Left, then right. No sign of them yet. Sebastian's survival and tactical instincts had taken over his mind as he ran back to his spacescraper. He hurriedly entered and pressed the lift's button, waiting precious seconds he knew could be a matter of life or death. "Away as possible from here." Sebastian's response was short and calculated, knowing perfectly well they would listen if they wanted to. Once the lift opened its doors, the young man entered and immediately pressed the penthouse button. The lift started ascending, giving him a few moments to explain. "You do remember I told you I had to do some research a while ago, right?" He glanced at Scarlett as he spoke, hoping he didn't have to remind her about that. "Well, it wasn't a simple research work. I was looking for some files about me my company had. Turns out Avina and I were spotted and now we're being tracked down and hunted. We have to move." The lift's doors opened once more and, again, Sebastian ran up to his door and entered his home.

Apparently, his apartment hadn't been touched... yet. The only difference was his suit standing still in the middle of the living room along with two big backpacks with basic needs they would both need. He took his battle suit, headed into the spare room, and within five seconds came out completely dressed. He flipped his bow open and hung a quiver over his right shoulder, strapped it in front of his chest, and placed his arm protection on place. "Avina, backpacks on shuttle ASAP. We're leaving." The backpacks slowly sank into the living room's floor and disappeared. Sebastian then turned and spoke once more to Scarlett. "I promise I will explain everything, but right now we have to get moving." His eyes locked on hers, exhibiting a pleading and worried look. "Please, trust me on this. It's better for you."

As they ran into his house, Scarlett started to get upset. She stood in his living room until he came out of the spare room in his battle wear. When he looked into her eyes, almost pleading for her to go with him, she sighed. "Better for me?! I shouldn't even be in this kind of situation!" She said, her eyes watery, but she didn't dare let her tears fall. Her voice seemed weak as she tried to keep herself from getting angry and yelling at him. "Let's go." She said, watching as the suitcases disappeared. Defeated, the girl turned away from him and headed to where the shuttle entrance was. ((Sorry it's short, I have a lot of work D: ))

{OoC: It's fine, don't worry.}

"Trust me, Scarlett. If I hadn't taken you out of the castle, you'd be dead by now." Sebastian's SeMI flashed as he rushed down the corridor, heading for the heliport atop his spacescraper. With dexterity, he manipulated the hovering hologram located over his left arm, popping the building's blueprints in front of him. "Sebastian, Protechnicus's operatives have infiltrated the building. They're closing in on your location." Mr Arnaez cursed loudly as he opened the stairway, pushing Scarlett in front of him. "Run as fast as you can to the shuttle. I'll be right behind you!" He then closed the door and readied an arrow on his bow, scanning the terrain to find a place to hide.

The corridor to his apartment had always been a safe haven for Sebastian, but this time it was completely different. He knew enemies were lurking closer, trying to end Scarlett's and his life. However, if Protechnicus knew his as well as he thought they knew him, they would have foreseen he would fight with all his might to get out of that situation alive. His Nano-Enhanced Perception Augmentation (NEPA, for short) kept him on his toes about any movement in his surroundings, while his Retinal HUD display showed him the current position of his targets. For his convenience, Sebastian was able to turn them on and off, but it had become a habit to keep them on all the time. He was so used to them he didn't even remember how to turn them off. His heart was beating wildly in his chest. He knew what Protechnicus was able to do (he had done some risky approaches, to put it nicely), and wasn't willing to let that happen. As his pursuers got closer, Master Marksman went through the door and began running upstairs as fast as possible, bow still ready to shoot if necessary.

Sebastian rushed to the heliport, glancing backwards from time to time. They were coming, he could clearly feel them. "Avina, takeoff! Now, now!" He jumped onto the platform and turned back, just to see some Protechnicus operatives aiming their new plasma assault rifles at the shuttle. Master Marksman quickly got an explosive arrow from his quiver, aimed, and released. The arrow might not have hit a target, but that wasn't Sebastian's intention. The smokescreen caused by the explosion would be enough for the shuttle to get away unharmed (or at least with little damage which could be easily repaired), and then they could go somewhere "safe". "Avina, activate stealth systems. We're going incognito for a while."

