Raithica

Getting yanked down into a bush by the women Cale stares at the markings Issac chisels into the ground watching as it becomes a wall of iron. . However something was not right the girl she was panicking severely her heart rate was very high. She says she needs her journals and that she was going to get them. Cale thought this was a bad idea, the girl stood out a bit with hair, plus Cale could run faster than most humans. "No, I will go get, you two wait." He says as he gently brushes her hair taking a quick sniff of her to catch her scent. A moment later he stands up and takes off running as fast as he can. Within seconds he is already a hundred feet away from the two alchemists heading in the direction of the motel.

As he starts to near the place something odd happens, he find a weak scent moving into the forest. Ignoring it for now he circles around the building until he finds where the smell is most concentrated a room on the second floor, climbing up the wall he smashes the window not really caring about being stealthy. As he climbs into the women's room he begins to tear the place apart though this place already looked like a warzone. Tearing the drawers only to find clothing and various objects he checks the closet under the bed and begins to worry, the journals are not here. However more alarming is the sound of heavy footsteps making their way upstairs. As he jumps out the window the sound of the door breaking can be heard as they try and enter the room.

Running for the woods and after the weaker scent ten soldiers run out of the building and open fire. As the bullets whiz by Cale, one hits his knee causing the chimera to fall. Soon the soldiers circled around, their guns and swords all trained on him. As Cale tries to rise to his feet one of the squad leaders runs up and smacks him with the butt off a rifle. Cale's vision begins to fade out as moves his head up again to see the man bring his rifle back for another hit as the soldiers begin to move in closer. Once the butt makes contact with the chimera's skull a second time he blacks out. Grabbing him by the arms, they begin to drag him away, eventually passing by the Inn where Issac was staying at.

(OOC: I'm gonna be away for a few days so I put Cale out of the picture for a bit.)

Duster kept pace with Alderic, although the bag with his provisions and gear was slowing him down.
Duster drew his pistol, and ran with it, ready if there would happen to be a pair of enemy sweepers in the forest, ordered to kill evading alchemists.
"Are we gonna run all the way to Alkara?" Duster said, stressing run, as to indicate he wouldn't run that long.
"I know some folks about 150 kilometres north of here, I might get us some better transportation there." He added, his voice making it clear that he'd go there even if Alderic had other plans.

As Adam had predicted, his yelling had alerted everyone in the forest to his position, including the soldiers. Adam looked over his shoulder at the oncoming soldiers and knew he had a decision to make.

"Silf!" He cried after the hound, "Get the boy out of here!" The hound, who until now had been playfully chasing the young man (at least, as playfully as an automaton can) barked an affirmative and charged ahead of the boy, hopefully leading him to safety.

Adam stopped in his tracks and turned to face the oncoming soldiers. "Alright you bastards, you nearly killed me last time, but I've got a few new tricks up my sleeve!" Adam shouted in defiance. He dropped his duffle bag, lowered himself into a fighting stance, lowered his goggles over his eyes, and reached his right hand into one of his many pockets.

From the pocket, he produced a small metal sphere, which he then squeezed between his thumb, index, and middle finger until he heard a click. Then he threw the sphere at the oncoming soldiers. The sphere burst in the air infront of the soldiers, releasing a fine mist that caused a burning pain in their eyes. While the soldiers were distracted, Adam rushed forward and placed his right hand on the closest soldier. He then touched a spot on his right forearm with two of his left fingers; a symbol began to glow where his fingers touched and the soldier' armor fused into one solid chunk of unmoving metal. Without breaking stride, Adam repeated this process with several of the other soldiers until there was only one left.

The remaining soldier swung his sword at Adam, but he parried it with his metal arm. Adam delivered a swift kick to the man's side' knocking him over. Adam Pounced on his opponent and placed his right hand on the man's armor, and repeated the same action as before.

His opponents defeated, Adam stumbled back to his bag and dragged it behind him for forty yards before collapsing against a tree to catch his breath.

