Death calls...

[Render of Veils]

The portal, a relatively tiny thing compared to the portals most of the party had experienced, sat between two massive trees. Dead trees.

Indeed, the entire "forest" was indeed dead. The only signs of life in this place were more like the remnents of past life. The trees themselves, twisted, gnarled, and as dead as stone stood like pillars supporting an invisible roof or ceiling, raising long branches like great arms terminating in spindly fingers. Not a leaf was to be seen on the brown, muddy soil that was the ground, a soft earth which could very well threaten to become a bog or even quicksand. Stentch filled the air with pungent and obscene smells of decay and...death, carried over the thin white mist that obscured any attempts to look beyond the surrounding trees. It was very warm, very humid, and very dark here in the forest...


Thats when the portal flash into life. Each member of Omega team leaped out in pairs, which was as much as it could carry at a time. Tamaran came out by herself but in line nonetheless, followed by more pairs of members. The line finally ended with Riker, in his huge powered armor, exiting by himself. He looked around, trying to get bearings on his surroundings...

[Escudero]

Tal'Rashid's tiny feet sploched on the swampish land that it was the dead forest of Xochitla. Death, he was well acostumed to the word as he himself despite wearing such a youthful looking body had was now almost the representative of the term. Truly as long as he had a body, death itself would be walking the land.

As such he had little to be intimidated by his new sorroundings, one would assume that the little undead looking boy would tremble and quiver in fear at the sight of such horrendous place. But he just stood there unwavering, his red gaze fixed on his so called new allies rather than this environment. If anything, he felt right at home, even if this wet fetid land was nothing like his native arabian deserts.

What he was truly more concerned was this group that he had so boldy decided to join. A huge step for him as he had no interaction with humanity or any other faction whatsover since he had risen as a horror from beyond the grave. Letting the events of the universe unfold in front of him and record them as an espectator safely hidden behind the scenes, the "boy" had never truly enjoyed the company of others even in his short time as one of the living; truly perhaps he suffered from autism a triat that was acompaning him even in his state of undead.

But putting personal problems aside what interested him more was this current, unfamiliar situation in which he had gotten himself into. In his search for knowladge he had decided that it was best to interact with others, but what he had gotten was far more than he had bargained for.

The entire team reaked with treachery, the human Riker being far too boisterous of his command even going as far as thinking himself superior of beings beyond his nature such as the fallen angels and himself, an undead. Though in his case such behaivor could be excused since he looked so harmless.

Also this "Sympathy" fellow was far too kind, trusting and amiable to really be what he intended to be. Truly, Tal'Rashid would be surprised if he ended up not being a menace to the team and its eventual doom. No matter how well he disguised himself he could not hide his insidius nature, especialy not to the likes of the little necromancer boy.

The fact that he was also associating with heavenly scum such as this fallen angel that had so boldy decided to place a bet on Tal'Rashid's well being. Even going as far as calling him by the surrogative term of boy, only added to his disliking of everything and everyone for apparently now even celestials, fallen or otherwise, were not even capable of looking past physical feauters. Just by looking at the two, a person that is at least slightly versed on the supernatural would know that Tal'Rashid was actually older than the gambler angel.

Who he distrusted most was Tamaran. Even if this female celestial had be so kind as to share a few words with him and adding a very disturbing quote to his book of history lore. The undead kid could feel Tamaran's hunger for destruction and her general apathy for anyone's well being, even her own, miles away. She truly was one of those beings that struck fear even to the undead legions, himself included, for Tal'Rashid knew that if worst came to worst she would not think twice of taking down the entire universe down with her.

The boy scowled, for he had actually heard of legends were fallen angels such as herself joined humanity's ranks in wars to revel on its destruction. Demons had done so in the exterminations of the natives of the new world so it was not surprising angels would have joined the crusades. Hell, maybe Tamaran herself was leading the charge to Jerusalem that fateful day he had been slain by a crusader. Their zeal to kill those who were not of their own religion went as far that they thought not twice of killing younglings like himself. But oh how he did enjoyed gutting that soldier even in his dying breath, and he had througly enjoyed even more aiding Saladdin in his reconquest of the holy land, causing chaos amongst the Christian's ranks as a last gift to his bretheren before he departed to solitude.

He stepped beside the medic Minasaki who surprisingly had volunteer herself to go back to the Aztec realm. Claiming that her duty was with the soldiers. As Tal'Rashid looked at this pure heart amongst the numerous snakes and back stabbers on the group, he sighed knowing there may be some hope yet for this cursed world.

