Life After Freedom

[SaiseiTunes]

Psyche's Daughter

Name: Lexie
Experiment number: P265
Age: 20
Height: 5'6
Build: Skinny
Powers/Deity parent: Psyche/Telepathy, minor telekinesis, odynokinesis (control over pain)
General Temperament: Friendly, calm
Classification: Support/Mediator

Fujin's Child (They/Them)

Name: Kai
Experiment number: 4P10
Age: 19
Height: 5'8
Build: Skinny
Powers/Deity parent: Fujin/Enhanced hearing, eyesight, can amplify voice, may have sonic attack potential
General Temperament: Anxious, talkative
Classification: Scout

Daughter of Izanami

Name: Hanako
Experiment number: R99
Age: 21
Height: 5'4
Build: Lean/Athletic
Powers/Deity parent: Izanami/Able to speak with dead, possesses control over shadows
General Temperament: Mature, quick to anger
Classification: Soldier/Marksman

Son of Cailleach (Celtic goddess of winter)

Name: Erik
Experiment number: W53M28
Age: 24
Height: 5'10
Build: Athletic
Powers/Deity parent: Cailleach/Cryokinesis, possible further powers, but has refused to entertain the possibility
General Temperament: Aggressive, rebellious
Classification: Soldier

Athena's Son

Name: Alex
Experiment number: GA184
Age: 25
Height: 5'11
Build: Athletic/Built
Powers/Deity parent: Athena/Increased intelligence and quicker reaction time, appears to possess mild telekinesis over weapons
General Temperament: Stern, thoughtful
Classification: Strategist/Soldier

---

Alex had been the one to construct the majority of the plan. He was always the one who noticed the patterns of the guards, the flaws in the system. Came with the parentage. He hadn't been the one to suggest the breakout. Hilda had that honor. But Alex knew how to make it work. It had taken maybe about a week to come up with the plan, and then another couple days to spread the word to everyone else. They had known each other long enough that most of them accepted without hesitation, and the ones who did hesitate needed only the smallest amount of convincing and reassurance that everything would be okay.

They were all sitting in their barracks together, just patiently waiting for the guards to come along with their meals. The room was bone white once. In the years the demigods had lived here, it had slowly degraded, dirtied by their squabbles and usage of the place. It felt more home-y that way. Well, as home-y as a secret government lab performing experiments on the children of gods could be, that is. Which, in truth, was not that home-y whatsoever. Alex would be glad to be rid of this place. And he didn't need to read minds to know that everyone else would be glad too.

It was Kai who spoke up first as they were waiting. They were nervously bouncing around on the balls of their feet, eyes darting between the door, then one demigod, then the door, then another, and so on and so forth. Kai and Brendon were meant to signal everyone to get into position when the guards got near. They'd been keeping their ears open for a while now. "I hear guards," they said, keeping their voice at a whisper. "But none of them headed towards us. Are you sure they haven't caught on, Alex?"

"I'm sure," Alex replied. "99% at least. We still have about 7 minutes to the usual food drop."

Erik piped up from his seat. "And everything goes from there, yeah? Hanako and Mark get the drop on 'em, we take their weapons, and everything goes from there?"

"There are more intricacies to the plan, but yes."

"And you've planned out all the things that could go wrong?"

"More or less. There may be some things I didn't plan for."

"And then what?"

The son of Athena simply shrugged. "We'll improvise."

Erik scoffed. "So much for the son of battle strategy."

This was what caused Hanako, in position with Mark near the door, to snap. "Well, why don't you try planning an escape from a secret government lab that nobody knows about? Even a smarty like him can only do so much."

Erik simply raised his hands. "Just sayin'."

"You've known him for how many years, Erik?" This voice belonged to the brown-haired Lexie, far softer and more relaxing than Hanako's sharp and irritated voice. "He's done the best he can, you know this."

A moment of pause, and then Erik simply sighed and shook his head. "Gods help us for this."

Alex looked out at the demigods gathered in the room. It would be any minute now. Kai, child of Fujin, and Brendon, son of Tepeyollotl, were primed and ready to give a signal. Once the guards came in with the food, Hanako, daughter of Izanami, and Mark, child of Bastet, stationed by the door, would jump them, snap necks, break bones, do whatever they had to to keep the guards from alerting anyone else. From there, they'd take the keycards and weapons, the latter of which would go to Hanako and Michael, son of Lucifer himself. Those two didn't really have combat abilities, that anyone knew of, so they'd have other ways to defend themselves.

