The Spirit and The Scientist

Salone’s head reeled back in shock as Artemis’ clawed hand, it left a three deep gouge marks before Shi seized her around the middle and pulled her away while her friend thrashed.  
Ignoring Ourobos’ insults, she touched the claw marks and looked at Penny.  
“Well then, that was eventful,” Salone winced as she touched it and withdrew her fingers showing blood.  

Penny returned with a bag of stuff and went through it, pulling out a syringe and another bottle.
“Help me! If you want to get her onto that plane we are going to have to drug her!”
Salone sighed, moving over and making sure Hanna was out of the way. She threw herself over Artemis, knees pinning down her wrists, wincing as knees where in her back. After they had her mostly held down, Penny put the needle into Artemis’ arm and pushed the plunger.

“She should be out of it for half of an hour,” Penny notified everyone before closing her bag and adjusting her watch on her wrist. Salone nodded, taking Hanna from whoever was holding her, walked past the child standing in the hall. Returning from laying her down for a nap, Salone (now armed with assorted weaponry for battles in the future) grabbed Artemis around the waist Salone helped the groggy Artemis up and towards the jet.

**

Salone HATED planes, helicopters, and jets. Gripping the arms of her chair Salone shut her eyes, tendons clearly popping in her hands and arms.  Her weapons belt was buckled around her hips and her neck had stopped bleeding for the time being, it was still smeared however. Even with her eyes shut, she listened intently to the conversations, occasionally asking questions or making a comment.

Artemis writhe on the ground in pain. She swatted at the invisible needles and screeched in pain. She was completely obvious to her surroundings and the slightest touch from anything caused her to scream bloody murder. When Salone jumped on her to pin her down, the scream was blood curtailing. She felt as if the needles where being pushed deep into her skin. There was an intense pain on her arm then nothing. The pain faded and then Artemis opened her eyes, however they weren't hers. She felt confused, this wasn't her body. She couldn't move the body yet it was struggling against some invisible to her. Or at least it was until the body moved it's head. Shackles held the body in place, needles sticking out all over the arm. And then the body shifted, into something small. The body screamed in pain as the needles were forced from her body this was. Although it was more a mouse like screech.

---

Fera panted heavily in a small mouse from. She finally seemed to recover enough energy to shift her form although it hurt a lot. The needles where dragged across her skin and cut her badly. She couldn't cut through the tube so the only way through it was to break it. Fera took a deep breath in, this would hurt in her condition. Then she shifted again, but this time into something a bit larger, a T-Rex to be exact, a form she hadn't used in ages. It at least broke the tube easily enough and she stepped forward shifted back to her spirit form. Breath heavily her eyes darted around. Test tubes and computers littered the lab. How she hated technology. She shifted into a saber-tooth tiger. It was a form she could rarely use but it was hands down her favorite. She then proceeded to destroy every computer, beaker, test tube and everything else in the lab. If Fera had to die she would make sure this lowly human never got any results from her and everything in this lab was trampled into dust.

Ouroboros immediately set the plane on auto as he sat in the back at a little "station" littered with formulas and other little doodles he had worked on during his plane rides. He picked up the wall-mounted phone, one that was directly linked to the voicemail of this "Robert Soros" character. With a clearing of his throat he pressed the button to actually ring up the man, and bother him through normal means. He simply observed the others, an uncanny stone cold objectivism in his eyes, one enough to make Death shudder. The ring was stale, but finally the messaging system picked up. The length of the call was secured, no government tracings could help them.

   "Hive-mind this is Scout. I repeat this is Scout. Reporting in to Origin. Vanguard, Courier, Technician, Medic, and Atterrius we are in Code Black, I repeat Code Black. B.L.A.C.K. Origin, requesting the activation of the Hive-mind protocol. We'll be reaching New York City in approximately thirty seven minutes. Subject Artemis is in dire condition, asking permission for the use of resurrection energies through the A.O.R. This is of the highest priority. I am also requesting permission to use "IT". Guardian, should you receive this message in his stead, please deliver this news to Origin immediately." Ouroboros (scout) said. The kicker being that if anyone even did hear him they would never understand what he was saying. He spoke these words in the Ethereal language, so unless they were an Ethereal they would not understand the message. He hung up the phone and looked over to Shi.

