(OOC: Continued from Stage 2, Ground Assault. Going to do a little time jump for Neena, to cut down on post length. (Yes, it really is shorter than it could be. ) Open to anyone who wants to join, but (stealing Sonya's idea ) limited to three, including Neena. Her current appearance can be found here.)

Once contented with the fact that the kids were either safe or on their way to safety, Neena switched gears. There were several guards that needed a serious talking to, and a bit of corrective punishment.

Two of them hadn't survived the first attacks; Neena didn't even break stride as she passed the bloodied corpses. The third she found cowering in a corner of the Mess Hall with another of his buddies. Surely was a sight to see, but to her mind it would have been a comical sight; she couldn't understand the fear in the man's eyes at her rag-tag appearance. Maybe he was simply reacting to the goings-on outside. Either way, he obviously wanted nothing to do with her, but wasn't expecting her to be up to speed.

<"Energy feels good!"> She smiled and allowed the other man to make it past her and out the door, before dropping to the ground and snapping her spear out in a wide arc. The blow caught the man's ankles, sending him sprawling. With her eyes covered as they were, he must have assumed she couldn't see.

<"And we know what happens when you assume,"> she kept up the running commentary in her head.

Another swing landed on the man's back as he tried to scuttle away, then her foot came down hard on one hand, hard enough crack the wrist. He rolled over, crying, then froze as the sharp point pressed into his neck.

"Don't move darlin', or you may, find it hard to breath normally." She stepped on his good wrist, effectively pinning him in place. "Now then, we've got some back payment to collect."

"Back payment?" He eyed her, hardly daring to breath since each breath reemphasized the point in his neck. This was far from the clumsy, inept, bumbling wench he'd persecuted for months. Her smile had disappeared, leaving her face blank. This was more of a deadly shadow, dark all around. Had he been able to see her eyes, he likely would have tried to run anyway.

Neena tilted her head slightly. "I guess the actual word is 'payback'. You remember Linda, don't you?"

Linda had been a thirteen-year-old with a plant-related mutation, caught and tossed in the camps with everyone else. The man on the floor in front of Neena had attempted to rape the girl one evening, when the camps first began. Neena had stepped in to stop it, offering herself in the girl's place. A week later Linda had ended up in the Infirmary, a victim of gang-rape. She'd died two days later. Judging from his expression, the man didn't remember, which incensed Neena. She pressed the point a little deeper; if the man could have melted into the floor, he would have. His whimpering changed her expression from anger to disgust. Typical bully; a coward without his 'posse' to back him up.

She eased back on the pressure a bit, to let him breath, but there was still no option to move. She shook her head, and pulled the dagger from off the end of the her spear.

"I'm not going to lie and tell you this will be painless. Far from it, actually. But if you don't squirm too much, you may it out of this alive. Which is more than you deserve."

In a flash of movement, she leaned forward and slit the fabric of the man's uniform, at the waist. The blade was sharp, and made quick work of clothing, leaving him bare to the world. She shifted her free foot and weight, stepping directly on the man's groin. Understandably, he yelped, despite the point at his neck. She eased up enough so that it didn't puncture his windpipe. She had something else in mind, and the pain distracted him long enough that he didn't realize what she was really about to do. The blade slashed downward in a swift, concise, and well-aimed swipe.

Neena didn't so much as flinch as bloodcurdling screams echoed against the wooden walls. She quickly removed her weight from the writhing body before her, and stepped back several steps. She quirked her head and shoulders in a small shrug.

"Sorry, m'friend. But anyone who treats life like nothing more than a cheap toy, doesn't deserve to pass life on to another."

Calmly she walked over to where food was usually served and scooped up several stained rags. She returned and dropped them beside the maimed man.

"Clean yourself up. You're making a mess."

With that she turned and headed toward the door. However, she didn't make it before two large bodies blocked her way. Apparently her 'friend' on the floor had other friends.

<"Hmm.... imagine that....">

She backed up and brought her spear up in front of her in a defensive stance. Behind the blindfold she sized up the two new opponents.

(Kill count, 0)

Shade was moving quietly through the hallways of the building, making sure to find mutants and guards that were too scared to try and figure out what exactly they were suppose to be. If the person would happen to be mutant, the hooded figure would explain exactly how they were suppsoe to escape the compound. If the person happened to a guard, well let's just say it wouldn't be a pretty picture. Up til now, Shade had not stumbled across any of the prison guards yet and he was inching to spill some blood.