This was where Hilda, daughter of Thor, and Erik, son of Cailleach, came in. They were the muscle, they'd be causing the brunt of the distraction. Their goal? Work with Hanako and Michael to kill as many guards as possible and draw attention away from Alex, Kai, and Brendon. They'd be searching for a way to shut the facility's power down and make escape that much easier. Egan, Bel's son, and Lexie, daughter to Psyche, would be backing Hilda, Erik, Hanako, and Michael up with support and healing. The plan wasn't foolproof, no plan was, but it was the best they could come up with. And soon, hopefully, the facility that had brought them all so much pain, so much hatred, it would be behind them all.

 

[NorthernWanderer]

Thor's Daughter

Name: Hilda
Experiment number: TH9N01
Age: 22
Height: 6ft 5
Build: Athletic
Powers/Deity parent: Thor/lightening, enhanced strength, enhanced durability
General Temperament: Ill Tempered, aggressive, animalistic
Classification: Soldier once broken


Bel's Son

Name: Egan
Experiment number: BC21-I
Age: 23 (estimated)
Height: 6ft
Build: Lean/Athletic
Powers/Deity parent: Bel, Celtic Sun God/Healing, general control of fire, limits unknown - unwilling to perform tests to make a full discovery of talents
General Temperament: Agreeable but rebellious, mature
Classification: Medic/Soldier

Bastet's child he/she/they

Name: Maahes, Mark
Experiment number: E8B22
Age: 18
Height: 5'9
Build: Lean
Powers/Deity parent: Bastet/enhanced reflexes, enhanced strength, psychic shield, enhanced smell, and vision. Hearing was damaged during an experiment.
General Temperament: Quiet, rebellious
Classification: Soldier/Assassin, Skilled with a blade

Lucifer's Son

Name: Michael
Experiment number: H311
Age: 19
Height: 5'7
Build: Skinny
Powers/Deity parent: Lucifer/Unknown powers
General Temperament: Friendly, but unapproachable
Classification: Unknown

