The Forgotten Zodiac

"Fine. She's inteligent. I don't care. I'll kill her anyway." He paused. "You know, I've never actually killed little girls before. This'll be new."

Timothy followed behind Sylas, eyeing Quinn warily. "Are they g-g-gunna k-kill each oth-ther?" He asked, actually concerned that one of them would be dead by the end of the day.

((Sorry 'bout that.))

Timothy stared at Sylas. "Are you s-s-sure you'll be ab-ble to? They look pretty st-stubborn."

"Go ahead and announce it to the world, then. Maybe you'll get an audience." Werr said, though there was no sarcasm in his voice. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. He stepped into the small house once James was inside, quickly pinpointing three exits. One behind him, one to the right and one in the back, past the kitchen.

Four windows, all of them barred. Two facing the road, the other two the alleys. No sniper positions visible from where he was, but he would make sure to keep an eye on the windows as he moved. No security cameras. He then tallied up the number of people; two chefs, one waiter and three diners, none of whom were Emily.

Werr went straight up to the counter and put Emily's picture down on it. "We're looking for this girl. It's important that we find her, have you seen her?" He asked, putting on a desperate and worn-out look over his face, his accent easily changing from his Russian one to a more American sounding one.

"Eh? She was in here yesterday...she normally comes in for lunch. Been doin' so since last week. Cute little girl. Dunno her name though, sorry." The waiter shook his head.

"It's no big deal. Will she be here today?"

"She just left ten minutes ago. Are you her dad or something?"

"Yes, she ran away from home...I've been trying to find her for weeks now. Is there any more information you can give me?"

"Well...she came alone, but left with some odd lookin' feller, he was tall and pale. She seemed a bit pale too, now that I think about it, but I know they went left from the door."

"Thank you," Werr nodded, turning away and hurrying back to the door without waiting for Jason.

"I am an Iyoui," Sylas smiled a bit, patting Timothy on the head. "Do not worry, Timmy. I will take care of it if they fight anymore. Shadows will separate them easily, you will see. No...wait, I hope you won't have to see, but if they fight more, you will see.

James followed after Werr, speeding up so he was even with him shortly. "So? She's pale, he's pale and he's tall. What'd you think? Iyouis or just creeper?"

Timothy slowly nodded, then headed inside, stepping inside the door then turning around to see if Sylas was following. "Ok-kay then."

"Someone like that doesn't seem to be the observant type unless he knows something is up," Werr explained, his Russian accent mixing into his voice again. It was hard to do an American accent for too long, he had to think about how to form each word, and he had too many numbers and such in his head for him to be able to concentrate on that. "In other words, the man was especially tall, that's why he noticed. He was especially pale, that's why he noticed. She was pale likely because she was scared. Its an Iyoui we're looking for, now..." He looked down as the road turned to gravel.

Shuffle marks. Normal Iyoui gait; ever so slight drag on the right foot, like they were unused to walking on two legs. "This way," Werr turned towards what looked like the back of a small hotel. He followed the trail towards a storage house of sorts.

Sylas followed, of course, smiling again. "Who wants lunch now?" He asked. Quinn shivered.

"I'm good," She shook her head, sitting at the table regardless.

Tyler bounced up to the table and pulled himself onto Quinn's lap. "I do! I'm as hungry as a hippopotomus. And when hippo's don't get fed, they start eating people. So you better feed me soon."

"Should we be worried? I mean, we did just fail to mess with one Iyouis. There's no call to get involved with more."

"Okay," Sylas blinked, wondering if Tyler was telling the truth about eating people. He pulled the foods out of his chest, quickly starting to make some sandwiches for the hungry little Tyler.

"We failed to mess with one Iyoui that had sided with four other of our targets, most of whom were attacking us more than the Iyoui was." Werr pointed out. "Emily was pale, you remember? Scared. We can show her that we're trying to help her, and she'll side with us, and eventually come with us." He paused at the entrance of the shed. There was one exit, no windows, and possibly two enemies inside, if Emily had made friends with the Iyoui like those other four had done. He doubted it, but still... "You go in first," Werr said suddenly, taking his hand off the door handle.

((He is, actually. Tyler is known to bite when he's hungry. Also. Agents should make a deal with Lotis to get his help getting the others.))

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. And, " James walked toward the door, a wall of light rising around him. "You, sir, are chicken." He then pushed the door open and stepped into the shed.

Tyler sat and supervised Sylas' sandwich making, meaning there was more meat than cheese, no vegetables of any kind, and nothing 'slimy'.

((xDD You readed my mind, did you? :T))

Werr just rolled his eyes, peering inside after James. The sight made him stop in his tracks; Lotis the Iyoui, though his name was unknown to these two, was sitting against a wall. Emily had duct tape over her mouth, trying to break free, crying in hysterics. But trying to break free from an Iyoui was like trying to bite through 3-inch-thick metal chains. Blood dripped onto the floor; Lotis had already dug into his meal, apparently, his jaw locked around her shoulder.

Emily jerked as James walked in. She tried to scream, fear and pain in her eyes as she reached out towards James with her free hand. A plea for help and rescue.

Sylas finished at last, putting the top slice of bread onto the sandwitch and putting it on a paper plate he had found. "Here you go, Tyler! Made just as you wanted it." Sylas smiled widely, nodding as he set the plate down in front of the boy.

((Yes... I'm sorry. I won't do it again.))

The shield slid into James, under his clothes and disappearing around his face and hands, the visible skin. While it wasn't gone, it was weakened so as to be more camaflouged, if anything he just looked freakishly clean. The boy smiled, savagely and not at all reassuringly, then leaned forward and poked Lotis in the shoulder. "'Scuse me? Is this Emily? 'Cause if so, then I'm going to have to ask you to stop eating her till we're done with her. Don't worry, I'll leave her alive... Probably."

