Syke's ears twitched a bit at the scratchy static of the intercom, having been so tortured by the voice's prolonged drone of announcements and passive information that was about as useful as his feces thrown against a wall, and lost himself in the fever of his rage for a moment. The tall figure threw himself against the steel frame of the wall, unleashed a dreadful scream of agony, and swiftly began kicking randomly at the dead bodies strewn around Jakom and himself. Sykes suddenly calmed the raging persons filtering about his subconscious, and lilted a sly grin towards the other insane companion. A new friend? The crazed maniac never found much of that luxury.

"Don't worry. I'm just as fucking crazy with my injections, just a different kind of monster," Sykes reassured his new found companion, and turned his attention towards the end of the hallway where the three other little lambs were attempting to make their escape. The sound of gunshots pulled him into high alert, but he continued to stand stock still as steam shot through the corridors and a stray bullet flew by his head. The crazed grin continued to etch its way across his visage.

"WELL NOW! AREN'T THEY CLEVER LITTLE DOVES! HERE'S SOME FUCKING HEAT!" At this announcement, Sykes picked up two of the sub-machine guns used by the guards, and pulled the chambers back with each hand. A click. The sound of the safety disengaging. They were rubber bullets, but god damned if they didn't hurt like a bitch. The psycho yelled over the loud gunfire, Jakom being close enough to understand him, but the little doves unfortunately would just hear garbled speech.

"I'M GOING TO AIM HIGH, LITTLE BROTHER! YOU GO LOW! CATCH THEIR LEGS!" Sykes squealed with excitement as he continued the destructive onslaught of rubber bullets that could break the frail flesh of a human cow! What? No...just a human. A cow could probably take it. But damn it would hurt!

Wiping his blood and oil covered hands over one of the many dead bodies that lay strewn across the navigation deck, Yasif grinned at the wretched stench of burning cadavers. Also covered in a grotesque mixture of human oils and other bodily fluids was the Captain, who sat next to a charred corpse. His eyes were watering due to the smell of the cadaver. Both his arms were broken and his left leg had a steel rod sticking through it.

Walking over to the intercom, Yasif tapped the microphone, pressing a few buttons at random. A green light lit on the console.

'Hello? Hello? This is god speaking,' he said, an echo of his voice resonated through the whole ship. Satisfied, he turned to the Captain and gave him a sarcastic thumbs up and an overly enthusiastic smile.

'Good...' Yasif thought for a moment what he wanted to say to everybody. 'Hello. People who are not crazy and crazy! This is the ship's spirit!' After making a few ghost-like noises, he spoke again, 'Yes. How's the blood and guts down there? I hope everything is coming along good and well. I, Yasif Khalif, also known as "Inmate of the Higher Detention Facility, X159262HDF-Yasif", have taken control of this ship.'

Walking up to the Captain in all his filthy greatness, Yasif bent over and asked, 'How would you say your condition is right now? Dying? Living? I want to speak like you people speak. Give me good word.'

'In dire need of medical attention, you god forsaken fuc--' He cringed as Yasif's palm tightly squeezed onto his arm. 'You will call me The Dark Master. If you don't, I kill you. You understand Mr. Captain?' The Captain nodded with weeping eyes. Yasif slowly let go of his arm and walked back to the microphone, tapping it a few more times just to make sure he was still 'on-air'.

'The Captain of the ship is in da... Dayer need of medical attention. I would like it if everyone would co-operate with me and my not-so-not-crazy friends. Also, I am shutting down all access to the drop-pods and all hatches leading in or out of this ship will be closed right about...' Yasif slammed his fist on a bright "ENTER" button. 'Now.'

'To anyone who is trying to escape, why don't we meet up at the bridge and talk about it, okay? And to any of my surviving kind -- that is, the crazy people -- meet me at the bridge, too. We can have tea with meat. Or, coffee with meat. Anything with meat. I hope to see you here soon! Bye!'

Even a blind man could tell that neither Cody nor Leo trusted her, but it didn’t bother Zoe one bit. Let them be wary of her, because she certainly was cautious of the two of them. Sliding a few strands of hair behind her ears, Starwind tried to keep from breathing deeply. The entire area stunk like dead corpses and the floor was slick with blood.  The further down the hallway they ventured, the more meticulous her footsteps became. The last thing the blonde wanted to do was slip and be covered in dead guard blood. 

Ugh, I didn’t sign up for this.

Something told her that Leo and Cody had some sort of connection, but it wasn’t any of her business. At this juncture in her life, it wasn’t worth getting close to anyone, especially in a prison setting.  Not having a weapon was a little inconvenient, but that problem would soon be rectified. Watching silently as the engineer made her way to the valve, Zoe knew the criminals had to be aware of their presence. Even psychotic people were aware of their surroundings. Still, maybe luck would be on their side. That was something only time would tell.  Almost holding her breath in anticipation, the Tartarusian felt her muscles tensing up. Crouching slightly, the teen coiled her legs and prepared to make like a puma and flee to temporary safety.

Cool, calm, and collect like always. Just breath and everything will be fine.

Nodding slightly in agreement with her Guardian Angel, Starwind took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly.  As soon as she heard the loud bang and felt the shaking of the ship, Zoe surged forward.  Grabbing a hold of Leo’s wrist, she let her extra-sensory senses lead the way through the hot hazy corridor. All of a sudden, she was mindful not only of the location of the shaft, but was also extremely wary of the whereabouts of the convicts. Sometimes it paid to be something other than human.  Quickly catching up to Cody, Starwind tried to keep from hurrying the other woman up.  The shaft was coming up rapidly, but something told her the prisoners wouldn’t let them escape, not without a struggle.  Her plan was to shove the two of them up into the shaft and then sneak by the criminals and make her way up through her own means.