The necromancer gripped his staff tiightly and offered a silent prayer to Allah, may he have mercy on them all.

[RentCavalier]

Armand Sympathy whistled a low whistle, walking into the foggy thicket of trees.

"Hoo boy, ain't this a spooky place. Gee, I hope we don't meet any creepy things in there...um...but this fog, shouldn't it hide us, so we can't be ambushed?"

He laughed reassuringly so. He walked past Tal Rashid, winking at the kid.

"Hey, be careful now. I don't think this kind of trip is safe for a kid. Even, I'm guessing, a magical one like you? Hehehe."

He ruffled Tal Rashid's hair, turning back to Riker.

"S-so, we goin' out into th-the fog?"

[Escudero]

Needless to say that Tal'Rashid was infuriated by the very rude breach of personal space. Him being the reserved person that he is took great offense at Armand's behaivor, and his patience was running really thin at all the jokes about him being a boy.

He did nothing though and simply adjusted the hat portion of his robes to cover his face more as he glared at Armand's back

"Why?" He thought "Why did the pedophile had to be in my group?"

[ZenMasterWalrus]

Lerisiel breathed in deep as he exited the portal, seemingly enjoying the fetid air.

"Well, here's one place I haven't visited before. Not bad at all. Peaceful even."

Hearing Armand Sympathy speak, he turned to face the mysterious man. "There are other ways besides sight to be detected. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be more of a hindrance than a help. 's like many things in that regard."

He chuckled slightly at the stutter in Armand's voice, perhaps the first sign of emotion he'd shown since joining the group.

"Not scared are we? I certainly hope not. I'm still a little sketchy on the details of this job, but odds are if my dear friend there is involved we're going to be seeing a lot worse than some mud and fog. But then, I'm an optimist at heart."

Seemingly unable to stop the flow of criticisms and sarcasm coming from his mouth, Lerisiel spun in the air towards Riker.

"So boss, what's the plan now? Do we know where we're going, or is the idea to have a bathroom break here, just in case? I don't mind waiting."

((OOC: I think I may be overdoing it. I really should be in bed right now.))

[Verbrannte Erde]

"Every time I even look at those things I feel like I'm goina lose something the second I step in." Said Erde as he walked out of the portal.

Hearing the slightly rude coments of this Sympathy fellow he walked over to Tal'Rashid. "Come on don't let that guy get under your skin. You may be short but you've already helped, more then I think this guy will, by getting us in the temple."

[Ruin]

Tanafiel arrived with his gambling companion, stepping away from the two colossal dead trees as Lerisiel remarked upon the ambiance of their surrounding.

He took a moment to get his bearings, rubbing thoughtfully at his jaw while more and more filtered in through the portal, milling about and preparing to continue on. The forest did seem to lack any spark of life, not so much a forest with verdancy living and bright, but a void. Empty. Cold. Lerisiel did have the right of it; it wasn't bad at all. Very peaceful. Tanafiel felt right at home.

He turned to watch Lerisiel as he addressed...pretty much anyone who happened to be nearby, everyone else taking their time to associate and ease their minds with conversation as well. Not exactly impatient, Tanafiel basked in the atmosphere the forest seemed to exude and the thoughts of what was to come, hunger satisfied and thirst quenched.

[RentCavalier]

"Hey hey, my, my, no more bickering."

Armand smiled, a genuinely kind smile, indicating Riker.

"Our leader here is gonna make sure we're all right, eh? So, no frets. I say, we sing a few songs as we travel along, eh eh?"

He whistled the tune from an older song, Willie Nelson's On the Road Again.

[Ruin]

"Our new friend is right. Even barbed words are of more use against our enemies than ourselves. So save them all."

Tanafiel took his last peaceful look at his surroundings and sighed, wearing his tired smile as usual. Taking a few steps towards Lerisiel, he thought for a moment about trying his hand at reprimanding Armand for whistling, but he figured it was better to go to death with a song on your lips then in grim silence.

[Judge Master Cid]

Blades and Cid were in the back bickering over how to cook a Lich.