Tepeyollotl's son

Name: Bahlam, Brendon
Experiment number: MT303
Age: 23
Height: 6ft
Build: Athletic/lean
Powers/Deity parent: Tepeyollotl/ animal shapeshifting, earthquake genesis (mild), enhanced hearing
General Temperament: rebellious, mischievous
Classification: scout

~~~

The anticipation was nearly palpable. Sparked from a suggestion, to plans being set in motion, and now here they were. On the cusp of either the best or worst thing to ever happen to them. Could they actually escape?

Hilda groaned softly in her sheet, rolling broad shoulders back as she did so, following the conversation of their cellmates. Their friends carefully. Eyes glancing quickly to Erik as he muttered, a smirk rising on his face. It had been something nagging at the back of her mind as well. How well would improvising go if plans went south? Would they be able to over power their way out? No doubt they were strong, and she'd go down bellowing to the halls of Valhalla, but was there any hope? "What, are ye afraid I'll battle harder than you?" Hilda muttered under her breath, the words carefully aimed at Erik as something of a tease, the heavy accent still scaring her tongue as she spoke.

The quiet jest even drew a dangerous smile on Mark's lips. Their own gaze flickering about their "home" at those they'd come to call friends. Trying to scrap up the good memories, but finding far more pain than good from this place. Though the group around them was in their opinion, worth all the pain, not that they'd openly admit it. "Five minutes. Than dinner is on," Mark purred quietly, hand fiddling with a pencil they had stole off a guard at one pointl, spinning it silently where they stood.

It was Brendon's turn to snort in amusement, trying his best to keep an ear on the hall, counting foot steps and mutters from the guards. Leaning carefully against the wall next to Mark. "Been a while since I've been able to sink my canines into anything," he offered with a grin, the Mayan flashing a mouth full of Jaguar teeth that would've made his father proud.

"All a bunch of children," Michael chuckled quietly from where he sat bouncing softly on the bed. Tugging nervously at the long sleeves of his scrubs. The army green matching that of everyone else. Stiff cotton doing little to keep the chill out that seemed to permeate the barracks. "I'm in agreement though, this is the best plan we got and it's now... Or never. I for one would like to be able to walk freely even just for a moment. Has anyone ever said thank you yet?"

"Thanks can be done once we're out of here," Egan quickly interjected, holding a finger to his lips as he watched Brendon's ears seemingly perk up as voices outside their barracks started to come closer going on about some Friday night plan.

"Not yet," Brendon mouthed taking a few careful steps back, making sure he wasn't underfoot of Mark. The Egyptians nose wrinkling as they caught whiff of their food.

"It's always so gross smelling..." Mark said softly, a comment they'd all heard at some point or another, even the guards had gotten used to hearing it. "Would it kill to even just add a little salt?"

"Quit complaining," Brendon warned, looking to Kai and Hanako, knowing well that Mark was already ready for some bloodshed, giving the subtlest of signals as well greased trolly wheels entertered their corner of the lab. The food stuffs shaking with each step as guards bickered back and forth. "Ready?" Brendon mouthed to Kai, wanting to confirm with them before their targets got much closer.

 

[SaiseiTunes]

Erik flashed Hilda a light smile. "In yer dreams, thunder girl." Normally, Erik would've attempted to get in a little wrestle with Hilda over the comment. They both could take the roughhousing, for all the ire and irritation it could sometimes draw from the others. For now though, he kept himself restrained. He wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, but at least he knew when the time was right and wrong for things. "At the very least, I'll match ya blow for blow." And if I go, at least I'll go down fighting alongside ya, he added silently.

Hanako clicked her tongue in agreement with Brendon. "I've got a lot of years' worth of pain I'm ready to repay. Time to make Mom happy." As she said this, she flexed her powers a little, pulling the shadows in the room towards her, and wreathing them over her body. In a little less than 2 seconds, she was completely hidden from the naked eye. A perk of being able to control darkness, it was far easier to hide and prepare yourself to sneak attack than any mortal. The bigwigs here had hoped to use her for assassinations and stealth missions. Same thing for Mark. Irony was a bitch sometimes, wasn't it?

Alex and Lexie both made noises, the former a noise of agreement with Michael, and the latter a small chuckle. "To be fair, when did we ever get the chance to be regular kids?" Lexie was one of the younger members of the group, but she'd always been a bit wise beyond her years. "No harm in having a bit of fun before things get real, right?"

Alex simply said, "I'll take thanks if we all get out of here." And if he had anything else to say, Brendon's ears perking up shut him up really quickly. Kai froze almost immediately around the same time, their earlier nervous motions replaced by a frozen stare straight ahead at the door. They backed up, putting themselves in a position that was out of the way, but not suspiciously so.

