Katheeri

[Zaphyr Stone]

"Is that a fact?" Laika smirked, "By all means-"

She was cut short as Tiger and Zera dashed past, too much in alarm to respond.

"Did they say Star Tiger?" Max asked, "Damn, I wonder if they know Star Fox."

"Who the hell is this guy?" Antoine scoffed in disbelief as he was pushed into the patrol car with Bohdan and Johnny.

With sirens blaring, they screamed down the road and out towards the wastes.

----

"Aura, go!" Sitka donned the mask of his helmet again and quickly spread his wings out to full span protectively.

In a single liquid motion, Zefran was hoisted up into the air as Aura sprang off the ground hard.

"I'm sorry, Zefran." She spoke through her helmet. She tapped a panel on her armored wrist, and a strange metallic pyramid broke through the storm clouds, split into three fragments, and stretched a portal in the sky like a pair of forceps.

Zefran wasn't able to even yell in protest, the action so fast and alarming that it sucked the air out of him.

[Kurt]

'AW SHIT!' Reacting quickly Simo pulled the trigger, once, twice, three times, sending the massive .338 rounds screaming through the air. He aimed one for the chest, one for the throat, one for the head. "LETS SEE YOU BLEED MOTHER F***ER!"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

The deflector shield generated by Ilya's medallion managed to hold itself together, although it quickly puttered out of existence. Nevertheless, the force was enough to knock him onto his back, without even firing his guns. Ilya observed the massive pyramid-like structures open up a portal in the sky. Ilya remembered a quote from the Sacred Texts, and he recited it.

"Mikhail gazed upon an iron mountain descending from the clouds. It split into three, and they shone their lights upon one another, and in that instant, a window to the world of the Blessed Ones opened. They unfurled their wings and lifted Mikhail up with their arms into their world. Out of fright, Mikhail had fainted."

Elizabeth and Korben stared at the spectacle going on above their heads. They yelled through their communicators: "Alex!!!"

~

Sandor had received the distress call, and activated his star fighter he eagerly waited in. The hangar doors opened, and Sandor flew out of the hangar. He sped off to the site where the Katheeri had crashed, and he accelerated at the speed of sound.

"My God..." began Sandor, catching sight of the pyramid structures in the sky. "It's them. It really is them. The Iron Mountains in the Sky."

[Renardfrost]

As is with most tense situations.. The air itself seemed to stand still. Renard knew that feeling all too well.

 

There was a ripple of force ebbing its way through the wastes, by the time the others would feel it, it would already be too late.

 

There would be a Crackle in the air then a brilliant flash.

 

it revealed itself as lightning only after it subsided, releasing a tremendous wave of force that would subdue or knock back anyone not knocked unconscious by the light or electricity.

Renard himself was used to this particular type, and braced himself, skidding back a good 20 feet before the heels of his boots found purchase in the dust once more.

'this is bad...' he thought as he looked at the point of the strike.

Standing on a small platform of sand that had been melted into glass by the heat. was a Fox of about 30 with uncanny yellow eyes. he seemed to be dressed rather similarly to Renard. At his sides were a pair of crystalline tonfa.

Thier eyes met.

"Hello, Trigger." Ren said as if heaving a heavy sigh.

" Hello Little brother." he stated with a warm smile. " I know you have a knack to get yourself in trouble, but this takes the cake. You know why I'm here."

" And i've told you before, I Refuse" He said, adopting a defensive stance.

Provided all conflict had stopped at this display. Ren shouted out.

" Keep your distance!  He's not here to help us!"

As if the tension had torn open the sky's bag of waters, it began to rain rather heavily

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Elizabeth and Korben were alerted to Trigger's presence via Renard. They kept their distance, as warned, but nevertheless drew their weapons and pointed it at Trigger.

"Renard, who's this guy?" asked Elizabeth.

~

Bohdan, from the window of the police cruiser, saw the Iron Mountains in the Sky. He gasped.

"Oh my God," he said in a weary voice.

[Renardfrost]

"His name's Pauldron Frost, But he prefers the name Trigger."

Trigger became annoyed. "Hey I don't go spouting your full name, Reynardi-"

"He's One of my siblings... One of five. And they usually try to dissuade me from seeking my father out."

" Don't ignore me!"

"He's gonna try to bring be back home to Idania, Conscious or not." Renard Simply looked up. " I'm only gonna ask once, Trigger. Where is he?"

