Raphael awakes with a grunt. He swats away Teruin, who is poking him repeatedly in the side. “Hey!” she says in retort against Raphael's swat. “You told me to wake ya up when we're about to open the portal, didn' ya!?”
“Hmm...” Raphael grunts as his eyes adjust to the surroundings. Like a sudden flash, everything comes rushing back to him at once. “Oh!” he yells out, shooting up into a sitting position. “The portal tech's are almost done? Come on, Teru', give me a boost up!”
Teruin offers Raphael her hand and then lifts him up to his feet after he grabs a hold of it. Raphael looks around the room and sees that the rest of the task force is standing inside of the room.
Miyra looks uppity and ready to fight, expressing how much youth and energy she still has in her body. Quib looks dehydrated and hungry, but she shuns getting any nourishment. For some reason, she doesn't want to eat until she finishes her mission. Urt looks the worst out of all of them. His eyes are sagging and Raphael can see that his swinging arm is starting to grow weak. Urt needs rest, but unfortunately, no one is going to get it until they retrieve June from Sherah's grasp.
Raphael yells out “Everybody, give me your attention!” before walking into the center of the room. He looks over his men and realizes that the one thing that they need right now is a firm and planned-out course of action for when they move through the portal that everyone agrees with and understands. “Alright, here's the plan for when that portal opens up. Since we don't know the exact layout of the area that we're going into, we're going to do a full-frontal assault.” At this point, Raphael can tell that his plan of action isn't increasing morale.
Thinking on his feet, Raphael continues the briefing. “But don't freight, because while everyone else is distracting the Demu in the fort, I'm going to do something similar to what we did yesterday.” Raphael activates his angel mode and then begins speaking to them in his new angelic voice, getting a stark and unexpected response from the group.
“But this time, I'll use a combination of my angel mode, flight, and wall-phasing abilities to allow me to phase out of the building as soon as I get inside of it. I will fly straight out of the ceiling and into the air. Afterward, I'll look around the area from my sky view and see if I can find the next portal generator. Once I find it, I'll fly down as fast as I can into the portal room, hopefully before Sherah gets through it.” he turns his head over to Miyra and says “Miyra, do you have any idea where the portal room might be in the next area? You might be able to find it using your thermal reader.”
Miyra thinks for a second before answering Raphael. “My thermal scanner only works through overhead satellites orbiting whichever planet I'm on, so the scanner probably won't work....” Before Raphael can say a word, Miyra pulls out a small kaleidoscope-like device from her pocket and holds it up to her eye. She looks through the lens and then nods her head. “Cool, it still works. Listen, even though my thermal scanner might not work where we're going, this thermal UH reader will probably let you see where the portal generator is at. What you should do is bring this with you while we're assaulting the place and try to make out the largest heat signature inside the base. Once you find it, then you'll know where the next portal is at.”
Raphael walks over to Miyra and extends his hand to her. She places the thermal UH reader in his hands before he takes a few steps back into the center of the room. He looks through the device for a second before stashing it into his pocket. “Okay, a few more orders of business before we go. Teru', have you heard anything from Marinth since I've been asleep?”
“Yeah, Boss-man.” says Teruin while fiddling with her short hair. “He said that that portal disruptor of his has about three more hours left in it before he gotta let it cool, and that was about two and a half hours ago. We don't got much more time before their portal generator will get them to their next destination, so we gotta get a move on if we wanna catch up with Sherah and June.”
Raphael tilts his head down for a few moments before tilting it back up and speaking again. “The portal map, how is it's deciphering going so far?”
Teruin looks at Raphael with her purple eyes and says “It's goin' pretty well so far. We've gotten past the next few portals and have nearly linked it all the way back to planet Demu. Unfortunately, we've found that Sherah has only three more portals to go before she's behind enemy lines, so we really gotta get a move on if we wanna catch her in time.”
Raphael looks over his squad after Teruin is finished speaking. They all look beaten and battered. He can tell that everyone really could use some rest and that morale is slowly lowering, but they have no other choice but to move on in pursuit of Sherah. If they lose June, then there will be no other hope, it will all be over.... “Alright everyone, listen up! We're going to go through that portal and we're going to get her back!”