Duster kept pace with Alderic, although the bag with his provisions and gear was slowing him down.
Duster drew his pistol, and ran with it, ready if there would happen to be a pair of enemy sweepers in the forest, ordered to kill evading alchemists.
"Are we gonna run all the way to Alkara?" Duster said, stressing run, as to indicate he wouldn't run that long.
"I know some folks about 150 kilometers north of here, I might get us some better transportation there." He added, his voice making it clear that he'd go there even if Alderic had other plans.

Alderic's breathing was trained to a distinct pattern, resulting in his ability to maneuver himself so effortlessly across the rugged terrain of the woodlands. He heard the pistol being withdrawn. Alderic looked back at Duster as he kept up with each movement. He had heard the young man as he called out to him.

"That's roughly, ninety-tree miles from here." He called out in response. "Lets figure away to get past the sweepers first, then we can settle on the best way to get to Alkara itself."

"Sure thing!" Duster replied, speeding up his pace a little.
"Oh and by the way! I didn't ever get your name!" Duster called, a little while later, while they passed a small clearing.
"You don't seem to be from Belhaven!" He then added.

After running for a few minutes, Tora stopped to catch his breath. He heard a bark, at first he ingored it, think it was just Sparky. Then he realised it had a mechanical tone to it. He looked over at Sparky, who had laid down behind him. "That wasn't you was it?" He asked, receiving only a puzzled look in response. "Thought so." Sparky then lifted his head, staring behind him, and started to growl. This can't be good He thought as he slowed turned around. He was rewarded with a large metal, what seemed like a dog, jumping on top of him. That's when a person came into view. The man had some sort of device attached to where his right arm should of been. "This thing yours?" He called pushing the 'dog' off him as gently as he could. The man started yelling for some reason, then the soldier, the same ones that broke into his room, appeared behind them. Silf! Get the boy out of here! The 'dog' ran deeper into the forest, Tora wanted to yell "I'm not a kid!" in retort, but Sparky begun to chase after Silf. "Hey wait for me!" He cried running after the two animals. After he caught up with them. He ordered the two of them to stay put, while he looked for the man with the werid arm. After looking for a few minutes, He found the man sitting against a tree. "There you are." He said helping him to his feet, "Come on. We can't stay here." With that he lead them back to their dogs.

"Sorry about earlier," said Adam. "I designed Silf to behave like a real dog; guess I did too well. As for the soldiers, they shouldn't bother us for a while."

He offered his right hand: "Name's Adam Langley by the way."

"Sure thing!" Duster replied, speeding up his pace a little.
"Oh and by the way! I didn't ever get your name!" Duster called, a little while later, while they passed a small clearing.
"You don't seem to be from Belhaven!" He then added.

"My name...."Alderic thought carefully. He hadn't been given a name, merely a call sign. " My name is Alderic, and no, I am not from from Belhurst. I was actually from Hovernia." Alderic then responded, stopping dead in his tracks. He turned his head listening intently. There were several figures approaching.

"There are several, heavy figures coming towards us up ahead."

Duster rose his head, as Alderic told him that.
Then he also stopped in his tracks.
"They're up ahead? Hmmm I'm on it." Duster then replied, killing was his job after all.
He threw the bag of equipment, and drew his rifle, folding it out and arming it.
He then crouched and advanced further on, not making the slightest of sounds.
He could begin to see the contours of a pair of people up ahead. He drew up his rifle, and made ready to fire.

Several men passed through the trees. They were lightly armored, and armed mostly with sabers. They were not of the same sophistication or the same degree of craftsmanship as Alderic's. Two held small arms, pistols and the likes. They combed the for stragglers or escapee alchemists. Alderic snuck around to the west while Duster went east, he would provide distractions while Duster picked them off.

He slid one glove off his hand, and as he crouched, he planted it against the rough bark of the tree next to him. Dashing away to his left then following around a hill, he then supplanted the sap in yet another three before dashin of yet again. As he made it to his third tree, the first tree burst apart as the tree sap had condensed enough to splinter the facade of the bark. A series of loud cracks then followed, each one delayed and at a random location, drawing their attention from Duster so he could get a clear shot.

When they reached the dogs the two of them circled round their owners. Bending down, Tora begun to scratch Sparky behind his ear.