Once Sebastian told her to run she took off in a matter of seconds towards the hovercraft. She leaped on it about the same time as Sebastian did, and fell to the floor from tripping. She laid there for a few moments, catching her breath and looking up at Sebastian with dark, emerald eyes. "What do you mean I'd be dead?" She asked, her voice soft and sad. "I'm never going home, Am I?" She questioned, her left eyebrow raised as she slowly stood up and brushed off her aching knees.

She turned towards Sebastian as the hover craft doors shut, and then headed over to him, embracing him. "Thank you for saving me." She whispered, placing a kiss on the side of his face. She then stepped back a few feet, eying the weapon in his hands. "Your very strong and talented for a tour guide." She muttered sarcastically. "I wish you would tell me who you really were. Don't I deserve that much?" She asked.

"Let's just hope we can land somewhere safely. Then we'll talk about getting you back home." Sebastian frowned as he watched how the cargo door closed and the pneumatic locks kicked in, isolating them from the sub zero temperatures of the outside. He walked around and was about to head into the control pit when Scarlett stopped him and kissed his cheek. He looked away quickly, avoiding eye contact. Scarlett backed up some steps, gazing at his bow and then at him. Her comments about him being stronger for just a tour guide made Sebastian smirk sadly. "Avina, engage autopilot systems for two hours. Evasive actions are in order. Do tell me if you detect any danger... and if you're able to decrypt that data you retrieved." With a swift movement of his forearm, Sebastian closed his bow's limbs, attaching it once more to his belt. His SeMI flashed once, acknowledging the bow's docking and downloading the data from its microprocessor. He took a deep breath and then turned around, allowing his gaze to wander across the window.

"My name is Sebastian Arnaez, born in Germany, orphaned at the age of one. I'm 28 years old as of now. Grew up there, then studied in London. I have a bachelor's on mechanical engineering and a master's on biomechanical engineering. I..." Sebastian hesitated for a moment before proceeding, "I used to work for Protechnicus. I'm pretty sure the Order did tell you about us: that radical group who tries to cleanse the Earth from the weakness of humanity. I was one of Protechnicus's top operatives, sent to delicate missions no one else would be able to deal with due to my augmentations. They're only three, however no one else in the world has them: a Nano-Enhanced Perception Augmentation, or NEPA, aimed at truly increasing perception of anything happening around me, be it by hearing, smelling, or sight; a Retinal HUD with Augmented Reality, used as a guidance system during missions, enhanced aiming for arrows, night vision, and allows me to mark objectives in real-time; and a Trauma Resistance Module, which assesses and dispatches accordingly small doses of adrenalin during missions to keep me on my toes and medigel in case of wounds, be them internal or external. That Trauma Module has saved my life more than once, mainly because it was also built to enhance my bones' and muscles' resistance as well as strength." Master Marksman placed his left hand over the window, staring at it with a lost gaze dancing in his eyes. "With these three augmentations, I could have gone guns blazing into anywhere, but I decided a more tactical approach: stealth. That's why I use a bow. Stealth has always been my top priority, and I'm quite capable of hacking into any security system I might find. That night, at the castle, I had been sent to kill you. Things didn't go as planned, so I took you with me as my hostage. Hadn't it been for that, you would be dead by now. Protechnicus would have sent another team, and this time it wouldn't have been only one operative."

Sebastian's voice disappeared slowly, replaced steadily by the soft humming of the shuttle's engines. He inhaled deeply, still staring through the window, hands crossed over his chest. His turquoise eyes seemed lost deep in though, but more of it was regret that thoughts.

The dark haired beauty turned away from Sebastian as he spoke. She stared out the window, wondering what her "family" was doing. Or if they were even alive. All she wanted was to get out of this mess she had been pulled into all because she was untainted by enhancements.

As he spoke of his enhancements, she nodded slowly. She had known from the start that he hadn't been telling the truth about his job. "Well it's nice to know I was right about you lying about your job." She said, biting her lip and looking down at the floor angrily. "I was so stupid! Running off with a handsome guy just because he said he was going to show me the world?! How nieve I am." She scoffed, glaring out the window.

