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Post by Max on Nov 9, 2007 12:49:52 GMT -5
The air was thick with water and the waters were a clear sparkling blue as the day dawned. Few were here on this island, it was a part of Hawaii, but one of the smaller islands. Max had chosen to rest in the part that people did not populate. It had been a long journey over. Max hadn't flown the entire way; she doubted she could do that. Hawaii was a lot father from the mainland than people realized. Instead, she had surrepitously followed a cruise ship, then when night had fallen she became just another passenger. Max had been fortunate enough to find a lost ID card upon landing on the ship. The cards did not have pictures on them, only a name. Cruise ships were not overly cautious about people flying in without paying for the cruise. The card had proved invaluable; Max had heavily partaken of the endless buffet. Now her backpack was filled with all manner of nonperishable foods she had managed to smuggle off the buffet. She had eaten well, the best she'd eaten since escaping. The escaped experiment had stayed on the ship for a whole day. Most of the day was spent eating, though she did sleep on deck a little and casually pick up some information. When the day had passed, the ship was close to the islands, judging by the seagulls. Max flew off a bit reluctantly, loathe to leave the steady supply of food. Then she had landed here, on this nearly deserted island. The way Max saw it, the scientists would probably not check Hawaii first, considering they knew she couldn't fly across. But she was smarter than she let on to even them, and they already considered her one of the world's smartest humans. Or mostly human, that is.
Max stood on the beach now, munching on an energy bar. Her high metabolism meant she had to eat constantly, especially after flying for a while. Finishing it rapidly, she gazed around. The beach was empty save for a few sand pipers comically scuttling around the waves, searching for food. It was nice to not worry about being seen, Max reflected, stretching her wings. She wore a black tank top that had been specially modified so that her wings could poke out the back. Her jeans were slightly wet and a bit sandy, but Max had never really been one to worry about extreme cleanliness. Folding her wings comfortably behind herself, she tried to think of something to do. Her gray-blue eyes settled upon a volcano a bit of a ways off. That sparked an idea in her mind. It would be great fun to dive down into that volcano. She wondered what the inside would be like. Would it be warm? Or was it an extinct volcano? Did it create a windless sort of vaccum, with no air current? Well, she'd have to find out. Taking a few long runnning strides down the beach, Max launched herself into the air. Wheeling about, she flew towards the volcano, her black wings steadily beating. Now this would be fun.
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 9, 2007 23:36:30 GMT -5
Cameron had been to this island before. It had been several days ago and it had not been a pleasant experience for him. He had endured being taken over by a demonic entity and that was not a pleasant thing. Cameron had been possessed for quite a few days and therefore had done a good number of things that he regretted. He was returned to the island to see if there was anything that he could see that would help him find his first victim, Arai. He wondered if she had gotten away. He didn’t know if she had ever gotten off the island. She had sustained so many injures during their fight that he wasn’t sure that she would be able to escape on her own accord. This was the first time that Cameron had a chance to come back and check to see if she had survived. So, naturally, this was the first thing he did. If he found her, he would apologize, however it was unlikely that it would do any good. She had endured a lot at his hands.
Cameron was alone on this excursion. He did not need military men; he did not need firepower for this. It was day and Arai would no longer be in her werewolf form if she was still here. He only carried a pistol on his leg and another on his waist. He carried two extra clips just in case something actually did happen. He walked across the island and saw where the helicopter had exploded and the dead militia bodies were still on the ground. The lighthouse still stood out and Cameron decided to go there. It would be a good place to go and he figured Arai would go there if she had to. Cameron was walking in his camo pants and light brown shirt when he saw a rather large bird flying towards the volcano on the far end of the mountain. It was the biggest bird he had ever seen. Cameron reached into his pocket and took out a small pair of binoculars and looked at the bird. What the? It wasn’t a bird at all! It was a….girl! She had wings?! How was that possible? What kind of messed up stuff was going on?! First vampires and werewolves and demons and now this. Great, how much weirder could this world get?
