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Anger, frustration and panic swept through her and she let out a yell, calling for help to whoever was in earshot.
The five foot nine, two hundred pound athletic lump of a person that is Kas was sleeping lazily under a window in the BlueVolution stronghold. He was curled in a slightly fetal position and littered around him were several bottles once containing some strong, tasty lagers. Cobalt bangs had toppled over his headband and hung in a saggy mess before his closed eyelids. The slight smile indicated he was having a good dream and he looked comfortable despite sleeping on the floor.

The ringing noise was loud enough to pass beyond the obstructive pair of skull candy headphones that he was wearing. His gummy eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the light. The first thing his jade eyes noticed from behind blue shades was that the stronghold was losing power and even a simple fun loving brute like Kas could deduce that the power malfunction probably had something do with the headache inducing jangle of the alarms.

Pulled himself up and brushed the hair away from his eyes. He impulsively looked over to his left biceps and began to fiddle with the iPod secured tightly to his arm. Just as he had set it to play his next song "Clockwork" by Autopilot Off, he'd heard the voice of his friend Blue shouting something. He headed up towards her voice, stumbling slightly along the way.

He found her in the control room, angry and frustrated. He pulled his headphones off his ears and wore them around his neck for the time being. He swallowed trying to elevate the dry knot in his throat. "Whaz the matter?" He said in a thickly just woke up kind of voice. He hadn't meant for it to all come out in one word it just sort of happened that way.
 "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FIND THE DAMNED SURVEILLANCE TAPES!" a flustered Blue screamed at a security guard. The young guard tried to explain but his words were slurred and he was sweating
"m-miss i-i they-"
Blue picked up a walkie-talkie and hit him across the side of the head, sending him flying out of his chair. Some of the newer guards gasped at this, still virgin to the small girls furry.
"Does anyone else want to explain why the surveillance tapes for the Chamber went missing!" she yelled out across the control room.
The rest of the men mumbled "noes"
"Good! Now get back to the emergency power and someone turn that infuriating alarm off NOW!"

The doors behind her slid open and a familiar voice spoke, "whaz the matter?"
Blue directed her deep Azure glare to the buff and rugged man standing behind her. "Hullo Kas" she spat, "drinking again?" She continued without waiting for a response, already knowing the answer, "As You know we keep a pretty little stone up at the top of the tower. This stone provides us with power while keeping the chaos of the outside world...well..out." She watched Kas try and take in everything she was saying with a slight smile, (she could only imagine the headache he had with the alarm still going off) "Well, this little stone has gone missing. AND NO ONE KNOWS WHY!" She directed the last part out across the control room.
Upon hearing the screams of fury from the next room, the small, green-haired Rika Shay returned to the control room where she had left her best friend Blue to confront the guards as to the missing security tapes.

She had been walking along one of the lower corridors when the lights suddenly failed and she found herself surrounded by a scarily sudden absolute darkness. She had then proceeded through the maze of hallways to the upper part of the tower, following her friend's voice to the Blue Cristilian Chamber. Even with the dark she knew exactly where she was going. She could have walked there in her sleep; she knew the tower so well. Probably better than anyone else, save Blue herself.

When she reached the Chamber, Blue stormed out past her towards the control room. Apparently the backup generators had been initiated, as a faint blue glow had spread out along the edges where the walls met the ceilings and floors.

Thank the gods for the generators... Rika thought, walking quickly to keep up with Blue, who was nearly running.

The control room was in total chaos; as soon as the guards and other workers realized who had entered the room, they all stopped what they were doing and just stared. Rika took the opportunity to slip back out of the room and into the next door down, as Blue, miraculously, began CALMLY speaking to one of the guards.

Rika wanted to check in with Fraz, one of the many technicians responsible for keeping the tower running safely and efficiently.

"I can't believe this is happening!" Fraz said. "The generators won't be able to handle this! We weren't really expecting to have to use them and the reserves are already low. What little energy we have won't last long."

"Shut off the lights in the parts of the tower that aren't used frequently," Rika commanded. "That should save SOME energy at least."
...

