"If your idea of "quite" a day means somethin' pissing all over mine, yeah, sure birdo." Max retorted, his hand steady as his eyes kept open for anything more he could shoot at. It wasn't long before the hedgehog rose a brow, notably at Ramza's actions. "Sheesh, kid; think you overkillin' it a bit?" the hedgehog commented with a sigh following it; although a short one.

Max was still noticeably agitated, though at least he wasn't taking out his frustrations too much on the two folks he had just met.

"Who are you people...?" Alex asked, bringing himself to stand on his feet, watching the three newcomers' rather unorthdox arrival lead to them saving his life and destroying more of the mechanical men around him. The fox, with a skill and agility unseen before, cutting through the men like butter. A hedgehog, whom he hadn't seen before, with a look of agitation that rivaled Alex's own feelings. And a falcon with an unusual gun and pair of sunglasses.

"I don't quite think this is the time for introductions..." Ace replied, shooting towards another of the interlopers who had popped out from the side of a tree. None of Ace's shots were close to hitting the distant target, but it did force the man back to take cover and give the four a small reprieve, all the whilst many more of the interlopers began to ascend and attack the group. "But what's going on here, exactly? What is that?"

Ace pointed towards the bottom of the gully and the ship that seemed to be the other center of the group's attention, other than the four intruders.

"They're thieves," Alex spat in anger. "They're trying to steal something that is important to the forest, and I cannot allow them to!"

Alex sprang to his feet, and began running towards the edge of the gully's top. Ace stretched his hand out in an effort to grab him and stop him, but failed, the rabbit moved with a quickness he had never seen before. "Wait! What're you, crazy? You're gonna die-!"

The rabbit jumped off from atop the gully's peak, freefalling to the ship below. He landed on top of it with a haphazard crack, before bringing himself up and righting himself once more. He was sure he had probably broken a rib or two, but the pain was inconsequential to what would happen if these mysterious invaders were to escape.

He drew his bow and pulled another arrow from out of his quiver. He had to retrieve that artifact.

Foreign ship

“Hey you!” a voice called out from behind Alex. The voice belonged to the afro-Caribbean speaking Toucan who met up with the previous group earlier.

“I saw you jump off that cliff boy, you’re pretty wreckless. Yanno that?”

She realised she wasn’t really supposed to be here. She was in actual fact trying to split her job between looking after Jade and the raccoon twins, and investigating the ship. Even though it had been against Julien’s orders.

“What do you want?!” Alex demanded “another interloper with ‘good intentions’? I’m tired of you people wasting my time and getting in the way!” the rabbit argued, trying to steady his balance on the ship.

“Come on man! You tellin’ me you stand a chance against these people with that there bow and arrow?!” she said, looking at his basic weapons incredulously “you don’t stand no chance boy.”

She stepped over cautiously, reaching out with a hand.

“Now calm down and gimme your hand. I’ll fly you over to safety...”

Previous Forest gathering

“...but... but...” Kian began, wishing he had more words to offer. On the one hand, Jade appeared to insist she was alright and the raccoon kid didn’t want to overstep his mark and upset her again. On the other hand she clearly was really upset about something and he wasn’t sure what it was.

“I dunno where Clio’s gone...” Tye mused, looking up at the sky to find the Toucan had disappeared.

“Maybe just to check the others are ok. I’m sure she’ll be back huh?” Kian asked.

“Yeah... I guess...” Tye mumbled doubtfully.

“Hey Jade. What’s it like on Sylph huh? Is it peaceful like our forest is a lotta the times? Or does the sky fall and stuff like it nearly did a few minutes ago?” Kian asked randomly.

(OOC: Still here...still low on ideas. *shrug*)

OOC: I think we should wait for Terg's next post.

OOC: Forgot to respond in earlier posts, but it's a pleasure to be RPing with you again, Pach, Ben.

IC:
Clio's surprise at the effectiveness of Alex's weapons was because she had not seen them in action.  Roberts, on the other hand, was done underestimating the rabbit after nearly fifty percent of his agents had been terminated prematurely by either arrows or other primitive weapons.  The rest were loading back into the ship, some with battle damage that could be repaired, though Roberts had no intention of using them for direct combat again, at least not against these foes.  He would need some heavier firepower...

The tip of his ear sounded the invisible communication signal, providing that silent link between himself and his subordinates.  The ship's pilot acknowledged with a robotic warble that only Roberts could hear and understand, and the engines began to rev up as the container was secured inside the ship by the remaining agents.

