Valkyrie: Rebirth

[Da Pwny]

*formerly known as Valkyrie Drive. changed it just because i didn't want the title sounding like a cheap anime title XD anyways, sry for taking so long, and I'll try to leave plenty of room for people to come in fairly quickly... to start, there are only the Hume (Human) and the Valkrys races open, since for now the demons/devils are enemies (unless someone wants to play them really bad XD) and Valkyries and gods are basically extinct... and the Unspeakable Ones are not in the picture at all, pretty much. lets get started, shall we? :3*

The freezing wind bit from all directions around Valera as she pushed on, trying to come to terms with her orders. Finding an abandoned building out in the frozen wasteland in the dead of winter was hard enough, but a chapel of all places? Looking to her right and left, she nodded to the men on either side of her as she paused for a moment, the two of them going on ahead of her for now. Although she wasn't one to run from danger anyways, her training had never included that as an option, not even once...

Feeling for the large-calibre rifle on her back, she brought it to hand, not feeling the least bit comfortable without it. It was the weapon she'd trained on, and the one she would die with, most likely. Turning such thoughts away for now, Valera concentrated on the task in front of her, keeping her mind focused upon finding the old fanatics' hideout... when- no, if- they found that, then there'd be some luck left over in hopes that there was still an artifact there. Upon finding that, if they could get it out undetected, she'd most certainly call it a good day, a great day even.


It took another half hour of walking, but once they were within the ghost town... no, ghost city, there was finally time to sit in awe at the long-forgotten and apparently lost grounds they stood upon. There were only the three of them, but that just meant they stood a much better chance of surviving; anything too much bigger and they'd be detected that much faster. Plus, if they really needed help, all of them had the proper equipment to call in reinforcements that could and would assist them in bringing the situation under control... But even with all of their advanced technology, surviving was still key; can't call in for backup if you're dead...

The threesome began fanning out, keeping eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary as they searched for the chapel. They could spend hours here, possibly even days; if not for the cloud cover that necessitated spotting on the ground, aircraft would be able to spot it easily. It could be a long time before any of them even caught sight of it...

Suddenly, she heard one of them call out to her over the static, saying that they'd found it. Checking hurriedly on her map, she pinpointed the location of that team member and hurried to find him. Stopping next to him as the third member of the three-person team caught up, she leveled her weapon and scanned the area immediately, the floating implant in her eye checking every nook and cranny for any signs of a hostile.

Demons were their only worry around here, as Valera remembered from her quick briefing; some people left the city to live in places like this for one reason or another, and most of them weren't entirely friendly... having seen the area as clear, she proceeded first, knocking the heavy oaken doors inside with several well-placed kicks. As soon as she was sure that the area was still clear, Valera moved inside, keeping to the walls in case anything felt like jumping out and screaming 'Boo' at her...

*if someone wants to play as one of the soldiers, feel free. i'll get a character profile up and running here soon...*

[knightc3]

There was a single man hiding behind the altar like slab on the other end of the room. They had found the chapel faster than he had expected and forced him to hide inside rather than somewhere a but safer, probably near the outside of the shabby building. He waited for a sound he was expecting before he would revealed himself. He gave a satisfied smile as he heard the crunch of glass getting crushed under the combat boots of a soldier.

He knew the standard procedures of search and had guessed what kind of a pattern would be followed by the unit. It worked most of the times. He clicked the switch to activate the detonator in his hand and flipped open the protective cap off the red button that could bring down this building on top of them, or so he had planned. What he hadn't planned was to be inside when it would happen.

Red lights clicked on all around the unit of three and started blinkly visibly while making a clicking noise just to let them know that they were standing on a potential minefield. He had placed hollow steel tubing pointed at a forty-five degree angle all around the area he had marked out for the unit to trap in before he blew them all up in smoke and rubble, bringing down the chapel on them just to make sure. The only catch was all of them did not contain explosives, half of them being empty. Only he knew which ones.