" I have no idea."

" Bullshit, keeping something like aolius safe.. he can't do that alone... Where. IS. He."

"You've always been Bright, Renny. But you know the rules."

" Fine! I"ll beat it out of you then!"

"Like words ever work on us, brother?"

"A Fair point.."

[Sylono]

Even though the dragon had a deflector of his own, the bolts of plasma seemed to have deterred him enough to prevent a retaliation. It took moment for Shepherd to realize that the babble he was spouting wasn't some prayer for his soul in case she were planning on killing him, but a reaction to the commotion behind her.

With a glace over her shoulder that turned into a full one-eighty spin, Shepherd bolted towards their last location in vain while reflexively raising an arm up as if she were reaching out for abducted Katheeri.

"Zefran!" The clone cried out, desperately she tried to think of anything she could realistically do. Shooting is absolutely out of the question, they were moving to fast for that and there was a chance that she'd hit Zefran and even if she was lucky and got a bulls-eye there's little it'd do except leave a scorch mark unless by some miracle it hit a weak point... but then Zefran would just be killed by the fall, looking past the two she spotted their portal. It had three emitters and was big enough to be spotted easily if someone was flying.

She had one idea, it was a longshot but now was a good time as any to start praying to any god that'd cut her a good deal.

Shepherd snatched a communications unit from her belt and switched to an SOS channel, it was an idiotic move on her part as it revealed her very location to anyone with the proper equiptment, and usually that was either law enforcement, military or mercenary. "Can anyone read me? There's an abduction in progress in the Macbeth wastes near my location, they're attempting to escape with a portal with three active emitters!"

She was currently oblivious to what was happening around her.

[Zaphyr Stone]

"What...the hell?" Antoine murmured as they neared what could only be described as a smorgasbord of pandemonium.

"The rest of the squad is up ahead." Max observed to Laika, a line of cruisers and swat vans coming to a screeching halt ahead of them.

Max parked the car as well and rushed out to join the other patrolmen. Antoine could hear megaphone chatter for a brief moment until the door slammed shut.

"For your own sakes, stay in here." Laika growled as she loaded her sidearm and hurried out to join him.

"Yeah, that's not happening." Antoine fidgeted in his seat between Johnny and Bohdan, "Either of you got something to pick these cuffs with?"

-----

Sitka wrapped his wings around him, the rounds ricocheting off the green shield that appeared like before. He looked up to see the newcomer and the rain he brought, then the police squadron that finally joined the party, cruisers, vehicles and low-flying hovercraft.

"You're outmanned and outgunned! Everyone drop your weapons and put your hands behind your head!"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Bohdan looked down to Antoine at his left side when asked if he had a pick.

"Unfortunately," began Bohdan, "I have no lock pick. However..." He then proceeded to pull on the chain holding the cuffs together. Straining for several seconds, the chain let up and was torn apart by Bohdan's sheer strength, although he accidentally elbowed Antoine in the face. "Oh! I am sorry."

Bohdan then climbed into the driver's seat of the cruiser. He hot-wired the car and turned it on. Bohdan floored it, narrowly missing several police officers. He skidded to a halt in front of Elizabeth and Korben.

"Everyone!" Bohdan yelled. "Get in! Get on! It matters not! WE GO!"

Acting on instinct, Elizabeth hopped into the front passenger side, while Korben joined Antoine and Johnny in the back. Ilya, staggering to his feet, rushed to the car, dropping a flash grenade. He covered his eyes as it blasted a blinding light in all directions. Ilya leaped onto the roof of the car.

"Shepherd! Renard! Come!" Bohdan yelled at the two to mount the car for their escape.

[Kurt]

"You heard em, on the ground Fuck Face!" Simo was unaffected by the sudden bailing of many of the civies. "Every fortress has a weakness and we have more than enough firepower to find yours!"

[Tiger Carson]

By this time, the Sanctuary Tiger had already become visible. "ALERT!  ALERT!" Mark called over the comm. "Portal similar to the ones used by Andross has been detected!"

"Not good!" Tiger said as he received the comm. "That must be how they're attacking, whoever they are." He said to Zera who nodded. "Mark," Tiger replied, "Have the fighters launch, and fire on the portal, destroy it!"