"Situation is swiftly becoming untenable," droned Roberts as he grabbed Taffy's labcoat and yanked her up into the ship.  "We will proceed with this artifact toward the next one, receiving reinforcements en route."

Taffy felt the opportunity for escape slipping away, and that gave her the inspiration she needed.  "I'm not coming along!"  She slipped out of the sleeves of her labcoat and hopped down to the ground, where she ran as fast as she could away from the ship.  She didn't care about anything but increasing the distance between herself and that...that monster...

Roberts closed the distance more quickly than Taffy had made it, twisting her arm around and forcing her to face the ship.  She let out an involuntary cry of pain as he forced her arm into an unnatural angle and held her in front of himself.  The cold, round tip of a gun barrel pushed itself against the back of her head.

"Attention," said Roberts, his voice sounding like he was speaking through a megaphone.  "Attention, interlopers on top of my craft."

Alex's reaction time wasn't dampened by Clio's intrusion and offer for help, and he had another arrow notched in his bow and aimed right for Roberts...but just as quickly, he froze, seeing that he was using Taffy as a shield.

"My weapon will fry this animal's brain several microseconds before you let go of your arrow, and I am not a mere subordinate," warned Roberts.  His voice menaced the air, and hurt Taffy's ears this close to him.  "I will offer you a choice: surrender the artifact and this one may go free, or you may have the artifact, and I will terminate this animal before your eyes.  You have ten seconds to make your answer."

Taffy looked across at Alex and Clio with a mingling of terror and self-sacrifice in her eyes.  "D-don't let him-" and that was all she got out before Roberts twisted her arm again, the rest of her sentence mangled with pain.

"Seven seconds," droned Roberts.  "And your subordinates in the woods won't be here in time to help.  Three seconds..."

OOC: And it's an awesome pleasure to be rping with you again, Tergo =D

IC:
Ace looked down at the scene below. What that rabbit had done was just plain crazy, but then again this entire situation made up for nothing but crazy. He scanned the scene below him, trying to get a fix on the type and make of the ship below but coming up short, the same with the strange mechanical men he had just came out into fighting.

He couldn't be certain but there was very little doubt left that this was most likely the group he had been pursuing. After all what were the chances of there being more, and the people here certainly seemed to fit the memo of the group he was chasing. This was the organisation he had been hunting, following all over the backwards ends of the galaxy for his story, and for more besides.

His eyes widened in horror and his heart froze in terror. His glasses automatically brought up various pieces of data about the inhuman figure who's name he didn't know, but went by Roberts, and his raccoon hostage Taffy Tanner. It didn't take much thinking or rationalization to understand that she was flesh and blood like him, and that she was just an innocent victim in all this. And whilst it seemed as though the terrifying Robert's was threatening Alex and that toucan he had met a short while ago, Clio, Ace knew he couldn't leave it in their hands to try to resolve this situation. The reckless way in which that rabbit acted, he would probably get her killed.

And the group in which Ace was pursuing definitely had no qualms about killing innocent people.

Ace raised his gun up into the air, pointing it down towards Roberts, the far distance below. He wasn't a crack shot. He wasn't even a good shot. He wasn't a detective after all, but merely a reporter looking for a particular story, and more besides. But he'd be damned if it ended like this...

He fingered the settings on his weapon as quickly as he could.

"Seven seconds," droned Roberts. "And your subordinates in the woods won't be here in time to help. Three seconds..."

TARGET LOCK

The data poured into Ace's sunglasses. A moment's hesitation. He pulled the trigger.

The burst of blue laser fire streamed towards the ground with a high pitch whine. Taffy's eyes looked up into the sky with a urgency of fear. Robert's face betrayed no emotion but a faint twinge of surprise and annoyance. The shot hit.

And Taffy's body fell to the ground with a small spark of electricity from her body.

"What the hey?!" Clio shouted. Alex sprang into action, jumping down from the roof of the ship and racing towards Roberts, his bow aimed squarely towards Roberts as he closed the distance.

"Man, are you crazy?" Max shouted aloud, watching the unfolding scene below with disbelief. "I think you're supposed to save the girl, not shoot her!"

"Relax," Ace handwaved the concern away. "I changed the settings to stun. Believe me it'll hurt a lot less than the hole in the head that that guy would have given her..."

His reply was one with an air of confidence and practiced nuance. But in truth he was pretty terrified himself. The setting was on stun, just to be sure, but he had been aiming at Roberts. As long as the girl was safe, it's all that'd matter...

