Wolfe
[@cpldingo]

As the beastly Wolf-Wolfe ran down the narrow corridor, claw scraping against metal, he would soon come upon an obstacle.

Dzel, small and thin, turned her head in surprised so see such a beast racing towards her. She reacted quickly, setting one foot behind her and the other kept forward in a bracing-fighting stance. She raised her right forearm forward and placed her left palm on the back of her right hand…

There was a flash of green light, and a huge and radiant green shield appeared on her right forearm. It was green but one could see through it, made of energy, it hovered before her as if it were a shield strapped to her forearm. It was much bigger than a normal knight's shield would be, or a shield that such a small woman should be able to carry. It was nearly as tall and wide as Dzel herself, she braced for impact, intending to block the beast from advancing further down the corridor.

Rockin' reacted as fast as he could to get away from Hirche before running to Zesiro's side. Using as much magic as needed, he enveloped the injured man in a turquoise glow that matched the glow surrounding his horn and lifted him onto the table. "Sorry about your food but this is more important," he said, jumping in one of the chairs. With his forehooves on the table and his back hooves on the chair, he eyed the wound with a frown. "I might be able to heal you. I need a book, though. A book that explains your biology."

The beast charged down the hallway, blind with fury. It seethed with rage, bloody drool dripping from its jowels. It rounded a corner and spied a woman in the distance. She saw the monster racing toward her.

Raising her arm a green flash filled the corridor. The light itself blinded the monster temporarily, he was shunted off balance, when he hit the shield he hit off to the right, then a loud boom and the next thing the creature knew it was staring at the ceiling. Whatever shield that was effectively blocked the creature, but now the shield seemed less bright, less vibrant as if it had lost some power after taking such a hit.

The beast growled, but before it can charge again a scent wafted his way, pheromones, and anxious voices coming his way, the beast turned to face the the newcomers.

Natasha

The conversation between thee three individuals as awkward at had all felt had ended rather abruptly once the alarm sounded. Even more so when Wolfe had began to transform. It would have seemed strange to most normal people, but Those affiliated with Trident were far from normal. Trident’s archives alone held almost an unmeasurable amount of data that spanned the globe on the stranger things of earth and it would seem, Wolfe’s current condition fell right within those parameters. so, once he had began to transform Natasha responded quickly by moving towards Tristian, and dragging him out of Wolfe’s immediate reach so he wouldn’t be torn open by a wild sweep of the wolf’s claws. She watched as Wolfe barreled out of the room and she was thankful that his more basic instincts of killing and eating hadn’t taken hold yet. She turned to Tristian.
“There’s still hope for him. We’re not dead yet and believe me, if he wanted to kill us, we would have been dead by now… Well probably you anyway, I might have been OK... I’m going after him! Maybe we can still get through to him and lets just hope that the breech isn’t critical yet. The moon operative followed Wolfe as he dashed down the corridors pausing only briefly to check on Tristian’s secretary who she found was only unconscious. She would be sore as hell for a few days, but she’d survive.

She watched with some surprise from the other end of the corridor as tiny Dzel’s energy shield landed Wolfe flat on his back. From a full out sprint to a dead and unceremonious halt without so much as a budge from the green eyed woman on the other side of the shield. ‘Damn’ the red head thought to herself as she looked around for something to throw at Wolfe to hopefully get him to focus on her alone. The last thing the needed was a mass of dead or bleeding people in close proximity to the raging werewolf.

After looking around briefly for objects to throw it became clear, there were none so Natasha bent over and removed her shoes, they were bothersome anyway and just heavy enough for the wolf to feel through its thick skull.
She yelled “Hey!” as she lobbed a shoe as hard as she could and watched as it bounced off of Wolfe’s head then threw the other one right at his face to ensure she had his attention.
“Marine” she continued with all the authority she could back into the words “Marine, you’re endangering the lives of these civilians, that goes against your training soldier” she continued as she slowly approached the beast, still unsure if her words were reaching him. The red head stared him dead in the eyes as she spoke. There was no fear in her eyes, just an air of authority “Wolfe, I know you’re still there. You don’t want to hurt these people, you’ve got to calm down.”