She wouldn't let herself look at him. Not after finding out that she was a hostage. "So I'm a hostage?" She asked, looking at his reflection in the window. "You didn't have enough time to kill me, so you took me with you?" She stated, crossing her arms over her chest. For a few moments she stood there in silence. She felt empty and didn't know what to say to him now that he turned out to be a kidnapper.

She turned quickly. "Fine, if you were sent to kill me in the first place then do it." She said, stepping closer so that she was right in front of him, her eyes defiant. "Because thanks to your society I will never go home again, And you know that!" She said, her voice filled with sadness. "As long as I'm breathing that stupid group of yours will be after me so you might as well kill me." She said, sighing and turning away from him.

"You were a hostage. Now I don't know what am I anymore." Sebastian's voice trailed off as he began to pace up and down the shuttle. "My orders had been to keep you alive until new orders arrived, but they obviously won't be getting here at all." He stopped at the control cabin's door and then turned around to stare at Scarlet. Her whole being was distilling sadness, wave after wave crashing into Sebastian's augmented senses. It was almost crushing his own will. He looked down, avoiding eye contact. "Just keep yourself together. You'll find a way out of this one, Sebastian. You always do."

"Listen. Protechnius is looking for me. I've gone rogue on them with sensitive data. As long as you stay with me, there's a low probability they will get you." Sebastian checked once more his SeMI, making sure they weren't being followed. That's when Avina chimed in. "Sebastian, I managed to decrypt the data obtained." Master Marksman nodded. "Display it on my SeMI, Avina." There was a moment of silence, followed by Avina's short reply. "I suggest you sit down. This will truly know you out." Several windows popped out from Sebastian's forearm, which Sebastian quickly began to manipulate skillfully as he displayed them openly, browsing through the files for the information he needed. His frown increased as he kept on reading. "Avina, these are scientific protocols for an experiment something about a Project NG. Are you sure this is the right info we needed?" "I'm positive about it, Sebastian. Keep on reading."

Scarlett sighed. He doesn't know who her is anymore. So that gives him a reason not to kill me? She turned away from him and headed to a small table, sitting down and letting her pounding head rest on the table top. As he sat down, starting to read papers, she looked up a little with her head still resting on the table. "Experiment?" She asked, her green eyes brightening as a thousand guesses flashed through her mind. What was the experiment? Did it involve her? Sebastian?

She focused on Sebastian to ignore her racing mind. She had noticed earlier that whenever she showed strong amounts of emotions, he wouldn't look at her. When she kissed his cheek, showing affection, he turned. When she showed sadness and anger, he looked away. Was he uncomfortable with her? He didn't seem attracted to her. He seemed like her was stuck with her, and that was it. So maybe him looking away was just a way to block her out. "Sebastian, I'm sorry that I got you into this mess." She breathed, glancing up at him. "If I had known this was going to happen I would've stayed behind. Now your life's just as messed up as mine..." She said, frowning slightly.

Sebastian's mind barely registered Scarlett apologizing for turning his life upside down and just as messed up as hers. His eyes were moving frantically through the different windows in front of them, increasing his confusion. Project NG? What did a bioengineering experiment had to do with him at all? His right hand was moving frantically as he changed from articles to notes about the experiment, from images to videos, and from personal journals to official reports. "Why are they talking about Rejection Syndrome and some research on stem cells that didn't show the syndrome at all?" Sebastian sighed as he closed all tabs with a single motion, resting his back on the seat and rubbing his chin. "This doesn't make sense at all. What do I have to do with all of this?"

Scarlett leaned back in her chair as well and stared at him. Her eyes looking him over. "Hmm. They say your linked to a Rejection Syndrome project? And an experiment they did?"she asked, her mind racing with ideas. She could see the confusion on her face and decided to not speak. But the main question that was in her mind was what if he was the experiment? For a moment she thought to speak up, but decided to stay quiet.

