Esprum deeply glared at Aurellius, pushing his spectacles back up to the base of his nose, before suddenly, he broke character, swinging the base of his weapon at the heavy weapon guy's head.

A deep thrum was heard throughout the clearing as metal striked against metal, the long rod smacking hard against Aurellius' Ascalon. He had turned around, and in one quick motion, brought his weapon up to block. There was a bit of a snarl on his face as he glared at Bookworm. "I... do hope that was an accident, Wormie. Because if it wasn't, you might be regretting it soon."

"Regret seems to be something you lack, amoung much more." Esprum brought his staff back down, his glare unwavering. "That was to get your blasted attention. Why the fuck would you pound an injure's back, and go one about me improving with my skills?! You hardly could've done a damned thing against that Beowolf!"

"Oh, you call that pounding? I barely even hit her! Its her own damn fault for getting fucked up! Oh, and could have done nothing? I fucking took out its eye and a quarter of its brain! If I had stood by, it woulda gone after you and eaten your sorry ass." He growled out the words, glaring at Esprum. "Its not my fault I got sent on a mission with you assholes. I woulda been just fine if they had just sent me! But no, you all had to come along with your stupid whining." A hand struck out, attempting to grab ahold of Esprum's staff., to wrench it out of his grip with strength alone.

He quickly jerked his hand back. "Then leave! Nothing his keeping you here with us kids! No planning could have prepared me for your bullshit! You have no respect for anyone on this team, your strength hardly making you an asset!" That was when he turned, promptly walking forward. Before entering his silent mode, he said one final thing. "Get your shit together, Aurellius, or leave."

Aurellius spat on the ground. "I can't fucking leave, you prick. You don't understand why I'm even on this stupid mission in the first place. We're leaving." He said, turning away towards their objective.

Esprum kept walking the other way, before ultimately leaning up against a tree. 'It isn't really like I can leave... right?' He through inwardly, looking towards the ground, his eye catching part of his ripped robe. Without responding to himself, he slowly continued after the others, it was hard to tell if he was actually there or not.

She frowned, crossing her arms as she watched Esprum and Aurellius finish their word fight. "For the good of our sanity, I sure as hell hope we find this relic soon." She muttered, shaking her head. She wasn't walking nearly as easily and some of the color appeared drained from her face. It was all she could do however, having been sapped by Aslin. She tried to take it easier, walking at a very relaxed pace.

She turned her head then, looking back at Esprum. It couldn't have been easy on him, being such a timid man, to have stood up to Aurellius like that. That was something worthy of pride in her book, anyways. She fell back Esprum, laying a hand on his shoulder as she said in a soft tone "That took some guts."

In response, the bookworm would only glance towards the hand for half a second, before glaring straight ahead through his glasses.

"You know, you don't have to be worried about what everyone else thinks of what you say. You'd be a far better team mate if you'd come out of that thick shell of yours more." She grinned, the canine in her teeth showing as longer than most normal humans. "You have what it takes to be a leader, but you need to be able to jump a bit more."

He was as silent as ever, though the shift of emotion clearly showed his frowned as he walked forward. It would have taken a few moments, but he finally replied. "I'll work on it."

"I guess that's all I can really ask for... I've got your back, Esprum, you just need to ask and I'll be there." She began to speed up, heading back towards Aslin incase she needed any help as their convoy continued through the dense forest. They followed along a rough dirt path, rocks and bumps making their footsteps seem jagged and irregular. The members of the 4 person party bobbed up and down, again and again. No one seemed in the highest of spirits, and it was barely into the mission. They came upon a small clearing in the forest, which Nicoleta paused at.

"We should rest here." She said, crossing her arms. "We're in no shape to fight anything further. Our team wants to kill each other and we're already half dead. If we went in there like this, those Vacuans would be able to defeat us without much problem. I'm not saying we should set up a camp here, but we need a little while to cool off."

