Kay Talasse's Story

"Did you see that, Ziggy?!"

"Yup. What about it?"

"Ziggy." The boy turned to his companion in disbelief, almost falling off his perch. "He's got a dragon with him! Like you and me!" He waved his hands around expressively, trying to demonstrate the bond between him and his partner. Ziggy just sighed and waited. "It's the first time we see someone who's dracu-draci-"

"Dracari," The dragon said, with practiced ease and the long-suffering tone of one who had repeated the words so many times he was almost sick of it. "Dracari, how many times have I told you that -"

The boy waved a hand. "Whatever," he said dismissively, destroying the rant Ziggy had been about to go on. So what if he couldn't remember the word Dracari? It was only one word. Or two. Ok, more like almost a gazillion words, but they were all so difficult! And who cared, Ziggy would be there to help him anyway. He leaned in, eyes gleaming with excitement. "Point is, it's the first time we've ever seen someone like us, so he knows more than we do! So can we?! Maybe he'll be able to tell us more about the world -"

"Kay..."

"- and I'm pretty bored anyway, and I know you're bored too - I can feel you, remember? - and I'm pretty sure that you want to meet him too, and he's my age so maybe we'll be able to get along and make a new friend!" Kay's face practically beamed with happiness at the thought. "I mean, you're lonely, right? You don't want other people to see you and all you ever do is talk to cats; now that another dragon is here you can talk to someone else other than me who can reply back! Two someone's," Kay corrected himself, remembering the boy freefalling from the building opposite theirs. He grinned at Ziggy, proud of his logic. "Whaddaya say? Let's meet him?"

A moment of silent. Then Ziggy sighed deeply. "Fine," he said like it was some chore, but there wasn't any fire in it Kay could feel his heart going lighter. "Fine, lets go." Kay broke out into cheers at that, and Ziggy allowed a small grin to form on his face as he burrowed back into the red backpack Kay had brought with him. "Do you even know where they're heading?" He asked, ducking inside the backpack.

Kay thought for a moment. "Um, no...?" He said sheepishly, pulling on the backpack. He'd been too busy being awestruck at seeing the other kid fly like that. It rested comfortably around his shoulders, and he began walking towards the elevator. "Did you see them?"

"Heading to a restaurant, I'll point it out to you later. Looked more like a cafe, though. One with those student meals." Ziggy muttered, his voice barely reaching Kay's ears. "You wanted to meet him, but didn't check where he was going..." he sighed affectionately. "What would you have done if I hadn't seen, huh? Search everywhere for the guy?"

"Yup, probably. But you always cover for me, so it'll never happen! Turned out fine this time, right?"

"....Hmph."

Alex was many things. Thief. Fighter. Occasional sociopath/psychopath. Insane. But one could never say he was not interesting.

As Alex and Prax sat in the resteraunt, Prax out of view though, a man came and sat down in front of him. Alex was not used to this next part, but he susposed he had to expect it. "What do you want?"

"Rumor has it you are an expert in....shadows" he mentioned. "And odd creatures".

Alex nearly put a knife to the man's neck when he said that last part. Does he know about Prax? How could he? And who was this guy to approach him in a cop free resteraunt with no less then five escape paths visible and several more likely hidden? You had to remember that Alex was a thief, and he was a good thief.

"What do you mean by that? And why does everyone insist on being so cryptic, seriously?" Alex mentioned as he ate.

"Lets just say, rumor has it you are the best thief around, and someone has a statue of a Golden Dragon I want. The catch? Its locked inside a vault in a private bank by a Draxian Empire Warlord moving through the region. I know the rules, half up front, half on delivery. We have a deal?"

Alex never was one to turn down a fight with the Draxian Empire. However, as he left, he noticed something else. Four people were tailing him. "Praxic. We have trouble behind us. Four of them".

"And we are in a public place. Great...."

"I know! This is going to be fun!" Alex mentioned with joy.

"Oh dear...."

"How many are we up to?" Alex asked his partner. "Because I count at least six people tailing us".

"You missed three. I count nine people tailing us since we left. Exactly how long are we going to lead them on?"

"Until the alleyway up ahead. Then we get to fight them".

"And here I thought we were going do have some common sense and lose them".

"Losing isn't any fun" Alex reminded Prax.

Alex walked into the alleyway, and Prax sprang out from his backpack and they both hid behind a dumpster. Twelve people, who all took out weapons, entered the alley and began looking for them. "I thought you said you counted nine?"