Seeing two figures at the end of the hall, the smirk that inhabited Shade's face slowly grew into a smile. Now maybe, he would get some action. Carefully 'jumping' closer to the pair, the invisible mutant could indeed tell that they were mutant and that they were trying to contain a mutant. One guard was already squirming on the ground, his hands gripping his testicles as they continually squirted blood.

Ouch! Shade thought to himself as he frowned slightly. However, he quickly returned his focus to the two unharmed guards. A blade quickly materialized in his hand as he closed the remaining distance in a short 'jump' behind the one of the guards. He didn't even have time to react as the flash of a shadow seemed to cut across his neck before a jet of blood began to flow from his throat. The guard fell to his knees as he clutched at his severed windpipe, the red liquid quickly escaping past his hands.

(Kill count= 1)

(Hope you don't mind me taking out one of your guards. I can change it if you had other plans.)

(OOC: Not at all. Help yourself.

"What the-?!!"

Guard Number Three jerked away as his companion collapsed, for apparently no reason. Unfortunately for him, the motion put him closer to Neena. She didn't change her stance, but swung the blunt end of her spear. It connected with his windpipe, hard enough to make him see stars. She swung downward and jabbed his gut, doubling him over, then switched grips and angle to bring the wood down on his lower back. A switch kick to the side of his temple, and the man was down for the count. Neena had left him alive, but she wasn't the only one there now.

She returned to her defensive stance, scanning the area around her with several different visions.

"So, to quote an old movie line, 'Who goes there?' "

Shade's victim had enough blood in him to survive a miserable fifteen seconds before the enough blood had emptied from his body to stop his heart was beating. The assailant hadn't waited that long know he was going to die. As the second guard had taken notice of his dying buddy, Shade had 'jumped' to one of the darken corners of the room. He watched carefully as the female mutant made short work of the other guard.

But she left him alive. Shade thought to himself, frowning. At the woman's call, he slowly stepped into the glow cast from a low burning emergency light. It gave off just enough for Shade to be visible. He didn't know if he might surprise the woman for the fact that he was suddenly behind her.

"I go there." Shade said simply. He wore that villainish smirk as he casually waved the now-bleeding dagger through the small amount of light. It soon vanished into a black smoke as the remaining blood dropped to the floor.

Nathan was in bad shape. He was dead tired. The only thing that was keeping him awake was his adrenaline and the need to leave this God forsaken place. His time in the sunless group confinement had drained him considerably. Since he needed atleast a few hours in the sun each day to keep his powers at their maximum level. He could fight if he was forced to but the foremost thought in this mind was to get out of the camp.

He was basically wandering around looking for any fellow mutants to point him in the right direction. He was walking outside the cafeteria when he heard a voice say, "What the-?!!" and then "So, to quote an old movie line, 'Who goes there?' " The voice sounded very familiar to Nathan.

Thinking that this familiar voice was speaking to him he opened the door to the cafeteria and poked his head inside. Inside was a mutant Nathan recognized from group confinement. She had told him to calm down when he had heard another guard approaching. He hadn't realized she was so tall, for a girl at least. Standing at 6'4", Nathan towered over most people. What he saw next was a mutant appear, for lack of better words, out of the shadows behind the woman. "I go there," said the shadowy mutant.

Nathan then understood that the woman had been talking to the shadow mutant when she had asked her question. "I'm here as well," he answered, not wanting to wander the complex by himself when there was help right in front of him.

Neena held her body perfectly still. Calmly she turned just her head, still scanning, mind working.

Whoever had dispatched that guard wasn't showing up on any of her visions, not even heat, which told her that he was a mutant, though not what kind. Even an Invisible should give her a heat signature, and even Teleporters usually left behind moment heat trail. Light manipulator? Or maybe darkness? She couldn't even find a skeletal reading.

"I go there."

Neena swung her spear fluidly, so that the point faced behind her, where the new voice came from. She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, so she could move quickly if necessary, but didn't turn her body. Calmly she looked over her shoulder. A faint image began to show up on her infrared, the outline of a person. She blinked, and saw that there was indeed a skeleton behind the shadow, though faded and patchy in areas. He stood beneath a faint light. Definitely a light or darkness manipulator of some sort. She purposefully didn't look at him head on, but off to the side. With the blindfold on, it appeared she didn't actually see him.

Another set of footsteps came from out in the hall. Neena tensed.

"I'm here as well."

"Hey Nathan. You should be headed out of here." She relaxed slightly, knowing the man behind that voice. She kept her focus on the unknown behind her.

"And you are....? she prompted the shadowy figure.