"We should rest here." Aurellius mocked inside of his head, using a sing-songy high pitched voice. His blood was boiling, and not because of the battles they had had. That prick Esprum had to go and royally piss him off, and Aurellius didn't like being pissed off. He preferred being in control and having a calm attitude, and it turn, that allowed him to go really wild if he wanted to. But if some asshole decided to come at him with a tiny twig, that might make a few things different. He let out a deep sigh, having just barely heard what Nico had said to Bookworm after their little 'fight'. It wasn't as if he had started it, no, but of course everyone decides to hate him for it.

At least Ascalon truly understood him. It didn't talk back, worked well when he took care of it, and never gave up on him. Ascalon was the only ally he truly needed. He ran a hand along the length of it, grinning slightly. He stopped for a moment, looking back at the other party members. "Since you slowpokes want to take a little bit of a rest, I'm gonna go take a piss." He waved a hand over his shoulder as he started to depart, not even looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was going to stop him.

Of course, if they did try to stop him, they would get a broken nose and be covered in piss. He didn't actually have to go, but he was sure he could urge out a fairly large stream on anyone unconscious. Setting Ascalon over his shoulder, he set out. Of course, his lovely little stroll to pass the time ended up in shambles.

In just a few moments, he was tackled from the side, voices around him yelling, "Take him out, but don't kill him!" He landed hard in the dirt, a very large object on top of him. A high tech suit of armor, it was branded A.W.E. according to the big icon sitting on the shoulder piece. He laughed, they would make a very big mistake in deciding to capture him. Even though the suited man had his strength multiplied by a factor of five, that didn't mean he could stop the back of Ascalon as it smacked him in the face.

The face plate cracked, but only slightly as the man recoiled back. For a second, Aurellius was a bit confused. This wasn't Vacuan design, he knew it pretty well actually. This was Atlas brand technology, designed by a little company called H.O.R.N.E.T. Aurellius didn't give the man time to react by bashing the back of Ascalon back and forth against the mans' face plate. Of course, it really didn't do much, and a strengthened fist went towards Aurellius' jaw. Stars flashed in his vision as he felt the full impact on his jaw, but the man above him really hadn't had much control over his strength. It sent Aurellius flying a few feet away, which made even more stars flash. He stood up, jaw aching like a mother fucker. It felt like it was dislocated, and when he tried to talk, it just wouldn't move.

"Yhrr grnna pey frr drt." he mumbled, looking at the six Atlas soldiers surrounding him. A lead soldier wielding a stun staff ran at him. An over head slash which might have worked if Aurellius had less range. His lance thrusted forwards, stabbing the man right in the chest and burrowing in a few inches. The man was sent back as Aurellius pulled his weapon back, cursing. Their armor was just too bulky to easily stab through. Aurellius decided something else, flipping more switches and launching into the air with his thrusters. Gazes turned upwards at his spinning barrels, Aurellius tucked and rolled on the other side of them. He began firing, bullets soon filling the air. Two of them were quickly turned into bloody bags before they got into position. Two men wielding heavy riot shields defended the others as Ascalon did its best. They even overlapped their shields, making his weapon much more useless than he would have liked.

He charged forwards, neglecting the war cry because of his jaw. Still firing, Aurellius pushed them back a little bit, but that wasn't his aim. He let go of the trigger for a few moments, one hand grabbing a hold of the top of the shield. He snarled as he pulled as hard as he could. His strength was enough for a small gap, and with one made, he hefted Ascalon up, looking backwards as gore suddenly began flying when he pulled the trigger again.

Suddenly a blanket of electrical pain washed over him as he noticed a man in the corner of his vision. He had moved as his comrades had been turned into bits, giving him time to flank around Aurellius. A small rifle had fired several tazer-like bullets at him, suddenly making it very hard to stand and move. But Aurellius still did, even though the electricity surged inside of him. A small look of fear flashed under the face plate as Aurellius kicked on his thrusters with the last of his strength. He surged forwards, his minigun turning into a lance just before it penetrated the thick fiberglass. Bits of blood and brain appeared on the end of his lance as Aurellius pulled out.

He fell backwards against a tree, groaning. No doubt his allies were already there, a little bit late to the party, but in response all he gave was a "Thh pish washn't werth irt."

