{"sf1_id":759018,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Bait \u0026 Bash","author":"Volcan MacAingeal","words":17006,"posted_at":"2014-09-21T02:51:00.000Z","tags":["Cyborg","Death","Dragon","Dragoness","Guns","Human","Maiming","Phoenix","Phoenixes","Trap","Violence (not In Yiff)","blood"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/759018-bait-bash","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/759018","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=759018\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nThe Os-Nàdarra Sentinels \nChapter 4: Bait \u0026 Bash\n \n-Hidden Lab of the\nI.T.O.U.E, August 14th 2010-\n \n            \"Our time is upon us,\" Rex began to\nbrief the commanders of the Retrieval Teams, all of whom were listening through\nthe communications terminals in their Retriever Aircrafts. \"I have granted you\nmy upgraded Centurion cyborgs and granted them to your units; I've improved\ntheir combat programming and made them more resistant to damage, so if the\ndisruptors should fail us again, we'll still have the upper hand; my new\nCenturion cyborgs are much stronger than the originals, too powerful for even\nSkilerain and his gang of freaks to handle. However, I could only finish six of\nthem in time for this operation, so you'll each only have two per squad. Still,\nif all goes according to plan you will not need them.\n            \"I have also given you each an EMP\ngrenade for dealing with that blue dragon friend of his if he should\ninterfere,\" Rex continued. \"I have confirmed his powers come from nanobots; hit\nhim with that grenade, and he'll be temporarily incapable of using his powers,\nbut be sure you eliminate him before his powers return. Make them count; you'll\nonly get the chance to use them once; he won't let you use it a second time.\"\n            \"Yes,\nSir,\" Commander One returned. \"What\nis our plan of attack?\"\n            \"Volcan is in the city, and he's\naway from his friends right now,\" began Rex. \"You've finished your\nobservations, you know their daily procedures. Teams two and three, I want you\nto apprehend all of his allies; take some of them alive if you can, as we may\nbe able to use them for a bargaining chip later.\"\n            \"You\nplan to blackmail Skilerain into cooperating?\" Commander Three inquired.\n            \"I am assuming the possibility of\nfailure, Commander Three,\" retorted Rex. \"You should understand that,\nconsidering you failed to eliminate Devilshade; now he's still out there and\nhas every reason to come after us himself!\" He slammed his hand on the chair.\n\"Worse yet, the police on both sides of the border are tearing the area apart\nlooking for us because of your\nsluggishness in finding him! There will be no margin for error this time; if\nany of you fail me, it will be your heads!\"\n            \"We...\nunderstand sir,\" Commander Two returned.\n            \"Good. Now, with his friends' lives\non the line, if you're unable to detain him, use them to force him into\ncooperating,\" stated Rex, folding his hands in front of him as he leaned\nforward, propping up his elbows on the terminal. \"We cannot let him continue to\nroam free as a beacon of trust for others; when the time comes, and those\nwretched Empowered Beings betray the world, he'd be a leader among them, and\nnobody would try to resist him until it's too late.\"\n            \"Sir...\nI've been thinking,\" began Commander Two. \"Permission to speak freely?\"\n            \"Permission granted.\"\n            \"I've\ndone some research on Skilerain and... to be honest, I'm not sure he is evil; what if maybe, unlike the others, he\nreally is on the same side as the mortal world? He had the opportunity to\nbetray them when they were divided during the gang war, but he didn't; he\ndefended everyone, even other mortals who at some point wanted him dead..\"\n            \"That was nothing more than a facade, Commander Two!\" Rex bellowed. \"He\ndidn't betray them because he would still have been outnumbered by them, so\ninstead he chose to earn their trust by protecting them, and is still doing\nthat now by pretending to protect them from the radicals across the city; it is\nnothing more than a mask to conceal the devil beneath!\" His voice turned low\nand threatening. \"You better know whose side you're really on, Two, or you may\nfound yourself joining the next batch of refuse in the incinerator, do you\nunderstand me?\"\n            \"Y-yes\nsir... I'm sorry. I won't mention it again.\"\n            \"Now, you all know your targets; Two, I want you to procure his friend\nPavan Stevenson and his brother, Lighris Skilerain,\" Rex instructed. \"Three,\nyou're to find those dragon friends of his; Obsidian Kimoyama should be getting\nreleased from the hospital today according to the records I managed to procure\nfrom their database, and the blue dragon will probably be going to pick her up;\nthey are to be apprehended as well if you can, but if not, simply eliminate\nthem. Team One, you're to head directly for Volcan Skilerain himself.\"\n            \"I\nthank you for the honor, sir,\" Commander One said, confidently.\n            \"Don't waste it,\" Rex returned.\n\"This is our last chance to take him down; the police are watching for us, and\nif they see even the faintest hint of our presence, we will be forced to go\nback into hiding and our work here in Alberta will be stalled.\"\n            \"We\nwon't fail sir. Volcan Skilerain will be ours before the day is out, and we'll\nlearn all of his secrets.\"\n            \"Studying him is no longer a priority; he's more trouble than he's\nworth, and too powerful even for my disruptor technology to stop,\" replied Rex.\n\"If we're forced to move onto the secondary plan, and he will not cooperate,\nthen there is nothing else to do. One way or another, he needs to be removed as\na threat. So, he is no longer a priority capture target; he is now a 'Dead or\nAlive' target.\"\n            \"Understood,\nsir. We're moving out now; we'll report our progress and inform you the moment\nwe have them.\" Commander Three stated.\n            With that, the transmission ended.\nRex stroked his beard with one hand, still not entirely convinced even his plan\nwas guaranteed to work. If they managed to subdue Volcan, with or without the\nhostages, it would be a success, but if he still resisted regardless -as much\nas Rex didn't want to believe they could, he had already underestimated the\nPhoenix once, and regretted that decision.\n            \"Good thing even my backup plan,\" he\nbegan as he looked over his shoulder towards a massive, mechanical creature in\nthe shadows of the workshop. \"Has its own contingency.\"\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n-C-Plaza, Unity Falls, two\nhours later-\n \n            Pavan and Tsume walked out of the\nmovie theater well into the afternoon, after spending a couple of hours seeing\na new action flick Pavan had wanted to see ever since he'd seen the commercials\nfor it. Volcan, however, was out at Vinges' place, so he hadn't been able to\nask him to come along. So, Pavan had used this opportunity to ask Tsume out on\na date, something he'd secretly been longing to do for some time, and luckily\nfor him she had the day off that day, so she had been free to go with him.\n            \"That was pretty good, eh?\" Pavan\nasked.\n            \"Not too bad, although damn if you\ndidn't fidget a lot throughout the whole thing,\" Tsume pointed out.\n            \"Well, you know me and sitting\nstill,\" Pavan returned, tucking his hands into his pockets.\n            \"Then why'd you want to go?\" Tsume\ninquired.\n            \"Well, I wanted to check out that\nmovie, and...\" He blushed. \"Been wanting to ask you out for a while, honestly.\"\n            Tsume giggled. \"Oh, so that's why,\"\nshe said. \"How long have you wanted a date with me?\"\n            \"I don't know; weeks, maybe,\" he\nreplied. \"Suppose we could do it again sometime?\"\n            Tsume's smile faded somewhat and she\nlet out a sigh. \"Don't take this the wrong way, Pavan; I like you and all but,\nI'm not sure I'm who you'd be looking for,\" she said.\n            \"Why not? You're one dynamite woman;\nfearless, competitive, definitely deadly and in my personal opinion, freakin'\ngorgeous!\" He showered her with compliments. \"What more could I want in a\nwoman?\"\n            \"Perhaps someone who's more your\npace,\" she replied. \"I know, I've said once before I prefer men who could keep\nup with me, but, I'm not sure I could\nkeep up with you.\"\n            \"If you mean my speed, I can slow\ndown for you,\" Pavan offered.\n            Tsume rolled her eyes. \"Not like\nthat, Pavan. I'm free spirited, but you're as on-the-move as the wind you're\nconnected to, and I don't want to sound offensive when I say this, but, I'm not\nsure you could stay committed to any one person for very long. At least not at\nthis point in your life, but me... I'm hoping for something a little more\nlong-term, and someone I can really connect with.\" She stopped as they passed a\nflower garden, eyeing a wilted rose with a sad expression.\n            Tsume reached over and touched the\nrose, feeling life still flowing within it, and with her touch, it became full\nof life again, its colours becoming bright once more, standing up proudly on\nits stem and 'facing' the wingless avian girl as if to thank her.\n            \"You move with the breeze, Pavan,\"\nsaid Tsume. \"But I look for somewhere to grow my roots; I want to be with\nsomeone who I can connect with much like I connect to the Earth, someone who\nwill be with me for as long as we can stand each other, and who can understand\nme both inside and out, just like I understand this flower.\" She looked at him,\nher expression apologetic. \"I'm just not sure you're that one. I don't want to\nhurt your feelings... I just want you to understand.\"\n            Pavan felt a mild ache in his chest;\nhe had been hoping Tsume would be as interested in him as he was in her, but it\nseemed that she wasn't... Still, the way she described both of them in such\ndetail -both herself and himself- made him realize she was right; he was\nsomeone who preferred to be constantly on the move, and was not someone who\ncould so easily tie himself down to any one person; if there was to be someone\nin his life he could connect to, in the way Tsume described, it had to be\nsomeone like him, someone who moved with the ages and followed whatever path\nthey wanted. He probably couldn't be happy with anyone less or more than that,\nand he knew Tsume wouldn't be happy with him; Tsume wanted something more\npermanent, and looking at it like a road across the land, Pavan understood,\nTsume would fall far behind him all too soon...\n            The ache in his heart lifted. \"I\ndo,\" he assured her. \"You're absolutely right... I guess we really aren't each\nother's type.\" He rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. \"Guess I don't know\nmyself as well as I'd hoped.\n            Tsume smiled at him. \"I'd still be\nwilling to hang out with you as friends. You may not be my type but,\" she\ngiggled, \"it's hard being bored around you; you know how to keep things\nentertaining.\"\n            \"That's my jam!\" Pavan chimed,\nlaughing a little. \"But yeah; we could do that.\"\n            Tsume walked up to him and gave him\na friendly hug, which Pavan returned, feeling much better now that they could\nboth be honest with each other. After pulling out of the hug, he looked back at\nTsume. \"So, should I just take you home then?\"\n            She nodded. \"Sure; if we hurry, can\nstill meet my schedule for my yoga routine.\"\n            \"I thought you practiced\nCapoeira?\"  Pavan asked. \"And... knife\nfighting?\"\n            \"I do,\" she replied. \"But I practice\nyoga as well to keep my body fit and flexible,\" she replied. \"Combining the\nthree has made a good combination.\" She put her hands on her hips in an almost\nheroic-pose kind of way. \"I am a\nthree-time regional champion knife fighter for a reason.\"\n            Pavan snickered, and feigned a deep\nvoice. \"I pity da fool dat mess wit you.\"\n            \"Ya should,\" she replied, and the\ntwo shared a hearty laugh.\n            They were about to continue up the\nstreet, when suddenly, a gust of wind rushed over them, blowing dust in their\nfaces and forcing both of them to cover their eyes as it was blown in their\nfaces.\n            \"Whoa! Someone's being a real\nblowhard today!\" Pavan remarked.\n            \"It's just the wind, Pavan!