Dimitri
As enjoying as this experience was for the monk, seeing the effects of one of his brews, the recent alarms had out quite the damper on the situation. He moved to the control panel by the door but there had been no reply and to make matters worse, there were strange sounding howls echoing through the corridors and an overall daunting feeling emanating through out the vessel. He looked at the two other men and moved to Charles side to help steady him. “There’s no answer, I think we should get the hell out of here though, where are you guys supposed to report if communications go down on the sub, or if there’s a reason to evacuate. I think we should head there” He reached inot his robes with a free hand and withdrew another pouch of sticky herbs and grasses. He plucked and small amount from the pouch and rolled it into a ball before popping it into Charles mouth “Chew this, it’ll sober you up a bit. He handed another lump of a smaller size to Twain.
“You too Twain. Chew it, but don’t swallow the ball. It’ll likely get stuck in your throats” he finished with chuckle. It wasn’t the worse tasting stuff out there, but it wasn’t the most pleasant either. There were mixed flavors in it, with an undertone of chalkiness and maple syrup sweetness but it would begin to sober the two men up enough for the moment so they could get where they needed to be.

Herbert
@Eyeris

The widening of those brilliant emerald eyes gave rise to a thousand thoughts, like flies to a fetid corpse. The girl’s comforting words shuffled to the back of his attention as all the dread of the great blue expanse came crashing back like colossal wave on the shore that was his sanity. The nameless terrors of the deep. The untold fathoms above. The crushing pressure. He was drowning in fear. Darkness closed in around him. Blood thrummed in his ear. Muscles resisted his will. His chest was being crushed. A scream choked him.

Air. He needed air. Breath came ragged and fast. His wild eyes focused on Dzel, on how she held her tiny frame with unique assuredness. Oddly, the aura she radiated must have affected him in some way, for he gave a curt nod. A pink tongue flicked across his thin lips, and he wiped his sweaty palms dry and took her hand.

There were question floating around his brain, but his body was full of catecholamines and his heart beat remorselessly; survival first, questions later.

With barely a word, he would follow Dzel as best he could.

XIII narrowed his eyes when he heard a howl coming from down the corridor followed by a bang and a flash of green light. If that was in the direction of the control room, they might end up wasting time if they got caught up in the situation. He turned to Rozalind.

"We have to get to the control room and figure out if this is a drill or not and help coordinate evacuations if need be, but that being said, that isn't in the direction of the control room is it?" XIII ran his hand through his hair. "And if so, is there a way around?"

Shanon launched herself forward like a wrecking ball bowling through the tables and chairs towards Hirshe and the red smoke that burned the back of her throat.

Throwing all her weight behind her charge Shannon collided with Vaughter and Hirshe like a ton of bricks hoping to push Hirshe to the ground, and rip Vaughter away.

Standing over Hirshe she reared up, not having enough space to jump, and brought her fists down heavily upon his chest with a dull thud against the armour. She reared up ready to strike downwards again and again.


As he chewed upon the unsavoury ball the curtains of fog lifted in Charles mind, his thoughts kicked into high gear.

“There’s been a hull breach! Wait, no.” His hands flew to his ears. “No there hasn’t been one; my ears haven’t popped.”
He dashed to the door and opened it easily.

“Doors aren’t locked either so the lock-down cycle didn’t complete. Might mean someone’s gotten into our systems.”

There was no more need to tell anyone that something was really wrong with Hirsch, however there was a very desperate need to find out if the effects could be reverted or if the man he had trained with only days ago was completely lost. And maybe someone should also find out how to beat him if it should be necessary. So far violence had merely helped to slow the marine down, but to his own surprise the gargoyle found himself halfway pinned against the transparent wall which continued to accumulate cracks. Most of them were hidden beneath his wings though, so he had no clue about the real condition of the glass.

Even without this knowledge Vaughtar couldn't really get the point of Shannon's charge at him. Wasn't such a charge which, given how much strength the strange creature had already proven to posess, supposed to put even a lot more stress on the window ? He couldn't allow that to happen, so what Vaughtar did was to press his feet halfway against the wall and ram his claws into the floor as much as he could. He leaned forward, transferring his weight onto Hirsch. With such preparations made he was far too massive to be rammed against the wall easily again, however it also meant that the marine would be literally compacted between him and Shannon who collided from behind.

Now Shannon was busy fisting the marine, so there wasn't much space left for him to do anything except for maybe to try and hold firm onto the marine's arms so he couldn't strike back at her.
The gargoyle's hands reached for the strange kind of armor that looked far more similar to what one usually saw on Munimis than this strange, 'modern', 'high-tech' stuff that appeared to be so widespread on this world. He would have tried to dig beneath it with his claws at the seams to injure something beneath it, but they were too tight. Now he briefly had enough idle time to have a glimpse at the transparent thing behind him: It was almost broken! Better to stand guard there and try to soften any accidental impacts than to allow either Hirsch or Shannon to hit it again...