"Rejection Syndrome was a relatively new disease found out when the first augmentations started rolling into the market. People's body started rejecting their augmentations, so scientists had to found a way to stop this. It all happen at tissue level: glial cells from the nervous system started gathering around the augmentation's electrical nodes, causing hindering and incapacitating pain. This new condition was named Rejection Syndrome mainly because it looked like the body was rejecting the augmentations. To treat the condition, scientists developed a drug called Neuropozyne. It erased, so to say, the accumulation of glial cells around the nodes." Sebastian remained silent for a moment as he rubbed his chin a little bit more, thinking on his own words. "Now that I think about it, every time I went to check my glial cell levels I received a pat on my shoulder and was told to leave without any medicine at all. I never pondered on it too much, but now..." He frowned, leaning back on the seat. It was strange, to say the least. He sighed gently and then looked at Scarlett. "Last time I was at HQ, I had to report to my superiors. Being a top operative granted you certain rights no one else had, like being able to walk up to my superior's offices unannounced. As I was nearing, I heard him talking to someone on the phone about me. He was saying something around me being successful and that they were grateful I was planned that way."

Scarlett nodded slowly, letting her mind take in what he was saying. "So you had Rejection Syndrome, and then they fixed you?" She asked, running her hand through her hair. She bit her lip, looking down at the table. She was very confused. They had planned him out? She stood up quickly and went over to the window, peering out. "Well they needed you to be the best you could be for the job." She said, turning and staring at him as she leaned on the wall.

"Not precisely. I never developed Rejection Syndrome for some reason no one really understands. Every doctor I've met at the hospital has told me they don't understand how is it possible for someone not to develop Rejection Syndrome, especially after having augs for such a long period of time." Sebastian shook his head for a moment before standing up and entering the control room. His mind was still racing. "What do you think this has to do with me, Avina? There is still info missing." His AI replied after a few seconds of thought. "I'm not sure, Sebastian. I hadn't mentioned anything about your strange case of lack of Rejection Syndrome mainly because your other vital signs were always within the normal ranges. After I managed to decrypt the information, I began wondering the same." Sebastian frowned as he sat down behind the controls, wondering why was he connected to the project at all. "We need a place to hide. Scarlett, you're better versed in this area than myself. Any ideas of somewhere we could hide?"

"Well, there is one place. It's the only place that I was ever taken too outside of the castle." She said, turning and looking at him. "In the Appalachian Mountains, the Order built a small stronghold to hide in case there was ever an attack on the castle. They had an underground train system of sorts that would lead right into the mountain. But theres also an entrance by foot. So we would have to ditch the shuttle." She said, pushing her hair over on one shoulder.

"If you have a map I can point out where the entrance is. There shouldn't be anyone there, but I know the passcodes to turn on the electricity so that we can hide out for awhile." She said, heading over to the table and sitting down. She thought for a moment. "Wait! The entrance to the mountain is a waterfall. If you could take the shuttle through the waterfall then you can hide it there. Then there's a secret entrance from the waterfall to stairs that lead up to the base. The electric is run by the running water, so everything will be nice. There's many different suites as well, so if you get tired of me you can have your own place to stay." She teased.

Sebastian nodded at Scarlett's comment, so he quickly manipulated his SeMI until a holographic map appeared hovering over the table. He stood up and then went back to the table, staring at the map. "I think we can hide there for some time. My only question is if there is a way the Order can point out we're staying there." He sat down in front of her, staring with his icy eyes at the map. "What do you think, Avina? Safe enough but still with good reception for you to contact us?" Avina took her sweet time with her calculations before replying. "It seems good enough, Sebastian. We can't be picky right now, and the shuttle can't fly forever. You should have listened to me and installed an arc reactor as the shuttle's main power source. That way we wouldn't have to land at all." Sebastian rolled his eyes as his AI teased him. "It would have been too expensive, Avina. Besides, I needed a weapon, not at arc reactor."

"The Order isn't very high tech. They only have a few computers at the base, and they're only used to contact people outside of the castle. The castle itself has no way of contacting the outside world. So, It should be perfectly fine. It has plenty of food and will be comfortable to stay in until this all blows over." She said, looking at the map and then using her finger to scroll to a different part.

