing. The energy bleed from dark matter to electricity registered zero, either there is a fault in the sensor, or something was literally absorbing the dark matter in its elemental state as pure energy before the reactor could convert it into electricity!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well considering we know about, oh.... Next to nothing regarding dark matter right now? I’m betting there are some pretty crazy variables in the equation we haven’t compensated for yet.” He admitted, reaching the door; it had opened for him automatically, as if sensing his presence from several meters away and waiting for him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I really can’t deny that, but it’s too predictable to be coincidence. It only happens with you, and it only happens once you drop to the critical level and your reactor kicks into maximum output. Others have shown slight deviations like this, but nothing like what you’re showing.” She seemed to be reading through the information on other testers at the same time, “Sarah showed slight deviations, Richard did too, but neither of them showed more than a one or two percent change in dark matter to energy conversion to the capacitor.” Sighing, she reiterated herself, “Both of them showed slight dips in expected energy transfer from the reactor to the capacitor in the same state, but it was within expectations. Adam, once your capacitor level dropped and your vitals spiked, yours behaved like the reactor had essentially shut down.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Alright, alright, I’ll go see the nurse, mother.” He grumbled as he walked down the hallway, taking the sword from his back and reaching to set it down on a bench as he walked into his office, armor still donned. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Then it hit him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A heart beat that caused his entire body to shudder in response and his vision to lose focus. The woman had to have been looking at his vitals when it happened because it was almost immediately as it happened she yelled out his name, “What the hell...?” He asked to nobody in particular. He had stumbled forward the last few feet to the door to his lab, his vision fading and returning every few seconds. His body felt incredibly heavy, and a step into the lab was all he got before he wasn’t able to get a foot under himself properly, dropping to a knee, clutching his left hand over his chest. His right hand instinctively wrenched his fingers into the blade in response to the shock on his body. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Adam! Your vitals just dropped, your heart stopped and your brainwaves completely flat-lined!” Urgency was laid on thick in her panicked tones, “Hang on, a medical team is on its... What the hell?!” She screamed suddenly, “Leo, get to Adam, now!” She all but hollered. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m already en route!” Another voice came into Adam’s ear, he knew the voice all too well and knew he would get here far sooner than anyone else. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam was confused though, she almost never became this worried, in fact this was the first time ever he even heard her curse. Looking around confused for only a moment, Adam soon found out the source of her fright as a large glowing pentagram swirled on the ground, centered under him, “What the shit!?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He immediately attempted to pick himself up and move but his legs were locked in place, they wouldn’t move, it was like his suit had shut down or his legs were welded to the ground, “My armor’s malfunctioning! Legs aren’t responding, can’t run a diagnostic--” He was panicking already as well, his heads up display flickering on and off as artifacts and distortions on the screen he was looking at inside the helmet began to fail, “Suit’s not responding, my suit’s not responding!” His words came out as fast as bullets, “Emergency eject isn’t responding, manual override is offline.. Nothing is working!” It had finally donned on him as he looked down, his entire foot and half of his shin were sinking into the ground, “Oh god, oh god, not good!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　On instinct he lurched his body forward to push his shoulder blades out as far as they could, two small rectangular protrusions rotating up once, then again as the second half rotated out from under the first to form his two wings again. Ignoring his capacitor levels, he immediately attempted to lift himself off of the ground with the boosters, but they did him no good. Deafening screams of the jets drowned out Adam’s screams as he pushed them to maximum power, only to realize that they were not lifting him out of the floor. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　His legs did not stop because the suit was not responding, they weren’t moving because his legs, through some unknown means in this spinning, glowing symbol, had been bound and sealed in place. Debris, the desks, anything not anchored to the ground in the tornado of wind his boosters were creating were kicked up and around by the torrent of wind. It would have done him no good, he soon realized, as he looked up and saw the light from the pentagram swallowing him was now showing on the roof as well, no doubt sealing him in place. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sinking slowly into the ground still, Adam’s capacitor was quickly approaching the zero mark, the reactor was malfunctioning and not putting any power into his suit any more. At a loss, he reached forward with his sword in his hands, gripping it at the hilt with one hand, and through one of the angled rectangular cutouts in the sword and slammed it into the ground just outside of the pentagram. It gave off a fleeting screech of metal on metal as a few sparks erupted from the point of impact and the blade dug into the metal plating. Hoisting himself up with the blade, Adam again tried to pull himself out of the pentagram’s death grasp, using the last of his power to push up with the boosters while pulling as hard as he possibly could on his sword. His muscles flared, his spine felt like it was stretching abnormally, and yet he did not care. Something was swallowing him, pulling him into the floor and it, for a lack of better words, looked like something out of a occult ritual or some sort of black magic incantation he’d seen in fantasy lore before, but this was far from fantasy. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam had gone through some pretty incredible things in his life up until now, and seen things he could swear only existed in his wildest dreams. But this, this pentagram? This magic circle at his feet? This was beyond comprehension and reason. Adam knew technology, he knew science; and everything could be explained scientifically if given enough time and effort. This on the other hand hit him like a speeding freight train, and he had absolutely nothing in his entire arsenal of reason and logic to explain it. So he did the best thing he could think of for the situation at hand. He tried running. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Digging the blade into the ground and trying to lift himself, it was becoming evident that whatever force was holding onto his legs, pulling him into the ground where he was now past his downed knee and half way up his thigh, was not letting go. It was like the metal plating that made his shin armor was welded to the floor by every square centimeter of its surface; and without the ability to eject from his malfunctioning armor, the suit that was to be his shell of protection, was now the key to sealing him in place. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Minutes seemed to pass, and with every second Adam fell deeper into the seal on the floor, consuming him further and further until now he had to struggle to keep his arms above the floor, fear of touching it and having one of his arms locked to wherever he touched gripped him. He was now half way up his stomach in the seal when the door to the room shot open and another person came running in, an armor vaguely similar to Adam’s but the color and design were different. Six black wings hovered behind him without touching the armor and it was less sleek of a design, but not by much, preferring the geometrical shapes over smooth, contoured ones. The helmet on the suit split into two pieces down the side, the front half folding into itself and tucking away under the collar of the chest plate and the back half of the helmet doing the same under the back of the collar. Adam didn’t need more than a second to recognize the armor and its wearer as he reached his left hand out, holding his sword with his right, “Leo! Help!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　No words, just action, the man in his mid twenties and long white platinum hair down past his shoulders leaned forward, staring down at Adam through his own, still closed helmet. Taking his hand in both of his without fear of consequence, he adjusted himself to heave his friend’s weight out of the seal but despite the enormous effort he was putting into his task, shown in the metal plating below him caving in and denting into craters under his feet, he could not move Adam. Only through his yells of pain, his arm feeling as though it was going to get pulled out of his socket, did Leo let him go, taking a step back and rubbing his hand over his mouth back and forth, a subconscious action he often did while trying to think. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Damn it, what is this? Medical!” He yelled upward towards the ceiling. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The familiar woman that had been speaking to Adam piped up again, “I’m not sure, Leo. Adam’s vitals were a little off, but nothing note-worthy and out of nowhere his vitals vanished. When they came back he was on his knee and this pentagram was circling around him.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What are his vitals right now?” He asks again to the ominous voice that they both could hear as if she was in the room with them. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“They’re off the charts, I don’t even know what to make of these readings Leo, I’ve never seen anything like this. Ever.” Her voice was shaking, “It’s like his body’s DNA is being rewritten or updated, or he’s... He’s changing, I don’t know how else to put it.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Leo finally shook his head, looking up again like he was talking to her, “Fuck it, yank him. We’ll sacrifice the armor to whatever is pulling him down but get him out of there.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I...” The woman stuttered her words, then said the two words that made both Adam and Leo feel cold, “... I can’t.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What do you mean, you can’t?” Leo asked, “His body is anchored to the ground, just pull his conscious out of there and load him into his auxiliary clone.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Leo, I’ve been trying since he got stuck!” She yelled back at him, “The entire system is throwing me Unknown Errors and Program Termination errors, and who-knows-what-else every time I try!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The system... It’s not responding?” Leo’s face looked lost, as if someone had just told him something as radical as gravity didn’t actually exist, it was like the system not working was against the laws of nature, “Medical... The soul recovery system doesn’t just fail. We ran over one billion simulated and live tests with an over ninety--” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m looking at the code right now, Adam! It. Isn’t. Working!” The panic in her voice sounded more like the foundation of their reality was crumbling, Medical always had the answer or a way out of a problem like this. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Can I pull him manually then?” Leo asked, “What if I--” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It won’t work, I’ve run every diagnostic I can... That room’s a dead zone, I can’t get a lock on Adam or you inside that room. If you tried pulling him manually all you would do is kill him.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Shit....” Leo knew better than to ask how to get him out of this any other way, none of them had ever seen anything like this before, even Leo, his age having passed a millennium centuries ago, and Medical, many, many times older than that, had nothing to throw at this. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　All of them were cut off from their train of thought when the sound they never expected to hear echoed through the room, seeming to originate from the pentagram. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A group of girls, giggling like children playing a game, or playing with a toy, “Come on Terria, pull it through already! I wanna see it!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Shut up, Cenna!” Another voice called out, “It’s putting up a hell of a fight, the incantation is barely holding. If I fuck up now we’re only getting half of it!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s the worth-while half, I say screw it and cut off the circle and let’s eat!” Another laughed as she seemed to be egging them on to cancel the spell. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Shut up the both of you, we don’t even know if it’s a guy or not, look.” She paused for a moment, “I don’t know what the hell this is but it’s not anything we’ve seen before. Terria, just where did you cast the spell out to?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Um... I just cast it? You said grab anything that looked good!” The voice complained, “The spell was set to grab the highest concentration of spirit energy within range. It’s not like I got to go window shopping or anything.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well how the fuck am I supposed to fuck this?!” The third one yelled, and Adam could feel a pang of a small fist hit the armor covering his crotch, “You know how to get this thing off?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Girls, girls, I’m sure we’ll figure it out, just pull the rest through and we’ll sort it out once it’s through. Who knows, with the energy it’s putting out, it might even be as good as an Incubus.” The new woman sounded much older, well past her teens into adulthood, but the sound of anticipation on her voice caused both Adam and Leo to grimace, she seemed to enjoy this even more than they did. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　With the word finishing her sentence, Adam could physically feel his body sinking now, rapidly accelerating his descent towards the voices. Whatever an ‘Incubus’ was, the very mention of it seemed to light a fire under their asses, because what had taken several minutes before, was taking mere seconds now. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Careful Terria, don’t pull too hard.” The older voice cooed, “We can make due with this half but I’d like to see it in one piece.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“’Kay!” The caster’s voice joyfully agreed, “But I wanna see what it looks like, Cenna, go take a look!