---xX--Xx---

I woke when the light hit me right in the temple,
Felt something cold touch my toes as it passed.
Might not be the face you’d expect,
But he’s clearly insane, got me pegged in the back.

---xX--Xx---

“Is that all? I suppose I can help you with that, but you may be a little queasy in the end.”

Before Lina could pull her head away from Angel, his index finger connected with the spot on her forehead where many religions said the third eye rests. It was as if the Lost Number had turned a key in the lock her brain had become, and in the blink of an eye everything came flooding back. Marcelina’s combat experience was returned to her completely. She didn’t feel queasy at all: in fact, there was a distinct sense of peace and closure once the memories had returned. Gadrael had utilized forbidden arts… no wonder they’d all been defeated.

“Thank you,” the woman said to Angel, on a sigh of relief. “That’s actually much better.”

But before Angel could respond to Lina, he was struck in the face with a fist-sized pink blob. It had been launched by Seira, who crowed triumphantly from the doorway. And then all hell broke loose.

The psycho thirteen year-old was back. She must have been standing just outside the door listening to everything like the fruitcake she was. Of course she was furious that the ‘trash’ had struck her partner. She proceeded to attack the entire group, calling in a judgment protocol on all of them.

This was not like facing down Gadrael. Kai felt no fear at this little girl’s display of power. As he floated upwards -along with his chair, and the table, and everything else in the room- he caught Lina’s green gaze.

You know this is all part of their act, right?

Of course, Lina replied in her head. We don’t seem to be afraid of, or impressed by, them at all… I called her partner on acting like a dumbass… they had to do something.

All this power, Kai couldn’t help marveling at the Chrono’s talent, and she uses it over a silly food fight. Imagine what she could have done to Gadrael if she had just been there!

It’s a shame, isn’t it? Lina thought back. What a waste!

As Kai was floating in mid-air, a small pink blob with an odd shape floated past his chest. As Angel tried to calm his rampaging partner, Kai reached out and clasped the thing gingerly between his right forefinger and thumb. It spoke to him immediately: this was a gadget covered in goo. He pocketed the unknown device right about the time Reri was distracted by the cell phone charm and gravity restored itself to normal.

Angel started speaking then, and Dos Pistolas paid close attention to his words again. It was another long tirade, but this one much more informative and much less taunting. Kai and Lina watched and listened with expressions on their faces that mixed boredom and incredulity.

---xX--Xx---

Eyes huge, so little left if something:
Cracks and clues, he’s crazy as a straw!
Why denied, does no one care or nothing?
How, you ask, I ever last so long.

---xX--Xx---

How much of that do you think is true? Kai asked his partner telepathically. She was always better at seeing through people than he was, at guessing the truth from their lies.

I’d believe the part about us being suspected traitors. Judging by the sound of this CODE, it’s something you might have been able to crack. That alone could have put us on the list. I believe the part about the near-death experience and the scan: that totally sounds like something the A.M.R.O. would do to us.

True, Kai agreed.

It also makes me wonder if these two were supposed to have a near-death experience as well. Because if they haven’t had one… then they haven’t been scanned. And there’s only one reason they’d avoid it, really.

Kai’s amber eyes widened a little, flickered over to where Angel and Reri were standing, then back to Lina.

The part about the A.M.R.O. wanting us dead, about us belonging to the Chrono… that shit I don’t buy for a second. If we were supposed to die, they would have just left us out there in the desert to do it on our own, kept their hands clean. Like Crazy Straw said, there’s a lot of paperwork involved, more if the A.M.R.O. does the deed themselves instead of a KIA.

The male Asylum nodded, and waited expectantly.

If they are the traitors, Lina continued, of course they’ll want us to be as loyal to them as possible, so they want us to think that they’ve risked their necks to keep us alive. Perhaps they’re hoping it will make us less likely to question them and their motives in the future.

As far as us proving our worth as Asylums… well, we do that on every mission we complete, and we were going to do that again on this mission, anyway. So whatever these lunatics want our motivations to be, the result is the same. We need to handle the Kings and the Circus as quickly and quietly as possible, and do our best to look out for information leaks along the way.

Agreed. So I guess we have work to do, Kai replied.

By now there was a gun on the table, and Angel was dramatically demanding they choose death or the Lunatic Team.

“So pick your poison, i Gemellie de Demone… Or A.M.R.O and its Laws, in which case you can just unclip this magazine down your throats.”

Kai and Lina did not have a choice to make. They were creatures of the A.M.R.O.: always had been, always would be. Dos Pistolas had been raised by the Organization, indoctrinated with its principles and laws since before they could remember. It was their Mother and Father, their past, their present, and their future. They could never be anything but loyal to it, and they knew that the Organization did not appreciate or condone ritual suicide. Furthermore, Dos Pistolas could not be entirely sure that the agents of the A.M.R.O. asking this sacrifice or surrender from them were completely loyal to the Organization themselves.

So it was with a very noncommittal attitude that Kai rose from his seat and offered a hand to Lina, helping her to her feet as well. Distantly, he noted that she’d chosen her black skirt today, coupled with a form-fitting v-neck tee shirt the same color green as her eyes. It was emblazoned with the word POW! on a very 50’s style comic book star of red. She smiled at him a little as she grasped his hand and drew herself up. It had been a long time since Lina had actually taken his offered digits - the past few months, she’d been brushing off the gesture.

“Oh and Siera, that hearing aid was actually a 180 thousand dollar worth bio-cybernetic and its will be coming out of your salary. You and your partner will probably be dirt poor for the next few months.” Angel said, almost as an afterthought.

So that’s what I have in my pocket, Kai thought to himself. Luckily for the other team, the male member of Dos Pistolas was easily capable of restoring it to new condition with a series of simple casts. Kai’s sly smirk was sexier than Angel’s, without a doubt, and doubly sharp. Joke’s on that bozo: nobody’s taking a paycheck deduction today!

Despite Lina’s tirade, she’d suddenly gone quiet. Kai assumed that she’d reached the same conclusion he had: doing further verbal battle with a madman was pointless. Neither member of Dos Pistolas wanted to push the Gemellie into doing something violent in order to silence the pointed, well-founded questions they wanted to ask. Finally accepting that he’d have to be the one to speak for his team, Kai cleared his throat a little.

“Well, looks like Marcelina and I have some work to do. If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be in the computer lab. Anyone who wants to brainstorm is welcome to join us… and if there’s an actual briefing, please give us a shout.” Kai tapped on his temple as he said this, indicating that the ‘shout’ should be telepathic.

With that, the pair headed for the exit. It hadn’t been lost on Kai that between the other teams they had a deaf man, a blind man, and a mute man. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. He wondered if that was some kind of sign or something.

Seira was still near the door when Lina and Kai passed. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she’d been sneaking glances at him before Angel’s arrival in the dining room.

“Catch up with me later. I have something for you,” the big, tattooed male Asylum said to the raven-haired female. He winked at her, and kept walking.

---xX--Xx---

He’s regretting every word; those empty lies,
One more tonight!
A blinding riot, as I summon every nerve.

Just need a bit of luck, get 'em up,
Point the gun at the eyes
Or at the knees, had to shoot, had to fight!
Gonna take out the gunman!

---xX--Xx---

"Job." Fiora muttered quietly as she slipped the file containing their next mission over to Jason. He sighed as she left and headed to her own room. No doubt to begin her preparations. Well, she was the more responsible one of the pair, so there was little wonder why she was usually handed the files and information first.

The moment Jason opened the file, however, he lost his taste for the drink he was nursing. Their target was an Asylum. Or a pair of them, to be exact. The fact that there were two targets meant they hadn't succumbed to insanaddiction... yet. A.M.R.O. sending them to eliminate both of them was... disquieting.

It wasn't news to him that the people he worked for had some really inelegant ways of conducting their business, nor the fact that he and Fiora were just weapons to be pointed at the enemy. This was actually the first time they had been sent after one of their own.

"Sensory and Fear manipulation... Boy this is going to be tough." He murmured to himself. He considered himself a master of illusions, but their specialties would make them more aware of his trickery. Subtlety and deception were not going to work well. Especially not when one of them had additional arms to fight with.

---

It took all of half an hour for them to be ready, and Fiora was waiting at the airport with Jason. They had settled into this comfortable act of pretending to be newlyweds going on a honeymoon - she would rest his head on his shoulder, pretending to nap while he absent-mindedly played with his phone in one hand whle the other was wrapped around hers. The anyone watching them, they seemed to be simply waiting for the plane but in reality, the two were using their link to communicate silently.

Ominous.

Well, we both knew we'd have to do something like this sooner or later.

Disgusting.

It's not like we can say no, the only other choice we had was for them to give our files to someone else and wait for them to come knocking.

Nervous.

You always say that when I'm the bait. Look, I've counted three times you've managed to kill a target while I was in your line of fire and the only injury I've sustained is a few lost hairs. If I had to gamble with my life, I'd much rather bet it on your skill.

Flatterer

Jason could have sworn Fiora blushed. Not like I have a choice. I can get rid of you as easily as I could reach my ass and pull my tongue out.

Alchemy

You're missing the point.

The banter went on for a few minutes, but they finalized the plan and got on the plane. At least their intel told them the brothers were separated - two separate two-on-one engagements were more likely to succeed than a two-on-two. The problem was they couldn't kill them separately with the connection between the two of them. They'd have to incapacitate the first and kill them both simultaneously.

---

The battlefield was a sight to behold, and Jason immediately knew why they had been sent after these two Asylums. It was obvious some forbidden alchemy had taken place there, and there were signs of multiple combatants. It meant they weren't the only ones hunting Asylums. There was no way there was this much destruction involved otherwise.

Bad.

That about sums it up.

That was when Jason felt a chill running down his spine, and a sense of dread wash over him as he noticed Fiora laying in a pool of her own blood. He walked a bit further and there was his mother, being eaten alive by a colony of ants. He tried to shut it all off, knowing it was all the fear manipulator at work. After all, if one was always working with illusions, one became a master at telling reality from fiction.

"Help me!" "Help me!" Save me, Jason!" The voices of Fiora, and his family called out to him as they died in different ways while he continued to scan the area for their target. The fact that Mikhail had not attacked yet meant he wasn't stupid enough to believe Jason came alone.

Perfect.

---

Fiora was looking down the scope of her sniper rifle when she felt a presence behind her. She immediately ignited the sigil below her, turning the ground intangible as she jumped out of the way and let her attacker sink into the ground below.

She turned around as planned to put first an anti-alchemy round into him before sedating him, but what faced her was a wall of swords coming right at her. Fiora panicked and backed away, trying to place some distance between herself an the wall. She cried out as she felt the first blade pierce her and then blacked out.

When she came to, she had her head in Jasno's lap while a blanket was wrapped around her. "Sorry about that," he apologised. "He managed to cast before you could get him and you started freaking out, so I had to knock you out."

"Unpleasant." She groaned as she sat up, shaking off the throbbing headache. "How long?"

"Ten minutes." He replied almost immediately. "We have another hour and fifty minutes to get the other one before he wakes up.

---

Gregor was the problem. He was currently in some bunker, and while Fiora's talents meant they didn't have to worry about walls, the two of them could simply just drop in through the ceiling and just kill an Asylum without everyone else in the vicinity trying to kill them shortly after the fact. They would have to isolate him first.

Fiora hummed a song quietly while she worked. Jason was keeping track of where Gregor was using a thermal imaging device, while she set up the phase field they would use to grab their target and pull him up to their level and engage him. He was currently listening to someone speak, and a man with tendrils attached to his back was a very conspicuous target.

"Done."

"Here comes the hard part." Jason sighed as he fired a grappling hook into the ceiling and tested its hold in the concrete. Satisfied it wouldn't give way, he prepared to make the grab. The move was quick and fast - gravity pulled the illusionist through the floor and he descended with a sharp blow to Gregor's head before grabbing the man around the neck and engaging the reel on the wire.