"THere were a lot of glowing people behind us. Its hard to keep track" Prax mentioned. "So, shall we surprise them?"

Alex then used one of his special powers. He froze time, and launched multiple fireball attacks against them all. Of course, the fireballs all froze in time too because Alex did not include them, so they would all hit their marks at the exact same time. He then went who looked towards the leader as time resumed, picked up a pipe, and hit him in the side of the chest.

"Okay, so. WHo are you, and why are you following me?"

Suddenly, his hand began to glow, and a blast of magical energy hit Alex right in the face and knocked both him and Prax back. Meanwhile, he summoned a large sword out of magic itself. "We are the hunters now, and you two? You are our prey".

Suddenly, each and every other person started to stand up, the extensive burns they should have already healed. "Prax? I think we have a problem".

"Full combat mode?"

"Full combat mode" Alex confirmed, as his tail appeared. Fireballs appears in both hands, as well as his mouth. Prax turned into his adult form. "Now! Hell's Inferno technique!"

Praxic let loose a stream of fire on the right side of the alley, while Alex incinerated the left side with his firebreath. He then launched two firebolts at their leader, just to be safe.

The real question is: Would it be enough?

(The first combat! THat should give people stuff to reply to)

"Holy shit!" were the unladylike words that spewed from Vanilla's mouth as a fireball exploded below. Now, having lived in the 'barbaric wilderness' for a few years hadn't exactly conditioned her proper manners in public, but she was pretty sure that cussing loudly from some random stranger's balcony wasn't a socially accepted activity.

She almost used equally un-ladylike language when time slowed, the boy-angel picked up a pipe, and smashed it into the side of a man. She had to give the boy some credit for that. Awake yet? Desona teased, popping into her mind. And watch your language. Shame on you. If you must know, the owner of this balcony just woke up and is angrily heading our way. So, I suggest you wash out your mouth and get off the balcony.

Leaping from the balcony to the shingled roof with the agility she'd picked up in the forests, Vanilla looked down on the battle with her lips quirked to one side. Doesn't seem we've been noticed. Want to join in? Vanilla pondered the suggestion; Desona was right, they hadn't been seen. Probably heard, though, from YOUR DIRTY MOUTH! Vanilla sighed. They might as well.

Tapping into her partner's flight capabilities, Vanilla jumped and floated gently to the ground. She merged with Desona in spirit, and sent down a blast of sonic power. It set fire [stylishy blue!] to one very unlucky bad guy, who fell to the ground, clutching his deafened ears. Probably not permanent. He'll be okay in a week or so. Vanilla was a little shocked. They'd never used their abilities to that magnitude, or on a human before- not even an evil one.

"Hey! What's up?" She yelled to the younger Dracari boy, sprinting past one of the evil people at the speed of sound, grabbing the ankle of the guy and sending him to the ground rather ungracefully. Nothing beat traditional hand-to-hand combat for Vanilla, but Desona was getting restless.

Lunch had been delicious, although Kay and Ziggy had to share it. It had been difficult to make sure that no one saw Kay dumping half his plate into the tupperware on his lap and placing it into his bag so that Ziggy could eat without anybody noticing. He was a bit upset that he couldn't join the new Dracu-Draci-Dracari (yes, he got it right! Ziggy was going to be so proud of him! Or just grumble that he should've gotten it sooner while feeling happy anyway), since he was talking to a friend. Or maybe his uncle; Kay couldn't quite understand their conversation even though his enhanced hearing allowed him to hear some parts of it.

Ziggy had been kinda distracted, though. He'd been a bit confused, staring at an old man who'd entered and then a girl around his age with long blue hair. Kay could feel his confusion and shock, but when Kay tried to ask him, Ziggy wouldn't say anything other than "Nah, it's nothing" and "No seriously it's nothing go back to eating your meal" and "Stop talking to me people are going to think you're crazy talking to a bag or suspect you're a Dracari and I don't want to get arrested you dumbass", which wasn't helpful at all.

Kay frowned, annoyed and somewhat worried. Maybe Ziggy would tell him after they talked to the other Dracari?

Talking after lunch became a moot point when they tried to catch up to the other kid and found him fighting with nine thugs like a superhero fighting the mooks of the villain on TV. Ziggy's head popped up out of the bag to stare in awe as time slowed, allowing the child and dragon to give the enemy some serious burns. His head turned to meet Kay's, and they both nodded to each other - no way were they sitting this one out! He was outnumbered, they had to help him!

