Humanity at Stake (Completed)

Chapter 23

"When it rains, it pours
There will be blood in the water
Cold to the core
Faith falls hard on our shoulders" -"Live Like Legends" by Ruelle

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"Has anyone heard anything about Ridge before?" Tony asked as the five of them made their way down the hall ways to the conference rooms. A chorus of negative grunts and noises rose from her comrades, their boots making hollow noises on the floor. "So we are going into this meeting blind?" Another course of agreeing noises came from her partners, causing her to narrow her eyes.

"What is up with you guys?" she growled at them, causing Pax to look up at her.

"This is our second comrade we have replaced. You weren't here for the first one. Excuse us if we act a bit down today," the jokester bit out, chasing his team members to glance at him in surprise. His eyes darted around, taking in the shocked looks. He sighed heavily before rubbing a tattooed arm roughly through his short hair.

"Sorry, guys. I've just had a bad day so far," he excused, spinning his quarterstaff, narrowly missing the back of Leon's head. The conference rooms came into view, with Colonel Marie standing outside. As she noticed us, her hands folded behind her back.

"Hello," she greeted them, with a teasing switch of her mouth. "Try not to lose this one." Everyone's back stiffened, even Tony's. What nerve she has! Nova growled internally, trying her best, but failing, to not glare at her superior. The Colonel reached behind her, twisting the door's knob and revealing the room behind it.

At the table sat a man. In front of him, a large sword sat. It was a single edge blade with a slight curve to it. He glanced up from the polishing rag he had as we filed in, a large smile breaking out onto his face.

"Eztring!" he exclaimed happily, causing Nova to give him an odd look at the male before looking to her comrades. All of them had an equally shocked look except for Antoinette who's eyes widened.

"You're from Vrecwind?" she asked in excitement. He nodded, pushing back his chair to stand up. He left his sword behind as he approached the group. He had shaggy black hair and equally dark eyes that sparkles with inner jovial. His skin was a rich bronze clad in the standard Resistance uniform.

"I'm surprised you picked that up right away. You are well travelled?" he responded, reaching out to shake her hand.

"You could say that," Tony flashed him a smile. He grinned back before moving on to the next person.

"My name's Pax," introduced the next person. Despite his snappy attitude earlier, he gave Ridge a small small.

"I'm Nova," Nova introduced, sticking her hand out for him to shake. He grabbed it with a strong grip, shaking it firmly.

"It's good to meet you," he replied, before moving on to the next person.

"I'm Christopher," came the next introduction. Ridge stuck his hand out to shake, but was only meant by steely silence as Christopher raising an eyebrow. The permanent smile wilted on Ridge's face before he turned to Leon.

"I guess I'm the last of this squad. My name is Leon," he answered, finishing up the introductions. Nova glanced over to Tony, before going to step forward to talk to Ridge.

"Since I seem to be the ap-" Nova was cut off at the sudden crashing noise outside the door. The newly completed squadron shared an odd look between each other. Ridge slowly moved back to grab his sword. They all listened into the silence, waiting for apologies to spew from whoever broke something.

Nothing like that came.

Instead loud metal clanging and the occasional hoarse scream echoed into the room. The group went sprinting into hallway, finding soldiers of the resistance fighting against vampires in black armor. Taking note of the amount of buttons, she noticed that all of them only held two. Only overseers... Nova quickly jumped into action, drawing her sword to stab through the back of one vampire fighting a struggling boy before whipping it out and slicing off the head of another behind her. Where did they get the nerve to attack here? She thought to herself as the rest of her squadron joined the fight in eliminating the vampires.

"ONE!" cried Pax, causing Nova to look back at him. In front of him laid the dead body of a vampire.

"Oh, it's on!" responded Leon cheekily as he pulled some knives from his pockets.

The team set to work, helping others fight vampires and taking on the fiends themselves.

"Three!" Leon called victoriously from Nova's right as she crossed blades with a vampire. It's lip raised in an ugly smirk as he pushed against her sword. She went to grab the hilt with her other hand, only to remember it was useless in its broken state. She gritted her teeth, breaking the cross suddenly and spinning out of the way of the swinging weapon.

"Ha-ha! Five!" sneered Pax as a whirling sound filled the area behind her. She swung her sword out, catching the vampire in the back of the neck, she felt resistance at the spinal cord, but pushed through as she grunted with effort. She pulled the sword out, moving onto her next target as the dead body dropped to the floor, its head teetering by threads.

"Eight!"

"Nine!"

"What the hell, Leon! How?"

"Guys, now is not the time to be having a competition!" Christopher bit out, as he spun his bow-staff, effectively slicing open the stomachs of two overseers.

"Ten!" Pax hollered in triumph. Nova glanced over at him in time to see a swirling blue orb evaporate out of existence.

"Nova, look out!" cried out Leon, slinging a knife towards her face. Before she had time to respond, the knife when slicing by her cheek before hitting something behind her. She turned to see a vampire fall to the ground with a blade sticking from its forehead.

"ELEVEN!" announced Leon, causing Pax to swear. Nova reached for the dagger, dislodging it from the corpse before tossing it back to its owner. A string of curses rose from Pax at the news as he started to use his staff to whack vampires in the head.

Then suddenly, almost like an internal clock went off within them, all the vampires fled, leaping out broken windows and smashed doors in their escape. Soon the halls emptied, leaving soldiers growling in protest and confusion. Far away from Nova's position, she heard a door slam open.

"The prisoner is missing! He escaped with the rest of the vampires!" came the sudden urgent cry from somewhere in the building.

Then there was silence. Soldiers looked around to one another in quiet confusion. They were left to stand in the broken chaos of their reality.