"Affirmative, launching fighters." Mark said as all six Arwings now launched, and the Sanctuary Tiger climbed up in a slope towards the portal, arming it's six turbo lasers"Charging turbo lasers."  When they were charged, "FIRE!" Mark was heard, and the lasers, six large yellow beams of light blasted out at the portal.  At the same time, Tiger and Zera's Arwings had flown to them, and they jumped into their ships, and took off, just as the Sanctuary Tiger fired it's turbo lasers.

(Sorry, had to jump in, I'll try to catch up with what I can now.)

[Zaphyr Stone]

The lasers hit their mark, and the three contact point blew apart in a massive explosion, the portal collapsing immediately.

Aura had no time to react, the laser fire too fast, and the explosion blew her away spinning and unconscious. Her grip on Zefran vanished, and his heart sank to his stomach as he suddenly went plummeting back to the ground.

Shards of shrapnel flew past him, one of them cutting his harness. The leather straps flew off of him, and wind opened his wings, which flapped helplessly and spun him around in the air as he dropped further.

----

Antoine jumped at the explosion and looked up in time to see a familiar figure falling back to the earth. His whole world stopped. He couldn't get out of the car fast enough. With the blood roaring in his ears, he couldn't even hear himself helplessly cry out to the boy.

"ZEFRAN!"

----

Sitka leapt into action, completely ignoring Simo's point-blank threat.

"Aura!" He sprang off the ground and streaked after her, catching her in time to set her down on the far rise.

[Renardfrost]

Renard shook his head. " No Way! This is the one chance I'm gonna have at getting any info at all! If you want to leave that bad, go ahead! I'll catch up! Besides.. I want everyone as far away from this as possible.!
 

Trigger Smirked. " You sure you don't want your friends around? you know you can't beat me on your own."

[Tiger Carson]

"Portal has been successfully destroyed." Mark said over the comms.

"Good, that should stop the attacks for now." Tiger said as he maneuvered his Arwing into formation with the other Arwings of his team, "Star Tiger, survey the damage, but watch out for hostiles.  More than just beams of light may have come out of that portal."
"Roger that." The entire team said in unison as each one split off to do exactly that.

[Sylono]

Before Shepherd could respond to Bohdan's calls to get inside the police cruiser, she found her last ditch effort to prevent the Katheeri from making it to their portal and escaping, had paid off. Evidently, this was a mixed blessing as Zefran was unable to stabilize himself after the fall and now plummeting to his death.

"Damn it all." She cursed, her eyes zipped around before coming to a stop on the vehicle, or more specifically the driver. A quick burst of movement later and the clone found herself at the front passenger window, and almost found herself begging for Bohdan's help.

"Bohdan, please tell me your wings aren't just for show." It was probably obvious to anyone that even if Shepherd didn't ask, a dragon wasn't suddenly going to forget he had wings.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Oh sh-t! Oh sh-t! He's falling!" yelled Pawel, pointing up in the sky. Suddenly, he jumped up into the air and began flapping his wings. He rapidly ascended, despite his large frame, and the energy-consuming action of flying. "God, Pawel, why are you doin' this?!" he asked himself.

"Because you're not that much of an asshole, asshole!" yelled Pawel. He then caught up with Zefran midair, and gripped him tight. They tumbled briefly until Pawel's back faced the ground. They fell like stones, but Pawel outstretched his wings as much as they could go, in an effort to be like a parachute.

"Yes, yes!" Bohdan said, attempting to get out.

"I'm gonna kill you if I die, kid!" Pawel yelled to Zefran, moments before landing on the cruiser, greatly denting the roof. He cried out in pain. "Ugh.... damn!" Pawel was still holding Zefran in his hands, barely scratched. This stopped Bohdan from exiting completely. He peeked out of the window, where he saw Pawel and Zefran lying safely on the roof. "Hey, cuz!" said Pawel painfully. Bohdan went back inside.

"We go!" said Bohdan. Elizabeth pulled Shepherd onto the car hood, and away the overloaded cruiser went. It sped off, the sirens blaring at full blast, through the raining wastelands and towards the BHK Spaceport. Sandor followed them quickly in his star fighter, dropping a napalm bomb behind the cruiser in an effort to stymie the pursuers.

"Raaaaagh!" Sandor cried as the napalm coated much of the field in fire. Korben looked behind to see a wall of flame. Elizabeth looked in the banged up rearview mirror.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning," she said.

