Madness!

Lena Marr hated Volodja Uljanov. Maybe hate was too personal a term to use with someone as selfish as Lena, but she definitely wanted him eliminated. In Lena's mind, Marcel obsessed too much over Volodja, and when he was thinking about Volodja, he couldn't be thinking about HER, so she couldn't have that! Furthermore, by Marcel always comparing himself and measuring his worth against Volodja, Lena felt Marcel was holding himself back from being as successful a criminal mastermind as she knew he could be, and limiting Marcel's success limited HER success, so again - Lena couldn't have that!

"Yes, my love," Lena smile wickedly as she communicated from her EGO to Marcel's EGO, "Let's use them and abuse them! Let them get us in, then sell them to the Inquisition!" Then she thought only to herself, "And if Volodja has a little fatal accident along the way - well, boo hoo!"

Pride was in the control booth of Lena's EGO device, reaching out to high five with Envy.

Chase had followed Lu's lead in getting into the Ark. If he had to admit, it was a first time going in through a wall without having to breach it. But when he saw Lu pull out a throwing knife, Chase decided on using his Charge Blade, taking place on her right as they approached the main area. He kept the blade deactivated until he had to use it.

"I'll admit, when it comes to stealth, I've been slightly out of practice. But, I'm sure it will come back to me, like riding a bike."

Lu looked at him a moment confused.

"It's some sort of old saying," Chase told her. "I certainly have no idea what a bike is."

They approached a corner, both of them checking around the corners to see if they could spot any opposition.

"One," Chase whispered as he motioned to his right.

Chase moved quietly around the corner, slowly sneaking up up the Inquisitor guard. Within a fraction of a second, Chase activated the blade just as he thrusted up through the Inquisitor's back. He clapped his left hand over the guy's mouth while his right arm pushed the blade farther into him. There was something inside of Chase that felt different. Before, he wouldn't feel anything about taking out an enemy, which often followed with confusion as he doubted himself about if he was making the right decision. But this time, none of that occurred. He felt like he did so long ago, when he finally got the drop on those cannibals and took everyone of them out. It, if he had dared to say it aloud, felt right.

"Chase?" Lu's voice brought him back to the situation.

He deactivated the blade and threw the dead Inquisitor's body over his shoulder, moving it back to the room they came from. Chase got back to Lu, who kept cover until he could join up with her.

"One down," he muttered. "By the way, not sure if you've been informed of this, but the Omec control rods used on Iri and the Indogenes look like a small back spot. I think that it should be easy to remove just by pulling it out. It may hurt the person being controlled, but I don't think it'll cause any severe damage."

"Are you sure?"

"Not really," he answered. "But I guess we'll find out."

"There are six of us now.
Count of dangers is three.
We must pass all those traps.
Yet we still don't know how.

But I come to believe that answer lays there.
I what Brody the Wizard say to us dared."

Said Volodja and then he continued in prose: "In plain and simple English it means that everything we need to know is hidden in those verses, Brody just recited to us. So it's time to put our minds to the work. Since Brody is the one who created the traps and did it because Lady told her so, they are our source of information. Everything I have seen here so far, is based on the memes of popular culture. Even hiding the key into verses. And number three is always has been the favourite number  in fairy tales - three sons, three bears, three tasks and so on.

If everything has it's reference in cultural texts, we must remember everything Lady might have been read or watched. The books and the movies. I guess that movies are even better option because teenagers are admirers of visual culture. Let us start with our assumptions before we enter, because it might be too late for us once we are inside. I really want to avoid the fate she described in those last verses. Lady isn't evil, but I would suggest us to avoid unnecessary risks. And if anyone wants some bubble gum, then serve yourselves. We have a full box from our not that glorious interception operation. Somehow those kind of things keep happening. This time I can't even pave the path to the true heroes." 

"You seem to be on the right path, Atticus. Let me add just couple of useless comments for the general knowledge. That should be a privilege for all fools and lately it had been my only function, so hopefully you can bear it.

Usually lava is depicted as a river of fire in the movies. It's a great visual, and we are in area, known for it's seismic activity. San Francisco earthquake in 1906 struck the coast of Northern California with a moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI which means Extreme. As a result, about 3000 people died and over 80% of San Francisco was destroyed. And that's the most famous case. A thing to remember if one might ask, where they get their lava.

"Sire" means the boss indeed, so you probably have a boss fight ahead. It used to be a form of address for reigning kings in the United Kingdom and in Belgium. Actually the title was also used in France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Sweden and Spain as well. During the Middle Ages, Sire was generally used to address a superior, a person of importance or in a position of authority or the nobility in general, so it had wider used, but I think that you should stick with the Monarch.

As for Erika. Yes she is an Amazon par excellence. She doesn't need a man by her side and she is a warrior to the buttons and bowes. And at moment she has will of her own despite of the Omec control rod. Nobody took it away and that might be an edge for you. At moment everything seems to be logical, but you better observe the situation meticulously, because there might be something else waiting for you.

