Hiding Out

[Ajiryn]

Ajiryn had seen the shots coming sooner or later, and dropped to the ground to fire off a few of his own. Before he could return fire, he felt a familiar stillness in the air, and out of panic, jumped up and spun around. "No- NOT this again!!!"

He was flung away from the group, and roughly landed on his back, knocking the air out of him. A chill ran down his back as he heard a cry from behind-

"KAZ!" He screamed, a note of fear resounding through the call. No regard to his own safety, he scrambled back up and frantically searched for her.

[Sly]

Out of the five thugs, two were wise enough to take cover when they saw the dragon thingy start to do it's stuff. One hid behind a dumpster, while another stepped around a corner into an alleyway. Sly too had hidden behind the dumpster with guard one. Guard One reloaded while Alley guard continued to fire. He seemed to be focusing his attention on Tifa's pet, considering one fox was down, the other wasn't attacking, and Tifa was behind cover.

Meanwhile, the other three were blown aside easily. Some cuts and bruises, but they were starting to shake themselves off and get up...but that would take a moment. The young kid himself had been flung rather painfully into a telephone pole...leaving a bruise on his back. If he was sleepy before he'd certainly woken up now.

Sly was a little bit peeved by this point, but as was his character he just maintained a poker face. He whistled towards the guards at the trucks briefly. One of the guards nearby climbed into the closest truck and started it up, while others shut the tailgate on the back and hopped in themselves. It looked like they were getting ready to leave. Sly apparently didn't want to stick around fighting these guys if that was the first of many magic tricks they'd use.

All the same, he looked at the wall that Tifa had jumped behind. That dragon was her pet...so Sly figured he should focus his attention on her. So far she had done the most damage. He pulled out an explosive-tipped throwing knife, and hurled it at the ruined wall he saw her jump behind. If the dagger made impact, it would create a small explosion that would probably tear down what was left of the wall, catching Tifa by surprise.

[Tifa Mysteria]

Tifa had her eyes fully closed, seemingly trying to blot out the scene around her. Still her ears couldn't help but pick up Kaz's scream and Aji's shout. She may have been able to take cover but it didn't seem like the others had been so lucky. She wanted to help, she wanted to run...her mind was torn between what she must do and what she wanted to do.

"Do not falter..." spoke a voice in her mind.

Tifa just nodded in response, knowing that Seraph would likely be alright. Herself and her companions were another matter. Had the looters been unarmed or slightly less threatening she may have had a little more courage...but even her firey sense of justice buckled under her fears.

Her spell was almost complete, only the final act of the ritual remaining before it was complete. It was at this point though that the explosive dagger struck the wall. Tifa barely had time to scream as the broken down wall gave way behind her. She was sent sprawling across the ground, flying a good few meters before she hit bottom.

Seraph noticed, turning in mid air and flying so that he was positioned between the soliders and her. He was about to call to her when a familiar feeling filled the air...familiar to Seraph that was. From around where Tifa lay on the ground a sudden circle of light expanded. The circle then quickly shrunk back towards her, a ray flying up into the air and expanding into a circle once again.

The centre of the circle began to crackle and, with a sound similar to breaking glass, the circle exploded. From its centre a ghostly shape appeared, flying down towards the ground. As it drew closer it was clear that the shape was actually a racoon although it appeared to look like a ghost.

"...Orio..." croaked Tifa, her eye twitching as a line of blood ran down across it from a cut in her head. The implosion of the brick wall seemed to have hit her as hard as the shots Kaz had taken.

The racoon glanced back at Tifa as it landed on the ground "Mistress Summoner! Feel the wrath of Orio the Water Spirit you defilers!" It seemed the racoon had a liking of the dramatic.

Springing from the ground, several small bolts of water shot towards Sly. As he landed he gave another jump, another set of water bolts flying off towards the guard in the alley. Orio didn't stop, the racoon spirit seemingly even more nimble than Seraph. Everytime he sprung another volley of bolts flew into the air, quickly turning the area into a miniature rain bolt storm.

[Kazuki Kajimoto]

[Skiiiiiiiiip meeeeeeeeeee]

[Ajiryn]

Ajiryn ran toward Tifa before the knife had struck. He dropped to the ground, and dusted himself off before seeing what her condition was.

"Tifa!" Jumping over the rubble to her, Ajiryn dropped low and tried to see how bad the damage was- Nothing lethal, but still bad. And then there was still Kaz... He couldn't even find her! This was turning out bad already. With only he and a water spirit, which he had no control over, defending against wide numbers, Ajiryn felt a small bit of doubt.

His fiery combat spirit seemed to frazzle, and surrendering popped into his mind for a fraction of a second- But Kazuki's scream had echoed through his mind, seemingly setting him in a burning rage. His entire right arm began to tingle slightly, as if threatening to combust at any moment. Turning on his heels, he spied the truck preparing to leave.

"Somebody... who comes out of nowhere... at a time like this... and... HARMS my friend... and they want to leave....."

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!"

Ajiryn targeted the truck, and within the second, took a quick note of everything- Distance, opponents, chances of anything being able to damage the vehicle-

"That looks almost military-like... My shots and fire attacks wouldn't even scratch it. There's got to be a weak spot..." Then it clicked in his head. "The trick itself is bulletproof... fireproof... probably even resists explosions- But that's just on the side. If I really wanted to do something..." He eyed the truck suspiciously, before he caught it- the underside.