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Post by Max on Nov 10, 2007 0:17:57 GMT -5
Unaware that her flight was detected, Max landed on the edge of the volcano, her wings flaring out to the side to steady her perch. On tiptoes she precariously balanced on the thin crust of the volcano's top, looking down into the depths. It seemed no warmer than the rest of the air; this volcano was more than likely not active. It was deep enough that even her keen eyes could not distinguish the bottom. Well, she thought with a daring grin, she would just have to go have a look. With one jump, Max flung herself into the middle of the volcano. She was an expert at flight navigation in small spaces; it would not do to be too near to the edges and tear herself up on the rocks. Freefalling, Max's wings were tucked securely against her, streamlining her slender body. Her eyes watered as she plummeted, and a rapturous smile cut across her face. The adrenaline pounded in her head, slowing down time. Her fall seemed endless. It began to, after a second or two, get cooler as she got deeper into the earth. Finally, she braked hard, her wings spreading to their full length, acting as a natural parachute. Her legs automatically came up as the result of many flights, and she landed gracefully, her pinons brushing the ground. Standing to her full 5'11" height, Max gazed around. It was large down here, very large, and nothing grew. Looking up, her blue-gray eyes could see a large circle of light. It shone down on her, highlighting the tiny dust motes that she had stirred up. The edges of the volcano were dark, for the light did not reach them. Cautiously, Max tapped the ground with her foot, picking up a dislodged rock in her hand. The floor and rock were porous, all hardened magma. No wind blew here, no lift was present. For the first time Max wondered how deep this thing was. One thing was for sure; this was going to be a lot harder to get out than it was to get in.
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 10, 2007 16:00:22 GMT -5
Wait, did she just? She didn't? Did she? She just dove into the freaking volcano! Who in their right mind would want to do that? Cameron sort of stood with his mouth half open. What else could he do, he had just witnessed the first ever flying person commit suicide by jumping into a volcano! It wasn't active and there probably wasn't magma at the bottom, but there wasn't any way she could get out of there without help from outside forces, unless she was like totally an awesome flier. Cameron was trying to decide what to do now. He was walking towards the volcano anyway, but it was going to be a while before he actually got to the climax of the mountain. Thankfully it was the smallest one of all the Hawaiian islands. As Cameron walked he kept thinking about what he had just seen, wonderinf if it was just his eyes playing tricks on him. He doubted this because his eyes simply did not play tricks on him. Cameron finally reached the base of the volcano. He sighed, here we go.
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Post by Max on Nov 10, 2007 17:02:30 GMT -5
Shaking her head regretfully, Max stared up at the top. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to fly into a windless volcano. Though, she reflected with an impish grin, it had been well worth it for the fall. The adrenaline had begun to leave her, her breathing slowing and her heart beating steadily. To a normal human, it would have been way too fast, but the bird genes meant her heart beat at a rapid clip. Crouching a bit to the side of the open hole just in case some plane flew over, Max thought. Her mind flew through the possibilities. She could fly out, but that would burn a ton of calories and take a while. With no steady food supply, she decided to only do that unless there was nothing else to do. Then her mind struck on an idea. In her geology lessons, she had learned about lava tubes, natural tunnels under volcanos that were carved out by lava. That was a possibility. Max began to search along the walls, her hands brushing against the rough, pebbly stone. Her pupils were widened to the extreme, taking in all the light they could. Her night vision was about the same as a cat's, so she could see reasonably well. Finally, about halfway around, she found a small tunnel. The top of the rough arc was at about five feet. If she wanted to get out this way, Max would have to go on her hands and knees. Tucking in her wings tightly, she peered down the tunnel. Not much was visible except for black rock and darkness. But the tunnel did seem to slope upwards; maybe it led out somewhere.Taking a deep breath, Max began her journey underneath the island, making sure to feel ahead of herself with her hands. Good thing she wasn't claustrophobic, she reflected.
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 10, 2007 17:19:24 GMT -5
It was terribly difficult to climb up a mountain, especially one that happened to be a volcano and he had to watch out for false footing. Cameron used his hands and feet to climb, he didn't mind getting dirty. He walked, and at times he crawled and at times he did a little of both at the same time. He would wondered time and again if this was really worth it or not. Flying people were pretty unusual, well frankly, you just didn't see them ever, but Cameron was starting to think about whether or not this girl could actually help his cause. One thing that he knew for sure was that the vampires would be attacking, in two days probably. He had already started all of defenses and such. Cameron kept thinking as he climbed. However, about halfway up, he hit a rock that wasn't a rock and he fell clean through into some sort of cave, with the broken lave falling over and around him.
