They proceeded round the curved dam, approaching a small building on the other side, in which they all assumed would be another stairway leading down into the structure, but then again they may have to find an alternative way down. Still, any inconveniences along the way were hardly seen as such so long as they were safe from the monstrous wolf-beast. Midway across the dam, Sin had stopped and spoke her mind, apparently unable to hold her tongue any longer and reluctantly her two traveling companions stopped and turned to listen.



When she had finished her little diatribe, Pheyd has simply acknowledged her thanks for his medical care with a nod then looked questioningly at the large lion-man who had settled his massive frame on the edge of the dam.



Even when leaning against the edge of the walkway's low wall, Stasinus still looked down on the woman, noticeably irritated. He folded his powerful arms and settled his orange eyes upon her while choosing his words carefully since he did not want to offend her but not because he was considering her feelings but rather his own hyper sensitivity to emotions. A misplaced connotation would very well, set her off and cause him to endure an even more intense flood of her passionate feelings that for the last while had hardly seemed to wane. It was the reason he had decided to travel with the synthecan, as he was the first being he had ever met who did not effect his empathic sense, not that he expected people to be so void of emotion, it was just that he enjoyed the company of a disciplined mind. Sin on the other hand was quite the opposite, and though he had no qualms with her personally, he had difficulty drowning out her vehement waves of anger and sadness.

After some thought he had last figured a way to easily to depict his ability to her. He looked around him and found a very small rock, which he picked up and tossed it far away down the pathway. As the tiny pebble struck the concrete his sensitive hearing could still make out the sound and pinpoint its location, and he knew that Sin would as well be able to hear the sound of the falling speck. "A human would not have heard the fall of the pebble, yet you could." He began to explain, "Your ears are more sensitive and thus, were you to encounter loud sounds you might consider abandoning such a place. Would you not?"

Pheyd smiled ever so slightly and nodded his head, impressed by the lion-man's simplistic yet effective way of describing his empathy. Since their encounter with the wolf-woman, Sin, he had observed a tenseness in his companion and only did it become apparent what was causing it.

"Your emotions, " Stasinus continued to explain, "Are like a cacophony of loud instruments playing out of tune for me and unfortunately I cannot place my hands over my ears to drown out the sounds. Feelings of hate, rage and sadness pain me the most and unfortunately there is nothing you can do to make me feel 'comfortable', anymore that you can shut off your emotions." The lion-man stood up and began to carry on down that path. "You would do well, Sin not to concern yourself with my 'feelings' and perhaps be more conscientious of your own." He then turned his benevolent face to her once more, speaking softly. "To put your mind at ease, neither Pheyd nor myself will harm you. You are welcome to travel with us for I feel that we may be leaving this facility since we know not how to locate this Bainbridge, and your sister's rampage is already exacting justice on this cursed place."

The trio marches round to the other side of the dam and find the building to be nothing more than rotted out, dilapidated ruin but beyond it they find a road way that descends through the mountains. It is apparent that it once served as a roadway for vehicles but over the centuries, much of it has crumbled away and at many areas there is only a narrow path, passible only by someone on foot.

It seems they have little choice but to progress down the wrecked roadway and so they proceed, taking note that they have only three hours of daylight left and should make camp before the setting of the sun.



As they make their way down the rocky mountain path, Stasinus isn't sure what Sin has been concentrating on, but whatever it is seemed to be diverting a lot of her attention and consequently clearing her head of the chaotic emotions that so irritate his senses. Naturally he could feel her residual emotions, but everyone exhibited those and the lion-man had learned to tolerate such trivial feelings.



As usual, Pheyd lead the way, his electric blue eyes ever watching, his ears trained on the slightest of sounds. He was yet unaware of all the perils of his new world and so he remained cautious.

After several hours they reached the foot hills of the mountains, where Pheyd pointed out a structure in the distance which he believed would make a fair shelter. After few more minutes of hiking they found that the building was in fact an ancient travel trailer, partially buried in the sand. Pheyd, found the door, brushed away the sand and pried it open. He stepped inside, looked about then emerged and told Sin and Stasinus that everything seemed to check out and that this would be a good place to bed down for the night.

The synthecan stood in the doorway of the trailer, his pale skin bathed in the red glow of the setting sun. He and the crouching lion-man had been whispering amongst themselves, their voices hushed to a volume that would be inaudible to all creatures with hearing as sharp as their own. What they were speaking of Sin could not be sure, but she noticed that Pheyd had a few times looked out the open doorway as if he had seen something.

