Northern Winds [NC-17] (IC)

[Stygian]

Cogidubnus' attack was quicker and more well thought through than an untrained mind could have picked up in such a short time. It took more than a second before the walrus began shouting, calling out to them and telling his companion to call the guard. Before that though, Ace had already snatched the hat out of the air, and two heavy impacts rocked the wolf's hands as he struck. Not the visceral slicing of flesh. That was not good.
   'Way to greet a lady, innit?!' Ace snarled. Metal hinted through the holes sliced in her coat, wrapped tight around her forearms and scarred where she had deflected the blows. She was up in Cog's face in a flash, pushing him back with a fearsome strength that he simply could not have expected from a woman a full hand shorter than himself. Grinning, she slammed him tight against the counter, pinning him with his blade against his chest and the surprising weight of her body against him. 'I don't think we've made our introductions. My name's Ace. Ace of blades.' A slight ringing tone preceded the arrival of a long throwing knife into the wolfess' left hand, which she raised to Cog's face. 'Nice coat, by the way.'
   There was the sound of the chambering of a shotgun. His face a thunderhead, the walrus pointed a rather menacing twelve-gauge at the both of them, sighting down the barrel. 'Get the hell out of here', he growled. 'You want to fight, do it in the street. I'm sure the guards will appreciate, and you won't be breaking anything in my shop. I have a good mind not to sell you that car now either', he added with a look to Cog.
   'Oh, don't worry. We were just leaving', Ace grinned, her steady gaze firmly locked with the other wolf''s.

[Cogidubnus]

 The owner's shotgun worried Cogidubnus only marginally more than the long knife currently hovering in front of his face. The Walrus was just looking out for his property, and was likely more than a little disturbed by this sudden turn of events, which in some ways was more dangerous than the calculated threat the smaller wolf was presenting him.
Her strength acted as a surprising foil to his speed. He wouldn't have expected her to not only be able to stop a blow, but push it and the wolf all the way back into the counter. Her yellow eyes drilled into his, an exultant grin on her face as she pressed him into the counter.

Cogidubnus's face, by comparison, was blank, a smooth slate, simply a pair of shaded glass eyes and an indifferent expression. While the shopkeeper yelled and fumed, the wolf shifted one foot. As the other wolf opened her mouth to speak, grinning fiercely, her grip on the larger wolf suddenly vanished, somehow pushed back by just inches, and Cogidubnus shifted his weight to the side, leveraging off his foot and moving. His right hand snapped up, too fast to see, and grabbed her wrist, yanking it forward while his head and body moved to the side. The sword slid and shifted, the pinned blade sliding horizontally and then couching against his forearm.
All in a fraction of a moment.

The sword glittered, the light sparkling off the edge while he maneuvered the lupine juggernaut between him and the shotgun toting Walrus, and redirecting her force to the side of him, stabbed at her face, her sudden forward momentum used against her.
Somewhere, something exploded. From out of nowhere, like a bomb going off inside the building, the sound of thunder echoed through loud enough to leave ears ringing, and seemingly loud enough to wake the dead.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya had just come out of the shop behind Mel, when a loud rumble echoed along the street. She flinched slightly and flattened her ears. "Is that thunder...?"

[Stygian]

The wolf's weight acted against her, but her balance was impeccable, and she managed to turn together with Cog even as she was forced to catch herself against the counter, her free hand reaching after the wolf to grab him once more. Her reward though, was a swift stab to the face, which she only barely managed to turn, the blade slicing upward over her cheek, making a deep flesh wound. Lashing out, she knocked the other wolf back, Cogidubnus lifting from the floor from a one-armed strike and being knocked painfully into a shelf, his back immediately the subject of stabbing prods from several iron hangers.
   'Argh...! Strike that then...!' Ace fumed, grabbing her face for barely a second, before flashing out a whole set of knives in that hand, three of them held between her fingers. The walrus, who had practically leapt back to get out of things raised his shotgun once more, and things looked to be taking a very bad ending. Then, the door to the shop opened with a clink from the bell again, and someone stepped in. There was a slight pause.
   'Is this a bad time?' Stygian said, his face bearing an almost boorish expression, but his eyes glinting with focus. Ace's eyes flashed, and she paled visibly. Then, the door opened yet again. The bat began turning.
   'Ace, I think I saw tha- HOLY GODS FUCK!' Carey shouted, jumping on the spot, his shock at Stygian's proximity showing quite clearly. The bat himself tried to interject, raising a hand, but before anyone else could do more than twitch, the otter had embedded a knife in his ribcage. Again, there was a moment's pause, the bat looking down, and then up at Carey with an indignant glare.
   'Ow!' he snarled. 'My fucking coat!'

[Cogidubnus]

Being launched through the air was also not something Cogidubnus had expected. He slammed painfully into a wall, the contents of the shelf and the iron hangers sticking out of it prodding painfully into his back before the swordsman dropped back onto the floor in an undignified pile. He sucked in a breath between his teeth, and shifted quickly to his feet, prepared to dodge thrown knives or whatever else the walking arsenal would throw at him.
The doorbell clinked. Cog's attention shifted to the side for a fraction of a second as Stygian walked in.