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!" Kay yelled, charging towards the mooks. Startled, they're heads turned towards him, and Kay pummelled the nearest one just as the girl from the restaurant merged with her dragon (so she was Dracari too?! Awesome!) landed on the ground and set one of the bad guys on fire. Which was also awesome, and Ziggy made effort to do the same thing to the mook sneaking up to Kay's back, only with white fire so cold that it burned and a roar that sounded angry and protective and filled with unrepeatable words directed to the mooks.

(If Kay had bothered to make out the words, he'd have heard Ziggy screaming "NEVER AGAIN YOU ASSHOLES!" with an undercurrent of fear in his tone that wasn't exactly an undercurrent but more like an echo that was well hidden under shouting annoyance. But he didn't, because he was too busy activating his strength buff and charging towards the fight in front of him.)

The thug doubled over with a wheeze that sounded more surprised than anything as Kay sunk a fist into his gut, his strength buff enhancing the blow. Grinning half in fear and half with adrenaline, Kay drew back his fist and struck twice in rapid succession. He was halfway through the third strike when the thug gave a low growl and caught his fist, tightening his grip. Wincing in pain, Kay quickly brought his other hand down on the thug's arm as hard as he could (which considering his strength buff was very hard) and evaded to the side as the thug swung his fist towards where Kay's side had been a second ago.

A hand reached for him out of the corner of his eye, and Kay spun and gave a roundhouse kick to the guy sneaking up behind him. The thug grunted but grabbed his foot, then yelled in pain when Ziggy clawed at his back. Kay wrenched his foot back and used the opportunity to kick the guy in the nuts as hard as he could before charging towards another thug sneaking up on the boy they'd first followed.

"Careful, I think they're immune to fire!" Ziggy yelled above his head as Kay gave a flying kick towards Mook3. He hit his target, and Kay only had a moment to be grateful to all those martial arts lessons Ziggy had bugged him into going to before Mook3 landed on the floor with a beautiful tumble that ended with his head landing against the wall with a crack.

Man, that was scary! Kay landed on the ground with a crouch, a shocked look on his face. I've never done that before, geez that was awesome - uh oh.

Kay quickly straightened up as mook3 howled frustratedly and got up, a homicidal look in his eyes that quite clearly stated that children or not, he was going to kill them. Painfully. A ball that radiated magic formed in his hand, and Kay gulped as it took the form of a staff taller than him. Kay dodged to the left as mook3 jabbed at him, but his hand jerked and suddenly the staff was sweeping left, knocking Kay into the wall with a loud crack and knocking the wind out of his lungs.

Beline brushed some dirt off of his pants as he slid under a chain link fence back into the city. The suburban slum certainly wasn't a place Beline wanted to be seen, but it was certainly the easiest place to slip out of the city. He slid the duffel from his bag and waited for Mukestral to climb in.
"Come on Mu. We're going to be late for dinner." Mu growled at him, and Beline turned.
Mu was sitting straight up in her adult form and glaring at him. Mu's adult form was a couple of heads taller than Beline and to put it simply there was no way she would fit under the gate. She sent a series of annoyed images before turning away from him with another low growl.
"If you didn't want to hunt, you should've just said so." She mumbled. She didn't give Beline time to play innocent as she fixed him with a hard glare.
"You don't miss Bel. We should've had that deer."
"I was distracted," Beline explained before immediately feeling Mu's mistrust. "And not by the usual things."
Mu raised a scaly eyebrow as she turned to slightly face Beline.
"I saw something flying across the sky as we were coming. Too big to be a bird or glider. Do you think...?" Bel didn't finish the question but Mukestral felt the hope in his tone. Mu's head cocked in sympathy before letting out a sigh. In one smooth motion she cleared the fence and was wrapping a wing around Bel.
"Know what I think," She said suddenly cheery. "Your old eyes see nothing but memories." she mimicked his voice as she repeated what he had told her many times.
She giggled as Beline turned to correct her and she shimmied her now child form into the bag.
Beline smiled at at her in the bag as he made his way out of the slum.
<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Beline teased Mu with feelings of hunger as they passed the many busy people on the street. She returned feeling of annoyance as the bag shimmied just enough annoy Beline right back. Beline did feel guilty about messing up the hunt for her. He owed her some form of meat. and a lot of it. he was heading towards a restaurant that would fit that description that he also knew to be Mu's favorite.
As they reached the same block as the restaurant, Mukestral's messages switched from annoyance to alarm.
"Open the bag!" she whispered in a muffled tone through the thick bag. This wasn't mu's usual misbehaving, and Beline immediately began adapting his to cover the roof of the bag. The top of Mukestral's head was out sniffing as soon as she noticed the cloak.
"what so important?" Beline grunted, looking around to make sure no one noticed. Most were too self occupied although he did catch a few raised eyebrows.
"I smell something! Something too familiar..." She trailed off as her nose searched for the smell.
"Its probably just the restaurant." Bel reasoned and tried to keep moving.
"No! I've only smelled this smell around you before, or by myself. Its..." Her snout raced in circles as she tried to locate the smell.
"Dragon." Bel finished. Sternly he looked over the crowd around him activating his dragon sight. Moving against a wall he let his instincts take over slightly. His eyes darting to every moment. A girl gliding down from a building. got ya.

