Diesel & Demons

[Baloth-Kul]

Hidden:

I'd ask, but at this point, I'm just going to count Randolph out of my consideration of present events.

"We must buy ourselves as much time as we can." Guo noted, as she began to leave the cave. "Can you hold the entrance, while I finish disabling the other cars? ...From the outside of the cave mouth. Easier to defend. We may not be able to kill Howard's men, but we can slow them down. Perhaps long enough to escape his sight."

Without giving it much consideration, Guo released her hold over what remained of Tobias.

[Kerr]

"Advice? Yeah, how's this, get back to the car and drive away before every Templar in the city gets here." advised Elisa's demon.

[The SheoDovah]

Elisa

"I could but with just the two of us, the numbers are sure to be our downfall and I don't think what's left of my ammo is enough to slow them down." She looked at the dead body of Eolas. "Let's face it. We've failed and whilst we could try to do what we came here for, I think the best course of action is to just escape with the cube before every templar in the city descends on us." She looked at Guo. "I was a thief in a previous life and it is best for it to be lost then recovered by Howe. I could hide it somewhere and erase my own memory of the hiding place. It's not much but if it's hidden, neither Howe or the Templars can use it for their own ends." She suggested as she filled the chamber of her revolver with the required amount of rounds. Not much but better then dying. Hiding it would be the best option we have, right? I mean, somewhere very secure and then erasing the memory of said location.

[Baloth-Kul]

Guo picked up the ammo clip she had thrown to the ground, and turned the generator back on. "Will you be driving?" She waited for Elisa to exit the cave.

[The SheoDovah]

Elisa

Elisa followed Guo with the cube in her possession. "I will. So we're in agreement that hiding it is the best option? Just to make sure we've both agreed to this." She asked her only companion. "Oh and i think it's best if we get out the city asap." She would get into the car and prepare to drive them to safety.

[Baloth-Kul]

As Elisa passed Guo by, the duplicitous woman leveled her pistol, and attempted to pump rounds into Elisa's upper back, aiming for her heart.

[Kerr]

Guo shot Elisa twice in the back of the torso. Elisa fell forward to her knees, severely wounded. She was still clutching her revolver in one hand and cube in the other.

[The SheoDovah]

Elisa

Elisa was taken by surprise and would try to take Guo down with her. She would go onto her back and unload everything at Guo as long as she had her in her sights whilst trying to incinerate it with her hand she had the cube in.

Hidden:

Not much i can do.

[Baloth-Kul]

Guo simply continued firing into Elisa's torso, squeezing off as many rounds into her rival as she could. Her expression was one of cold determination, as she gripped the pistol with both hands, set on ending Elisa's life.

[Kerr]

Guo emptied her clip into Elisa, shooting her 7 more times in the chest. 2 while she was on her knees and 5 while she was lying on the ground. Elisa hadn't even gotten a chance to look back at Elisa let alone fight her before being killed. Of course considering Elisa had already been shot a couple of times, bullets had damaged her internal organs, not murdering her would have been cruel. Well, by Elisa's earlier justification at least.

The amount of noise left Guo's ears buzzing as she went over to the deceased Elisa and recovered the precious cube from her warm, blood soaked but never the less dead hands. "I'm glad I got paired with you rather than one of the other ones." said Tānxīn, his voice carrying an upbeat tone.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Randolph had been outside the cave, just to the right of the entrance, waiting for it to be cleared out. He'd heard the initial gunshots and grenade blast, but had assumed that the other mages had been fighting guards and had wanted to stay in safety. Then he heard voices approaching the entrance of the cave - female voices, or so it sounded. Something about didn't seem right; if everything was going according to plan, no one should have been coming back this way. Randolph was overcome with an urge to get out of sight, so he scrambled over behind the car next to the generator.

He could hear it when the two women exited the cave, recognized their voices as those of Elisa and Guo, and prepared to stand up... and then his ears came suddenly under assault by the cacophony of gunfire erupting from mere metres away. And then it was over, leaving Randolph's ears ringing.

Fear coursed through his veins, screaming at him to stay hidden. But from somewhere deep within came an unexpected injection of steel; the rational part of him knew that if the shooter was on his side, he had nothing to fear, and if the shooter was hostile, they had a high chance of finding him regardless of whether he kept under cover or not. And if the latter case was true, then this was his only chance to get the upper hand, or at least even footing.

So Randolph drew his revolver, and took down the safety. His finger on the trigger, he stood up from behind the car and pointed his gun at the shooter, surprised to see that it was Guo.

"Why did you kill her?" he shouted at her, in a tone more confident than he felt.

[Baloth-Kul]

Guo let her pistol slip free of her grasp, and clatter onto the ground. She raised her right hand in the air--her left, however, held the cube to her side.

Lies and truths hastily intermingled in her mouth, until an explanation slid off her tongue.

"I--I don't know! Eolas had possessed the governor, and Tobias attacked him with the grenade...Killed himself. Elisa executed Eolas, took the cube, then led me out at gunpoint. When she passed me by, I...I had to..." She looked towards the cave mouth, and slowly began walking towards Randolph.

"We need to leave, now! We can't let Howard's men catch us, or tell him, or...can you collapse the entrance?" Guo's face was twisted with distress, but she did not weep. Her words would speak for her, not crocodilian tears.

