Did You Get What You Wanted?

As Natomi rained down her attack, a barrier appeared over the sniper, keeping the fire from reaching it's target! The sniper took this opportunity to shoot down Emanulle's attacks!

That was until the defender suddenly slumps over, passed out from Marcen's genjutsu and with the defender out, the barrier failed and disappeared!

The golem was made of rock and as such, it had the strengths and weaknesses of rock. Ramona's attack smashed right through the golem's leg, causing it to crumble back down.

However, it rumbles and reformed again. This time taking in more rocks and making it's self bigger and more armored!

Emanulle had to keep moving, bobbing in and out to make it a bit harder for the sniper to line up their shots. His energy balls when connected with pretty much anything were canceled out, but due to their nature it meant they exploded when they made contact with something.

Seeing the barrier drop, Natomi rushed forward while the enemy was distracted to hit them in the back of the head to knock them out or at least try to.

Ramona frowned but, surprisingly, went on the defensive for a bit instead of attacking as she let the golem try to attack her as she danced around it. There was obviously some sort of idea or goal in mind.

The sniper recoiled from Natomi's attack "Ow! Ya crazy bitch! What ya gone and done that for?" he exclaims as he rubs the back of his head "How ya like it if I hit you on that back o da head?" he asks, his face was literally turning red, as was the rest of him as energy crackled around him.

The golem was acting exactly like a giant golem made of animated rock would. Slow and stupid. It was slowly taking swings at Ramona, giving her Plenty of time to dodge the attacks.

Natomi decided that attacking head while they were glowing would be a stupid idea since she didn't know exactly what he was doing. Luckily Macen had taken out their partner and the Ramona and Jack were distracting Lexia and her creations. That only left two enemies on the field she was aware of.

Ramona had enough of what she was doing and decided to try to outright vaporize it with a blast of energy this time instead of letting it crumble this time.

"When I come back, I'll show you who's da boss!" the sniper yells, as he suddenly explodes! Sending a powerful waves of energy in all directions!

This energy wave for the golem's attention, being of simple mind, and it started lumbering to where the sniper was, which was around where Natomi had been.

Jack was having as much luck with Lexica as Ramona. The Nobody had sent sand after him and this stuff was pretty fast and could be a problem for him if it managed to capture him. So he flies over to Ramona "Care to switch? This sand's a problem for me, but not for you, I suspect." he says.

Just then, the sand comes flying towards him, which also catches the golem's attention and the dull creature proceeds to attack the sand that was meant for Jack.

Natomi was forced to block with a fire shield but was still knocked back. When it died down, her oppoent was gone. Manny came floating over.

"We should help the other two deal with Lexia." She was not only the biggest threat, she was also the only one here at the moment. Emanulle didn't think their leader of the group was present, if they had one.

"We'll switch." The half Goddess said and went to attempt to grab Lexia's attention, starting with another energy blast. She'd either have to block or dodge, but either way the main idea was to get their attention off Jack for the moment.

Lexica wasn't the one controlling the sand, so attacking her didn't draw it's attention off Jack, She simply teleported out of the way. Speaking of the sand, at the moment, it was still dealing with the rock golem.

Jack about had enough of this and taps his communicator "Everyone, take cover and cover your ears." he warns.

Marcen didn't need to be told twice! He drags the defender, who was still out like a light, out of the line of fire and behind a rock and pulls out some ear plugs from his vest.

Ramona, Natomi, and Manny all took note of this and took cover and did as Jack asked. Emanulle really did wonder what he was going to do, but he could guess that it was going to be some sort of sonic attack or at least something loud.

Emanulle was correct. Jack shoots towards the fighting Earth golems and stops Just short and Slams his hands together with all of his already impressive force! This created a powerful sonic shockwave that caused the rock to shatter and the sand to get blown and scattered.

He then looks over to Lexica, who seemed to have been caught by the sonic shockwave. She looked dazed and was having trouble standing. This was about the time she decided it was a good time to retreat and teleports away.

When it died down, Lexia was gone and Ramona sighed. They were So close to having her but she had managed to get away at the last possible second. "It didn't go as well as we could have hoped, but not as horribly either."

Jack nods "Mission accomplished, I would say." he says, giving the thumbs up to his team.

"And bonus points for one extra." Marcen says as he hauls the defender out from behind the rock "What shall we do with him?" he asks.

Jack shrugs "Well, we can Try and get information out of him, but I have a feeling that won't happen without some very rough treatment. So...we should probably hand him over to the Hunters." he says, looking to the team "Unless someone had a better idea?" he asks.

