Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Crossed Swords are an elite group of killers with a simple goal in mind: purge the planet of sin and those unworthy of life to make way for a paradise under their control. How do they go about it? By building their own army. An army of beings with incredible power and strength, created soley to do the bidding of the Crossed Swords' leader.

However, despite their countless years of existance, things have taken a turn against them. The man who headed most everything, Theonidas (known widely as the Grim Reaper) had disappeared, and one of the highest up members, a man named Athos left the main base in search of him.

A man named Byral was left in control, though a number of unexpected things happened. As soon as Athos had left, there was little stern authority to keep some of the more rebellious experiments in check. Countless members revolted and escaped. Many of these men and women were ruthlessly taken care of by Athos' hand, though many are still at large.

In the middle of this, the Swords took another hefty blow. The base itself, kept secret until the experiments escaped, was found and attacked by an unknown assailant. Byral was killed, and Athos and Theonidas have only just found out about this unexpected takeover. Nothing is now known of these attackers, and a once flawlessly working base is now in ruins. Few of the loyal experiments have survived, and many have turned sides and are now in an alliance with these attackers.




The Base is located far from Dark Haven, the majority of which is hidden underground. Above ground, it is simply a middle-class neighborhood, complete with a park and swimming pool. It's a small area, with only about thirty homes, which all look alike. On the outside, it looks like an innocent place, though a certain foreboding hangs in the air, deterring any visitors from approaching.

Now, however, it's been mostly destroyed, due to the sheer power of the struggle that recently happened. Strangely enough, amid the destruction there isn't one dead body to be found. The park has also remained untouched.

Underground is where everything that matters takes place. There are four main areas in this steel-walled area. The Labs, The Planning and Meeting Rooms, The Training and Weaponry area, and The Holding Cells for the less loyal experiments.






The labs are the places that the young ones are taken to be experimented upon. Here there is unmatched technology and brainpower. Countless rooms in this area are dedicated for the sole purpose of awakening power within these weak beings, and altering their minds to the Swords' taste.

Instruments of what look to be torture, chambers filled with odd liquids, and countless computers and machines line the walls. Everything is a metallic tile, and the very air smells sterile. One experiment described it as the hospital from Hell.

In its current state, however, not much is able to go on. Over half of the machinery has been destroyed and shards of glass, liquid, and other such things are strewn about the floor.



These rooms are all very large and are covered in televisions that are constantly monitoring both above and below ground, as well as in many places far from the base that they've infiltrated. Massive tables and chairs are here, as well as other needed equipment for planning attacks and having large meetings.

Like the Labs, this place has too been hard-hit, though most of the electronics here still are quite useable.





This place is mostly made of large, open areas with ceilings hundreds of feet high. Here is where the experiments are to test their strenghts and hone them to deadly prescsion. The weapons are stored here, and the entire area is able to be locked down. It can only be opened by the highest ranking Swords, and currently has been untouched due to this fact. Those who were trapped inside when the raid occurred have starved to death. Nothing goes in and nothing goes out while in lockdown. Many of the Swords' secrets are secured here.




The holding cells are where most of the experiments are kept. Set up very much like Alkatraz, each experiment is confined to a small 8x8 foot cell, the walls made of a strong steel, the door to it another block of metal with a small slot carved into it through which food is served. The halls are lit with harsh florescent lights, and hold an air of depression and pain. Despite the attack, much of this area has remained untouched.

Also, this area of the base is equipped for punishing those who have disobeyed orders. Every sort of torture device you could and couldn't think of is here, the rooms holding them a stained crimson red.

Whoever attacked had found it fairly empty (the attack led to the doors being unlocked and most of the experiments fled) and is built like a maze, to deter those who have managed to escape their cells from being able to escape the base. Those who survived the attack and are still in contact with Athos are probably hiding here.

HOLDING CELLS

Unlike Roka, Faolan found the attempts of the attackers to be irritating. It was a wonder they even tried at all; it was pretty damn obvious that they weren't going to get though with anything they could find here. The only ones that could open it from that side were Athos, who was gone, Theonidas, who went missing and was the reason Athos was gone, Byral, who was assumed dead, and a few choice experiments, including the wolfish man and his companion. And they were on the inside. "Indeed." He agreed to Roka's muttered statement, and he flicked his tail boredly.

When the body audibly hit the ground, a toothy smirk crossed Faolan's furry face, and he gave a chuckle, "Now, that wasn't very nice. You didn't give them much warning, Roka. How thoughtless." Though there was amusement in his words, and he leaned back in the couch, stretching his legs out in front of him.