[Dirty Spaceman]

"Hold on, hold on," Randolph stammered. That was a lot of information to take in, and although he was inclined to believe her, he had no way to know what had happened for sure. Her hurried words gave him the urge to move quickly, but he took a deep breath. He needed just a few more moments to figure things out.

"What - what do you want with that thing?" Randolph nodded at the cube in Guo's hands. "You're not going to try to open that portal, but you also don't want Howard to have it? So what, then?"

[Baloth-Kul]

Guo gestured worriedly towards the cave entrance, and took cover behind a car. "I don't care what we do with it, I just don't want to die! Should we...check if any of Howard's thugs are alive, or should we just collapse the cave entrance?"

[Dirty Spaceman]

"Well, if you want to get out of here as fast as you say, I don't think I'll have time to collapse the entrance safely," Randolph said, casting a gaze at the rock surrounding the cave's mouth. He hadn't put his revolver away yet. "That'll take a couple minutes to get right. I'm ready to just go, if you really think that cutting and running is our best option."

Strangely, he felt a twinge of regret that the cube wasn't to be used to fulfill its purpose, but it was accompanied by a sense of relief that he didn't have to make the decision he'd been fearing. If the plan had fallen apart without his interference, then clearly it wasn't meant to be, at least not today. However, he didn't want to cut off the possibility of the cube ever being used in the future... which might have explained why he didn't want to collapse the entrance.

[Baloth-Kul]

Diesel: "...We need to go back inside." Guo uttered, a twinge of fear in her voice. "Elisa had the car keys. We can also check if Howard's men are still alive. Eolas had used magic to burn several of them, but I don't know how many."

She eyed her pistol on the ground, but was uncertain about leaving her spot behind the car. "Shall we go together?"

[Dirty Spaceman]

"If anyone in there is still alive, I can't think of what they'd know that'd help them find us if we leave now," Randolph responded, his voice similarly urgent. He imagined he could feel Howard's backup getting closer with each passing second. "If we go in to check, we'll only be losing time. Just get the keys from Elisa, and we can go." Randolph had no intention of being the one to retrieve the keys from Elisa's bloody corpse.

[Baloth-Kul]

Hesitantly, Guo paced back towards the cave entrance. She picked up her gun, and reloaded it, before slowly heading back inside. She still had the cube on her person.

Approaching Elisa's corpse, she kept her eyes and ears open for any signs of danger. She couldn't afford to be surprised--not now.

[Kerr]

Guo reloaded her firearm and entered the cave with Randolph staying by the entrance. Randolph from where he was could see some unfortunate victims of the recent violence but there didn't seem to be any of Howard's guards around. They were likely defending the heart of the temple and waiting for reinforcements to arrive, reinforcements which both Guo and Randolph feared were getting closer by the second. Guo recovered the keys without incident.

"I think there's a reason only Guo survived this battle. The same reason she's so eager to leave with the artifact." said Randolph's Harmonist demon. "You must show caution least you end like everyone else she's traveled with."

[Baloth-Kul]

As Guo recovered the car keys, she placed her stiletto switchblade into Elisa's palm. Standing over the corpse of her fallen comrade, she called on her powers once more. Get up. Guo commanded Elisa to rise.

Nothing happened. Guo scowled. Then I'll have to come up with something else. She recovered her switchblade, and left the cave.

Guo nervously looked back towards the cave mouth, as she approached Randolph. "I...suppose I'll drive, then. But we need to leave. The city isn't going to be safe for us, very soon." She entered the driver's seat and started the car, waiting for Randolph to get in.

[Dirty Spaceman]

You may be right, Randolph thought to his demon. There's no way to know for sure yet... but then, there might not be until it's too late. A chill went down his spine. Well, the only way to get out of here quickly is the car, so I'll have to risk it. Plus, she still has the cube.

Randolph went to the car and got in the back, sitting down in the spot directly behind the driver's seat. He still had his gun in his hand.

"Which way are you going to go?" Randolph asked Guo as the car's engine rumbled. "Do you want to take the bridge off the island, or should we try and escape into the city somewhere?"

[Kerr]

The pair got into the car and Guo started it up. Templar reinforcements still hadn't arrived.

"We'd be best off getting out of the city by car than boat or air. Maybe go to a different country's colony. Somewhere we can sell the car and book passage to Emerald City." said Tānxīn. "But we need to get rid of Randolph first, say we'll escape into the city. Find somewhere to let him out, have us go our separate ways. We may not even have to kill him."

[Baloth-Kul]

Guo adjusted the rear view mirror to better suit her, and eyed Randolph curiously as she did so. I don't like him sitting there.

She exhaled as she began to drive. "We need...provisions. We need to go back to the city to get food and gasoline, and we then we can make for another colony. Do you think...does that make sense? Am I doing the right thing?" She glanced at the temple as it faded out of sight. "The governor has been killed. The others have attacked us, fled, or perhaps been recaptured. This is all so uncertain...I don't want any of this."

[Dirty Spaceman]

"I know what you mean," said Randolph. "I feel the same way. But," he went on nervously, "I'm worried that... if we go into the city, they'll have time to set people up to look for us, and they'll be watching all our ways out. I just think we need to get off the island first. Food for tomorrow won't matter if we're caught and killed today... but then, I don't know. Maybe we will have time. Is it worth taking the chance, though?"

[Kerr]

Guo gained distance on the temple. Before long she came up to an intersection where she could either turn to take a bridge off the island or continue deeper into the city.