Upon hearing the kerfuffle, Lokki started looking around to try and determine the matter, but before he could, he suddenly found himself floating for the second time that day.

"Hey! Put me down!" he ordered the massive, scaled arm that seemed to be supporting him - he recognised it as belonging to the gargantuan lizard. "What's going on, anyway?"

"We're being attacked," Maize swiftly informed him, "Overlanders."

"Hmm... perhaps I could attempt to negotiate with them?" suggested Lokki, then he turned as best he could to face his carrier, "Unhand me at once." He winced as the creature acted contrary to his command and tightened its grip.

"No," denied Nightshade, "It's too risky; we still don't know that we can trust you."

"Very well," resigned Lokki. Since his arrival he had obviously been thrust into some kind of conflict and it was becoming increasingly pressing that he choose a side. A myriad of thoughts rushed through his head.

On the one hand, there was his present company: these beasts - no, it was not fair to call them that. Beasts would not have spared him; as much as if baffled Lokki to admit, deep down beneath their curious, furry exteriors, these were people he was dealing with. However, they still seemed to loathe him, mainly as he looked like the enemy.

The enemy: the humans - or Overlanders as they were known. He could side with them, though if they discovered him cavorting with the animal people, they might render him guilty by association. He could claim - without stretching the truth - that they had taken him captive, but he did not exist here - until earlier today there had been no trace of him in this world - which would make these Overlanders awfully suspicious.

Another thought struck him. Really, he was no more under obligation to the Overlanders than to his captors. As far as he knew, they were human in appearance only and, as he had learned today, appearances could be deceiving. In any case, he was essentially an alien to both sides.

Finally, he remembered some of the things that had been said and done.

"...if we killed him, we'd be as bad as Overlanders," the panther had said.

He remembered the message on the tree: "TOO DANGEROUS".

He remembered the female cowering from him.

All of a sudden, the nature of the conflict became clear to Lokki. They did not hate him. They feared him. They were being opressed. He knew which side he would take for now.

Though this had taken Lokki only a minute or two to consider, the camp was already on the move. Not content to sit idle and be carried along, he muttered something under his breath and burst into flames. The sudden heat and absurdity of the situation caused the reptile to loosen his grasp enough for Lokki to break free and distance himself from his captor. (OOC Note: these flames are quite real, though they do not harm Lokki. The longer he holds them up, the more taxing they are, so he tends to only use them breifly and sparingly).

Extinguishing his own magical flames, he unstrapped the shotberd, pumped the barrel and took aim at the oncoming Overlanders. He had eight shells in it already and had counted ten, maybe eleven in his pocket.

"You all continue ahead. I'll provide covering fire!" he cried, backing away from the attackers as he did so. He did not expect to hold out for very long: the shells were less effective at longer ranges and he was tired and battered from the day's events.

OOC: Ack, another long, Lokki-centric post, sorry about that. : Uninterrupted, he'll probably only let off four or five shots before turning to flee with the others. Still, it's up you other RPers what happens now, not me. ;P

Sparks stood back next to Lokki. "He has a point. I'll hang back here. Go!" He revved a fireball in his hand and pitched it straight at the Overlanders.

IC:
Raoul had just informed Selena and Captain Meeka about the situation and had just returned to see Sparks and the captive firing upon the oncoming foes. Hesitating for only a moment he joined them,
"Can you cover me?"
They nodded, so he charged in, the Overlanders were not quite so prepared for this, but they started shooting at him, most of them got hit with a fireball in the chest, another was shot in the head, both died relatively instantaniously.
Raol punch an Overlander in the face, and slashed anothers arm. He soon lost count of his apponents, but guessed there to be around 30 armed humans, give or take a few.

Now he was surrounded by a small group of them, they hit at him and tried to get close enough to shoot at him without hurting someone else on their side.
Growling angrily he tried to fight his way out of his position, surcumming to rage and fghting with every part that could hurt.
The Overlanders tried to block all the fierce attacks from the young panther...
TBC

For a moment Xan had considered grabbing Lokki and breaking his neck. He had been right...the creature, Overlander or not, was too dangerous.

Then the Bard drew his gun and began firing, not at them, but into the trees! The thought crossed Xan's mind that it was simply a cover to gain their trust, until he heard an Overlander cry out in pain from the shot. He was actually aiming for them!

