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Jollanel laughed his response to the raccoon. "Oh, no. Not in anyway," he said, "I don't let my guests worry themselves with such matters. I know the well being of others is something we all hope for; I understand how you feel, but Rusty is in good care. Besides, his wounds are so minor, he should be waking soon."


After what seemed like hours, light finally filled the area of vision through small slits. Blinding as it was at first, Rusty enjoyed coming back from his suspended state. He moved a bit and even though there was a stinging sensation that came with it Rusty sat up.
The room became silent as every pair of eyes turned their gaze at Rusty. The familiarity of most of those gazes planted a weak smile on Rusty. "What happened?" he said to nobody in particular.

"Nothing interesting," came Jollanel, "I'm enjoying the night and suddenly I get a knock a my door and find out you're completely out of it. A quick few minutes of the couch and here we are."

He should have seen that coming, Jollanel's sarcasm. Rusty was going to protest and tell him to go seriously but was interrupted when Jollanel produced a small container from a pouch he'd always seemed to be wearing on his belt at the right time and with the right materials to fit the situation. "You remember these, don't you?"
Rusty took the container and instantly recognized the shapes through the clear plastic; and he dreaded the thought that he was going to take these again. He glared up at Jollanel but Jollanel only grinned.

Rusty sighed and opened the container, dropping two yellow-green leaves each with a soft brown bulb at the base. He took both of them and bit off the bulb, swallowing them after a few chews. Then he braced for the next thing, the worse part. A strong bitterness shot up from his bowels and burned the back of his throat. Rusty reached for his neck and coughed profusely.

---Update---
Due to some recent events, I will be taking the time to save every post made in this RP onto a Word Document. That will add some protection if ever this RP gets deleted.

Akari took a quick glance at Cyrus when he accidentally verbalized his thoughts, but then turned his attention to Rusty when he heard him speak. He bit his lip when he saw that Rusty had to take the two plant bulbs, knowing himself how bad those can be, having taken one himself shortly after he got his scar when Rusty got him out from the scrapyard where it happened.

He shook the thoughts out of his mind. He went over to the sink to get some water for Rusty once he was done coughing. As he finished filling a glass, he turned to Sissmuth and Cyrus. "You know," he began, "I didn't thank you two for picking up Rusty back there... so thanks. I really appreciate it," he said, smiling.

((FYI, I gotta edit my last post... just thought Rusty should know that so he can edit the archived post accordingly.))

"Thank you sir, for your hospitality." said a grinning Cyrus. He found this master's way of speaking incredibly intriguing, and was happy to notice a good sense of humor in the cougar. With a nod Cyrus turned away, so as not to crowd the awakening Rusty, and began roaming the small living room aimlessly. After only seconds, the rustling silhouettes of moonlit treetops caught his eye in the nearby window. He wandered over and leaned his arms onto the windowsill, gazing out through the cloudy glass. The night was alive, and something was amiss. The very air had been giving him alerting vibrations all night, and even after the sudden encounter in the alleyway, Cyrus couldn't shake the sensation.

A much relieved Akari passed by as he brought a glass of water back to Rusty. ("You know," he began, "I didn't thank you two for picking up Rusty back there... so thanks. I really appreciate it," he said, smiling.)

“Not a problem,” replied Cyrus, “just glad you didn’t attack us.” Chuckling, he resumed staring out the window, returning to his contemplation. ... Perhaps this is what was meant to happen, what would show him his path. Even with all of the prophetic statements of his mother and the efforts of master Regulus and himself to interpret her last written message before leaving Asper, all Cyrus knew was that he needed to get to Desdon. Tonight. He had no idea why, or what he would find there, only that it marked the beginning of the path he needed to take, and the opportunity to start upon it only existed until the end of the day. This recent delay was probably imminent, but there was still time. It was 10:07, two hours before midnight. If he left now, he could make it.

With a sigh of frustration fogging up the old window, he began to formulate what he would say to everyone. It would seem more than strange to be catching a bus at 10:30, especially if they learned that he had no idea why he had to do so. It would be even more difficult to explain his situation to Sissmuth, who as far as he knew was planning on coming with him. As the fog on the window cleared, Cyrus thought playfully that his mind followed suit, for he suddenly knew what to do.

Just as he was about to leave the window and make his departure, his attention was seized by a darting shadow moving out from behind a tree. It ran to the left, toward the streetlamp just ten yards down Jollanel’s block. The tall figure ran into the light, his face now revealed to be of a human, a very thin human wearing all black. He stood with his head darting left and right, surveying his surroundings. Suddenly another figure stepped out from around the corner –a short, bearded figure with a bulging stomach beneath a blue button-up shirt.

