Welcome to Gaia! ::

As Inferno stood up, he held his side. He returned his attention to his surroundings. He found himself near the edge of a huge cliff that overlooks a wide open ocean. He could see a slight bit of fog dancing on the water and couldn't help but stare. He wondered where he was after all that happened in the mines. He had a little trouble remembering it all, but his head soon stopped aching and was able to think better.

"The methane... this... it makes no sense. The mines..." He stopped for a moment. He quickly looked around and then paused. "Tony! This must be where he is, but where is here?"

"My guess is as good as yours, so if you're seeing yourself on top of a huge a** cliff in the middle of nowhere, youre seein what I'm seein."

He turned to Beni. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna take a look around." He stopped a moment to listen. He heard no crickets, no bats, not a thing moving around. It all seemed too quiet. He pulled out his handgun and released the safety on it. He held it up by his left shoulder and slowly moved around.

"Can you move ok, Beni?"

Inferno was slightly confused with the response.

"Ok... Ken... How about a look around then? It would do us some good to find out where we are exactly."

He wondered if it had anything to do with injuries Beni... I mean... KEN had recieved on his way through the vortex. Either way, he saw an improvement in his attitude. Somehow, however, he kinda missed the Beni he knew prior.

"Are you sure you're alright? You seem a little... never mind. Let us be on our way."

Inferno raised one eyebrow and and thought for a moment. Maybe he was being delusional after all. Or maybe Beni took in a little too much of the methane gasses. Either way, it was better than suffering its painful effects. At least this was more subtle and could be molded in any direction, so long as he maintained control over his mind.

He walked down to the green plains that lead into a prarie. He could see a bright glow in the distance. If anything, it was a nearby city.

The hair on Inferno's back stood up. Not only was he unsure about... Ken, but he seemed to be right. Danger was near. At first, the danger seemed to be far off, but then a cold rush of air struck him off guard.

He quickly pointed his gun. He moved around quickly to find out what it was that was threatening them. He had a really bad feeling down in his gut.

Inferno did not respond to Ken. He was much more focused on where the danger was coming from. He continued to search around until he heard a gust of wind coming from his left side. He turned around to find himself knocked to the ground by a large, bat-like figure. He fired off a shot from his handgun only to miss his target. He quickly stood back up to find that he and Ken were surrounded by a group of these creatures. They flew quickly and made terrible screaching sounds. He saw they each had two daggar-like tails and possesed large claws on their feet.

Judging by the large number of creatures, Inferno had to put his skills to the test and conserve as much ammunition as possible. The creatures now closed in. One of them was now headed toward him and revealed it's several rows of sharp teeth.

At that, Inferno whipped out his grapple gun and fired. He hit it right between the eyes and through the other side of it's head. The grapple lodged into a nearby tree and let out a bit of slack from the impact. Another of the creatures then attacked Inferno from his right, and he quickly moved to clothesline his attacker and maneuver the slack around its neck. Three other creatures were by now moving in. Inferno took a quick turn and hit all three of them with a powerful swing of his arm, crashing the two corpses attatched to his grapple into the three moving in.

He did this with tactical precision and quick feet, before turning and firing three shots with his handgun in the direction of more bats closing in.

Inferno had heard what Ken had said, but knew there was nothing that could have been done about the situation. There was just too many to fight and fighting back-back-defence would just cause the creatures to mass up and attack at once, totally anihilating the both of them. These creatures were smart, and he knew he had to do whatever it took to knock their numbers down before attempting to fend them off in any other way.

Ken had a good idea, he thought, but obviously didn't see the odds of success. Even then, he couldn't say much different, as his actions simply distracted them. The shots he fired from his gun missed the critical marks that could have led to a quick and successful victory, but instead caused more of a problem.

He looked over at where Ken was, only to find a bunch of corpses. He called out his name, but no answer came back. He had failed to protect Ken. Just as he had thought he was getting together, things seemed to be getting worse. Before he had a chance to start looking for Ken, he felt one last gust of wind before hearing a loud screach followed by a hard blow to the back of his head. He was out cold.