Players:
Summary: Rashmi, July & Mikhail defeat a Sentinel in Central Park. Kalindi brings in Envy & Kaji
to capture them, but Volk steps in to rescue the three.
Date: June 6, 2020
Title: The Battle of Cedar Hill
Rating: PG (V)
The Future - NYC - Central Park
Once regarded as an oasis of tranquility inside "the city that never sleeps," Central Park has become an effigy to its former greatness. Upturned earth, scorched trees, and broken jogging paths offer a grim reminder of the present while the occasional Sentinel patrol offers a jarring reminder of the future. But even in all of this destruction Nature ekes out her existence, offering a variety of places to conceal oneself from detection by Hunter and Redeemer alike. From burned barren fields to dense forest, you can still find many sites to visit, rest, and battle at.
Scene
Gunfire and energy blasts ring out a ways down Main Street as yet another small battle erupts in the City. Breaking through the screen of trees on the southern end of the Park, Rashmi pelts into the open, hopping nimbly from sphere to sphere some ways above the ground, now and again turning to loose a burst of automatic gunfire at her pursuers. Droplets of sweat stand out on her forehead, and she seems at least a little tired; evidently, the chase has lasted some minutes now, and the dark-skinned mutant is very close to losing her pursuit.
Mikhail was doing his normal patrol in Central Park when he caught the scent of Rashmi and metal, wires, machinery, and the sound of gunfire, a sentinel!, the feral mutant turns and sprints towards the source of the scent (roughly 120mph), silent as a predator after it's prey.
July is running as well, though she's getting tired. "Rashmi, we can't keep this up." she says, panting, the green-skinned, white-haired hero woman says, shaking her head at that, "They /will/ catch us, at this rate! We need to find a way out!" she calls out. She jumps, dodging a blast from one of the sentinels, landing somewhat awkwardly, but keeping up with her run.
"Then let's give them a *reason* to stop chasing us!" Rashmi calls, reversing course and hopping onto a sphere behind her. One jump, two, three, and she grabs hold of the fourth ahead of her, swinging herself into the air above the Sentinel. Tumbling in midair, her spheres streak downward in rapid succesion, accompanied by several bell-like noises. *BONGBONGBONGBONGBONG,* the spheres jackhammering a divot into the center of the Sentinel's head.
Mikhail is dressed in a pair of black shorts and is covered in mud and blood, as he approches he spots the other two Rebels, he crouches mid-run and launches himself up at the Sentinel, aiming for it's chest.
July screeches to a halt as Rashmi decides to go on the offensive, "Oh, of all the half-brained…" she mutters under her breath as she goes to help her friend. She doesn't have any particularly offensive ability despite hand-to-hand combat, but she could help her friend that was on the downward trip to the ground, to catch her before she hits the ground since her friend's spheres were playing drums with the Sentinel's armor.
Kalindi's job sometimes gets a bit boring. She usually sits in front of terminals to view where Sentinels are and determine where her powers are most in need. But when she saw this particular scene playing out in Central Park, she decided to grab some help in the form of a couple of Hounds to pop out and see what's going on. And that's literally pop out thin air. She looks at a little GPS in one hand to determine where exactly she is in the park, since her teleportation is not completely accurate. "Ugh, where are they?" She realizes that she's not the only one she has here to rely on, though, and says, "Locate them. There's free mutants in the park." She is currently wearing a gold suit of armor, the helmet of which covers her whole face except for her eyes, which glow an unnatural black seeming to pull light out of the air. In her hand opposite the GPS she carries a gold staff.
One of the mutants who appears on the scene is a frightening looking woman in a tight black outfit. Her red hair is slicked down close to her head and her outfit consists of boots, a tube top, and black pants, all of which appear to be made of leather. Envy was once well known to the mutant community as a trouble maker, later as a crime boss, and then it was believed that she had died. Unfortunately for those in the park right now it would appear that she is alive and well. Envy narrows her eyes as she surveys the scene. She points to the left. "There is a disturbance to the North. It would appear that one of the Master's Sentinels is in need of our assistance."