Time in the room seemed to slow to an excruciating crawl. Hanako extended her shadows, covering Mark in the darkness alongside her. Kai kept their eyes trained on the doors, looking and hearing for any sign of more than two guards. Nothing. Perfect. Kai gave a thumbs up to Brendon as they waited. As the guards walked in, once they had gotten past the door, Hanako closed them silently. Now, what happened in the room stayed in the room. Just as the demigods wanted.

There was a moment of silence as the guards took a headcount. One, two, three, and onward, until they had counted everybody. Well, almost everybody. One of the guards turned to Alex. "Athena, you've got a couple missing today." Some of the guards had this weird quirk of only calling the demigods by their parents' names. Depersonalization thing, Alex supposed. "Izanami," the guard continued. "Bastet. Where are they, taking a leak or something?"

At that moment, Hanako struck. With a whispered "Right here" in one of the guards' ears, she placed her hands around his neck, and, with strength far beyond what most were capable of, twisted it with a sickening crunch. The guard's body fell limp to the floor, and Hanako wasted no time in picking up the rifle and ammo off his body. "Standard issue. We've worked with this stuff before, should be a piece of cake." She tossed the gun and ammo to Michael. "Look alive, Antichrist. Time's come."

Alex stood up, smiling for the first time this entire day. "Alright, plan's in motion. Brendon, Kai, we're up. The rest of you, you know what to do." With nods, Lexie and Hanako got up, getting ready by the door.

Erik playfully punched Hilda on the shoulder. "Make sure you keep a tally. On the count of three, what do you say?" His eyes were dancing wildly with excitement, practically itching to go off and take some people down. The alarms were silent now, but if he had his way, they'd be blaring loudly soon.

 

[NorthernWanderer]

Hilda could only smirk in broad amusement, flashing Erik a cheesy smile that screamed her desire to wrestle the blonde to the ground, but much like him, she knew better. There would be time for that later if they made it. "Thunder girl, still calling me that," she chuckled, the sound bouncing around her chest for a split second, crackling with unspent energy. Eyes glowing softly with electricity. "The honor is all mine..." Hilda nearly whispered, briefly leaning in against Erik's shorter frame before sitting tall once more.

"Show off," Mark grumbled silently watching Hanako start tugging at the shadows about them. The pencil between his fingers spun faster as their nerves start to get the better of them. Though just as quickly as they grumbled, the shadows came to engulf them as well, a sharp smile of appreciation visible before Mark vanished right along with Hanako. It took all of Mark's willpower not to jump the gun the moment the guards walked in and everyone tried their best to remain unsuspicious. Though Brendon couldn't hide the eye roll the moment the guards called Alex Athena, swallowing some snarky comment before he blew the whole thing.

Mark waited long enough to catch the sound of a crunch before the pencil that they had been playing with was stuck into the second guard's throat. The whimper cut off as wood lodged itself in his windpipe, turning into a silent gurgle. "Well, it was his pencil," Mark said with a shrug doing the same as Hanako. Quickly digging through pockets, and pulling what weapons he could off of the guard. "Handgun or rifle Hanako?" he quickly offered, having already pulled the knife from the man's hip.

The smile on Micheal's face hardened the moment the gun was tossed to him, but the smile remained. "Here goes nothing eh?" he nearly purred, the shorter figure pulling himself to his feet, and racking the riffle with practiced ease. Standard-issued rifles and handguns. A pair of extra clips.

"Yer on frost sprite," Hilda laughed, running the punch without hesitation. Cracking her knuckles in turn, as fresh sparks of energy bounced off her skin, matching the excitement in Erik's eyes. "Count of three, and we tear this place down to 'er roots."

"If we don't make it, I just want to say its been an honor living in this hell hole with you lot," Egan chimed in, rubbing his hands together much like Hilda, only a fresh spark of fire started to rumble up the sleeves of his shirt, nodding quickly to Alex, "Plans in motion, Hilda, Erik, you know what to do. Swear to the gods I am not clean hair out of your teeth again Mark so don't even think about it, not unless desperate."

The laughter coming from Brendon quickly turned into a snarl as the lanky Mayan demigod was quickly dropped to all fours leaving in his place the familiar black jaguar. His tail flickered back and forth in anticipation as he waited patiently behind Alex and Kai. Hackles raised as the sounds of guards started to thunder down the hall, a ways off yet.

"Well, what are we waiting for? I have a name to live up to don't I?" Michael chuckled, deep brown eyes suddenly going all black, "Let's go get our freedom."

"THREE," Hilda shouted, her smile only growing as she barreled out of the room before anyone could stop her. The sound of her laughter was followed by the sound of crackling in the air. The guards that had taken station outside the room got caught up in the shockwave of electrical energy before collapsing to the ground, skin sizzling. "That's four ye wee sprite!"

 

