Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 11:36:43 GMT -5
"Jamerson." A harsh voice rang loudly through the hall. Craig lifted his head and looked to the guard that was presently at the door, eyebrow raised quizzically. "Craig Jamerson," it repeated impatiently. Not wanting to miss out on whatever was going on, Craig quickly hopped out of his bunk and made his way to the front where he held out his armband for identification. The guard opened the door up and Craig walked through. "Follow me," the bald-shaved man commanded and Craig obliged willingly, oblivious to what this was all about. It could be Tayva, but he'd imagined her breaking through the roof with her Dragon in a dramatic assault on the jail complex. Or maybe it was Rae or Taron. His countenance darkened at the thought of seeing the man again. He was too manipulative, too sure of his own grandeur; delusionally so.
Craig followed the guard thinking over the possibilities as they wound through a labyrinthine course of hallways. Craig knew they were going towards the way in and out, though, as this was the same course they'd traversed in reverse to get him to the hall he was in now. Another couple of minutes later and the guard showed him into a short hall of booths, phones, and bars. Craig walked down the hall until he spotted someone sitting on the other side of the barred glass in wait.
Tayva. She'd pulled through. A slight grin crossed his face and he sat down in a plastic chair as he scooped the phone out of the receiver. "You made it. Good to see you, Tayva," Craig said with clear happiness at her arrival. "What's the plan, though? Not exactly what I'd expected for you to get me outta here." Craig watched her intently; his life in the balance in this young girl's hands.
Post by Tayva Aschaund on Jan 23, 2013 12:43:10 GMT -5
Tayva couldn't help but smile as he prodded her with questions. It felt strangely good to be on the knowing end of the plan, to be the one to have questions asked toward, rather than being the one who was clueless on the situation. Still, the plan was rather risky, and any wrong move could easily mean their death. Or worse, if such a thing were even possible.
"Well, I had to find you first." she replied, bringing one of her hands out from under her head, a single finger extended as a small fly landed on it. Seemingly harmless, it buzzed off up into the air, vanishing within one of the vents that hung above them. "We weren't going to destroy a whole facility just to find you. You know how many armed guards are in here?" she asked, watching as the vent above them began to stretch and buckle strangely, drawing some attention from the noise.
"Anyways, you might wanna duck." she then added, hanging up the phone and dropping down into a crouching position, arms over her head. Almost instantly, the vent exploded into the growing crimson form of a red angry dragon. The guards immediately panicked, from both the appearance of the mythical creature and the suddenness that it. occured. The beast's tail whipped one armed man away into the wall, while snarling at another. Talos hadn't been certain of Tayva's intentions, especially the rather stern instruction prior to the entry about not killing any of the humans, unless absolutely necessary.
Once fully grown, and the only guards scattered, Talos then slashed at the glass that separated prisoner from visitor, removing the barrier all together. Tayva soon sprung to her feet, slipping over the back of the dragon, who had began to preoccupy himself at striking the roof above them. "Come on!" she shouted, extending her arm out to him to take his hand and get him out of this place.
A strange sudden shocking sensation raced through Tayva's being, causing her to blink, though her hand remained outstretched. The sensation seemed to focus in her head, causing her to wince in pain as a trickle of blood stemmed from her nose, much to her surprise.
Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 14:26:19 GMT -5
Craig looked up at the air duct behind Tayva as the light on it changed from the bending angles of the metal. Unable to hear the metal bending, he could tell it was noisy nonetheless as the angles began evening out and then the entire thing began expanding. Tayva spoke on as if nothing was happening, but Craig's eyes were chiefly focused on the pressured metal behind her. Distantly, Tayva said one more thing into the phone before taking the time to hang up the phone and ducking below the protection of the ledge and vanishing from sight. Craig's eyes widened. So this was her plan. Craig vanished from view just before the duct exploded and many loud smacks reported from the chicken-wired glass that stood between them. The guard outside of the door to the visiting room looked utterly surprised and went for his gun, but a large red flash of writhing scale displaced him in a blur.
Craig's adrenaline was going quickly now and was hastened along with the loud crashing of glass from overhead and chunks of solid wall came avalanching down past the edge of the metal ledge while other pieces of debris clanged noisily against the shelf. Craig heard Tayva's call just over the din and, mustering his courage, stood up quickly from the stainless steel he'd taken refuge under, looked quickly to the paths of the falling chunks of concrete from the quickly weakening ceiling, and leapt on top of the shelf. Twisting his body to get through the twisted contortions of metal, Craig stepped carefully over the glass and leapt down beside the Dragon's forelegs.
