Unfortunate research expeditions (Ariana, Granitoid)

Knowledge is power. It was an old saying made by Sir Francis Bacon and it certainly held true. Ignatius was a firm believer in such a philosophy, and had made it his life's work. His studies into science had led to marvelous results. There were plenty of other things to be studied however. This list included the results of other's work. Even if he did not know who was responsible for it. Doctor Xelek had heard a lot of rumors of some strange lifeforms of unknown origin. These included creatures of myths and legends, supernatural ones and various others all gathered in a small area. One of these included an advanced robotic being. Despite knowing of the existences of such lifeforms in this world he had never met one before. This fact discouraged him greatly and made this trip necessary. Even though his specialty was technically genetics, other fields of science were nothing he could not accomplish things with. 

He arrived in secret in a small town in Montana where a recent rumored sighting had occurred according to his sources. Along with his prized creation they started to explore the area. Xelek had to tell the creature to stay well hidden all throughout just in case they were found. A quick search around the outer areas led to no results. With that bit of disappointment he headed into town to meet with the local reporter whom he had spoken with. Xelek had done a clever job at disguising himself as a reporter that was investigating these stories. After their meeting was over he was off to the indicated location of the last sighting in search of clues. With his private van in tow that included a bunch of research tools for his preferred methods of research. If all went well he would be able to start experimenting on whatever he found in no time.

Ariana was walking around a town a small town in Montana. However she she didn't stick out like a sore thumb. Her skin was a white with a light tan. Her hair was a red color and her eyes were a deep set brown. She was wearing a white graphic tee and a black skirt, however the clothes where just an extension of herself, even though it felt like actual clothes. It had been a few months since she left Dominus, she had been wandering since, really with out purpose. She was lost in thought, a lot had happened in the past few months. She then bumped into someone, knocking her flat on her ass.

"Ow." said Ariana queitly. She then looked up to the man she bumped into, looking extremely sad. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to walk into you." She then got up and walked away, blushing that she did something so stupid.

Granitoid's mind was preoccupied. It had strolled many miles since leaving Annelise's memorial site. Indeed, it had traveled through many states, wandering aimlessly until it reached the place that was called Montana. Granitoid looked around again, careful to only move its eyes. 'Not many statues here, gonna stand out.' It mattered little, night would soon be upon the small town that Granitoid had wandered into, and then it would be easier for the construct to move around. 'Stretch my legs, see the sights, maybe I'll even find something worth doing here.' For now, however, Granitoid had to be content to sit and act the part of the statue as the citizens the town went about their days.

"Ow." Granitoid's attention moved again. From the construct's stationary position, it could make out a young girl and a man. The girl had just bumped into the man, landing on her rear. Granitoid felt a twinge at the base of its tail, tails made falling on rears all the more painful. Granitoid watched as the girl rose and apologized to the man, walking away. 'Reminds me of Annelise when she'd get in trouble,' Granitoid mused, 'I will follow her. The construct marked the direction that she went, and settled down to watch the continued setting of the sun.

Granitoid peeked out from behind a tree. 'Nightfall. The perfect cover.' The construct continued along the path, certain that the girl had gone this way. There was something about this girl, maybe it was because she'd reminded it of Annelise. Either way, there she was. Granitoid stayed around the corner, watching the girl go about her business. 'So small. Then again, so am I.' Granitoid's pondering distracted the construct, and its stone foot crushed a stick, shattering the silence of the quiet night.

Doctor Xelek continued to explore the outskirts of the small town in Montana. Such an extent of physical labor was something he did not like having to partake in. His physical condition may have been amplified by his scientific breakthroughs, but he had not kept himself in proper condition lately. He would just drive around instead, but the roads were too narrow and it was far too easy to miss things when driving. Walking allowed one to be far more aware of the surroundings.

He ventured down the pathway he felt something collide into him. After nearly losing his balance from the collision, Xelek turned to see what had hit him. There he laid his eyes upon a young girl. A town resident perhaps? Or a target of his investigations? He had been informed that the locals had been generally avoiding the areas where sightings had occurred. This included preventing the children from coming out here. Especially not alone. Xelek had his suspicions, but no way to confirm without running the risk of being wrong and drawing the wrong kind of attention to himself. He was left with no other option but letting her go.

Turning away to proceed back down the path he suddenly heard a rustling noise. Out of the foliage came his prized pet who started chasing after the girl. Annihliatorah rushed after her attempting to capture her. That was confirmation for him. His creature would not come out and attack her if she were just a normal human. Xelek reached into his pocket to grab something as the creature attempt to subdue her.