He'd rather hoped that the loud thunder sound would have spooked the Walrus into firing right then, but the man had a better grip on his nerves than Cog gave him credit for. The bat's appearance, however, seemed to have unnerved the smaller wolf. Cog took the opportunity to reach into his jacket, grabbing something.
Multiple lights suddenly flared all around the wolf, lights blinking on and then off at various points on the wolf's body. His appearance blurred for a moment, smudging, and then cleared up as the lights faded. His sword, however, began to smoke just slightly, a light fog pouring off the blade.

Although she'd knocked him away, Cog had no desire to close to melee distance again either. His hand emerged from his coat pocket, a small golden coin contained between two fingers, and standing up quickly the wolf reared back with one hand as though he was going to punch the air in front of him. As he did so, however, his hand slowed for just a moment, fighting some sort of resistance at the zenith of the punch, and then breaking through with a roar. A violent wave of force erupted from the wolf's fist, carrying the small coin at the apex of the wave.
Before it reached the smaller wolf, however, it exploded like a second sun in the room, blindingly bright as it rushed for the Ace of Blades.

[Stygian]

The blinding flash turned the world into a bright, agony-white slate, and Cog heard screams, first from Stygian, then from Carey. Barely an eyeblink passed, and then he heard the blast of the shotgun, painful to his ears that close and in a sealed space, and the shatter of glass. Another blast, and he felt his face sting.
   'You stupid piece of hairy...!' Stygian's voice called out, part-choked and more rasping than ever, before a crash was heard. Carey flew into a shelf and across the room, and a gray blur that was Ace had already dodged on pure reflex and instinct in something close to the opposite direction. The walrus was screaming profanities, Ace had meat cleaver-esque knives in each hand and was tense as a violin string, staring around blindly, and Stygian was pressed up against a wall, holding his face, snarling ferociously, groping for the door.
   Obviously, the gunshot was not hard to hear, even through the commotion and the passing of some engined craft down a lower street. People turned, looking around worriedly, while a guard standing by a corner and a couple of merchant's strongarms behind Deirdre and Gareeku reached for their weapons, grabbing them tightly but not drawing as they looked over their heads from atop some stairs. Glass splintered and people immediately shouted and parted around the front of a shop.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel had heard the thunder as well. "Not natural. I hope it is someone experimenting and not a nearby fight." But her hope was in vain as two shotgun blasts directly followed. It seemed to be coming from the next terrace up. There was a steep enough grade that you could just get glimpses of the street and shops above between the buildings. Then the glass exploded outward from one window. With her excellent distance vision the dragon could read the name of the shop Surplus Army Supply and Depot and Used Car Sales. Sounded like a good place to find camping supplies, like the backpacks Cog had been sent to find. "Do any of you know where the others went?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha hummed to herself as she leaned against the wall of the shop, waiting for the others and watching Dierdre and Gareeku conversing.  It wasn't a moment later before a black swan, whom she remembered as Mel, came walking out of the door of the shop.  Kerya had to be in there somewhere too.

The panthress looked down at her bag, which she noticed was still unopened.  Despite the invitation to grab their first-aid kits, nobody yet seemed to notice when she came back from getting them.  Well, maybe when we're all together again, she shrugged and pushed her sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose.  So long as things were going smoothly, there wouldn't be a problem...

And then came the explosions.  A sound like thunder, or an earthquake, or both, that roared over the heads of the crowds without the distinct feeling of being shaken.  And then, the explosive roar that Aisha hated ringing in her ears no matter how much the distance; that could only be gunshots.

Kicking away from the wall, she noticed that behind the group there were a few other people getting out their own weapons, as if they were ready for such a thing.  The crowd were either walking or trotting away, and there were even screams one terrace up and far enough away to barely see, but definitely hear.

Her ears flattened.  They weren't even together again yet, and already something was wrong?!

Mel noticed it too, and Aisha followed her gaze while she listened to her question.  "I don't want to make guesses, amiga, but I did see the bat heading in that direction."  Her crimson eyes narrowed, and she had to resist the urge to go for her sword in the middle of the public as the noise seemed to only persist.  "And if he and the missing people of ours are responsible for that, again, I swear to the friggin' gods that I'll consider just walking away from all of this crap, right after I take their heads off."

The annoyed jaguar didn't know whether or not to go and investigate.  Here they were in a new city, a familiar city to a few...it was in their best interest not to be associated with more trouble while they were on the run...

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Something akin to juvenile glee flashed in the back of Keaton's eyes as she watched Mel confirm her ridiculously large purchase. Swiveling a little on her heels, she bounced to and fro on the balls of her feet, her arms folded jauntily behind her back and a slight smile on her face, as though she was a child awaiting, with deliberately good behavior, the delivery of a new toy into her anticipative arms. Because she partially felt obligated, Keaton - slight reluctance added - hesitantly interjected with a pleasant "Thank you" to Mel, self-consciously unfolding her arms and stretching them outward, flexing the sinewy muscle. Almost as though she wanted to eliminate the mental image of childishness by blatantly demonstrating her physique.