She bit her lip in concentration and then zoomed in at the base of the far North Eastern part of the Mountain range and then clicked where it had listened that a valley with about six or seven waterfalls was at. "The entrance to the stronghold is in the 3rd waterfall from the right. The others have just rock under them." She said, her fingers still on the map to route which way they should go to get there. "If you do this way then we have the easiest access to the waterfall, plus it steers us clear of radar from other shuttles because of the mountain." She said, looking up at his icy blue eyes. It was chilling how dazzling they were. She quickly shook her emerald gaze away from his piercing blue gaze and looked towards the map again.

"If this calms down at all." Sebastian thanked her silently with a nod of his head, then stood up and turned around. "Plot a flying route to the destination Scarlett has shown us, Avina. You know the procedure: silent and swift." He entered once more into the control room and spoke out loud for Scarlett to hear. "I recommend you try to get some sleep, Scarlett. This will be a rather long flight."

As he had expected, the flight had been a long one. Through it, Sebastian couldn't get even five minutes of sleep. He kept on going through the files Avina had recovered, browsing them meticulously, trying to locate any little bit of information which might help him understand what was going on. Lab protocols, scientific articles, log entries, personal journals... All of them flashed in front of his eyes. He was able to understand most, if not all, what was recorded on the documents. They definitely showed some progress in a bioengineering project and, if his understanding of genetics was still as good as when he finished his Master's, they were trying to create an eugenic being. Sebastian's being shuddered at this thought. It had been precisely that idea which had started World War II, happened so many years before he was even born. However, society hadn't forgotten. Eugenics had been completely banned, but that didn't mean people tried to get what they wanted by doing undercover researches and covered projects aiming for "society's benefit." His head began pounding without a care in the world, so Sebastian closed all the windows he had opened and held his head between his hands. "Sebastian," Avina spoke through his SeMI, "you should get some rest. You've been pushing yourself much harder than you normally do." Master Marksman shook his head and then replied lowly. "I can't, Avina. Not until I find out what all this mess has to do with me."

Scarlett shook her head as he offered sleep. "I can't. I'm not one to fall asleep when I'm nervous. I'll get sick." She said, leaning back in her chair. "Besides, I wouldn't feel right about sleeping while your worried and awake over something I caused." She stated, listening to Avina talk to Sebastian on how he should rest.

The dark haired woman sighed and sat her hands on her lap, looking at Sebastian. "You look like you need a drink," She said softly, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. For the next few minutes she was silent, just watching Sebastian roam about the room. After seeing him put his head in his hands she looked to the floor, wishing things were back to normal. She then looked up. "What if things never blow over? Then what?" She asked, her eyes widening at the scenarios popping through her head.

Sebastian flipped open his bow moments after he heard Scarlett's question. "If things don't calm down, then we fight." A thought crossed his mind moments after, though. "Or at least I fight. I can't stay put until I find what does a bioengineering project has to do with me." He held onto the wall as the shuttle tilted left and began descending, announcing they were close to their destination. He walked up to the cargo door and stood there without moving at all, as if he had been frozen through the ages. His breathing was barely noticeable, and his glance was steady. His tactical instincts were kicking in, and his Trauma Module was starting to pump small doses of adrenalin into his body. He inhaled deeply and then held his bow firmly on his left hand. "Let's roll."

The shuttle went through the third waterfall without any major problems. The sounds of the waterfall were muffled by the shuttle's walls, which then proceeded to open steadily as it landed. Sebastian jumped down and quickly placed an arrow on his bow, scanning his surroundings. His NEPA didn't show any danger, so he could assume they were safe for now. "Come on, Scarlett. You're the one who knows the terrain much better than us."

Scarlett stood along side him and waited for the door to open. She heard the water fall down on the ship. It was soothing as her heart began to pump faster with every second they got closer to landing. She glanced over at Sebastian just as the shuttle came to a halt. With a slight nod, the woman stepped out into the dark cave.

It was dimly lit and very hard to see where you were going, but she made it to the far right corner and pulled a medium sized rock off the wall to reveal a door handle. "Follow me." She called into the darkness, turning and opening the door. Behind the door were large rock stairs that had been carved into the mountain. She swiftly started to make her way up them . "The stairs go on for about a mile. This is because they wanted to make sure that if anyone got in here, the Order would have a way of taking them out before they got to me."