Before the occupants of the room could react, Jason was back up through the ceiling with his prey in hand. To Gregor's credit, the blow didn't disorient him as much as it should have and he was soon retaliating almost immediately. Jason grunted as he was thrown off the giant of a man with a headbutt.

Almost immediately Gregor seemed to be everywhere at once. Jason knew how the brothers worked, but seeing it first hand was something else. He knew he couldn't stay still and he definitely didn't want to get cut up by Gregor's attack. "Two can play at this game." He murmured as he dropped a smoke pellet and enshrouded himself in a cloud of smoke, while his eye flashed green as he engaged his own alchemy.

Once the smoke cleared, Jason was seeing Gregor everywhere and his opponent was seeing him everywhere as well. Several copies of him were spread through the room, illusions of himself meant to throw off his opponent.

A battle between Asylums and their prey often came down to who made the first mistake. Team Midnight had already made their plan of attack, but both were well aware plans never survived past first contact with the enemy or a guy people liked to call Murphy.

Jason hadn't accounted for how fast Gregor could slice through his illusions. The tendrils came dangerously close a few times, but he managed to evade and deflect them with his sword baton. Attached together with the blades on both ends, he was whirling them about as fast as possible in order to Gregor from hitting him, all the while trying to determine if the one before his eyes was the real one. Eventually, however, he was pressed back into a corner.

"Well, at least this way I know he's in front of me." Jason snarked as he broke the baton apart into two separate swords. He needed the flexibility if he was fighting in a corner. Just as Gregor attacked, Jason felt himself falling backwards.

He heard the sound of concrete being smashed apart, and opened his eyes to see Fiora standing over him. "Careless." She chided him in a monotone before drawing her blade and plunging it back through the wall.

"Now we need to see if you got him..." Jason pulled out a card and carved a sigil on it, before nodding to Fiora. She pulled her sword back and noted the tip was stained with blood, but did not stop there. She placed her hands against the wall and casted again, before Jason threw his card through the intangible wall and heard an explosion rock the room opposite as Fiora removed her hands just in time to ensure the shrapnel wasn't going to phase through the wall and hit them both.

The pair moved further down the wall, making sure they would still appear in the same room before Fiora casted again and they both phased through the wall at a run. What greeted them defied belief. Gregor was still alive. He was bloodied with a gash from where Fiora's blade had struck, but very much still breathing.

The girl wasted no time at all in whipping out her pistols and emptying both magazines into the target. Each shot hit center mass, and right in his chest, blood spraying from the wounds as the bullets ripped through cloth and flesh. The last round, she put in his head.

Jason always forgot that Fiora chose to fight beside him because she wanted to make doubly sure they had killed their target. He had seen her work with a sniper rifle and it would have been all too easy for him to just guide the targets into her crosshairs, but his partner was one who got the job done.

"One left." Fiora muttered, reloading her pistols and dragging the tied up Mikhail into the room. Jason fired a bolt into his head and stabbed his heart to make doubly sure like Fiora did. He watched as Fiora phased the two bodies into the floor and kept them there. A rushed burial for fellow Asylums they were sent to kill. A last mercy.

"Sorry." She muttered under her breath and Jason placed a hand on her head.

"Orders are orders, Fee." He whispered. It was easy to ignore the distaste in the heat of battle, but like a hangover it came with a vengeance once the fight was over. "I bet more Asylums will be here to execute the other targets soon, if the group here is involved in this... Let's stay out of their way, hmm?"

He did not mention the nagging feeling in his mind that they might have a target painted on their backs as well...

Team Yin-Yang casually walked through the streets of Las Vegas, lights flashing as loud music poured out of the several casinos and themed night clubs as they passed. Aden remained silent as he stared at the open files in his hands through his glasses. His suit jacket whipping lightly in the late afternoon breeze. Jax skipped childishly at his side, looking around at all the lights and sounds.

"So who's our target, Aden?" She asked out loud, assuming anyone around the two were to drunk to pay attention to the conversation.

"You don't care." Aden responded simply, never taking his eyes off the file as the two made their way through the crowds.

"That's true.." She giggled. "Do they look fun?"

"Yes, they look to be a challenge. Stop asking questions. I am trying to focus."

Jax exaggerated a groan and sighed in defeat. Not even a miracle could cure how painfully boring Aden had always been. She danced around through the streets, twirling about as her dress swooshed from the motions. Little would anyone expect the girl would be thinking about pretty red blood misting in the air and staining her fists. Suddenly then Aden came to a stop as he was looking out in the crowd of people.

'Target acquired.. They must have left the bunker.' he telepathically mentioned to Jax, bringing her to attention. Looking to where Aden motioned with his eyes; a bright, sadistic smirk coming across her lips.

'Here?' she asked eagerly.

'Too many witness'... We will follow for now.'

The group followed from a rather far distance, Aden using his heightened sight to keep track of their targets. Eventually their targets began to head into a parking structure and away from the multitudes of citizens. As the group known as Team Raven Aegis entered the parking structure and out of view Aden dipped his hand behind his suit jacket and produced his trusted Walther p22, his other hand pulling a silencer from his pocket; slowly twisting it onto the end of the barrel. Jax also getting ready, a few taps to her right palm and a blade folded out of the glove adorning her right forearm.

'Instructions are to leave no prisoners.' Aden finalized the command through their telepathic link.

'Perfect..' Jax nearly salivated with excitement.

In no way did Aden enjoy the mission but Jax certainly took pleasure in the prospect of a good fight. It didn't matter to her who the target was.



From here Aden and Jax split up, Aden rushing to the entrance; stopped at the side and peeked around the corner and into the dimly lit and half empty structure. He looked around and saw they were hidden. 'We were noticed.' Aden announcement, only making Jax more excited. She absolutely loved hide and seek.

"Fein.." Jax whispered under her breath, the sigil on the bottom of her right boot beginning to ignite. At that very moment she jumped into the air with the Sigil activating and shooting out a powerful concussive blast of force launching her even higher into the air. Using the perfect amount of force she peaked just above the top story of the structure and landed gracefully on the roof. With a quick look she noticed it was empty. 'Roof is clear. Working my way down.' She thought to Aden as she began to make her way to the down ramp.

Aden looked around the corner once more, this time taking a closer look as his eyes seemed to glow a faint amber color while he improved his vision to an unnatural level. Suddenly the flash of steel catch his attention, pulling back behind the wall just in time for the spike to pass by without harm. Though his eyes caught the sight of a little bit a head of him a strange sphere begin to form that repelled the blade right back towards Aden's head. Quickly ducking the blade stuck several inches into the concrete. He groaned, he was hoping Jax would be stuck with the magnetism guy.

Aden then clicked his gun out of safety. Suddenly dashing out from behind the corner and rushing across the open space, aiming down at Fletcher. Squeezing out several rounds evenly through out he reposition they were not meant to kill, but preoccupy the target while he got closer. Fletcher created a magnetic field in front of him pulling in the rounds and letting them float in the magnetic field and come nowhere near hurting him; exactly as Aden expected. Right as Aden hid behind a large pillar Fletcher used the rounds held in the magnetic field and shot them out with a simple thought. Rounds scattered out like a shot gun, lead shattering into concrete.

As the last bullet was fire back and buried into concrete Aden quickly whipped around the corner on one knee. tick, tick! as two rounds fired out of the silenced pistol, though it wasn't aimed at Fletcher. They were aimed at the floor between them. Hitting the concrete the hollow points shattered and tore pieces of the concrete up with it and shot out towards Fletchers legs. His magnetic field pooled the rounds but the concrete was unaffected. The jagged pieces slashes and gashing across his calves. Searing pain fogged his mind for only a moment, taking just enough time for a round to find the center of his forehead. His scream suddenly stopped as he began to fall backwards, two more rounds burying into his heart for good measure. Aden dropped the empty clip and replaced it in one quick motion.

---

~Meanwhile.

Jax slowly went down floor by floor, looking around carefully with her dark red eyes. Each floor she checked she called out "Marco!" as if her target was obligated to return the appropriate polo response. Suddenly as she made it down to the second story she heard a bit of rustling behind one of the pillars. Jax grinned ear to ear, she finally found her precious target. She silenced her steps, slowly sneaking towards the pillar. As she arrived she suddenly whipped around with her forearm blade leading the assault only to hit open air and not the fleshy blood bag she was hoping for. She whimpered sadly until she looked down to see the trap. She held her breath just in time before the aerosol shot out a heavy smoke that filled the small around within only moments. Using the the sigil on her palm she shot out a powerful blast of force shooting her back out of the anti-alchemic smoke and through the air; probably using more power then necessary but she was far too rushed to figure out an appropriate amount of power.

Jax slammed into a far off pillar and the force had her spitting out a bit of blood. She grimaced and winced, clenching her jaw angrily. Now they are going to get it. No one plays these games with Jax. Suddenly she heard the silent fire of a modified rifle and immediately rose her large forearm blade just in time to deflect the shot; more out of luck than anything that it was deflected. But she now knew were her target was hiding. She grinned, a touch of blood on her lips. "You're mine now asshole.." She promised under her breath. She pushed herself off the pillar, taking a wide serpentine dash through the structure and making herself a hard target. She heard a few more shots though they missed, zipping past her quietly.

Finally she closed the gap between the two, he was out of rounds and had no time to reload. She wound her arm back with the tip of the blade pointed straight at the man as she dashed at him. His eyes widened in terror as there was nothing else he could do. "FEIN!" She cried out, a hidden sigil behind her elbow ignited and shot out a large burst of force that she used as a propulsion for her strike. Shooting her fist forwards it pierced into his chest with such a force that it didn't stop the attack until half of her forearm was buried into his chest. His face was frozen into a look of lifeless shock, crying out without a sound.

Jax yanked her arm out of the hole she left in the mans chest, letting red drip from her arm. She looked down at the crumbled pile of flesh with a wicked grin.

'Target eliminated.' The two thought at the exact moment.

'Time to head for the bunker to carry out the rest of the mission.' Aden instructed. The two meeting back up at the entrance. Aden pulled out a white cloth from inside his jacket and handed it to Jax to clean off the blood. She took the cloth and cleaned her arm and the blade before it collapsed back into its hidden compartment. The two then making their way once more back into town and towards where the Bunker was said to be.

Sin city was not Bjorn’s type of place. Loud noises and bright lights and a person on every street corner trying to get your attention were all annoyances that could distract a man on a mission. So far, he’d been approached by six prostitutes, a pickpocket and a guy who wanted a ‘night of fun’ with Thora.

Thankfully, Thora had her headphones in: otherwise the guy might be minus a finger or two.

The objective was clear, and currently the pair walked along the stretch of busy road known only as ‘The strip.’ Bjorn relished the business of the street as it gave him time to think about the mission: the variables, the ethics, the connotations of the entire debacle.

If he were honest, Bjorn had distrusted this ‘Lizard’ figure from the word ‘go’. It was hard for him to trust a man who ordered you to kill without as much as a face to look at. Combine that with a name like ‘The Lizard’ and the only images that were conjured into the Norseman’s head were that of a slimy-fucker.

However, as Thora had pointed out: rules were rules, orders were orders and a mission remained a mission. A.R.M.O had accepted the shady fucker’s right to authority and Thora looked forward to hunting down the bad guys.

Yet when the bad guys were asylums…

On a brighter note, Bjorn was glad to be clashing against a Sniffer, at least. It would be an interesting challenge, because of the tactical renown that was attached to the name. Bjorn would probably have ended up a Sniffer, were he not given the chance to attain Hybrid status.

Thora, on the other hand, just wanted to kick ass and complete the mission. As always, she was hungry for success and a chance to redeem the Matthews name. She was much younger when their parents died: she just remembered the good stuff: none of the deterioration that came with alchemy addiction. Bjorn looked at his watch again, smiling as the hands struck the appointed time. He nudged his sister’s arm, prompting her to remove the headphones with a grumbly pout.

“Time to go to work.”

Thora’s face turned to a grin as she put her headphones back in. The fun began soon.

