Ball To Banquet VII : Temporary Safety

– "Get the two girls out of here, now!"

When she heard the sounds of ships overhead, Nizael promptly spotted three sleek, silver octagonal pods that had wings on either side; Cutting through the air they circled the room as if waiting for orders. While Nizael watched the Frame rise from the rubble, Helia pulled Karma out of the room followed by Tavella as she carried Lulu, who was clutching a bag in her arms, out of the room. The tubes connected to her neck were filled with a lightish red liquid, Lulu couldn't ever mutter to herself without experiencing even more pain. While they left the studio they could hear Nizael's shouting and irritation.

"Tsk, what the hell is taking them forever to raise the Lacra Barrier!? These useless bunch of cranks, I can't trust them with anything," She grumbled to herself as she pulled up her sleeves and revealed them covered in a black sheet of metal wrapped around them. After she did so, the sound of something whizzing through the sky was heard as a loud crash rang out within the studio as two more small craters were made by the entrance of two more metal Frames made entrance within the studio. With their presence, the metal slithered down her arms forming two thin and sharp sticks that she gripped in her hands.

There were now three Frames, the Valkyrie, a masculine Centurion-like Frame, and a thin Frame of Assassin-like style; They all three bum-rushed her – The assassin swirled itself behind her, attempting to assault her from the air, while the Centurion and Valkyrie continued their pace. Back-stepping, she kept her eyes on the two in front of her, she did a three-sixty returning her focus on the two, smashing her sticks into the Assassin. "I'm getting too old for this," With a sigh, Nizael tightened her grip. As she did so earlier, white light shone out, but this time from her entire being, not even a second later encompassing the entire room; At the same time she stepped into a dash and started wailing on them with fierce and precise strikes, burning and melting them from the white heat. While the Assassin Frame was turning into metal sludge, the Centurion and Valkyrie Frames still held strong.

Their resilience brought a chuckle out of Nizael's lips as memories flew threw her head, but when thinking of Lulu, she promised to finish quick.

...

After getting outside the room they soon heard quite a few crashes, not even bothering to look back they continued rushing through the halls, they were soon joined by five guards that were hiding in the shadows who were draped in all black clothing, they subsequently escorting them. There were no words exchanged as they continued moving as explosions and ear-deafening rattling rang out above them.

The vessels that were attacking, were now being intercepted and launched into a firefight with Detrid vessels. As the dog fight in the air began, a translucent blue barrier formed over the now bashed and torn metal barrier.

– "They finally put up the Lacra barrier. It's about time, they almost sent in more of those metal things." Tavella let loose a short sigh of relief. She inspected as a metal arm that was severed by the barrier fell through one of the many holes in the ceiling. Tavella gazed at Lulu's pained expression with uncertain eyes and stroked her hair from in front of her eyes, seeing they were perfectly fine and intact she let out a relieved sigh. "Thankfully you didn't lose your eye this time around... at least this event was changed," She spoke muttering under her breath. Scanning their surroundings one of the shadow guards finally spoke up.

– "There might be more Frames in other parts of the estate. Please follow us, we shall escort you and the Young Miss to Lord Bavel." Not sparing them a second for them to answer the female shadow guard took the lead, deciding to follow her, and they proceeded after her.

Karma who was being quietly dragged along had caught a glimpse of the main hall earlier and noticed that there were no longer any people there. Assuming that they had already left, her gaze traveled to Lulu who was squirming and moaning in pain, only to be in even more. Tavella had ripped off a bit of her clothing and wrapped it around Lulu's head – Doing her best to stall the bleeding as her clothing was now slightly dyed red from blood.

They arrived at Lulu's room and the guards entered it with no hesitance, when they entered the room the female guard went to the furthest wall in the room and tapped on it in a few seemingly random spots. Following her tapping was the sound of several things sliding before the wall was pulled up, uncovering a hidden dark passage. There was a flash of light behind them as the voice of Nizael leaked of it

– "Mhmm, those things always get on my nerves, they always find a way to escape. Good thing the Karna barrier prevented them from doing so," She spoke while rolling her shoulders back. When the light went out and revealed herself, her clothing was singed, cut, and torn at the sleeves and the bottom of her pants; Her skin was cut on bruised in a few places and she was smoking, literally.

Nizael stopped talking upon seeing them and approached Tavella with her arms stretched out, seeing this she carefully handed Lulu over to Nizael's arms. Nizael couldn't help but be ashamed of herself for allowing this to happen, based on what she heard from the Valkyrie Frame earlier it was obvious that their target for this attack was Lulu – Yet she didn't know how they knew she'd be in that room. They triple-checked every servant, worker, and soldier that they hired, perhaps they bought the information? Possibly so, there were already many attempts before, but to the Kritol!?

Nizael was gritting her teeth seething in contempt before the sound of metal feet echoed from the corridor halls. Taking steps into the passage Nizael nodded her head to the female shadow guard that seemed to be taking charge. Nodding back she did a few hand signs, with that the other four guards faded into the shadows and went to deal with whatever was approaching.

"Don't worry Lulu we'll get you some help as soon as well," Speaking with worry she strode with worried steps through the hall

Lulu was much calmer than she was when she was in the room, even though she was no longer crying she was still in an ample amount of pain and discomfort, so much so that she could hardly focus and keep herself awake. She was almost certain that going to sleep at the moment wasn't for the best, she didn't want to have to go through this and not know of it happening. Remembering she was due to an attack of Phantom pain caused a cold shiver to run down her spine – Causing her to clutch the bag in her arms even tighter.

She could hear Nizael trying to assure of safety, but the sound of banging and explosions sounding out from all around them made sure that didn't happen. She wanted to speak to her, but she could feel the pain just from taking in a breath of air, her lips quivering, she winced even harder and clasped her throat within her hand, her eyes barely open; She could only imagine how red the liquid in the tubes are.

Nizael catching Lulu's slight movements sped up her pace even. When they entered the passage the wall slid back down, quietly, leaving them in a space of pitch-black. They proceeded forward unfettered by the lack of light, moving through the passage blue light began lighting along the way, returning to them their vision – Revealing a far extending hall.

Fascinated by the hall, Tavella nearly spoke out the question that had popped into her mind, but before she could Nizael spoke as if anticipating what was on her mind. – "Don't ask," She asserted.

– "Nizael where are we currently heading to? You've never told me about this passage, or place. This guard said we were going to where Sol is," Helia was inquiring, her worried gaze constantly moving from Karma to Lulu.

– "We are going to the estate control room and med-bay. It is the main hub for our security control and defense, but... we must have been infiltrated. There is no possibility for us to have been caught off guard by the Kritol, our systems would have spotted them when they entered the planet's atmosphere." Confidentiality stating this, she continued speaking.

"Not to mention the amount of time it took for them to bring up the Lacra barrier. Sol had better have handled this before we arrive I don't want to see Lulu be put in more danger... we were already too incompetent when it came to her defense." Letting out a sigh, she blamed herself for Lulu's current condition.

– "I see..." Tavella unconsciously muttered.

The others couldn't say anything in protest to her statement, even Karma, a child, understood there were things you could and couldn't control. This situation was something you could somewhat control, so she was partly to blame.

"We're here," Nizael announced.

They stood in front of a large door that had been busted open. Seeing how the door was busted open Nizael recognized whose doing this was and sighed. – "Follow along now."She hummed. Standing among a group of people working on different machinery, he had a bloody fist and there was a lifeless body on the floor, Sol was watching the large screen, scrutinizing the enemy movements.

Nizael carried Lulu over to the med-bay while speaking to Sol. – "Is it safe?" She inquired from him.

– "Temporarily," He enunciated.