Faolan's ear gave a slight twitch when Roka ran his hand through his hair, and he patted the man on the leg, letting his hand rest there thoughtfully, "I don't know... I'm not sure how well that stuff's working after they fried the base with that EMP... It might not have sent anything at all, and the blocked messages might just be it trying to work." He gave a shrug. "Athos wouldn't leave the base for this long without any results. You KNOW how particular he is. Didn't you see how much he hated leaving Byral in charge? Either way, he'll be back soon..." He gave a wolfish grin and tapped Roka on the nose, "Besides, a little break from work and this privacy I have nothing against."

HOLDING CELLS

"Eh, food is food." Faolan said with the hint of a growl. They were being particularly persistant in the whole trying to get into the holding area. "For the sake of the gods, there's nothing in here they even WANT to find!" He was getting a little irritated. That was the fourth time since midnight, and it was just on the verge of dawn.

A slight smirk crossed his face at the kiss and he nodded, "It IS comfortable... I never did mind when we were assigned down here to keep an eye on those lesser experiments." He gave a barking laugh when Roka killed another man and got to his padded feet, keen ears pointed towards the door. "Huh, his partner stayed."

Faolan looked over his furry should at Roka. "Think they like playing peek-a-boo?" The game was an innocent one, but the way he said it told differently. When the noise started up again, Faolan cleared his throat and gave a yell over the noise. "PEEK-A-BOO, YOU b*****d!" And with that,he stuck his head THROUGH the thick metal door and after about three seconds pulled his head back through, his muzzle covered in blood. "Yeah, scared him good. He pissed himself before I took his head off." The anthro licked his nose and chuckled.

"you know, if nothing else, they'll eventually run out of men to send down here..." He plopped back down on the couch and wrapped his arm around Roka's shoulders. "Maybe you should try Athos again."

Outside

Theonidas reappeared with McKrea in hand at the edge of the rubble that used to be the Crossed Swords base. He immediately felt the fatigue that accompanied teleporting himself and another at once, and he dropped the distraught McKrea to the ground before moving forward, catching himself on a crumbling wall. He breathed a sigh, shook his head as a way of straightening his head, and then looked around.

Well, this certainly wasn't how he remembered the base. It was bit more...broken nowadays. Well, no matter. Things would be rebuilt soon enough. So far, none of McKrea's henchmen had caught onto the Reaper's presence, and that only proved their incompetance.

Now to wait for Athos. No use going in just yet. He sat on a large piece of broken cement, leaning foward. "Well Jonas. Here we are. Look familiar?"

"Y-you..." was all McKrea could manage.

"Yes, yes. The Grim Reaper's back. Didn't quite count on that one did you? Apparently, you thought you could wander up here and DESTROY everything I've worked so hard to create. Oh, I'm sure you wanted some sort of super army...but MY experiments answer to NO ONE. You couldn't control them, could you. Well great. Juuust great. Nice one, McKrea," Theonidas muttered.

"They said you could never come back," McKrea said.

"Oh yeah. And "they" are always right, eh? You know what? The only reason you are still alive right now is that I need answers. Just wait until Athos gets here. I'm sure he'll have plenty of questions for you."

Faolan grinned wickedly and proceeded to kiss the top of Roka's head, smearing blood all over his dark hair. Of course, he probably wouldn't have been able to, had Roka not just done quite a feat at sending a message. "Like I said before, if he's far away, he's got good reason. I swear he's obsessive compulsive or something."

Despite the little joke, Faolan looked from side to side, as if Athos could hear him. He'd known a few of the lower experiments to lose their lives in a most greusome fashion for stating that within his hearing range. Nevertheless, he ruffled Roka's hair and walked over to the small television screen in the room and squinted at it, his tail flicking thoughtfully. Though the picture was mostly static, it once showed the edges of the base on the upper level. He watched each camera flash to another picture, and gave a little yip when he saw two blurry figures he knew quite well, two lesser known ones with them.

A moment later, one rose a hand, and the camera went dead. "Athos killed the cameras, but he's here... It looks like he just got here, and Roka..." He looked over his shoulder, tail wagging almost comically, "The Reaper was there with him."

HOLDING CELLS

HOLDING CELLS

Faolan couldn't help but grin; a rather frightening sight, being that his muzzle was full of sharp, deadly looking teeth. However, it portrayed his happiness nonetheless. "I'll bet he is. You know how Athos likes fixing things that he thinks aren't right. Too bad we'll never get to take a swing at McKrea though. I'd love to sink my teeth into his neck... rip out his throat." Faolan's clawed fingers curled as if strangling something, his fur standing on end.