[SaiseiTunes]

"Gotta hold on to tradition, don't I?" Erik said with a smirk before the smile softened as Hilda leaned against him. For all the bickering they did, he wouldn't trade her for the world. Wouldn't trade any of them, honestly. Without them, he probably would've snapped long, long ago. "Stay close to me, okay? I don't want to see you get hurt."

The kills were quick and brutal. Lexie looked away as the pencil entered the guard's neck, Alex grimaced, and even Erik seemed a bit perturbed by the sheer brutality of it. Hanako, on the other hand, just let the shadows retreat as she gathered up ammo and the like. "Rifle, definitely," she said, without any hesitation. "I want to stack bodies." It was clear that she was ready to unleash years of torment back on the workers at the facility here. She turned to Michael. "I've got your back if you've got mine."

Erik nodded at Egan. "Got it, loud and clear. Hil, whenever you- OH COME ON!!" As Hilda dashed away, Erik charged right after her, Hanako in pursuit, and Lexie taking up the rear. The demigod of ice leaped over Hilda, and sent icicles straight through 5 guards running straight towards them, and aiming their rifles at the group. "5 for me. Looks like we're neck and neck."

A shot went right over Erik's shoulder, slamming into the chest of another guard. He looked back to see Hanako, lowering her rifle from her face. "Less bickering, more killing." She proceeded to push right past them, shooting at more guards with as much accuracy as she could manage. Meanwhile, for any surviving guards, Lexie was making good use of her odynokinesis. Guards were screaming and writhing on the ground as their pain was amplified tenfold.

Meanwhile, back in the barracks, Alex was checking over Kai and Brendon, making sure they were in good shape. "That was... definitely a brutal way of kicking things off," he commented. Kai could only nod, too stunned to speak.

"They're doing their job," Alex said. "Time to do ours. Brendon, Kai, you guys ready?"

Kai managed an unsteady nod. "Let's do this. Time to shut this place down."

 

[NorthernWanderer]

By now Hilda was laughing, her voice echoing about the hallway with some glee. The crackle of energy seemingly danced off of her. "Why don't you stay close to me!" she shouted before the laugh mixed with frustration, watching Erik leap over her. "Seems we are!! Not for long!" freezing long enough for Hanako to snap at their bickering. The pause gave the energy in her a second to build up before a hand slammed into the wall, careful not to get her friends in the crossfire as the overload of energy tore the wall away, sending wires and shrapnel flying into the crowd of guards that were trying to come for them. The simple action left a wide gaping hole, giving anyone who paused a second the view into what had been their free space, the gym of sorts. A few guards slowly started to react to the silent alarm, and red lights started to flash along the walls. "How's twenty for ya lad?"

"Children..." Michael laughed behind them, staying close to Lexi and taking a few well place shots. "You were right, we didn't have much of a childhood. My turn though, been itching to try this..." One of their youngest party member's smile only grew broader as he walked. Seemingly dropping some semblance of control he had and a few of the guards closest to him were swallowed up by the earth. Molten linoleum reaching up like tentacles and dragging them down into a roiling pit of fire. By now as Michael was letting control go it became more noticeable, the small pair of black horns hidden in the mess of curls started to glow a deep shade of red. The black of his eyes started to creep down his cheeks.

"I should call you the show-off antichrist," Mark chuckled visibly wincing a bit as he tried to maintain the walls around his friends. The bullets fired at them bounced off the golden shields.

"FOCUS," Egan shouted, doing his best to leave a trail of carnage in his wake, "Don't get cocky now!"

"Now is the time to get cocky!" Mark laughed, bouncing slightly before a fresh spray of blood decorated the wall.

"Oh, if it isn't Seth," Hilda growled from the front of the pack of demigods, hands grabbing fistfuls of armor as she hauled a guard up off the ground. Leaving him suspended in the air. His shouts of pain echoed about the space from Lexie's odynokinesis, even as the man tried to swallow it. "You loooooved shocking me, seeing if I could spark more, twinkle like a fucking fairy... if ah am remembering right, let's see if you twinkle," she snarled, focusing the wild energy that had been sputtering about the space into her fists. Watching in amusement as lightening scars started to scatter over the patches of exposed skin, Seth's heart gave out far quicker than Hilda let go. Her lips turned into a snarled grin of rage. Not noticing her own pain as a bullet from a guard zipped through her forearm.

"Hilda!" Egan shouted, "Drop it, you're bleeding!"

Back with Brendon, the large cat nodded, and using far more care than Hilda did, he snuck his head out the door. Tail flickering in a sort of signal that it was all clear before pawing off in the direction Alex had mentioned would be electrical. Ears, and nose on the lookout for anything. Claws clicking softly against the floor. Praying silently that the genius behind him could speak cat brain as he repeated quietly in his head over and over again *right way? coast clear, no smells, no sounds. Should've waited to shift... can't talk like this... I'm going the right way right?*.

 

