A nice spot to watch anything

Danni's jaw tightened at the words warships. She hated war in every form, including war machines. She gave Etruis a 'Duh' look and pulled into a parking spot. The brown haired girl pulled up the touch screen and typed in her password. Then she popped her trunk. In the lower floor of the trunk there was a secret compartment with all sorts of weapons. Danni pulled out her knife belt and buckled it around her waist. Then she pulled out a gun holster and added that to her belt along with her gun and several magazines.
She shut the trunk after pulling out her sword and slinging it across her back. With that she ducked under caution tape.
A young officer ran up to her, "He's run. Were is-"
He looked at Etruis, "new guy."
He looked him up and down. "The Hades kid in on the run. He ran deeper into the park in the forested area. Hey!"
He called after Danni after she took off running to the area he had pointed.

Etrius walked up to one of the officers.

"Hey, you know a guy? Jim? Agent#19382?"

The guy nodded, slightly confused. His confusion grew as he had an envelope shoved into his hands.

"Say Hi to him for me will ya? Also tell him thanks for the drink."

The poor officer didn't have a chance to say anything else before Etrius whirled around and bolted off into the forest cradling his shotgun.

Etrius winced as his shoulder started bothering him again. Not surprising considering he was running at a much higher speed than a soldier should and his shoulder was still messed up a bit. He really did not need anything getting in the way right now and there probably wasn't anyone who would see him so he pulled out a medi-stick and lit it with a specially adapted Zippo lighter. He kept running and soon caught up with Danni.

"So what do you think he'll toss at us? Skeletons? Undead?"

[I'm going to turn over partial control of Etrius to you, don't make him look stupid alright?]

((Okay... hmm... what to do...))

Danni took her fingers and pinched Etrius' mouth shut.
"Shh." She strained her ears. A twig snapped behind them and she spun around only to see a girl about twelve run past her and hide behind Etrius'. The girl's eyes were wide and fearful. Danni pulled out her sword, the metal glinting in the light as she looked. A bullet whizzed past her ear. Etrius pulled Danni to the ground, wielding his shotgun. Together they peered into the dark.
"Take the girl back behind the line," Danni whispered. "I can handle the Hades' spawn."
Her voice was ice cold. "There are Kevlar vests in the back of my car."

Etrius nodded and looked down at the girl clinging to his waist like he was the only solid thing in a hurricane. Quite frankly, she was cutting off some of the circulation to his lower body, dang she was strong, she was probably a Hephaestus or Ares kid or something. He looked down at the girl and gave her a reassuring smile which seemed to do it's job. He looked at Danni and nudged the frightened twelve year old onto his back.

"COVERING FIRE!" He yelled and stood up, swinging around and aiming his shotgun. There was the Hades kid, taking cover behind a tree. He pumped and fired, pumped and fired, pumped and fired, backing up all the way, then tossed the shotgun down next to Danni so she could use it. He yanked out the pistol with a spare magazine.

The Hades kid attempted to lean out and take a potshot at the retreating Ares kid, but was forced to yank his hand back to avoid getting it blown off by the hail of gunfire. Etrius fired until he was empty and ejected the magazine, inserting a new one and turning around to flee. A rather poorly aimed salvo put a single hole in his coat but he ignored it.

He ran, ran as fast as he could until he burst out into the clearing with several officers in it. They jumped at the noise but he simply ran to the line of cars.

He knelt down and allowed the girl to slide off his back. She was frightened, the loud noises of gunfire and the full out run were certainly not soothing to a person's nerves.

"It's alright. It's alright. You're safe now."

Danni fired twice at the guy and then the bullets suddenly stopped. She froze on the spot, ears straining.
"Come on, I know you want to play." Danni called, taunting. She backed herself up against the tree and waited. The teenager stepped into the light and Danni was shocked by how he looked. Healthy, well groomed, and with blood dripping from his fingertips. The girl felt bile rise in her throat as the boy casually wiped his hands off on his pants.
"The girl had a twin, she was feisty." he stated casually. "I just need one more to close the circle."
He looked Danni up and down, making her feel filthy. "You should do."
Danni fired. The boy's form flickered and he was right in front of her. Danni punched him in the face and the demi-god went reeling. They grappled and Danni managed to wound him in the leg. But then he grabbed her from behind, his hand closing on her throat.
"Lets wait for your friend to get back, I wanna see his face when you die. Until then, lets have some fun."
***
Back at the line the officers heard a long drawn out scream.
***
The boy waited for Etrius with Danni lying in a puddle of blood at his feet.