Xan had seen enough. Lokki couldn't be on the side of the Overlanders if he attacked them!

The Komodo Dragon spun round to face the oncoming army. Raoul was already in the thick of the fighting, being supported by the one who could control fire and Lokki. As Xan saw the Overlanders running in from all sides, his face darkened. He wasn't missing out on a chance like this!

He began to sprint towards the group, throwing all of his considerable weight into the charge...

As Lokki loosed off his fifth shot, he saw the giant reptile charge past him towards the attackers. He had three shells left in the shotberd and fourteen in total. Knowing he would have to conserve ammunition, he ceased fire.

"Terribly sorry, but I can't keep shooting any longer," announced Lokki, knowing that he could not engage the Overlanders in mle either, given his current condition. "I do, however, have one last trick up my sleeve..."

Focussing carefully on the humans, he bowled several of them over with a powerful gust of air. Unfortunately, he forgot to ground himself against the reaction force and was sent hurling back into a nearby tree.

"Oww..." he groaned as he dragged himself slowly to his feet. Turning tail, he half ran, half limped after the fleeing furred ones.

IC:
Nightshade had managed to round up all the others rescued from the Lunar lab, and was now trying to get them to move at a fairly fast pace in an organised fashion, but about one third were panicking, another third was running off into the trees and the last one was being thankfullt trusting and fairly calm.
"Come on, keep together, sfaety in numbers, try not to panic, that's what they want us to do, break and run. It'll be easier o pick us off one by one." She ran around the lage group like a sheepdog, feeling slightly ridiculous but knowing it was a necessity.
She came to the front of the mass and cried loudly,
"Follow me!"
In her arms she had Serenity, whom she had picked up and carried with her, she'd need the child to tell her the way to the Freedom fighter base, but she also couldn't just leave her there on the ground.
Knowing she had a lot of people counting on her to get them out of there alive, she kept her pace equal to the oe she'd set, and hoped she was going in the right direction...
TBC

Panic. That's all she felt.

For the first few minutes of the attack, Selena had felt nothing but sheer panic. Overlanders were coming to attack them, kill them. John Meeka had dashed away, claiming that he should help those others escape the attackers. And Selena had been alone for a brief moment. An Overlander came crashing into her, bowling the she-wolf over, sending her sprawling into a thorn bush. Yelping in pain, Selena could only watch as the man got closer, aiming his gun.

"Heh...bye, bye, scum...." He whispered, smirking.

And then she snapped. A feeling of pure, undaunted anger unleashed itself, causing Selena to lunge at her attacker, snarling.

"Scum!?!? YOU'RE THE SCUM!!!" Her eyes flashed as she tackled him to the ground, relishing in his shout of surprise.

Picking up his gun, she pointed...

And fired.

As she stood there, panting, a battle raging around her, a silent tear slipped down her face. Without so much as a glance at the dead Overlander, the she-wolf darted out from the cover of the forest, immediately spotting Raoul. He was surrounded. Using the ammo she had left, Selena took out three of the men, allowing the panther to recover briefly and finish off the remaining Overlanders around him.

"You alright?" Selena asked, watching as Sparks hurled another fireball.

"Yeah...thanks." Raoul looked at her in a concerned sort of way, before mentally shrugging it off.

They immediately found themselves immersed once again. This time there were less attackers.

---

Maize winced at the sound of a gun being fired as she ran around camp. A thick burlap sack hung from her shoulder, filled with some of the food rations. Furries who were working on shelters dropped what they were doing and followed the designated leaders. The fire was stomped out, dirt being spread over its embers.
On the run again! Thought Maize, herding a small family over to Nightshade.
What a fun welcome home party this is.... The wolf wrinkled her nose.

"Nightshade! That's the last of them!" Looking over the group, the purple female watched as they anxiously whispered to one another, some whimpering in fear.

The gunshots in the background certainly didn't help much.

"Alright! ALRIGHT!! Calm yourselves, quickly!" She called, waving her arms. John appeared beside her, breathing hard.

A hushed silence fell.

"Where are we going?" Someone from the crowd asked.

"Let's hurry up and decide! I don't want to be killed!"

The last statement caused a panic wave. Children clinged to their family, and adults leaned on others, worry and fear etched into their features.