The noise and the light was a necessary precaution he had to take in case he got trapped in his own trap with the unit which is what had happened right now. With the button pressed, he got up from behind the slab and came face to face with the three, two soldiers and a Valkyrs, of course. He was confident they were smart enough not to shoot him now, seeing as he held what they would guess would be the detonator, and they would be right. "Nervous?", he asked looking directly at the Valkyrs, smiling as he did so. He continued to smile hiding a bit of his own nervousness at seeing the high calliber rifle in her hand, "Name and purpose of visit?"

[Da Pwny]

A male Valkrys. A failure. They were all supposed to have been disposed of when that project was deemed a total wash... so what was one doing here? Her gun was level, but she hesitated, seeing the detonator in his hand; she held up her own left, the right still holding the gun and trigger steady, and the gun-happy guards let off before they shot the wrong thing up. Valera could easily aim and pull the trigger before this man could push that button, but if he fell wrong... she could hear the beeps of several demo packs, and knew that he wasn't sh*tting them.

"I should be asking you the same thing" she replied, her face emotionless, not even a drop of sweat showing, her body language as unreadable as a brick wall... except this wall had a gun, and knew how to shoot first and never have to ask questions. Her open hand slowly returned to the assault rifle, finger rolling around the grenade launcher racked just under the barrel; if the man tried anything funny, she wouldn't hesitate to blow him, and whatever jacked-up scheme he had, to kingdom come, even if it meant she'd go with him... but the artifact...

He was standing right next to it...

Dammit.

Damaging the artifact would mean an even worse reception than coming home in a pine box. The government was known for making ladies 'disappear' for things less than obliterating a whole artifact... No, she couldn't fire the grenade while he was still next to it. Not when so much was at stake. Still, she didn't show her frustration, her finger's removal from the ring the only sign she gave of disapproval for blowing him off the earth...

"So, what exactly do you plan to do after you set off those explosives?" Valera inquired, hoping to talk the man down, or at least get him to take his thumb off the button so she could shoot it out with ease, or at worse, shoot him. "Do you really want to go down with this building? Or were you going to rat your way out some hidden back door and escape while the rest of us get buried alive?" She wasn't the best negotiator, but her skills were good enough that she'd been called upon to use them several times before...

[knightc3]

He could see straight away that he was dealing with a veteran here and not some trigger happy rookie. The gun was leveled at him and she was ready to fire. He kept the detonator close to and in front of his chest. It she had shot, she couldn't avoid killing him and in the process blow herself up along with the thing she wanted here.

Though she didn't know that he had been specidically instructed not to, in any small way even, harm the artifact and he had taken the precautions for it. Even if he had blown the chapel, the artifact location covered with small reinforced concrete slabs and sheets of steel would survive the blast. There was another reason the blast radius was small enough so that, to his knowledge would not result in a total cave in. He wasn't going to get paid if the artifact had been harmed during this mission. To top that he was pretty sure, he would be hunted by the group afterwards for what he had done.

But then, there was no reason for her to know that. That was the best thing about explosives, the less you knew about them, the greater the leverage the person with the detonator had. "Thats really sweet of you to worry about my well being but here are the questions you should be asking me, well yourself actually. One... why would I be in here if I hadn't make sure I would survive the blast? And two, how do you intend to survive and complete your mission if I push this button?" He paused before continuing, "The name's Jack Slater. Pleasure...", he smiled again. His nervousness growing as his eyes shifted towards the soldiers shuffling on their feet behind the valkyrs. Not very good under pressure. This might not end as he had planned.

[Da Pwny]

Again, though slower this time, her hand went to the wind, this time instructing those behind her to back out. This was no place for those with itchy fingers... she needed all the concentration she could muster; even a weak failure like this one was deadly enough with such explosive power to pose a serious threat, and if she didn't make it, she wanted at least one of her men to make it back to base and report, then come back with more reinforcements, and possibly even some of them, should the situation call for it...