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Post by Max on Nov 10, 2007 23:35:32 GMT -5
Continuing her exploration, Max had found that the narrow tunnel widened about a hundred yards in. Now she stood, steadily but cautiously continuing on up the tube. It definitely traveled in some sort of upwards direction; her internal compass told her that. Her wings were spread out slightly, the tips brushing the walls so that she didn't accidently stumble into a mass of the porous black rock. No longer able to touch the sides with her hands, Max continued on, her eyes catching no light. The darkness was slightly eerie, completely silent and void of any light. It was almost like unconsciousness, with her own rapid heartbeat thudding in her ears and her feet slowly stepping up and down, relying on trust that there was a floor there. After an undefined time - for it seemed in the void there was no time - her wings no longer touched the walls, not even stretched to their full 11 foot span. Max employed a trick she had learned as a child. If one had good enough hearing, you could hear the echoes in the room and sense how big it was. Snapping her fingers, she cocked her head, listening to the clicking echoes. It was a fairly big cavern she was in; the island couldn't reach that deeply, so she figured there had to be a connection to the surface somewhere. Reaching out her hands, Max felt in front of her until she hit a wall, nearly skinning the surface of her hands on the rough, sharp rocks. Without warning, light burst into the room. And, judging by the solid, meaty thud, so did a being. Instinctively Max pressed agains the wall, wings folded tightly behind her back. She almost blended in, except for her pale skin and dark blonde hair. She stayed motionless, barely breathing, as the dust cleared and debri stopped falling down the hole. Sometimes, if a person did not expect to see something, their mind did not register it. Max dearly hoped this was the case as she watched, unmoving, as the human male stood.
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 11, 2007 13:34:06 GMT -5
Well the fall didn’t exactly feel pleasant and Cameron shook his head as he stood, some of the soot from the fall, falling off of his body. His shirt had ripped and he sighed. “This is my favorite shirt.” He said, ripping it the rest of the way and throwing it down onto the ground. It was a funny comment because Cameron had about twenty of the same exact shirt at home. Cameron looked into the cave he had just fallen into. He took a few steps forward, avoiding the large rocks, the smaller ones being crushed under his feet. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the lighting of the room but he could already start to tell that it was a fairly large sized cavern. He looked down and checked that both of his sidearms were with him. He didn’t want to go anywhere unprepared. Cameron kept walking a bit further, his back and chest fully exposed because of his lack of shirt. He didn’t really care, Hawaii was a warm place.
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Post by Max on Nov 11, 2007 13:59:45 GMT -5
Max stayed pressed to the wall as the military man walked towards her. She could tell he was some sort of enforcement judging by the sidearms, the ready-for-action aura that surrounded him, and his muscular frame. She did not look at it like most girls would, lusting after him or his buffness, but just with curiosity. Mentally she willed him to walk away. If he got too close he would see her. If he did have to move this way, she hoped that he would walk down the tunnel at least long enough for her to fly out of the hole he had just created. Her analytical mind assessed that hole. The cavern was big, but wider than it was tall. The hole he had fallen through was a bit bigger than him, probably around six feet in diameter. Not big enough for her wings to fit through. Max could just tuck them in, but that would mean she would have to get up enough momentum to propel herself vertically up the hole. That, she mused, was the difficult part. Once she was landside again, it would be simple to evade this human. He didn't know there was a flying girl on the island - or so she thought - and hence would not be looking for her. When his head was turned as he surveyed the cavern, Max quickly slid a bit to the side. Either way, she was getting out of here. It crossed her mind that it was strange for him to be on this side of the island; no one populated this side, something about the tides and the low altitude kept them away. It mattered not. As long as she was in the air and free again.
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 12, 2007 18:54:36 GMT -5
The vastness of the cavern made Cameron feel a bit paranoid. He wasn’t a paranoid usually, but he didn’t know what was in this place and he never liked the unknown. Cameron didn’t want to be caught off guard. He unsnapped the straps from the holsters for his firearms. The pistol on his leg had a small flashlight and he was going to implement it. Cameron took out the gun and flicked on the flashlight and began to point it into the corners of the cavern. In the corner of his eyes he saw something move and he switched his flashlight to where he had seen the movement. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but he took a few steps closer and then he saw a girl pressed against the wall. She had wings and Cameron guessed that she was the same girl that he had seen earlier. He pointed his sidearm at her and raised his other hand, “Its alright, I am not going to hurt you.” Cameron said. He guessed she was the only one that was here. He didn’t think that there would be two running around here. “I am a marine; I don’t want to hurt you.” He said, trying to be calming and nice.