Before she could say anything to start, in her opinion, any attempts at pleasant conversation, a loud, thunderous bang rang out over the air outside of the shop. Keaton froze in place, her right ear pivoting upright and her head swinging in the direction of where the sound originated, a look of stunned shock plastered on her face. Mel was already moving out of the door, and, without many other options, Keaton cursed loudly and broke into a run, elbowing open the door, which yielded with a perfunctory jingle of the bell poised over its edge. The pain flaring in her elbow from slamming against the heavy door instantly made her regret that decision, but before Keaton could express her remorse through a number of one-syllable words, she forced her body into motion, hoping no one had saw that.

---

...Deirdre and Keaton:

Just before Deirdre could continue her and Gareeku's conversation, she heard an explosive noise erupt from one of the stores. People were already going on the offensive, unloading their weapons and glaring for the offender, and Deirdre, victim to the impulses an Adventurer picks up after a long and prosperous career, followed suit, drawing her sword in an elegant motion. Shortly following this explosion was a spectacular flash of light emitting from a nearby store, its lustrous rays shooting helter-skelter as the glass of the windows ballooned, and then ruptured in a spray of shards. Each and every individual chunk of glass, after its brief propulsion, clattered and splattered unceremoniously along the pavement. Deirdre stared in resolute horror at the bent and bruised frames of the windows, the eviscerated glass stripped away to permit her a peek within, one which she sincerely regretted, as she forced herself to recoil when her oversensitive eyes burned. Inside the store, she could still see some vestigial traces of concentrated light retreating into its heart, and could still hear vehement cursing, caterwauling. If she was a Cubi she would have been getting a migraine off of the different flavors of emotions issuing from the fiasco.

It reminded Deirdre of what it would have been like if God condensed the sun into a dwarfish orb and dropped it in the middle of a madhouse, then casually rested on the sidelines and watched the insanity deteriorate.

Deirdre instantly summarized her interpretation of the events in her head and translated all her agitation into her expression. Her ears laid back, and her beak twisted in an angry sneer, parting generously enough to allow her to utter, "Those stupid twats," under her breath, an unusually "loquacious" statement given her usually agreeable disposition.

Almost as though that was a trigger, Keaton came stumbling to a halt at a disquietingly close proximity to Deirdre - the obnoxious hammering of those absurdly heavy boots against the pavement was almost signature of her by now. Deirdre remembered using that to find her, once, but memories like that were irrelevant. Keaton was tugging and fidgeting with the band fastening the studded, obsidian knuckle-plate to the gauntlet strapped to her left arm. She looked, amidst those compulsory reactions, quite disturbed, or worried about the commotion.

"What's going on?" Keaton asked, for once devoid of any disrespect or patronizing comments. Deirdre found this absence especially remarkable, but wasn't about to congratulate Keaton on learning some manners.

Deirdre, in a foul mood, retorted in a manner she thought was appropriate. "I don't know. One of your friends must be fucking this up, due to their uncanny ability to set things on fi--HEY, WHAT ARE YOU--"

As Deirdre was speaking, a strange transition took place. At the word "friends" Keaton's face contorted into one of grotesque concern, and as Deirdre progressed with her tirade she took one look at the decimated store and charged, obviously able to attribute its state of dilapidation to the mistakes of her comrades. Bounding forward, Keaton swung one of her gauntlet-clad fists around and swatted a stray dagger of glass impeding her aside like a pesky weed, her spike-mounted knuckles decapitating that refined, pointed chunk of detritus. With another kick Keaton slammed her heel to the window frame, using it as support, and craned her body upward in a show of agility, peering inside.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gareeku]

Having observed Deirdre's response to his introduction, Gareeku was somewhat taken aback at the woman's enthusiasm. Before he could respond, however, the wolf look to where a commotion was stemming from, catching the sounds of gunshots.

"Oh for fucks sake..." Gareeku snarled, furious at the fact that the effort to try and remain unnoticed had been and truly shot down in flames. Again. "Those stupid fucking idiots!"

Turning to the others, the wolf motioned in the direction of where the noises of gunfire where being heard from.
"So...any ideas on how to solve the problem those idiots have caused this time?" Gareeku asked, growls of anger well and truly present in his voice as he spoke. "Because I swear to the heavens above; if people start killing for no reason like they did last time, I'm out of here."

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya flinched again at the sound of the gunshots from somewhere not too far away. These sounded a lot louder and more powerful than the small weapons the guards had fired at them during the chaos in the club last night. The reactions of the others only confirmed her suspicion that something else had gone wrong. "Oh, shave it, not again..." she muttered. Then she turned towards the black swan again, holding out her shopping bag. "Mel, can you make this go wherever your own bags went, at least until we are finished here? If we are about to become busy again, I cannot carry it around, and it would be an annoyance to lose some of this."