Natomi and Manny both shook their head. Ramona also didn't have any other ideas at the moment. "Eventually, we're going have to go on the offensive to end things for good. Though, I wonder exactly what their interest in Alice is. I don't think its simply to kill her, if it was they would have attacked her at the same time." Emanulle pointed out.

* *

It had been a minute since Rachel had done anything of note lately when she heard some people were looking for information on Heartless and Nobodies. We'll, she could help with that but she had to be careful.

The shop seemed to be the right place but it didn't seem open. Pity. She'd have to wait a bit or come back.

Jack nods "Alright then." he says as he takes something out of his utility belt, in fact, it was a few things. They all clicked together to form a strange looking gun. Jack takes aim at the defender and Marcen moves out of the way, as Jack fires!

The gun fired some kind of beam that seemed to transport the defender somewhere "He's been transported into a special data card inside the gun. I'll upload him to a cell that nulls his powers and abilities when we get back to the base." he says.

Marcen frowns "So...he's nothing but compressed data now? How is that even possible?" he asks.

Jack shrugs "It's complicated. Let's get Sam and head back to the barn." he says as he starts out "I'll meet you there." he says, then takes off.

* *

It really doesn't take him long to get back to the shop. He sees a woman standing outside and decides it's  better to land behind the shop, where no one'll see him. He taps his uniform changer and was back in normal clothes and walks out to the front of the shop and stops in 'surprise' "Well hello there. What can I do for you?" he asks as he unlocks the door, flipping the signs to 'Open' and motions for the woman to enter "Please, come on in." he says with a warm smile.[/color]

Natomi wasn't in a particular hurry to head back so she didn't rush it as she completely powered down. It was then she Finally realized something. The same dress she had been wearing from before is what she had been wearing for this scuffle. It was still modest but was torn slightly.

Natomi sighed slightly. "Geez. I can't believe I forgot to change into my actual fighting clothes. I was too worried about Alice for that."

Ramona shook her head. "It happens. What's more important is she's safe and we proved while Lexia is of course still very dangerous she can be dealt with. It's all around a success in my book. I don't remember you having dresses in that style. They're rather dated looking fashion wise."

"We'll, actually its from the holodeck.." Natomi didn't elaborate further.

First the thing Jack did, and holograms advanced enough they actually materlize outside? Jack's world has some really advanced techology. Not even the Eldarians are that far ahead, at least not in this dimension. Seems they're further ahead in Damon's home universe..

Either way, it intrigued Emanulle but he'd think about it more later. There were a lot of things on his mind.

* *

Rachel stepped in, looking around and smiled. "Hello there, my name is Rachel Willow. I'm a researcher slash invetor of sorts now employed by Paragon Corps. I, um, we'll this is going to sound strange if its not the right place but I heard there was help needed for Heartless and Nobodies far as information goes. It just hjappens that's my area of expertise but if its the wrong place and you don't know what I'm talking about I can just leave." She was more then a bit nervous.

Marcen didn't notice that Natomi was still in the dress until she said something. He always dressed in his 'Mission Outfits' so he was ready for action from the moment he gets up in the morning.

He stops where they left Samuel and sniffs the air "He's not here..." he says, going into 'Hunting' mode as he drops down, sniffing the area "I think he was captured. There are multiple scents here and the smell of gun powder."

* *

Jack nods "This is indeed the place, though I must confess, I've never heard of Paragon Corps." he motions for Rachel to sit "My name's Jack. Here, have a water." he says, offering her a bottle of cool water "It's fortunate that you have information on Heartless and Nobodies, because I find myself in need of some." he says.

Emanulle slowly frowned. "Gunpowder? I'd say maybe it was the sniper we encountered but they had a energy based weapon so it might be someone else. If its Lexia and friends, they'll probably want their own back in exchange."

Natomi was really worried. "Maybe. Samuel Did say his former employers would be after him. Macen, do any chakra ninja use firearms at all?"

* *

Rachel gave a sigh of relief, taking the water. "Thank you sir. For a moment I thought I got the wrong place. Before I continue though, may I ask why you want information in the first place and what kind in particular are you seeking? Knowledge is power after all."

Marcen nods "Yes. We use gun powder for explosives though. This smells like..." he follows his nose to some bullets in the wall "Like Sam had been shooting at someone." he mumbles as he checks the area out.

"I don't think it was his Brotherhood. If they wanted to kill him, they would have done it here and made it look like a result of the battle." he theorizes "I believe Manny is right. He was captured by the enemy."

* *

Jack nods "Of course. Well, to start, I'm having a problem with, what I believe, is a Nobody. Now, I looked into the matter on my own and found little on the subject. I even went to England to talk to another expert on the subject, but I couldn't find him." he explains.

