Chapter 2: What Lies Beneath

[ST]

The father laughed. "Yes, yes Sherlock. I was an engineer in my prime. You don't have to explain how elevator works to me." He smirked. "Come on honey." He looked at his wife. "Governor Arland is already on the village. We're going to miss him if we wait for the next ride." The mother didn't answer but stared back at her husband. A few second had passed, she finally gave in and stepped inside.

"Yay! Come on ma! Sit here!" the child called and patted the seat beside her. Once the family had settled on the middle couch, another group of talkative random tourists walked inside the elevator before the shutter closed. Now, the elevator sure was filled.


Rayden

One of the old ladies stopped beside Rayden. "When I was at a blossoming age, I had golden locks like you," she said in her shaky voice, showing what's left of her teeth in her smile. She reached out a hand to touch his hair.

Gone

Gone found himself pressed to a tall, sexy tourist squished by the mass of bodies in the elevator. The lady looked at him and smiled apologetically.

Blaze and Polaris

You felt something bump on your heads repeatedly and found out that it was peanuts. Someone was throwing peanuts at the both of you.

Jun and Stardust

"Wow..." a middle-aged man, chinky and had rabbit teeth, standing right next to the two of you said. "What's a couple of hottie doing in a measly village such as this? Are you here to see Gov. Arland's treaty with the Shumis too?" His grin widened, looking like he wanted to devour you. "There are more interesting places here in Shumi, don't you know?"

Sho

You watch as some of the tourists pester your teammates and found a slight entertainment at the reaction of their faces. Your eyes linger at the small family from previously. They seemed to be very problematic about something, all the while the kid was giggling like a maniac. But as if that was your business.

Hadrian

Your eyes roamed around the interior of the elevator, impressed by how this structure could still work after a thousand of years. You chose to ignore the people that were nagging you. What they want isn't important.

[vanesse]

Vanesse bit her lip, feeling a bit panicked. She was the closest to the elevator. Jaime and Deo HAD to run to get to where she is. To top it all up, the large group of tourists walking inside the elevator made it hard for her to squeeze in.

Crap, they already stepped inside! she thought to herself, stopping in her tracks as if hesitating.

/Run, Van! You can still make it!/ Paridge shouted. Vanesse looked back at Jaime and Deo and made a loony hand signal that she was going in. "I'll wait on the other side" she tried to mouth but she bet if they could understand that. She might've moved her lips a little faster. However, that didn't matter. They shouldn't lose the SeeDs.

Sprinting, she ran for the elevator and squeezed in the mass of bodies inside, just in time as the elevator closed. She moved to the side and was pressed on the glass window.

This sure is MY luck.... She sighed, trying not to get squeezed too much.


Opps: Jaime and Deo

The two of you stood at the base of the elevator right after it had closed with Van on it. This is a good time to discuss where to go from here.

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris stared in shock at the handful of small, pale-brown shells in her hand. Peanut shells. She had found peanut shells in her hair. <What in the name of Ifrit's Seven Holy Hells...?>

Tap.

Polaris turned her head (it was the only part of her body she could move without getting slapped with a serious sexual harrassment case and a restraining order), and found Blaze right next to her, getting the same exact treatment. And Blaze, similarly incapable of movement, was giving the nearest tourist a laserbeam death glare, guaranteed to drill a hole through steel. Polaris dropped the peanut shells to the floor and reached out, catching a hold of two broken shells caught in Blaze's hair. She pulled them off her best friend, who was looking fit for murder (but then again, when has Blaze Sanaku ever not looked murderous?). And then Polaris turned her head, searching for the assailant.

And then a shell hit her in the face.

<Oh, hell no...!! I'm going to kick someone's ass-->

[glow=blue,1,000]Polly, no!! For all you know, it could just be a little kid!![/glow]
Obsidian sounded panicked. Or maybe he was just laughing too hard inside her head, that's why his voice was shaking.

[miyavi]

Sho grinned as he watched the chinky-eyed Rabbit Perv flirt with Psychochick and the brunette with the short hair, ready for the resounding slap that was sure to occur soon, if Psychochick's furious face was any indication. And then, just as the elevator was about to close, a final body squeezed inside, and Sho found the shifting mass of bodies forcing him closer to the plate glass window, next to someone.

Sho looked down. It took quite a bit of looking, as he was just about one of the tallest people in the little elevator, but he finally caught a bird's-eye-view of a head with short cropped hair. Brunette. He shrugged, and someone pushed him, and he rolled his eyes as he was forced closer to the short girl. She glanced around momentarily and Sho saw almond-shaped eyes and a cute face.