[SaiseiTunes]

Well, the distraction was definitely working. The facility alarms were blaring, lights were flashing, and it seemed as if the entire place was on high, high alert. Guards were shouting commands to detain the subjects, prevent them from getting away. But mingling with the commands were cries of pain, sounds of impact, gunshots, and plenty of death rattles. It was carnage, pure carnage. And Erik was loving every second of it. "Eh," he said with a shrug as Hilda bragged about her new kill count. "Give me a minute or two, I'll find a way to get even."

Hanako and Lexie's eyes both widened as they saw Michael unleash his powers for the first time. Out of all of the demigods, he had always seemed the most normal. For the supposed child of Lucifer, he had shown a lot of restraint in the usage of his powers. And, considering how he appeared to be literally dragging guards down to hell with molten pieces of the floor, there had likely been a reason for that.

"Holy shit," Hanako said in shock.

"Nothing holy about that," Lexie responded, before getting right back to what she was doing. Notably, she walked up to Hilda's position, and unleashed her odynokinesis in full on Seth. The guard let out a sickening scream, terror and excruciating pain combined into an ear-piercing noise. And Lexie, despite her usual soft nature, gave a sadistic smile. She had to admit: it was fun to watch their tormentors suffer like this.

Hanako was enjoying herself even more. Initially, she was just smiling as she gunned down guards, using her mastery over shadows to sneak around them and shoot them before they could even react. But then she started to laugh, picking up in intensity as she shot guard after guard after guard. She was beginning to go for non-lethal shots too, impairing them and leaving them to bleed out, their pain increasing thanks to Lexie essentially just letting her abilities run wild. She was tag-teaming with Mark too, having fun scaring the living shit out of any guard unfortunate enough to cross her path.

Erik was focusing less on sadism and more on violence and destruction, buffing his kill count by freezing guards in their tracks, impaling them through mouths and eyes with icicles, some of them he even decided to be extra cruel to, freezing the very blood in their veins. But when he turned around to see Hilda bleeding through the arm, all thoughts of violence left his mind. He instantly rushed over to his friend, and ran a hand over her arm, watching it come up red.

"Hey, I'm not losing ya yet," he said, all hints of joking and bickering gone for a brief moment in time. "Be careful, please."

Further away, Alex, Kai, and Brendon as he caught up, were running through the halls, trying their best to stay hidden from the various guards charging through the halls. Eventually, things began to clear up, giving the three of them plenty of time to breathe.

"Let's never do this again," Kai said with a small laugh. "Please."

"If we do this right, we won't have to," Alex responded, before looking down at Brendon, trying his best to read the cat's body language and expressions. "We should be going the right way. Just a bit longer, there should be some sort of power room that we can access to shut this place down." He furrowed his brow in thought for a moment, before snapping his fingers. "Kai, Brendon, train your ears. See if you can hear any sort of computer noises or electrical current. We follow that, we hit the source."

 

[NorthernWanderer]

Michael could only grin as his friends finally saw just the tip of the iceberg, having swallowed his murderous desire on so many occasions as to not give the bigwigs the satisfaction of having even an inch of what he could do in their arsenal. They'd preened for so long even just at the fact they had him that smothering the weapon they wanted was the best form of rebellion. "Nope, nothing holy, but fuck how I've wanted to do this forever," he chuckled taking his turn to place a few well placed shots down the hall, pausing only long enough to leave a few folks half way through the ground. Limbs jutting out at awkward angles.

Course Egan was no exception in his cruelty, happily cauterizing a couple wounds left behind by their knife happy friend only so the guards could be mortally wounded again. "You're suddenly even more terrifying you know that kid?" Egan chuckled, "But so are the rest of us."

Though Mark by now was laughing, happily tag teaming with Hanako. Borrowing the remnants of shadows that been left behind for seconds before throats were slashed, limbs hacked off at the joints, firearms twisted and shoved into mouths only to go off. Eyes wild with chaos and sadistic glee at the onslaught. The revenge for the memories of beatings and torture they'd gone through to get to this point. Willing the rage into every slash of their stolen knife, and when they couldn't swing with a knife thickened black claws replaced their nails, much like a lions paw. Shredding flesh like soft butter. They only paused long enough to hear Seth shriek, sharing a sadistic smile. Trying desperately to keep their golden walls up long enough to buy them all the time in the world, but seeing Hilda get hit... They knew they were faltering. It was the longest they'd held their shields up for so many people.

