Fight Fire With Fire!

"Ho- Ho- Hot!" a noble sounding voice shouted from afar. Voulge knew that voice....

...And as if recognizing the familiar presence, the Holy Symbol.CRST data in their possession glowed brilliantly, and embedded itself on Voulge's Lancea.

"Acha! My sword, the Rising Blade, is glowing too? Someone is nearby! He-Hello! Anybody there? I am in dire need of assistance! Help!" the old fashioned voiced navi called. Grinning, Voulge took off to the source and was not surprised to find...

...Lord Slayer bouncing up and down on some hot hot lava.

" !! My word! It IS someone I know! Good to see you again, Voulge my friend!" Lord Slayer gasped, crying out in joy while bouncing from foot to foot. His scabbard was shining brilliantly, the cross shaped Holy Symbol.CRST shining on him too.

He looks like he needs help, but uh... how will you get him off? At any rate, there doesn't seem to be a shred of normal terrain for miles.

This... might be awkward.

Voulge stopped in the midst of his walk, making Licht and Ignis turn to see what the reason was. "Oi, what's the deal, tin-brain." With no reply from his mouth, he simply lifted his Lancea up to the eye level to reveal the shining crest on the blade of his weapon. "...What does that suppose to mean? On your period or something?" Taking the bottom of the spear, he gently smacked Ignis across. "OW! Damn it man, take a joke once in a while."

The navi heard a feint voice ahead of him, it was vague, but very familiar. "Hey, isn't that the navi we met before?" It also seemed that Marius remembered the voice, but it was no surprise as the voice had a very unique tone. Realizing who's voice this was, Voulge helplessly had a grin on his face as he sped towards the source of the voice.

At the end, Voulge met with the old acquaintance, Lord Slayer, but...Seeing the noble knight constantly hopping up and down continuously made their reunion a bit awkward. "How do you do...It looks like you may need some help." With a wave of his finger, Licht came towards Slayer's legs and began to swirl non-stop. "If you wish, my support program can create some type of a platform for you to stand on." Voulge's overall expression was very cheery, from the way Ignis and Marius saw it. Things was getting a bit awkward.

"Ho ho! That would do very nicely my friend. If you please!" Lord Slayer chuckled merrily, still hopping as Licht began to form a platform.

"Just... uh, tell me when to jump! Ha ha!" the knight called.

Voulge nodded his head and Licht dispersed from his crystal body into a cloud of green. It wrapped around Slayer's leg, protecting the navi from the harmful lava beneath, but the navi's concern became of the SP's. Licht still lacked the Planeswalker program it needed to ward off the lava, so it was imminent before it was to forcefully ejected off the net when the heat was at critical state.

"Now that is taken care of, what bring your self here?"

[Licht: Mobility Junction - Lord Slayer]
[Licht: -5 HP per Action / Post]

"Well my good friend," Lord Slayer begun, the four treading through the dangerous terrain of Hades Net. "You remember, I hope, that our last encounter held certain... meaning.... to my past," the knight navi continued, trying to give deep meaning to his words and utterly failing.

The four soon arrived on safer panels, and Lord Slayer hopped off Licht, thanking the support program with a low bow. The four continued, listening to Lord Slayer with great attention, since there was really nothing better to do.

"Since then, I have been scouring the net for those accursed Virus Riders, a massive organization that I was once, unfortunately, a part of," Lord Slayer admitted, looking down, brooding as he stroked his chin.

"I have tracked a big branch in this area, a suitable place as Hades Isle is not very occupied. It is not the main base, but taking this place out will be a noble feat," Slayer proclaimed proudly, clenching his fist.

Turning to Voulge, he nodded and put on a grim face, "I hate to ask you this my friend, but will you aid me in sabotaging these fiends?" Lord Slayer's eyes were sincere, and warm trust for Voulge seems to be emanating from him.

Your social link improved. What might you do?

As the spearman navi safely trended through the lavas while Lord Slayer was aided by Licht, he heard suddenly remembered the enemies he fought on the day they met. It was a surprise to hear that the noble knight was a criminal, but this barely phased Voulge. "At least you reformed your self..." Quickly the navi questioned Voulge for his aid and that actually came to a surprise. "...Of course. Without me, I don't think you would be able to get any further into the HQ."

Bump

"Ha ha! Well said my friend! Well, let's be off!" Lord Slayer announced, stroking his black hair as he led the group to the northeast.

---

What they came to was a large, 25 foot, two story building, it covered about 106 Acres and had 10 foot walls enclosing the area. Barbed wire ran along the tops of the walls and a watchtower was present...

But the thing is, the facility looked very run down. The front gate was creaking open, and the walls showed signs of wear... Could they have already moved?

"Hm, there's no guards either. It doesn't look like they moved very recently either," LS muttered, examining the building. "I'm afraid there's not much here. But, I think I shall go take a look to see if there's anything useful they left behind. It isn't a very organized group, so they're bound to leave something or another here," The knight turned to Voulge.

"Coming?"

Looking around the rundown HQ of the riders, Ignis and Licht started to float around the entrance to examine the area. "No wonder you left this place...This place is a complete shithole." While the SPs freely explored the area, Voulge kept his guard up as he kept the Lancea close to his grasp. There was a high chance that viruses took over the abandoned building, remnants of the Riders still remaining, or safety protocol still active within. However, the navi continued along with Lord Slayer as he walked with him to the gate without a word to say...

