Raithica

"No!" Hatsune yelled as Silf ran away from her and toward their opponent. Her plea was too late and Silf was already making his violent move to protect her. The other chimera hadn't threatened to hurt her, but her mind was too full of everything else to dwell on that. Her new friend was hurt badly and she wasn't even close to knowing where to start. Letting out a strange, half-irritated, half-hysterical noise, Hatsune stood up and whispered a promise to return quickly.

"I'm going to get help!" Her voice hissed as she hesitantly left the man's side. Smashing through the trees and bushes, Hatsune couldn't seem to figure out what in the hell was going on anymore. When had all this started? A few seconds ago? No... more like a few years ago? Time was elusive and her mind was reeling with all the events, horrid and chaotic. Her legs remembered the path Silf had lead her on. Being alone for so many years, and spending most of those years traveling, Hatsune had developed a good sense of direction. Even with her mind discombobulated so badly, her muscles remembered the ruts, the paths, the twigs on the ground. They all lead her into the clearing where Adam and Tora had stopped.

Hatsune's hair was wild and had completely fallen out of whatever awkward style she'd had it in hours ago. She stood, trying to catch her breath, chest rising and falling, sweat dripping down her face. It gave her a few brief moments to realized that Adam had gained a captive. He was strange looking, certainly not from Belhurst and looked upset. Hatsune didn't care, she ran up to Adam and gripped his hand in her's.

"Come on! I need your help! He's hurt, badly! And Silf..." She didn't dare continue with the sentence. Tugging at him she began to head away from the clearing. "Hurry! Please!"

Things were certainly happening quickly today. In the past half-hour Adam had made two new friends (four if he counted the dogs), disabled several soldiers, killed several more, and was nearly taken captive by the strange man pinned under him. Now Hatsune was telling him that Silf was in trouble. Could this day get any stranger? Well, there was that one time, but Adam didn't like to think about it.

"Looks like we'll be parting was early, friend," Adam said to his captive. "Sorry, but I won't have time to treat your leg. My dog's in trouble and I've got to go. Let's not do this again, yeah? C'mon Tora!" Adam jumped off his captive and followed Hatsune into the forest.

As she began running harder, she gripped Adam's wrist tightly. She felt stupid and helpless. Her alchemy was so strong and she could have taken out the chimera, but there would be no more killing. One was enough for her. Turning her head back, her hair flew in her face, but she didn't care. Hatsune had to make sure she didn't see doubt in Adam's eyes.

"Thank you," she spoke. It may have been hard to hear her over the pounding of their feet, but she wanted to say it right then, no matter what. They showed up quickly to the scene and Hatsune took her place by the fallen chimera's side. She grabbed up Adam to help Silf and keep him from getting hurt too badly, but she also needed his help with something completely different. Hatsune had learned many tricks over the years and this one would require his help.

"Adam, I need your help with this." She hadn't paid any attention to see if Tora had decided to follow them or not. She would, however, have to remember to thank him very much for saving her life. He'd caused himself a great deal of exhaustion and it couldn't go unnoticed.

Silf felt his master's aura getting closer. The dog had been wrestling with the bad chimera for a few minutes now and the fight was surprisingly even. Despite the chimer's enormous strength, it was having a difficult time harming Silf. Silf, on the other hand, had the distinct advantage of being mechanical and never getting tired. As the fight dragged on, the chimera began to grow more and more exhausted. The fact that it was bleeding from several small wounds and one rather large gash on its arm wasn't helping it either. Soon enough, the chimera would be forced to retreat.

...

Hatsune's friend was not in good shape. That was the first thing that sprang to Adam's mind when he saw the wounded chimera. Adam had made sure to retrieve his journal and duffel bag before running off with Hatsune in the direction of Silf's angry howling. Adam came to a stop before the wounded chimera, unsure of what to do.

"Adam, I need your help with this."

"Alright," Adam replied. "I've got something that will be able to fix up your friend's wounds a bit, but we'd need him to lay still for a few minutes. We need to get him out of here first. What have you got in mind?"

As the man lifted himself from Duster, he drew in a deep breath.
He held back a small laugh of happiness, as he saw them leave.
The man who'd just awakened, seemed to be a little groggy, so Duster made his move as soon as the two others had left.
He squirmed a little, getting into a better posture, and then roled his arms away from eachother, tearing the sleeves apart.
Thus they where still attached to the back of his coat, he had to tear apart his coat too.
As soon as his hands were free enough, for a little movement, he grabbed his gun, from underneath him.
He rose up, looking at the other man, who hadn't really been awake enough to do anything.
Why should he anyway? He didn't know who or what was about Duster.
"That's better for me." Duster said friendly to Tora.
"Your friend there got a certain temper huh? He practically attacked me out of nowhere. But of course, he must've had a hard time with those soldiers."
Duster said, trying to put the man who'd sit on his back, only untill recently in a bad light.
He limped a little over to his satchel of possesions the other man, hadn't had time to check through.
He found a small pack, with some bandages and some different liquids.
He then began checking his wound, noticing that it was very deep, but hadn't hit anything too vital.
He'd be limping a little a pair of days, but he'd be able to run within the next two weeks.