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Post by Max on Nov 12, 2007 19:11:15 GMT -5
Crap, he had a light. Max mentally cursed as he began to sweep it around the cavern. She should have known it wouldn't be as easy as she had hoped. Trying to move around, out of sight, she was suddenly blinded a bit by the flash of the light as it pointed right at her. Then it lowered a bit, and she saw the man looking at her. He had a strange look on his face, and she knew he had seen the wings. Well, Max mused, this was an interesting predicament. Marines, huh? Supposedly they stood to protect, but then again, scientists were supposed to help mankind, not experiment on them. With a sneer, she reflected that nothing was as it was supposed to be. Maybe she could get out of this by acting like a foreigner. "Don't want to hurt me?" she spat out in rapid French, "I doubt that. 'Look at the bird girl' you are probably thinking, 'let's take her back and do tests on her to see if she's real!" Max, when cornered, was rather vicious. And it helped that she could back it up. At the lab she had been trained in almost every form of hand-to-hand combat known, then combined them all for a totally unique fighting style. She was also immensely strong, though anyone looking at the 5'11" slender teen might not think so. Her mind raced, furiously trying to work a way out of this. He had a gun; for now she would not attack unless he charged first.
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 12, 2007 19:50:24 GMT -5
She spoke English, which was good. Why she chose to yell at him in French he couldn’t be sure. French was one of the languages that he had not learned and therefore had no idea what she had just said to him. He was going to speak in English. He knew other languages like German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and a few others, but he rarely used them. They were just required in his field of work. “I don’t speak French, perhaps you could try Spanish or English, I could understand what you are saying and we could come to an understanding of some kind.” Cameron said, not trying to be mean, but adding a reassuring tone to his voice, which was already soft. He was dealing with a female and from the sound of it, a disgruntled one at that. He didn’t want anything bad to happen. He didn’t know what she was capable of. He wanted to be on her good side rather than on her bad side.
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Post by Max on Nov 12, 2007 21:37:55 GMT -5
Max glared at him suspiciously, all systems on high alert as her body tensed for action. She was slender, but very lithe and sinewy. The muscles on her arms were taut and her wings were slightly flared, ready to fight anything that would attack her. He didn't speak French; this amused her greatly. He more than likely knew Spanish, she thought, and he confirmed it within a few seconds. "An understanding?" she growled incredulously, "About what? I doubt the elite military," here she added a bit of sarcasm, "prepared you for interaction with hybrids." Max didn't feel at all wary about sharing this last piece of information with him; he had probably guessed as much from the wings. What he didn't know was that she was the result of a long process of illegal experimentation on humans. She decided to keep that fact to herself. Considering that as soon as there was an opening to escape she would be gone, that fact would do nothing to help her. For now it was a face-off of sorts. "What do you want from me?" she asked warily. Her mind had deduced that he had more than likely had seen her earlier; what other explanation did he have for being on a nearly deserted island?
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Post by Cameron Michaels on Nov 12, 2007 21:46:48 GMT -5
Cameron kept his gun aimed at the girl. He probably would have lowered it by now had it not been for her hostile tone. He did not appreciate being snapped at, even if he was being a little bit aggressive by using his firearm. However, what else could she expect, Cameron didn't know who or what she was. He was going to be cautious. He heard her ask him what sort of understand that they could come to. He frankly didn't really know, but he didn't want to waist an opportunity to speak with something like this. You didn't see a girl with wings everyday. You didn't see a girl with wings any day. Cameron answered her in a soft and calm voice, "What are you? You said a hybrid? I hybrid of what? Human and....well the last time i check birds and humans can't mate." Cameron said.
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Post by Max on Nov 12, 2007 21:53:43 GMT -5
He still had that gun pointed at her; her defenses were up all the higher. A man she could defeat with ease, but even she couldn't dodge a bullet. Though she at times wished she didn't exist, her vitality and love for life was too great to do anything suicidal. Purposefully she kept her arms against her side, concealing the purple-blue scars that dotted the inside of her elbows permanantly from sixteen years of needles. "Yes, a hybrid," she replied cooly, "Bird and human. And no, that's not physically possible for a bird and a human to mate. My parents were neither; my DNA was what was tampered with, not my parentage." Her wings shifted uneasily. This human was discovering far too much about her for her liking, but she still couldn't escape, not with the round barrel of the gun staring her down. Her blue-gray eyes constantly scanned the situation, waiting for any opportunity out to present itself.
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