Stockholm Syndrome

[Cernan]

Cernan had been about to address Keera's concerns before the fire erupted. He was fairly certain that the humans had not managed to close in yet. He was wrong. Very wrong. When the flames erupted from the house, so to did the soldiers from seemingly everywhere around the block. Cernan immediately sprung to action, planting his feet and raising his arms to cross in front of him, his aura concentrating around them as he prepared to take the full brunt of the assault. The attack never came though, instead he was overcome with a horrible sensation of his body being forcibly ripped apart and pulled away.

When he landed, he nearly stumbled, he was shaking and his skin was steaming, some of it burnt away revealing the animate ice underneath which formed his body. As he recovered Cernan couldn't help but be a little annoyed at Ahearn's choice of tactics. What was the point of sending them away if they had to go back for him? He was particularly annoyed at the idea that Ahearn thought there was any risk to him, especially one which Ahearn would be able to deal with alone. As he seethed at the thought he took in his new surroundings. What he saw actually frightened him a little. There were humans, already there, guns trained on them. It wasn't the guns though, or the imminent attack that frightened him though. It was the simple fact that they were already there. There was only two possible explanations, one that they had somehow anticipated where Ahearn would send them, the other that they were far more numerous than Cernan had at first thought. If it was the former the implications were staggering, the later would explain their tactics but as only a little better.

He had to assume it was the latter. It would match with his suspicions about how the humans were tracking them, and the limits of that ability. It would explain how they had surrounded the block they had been, but hadn't stormed the house. If they knew exactly where they had been it would have better to corner them in the house. If on the other hand they could only guess to th area but had the numbers to surround it, then it would make sense to lie and wait, especially assuming they wanted to raise as little suspicion as possible. To have spread out this far though, it still meant they were several steps ahead. They had covered the area and any possible escape route. There was only one thing for it. They would have to get rid of the humans now in front of them, then fight their way back to Ahearn.

All these thoughts flashed through Cernan's mind in a second, he had already made up his mind to attack, his body tensing as he prepared to lunge before the humans even had time to fire. He was taken off guard though when the arrow came out of seemingly nowhere to strike one of the men pointing his gun at the pair. Cernan's eyes shot up to the rooftop at the same time the militia men's did. He spotted the man, noting where he had ducked down. His attention was immediately back to the men in from of him.

"Never take your eyes off your prey."

That was all the warning they got. Cernan sprung. The two men closest to him were dead before they even hit the ground, his claws immediately imbedded in the back of their skulls. As they dropped he took another one by the neck in his jaws, biting through his wind pipe and letting him too drop, gasping as he bled out on the ground. He didn't have long to suffer though, Cernan brought his foot down on the mans skull crushing it against the pavement. Standing in the middle of the three bodies in a growing pool of blood Cernan paused, turning to look back at Keera.

"It would seem you no longer need to worry about being seen. So do you want to take care of the ones down here, or go see who our friend is?"

Cernan turned back to face the rest of the attackers, flicking the blood off his claws at one of them who had regained his composure and had raised his gun. The droplets froze as they left the tips of Cernan's claws, shooting like bullets toward the man and tearing through his body.

[Amara<3]

Keera looked around, and her heart dropped to her stomach. So much for her staying in disguise long enough to figure this out. "Damn it all," she whispered, gearing up for the attack, just like Cernan was before the two of them were wrenched from their feet and dropped in another place a few blocks away. It was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world, being torn from one place to another. She growled as she tried to keep her footing, and groaned when several gun barrels were stuck in her face. She was about to make her doppelganger in case this turned out bad when one of the soldiers was hit in the shoulder with an arrow. Keera raised an eyebrow, not having seen something like that used in a practical way for a very long time, and used her peripherals to spot their apparent ally. As Cernan jumped, Keera's doppelganger was in her place, and the real Keera was already moving in the shadows towards their helper.

"Too slow, Cernan," Keera's doppelganger chimed as she too got up and took a swinging kick at the closest soldier to her. He dropped the gun and she snatched it before it hit the ground. "I'm already on it," she added as she began pumping bullets into soldiers, through the thinnest parts of their gear. Being a police officer, she knew better than either of the others which spots were weaker in their armor than the rest. "Your fire fox isn't the brightest of them, is he?" Her doppelganger was always the mouthy counterpart, ever since the beginning.

The real Keera took a leap up the building where the human was seen last, and landing not too far from them, she spoke quickly. "They're coming, I hope you know what you got yourself into. I hope I don't need to remind you of what humans are capable of." Since apparently it was more than demons had been showing the last hundred or seven. "We can save the introductions for later, if you like." As the soldiers began coming up over the walls, Keera started hitting them in the head with energy spheres that instantly turned attackers heads into blocks of ice... and as the soldiers she hit landed, their heads shattered like glass on the pavement.