Cyrus’s heart jumped –it was the obnoxious salesman he had seen twice today, one of the times having been on another dark street. Cyrus’s focus became intense –he abruptly stood up straight and stuck his face closer to the window, grabbing the curtains and pulling them near to hide his watchfulness from the suspicious figures. They were talking, rather quickly it seemed. The thin man in black looked over his shoulder a few times during their hurried exchange before producing a small, silver bag from under his shirt.

The moonlight shimmered across its silky lining, giving it an incandescent glow. Cyrus's previous research led him to quickly recognize it as luneweave, an extraordinary substance known to repel magic. The man quickly handed it to the large salesman, who held it up to inspect it, as if he could see through the bright bag. Cyrus turned his head.

“Hey, Sissmuth.”

Sissmuth met his eyes.

“Tell me, what kind of lawful man spends the entire night wandering through dark streets?” As Cyrus motioned with his head, Sissmuth approached the window, choosing not to verbalize the obvious answer. Cyrus pointed out his suspicion, speaking quickly. “See that large man? I’ve seen him twice today, once about a half hour ago when I was in another residential area near the southern road. Look, I think he’s making a trade-off of some kind.”

The larger man had given back the bag, momentarily, it seemed, to search his pockets for money. Sure enough, he pulled out a wad of paper, extending it toward a bony hand. Just as Sissmuth was about to speak, the seller jerked his head toward the window, staring wide-eyed into Cyrus’s watchful gaze. He bolted, turning straight around and fleeing in the opposite direction of the house. As he disappeared into the pines, the bulging man turned to see what was amiss, stopping in panic when he locked eyes with Cyrus. He clearly recognized him, and scuffing back two paces, he bumbled around to attempt a dash- dropping all of his weight onto one foot as he stepped off the curb and plummeting downward onto the street. When he hit the floor he released the silver bag, scattering a good twenty radiant, multicoloured crystals across the asphalt. The man instantly began gathering them on his hands and knees, abandoning the bag where he had fallen.

“They’re charge stones!” exclaimed Cyrus as he ran for the front of the house, brushing past Sissmuth, Akari and coffee tables. There was no way that the men would have fled if those crystals weren't stolen. He had a hunch that the thief was unarmed, and prayed for its truth. Flinging open the worn out door, he dashed out yelling “Hey, stop!” The man clumsily snatched the last of the twinkling stones from the ground and recovered, breaking into a run towards a nearby parked car.

Sissmuth's tail jostled behind him like an anxious puppy as Cyrus called him to the window. He hadn't the fondest of who the people he pointed out were, but there was definitely an air around them that made it seem that even if their deal was honest, it would've still looked suspiciously unlawful. He was lucky enough not to involve himself in too many scruffles over his lifetime, but like Cyrus had done, Sissmuth could also sense something amiss in the air. Something faint and almost unnoticeable... like trying to listen to a beetle walk across coarse sand.

He sensed a trap.

He turned back to Cyrus, and his eyes widened when he found that he was no longer at his side, but bolting for the door. He reached out to him. "Cyrus, wait!" But it was no use. He was already out of hearing distance and approaching the suspicious men fast.

Fool!! To go charging out on a whim without any sort of plan, he thought as he pulled his cowl over his head and headed for the door. Before he left, he spun around and made another respectful bow of his head to Jollanel. "I'll go see what it is," he offered, then quickly shut the door behind him.

The last thing any of them needed was another anthro in serious need of medical attention. For all he knew, those men could be armed, and here Cyrus was, running up to them point blank. Fool!! Fool, fool, fool!! He quickened his pace after him, lest he got there before something truly unfortunate happened before him.

Cyrus was shocking himself, it seemed out of character to act without hesitation. He was always the most cautious student in training, always the one to think things through, and yet now he felt compelled to chase this man without giving it a second's consideration. Something inside of him had reawakened -He was getting an incredible rush, one that he somehow... needed.

The man had made it to his car at the next block and was fumbling to pull open the door. Cyrus sprinted toward him, only ten yards away. Throwing himself into the driver's seat, the man jammed in his key and started up the car, his foot heavy on the gas. As the machine roared to life and the back tires screamed in alarm, Cyrus approached the rear bumper, -just out of sword reach.

