They were ruffians, thugs... bandits. Even if they'd been told differently and somewhat trained during the past year, they and anyone who knew them were the clearest about what they were. With their ruffled coats drifting in the wind, the dirtied cargo pants hanging slackly on them.

And yet if any professional were to look at them right now, they'd see the most disciplined team of men, one that rivaled the most dangerous squads of the old earth.

It however, truly wasn't from an excess of discipline or the quality of their tempering in this new world. What had them so extremely focused that they barely dared to draw a breath was fear, plain and simple.

Like it or not, they'd been engaged with this place for around at least a year. Even if they didn't know everybody else, no one from the leaders to the lowest grunts didn't know the name of Travis. Even if they had never seen him before, the moment they saw the two steel swords, the ones which looked like an overly long butcher knife, they instantly recognized who their killers were.

In their circles, they only spoke his name in hushed tones, especially if they were in the field. It was as if they were afraid that speaking his name would call upon this murderous demon and invoke his blades of wrath upon their necks.

Whenever in battle, the only way they had ever kept him back was through rapid and constant gun fire from several people. Once he got close none of them were a match for him, and somehow the crimson aura he gave off mixed with a splash of their comrade's blood spraying around did not make them fear him any less.

And right now, they were much too close for comfort, their sole consolation was that they'd filled the place with a lot of lead bullets and a grenade before the thing closed up. At the very least, there was hope that they injured him. The fact they were holing themselves inside for so long gave their tense nerves a little reprieve but it wasn't enough to make them let their guard down. Even if they didn't communicate it, all of them thought the same thing, the moment they would relax was when they saw a body.

Unbeknownst to them, a small patch of ground behind them was splitting apart to reveal Travis's face who was watching the would be victims very closely.

"Hey hey, what's going on? what's it look like?" A voice whispered from underneath him. His eyes turned red with anger as he went back inside and the hole closed back up.

"Shut up!" He whispered a scream. "Do you want them to find us so quickly!? And couldn't you make this hole bigger!? I can barely move her" Behind him Grendolyn and Ode were stuffed into the narrow pa.s.sageway Grendolyn had formed to bring them here.

"No! I already displaced all the earth into the room, this is as much s.p.a.ce as we get, if you wanted to move better you shouldn't have grown so big! Lock at Ode he's not complaining." Grendolyn spat, behind her Ode whose shoulders were broader and at least a head taller than the other two was left with his under wear as even now he barely fit in the dimensions. Through the whole trip he had to keep his hands centered in front of him so his shoulders would squeeze together. His extremely muscular body didn't make this feat of flexibility any easier for him to manage. "Anyway, what's going on up there?"

The next few minutes were spent listening to Travis try to explain the enemies coordinates...

Once he was done he looked to see Ode who was clear about the situation and a very confused Grendolyn.

"Screw it! I'll see for myself" she said as she climbed up, squeezing into the same narrow path which was already currently inhabited by Travis. Needless to say the already narrow s.p.a.ce became even narrower.

"W..W..WHAT ARE You doing..." For a moment Travis's voice had elevated into a shout before he quieted himself, hoping that the people outside hadn't noticed. Like it or not, she was a full fledged lady, with all the features that went with that t.i.tle, having their bodies intertwined in such a closed s.p.a.ce caused his body to stir.

Moving up, she was finally face to face with him, looking at his expression, she was more than clear what he could be thinking and a dangerous smile swept over her face. Her slender hand stretched towards him, almost scaring the c.r.a.p out of him as it moved past his face and coiled itself behind his head. At this moment it was all he could do to keep his friend at bay.

Suddenly he felt her fingers grip on his long hair, pulling it back with strength that was uncharacteristic of her slim body. In an instant his neck was exposed, and as he wanted to pull it back in her sharp nail was resting on his neck.

"Let's make this clear... if I so much as feel disgusted with the way you even think about me, I will... (The following words were deemed unfit for the general public.)... Understand?" She said as her nail glided over his neck, tracing a line from one point to another, making him gulp.

Immediately, any 'stirring' he had went away and he nodded vigorously in response. Somehow, even though his 'stirring' was covered by a thick layer of armor, he could feel some phantom pain from it.