Craig followed the path Tayva had taken to mount the beast and reached a hand up to grasp hers. Craig caught a glimpse of blood dripping quickly from his rescuer's nose just before he hoisted himself up with Tayva's assistance. Once in place, he pulled himself closer to Tayva and clung to her midsection tightly to avoid being thrown off. "Good to see you again, too, Talos," came Craig in an a jaw-clenched greeting. More rocks and debris came coursing down around them and Craig looked up at their source just in time to see the sky break through the battered victim of Talos' tail. A wave of relief washed over him in that instant and a smile pressed to his lips. Freedom.
Immediately after they'd erupted into the night sky, Craig pointed the direction of his lab. "I need to grab a couple things. We need to go that way," he announced.
Post by Tayva Aschaund on Jan 23, 2013 14:38:10 GMT -5
The moment the night sky was exposed to the crimson dragon, he took his chance and crawled through the hole, tail sweeping behind him as to ward off any would-be attackers that decided to shoot while his back was turned. Pulling himself and the two passengers out through the hole he made, the dragon wasted no time in ascending into the night sky, leathery wings spread as he took off into the night sky. The plan to escape was simple: move up into the clouds to prevent being seen. The noise and confusion served to help in their escape, for their method had been so seemingly random, that those who maintained the facility really had no way to proceed, allowing them to escape with relative ease.
Tayva knew there had been a big risk with the plan, but they had no other option. The exposure of dragon-kind was a big gamble, something that she hoped would not proceed with this escape. But she had no other alternative to break out her friend. So long as the reports of a few hysterical guards went dismissed, things would be okay.
As Craig instructed where they were to go, she nodded and instructed for Talos to descend, once more in a quiet sleepy place. Far enough from the confusion and destruction of the facility that they wouldn't be too bothered. As Talos landed, his form began to change quickly, so she grabbed Craig and jumped off, before Talos regained a humanoid form. "Is everyone in one piece?" she finally managed to ask, finally noticing the trickling blood, and wiped it away with the back of her hand.
Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 14:53:36 GMT -5
They quickly dropped to the ground, not as comfortably far from his recent cell as the doctor would have liked. He knew time was ticking and they would likely find out about his disappearance within the hour. Suddenly, his thoughts were torn away as he felt a tug pull him off of the Dragon from behind. Craig barely caught the ground in time to not faceplant, but skidded safely to a stop before turning to face Tayva and the now-almost-humanoid Talos. "Uhm, what are we doing? We need to get out of here now before the streams of police cars comes rolling in. I figure that a quick flyover to my lab, three to five minutes grabbing my stuff, and then flying us out of town to somewhere more remote would be the best way to get out of here. Besides which, look at these clothes I'm wearing. We can't navigate through town casually when I'm dressed in a jumpsuit." Craig spread his arms at their environment and finished his thought with, "What are we doing here?"
Post by Tayva Aschaund on Jan 23, 2013 15:13:46 GMT -5
"I suppose we can, but it'd better be really quick. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of exposing Talos' true form to guards, and a fly by with all this noise will probably make things worse." Tayva explained quickly. A quick nodback to Talos made the dragon sigh, reverting back to his true form. Rather than allow the two smaller beings to hitch a ride on his back again, he gently grabbed the two with his large talons, careful not to squeeze too hard.
"Just in and out quickly, right?" she asked again, needing assurance that he wasn't going to take long. There were limits to how well a dragon could hide, while carrying two full grown adults in the middle of the night. With that, Talos proceeded to fly once more, giving the two a view of the world below them as he held them underneath his figure.
Talos did his best to remain as quiet as possible as they approached his facility, Tayva remaining silent the entire time, not just be cause she didn't want them to be spotted, but because she wasn't all that pleased with their situation. She wanted everything to go right, but no matter there would always be that risk in getting caught. And the last thing she wanted was for the secret of the existence of dragons and draconians to be wiped out with the slightest slip-up
Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 15:48:33 GMT -5
Craig affirmed her statement with a nod. "In and out," he repeated as the Dragon took form. A strong arm clutched Craig carefully under his arms and they were hoisted up into the night sky, flying off quickly in the direction Craig had previously pointed to. It was a quiet ride and when the building he worked in came into view, he only spoke to say, "The white block building to our right," so Talos would know where to land.