---

The Nevada desert is a hell of a place, compared to Sin City itself. Ever since they’d arrived in Vegas twelve hours before, Bjorn had decided to monitor any patrols that were coming out from the bunker. Team Valkyrie were not foolish enough to dive into the fray alone, and they knew that the Lizard had procured multiple teams to undergo the task. As such, Bjorn decided that thinning out the ranks was the best bet for survival, and had spent time establishing the routine of switch over.

After three patrols, Bjorn knew that the patrolling team switched every hour and a half. The forth team had been left alone, as Bjorn wanted time to prepare for the upcoming battle. Team number five was not going to be so lucky.

Team Broken Pendulum, not that the pair of Nordics knew who the team were, started to move across the desert in a jeep: patrolling a set path and seemingly keeping an eye out for danger. What they saw was two people standing in the direct path of the jeep: one holding a large shield. A man in a lot of pink stepped out of the driver seat, looking at the mysterious pair with an eccentric scepticism. “Can we…help you? I think you went the wrong way for the LARP-ing convention, big man.”

Thora took a step forward, seeing the lips of the pink stranger move, but hearing no words due to the muting effect of the headphones. The step was enough to prompt the other woman out of the car: Vail Hyson.

Bjorn cleared his throat, trying to appear as friendly as possible, despite what came next. “Hyson and Delacour-Team Broken Pendulum: Under A.R.M.O decree, as set out by the agent codena…”Bjorn got no further chance to speak as Miss Hyde went on the attack. Her physical augmentation had her in Bjorn’s face nearly instantly. He only just had time to raise his shield and block the first punch: which sent him hurtling across the sand on skidding feet. Thora’s grin was broad as she stepped forward and jabbed a fist in Vail’s direction that fell a good foot short. “Thun-der!” As if answering the strangely chanted word, Thora’s fist crackled and in a half-second following, A bolt of lightning shot towards Miss Hyde, narrowly dodged by the quickened Asylum. “Thun-Der!” Thora chanted again, broad grin on her face as she grinned down Hyde.

In the meantime, the pink-suited Alistair had realised the extreme situation, and was preparing to fire his weapon at Thora. Every so often, a loudly spoken “Thun-der” punctuated the near-silent desert. Alistair nearly had a sight on Thora when a hammer flew through the air: a maul the size of a small child that the Asylum narrowly dodged. The seventh ‘Thun-der’ punctuated the air as Alistar looked down at the maul buried in the sand, confused by the projectile and wondering where Bjorn had gone. With a sudden force, Alistair was thrown to the ground after a slab of shield smashed into the side of his head. Alistair grunted and swore loudly, following the blow. “Where the fuck did you come from?”

Bjorn flashed a wide, shit-eating grin at the Pink-man’s confusion. He was hardly going to give away his secret, now, was he? It would be daft to let him know that Bjorn had muted the sound of his approach: he’d be shooting his own element of surprise in the foot. He picked up his maul, watching the foe all the while.

Thora, on the other hand, was starting to be pushed back. The two silencers were equally deadly and while Thora remained confident of her superiority: she respected the Asylum’s potential for taking someone out. She was still speaking in that same musical tone every so often though. For the ninth time, she uttered ‘Thun-der’ and each time, Miss Hyde looked confused. The target had the upper hand on Thora though, as she had been able to pressure the woman enough that she wasn’t firing more lightning bolts or something.

Bjorn surged towards Alistair and refused to allow the man to abuse his powers. Bjorn had made sure to read any notes he could get on their targets before they left: reading reports and mission evaluations in order to figure out the powers of their targets. A few of them caught his eye, and the Pink-shirted man was one of them. Such an ambiguous power left a lot of variables to be worried about, so the best bet was simply crushing the foe before he could develop a stratagem.

What he hadn’t read about was Alistair’s second weapon of choice. He was aware of the umbrella, which Bjorn was managing to bat aside with either Maul or shield. The bracer-gun was something altogether more unknown. The pink-suited man got a half-clean shot through all the pressure, and suddenly a stream of bullets was coming at Bjorn.

Thora was also being pressured, but now she was fighting to dodge the gauntlets of Miss Hyde. “C’mon, Red. Show me that fancy power of yours again! Stop singing and fight me!” The physically augmented Miss Hyde swung an overhead chop at Thora, fast and strong. The red-haired Asylum managed to block the chop with both hand: her gauntlets absorbing the force. Metal touched metal and Thora was brought down to her knees by Vail’s might. It looked like a winning blow for Vail, until…

“Thun-der.”

The tenth utterance: suddenly a huge voltage of electricity was dumped into Miss Hyde: The two women’s gauntlets forming a deadly circuit that, after a few seconds, had Vail twitching on the floor. Her muscles reduced to numb, useless piles of flesh. Thora pulled out her headphones from her pocket and popped them back into her ears, the loud chorus of AC/DC blasting out. She sat down on the paralysed Miss Hyde’s chest, a finger on the crippled woman’s forehead.

“Hey, Hey bitch. You’ve been…Thunderstruck!” A burst of white lightning fled from Thora’s finger and into the body of Miss Hyde. It was a fatal explosion of electricity that first fried her brain and then caused her head to pop, like a balloon. For Thora, it was immensely satisfying.

Bjorn, on the other side of the battle, had to block a constant stream of bullets from an unforeseen gun. His foe was clever; it seemed, to have thought of such an ingenious weapon. It was a shame he fought one of the only Asylums who regularly made use of a shield, or he might have won the fight with that move.

Behind the shield, Bjorn was using one hand to trace symbols in the air. Motem preparations combined with Vocum incantations that would make his next move the last.

Satisfied with the work, he threw his maul at Alistair again. The angle was awkward, and it looked as if Bjorn was going to miss by a few feet…

Then the maul hit the sand, and an explosion of sand rippled through the desert. Amplifying the crash was an easy enough feat, and he’d supercharged the sound enough to burst Alistair’s eardrums. The sniffer grasped his ears, unable to deal with the pain and stopping the stream of bullets.

Bjorn charged forward and gave Alistair no quarter. In a second, the Nordic bear was upon the pink Mr Jekyll and slammed a shield into the man’s wind pipe. There was an audible ‘crunch’ and Alistair dropped to the floor, throat crushed and neck snapped. Bjorn looked down at the broken corpse, sighing heavily. “Targets eliminated.” Reaching down, Bjorn closed the eyes of his opponent, symbolic to many a culture as a sign of respect. It was a stark contrast to the desecrated body of Miss Hyde.

Thora wandered over to her brother, punching his arm lightly. “C’mon bro, let’s go get some food or somethin’, you seem bummed.”

Bjorn patted his smaller sister on the shoulder, pulling the headphone out of her left ear intentionally. “No can do. We have to deal with the others.” He pointed towards the jeep, before walking towards the driver-side seat.

Thora’s face lit up at the prospect of more. The fight she’d had was a little on the lame side. Her opponent had been mechanical…unimaginative…boring, even. Maybe they’d meet someone exciting in the next scrap. She flipped the other headphone into her hear, skipping towards the passenger seat of the jeep. When she sat down, the pair drove to the bunker, intending to be the first of the Lizard’s hit-squad to arrive.

Seira took a deep breath and shot the last two bullets. She lowered the gun and stared at the target that was 12 feet away. Most of her bullets clustered round the inner most circle of the bull’s eye. She calmly reloaded the gun. This time she picked the silvery anti-Alchemic bullets. There was no need for further practice. The Beretta was relatively simple to use. Truly it is a weapon without much honor. It offered far too much power without demanding anything in return. No discipline. Nothing. Yet sooner or later she will have to rely on it.

The Japanese Asylum tucked the gun into the holster underneath her shirt. She debated about updating her file. Somehow she felt that it would be better to have an ace up her sleeve. After making sure there was no cameras around the range, Seira poured out the remaining bullets. She fused them together to form a metal ball. The ball sooner formed an exact replica of the gun she stashed away. Calmly she left in the shooting stall like she was instructed to do before she entered the range.

“Thank you! I will be leaving now.”

The woman smiled and waved to the lone clerk at the counter as she exited the armory. She stiffened as she stepped into the silent hallway. Where was everyone? The bunker staff were nowhere to be seen. She turned to her right. Her nerves were taunt and her muscles tensed. She had to find the rest fast. Deep down Seira feared the worse. Kai and Lina warned her that the A.M.R.O. would come after them sooner or later. No. It’s impossible. How could the organization known for its strict protocol have reacted so swiftly? Was it because of the Chrono?

She quickened her pace. The light tapping of Mercuri’s metallic sole against the ground was far too obvious. Pulling round the corner XCI removed her heavy shoes and yanked off the metallic soles. She muttered softly under her breath and changed the remains of her shoes into a pair of pastel red moccasins. Quickly she slipped them on. She continued muttering under her breath as she ran her hand down the sleeve of her top. She changed her outfit into a dusty blue boho blouse with faint embroidery. The blouse fell to her knees. It was matched with a pair of deep blue leggings. Only her shoes stood out in comparison to the rest of her outfit. Yet the overall color scheme was so subdued it was unlikely to bring unnecessary attention to her during combat. She decided to keep her hair tied up in a bun.

She paused once again. Now she was certain someone was spying on her. Oddly the Asylum or Asylums did not seem to want to strike. Seira fought the urge to turn round and stare at the wall behind her. Instead she opted to walk away and head back towards the cafeteria. Hopefully someone would still be there. In the worst case scenario she can head back to where Kai and Lina were. They said they would be there for another two hours to finalize a proposal for the Gemellie.

Seira almost gagged when she entered the cafeteria. An acrid smell came from the shattered glass on the floor. Hopefully no one drank that. The acid was so strong that it literally bleached the parquet tiles. She scanned the room hesitantly. The room appeared to be empty. A loud shot caused her to jump. Her heart raced wildly. She clutched her chest and took a deep breath. A few more shots were fired. A gun battle was taking place further down the hallway. She bit her lower lip. Aiding that person would be stupid. There was no telling if he or she would still be alive by the time she got there. Somehow she was almost certain it couldn’t be Camron. The kid would not even live to fire a single shot. He wouldn’t even hear the person sneaking up on him. Her eyes widened.

Oh…. Where was he?

It took a while for her to realize someone was addressing her. She was about to turn around to respond when a powerful blast knocked Seira forward. She groaned as she attempted to pick herself up. That burst was stronger than the typical level 3 cast. Damn. She certainly had the luck of attracting the wrong sort of people to her. Still she refuse to give in without a fight. She slipped Nami from her finger.

“Who the hell is this Marco you are looking for?” She asked feigning ignorance.

Of course she knew the response would be Polo. Still she was hoping to buy herself time. Just how many Asylum teams did A.M.R.O. send? There had to be at least two teams. This Asylum in front of her didn’t seem like the type who would slip acid into a glass of juice. Well unless her partner was into that sort of thing.

----------x-x-x-----------

Hidden within one of the rooms a blonde teenager fiddled with the rubix cube once again. He wished there were other things to do, but there wasn’t even a TV around. He solved the puzzle for the third time. He tossed the cube aside and flung himself onto the bed. His blue eyes stared at the ceiling above. Somehow it didn’t feel right to fall asleep again. The boy sat up again. He wanted to go out to Vegas again.

Camron left the room and walked down the corridor cheerfully. He waved at the unfamiliar pair that he saw. Odd how he never noticed them earlier at breakfast. He smiled a little hoping that they would smile back. It didn’t take long for him to notice that they probably were not very friendly. He took a step back. Did he just walk in on another private conversation? Dang! Would a sorry ever be enough for these people?

I can’t believed we got ourselves in this mess, Barny!

I know. But, there’s nothing we can do about it now other than help make a plan for the assault and hope the Chrono helps us out of this situation.

But, what if we have a bullseye painted on our backs because of the fiasco in the cafeteria?

We may very well have bullseyes on our backs, but that just means we’ll have to be on our guard.

Right… I suppose that’s all we can do.