Aslin sat down on a log, thankful for the time she could rest. She wasn't too tired - mostly just sore at this point - but she wanted time to think over her new ability. Or perhaps it was an old ability that she just never noticed she had? She wasn't entirely sure which was most likely.

Aurellius mentioned something about going off for a restroom break. Aslin hardly noticed, however what did catch her attention was shouting that came from the direction he went shortly after he left. "Oh for fuck's-" she started, then broke off in a sprint towards the shouting.

She got about halfway to the distance towards where the shouts originated when she tripped. Looking down, she saw her feet were tied in up in what appeared to be Bolas, the type that one would hunt deer with. Before she had a chance to react, the bolas were telekinetically pulled off into the forest, bringing Aslin along with them fast. Aslin started flying through the air and looked towards where she was flying and saw someone with a javelin aimed towards her in the center of a clearing, with her heading straight towards it.

Time seemed to slow down as Aslin impaled a tree with her katana, stopping her momentum dead. She let out a small groan in pain as she felt herself get stretched somewhat, then fell to the ground. The other person that was controlling the bolas fell forward towards her, face-first into the dirt, the sudden stoppage throwing him off balance.

Aslin quickly kicked the ropes of the bolas off her feet, and rolled to the side to avoid the man's javelin from impaling her through the stomach. She jumped to her feet and watched in mild amazement as the man magically pulled both his bolas and javelin towards his hands from a distance; if Aslin had to guess, she'd assume his polarity had to do with magnetism of some sort, or telekinesis.

Aslin readied her katana as the man swung his bolas in a circle, his javelin in his other hand. The man had a smirk on his face as he threw his bolas straight at Aslin again.

Unfortunately for him, Aslin swung her blade and with the flick of a button, managed to split the bolas in half, the projectile the blade sent out continuing on and cutting the man open from his crotch to his chin, seemingly catching him off guard.

She didn't have time to catch her breath as she was grabbed around the neck in a chokehold by a woman she hadn't seen coming from behind in the confusion. Aslin grabbed the woman's gloved hand and managed to push it up enough to bite down hard on it, the woman reflexively letting go of her as Aslin tore a small chunk of flesh out. Aslin coughed as she fell away from the woman with her katana pointed towards the woman, the woman shaking her hand rather painfully.

The woman bared her teeth and charged, throwing forward a powerful haymaker Aslin barely sidestepped. The woman continued the assault, however, using her momentum to spin herself, throwing out a roundhouse at Aslin's face, it connecting with the side of her head. Aslin got sent spinning, landing in a puddle of mud and making a splash.

Aslin's ear rang from being kicked in, and the woman pulled out two daggers and charged at Aslin again, spinning with her blades. Aslin narrowly deflected the flurry of blows coming from the woman, only stopping it with a cheap but effective kick to the woman's midsection, opening up a chance for to go on the offensive. She struck the woman over the head with the hilt of her katana, backed up a step, and lunged forward. The woman narrowly parried her katana to the side, Aslin still nicking her ear. An ear for an ear.

Aslin jumped to the side to dodge another swing of the woman's daggers and flung another projectile towards the woman, who jumped to the side as well. Aslin didn't stop, and let loose a flurry of them, the woman ducking, sidestepping, and jumping over them until one managed to catch the woman's legs, severing both of her feet off in one blow while she was in midair. As the woman tumbled, off balance due to the sudden loss of limb, Aslin darted forward and stabbed her sword through the woman's head just as she landed, finishing her off.

Aslin sighed and leaned against a tree to catch her breath, before heading off towards her original goal. By the time she arrived, however, Aurellius already had the situation under control... though he spoke with a lisp seeing as his jaw was broken. Aslin just giggled at Aurellius, unable to understand what he even said.

Esprum was the last to reach the site, though he heard the yelling at about the same time as the others. After witnessing Aslin dash off, he turned towards the yelling. 'Are we ever going to catch a break?' He huffed, before following another path towards the yelling. 'This is getting fucking old...' He thought to himself on the way, noisily stomping through the leaves that lied on the ground. He was tired, and his boots didn't do much to help stifle the crunching noise.