There's a soft thud on the ground, the teleportation dropping the Hound into a tree. Thankfully he caught himself before he dropped himself to the ground. Kaji's eyes glowing in the dark as he let out a low growl, his black fur covering most of his body. Black armor keeping his torso protected while still giving him free mobility. "As if you couldn't tell from the giant explosion," quips the beast. His hands move to his swords as he starts to move towards the fight. The wolf anthro is built much like a fighter, toned yet agile as he continues towards the commotion.
Rashmi twists in midair, snatching at July's outstretched hands. Using the momentum imparted by the rubber woman's limbs to swing back into the air, she glances at Mikhail's attack out of the corner of her eye, releasing July's hands and whipping all six spheres in a horizontal line at the Sentinel's face. Between their impact and Mikhail's inhuman strength, the tremendous robot is toppled over backwards, its neck giving way upon impact with the ground. Righting herself in midair, she alights atop one of the spheres, lightly hopping from sphere to sphere until she lands on the ground, chest heaving as she struggles to catch her breath. "…Okay," she pants, brushing a lock of short red hair out of her face. "…I think we're in the clear now…"
July tosses Rashmi back in the air, and then the big Sentinel falls under the combined assault of Rashmi and Mikhail, and she nods at her friend's assessment of the situation. "But it's likely to change. I'm sure that Sentinel must have called reinforcements, so we may want to bolt outta here ASAP." she says, shaking her head as she rubs her bare green arms, frowning, "We're taking the sewers again?" she makes a face at the usual smell of the place.
When the Sentinel hits the ground Mikhail grins and begins punching at it's chest until he breaks though, then proceeds to begin ripping out wires.
To give her better peripheral vision, Kalindi pulls the visor further open using her powers and follows Envy' direction. The bottoms of the gold boots she's wearing extend and become a razor sharp disk, "Hop on." She doesn't wait long, and doesn't really expect both Envy and Kaji to jump on, since they might have faster ways of getting there. She is not particularly familiar with them, since they are Ahab's dogs. She zooms forwards and says, once in earshot of the three mutants, "Well, look what you broke! I hope you're planning on paying for it." She hangs the GPS unit around her neck and grips the staff in both hands.
Envy glances up as Kalindi extends her flying disk. She leaps up and lands nimbly upon it, riding with the other woman until they reach the scene. She leaps off the disk and lands in front of July and Rashmi. Had she not lost her memory, these two would be rather familiar to the woman. Right now they are nothing more than prey. "Three targets." She glances at the downed Sentinel. "At least one has offensive capabilities." She holds out a hand beside her and materializes a crystal scythe. "You are under arrest for the good of mankind. Surrender now and you won't have to die."
A low growl rolls out from the shadows as he moves out of the shadows. His eyes flick over towards Kalindi and Envy before he looks back at the three targets. He stays silent, sans the growl, as the swords are drawn. He holds the two blades on either side of him, a soft blue glow flowing off of them slightly as he just smiles. "Course, if you resist. We may just have to persuade you. And we're rather good at persuasion."
"Well, damn it," Rashmi mutters, wheeling around and leveling her gun at the trio of Hounds. "July, Mikhail… On my mark, split off. Three targets are more of a pain to follow than one, and one Hound is easier to lose than three, right?" Drawing in a deep breath, she lifts her head, loosing a chatter of gunfire at the black-clad woman. "Prove it!!"
July grumbles as the green woman looks at the three Hounds and frowns, her hands clenched in fists. "Are you nuts?" she tells Rashmi, while still keeping her eyes on the other group. "If we split, we're as good as dead." she shakes her head, "We're three, and they're three too. That strategy won't work very well." she says, shaking her head lightly.
Mikhail looks up and lets out a deep growl when he catches the scent of the incoming Hounds, he stops when given an order from Rashmi, over the years he's learnt that it's sometimes good to do as he's told, he gives her a quick nod and prepares to run.