Shade's gaze shifted from the woman as a newcomer approached. His bulky appearance made the hooded mutant immediately cautious of him, but for the moment, he appeared not to be a threat.

"And you are...?"

Shade's unseen eyes locked with the woman's (or rather the blind fold where her eyes would have been) at her words.

"A friend...for now." He said, allowing a small, evil chuckle to escacpe his lips. However, Shade's face quickly turned to stone as he shifted his gaze between the two figures.

"Come on. Let's get the hell out of this place." He said moving through the visible light and into the shadows as he again disappeared from normal human sight. A couple of seconds later, Shade's voice rang out from near the corridor he had just came from.

"Come on, this way."

"Hey Nathan. You should be headed out of here," said Neena.

"Hi to you too, Neena" he said, his voiced tinged with sarcasm.

Not seeming to hear, Neena inquired of the shadow mutant,
"And you are....?"

"A friend...for now." replied the dark phantom, making sure that his threat was received by both Nathan and Neena before he let out an evil chuckle. "Come on. Let's get the hell out of this place." And then he disappeared from sight.

"Come on, this way," Nathan heard from the corridor beyond.

"He's right, we should be leaving. As you so kindly pointed out to me earlier. Ladies first," finished Nathan while making a gesture for Neena to go ahead of him.

"A friend...for now."

"For now? Well, that's encouraging...." Neena remarked sarcastically. Indeed that chuckle was far from inspiring.

"Come on. Let's get the hell out of this place. Come on, this way."

"He's right, we should be leaving. As you so kindly pointed out to me earlier. Ladies first."

That left Neena in a bit of a quandary. She still had more work to do. Yet she did not trust the shadowy mutant's quality of voice; had she been capable of feeling fear, a shiver would have run up her spine. As it was, she didn't want to leave Nathan alone with him, either. Not that he was a child who couldn't take care of himself; far from it in fact. But the camp residents had been through a nightmare, and deserved to be safely away.

An explosion nearby rumbled the ground beneath their feet. Neena tilted her head to the left, taking the time to look through the wall. She winced a bit; a headache was beginning to form at the base of her skull. One of her targets dashed past the window. He was in a hurry, for sure, the look on his face read malice, not fear. He was up to something.

"Sorry boys, I've got other business to attend to first. See you on the outside!"

She ran past Nathan and out into the hall, then outside and around the corner. She didn't pause to see if they'd followed her; her attention was on the fleeing form in front. She kept her eyes out for an oppotunity to fling either her spear or the dagger into the man's path.

Shade muttered a low growl as another explosion shook the building. The invisible mutant turned to watch as the woman ran in the opposite direction of safety. Shrugging slightly, Shade turned to the remaining mutant.

"Are you going to run off too? Or would you like to find some safety?"

Nathan was startled by the explosion but not enough to knock him off of his feet. Immediately after he heard Neena say, "Sorry boys, I've got other business to attend to first. See you on the outside!" He felt the brush of the cool night air as Neena quickly ran past him and out of the hall.

When Nathan turned his attention to the shadow mutant he asked, "Are you going to run off too? Or would you like to find some safety?"

The thing that Nathan wanted the most right then was to get out of the camps but he couldn't just leave Neena by herself even though she seemed very capable of dealing with any situation. "I think think we should go after her," Nathan finally said. Then he waited for the shadow's reply.

"Suit yourself, hero. Just don't come running for me when you are in trouble, because you won't find me." The voice from the shadows replied in a low rumble. It was easy to tell that Shade was mad at the teenager's decision. Here, he was risking his neck to save these captured prisoners and they decide that they would rather not be saved. Well, screw them. Shade wasn't about to force them to follow, and for all he cared, they could rot in this prison.

With his decision set, the invisble figure silently left the building. There had to be other people inside this complex that actually wanted to be saved.

Neena continued to follow her target. A modicum of respect formed at his ability to dodge most of the violence around him. Eventually he made his way to the fence that once separated the two sides of the Camps, and followed it to the back of the compound, away from the main fighting. She was glad to have her mutation back, since hiding places were sparse at that point, making it difficult for her to keep close.

She paused in the shadow of a building as he stopped near one of the outer guard towers and looked around. The tower must have been one of the targets initially taken out, to judge from its half-destroyed condition. The bottom level looked all right though. He opened the door and slipped inside.