When Sin had offered to hunt, both the lion-man and synthecan turned toward her with curious eyes, reminding her of her current condition, which for some reason seemed to concern them at this point and time as opposed to earlier. Pheyd's bright blue eyes, almost luminescent in the warm light of dusk fell upon her and that creepy smile curled the corner of his mouth, then he was gone out the doorway.



Stasinus, reached into his pack and produced a lantern which he lit before he closed the door. The windows were covered by sand allowing no natural light into the trailer which meant that their night vision which relied on at least some ultraviolet radiation would be useless. He placed the lantern on the counter top and keeping the flame low allowed both of them to see their surroundings very well, as if a much brighter light source were shining before their bestial eyes.

The lion man then awkwardly made his way over to Sin and sat beside her on the floor. So large was he, that he made most people feel like children in comparison. He reached back into his satchel that when viewed up close was far larger than it appeared next to the giant's body, and pulled out a tasty smelling package bundled in cloth. Stasinus methodically unwrapped it, and revealed a wad of dried meet which he shared with the wolf-girl, then offered her a canteen of water to wash the spiced meat down.

"Chew slowly." Stasinus told her, as Sin wolfed down her food. "Just because we resemble animals, we do not have to act like them." he advised then smiled warmly to let her know that he was not being as serious as she might perceive.

The lion-man took a chew and took note of the girl massaging her temples to relieve the tension that had built up over the course of their travels. "You're doing it wrong." He mentioned. "You are attempting to control your emotions by focusing on something else. This is not the way, you will only give yourself a head-ache, as I can clearly see you are experiencing at this moment." Stasinus smiled then continued, "Besides I can still sense your emotions, an empath such as myself always will." he raised his arm and pointed his index finger to the ceiling, "The key is to control your emotions, not try and stifle them with mind blocking techniques, believe me Sin, they never work... not really. We are all emotionally beings, even Pheyd but he is different, he's not really a man."

Stasinus poured some water over a cloth and handed to Sin. He motioned to her to place it on her head while he went on to describe the strange pale skinned man in more depth. "His mind is different from ours and he doesn't require as much nourishment as we do. He is a synthecan, a manufactured person made of synthetic flesh over a powerful body of organic plastics." The lion-man paused then to make sure that Sin was understanding most of what he was telling her. He had grown, with access to libraries of information which is why he was so articulate, but he was not sure whether or not the wolf-girl had such an education.

"Pheyd, has descended from the stars after a long a journey. The last time he was here, the world was different, still whole and none of our kind existed. As far as he knows he is the last of his kind and he had entered that facility in search of other synthecans. For some reason he is compelled to find others like him." Stasinus explained. Then he went on to explain why he had left the trailer, "Pheyd said that he could sense something outside and has gone to investigate."

Sin's eyes grew large, and Stasinus immediately realized that she assumed the giant wolf-beast, Alex was lurking around. "It's not your sister." He clarified with a soothing voice, "It is something else." Then after he warmly smied and chuckled to himself. "I have never been around anything that was more of a monster than myself, and I must say it is a little refreshing."

Stasinus considered what Sin had said about the southern laboratory and recalled that Pheyd had thought that another had existed long ago. Perhaps that was the one he sought, and he felt that his new friend would be pleased to know that other synthetic people existed, but little did the lion-man realize that their production required teams of geneticists and bio-mechanics to complete just one of the artificial humanoids and such an operation could not possibly exist today with the current technological level. Even a genius like Doctor Bainbridge would not have the resources or staff to manage such an undertaking. Pheyd's reaction to Sin's assumption would only be one of concern when he heard the news, but he was still patrolling the area around the trailer, searching for the source of the noises he had detected earlier.



Stasinus had laughed when the girl had tried to assure him that he was not a monster, but he knew what he was and accepted it. "To Humans that what I am, Sin." He explained, then his face hardened, "It's what you are as well, and the sooner you accept it, the longer you will live. NEVER," he began to growl, "trust Humans."

The lion-man, then feeling her 'hurt', turned to her with a softened expression. "We are really not monsters, but we cannot pretend that we will be excepted for who and what we are. I felt your need for acceptance the first time we met. We will NEVER be accepted by them, nor even other humanoids, for we are predators and they know it. Even among those humanoids of village I grew up in I was ever watched and was more tolerated than accepted, because of these." he raised his large hands and as he flexed them sharp claws extended from sheaths at the ends of his fingers, "They feared what these claws could do to one of them should I lose my temper, but what many of them never realized was that I feared it more than they."