He soon pulled his staff out, readying himself for a fight. It came sooner than he would have liked. An unfamiliar crunch from behind caught his attention, and he turned just in time to allow a blade to hit the dead middle of his staff. This soldier kept up its assault, repeatedly bashing on Esprum's spear. He certainly couldn't keep this up for long, that time made even shorter as yet another soldier appeared behind him. He was barely able to stagger his current attacker, stabbing the newcomer right in his chest. He fell, and Esprum used a spare moment to bash the first soldier's gut with the dull end of his spear. The soldier stumbled back, giving Esprum the time he needed to steady himself. He began forward, only to step back as the sword was swung towards him. He brought his staff up to block, only to have it been hit away. Twas a shame strength wasn't his talent.

'Think... think...' He huffed as the soldier advanced. As if a light bulb went off in his head, he knelt, reaching into his ripped robes. He then waited, letting the soldier get close. It would have seemed that he intended to bash his skull in with the hilt of his blade, but he wouldn't get the chance as Esprum withdrew his hands, slugging the soldier's skull with his heavy black dictionary. That sent the soldier stargazing.

He took a moment, breathing heavily. He stepped forward, foolishly letting his guard down as he crouch to retrieve his staff. There was another crunch. 'What?!' He mentally screamed at him self as he turned, staring at the incoming hilt. 'When did he get here?!' There was much he could do, the hilt hitting where his glasses reached his left ear. Within the next second, he fell towards the ground, unconscious.

'What a wonderful start!' He quickly thought as he fell towards the ground, a line of blood trickling from the left side of his head.

She sighed, sitting on a log. What an oaf. How could you be so careless for your allies, and so hard headed, like not an idea but his could be right. The nerve. She rampaged on in her head, but her steady appearance didn't give that away. She calmly sat with her legs crossed and hands folded in front of her. She closed her eyes, resting for a few moments. Those moments were all she got before she heard yelling again. She rocketed off the log, taking out her machetes and forming them into a bow. Using a crook on it, she ran forward, raising it up and catching it on a tree. She was yanked hard, going a full 180 before dropping her foot. It sliced off the tip of the branch she was on using the bladed part of the bow, and she jumped to the next branch.

She didn't completely make it, landing, if you could even call it that. Her chest his the branch rather than her feet, and she reached out, holding onto the branch as she gasped, huffing from the exertion. "A tree's beating me." She said sourly. She didn't remember feeling this weak. My allies are counting on me. There is no easy way out. Get up. She told herself, pulling up onto the branch. Her ears twitched, and she flexed her fingers. She pushed the slight bit of hair that had gotten into her eyes during that short jump out of her face and took a deep breath. Go.

She leapt from the tree branch, successfully making it to a further branch, then another. She stopped, looking down at Aurellius, and realized he was all alone. Surely Aslin and Esprum couldn't have taken that long. . . Her senses reached out as she closed her eyes. The first thing that filled her supernatural hearing was the sound of Esprum's heavy breathing from not too far away. She heard a small cracking noise, and frowned. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. She leapt back, stabbing her bow into the tree and using it to slow her decent. She crouched for a moment on the ground, before sprinting at full speed towards Esprum. "Esprum!" She yelled, arriving just in time to see him hit the ground. The two looked towards Nicoleta with smug grins.

"Another one." One said, raising the massive two handed sword he held a bit higher. The other, with a long sword and shield, nodded to the side, and the two began to spread out to her sides.

Her bow split into the two machetes and she grimaced, her entire being seeming filled with hate. She held her machetes close to her chest, blades pointing towards the ground. A short few seconds passed like minutes as they stared each other down. Within the blink of an eye, however, the two ran for Nicoleta, hoping to pin her between the two. She leapt forward, narrowly dodging the longsword. She turned, her machetes snapping together again. She took an arrow from her bag, drawing it quickly, and firing it as the Two Handed swordsman recovered. He fell, a bright light flashing from it. The man with the shield seemed unphased, bashing his shield at Nicoleta, who used her bow to try to parry the bash, however finding her arm tingling as she was thrown backwards. This man was strong, and his shield was like lead. This gave her an idea, however. She stood up straight, pulling apart the machetes.