     "Well the bad news is I can't do what I wanted to do to help your friend...but I can do the next best thing." He said, sounding uncaring and objective as always. He glared as he would notice Shi looking at him, his hands on his knees as he sat with a perfect warriors posture. The same posture Ouroboros had, save Ouro's hands were folded as he scowled.
 
     "So how is S-"
     "Your next word had better be "Sean" because I'll rip out your throat if you dare ask me about either of my other loved ones that begin with S are. He snapped. Shi immediately froze. Well it was obvious he didn't give two rat's hiney's over Sean so that means he should probably remain as silent.  The remainder of the flight was drull as far as Ouroboros was concerned.
* * * * * * * *

   Robert Soros picked up his phone, the entity known as Guardian called him, delivering an message form Scout. His eye raised as he took the message in. He agreed to help Shi find Artemis, NOT to help her deal with her drama and her death.

    "I can support your first point, however to the secondary I can only say "Absolutely not. He will not use the "assets" for such things. I will let him know if I change my mind on him using IT!" He growled as he contemplated this. One of the Seven had gone rogue. If Scout so wished to waste his talents with the rabble it would be his own head should he be eliminated. He was now at the office where Miss Magic promised to meet him, he eagerly awaited her appearance. Hopefully she had a moment. While he still had the time, he took the opportunity to activate the hive-mind unit.
* * * * * *

    "Goddamnit. Origin completely limited me... looks like we're doing this the old fashion way." Ouroboros said as he kicked the door, opening it. The air began to rush into the plane. He looked back to Shi and Salone. "Search the area where this lands, I'm dropping down below to see if I can find any readings!" he called out as he leapt form the plane, neglecting a parachute.

Salone at some point had searched around for a book, something to distract her from being up in the air this high. Then the door was opened and Salone yelped, standing abruptly and regretting her decision entirely to stand as it made her feel sick.

After Ourobus jumped out of the jet Salone looked at Shi, “Are we expected to follow?” She asked over the noise, she assumed so. Salone sighed and grabbed Artemis around the waist, hefted her up and checked her vitals. They were about the same but at anytime Salone suspected they would drop. She glanced around for Shi.

Artemis woke groggily on the plane. She looked out the window and saw the where in the air. She was now confused, it didn't feel like the were moving. THe others where talking about something she didn't understand, and then, Ouroboros jumped out of the plane. Salone was checking her vitals at the time and she looked at Shi asking if they had to follow. Without saying Artemis got up and walked over to the door and stepped out of the plane. She plummeted towards the ground. She held her hands out like wings. She knew she couldn't shift currently, but the sensation felt nice, almost as if nothing had changed at all.


(Fera is still destroying the lab)

Vexus was on her way back to her laboratory since she had not yet heard back from her benefactor. She could only assume he became preoccupied with something else. This was the first time she had left the captured spirit alone, and since she did not risk having any surveillance, there was no way of knowing what was happening. Unfortunately all the tests she had been running were proving to be failures. The medication she was able to cultivate from the Spirit's antibodies only provided a temporary relief. Elena had a pretty significant amount of the pills which she kept on her person just incase their effects ran short. Due to the fact that this nature spirit did not yield a cure to her cancer, it was time to put an end to the experiments. There was no more need for the spirit, and since the host had been assumably killed off then what reason was there to keep the spirit alive? More than likely upon her return she would terminate all tests and subject matter, just to be on the safe side.