"You WON'T be killed!" Nightshade bellowed.

His first charge had bowled over some of the attacking army, and now Xan was fighting hard, attacking the crowds of Overlanders with all his strength. He noticed Raoul a few meters away in a bit of a predicament, surrounded by a group of the soldiers, but before he had time to intervene some of them collapsed dead, shot from behind, and the panther escaped.

He felt an impact strike the back of his neck (there was little pain...he had felt so much in his life that he was almost immune) and he spun round to see an Overlander trying to hit him with the butt of his gun. Xan's eyes narrowed and he traded the soldier a square punch in the face, throwing him against a tree and shattering his jaw. The lizard stepped forward and delivered another blow, crushing the man's head against the tree with a sickening CRUNCH.

Xan withdrew his bloody fist from the remains of the man's face, his own face completely expressionless. There was no pity, no remorse.

Pain. Immesurable, insatiable pain. The chemicals in his bloodstream speeding up his metabolism to fifty times it's normal rate, filling his every nerve with a searing burning. The sharp, shattering jabs of electricity running through his body, forcing his muscles to wrench and twist convulsivley.

"You are special! You are the first in our new series of experiments..."

The pain, increasing, turning all thought to dust before it's relentless advance. His body's natural reaction was to black out, to protect his sanity from the unimaginable agony...but thanks to the cocktail of steroids the Overlanders were using, he was unable to lose contiousness, unable to escape the all-consuming fire...

It was a curious feeling...losing one's mind...

Another of the Overlanders was leveling his gun at Xan's head, but before he could pull the trigger his skin began to melt, glowing slightly with heat. Xan ignored the man's screams and spun round, to see Sparks stood behind him, grinning widely.

Xan gave him a respectful nod, then turned back to the fray, looking for any other Overlanders that weren't currently being delt with...

OOC: Sorry for vanishing there...Oh, and Reni isn't EXACTLY a child...she's her normal age of 19 here, as is Surge.

IC:

Reni was, in fact, panicking. Quite a bit. "Leave me! I'll destroy us all! They made me their involutary spy! I'll destry us all!" This was what she WANTED to say.

What she actually said was quite different. "Don' let them get me! Please! They're gonna hurt me again! Don' let them get me!"

She tried to squirming out of Nightshade's grip, determined to lose herself in the woods in the middle of all the colective panic. She flailed about, heedless of where her metal claws were digging in to her benefactor's body.

She was, in fact halucinating a little. The panic flooding her mind was causing her to see herself held firmly by an overlander instead of Nightshade. "AAAAHHH!!!! LEMMEGO LEMMEGO!"

Surge trotted besided Nightshade as she struggled to hold the barely-manageable princess. He kept trying to calm Reni down by whispering calmingly to her, but it wasn't working.

TBC

IC:
"Thanks Selena," Raoul said briefly before chargig back into the pile, the fierce fight put on by the furries and Lokki was taking its toll.
Now quite a few had run, but several still remained. Raoul tried to stay cose to lots of them so they would be wary of firing at their own troops, but someone got lucky.
He cried out in pain as he took a bullet in the shoulder. He clutched it in pain with one arm and brutally slashed his attacker with the other.
Biting his lip he let go of his arm, wincing as he felt blod trickle down his onto his arm.
He growled and tried to get out of the crowd, a difficlt thing, then he saw something useful. He ripped it off the belt of the human and pulled out the pin.
"Fire in the hole!" He cried and charged out of the way, tossing the frag grenade ino the ranks of the Overlanders. They cried out as it detonated. When the smoke cleared, only one rank was left standing.
"Okay guys! Lets finish them!"
TBC

IC:

"Gimme a sec!"

Raoul turned to Selena, shielding his eyes as he was met with a bright flash of light. The she-wolf was collecting a giant ball of magic, bright light to be exact. With a grunt, she raised it over her head, turning to give the panther a look saying "Move...or else".

"From us to you all...WITH LOVE!!!" Selena smirked as she released the energy she had been harboring, sending the ball into the last rank.

The light covered the Overlanders in a bright, shiny dome, causing them to cover their eyes, momentarily blinded.

"Sparks! Raoul! Now! While they can't see!" She shouted.