I'm telling you Cid, use a little holy magic on the Lich then boil it's bones to cancel out the dark energies then voila! You got a full course Lich buffet. I wonder how you manage to get me to argue on how to cook a Lich of all things, I may make stupid poses but I don't eat the forces of darkness. All the more for me then, I mean really, Lich, Demon Grunts, Hell, even ANGELS taste like chicken after you serve in the Guard for a few years. When I served the Chefs SUCKED, thats why I quit, I could make my own food AND help the guard by taking jobs from them, also made a few friends with the higher ups, I heared most of them retired though, I met most of them because we all like Chess, nice game really, except when those old men can thrash you in 5 turns....I got lucky and managed to last 7 turns....but meh.

Cid just looked shocked at Blades rant......

[hibbe]

Tamaran stepped through the portal immediately moving aside letting the rest of the Spec Ops people through culminating in Riker barely squeezing his power armor through dragging his super humongous blade in after him.

The Fallen Angel gave her surroundings a cursory examination and came to the conclusion that it was no worse than anywhere else she'd ever been. Her mind then switched to more important concerns, like making sure Riker didn't survive this trip and just who the blond stranger was.

[ZenMasterWalrus]

Lerisiel's face still showed no expression, but his voice was just as bitter and sarcastic as ever.

"You know what? I lied before. I do mind waiting. Let's get this over with shall we?"

[Render of Veils]

Despite what Tamaran might have otherwise believed, Riker's armor came through the portal with relative ease, the sword slung over the mecha's shoulders. Lowering the weapon, he depressed a button on the side. The blade instant retracted, fattening up the hilt and shortening the length of it. Thus it became a very large gun twice, if not three times as large as a Vindicator. Riker pointed it towards a particular clearing that seemed to make some sort of hidden pathway through the mist.

As per Malcom's instructions, we are to proceed in this direction. All units and soldiers, follow me, he said, before turning away and marching off.




Vanhell and Adracul stepped through the portal and assessed their conditions.

"Creepy," Vanhell said to himself as he looked around.

"Indeed. I've never really been in an area quite like this," Adracul commented, looking around from under her hood.

"Really? Considering where you've been these past thousand years I'd bet you'd know quite a bit," Vanhell retorted, sitting down and leaning on his katanas. Adracul sat down next to him.

"Oh I've had my fair share of strange circumstances," she replied. "I've just never been in any place this dead before. Even hell has its own twisted form of life."

"Like you'd know, running off with Lucifer like you did." This promptly resulted in a slap from the fallen angel. Vanhell raised a hand to his cheek, but paused before he could comment. Adracul stood up and looked around.

"I'm going to interact a bit. So far we've been relative recluses, and I'd like to meet a few people."

"Why? So you can eat them?" Came the sarcastic reply from Vanhell. Adracul ignored him. Yes, it was true she was very hungry, and the deadness of this strange, fog bound 'forest' only served to further exasperate her physical desire for flesh, sexual pleasure, and a full stomach. She then walked away, leaving her 'bodyguard' to watch her, a bit dumbfounded. He sighed and lowered his chin, raising the hood of his cloak and rapping his face with the crimson scarf.

Adracul espied two other angels, Tanafiel and Lerisiel, chatting among themselves and decided to approch them first. As she got nearer she picked up their conversation. When she was practically next to the pair, she heard Lerishiel's bitter comment.

"Whats the matter? Are you impatient or something? Let Riker order us on his own timetable," she said, addressing the gambler. She parted her cloak slightly so as to give but a tiny glimpse of her incredible body, hinting at many of the sexual pleasures she could offer, before closing it again.

[hibbe]

Tamaran hardly had to look to know that Adracul was up to her usual tricks, the dead environment, no time to 'snack' on the Guarsdmen, it all added up that she would be attempting to entrance some being or another. The Fallen Angel wondered briefly where the child-like necromancer had gotten himself off to before deciding she hardly cared.

With Riker leading the way she followed him into the woods feeling strangely at home in the desolate landscape. Some part of it vibrated in tune with whatever remained of her soul, a barren place with no hope or life left in it.

She didn't bother inserting herself into the numerous guarded conversations going on about her, all that Tam cared about was finding Haniel and seeing if he were truly mad as Janus had said.

[ZenMasterWalrus]

Lerisiel's mood seemed to lighten slightly as Adracul approached. Perhaps this mission would be so bad after all?

"Well lady, I'm a busy man. I'd like to finish this and be back to my games. Surely there are things you'd rather be doing than this little quest with our farcical army here. In any case, it appears we're on our way."

The gambling angel nudged Tanafiel as the group began their march.

"See what I mean about business and pleasure?"