Squinting through the hot clouds blowing up into his face, he called upon his crystal. Instantly the winged necklace burst into radiance and the familiar surge of cool, dry energy shot to his palms. Cyrus aimed and pushed with his right hand, sending a screeching dart of concentrated air straight toward the left rear tire. It was received with the tremendously loud CRACK of pierced, exploding rubber. The car shook from the sudden flat, still peeling out as it began to gain forward momentum. It hadn't been two seconds before Cyrus had unsheathed his blades and slashed open the second tire, bringing the car to a lurching stop.

The man had no trouble recognizing his ride's hopeless state, so he quickly exited the driver's seat to make a run for it. Nervous but somehow overflowing with courage, Cyrus dashed around the rear of the car and gave chase. His footsteps were light and rapid -giving him a gain on the thief's lunking attempt at an escape. Focusing the energy once more, Cyrus raised his swords in the air and circled them down in front of him, pulling a powerful air current into a ball and thrusting his arms forward, sending the wisp splashing hard into the thief's back. Though he was heavy, the thief fell forward as if suddenly shoved, landing face first on the floor.

Cyrus caught up to him, sword extended, yelling as loud as possible. "Stay down!!!"

The man rolled over with his left hand up in surrender, his eyes wide at the sight of the blade nearly touching his throat. So far, so good. As he was trained to do, Cyrus quickly checked his surroundings for any more threats, making sure to keep a firm posistion on the submitting thief. He surveyed the street: nothing but parked vehicles and streetlights. There was a corner up ahead that wrapped around a house, veering left. The paranoid part of Cyrus hoped that there weren't any "friends" there waiting as back-ups to this man's debauchery. As far as the accompaning robber went, Cyrus felt fairly secure that he was long gone into the forest. Though, one could never be too sure.

Suddenly he heard heavy footsteps from behind. His heart racing, he turned around and pointed his other blade toward the threat, only to find Sissmuth charging his way. Greatly relieved, he looked again at the yielding man. Just then, something caught his eye- The panting thief kept glancing toward the corner in desperation, as if someone was there.

Cyrus looked up to find two burly men racing in his direction, both clad in black. Heart thumping hard against his chest, he observed to his horror that one held something outstretched in his hand. But it was too square to be a gun. -a taser?

Akari's eyes widened when he saw Cyrus run out after someone and Sissmuth run straight after him. "Ah, no..." he said to himself, "I'm going after them. This doesn't look pretty for those two... for all we know, those guys could be the muggers that got Rusty!"

Without further hesitation, Akari drew his right-hand sword and ran after them. "Stop! Sto-" he tried to call after Cyrus, right before the loud revving of the engine starting up, the bang and screech of the tires of the car popping and screeching to a halt, and some slight commotion of the man exiting the car drowned out Akari's voice. Cyrus tried to hold the man where he was, using his two swords as a measure to do so. The man, clearly fearing for his life, rolled to his back and held his hands up to surrender.

He noted Cyrus checking his surroundings, and Akari felt rather relieved that he at least wasn't too headstrong when it came to situations like this. Akari had to admit that even he might've forgotten to check his surroundings in a situation like this. Akari lowered his sword and jogged over to Cyrus, who appeared to be doing fine, until he looked up and seemed to freeze. Sissmuth was practically right next to them by now, so it wasn't him...

Akari looked up and saw the two men pointing a square-shaped pistol-like object at the three of them. That's not good... he thought. Akari, without thinking twice, reached for his throwing knife, but was stopped abruptly when he heard a soft buzzing of a spring, and then two small pieces of metal hitting his chest just below his pectorals, penetrating both his shirt and his concealed Kevlar vest. This was followed by a rather painful sensation where he suddenly felt a current run through his body, causing his entire body to spazz out for a few seconds, and then he fell on the ground. He was alive and conscious, but he couldn't move, as he was still in shock. His breathing became shuddered, and he managed to say a bit of colorful wolf language each breath, and at the same time tried to gather the strength to get himself back up again, which, for the moment, wasn't possible.

He braced himself for the shock as the pronged end whizzed completely away from him. What? He jerked his head around and witnessed Akari get stung with the paralyzing current. Aside from his surprise to find him there, he instantly felt a pang of guilt, seeing the friendly wolf suddenly suffering on his behalf. Beside the fallen Akari, Sissmuth was charging toward the bandits with a stunning intensity in his eyes. Cyrus quickly reverted toward the attackers, noticing the rear one dropping the used taser and pulling something from his pocket. It wasn't a second before he focused a great amount of energy into another air ball and launched it toward the assailant, smashing him right in the face and hurling him onto his back. His stone drained, Cyrus prepared for the assault of the other but noticed he no longer charged toward him -standing frozen in fear of the approaching lizard man.