Kas broke the silence at last by clearing his throat. They seemed to be headed towards the male dormitories where he'd be able to clean and change. "You know ..." He paused as a big smirk formed on his lips, "Its been awhile since I've been pulled off to my bedroom like this Rika. I didn't know you felt this way about me." His voice was still kind of heavy and it wasn't easy to tell if he was trying to sound sleazy or was still working the morning gunk out of his vocal passage.

He could practically feel the glare that Ms. Shay was getting ready to hurl at him, but he cut her off before she could respond. "I know I'm overdue for a shower and shave. No arguments there. You mentioned something about work though, what exactly did you have in mind?"  

"Yes, work," Rika replied, glad that Kas had changed the subject and that she didn't have to say anything about his previous comment.

"The Blue Cristalian is missing, Kas, and it needs to be found. Someone got in here and took it, I'm guessing, and we need to find out how and why that happened. Plus, the Tower's now in complete chaos," Rika added as the backup lights in the hall flickered. The generators were quickly losing their already low amounts of energy. She wondered how the rest of the tower was faring.

There was a low, resounding hum as the generators throughout the Tower failed and it was plunged once again into darkness.  

As soon as Blue was off the phone with Aze the generators cut off and she found herself in total darkness. She felt her way through her suite to the large floor to celling window in the main room and pushed a button to draw back the curtains, flooding the room in pale star light. They would have to leave the tower and find the missing stone before the horrors of the ruined world leaked into the tower and destroyed her small empire.
"What if other towers were effected" she asked outloud. What if other Cristalians were stolen?

The lights were off, again. MMPR took Aoi the cat in his arms and began to walk toward a window of the Tower.
"Complete Darkness." He said as he put Aoi down. "I'm guessing you should hide and look for your own food for a while, I'm going to see what I can find." As MMPR said this the cat seemed to nod and walk away into the crawl space in the wall.

MMPR waited for a second and then when the guards left the scene he walked into the Cristalian chamber. He took out a large stick and then turned a nod at the top of this, causing it to ignite a black light. MMPR threw the stick in the ground and then took out a spray can and released its contents all over the room.

After a few minutes of searching the room he found many footsteps, however they were now mixed with the steps of lue, Rika, Kas and the guards, which made it difficult to distinguish them apart except for a single one that was next to the base of the blue cristalian. It seemed to have been made by a large boot, with a strange symbol in the center of it. MMPR put a piece of paper on the floor and the symbol was somehow copied into it.

"I don't recognize this symbol, but someone in the University might be able to help." Thought MMPR as he carefully left the room and made his way to the lower levels of the tower. To the Blue University.  

Professor Taurean studied the ancient books of symbols. Their pages could only be read by candlelight, so he had several blazing in a stand on his desk. The falcon had been muttering and shifting on its perch.

"Bird, be quiet...you've eaten enough for today."

It squawked faintly. Taurean looked around carefully, suspicious of an enemy, but there was nothing. Everything was quiet, with the only noise a breeze outside and the bird's complaining.

Suddenly he realized - it was too quiet. There should have been a faint hum of Crystal power. What could have happened?

I think I know. He slammed the books shut and picked up his coat and his walking stick. Whistling to the falcon, he held up a gloved hand. The war bird flew straight to his glove with a crow of satisfaction. It knew it was time to fight.
And so do I.  

The big guy slowed down a bit as the lights when out. He was after all a bit hung over and now the whole place was quite dark. He continued to follow Rika as he pondered what she'd said.

"Shiny blue stone missing equals bad news." Kas had pointlessly affirmed. "If the shiny blue stone was stolen its gonna take a lot of work to get it back. I think that much work deserves a Scooby Snack don't you?" A smirk formed on the kilted mans lips, very few people were as entertained by there own jokes as much as he was.

When they had finally reached Kas' room. He carefully removed his iPod and headphones. He handed them to Rika. "Take care of them for me." He said with a grin, then he opened the door and disappeared into his room.  

Blue cursed the darkness as she stumbled through her room in search of her phone. Finally she found it, an aqua blue cell with its teal display screen staring up at her like an eye in the darkness.

When they reached his door, Rika took the iPod and headphones Kas handed to her and watched him disappear into the darkness, yelling after him, "Come and find me when you're done! I don't want to be hanging onto these things forever!"

She then turned and headed back the way she had come. She was contemplating what exactly to do next when her cell phone began to ring. She pulled the small green phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. A voice on the other end immediately began talking loudly, even before she had the phone to her ear.

