Welcome to The Jungle [Freya]

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya had actually stopped running when she heard Rory singing. What…. The hell? She looked back in his direction, but couldn’t make him out through the flames. What was he thinking? That was just… Weird. She’d never heard him sing in English before. For as well as she knew him… He still managed to surprise her, like now for example. Laughing under her breath, she shook her head. Well, that was a very interesting distraction. After a moment, she returned to her main goal.

When her fireball dispersed, the pair of ghosts were nowhere in sight. What the hell? At first she did think she might have incinerated them, but those suits…. You never knew what would happen with those suits of theirs. She stayed deathly still as she waited… For proof of their death, or survival. As they stepped out from behind the helicopter…. She sighed. Great. They were alive. She was doomed.

Taking a few steps back, she prepared to hold her ground. She wasn’t going down without a fight. But what was she supposed to do? There’d only been one time when she managed to kill someone in a suit like that… Of course that person had been Rory…. But she hadn’t known that at the time. Anyway! It’d taken her full power to get through that suit… Using that sort of power here…. It just might kill her. But what choice did she have? If she held back like she always did, she was doomed! And seeing as Rory was off singing and dealing with the soldiers she had to hold them off as long as possible.

She didn’t have any time to debate this! They were charging down the hill towards her, for God’s sake! Deciding it was worth the risk, she rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the shots that had already been fired. When she got back to her feet, those trade mark green eyes of hers had turned red. Before they reached her, the ground between them cracked and split, the sound deafening, even in the town it was clear as day. The soldier’s might not know what it was… But Rory would. And if he didn’t, he would if he looked, because lava was spewing out of the crack, just like a volcano.

The lava rained down on the two Ghosts by the bucket, and if that weren’t bad enough? It was also traveling by land, rushing towards them. If they didn’t manage to get out of there somehow…. Well Freya was pretty sure those nifty suits of theirs couldn’t survive being engulfed by lava.

[/justify]

[Rory Ashe]

It was amusing to Rory how many people had a problem with killing. To put it bluntly, pacifists amused Rory, they didn't just amuse him, he was flat out fascinated with them. His entire life had been nothing but fighting since the day he was born (quite literally in fact), so to think of living a life where you refused physical violence was... Interesting. Not to say that Rory didn't like pacifists, quite the opposite. They always screamed the loudest when he killed them...

This was the main train of thought going through Rory's mind as he grabbed the head of one of the soldiers and brutally snapped it. He'd love to see a person stay a pacifist if they had spent only one day in his life... Then again... He always sought conflict out... Again he tackled another soldier in the street, rolling over him, gouging out his heart, and then rolling back onto his feet; an almost satanic grin on his face under his helmet.

Suddenly the entire ground shook and a loud cracking sound was heard. The battle paused for a moment and even the soldiers looked up the hill toward... Freya! He had forgotten, though he would never admit it. Killing all this soldiers had gotten him into somewhat of a blood frenzy, thankfully that crack snapped him out of it though. While the soldiers were distracted, Rory slipped into an alleyway between two burning buildings. Immediately going from the center of attention, to a ghost once again.

On the hill outside of town, the lava was spewing out and completely blocking the path between the Ghosts and Freya. Not only was it blocking it, but it was traveling towards them rapidly. Neither the ground shaking from the crack, or the fact that it was raining lava slowed the ghosts down. They continued moving toward Freya with unnatural grace.

The ghost with the gun dropped the pistol he was shooting and unholstered a fully automatic M16, taking aim as he was running and firing at Freya. The other ghost was jumping, rolling, and dodging every single drop of lava that came down as easily as an acrobat would jump from one platform to another. These were no common soldiers, however, with all of their training and equipment they were still human... If only just.

As the lava rained down, the man holding the gun paused for a fraction of a second to grab a clip. That pause caused a basketball sized rock to slam into his shins, sending the man tumbling across the ground. As he began to pull himself to his feet, it was too late, the lava had completely encircled him and was already burning through his suit... The screams echoed across the town.

The second Ghost wasn't so foolish though, staying completely aware of the danger of his surroundings, but never taking his eye off his target. As the man ran down the hill as fast as he could (which was saying a lot), he ran until he got to the edge of the pool of lava then lunged through the air above Freya; flying towards her with his sword extended toward her head like some sort of vicious spike. In less than a second he was going to pierce the sword through her and end it all, out of the corner of his eye though he saw a slight shadow move.