Once settled inside of the police tape surrounding the premises, Craig sprinted to the side and entered over the bashed-in door. The man took the stairs two at a time and quickly erupted into the second floor of the lab where a diced-up Nibbles and the treacherous Vampyre still lay. Ignoring the impulse to reminisce, Craig raced to his office and darted around his desk. He quickly collected his computer and two manila files from the side drawer that he placed inside the leather laptop bag that was resting faithfully on the desk's top. Satisfied, he sprinted back across the lab floor and flung open the refrigerator door there. Craig grabbed all of the blood samples he had collected of supernatural species and left the rest; he could get more of those. The two Dragon, two Draconian, and Daemon samples were all invaluable, though, and it was unlikely he would be able to regain all of them. Craig began to turn, but stopped in thought before turning back to the station and grabbing a clean sample bag from a dispenser on the wall. Craig raced to the center of the lab floor again and hoisted the axe Rae had used to kill the servant high in the air and crashing it down with all his force to sever the Vampyre's hand. He didn't even hesitate as he grabbed the disembodied hand and placed it into the bag, sealing it tightly. One more sample, he thought approvingly to himself.
Craig grabbed a lab jacket from a hanger on the wall on his way out and shoved one arm through as he took on the flight of stairs. Switching hands to hold the laptop bag and specimen, he burst from the building in a run as he finished donning the white jacket. Craig pulled the strap over his head and swung it around to his left as he covered the last few yards to the pair that had set him free. "All set," he declared. "I need to get to Chicago before I flee the country. Where are you two going?"
Post by Tayva Aschaund on Jan 23, 2013 16:19:30 GMT -5
Tayva stood quietly by Talos' side the entire time, hoisting herself back onto the dragon's back as he landed and released Craig to collect the things he so desperately needed. The draconian found the strange pounding headache was getting worse, and so used her dragon companion as a temporary place to rest. The fear of getting caught was still high up on her list, but she found herself having a hard time on focusing on it with the sensation in her head.
Craig burst out from the building shortly, the dragon standing from his resting stance to get ready to take off once again. Tayva helped her companion back up, and as he gave a new destination Talos took off once more. It would have been a lot easier and faster to fly there than to take a vehicle. Talos would need a good long rest after all of this, having to fly non-stop to state, and now having to fly all the way back.
In response to Craig's second question, Tayva simply shook her head. "We have no plans, nor do we ever really. We just go wherever we want." she explained, wondering why exactly he was curious as to what their plans were. "I also hope you grabbed an extra set of clothing before you start running around in Chicago dressed as a criminal."
Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 16:50:04 GMT -5
Craig smiled and nodded, though Tayva wouldn't be able to see it. "I've got a change I keep in a manila envelope at work since I spend so many hours there. I've got it." Craig raised his banded arm into Tayva's view. "I'm going to need to get this bracelet off of my wrist, though. Got a knife or something to cut it with?" Craig replaced his arm on Tayva's waistline and said, "Not right now, of course..."
Craig listened to Tayva and at the first silence asked, "So are we flying to Chicago? Or am I just getting dropped off somewhere?" Craig looked about, enjoying the view of the night sky, dark as it may be. It was a bit nippy, sure, but his double layers (not to mention the giant red creature below him) served to keep him warm enough. The trees seemed to pass by below like waves of grass and the ground rushing below their feet was something he was sure it was hard to grow tired of. It felt like pure freedom and perhaps it wasn't so odd that the Draconians he'd met had had such a fascination with flying by themselves. He'd never felt so liberated. Craig breathed the night air in deeply another time. He'd never felt so free.
Post by Tayva Aschaund on Jan 23, 2013 17:11:44 GMT -5
"We'll go as far as we can to Chicago. If it takes the same length of time it took to get here though it'll be daytime, which will probably cause problems." Tayva explained, taking a quick look around as they continued to fly. She was feeling a little paranoid about being followed, though they shouldn't be seen above the clouds. However when it came to the daylight of the morning, they would need to find somewhere to land that wasn't too close to civilization. Unless they wanted to be spotted of course.
"I'll make sure you get where you need to go though." she insisted, offering the man a small smile. It sounded like a promise that she intended to keep, which led her to her next question, which she had hoped to hold off on until they weren't fleeing for their lives.