\" Tsume\ncalled back.\n            \"This ain't no wind; not a natural\none anyway!\" He called back.\n            A static sound filled their ears;\nshielding their eyes as much as possible they reopened them, and looked up,\ngawking when they saw a large airship hovering above them, shaped almost like\nan airplane, but at the end of its wings, two huge rotors spinning at high\nspeed kept it aloft. A door slid open on the side of the airship, and six men\njumped out, aiming firearms are the two.\n            The men were dressed in tactical\ngear, and the two avians' keen eyes spotted the upside-down pentagram symbol on\nthe shoulders of their body armours, kanji and lettering as well, immediately\nalerting both of them as to who these six men, each one of a different species,\nwere.\n            \"Pavan Stevenson,\" one of them stated\nfirmly. \"You are coming with us, right now. Do not attempt to flee, or we will\nopen fire.\"\n            \"What makes you think you guys will\neven get a shot at me?\" Pavan taunted. \"If you know who I am, you should know\nI'm pretty damn fast.\"\n            \"Maybe you are... but is your little\nfriend there?\" The man warned, training his rifle on Tsume.\n            \"Who is that girl anyway?\" One of\nthem asked.\n            \"Who cares? We're here for\nStevenson,\" another one retorted.\n            As the men conversed, Tsume leaned\nover to Pavan and whispered in his ear. \"You see what I see?\" She asked,\npointing at their shoulders.\n            \"Yes ma'am; these guys are more\nI.T.O.U.E punks,\" Pavan whispered that. \"Time for operation 'whoopass', eh?\"\n            \"I don't think that's what we called\nit, but I would say... yes,\" she whispered back. \"You go get Lighris -it's\nSunday so he should be at home, and Brent; let him know what's happening. I'll\ngo find Rikyuu and call Volcan, and then we'll draw them to the... you know\nwhere.\" She grinned.\n            \"Time to 'rock' \u0026 roll, eh?\"\n            Tsume rolled her eyes. \"You and your\npuns.\"\n            \"Hey, stop talking!\" The leader\nbarked. \"Are you going to cooperate, or will your friend be leaving in a body\nbag?\"\n            \"Nope and, nope,\" Pavan replied.\n\"Time to scram!\"\n            The two separated; Tsume leapt back,\ndoing several hand sprints until she arched directly into the flower garden\nbehind her; several shots were fired by the leader, but they missed her as she\nvanished into the garden, as if devoured by the flowers in a fraction of a\nsecond, while Pavan sprinted away, the air around him seeming to vibrate as he\nsped off with impossible speed. Pavan formed a wind tunnel around himself,\nconcentrating on it propelling him forward as he ran; with this method, he\ncould sprint up to a speed of -according to Brent during a test they had done\nlong ago- a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, and could fly even faster\nthan that with the same effect; the speed of his flight had never even been\nmeasured, but he knew he was far faster than the airship that the I.T.O.U.E\ngoons were scrambling to get back into even now.\n            He didn't go his full speed,\nhowever. Because he wanted them to\nfollow him, at least for a while...\n            Not far away, Tsume emerged in one\nof the city parks, erupting from the earth as if spat out of a mouth, and\nlanding gracefully in clearing; she'd used her senses to make sure nobody was\nnearby so she would not scare them, detecting no vibrations through the soil to\nindicate footprints, cyclists or people playing catch. Safely concealed, she\npulled out her cellular phone and dialed Volcans' number.\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            \"Man, Vinge... I don't know how you\ncan live in a house this small,\" said Volcan, barely able to maneuver around\nthe ice phoenixes' furniture as he and Vinge started to walk back out of the\nhouse.\n            \"It's not about the space for me,\"\nreplied Vinge. \"Only the privacy; it's quiet out here, several kilometers from\nthe city.\"\n            Volcan nodded. \"I guess I can get\nthat. But still, even a trailer would be roomier; s'all I'm saying,\" he said as\nthey approached Volcans' truck, carrying the bags Vinge had come back for.\n\"What is all that anyway?\" The phoenix asked, indicating Vinges' luggage.\n\"Didn't you already bring all of your clothes to my apartment?\"\n            \"I did, but these aren't clothes.\nThey're my keyboard cleaning tools, song-writing supplies from back in high\nschool I've hung onto since graduating, my kendo practice sword and some\nlavender incense sticks.\"\n            \"Wait, you burn incense?\"\n            \"Helps with my daily breathing\nexercises, and also helps me think.\"\n            \"Hope that doesn't bother my\nneighbors,\" said Volcan. \"You want to drive back to town?\"\n            \"I... don't have a license,\" replied\nVinge.\n            Volcan stared at him blankly. \"Say\nwhat...?\" He asked. \"You spent all of high school practicing martial arts,\nbattlefield tactics and learning how to write songs and play instruments, and\nyou didn't try for a drivers' license?\"\n            \"I had other priorities,\" replied\nVinge. \"And I...\"\n            He was interrupted by the sound of a\nmetal-themed ringtone, coming from Volcans' pocket. The fire phoenix looked\ndown at his hip, before reaching into his pocket and plucking out his cell\nphone, checking the caller ID before answering it. \"It's Tsume,\" he said,\nbefore tapping the 'answer' button and holding it to his ear. \"Yeah?\"\n            \"Volcan;\nwe've got trouble,\"  Tsume informed\nhim.\n            \"What is it; what happened?\" Volcan\nasked.\n            \"It's\nthe I.T.O.U.E,\" Tsume replied. \"They're\nback; they just came after Pavan and I but we've slipped away; he's leading\nthem out to the spot now.\"\n            \"Where are you?\" Volcan asked.\n            \"I'm\nat the park, but I'll be heading to look for Rikyuu soon,\" replied Tsume.\n            Volcan looked at Vinge. \"What time\nis it?\"\n            Vinge plucked out his own cell phone\nand looked at the screen after flipping it open. \"Two-thirty,\" he replied.\n            Volcan spoke back into the phone.\n\"He and Ayane will be heading for the hospital to pick up Obsidian; get over\nthere, fast! They might go for him or Obsidian!\"\n            \"On\nit! What about Pavan? He doesn't have his weapons.\"\n            \"Think you can stop by his place on your way to the spot?\"\n            \"But\nI don't have a key...\"\n            \"His balcony door; it's always\nunlocked,\" said Volcan. \"You'll have to find some way to get up to his floor,\nbut that's your way in.\"\n            \"THAT\npart will be easy,\" assured Tsume. \"You\nwith Vinge?\"\n            \"I am; we'll start heading for the\nspot and meet you all there,\" said Volcan.\n            \"We'll\nbe there ASAP,\" promised Tsume. \"Be\ncareful; some of these goons may be after you too.\"\n            \"I'm counting on that,\" said Volcan, his eyebrows furrowing with anger.\n\"One way or another, this ends today.\"\n            \"Right...\"\nAnd with that, Tsume ended the call, allowing Volcan to once more pocket\nhis phone.\n            \"They're back,\" stated Vinge; it\nwasn't even a question.\n            Volcan nodded. \"Yeah... they went\nafter Pavan for some reason, but he's following the plan. Long as nothing goes\nawry, we'll have those fuckers right where we want them.\"\n            \"Should we start heading out there?\"\nVinge asked.\n            \"Not yet,\" replied Volcan. \"I have\nno doubt some of those bastards will head for my place looking for me. I have\nto make sure they come out there too; if we don't lure every one of them out to\nthe spot, this won't work.\"\n            \"Can you out-fly those airships of\ntheirs?\" Vinge asked.\n            Volcan looked at the ice phoenix and\ngrinned. \"The only thing that can fly faster than me is a jet,\" he said with a\nhint of arrogance before he took a mighty leap into the air, spreading out his\nwings and using them to ascend until he was high enough and angled himself\nforward. He focused his fire powers down to his talons, shutting his eyes as he\nmentally commanded the fire within himself to that area, and to burst from his\nfeet.\n            Flames erupted from his feet just as\nhe wanted, and propelled him forward like a bird-shaped rocket, he stiffened\nhis wings into a glide and soared through the air, leaving behind a trail of\nsmoke as he flew back towards the city.\n            Vinge watched Volcan as he leaved, a\nsmall grin creeping up to his face. \"Now you sound like Pavan,\" he remarked\nbefore he opened the door of Volcans' Jeep, reached inside and picked out three\nitems; two sheathed swords, one of which he attached to his belt, the other he\nslung across his back, and the third was a black staff. With that, he shut the\ndoor of the jeep, and spread his wings, taking to the air and angling his\ndirection of travel northwards.\n            Vinge scowled as he thought of the\nI.T.O.U.E gunmen. 'One of them must know\nabout my father,' he thought. 'Perhaps\nthis is finally my chance to get the peace of mind I've sought all those years...\nto finally learn his fate. When I learn the truth, I'll make my next decision\nfrom there, whether to move on with my life, seek my father to save him, or\ntake revenge upon Jacob Rex...' Anger welled up in his heart, and his\nice-blue eyes began to emit a glow, like two flashlights that matched the\ncolour of his eyes, beaming from behind his eyelids. 'For better or worse, perhaps I will finally have peace.'\n            Yes... peace would finally end his night terrors, and allow him to\ntruly live his life.\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            When they were outside, Obsidian was\nfinally allowed to leave her wheelchair, and stood up, very carefully at the\nnurses' insistence, and stood on her own two feet again. Rikyuu, Ayane and\nYurui stood at her sides in case she needed them, but she assured them she was\nfine, and stretched her arms over her head.\n            \"Mmm... feels good to finally be out\nof there... not for nothing but, I've been cramped up in there for too long,\"\nshe said. \"It was getting boring.\"\n            \"We understand,\" the Nurse said.\n\"You take it easy for a few days, okay miss? The muscles that were hit by that\nbullet won't be completely healed yet. Still, you should be clear to return to\nwork whenever you're ready, long as you promise to try not to get shot again.\"\nShe gave her a stern look.\n            \"Hey, in my profession that's easier\nsaid than done,\" returned Obsidian. \"But I'll try to be careful.\"\n            The nurse nodded. \"Have a safe trip\nhome,\" she bade them, before turning the wheelchair about, and making her way\nback into the hospital.\n            With that, the four friends started\nto walk up the sidewalk away from the hospital, following it to the main road\nand heading towards a blue Subaru four door -Rikyuu's personal vehicle, which\nhe had purchased after the Genocide War. \nObsidian rubbed her hands together as they neared\nthe car, \"so what should we do first?\"\n            \"You don't want to just go home and\nchill for a bit?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            \"Heck no; I don't want to relax,\"\nreplied Obsidian. \"I've been stuck in that hospital for nearly two weeks.\"\n            \"It was only ten days, 'Sid,\"\ncorrected Ayane.\n            \"Whichever; regardless, I want to go\nout and do something,\" she said. \"I don't know what yet, but I'll think of it.\"\n            Rikyuu chuckled. \"Well, okay; we'll\nsee what's...\" He paused.\n            Everyone paused.\n            \"Anybody else hear that rotor-y\nsound in the air?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            All three women nodded in\nconfirmation.\n            \"Good, then it's not just me,\" he\nsaid. \"And, crap; it's not just me... I know that sound.\"\n            The sound of the rotors, however\nmuffled they were, were getting closer. The wind began to pick up, blowing some\ndust off of the parking lot. The three dragons and one snow leopard stood close\ntogether, watching all directions for the source of the sound, but they saw\nnothing that could make such a sound; it was like the muffled rotor of a helicopter,\nor two side by side.\n            \"Guys, we have to get out of here,\nnow,\" said Rikyuu. \"I know that sound all too well and it is bad news; we need\nto leave.\"\n            \"Can your car outrun it?