[Tiger Carson]

"WHAT IN THE?!" Tiger shouted. "Who the heck just used that Napalm?"
"I don't know." Zera said, "But it's doing too much damage."
"Tiger." Jeena said, "I see a police cruiser speeding off with a fighter following it.  Looks like the one that dropped the napalm.  I'm going to pursue." Jeena turned her Arwing to do just that.
"Negative, Jeena." Tiger barked. "Our first priority is to put those flames out.  Everyone, engage Walker mode."
"Roger." Everyone said, save for Jeena, who growled, and reluctantly turned her Arwing around.  All six ships changed into their Walker modes, and landed on the ground.  At the same time, each one started using the lasers set to flame extinguishing to try and douse the fires.  It was working, but it'd take a long time, especially with how hard it is to extinguish napalm flames, given the stuff is a type of gel.

[Zaphyr Stone]

Sitka looked back at the mess, the flames echoing the ones rising inside him. He no longer cared about anything else. He was going to make everyone else pay. He took off back down towards the crowd fighting off the flames. Grabbing a small tube attached to the back of his armor. He clicked a button on one side, and a long lance extended out, a thick plasma beam humming in place of a blade.

Landing hard before one of the walkers, he swung at a leg.

"You fools will pay for that!"

----

"Dammit, I guess I walked into that one." Laika groaned as she watched her patrol car go driving off down the field.

Their side of the fire was an absolute mess. Patrolmen and SWAT members were running in circles trying to regroup priorities.

----

"Zefran, you all right, pal?" Antoine called out, unsure if he would be heard but trying anyways.

"Oh my goooood..." Zefran groaned, the wind knocked out of him from the fall. He was grateful to be alive, but now that he was, something else weighed on his mind, "Aura!"

He shot up in a panic, looking around to try and spot her. "Guys, stop!" He yelled, "Aura's hurt! We can't leave her!"

[Tiger Carson]

"H-hey!" Jeena said as the plasma blade struck the leg of her Walker. "You insane fool!" She made her walker jump and hover away, turning to face him. "We've got bigger problems right now, you don't want any of that napalm stuff getting on you." Her Walker landed a ways back, a small scar from the plasma blade on the leg of the Walker, but she was still facing Sitka.

[Renardfrost]

Trigger snapped his fingers. A strange crackle would fill the air as all communications and powered weapons within a good 100 meters on ground and anything less than 20 feet in the air would fall dead. They would be witnessed, but not interrupted.

" Ready?"

(The link is just mood music, clicking is optional)

Renard nodded as a soft, blue glow outlined his body, a brilliant gold outlining his brother.

 Trigger Pulled His tonfa amidst an ominous rumbling of thunder.

"The Golden Rods of the palace of Thunder, Rendered for the use of man to illuminate both mind and space. I Call upon the Ur-Spark in my time of need. Ambroz and Elektra, Grant me Your power."

 

Quickened by their master's words, the weapons began to crackle and pulse with uncanny blue sparks. Trigger's hair seeming to spike from the charge.

Ren at least appreciated his brother's formality. Slowly, With purpose, he drew his sword, The saber's blade seemed to be made of a peculiar blue stone. ( Point of reference: google " Blue Opal") He removed his jacket and shirt, Revealing a simple undershirt and a gauntlet made of the same substance.

"Oh Primordial Stone, Fragment of the Mothercrystal, the soul of the goddess whose humors support and protect all souls. I call upon Silvea's mercy  in my time of need. Hero's Sword Fractal, Grant me your power!"

 

The sword and gauntlet seemed to become wreathed in frozen vapor for a time, until a swing of his arms revealed that the blade had taken a shape akin to a cleaver with a saber's curve, and the gauntlet was otherwise the same, but emitting a dull glow.

Ren sighed, he definitely had a hell of fight on his hands.

 

 

[Kurt]

Simo had a chance to end this, all of it. As it was distracted by the Walker he charged behind him, tossing his rifle away.

Running by the flames he pulled a long, slender blade from its sheath and launched himself at him. Slashing at the joint where it joined his shoulder he felt the blade cut through bone and muscle. 

'So you can bleed!'

Jumping off his back as blood poured down he readied to deal the final blow

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Pawel pulled Zefran down beside him, afraid that they were under fire.

"Keep your head down, kid!" demanded Pawel. "I don't want you getting blown away after that amazing save! And besides, your Aura friend's a Katheeri, and has a Katheeri bodyguard. They'll be fine."

"Antoine," started Bohdan, still driving the now silenced cruiser as fast as he could, "do you still have the Katheeri artifact? I think we could study it to get some more information about Zefran's past, as well as Aiolius."

