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The Footsteps stop, practically around the corner, listening closely you can hear the same voice from before. "They already got Samson and Reynolds. Use reason First!" Shortly after that a few small objects fly into the room, one rolls somewhat close to Elie, taped to the front of the grenade is the word "Diplomacy".


"Well fuck." Nancy grumbles

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As the group approaches a large cave opening in the Veldt thunder sounds off. I'm sure they could've had some dramatic event happen with pouring rain all around, but they're going into a cave instead. With the Mage left behind to protect the helicopter the group was down to three to deal with whatever awaits them. A corpse is hanging over a ledge, what lies below is pitch black, The man was shot through the chest. He's wearing fairly basic armor, probably one of the mercenaries that never reported back.



Nancy looks at the unfortunate mercenary. "What a slacker. Getting killed before even going in the cave." She shakes her head and strolls on in. "Don't take too long. Time is money, after all. And I hate to waste money."


Elie ran past the others towards the corpse. He pulled it up from the ledge to a safer place, and set him down on his back next to the other mercenary. He checked his pulse. Dead. Elie clutched his necklace as he said prayers for the fallen. When he got back up to his feet he glared at Nancy. How could she say something like that?


Gemma walks over to the corpse that Elie "saved" and kicks it over so it's laying on its stomach. She then begins to rummage around in the back pockets, pocketing a few coins and a piece of crumpled up paper. She briefly looks the scrap over before patting Elie on the back and trudging off into the cave.


Elie shook his head in confusion with what Gemma did. 'I thought we were supposed to be heroes,' he thought, wondering what he was supposed to do with a soul he couldn't save. Elie put his hands in his pockets, stood up and followed them in in silence.


The inside of the cave was dark, Gemma flicked on a flashlight retrieved from her hip and walked forward a bit, referencing the bit of scrap paper she took from the corpse. Looking from the paper back to the cave she walks forward to what appears to be a ledge and steps off into the dark.


"Wait, Gemma? Gemma!" Elie didn't hesitate to run off the ledge after her. He didn't hear anything that sounds like she was in danger, but for her to just disappear like that was disconcerting. He knew too many people that the last thing they did was jump. He didn't want to see it again.


"Oh, that's what we're supposed to do." Nancy shrugged and threw some papers into the air, forming them into a platform to float down on.
It's a Short drop, down a very dimly lit walkway lie the remains of what you could assume was once a bunker entrance. a door blown off the hinges lies a good few feet in front of it, dark figures also lay on the ground around the door. Faint talking can be heard from within.

Nancy looks around with a frown as the papers disperse. "Man, this place looks horribly unproductive. I should fine it..." A paper and pen appear in front of her, but she pushes them away. "No, fining after we finish up this business." The pen and paper poof away. "right, let's go find out who these trespassers are in here."

The talking stops and the hallways lights up, Two men rush out of the bunker, stepping over the bodies that had piled up around the door. They are wearing what appears to be riot gear, minus the helmet. There might have been a symbol or something on the center but whatever was there had been scraped off. One is holding a rifle, The other, a sword. The one with the sword asks, "Who the hell are you and how did you find this place?"

Elie was the first to step up. "My name is Elie. We heard there was a girl here that got kidnapped." He said it in a friendly tone, not accusing anyone of the action, but simply stating a fact. "We were hoping we could find her here. Would it be possible for you to help us?" He knew that they probably had her, but, it was wrong to judge someone so quickly. "We're not here to fight anyone. Just to help the girl."


"I'm the inspector, here for an audit." Nancy taps her briefcase. "I just kinda walked in, and I have to say that this place is a mess. Definitely going to be taking off some points for that." She scribbles something on a form. "Now, what are your names so I can put them down as witnesses for the audit?" Nancy glances up at the two men.


Gemma moves a hand to her face and begins to rub her forehead as The man with the gun speaks "I... Whatever game you people are playing it isn't going to work. Leave now and forget you were ever here or you can join the rest of "her" goons." The man with the sword gestured to the corpses around the door while the one with the gun lined up a shot on Elie.