Her hand moved back to the gun, fluid as water, and even before it'd grasped the gun once more, she'd taken a definitive step forwards, defying the man in front of her. "One, I could care less about you; however, it would interest me to know exactly why a man would be risking his life over such a desolate place, when surely better shelter sits nearby. Two, I'm willing to die for the reasons I was sent here for. Finally, who's footing your bills and how much, because I'm sure if money's what you're after, I can promise you far more than what any of them can muster up, especially out in this frozen wasteland."

The tension could practically be cut with a knife as Valera desperately tried to come up with a plan... if he was paid off, that would ease her life up a little, as the pockets she came from were only matched by the private organizations that the Paradise government occasionally had to hire when things got too rough for even their own people to take care of. Or when they don't want their own hands dirty she reminded herself, knowing full well some of the whack-jobs she'd seen come through in her years with the squad...

If it came down to it, she wasn't going to let this man go... if it meant taking him with her, then she'd do so. Valera just hoped that never had to come to pass... as she finished her speech, another step forward, front foot crossing over the other in a straight line, another defiance she spat silently at the man, who was now no more than fifteen meters from her. Unless he was armed with something else at the moment, she could probably rush him, shove the high-velocity rifle down his throat before they were both crushed to death by the falling rubble. Even as she thought about it, her face remained unchanged, awaiting him to react...

[knightc3]

Jack had no idea what to do now. He didn't want the other two to stay because they might get edgy and try something foolish. He could almost see it happening in his mind. He would pull out his gun and drop the two easily but the Valkrys would blow a whole in his chest in that time. He knew they would call reinforcements as soon as they were out of danger. He had 2 minutes maybe less before he gets trapped in this hell hole. Although now the Valkrys was alone. Maybe he would be able to disarm her before that and escape. Yeah right, he thought to himself.

He lost his calmness as she started moving towards him, his hand shook once before he got hold of himself again. Was she mad? Did she wish to die. As if reading his mind, those were the words that came out of her mouth. He had stopped smiling.

"Stop, I would take your offer of the money but I don't work for the government, never will again. Even if they paid me everything they had." He pressed the button on his detonator but didn't let go of it. There was no turning back now. They charges would blow as soon as he left it. That would include if she shot him down. "When they asked you why you failed to safe the artifact, tell them you ran into the Gunslinger. They might just go easy on you. I hope we meet again. You have 5... 4... 3...", he began counting down while backing away towards the wall behind him, his other hand going around his back to grip something on his belt.

He had never hurt a Valkrys and he didn't intend to start now. No one understood why, but no one dared to ask him either.

[Da Pwny]

As soon as his thumb was on the trigger, her rifle went automatically to her shoulder; she had one shot at this, and if it didn't work, then they both were dead. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she took aim, but not at him, or at least not directly. Her sights were on the detonator, and what she was about to try usually worked... at least in the movies. And if it did here, the only loss would be one or two of the male Valkrys's fingers...

Moving on instinct, she moved forward, gun still trained on the detonator... before he'd made it to two, she took bead with impossible speed and fired. Time seemed to slow as the bullet traveled the distance between the gun's barrel and that detonator in the man's hands... and then sailed right past and buried itself in the wall behind him, having missed the man's hand and gone high by whole inches. Valera had missed, and now she was about to die.

[knightc3]

What he had expected her to do was to run out the way they had come in to avoid the explosion. He would have had perfect control of the situation this way and could easily make his escape with a small charge to the wall behind him, making a hole big enough for him to get out.

What she did was what he least expected. She shot at him, at the detonator really. But he obviously valued his hand so, without realising the consequences, he let go of the detonator, releasing the button in the process. He knew what was about to happen in the next two seconds for that was the delay he had on the changes. His hand with the special demo charge hit the wall and pressed the button on the console simultaneously in the hurry.