Etrius ran, he ran really really fast. He half flew across the ground, racing towards where he thought he had left Danni, praying for her to be alright. He chambered a cartridge into his rifle and burst into the area. What he saw made his blood run cold. A sick looking boy with the symbol of hades on his bloodstained shirt stood over Danni with a bloodstained knife. The girl in question lay at his feet, blood spilling from a deep but not outright fatal wound in her abdomen.

"Hello friend. I was just hoping you would get here on time. It would have been such a shame if she had died before you got here." He said. His voice made Etrius burn inside.

"Let her go you snake." He ground out through his gritted teeth.

"Oh, but that wouldn't be fun would it? Here, watch." He took his knife in an inverted grip and made to stab the girl at his feet.

Etrius saw red. Lots of red. Inside his mind, a little voice taunted him. 'you broke your promise, and so soon after making it too. Such a shame.'
'Shut up.'
'Oh? It was not I who failed to protect her was I?'
'Shut up!'
'And to think, even after all this time, you're . . . still . . . Weak.'
"SHUT UP!"

The boy looked up, surprised at Etrius's outburst but Etrius was not there. He looked around for the enraged soldier but Etrius appeared in front of him. The son of Hades stared into the simply glazed over eyes of the son of Ares in front of him, he tried to back up but his movement was immediately stopped by the buttstock of a rifle crashing into his sternum.

He stumbled back, trying to catch his breath, but Etrius would not let him have any respite. The rifle came back, this time it was swung like a baseball bat and crashed into his face, sending him flying a total of 38 centimeters off the ground before he crashed into the ground on his back. He stared up at his advancing tormentor.

"Who the hell are you!?" He yelled, crawling backwards until he hit a tree trunk.

"NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He yelled desperately, putting up his hands in hopes of offering a sort of defense.

Etrius stared at the pitiful creature with cold eyes. He reached into the holster at his hip and yanked out a glock 17, shooting the boy's arms at the elbow so that they flopped uselessly to the side. He ignored the scream and put two more bullets into the son of Hades' kneecaps, shattering the bone and tearing through tendons and ligaments.

"Look at me. I want you to see it coming." Etrius demanded in a low tone. The world was all but forgotten, nothing mattered except the scum in front of him.

The boy tried to look away but inevitably was forced to stare down the rifled barrel of the rifle that Etrius pressed against his forehead.

"Any last words?"

"Please. . . Don't, kill me."

"Wrong answer."

*BANG!*

The forest floor was painted red with blood as Etrius yanked out a first aid kit and began tending to Danni's wounds.

After about fifteen minutes, police started pouring into the clearing and Danni was taken from Etrius, placed on a stretcher. Several paramedics swarmed in on her as they rushed her to the hospital. They allowed Etrius to ride with her while they cleaned up the mess and gathered evidence.
Danni stayed unconscious for about a day in a half in the mortal hospital. The Hades boy had stabbed her twice and sliced her stomach from her belly button to left hip. There would be a scars on her body for the rest of her life. Her face lay turned away from the wall and her chest rose and fell in her sleep.
Slowly her eyes opened as she regained contentiousness.

Etrius woke up in the hospital bed. Apparently the bullet wound in his shoulder had reopened from the strain as soon as he had stepped one foot in the hospital. Luckily, one of the side effects of Loyd's medicine was temporarily lowered blood pressure which had saved his life when he began spilling a gallon of blood all over the shiny floor of the hospital. A blood transfusion and a muscle graft from Loyd later and he was fit to leave the hospital as soon as he woke up.

He opened his eyes, highly aware of the pounding headache.

"Stone me bloody crows my aching head. Am I alive or am I dead." He said to nobody in particular.