A sudden thought hits Raphael. He could cement his plan's further and completely stop Sherah, even if the JB doesn't get to her in time. His hand flashes to his communication device and he quickly calls in Marinth. “Hello? Marinth? Listen, I was told that you have uncovered most of the portal map, is that correct?”
A stark and confused response comes over the communication device. “What? Hold on. Who are you and why are you talking over the commander's communication device?”
Raphael let's his head hang while massaging his forehead with his free hand. He almost forgot that his voice changes when he is in his angel mode. Although he wishes to explain himself further to Marinth, he knows that time is growing short. “Marinth, it's me, Commander Raphael. My voice only sounds different because I'm in my angel mode. Since time is short, I must be blunt. I have heard through Teruin that you are nearly finished with the portal map. Is this data correct?”
Marinth can be heard on the other line sifting through papers before coming back on the line. “Yes sir, I am almost finished with portal map. All I need to do is decode the last coordinates and I'm done.”
Raphael thinks to himself for a few moments before speaking. “Also, how did the negotiations with Lendlock go for getting a better disruptor?”
A noise can be heard through the device that can only be confirmed as someone beating metal. “The negotiations went well and we already have the portal jammer in the base. There is one problem with getting it hooked up, though, and that's that we don't have enough plugs in the room to be able to hook it up without disconnecting the other jammer. Is their anything else you need, Commander?”
“Yes. Do you know how many portals Sherah has before she get's behind enemy lines?”
Marinth checks through the portal map once more and can be heard whispering to himself before coming back onto the line. “According to the map, she has to go through the desert planet of Harin, where in which two of the portal generator's both seem to be in the same building, and then she is going to go through a metal world called Ulin. The portal generators in Ulin seem to be right next to each other, if these portal coordinates are correct. After that, it seems like they're going to be going to an oxidized moon near the border of the war and then there's going to be another portal generator past the front lines, but the two generators for the portal's off of the moon both seem to not be on the moon. Just what exactly are you planning, sir?”
Raphael, after hearing those words, has formulated a strategy. He then explains it to Marinth “I think we're going to stop Sherah before she gets behind the front lines. Here's what I want you to do. I need you to hook up that new portal jammer as fast as you can after you disconnect our current jammer. Once you have finished getting it set up, I need you to jam the portal that's right after the enemy lines. If we can jam that portal, we might be able to catch back up with Sherah on that oxidized moon that you were speaking of. Now, how much more time do we have before you have to shut down the jammer?”
Marinth looks over to his jammer. The jammer is emitting a dark black smoke that is slowly starting to fill the room, but is oddly not taking the air out of the room either. He examines the timer on the device before speaking. “It looks like we've only got less than five minutes.”
“Alright. Can you hold on for a second?” Raphael moves his communication device off of his ear and then speaks to the portal techs that are decoding the Demu portal generator. “Hey you, we're ready to start up the portal generator, right?”
The portal tech, dressed in all blue and white, examines the portal computers to assure that they have an all clear. He then spins back around and gives Raphael a large thumbs up.
Raphael nods to the portal tech, acknowledging his answer. He then puts his communication device back to his ear. “Alright Marinth, I'm going to need you to stop that portal jammer. We're about to go in and I think we're going to be able to get there before your jammer stops.”
Marinth gives Raphael a quick confirmation before ending the call, mostly because he needs to get to work on the new portal jammer. Raphael examines his pistols, gauges them, and then looks back up at his comrades. He stares dead at Urt and says “Despite what you may think of me, whether it may be because of my age or how I run things, you have my word, I will Never allow June to get hurt in any shape, way or form. I know exactly how important she is. I just let her be free... I let her be free because she's important. Now, let's get her back!”
Raphael turns his back to the group after getting an inspiring hoorah from the group. With an encouraging sigh, he puts his hands, which are still holding his 1270s, into the air. His eyes are firm and focused as he opens his last three fingers on his right hand and holds them in the air, signifying to the portal techs to open the portal on his mark. His middle finger motions back to his pistol grip at a very slow pace, with his ring finger following closely by.
His angel wings are braced as his final pinky finger comes down. With a fiery determination within his eyes, he slings his left pistol toward the portal generator. Everyone behind him is leveling their weapon's toward the generator, prepared for the desperate battle that they are about to fight. When Raphael's last finger goes down, the portal techs activate the Demu portal generator. The machine slowly comes to life, but in a different way than the UMA portal generators.