He sincerely hoped the Valkrys had at least had the time to drop and avoid the directional blast that would come at face level, beheading anyone who stood there. She wouldn't have the time to get out in time to avoid the falling rubble he guessed. The charge blew the wall outwards, creating a whole he could crawl through if he had got the time. At that moment the pipe charges blew in perfect sync with the ones on the base of the pillars holding the roof. The resulting shockwave, threw him out the hole with his head hitting the side of the circular hole.

As soon as he came to a stop outside the now crumbling building he shook his head to clear his vision. He bolted back towards the hole and began removing a few rocks blocking the way into the now silent chapel. He hurried to get back in hoping she was alright. He had made a promise not to ever hurt a Valkrys unless absolutely necessary. This one seem to have made him break it by her own actions.

[Da Pwny]

Time slowed to a crawl as the explosion cracked off the walls, sending debris inwards. She dropped to her knees in a defensive crouch as it happened through pure instinct, though the chances of surviving a total burial like this were next to none... Seconds turned to hours as her adrenaline activated the speed rush within her, Valera spinning and bolting back towards the door in a crouched position... which was soon blocked by a large piece of what had been the walls next to it. Sliding to a stop, she could feel some of the smaller bits hitting her on the side; she was about to die, she was sure of it. She ran back for the other side, but was stopped when a huge piece of the wall collapsed right in front of her.

Looking helplessly up, she saw the remains of the roof, or rather, what was left of it, falling in on her, and she turned away, tripping onto the ground but trying to get up immediately, to scramble to her feet... And then, for what seemed to be an eternity, there was nothing but darkness...

When Valera opened her eyes again, she found herself not only alive, but mostly alright, though the severe spike in pain from her leg told her that it was possibly broken, or worse. Her rifle was nowhere in sight, although her fifty-caliber semi-automatic was still in its holster at her hip. She was alive, and that's all that counted. Apparently, a few pieces of the former building had wedged unstably together after knocking her to the ground on her stomach, forming an arch over her that'd saved her life. It was one in a million; had any of it moved a bit further in any direction, she would be a bloody pancake, for lack of better reference.

When she finally got her bearings, the Valkrys immediately beeped on her short-wave radio. "This is Valera. Does anyone copy out there?" A simple message, but one that at least let them know she was alive. She got a response and immediately relayed her condition to them, finally stressing them both to evacuate the area and call for backup; the government would never leave a Valkrys behind, even if all that was left to be retrievable was the artifact within-

The Artifact! Now she was panicking; the thought of having lost the fresh artifact that was said to be in this very room was worse than her own fate... Gritting through the pain and cracking a few teeth as she tried not to scream from the pain shooting up her leg, Valera pulled herself out from under the wreckage that had both trapped and inevitably saved her, and, using a nearby pile for some support, limped over to the central alter, leaning against it with her good side, the side with her good leg on it. This had to be where the artifact was before, but something wasn't right... the air buzzed with some sort of energy, and something inside Valera was emitting invisible vibes, as if whatever it was was calling out to some place unknown... it wasn't the man, or it would have happened before when they were facing off, and as far as she could see, he wasn't nearby. No, this was something different, something that was pulling her in a certain direction...

Valera did, however, manage to find her weapon, which had slid out somehow when she was knocked to the ground. Using it more as a crutch, the determined woman began limping towards the source, stepping over rubble in her way; she was sure now that whatever she was feeling, it was what she wanted and had come here for, which only made her ever more determined to find it...

[knightc3]

Jack removed the last stone in his way and was through the hole before the stone hit the ground behind him. He found himself only a few feet away from the Valkrys. He froze for a second seeing the gun in her hand but as he looked down at her leg, it was pretty obvious she was using the rifle as a crutch. It looked in a bad shape though not broken, sprained most likely. He pulled out one of his gun, leveling it at her, his hand at the waist level. He looked around and found the other two no where near her. That meant they had retreated, for now.

"Hold it! Did you call back-up?", he asked sharply. He was a bit peeved to have injured her but he wouldn't be standing here in one piece if she had not been in that state. As his eyes did a quick recce of the room, he realized he had over-estimated the strength of the building's structure. He was pretty sure the artifact would still be secure under the protective shel he had placed on top of it.