[Cogidubnus]

 Sunglasses, while being intimidating and stylish, also provided the distinct advantage of letting the wolf not be blinded by his own attacks. Wincing just a bit as pellets from the walrus's shotgun blast pattered off the cling-wrap shield his charm had conjured, the wolf whispered under his breath and gestured sharply at Ace, his hands crooking into a claw as she stared around blindly. White sparks fell from his fingertips as he spoke, growing in number and intensity, until with another surprisingly bright flash a blue-white bolt of lightning arced violently for the armored wolf in a stream as thick as his arm.

[Stygian]

Taking his glasses off and tumbling out the door, leaning on the wall for support, Stygian leaned over and rubbed his eyes hard, growling in a deep rumble almost under his breath. His eyes stung and his ears still rang too much for him to effectively hear his way forward. Unlike what others would say, he was lost in the light, not in the dark. Sunglasses might have protected Cog, or possibly some sort of ward. Or he might have simply closed his eyes. With his disposition though, Stygian was not so lucky.
   'Oh my g-...' he heard a woman's voice, and he realized quite quickly that Carey's knife was still sticking through his ribs, buried right next to his sixth vertebra and shoved in halfway to the hilt. He heard an approaching step, looked up reflexively even though everything was still a white blur, then heard her flinch to a stop, gasp, and then turn and rush away. Digging his claws into the wall, he gritted his teeth, and reached around his back.
   Down the street, two Guards dressed in sharp, reinforced uniforms called in, then wrapped their hands around the handles of their weapons, one a revolver and the other a sword, and began running up the street while dodging the crowd as well as they could and shouting for people to clear the way.

- -

Her fur rose, static charging the air and metal objects around reacting with near-inaudible buzzes or clinks, and Ace looked ready to dodge immediately. If there was ever a greater virtue to lightning magic than its speed though, it did not receive due credit. The charged, sizzling stream tore through the air with a great, skull-grating, hard sound, and impacted with the wolfess' torso. She shuddered, took a step back, and stopped. She blinked. Sparks still coruscated around her, but she seemed unaffected. Cog thought that he could see a hint of something glowing within the collar of her undershirt, up the side of her neck. It was just a glimpse though, one swiftly cut off as she turned her head and a sliver of hair and her chin came in the way, as she narrowed her eyes, and found him with her gaze once more.
   'Useless!' she spat, grinning. And then, still sizzling, she leaped at him, blades swinging for his elbows and knees.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Kerya's packages disappeared with little more than a glance from Mel. Then she was following Keaton's path up the street to the shattered storefront. The symbols on her mage robes began faintly glowing a pale blue as she got closer to the source of the sound of fighting. When the guards ran past she slowed her pace and tried to look like an average nosy bystander.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya nodded her thanks to Mel as her by now large, heavy and awkward shopping bag vanished. The next time, though, she wanted to have a closer look at that spell as it was being cast. If it did what she thought, it would be very useful to her.

For the present, though, the little stoat had other concerns. If Sebastian and Cogidubnus had run into trouble, they might need help. As she hurried to catch up with Mel and Keaton, she ran through a list in her mind of a few spells she might need, readying them for instant use. A faint glow ran up her staff from bottom to top, and sparks danced for a moment along the clawtips of her free hand. Whatever was happening up ahead, she was ready for it.

As Kerya looked about, she noticed a number of other people, armed and with the look of guards about them, also heading towards the disturbance, against the flow of not yet panicked but definitely worried passers-by beginning to hurry away. That made her a little more anxious: the last thing she wanted was a misunderstanding with the local authorities.

[Boog]

There was a commotion, and furrae nature was a potent master when it came to commotions. Unlike sensible, sane, nonsentient creatures, a furrae would run TOWARD a commotion to find out what it was. Richard was swept along with Kerya and the rest of the others on the basis that if you're going to be an innocent bystander you'd better be the fastest, most efficient and all around best innocent bystander you can be. On the day undead were called upon to rubberneck for the olympics, Richard Trochoufski would heed the call and bring honor to his acquired race. Gradually he noticed things while en route to the scene of the Event though. Like recogniseable shouts. And smashing noises. And approaching police officers.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until he reached the edge of the frightened crowd and saw it himself. Yep. His teammates in there. The zombie froze in place.
...
"Awwwwwww FUCK!"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha was just about as ticked as the rest of the group, if not more so...here she thought they had escaped any sort of trouble...

Of course, it was easy to see that they all felt that way.  Soon enough, Keaton had bounded away up down the street and over to the building to see what was going on...followed by Mel, Kerya, and just then, Richard...all of them getting caught up in the crowd of bystanders that would more than likely get hurt.  The only ones that she didn't see leave were Dierdre and Gareeku, but it was hard to pay attention to anything when something like this was going on.

"Guys...mierda, muchachos, wait a second!" she growled, trying to get one of them...but her voice was lost.  There was just no stopping them running towards the commotion.

