Aura Had returned to the forest once more. The brief flight had taken them pretyy close to their destination. They had then met with a contact of Mar's who turned out to be some kind of bus-Mutant cat thing with a rainbow coming out the back. Nyancat. Aura thought the strange mutant would attract to much attention but he seemed to know the forest well and had no trouble guiding them straight to it. The Hill gave them a great view of the valley they would enter in a few minutes.

SOlkat's Forest has many in the Order of Alpha had called it, stretched massively to either side of the road. Every So often a Massive tree, redwoods in fact hung above the tree top level, casting an unnatural shadow over many of the surrounding trees. The Redwoods however, even from a distance looked in rough shape. where as much of the wood was striving the redwoods simply could not support them selfs on the available nutrients without SOlkat's help which would never come again. The Trees had huge spikes coming from the trunks as well, though many were broken, even on the hill they stood on the tree looked anything but natural. Each as well had a strange Color of leafs spanning the rainbow. Many of the newer trees looked fine, but even the row's of trees just five feet back from the new growth were trees with thorn's long vines and some seemed to glisten as an ooze poured down their trunks. Some of the trees a bit deeper were worse, one such tree looked like it literately grew around the person, whose skull still looked like it was screaming. Some of the tree's clearly not fruit tree's had strange orange fruits on them that looked normal enough but smelled not unlike a dirty diaper if one got close.

"Avoid the fruit's, Solkat never could grow food, those thing's likely harbor acid." She explained remembering Solkats common tactic all to well, Lure the enemy in and pelt them from all sides with acidic fruit. Aura pointed a finger, starting at the west, she brought her hand ina wide arc, her arm pointed at the taller redwoods. She finally stopped at one closer to the middle of the wood. "Were heading that way, or close to it, we use to use the red woods to navigate, it's harder to see now, but look at the tops, the color's let one who knew hoe to use them navigate." Aura explained her hand had been pointing to a Tree with an almost florescent purple tree top, the old tree fighting to stay alive.

With a Deep breath, Aura let her Aura cover her body, it was simply there unlike her tendency to show off and cover herself slowly. Forming two scythe like blade's from her hand's Aura approached the edge of the wood, glanced up once, nodded to herself and then cut through a thicket, of thick thorny vines in a few moments, Aura had uncovered a dark path that looked like a game trail. She rubbed her forehead looking once more at the strange forest before, her. She knew well what she wanted to do and knew well it might kill her. "The walk will be long, normally takes me a few days" Aura said with a shrug. Within the Forest barely a noise sounded and every so Often one would find burn marks or bullet marks on the trees which had no yet heeled or worse, started the tree's rot.

Like a twisted version of snow white and the seven dwarves Aura lead the brothers deeper into the wood. They carried packs of food on their backs and other useful tools and rations. As for Nyan He opted to ride in the void, Abyss figured it was only fair seeing as he gave them a ride all the way here.

The seven traveled together with Pluto trailing slowly behind, it wasn’t that he didn’t honestly love every one of the people in front of him; merely that he no longer understood a single one of them.
They all wore boots and thick pants tucked into them. They wore tank tops and apart from Pluto seemed to walk in step with each other fairly easily.

Jupiter made small talk about the kinds of weapons he assumed marred the trees. Mars and abyss discussed mar’s findings on several other topics they had looked into about Aura’s past. Saturn sulked along while Venus could seem to help himself from drifting off in some thought about some woman or another. The fact he was going to go at least five days without the graces of a lady or lord. Mercury plunged into the woods to their right and left looking for any and everything to chase. Whether he was chasing the things in his mind or things he saw was anyone’s guess.