"Ms. Shay?" the voice asked. "This is Joe, the Chief of Guards. I've been instructed to put together a team of five to assist Blue in retrieving the Blue Cristalian. Or, that's what I'm guessing you'll be doing. All Blue told me was that a team of you were going to be going on a stealth mission outside the tower." He continued to talk, but Rika stopped listening; she had had quite enough of rambling males by that point.

"I'm on my way to see her, actually," Rika said, cutting him off. "Thanks, Joe." The flipped the phone closed with a snap, even though Joe continued to talk on the other end.

Rika was suddenly very tired. She was sick of running around in the dark and she was NOT in the mood to have to listen to pointless chatter, so when she happened to meet up with Fraz, she was rather annoyed.

"Hey, Rika," he said, jogging to catch up with her as she stalked down the hall away from him. "I've been looking for you!"

"Really?" Rika asked, raising her eyebrows and slowing only slightly.

"Yeah, hey, stop for a second. What's wrong?" Fraz asked, tugging her arm to stop her and then turning to face her.

"Nothing, I'm just...tired," Rika replied.

"Okay," Fraz said. "Well shed some light on this situation, I have something to show you." Rika held her hands out in front of her and concentrated. A pale green ball of light appeared, hovering just above her hands and lighting up a sheet of paper with lots of writing.

"What's this?" Rika asked, taking it in one of her hands and holding her other hand, and the light, up to it. Her bright green eyes scanned the message written on the page, growing wider and wider with every line.

"Oh...my...gods..." she said, turning to Fraz. "WHERE did you get this!?"

"Found it," Fraz replied, beaming proudly.

"Alright, thanks, Fraz," Rika replied, absently turning away. "I gotta go see Blue. Later!" She ran off down the passage, leaving Fraz in the dark.  

MMPR was about to head to speak to the rather peculiar and famous professor Taurean to ask him of the symbol he found in the cristalian chamber when his Tracker phone rang. The rather old model phone slided from left to right and ended with half of it on top.

"Who is this?" MMPR asked.
"Ahm, my name is Joe I'm..." before the young guard could answer MMPR interrupted "Tell me why you called before I hang up."
"Ahm, yes ok, Miss Blue needs a team for..." before the young guard could finish, MMPR interrupted once more "When and where? I need to talk to Professor Taurean so I need to do another stop."
"Well at 11 pm in the board room and well professor Taurean..." Before he could finish MMPR hanged up.

MMPR slid his phone into his jacket, and began to walk toward the board room. "I guess i'll see the professor there, I wonder if the rumors about him are true." He thought to himself.

The still frustrated leader of the Blue Guild stormed her way from the basement of the tower. After a heated argument with the stubborn mechanics, she finally made it clear that if he didn't get the elevators and lights working he would find himself outside naked in the snow with the mutant wolves for company.
She ran into Aze on the way to the board room. He always managed to appear out of no where with that stupid device he used for teleporting. The thieves had been identified by Aze (she was annoyed at his ability to teleport into the Chamber and would have to increase the security to prevent it, seeing how the thieves used it to get in as well) and MMPR had found a mysterious symbol which hopefully the Proff. would be able to identify.

"This shard," she indicated the one hanging around her neck, "will hopefully lead us to the rest of the stone. Unfortunately, It only glows if we are close enough...so we wouldn't be able to track down the thieves unless we have a general idea of where they were headed." The glass door to the board room slid open and Az and Blue walked inside.

Rika stopped by her dormitory on the way to find Blue. She needed to grab a sweater. Now that the power was out, the heat was off, and with the heat off, the Tower was slowly but surely cooling down. On her way back out, she pulled open the blinds of the large window in her living room and looked out over the wide expanse of the world before her. It was dotted with the lights of other towers, some near, and some far.

From what your young guard told me you had him summoned here, so I am waiting for him to arrive." said MMPR

he rolled up the paper and handed it back to him. "Then we just have to wait for everyone else to get here...and pray that the power doesn't go out again" said blue
______________________________________

Professor Taurean squinted. The light was different, somehow, and his vision was poor. The falcon screeched and flew a short distance away.