"Nah, it's okay. The only real difference between your dog and mine, is that I can see the inside of yours." He said pointing at Silf, the gears that made him move cleary visible. When Adam introduced himself, he turned round. He hesitated for a few seconds before shaking the mechanical hand.

"Tora Anderson."

"Pleasure to meet you, Tora," said Adam, a warm smile on his face. "I hate to impose but is your dog a tracking dog? I'd take care of it my self, but I just couldn't get Silf's nose to work before I ran out of parts."

Adam produced the journals from his bag. "You see, I'm looking for the lass who owns these journals. I know now might not seem like the best time, what with the soldiers and all, but I really feel obliged to return them."

Duster smiled to himself when the soldiers turned around to face the crackling sounds.
This was too easy. Nearly as easy as the war against FIR....
With the uncanny precision of a sharpshooter, he picked out the soldiers.
Going for the heads and chests, they all fell... or at least most of them.
Duster had made sure to let one of them live, only shooting the man in his knee.
The man fell with a scream of pain.
"Take him alive!" Duster thundered, as he rose from his vantage point.
The poor soldier on the groud didn't have a gun, but tried to get his sabre into a better position to attack his enemies.

With a blurring motion, Alderic unsheathed his sword, and dashed in between the base of two trees that had grown into one another. The glimmer of steel flashing in the thickness of the forest was akin to watching a partially slowed bullet as it neared its target. Alderic finally leapt over a stump, and not missing a beat, drove one of his own distinguishable sabers through the right hand of the soldier. The man cried out again and tried to seek retaliation by lifting the sword with his left hand. This proved detrimental, because Alderic simply stepped on the left hand breaking it at the wrist as he stood over the soldier menacingly.

Duster smiled. A crushing victory. Truly worthy of Hovernians.
"Very well. I'm going to make a proposal. You tell us what is going on, and what you and your group was doing, and I'll let you live. You resist... And I'll tear the secrets from you, by force. And then... I'll kill you, in the most painful way I can come up with." Duster said, clearly amused by the bleeding man, laying scared at the ground.
"What's it going to be?" his smile widened revealing his teeth, in a frenzied grin.

"Okay! Just don't kill me! Ahh!" Alderic twisted the angle of the saber that had penetrated the hand of the soldier. Alderic's eyes stared down at him with a formidable gaze that never seemed to end. It was like he was a cat watching a struggling mouse, ready to attack. The soldier's eyes then glanced towards Duster, glancing the man over.

"´Take it easy Alderic. We don't want to hurt him... too badly."
Duster turned away, looking at the group of dead men.
"I'll salvage what I deem necesary. You can interogate him meanwhile." Duster said, greedily throwing himself over the dead mens equipment.

Alderic twisted his neck, tilting his head back to look upon the man's face.

"Why are you after us?" Alderic's callous voice called out to the man trying desperately not to think about the pain.

"I-I-I don't know! The commander said to be on the look out for escapees!" The man sputtered.

In an almost ironic way Alderic questioned " Was it worth it?"

"N-N-No!" The man screamed, heaving.

Stripping the bodies of any useful ammunition and salvagable spareparts for the guns, Duster didn't hear what the man answered.
But the scream on the other hand. "Keep it down, we don't know if there's others." Duster hushed.
Grabbing a pair of rations, he looked up at Alderic. "Wow, you got the eye of the tiger... are you a seasoned killer?" Duster asked, intrigued. He'd just noticed the look in Alderics eyes.
"Guess I got all that I want... You can knock him out, and we'll dispose of him." Duster said, pulling out his work-knife.

Tora reached out for the books. "I really don't know, but he does manage to always find his way back to me." He quickly flipped through the pages of one journals, looking for anything helpful, but found it full of symbols similar to the ones of his daggers. This person's an Alchemist He thought as he eyes drifted upon the symbols on Adam's arm. And so is he. He closed the book and called Sparky over. "Here boy. Can ya follow this scent? Try and find the owner." Sparky sniffed the book for a few minutes, then he began to walk in a circle, sniffing at the ground. Another minute passes before Sparky lets out a bark. "Looks like he's got it." Tora states, standing up. He hands the books back to Adam, before asking, "It only a matter of time before I blurt it anyway, so here goes, what's up with that arm?"