\" Ayane\nasked. \"Whatever 'it' is?\"\n            \"I don't know, and it's an aircraft,\nused by the I.T.O.U.E; I heard that same kind of twin-rotor engine before\nVolcan and I were attacked back at Overwatch, where we first met them.\"\n            \"Why would they be coming here?\"\nYurui asked.\n            \"They're probably after me, or Rik,\"\nreplied Obsidian. \"We've been a pest to them and they probably want us dead for\nit.\"\n            \"Yurui, will your powers work on all\nof us?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            \"I... I don't know; I've never\ntried,\" replied Yurui, folding her ears back in fear.\n            \"Well, maybe you can get away at\nleast; try to...\" Rikyuu was interrupted by something falling at his feet,\nrolling and stopping against his foot. He glanced down at the object\nquizzically, eyeing it with confusion as he tried to determine what the small,\noval-shaped object was...\n            Suddenly, a light appeared on the\nfront, blinking furiously. Rikyuu came to an easy first assumption as to what\nthe object was. \"Grenade!\" He screamed, and tried to leap away, but the object\nwas already about to detonate.\n            There was no explosion.\n            There was no fire.\n            Only the crackle of electricity.\n            Rikyuu hit the ground on his\nshoulder, wincing from the pain of his landing, but otherwise easily getting\nback up and eyeing the grenade quizzically, uncertain as to just what was\nsupposed to happen.\n            \"Was that a... dud?\" Ayane asked.\nLike Rikyuu, she, Obsidian and Yurui had tried to jump to safety, and were just\nas baffled as the blue dragon as to what the device they had mistaken for a\ngrenade was supposed to do.\n            Suddenly, high above, the group\nheard more electrical crackling, and looked up to see the aircraft Rikyuu had\nbeen talking above before hovering high above their heads, and as the cloaking\nfield lowered, so too did the ship itself, the side door sliding open and six\narmed gunmen leaping out when the ship was safely hovering above the ground.\nThe first one who leapt out spotted several people nearby; civilians who were\non their way into or out of the hospital, and had gathered to see what was\nhappened.\n            \"Get out of here!\" The gunmen\nbarked, firing his weapon into the air to scare them; the people screamed and\nran to escape the scene, not wanting to become the targets of the guns carried\nby these strange men, the other five of whom had trained their weapons on\nRikyuu and his friends.\n            Ayane was reaching behind her to her\nback pocket, producing something and tapping a button on it. She expected to\nhear a beep in response, but there was nothing, and she turned to look at the\ndevice -a small, rectangular object with a tiny screen, a little larger than on\nthat of a calculator, but only six buttons on the front. She pressed them\nagain, but still the object seemed to do nothing.\n            \"Trying to phone your freak-friend\nVolcan for help, or maybe the police?\" One of the gunmen taunted, his armour\nmarked differently than the others, with green stripes decorating the sleeves\nand legs of his clothes, and a matching one on his helmet. \"Good luck; that EMP\ngrenade will have shut down all your mobile devices.\n            \"An EMP?\" Ayane repeated, eyes wide\nwith shock.\n            \"Oh no...\" breathed Rikyuu. \"That\nmeans...\"\n            \"Right, dragon,\" replied the gunman,\nproceeding to finish Rikyuu's sentence for him. \"Your powers have been cut;\nyou're just a regular, everyday dragon now.\"\n            \"But mine aren't!\" Obsidian barked\nin defiance, ready to attack the gunmen with her mind, but paused when one of\nthem aimed their weapon at Rikyuu.\n            \"Don't even try it,\" he said. \"You\nmake my head pound, I pull this trigger, and your friend gets some holes in\nhim. The other ones too, including the kid back there,\" he pointed at Yurui,\n\"if you even breath the wrong way. Unless you want them to be the next ones on\nyour coroners' table, Miss Kimoyama, I suggest you keep your thoughts to\nyourself.\"\n            Obsidian paused, weighing her\noptions. The gunman was right; one twinge of pain and even out of reflex he\ncould pull the trigger of his gun and hurt her friends. She looked over her\nshoulder at the others; Ayane had no powers of her own, and whatever the device\nshe had picked from her pocket was for, it wasn't working, and the EMP grenade\nwould not only have cut Rikyuus' powers, but Yuruis' as well; her powers came\nfrom the same kind of nanotechnology that gave Rikyuu his copying abilities. \n            This was bad... Obsidian was the\nonly one who could fight them at this point without getting shot to death but\nif she did anything, they'd open fire. Even if she could protect her friends,\nthere were other people nearby -wrong place, wrong time, she thought- that\nthese gunmen could take hostage.\n            \"Well?\" The gunman leader asked, now\nturning his gun on Obsidian. \"I'm waiting, 'officer'; you going to make a\nmove?\"\n            Obsidian, reluctantly, started to\nput up her hands in surrender, shutting her eyes and turning her gaze downward.\nThe instant she did, one of the gunmen who had snuck around to her side grabbed\nher and roughly pushed her down to the ground, putting her face-first into the\nsidewalk, hurting her nose painfully and jarring her teeth somewhat, before he\nplaced one foot on her back and pinned her. \n            \"Smart woman,\" the leader scoffed.\n\"Alright, men; let's get them on board.\" He put a hand to his ear. \"This is\nCommander Three to base; come in home base... We have the dragons as you\nordered, sir, but there are two others. A red Eastern Dragoness, the other a\nsnow leopard; she looks to be in her late teens at best... standby.\" He turned\nhis gaze towards Yurui, and tapped a tiny button on the side of his lenses,\nwatching her for a moment.\n            Yurui shifted uncomfortably under\nthe stare, but resisted the urge to back away, not wanting to so anything that\ncould be mistaken for a provocation, and stayed perfectly still. After a\nmoment, the man shifted his gaze to Ayane, pressing the same button a second\ntime and watching her just as he had Yurui.\n            \"That an X-ray camera? What, Playboy\nhiring mercenaries now?\" Ayane taunted, making her spite for the gunmen known.\n            They didn't take it well.\n            One of them stepped forward, taking\nhis hand away from the gun he carried and striking Ayane across the face with\nhis rather large fist; a glint of metal on his glove revealed that his glove\nhad metal-clad fingers, which only made the punch to Ayane's face hurt more\nwhen it landed, sending her reeling and falling to her side. Rikyuu moved to help\nher, but one of the other gunmen fired a warning shot past his head.\n            \"Stay put, you,\" he warned.\n            Soon, 'Commander Three' as he called\nhimself earlier, spoke. \"Negative, sir; no E.B genetic code detected, and no\nsign of nanotechnology according to the readings,\" he reported to an unknown\nbenefactor. \"They're both normal...\" Behind his makes, they saw his cheekbones\ntwitch. \"As you command, sir.\"\n            He turned to the other gunmen. \"No\nwitnesses; the blue and purple ones come with us, but the red and the cat die\nhere. Eliminate them.\"\n            The group froze, and stared in\nhorror as the gunmen trained their weapons on Ayane and Yurui. Obsidian was\nstill pinned on the ground, and if she even tried to act, they'd kill her and\nshe'd accomplish nothing. She wracked her brain, trying to think of something\nas Yurui backed up in fear into the shadow of a tree, and Rikyuu tried to throw\nhimself over Ayane to shield her but one of the gunmen kicked him before he\neven reached her, sending him onto his back painfully, before they once more\naimed their weapon at Ayane, seeing their own reflection in her terrified eye.\n            Suddenly, the ground beneath all of\nthem shook violently, throwing off their aim as they pulled the triggers of\ntheir firearms. The shots flew wide; the man standing on Obsidians' back\nsuffered three rounds to his armoured chest and fell on his back; a bullet\nwhizzed over Ayane's head but missed her fin-ears, but one of the rounds\nintended for her nearly hit Rikyuu's leg, making the dragon yelp in fright.\nYurui ducked as a bullet struck the tree behind her, covering her head with\nboth hands.\n            \"What the hell?!\" Commander Three\nbarked, and glared at Obsidian, aiming his gun at her. \"You miserable bitch; I\nwarned you!\"\n            Obsidian only grinned. \"Tell me;\nhave you ever heard of a psychic that could make the ground quake like that?\"\n            \"What are you babbling about?\" He\ndemanded, spitefully.\n            \"I'm saying, that wasn't me,\"\nreplied Obsidian.\n            An eerie, terrifying groan filled\nthe air, and a shadow loomed over the four anthro's and the masked I.T.O.U.E\ngunmen, who looked up as they sought its source. But what they saw, they did\nnot expect in the least.\n            The tree Yurui had been standing\nnear was leaning in their direction, outstretching one of its limbs like an arm\nand swinging its branches towards them. Two managed to duck in time, one of\nthem the commander, but the other four, stunned and dumbfounded by the sudden\nattack by a towering piece of vegetation, failed to avoid the attack, and were\nsent flying several steps, one of them even knocked back against their own\nairship with a painful clang as his armoured body hit metal.\n            The two who had dodged stood up, and\naimed their weapons around as they sought the source of this sudden wrath of\nnature. The commander was even aiming his gun at the tree, hoping to find\nsomething that didn't look like it belonged there that he could shoot, but all\nhe saw were the brown of its trunk, limbs and branches, and the green of its\nlate summer leaves.\n            With their distraction, Obsidian\nsprang to her feet, throwing herself at the commander and ramming into him with\nall of her weight. He grunted as the wind was knocked out of him, falling to\nthe ground with her on top of him, where she proceeded to rip off his helmet,\ngoggles and face mask to expose his face. Underneath was an anthro feline, a\ncheetah by the looks of him, whose' ears had been cut short for unknown\nreasons, allowing him wear his helmet in such a way he could be mistaken for a\nhuman or other short-muzzled anthros.\n            Obsidian hadn't exposed his face to\nidentify him, though; she'd done it so she could punch him across the face with\nall of her strength, her knuckles aching upon impact with the bone, but it\ndidn't stop her from punching him a second time, this time directly in the\neyeball, which made the cat scream in pain, and finally she struck him one more\ntime with her elbow, knocking him unconscious.\n            \"Never threaten my friends in front\nof me, you bastard!\" She roared in his face -not that he could hear her- but\nhis threatening of her loved ones brought out a side of her rarely seen, a side\nthat made her as protective of those loved ones as if they were her family.\n            The second gunman was up, and\ntraining his MP5 on Obsidian for attacking his commander, but Rikyuu was\nfaster; even without his powers, the dragon used his natural agility to kick\nthe gun away, sending the shots wide, and then delivered a punch right to the\nmans' temple, sending him limply to the ground just as Rikyuu had intended;\nusing knowledge of vulnerable points on the body of multiple species of\nhumanoid, he had struck a spot of the skull on this person that could be used\nto knock a person out cold with a good, clean hit. He smiled in satisfaction,\nbut frowned when he saw one of the other gunmen, now recovered from the\nunexpected attack by the tree, already poised and about to shoot the dragon.\n            Time seemed to slow as suddenly the\nground by his leg erupted; out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure shoot\nup from the soil, twirling their body around like a spinning top. A glint of\nmetal in the strange figures' hand alerted him to a weapon, but it was too late\nfor him to act, and the last thing he saw was the cold, hard, angry stare from\na pair of avionic eyes before a knife perforated his vulnerable throat, where\nhe had no armour. Eyes widening behind the lenses of his goggles, he fell to\nthe ground, pulling the knife free in the process, and lay there, bleeding,\ndead in a matter of seconds.