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"Back to my cell? Yeah, that's not going to happen." Athena replied, a ball of cold energy forming her hand. "I'm not going back there."

The Shadeling moved through the halls and rooms, undetectable to any of the normal senses - except for those she decided to toy with. She was familiar with many of the psyche profiles of police and detainee alike, and she used that knowledge to push them further. At the same time, for those she wanted to see go a little longer, she sometimes acted on their defence. One guy, amusingly enough, turned out to be very susceptible to seizures, and she left him drooling on the floor.

There were those she knew less about though, such as the boy who had only arrived earlier. When she found him, it was only the lack of a face that kept her from grinning - though that had already been true from the start of this mess. Still, she hovered by his shoulder and mustered up as frightened a voice as she could manage to tell him, "The glowing man, that vicious killer! He'll get away! He'll beat us all and escape, hailed a hero in his stolen uniform!"

Man of light, dressed in white -
what if a child wants to fight?
Man of fire, don't you tire -
May you face a mighty youth's ire

"Who's there!" barked Hiro. "I'm a black belt in Go Kempo! Do not mess with me right now!" Stupid cuffs, why were these so much harder to break than the others? He tried concentrating like he had been taught to do, but something was clouding his thoughts. He was usually very good at concentrating under pressure, but something was different here. For the time being he would have to rely purely on his legs and half of his full strength. But he knew what to do: If he found a shiny person, show no mercy.

Speak of the devil.

A light seeped into a part of the building, suddenly filling him with still more dread. He brought his fists and arms close to his face and began bouncing around on his legs, keeping light on his feet.

"Where are you?" he murmured to himself. "I'm ready. I'm ready." He then saw a tall man, an ice-covered woman, and a shiny person. "I am so not ready, but SCREW IT!!" He let out a battle cry, using the force of his will to overcome whatever was clouding his focus. He twisted the chain around his wrists as tightly as he could and slammed the mechanism into his knee, hoping against hope that his technique would overcome his weakness.

Chink!

Hiro's fighting spirit suddenly spiked so high that he hardly noticed the cuffs snapping. He let out another cry and punched a shallow crater into the concrete wall next to him. "I am SO freaking ready!" he snarled.

As expected, the large man charged at Magnus with fury, extending his bone claws suddenly, hoping to impale the annoying runt who provoked him. The behemoth did not worry about those he bowled over and dragged with him, focusing only on his small, yet enraging target. Much to his surprise, he found the man suddenly disappear, and with momentum carrying him forward, the mountain of a man crashed into the back wall of a cell. A blast of flames from Magnus dropped the door from its lock, and a final blast sealed it shut.

"Phew, glad that's over! Now, about... Oh come ON!"

The man looked down and shook his head in frustration when he saw the red-haired woman, tired as she was, accumulating energy in her hand for battle. He could see that she was drained, meaning that it possibly wouldn't take much effort to take her down, but he didn't feel
It was necessary. More than violent, she seemed scared, so maybe she would respond better to logic than to fists.

"Look, you're clearly exhausted, and I really have no time to keep beating up everyone who gets in my way. I mean you no harm, but I must control this chaos before anyone else gets hurt, and that includes you. I don't know why you were locked up in here, and given that you haven't tried to kill me yet, I have no reason to want you in here. But to be honest, with all these thugs and killers loose and your current state, you'd be a lot safer locked up alone in one of these cells. Now please, dispel that energy and lock yourself up before..."

"I am SO freaking ready!"

The sound of concrete being smashed and a shout attracted Magnus' attention, making him look towards what seemed to be a very angry and very powerful child in loose clothing. The knight closed his eyes, took a deep breath and sincerely hoped that maybe, if he kept them closed for long enough, this nightmare would simply be over. The gleeful voice of Taryn echoing in his head kept him chained to reality though, and the man laughed, more out of sheer disbelief of his situation than anything else. If only to humor himself, he moved toward the child, massaged the bridge of his nose and addressed him as calmly as he could.

"Okay... I already know the answer, but I might as well try... You're here to rescue me, right?"

(Had to edit the post, thanks to their connection, Taryn's voice would only be audible to Magnus if she wasn't within hearing range of the others)

Athena took this as chance to take a few more steps back, ball of icy energy still in hand. She wasn't going back in her cell. She had been in various cells for all her life. Not again.

No time to think. Hiro jumped into action and threw a skeleton shattering kick at the shining knight. He was in fight-mode, where all thought was a blur and all movement flowed from instinct. Were the knight's moves swift and strong enough to keep up with the Tiger Born of the Kempo school?

He was about to find out.