"Oh no. Oooh, no no no. This is bad." Hatsune was chanting to herself, watching through the bushes as the stranger was dragged, unconscious away. Now what was she going to do? This was not going the way she'd hoped at all. Not at all! With her hands freshly gloved, Hatsune made sure her shades were secure on the top of her head. Braiding her long, green hair back against her neck, she took in a deep breath and took off in a sprint. Of course she didn't run out into the open, on the contrary, she ran further into the woods and toward her motel. There was no telling where the man had been caught. She couldn't even think if he'd had them on him when they captured him! Oh no, that would be the worst ever!

"Oh, please, please, please! Still be at the motel! Please, please, please, --OOF!" Hatsune slammed into something hard and she fell backwards on her rear with a loud plop! Scrambling to get up right, Hatsune feared she may have to do the worst in order to get away safely. Gripping the finger tips of her left glove, Hatsune made it to her knees and looked up at whatever it was she'd run into.

"What in the world?" She stared at the young man, her eyebrows lifted in confusion and utter amazement. His arm was... a machine. She was about to ask him how he'd done that, when she heard more voices yelling behind her. They may have heard her. Great! Great! Exactly what she needed! Hatsune stood up and that's when she noticed the lot of them. Another young man and two dogs. Well, one dog that was real and another that was... mechanical? What in the hell was going on?

"I have a lot of questions, but right now, I think we should all get really, really far away from here!" Looking around, Hatsune bit her bottom lip and took off to the South. No that wasn't where her dreams were leading her, but at this point in time, her dreams meant absolutely nothing if she was captured. Stopping a few feet away, Hatsune turned to make sure they were following.

"I know what you are, and those guys don't like you! Come on!"

Tora reached out for the books. "I really don't know, but he does manage to always find his way back to me." He quickly flipped through the pages of one journals, looking for anything helpful, but found it full of symbols similar to the ones of his daggers. This person's an Alchemist He thought as he eyes drifted upon the symbols on Adam's arm. And so is he. He closed the book and called Sparky over. "Here boy. Can ya follow this scent? Try and find the owner." Sparky sniffed the book for a few minutes, then he began to walk in a circle, sniffing at the ground. Another minute passes before Sparky lets out a bark. "Looks like he's got it."

"Thanks!" said Adam. "For a moment I was worried you weren't going to help me."

"It only a matter of time before I blurt it anyway, so here goes, what's up with that arm?"

"That's a story for another time, my friend," Adam replied, running after Sparky. As they ran back to the motel, Adam noticed soldiers dragging a rather large man with a bullet wound in his leg. He paused for a moment, contemplating what he should do.

On the one hand, he needed to return the journals to the girl with green hair. On the other, he had seen what these soldiers did to people, even if they weren't alchemists. He sighed, knowing that his conscience would never let him rest if he didn't do something to aid the poor man.

"Tora," he said, turning to his companion, "I'm going to try and help that man over there. You don't have to come with me, but I've got to do something." With that, Adam crouched and started circling around the motel in the bushes, Silf following him with surprising stealth. He reached into a pouch on his belt and withdrew another metal sphere.

"Hate using these," he muttered to himself, "but I'm out of the blinders and smoke bombs won't do much good. Guess these soldiers deserve to get blown up, though. Still, I wish there was another way."

Adam aimed his throw and was about to squeeze the sphere when someone crashed into him at a full run. The bomb rolled out of his hand and out of sight. Adam looked up to find himself pinned under the green haired girl he had been searching for.

"I have a lot of questions, but right now, I think we should all get really, really far away from here!" Looking around, Hatsune bit her bottom lip and took off to the South. No that wasn't where her dreams were leading her, but at this point in time, her dreams meant absolutely nothing if she was captured. Stopping a few feet away, Hatsune turned to make sure they were following.

"I know what you are, and those guys don't like you! Come on!"