              Retrieving his blade from the innards of the downed robot, Ramza whisked it away and started his hard run for the cliff edge. He ignored the pleas of Max and Ace as he leaped from the edifice, hurtling himself through the air. He couldn't fly on his own, but if he could just make it to the ship. He collided with the rear part of the ship, not quite sticking the jump and creating a large dent in the metal as his full weight hit the hard surface. He scrambled about the edge of the ship for a hand hold as he slipped off of the shuttle. Latching onto the edge of the ship, he pulled himself up, pointing his gunshield in Roberts' direction, and even in Taffy's direction, if only for certainty. "What is the situation?" he asked to anyone who would answer.

"The situation?"  Roberts was the one who said that as he suddenly approached with near-blinding speed.  "You've made your choice: the animal is yours, in exchange for the artifact.  I've gleaned the information I need from her; she was only a convenience."

Roberts and Alex came closer to one another, and the exchange of blows happened so quickly that it was difficult for observers to see what had happened.  But to Alex and Roberts, they comprehended as Alex let his arrow loose for Roberts's heart, and Roberts managed to parry the arrow aside from his power core, though the arrow still pierced through his false skin and into his mechanical armor.  With the same motion that parried, Roberts backhanded Alex across the face, and he leaped from that point into the ship in such a manner that he dodged both bullets and beams from the other animal miscreants near or on top of the ship.

"You have earned higher priority termination," said Roberts as the armored door closed, "and my organization will send reinforcements soon."

The door slammed shut, and the engines howled with power, sending dust flying as it rose into the air using some kind of mysterious propulsion system that didn't require rocket thrusters.  Ramza tried to shoot through the door with his gunshield, but the black armor of the craft was too thick for smallarms fire, though a few arrows from Alex and a shot from Max indicated they were willing to try as well.

Roberts snapped the arrow out of his body and swung into one of the acceleration seats that lined both sides of the cargo compartment, sealed in with a complex series of restraints.  An order from him caused the ship to flip around in a snap roll, throwing the animals off of it in a violent manner, before it rose and accelerated away.  Roberts turned to look at the artifact, or rather the sealed box the artifact was inside, and there was the smallest of smirks that tugged at the end of his mouth.  "The first artifact has been secured," he said aloud, though he simultaneously reported this silently through the robotic network he belonged to as an agent, far above that of his subordinates in both intelligence and power.  "Proceed to the next waypoint in the forest."

The ship sped away toward its next destination, easily outrunning any pursuers on foot or wing.  They had made away with the "artifact" though what it was remains a mystery.

Taffy was stunned, knocked unconscious by the electric beam, her labcoat laying on the ground where the ship had hovered.

OOC: *useless msg* Still in this. Have half a draft of an IC with my peripheral characters. Bare with me. This is like, my fav RP so sorry for lagging behind. >>;

(OOC: still here...still blocked. *shrug*)

Alex winced at the pain. Roberts, whoever or whatever he was, was a lot stronger than he had given credit for. Alex's face still stung very sorely, but more than that was the rage that grew within his heart to find that he had failed to prevent the group of interlopers from stealing the artifact. If things were going to progress this way then the situation would become very, very grave indeed. The future of the forest depended on this.

"This is all your fault!" Alex snapped in anger towards Clio. "If you hadn't gotten in my way and distracted me then none of this would have happened!"

Clio was taken aback by the sudden outburst.

Alex pouted somewhat more, before taking a deep breath an bringing himself back towards a more peaceful and calm state of mind. He sat himself down on the ground and crossed his legs, as if he was beginning to meditate. He spoke nothing more towards Clio or any of the other strangers around him. He was beginning to communicate with the forest.

------

"You can get down by yourself, right?" Ace asked Max, who replied with a rather nonchalant shrug. "I can't carry your weight I'm afraid. I'll either meet you down there or back up here."

With that, Ace pushed himself off the cliff edge and flew down towards the gully's ground, landing near towards Ramza, before running to the unconscious form of Taffy. Ace kneeled down besides the female raccoon and gently began to shrug her.

"Er, really sorry about that, miss. I don't think the stun setting was on that high, so you should be awake soon, if not already. You're probably feeling a bit sluggish though." Ace began to mutter, not sure if Taffy was able to really hear him or not. "I know you'll probably not understand this, but I did save your life. Although the way that I did it, I can understand if you're not so grateful..."

A calico cat emerges from the forest, wide green eyes taking in the assorted people and ships and general chaos. "Wow you guys are noisy. Can't a person take a nap in peace?" she asks, her bright voice irritated and her tail lashing. "The explosions and the gunshots and the ships and the yelling -- really, isn't it a bit much?"

