OOC: I haven't been posting because I couldn't think of anything to do with most of my characters and Silvia is waiting for T-nex.

IC:

Olivia's concentration on Silvia and the cats was suddenly broken by a commotion outside. She instantly transferred her attention to the group outside the building and was surprised to notice that the man she'd seen earlier was now outside with the tiger and the anthro she'd sensed before, plus someone else she hadn't noticed before. She mentally scolded herself for not noticing them leaving, then decided to go outside herself. Taking care to avoid the passage she'd seen Silvia go down, she made her way to the exit and walked out, just spotting the last of the mob of people disappearing down the alley. She noticed with some curiosity that, while most of the people in the area had gone chasing after Charger, two guys (Dave and Art) were still here and, it seemed, heading for a nearby vehicle.
She decided the best thing to do at present was wait and watch...

OOC: This post mostly develops the bitter relationship between Dave and Art, and develops Art's character a bit more. Not so much plot advancement as character development in this post. Sorry, but it felt right.

Blaze was silent for a minute. "Sure, werewolves only exist in stories. But what about Dave? Remember what he is. To him, we only existed in stories until he came here. So we can't really rule out the possibility of a werewolf or a were-whatever. Or anything from myths and fairytales, for that matter."
Streak was nodding. "He's right, Pseok. As illogical and ridiculous as it sounds ... he's right."
---
Dave thought that the girl - looked like she thought she was the chick in The Matrix or something - near the pharmacy-place nextdoor. He couldn't get a really good look at her, but from where he was standing ... she was a cutie.
But then Charger and the others were moving along, and he hurried to catch up.
Then the screaming started. Gunshots went off. It wasn't long before Charger was shoving them away. "... get to the others and get to safety!"
Art was nodding. He understood the situation: they wouldn't be after a couple of humans. He grabbed Dave's shoulder and tugged. "Let's go, Dave. Back to the others."
Dave plodded to catch up. "What are we gonna do about Charger and Kaira? What if they get in trouble?"
Art didn't slow. "Then maybe we'll come back for them." He was talking faster and faster. "Or we'll send Pseok to check things out from overhead or something. I don't ****ing know right now, kid."
Dave winced a little at this last, not at being called 'kid' again, but at the irritation in Art's voice. He was coming off as more of an asshole than Dave had ever considered him.
"Alright, Art. Chill," Dave was saying. "I'm just saying that we shouldn't just take off--"
"DAVE, WILL YOU CUT THAT SHIT OUT!" Art snapped and stopped walking. Dave stumbled and stopped. A few people in the mob glanced over, but they were too focused on other things to care about a stranger shouting at some kid.
Art took a deep breath. "Look, Dave," he started. "Your concern for Charger and Kaira is touching. But you have to realize something very key here that I don't think you've gotten through your thick skull."
Dave wanted to retort, but he was too frightened of Art to say anything. This is crazy, he thought. I'm scared of a guy I made up.
"This isn't just some game, Dave-o," Art was saying. "It may have started out that way to you, but guess what? You're ****ing here, and this is not a frigging mad-lib anymore. It's real ****ing life. So stop acting all high and goddamn mighty all the time, like your someone special around here because you think you made me up. Just because you could probably tell me every detail about my past doesn't mean I'm your creation. You aren't above this, you're a part of it. And things don't always work out like in the storybooks, kid. Sometimes, even if you really want to, you can't. Sometimes, there just isn't a ****ing way. I know you want to go back and help Charger get away from that mob, and I know you want to make sure Kaira's okay, but I also know this: that to you, this is still a story. But it just ... ****ing ... isn't."
Dave and Art stared at each other for a full minute in silence. Dave looked away first. He didn't speak, just walked to the passenger side of the car and got in.
Damn, he was thinking. I had no idea Art was so ... articulate. He's right... but goddamn if I can admit it to him.
Dave was slowly realizing that he hated Art. He never had reason to dislike him, but he never had a reason to really admire the guy, either. Maybe back at the start of things, when he first wrote the guy down, Art was a guy Dave wished he could be ... but it was years ago. Art hadn't changed, but Dave had. And Dave was learning the truth: Art was a coldhearted man deep down, just as Dave had made him ... and Art was capable of a whole lot. And Dave knew that Art almost always had a great grasp on his situation.
All this in spite of Dave, who had once admired Art. Dave resented the hell out of it, that Art could really be this way. He hated him for it.
Art, meanwhile, was developing a healthy dislike of Dave. Some punk kid fresh out of high school shows up from another dimension or whatever and suddenly wants to run the world like a storybook. And the ****ing things Dave had put him through! His fear of cats. His fear of intimacy. The noodle incident in the third grade. Everything that had gone wrong with his life was Dave's fault, whether the kid had ever written it down or not. Because, like it or not, there was always the possibility that Dave really had thought him into existence. And Art hated the idea that there was a force out there that had controlled his destiny from day one.
Art started the car up, and began to drive back to the campsite. They rode in an icy silence.