[The Mammoth]

Deep in the depths of the darkest hells in all the land slept a behemoth, weakened from centuries old wars, tired, and beaten. His massive body, lying quietly in the darkness, the only sound was the echo of his breathing, like the sound of a massive dragon. It was almost a dull roar. The sound would terrify any of the living, yet none lived where he lay. It was from the depths that he rose, and now he lay in the world between those depths and the upper world. These darkest realms of the hells were reserved for Hell's most powerful demons and devils, awakened when needed, called on when the war was to begin. The lumbering beast laying on a stone slab didn't stir. His black locks laid tattered around his face, his massive protruding muscles and insane figure so disproportional that it was sickening to look at, laid calmly, and nearly serenely.

Suddenly, it sounded as if all the oceans of earth descended upon this place, a roar began, as wind and spirits flowed through the place where this monster slept. The cavern was filled with the roar of wind, of screams. As suddenly as it began, it stopped.

The breathing of the beast slowed, his dull roar coming to a grumble. There was silence for a moment, and then a voice. The voice spread dread, its sound nothing that the words of man could describe. Just the rumble and echo of it, sounding as if ten men were speaking through him, each with their own tone of low grumble.

"Finally..." Was all that was uttered. The monster got to his feet, and stood nearly ten feet tall, a creature of unprecedented terror, of unstoppable power. The devil-god... Gabriel...

"The artifact is disturbed..." The roar sounded again, and the deepest depths of hell cringed at the sound. Not even those who sided with this horror wished to face it face to face. They cringed at his howls, they ran at his step, and the cowered at his boot. He, the lord that led the attack on the gods centuries ago, long in slumber from his near death, had awoken. All of the earth, as if it were the soul of the planet itself, trembled in terror. But Gabriel himself, after so long in slumber, wondered if his skills were as honed as those who remembered him. The world had long forgotten his power that brought them to their knees, it sat in books, hidden in libraries, covered in dust, untouched for thousands of years. Such was the folly of man, they failed to learn from their past mistakes.

Gabriel walked to a corner of the room, each step rumbling like its own earthquake. He disappeared into the darkness, appearing among the screams of torment. Standing among the depths of hell, that which mortals, now suffering for all eternity, were imprisoned. All the screams silenced, as even the dead, in their ultimate torment, feared that which could be done to them by this monstrosity. The living were not so lucky to have this knowledge. They likely would think they could combat him. The would learn, once he returned to the surface, how wrong they truly are...

[Da Pwny]

Valera looked back to respond, but was interrupted when a blinding light pierced the gray area behind her, throwing her off balance when she turned to look. A concrete sheet structure a few yards in front of her had split open straight down the center, light pouring out of it. More cracks streamed from it, seemingly filling every crack in the room, as if it were piercing the very matter all around them. Valera thought she heard a voice, one that resounded deeply within her, but that couldn't be possible... whatever was happening, easily put, shouldn't be...



Darkness... for so long, there'd been darkness. Occasionally, she felt someone- or something, since she doubted that anything was still left alive- touch the outer reaches of her prison. How long it'd been wasn't hers to guess... who had sealed her wasn't either. She was trapped here, possibly forever in this icy tomb. Once, for a while actually, she thought she heard a bunch of people chanting nearby, but her body remained in-state, refusing to budge even an inch...

But this... this was different. She heard a voice, one that she couldn't pinpoint from whom, but was familiar nonetheless... The body that so long ago had gone cold on her began to breathe life again; at first, only a twitch in her face, the slightest of movements... but soon, as the cold substance surrounding her began to slide away, she could move a finger, then two, then a hand... her lungs began breathing again, although the substance that still surrounded her stung them...