\n            The figure that emerged from the\nground turned to Rikyuu and the others. \"Looks like Volc was right to tell me\nto come here,\" she said.\n            \"Tsume!\" Rikyuu exclaimed.\n            \"Boy, are we glad to see you,\" said\nObsidian. \"Your timing couldn't have been better.\"\n            \"It was damn lucky is what it was,\"\nsaid Tsume. \"Mon dieu, if I hadn't shown up when I did, I might've been too\nlate.\" She shook her head. \"But enough of that; I won't ask why you didn't just\nuse your powers so, explain it to me later; get going, head for the spot we\ntalked about in our plan, and I'll cover you while you get away.\"\n            \"All by yourself?\" Rikyuu asked.\n            Tsume grinned. \"I'm never alone,\"\nshe said, turning to face the remaining gunmen; only two were still alive or\nconscious now, and they did not look happy. \"The whole ground is my ally,\" she\nsaid before stomping one of her taloned feet on the ground, sending a visible\ntremor through the grass to come up beneath the two gunmen before exploding,\nsending both of them airborne as the ground literally burst open like a balloon\nand launched them off of their feet. \"Now hurry!\" Tsume called. \"We have to get\nto the spot!\"\n            \"Okay!\" Rikyuu replied, helping\nAyane to her feet. \"Let's go; over to my car, hurry!\"\n            \"But what about that EMP; won't your\ncar be dead?\" Yurui asked.\n            \"I think the EMP was just a short\nburst, otherwise their airship and communication devices would've been dead\ntoo,\" said Ayane. \"Rik's car should be fine; it was a good twenty meters from\nthe blast centre.\"\n            \"Right,\" agreed Rikyuu. \"Now,\nlet's go!\"\n            Fishing his keys out of his pocket,\nRikyuu strode over to his car while Tsume fought the last two gunmen, killing\none of them with a throwing knife straight to the throat, the other one struck\nby a similar knife to his goggles; he screamed in pain, indicating the knife\nhad found a mark, but didn't go down; a shallow wound to his eye, probably.\n            She heard Rikyuus' car start up, and\nknew she was good to go from there, but just before she burrowed under, a\ngunshot broke the air, and she felt a searing pain shoot up her back, making\nher cry out and grab for the spot that was hit; wherever the shot had come\nfrom, it hit her shoulder, but nothing vital. Knowing better than to turn to\nface her assailant, and simply commanded the Earth to take her below ground,\nvanishing below the soil nigh instantaneously, faster than gravity wouldn't\nmade her fall if it had simply been a hole opening underneath her.\n            Her attacker, the commander, now\nback on his feet with his face bloodied and bruised from Obsidians' previous\nattack on him, turned to where Rikyuu and his group had gone, spotting the\ndragons' car peeling out of the parking lot at full speed and making a left\ntowards the highway, breaking every speed limit as it sped off up the road,\nsafely out of the reach of the third team for the moment.\n            Commander Three swore loudly, and\nagain when he heard police sirens coming towards the hospital grounds. He\ngathered up the survivors of his team whom Tsume had not slain, and ordered\nthem back aboard the retriever, carrying the one who was still unconscious, shutting\nthe door as the first series of flashing lights and squad cars sped onto the scene.\nBy then, the engines of the aircraft were powering up, whirring noisily as the\nvehicle slowly ascended into the air. The police who had arrived first jumped\nout of their cars, one of them using a megaphone to command the ship return to\nthe ground, but he was ignored.\n            Several officers fired their weapons\nat the ship, but the dense steel hull withstood the small arms fire easily and\nthe ship slowly flew away, heading off in the direction Rikyuu and his friends\nhad gone.\n            The Commander ignored all hails from\nhome base as Rex demanded an update...\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            Lighris' motorcycle sped out of the\ngarage after the lightning hawk made sure the wingstrap around his chest had\ntightly, but not uncomfortably, secured his wings to his back keeping them as\nsmall and stiff as possible as the wind rushed around him. The purpose of the\nwingstrap was to keep his wings from being pulled open by the wind as he rode,\nas the drag that could cause could pull riders right off of their motorcycles,\nso by law, winged figures were required to wear one when riding motorcycles,\nATV's or motor tricycles; anything that didn't have a roof to protect them from\nthe wind.\n            Lighris hated the wingstrap; it was\nuncomfortable, and always left his wings feeling sore by the time he took it\noff, but he'd had too many tickets for neglecting it already, and couldn't risk\nanother one or he would lose his license. He didn't believe he needed the\nstrap; he could keep his wings down with his own muscles, but, not wanting to\nlose his license, especially for his motorcycle, he gave in and started using\nthe wingstrap.\n            Pavan ran alongside him as they\nraced up the gravel road, stirring up massive dust clouds behind them in the\nprocess. \"So, those fuckers who're after my brother are back, huh?!\" Lighris\nbellowed over the wind, still barely audible at the speed they were going, so\nPavan could only answer with a nod. \"Well I'll show them what happens when they\nscrew around with my bro!\" He revved the bike harder, shifting up to the next\ngear, and pulled ahead of Pavan slightly.\n            At the speed they were going, it\ndidn't take them long to reach the main highway. Just as they arrived at\npavement, a blue, speeding car went roaring past, but its brake lights came on\nit and it screeched to a halt on the road. Lighris and Pavan proceeded onto the\nroad, the Wind Phoenix recognizing the car as Rikyuu's Subaru, and hurried up\nalongside it; Lighris pulled up at the drivers' side window, which lowered, and\nhe peered in at Rikyuu.\n            \"You guys alright; you looked like\nyou were in a big hurry,\" he said. \n            \"We are,\" replied Rikyuu. \"One of\nthe I.T.O.U.E aircrafts attacked us at the hospital, and it's probably\nfollowing us!\"\n            \"Shit; let's go!\" Lighris urged,\nshifting his bike back into gear and revving it twice before letting go of the\nclutch, popping a wheelie and taking off ahead, Rikyuu's car quick to follow,\nand Pavan running up alongside the car.\n            The wind phoenix looked at Obsidian;\nshe stared back, and after a second, she nodded to him, and after that, Pavan\nturned and sped off, taking to the air and abandoning the road as he headed in\nanother direction, flying more than twice as fast as he had been running. With\nhis departure, Obsidian turned to the others. \"Pavan is heading to let Brent\nknow what's going on too,\" she reported, letting them know she'd been having a\nprivate conversation with the Wind Phoenix via telepathy.\n            \"Why Brent?\" Rikyuu asked. \"Is there\nsomething he can do to help us?\"\n            \"I don't know, but maybe Volcan is\nworried the I.T.O.U.E might go after him next,\" replied Obsidian. \"If they went\nafter Rikyuu and I, they could be looking to take hostages or remove potential\nthreats, trying to get under Volcans' skin. That could mean anyone could be a\ntarget, most especially Volcans' friends.\"\n            \"What about his mom?\" Ayane asked.\n            \"Degra's out of town,\" replied\nObsidian. \"She's in British Columbia right now visiting her family; one of\nthose family is Joseph MacAingeal, who's one of Canada's greatest fighter\npilots and soldiers. If she's safe with anyone, she's safe with him.\"\n            \"Well, that's convenient,\" said\nRIkyuu.\n            \"You think Volcan planned for that?\"\nAyane asked.\n            \"Volcan's intuitive, that's for\nsure,\" replied Obsidian. \"I wouldn't put it past him.\"\n            \"You think he knows if we're going\nto win this upcoming fight or not?\" Ayane asked.\n            \"Nobody can predict that outcome...\"\nObsidian replied darkly.\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            \"You're serious, the I.T.O.U.E are\nback again?!\" Brent screamed as Pavan\nfinished his explanation. \"And you think they might come here?!\"\n            \"Well Volcan thought so when we made\nthe plan,\" corrected Pavan. \"Either way you might want to hide somewhere until\nthis all blows over.\"\n            Brent nodded in agreement, already\nfeeling the urge to panic welling up in his body, even though the danger had\nnot even come yet. He paced around the room frantically, rubbing his chin in\nthought, before he seemed to remember something and looked over at Pavan again.\n\"Wait... maybe I can actually help this time.\"\n            Pavan gave him an incredulous look.\n\"No offense, Brent,\" he began, \"but you is not exactly built for combat; you\nrun from shadows and you curl up in a ball when you hear a scary story. I can't\nreally see you being able to help us take on armed professional gunmen and big\nbald Terminator ripoffs.\" As he spoke, he trotted backwards towards the door.\n\"Just find somewhere to hide and wait for us; for now, I have a schedule to\nkeept at an airstrip; got to fly!\"\n            Before letting Brent say any more,\nPavan was airborne, creating an updraft to carry himself up into the sky before\nhe soared off. Brent watched the Wind Phoenix depart with a look of scorn,\nwishing Pavan had let him finish. But that scowl was replaced with a grin of\nconfidence as he looked back into the workshop to a tarp covering an unknown\nobject.\n            \"Not built for combat, am I?\" He\nasked. \"Well I have something that soon will be, once I make a few more\nadjustments to it.\" \n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            Volcan and Vinge stood waiting out\nat the airstrip, going over the plan together one more time between themselves,\nwhen they saw clouds of dust approaching from the front gate, two vehicles the\ncause of them. One of the vehicles was a car, the other a motorcycle, ridden by\nLighris. They raced up the airstrip to where Volcan and Vinge waited in the\nshadow of one of the old hangars -currently unoccupied.\n            \"You ready for this, Vinge?\" Volcan\nasked.\n            \"I've been waiting for this day my\nwhole life,\" the ice phoenix replied. \"When the I.T.O.U.E comes, I will fight.\"\n            Volcan nodded. \"I'm glad to have you\nwith us,\" he said, honestly and with clear gratitude in his voice.\n            \"It is I who should be thanking you,\nVolcan,\" stated Vinge. \"My whole life, ever since that wretched day, I've been\nhaunted by nightmare after nightmare of that same incident; knowing your father\nis dead is a pain that time can heal, but not knowing whether he is alive or\ndead, in the hands of madmen, is horrifying; I want it to end, one way or\nanother.\"\n            Volcan didn't like how Vinge said\nthat... it sounded as though he didn't care if he lived or died in the upcoming\nfight, and though that would make Vinge all the more dangerous to the\nI.T.O.U.E, the ice phoenix was forgetting someone of equal importance. \"What about\nyour mother?\" He pointed out.\n            Vinge eyed him quizzically. \"What\nabout her? She's alive, thanks to you, and I...\"\n            \"The way you're speaking Vinge, it\nalmost sounds like you don't care if you walk away from this or not,\"\ninterjected Volcan. \"Don't put her through that; fight to win, and to live. She\nlost her husband; don't make her lose her only child too.\"\n            Vinge shook his head. \"Trust me,\nthat is not my intention,\" he said. \"I have studied the ways of the Samurai;\nthey had a saying in bushido. 'Go into battle determined to die, and surely you\nshall live'.\"\n            \"'Go into battle, hoping to live,\nand surely you shall not',\" Volcan said in perfect synchronization with Vinge,\nin such a way it was like they had rehearsed it, earning a look of surprise\nfrom the Ice Phoenix. \"Yeah, I've heard that fortune cookie bullshit before,\"\nsaid the fire phoenix, winking at him to show he meant no offense. \"My clan has\na saying as well; 'go into battle with faith only in your brothers in arms and\nthe strength of your own sword arm, for only they can stop the scythe of the\nreaper'.\"\n            \"Your clan?\" Vinge asked.\n            \"I'm Celtic,\" replied Volcan.