She leaned against the wall of the shop for a moment, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes through the underside of her sunglasses.  Dammit all, I HATE being chased after.  I'm gonna kill whoever's responsible for all this.  Even if they're on our own team, if it's who I think it is.

"Whoever else wants to go after them, be my guest," she muttered.  "I'm staying out of the fire, unless someone's gonna force me."

[Cogidubnus]

 The iaidouka remembered the smaller wolf's strength well, and wasn't eager to close the distance between either of them that quickly. Bringing his sword up over his head, his feet moved to prepare a sidestep and angular slash. At the last moment, however, the wolf's left hand came down and bunched into a fist again, the wolf rearing back and twisting with his hips before again punching the air. Distortion flowed over him with a roar, another wave of force clawing forward to slam into the charging wolf, while his sword came down into a lower defensive posture, prepared to block the swipe for his elbows as he moved to the side, his foot ready to crash down on her lower-arcing blade.
The wolf kept his awareness keen, his ears perked for the sound of any movement around him, and he made sure his eyes weren't only locked on his opponent, staring through her into the surroundings. The walrus had been quiet, Laertes was nowhere to be seen, and he seemed to remember one other person in the garage too - assuming he had run might not be the wisest course of action either.

[Stygian]

Sparks flew as the strange shockwave slammed into the wolfess. Yet if Cog had been aiming to push back Ace, he only succeeded in moderation. She was slowed, her swiping blades going off course, yet she quickly caught Cog's foot coming down on her wrist. She didn't manage to avoid the strike, but instead of going for his elbows, she tumbled down and forward, under his guard, letting her free knife bite into the leg he was placing his weight on. It was an awkward and cheap strike, but better than any alternative. Underneath the other wolf now, nearly on her back, she took what next shot she could. Kicking upward, a foot weighing like his entire torso hit Cogidubnus in the stomach, and he was catapulted through the window out onto the glass-covered street, right in front of a very surprised and shocked Kerya.
   The wolfess had only the time to smile and get up again, before a shotgun blast hit her leg, cloth ripping away and a few sparks striking up as the pellets hit solid metal.
   'Get out! Get out you bastards!'

- -

Still rubbing his eyes, Stygian backed up against the nearest wall, feeling his way forth. His sight was slowly returning, though the daylight was certainly not helping. Seeking the shade of the front of the shops and the nearest alley, he tugged at the knife with some trouble. It was a rather large hunting blade, with serrations and hooks along the back edge, making it both painful and hard to remove. He heard the shopkeeper cry out from behind, and strangely, Richard's gravelly voice especially as it cut through the commotion with his last exclamation. He had to go back there, and set things straight, or they might all...
   'Allow me to help you with that.'
   The bat recognized the voice, but half a second too late. He let out a breathless rasp, as the knife in his back was twisted around hard, and pulled out, leaving a considerable hole. Twisting, he struck out, claws already turning to knife-like blades. But before he could do much of anything, he received a screaming blast of light to his face that smashed him right into a crate in the mentioned alley. With the bat out of commission, Laertes chuckled, and proceeded toward the front of the shop, where conveniently his next prey had been laid out for him.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The dragon's first reaction at the sight of injured Cog at her feet and the singing loony from the bar coming at them was to step between them. But the sight of at least two uniformed officers forcing their way through the crowd short-circuited that instinct. "Kerya, Richard. Run! Tell Aisha and Gar that there is trouble."  Moving quickly she pulled something from her bag and tossed it at Kerya's head. A clockwork butterfly fluttered between them and settled into the stoat's hair like a jeweled barrette. Mel had made the toy herself and knew that enough of her magic was on it that she would be able to locate Kerya if the rest of the party didn't get too far away. Her appearance changed at the same time; her robes returned to their original rich appearance while her black swan visage became older and a bit stooped. One of the shopping baskets reappeared in her arms. Mel was now a rich, elderly tourist, too shocked at the sudden violence to get out of the way of it. If she was lucky the nice young officers might even find the poor frightened grandmother a nice seat to sit on while she recovered her wits and she would be able to see everything that happened to Cog, the unfortunately in the middle of the scene Keaton, and hopefully Ignatz if he was nearby. If she wasn't lucky she was betting that street officers didn't carry anti-magic charms strong enough to keep her from teleporting away.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya ran up to the wrecked shopfront just in time to hear another loud detonation from inside, and a few seconds later she chittered with surprise as Cogidubnus came flying out through the shattered window to land in a heap almost at her feet. Before she could rush forward to see if the wolf was all right, Mel told her to run and tossed something into her hair. The little stoat could feel a hint of magic coming from the glittering toy, and thought she knew what the swan was doing. A determined look flashed across her face for a moment, and she did appear to start running back down the road...

... straight into an iridescently glowing sphere of light that suddenly appeared in front of her. Nothing came out the other side, then the sphere vanished. The same patch of nothing-at-all-there moved towards Richard, with a faint sound of pattering footsteps. One of the Undead's jacket pockets opened briefly. The sound of footsteps, rapidly fading away to nothing, moved off to one side, possibly towards the shelter of a doorway. There might have been a hint of magic in the air, as if someone had performed a spell there a short time before, then even that faded away. A trace of mustelid scent lingered for a few more seconds.