Dimitri, Charles, Twain
{@Affili@Arty Fox}

Twain bit down hard on the hard ball that Dimitri had given him. He didn’t seem to hear Charles or Dimitri. He didn’t seem very aware of what Dimitri had put in his mouth, he just gnawed upon it automatically. His now blood-shot eyes searched forward, as he stumbled toward the door. One objective in mind, to reach his brother before it was too late…

He opened the door and stumbled out into the hall. A woman beyond the door gasped as Twain fell flat on his face. Rozalind knelt beside him. Her expression of concern slowly curdling...

“Are you DRUNK?”

Rockin, Shannon, Vaughtar
{@Rockin Strings @Arty Fox@Fetzen}

Zesiro winced painfully as he was levitated off the floor and onto a table. “What the FUCK?!” He writhed a bit, struggling against the magical force in vain.

Hirshe was being thoroughly thrashed, Shannon thumped again and again and again into his chest-plate, it did not crack. His arms and legs failed, angry red steam continued to pour from the seams of the armor, yet he was unable to escape the blows or the grasp of the gargoyle.

As Vaughtar dug his claws into the armor, he would find some give to the metal as he pried at it. Perhaps if he kept at it… Yet, as he did so, he would feel his claws sink into flesh, he would feel hot blood… Was Hirsche bleeding or was the armor? It was too chaotic to tell...

People were evacuating the mess hall. Many of the agents here were only administrative, or scientists, or otherwise hired for talents that were not particularly useful in violent conflict. Yet, there were warriors too...

A short girl with purple and red striped hair pushed pass those running away and made it to the window. She positioned herself as far away from the fight as she could, then put her two hands on the glass: A purple light began to emanate from her hands and spread across the glass, she was creating an energy shield, a second skin over the surface of the window pane. She hoped that this would protect the glass from further damage… Though, it did nothing to mend the damage which had already been done. The glass now fought with the ocean beyond to keep whole. The girl planted her feet and remained by the glass with her hands pressed against it. If she removed her hands from their place the energy shield would dissipate…

Two more stepped forward and they both drew weapons. The weapons looked like something like a guns and something like a kitchen appliances glued together. The woman had two hand-guns and the man’s looked more like a rifle. They aimed at Hirshe, but hesitated. They couldn’t say for sure if they would hit the enemy or an ally in the wrestling trio. The red steam that poured forth from the armor also obscured their aim.

They also did not know who Hirshe was, they did not know that this was unusual behavior for him. When they took their shot, they would shoot to kill.

Wolfe, Natasha
{@cpldingo@Affili}

Dzel was about move and strike the wolf she heard Natasha’s voice… Natasha sought to calm the beast. Yes… That would be best…

Dzel focused her energy on keeping the shield up, keeping the beast from further advancement… Wolfe wasn’t evil… Merely possessed by an evil spirit temporarily… Hopefully…

Sometimes people mistook animals for monsters or natural disasters for curses. Yet, there was a thing in the world called evil. Dzel knew the difference between nature and it’s subversion. She could feel the evil beyond the shield now.

Dzel would not be able to keep the shield up very long. She hoped that Natasha could get through to Wolfe within the wolf. Otherwise she would be forced to attack, and smite the creature. She wasn’t sure if Wolfe could survive such a strike… If he were still inside the beast somewhere...

… Tristan followed Natasha from his office after he tended to his secretary. He cradled her face and found her pulse. She looked up at him groggily as she regained consciousness.

“Evacuate immediately.” he told her as he helped her to stand. She fled.

Tristian’s face darkened, and he stepped from his office to defend his ship.

He was a few minutes behind Natasha, but when he saw Wolfe he spread his fingers out and raised his palms…

… Pipes ran up and down every hallway within the submarine. In a normal submarine these pipes would be relaying fuel or gasses or whatever normal submarines ran upon. The pipes in TRIDENT’s submarine held only water.

Valves turned and Tristian swooped his hands in an arc. The pipelines opened in several places, and water streamed forth. The water did not obey gravity of physics, instead it snaked out of the openings in swooping streams, there were six such rope-like streams in the air now. They whirled around toward Wolfe-wolf and wove together, creating a ring of water around him, it got thicker and thicker as more water streamed in through the pipelines.