\n\"Direct descendant of the ancient MacAingeal clan, a clan over twenty-five\nhundred years old -origins in Scotland, to be exact.\"\n            \"So you're a Scotch-Canadian?\" Vinge\nasked.\n            Volcan nodded. \"There's a little\nIrish in there on my fathers' side, but yeah.\"\n            Vinge nodded, satisfied with the\nanswer as his mind processed the words spoken by Volcan. He looked up as the\ncar and motorcycle pulled up alongside them, tires grinding in the dirt and\nstirring up even larger clouds of dust as they skidded to a stop. He thought\nabout Volcans' words, about having faith in your comrades -your brothers in\narms, comparing it to his own teachings; Samurai were famous for usually\nfighting alone against varieties of enemies, but Volcans' clansmen sounded like\nthey fought only as a unified force, working in unison instead of as lone\nwarriors in a field of battle.\n            Vinge had always been alone, having\nfew friends and only his mother as company throughout his adolescent years.\nNow, here was, preparing for battle alongside more people than he ever dared\ndream would be involved in his life. He felt warm -not from the sunlight\nheating his body, but a warmth in his heart, as if something that had been\nmissing from there had found its way back and returned to its rightful place.\n            \"Brothers, huh?\" he whispered.\n            Volcan approached the others as they\ngot out of the car, tapping fists with his brother before he turned to Rikyuu\nand the others. \"Everyone alright?\" He asked. \"Did the I.T.O.U.E find you?\"\n            Rikyuu nodded. \"Yeah, they did. They\nhit me and Yurui with an EMP grenade too; our powers are fried.\"\n            \"They cut your powers?!\" Volcan\ndemanded. \"Shit, there goes some of the plan.\"\n            \"Actually, the effects should only\nbe temporary,\" stated Ayane. \"The nanotech in your body, Rikyuu, is powered by\nyour own physical energy, not by batteries like the remote I had for my\nexo-suit, which also got fried; now I can't call it to me.\"\n            \"What do you need to summon it?\"\nVinge asked.\n            \"A radio or satellite signal; I\nprogrammed it to respond to either with the right frequency and voice\nrecognition,\" she replied. \"The remote would transmit a recording of my voice\non that signal and summon the armour right to me, and then I'd be ready to\nrumble.\" She sighed. \"But now it's fried and I can't replace the battery.\"\n            Vinge jerked his thumb towards a\nstructure at the far end of the hangars, with a satellite dish mounted on the\nside, and a radio antenna protruding from the roof. \"Could you use the control\ntower?\" He suggested.\n            Ayane followed where the ice phoenix\nwas gesturing to, and rubbed her chin in thought. \"Hmm... yeah, I could use the\nradio tower or that satellite dish to transmit a signal on the same frequency\nand just activate the armour manually.\" She nodded. \"That'll work perfectly!\"\n            Vinge nodded, and reached into his\npocket to fish out his keys, removing one of them from the keyring and handing\nit to her. \"Do what you need to; we'll be okay while you prepare.\"\n            Ayane nodded. \"Thanks Vinge; you're\na genius!\" She complimented before running off towards the tower as fast as she\ncould.\n            A gust of wind rushed over the\ngroup; they looked up, expecting to see one of the I.T.O.U.E airships, but\ninstead saw Pavan descending from above, front-flipping as he dropped down out\nof the air and landed on his feet, another burst of wind erupted below him and\nspraying the others with dust before he touched down, having used the wind to\nslow his descent to a near-stop.\n            As the others coughed the dust from\ntheir lungs -Rikyuu even sneezed once until the cloud finally subsided, Pavan\nstood posing dramatically. \"Let's get this party started, eh?\"\n            \"We're still waiting for Tsume,\"\nVolcan pointed out.\n            A mild rumble was felt below their\nfeet, and very suddenly, Tsume exploded out of the ground, startling Pavan and\nLighris who she was closest to as she was launched airborne, twirled around\ndeftly in midair before she landed as gently as a kitten on the dirt ground,\nholding out her arms as if performing a stunt for an audience.. Tucked under\nher arm was small duffel bag. \"Mrs. Claus has brought gifts this time,\" she\njoked as she set down the bag. \"Everyone been good?\"\n            Pavan chuckled. \"Hey, that was\npretty good!\"\n            She knelt down by the bag and\nunzipped it, reaching in and gently lifting out two objects. \"Here you go\nPavan,\" she said before passing him a coiled, leather whip and a sheathed\nsword.\n            \"What? How'd you get my whip and\nKhanda?\" he asked.\n            \"You always leave your balcony door\nunlocked,\" Volcan pointed out.\n            Pavan gawked at Tsume. \"You broke\ninto my house?\" He asked, feigning shock before he turned to Obsidian. \"I'd\nlike to report a break \u0026 enter!\"\n            Obsidian laughed at him. \"Seriously,\nnow of all times?\" She asked.\n            \"Here ya go 'Sid,\" Tsume said,\npassing Obsidian a pistol with a belt-harnessed holster, which she immediately\nrecognized as her service pistol for the police force.\n            She blinked at the gun and looked at\nTsume suspiciously. \"Where did you find that?\"\n            \"Lockbox in a locker of your room,\"\nshe replied, smiling.\n            \"And... how'd you get it?\" She\ninquired further as she took the pistol from Tsume and put the holster on the\nbelt of her jeans.\n            \"Picked the lock, of course,\"\nreplied Tsume, smiling proudly as she took a few more items out of the bag,\nincluding a belt of knives which she wrapped around her midsection, and a pair\nof punch-daggers known as katars, which she wore on both her hands and gave a\nfew test punches with them.\n            \"...You and I will be having a\ntalking about this in private later, missy,\" Obsidian said, sternly, bit added\nin a softer, though no-less exasperated tone of voice. \"Still, thanks; I may\nneed it if they bring their disruptors.\"\n            \"Yeah... those are still going to be\na problem for us,\"\n            Volcan grinned at Obsidian. \"Don't\nworry about the disruptors,\" he said. \"Vinge and I have planned ahead for\nthat.\"\n            Before Obsidian could inquire as to\nwhat Volcan had in mind, since she had not been present for their strategy\nmeeting they had made in preparation for this day, her ears suddenly twitched,\nand both she and Rikyuu turned their gaze south, back in the direction of Unity\nFalls, where the mountain range alongside the city could still be seen.\n            \"They're here,\" said Rikyuu.\n            Everyones' expressions became\nserious as they followed the gaze of the two dragons, seeking out the I.T.O.U.E\naircraft. When they couldn't spot them, Volcan squinted his eyes, mentally\nactivating his Infrared vision; his eyes began to glow a bright yellow, and\neverything was now seen in an infrared spectrum to him; everything cold was\nblue, everything warm was red, and in the sky he spotted three massive vehicles\nemitting copious amounts of heat that made them glow like giant furnaces to the\nphoenix.\n            \"Here they come,\" he stated.\n\"Everyone, get out of sight and be ready to move when the ships touch down.\"\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            \"Home\nBase, we've tracked Skilerains and his colleagues to an airstrip a few\nkilometers out of the city, but there's no sign of the rest of his group;\nthey've all vanished. We just see him, standing out on the airstrip out in the\nopen.\" Commander one reported. \"I've\nmet up with teams two and three; we're currently holding position, awaiting\norders.\n            \"Just... standing there?\" Rex questioned. A wave of concern washed over\nhim as he folded his hands out in front of him, considering the report; why\nwould Volcans' friends go to all the trouble they had to make their way out to\nsuch a remote area only to suddenly forsake Volcan and leave him to fight Rex's\nRetrieval Teams all on his own, when not even he could stand against so many\nall on his own? Something did not seem right...\n            \"Proceed with caution; it smells\nlike a trap. One of you, stay in the air and do a sweep over the hangars and\ncontrol tower if there are any such buildings there, and make sure his friends\naren't waiting in ambush.\"\n            \"This\nis Commander Three; I'll maintain air cover. And watch your feet; one of his\nfriends that attacked my unit at the hospital is capable of tunneling through\nthe earth; she might come up from right under you.\"\n            \"Roger, Three, and thanks for the warning. Two, you're\nwith me; we're going in.\"\n            \"Yes sir,\" Commander Two replied, hesitation in his voice.\n            \"Two,\" Rex stated, a tone of warning\nin his voice. \"You're about to complete your mission; I would think you'd be\nmore enthusiastic about it. Is there a problem?\"\n            \"No\nsir; just not good at showing my excitement is all,\" returned Two.\n            \"Good; remember what I told you\nwould happen if this mission failed,\" Rex stated. \"Do not fail me again, any of\nyou, do you understand?\"\n            \"Yes\nsir...\"\n            \"Good.  Now, all teams, proceed\nwith the operation, but remember; be cautious, and watch for any surprises.\"\n            \n            ~~~~~\n \n            Volcan watched wordlessly as the\ncloaks surrounding the airships were dropped; they knew he could see them and\nthat using their stealth technology was pointless now. Two of the ships touched\ndown, while the third remained airborne, strafing away from the first two\ntowards the hangars; Volcan watched that one for a moment, until he heard the\ndoors on the broadsides of the first two opening, turning his gaze back to\nstare ahead of him.\n            Out of the two rotary VTOL aircraft\nstepped a dozen men, all of whom approached Volcan as stood, arms crossed and\nhis body still. As they approached, they could feel the heat coming from the\nphoenix, and could see his eyes were glowing; they kept back at a safe\ndistance, never taking their eyes off of him.\n            The leader with the red stripes\nlooked at Volcan, lifting up the goggles over his eyes and pulling down his\nfacemask so that he could see and speak clearly; beneath the mask was the face\nof a feline, a common cat from the looks of it, with orange and white fur, and\nbright yellow eyes. He eyed Volcan quizzically before he spoke. \"Why haven't\nyou tried to escape?\" He asked. \"Surely you could have flown away before we\narrived.\"\n            \"One way or another,\" stated Volcan.\n\"I'm putting an end to this insanity today.\"\n            \"Insanity?\" The cat returned.\n\"You're the one who's insane. Insane, and a monster.\"\n            Volcan quirked an eyebrow at the\ncat. \"Did I do something to make me hate you?\" He asked. \"I don't think we've\nmet before.\"\n            \"We haven't,\" returned the cat. \"But\npeople like you, with those over-enhanced abilities... you're a danger to all\n'normal' people; people like you are a plague, and the I.T.O.U.E is the vaccine\nthat stops it from spreading.\"\n            Volcan eyed the man for a moment,\nhis expression softening somewhat. \"So... you guys... operate under the\nassumption that my kind, namely super humanoids, are a threat to public\nsafety?\"\n                \"You are a threat!\" The cat barked again. \"Your kind is a menace, and\na...!\"\n            \"Plague, blight, outbreak, danger,\"\nVolcan interjected. \"Yeah; I get it. You're afraid of me.\"\n            The cat's face contorted in a\ndangerous scowl. \"I'm not afraid you, or your powers, but the rest of the\npublic is constantly at risk whenever you use them. You could go out of\ncontrol, or hit people in the crossfire, or even use them to take over the\ncity!\"\n            \"If I wanted to do that, pal, don't\nyou think I'd have had my opportunity during the war?\" Volcan asked, keeping\nhis voice level and his arms crossed. \"I could have focused only on saving\nother super humanoids like me; I could have overthrown the crime lords, taken\nover their gangs and maybe even took over the city with all the chaos it was\nunder! But I didn't, because I am not the\nevil monster you think I am, so why the hell do you insist on doing this?\"\n            \"You exist; that's all I need,\" the\ncat returned. \"The I.T.O.U.E is nothing like a common gangster.