But of course, there was nothing there.

[Cogidubnus]

Charms of protection were valuable things indeed.

The wolf hadn't forgotten about the smaller wolf's insane strength, but his precautions didn't seem to have helped him any. No-one in his two-hundred years had ever simply charged through one of his force-waves - he could bring down a wall with one, and she'd only been momentarily slowed.
Prodigious strength.

This knowledge, however helped him none as he sailed through the air and then through a nearby window, shattering the glass and crunching the shards on the cling-wrap shield his charm afforded. He lay there for a moment, dazed, and pushed himself up quickly. An elderly black swan was trying desperately to get away from the alley - and moment's hesitation, and the scent confirmed it to be Mel, slightly changed. His eyes stared past the swan at the police gathered around the entrance, and the wolf scowled.
He pushed himself the rest of the way off the ground, sheathing the sword lightning-quick. His hat was still missing, and with another moment his coat was too, nudged into the gutter, and moving at a walking pace, the wolf began to carefully and casually walk the opposite way down the alley.
His countenance changed fast, his features turning into a smudge, and seconds later replaced by a smooth-skinned human.

[Stygian]

It was too late for any sort of retraction or rectifying effort. Laertes saw the wolf as he lay on the ground, saw him get up and rush off, and proceeded to stalk after him. He was intercepted though, by both the crowd, and the shout from behind.
   'Get your hands up, and walk toward the wall!' The guard had his pistol, a simple but effective, high-powered revolver, trained for the jackal's torso. His companion, his sword still drawn, tugged at a radio, while casting suspicious glances back toward the alley next to the shop.
   'Central, this is beta five. We have a probable two-one-one and a five-three-one with multiple suspects on the upper middle of Highwalk, suspect one is a tall, red-coated male...' the shorter, stockier swordsman spoke as quickly and clearly as he could, eyes shifting.
   'Get your hands up!' the gunman shouted again, even more anger entering his voice. Laertes, turning slowly, gave him a boorish glance, beginning to raise his hands.
   'Also, one wounded civilian, possibly a one-eight-seven. Taking male melanoid jackal suspect into custody. Others appear to be Creatures; requesting aid. Repeat, requesting a restraining squad...'
   'Walk toward the wall! You!'
   The gunman's aim shifted for a moment as he walked toward the tall jackal, as he watched a coated figure drag a staggering man out of the door of the shop, and advance on the both policemen very quickly. Looking over his shoulder, Laertes could only frown. But even as the officer failed to take his shot, and his sword-bearing companion raised his weapon, dropping the radio and readying some kind of spell, they were as good as dealt with. Stepping to the side, Ace swept her arm out in a bone-crunching blow that turned the side of the badger's ribcage to splinters, killing him and sending him flying back toward his companion. Dropping Carey, who managed to catch his feet, she ignored Laertes' snarling protest, and seized the opportunity. The gunman got one shot off. Then his hand was crushed around the grip of his pistol, and his jaw and neck broken. Not missing a beat, the wolf turned, and began running.
   'Well that was bloody flaming unnecessary!' Laertes growled, nevertheless tugging along the otter who was clutching his side. There was no question of stopping. There would be people coming. They would be fortunate to get away in the first place. And their prey was on the move and warned now, though they would be...
   The realization that the bat was still laying right behind them and vulnerable made Laertes grunt, and almost spin around on the spot. Instead, he clenched his teeth, and merely growled with frustration, setting off even faster. The city guard would apprehend anyone caught on the scene, and he could inquire with them later. And if Stygian had truly sustained a fatal wound, he could always find him in the morgue. For now, they were simply trying to escape. Unless they could catch the wolf. Or his companions. They were liable to be around...

   Cogidubnus was not the only one with a keen nose. His scent still lingered, and Ace had traced it and what she had seen of him walking through the broken window first thing. A slip of a red coat had been all she needed to quicken the pace, and the agitated crowd was parted like so many flies before a swatting hand as she used her weight and strength to simply shove people out of the way.
   The red coat laying on the ground before her brought the wolf to a halt, and she cursed hard enough that a man eyed her and backed off. She shifted her gaze angrily, people plainly rounding her as they walked, avoiding getting too close to her, as she scanned for some sign.
   'I can... I can move on my own! Let go!' Carey's voice came from behind. He still clutched his side though as he and Laertes moved up from behind.
   'You have an iron hanger in your side!' Laertes hissed indignantly. 'Your lung might be punctured! If you don't hold still and let me pull it out...'
   'Baboon!' the otter cried out with a voice that wheezed but did not sound very deflated, and pointed straight for Richard, nearly poking Laertes' nose. At almost the exact same time, Ace noticed the parting of the crowd further up, and someone making a sound of disbelief. She caught the sight of Cog's trousers, recognition filling her, and then dashed off.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya took a cautious step out of the doorway she'd been sheltering in. It took a little getting used to, walkiing about in a crowd while invisible. No-one could see you, so no-one knew not to walk into you. She had just spotted Laertes ahead of her when one of the guards stepped forward to challenge the jackal and almost stepped on her. That forced her to dodge someone else, then someone else again. She heard the sounds of a fight, but by the time she'd worked her way back through the quickly dispersing crowd, it was all over and both guards were down. She snarled quietly and stepped forward to catch up with Laertes, then paused when she spotted a familiar fluffy yellow and black tail sticking out of the shattered shop window.