But in a moment, that look had passed and he was grinning again, quite a bit of a spring in his step. Needless to say, the man was READY to get out of that holding area. "Yeah... How many do you think we killed? I'd give it a good fifty... It's a wonder those morons didn't get that we could get them, and they not get us." He then ruffled Roka's hair (careful of his claws) and threw his thumb toward the exit. "Shall we wait and greet Athos when he comes?"

As if his statement had commanded it, the entire area seemed to rumble and shake, and amoment later, a sliver of the ceiling simply went up, letting in the bright morning sun. It wasn't much, but Faolan could tell that much of the ceiling on the other side of the door had been removed; and he heard clearly the shouts of surprise from those in the next wave of men trying to get through the door. "Yep, I'd wager they've come to help us out." The wolf-man said lightly, giving a little wave to Athos, who nodded and dropped down amid the men on the other side of the door.



OUTSIDE

"Now there's something I haven't seen from you in years." Athos noted, referring to the Reaper's smile. Only two people could make him smile in that nearly amused way. "Has Roka given you a little hello?" He assumed so.

The dark haired man then turned to Nolah and tilted his head toward McKrea's little container. "I heard fish hate it when you tap on the glass. I wonder if McKrea's the same way. Doing that might be a little... shocking for him." Meaning he was giving Nolah permission to do a bit of torture, should she want to.

Athos raised his eyebrows when the Reaper mentioned he had a favor to ask. "Of course." He said lightly, his eyes flashing as he slowly took to the air to watch from a slight ways away Theonidas move the rubble. "Don't overdo it." He said, no hint of worry in his words, but it was a statement of caution nonetheless. Theonidas had overexherted himself the past day, and it wouldn't do well to completely burn himself out. Not now.

That said, Athos slowly descended through the hole in the ground, as nonchalantly as one would walk into their office building. "Well, well." He said, almost as if he didn't even see the fact they were staring at him, guns and other such weapons pointed directly at his head and chest. The men were shocked, yes, but in appearance, Athos looked like a normal man. Why would thirty men be afraid of one? One with a sword that remained sheathed on his back?

Then again, if fifty bodies (apparently they'd been cleared away) Hadn't told them something, it simply meant these grunt-work men had little to no brains. "Such a pity, my dear friends, that you have to die." He said it with a small, pleasant smile on his face, and shrugged. A number of clicks and whirrs was heard; many of the confused men had cocked their weapons.

"Now, now, you think you're going to put up a figh-" He cut himself off as a gunshot rang through the air, and one of the men went down, a massive hole in his forehead. Several men had been splattered with their dead comrade's blood, and many of them gave a startled cry. "Let me finish." Athos said, his words dangerously cold. "I don't like being interrupted." He put his pistol back in his breastpocket and lightly clasped his hands behind his back. "Now, you won't suffer too much if you just give up your lives. I'd hate to have to take you down by force."

Every man standing around him (Athos had deliberately dropped down into the middle of them) had paled, and many of them put their guns down, their hands in the air. However, many seemed determined to go down fighting, and their faces were set with a grim defiance. "Half and half? Alright." Those that had surrendered dropped to the ground, dried husks of bodies, aged for what looked to be thousands of years. "Go ahead and shoot then." His pleasant smile had turned into a nasty snarl.

The next moment happened in a flurry of gunfire and pain. Those that survived the blast of energy that sent every single man into the air were quickly and brutally removed from their lives when Athos drew his sword. It had happened in mere seconds, but a shower of blood and bodies rained down from the sky, coating both above ground and the hallway in which Athos had landed in sticky red blood.

Athos' suit, much to his distaste (through it was necessary for him to properly enjoy killing them all; doing it all in one fell sweep wasn't as entertaining) was now riddled with bullet holes and entirely covered in blood (some of it his own). The 'fighters' had indeed ripped a number of holes through the man's body, but he'd allowed that. It made it easier to be in the fray. But, due to his immense healing ability, he retained no permanant damage, as opposed to the seventeen men that had been slaughtered in the air.

The men now taken care of, Athos flicked the blood from his sword and slid it back into its sheathe, and ran a blood-covered hand through his blood-soaked hair, slicking it back. "Alright then you two. You can come out. Don't slip; the floor's wet."

Athos then looked up through the hole, where he could see Theonidas resting just beyond the drop. "All taken care of, Theonidas." He was still grinning. "Anything else you need before we talk to McKrea?"



Beyond the metal door to the holding cell, Faolan was literally howling with laughter and clinging to Roka in order to stay on his feet. That was one of the best things he'd ever seen Athos do. When the man wanted to, he could be VERY entertaining and flashy with his work.