\"\n            \"You're worse thang gangsters,\"\nretorted Volcan. \"You take parents from their children, or in some cases,\nchildren from their parents, so you can dissect them in a lab somewhere and run\ntests on them, looking for ancestors-know what! What about that seems right to\nyou; if you want to protect the world from Super humanoids, focus on the ones\nthat are actually trying to put\npeople in danger! People like The Mana, for example, who actually did use their\npowers for the wrong reasons!\"\n            The Commander only glared at Volcan.\n\"A typical sign of desperation,\" he stated. \"Trying to justify your existence\nwith past incidents you've never been guilty of; you're trying to make yourself\nlook like you're innocent, but you're not. None of your kind are!\"\n            Volcan sighed in exasperation. \"Well\ntrying to reason with you is a complete waste of time,\" he stated, closing his\neyes and shaking his head. \"You're so brainwashed that even a hypnotist\ncouldn't change your mind.\" Reopening his eyes he glared at the cat again.\n\"Well...\" he uncrossed his arms, balling both of his hands into fists, which\nprompted all of the gunmen to aim their weapons at him. \"If you think you can\nremove me, come and try.\"\n            \"Commander Two,\" the cat stated to\nthe man next to him. \"Go get the disruptors.\"\n            \"Why don't we just shoot him? He's\nstanding right there!\" One of the men stated.\n            \"Can't you feel that heat radiating\nfrom him?\" The cat demanded. \"He's heated up the air in front of him; he'll\nmelt the bullets before they reach him.\"\n            \"Then... why isn't he attacking?\"\nAnother asked.\n            \"Nevermind; go get the disruptors.\nWe can't detain him while he's radiating that much heat, so we need to cut his\npowers.\"\n            \"You aren't going to detain me at\nall,\" stated Volcan. \"And as for your disruptors, they aren't going to help\neither.\"\n            \"Oh? And why is that?\" The cat\nasked.\n            \"Because the whole time you've been\npitching your monologue, fuzz-balls, my team has been smashing them.\" He\npointed past the gunmen, back towards their airships.\n            The I.T.O.U.E troopers spun around,\nturning back towards their aircraft, just in time to see one of their\ndisruptors crushed by an unseen force, upon the clenching of a purple, scaled hand;\nthe destroyed device fell to the ground, revealing the amethyst coloured\neastern dragoness standing behind it. The other one was smashed by a pink\nhammer made of pure energy, held in the hand of a blue western dragon, who\nhoisted it over his shoulder and grinned smugly at the shocked I.T.O.U.E\ntroopers. \n            \"You're all under arrest,\" Obsidian\ncalled.\n            The cat picked up a radio from his\nbelt and shouted into it. \"Commander Three; get over here with your disruptor,\nnow!\"\n            \"Aye,\nCommander One; circling around... what the?!\"\n            A thunderclap split the air, and a bolt of lightning shot up from\nbehind the hangars as the ship strafed back towards open ground, shooting\ndirectly through one of the rotors and sending the airship careening towards\nthe runway. The sound of it hitting the ground was deafening, and pillars of\ndust climbed into the air, obscuring the vehicle from sight.\n            The cat, or 'Commander One' as he\nwas called, spun around and glared at Volcan. \"What did you do?!\"\n            \"We planned ahead,\" returned the phoenix\n\"Compliments of my newest friend, whose father you thugs took away from him ten\nyears ago.\"\n            A flapping of wings caught their\nattention, and they looked up to see two more avians descending from above, one\nof them, Vinge, landing near Volcan, the other was Pavan who landed at the\nother end of the cluster. The ground trembled beneath them, and yet another\nfigure erupted from the earth, opposite to where Pavan had landed; Tsume had\nbeen hiding underground the entire time, waiting for the right moment, and\nstood with her arms crossed as two chunks of earth floated up alongside her.\nAside from Obsidian, none of the ever-increasing number of super humanoids held\nany weapons in their hands.\n            The cat mistook that for a flaw in\nthe part of the phoenix and his friends, and grinned confidently at him. \"You\nmay have us surrounded now, but we're still greater in number and\nbetter-equipped; you won't survive a firefight with us.\"\n            Volcan grinned menacingly. \"Tell me,\nare all of those guns of yours made of metal?\" \n            \"What's your point?\" The cat, or\nCommander One as Volcan had heard him called before.\n            \"That upward-shooting lightning bolt\ncame from my brother, dumbass; a lightning hawk. He's watching you from on the\nroof of those hangars right now,\" stated Volcan. \"One false move, he starts\nflinging lightning bolts, and the metal of your guns will attract that\nlightning.\"\n            \"You're bluffing!\" The cat shot\nback. \"He could hit any one of you as well!\"\n            Volcans' eyes glowed brightly. \"Are\nyou so desperate you'd be willing bet your life on that theory, pal?\" He asked.\n\"By all means, make your move. But if you give up now, you'll be dealt with in\naccordance with the law, not by us.\"\n            The cats' face contorted with anger\nfor a moment, clearly at his breaking point, and he stood there, glaring\ndefiantly into Volcans' eyes for a moment, until he heard the sound of a weapon\nhitting the ground at his side; the cat turned, just in time to see the\ngreen-striped trooper, Commander Two he had been called before, relinquishing\nhis sidearm and drawing a knife from his boot, all of which he dropped to the\nground, kicking them away.\n            \"Two... what. Are. You. Doing?\"\nCommander One demanded.\n            \"What I should of done long ago,\" he\nretorted before he pulled off his facemask and helmet. Beneath the mask was the\ndark-skinned face of an African American man, his head bald except for a thin\ngoatee growing from his chin and above his upper lip. \"And it's not Two; I'm a\nman, not a number. My name is Kyle Darwinson, and as of now, I'm done.\"\n            \"You don't walk out on the\nI.T.O.U.E, Commander Two; retrieve your weapon and execute these abominations,\nnow!\" Commander One barked, turning his weapon on the defector.\n            Volcan was quicker, grabbing the\nfront of the cats' gun and forcing its aim down to the dirt; it discharged, but\nthe bullets struck the soil harmlessly, and Volcan ripped the gun from the\ncats' hand, gripping the other end of it with his free hand, before raising his\nleft leg and bringing the gun down over his knee, snapping it in two\neffortlessly. Before throwing both pieces behind him, and punching the cat\nacross the face, sending him reeling and face-planting to the dirt.\n            The other gunmen raised their\nweapons and aimed them at Volcan, until the phoenix glared at the one closest\nto him, his eyes glowing once more as beams erupted from his eyes and struck\nthe barrel of the gun held by the one closest to him, melting it and causing\nthe weapon to malfunction as the bullets were jammed in the barrel, until the\nsecond round was put into place and fired as well; the tip of the gun exploded\nas bullets covered in hot metal combusted from the intense heat, ripping into\nthe wielders' left hand and sending blood spraying all over the ground as his\nhand was torn asunder by the shards of metal.\n            The cat, after recovering from the\nstrike inflicted on him by Volcan, rolled onto his back, and aimed his gun at\nthe person closest to him; Vinge. Volcan noticed the oncoming attack too late\nto stop it; all he could do was cry out to the Ice Phoenix, who turned and saw\nthe gun aiming at him...\n            The shot rang out, but the bullet\nnever landed.\n            A new figure had appeared in front\nof Vinge, seemingly from nowhere, with a paw clenched around unseen object just\ninches from the tip of Vinges' beak. The newcomer was a snow leopard with light\nblue fur with gray spots, silvery hair, and wearing a pink shirt and dark blue\njeans.\n            The leopard opened her paw, and from\nher clenched fingers, a piece of metal dropped; a bullet, caught in midair and\nnever inflicting harm on its intended target. She stared daggers at Commander\nOne, her eyes shadowed by the front bangs of her hair, making her look all the\nmore intimidating,\n            The cat stared back with a look of\nhorror on his face, watching as the falling bullet hit the dirt soundlessly.\n\"That's... impossible...\" He said, his voice breaking.\n            \"Not for someone who can manipulate\ntime, buddy,\" retorted Volcan as he hauled the cat to an upright position,\nholding him in the air. \"And nobody...!\" He punches the cat in the stomach once\nfor every following word he spoke. \"Takes! A! Shot! At! My! FRIENDS!\" On the\nsixth word, his punch sent the cat flying, where he landed at the feet of his\ntroopers.\n            The cat, despite the beatdown he had\njust taken, sat up and glared at Volcan defiantly, but winced and grabbed at\nhis chest, growling in pain. \"You're a lucky feline,\" Volcan barked. \"If you\nhadn't been wearing that Kevlar assault vest, all of your organs would be mush\nright now, so do yourself a favor and stay down.\"\n            \"We're... not... out of this...\nyet!\" Adrian yelled before he touched something on his belt. Something that\ncaught Kyle's attention in a bad way.\n            \"No!\" The turncoat pleaded. \"Don't\nactivate them!\"\n            \"Too late, traitor,\" Adrian retorted.\n            Seconds passed, and nothing seemed\nto happen, until suddenly, a deafening crash echoed from the crashed aircraft,\na crash so loud it made everyone jump. They turned their gazes towards the\ndowned craft, and saw a dent had appeared in its hull. A second crash soon\nfollowed, and the door exploded from the hull, and went flying through the air,\ncrashing to the ground with an explosion of dust. Out of the crashed aircraft\nstepped a pair of hulking figures, figures that were all too familiar to Volcan\nand Rikyuu.\n            But they were different, somehow...\ntheir skin had changed to a reddish hue, and the colour of the 'goggles' were\nblue instead of red like before, which somehow only added to their ominous\nappearance. Beyond that they were largely the same; impossibly large human\nbodies, with entirely cybernetic legs, forearms that ended in the heads of\nmorningstars instead of hands, and metal plates that covered their mouths,\nnoses and jaws.\n            \"Oh boy...\" Volcan muttered.\n            \"Adrian, damn you!\" Kyle barked.\n            \"Men, take them down!\" Adrian\ncommanded. \"All of them!\"\n            \"All of you need to stand down!\"\nKyle tried to intervene, but the men wouldn't heed his command, now that he had\nabandoned the I.T.O.U.E, and raised their weapons.\n            \"Pavan!\" Volcan barked. \"Dust cloud,\nfast!\"\n            \"On it!\" Pavan returned before he\nbroke into a sprint, picking up speed rapidly as he ran in a full circle around\nthe I.T.O.U.E troopers; he moved with such speed that the dirt was being kicked\nup all along where he ran, until a cloud of dust was brought up, completely\nobscuring the people inside of it. Some shot wildly, trying to strike down\ntheir targets before they could get away, but none of their bullets landed.\n            \"Vinge; put up an ice wall; try and\ntrap them in there!\" Volcan called.\n            \"Right!\" Vinge agreed, and held out\nhis hands, focusing his powers into the palms, before thrusting them forward\nand projecting ice at the ground.\n            As he cast, the ground began to\nfreeze over, but with control, he kept it condensed to the width of a foot, and\nslowly, it began to become taller. With some more control, and by running in a\ncircle around the dust cloud, the wall growing higher and higher until it was\neasily eight feet tall. By this time, Pavan had already broken off from\nstirring up the dust cloud; when the wall was up, forming a full, cylindrical\nbarrier that choked the dust cloud, and it wasn't until it finally dispersed\nthey realized they had been imprisoned in the ice.\n            Shouting followed, as well as a gunshot\nand a scream of agonizing pain. They were trapped, and shooting at the ice\nwould only endanger the whole group; ricocheting bullets would tear them into\npieces inside of such a prison. \n            \"Good job,\" said Volcan, before he\nused his infrared vision to peer into the ice, quickly counting heads. \"Hey...