Alex might recognize her as someone who's been travelling through the forest for a few days now. She has a bag slung across her back, and an oak staff in one hand. Her clothes are simple, made from some sort of animal skin, just a short skirt and a shirt that leaves her midriff exposed, and a pair of sandals. Still, they cover what needs covering, and that's the important part. She brushes her short hair out of her eyes and glares at the group.

           Ramza stood, his armor sparking in places where the kinetic barriers had failed to cushion his sudden impact with the tree that was next to him. The wood was splintered brutally and there was a rather large indent from where he had been forcefully flung into it. He reached up, brushing his hand along the raw wood, almost respectfully, before clutching his rib and walking towards the others. He had likely broken something, and could feel the harsh pain from the collision. He would need to dress his wounds as soon as he rendezvoused with his jet.

Taking a moment to recover from the rabbit’s sudden outburst, Clio steadied herself as and stared at the rabbit incredulously.

She opened her arms out, about to retaliate towards his accusation. She then thought against it, turned around and paced up and down, shaking her head in an irritable sense of disbelief.

I mean, did such a small vertebrate with a bow and arrow think he had a remote chance of invading such a ‘state of the art’ vehicle with those dangerous looking beings? Besides, he had his chance in a head on fight with the other antagonistic rabbit in charge of this operation, and he failed. Then again, this rabbit was just a kid and even if he had succeeded in taking him down she would’ve put it down to dumb luck.

Furthermore, the other revelations that transpired were abnormal occurrences to have happened in the forest to say the least.

Who was that other rabbit anyway? And what was this talk about an artefact? Was it that that the rabbit was trying to secure.

She also couldn’t forget the pleading eyes of the raccoon girl who was held at gun point. That was a very disturbing sight to say the least and she looked so vulnerable and scared.

Before Clio could dedicate any more thought to anything at all, she turned her head as she heard the voice of a newcomer.

"Wow you guys are noisy. Can't a person take a nap in peace?" an approaching Calico cat asked irritably as she approached herself and Alex "The explosions and the gunshots and the ships and the yelling -- really, isn't it a bit much?"

“Well, guess it ain’t sumthin’ that happens every day…” Clio commented, forcing a laugh as she waved a hand. She suddenly scolded herself for being so ignorant. This calico cat could've been anyone. Working for anyone... The toucan suddenly gave her a more inquisitve look.

“By the way, don’t believe we’ve met hun. Whut’s your name? Is this forest here your digs and all that?”

By ‘digs’, Clio meant home for slang.

"I'm Nikki," the woman replies with a smile and a handshake. As she does, a huge non-anthropomorphic white tiger comes out the the forest in the same spot as she'd emerged from. "And this here is Bek." The tiger looks at the toucan, then away, pink tongue slipping out to lick his nose. He seems to be taking stock of all the different creatures, his demeanor much more guarded than the calico's. "And nah, we don't live here. At least not permanently. We're travellers."

"Nikki," Alex nodded towards the calico cat, before wincing in pain and grabbing onto his side before he knealt to the ground and sat on an outjutting rock. He knew the woman and her companion Bek from earlier prior meetings in the forest, but he couldn't say exactly whether this was the greatest time for a reunion. For the rabbit, the situation in the forest was dire. He had to go and pursue those intruders and try to recover the artifact as soon as possible, but found that would be a tremendous struggle on an even more personal level.

He felt almost exhausted after all of his spent activity. And whilst the adrenaline had helped him earlier, Alex was now reeling from the pain of his broken ribs and the stinging pain in the side of his cheek that was ever so kindly dealt by the individual known as Roberts.

And beyond that still was the mental anquish and torment he felt from the forest's own pain. The trees that had been destroyed, the unsettling of the environment... all of it was beginning to take a toll on Alex. Which may have been one reason for why he had snapped at Clio earlier when she was just simply showing an interest in helping, but nonetheless it wasn't an appropriate excuse.

"Miss, I'm sorry for my earlier outburst..." Alex spoke weakly. "But I'm afraid everything here is more grave than you could possibly know.

"Nikki, you should leave..." Alex turned towards the calico, his face showing noticeably more concern as he looked towards her. He then shifted his attention to the rest of the assembled group. "...you all should. This forest isn't safe anymore. You all need to get out of here as soon as you can if you value your lives..."

Alex than stood back up, a small cry of pain escaping his lips. He turned in the direction that the strange metal ship had vanished in, and slowly began to walk in its direction.