Olivia listened carefully, more sensing than actually hearing, to Dave and Art's arguing. She remembered Fisher's conversation with Slade; his mention of an RPG or something of the like... But surely someone who had done... that stuff, surely they couldn't actually be here as well! She was uncertain, so slipping into an empty alley she closed her eyes and focused her energy once again.

<•-•-•-•-•>

Slade and Daniel stopped their descent down the mountains as Olivia's shadowy form once again appeared in front of them.
"Slade! Unexpected events have occured here at the hospital. In short, some guy with a tiger came and he and the anthro tiger have since left, taking some kid with them. An angry mob have gone chasing after the anthro, who took the tiger with him, and the other two headed to a car nearby and just left before I contacted you. The interesting thing is, I listened to their conversation - more of an argument if you ask me - and it may interest you. Do you wish me to show it to you?"
Slade nodded, "Go ahead."
Olivia's shadowy form wavered and dissipated, being replaced by a similar form of Dave and Art, repeating their words and actions from a few minutes ago. Then Olivia's shadow reappeared.
"What do you make of that?" she asked.
"This could be of interest to us," Slade replied, "Follow them, if you can do so without being seen. I will attempt to locate them from here and determine their destination..."
Olivia nodded, "Understood," and here shadowy form once again faded away...

Charger kept running down the street, dodging angry and scared people. He looked around for an alley to disappear in again, and soon found one to his right. Quickely he made a dash for it, ran into it, went left, and looked straight into a gun barrel.
Before he could even concider whacking the guy holding it and continueing his run, he felt a painfull surge trough his right shoulder, and almost immediatly after that started dozing off. First his arm, then his upper body, his legs. Then he collapsed. Just before he went unconcious (sp?) he could see a guy standing over him, looking with an almost sickening smile down upon him. Then the man looked up the the mob that had followed Charger here.
'D,n.. w.r.y peo.le, we h.ve it .nd.er c.n..oll...'
It was the last Charger could hear before he passed out.

---

Meanwhile Kaira had ducked into the abandoned mine entrance and had been spying trough the holes. She saw how Charger disappeared into an alley and how the mob followed him in there. And as much as she wanted to follow him, she knew she couldn't.
After seeing nothing else after a few minutes, she started looking for another way out. Going out into the streets would mean getting shot or something. She saw nothing but darkness.
But... she did feel a draft coming from behind her. She sniffed around. Yea it was definatly fresh air, which had to mean there was another entrance somewhere.
Depending on her feline eye sight, she entered the shaft, looking around for another exit.

occ: I guess I always saw Art more like Jaws in James Bond. Almost to good but so unlucky you had to like him.


Pseok was slighlty annoyed by now. "Well then maybe it was a super powerful human from planet Oblarbar weakened by exposure to citrus fruits but still strong enough to take down a small elephant. Sure there's a lot to consider but lets not go crazy."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Elfair was taken by surprise as the tiger-man ran past but fortunately he didn't seem to notice her at all. He ran to an alley on the oposite side of the road and seconds later the hole mob came following. Thinking quickly she clutched at her face and dropped onto her knees, pretending to be hurt (or maybe drunk, she hadn't quite made up her mind).
The crowd passed her, to wrapped up in their anger to pay any attention to the injured, no, drunk (definately drunk, easier to ignore) girl moaning at the roadside.

In the alley people started shouting. She made out the words "Under Control," and risked uncovering her eyes and looking up. for a second before lowering her head she felt she saw someone looking in her direction. She quickly curled up again and heard the crowd cheering. Then someone else started shouting, though she couldn't make out the word over the noise of the crowd. There were footsteps running away and then a shadow came over her. She looked up between her fingers to see two men standing over her, one holding a gun.

She suddenly felt confined in the gloves and boots she wore. Knwong she was in danger and deep down feeling no choice but to defend herself, her hands went to the ground, muscles tense, she bared her teeth and hissed at the men standing over her. She leapt aside as the man fired his gun, springing forward with her arms and legs. The shot missed, but not a bullet, which puzzled some part of her deep down. She was on her feet now and twisted round to attack the men, jumping at them. Another shot fired with a quiet hiss (not like the bang of a bullet) and this time her luck failed.
A surge of numbing pain shot straight into her torso. shocked out of the leap she landed badly, twisting her ankle. Unconsciousness swept over her like a wave of sticky oil.
"Sh. w.s ..lp.ng th.. m.rder.r......" She heard a few broken voices crying out, and then nothing but silence.