Voulge, Ignis, Licht, and Lord Slayer wandered around the dilapidated place, finding not much of anything but wear and tear on surfaces. There were some documents lying about, but reading them didn't reveal anything very interesting.

"Hm, looks like this is a recipe for Beef Bourginoun. Oh well," Lord Slayer commented, throwing away one document. "I wonder if they left anything in the head office or the safe... Where you want to go first?"

"The safe would have a better chance of having valuable informations." Voulge looked around the eriee hallway, still cautious about the surroundings. "It could have warded off any data hungry viruses or theives and, from the look of it picking up the recipe off the ground and examining it. They were in a big hurry. I'm sure erasing the datas from the head office would be faster and efficent compare to taking care of the terabyte worth in the safe."

((type this on the iPod...expect grammar/spelling errors))

"A logical conclusion. Let's be off," Lord Slayer announced pompously, leading them down the stairs.

--

It smelled rank in the basement, but it didn't seem that the odor was emanating from anything poisonous, so the four didn't mind as Lord Slayer led them through a hallway to a heavily sealed door.

"Locked... but for what purpose? The actual safe is much further in..." Lord Slayer muttered, stabbing the middle of the door with his sword, which passed easily through it. Grunting, he turned his sword horizontally, a glyph appearing on the door.

"ACCESS CONFIRMED. HAVE A NICE DAY." an automated voice called out as Lord Slayer sheathed his sword while the door moved to the side.

"Were they expecting me? No matter, let us proceed," Lord Slayer mused as he led the group further in.

--

A large safe-like object was located in the back, and Lord Slayer repeated the same process he did with the sealed door earlier. The door swung open with loud, annoying creaking noises revealing...

...a black colored hardrive on a shelf.

"Oh! This could be useful," the knight commented merrily as he reached out toward the harddrive....

Voulge followed Lord Slayer through the stairs and the specially locked gates, but he still had his guard up all the way. When they finally reached the safe, the navi was uneasy about how easy this entire situation was. Of course this place was deserted, but the way LS simply walked through the gates was what set him off.

"Oh! This could be useful,"

Voulge returned to his sense as he saw the navi reach for the black hardrive. "WAIT!". Instantly having the Lancea on his hands, it literally took less than a second for Voulge to position the weapon over his shoulder and sent the weapon flying right towards the safe, hoping to momentarily stop the navi from continuing his haphazard decision.

[Voulge: Disarmed]

Voulge, sensing all sorts of immediate danger, starts the throw his Lancea, but the moment Lord Slayer placed his hand on the harddrive, everything went dark.

--

"Ho ho..."

--

Voulge snapped awake, his SPs rose to consciousness too. It had been five minutes since they were knocked unconscious and Lord Slayer was nowhere to be found. Pulling himself up, the jouster twirled his lance once before stopping in thought.

What should he do?

[Find Lord Slayer]
[Leave]
[Wait]
[Jack Out]

Voulge saw the Lancea flying right towards the safe, gritting his teeth to hope that Lord Slayer would stop at his track. But it was too late before everything went dark and the navi felt weak at his knees. "Curses..."

---

A moment passed before Voulge awoke from his short slumber and quickly got back to his feet, looking around to see what happened. "*YAWWN*...What the hell just happened?" The navi looked all over the safe room, finding no trace of Lord Slayer that was once right in front of him. He knew this was a trap, but this was also his fault for stepping into it so blindly. Voulge tugged the chain of his Lancea to bring it back to his palm and began to search the safe for any clues of Lord Slayer...

[Voulge: Find Lord Slayer]

Voulge decided to look for Lord Slayer, so he came back the way he came, and back to the main entrance.

The problem was....

...how the fuck was he going to pinpoint his location?

In response to this thought, the Holy Symbol that embedded itself on Voulge's lancea earlier lit up, the cross-shape glowing brightly and annoyingly.

On closer look, the left edge of the cross seemed to be longer than the other stems.

To Voulge's left there are...

[Stairs]
[Hallway]

((SHADOW OF COLOSSUS TIME!))

Seeing the insignia was glowing brightly as it was before when he first encountered Lord Slayer, Voulge decided to use this to find out where the navi disappeared into. He lifted the Lancea just above his head to see how and where the blade shined towards to. "Awfully handy...Lets just hope it leads us thet right way." The light shined towards the left, pointing towards both the stairs and the hallway. "...Fucking Cliche."

Voulge lowered his weapon and began walking towards the basement hallway, treading back through the once-locked gates again...

[Voulge: Hallway]

Voulge did not, as he assumed he did, go toward the basement, since he was on the first floor at the main entrance.

But he did go into a hallway.

Traversing through this hallway revealed that the Riders did not like doors unless it was to protect something valuable, thus, there were just rows of open doorframes.

The cross extended straight ahead and Voulge followed, but he came to another fork.

[Stairs]
[Straight]
[Go back]
[Check out a room even though you already did all of that]

Voulge decided to walk straight, seeing that there would be nothing valuable in the open rooms.

[Straight]

Voulge met with...

...a dead end.

Well, there was always that stairwell that he just passed a moment back.

Deciding that was the best option, Voulge went up the stairs.

The Crest symbol seemed to glowing brightly and... spinning? Was it trying to get a fix on Lord Slayer?

It didn't look like it would stop anytime soon...

What should he do?

[Wait for it to stop spinning]
[Wander]