The twin Asylums known simply as “The Inquisitors” for their knack at gathering information were seated in the library once more, with Barnabas pouring over books and Alice sitting at the table across from her brother messing around on her smartphone. Barnabas was studying in an attempt to form some plan of attack for the assault against the Kings; he also had a stack of books he was reading for pleasure in between his studies. Alice was very tense despite playing games on her phone; Barnabas wasn’t necessarily tense, but his mind was going over and over the events that occurred in the cafeteria.

The truth was, that he too couldn’t shake the feeling that he and his sister had targets painted on them now, and he didn’t like that. He knew nothing of what sort of hit squads AMRO could send after them, but he was going to be prepared for anything. Among his notes were the blueprints to the bunker they were currently stationed at. He studied the halls over and over again until he knew them without even glancing at the blueprints anymore. He had also traced out a path in the bunker and drawn two sigils in strategic locations as well as had one carved into a throwing card he had on his person.

Alice watched her brother over her phone; she knew the face he was making. It meant he was thinking hard about something, and judging by their conversation, Alice guessed it was what AMRO could do to them and what he planned to do in response to whatever action they took towards the twins. Alice trusted in her brother’s mind to make a plan to counter AMRO’s actions and protect them. She would make sure they bother survived. They had lost too much in the past to lose each other now. She slid her phone back into her pocket and began thinking of what could possibly happen now. Barnabas continued pouring over his books, all the while keeping his guard up and the marked card at the ready just in case.

The drive towards the bunker was not an overtly pleasant one. Deserts made poor roads and even poorer company. Bjorn was too busy driving and that left Thora to try and amuse herself. She retreated back to what she always retreated to: music and thoughts of escapism. She missed her books and she missed her games and she missed the competitive edge that came with them. The missions she got sent on were fine until it got to the waiting part. She could be waiting to arrive, or waiting for the bad guys to arrive, or waiting for the bosses on the other end of a phone to confirm something or she could just be waiting for the big brother bear.The wait was always the killer.

She was sure that her brother was the opposite. The wait gave him time, and when he had time, he had the world in his hand. He was super smart and everything, so he just spent his time evaluating the situation or preparing himself for the next confrontation or something else boring. He thought everything through, where as Thora liked to...well....do.

So while Bjorn drove, Thora just listened to music and strummed along on an invisible guitar. Plucking lazily and incorrectly at invisible chords, feeling the energizing effect of playing 'Crazy Train' so loud that her brother might hear it. She felt the urge to blow something up grow as the music grew louder and louder. The energizing effect was even more potent on her, as she charged up Motem energy through the simple act of playing the air guitar.

...It was pretty awesome, really. She'd heard someone jokingly call it 'metal' at the academy, and she'd just laughed.

Seeing the bunker on the horizon got Thora excited as she started humming lyrics now, as well as the odd strum here or there. It was odd to see her get excited like this, normally she stuck with the bare minimum effort required. Now, she seemed to be showing off. Something was catching her attention and getting her blood boiling. Bjorn didn't known, but Thora had sneeked a peek in the files. She knew that a Chrono was involved, and the thought of impressing one of those guys was enough to get her fist and her blood pumping.

The fifteen minute drive had gotten her through a number of songs. Now she was onto a different song. Bjorn heard her humming the words now, as her hands seem occupied by something other than the air strumming of the car. She seemed to be drawing some actual alchemical symbols.The sort they taught at basic for focusing the raw power into a spell. Bjorn was out of the car first, but Thora was the first to the door. It was an impressive enough entrance. Secure enough to probably out last a few blasts of C4, at the very least. It would take a bit of time to get it open, so Bjorn would have to...

"You can't stop the metal!"

Thora suddenly leapt the distance between the Jeep and the door, before slamming her fist against the steel door. For a second, nothing seemed to happen except the rather painful sounding 'clang' of her fist connecting with the door. Then, the door seemed to explode, an explosion of electrical force suddening a bolt of lightning through the door and launching it through the air, into the wall at the opposite side of the entrance. Thora made an exaggerated movement of stepping through the empty doorway, before looking at Bjorn. She took her headphones out of her ears, smiling. "Oh C'mon. You would have taken ages to think of a way to bust it open."

Bjorn rolls his eyes at the red-haired woman, trying not to make his smile too obvious.

"C'mon, lets go find a target."

Bjorn led the way through the bunker, moving with at least some sort of sense of direction. In truth, he had no predetermined path, and was following instinct. If he weren't expecting a fight, he'd try to Jerry-rig a sort of echo-location idea to try and find the nearest people. Instead, winging it would have to do. Never knew when you need to be ready to tap into the Asylum powers.

As they made their way through the Bunker, Bjorn felt a chill running down his spine that had him on alert. Why had no one reacted to the explosive entrance? Why was there not a single guard? It seemed like they were in a ghost town of sorts, and that was worrying, to say the least.

The barren state of the bunker was eventually broken, when a small blonde haired boy walked past the two with a simple 'hello.' Thora and Bjorn stopped, half expecting a fight to break out and half hoping to do the job quietly. The sister looked at the brother as if asking 'is he a target' and Bjorn, for all his intellect, drew up a blank. He honestly couldn't recall any mention of such a small in stature target, especially one who had zero killing intent. The best bet, it seems, was to try and talk it out. Bjorn, for one, wasn't in a hurry to follow everything that 'the lizard' said. He didn't really trust the man.

"Hello, My name is Bjorn and this is Thora. We are looking for some Asylums, can you point us to a pair of individuals called..." he paused, trying to recall the names of the targets. Which ones had been assassinated so far? He doubted they were the only successful pair. "...Alice and Barnabus?" Bjorn was smiling at the man, although Thora's face was one of grumpy annoyance. The hunt was being disrupted by a kid, and her impaitence was clear in her body language. The hybrid hoped that his Silencer sister wouldn't freak this guy out. "Alice, and, Barnanus!" He repeated the words again, louder this time, because the boy didn't seem to react. Was he ignoring them? Did he not understand? Hopefully his louder words wouldn't be overheard by someone who actually knew the Bunker's inhabitants.

Team Love Burns

The sound of breaking glass followed by a flurry of footsteps confirmed that the Shadow Queen was on the run. Sela smirked as she fanned herself with one of her battle fans. The smell of the acid eating through the parquet tiles made her wrinkle her nose slightly. She could almost imagine the fear burning through Kiara. Nothing is scarier to a paranoid Asylum than a clumsy poisoning attempt.

“Well done, love. Now all we have to do is corner her,” she purred languidly.

Richard paused only for a fraction of a second and grunted. He wasn’t keen for their mark to escape. There was no telling where she may go. The last thing they wanted was to have her trapped in a place filled with shadows. He adjusted his spectacles and loaded Puppy. He placed in 5 silver bullets and left the last slot empty. 5 was the number for completion. He did not intend to waste more than that on such a weak target. Her partner would have been more challenging. Hopefully they will bump into Maeve soon.

“I suggest we go after that bitch before she decides to get too smart for her own good.”

“After you hon,” Sela replied seductively.

She watched as he retreated down the corridor after the lady with the black cape. She closed her eyes and visualized the layout of the map. There was another corridor running parallel to this one. Both corridors were connected by shorter hallways that ran perpendicular to them. Theoretically speaking Kiara should have fled towards the one in the middle. Poor thing won’t even suspect she was going to be ambushed. Sela turned invisible as she crept out of the cafeteria moments before a young petite Asian girl in a blue boho blouse entered. She recognized Seira, or XCI, immediately.

Sadly Kiara from Bean Sidhes was their priority target, or she would have killed the child on the spot. Her crimson lips curved into a sadistic smile as she noticed a younger female Asylum following the Japanese girl. She hoped the girl won’t land up mangled by her red eyed assassin. Nothing would be more beautiful than seeing that beautiful fair corpse lying in a pool of red. The irony of a medic in training dying on the battlefield.

“Looks like there is another team in the bunker. Watch out for the partner,” she informed her husband telepathically.

“Tsk, we need to focus on our priority target,” he reminded her. “Remember to be careful, love. She is quite a mean sniper. We need you to ambush her as planned. She will be useless at close quarters with no shadows to aid her.

Rich fell silent as he fired his second shot. Kiara returned the gesture. A loud cracking sound followed her last shot. Rich slumped against the wall as strands of frizzy brown hair fell all over his face. The remains of a colorful glass bead lay on the ground where his head was moments ago.

“I’m fine, darling. That motherfucking bitch is pissing me off. Never mess with a man’s cornrows. Get your ass over there pronto. I have but 3 shots left. I want to pump all of them into her… what the fuck!”

The telepathic connection was cut once more. Sela can’t help gloating. She warned Rich before the start of the mission not to underestimate the sentient shadow. Her beloved can be stupidly stubborn at times. She best be on her guard as well. As long as there is a shadow in the vicinity the shadow banshee will have the upper hand. She kept moving towards the dueling pair. Even at such a distance she could identify the smell of her husband’s unique gunpowder concoction. The smell of burnt coconut was very whimsical.

Shadowy tendrils wrapped around Rich’s arms and legs. Soon he was spread-out on the floor with his face on the ground. He felt his anger boiling over because he hated it that Sela was right. The oversight tipped the scales in the Kiara’s favor. Still she shouldn’t be gloating so soon. He had an ace up his sleeve. He lay still and began humming. It was barely audible at first, but soon it was loud enough to attract the Shadow Queen’s attention. He closed his eyes and sang the lines from the song Light the Fire Within. It seemed apt for his current predicament.

“Have no fear when darkness falls because there's a light that shines!”

A blinding white light exploded within the vicinity. Rich hit the ground as the shadowy tendrils released him. He blinked as small dots swam around his vision. He was secretly glad that he didn’t blind himself accidentally. Light manipulation was never his strong suit. He could have sworn he heard Kiara yell in pain. Stupid bitch. Never underestimate a Vocem specialist.

Sela barely had time to shield her eyes. She suspected what Rich was about to do when she heard him hum a familiar tune. Her reaction prevented her from being blinded by the burst of light. She noticed that Kiara wasn’t so fortunate. She took out her fans and swept forward in a whirling fluid dance like motion.

Kiara ducked at the last moment. She escaped with only a shallow cut on her right cheek. The Shadow Queen attempted to trip Sela, but the Dancing Queen was too fast. The senora deftly jumped over the leg as it swept past her. The next move completely caught Sela by surprise. Kiara removed the black hooded cape and tossed it in the air. Sela watched as the cape floated above. She saw the shadow forming beneath her. Instinctively she wanted to slash it in half to dispel the shadow. She was about to leap up when a supersonic scream caught her by surprise. It sent her sent flying back across the hall. Sela doubled over as she tried to catch her breath.

“I scath a chéile a mhaireann na daoine!" Kiara yelled.

A huge black pillar rose from the ground blocking off the rest of the hallway. Sela could hear Kiara retreating. She frowned. This was taking longer than expected. She grudgingly admitted that the Shadow Queen was a formidable opponent indeed. She heard Rich pull up beside her. He punched the wall in his frustration.

"Bitch you ain't getting away!” Richard roared.

“She won’t,” Sela reassured him. “This corridor only leads to the storeroom. We managed to corner her.”

Rich gave her an incredulous look. “How are we gonna …”

Both husband and wife stared as the wall disappeared. They exchanged worried looks. That did not bode well at all. Kiara was probably buying time to prepare a sigil. They better find her in this poorly lit corridor before time runs out.

"Check the rooms!" He ordered as he moved along the corridor towards the door at the end of it.

"On it."

Sela checked the two rooms off the corridor the one on the right was a bathroom and it was empty although it smelled as if it had not been cleaned in days. The left door lead to an office which looked ransacked but was empty.

Richard dashed towards the storeroom at the end. The door was left ajar. He kicked it down and spotted his quarry who was busy working on a Sigillum. He whipped up Puppy and aimed for her shoulder. She yelled in pain as she fell backwards. Undeterred she scrambled back up and lay her hands on the finished sigil. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw his lady pull up beside him.

“Sel, her palms are sweaty,” he whispered.

Sela chanted softly as her eyes remained fix on the glowing sigilum in front of them. She had to concentrate on changing the sweat into acid. One by one the lines were starting to glow. Rich picked up the sour scent exuded by the acid and began chanting in sync with Sela. The glow faded as Kiara recoiled in pain. She clutched her right. Angry boils were forming along the skin. Pus and blood were oozing from the few that burst.