Stasinus was silent for a moment. He was uncomfortable recalling his past and even less so speaking about it. "Were I you, Sin, I would learn to control the beast within you and live as a Humanoid. There are many settlements that accept those mutants that are at least three quarters Human in appearance, you would do well to find such a place." The animal mutant advised. He then looked toward the door and wondered how Pheyd was fairing.

Stasinus had wanted to accompany the synthecan on his patrol but one of them had to stay behind and watch over Sin and so he had volunteered to remain behind, which is just what Pheyd had wanted. Only recently had the synthecan interacted with other living creatures and before he had met Stasinus had been alone in space for hundreds of years. So as he silently stalked over the rocky terrain, Pheyd delighted in the aloneness he had become so accustomed to.



Pheyd leapt to the top of a high rock, landing as sure footed and quiet as a cat and scanned the area about him, viewing his surroundings using his thermal imaging, allowing him see by temperature variants. Looking beyond the trailer, toward the setting sun he spotted several creatures darting about with impressive speed. They were half the size of the average Human male, and moved like monkeys, using their four elongated arms to assist in their hunched over locomotion. Were there a few of them, they would be of no concern to the synthecan, but he could spy at least twenty of them scurrying around the trailer, growing closer as they became bolder.

Pheyd figured that the creatures must have at some time picked up on their scents, possibly Sin's injuries had attracted them. They had not yet acted aggressively and so the synthecan considered that they may just be curious creatures, although he had his doubts. He decided to remain at his hidden vantage point and observe them a while longer and should they prove to be hostile, he would have to confront and possibly kill one to prove that they were formidable and superior to them. He had not yet seen any signs that would indicate that they were no more than primitive tribal creatures and so the defeat or death of a stronger member of the group should prove discouraging.

As they quickly scurried around the rocks, the four front legs of the creatures clicked as they struck the hard surface, indicating that they were covered in a hard carapace. Pheyd, zoomed his binocular eyes in on one the things and actually winced in disgust at what he saw. The creature, if it were erect would have stood approximately six feet tall, but it's hard shelled back was crooked with horned bony ridge down it's center. It had four large armored arms, and two almost useless lower legs that trailed behind as it moved in a crab-like style through the narrow rock passageways. It's small spider like head, encrusted with several glistening black eyes, swiveled around and as it's maw flexed and relaxed while a sickening slime trailed from the pointed mandibles.

Seeing what they were, Pheyd knew that his first impression was mistaken. The creatures were some form of mutated crabs and would not respond to a display of force as a mammal would. It made sense then that they could not detect him easily as their vision and smell were probably accurate at short range only.

Pheyd prepared himself to take counter measures as he assumed that Stasinus and Sin had already heard the distinct clicking sounds of their four crab-like legs as they slowly approached the trailer. He was curious, however, and remained in his position a while longer wondering how these beings which were no larger than a man intended to break through the steel door that separated them from their prey. By his calculations, one of them would not be strong enough alone to pry open the door. They would have to work together and as he observed them with a fascination he could see that they did indeed work as one single unit. He watched with admiration as they coordinated all of their movements with a precision that would surpass any military unit. Pheyd knew that they would fight as one, and they would fight until they no longer out numbered their prey, which meant they would have to destroy at least seventeen of the monsters by his calculation.

Stasinus had at first paid little attention to the clicking sounds outside the traile. He thought that it might have only been lizards or perhaps rocks falling from the passing of the synthecan but now the noise increased he was sure what was causing it.

"Sand-stalkers." Growled Stasinus as he began to quickly rummage through his satchel. The lion-man produced a couple of torches, a flask of fuel and a zippo lighter. "They hate fire." He explained, "But if they're hungry enough and they are great in number it won't ward them for long."

There was a light tapping on the door, then a scratching sound and Stasinus began to recite an ancient poem under his breath, "...tis the wind I muttered, rapping at my chamber door..." There was a loud bang! "...only this and nothing more..." Then the irritating sound of scraping metal.

Stasinus calmly wrapped some extra fuel soaked cloth around the torches to increase the length of their burn and paid little attention the loud knocks against the sides of the trailer. He knew, that the creatures had a difficult time prying open metal doors and they had plenty of time before they would open the doorway. "Best you remain, humanoid as long as you can, Sin." He advised her, "Strong as your jaws may be, the carapace of sand-stalkers is extremely hard and their four fore legs end with dagger-like tips that they use to tear their prey apart. Their joints are weak though, and even a man of average strength can tear one of their legs off should they get a firm hold, but quite often people are attacked by two others before they get the chance. They fight in perfect unison and never alone. They will only fight if they out number their prey." He handed her a unlit torch. "Here. Our best chance right now is to stay in the tailer and try to discourage them. At night, on open ground, they have the advantage. In here, their numbers will count for nothing."