"Hunter, lady, a Hunter and two Hounds," corrects Kalindi, annoyed at the mistake. It's one that these mutants always seem to make. To the other two, more quietly, "Focus on one, take down the one who looks like leader. We'll scoop the others, but always crush morale first." She gestures for the Hounds to make their move, landing and retracting her disc and readying her staff.
Envy looks at the three expressionlessly. "Resistance is futile. Escape, impossible." She does not move, but the ground makes a loud cracking noise. A wall of crystal begins to grow in a circular pattern in a fifty foot radius of the woman. It is not growing particularly fast, probably about five seconds a foot. The wall will reach a height of ten feet within a minute. If Envy remembered these girls she would realize that this tactic will not work as well as she hopes, but it should at least slow them down a little. She does not remove her eyes from the three as she speaks to the others, "They seem not to be willing to come peacefully. Take them down. Lethal force if necessary." She nods to Kalindi. "The one that gives orders. She will be first." She turns back to Rashmi and holds up a hand in front of her toward the girl.
Kaji just smirks a bit, bringing his swords in front of him and slashing them together; causing sparks to fly off of them. "I was hoping you'd say that," whispers the wolf. His eyes glancing over towards Kalindi before he looks back at Rashmi. The grips on his swords tightening as he stood there. Right now, he's more like a tightening spring ready to release.
"No, July. You know as well as I do, priorities are priorities. Go, both of you. I have a better chance of fending them off when I'll need to." Her spheres break and begin swirling madly, the redhead hopping onto the nearest one at the nadir of its orbit, springboarding herself up into the air, over the wall. "Resistance," she replies to the trio, accompanied by a longer burst of gunfire, "is our *job!* You'd think even a pack of dogs could learn!"
July snorts, "Right. Our mistake. A hound and two bitches." she says, smirking at the three opponents as she gets ready for a fight. "Running is not an option, unfortunately, my friends." she says, frowning as she keeps her eyes on Envy and Kaji. 'Not good.' the woman thinks. 'All three of them have sharp edged weapons…' She then spares a glance at Rashmi. "Right. But I'm not leaving any of you behind. Leaving my friends behind is NOT an option for me! Deal with it." she snorts, holding her ground, waiting for the the first one of the foes to attack.
Mikhail's ears are a lot better than the other rebels, so he hears the order to take out Rashmi, he runs and jumps up to where she is, "Rashmi, Run", he growls in a deep Romainian accent (pay attention, he doesn't talk much anymore), he looks down at July "You too", he jumps so he's the closest to the three threats.
At the seeing a gun pointed towards them, Kalindi quickly spins her staff into another sharp disc to protect the Hounds. Ahab will be cross with her if she gets them killed! Once the gunfire ceases, she spins it down into a staff again and snaps it in half, holding the pieces in each hand. "Idiots. You are only delaying the inevitable." She uses her powers to fly up in the air in order to pursue Rashmi and avoid the others, as per her own orders.
Envy begins to advance toward Rashmi when she goes airborn. She glances at the other two, attempting to discern their abilities. "Telekinesis, Feral, the third has displayed no ability. She is the lowest threat." She frowns at Rashmi, "The leader took flight, leave her to Kalindi. Focus on secondary threat." Without further warning she charges at Mikhail, spinning her crystal scythe diagonally upwards as she approaches.
A snarl comes from the wolf shifter as he springs into action, running around the back of the group. His eyes watching one person in particular of the group of three rebels. If July notices, the wolf shifter's eyes never leave her as he runs behind the group and then pivots and heads right for her. "You're going to pay for the comment, ya bitch!" Those swords slash out as he charges!
Higher and higher Rashmi climbs, leaping and swinging from sphere to sphere. Glancing back, she notes the directions taken by the Hounds and their Hunter. With a small half-smirk, she kicks off her perch, loosing another three-round in Kaji's direction. Allowing gravity to claim her, she plummets earthward, spheres lashing out at Kalindi's disc in an attempt to knock the Hunter from her perch.