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I dunno, sounded like another one was up there. I’m not sure...” Cenna seemed to have a much more hesitant tone to her voice than before, did she hear Adam and Leo talking? <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’ll check it out... Fuckin’ pussy.” The third child’s voice spat out, clearly she was the blunt, tomboy of the group. Moments later, Adam and Leo shook as instead of sinking into the floor, a new figure began emerging from it, the pentagram physically expanding to accommodate her incredibly small figure entering the room. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Blue skin. It was the most obvious thing the two of them noticed, her whole body was blue, like the skin pigment itself was naturally colored that way. Small black bat wing like appendages sprouted from right above her forehead, as well as two much larger ones from the base of her spine behind her. She had short cut hair that was a flat gray color, but it shone with a metallic like sheen in the light of the ceiling lamps. Both men couldn’t believe what they were seeing, and could swear it was just a fancy costume the girl had been wearing, until the wings flapped open as if she had been tucking them in, “Ahh, better...” She moaned, stretching them out as she got more than half of herself out of the pentagram and into the room. Opening her eyes, Adam and Leo were left in shock. It was her eyes that struck them the most, black where they should have been white, and her irises were a deep shade of red, vibrant red even. No, they both saw it, staring into her devilish eyes, her irises were glowing red, and it terrified both to watch it. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well well well...” She began, looking down at Adam, “You’re what’s being such a pain in the ass to my sister. How about you just stop trying to piss us off and--” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Let him go.” A commanding voice echoed in the room, startling the girl and stopping her voice dead in its tracks. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Looking up to the voice with a sudden jolt of fear in her eyes, the expression vanished in the blink of an eye as she gazed upon Leo’s face, his skin, a fair shade, not tanned but not pale, his platinum white hair which had a unique metallic shine in the light, and his eyes. The eyes that made the devil before them blush, clear blue eyes like finely cut deep blue Zircon gem stones, “By the nine hells...” She started as if she was dazed in a trance, ignoring the world around the two of them and staring straight into his eyes. Lifting her feet from the pentagram and wagging her tail back and forth, its spade tip whipping playfully back and forth, “I want this one!” She called out, leaning her head back towards where she came, as if talking back to the voices in the pentagram. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What? There’s a second one?” The woman asked, “Well charm him and get it over with, the spell won’t last much longer!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Turning back to Leo and flashing a hellishly mischievous grin at him, her eyes lit up brighter, changing to a shade of pink as her expression softened. Leaning back, holding her left hand over the thong she must have called her clothes, the girl seductively pressed her middle and ring fingers over top of its black silk-like surface, and spreading her fingers gently, she waved at Leo to come forward, “Come on mister, come play with us.” She cooed, urging him forward with her child-like body, her breasts pressed forward as best she could to try to convey their barely noticeable size. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　His gaze unbroken, Leo simply turns from leaning his left shoulder forward, to putting his right shoulder forward, waving his right hand from back to front underhandedly as he shifted his body. The action seemed to resonate with one of his wings, because it silently moved forward to hover in front of him. Wings controlled as if guided by telepathy and moved with telekinesis, a crowning achievement of the armor’s subsystem development. It was Leo’s weapon of choice. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The girl, undaunted and waves of confidence in her adolescent form to be seductive, smiled, “What’s that?” She asks, her smile and play on seduction coming to an instant, grinding halt when the back edge of the wing that had been facing her split down the middle and parted, revealing a blade that ran nearly the length of the four foot long wing, “What the hell?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Let him go.” He commanded again, his eyes, no matter how seductive to her they were, tore into her with a commanding glare like beams were shooting from them and piercing a hole in her soul. This was not someone she could simply charm her way into submissiveness it seemed. In fact, the charm she cast on him didn’t seem to have any effect what so ever, did she cast it wrong? She couldn’t have, she had charmed hundreds, maybe thousands of times in practice and in live use on males all over the world. How could it have failed now? <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Trying again, but without the display of practically playing with herself over her clothes, the girl made another attempt at charming him, this time her eyes glowing an even deeper hue of pink. Still not staying red but clearly the change in color signaled a change in the behavior of the spell. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Still, Leo remained unaffected, “Last warning, you have one of my Guardians in that circle.” He was quick with his words, Adam was now up to his chest in the circle and sinking still. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What the fuck, seriously?” The confusion in her voice as thick as the irritation, “Are you not human or something? Charms don’t not work on people.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Noticing Adam look back to him now, Leo didn’t need to see his friend’s face to know what he must be expressing, the quick but sudden jolting movements were tell tale enough to express beyond words how frightened Adam was. Enough time was spent with negotiations, Leo shifted into action without so much as another word. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Watching the blade suddenly, without warning or hint rocketed forward and rotated to slice at the girl’s head, she jumped back with a shriek, “What the hell, man?!” Clearly this wasn’t the response she was expecting from the charm. Too lost in her shock and thought, the little devil didn’t realize or notice two more of Leo’s wings swoop behind her. Only noticing when two ice cold flat bars of metal pressed against her bare back, goosebumps instantly forming around where the skin and metal met, did she notice there was no room to back up where there once was. Two mechanical wings hovered behind her as if they were welded in place, but began pressing forward, pushing her from the safety of the other side of the pentagram towards Leo. It only took a few moments and an armored hand shot out forward towards her, grasping her throat and pulling her forward the rest of the way so she was face to face with this white haired, blue Zircon eyed man she had been so entranced with only a few short moments ago. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Choking under the pressure of the five fingers dug into her throat, she tried breaking free, but it was like she was yanking and pulling on a solid bar of iron around her neck, “What the... Hell are you doing?” She tried asking, coughing as she tried to get a breath of air. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“If you take him, I take you.” He ordered in an icy cold tone. There was no room for idle threats in the tone of his voice, “Let him go or I will throw you in a cell until we get him back.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Hanging in the air by her throat, the girl’s expression had shifted many times in the very short period of time she spent in the room. Calm, then curious, excited, then seductive, shifting to angry, and now, now it was scared. Scared because her sister, Terria, the reckless idiot that she was, didn’t bother to pinpoint where the summon was going to be, and this room was unlike anything she’d seen in her hundred plus years. Kicking and punching at the arm in a desperate attempt to break free, she seemed to do nothing to the man holding her, she doubted after the first few punches and kicks that he even felt it. Why would he? He was wearing a suit of freaking armor for hell’s sake! <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Throwing caution to the wind, and unable to yell out to her sisters for help, she raised her left hand to his face, spreading her five fingers out flat and a new pentagram, much smaller than the one on the floor began to shine. It reached no farther than the tips of her fingers and shone a sky blue color, the inscriptions on it were much different and it cracked with the sound of uncontrolled electricity. No words and no taunts came from her lips as she fired off a bolt straight at the face of Leo, if she couldn’t have him and he wanted to capture her, she might as well kill him and get away with what she could. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Leo was no slouch however, and with a shift in his body down to his left, and pushing his left arm holding her up towards his right he dodged the bolt that raced down the hallway, exploding into the side of the wall leaving a large black scorch mark in its wake. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She wasted no time in combo’ing her given time into a second attack. Reaching up and forming two new pentagrams over her clenched fists with a brown shade now, the muscles in her arms seemed to bulge as if they grew in diameter at her biceps and forearms. Her aim was not at Leos’ face however, her two fists clubbed straight down onto the joint of his elbow, forcing him to lose his titan’s grasp on her throat and giving her the precious seconds she needed to dive back into the pentagram to safety. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Close it close it close it close it!” She yelled, diving face first into the pentagram behind Adam from where she emerged from, “They’re not friendly! Charms don’t work!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What do you mean charms don’t work? Charms always work!” Terria had barked back as if her sister were lying to her, “You just did it wrong, dumbass.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Just shut up and close the fucking gate!” The girl yelled, the tone in her voice clearly shifting slowly from scared back to irritated or even angry. Her language was as bad as any of the others’ was, and Leo couldn’t help but feel that if he had kids as young as her again and he caught them swearing so brazenly, he’d wash their mouths out with soap. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“J-J-Julia!” The oldest one, the adult it seemed began to cry out, stuttering over herself several times, “Your head! Your wing on your head!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Huh?” The girl paused for a few moments and the earth seemed to rumble with her battle cry, a roar of fury that shook the heavens, “YOU FUCKING BASTARD! I’M GONNA KILL YOU!!” The anger in her voice was hot enough Adam and Leo could practically feel the room’s temperature rise through the gate on the floor. No later than her death threats came out, two familiar and petite hands lunged out of the floor on the close side of Leo, the girl getting half way out in a leap up towards his throat. The fury in her eyes, had Leo not been trained to fight creatures far more frightening, could have drained the blood from his face. Her eyes’ color had taken a drastic change, the black had switched with the red, and a white lining split her iris’ new black color from the red. The once blue and soft skin around her eyes was horribly darkened and showed signs of cracking, but the cracks seemed to contour to her skin as if the skin hadn’t cracked at all. It was more like the black shade that came from her eyes was spreading like the cracks were tendrils reaching out. Bearing her teeth, Leo could see the razor sharp canines as they began to extend ever so slightly, if she bit down on him with those, she would certainly take entire chunks of tissue with ease. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Upon her head now, were no longer two little black appendages in the shape of wings, but close to one and a half. His swing earlier had missed it’s target of her head, but he had clipped her wing so quickly, and with such a sharp blade, she hadn’t felt the missing wing until she was told about it. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She was half way back through the circle when two more arms reached up and slid around her. The arms, much larger and sturdier with skin tight nearly-black purple gloves reaching up to her biceps, belonged to the adult woman who also came out of the floor, wrapping her arms entirely around the raging monster trying desperately to tear Leo’s throat out, “The spell is about to fade, we need to stop this.” She had a deep shade of purple hair hanging down to her shoulders with blue highlights, her face was far more feminine than the devil’s and two dark gray horns reached around from behind her head out forward, barely reaching past her skull. A few red tattoos were scattered symmetrically on her face and shoulders, no doubt arcane symbols from her realm or world. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“NO!” The devil screamed, flailing her arms at her target, “HE’S GONNA DIE!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Julia!” The woman angrily yelled into the girl’s ear, calming her even just a bit, “We have to go, now. We’ll get the one we were after and we can come back for this one later.” She began pulling the girl back into the pentagram when she caught sight of Leo staring down at her and an idea shot through her mind. Her eyes were normal, white where they were supposed to be, but they too had a seductive ruby color to them, which began to glow a familiar shade of pink. She too was attempting to charm Leo into following them. She didn’t have much time, so a powerful charm spell was cast immediately right from the start. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　This time his face twitched, and his angry expression lightened if only by a marginal amount, “Yes dearie, that’s right, I’m not so bad as this one.” She leaned Julia to her side, exposing her enormous breasts held behind a metal-lined, purple leather bikini top that covered not even a quarter of their overall mass. Pressing them forward to expose even more of her already excessive cleavage, she gestured him forward with her open hand, “Come, spend the night with me, I don’t bite...” She smiled, the pink turning such a deep color her eyes seemed to be returning to their shade of red, “You look tense, let me give you a massage and wash your problems away with my--” She was cut off when an armored arm reached around and put her into a choke hold, dragging her nearly all the way down to her back as if she was lying down. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Behind her, with only a portion of his body left exposed to the room, was Adam, holding her down and breaking her concentration, which in turn broke her charm spell and releasing Leo. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What are you--?” She tried asking but he cut her off, his will returned to him as fear for his life was drown out by fear for his friend getting caught up in this too. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m not letting you get away with both of us.” Adam grunted, leaning back and pulling her away so he could see Leo, whose face was still showing that he was still recovering from what had to be a jarring mind-fuck of an experience, “Commandant, get out of here!” He yelled, snapping Leo back to attention immediately. It was one of those ‘mark your calendar’ moments when Adam referred to his friend by rank rather than by name, “I’ll be fine.” Adam assured him, though he really had no idea if he was going to be, but the words just slipped out of his mouth before he could think of something better to say. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Looking back at him, the adult woman had an expression that shone with shock, “You’re going to sacrifice yourself for him? What if we kill you down there?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Laughing, Adam retorted, “I’ve survived worse.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Dragging himself back, Adam finished sinking into the pentagram as it began to close, the woman holding the devil quickly ducking down with him before it was to close. He could only imagine if a part of her body was left on the other side when it closed, it might just simply cut it off, and given the excessive size of her breasts and angle he held her at, they were surely what would have been left behind. Given her nature, he could only think, Succubus, she’s got to be some sort of succubus-like woman. Obviously her sexual features meant everything to her and she was not about to lose them as she wrestled herself under the glowing light before it closed up, sealing the three away and leaving Leo and Medical to ponder on what the hell just happened. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam’s consciousness came to in complete darkness, or rather, near-complete-darkness. It was the blackness that ensued when his suit finally lost all video feed, the visor on but displaying nothing but a black image and he was left with no more than the sound of voices outside of the armor. Without seeing anything or able to get his bearings, Adam could only wait in limbo. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He must have passed out sometime between falling into that strange magic circle, and now when he finally realized he was actually awake inside of his dark helmet, and not in some strange dream-like state. He had no idea what was going on and without the suit in a functional state, he couldn’t find out about where he was, or any of the conditions that were outside of his internally-controlled suit. He had no idea if the air was breathable, if the temperature was too hot or too cold, or hell, given that his body felt like he was floating, thoughts of floating out in space came to mind. The very thought of what would happen to him if he opened his helmet in the vacuum of space terrified him, and that fear alone assured him that he would never open the helmet until he got power back and could see where he was at least. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What the hell was that Julia?” He could hear the adult woman angrily yelling, scolding the devil they fought in the room obviously. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m... I’m sorry, mom.” The girl apologetically replied, the sound in her voice told wonders of her disposition, she had to be ducking down, making herself as small as possible before the anger of the woman, apparently her mother. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What if we didn’t get out of there in time, did you recognize anything in that room? That was like a whole other world in there!” The mother continued to scold, tearing her daughter a new one with words, “For all we know that could have been some secret room deep in the Order’s territory, what do you think is going to happen if any of the Patriarchs gets word of a demon trying to summon one of their soldiers?” She doesn’t give the girl time to argue, “What if a Cardinal gets word of it!?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m sorry, okay! It’s not like they wouldn’t get pissed seeing a demon’s summoning pentagram in their floor, the result isn’t any different.” She fired back, holding her ground enough to at least take some of the heat off of her. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam’s suit seemed to flicker back to life, a quiet hum in his back let him know the Dark Matter reactor was turning back on. It wouldn’t be long until his helmet and suit came back online now, a break Adam was not soon to forget. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, the woman could be heard shuffling clothes and the girl gave a quiet yelp, likely not expecting what had happened, “Don’t scare me like that, your father would have a heart attack if he lost one of you while you practiced.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“’horry m’ma” the muffled voice replied, Adam could only guess the woman was holding her in an embrace and her face was covered. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　After a few silent moments Adam’s visor finally kicked on, no fancy operating system icons or anything appearing. Turning on as if a monitor’s power button got pressed and it opened to a live feed from a camera, his vision returned and he could make out what was going on. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Before him stood the two women, exactly how Adam expected them to be. The mother stood holding the daughter’s head, burying her face into her cleavage as the girl’s two small arms wrapped around her in turn. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　They were in a very plain concrete room, no windows, barely seven feet high he could have guessed, and on the far corner of the room to the right, was the only door out he could see without shifting his body and giving away that he was awake. There was nothing else in the room, except a bed, a very large bed that could easily hold five or six people. The thought of what it was used for, given the women’s clothing, disposition, and ‘charms’ they used made Adam’s stomach twist upon itself, a tight, revolting grip on his chest made him grimace at the thought. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Two others stood behind them and looked similar to the one in her mother’s arms, one had black hair that hung down past her shoulders in a plain fashion, and the other had a blue shade of gray hair, held up in two large ponytails behind her head. Each of them had the little wings on their heads, save for the mother who looked far more human. However, she too had wings from her back, and a thick smooth tail hung behind her with that spade shaped tip again. Her ears caught Adam’s attention, while the girls didn’t have ears that protruded out from their hair, she did, and they stuck out a good two or three inches past where normal human ears would, they almost looked elven, but he settled on ‘demonic’ as it seemed to fit better. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> And not a single one of them had any idea of what ‘modest clothing’ was either, the mother seemed to be dressed the most but a skimpy bikini top, a thong of sorts, gloves and boots that rode up and became leggings up until just under half way up her thighs, hardly counted as ‘modest’ in Adam’s eyes. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The three girls and their choice in clothes made him want to throw up a little in his mouth, they didn’t appear any older than maybe eleven or early twelve years old, but wore ribbons for shirts, barely enough cloth to cover their nipples and nothing else. One didn’t even wear that; a metal decoration, a necklace of some sort, was her ‘shirt’ apparently, and it wasn’t hard to spot the dark blue areola of her nipples through its dangling ornaments. Adam wanted to shake his head but relented, settling with making sure not to look anywhere lower than the shoulders if he had to look her way again. None of them wore more than a piece of triangular cloth held over their nethers by strings, tied into simple bow knots on either side, obviously he figured, for removing quickly to get right to business. Gloves reaching to their elbows, and smooth boots that ran up their legs to their shins with thick heels covered the rest of their bodies. Adam felt like he was going to Hell just by looking at them for more than enough time to recognize their presence, there was no reason a girl their age should dress so lewd. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Getting a good look around the room, Adam forgot his position and turned his head to help get a better fix on his surroundings and one of the girls quickly caught on, pointing at him, “It’s awake!” Damn that girl in her shirtlessness, it just had to be her that spotted him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Letting her daughter go, the woman turned to Adam, waving her hand and righting his orientation with the ground, “It appears so.” She confirmed her daughter’s accusation as she watched him look at her while turning his head, “You gave us quite the trouble back there.” She was quaint and formal with him, “I do apologize for the inconvenience, usually summoning spells are much more efficient than that, and you just kinda drop right into them.” She stepped back and put her hands on the shoulders of the one still wearing something other than jewelry, her black hair shifted as her mothers breasts rubbed against her head, “Terria isn’t very proficient with summoning arts yet, I do hope you’ll forgive her for the inconvenience.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam remained silent, lest he give them ammunition to use against him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh come now.” The woman urged, not angrily in the slightest, but rather, a hit of pleading came over the air as she spoke, “We aren’t going to kill you, that was merely conjecture back there in the other room.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And why should I trust that?” He finally asks, the daughters giving him different facial expressions each, surprised, smiling, and angry. Clearly the one with half a wing was not going to let a simple sentence win her over, it seemed. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Because we brought you here for a much, much better reason than that.” The woman smiled with a gesture of her right hand back towards the bed, “My daughters need training in summoning arts, as well as the energy to sustain those arts. You have already provided a wonderful example in the first, and now we would like to help train them in the second. I assure you it will be a most entertaining night, as my daughters are a bit.. Insatiable and require no rest.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A dead expression of emotion found its way onto Adam’s face, how the hell were they supposed to get ‘energy’ from a bed? Sleep in the damn thing then, or eat something while in it. He argued with himself, knowing that deep down if the woman was speaking with any sort of sincerity or honesty in her voice, he knew exactly what she was talking about and given the circumstances, he wanted nothing of it right now. He just got pulled through a floor, obviously weirder things can, and did happen, he convinced himself. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The woman standing before him had all the hallmarks of a Succubus, but Adam himself had never seen any creature like that before. Sure her wings moved, and she had a tail, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen creatures with wings and a tail before, though he had to admit, he had never seen wings and a tail or horns on a human figure before. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So what?” He started, “You want a body pillow to hold onto while you sleep or something?” He jabbed at them, his ability to avoid using sarcasm at horrible times was not always his strongest suit. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　However, the woman laughed, joyfully at that. Did she seriously think that was meant to be funny? Maybe she was just screwing with his head in return for the impolite jab. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You could say something like that...” A sensual smile found its way onto her face while she traced the pointer and middle fingers of her right and across the bottom of Terria’s face, “Though that certainly comes after you give us what we want. I believe you will find Terria a most suitable... Body pillow?” Using his own words back at him, of course she would Adam thought to himself. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not interested.” He sighed, lowering his head, “I’m not tired and I would be hard pressed to believe anything besides sleep or food in that bed could give her energy back.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“My my...” The woman once again seemed almost pleased with his reaction, “Playing hard to get? Or playing dumb? Both are cute in their own way. I do wonder how long you can keep that little act of yours up for?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What act?” He asks her, being straight forward, trying to kill her playful attitude, “I just got yanked through a fucking magic circle through a plate of reinforced titanium alloy plating into a dungeon-like room that I know didn’t exist under my lab.” He held back no irritation in his voice as he angrily explained the situation, “Do you have any idea how strong a quarter inch plate of reinforced titanium plating is? It’s over a hundred and fifty times stronger than steel of the same dimensions, and I just got pulled through one of them like it didn’t even exist.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Tapping her finger to her chin as she looked up to the side, the woman replied, “Mmmm, I’m afraid I never heard of any of those things before, but you’re here now so why don’t you just take off that helmet and enjoy yourself for a bit?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What if I can’t take it off?” He started but she cut him off immediately. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Dearie, you musn’t take me for a fool. I saw your friend wear a similar armor and he had no helmet on, so I can assure you, that little ploy will not work with me.” Her tone lost a good deal of its seductive tone, though Adam had to admit, a part of him wondered if this tone now was her ‘normal’ tone, that she had spoken so long with seductive nature in her voice that it began to simply appear when she wasn’t trying. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, he forgot about that for a moment, “Maybe I can’t breathe the air in here?” He was just reaching for straws. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She would have none of it, “Please take your helmet off? I would like to at least see your face if nothing more right now. Surely you’re... Comfortable with that for starters?” The way she put the words made Adam wish he could just shut his armor off and ignore them, did she have to make everything feel like it was about something sexual? <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Rubbing his thumb and fingers against the helmet’s face as if he was rubbing his eyes, obviously they never reached however, stopped by the V-shaped visor that circled the front half of his helmet, “I’m not getting out of this any faster by being stubborn... Am I?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Smiling, the woman grinned in satisfaction, she was making headway, “That is correct, now please, do us all the favor and let us see your face. We’re simply dying to know.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Hidden behind his visor, Adam took one last hard, long, and deep sigh and rolled his eyes as though he was trying to roll them back to look into the back of his own eye sockets, he commanded his armor with a simple thought to remove the helmet. Splitting vertically down the sides, it parted in two, folding under the front and back halves of his collar armor again, revealing his brown hair with its red colored highlighted tips, his own deep brown eyes staring back into her red ones that seemed to feast on his visage like she couldn’t get enough. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh my... I was right. You are cute.” She cooed with seductively half closed eyes, her smile, shifted half off to the right side of her face as she gave him a third and fourth over on what she could finally see, “And that red in your hair... I must say, that is a very good look on you.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I dunno...” Julia started, “Brown eyes suck... Dad always said guys with brown eyes are full of shit. I like the other guy better, I could stare at those all day long...” She trailed off on her own thoughts, thinking back when she was staring at Leo’s face and into his blue Zircon crystals he called eyes. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Fine by me.” Terria quickly retorted, “More energy for me then.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Wha--? Hey not fair! I was just saying! It’s not like I’m not gonna do it!” She quickly shot back at her sister, flustered and quick to try to save the situation for herself. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Nuh-uh, I summoned him, I get first ride!” Terria shot back, her normally stoic expression now showed the slightest, albeit a cute, expression of irritation. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What the hell are you guys talking about?” Adam asked, his face now conveying his emotions properly, no longer shielded by his helmet, “Please for the love of all things don’t tell me you guys are actually serious about having sex... You were joking back then right?” He remembered the line one of them, he believed it was Julia, had said about being able to fuck him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Why of course.” The mother started, “We’re going to get our fill for tonight, after all, we’re all rather hungry.” She licked her lips, “And I can feel the energy coming off of you, it’s like you’re going to just burst any moment. We’re going to milk every drop out of you until there’s nothing left to give.” She kept emphasizing the words, all the specific words and it was making Adam’s stomach turn. He didn’t like this feeling at all, and it wasn’t the anxiety before having sex that was what bothered him. What got under his skin was his body’s seemingly natural rejection instead, his stomach tied up in a knot, his chest tightened in an uncomfortable way, like his body instinctively pushed people away. He knew perfectly well why he subconsciously reacted like this; and after joining Guardia he was made to take several, several, more-than-he-can-count-by-now sessions with several psychiatrists specifically about it. It never helped though, the scar from his memory had already done its damage and his body fought to make sure it never, ever, ever put itself or Adam back in that position to be hurt like that ever again. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m really not interested...” He finally told them after a few uncomfortable moments of silence as if they were expecting him to just go along with it and whip his member out right there on the spot for them to enjoy. The mother’s face certainly said that’s what she expected, as did two of the three daughters. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　His reaction was new, it seemed. They seemed confused upon hearing the words coming out of his mouth, “What do you mean?” The mother asked, “Why are you not interested? You get to have sex with three devils and a succubus until you are exhausted, you can even pick up where you left off when you wake back up.” She giggled to herself, “I can even have a filling breakfast ready for you in the morning so you can get a good head start on the second day.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Closing his eyes and sighing, Adam was more than willing to express his reasons why, “Well for one... They look like kids, and I’m seriously not into that kind of thing.” He nodded his head down at Julia, “She’s got the biggest pair of any of the three and they barely stick out, that kind of thing is a serious boner-killer for me.” He could see her look down at her nearly-flat chest, then look back up at him with an angry expression like she was offended. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m not a kid, jackass. I’m probably twice as old as you are!” She pointed her finger up at him, “And I’ve made countless guys cum with these tits of mine. You’re just trying to act cool ‘cause you’re tied up in suspension and trying to be--” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Flat-chested children aren’t my fucking thing, okay?” He forcibly asked her, looking down at the girl, the anger on his face unhindered, “I’m not a damn pedophile or lolicon alright? Put a good ten years on that body of yours before you try to get a rise out of me.” He was pretty irritated at the situation at hand. Yes, he could understand how any normal person could be excited about this, how any person would love to be in his place and bend over all three of those girls on that bed and have their way with them until their body gave out, only to resume the next day. He wanted to think he would enjoy it, and perhaps that was the most awkward thing of all, every time he looked at the woman, their mother, he could feel that a part of him wanted to be interested in her, but found only revulsion and a knot in his stomach and chest instead. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Another thought also plagued his mind, one that, even if he was eager and willing to do with them everything they wished, sobered his mind. The suit he was wearing was powered by a highly unstable and still-in-development reactor, which based on how it was working, or rather not working right now, meant it was malfunctioning. The very thought of it going critical and the catastrophe it would cause plagued his mind, and he needed to get it out of the suit and get it turned off before something very bad happened. The idea of wasting his time away having sex with three kid-looking girls and possibly their mother actually angered him more than it turned him on. They were making a huge mistake, and worst off, were completely oblivious to the dangers it caused. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You really are playing hard to get.” The mother cut into their argument, “I’m quite fascinated by someone like you, perhaps I’ll take the first turn and see for myself if you’re worth the trouble you’re causing.” She walked up to him, swaying those curvacious and seductive hips from side to side with each step, stopping right before him and leaning into the pink hue of light rising from the spinning circle below him, still holding his body in perfect limbo. It seemed she knew words wouldn’t sway him, he was far too angry to be seduced by normal means, and she too was hungry, so she cut to the chase, her face inches from Adams, and without blinking an eye, that same red hue in her eyes began to glow, but this time brighter. If that light was any indication of how strong the magic she was using was, there was little doubt in Adam’s mind that whatever she was doing now was likely stronger than the ones used before. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Waiting for a few moments, he leaned his head back turning it to the side with the one eye facing closest to the succubus squinting,was he bracing for some sort of attack? Some sort of spell she was going to shoot out of her eyes at him or something? Maybe she was changing how the spell below him worked? Whatever it was, there was no visual indication of anything happening, the only cue that he had reacted to it at all was his stomach turning in a knot and a slight irritation in his head like a faint, minor headache brewing. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Pulling her face away as her eyes returned to normal, the woman stepped back, confident in herself as she once again spoke up, “There, that should about do it.” The woman was looking Adam over, gauging his reactions as she slipped her finger into her cleavage, clasping the tiny button-like clasp that held her top together and giving a slight tug. With the clasp gone, both sides to the top swung open and her breasts, no doubt Multi-D-cup or larger Adam figured, swayed to a natural position hanging on her chest. He couldn’t help but stare for a moment, her areola and nipples, small despite the size of her breasts, and the shape of them did not change very much, despite gravity grabbing them and pulling down with all it’s might. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Seizing them in her hands, the woman played with them in front of Adam, “You’ve been eyeing them for some time now, how about you relax a little and stop being just a spectator...” With a flick of her wrist and a snap of her fingers, she canceled the spell that held Adam in the air and unable to move. He dropped to the ground and righted himself before he lost his balance. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Reaching forward, she quickly grasped his wrist and brought it to her left breast, pressing his open palm and fingers into the mound of flesh. A silent gasp of relief came from her lips as she felt the surprising new texture of his glove upon her nipple, raking his hand slowly up and down, each movement sent shocks of pleasure through her chest, “Maybe...” She took a breath, “This... Armor of yours isn’t so bad after all. I wonder how it’d feel grinding inside me.” She gave him a smile full of lust, her eyes closed half way and looking up at him through her head slightly tilted down. Her hand had not released him yet, and continued to gyrate his glove across her breast. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Come on mom, you always take first round with the good ones!” Terria complained, the facial expression she gave said everything Adam needed to know about her disappointment, she was excited to have the first round with him but now her mother snatched it away. This must not have been the first time, as Terria seemed extremely irritated, tugging at her mother’s tail, “Come on mom, I want the first shot!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Without looking back at her daughter, the mother’s eyes glued to Adam’s, she flicked her tail with a force he had not expected her to poses within it, sending her daughter flying to the bed and landing with a childish yelp as she came to a halt on the sheets, “Fine, you can be such a spoiled child, we can share him then.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He could feel the woman pull him forward as she stepped back, only a few feet maybe, two yards or so until the bed. He couldn’t peel his eyes away from her, but his attention was not on the melon-sized breast in his hand, but the door maybe ten or fifteen feet away. His helmet was off now, and it couldn’t tell him the distance, but he didn’t need it to know that it would take him only a moment to leap across the room and open the door. Wherever it led, he didn’t care, as long as it didn’t lead into a closet, but that was impossible, it was the only door in the room, so there had to be stairs or something on the other side leading out. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Their stepping stopped, and before him the woman with no top on now stood, ready to be pushed onto the bed no doubt, as she finally let his hand go and waited. The expression on her face spoke of anxiety, of impatient waiting, she wanted him to thrust forward out of his shell, take her down to the bed and violate her. She wanted him to lose control and stain her insides white over and over again, then hand him off to do the same with her daughter, now on the bed on her knees with both hands tucked between her hips, a quiet wet slicking noise muffled but audible coming from under her. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Whenever you’re ready, dear.” She cooed, leaning back and letting her body free fall towards the bed. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Now. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was the only word that passed through Adam’s mind in that second of time he had while she fell. In the time it would take a human to blink, Adam was shifted ninety degrees to his right and already accelerating towards the door, leaving a small crack in the stone floor where his right foot had been. He had maybe a second, two at most before the woman hit the bed and realized what was going on. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　By then though, he was already at the door and the knob was far too slow, an obstacle to Adam, so he did the next best thing. Tucking his shoulder in and leaning it forward, he kicked off with his foot with extra bounce in his step, crashing his two hundred and twenty pound body and three hundred pound armor into the wooden door with a violent crash. It gave way like it was made of paper and he was rewarded with a wall, but a snap of his vision to the right revealed steps as he took a lightning fast look around. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　No hesitation. He vaulted up the steps like he weighed the equivalent of a feather, his feet however, snapped the three steps they landed on as he soared up the twenty or more stairs there must have been, and smashing through the next door that revealed what looked like a house. To his right was the makings of an old middle ages living room, walls made of stacked stones held together in some sort of mortar, wooden boards across the ceiling visibly showing internal structure. A fireplace decorated the far wall with various trinkets laid upon its mantel. The center of the room with a large fur rug, sat a circular wooden table, hand crafted it seemed as it lacked the look of precision machining or woodworking tools like band saws or routers; he had to appreciate it though, given the still high quality it had, but that wasn’t important, and his mind quickly shifted back to the matter at hand. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He was taken from his gaze by the sound of metal against metal to his left, when he turned he saw another man standing in front of a stove looking at him curiously, apron across his chest and a pot of what he guessed was some sort of stew behind him. He was a fair build man, perhaps a little over two hundred pounds with little spared to fat, his hair was a light sandy brown, as were his eyes. He was in his late twenties, still a few years older than Adam looked, but his face was worn, like he’d had his soul drained out of him a long time ago and he was now nothing more than a husk of a human existing day to day. The man dropped the ladle he’d been stirring it with when he turned to check out what had crashed his basement door down, only to see Adam, fully armored without his helmet. Certainly the space-age armor was so far out of place the man’s mind couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing, so he stood there, like a deer in headlights staring at him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sorry about the door.” Adam forced the words out of his lips and went to his right, figuring the exit must have been that way. Luck was on his side, and as he turned right into the living room, and right again, a door with light beaming through small windows surrounding it was in view, only a short few meters away. He could hear the angry voices of the four women below him as they clamored up the steps after him no doubt, but he was not about to let them close the gap. Running to the door, wrenching the knob and swinging it open, Adam paused for a moment. Outside was... <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was outside. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Crisp, clean air, the scent of pine from the hundred foot tall trees scattered throughout the yard and beyond, animals and birds sounding off the all-too-known musical of nature’s melody. It was too much, his brain stopped for a moment as he tried to comprehend what happened. Last he knew he wasn’t anywhere near this kind of place, thousands of miles away at the very least. Hell, his office and lab weren’t even on a planet the last time he checked. Loud footsteps now stopped behind him when the women found him in view standing still at the door. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“There he--!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“WHERE THE HELL AM I?!?!” The words exploded from Adam while he turned around, fury and confusion in his eyes. All four women stopped, the three daughters stepped back behind their mother who no doubt wanted something to step behind herself. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You-- You’re in our home. We summoned you here for--” She began but stopped. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I know why, but I don’t know where.” He turned to them, his anger receding to make way for more confusion, “I was... I’m not... even supposed to be... I’m...” He couldn’t form a coherent sentence any more, the fact that he was planet-side jarred his mind like he was hit across the face by a full strength right hook from a heavyweight boxer, “I need to get back to my lab.” He finally sighed, “I need to get back and--” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You can’t go back.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The woman finally spoke up, no seduction in her voice, only dread, “The spell that took you took everything out of us, we don’t have the energy to send you back.” Her eyes said she was scared, but she raised her head, trying to smile. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re joking... Right?” Adam asked, disbelief hung across every syllable, “You just pulled me through a magic circle or some crazy fantasy bullshit, and now you tell me you can’t just put me back?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m afraid that is the case. It took all of our combined energies to maintain the incantation as long as we did; pulling you through was no easy feat.” She stepped forward but Adam stepped back, “If we had enough energy, we might be able to send you back.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Might be?” He quickly shot back, “Might be, or can?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, she rested her hands across herself, her top now secured and back in place, her arms crossed under her breasts, “The spell to pull you was a generalized incantation, it wasn’t set for a specific location, but another criteria.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And that was...?” He feared what she was getting at, his hands felt cold, shivering within the frame of his gloves. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Spirit energy. We made an incantation that would pull someone with an exceptional amount of spirit energy through it. Who it was, we didn’t care, we just wanted someone with an overabundant supply of it because we are all beginning to weaken.” She held her daughter Julia with her left arm and pulled her into view, “Especially the young ones. If anyone from the Order were to show up and find us, I doubt we’d be able to fight them off.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Despite her pleas, Adam’s mind only began recognizing various words, those relating to her saying without saying, ‘This was a last ditch effort to get a good meal in for ourselves, but we are not sure how to get you back now that we have you, sorry!’ <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So... So you’re saying, that you just threw the spell out there and grabbed whoever you could, from wherever you could. You don’t even know who, what, or where your spell went and grabbed?” His brain felt like it was an engine starting to backfire randomly, it was hard to keep himself thinking straight. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m sorry, that is the case.” The mother stepped forward again, holding her hand out to him, “I’m sure we can figure out where you are from and arrange to have you sent back, we just need the energy to--” But her words didn’t register, Adam was already backing out of the door, stumbling on his feet and falling to the ground over the steps of the short deck and onto the dirt. She could see in his eyes he was shocked, scared, frightened like a lost child. He seemed far more frightened than the previous people they pulled through their spells, “Please wait!” Light on her feet, the woman took a leap forward trying to cut the distance with him before he got too far away. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was too late, Adam had righted himself and his helmet quickly began folding out of his armor and snapped back in place with an audible clang. Spinning around and leaping upward, the two appendages on his back rotated out, taking the form of his wings again and the same cool jets of air whistled as his body was sent into the sky, leaving a cloud of dust and dirt in his wake. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Stopping only a few feet past the deck, the woman yelled at the top of her lungs for him to stop, part of Adam wanted to listen to her and turn back around but another part wanted distance, wanted space. His heart raced a mile a minute slamming in his chest and coursing blood through his veins, his vision kept going in and out as it blurred and refocused. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Several alarms in the suit were sounding off, lack of sufficient power, no GPS location data, and worst of all his vital signs were as erratic as his breathing. He was having a panic attack, and his suit’s systems knew it, yet he pressed on. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Stopping only a few short minutes after he took off, Adam took the time to regather himself, hovering in the air well over a hundred meters above ground level, he took a look at his surroundings. Trees and hills everywhere, no visible human establishments, no smoke to indicate fire or living quarters save for the one behind him; that one however, was one he wanted to distance himself from. Mountains rose from the ground a good fifty miles out on the horizon, their height and size were enormous, so much so it took Adam a moment to really grasp that from his distance they could be so large and noticeable, he had never seen mountains so big on Aeon before, yet he had the general topography of the entire planet nearly committed to memory. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　At that moment it dawned on him, he was planet-side again. He didn’t know how, he didn’t understand why, but he was and that made getting back into Guardia all the more important. Looking up though, he opened a communications link on his suit, thank god he still had those basic functions in this bare-bones shell of an armor, “Mayday, mayday, this is Adam Sigil of the Guardia Research and Development wing, I am marooned planet-side in an unknown location and need immediate assistance. Does anyone copy?” He waited, and nothing replied, again he tried, repeating himself again, and listened. He checked to make sure his suit’s communications equipment wasn’t malfunctioning and the diagnostic returned negative, his communications gear was working fine, “What the hell... Come on guys someone pick up the fucking phone already.” He grumbled to himself, then checked to see if he could get a video relay going. He was going to tear the relay officer a new asshole if he saw him at his desk sleeping, awake, doing something else, or hell, no matter what, he would tear that guy or girl a new asshole. It was their job to respond immediately to any distress signal, no matter what. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, he waited for the link to establish, it took minutes, but nothing ever linked, the only thing he ever saw in that tiny window on his HUD was the black screen with ‘NO SIGNAL’ blinking on and off. He’d seen this happen before and it was of no consequence, it just meant he had no signal linked to Guardia until someone picked up the phone, so to speak. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He waited, again, for a few more minutes until he lost his patience and manually checked the communications on his visor. Like an invisible mouse directed by his eyes, Adam shifted his sight and looked up, a tiny icon blinking in the very, very corner of his vision drained the blood from his face. The ‘NO SIGNAL’ was not because someone had not picked up the line, but because his suit never made contact, his communications never made it to the satellite relay, because according to his suit, there were no satellites in range. Rubbing his hand on his helmet over his face as if he was trying to wipe something from his mouth, he began breathing much harder than before; never in his life did Guardia’s satellite communications network fail, ever. There was so much redundancy, so many safeguards, so many backups to it that it was deemed impossible to fail, but here he stood, floating hundreds of meters in the air in possibly the best position he could to get a signal. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　And yet there was none. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A beeping in his ear took his attention away, as he looked back to his left. He knew the sound of the beeping, it was his ‘Low Capacitor’ alarm letting him know he had just fell below ten percent power left. Unfortunately, he could tell from the lack of sound coming from behind him, that his reactor was not responding, “Fuck me...” he groaned, this had to be the worst time for it to give him trouble, wasn’t it? Experimental gear, it may outperform the conventional equipment but it never failed to amaze Adam how often it had a bug, or stopped working outright, always at the absolute worst moments too. Perhaps it was just simply his own bad luck doing it to him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, he resigned himself to head forward again, remaining high in the air in order to get the best possible view of his surroundings that he could. He would only have about five minutes of low-powered flight time before his suit ran out of power, and once that happened, he would be in a world of trouble until he got some juice back in it. Without power, his suit would shut down, and become nothing more than a fancily crafted, three hundred pound paperweight. The thought of running into any of the monsters planet-side in a shut down, unfinished armor terrified him, but nowhere near as much as it did when the idea of fighting a Gheist came to mind. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I need to find shelter.” He quickly ordered himself upon thinking the thought, and quickly set out in a random direction away from the house he was in was at. He needed shelter, but something, a gut feeling so distinct he couldn’t ignore it kept telling him, his chances were better away from that house than near it. He couldn’t get the image of the man’s face out of his head, that lifeless, dead expression as his shell of a body carried out tasks each day, no longer living, but merely existing. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam had read many stories about Succubi in the past, mostly all just fantasy and gimmicky stories of course, there were no Succubi on Aeon or Guardia back home. Yet this woman that he had just run into, she looked to fit the bill all too perfectly. Seductive nature, devilish tail and wings, horns, an incredibly sexy body far beyond what a normal woman would grow into. There wasn’t a single flaw to her skin, no hairs, no freckles, no discolorations, nothing, just simple, smooth, seductive skin with curves in all the right places. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He had to listen to his gut feeling, it had gotten him out of trouble so many times before, doubting this feeling now would be like a slap in the face to it, so he flew. Flew away from the house and towards whatever he could find that would work for now. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He was at a brisk speed for most of the next few minutes, constantly darting his eyes to and from, picking up any unusual detail he could. He was nearing the last of the power left in his suit, and he could feel it, his speed was beginning to slow like an electronic toy slowing down as the batteries died, his armor too, was slowing. It wouldn’t be long before he was out of power and would have to rely on his own strength to get him places. Not like he minded however, a walk through the woods seemed an enjoyable thing, as long as he tried ignoring the mountain of problems swirling around his situation anyway. One of which was of course, the man-eating monsters the people of Aeon were always kept on watch over. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Luck again, seemed to be taking pity on him for his situation when a series of smoke stacks came into view once he came over the crest of another hill. “Oh thank god.” He told himself, right as his suit began descending, not entirely out of power but he had been running on fumes for almost a minute now, and wanted to just clear this hill. If he could get anything out of this, starting at the top of a hill where he could retain a good field of vision was preferential, as was starting out on a down-hill walk instead of having to climb this thing by foot. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Lowering himself down as best he could into a clearing in the trees, Adam finally let the last of the energy in his capacitor stay as he cut off the backpack and let the wings fold back in. He would need at least something in there to keep the suit operational. The drop was only a hundred feet or so, quite a simple fall given his physique and abilities; landing with one knee on the ground and slamming his fist down next to it to brace for the impact, Adam left a small crater in the softly packed dirt when he landed. He had retained his orientation towards the smoke stacks when he landed, so he could begin by heading straight forward, he didn’t want this any more complicated than it needed to be. Standing up and putting one foot in front of the other, he began walking, it would take him at least a few hours to get to the source of the smoke stacks from where he landed, he might as well not waste any time standing around. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The air was cool on his face, his helmet retracted again exposing his face to the elements; it felt nice while he walked down the hill. How long had it been since he was last planet-side and strolling through the woods like this, he wondered. The thought of it made him look into his past if only a little, realizing he’d spent the last few decades cooped up in his lab working feverishly to pass the time, and didn’t leave room for much else outside of work. He spent time with members of Fireteam Aegis from time to time, or went out to diners or a bar with Leo on the off-chance they both had some time to kill, but it was always someone dragging him out to go do things. He felt like he was ‘that friend’ that everyone seemed to like, or enjoy having around, but never really did anything himself voluntarily. He always found himself getting told a few friends were hanging out, and that he would be there, or else. Sometimes they said it with a smile, sometimes it worried him with how serious they were. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　This felt weird, he thought to himself, I’m smiling, aren’t I? He felt his cheeks, and indeed, he was smiling. At a time like this when he was stranded, without power, without his weapon he had accidentally been stupid enough to lose track of, and without any sort of communications to contact Leo or Medical with, he was smiling. Shaking his head and patting his cheeks with his hands, he tried to steel himself, but it didn’t take long after he lost his smile for it to come back again. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Around trees, hopping over rocks, taking a few leaps when he came across small cliffs in the downward slope of the hill, he found himself acting like a kid in his eyes. Had it really been so long since he had smiled this long without forcing it a little? The thought tried to dampen his mood but it failed, as he figured, Ah what the hell, it’s fine isn’t it? <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A snap on a tree branch off in the distance broke his stride to let him know that no, no it was not fine. It was maybe a hundred meters out, through a grouping of trees he couldn’t see past, but it was definitely there. The snap of the branch was loud, like a thick and heavy one had been torn asunder; and nothing light could have made that kind of log break. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　With his smile gone in a flash, Adam stood still for several minutes, trying to hear the surrounding area for any other movements, if it was a Gheist then Adam was in danger beyond his worst fears. No weapon, no energy, and no means of escape meant if it was what he feared, and it knew of his location, he was already dead. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Silent in the wind, he could hear the almost inaudible thumps of feet that skirted around him trying not to be heard. Multiple legs, and fast... He thought, hearing it circle behind him, so as silently as he could he turned his body enough to keep it in earshot until it was straight behind him. Perhaps it was chasing something down? Chasing a meal down that wasn’t going to be him? Adam felt his breath nearly come to a standstill as it began circling directly behind him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Only when he knew the thumps on the ground were getting louder, coming straight at him, did he break free of his stoic stance and immediately leap into action. Jumping straight forward and down the hill, he exploded with speed, he knew his only chance was running, keep as much distance between it and himself as he could and pray it gave up. He knew there could also be a river at the base of the hill, and if it was deep enough and wide enough he could submerse himself in it, hiding his scent, and emerge on another side of it safely. It was only a hope though. A Gheist’s sense of smell was simply inhuman, the only way to escape it was something like jumping into a river and staying submerged for long periods of time, hours sometimes until it got bored and left. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　That was the plan but plans hardly ever went according to, well, plan. His assailant was gaining on him, despite the best efforts of his legs to carry him across the ground as fast as they could. Regardless of his strength, he was still almost five hundred pounds of man and armor clamoring down a hill, and whatever was following him, it was much faster. He moved as fluidly as possible by dodging between trees and keeping his body as close to the ground as possible, opting to dart straight forward at the points where the ground suddenly cut off instead of jumping upward into the air. The sooner he got back to the ground the sooner he could keep his sprint up. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was all for naught though, for when he turned back if only for a moment, he realized that what had been chasing him was merely toying with him. Hopping between trees was a monster unlike what he had seen before, this one sent a shiver of fear down his spine upon recognizing its most notable feature. Gripping each tree trunk with all eight legs, the furry body would rocket off of the tree with enough force to shake the entire towering wooden body, throwing her towards him at incredible speeds. He knew it was a ‘her’ as he made out the upper body as well, long thick messy black hair swayed freely in the wind through each jump, and her skin, not quite as blue as the little devils he saw before, but it was still blue, with an obvious accent of green. Scattered black tribal-like tattoos were adorned across her flesh, all of it. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He had to turn away quickly to refocus on running, those large breasts swaying in the air proudly in all of their glory when she jumped made his own heart jump in response. She was fast, terrifyingly fast. She moved through the trees like she had written to memory their every position; and her face never moved away from staring at him, those golden irises locked onto his sprinting frame trying desperately to get away. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Trees finally came to a stop in a short clearing, revealing before him a cliff. Adam soon realized the ground gave way long ago in what looked like it might have been a catastrophic landslide. He stopped at the very end, looking down over the edge of the near two hundred foot drop to see that the forest seemed to just continue on as if it sank the distance. Not terribly far off now was the base of the mountain of a hill, maybe he could get down there and break into full sprint, and would be safe. Hearing a thump behind him louder than normal, he turned to see the woman landing heavy enough, her hands pressed against the ground until her eight legs lifted her up and off the ground. He hadn’t gotten a good look before but she too had horns, though hers were far more twisted looking than the smooth, symmetrical horns of the woman he was running from. She stared at him, her white, sharp teeth bearing through her smile as she looked him up and down over and over again, there seemed to be nothing but unbridled interest in her eyes. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He could finally make out a good image of her appearance now that they were both standing still. Her lower body was like that of a large black spider, her fur swaying gently in the breeze now that they were at a clearing. Her upper body, smooth skin, so smooth it looked almost like it had a shine to it, those black tattoos covering her shoulders, her waist, and arms all the way down to her hands. Normal hands and arms, except for her finger nails, those caught his eye quickly. At the tip of each of her ten fingers was not a regular finger nail but rather a tan-looking claw like the eight she stood upon, they were at least an inch long and from this distance, he could guess that they could sunder armor easily with enough force behind them. A tail of fur flipped back and forth behind her like a happy and excited animal, but rather than just wagging, it tried being seductive, curving around itself as it swayed to and fro. Between her legs, Adam swallowed to try to keep from throwing up, feeling a revolting jolt of nausea and uneasiness that explained exactly why he saw nothing but desire in her eyes. Buried in her black fur was a spot of pink right under where the skin of her abdomen disappeared into fur, two labia soaking wet and dripping from the fur in long droplets. The lips pulsed and moved on their own, and the sight made Adam cough in his throat a little. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Oh god that’s so gross.... Oh my god that’s so fucking gross... He thought to himself in his mind, feeling his stomach preemptively contracting as if trying to push some of its contents back up his esophagus and out. Holy crap that’s so disgusting.... He turned away, trying to ignore the sight before he took a few deep breaths of air, his eyes closed and his hand cupped over his mouth. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　 Recovered enough to turn back to her, making sure to ignore the hideous sight below her abdomen, Adam started, “So uh... Any chance you speak English too?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“...” She remained silent, now deciding to walk towards him slowly, her hands kept themselves busy by holding onto what seemed to be her hips. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Um... Hello?” He took another step back, he only had a few feet until the edge of the clearing, and that didn’t give him much comfort. The hundred foot drop he took from the sky was one thing, since where he landed on was flat and made a landing easy, but this next drop would be infinitely more troublesome as it was much farther, and the ground was angled. He knew without landing absolutely flawlessly, that he would fall into an uncontrollable roll. His armor, out of energy and powered down now, would be all but useless in protecting him any more than a thick breastplate or gauntlet would. What made things worse was his suit lost power with his helmet off, leaving his head exposed now with no way of covering it, and that certainly scared him the most. With no sufficient power left in the suit, the motors and actuators that moved his helmet on and off wouldn’t respond, leaving him exposed. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Each thump from in front of him grew louder, the woman had ignored him and was enjoying taking her time walking forward, the anticipation must have been incredible. He could see the muscles under her abdomen flex and twitch in anticipation, this monster no doubt was horny and had her eyes locked onto Adam. He had what she wanted, and that look in her eyes said she wouldn’t stop until she got it, armor be damned. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Hey, hold on here.” He held his hands out as if to push her back, she was only ten feet away now, “Don’t you understand what I’m saying?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes.” She finally replied, her voice deeper than he expected, but it carried a very strong feminine tone, “I thought you might be it.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Be what?” He asked back, scraping his feet across the ground and taking quick peeks back to make sure he wasn’t about to fall. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Licking her lips as she leaned forward, “You smell of demonic energy... You smell of lots of demonic energy...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Wait what? How?” Why would he smell of demonic energy? He was no demon, but an idea came to mind, the four women, “Wait.” he told her, standing straight up and firm, the woman catching on and stopping, if only for a moment to hear his petty excuse before capturing him. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I just got pulled through some sort of crazy ass magic circle not even half an hour ago, and was bound by I think a succubus and her three daughters. Maybe that’s what you’re smelling on me?” He asked but the woman merely smiled and laughed. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That is cute, I kind of like you.” She joked, “You’ll make a fine mate. Even a fine husband.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Husband?!” He gaped, his jaw fell at the thought, “I just met you!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Taking another step forward, resuming her ever-so-slow advance, taking enjoyment in the moment, “You will come to love me, they always do.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“They? So I’m not the first, huh?” He chuckled to try to ease his own uneasiness, “Sorry but I’m not exactly the marrying type.” Looking back one more time, Adam knew it was sink or swim, and frankly, he wasn’t about to marry some random spider-woman that just started chasing him down a few minutes ago. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　With his mind set, he tried his best to clear his thoughts and ignore his fears before leaning back and letting himself fall off of the cliff, back first to make sure she didn’t reach out and grab him before he fell. She certainly could have, with how fast she was and how close she was before he fell, he had to be sure. If it was sink or swim, Adam chose to ‘sink.’ <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Feeling the wind behind him as he fell he knew he had maybe five seconds at best before he hit the ground. He turned and faced downward, righting himself to land by kicking his feet out just enough so he would, at worst, land on his back and braced for the impact. When he landed he could feel the force of every pound of his armor come to a crushing halt on the ground, slamming his fists into the ground when his body fell back and not forward, he let the armor take the brunt of absorbing the impact, it’s kinetic energy flowing through all of the joints instead of his own. Sighing, Adam took a moment to lean back and take a breather, if he landed that wrong he could have easily sprained or broken an ankle, or any number of other bones in his body, a moment of appreciation was due. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Lying back he stared up at the edge of the cliff, noting the small horned head poking over to look down at him. Adam chuckled for a moment, taking humor in the way she seemed to have her head cocked to the side, confused. It was like a joke out of a comic book or cartoon, the way she leaned over the edge before disappearing. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well that was close...” He sighed, taking another moment to relax, he was finally out of danger of that crazy monster woman. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Or so he thought, a large, eight legged body suddenly thrust into view at the top of the cliff, a rope behind her like she was about to rappel down the cliff face, “You have got to be fucking kidding me!!” He yelled while throwing his body up and out of his relaxed laying position, jumping forward for the body was quickly descending upon him. She wasn’t rappelling down the wall, or even fast roping down it, she too was free-falling, the rope must have been there to bring him back up once she caught him, but where did she get it? Was it her thread? If so, that was an asinine amount of thread to make in such a short time span. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He didn’t have time to think too much on it however, in the barely five seconds it took him to fall to the ground, it too took her only the same amount of time to reach him again. I should have just run, I should have just fucking run! He cursed himself in the middle of his dive forward down the hill, landing with a roll before placing his feet on the ground and breaking out into a full on run down the hillside. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　However, this time, the woman would waste no time playing games with him. It seemed his little stunt had only increased her desire to capture him; and with little care for games any longer, she too broke out into sprint towards him. Eight legs versus two put the poor man running at a horrible disadvantage, like a small, four cylinder engine versus a much larger eight cylinder one, she had the advantage of thrusting forward with the full force of four times as many legs. This certainly explained how she cleared the hundred meter distance on him when he first heard her so quickly, the legs under her carried the weight of her body like she weighed the equivalent of a feather upon them. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The gap between them had disappeared in a matter of a short hundred meters. Having to duck to the side when she reached out to him, Adam barely avoided the first grab at his arm, having lost his balance and fell into a short roll. It took everything he had to right himself before coming to a halt, but he managed, maintaining some of his speed and dodging between two trees she would have to go around. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Instead, the exploding sound of two thick trees echoed through the forest, and Adam couldn’t help but look back to confirm his fears. With two of her legs she had wedged them in between the trees and simply ripped them down to the sides, clearing the way. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh come on!!” He moaned in anger, “That shit’s hardly fair!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Says the human that can fall from such height and live!” She fired back with a gaping smile. If he hadn’t been so terrified of her, the look of absolute thrill on her face may have been something of a sight, no doubt she was having a blast with this whole ordeal. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Between trees, around others, Adam did his best to dodge between the forest’s pillars, if he could get to a spot where there were a few of them maybe he could slow her down a little. His only solace was that she too was having a bit of a harder time keeping up with all of the trees. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He had begun to see a clearing at the base of the hill, and a sight that he couldn’t help but smile at as he eyed the unmistakable sight of a man-made road. If I make it there-- Was all the thought he got out when a silent slick sound followed by a splat below him anchored his left foot down, throwing him straight to the ground. Looking back at his foot, it had been covered in a thick, sticky mess of white webbing, “Oh shit that’s right.” He cursed himself for forgetting that little detail, she had created a large rope of thread on her way down, this should have come as expected. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He had no time to curse himself further, two hands reached down and tore him from the ground as the large body kept its momentum, dragging them both down the hill a little farther until she found a suitable spot to stop. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　As it turned out, that spot happened to be yet another thick tree, Adam’s back soon found out. The instant deceleration, the impact upon the bark, even the way his arms were forced straight out by this woman’s grasp, the force alone was like getting hit by a speeding truck, knocking all of the wind out of him even through all of his armor. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A second slam followed suit, except this time the concussive blow came at his pelvis, rocking his entire body back into the tree and sending splinters of wood outward with its force. He could only gasp, even if his armor took the impact, the force of it still traveled through his body and the tremors of her large, heavy body crashing into his felt like it could tear his organs asunder from the impacts alone. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Come on!” Another slam, “What could--” another, “You possibly--” Again, this was getting irritating, and painful beyond words, “Get out of this!” Adam finally yelled, headbutting the woman when she came crashing into him again. The force felt like he had just taken a twenty pound sledge hammer to the forehead, but it was enough, the woman too, certainly not expecting him to do it, let him go in order to reach for her own head. She didn’t seem in pain though, which surprised him as he lay there on the ground at the base of the tree, panting. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That was... Surprising.” She stated, not a single trace of pain came from her voice, rather, she was rubbing her head to get some of the blood on her fingers, the trickle of blood coming from the point of impact. That dark, almost black syrup looking liquid trickled down her head and over the bridge of her nose, down to her lips where she licked it up. Adam knew the taste of blood, from his training he had tasted his own through split lips, knocked out teeth, and coughing up blood too, and the tasted made him want to throw up. This too was the same, and he grimaced at the sight. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Slowly, the woman lowered her body down to him, looking at the plate of metal blocking her from her goal, “This thing, remove it.” She ordered him, “We cannot continue until it is gone.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s the point, lady.” He quickly stated, “You can’t seriously think I’m just going along with this, right?” But it seems, she did. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Tapping her lips with one of her fingers not coated in blood, she looked down at the obstacle and figured, why not? Taking two of her legs and pinching the claws between the plate and his fabric-like under armor, she must have figured if he wasn’t going to do it, she would. Yanking at him with the claws wedged in between the crack of where the armor stopped and where his under armor began, she got a good hold on it and pulled with inhuman strength. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam gasped at the force she pulled him with, pulling his body up effortlessly with each repetition of her claws, she lifted him like he was a mere child, pulling again and again, yanking his body up off of the ground over and over again, but she was getting nowhere. Placing her two hands on his shoulders, she anchored him down against the tree and tried again, this time pulling harder. Each time, Adam could feel a part of his back popping when his lower body was mercilessly pulled upward. He tried reaching up to move her hands away, but through his exhaustion, the shock of still having the wind knocked out of him, and this woman’s impossible strength, he couldn’t budge her hands from his shoulders. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She wasn’t going to get anywhere though, the plating was sealed to his suit with several methods of ensuring it could never be pulled off by force like this. Too many times had he heard of Guardians dying because their armor, the only thing protecting them was ripped off, exposing a weak point which was quickly exploited. He had made sure anything he developed had this security on it, but now it seemed that very safety measure was working against him now, because he could feel that in a few more thrusts that she may just break his back, armor or not. He half wanted to tear the armor off himself if it meant he wouldn’t get his back broken through her pulling him, but he knew without it, her thrusts back into him would do just as much damage, did this woman understand the kind of things she was doing would kill him? Maybe that’s why she had hinted at previous husbands, they were long gone because she literally fucked them to death. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Another pull, another snap in his back, Adam was about to die, he knew it. Death by getting pulled in half by some sex-crazed spider demon woman trying to jump his nuts, killed because of the very safety measure he developed to stop Guardians from dying. The irony in it was almost funny, and Adam would have laughed at it had he not been cut off with another thrust, pulling him from side to side, up and down, shaking him back and forth as she worked her claws. He simply closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable end, whichever came first. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Her claws finally slipped, letting him go suddenly with the sound of, well, Adam couldn’t quite make out what it was. It certainly wasn’t the sound of her claws scraping his armor, it sounded wet, like splitting flesh. Confusion struck Adam for a moment until he opened his eyes, expecting to see the plate finally torn off of him, but instead, it was still there, but coated in splotches of that black, syrupy blood. He looked up to see her face not contort with anger or pain, despite what looked like a thick arrow bolt sticking out of her right shoulder. She looked at it, confused really, trying to make sense of what just happened when another one struck her abdomen from the side, sending another burst of blood out. Some of it fell to Adam’s face, and he wanted to puke once his mouth registered the taste of iron. Spitting and coughing, he took his hands and wiped his mouth again and again. If his stomach had anything to throw up, he just might have because no matter what he did he couldn’t get the putrid taste out of his mouth. He would need to find that river as soon as he could, hell, even filling his mouth with some dirt to rinse it out would be preferential to this disgusting taste. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Looking back up now that the enormous weight had lifted off of him, Adam could hear the sound of metal armor behind him and orders being given out. Then, suddenly two more arrows into the same shoulder and right breast found their way into the woman, who somehow didn’t bother with them and took a step back and to the side to get a better view of around the tree. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Her face finally shown with an emotion other than lust or excitement, because whatever was behind him, it did not please her in the least and she seemed irritated. Looking down at him, the woman tried to best gauge her situation, it seemed she was torn between a few decisions for a moment, but ended up settling on one Adam would soon find himself disliking, he was sure. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Reaching back with her front two legs under her body, she grabbed a few new strings of thick white webbing and reached forward, tying Adam’s legs together with it. Reaching forward to lift him up with her human arms, she stopped when another arrow sunk into her right forearm. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　There were five bolts sticking out of her now, and yet this woman didn’t show the slightest care in the world for them. Her right arm hardly seemed hindered either with two arrows stuck certainly in muscles that were vital to its movement. Adam was as confused about how a creature like her could exist at all, as he was that she didn’t seem to feel pain. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“She’s trying to take him away, hurry!” A man’s voice yelled out, and from above, a slender figure holding a bow could be seen drawing it with another arrow notched. The quiet twang of the bow releasing the arrow sounded of and it flew like a bullet so fast Adam lost track of it until he heard a disgusting thunk and the sound of bone crunching. The arrow had found its mark atop the woman’s head, and this time, she absolutely felt it. Rearing back onto only four legs and screaming, she let the world know that the sixth arrow was the limit. She reached with her hands now to pull it out instead of grab Adam, removing the arrow, and throwing it straight back up at the woman who dodged it, balancing on the branch above them. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Turning her large body with arrows still stuck in her, she began running forward, only a moment before the thread would drag Adam with her by his feet, still connected to the large bulb of her spider half’s back, just under where her tail began. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Reaching forward to try to remove it, he knew he’d be too slow but had to try, until a large frame of armor stepped forward in a lunge, drawing a silver streaking sword, slicing down at the ground and severing the thread just as it was to take Adam’s feet. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It took him a moment to realize what just happened, watching the spider woman run away now instead, and pulling arrows from her body, heading back up the hill from where they came, but eventually his mind was starting to catch up to the situation. To his left the armored person stood tall now, sheathing his sword and looking down to Adam, half dazed still and finding holding his eyes open difficult. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And who might you be?” He started, glancing over the armor Adam wore that shone with a vibrant sheen, its gunmetal gray, unpainted luster almost unscathed despite the abuse he put it through, “Never seen anything like that armor you got there before, you must not be from around here.” His tone was friendly, but serious as she gazed down at Adam’s mouth, stained with the black ink from the woman’s blood. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The tone and urgency in his voice snapped from easy-going to urgent like the snap of a rubber band, “Terra, bring me a water bottle, now!” He ordered, and a moment later, he reached up and caught a circular canteen in his hands, brown leather on each side with a wide metal band around its edge. He quickly ripped the top off and knelt down to Adam, “Rinse your mouth out with this, quickly, you musn’t get any of that blood in your system, now quickly. Do not swallow any of it.” He urged again, handing Adam the bottle, and letting him use the water inside to rinse out his mouth, spitting the tinted fluid out several times, “Do not be reserved, keep doing this until the bottle is empty, understand?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Nodding, Adam kept at it while he could hear the group of people converging around him. Once everyone in what looked to be a military scouting squad was gathered before him, he could see it consisted of the armored knight, another younger looking male with far less armor, holding a book that floated over his hand and no helmet, his black short cut hair in a mess, and two women who had bows, wearing fairly tight fitting but non-revealing green tunics, their quivers held over their backs. Both had blonde hair tied into buns, staring at him, one with green eyes, the other with blue, other than that they appeared to be twins. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Is this him?” The blue eyed one started, looking at him with a serious but curious expression on her face. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes, this looks like it might be the thing we saw fall out of the sky earlier.” The younger man pointed out, “You said it was silver, and flew like it had wings. This doesn’t have wings though, and I don’t recall you saying it had a face of a human or not.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I don’t recall it having a face either.” She seemed rather condescending if Adam had to be honest, “Maybe this isn’t it.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m not an ‘it’ by the way.” Adam blurted out, setting the canteen down on the ground in a dry spot and lifting himself to sit upright against the tree, “You probably did see me. I do have wings, and I was wearing a helmet.” He picked the canteen up now that he was righted, “Uh, who does this belong to?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The green eyed girl knelt down to hold out her hand, “That would be mine, mister...?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sigil.” He started, handing it to her kindly, “Adam Sigil. Head of Guardia’s Research and Development division.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Guardia?” Her question came immediately after standing back up, “Never heard of it. Is that some sort of country?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes and no.” He rested his arms now comfortably on his legs, clasping his hands together, “It’s a ring-world over the planet that oversees the development of the different kinds of species on this planet, and also helps maintain the Gheist outbreak.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Ring world? Gheist?” She again asked, “Again, I’m afraid I never heard of such a thing.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re joking right? We’re a critical part of every day operations in all of the major cities on Aeon, there’s no way people don’t know of us.” He laughed, thinking she was joking. His laughing, along with his heart, stopped with her response. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What is Aeon? Are you referring to another country? This world is not referred to by that name, nor has it ever been in the thousands of years of its history. I’m afraid you are mistaking it for another land.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Wait...” He stopped her, “This has to be Aeon, this is the only planet within hundreds.... no, thousands of light years from Guardia that has a Temperate environment capable of sustaining human or natural life.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sensing the situation was amiss, the man in the armor cut in, “Well, why don’t we get you back to town, it seems we have much to discuss, and it’s not safe for you out here now that that Ushi-Oni has your scent. You will need the safety of the town walls to keep her from pursuing you any further.” Offering his hand, he helps Adam to his feet. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What’s an Ushi-Oni?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You haven’t heard of one of those? They’re without a doubt the single most dangerous monster in this entire region. They make civilized Mamono seem harmless.” The blue eyed one told him, her condescending tone having lifted a little, maybe she felt sorry for his distress? <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That monster woman?” He looked at her as they began walking down the hill, giving her his attention as they talked. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not monster, Mamono. Calling a demi-human mamono a ‘monster’ is like a racial slur to some. Monsters of the past were terrifying creatures with very little similarity to humans, if she was a Mamono, she likely would not have toyed with you as she did.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So that woman, she was going to kill me?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Probably not by a conscious act or anything.” The younger male spoke up, “Ushi-Oni are very dangerous because of their insatiable sexual appetite. Despite having multiple male partners, it is not uncommon for them to copulate until their partner faints, and move onto the next. However, most will select a single male to breed with and instead, mate with him for the majority of their waking hours.” He seemed to joke about it like it wasn’t a huge deal to him, or he found it funny, “The only time they stop is when they go to gather food for themselves and their ‘husbands’ or when they sleep. Or in your case, when they’re out looking for new husbands, or more to add to their collection.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You strained the word husband pretty hard there.” Adam joked back, “I guess their definition of husband isn’t exactly the same as ours?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You would be right.” He chucked into a clenched fist, “For them, a husband is nothing more than a vessel for them to copulate with, and to focus all of their romantic and sexual energies on.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sounds... Almost nice, until you get to the part where they chase you down a mountain side and slam you into a tree with the force of a speeding freight train...” Adam tried joking back, the young man only giving him a confused expression back, “What?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m afraid I’ve never heard of that thing you speak of, a ‘speeding freight train’ as you put it? What is that?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You don’t know? It’s a mechanical vehicle that weighs thousands of pounds, and can get moving upwards of fifty to eighty miles per hour. The figure of speech comes from the fact that the force they carry with them is enough to turn a person into a red stain, and is usually said when describing a force of equivalent power.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“However you are not a red stain.” The blue eyed woman stated, hiding a smile. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Tapping his fist against his chest, “Atiom plating, this armor is a new design that, from what I’ve seen, can take quite a beating. I think the only reason I’m alive is because she couldn’t get through this.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s incredible.” She acknowledged, walking up to him and poking her finger at his arm, her pink fingernail tapping it loudly, “What did you call this?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Atiom plating, it’s a special kind of reinforced metal that’s pretty resilient to extreme temperatures and doesn’t bend easily. It’s pretty difficult to make but it’s totally worth it, someone could hit it as hard as they wanted and it’d probably never bend or dent.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well aren’t you just a wealth of funny facts we’ve never heard of.” She joked, it seemed her serious attitude was only attributed to the possibility of danger and her apprehension of him being their target. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m surprised, I was sure everyone on the planet was familiar with this by now.” Adam was rather confused at the idea that they had no idea who or what he was. Guardia, his home, had been a part of the world of Aeon for several thousand years and he was sure that by now their presence was common knowledge with everyone on the planet. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Afraid not, we’ve never heard of anything of what you’re talking about.” The armored man finally said, he must be the captain or leader of the group. It only took a few minutes but they reached the base of the hill and were finally on the road. Not too far off was a cart that carried some supplies, food, water, weapons it looked like, “Almost there, we can ride on the back of the wagon the rest of the way to town.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sounds goo--” Adam stopped mid sentence, his head and heart throbbed violently as he dropped to his knees and hands, “Oh god... What the hell?” His heart rate soared through the roof, it had never beat so hard or so fast in his life, it beat so hard it hurt, “My heart, my heart...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh no, did you swallow any of that woman’s blood!?” The man knelt down next to him, propping him up by the shoulders, straining to keep his heavy body upright, “Adam!” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I... I don’t know, I don’t think I did.” He strained the words, tears formed in his eyes, all he wanted at this point was for the pain to stop or for him to pass out. It hurt so much and it came so fast, “What’s happening?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The man finally took his helmet off and set it down next to him, looking Adam in the eyes as he pulled his eyelids open to get a good look, “If you swallowed any of her blood, you are in incredible danger.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Wh-why?” Adam’s eyes began to fade, his irises relaxing and dilating despite the bright sunlight through the clouds in the sky. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Damn it, he’s fading. We have to get him back to town.” Looking back he called for the person on the wagon to come over to them, there was no way he was going to lift Adam and carry him to it. It took the combined force of him and the two twins to lift the limp armored body up and onto the wagon, a thunderous thud let out and wood creaked under his weight. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What if he doesn’t make it, Captain?” The blue eyed woman asked him, “What if he turns?” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“We can deal with it then, but we can’t do anything for him out here, we’ll need the church’s healers to cleanse his blood as soon as we can. You will help too, right?” He looked back to the young man in his light armor and robes, holding his book steadily inches from his hand. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course sir.” He quickly replied, a stern look on his face shown he had no hesitation. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Good, let us get our mystery companion here back to town, if he wakes, we might be able to learn something about him.” Beginning walking next to the cart when it begins rolling, he looks up to the woman at the front, pulling it, “Sorry to bother you with this, Seria.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Looking down to him with a smile on her face, the woman, a Centaur smiles, her light brown hair slowly flowing back from the wind caused by her walking, “Not at all, Captain, he might weigh more than all of you combined, but this is still nothing.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Uh... Thanks.” He scratched the back of his graying haired head. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What if he’s just another spy sent from the Demon Lord or her daughters?” The centaur’s face growing serious, “That would be problematic.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I don’t think that’s a problem, he was attacked by a monster when we found him, any monster knows the scent of the Demon Lord’s family. They’d stay away if they sensed anything.” He seemed pretty confident, but became a little cautious himself, “He was attacked by an Ushi-Oni however, and she had no seal on her, so it’s entirely possible still I guess...” Looking back to Adam, his face still wincing despite being unconscious now, “But if he was, an Ushi-Oni’s blood wouldn’t have this effect on him, he would already be an Incubus... Or worse...” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“True... But I do sense a lot of energy coming off of him, sir. Be careful with this one.” <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I will, Seria, thank you.” He smiled to her before putting his helmet back on. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The woman merely blushed and took a few hurried steps forward, trying to keep him from seeing her now red face over her light brown tanned skin. He could only chuckle and let her go; they would wake this new person up some time later, and he would have many questions to ask surely, but many more however, he would have to answer to. <p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Clenching the hilt to his sword, the Captain seemed to ask an ominous deity, “Please, lord... Michael, if you can hear my prayer, do not let this one be a spy as well. We are far too few these days to be sacrificing men to the demons’ plans.”

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<p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">Well if you've made it this far, thank you for reading the entire Prologue + Chapter 1 of my Fanfic. I'm not done with this story yet, but I wanted to get a chapter up so people can read it, and hopefully I could get a little feedback to let me know if I'm doing this right, or if I'm just failing miserably at writing and should just stop.

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<p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">I had to forego using Italics and other formatting because copying from a Word document here screws with the formatting and it'd be a nightmare to try to go line by line to correct it. So I'm sorry if there's a lack of emphasis on some words and hopefully that didn't cause much confusion for you guys.

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<p class="p0" style="text-indent:21pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> I really appreciate your interest in this work, and if enough people really like it, I can post a couple more chapters of this that I've already finished writing and are ready to post. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and if you want more please let me know.