Aysel sighed as she looked down at the quickly cooling body of the fat, unfortunate man who had answered the door. In her old home, death was looked upon as a tragedy to be mourned and feared--but she had no time for that now. Her liege was quickly walking away, following the voice of a suspicious man Aysel had neither faith nor trust in.

Knocking an arrow, Aysel jogged to catch up with the departing party. She stayed outside the group, eyes scanning yet again as the predator overtook her. At the moment, if anything made a threatening move to her or the ones she was supposed to be protecting, they would quickly receive an exploding arrow in their chest.

Absently, she surveyed the man leading them. His presence exuded something...unidentifiable. It was eerie, yet sure. Black, yet gray. Though she would probably never trust him with her life, she felt somewhat safe in the direction he was leading them. There was conversation, or at least attempts at it, going on between the party and himself, but she wasn't paying attention. A small part of her was busy with her analysis of their savior, and everything else was busy keeping them safe. Or trying to.

There was a movement. Out of the corner of her eye, Aysel saw a large man shift to hide behind a dumpster of some sort in an alley they were passing. She paused, then raised a hand to the group to continue on. Stealthily, Aysel backtracked and pressed her back to the farside of the dark, decaying alley. The man moved past her, as if to follow her wards, and this is when Aysel slid from her hiding spot and soundlessly rammed her personal dagger into the man's back, making sure to avoid anything that would instantly kill him.

"Who are you, and for what reason are you following these people, dear sir?" She hissed into his disgusting ear. A laugh--small and distant--chortled from his throat. It was immediately followed by a gravely, deep voice that resonated deep within Aysel's soul.

"Woman, you do not know what you're getting into. You think you're just here to guard them? You're so very, very wrong. They're here to complete a task so ungodly even the demons they're holding in their ship refuse to be apart of it. Remember this." With this, his jaw worked--he bit something. And then she felt his now lifeless body go limp.

"It's either go or stay here and die." Cody replied softly, leaning her back against the wall. "And dying by their hands won't be a simple process either. Both of you should know that." She closed her eyes, muttering something under her breath as she steeled herself and took a deep breath. She wasn't a hero, not by a long shot, but she was a survivor, and just the type of person to do just about any kind of crazy shit in order to ensure her safety and the safety of others. Zoe wasn't exactly top priority for the young woman, but Leo was. Lucky for the other girl that Leo had such a compassionate heart. It would probably get them all killed someday. The thought made her smirk ever so slightly.

She opened her eyes and gazed at Leo, frowning ever so slightly at his expression of concern. She didn't need to worry about herself, not just yet. "I can't risk the two of you getting caught right from the get-go." she told him. "No offense, but neither of you have a weapon, and I'm the only one in this whole damn situation who's actually allowed to have one. So, yeah, I need to get in there by myself first." She reached forward and clasped his shoulder with her hand. "And, come on Leo, I've gone into boiler rooms on the verge of melting down. These guys aren't any different...not really anyway." She smirked that self-same expression, then nodded at the both of them before returning to her position just around the corner.

They were still there, talking amongst themselves, Jakom and the other crazy. She had no extra shells, so she needed to move, and move fast. 'Three...' she thought to herself, 'Two...one.'

Keeping a careful aim on the two at the end of the hall, she raced for the compressor valve as if her very life depended upon it. The blood raced in her veins, flushing her pale face and causing a thin line of sweat to form on her forehead. Taking careful aim, she fired at the main pipeline leading from the base of the floor, firing two shots and striking true. A torrent of steam spewed out of the hole that was created, quickly filling the hall with a haze that would have been disorienting to even the best military scout. She fired once again, into the gloom, then skidded to a stop at the pipe. Ducking the boiling hot torrent, she turned the valve until it was fully open. She heard the groaning of the pipes, grimacing as she jogged back a few paces and ducked into a small alcove.

The resulting 'bang' was loud enough to shake the foundations of the ship. By that point, the entire hallway was filled with a thick white cloud. She backtracked, coming around the corner and gesturing to Leo and Zoe. "Stay along the wall for God's sake, and don't stop until you're up in that shaft." she said a bit breathlessly, turning and plunging first into heavy cloud. She trailed her fingertips on the wall, knowing that it would be thirty paces to the stairwell. It was in that moment when she realized a flaw in her plan.

Sure, they couldn't be seen, but that also meant that Cody couldn't see their enemy either.

****************

"AUGH! OH GOD SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Max bellowed at the top of his lungs. He was on the floor, his knees to his chest and his hands clutching the side of his head. He grunted heavily, groaning in pain in loud, agonizing waves. He could hear the commotion on the outside of his cell, and kept at it, forcing his face to remain masked in this 'pain' he was in. That was when the two attendants came in, kneeling at his side and trying to see what was wrong with him.

It ended so wonderfully fast.

Before the attendants had time to react, he had whipped out his knife, slashing at the first man's throat and then stabbing the other straight through the heart. He took the guns from their holsters, fixing them on his slim waist and striding confidently out of his cell, blood staining his otherwise white jumpsuit. The man ran an unsoiled hand through his dark, curly hair, smiling at himself in the reflection of a glass window nearby. The vain, overly-confident murderer was elated at this pleasant turn of events, and his recently squelched hopes of ever getting to see his little lamb again were suddenly fanned into new life. Boy, was he hungry.

Hungry for his little lamb.