Tristian was aqua-kinetic. He held the water in the air around the wolf. He was poised, ready to wash away the wolf if it should either attempt to flee or attack Natasha.

“Keep talking to him, Natasha.” Tristian said, once he felt the beast should be contained. I think he can hear you…” Tristian had always been an optimist...

Herbert
{@jdh97}

Dzel touched Herbert gently on the shoulder once more, then began to lead him out of the library. At the end of the bookcase there was a small pile of weapons. She stopped to quickly gather them up, slinging one long tube over her shoulder, clipping one to her waist, and strapping another to her thigh before leaving the library and leading the way through the corridors of the submarine. “We are going to evacuate.” She explained to Herbert. “We just need to find Tristian first.”

XIII
{@Konan375}

Rozalind frowned. Her instinct was the run toward the fire and try to put it out, yet, XIII had a point. If they were smarter perhaps their actions could be of more use… “Yes, we can go to the control room. If we go around this way we can... ”

It was then that Dzel and Herbert rounded the corner. When Dzel saw them she slowed her pace. {@jdh97}

Rozalind stepped forward. “One of those better be for me!” She snapped.
Without hesitating, Dzel took off her sidearm and tossed it toward the red head. Rozalind snatched it out of the air with her good hand. “We are heading to the control room, to see what’s going on here.”

“I was trying to find Tristian.” Dzel said evenly. “If there is a breech he is the only one who can stop it up.”

Rozalind frowned. “Right.” She considered this for a moment. “You go on that way and find Tristian. We will go this way to the control room.” She passed Dzel and beckoned XIII to follow, they would be walking away from the roaring and growling. Dzel would also pass XIII a firearm before they parted ways.

Rozalind barely looked at Herbert, but as she passed him she would say to the old man. “You... Just... Stay out of the way.”

Dzel nodded. “Stay behind me, Herbert. This way…” Dzel and Herbert would continue on in their original direction... Toward the growling and howling… Tristian’s office...

XIII and Herbert after going up and down steps a few times, they would intercept another group of comrades…

A door opened, and Twain would stumble out. Charles and Dimitri behind him. {@Arty Fox@Affili}

Twain fell flat on his face. Rozalind gasped and knelt beside him. Her expression of concern contorted into rage…

“Are you DRUNK?”

With everything that was going on all at once, it took Rockin' a moment before he knew what to do. One person was protecting the window, a couple of soldiers had their weapons aimed at the fighting trio, not to mention all the other beings in the room he wasn't paying too much attention to. He looked back at the injured man with a frown. "EVERYBODY FREEZE!" he screamed, his horn flaring, though nothing else happened. "Vaughtar, knock him out! Shannon, take Zesiro to the medics! And you two!" He turned to face the soldiers with a frown. "You two need to put your weapons away and help Vaughtar get Hirshe to the labs. There seems to be something controlling him." His horn's flare dissipated, though he hadn't actually used any spells. "Now, MOVE!" He sat there afterwards, rubbing his temples with his hooves. "Damn, that gave me a headache." He stood and stumbled, beginning to head towards the medics himself.

The beast seethed with rage, its muscles bulging, teeth bared. The woman kept talking her voice caused something inside the beast to stir. It wanted to pounce and tear the small soft human apart, but something is preventing it from doing so. The beast thought of backtracking but the green shield regained its strength and blocked it from passing. When it looked back at the female it picked up the scent of the male she was with earlier.
When he arrived the pipes around the creature burst, it shielded its face with its large arms, only to notice the water rotating around it. The beast would at this point lash out and devour the source of this ability, but, the creature, much like a parasite, draws off the host, the other. The other was cunning, and had foresight, the other also had something else. The beast could detect no threat from the woman, or even from the woman with the shield, but the male made the beast twitch with anticipation.

It sighed a breath, ragged, and coarse. Then relaxed its arms, he stared at the male for a long moment, before turning his gaze back to the female that was talking to him. The more she talked the more something inside stirred. The beast struggled against this invader in his head.
It was no invader, it was the other.

He wanted his body back, regardless of what was done to it.
Wolfe doesn’t like thieves.
This was Wolfe’s body, his temple, no one has a right to it, not even a spirit.

Wolfe got angry.