As Vexus approached the entrance to her lab, she could hear commotion from the other side. This was very surprising to her seeing as the walls to her base were completely sound proof. It could only have meant that her test subject had escaped. The Spirit was literally the only living thing in her entire lab and was literally the only thing that could be making the sounds she was hearing. Elena rolled her eyes as she made her way in, and when she got to the bottom of the steps she saw the Nature Spirit had done quite the number on her laboratory. She started with a slow clap to get the thing's attention.
"Well look what we have here... I'm rather impressed that you were able to escape you confinement tube. Even more so that you were able to cause such a heavy amount of damage to my lab here and in your condition. There is a chance I underestimated your strength."
Vexus threw her purse over her shoulder, crossed her arms, and slowly began to walk up to what used to be one of her computers. With every step her heels clicked against the cold concrete creating an eerie echo.
"However, I did not underestimate your intelligence. I must thank you for your work here. You are a failed experiment, and all failed experiments are to be terminated with no traces. You have already done three fourths of the terminating, and I greatly appreciate your help."
Vexus shifted through her purse for a second and took out a vial of pills, shook a few into her palm and knocked them back.
"Now, what you might not know is that this was only a temporary lab to be destroyed with the reconstruction of the city above us. A little bit ahead of schedule, but still, one more thing to be crossed off my to do list. So again, I thank you."
Even though the spirit had escaped and had done Vexus a favor by destroying most of the evidence, it still slimly posed a problem that she had escaped. It would have been much easier to kill her while she was still in captivity, simply injecting her with a super toxin and letting her die. Now Vexus has to kill this shapeshifting thing herself.
A lot of the equipment in the lab was created with her technomatter, the parts of which were still intact even after the vicious beating they had taken from the brutish spirit. She clicked a key on the heavily damaged computer and a few of the burners that were built into the various surfaces turned on. The Spirit was obviously careless with her destruction, and there were tons of random liquids that had been thrown about the lab. Most of which highly flammable. One of the flames caught some of the liquid setting a small corner of the lab on fire. It was not much, but soon enough the flames would grow and completely engulf the entire room. Eventually the frame would weaken and the laboratory would collapse in on itself, the fire having already destroyed any evidence there was even anything there.
Vexus took out her bottle of pills again and stuffed them out of sight in her cleavage then threw her purse over to the corner of flames.
"Now that I have started the incineration process, I can terminate the last piece of my failed experiment..."
Elena's Celestial Eye glowed with power as she stared down her target across the room. With this being one of the first times that there would be no need to hold back against an opponent, Vexus would most certainly enjoy slaughtering the Nature Spirit.

"Not yet." He said as he watched the plane fly by at a terrific speed. Before they knew it, the plane was slowing. "Now. After it lands of course" Shi said. Despite his comment about waiting for the plane to land, he ran forth and charged form the window, the second the tip of his foot touched the ground, he vanished a sharp noise echoing as he moved at untraceable speeds into the wasteland of a city. Salone and the rest were left to their own devices, it would seem that Shi was on a mission, as well as the Ouroboros clone. Shi covered immense ground, using his very essence to reach out and try to connect with it's fellow spirit. It was proving most difficult, since Shi himself had murdered so many spirits in his "corruption" that many had naturally found it second nature to deny him a connection. He tried as he may, it would seem that he would never find the Spirit of Nature... unless through his Death-related omniscience... but by then...it was too late.

   Ouroboros had hit the ground and took off running and Woe unto thee who stood in his path. Like a bat out of hell he charged forth, things had taken rather serious, and if his calculations were correct then there would be no time to waste. Things like this were what one could call dire...if one truly cared for the pathetic shape shifter, and so he would oblige as he focused for a moment, Ethereal energy seeping through his soul to augment the muscles in his legs, and energizing the twitch-fibers. (+4 PP speed). A drop of Ethereal energy, not even enough to be detected by Elena Marie in her "fortress" she hid in the clouds above. It was more than enough to bring the clone from a twenty five mile per hour speed, to a four-hundred mile per hour speed. Less than a tear drop expended and his existence was still protected from the Crimson Bitch above.

    Moving sixteen times faster than usual, the clone sped alone. He covered vast distances, though not nearly as quickly as Ryurou himself. The clone itself took in a shaky breath when he noticed something. He had felt the hive-mind activate, but he already disobeyed the orders of Origin, WHILE he had complete access to his mind. The repercussions of this would be most unpleasant, and that it it's own right disheartened the clone, knowing that the TRUE Ouroboros would soon bring his wrath against him. He would deal with the consequences later however. Perhaps should he accomplish the mission quicker than expected he would simply be beaten for stupidity...rather than utterly annihilated for insubordination.