( Forgot to link this but this is what she looks like when in human form:

Spoiler:

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Ariana had continued on her walk. Despite all that happened recently she was in a reasonably good mood. Whatever her mom was trying to do something must of gone wrong. Her mother finally accepted her before the accident happened. Although she didn't know where she was or where her mother was. Although the fact she knew her mother was alive had put her in a good mood. She was humming some nonsense song to herself and had a skip in her step. However something landed on top of her, knocking her hard on her back. She looked up and saw a monster. Fear struck her and she let out a loud, high pitched scream.

Granitoid froze, but it seemed that no one had heard the stick breaking. The construct opened its eyes, glancing around at the surroundings to attempt and relocate the girl. There. Scarcely a moment after Granitoid had spotted her, something rushed out of the bushes, leaping at the young girl. She fell to the ground, her scream of terror ripping through the construct. 'No...' Granitoid's claws dug into the tree it hid behind. 'I promised.'

Without further ado, Granitoid bolted from behind its tree towards the thing attacking the girl. If luck went its way, the construct's shoulder would connect with the thing on top of the girl and knock it off of her. "You shall harm no children on my watch!" Granitoid shouted as it attempted to ram the thing. So bent on hitting the thing attacking the girl was Granitoid, it failed to notice the male figure standing nearby. 

If Granitoid was successful in knocking the thing off of the girl, it would then place itself between the thing and the girl. If Granitoid missed, then the construct would trip on its own feet and roll to a stop along the path.

It seems they had found one of the unusual ones in the area. Now to find out which one. Doctor Xelek walked forward to assist Annihliatorah as it attempted to subdue her. The creature grasped at her with it's great strength. As it attempted to lunge something got its attention. Xelek saw it too. A small person made of rock bounding towards his creation. "Look out." he shouted as it drew closer. Annihliatorah was caught up in its efforts and did not respond at first. By the time it did it no longer had a chance to react. The creature was knocked to the ground and away from the girl by the golem. 

"Get back up." he told it. Xelek pulled out three small containers and held them ready. Annihliatorah rose back to its feet and opened its maw. A stream of energy fired from it aimed directly at the stone intruder. This creature was known to be really aggressive. This was just another example of such behavior. Whatever it was this thing that interfered happened to be would quickly regret their decision.

The creature was right on of her. She was holding her arms over her head in fear as she looked away. Fearing the creature's attack, but it never came. Instead there was a crash and the creature was knocked away and another creature, made of stone, stood with it's back turned to her. Threatening the other creature. Was the creature of stone helping her or just hunting it's prey. She didn't want to find out. She scrambled backwards and began to run.  She ran for awhile and then ran off the path, hiding behind a large rock. She looked over the rock and saw the first creature firing some sort of beam from it's mouth. She ducked under the rock and covered her head with her hands. 

"Mommy help..." she said quitely to herself, even though she knew no one would hear her.

Granitoid planted its feet firmly on the path, blocking the winged monstrous that had attacked the girl from its target. The construct, rather pleased with itself for defending the girl, eyed the beast warily. If the creature chose to leave, then there wouldn't be the need for Granitoid to continue the fight. Then, Granitoid heard a mans voice shouting instructions, and for the first time the construct turned to see the fourth member of the confrontation.

Distracted as it was, Granitoid failed to do anything to dodge out of the way of the blast from the attacking creature. The construct crossed its arms in front of its face as the electrified vapor blasted it full on. Granitoid felt the electricity course through its stone body to the ground, an unpleasant tingling feeling that just bordered on pain. Gritting its stone mouth, the construct forced one foot forward. Then the other, then the other, until it was making its slow but steady way towards the creature breathing vapor at it.

In all the commotion, Granitoid failed to notice that the girl it was protecting ran off, and especially didn't hear her plea for help from her mother. The construct was also too preoccupied to notice the three containers that the man had withdrawn. Ganitoid's plan was a simple one; if the construct could get close enough to the creature before anyone realized what Granitoid was doing, then it would leap at the attacking monster and attempt to take the fight to the ground where Granitoid's raw strength would be an advantage. If the creature was no longer there, then Granitoid would leap at nothing, blinded by the vapor around him, and land face down on the path.

As Annihliatorah continued to blast away at the golem he heard a voice. It was from his master who was giving him an order. Doctor Xelek stopped walking forward and shouted at his creature. "Never mind that thing. I will deal with it. Go get the girl and capture her. Quickly now before she has a chance to get away." he told it. With that order the creature took flight once again and flew over the golem and towards where the girl had run off to. It saw her and swooped down at her in another attempt to capture her. It landed on top of the rock that she hid under and growled menacingly in an effort to intimidate her. It then lunged with its arms to try and grab her. 