"Aa, sorry," he muttered, half to her, half to himself. He saw the family from earlier, and the giggling little girl in the velvet. She caught his eye and giggled. Sho grinned. It was probably because of his hair. Or maybe his lip ring?

Whatever the cause, Sho made a face at her. Samara, wasn't that her name? And she giggled louder. Sho crossed his eyes, and Samara's giggling slowly increased in volume. He quirked his eyebrow, making his eyebrow ring waggle, and smirked at Samara's laughter.

<At least someone has a normal sense of humor in this tin bucket.>

[Blaze Sanaku]

LOL bun you captured Blaze there perfectly XD

---

Blaze shook the peanut shells off of her head furiously. Her eyes whipped back and forth across the elevator, looking for the little shit who was throwing shells at Polaris and her. She saw who was throwing the peanuts and zeroed in on the loser.

"YOU GOT A FUCKING PROBLEM!??!?" She roared at the one who was throwing the peanuts. Everyone in the elevator seemed to stop what they were doing to look at her, some of them shook their heads.

[Diego Stanton]

Deo rushed after Vanesse just as the elevator doors were closing but they closed shut just as he and Jamie got there.

"Crap," Deo said and scratched the back of his head. They would just have to wait until the elevator came back up again.

"So.. we're gonna wait until the ritual opens that passageway and then ambush all the seeDs and rush through, find the ruby and get back out, right?" Deo asked Jamie, "Sounds like you'd better cook me a banquet before this happens 'cause it's going to be my last meal."

He looked down at Jamie and realized that was the wrong thing to say.

"I was just kidding, James. I meant to say don't worry," he said, using the nickname he knew she hated to take her mind off the mission, "We can pull through, I know we can. Knowing Van, she won't let us fail even if we wanted to." Deo grinned lazily.

[waterlily43]

Jun glared at the old lecher with a gaze that could melt metal, contemplating whether to gore out his eyes with her pinkie nail or give him a swift kick to the nuts. The look he was giving Stardust and her made her want to puke right onto his face.


"Listen, Mister." She said with a silky voice in direct contrast to the words she was using. "Either you back off or you won't be thinking about visiting 'interesting places' for the rest of your life."


--------------------------------

Rayden smiled at the old lady, lowering his head so that she could touch his hair easier.

"I am sure you must have been quite gorgeous lady." He said smoothly. "But then you still are."


{Rayden, you are one of the most blatant liars I have ever come across...} Ariadnialla drawled, although her tone one of amusement.

He grinned mentally back at her.

A white lie never harms anyone. Especially one that flatters.

[waterlily43]

Jaime made a run for it when she saw Vanesse sqeeze into the elevator. She and Deo arrived at the doors at the same time, but they were too late. The elevator was already closed and from the looks of it, they probably wouldn't be able to squeeze in without breaching the weight limit.

Jaime sighed as Deo attempted to make light of the situation.

"Deo... stop playing around. I know Van will let us finish the mission but right now we're seperated! Hope to Hyne that she doesn't follow them without us."Jaime chewed on her lip, willing the elevator to come up again. "You know... what if we ambush the SeeDs after they get the Ruby? Then saves us all the work right? And for all you know they might ambush us again after we get it in retaliation...I dunno..."

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris grabbed Blaze's shoulder, as if to stop her. Yeah right. That little loser deserved Blaze's fury. Instead Polaris leaned close to the peanut-thrower, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Listen here," she growled, the axe strapped to her back glinting ominously in the pale light in the elevator, "you better make sure that you run like hell the minute those doors open, or else your gonna get claws shoved up someplace you don't want them shoved. And if you keep throwing peanuts at my friend and me, my good buddy Maverick here," a tilt of the head to her weapon, "is gonna cut through those skinny little legs of yours like hot butter. Do you understand?"

A muffled squeak was all that escaped the peanut-thrower, who looked about to cry. Polaris straightened, pulling Blaze back. "If you let those claws out in here," she said quietly, "someone else might get scratched." She threw a scathing look at the peanut-thrower. "Pity this place isn't roomier."

[stardust]

The creepy chinky-eyed fatty swallowed at Jun's words. "H-hehe...well, you know I was just kidding." He extended a hand to them. "Setting those things aside, my name is Mo--"

"Nice meeting you. Now go away." Stardust cut him, scowling at the window panel. She didn't want to look at his disgusting face.

The guy gave a loud grunt and scratched his head. "Cranky lassies..." His ugly features frowned.

[vanesse]

Vanesse jerked forward when someone was pushed on her. "Ow," she squeaked, turning to look up at the one who got meshed with her. It was a guy, about six foot, and had a striking neon blue hair.

