Toby froze. He stared at the cat that was obviously Mapleshade, only moving enough to hug Alpha tighter. He then glanced at Indigo. There's no way she could enchant so many people. Even if she could, she could accidentally enchant the rest of us. That wouldn't be good.
Wolfram's short words said it all for Bleddyn. She stood shock-still with her eyes riveted to his, mentally commencing the most intense staring contest of her life.
Connor chose this moment to come to and subject himself to the most utterly conflicting wave of agony he'd ever experienced. Even though his head was a toilsome muddle, he was able to slowly recall and comprehend what he'd been through; but as he began to calmly initiate a routine mental analysis, the hurt made even less sense. His upper body screamed the pain of numerous compromised muscles and such, but his hindquarters were unaffected to the extent that they felt absent.
It was only then that he figured that his legs being wholly inexistent was an issue and accordingly freaked out, unaware and impudent of the fact that he was barely being supported as it was.
In fluid twist of her wrist, Ash had her left hand firmly clamped around his muzzle and started stroking his bristling hackles flat with her remaining hand.
Wolfram, after many seconds of frozen terror, managed to rip his gaze from Bleddyn's, ever so slowly turning his head to look at the gathered group of assassins. His heart stopped for more beats then normal at the sight of the ragged she-cat staring at him.
Promptly, the cat sat down, curling her feathery tail over her scarred paws, watching him with interest. He most horrifying prospect of all, was that they made no move to harm them. "Tell your mom and River," he said slowly in a undertone to Bleddyn. "To get your dad somewhere safe. You need to go too." He looked at her, watching the Pure from the corner of his eyes. "It's not safe."
For a moment, his gaze lingered on her, before he had fully shifted into his cat skin in less then a few seconds, and pelted toward Mapleshade, and flung himself at her, claws and teeth bared.
The moment his claws hit her fur, the chaos of battle ensued.
“Yep.” She responded absentmindedly. “Every time I use my powers or I’m angry they get dark.” Realizing that he might take that wrong she hurriedly clarified, “I’m not angry right now though, I’ve got the heat vision going.”
Brisa’s eyes had just settled on the unmoving shapes when she heard Wolfram’s words, and a sinking feeling grew in her stomach as she blinked away her heat vision. “Oh goodness...” She whispered, her hand tightening on the handle of her gun. When Wolfram leapt at Mapleshade her heart dropped, and she pulled out her gun and held it at the ready.
Taylor hastily set Connor down, and whirled around at just the right moment as a flood of Pure came rushing toward them. She barked a laugh, glancing at the dying sun. "You're messing with the wrong people!" She didn't wait half a second; the light bent easily in her hands, and she directed it toward the nearest masked person, wincing as the shrieks echoed harshly.
~
Wolfram was surprised how easily he crushed Mapleshade down. A second to late, though, he realized it was a ploy. She surged upward, flinging him painfully to the ground.
He hissed, landing harshly on his side. He assessed the battle with a quick sweep of his gaze as he struggled to his feet. Creatures that had fled the city were coming back, mostly shapeshifters, but he saw ice and fire and light benders, centaurs and humans alike. But they were no match for the Pure's numbers it seemed.
With a snarl, he launched himself at Mapleshade again. Claws and teeth met flesh and fur, the metallic taste of blood filling his jaws. He wondered, for a fleeting moment, if he should relish in the feeling of spilling the she-cats blood, or if he should be horrifyed.
But he didn't have long to think about it in the heat of battle. Mapleshade grasped him between her claws, forcing him closer to the ground. Her blade-sharp claws met his face, teeth met ever inch of him she could find, biting at hard as she could. Panic welled in his chest, his claws flailing blindly for a grasp at something. He surged up, flinging her off suddenly. She may be larger, but he was quicker.
She yowled, hitting the solid tar with a sickening thud. He stared in panicked horror for a minute, wondering if he had shoved her hard enough to kill her. But she rose to her paws, her green eye gleaming with rage.
But Wolfram met her rage with a even higher intensity, claws unsheathed and tail whipping furiously. She really thinks she can beat me. Because she can!
She lunged forward, forcing all of her weight against him. He yelped, decided to stop struggling to keep balance, and rolled away, leaping to his feet. Silently, he cursed when he saw Bleddyn, weaponless, still in the clearing. But he didn't have time to warn her that a Pure member was looming up behind her, because Mapleshade caught him unaware, and forcefully pushed him down, jaws dripping blood.
This is it, he mused, struggling furiously. This is the end of it.
As the fighting began, River hesitated, questioning whether to fight or stay by Ash's side and help her with Connor.
She bit her lip, drawing a dribble of blood, and lurched towards Ash, whipping her pistol out and beginning to gun down Pure. "Ash, you think you can handle him?" She growled, not caring to soften her voice as she fired bullet after bullet, and her eyes began roaming around the battle-field, ever reading to help one of the teenagers in danger.
Camilla hardly knew what had happened, but suddenly there was people in black suits and masks surrounding them, the sound of guns firing tinged her blood cold, and each bang caused tremors in her spine. She was mildly aware of a bloody brawl between two cat-shifters in the thick of it, that one then ran away, shifting into a human and wrapping a constricting arm around a girl's throat, but her brain hardly processed that.
Her brain hardly processed anything that was happening around her.
These people murdered her parents.
She should be angry, right?
But instead, all she felt was a settling coldness in her chest, seizing at her gut and causing her heart to speed and slow with crippling anxiety and then edging indifference.
A flash of a fast moving human figure clad in black caught her eye, its course set directly for Finlay, the knife in its hand giving away his plan.
She didn't even think, but in a heartbeat she was in the thick of it, directly behind the man, her hand jerking forward and resting against his back, her ice powers beginning to bubble up, squirming out of her fingers.
The ice then spurted out of her, the coldness ebbing into him, running deeper and deeper until, finally, it found his heart and crystallized, freezing his life-pumping muscle to a rock. His mouth dropped open, a gurgling hiss creeping out of his throat, before he dropped into a heap at her feet, his body ridged with death.
The odd realization of her actions dawned on her in a mere second, making her heart seem to stop, then spin into a flutter of angry pulses.
I... Killed someone? She blinked, backing up a step.
What if he had a family? Oh God...
"Wolfram!" Lachlan's yelp was drowned out by the sound of battle, his eyes wide at the severity of the onslaught going on around him.
He lurched forward to help his friend, but the weight of a Pure body slamming him sent him sprawling to the ground.
So you wanna play? Let's play.
In no time, he was in the form of a silver wolf, standing before the Pure member, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
He hurtled forward, sinking his fangs into the human's leg before jerking back, and began to run circles around the Pure; dodging his kicks and now and then darting in to bite him.