\nthere were eleven of them; I count ten!\"\n            Tsume glanced around, casting at\nglance at the cyborgs first, but found they still had not moved an inch since\nexiting the aircraft. They had formed a row, and become completely statuesque,\nwaiting for a command. She noticed someone running past then; the cat commander\nhad somehow escaped from the trap, and was now sprinting across the airfield\ntowards the downed crashed aircraft.\n            The aircraft where a still\nfunctioning disruptor lay waiting.\n            \"Guys; that cat's going for the last\ndisruptor!\" Tsume called, alerting her friends.\n            Adrian, hearing Tsume's voice, knew\nthat his cover was blown, and reached for his belt again, towards what Tsume\ncould only identify as a small control pad fastened behind the empty holster\nwhere his pistol had been. He pressed another button, and the cyborgs began to\nstir. Running past them, he continued on towards the aircraft while the\ncyborgs, in perfect unison, took a step forward, their heavy feet sending\ntremors through the dirt as they walked.\n            \"Incoming!\" She called, warning the\nothers of the cyborgs, but they could already see the cybernetic monsters were\nbeginning to move. \n            \"Adrian's trying to get to the last\ndisruptor!\" Kyle barked, retrieving his sidearm and taking aim at the cat. \nHe shot three times, but Adrian was too far away for\nhim to land an accurate hit with a pistol; the rounds flew wide of their\nintended target, impacting the dirt around him but none of them even grazing\nthe commander. Volcan was about to pursue, when the footsteps of the cyborgs\ncaught his attention; the creatures weren't just lumbering towards them now,\nthey were running at them, taking\nlong strides that shook the ground with their thunderous steps. Another gunshot\nfilled the air, and one of them faltered, but kept going.\n\"Tsume; trip them up and then stop Adrian from\ngetting to that disruptor!\" Volcan insructed.\n\"I'm on it!\" She said, and turned on her heel,\nsprinting at the cyborgs. Halfway towards them, she jumped and dove at the\nground, the soil and rocks parting like the jaws of a large animal, which she\nplunged directly into and disappeared before a dust trail began to race towards\nthe cyborgs.\nOblivious to the Earth Phoenixes oncoming attack,\nthe cyborgs kept advancing, until a violent shock below their feet sent them\nstumbling, tripping until they fell flat on their faces into the dirt. With a\nmoment bought, Volcan turned to Kyle.\n\"How far do those disruptors reach?\" He asked.\n\"They have a total range of a hundred meters,\" Kyle\nreplied. \"From the center of their activation through everything not shielded\nagainst radiation.\"\n\"Anything you can tell us about these cyborgs?\"\nRikyuu asked, watching as the cybernetic warriors started to get back up. \"They\nlook a lot different than I remember.\"\n\"The Doc upgraded them,\" replied Kyle. \"He didn't\nsay much about them; just about how they were stronger and more efficient.\"\n\"Probably worried I'd read your mind to find a\nweakness,\" remarked Obsidian.\n\"Kyle, you know how those disruptors work; if Adrian\ngets that one online you have to shut it off, so go help Tsume,\" said Volcan,\nprompting the human to go sprinting towards the downed aircraft. \"Everyone else\nwith me; we're taking down those cyborgs.\"\n\"Six of us against six of them?\" Pavan questioned.\n\"Seven against six,\" a voice spoke, drawing the\ngroups' attention upward, where a figure descended from above; when they\ntouched down, everyone immediately recognized Ayane, as her head and tail were\nthe only things not covered by a strange exo-skeletal suit she wore metallic\nsurface. The strange suit fit perfectly to her form, showing every natural\ncurve of her body. Two firearms, held to her back by an unknown force, rested\nagainst her shoulderblades, and in between them was what appeared to be a\nrocket propulsion device, likely for sustained flight; similar devices could be\nseen attached to the anklets of her boots.\n            \"What took you so long?\" Lighris\nasked, annoyed. \"Suit stop for drive-thru on the way here or what?\"\n            \"Took me a little longer than I\nexpected to contact it,\" replied Ayane, reaching onto her back and grabbing one\nof her two weapons -a Designated Marksman Rifle, or DMR, a weapon designed for\nassault or sniping purposes alike, able to switch between the functions of both\nweapon types. \"Plus, had to find the right weapons for this situation.\"\n            \"Alright,\" said Volcan. \"Vinge, got\na plan?\"\n            \"I do,\" replied the Ice Phoenix.\n\"Obsidian, Ayane, you two will work together; the cyborgs won't be susceptible\nto telepathy so, 'Sid, you'll have to rely on your telekinesis and Ayanes'\nfirepower. Pavan and I will take the ones on the flanks, Lighris, Volcan and\nRikyuu, the rest are yours.\"\n            \"What about me?\" Yurui asked,\ninsulted; she had been quiet this whole time, the others almost forgetting she\nwas there.\n            Volcan turned to Yurui, eyeing her\nsadly. \"Sorry, Yurui, but I don't know how much you can do here,\" he said.\n\"Unless you can project your time field around the cyborgs to slow them down, this\nis our field.\" He turned to her, looking at her apologetically. \"I know you\nwant to help but your powers aren't meant for this kind of situation.\"\n            She scowled at him, clearly hurt by\nthe idea of not being able to help, but she nodded in understanding, knowing\nfully well that he was right, at least until Volcan perked up, and seemed to\nhave an idea. \"You caught a round from a pistol; do you think you could catch\nbullets fired from other weapons too?\"\n            She nodded. \"I probably could,\nyes... why?\"\n            \"Go help Tsume,\" said Volcan. \"The\ngunmen on that crashed ship may still be alive; she may need you to watch her\nback.\"\n            Yurui smiled and nodded to him\nagain, and once he stepped back from her, she dashed off, her whole body a blur\nas she charged across the field in the direction Tsume had gone to chase after\nAdrian, leaving Volcan and the others to face the cyborgs, which were now back\non their feet and were once more on the move, advancing on the superhumanoids\nagain. \n            He felt someone nudge him, and\nturned to see Ayane holding out his morphing polearm to him, having apparently\nretrieved it from where he'd left it. He nodded to her and accepted the weapon,\nbefore facing his intended target among the cyborgs -the third one from the\nright, and with a thought, the plain staff transformed in a flash of light,\nturning into a Swedish halberd, a weapon with a small, sharp chopping blade and\na long, needle-point spearhead at the tip. He didn't know how strong the\ncyborgs were now, but his instincts told him he'd need the penetration power of\nthat particular halberd design. \n            \"Let's go!\" Volcan barked and\ncharged ahead, leading the others as they ran to meet the cyborgs in a direct\nattack. His target in sight, Volcan made a mighty leap, flaring his wings out\nand using them to glide as he leapt at the cyborg...\n \n            ~~~~~\n \n            Adrian reached the remains of the\nhalf-destroyed Retriever, and peered inside, spotting the disruptor lying in\nthe corner, a little dented in some places but largely intact and very likely\nto still be functional. If he could activate it, it would render the super humanoids\npowerless, and from there the cyborgs would be able to easily destroy them. He\ncould not fail his mission now; if they failed, Dr. Rex would kill him. He\ncould not allow himself to die yet, not when their mission was incomplete; he\nhad sworn an oath to see it through unfailingly, but he'd only managed to remain\nloyal to the cause, not ensure its success. That had to change...\n            Just as he was about to climb in to\nretrieve it, moment caught his eye. He turned his gaze to the side opposite\nwhere the disruptor was, and spotted the crew, finally coming around after being\nknocked out from the crash. One of them turned to look at him, one he\nrecognized immediately as Commander Three thanks to the coloured stripes on his\nuniform.\n            \"One, is that you?\" The dazed,\nmasked canine asked.\n            \"Good to see you survived,\" returned\nAdrian. \"All of you get up; we've got a job to finish! Help me unload the\ndisruptor and move it over to the battle!\"\n            \"What battle?\" Three asked.\n            \"The cyborgs are fighting those\nfreaks this very minute!\" Adrian barked. \"If we can get the disruptor into position\nwe'll eliminate them all for certain!\"\n            \"Right...!\" Three returned, and\npushed himself up with his hands. Suddenly, he looked past Adrian, his\nattention grabbed by something behind Adrian.\n            The cat turned, and there stood the\nEarth Phoenix, Tsume. She stared daggers at him with her sharp brown eyes, the\nkatars on both of her hands glinting in the sunlight as she raised both of them\nto a ready position.\n            \"I don't think so,\" she stated\nfirmly.\n            Perceiving the threat, Three jumped\nto his feet, drawing his sidearm and taking aim at Tsume. In response, she\nducked down under his shot just before he fired, holstering the katar in her\nleft hand and drawing a knife, which she threw at Three; the knife imbedded\nitself in the masked dogs' visor, breaking through the plastic lens to plant\nits tip in his eye; he screamed in horrid agony and fell back, grabbing at his\nface in pain.\n            Adrian lunged at Tsume, drawing a\nknife of his own from his belt and slashing at her with it, which made her back\noff instinctively. He followed it with a second slash, this one she blocked\nwith the protective wristguard of her katar, generating sparks as it slashed\nacross the steel. She retaliated by drawing the bowie knife on the back of her\nbelt and swiping it at the cat, which forced him to back away as well; she\nsheathed the knife again and drew her other katar, noticing the KA-BAR knife he\nnow held and eyeing it closely.\n            \"USMC,\" she said.\n            \"What?\" The cat asked.\n            \"You used to be a United States\nMarine, right?\" Tsume asked. \"That knife is a favorite of theirs, and it's\nstill got the engraving on the blade.\"\n            Adrian scoffed. \"Is my jaw supposed\nto drop from how you know your knives?\" He asked with a condescending tone. \"Everyone\nknows that; maybe I killed a Marine and took it.\"\n            \"I'm just curious,\" she replied.\n\"You Americans always talk about fighting for freedom and liberty, and to bring\npeace to the world, yet here you are, one of the best soldier platoons in their\nentire military, trying to kill people who have never done anything wrong.\"\n            Tsume shrugged. \"Eh, whatever;\ndoesn't matter to me,\" she said, before she began to shift her feet from side\nto side, keeping her katars raised defensively. \"Not that it matters; either\nway...\" She reached forward with her foot and drew a line in the dirt with her\ntalon, giving the cat a challenging look as she drew her foot back to stand\nproperly. \"Today, you get screwed.\"\n \n            (Play 'Going Under' by Evanescence)\n \n            \"We'll just see about that you\nlittle freak!\" Adrian barked, and lunged at Tsume with a stab of his knife; she\nblocked, he pulled back before she could counter, evading the stab she made\nwith her left hand, and slashed at her arm, but she evaded, turning herself\nabout and striking out at him with an inverted spin kick, slashing at him with\nher talons. He ducked back to dodge, and was about to strike at her when she\ndropped down onto her left elbow and continued to turn herself, slashing at him\nagain with the same foot; this time he did not dodge in time, and her talons\nraked across his armoured chest, slashing through the surface but stopped by\nthe thicker kevlar weave below.\n            Her foot caught in the fabric, and\nAdrian slashed at her leg but she suddenly twisted around with such force it\ncaused him to stumble, putting her weight onto both of her arms, and with a\nkick to his stomach with her free leg, she tore her talons free of his armour,\nand rolled back from him, flipping back onto her feet and returning to her\nfighting stance.\n            Adrian regained his balance and went\nfor her again, stopping when he saw her moving to attack him again, jumping\nonto her hands and kicking directly over her head with both feet, striking at\nhim like the stinger of a scorpion. Both feet hit his chest and sent him\nstumbling back, and she used the rebound from her kick to return to her feet,\nonce more somersaulting to gain more distance.