~

Roy was coughing heavily, taking another puff from his marijuana joint. Jacob, too, preferred smoking from a joint, which he held in his hand. They sat on the command bridge in their respective chairs, watching the popular Cornerian show Ancient Aliens. The topic being discussed was centered on the old Titanian civilizations, as seen on a map shown on the show. Then, the scene cuts to a long deserted desert ruin of what seemed to be a spaceport made out of granite and sandstone. However, Jacob had an inquiry.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait..." he said, pausing it via his console. "So, where was this civilization?" Roy glared at Jacob unfavorably, holding the smoking joint with two fingers on his right hand.

"Are you f---king serious right now?" asked Roy. "They just showed you a f---king map of Titania." Roy gestured to the holo-screen displayed largely in front of them.

"So it's Titania?" responded Jacob. "Alright, alright." Jacob unpaused the program, with Roy shaking his head in disappointment. Jacob smoked some more of his joint.

[Sylono]

Shepherd did her best to re-orientate herself and find a grip on the vehicle, then after nearly slipping off a handful of times she dug under her jacket and retrieved a large blade-less knife shaped item, activated and jabbed it into the roof, before deactivating the knife.

Those inside the car would see the edges of the dagger bright green before dissipating.

"Are you sure that is such a good idea, Zefran?" She called back to him, the young Katheeri's eagerness to help those who'd attempted and were nearly successful at abducting the young man, perplexed the clone. though thinking on it, Aura probably was trying to reunite him with his own kind, that alone didn't deserve to be rewarded with injury.

"I'm sure Aura's servant made it a point to rush to her safety," Shepherd rationalized out loud, not sure if she was trying to convince Zefran, or herself, "it's not as though Macbeth's police force would line them up and... shoot them, would they?"

No that was obviously not exactly true, considering that sniper was seemingly out for blood, perhaps the whole team was lucky to have...

Wait... She scanned through the window to count heads, before taking a glance behind the two on the roof. Well if there was any reason to go back now, they had one.

"We left Renard behind!" Shepherd stated loudly after banging on the roof.
 

[Tiger Carson]

"What in the world?" Jeena asked herself, dumbfounded at this turn of events.  That's when she realized, the crazy guy who attacked her walker's leg was a Katheeri. "Well dump me on a miles long stone wall and call it's land China.  That's a Katheeri?" She then realized what was going on. "Oh great, where's that stun setting for the lasers?" She then opened a channel to Zera. "Hey, tigress!"
"Don't call me tigress!" Zera snapped back, "What do you need?"
"Stun setting for the lasers, I've got two guys who are at each other's throats." Jeena said, "One's a Katheeri, I need to stop them before they do some real harm to each other."
"Jeena, the Arwings weren't designed with a stun setting in their lasers." Zera replied, "You're going to have to shoot them with your blaster, it has a stun setting."
"Aw great..." Jeena said, "I have to go out there, and stun them?  I prefer being in the air..."
"You don't have a choice Jeena." Zera said, "Our orders are to protect the Katheeri, if this is the one, we have to protect him as well as stop this fire."
"He's not the same fur color though... he's white..." Jeena said, "Alright, I'll see what I can do.  Jeena over and out." She then pulled her blaster out, set it to stun, and opened the cockpit of her walker.  She was still in her civies, due to rushing to get to the Arwing.  She then took aim, and charged her blaster.  She could only get one shot off at a time though, which one to shoot? "Okay, crazy katheeri?  Or crazy doberman?  Who do I shoot with the one charge shot first?" She knew if she shot the wrong one, she'd be having to face the remaining one down.  But if she shot the right one?  Well, she had to shoot them both with the stun setting for their own safety. "Katheeri?  Doberman?  Katheeri?  Doberman?"

Edited May 26, 2016 by Tiger Carson
clearing something up

[Zaphyr Stone]

The knife was like a shard of white hot pain in his flesh. Sitka cried out, the mask of helmet peeling back so he could attempt a better look at the wound. Glaring at Simo, he decided he had finally had enough of the sniper and lunged full throttle.

----

"It looks pretty bad, I know." Zefran looked Shepherd in the eye, "I mean they basically commandeered me like some crappy TV set. But I can't leave her just laying out there hurt. Right now she's the closest I've come to actually making sense out of...well, this." He gestured to all of himself.