Beline began shoving aside the crowd toward the alley just before Mukestral got a lock on the scent. Bel and mu turned the corner just in time to see enough definitively Dracari things to assess the situation.
"Well its too obvious whats going on here." Mu said with a sneer going across her maw. Beline looked at the commuters moving just behind him.
"This amount of guys shouldn't take too long," Bel thought as he began to draw energy from his amethyst ring into his fingers. "Stay in the bag." Beline directed as he slid the duffel off his back.
"You won't deny me another hunt, Bel." she said easily worming out of the bag once it was down. he face looked too eager to be back in a battle. She smartly noted that her adult for would be cramped to fit the alley, but Bel had never seen her child form look bigger. Flaring up his wings her feathers danced as she roared into alleyway. She took advantage of their brief stun to jump on the nearest hitman with bared teeth.

meanwhile Beline had fully cloaked himself and snuck across the edges of the alley. These weren't normal forces bell could see from their black leather armor and matching insignias. About half of them were armed with conventional weapons but others were generating sparkling bolts of magic and spectral swords. One of them was preparing to strike strike a young Dracari.
With hidden speed, Bel rushed to this one with fingers crackling with contained blue and white lightning. Bel delivered two quick fingers to the back of this figure's neck and watched his limbs lock and sword disappear.
A bolt of fire whizzed by his head and he quickly located his assailant. Moving serpentine towards them Beline punched the female soldier in the gut. Pulsing as much electricity through the armor as he could. He left her kneeling and twitching.

He cast a glance at kestral on the other side of the battle. She was biting into a soldier's leg as he attempted to plunge a knife into her back. Bel took a step towards her, but she instinctively reacted to her plight. Her tail whipped up and wrapped around the wrists of the soldier. Between her tail and jaws, she pulled the soldier, worsening his leg wound, before throwing him against a wall with her tail. It may have been the blood on her teeth, but she hadn't looked this alive in a while. Mu caught the admiration, just before Beline received his own punch in the gut.

OOC: Gosh dang school keeping me from posting. Sorry for the irregular and long posts. Just want to ensure Beline doesn't get lost.

2F43D9

(Sorry for the delay, had to write two essays over the weekend! Post coming up within the next few hours hopefully!)

(That moment, when you see six accepted characters but only remember accepting five? Just happened)

The fact that these people survived all those attacks confirmed two things. One, they are really strong. Two, they are not human, but in fact products of magic and/or science. Because they came out of that barely scratched.

Oh, and now the appearance of all the other Dracari made Alex really nervous. "Prax, where did they come from?!"

"Well gee, its not like we did not just fly across the sky using a stolen Draxian Hoverboard or anything".

"Oh, this cannot all be from that! We were like, nine thousand miles in the air!"

"First of all, the atmosphere does not even hit triple digits. I am not sure it goes past ten miles. Secondly, I would think a flying anything would attract people!"

Alex crossed his arms in protest, but stopped when he dodged the swipe of a sword from their leader. "Did you really think we would not find you?"

Alex stopped time again, and he could feel Prax glaring at him. He could also feel the toll on his body, stopping time twice in close proximity to one another. And this was not just a pause, but a rewind. As he rewound for a few seconds, he changed position. When time resumed, everyone would watch as the man charged forward to where Alex used to be...and then tripped and face planted into the floor.

"Come on, I can keep doing this all day!" Alex yelled. But he couldn't. Six times. That was the amount of times he had paused or rewound time in close proximity. It used to be lower, but he worked on it. The seventh time will cause him to pass out, or endure extreme pain. He had no desire to have either happen to him. While the hunters might not see it, the tuned senses of the Dracari would be able to tell that it was taking a toll on Alex each time he used his power. It was powerful, sure, but it clearly had its costs.