The swordsman grimaced. "You've made a mistake now, faunus. You'll not live long to regret killing my mate back there." He said, the accent far more clear in this man than the other.

"Then defend, defend for your life." She said harshly, her orange aura flickering into life, weak but still persevering. Both the two rushed towards each other, like a game of chicken. Neither seemed to give in ground, and the swordsman grinned. He would hit her like a truck, he was sure. Just as it seemed they would collide, she jumped, her foot stepping on the top of the shield and forcing it down. The surprised swordsmen swung his sword at the target, however he was too close, and her machete was already in place, parrying it. The mirror machete stopped at the bone in the back of the man's neck with a horrowing clunk, and the man fell backwards, blood spurting onto Nicoleta's clothing.

She ripped the machete out, her left arm falling limp from the use of the bow in the parry. She only made it halfway to Esprum before falling to her knees and eventually the ground. Blood from the man soaked into the dirt slowly, bringing about a greater form of life in plants. That was the only good thing about death. The start of new life. She pondered that, hand sprawled in Esprum's direction, however unable to make the distance fade. Maybe one day, I too can bring a beautiful tree to life.

Aurellius did the only thing he could do as Aslin approached. She seemed to think the idea of his jaw being dislocated funny. He glared at the woman as she leaned against a tree, catching her breath. "Hoih. Yhu. Ah neehd yher help." he said, getting angrier after each word. "Fish muh muf. Jush grahb iterr somethurn and twisht." Aslin however, just giggled more at Aurellius's fractured speech, but figured that for the sake of the team it'd do her better to fix his plight than it would be to sit there and laugh at him. "Alright, hang on," Aslin said, as she stuck her katana into the ground by the blade and knelt down by Aurellius. She grabbed his jaw and rather brutishly shoved it back into place.

Aurellius groaned rather loudly due to the pain of having his jaw forcibly moved. "Ffffuck, that hurt. You coulda been a little, I dunno, softer. You are a girl, aren't you?" He sighed, leaning back, rubbing his chin with his left hand. "You look better some how. Lemme guess, more magic shit?" He groaned again. "Nevermind that, why are you the only person here? Where's the Bookworm and Miss Leader?"

Aslin pulled her sword back out of the ground. She looked around; shouldn't the others be here by now? "I... I don't know, I lost them when I got ambushed myself."

"Eh, I'm sure they'll be fine on their own. We got problems of our own. Now, while I was thinking, y'know, being unable to talk lets you do a bit of that." He pondered, letting out a bit of a chuckle. "I'm pretty sure wherever these Atlas bastards have their equipment, or at least a base of operations nearby." Aslin chuckled ruefully to herself, wishing Aurellius would do less talking and more thinking more often. "Aaaand." Aurellius said, walking to one of the corpses, reaching down and patting the man down. "I think this little baby here might tell us where." He held up a small handheld pad, showing a map of the area. A blinking dot called 'Base' was nearby.

"Yeah, but as ready as you are to run off into the base alone and die on your own, we should find the others first. I'd rather, ya know, not die?" Aslin grabbed the map out of Aurellius's hands and just as she did, noticed that a small blue dot winked out of existence. If she had to guess, she'd assume that was a soldier breathing his last. And unless he was gored by a very angry deer, she could reasonably guess that was where the rest of the team was. "C'mon," Aslin said, as she started walking towards the direction of the blip. "Let's get the rest of our team first; they're this way."

"Aww, come on. I'm not talking about strolling in their base and killing everyone. I only really wanna borrow a few things. Maybe a vehicle or two. Some weapons too. You never know what you might be able to grab in five minutes." he whined, appearing pretty damn bored. "We can do that after getting our friends!" Aslin yelled back, having already dissapeared into the treeline. "And wouldn't our team mates be so proud of us for the christmas gifts..." he said with yet another sigh, slowly running after her.