"Just because the truck is fireproof doesn't mean the gas tank is." Ajiryn swapped out for his Nova Star- this was gonna be tricky.

He glanced around, to make sure he avoided going out blindly into the enemy's sights. Spinning on the spot, he flung the yo-yo as far as he could in the direction of the truck, and released a nova their way. Peering out of his cover, he saw it slide neatly under the vehicle.

"I'll show them..." Ajiryn eyed the truck cautiously- only a few seconds until firework-time.

[Sly]

The explosion caused the truck to flip over, landing on its back. The grunts who'd been getting up from Tifa's first attack were suddenly flung forward by the force of the explosion...flipping over and banging across the concrete. Tifa's water attack also succeeded in knocking over the guard in the alleyway. Sly, however, saw that strange raccoon coming and used a Speed Jump to leap right out of the way...so the shots intended for him hit the guard behind the dumpster with him.

So, Sly had speed jumped into the middle of the street. He started running towards where Kazuki had lain down...due to the gunshot wounds. Looked like he was planning to grab her, and use her to force the others to stop this fighting. Sly's main talent was speed at short range, so he'd be where Kaz was in just a couple more seconds. He was obviously expecting that raccoon to try to peg him in the back...not to mention other attacks from the two in the alley...so he weaved back and forth as he ran, picking unpredictable patterns.

Meanwhile, the hero group would hear the noise of other trucks. The wreckage down the street mostly obscured it, but it seemed the first one blowing up had caused the drivers of the others on this street to change plans. They were backing up and turning around to take other streets, in order to avoid having to pass by the hero group. Sure, they'd stopped one, but it didn't look like the hero group would get a shot at any of the others.

Simultaneously, more troops were moving in to support Sly, considering the fighting had been hard to miss with the commotion it made. If they didn't leave soon, they'd be surrounded.

[Tifa Mysteria]

Orio had been looking very smug with himself at the effect of his water bolts. That was until he saw that Sly was on the move, upon which point the raccoon spirit took off again. Bounding towards Sly as fast as he could his flurry of water bolts didn't stop although Sly's weaving was causing his aim to miss.

Seraph was still there though, floating next to Tifa in a very protective sort of manner. He had seen Sly make a bee-line for Kazuki and didn't need to be told what he planned to do. Although bound to Tifa and sworn to protect her, Seraph was mindful of the fact that her two companions were not bad people.

He spun himself into a circle in mid air, his body crackling slightly before a sudden bolt of air shot from the middle of the circle across Sly's path. The first was joined by a second, aimed further towards Kazuki and practically cutting just above her. They weren't aimed to hit, they were aimed to simply cause Sly to either dodge, and hence delay his arrival at Kazuki, or to stop his advance entirely.

"Ajiryn...I know you can hear me." Seraph was speaking to him via telepathy, if the fox didn't freak out he hoped he would agree. "This situation is disadvantageous to us. We have wounded and there is more to come. My task is to protect my summoner...I believe you should protect your friend."

As if on cue, Orio swung to the side, no longer pursuing Sly and instead heading straight towards Tifa. The spaniel herself was still concious but looked worse for wares and quite weak.

[Kazuki Kajimoto]

Kazuki lay motionless, until she sensed the bolts flying over her. A small cry, and a pained effort, she was up on her knees, trying to take shelter in a more suitable place. She saw Sly running towards her, and let out a frighten yell, stumbling backwards. She was in no shape, still bleeding, and now he was attacking her.

"He-he's relentless!"

Her energy seemed to come back a bit- mostly because of fear- as she tried to drag herself away from Sly. A small electrical current started to form in her palm.

"H-h-h-HELP!"

[Ajiryn]

Ajiryn froze on the spot- Was he talking to himself?

"It's pronounced AH-jeer-ihn, actually."

"Shut up! It's trying to tell you something!"

"Oops. Sorry."

Ajiryn listened to Seraph's advice- the spirit had a point. "I know! I just needed a distraction- I think the truck opened up a few seconds. Ajiryn's main goal was to ensure nothing had happened to Kazuki- but he had a deep seated dread; Those few seconds he lost sight of her, anything could've happened.

He dashed out, and sprinted towards the spot he last heard Kazuki, when she screamed again. His eyes were locked on her, and he felt a slight relief. It vanished as soon as he saw her chest bleeding, and even worse, Sly trying to reach her.

"No- Kaz-!" He felt short of breath- she had been more than wounded!

"Kazuki!" His stomach felt as if it flipped on itself. Continuing full sprint, he saw that he wasn't going to get to her before he did- Until his mind churned out another idea.

Tossing the yo-yo only inches from Kazuki, he threw it in an arc, so the teeth would lodge into the ground. Still going full speed, he tilted he body slightly to the side, and tugged at the cord, sending himself into a slide directed at where Sly would be- Ajiryn held the lancer parallel to the ground, as he bolted across the ground towards Sly.

[Sly]

Orio's first air attack, however, had forced Sly to stop dead in his tracks, as expected. But because of that, Ajiryn's aim was off. He'd been expecting Sly to keep running no matter what. So the cheetah watched amusingly as Ajiryn slid right past him. Then he used a second Speed Jump to get behind Kaz. He attempted to wring one arm around her neck, while putting a bowie knife towards the throat with the other hand.

Using Speed Jump twice in a row meant he couldn't use it again for a while...his body couldn't take the strain...but now that he had a hostage it probably wouldn't matter.