"Her?" Elie turned towards Gemma. "I thought Raion said the girl was kidnapped. If she was here trying to search this place then..." He turned back to the men. "Who is she? I think we might be working on different stories. There's no need to be violent, we're just confused."


"Ugh. Well, fine then. Don't be cooperative." Nancy grumbles and puts the form back in her briefcase.

Gemma holds her hand slightly away from herself and a sword made of ice appears in it, while she is doing this the man with the Sword continues talking " "The Girl" is our bargaining chip, No more questions. Leave now or die."


Elie was caught off guard by their comment. They were going to try to kill them. Elie backed off a bit to the back. He wasn't going to fight, but he wasn't planning on stopping the others. He whispered under his breath as what seemed like clouds appeared above the group, its rain feeling rejuvenating. "I'm not letting my guild mates die.,x" He said sadly. He sighed a bit as he whispered "...I'm sorry."


"So much for diplomacy." Nancy snaps her fingers. A cloud of paperwork bursts from her briefcase and flies straight into the faces of the two guards, blinding them with back taxes. She dashes forward and smacks the guard holding the gun in the head with her briefcase.


Gemma jumps back as soon as the cloud forms, before any of it actually rains out, Apparently more terrified of it then by the armed men in front of them. The man with the gun stumbles backwards, unprepared for the sudden blow. He sprays the gun in Elie's general direction. The one with the sword dashes forward, slashing at the woman with the briefcase.


Elie let out a loud cry as a few of the bullets hit him. They weren't very accurate, and the ones that did hit didn't hit any vital spots, but it still inflicted the expected, and very extreme, pain. He fell down, bleeding. His clouds had already begun healing some of his wounds. Elie leaned up, holding his chest, and a very feint barrier seemed to form around him. It wouldn't stop the bullets, but it would certainly stop them from hitting quite so hard.


Nancy grumbles and holds up her briefcase to block the sword while backpedaling away. She makes another blinding cloud of paperwork before dashing back out of the swordsman's range. "That guy must have a pretty thick skull." She created a sharp, spinning disk of paper and shot it at the swordsman. "Take that, slacker!"


Gemma is nowhere to be seen, The man with the gun regains his composure and begins to aim at the witch. The man with sword is still recoiling from the blocked attack, and he doesn't dodge the disc which shreds right through his armor and forces him to the ground. Before the man with the gun can fire he is stabbed from behind by what appears to be a large piece of ice, carved into a sword, He falls with Gemma behind him. "Seriously!? Where do you people even come from? I mean come on paper magic!? What even is that?”

"I came from my office in Wall City to yell at my employee Jeffery for being late to work. And paper magic is perfectly respectable!" Nancy sniffs primly as she walks farther into the bunker.


Elie got up as his clouds began to disappear and he ran over to the one that was left alive. "Get back!" He yelled at the other, wheezing as he shouted. He fell to his knees in front of the man who was bleeding on the ground. "Will you help us, please? I don't want anyone else to die." He bit his lip as he waited for a response. He wasn't too focused, but he knew he could save the man with just a whisper.

The Man on the ground doesn't respond, He's either in shock or dead. It's hard to get a pulse with the way his armor is covering him.

Gemma says ' Just leave him, there's probably more inside. We don't need the extra one attacking us from behind.'

Elie sighed. "...I'm sorry, then." He put the man down. He was probably already dead. He stood up and nodded to Gemma. "We need to save the girl," he said, softly. He followed Nancy as she continued downward.

Gemma followed forward into the next room. There are three doors, and the remains of a garage on the north wall, the sound of footsteps echoing from the door on the east wall, Whatever they were going to fight they wouldn't need to go look far for it. Gemma taps Elie on the shoulder "Do me a favor and cool it with the healing magic around me."


Elie nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. Some people aren't comfortable with it. I understand." He smiled at Gemma and looked around. "Which door are we taking?"