I'd hate to let someone to go alone, so I was looking for the loophole to bypass that rule. Technically every one of us who enters, breaks the rules because nobody of us is alone - we all have our sentient EGO psyches. And the rest of the gang in some cases. At least I consider them to be personalities, if we are going to split the hair. But I guess that we have to stay behind and wait for another attack on us to keep ourselves busy, so tell me when it occurs. And if it won't happen, then I can read my book in peace at least."

Saying that, Volodja sat down to the ground, leaned his back against the truck for the comfort and started to read. 

"Would you like a piece of chewing gum?" offered Volodja gallantly to Lena Marr to stop her from providing the rest of beautiful and intelligent women with her epithets. 

Lena accepted it with a wicked grin, thus creating invisible bond between them and invoking the unsaid rule of the guest right. When a guest eats the food and drinks the drink beneath the host's roof, the guest right will be invoked and that means that neither the guest can harm his host nor the host harm his guest for the length of the guest's stay. Technically it wasn't Volodja's roof they were beneath, but he was the one who asked Lena and Marcel to join them on the mission and that sort of meant that he was on the position of host towards them and he was going to keep his part of that rule - he won't cause any harm to Lena and Marcel as long as they are in the same team.

For Lena, rules were something she can break, so even if she even bothered to get herself familiar with the guest right, she could not give a damn about that. When she wanted something, she got it and she used every possible way to achieve her goal without any remorse. That's how she was used to live. Without having much sentiments. Only her and her goal. And expandable obstacles between her and her target.

"Lena hasn't seen you in a dress," whispered Volodja to Sandy. "If she would, then she had a real trouble to decide who is the Barbie Blonde, although I don't like the comparison with Barbie at all, because image of Barbie is way too controversial and commercial. I bet that Lena would envy you for your smarts and looks and femininity when she realizes how gorgeous you are...Damn it! I still keep yapping. I think I should chew some gum myself to keep me quiet."

Suddenly Belle was gone and the team stopped for a quick pow how. Should they try to find her or keep on moving? Another unsaid and unwritten rule stated that nobody shouldn't be left behind. As for falling through the trap door, then that could happen to any one of them. And that's what Volodja told to others - they should not leave anyone in trouble if they want to avoid the fate of Napoleon's Grande Armée during their retreat from Russia. Soldiers who were left behind, usually ended up dead by the hands of partisans, sabres of dragoons or cossacks, cold, starvation or diseases. Their small improvised squad can't afford losing anyone. Every one of them mattered. But there was always some room for different opinions about the survival of  all squad members, like Lena Marr's unspoken one...

Next room which they entered on their way made them tread very carefully as they heard some people talking. Lu sneaked forward and saw three people on two benches and playing cards at what she thought was an ammo box. The room was clearly adapted to be some kind of recreation room and all three people were definitely inquisitors judged by their red Dark Matter style uniform. Lu thought of launching her Decoy in her naked form to create distraction but quickly dismissed the thought because one of the Inquisitors was female and she was definitely enjoying the men's company and stale compliments hey gave her. So if two men would be definitely distracted, the female guard would certainly get suspicious which will ruin the possibility to take them down quietly. Another possibility was using a flash grenade but on the second thought Lu decided to keep that grenade for the case where she would really need to keep someone incapacitated but alive.

"Time to ring the door bell", she sent through her EGO to Chase and raised her Mass Cannon, making sure her Deadly Cascade perk was active. She fired a rocket and detonated it right above their heads, making them fall on the ground and then a cluster of four bombs exploded as they fell on the floor, turning three people in a bloody mess. Lu quickly loaded another rocket into the empty slot in the launcher's magazine while looking around to see where the enemies who definitely heard the consecutive explosions would come from.

The door opened and a group of frightened Indogenes appeared in the room. Lu immediately shot a couple of rockets into the ceiling, but not detonating them before impact, so that only initial explosion was engaged without releasing the deadly fragments. The explosions were only meant to destroy some lights to create a patch of shadow around them. Then Lu examined the group as they continued to approach reluctantly to where the couple of intruders were last seen.

"Like I said, think first, shoot second", she sent to Chase through her EGO while sending her Decoy forward to one of the pillars supporting the ceiling. Her holographic image ran up to the pillar and stopped there, seemingly taking cover behind it but still visible enough to the attackers.



"Keep their attention on my decoy or on you", she sent, "Beware of cloaked ones. I'll come closer and find the shepherd". As the Indogenes kept their slow approach, she did exactly that she said to Chase, flanking the group from the shadows and searching for the real enemy. According to her calculations, the shepherd's Cloak should dissipate at least two seconds before her Decoy would. She also knew her enemy could also try to shoot her Decoy while their Cloak was still active to use the advantage of a Shadowed Strike or whatever perks they might have active. Or they might get stupid enough to get close to her Decoy so that its scan sweep would get through their Cloak and detect their movement. So once she got close enough, she stood unmoving in the shadow with her Havoc AR and throwing knives ready for enemy to reveal themselves.