Four beams of dark purple light shoot out of the rectangular device in the back of the room, them all meeting up at the device's center. Time passes as the team awaits the portal's opening. The air in the room is tense as they wait calmly, yet they still never let down their guard.
Raphael's eyes flash open further then they were before mere moments until the portal opens. He screams out “Die Demu Scum!” a second before the portal opens. His body braces downward and he launches forward into the portal as it opens. If he had been only a second early, he would have gotten stuck inside the portal, slowing his flight and making him a target to the Demu waiting inside of the room before him.
He flies through the room with his 1270's pointed in front of him. He fires them in an arc as he goes through the metal room, shooting at as many Demu as he can before flying through a hallway opposite of the portal and ramping up through the ceiling and out of the building. He hears the battle between the JB and the Demu for but a split second before he phases through the walls. He does not know how the battle goes between the two forces, but he has no time to care. The only thing that matters to him at this point is June's inevitable safety.
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Raphael examines the building underneath of him. It is a tan-colored metal building situated in the center of a massive desert that stretches out as far as he can see. The red sun above not only paints the entire desert in a dusk-like glow, but it makes the desert air feel incredibly humid and dense.
Knowing that time is short, Raphael pulls out the thermal UH reader that Miyra had given him moments ago and holds it up to his eye. He presses a button on the device and it clicks to life. He looks down at the area below him.
Unfortunately, there is a single contingency that neither Miyra nor Raphael had predicted.
Since the entire area is a desert with an overhanging mid-morning red sun, the entire building and the desert around it are all painted a bright red through the UH reader's lens.
Taking a deep breath, Raphael puts the UH reader back into his pocket and decides that he has no other choice but to fly blind into the building in hopes of finding the portal room before Sherah escapes with June. Raphael draws out his pistols, and with a mighty flap of his wings, launches himself down at the metal base below.
During his descent, he aims himself at the very back of the building, since the portal room in the last building was exactly opposite of the building's entrance. While going at a near breakneck speed, he phases through the building's roof and into the building.
After Raphael lands on the floor in a kneeling stance, he looks up to see that the room he has entered is similar to a type of locker room, but put into Demu perspective. All of the lockers are made out of a dark, evil-like metal and are not even fastened with locks. The area is made out of a deep red rock that is most likely from Harin, meaning that like the last fort, this one is made mainly out of materials from the local planet.
With a quick glance around the room, Raphael is able to make out that there are six Demu within the room. Deciding not to waste ammunition, Raphael draws out his longsword as a Demu advances toward him from the right corridor of lockers, a black sword braced in front of it.
Moments before the Demu on his right is within fighting distance, Raphael looks back to see another Demu gauging a sub-machine gun and pointing it straight toward him.
With one quick motion, Raphael parries the Demu's sword with his longsword and phases out of the way of the machine gun's bullets. Because of which, the Demu that he has just parried catches three rounds from the SMG with it's chest before the other Demu is able to stop.
Raphael appears moments later behind the SMG Demu and slices off it's head with one quick motion of his sword. Before the Demu can fall, Raphael grabs it's SMG and swings around the locker corridor to shoot at another Demu closing in down the left lane in between the lockers. His bullets hit true before the Demu can retaliate, making it fall backward to the ground. “Three down, three to go... I might want to take one of them alive so they can tell me where the portal room is at. Speaking of which, I need to hurry up here....” Raphael thinks before spinning around the end of the lockers and into the lane behind it.
Raphael continues down the corridor with his Demu SMG leveled. He has his wits about him and he's ready to take a captive, but he needs to find the remaining Demu first.
Suddenly, a pistol-wielding Demu appears from behind the far left lane and shoots a round into Raph's left leg before he can react. Luckily, his nanobots heal the injury immediately, pushing the bullet out of his leg before it can even penetrate his pants leg. The unexpected impact, however, is enough to make Raphael fall to one knee, but not enough to make him drop his sights.
Before the Demu can fire off another shell, Raphael shoots five bullets straight at the Demu. Two bullets catch it in it's lower extremities, while the remaining bullets land in it's chest plate. It falls in a heap to the ground, it's body unable to withstand the injury.