Oh, you're going to lead me? Carry on.
______________________________________
Blue stared down the quiet room. Mmpr and Aze were silently looking around at the marble and tile. A blue crystal clock ticked the minutes away above the glass doors. Occasionally a guild member would walk by, but no one was headed for the room.

"God dammit!" Blue growled, slamming her fist onto the table, causing her two friends to jump, "why is this so hard." She flipped open her cell and called her head of security again, "Joe...no...i don't CARE! WHERE ARE THOSE PEOPLE I ASKED YOU TO CALL!?.....WELL CALL THEM AGAIN!" she snapped the phone closed and turned around to see Aze and MMPR still sitting in silence, "what."


"I was wondering how long it would take for you to snap" said Aze "MMPR and I had a bet going. I thought you would break sooner. Haha the look on your face!"

MMPR chuckled slightly and then turned to the blue leader,
"Im guessing these kids are waiting to do some dramatic entrance, and the good professor must be lost; it happens with age."
MMPR turned to Aze and said "Come on pay up so we can start a new bet."

Aze and MMPR looked up as a screeching falcon flew in through the door. A minute later Professor Taurean hobbled in.

Blue growled at Aze and MMPR who were grinning and exchanging a few silver coins. She shook her head and chuckled slightly, "I am leader of a bunch of children aren't I"
A moment later a falcon swooped into the room and the Professor stepped in, "Ah yes...the leaders of the BlueVolution. Fill me in: what's to be done to get our power source back?"

"Hello Professor" Blue smiled. She held a lot of respect for the veteran, mainly due to the fact that he was the eldest member of her council and had taught her when she was child. "I was planning on a scout mission. This-" she indicated the small blue shard tied around her neck, "-should hopefully lead us to the rest of our stone. Unfortunately it will only glow if it is close enough to the Cristalian
.... so basically we need to find out which direction out thieves went without alarming the other towers. I figured a small undercover mission would be appropriate." Her eyes scanned the room, “Although we still seem to be mission our mage and that lazy oaf Kas”

Rika burst into the room, panting heavily as if she'd just run a long distance. She leaned over the table and tried to catch her breath.

"I...heard...that, Aze," she said between breaths. "If...I wasn't so...tired...I'd probably hit you...!" She took a seat at the table.

"I actually have found something," she said. "Well, I didn't, Fraz did, but still. Is there any water around here? And where's Kas? I still have his stuff."  

Blue grinned at the entrance of her friend. So far everyone gathered in the room were people who were near and dear to her. In a way, the infamous Kas was as well, although she would never admit that to anyone.
"Glad you could make it, Rika. So far we have a strange symbol from MMPR, an eye witness report from Aze and you said you have something?" She took her seat at the head of the long table, her back to the large window.

"Yeah," Rika replied. "Just let me catch my breath first. And maybe we should wait for Kas..."

She glanced behind her and out into the still dark hallway.

"Damn," she breathed. "Hey, does anyone have one of those magic holder things? This place is much too dark for my liking." She lit green magic energy in her hand and held it up over the table.  

“least the elevators are working," commented Blue "Kas has no excuse for being late. I vote we start without him." She slid over a black disk similar to an ash tray, "light goes in there" she instructed her green haired friend.

"In an ash tray?" Riks remarked. "That's almost disrespectful." She pulled the ash stray over and placed the green ball of light gently inside, then pushed the tray back into the middle of the table. "Alright, so we're starting without him?"

The professor frowned. "Let me see the strange symbol."

MMPR slid the cloth toward the professor by using one of the coins that Aze paid him with. "I redrew the symbol from the foot print of a boot in the Cristalian chamber."
After giving the cloth to the professor, MMPR pulled up one of the empty chairs next to him and he put both feet on it. "Aze, did the people that you saw in the chamber had boots on?"

"more delays!" groaned the blue haired leader, "alright...." she flipped open her cell phone, "Hello again joe....i..no.....alright alright! buzz the technicians and tell them Franz better get up here pronto or his greasy a** is fired. I don't care if i can do it myself! i'm sick of dealing with...JSUT DO IT!" the cell was snapped shut, "joe is a pleasant man" she said sarcastically.

Aze laughed out loud the blue guild may seem dysfunctional but Aze knew that there was a powerful fighting force in each and every one of these warriors.