Art and Dave rode out of town. There were a few more gunshots, and a few outbursts of cheering from the town behind them, but nothing more.
Dave was still sour at Art for his outburst. Art himself was feeling angry, but not much better. He hadn't meant to explode ... but he was glad he had given Dave a piece of his mind.
After several minutes of driving, getting more than halfway back to the camp, Art finally spoke up. "Look, kid ... Dave ... I didn't want to shout."
Dave rolled his eyes - this sounded like how his father might start an "apology."
Art didn't notice. "I just ... with Charger being injured, and now getting chased off by that mob ... I've traveled with Charger longer than you have, and I don't think you've noticed, but--"
"He's sort of the leader," Dave finished. "That's always been my understanding."
Art nodded. "Yeah. And now he's gone, and someone needs to shoulder the weight. Charger is the link holding all of us together. I don't know what to do about all this."
Dave was silent. He didn't really believe that Art felt bad about what he'd said. And he was right: Art just didn't want to have any bad feelings between the two of them.
They continued in silence.
---
Streak shook her head. "Okay, Pseok. Okay. But remember what you said about Fisher? He looks human, but I'd bet my freedom that he isn't."
Blaze was nodding. "And what if it was a were ... something? If it doesn't attack us again, we'll leave it alone."
Streak gave Blaze a look. "And if it does?"
Blaze thought for a moment. "Then we fight back. Maybe Art has some silver bullets."

Olivia watched as Dave and Art drove off, then, walking down the road until she was out of sight of anyone in town, she stopped and held out her hand. She smiled; she'd always wanted to try this one out...
A beam of brilliant white light shone forth from her hand, but stopped after just a few metres and stayed there, looking like some long white pole. Olivia took her hand away and watched as the "pole" gradually expanded until it was the size and shape of a small car. Then the "whiteness" faded, leaving a small, perfectly usable, black car on the roadside; lacking only licence plates. But she didn't care about trivial details like that, opening the door and turning the key that was already in the ignition, she started the engine and drove off after Dave and Art, taking care to stay far enough behind that they would be unable to see her but close enough that she could still sense where they were...

<•-•-•-•-•>

Slade made his way back to the top of the cliffs, followed by Daniel, and stopped at the top, overlooking Golden Valley once again. He stretched his arms out to the side and a blue aura of light seemed to appear about him.
He stood completely motionless, but for the slight movement of his hair every now and then as a breeze caught it...

Kaira made her way trough the mine shaft. Even with her feline eye sight she had trouble navigating trough the mine. More then once she had bumped into a wall or a wooden pillar.
As she went on she wondered if Charger was okay. She wondered what suddenly had happened and she wondered if going into the mine was such a good idea.
The draft w as getting stronger though, so she was definatly going somewhere. She only hoped that exit wouldn't get her into more trouble.

OOC: Uh, I've been away so logically i havent been able to reply... Now i finally have the time. So...

----

Akky focused on the guns, and he ran in the direction he sensed them. When he reached the town, he saw Charger and the rest, they were having trouble with a mob of angry people. Then to his joy, he Kaira left Dave and Art.
He followed them discretely, untill they got in a car.

"We are gonna have to use a car." Akky said, "unless you can run really fast."


----

"No one's watchi-" Krisha was about to say, when they got interupted by a distant scream.

"What's going on?" She asked and ran outside, towards the scream.

Then she saw what was going on, but they could only see charger and Kaira run off in the distance. It was too late to follow them. But Krisha thought she saw something familiar. A bit further away, she saw a Black cat and that weird guy they had met earlier.

"Kix is think you boyfriend is here... And he's taken a friend with him. Hmmm... Looks like they are following that car." Krisha said, and pointed at them.

"Oh? I dont have a boyfriend..." Kix said and looked in the direction Krisha was pointing at.

Then she saw who it was, and panicked. She quickly hid behind a bush. Krisha did the same.

"I wonder what they're up to..." Krisha said, "Lets follow them."

"Are you mad? I don't wanna confront him... I don't wanna see him." Kix said.

"You don't have to confront him, just follow him.... Don't worry he wont see us." Krisha said and suddenly turned invisible, "C'mon."

Krisha followed Akky and fisher. Kix didnt have a choice if she wanted to stay with Krisha. SHe had apparently made her mind, so she turned invisible and followed.

PSeok grinned. "Well she or it seemed pretty scared of fire so we'll just wave some burning torches around. Maybe you two would like to go into town and by some pitchforks?" He gave a now familiar face that was meant to be a grin only it was done with a beak. Then he looked up. "Hey, I hear a car, sounds like its coming this way. Maybe its the tiger bringing Charger and the humans back." He grinned again.