    He kept the path, eventually noticing that his superhuman sensory picked up on something. His eyes scanned the area, quickly enough to make them seem as if they were blurs. He perceived nothing, heard nothing...but he SMELLED something. He turned around and instinctively he held up an arm, his hands. The back of his hand knocked away the incoming attack. His eyes shifted, focusing on the surrounding area. Nothing. He turned his head to see a single arrow. His eyes narrowed and he scoffed. Origin, I am under assault by an unknown target. Target cannot be seen, nor heard but I can smell something off...like that of fire. Requesting permiss- He began, he was suddenly interrupted.

    Negative. The smell of burning is coming from MY sensory. Ignore the target, you've already broken protocol, come towards me immediately. Robert thought. He could tell he was being obliged. He himself was looking out the window, a most beautiful display. He looked off to the distance, his "unique" eyes allowing him the enhanced sight. A large portion of thermal energy emitted from what appeared to be under the ground...and there were two other energies. One reminded him of Ryurou Shi, and the other...it was enigmatic. He chuckled as he let his "eyes" fade away. I hope you saw that...get to it. He thought with a snicker. Suddenly he heard the clicking of heels behind him. He turned with a warm smile and looked to the fine-dressed young woman. It was not Miss Magic, though he had not lethis "disappointment" apparent.

    "Miss Magic has been detained for the moment. She assures me that she will be here as soon as she possibly can, and she apologizes for the inconvenience." The woman said, a genuine heartfelt apology on her behalf. Robert only smiled and nodded.

    "I understand. I shall simply wait for her here then." He said kindly as he lowered himself into a chair, sitting and smiling. He continued to hum a familiar tune, a nursery rhyme of sorts. Oh where, oh where has my maaagic gone, oh where oh where could she be? With Spirit on loose and a fire so strong, oh where could my ma-agic be? the humming turned into a slight amused laughter.

Salone gaped as Shi jumped out of the plane as well. In that case, this entire issue was going to the dogs. Turning to Artemis she was about to ask a question when her friend dove out of the jet! WHAT?!

“ARTEMIS!” Salone called and she ran towards the door, seeing Artemis free fall towards the ground. She was in no way going to survive that! Salone jumped, diving and angling towards Artemis.  Then she shifted and the great gold dragon was arching through the air, capturing Artemis carefully, in great ivory talons. Then she spread her wings, wind catching in them to slow her decent before angling out again. Salone felt kinda bad about the fact Artemis was dangling in her clutch like a kill. But, for now, it couldn’t be helped.

Moving her great head, she looked for Shi or Ourobos. Either one would due but she would rather find Shi over the other. Unable to find Shi, Salone managed to pick out Ourobos’ scent. She followed it for some time and circled over him once to capture his attention before landing, carefully putting down Artemis and lowering down into a crouching position. One vast amber eye fixed on her while the other one watched Ourobos. Salone was unsure what was going to happen next. Shi and Ouro, to her anyway, seemed to be playing two very different games. Using the dragon form was odd, mainly because she had a tail, an extra body part was always distracting… and she hadn’t used it since… well…  Salone stopped that train of thought. Yawning, she showed dagger like teeth. Fixing Ouro with a questioning look, trying to ask him what was next without shifting back into a human.

Wind blew past her. The free fall felt nice, she had done it a thousand time before as a hawk but took it for granted. The ground was closely approaching. Was this going to be the end? Artemis didn't particularly care. Why should she, her life had gone spiraling out of control. First she lost in an embarrassing defeat, was experimented on and learned that her power was not really her own. Everyone was trying to help her. But how much say did she seem to have in it? She was dragged along for a ride. She was dying anyway right? That Ouroboros person said so himself. Might as well end it now right? Go out feeling a rush of something other then creeping depression.

However that didn't seem to be the case. Giant ivory talons wrapped around her, snatching her out of the air. Artemis just sighed and hung from the talons, apparently today wasn't her dying day. Salone landed shortly after. She was placed on the ground and she just kinda sat there, waiting for whatever to happen next to happen.

---

Fera turn sharply at the sound of the clapping. The woman seemingly returned not to long ago. Who long had she been here? Perhaps she just showed up? Regardless Fera's attention was now on this human. The human walked arounde for a bit, saying how she was helping her in destroying the evidence before setting the room a blaze. Fera let out a low growl. She remembered the fight with this woman when she was in the suit. She wasn't on to be taken lightly. Still Fera was getting pumped just thinking about what this woman could do. She charged at Vexus, darting side to side trying to get in close. She would make sure to make this fight against this fragile human quick.