"More and more delays" said Aze " Miss Shay can you please tell us WHAT that intriguing piece of paper has on it in a more timely fashion. I mean the world is soon going to realize the Cristal is gone and its going to be hell out there. Absolute H E double hockey sticks LL."

as watched his Black iPod slide across the table and a look of relief washed over his once perturbed face. The source of his worry had been the missing mp3 player all along. He had been late because he couldn't find his beloved device and the distant worrisome gaze had been from fear that it had gone missing. Just like him to forget he'd entrusted it to Rika while he had gone off to shower and change.

He strapped the iPod back on to his arm with a slight smile and placed the headphones around his neck. He mouthed a thank you to Rika and began to focus on the meeting. He bushed the hair away from his eyes and he pursed his lips in thought. The fighter had no intel to share regarding the break in. He had been chemically altered at the time of the attack and come to think of it he really had very little responsibilities in the guild. He was frankly kinda useless till something like this did happen. He'd been waiting for a chance to use his destructive powers on something besides his surroundings and Blue's state of calm.  

Blue saw Kas's face light up when he was reunited with his iPod. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, letting out a deep sigh instead. A moment later Franz walked in, out of breath and looking slightly confused.

"Indigo?" thought MMPR as he watched the, as he was called, greasy Fraz come in. He rested his back on the chair and began to bend it backwards. "Who do I know in Indigo? Michelle..." though MMPR as his face took a rather sad look.  

he professor finally looked up from his study and said, "This symbol is the sign of one of the deadliest cults out there. They use forbidden magic to suck souls out of people and use them for energy to power their machines." He looked around. "All right, all right, I know you kids may be blasè about that kind of thing, but back in my day it was horrific. Just horrific."

He slid the paper back to MMPR. "So they took our Cristalian. I'd like to say they're moving to crystal energy instead, but people don't change. More than likely they're going to use it to power a giant death machine and destroy entire cities...perhaps larger than that, maybe worlds...and so acquire a lot of souls at one time.
"They need killing."  

it took a moment for what the professor said to sink in .Blue blinked a few times as if to clear her head, then in a dull monotone spoke, "Oh just great." She turned her back on the group and walked towards the window, "okay....okay okay okay!" on the last word she turned around, arms outspread as if to catch something, "We need a plan."
Five pairs of eyes gazed back at her. She didn't know what she was doing, still new to running the guild. After the death of the previous leader, Blue was forced to take over at a young age, the majority of the guild being older then her. Her dark Blue eyes looked back, these people had been her friends, mentors and teachers and she was expected to lead them when she could barely summon up the initiative to get out of bed each morning.
"anyone...?" she asked, a little desperate.

Fraz!" Rika cried. "Glad you're here. Okay, now tell me...where did you find this?" She held up the paper that he had given her earlier. He stared at it blankly for a second.

"Oh," he said. "I found it just outside the control room right after you ran off to talk to Blue when she was yelling. Then I went to find you."

"Alright, thanks, Fraz," Rika replied. "How're the generators holding up?"

"They're...not?" Fraz said. "As you can see... Or not..." He indicated that it was still dark and cold within the Tower.

Rika sighed. "Thanks again, Fraz. You can go now." The technician turned and left.

"Okay guys," Rika said. "I think it's about time I let you know what exactly it is that I've got here..." She placed the paper carefully on the desk in front of her and smoothed it out.

"I'm pretty sure this is a letter from someone responsible for the taking of the Cristalian to whoever actually took it," she said. "Let me read some of it to you..."

((were half way there))

Once outside he was surprised to see Aoi the cat next to the door "Aoi, Im guessing your to lazy to get your own food huh? Fine come on, where going on a little trip." Said MMPR as Aoi got on his shoulder.

MMPR began to walk toward his house in the third level of the Tower.
_______________________________________________

Blue stood up and left. She was clearly quite upset. Rika sat in her chair and watched her friend go. She was pretty confused about everything, and she was sure Blue was too. Soon MMPR and Aze left too, claiming that they would not be left behind to seek out the traitor in the Tower. It was only Rika, Kas and the Professor left now.