The lead hunter got up, and charged at Alex again. He was clearly pissed off about the whole being tripped thing. Alex decided to conserve his remaining time charges, and instead chose to use his Chronoclocking ability as he caused it, seeing a few seconds in the future to avoid every attack he made. To the others around him, it would simply look like he was gracefully avoiding all the attacks as if he was extremely predictable. BUt Prax knew, this power had a price too.

That was the deal with Alex Mason and Praxic. All of his powers were extremely powerful, but all of them had a price to balance them out. He bent space and time, and it left its strain on his body.

Which is why Prax interrupted Alex's power by blasting the hunter with a large fireball to knock him down. Prax flew over to Alex. "We should run".

"Why, this is fun! And its nice to have some revenge".

"You do realize this is not a game. They are trying to kill you!"

"That is what makes it fun! And I am tired of running!" Alex told him, as three other hunters approached him. As their leader got up, Alex kicked him right in the stomach severely hurting him, and picked up his sword. To be honest, he wanted to run. The other Dracari were the ones that scared him. So many showing up at once? The odds were uncalcuable. But he was not going to run from the hunters. And if these Dracari were enemies, he would take them down too. "Now. Who is next?"

Xander was running through the crowds, trying to pinpoint where the screech he'd heard was. He didn't think anyone else had heard it, unless they had the enhanced senses of a Dracari, but that had definitely been a dragon roar and Xander kind of thought they needed help, since any dragon normally tried to be hidden so that they wouldn't die via the government.

Kiel wasn't being any help either. "What do you think the dragon'd be like?" He chattered excitedly inside the bag slung across his shoulders. Xander ignored him and hoped nobody heard. "Seems to be a sonic, but I can't really figure out if it's male or female and - oh hey turn left."

Xander spun to the left without stopping and ran faster, heading straight towards a deserted alleyway. As he got closer, the sounds of battle reached his ears, and he swore under his breath. "Stay in there, Kiel," he warned, his worry combating Kiel's excitement in their bond. "I'm not entirely sure whether they're fighting their way out and I won't be able to help if they know I'm a Dracari. Stay down."

Kiel muttered to the confirmative and stopped moving just as Xander turned the corner. He stopped, shocked by the scene.

There were twelve people fighting four Dracari in an alleyway. Three were down, and old man with a feathered dragon were fighting another two, A boy in an anorak was being saved from a thug by a white dragon biting his shoulder, a girl was fighting another two and a kid holding a sword larger than he was in his hands was in a facedown with four people - three, Xander corrected himself, noticing one of them cradling his stomach on the ground. He saw the insignia on their armour, and he knew that they were Dracari Hunters, sponsored by the government. And it was extremely obvious who the Dracari were.

This wasn't something he could handle. Xander took a deep breath to calm himself, his heart racing. He was originally going to call the police, but that wouldn't help the situation here. Also, the kid with the sword looked ready to kill and Xander really didn't like the idea of a kid killing people in cold blood. That... that was just wrong in his opinion. They hadn't noticed him yet, but sooner or later they would. He'd have to act fast before that happened.

Charging forward, Xander silently sprinted to the trio. He turned into a blur as wind was ejected from his hands, and before the hunters could react Xander was behind them and knocking them out with a chop to the neck. They collapsed without a sound, and Xander stomped on their heads as an extra precaution. He didn't stomp too hard since he didn't want them dead, but the pressure would be enough to knock them out. Then he turned to the boy and his dragon with a worried look on his face, Kiel popping his head out of the bag to look at them with curiosity, leaning his neck on Xander's shoulders.

"Um, are you ok?! A-A-And what's going on?!" Dracari Hunters weren't good for his health, but what on earth were they doing here?! He and Kiel were going to have to hide after this, he didn't want to die. Oh no, what if they had support on the way?! All of them would have to leave if that was the case. Noticing that the kid seemed strained, Xander added worriedly "Are you ok?"

The woman was wrong about one assumption. She thought Alex was too tired to manipulate time again. Which is why as he turned around reacting to her voice right as she lunged forward, he was about to freeze time. Except instead, he fell through a portal below him.

Prax had shot out a portal under Alex, and another next to himself, causing Alex to land on his feet next to Prax and avoid the blow. "Save your strength. I smell something off with her. She is no normal hunter".

Alex then noticed it too. Her smell was off. Different then the others. "She is a specialist".