((OOC: sirus, you might need to edit your post. I just remembered something that happened earlier in the RP that would require me to change mine... check my posts on page 8 to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I'm going to edit mine now... Sorry if this causes any problems, guys! ^^; ))

(OOC: I just researched Kevlar vests and found out that they are not able to block tazers. They are strictly for projectiles such as bullets and shraknel. I'm not 100% sure on that but according to all I looked at this was the case, so... unless you find otherwise and I'm completely wrong you might have to change your post back...)

((Ah, I found the same thing just now... "a taser can penetrate up to two inches of clothing, including Kevlar." was the quote. I'll go change it back.))

(Cool. Sorry to be so picky... Now we are just waiting for Rusty or Dr. Rex to post. )

Sissmuth had his Bo staff just lightly grazing over the ground as he ran; as he did, small chunks of earth leapt onto the end of his staff and pieced together to form a sickle-shaped head with a wedged edge. By the time he got over to his assailant, he had been armed with a scythe-like contraption that he twirled with a whistling scream as he brought it across the man's legs, tripping him to the floor.

The man had been bracing for Sissmuth's attack, and now that he had gotten over the initial fear, he tried to fight back. He rolled off to the side just as Sissmuth brought his scythe up in an arc to come howling down on the spot he was only moment before.

Twirling his scythe around once more, he butted the ground with the pole-end of his staff, and the sickle-shaped head popped free.

Sissmuth outstretched a hand, and bladed scythe-head stopped, suspended in the air. With a screeching hiss, he flung his hand out at Akari, and the weapon was sent spiraling with a whir-whir-whir-whiring sound as it churned through the air towards him. But rather than hit Akari, the scythe-head severed the shocking wires that were impaled in his writhing body, cutting them off from their electrical energy source. He saw Akari slump to the floor just as the two men who they'd seen meeting in front of Jollanel's house gather up the last of their strange crystals and flee into the night.

A thought passed through Sissmuth's head to pursue them, and he could see Sirus must've been thinking the same thing. But as he was beginning to charge after them, Sissmuth held out an arm to stop him. "Leave them be before more get hurt," he said sternly. His eyes flashed, silently daring him to argue.

He heard Akari groan on the ground, and Sissmth rushed to his side. He pulled out the wires still embedded him and threw them away. Laying his staff down, he put a scaled hand on Akari's chest, feeling. Listening.

A heartbeat was detectable, but Akari was still on the brink of consciousness. He thought back to his teachings back at Valter. What would be the best remedy for such a case? Often, members of his clan would stumble upon and rescue unfortunate travelers dying from dehydration out in the desert who would be too weak to swallow any water given to him. There was something his people did to spur one last jolt of energy back in them; enough to have them downing water by the bucketfulls. What was it again?

...Ah, yes. He remembered.

Sissmuth reached into his cloak and withdrew an extremely spicy Ba-ugan pod from his pocket -- the fruit only native Valter inhabitants could eat without needing a glass of water to go with. It wasn't the same thing as being dehydrated, but he figured the outcomes would be the same. He broke off a small portion and stuffed it into Akari's mouth, waiting for it to work its magic as he ate the rest of it himself.

When the wires were cut, and Akari slumped to the ground, he felt enormous relief, but had little energy to do anything. He was about to lose consciousness, relatively unaware of anything around him, as his eyes were barely open. He did notice, however faintly, the metal studs from the taser being pulled from his chest, and a hand with a smooth, but fragmented texture pressing down on his chest. Just as Akari jumped to the conclusion that Sissmuth was going to perform CPR on him, a strange, pea pod-like object was stuffed into his mouth. It felt like a pea pod, but certainly didn't taste like one. He clamped his mouth shut, assuming it was something to give him the energy to at least stand up, causing the pod to break open and leak fluid.

Wait... he thought, why was this put in my mouth? Akari was unsure as to why anyone would put a thing like this into the mouth of someone barely conscious, until he tasted the fluid. His mouth was suddenly filled with an intense, and unbearable burning sensation. His eyes opened suddenly and started to water. He quickly stood up, despite the fact that he didn't have the energy to do so a moment ago, and spat out the pod, which had some effect, but not enough to rid himself of the burning sensation. Not having any immediate access to water, he continued to try and spit out whatever was still causing the burning sensation, with limited results. He did, however, manage to spit until his mouth was dry, and the burning sensation became just bearable enough for him.