"Guys, I..." Rika stopped, not really knowing what to say or how to say it. She sighed. The light energy she had placed in an ashtray in the middle of the table was beginning to fade. She was tired, worried and confused, and her magic tended to show it.
She mumbled something and slowly stood up, the green light energy suddenly fading away to nothing, leaving them in semidarkness. Some light, though little, flooded in through the large window opposite the doors.

"Sorry guys, I'm really tired..." She moved towards the door. "I think I'm gonna go talk to Blue. Which one of us will be staying behind? I think we should decide now. She'll appreciate it if we can work some stuff out on our own."  

I'll stay behind, and hold the fort."  said the professor

"Thanks, Professor," Rika said, giving him a weary smile. "I'll go tell Blue."

She turned and walked out of the conference room and down the hall until she came to the elevator doors. When the elevator arrived, she stepped inside and the doors closed behind her, enveloping her in that suffocating blackness that had become only too familiar in the past twenty-four hours.

"I'm sick of this friggin' darkness all the time," Rika grumbled, lighting a small amount of green energy in her hand. She was still too tired for it to have much effect, but it was comforting nonetheless.

Of course, the Tower wasn't the brightest, most welcoming of places, at the best of times, but it seemed even more sinister in the dark. Rika wondered if whoever had stolen the Cristalian was still lurking somewhere within these very walls...

The elevator jolted to a stop and, for a heart-wrenching second, Rika thought that they had lost power. But then the doors creaked open and she stepped out into the semi-lit hallway where Blue's dorm was. She walked up to Blue's door and knocked, hoping that her friend hadn't fallen asleep yet, but also hoping that she was feeling less stressed and angry...  

Blue stared out her large window at the distant lights. From her higher position in the tower she could just make out the purple glow that was Indigo. She sighed and dangled the small aqua shard in front of her face. It glittered with the starlight coming through the window and reflecting off the snow. There was a faint knock on the door, "Oh what now" Blue grumbled. She was sick of dealing with flakey technicians and the other incompetent members of her Tower. Her cell phone glared up at her in the darkness, reminding her of the 17 missed calls. She roughly shoved the cell deep into her pocket and opened the door, relived to find Rika standing there and not Joe.
__________________________________________________

Chapter 3: Indigo towers, Red umbrellas and Silver coins

How long had it been since he had gone to Indigo? How long since she had... How long would he be able to bare staying in Indigo? All that this wonderful place could bring to him were painful memories.

BlueVolution was a just and fair place to live in, a wonderful place indeed, but even it was nothing compared to the Indigo Guild. The brightest and most honorable legends of this world lived in the purple glowing tower. If there was a force that kept the Uber guild at bay it was the Indigo Guild.

While the blue and red towers had been the oldest and most known forces of the world, Indigo had risen out of nowhere. Not wanting to fall victims to the dependence of the Cristalians and elite group of citizens had begun the Indigo Guild to develop a new source of energy.

The tower was the smallest of them all and was kept by a small shard of cristalian, however the tower is also maintained by strange new devices known as the Michellien Engines. Devices powered by a fuel known as Mana, extracted from the stems of trees. While not as powerful as the cristalian, it seems like the Engines are the future of the world. Or they were until their creator Michelle Mon disappeared one year ago.

After she disappeared MMPR had returned home, followed by Aoi the cat of Michelle, to the third level of the BlueVolution tower. In this level of the tower a metallic door opened and a metal blue bike blasted out. MMPR and Aoi left the BlueVolution a top the bike, advancing through the snow fields toward the Indigo Tower.

"Hey! You're not allowed in there!!" she heard one of the guards yell as he grabbed at her arm. She ripped his hand away and ran on. She made a mental note to remind him that she was more than allowed to enter that room whenever she wanted to, and that Blue would not be happy to hear about guards giving her a hard time.

She ducked into the circular room and closed the door behind her, leaning against it to catch her breath. Someone outside tried the handle, and she quickly locked the door and then moved across the room to a large painting of the former leader of the guild. Soon it would be replaced with one of Blue, if she ever let them finish the portrait, that is.

Rika pushed the painting aside and followed a spiral staircase down to the lower levels of the Tower, where she came out into a similar circular room. She left the room and made her way toward a large set of steel double doors.

"I'll just wait here for Kas," she mumbled to herself, still breathing rather heavily. She lit some green energy in her hands and leaned against the door frame to wait.  