Dave and Art pulled up at the camp. They both got out of the car, and they were clearly both in sour moods.
Streak: "Where are Charger and Kaira? And where did you leave Kix and Krisha?"
Blaze stood. "Art, you didn't leave them in town, did you?"
Art sighed heavily. "Yeah. I did. I'm a totally irresponsible asshole. Cut the shit."
Blaze and Streak winced.
Dave: "Art, shut up." He turned to Blaze, Streak, and Pseok. "Guys, Charger's been taken by an angry mob. I think they're confusing him for someone else. I guess some monster's been running around killing the townfolk. Charger sent Kaira off to hide and sent me and Art back here. I haven't seen Kix or Krisha for a while."
He looked directly at Pseok. "Do you think you could go and fly over the town? You know, see what there is to see? Maybe find Kaira, Kix, and Krisha?"
---
Fisher looked down at Akky. "We don't need to drive. We don't even need to run. We'll wait here. They're bound to come back to the city sometime. So they'll pass by here again."
---
P.S. I was looking at my avatar and realized I have a huge nose. God damn.

Slade had been silent and motionless for some time when his glow suddenly disappeared and he opened his eyes.
"They're here - or not far from here. They appear to have a camp near the foot of these mountains."
Daniel looked up, "Well, if you're so keen to see them, why don't we go pay them a visit?"
Slade smiled, "Not just yet... I have something else I need to do... Come!"
The two vanished from sight...

<•-•-•-•-•>

Slade appeared in the passenger seat of Olivia's vehicle.
"Slow down and stop," he commanded. Olivia looked a little surprised, but obeyed his order. As they stopped, Daniel walked up to the driver's side door.
"Sorry, Spark," Slade started, "I've got a new job for you. We'll take the car, I want you to go immediately..."

<•-•-•-•-•>

Silvia followed the two cats again and looked when Krisha pointed out Akky and Fisher.
"Him again?" she exclaimed, then listening to what the cats said, "You know that guy?"
But the cats had already disappeared.
Right, she thought, this is weird. She decided to watch what happened, though, unlike the cats, she couldn't become invisible so she had to stay a discreet distance

The draft in the dark mine tunnel became more strong and fresh with each step Kaira took. She figured she was almost there, but then stumbled onto a pile of rubble.
'Aaaww...' she whimpered, and looked around to see if there was a place to get trough. The darkness didn't make that easy though. So with the help of her paws and her whiskers she tried to find an opening in the rubble. Eventualy she found a hole which she just managed to sqeeze trough, cutting her back in the process.
'Ouch,' she gasped as a small pain surge shot trough her body. She looked back to see how big the damage was, but couldn't quite make it out in the dark.
She decided to move on, and before long she felt the draft stronger and fresher then ever. Some faint light was shining from around a corner a while away. No doubt there was an exit there. She hurried over, only to find this side of the mine baricaded by wooden boards.
'Damnit!' she cursed, and tried to see yet again if there was a hole she could sqeeze trough somewhere. No such luck though, this entrance was well baricaded. For a second it looked like she had no choice but to go back.
But right as she was about to turn around, she heard some voices. If she didn't know better she'd say she heard her own name, and Charger's. She perked her ears and listnend in, then suddenly reconized one of the voices.
For a moment she smiled. It was that kid, whatshisname, Dave!
When they set up camp they had done it right around the corner of a mine shaft, which worked out well in this case.
'Guys!' Kaira then yelled from the shaft. 'Can someone give me a hand with these boards and let me out of here?!'

Blaze's head snapped around towards the voice. He wasn't sure at first ... but it sounded like Kaira.
Streak had heard it, too. "Come on," she said, motioning to the others.
She stood and moved in the direction of the voice. Blaze rose and followed. Art and Dave eyed each other, and Art went ahead. Dave stayed behind with Pseok.
Art caught up with Blaze and Streak. They found a line of boards on the ground. It was rather out of place.
Blaze crouched down and knocked. "Kaira? Is that you?"
Streak smacked the back of Blaze's head. "Of course it is! Art! Help him get these planks up."
Art got down and began to lift the boards off of the hole.
They were all relived to find that it was Kaira, safe and sound.
Streak: "How did you get down there?"

Kaira was relieved to see the boards being removed and having some more light fall into the mineshaft. With an elegant jump she leaped up the slightly steep ramp the led out the shaft and joined the others on the surface.
She looked at herself before answering, her beautifull white fur had dirty smudges everywhere, and the cut on her back had caused a nasty red bloodstain in her pelt, not to mention that it was still bleeding.
'Charger got chased off by a mob, I don't know why,' she sighed. 'He sent me off to hide in a mine. I followed the shaft, and now here I am.'
She looked around to Blaze and Streak, then to Art.
'Do you guys know what happened down there?'

ooc: sorry guys, I wrote a post yesterday but it got deleted.


Pseok, who'd been on the brink of taking off towards the town, stopped and edged over to where Kaira was emerging from the earth. "Well Blaze has lots of useful ideas. Anyway, I'll go have a look for Charger, it wouldn't be the first time I had to save that guy's life. Dave, you wanna come? Two pairs of eyes are better than one, even if one pair is pathetic hman eyes.