[Gen]

Artemis strolled swiftly further onto the roof and away from the gunfire from the streets below. To his surprise it didn't last for very long, but there would still be the soldiers that had followed him to deal with. He was relieved to find one of the demons he'd just assisted joining him on the roof, but no sooner did she appear, so too did many of the soldiers.

He wouldn't wait for her to finish her introductions. The soldiers didn't. There would be time for talk later. As the soldiers came up over the rear wall Artemis pulled out an arrow with an oddly bulky looking, cylindrical head and fired it at the center most soldier, the piece bursting and propelling several smaller pieces outward and into the men around him, all of them falling to the ground as they were stunned by an electric shock. He pulled out a stun grenade from a pouch at his back and pulled the pin, tossing it into the alley below to take care of the men that still waited to make the climb.

"We shouldn't stay here." The boy said plainly on his walk back.

As they spoke several more soldiers were already climbing the roofs on the buildings around them. There weren't as many as he'd expected, though, and with a quick glance off in the distance, he understood why. The fire had spread already and the flames reached high into the sky, smoke blanketing the block. A chill ran down Artemis's spine. There was a dark, sickening feeling on the air and it made him uneasy.

"Your companion will burn down the city if you don't restrain him." Artemis said, again emotionless. "How light are the two of you on your feet?"

* * *

Raeph couldn't feel himself slipping. Madness was creeping in once again, but he was so caught up in the incredible high he was getting from having fed on a new source of energy, or the adrenaline coursing through him from the fight or the pain he'd felt, that it went unnoticed for him. Bloodlust was upon him.

The black fox lept from his hole in the wall, instantly appearing to have apprehended one of the soldiers standing on a scaffold on the building across the street. He held the man from behind and pulled his head back, biting down hard on his neck. In a faint wisp of light the man was lifeless. Much to the company's dismay, Raeph's leap landed him in several different locations at once, doppelgangers apprehending a number of soldiers and doing just the same.

The atmosphere would change suddenly, the sickening aura surrounding him growing more intense and sinister. Each feeding sent him spiraling more deeply into his episode. At once they would all rear their heads back, blood running down from their mouths as they let out a deafening, thunderous roar that shook the block.

The number of Raeph doppelgangers only grew each time he lept from one soldier to another. They weren't fast enough. His eyes were on everything now, and each time someone attempted to activate one of their generators, that soldier would become the next target. His next meal.

He began tearing at their bodies senselessly during and even after the feeding. Once he'd taken what he'd wanted he would simply pull them apart, leaving their broken bodies strewn across the burning city block, their blood paining the streets and buildings. Soon the soldiers stopped funneling into the street, finally receiving the order to hold their positions several blocks back.

He was surprised there had been so many. Many more than had initially appeared when they left the house. The fox found himself disappointed when the only bodies left standing in the street were his own. A couple of them chuckled, grinning devilishly from ear to ear. Their bodies were suddenly drawn to his, vanishing into him and leaving only the original in the street, still chuckling. In the distance he could see a number of soldiers with their arms ready, watching him.

"Is this it?" He called out. "You're done already?"

In a winding, wispy cloud of black smoke, a long, slender black sword would appear in his right hand. As he walked along the sidewalk he would run the tip against the walls of the buildings, sparks falling from where it touched and leaving the stone scorched. He walked toward the next company that he could see in the distance, and in a flash he would be upon them, cleaving the three forward most men clean in two. Before the rest could react he exhaled, blanketing the smaller company in fire.

[Cernan]

Cenan stood in his spot as Keera went to the roof, ignoring the bullets from her doppelganger as they went by. His eyes though were flicking all over the place, and his ears swiveling as he picked out all the remain targets. He managed to shoot the Keera doppelganger a sharp look as his eyes flicked around.

"I'm sure he has a plan."

Just after he spoke Cernan caught sight, barely, of a great plume of fire and smoke in the distance. He was sure he had seen it take the shape of a horse. He understood why Ahearn had sent him away, but wasn't happy about it. They would have to hurry and get back to him, or there was a very good chance he would wreck the entire city. Scowling slightly at the thought of having to help the humans in anyway, he focused his anger towards the problem at hand. He didn't have time to tear the soldiers apart like he would like to have done, instead he had to dispose of them all quickly.