July smirks. She's been accessed as the least dangerous to the team. Power-wise, maybe, but that also means she can play this little disadvantage to her best advantage. As the wolfguy starts rushing at her, she smirks as she quickly stretches her arms, toward Envy's legs to try to snatch her and throw her toward Kaji if successful in one fast, fluid motion.
Mikhail spots Envy coming towards him and grins a fanged grin, if the bitch with the crystles wants to rumble, so be it, he'll wait for her to get within slashing distance before croching and launching himself about thirty feet up in the air, he's gonna play with her first, and he's gonna make it HURT.
As Rashmi comes down and assaults her disc, Kalindi hops off, letting her armor carry her instead, but leaving a thread connecting the foot of her armour to the disc. She matches Rashmi's falling speed and flies towards her, swinging her metal bars in a measured, well-trained manner. She's a student of the Taskmaster, after all. "Why are you people so annoying?" At the same time, she wills the disc to change direction, sending it earthwards towards July but measuring to make sure that she doesn't harm the Hounds. Since they are likely more familiar with her abilities than she is with theirs, though, they'll know to keep away from it at least.
Envy's scythe strikes the earth right where Mikhail was standing a moment before. She looks up quickly and narrows her eyes at him, abandoning her scythe and causing a small eruption of three foot long spikes to extend from the ground around her. She intends to make them a bit longer, but that's when July grabs and tosses her. Envy is jerked away from her next of crystal spines and thrown toward Kaji. Once released she spins so that she'll land on her feet, hoping the other hound is agile enough to avoid her.
Kaji's eyes flick over towards Envy as she's thrown at him. A small curse before he changes his course; leaping up off of the ground to press off of a nearby tree. The bark splintering from the force as he pushes himself towards July once more. Once she dodges, or whatever action she takes considering the golden disc, he would leap in and take a good slashes at her.
Kailindi's training is top-notch… But Rashmi's spheres seem almost prescient, as they intercept the batons as quickly as they're swung. And now, Rashmi's smirk becomes an out-and-out grin, for she has half a dozen weapons, and Kalindi much less so. With a grunt of effort, the redheaded mutant twists in midair, dropping down onto an orb just as its orbit curves up in such a manner as to slow her descent… while three more streak upward at top speed, slamming into the very center of the golden disc, as close as possible to the thread's origin point. "That's our *other* job," she spits on her way up relative to the Hunter.
July curses under her breath as she doesn't hit the puppy with the other woman, and then she narrowly dodges the slash aimed to gut her. She doesn't let the guy get a second attempt at her. No soon the wolfman passes her at the first strike, she extends her arms aiming to wrap them around the guy's shoulders from behind, and attempts to toss him toward Mikhail. "Mike! Head's up!!" Whichever happens, the girl misses the disc thrown by Kalindi, and it ends up slicing the rubber girl at her hip, making her hiss.
Mikhail growls as his toy is taken from him by July, that was his one!, however he doesn't have much time to dwell on it, due to the spikes rushing to meet him, he focuses and plants his feet on the sides that will do the least damage and launches himself away, slicing the soles of his feet in the process.
Because of her thread being severed, the thrown disc just lands lifelessly on the ground and doesn't move. "Impressive." Kalindi notices that her weapons are seriously outnumbered and sends down her thread to recover the fallen disc, reforming it into a blob that seems to crawl up the thread back towards her boots. Her shoulderpads change shape and extend into two spiderlike limbs, tipped with a spike, and she uses the limbs to fend off any spheres as she tries to catch up with Rashmi again. Once her blob gets to her, she kicks it down at Rashmi, reforming it into a net with the sole of her boot but keeping it threaded to her.
Though she does manage to avoid striking her comrad, Envy does not land quite as gracefully as she had intended. She lands on one foot, which twists awkwardly and sends her tumbling into a bramble bush with an audible grunt. Envy returns to her feet quickly, though she is limping heavily now. She pulls herself free of the foliage and looks out at the scene once more. The leader looks distracted, the feral one is slightly injured, and the other seems to have a body manipulation ability.