"So what happened exactly? With you and prison and everything." Tayva questioned, wanting to hear from him why he had been tossed into jail. He didn't seem like the violent type, so his explanation of being associated with a string of murders didn't make a whole lot of sense to the girl. Of course she didn't want to be associated with a murderer, although at this point it wouldn't matter: if they realized that her body wasn't back in the prison, then she would be associated with the rather bizzare breakout that had just occured
Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 17:42:55 GMT -5
"I suppose I owe you an explanation if nothing else," Craig admitted. "It started a day or two after I met you in Canada; so about a week ago. A friend of mine that I had a close call with at a diner near here got a hold of me and told me that she had purchased a plane ticket for me and told me that my life was in danger. I took the flight to NYC to meet her. Once there, she proceeded to explain that there was a bloodthirsty Vampyre going around killing bioengineers and geneticists; people in my field. Hiding the Supernatural world as best they could, from my imaginations.
"I decided my best choice was with a home field advantage. The next day, some guy starts banging on her apartment door and calling her by name. We snuck out the fire escape and drove to the airport where we flew back here to Reno. Previously, I'd had some UV lights ordered and installed at my lab and they were just being finished up as we arrived. Perk of being in charge of a lab floor. We gathered some supplies but by the time we got back to the lab that night, a servant of the Vampyre had begun attacking the people there. I saw the Vampyre at the edge of the driveway, walking in the rain without a care in the world. It was... eerie." Craig sighed at the thought before continuing on.
"Anyways, the Vampyre tried to mesmerize me, but I broke free of his gaze and we got inside. The Vampyre's servant attacked Rae in my office while Nibbles got diced up by the Supernatural creature. I turned on the UV, but the Vampyre healed itself somehow while holding a hand towards it's servant. I think he was doing like a life siphon or something off of it." Craig shook his head and proceeded, "Well, it may be what weakened him enough for Rae to cut it's head off with a fire axe and show up at the office door victorious. She shouted to the Vampyre, distracting it. The Vampyre's siphon gone, it began burning and chunks of skin began falling off. Then I shot it with a pistol with silver bullets that Rae had equipped me with earlier. It was dead.
"I went to look over Nibbles, noticed Rae hurt, rushed to the ER with her dog in my car, told the police what happened and suddenly I'm a murder suspect with 13 lives on my warrant. Rae's Uncle from earlier came to get me out, but told me I would have to never speak to Rae again. I may have been a bit rude," Craig confessed. "Anyways, then I called you and the rest you know." Craig yawned, story finished. "We'll make it to Chicago before sunrise, right? I mean, we're moving pretty fast and don't have to follow any pesky road patterns. Nothing beats as the crow flies," Craig said chipperly.
Post by Tayva Aschaund on Jan 23, 2013 18:06:11 GMT -5
Tayva listened with interest as he explained his story, a little surprised that someone would have gone as far as to go out and target very specific people like that. Whoever it had been was rather dedicated to keeping the secret of every supernatural being out there. As he finished, Tayva questioned: "So the supposed murders you're being held on, were those for the other bioengineers?" she questioned.
Whatever the case, Tayva couldn't help but feel sorry for the man. She had known what it was like to have a life changing experience, but with her it was for the better. For Craig... not so much. It seemed as if he had his entire life taken from him, all because he was simply curious. He might have gotten away with his actual life, but his metaphorical one had been stolen away from him for the most part.
"Anyways we should make it there right at sunrise, if we're lucky. Considering that we're flying against the time line and all that fun stuff." Tayva added, looking down at the crimson stain on her hand from the droplets of blood she had found running from her nose. She wasn't an expert in the scientific field, but she thought she could remember it having something to do with change in pressure somewhere. Whatever it was, she hoped that the headache would subside before they arrived in Chicago, for whatever reason he had to get there. Perhaps this friend of his was there, and he wanted to make sure that she was okay.
"Beter get comfy, because either way it'll take awhile to get there."
Post by Craig Jamerson on Jan 23, 2013 22:05:58 GMT -5
Craig shook his head at her back. "The murders I'm being accused of are for the deaths of my coworkers, caused by the servant of the Vampyre," Craig said sadly. He listened to what Tayva said and settled in against her back. Though he didn't fall asleep (his mind was going over far too many things for that), time did fly by quickly. The next thing he knew, the sky was getting lighter. Craig looked up and saw the distinctive Chicago skyline. They had arrived.
"Alright, whenever you want to set down is fine," Craig informed the Dragon and it's rider. Not completely sure where Rae was, he didn't have any particular starting point. He had a feeling, though, that he would find her and her uncle and settle this matter once and for all. Then, it was off to-- Craig's line of thought stopped. To where? he wondered. He was a criminal, a wanted convict now. He had to flee the country. Where could he go, though? He didn't know anyone who could help him get back on his feet somewhere else. Nor was he familiar with this way of living. The pressure of what he was about to face began to rise even as the Dragon he was on sank. It was going to be a whole new world.