One of the other hunters ran towards him, believing him to be an easy target. He quickly slashed the guy's head off, before Prax incinerated his body with enough fire he could not regenerate, and being fire resistant would not be enough to save him. While the attack was not as large as when they used their signature attack, Hell's Inferno, you could feel the heat from the attack all over the Alley, and it burned brighter. Prax had been holding back.

Alex smiled, remembering the rules they had set for whenever they entered full combat mode. Rule 1 was to never start off with your full strength, but to use weaker versions of attacks, even if you could use the stronger ones without difficulty. When they used their Hell's Inferno technique, they did not use their hottest fire, to conserve energy and because they thought it was enough. Alex could freeze time for a few seconds longer then he had been. Granted, its only a few seconds, but it weakens him less.

Rule 2 was never show your hand at the start. As of yet, they had only used two techniques. The first was the one they started with, Time's Rage they called it. It was when he stopped time and hit them all with a fireball at once. Hell's Inferno was the second. They had others as well they had not used yet.

And finally, Rule 3. It was a really simple rule. Teamwork. They had other rules, but those three were the core base.

The hunter who had survived the Hell's Inferno technique did not survive this time. But they both knew this hunter was no normal hunter. She had experience fighting Dracari. Which meant, use full force, or risk death. Alex wasn't even sure Full Force would be enough.

"Position Change! Delta Position!" Alex called out. Prax jumped into the air, while Alex position himself so that they were flanking her. He was on the right, Prax was in the air on the left. At the same time they flanked her, Alex opened a portal a distance behind her that would create a triangle with her in the middle. Alex did not use a full change to stop time, but slowed it somewhat so she could not react as quickly. And before giving her any more time anyways, they used their next technique. "Three pronged assault!"

Alex and Prax then launched an assault of fireballs, one of them occasionally generating a portal around every third shot so that the hunter was attacked from all three sides. The assault was clever in the fact it was impossible for them to hit eachother with the crossfire. If any attacks missed, they would either land between Prax and Alex, between Alex and the flank portal, or between Prax and the flank portal.

Which is why people believe Prax when he claims he was the one who created it, not Alex.

Beline sidestepped a sword before it could swing down into his shoulder. Thrusting forward he grabbed the soldiers arm and twisted it behind his back. He wrenched it upwards as he stalled for his next move. His lightning had been effective so far at paralyzing them, but it was only a matter of time before they started waking up. Try and try as they might to kill him, he wasn't looking to get a criminal record in the city. Feeling the soldier start to shift in front of him, Bel grunted as he dislocated the arm and shoved away his opponent. The soldier clutched his shoulder and barely resisted screaming out in agony. Stumbling backwards he tripped over kestral as she dashed toward Bel. Noting the new danger falling behind her, Kestral dug her claws into the falling foe as she leaped the rest of the way toward Bel. She skidded to a stop beside him, already scanning the battlefield for anyone who dare come near them.

Bel and kestral couldn't look any more different despite fighting for the same period of time. Besides the sweat of his brow and a couple of easily repairable knicks in his jacket Beline was unharmed. Kestral's blue scales were covered were starkly contrasted by the dark red blood around her muzzle and claws, but Bel couldn't perceive any actual injuries. Glancing around, the Dracari seemed to be unharmed except for one black dragon with a leg injury. Five Dracari versus now less than 12 soldiers didn't at all seem like a fair fight. Then again, they were regenerating.
"Aw the fights almost over and we haven't done anything fun yet," Mukestral chided from beside him. "You wouldn't want to be outdone by these kids right?"
Bel cracked a small smile as he began to play through their list of strategies. He would gush later at his excitement for seeing other Dracari and could care less what they thought of him. A popping noise signified the soldier in front of them had regained his ability to fight.
"Hidden thunder." He announced to kestral as a toothy grin appeared on her muzzle. Bel dropped his cloak (if someone looked into this alley they had much more to be suprised by) and diverted all of it to turning kestral invisible. As soon as she couldn't be seen, Beline felt her wing brush past him as she charged forward to begin her terror. He watched as the soldier in front of him fell again and was torn into by an unseen force.
As he watched Kestral in action and felt her euphoria, he allowed himself to give in a bit more to his own instincts. Just in time as he heard a sword about to swipe down upon him. Lightning fast, he twisted around and grabbed the neck with one hand and the attackers sword hand in the other. Instinctively he began pumping electricity into the soldier. The soldier convulsed before going limp in Bel's grasp. Bel caught the sword before it could fall. He was rusty at swordsmanship, but in the very least it was a good conductor.