Kas was met with little resistance on his way to the lower hanger. He'd been an associate of Blue's for a long time. Between his big frame, blue tartan kilt with the worn black jeans underneath and the headphones that seemed permanently affixed to his head ... he was kind of hard to forget.

There was one young guard who had gotten in his way though and even went so far as to ask for his identification. He just glared at him with a look that said 'I'm gonna split your head open if you don't get out of my way'. He got out of the way.

He saw a green glow at the end of the corridor, a person and a huge set of double doors. He quickened his pace and slipped his headphones off as he approached Rika.

"Sorry to keep you waiting ..."


"Oh, that's okay," Rika said, as Kas approached. "I just got here anyway. Some new guards gave me some trouble upstairs. Remind me to tell Blue when we're not in the middle of a crisis. Anyway," she turned to the set of doors behind her and pressed a button on the doorframe to her right. "Let's get to work on these mechanics. We need these jet bikes by morning."

Kas stepped through the door, cracking his knuckles as he did so and shouted "We need four jet bikes ready by morning folks. Trust me gentlemen ... You do not want to have me ask twice." He balled up his fists and glared around the room at the staff.

Rika stepped into he room behind Kas and watched as the mechanics and other hanger staff scurried around the room to prepare the jet bikes. They weren't used very often and would need to be tuned up and possibly repaired before they could be used.

"Nice work, Kas," Rika said, stepping up next to him. "I didn't even have to do anything. I'd say our work here...is done."

"What can I say ... People don't like me when I'm angry." Outwardly Kas had a lazy smile, but inwardly he was hoping that someone would step out of line. He really wanted an excuse to pummel someone bad.

Though it was good that the engineers got right to work without complaints, because pummeling said engineers would seem counterproductive if they need them to ready the air speeders.

Rika laughed. "That's for sure!"
She looked around the room at the busy workers.
"Looks like the bikes'll be ready when we need them. Now, let's get out of here; I'm hungry!"
______________________________________________

The night weather with winter wind was something that MMPR seemed to ignore as his bike advanced through the snow fields. His mind was elsewhere and his body could not notice that he was in the seventh circle of hell. For Aoi however things were a bit different. The tiny cat slid into one of the leather pouches of the bike and was curled up, trying to beat the cold as much as it could.

As MMPR jumped of a small ice ramp the indigo glow of the tower illuminated his eyes and sinked his heart. He approached the tower and stopped his bike a few meters from the main entrance, he got off from the bike and opened the pouch were Aoi was hidden "Wait here." he said as he slid his scarf to the cat.

MMPR was walking toward the main entrance when a blast of fire opened the metallic doors and sent them flying toward him. MMPR ducked as fast as he could but part of the door slammed his forehead and sent him to the snow covered ground.

A crimson image came to MMPR as he tried to open his eyes, he touched his forehead and noticed a wet feel. He was bleeding. Trying to make out the faces of the people coming out all that he could see was that two of them seemed to match the description of the thugs described by Aze, there was however another. After that MMPR passed out.  

The white and red guilds... No, there was no white guild was it? The red guild had turned to the Uber guild a long time ago... Michelle had been... killed?
MMPR woke up with some snow and blood in his eyes, he rubbed it off and saw a young girl approaching. She had curly black hair, brown eyes, chubby cheeks and she had a military uniform. "Michelle?" said MMPR as he blinked and wiped the blood of his eyes, after he had done that he noticed that the girl was actually and older women with red hair.
"MMPR?!" said the women as she approached the wounded man and helped him.
"Madam Marmolejo, it has been a long time." answered MMPR as he stood up. "I haven't seen you since your daughter disappeared, I'm so sorry but I still have not found anything about her disappearance."
"MMPR I told you to stop this obsession, she's not coming back."

MMPR stood in silence and then turned to the Indigo tower, it was engulfed in flames. Part of it was falling apart and several people were coming out with crates and vehicles.

"I'm guessing your Cristalian was stolen." Said MMPR
"Yes, and the Michallean engines in use were tripped with an unknown explosive... A lot of people died today."
"DO you still have engines?"
"Most were stolen, but we have no cristallian to maintain the few we have."
"I think Blue has a small shard back in BlueVolution, you think it may power the engines and the tower?"
"Perhaps."