Tyler promptly un-made the sandwich, ensuring that there was nothing he didn't want, despite the fact that he had talked Sylas through every inch of making it. "You did it right. Are you sure it isn't poisoned, so that you can spend more time with Timothy and don't have to worry about me?"

((I finished with the picture. I'll scan/upload it soon. I'm really proud about how it turned out, but my scanner will probably murder the color. D: ))

Lotis paused, letting go with his teeth so that he could speak. "No, this is my mea--" He was cut short when a large rock barreled into his head, sending him flying backwards and forcing him to release Emily. Werr quickly pulled Emily to her feet, dragging her back and out of the shed. Emily, only aware that they were helping her, didn't struggle and in fact hugged Werr shakily once they were out.

"That hurt..." Lotis growled, sitting up and wiping a bit of blood off the side of his head. He stood, towering over James, though he was glaring at Werr. "Give her back. She's mine." He growled, lip curled in annoyance.

Sylas watched, shaking his head quickly at the mention of poison. "You watched me make it, and of course I did not put poison in it. That would be awful of me, and I do not like to be awful."

((Bad scanner. No killing good colors. Beat Portal today.))

James grinned wider, and a light wall blocked the doorway. "I don't believe we have to. I /was/ going to give her back, but it seems my partner has other ideas. Oh well." He shook his hands and knives formed in them. "Now the question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"Okay..." Tyler watched Sylas carefully as he took a bite of the sandwich, chewing slowly, as if he was going to taste something terrible.

((I'm about halfway through Portal 2. So now you understand what I mean when I say, 'Ohh, what's that? What is THAT? That thing has numbers on it. Oooh, what's that? Do you smell something burning? Are you coming back? What is that?' I sing that sometimes. For no real reason. :T))

Lotis growled, a large bustier sword forming in his own hand. "I could always just eat you."

Of course Werr had different ideas. If Emily wanted to return to the Institute with them, that's where they would take her. If she didn't want to go, she would die. That was their mission, and Werr figured that if they DID go willingly, there was no reason to kill them.

Sylas shrugged and looked towards Michael. "Would you like a sandwich, too?"

((I felt bad for the first two cores. The third one was just creepy. I loved the ending to Portal 2. Totally impossible, but amazing.))

"I suppose you could try." James bounced up and down on his heals, waiting for Lotis to make a move. "But I don't taste very good. In fact, I taste terrible. Trust me, I tried to eat part of my arm once. It wasn't good at all."

Michael shook his head. "No thanks, Sylas. I'm not hungry right now."

((NO, NO NO SPOILERS. >:U If you give me any spoilers, Sage, so help me I'll remove you from my website and ban your IP entirely. Not really. But I'll still be mad. >:C))

Lotis tilted his head one way, looking confused for a heartbeat, but he shook it off. "I'll determine how you taste on my own, thank you very much." He smirked, slashing upwards. Halfway through the swing, the shadows shifted to make a giant mallet instead of a sword. It would look almost comical, if it weren't moving towards James at a quickly increasing speed and the boy had about 0.5 seconds to react before it smashed into his side.

"Okay." Sylas nodded, sitting down. "So, what is that?" He asked, pointing at the small television in the corner. "And what is that?" He pointed towards the blender. "I do not have these things in my house, is that bad?"

((I love the curiosity core. ouo))

((*hangs head* No spoilers... I love it too. I want to take it home and have it as my pet.

What's that, what's that, that has numbers, where are we going? Then you kill it.))

James stepped the the side and the mallet slammed into the light shield, which opened until Lotis fell about half way through, the closed again, trapping him inside.

Tyler looked up. "That's the TV. It has Zaboomafoo. You'd like Zaboomafoo." He looked at the blender. "Mommy says that's bad and I'm not supposed to ever touch it."

((It took me three tries to kill GLaDOS. The first time, I got killed by a freaking rocket on accident. The second time, I was way too interested in sitting there and listening to the little Curiosity Core until I died of the gas. ono I feel so sorry for that thing, and I nearly cried when it said, 'Do you smell something burning?' Right before I chucked it.

I hate GLaDOS. First the Companion Cube, then that adorable little core...ono))

Lotis screeched; his mallet had been caught on the other side of the wall, as had his hand. He snarled with rage, swiping at James with his not-caught hand, which was now holding a shadow dagger.

"Huh." Sylas blinked. "That thing is bad? But it is so small...okay then, we should get the Zaboomafoo out of the TV. That poor Zaboomafoo, it is probably scared..."

((It took me two. The first time I couldn't find the second core, and therefore I lost. You wouldn't like playing games with me. I'm heartless. I didn't hesitate to drop either of those to their destruction. I'm such a jerk. Will you be my friend anyway?))

James didn't move, allowing the blade the slice open his shirt, though it didn't cut any skin, due to the light shield under his clothing. "That's not going to work. Look, here's the thing. I don't get anything for killing you. Honestly, I'm just as happy to let her die, but I'd need you to stop attacking me."

Tyler nodded. "Mommy says it will slice my fingers off." He grinned at Sylas' statement about Zaboomafoo. "No, silly. It's a show. He's not really in there. He's in the jungle."

((Yes. It's fine, I know it's just a game, I'm just sensitive to these things. :T))

Lotis dropped his hand, growling. "You'll let her die?" He frowned, eyes narrowed.

"No!" Werr snapped, pulling Emily behind him. "She's coming with us to the Institute. She agreed to the terms, James. I will not allow further harm to come to this girl!"

"Your friend does not agree with you," Lotis raised a brow at James, lip curled in disgust.

"Oh. Ow." Sylas blinked. "Well then, we should go save the Zaboomafoo from the jungle! No one should be left in the jungle, it is not safe."