Dave glanced at Art, then looked at Pseok and nodded. He ignored the crack about sight - Dave thought he had pretty good vision for a human (had Art heard this thought, he might have snapped at Dave again).
He climbed onto Pseok's back so they could fly off.
Art, meanwhile, was answering Kaira. "All we know is that there were gunshots. Hopefully Charger isn't in any real danger ... but I doubt it. He's good at taking care of himself."
Blaze cast a glance at Art. "Kaira, Pseok and Dave were attacked last night. Pseok is confused about whether it's human or not. He said it looked human, but it was trying to bite and claw at him and stuff."
Art suddenly knew what it was. Back when he was still working for Macrina, his area of expertise had been hunting the paranormal and the bizzare.
"Has the idea of werewolf been given?"
Streak nodded. "We couldn't convince Pseok that it might have been. It looked far too human."
Art bowed his head. "Guys, chances are it's a Ware." {He went on to provide an explanation of what a Ware is, which we've already read when Splat posted it} "We don't have to go out and kill it, but if it comes after us, we should be ready."

P.S. Dammit! I'm a clakker miner! Wasn't I, like, a Mudokon Big Kahonee or something?

ooc: I miss the old titles, I'm too much of a fan of the classic OW games to appreciate these new ones. :(


Pseok had already taken off so missed most of Art's declaration. He turned towards the town and followed the road to the edge.
Where he suddenly wheeled round and stopped, looking at something below. "Hey, that's Fisher down there. And there's a cat with him, does it look like one of Charger's friends? His... people haven't ever seemed cautious about taking prisoners." If he hadn't had Dave on his back he might have had another attempt at attacking him.
Remembering why they were there he looked around. The mob had all but dissolved now so their wasn't anything to guide Pseok to his quarry. "i don't see Charger down there. Where abouts did he run to?"

Art: "Guys, chances are it's a Ware." {He went on to provide an explanation of what a Ware is, which we've already read when Splat posted it} "We don't have to go out and kill it, but if it comes after us, we should be ready"

Olivia's voice piped up, "You are correct; it was indeed a Ware."
She had appeared on a nearby rock while they had been busy discussing among themselves and was now sitting casually on the edge of it as if she'd always been there.
"But it won't be coming after you any time soon. It was caught and tranquilised, I understand, as was your tigery friend."

'Hey,' Kaira reacted fiercly when she saw Olivia. 'Who are you, how did you get here?'
But as she listnened to what she had to say, her attitude changed.
'Captured? Charger? No way! That can't be, can it?' she looked up to Art and Blaze a bit unsure. 'He's Charger... he can't be caught... he's almost invincible... he can't be caught, right?'
Her unsure tone slowly dripped away into sillent mumbles as she kept looking up to Blaze.

Blaze looked back down at Kaira, but he was as surprised as she was.
Art, eyeing Olivia suspiciously, spoke up. "I guess it is possible ... I mean, sure Charger's tough, but there were a LOT of people out there."
---
Dave: "Charger ran off towards the center of town after sending me away. If we get over the hospital --" he pointed so Pseok would know which building he meant "--I can lead you to it."
---
Down on the ground, Fisher had picked up on their presence. He looked straight up at Pseok, then down at Akky. "You. Stay here."
His face lifted back up to the sky, his eyes beginning to glow with a dull yellow light.
"Dave! You're mine!"
Fisher's coat appeared to erupt in black flames, and soon his entire body was covered. Within moments he was a phoenix of black flame, and flying directly up towards Pseok and Dave.

"WOW!" Kix accidently shouted when she saw Fisher turn into a black eagle.

Akky's attention immediatly turned against her direction. He scanned the whole are for Kix. She felt he could see her. Then it was like, their eyes met. He couldn't see her, but he could sence her. His eyes whent right through her.

"Kix? Where are you? Can he see you?" Krisha whispered.

Then she felt a paw touch her. It was Kix.

"I'm here... I think he can sence me..." Kix said.

"Well Maybe we should move, before we finds us or casts an anti invisibility spell..."

Kix sighed. Right now if she wanted, she could cast a lethal spell at Akky, but she wasnt like that. She knew it.

"I think we'd better help Pseok and Dave...." Kix said, as she saw the black phoenix follow them.

"Yea but how? We aren't birds you know..." Krisha answered.

"Hmmm I don't know..." Kix said, "Maybe she knows something."

Kix pointed at Silvia, but then remembered she was invisible.

"Uh..I Mean that girl we met earlier."

They both looked at her. She was discreetly trying to follow them, and well... She was quite good at it. They both ran over to her.

"Hi, pretend you don't hear us..." Krisha said, "Can you help us against that black phoenix in any way? Our friend up there is in danger, and we thought, since you're not the average human, you might be able to help."