He got out of the hospital bed, noting that his clothing was on a chair next to his bedside, the blood was still there, typical loyd. His black dress shirt and trench coat were a bit stiff and his formerly white tie was now red, both due to caked blood. The colossus logo was completely obscured by the formerly life giving substance. He was still wearing the cargo pants.

On top of the pile sat his rifle and utility belt. They had removed all the FBI stuff but his rifle was cleaned, zeroed, and the barrel was polished to a mirror shine while the utility belt had the ammunition stock refiled to maximum capacity. He got up and put on his clothing, the tie went into the trash, it was a lost cause, and the rifle went over his back. When he put on the utility belt, he noticed a note.

"Yo Etrius, it's me, loyd.

Anyway, you should be up and dressed right about now. If I am correct, it is about 12:35 by the time you finish reading this. Now, you're probably going to be a bit sore and your shoulder should be a bit tender because it's regrowing the nerves. You will probably look up at the clock about . . . now."

Etrius looked up at the clock. 12:34.

"Anyway, now that you finished checking the time. Your girlfriend should wake up in about 20 minutes. She's in room 223, recovery wing. Have fun. Bring me plenty of god-babies to bend to my will and turn into my minions."

Etrius blushed slightly and crumpled up the note. He looked at the clock and it ticked to 12:35 right before his eyes. Dang, that was disturbing.

He tossed the note into the waste basket and walked out into the hallway, turning towards the recovery wing. He walked down the hallway, people stopped and stared at him for a few seconds each but then continued on their way. He passed a mirror on the way and looked at his reflection, there was still some blood on his face so he wiped that away and continued on.

He arrived at room 223 and opened the door. There was Danni, lying in bed. He proceeded silently into the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He had five minutes left until she woke up so he unslung his rifle, leaning it against the wall and pulling off his utility belt, then sat in one of the chairs facing the bed.

He checked the clock. He checked the clock. *tick, tick, tick, 12:55*

Right on schedule, Danni began to open her eyes. Dang, that boy was scary on so many levels. Etrius smiled at to the girl.

"So you finally woke up. You didn't look to well when you came in."

Danni twisted her head around to see who was speaking to her. Etrius.
"I would imagine so," She laughed tiredly only to wince in pain, her hand moving to her abdomen. It felt like someone had branded her stomach with a poker. Danni closed her eyes briefly as the room spun for a moment from all the mortal pain killers. When she opened them again she fixed her eyes on the ceiling. "What happened? All I remember is the knife and then black..." Her voice trailed off, she wasn't particularly interested. "Better yet, the girl, what happened to her?"

Her skin was pale and and her blue eyes over bright. Even her lips were slightly paler than their usual dark red. Her hand moved slowly to her wrist with the i.v . The slow beep of the heart monitor filled the room.

Etrius gave a light chuckle and lightly stopped her from removing the I.V. drip from her arm. His other hand came up to brush away a stray few strand of hair from her face.

"Don't move. You're still too heavily injured to do anything yet. The girl was fine last I saw." He said in as close to a soothing tone as possible.

His shoulder still tingled as the raw nerves were agitated by movement. His dress shirt rubbed against the raw skin on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about anything. You're safe for now, the guy has already been taken to the morgue for Identification."

Danni was halted in her quest to rid herself of the I.V by Etrius' hand, which was surprisingly gentle. Her eyes flicked to his face as he spoke. While he spoke, he brushed a strand of brown hair out of her face.
"Don't worry and don't move," She sighed, sounding slightly amused.
"Number one, never ever tell an girl with ADD not to move, that is slightly impossible. Two, I worry, it is kinda my thing. I worry about my Dad and I fear getting the phone call telling me he is dead. I worry about my best friend's heart stopping again... I worry..." She trailed off, her eyes moving to the ceiling again.

Etrius let out a chuckle and sat back in his seat. He looked at Danni's face as she stared at the ceiling.

"Don't worry, from that picture, your dad would blacken Hades' eyes if he ever got there."

He reached into the admin pouch of the utility belt and found a chocolate bar. The wrapping was unopened and after he tried to think back to see if there was anything prohibiting food, unwrapped it. He broke off a piece and offered it to Danni by slowly waving it in front of her face.

"Nothing bad is going to happen, not on my watch. Eat up alright?"