If it hadn't been Erik who'd ran a hand over her arm, Hilda would've recoiled, but the cold touch reminded her just who it was. The pain finally registering as she hissed quietly.

"Much harder to get rid of than tha'," she jested softly, though the joke was marked with a rare softness as she looked to her friend. Rage turning to gentle grin. "You be careful yerself, not about to loose you or any of this lot."

It was Egan who stepped in quickly, in the middle of chaos and carnage, to replace Erik's hand for but a moment over the fresh wound and leaving behind soft burn scar. Doing his best to heal in short notice, and opting for a quick cauterizing since it was just a flesh wound. "Listen to the icicle," Egan warned quietly giving them both a quick wink before turning his attention back to their chaos.

"Firebug," Hilda grunted, though the smile she wore said her thanks. "Ah'll do my best, but yer falling behind," she teased, hands rubbing together again. The sparks of electricity coming back and echoing off her fingers, but she stayed close to Erik this time. Experimenting briefly as she forced the energy in the air to crackle and burst, lightening arching off of guards as Seth laid carelessly tossed at their feet. A few guards collapsing to the ground as blood poured from their ears.

"You know... Their biggest mistake was not ever getting us out in the open and seeing what we really could do," Michael added thoughtfully from where he stood, a ring of hands and feet sticking out of the ground around him.

Meanwhile Brendon nodded as only a large cat could, prowling ahead of the pair. Ears trained on the walls and the floors listening as instructed but keeping an ear out incase the big distraction wasn't enough, wanting to be more of a target then Kai or Alex if something did go wrong. Padding quickly down the hall it was a few turns before he caught the smell of heavy copper and some strange fluid first before the sound of fans whirring to cool electrical components hit next. Stopping in his tracks long enough that the other two could see him before the large tail seemingly pointed in the direction of a heavy door. Eyes glancing about quickly before the cat was bipedal again. "It's a computer room of some sorts," Brendon offered quietly, nose wrinkled for a second letting out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

"Hope this is the right room, do you want to do the honors or want me to kick in the door?" Brendon asked with a playful smirk.

 

[SaiseiTunes]

"And it took you this long to cut loose?" Lexie asked in mild disbelief. "If we'd known about this sooner, we probably could've done this years ago!" She looked around at the carnage Michael was leaving in his wake, alternating between wide-eyed shock and grimaces at the various states of pain and misery Michael had left the guards in. Most of them were already dead, but the few that weren't... Lexie doubted that her Odynokinesis would do much, they already seemed to be in otherworldly amounts of pain.

Hanako wasn't even paying attention to the carnage, weaving in and out of shadows, and helping Mark do the same, blasting through any guard or scientist she came across, and laughing madly all the while. She wished she had daggers or a shortsword, or something sharp and bladed. She wanted to tear these fuckers limb from limb, repay everything they had taken from her. But she couldn't, lacking both a blade and any natural weapons like her companion did. The thought was almost enough to shake her out of her battle rage. Almost.

Erik was at least glad that Hilda wasn't losing her edge or anything like that. Even gladder for Egan, though the comment about him being an icicle was met with a scoff from Erik's position. "I've got yer back if you've got mine," he said. "And don't worry. These runts are gonna wish they'd never tried to pry me open." As Hilda taunted Erik about falling behind, Erik smiled, turning to a patch of guards, and unleashing a new little trick. See, ice was just water in a solid form. And the human body had a lot of water in it. So if you lowered the temperature of the human body enough... and that was how a ton of guards around the group fell dead, bodies uncontrollably twitching from the cold, the blood in their veins literally frozen thanks to a sudden drop in temperature. "Yer right about that, demon boy," he said triumphantly. "Kinda stupid of them, don't you think?"

---

Kai could hear the sound of fans, though they seemed to pick up on it a lot later than Brendon did. Even so, they worked right alongside the cat to lead Alex to the computer room. The son of Athena smirked a bit as he walked towards the door. "This is what we're looking for. Even if it's not a central room, we can probably find more info about the floor plan, figure out a way to get to a central room and shut it all down." He turned to Kai. "Hear anything?"

Kai focused for a moment before nodding. "Voices. Scared, some are angry. Seems like it's a bunch of scientists, one or two guards trying to keep things in order."

Alex nodded, turning to Brendon. "Be my guest, Bren. Kai, why don't you sing them a song once the door's down?" Kai's eyes widened, and they nodded in return with a smile, the first smile they had shown throughout this whole ordeal.