The nature spirit was in the form of a Sabertooth Tiger, a different form than from when she had fought her while she was still within the human. She apparently had the ability to take more than likely a few more forms than the human could handle. Since this was the source of the late girl's powers, it could be assumed that this spirit was far more powerful than the human. Granted, anything that was not human with some sort of abilities was powerful. While her Celestial Eye was active, she had been creating Technomatter in the air preparing for when she attacked and the beast wasted no time.
The Tiger darted forward towards Vexus in a zig zag formation, it appeared that this form was not as fast as it could be as Elena could easily follow it's movements. The large cat tried to dig it's claws into Elena once it was in range, but instead of flesh it was met with a wall of Technomatter. Vexus moved her face backwards a bit as the claw came dangerously close to getting through her defense. Immediately following the silver material rushed forward forcing the animal back and slamming it against the wall. The spirit was easily able to shake off the impact, but Vexus was persistent with her attacking trying to land a powerful blunt hit with large amounts of Techomatter. Again, the tiger was darting back and fourth towards Vexus nimbly avoiding the surges of the metal like substance. The metal material was leaving dents in the laboratory floor where it landed demonstrating how much power was behind the attacks. Seeing that she was getting nowhere, Elena moved the Matter forward very quickly and formed a wall in front of the sprinting animal. Unfortunately for her it had already been too late when she tried to react as the Technomatter moved quickly trapping the prehistoric beast within a large pyramid of the reflective sand. Vexus gave a smirk and uncrossed her arms and began to move forward to claim her prize, but immediately stopped when one of the Sabertooth Tigers' paws burst fourth from the prison. She quickly backed up and regained her composure crossing her arms again.

Continuing the onslaught Vexus pulled apart the pyramid and formed a handful of tendrils which tried feverishly to grab a hold of any of the tiger's limbs. It was not as agile as it could be, but it was strong; easily being able to knock down and destroy the tendrils if they got anywhere near her body. While it was busy dealing with the multiple whips of Technomatter, Elena strained a little bit and increased the amount of the essence she had at her disposal. The new material she moved up and then had it crash down onto of the animal, once it struck the rest of the matter flowed in creating a waterfall of the Technomatter on the back of the Animal. However even that was not enough to keep it down. It stood strong, bearing its fangs at Vexus. She scoffed at the threat and quickly manipulated the matter to wrap around it's hind legs and pull them out from under it and dragging across the floor. Even though it's claws were sharp, she did not allow it enough time to get a grip on the floor. Vexus hoisted it up the air and again whipped it against the walls of the burning lab a good three times leaving large cracks where it made contact and then a final strike by pummeling it down onto the hard flow with enough power to cause the ground to spiderweb out.
Not losing focus, Vexus moved the Technomatter into a position that surrounded the extinct cat species. The silver sand took the shape of dozens of lethally sharp spears, without wasting a moment all of the icicle like objects quickly jabbed inward hoping to violently impale this spirit once and for all. All the while, Elena stood right by the steps of the laboratory with her arms crossed. So far it had not yet appeared as if she had put any effort into the conflict, but she knew that every second that this went on the more damage she did to herself whether she could feel it or not.

Ouroboros moved at his regular rate once more, knowing a general location as to where the little anomaly was transpiring. He would arrive perhaps before the rest of them, if only because he knew exactly where it was, and the others did not have such a luxury. He began to wonder about the progress of the others as he began to close in on the location where Origin believed the Spirit was. He would arrive there soon...too soon for anyone's comfort. He would be able to confront the Nature spirit and it's attacker (next post)

Shi Ryurou stopped in his travels, turning to find Artemis. He could feel the essence of the Spirit of Nature. He ran forced himself to step to Artemis and place a hand on her shoulder. He drew his faithful soul and held it up, a chain attacked to the hilt with an hourglass attached to it. Artemis was almost out of time, she had literally MINUTES before she died. Shi would break his solemn oath one more time for the woman. "To you this hour I turn my gaze" Shi spoke softly and in an attempt to comfort. The hourglass turned back, and added an hour to Artemis' life. When this hour wasup however she would only have minutes more.