Meanwhile the other one had its own threat to deal with. Doctor Xelek had opened the cannisters and out came some strange liquid. The liquid oozed until it started to expand. Within seconds it took  new forms. Those three puddles of liquid became three new creatures that now glared at the stone being. "If you had not interfered, this would not be happening to you. Now, I'm afraid you are going to have to suffer as well." he told the rock thing in a surprisingly calm voice as he sent the three geiras forward towards it.

Ariana thought she was safe for a moment and she let her guard down for a moment, but then the creature landed on top of the rock she was hiding behind and let out a growl. Ariana yelled in fear and tried to run but the creature was faster then her and grabbed hold of her. She felt her self being lifted up into the air and being carried some where. Ariana started to freak out. "LET ME GO!" Yelled Ariana. She let go of her human guise and her body looked metallic again. She turned one of her hands into a hammer and hit the creature of the head. Although she didn't stay around to see if that did anything. She let go of her solid form and turning into a puddle of liquid metal, slipping right between the creature's fingers. Once she hit the ground she returned to her solid humanoid state, although no longer caring about making herself look human. She began to run again, to scared to look back.

Granitoid spluttered as it hit the ground, rolling onto its back in order to see where the creature had gone. Before the construct had a chance to locate the vapor-breathing beast, it saw the man pour something from three vials. Granitoid pushed itself off the ground, eyeing the forming masses warily. The man was saying something, something about not getting hurt if Granitoid had only stayed out of the situation. "I protect!" the construct retaliated. 

With that, Granitoid heard the girl's scream and finally found where the creature had gone. The construct started racing towards the pair, completely ignoring the three monsters that the man had poured out of canisters. Granitoid watched as the girl turned to metal, and then a pool of liquid, and then back to a metaloid form in order to escape the beast attempting to carry her off. "Well that's something you don't see every day," it mumbled to itself. 

"HEY UGLY!" Granitoid jumped on top of the rock that the girl had hidden behind and addressed the creature with wings. Without stopping, Granitoid hurled itself into the air at the creature. 

Now, focused as it was on the thing attacking the girl, Granitoid actually turned its back on the three other things. There's a good chance that the creatures might reach Granitoid before it managed to actually jump off the rock. If that was the case, then Granitoid wouldn't be able to reach the creature. If the three beasts didn't grab it, then the construct would beeline for the creature with wings and may or may not succeed in intercepting it.

Doctor Xelek had three of his creatures emerge from his vials. He wanted this annoying little encounter over with quickly now. If this were to keep going on for too much longer it could alert the townsfolk and they might come running to see what was going on. No, he simply could not deal with that. Even though he and his pets could probably slaughter anyone who came by it would ruin the purpose of his mission.

As the three Geiras charged after the stone creature Annihliatorah had managed to grab the girl and took to the air. It was flying back to the van where the holding cells were. As it did so the girl's continuous efforts to escape eventually succeeded. She struck it and liquefied herself out of the creature's grasp. Annihliatorah attempted to relocate her but was distracted by the stone creature's charging at it. The Geiras were still chasing after it. Knowing its mission Annihliatorah went after the girl again.

Watching this whole was the doctor who now knew why it was that his creature had gone after that girl in the first place. She was liquid metal robot. Xelek wanted a chance to examine how the metal works more closely.

Ariana ran, that's all she was doing. She didn't look back but she knew that creature was after her. She didn't like the creature and she wanted to be anywhere near it. She ducked into a large wooded area, hoping to lose the creature in the woods. She stumbled on a few branches but recovered quickly. She saw a cave around the stream and ran. towards it. She hid inside a rock inside the cave. She peered over the rock slightly. She didn't see anything which was nice. In the back of her head she wondered how the rock creature was doing. She changed back into her human looking form.

Granitoid missed the flying creature by a hairs width. "Drat!" he managed to mutter before hitting the ground. The construct pulled itself up, watching as the girl darted into the forest. "Find somewhere to hide!" i shouted after her. "And for crying out loud, RUN FASTER!" Granitoid turned back to face the three abominations that had been on its heals. 'I'll never catch her or that flying thing,' Granitoid convinced itself, 'But I can take these three creatures out so they don't follow her!' The construct planted its feet, waiting for the three creatures to get to him.

It didn't have to wait long. Assuming that the things would try and attack him immediately, Granitoid ducked under where the construct expected their attack to be, crawling through one of the creature's legs and coming up on the other side. Granitoid wound up a fist, sending it towards the rear of the creature he'd crawled under, if indeed it was still there. Not waiting to see if the construct had hit or not, Granitoid turned to face another of the creatures, attempting to kick the legs out from under that one. This of course, would leave the construct open to attack from the third creature that it had unfortunately ignored. 'Just gotta keep stalling 'em!' Granitoid grunted mentally to itself.