The first thing Keaton knew was when someone — someone she couldn't see — grabbed her tail and pulled her back out through the window. Her eyes filled with a flickering iridescent glow for a moment, then she could see Kerya standing beside her, holding a finger to her muzzle in a shushing gesture. "I have made us invisible," the little stoat whispered urgently, "And Laertes seems to be unable to pierce my spell. He went this way — be careful, he or that wolf with him have already killed two guards."

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog managed to keep himself from grimacing. His eyes, still yellow, flashed with hatred behind his shades at the object of his ire standing so close, but...the odds were clearly against him.
An old practice form designed for closing distance came to mind. The form itself was adaptable to any distance, but in formal training, the distance was limited to only so far. The reasoning behind the short distance was that any farther, and one could simply run away.

Ace, Laertes, and Carey were still far away. In an open space, he was sure he could defeat Ace, and he'd be glad to die trying to kill the Jackal, but both at the same time, in a crowded street...
The wolf stood still, staring at Ace. A pedestrian obscured his form - but when he passed, the man was gone.

In the alleyway that was just beside him, again a wolf, Cog jumped onto a dumpster and then onto the fire escape walkway of a nearby building, catching himself on the lowest ladder before clambering up and making his way up the side of the building. He might be able to lose them on the rooftops, if they managed to find him in this alley again at all.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

With her team mates disappearing and the opposition wisely moving away after their homicidal display Mel thought that perhaps some cleanup was needed. Moving quickly she crossed to the ruined doorway of the shop. "Don't shoot. I am a healer. Does anyone in here need help?"

She took another step in and looked around at the jumbled mess of tipped shelves and their contents. "Is anyone here?" she repeated as she sent out her magic, "feeling" for anything that felt of her team mates. She identified a small piece of paper still on the counter and a coin on the floor as having been left behind by Cog. They disappeared from the scene as she moved towards the back where she could hear excited voices.

[Stygian]

It was with a snarl that Ace saw Cog vanish once again. He'd had to have moved laterally to disappear like that. She needed to get to his point of exit and... She didn't know. But she had taken personal offense when he had attacked her like that, and she was not about to leave him be. Carey and Laertes were more than capable of getting hold of the baboon and working from there.
   Sprinting forward and throwing another few people aside, the wolf looked down into the lower street to no avail, then toward the nearest alley, the other most probable way of departure for Cog, and caught sight of him just as he scaled the last steps on the fire escape. Thoughtlessly, she threw herself after him, snarling. Her first leap and bound off the wall brought her to the lowest rungs of the retractable ladder. And immediately, her thoughtlessness cost her. With a snap and a screeching sound of painted metal and slightly rusted screws and rivets grinding against each other, she brought the whole ladder down with her weight, crashing into the lid of the dumpster and buckling it.
   The chase was not over though. Even as the wolfess snarled and banged a fist that left a deep dent in the metal of the dumpster, a brown and blue-dressed figure sailed overhead, and caught the underside of the fire escape, pulling himself up. Scaling with dexterity that while somewhat hindered was still unexpected from webbed digits, Carey pulled his concealed shuriken-like ring of blades out, and rushing upwards.
   Far behind, Laertes glared, grinding his teeth, and then turned toward Richard. Walking briskly toward the undead, feeling magic fizzing in the air from some unidentifiable direction, his face was hard as stone. He would watch what the fool did, and if nothing came of that, at least he had a prize laying waiting back there for him. Two or three minutes was plenty of time, with so little ground to cover...

[Cogidubnus]

 The sound of crashing metal made the wolf look down sharply, and Cog swore under his breath. He'd hoped it would take them longer than this, but with Ace having chasing him, he might be doing better than he thought. The otter whirling the corner moments later, however, and with a grand leap jumping up to the fire escape and pulling himself up made the wolf curse again. His mind raced as his feet rushed forward, scaling the steps three at a time.

The feeling of the iron underneath his hands gave him an idea. He licked one finger, and letting go of the railings, mumbled mystic cadences, fighting to control his breath as he spoke the words to a spell. His legs burned deeply, but the wolf kept up the pace until he reached the roof and managed to step over the edge.