Cernan reached out with his right hand, the air around it seeming to distort, and contract. His hand disappeared into the distortion then reappeared as he pulled back, grasping at first a just a hilt, followed by the blade of a sword that he pulled out of the distortion. The sword itself was nothing special, just a simple steel bastard sword, albeit specially forged for him, a five foot blade with no cross guard and only a single handed grip. Once it was freed from the distorted space he dropped it so the tip hit the ground, frost instantly forming where it had struck. He shot another glance to Keera's doppelganger.

"If you're still needed, move."

His aura poured into the blade concentrating at the tip, the frost on the ground quickly spreading. He raised it up, holding his hand level to his shoulder, and swung pivoting on his foot as he did. The aura at the tip hung in the air as the blade moved forming a circle. When the trail had connected it shot out, a great wave of his aura. As it passed the ground below would freeze so rapidly the pavement would crack, and the air around it was filled with a fine mist of ice, the water in the air instantly freezing. Where it hit the buildings along the street the power behind it became evident, it had a cutting edge as well. It carved into the brick and cement walls leaving deep gouges that further cracked from the expanding ice that formed from any moisture that was present. Windows shatter. Heads rolled. The soldiers in it path where cut down where they stood, their bodies frozen solid before they hit the ground. Even the ones climbing building who avoided the direct edge of the wave would fall, as flash-frozen corpses.

In the same second As he had released the wave Cernan had jumped, leaping to the rooftop where Keera and Artemis where. He landed at the edge of the building which cracked and crumbled from the impact even as he stepped towards the two.

"Light enough. If you have a plan to help explain on the way."

With that Cernan Leaped off the building onto the street below on the other side and took off running towards the blaze he had seen. He had to get back to Herin. He was not going to wait for anyone, especially a human, even if they were an ally.

[Gen]

Artemis was surprised by the man's sudden and then brief appearance on the roof. He glanced to Keera before dropping down between the building's into the alley, soon following off into the streets after Cernan. It wouldn't take long for him to catch up to the fox, though he kept his distance.

"We have to get off the radar, immediately." Artemis said to Cernan rather sternly. "You have to calm your friend, first. I'll try to get you out of the city, but it's not going to be smooth. There are militants everywhere today. More than I've seen over the last few weeks."

His eyes narrowed for a moment. Up until this morning, their presence in the city was apparently minimal at best. Nearly non-existent, save for nights where a small group or two were hunting. They always maintained a covert presence, though. The answer was obvious, but he had to pry a little more.

"Until this morning, their presence in the city streets has always been minimal..." Artemis said as he followed a little closer to the man. "I've watched them hunt, and this is nothing like that. It's as if something triggered them. Stirred them up, like bees... I had no idea there was really this many, to be honest. It's actually quite impressive, even if a little disturbing..."

* * *

Raeph noticed a change in the atmosphere. Something disturbing. He'd torn through the street in a matter of minutes, leaving everything broken and burned in his wake. Where he thought he would see more soldiers, though, he saw none. He doubted that this was all that the militia would have to offer.

He stared off down a normally busy street for a long moment before turning back to walk toward the house they had hidden in. He would start from there to look for Cernan and Keera, as he wasn't even sure where he'd pushed them to.

He tried to ignore the bodies that he passed on the way, but every now and again he would catch one's face, causing him to frown just a little more sternly. It had been many years since he'd lost his composure like that. Even as his rage and bloodlust subsided, he could still feel the pull of insanity at the back of his mind. Begging him to take the leap once more, and lose himself.

Raeph wiped the blood from his face on the sleeves of his jacket and attempted to straighten his hair for when he met up with Cernan. He couldn't look too disheveled. He would have to be presentable when he attempted to explain himself.

[Amara<3]

"Of course it is," Keera spoke from out of nowhere, appearing close to the two and keeping up without any trouble. "Demons and foxes seem to be turning up these last couple days, wouldn't you agree, Cernan? I'm sure they were just waiting for this to happen, but the question is why here, and how did they know?" How were they able to tell so easily that Keera was one of them, aside from the fact that she was with them? Had they known all along, and wanted to see if she would turn up here too? "I'm going to need to get out of this police uniform too, unless there's some reason I should be keeping it." All her belongings were in her hotel room, and she'd even been there for a little while unpacking for her week vacation, completely unaware that there was anything wrong with the city.

Then something clicked. When she was in Tokyo, as a police officer even then, she'd had a different body, and when she was given it back, it was as if no one on the force even noticed her transformation. Had she actually been mistaken about this, thinking it was some sort of magic that prevented them from noticing, or had they noticed and just pretended not to because they finally figured out what she was? So many more questions flooded her mind that she almost lost her step, and the little colour she had in her face drained away.