"Wait! Are you just going to leave him there?" Adam called after the woman.

Hatsune stopped suddenly and looked over her shoulder at the stranger. Her heart wrenched wildly at the question and she turned around a little more to watch the soldiers, whoever the bastards were, drag the man's beaten body. He had been hurt badly and Hatsune was just going to leave him. What kind of an idiot was she? They'd already saved him once that day and now she was just going to let him go?

"No! No! I can't leave him! I don't know what I'm doing!" Hatsune growled and knelt down beside the guy she'd run into. Looking him over with narrowed eyes she felt like she'd seen him somewhere before. No matter at the moment, though, she'd have to figure that one out later. Looking at the crowd of soldiers, they hadn't heard her, she supposed and Hatsune let her breathing calm a little more.

"He's a chimera," Hatsune whispered to the stranger, moving closer to the bush. "He was hurt really bad earlier. Someone put an alchemic symbol on him to make him weak and he was still recovering from it when he got caught." She sighed and shook her head, her braid beginning to fall out. Her emerald hair was twisting wildly about her shoulder and neck, like miniature snakes in a vine-ridden forest. Looking at the stranger one more time, she stared his arm up and down.

"Can you carry him with that arm? I'm sure he won't be able to run." Turning her eyes back toward them, by now the soldiers had set him down on the ground and were binding his hands and feet. What a cruel thing she was going to do. Of course she would have gone back, but she knew deep down that would have never happened. She was such a coward. Even with her journals hanging in the balance, she would have just left them. Pulling her guitar off her back, she hid it high up in a tree for safety and then took in a deep breath.

"Well, I'm ready. You?" She rubbed her palms together, feeling the energy and the static start to build with alchemy.

"Can you carry him with that arm? I'm sure he won't be able to run."

"I'm no chimera myself, if that's what you're asking," replied Adam. "Yeah my right arm's stronger, but he looks a lot heavier than me. I can support him, but I'd fall right over if I tried to carry him."

"Well, I'm ready. You?" She rubbed her palms together, feeling the energy and the static start to build with alchemy.

""I'm not quite out of tricks yet," he said, "but I am running low. Looks like I won't be able to avoid killing some of them this time around." He made a quick motion with his right wrist and a revolver sprang out of a hidden compartment in his arm and into his hand. The grip of the gun was folded so that it was parallel with the barrel, but unfolded itself halfway to his hand.

"Haven't had a chance to make more bullets yet, so I've only got three shots," said Adam, strangely calm given the situation. "Silf can immobilize one of them for a while and, if I'm lucky, I can kill or seriously injure one of them with each bullet. Our real goal is to get your friend there clear of the soldiers so I can toss an explosive at them. From there we'll probably have about five minutes tops to get out of here."

Looking at each of them in turn, Adam said "I know you're both alchemists like myself, so we'll probably have an advantage there. If you've got anything that can help in combat, hit them with everything you've got. You may have something against killing, but trust me when I say these blokes deserve it. If you're friend there really is a chimera, he's in for a slow and painful death."

Stripping the bodies of any useful ammunition and salvagable spareparts for the guns, Duster didn't hear what the man answered.
But the scream on the other hand. "Keep it down, we don't know if there's others." Duster hushed.
Grabbing a pair of rations, he looked up at Alderic. "Wow, you got the eye of the tiger... are you a seasoned killer?" Duster asked, intrigued. He'd just noticed the look in Alderics eyes.
"Guess I got all that I want... You can knock him out, and we'll dispose of him." Duster said, pulling out his work-knife.

"Understood." Alderic responded with a robotic tone.

Alderic tore the tip of his blade from the hand of the Alkaran soldier. Blood dripped from his sword before he swung it forcefully to the side to clear way the rivulets of the carmine fluid. Sheathing the weapon, he arched his leg, coiling the muscles of his leg into balled muscle before kicking outwards sharply connecting with the man's forehead and slamming it forcefully into the dirt. The man's arms lifelessly failed up before thudding to the ground as his body was going through the equivalent of a 35mph car wreck. Stepping back, the man lie limp and unconscious.