There was light, for the first time in what seemed to be an eternity, and it hurt her eyes. She hadn't even opened them yet, but they were sensitive, and the light that was coming through was hurting them... She felt weak, but alive, as her body pumped color back into her skin, and her lungs became used to the feeling of whatever it was she was breathing... Then she could feel something cracking the shell that she was trapped behind, tiny vibrations signaling as such. Her mind began to ponder, not panicked in the least bit that it was falling away. She'd been here for a long time, cursed to think but not move, feel but not touch...

All at once, a lot of light streamed in, her shell broken and cracked. She wasn't falling yet, but that substance she breathed was draining, and she was too weak to stand on her own; she was sure of that much. Now, air was stinging her lungs, and she began to worry...


Valera watched as the light died down, and then more cracks formed in the cement as she stumbled to her feet. Her emotions sat somewhere between fear and awe... pieces actually began falling away, thumping on the floor and generally creating a large stir of dust. Then, she began backing away as a foul-smelling liquid started pooling away from the base, adding to the mess that was already there. "By the gods, what did you hole up back there?" she stated, backing away as the unidentifiable stench grew along with the puddle. Surly whatever was making it had long since died... but she couldn't be sure about it.

Taking her weight off the gun, she cautiously stepped forward, no longer feeling the pull from within her, but still sensing something behind the concrete, although she still couldn't see what it was. As the smell dissipated into the air, Valera looked back to the man, waiting for a response from him. He was the one who'd been so protective of this area; if he wasn't going to do anything but bark questions, then she was just going to ignore him. She had no intention of wasting bullets on someone who wasn't a threat at the moment...

[knightc3]

Jack just stood motionless watching the unexpected spectacle from behind the equally surprised Valkrys. It didn't even occur to him that he wasn't aiming at her anymore and she could easily kill him right now if she turned around, before he could get a shot of. But her attention was held by the display of light that brighten what had now turned into a ruin of a chapel. The men who had hired him hadn't said anything about this to him. Though they were a bit anxious when he said that he would be using explosives.

Did they knew about whatever this thing was? He looked up at the Valkrys and raised a brow, "Well, thats not one of my bombs in case thats what you are referring to and I have no clue what that is." He stopped speaking as the light died down. He quickly holstered his gun and brought the automatic in his hands, his aim the same as that of the Valkrys. Whatever it was, she thought it to be a bigger threat than him, which would mean he was in a bigger problem now than a minute ago when his biggest problem had been her calling for backup or worse, another valkrys.

[Da Pwny]

*well, since no one's done anything with those two bumbling nincompoops, i guess i can kill them off now, can't i? ;D*

The crack she'd seen grew wider, and wider still. Images of what might be coming out of it horrified her... possibly a new trick by the demons, or some unholy creature that'd been asleep for all this time. The last thing she expected was for the thing to split wide open... and a woman, a beautiful and completely nude one at that, to fall straight out of it. Valera barely had time to drop her weapon, wide-eyed in shock, that she almost didn't catch the woman... well, technically, she never did, since the lady slammed against her, pushing both of them to the floor in the process.

The slimy woman didn't open her eyes, but pawed lightly at Valera in the dark, as if she were completely disoriented, confused to a higher degree; not menacing in the least bit, but for someone already scared, it wasn't much help. Valera fought the rising bile in her system long enough to somehow squirm her way out from under the blind woman, fumbling for her handgun and having absolutely no idea what to do. Shooting the woman who so weirdly 'attacked' her would be wrong, she thought... but what if this was some world-ending weapon of some kind, aimed to kill anything and everything around it with just its-

She cut that line of thought quickly, the apparent overdose of late-night sci-fi flicks showing right now. It wasn't until the woman began to shiver and whine that she had a reason to do anything beyond gape in silence... As Valera's initial fears passed, she looked around for something, anything really, to clean the lady up, she herself getting used to the smell fairly quickly. Upon finding a torn curtain that had been taken down in the scuffle, she laid it out and heft the poor lady onto it, so at least she'd be off the stone-cold ground. Using her knife to cut off a piece at the end, she began the process of getting as much of the nasty liquid off the girl as she could, speaking softly to keep her as still and calm as possible. Surly she felt something at one point, as she gasped for air, squirming badly for a minute or so before she calmed down again...