Aslin sliced at a thick vine that was blocking her path, nonchalantly murdering the vegetation on her way towards what could only be assumed to be Nico and Esprum's last known position. "They should be right around her- OOF!" Aslin yelped as she tripped over a dead soldier, landing face-first in the grass. When she picked her head up, Nicoleta was right in front of her, bleeding and unconcious. "Found 'em."

Aurellius snorted as the girl fell over. "You know, you should really watch out for those dead bodies. Really a big safety hazard." He poked one of the corpses with his foot, grinning as it oozed. He went ahead over to Nico's unconcious form, crouching next to her. "Think she's okay?" He laid a hand on her shoulder, shaking it a little. "Hold on, I'm gonna do something funny."

"I swear to god, if you're just copping a feel..." Aslin quickly retorted.

He threw his hands up in a gesture of defeat. "Oi, oi. I'm not some kind of pervert. Besides, she's probably really hairy down there. Sheesh." He grabbed a nearby large leaf, setting it in front of the Faunus' nose. He began to wiggle it back and forth, stifling a giggle.Her figure didn't move, other than taking a long sigh.

Because yeah, she's still out of it.

"I've figured it out. She's dead." Aurellius said in a deadpan tone.

Aslin just glared blankly at Aurellius. "I can see her aura."

Aurellius sighed, having his fun and games ruined. "Oh, come on Miss Leader, wake up already." He poked her in the cheek, a rather bored expression on his face.

Nope, nothing.

Aslin sighed. "Aethan seems out of it, too. Guess you're carrying them with us."

"...Why do I have to carry them? Its not my fault they passed out." He tapped on Ascalon with his hand. "I'm already carryin' this baby."

"Well the soldier's aren't going to carry them and I'm about as menacingly muscular as a mouse."

Aurellius sighed. "Hold on a minute." he said, walking over to pit which contained the Bookworm. He let out a grunt as he hopped down, shaking their scribe a little more than required. He let out a grunt as he hopped down, glaring down at the unconcious form of Esprum. He grabbed the Bookworm by the collar, pulling them over his shoulder and climbing back up with a bet of effort. "Can you carry the Faunus'? I'm scared of allergies suddenly popping up."

Aslin grumbled something and bent down, attempting to heft up Nicoleta. She made a concerted effort to not accidentally drain the last of her aura as she did so. After some grunting, Aslin finally managed to get Nicoleta over her shoulders, though the small girl looked like she was about to buckle at any moment.

Around 5 seconds later, she did, them both falling back down.

"You need to eat your wheaties, Kid," Aurellius said.

"Shut up. Heavy lifting is your job."

He sighed, laying down Ascalon. "Okay. I'm gonna try and trust you here. Don't ding her up or get dirt on 'er. Hell, I might even let you use her." He grabbed Nicoleta rather roughly, just as he had Esprum. Both of them were slack over his shoulders.

Aslin grabbed Ascalon and put the strap around her shoulder, the thing nearly pulling her down to the ground with it's weight, but thankfully she wasn't quite that weak. "Alright, let's go sneak into a base or something."

Strange... world was bouncing, much like a rubber ball. But of course, the world couldn't bounce. Esprum's eyes shot open, his pupil small and bouncing about on his eyes, adjusting. 'What in the hell...' He went to cough, a short, strangled breath is all he got. At this point, he could tell he was being carried.

Aurellius grunted as he felt movement to his right. "Eh?" He stopped for a moment, looking down at the man. "Ah, awake, huh? Well, you fell down a hole. Knocked out about halffa your brains and I had to scoop 'em back in. Wasn't a pretty sight."

"Do you think you can walk?" Aslin asked the man.

'A hole...' Esprum frowned to himself. 'They tried to bury me? I suppose it might be an exotic kink, but it certainly isn't for me.' He shivered. "Depends. Let me down, please."

"Roger that." Aurellius set, simply letting go of Esprum and letting him fall to the ground. "I was tired of carryin' you anyways."

"How gentle of you," Aslin deadpanned.

Esprum grunted, the rough landing certainly not helping his 'fallen' body, a facefull of ground greeting him. He slowly propped himself up. "My spear?" He asked, midwince, as he was currently attempting to kneel.