Raphael raises himself back to his feet and moves into cover behind the intersection of the lockers. “Well hell, I guess I'm gonna have ta get used to that with the freaking war I just signed into, heheh!” he thinks to himself before peaking his head around his cover. He sees no one else down the corridor. “Hmm, that's strange, I thought I sensed six people in here.... Maybe they're trying to escape?” Raphael thinks. He kneels his head down and begins focusing himself.
Through deep concentration, his eardrums are able to just barely make out the patter of feet a few locker lanes down. He looks back up and thinks again before moving in a slight jog down the right corridor. “Yeah, they're trying to escape.”
Raphael spins around the locker corridor to see two Demu sprinting out of the doorway directly in front of him. Without skipping a beat, he throws his SMG to the side and sprints with all his might toward the escaping Demu. He leaps into the air when he is within about ten feet of the last Demu and slams down on the last Demu, plowing it into the ground.
The Demu that is ahead of the other spins around when it hears the thump only to see Raphael quick draw his right 1270 and point it dead at it's head. Before it can even motion for it's sidearm, Raphael fires his gun and places a bullet straight through it's forehead.
Raphael slams the Demu he had captured moment's ago into the red rock wall with his hand to it's throat and holds up his gun to it's head. “Now, we can do this the quick way or the long way, but I'm in a hurry, so the long way is not an option.” he says while looking the Demu in it's red eyes. “You have two choices, and I'm only going to give you a short time for one of them. You can either tell me where the portal room is in this building or I can give you a brain hole so that all of the stupid can get out.” Raphael gauges his 1270 in his hand before speaking again. “You have five seconds....”
“Five....” The Demu looks Raphael dead in his eyes, apparently having no fear of the death that Raphael is insinuating.
“Four... and if you tell me, I'll tell the JB to hold you prisoner instead of killing you....” with those words, the Demu's red eyes light up in surprise. It had not expected the Guardian to be as merciful as he has just suggested.
“Three....” Raphael is cut off by the Demu waving it's hands and saying “Nolk, nolk, nolk!”
Raphael stops his count at the Demu's odd words. He only knows one language, and this language is not it. “What?” he asks with a quirk on his brow.
The Demu shakes it's head to push it's thoughts aside. “Sorry for that, I did not know that you don't speak demon. I said stop in the demon language. I will tell you what I know, just don't kill me, please!”
Before the Demu continues on, Raphael holds out his hand for him to stop. He examines his waist holster for anything to tie the Demu up with, eventually finding a pair of handcuffs. He holds them up and says “When you're finished speaking, I'm going to handcuff you to one of the pipelines. If your information is correct, then you won't see me again until we're both out of this place. If you give me false information, however, I will come back and I will kill you, understood?” putting special emphasis on the 'will' part of his explanation.
“Yes, Guardian, I understand completely. You are looking for the portal room, yes? The room you are looking for is through this room's front exit, the one that you stopped me at earlier. Exit through the doorway and take a left. Continue going left until you reach a three-way intersection and then take another left. Continue down that hallway until you see an entrance to your left. Go through there and you'll be in the portal room. I must also tell you, however, that your efforts will be in vain. Sherah will be escaping through the portal in a few mere moments and there is no way that you will be able to catch up with her before she escapes!”
While Raphael handcuffs the Demu to a nearby pipeline, he thinks quietly to himself. “Sherah is going to escape with June at any moment, and the only way to the portal room is through the hallways. Wait a minute... I need to take a left, then another left, and then a final left... hold on, that means that the portal room is right next to this room!” Raphael reverts back to his hero mode at this point, not wishing to overexert himself.
Raphael backs off from the Demu and says “Thanks for the information, but there is one thing that you didn't give any serious thinking to.”
“Oh, Guardian, and what would that be...?”
Raphael chuckles to himself, turns around and says “I can phase through walls, dumb ass.” and sprints down the locker corridor and through a wall with the Demu he had captured earlier staring at him in pure amazement. It couldn't believe that it hadn't put any thought into the Guardian having that kind of ability. It lowers it's head in defeat, now recognizing that it has just spelled out the JB's victory.
Raphael blasts through the portal room's wall to see that the Demu techs have just now finished opening the portal to the metal world of Ulin. Sherah is standing in the center of the room holding a drugged and immobile June under her right arm.
She sees Raphael appear from the wall behind the portal generator and lets out a feral scream at him, her being threatened by his holy energy.