Aura glanced back as Mercury plunged into the wood's she had no time to say anything to him. Her eyes looked to the ground, and spotted a black lotus, crushed in Mercurys footstep. "No!"She said much to late as his own weight and bulk made far to much noise in the forest for him to here her. She had been leading them on this trail for a reason. Solkat may have been long dead but her powers still clutched the wood. Aura's head swung quickly around as she heard several loud howls, they sounded much like wolf's but lacked any of the emotion a wolf may have put in it. She was confident they could deal with the Ankarri but she had really not wanted to have to fight them.

"Those Black flowers, form a network of plants when one is crushed, it sends a signal to the others to release pollen, i don't know how it work's but the Animals in the forest, will be much much more aggressive now, still they are simply animals" She said. it was the reason she had them following a specific path. She had not mentioned the flowers specifically and Aura realized their were things she knew to avoid.. "It's fine, The biggest thing's in this forest are bears.........they do taste nice" she said considering the idea of eating one appealing.

As they moved on the forest seemed almost silent other then them. Then they came upon a clearing, in ehich was a massive looking Venus fly trap plant. The traps were big enough to capture an elk, but also fairly easy to avoid, still their were no bones in the area. Seemingly Mixed into The trap were a strange purple fruit with a wonderful aroma to it. At the far end of the clearing a squirrel, coverd in glittering gold pollen, grabbed one of the fruit, right away, the nearest trap moved and tried to close on animal, the squireel was cut in half instead. The plant only knew how to respond if something grabbed the fruit.

Aura lead them around the plant, but as they were about to reenter the dence forest, a pack of wolves twelve strong Emerged from the forest. Each One was coverd in the glittering gold Pollen. Each one was also covered in a a network of small vines. The Wolf's them selfs not in their right mind, charged Aura and the Abyssi as if they were deer. Aura swung her blade in response, her blade cleaved the head of the Animal, but could not prevent it's momentum from knocking her back. The Other Wolf seemed unfazed by his friend's fate. Aura felt the beat try and bite through her Aura. Aura responded by forming a weapon, directly in the wolf's moulth. The Second Wolf fell and Aura looked around to see if their were any more left.

“well, I did make the mistake of telling him to behave and stay on the path.” Mars admitted reluctantly.

Aura would be disappointed, in the woods, the Abyssi didn’t have to stop their selves from letting loose for fear of a paparazzi putting another gory picture of them decimating someone seemingly innocent.
Jupiter smashed two wolves while biting the throat out of another. Abyss had his hand separated each holding a different piece of the same wolf. Saturn had punted one of the wolves directly into another of the Venus fly trap’s Mercury had bounded threw the woods and popped out on the other side to grab one of the deranged creatures and hug it…possibly to death. Mars Danced forward and dispatching the remaining four with flicks of his tail violently sending them through the air until they met with a tree trunk and their end. Venus and Pluto let the others have the fun and to keep watch for anything unexpected. It was good to have a contingency and more importantly stay clean.

The wolves were there a moment before and now they were gone. Pluto lunged forward at another massive creature pinning it to the ground. “Mercury. Stop it. all those wolves did just so you could skip through the woods.”

“So, they were bad puppies.” Mercury called Pluto on the injustice.

“I don’t care stop it, or I will stop you.” The others looked to Pluto and his outrage over some wolves that would have called any one of them lunch if given the chance.

Aura watched almost an awe at the power the abyss brothers held. She had Seen them in action before but that raw power to Aura was thing of beauty and something she could not help but envy. The wolves were shredded as if they were nothing. The mad beasts fell quickly, as they died the vines wilted. The forest had never seen mutants like Aura big red parental group. Aura could have taken them all as well.

"it's ok pluto, if not him, then some human would have done the same. " she said a bit surprised by Plutos reaction. They were just wolves after all. It was true the trips would likely however have attacks from normally peaceful animals now. It would be a pain if the bears were still awake. It was then Aura thought she heard something in the distance, the noise of shots being fired. Straining hear ear she was unsure if she had heard it in her head or in reality.