Once she'd gotten the worst off, Valera removed her gear, including the bulletproof vest and outer hip protection (like a BPV for the lower waist), then proceeded to remove her one-piece track suit. Despite popular belief, most Valkrys-class soldiers wear the usual assortment of underwear under their battle gear, mostly because the suits feel horrible when sweat starts making them stick and such, and having some degree of separation makes the average one feel a lot better. The only exception were the Elites, where most of the rumors circulated around, and they were true as that class lived, ate, and slept in their suits; the main difference being that theirs were tailor-fitted to fit perfectly and be as comfortable and light as possible, without the extra pieces that average Valkrys' wore.

Having slipped it off, she quickly and expertly began threading the lady's limbs through each of the various parts; they were both about the same sizes, though the lady was quite a bit thinner, most likely from malnutrition. The process took no more than five minutes, and after finishing, Valera put the vest and hip protection on herself, trying her best to ignore the nagging itches that both presented. They were designed to 'stick' to clothes, so the Velcro-like surface meant that it would irritate her skin something fierce, but it was either that or run out of here without pants, and even she wasn't gung-ho about doing that.

It wasn't until the shots registered in her mind that Valera looked away from the woman; they came from outside somewhere, and sounded distinctly like... "sh**." Her trigger-happy boys must have run into some trouble, and by the sounds of it, things weren't going well. Quickly strapping the rest of her stuff on, Valera turned to rush outside, to find out what had happened... when she cried out in pain as her bad leg landed hard, the distinct crack of bone breaking echoing through the hall. Gripping her leg as tears blurred her vision, she knew she was screwed unless help came fast; if that was a demon or devil attacking her boys out there, which was most likely, then it'd find its way to the chapel soon, screwing any chances of survival that she had had before. Her only hope was that they'd gotten off something to HQ before dying or whatever was happening to them...

[knightc3]

He couldn't believe it when he saw a beautiful women emerge out of the slimy ooze in the once great chapel. Could the stories of those old fanatics be true. No, that was all just a myth, nothing more. Yet, the existence of the woman raised questions and doubts in his mind. It can't be, he told himself yet again. He saw the valkrys cover her up and clean her. He raised a brow, watching quietly as she began to strip. He didn't understand the reason till he saw the shivering of the other woman.

He snapped back and looked past the door when he heard gunfire. He frowned as he realized this couldn't be the backup or they wouldn't be shooting at each other. It had to be something else. He looked back down at the valkrys as she screamed out of pain. She had forgotten about her leg. He looked down at the two of them lying helpless in the ruins of the chapel while her team was fighting and by the sounds of it, was dying right outside the door. He made a quick decision.

He moved quickly guessing they didn't have much time. He secured the M-16 behind him and ran to remove a large block of concrete over from where the artifact was hidden. Removing a small device from his pocket, he placed it over a small notch that was sticking out of the stone floor. He pressed the button and heard a hissing sound that burned around the covering and let him open the reinforced box he had built around the smaller, rectangular stone box with some carvings on it. He quickly removed it and placed it in his pocket.

He moved next towards the two of the ground in front of him and crouched on his knee and checked the valkrys' leg. He looked up at the two women and spoke quickly, "Look I know that not your back-up out there shooting your guys and it sure as hell isn't someone I called so whatever it is is probably not friendly to either one of us. I suggest you take my offer...", he said patting where he had placed the artifact, emphasizing he had it now and continued, "... and come with me. You are in no position to fight and you both looks like you could use some medical care and she, a warm bath. I can provide both but you gotta trust me."

He knew she could have just shot him as easily but he hoped he had been right to judge her as a veteran and see the bigger picture. Somebody had messed with him and he intended to find out what exactly he had gotten himself into before he picked a side.