Envy flails her arms toward Rashmi repeatedly as though she is throwing something. With each motion she hurls a large crystal construct at the woman, it seems she can do this much faster than she used to be able to. Rashmi now has three ceiling fan-sized ruby shurikens flying toward her. At this distance and given the girl's movement, they are unlikely to hit. She's just trying to distract the girl until Kalindi can get her footing. The woman then turns her attention toward July. What a troublesome power. She'll have to make it so the girl can't grab her again. She limps toward the girl, flicking her hands toward her a few times and tossing about four spikes the size of pencils at the girl.
Kaji growls loudly as his first attack misses. In a smooth motion he attaches the two swords into one full one; the blue glow now more prominent. He switches it to one hand as he's grabbed by July. But he doesn't go flying. Instead, he's twisted his hand and gripped July's arm as she went to throw him. "Gotcha little missey." His muzzle splits into a feral smile as he tightens his grip and moves to cut off the arm he's gripped. If the sword connects, the blade would cauterize the wound on contact from the sheer heat it emanates. The actions of his comrade don't get noticed.
Rashmi blinks, briefly, as the tremendous shuriken streak into her field of awareness. Kicking the sphere out from beneath her, she sends a quartet up into the net, entangling themselves purposefully within the golden threads… And thrashing left, right, back and forth, up and down, yanking sharply against the thread holding them to the gold-manipulating sorceress. Though close to the ground, the force and angle at which she lands tears the breath from her lungs in a sick-sounding croak, jouncing and rolling across the grass-covered turf.
July sends the puppy flying, anyways. Her arm is cut, but July doesn't do much aside from hissing at that, and then she looks at the stump of her arm for a moment before looking at Envy, who is limping toward her and tossing the crystals. By now, they already figured out her powers, she concludes, and decides to just stop holding back. She runs toward Envy, gritting her teeth as she rears her good hand into a fist, and throws a hard punch toward the Hound's face. One projectile misses her, one grazes her left hip, one impales and trespasses her chest, the other her shoulder, but the girl shows no sign of stopping her punch, apparently unfazed by the wounds.
Mikhail snarls at the pain in his feet, but they'll heal quick enough, so he concentrates on who’s responsible for his pain, the one with the crystals, he runs full pelt towards Envy in an attempt to tackle her, and hopefully manage to scratch her.
The net is not created to sustain as much strain as Rashmi is placing on it, but keeping these orbs occupied is a pretty high priority on Kalindi's list. Once she arrives close enough to Rashmi, the net breaks apart cleanly, all pieces still connected to the slack thread that Kalindi has holding the structure up. "Status report!" she yells, not really wanting to actually look at her allies as she drives herself hard towards Rashmi to try and pin the fallen woman into the ground with her spider arms.
The nature of battle being what it is, it would be hard to notice at first that another joins the fray… only those who might be familiar with the subtle shift in the air as it is displaced, followed by the sounds of booted feet on the grass. Kalindi is the first to see the newcomer who is walking towards her. Volk. Mercenary. Terrorist. Known sympathizer with the Rebellion. And currently levelling an assault rifle at the sorceress. There's only a shift in his jaw, and a slight tilt of his head as if to say 'how do you do'… just before depressing the trigger and opening fire towards Kalindi and the others. For those distracted with others, the sudden sound of high-power gunfire cuts through the chaos while Volk almost casually strides up close to Rashmi.
Envy stares emotionlessly at her opponent as she calls out to Kalindi. "Envy alive. Minor injuries sustained. Third mutant can manipulate her body. Both targets still active." She sees the punch coming toward her but does nothing to block it. She does not see Mikhail coming toward her just yet, but the action she takes against July may make the feral think twice about tackling her. Envy's body suddenly erupts with green spikes. She looks like some sort of terrifying human porcupine with long thin spires of emerald sticking out of her body. The ones on her face are only about five inches long, but the ones on her limbs and body are over a foot long each. If July does nothing to stop her punch she may become stuck to the other woman. If Mikhail continues to charge her he may be in the same predicament. She cocks her head slightly at the sound of the gunfire, seemingly confused by it.