Aura shook her head clear trying to focus on the issue with Pluto. Seconds later Aura heard the famillier whistling noise she had learned to react to in the woods. The projectile landed a dozen yards off to their left, a few smaller trees were blown apart in the blast. A Helicopter could be heard shooting bye overhead though the canopy . It had no markings, and was a dark green color, the craft turned and started back, this time opening up, with the guns of the ship, this time the ship seemed to know where they were much better. The infrared camera below the gun cut past the foliage with ease.

Aura had her back to a tree, their was not much she could do against aerial opponents and she had never really tried to fight a helicopter, nor had she done so while she was in the woods. The bullets slived into trees and the ground with loud thuds.

All but two of the Clones took cover, this was an established tactic. Who ever had the void got ready to catch, and whoever was closest to Jupiter, it just so happened to be Mars. Threw him at the flying craft. Hard.

Mars spun once and launched Jupiter where the helicopter would be in about half a second, a moment later the helicopter swerved Jupiter crashed in through the window and was proceeding to teach the punks terror, A flurry of blow, screams and blood. He did however think to leave on alive, at least temporarily. He tore open the door and set the helicopter to a steady rise.
and then leaped toward the area he had been launched from, their legs were strong too, though they did damage in the same way they didn't rocket them to their destination as one might imagine.

Abyss opened the Abyss and caught both the military man and Jupiter. the void opened again and out they both came Jupiter shoved the man towards Mars and Aura with a grim look of satisfaction that Mars only had so long before Aura would kill the man before her.


Mars was all bussiness today. " What Government do you work for?"

The clean cut military man sneered. " like I have anything to say to you."

Mars smiled genuinely " I hoped you would say something I didn't want to hear. Aura?'

Pluto shook his head. "what is wrong with you people? you just killed his whole crew, and now he needs to die to? look at his rank, he didn't give himself those orders."

The man looked at the tattoo covered mutant in the back. " I wouldn't expect better from you freaks."

Pluto shook his head in disgust. he still wanted to save the man, but he didn't want to save himself.

Aura watched as the Abyssi took out the helicopter with little effort. Aura would have never been able to do that, her power was to limited to close encounters. Still it was a beautiful thing to watch, the void powers was always interesting to Aura. Aura smiled a bit more brightly when she saw the Bayssi had taken the man alive, though he looked in a lot of pain. Aura admired the man, surrounded by 7 very large red mutants each of which could hurl a redwood across the forest and Aura who had a record that read like the NYC phone book the man was still defiant.

Aura could see it in the Man's eyes. He already assumed he was dead. He did not fear them, because he was well trained and because he considered himself a dead-man. Aura was about to say something when the man looked at her and seemed to smile. "I recall you 02, i recall gunning down the Pyro" He said to her obviously trying to provoke her. Aura knew exactly who the man spoke of, but her more immediate mental stop was that the man knew her call sign.

"I know littile of their ranks and the only way i know to make someone talk. If he talks the man can live, otherwise.....well Do you think we would survive Atmospheric reentry?" She asked with a shrug. She had no qualms about killing the man, but she wanted to know a few things as well. Aura shook slightly but managed to remain composed."How do you know my old call sign? she asked narrowing her eyes. Her face remained stoic, but her anger at the conceapt the man knew that face, was evident in her aura itself which rippled in small waves, as Aura's concentration slid and her emotions took a more prominent control then normal.

The clones stood around and looked intimidating....or they just stood around, it was hard to tell. Though Mercury was playing with the insides of one of the wolves. He might have been trying to tie its intestines into loops.The blood and gore he was slowly spreading was helping the effect of what might become of the warrior nicely however.

Mars and Abyss stood by closely watching the man for any hint of a lie or other slip of the tongue that might led to clues. Jupiter stood staring at Pluto who obviously wanted to intercede on the humans behalf.

Jupiter glanced over atthe soldier, "We could always find out."

Saturn and Venus were off discussing something about the direction the helicopter approached from and attempted to retturn to.