The man's question was answered quite clearly by a flying kick, dogded by maybe half an inch, the sheer force of the blow moving enough air to rustle Magnus' hair. The knight took no chances and immediately teleported a few meters away, making sure that even when his opponent landed, there would be enough space between them for him to maneuver. He now faced a tough choice, trying to neutralize the child's threat and risk hurting him or getting hurt himself, or avoiding the manner entirely and running towards his objective, but risk leaving a powerful and potentially dangerous person loose amongst the chaos.

He thought about involving the red-haired woman, but he'd be risking her attacking him too out of fear, or have the child end up injuring what was essentially an innocent bystander. Magnus knew that his chances of protecting one person were much better than trying to protect all the inmates running loose, and if the child was dangerous to others, he couldn't bring himself to just continue on his objective and let him run wild. So he decided to take a chance with the red-haired girl, and sent a little prayer to whatever deity was able to hear him at the moment, asking for things to simply work out for once.

"Don't want to stay safe in a cell? Fine, then please help me quell this chaos. Help me cool this kid's head before he brings the whole place down on us! Preferably without any casualties!"

...And that's when she released her ball of energy. Luckily, it was towards the kid, and not Magnus. The ground ice over as it sped past, before ice from all sides came up around him, in an attempt to freeze him. It was an attempt to freeze his lower body from the ice on the ground, and the energy to freeze his upper body.

Oh, no, Taryn wasn't going to let her fun be ruined that quickly. Sure, she had the rest of those trapped to play with too, but this was the most interesting part.

And having spent so long with free reign to explore and play with the building's systems, Taryn knew what tools she had available to her.

Quick as the kid seemed to be, it was entirely possible that he could handle himself fine against the ice, but the Shadeling decided to intervene anyway. While she didn't have the time to adequately take care of the attack - but she did have enough to force energy into the closest lights. They flickered to life just long enough for the intern girl from before, "Trivia," to be seen (provided anyone had managed not to be blinded by the sudden, bright light) launching herself into Hiro with a scream of, "Look out!"

The lights went out again as the pair crashed through the forming ice and tumbled out of the way, leaving the lot in darkness once more - and "Trivia" no where in reach. There was, however, a voice that whispered into Athena's ear what a wicked woman she was for trying to harm a mere boy.

"Trivia!" The lights died out before he could see what had become of her, but Hiro had seen enough to make up his mind. He was going to flatten everyone, freaky superpowers or not!

The boy pried his feet free from the ice that had formed around his feet and steeled himself against the bitter cold in the hallway. But when he tried to bolt down the hall at full tilt, the frost in the hall caused him to slip, forcing him fight for balance, a tad embarrassing and not good at all for his fighting spirit. Still, he found his poise and began taking quick but controlled steps back into the fray. No way was some freak, extremely localized cold snap gonna stop him!

Athena stopped for a moment, cold sweat dripping over her face. No. This was not her voice. She controlled her mind. She took another step back, courage slowly going through her. Something changed. The ice was melting. Not around her, but on her. Rocks were underneath, filled with cracks. Some of them didn't connect with others. Between them and around them glowed a blue energy. Her eye was gone where the rocks were, leaving a hole. She reached down, touching the ice. A line of it began melting, heading towards Hiro. The water left in the ice was forming a river like formation, pulsing with electricity.

"I said non-lethal!"

The man shot a blast of flame towards the icy ground, melting the ice around Hiro and evaporating the water, thus cutting off the electricity's conduction path. Clearly any type of violence was going to exacerbate the problem at hand, so he chose a more diplomatic approach.

"Alright, rule change, no one attacks anyone else! Seriously! There's enough chaos in here, I'm sure whatever differences we have can be solved by talking!"

As the man spoke, he took a better look at the curiously strong boy and realized he'd seen him before. This was the same kid that was attracting Nashyll with a light, which meant that very likely, he'd have some clue as to her current whereabouts. He had to find the stone first, but it would be foolish not to obtain this information first.

"You, child who seems intent on kicking my head off, I saw you leading away a friend of mine with a light. She's a silver dragon, and she's dear to me, so I need to know where she is. I mean you no harm, I just want to get out of here and find her"

"He'll have you as slaves," the sweet voice whispered to Athena. While the woman herself would not be able to see it unless she turned fast enough, vague, misty mass hovered just behind her, only just barely visible in the glow cast by Athena. "That's why he wants you in a cell, and that's why he now protects the boy. He'll have you in chains."

He knew the dragon, huh? Yeah, he remembered him now. Oh crap, was that dragon on his side? Did he inadvertently assist the bad guy while helping dragon?! Crap! He would need to break this guys bones more quickly now than ever!

"Sorry, but I have every intention of harming you!" Then the ice around him began melting and vaporizing. "Oh crap! What is even--?" Then came yet another sound. It was faint, but unmistakable.

Ev'rybody was kung fu fightiiiin'! Those kicks were fast as lightniiin'!