Kaji tucks and rolls backwards, panting heavily as he stumbles backwards once he gets back up onto his feet. He looks down the arm in his hand and grins a bit before he tosses it aside. His eyes flick over towards Mikhail as the mutant heads towards Envy. He chuckles softly, he knows how it is to fight close proximity to her. It's… well they'll find out. His ears flick towards the gunfire and he growls once more. The swords detached into halves one more as he takes off towards the gun wielding man. He keeps his path random as he heads for him.
Rashmi cries out as the legs pierce her arms, trapping her in place. The net 'deflates,' plummeting to the ground as the spheres fade from sight, voluntarily banished. Her head lifts as gunfire begins to erupt, a pained smile crossing her face. "Volk," she croaks, still greatly lacking for air, "please… get us all out of here…"
July stops her punch just in time, one of the spikes grazing her hand, but she grunts in annoyance, stopping in her tracks for just a split second, "Mikhail, don't touch her!" she says, frowning, before looking at the female porcupine and gritting her teeth. "Spikes, huh?" she then extends her arms forward again, to try to wrap around the girl, not minding if her arms get impaled by the spikes or not. If she manages to wrap firmly around the girl July will lift her in the air, and attempt to drive her hard onto the ground.
Mikhail snarls when he spots the spikes burst out of Envy, mid-run he grabs a three-foot metal pole off the floor, he aims to drive it into her side, he's not going for a kill, yet.
The sorceress' eyes widen as she catches sight of Volk. "Oh, this is such a hassle." Kalindi says this in the same way that an office worker talks about the photocopier being out of toner or a stapler becoming jammed. She keeps her spider claws in Rashmi's shoulder but transforms the batons that she's carrying into another defensive disc, but this one she holds onto directly. "Kaji, status report!" she repeats, more forcefully. "Hounds, grab my threads! Before she escapes!" That she is calling them is perhaps a bad sign, since she intends to teleport everything attached to her gold extended self. She extends her threads over towards Kaji and Envy, to hopefully succeed in something other than taking a bit of a battering. She draws all of her gold, except for these threads, back towards herself.
With Kaji on the charge and taking a random course, jinking and weaving, and the callout by the Hunter Kalindi that makes it sound like a retreat is coming, Volk seems to almost take a moment to pause. When the gun clicks empty and all of the rounds have been smashed into the soft gold barriers, or distracted most of the other Hounds, Volk stoops down and takes the hand close to him, shaking his head in a rather disappointed fashion at the Hindi woman. Then suddenly both are gone, leaving just Kalindi's gold claw, distorted from being warped in the gravity field of the merc teleporter/soldier. Reappearing on the other side of the field, he releases the girl, drops both the SMGs from his hips down close to her, and loses the empty magazine, slipping it into a pocket and replacing it. Those close by… could swear they see a smile under the balaclava.
Envy glances over toward Kalindi and sees the new man teleport away with Rashmi. "Fourth target, teleporter. Uses firearms." Why does she call this out? Clearly the other two have seen him already. Turning toward these two has given her a view of Mikhail however, and she sees him just in time to take action. The woman swings her arm sideways to catch the pipe as it is swung at her, the metal making a horrible squealing noise as it rubs up against the spines on her arm. She points a hand toward the mutant and crystalized fingernails extend forth like spears toward the man. Unfortunately she will likely miss due to July's actions. Envy is pulled up and slammed down hard. The emerald spines act as a protective shell of sorts, but she still has the wind knocked out of her. It will take a moment for the woman to compose herself.
Kaji roars back. "Lost sight of him! Requiring target!" His hazel eyes flick over towards July, grinning wide. "New target." His swords spark against each other once more before he takes off towards the rubber girl. Putting most of his strength into his sprint. He's aiming to tackle her to the ground, to pin her at least. Mainly to try keep /her/ contained to bring her back to Ahab.