The man laughed, the laugh of a man who believed himself to be dead. "You getting soft. All those years ago, you would have gutted me and moved on. Sayre, well.....Im glad i found you instead of the Mind slayer" he said. as the man tried to move. The man realized he was to hurt to make it far though and sat back down, pulling out and lighting a cigarette. No sooner had he done so, then he slumped forward, his mouth foaming and his eyes rolled back in his head. The pill hidden in his mouth had did him in, he had just wanted a last cigarette.

Aura watched for a moment, but Aura did not just the man die, she felt a flood of images in her mind. SHe watched Dozens of men die the same way, all but those sayre encountered. Mind slayer the man called him, Aura stood still for several moments, as she felt a metal barrage strike her mind. Minutes later Aura's eyes opened suddenly, though her eyes looked haunted. She recalled what Sayre could do now, and understood why the soilder was scared. "Sayre.....i recall him......he could erase memories in people's mind's or...change their memories" she said not quite wanting to believe her own words. Had Sayre damaged her mind for some reason? He was certainly capable of it but....."i recall a metal table and him looking down at me....maybe when we fought, he struck my mind....if we fought..." Aura said her words growing less confident as she went.

"If Sayre is here, he may be heading to the same place.... she said as she cut down the next dozen yards of grass, they came to a large opening. Here the tree's were charred, their was underbrush, the ground was baked, and only recently had plants began to retake the quarter mile circle they now entered. Kobera...the pyro, died here, once she knew solkat was dead, she let her own flame consume her" she said explaining the area. Still she was distracted, she now found she could recall Sayre using her power, but he was never a precise mutant, as she recalled.

Aura was bound to kill Sayre for one transgression but now she might have to hunt him for another as well. They had been friends and comrades, had saved each other more then once. Sayres betrayal changed that of course. She rubbed her head. "If sayre does live, then i must slay him for his act of betrayal alone" she said aloud. She did her best to hide an emotion that chased her heels, at the revlations she had made recently, Fear. Her face betrayed little, but her Aura, on now at all times, rippled in places as her emotions piqued.

Pluto shook his head, “Are you all proud that he just made the smart move.” He looked into the forest wondering what this mind slayer was like that he preferred seven red devils and one pink.

Mars looked thoughtfully, “ so then it is quite possible this Sayre is responsible for you not remembering before you were here, and the other gaps in your memory, do you remember if he had to do anything in particular to use his ability? If it is merely on sight than we might want to kill first and ask questions later.”

Mercury tilted his head and asked for clarification. “Wait, you want to kill him by yourself or you have to kill him for just his betrayal…or both?” Mercury could think himself into a corner, but it would be good to know, if it was hands off and they were leaving him to Aura

Abyss looked to the others, “I want at least two of you in the void for tactical purposes, we might need to strike from the void.” Venus Saturn and Mars all entered the void in case they needed to do some sneak attacks. They might not be able to sneak up on someone while walking up behind them but the void was silent when it opened.

“Actually, if we could pull this Sayre into the void, we could ask him all the questions we like. Without him being able to physically use his powers on us, Did you want to go in Aura?” they could probably use her out here as a guide, but the prospect of her coming out of nowhere was too deliciously wicked to not consider.

Aura was unsure how to respond to Pluto's words. Considering them she found she agreed with him however. "Actually no, i prefer combat to suicide" she said honestly. She would have liked it more had the man tried to fight, even with no chance to win. It was a trait she could have admired in the man.

Turning to Mars, Aura found she could not meet his eyes. "It is a reality that is hard to believe for me, despite the evidence. Sayre needs touch, or he did when i knew him, however if he did play with my mind, he could be a magical German Shepard for all i might know. " Aura let out a soft sigh. "We were close, Miracle picked us up from the same holding center, before long we were the only two rescued from there still alive. Still we often knocked out a scout, Sayre would give him a memory that would let him lead more of them into an ambush. " she said recalling both what she knew of him and the unsettling idea that her memories of him entirely might be false.