Gemma listens to the footsteps for a second and begins to speak. " None of them.. We put down whatever comes through that door and then we get the girl and go home, She has to be alive still, The guard at the door said as much."


"So, do we have some sort of explosive to rig the door?" Nancy looks around for a moment. "Didn't think so."


Elie responded quickly. "I don't think killing is always going to be the way we need to do things, Gemma." He sounded more forceful in his tone than normal. "If you're going to go around killing people than how are we supposed to expect any different from them?"


Gemma frowns at Elie, the footsteps getting louder. "There's a time and a place for Diplomacy kid. Now is not that time. Yes! In a perfect world there would be an entirely reasonable conversation we could have and then everything would be sunshine and fucking rainbows. This is not that world, they have their own plans and the girl is non-negotiable in it. It's her life or theirs; I'm going with hers because that is who I was paid to save."


"Then I'm going to show you a new type of world Gemma," Elie said, "Watch me."

"Can we please be unproductive later? You two can be the best of friends after we take care of these louts." Nancy creates several more of the spinning disks and shoots them towards the hallway with the footsteps echoing out of it.

The footsteps are even louder now. Gemma begins pouring out water (from her hand?) on and around the doorway, as well as a bit on random patches of floor around the room, As she does it she's practically whining at Elie the way a teenage girl would complain at her parent." Oh my god, you're just as bad as Raion, New world this and peaceful that. I don't know how either of you survived long enough to hit puberty".

Elie stayed silent. He wasn't going to argue with her now. They had someone to save, and they were going to do it. He stepped back a bit and tried to regain his focus while the others waited for someone to come.

The footsteps are close enough now where you can hear at least a few different sets. There's also voices "We're being hit again, Samson isn't answering his com. They're probably just more hired, Stick to formation and don't do anything stupid". During this Gemma taps Nancy on the back, "Yo, Paper bitch. Do me a favor. Keep em occupied for a minute or two and get them to spread out around the room. I need to get into position." Without waiting for a response, she darts back into the unlit garage


"Yeah, yeah." Nancy created several more of the paper disks before reaching into her briefcase and pulling out a lighter. She flicked it on to make sure it worked before waiting with the lighter and the disks ready.


Elie stood in a comfortable position so he could cast spells easier. "Do you have anything that'd be less... deadly?" He asked Nancy. "I'm sure that just killing people isn't very productive in the long run. Think of all of the waste."

Nancy stared blankly at Elie. "No."


The Footsteps stop, practically around the corner, listening closely you can hear the same voice from before. "They already got Samson and Reynolds. Use reason First!" Shortly after that a few small objects fly into the room, one rolls somewhat close to Elie, taped to the front of the grenade is the word "Diplomacy".


"Well fuck." Nancy grumbles as she creates a paperwork shield around herself.


"Oh no." Elie ran behind Nancy's shield and uttered a few phrases under his breath. Her shield began to glow slightly with a second barrier, and the Angel braced for the explosion.


The Grenades explode, more likely than not shattering the shields but not hitting the people hiding behind. Unless you count the loud explosions as hitting. Then they most certainly got hit hard. As soon as the explosions clear 4 men and two woman, all wearing the same armor as the guys at the door run in and fan out in two person pairs, One sword and one Gun per pair.(Gemma)


Nancy would respond, but she is too busy waiting for the painful ringing in her ears to clear up. "Owww..."

Elie Covered his ears from the loud noise but it did almost no good. Elie jumped back and cast a spell on Nancy to help her concentration. Another feint barrier appeared around her. Elie still wasn't fighting, but he was certainly doing something.


The voice from before begins speaking, He's standing closest to the door they just came in holding a sword, a woman with a gun crouched next to him. "The Gems are ours, as well as the girl. I don't know how much you were told but know that you will not be taking either of them back with you. The fact that you found this place means it's not safe here, killing you is nothing personal." On that note. The troops begin to fire.