"I'm guess that 'Hatsune' the name of the girl from before." No sooner then Tora said this she appeared from the forest behind him. When she asked for help, he tried to stand up but his body wouldn't listen to him for the moment. Knowing that he would just slow them down he let the two run off without him.
The man beside him begun to speak. "Wouldn't you be the same way, if you'd been; kicked out of bed early, chased through a forest, and had to fight off a bunch of soldiers? I know I would be a little on edge. Not to mention, from that bump on his head, it doeasn't seem he was the one to strike first." After pointing this out he tried to stand again, but failed another time. "Would ya please not go through must stuff without permission." He said aloud when he noticed the man pulling out his first aid kit. His gaze travel downward to the man's foot. "Pour some of the green liquid into that to stop the bleeding. Then rub the blue gel around the wound. After you finish that wrap it up tightly with wraping." He informs the man, "If you'll be able to walk right in the next week." Tora looks over his shoulder andd spots a medium sized branch over to his side. Sliding over he grabs it. "This'll do." With that he transmutes the branch into a walking stick. After finally managing to get to his feet he stumbles over to his bag, and after putting everything back inside, straps it to his shoulder. Turning round, he brings his hand to his mouth and lets out a loud whistle. A few minutes later, Sparky comes running out of the forest towards his master. "There you are I was getting worried, anything hurt?" Sparky barks and starts to chase his tail, "I'll take that as a No." He says and starts laughing

"Why should I be rubbing my wound with vaseline?" Duster asked. Looking quizically at the man.
He put some alcohol in the wound, to clear of eventual infections, and laid a bandage.
"I don't need your stick, I'll be fine with the limbing." Duster said.
As the dog came into the clearing, running around all gaily, Duster couldn't help but laugh a little himself.
"What must've been so important, as if to leave a prisoner to his own designs..." Duster asked aloud, not expecting an answer.
It then hit him, that they could've run into Alderic. He turned to Tora, eyes wide open.
"I think we have to follow your friends. I got a feeling, that they've run into an acquaintance of mine, and he's even more dangerous than I am." Duster said, hoping that none was as foolish as to charge the giant feral being.
It didn't have feelings, so it was rather hard to determine what his next move would be... psychologically.

Getting tossed aside yet again from the other Chimera, Cale tumbles a feet before landing on his back staring at the night sky.As he tries to get up he slumps back down as he comes to bad realization... the other Chimera had broken his legs. He was done for, it would take him a couple mintues for his bones and wounds to heal thanks to the various alchemy. But that was time his enemy would not give him, After all it was in their nature to kill, so Cale simply stares at the silver chimera, awaiting the final blow. However a odd barking noise fills the air as a dog that seems to be made of metal runs up as the girl runs towards him, shouting for them to stop. As she kneels beside him, he gives her a look of worry. He could try and hold the other Chimera for as long as he could while she got out of here.

"Run..." His much deeper voice whispers to her, as he tries to pull himself up

Hearing his words, Hatsune shook her head. It was good to see him conscious, which was more than she could say for earlier.

"No. I won't leave you. I'm going to help you." Looking him up and down, Hatsune growled in confusion. "I can heal you a little bit but I don't know what all has been done to you to make you this way." Looking down at his legs, Hatsune realized this task was far greater than she'd expected. Two broken legs, gashes all over, and possibly even broken ribs. What she couldn't save would have to be well mended and taken care of. They would have to find a doctor.

"I don't even know why you idiots are fighting! You're both chimera!" Her frustration was apparent and she looked up at Adam. "Get on the other side of him. I'm going to... try." She bit down on her lower lip, hoping and praying that she didn't hurt him even more.

"Alright," Adam said. "I don't know what I can do to help you heal, but I'll do my best. I've got one smoke bomb left to help us escape. Excellent work I did with them; not only does it obstruct sight, but the smoke also smells horrible. The more sensitive your nose is, the harder it hits you. Made that modification after I was chased by a pack of wild dogs."

All the while Adam was talking, he followed Hatsune's instructions. He continued to ramble on, but a look from the woman told him that his talking was not helping.

Alderic's feral eyes gazed down at the rather large, mechanized dog. Its robotic functions were rather simply really. However, the wounds it had given him were somewhat severe. It had latched to one of his forelimbs with fierce and reckless abandon. Metal teeth had created deep and lasting perforations in the deep muscle tissue, rendering the arm useless for now. Nevertheless, adrenaline was still pouring into his system making his reflexes quicker paced. The harder his heart throbbed the more the chemical too effect like an opiate. Numbing the pain like morphine yet revitalizing his damaged system like Cocaine or Methamphetamine.