'Hey,' Kaira reacted fiercly when she saw Olivia. 'Who are you, how did you get here?'

Olivia laughed, "Oh, how rude of me. My name is Olivia; how I got here is not important."

Art, eyeing Olivia suspiciously, spoke up. "I guess it is possible ... I mean, sure Charger's tough, but there were a LOT of people out there."

She shrugged, "I don't really care if you believe me or not, but if you want to help your friend at all, I don't think standing around here discussing whether it's possible or not is gonna help him much."

<•-•-•-•-•>

Silvia was startled as Fisher flew up in the air, then she heard the voice of one of those cats she had spoken with just before. She looked sharply in the direction it came from, but realised that she was still invisible.
"Well..." she spoke quietly, looking up at Pseok and Fisher rapidly closing the gap between them, "I don't know what I could really do to help..."
The words of Slade came back to her now as she watched helplessly from below...
"I'm giving you a choice. You can come with me, learn the arts of magic, and become as powerful as any of us here. Or, you can go on like you are now, a pathetic being with nothing but aimless wandering ahead of you.
She felt a sudden anger, she wasn't so helpless as all that! She glared up at Fisher, feeling the rage growing inside her. She glanced towards Pseok, and recalled their meeting in the forest. It hadn't been the most cordial meeting, but she couldn't really blame him given the circumstances. It certainly wasn't reason enough to neglect helping him now in any way she could.

Suddenly she felt something strange... some inexplicable connection to the eagle. A red glow started to surround her. She couldn't understand herself what was happening, but she managed to gasp out, "Keep back!" to the two cats, even though she couldn't see them. A red ring appeared surrounding her, gradually getting smaller and smaller until it came close enough to touch her. Then, in an instant, Silvia burst into flames! Fire burst out on both sides of the central flames in the shape of wings, then what looked like a golden beak emerged from the top of the fire. Two claws shot out from the bottom of the flames, and in a few seconds the transformation was complete; Silvia seemed to have transformed into a phoenix not unlike a smaller version of Pseok's own transformation. She couldn't understand what had just happened, but her fury at Fisher was enough to show her what to do next. With a shrill cry, the new phoenix flew upwards towards Fisher...

OOC: I hope nobody has any problem with this... If anyone, particularly Splat, does have a problem, tell me and I'll think of something else. If there's no problem, I will explain in later posts how this happened and why it was a phoenix, of all things...

OOC: NAh it's alright IMO...

Akky's attention got transferred to the new Phoenix.

"Damn! How many phoenixs ARE there??" he asked surprised, and then watched the eagle go for the black one.

Then he transformed into a red phoenix(OOC: LOL! I'm just Kidding XD...).
He watched intensly as the Phoenixes approached each other.

Kix and Krisha watched calmly.

"I hope she makes it... Pseok has no chance against a phoenix." Kix said worried.

ooc: Wahoo, I've started an army! Anyone else want to join? Brew Master? :p
I'm going to assume Fisher comes after Pseok and... Silvia after Fisher, it's all good.


Pseok turned towards the hospital Dave had pointed out and began drifting towards it, scanning the ground.

Sensing something coming towards him he reacted purely by intinct and turned into a dive, dodging Fisher's initial attack. Then he twisted around (possibly going upside down for a second. He didn't actually mean to if he did) and discovered what it was attacking him.
With surprising insight he glanced towards the ground and found Fisher had gone, and then turned back to his attacker.
It could have been his phoenix in opposite. Its feathers were as dark as Ettether's eyes and its eyes were bright and burning (oc; Don't know if that was intentional Dave, but very cool!) Instantly Pseok felt rage tingle across his body immediately followed by fear. He couldsn't fight this thing as he was and he couldn't change without killing Dave. Pseok had a distinct feeling that if he put Dave down neither of them would last long enough to beof any use.

Pseok and the dark phoenix dodged and weaved for a few seconds but Pseok knew he couldn't keep this up for very long. He lacked the agility he had when changed.

And then the smaller phoenix came shooting towards Fisher. Pseok didn't know if this was a friend or an enemy, but he didn't stick around to find out. He used the distraction and turned and flew away from the town, pushing himself to move as fast as he could.

EDIT:

He needed to get Dave to safety and out of Fisher's way long enough that he could change and hold him off while the human escaped. Fortunately he'd been near the edge of the town when he'd been escaped and he was quickly over open country and flying towards the mountain.

The thought suddenly struck him that he was leading the dark phoenix straight towards the others in the camp and he banked sharply off to the right, heading north.
He spotted a small lake in the river and a desperate idea battered its way into his head. "Hey, Dave! Can you swim? You're about to learn either way. When I yell, jump off of me. I'll hold off Fisher!"