If you were paying very close attention, you would notice a very thin line of ice forming from where Gemma went into the garage, following a strange trail on the groud, branching off and hitting the multiple patches of water Gemma had laid down earlier.


Elie summoned another cloud above him and nancy as the bullets began to fire. His wounds were healing quickly, but he was taking more damage than he could mend. Elie began to shout in his pain as he summoned another shield around himself, this one more powerful than the others, unfortunately he couldn't keep it's focus on Nancy as well. He couldn't do anything right.

One of the discarded paper circles that Nancy had dropped when the grenades blew up spun through the air and caught most of the bullets. The paperwork witch stood up a moment later with an angry grimace on her face. "Loud noises aren't good for production levels in the workplace." She grabbed the other circles with her magic and threw them at the aggressors.

The paper circles force the soldiers to dodge out of the way, the pairs were now scattered about the room, Then, the patches Gemma had made lit up, not with light, but with ice. Ice jutted out from the patches, and in all the confusion, no one had time to dodge. The attackers were dead, or in shock. Spikes of ice lodged through their bodies. Gemma was standing in the doorway, breathing heavily.


Elie's barrier faded away as he began to cry from both emotional and physical pain. "No. People aren't like this," he said. He barely got to his feet as he stumbled and wheezed, trying to get to one of the attackers, any of them that looked like they might have still been breathing. Elie grabbed their shoulders and tried to mend their wounds. They couldn't have killed them all. They were the heroes. They wouldn't have killed them all.


"Well, that works." Nancy looks over at Gemma. "Impressive. Could have- Whats up with that guy?" She tilts her head as she watches Elie have a nervous breakdown. "...Should we do something about him?"


Gemma walks forward heading towards Elie, Breathing heavily. "Damn, when I said scatter em I didn't actually expect you to get them this separated, that is some good stuff." She puts a hand on Elie's shoulder, partly trying to comfort him, part supporting herself. "That all could've gone a hell of a lot worse". she stops to pant before continuing. "The girl is probably down the hallway they came from, let's get her home and get back to the hall."

"No problem." Nancy strolls down the hallway.


Elie glares at Gemma. "Let's." He said sternly through his bllodshot eyes. "And, I... I think I want to talk to Raion when we get back. The sooner the better."


Gemma stops resting on Elie and goes to shoulder him instead. His wounds were pretty bad. "Raion is a dreamer kid, not an idiot." She begins walking down the hallway with him in tow. "I know you're mad, this line of work isn't easy. But there is a point when words are not an option. she freezes a wound on Elie, it's not exactly as good as healing, like not at all actually. But the blood isn't coming out anymore. "It was them, or my team." she leans him against a wall as they approach a room

Gemma looks him straight in his bloodshot eyes."It was them or you".


"I don't think you're heartless, Gemma," Elie coughed. "But I'm not sure if you have the right idea of everyone. Everyone can be saved. Maybe they could have too." He stood up a bit on his feet as he looked into the room. "...But I understand."


Gemma begins to support Elie again, as they head into the room at the end of the hallway, Inside a cell there is a girl nervously pacing back and forth, on a table in the room is a large metal case.


Noticing the woman in the suit Leia perks up,"Oh thank goodness, I was sure this was the end."!

Leia says “When they took me, they said they would let me go if I didn't scream... or try to run. But when the mercenaries came for me and they shot them,Oh... Thank goodness! Thank you so much!'


"No problem. Let's get you out of here." Nancy grabs the case, figuring that it was important, and motions for the girl to follow her.


Elie smiled as they saw the girl they were supposed to save. "It's our job," He said, trying to ignore his wounds. "After all... We're the Heroes for Hire."


As Nancy unlocks the door Leia practically hugs her "I'm just a jewelers apprentice you know! My master was visiting a friend in Crysta, and he sent me to pick up his package from another friend in Tonoe, I've been here so long He's probably worried sick!" She takes the case from Nancy. "You're all true heros!"