The shadow slammed into the man, tackling him mid air and sending them both spiraling out of reach of Freya. One of them landed with his back in the lava, but it was impossible to tell who as they continued rolling passed it. Almost immediately, one of the two dark figures stopped moving and slowly stood up. As the figure stood up, he revealed a sword impaled through the head of the man on the ground.

Slowly the man got closer and closer to the light of the volcano Freya had created, revealing a white skull on the helmet of his suit; Rory. As Rory took another step, he collapsed to one knee, using his fist to support himself from falling all the way down. In his bent over state, the back of his suit could be seen glowing; he had been the one who hit the lava. The lava had immediately burned through his suit and into the skin on his back, severely wounding but not killing him.

With a grunt he pushed himself back to his feet and limped back to Freya's side, his helmet slowly melting off his face as he got closer. Once at Freya's side, he glanced at the lava, then at Freya, then at the lava again, "Show off." He said with a half grin, the pain of his burn showing in his voice. "Hurry, alainn... Ge' ta the helicopter before they decide ta crash the party." Before Rory finished speaking, gunfire erupted all around them, Rory stepped in front of Freya, his suit blocking the bullets from hitting her. It looked as though he just might not make it through this alive. Just once, he'd like Freya to NOT be the cause of his death...

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya didn’t know how long she could keep it up. Usually, manipulating lava only left her exhausted, to the point she just wanted to pass out after. Right now though…. It took all of her will power to even keep it going for a few moments. What was worse? They didn’t seem fazed by her attempts to stop them.

Rolling out of the way again, she barely managed to avoid the shots, one actually managing to graze her arm (If that said just how close the shots had been.). She was so busy avoiding getting shot, that she failed to notice the rock hit one of them, resulting in his death.

Rory had perfect timing though, because the second had just about taken her head off! If she hadn’t already just near killed herself to stop them once, she’d be trying to help Rory in this mess. As it was, she could barely stand, much to her dismay. She’d just wait for Rory to come back victorious. And he would. She knew that for a fact.

And, as if on queue, there he was. Seeing him collapse though... Freya rushed to his side. Great. She’d, unintentionally, hurt him… ”Are you okay…?” That was such a stupid question! Of course he wasn’t! She smiled a little when he called her a show off though. ”What, this? I was holding back.” Not really… If she’d been at full power that statement would be true.

She was about to respond when all hell broke loose… Again. Rory instantly moved to shield her, effectively saving her life for who knew what time today. Almost a dozen, she’d say. She mentally prepared herself to use the lava once again, this time to swarm the soldiers at the bottom of the hill. Amazingly though… Gravity was already doing her job. The lava picked up speed as it sped down the hill, overwhelming the soldiers faster then most people could even move.

”I think you mean, before they crash it again. Let’s get out of here.” She latched onto his arm, leading him towards the helicopter. She might be in bad shape, but he was the one that had landed on lava. It was the least she could do…

[/justify]

[Rory Ashe]

"I be' ye were." Rory said with a slight laugh, he knew that Freya was weak, it would take an idiot not to notice. Add on top of that how well Rory knew Freya, and he knew just how much she had exerted herself moments ago. It pained him to see her this weak, this hurt, but he knew he wouldn't be able to make it out of this if she weren't fighting too. It would be a pretty bad plan if the Agency managed to capture him and outfit him with a new computer chip, turning him into another one of their personal war machines...

As the soldiers charged up the hill, Rory was about to reach for his gun when he noticed just how fast the lava was moving. In only moments, the soldiers were overtaken by the flood of molten rock. However, not a single soldier turned away to run, they all continued their firing until the lava killed them. That was a particular trait of the agency, they had no fear of death, and would not avoid death; that was especially true for the soldiers. It made them both weak, and strong, in a sense... Either way it made them really annoying, as they continued up the hill despite the volcano at the top.

Rory put his arm around Freya as she helped him up the hill, again, he didn't like her exerting herself more for him; but there was no way he could make it on his own. Finally, they got to the helicopter and Rory helped Freya inside before climbing in himself and slamming the door shut. Between the fires, the explosions, the volcano, and the gunfire he forgot how quiet it could be; as there was almost total silence when he shut the door to the helicopter.

"Ok, alainn, come here... Ye need ta know how ta pilot this thing just in case. Once I get ih in the air, ye pull this joystick back ta go up, and forward ta go down. Left is lef', righ' is righ'." Rory was talking incredibly fast, as if something bad was about to happen to him and she needed to know how to fly it. Quickly, he started the engine and began to lift off as bullets pinged off the helicopter.

"Lastly, whatever ya do, DO NO'..." Rory was about to finish when a cool, metallic, female voice sounded out from Rory's suit. "Vital signs at emergency levels, activating emergency procedures."