Richard crossed over to their incapacitate target and pressed the barrel of his gun to Kiara’s head. He smirked as she looked at him fearfully. He savored the moment. He had been itching to do this all night.

"Nothing personal, just following our orders,” he drawled as he emptied the remaining rounds into her head.

"Target eliminated, let’s go. There are at least 5 other teams besides the Chrono’s,” Sela said.

Rich drew out a couple of anti-Alchemic bullets. This time he loaded six into the barrel. They probably made enough noise to alert the rest of the Asylums. Good thing they managed to clear the civilians before they started. The less victims there are in the area the better. A loud crash echoed from somewhere in the bunker. It was hard to guess where it came from because it was so muffled. Sela shook her head and muttered something about idiots.

Did you -

hear that?

The twins looked up at each other, abandoning what was in their hands. They heard their names spoken in a loud voice not too far down the hallway followed by the distant sound of gunfire. Barnabas rocketed into action, his mind racing to form a plan. He grabbed the books and blueprints on the table, motioning for Alice to do the same and began putting them back on the shelves and in cabinets. When they were done, Barnabas turned to his sister and began giving her specific instructions via thought.

Change your hair color and put colored contacts in

Why?

To hide your appearance. Once you do that, you’re going to walk right up to the ones looking for us and act like a member of another team hunting us and lure them into a trap.

Alice nodded at her brother and began to chant a flow of incantations followed by specific sets of movements until her raven black hair began repelling light and changed into a vibrant pink. She then slipped a set of green contacts from one of her pockets and slipped them over her light blue eyes. She looked completely different in her disguise. Barnabas nodded to his sister, and as she slipped out of the door and walked down the hallway and turned the corner to arrive at the newcomers, Barnabas slipped out of the library and began weaving his way through the bunker and stopped near one of his hidden sigils, which was hidden behind a vending machine. He held one of his sister’s bracelets loosely in his hand, ready to break the beads open and make a whirlwind of antialchemy poison if necessary.

Alice, who was usually graceful in her steps, walked down the hallway rigidly and with a look of slate on her face. Barnabas had slipped her his sword in order to complete the disguise of her being a different Asylum altogether and told her to hide her bracelets and gloves. She flipped the sword around as she walked, until she rounded the corner and came across a bear of a man, a blonde man who looked at the bear with a look of confusion, and a girl with headphone blaring in her ears. Alice walked a little closer, stopping about five feet away.

“Did you say Alice and Barnabas,” she asked in a monotone, with the same blank look on her face, holding the sword to her side, but ready to strike.

Through the streets once more Jax and Aden weaved through the crowds of Las Vegas. Jax nearly skipped at Aden's side as she usually did, her short dress bouncing with each of her exaggerated steps. Aden remained silently stoic with his practiced, casual steps as he held the small stack of files at his side. He looked over at his companion, considering whether to give her the files or not, knowing it'd be a long shot to get her to read them.

"Hmm.." Aden hummed thoughtfully, bringing Jax's attention up to him with a curious expression.

"What is it, Aden?" She asked sincerely.

"Here.." He began as he held out the stack of files towards her.

"Ugh! You know I hate th.."

"I know I know!" He cut her off, he had heard her complain about files ever since they became a team. "You don't need to read it. Just familiarize yourself with the pictures. There will most likely be more Asylums to help us clean up the bunker and we need to make sure not to mix them up with the targets."

Jax took a moment, a sour expression across her face making her look exceptionally childish. She snatched the stupid files out of his stupid hands, opening file after file to look at the stupid pictures like Aden stupidly asked. It was only moments before the file was being forcibly shoved under Aden's arm, causing him to look back to Jax incredulously. His eye twitching in disbelief. "I JUST gave those files to you." He complained.

"I looked at the pictures.." Jax protested dismissively.

"I meant really look at them, Jax. Familiarize, not just a little peek!" He groaned, feeling the pressure of a migraine beginning to form above his eye brow.

"... I hate files..." She pouted childishly, folding her arms defiantly over her chest.

Aden sighed painfully. He really shouldn't have expected anything differently. "Fine. We are almost to the bunker anyways, get ready." He instructed, his fingers massaging his forehead to ease the encroaching migraine.

---

The two finally arriving at the entrance to the bunker they both stole a glance to the other, giving a simple nod. Despite their wide differences they were a good team and understood the other very well. A swift tap of Jax's fingers at her palm sent out her forearm blade as Aden retrieved his pistol, finding no need to put on the silencer; doubting it was be a silent battle. It didn't look like there were any other way into the bunker then the front door. Jax adored that entrance, Aden did not share her enthusiasm.

Pushing through the front doors they noticed there was no one around to confront them. Aden sighed in relief while Jax pouted sadly at his side. Aden gestured for the two to continue on, Jax nodding in confirmation before heading down the concrete hallway. As hallways intersected Aden made sure to peek around each corner before proceeding on. Jax nearly whining in displeasure as time after time Aden gestured the corner was clear.

Finally the two happened upon the cafeteria, seeming coming in behind a young girl. They silently stepped into the room, looking around for the site of anyone else. Aden looked over at Jax. Seeing the puzzled look upon her face gave away her complete and utter confusion on whether it was a friendly or not. He silently brought his hand up to his head to rub at his forehead, trying to ease himself before blowing a gasket. Angrily he nodded his head, knowing she was questioning if she were a target. Jax then beamed with excitement.

"Marco!" She blurted out loudly. Without giving a second in wait for a response she pointing her finger out to the girls back. 'fein..' she breathed quietly before shooting out a blast of concussive force that slammed into the girls back and threw her forward. Jax giggled softly to herself before looking over to Aden. "I can handle this. You go sit or something." Jax instructed eagerly.

"..fine..." Aden responded half heartedly. He didn't care, he was still in disbelief at how difficult Jax could be. Aden walked over to the corner of the room, dragging a plastic chair along with him. Pushing the chair into the corner he took a seat. Dipping his hand into his pocket he pulled out a pack of advil. Tearing it open and retrieving the pills he popped it into his mouth and swallow. He started bringing advils around with him shortly after the two became a team. They come in use more often then Aden cares to admit.

Jax walks further into the room, stopping only fifteen feet away from the girl she had just shot in the back. "Hi there! My name is Jax. I will be killing you today, okay?" She chimed sweetly, her lips in a bright and innocent smile.

“Aren’t you the cutest? I love the fact that you are giving me a fighting chance.”

Seira sat crossed legged and tilted her head to one side. For the third time in less than 24 hours she was being toyed with. What joy! A.M.R.O. sent yet another psychopath her way. Only this time psycho happened to be female. A cute little psychotic girl. Seira rolled her eyes. Her bosses must have identified her as a budding psychiatrist or something.

The rookie Asylum considered her options quickly. She guessed her assailant used some sort of force based attack earlier, but she wasn’t sure if that was her opponent’s specialization. There is a fifty percent change she would be killed by any sharp projectile she aimed at the younger female. She bit her lip and clenched her fist till she felt the sharp edge of her ring pressing into her flesh. She loosened her grip slightly. A strategic retreat offered the best chances of surviving at the moment. There was no way she could tackle two Asylums by herself.

The older woman stood up and turned around as she slipped her ring back on. Her usual bright smile turned into a slight grimace. The pain was still rather unbearable. Mentally she was trying to devise ways to prevent unnecessary damage to her internal organs. A critical strike in a vital area would be the end of her. Not that she was ever going to let such a thought deter her. She was no coward! The raven haired belle stretched. She had a feeling that the girl was either playing nice or she was waiting for the rest to come. Seira resisted the temptation to reach out to the others telepathically. She would never forgive herself if she placed the rest in danger.

“You are being very patient aren’t you?”

She barely got her arms down when a second attack came her way. The Japanese woman side stepped. She breathed a sigh of relief as she narrowly avoided colliding into the wall. She stopped less than two feet from where her opponent's suave male partner was sitting. Her mind remained calm and alert even though her heart was beating crazily. There is a very high chance that this had to be the red eyed girl’s specialization.

“I am surprised the two of you didn’t separate. There are other Asylums around,” she commented tersely.

Seira cocked an eyebrow. Their reaction was rather unexpected. It was clear they didn’t know where her fellow fugitives were hiding nor did they seem to suspect that there were other teams around. The lack of coordination made her even more uneasy. However she wasn't going to complain about it. This was a slim, but exploitable advantage. Who cares if it seemed unfair to their assassins! All she cared about was surviving. Seira was just about to walk off when Jax noticed her again. Seira jumped as though she wanted to land a flying kick. This time the metal manipulator was ready for the attack. Seira relaxed her legs a little as she prepared for impact.

“Release!”

She felt the bottom of her shoes hit edge of the shockwave. At that very last second she set off an even greater shockwave compared to what Jax shot at her. Seira felt herself speeding towards the ground. She noticed Jax staggering backwards and scrambled out of the way. Shock clearly written all over the French girl’s face. Moments before impact a second smaller shockwave sent Seira catapulting into the air once again. She began humming to herself as she flew in the air. She re positioned herself at the last moment so that her feet would touch the wall opposite the cafeteria entrance the moment she hit it.

“I am walking on the wall, I am walking on the bunker wall,” she chanted softly hoping to conceal her intent.

She heard a chair scrapping harshly against the tiled floor. Based on all the yelling between the two she deduced the man figured out what she had been singing earlier. She didn't waste time trying to figure out how he heard her. Instead Seira took off as soon as her feet touched the surface of the wall. The steady supply of motem energy sustained the initial cast. She was sorely tempted to boost her speed, but she was well aware that abusing Alchemy would cause her to fatigue even faster.

“Fein!”

Seira ran up the side wall to avoid the attack. She hung upside down as she continued onwards. Strands of her black hair cascaded down as her ribbon slipped off. She felt herself slipping as her muscles began cramping. Up ahead she saw a familiar tall, blonde boy. She grinned. Her next move ought to buy them time to escape.

“Camron!” She yelled as she descended from the ceiling.

All heads turned in her direction except for Camron's. Two of them quickly step back leaving the shaggy hair giant standing in her path. She literally tackled the bear of the man using the momentum generated by her swift descent. Her partner was knocked over as well. Nimbly the girl got to her feet and pulled the shocked teen up. She dragged him along as she began bolting down the hall.

Camron was nodding rapidly as his blue eyes were fixed on the scruffy titan's moving lips. He was still nodding when a mess of black and blue swooped from the ceiling. He gaped as the he stumbled backwards and landed on his bottom. He latched onto Seira's hand and followed her meekly after she helped him up. He would do anything to get away from those scary people especially the scowling female punk with red hair.

He stumbled along awkwardly as he tried to keep pace with Seira's smaller steps. Somehow he couldn't help but wonder if they would be able to outrun such a big group. It was a real concern because the boy sensed his partner was starting to fatigue. Her steps were getting slower and more uneven. Seira had her eyes trained on the ground ahead so he was the first to notice a well-dressed young man blocking their way. There was a nasty looking pistol was in his hand. Camron tried to pull back so that they won’t hit him, but Seira continued running forward.

Seira tried not to swear as she felt Camron tugging her back. She looked up and saw Aden in front of them. She didn’t care if he had his pistol out. She drew out the gun she stole earlier and held it in front of her as though daring him to shoot first. She held her breath as their eyes locked. A loud yell from behind made the man lower his gun. His eyes widened. Seira sighed loudly as she sped up. She was trying her best to ignore the temptation to look behind. Should anyone attack them, Camron will be her sacrificial lamb. After all he was in the best position to be her human shield.

Camron felt a huge force propelling him forward. His body felt numb. A blinding flash of light exploded immediately after that. He felt himself fly straight into Seira and they continued speeding forward. Something hard stopped them. He blinked momentarily as he peeled himself off his partner. He could literally feel his hair standing on end. There was a strange humming coming from inside his head. He rubbed his bleary blue eyes. The first thing he noticed was the strange man sandwiched between Seira and the wall. The guy must have cushioned them as all three of them smashed into the wall.