There wasn't time to wait for an answer. He could almost sense the dark phoenix catching up to him. He pulled into a dive towards the lake: it was smaller than he would have liked; this was going to be close. "OK, JUMP!!!"

Dave quickly became nauseated from all the diving and turning. When the other phoenix - Christ, how many of these guys can there be? he thought - came barrelling towards them, and Pseok flew off, he had a few minutes to recover and reorient himself.
Hey, Dave! Can you swim? You're about to learn either way. When I yell, jump off of me. I'll hold off Fisher!
Dave hardly had any time to think about it. All he registered was that Pseok wanted him to jump into the water.
JUMP!
He didn't jump so much as tumble off of Pseok's back, as he hadn't had any time to prepare for a jump. Dave hit the water and sank for a bit, but soon got his bearings and began clumsily swimming to shore. Had he not been fully clothed, it would have been no trouble, but ... at least he was safe.

Fisher, meanwhile, was in a black fury. Somehow he had been ambushed! Not cool.
He whirled his attention upon the newcomer phoenix. In moments he registered that it was Silvia, one of Slade's minions.
Not quite, he amended. She doesn't work for Slade, but he wants her to.
He flew up and away from Silvia, not in an attempt to escape, but to gain some altitude for an effective dive. He should have planned better, he decided. For some reason, taking on this form had dampened his psychic ability, and so he couldn't just Move his opponent or Break her.
So it would be physical. Luckily, he seemed to be a bit faster than Silvia, and had enough time to fly high and go into a dive at her.

Dave was (reasonably) safe and Fisher was distracted with the smaller phoenix. Pseok was slightly disconcerted to find he no longer felt any urge to change. This was probably the second time when this had bothered him. If the dark phoenix's attention moved back to Dave he wouldn't be able to protect him, and this smaller bird (who was definately not on Fisher's side, whether or not it was helping Pseok was another matter) looked in need of some backup.

Throwing himself into danger didn't seem like a good idea. his changes had never been preictable and to throw himself into the line of that and find he still wasn't changing would probably end in something more than second degree burns.
He decided on a course of action and flapped around to move between the lake where Dave seemed to have forgotten what subtlety useually involved some subtlety, and Fisher above. That way he could protect Dave and if Fisher attacked the human he might be able to change.

OOC: I PMed Dave to see if we could sort this out in just a couple of posts instead of half a dozen, but he was kinda vague so I don't know for sure if this is alright with you, Dave, but since our online times are different, it'll take too long to discuss it furthur. I don't know what powers and stuff you intend for Fisher to have in this sort of situation, so if you've got a problem with this, you'll have to tell me afterwards :p

IC:

Silvia saw Fisher's move in time to calculate her next move... She waited until just the right moment... Now! She quickly darted sideways as Fisher came down, narrowly missing her and, because of his speed, carrying on downwards for a short distance before being able to change direction. As he leveled out and started to rise up towards her, she tried the same tactic as he had, going down into a steep dive towards him. Fisher, however, saw her coming and easily twirled and spun around her move, deliberately cutting in too close so he would hit her side-on on his way up. Silvia was knocked sideways by his attack, but she hardly felt it.

She quickly changed direction and started chasing him upwards, willing herself to move faster and catch up with him. As her speed increased, she caught up and crashed into him, sending him upward. But Fisher simply used this boost to give himself the necessary altitude above Silvia to execute another dive, this time looking out for any dodging she might attempt. Silvia tried to evade his dive the same way she had before, but he was too swift. Hurtling downwards at a tremendous speed, he scraped the side of her as she attempted to get out of the way and sent her tumbling ungracefully for a few seconds before she managed to right herself. As he turned and tried to charge straight at her while she was off balance, she quickly flew upwards and reached out with her phoenix claws as he shot underneath her. She managed to grab onto him with one claw, while with the other she struck and swiped repeatedly at him as much as possible.

Fisher instantly went into a series of dives and twists and turns to get her off, and although she clung on desperately, it wasn't long before he escaped and flew off ahead of her.
Silvia hovered uncertainly for a few seconds, this battle was certainly taking its toll on her! But, realising that Fisher was once again charging straight at her, she attempted another upwards dodge, but this time Fisher quickly swung towards her and crashed into her from below. Silvia went tumbling upwards, but Fisher, now completely on the offensive, flew up past her and, grabbing her on the way, threw her down towards the ground. As the firey mass that was Silvia's phoenix form fell slowly downwards, Fisher climbed high, ready to perform another dive on her, one that she now had no hope of evading...

OOC: Dun dun DUN! :p I'll leave it to Dave to decide a) If this is a suitable battle for them, and b) what Fisher's next move is if so....

OOC: Dun dun DUN indeed! This is fine, no worries. Now it's up to you to decide if what I do is unfair.