Cog licked the finger again, paused, leaned, felt his back pop, and whispering gathered power to his right hand. The fingertip tingled, and with a brief fizzing sensation of boiling spittle, launched a sparking, cotton-candy looking cloud that floated delicately towards the metal pipe and jumped straight into it, making the whole thing crackle white with electricity while Cog turned and with heavy breath began again to run.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Just as Keaton was about to leap inside of the now-devastated store, possibly in an ill-conceived attempt to intervene in the battle raging inside, she felt something small and furry wrap around her tail, and this phenomenon made her pause in abrupt confusion. Even in Keaton's state of heightened anxiety, the possibility of this occurrence being the handiwork of one of her antagonists did not occur to her. At least, not until Kerya pulled, and Keaton felt the detritus beneath her feet crumble and slip as she tumbled along with her unseen assailant. Resisting the immediate instinct to yell, Keaton spun around, panicked, only to come face-to-face with Kerya, who was encouraging her not to make any sound.

Keaton acquiescently clamped her mouth shut, and remained uncharacteristically silent, understanding her intentions. When Kerya concluded her explanation, Keaton let out a muffled grunt and nodded her head. The concept of being invisible was still a strange one to her, but it certainly wasn't enough to deter her. Clutching Catastrophe a little tighter, Keaton nodded hastily to Kerya, and whispered in return, "Right. So we gang up on him and take him down?" Not once did Keaton stop to consider how impossible that task might be.

[Stygian]

There was nothing to impede Cog's magic. Not yet. There was a dry, menacing crackle as the electrical charge was unleashed, and the otter down the ladder looked up with wide eyes. He stumbled on a step and cursed hard, bruising himself even more, his focus faltering for a moment as he prepared a spell to shield himself. His slick, short fur began to stand and fizz, right before a blue, nearly liquid shield enveloped him, rippling and seething and sparking as the wolf's spell shot into it. It did not block all of the magic; Carey shook and tensed as he felt pain surge through his body, and he gritted his teeth hard. Yet the protection was adequate. And while he felt stiff and painful getting up again, rage drove him to sprint on. Coming up the stairs, he saw the wolf a good bit ahead, and with an expression of fury he ran after him, tensing the grip on his large windmill blade. If he could get a good throw in, or the space for a spell...

- -

Kicking the side out of the container down below, Ace emerged in a shower of paper scraps and plastic, and the odd other detrius that would leave a stain. Growling, she tumbled up on her legs, and still shaking bits of styrofoam and old shredded papers and cardboard out of her clothes, she began to run, looking up toward the rooftops. The streets were beginning to clear, the natural instinct of not wanting to get held up or caught in any situation, whether real or perceived, taking hold. And in front of her, she noted, slowing down and hugging the wall next to her, brushing herself off and trying to look as inconspicuous as she could in her disheveled state, a patrol of five officers came into view, jogging down the street and scattering the crowd.

- -

The badger had no idea what was going on. Nor did she know what had caused this sort of commotion. She was used to the men in the shop next to hers making a ruckus; her neighbors seemed an odd sort, and she had not taken the opportunity to learn more about them even in the three years they had stayed next to her. Yet the buildings were separate, unlike many in Jann's Cliff, and they mostly never kept on with their shenanigans past six in the afternoons, or seemed anything but helpful. Now though, it seemed as if something had gone wrong. And, concerned with her own property, she had gone out into the street to check. Now, she was staring at the shards of glass strewn all over the walkway. And, more shockingly, at the two dead bodies. City guards. Policemen.
   For a moment, everything phased out. She could only recall a couple of large accidents happening ever since she had set up shop in that trading city. There had been a fire down the block that had claimed two lives and ruined a couple of buildings, but which had been staved off. The mostly stone-based architecture of the Cliff helped keep things like that in check. The other had been a couple of gasol tubes going off in that shop next to hers. Dull thumps through the ground. It had barely been anything beyond the ordinary. Jann's Cliff was not usually the most crazy of cities. Sure, it was rough, but safe for the small-business people. That's why she'd come here, instead of Calim...
   She wasn't even aware that she'd steadied herself against the corner of the building before she was leaning on it, the near-smooth edge of beige-yellow with hints of mortar and stone showing through the plaster rather uncomfortable against her back. She had never seen a dead body before. Were they dead? Could she be sure? They seemed... whole. But one had so much blood around him, and the other one's head was... She knew that these things happened. It was the way of the world. At least, some of it. She was glad she hadn't had to bear watching it happen though. She had a strong stomach, but she did not think that having to watch something like that could be pleasant. She looked around, watching the people passing staring at the scene. Had they seen? Were the people responsible for that still around? Worriedly, she cast a glance down the alley. But seeing nothing move, she turned back quickly, and made to walk inside again. Someone should alert the police, if they had not...
   The badger froze on the spot, the image of the alley behind her suddenly flashing before her vision again. She swallowed, then turned, slowly, and began looking up along the stone pavement. Her eyes drifted over a polished shoe, a pair of pressed pants, a coat strewn over stone and asphalt, and wooden splinters. And the image that made her stomach turn.
   She screamed, hoarsely, her voice catching at one point, and then, feeling bile in the back of her throat, she rushed back into her store.