The introduction of a new face had Bjorn on edge. Before, there had been no one to intercept their movements, and now two people in a row were in place. Two people that might make up an Asylum cell…

Still, Bjorn didn’t draw a weapon or do anything that might raise suspicions. For the first of many times today, he wished his Sister would spend less time with those earphones crammed into her ears. He could have spoken Danish to her, and the two in front wouldn’t know a word. He needed to figure out a way to communicate with her.

As his mind reeled to deal with the issue of the boy, Cameron and this new woman, a voice called out and broke his train of thought.

“Cameron!”

Turning around to meet the shouting voice, Bjorn was welcomed by a woman crashing into him and tackling him to the ground. He was surprised at the woman’s bravery, as he’d been accused of being a brick wall before. Thankfully, for her at least, he wasn’t with shield in hand, or she’d be with shield in skull. The tackle hit him hard and pushed him onto his ass, sliding into the nearest wall and taking the brunt of big blows from both sides.

“Ow.” Bjorn didn’t have anything clever to see as he looked down at the woman who had tackled him. She was…actually, she was kind of pretty.

It wasn’t until she started sprinting down the hall that Bjorn recognised her as a target: Seira…That made the blonde haired kid another target. Shi…

The familiar heat of a lightning bolt surging down the hall and narrowly missing both Cameron and Seira shot past Bjorn, letting him now that Thora was aware of the situation and boy was she pissed. Seeing some upstart Asian bitch tackling her brother, how fucking dare she! The woman was moving faster than she expected, but that didn’t stop Thora’s rage, it just made it bubble up even more. She chanted a few words under her breath and made motions with her hand: for once she wasn’t channelling the power of rock, and instead she stuck with typical, boring Motem and Vocum alchemy. She may not have an easy target in the Asian bitch, but blonde…

She shot a fist full of lightning at the Blonde haired punk, and suddenly there was a violent flash of light that had her stopping in her tracks. When she looked up, Seira and Cameron were up to the next wall, and little squiggles danced across her eyes. Had she just been hit with a flash bang or something?

She quickly ran over to Bjorn, helping him off his ass which gave him time to raise his shield and stare down the weird looking lass with the sword. The girl, Sarah, looked half as shocked as he did, but he wasn’t taking any chances. “Tell me, do you know the lizard?” His shield was ready to intercept the sword blows, but just in case, he was moving his hand towards the heavy maul at his side.

“Tell me, do you know the lizard?”

The invitation had been sent, this harmless question serving as a catalyst welcoming the infamous Gemellie. Who better to explain the nature of a lizard than a viper? This metaphor akin to but one, he who drapes himself in Crimson and dares call him the harbinger of misfortune.

I do.. A silent whisper echoed in a desultory tone, as if taunting if not blatantly provoking the Asylums that stood in opposition. A daunting figure stood behind the little lady who had announced herself as Jax, gazing down at the girl with eyes veiled in crimson spectacles that shimmered in an unsettling glow. The air itself appeared to thicken with the appearance of this stranger hoisting a coffin behind his back, a reminder of the final cradle, one denied to all Asylums.

"Remain silent.....or be crushed by the weight...of your own bones," the air within the bunker appeared to thicken even more so, the alchemic pressure fluctuating resulting in disorientation. The very bodies of those around grew heavy and humped, as if a great weight being thrust upon their shoulders. Amidst these bizarre phenomenons yet another unexpected silhouette materialized beside Bjorn and his sister, as the disorientation slowly faded the features of a frail and child like person began to grow more vivid. Though even within the state of nausea that warped one's visual cognition, uncannily this child's eyes remained stark. Two mismatched eyes calmly stared into oblivion, motionless and yet any wandering glances that dared meet hers would see but one thing, the deathly chill that reflected of them.

"This amusing little squabble has grown tedious, while I don't mind senseless slaughter of your comrades I do dislike the smell of blood this early in the morning," the spectacled stranger finally broke the silence that had loomed long enough, his gaze returning to the Asylum that stood nearest to striking distance, Jax. Without hesitation the towering man raised his hand while the hooded Asylum recovered from the disorientation, how could any well trained assassin ignore such a perfect point blank strike. In mere seconds his hand descended, the disorientation fading just enough to allow the Asylum a look at her foe's face, a face scarred with a crescent wound. Though perhaps the strangest feature would have been the smile that appeared on the man's face, a gentle smile. With that his palm finally made contact right atop Jax's head, the smile still visible as he appeared to pat the Asylum, a gesture a kin to what a kid receives for a deed well done.

"Interference.....is...unproductive," the twin tailed doll like girl spoke once more in a mechanical monotone lacking any expression or soul, a strange trait and equally frightening. With these ques it wouldn't have taken long for any Asylum to deduce the ones standing before them were none other than the infamous Gemellie and that this child was in fact the Chrono, -VI-.

"Do you know what Lost Numbers are?" Angel casually questioned the Asylums before him, his nonchalant attitude a clear indicator that he really didn't care what response the lot gave him. "The partner of a Chrono Asylum is commonly referred as a Lost Number, mainly due to the fact that the two don't share a link. There is really no one....almost...no one who can take the brunt of a Chrono's drain as such sharing a mental link would be suicide. However without said link, the Asylum is left vulnerable and keeping up with a Chrono often leads them to their deaths, the uncertainty with which these Asylum live has dubbed them Lost Numbers." As XIII spoke, his fingers repeatedly seemed to tap against the frame of his spectacles in a rhythmic manner.

"The 13th .....Lost Number," Rin chillingly spoke once more, her pupils slowly tilting towards her partner and for a few seconds the duo appeared to share a silent communication.

"Indeed, there are twelve Chronos hence the norm should be twelve Lost Numbers, yet there is a thirteenth." Angel casually scanned the surroundings as he spoke, his tone growing more taunting as if with the intentions to provoke.

"There is an Asylum, well respected by the tools who run this organization. Though to be clear, the respect he has acquired is mainly due to his unique alchemy. Most of you are familiar with cloaking alchemy or invisibility, the minor flaw is that while your visual capabilities are hindered there are an abundance of other means for location. Foot steps, heart beat, scent etc. However, A.M.R.O's reptile has soul cloaking." Once again the Crimson Asylum appeared to fidget with his frame, the flow of words coming to a halt leading back to silence. "Personally I find that name rather cliched," Angel continued once more, the pause a mere contemplation to think for a substitute over the choice of name.

"Soul cloaking is unique in that it cloaks every single aspect, the sound he makes, his presence, his interaction with his surroundings. In essence the man becomes untraceable, undetectable, the only person that even A.M.R.O's greatest hunter can't pin point. With that said we are all thinking the exact same thing, he can be any where and he is the best candidate for an assassin, so why send yo-?"

"Lambs.... in a..... den of tigers..." The Chrono coldly interrupted her partner, her calculative gaze scanning the surroundings as well. "A mission of discretion.... requires dispensable assets. Digits.....are replaceable."

"Exactly so," her partner clapped in enthusiasm, clearly amused with A.M.R.O and its antics. "The mission given to you was to silence Asylums that knew more than they should have, sadly this included you lot as well. A.M.R.O isn't too keen on letting it's soldier's know how it operates, what is the best course of action? Have you lot kill the Asylums and then conveniently mark you off as well, possibly branding you as traitors that attacked my team and then in turn died at the hands of the chrono. I think i summed up A.M.R.O's intentions pretty well, don't you think so......Geko....come on out."

As if on que a strange distortion appeared to occur right in front of Thora, the very fabrics of space around that location tearing to reveal a black silhouette slowly manifesting itself. The highly anticipated arrival of the infamous "Lizard" had drawn near and with what first looked like a highly pixelated outline of a shadow could no vividly be seen. The Lizard stood there before them, his back slightly hunched and his fingers brushing against his stubble as if admiring a work of art.

"I suppose this is what we would call wild berries huh?" The man spoke, his tone much like that of a well brewed vine, aged and refine. His eyes mere inches away from Thora's breasts, his firm position revealing that he had been 'appreciating art' for some time.

"There you have it, the old cartoon known as Geko," Angel spoke, his demeanor as casual as ever except for the finger that lay pressed against his temples. A clear indicator of XIII's disdain for the thirteenth Lost Number.

"How many times have I told you my name is not Geko, my name is - " Before the famed silencer could finish his sentence, he had to instantly shift his steps to evade an incoming strike, possibly from Thora herself. "The price of appreciating art is a hefty," the silencer whispered to himself, nodding his head wisely as if coming to terms with one of life's greatest philosophical lessons.

"You boy, remember this!" The man spoke once more, slowly walking towards the naivest of the lot. His sturdy, well built 6 foot frame standing before Camron. Geko a tall and muscular man appearing in his mid forties, the age a clear indicator from the Asylum's graying hair and stubble. Most of his clothing appeared to consist solely of black camouflage gear with kevlar integrated within the fabric, the only piece striking as out of the ordinary being a bright red scarf wrapped around his neck as well as concealing his mouth.

"Listen here boy, some times you can stay in the shadows forever. Always admiring, but an existence of a stranger is a dull one, I would know. You are young so remember boy, sometimes you must go an extra mile. Sometimes you must feel happiness!" The Lizard shout out, his tone filled with enthusiasm and wisdom, though the latter could be disputed based on the original intentions of what exactly this man wished to impart on Camron. The said intentions eventually made themselves clear with Geko failing at his attempt to grope Camron's partner, his entire frame freezing with but one glare from the Chrono.

"Why did you show yourself Geko? You could have easily assassinated the remaining Asylums as well as this hit squad. You appearance only served to give them an.....unintentional warning." A mischievous smirk slowly spread across Angel's face as he spoke to Geko, a smirk which the Lizard seemed to share as well.

"...Unintentional....keep that in mind and make it work, there isn't much time," Geko replied with a forlorn look, his expressions a silent courtesy reveling someone greater than him will come to end the job. With that said the Lizard once more faded into obscurity, disappearing and leaving behind no traces.

"Looks like you Asylums are in the same boat as those you disposed. Quite the predicament isn't it.... how about a career change? Follow the Chrono and most probably die.......or follow A.M.R.O and most definitely die. I am on pin and needles waiting to hear which course of action you will decide." A mischievous smile spread across Angel as his sarcastic retort conveyed what he needed, the fact that the Asylum had no other choice but to fill in the shoes of those they killed.

"Oh oh join us, big brother can get us ice-cream!" The Chrono chirped, a sudden change in her demeanor quite easily taking a back to all those that saw her but seconds ago. Her cold exterior melted away and her stoic mannerism now bore a multitude of expressions, most to all jovial and enthusiastic much like a child without a care or worry.

"Good morning my dear Rena, we have guests over so do offer them some dessert or a bullet, based on their decision that is."

And there is that devilish smile again~

"I hate being right." Jason commented as he watched the scene unfold through the monitors in the security room. It hadn't been all that difficult to break in, really. Everyone was rather distracted with the other assassins and the outbreak of fighting among the Asylums the guards were simply rushing about securing the exits and all routes leading to said battle. It hadn't been all that difficult with Fiora's talents for the pair to find the room and slip past the defenses. They apparently hadn't imagined Asylums would be able to simply walk through solid walls.

Still, the revelation that they had been sent on suicide mission chilled Jason. He was well aware AMRO view Asylums as expendable weapons, to be discarded for another once they had depleted their use, but being faced with that reality firsthand was another matter entirely. Fiora simply stayed focused on the screen, on the Lizard. She did a check on her pistols and equipment, a tic of hers that showed every time she was anticipating trouble after a mission was completed. Jason leaned back in his chair and kicked his legs up on the table, sighing.

"Well, I don't suppose we'll be able to just slip out..." Jason sighed.

---

"So nice place you have here." Jason spoke as he phased through the wall alongside Fiora, and dusting off his suit. "I don't suppose you have guest rooms, do you?"