He set the other piece of the chocolate on the bed and stroked he hair on her head. Actually, he was getting the hair out of the way so he could get an unobstructed view of her neck. An inked string of tiny green alphanumeric numbers and letters showed unobtrusively on the side of her neck, right under where the collar line of a shirt would be. Thankfully it was only in sharpie rather then tattooed like Etrius. The code simply had blood type, the number for the medical file, and other medical things that Etrius could not make any sense of.

The green number was not only a reference for patients, but it was also sort of a trademark of loyd's work. That set Etrius's mind both at ease and into a state of panic. With loyd's work, she'd be out of the hospital in perhaps a week tops, on the other hand, the man's mind was not completely sound by any stretch of the word.

"You're going to be alright. I'd give you a week before we get you out of here."

Danni took the chocolate and stared at it, a dark brown square between her pale fingers. Obediently she put the square in her mouth and let it melt on her tongue. She watched his face as his fingers brushed though her dyed hair and trailed down the side of her neck to brush her long hair away. She did not know she had been marked by Loyd.
"A week?" Her voice climbed an octave. "No way I will stay put that long."
Danni had to be constantly moving or she would go crazy.

Etrius laughed as Danni's voice got squeaky. It was both funny and adorable at the same time. He offered her another piece of chocolate.

"Well, that's the time you can get out of the hospital under your own power. Two days, then I'll get you a wheel chair, how's that sound?"

He asked in a soothing tone. He didn't bother telling her that she most likely got a muscle graft from Loyd and the inherent regenerative powers were going to completely screw up her energy. Actually, it would probably be pretty interesting to observe what happens, especially since her body now has energy to devote to healing.

note to self, tell her about muscle graft after she gets out not before

"You cannot bribe me with chocolate to stay put," Danni said taking the chocolate, "I will eat in non the less. But I will be back on my feet within twenty four hours."
She popped the piece in her mouth and winced at the mention of a wheel chair, "Uh, no."
The girl said remembering the last time she saw one of her friends in a wheelchair. Those frustrated her to the pinnacle of removing the closest person's head out of pure frustration.
Another wave of pain washed through her abdomen causing her hand to slide down to the wound.
"These mortal medicines do not work very well... but they do make me feel a little stupid."
Her accent was starting to come back.

Etrius shrugged and unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt, pulling down the collar to show his right pectoral. Also unfortunately revealing his green serial number tattoo, though it was borderline unnoticeable. The wound unfortunately had the remnants of stitches that had been used to keep the tissue graft in place long enough for Loyd's regenerative properties to take effect.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you don't want to end up like this do you? The wound reopened from the strain right after we got you to the hospital, I'm still getting glares from annoyed cleaning staff."

He reached out and poked Danni in the forehead and offered another piece of chocolate.

"Keep eating, you need more energy to recover. I still need to take you up on your previous offer."

Danni watched him, bored and then she thought he was taking off his shirt. Her eyes widened in momentary panic as different scenarios ran through her head, then she realized he was showing her an old wound. She relaxed in her pillows and looked at the wound, it looked like it had been a nasty experience.
"Trust me, I know my healing abilities pretty well. It doesn't matter that death was out to get me..."
Even though I want to die, she thought.
Danni looked mildly annoyed at the fact he poked her in the forehead.
"How is milk chocolate supposed to give me energy? It's chocolate. Not very nutritious." She said, smiling slightly not realizing she was doing so.

Etrius yanked out his phone and brought up the memo pad application, pulling the stylus from it's place in the base of the phone. He quickly drew a little diagram on it and showed it to her.

[chocolate = sugar = energy =/= nutrients]

[(crude sketch of female with blood on the stomach) = hurt = healing = need energy = sugar]

[Healing == iff has energy = sugar]

[(crude sketch of Etrius with thumbs up)]

"You were being treated by a demi-god medic with partial regenerative abilities. He managed to stimulate faster healing in you temporarily. You need energy to keep healing."

With that he poked the small piece of chocolate against her lips.

"Besides, do you want chocolate or hospital food?"