Ace looked at the rest of the assembled group, taking his eyes away from Taffy's body for but a moment. "Well, that didn't sound scarily ominous at all, did it?"

"I heard you," said Taffy, her eyes half-opened as she looked up at Ace's face.  Her voice was still weak, but she seemed to be recovering quickly.  "In fact, I'd like to thank you..."

She gestured for Ace to lean closer in, and the raccoon girl looked up into his eyes...

Then socked him across the beak with a fist.  "If you ever shoot me with that thing again, I'll break it on your balls and make you eat the batteries!"

Oh, she was grateful all right; but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to just say "thank you."  She staggered up to her feet, insisting on getting there on her own.  "Well, I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this forest for one day.  I'm going home."

And, without really considering where she was or which direction was "home," she picked a direction at random and started off in it.

OOC: She's not out of range or anything yet, she can be addressed and/or intercepted.

Also good to see that she hasn't lost her old fire.

((So tempted to make Nikki a healer....))

Nikki's ears drooped, and then flicked backwards. "Oi! Hey you! Rabbit! You're in no condition to be going anywhere!" She chased after him and easily caught up, since she was perfectly well and he was moving only with difficulty. She placed herself squarely in his path. "You're gonna sit down and rest a bit before going, you are. Or do I need to have Bek sit on you?" Her expression said that she'd do it, too.

The fox clutched his side, gritting his teeth, but making no other motions pointing toward injury. His stride was still even and balanced, walking toward the one known as Ace. "Do you have any idea what that was about?" questioned the fox, ignoring the woman for the time being, "I haven't seen robotics of this caliber before. You had best speak up if you know something about this." He was beginning to lose focus, the pain becoming to much for even him to handle. However, he showed no outward signs of this, keeping a calm face and tone.

Ace wiped his beak as carefully as he could. Man, that girl could sure pack a punch... his nose was completely bleeding. Reaching into his backpack he pulled out a tissue and tried to tender to the small wound. He would have tried to say something to stop Taffy from abruptly leaving like this, but he didn't know what to say that could possibly make the situation better. He certainly didn't blame her either, those stun blasts could pack quite a nasty shock.

"Do you have any idea what that was about?" Ramza asked as he walked to Ace's side. "I haven't seen robotics of this caliber before. You had best speak up if you know something about this."

Ace was actually a bit irritated by this response from Ramza. The way he worded it felt like a commanding and imposing tone. Who exactly did Ramza think he was to simply order him around?

Still, it was a reasonable question considering they'd just been involved in a life and death situation, forced to fight against imposing machine men in an attempt to save their lives and the lives of these seemingly ungrateful other individuals.

"Well, I did say I was a detective, didn't I?" Ace replied, maintaining the lie without breaking a sweat. "I came to this backwater planet and this forest in particular because I was investigating something. A group actually, or organisation, however you want to word it."

"A group? Of who or what? And what is so interesting about them that you're pursuing them?" Ramza asked. He had so many question and no idea where to start.

"I'm not too sure what they're called, exactly. I've mostly just heard rumours about them... I didn't even know they weren't fur and blood like people like us." Ace shrugged. "As for what's interesting about them, well... they're a group that go about shooting people in a forest without even talking first and stealing strange items from there. Who wouldn't be curious by something like that?"

Ramza frowned, considering the falcon's answers. Ace wasn't sure if he was satisfied by the answer.

"Look, I can tell you for certain that there is one person here who'll definitely know something about them... and that's you, miss." Ace said louder, so that the slowly departing Taffy could hear it loud and clearly and know she was being addressed. "I know it's a tall order asking you anything considering what you've just been through, but would you mind shedding some light on this whole affair?"

----

"The name isn't rabbit, Nikki, it's Alex. I told you that before..." Alex spoke up, turning to look over his shoulder only briefly towards the concerned calico cat before resuming his staggered and stunted walk. He had completely ignored Ace and Ramza's discussion simply because he had more pressing matters to attend to. He had to defend the forest at any cost whatsoever.

But it turned out that the cost had already rapidly overtaken him.

Alex collapsed to his knees and then his stomach almost instantaneously. Before anything more could be said, he was completely unconscious.

Nikki catches Alex gently as he falls. "Right, rabbit. But like I said, you're not in any condition to be going anywhere." She raises her voice. "Hey, armor-fox, falcon! Do either of you have medical supplies, or the ability to transport someone to a medical facility? Mr. Rabbit here just conked out." He's injured worse than her limited knowledge of how to patch bruises and scrapes can handle, but she hopes someone in the group would have the knowledge and resources to help him.