Sebastian's night vision quickly kicked in, allowing him a more tactical approach on the situation they were facing. Scarlett really knew the way around the outpost. Proof of this was the way she activated the door and began climbing upstairs. Still with his bow ready, Master Marksman was walking behind her, listening to her explanation. "It's reasonable. Defend a higher position. Basic, yet still useful when you're trapped." He nodded quickly and kept on walking behind her. "You know, if by any reason someone managed to infiltrate here and go unnoticed, these stairs could be a death trap." Sebastian's mind raced to show him several possibilities in which he could have easily infiltrated the outpost and made his way up the stairs unnoticed. That, of course, would have been a different story and would have had a different outcome.

Scarlett grinned and rolled her eyes. "Theres other ways out Mr. operative, " She teased, continuing up the stairs. "I'm going to guess that you think you could infiltrate it?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder and then looking forward again. After a little more walking, she came across a large metal door with a pass code lock on it. She pressed a button and suddenly the door lit up a neon blue color and a voice started. "State your name and prepare to be scanned." A female computer voice said dully.
"Scarlett Andrews." She said, opening her eyes widely as the computer scanned over her eyes. The door was entered almost instantly.

She headed through and glanced back at Sebastian. "Coming, Marksman?" She asked, turning around and heading into a large oval shaped room that had a large dome like screen in the middle of it. Along the outside of the screen was a circular desk filled with buttons, computers, and plenty of other technologies. She headed over to the large system and slipped a red switch to turn on the power. Light flooded through out the building and she turned and looked at Sebastian. "Whatever you do, do not turn the command center on. If you do then the order will be alerted." She said, pointing to the power button in the center of the table.

"It's not whether I could, it's more if I wanted to do it or not." Sebastian said shortly as he followed Scarlett closely from behind. When the door asked for her name, he stepped back and remained there while the scanning was complete. After it was finished, Master Marksman caught up with her. "I have your back, Scarlett."

The room they ended up in was big enough for Sebastian to feel he was outside, though he knew pretty well there was no way at all in which he could feel comfortable inside a mountain. He was a man of outdoors and cities, not a man meant to be under tons of dirt and rocks. He inhaled deeply and then nodded at Scarlett's comment. "Don't worry, I'm not planning to be spotted by anyone anytime soon. Where are we, exactly?"

"About a mile inside the mountain." She said, sighing. "Its a little weird being stuck in here, but I always like to go down to the waterfall at night and go swimming. If I sneak over to some of the other caves there's large pools of water in them. That way no one would spot me. Your welcome to join me if you want." She said, turning and starting to head to a large entry way. "Want to pick a room?" She asked, looking back at him and waiting for him to follow her.

One he did, she led him down a hallway to the right and took him all the way to the end of the hallway where an elevator was. "I'll give us both top rooms so that we can have windows." She said, pressing the 3rd floor. "The windows are hidden by rocks and plants to shuttles going by, but they're a small circle window, so no one really spots them. It makes me feel less claustrophobic." She said, flashing him a smile.

"About a mile inside the mountain. Great." Sebastian took a deep breath, trying with all his being to control a sudden panic attack which was threatening to take control over him. His heart had gone crazy, and he could almost swear it was about to burst out of his chest. To keep his mind busy, he took the arrow he had placed on his bow and set it back in his quiver, closed his bow's limbs, and kept on walking. "Just don't think of all the rocks waiting to crumble on top of you..." He shook his head and followed Scarlett, wondering how was she able to withstand all what he was going through.

She showed him his room. He thanked her silently, but couldn't hide his pale skin and uneasy breathing. He just couldn't help it. "That's it. I'm gonna die in here, plain and simple." His SeMI flashed several times, indicating someone was trying to communicate with him. It had to be Avina. After going rogue, he had established secured and encrypted channels with her. "Sebastian, I'm receiving some unusual biometrics on your side. Are you alright?" Unconsciously, Sebastian shook his head. "I think I might suffer from claustrophobia, Avina."