There were more knocking sounds now, many of them concentrated around the tailer door.

"They smell blood." Stasinus, told Sin confirming her fear that she had lead them their way, but then the lion-man relayed some more information that put her somewhat at ease. "It does not make sense, however, that they were tracking us during the day. Sand-stalkers are nocturnal and the sun has only just set, which leads me to believe that we are very near a nest or perhaps a hunting party was waiting out the day nearby, hopefully its the latter."

The lion-man crouched low by the door. He confidently rested his back against the wall of trailer, knowing that it was the side that was buried in the sand and waited. It was only a matter of time before they opened the door, but the closer it got to morning the better, because one the sun rose the sand-stalkers would be forced underground. All they had to do was last until day break and they would be able to get away, but until then they were in for a long and sleepless night.

[size=18]Sin took one of the torches and kept it close to her, the clicking and scraping noises beginning to grate on her nerves. She would heed Stasinus' advice and refrain from shifting if she had to battle the sand-stalkers. She felt bad though, thinking that her wounds very well could have led them to them, regardless of what Stasinus had said to her.

She sat back down on the couch-like bench, watching Stasinus, battling her exhaustion. She knew that neither one of them would sleep that night and she felt responsible. If she'd led Alex away from the two males instead of coming back to them, then they probably wouldn't be in this situation now. Of course, she'd probably be dead, but that was besides the point. Sighing, she focused on something else, something that would help her block her emotions so that they wouldn't bother Stasinus too much as he needed top have his wits about him and stayed awake along with him, keeping silent, listening to the scraping noises coming from outside./size]

Stasinus tried to drown out the rhythmic tapping on the aluminum hall of the tailer but in doing so he failed to hear the sounds emanating from behind him. On the other side of the trailer's window that held back the debris that had covered it long ago there was a shift in the sand, so slight that it would go unnoticed by the keenest of senses. The lion-man moved forward for a moment to stretch his back, and the stirring stopped. He looked over at Sin and smiled reassuringly as leaned back once more.

"I am sure—" Stasinus' words would cut short and followed by a cry of pain. Pain quickly turned to rage then as he threw his massive frame forward pulled through the shattered window a Sand Stalker, it's long spear like arms piercing the lion-man's back. Blood sprayed across the walls as the lion-man roared and before Sin could react he leapt to his feet thrusting his back against the ceiling and in doing so snapping the arms of the creature off with the window frame.

The Sand Stalker, defenseless without it's long spear like fore legs and in pain struggled to flee by the way in which it had come, but already the tunnel was collapsing and more of it's brothers could be heard. Fortunately it would slow the entry of anymore Stalkers that were digging through the loose sand. The sounds of the banging had increased, a maniacal frenzy had begun and the creatures were now attempting to pry open the other door and dig their way through the sand that covered the other windows.

Stasinus grabbed the handle of the aluminum door and held tight. His face contorted in pain and his eyes weary, he could only hope that Sin could keep the Sand Stalkers from entering by way of the tunnel. As he pulled the door tightly toward him, his back screamed with pain and Sin could see that the two boney appendages were buried deep. Already a pool of blood was collecting beneath the lion-man and none could be sure just how long he would remain conscious.



Pheyd watched the events unfold before him like a curious cat, perched high above on the tall rocky crag. There were many more of the creatures than he had anticipated and suddenly his chances of survival had dropped to 79.4%, which meant that there was a 56.3% probability of an irreparable injury occurring and without the proper facilities at his disposal he would be unwise to intervene. Nature dictated that the strong survive, and Sin was definitely not on the winning side. The loss of the lion-man would be a tragedy, he was a good asset and Pheyd believed that he would miss their conversations, but it was time for him to move on. He stood up, in plain sight for a moment, his white hair bright against the evening sky, then he was gone leaving his former companions to futilely fight for their lives.


In the distance another watcher crouched low in the rocks, his silent movement masked from the sythecan's super senses by the distracting commotion below, and perhaps also the strange feeling in his gut that he was unable to interpret, as well. Smoothly he leapt down from rock to rock, silent as a panther, then paused and watched the scene before him as the Sand Stalkers continued their attempts to enter the large shiny object. Sniffing the air, he could detect a faint but familiar scent and knew that he would have to act soon.

Sin looked around her, knowing that there was only one thing for her to do.

She helped Stasinus over to the far wall, away from the door, smiled up at him and headed for the door.

"Close this tightly once I'm out of here, Stasinus. I will draw as many away as I can."