Bel and Mu progressed fluidly through the rest of the battle until Bel noticed the specialist. Beline returned to his rational mind in an instant and so did Mukestral when she noticed Beline's alarm. Beline and Kestral had defeated specialist before, but seldom through honorable combat. In the few occasions that they had, Mu and Bel made it out injured. And that was when they were younger. Still as Bel turned, he saw one of the young Dracari fighting surprisingly well against a female specialist. Great as he was fighting now, Bel didn't like the odds of one on one.
"Round up the other dracari. None of them intervene." Beline had already made up his mind. He didn't know enough about any of the factors to say who had the advantage here. Almost certainly he could say that the specialist had more combat experience than most of them. Beline and this kid could distract her until they gained the advantage. Until then he'd prefer that Mu prepare them to run. He still wanted the chance to speak to all of them after all.
"Right." Said Mukestral, appearing beside him. She dropped her usual humor in light of his urgency. Seeing his start to focus on his impending challenge, Mu bounded off toward where other Dracari were picking themselves up.

Leaning against the hilt of his confiscated sword, he began to assess the situation. He still had enough energy to put up a good fight so long as it was quick. He'd at least skimmed the Dracari as he used his abilities, so he felt he had a good feeling on the arsenal he could add. The specialist was armed with a sword and strong armor but they were seldom all they appeared to be. The specialist was surrounded by 3 portals all spouting fireballs. And if she dodges to the....or to the...and counter with...Bel's mind was whirring with possibilities. As much as he wanted a surprise entrance into battle, he didn't want the boy to fight on his own for much longer. He felt a crackling in his throat before shooting off three concentrated needles of lightning toward the specialist. He would keep his distance unless otherwise needed. The bolts approached their target fast and Bel shot off more distracting bolts after them.
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You've done enough fighting. Bel's doing you a favor. His plan won't work the other way around. Mukestral tried to rationalize leaving Bel behind as she bounded away from him. He was..... functional by himself she supposed. And anyway she was probably the better people person.
She moved into the relative center of the remaining Dracari as she continued thinking. Then again she didn't just have to be a people person, but a dragon person as well. Were there specific dragon courtesies she didn't know? Whatever, she was the elder here her word goes.
"All all of you okay?" she asked no Dracari in particular. She hadn't taken much time to look at the dragons whiled she'd been fighting, but now saw just how diverse and different they were. She loosened her night sky wings from her side as she tried to appear confident in front of the dracari.

"Thanks Ziggy!" Kay bounded to his feet as the dragonhunter screamed in pain and reared back, clutching at the bite on his shoulder. Ziggy leapt to the right as Kay kicked him in the shins, and then Ziggy's tail went up in a blur and hit the man right between the legs.

Kay winced. The dragonhunter let out a high-pitched squeak that could've belonged to a mouse and keeled over, clutching at his man-bits. Ziggy, for his part, looked almost unapologetic turning an eye to look at the battle-field, but Kay could feel his shock and the urge to apologise coming from their bond. Since he knew Ziggy wouldn't say anything, Kay took it upon himself to mutter "Sorry." and gingerly walk past the guy, hoping that he'd recover from that.

He and Ziggy was rounded up by a feathered blue dragon (ooh, she looked so cool!} along with the other Dracari, a blonde young man with a spiky green dragon tucked inside the bag slung over his shoulder and a girl that looked a year older than him with an injured black dragon. Ziggy hovered at his side, and Kay turned to answer the dragon's question.

"We're good!" It wasn't like they could hurt me, since I can heal pretty fast. Kay thought, as Ziggy flew towards the girl and her dragon. Kay followed, and he came to a stop in front of the dragon, examining her leg. "You're injured though, let me help!" He smiled cheerily at her, and his hands started to glow a faint silvery shade. He tentatively placed his hand on the dragon's injured leg, leaving her plenty of time to pull away if she wanted to. If she accepted his help, the wound would glow the same silvery shade as his hand and close, lessening the pain as the wound closed and disappeared.

Meanwhile, Xander was talking to the feathered dragon in a low tone, Kiel keeping an eye on the battle and ready to warn them in case the situation changed. His arms hung loose at his sides, and there was a worried but serious expression on his face as he asked "What did you gather us for? I'll try to help, if I can."

(So, I will be posting later today, but BurningDark, where did you go? D:)

(sorry for the late post, school came up and I had a bit of trouble getting used to it again.)