Aurellius grabbed the spear that had been strapped onto his back, along with Nicoleta's bow. "Keep in mind, I can snap this thing easily in half like I would a stick. You really should get a tougher metal."

'I wonder if you could play chess as well as you preform your daily helping of stupid.' Esprum inwardly complentated, before looking to right, or Aurellius's left. "What happened to Nicoleta?"

He stared at Bookworm for a few moments, before jamming a thumb at his other shoulder in which Nicoleta was still limp. "She's either right here or Miss Leader is just a figment of my imagination."

"I meant is she alright." He huffed, carefull rising to his feet. 'I don't suppose he could be gentler? Bah, that's like telling a bull not to charge.' After he was as upright as he was going to get, he reached for the edge of his nose, looking for his glasses. "I don't suppose you grabbed those as well?" He huffed, blinking a few time.

"Oh. Those were smashed. Sorry, mate." He laughed suddenly, reaching into his jacket pocket. "Nah, that would just be the biggest dick move ever. I made sure to grab 'em, just in case the fall didn't give you increased eye vision."

Aslin, meanwhile, was at the top of a tree trying to scout ahead. "I think we're close to that base you mentioned earlier," she called down from up top.

He sighed, holding his hand out. "My staff, please. And my glasses, would be nice." He nodded to him self. "And an answer to my previous question would be good."

Aurellius looked back up towards Aslin. "You don't need to think, you have that PDA you stole from me, right?" He sighed, turning back to Esprum and handing his stuff back to him. "As for her, she just took a nasty bump to the head. I'm sure she'll be fine. And between you and me, I won't tell if you try and do anything," he said, winking. "But don't do so for real, or else Aslin will kick your ass."

Suddenly a PDA appeared out of almost nowhere and clonked Aurellius on the head. "I heard that!"

Aurellius hissed as he rubbed the back of his head. "They're called jokes!" he looked down at the ground at the now busted PDA. "We followed the map on there to this enemy base. We're gonna steal some transportation and get to the relic site a lot faster."

Esprum accepting his tools back, his spear ever so slightly bent. He pressed it against the ground, it helping him stand with a more formal posture. He stayed silent, and if there was a twinge of red on his cheeks, it very, very quickly disapeared. 'Ugh, What is he talking about.' Then he blinked. 'Wonderful. Why do I get the feeling he'll be the one driving.' He groaned, having slid his glasses over the tip of his nose.

By the way, I call being the driver. I don't fancy going ten miles below the speed limit like an old grannie."

"Right. I think I'll take the long way."

"Open your eyes, little fox." A grim voice spoke. Even though Nicoleta did so, it seemed no light came. Everything was just so dark and cold, like a freezing desert night. A bright flash split across her view suddenly, causing her to squint and try to look away.

"Who's there?" She called out to the light. Her arm reached out towards it and she suddenly found her hand around Gale's handle, the blade stuck into the ground in front of her. She was on the ground as well, on her hands and knees. Is this a dream? she asked herself, gazing upwards. She got sight of the blood view that was all too well ingrained into her mind. Friends she knew, the residents from around her city, all laying dead as they were strewn all about. She tried to stand up, however became aware that she herself was in no good condition and felt her stomach fold over on itself.

She coughed up a glob of blood, losing the strength to stay on her hands and knees. "Why?" She asked the world around her, the dream state. "Why now?" Her eyes drifted upwards again and she was now staring at herself, the bloodied Faunus scared and battered, leaning up against a tree. The familiar figure of Master Preiss came into view around the tree, speaking with her. And yet, something felt off. It was as if her mind was trying to tell her something. She shook it off, standing up through the pain. She began to approach herself and her mentor. As she approached them, their heads slowly turned to her, almost in a possessed way. Blood began to leak from their eyes as they began to repeat the same sentence, only one meaning. "They Will Die."