The beast howled in agony, dropped to the ground and began writhing in pain. White hot flashes of sharp intense pain radiated throughout the beast. IT did not want to let go, but the other’s fury and anger were too much for the beast. It flailed its arms and legs, breaking pipes and conduits.
After a moment it was hunched over on its knees breathing heavily, it looked at the Natasha, his eyes no longer black as death, but blue, bright blue.

“RUN!!”

It yelled before collapsing in a heap.

@Rockin Strings@Eyeris@Fetzen@Konan375@Affili


Charles practically jumped out of his skin walking straight into the other group on the other side of the door. It took Charles a moment longer than usual to process the scene before him, his mind still somewhat addled, and the bestial howls from corridors further up. Rozalind and XIII held their firearms at the ready.

Had the whole world gone mad?

“No, Ma’am he’s not drunk. Well, he was until a few moments ago in fact we all were because we tried some of Dimitri’s drink.” Hurriedly he held up his hands. “But we’re fine now. Fire for…not quite duty but something. What’s the situation?”

He had bent down next to Rozalind to help Twain back to his feet when he caught sight of Twains desperate gaze. His brow furrowed and Charles chewed on the strange medicine furiously trying to clear his thoughts completely.

“Zesiro.” He pulled Twain off the floor as best he could. “You said you need to find him, what’s wrong?”


Now free from the paralysing grasp of the strange light Shannon shook her head, and stumbled back from the red smoke pouring out of Hirches armour, a bitter smell that reminded her of the Bad Place. In panic, she was too focussed on what was happening around her to pay much attention to Rockins orders.

She bumped into a table and whirled around to see the barrels of guns pointed in her directions. In an instant Shannon had her hackles raised and swiped at them with her tail trying to keep them at bay. Thinking they were after Vaughtar Shannon placed herself between the two and him as well as Hirsche. A set of eyes drifted towards where Zesiro now lay with Rockin nowhere in sight. She couldn’t shield him as well.

“Agents” Her voice dripping with malice she warned them. “Stay away. No Hurt Friends.”

XIII followed after Rozalind, stopping only when they bumped into Dzel and Herbert. The conversation was brief and they parted ways, but not before XIII was handed a small handgun. They continued towards the control room and before they could reach it, Twain fell out of one of the nearby doorways.

XIII jumped slightly at the scene, and as Rozalind noticed Twain's apparent drunkenness, he laid a hand on her shoulder. "That may be true, but the stuff that Dimitri has would lay you out harder and faster than anything we have here." XIII gave the monk a small smile fitting for the moment. "And even if he warned them of the effects, I doubt they believed it. I hadn't when I tried it."

He helped Charles in getting Twain back to his feet. When Charles asked about Zesiro and what was wrong, XIII frowned. "A lot of things, apparently. With the howls, the alarms, and lack of response from the control room, it's starting to sound like some cheap magic..." XIII's face contorted into a grimace.

"Misdirection."

He ran his hands through his hair. "Damn it! They're spreading us thin." XIII looked to Rozalind. "I could be completely wrong and paranoid here, but is there anything here that all this," he waved his hand through the air, "could hide it from being stolen or destroyed?"

In his anger, it took the gargoyle several seconds to notice that by know weapons were directed at him. Well, not directly at him, but dangerously close to him. Also there was the little problem that the appearance of a gun was nothing that Vaughtar's mind would immediately and instinctively associated with something especially dangerous. It was a not so handy piece of metal with a precisely drilled hole in it, wasn't it ? If he had not seen other members of the team running around with similar things who had actually told him that there were weapons he probably would not have cared at all.

Vaughtar could feel that his claws were encountered success, even though that the definition of 'success' in this case was doing as much damage as possible. If there suddenly was warm blood and weak flesh instead of robust metal then it meant that his attacks had to be somewhat effective. Of course he couldn't see on the inside of that armor, so he had no idea to tell if it was the marine's body or not that was bleeding. In case the latter thing was true though Vaughtar quickly decided to partially let go of Hirsch. He still had hopes that there was some part of the friendly and joyful marine he had had that little fight with in the gym left in that individual in front of him.

But what to do in order to be able to pay more attention to the armored men and his highly active surroundings while keeping Hirsch at bay ? The solution was simple: Step and stand onto him. Vaughtar's feet and claws easily covered the man's entire torse and hopefully would pin him firmly to the ground. Of course there was a risk that the strange armor would collapse and Hirsch would likely be killed instantaneously, but given the situation it was an acceptable one. Hopefully it just wouldn't happen.