"Um..." I was banished to the city for exposing my superiors corruption in order to save my friend wasn't something Xander told people right off the bat. "I moved here a few years ago for school." Was what he said, after a moments consideration. "It's where I met Kiel." He nodded carefully to the spiky green dragon resting in the bag on his shoulder, still watching the battle with startling intensity.

Technically true. He did move here to change schools, and he did meet Kiel in the city. The circumstances about his move to the city was something she didn't need to know. The news popularity had finally died down, and Xander saw no need to remind people of it unless he absolutely needed to.

But that wasn't important right now. A specialist, huh...

"Got it." Xander nodded seriously, mind connecting the dots. Even though Dracari were normally strong, he was pretty sure that it wouldn't be a good idea to prolong fighting, and splitting up had its advantages. The fighters could concentrate on fighting and getting away instead of worrying about the ones in the back, and if she won then at least people got away and there was a chance of rescue (if they weren't killed on the spot).

It was a good plan, all things considered. Except...

"I don't think your partner can do without you right now," he said, trying for tact. "If she's trouble like you say she is, then it might be for the best if you go help. I'll lead the kids to the safe spot instead." He had more muscle than the other two thanks to work and age, so he'd be able to give the kids help if they were ambushed on the way by any more Dracari hunters, and fulfil her objective of getting them to safety. He looked at her, unsure if she would agree. "Would that be alright?"

(sorry for the delay, RL stuff got in the way. Expect a post tonight, for reals this time)

(So, short post, because I am kinda waiting for BurningDark's reaction)

Meanwhile, overhead, things did not get better. As if by magic, stormclouds and a thick fog descended upon the town. Lighting struck everywhere it seemed, and rain poured down. Not enough to put out any of Alex's fire attacks, but enough so that everyone was getting drenched.

And then, in the sky, a battleship from the Empire appeared overhead. Never a good sign for Dracari.

(There, something for you all to react to! Try to avoid the magically enhanced lightning (the cause of which is still unknown :3)

[OOC: I'm sooo sorry, end of quarter work overwhelmed me and I was busy! I'll be more regular now.]

Delphi watched as the boy fell into a portal. "Clever little dragon boy. Lucky for you," she dropped a cylinder into the portal after him, "I'll be right behind you." The small metal cylinder shot out of the portal and exploded, and Delphi sprinted to the shower of sparks. She threw a couple returning knives at passing dragons, the flashes of color not making a difference to her- until she spotted the blue bird-dragon. She knew this pair. They'd battled her a few years back, and caused her great humiliation when they slipped away. Honestly, it'd been the guard rookie that had dozed off, but Delphi always blamed herself.

She curled her lip, but the old man would have to wait. Following after the small boy and his red dragon, she drew a pair of katanas and swung them in a figure-eight pattern. The speed she swung them and their magical properties ignited a fire on the metal. Not much use against fire users, but they were impermeable, and she could deflect most fireballs easily enough. They tended to be spontaneous and not too accurate, but this pair was full of surprises.

She caught a few knives, the few that hadn't met a target. One had blood on it, and Delphi wasn't quite sure who it belonged to. Oh well. If the Empire's fighters didn't know how to get out of the way, they'd have to learn- or die. Sheathing the knives, she held her swords in one hand. Tossing a single flaming katana into the air, she lunged towards the human, aiming low. The dragon, she'd get next. Allowing the blade's magical momentum to continue, she let go and swerved towards the reptilian creature. She transformed the katana into a hammer- smaller than it would be if she had both halves of the weapon, but strong nonetheless. She knew the strong scales of dragons wouldn't be much affected by slashing- she had to stick to strength until the natural armor was broken.

Pulling up the hammer, she swung down onto the creature with sheer force, ready to change directions if the scaly thing managed to dodge.

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Vanilla ignored most of the battle until it came to her. Fighting furiously with her black dragon next to her, she punched with brass knuckles that she'd helpfully been holding in her small bag. She swung fists of steel (jk brass) and felt her opponent's face crack. Shuddering, Vanilla leapt away and barely dodged the cleaver that came at her right side.

"Woah now, let's not." She kicked the guy in between the legs and was about to inflict more damage when she was swept away. "Aww, you're no fun." she remarked to the feathered blue dragon. She saw Desona speeding overhead, a concerned emotion trickling through their link. She gave her partner a thumbs-up and dismounted the blue dragon. "Thanks for the ride. Why did you take me here?" She looked at the others, wondering how many Dracari there were? She hadn't really gotten a good count. Hopefully someone would explain what was going on.