His own massive teeth bared, he swatted at the dog as it neared him again. Taking a glance over to the wounded chimera. He would see him again perhaps. But for now he was made to retreat and tend his arm, there was no telling if the bone had been broken as well in his altered state of mind. The giant feline came crashing through the forest and went on for several hundred more feet or so in the opposite direction.

Duster looked at the other fella.
He then slung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed his gun.
"Should we go?" Duster asked, andtried to start out at a fast pace, quickly realising that his wound would slow him too much.
"Ehh... where is that stick of yours?" Duster said, trying to be casual.

"Alright," said Adam. "I don't know what you want me to do, but alright." He crouched down next to the chimera and waited for instructions.

...

Silf did his best to keep the bad chimera at bay, but it was just a lot bigger and stronger than he was. Although Silf didn't tire, he was losing ground. If he couldn't drive off the bad chimera soon, it would get through to the nice lady and his master.

With another sigh of determination and fear, Hatsune put both her hands out for Adam to take hold. "Take my hands and think of his flesh and bones as being whole again. Whatever you do, do not think of violence." Straightening her spine she kept her lower lip between her canines. "You'll kill him." The statement was matter of fact and shaky. Hatsune had to remain as calm as possible. It was hard enough to think of anything else since she'd just killed a man.

"It's going to drain you quickly, so as soon as you start to feel light-headed, you have to let go." Turning her green eyes to Adam's she let her lips go, finally, and closed her eyes. "Just remember to let go. No matter what I do or say, you let go of my hands when you feel tired." Perhaps telling him the consequences was needed, but she was afraid. The girl had already proved herself a monster, what was the point in telling him just how bad it could be? That small boy from her past flashed in her mind again and she cringed with the memory. Looking down at the chimera, she smiled half-heartedly.

"Ready? Try not to squirm. I'm going to fix your bones first. We'll tend to the rest later."

Adam did as he was instructed. He had been the subject of healing alchemy before, so he was used to this sort of thing. Still, he had no intention of letting go until he was sure that Cale could run. He tried his best to think of Cale's body being whole, but couldn't get the image at first. He started to panic until he remembered what the doctor who had helped him attach his arm had told him: "Don't try to think of the body as one big thing; think of it as an organic machine. Each body is made up of many small parts that make the whole work."

Adam took a deep breath and followed the doctor's advice. He thought of the bones in Cale's legs starting to mend. "Now what was the formula for bones again?" he thought to himself. "Quite bit of carbon, but carbon's in everything. No, that's not my job. Hatsune's fixing his legs, I'm just an additional power source."

Adam took another deep breath as he began to feel his energy draining quickly. It shouldn't have happened this quickly, but with all of the alchemy he had done today he was surprised he didn't collapse instantly. He gritted his teeth as he tried to stay awake. He had an experimental stimulant he had promised to try for the doctor, but getting it would require letting go. He couldn't let go yet: Cale's legs hadn't healed. Adam focussed on his metal arm. He began cataloging each and every part in his head while maintaining the image of Cale's legs healing. He made a point to avoid cataloging any of the weapons, since he knew what thinking about weapons would lead to.

Finally, he felt the bones mend. Adam let go and stumbled backward. He was exhausted: all he wanted to do was fall down and go to sleep. He knew he couldn't, though; he had to help Hatsune move Cale. He put most of the chimera's weight on his left arm.

"You know the nice thing about having a mechanical arm?" he asked no one in particular. "It never gets tired, just harder to control. Don't worry, I won't accidentally stab your friend. It's just that carrying him is about all I can do right now."

"It's not vaseline, it a special medicine made from rare herbs. It speeds up cell reprodution while reducing swelling and chance of infection." Tora said with know-it-all tone in his voice. The recipe had been his mother's secret so there was nothing else like it, so he had been saving it for a special occasion. "But fine, whatever, don't put it on, just don't come crying if you foot falls off." He continued with a blank face, holding back his the urge to continue. "Yeah we really should, who know what type of trouble they could encounter." Handing MMIIV the walking stick begun to make his way to the others, Sparky leading the way. Their condition made their pace slow, so Tora tried his hand at some friendly conversion, "You know, Adam said your name was MMIIV, but that takes to long, got anything else I could call you by?"

Duster smiled to to himself.
"Some people call me Duster." he said, remembering the old times of the invasion.

He looked at the other.
"Now you're supposed to tell me who you are." He smiled.
It was good to be treated at least decently.
He held a tight grip on his gun though, if any unexpected surprise would jump out of the bush, he'd kill it on sight.
His nerves was too fried, to even give it a chance.