"Aa, sorry," she heard him mutter.

Holy Hyne! He's one of THEM. She couldn't miss him. He swung his gaze somewhere else and Vanesse couldn't help but pull herself together. Though he didn't look like it, he was still an enemy so she had to be careful. The brunette grinned, covering any apprehension she was feeling right now. "Oh, it's cool," she said. "This elevator is like a mosh pit." She shook her head and grunted, roaming her eyes around.

[ST]

First of all... *GLOMPS and awww-s at Rayden* XD He's such a bish ^.^
***************************************

Blaze and Polaris

The brat called Samara looked up at the two of you when you threatened her to stop throwing peanuts. She blinked a couple of times, taking in the things you said to her. Her lips started to quiver and her eyes became watery.

And then she exploded with a shriek and the obnoxious crying. "What do you think you're doing with my kid?!" the mom quickly hugged her howling daughter and rubbed her back. "She's just a kid!! Hyne..." She shot a death glare at you two and whispered comforting things
to her child. The father was just staring at you and shrugged apologetically in behalf of his wife and kid when you caught his eyes. You heard the kid address you as mean ol' "she-monkeys".


Rayden

The old lady's big smile reached up to her ears. You noticed the increase in folds in her face whenever she tried to smile. You could tell she was flattered by what you have said. "My my, aren't you so charming," she said. "Here. I found this lying in the snow a while ago." She brought up her purse and pulled out a special item called "Soft". "I don't know what intarnation is this thing anyway, you can have it son." She grabbed your hands and placed it in your palms, mustering a sexy wink.

And that was when an annoying shriek coming from a kid disturbed the peaceful air in the elevator.


*************
Ahh I didn't mean to control the whole show XD Someone take over hereeee!!!

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian's face turned sour. He hated brats. The kid's crying was getting to his nerves. It was all over the spacious elevator.

/You HAVE to do something about this./ For the first time today, Hadrian heard his GF talk to him. Corpora Quadrugemina always talked in one-liners.

Yea, that's right. Hadrian knew exactly what to do. Reaching inside his pockets, he took out and plugged headphones on his ears. With a touch of a button on his micromedia player (basically just an ipod) metal sound just boomed in his ears, shutting out the obnoxious cry of the kid. Just a few more seconds and they were about to step out of this hell hole.

[miyavi]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was Samara after all!!! XD Dood, Polly & Blaze sure were mean. XDDDDD And I love Hadrian's way of fixing things.

---

<HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!>

The crying that shattered the somewhat peaceful air in the elevator had everyone looking around. Sho winced, gritting his teeth and resisting the urge to jump out of the elevator. The wailing was obnoxious as fuck!!

It took him a moment to realize that it was the little girl, and that made it even worse. Sho had a kid. He knew their wailing capabilities. Even worse for girls. They had lungs of steel. She'd keep screaming for a couple of hours, three tops. If the elevator didn't stop soon, people were going to start going insane.

If only he could move. He knew something that would definitely shut the kid up. In a nice way, of course.

But he was immobile. So Sho took the only available route. He started banging his head against the window he was pressed up against. Maybe if he did it long enough, he could pass out, and he wouldn't have to listen to the screeching at all.

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris blinked. "Sh...she-monkey?" she managed, her voice a dangerous whisper.

[glow=blue,1,000]Polly, NO.[/glow]

Polaris struggled with her self-control. "Did...did you just call me...a she-monkey?" she demanded in a tight voice.

The little girl glared at her. Then she stuck out her tongue.

[glow=blue,1,000]Polly, I'm serious. Sit. Stay. Uhm, roll over. Throw peanuts back!! Just don't kill the kid!!!! You're on a mission of immense importance, remember?!?![/glow] Oh, Obsidian was definitely panicked now.

Polaris took a deep, calming breath, and raised a fist.

[glow=blue,1,000]Ohshitohshitohshitohshit!! Don't do it, Polly, you've got so much to live for!![/glow] Okay, now he was just being dramatic.

She held her closed fist over the girl's head. Then she opened it.

A handful of peanuts and peanut shells rained down onto Samara's hair. Polaris then reached down, grabbed a handful of the girl's long hair, and mussed it up, effectively tangling her tresses and ensuring that taking out the peanut shells would be no easy task. Samara's head was now a network of peanut and dark hair. Samara stared up at her fearfully. Her mother looked too shocked to say anything. The father was carefully avoiding eye contact.

"You," Polaris said in a calm voice reinforced with acid, "are a nasty little brat who throws things at people for no reason. Well, there you go. How's it feel, kiddo, to have your own nasty little peanuts in your own stupid hair?"