Vaughtar probably made quite a strange appearance as he tried to balance himself out on moving Hirsch instead of the solid floor.

“What a mess we have made.”

Rockin @Rockin Strings
Shannon @Arty Fox
Vaughtar@Fetzen
(and Zesiro and other agents)

In the mess-hall, a battle had broken out between agents. One of the newer recruits, part of a team called RIFT, had shown up shooting. He was dressed in a strange armor that seemed to possess him to destruction. He had nearly killed Zesiro, and was now wrestling with the gargoyle, Vaughtar. Shannon defended them from the other confused agents. Most fled the scene, but some stayed to help or bring order to the chaos. One agent used her power to protect the cracking window, the only thing between themselves and the open ocean. Two others trained their guns upon the wrestling beasts… Wondering who was friend and who was foe.

One put down his arms, lifting his hands to show Shannon that he meant no harm.

The other, perhaps more reckless or less trusting, fired her weapon at the other-worldly beast.

XIII@Konan375
(And Rozalind)

XIII and Rozalind were searching for answers. They had decided to break off and search for answers, find the saboteur…. But XIII had just realized something important…

"Misdirection." He had said.

Rozalind had only one good eye now, so perhaps she didn’t see the deception as easily. She answered his questions, ignorant of their implications.
“It is Tristian’s magic that keeps the fleet together and keeps it concealed. I don't know much of it but I think there must be other means, contingencies, fail safes in case of… emergencies…”

Herbert @JDH97
(and Dzel)

“We just need to find Tristian first…”

Herbert followed Dzel. She looked and sounded like herself, she was dressed like herself, but… She didn’t often carry guns, now she had nearly ten firearms wrapped around her person. She had given Herbert even more to carry.

“Herbert… You might be very confused for a few moments, just stay by my side, trust in me… As you always have…” The voice might sound different for a moment. Had Herbert ever noticed the red highlights in her hair? Were her green eyes always so dark as they seemed now?

Up ahead, there was a sound, fighting, something one should want to stay away from but Dzel drew near to it.

She drew a rifle, rounding the corner… If Herbert followed he would see…

Wolfe @cpldingo
Natasha @Affili
(and Tristian)

Wolfe was struggling as a literal Wolf seemed to emerge from within him. He was being faced down now by Tristian, Natasha, and Dzel… This Dzel was acting more like herself. She held the Wolfe back with a green shield.

When Natasha spoke, the Wolfe seemed to hear… He shouted at them to run, but, they did not.

Tristian took the lead, using his power now. He twisted his wrists and cogs turned, opening pipes and letting in water… But Tristian controlled this water with his mind. Streams of water wrapped around the Wolfe in a ring, like a basket, containing the beast.

Around the corner, another Dzel appeared. She bore guns, and one she had pointed towards the group. She fried, but not at the Wolfe…

Tristan was hit at the base of his neck. His eyes widened with surprise, focusing on the Wolfe he did not see the other Dzel until now. He had time to set his eyes upon her, and when he did he knew, but he could not speak. He fell to his knees. The water around the Wolfe fell out of its neat circle, and into a useless puddle around the beast.

Dimitri @Affili
Charles @Arty Fox
(and Twain)

Necromancy lessons had been disrupted. Twain had an intuition. “Zesiro has been hit hard.” He explained. “I know because we have a… Connection we have. Judging from all these alarms he isn’t the only one in trouble.” Twain had drank the sobering-drink, but it hadn’t quite set in yet.

They would hear the shots fired. Something shifted, a strange sound, something in the pipes… Water running the wrong way…

“Thaaat’s not good.”

XIII stared at Rozalind. He had been thinking of some sort of item or object collected by TRIDENT that would have been the target of theft or destruction. The thought of the fleet being taken or destroyed sounded even worse. He cast a glance around the walls of the submarine, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. A small part of him thought dryly that the walls were doing a better job than Rozalind's hand and taking his breath. The more rational part of him took the time to calm down, taking a few deep breaths.

"Okay, who would know where these contingencies are? Because if someone is trying to sink us, that would be what they'd go after...after dealing with Tristian, of if they're acting as a group where they'd go while someone else dealt with Tristain." XIII grit his teeth. This was starting to feel like the invasion of his base back home all over again. The air around XIII started heating up. Like hell he'd be fooled again so soon!

"So," he asked. "Where do we go?"