The world erupted into fire as she came to the conclusion. "You're just a dream." She felt the tingling and feeling began to return to her. Her eyes slowly creaked open, staring into the broken rafters above her. Her aura flickered and spit, coming back into existence as a blaze and she began to sit up with a sigh. They were gathered in a small shack now, walls partially mostly in piece, however allowing a small draft through every once in a while.

Aurellius looked behind himself as he finished wiping off his face with a handkerchief. Flecks of blood that had once been there now covered the rag and not his precious looks. He had noticed the awakening of their Little Miss Leader, and grinned slightly. "So she's finally awake, eh? Took yeh long enough. We've been wasting time here waiting for you to recover. How the hell'd you get so messed up, anyways?"

"Using a large amount of aura causes your life force to be depleted in unison." She was slowly pushing herself so her back was up against the wall, in a sitting position. She shivered from the dream she'd had. "What's the plan?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Weeelll, while you took the time to take a nap, I came up with a glorious battle plan. Step One: get into the enemy base and steal their shit. Great plan, eh?" he said, chuckling. "And as far as I can tell, Step Two is 'don't die.'" Aslin added, leaning against the wall.

"Idiot. You didn't take into consideration the enemies nor plot the interior's defenses. Step one would be trying to get a good look at the guards, and if we're going to steal their things, a distraction would not go amiss." She explained, shaking her head.

Aslin chuckled, then did a strange gesture with her hands. She put her right hand up high. "The joke." She then placed her left hand down on the floor. "Your head."

"Joking in the face of death seems like an easy way to let it reach you." She commented, trying to rise from her sitting position.

"It's also a good way to avoid traumatizing stress and keep calm in danger. I'd rather be a bit snide and alive than serious and crying in a corner somewhere, honestly," Aslin added, nonchalantly. Nico rolled her eyes. "We have a mission, I'm more than alright with finishing it and moving on. That's what matters here, that's why we're on the battlefield. I'll hold on to those jokes until we're safe at home."

"Now, now, ladies. Fighting is bad for the group." Aurellius said in a bit of a sing songy voice. "I had an actual plan, you know. Its a pretty simple one, but effective." He stood up, dusting off his pants as he got off the ground. "I'll lay us all down a distraction. I saw a couple of their bigger vehicles and there is a thing called fuel tanks. Bullets and them don't really go well together." He winked.

"While I'm doing that, you three will truffle shuffle all the way to their humvees and grab one for us. After that... we improvise."

"I say we wait until nightfall, then. I'm really good at hiding in the dark," Aslin chimed in. "That'd be smart, I can see better than the soldiers can in the dark as well." Nicoletta added. "Haven't we already wasted enough time already? And besides, we haven't even asked Bookworm of his opinions." Aurellius said with a sigh.

Esprum had sighed as well. "It isn't like we really have a better plan." 'Though, I doubt this'll work anyways.' He silently scoffed. "See? Aethen agrees, we wait until nightfall," Aslin adamantly replied.

"Esprum." She frowned. "There's more to your opinion. What would you rather we did?"

"I don't see what's wrong with walking." He shrugged.

"Now that's just boring. Very boring. Don't you think it might be a little bit fun to break into a base, steal a sick-ass humvee, and get chased for a while and in the end get away perfectly fine?" Aurellius said with a grin.

"I highly doubt we will get away perfectly fine."

"He does bring up a good point. We need to weigh how useful it will be to us in getting the Harbinger to how much it will take for us to get it." She nodded. "Well," Aslin chimed in again, "Do we know how big this relic we've been sent to find is? It could be too large to carry by hand."

"We also need a ride home, you know? Our airship kind of got blown up." Aurellius said with a bored expression. "And, without a single doubt, there isn't a better way to go about getting a ride?" Nicoletta said with a stare. "Do you see some kind of taxi service around here?" Aurellius quipped. "Think Aurellius. How many of them are there, and what are the chances of elite personnel being in that building? I'd say both are pretty high numbers." Nicoletta crossed her arms. "How do you plan to get the distraction out?"

"Okay. First of all, there's gotta be at least thirty in that base, tops. They've got maybe one or two big leaders. As for the distraction, you just leave that to me. I'm good at making distractions."