Fisher could tell that Silvia was wearing out. One final dive in would probably seal the deal. He didn't know if he wanted to kill her, but he needed her incapacitated.
Fisher decided. He began a dive ... but not at Silvia's falling form. She hit the ground far before he landed.
Fisher touched the ground. The flames on his body seemed to die down, and soon he was back in his humanshape form. Within moments, he had used his power to force Silvia back into her own natural state. She lay panting heavily on the ground.
Fisher: "Little bird, little bird, how you vex me so..."
He saw fear in her eyes, but she was still far to drained to move.
Fisher smiled. He raised a finger to his lips and shushed her. "Relax. I won't be the one to still your heart. Somehow I don't imagine Mr. Slade would be grateful to me."
Silvia didn't look comforted. She was, in fact, trying to stand up.
Fisher raised a hand, as if to say Stop it. "But. Since I can't have you following me, either ...."
Silvia felt a blunt pain in the back of her head and lost consciousness.
This problem solved, Fisher looked back to the sky for signs of Pseok. He saw the great bird flying in a low circle not far to the west. He was likely guarding the boy.
Fisher grinned. His dark phoenix had nearly been overpowered by a smaller bird ... so he thought perhaps ...
Fisher's coat opened and appeared to flap behind him like great, leatery wings. His face scrunched up and a dark aura surrounded him. In a matter of seconds he had transformed into a Great Bat. He was flying with eerie speed towards Pseok.
---
Art looked back at Olivia. "Alright. What do you propose we do about it, O Wise One?"
Blaze shot Art a nasty look, then turned to apologize to Olivia. "Sorry. Art is out of sorts because he's lost one of his guns."
At this point, unknown to anyone, a box of bullets disappeared from one of Art's many pockets.
---
Dave reached the shore, and realized he'd been making a lot of noise. Not cool. And on top of that, his clothes were soaked. And on top of that, he still had Art's gun. Which had gotten soaked when he fell into the water.
"Dammit!" he couldn't help but shout. He didn't know much about guns, but he did know that if you got bullets wet, they were almost certain never to fire again. He worked the chamber open and dumped out the six useless shots. He sighed. At least the gun isn't ruined, he thought. Art would probably kill me. Damn, could I use some fresh bullets.
As Dave thought it, a small white box appeared about two feet to his right. There was nothing flashy about it, the box was just there, as though it always had been, and Dave had just now noticed it.
Dave didn't reach for the box right away. Instead, he looked around, to see if anyone could have dropped it. He couldn't help it - human nature. He soon realized no one could have just dropped it, that it was probably there for a while.
Dave reached out for the box and opened it. Inside were twenty fresh bullets.
Dave rolled his eyes. With his luck they probably weren't even the right kind for his gun.
But ...
He plucked one out and slipped it easily into the chamber. It fit like a dream.
"No shit," was all Dave could say. He started grinning. He remembered too well how scared of this gun Fisher had been.
He suddenly had an idea. Dave wanted to wave Pseok down to tell him about it, but there was no time. He saw a great black bat in the distance, flying towards Pseok rather quickly.
Dave steeled himself to shoot ... then remembered that the gun wouldn't fire until it had been thoroughly cleaned. It had, after all, just been completely submerged.
Shit! I need a clean gun!
---
"That's not why I'm upset!" Art was moaning. "That idiot kid has just got me in a funk, is all."
"Well, you need to calm down. Finding Charger is everyone's priority right now," Streak said. "So forget about Dave for a while. You still have your other gun."
Art grimmaced, then went to draw it. It was there for a moment, but as he grasped it ... it just wasn't.
Art wailed. "THE ****!!!???"
---
A gun landed in the dirt near Dave's feet. It looked fine.
Under ordinary circumstances, Dave would have questioned something like this, but this was far from ordinary. He grabbed the gun and quickly checked to see if it was loaded. It was.
He looked up and saw the bat closing the distance between itself and Pseok...

ooc: Another call to say is this ok Dave. We've had a lot of those recently :p


Pseok had winced as the smaller phoenix had gone wheeling towards the ground, followed shortly by a slowly decending shadow.

Pseok was already getting the idea that Fiser could see other people's thoughts, as he'd long ago felt the man who'd held him prisoner could do. So he was somewhat cautious now. But as Fisher had himself realised, his powers were weakened when he wasn't in his human body.

So while Pseok was hoping he would be too intent on attacking him to realise Pseok was closely watching the reflection of the giant bat in the pool below as it came towards him (he hadn't noticed Dave's adventures) he was actually rather close to the truth.

Whether Fisher realised his mistake as he drew too close to Pseok to change his course or not was never really that important. Pseok lunged down and too the side, twisted ungracefully round to face his attacker and lunged at him in a viscious counter attack. His claws met their desired target and he sliced into the bat's left wing, effectively disabling it, and flapped underneath it. Nothing he'd ever met could fly one winged!