"He talked and gave our location away. He should have died at the hand's of the humans before he spoke a word. We were taught their was no worse crime, then someone who betrayed their team and to kill our selfs before getting captured. Sayre did not adapt to the dance as well i did, the fear never left him, he never seemed to find the serenity of open combat. She said shaking her head, her anger over the incident was evident as her Aura seemed to shudder a bit as her emotions rose to the top. "But how can i know he is guilty of the crime, even if he did wipe my mind, i don't see the benefit he would have gotten from it. I will need to Ask him, My Aura will keep him from touching me" she said. Aura wanted to ask Sayre what was real and what was just an illusion that never occurred.

"i will stay here, if Sayre is here, i must confront him, and i should guide us, trapping him in the void however is a good plan. Sayre was never that precise with his power, even less so when on the move. " she said as she continued to move down the slope and closer to the other side. A few Wolf's much like the first set seemed to watch them from the distance, but they made no move to close.

As they reached the other side, only a a few layers of trees separated them from several Human's in uniforms like the one they had encountered, but these simply stared blankly at them. One of them moved his lip's but nothing like word's emerged. Their was simply no one around upstairs with them. Aura did not bother to kill them as in her eyes they seemed dead enough. Hours later they came to a small clearing on the far side of which was a sheer cliff of bark that seemed to rise up and scrape at the sky itself. "We need to get to the other side of the this tree, then we can get in, the entrance is hidden. she said motioning for them to follow.

Pluto bit his tongue, Aura was young and psychologically damaged He wouldn’t point his distaste at her, She was the upside to this trip, She was worth helping and though it looked like it would be a bloody path, she deserved to have closure at the very least. He looked back to her. The seriousness in her town and regret that the man had died a coward in her eyes made him think about his behavior and what was at stake for her. “Aura, I apologize, I am being selfish, I will focus on the task at hand and try my best to help.”

Venus shot Abyss an impressed look, the old Pluto didn’t have that kind of maturity in him.
Mars nodded to Aura. “ That makes sense and thinking the implications through, it makes our proverbial footing a bit more questionable. We will give you the time you need.” The clones that were on void duty went into the black tear in space that held Neptune’s mind.

The four brothers decided to proceed in a tighter formation with Aura, their lax trail had become a world of alien plants and surprise attacks from above.
Aura’s mercy was rendered obsolete when Mercury’s tail whipped out and end the lives of the brain dead soldiers. Jupiter nodded his approval, thinking Mercury wasn’t taking chances. Merc however was simply freaked out from the brain dead zombies.

They followed Aura like four of the scariest ducklings imaginable moving where she moved and ensuring that they kept to the route she kept. Jupiter kept scanning the perimeter for new foes. A particular mutant male was enemy #1.

Aura recalled Pluto's issue with the wolf's and now the man. "Not wanting to take a life is a valuable thing. I don't recall when the act stopped having meaning for me, but the world needs those of all types. Some may live a long life behind a desk, like that founder guy..." Aura Said not really recalled Tasean's name. She recalled what he did, sort of, but that was not the point. "I have killed so many, death stopped having meaning at some point, it became as easy as breathing. A society with only people like that would be frightening" she said trying to comfort Pluto. She had no idea why he seemed so reluctant to kill. "Even so if an animal tries to fight back with claw or gun, at least it has that much honor within it. I prefer a fighting target because then at least the animal is doing what nature made it for, to survive. she said, though Aura was unsure how comforting she was actually being. Either way she felt no need the Abyssi needed to apologize.