They waisted no time. Raoul, Sparks and Xan all converged on the small group from different angles, cutting off their escape.

Xan grabbed a couple of the Overlanders and threw them across the clearing, smashing their heads against the trees. Then he dived to the floor and spun his body round, tripping some of the group up with his powerful tail. A couple of neck-snappings later he stood up again, looking to see how the other two were doing with their adversaries...

Lokki carried on his way to catching up with the ones fleeing the attackers, only once looking back when a he caught a sudden, bright light catch the corner of his eyes. He did ponder going back to help fight off the Overlanders, but he reminded himself that he was too tired and weak right now. Perhaps if they were attacking again on the morrow he would be of more use, though he would probably still be sore from his earlier fall then. There was always magic, but he was not sure how long he could keep it up or how strong it would be in his current state - he was fatigued and had not eaten for several hours.

"Sorry for not lending more aid to fend off the attackers back there," he called out as he approached some of those he recognised: the panther, who was carrying the hedgehog, and Maize. "Whither are we headed, anyway? Are we merely distancing ourselves as much as possible from our assailants, or have we a specific destination?"

IC:
Nightshade lost her patience and tightened her grip, Serenity couldn't struggle anymore in the Panthers strong grip.
"I'm sorry Serenity, I can't let you run away, we need you here, besides, the Overlanders would catch you easily."
TBC

IC:
Raoul looked a little stunned at first but got his act together and started hacking at them with hsi claws, kicking them and punching them while they were disorientated, he felt a little dizzy himself, he was wondering blurrily how much blood he'd lost.
He slashed his side vicously and stood back, only Sparks part was left to play.
TBC

IC:

Selena noticed Raoul, stumbling a little. She wondered at first if he was just tired from the fight, until she spotted blood trickling down the panther's shoulder. Running to catch up with him, she steadied her feline friend.

"Raoul! Where did you get that wound?" Selena didn't wait for an answer as she tore off part of her skirt. "It must be treated quickly!"

---

Maize noticed Lokki come running up, asking for specifics on where they were to go. She ran a hand through her long bangs and sighed before turning to their guest.

"Right now we're trying to calm everyone down so we can actually get somewhere. No destination has been chosen as of yet, but we are hoping to put a little more space between us...." She looked toward the battlefield and sighed again.

Maize, frustrated, turned to the large group of furries before them.

"ALRIGHT. You will NOT die, so keep any such thoughts OUT of your heads! We WILL get moving, once you all calm down, and SHUT UP. Got it?" She glared at them all.

"We're not trying to be mean, we just ask that you cooperate. Okay? Good. Now, move out!"

IC:
Raoul tried to push her hand away,
"No, we don't have time for that, we have to get rid of these guys then get the mob over ther to safety. Then we can worry about minor wounds."
I just hope that I don't do anything stupid like collapse from blood loss He thought grimly trying to force his vision to be normal again.
"Come on, Sparks can handle this, we have to get back to th main group and help keep them in order."
TBC

Sparks nodded. Forming a ball of fire in his hand, he clenched his fist around it, encasing his hand in flames. He leapt at the closest Overlander, which soon became the next two Overlanders as the being was sliced in two by a fiery lash from Sparks' hands. He leapt at the next one...and the next...and the next...

IC:
Nightshade looked over her shoulder, she was certain that through the trees she could see flames, Sparks work no doubt.
Then she looked back at the front and spotted a different shade of colour through the foliage, grey.
"Come on, I think I see a city, we can hide better in their."
Nightshade looked down at the Princessm still vainly trying to thrash out of her grasp.
"Serenity! Please tell me how to contact you're father or get to the Freedom fighter base, we need to get their pretty fast!"
TBC

"A city...?" pondered Lokki. It could certainly be a good place to eat and restock, but he had no money and no past here. Also, a lot of places do not exactly react in a friendly fashion towards people walking around with six and a half foot weapons on their back.

He turned to the panther. "Are you absolutely certain a city would make a better hiding place?" queried Lokki, "Surely such a place, having a far greater concentration of these so-called Overlanders, would be even more perilous? 'Tis akin to mouse hiding from an housecat by concealing itself within the cat's basket."

OOC: Sorry I vanished. Parents not letting me use their internet. Will be back full time in a bout a week and a half probably.