-Color: Veins of a New World-

When Helios's wound was reopened Ilene's gaze was immediately transfixed upon it. To her surprise she  easily resisted the temptation. It must be because I already fed. this thought sickened her, none the less she stared for an uncomfortably long time. Why does blood do this to me? She didn't get much time to think about it before Cakis revealed the truth. Her mind immediately went to her last memories. I was in a battle of sorts, when this radiant figure came. That bright flash must have killed me... But what was thing? The first thing that came to mind was an angel. She swallowed Then what does that make me? Replaying recent events there was one logical one conclusion. Despite the evidence she denied it I'm not a demon... I can't be...

The doctor's voice shouted through the forest. It was shrouded by echos and sounded a little calmer, though not by a lot. "Zat little fool is right! Jou are all dead!" The forest vibrated a little while he was talking. He rambled on, "Not only are jou dead, but soon to be nonexistent! How do jou like zat, filth!?" He laughed in his giant voice. It was followed with a distorted sound and then everything was quiet.

Cakis made an annoyed sound. "And apparently, if we don't join the Deathcapp society, we're all going to become wiped from the face of existence," he stated, following it with a sarcastic remark, "How lovely."

Briana cringed at that voice. The very sound of it made her nauseous.

Raik was clearly disturbed, but Kairn, as usual, did his best to take it all in stride. He nodded at Gwyneth, saying, "yes, we should head out. As quickly and quietly as possible." He glared briefly at Faez and Steelio. "The only question is, where do we go?"

That was far from the only question, though. For some reason, something felt very wrong with this being the afterlife. He couldn't quite figure out what it was, but it seemed like he really shouldn't have been there. Another good question, who are the Deathcapps, and what do they want? However, Kairn decided a much more intriguing question, due to the answer being so possibly useful, was something a bit simpler.
Why could he feel his brother's position? He even got a hint of the fear Raik must have felt when he was informed that he was dead, though only just. It was... odd... And oddly familiar.

Safina sighed as she listened to the discussion. Helios had remembered a lot and has awesome powers, Gwyneth just now partially breathed fire.... what could she do? Safina leaned against a tree, deep in thought. She couldn't do anything while everyone else had cool abilities that help in some way. Her fingers slid over the tree bark as she thought, taking in every single detail on the feeling of the tree. Somehow, this triggered a memory in her.

Safina remembered an ability of her own. Tree morphing- all dryads could do that! She used it to hide yet also protect herself offensively, too, whenever... who attacked? Safina couldn't remember. She placed her left hand against the tree. "I remember something," she announced, smiling before disappearing into the tree. Its leaves seemed brighter and its trunk stronger. The branches seemed to move from side to side as if they had a mind of their own- which they now did. Safina then seemed to just walk out of the tree, still smiling, "Now I won't be so useless."

Cakis glanced over at Gwyneth, agreeing with the statement about the doctor, "That man is a psychopath. He plays dolls with his victims severed limbs while splashing around in the innocents' blood and other body fluids." He let his head hang down, "I guess I never properly introduced myself." He looked up around to the others, "I am Cakis, the ex-leader of the nerve control division of the Deathcapps. I am able to control and modify neurons. I've modified my nerves to not feel pain, but instead, tingle where pain should be."

The doctor screamed again from seemingly nowhere, "Jou incompetent swine! Pain is vhat strengthens you! Jou will remain weak forever visout a little pain mixed into jour life!"

Steelio was startled by the doctor's words. The voice caused him to lose balance and fall out of the tree he was climbing. It wasn't very high up, maybe 10 feet. He landed on his arm, causing it to split in half. It hung by some "threads."

Cakis instantly walked over to help, "You have to be more careful Steelio." As Cakis helped him up he noticed that his arm was snapped in half, but instead of seeing blood, he saw mechanisms and wires under his skin. Cakis looked at this for a moment, struck with disbelief. He then pushed Steelio away. "This... This thing isn't my brother!"

Helios saw Steelio fall from the tree and hit the ground. "Steelio are you alright?" he asked as he went over to him. Then he saw the wires and metal where the blood and bone should have been in the boy's arm. As Cakis pushed Steelio away, Helios moved over to him and grabbed him, making sure the android would not try to run away. "So you're not dead like us then. Who are you and why are you here?" he asked.

Ilene saw Steelio fall from the tree and his arm come apart on impact. She waited for the crimson, but it never came. After examination it appeared to be machinery instead of flesh that filled the boy. Somehow this thing had fooled her nose this whole time, or there was another possibility. "What if he somehow got replaced? I'm positive that he was real earlier." Ilene didn't let on to what she mas making this statement based on. It would probably be best not to let on that she was a predator that instinctively knew the scent of her prey.

Steelio panicked, "What?" He suddenly felt that people were against him, and looked at his snapped limb and at the devices stitched into his artificial skin on his right arm. He felt small bits of pain flickering in the mechanisms. "So what does this mean?" He didn't feel artificial at all.

Cakis sent a cold stare, "That means you're not really my brother! You're just some cold hard machine! You can't fool us!"

"Well I'm not sure when that would've happened, since I was with him most of the time." said Helios He looked back down at Steelio, who he was still holding by the arms in his viselike grip. He then realized something was different about the two arms he was holding. While the child's right arm was obviously mechanical, the left side felt like any normal arm. The difference was so much in fact that Helios stopped glaring at Steelio and released him. "Something is weird, it is like one side is robotic and the other is living. He might be a cyborg."