Rory looked down at his suit as it spoke to him, "Ah, shi-" Before he could finish, he collapsed back into his seat, his eyes glazed over. At first he appeared unconscious, but after a few moments, it was obvious he was dead. Perfect timing too as they were only about fifty feet off the ground, the volcano was still launching molten rocks into the air, and the soldiers were now firing missiles at the helicopter. Well, nothing like a live combat scenario to teach one how to fly a helicopter. It looked as though Freya was going to have to learn to fly it fast, or die... Baptism by fire as they say...

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya made a face. Of course he didn’t believe her. She didn’t believe herself! Still… He could have been at least a little nicer about it. After all, he was half the reason she’d almost died quite a few times today!

She was ignoring the soldiers by this point, knowing they’d die sooner or later, so why bother? Getting both of them out of there though. That was their main concern. Just about collapsing under even just a little more of his weight, she barely managed to catch herself. Muttering something under her breath, she forced herself to keep moving, helping Rory all the way to the chopper. If this was any other time, she would have praised him for being such a gentleman, helping her in first, but it wasn’t really the first thing on her mind right now!

”Wait, what?” Did Rory actually expect her to pilot this thing…? She stared at him like he was nuts, but, none the less, she listened. Who knows, maybe by some freak accident he died in the commotion. She’d have no choice then. At least they wouldn’t crash and burn that quickly… When he suddenly cut off though… She stared at him, concern suddenly written all over her face. Then, the strangest, and craziest thing happened. He just… Collapsed.

What the hell?!

”Rory?!” She actually panicked. For three reasons. He’d died with no warning (And she always hated it when he died), he’d been piloting at the time, and he’d been trying to warn her not to do something when he’d just keeled over… Silently, she cursed in French. This was bad. But, she couldn’t worry about all this now. With him dead for the moment, the helicopter was trying to make a nose dive, not to mention there were way to many projectiles attempting to down the chopper.

Instantly she grabbed the joystick, doing her best not to crash the thing….

How she managed not to crash, was a mystery. Somehow though, she’d succeeded, maneuvering the chopper to safety, the town vanishing on the horizon. Every so often, she would glance at Rory, silently hoping he’d come back already. Actually, he had to come back! She was slowly losing consciousness, her gaze getting darker and darker by the minute.

[/justify]

[Rory Ashe]

The Iron Maiden. that was the name given to the suit that Rory wore. It held that particular title for two reasons, one; the suit had a safety feature on it so that only Rory could wear it, otherwise it would pierce the wearer with long spikes as a defense mechanism. Two, because of Rory's unique power, his body will heal from almost any wound when his brain activity stops (I.E. he dies). That being said, his suit has a safety feature in it that constantly reads his vital signs and when they fall below a certain level his suit will... well... Kill him the same way it would an intruder; with long spikes. So, the suit truly is... The Iron Maiden.

Due to the lava that got through Rory's suit, his vitals were falling fast, so his suit did what it was programmed to do, it killed him; it just happened to do so at the worst possible time. Thankfully, impaling was one of the fastest deaths to come back from for Rory, so in only minutes his body was already healed and he was starting to wake up out of his deep sleep.

Suddenly, Rory bolted upright back from hell once more. Wildly he looked around trying to remember where he was, almost as if he had awoken from a nightmare. He was in some sort of aircraft, and they were falling fast from a very high height. Some woman was passed out in the co-pilots seat...

"Freya!" Rory half yelled as he finally got his bearings. They were quite a ways away from the village now, but had only been flying for a couple minutes. Apparently Freya had gotten them in the air and away before she passed out, but now they were falling rapidly. Why was Freya ALWAYS around during Rory's most perilous moments? He was beginning to wonder if she was some sort of bad luck for him...

Rory reached over and pushed Freya into her seat, buckling her, before grabbing the joystick and pulling back on it as hard as he could. Gritting his teeth, he threw his weight into it, using enough strength to practically rip the joystick out. Finally the helicopter leveled out, only twenty feet from the ground. Rory let out a sigh and pulled them back up to a safe altitude, putting it into autopilot he sat back in his seat with a thud.

Glancing at Freya, she'd be ok, just needed rest. As for him, his suit was still repairing itself, but otherwise ok. He couldn't help but watch Freya, she looked so peaceful, so much like an angel, so innocent, "Yeah righ'." Rory said with a laugh at his thoughts. If Freya was an innocent angel, Rory was a pink dolphin... Either way, if she was bad luck... He wouldn't want it any other way.