Silf was happy to see the bad chimera run. There was something wrong about its aura, something that he just didn't trust. There was no time to dwell on the bad chimera though, his master had returned! Silf ran in happy circles around his master, but stumbled and fell to the ground after just a few.

"You poor thing," said Adam. "Looks like some of your gears got damaged. I'll patch you up and put on some armored plating after I get a rest. Let's got out of this forest first, yeah?"

Silf barked an affirmative and squirmed to his feet, his thin segmented tail wagging in delight. He scanned the nearby forest for any hostile auras, but didn't find any. The bad chimera was long gone and hopefully wouldn't be returning anytime soon.

Galloping leaps were brought to a standstill as Alderic came splashing through a creek. His heart throbbing, as he quickly reverted to his human form. He kicked of his boots, they were just shredded leather straps. His pants had explosively expanded, leaving them in tatters up to his thighs. He gripped his his injured limb, finding the break, pushed the bone back to its original placement and then transmuted its construction fusing the bones once more without so much as a fracture. Luckily, he still had his sabers. Not that he couldn't fight without them, he just preferred swordsmanship.

All Hatsune could think about was patching him up. Fix him. Make him healthy and better. Light shone in her mind; bright white and blinding. She kept a firm grip on Adam's hands, taking as little as possible from him. His energy, his essence flowed from the tips of his fingers through the nerves into her wrists where they were lightly resting. Hatsune breathed slowly, in through her nose, out through her mouth. It was difficult for her to keep thoughts of the previous happening from her mind. How long had it been since she'd done this? Ten years?

Stars, wild and colored, started flying through the white light. Adam let go of her hands and she slumped over. Opening her eyes, unable to open them all the way, she looked the chimera over and smile weakly.

"Feel better?"

"The name's Tora Anderson." He said with a wave of his hand, which he brought down so that it was point at his dog. "That's Sparky, A stray I adopted during my childhood." He stopped to catch his breath. Leaning against a tree he continued. "After my parents died, I left to follow my dreams, and I mean that quite literary." He said bringing a finger to his head, "You see, my dreams have been leading me torwards these mountains, and some sort of mysterious gate. I hope to solve the mystery behind that." With a sigh he push off the tree and countinued to follow Sparky. "You probably think I'm crazy don't you?" Tora looked his shoulder, back at Duster. He was going to put in another word when Sparky let out a bark, as if to say look out. But the warning came to late and Tora walked right into Adam, making the both of them falling to the ground. When Tora's face hit the ground all that can beheard is a muffled "Ow"

"Good to meet you then Tora." Duster said.
"And no, I don't think you're crazy, if I thought so, then I'd be useless."
He walked along, but was coming longer and longer behind him.
"Screw this stick. I can't take such a pace." he thought, and looked up as the dog barked a warning bark.
The other body who fell to the ground could, by the look of the his arm, quickly be identified.
Duster raised his gun, pointing directly at Adam.
"Just stay down, will you?" Duster asked, his voice indifferent.
"Or else I'll have to progress with my own personal vendetta."
He pointed the gun at Adam's chest.
"As long as you stay there, I stay happy."

Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out his last bomb. It was just a smoke bomb, but this increasingly irritating man didn't know that.

"You know what?" he said in an irritated tone. "I'm tired of people pointing weapons at me and giving me orders. This here's a bomb, and I've set up my arm so that it'll throw it at you if I get shot. That's the nice thing about having a mechanical arm; you can program it to do things even if you're unconscious. So tell me, MMIV, do you think you can survive an explosion?"

...

Silf saw the man that had hurt him before. His master didn't seem to like the man and the man was pointing a gun at his master. Silf took the only logical course of action: he let out an angry snarl and lunged at the man's arm.

"You know. My name is MMI'I'V not MMIV!" Duster said in an annoyed voice, he could feel the veins in his forehead pump blood in.
But he cooled down slightly, hearing a snarl from only just besides him.
It was the bloody mechanical dog again.
Mostly out of instinct Duster turned around, and started emptying his clip onto the dog.
It didn't really help all that much, just as he'd shot it in the head the first time, it only hit it slightly out of course.
Duster could see only one possibility, but it was cut off, by the throbbing pain in his leg.
He backed off, trying to get some distance between him and the dog.
Holding out his stick, as some kind of weird shield.

Silf advanced on the bad man while growling menacingly. He noticed that the man's leg was injured and that the bad man was getting nervous. The bad man was backing off, so Silf forced him to back away from his master. He crouched, getting ready to lunge at the bad man.

...

"Tell you what, friend," said Adam. "You calm yourself and put your gun away, and I'll tell Silf to stand down. I don't think any of us are in any shape to fight right now."