Hiro's face suddenly went pale. "Oh crap! Sensei!" Paying no more heed to the battle, Hiro bolted off down the hall toward the sound of phone's ringtone. Whenever someone stood in his way, the boy quickly knocked them aside, like a tiny, hyperactive bulldozer.

"I know exactly what you plan on doing." Athena said, turning to Magnus. The tall elemental held her hands up. "And I have no intention on letting you do that to me." She sounded tired, and she was. Most of her energy was gone. The rocks that made up her side began to spread apart, and she practically turned into a storm of electricity and rocks. In a swift movement, the new mass of Athena, electricity and rocks rocketed toward Magnus.

"And he's gone, of course. One step forward, two steps back"

The man had only a few seconds to lament how again opportunity seemed to slip through his fingers, when the red haired girl began speaking again, in a more threatening tone. Turning to face her and listening to her words, it didn't take him long to figure that Taryn was manipulating her, knowing she was close for the nagging feeling in his chest. Teleporting to the spot where the girl had been before to dodge her barrage, Magnus placed his open hands at either side of him, slowly bringing them forward as he spoke while they began to glow.

"You're really starting to become a nuisance, you know that? I thought you'd behave, but if you don't stop this right now, I'll be forced to take action. You don't want that"

Athena reformed, slowly turning, panting and facing Magnus. "You can't fool me... I know what... You'll do.." And that is when she took a few steps towards Magnus, then promptly passed out onto him.

Well, that was no fun. One runs off and another simply passes out? And no one else particularly useful seemed to be nearby. The Shadeling supposed she could move on to something else now, and go ahead and let Magnus out. He had promised a wish, after all.

Oh, but it had been so long! And she really wanted to see him hit a human child. That decided it, then!

Her voice echoed down the hall with, "Hiro! Help!"

Though she supposed if he didn't come back, he was too much of a brat for it to be all that funny anyway.

Meanwhile, Hiro had found his phone and managed to explain his situation to his master. What followed was a barrage of heated words followed by very explicit instructions.

Get out, and find some light.

Hiro knew what he needed to do. He stood up, focused his mind, and darted into the hallways once more. He was strong, but solid concrete walls were a little out of his depth for the moment. He needed to find a door or a window first, and then it would only be a matter of breaking IT down.

The instant Taryn shouted, Magnus let off a large floating orb of light, which filled the room with bright, lingering light. A second after, he teleported to Taryn's position, moving his left hand quickly to pin one of her arms to the wall while his right grabbed her by the throat.

"You know, you're starting to be more trouble than you're worth, and I don't need any more of it. Turning people against me? Seriously? As if I wasn't in enough peril? I don't even know what this place is, what are those weapons the police carry or what dangers my friend is in, and yet you're still playing your little games!"

Magnus' grip on the shadeling's throat tightened slightly, and concern was evident in his voice. His mind was filled with a million thoughts, most involving bodily harm coming to Nashyll or the people around them, especially if Leros managed to escape the golden deity and return. He couldn't let himself keep getting trapped in her little games, but a small part of him still thought she could be controlled, she could be turned into a force for good, even as cold and devoid of empathy as she seemed to be.

"I am grateful for you helping me escape, and for that, your life will be spared. But I grow weary of your games and the damage they cause, so I may not be so kind for much longer. Seeing as you are the only one of your kind that I know exist, I'd rather not be responsible for the extermination of your entire race, even if you seem to be nothing more than toxic to all you meet"

Letting her go, Magnus immediately moved towards where the red-haired girl had collapsed, checking on her current status. She seemed to be in good health, if thoroughly exhausted, so she probably wouldn't be waking up any time soon. The knight would have to find a way to keep her safe from the chaos while he tried to contain it, a way that didn't involve locking her back up, since that would probably completely shatter any chances of her trusting him. Thinking her a valuable ally, Magnus picked her up and draped her over his arms, as bringing her with him was the only way to keep her safe outside of a locked room. She needed medical help, but he had no knowledge of the area, and it was crawling with murderous inmates. Taking a deep breath, Magnus slowly turned to face Taryn, speaking in a tone that showed how little hope he had of this working.

"I need some help, and I have no one else to count on but the person I know I can count on the least. I may hate this, but right now, I need your help Taryn. She needs an infirmary, somewhere that can help her recover and can give me time to plan my next move. I must be insane for asking this, but... Will you help me?"

The man smiled and laughed a little after those last few words, knowing that Taryn would most likely leave while taunting him, and offer nothing. But people had surprised him before, and ever the naive optimist, he decided to give it one final push.

"Come on, consider it a favor to your favorite plaything. After all, you never seem to be bored when you're around me, I'm an endless supply of chances to try out your little mind games. Care to pay some of it back by telling me where that infirmary is? I'll even make the light go away, so you can dissolve or whatever it is you do when it gets dark"