Fiora kept a her face blank, though she silently wished Jason wasn't trying to joke his way through the conversation when it seemed like the Chrono before them wasn't the type to entertain humour. She stood still against the wall, but kept her hand against it in case they needed to bolt. "Count us in." She added quietly. Neither of them were foolish enough to think they were doing AMRO's "good work" and would be rewarded for their efforts one day, but they chose this life and they weren't going to back down from the choices they made.

"I'm Phantom, and this is Ghost." Jason introduced the pair of them. "We're Team Midnight." He glanced around to room to assess the situation. It didn't seem like anyone was about to start another fight, though whether or not the Chrono would opt to kill them instead of recruit them was still up for debate. If he was half the Sniffer had he been trained to be, then it would seem their fearless leader cum potential executioner was more interested in live Asylums than dead ones.

"We're also the ones who took out the brothers." He continued. Honesty seemed to be the best course of action, though he knew there was little concern over who they actually killed. Asylums knew not to grow too attached to each other. Fiora stayed silent, a hand on her pistol and the other on the wall. She was on edge and he couldn't blame her.

"My partner's a quiet one, but it seems you're looking for more firepower on your side." Jason continued. "We're not that keen on dying today either."

Jax stood across from the japanese women patiently, a sweet smile spread across her full lips. She was in no rush to end her fun so soon. She would give the girl plenty of time to get ready before continuing their little fight. Jax offered no response to the girls words, simply giggling as she began to slowly step towards the girl as she pushed herself up to her feet.

"I am in no rush to end our fun." Jax chirped sweetly before her hand suddenly pointed out towards the girl. Before another moment could pass another blast of concussive force shot out towards her target. Jax frowned as she seemed to dive out of the way and land near Aden. Aden didn't react, simply sitting in his chair as his leg crossed casually over his opposing knee. His emotionless eyes merely staring at the girl that narrowly avoided his partners attack. He knew better then to interfere with Jax when she was having her fun.

"Separate?" He laughed at the notion. "If I am not here to keep Jax in line she might take the building down on top of us." Aden spoke matter of factly.

"Shut up, Aden! You don't need to baby sit me!" Jax whined as she shot her partner a harsh glare. Aden simply raising his hands submissively, not in the mood to argue.

Jax smiled brightly as she saw the Japanese girl jump at her with a kick leading the way. She raised her hand once more. "fein!" she called out as she shot out yet another blast. Though what came next was a surprise. The two forces colliding created a blast multiple times more powerful then either alone that shot out in all directions. Jax covered her face with her forearm and planted her feet as the force rushed past her at a deafening force. Her hair and loose dress whipping violently.

The force having disoriented Jax she fell to one knee, shaking her head every few moments as if to get the marbles that were loosened to fall back in place. Blinking rapid trying to get rid of the blur that settled after her head was rattled. Aden wasn't nearly as affected as he was at a safer distance. He heard something faint coming from the Japanese girl that was strangely walking along the walk. Enhancing his hearing he heard her intentions. Looking to Jax he knew she would be out of commission for another few moments. Quickly pushing himself from the chair he gave chase to the girl, recalling her name to be Seira from the files he read on the girl.

Aden dashed down the hall after the girl after she got up off the large man Aden deduced was not a target. Aden leapt over the fallen over behemoth and landed smoothly as he continued he run. He took a separate hallway in an attempt to cut them off, figuring after all the girl had gone through she would be rather worn out and give him plenty of time to intercept. He took a hard left down a connecting hallway and came to a stop at the next intercection. He looked to his left to see his plan had paid off. He quickly lined up his pistol with the girls forehead before she also pulled a gun on him. He hesitated though looking past the two and down the hall he could see one of the supporting teams had launched an attack of their own. His gun lowered as his eyes widened in disbelief. A fucking lightning bolt tore through the empty hallway until it collided into the back of the man which was a relief though what came next wasn't anymore pleasant.

The bright flash the boy released burned his eyes painfully. Groaning angrily his eyes shut hard and hands came up to cover them but it was to late. As he was blinded he felt a strong force plow into him and slam him onto his ass and into a wall at an uncomfortable position. "Fuck!" Aden complained as he blinked rapidly and rubbed at his eyes to force out the darkness that overcame his view. Aden was pissed and that was rare. He was focused on fixing his eyes before anything else. That and getting hit into a wall dazed him a bit.

After a few moments his eyes finally readjusted and he could see once more. He looked at the two atop him and simply pushed them off. He looked down the hall and saw his gun laying on the floor; apparently the impact knocked the gun from his hands. He pushed himself to his feet and went to pick up the pistol. Turning back on the two he aimed the barrel down at the boy who seemed still out of his sorts. Before he could pull the trigger he heard something that caught his attention. Looking back down the hall he saw his partner had seemed to join the group in the hallway but beside her stood a man. His eyes widened in terror as his appearance was all to well known. And he knew Jax would be to stupid not to try and fight the man, which would certainly mean her death. Before he could execute the group he was in a sprint back down the hall towards Jax and the Gemellie. Aden ran as fast as he possibly could, leaving a trail of wind behind him.

He watched as the man seemed to pat Jax on the head, seeing Jax's sickenly sweet smile he knew she was about to attack. Aden watched as she pulled back her bladed hand and coiled her muscle to prepare a strike. The moment she began to punch out Aden finally arrived. Suddenly hooking his arm around Jax's halted her attack. Though Aden kept the momentum, using all his force to throw his partner powerfully into the ground. Without missing a moment Aden spun around on one knee, pistol forward at the man with fierce eyes staring him down. He knew he couldn't outrun the Gemellie but he might be able to hold him off long enough for Jax to get away if the situation got to that point.

"What the FUCK, Aden!?" Jax complained angrily in a groan as the impact hurt like a metaphorical mother fucker.

"Shut up, Jax. Stand down." Aden harshly responded through a tense jaw. 'He is a Gemellie, Jax. His partner is the chrono. The chrono is certainly nearby.' Aden explained telepathically as his fierce gaze remained on the man before the two of them. Suddenly then he felt the presence and pressure of gravity pushing down on him. He groaned uncomfortably as he fought the pressure pushing down on him; the pistol in his hands faintly shaking as he resisting the strain of keeping it up.

Peeking over to the side he noticed the small girl standing amongst the other portion of the group. She was so small and child like it was dizzying to imagine how such a young girl could possess so much power. But he dismissed the thought, returning his gaze back to the immediate threat before them. Angel. Aden did not react as he simply listened. Though as the pressure left his body he couldn't resist the sigh of relief that escaped his lips. His eye brows narrowed as his brain processed all the information. He knew the A.M.R.O. didn't like loose ends but did they seriously send them to their own funerals? Listening as the Gemellie continued on he took notice at the sudden arrival of the Lizard; an appearance he recognized immediately as the man who initially gave them the mission.

It wasn't long before they were given an option. Aden then suddenly felt his partners hand on his shoulder having used it as a support to pull herself up to her feet.

"The A.M.R.O. can try and take us out." Jax spoke confidently, salivating at the idea of such a challenge. Though Aden disagreed with the girl, he knew better. Aden holstered his pistol behind his suit jacket and stood up beside Jax. Placing a hand to the girls shoulder he looked to Angel.

"We will join you." Aden stated simply, Jax pouting as her fun was denied. Though Aden seemed relaxed and at ease his mind reeled angrily. He devoted himself to A.M.R.O. and their cause, getting his hands dirty on many occasions for the company. He was furious they could simply send him to his grave without reason.

The weight of the bunker, as well as the words ‘I do’ had even Thora paused in her seething anger. Something was very wrong. She noticed for the first time an individual that had not been there previously: A numeric ‘13’ etched onto his body. Despite all of Thora’s brash attitude or brazen disrespect, she knew that the number 13 would spell more than a little bad luck if she tried anything.

In her mind, she was trying to figure out the best plan of attack: All she needed to do was get a hold of that Coffin or something and she could fill the Asylum’s entire body with electricity. Even if he was number thirteen, lower numbers didn’t mark you as stronger until you got to the Chrono’s themselves.

Then the actual Chrono appeared, right beside herself and Bjorn in fact.

Seeing the small child, as well as the all-important number etched on his flesh, forced all aggression to melt out from Thora’s frame and be replaced with a new, almost awe-struck wonder. This was one of the twelve: The pinnacle of alchemy, the honour that each Asylum was to strive for and the authority on which Thora was conditioned to bow. Of the few things that the Thunderous one respected, it was the authority of a superior that trumped her pride. That number on her skin made Angel her superior, both in rank and in achievement.

Bjorn, on the other-hand, was just freaked out by all that was going on. Had the other entire asylum been brought in just to complicate their mission? First this kid chasing an Asian girl caused trouble, and then there was the guy whose sole contribution thus far was to get slammed into a wall by aforementioned Asian girl and a blonde haired kid who exploded and appeared to be deaf. Now there was a Chrono and her partner, and Bjorn was struck in a position of rather obvious defeat, without making a mistake. To say that the Man-bear was frustrated was an understatement: his entire body seemed tense and the muscles of his forearm bulged under the strain of tightly bunched fists.

The small story of the lost numbers was barely registered in the haze of frustration, but it was the mention of the Lizard that had Bjorn paying attention again. Soul-Cloaking? It sounded like such a bizarre concept: To be able to hide not only the physical form, but scent and heartbeat and more besides? That would mean the only way to catch a man like that would be to feel him, likely a death sentence, as any assassin worth his shoes could kill a person touching them. The Chrono didn’t even have to say it before Bjorn understood what she was getting at. It was the same fear he’d been struggling with prior to their mission’s beginning. This was meant to be their last mission, one way or the other.

For Thora, it took the Chorno saying it to realise the truth. Hearing that she was considered ‘disposable’ without so much as a single failure to her name was a heavy blow. A soldier was trained to be ready to die, for sure, but to die for doing the exact orders given?

The desolate confusion was interrupted by the appearance of a strange man, taller than her but shorter than Bjorn. The sudden way he appeared, hunched over and staring at her, forced a little yelp of surprise and a leap backwards, but after a second, she realised just what was going on. The pervy bastard had been…staring at her breasts?!

He began answering a question, ignoring her completely, despite how long he’d been spending: disrespecting her. She knew that this man was a representative of A.R.M.O. but she snapped. A fist shot through the air, muscles flexing as she threw a right hook that would shame most professional boxers. He dodged it effortlessly, of course, but that didn’t stop her second fist starting to move: this one crackling with electricity. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Thora was going for another swing.

A loud bang filled the bunker suddenly, as Bjorn was beside his sister, an open palm next to her left ear. She froze in her place, before collapsing into a state of pure unconscious-ness. Bjorn caught his sibling in one hand, hefting her onto his shoulder with an effortless ease. He knew that the Lizard could have killed them both already: and that if pressed, he still could. Thora was too hot-headed to evaluate the situation, and the two of them would lose in this situation. Next time though, I’ll wring his neck myself. The Viking-looking asylum hid the contempt in his eyes as best he could: not willing to give the Lizard any more information than he needed about Bjorn’s intent. He had already realised that it was probably his powers that best suited tackling the Lizard’s own: If one were able to strike from the Soul-camouflage, that meant they still maintained a physical form. That meant he had a solution, should Bjorn ever be the Lizard’s target. He chose not to react when the lizard vanished, except to swing his maul in a small circle around him. The fucker wouldn’t get away with peeking at his sister again.

Listening to the Chrono and the Asylum attached, Bjorn had already made his decision. He hadn’t trusted the A.R.M.O for long enough that jumping ship didn’t present a particularly hard decision for him. He was about to speak when the Chrono herself changed entirely: becoming entirely child-like. ”Multiple-personality disorder?” He listened to her words, able to identify that she still retained the knowledge of her other half. The choice was as black and white as she made it. Cake or death, if you will.

“I’ll take desert. Bullets have me reacting in all sorts of bad ways.”