Both Sherah and Raphael react at the same time. Sherah sprints toward the portal while Raphael draws his longsword and rushes at her. Deep in his mind, he knows that not only does he have no other choice, but Sherah would want him to kill her, to end her suffering and to keep June safe.
Raphael flips past the portal generator and rushes over to Sherah, knowing that this next strike could be the one that will end this entire ordeal. He reels his sword to his left while still sprinting toward Sherah, and he lets his sword swing wide....
Sherah ducks clear of his longsword's arc and continues past him into the portal. Once Raphael notices that his sword didn't connect with Sherah, He slides on his feet and aims himself back at the portal. Before sprinting back after Sherah, he sheathes his sword and draws out his pistols.
The remaining Demu in the room, are either preparing their rifles or are about to attempt to shut down the portal generator.
Raphael runs after Sherah into the portal while shooting his pistols off to his sides. His bullets hit all of the Demu in the room, making the rifle Demu drop to the ground while the Demu tech falls back into it's console.
Unfortunately, the Demu tech's body lands on the last key that would turn off the portal generator. Luckily, though, Raphael is able to sprint inside the portal in time, just barely clearing it before it shuts.
The next area that Raphael and Sherah arrive in they are only in for a short amount of time, but it also has the largest impact on the encounter that Sherah and Raphael are going to have moments later.
As Marinth had predicted, the portal out of Harin and the portal to the oxidized moon are in the same room, but there is also a whole battalion in the room ready and waiting for any contingency that might slow Sherah down. Raphael, however, knows that he has nowhere near enough time to deal with them, so he just sprints through the room as fast as he can after Sherah.
As he rushes through the room, a Demu with a knife leaps on his back in an attempt to slash him. Raphael is able to push him off, but the Demu's knife slashes the back strap for Raphael's longsword sheath. The sheath and sword fly off of Raphael's back along with the Demu.
Raphael is shoot at from his left when he is halfway through the room. He dodges most of the bullets, but one of them catches his back left pocket where his recharger is at. The bullet doesn't destroy the recharger, since they are basically indestructible at this point in history, but it does make a large enough hole in his pocket to cause his recharger to fall out indiscriminately without him noticing.
Right before he escapes through the portal after Sherah, he feels a light sting in his right forearm. That sting is from a specially created anti-holy magic dart that is specifically made by the Demu to stop holy creatures, and since all of Raphael's magic stems from his holy powers as the Guardian, that dart completely stops his ability to use magical spells.
Before Raphael enters the portal, he arcs himself and fires a round into a Demu across the room monitoring the portal generator. His bullet hits true, slamming dead in the center of the Demu's head and causing it to fall face down on the generator's console, which also causes the portal Raphael is going through to close right after he passes through it.
Now Raphael is on an oxidized moon somewhere in the middle of outer space. Oddly enough, the center of gravity on this moon is extremely balanced. It's completely similar to the gravity on Raphael's earth.
As Raphael follows after Sherah, he can see off in the distance another portal leading off into a far-distant land. “Dammit,” he thinks “Marinth better be ready with that portal jammer!”
“Sherah!!” he screams through the still-air of the moon. “Sherah! If you can hear me and if you still care about June, then please stop!”
But she doesn't hear him, the Demu possessor now has complete and absolute control of her. The Sherah that June knows, the real Sherah, is now dying, laying half-dead within her subconscious, barely grasping at the little light that still remains within her soul.
Suddenly, the portal that Sherah is so desperately trying to reach disappears into thin air. Sherah let's out a feral, angered screech as the portal shuts. She pushes her head into the air as she screams, letting out the bestial anger that now looms within her.
Raphael stops as he notices the portal shutting and let's out a grimace. But that grimace is replaced with a look of tension as Sherah screams into the air.
When she screams, Raphael knows that there is absolutely no hope left... Sherah is gone....
He raises both of his pistols toward Sherah and says in a mighty voice “Sherah!”She turns around and looks dead back at the two guns in his hands. With fire in Raphael's eyes, he says in the bravest voice he can muster “You used to protect her, but now you threaten her very existence... Sherah, or whatever you are now, you leave me no other choice....” Raphael's trigger fingers tighten as the fire in his eyes continues to illuminate even hotter. Sherah, on the other hand, just stares back at him with an evil look on her face. With a great roar, Raphael screams out “This ends, now!” and he pulls the trigger....