\n            He started to charge; she holstered\na katar, drawing a knife from her belt and throwing it at him. He ducked under\nthe blade, and ran straight for her, aiming to put the pressure on before she\ncould redraw her katar; the rage on his face was apparent, though as to why he\nwas so angry, she didn't know, but didn't stop to wonder as she parried a slash\nfrom him, and attempted to rake him with her talons again; he ducked under her\ninverted spin kick this time, and stabbed for her leg. Tsume hopped off of that\none leg and dropped, catching herself on her hands and somersaulting away from\nhim.\n            \"Fucking bitch; hold still!\" He\nroared at her.\n            \"Oh yeah, right; next you'll be\nsaying for me to let you stab me,\" retorted Tsume, redrawing her other Katar.\n\"Don't blame me for your lack of skill... or speed.\"\n            \"I'll show you speed!\" He barked at\nher before going back on the offensive.\n            The other I.T.O.U.E members inside\nthe crashed aircraft, including the one who had almost lost an eye to Tsume's\nknife, were finally awake. Only three were left, however; the fourth, the pilot,\nhad not moved at all, and they assumed him dead. The three of them moved\ntowards the disruptor in the corner, one of them reaching for the activation\nswitch.\n            A gunshot, and a bullet pinging off\nthe wall next to the gunmen, making them duck out of reflex before turning\ntowards the door. Behind their visors, their eyes widened with shock as they\nsaw who the shooter was, mouths agape behind their facemasks as they saw one of\ntheir own members staring down the barrel of a Glock-21 at them. \n            \"Don't even try it, men,\" he stated.\n            \"Commander Two, what the hell are\nyou doing?!\" The masked Commander Three demanded.\n            \"It's not Commander Two anymore,\nSamson,\" stated Kyle. \"I'm Kyle Darwinson, and as of today, I'm not with the\nI.T.O.U.E anymore, not now, and never again, you got that?\" He aimed the gun.\n\"Now, all of you, up against...!\" He didn't finish before one of the men drew\ntheir own sidearm and took aim at him, but the gun didn't fire. \nThe shooter turned it to the side, and noticed the\nslider was locked back, and no bullet was in the chamber... nor was there a\nmagazine inside. \"What the...?! But I loaded this before we left!\"\n\"And I unloaded it in one eighth of a second,\"\nanother voice spoke; a female one, coming from beside them, and they turned to\nsee a snow leopard, holding several, loaded magazines in her paws. \"Looking for\nthese?\"\nKyle pressed the barrel of his gun against Commander\nThree's head. \"Well, it's your move, Samson,\" he stated.\n\"When I get the chance, Two... I'm going to cut your\nstomach out with the dullest blade I have,\" returned the canine.\nKyle lunged forward and bludgeoned the canine across\nthe face with his gun, sending him reeling to the floor. \"Kiss my ass,\ndickhead.\"\nBack outside, the fight between Tsume and Adrian had\nfinally yielded results for both fighters; Tsume had suffered several minor\nslashes on her body, one across the stomach and the rest on her arms and legs,\nbut they were shallow -barely even drawing blood, thanks to her tough skin, but\nstill visible. Meanwhile, Adrian had suffered some shallow stab wounds, his\narmour the only thing having saved him from some deep, possibly mortal\ninjuries.\nTsume's gaze met Adrians again. \"You're not too bad,\nbut I guess you don't know about Earth Phoenixes,\" she said. \"Our skin is as\ntough as leather, and bones as hard as granite.\"\n\"If it bleeds, I can kill it; that's all I need to\nknow,\" retorted Adrian.\n\"...Did you just call me an 'it'?\" Tsume asked.\n\"Okay, now I'm going to tear your face off, asshole.\"\nOnce more, they came to blows, Tsume displaying her\nincredible flexibility and agility with every attack, using her legs as much as\nweapons as the katars worn on her hands; she fought using a combination of the\nCapoeira martial art and Apache knife-fighting, her body in constant motion and\nusing the sharpness of both talons and blades for the attack. The technique\nused by Adrian was effective, but lacking in the variety Tsume had, and her\nfighting style was strange to him.\nHe went to attack low; Tsume banked to the right,\nand twisted about, using her hands and left leg to support herself as she\nclawed directly at his face with her right foot. He could not evade in time, and\nher talons raked across his face, slashing across his nose, his eyebrow and his\njaw, narrowly missing his eye or mouth as they dragged through his face.\nAdrian dropped his knife and screamed in agony,\nfalling to the ground and grabbing at his face. Blood leaked between his\nfingers as he writhed in pain. Tsume stood up from the ground and glared down\nat him, holstering both of her katars.\n\"Told you I'd rip your face off,\" she said, coldly.\n\"My teacher calls me a pretty flower...\" She remarked as she drew her knife,\nflipping it into the air before catching it. \"But the prettiest flower\nsometimes has the sharpest thorns.\"\n \n~~~~~\n \nLighris ducked under the swinging arm of his\nopponent, feeling the draft trailing behind the powerful morningstar hand, and\nspread his wings as he flew up over the cyborg as it brought both fists down at\nhim; the lightning hawk twisted about in the air, folding his wings and\nsuccessfully landing on the cyborgs back. He placed his hands on the metal\nface-plate of the cyborg, and pulled hard, as hard as he could; after ripping\noff the cyborgs' faceplate to expose its deformed mouth, he leapt off as it\nthrashed about, trying to shake him off. He landed behind it, and as the cyborg\nturned to face him, Lighris cast a powerful bolt of lightning directly into the\ncybernetic soldier. The bolt of electricity plowed through its teeth and began\nto overload its internal circuity with immeasurable voltage, until the entire\nbody of the cyborg had burned to a blackened husk, and it fell to the ground\nwith a sickening crunch.\nLighris clapped his hands together, scoffing despite\nhis bruises. \"Hey bro!\" He called out to Volcan. \"I thought you said these\nthings were tough.\"\n\"They are, but I never said they were graceful!\"\nVolcan called as he leapt over a cyborg and drove his morphing polearm, in the\nform of a large spear, into the cyborgs' back, impaling it and severing several\nkey circuits; it fell limply to the ground, and ceased all movement after some\nbrief twitching. Just to be certain though, Volcan transformed his morphing\npolearm into a poleaxe, and brought the axe blade down on the cyborgs' head,\nsplitting it like a ripe melon; it didn't bleed, but something clearly organic\nwas still present in its head and made Volcan wince when he heard it squishing\ninside the skull. \"Okay, that's nasty...\"\nObsidian leapt out of the way of the attack of the\ncyborg she faced, and thrust her hands forward as she unleashed a burst of\ntelekinetic energy, causing the cyborg to topple backward. As it crashed to the\ndirt, Ayane leapt onto its back, pointing her gun at the back of its head and\nfiring point-blank directly into its skull. The cyborg flinched, but was still\nmoving, until Ayane put three more shots into its neck, the middle of its back,\nand yet another in its head just for good measure, until finally it stopped\nmove. She leapt off of the cyborg, and exchanged a high-five with Obsidian.\n\"Yeah!\" They barked.\nIt seemed the cyborgs were startlingly easy to trip\nup, being surprisingly top-heavy and clumsy; Pavan readily demonstrated this\nwith his own fight. He easily outmaneuvered the cyborg chasing him, waiting\nuntil its back was turned to him before lashing out with his whip, wrapping it\naround the cyborgs' legs before he pulled with all of his strength, using both\nlegs and arms to generate leverage and sending the cyborg face-planting into\nthe dirt. With it down, Pavan drew his khanda and ran across the back of the\ncyborg, using his momentum to cut into its flesh and drag his blade through its\nbody like a giant scalpel, slashing countless important circuits in the process\nbefore, with a stylish backflip and midair twist, the wind phoenix chopped the\nneck of the cyborg with his blade, decapitating it. \"Ha! Too slow, mofo!\"\nVinge ducked between the legs of the cyborg he\nfaced, freezing its feet to the ground in the process before tucking in and\nrolling until he was back on his feet. The cyborg struggled to get loose; Vinge\nopened both of his wings, and from his feathers, he began to conjure countless\nice projectiles, his eyes glowing as spikes of solid ice were formed in his\nwings, and began to surround the cyborg until hundreds of them had it\nsurrounded from all directions. \"The sting of a thousand wasps,\" he said before\nhe abruptly closed his wings and held out his hands, turning all of the ice\nspikes to face point-first at the cyborg. \"Is much stronger than the strike of\na single bear!\" And with that, the spikes propelled themselves at the cyborg,\nimpaling every inch of its body with hundreds of puncture wounds; the cyborg\ntwitched madly for a moment, before falling limp to the ground, shattering some\nice spikes and digging the rest deeper into its body.\nAnd finally, Rikyuu; he had conjured another large\nhammer of pure energy, batting aside strikes from the cyborg before going in\nwith a low sweep, taking its legs clear out from under it -even denting one of\nthem visibly, before bringing the hammer back around and then hard onto the\ncyborgs' chest, utterly crushing it with the force of the strike; sparks\nexploded from the chest of the cyborg, and it never moved again.\nVanishing his hammer, Rikyuu dusted his palms with\nseveral claps. \"Well now, I guess those upgrades Kyle mentioned still need more\nwork.\"\n\"They were a little tougher than before, but still\nslow and clumsy,\" said Volcan. \"Still, not having my powers cut this time\ndefinitely helped too.\" He looked around. \"Anyone hurt?\"\n\"Never even touched me!\" Pavan barked, confidently\n\"Nor me,\" agreed Vinge.\n\"One of them did bop me on the head a bit but, was\nusing your powers at the time, Volc so, I was able to take it,\" replied Rikyuu.\n\"We're fine,\" Ayane spoke for her and Obsidian.\n\"So am I; got a scrape on the arm but, nothing\nserious,\" added Lighris.\nVolcan nodded. \"I guess Rex will have to go back to\nthe drawing board for his upgrades,\" he remarked. \"Let's call Gregory, and tell\nhim to come get the trash in the bin, eh?\" He jerked his thumb towards the ice\ncylinder where the rest of the I.T.O.U.E soldiers remained trapped. \"Preferably\nbefore that starts to melt.\"\n\"I'm for that,\" agreed Obsidian, nodding. \n\"I'll make sure that the prison stays intact,\"\nassured Vinge.\n            Volcan nodded in thanks to Vinge.\n\"Hey bro, go help Tsume and Kyle with the rest of those gunmen in the crashed\nship, alright?\"\n            Lighris shrugged. \"Alright,\nwhatever.\"\n \n            ~~~~~\n \nRex fidgeted impatiently in his chair, eyeing the\nscreen of his terminal with contempt. The teams had failed to report in, and\nwere either unable to or refused to contact the doctor, which could only meant\none thing; they had failed, again. Rex felt he should have been concerned that\nVolcan could have defeated his Retrieval Teams, or his new cyborgs; perhaps he\nhad overlooked something with their upgrades, something that did not make up\nfor their previous faults that allowed Volcan to defeat several of them even\nwithout his powers.\n\"It seems that this phoenix is much more dangerous\nthan I thought,\" he stated. \"I can no longer rely on my retrieval teams... I\nmust deal with this one myself.\" As he spoke, he reached forward to the\nterminal and tapped several buttons, before bringing his fingers to the\nkeyboard, muttering to himself as he typed. \"Project: Aerial Savior... Run...\ndiagnostic.\"\nOn the screen in front of him, numbers and letters\nstreamed across, while a wire frame image of something resembling a feral\nwyvern appearing behind the lettering. Lines appeared on the wyvern, extending\ndown to different sets of lettering, forming boxes around them in highlight. He\nignored most of them; all of them were flashing green, indicating positive\nresults in the diagnostic.\nIt was the final words that appeared on the screen\nthat made him grin with anticipation.\n\"Status: READY\nFOR MISSION.\"\n"}