Safina watched in horror as Steelio fell and his arm snapped off. Truthfully she was a bit confused as of how such a thing was possible, considering falling the distance he did at that angle would cause an arm to snap off, but be crushed on the inside but still attached. Oy, this world confused her so much. When others began accusing Steelio of being a machine Safina shook her head. It couldn't be true- Steelio was so nice and he showed feeling! Steelio acted like... Steelio. Plain and simple. Helios let go of Steelio, which calmed Safina a little. "There is also the fact Steelio is acting just like himself, so he has to be more then just a machine. Steelio is Steelio," Safina smiled.

Cakis reformed his attitude, "Oh." He felt a bit stupid. He looked down in embarrassment

Something was still odd about Steelio. The presence of the metal in Steelio's arm irked Cakis. A sense of doom loomed over Steelio's shoulders, and shrouded the others. Cakis just couldn't figure out what was causing it.

Ilene was relieved that it was still Steelio. The idea of machines that could fool her scenes unnerved her. But she still had one question. "If this is the afterlife, why does he still have the artificial limb? Shouldn't it just be a stump?" Then she realized that Helios and herself both had clothes. Huh, maybe it did transfer over. She didn't mention that because she wanted to hear the others uninfluenced thoughts on the matter. Maybe Cakis knows, then again he seemed as surprised as us.

Helios turned to Faez after his outburst. "Alright, so you know a cyborg. Does he look anything like Steelio here?" he asked. He looked at Steelio then back at Faez.

***

A sudden bleeping rang out from a device on a cluttered desk. The device was mostly touchscreen and it displayed holographic lettering up into the stale air of the room. It vibrated as the resounding beep scattered through the lab. A tall mildly dark gray skinned man in a scientist's attire was startled to the point where he was awoken from his much needed sleep. He jumped to life for a fraction of a moment, but then quickly tired again. The dark circles under his eyes reassured him to remain asleep, but only after the noisy contraption was silenced. He slunk off of the bed in his lab, which he was already half astray from when he awoke. He slowly came to a point of standing, though his stance was slouched, hence his grogginess. He scratched himself on his shoulder, and yawned loudly. He trudged towards the vile noise like a drunk. Sleep deprivation definitely had cursed this man. Despite him being an partial insomniac, he still gets tired eventually. He flung his arm up and fiddled with the device. He rubbed his eyes and blinked multiple times, reducing the blurriness in his eyes, also in attempt to wake himself up. He stared at the device, it read, "artificial limb severed."

***

Cakis cleared his throat and questioned the others, "Well, what should we do, should we make a camp here? Should we go to the destroyed town, see if there are any supplies there?" Hopefully there were supplies there that the doctor hasn't taken. All they could do is explore the area.

Briana felt a burning in her throat. Thirst had began to set in. "I need water..." Another burning was felt in her stomach, "And I'm hungry..."

Briana's statement brought Kairn back to his senses.  He didn't know what was going on, but they still had to survive, and that required him to stop staring into space.  He realized that the effect he had noticed earlier, his connection to Raik, seemed to be wearing off, and wondered where it had come from in the first place.  He was interrupted by Raik nudging his shoulder with his nose.

"Kairn... I'm hungry too," he stated plainly.

Kairn nodded and led his brother away from the main group.  When they were out of earshot he spoke quietly.  "Look, this is the part where we have to abandon them," he said firmly, "the group there as a whole could never survive.  Most of them can't even hunt, let alone fight."

Raik whimpered, he was clearly uncomfortable with leaving his new friends behind.  "Can't we take any of them with us?  Pleeeaseeee?"

Kairn looked at his brother, examining his face, for a long moment.  Then he nodded solemnly.  "Very well," he said, "who did you have in mind?"

Raik almost panicked.  He couldn't pick just one, that meant the others might starve!  But...
Kairn was right, they couldn't support the entire group.  Staying with them would only lead to everyone starving, along with them all being much easier to spot.

So who did he want to take with them?  It was a question that required a lot of thought, but they didn't have much time.  He looked at each person, all still examining Cakis, until his gaze rested on one.  He gulped.

"Faez."

Ilene felt fine, but she decided to play along. "I don't think we should stay here. We didn't get all of the Deathcapp's, nor their lunatic leader." She looked around at everyone and continued. "I think we should make a camp in a safe place, then send some of us out to look for food, water and supplies." Upon saying the words her mind was already made up, she motioned for those in agreement to follow. "We should move before they find us." Ilene was more worried about her companions. She turned and scanned the woods one last time. If that sick freak comes after us I'll kill him.

Kairn stared at his brother. Sometimes he simply couldn't believe they were the same age. After a moment of silence passed, he shook his head slowly. "Raik," he said, "you know Faez is unlikely to be able to take care of himself. And besides that, do you really think he would want to leave everyone?"

Raik growled quietly, "I don't want to leave either!"

Kairn looked at the ground, shaking his head. "Do you really see this group managing not only go get enough food, but to fight off whatever those things were that were hunting us?" He locked eyes with his brother, a firm but caring gaze. "I'm sorry, but I do not see it."

Raik shook his head abruptly, backing up a step, "you said pick anyone, I picked someone! If he doesn't want to come, that's fine, but you won't even ask!"

The words came out much louder than he meant for them to, and his ears instantly drooped. He clamped his mouth shut and stared, wide-eyed, at the group not far away.

Safina had been listening for a while now to the conversation.  It was true, she hadn't realized until that moment that she was hungry, as well.  And thirsty.  Safina shrugged off the hunger when hunting was suggested.  She would just have to look for some vegetation- she felt too guilty eating meat.  She just pictured the cute little animal the meat used to be.  She just couldn't.

Safina turned to the two wolves that were present, both seemed a bit upset. "What's wrong?" she asked, stepping towards them and away from the group.