Danni watched him sketch with a look of concentration on his face. Her eyebrow had raised itself in the usual look of amusement on Danni's face. Then he showed her what he had been sketching. Danni looked at it, reading the list. She sat blank faced for a second before busting up laughing. Pain lanced up her abdomen but she didn't care. She eventually stopped laughing, her eyes watering with pain and mirth, her hand pressed against her stomach.
"You... are impossible." Danni said, slumping back into her pillows. She ate the chocolate and watched his face as she did so.

Etrius clutched his hand against his heart in a completely melodramatic fashion. He adopted a look of mock horror.

"GASP!" He said out loud. "Impossible? You wound my heavily inflated ego. Whatever shall I possibly do?"

He then smirked good naturedly and buttoned up his shirt again. He then offered her another piece of chocolate.

"At least we know that your lungs aren't damaged. If you don't like wheel chairs, I could always simply carry you around."

He adopted a thinking look. His free hand reached up to stroke a non-existent beard.

"But then again, that wouldn't be very appropriate. No, I should have to push you on the wheelchair then until you can use crutches."

Danni rolled her eyes and grinned.
"You sir," She stated, "Are impossible and do not deny it."
She listened to his ideas of transportation, blushed slightly, and then she made a face.
"No, wheelchair. Cannot stand them and I will never use them."
She crossed her arms and ate the pieces of Chocolate given to her, enjoying the taste and the silliness of Etrius. She debated about calling camp and having a healer come up and fix her but somehow she doubted that would be possible.
"Are you going to had over that entire bar or continue to hand feed me to the point of insanity. If that happens I will bite your fingers off."
Danni sat up slightly, ignoring the twinge of pain.

Etrius continued to smirk and handed her the chocolate bar. He pulled out a medi-stick from the yellow carton and lit it using the windproof lighter, breathing off to the side. He looked over to Danni and before she could comment about 'smoking' in the hospital, he waved an exception that Loyd had written beforehand.

"Oh, then I suppose you would prefer me to carry you then? I didn't know you had those preferances."

[CFNS Albatross, Gibraltar Straight]

Sage sneezed. He fixed his face into a scowl.

"Dang, someone keeps stealing my thunder. The only one in any position or capacity to do that would be Etrius but it can't possibly be him."

"Sir?" Asked a crewman who had come to the bridge to remind Sage that they were now moving through the Gibraltar strait.

"I'm fine. Give me the mission files later."

"Sir!" The crewman saluted and left the bridge.

Sage shrugged and looked down at his cellular phone. He pressed the magnifying glass in the Google search box.

"Oh! So that's what Muesli is."

"There will be no need to carry me," Danni stated, wagging her finger at him. "I can manage just fine thank you."
She did not comment about the medi-stick as she ate the chocolate bar slowly. After it was finished, the Italian girl managed to sit up completely, wincing. "Well this isn't the best wound to have is there." She reached down to adjust the bed so it was at a sitting angle.

Etrius chuckled.

"Well, we can't always have what we want can we? I didn't want to my wound to reopen and loose a gallon of blood you didn't want to . . ."

He paused for a second and grabbed the clipboard on the table next to the bedside. Loyd had been the surgeon so of course he had access to the information. He scanned across the information and summarized it.

" . . . Have 2/3rds of your liver almost removed, damage both your kidneys, cause severe damage to your stomach" *page flip* "Have your intestinal tract almost bisected, the intestinal cavity torn apart, loose half a liter of blood" *page flip* "need three separate anti-venom treatments to counter two hemotoxins and a neurotoxin and sustain significant but not permenant damage to your heart, lungs, CNS, spinal column, and require a white blood cell transplant."

Etrius chewed on the medi-stick a bit.

"So yeah, it kinda sucks to be you."

He reached over to ruffle her hair good naturedly.

"Don't worry, you're a big girl now. You'll get better soon enough."

Danni snorted, leaning back into the sitting position bed.
"It is never good to be me, my last three boyfriends died right in front of me."
She said the last part of that sentence quietly and she looked out the window. She had turned her neck so one could see the sharpie numbers on the back of her neck. "You get so sick of watching people die around you..."
The medication was influencing her to speak her mind and she probably wouldn't remember this conversation in the morning. Her mind did strange things on mortal medications.