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Seira rubbed her temples. Her head ached and her eyes were tearing badly. She was just getting comfortable when the man roughly pushed her and Camron off. She landed on her side with her blouse hitching up slightly. Embarrassed the young woman quickly adjusted her attire. She clutched her head again as she glared at Aden. What a jerk! He could have helped her up at the very least after shoving her off. She pouted slightly and before sitting cross legged once more. She suspected she would feel disoriented if she attempted to stand up again so suddenly.

She could hear the scruffy Viking now questioning the strange looking brunette with the sword. The woman was standing rather awkwardly at the moment. Seira frowned. She prayed they were not about to meet yet another loony, because her tolerance was waning. The next psychopath who annoyed her will be shot! She is pretty sure self-defense is justified according to the A.M.R.O. regulations.

The raven haired student killed the thought quickly. She didn’t want to start ruminating on whether or not she would be able to get away with murder because she is trying to deny the horrid possibility that A.M.R.O. view all Asylums were dispensable. Surely they all lived in more civilized times where human lives are worth more than the mission objectives. Life isn’t a game, and war wasn’t glamorous. She felt around the ground trying to find the gun. Her fingers rested on the cold metallic exterior of the barrel. Satisfied she moved her hand so that she could wrap her fingers round the grip. She remained oblivious to the fact that her teenaged partner had pushed the gun towards her when he saw her feeling around.

“I do.”

The solemn words hung in the air. The crushing weight that followed caused her to slump backwards as she let go of the gun. She lay in a compromising position with her legs slightly parted in front of her. She blushed furiously. Luckily the pressure lifted as the child Chrono materialized beside the behemoth and his red head partner. Seira pulled her legs together and righted herself once more. She tried her best to pay attention to the Gemille, but Angel’s action creeped her out. He definitely patted the unhinged female teen from before. The man has such a weird fetish. He seemed to like psychotic lolitas. Liking lolitas was bad enough, but being turned on by psychotic lolitas was just insane. Lina was probably right about him being the Chrono’s red caped pedophile lover. She wondered how long it would be before he tried soliciting the red eyed Goth girl.

She was so absorbed in her internal debate about reporting Angel’s pedophilic tendencies to the proper authorities that she completely missed his monologue about soul cloaking. The sudden materialization of yet another individual floored her completely. She studied him carefully. He was much older than most of the Asylums she has seen and that speaks volumes about his capabilities. Suddenly he turned around to address Camron. Noticing that her partner was oblivious, Seira kicked the boy in the shin. The kid turned around and stared at their latest guest.

Camron gaped as he noticed what had to be the coolest person ever. The man looked like a ninja with his black outfit and red scarf. Well even though the man doesn’t seem to be Japanese. Not that is surprised him. The new karate kid was a black boy, and the kid was still cool. Admiration shone in the boy’s eyes as he watched the man talk excitedly. He wished he knew what the other was saying. The content must have been riveting because no one else was interrupting the man. The teen was completely surprised by the look of disgust on Seira’s face as the man swooped down to help her up. She looked like she wanted to murder the poor ninja.

“Why isn’t… oh right he can’t hear,” Seira muttered under her breath.

Still she shot her partner a dark look when he appeared to be genuinely upset that perverted old geezer had disappeared once more. He gave her a puzzled a look in response. She rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket. Kai returned the bio-cybernetic device when she joined them earlier. She had debated about actually giving it to Camron, but she doubted leaving him in lurch would make their situation better. He needed to hear in order to survive. Well hopefully.

Camron attempted to scout away as Seira crawled over to him. She still looked pissed and based on his past experiences with her he knew that it will not end well. He stiffened as she grabbed his collar and yanked him forward. He floundered in protest, but she batted his arms away. The boy squirmed as he felt her tickling his ear. Then he heard static. He paused as more sound filtered in. Words became clearer and clearer till finally he could make out a chirpy little voice.

"Oh oh join us, big brother can get us ice-cream!"

He beamed and yelled. “Count me in. I haven’t had chocolate ice cream in ages!”

“Can you please listen before you speak?”

Camron turned around and gave a start. He had expected to see a white Australian girl, but instead he found himself looking in Seira’s direction. He paused for a while trying to make sense of the whole situation. He can’t believe that an Asian can speak English fluently. He was sorely tempted to tease her by saying “G’day Mate”. A blue-grey flash make him jerk his head to the right. There was no mistaking the sound of a gun safety catch being disabled. He bit his lip as he saw a tanned nigger pressing a gun to the back of Seira’s head. He slowly lifted his hands up in the air to show that he wasn’t armed. He watched enough of American movies to know that you should take an armed black guy seriously even if he happened to be sporting cornrows. The man reminds him of Blade ironically even with that weird hair style choice.

“We come in peace,” he said meekly.

“Tell me what the gun looks like,” came the bossy voice in his head again. He realized it was Seira. He moved his mouth soundless.

“Try to picture it in your mind. Just trust me, okay?” she commanded telepathically.

“Are you going to do some cool martial arts shit?” he thought.

“Oh shut up,” Seira retorted mentally.

Alice was on edge being so close to the team hunting her and her brother, but she trusted Barnabas and knew his plan would work if she could just lure the team down the hallway he was waiting in. She went through different scenarios of getting the nords to the right place, but all of her thoughts and schemes were wiped from her mind when a woman suddenly tackled the blonde man standing between her and the two nords, saving her the trouble of answering the bear of a man’s question about the Lizard. Alice watched as the woman, who she realized was one of the ones from the cafeteria, picked the man up and ran down the hallway, dragging him along. They were cut off by a nicely dressed man with a gun, and then suddenly the female nord shot lightning from her hand down the hall at the fleeing Asylums. When this happened, Alice began relaying everything she saw back to Barnabas to give him time to alter the plan now that they knew what sort of alchemy one of them used.

There was a clang as Alice dropped her brother’s sword and fell to her knees as the gravity in the hall became heavier. She looked up as best she could at the owner of the voice that suddenly appeared. It was one of the Gemelli, and where there was one there was the other, so when the young girl suddenly appeared in the middle of Angel’s monologue Alice wasn’t surprised. The whole time, Alice relayed the situation back to Barnabas.

Barnabas listened to the report Alice relayed back to him and began altering the plan to get around the lightning user’s abilities. He was in the middle of erasing the sigil behind the vending machine when Alice relayed the situation back to him. He cursed under his breathe and slashed the sigil out. He began to run down the hall as fast as he could, retracing the blueprint in his mind, but he wasn;t fast enough. He stopped for a second and etched a sigil on the bottom of his boot. He jumped and kicked off of a wall and activated the sigil; the wind exploded out and sent him hurtling down the hall and into a couch left in a little nook. He untangled himself from the pillows and ran to the next intersection and then down another hall. He came out at the end of a hall with three people tangled together, one pushing the other two off of them. Barnabas sprinted past them and came to a halt just short of the end of the hall. His sister was slowly getting to her feet, the gravity having been restored to normal.

Alice undid the alchemy on her hair and eyes and walked over to her brother, handing him his sword. He collapsed it and sheathed it on his belt and watched for anyone to make a move toward them. He had been hotheaded to came sprinting in here, but one of his best abilities was coming up with a plan on the spot, so he was ready, but he doubted he would need a plan, considering both Gemelli were present. Barnabas’s late arrival had saved him the trouble of listening to Angel’s monologue firsthand, but Alice had relayed it to him the best she could. Barnabas had arrived in time to see the man materialize from nothingness, dressed in what appeared to be ninja clothing. Barnabas was not surprised, as Alice had kept him updated through their telepathic link. He was, however surprised to see the man appear out of nothingness and be staring at the female nord’s chest and to hear him go on about perverted things to the blonde deaf man. Barnabas watched closely as the bear of a man stepped forward and placed his hand next to the woman’s ear and knocked her out. Then with the same slight shift in the air, the old man vanished, cloaking himself to a much better degree than Alice could. After Angel went on about the Asylums who had been hunting the ones already under his thumb, Alice went to speak up when two other Asylums phased through the wall next to her and her brother. That brought her up short for a moment, but she ignored it and turned to Angel to speak. As Alice spoke, Barnabas turned his analytical eyes upon the team who had just phased through a solid wall, and was too busy to notice the man with a gun down the hall.

“Well you already have us under your thumb.”

Team Love Burns

Love Burns continued up the passageway. They opted to travel the bomb shelter passage way so they can bypass the cafeteria. The couple wanted to keep a low profile because there were so many hostile teams around. The whole situation was setting off alarm bells in their head. As they neared one of the side exits, they heard muffled voices coming from the other side. Rich pressed his ear against the cool metallic surface of the door and motioned for Sela to remain quiet. The smartest thing to do right now was to figure out who the other players were before they strike once again. A sharp, clear peal echoed within the confined space of the bomb shelter.

“Camron!”

"Either there is a battle going on or someone is throwing one hell of a Rave." Rich quipped offhandedly as he pulled back. His ears were ringing because of the intensity of the scream. Damn the teenaged wench. How many teeny boppers does A.M.R.O keep on their payroll anyway?

Sela rolled her eyes. “Hopefully someone breaks out the ice and the rest get doped up. I love it when things are nice and easy.”

“Cleanup is about as boring as boring can be…”

“I rather have less notoriety. I bet no one will trust us if they knew what we are doing.”

Rich shrugged. His wife always erred towards the cautious side. Not a silly thing to do really since being an Asylum wasn’t all about blood and gore. There were a lot of hidden politics going on, and they weren’t that privileged to be in the know. The half-Brit brushed his one against the surface of the door and yelped.

Sela could hear the clinking of the beads in his hair as her husband swore furiously. The metallic surface of the door clanged loudly as he kicked again and again. The denting blows cut off parts of the ongoing conversation. All she could deduce was Lizard made an appearance, and the bastard had betrayed them. Figures. You can never trust another Silencer or Sniffer. They were a sleazy bunch, and too god damn cocky.

The last kick forced the door open as Rich tumbled up. Reacting quickly the man grabbed Puppy and pressed it against the young Asian girl’s head. She was what he needed to work off his pent up frustration. He smirked as he released the safety catch. It was his lucky day. A.M.R.O. had sound proof the entire corridor so no one heard the racket he was making inside.

“I think not,” Seira replied calmly.

“What’s with the ace… Wait! What! What stop!” Rich yelled flamboyantly as his favorite pistol began falling apart. His mind did a double take. Oh mai GAWD! He had totally forgotten this girl was the weapon alteration specialist. Fucker!

The man snorted. “Bitch!”

He yanked the old Switch-a-roo from behind. That teeny bopper is so gonna die. No one, fucking no one, not even his wife, messes with Puppy. That was his precious baby for crying out loud. Rich had just transformed it into the bat’leth when suddenly someone popped out of the wall quite literally. A blondie followed by yet another chinky. He dropped his weapon which immediately snapped back to form a skateboard. Rich barely jumped out of the way in time. It pissed him off even more. He could have lost his leg.

“Jesus Fucking Christ! You teeny boppers are sprouting everywhere scaring the shit outta me.”

He felt someone touch his shoulder. Rich froze. The hand patted his shoulder in a soothing fashion. Based on the amount of strength going into that awkward motion, he deduced that the person was male and not his lovely wife.

“That’s a good nigger. Ice cream would make you feel better. I hope I don’t have to explain what it is though, since I doubt you can afford it.”

“Boy, do you know who you are talking to?” He asked tersely.

Camron stopped patting Rich’s shoulder. “Blade’s fugly stunt double?”

Sela blocked the punch her husband threw at the boy with one of her fans. A small stream of blood trickled down the side of his hand. He flicked the injured hand once before mumbling darkly to himself. The senora chuckled. Her hubs always loses sight of the bigger picture when his temper gets the better of him. She heard the other teams already declaring their allegiance to the Chrono and her red undertaker. The dark queen fanned herself coyly as she directed her wanton gaze at the pale Vladimir.

“You know what, I would like to call. I am sure our cards are much better than what A.M.R.O. has at the moment.”

“My cocky dear bitch since when were you ever lucky when it comes to Poker?” Rich asked cynically. He took the pain to enunciate every word clearly to make his crisp British accent more marked.

Sela stepped on his foot. “Leave the betting to me. You can’t even win when playing UNO.”