Aura nodded to Mars. "Yes, it is not a pleasant path of thought, but i can not simply deny that may have happened. If True it could well be, that i do not recall his power accurately at all. " Aura said. Then she replied a bit more grimly. "Im concerned the human solders and Sayre may not grant us that time, if Sayre is here, it means he is after something, why else return?" she said. As they walked, the path got narrow so that it was then ten feet across and narrower at some parts, but their was no question the gentle spiral hugged the tree and indeed seemed made of wood as well, though no bark grew on this, a few pieces of grass still rose from the strange path but without solkat, the strange growth and failed to maintain. at some point however the path seemed to be a dead end.

Aura knew this was the door however and with a few quick slashes the vines and small growths of the tree fell away, to reveal the path continued inside the tree. Strange white flowers lined the walls of the tree and emitted just enough light to let one see the spiraling slope. The path up the tree was long, had many branching paths and several times Aura stopped to examine a a dark set of symbols at each such intersection. No to paths seemed to bare the same symbol however and Aura said nothing simply because she was unused to having anyone in tow. As they went, they began to have to step over on, the remains of the dead, some still clutching m16 Rifles, others clutching Ak47's and discounting their likely violet deaths, the gun's were in great shape, and most wore a forest camouflage that seemed very well made. What man even had the remains of a blue flag, with what looked like a stylized 3d like star.

The scene only got worse as they came to a flat area that looked like a room of some sort, what looked much like bed's that had been unused for a very long time remained. Wooden spear's stuck out from the walls at various point's usually with a body nearby, in some other area's the bones looked crushed. This is a the half way point" Aura said knowing it was pretty late in the day by now. It still remained earilie quite however.

Pluto nodded to the Girl, “ I appreciate the sentiment. But do you think it might be worth something remembering the value of life? It may be easy as breathing but sometimes even that needs to be considered from time to time. Still, I will do my best to set my arguments aside and simply help.” Pluto considered that he always put Aura in a category with Jupiter, wreck less and destructive and uncaring, but perhaps it wasn’t to late for any of them to see the error in their destructive ways.

“That is something we will have to consider after we know more. For now, don’t worry about what the soldiers will gives, because we won’t ask, we are here to take.” Mars stated darkly as he stepped into a dark oblivion leaving Abyss, Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto.

Abyss observed the halfway point, “ Were looking to you to guide us, IF you think we should investigate her, we will, but if you think we should move on we will. Someone is ahead of us, I wouldn’t mind catching up to them and deciding if our paths can work together or if we need to fight. Whoever they are they are efficient.

Aura was unsure how to respond to Pluto's statement. He had a point and Aura had long known she probably should feel something upon taking a life. She did for mutant's but even that was disturbingly brief for her. However Aura also knew she could not apply such a thing without considering the massive number of humans she had left dead in her wake. She had a similar conversation with the Null that worked at the mansion but Aura realized if she did see Humans as more then mere animals to be killed, she could consider herself no less then a monster.

Aura's mind slipped back to the mission ahead the focus she needed for what was likely coming up. Mars and Abyss were likely right. Someone did seem to ahead of them, the bodies were evidence of that and somone must have known about where they were for the helicopter to attack them. Aura shook her head a moment and a fist struck the side of the tree, a think golden sap wells out from the wound in the tree. She moved on liking this less and less.

They went undisturbed for the next few hours and then a tunnel of light could be seen. As they emerged from the hole, the vast interior of the tree could be seen. It was oddly well lit and looking up one could see a large portion of top of the tree and been cut away. On the ground were a dozen Helicopters identical to the one they had taken down, and dozens of men that seems to be in quite a rush. Around the interior Were A few dozen Wooden building, even from the distence of the mile wide tree, one could see the building had been made from the side of the tree, a Large opening had been carved into the tree large enough for ground vehicles. The only marked building were the infirmary and one that was constructed from stone and had no windows.

Aura was about to Say something when she ducked, a few Bullet's from somware she had not seen lodged their way into the wood behind her, Snipers she mentally noted though she was unable to see them, it was clear with the pointing that they had been seen. "I don't recall any of this from last time" She admitted as she watched a small detachment of solders trying to form u p.