She looked at him, both knowing that she would not survive but in doing this, it upped Stasinus' chances of living.

"Good luck, lion man."

Opening the door, she ran out, cutting herself in the process, making sure that her blood dropped on the ground, leaving a trail. Putting on a burst of speed, she ran as fast as she could away from the buried capsule, the majority of the Sand Stalkers following, catching up to her quickly. Once she was a good distance away and could run no farther, a large Sand Stalker impaled her with it's long spear like arms. Her scream echoed through the darkness, then there was silence except for the feeding frenzy of the Stalkers.

Stasinus could have stopped the wolf girl, but he didn't. Something had told him, that sadly it was her time, no matter how brief it was. When she ran out, Stasinus waited the followed.

He fought like a wounded bear, rearing up and madly slashing against the hard carapace of his attackers. His claws were useless against them, and so he resorted to ripping their limbs from their puny bodies, but by the time he had caught one, three more had taken their place. It was hopeless.

The lion man, put his back to a rock face that might provide a means of escape and fought madly to provide the room he needed to leap up and begin his climb. He managed to get a firm hold, but he was so weak from loss of blood that he could barely pull his own weight.

Two Sand Stalkers, pierced their forelegs into his thighs and and held fast, and the lion-man, growling his last curse felt his claws slip from the wall. He fell back, but was stopped by a hand grabbing his large wrist as an orange skinned man with cat-like eyes reached down and offered him aid, but it was not enough. The added weight of the Sand Stalkers was too much for the stranger and it seemed as if all was lost until out of the darkness emerged the synthecan. With in-human speed he bashed through the creatures allowing the cat-eyed man to resume pulling the lion-man to safety.

Stasinus could only look down through dazed eyes, and watch as Pheyd single handedly fought the Sand Stalkers, his powerful strikes cracking their hard shells, but with everyone that he destroyed, another took a piece of his synthetic flesh as payment. Then all faded to black as the lion-man drifted into unconsciousness.

Zack walked slowly across the bridge his breathing coming in gasps. he had walked in on the beasts even a good swordsman could not face more than 4 foes unless helped he had ran separating the fast from the slow. Turning many a time he would attack those who were fastest till all 19 of the gene spliced mutants which had followed him lay in dismembered piles or lay bleeding to a slow death. Zack was tired he knew that he had been running all day an unsightly thing to his health. He continued walking across the damn stopping when he saw a small stain of blood stopping he crouched to it instantly recognizing the scent of sweat and blood as Sintara some hope blossomed.

He walked off the damn his calm falling upon him but the voice in the back of his head leering at him. “She’s already dead you know?” Zack stopped his eyeball’s rolling back as he sought to try and throttle this voice finding no means to he pulled himself back to reality finding his own hands on his throat. “Why choke yourself just because you’re speaking?” Zack found the voice infuriating but still he wondered why the dark side of him was laughing. He left the dam finding a road he frowned as he looked up watching the sun as it set if only Sintara had seen this but the evil voice instantly jibes “She’s on an endless sunset in the land of the dead!” emphasising the word causing his head to ache he shakes it lightly side to eye leaving his head tilted to the side as he had done many a time.

Zack carried on walking down the road he noticed a something in the distance shrugging he continued forwards not to wary he continued but then he noticed that it wasn’t just one but a mass of thing around something stabbing it some biting Zack drew his sword the grating of the Claymore on the scabbard caused the creatures to look up in that moment his eyes narrowed. “You have realised what that is little Zack....Yep that’s Sin for your in a nice mess, what you gonna do now they all seen you?” The voice chuckling in the back of his head Zack couldn’t believe it but he could see the head even half her face eaten the eyes of gold in contrast to his of silver he felt sick wanted to just sit down and empty himself but first the crabs. “I ask you to follow your promise as if she were alive!” The crabs slowly closing in the voice was humming a merry tune as it came forward the colour in the world seeping away to grey then simply black and white. “Don’t worry brother I will kill them all!” Zack closed his eyes to block the carnage which followed as the demon danced between the crabs cutting limbs off the crabs even stabbing through the carapace unknown strength used by the demon but it all died down he felt the motion stop and Zack opened his eyes to find what he knew he would find.

He stood in the middle of a bloodbath Sin’s blood covered the floor then the green gung like substance which acted as the crabs blood floating in the red river with many shells of carapace lying across the floor many shattered by his sword which felt heavy in his hand. Hunching down Zack tried to take deep breaths but could only find the stench of fresh blood and the freakish stink of the crabs becoming overpowering. Finally he broke and added his own signature to the masterpiece he had made by vomiting back the jerky he had eaten that day.