Akari stood there, panting for a minute, and then straightened up a bit to look at Sissmuth and Cyrus. "Man," he said, "what was that thing?"

But before anyone could answer, there was a loud, menacing, clicking noise. Akari then felt cold metal against the back of his head. Instinctively, he held up his hands. "Didn't your parents ever tell you not to stick your noses into someone else's business?" a voice behind him asked. It was the man who had fired the taser, earlier. He had recovered from being hit by Cyrus' concentrated air ball in the face, even though his nose was broken, his face was red, and his lip was bleeding.

"You were lucky that I used the taser the first time," he continued, "but if your friends don't put down their weapons and let me go, you won't be so lucky this time."

Akari's heart started racing.

An eerie silence fell upon the conflicting ground between the three Anthros and the human with the gun. Time seemed to have all but stopped with the realization of the stalemate; death’s ugly craw looming over an innocent and young life. The only force that showed contrary was that of nature’s cool breeze that pushed against leaves of the trees, the heads of the bushes, and the flags that still held onto their fastenings, causing life to stir.

Amongst the calm winds of the night, however, existed a hollow whistling sound. It sounded distant to those even with the most sensitive of ears. Surely nothing more than a small vortex of arguing winds, but the sound suddenly became sharp and high pitched and seemed to get closer. No sign of anything that would own such a noise appeared. Yet the noise grew louder.

The bushes on the crown of the slight hill that overlook the road started moving erratically against the current wind. Almost an instant afterwards, an arrow cut through the bushes at an incredible speed. It left a thin but visible vortex of altered wind in its trail as if flew towards the unsuspecting group. Until, finally, it hit the mark.

A loud CLING radiated from the metal pistol the man was holding; the force so strong to take it out of his hands. Upon impact, the unusually large head of the arrow shattered into a thin cloud of dust and rock that got into the eyes of the human, clouding his vision. The man reared back in a bit of pain, raising his hands to tend to his eyes and letting out some colorful words. The arrow landed in the dirt near where it hit; the true head of the arrow now able to be seen. Chipped as it was, there was no mistaking the spade shape of the arrowhead.

Rusty and Jollanel stepped out of the dark cloak the bushes provided and advanced closer to the group. Rusty held an arrow on his bow ready to send it flying. Jollanel held two Air Balls in his hands, which he quickly dispatched towards the dazed human, effectively taking his legs from underneath him.

When Rusty inched close enough, he leaned over Akari and asked, ”You Ok, Akari?”


---Update---
Quite a few today.
I've changed the "Items" field under Magic to "Stones" in the character sheets.
Because I think Jollanel will take a much bigger role than I originally though, I've created and posted his character sheet. The only field left to do is the History, however.
From inactivity, I've ejected +Fatel Mistakes+. Lowering the active player count to 4 and locking the 5th slot.
I've also updated Rusty's character sheet in the "Personality" field.

To Akari, everything seemed to happen in slow-motion: the beating of his heart, which he could feel in both his chest and head; the path of the arrow, which he saw momentarily from the corner of his eye when it got close enough; the arrow knocking the pistol from the malicious hand that held it; the man's cries of pain; Rusty and Joallel bursting forth from their hiding spots in the bushes, and the man falling to the ground with his legs knocked off-balance from under him. Slowly, his heart rate started to slow down to a more normal pace.

Although he knew he was out of danger, Akari stayed still. Although he didn't fear too many things, one of the things he was very afraid of was being shot execution-style like he would have been had Rusty and Joallel not intervened. His fearful paralysis was only beginning to subside when Rusty got up next to him, asking if he was all right. Akari managed to loosen up a bit to give Rusty a nod for a reply, and then added, "I'm good... and thanks."

Akari took a few deep breaths, and managed to let all the fearful tension escape his body, as his mind finally convinced his body that the danger was gone. "Wow..." he said to nobody in particular as he took a look at the incapacitated man, "that was close!"

After a minute, he turned to Rusty. "And again," he said, "thanks for the save. I owe you one," he added, smiling and giving Rusty a friendly pat on the shoulder, and then turned to the others. Then, he remembered something. "Oh yeah," he said, "Sissmuth... thanks for the, uh, 'wake-up-call', as I'd describe it. What was that thing, anyway?"