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"Out of the frying pan..."══════════════════════
Alias KaneHex Code:
#8B0000 ══════════════════════
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Alias stayed crouched in the small, burning cafe. He still cradled the girl in his arms, and she showed no sign of waking. Her arm still had a few light spots of blood, and would occasionally glow in an odd purple light. Besides that, she seemed fine. Just a sleeping child.
His thoughts were interrupted when the cafe shook again, raining dust down on his head. Just as the dust settled, a large man dressed in a old, thick jacket walked through the doorway. The massive man carried a blade and a gun, and seemed more than comfortable holding both. When their eyes connected, he began speaking. Unfortunately it was in Polish. Alias' Polish had been rusty before, but in this situation, it was almost nonexistent. The only words Alias managed to catch were "< I am Jan! Are you alone? >"
"Jan, we need to move. My arms are full, I hope you can keep them off me." Then, standing up he added, "We need to get to the next-"
A griffon dropped through the window, sending glass everywhere. It held a squirming body of a businessman in its beak, and whether it he was from within the shop or not didn't really matter anymore, as the only separation they had, the wall-length glass window, was now broken to pieces with an angry flock of griffons just outside.
"Jan move!" Alias ran for the other end of the shop, dodging past several upturned tables and large pieces of rubble. The other end of the shop was in the same state of ruin as the first, but it was notably further from the griffon that had just invited itself for a free meal. Not stopping at the door, Alias reared back, and kicked at the bent metal frame as hard as he could. The door fell off it's hinges and Alias didn't bother looking back before running through.
Outside of the shop, things were worse. Much worse. Griffons still dominated the skies, flying between buildings, snatching up people, and tossing about cars and anything else not nailed down. Cars still littered the street, clustered together and pushed about to form long, winding narrow paths in between the abandoned wreaks. Only hoping Jan was behind him, and able to employ the same tactic, Alias ducked down, keeping his head below the roofs of the cars. Another griffon flew overhead, narrowly missing Alias' head.
Turning past an abandoned yellow taxi, he stopped. Another red wave was bearing down upon the city. It was much faster than the first, reaching the ground in mere moments, tossing cars around once more, nearly crushing him and the girl between the taxi and a red sedan.
He took off again, running past a young man, only for him to get grabbed and hauled into the sky. Spotting a rather pristine flatbed truck ahead of them, he began running towards it, hoping to find cover within, when the truck moved. It jumped, skittered, and twitched. It sparked, and lashed out small bolts of more energy to the nearby cars. The other cars began sparking, and quickly skittered towards the truck, clumping together. Soon more cars and vehicles started picking up, flying over the truck and landing against a faint amalgamation of rubble and cars. The truck soon fell, and like leaves caught in a storm, picked up from the ground, and flew back to a huge roughly human creature. The creature was the size of a building, and stood hunched over, it's massive arms barely dragging on the ground. It had cars and sections of buildings jutting out from it randomly, and as it moved, metal bent, concrete shattered, and plating tore.
The golem walked slowly down the street, each step caving in sections of the road. It turned, diverging into an alley, forcing it's way through the buildings as more rubble and cars followed the creature's path of destruction. With the street suddenly clear, Alias was forced to follow the golem, heading into one of the broken buildings. Water mains were broken, electrical wiring exposed, and vents gaped out of the side of the building, but it was the only safe haven from the griffons.
But before he could clear the distance, a griffon fell to the ground, tearing a path through the pavement as it skidded to the ground. It was clearly wounded, but even after having fallen, it's powerful body twitched, and stood back up. The griffon looked dazed for a moment, before turning towards Alias. Still holding the girl from the museum, he could only hope Jan was behind him, or perhaps something even scarier than that.
He was disarmed, standing before a creature that wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
The griffon roared, and lunged.