[quote]"Wait, I'm not going to hurt you." Flor began to dodge and deflect flying food. "Stop. My name is Flor and we're just trying to escape." 

Liam stared at the child for a few seconds before approaching the child again. "Hey buddy how are you doing. Forgive my friend’s sudden landing. It was not his intention to scare you, but believe me we are friendly and we mean you no harm." He said giving the child a warm smile. "My name is Liam and you’ve already met Florence, may I have your name?" He squatted down next to the kid and continued smiling.

Maria was off, out the door and down the stairs. "Hi guys! I heard someone screaming from all the way upstairs. What's going on?"

"Oh no.  Oh no oh no oh no they're here.  The Grit are here.  The damn Grit are inside the damn wall and, and..." Moth paused and shuddered and gathered his thoughts.  He peeked out over the railing.  He would've sworn he saw a flying apple.  Moth hugged himself and slowly followed the others downstairs.

Picking up the bag of implants (stashing some scalpels, the jar of microbots and syringe in her rucksack), Kat headed down the stairs to see what everyone else was making a fuss about.

Vincent decided to wait and watch to see what happened next from the point of view of the door.
[/quote]

The rabbit-eared kid lowered the sheet just enough to stare wide-eyed at Liam. He breathed quickly, his breath huffing against the sheet, furry ears twitching, and he glanced up at Flor and then back at Liam's warm smiling face -- then back at Flor.

The boy's eyebrows furrowed. His blue eyes grew even wider as he stared at Flor.

What follows took place within the span of ten seconds.

Maria's voice in the stairwell surprised the child; he sprang out of the sheet like a spooked cat, leapfrogged over Liam's shoulders, launched himself at Flor, slammed into Flor full-force, and bounced nimbly away.

The child perched on the stair railing, breathing in short gasps, and unfolded his thin hand; in his palm lay the pink glowing stone he had stolen from Flor's pocket.

In this brief moment of pause, it became clear that a peculiar image had been drawn on the boy's bare chest in black marker. A rune.

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/qhWQEIw.jpg[/img][/center]

Immediately, the boy pressed the glowing stone against his chest. The rune on his skin flashed, and the stone disappeared inside him -- as if the rune had caused the stone to be absorbed into the boy's body.

The boy's eyes began to glow a bright, wild yellow as the power of the soul stone coursed through him -- he glanced between Flor and Liam with acute, feral fear.

He launched off of the railing and sped up the stairs toward Maria. The rabbit-eared child grabbed her crinkling oversized coat and swung around behind her, using her as a shield between himself and Flor and Liam, and he screeched.

The piercing, high-pitched noise echoed painfully up the hollow stairwell.

Just outside the wall, a swarm of Grit howled in response.

[hr]

Upstairs, inside the infirmary, it was eerily quiet save for the echoes that drifted up the stairwell.

The robot was in the process of cleaning up after Kat's surgery when it suddenly stopped, lights flickering. Its speaker buzzed and crackled.

< [i]Hello?[/i] >

A familiar feminine voice spoke through the robot's speaker and echoed in the surgery room. It was the same voice that greeted the city every morning on the center city screen.

< [i]The line is open to every point of contact currently unlocked to level thirteen clearance. It should be safe. Please answer. . . . Please be alive.[/i] >