Rashmi squeezes her eyes shut as Volk grabs hold of her, taking in a deep breath the instant before the teleport. As they pop into view on the other side of the field, and the guns fall to her side, she rolls over. Grabbing hold of one, she braces herself and begins to lay down covering fire, aiming at the legs; if she hits, the enemy is inconvenienced. If she misses and hits her fellow fighters, the wounds won't be fatal, and can be repaired with relative ease.
When the pole is grabbed Mikhail growls and looks for another attack point, not noticing the crystal fingernails pirece though his stomach before she is pulled away by July, he puts his hand to his stomach to try and stem the flow and falls the his knees.
July does not want to allow the girl to get a second breather, so, after slamming her to the ground, she attempts to lift her to slam her down again, and then toss her away from the fray against a tree, before looking at Mikhail and Kaji, "Need a hand, Mikhail?" she calls out, relieved that the new addition to the fray seems ot be on their side, and she reforms her lost arm.
When the pole is grabbed Mikhail growls and looks for another attack point, not noticing the crystal fingernails pierce though his stomach before she is pulled away by July, he puts his hand to his stomach to try and stem the flow and falls the his knees, he shakes his head at July's offer of help, and waits for his injuries to heal, hoping his organs are intact.
"Hmm," says Kalindi as Rashmi and Volk disappear. She glances quickly around. While she can teleport, she knows how inaccurate her abilities are. She might be able to teleport straight across the state in a single bound, but teleporting across the part in an accurate way is beyond her ability. She spins the GPS unit that she is carrying around her neck so that it rests on her back and says, "I don't want to go home empty handed!" She reforms her spider claws and flies towards Mikhail to jab one into him. Her net reintegrates itself with her armour, making it bulkier, not that she seems to notice at all.
Volk's shoulders rise and sag in the imitation of a sigh, and he actually boots Rashmi in the side softly and motions with his now magazine-less hand towards her other Rebel fighters, and his one eye gives her a bit of a sardonic look. His jaw shifts once more, and he then goes down to one knee and begins pinning out short bursts of more accurate fire towards Kalindi and Kaji both, rotating it back and forth to attempt and keep both of them off of July and Mikhail. Tracers spew out on every third shot now, adding hot and red points of light like pinpoint fireballs towards each. Back and forth while he remains in a covering position. Thirty rounds spew out, and in rapid order he changes mags once more.
Envy manages to get on one knee after being slammed into the ground. She glances at the people with guns and slams her hands into the ground, causing a diamond shell to begin to grow in front of the gunmen. The shell grows fairly slowly and reaches about five feet in height and ten feet in length before it suddenly stops growing. Envy is at that point slammed into the ground again by the rubber girl before being flung into a tree. The spines protruding from the woman's body embed themselves into the tree, causing her to stick in place for a few minutes. She eventually retracts the spines and falls into a bush where she remains motionless.
Kaji veers away from July as the bullets come down on him. His path of movement becomes sporadic once more as he sheaths the swords on his back. He growls low as he shifts into his wolf form, the armor shifting to cover his quadruped body and keep the swords on his back. The now wolf continues his random movements as he makes his way over towards where Envy fell into the bush. After he vanishes into the shadows, there're no more movements from him. If the wolf got shot, he showed no sign of slowing down.
Rashmi pauses in her shooting as Envy goes down, breathing hard, shooting Volk a helpless, almost apologetic look. Filling her lungs, she lifts her head to shout, "Feral! Stretch! BREAK NOW OR BE LEFT BEHIND! WE ARE LEAVING NOW!!"
July frowns. Stretch? Where did THAT come from? In any case, she doesn't want to be left behind, so she quickly disengages from the fight, now that Envy is (apparently) knocked unconscious. "We're catching the midnight train, Mikey, let's go!" she says as she reaches to wrap an arm around Mikhail to carry him to her teammates, "Let's get the hell out of here!"