Definitely up to something. This guard had a history of assaulting and torturing the camp mutants, especially the younger ones. Neena had run interference on him numerous times; he seemed to have a thing for girls and boys with green eyes. She'd never been able to prove it, but she was willing to bet her life he'd had a hand in certain deaths over the past months as well. Bodies always seemed to turn up after he worked the ten-to-seven shifts.

Neena waited only a moment before slipping quietly up to the door. He'd left it open slightly, probably planning on coming back out very quickly. She blinked, adjusting her vision to see through the stone and metal walls. He was making his way to a string of lockers on the far side of the room, like gym lockers. Personal storage for the guards, no doubt. But what could possibly be in there that he would consider valuable enough to risk coming back for? She knew he had no respect for other people's lives. But surely he did for his own skin?

She fine tuned her vision a bit to look further, just as he opened one locker.

Pure, unfiltered, unadulterated fury swept through her entire being, as a small, naked body entered her line of vision, bound hand and foot and gagged. Green eyes stared at the man in terror. The thief's part of Neena's mind took in the little details: patterns of razor marks, teeth -shaped bruises, sucker bites, small bruises, probably from pinches, nail marks, and multiple other sighs of abuse. From her position, Neena couldn't see the guard's face, but the gun he unholstered and aimed left no question as to his intentions.

She didn't wait any longer. Her dagger was in flight out of one hand before the other wrenched the door open fully. It found its mark right between his shoulder blades. He screamed and dropped the gun, turning slightly. She brought her spear up to ram him in the chest, the the face, knocking him sideways to squirm in pain.

Neena reached forward to remove the gag.

"Tanya?" Even more anger shot through her as she recognized the little twelve-year-old, a girl Neena had thought to be dead and buries well over three weeks ago.

A strangled snarl from behind, and a terrified cry from in front, moved Neena into action again. Mentally she asked Tanya to forgive her as she shoved her back in the locker and slammed the door, and ducked. She rolled away, grabbing the gun as she went. Pushing to her feet, she found herself facing a sadistic monster, driven by pain and hatred, and wielding her now bloodied dagger.

<"Lovely..... Just lovely.....">

After the shadow mutant left, Nathan began to wonder what side he was on. He offered to help at first but then ran off when he suggested following Neena. What was his problem?

It did not take Nathan long to find where Neena had gone. But he still did not know how far she had run away after she had left him and the shadow mutant. He exited the hall quickly and turned around the same corner that she did. It was complete luck that led him to half-demolished guard tower. Well not complete luck since the door had been left ajar and he could see a stream of light. But the circumstances were nothing less than extraordinary.

He slipped inside as quietly as he could and viewed the situation. Neena was holding a gun at a guard that had already received a deep wound in between his shoulder blades. The guard was also holding a bloody knife. Nathan suspected it was the same weapon that was used to create the wound he had received.

"Don't you know you should never bring a knife to a gun fight?" asked Nathan. He made sure his voice was loud enough to carry so that the guard would hear and become distracted. Which would give Neena an opportunity to seize an advantage and quickly dispose of the guard.

Neena didn't flinch when Nathan appeared on the scene. Even without the lack of fear, she was so angry at that point she was seeing red. She didn't like guns, didn't like people who used guns. But she was so tempted right then.....

"Don't you know you should never bring a knife to a gun fight?"

The guard sneered at them. "I'll bet you freaks of nature don't even know how to use a real weapons." It was amazing he was still on his feet, let alone talking. Behind the blindfold, her eyes narrowed. "All you monsters are cowards, relying on those powers of yours. Take those away, and you're nothing. Just abomnations, nature's rejects!"

That did it. Neena reached up and pulled the blindfold off of her head, revealing a pair of eyes literally white-hot with anger. Her voice came out as low hiss.

"Abominations? This from a man who tortures children."

"They're not children. They're freaks, just like you. You can't hurt something that doesn't have feelings."

Neena's face went blank, totally devoid of emotion. For a heartbeat, she simply stared at him.

She shifted her gun hand three times, and pulled the trigger three times. The shots impacted on his knife hand at the wrist, then both kneecaps. He screamed and fell backwards, writhing and cursing. She tossed the gun aside, and walked up to him.

"Human or mutant, the only monster in this room is you. And a fast death is too good for you." Her anger gave her a strength boost, and she used it to ram her spear through his stomach, pinning him to the ground.

She turned back to the locker, and opened it again, unbinding the terrified little girl. She turned to Nathan.

"Can you get her out of here? She's been through enough, but I've got one more package to pick up before leaving."

Her voice and face were as flat and hard as marble, but a shine in the corners of her eyes hinted at an emotion buried under the surface.