"I would just like information on what happens to the Nobodies if they get destroyed. Also what other effects it may have." he says.

The cynical side of Emanulle wasn't surprised something happened after the relative smooth mission. "On the up side, we know he's alive. If he wasn't, they wouldn't have any kind of leverage at all. We'll have to let Jack know about this."

"I should have teleported them to the base.." Natomi felt guilty.

Ramona put a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "It's not yours or anyone elses fault. There's always unknown factors that can happen at anytime no matter how prepared we are."

* *

Rachel looked thoughtful. "After effects? We'll, kinda depends. In general nothing would happen, if they're killed their bodies vanish as if they were never there. Now in the case of a original and a Nobody around at the same time, the Nobody dying wouldn't result in the original dying with them."

"You see, Nobodies are the shell of a person that's left behind when they turn into a Heartless. A Heartless are beings born from the darkness of someone's heart. Two supposedly souless monsterous beings from that said right? Except..thing's are never that simple and black and white."

"A Nobody gradually becomes their own person as time goes on the longer they are separate. Human Heartless..are complicated. There's so much we don't know about them still. It's like Ansem The Wise said, we're still so ignorant of the nature of the heart and putting it into little boxes, but it never turns out that way."

Marcen nods to the others "I'm going to see if I can't pick up on a trail. I'll stay in touch every fifteen minuets." he says "If you don't hear from me every fifteen minuets from first contact, track my location." he states as he takes off.

* *

Jack nods slowly "So, a Nobody is the other half of a Heartless and a Heartless was once an actual person..." he says slowly "Is there away for this person, who's now a Heartless, to become a whole person again?" he asks.

Natomi wasn't sure if that was a good idea but she nodded a bit. "All right but be careful."

Emanulle decided to phone in Jack. "We have a bit of a problem, Samuel seems to have been kidnapped by the enemy."

*  *

Rachel thought for a moment. "Time. Believe it or not, its been my studying of human Heartless that the more time they have to adjust, the more 'whole' they become. Just like a Nobody will develop its own heart if given enough time. Granted, many of them have been artifically made but I've actually met a few natural ones before. It could be something like not being able to feel emotion, to gradually feeling just like anyone else and so on. I can't claim to know as much as I should since they're so rare. Another thing is getting both the Nobody and original to merge."

"Judging by the way you're talking, I would guess you have a friend or at least know someone who is a Heartless who kept their original form. I think the end result would be similar to a friend or two of mine, if they aren't there already."

Jack heard Emanulle, but he needed to keep things professional as he shakes his head "Not at all. I just didn't want anything bad to happen if the Nobody was destroyed. That way I wouldn't feel guilty." he says with a chuckle "Well, thank you for your time and information. I'll feel much better once I let the proper authorities know." he says "Oh, by the way, would you happen to have a number I can get ahold of if I have any more questions?" he asks.

Rachel nodded and gave Jack the number on a card. "Like I mentioned you can also get them to merge, but that's less likely as either one side has to be forced or both have to be willing. I think the man you're referring to is Harlan, he's a friend of mine. Anyway, I'll let you get. Take care of yourself."

Jack takes the card and sees Rachel out "You take care and have a pleasant rest of the day." he says with a smile.

Once she was gone, Jack taps his communicator "This is Jack, Sit Rep." he says as he heads to the base to deposit their captive and make sure Alice was still there.

"Macen is trying to find a trail of some kind, it seems Samuel was kidnapped relatively early. My theory is another unknown member got to him, since we were fighting a group of them. That and Samuel had more then enough time to make it back to the base during all the fighting." Emanulle said.

Jack nods as he pops the memory card into a special slot "Buddy, show our guest to his room." he says "I'll help Marcen. We'll keep you informed on what we find or not." he says as he heads out.

It didn't take him long to find Marcen, thanks to his current power pool. He lands close "I got the skinny on the current situation and figured you could the help. Did you find anything?" he asks.

Marcen nods "Yeah. There were two of them that captured Sam. Which means we were right so far. It's a group of them. Five so far." he says "What's odd, is that they didn't teleport out. They just dumped him in a truck and took off." he mumbles.

Jack shrugs "Maybe Lexica is the only one who can teleport and can't take others with her. Either way, this makes our job easier." he moves ahead and his eyes start glowing "Okay, I can see their trail clear as day. Follow me and stay sharp. We could be walking into a trap." he says.

* *

Alice was still in her room, door locked. She didn't feel that she could face the others, not after abandoning them like she did. So she remained locked in her room, her summons her only companionship.