Mikhail is still concentrating on healing so would have been impaled by the gold spikes sent by Kalindi, allowing her to take him back to Ahab, luckily for him, July gives him a last minute hand, and using her pulling him to keep steady he gets to his feet and runs.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Kalindi's armor protects her from the impact of the bullets at this distance, even more after she fortifies it after the first hit, but clearly not enough to keep her from feeling the impacts. She stumbles backs and hisses, "Why did that sentinel have to go and die before I even get here? This was supposed to be easy!" She extends her lines towards the injured Envy, to try and offer Kaji and her a way out. "Kaji, direct my line back to Envy. We're getting you both to a healer." She takes out a cellphone of all things, parting her armour slightly to reach it, and quickly snaps a picture of July and Mikhail for later after the feral is pulled from her grasp. She'll do a sketch of Rashmi and Connor lately as she reviews the day's happenings and brings up all the information she retrieved to the other hunters, including Ahab.
Finishing his latest reload, Volk reaches down and scoops up his remaining MP7, holstering it as his one visible eye suddenly flares with an incandescent blue-green fire. Shouldering the assault rifle, the merc teleporter turns himself and as the Hounds and Hunter seem to have been scattered for a moment, he reaches down and actually scruffs Rashmi up onto her weak legs, a soft and very slight growl coming from his throat as he motions to July and Mikhail with his head towards a spot behind him. The opposition is given a chance to regroup, but it's a slightly useless gesture as a point of light appears behind the man, then suddenly it expands into a six-foot wide portal! Turning his head back down to Rashmi, he motions once more in a 'get going' fashion.
Envy lays motionless for what seems like several minutes before stirring slightly. Her eyes flutter and open, her blurred vision coming into focus slowly. A dog? No, a wolf is near her now. It must be Kaji. She hears the muffled voice of Kalindi but can't really make out what the woman is saying. Envy tries to get up but stumbles in a slight fit of vertigo, reaching out to grab onto one of the trees. There is a loud cracking noise behind her as the crystal wall apparently begins to break down. The woman assumes at this point that the other mutants have escaped. She wants to destroy her wall before they leave. It may scare mutants away from this particular hunting spot, and she'd rather know where to find them.
Kaji shifts back into his anthro form, grunting a bit as he puts a hand on his stomach. "Fucking bastard," growls out the beast. Kalindi's voice is heard and he replies with, "I don't need a doctor. Just some rest. Envy needs it though." He extends the thread to the woman, and shifts to help her up and hold her as he mutters, "Don't move. I got ya." Hounds look after one another. Or at least Kaji does. With the scratch my back, and I'll scratch your's mentality at times.
Rashmi stumbles slightly as she's hauled to her feet, but nods to Volk, turning to lay down suppressing fire… just in case either of the Hounds or the Hunter get any silly ideas about attacking the wounded. Her free hand comes up, hurriedly motioning to July and Mikhail, urging them onward as fire leaps from the barrel of her borrowed gun. Her legs tremble slightly with the effort of keeping her up in the pain she's in, but she refuses to go down until safety is reached.
July helps Mikhail remain standing and steady, "We're out of here!" she says, and then frowns at Rashmi, "You better be two seconds behind me, or I'm coming bak to get you." She says, and jumps into the portal, taking her friend Mikhail with her if he does not protest.
Kalindi nods at Kaji and says, "We'll get her healed, then, and then you both back to Ahab. I apologize for both of your injuries. I was expecting the help of a sentinel." She marks this point on her GPS and then moves everyone connected to her out of this dimension and into the one that she travels to for teleportation. If nothing else, she has some extra information that she didn't have prior.
Turning as July carries Mikhail through, Volk stops for a moment, and pulls Rashmi close, meeting her eyes with his single one, the glare of the red-eye goggle harsh against her before finally he shoves, and pushes her through the portal… followed by himself just before the spinning pool of blue-green light vanishes. Bullet cases, scorch marks, broken crystals… broken pieces and bloody spots… the green of the spot once more corrupted by the stains of war.
~ Fin ~
